IT IS NOT ENOUGH THAT WE ABSTAIN FROM DOING HARM TO OTHERS; WE MUST DO THEM GOOD.

MATT. XXV. 45, .6.

45 minister unto-thee? Then shall-he-answer them, saying, Verily I-say unto-you, Inas46 much-as ye-did it not to-one of the least of-these, ye-did it not to-ine. And these shallgo-away into everlasting punishment koλao: but the righteous into life eternal.

SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS.

Mt. xxv. 45. Verily I say-Our Lord has been very | emphatic in the announcement of this principle, for men are slow in discerning the body of Christ in his poor people, Rom. xii. 5; 1 Co. xi. 29; xii. 27-in thinking themselves only stewards of God for the good of his people, 1 Pe. iv. 9-11-and that they are under obligation to act out the law of love as the Lawgiver hath given us example, 1 Jno. iii. 16, .7; iv. 10, .6.

the least of these--It is not only to the rich or great, or to those brethren who may be to our own taste, in some particular respect, that love is to be manifested, Rom. xii. 16; 1 Co. i. 26-31-but to the most neglected, poor, and despised, Lu. xiv. 12-.4, § 67, p.

182-and who have no claim but what they derive from Jesus, who for us was an hungred, Mt. xii. 1, § 24, p. 188; xxi. 18, .9, § 83, p. 275.

46. everlasting punishment-Is. lxvi. 24, For their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched;'-2 Th. i. 9, Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;'

the righteous into life eternal-The righteous Judge will render to every man according to his works, Rom. ii. 6--ver. 7, To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: '

NOTE.

[Mt. xxv. 46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, &c. The punishment of the foolish virgins, the slothful servant, and the cursed who are separated from God, was not because of their personal crimes, but because they were not good, and were not useful in the world. Their lives do not appear to

have been stained with crimes, but they were not adorned with virtues. They are sent to hell because they did no good. They were not renewed in the image of God; and hence did not bring forth fruit to his glory. If these harmless people are sent to perdition, what must the end be of the wicked and profligatel] PRACTICAL REFLECTION.

Mt. xxv. 44, .5. Our Christianity must be made. evident by deeds of beneficence; especially in shewing mercy to the poor for Christ's sake.~[And see margin.]

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.

MOUNT OF OLIVES.-A mountain or ridge, now called by the Arabs Jebel et Tur, lying to the east of Jerusalem. According to Josephus, it was distant from the city five furlongs, but according to Luke, 'a sabbath day's journey,' or about eight furlongs; the difference of which statements may be reconciled by the supposition that Josephus took his admeasurement from the city to the base of the mountain, but Luke his, from the city to the summit whence our Lord ascended into heaven.

It is separated from the city by the narrow valley of Jehoshaphat, which forms a passage for the brook Kidron, see p 407, over which our blessed Lord went as he was wont to the mount of Olives,' as on that night when he crossed it to hide the sorrow of his soul beneath the shade of the olives of Gethsemane, see p. 422. Mount Olivet is in fact composed of three hills, which summits verge from north to south; the highest is the middle, and is crowned with a beautiful little temple of marble of an octagonal form, erected, as tradition says, over the spot last touched by the Saviour's foot. From it he ascended into heaven; and when he comes again in great glory and power, His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east,' Ze. xiv. 4.-See § 98. Its height above the brook Kidron is 600 feet, and according to Lieut. Symonds, 2,397 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. Its northern summit is nearly as high as the middle one. Beyond this summit the ridge sweeps round towards the west, and spreads out into the high level tract north of the city, which is skirted on the W. and S. by the upper part of the valley of Jehoshaphat. Towards the south it sinks down into a lower ridge, over against the so-called Well of Nehemiah,' now known by the Franks as the mount of Offence, in allusion to the idolatrous worship established by Solomon, on the hill that is before Jerusalem.' Over one of its lower summits winds a narrow path which divides into that leading to Jericho, the other to Bethany, situated on its eastern slope. This path is probably the same which was traversed by David when he went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: in sorrow and hu miliation, when he fled before the face of Absalom, 2 Sa. xv. 30. About two-thirds up the mountain is still shewn the spot whence the Saviour, beholding the city, wept over it, and where he pronounced the prophecy of its fall: from this point Jerusalem appears below the spectator spread out like a map.-See § 23, p. 182, 'Jerusalem as seen from mount Olivet.'

The way to the mount of Olives is by the gate of St. Stephen, down the steep hill, and over a bridge which crosses the dry bed of the Kidron, passing close on the right the garden of Gethsemane. The

354]

mountain is all ploughed, sown, and divided into
fields, and beautifully ornamented with olive, apri-
cot, fig, almond, and many other sorts of trees. And
here and there a shepherd may be seen leading his
sheep and goats, going before them, and climbing
now and then a little way into a tree, to shake down
leaves for his following flock to eat.
It would require a long history to recount the
varied scenes of grandeur and misery over which
this mount has looked. It saw the infant Jerusalem
rise and..... attain its glory under the sway of
David and Solomon, and sink in ashes beneath the
dark wings of the Roman Eagle. It soon beheld
another city (inheriting the name and the evil for-
tunes, but nothing of the splendour of its illustrious
predecessor,) rise on the same site, to be scourged in
turns by war, and famine, and pestilence. How often
has it seen the heights around glitter with the arms
of invading foes; the Persian, the Saracen, the
Christian Crusader, and the Turk: hosts mustering
where prophets trod, and its valleys resounding the
war cry of the false prophet! It now beholds a servile
and alien race, living in the city where David dwelt,'
and an idolatrous shrine proudly seated on the mount
where the Hebrew fathers worshipped. Amid all
the changes which Jerusalem has undergone, mount
Olivet has watched faithfully beside it.
From mount Olivet, the spectator on the east sees the
mountainous desert, which intervenes between the
capital and Jericho. Then comes the valley of the
Jordan, with a waving line of green drawn along its
scorched and desolate bosom, indicating the course
of the river. The surface of the Dead Sea is seen
burnished and glowing like a mirror, or shrouded in
heavy fogs, and looking not unlike melted lead at the
bottom of a caldron viewed from the mount of
Olives, this sea appears almost immediately beneath
the spectator, but the journey to it is long and tedi-
ous. Beyond are the hills of Moab, their summits
forming so even a line, that the spectator can fix on
no peak of which he can say, there Moses stood when
he viewed the land. On the north, summit rises
behind summit, ranging upwards like the seats in
an amphitheatre, till they are over-topped by the
mountains of Ephraim. On the north-west stands
Ramah, the birthplace of Samuel. In the fore-
ground, on every side, the eye traverses a vast ocean-
like undulation of bare and arid mountain tops and
valleys. There is the hill Scopus, where Titus pitched
his camp; the village of Anathoth, and Mizpeh, so in-
dissolubly associated with two of the greatest of the
Hebrew seers, are in sight. On the west, looking
beyond the city, the eye rests upon the bare and
rounded summits of the great central chain of Judæa.
On the south, the mount of Offence intervenes and
shuts out the view of the valley of Rephaim, and the
fertile meadows and glittering roofs of Bethlehem.

THE WICKED ARE OVERTHROWN, AND ARE NOT:-Prov. xii. 7.

[VOL. II.

LET US ANXIOUSLY BEWARE OF DESPISING EVEN THE LEAST OF THESE LITTLE ONES.

OH HOW GREAT IS THY GOODNESS, WHICH THOU HAST LAID UP FOR THEM THAT FEAR THER;

(G. 80.) THE APPROACH OF THE PASSOVER.-JESUS BETRAYED TO BE CRUCIFIED. Matt. xxvi. 1-5; 14-.6. Mark xiv. 1, 2; 10, .1. Luke xxii. 1-6.

INTRODUCTION.

him to death; but they agree that, in order to avoid
a tumult, this must not be during the feast.
precipitates their movements by going to the chief
Mt. xxvi. 14. Mk. xiv. 10. Lu. xxii. 3, 4. Judas
priests and captains, and offering to betray Jesus
unto them.
-xxvi. 15, .6. - xiv. 11. - xxii. 5, 6.
thirty pieces of silver he agrees to deliver Jesus into
their hands, at a convenient season, in the absence of
the multitude; and is henceforth on the watch for
an opportunity of earning the wages of iniquity.

The approach of the passover.

1

MARK xiv. 1.
(Ch. xiii. 37, p. 342.)

After two days

was the feast of the passover,
and of unleavened-bread:"

LUKE Xxii. 1.
(Ch. xxi. 38, p. 357.)

For

Now the feast of unleavened- 1 bread drew-nigh, which iscalled the-passover.

The council of the Jews deliberate on the mode of apprehending Jesus. Judas Iscariot covenants with them to betray him. Jerusalem.

Mt. xxvi. 2. After two days. The preceding discourses were delivered on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the week in which Jesus suffered; and our Saviour probably uttered these words on the lastnamed evening, which was just two days before the paschal lamb was eaten.

day of the month at even,' Ex. xii. 18.-See § 6, p. 40,
and ADDENDA, p. 43, Passover."]
The Son of man is betrayed [rather, delivered up]
to be crucified. Having instructed his disciples and
the Jews by his discourses, edified them by his exam-
ple, convinced them by his miracles, he now prepares
to redeem them by his blood!

[The passover. Of the three great yearly feasts of the Jews-see Ex. xxiii. 14-7; De. xvi. 1-17-at which all the males were required by the law to [And the Son of man. καὶ ὁ Υἱός. • The και is appear before the Lord, viz., the feast of the Passbest taken in sensu χρονικῷ for καὶ τότε. It is often over, the feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, and the feast used for őr, which may admit of being resolved into of Tabernacles, the feast of the Passover was the Kai Tóre. That his death was near at hand, our Lord greatest. The directions given by God himself for not until now told them the exact time.'- Bloomf.] had repeatedly apprised his disciples; but he had its first celebration and perpetual observance, are recorded in Ex. xii. 1-27; 43-.9; and in De. xvi. 1-8. 3. Then assembled together the chief priests. That It was called the Passover, because it was to be kept is, during the two days that preceded the passover. in memory of the Lord's having passed over the The chief priests. The high priest, and those who houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, sparing had been high priests; the ruling men of the santheir first-born when he destroyed the first-born of hedrim. Luke adds, that he went also to the capthe Egyptians. See Ex. xii. 11-3; 25-7. It was tains, xxii. 4. It was necessary on account of the also called the feast of unleavened bread-see ver. great wealth deposited there, to guard the temple by 17, and Mk. xiv. 1; Lu. xxii. 1, supra-because, night. Accordingly men were stationed around it, during the seven days of its continuance, the Israel- whose leaders or commanders were called captains ites were strictly forbidden to eat leavened bread, or [marg. rulers], Ac. iv. 1. These men were commonly even to have any leaven in their houses.-See Ex. Levites, were closely connected with the priests, were xii. 15-20; De. xvi. 3, 4. It began on the fourteenth men of influence, and Judas went to them, therefore, day of the month Abib,' afterwards called NISAN, at as well as to the priests, to offer himself as a traitor. even,' and continued until the one and twentieth-See on Lu. xxii. 4, p. 356.

PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS.

[Mt. xxvi. 1, 2. In the view of the glory and power | hope that we shall reign with Christ hereafter, let us with which our Lord will come in his SECOND be prepared to suffer with him now.]

advent, he did not neglect to prepare for the suffer- [3, 4 ver. Men, filling the most sacred offices, and ings which he was about to endure, as giving himself punctilious in the performance of religious rites, for our redemption. While we rejoice in the blessed were those who consulted to take Jesus by subtilty VOL. II.]

THY LOVING KINDNESS IS BEFORE MINE EYES:-Psa. xxvi. 3.

[355

WHICH THOU HAST WROUGHT FOR THEM THAT TRUST IN THEE BEFORE THE SONS OF MEN!-Psa. xxxi. 19.

DRAW ME NOT AWAY WITH THE WICKED, AND WITH THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY,

Mt.

went

unto the chief-priests,

Am. ii. 5.

SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS.

xxvi. 3. palace-see Is. xxxii. 14; Je. xvii. 27; | of John, Mt. xiv. 5, § 40, p. 306-comp. Mk. xi. 18, 32, §§ 83, .4, pp. 278, .84. 4. take Jesus by subtilly--1 Sa. xxiii. 9, And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against bim;'-Hab. iii. 14, Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.'-See also the description of a like priesthood, Ps. x. 1-10.

Lu. xxii. 2. feared the people-so Herod, in the case

3. entered-Judas seems to have been but a sample of that evil generation, whose case is described, Mt. xii. 43-.5, § 31, p. 239-on Satan entering his heart, comp. Jno. xiii. 27, § 87, p. 372, &c.; Ac. v. 3-Eph. ii. 2. The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:"

NOTES.

[Mt. xxvi. 3. The palace of the high priest.. The word av properly denoted an open, airy enclosure. So, in the Old Testament, and Rev. xi. 2, it is said of the outer court of the temple. It also denoted an area, or court, such as encircled the vestibule, door, or entrance to a large house; and also (as here) such an edifice as had attached to it an ah. It was, moreover, generally applied to the houses of kings and powerful or opulent persons. Hence the English word court, denoting a king's palace.] [Caiaphas. See on Jno. xi. 49, &c., § 53, p. 132. It appears from Ac. v. 17, that Caiaphas was a Sadducee. The kings of Judah appointed the high priests from among the family who possessed the claim to that office. See 1 Ki. ii. 27, 35, and 1 Chr. xxix. 22. In the republic, the sanhedrim. Under the Syro- Macedonians, and the Romans, those nations assumed the same privilege with greater licence.

About two years after our Lord's crucifixion, Caiaphas and Pilate were both deposed by Vitellius, then governor of Syria, and afterwards emperor. Caiaphas, unable to bear this disgrace, and the stings of his conscience for the murder of Christ, killed himself about A.D. 35.] [4. That they might take Jesus by subtilty. The English word subtilty does not convey the meaning of the Greek word do, in this verse. Perhaps the sentiments of the evangelist would be more correctly conveyed by rendering this passage, that they might take Jesus without the knowledge of the populace.' This was their wish; whereas subtilty might be employed without precluding the observation of the people. Indeed, the following verse seems to fix the meaning of the term; and it may be doubted whether the Jewish rulers at this time did not intend to dispatch our blessed Lord clandestinely, without the intervention of the Roman governor.]

[5. Not on the feast day. un v rỷ doprỳ, not during the festival. As there is nothing in the original answering to the word day, the term door may include

the whole festival; viz., the day of the paschal sacrifice, and the seven days of unleavened bread that followed it. Their design was, not to apprehend Jesus till the eight days of the paschal feast were ended, because the multitudes who came to Jerusa lem to celebrate the passover would then be greatly diminished; but Judas having come to the chief priests soon after, and made an offer of delivering him up in the night, they changed their design, and seized upon him on the evening of the first of these eight days, intending to try him, and condemn him in the night; and, if possible, to crucify him early in the morning, before the multitude of people then in the city should come together. The result was, that the true Paschal Lamb was offered up on the great day of the paschal solemnity.-See on Mt. xxvii. 20, § 90, p. 451.1

It was, doubtless, of the very first importance that the crucifixion of Christ, which was preparatory to the most essential achievement of Christianity, viz., his resurrection from the grave, should be exhibited before many witnesses, and in the most open manner, that infidelity might not attempt, in future, to inalleging that these things were done in a correr.validate the evidences of the cliristian religion, by Judas' motives for betraying Christ, in loc. And see Macknight's Harmony of the Gospels, on

Lu. xxii. 3. Then entered Satan into Judas. As those who obey the Divine motions are said to receive the Spirit as a Divine guest, so Satan is said to enter into those who consent unto criminal suggestions.See SCRIP. ILLUS.

Satan is never wanting to assist those whose 1:earts are bent upon mischief."

Being of the number of the twelve. Which is an aggravation of his sin.

[4. Captains. arparnyous, scil. Tov lepov, expressed infra, ver.52, .3. By these I would understand, not, with some, the officers charged with the superinten dence of the buildings of the temple; but, with Lightfoot and Bp. Middleton, the commanders over those PRACTICAL REFLECTION.

and kill him. Men should beware of placing their confidence in any human priesthood, however ancient, or whatever its origin may have been.] 356]

[Mt. xxvi. 5. A fear of the populace may sometimes be salutary in restraining the leaders, civil and ecclesiastical, from precipitating a nation into crime.]

LET THE LYING LIPS BE PUT TO SILENCE;-Psa. xxxi. 18.

[VOL. II.

Psa. xxviii. 3.

WHICH SPEAK PEACE TO THEIR NEIGHBOURS, BUT MISCHIEF IS IN THEIR HEARTS.

THE WICKED BOASTETH OF HIS HEART'S DESIRE, AND BLESSETH THE COVETOUS, WHOM THE LORD ABHORRETH.-Psa. x. 3.

(G. 81.)-How Jesus employed himself for the last two days of his public ministry, after he first visited the temple.*-Luke xxi. 37, .8. [Ch. xxi. 36, p. 341.]

37 And in-the day-time he-was teaching in the temple; and at-night he-went-out, and38 abode in the mount that is-called the mount of-Olives. And all the people came-earlyin-the-morning wpłpiče to him in the temple, for-to-hear him. [Ch. xxii. 1, p. 355.]

SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS.

NOTES.

PRACTICAL REFLECTION.

for to hear him.' It was to interrupt that labour of
love, this incessant teaching without human autho-
rity, that the Jewish priesthood set themselves.
us hence learn not to be followers of men; but let us
be followers of God, as dear children, as children of
the light and of the day.]

[Lu. xxi. 37, .8. Let us, from the example of our
dear Lord, learn how to improve our time. We have,
in Mt. xxiv., v., a sample of the manner in which
Jesus spent his evenings upon the mount of Olives;
and in the daytime he was teaching in the temple,
where all the people came early in the morning....
* On the time when our Lord concluded his public ministry, see ADDENDA, p. 299, last par.

O KEEP MY SOUL, AND DELIVER ME:-Psa. XXV. 20.

THE WICKED, THROUGH THE PRIDE OF HIS COUNTENANCE, WILL NOT SEEK AFTER GOD: GOD IS NOT IN ALL HIS THOUGHTS.-Psa. x. 4.

I WILL BREAK THE PRIDE OF YOUR POWER; AND I WILL MAKE YOUR HEAVEN AS IRON, AND YOUR EARTH AS BRASS :-Lev. xxvi. 19.

ADDEND A.

That the prophetical matter of the discourse, down to a certain point at least, is directed to a specific end and purpose, may, I think, be inferred from two very significant passages which occur in it at distinct intervals; one of them in a negative sense, serving to the same effect, as the other in a positive; the first, Mt. xxiv. 6; Mk. xiii. 7; Lu. xxi. 9 [p. 325], "But the end is not as yet," or "But the end is not immediately:" the other, Mt. xxiv. 14 [p. 330], "And then will the end come.".... (P. 200.)

THE PROPHECY ON MOUNT OLIVET.-Matt. xxiv. 1-44; Mark xiii.; Luke xxi. 5-36, pp. 323—.42. See Greswell on the Parables, Vol. V. pp. 197-443. Two very distinct lines of argument run through By means of his timely forewarnings, the Hebrew the discourse, from first to last; the business of one Christian could extend his prospect far into the disof which is to communicate the knowledge of future mal and appalling scene which lay yet in embryo; facts, and that of the other to counsel, to admonish, and in the pregnant symptoms of approaching judg to warn, and advise in a variety of ways..... (P. 198.) ment on his country and nation in general, could discern the dayspring of hope, and the earnest of coming deliverance to himself and his brethren of the faith. The ominous signs of the times were the auspices of redress to him. In the midst of surrounding danger he could reckon on security; in the moment of imminent destruction he might rely with confidence on the promise of protection. The care and foresight of his Divine Master had placed him on an eminence, whence he might discover beforehand the first gathering of the storm, might watch with composure its gradual advances, and before it could burst over his head, would have means and opportunity to provide for his safety by a timely escape..... (P. 210.) With respect, indeed, to the question of the historical fulfilment of the prediction in any of these instances, one observation is very necessary to be made, and to be kept in view throughout, that the events predicted being regarded in the light of signs, bearing a special reference to a certain point of time before and after the period of their occurrence, it is the first instance of such events with which we are properly concerned, and not such repetitions of the same as might occur again from time to time afterwards.'. ... (P. 228.) 'KINGDOM AGAINST KINGDOM.'-Mt. xxiv. 7, p. 325. The matter of fact which I apprehend to be pro- | kingdom of Israel was Samaria and its inhabitants. perly contemplated in the fulfilment of this predic- The rising up of one kingdom against another, in the tion, is the occurrence of insurrectionary wars be- sense here implied, is by no means a necessary intitween one part of Judæa itself and another; both as mation of the fact of open or regular warfare between distinct and independent communities comprehended them, or of anything more than in the former inin the same locality. The mention of kingdom as stance, mere sudden outbreaks of a common violence, opposed to kingdom.... points in this instance to and mutual tumultuary outrage. Contests of this the ancient division of Palestine into the kingdom of description, in which Jew was expressly engaged with Judah and the kingdom of Israel respectively, and Samaritan, are on record for the interval between the to the revival of something like the old rivalship ascension and the destruction of Jerusalem, to which and hostility which from the moment of their se- I consider this prediction properly to relate. These paration had ever after distinguished these king- disputes had something in their nature akin to, and doms. The representative of the kingdom of Judah something different from, the last-mentioned ones [see at the present day was Judæa Proper, the two Gali- on ver. 6, 7, p. 325]; sufficient to make them be classed lees, Peræa and its inhabitants; that of the ancient together, and yet to distinguish them asunder.' (P.247.) 'FEARFUL SIGHTS,' &c.-Lu. xxi. 11, p. 326.

We may lay it down as a sufficiently correct assumption of the nature, constitution, and final end of this memorable prophecy, that it is a prophetic revelation of the future, not simple or uniform in its construction, but mixed; combining together two distinct topics of argument, which run parallel with each other throughout it, the purely prophetic, and the purely preceptive; the end of the former being subordinate to that of the latter, and both conspiring to a common purpose, the preservation and safety of the Hebrew Christians amidst that series of national calamities, which were about to fall promiscuously on the rest of their countrymen..... (P. 209.)

With respect to the signs of either description, belonging to this (sixth) class, which more immediately concerned the Jews, Josephus enumerates them, B. Jud. vi. v. 3, in the following order; with whose account we may compare also Tacitus, Histor. v. 13. I. The appearance of a star, in the shape of a sword, and stationary over the city. II. A comet, visible for a year. Both these would be signs from heaven. Whether they appeared before U.c. 819, A.D. 66, or after it, is not distinctly stated, though the comet in particular may well be supposed one of those which we have seen to have been visible at Rome, u.c. 807, v.c. 813, u.c. 817, more especially that which is reported to have been visible six months and upwards, consequently that of u.c. 813, or u.c. 817.... III. On the eighth of Xanthicus, or Nisan, March 23, U.c. 819, A.D. 66, at three in the morning, so bright a light suddenly shone round about the altar of burnt offering, and the vaos, or sanctuary, as to cause the appearance of noonday in the temple; a phenomenon which lasted half an hour. This also may be considered a sign from heaven.

IV. During the feast of the passover next ensuing, from March 29 to April 5, a cow, in the act of being sacrificed, is said to have brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple; an event which, if true, might well pass for a póßnrpov, or fearful thing. V. During the same festival, the eastern or brazen gate of the inner temple, which was wont to be made fast to the ground every evening with strong bolts and bars, and required the united strength of twenty men to open or to shut it, was found standing wide open at midnight: another φόβητρον, or alarming,

occurrence. Cf. Tac. H. v. 13.

be full of chariots, and armed battalions, darting from the clouds, and compassing or encircling the cities, like besieging armies, throughout the country. The war with Rome, it should be observed, had broken out in this month, not later than the sixteenth preceding. See my Diss. Vol. I. Diss. xiii. P. 579, sqq. This would be a sign from heaven of a truly portentous description to the Jews, coinciding as it did with the first commencement of the contest on which they had embarked, the effects of which were destined to realize everything in the end, thus pictured in the air to their view beforehand. Tacitus, H. v. 13, asserts the fact of this phenomenon, as well as Josephus....

VII. At the feast of Pentecost, next ensuing, which would fall out that year on May 19, the priests whose duty it was to visit the inner temple in the night time, heard first a noise and a motion of some kind, then on a sudden the words, Let us depart hence (μεταβαίνωμεν ἐντεῦθεν). This also is mentioned by Tacitus, loq. cit....With this period, then, we might date the fulfilment of our Saviour's predicunbelieving Jews, before he made an end of his tion, in the last words which he had addressed to the ministry, looù, àpistaι buir dolxos Sur nos, Mt. xxiii. 38; Harm. iv. 77....

VIII. At a time which I shewed in my former feast of tabernacles, v.c. 815, A.D. 62, four years bework, Vol. II. Diss. i. p. 82, sqq., to coincide with the fore the war, Jesus, or Joshua, the son of Ananus, a common Jew from the country, who had come up vicinity of the temple, φωνὴ ἀπ' ἀνατολῆς, φωνὴ ἀπὸ to attend the feast, suddenly began to cry, in the δύσεως, φωνὴ ἀπὸ τῶν τεσσάρων ἀνέμων, φωνὴ ἐπὶ Ἱεροσό λυμα, καὶ τὸν ναὸν, φωνὴ ἐπὶ νυμφίους, καὶ νύμφας, φωνή in Tov λaòv návra, that is, "a voice from the east; a voice from the west; a voice from the four winds, a

VI. On the 21st of Artemisius, or Jar, that is,
May 4, the same year, at sunset, the air was seen to
358]
THE DAY IS THINE,-Psa. lxxiv. 16.

[VOL. II.

YOUR STRENGTH SHALL BE SPENT IN VAIN FOR YOUR LAND SHALL NOT YIELD HER INCREASE, NEITHER SHALL THE TREES YIELD, ETC.-Lev. xxvi. 20.