ve let him thus alone, all men will believe on him; and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation; (to TOT, our temple; so the word is used, Acts vi. 14. xxi. 28.) If we do not bestir ourselves to prevent it, the common people, astonished at his miracles, will certainly set him up for Messiah, and the Romans, on pretence of their rising in rebellion, will take away both our liberty and religion. They entered therefore into a resolution of putting Jesus to death at all hazards. But those politicians were taken in their own craftiness; for while they proposed, by killing Jesus, to avoid the destruction of their tem ple and city, the sin which they committed in killing the Prince of life, was so great, that God in his just indignation made the very people, whose resentment they proposed to avoid by this wicked measure, the instruments of his vengeance. He brought the Roman armies against them, who destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city; leaving in that dreadful catastrophe, an awful warning to all statesmen, to beware of prosecuting unjust measures on pretence of consulting the good of the nation whose affairs they direct. To return, the members of the Jewish coun cil were not all unanimous in their resolution of putting Jesus to death. Some of them who were his disciples, (John xii. 42.) particularly Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, urged the unlawfulness of what they proposed to do, from the consideration of his miracles and innocence. But the high-priest Caiaphas treated Christ's friends in the council with contempt, as a parcel of weak ignorant people, who were unacquainted with the nature of government, which, said he, requires that certain acts of injustice should not be scrupled at, when they are expedient for the safety of the state. John xi. 49. And one of them, named Coiaphas, being the high-priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, 50. Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. Doubtless Caiaphas said this from a principle of human policy; nevertheless the evangelist assures us that his tongue was directed at that time by the Spirit of God, in which respect he spake not of himself, but foretold that Jesus should die for the nation. 51. And this spake he, not of himself; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation: 52. And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. To conclude, the majority of the council having resolv

ed

* Ver. 51. But he being high-priest, &c.] As God was wont anciently to communicate his oracles to the high-priest, clothed with the pontifical garments, so he inspired these words into Caiaphas, who now bare that of fice, though he was not sensible himself of the inspiration, and meant what he said in a different sense from what God intended should be signified by

ed to put Jesus to death at all hazards, they consulted no longer upon that point, but from thenceforth deliberated only concerning the best method of effecting it. 53. Then from that day forth, they took council together for to put him to death. The evangelist does not tell us what the measure was which they pitched upon for this purpose; only from the last verse of the chapter, it is highly probable that they agreed to issue out a proclamation against Jesus, promising a reward to any who would shew where he was, that they might take him. This was the reason why our Lord did not now go to Jerusalem, though he was within two miles of it, but returned to Ephraim, a city upon the borders of the wilderness, where he abode with his disciples, being unwilling to go far away, because the passover at which he was to suffer approached. 54. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but went thence into a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples.

• Ver. 54. A city called Ephraim.] The situation of Ephraim has not yet been determined with certainty. All that John says of it is, that it stood in a country near to the wilderness. Perhaps he meant the wilderness, which is said to have gone up from Jericho to Bethel, Josh. xvi. 1. For Josephus (Bell. v. 8.) mentions Ephraim as not far from Bethel. Eusehius, in his Onomastic upon the word Ayfer (the ancient Ai) tells us, that Bethel lay in the road from Jerusalem to Sichem in Samaria, at the distance of twelve miles from Jerusalem. The same author says, that Ephraim was a large city, eight miles from Aelia (Jerusalem) toward the north. Jerom's copy of Eusebius, reads twenty miles in this passage. See Reland's Palestina Illustrata.

¿CI. At Ephraim Jesus foretells the destruction of the Jewish state the first time; see § 123. Also his own sufferings the fifth time; see $ 73, 106. He delivers the parable of the unjust judge and injured widow. Luke xvii. 20,-37. xviii. 1,-8. WHILE Jesus was in Ephraim, the Pharisees asked him when the kingdom of God, by which they meant Messiah's kingdom," was to commence. They had very grand notions of the extent of Messiah's kingdom, the number of his subjects, the strength of his armies, the pomp and eclat of his court, and were eager to have that glorious empire speedily erected. Or being inveterate enemies of our Lord, they might ask the question in derision, because every thing about Jesus was so unlike to the Messiah whom they expected. Luke xvii. 20. And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. 21. Neither shall they say, Lo here, or lo there; for behold the kingdom

* Ver. 21. The kingdom of God is within jou.] The Greek phrase solos VOL. II.

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kingdom of God is within you. To correct their mistaken no. tions, he told them, that Messiah's kingdom does not consist in any pompous outward form of government, to be erected in this or that particular country, with the terror of arms and the confusion of war; but that it consists in the subjection of mens wills, and in the conformity of their minds to the laws of God, to be effected by a new dispensation of religion, which was already be gun. Accordingly they were not to seek for it in this or that place, saying, Lo here, or lo there; for the kingdom of God, the new dispensation of religion productive of the dominion of righ teousness in mens minds was already begun among them, being preached by Christ and his apostles, and confirmed by innumerable miracles.

. Having thus spoken to the Pharisees, he addressed his disci ples, and in the hearing of the Pharisees prophesied concerning the destruction of the Jewish state, whose constitution, both religious and civil, was the chief obstacle to the erection of his kingdom; for the attachment which the Jews had to their constitution, was the spring of all their opposition to Christianity, and of their cruelty to its abettors. A prediction of this nature, delivered as the continuation of his answer to the Pharisees, who desired to know when Messiah's kingdom should come, plainly signified that it would first become conspicuous in the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth. But because love and compassion were eminent parts of the Lord's character, he spake of that dreadful catastrophe in such a manner as might be most profitable to his hearers. He told them first of all, that they and the whole nation should be in the greatest distress before the destruction of their constitution, and the full establishment of Messiah's kingdom; and that they should passionately wish for Messiah's personal presence to comfort them under their afflictions, but should not be favoured with it. Luke xvii. 22. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and Next he caushall not see it. ye tioned them against the deceivers, which in that time of universal distress would arise, pretending to be Messiah, and promis ing to deliver the people from the powers which oppressed them. He told them that these deceivers would lurk a while in private, till by the diligence of their emissaries spreading abroad their fame, and exhorting the people to go out to them, they had gathered a force sufficient to support them. In such a case, said he, do not go forth to them, nor follow them, for by this mark you shall know them to be deceivers. 23. And they shall say to

your

ar, is by most critics thought to be equivalent to vv. See Xenoph. lib. 1. Cyropæd. p. 212. where things which they had along with them is the camp, are said to be les avav. See also Beza upon this passage.

you, See here, or see there; go not after them, nor follow them. The reason is, my coming to deliver you shall be sudden, and unexpected, and with great power like lightning; for I will come in my own strength, and no opposition whatsoever shall be able to stand in my way. I will overthrow my enemies every where with swift destruction, and establish my religion and government in a great part of the world as suddenly as lightning flies through the sky. Only before these things, I am to suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. Luke xvii. 24. For as the lightning that lightneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven: so shall also the Son of man be in his day. 25. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. In the next place, he foretold the stupidity and unconcernedness of the generation he was to destroy, comparing it to that of the old world about the time of the flood, and to that of the Sodomites before their city was destroyed by fire from heaven. 26. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, un til the day that Noe entered into the ark; and the flood came and destroyed them all. The people of the old world, wholly unaffected with the admonitions which Noah gave them while building the ark, and with the threatenings which he then denounced, went on as usual, following their ordinary occupations, and pur suing their pleasures, both lawful and unlawful, in great carnal security. And so, ere they were aware, the flood came and destroyed them all. 28. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded: 29. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: 30. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. The Jewish people shall be sunk in the same carnal se curity, and shall suffer the like exemplary punishment, at the time when God reveals to the world, the person who was foretold by Daniel under the denomination of the Son of man. 31. In that day, (the day when the Son of man is revealed, as it is expressed

Ver. 26. The days of Noe, &c.] The days of Noe, in this passage, signify the days in which he preached to the old world the righteousness which they ought to have practised, and denounced the judgments of God to fall on them if they did not repent of their wickedness. By parity of reason, the days of the Son of man signify the days in which Christ and his apostles preached to the Jewish nation, whose behaviour here is said to have been the same with that of the old world and of the Sodomites, upder the preaching of Noah and Lot; they went on secure, and wholly intent upon their worldly affairs, without being in the least moved by the repeated warnings of the Divine judgments, which Jesus and his apostles gave them. For which cause these judgments fell on them, and destroyed, them.

expressed ver. 30.) * he which shall be upon the house-top, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away; and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back, namely to his house. And lest they should not have been sufficiently ap prehensive of their danger, he put them in mind of Lot's wife; insinuating that the calamities from which they were to flee, were as eminent as that from which she fled, and that to linger after they observed the signs thereof, would be as dangerous in their case as in hers. 32. † Remember Lot's wife. The example of Lot's

Ver. 31. He which shall be on the house-top.] The Jewish houses were flat-roofed, and commonly had two stairs, one within, and the other without the house, by which they went up to the roof; see Antiq. Disc. iv. Christ's meaning therefore was, that as soon as they observed the first signs of the impending ruin about to fall, they were to fly for their lives, with out staying a moment to save their substance; he who was on the housetop, was not to go down into his house to take away his stuff, but was to go off by the outer passage, as the speediest way of escaping.

+ Ver. 32. Remember Lot's wife.] This unfortunate woman had been informed by angels of the destruction of Sodom, and promised deliverance: but was expressly forbidden to look back on any account, in the time of her flight, because it was proper they should flee speedily, in the faith of the Divine declaration, and perfectly contented, or at least endeavouring to be so, that they had escaped with their lives. Nevertheless, she presumed to entertain doubts concerning the struction of her wicked ac quaintance, perhaps because she did not fully believe the angel's message, or because she thought that God might repent himself of the evil he had threatened. Moreover, being inwardly sorry for the loss of her relations and goods, and at the same time not sufficiently valuing the kindness of God, who had sent his angels to preserve her, she lingered behind her hus band, discontented and vexed, allowing him and his two daughters to enter into Zoar before her, (Gen. xix. 26.) and thereby laying a temptation in Lot's way to look back upon her, on account of the danger she was exposing herself to. But no sooner had the good man, with his believing children, entered the place of their refuge, than God poured out the fullness of his wrath upon the offending cities. The thunder, the shrieking of the inhabitants, the crashing of the houses falling, were heard at a distance. Lot's wife, not yet in Zoar, was at length convinced that all was lost, and being exceedingly displeased, she despised the gift of her life; for in contradiction to the angel's command, she turned about and looked at the dreadful devastation, probably also bewailed her perishing kindred and wealth, ver. 14. But her infidelity, her disobedience, her ingratitude, and her love of the world, received a just though severe rebuke. In an instant she was turned into a pillar of salt, being burnt up by the flames, out of whose reach she would not fly, and so was made a perpetual monu ment of God's displeasure to all posterity. Her looking back, though in itself a thing indifferent, yet as it was done contrary to the Divine prohi bition, and expressed such a complication of evil dispositions, was so far from being a small sin, that it fully deserved the punishment inflicted on

And this punishment was the more necessary, as it shewed all the in habitants of Canaan, that the deliverance of Lot and his family from the vengeance of Sodom, was wrought in honour of their righteousness; a signal instance of which they gave on this occasion, in their leaving So dom, together with their nearest relations, and all their substance, at God's command. Moreover, the manifestation that was now made of their faith

and