ing of the powers of the heavens, means the shaking of the governments and reigning powers. It is sufficiently obvious to all attentive observers, that these are the precise characters which mark the present awful period of universal and portentous disorder. No era in the history of mankind has been so remarkable as the present one, for a spirit of disorder and insubordination, and impatience of the restraints of law, among the lower orders of

the people of England on the subject of Reform; he had a right to retire from office if he did differ from them, and to shun the responsibility of introducing such a measure. If the people were drunk, that was no reason why he should not remain sober."

." He asserted that the government had done this mischief— that if they could not govern the country they had made it ungovernable by any others."-Standard, 23d March, 1832.

In the House of Lords, on the 4th October, 1831, Lord Melbourne is reported to have said in the Debate on the Reform Bill, “It was impossible to doubt that the measure was one of great danger; but to admit this was only to say, that it would effect a great and important change."-Standard, October 5th, 1831.

In the Debate in the same House, of February 25th, 1830, on the Internal State of the Country, the Duke of Richmond is reported to have said, that " in the County of Sussex there were numerous labourers employed on parish roads who received only 4d. and sometimes only 3d. a-day, to procure food for themselves and families, and the same was the case in Wiltshire and Dorsetshire. He believed that distress was spread throughout the whole of the agricultural districts. The farmers were nearly crushed by taxation, poor rates, and county rates, which were still increasing by new legislative enactments."“ Who had not read what had been stated in almost every newspaper, that British subjects, guiltless of any crime, had been harnessed to waggons, and degraded to perform the labour of the brute creation." -Standard, 5th October.

society; and it is but too manifest that all existing institutions are in danger of being overthrown by the prevalence of this spirit. It may be said, that the hearts of most considerate persons, who contemplate these things, with the exception of that small and happy number, who put their trust in God, are actually failing them for fear, and for looking after the things that are coming on the earth. No rational person can pretend to conjecture what is to be the end of the present state of things, or can look before him without emotions of fear and alarm.*

Thus minutely has our Lord's prophecy been accomplished by awful signs in the symbolical heavens, exactly corresponding therewith; and by the present fearful condition of the nations which occupy the principal territories of the fourth monarchy, a condition altogether without example in the history of the world.

We further learn, from the sequel of our Lord's discourse, that the signs predicted by him are to continue till his advent with the clouds of heaven. This advent, it is evident, is the same with that mentioned by Daniel, as taking place on the destruction of the fourth monarchy. The disciples are warned by our Lord himself, when they see the predicted signs, to consider them as the certain and immediate forerunners of his advent in

* If these remarks were true in the years 1813 and 17, when the former editions of this Work appeared, how much more applicable are they in 1832!

† Dan. vii. 13, 14.

glory, and the redemption of his Church, and the establishment of the kingdom of God, no less so than the sprouting of the fig-tree, and all the trees, is a prognostic of the approach of summer. Thus he answers the third question, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?"

We now come to the concluding division of our Lord's discourse, Matt. xxiv. 34. "Verily, I say "unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all "these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall "pass away, but my words shall not pass away. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, "not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Luke xxi. 34. "Take heed to yourselves, lest at "any time your hearts be overcharged with sur"feiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, "and so that day come upon you unawares. For "as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on "the face of the whole earth. Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted "worthy to escape all these things, which shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of "Man."

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Every one must see that there is apparently a great inconsistency between what is said in the first part of the above passage of Matthew, and the interpretation of the prophecy which I have offered, since our Lord here appears to affirm that the whole of the prediction was to be accomplished during the generation then living on the earth. This indeed is the difficulty which, more than any other, has puzzled and perplexed those who have endea

voured to give a consistent interpretation of our Lord's prophecy.

The great and justly celebrated Mede, whose explanation of the whole prophecy is similar to the one given in these pages, in order to do away the objection arising to it from the above clause, supposes that YEVER, the Greek word in the passage, which is translated "generation," does not mean a generation of co-existing men, but a race or nation, and the nation spoken of he takes to be that of the Jews. He, therefore, interprets it as signifying that "the Jewish nation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled;" and refers to the declaration of God in Jeremiah xxxi. 35, 36, as being parallel thereto.* That yeva is sometimes used in γενεα this sense, both in the Greek version of the Old and the New Testaments, is shown by Mede in the passage of his Works referred to. But though the word occasionally signifies a nation or people, yet this is certainly not its natural or ordinary meaning; and where it does occur in the above sense, the context always points out that it is not to be understood in its general acceptation.

In this passage, on the contrary, the immediate context would rather lead us to understand it in its usual meaning of "a generation" of cotemporary men, and as being used in a chronological sense. Besides, on referring to the version of the Seventy, it will be seen that yeva is commonly used γενεα to translate the Hebrew word, signifying "a

* See his Works, Book iv. epist. 12.

generation," in the ordinary sense of the word and accordingly, in most of the Hebrew versions of the Gospels, has been used for yeva, in rendering this identical passage into Hebrew; and we may with humility presume that it was the very word used by our blessed Lord in delivering the discourse. And if this be the case, Mede's translation of it is untenable.

The true solution of this difficulty seems to consist in a close attention to the word which is supposed to indicate the complete fulfilment of the prophecy in that generation. The original expression for the clause, " till all these things be fulfilled,” is έως αν παντα ταυτα γενηται. Now, the most proper and original signification of the verb youa is not, "to be completely fulfilled," as it is rendered in the passage before us; but it rather signifies, commencement running into subsequent continuance of action.* This will appear by substituting it for other verbs which clearly denote the accomplishment of action. Thus in the clause in Luke xxi. 24, "until the times of the Gentiles "be fulfilled," if yεvvτα were substituted for Tλngwowor, the sense would be materially altered, and the phrase would then mean, until the times of the Gentiles shall be, that is, shall arrive or commence. In like manner, if yɛvvτα were to be put for reλowow, in Revelation xv. 8, the sense would

* I by no means deny that this verb in certain connexions of Syntax, &c., does mean complete fulfilment. All that I affirm, is, that in the passage under discussion it does not appear to bear that meaning: and it is there found in the Subjunctive Aorist, yevral