RERATION SHALL NOT PASS TILL ALL THESE THINGS BE FULFILLED. (35) Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (36) But of that day and hour knoweth no man-no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (37) But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be; (38) for as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noe entered into the ark, (39) and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. (40) Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left; (41) two women shall be grinding at the mill,-the one shall be taken and the other left. (42) Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come; (43) but know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. (44) Therefore, be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh. (45) Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? (46) Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. (47) Verily, I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. (48) But, and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; (49) and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, (50) the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, (51) and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.-There shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth."

Such is the prophetic answer which Christ gave to the inquiry of his disciples-" When shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" It may be said that in the contents of the succeeding chapter (xxv.) the same prophetic discourse appears to be continued to the very close of it, and to be part of one uninterrupted answer to the same question. That chapter will not at present be cited, because it is maintained by some divines to be, as well as the foregoing chapter, from verse 29th, a descriptive prophecy of the last day of judgment. The soundness of this view will hereafter be examined. Mark, in his recital of these prophecies, varies very slightly from Matthew :

(Mark xiii. 1.) "And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones, and what buildings are here. (2) And Jesus answering, said unto him,-Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. (3) And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, over against the temple, Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, asked him privately-(4) Tell us when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? (5) And Jesus, answering them, began to say -Take heed lest any man deceive you; (6) for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. (7) And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled, for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. (8) For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be earthquakes in divers places; and there shall be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows; (9) but take heed to yourselves; for they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten; and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. (10) And the Gospel must first be published among all nations. (11) But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate; but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye; for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. (12) Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the sun, and children shall rise against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. (13) And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake; but he that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved. (14) But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand) then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains; (15) and let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein to take anything out of his house; (16) and let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment, (17) But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! (18) And pray ye that your flight be not in the

winter; (19) for in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time; neither shall be. (20) And except that the Lord had shortened those days no flesh should be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. (21) And then if any man shall say to you,-Lo, here is Christ, or,-Lo, he is there, believe him not; (22) for false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. (23) But take ye heed:-behold, I have foretold you all things. (24) But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light; (25) and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken: (26) and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; (27) and then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds-from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. (28) Now learn a parable of the fig-tree.-When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near; (29) so, ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is NIGH, EVEN AT THE DOORS. (30) VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT THIS GENERATION SHALL NOT PASS TILL ALL THESE THINGS BE DONE. (31) Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away. (32) But of that day and that hour knoweth no man-no, not the angels which are in heaven; neither the Son, but the Father. (33) Take ye heed; watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is. (34) For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. (35) Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh,-at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning; (36) lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. (37) And what I say unto you, I say unto all-watch."

Luke relates the foregoing chain of remarkable predictions in words which throw much light on the narrations of the two other Evangelists, and which is thought clearly to prove that these prophecies refer to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem.

(Luke xxi. 5.) And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he (Jesus) said,-(6) As for these things which ye behold, the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down (7) And they asked him, saying-Master, but when shall these things be? And what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? (8) And he said-Take heed that ye be not deceived; for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near. Go ye not, therefore, after them. (9) But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified; for these things must first come to pass: but the end is not by and by. (10) Theu said he unto them,-Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; (11) and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights, and great signs shall there be from heaven. (12) But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. (13) And it shall turn to you for a testimony. (14) Settle it, therefore, in your hearts not to meditate before what ye shall answer; (15) for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. (16) And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. (17) And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake; (18) but there shall not an hair of your head perish. (19) In your patience possess ye your souls; (20) and when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. (21) Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto; (22) for these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. (23) But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people; (24) and they' shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (25) And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (26) men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. (27) And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. (28) And when these things

said to Jesus-"Tell us when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world." Neither Mark nor Luke, in recording this inquiry of the disciples, has the words—" thy coming, and the end of the world." The latter has-"When shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?"-And the former-"When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?" From the expressions-thy coming," and "the end of the world," which occur in Matthew, one might be led to suppose that these prophecies were not uttered exclusively in reference to the destruction of Jerusalem,the dispersion of the Jews, and the overthrow of the Jewish polity,—but that their fulfilment embraces a wider sphere-that they refer to the Second Coming of Christ, and the last Day of Judgment, at "the end of the world." There is here, however, no need of having recourse to this supposition, nothwithstanding that Matthew-differing from the two other Evangelists,-makes use of these words. For the expressions are not those of Christ,-they are those of his disciples. If, therefore, they were at the time labouring under the erroneous impression that Christ in these prophecies alluded to his Second Coming, when he should take vengeance upon his enemies,-destroy Jerusalem, in common with the rest of the world, and establish his Messianic kingdom upon earth,—still this error, on the part of the disciples, would by no means affect the predictions of Christ.

But there are no grounds for inferring from these words that even the disciples entertained such erroneous views. As to their using the expression" thy coming," it is well known that the Jews at large,—and, consequently, the disciples-regarded all misfortunes and calamities-all untoward events-as judgments from heaven. They,-like many Christians of the present age-whether correctly or incorrectly we shall not stop to consider-were firm believers in "temporal judgments." Such were their views of God's dealings with them, that when they were vanquished in battles by their enemies, they thought that God by this means chastised them for their sins, and that when they conquered their enemies, they were the means, in the hands of God, to punish them for their iniquities. This doctrine is so frequently advanced in Holy Writ, that to adduce passages in proof of it, is deemed wholely unnecessary. Further; the disciples unhesitatingly believed Christ to be the Son of God,-to have all authority in heaven and on earth,-to be the personage who was to judge the world in the Last Day. This was the very foundation of their faith in him. Accordingly they necessarily inferred that it was he who would execute judgment upon the Jews in destroying Jerusalem, and erasing the Temple, so as not to leave one stone upon another. Hence, they naturally asked him, what should be the sign of his coming. With regard to the phrase, "end of the world," it is in perfect accordance with the sense in which the Jews frequently employed the word world.-Tertullus, before Felix, accuses Paul of being "a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout all the world”‡ (otkovμɛvn); but the Jews were not inhabiting the whole world. The word world is often used in the Jewish writings, as well as in those of other nations, to denote an empire, a kingdom, or a

province. Accordingly we find the Roman Empire called "all the world.” Isaiah calls the Babylonish empire "the world," and the Assyrian empire the earth.† It is not, however, the word earth, or globe (koσμos), or the words inhabitants of the globe (okovμevn), or any word synonimous to either, that has been used by the disciples, and translated, in our version,-"world," but a word which, in this connection, is of a much more limited signification. It is the word atov, which literally means age, or duration of life or of time; and which, in the passage under notice, may mean,-in conjunction with the word "end,”—the end of the Jewish age or Jewish polity. Several divines have maintained, with considerable show of reason, that the Jewish dispensation did not end until the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the different orders of priests. Nor can it be said that, in reality, it terminated before these events. Be that as it may, there is no reason to conclude that the disciples by the words,-" end of the world"—meant the Dissolution of Nature and the Final Judgment. Nor is there any foundation for the belief that Christ, in his reply to them, where he employs the word "end," and the phrase "the coming of the Son of man"-although he speaks in highly figurative language-means any other than the destruction of Jerusalem, when the Roman army should be instruments to inflict upon the Jews the punishment awarded them. For he tells them that before these things-"the end” and his "coming"-shall take place, they "shall hear of wars and rumours of wars;" and that when they shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies they are to know that the dissolution of that city is nigh. Such expressions as these can be intended only as predictions of the events which were to precede the temporal calamities that overcame the Jewish people. In a word, the whole tenour of this prophetic discourse is confined to Jerusalem and to the Jews. There is no mention, nor even an allusion made here to any other place or people-nothing said about the destruction of the world at large. The symbolical expressions used in reference to the darkening of the heavenly bodies shall be examined in a subsequent section.

SECTION III.-HISTORICAL PROOFS OF THE EXACT FULFILMENT OF CHRIST'S PREDICTIONS REGARDING JERUSALEM.

It is next intended to show that these prophecies have minutely been fulfilled. Thirty-six years after Christ's death, Jerusalem, by the Roman legions, under Titus Vespasian, was beseiged and captured.-The inhabitants were massacred by thousands, the temple was demolished, and the Jewish polity, both in Church and State, totally subverted. Christ's prophetic description of these events accords remarkably with the manner

Luke ii. 1. See also Act. xi. 28. We meet the word oukovμern (world, or rather inhabitants of the earth) in profane writers, used to designate the Roman Empire, long before the time of Christ.—Ρωμαιοι εν ολίγω χρόνω πασαν ὑφ' ἑαυτους εποίησαν την οικουμενην.-Polyb. lib. vi. c. 48. Πολλα χωρια της ύπο Ρωμαίων οικουμένης.Plut. Pompei p. 631 F.

+ Isa. xiii. 11; xiv. 17; xxiv. 4. The Septuagint have here ein some places ή οικουμενη.

Vid. Parkhurst's Lex. v. atov.

§ Matth. xxiv. 6, 14, 27, 30. Luke xxi. 9, 27.

Matth. xxiv. 6. Luke xxi. 20.

ockovμevŋ dλŋ, and

C

in which the events themselves actually took place, as narrated by Josephus-a Jewish historian and general, who was present at the siege of Jerusalem-whose accuracy has never been impeached,* and who could not have any motive whatever to accommodate his history of the Jewish wars to the predictions of Christ. This accordance has drawn the attention of many learned writers, in different languages, and has made some of them-owing to the harmony they perceived, even in many matters of detail, between the predictions and the narrative of the downfall of the holy city-suspect that the Evangelists wrote after that event had taken place, and moulded history into a prophetic form. But this disputed point does not concern the present argument, at the outset of which it was declared expedient to admit that these prophecies had really been uttered by Christ. And even were it relevant, it might be urged that if the three Evangelists who record these prophecies, did at all write the Gospels which pass under their respective names, it is most improbable that they deferred writing them for thirty years after the occurrence of the events they narrate, namely, until after the year 70. A.D.—when Jerusalem was destroyed, and when they were, doubtless, very old men. For as we find that one of them was an immediate companion of Christ, and the other two were associates of this companion,—and probably all three about the same age as Christ, -they would then be about seventy years of age. Besides: there is nothing in these prophecies which, in the slightest degree, suggests that they were written after the event. Very different are they in this respect from the counterfeited prophecies of the Sibyline Oracles, and those of the twelve Patriarchs, which are maintained to be transcripts of history turned into a prophetic form.†

But to proceed with the proof of the fulfilment of these prophecies.— Jesus predicted in regard to the temple-"There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." According to Josephus, one of the first parts of the city that the Roman soldiers demolished was the temple, which they burnt down. So completely was it destroyed that a ploughshare was drawn over the ground upon which it had stood, as a sign of the perpetual interdiction of that once consecrated ground. Christ warns the Jews to take heed, because many false prophets would arise, and deceive, if possible, the very elect.§ Many of these appeared before and at the time Jerusalem was attacked. Josephus speaks of them in the following terms.-"A false prophet was the occasion of the destruction of these people, who had made a public proclamation in the city, that very day, that God commanded them to get up upon the temple, and that there they should receive miraculous signs of their deliverance. Now there was then a great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose on the people, who denounced this to them, that they should wait for the deliverance of God."¶

* Although some few modern interpolations have been detected in the works of Josephus, and although it must be admitted that considerable portions of them are of a very fabulous and legendary character, yet he is considered-at least by both Jews and Christians a faithful historian on the whole. An argument, therefore, is here based upon his statements.

+ See Paley's Evidence of Christianity, part II. chap. i.

Matthew xxiv. 2. Mark xiii. 2. Luke xxi. 6. Jewish Wars, b. vi. c. iv. ss. 5–8. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, c. xxiii. p. 338.-Cadell's Edit. Keith's Evidence of Christianity, chap. iii.

§ Matth. xxiv. 4, 5, 11, 21. Whiston's Translation of Josephus, b. vi. c. v. s. 2.