is to come. God does not manifest his forgiveness in this world, but is provoked sometimes by the grievous fall of the godly, in a great measure to hide his face as long as they live. So that ever after they shall go hanging down their heads, even to their graves. God sometimes inflicts judgments that last as long as life, and their former joy and comfort is no more restored to its wonted degree until they die.

[2] Matth. xiii. 38. Luke xiii. 21. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened." By three measures is meant the whole world: the progeny of the three sons of Noah, who settled the three parts of the world, Shem Asia, and Ham Africa, and Japhet Europe.

[136] Matth. xiv. 13, 14, 15. "But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. And when one of them that sat at meat heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Christ had told his host that he should not invite his rich friends and neighbours, expecting to be invited to a feast again by them, but should invite those that could not invite him again, and he tells him he shall be blessed, and should be recompensed at the resurrection of the just, intimating that he should be rewarded by feasting them. Now the Jews thought that the resurrection would be when the Messiah came. By the kingdom of God, they understood the kingdom of the Messiah; and that is the reason that when Christ told the Pharisee he should be blessed, for he should feast at the resurrection, that he makes this reply consenting to it, "They shall be blessed indeed, that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God."

[39] Matth. xv. 21, 22. "Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out," &c. The casting out of the devil out of the daughter of this woman, in my opinion, figures forth the casting the devil out of the Gentile and antichristian world; Tyre frequently representing in the scripture Sodom's idolatrous kingdom.

[197] Matth. xvi. 28. "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." The disciples saw sufficient to answer this promise. Some of them immediately after, as we

have an account in the beginning of the following chapter, saw Christ in his glory, in his Transfiguration, in the like glory with that in which he will come to judgment, as far as it could well be seen by them in their frail state, and by their feeble eyes.

Again: they saw him coming in a glorious manner in the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, for that was a coming of Christ, wherein they saw him, agreeably to John xiv. 18, 19, "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me." And this was a coming in his kingdom, for he came then to set up the Christian church, to introduce the gospel dispensation, which seems to be called the kingdom of heaven. And respect is doubtless had to this by John the Baptist, and by Christ after him, when they preached, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Again: Some of them saw him coming in his kingdom at the destruction of Jerusalem, and an eye seems chiefly to be had to this event; for then was there a total end put to the Jewish church, and the Jewish dispensation, which is compared to the end of the world. The world that then was, the old state of things in the world with respect to religion that had subsisted so long a time, was then utterly and finally done away, and the kingdom of heaven succeeded the gospel dispensation, or the kingdom was then fully established, the state of things thenceforward in the church was really evangelical. Christ did then in a very awful manner, and with a signal manifestation of his hand, destroy the enemies of his kingdom, and remarkably deliver his people; he then came to judgment; he judged his adversaries, and delivered his chosen people; there was a remarkable rewarding of men according to their works then. It is most apparent that Christ did call his appearing in that great event of the destruction of Jerusalem, and other events that attended it, his Coming, Matth. xxiv. 2, 3. There Christ tells his disciples, when showing him the building of the temple, that not one stone shall be left on another; whereupon the disciples ask him, When these things shall be, and what should be the sign of his coming, and of the end of the world? And in his answer, he has respect still to the destruction of Jerusalem, as is evident by the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th verses. It is expressly said to be the desolation of Jerusalem. Compare these texts in Matth. with Luke xxi. 20. "And when shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh." And ver. 23. "There shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon that people;" and, in the 27th and 28th verses, he particularly gives his disciples a sign, whereby they might know the time and place of

his coming; for Christ is there expressly speaking of his com ing he says, "So shall the coming of the Son of man be, for wheresoever the carcass is there will the eagles be gathered together;" denoting it to be at Jerusalem, and at the time of its destruction by the Romans. See my notes on these verses. There is no need of supposing that Christ here meant his coming in any other than a spiritual sense; for so Christ was wont to speak of things to come, when it is plain that he intended a spiritual fulfilment. So he speaks of the resurrection. "The hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." Here he speaks of the resurrection of bodies at the end of the world, and the spiritual resurrection of souls together, including both in one and the same words, viz: "the dead shall hear the voice," &c. He speaks as if it were but one event that he had respect to; but yet when he says, "it is coming," he means one thing, even the resurrection of bodies, especially at the end of the world. When he says, "It now is," he means another thing, viz: the resurrection of souls, by the preaching of the gospel; and the manner of speaking there, is very parallel to that in this and the foregoing verse. In the foregoing verse Christ says, "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then shall he reward every man according to his works.' There he has a respect principally to his coming at the end of the world; but then in this verse, says he, "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, that shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom; and now he has chiefly a respect to another event, viz. his appearing in the work that he will do at the destruction of Jerusalem, and therefore it can be no just objection against this explication, that Christ evidently meant the same coming in this as he did in the foregoing verse, for we ought not to dispute against plain facts. I cannot see that, if we explain the words as I have done, the case is any more than exactly parallel to that in those other words, John. v. 25; and it is plain and evident that it is a common thing in scripture that things are said to be fulfilled that have been spoken of in the same context, when they are only fulfilled in their type, and not in that which is ultimately intended. So Christ, speaking of his coming and the end of the world, says, "This generation shall not pass till all those things shall be fulfilled." So the apostle John, speaking of the predictions there had been of the coming of Antichrist, mentions the prophecies as being fulfilled in the false teachers there were then, "Even now," says he, "there are many Antichrists." 1 John ii. 18.

But perhaps we are not sufficiently accurate, when we distinguish several events, as so many distinct accomplishments of the

prediction so often given of Christ's coming in his kingdom, to be understood in different senses; and so to look upon Christ's coming at the effusion of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, as one coming of Christ in his kingdom; and his appearing in the events that were at the destruction of Jerusalem, as another coming of Christ in his kingdom; and his appearing in Constantine's time as another, and at the destruction of Antichrist as another, and at the end of the world as another. They seem rather to be spoken of in scripture as several parts, or rather as several degrees of the fulfilment of one event. That great event spoken of in Dan. vii. 13, 14, "And I saw in the night vision, and beheld one like the Son of man come with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought hin near before him; and there was given to him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed: which was what the Jews expected, and called the kingdom of heaven; and which John the Baptist and Christ had reference to, when they said "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," and which Christ has respect to in this place; also in the xxiv. Matth; I say, this great event is gradually accomplished: it is accomplished by several steps and degrees, and the great events that were at the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, and at the destruction of Jerusalem, and in Constantine's time, and the destruction of Antichrist, and the end of the world, are all so many steps of the fulfilment of the same great event. When the Holy Ghost descended at Pentecost, it was fulfilled in a degree: then the Son of man came, and then was his kingdom set up in the world in a glorious manner. When Jerusalem was destroyed, it was fulfilled in another greater step: then did he remarkably exercise his royal authority in judging his enemies, and putting an end to the old state of things in the church, and beginning a new world, establishing the Gentile church. When Constantine was destroyed it was fulfilled in a yet higher degree; and in a still far more glorious manner at the destruction of Antichrist; but it is fulfilled in its most complete and perfect degree at the end of the world.

So that Christ has indeed respect to the same great events here as he spake of in the foregoing verse, and promises that some there should see the accomplishment of that event before they tasted of death; i. e. they should see that, which indeed should be an accomplishment of it in the beginning of it, in a glorious degree, though not in its most glorious degree.

Hence, also, it cannot be said, that Christ referred to the Destruction of Jerusalem only, when he speaks of his coming in his kingdom, or merely to that and what went before it; or to the pour

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ing out of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost: but it was this great event in general which was to be accomplished in several degrees; though when he said they should see it, before they tasted of death, he did not mean that they should see it in all its degrees.

The forementioned prophecy of Daniel, without doubt, had a respect not only to Christ's coming at the end of the world, but also an important respect to his coming, as he did, in those events that occurred before some of them tasted of death: vid. No. 279. This prophecy of Daniel, Christ doubtless had in his eye, when he spake this; and doubtless the disciples understood him as meaning that; for the event foretold in this was what they and the Jews were big with expectation of, and had their eye upon, and always understood one another as referring to, when they spake of the coming of Christ in his kingdom; and therefore all that they would understand Christ as referring to, was, that some of them should see that prophecy accomplished before they died.

It need be no difficulty that Christ's manner of expressing himself would lead them to expect that it should be accomplished in another manner; for the disciples knew that Christ was wont to speak to them in mystical language; and besides Christ, in expressing himself thus, does it but as referring to the prophecy or vision of Daniel. The expressions are taken out of that prophecy, and no wonder that events in visions and prophecies are represented mystically. And the disciples were not cheated in it; for there was as much accomplished as answered their expectation, while some of them lived, though not in the same manner; for they had poor mistaken notions what the kingdom of Christ was, yet they saw it accomplished in a more glorious sense than they expected.

[414] There is this that argues that Christ did not suppose that the end of the world would be in that generation, that when he is discoursing of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the end of the world, Matth. xxiv. and Luke xxi. and says to his disciples, Luke xxi. 32, "Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled;" yet he says in the same discourse, ver. 24, speaking of the terrible destruction of that land, "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, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;" from whence it seems evident, that Christ did not expect that the end of the world would be before many ages, for first all these things must be accomplished that had been spoken of by Christ as forerunners of the destruction of Jerusalem; wars, and rumours of wars, and earthquakes, and famines; and yet the destruction of Jerusalem not very near, and the gospel must be preached to all nations,