more limited, but almost equally striking warning, which was to be seen not far from their own borders, in the Dead Salt Sea, the Lake Asphaltites, which covered the spot where once flourished the cities of the plain; and notwithstanding all the warnings of the Old Testament prophets, of John the Baptist, and of Christ and his apostles; every account represents the Jews as going on securely in self-indulgence and self-confidence, till they were encompassed by the Romans on every side, and could no more escape than the antediluvians, or the inhabitants of Sodom. * "In that day, he who shall be upon the house-top, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away." The houses in Judea, like most of those in Eastern countries, were flat-roofed; and the inhabitants were accustomed to go out on the roofs for various purposes. Our Lord, therefore, here directs his disciples, that, if any of them should happen to be on the roofs of their houses when the Romans were approaching to besiege them, they should not take time to go down into their houses to fetch their valuable articles, but should, as fast as possible, descend by the steps. on the outside, and make their escape by some of the gates of the city. And so, if any of them should be working in any "field," in the neighbourhood, he directs them, "not to return" home for any thing, but to fly to the mountains, or some remote part of the country. When the critical time arrived, the Christians remembered this direction, and hastened away, so that none of them perished in the siege. But, as a better opportunity will occur for giving an outline of the history of the destruction of Jerusalem, if we are spared to consider the 21st chapter, we shall not touch on that history here farther than is absolutely necessary for understanding the passage before us. "Remember Lot's wife." The brief but extraordinary event here referred to is thus described in Genesis,† when Lot, his wife, and two daughters, were escaping from Sodom: "His wife looked back from behind him" (no doubt, with a sinful longing to return), "and she became a pillar of salt." Different opinions have been entertained as to the exact interpretation of these words. Some think that nothing more is meant than that she was struck dead, and a pillar of rock salt, or, perhaps, merely a durable pillar erected on her grave; but that does not seem to come up to the mean+ Gen. xix. 26. *See Lecture on Luke xii. 3. ing. Others think, that, being stifled by the fire and brimstone, she was arrested in a standing position, or rather fell down on the spot, with her body dried and stiff, like an Egyptian mummy which has been salted and embalmed. The common opinion, however, and the preferable, as it takes the description exactly as it stands, is, that her body, still erect, was on a sudden petrified, and changed into a pillar, or statue of rock salt. All agree that she lost her life, and became a perpetual monument of God's displeasure. Our Lord here admonished his disciples to remember this woman's fate, and not to imitate her tardiness and backwardness, but to make all haste to escape. "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it." Dr Doddridge's paraphrase of this verse, as applicable to the way of safety in the invasion and the siege, seems very judicious, and is as follows: "In that day, he that shall seek to preserve his life by retiring into some fortified city, and especially into that where it might seem he should be safest, shall lose it; but he that shall be thought to take the ready way to lose his life, shall preserve it; for they who regard my admonitions, and retire, however their conduct may be censured as imprudent, shall survive the general ruin." And so it is, we may add, for the most part, in times of danger that the way of duty is the way of safety. You will observe, that this is quite a different sense from that in which nearly the same words are used in the 9th chapter, 24th verse; for there our Lord speaks of losing life for his sake, and cautions professors against endangering the loss of their souls by unworthily shrinking before persecu tion. In the next three verses, Christ tells his disciples how, "in that night," that dark and calamitous season, Divine Providence would graciously, carefully, and powerfully interfere for the protection of such of his disciples as should be exposed; while others in the same circumstances should be cut off in the overwhelming destruction. In the case, for example, of two persons lying in the same bed, or grinding at the same mill, or working in the same field, the one should be "taken," that is, seized by the Romans and slain, or doomed to imprisonment or bondage, and the other should be "left," or rather, dismissed in safety.* The process of grinding corn was carried on, in Eastern countries, * Αφεθησεται. in the same way in ancient as in modern times. It was done on a small scale, as the meal was needed. The stones used were not very large, but were such as could be easily wrought, and even carried from place to place. Hence, in part, the reasonableness of the Jewish law,* "No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge; for he taketh a man's life to pledge." The upper stone was turned round with the hand; and one person was sufficient to work it, unless when it was more than usually heavy, or great despatch was required. This work was commonly performed by women. Such was the custom in very early times. "Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, All the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maid-servant that is behind the mill."+"Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon," said Isaiah, "take the millstones and grind meal.” 66 You will observe that, however obvious the application of what our Lord is here saying may appear, he has never once mentioned Jerusalem, or fixed on any particular spot, as the scene of the predicted desolation. Hence, though we can hardly suppose that they could have been altogether ignorant of the general bearing of his words, room was left for the disciples to question him more directly on that point. They answered and said," that is, they addressed to him this question, suggested by what he had just been saying, "Where, Lord?" In what place, and on whom, is this destruction to fall? Nor did Jesus make any such reply to this question as fixed down and confined the prediction to any particular place, or any particular portion of the people. His answer was: 66 Wheresoever the body"—the dead body, or carcass" is, thither will the eagles be gathered together." It is well known that birds who feed on carrion resort to the place where the carcass of an animal is lying: besides, we are told that flocks of birds of prey are often seen hovering around camps, to devour the dead bodies of horses and other beasts, and even of men. Thus, we have this description of the eagle in Job:+ "She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock and the strong place. From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the * Deut. xxiv. 6. + Exod. xi. 5; Isa. xlvii. 2; See Harmer's Obs., vol. i. p. 253. Job xxxix. 28. slain are, there is she." Our Lord's answer seems to have been a proverbial expression, drawn from such circumstances as these, bearing, however, a much more extensive application than the literal meaning of the words conveys. Whether our Lord had the circumstance in view or not is uncertain, but many have remarked how appropriately this emblem describes the Roman armies, which had the figures of eagles for their standards. Wherever the impenitent Jews were, there vengeance overtook them. Doubtless, the scene of their most dreadful misery, and their most extensive carnage, was Jerusalem, with the immediately adjoining country; but the desolation was by no means thus limited, for, after the destruction of their capital, the survivors of them were pursued in the same relentless manner, not only in other parts of their own land, but in almost every corner of the world, not to insist on the cruelties to which their posterity have been subjected in many nations in subsequent ages. Such is the import of these warnings, as they relate primarily to the calamities which were coming on the Jewish nation. We shall notice their application to the day of judgment before concluding; but two or three lessons, of universal application, first call for our attention. First, This passage is quite inconsistent with the opinion that Christ will come again to reign on earth personally and visibly before the millennium. There are some who hold that this is what is to be understood by the days of the Son of man, or the Son of man being revealed, or the coming of the Son of man, or the coming of the kingdom of God. They build this notion on such passages as Isa. lix. 20: "The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob," quoted as it is, and applied in Rom. xi. 25: "Blindness in part is happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." It requires, however, but a very slight attention to the scriptural style, to perceive that there is often no necessity for understanding the expression, "the coming of the Lord," literally; nay, that, on the contrary, there would often be the greatest absurdity in doing When God is said to "come down," to "come out of his place," to "visit" men, and the like, nobody ever supposes that any actual change of place, or visible manifestation, is intended; but the expressions are to be referred to so. God's providential dispensations. When our Lord said to his disciples, "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you"-" If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him," it was, surely, a gracious, spiritual, and invisible, and not a literal, bodily, and visible coming and abiding which he intended. It is said* of that "wicked one" who supports the mystery of iniquity-"Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." On this passage some have endeavoured to found the opinion, that it is the personal and literal coming of Christ that is to destroy Antichrist. But, by " the spirit of his mouth, and the brightness of his coming," it is more agreeable, both to the usual language of Scripture, and to the other references to that event, to understand the influence produced by the bright manifestation of the truth-by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God-by the gospel, rendered effectual by the Holy Ghost; though, no doubt, there will also be very striking dispensations of providence. Indeed, many passages which foretell the universal conversion of Jews and Gentiles, particularly notice the Spirit of God as the great agent. Thus, in the 32d of Isaiah, in which it is said, "Behold a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment," the prophet declares that the land of his people shall be in a very deplorable condi tion, "Until the Spirit be poured upon them from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest." So also, in the passage already partly quoted, "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord," it is immediately added, as explanatory of the way in which this is to take place, "As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." And how does Zechariah declare, in God's name, that the conversion and prosperity of the Church, and especially of the Jews, in the latter days, shall be brought about? "I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they * 2 Thess. ii. 8. + Isa. lix. 20. Zech. xii. 10. |