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at the moment, 40,000 legionaries are seen abandoning the standards that were to them as gods'; and binding on their helmets, and carving on their shields, the emblem, of all emblems the most marked by proverbial scorn, the unwarlike and abhorred sign of the punishment of a slave.

How is this to be accounted for, but by some supernatural impression, which impelled the troops to look upon the adoption of the Cross as the will, not of man, but of a Power to whom man is the dust of the balance? It might be done by a great celestial wonder, a Cross of glory flashing its lustres across the heavens, and showing irresistibly to all eyes and understandings, that the stigma of the Cross was no more. But by what demonstration less conspicuous and convincing Icould it be done?

But was the Divine interposition in the cause of Christianity now exhibited for the first time by phenomena in the skies?-A burst of divine glory had announced the birth at Bethlehem, and announced it to shepherds-a star had floated above the cradle of the mighty Infant, and been the guide to an obscure groupe of Chaldee pilgrims— A powerfully significant sign from Heaven had taught a solitary apostle, that the time was come

1 The Roman idols and effigies of the emperors were among the military standards, and they received worship. "Religio Romanorum Castrensis signa veneratur; signa jurat." (Tertull.)

for the conversion of the Gentiles-A pillar of divine flame had descended on a simple missionary of the Sanhedrin, on his way to Damascus, and prepared him for that career, of which its splendour and purity were the truest symbols. Was the conversion of a monarch, an army, and an empire, more unworthy of a Divine token, than the instruction of a prejudiced, or the rebuke of a persecuting, follower of the Law of Moses? It is remarkable that the greatest of the prophecies, the Apocalypse, which still cheers and enlightens the Christian world, reveals the first age of Christian triumph under the figure of a monarch riding forth to victory, with the Divine promise of "conquering and to conquer." But the Cross of Constantine possesses a still more direct distinction. It was the object of our Lord's personal prophecy; the evidence by which he was to proclaim the foundation of his kingdom.

As at the cessation of the Deluge, the pledge of Divine protection to the patriarchal church was given in the rainbow, the Sign of the Covenant of God; so at the close of that judgment which wrecked Judah, and was now to extinguish the empire of Paganism, the sign of protection to the Christian church was given in that Cross in heaven, which led the first Christian monarch to victory, and placed Christianity on the universal throne.

CHAPTER XLII.

THE SECOND ADVENT.

THE prophecy of the second coming of the Messiah, contained in the 24th chapter of St. Matthew, and the corresponding chapters of St. Mark and St. Luke', is so closely connected with the "Sign," and constitutes so distinct and wondrous an evidence of the prophetic power of our Lord, of his personal care for his disciples, and of the government exercised by him as providential King of the world, that it forms one of the most important portions of the whole science of the Scriptures. Its importance, however, has drawn upon it the misfortune of the most perplexing variety of interpretations. The whole prophecy has thus been, by some, conceived to limit itself to the destruction of Jerusalem; and by others, to mingle that destruction throughout with the final judgment. But all the interpretations end in wrapping the truth in heavier folds, and leaving the impression

'Mark xiii. Luke xxi.

on the reader, that this prophecy singularly deviates from the characteristic simplicity of Scripture.

Three hypotheses have been offered, to explain the portion of the prophecy peculiarly relating to the second advent; for the earlier portion is universally and justly referred to the fall of Jerusalem. By the first hypothesis, the coming of Christ and the convulsions of the heavens and earth, imply only the destruction of the Jewish state'. But this is refuted by the distinct declaration of the text, that those convulsions shall not exist until a period subsequent to the Jewish calamities. ("After the tribulation,” Mɛтɑ TMηv Xv.)-By the second, those convulsions are conceived to refer to the judgment and final destruction of the world. But this is equally overthrown by the text, which declares that they shall immediately succeed the close of the Jewish calamities. (Straightway, in direct succession, EVOEWS.)-By the third, the Jewish tribulation" is supposed to imply the whole interval from the fall of the state to the end of the world; the convulsions of the heavens implying the end of all things. But this, like the former, is overthrown

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Whitby, &c. Hammond conceives that there may be some emblematic reference to the final judgment.

2 This seems to have been the general opinion among the leading Fathers.

3

Bishop Horsley's daring hypothesis. In his usual style,

by the text; which declares that the Jewish "tribulation" there contemplated should close within a brief period, and that it was, in fact, so limited by the Divine hand, for the express safety of the Church existing in Judæa; a declaration obviously extinguishing all reference to the centuries which have elapsed since that Church ceased to exist, at the final fall of the nation under Hadrian.

The following interpretation of this great prophecy, formed on the combined statements of the three Evangelists, is proposed, as giving a view of its successive features, divested of their usual difficulties, and consistent with the general clearness of Scripture.

Matt. xxiii. 38, 39. Our Lord had concluded his public teaching in Jerusalem by a tremendous denunciation of Divine wrath on the Pharisees and the people. His last words were, that their Temple should be wholly desecrated once more

"Their House shall be left to them desolate,' and that he should never enter it again, as their Messiah, until a converted nation received him at his Second Coming, with shouts for "Him who cometh in the name of the Lord."

he cuts the knot. But this only involves him in stronger contradiction with the original.

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