most awful and the most affecting to them, as Jews, which the mind of man can conceive! He therefore assured them, as he had done, upon a former occasion-not only that their · perseverance would, ultimately, be crowned with successbut he points out to them, the very time when, they might expect their deliverance. Ver. 14. And this Gospel-this good news of the Kingdom, i. e. of the Kingdom of the Messiah, shall be preached throughout the whole World, or, as it is in St.

Dr. Lardner's remark is," that the original word does sometimes "signifie not the whole World but a particular country only And, in a note referring to this he says, "the Greek word signifies the Earth: yet the "coherence of the words in many places determines the meaning to some par"ticular country. Josh. ii. 3. They be come to search out all the country. Luke,

iv. 25. But I tell you of a truth many Widows were in Israel, when the heaven "was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the "land. Not all the Earth, but all the land of Israel, that being the country "before mentioned.

"In like manner the Greek signifies, according to the original notation of "the word, the habitable, or rather, the inhabited Earth: but the connexion "of the discourse often restrains the meaning to some particular country. Isa.

xiii. 5. They come from a far conntry---to destroy the whole land. In the "Septuagint version it is all the World---or Earth--but what goes before and "follows, shews that a particular country is intended. V. 1. The burthen of "Babylon which Isaiah the Son of Amos did see. Ver. 19-22. And Babylon "the glory of Kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither "shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch "tent there, neither shall the Shepherd's make their fold there but wild beasts of the desert shall be there and the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate "houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. I know very well that some "understand the destruction of the whole land, in the 5th verse, of the whole

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Babylonian Empire. But it is without reason. The whole Empire it is true "would be hereupon dissolved. But any one may perceive that the judgment "threatened or foretold is confined properly to the City and Province of Babylon, the Seat of the Empire and of the oppresions now to be avenged. "Can any one bear the supposition that the dreadful destruction described "in this Chapter extended, or was intended to extend to all the parts of the Babylonish Empire.

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"St Luke himself used this word in this sense in another place-I think it "cannot be disputed: Luke xxi. 26. Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth;-or the land. ""The whole discourse relates to the calamities that were coming, not upon the whole World, or the whole Roman Empire, but the land of Judea, "Ver. 21, Then let them that are in JUDEA flee to the mountains. Out of Judea, "therefore there would be safety. Ver. 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. And they who should be in the cir "cumstances just mentioned, would then be particularly unhappy, because they "would be unfit for flight." See Dr. Lardner's Cred. Vol. I. pages 521, 522.

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Mark,

Mark, Chap. xiii. io. must first be published among all Nations, and then shall the end come.

The Disciples of Jesus, who were so well acquainted with our Lord's original language that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, and who had received a commission to announce its approach, could not possibly have been at a loss to understand, what our Lord here meant, by the expression-the Gospel, or good news of the Kingdom; for, as has repeatedly been observed, it was uppermost in their thoughts, and was most anxiously expected by them, at this very time. And that he here uses this phrase, in the same sense, as on former occasions, is sufficiently manifest, from his guarding them against Deceivers, who should assume the Character of the Messiah! And what he meant by the end, has already been very fully stated and is farther confirmed by the following verse, When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation or the abomination which maketh desolatespoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in the holy placewhoso readeth or rather perceiveth it let him understand, i. e. let him take the warning, which this remarkable circumstance shall present to him, and follow my directions, for his security, at such an awful crisis! But that the whole of this description, from the 5th to the 16th verse, and particularly, the last part of it, expressed by the phrase the abomination of desolation, might not be misunderstood or misapplied to any other event, than to the destruction of Jerusalem; it is im mediately added v. 16. Then-i. e. at the time when this should happen let those who are IN JUDEA flee to the Mountains-let him who is upon the house top, not come down to take any thing out of his house-neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes; the danger being so pressing as not to admit of the least delay. V. 19, 20, 21, 22. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give such + in those days but pray ye that your flight be not in the winter,

* « By the abomination of desolation---or the abomination that maketh "desolate," says Dr. Lardner, " is intended, the Roman Armies with "their ensigns. As the Roman ensigns, especially the Eagle, which was "carried at the head of every Legion, were objects of worship, they are, "according to the usual style of Scripture, called an abomination." + Dr. Lardner, with his usual judgment has observed, that our Lord "delivers these predictions, of which he had the foresight, with marks of great and undissembled compassion and tenderness. If all these desola

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winter, neither on the Sabbath day for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not, from the beginning of the world to this time-no-nor ever shall be! And except those days shall be shortened there shall no flesh be saved but for the Elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. After so tremendous a description of the calamities which were coming upon the Jews our Lord appears to have felt the peculiarity of the situation of the Disciples, who expected, from the coming of the Messiah, the aggrandisement-not the destruction of Jerusalem! He therefore again repeats the caution, which in the beginning of his answer to the questions of the Disciples he had given them, to beware of deceivers, who should buoy they them up with false hopes of the coming of the Messiah. V. 23, 24, 25. Then, if any man shall say unto youlo here is the Christ-or the Messiah-or there, believe it not; for there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets, and they shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very Elect. Behold I have told you before.

St. Luke, it has already been observed, does not repeat this caution-but his account of the calamities which were approaching, is given, with so marked a precision, that it might have been supposed to have been, utterly impossible, to have applied it to any other event, than to the destruction of Jerusalem, if precision could have exempted it, from an application to a distant, or remote period. Ch. xxi. 20, &c. When ye shall see JERUSALEM encompassd with armies-then know that THE DESOLATION THEREOF, is nigh. Then let those who are in JUDEA flee to the Mountains, and let those who are in the midst of it depart out, and let not those, who are in the countries round about, enter thereinto; for these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written concerning them, may be fulfilled. But woe unto those which are with child, and to those which give suck, in those days; for there shall

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"tions and calamities had been now present, and before his eyes, and if "they had been the calamities of his best friends; he could not have been more affected. He his particularly touched with the foresight of the diffi"culties of such as are helpless---the distresses of women with child---or "who have infants at their breasts. This is true compassion; the effect of "the sensibility of the human nature, which he is not ashained of and does "not dissemble!" See Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, Vol. I. p. 46 4to.

be

be great distress in THE LAND, and wrath upon THIS PEOPLE, 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, by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles ·be fulfilled.*

After such a marked precision, who could have imagined that so acute a Writer as Dr. Priestly, should have asserted that," the only days of vengeance, particularly announced "by the Antient Prophets, to which Jesus here alludes, relate "to the judgments of God upon the Gentiles, who had shewn "enmity to the Jews, especially in their opposition to their re"settlement in their own country;" for no assertion was ever more entirely destitute of foundation-or more directly contradicted by the whole tenor of St. Luke's account, and by the Antient Prophecies themselves, concerning the Jewish Nation! St. Luke, as has just been seen, says that, the days of vengeance were among the things which were written to be fulfilled of the Jewish Nation; and it is notoriously evident that the Prophets, actually did foretel, those very days of vengeance, so accurately described by St. Luke.

St. Luke, it is true, in his description of the destruction of Jerusalem, states that the effects of that awful calamity would be felt by the Jewish Nation till the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled; which times, an experience of a long series of ages, has shewn are not yet fulfilled: but this, so far as ap pears, is the only circumstance, in St. Luke's account of this Prophecy, which has any relation to the Gentiles, except as the instruments of the approaching vengeance or to a far

* Mr. Richards, in his Bamptonian Lectures says, was it not contrary "to all probability, in the days of our Saviour, that the inhabitants of Judea "would be led away captive into all nations by the Romans? They had "before yielded to the arms of Rome and no such calamitous consequences "ensued: nay, it was the generous policy of that victorious people almost "uniformly observed, in the latter ages of the state, to leave to the van"quished Kingdoms, the secure possession of the greatest part of their terri"tories, and in general, their national polity and the exercise of all their "religious rites. In the instance of the Jews, alone; this custom was "flagrantly violated, and it is not, perhaps, unworthy of remark, that it "was violated, not by a stern, capricious, and sanguinary tyrant; a Tibe"rius, a Caligula, or a Nero-but, by a prince who was the brightest "ornament of Imperial Rome---whose character was marked by an un"bounded spirit of philanthropy, and who was distinguished, by the God "like appellation of the love and delight of mankind. Amor & deliciæ, humani generis. p. 129.

02

distant

distant period-or which can be so applied, without setting at nought all the rules of good writing-without disregarding the connection and occasion of the discourse without, in short, rendering the Prophecies of Scripture, as vague and uncertain, as the most ambiguous of the antient heathen oracles,

But, to proceed, in the examination of the Chapter under consideration. After our Lord had, in the manner which has been related, cautioned his Disciples to be upon their guard against those, who might assume the character of the Messiah, in verses 24, 25, 26, he proceeds, in the verse immediately following, to give a particular reason for their not attending to any who should pretend to that character, and a very remarkable one it is! For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, * so shall also the nature of the coming of the Son of Man, the Messiah, for perspicuity, be. But how was that? The Evangelist himself answers this question, in the 37th verse-, -As the days of Noah were, so shall also the nature of the coming of the Son of Man, the Messiah, be; for, as in the days which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking-marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away-so shall also the nature of the coming of the Son of Man, the Messiah, be. As if he had said, When the destruction which I have been foretelling as about to come upon the Jewish Nation, shall take place; it shall then be as visible, as the lightning which illuminateth the whole heavens; that far from being raised, as they expected, to great temporal power, and worldly prosperity, by the coming of the Messah, they should, like the Co-temporaries of Noah, be overwhelmed with unexpected destruction should be humbled to the very dust, and become a proverb and a bye word among the nations; for there shall, says St. Luke, be great distress in THE LAND, and wrath upon THIS PEOPLE, &c. A better commentary, upon our Lord's words-As it was in the days of Noah, &c. than these of St.

"From Josephus's acccount," says Dr. Jortin," it may be observed, that the Roman Army entered into Judea on the east side of it, and carried "on their conquests westward, as if not only the extensiveness of the ruin, "but the very route, which the Army would take, was intended in the "comparison of the lightning coming out of the East and shining even unto the "West." See Remarks on Eccles. Hist. p. 27.

Luke,