that both Josephus and the Roman historians celebrate the extent, the beauty, and the splendour, of the building. And Josephus mentions, in particular, marble stones of a stupendous size in the foundation, and in different parts of the building. The disciples, we may suppose, point out these stones, lamenting the destruction of such a fabric; or perhaps meaning to insinuate, that it would not be easy for the hand of man to destroy it. But Jesus answered, " Verily, I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." It is a proverbial saying, marking the complete destruction of the temple; and there would not;according to the general analogy of language, have been any impropriety in the use of it, if the temple had been rendered unfit for being a place of worship, although piles of stones had been left standing in the court. But, by the providence of God, even this proverbial expression was fulfilled, according to the literal acceptation of the words. Titus was most solicitous to preserve so splendid a monument of the victories of Rome; and he sent a message to the Jews who had enclosed themselves in the temple, that he was determined to save it from ruin.— But they could not bear that the house of their God, the pride and glory of their nation, should fall into the hands of the heathen, and they set fire to the porticoes. A soldier, observing the flames, threw a burning brand in at the window; and others, incensed at the obstinate resistance of the Jews, without regard to the commands or threatenings of their General, who ran to extinguish the flames, continued to set fire to different parts of it, and at length even to the doors of the holy place. "And thus," says Josephus, "the temple was burnt to the ground, against the will of Titus." After it was in this way rendered useless, he ordered the foundations, probably on account of the unusual size of the stones, to be dug up. And Rufus, who commanded the army after his departure, executed this order, by tearing them up with a plough-share; so truly did Micah say of old, "Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest."*

The multitude probably pressing around our Lord as he went out of the temple, the disciples forbear to ask any particular explication of his words, till they come to the Mount of Olives. That mount was at no great distance from Jerusalem, and over against the temple, so that any person sitting upon it, had an excellent view of the whole fabric. The disciples, deeply impressed with what they had heard, and anxious to receive the fullest information concerning the fate of the city of their solemnities, now that they are retired from the multitude, come around Jesus upon the mount, and looking down to the temple, say, "Tell us, when shall these things be; and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" It is of consequence that you form a clear apprehension of the import of this question. The end of the world, according to the use of that phrase to which our ears are accustomed, means the consummation of all things. And this circumstance, joined with some expressions in the prophecy, has led several interpreters to suppose that the apostles were asking the time of the judgment. But to a Jew, ἡ συντέλεια του αιώνος, often con† Matt. xxiv. 3.

• Micah iii. 12.

veyed nothing more than the end of the age. Time was divided by the Jews into two great periods, the age of the law and the age of the Messiah. The conclusion of the one was the beginning of the other, the opening of that kingdom which the Jews believed the Messiah was to establish, which was to put an end to their sufferings, and to render them the greatest people upon the earth. The apostles, full of this hope, said to our Lord, immediately before his ascension, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Our Lord used the phrase of his coming, to denote his taking vengeance upon the Jews by destroying their city and temple. "There shall be some standing here," he said, "that shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."* All that heard him are long since gathered to their fathers, and Jesus has not yet come to judge the world. But John we know, survived the destruction of Jerusalem. There are two other places in the New Testament where a phrase almost the same with ή συντέλεια του αιώνος occurs. And in neither does it signify what we call the end of the world. The apostle to the Hebrews, ix. 26, says, " But now once, ex outeλel Twy acwror, hath Christ appeared." At the conclusion of that dispensation under which the blood of bulls and goats was offered upon the altar of God," Christ appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." The apostle to the Corinthians says, "These things are written for our admonition, upon whom are come ra TEHN TWV Awwvwv,”t our translation renders it, "the ends of the world." Yet the world has lasted about 1800 years since the apostolic days; the meaning is, the ends of the ages, the conclusion of the one age, and the beginning of the other, are come upon us; for we have seen both.

It is agreeable, then, to the phraseology of Scripture, and to the expectations of the apostles, to interpret their question here, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" as meaning nothing more than the corresponding question, to which an answer, in substance the same, is given in the 13th chapter of Mark, and the 21st of Luke. What shall be the sign when these things, this prophecy of the destruction of the temple, shall be fulfilled, or come to pass? But the language in which the question is proposed in Matthew, suggests to us the sentiment which had probably arisen in the minds of the apostles, after hearing the declaration of our Lord, as they walked from the temple to the Mount of Olives. They conceived that the whole frame of the Jewish polity was to be dissolved, that the glorious kingdom of the Messiah was to commence, and that, as all the nations of the earth were to be gathered to this kingdom, and Jerusalem was to be the capital of the world, the temple which now stood, extensive and magnificent as it was, would be too small for the reception of the worshippers, that on this account it was to be laid in ruins, and one much more splendid, more suitable to the dignity of the Messiah, and far surpassing every human work, was to be erected in its stead. Possessed with these exalted imaginations, and anticipating their own dignity in being the ministers of this temple, they come to Jesus and say, "Tell us when these things shall be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?" The

question consists of two parts. They ask the time, and they ask the signs. Our Lord begins with giving a particular answer to the second question. He afterwards limits the time to the existence of the generation then alive upon the earth. But he represses their curiosity as to the day or the hour.

Of the signs mentioned by our Lord, I shall give a short general view, deriving the account of the fulfilment of his words from the history of the events left us by Josephus, and shall then fix your attention upon that prophecy of the general progress of Christianity before the destruction of Jerusalem, which you will find in the 24th chapter of Matthew.

The first sign is the number of false Christs who were to arise in the interval between the prophecy and the event; impostors who, finding a general expectation of the Messiah, as the seventy weeks of Daniel were conceived to be accomplished, and a disposition to revolt from the Romans, assumed a character corresponding to the wishes of the people. There is frequent reference to these impostors in the book of Acts; and Josephus says, that numbers of them were taken under the government of Felix. They led out the deluded people in crowds, promising to show them great signs, and to deliver them from all their calamities, and thus exposed them to be cut to pieces by the Roman soldiers, as disturbers of the peace. Our Lord graciously warns the apostles not to go after these men; to put no faith in any message which they pretended to bring from him, but to rest satisfied with the directions contained in this prophecy, or hereafter communicated to themselves by his Spirit. While he thus preserves his followers from the destruction which came upon many of the Jews, he enables them, by reading in that destruction the fulfilment of his words, and a proof of his divine character, to derive from the fate of their unwise countrymen an early confirmation of their own faith. The second sign consists of great calamities which were to happen during the interval. The madness of Caligula, who succeeded Tiberius, butchered many of the Jews; and there was in his reign the rumour of a war, which was likely to be the destruction of the nation. He ordered his statue to be erected in the temple of Jerusalem. Not conceiving why an honour, which was granted to him by the other provinces of the empire, should be refused by Judea; and not being wise enough to respect the religious prejudices of those who were subject to him, he rejected their remonstrances, and persisted in his demand. The Jews had too high a veneration for the house of the true God, to admit of any thing like divine honours being there paid to a mortal, and they resolved to suffer every distress, rather than to give their countenance to the sacrilege of the emperor. Such was the consternation which the rumour of this war spread through Judea, that the people neglected to till their lands, and in despair waited the approach of the enemy. But the death of Caligula removed their fears, and delayed for some time that destruction which he meditated. Although, therefore, says Jesus, you will find the Jews troubled when these wars arise, as if the end of their state was at hand, be not ye afraid, but know that many things must first be accomplished. What strength was the faith of the apostles to derive from this prophecy, but a few years after our Lord's death, when they heard of rumours

R

of wars, when they beheld the despair of their countrymen, and yet saw the cloud dispelled, and the peace of their country restored! The peace, indeed, was soon interrupted by frequent engagements between the Jewish and heathen inhabitants of many cities in the province of Syria; by disputes about the bounds of their jurisdiction, amongst the governors of the different tetrarchies or kingdoms into which the land of Palestine was divided; and by the wars arising from the quick succession of emperors, and the violent competitions for the imperial diadem. It was not the sword only that filled with calamity this disastrous interval. The human race, according to the words of this prophecy, suffered under those judgments which proceed immediately from heaven. Josephus has mentioned famine and pestilence, earthquakes in all places of the world where Jews resided, and one in Judea attended with circumstances so dreadful and so unusual, that it was manifest, he says, the whole power of nature was disturbed for the destruction of men.

The third sign is the persecution of the Christians. The sufferings of which we read in the Epistles and the Acts were early aggravated by the famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes with which God at this time afflicted the earth. The Christians were regarded as the causes of these calamities; and the heathen, without inquiring into the nature of their religion, but viewing it as a new pestilential superstition, most offensive to the gods, tried to appease the divine anger which manifested itself in various judgments, by bringing every indignity and barbarity upon the Christians. The example was set by Nero, who, having in the madness of his wickedness set fire to Rome that he might enjoy the sight of a great city in flames, turned the tide of that indignation, which the report excited, from himself against the Christians, by accusing them of this atrocious crime. He found the people not unwilling to believe any thing of a sect whom they held in abhorrence: and both in this, and in many other instances, the Christians suffered the most exquisite torments for crimes not their own, and as the authors of calamities which they did not occasion. The persecution which they endured has been well called by one of the oldest apologists for Christianity, a war against the name, proceeding not from hatred to them as individuals, but from enmity to the name which they bore. "Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake."

The fourth sign is the apostacy and treachery of many who had borne this name. Although persecution naturally tends to unite those who are persecuted, and although the religion of Jesus can boast of an innumerable company of martyrs, who in the flames witnessed a good confession, yet there were some in the earliest ages who made shipwreck of faith, and endeavoured to gain the favour of the heathen magistrates by informing against their brethren. This apostacy is often severely reprehended in the epistles of Paul; and the Roman historian speaks of a multitude of Christians who were convicted of bearing the name, upon the evidence of those who confessed first.t It cannot surprise any one who considers the weakness of human nature, that such examples did occur. But it must appear very much

to the honour of Jesus, that he adventures to utter such a prophecy. He is not afraid of sowing jealousy and distrust amongst his followers. He knew that many were able to endure the trial of affliction, and he leaves the chaff to be separated from the wheat.

The fifth sign is the multitude of false teachers, men who, either from an attachment to the law of Moses, or from the pride of false philosophy, corrupted the simplicity of the Gospel. This perversion appeared in the days of the apostles. Complaints of it, and warnings against it, are scattered through all their epistles. Neither the sword of the persecutor, nor the wit of the scorner has done so much injury to the cause of Christianity, as the strifes and idle disputes of those who bear his name. Many in early times, were shaken by the errors of false prophets. Improper sentiments and passions were cherished; the union of Christians was broken, and the religion of love and peace became an occasion of discord. But these corruptions, however disgraceful to Christians, are a testimony both of the candour and the divine knowledge of the author of the Gospel; and even those who perverted his religion fulfilled his words.

We have now gone through those signs which announced the destruction of Jerusalem, and we are come to the circumstances, marked in the prophecy, which happened during the siege.

The first is, Jerusalem being compassed with armies, or, as Matthew expressed it, the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place. There were commonly engraved upon the Roman standards, after the times of the republic, the images of those emperors whom admiration or flattery had translated into the number of Gods. The soldiers were accustomed to swear by these images, to worship them, and to account them the gods of battle. The Jews, educated in an abhorrence of idolatry, could not bear that images, before which men thus bowed, should be brought within the precincts of their city; and soon after the death of our Lord, they requested a Roman general, Vitellius, who was leading troops through Judea against an enemy of the emperor, to take another road, because, said they, it is not razgov uw to behold from our city any images. With strict propriety, then, the dark expression of Daniel, which had not till that time been understood, is interpreted by our Lord as meaning the offensive images of a great multitude of standards brought within that space, a circumference of two miles round the city which was accounted holy, in order to render the city desolate; and he mentions this as the signal to his followers to fly from the low parts of Judea to the mountains. It may appear to you too late to think of flying, after the Roman armies were seen from Jerusalem. But the manner in which the siege was conducted justified the wisdom of this advice. A few years before Titus destroyed Jerusalem, Cestius Gallus laid siege to it; he might have taken the city if he had persevered; but without any reason. that was known, says Josephus, he suddenly led away his forces. And after his departure many fled from the city as from a sinking. ship. Vespasian, too, was slow in his approaches to the city; and by the distractions which at that time took place in the government of Rome, was frequently diverted from executing his purpose; so that the Christians, to whom the first appearance of Cestius's army brought