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392

Mark XIII. 32.

Reflections on the Day of CHRIST's coming to Judgment. Sect. 162. felf, tho' fo much fuperior to them, but my Fa- [but my Father only.] Other alone, or the indwelling Godhead, from [MAT. XXIV. 36.] whom nothing can be concealed: And as he does not think fit to disclose it, let it be your Care to improve this Uncertainty, as an Engagement to the most diligent and conftant Preparation for its Coming.

29.

L

IMPROVEMENT.

ET us now raise our Comtemplations to that awful Day, when all that was figuratively spoken of the Deftruction of Jerufalem, thall be literally accomplished; and let us confider our own intimate Concern in it. Where will our Hope and Comfort, our Light, and our Safety be, Mat. xxiv. when the Sun fhall be darkened, and the Moon fhall not give her Light, when the Stars hall fall from Heaven, and the Powers of the Heavens fball be fhaken? Where indeed, unless the Almighty GOD, the Everlafting Jehovah, by whofe Voice they were created, and by whofe Hand they shall be dafhed in Pieces again, fhall condescend to be our Light, and our Salvation? (Pfal. xxvii. 1.) And if He indeed be fo, then we Luke xxi.28. may lift up our Heads with Joy; as knowing, that our compleat Redemp tion draweth nigh, even that long-expected Day, which, with all its folemn Horrors, has ftill been the brightest Object of our Faith and our Hopes.

Mat. xxiv. 30, 31.

Then shall the Son of Man indeed come in the Clouds of Heaven, with Power and great Glory, and fend his Angels to fummon his Elect, and to affemble them from one End of Heaven to the other: For the Lord bimfelf fhall defcend from Heaven with a Shout, with the Voice of the Archangel, and with the Trump of GOD. (1 Theff. iv. 16.) May we hear the Summons with Joy, and ftand in our Lot among his Chofen Mat. xiii. Ones! What tho' the Day and Seafon be unknown? It is enough for us that we know, that all these interpofing Days and Years, be they ever fo numerous, will at length be paft; for the Promife of the great Redeemer is our Security, and he will haften it in its Time. (Ifa. Ix. 22.)

32.

Ver. 31.

Thefe vifible Heavens fhall be rolled together as a Scroll, and the Earth fhall be removed out of its Place; but the fure Word of his Promife shall never pass away; even that Promife, which is engaged for the Salvation of his People. Let us often review it; let us firmly realize it to our Souls; and feeing we look for fuch Things, let us seriously confider what manner of Perfons we ought to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness, (2 Pet. iii. 11, 14.)

SECT.

The Coming of the Son of Man fhall be as the Days of Noah.

SECT. CLXIII.

Our LORD urges the Suddennefs of his Appearance, as an
Engagement to conftant Watchfulness, repeating feveral
Things which he had formerly faid on that Subject. Mat.
XXIV. 37, to the End. Mark XIII. 33, to the End.
Luke XXI. 34,----36.

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MAT. XXIV. 37.

393

Mat. XXIV.

37.

38

UR Lord having told them in the preced- Sect. 163. ing Words, that tho' the Time of his Appearance to the general Judgment was uncertain, yet the Deftruction of Jerufalem should happen before that Generation of Men was paffed away, went on with his Difcourfe, and added, But this I will in general inform you, that as fudden and unthought-of as the Deluge was, which came upon the World in the Days of Noah, fo unexpected and furprizing alfo fhall the Coming of the Son of Man, to execute his Vengeance, be. For as in the Days which were before the univerfal Deluge, they were fo inconfiderate and fecure, that they went on with all their usual Business, and spent their Time in Entertainments, eating and drinking, marrying Wives, and giving their Daughters in Marriage, thinking of nothing but prefent Indulgence and future Settlements in the World (a); and went on thus, in Contempt of every serious Admonition, even until the very Day that Noah entered into the Ark; And knew not, nor fufpected, that any Evil was approaching, till the Deluge came with an irrefiftible Violence, and bore them all away with a Torrent of Destruction: So alfo fhall the Coming of the Son of Man be, and

tho'

(a) They were eating and drinking, &c.] Dr. Woodward (in his Theory of the Earth, pag. 98.) thinks, these were modeft Expreffions, to fignify their giving themfelves up to all the Extravagancies of Riot and Luft; and Wolfius (in loc.) has moft learnedly proved, that gauerda is often used in a very criminal Senfe. But how great Reafon foever there may be to believe, that the Antediluvian Sinners did fo, thefe Words may be intended to exprefs no more, than the Security and Gaiety, with which they purfued the ufual Employments and Amufements of Life, when they were on the very Brink of utter Destruction.

VOD. II.

Ddd

(b) Tw

39

394

We should take heed, he do not come upon us unawares : Sect. 163. tho' Men have been fo frequently and plainly warned of it, yet Multitudes shall be furprized Mat. XXIV. in an unprepared State. (Compare Luke xvii. 26, 27. pag, 189.)

39.

40

40 Then fhall Two be in

the Field, the one fhall be taken, and the other left:

41 Two Women Shall be

one fhall be taken, and the other left.

I formerly told you with relation to the Temporal Defolation of your Country, and I now repeat it; that of Two Men who shall then be at work together in the Field, the one fhall be 41 feized, and the other difmiffed (b) : And that of Two Women who shall be grinding Corn at the grinding at the Mill, the fame Mill, the one shall be feized, and the other difmiffed: (Compare Luke xvii. 35, 36. pag. 191.) And I may fay the like with refpect to this important Event; many who have been engaged in the fame Station and Employments, and moft intimately converfant with each other, fhall be found exceedingly different in their Characters and States; and fome of them fhall be made the Prisoners of Divine Juftice, while others shall not only be spared, but in a very fingular Manner favoured by GoD.

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LUKE XXI. 34. And take heed to yourselves, left at any Time your Hearts be overcharged with Surfeiting,

and

Powers

(b) Two fhall then be in the Field, &c.] Tho' in the Paraphrafe, for its better Connection, I have introduced thefe Words incidentally, and hinted how they may allufively be accommodated to the Day of Judgment; yet I doubt not, they originally refer to the Deftruction of Jerufalem, to which alone they are properly applicable. After this Paragraph, there is not a Word peculiar to that; but many Circumftances are introduced, which refer to the Day of Judgment, (and of Death, as tranfmitting to it,) and which can only be thus underflood. I therefore humbly conceive, that the grand Transition, about which Commentators are fo much divided, and fo generally miftaken, is made precifely after thefe Two Verfes. -Our Lord in the following Verfes of Matthew and Mark, directs their Thoughts to that final Solemnity, in which they are fo highly concerned, by repeating, almost in the fame Words, the Cautions and Advices he had formerly given Luke xii. 35, & feq. Sect 114. in which whole Context (as I there observed, Note (f), pag. 121.) there is no Reference to thole Temporal Calamities that were coming on the fews, which have been here the Subject of almoft the whole preceding Difcourfe. And the Remembrance of what had paffed on the former Occafion, might more eafily lead them into the diftinct understanding of what was now added. Tho' it may not be improper to recollect, that the fame pious Care in their Temper and Conduct, which would be a Preparative against National Judgments, and entitle them to the special Protection of Providence in them, would alfo fecure them from any unwelcome Surprize by a Call to the Tribunal of GOD.

(c) Your Hearts be overloaded.] The Word Buvo properly fignifies burthened, or preffed down; and fo, very elegantly and ftrongly exprefles the hateful Confequences of Intemperance, and the Load which it brings on thofe Rational Faculties, which are the Glory

of

For we know not the Hour when our Lord comes. and Drunkenness, and Cares of this Life, and fo that Day

come upon you unawares.

35 For as a Snare fhall it come on all them that dwell

on the Face of the whole Earth.

36 Watch ye therefore, [MAR. take ye heed,] and pray always; that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all thefe Things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man: [for ye know not [MAR. when the Time is,] or what Hour your Lord doth come. ] [MAT.XXIV. 42. MARK XIII. 33.]

Luke XXI.

395 Powers depreffed and ftupefied, by Gluttony and Se&t. 163. Drunkenness, or distracted with worldly and fecular Cares; and by this Means that awful and important Day of which I have been speaking, should34. come unexpected upon you. For the Character of 35 the Generality of Mankind at that Time will be fuch, that it shall come on the greatest Part of all them that dwell on the Face of the whole Earth (d), as a Snare upon a thoughtless Bird, which in the midst of its Security finds itself inextricably taken. (Compare Ecclef. ix. 12.) Let me therefore 36 addrefs this moft ferious Exhortation to you, with an Earneftnefs proportionable to its Importance, Watch ye against every Temptation to Negligence and Sin, take heed of every Thing which might lull you into a dangerous Security, and pray always with the moft fervent Importunity; that thro' Divine Grace you may be accounted worthy to escape all these calamitous and destructive Things, which shall affuredly come to pass just as I have defcribed them, and may be happily enabled, even in the Day of his univerfal Judgment, to ftand forth with Courage and Acceptance before the Son of Man (e); for you know not when the Time of him Appearance is, [or] at what Hour your Lord does come to fummon you before him.

But

of the Human Nature.The Reader will obferve, that Luke's Account of this Difcourfe is very fhort, in comparison with that of Matthew and Mark, for this obvious Reason; that he had given us the chief Heads of it before, partly in a Difcourfe of our Lord's laft Coming, which was delivered to a very numerous Affembly in Galilee, (Luke xii. 35,-48. Sect. 114.) and partly in another Difcourfe, relating only to the Destruction of Ferufalem, which was delivered in his Journey thither at the Feast of Dedication: (Luke xvii. 20,-37. Sect. 128.) Here therefore he chufes to omit what had been inferted on either of those Occafions; as John, who probably wrote after the Accomplishment of this Prophecy, entirely omits it, as already fo largely recorded by the former Three; from whom, confidering the Circumftance of Time, it came with infinitely better Grace, than it could afterwards have done from him.

(d) It fhall come on all them that dwell &c.] The Exhortations that are connected with this Claufe limit the Extent of the Word [all] to a confiderable Number; for were it to be taken otherwife, there could have been no Room to offer them.

(e) To ftand before the Son of Man.] I do not apprehend, that this is merely the Counterpart of efcaping the Things fpoken of before. There were Thousands of the Jews, that by one Providence or another efcaped Temporal Deftruction, who could with no Propriety be faid to stand before the Son of Man at his Coming. I have therefore paraphrafed this latter Claufe as an Advance upon the former, which gives this Context a greater Connection, and juster Distinction, than the Order in which moft Harmonies place thefe Verses.

Ddd 2

(f) Happy

Mat.XXIV. 43.

396 The faithful Servant shall be greatly Sect. 163. But this you know, and would do well to confider it, that if the Master of a Houfe that has at any Time been plundered by Robbers, had known exactly in what Watch of the Night the Thief would have come, he would undoubtedly have watched then; and would have taken Care to be provided for him, and not have fuffered his Houfe to be broke open, or have left the Thief to make. his Advantage by coming at an unexpected Time.. And therefore as it is of fo much greater Confequence that you should be prepared against an unfeasonable Surprize, be ye alfo ready, and learn from fuch a common Occurence to be upon your Guard; for I tell you again, that at an Hour when you think not of it, the Son of Man cometh; and Multitudes. of People will be as much furprized, as if they had never heard in their whole Lives, that he would come at all. (Compare Luke xii. 39, 40.. pag. 120.)

44

Mark XIII.

34.

Mat. XXIV.

45.

[For the Son of Man is] in this Refpect as a Man travelling to a diftant Country, who, as he was leaving his Houfe, gave Authority to his Head-Servants to direct and overfee the reft in their Bufinefs, and affigned to every Man in the Family his proper Work, and particularly commanded the Porter to watch, and to fee to it that the Doors were properly fecured, and ready to be opened to him at his Return.

And who now, do you my Apoftles fuppofe, is the faithful and prudent Servant, of whom his Lord has fo good an Opinion as to have appointed him Ruler over the reft of his Houfhold, to give them [their] proper Portion of Food in due SeaJon? You must eafily apprehend, that the Expreffion may with the utmoft Propriety be applied, to that high Office with which you are. invefted, and to the Confidence placed in your 46 Integrity and Wisdom. And to excite you to discharge this Office with the greatest Fidelity, let me add, Happy indeed is that Servant, whom kis Lord when he cometh, fhall find thus employed in the proper Duties of his important Office, diftributing to each his Portion in a proper Man

ner.

rewarded:

MAT. XXIV. 43. But know this, that if the Good

Man of the Houfe had known in what Watch the Thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have fuffered his House to be bro

ken up.

44 Therefore be ye allo

ready for in fuch an Hour as you think not, the Son of

Man cometh.

MARK XIII. 34: For the Son of Man is as a Man left his Houfe, and gave Autaking a far Journey, who thority to his Servants, and to every Man his Work, and commanded the Porter

to watch.

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