Pr- 210 The NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of our BLESSED LORD My difciples !hall be fcattered by thefe perfecutions and tribulations, and !hall preach the gofpel in all parts of the Roman empire ; and then !hall the period you now inquire after arrive: then than theAlmighty arife to vengeance, and confume, in his anger, this {tiff-necked generation. At the time when Jerufalem fhall be fur- roundedwith armies,- Pagan armies, bear- ing in their flandards the images of their gods, the abomination of defolation, men- tionedby the prophet Daniel ; then let him who readeth the prediaions of that pro- phet underftand, that the end of the city and fanbluary, together with the ceafing of the facrifice and oblation there predifted, is come, and, of courfe; the final period of the Jewifh government. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and-let them which are in the mid/l of it depart out, Luke xxi. is. Let him which is on the houf-top, not come down to take any thing' out of his houfe : neither let him which is in the field, return back to take his clothes, Matt. xxiv. 17, 18. For the Almighty will now punith this na- tion for it's fin: thefeare the days of his vengeance, when all the threatenings of the prophets, efpecially thofe of Daniel, !hall be infliEl:ed on this obflinate and re- bellious people. The women who are with child, and they who have infants hanging at their breafts, 'fhall be particularly unhappy in thofe days of vengeance, becaufe they can- not flee from the impending deftrubiion : But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter,- when the badnefs of the roads, and the rigour of the feafon, will render fpeedy travelling very troublefome, if not impof- fible ; neither on the Sabbath day, when you !hall think it unlawful : for thenfhall be great tribulation, fuck as was not fance the beginning of the world to this-time, no, nor ever fhall be. This is confirmed by what Jofephus tells us: for he fays, " that " no lefs than eleven hundred thoufand perifhed in the fiege." Our dear Lord added, that except thefe 3 days of tribulation fhould be fhortened, none of the inhabitants of Jerufalem and Judea, of whom he was then fpeaking, fhould efcape deftrublion. And accord- ingly Jofephus tells us, that the quarrels which raged during the fiege, were fo fierce and obflinate, that both within the walls of Jerufalem, and without in the neighbouring country, that the whole land was one continued fcene of horror and defolation: and had the fiege conti- nued much longer, the whole nation of the Jews had been totally deflroyed, according to our Lord's predifion : But, added our bleffed Saviour, for the ele/Ps fake, whom he hath chofen, he hathfhortened the days. By the eleEt are meant, fuck of the Jews as had embraced the doblrines of the golpel, and thofe who were brought in with the fulnefs of the Gentiles parti- cularly. During this time of univerfal confufion0 it was natural to think, that the expeaa= dons of the whole nation would be turned towards their Meffiah ; for if he was ever to appear it mull be then, to deliver them from impending de$rulion. Our bleffed Saviour therefore cautioned his difciples not to liften to any pretences of that kind, as many falfe Chrifls would arife, and de- ceive great numbers of the people. A prediElion that was fully accomplifhed during the terrible fiege of Jerufalem by the Romans : for Jofephus tells us, that many arofe pretending to be the Meffiah; boafling that they would deliver the nation from all it's enemies. And the multitude, always too prone to liften to deceivers who prómife temporal advantages, gave credit to thofe deceivers, became more obflinatè in their oppofition to the Romans, and thereby rendered their deftruilion more fevere and more inevitable. And what fill increafed the infatuation of the peoples was their performing wonderful things during the war; and accordingly Jofephus calls themmagicians and forcerers. Hence we fee the propriety of the caution given by the -Son of God, who forerold that they
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