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diseased members alone were to be cut off. Was the church itself dead, yet the few names in which there was life were all written before God, and not one of those who overcame would be blotted out of the book of life. All the seven churches were severally exhorted by the Spirit according to their need. The faith delivered to the saints was preached unto them all; and all, as Christian churches, possessed the means of salvation. The Son of man walked in the midst of them, beholding those who were and those who were not his.

tians were rebuked without exception for | acter, or rebuked and warned according to their lukewarmness, there were multitudes its deeds. Was the church itself pure, the who were lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. The amphitheatre was built after the Apocalypse was written, and the warning of the Spirit had been given to the church of the Laodiceans to be zealous and repent; but whatever they there may have heard or beheld, their hearts would neither have been quickened to a renewed zeal for the service and glory of God, nor turned to a deeper sorrow for sin, and to a repentance not to be repented of. But the fate of Laodicea, though apposite, has been no less marked than that of Philadelphia. There are no sights of grandeur nor scenes of By the preaching of the gospel, and by temptation around it now. Its own tragedy the written word, every man in each of the may be briefly told. It was lukewarm, and churches was warned, and every man was neither cold nor hot; and therefore it was taught in all wisdom, that every man might loathsome in the sight of God. It was be presented perfect in Christ Jesus. And loved, and rebuked, and chastened in vain. in what the Spirit said unto each and all of And it has been blotted from the world. It the churches which he that hath ears to hear is now as desolate as its inhabitants were was commanded to hear, the promise of everdestitute of the fear and love of God, and lasting blessedness, under a variety of the as the church of the Laodiceans was devoid most glorious representations, was given, of true faith in the Saviour, and zeal in his without exception, restriction, or reservation, service. It is, as described in his Travels to him that overcometh. The language of by Dr. Smith, ". utterly desolated, and love, as well as of remonstrance and rebuke, without any inhabitant, except wolves, and was urged even on the lukewarm Laodiceans. jackals, and foxes." It can boast of no And if any Christian fell, it was from his human inhabitant, except occasionally when own resistance and quenching of the Spirit ; wandering Turkomans pitch their tents in from his choosing other lords than Jesus to its spacious amphitheatre. The finest have dominion over him; from his lukewarmsculptured fragments" are to be seen at are to be seen at a ness, deadness, and virtual denial of the considerable depth, in excavations which faith; and from his own wilful rejection of have been made among the ruins. (Arun- freely-offered and dearly-purchased grace, del's Travels, p. 85.) And Col. Leake sufficient, if sought, and cherished, and observes, There are few ancient cities more likely than Laodicea to preserve many curious remains of antiquity beneath the surface of the soil; its opulence, and the earthquakes to which it was subject, rendering it probable that valuable works of art were often there buried beneath the ruins of the public and private edifices." A fearful significancy is thus given to the terrific denunciation, Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth."

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"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Each church, and each individual therein, was weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, according to their works. Each was approved of according to its char

zealously used, to have enabled him to overcome and triumph in that warfare against spiritual wickedness to which Christ hath called his disciples; and in which, as the finisher of their faith, he is able to make the Christian more than conqueror.

But if such, as the Spirit described them and knew them to be, were the churches and Christians then, what are the churches and what are Christians now? Or rather, we would ask of the reader, what is your own hope toward God, and what the work of your faith? If, while Christianity was in its prime, and when its divine truths had scarcely ceased to reach the ears of believers from the lips of apostles, on whose heads the Spirit had visibly descended, and cloven tongues, like as of fire, had sat; if, even at that time, one of the seven churches of Asia had already

departed from its first love; if two others | one; and precious in his sight is the death were partially polluted by the errors in of his saints. Some, on the other hand, may doctrine, and evils in the practice, of some be sunk into the depths of Satan, though in of their members; if another had only outward fellowship with a church, were such a few names that were worthy, and yet to be found, as pure as once was that of another none; and if they who formed the Thyatira. Whatever, therefore, the profeslast and worst of these thought themselves sion of your faith may be, seek the kingdom rich and increased with goods, and that they of God and his righteousness; that kingdom had need of nothing; and knew not that, which is righteousness and peace and joy in Leing lukewarm, they were wretched, and the Holy Ghost, and that righteousness miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; which is through faith in Christ, who gave have you an ear to hear or a heart to under- hiinself for the church, that he might sanctify stand such knowledge? and do you, profess- and cleanse it. And whatever dangers may ing yourself a Christian, as they also did, see then encompass you around, fear not only no cause or warning here to question and believe; all things are possible to him that examine yourself, even as the same Spirit believeth. would search and try you, of your works, and charity, and service, and faith, and patience?

What is your labor of love, or wherein do you labor at all for His name's sake by whose name you are called? What trials does your faith patiently endure? what temptations does it triumphantly overcome? Is Christ in you the hope of glory, and is your heart purified through that blessed hope? To a church we trust you belong; but whose is the kingdom within you? What principles ever actuate you which Christ and his apostles taught? Where, in your affections and life, are the fruits of the Spirit-love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance? Turn the precepts of the gospel into questions, and ask thus what the Spirit would say unto you, as he said unto the churches.

It was by keeping the word of the Lord, and not denying his faith, by hearing what the Spirit said, that the church of Philadel phia held fast what they had, and no man took their crown, though situated directly Letween the church of Lacdicæa, which was lukewarm, and Sardis, which was dead. And dead as Sardis was, the Lord had a few names in it which had not defiled their garments-Christians, worthy of the name, who lived, as you yourself should ever live, in the faith of the Lord Jesus-dead unto sin, and alive unto righteousness; while all around them, though naming the name of Jesus, were dead in trespasses and sins. Try your faith by its fruits; judge yourself that you be not judged; examine yourself whether you be in the faith; prove your own self; and with the whole counsel of God, as revealed in the gospel, open to your view, let the rule of your self-scrutiny be what the Spirit said unto the churches.

What the Spirit said unto primitive and apostolic churches, over which "the beloved disciple" personally presided, may suffice to prove that none who have left their first love, if ever they have truly felt the love of Jesus that none who are guilty of seducing others into sin and uncleanness that none who have a name that they live, and are dead - and that none who are lukewarm are of the things that they understand notworthy members of any Christian communion; and that while such they continue, no Christian communion can be profitable to them. But unto them is "space to repent" given. And to them the word and Spirit speak in entreaties, encouragements, exhortations, and warnings, that they may turn from their sins to the Saviour, and that they may live and not die. But were there one name in Sodom, or a few in Sardis, that are the Lord's, he knows and names them every

Many prophecies remain which are not here noticed. But were any gainsayers to ask for more obvious facts and some demonstration of the truth of prophecy, which your own ears might hear and your eyes see, you have only to hear how they speak evil

how they speak great swelling words of vanity to allure others, promising them liberty while they themselves are the children of corruption; you have only to look on these scoffers, and mockers, and false teachers, who have come in the last times; who walk after their own lusts, who despise government, who are presumptuous and self-willed, and who foam out their own shame, to hear and to see the loud and living witnesses of the truth of God's holy and unerring word.

(2 Pet. iii. 8; Jude 13.) Such have been, and such are, the enemies of the Christian faith. Yet it calls them from darkness to light, and from death to life. Turn ye, turn ye: why, it asks of these boasters of reason, why will ye die?

your own.

or interpreting, or prophesying, and without which you would be as nothing, though you understood all mystery and all knowledge. From the want of this the earth has been covered with ruins. Let it be yours, and however poor may be your earthly portion, If you have seen any wonderful things it will be infinitely more profitable to you out of the law of, the Lord, and have looked, than all the kingdoms of the world, and all though from afar off, on the judgments of their glory. Prophecies shall fail; tongues God that have come upon the earth, lay not shall cease; knowledge shall vanish away; aside the thought of these things when you the earth and the works that are therein lay down this book. Treat them not as if shall be burned up; but charity never they were an idle tale, or as if you yourself faileth. were not to be a witness and more than a If you have kept the word of the Lord, witness of a far greater judgment, which and have not denied his name, hold that fast shall be brought nigh unto you, and shall be which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. But if heretofore you have been lukewarm, If, in traversing some of the plainest and destitute of Christian faith, and zeal, paths of the field of prophecy, you have been and hope, and love, it would be vain to leave led by a way which you knew not of before, you with any mortal admonition; hear what let that path lead you to the well of living the Spirit saith, and harden not your heart waters, which springeth up into everlasting against the heavenly counsel, and the glorilife to every one that thirsts after it and ous encouragement given unto you by that drinks. Let the words of our Lord and Jesus of whom all the prophets bear witness, Saviour Jesus Christ be to you this well- and unto whom all things are now committed spring of the Christian life. Let the word by the Father. “I counsel thee to buy of of God enlighten your eyes, and it will also me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rejoice your heart. Search the Scriptures; rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be in them there are no lying divinations; they clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedtestify of Jesus, and in them you will find ness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes As eternal life. Pray for the teaching and the with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. aid of that Spirit by whose inspiration they many as I love I rebuke and chasten; be were given. And above all Christian vir- zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I tues, that may bear witness of your faith, stand at the door and knock: if any man put on charity, love to God and love to man, hear my voice, and open the door, I will the warp and woof of the Christian's new come in to him, and will sup with him, and vesture without a seam; even that charity, he with me. To him that overcometh will I or love, by which faith worketh, which is the grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I fruit of the Spirit, the end of the command- also overcame, and am set down with my ment, the fulfilling of the law, the bond of Father in his throne. He that hath an ear perfectness, and a better gift and a more to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith excellent way than speaking with tongues, unto the churches.

CHAPTER XIV.

DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AS FORETOLD BY CHRIST.

THE Jews remain to this day not only the guardians of the Old Testament scriptures, but living witnesses of the truth of many prophecies, which, in the first ages of their

history, unfolded their fate until the latest generations. Jewish and heathen historians. fully describe the dreadful miseries which they suffered when all their cities were laid

full.

Instruments are never wanting for the execution of the purposes of God; nor, when needful for the confirmation of his word, is there any want of full testimony that his declared purposes have been fulfilled. There is nothing similar fn history to the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and to the miseries which its inhabitants inflicted and brought upon themselves by their savage barbarity and unyielding obstinacy; nor was there ever any other city or country of whose destruction, devastation, and misery there is so clear and authenticated a detail. Josephus, himself a Jew and an eye-witness of the facts he relates, gives a circumstantial account of the whole war, which furnishes complete evidence, not only of the truth of what Moses and the prophets had foretold, but also of all that in clearer vision, and to the perturbation and astonishment of his disciples, Christ had explicitly revealed concerning its then approaching fate. Heathen writers also record many of the facts.

waste, when Jerusalem itself was destroyed out till the measure of their iniquities was in the seventieth year of the Christian era, and the remnant of their race, after an almost uninterrupted possession of Judæa by their forefathers for fifteen hundred years, were driven from their country and scattered throughout the world. A brief detail of the unparalleled miseries which they then endured may serve to connect their former history with their subsequent alike unparalleled fate, and to show that the prophecies respecting the destruction of Jerusalem are as circumstantial and precise, and were as minutely fulfilled, as those in which their more recent and present history may be read. The Israelites were chosen to be a peculiar people. The worship of the only living and true God was maintained among them alone for many ages, while idolatry and polytheism (or the worship of many gods) otherwise universally prevailed. But the Father of the universe is no respecter of persons. A divine law was given to the descendants of Abraham, and blessings and curses were set before them, to cleave to their race in every age, according as they would observe and obey the The prophecies from the Old Testament commandments of the Lord, or refuse to and from the New relative to the siege aud hearken unto his voice, and to do all his destruction of Jerusalem are so numerous, commandments and statutes. Their history, that the insertion of them at length would and their continued preservation as a people, occupy a greater space than can here is thus an express record and manifestation be devoted to the consideration of the doings of Providence. To read of subject. The reader may peruse them as their calamities is to see the judgments of they are to be found in the written word. God; and to compare them with the prophe- (Levit. xxvi. 14, &c.; Deut. xxviii. 15, cies is to witness the truth of his word. &c.; Isa. xxix. 1, &c.; Ezek. vi. 7; Jer. There were intermingled seasons of pros- xxvi. 18; Micah, iii. 12; Matt. xxi. 33, perity and triumph, or of oppression and &c., xxii. 1-7, xxiv.; Mark, xiii.; Luke, misery, as they enjoyed or forfeited their xx. 9-19, xxi., xxiii. 27-31.) They repromised blessings, throughout the long period that they dwelt in the land of Canaan. But their punishments were to rise progressively with their sins; and so awfully sinful were the inhabitants of Jerusalem after the time of their merciful visitation had passed, and when the dark unbroken era of their miseries began, that Josephus, their great historian, and the greatest of their generals in their wars with the Romans, has recorded his opinion that, had they delayed their coming, the city would have been swallowed up by an earthquake or overflowed by water, or, as it was worse than Sodom, would have been destroyed by fire from heaven.* The vial of wrath was not poured

*Josephus's History of the Wars of the Jews, book 5, chap. 13, § 6.

of the

quire no other exposition of their meaning. Exclusive of literal predictions, frequent allusions are interspersed throughout the Gospels respecting the abolition of the Mosaic dispensation, and the utter subversion of the Jewish state.

A nation of fierce countenance, of an unknown tongue, and swift as the eagle flieth, were to come from a distant land against the Jews to despoil them of all their goods -to besiege them in all their gates to bring down their high and fenced walls. They were to be left few in number to be slain before their enemies; the pride of their power was to be broken; their cities to be laid waste, and themselves to be destroyed

to be brought to nought to be plucked from off their own land to be sold into

slavery, and to be so despised that none | Gentiles

afford as full a proof as 'could would buy them. Their high places were now be thought of that the predictions were to be rendered desolate their bones to be delivered previous to the event. scattered about their altars; Jerusalem was to be encompassed round about to be besieged with a mount to have forts raised against it to be ploughed over like a field to become heaps, and to come to an end. The sword, the famine, and the pestilence, were to destroy them.

The Jews lived fearless of judgments like these, when they dwelt in peace, and would not listen to the voice of Jesus. They would have no king but Cæsar; and they trusted in the power of the Roman empire as the security of their state. But He whom they rejected showed how God had rejected them, how they were filling up the measure of their fathers, and how all these judgments that had been denounced of old, and others of which their fathers had not heard, were to be felt by many, and to be all witnessed by some who were living then. And the Man of sorrows, whose face was set as a flint against his own unequalled sufferings, and who shed not a tear on his own account, was moved to pity, and his heart was melted into tenderness, on contemplating the great crimes and the coming calamities of the wicked, impenitent, and devoted city: “when he beheld Jerusalem, he wept over it."

The expiration of thirty-six years from the death of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem; the death, previous to that event, of at least two of the evangelists who record the prophecies concerning it; the manner in which the predictions and allusions respecting the fate of Jerusalem are interwoven throughout the gospel; the warning given to the disciples of Christ to escape from the impending calamities, and the annunciation of the signs whereby they would know of their approach; the dread that was cherished by some of the earliest converts to the Christian faith that the day of judgment was then at hand, and which had arisen from the prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem being closely connected with those relative to the second coming of Christ and the end of the world (all of which things his disciples had asked him to reveal); the unanimous assent of antiquity to the prior publication of the gospel; and the continued truth of the prophecy still manifested in Jerusalem being yet trodden down of the

No coincidence can be closer in relation to the facts than that which subsists between the predictions of Jesus and the narrative of the Jewish historian. Yet, as the reader will doubtless perceive, this coincidence is not more clear than that which subsists between the testimony of modern unbelievers and those prophecies which refer to the past and present desolation of Judæa: wars, rumors of wars, and commotions; nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places; though the greatest of human evils that mortals fear were to be but the beginning of sorrows the heralds of heavier woes. Many false Christs were to appear, and to deceive many. The disciples of Jesus were to be persecuted, afflicted, imprisoned, hated of all nations, and brought before rulers and kings for his name's sake, and many of them were to be put to death. Iniquity was to abound, and the love of many was to wax cold; but the gospel of the kingdom was to be preached in all the world. The abomination of desolation was to be seen standing in the place where it ought not. Jerusalem was to be compassed about with armies, a trench was to be cast about it, and they were to be hemmed in on every side. And there were to be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. These were to be the signs that the end of Jerusalem was at hand. And there was to be great distress upon the land, and wrath upon the people; the tribulation was to be such as had never been, and would never be. The Jews were to fall by the edge of the sword; a remnant was to be led captive into all nations; of the temple, and of Jerusalem itself, one stone was not to be left upon another; and it was to be trodden down of the Gentiles till the time of the Gentiles should be fulfilled.

The prodigies which preceded the war, as related by Josephus, are these:

A comet, which bore the resemblance of a sword, hung over the city of Jerusalem for the space of a whole year.

A short time before the revolt of the Jews, a most remarkable and extraordinary light was seen about the altar of the temple It happened at the ninth hour of the night preceding the celebration of the feast of the