Matthew 24

Matthew 24:1

In this chapter one letter, 1. The prophets of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the utter ruin of the Jewish church and nation, which was now beginning on, and was dissipated about forty years after; the prophets to their destruction, and this greatness of it; yet looking further to Christ’s coming at the end of time, and the implementation of all things, of which that was it upon and figure, ver. 4—31. 2. The practical application of this prophets for the monitoring and quacking of his disciples to prepare for their great and useful things, ver. 32—31.

1. AND Jesus went out, and departed from the temple; and his disciples came to him for to take the new him the buildings of the temple. 2. And Jesus said

v. Chap. in v. Rev. in vi. Luke see, 6b.

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.

2. Having foretold the defoliations of Zion, Christ took his left farewell of the temple: devoted walls, and went out to return no more. On his departing we are told the conversation that passed between Jesus and his disciples. They were astonished probably at his prediction, perhaps incredulous of its fulfilment, and begged him a moment to behold the magnificent structure, and view the strength and beauty of the fabric. Trashured with national prejudices, they found to have been over-pleased with the outward glory of the building, and thought with regret of its defoliations; but Christ, so far from reversing the fortrence, more awfully confirms it, decreeing its utter and irrecoverable ruin; so that not even one stone should be left upon another; which, by the concurring testimony of inflections, was literally fulfilled, and the very ground ploughed up where the temple stood. Nate, We are not age to look upon outward grandeur with the eye of sense, and to be influenced by the pomp and glory of the world; but the eye of faith sees the vanity of every thing below the sun, and looks above it for all that is truly great, and permanently glorious.

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? 4. And Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘Take heed that no man deceive you. 5. For ‘many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and ‘shall deceive many. 6. And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7. For ’nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be ‘famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. 8. All these are the beginning of Sorrows. 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. 10. And then ‘shall many be offended, and ‘shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11. ‘And many false prophets shall rise, ‘and shall deceive many. 12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13. ‘But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 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. 15. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of defoliation, ‘spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (‘whose readeth, let him understand) 16. Then set them which be in Judea, ‘see into the mountains. 17. Let him which is on the baside top, not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19. And ‘wo unto them that are with child, and to them that give such in those days. 20. But pray ye that your flight be not in the water, neither on the sabbath-day: 21. For ’then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22. And except those days should be thorned, there should no flesh be saved: ‘but for the elect’s sake those days shall be thorned. 23. ‘Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or, there; believe it not. 24. For there shall arise false christ, and ‘false prophets, and ‘shall shew great signs and wonders, informeth that (‘if it were possible) they shall deceive the very elect. 25. Behold, I have told you before. 26. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you: Behold, he is in the desert, go, not forth: Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. 27. ‘For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and throeth even unto the west: So shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 28. For ‘wherefore the cascade is, there will the eagles be gathered together. 29. ‘Immediately after the tribulation of those days, ‘shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. 30. And ’then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and ’then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and ’then shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and ‘great glory. 31. And ‘he shall

send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matthew 24:3-31

Ascending the mount of Olives, opposite to which the temple stood full in view, the disciples, as he sat there, came privately unto him, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? the destruction of the city and temple: and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? Ascending to their rooted prejudices they seem still to have expected him to appear as a glorious temporal Messiah; and by his coming, meant not his appearing in the day of judgment; or, by the end of the world, the final consummation of all things; but rather, the end of the present age, and the period of the Jewish ceremony; supposing it probable, that the destruction of the temple would pave the way for the erection of another for more magnificent, when in all the pomp of earthly majesty he would appear, and they should be highly advanced in that universal kingdom they expected him to establish. They were very solicitous therefore to be informed of the signs which should usher him to the throes; and Jesus, to caution them against delusion, to rectify their mistakes, and to caution them in the facts when they should see the predictions accomplished, answers their questions.

1. He cautions his disciples against deceivers. Having rejected the true Messiah, yet impatient for the temporal deliverance they expected from him, the Jews were upon to receive every pretender who sat up in his name; and to the false Christ and false prophets who should arise, were they guilty to be given up, who so obstinately and wickedly had rejected the true. They must pay no regard to the pretensions of these delusions, and turn a deaf ear to their enlistres, who say, Christ as in the desert, or hid in some secret chamber, and ready to appear. Nor are they to be believed, though they may do strange tests, and pretend to work miracles, which will impose upon the credulous. So powerfully indeed will the great seductor play off his illusions, that nothing but God’s effectual grace and excruciating promises could preserve even the elect from being deceived: but Christ, who had chester, would keep them; and therefore they must remember these cautions now given them in the day of temptation, (v. 25) which would set them on their guard, and preserve them from seduction. Nate, (1.) The devil and his instruments may do strange things to support the credit of his falling cause, and lying wonders may be wrought that may plague the incantions; but whatever would draw us from Christ must be rejected with abhorrence. (2.) It is the comfort of Christ’s real disciples, that it is not possible they should be fatally or finally deceived. (3.) Novel pretensions and opinions in matters of religion are ever to be suspected: there cannot be a news, or another gospel. (4.) We are kept by the power of God unto salvation, yet are warned to be on our guard, as if we were to keep ourselves. He who hath ordained the end, hath also appointed the means.

2. Wars and rumours of wars will precede the threatened destruction. By instructions and seduances against the Roman government in Judea, thousandth miserably perished, which in-define commotions and daughters among themselves prepared the way for their final destruction, when, on their last revolt, the Romans marched their armies to believe and utterly ruin their city and nation. Yet Christ warns his disciples not to be discouraged by these things, so as to dissuasiness their preaching, or be terrified in their minds; for these things must seek some to pass, but the end is not yet; the Jews shall be spared a little longer, to experience other judgments. Nate, (1.) The ravages of war make dreadful work; we cannot but tremble at the alarm; though where the heart is dead on the rock of ages, we shall not be troubled. Nature will thunder, but faith can raise us above our fears. (2.) God’s decrees are unchangeable. What he hath ordained, must come to pass; and this should quiet our minds, and silence our mournings: we know he doth all things well.

3. Another sign he gives them of the approaching defoliation. Nation shall rise to against nation, the great commotions being in the Roman empire between the commanders for sovereignty; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places; all which came to pass before the destruction of Jerusalem; and are called the beginnings of Sorrows; being but the prelude to the pains in which the should expire, as all the temporal judgments which light upon the heads of insects, are but the beginnings of Sorrows, inconceivably bitter as they are spelled.

4. He held them expect a fiery persecution. Far from standing high in the earthly kingdom, with which they hastened themselves, nothing but hostile, unprisonment, and death in all its most terrible forms, awaited them; buted both of Jews and Gentiles for the sake of Christ, and his gospel which they preached. And these tryingless words have awful effects on many who before professed the faith of Jesus, but now, when the cross lay in heaven, would be offended, and apathetic; for suffering these are the Jews for hypocrisy, whose fair profession them is quickly blamed. They studiously seek occasions to quarrel

to with religion, and then revolt from it, content to be Christians only as long as it cofts them neither the lofs of safe, inter-reft, or honour; and as apoftates usually turn the bitterest perfecutors, by such false brethren they should be betrayed, and hated with uncommon malignity. Through the concurrence of foch suchsthalnefs amongst profetors, foch comity in their perfecutors, and foch defuding and feducing teachers as would arise, iniquity would peculiarly abound; and, as the consequences of it, the love of many should woe reld. Though perfection would make the flame burn fiercer in fome, many would be glad to foch a shelter from the flame by concealing their profetion, or falling into decays, into feclts and parties, lofe the vital warmth and power of godlinefs, at leaft for a time: for fouls truly alive to God may under temptation suffer much, and, like trees in winter, it cannot be known whether they will ever fering again; but where there is full grace in the heart, there will be a revival, and a return to their first love. But for the comfort of those who approve themselves faithful to these trying times, they shall be saved. The remnant according to the election of grace shall not perift in the furnace of adverftsy, but either comfortably survive their troubles in this world, or have a more abundant recompense in that which is eternal.

5. Namenthstanding all their fufferings, this gofsel of the kingdom, that points the way to the kingdom of grace and of glory, shall be preached in all the world, to which their very perfecutions eminently contributed, (Acts viii. 1-4.) the apolitan and others carrying the glad tidings into all the kingdoms under the Roman empire, and probably beyond its limits, (Col. i. 6, 23.) for a untrufi to all nations, of pardon and peace to those who believed, and as a teftonony against those who perfthed in their infidelity. And all this was done within forty years after our Lord’s afcension, and before Jerufalem was deftroyed, and is mentioned as the laft fign of its approaching ruin.

6. Having foretold the figns of the times, our Lord proceeds to inform them of the immediate causes of the defruction, and to direct them how to act when the defolation came up as a flood. They would for the abomination of defolation; the Roman armies compafting their city and the holy place, with flundards flying, on which they have the images of their gods fo hateful to the Jewish nation; and then whosoever read the prophet Daniel, would fee by the event his profetition verified. When this was the cafe, then it was high time for them to flee, and leave the devomed city and country; betaking themselves to the mountains for concealment from the ravages of the invaders. And when the danger was fo near and urgent, not a moment was to be laid: they muft not go into their house, if walking on its roof, to pack up their goods, nor return from the field to carry off their cloaths; but, as they were, inftantly flee for their lives to fome place of fafery, as we are told the Christians immediately did to Pella, on the approach of the Roman army. In this feafon of deftrefs fome will be found in circumftances peculiarly melancholy and grievous: even fouls as are taith child, and grue fouls, which fight will be hereby greatly retarded, and it will be more difficult for them to escape. Also they had need pray, that their fights might not be in the winter, when the incitmentry of the weather and depth of the roads would increafs their calamity; nor on the fathath-day, when many, who fill were attached to the rigid obfervance of that day, would be throughout of travelling, or when the Jews would prevent their journey as contrary to the law. But flee they muft, for in the city Jerufalem during the finge there would be fouls a fceene of misery, horror, and diftrefs, as never before was known, nor ever fhall be, till the time of the consummation of all things; fo that should thefe calamities continue, not one of the Jewish nation would be left. But God having yet a remnant among them, according to the election of grace, and from the defecedants of those who should escape the fword, defigning in fome future day to raifs up a people for himself; be therefore hath fportred thefe calamities days, not dealing with them in that rigour they deferved, but foe his elaft’s lake fparing them from an utter extirpation. Now, (1.) In days of tribulation, when God opens a door of escape, we muft thankfully embrace the opportunity. Though we may never fly from duty, we muft not expoft oerfelves to unnecessary danger. (2.) Delays are dangerous; efpenially where our fouls are at flake. The prefont moment only is affeued us to flee for refuge to the mountain of a flavour’s grace. (3.) At the worst of times, and in the worst of places, God hath a few, and for their fakes be is gracioufy pleased to fhorren the days of calamity. The man of this wicked world little think how much they are indebted to those whom they often deftfe and abhor.

7. He adds a repeated caution against deceivers, whose fallacious prunises in thefe calamities times would be more milly credited; and pretending to come as the Meftah to refuse the Jewish nation from the Roman yeses, would find many really to receive them, and willing to be defuded with the leaft shadow of hope: and thefe pretended figns and wonders would have a great effect on multitudes; but they muft remember this warning, and reject all thefe impellers.

8. He adores them the ruin of Jerufalem and the Jewish nation should be fudden, irrefiffible, and awful, as when the leaft

of lightning darts from the cloud. And as eagles by their quick fcent discover and fitne the carcafe, fo should the Romans, bearing the figure of eagles on their flundards, furtround the city as a corpfe to be devoured by them, and through the land hunt out, teiae, and deftroy this devoured people.

Some fuppede there is a reference here to the fwit fpreading of the gofsel through the world, as a light from heaven illuminating the earth, breaking through the clouds of darknefs and fupertition, fenn fu and wide, stranded with moft amazing fuccefs, when immanerable converts eagerly flocked to Chrift, as eagles to the carcafe, which was indeed the caft, but the former fenfe feems to be principally intended.

9. The utter ruin of the occlifeflicted and civil flate of the Jewish nation will then immediately restue. All their glory will depart, all their temple fervice exafe, their entire difperfion be accomplished; metaphorically represented by a tend dire ptilyfe of all the luminaries of heaven, and by a diflution of the very frame of nature. Then will the Meftah, whom they have rejected, appear to execute the threatened vengeance upon them; and all their tribes with depeft anguift and diftrefs will too late mourn their infidelity, and feel the weight of that blood they imprezated on their heads.

Ladly, On this final ruin of Jerufalem, the angels of the churches, Chrift’s minifters, fhall blow the gofsel-trumpet, and fpread its awful pleading found throughout the earth, which, accompanied with the demonftration of the fipets and power, will be made effectual to the conversion of all the eleft of God thro’ the whole earth: and this gofsel will continue to be preached till the end of time, when he fhall have accomplished their number; and then fhall be be revealed from heaven at the day of final judgment, of which this is the type and figure.

Though to this single event of the defruction of the Jewish people and nation, I incline to think this prophecy moft immediately applicable; yet probably there is alfo mentioned in it a strong reference to the more awful appearance of the great Judge of quicst and dead in the laft day, which coming will be ustbered in with the fame signs of wars, prflierces, famine, and earthquakes; whose gofsel will be firft fpread through all lands; and whose appearance will be fudden, unexpected, and terrible as the lightning; and then fhall all those things literally come to pass, which are here recorded. Before the brightnefs of his pretence fhall the fun and moon be darkred, the fters fall from their spheres, the elements moft, the heavens be wrapped together as a scroll, and the earth be consumed. With horror the guilty world, flareled from their flumbers and security, will behold the terrible Judge seated on his throne, furrounded by angelic hosts, the minifters of flame, who wait his orders, and execute his sentence. Too late with tears of anguift and despair they will bewail their inevitable misery, who had ever before resused to mourn in penitence their provocations. With power irrefiffible, and glory inconceivable, fhall the Son of man be revealed in clouds burning with vengeance against his foes, bright with restending beams of chearing light to gladden the hearts of his redeemed. Then every eye fhall see him, and from his lips repaid their irrevocable doom. Awakened from the duft by the laft trumpet’s bluff, around his throne fhall his eleft be gathered, cunosched by miniftring angels, whilft every holden glover with hoes, delight, and joy unfeasible and full of glory; and welcomed by their Lord, as those his grace hath elvolte, his power hath preserved, their eternal bliss fhall be secured; whilft they in wonder, love, and adoration how before him, with thankfulnefs unutterable own the sovereign favour, and ascribe to him done the everluffing pruse. Thruft from his pretence, spenchless with guilt, covered with flame, the unbelievers, the impenitents, the hypocrisy, fhall then be consigned to their mansions of eternal horror, torment, and despair, and find the just but terrible reward of their deeds. Confider, sinful thal, ere that day comes, tose can dwell with devouring fire? who can dwell in everluffing burning?

32. • Now learn a parable of the fig-tree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: 33. So likewise ye, when ye fhall see all thefe things, know that it is near, ewe at the doors. 34. Verily I say unto you, * This generation fhall not pass, till all thefe things be fulsisled. 35. Heaven and earth fhall pass away, but my words fhall not pass away. 36. ¶ But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. 37. But as the days of Noe merv, fo fhall alfo the coming of the Son of man be. 38. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entred into the ark. 39. And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; fo fhall alfo the coming of the Son of man be. 40. Then fhall two be in the field, the one fhall be taken, and the other left. 41. Two women fhall be grinding at the mill,