ON SEVERAL

SUBJECTS and OCCASIONS,

By the most Reverend

Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON,

LONDON:

Printed for C. Hitch and L. Hawes, J. Hodges, A. Millar, J. and
R. Tonfon, G. Woodfall, J. Rivington, J. Rivington and

J. Fletcher, J. Ward, R. Baldwin, W. Johnston,

S. Crowder and H. Woodgate, M. and T. Longman,
P. Davey and B. Law, A. and C. Corbet,
R. Ware, and M. Cooper,"

MDCCLVII.

SERMON CLXXXIII.

The uncertainty of the day of judgment, confider'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

HESE words are spoken by our SA-SERM. VIOUR of the day of judgment; for tho' CLXXXIII. in this chapter, as likewife in the xxivth of St. Matthew, and the xxist of St. Luke, which are parallel to it, our SAVIOUR difcourfeth very particularly and largely concerning the eminent appearance of his power and juftice in the deftruction of Jerufalem, which may perhaps fometimes in fcripture be called his coming; yet it is plain likewife, that he difcourfeth 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 difciples of the utter ruin of Jerufalem, they came afterwards to him, to enquire more particularly about it; ver. 3. "And as he fat

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upon the mount of olives, the difciples came unto him privately, faying, tell us, when fhall thefe things be? and what fhall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Where there are two feveral questions, to which our SAVI

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OUR

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CLXXXIII,

SERM. OUR returns a diftin&t anfwer. The first, when those things he had been fpeaking of before fhould be; that is, the things which related to the deftruction of Jerufalem, for of that only he had been speaking of before. The other queftion was "concerning "the fign of his coming, and of the end of the ❝ world."

The reafon of their joining these two questions together, feems to be this, (as is very probable from many texts of the new teftament) viz. that the apoftles 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 deftruction of Jerufalem.

Now to this fecond question of theirs, concerning the end of the world, and our SAVIOUR'S coming to judgment, he gives an anfwer in the latter part of that chapter, ver. 29. "But immediately "after the tribulation of thofe days, the fun fhall "be darkned, and the moon fhall not give her

light; and then fhall appear the fign of the SoN "of man in heaven." Not that the general judgment of the world was immediately to follow the deftruction of Jerufalem; for there were many other things to intervene, as is manifeft from St. Luke, chap. xxi. 24. "That the Jews fhould be led cap"tive into all nations, and Jerufalem fhould 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

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