to reason and to the word of God, and vouch ever so many miracles in confirmation of them, yet we should make no scruple to reject and renounce them all. Nay we are obliged to denounce anathema against the teacher of such doctrines, though he were an apostle, though he were an angel from heaven: and for this we have the warrant and authority of St. Paul, and to show that he laid peculiar stress upon it, he repeats it twice with great vehemence, (Gal. i. 8, 9:) "Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any one preach any other gospel unto you, than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Indeed, the miracles alleged in support of these doctrines are such ridiculous incredible things that a man must have faith, I do not say to remove mountains, but to swallow mountains, who can receive for truth the legends of the church of Rome. But admitting that any of the Romish miracles were undeniable matters of fact, and were attested by the best and most authentic records of time, yet I know not what the bishop of Rome would gain by it, but a better title to be thought Antichrist. For we know that the coming of Antichrist, as St. Paul declares, (2 Thess. ii. 9, 10,) "is after the working of Satan with all power and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness:" "and he doeth great wonders in the sight of men, (according to the prophecy of St. John, Rev. xiii. 13, 14,) and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he hath power to do." Nor indeed is any thing more congruous and reasonable, than that God (2 Thess. ii. 10, 11,) "should send men strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." But to return from this digression, though I hope neither an improper nor unedifying digression, to our main subject. WE XX. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. PART III. WE are now come to the last act of this dismal tragedy, the destruction of Jerusalem and the final dissolution of the Jewish polity in church and state, which our Saviour for several reasons might not think fit to declare nakedly and plainly, and therefore chooseth to clothe his discourse in figurative language. He might possibly do it,' as. Dr. Jortin 1con 1 Dr. Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1, p. 75. ceives, 'to perplex the unbelieving persecuting Jews, if his discourses should ever fall into their hands, that they might not . learn to avoid the impending evil.' "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 powers of the heavens shall be shaken," (Matt. xxiv. 29.) Commentators generally understand this and what follows, of the end of the world and of Christ's coming to judgment but the words, "immediately after the tribulation of those days," show evidently that he is not speaking of any distant event, but of something immediately consequent upon the tribulation before mentioned, and that must be the destruction of Jerusalem. It is true, his figures are very strong, but no stronger than are used by the ancient prophets upon similar occasions. The prophet Isaiah speaketh in the same manner of Babylon, (xiii. 9, 10:) "Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 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." The prophet Ezekiel speaketh in the same manner of Egypt, (xxxii. 7, 8 :) "And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. And the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God." The prophet Daniel speaketh in the same manner of the slaughter of the Jews by the little horn, whether by the little horn be understood Antiochus Epiphanes or the power of the Romans, (viii. 10:) "And it waxed great even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host, and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them:" and the prophet Joel of this very destruction of Jerusalem, (ii. 30, 31 :)" And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come." Thus it is that in the prophetic language great commotions and revolutions upon earth, are often represented by commotions and changes in the heavens. Our Saviour proceedeth in the same figurative style, (ver. 30:) "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." The plain meaning of it is, that the destruction of Jerusalem will be such a remarkable instance of divine vengeance, such a signal manifestation of Christ's power and glory, that all the Jewish tribes shall mourn, and many will be led from thence to acknowledge Christ and the Christian religion. In the ancient prophets, God is frequently described as coming in the clouds, upon any remarkable interposition and manifestation of his power; and the same description is here applied to Christ. The destruction of Jerusalem will be as ample a manifestation of Christ's power and glory, as if he was himself to come visibly in the clouds of heaven. The same sort of metaphor is carried on in the next verse, (ver. 31:)" And he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." This is all in the style and phraseology of the prophets, and stripped of its figures, meaneth only, that after the destruction of Jerusalem, Christ by his angels or ministers will gather to himself a glorious church out of all the nations under heaven. The Jews shall be thrust out, as he expresseth himself in another place, (Luke xiii. 28, 29,) "and they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south; and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." No one ever so little versed in history needeth to be told, that the Christian religion spread and prevailed mightily after this period; and hardly any one thing contributed more to this success of the gospel than the destruction of Jerusalem, falling out in the very manner and with the very circumstances so particularly foretold by our blessed Saviour. What Dr. Warburton 2 hath written upon the same subject will much illustrate and enforce the foregoing exposition. The prophecy of Jesus concerning the approaching destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, is conceived in such high and swelling terms, that not only the modern interpreters, but the ancient likewise, have supposed, that our Lord interweaves into it a direct prediction of his second coming to judgment. Hence arose a current opinion in those times, that the consummation of all things was at hand; which hath afforded a handle to an infidel objection in these, insinuating that Jesus, in order to keep his followers attached to his service, and patient under sufferings, flattered them with the near approach of those rewards, which completed all their views and expectations. To which the defenders of religion have opposed this answer, That the distinction of short and long, in the duration of time, is lost in eternity, and with the Almighty, "a thousand years are but as yesterday," &c. "But the principle both go upon is false; and if what hath been said be duly weighed, it will appear that this prophecy doth not respect Christ's second coming to judgment, but his 2 Warburton's Julian, b. 1, c. 1, p. 21, &c. 2d Edit. first; in the abolition of the Jewish policy, and the establishment of the Christian: that kingdom of Christ, which commenced on the total ceasing of the theocracy. For as God's reign over the Jews entirely ended with the abolition of the temple-service, so the reign of Christ, "in spirit and in truth," had then its first beginning. "This was the true establishment of Christianity, not that effected by the donations or conversions of Constantine. Till the Jewish law was abolished, over which the Father presided as king, the reign of the Son could not take place; because the sovereignty of Christ over mankind was that very sovereignty of God over the Jews, transferred, and more largely extended. "This therefore being one of the most important eras in the economy of grace, and the most awful revolution in all God's religious dispensations; we see the elegance and propriety of the terms in question, to denote so great an event, together with the destruction of Jerusalem, by which it was effected: for, in the old prophetic language, the change and fall of principalities and powers, whether spiritual or civil, are signified by the shaking heaven and earth, the darkening the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars; as the rise and establishment of new ones are by processions in the clouds of heaven, by the sound of trumpets, and the assembling together of hosts and congregations.' This language, as he observes3 in another place, was borrowed from the ancient hieroglyphics: For as in the hieroglyphic 'writing, the sun, moon, and stars, were used to represent states and empires, kings, queens, and nobility; their eclipse and extinction, temporary disasters, or entire overthrow, &c., so in like manner the holy prophets call kings and empires by the names of the heavenly luminaries; their misfortunes and overthrow are represented by eclipses and extinction; stars falling from the firmament are employed to denote the destruction of the nobility, &c. In a word, the prophetic style seems to be a speaking hieroglyphic. These observations will not only assist us in the study of the Old and New Testament, but likewise vindicate their character from the illiterate cavils of modern libertines, who have foolishly mistaken that for the peculiar workmanship of the prophet's heated imagination, which was the sober established language of their times, and which God and his Son condescended to employ as the properest conveyance of the high mysterious ways of providence in the revelation of themselves to mankind.' To St. Matthew's account St. Luke addeth, (xxi. 24,) “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 3 Divine Legation, vol. ii. b. 4, § 4. 6 4 8 6 5 4 of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." The number of those who "fell by the edge of the sword," was indeed very great. Of those who perished during the whole siege, there were, as Josephus saith, eleven hundred thousand. Many were also slain at other times and in other places.5 By the command of Florus, who was the first author of the war, there were slain at Jerusalem three thousand and six hundred. By the inhabitants of Cæsarea above twenty thousand: 7 at Scythopolis above thirteen thousand: at Ascalon two thousand five hundred,' and at Ptolemais two thousand: at Alexandria, under Tiberius Alexander the president,' fifty thousand: at Joppa, when it was taken by Cestius Gallus,2 eight thousand four hundred in a mountain called Asamon near Sepphoris above two thousand: at Damascus ten thousand: in a battle with the Romans at Ascalon ten thousand: in an ambuscade near the same place eight thousand: at Japha fifteen thousand: of the Samaritans upon Mount Garizin eleven thousand and six hundred at Jotapa forty thousand: at Joppa, when taken by Vespasian,' four thousand two hundred: at Tarichea six thousand five hundred, and after the city was taken twelve hundred at Gamala four thousand slain, besides five thousand who threw themselves down a precipice: of those who fled. with John from Gischala six thousand: of the Gadarenes fifteen thousand slain, besides an infinite number drowned: in the villages of Idumea above ten thousand slain: at Gerasa a thousand: at Machærus seventeen hundred: in the wood of Jardes three thousand:9 in the castle of Masada nine hundred and sixty: in Cyrene by Catullus the governor three thousand. Besides these, many of every age, sex, and condition, were slain in this war, who were not reckoned; but of these who are reckoned, the number amounts to above one million, three hundred fifty-seven thousand, six hundred and sixty; which would appear almost incredible, if their own historian had not so particularly enumerated them. 7 5 3 9 But besides the Jews who "fell by the edge of the sword," others were also to "be led away captive into all nations:" and considering the numbers of the slain, the number of the captives too was very great. There were taken particularly at 4 Τῶν δ' ἀπολουμένων κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν που λιορκίαν, μυριάδες ἑκατὸν καὶ δέκα. Totius autem obsidionis tempora undecies centena hominum millia perierunt. De Bell. Jud. . 6, c. 9, § 3. Just. Lipsius de Constantia, 1. 2, c. 21. 1 Ibid. § 8. |