240 SECT. Mark Great tribulation would be in those days. And a case of extremity it will indeed be ; for 19 For in those cixi. in those days there shall be a scene of great tribu- days [LU K E, there shall be great] triiation [and] distress in the land of Judea, and bulation and ] [LUKE, XIII. 19. of dreadful wrath from heaven upon all this distress in the land, people, such as the like has not been known before, people,] such as was and wrath upon this either here or elsewhere, even from the begin- not from the beginning of the creation which God has made unto ning of the creation this time; nor ever shall the like be heard of which God created, unto this time, [no, any more; as no people ever have been, or nor ever shail be. ever shall be, guilty of so aggravated a crime, [MA T. XXIV. 21. and so inexcusable a series of impenitence and LUKE XXI.—23.] Luke infidelity. And therefore they shall fall by the XXI. 2+ edge of the sword in multitudes, both within and And they shall fall by without the city; and the consequence of all the edge of the sword, and shall be led away shall be, that the miserable remnant which captive into all nations: survives the general carnage shall be carried and Jerusalem shall away captive into all the most distant nations of be trodden down of the world f, and continue for many ages under times of the Gentiles great infamy, calamity, and oppression. And be fulfilled. in the mean time, Jerusalem itself shall be e Such as the like has not been,- -nor ever shall be.] This Josephus expressly asserts to have been the fact; and whoever reads his account, or even that judicious abstract from him which Eusebius has given us, (Hist. Eccles. lib. in. cap. 5, 6,) will see a sad illustration of all this; and, criminal and detestable as the Jewish nation, now was, will hardly be able to for bear weeping over those complicated miseries brought upon them by plagues and famine, and pres, occasioned by the siege, and by the carnage made, not only by the Romans, but by the yet greater cruelties of the seditious and zealots within the city,who really acted the part of so many incarnate fiends rather than of men. They shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be carried captive, &c.] It appears from Josephus that eleven hundred thousand Jews were destroyed in this war, and near an hundred thousand taken prisoners, and (according to Deut. xxviii. 68.) sold for slaves at the vilest prices. See Joseph, Bel. Jul. lib. vi. cap. 9. (al. vii. 17.) § 3. g Jerusalem shall be trampled down by the Gentiles.] Their land was sold, and no Jew was allowed to inhabit there (a vigour never used, that I know of, towards any other people conquered by the Romans; pay, they might not come within sight of And LUKE XXI. 24. the Gentiles, until the Jerusalem, or rather of Elia, the name given to the new city, which was built without the circuit of the former when the foundations of the old were ploughed up. A heathen temple was afterwards built where that of God had stood; and a Turkish mosque pollutes it to this day; so remarkably was the hand of God upon them. And it is well known, by the tes timony of a heathen writer, (who ridiculously ascribes it to the fatal resistance in the element,) that Julian's impious attempt to rebuild their temple, and settle them in Jerusalem again, in professed contempt of this prophecy, was several times miraculously defeated by the eruption of balls of fire, which consumed the workmen. See Ammian. Marcel. lib. xxiii. cap. 1, p. 286. Till the times of the Gentiles be fulfil ed.] It is much easier to vindicate the authority of the words ago 9 from the objection of Dr. Mill (Proleg. p. 153.) chiefly founded on their being omitted in the Cambridge Manuscript, than to determine the signification of them. I cannot suppose, with Mess. Le Clerc and L'Enfant, that by the accomplishment of the times of the Gentiles, we are to understand the time when Constantine put za end to the Gentile idolatory in Jerusalem, Lord had shortened whom he bath chosen, 241 cixi. Mark But the days should be shortened for the sake of the elect. MARK XIII. 20. And during the wars which are to bring on SECT. And except that the this said catastrophe, except the Lord had shorthose days, no flesh tened those days no flesh could be saved; the whole should be saved: but nation would be utterly exterminated from the XIII. 30. for the elect's sake, earth, and the name of Israel no longer be had [those days shall be in remembrance: but for the elect's sake, whom shortened.] [MA T. he has graciously chosen to be at length partaXXIV. 22.] kers of the blessings of his gospel, God will so order it in his providence, that those days shall be shortened; for he hath still purposes of love toward the seed of Abraham, which shall at length take place, (Rom. xi. 26.) and, in the mean time, he will make their continuing a distinct people a means of confirming the faith of Christians in succeeding ages *. 21 And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ, or lo, he is there; be lieve him not. [MAT. XXIV. 23.] As these then are the counsels of the Divine 21 Wisdom concerning this people, do not expect, that when calamities begin to threaten them, any miraculous deliverer should be raised up for them; and if any one shall then say unto you. Behold the Messiah [is] here or behold [he is there, do not believe [it] or shew the least regard to any such report. (Compare Luke xvii. 23, p. 62.) and established the christian worship there. Euseb. Vit. Const. lib. iii. cap. 26.) It seems reasonable to suppose that here, as in most other places, the Gentiles are opposed to the Jews; and consequently, that all the period between the destruction of Jerusalem and the restoration of the Jews to their own land, so expressly foretold in scripture, is here intended. (See Isa. xxvii. 12, 13. Ezek. xi. 17. xx. 40, 42. xxxiv. 13. xxxvi. 24. 28. xxxvii. 21-26. xxxix. 28, 29. Hos. iii. 5. Amos ix. 14, 15. and Zech. xiv. 10, 11.) With this indeed is connected the bringing in, what St. Paul calls, the fulness of the Gentiles: Rom. xi. 25, 26. But unless it could be proved (which I do not recollect) that the inhabitants of Palestine shall then peaceably surrender it to the returning Jews, it seems most natural to suppose the time of the Gentiles here signifies the time when they shall be visited and punished; which is the sense in which this very phrase, and others nearly parallel to it, frequently occur in the Old Testament; as Brennius justly observes. (Compare Ezek. xxx. 3. as also Jer. xxvii. 7. 1. 27. Ezek. xxi. 25, 29. xxii. 3, 4.) And, if this be the sense of it, it seems an intimation that the Turks, or some other antichristian power, may continue possessed of the holy land till the restoration of the Jews; for one can hardly suppose their way into it should i Ercept the Lord had shortened these k Their continuing a distinct people, a means of confirming the faith of Christians, &c.] This I have shewn at large in my ten Sermons, Sermon tenth; and the reader may see the remark farther illus trated by Mr. Addison, Spectat. Vol. VII. No. 495, and in Bishop Burnet's Four Discourses, p. 9-10. 1 False 242 clxi. Mark Pretended Messiahs would attempt to deceive them. if it were possible, they 23 But take ye heed: behold, I have fore SECT. For as this unhappy people, who are now so ob- 22 For false Christs, stinately rejecting me, will to the last support rise, and shall shew and false prophets shall themselves with vain hopes of that kind, and [great] signs and wonXII.22. be ready eagerly to hearken to every bold impos- ders, [insomuch that, tor false Messiahs and false prophets shall arise, shall deceive the very and shall pretend to shew great signs and prodi- elect.] [MAT. XXIV. gies, managed with so much art, as might, if 24.] [it were] possible, be sufficient to deceive even the very elect, and to pervert my sincere followers and disciples themselves; though indeed their hearts shall be so established by Divine grace 23 as finally to be secured from the danger. But be ye cautiously upon your guard against so dan- told you all things. gerous an imposition; for behold I have express- [MAT. XXIV. 25.] ly foretold you all these things; that on comparing the event with the prediction, your faith may be established by those very circumstances which in another view might have a tendency to shake Mat. it. Therefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, wherefore, if they have found the expected Messiah, and he is shall say unto you, now gathering his forces about him in the wilder- Behold, he is in the ness for the deliverance of his people, do not go Behold, he is in the desart, go not forth : forth to join yourselves to his followers; [or] if they shall say, Behold [he is] in the secret apart, ments of some particular friend, where he is waiting to give satisfaction to those that desire it, do not believe [it] nor give yourselves the trouble so much as to inquire into the aflair. For you know there is, and can be, no other Messiah but me; and when I appear it will be in a sudden, even unto the west; amazing, and irresist ble manner; and as the so shall also the comlightning breaks forth from the east, and shines in ing of the Son of man a moment even to the west part of the horizon, XXIV26 27 we 1 False prophets shall arise, and shew great signs and prodigies.] This is not a mere repetition of what was said before, Mat. xxiv. 5. (p. 252,) but relates to those impostors who appeared during the time of the siege; of which see Joseph. Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. 5. (al. vii. 11,) §2, and Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. 6. See also Grotius on Mat. xxiv. 24. As for the objection which is urged from this text against admitting miracles as a proof of doctrines, I would hear transiently observe two things: (1) That it cannot certainly be proved that the works here referred to were true miracles; they might be like the lying powers, signs, and wonders, mentioned 2 Thess. ii. 9. Or, (2.) That if we should for argument's sake graut them to be real miracles, yet they are supposed to be wrought at a time when there were in the Christian church teachers MAT. XXIV. 26. secret chambers, believe it not. 27 For as the light ning cometh be. subsisting with superior miraculous powers. But it can never be inferred from such a supposition in that case, that God will suffer miracles to be wrought in proof of falsehood, when there are none of his servants to perform greater miracles on the side of truth. And when such superior miracles on the side of truth do exist, the opposite miracles at most can only prove that some invisible beings of great power, who are the abettors of falsehood, are strongly engaged to support the contrary doctrine; the consideration of which must excite all wise and good men to receive a truth so opposed with greater readi. ness, and to endeavour to promote it with greater zcal; as they may be sure the excellence and importance of it is proprotionable to the solicitude of these malig nant spirits to prevent its progress. m In Reflections on the ruin that should come upon the Jews. 243 clxi. Mat. so sudden and conspicuous also shall the coming SECT. of the Son of man be, both in his appearance to the destruction of Jerusalem, and to the final 23 For wheresoever judgment. (Compare Luke xvii. 21, p. 62.) XXIV. the carcase is, there "And very extensive also will the desolation be; 28 will the eagles be gathered together. for, as I formerly told you, Luke xvii. 37, p. 64), wheresoever the dead carcase is, there will the eagles naturally be gathered together; and wherever the obstinate enemies of my kingdom are, they shall be sought out and destroyed: and here in particular I will send the Roman eagles against them, who shall consume and devour them as a helpless prey, not only at Jerusalem, but over the face of the whole country; and afterwards in some more distant regions, where the greatest numbers of Jews are settled ". IMPROVEMENT. xxi. 21. Mark If our Lord urges his disciples, with such speedy and solicitous Luke haste, to flee from the sword of God's temporal judgments, how much greater diligence should we give to flee from the wrath to come! What are any of the little interests of life, that out of regard to them we should be willing to continue one moment longer exposed to a danger which may sink us into everlasting perdition and despair! xiii. 15, 16 xxiv. 21. We have here a lively description of that aggravated ruin which Mat. was brought upon the Jews for neglecting Christ; even great tribulation, such as had never, from the very beginning of the world, fallen upon any other nation, nor shall ever be equalled. Thus was his blood upon them, and their children. (Mat. xxvii. 25.) May we never know what it is to have this blood crying against us for trampling it under foot as an unholy thing! (Heb. x. 29.) For surely to the Jews, who thus rejected the counsel of God against 7, 8 themselves, all these things which they suffered were but the beginning of sorrows; and the famine and sedition, pestilence and slaughter, by which so many thousands perished, served only to consign m In some more distant regions, &c.] There may perhaps be an oblique intimation in this passage of the slaughter afterwards made on the Jews elsewhere, and particularly under Adrian and Trajan; when what had been foretold by Moses (Deut. xxviii. 49, & seq.) was remarkably fulfilled, and as an eagle flies upon its prey, their enemies pursued them to destruction; and the calamities they underwent were such, that (as Dio Cassius inVOL. VII. forms us, Hist. lib. 69) 50,000 were slain, 2 a Ex 214 clxi. Jesus describes the tribulation of those days. SECT. Consign them over to infinitely more terrible indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, which will at last fall on every soul of man that doth evil, whether Jew or Gentile. (Rom. ii. 8, 9.) Mark 21, 221 These unhappy creatures eagerly listened to the very name of a xiii. Messiah, by whomsoever it was assumed; while they rejected him whom God had sent them, and who had so long, and with so much importunity, been renewing to them the offers of life and salvation. May none of us ever know the sad impatience with which condemned sinners will wish, and wish in vain, for those Mat. overtures and messages of grace which they now despise! In that xxiv. 28. sense, wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together wherever there is the like unbelief and impenitence, Mark there will be in its degree the like ruin. Christ has graciously xiii. 25. told us these things before: may we humbly attend to the warning, that none of this terror and destruction may ever come upon us! SECT. clxii. Luke SECT. CLXII. Christ describes the total destruction of the Jewish state by strong figures, many of them literally suiting the day of judgment: to the mention of which he proceeds, declaring the particular time of it unknown. Mat. XXIV. 29-36. Mark XIII. 24-32. Luke XXI. 25-33. LUKE XXI. 25. LUKE XXI. 25. the earth distress of na OUR UR Lord proceeded in the awful AND there shall be repre- signs in the sun, sentation of the judgments that were com- and in the moon, and ing on Jerusalem, and said, Before this desola- in the stars; and upon tion shall be completely come, there shall be (astions, with perplexity, I told you, ver. 11) some extraordinary signs in the sea, and the waves the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; eclipses, roaring; comets, and surprising meteors; and on the earth there shall be anguish and distress of nations; the sea and the proud waves thereof roaring, and breaking in upon the land with an irresistible 26 inundation; While men shall be almost expiring with fear, and overwhelmed with the sad expectation of those calamitous things which are coming upon the land: for this shall not be like former invasions or captivities, which only produced some transient disorders in the state, or at a Expiring with fear.] This is the literal rendering of ano↓uxovlay ano poểe. -The signs here spoken of seem to be some most 26-Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. |