with the 13th chapter of St Mark and the 21st chapter of St Luke.

Our Lord-by riding into Jerusalem upon an ass's colt, according to the prophecy of Zechariah ; by stirring up the little children to sing hosannas to Him, from the 118th Psalm, (a psalm always sung at the Feast of Tabernacles, the period at which the Jews expected the Messiah to appear;*) and by quoting in connexion with it from the 8th Psalm, which contains a prediction of Christ's universal dominion over the earth, (Matt. xxi. 1-16; Zech. ix. 9; Ps. viii.; Heb. ii. 6-9)-had given the Jews every opportunity, consistent with their free agency, of acknowledging Him as the Messiah. A combination of remarkable circumstances from their own Scriptures, grouped together by the gracious management of our Lord, was pressed upon their attention: only compulsion was withheld. They were still obstinately prejudiced against Him. He then, in parable, predicted their overthrow, and the transfer of the vineyard to other husbandmen. (Matt. xxi. 33-45.) They were enraged, (ver. 46.) But He repeated the warning in the parable of the marriage supper, (Matt. xxii. 1-14;) silenced successively the cavils of the Herodians, (16-22,) the Sadducees, (23-33,) and the Pharisees, (34-46;)

* See Zech. xiv. 16-21, where the worship of the King, the Lord of Hosts, at Jerusalem, is connected with the keeping of the Feast of Tabernacles; and compare Matt. xvii. 4, where Peter, on seeing the Lord Jesus in His glory, accompanied by Moses and Elias, immediately suggests the preparation of tabernacles.

convincing the latter of their ignorance, by showing that they could not tell in what sense Messiah was to be the Son of David, being called in the Psalms David's Lord. He then denounced fearful woes against them, as hypocrites, (xxiii. 1-36;) wept over the city, as now devoted to destruction, (37-39;) and departed out of it to the Mount of Olives, (xxiv. 1.) One of His disciples commented upon the beauty of the temple, which was in view, saying, "Master, see what manner of stones, and what buildings are here." Jesus declared its approaching ruin: "Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Then four of His disciples, deeply impressed, as it would appear, by this alarming declaration, asked Him privately, “When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?" (Mark xiii. 1, 4;) or, as it is in St Matthew's narrative, “ Tell us when shall these things be; and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the age," (συντελεία τοῦ αἰῶνος.) The prophecy now to be considered is given in answer to these questions: first, "When shall these things be which you have predicted concerning Jerusalem and her stately temple?" and, secondly, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the winding up of the dispensation?

Upon these questions, I offer in the first place these general remarks:

The disciples had been present when Jesus inquired of them, "Whom say ye that I am?" They

had heard Peter's famous reply, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," and the unqualified approbation which that reply met with. Consequently they were perfectly aware that the person to whom they were speaking was the Messiah. He was there present among them, yet they ask for a sign of His coming. It is clear, therefore, that they expected some other coming different from that which had already taken place, and which, of course, required no sign. That other coming, for which they looked, was a coming of the very same Person to whom they spake this is evident from their expression, τῆς σῆς παρουσίας. It is remarkable, that three of the four who asked Him these questions had been eye-witnesses of His glorious appearing on Mount Tabor, and had been desired to keep secret what they had seen until after He was risen from the dead. They obviously expected that Jesus would come again as they had seen Him in the transfiguration; and they ask for instruction as to the period of His coming, and the sign which should precede it, by which they should take warning. In proceeding to prophesy the intermediate events, and to give the signs, He of course implies that they were right in the expectation of the thing to be signified.

Again the disciples were as yet ignorant of the purpose of God toward the Gentiles during the dispersion of Judah: the natural consequence of which was, that they expected the glorious coming of Messiah in His kingdom over Israel, and through Israel over all the earth, immediately upon the

breaking up of the then existing Jewish establishments; which establishments were so interwoven in all their parts with the temple, that to predict the destruction of the temple was one and the same thing with predicting the termination of the whole system. They evidently, therefore, supposed that they were propounding an inquiry concerning events which were to be synchronical. To predict the whole truth, without at the same time plainly announcing the Gentile dispensation, (which the disciples were not then able to bear, and to which they afterwards gave a late and reluctant consent,) was a difficulty which Christ had to meet in wording His reply, and which in some degree accounts for the difficulty we experience in expounding that reply.

1. "Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many," (Matt. xxiv. 4, 5.) "Your present danger lies in the expectation that the kingdom is immediately to be restored to Israel. In consequence of such an expectation, you are liable, and even likely, to be deceived by some impostor, pretending that he is Christ the King. Take heed, therefore," &c. This part of the prophecy was accomplished in the few years which immediately followed our Lord's ascension: "Theudas arose, boasting himself to be somebody after him, Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him." Against such delusions the Lord's disciples had their appropriate warning in the words just quoted.

"And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places,” (Matt. xxiv. 6, 7.)

The wars primarily predicted in this passage were the wars of Cestius and Vespasian, Nero's generals, whose disastrous progress is so minutely detailed by Josephus. In the midst of the calamities which then befell the Jews, and threatened even Jerusalem itself, the Lord's disciples had this prophetic exhortation on record, "See that ye be not troubled," accompanied by an assurance that the end of the temple and city would not be just then. This predicted respite was remarkably fulfilled. Vespasian was in a full career of success against the Jews when Nero died. This event, followed as it was by the flagrant enormities of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, was felt throughout the empire: it arrested Vespasian's progress, and led eventually to his being proclaimed emperor, and returning to Italy, leaving the Jewish war unfinished. The end was "not yet;" the predicted destruction of the temple was reserved for Titus. In this passage, however, the language of the prophecy swells into an application to greater things than these ;* and, the winding up of the Jewish dispensation being typical of the winding up of this more enlarged dispensation under which we live, the language is * See note, page 16.