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Matthew, Mark, and Luke may be relied on, it was literally verified to them all on the sixth, or as St. Luke has it, about eight days after; when, on the Mount of Transfiguration, they beheld Christ in his glorified body, with Moses as the representative of the raised, and Elias those of the translated Saints, who are to constitute the copartners of his throne, while themselves were the pattern of the subordinate subjects of that kingdom of which this was the manifested shadow. But the former passage we affirm, is not thus restricted. The words translated "this generation,” η γενεα αυτε, ·(e genea aute,—) must be understood to signify, this race of men. "Our Lord Jesus never uses the word generation to signify the term of man's life; but commonly to express the peculiar character of the nation or people to whom he applies it.-e. g., "a sinful generation" - "a faithless and perverse generation"-"a righteous generation," 2 &c. This sense is confirmed by the last verse of the 23rd chapter of St. Mark's gospel. "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Now, this declaration, as it is evident that that generation of Jews to whom it was made, continued to reject the Messiah till the last, evidently speaks of that prolonged

1. Matt. xviii., 1-9; Mark ix., 1-10; Luke ix. 27–36. 2. Brook's Essay, part 2nd., p. 17 aud note. See Matt. xii., 39; xviii., 17; Mark vii. 38.

3. See Ps. xiv., 5; xxiv., 6; lxxiii. 15.

national desolation which was only to terminate at the SECOND ADVENT.

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But it is again objected, that the passage, "then shall be great tributation, such as was not since the beginning of time, no, nor ever shall be," confines the application of all the "signs" enumerated, to the destruction of Jerusalem. To this however, it may be replied, that, admitting to the fullest extent all that can be claimed for the horrible calamities attendant upon the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman army, yet it cannot be viewed as "without a parallel. The tribulation at the former siege of Jerusalem was very similar in this respect" to the second. For, during the siege under Titus, were women led by hunger to devour their own children? So, of the Chaldean besiegement the prophet Jeremiah says, "and I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies and they that seek their life shall straiten them." And afterwards, in his lamentations over the destruction of the city, he shews that these things were actually fulfilled: "Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit and children of a span long?

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"The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children; they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people." 4

1. Matt. xxiv. 21; Mark xiii. 19.

2. Brook' Ess. Part. 2nd p. 13.

3. Jer. xix., 8, 9.

4. Brook's Ess. Part 2nd p. 13, 14. Lam. ii., 20; iv., 10.

But again. Those commentators who confine the a' ove "signs" to the tribulation of Jerusalem, admit that "the time of trouble" spoken of by Daniel, Chap. xii., 1, 2, is yet FUTURE. "But, there is a rema kıble notification attached to each of these passages, by means of which both periods of trouble may be clearly cemonstrated to be connected together. Daniel says, "there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation to that same time." St. Matthew, that it is "such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time."And then adds,

66 NO, NOR EVER SHALL BE." Thus in both places the tribulation is described as unprecedented; but in Matthew it is stated besides, that the one referred to by him shall never subsequently have a parallel. How then, I ask, can the tribulation in Daniel follow that in Matthew?” 1

Finally, regarding this "tribulation " we remark, that it was to be perpetuated through a long and dreary night of painful captivity and degradation to he Jewish people, under the dominance of the gentiles. Says the Savior, they "shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the gentiles, UNTIL the times of the gentiles be fulfilled.” 2

The phrase, "times of the gentiles," we remark, properly comprehends the whole period of Jewish tribulation under both captivities, during the dominance of the four gentile monarchies. 1st. The Ba

1. Brook's Ess. Part 2nd p. 12, 13.

2. Luke xxi. 24,

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bylonian, 2nd. the Medo-Persian,2

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3rd. the

Grecian, and 4th the Roman.1 In the xxvith

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Chapter of Leviticus, verses 18, 21, 24, and 28, it is predicted that the Jewish nation shall be "chastened seven times, or sevenfold, for their sins. The frequent repetition of seven times, or sevenfold, connected with their lengthened suffering under the gentile monarchies, seems to point out a special design, and may intimate the length of time which these chastisements should last; "5 which, if interpreted as we do the times in Daniel, amount to a period of 2520 years. This period is again brought to view, as typified in the seven times which passed over Nebuchadnezzar.

Additional confirmation of this view of the prolonged tribulation of the Jews may be collected from the fact, that the prophet Daniel predicts the same coming of the son of man in the clouds of heaven at the termination of their troubles, as does St. Luke, as will appear by comparing Dan. vii., 13, 22, with St. Luke xxi., 27. Finally, Daniel, in the ixth chapter of his book, closes his predicted events of the 70 weeks, with an allusion to "an indefinite period," v. 26, "the events of which are, the destruction of the city and temple by the Romans, and the Jewish desolation," all of which are explained by the prophecies and their accompanying signs, now under considera

1. Dan. ii., 32-38.

2. Dan. ii., 39; v. 26-28. 3. Dan. viii. 20,21. See 2 Maccab. ii. 1-4. 4. John xi. 48; xix., 15, 5. Bickersteth's guide, p. 135.

tion. All those events predicted by Christ, Luke xxi., 8-24, except the domination of the gentiles over the Jews spoken of in the last clause of the last mentioned verse, received their complete and literal fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the attendant captivity of the Jewish nation. And we now remark, that that captivity has continued from the year 70 of our Lord, down to this very hour, first under the Romans, then under the Saracens, then under the Turks, and now under the Egyptians. Yes, these gentile nations, have, one after another, held the holy city in a degrading bondage: but, mark the language; "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the gentiles, UNTIL the times of the gentiles be FULFILLED."

Is it now asked, when will this be? When will gentile domination, still lifting its iron sceptre in shouts of lofty defiance over the ancient heritage of the Lord, and their long-protracted tribulation terminate? I answer, at the end of the 2300 prophetic days of the viiith chapter and 14th verse of Daniel, which, in our previous Lecture, we demonstrated fals in with the year of our Lord, 1847!

To this period, we now renewedly affirm, in connexion with the point of time on which we now stand, all the "signs" mentioned in the three verses immediately preceding our text, belong. "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

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