5.-That there should occur Persecutions, and consequent falling

away of Disciples.

Prophecy.

Matthew xxiv. 9, 10.-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. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 12.-And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

(See also Mark xiii. 9--13; and Luke xxi. 12—17.)

The fulfilment of our Lord's prophecies of the persecutions of His followers having been already shewn in Sect. III., it is only necessary to refer the reader to that Section, and to Note XVIII.

6.-Believers to take warning and flee from Jerusalem when they see it compassed with armies.

Prophecy.

Matthew xxiv. 15-20.-When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,' (whoso readeth let him understand:) then let them which be in Judæa flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house; neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.

29-31.-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:2 and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man

1 Luke renders this, "And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh."

2 See foot note, p. 8, Joel ii. 31, on the signification of these expressions.

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 heaven1 with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Luke xxi. 25-28.—And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (See also Mark xiii. 14-18, and 24-27.)3

Fulfilment.

Josephus (Wars, Book II. ch. 19), relates that the Roman general, Cestius, having attacked Jerusalem and set fire to part of it, the seditious retreated into the inner city and temple, and Cestius got possession of the upper city," and pitched his camp over against the royal palace; and had he but at this very time attempted to get within the walls by force, he had won the city presently, and the war had been put an end to at once." He attempted to break into the northern quarter of it,"—thus closely fulfilling our Lord's words regarding the " abomination of desolation," or Roman army, "standing in the Holy place." Meantime the High Priest

1 See footnote, p. 36, Dan. vii., on the meaning of this expression. 2 See Mark ix. 1; Matthew xvi. 28; and xxvi. 64.

3 Though the words in Matthew xxiv. 15-20, and Luke xxi. 20, 21, alone embrace our Lord's intimation to His followers of the time when they should flee from Jerusalem to escape the impending calamities, I have added the declaration of His "coming in His kingdom," as this assurance that the "time for their redemption," and for "calling His elect" from every quarter, was then approaching, is naturally connected with the warnings of the approaching destruction of the existing dispensation.

and people were desirous "to set open the gates and to admit Cestius as their benefactor, who, had he but continued the siege a little longer, had certainly taken the city; but it was," (adds Josephus, unconscious how truly his words expressed the retributive fate our Lord had pronounced on the guilty city and people,) "I suppose, owing to the aversion God had already at the city and the sanctuary, that he was hindered from putting an end to the war that very day. It then happened that Cestius was not conscious, either how the besieged despaired of success, nor how courageous the people were for him; and so he recalled his soldiers from the place, and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, without having received any disgrace he retired from the city, without any reason in the world." Josephus next describes the disastrous retreat of his army pursued by the Jews, who captured their engines of war, and slew 5,300 foot-men, and 380 horsemen ; and adds, (ch. 20, §. 1,) "After this calamity had befallen Cestius, many of the most eminent Jews swam away from the city, as from a ship when it was going to sink." And it appears that, the Christians, taking warning by our Lord's words, fled to Pella, and the mountains of Perea, and thus universally escaped the miseries that were coming on the doomed city. And thus, by the extraordinary providence of the retreat of the Roman general, " without any reason in the world,” when the city was completely in his power, the sign given by our Lord to warn His followers to seek safety in flight," the encompassing of Jerusalem by the Roman armies,”—and which to any mere human judgment would have seemed a barrier to their doing so, enabled them to escape in safety according to His promise, “There shall not an hair of your head perish."- Luke xxi. 18. Can any reasonable mind regard the predicted sign and its accomplishment as a fortuitous circumstance, the work of Chance, the god of unbelievers?

7.-The Siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the unparalleled miseries and destruction of life attending it.

Prophecy.

Luke xix. 43.-For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side.

Luke xxi. 20-24.-And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judæa flee to the mountains: and let them which are in the midst of it depart out: and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled......For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations.

Matthew xxiv. 21, 22.-For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Luke xxiii. 28-31.-But Jesus turning unto them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold the days are coming in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry. (See also Mark xiii. 19, 20; and Matthew xxi. 33, 34.)

us.

Fulfilment.

Josephus, in the Preface to his history of the war, deprecates censure if he seem to bewail too deeply the calamities he relates, inasmuch as "it appears to me that the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, if they be compared to those of the

Jews, are not so considerable as they were; while the authors of them were not foreigners neither. This makes it impossible for me to contain my lamentations." Of these dread calamities the pages of Josephus present a narrative of such suffering and destruction of life in this war of extermination against this people devoted by God to destruction, that none can read it without feeling how unparalleled were the miseries of these "days of vengeance," and how literally they fulfilled our Lord's declaration, Mark xiii. 19, "In these days shall be affliction such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be."

The rebellion against the Roman government, to which the Jews had been driven by the oppressions and barbarities of the Procurator Florus, was the signal for the appearing of all those turbulent seditious spirits, robbers, and murderers, who, when the reins of government are loosened, avail themselves of the absence of restraint and authority for their malpractices. Thousands of these flocked to Jerusalem, and there, divided into three factions, carried on an internecine war in which great numbers were slain. They exercised an intolerable tyranny over the lives and actions of the peaceable inhabitants, who would not join them, and murdered even the priests and worshippers at the altar; so that they were more dreaded by the people than the Romans themselves, and daily becoming more ferocious and maddened, they rejected all terms of peace, thus devoting themselves and their countrymen to the destruction and miseries that resulted from their infuriated resistance to the proposals of the Roman General. Josephus truly observes therefore, "They never suffered anything that was worse from the Romans than they made each other suffer; nor was there any misery endured by the city after these men's actions that could be esteemed new. But it was most of all unhappy before it was overthrown, while those that took it did it a greater kindness." (Wars, Book V. ch. 6.) And,-"

‚—" I suppose that had the Romans made any longer delay in coming against these villains, the city would either have been swallowed up by the ground opening upon them, or been overflowed by water, or else been destroyed by such thunder as the country of