he had been giving. He had before warned his hearers against the example of the scribes in many respects; by his present remark, he declares that their most specious virtue, that of liberality, was like all the rest, empty show; inasmuch as even this virtue depended, not on the external act, but on the intention and circumstances of the giver.

CHAPTER XIII.

TOPICS OF INQUIRY RESPECTING THE PROPHECY RECORDED IN THIS CHAPTER.

THE prophecy contained in this chapter is by some

applied exclusively to the destruction of Jerusalem; by others to that event, and also to the end of the world. For the purpose of obtaining, as far as may be, a right notion of its true import and object, it will be useful to consider, I. The assertion with which it concludes-that all should be fulfilled during the generation of those addressed. II. The character of the prophetic language among the Jews, and the probable adoption of it here. III. Whether, according to this method of interpretation, history bears us out in the interpretation of all the prophecy. IV. Whether some portions of the prophecy, which seem to be applicable to the day of judgment, can be satisfactorily reconciled with the declaration of Christ, respecting the time of its fulfilment.

TIME OF THE PROPHECY'S FULFILMENT.

Ver. 28-37.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: so ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all

Heaven and earth shall pass away:

these things be done. but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that angels which are in heaven, Take ye heed, watch and time is. For the Son of

hour knoweth no man, no, not the neither the Son, but the Father. pray for ye know not when the man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

for

The declaration respecting the time of the prophecy's fulfilment closes the whole, and is contained in these last ten verses of the chapter. All was to come to pass within that brief period which suffices for a generation of men to die off and be succeeded by another.

That "the day and the hour" should, nevertheless, have been left unrevealed, was a natural and reasonable trial of the disciple's faith; who, having observed the progressive accomplishment of the signs, was to be ready, when the last appeared, for the event itself; and, by his reliance on its certain approach, to show an exercise of faith in those prophetic signs. Our Lord, however, declares that he was himself ignorant of "the day and the hour." This may appear strange and inconsistent with other avowals which he makes

of himself, and of his divine nature. If it be so, an objector may say, then was not God manifested in Christ, and Christ could have been only a messenger divinely inspired, and limited, although in a less

degree than others, in his view of the scheme of Providence. It is remarkable, too, that in the narrative of the Acts, where our Lord's prediction of the same event is alluded to, the prediction is accompanied with a similar declaration. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power;'* that is, set apart as his peculiar province of knowledge.

It is impossible to explain it by reference to those mysterious distinctions in the divine nature, the existence of which we infer from other parts of Scripture. For, if the terms Father and Son be used in this sentence for the first and second Persons of the Godhead, as so distinguished, it is plain that omniscience is denied to the second Person.

But Christ could not have preached contradictions; and if, in so many parts of his ministry, he clearly manifested himself as 'perfect God, and perfect man,' he could not have meant to disavow this. If, on one occasion, in accordance with much besides which he did and said, he told his disciples, 'All things that the Father hath are mine,'t by the expression, 'what the Father has put in his own power,' and by this similar phrase which we meet with in St. Mark, he could not have meant, that any portion of divine

*Acts i. 7. Oeto év tŷ idíą é§ovoía. The idia here gives to the assertion of the Acts the same force as St. Mark's expression, " no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." ↑ John xvi. 15

knowledge was withheld from him; but that the exact knowledge of the time of the coming of his kingdom was not part of the revelation which they were to receive from him. This was all the reply which their question needed, and this is all that could have been intended.

Nor did his mode of expressing this necessarily suggest any different view at the time. For, from the Gospel narratives, especially St. John's, it appears to have been not unusual with our Lord, when contrasting the manifestation of God with his unperceived incomprehensible existence, to apply the term 'Father,' as associated with the latter. Thus He declares; 'He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,'* because, namely, He was God made visible-the manifested, in opposition to the unmanifested, unperceived, incomprehensible nature and existence of God. I should interpret in the same way the following passages, amongst others. My Father is greater than I,'t that is, what is manifested of God is not so great and glorious as what is still unrevealed to man. 'I go to my Father,' that is, God ceases to be manifest in the flesh. 'The Comforter,' (that is, the Holy Ghost,) 'whom I will send unto you from the Father,' that is, when God ceases to be manifested in my human nature. It is in this sense, perhaps, and in allusion to such expressions as these, that God is called in the

* John xiv. 9.

John xiv. 28. ‡ John xvi. 16, 28. § John xv. 26.