i69 S R MON CXXIX The Uncertainty of the Day of Judgment, confider'd and improv'd. MARK XIII. 3i, 33. But of that Day and that Hour /¿noweth no Man, no not the Angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Tale ye heed, watch andpray ï for ye /know not when the Time IHefe. Words are fpoken by our Saviour of the Day of Judgment ; for the in this Chapter, as likewife in the 24th of St. Matthew, and the 2tf of St. Luke, which are parallel to it, our Saviour difcourfeth very particularlyand largely co-cerning the eminent Appearance of his Power and Jutlice in the De- firu&ion of 7erufalem, which may perhaps fometimes in Scripture be called his Coming ; yet it is plain likewife, that he difcourfeth thereconcerning his coming to Judgment at the End of the World. For we find in the a4th of Sr, Matthew, that after our Saviour had foretold his Difeiples of the utter Ruin of jerufalem, they came afterwards to him, to enquire more particularly about it ; v. 3. And as hefat upon the Mount of Olives, the Difciples came unto him privately, fa,ing, Tell us, WhenJhall thefe Things be ? And what fhall be the Sign of thy Carving, and of the End of the World ? Where there are two feveral Que(tions, to which our Savi- our returns a dittin& Anfwer. Thefzrfi, When thofe Things he bad been fpeak- ing of before (hould be ? That is, the Things which related to the Deftru&ion of Jerufalem, for of that only he had been fpeaking ofbefore. The other Que- flion was, Concerning the Sign of Ins Coming, and of the End of the World. The Reafon of their joining thefe two Quelfions together, feems to be this, (as is very probable from many Texts of the New Teffament) viz. That the Apofiles did think (and our Saviour permitted them for a long Time to remain under this Mifiake) that the End,of the World, and the general Judgment, would be prefently after the Deftru&ion of 7eruf lem. Now to this fecond Quefiion of theirs, concerning the End of the World, and our Saviour's coming to Judgment, he gives an Anfwer in the latter part of that Chapter, v. 29. But immediately after the Tribulation of thofe Days, the Sun "hall be darkened, and the Moon ¡ball not give herLight ; and then /hall appear the Sign ofthe Son of Man in Heaven. Not that the general Judgment of the Worldwas immediately to follow the Defiru&ion ofyerufalem 5 for there were many other Things to intervene, as is manifett from St. Luke, Ch. 2I. 24. That the yewsfhould be ledCaptive into all Nations, andjerufalem fhouldbe trodden downoftheGentile.r, until the Times oftheGentileswerefulled. And tho' thefe Things be expre&d in a fewWords, yet they comprehenda longTra&of Time; for theCaptivity ofthe Jeros bath çop- tinued for above r boo Years, and is not yet at anEnd. And then after the Accom- plifhment of thefe Things, it follows, that there ¡hall be Signs in the Sun and the Moon, and then they (hall fee the San of Alan coating in a Cloud with Power and great Glory. And then he tells them in Conclufion, that thefe Things Jhould begin to come topaf that is, Come of them tbould happen, before the End of that Generation, and fo they did, for the Deftru&ion of 7erufalem was about forty Years after. But when the Endof all fhould be, that is, when the Day of Judgment would happen, he could not tell them the precife Time, y. 36. But of that Day and Hour knoweth no Man, nonot the Angels ofHeaven, but the Father only ; and it is added in St. Mark, neither the Son. Now
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=