supposition, namely, that every prophecy may be expected to have at least two senses; and that as scarcely any are purely historical, so scarcely any are purely spiritual; I would request them to observe how entirely this supposition is confirmed by the prophecy now before us. It cannot be doubted that it proceeds from an immediate historical occasion; that it was addressed primarily to the hopes and fears of the men of the then living generation; that it speaks of the approaching siege and destruction of the historical Jerusalem. Nor yet can it be doubted that it does not rest long within the narrow limits of its historical subject; that the language rises almost immediately, and the vision magnifies; that the outward and historical framework bursts as it were and perishes, while the living spirit which it contained alone supplies its place; that Jerusalem and the Romans become the whole human race and God's true heavenly ministers of judgment; that the time fixed definitely for the fulfilment of the historical sense of the prophecy melts away and becomes an ineffable mystery, when it would in fact be no other than the date of time's being swallowed up in eternity that the coming of the Son of man, imperfectly shadowed forth in the power which visited Jerusalem with destruction, is in its full verity the end of all prophecy, which can only find its accomplishment when prophecy shall cease, and knowledge and faith and hope, the guides and supports of our earthly life, shall all pass away together. There is no doubt that the prophecy relates historically to the destruction of Jerusalem. The false Christs, the wars and rumours of wars, the famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, the persecution of Christ's servants, the great spread of the knowledge of his Gospel, have been all recognized as fulfilled up to a certain point in the actual 66 history of the period between our Lord's resurrection and the year 70. So the grievous calamities of the Jewish war, and of the siege of Jerusalem, the manifestation of Christ's power in the utter destruction of the people who were the bitterest enemies of his kingdom, and the accomplishment of all this within the lifetime of the men of that very generation, may all be traced, as they have been often, historically. All these circumstances can be traced historically, yet it was long ago remarked, that the history of the first century does not produce their adequate fulfilment. "There were not many men in the time of the Apostles," says Origen", who said that they were Christ; there was perhaps Dositheus of Samaria, the founder of the Dositheans, and Simon, of whom the Acts of the Apostles make mention, who called himself the great power of God: but besides these there have been none within my knowledge either before or since." And again, "Not yet have many in the Church itself become traitors; not yet have there arisen false prophets to deceive many: nor as yet have Christ's servants been hated by all nations, even to the very extremities of the earth for his Name's sake: nor has the Gospel of the kingdom been yet preached in the whole world. For no one says that the Gospel has been preached amongst all the Ethiopians, especially amongst those beyond the River: nor yet amongst the Seres; nor have they in the East heard the word of Christ's religion. What are we to say of the Britons, or of the Germans on the shores of the Ocean, or of the Barbarians, Dacians, Sarmatians, and Scythians, of whom very many have not yet heard the word of the Gospel, but will hear it at the very end of the world?” "Many, not of the Barbarian nations only, but even of those of our own world, have not to this day heard the Comment. in S. Matt. word of Christ's religion." Thus Origen wrote in the first part of the third century, and what was true between 200 and 250 A. D. must have been much more true between A. D. 33 and 70. Or what shall we say of the appearance of the sign of the Son of man in heaven, coming in the clouds with power and great glory, and gathering his chosen from one end of heaven to the other, before that generation which witnessed his death and resurrection had altogether passed away? It is clear then that we can so far trace in our Lord's own prophecy the same rule which we have supposed to exist in all the older prophecies; namely, that it arises out of, and in its first sense relates to, something historical; but that when taken in this sense, its language is not adequately, but only partially and typically, fulfilled by the historical event. We have, however, laid it down as a rule no less general, that there is in the prophecies, besides this first and historical sense, another sense not historical but spiritual; that is, not relating to particular places, persons, and times, but to pure good and evil in all times and every where; and that taken in this sense the language does not go beyond the fulfilment, but almost, if it may be, falls short of it. And this rule also seems to be observed in this prophecy of our Lord. What now is Jerusalem and its temple in this sense, and what is meant by their destruction? Jerusalem simply must be God's people; corrupt and rejected Jerusalem must be God's apostate people; those who belonging nominally to his Church are in heart his enemies. By these his true people are ever vexed, hindered, persecuted; they cannot enter into their perfect rest till the false Jerusalem shall be destroyed. Meanwhile, ere the destruction take place, all evils prevail in the world as heretofore; wars have not ceased, nor is the curse taken off from nature, nor is truth, though declared to all, followed by all. Iniquity abounds, and yet the knowledge of Christ is spread more and more widely over the world. Temptations of unbelief are multiplied, and temptations of superstition, growing in their power to seduce, as the end draws nearer. Thus far the experience of eighteen hundred years has illustrated the spiritual sense of the prophecy. To attempt to follow it to the end were presumptuous, still more presumptuous to seek to know when that end shall be. But surely there will be a real and adequate fulfilment of the remainder of the prophecy, as there has been of its beginning. The false Jerusalem will perish, and then the true Jerusalem, the real and perfect kingdom of God, will succeed. It may be that this great truth may be again partially and typically fulfilled, nay, that it may be so fulfilled many times over, the fulfilment becoming continually more and more adequate to the prophecy, till the last and perfect fulfilment. There may be judgments more or less complete executed upon the false Jerusalem, and after each judgment the condition of God's true people may become more secure. But though heaven and earth will pass away, yet Christ's words will not pass away: and as surely as he rose from the dead, and is now at the right hand of God, so surely may we expect a full and perfect fulfilment of his promise, that he will put down all his enemies, Babylon, Jerusalem, sin itself, and the last enemy death, and that he will reign visibly amongst his true people in life eternal. APPENDIX II. ALTHOUGH not strictly belonging to the subject of Prophecy, yet as closely connected with it, and as presenting some considerable difficulties, I may notice here the application of passages in the Old Testament to our Lord, which we might judge to refer simply to God the Father, and of which we might not see why they should be selected rather than any other parts of the Scriptures where mention is made of God, or of Jehovah. Of such passages there is a remarkable collection in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Another instance occurs in St. John xii. 41. and another in xix. 37. others in 1 Corinthians x. 4, 9. Ephesians iv. 8. Romans x. 13; xiv. 10, 11. and another, according to Lachmann's reading, in Jude 5. These will be, I think, sufficient to show the principle on which such applications are made. The places in the Old Testament referred to in the above passages are severally as follows: Deuteronomy xxxii. 43. (Sept.Vers.) referred to in Hebrews i. 6. Psalm xlv. 6, 7. Psalm cii. 25-27. Isaiah vi. 1-10. Zechariah xii. 10. Hebrews i. 8, 9. St. John xix. 37. 1 Cor. x. 4-9. Ephes. iv. 8. Romans x. 13. |