captivity, nor at any time before the calling of that nation at the beginning of the glorious times of the church; for it is said, verse S, that at that day strangers shall no more serve themselves of them, and that Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest and in quiet, and none shall make him afraid; and their nobles shall be of themselves, and their government shall proceed from the midst of them, as v. 8. 10. 21. But these things have never yet been accomplished to that nation; and there it is mentioned as the peculiar glory that shall attend their deliverance, that they should serve David, their king, whom the Lord would raise up unto them, which was not accomplished on the Jews' return out of Babylon; for this king did not appear until many hundred years after, and when he did appear, they did not serve him, but crucified him, and his rising again was followed with the destruction of that land, and of Jerusalem, instead of building it on her own heap, as v. 18; so that this has never yet been accomplished.

9. But that this great tribulation that Christ speaks of, is no short tribulation, finished when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, but that which is not ended till the reign of Antichrist is ended, and respects not only the sufferings of the outward, but also the spiritual, Jerusalem, is more fully manifest from what the prophet Daniel says of it, Dan. xii. 1. " And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince that standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that is found written in the book." Concerning these words in Daniel, several things are manifest.

1. It is manifest that that is a time of trouble and great trial to the church and people of God, and that it is the same people that is first in this trouble, that though Michael's standing up for and appearing for them in their distress, shall be delivered out of trouble; as it is often spoken of in scripture as God's manner of dealing with his people; first to bring them into great distress, and then to appear or stand up for them in their extremity, and deliver them. Probably, here is an eye to the forementioned prophecy of Jeremiah, where this time of trouble is said to be the time of Jacob's trouble, and the same Jacob shall be delivered out of it. Daniel made use of those prophecies of Jeremiah, at the time that he had these revelations, as appears by chap. ix. 2. And it is further manifest by the Seventy, where speaking of the time when this time of trouble should be ended, it is said to be " when he should have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people."

2. It is manifest this is a time of trouble that was to be in the Christian church, after the Messiah had appeared in the world;

for after the prophet in the foregoing chapter had been giving an account of many successive events that lie between the time that then was, and the coming of the Messiah, he now in the beginning of this chapter proceeds to give an account of the Messiah's coming, and what should befal God's church after that. "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince that standeth for the children of thy people," &c.

3. It is manifest that this time of trouble here spoken of is not to be ended until the time, and times, and half a time of Antichrist is ended; for when the angels, being tenderly and greatly concerned for the church under such great trouble, say to Jesus Christ, "How long shall it be to the end of those wonders ?" Christ for the comfort of them and his church, lest his people should faint under such tribulation, holds up his right hand and his left to heaven, and swears by him that liveth for ever and ever, that it shall continue no longer than for a time, and times, and an half, v. 6, 7.

4. It is manifest that the time of great tribulation, spoken of by Christ in the xxiv. of Matthew, is the same with that spoken of by Daniel in this place. It can scarcely be doubted whether Christ has reference to these words of Daniel, in what he says here, his words being so much like them, and he having just before expressly cited Daniel's prophecy, v. 15; and refers to it from time to time in the chapters, and particularly has reference to Daniel's words in this chapter, in what he says of the continuance of those days of tribulation. But this may be more particularly considered under the next head.

10. All this he more abundantly manifests, and it will be put beyond dispute by comparing three scriptures together, viz. what Christ says of the continuance of those days of tribulation in that forementioned place, Luke xxi. 24, "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, with what Daniel says in this xii. chapter of his prophecy, of the continuance of this time of great trouble, till a time, times, and an half, and what is said in Revelation xi. 2, "But the court which is without the temple, leave out, and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles; and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months." Concerning these three scriptures I would observe,

1. That nobody doubts whether these forty-two months of which John speaks, in which the holy city should be trodden under foot of the Gentiles, be the same with the time, times, and an half, that Daniel speaks of, till the end of which the time of great tribulation was to last.

2. Both Christ in the xxi. of Luke, and John in the Revelations, speak of treading down Jerusalem; for by the holy city, is

meant Jerusalem, that was commonly called the holy city; and both speak of treading down Jerusalem by the Gentiles; and probably in that place in Revelation, reference is had to those words of Christ.

3. Hence we may infer, that when Christ says, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," by the times of the Gentiles, he means the same with that forty-two months of the prevailing of the Gentiles against Jerusalem, or the Jews of which John speaks; and the same with the time, times, and half, that Daniel speaks of; and probably in the phrase he uses, viz. "times of the Gentiles," he has reference to the "time, times," &c. of Daniel, whose prophecy he had reference to. The times of the Gentiles Christ here speaks of, are the same with that time that the angel swears shall be no longer, Rev. x. 6, compared with Dan. xii. 7.

4. That the Jerusalem that Christ speaks of, is especially the literal Jerusalem, and that by the Jerusalem or holy city that John speaks of, is that spiritual Jerusalem; from all which it is greatly confirmed that the time of tribulation that Christ speaks of is the same that Daniel speaks of, and that it respects the continuance of the tribulation, or treading down both of the literal and spiritual Jerusalem, and that it shall last till the fall of Antichrist.

11. It seems to be intimated that the time in itself was very long, by the 22d verse," And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened." The days are shortened by taking out many days out of the long period of time, for times of respite and rest. Then the proper time appointed for Jacob's trouble, is from Nero's time till the fall of Antichrist, which is a great many ages, but for the elect's sake, the tribulation is not constantly continued through this whole time, for if it should be so it would wear out the saints, and would wholly root out and destroy the church; therefore for the elect's sake God will take out many of those days for respite; so that the days of actual tribulation shall be much fewer than this whole period. Thus there was respite between the ten heathen persecutions; and there was a remarkable time of rest after the tenth and hottest of them upon Constantine's coming to the throne. And towards the end of the antichristian persecutions, many of the days should be taken out, and many parts of the church should have rest, after the reformation, being out of the reach of the persecuting power of Rome; which is possibly what is signified by the witnesses rising and standing on their feet, and being caught up to heaven, out of the reach of their enemies.

It is further evident that the tribulation Christ speaks of, is not merely a calamity that was brought on Judea and Jerusalem, or

limited to that people or land, from those things that Christ says are the beginning of this tribulation, 7th and 8th verses, "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places; all these are the beginning of sorrows." Now it cannot be supposed that wars between other nations, and earthquakes and pestilences in other countries, can be signs and forerunners merely of a calamity upon the nation of the Jews, and troubles in their land.

12. What has been said, is further confirmed by the 29th verse of the xxiv. of Matth. "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the pow.ers of heaven shall be shaken;" i. e. immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall those great events be accomplished which are signified by those places in the prophets, that speak of the sun's being darkened, &c.; which you have often read and beard discourses of. It is observable that, almost throughout this whole discourse of Christ with his disciples, he refers to things that had been said by ancient prophets; and what Christ says, does not imply that what the prophets have said in those things, is to be understood literally; but he seems to intimate the contrary, viz. that their meaning is mysterious, in that expression, verse 15, "Whoso readeth, let him understand." The places in the prophets that speak of those things, have reference to the great events, and the wonderful changes in the face of things, that shall be brought to pass at the beginning of the glorious times of the church; and particularly the utter overthrow of the kingdom of Satan, and casting down all powers and authorities by which false religion has been maintained, and the putting out all their glory, as in Joel iii. 15. "The sun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining;" and then the prophet goes on to speak of the glorious times of the church in the following verses, "Jerusalem shall be holy, and the mountains shall drop down new wine," &c.; and chap. ii. 30, 31, speaking of the time when God shall pour out his Spirit on all flesh, it is said, "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come ;" and Isai. xiii. 10, 11, "For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible; and verse 13, "Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place;" agreeably to what Christ says, "The powers of the

heavens shall be shaken." This had its first fulfilment in the destruction of Babylon, but has a further and more full accomplishment in the destruction of the spiritual Babylon, of which that was a type. Again, in Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8, it is said of Pharaoh and Egypt," And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light; all the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord." This will have a further accomplishment in the destruction of the city, of which it is said, in Rev. that it is spiritually called Egypt; and again, Isai. xxiv. 23, “Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, before his ancients gloriously." Possibly there may also appear some strange phenomena in the heavens, just before that time; by which there may be something of a literal accomplishment, as in the events signified by the pouring out of the fourth vial on the sun, there was both a figurative and literal accomplishment of it. See Lowman on the Revelations.

13. Now if we understand these days of tribulation, in the sense in which I have explained them, these great events do immediately follow them. If we understand them in a more limited and restrained sense, for the days of the church's suffering under Rome heathen, which was much the greatest under the last of the ten persecutions; then immediately after the tribulation of those days, there was a remarkable accomplishment of this, then was the sun and moon darkened, and the stars fell from heaven, and the powers of heaven were shaken in the sense of scripture prophecy, as appears by Rev. vi. 12, 13, 14, which speaks of these times," And I beheld, when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their place." But if we understand it in its greatest and full extent, it is to be understood for the whole time of Jerusalem's lying waste, and the church's suffering under the idolatrous persecuting Roman power. Then also those great events shall immediately follow, which are a yet much greater accomplishment of these things. These events seem plainly to be here spoken of.

14. Thus the sun is darkened, and the moon turned into blood, and the stars fall, and the heavens are shaken, immediately after the captivity of God's people in the spiritual Babylon, just as these things came to pass with respect to the Babylonish em