customed, the whole civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the nation shall not only be shocked, but totally disolved. And then shall there evidently appear such a remarkable hand of providence in avenging my quarrel upon this sinful people, that it shall be like the sign of the Son of man in heaven at the last day; and all the tribes of the land shall then mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming as it were in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; for that celestial army which shall appear in the air marshalled round the city, shall be a sure token to them that the angels of God, and the great Lord of those heavenly hosts, are set as it were in array against them.' Upon this paraphrase I shall only observe, that if the fiery appearances in the sky mentioned by Josephus, and which seem to have been similar to those observed during the civil wars in England, and at various other places and times, are really alluded to in the prophecy, it must be in the former part of it. Where Matthew merely says, that there should be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes' in divers places; Luke amplifies thus: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great wonders shall there be from heaven." This will agree with Josephus for that historian describes the celestial phænomena as having been seen before the siege and capture of Jerusalem, and as portending those events ;3 wherefore it is violating the facts to represent these as being

1Ch. xxiv. 7. 2 Ch. xxi. 11. 3 Jewish War, B. vi. ch. v, § 3.

what are foretold as the appearing of the Son of man and his coming in the clouds of heaven, ' after the tribulation of those days:' beside, being a mean application of a most majestic prediction. However, we have only introduced this popular writer's paraphrase, for the sake of his note upon it. On the words, Immediately after the tribulation of those days, he remarks thus: 'Archbishop Tillotson, and Brennius, with many other learned interpreters, imagine, that our Lord here makes the transition from the destruction of Jerusalem, which had been the subject of his discourse thus far, to the general judgment; but I think, as it would be very harsh to suppose all the sufferings of the Jewish nation, in all ages, to be called the tribulation of those days;' [what occasion, by the by, for supposing the sufferings of the Jewish nation in all ages to be treated of at all?] so it would, on the other hand, be equally so to say, that the general judgment, which probably will not commence till at least a thousand years after their restoration, will happen immediately after their sufferings; nor can I find any one instance in which eutheos [immediately] is used in such a strange latitude.

What is said below (in Matt. xxiv, 34. Mark xiii, 30, and Luke xxi, 32,) seems also an insuperable objection against such an interpretation.

am obliged therefore to explain this section as in the paraphrase; though I acknowledge many of the figures used may with more literal propriety be applied to the last day, to which there may be a remote though not an immediate reference.' Moved by these considerations, this worthy divine, though he sees some difficulties in

the way, determines to apply the prophecy, thus far, to the destruction of Jerusalem. But when he comes to the thirty-sixth verse, though the series continues to flow without the least sign of interruption, he paraphrases the words, 'But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only,' in reference to the final sentence' of all mankind; and adds this note: I cannot agree with Dr. Clarke in referring this verse to the destruction of Jerusalem, the particular day of which was not a matter of great importance; and as for the season of it, I see not how it could properly be said to be entirely unknown, after such an express declaration that it should be in that generation.-It seems therefore much fitter, with Dr. Whitby (after Grotius,) to explain it of the last day, when heaven and earth shall pass away.' Well then, the Doctor has now taken the leap. The simple connective but' has carried him over an interval, of not less, according to his computation, than three thousand years. No sooner however Iras he taken this leap, than he deems it necessary to jump back again. He seems to apply the very next verses to the subject just dismissed : but in a note on the fortieth and forty-first verses, Then shall two be in the field,' &c. he explicitly says, that though these words may allusively be accommodated to the day of judgment, yet he doubts not they originally refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, to which alone they are properly applicable.' He now, however, determines to fly for the last time across the gulf: so, he adds, I humbly conceive that the grand transition, about which commentators are so

much divided, and so generally mistaken, is made precisely after these two verses.' Let the reader then examine whether he can here find the marks of the grand transition,' so conspicuous to Dr. Doddridge or whether he will not rather find that the discourse proceeds in the same unbroken series, making no transition but from the announcement of awful facts to the deducing from them of weighty admonitions. Thus Dr. Doddridge's well-meant attempt to relieve the hiatus scheme of its difficulties, only issues in a demonstration that the difficulties are insuperable.'-pp. 217-223.'

If it be true that both these chapters have relation to the same subject, then the passage we have quoted may very properly be compared with others, in which similar language is used respecting a destruction of heaven or earth, and a judgment following it; because the signification of this being clearly defined by Jesus, may assist in determining the signification of others.

We repeat what we before observed; that we have introduced this passage, not because any reputable critic maintains that a literal destructruction of the material universe is indicated by the language of Jesus; but partly because it may be of service in the following investigation, and partly because we apprehend that some, who have never considered carefully the oriental style which is in the highest degree poetical and figurative, have mistaken its meaning.

II. And I beheld, when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake;

and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? This passage is one of those which have been understood to describe a literal destruction of the material universe. But if we shall show that similar

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language is used by the sacred writers with exclusive reference to events accomplished on the earth, then it will follow that there is no absolute necessity to interpret this passage literally. 1. It is said, the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.' The prophet Joel uses similar language, which Peter applies to events transpiring on earth: This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. . . I will show wonders in the heaven above, and in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come." Is this language

1 Rev, vi. 12-17.

2 Acts ii, 16, 19, 20.