should have done just as the Pharisees did, shortened the rule of our duty, made a false reckoning of our own righteousness, and thought of nothing but forcing our way into heaven with it. But Christ, our Master, will teach us to know the purity of God, the strictness of his law, and our own miserable unworthiness better. He will carry us into the depth of our hearts, find sin in all we do, and convince us of it to our faces; not merely to upbraid us with it; not to leave us to perish in it; not to put us upon the impossible task of cleansing ourselves from it; but to make us sensible of the evil of sin and the greatness of our guilt, that in the peril of our souls we may cast our burden upon him, who alone could bear it, live by his death, and rejoice in his salvation. See now and consider this great thing which the Lord hath done for you. Come to him in self-knowledge, receive the mercy of a Saviour with the penitence and humility of an undone sinner, with a deep sense of your misery, and of the greatness of his love in your deliverance, and, my life for it, you will look for another blessing at his hands. You will gladly submit to his teaching in all things, long to be delivered from the corruption of an evil nature, beseech the Lord Jesus Christ to come into you as a refiner's fire to burn and consume all your open and secret iniquities, and pray daily to be faithful to him in obedience, that, as the disciples of a crucified Lord, you may deny yourselves, wait in faith and holiness for his coming, and enter into his kingdom of everlasting rest.

PRAYER.

Holy Father, open our eyes, we beseech thee, to see the danger and misery of our condition in sin. Let thy Son be our Master to teach us the strictness and purity of thy law; let thy Spirit go with us into the depth of our hearts, to convince us of our transgressions of it; that

we may fly to the mercy of the Gospel, be revived with a sense of forgiveness, live unto him that died for us, and do all our works from a holy principle of faith and love to thee. Deliver us from all guile and hypocrisy, from all blindness and hardness of heart; and as we know the Lord Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, grant that we may humbly and thankfully receive him in the grace and power of all his offices. Oh! grant, for thy mercy's sake, that as he is the only rest of our guilty consciences, the Reliever of all our burdens, and has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, we may rejoice in his salvation, be faithful to his truth, commit our souls to him to be guided in the way which leadeth to everlasting life, and be received into thy kingdom of glory, through him, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer, Amen.

SECTION LV.

ST. MATTHEW, xxiv. 1,

His disciples came to show him the buildings of the Temple, They supposed he would be as full of admiration at the beauty and stateliness of it as they were, and confirm them in their opinion of its duration. It was newly rebuilt, and yet near its final destruction. How blind is man in the things of futurity!

Ver. 2. There shall not be left one stone upon another.— Which accordingly came to pass about thirty-nine years after, in the most remarkable destruction that ever befel any place or people.

Ver. 3. Tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?· Whatever the disciples understood by these words, Christ

knew how to give them an important meaning, and answers distinctly to the two parts of the question; making the one relate to his coming to the destruction of Jerusalem, the other to his coming to judgment. And these, with his help, we will endeavour to distinguish as we go along.

Ver. 4-8. And Jesus answered, &c. We learn from history how exactly the several particulars here mentioned came to pass. See Hammond and Whitby, and especially Bishop Newton.

Ver. 4. Take heed that no man deceive you. This concerned them more, as it does men at all times, than to be curious about knowing what will be hereafter.

Ver. 5. And shall deceive many-But not those who have the true Christ by a true faith; they are proof against all imposture; 1 John, ii. 20.

Ver. 6. See that ye be not troubled.-Then we need not be troubled, even in the worst of times. And we shall not, if we truly believe that all things work together for good to them that love God. How happy to be in such a state!

-But the end is not yet-The final destruction of Jerusalem, and end of the Jewish polity, which he is here speaking of.

Ver. 9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you As if you were the causes of all the miseries that are coming upon the earth. This was exactly verified in the heathen persecutions.

-And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.— If thou art a Christian indeed, thou wilt have some of this hard measure even in a Christian country.

Ver. 12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.-Many, professing Christ, would be carried away with the general corruption, fall from the

faith, desert and persecute their brethren. These two mutually produce and follow each other; the abounding of iniquity is the extinction of love, and in proportion as love decreases, iniquity abounds.

Ver. 13. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved-As the Christians were remarkably saved from the common destruction. But it is a warning to men at all times of the necessity of perseverance.

Ver. 14. And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world.-The preaching of the Gospel in all the world, was then, and for some time after, a mystery to the disciples. But, doubtless, this saying would be remembered by them, and operate in its season for their full conviction in this point. Christ's seed may lie hid for a long time, and spring up at last. Sow it, thou whose concern it is, and leave the event to him.

For a testimony unto them—Of God's will to save them, if they receive it, and of their doom, if they reject it. You have had your call from it; let it not appear as a witness against you.

-And then shall the end come-The end spoken of, ver. 6.

Ver. 15. When, therefore, ye shall see the abomination of desolation - The desolating Roman army, abominable for its idol standards.

Standing in the holy place-Round about Jerusalem; called the holy city.

-Whoso readeth, let him understand. So, doubtless, he says to us, concerning all Scripture. Not the outward meaning only, but spiritual intent, and saving sense of it. Would you know how? Receive it as the word and will of God for your salvation, and pray it into your hearts. But, my friends, how can those understand who are able to read, and do not?

Ver. 17. Let him which is on the house top, not come down to take any thing out of his house-Not having a moment to lose. Their houses were flat-roofed, with stairs on the outside.

Ver. 19. Wo unto them that are with child, &c. - As being more incapable than others of saving themselves by flight.

Ver. 20. Pray ye that your flight be not in the winterWhen they could not fly so fast as would be necessary.

-Neither on the Sabbath-day-When they were not allowed to go above two miles from home; meaning, that in such a time of danger it would be necessary to take a much longer journey.

Ver. 21. For then shall be great tribulation, &c.-The miseries they underwent during the siege were exceeding great; and Josephus, who was present at it, says, that the number of the slain exceeded all that ever perished either by famine, plague, or sword, in any part of the world.

Ver. 22. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved-All would be swept away in the common destruction. And those who were preserved from it, would, or might be saved eternally, by having longer time granted them to repent and believe.

But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. -Little does the world think that they are indebted to those whom they hate and persecute, for signal mercies.

Ver. 24. Insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.-The meaning is, that they should not be deceived. And this shows the power of truth in them, and the great blessing of being established in it.

Ver. 27. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, &c. so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be- That is, general, and for a general destruction. It will be in vain to look out for a deliverer in this or that place.