temple, our Lord takes occasion to tell them the days will come when not one stone should be left upon another that should not be thrown down. This prediction having filled them with astonishment, and excited their curiosity, they ask, When shall these things be? Mark and Luke, or according to St. Matthew, What shall be the sign of thy coming ?* and the end of the world? By which question St. Matthew doubtless asked when Christ would interpose by power to accomplish the event which he had just predicted, and which he was desirous of knowing. Our Saviour then proceeds to give certain signs of his coming to that end.

* By a reference to Matt. x. 23, Mark xvi. 28, and John xxi. 22, it is evident that by the coming of the Son of Man, and the coming of the Son of Man in his kingdom, we are to understand not a personal but a virtual coming; i. e. an interposition of Christ by power; and this agrees with the language of Scripture in other places, as in Isaiah xxvi. 21, when the Lord is represented as coming out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth: see also Micah i. 3.

+ Because the disciples entertained a notion that the Temple would stand till the end of the world. To understand this prophecy as referring actually to the end of the world would be to imagine Christ most solemnly to predict what no one could be ignorant of; for who did not know that with the end of the world the Temple and every thing else would crumble into dust? Again, Christ himself has forbidden us to interpret any part of the prophecy as referring to the end of the world by connecting all its parts in such a manner that the things foretold, whatever they are, must have happened in close succession. In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, &c; Verily I say to you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulFor the common meaning of the word generation see Exodus i. 6, Judges ii. 10, Eccles. i. 4.

filled.

I. The first sign* which I shall notice is contained in Matth. xxiv. 34, Mark xiii. 30, Luke xxi. 32, and it is as follows, "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled." This was a sign so definite and unequivocal, that it was impossible for the disciples to have mistaken it, for they must have understood that some men of their own times, or even some of their own number, would outlive the destruction of Jerusalem.

The fulfilment is also plain and obvious, and it is derived from the well acknowledged fact that St. John wrote his Epistles, A.D. 90, and the book of Revelation, A.D. 94; thereby proving that one at least of the disciples had survived the destruction of Jerusalem, for that catastrophe took place according to the best authorities, A.D. 70.

II. The second sign that I would mention in the same chapters, Matth. verse 5, Mark, verse 6, Luke verse 8, is that of false Christs: Many shall come

in my name, saying I am Christ.”

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Such was Simon Magus, mentioned in the Acts, who bewitched the people of Samaria with his sorceries, to whom the Samaritans gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying that he was the great power of God, Acts viii. 10, 11. According to Irenæus this man, after his professed conversion to Christianity, deluded numbers, declaring that he was the person who among the Jews appeared as the Son of God,

* The great utility of this sign to us is, that, in each of those chapters in which it occurs, it fixes and determines the prophecy which goes before as referring exclusively to the destruction of Jerusalem, for that race was not to die till all these things were accomplished.

and was conceived to have suffered in Judea but had not really done so.' In the words of the prophecy, he came in Christ's name, pretending to be Christ.

About twenty-three years after our Lord's crucifixion, Josephus informs us, that Judea was full of impostors who styled themselves Christs. Indeed, he mentioned one of them, Theudas, by name, who persuaded a very great multitude to take with them all they possessed, and to follow him to the river Jordan, which he promised should divide at his command; and it is very remarkable that the Jewish Historian, speaking of those pretenders, makes use of nearly the same language which our Lord does in the prophecy, many were deceived by them.' Our Lord says, "they shall deceive many." He adds also that Felix, the Roman Governor, took many of these pretenders every day and destroyed them. Again, besides the assassins which at this time infested Judea, there were others of purer hands indeed, but of more impious opinions, and these destroyed the happiness of the inhabitants of the land no less than the murderers themselves these cheats and deceivers aimed at revolution under a pretence of being Christs, and being moved by a Divine impulse. They persuaded the multitude to follow them into the desert, (Matt. v. 26) where they said they would shew them signs and wonders. Against them Felix sent both horse and foot, for he considered it the beginning of a revolt, and put to death vast multitudes; and thus we see many did come in Christ's name, pretending to be Christ-and so this part of the prophecy was literally fulfilled. W. G. H.

REV. H. A. SIMCOE, (Penheale-Press,) Cornwall.

Sermons made upon the Lord's Prayer, by the Right Rev. Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, before the Right Virtuous and Honourable Lady Catherine, Duchess of Suffolk. A. D. 1552.

"Our Father, which art in Heaven," &c.

of preaching,

I HAVE entered of late into the way and have spoken many things of prayer, and rather of prayer than of any other thing. For I think there is nothing more necessary to be spoken of, nor more abuse than prayer was by the craft and subtlety of the devil. For many things were taken for prayer, when they were nothing less. Therefore now also I have thought it good to treat of prayer, to the intent that it may be known how precious a thing right prayer is. I told you, first, what prayer was. Secondly, To whom we ought to pray. Thirdly, Where, and in what place we ought to pray. And, fourthly, I told you the diversity of prayer, namely, of the common prayer and the private. These and such like things I have dilated and expounded unto you in the open pulpit.

Now, at this present time, I intend, as by the way of lecture, at the request of my most gracious lady, to expound unto you (her household servants, and others that be willing to hear,) the right understanding and meaning of this most perfect prayer, which our Saviour himself taught us at the request of his disciples, which prayer we call the pater-noster.

This prayer of our Lord may be called a prayer above all prayers, the principal and most perfect prayer, which prayer ought to be regarded above all others, considering that our Saviour himself is the