one side, and daylight brightness on the other. It was error and perplexity to the adversaries of God and his church; safeguidance and protection to his people. The assurance of a period of delay between the first visible notification of the approach of the predicted vengeance, and its ultimate advent and consummation, having been thus conveyed—the rest of the discourse from verse 31 downwards is taken up with a series of practical admonitions; the tendency of all which is to enforce this one conviction, that the interval in question would be short and transient-barely sufficient for the purpose of escape from the impending danger, and therefore to be instantly applied to the end and effect designed by it. It is observable, how every expression in these personal admonitions conspires to produce the strongest persuasion in the hearers, that to give effect to the agency and cooperation even of Divine providence in their behalf, all must ultimately depend on their own watchfulness, diligence, and activity to profit by the means and assistances provided them. Enough had been done, or would be done by a power, beyond themselves, in warning them of their danger at the time of need-in placing within their reach the means and opportunities of a ready escape-and in guaranteeing the safety of those who should avail themselves of them accordingly. The remainder must rest with themselves-whether to give effect to these provisions for their good, or to defeat and frustrate them, in the way to their consummation. He who should be found on the housetop, when that day arrived, and his household furniture within it, is forbidden so much as to descend, to carry all or any part of his effects, away with him. He whom it should surprise in the country, employed on any of the occupations of the field, half naked as he might be, is commanded to fly straight before him, as from an enemy close in pursuit, without stopping to cast even his upper vesture about him. They are emphatically warned to remember the wife of Lot; who, turning for a moment, to gaze on the work of destruction behind her, or repining at the loss of a favourite abode, was wrapt in a sheet of fire, and encrusted with salt; a standing monument of lingering diligence, or of lukewarm faith and reluctant self-denial. The very words addressed to Lot, while hesitating at the gates of Sodom TM, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee," may be said to be virtually repeated in the declaration, "Whoso may seek to save his life, shall lose it; and "whoso may lose it, shall quicken it." 66 These are strong expressions-the necessary interpretation of which seems to be this; He who at the time of need should renounce all the ties of place, the attractions of property, the endearments of social and domestic intercourse-and think of nothing but obedience to the Divine command, which had enjoined the duty of escaping-whatever danger he might appear to be encountering in departing, what 1 Clemens Rom. I. ad Cor. cap. xi: De uxore Loti: ovveέελθούσης γὰρ αὐτῷ τῆς γυναικὸς, ἑτερογνώμονος ὑπαρχούσης καὶ οὐκ ἐν ὁμονοίᾳ, εἰς τοῦτο σημεῖον ἐτέθη, ὥστε γενέσθαι αὐτὴν στήλην ἁλὸς ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης· εἰς τὸ γνωστὸν εἶναι πᾶσιν, ὅτι οἱ δίψυχοι καὶ οἱ διστάζοντες περὶ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ δυνάμεως, εἰς κρίμα καὶ εἰς σημείωσιν πάσαις ταῖς γενεαῖς γίνονται. m Gen. xix. 17. ever sacrifice he might be obliged to make, however uncertain whither to go, and where to find the means of present or of future protection and support-should possess in the Divine providence a friend and guardian, which, though unseen, should accompany his flight, recompensing him for the loss of all which he had left behind him, conducting him to a place of safety, and providing for each of his wants. He on the contrary, who should hesitate to be gone at the fatal moment-balancing probabilities, calculating the chances of escape, postponing the apprehension of distant danger to the appearance of present security, choosing between the kinds or the modes of flight, stopping to provide for the necessities of the way, or for future wants, trusting, in short, to the resources of human foresight, instead of depending solely upon God-should find the very precautions which he deemed so essential to his safety, and expected to conduce to it, the causes of his destruction; and be overtaken and overwhelmed by the danger, while he was hoping to secure himself against it. The coming of the event in question would surprise all alike, whether Jews or Christians, whether strong or lukewarm in faith, active or remiss in vigilance and observation—similarly situated at the moment, with the same chance of escaping by a timely flight, with the same risk of perishing by remaining in the same situation. Two women should be grinding at one mill the corn for the next day's use o-two men should be sleeping on the same bed, o The business of preparing corn for use is thus supposed to be peculiarly the duty of females. Exodus xi. 5. spoke of the "maid servant behind the mill;" so long before as the time of VOL. IV. Р or supping on the same couch-when the promised warning should be given: where, we may observe, that as the interval between the warning and the event is called the night, so the various occupations in which the occurrence of the warning would find those who were interested in observing and profiting by it, are such as are characteristic of the night; some should be sleeping or supping; others preparing overnight for the necessities of the morning; but all be intent on the ordinary duties of their several stations, or the ordinary employments of the time, as if nothing different from usual were likely to happen. The effect which ensues is consequently such as was to be anticipated from the circumstances of the parties in point of preparation, and in point of expectation, beforehand, when the promised sign is given; and illustrates in a lively manner both the requisite practice of the duty of vigilance and observation up to a certain time, and its reward at last. One of the two, who was mindful of the the departure from Egypt; and it is still the custom in the East for the grinding of corn to be done by female slaves, who execute their task either overnight, against the next day, or early in the morning; so that nothing, we are told, is to be heard in an eastern city at these times but the sound of their corn mills (which are in fact handmills); see Harmer, vol. i. 250. 253; and iv. 30, 31. Chapter iv. Obs. iv. chapter vii. Obs. CXXV. Cf. Jeremiah xxv. 10: Isaiah xlvii. 2. It appears from the Odyssey, xx. 105–119, that such was the custom in Greece in Homer's time. Simonides also, Fragm. ccxx. teρì yvvaikŵv, 59, recognises the work of handling the mill, as peculiarly incumbent on females-by specifying this as a characteristic of an indolent wife; κούτ ̓ ἂν μύλης ψαύσειεν, οὔτε κόσκινον charge received, and always on the alert to discover and profit by the warning promised, recognises it as soon as it appears-rises from his unfinished meal, breaks off his fatal slumber, or leaves his task half executed, that he may instantly be gone; and to him the consequence of his watchfulness and activity is that he is received into protection, he is snatched from the danger, and saved. The other, who knows not the meaning of the same signal of alarm, continues his employment regardless of it; and to him his ignorance of it and his inattention to it, is fatal. He is left to himself, and perishes. The morning surprises him, and he is lost P. It would seem that the curiosity of the disciples, • The members of this proposition, ὁ εἷς παραληφθήσεται, καὶ ὁ ἕτερος ἀφεθήσεται are so opposed to each other, that whatever is denoted by παραληφθήσεται, the contrary must be denoted by ἀφεθήσεται : and the sense of παραληφθήσεται is commonly good "shall be taken into the care of another, shall be received into protection and safety;" and consequently åpenσerai must mean "shall be left to himself, shall be abandoned to destruc"tion without help and defence, and perish." That the text has nothing to do with the doctrine of election or reprobation properly so called, that it applies only to the opposite distinctions of fate or fortune, in the case of particular individuals, the effect of human contingencies-because in the case of individuals one of whom should profit, the other not, by the same prophetic warning of an approaching danger, and by the same interval allowed for flight and escape from it, according to their previous knowledge or ignorance of both these things-must be evident from its place in the context, and from the scope and tendency of this part of the discourse in general. It was the last assurance addressed to the disciples, as personally concerned in all that had preceded: and that they understood it accordingly, appears from the question which they founded on this part of the discourse more immediately: Hoù Kúpic-in reference to our Lord's last words, ἡ ἑτέρα ἀφεθήσεται. |