The sign next specified by our Saviour, in the ninth and the four following verses, relates to the disciples themselves: "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." The parallel passages in St. Luke and St. Mark are still stronger, and more particular. St. Mark says, "They shall deliver you up to the councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten : and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them*." St. Luke's words are, "They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake t." That every circumstance here mentioned was minutely and exactly verified in the sufferings of the apostles and disciples after our Lord's decease, must be perfectly well known to every one that has read the Acts of the Apostles. You will there see, that the lives of the apostles were one continued scene of persecution, affliction, and distress of every kind: that they were imprisoned, were beaten, were brought before councils, and sanhedrims, and kings; were many of them put to death, and were hated of all nations, by the heathens as well as by the Jews, for the sake of Christ; that is, for being called by his name. The very name of a Christian was a crime; and it exposed them to every species of insult, indignity, and cruelty. To all these calamities was to be added another, which we find in the tenth verse: 66 Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another." The meaning is, that many Christians, terrified with these persecutions, shall become apostates from their religion, and renounce their faith; for that is the meaning generally of the word offend in the New Testament. That this would sometimes happen under such trials and calamities as the first Christians were exposed to, we may easily believe: and St. Paul particularly mentions a few who turned away from him, and forsook him; namely, Phygellus, Hermogenes, and Demas‡. The other circumstance here predicted, "that the disciples should betray one another," is remarkably verified by the testimony of the Roman historian Tacitus, who, + Luke xxi, 12. • Mark xiii, 9. in describing the persecution under Nero, tells us, "that several Christians were first apprehended, and then, by their discovery, a multitude of others were convicted, and cruelly put to death with derision and insult*." It is a natural consequence of all this, that the ardour of many in embracing and professing Christianity should be considerably abated, or, as it is expressed in the twelfth verse, "that the love of many should wax cold;" and of this we find several instances mentioned by the sacred writers t. "But he that shall endure unto the end," adds our Lord in the thirteenth verse, "the same shall be saved." He that shall not be dismayed by these persecutions, but shall continue firm in his faith, and unshaken in his duty to the last, shall be saved, both in this world and the next. It is, we know, the uniform doctrine of Scripture, that they, who persevere in the belief and the practice of Christianity to the end of their lives, shall, through the merits of their Redeemer, be rewarded with everlasting life. And with respect to the present life, and the times to which our Saviour here alludes, it is remarkable, that none of his disciples were known to perish in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. Another sign, which was to precede the demolition of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, was, that the Christian religion was first to be propagated over the greater part of the Roman empire, which, in the Scripture, as well as by the Roman writers, was called the world. "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." "Then shall come what is called in the third verse the "end of the world;" that is, the Jewish world, the Jewish state and government. And accordingly St. Paul, in his epistle to the Colossians, speaks of the Gospel "being come unto all the world, and preached to every creature under heaven‡." And we learn from the most authentic writers, and the most ancient records, that the Gospel was preached, within thirty years after the death of Christ, in Idumæa, Syria, and Mesopotamia; in Media, and Parthia, and many parts of Asia Minor; in Egypt, Mauritania, Ethiopia, and other regions of Africa; in Greece and Italy; *Tac. Ann. lib. xv. † 2 Tim. iv, 16; Heb. x, 25. as far north as Scythia, and as far westward as Spain, and in this very island which we inhabit; where there is great reason to believe Christianity was planted in the days of the apostles, and before the destruction of Jerusalem. And this, it is said, was to be "for a testimony against them;" that is, against the Jews; for a testimony, that the offer of salvation was made to them in every part of the world where they were dispersed; and that, by their obstinate rejection of it, they had merited the signal punishment which soon after overtook them. Our Lord then goes on to still more alarming and more evident indications of the near approach of danger to the Jewish nation. "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet*, stand in the holy place (let him that readeth understand), then let them that be in Judæa flee into the mountain." The meaning of this passage is clearly and fully explained by the parallel place in St. Luke: "when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation therefore is nigh." The abomination of desolation therefore denotes the Roman army which besieged Jerusalem, and which Daniel also, in the place alluded to, calls the " abomination which makes desolate." The Roman army is here called an abomination, because upon their standards were depicted the images of their emperor and their tutelary gods, whom they worshipped and it is well known, that idols were held by the Jews in the utmost abhorrence; and the very name they gave them was the expression here made use of, an abomination. The word desolation is added for an obvious reason, because this mighty army brought ruin and desolation upon Jerusalem. This city, and the mountain on which it stood, and a circuit of several furlongs around it, were accounted holy ground; and as the Roman standards were planted in the most conspicuous places near the fortifications of the city, they are here said to stand in the holy place, or, as St. Mark expresses it, "to stand where they ought not." And Josephus tells us, that after the city was taken, "The Romans brought their ensigns into the temple, and placed one of them against the eastern gate, * Chap. ix, 27. and sacrificed to them there; which was the greatest insult and outrage that could possibly be offered to that wretched people *." When therefore this desolating abomination, this idolatrous and destructive army, appeared before the holy city," then," says our Lord, let them which be in Judæa flee into the mountains; let him which is on the house-top not come down to take any thing out of his house, neither let him that is in the fields return back to take his clothes." These are allusions to Jewish customs, and are designed to impress upon the disciples the necessity of immediate flight, not suffering themselves to be delayed by turning back for any accommodations they might wish for. And woe unto them that are with child, and to those that give suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:" that is, unfortunate will it be for those, who, in such a time of terror and distress, shall have any natural impediments to obstruct their flight, and who are obliged to travel in the winter season, when the weather is severe, the roads rough, and the days short; or on the sabbath day, when the Jews fancied it unlawful to travel more than a mile or two. These kind admonitions were not lost upon the disciples. For we learn from the best ecclesiastical historians, that when the Roman armies approached to Jerusalem, all the Christians left that devoted city, and fled to Pella, a mountainous country, and to other places beyond the river Jordan. And Josephus also informs us, that when Vespasian was drawing his forces towards Jerusalem, a great multitude fled from Jericho into the mountainous country for their security t. And happy was it for them, that they did so, for the miseries experienced by the Jews in that siege were almost without a parallel in the history of the world. "Then," says our Saviour, "shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.' This expression is a proverbial one, frequently made use of by the sacred writers to express some very uncommon calamity‡, and therefore it is not necessary to take the words in their strict • De Bell. Jud. lib. vi, cap. vi, sect. i, p. 1283. + De Bell. Jud. lib iv, cap. viii, sect. ii, p. 1193, ed. Huds. + Ex, x, 14; Joel ii, 2; Dan. xii, 1; Maccab. ix, 27. est sense. But yet in fact they were in the present instance almost literally fulfilled; and whoever will turn to the history of this war by Josephus, and there read the detail of the horrible and almost incredible calamities endured by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, during the siege, not only from the fire and sword of the enemies without, but from famine, and pestilence, and continual massacres and murders from the fiend-like fury of the seditious zealots within, will be convinced, that the very strong terms made use of by our Lord, even when literally interpreted, do not go beyond the truth. Indeed Josephus himself, in his preface to his history, expresses himself almost in the very same words: "Our city," says he, "of all those subjected to the Romans, was raised to the highest felicity, and was thrust down again to the lowest gulf of misery; for if the misfortunes of all from the beginning of the world were compared with those of the Jews, they would appear much inferior upon the comparison." Is not this almost precisely what our Saviour says, "There shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be?" It is impossible, one would think, even for the most stubborn infidel, not to be struck with the great similarity of these two passages; and not to see, that the prediction of our Lord, and the accomplishment of it, as described by the historian, are exact counterparts of each other, and seem almost as if they had been written by the very same person. Yet Josephus was not born till after our Saviour was crucified; and he was not a Christian, but a Jew; and certainly never meant to give any testimony to the truth of our religion. The calamities above-mentioned were so severe, that had they been of long continuance the whole Jewish nation must have been destroyed; "except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved," says Christ, in the twenty-second verse; "but," he adds, "for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened." They were shortened for the sake of the elect, that is, of those Jews, who had been converted to Christianity; and they were shortened by the besieged themselves, by their seditions and mutual slaughters, and their madness in burning their own provisions. "Then," continues Jesus, "if any man shall say unto * De Bell. Jud. Procem. p. 955, ed. Huds. |