hard, they rejoice in losing their offspring or having none. Love is the ornament and very life of Christians, and of their whole condition and conduct, Phil. i. 9 ; 2 Pet. i. 7 ; Rev. ii. 4. It is also the foundation of that vvopovq, patience or endurance, mentioned in the next verse. — r£» ToXXSv, of the many) i.e. of the majority, sc. of those who do not excel in love. Unrighteous ness is especially practised by those who are exceedingly power ful or excessively poor : whence also the love of the rest waxes cold.1 That justice which is called particular, being violated, that which is called universal, languishes.2
13. 'O ds vvofMivag, but he that endureth) By constancy, we preserve faith, love, and hope. — g/'s ri\o$, unto the end) sc. of the temptation. — olroc, this man) i.e., he, I say, being as it were exempted from the general lot ; see ver. 22. — eadfairai, shall be saved) When the city was destroyed, the Christians were saved; see Luke xxi. 28, 31.
14.3 ToSro 7-0 EuayyeX/ov rr,e BaovXg/ag, THIS Gospel of the Kingdom) sc. which Jesus preached. — %%si, shall come) The verb fasiv does not signify merely to approach, but to arrive, nay, actually to be present* — TO r'e\c;, the end) spoken of in the fol lowing verses, on which account we find ovv, therefore, in the next verse. Before that end, Peter, Paul, and others alluded to in ver. 9, had concluded their apostolate.
15. To @$fy.vyput Trie, epqpuesu;, the abomination of desolation) The abomination of profanation was followed by the abomina tion of desolation. Such was the name given by the Jews to the Roman army, composed of all nations, the standards of which they held in abomination as idols, since the Romans attributed divinity to them. See Spizelii Collatio de vaticin. ang., p. 135. — Aaw^X ro\j wpotpyTov, Daniel the prophet) Cf. Heb.
1 Since their power and means of doing good are taken violently from them by unrighteousness or injustice. — V. g.
2 Universal justice comprehends the whole of our duty to our neighbour; particular justice is that strictly so called. See Aristotle's Niconiachaean Ethics, Book V. passim __ (I. B.)
3 niipvxflfotTm) This was accomplished before the destruction of Jeru salem. Col. i. 23. — V. g.
4 f'pxoftxi denotes progress to, or arrival at, a place ; qua, that the pro gress has been effected, and the arrival taken place ; so that qx.u must be rendered, not I come, but I am come. — (I. B.)