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Then shall they see the sign of the Son of man, &c.  Not any visible appearance of Christ, or of the cross in the clouds [as some have imagined,] but whereas the Jews would not own Christ before for the Son of man, or for the Messias, then by the vengeance that he should execute upon them, they and all the world should see an evident sign, that he was so.  This therefore is called his coming, and his coming in his kingdom, Matth. 17.28.

VOLUME ONE EXCERPTS

The Harmony of the Four Evangilists

"A Decree of Augustus given out at Rome, becomes an occasion of accomplishing a Decree of the Lords, namely of the Birth of the Messias at Bethlehem.  He is born under a Roman taxation, and now that Prophecie of Chittim or Italy afflicting Heber, Numb. 24.24. beginneth livelily to take place." (Works, 1st. Ed., Vol. 1; Harmony, p. 4)

"Daniel knowing from Jeremies Prophecie, that the seventy years of Captivity were now fully expired, addresseth himself to God by prayer for their return: he receiveth not only a gracious answer to his desire, but a Prediction of what times should pass over his people till the death of Christ; namely, seventy weeks, or seventy times seven years, or four hundred and ninety.  This space of time the Angel divideth into three unequal parts.

1. Seven sevens, or forty nine years, to the finishing of  Jerusalems Walls.
2. Sixty two sevens, or four hundred thirty four years, from that time, till the last seven.
3. The last seven in the latter half of which Christ Preacheth, viz. three years and a half, and then dieth, &c.

The twenty seventh Verse therefore is to be read thus:  He shall confirm the covenant with many in the one week, and in half that week he shall cause Sacrifice and Oblation to cease, &c.  So that from this year to the death of Christ are four hundred ninety years; and there is no cause, because of doubtful Records among the Heathen, to make a doubt of the fixedness of this time, which an Angel of the Lord hath pointed out with so much exactness."  (Works, 1st. Ed., Vol. 1; Chronology, p. 136)

"[C]hrist now hath three years and a half to live, and to be a publick Minister of the Gospel, as the angel Gabriel had told, Dan. 9.27. that in half of the last sevens of the years there named, he should confirm the Covenant:  R. Jochanan saith, Three years and an half the Divine Glory stood upon the Mount of Olives and cried, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Midr. Till. fol. 10. col. 4." ([1654] Works, 1st. Ed., Vol. 1; Harmony, p. 10)

"The Jews speaks of divers ominous things that occurred fourty years before the destruction of the City; As it is a tradition that fourty years before the Sanctuary was destroyed the Western Lamp went out, and the scarlet list kept its redness, and the Lords lot came up on the left hand.  And they locked up the Temple doors at even, yet when they rose in the morning they found them open.  Jerus. in Joma fol.43.col.3. And, Sanhedr. fol.18.col.1.  Fourty years before the Temple was destroyed, power of judging in capital matters was taken away from Israel: Now there are some that reckon but thirty eight years between the death of Christ and the destruction of the City; and if that be so, then these ominous presages occurred this year that we are upon.   It being just fourty years, by that account, from this Passover at which Christ healeth the diseased man at Bethesda, to the time of Titus his pitching him Camp and siege about Jerusalem, which was at Passover."  (Works, 1st. Ed., Vol. 1; Harmony, p. 21)

     The aim of his speech, or, to what time and purpose it refers, may be discerned by the question of the Disciples, to which it is an answer.  When shall these things be, viz. that one stone of the Temple shall not be left upon another?  Mark 13.4 Luke 21.7. and so it relates plainly to the destruction of the Temple and City.  But Matthew hath added; And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? from whence it is conceived by some, that the speech doth aim at the end of the world, and Christs last coming unto judgment.  It is true indeed that the close of his speech in Matthew 24 doth speak plainly of the last judgment, and that many of those terrible things mentioned, Matt. 24. may very well typifie the terrours of the last day, but the prime and proper scope of the speech in that 24th. Chapter, is to set forth the destruction of Jerusalem, and the rejection and misery of the Jewish nation; as may be observed by these particulars.

     1. Because in Matth. 24.15, 16.  He points directly to time and place, when and where these things shall be, viz. when the Temple shall be profaned, then these things come, &c..

     2.  Especially consider ver.34. Verily I say unto you; this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.  This generation, not meaning  Generatio Evangelica, as some do harshly interpret it, but as it means in Matth. 23.36.  Luke 11.31,32. and abundance of other places in the New Testament, the generation then in being.

     3.  The destruction of Jerusalem, is phrased in Scripture as the destruction of the whole world, Jer. 4.23. Isa. 65.17. and Christ coming to her in judgment, as his coming to the last judgment, Matth. 17.28. John 21.22. Math. 19.28. Rev. 1:7, &c.

     Therefore those dreadful things spoken of in ver. 29,30,31. are but borrowed expressions to set forth the terrors of that judgment the more.  Ver. 29. The Sun shall be darkened, &c. shew the decay of all glory, excellency and prosperity in that Nation, and the coming in of all sadness, misery and confusion: as Isa. 13.10. Joel. 2.10. Ver. 30. Then shall they see the sign of the Son of man, &c.  Not any visible appearance of Christ, or of the cross in the clouds [as some have imagined,] but whereas the Jews would not own Christ before for the Son of man, or for the Messias, then by the vengeance that he should execute upon them, they and all the world should see an evident sign, that he was so.  This therefore is called his coming, and his coming in his kingdom, Matth. 17.28. because this did first declare his power, glory, and victory on that nation that had despised him.  Ver. 31 He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet, &c.. that is, his Ministers with the Trumpet of the Gospel, to fetch in his elect from among the Gentiles when the JEws were now destroyed and cast off.  And the false Christs, and false Prophets that should arise, ver. 5.24. arose in that Nation in those last days of it, as is abundantly evident both in the New Testament, and in Josephus : And those wars and rumors of wars, and Nation rising against Nation, &c. ver. 6,7. were accomplished not only in the horrid civil wars among the Jews, but also in the great concussions in Roman Empire, in the wars betwixt Otho and Vitellius, and betwixt Vitellius and Vespasian, [of which the Roman Historians, especially Tacitus is very large] the like to which, there had not been before, even to the sacking of Rome itself, and the burning of the Capitol."

SECTION LXXXIII.

"As to the later, the meaning of Christ in the words, I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine, &c. is, that the Kingdom of God was no so near, that this was the last meat and drink, or the last meal that he was to have, before that came.  By the Kingdom of God, meaning his resurrection and forward, when God by him had conquered death, Satan and Hell." (p. 271)

SECTION LXXXVI.

"Caiaphas adjures him to tell whether he was the Christ or no, he confesseth, and withal tells them that the time should come that they should find the truth of this by experience, when he should shew his power and vengeance in his judgment against them, and their City, coming in clouds, &c." (p. 263)

The Chronicle and Order of the Acts of the Apostles; The  Epistles, and the Revelation. 

"His alleadging of Joel, In the last daies I will pour out my Spirit, &c. teacheth us how to construe the phrase, The last daies, in exceeding many places both of the Old Testament and the New, as Isa. 2.1. I Tim. 4.1. and 2 Tim. 3.1. I Pet. 4.7. I Joh. 2.19, &c. namely for the last daies of Jerusalem and the Jewish State.  For to take his words in any other sense [as some do for the last daies of the world] is to make his allegation utterly impertinent and monstrous." (p. 276)

"He saith, The wrath is come upon them to the utmost: which whether it mean passively, that the wreath of God law so heavy upon them, or actively, that in their vexation and anger against the Gentiles, that was come upon them, that was foretold for a plague to them, Deut. 32.21 it sheweth that that Nation was now become unrecoverable : and so he looks upon it as the Antichrist in the next Epistle.." (p. 296)

(On the Day of the Lord)
"They went about to perplex the mind of these converts with urging how near the day of the Lord was.  The Scripture, and the Apostle had spoken of the day of the Lords coming, when he should come to take vengeance of the Jewish Nation for their wickedness and unbelief : and these would terrifie this Church with inculcating the nearness of it, pretending for this, partly revelation, and partly the words or writing of the Apostle.  The aim in this terror was to amaze the new believers and to puzzle them about what to hold, and what to do in that sad time, which they pretended was ready to fall upon their heads.  The Apostle resolves that there was some good space of time to be before, for there was to be a falling away, and the man of sin to be revealed." (p. 296)

(On the Mystery of Iniquity)
"the mystery of iniquity was already working when the Apostle wrote this Epistle, which cannot possibly be understood but of the Jewish Nation, and so it is explained again and again, I John 2.18. & 4.3. & 2 Joh. 2.7., &c.  The several characters that the Apostle gives of the Man of sin, agree most thoroughly to that generation and Nation, and so the Scripture plainly applies them to it."" (p. 296)

(On 2 Thess. 2:6-7)
"The Jews at this mastery were the busiest men of any, and that mystery of iniquity was ever working, but could not strike their full stroke, because something hindred, 2 Thess. 2.6,7.  If he that hindered were Claudius, who by his expulsion of the Jews out of Rome, shewed a frown upon the whole Nation, and suffered them not to rage as they would have done, he was taken away about ten years ago; and they felt their chain much slackned at the coming in of Nero : who in his best years, though he broke not out to destroy all before him, as he did afterward, yet was he destructive enough to Christianity, as we have observed, and loose and careless of the administration of affairs, and regarded not how things went, so that he might have his ease, luxury and pleasure, which his Tutors Seneca and Burrhus made but unworthy advantage of.  But now that he himself hath given so visible, bloody and cursed an example, the Jews that stood barking at their chain-end all this while, finding themselves so far let loose as such an example might loose them, which was too far, would fall on without mercy.  They had been mischievous enough always against the professors of the Gospel, but from hence forward they exceeded, and the more they grew toward their desolation, the more did the Devil make them bestir themselves, knowing the shortness of his time there." (p. 334)

(On Matthew 24:7-9)
"The Wars of the Jews are now drawing on apace [for they began the next year] and the horrid Civil Wars of the Romans are not far off.  So that here we may properly take notice of that prediction ready now to take place.  Matth. 24.7,8,9.  Nation shall rise against Nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom, &c.   All these are the beginning of sorrows.  Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and then shall they kill you : which Luke hath expressed, But before all these, shall they lay their hands upon you, and persecute you, Luk. 21.12. which seemeth to carry some difference, as if the one Evangelist shewed, that the persecution of the Disciples to death, should be before these troubles ; and the other, as if they should not be till these troubles were begun :  But they may be well reconciled by observing that in the words that Christ is here speaking in both Evangelists, there is the intertexture of two stories, namely what miseries should befal the Jewish Nation before their ruine, and what misteries should befal the Disciples in the middest of those miseries : and so the word Then in Matthew, and Before in Luke, are but as a transition from the one history to the other : and yet they are not unsignificant neither, as to the pointing out of the time, the one speaking the beginning of that persecution foretold, and the other the continuance.

A fitter period of time whence to begin the punctual taking  place of that prediction, we can hardly point out, then this very year that we are upon, a center between two critical years : the year before beginning the persecution of Christians at Rome,  and the year following beginning the Wars of the Jews in Judea." (p. 335)

(On the Dating of First Peter)
"Although we cannot positively assert the very time of the writing of THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER : yet observing the Chronical hint of some passages in it, this year may as fairly lay claim thereunto, as any other year that can be asserted.  For, to omit that clause Chap. 4.7. The end of all things is at hand [referring to the desolating of the Jewish Commonwealth and Nation] the mention of the fiery trial, ver. 12. and the time now come when Judgment must begin at the house of God, ver. 17. is but as a comment and accomplishment of that prediction before alledged, Then shall they deliver up to be afflicted, &c..  It is true indeed, that the Church had never wanted persecution since the Gospel arose, and some for its sake had suffered death, as Steven and some at that time, the two Jameses, and some at the tim eof both their deaths ; but in the Countries out of Judea, where the stroke of their Sanhedrin could not reach so weel, nor light so heavy, there was tumultuousness indeed enough, and beating and bitterness against it, but rare effusion of blood, till the cursed example set last year by the Tyrant at Rome, and now forward in the confulsions of the Jewish Nation ; when a madness was come upon them among themselves, and a desperate fury against all that would not be as they were.  And that not only in Judea the seat of the War, but even through the whole world as far as they durst, and were able to stir.  Those words of Dion are very remarkable when speaking of the siege of Jerusalem  by Titus, he saith, That the Jews that were in forraign Countries, not only within the Roman Empire, but also without, did send help to their brethren in Judea, lib. 66." (p. 335)

(On AD70 as picture of Baptism)
"He magnifieth Baptism as a badge and pledge of preservation of those that had received it, and stuck to it, from that vengeance that was coming upon that wicked Nation, Chap. 3.21.  It is something a strange recoyling that he makes, leaping back from the mention of the death of Christ, ver. 18. over all the story of the Old Testament, and lighteth on the generation that was swept away by the flood : and sheweth how Christs spirit preached unto them.  Why?  had not the same Spirit preached in all the times between?  Why are not those times named then as well as these?  Because the Apostle doth purposely intend to compare that old world then destroyed, with the destruction of the Jewish Nation shortly coming : and to shew that as Noah and his family were then saved by water, ver. 20.  so, they that had received Baptism were the Antitype to that, and Baptism was a pledge and means of their deliverance now, they sticking closely to it.  ANd this very thing John the Baptist taught in that question, Who hath forewarned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Therefore when he calls An asking of a good Conscience toward or after God, he makes not this its definition as if none but those so qualified were to be baptized, but he characters its difference from Circumcision, which put away the filth of the flesh in one sense ; and Legal and Pharisaical washings which did it in another.  His whole comparison runs to this tenour : The old world was disobedient to the Spirit of Christ preaching in the mouth of Noah, and therefore they perished.  The Jews [who state the Scripture also calleth an old world] were disobedient to Christ preaching by his Spirit in the mouth of his Apostles, and even visibly and audibly in his own person, therefore, they must needs perish : but Noah and his family that harkeneth after God [whilst others said to the Lord Depart from us, Job. 22.16,17.] were preserved by water " Even so doth Baptism now preserve us, the Antitype of that figure.  For Baptism was not barely a washing of the body from filth, as the common Legal washings were, but it was an owning and asking after God, conscienciously, out from a perverse and wicked generation : and therefore not to be started or revolted from.  This then being one end of Baptism, and that end taught to them that assumed it, viz. to badge and mark to safety from the approaching vengeance, it may very well raise an argument for Infants Baptism [whereas this text is commonly produced against it:]  for if these parents that came in to be baptized, sought hereby to flee from the wrath to come, they would be carefull to bring their children under the same badge of security.

When  he judgeth those that perished in the waters of Noah to be now in prison, ver. 19. he knew he had the consent of his Nation in it " for thus they say in Sanhedr. per. 10. halac.3. The generation of the flood have no portion in the world to come : neither shall they stand up in Judgment; for it is said, My Spirit shall no more judge with man, Gen. 6.3.  Peter teacheth us that the Spirit that strove with the old world, was the Spirit of Messias." (p. 336)

"The abomination of desolationhad now begun to stand in the holy place, Matth. 24.15. when the Temple is made a Garrison, and filled with slaughter ; Antonia, the Castle of the Temple, beseiged, taken, and the Roman Garrison put to the sword.  The Tabernae, or part of the buildings at the East wall of the mountain of the House [the place were the Sanhedrin had once sitten,] fired and burnt down.  Jerus. in Peah. fol. 16. col.3. And in a word, the Temple from this time forwards, never but a Garrison, and full of slaughter and confusion till it be raked up in ashes." (p. 337)

"Now it was time for those that were in Judea, who believed Christs prediction, to get into the Mountains, and to shift for themselves, for now begins the tribulation beyond parallel, such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor ever must again, Matth. 24.21.  It is commonly asserted that the Christians fled to Pella a City beyond Jordan : Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 5. which how to reconcile with Josephus, who saith Pella was one of the Cities that the Jews destroyed in avengement of the slaughter of the 20000 in Caesarea, De Bell. lib. 2. cap. 33.  let the Learned find." (p. 337)

"About these times therefore we may well conceive to have been the writing of THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER.  And that the rather from what speaks in Chap. I. ver. 14.  I know that I must shortly put off this tabernacle, as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.  In which words, his thoughts reflect upon what Christ had spoken to John and him about their ends, John 21. where he not only gave intimation to Peter that he should be Martyred, ver. 18. but that he should be so, before his coming in Judgment against Jerusalem, which John must live to see, but he must not, ver. 22.  He therefore in Babylon, understanding how affairs went in Judea and with the Jewish Nation all thereabout, and reading therein, from the words of his Mater, Matth. 24. that the desolation was drawing on apace, concludes that his time was not long : and therefore improves the time he hath remaining the best he can, not only in teaching those amongst whom he was, but by writing this Epistle instructeth those that were remote and at distance from him ; in which he doth more especially give them caution against false teachers : and characters the terrour of the judgment coming, and exhorts to vigilancy and holiness." (p. 338)

"He sets forth the destruction of that cursed Nation and their City in those terms that Christ had done, Matt. 24. and that the Scripture doth elsewhere, Deut. 32.22,23.24. Jer. 4.23. namely as the destruction of the whole world, The heavens passing away, the elements melting, and the earth burnt up, &c.  And accordingly speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, from Isa. 65.17. a new state of the Church under the Gospel among the Gentiles, when this old world of the Jews state should be dissolved." (p. 338)

THE

REVELATION

OF

JOHN.

"AS it will be easily admitted to place this Book last of all the New Testament, because it stands so in all Bibles, so on the other hand it will be cavilled at, that I have brought in the writing of it so soon, as before the fall of Jerusalem, since it hath been on old and commonly held, that it was penned in the reign of Domitian, far after the times that we are upon : But the reasons by which I have been induced thereunto, will appear out of some passages in the Book it self as we go through it." (p. 340)

"The composure of the Book is much like Daniels in this, that it repeats one story over and over again, in varied and inlarged expressions : and exceeding like Ezekiel's in method and things spoken.  The style is very Prophetical, as to the things spoken ; and very Hebraizing, as to the speaking of them.  Exceeding much of the old Prophets language, and matter adduced to intimate new stories : and exceeding much of the Jews language, and allusion to their customs and opinions, thereby to speak the things more familiarly to be understood.  And as Ezekiel wrote concerning the ruine of Jerusalem, when the ruining of it was now begun, so I suppose doth John of the final destruction of it, when the Wars and miseries were now begun, when bred its destructions." (p. 340)

"He terms the Holy Ghost, the seven Spirits, according to the Jews common speech, who from Isa. 11.2. speak much of the seven Spirits of Messias : and speaking of Christ coming with clouds, Chap. 1.7. from Dan. 7.13. and from the words of Christ himself, Matth. 24.30.  He at once teacheth that he takes at Daniel, and speaks of Christs coming and reigning, when the four Monarchies were destroyed, and especially referreth to the first most visible evidence of his power and dominion, in coming to destroy his enemies the Jewish Nation, and their City.  And here is one reason that induceth me to suppose this Book written, before that City was destroyed." (Works, Vol. I. p. 341)

"He seeth Christ inthroned in the middle of his Church, in the same Prophetick and visionary Embleme that Ezekiel had seen, Ezek. I. & 10. and this is a commentary and fulfilling of that scene that Daniel speaketh of, Dan. 7.9, 01, 22. In Ezekiel, the Lord, when Jerusalem was now to be destroyed, and the glory of the Lord that used to be there, and the people were to flit into antother Land, appeareth so inthroned, as sitting in Judgment and flitting away by degrees to another place : as compare Ezek. I. & 10. well together.  So Christ here ; when the destruction of Jerusalem was now near at hand, and his glory and presence to remove from that Nation, now given up to unbelief and obduration, to reside among the Gentiles, he is seated upon his throne as Judge and King with glorious attendance, to judge that Nation for their sins and unbelief, and stating the affairs of his Church wither his glory was now removing." (p. 342)

"REVEL. CHAP. VI.

THE opening of the six Seals in this Chapter, speaks the ruine and rejection of the Jewish Nation, and the desolation of their City ; which is now very near at hand.

The first Seal opened, ver. 2. shews Christ setting forth in Battel array and avengement against them, as Psal. 45.4,5.  And this the New Testament speaketh very much and very highly of, one while calling it his coming in clouds, another while his coming in his Kingdom, and sometime his coming in Power and great Glory, and the like.  Because his plagueing and destroying of the Nation that crucified him, that so much opposed and wrought mischief against the Gospel, was the first evidence that he gave in sight of all the world of his being Christ : for till then, he and his Gospel had been in humility, as I may say, as to the eyes of men, he persecuted whilest he was on Earth, and they persecuted after him, and no course taken with them that so used both, but now he awakes, shews himself, and makes himself known by the Judgment that he executeth.

The three next Seals opening, shew the means by which he did destroy, namely those three sad plagues that had been threatned so oft and so sore by the Prophets, Sword, Famine and Pestilence.  For

The second Seal opened sends out one upon a red Horse to take Peace from the Earth, and that men should destroy one another ; he carried a great Sword, ver. 4.

The third Seals opening speaks of Famine, when Corn for scarcity should be weighed like spicery in a pair of ballances, ver. 5,6.

The fourth Seal sends out one on a pale Horse whose name was Death [ the Chaldee very often expresseth the Plague or Pestilence by that word : and so it is to be taken Revel. 2.22. ] and Hell or Hades comes after him, ver. 8.

The opening of the fifth Seal reveals a main cause of the vengeance, namely the blood of the Saints which had been shed, crying, and which was to be required of that generation, Matth. 23. 35, 36.  These souls are said to cry from under the Altar, either in allusion to the blood of creature sacrificed, poured at the foot of the Altar, or according to the Jews tenet, That all just souls departed are under the Throne of Glory.  Answer to their cry is given, that the number of the Brethren that were to be slain was not yet fulfilled, and they must rest till that should be, and then avengement in their behalf would come.  This speaks sutable to that which we observed lately, that now times were begun of bitter persecution, an hour of temptation, Rev. 2. 10 & 3.10. the Jews and Devil raging, till the Lord should something cool that fury by the ruine of that people.

The opening of the sixth Seal, ver. 12,3. shews the destruction itself in those borrowed terms that the Scripture useth to express it by, namely as if it were the destruction of the whole world : as Matth. 24.29, 30.  The Sun darkened, the Stars falling, the Heaven departing and the Earth dissolved, and that conclusion ver. 16. They shall say to the rocks fall on us, &c. doth not only warrant, but even inforce us to understand and construe these things in the sense that we do : for Christ applies these very words to the very same thing, Luke 23.30.  And here is another, and, to me, a very satisfactory reason, why to place the shewing of these visions to John, and his writing of this Book before the desolation of Jerusalem.

REVEL. CHAP. VII.

IN the end of the former Chapter was contained the intimation of the desolation of Jerusalem, and in the beginning of this, the ceasing of Prophecie, under the similitude of the four winds restrained from blowing upon the Earth.  Compare Cant. 4.16. Ezek. 37.9.  only a remnant of Israel are sealed unto salvation, and not to perish by that restraint, and with them innumerable Gentiles.  Ezekiel helpeth here to confirm the explication that we have given of the Chapter before : for he hath the very like passage, upon the first destruction of the City, Ezek. 9. & 10. 11.  Compare the marking in the foreheads here, with Exod. 28.38. Dan is not mentioned among the Tribes in this place : Idolatry first began in that Tribe, Judg. 18. I King. 12" (pp. 342-343)

"THE opening of the seventh Seal lands us upon a new scene : as a new world began when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews cast off." (p. 343)

"REVEL. CHAP. XXI.

"THE Jerusalem from above described.  The phrase is used by Paul, Gal. 4.26. and it is used often by the Jews : Zohar fol. 120. col. 478.  Rabbi Aba saith, Luz is Jerusalem which is above, which the holy blessed God gives for a possession, where blessings are given by his hand in a pure Land : but to impure Land no blessings to be at all. Compare Revel. 21.27, & 22.15. Midras. Till. in Psal. 122. Jerusalem is built as a City that is compacted together.  R. Jochanan saith, The holy blessed God said, I will not go into Jerusalem that is above, until I have gone into Jerusalem that is below &c.

Ezekiels Jerusalem, as we observed, was of a double signification, namely as promising the rebuilding of the City after the Captivity, and foretelling of the spiritual Jerusalem, the Church under the Gospel, and that most especially : At that John taketh at here, and that is the Jerusalem that he describeth.  And from Isa. 65.17, 18. joyneth the creating new Heavens and a new Earth ; and so stateth the time of building this new Jerusalem, namely at the coming in of the Gospel, when all things are made new, 2 Cor. 5.17.  A new People, new Ordinences, new Oeconomy, and the old World of Israel dissolved. Though the desciption of this new City be placed last in the Book, yet the building of it was contemporary with the first things mentioned in it about the calling of the Gentiles.  When God pitched his Tabernacle amongst them, as he had done in the midst of Israel, Levit. 26.11, 12.  That Tabernacle is pitched in the fourth and fifth Chapters of this Book :  And now all tears wiped away and no more sorrow, death nor pain, vers. 4.  which if taken literally could refer to nothing but the happy estate in Heaven [of which the glory of this Jerusalem may indeed by a figure,] but here, as the other things are, it is to be taken mystically or spiritually, to mean the taking away the curse of the Law, and the sting of death and sin, &c. No condemnation to be to those that are in  Christ Jesus." (p. 355-356)

"He is commanded not to seal his Book, as Daniel was, Dan. 12.4. because the time of these things was instantly beginning, and Christs coming to reveal his glory in avengement upon the Jewish Nation and casting them off, and to take in the Gentiles in their stead was now at the door, within three and an half or thereabout to come, if we have conjectured the writing of this Book to its proper year.  There are two more of Nero, and one of confusion in the Roman Empire in the Wars of Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, and the next year year after Jerusalem falls." (p. 356)

"And thus if this Book of the Revelation were written last of the Books of the New Testament, as by the consent of all it was, then may we say, Now was the whole will of God revealed and committed to writing, and from henceforth must Vision and Prophecie and Inspiration cease for ever." (p. 357)

PARERGON.

Concerning the FALL of

JERUSALEM,

AND

The Condition of the JEWS in that Land after.

BEING come so near to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, as that it is but three years and an half and a little more from the time we have concluded with unto it, and having so frequent occasion to mention that destruction, and vengeance upon that Nation, as we have had : It may not be amiss to drive so far further as to take a view of such a spectacle; not that we go about to write the History of their Wars and ruine, which were but to transcribe Josephus, who is in every mans hand, but to take a brief account of the times thither, and of the condition of the Nation in that Land afterward, the History of which is not altogether so obvious as the other : by both which we may not only see the performance of those threatenings of vengeance, that had been so abundantly given : but may the better judge wherein that vengeance did chiefly consist.

VOLUME TWO

(On I Peter 3:20,21)
"The receiving of John's baptism signed and fenced those that received it from the ruin that was just coming.  To this belongs that of St. Peter, Epist. 1. ch. 3:20,12 :in that manner as Noah and his sons were by water delivered from the flood, 'so as baptism now, the antitype of the type, saveth us' from THE DELUGE OF DIVINE INDIGNATION, which in a short time is to overflow the Jewish nation.  Think here, if those that came to baptism brought not their little ones with them to baptism: when, by the plain words of the Baptist, those that are baptized are said to 'fly from the wrath to come!' that is, 'the wrath of God,' that was not long hence to destroy the nation by a most sad overthrow" (Vol. 2, Page 78)

Exercitations upon the Gospel of St. Matthew

Chapter 24

1. And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.

[To shew him the buildings of the Temple.] "He that never saw the Temple of Herod never saw a fine building. What was it built of? Rabba saith, Of white and green marble. But some say, Of white, green, and spotted marble. He made the laver to sink and to rise" (that is, the walls were built winding in and out, or indented after the manner of waves), "being thus fitted to receive the plaster, which he intended to lay on; but the Rabbins said to him, 'O let it continue, for it is very beautiful to behold: for it is like the waves of the sea': and Bava Ben Buta made it so," &c. See there the story of Bava Ben Buta and Herod consulting about the rebuilding of the temple.

2. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

[There shall not be left one stone upon another.] The Talmudic Chronicles bear witness also to this saying, "On the ninth day of the month Ab the city of Jerusalem was ploughed up"; which Maimonides delivereth more at large: "On that ninth day of the month Ab, fatal for vengeance, the wicked Turnus Rufus, of the children of Edom, ploughed up the Temple, and the places about it, that that saying might be fulfilled, 'Sion shall be ploughed as a field.'" This Turnus Rufus, of great fame and infamy among the Jewish writers, without doubt is the same with Terentius Rufus, of whom Josephus speaks, Rufus was left general of the army by Titus; with commission, as it is probable, and as the Jews suppose, to destroy the city and Temple. Concerning which matter, thus again Josephus in the place before quoted, The emperor commanded them to dig up the whole city and the Temple. And a little after, "Thus those that digged it up laid all level, that it should never be inhabited, to be a witness to such as should come thither."

3. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

[And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?] What the apostles intended by these words is more clearly conceived by considering the opinion of that people concerning the times of the Messias. We will pick out this in a few words from Babylonian Sanhedrin.

"The tradition of the school of Elias: The righteous, whom the Holy Blessed God will raise up from the dead, shall not return again to their dust; as it is said, 'Whosoever shall be left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem shall be called holy, every one being written in the book of life.' As the Holy (God) liveth for ever, so they also shall live for ever. But if it be objected, What shall the righteous do in those years in which the Holy God will renew his world, as it is said, 'The Lord only shall be exalted in that day?' the answer is, That God will give them wings like an eagle, and they shall swim (or float) upon the face of the waters." Where the Gloss says thus; "The righteous, whom the Lord shall raise from the dead in the days of the Messiah, when they are restored to life, shall not again return to their dust, neither in the days of the Messiah, nor in the following age: but their flesh shall remain upon them till they return and live to eternity. And in those years, when God shall renew his world (or age), this world shall be wasted for a thousand years; were, then, shall those righteous men be in those years, when they shall not be buried in the earth?" To this you may also lay that very common phrase, the world to come; whereby is signified the days of the Messiah: of which we spoke a little at the thirty-second verse of the twelfth chapter: "If he shall obtain (the favour) to see the world to come, that is, the exaltation of Israel," namely, in the days of Messiah. "The Holy Blessed God saith to Israel, In this world you are afraid of transgressions; but in the world to come, when there shall be no evil affection, you shall be concerned only for the good which is laid up for you; as it is said, 'After this the children of Israel shall return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king,'" &c.; which clearly relate to the time of the Messiah. Again, "Saith the Holy Blessed God to Israel, 'In this world, because my messengers (sent to spy out the land) were flesh and blood, I decreed that they should not enter into the land: but in the world to come, I suddenly send to you my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before my face.'"

See here the doctrine of the Jews concerning the coming of the Messiah:

1. That at that time there shall be a resurrection of the just: The Messias shall raise up those that sleep in the dust.

2. Then shall follow the desolation of this world: This world shall be wasted a thousand years. Not that they imagined that a chaos, or confusion of all things, should last the thousand years; but that this world should end and a new one be introduced in that thousand years.

3. After which eternity should succeed.

From hence we easily understand the meaning of this question of the disciples:--

1. They know and own the present Messiah; and yet they ask, what shall be the signs of his coming?

2. But they do not ask the signs of his coming (as we believe of it) at the last day, to judge both the quick and the dead: but,

3. When he will come in the evidence and demonstration of the Messiah, raising up the dead, and ending this world, and introducing a new; as they had been taught in their schools concerning his coming.

7. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

[Nation shall rise against nation.] Besides the seditions of the Jews, made horridly bloody with their mutual slaughter, and other storms of war in the Roman empire from strangers, the commotions of Otho and Vitellius are particularly memorable, and those of Vitellius and Vespasian, whereby not only the whole empire was shaken, and the fortune of the empire changed with the change of the whole world, (they are the words of Tacitus), but Rome itself being made the scene of battle, and the prey of the soldiers, and the Capitol itself being reduced to ashes. Such throes the empire suffered, now bringing forth Vespasian to the throne, the scourge and vengeance of God upon the Jews.

9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

[Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted.] To this relate those words of 1 Peter 4:17, "The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God"; that is, the time foretold by our Saviour is now at hand, in which we are to be delivered up to persecution, &c. These words denote that persecution which the Jews, now near their ruin, stirred up almost everywhere against the professors of the gospel. They had indeed oppressed them hitherto on all sides, as far as they could, with slanders, rapines, whippings, stripes, &c. which these and such like places testify; 1 Thessalonians 2:14,15; Hebrews 10:33, &c. But there was something that put a rub in their way, that, as yet, they could not proceed to the utmost cruelty; "And now ye know what withholdeth"; which, I suppose, is to be understood of Claudius enraged at and curbing in the Jews. Who being taken out of the way, and Nero, after his first five years, suffering all things to be turned topsy turvy, the Jews now breathing their last (and Satan therefore breathing his last effects in them, because their time was short), they broke out into slaughter beyond measure, and into a most bloody persecution: which I wonder is not set in the front of the ten persecutions by ecclesiastical writers. This is called by Peter (who himself also at last suffered in it) a fiery trial; by Christ, dictating the epistles to the seven churches, tribulation for ten days; and the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world of Christians. And this is "the revelation of that wicked one" St. Paul speaks of, now in lively, that is, in bloody colours, openly declaring himself Antichrist, the enemy of Christ. In that persecution James suffered at Jerusalem, Peter in Babylon, and Antipas at Pergamus, and others, as it is probable, in not a few other places. Hence, Revelation 6:11,12 (where the state of the Jewish nation is delivered under the type of six seals), they are slain, who were to be slain for the testimony of the gospel under the fifth seal; and immediately under the sixth followed the ruin of the nation.

12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

[The love of many shall wax cold.] These words relate to that horrid apostasy which prevailed everywhere in the Jewish churches that had received the gospel. See 2 Thessalonians 2:3, &c.; Galatians 3:1; 1 Timothy 1:15, &c.

14. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.