prophecies of Daniel, by an inquiry into which they had been apparently suggested. His reply to two, out of three of the difficulties proposed for his solution, is accordingly founded on the revelations of that Prophet. As far as their inquiries related to the end of the dispensation,' he satisfies their curiosity, by reference to the predicted pollution of the Temple, in the ruins of which the ceremonial Law would be buried. . When ye 'therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, 'spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth let him understand;) ⚫ then let them that be in Judæa, flee unto the ' mountains."219 As far as the question proposed

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to him related to the signs of his coming,' he resolves it by a like reference to the tribulations by which the same Prophet had declared, in nearly the same words, it would be preceded. For there 'shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the 'beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever 'shall be.... Immediately after the tribulation of 'those days shall the sun be darkened...and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then 'shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven...

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And he shall send his angels, and they shall

gather his elect from the four winds, from one end ' of heaven to the other."220

But reserving the

219 Matt. xxiv. 15, 16.

220 Ibid. 21. 29, 30, 31.

Dan. xii. 1, 2.

And there shall

leading proposition, when shall these things be?' for his final consideration, he declines giving it an explicit answer. But of that day and hour 'knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but

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7221

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my Father only. There was a time revealed, which, as not positively but conditionally determined, depended on contingencies, of which the knowledge and control remained at the disposal of the almighty, independant Sovereign. To profess a knowledge of the result, would be in effect to make that absolute which was merely revealed as contingent. Such an undertaking, as involving a contradiction, and of consequence an impossibility, the Son might well declare was not in his province or power, without any derogation from his divinity.

If we thus discriminate between the monarchical government of God, and the oecumenical committed to the Son; we may in some measure remove the offence which those difficult passages are calculated to raise, although we cannot solve every difficulty in which they are embarassed. It would indeed appear, as the distinction is fully

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be a time of trouble such as there never was since there was a 'nation even to that time and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. • And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall

' awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever

acknowledged in scripture, that, on both of the beforementioned occasions, our Lord had merely declined transgressing the bounds of the Mediatorial province, from an indisposition to invade the Monarchical. In the one passage he defines the limits prescribed to his kingdom, as distinct from that which the Father retained in his absolute sovereignty and control; to which (atleast at the time when he spoke,) he was not admitted, and from which the angels were wholly excluded. In the other, he asserts in the strongest terms the absolute dominion of the Father, into which the Apostles were disposed to pry, with a vain and presumptuous temerity. And in this conclusion we shall the more readily acquiesce, if we consider, that the course which our Lord was induced to take was, in a great measure, determined by the conduct of his disciples. Previously to the first expression of their curiosity, upon such inscrutable subjects, they had been instructed by him, in the scheme of revelation, as delivered by the Prophets.222 And it is apparent, from the questions which they proposed for a solution, that their views on the subject were just and comprehensive. They embraced the entire system, as included between the close of the old dispensation, under Moses, and the establishment of the new, under the Messiah. The disciples must have consequently learned, from the perusal

222 Luke xviii. 31. xxv. 27.

of Daniel, that an extensive and determinate period was, in the regular course of the divine economy, interjected between those events. And had they still entertained any doubts on the subject, they must have been removed in the exposition which they had received from our Lord; who had assigned those events a like prominence and importance, in his comment on that Prophet. But beyond these landmarks, which he had set up, as boundaries to his own predictions, their curiosity was unfortunately disposed to advance. From the revealed purposes of God, to which they had already attained, they sought to ascend to his secret counsels, which are deep and unsearchable.'223 Such presumptuous curiosity was as irreverent as it was vain; and our Lord accordingly repressed and rebuked it.

In the sentence which this temerity provoked, I can therefore discover no intimation, which should discourage our inquiries into the divine purposes, as far as they are shadowed or revealed in the prophetical scriptures. We have the authority of the Sovereign Disposer himself, that the secret things 'belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our 'children for ever." 2224 We have not only the sanction of our Lord's example, but the authority of his word, in thus undertaking to search the 223 Job. xi. 7. Rom. xi. 33. 224 Deut. xxix. 29.

225

scriptures." On the occasion before us, the Divine Teacher not only referred to the text of Daniel, but added this recommendation to his hearers; he that readeth let him understand."226 And in giving this injunction, he recommended no more than Daniel himself had undertaken; who, as he informs us, 'understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came ' to Jeremiah the Prophet: for by these books,' there can be little doubt we must understand the Bible.228 The beloved Prophet was, it is true, dismissed with a command, to 'shut up the words, ' and seal the book,"229 but the injunction was given with this limitation, that the words were closed and sealed but to the time of the end. And

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6 up for the encouragement of those who might live when time should clear away the obscurities in

225 John v. 39.

226 Matt. xxiv. 15. Thus, I think it is clear, those words must be understood, which have been absurdly supposed by some to be inserted in our Lord's discourse by the Evangelist; and not less absurdly by others, to be interpolated by some scribe in the text of St. Matthew. On them depends, in a great measure, the vindication of our Lord's prophetical reputation; who, unless he be understood with reference to Daniel's period of 1260 years, very unaccountably passes, from the destruction of the Temple to his own advent at the end of the world. For the typical relation which is discovered between these events, will not justify the abruptness of the transition.

228 Vid. Act. vii. 42. Rom. i. 2.

227 Dan. ix. 2.