through the light reflected on them in the New Tes- tament. The passage before us would, on a cursory perusal, be deemed incapable of any sober con- struction, or, at least, of any proper application to ourselves : but it plainly declares to us,
I. The signs of the Messiah's advent —
Numberless were the signs by which the world were taught to know the true Messiah : we here no- tice only two :
1. The effusion of his Spirit for the conversion of
his elect —
[The Spirit in preceding ages had been given to those of the Jewish nation only, and to but few even of those, and in a scanty measure ; but was " afterward," that is, in the times of the Messiah, to be " poured out" abundantly, on Gentiles as well as Jews, and without any distinction of age, sex, or quality, the meanest as well as the greatest being chosen to participate this benefit. This was literally fulfilled, as St. Peter affirms, on the day of Pentecosta. We must not however limit the operations of the Spirit to the imparting of miraculous gifts: the terms used by the prophet import, that they who should receive the Spirit should be so instructed in the mind and will of God, as to be led to " call on" the Messiah, and enjoy " the deliverance" which he was coming to effect. Nor must the prophecy be confined to the apostolic age : for St. Peter also testifies that the promise is to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call b.]
2. The execution of judgments for the punishment
of his enemies —
[As an Apostle has explained the former part of the text, so has our Lord himself that which now presents itself to our view0. The immediate subject, to which these figurative ex- pressions refer, is the destruction of Jerusalem : nor, whether we consider the prodigies that accompanied the siege d, or the devastation and bloodshed occasioned by the Roman armies, are they too strong to represent the scenes which occurred in that devoted city. But those calamities were only shadows of infinitely heavier judgments that shall fall on the ungodly in the last daye. Then, while "the heavens pass away with a
a Acts ii. 16—21. b Acts ii. 39.
c Matt. xxiv. 7, 29. and Luke xxi. 11, 25.
d See Doddridge's note on Acts ii. 19.
e Our Lord so blends the two events together in Matt. xxiv. that