ON SEVERAL SUBJECTS and OCCASIONS, By the most Reverend Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON, LATE Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. VOLUME the TENTH. STOR LIBRIS EW-YORK. LONDON: Printed for C. Hitch and L. Hawes, J. Hodges, A. Millar, J. and R. Ware, and M. Cooper, MDCCLVII. SERMON CLXXXIII. The uncertainty of the day of judgment, consider'd and improv'd. MARK XIII. 32, 33. But of that day, and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the FATHER. Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is. T 3 HESE words are spoken by our SA-SERM. VIOUR of the day of judgment; for tho' CLXXXIII. in this chapter, as likewise in the xxivth of St. Matthew, and the xxist of St. Luke, which are parallel to it, our SAVIOUR discourseth very particularly and largely concerning the eminent appearance of his power and justice in the deftruction of Jerufalem, which may perhaps sometimes in fcripture be called his coming; yet it is plain likewife, that he discourseth there concerning his coming to judgment at the end of the world. For we find in the xxivth of St. Matthew, that after our SAVIOur had foretold his disciples of the utter ruin of Jerufalem, they came afterwards to him, to enquire more particularly about it; ver. 3. "And as he fat upon the mount of olives, the disciples came unto " him privately, faying, tell us, when shall these " things be? and what shall be the sign of thy " coming, and of the end of the world?" Where there are two several questions, to which our Savi SERM.OUR returns a distinct answer. The first, when CLXXXIII, those things he had been speaking of before should be; that is, the things which related to the destruction of Jerufalem, for of that only he had been speaking of before. The other question was concerning "the sign of his coming, and of the end of the " world." 66 The reason of their joining these two questions together, seems to be this, (as is very probable from many texts of the new teftament) viz. that the apostles did think (and our SAVIOUR permitted them for a long time to remain under this mistake) that the end of the world, and the general judgment, would be presently after the destruction of Jerufalem. Now to this second question of theirs, concerning the end of the world, and our SAVIOUR'S coming to judgment, he gives an answer in the latter part of that chapter, ver. 29. "But immediately " after the tribulation of those days, the fun shall " be darkned, and the moon shall not give her " light; and then shall appear the sign of the SON " of man in heaven." Not that the general judgment of the world was immediately to follow the destruction of Jerufalem; for there were many other things to intervene, as is manifeft from St. Luke, chap. xxi. 24. "That the Jews should be led cap" tive into all nations, and Jerufalem should be "troden down of the gentiles, until the times of the " gentiles were fulfilled." And tho' these things be expreft in a few words, yet they comprehend a long tract of time; for the captivity of the Jews hath continued for above 1600 years, and is not yet at an end. And then after the accomplish ment |