their approaching downfal with the most timorous solicitude.

We learn, then, that the calamities which are to be looked for with so much anxiety are to be inflicted upon the worldlyminded and the enemies of Christ's kingdom; and therefore the men, whose hearts are said to fail them for fear, appear not to be mankind in general, but those in particular, who stand in the different ranks of the antichristian party29. The recently illustrated passages are completely in unison with the more detailed accounts of the Apocalypse. By our Lord, and by his favorite apostle, the same events are represented as antecedent to the proper establishment of his kingdom,-general wars among the nations,—and the overthrow of the antichristian monarchies. Those of his future disciples, who shall be witnesses of these occurrences, he has accordingly instructed, that they should pay a marked attention to them, as to THE SIGNS AND FORERUNNERS OF

THE COMING OF HIS KINGDOM.

Having declared that the hearts of many shall fail them for fear, the founder of our divine religion immediately adds the reason: for, says he, the powers of heaven3° shall be shaken31. The scorching luminaries of the political uni

plied, that the word translated earth, in the former verse, is ; in the latter οικεμενη. Of these the one easily admits an emblematic meaning; whilst the other is altogether a stranger to it. That oxuen signifies the countries of the Roman empire, and the principal part of Europe which are included under it, is plain from ch. ii. v. 1. of our evangelist, there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world (anacav ny olx8svny) should be taxed.

29 Should the earth, however, be thought to denote in v. 25 mankind without distinction, still will the passage admit of an easy interpretation. In the conflict between many of the kings, and between the people, of the world, not a few of the latter will naturally be awake to uneasy apprehensions, lest untoward events should arise, and lead to the firmer rivetting of their chains, instead of their being broken upon the heads of their oppressors.

30 To shake the heavens,' says Daubuz, signifies to overthrow the throne of kingdoms.' On the Apoc. p. 291.

31 In the commentary of Wolzogenius it may be seen, that the true interpretation of this passage had not entirely escaped him.

verse will be violently agitated, and at length removed out of their places; or, to quit the figures of the prophet, all the oppressive governments and aristocracies of the world will be shaken to their foundations and abolished. And THEN Will the religion of Jesus operate with its full power, and have a glorious spread.

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh, or, as Mr. Wakefield translates, for your deliverance is at hand. Seeing Christianity, stripped of all false appendages, and producing its proper effects, you will be converted to it, and will no longer be a people, oppressed and despised. And it is not those only of your nation, but those also of your faith (i. e. the Christian), whose deliverance will be accomplished33. From that pressure of evil, which they are to suffer during the ascendancy of Antichrist, Christians as well as Jews will be liberated.

Since the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of Heaven, are expressions, which have been uniformly employed by modern writers to designate a future world, the passage which follows has, by the unlettered reader, been generally misapprehended. I copy it, as explained by Dr. Sykes. • As when trees shoot forth, ye see and know of your ownselves that summer is now nigh at hand; so likewise, when ye see these things come to pass34? know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand: that it will then be at its full growth and state of perfection".' This judicious divine has accordingly proved at length, that those Jewish phrases, THE KINGDOM OF GOD, and THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN37, which

32 Heaven and earth signify a Political Universe.' Dr. Lancaster. 33 The restoration of the Jews, and the fall of Antichrist, shall happen about the same time.' Bp. Newton, vol. III. p. 391.

6

34 As if he had said, as of yourselves you are apprised, that the un

1 folding of the leaves in trees is the forerunner of summer; so also know, that these signs are the forerunners of your deliverance.' Wolzogenius. 35 Ess. on the Truth of the Chr. Rel. p. 56.

36 i. e. a kingdom or dispensation set up by God.

37 It is called, says bishop Kidder, 'the kingdom of heaven, it being set up, as Daniel expresseth it, by the God of heaven.' Demonstr. of the Messiah, vol. III. p. 388.

so often occur in the evangelists, are equivolent to the kingdom of the Messiah, and signify, the dispensation of the gospel as preached and practised upon earth, and not a state of future existence, nor were ever thought to do so by the disciples of our Lord38. To a Jew, indeed, these phrases were familiar. Thus bp. Kidder assures us, that the Chaldee paraphrast, like the writers of the New Testament, sometimes denominated the kingdom of the Messiah, the kingdom of God. Accordingly, says Dr. Sykes, the Jews were so well acquainted with the meaning of this ex

men:

38 P. 29-78. That they bear this sense may be seen in the works of Mede (vol. I. p. 134), in bishop Chandler's Defence of Christianity from the Prophecies (p. 101), and in the commentaries of Macknight, bp. Pearce, and Wolzogenius; and will undeniably appear from the allegation of two or three instances. Addressing himself as to the scribes and pharisees, Jesus said (Mat. xxiii. 13, ye shut up THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN against for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. That their power reached to a future world, that the virtuous they could exclude from being admitted into the mansions of eternity, cannot for a moment be supposed. The meaning, then plainly is: you will not yourselves enter into the gospel dispensation, nor will you omit to practise various expedients to preclude others from the participation of its privileges. That Christ did not cast out devils, but by Belzebub the prince of the devils, was objected against him by his inveterate enemies, the pharisees (Mat. xii. 24, 28); and a part of his reply was, but if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then THE KINGDOM OF GOD is come unto you. The interpretation is obvious, and is partly given in the words of Dr. Sykes: but if I perform miraculous works by the divine assistance, it is evident then, that the kingdom of the Messiah is come in your times: and the miracles done by me confirm that I am no impostor. One other instance shall be alleged, as it is a famous text, which has, by the advocates of the Roman see, been greatly perverted. When Jesus said unto Peter (Mat. xvi. 9), I will give unto thee the keys of THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN; his meaning was, says Dr. Sykes, I will cause that you, the first of all the apostles, shall, by preaching, open the gospel dispensation both to the Gentiles and to the Jews. Within the narrow pale of the Jewish church religious privileges were no longer to be shut up and confined. They were to be unlocked to mankind in general. Accordingly we read in the Acts of the extraordinary success of Peter's preaching; and that he did, in fact, bring into the church of Christ the first converts, and great numbers of them, as well from the Gentile world, as from the Jews.

39 Dem. of the Mess. vol. III. p. 388.

pression, and were so well apprised of a kingdom which God hath resolved in his due time to set up, that as often as Jesus talked of the kingdom of Heaven, or, of God; neither the people, nor their rulers ever offered to ask him the meaning of that phrase."

But a part of the words of Jesus shall again be cited. When ye see and know these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Of these words the full import appears to be; when ye perceive that the antichristian monarchies and aristocracies of the world are falling to pieces, be assured, that what is the proper Messiah's kingdom is then approaching. Hitherto the way has only been prepared for this kingdom42. Hitherto has been the reign, not of genuine Christianity, but of antichristianism. This passage ought not lightly to be passed over, for, if duly considered, it will be sufficient to evince, that Christ could be speaking of the commencement of no other period, than that happy state of the world, which is so largely described by his beloved disciple, as certainly to be established, and certainly to continue for a very long duration.

Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. This clause of the prediction has, I conceive, not merely been generally misapprehended, but moreover falsely translated; and this is the opinion of men, who hold the first rank in scriptural criticism, namely of Mede and Wolfius and Dr. Sykes 3. To the destruction of Jerusalem a Mr. Hayne had applied this part of our

40 On the Tr. of the Chr. Rel. p. 29.

41 That is, says Mede, that the millennium is at hand, p. 934.

42 By Christ's kingdom,' says Dr. J. Edwards, is sometimes meant that peculiar and special time of his reigning,—when Christianity shall arrive at its height, when the Church shall be in its meridian.-It may be this is that kingdom of God, of which, and the things appertaining to it, our Saviour discoursed to his apostles before he left the world, Acts, i. 3.' Hist. of all the Dispensations of Religion, vol. II. p. 649.

43 Other respectable critics, who have maintained the same opinion, it is also easy to name, as Brenius (in loc.) and Markius (in Exercit. Exegeticis, p. 560).

Lord's prophecy. Hear a part of Mr. Mede's reply. I answer, first, while you endeavor in this manner to esta blish a ground for the first coming of Christ, you bereave the church of those principal passages of the scripture, whereon she hath always grounded her faith of the second coming. Secondly, you ground all this upon the ambiguity of the word generation, whereas EvE signifies not only ætas, but gens, natio progenies, and so ought to be here taken; viz. the nation of the Jews should not perish, till all these things were fulfilled. For so signifies rape in the Hebrew notion, as you may see even in the verse following.-Chrysostom among the ancients, and Flacius Illyricus (a man well skilled in the style of scripture) among the moderns, and those who follow them, might have admonished others to take the word yEve in this acceptation, rather than by turning it ætas or seculum, to put this prophecy in little-ease, and the whole harmony of scripture out of frame, by I know not what confused interpretation. I only add, that Dr. Sykes declares himself the more confirmed in this translation from the remarkable, and indeed, unparalleled, preservation of the Jews in the midst of hatred and continual persecutions47. The meaning then is, the Jewish nation shall assuredly subsist as a distinct people, till all that has been previously mentioned shall have been fulfilled, not only during the most corrupt period of the church, but until the antichristian governments of the world shall have been dissolved, and the religion of Jesus shall have begun to shine with its natural lustre. And what is there in the

6

44 Accordingly Beza, in the Gospels, repeatedly renders yɛved by the word gens. Vorstius (in his Philol. Sacr. c. 12) says γενια PROPRIE genus, progeniem, familiam significat. Deinde et TEV YɛVETIY generationem.” 45 Indeed by the fathers in general, who must be admitted to have been competent judges of the meaning of the word, yeva was not understood as signifying the generation then living. Some persons, however, there were, who held this opinion; but says Maldonatus, Origen entitles them simplices.