Jonathan Edwards · 349 of 409

Matthew · Part 2

In this his solemn entry into Jerusalem, he passed from the mount of Olives, the same mount from which he ascended into the heavenly Jerusalem. He ascended from the mount of Olives, the mount of peace; olive-branches were used as a symbol of peace among the Gentiles, and so was the olive-branch brought by Noah’s dove. Christ ascended after he had made peace, or finished the work of reconciliation; without his reconciliation he could not have ascended. He entered into the holiest of all by his own blood. God was as it were reconciled to him by his blood, who was before as it were the object and mark of God’s wrath for our sins, which he had taken upon him. It was the mountain where he had his agony, and sweat that blood by which he obtained peace, and where he was betrayed to endure the cross. The ascension and glory of Christ, and the glory of the saints, is consequent on, and procured by, Christ’s sufferings, by which he wrought out reconciliation. The place on mount Olivet that he ascended from, was Bethany, (Luke xxiv. 50.) the house of affliction, signifying that his exaltation was consequent on his sufferings. So he ascended into Jerusalem from Bethany and Bethphage; (Mark xi. 1. Matt. xxi. 1. Luke xix. 29.) which latter signifies the house of first-ripe figs, signifying that Christ entered into heaven as the first-fruits: Christ the first-fruits, and afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming.

He entered Jerusalem, as a king sitting on an ass, for kings formerly were wont to ride on asses. So he ascended into heaven as the King of glory. His riding an ass betokened two things, viz. kingly glory, and great humility and meekness, agreeably to the passage in Zechariah. chap. ix. 9. cited on this occasion. Christ ascended in great glory, so he also ascended in unparalleled humility and meekness; a most admirable conjunction of diverse qualifications appearing in him, which may perhaps be signified by the colt’s being found at a place where two ways meet, denoting that two things that seem very diverse, and seem to have a very diverse relation and tendency, meet here: as two men that go diverse ways, meet together at the meeting of two paths. The path of humility seems to lead him that walks in it a diverse way from the path of honour; one seems to tend downward, and the other upwards; yet indeed they both meet and become the same, both carry a man to the same place: as the ass was a token both of kingly honour and great humility. The ass, the symbol of humility, carries a king on his back, and on an ass does the King of glory ascend into the city and temple of the great King, as by humiliation Christ ascended into heaven.

The ass on which Christ rode, was a colt, on which never man sat. So Christ’s humiliation was now such as there never had been a parallel of, nor any thing like it, and it carried him into glory as unparalleled.

Zion is called upon to rejoice on this occasion: so heaven rejoiced on occasion of Christ’s ascension. They cut down branches of palm-trees, the symbol of victory, and spread them in the way; so Christ’s ascension to heaven was a triumphant ascension, he having obtained the victory in his sore conflict with his enemies. A great multitude attended Christ; so a vast multitude attended him in his ascension into heaven a multitude of saints and angels. They spread their garments under his feet; which is like the angels and elders casting down their crowns at his feet: they consecrate all their honours to Christ’s honour. He sat on their garments, and went on them. He is attended with great and joyful acclamations and praises, all the way as he went up into the mountain of the temple, the children crying hosanna there in the temple. As the multitude attended the ark in all its ascent into Jerusalem and mount Zion, (which was then the mount of the house of the Lord,) all the way with most joyful acclamations and songs; so the saints and angels attended Christ all the way as he went from the uppermost regions of our air, with most joyful praises and acclamations, to heaven.

As he came into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” so on occasion of Christ’s ascension, the inhabitants of heaven say once and again, Who is this King of Glory?” Psal. xxiv. See Notes on the place.

It is very remarkable that one thing that the multitude cry in their acclamations, is, Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!” (Luke xix. 38.) being wonderfully directed thus to express the joy and glory there would be in heaven, the highest heaven, at the ascension of Christ.

God was pleased thus to give Christ such a representation and earnest of the ascension and glory that should be the reward of his sufferings, a little before those sufferings, to encourage him to go through them, as he had before done another way in his transfiguration.

[330] Matt. xxi. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Concerning making Christ’s house a den of thieves, &c. The apostate Jewish church that was in Christ’s time, was in many things an image of the apostate Christian church, or rather the antichristian church; and among other things the Jews making Christ’s Father’s house a house of merchandise, and a den of thieves, was typical of what the clergy of the church of Rome do. And Christ’s overthrowing them, and driving them out of the temple, is typical of what Christ hath done, and will further do, with respect to that church. It shows how displeasing and provoking to Christ their so doing is, how Christ abominates such practices. They sold doves in the temple, so the merchants of the church of Rome pretend to sell those things that are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the heavenly dove. These gifts are called spirits in Paul’s epistles, and so in the Revelations. The Spirit of God, with respect to his various gifts and operations, is called, ”Seven spirits.“ They do as Simon the sorcerer, who desired to buy a power to confer the gifts of the Holy Ghost on whomsoever he would, to that end that he might make merchandise of them. So the clergy of the church of Rome sell baptism, regeneration, and salvation; they sell forgiveness of sins, the eucharist and ordination, consecration and extreme unction, &c. The Holy Spirit is the great commodity that their merchandise consists in.

Christ cast the Jewish merchants out of his temple; so Christ cast such merchants out of his church. When Christ came into his temple at Jerusalem, this was the effect; so when Christ returns into his church, after its great apostacy, this is the consequence. At the same time, the blind and the lame come to Christ, and he heals them; so when Christ comes to drive out the antiChristian merchants out of his house, there will be a great flocking of poor miserable souls to Christ to be healed. At the same time also the children cry hosanna in the temple, and the priests and scribes are sore displeased, which are all typical of what will be when Christ comes to revive religion, and execute judgment on the Romish church. Then will the mouths of God’s people be filled with praises to Christ, and there will be a remarkable fulfilment of that saying, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise; ” which will greatly displease and provoke the chief priests and scribes of the church of Rome.

Because this was typical of something very remarkable that should surely come to pass in the church, therefore it was repeated, as Pharaoh’s dream was, concerning the years of famine and plenty, for Christ drave out the merchants out of his temple once before. John ii. 13.

[4] Matt. xxi. 40, 41. “When the lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh.” It is manifest here that the destruction of Jerusalem is called the coming of the Lord. This is called the end of the world: it is the end of the old world, and from this time began the new heavens and new earth, spoken of in Isaiah; and the time when the heavens and the earth are shaken: this was the end put to the Jewish church, and polity, and nation, and law, country, city, sanctuary, and all the Jewish world; and from this time began the Gentile church to be the chosen people of God; for as soon as these husbandmen were destroyed, then the vineyard was let out to others, according to this place, and this coming of Christ. It was that which was spoken of as being very near by the apostles; and said by Christ to be within the life-time of some there present. This city was begun anew and finished in Constantine’s time, when the heathen world was overthrown, as now the Jewish. The calling of the Gentiles is what is called, (Matt. xxiv. 3.) “The gathering together the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

[379] Matt. xxii. 31, 32. “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” The argument is very strong for the immortality of the soul, considering how often God manifested his great favours to those patriarchs in their life-time, time after time entering into covenant with them, and professing himself to be their God, declaring to them that he was God, all-sufficient, and that he was their shield and their exceeding great reward, promising that he would be with them and would bless them, and considering what great and manifold afflictions they met with while they lived, especially Abraham and Jacob, and how little good they ever saw of those promises that God had made in this life. God promised them the land of Canaan, but they were pilgrims and strangers in it; they had no settled habitation in it, but dwelt in tents, removing to and fro. Other people had the possession of the land, and oftentimes molested them, as Abimelech did in particular. They were driven out of the land by famines: all three of them were so. Abraham came from a far country; left his own kindred and his father’s house, and went out, not knowing whither he went, for the sake of this land; but yet “God gave him none inheritance in it; no, not so much as to set his foot on.” Jacob had the promise of this land; but yet he was still driven out of the land by Esau, that had no promise of it, and lived an exile from it twenty years, for fear of him, in a state of servitude, and in abundance of trouble; and in the latter part of his life he was forced to leave it to go down into Egypt with all his family, and posterity, and flocks and herds, and there he died. Though Canaan was the promised land, yet the principal quietness Jacob had in this world, was in Egypt, that seventeen years he lived there with Joseph his son, and not in Canaan. Another thing that was chiefly insisted on in God’s covenant with them, was their being blessed in their posterity, that should be numerous and happy; but how little did they see of this while they lived! How long did Abraham wait before he had any child! and after he had one, he was obliged to cast out his first child, greatly to his grief; and he was a hundred years old before he saw one child in whom his seed should be called; and then God gave him but one, so that he saw nothing like a numerous posterity while he lived. And Isaac never had but two sons; and concerning his eldest and best beloved, it was revealed that his seed was not to be called in him, and he was obliged to disinherit him; and he had a great deal of grief in him and his wives: and his other son, that was to be his heir, he was obliged to part with into a strange land, and saw not for twenty years together. And Jacob, though he had a numerous family, yet he had abundance of sorrow and trouble in them. His eldest son committed incest with his own concubine; his two next sons were guilty of barbarous murders. Judah, in whose posterity chiefly it was that Jacob’s posterity were to be blessed, behaved himself very sinfully, and so as, doubtless, was greatly to his father’s grief. Joseph, his best beloved son, he went long mourning for as lost, and having come to an untimely and sorrowful end. The sons of the handmaid seem to be none of the best beloved.

Esau’s posterity seems to have come to greater prosperity than Jacob’s, as Esau himself seems to have been vastly richer and more potent than his brother. Considering these things, how can it be that God’s so often speaking of it as so great, inestimable, and distinguishing a happiness that he had admitted them to, that he was their God, and insisting on these covenant promises that he made to them, as so exceeding great and precious? I say, how can it be imagined but that God, in thus saying and promising, had respect to something that they should see and enjoy further than they ever enjoyed in this life?

[381] The same may be argued, and in some respects were strongly, from God’s still revealing himself as “the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, after they were dead.” It was respect to the promises that had been made to them while living, of which it was known that they never saw the fulfilment, and never had received the promises, but had received a great deal of the contrary affliction; and therefore if their being was now finally extinct, and they no more capable of seeing and enjoying the fulfilment of any promise, why should God mention and insist on his friendship and love, and promises to them, as what still moved him to do great things for their sakes? and why should God still delight to characterize himself by his being their covenant God and friend, when there appeared so little foundation for it in any benefit that ever they had received by it, or were ever like to receive? It was because they were still capable of receiving the benefits of his favours and friendship, that he was not ashamed to be called their God. Heb. xi. 16. “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.” If it had not been for this, God’s being their God, spoken of so much, and as so great a thing, would come to a very small matter, hardly worth the mentioning.

From these things we may not only argue that the patriarchs continued to be, and did enjoy something after they were dead, but also that they lived to see and enjoy the fulfilment of those promises that were made to them, with respect to which it is that God calls himself their God, both before and after their death; and that their happiness in great part consisted in seeing the fulfilment of these promises in the course of his providence to their seed, and in the dispensation of providence towards the church. And so I would argue that the happiness of departed souls in heaven, in a most important degree, consists in beholding and contemplating God’s glorious dispensations towards the church in this world, and in seeing his wonderful wisdom, and infinite grace, and other perfections, therein manifested. The principal employment of one great part of the heavenly world, viz. the holy angels, is about these things; that in which the angels do chiefly behold the manifold wisdom and other perfections of God, is in these things, and the same is that wherein chiefly the souls of departed saints do chiefly behold God’s glory.

The fulfilment of the promises God made to him concerning what should be accomplished in and for his seed, and for the church of God after his death, he said was “all his salvation and all his desire;” and therefore doubtless great part of the happiness he enjoyed after his death, consisted in fulfilling that desire of his.

[219] Matt. xxiii. 34, 35. “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.” The learned Bedford, in his Scripture Chronology, speaking of Zechariah son of Jehoiada, whose murder in the court of the temple we have account of, 2 Chron. xxiv. 20, 21, 22. says, there are some of good authority who look upon this Zechariah to be the person of whom our Saviour spake in this place; but says, as our Saviour begins with Abel, the first instance, so we may suppose that he concluded with the last; and as he here speaks of future things, so this may be one instance among the rest, and the naming the name of both father and son is such an instance of his knowledge, the like whereof was never given by any other; we may therefore conclude, that the Zachariah, whom our Saviour speaks of, was one whom Josephus mentions in the time of the Jewish wars, and of whom he gives us this account, that he was the son of Baruch, a man of the first rank, a friend to all good men, and an enemy to the wicked. This Zachariah the zealots looked upon as a man so very popular, that they themselves could not be safe without taking away his life. For this purpose they bring him before a court of their own setting up, and falsely accuse him of a conspiracy to betray Jerusalem to the Romans, and treating with Vespasian about it. When the court, contrary to their own expectation, had declared him innocent, two of the greatest ruffians of the company fell outrageously upon Zachariah, and murdered him in the middle of the temple, with this insolent raillery in their mouths, “Now we have given you your discharge too, and you are much surer of this than you were of the other;” and so they cast his body down the precipice of the mountain.

[292] Matt. xxiv. 21, 22, 23, 24,. &c. “For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect,” &c. By these days of great tribulation that Christ here speaks of, is not to be understood only the tribulation that accompanied the taking and destroying the city of Jerusalem by Titus, but it is a day of tribulation to the spiritual Jerusalem, as well as the literal. It is a day of tribulation wherein the elect or true Christians should be concerned, as seems to appear from verses 22 and 23. For it seems to be partly for this reason that Christ warns his church to beware, that under such a day of extraordinary temptation they should not be over-forward to believe any that appeared in his name, pretending to be Christ, appearing in his second coming to deliver them from their suffering; for that was all the primitive Christians expected, that when Christ came the second time he would deliver his church from its sufferings and tribulations. And Christ speaks of his second coming at this time as the day of their redemption out of their tribulation. Luke xxi. 28. “Then lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh;” therefore knowing that through their great tribulation they would be earnestly waiting for his coming, and so under temptation to listen to any that pretend in his name to set up for their deliverers, and appear to lead them to war against their enemies, Christ warns them not to listen or follow such impostors. The Christian church was especially under this temptation, under the persecutions of heathen Rome, for in those days especially there prevailed an opinion in the church that Christ would soon appear for their deliverance.

§ 2. When Christ says, “Except those days should he shortened, no flesh should be saved; but for the elect’s sake these days shall be shortened; ” Christ seems to have respect to those days of tribulation that he had been speaking of in the former part of the chapter, not only in the.21st verse, but in the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th verses. That those earthquakes, famines, &c. Mark xiii. 8. are said to be the beginning of what were not only sorrows to the Jews, but Christians, as is evident by what immediately follows: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake; and then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. ”

§ 3. Therefore, the time of tribulation here spoken of is, as the prophet Jeremy expresses it, the time of Jacob’s tribulation. Jer. xxx. 7. “Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” It is the time of the trouble both of the literal and spiritual Jacob; the literal Jacob shall be saved out of it, when the time comes that the apostle speaks of in the 11th of Romans., when all Israel shall be saved. And the spiritual Jacob shall be saved out of it, as appears by the words of Daniel. chap. xii. where there seems to be reference to these words of Jeremiah; “And at that time shall Michael stand up, that great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall he a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered every one that are found written in the book. ” And that the spiritual Jacob, or the elect, shall be delivered out of it, appears by the words of Christ in this place, where Christ seems to have reference to what had been before said by both these other prophets.

The prophecies of the Old Testament that speak of Israel, Jacob, Jerusalem, Zion, commonly have respect both to the Christian church and also the nation of the Jews, in things that are to be fulfilled to both in the latter days; and so it is here in the 24th of Matt. See Note on Num. xxiv. 23, 24.

§ 4. More particularly by the time of tribulation here spoken of, is meant the whole time of the tribulation and suffering both of the literal and spiritual Israel from the Roman empire, or the whole time wherein both the literal and spiritual Jerusalem shall be trodden down under-foot by Rome, or the spiritual Babylon. Beginning with the troubles that both Jews and Christians suffered under Nero, about which time was that beginning of sorrows spoken of in the 7th, 8th, and 9th verses, and ending with the time, and times, and half a time of the reign of antichrist. That this tribulation should be suffered from Rome, or in the spiritual Babylon, is signified by Christ, in ver. 28. “Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together:” the tribulation is by the eagles, i. e. the Roman powers preying on the carcasses of Israel.

§ 5. The tribulation of the literal and spiritual Jews from Rome both began about the same time, and therefore both the sufferings of the Jews, and the persecution of Christians from the Romans, are mentioned together in the preceding part of this chapter, and called the beginning of sorrows, about the same time that the troubles of the Jews from the Romans began under Nero, who persecuted both Jews and Christians together; and both will end together; viz. when the power of Rome, the city that has brought this tribulation upon them, ends; much as of old the captivity of the Jews ceased, when Babylon, that carried them captive, was destroyed. So when the spiritual Babylon falls, the Christian church shall be delivered, and the Jews shall be called.

§ 6. The tribulation of the literal Jerusalem and the Jewish nation spoken of by Christ, at the time that we have an account of in this chapter, was not any short tribulation, or something that should soon be over, but is expressly spoken of by Christ as that which shall be continued for many ages, and even till the commencement of the glorious times of the Christian church, in the latter ages of the world. Luke xxi. 23, 24. “There shall he great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” The calamity or judgment upon the Jews here spoken of, is manifestly the same with the tribulation spoken of in Matthew, so far as that nation were the subjects of it; but this calamity or judgment here spoken of is the great and sore judgment of God on the Jewish nation, that has now continued for many ages, begun in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans: their state of captivity and dispersion into all nations, and being trodden down of all nations. But this calamity yet continues, and is spoken of in these words as what shall be continued till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. This tribulation was but begun when Jerusalem was destroyed, the calamity was not ended when the destruction was finished; it is not ended till they are delivered from that destruction, or till the state of destruction they were then brought into ceases. The calamity of being killed, or brought into a state of death, is not ended as soon as a man is killed; it is then but brought to perfection; it is not ended till the resurrection comes. The tribulation on the Jews cannot be said to be ended as long as the ruin of the city and dispersion of the nation brought by it remains; these are the great judgments spoken of as included in this tribulation, and as long as the judgments remain the tribulation is not ended.

§ 7. And as the calamity brought on the Jewish nation by Rome continues all this time, so is the Christian church throughout this time kept in a state of tribulation and oppression. There was indeed a short intermission of their trouble after Constantine came to the throne, but this was no proper end to their day of tribulation, but only a short breathing spell; it is represented by John, as silence for half an hour; but soon after this the church of Christ began again to be persecuted by the power of the Roman empire, first by the emperors, and afterwards by the power of Rome antiChristian, and is to be persecuted to the end of antichrist’s reign, or that time, times, and a half, that the holy city is to be trodden under-foot, and that forty and two months, or one thousand two hundred and sixty days, wherein the woman is to remain in the wilderness, and the witnesses are to prophesy in sackcloth. This whole space of time may be called the time of Jacob’s trouble, or the time of the tribulation of the church of God; a time of far greater outward affliction than ever the church of God saw from the beginning of the world till that time, and greater than ever it should see again. This long period of suffering of his church Christ had respect to, when he said he did not come to send peace on the earth, but a sword. This whole time is what is called the time of the mystery of God, as it is called, Rev. x. 7. and the time of these wonders, as it is called, Dan. xii. 6. i.e. the time of God’s mysterious and wonderful dealings with his own people in their great sufferings. See Note on Rev. x. 7. This is properly the time of the church’s travail; for from Nero’s time till now, the church has been in travail to bring forth the glory of the approaching millennium, or the establishment of Christ’s kingdom through the earth. When the millennium begins, then will the church, which God has redeemed from being an accursed Jericho by the blood of his first-born, have gates set up; but from the time of the laying of the foundation in the blood of the first-born till this time, even all the while this Jericho is in building, it has been by the shedding the blood of God’s younger children. This long space of time is the time of the slaying of those children, being the time of the building of the city, until it is finished in setting up the gates of it. And all this tribulation has been from one enemy, viz. the spiritual Babylon, or the idolatrous empire of Rome.