save their lives, though they lose their goods, their clothes, and all things beside." From hence learn, 1. That when Almighty || God is pouring forth his fury upon a sinful people, it is lawful, yea a necessary duty, by flight to endeavour the hiding and sheltering themselves from the approaching calamity and desolation: When ye shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then flee to the mountains. 2. That in the case of flight before a bloody enemy and army, if we lose all that we have, and our lives be given us, we fare well, and the Lord deals very mercifully with us. 19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! 20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath-day. sold thirty for a penny. Now did the temple itself become a sacrifice, a whole burntoffering, and was consumed to ashes. Yet observe, Christ promises that these calamitous days shall be shortened for the elect's sake. God had a remnant, which he determined should survive this destruction, to be an holy seed; and accordingly the providence of God so ordered, that the city was taken in six months, and the whole country depopulated in eighteen. Whence observe, How the Lord intermixes some mercy with the extremest misery that doth befall a people for their sin. On this side hell, no sinners can say that they feel the strokes of justice to the utmost, or that they have judgment without mercy. 23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch 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. Here our Saviour declares the doleful distress of those that could not flee from the siege of Jerusalem; as women big with child, and such as give suck, who by that means are like to lose their lives. And he farther adds, that it should increase the calamity, if their flight should happen to be in the winter, when none can fly either fast or far; or if they should be forced to flee on the sabbath-day, when the Jews scrupled travelling farther than a sabThe Jews had all along cherished in bath-day's journey, which was about two miles. From thence learn, That it is themselves a vain expectation, that the proa great addition to the trouble and dis-mised Messiah should be a temporal deliquiet of a good man's spirit, when the verer, that should set them at liberty from day of his spiritual rest is interrupted, and the power and slavery of the Romans; and instead of enjoying communion with God accordingly Christ declares to his disciples in his house, he is driven from house and here, that immediately before Jerusalem's home, and flees before the face of an en-destruction, several persons, taking the raged enemy. Pray ye, says our Saviour, that your flight be not on the sabbath-day; that being a day of holy rest. 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 shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. advantage of this expectation, would make themselves heads of parties, and pretend that they were the true Messiah, who would save and deliver them from their enemies, if they would repair to them, and follow after them. Hereupon our Lord cautions his disciples against such false Christs and false prophets, and bids them believe them not, though they did never so many great signs and wonders, and promised them never such glorious deliverances. Learn hence, That the church's great danger is The doleful miseries and dreadful ca- from seducers that come in Christ's name, lamities which were coming upon the Jews and pretend to work signs and wonders by in general, and upon Jerusalem in parti- his authority. 2. That such is the power cular, are here foretold by our Saviour, of seduction and delusion, that many are partly from the Roman army without, and carried away with seducers and false teachpartly from the seditions and factions of ers. 3. That the elect themselves, if left the zealots within, who committed such out- unto themselves, might be seduced; but rages and slaughters, that there were no less divine power guards them against seducthan an hundred thousand slain, and ninety- tion and delusion: They shall deceive, if it seven thousand carried away captive, and were possible, the very elect. Which phrase made prisoners. They that bought our Sa-imports not what the event would be upon viour for thirty pence, were now themselves the elect, but the vehemency of the en deavours of seducers; namely, that they || would do the utmost that they could, to shock the Christian, and cause him to fall upon his steadfastness. wealth and prosperity shall be laid waste; the whole government, civil and ecclesiastical, destroyed; and such marks of misery found upon them, as never were seen upon a people. By the sign of the Son of man, the papists will have understood the sign of the unto the west; so shall also the com-digies which were seen a little before the cross. Others understand it of those proing of the Son of man be. 27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even There is a threefold coming of Christ spoken of in the New Testament. 1. His coming in his spiritual kingdom by the preaching of the gospel among the Gentiles. 2. His coming to destroy Jerusalem forty years after his ascension. 3. His final coming to judgment at the great day. All these comings of the Son of man, for their suddenness and unexpectedness, are compared unto lightning, which in a moment breaketh out of the east, and shineth unto the west. Learn hence, That the com ing and appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the judging of the wicked and impenitent sinners, will be a very certain, sudden, and unexpected appearance. 28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. destruction of Jerusalem, which Josephus mentions; as, namely, a comet in the form of a sword hanging over the city for a year together; a light in the temple and about the altar, seen at midnight for half an hour. a cow, led by the priest to be sacrificed, calved a lamb; a voice heard in the temple, saying Abeamus hinc, "Let us go hence." Learn hence, God premonishes before he punishes; he warns a people of destruction often, before he destroys them once. -And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they 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. hold him, and mourn over him. Thus it and thus will it be before the final judg was before the destruction of Jerusalem, If the coming of Christ be understood in the former verse of his coming to destroy Then shall the tribes mourn; that is, then Jerusalem, then by the carcass in this verse are to be understood the people of Jerusa- shall the Jews be convinced that their de lem, and the body of the Jewish nation; and struction was the punishment of their sin, by eagles are to be understood the Roman in rejecting and crucifying Christ; and acarmies, who carried an eagle in their stand-cordingly they that pierced him shall beard. These were the instruments which Almighty God made use of, as his rod and Scourge, to chastise and punish the people of Jerusalem. Learn thence, That the ap: pointed messengers of God's wrath, and the instruments of his vengeance, will certainly gather together, certainly find out, and severely punish and plague, an impenitent people devoted to destruction. Where the carcass is (the body of the Jewish nation) there will the eagles (the Roman soldiers) 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: ment. brought before him. Lord, how will the They that pierced him shall be sight of a pierced Christ pierce their souls with horror! they who have not seen a pierced Christ in the sorrows of repentance, shall hereafter see him in the sorrows of despair. To behold Christ with the eye of terrible to all those that have not beheld sense hereafter, will be very dreadful and send his angels with the sound of a trumpet. him with the eye of faith here. And he shall Those that apply this to the destruction of Jerusalem, by the angels understand the ministers of the gospel, who by the trumpet of the word did bring in believers throughout all Judea, who were saved from that destruction. Those that understand it of the general judgment, take it literally, that Christ at the great day will send forth Our Saviour goes on in figurative ex- his holy angels, and gather all his elect to pressions to set forth the calamities that himself with the sound of a trumpet. Proshould befall the Jewish nation, immediate-bably, as there was an audible sound of a ly after the destruction of Jerusalem: The sun shall be darkened: that is, all their glory and excellency shall be eclipsed, all their trumpet at the giving of the law, so there shall be the like sound of a trumpet, when Christ shall summon the world to judg ment, for transgressing that law A joy-one shall be taken, and the other ful sound will this be to the friends of left. 41 Two women shall be grindChrist, a doleful, dreadful sound in the ing at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. ears of his enemies. 33 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: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. 34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. 35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. 36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. In these verses our Saviour declares that Jerusalem's destruction, and the world's final dissolution at the great day, would be much like the destruction of the old world; and that in two respects: 1. In That is, in the end of the world. Learn hence, 1. That as the old world perished by infidelity, security, and sensuality, so will the same sins be prevailing before the destruction of this present world. As it was in the days cometh. 2. That the true reason why sinners are drowned in sensuality, and given over to security, is this, because they do not believe the certainty, or consider the proximity and nearness, of an approaching judgment. The old world knew not of the flood's coming. Strange! when Noah had told them of it an hundred and twenty years together. The meaning is, they did not consider it and prepare for it. To such as are unprepared for, and unapprehensive of death and judgment, those evils are always sudden, although men be never so often warned of them. But to such as are prepared, death is never sudden, let them die never so suddenly. Here our blessed Saviour declares two things with reference to his coming. 1. The certainty of the thing itself. 2. The uncertainty of the time. The certainty of his coming he sets forth by the simili-of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of man tude of the fig-tree, whose beginning to bud declares the summer at hand. Thus when they should see the fore-mentioned signs, they might conclude the destruction of their city and temple to be nigh at hand, and that some then living should see all these predictions certainly fulfilled. What Christ foretells, shall certainly be fulfilled, his word being more firm than the fabric of heaven and earth. Observe, 2. The uncertainty, as to the precise time, when this judgment should come. No angel in heaven nor creature on earth could determine the time, only the glorious persons in the Godhead; the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Learn, 1. That all things are not revealed to the angels themselves, but such things only as it concerns them to know, and the wisdom of God thinks fit to reveal. 2. That the precise time of the day of judgment is kept by God as a secret to himself. He will not have us know that hour, to the intent that we may be upon our watch every hour. 37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also 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 entered into the ark, 39 And knew not, until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40 Then shall two be in the field; the 42 Watch, therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. 43 But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Here we have the application made by our Saviour, of the foregoing doctrine concerning the certainty and suddenness of a future judgment. Watch therefore, always; not without intermission, but without giving over; that ye may be not only in an habitual but actual readiness for my appearance. Learn hence, That it is the indispensable duty, and ought to be the in and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Our Lord in these verses describes an unfaithful and negligent steward, and denounces the dreadful sentence of wrath By the character of infidelity; he believeth hanging over him. He is described, 1. not Christ's coming to judgment, though he preaches it to others: he saith in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming. 2. He is described by his hatred, envy, and malignity against his fellow-servants, that were more painful and faithful than him These words may be applied two ways. 1. To all the faithful servants of Christ in general. Thence learn, That for a person to spend and end his days in the service of Christ, and doing his will, gives good as-self. He begins to smite, at least with the surance of a blessed condition. Blessed is virulence of his tongue, if not the violence that servant. 2. To the ministers of the of his hand. 3. By his associating with gospel in special may these words be ap- the wicked, and strengthening their hands plied. And here observe, 1. The character by his ill example, He eateth and drinkand duty of a gospel-minister: He is the eth with the drunken; that is, as their steward of Christ's household to give them their associate and fellow-companion. Thus meat in due season. Observe, 2. The quali- the unfaithful servant is described; next fications requisite in such stewards, faith- his judgment and sentence are declared. fulness and prudence: Who then is that Observe, 2. The tremendous judgment that faithful and wise steward? Observe, 3. The shall come upon unfaithful stewards. 1. reward insured to such stewards as answer Christ will surprise them in their sin and these qualifications: Blessed is that servant. security, by coming in an hour when they Learn hence, That the ministers of the look not for him. 2. He will execute temgospel are in a special sense the stewards poral vengeance upon them: He will cut of Christ's household. 2. That faithfulness them asunder, or hew them in pieces, as and prudence are the necessary and indis- the Jews did their sacrifices; that is, sepapensable qualifications of Christ's stew- rate their souls from their bodies by unards. 3. That wherever these qualifica- timely death. Hence some observe, That tions are found, Christ will graciously and God seldom suffers slothful, sensual, wickabundantly reward them. Our faithful-ed, and debauched ministers to live out ness must respect God, ourselves, and our flock, and includes our integrity of heart, purity of intention, industry of endeavour, impartiality in our administrations. Prudence appears in the choice of suitable subjects, in the choice of fit language, in exciting our own affections in order to the moving of our people's. Ministerial prudence will teach us, by the strictness and gravity of our deportment, to maintain our esteem in the consciences of our people. It will assist us to bear reproach, and direct us to give reproof; he that is silent cannot be innocent; reprove we must, or we cannot be faithful; but prudently, or we cannot be successful. half their days. 3. Christ will punish them with eternal destruction also: appointing them their portion with hypocrites; that is, with the worst of sinners, they shall have a double damnation. As the hypocrite has a double tongue, a double heart, and is a double sinner, so shall he undergo a double damnation. Learn hence, That such ministers as neglect the service of God, and the souls of their people; as they are ranked amongst the worst of sinners in this life, so shall they be punished with them in the severest manner in the next. When Satan destroys the souls of men, he shall answer for it as a murderer only, not as an officer that was entrusted with the care of the soul. But if the stew 48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord de-ard doth not provide, if the shepherd doth layeth his coming; 49 And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, not feed, if the watchman doth not warn, they shall answer not only for the souls that have miscarried, but for an office neg lected, for a talent hidden, and for a stew-|| the professors of Christianity. The foolish ardship unfaithfully administered. Woe virgins are such as satisfy themselves with unto us, if at the great day we have dis- a bare profession, without bringing forth tressed souls roaring out their complaints, fruits answerable thereunto. The wise virand howling forth that doleful accusation gins are such as walked answerably to against us; "Lord! our stewards have their profession, persevered and continued defrauded us, our watchmen have betrayed steadfast therein, and abounded in the us, our guides have misled us." graces and virtues of a good life. They are called wise virgins for the purity of their faith, for the purity of their worship, and for the purity of their conversations. CHAP. XXV. Our blessed Saviour, in the close of the foregoing chapter, had exhorted all Christians to the great duty of watchfulness, and to be in a posture of readiness against his coming. Which duty he is pleased to inculcate again in this chapter, and accordingly he urges the necessity of it from two eminent parables; the former, Of the ten virgins ver. 1. and the latter, Of a man travelling into a far country, ver. 14. 3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: 4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. HEN shall the kingdom of hea-fession of faith and holiness. By the oil in By the lamps are meant an outward proTHEN ven be likened unto ten virgins, the lamps, is to be understood that solemn which took their lamps, and went profession of repentance and faith, which forth to meet the bridegroom. 2 And all Christians make in baptism. By oil in five of them were wise, and five their vessels is meant the sanctifying and saving graces of the Holy Spirit; the growth were foolish. and improvement of them, with constancy and perseverance in them. Observe here, wherein the wise and foolish virgins agreed, and wherein they differed: they agreed thus far, that both took their lamps, both lighted them, they both had oil in their lamps; the difference was not that the wise had oil, and the foolish had none; but in this, that the wise took care for a future supply of oil to feed their lamps when the first oil was spent. Some professors, like foolish virgins, content themselves with a blazing lamp of an outward profession, without concerning themselves to secure an inward principle of grace and love, which should maintain that profession, as the oil maintains the lamp. As the lamp will not long hold burning without a stock of oil to feed it; so a profession of religion, though never so glorious, will not be lasting nor persevering, without a principle of faith and love in the heart to support and maintain it. Learn hence, That the true wisdom of a Christian consists in this, to take care, that not only the lamp of his life may shine by outward profession, but that the vessel of his heart may be furnished with the graces of the Holy Spirit, as a prevailing and abiding principle. By the kingdom of heaven here, is meant the state of the visible church on earth; it cannot be understood of the kingdom of glory, for there are no foolish virgins in that kingdom; nor yet of the invisible kingdom of grace, for therein are no foolish virgins neither. But in the visible church here on earth, there ever has been a mixture of wise and unwise, of saints and hypocrites: Five of these virgins were wise, and five were foolish. Where observe, Our Lord's great charity, in supposing and hoping that amongst the professors of the gospel the number of sincere Christians is equal with hypocritical professors. Five were wise and five foolish. Teaching us, that we should not confine the church of Christ within a narrow compass, nor confine our charity to a few, and think none shall go to heaven but those of our own party and persuasion, but to extend our charity to all Christians that hold the foundation with us, and to hope well of them. Lord! let me rather err on the charitable hand, than be found on the censorious and damning side! This is to imitate my Saviour, whose charity supposed as many wise as foolish virgins, as many saints as hypocrites in the church. All these virgins are said to take ineir lamps and go forth to meet the bridegroom. For understanding which we must know 5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. that our Saviour alludes to the ancient That is, whilst Christ delays his coming custom of marriages, which were cele- to persons by death and judgment, they brated in the night; when usually ten are not so diligent as they ought, to preyoung men attended the bridegroom, and pare themselves for death and judgment. as many virgins attended the bride, with Instead of being upon their watch and lamps in their hands; the bridegroom lead-guard, they slumbered and slept. Note, That ing home his bride by the light of those not only visible professors, but the holiest lamps. By these virgins are shadowed forth || and best of Christians, are very prone to |