To his Disciples (by occasion of Jerusalem and the Temple’s destruction) he foretelleth, (4) what things shall be before the consummation of the world, as specially, (14) the Church’s full preaching unto all nations: (15) then, what shall be in the very consummation, to wit, Antichrist with his passing great persecution and seduction, but for a short time: (29) then incontinent, the Day of judgement, to our great comfort in those miseries under Antichrist. (35) As for the moment, to us it pertaineth not to know it, (37) but rather every man to watch, that we be not unprovided when he cometh to each one particularly by death.
AND Jesus being gone out of the temple, went. And his Disciples came to show him the buildings of the temple. 2And he answering said to them: Do you see all these things? Amen I say to you, there shall • not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed.
3And when he was sitting upon Mount-olivet, the Disciples came to him secretly, saying: Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be • the sign of thy coming, and of the consummation of the world? 4And Jesus answering, said to them: Beware that no man • seduce you: 5for many shall come in my name saying, • I am Christ; and they shall seduce many. 6For you shall hear of wars, and bruits of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For these things must be done, but the end is not yet. 7For Nation shall rise against Nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom; and there shall be pestilences, and famines, and earth-quakes in places; 8and all these things are the beginnings of sorrows. 9then * shall they deliver you into tribulation, and shall kill you: and you shall be odious to all Nations for my name’s sake. 10And then many shall be scandalised: and they shall deliver up one another: and they shall hate one another. 11And many [a] False-Prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. 12And because • iniquity shall abound, the charity of many shall wax cold. 13But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. 14And this Ghospel of the Kingdom • shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all Nations, and then shall come the consummation.
15Therefore when you shall see • the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, standing in the holy place (he that readeth, let him understand) 16then they that are in Jewry, let them flee to the mountains: 17and he that is on the house-top let him not come down to take anything out of his house: 18and he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. 19And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. 20But pray that your flight be not in the winter or on the Sabboth. 21For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. 22And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the Elect the days • shall be shortened. 23then if any man shall say unto you, Lo [b] here is Christ, or there; do not believe him. 24For there shall rise false-Christs and false-Prophets, and shall show • great signs and wonders, so that the Elect also (if it be possible) may be induced into error. 25Lo I have foretold you. 26If therefore they shall say unto you: Behold he is in the desert; go ye not out: Behold • in the closets, believe it not. 27For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west, so shall also the advent of the Son of man be. 28Whersoever the body is, thither shall the Eagles also be gathered together.
29And • immediately after the tribulation of those days * the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from Heaven, and the powers of Heaven shall be moved: 30and then shall appear [c] the sign of the Son of man in Heaven: and then shall all Tribes of the earth bewail: and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with much power and majesty. 31And he shall send his Angels with a trumpet, and a great voice: and they shall gather together his Elect from the four winds, from the furthest parts of Heaven even to the ends thereof. 32And of the fig tree learn a parable: When now the bough thereof is tender, and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh. 33So you also, when you shall see these things, know ye that it is nigh even at the doors. 34Amen I say to you, that this Generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. 35Heaven and earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass.
36But of that day and hour nobody knoweth, neither the Angels of Heaven, but the Father alone. 37And as * in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38For as they were in the days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving to marriage, even unto that day in which Noe entered into the ark, 39and knew not till the flood came, and took them all: so also shall the coming of the Son of man be. 40Then two shall be in the field: one shall be taken, and one shall be left. 41Two women grinding in the mill: one shall be taken, and one shall be left. 42Watch therefore because you know not what hour your Lord will come. 43But this know ye, that * if the Good-man of the house did know what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken up. 44Therefore be you also ready, because at what hour you know not, the Son of man will come.
45Who, thinkest thou, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath appointed over his family, to give them meat in season? 46Blessed is that servant, whom when his Lord cometh, he shall find so doing. 47Amen I say to you, that over all his goods shall he appoint him. 48But if that naughty servant shall say in his heart: My Lord is long a coming: 49and shall begin to strike his fellow-servants, and eateth, and drinketh with drunkards: 50the Lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopeth not, and an hour that he knoweth not, 51and shall divide him, and appoint his portion with the Hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Footnotes
- ↑ There were in the People false Prophets, as among you also shall be lying Masters, which shall bring in Sects of perdition, 2 Pet. 2.
- ↑ Whosoever draweth Christ or his Church from the Communion and fellowship of all Nations Christened, to one corner, town, or Country, believe him not, Aug. de unit. Ec. ch. 3.
- ↑ This sign of the Son of man, is the holy Cross, which then shall appear to the Jews to their confusion, Chrys. in Mat. hom. 77. It shall be no less confusion to Heretics that can not abide the sign thereof.
ANNOTATIONS. CHAP. XXIV.
↑ 2. Not left.) This was fulfilled 40 years after Christ’s Ascension by Vespasian the Emperor and his son Titus. Euseb. lib. 3 ch. 6 and seq. ex Josepho. Upon which words, There shall not be left &c, which threaten the destruction of the Jews’ Temple; and those words, upon this Rock I will build my Church, which promise the building of the Catholic Church of all Nations; St. Chrysostom making a long comparison of these two Prophecies of Christ, says thus: Thou seest in both, his great and unspeakable power, in that he increased and built up them that worshipped him, and those that stumbled at him, he abased, destroyed, and plucked them up by the root. Doest thou see how whatsoever he hath built, no man shall destroy: and whatsoever he hath destroyed, no man shall build? He builded the Church, and no man shall be able to destroy it; he destroyed the Temple, and no man is able to build it, and that in so long time: For they have endeavoured both to destroy that, and could not: and they have attempted to build up this, and they could not do that neither, &c.
↑ 3. The sign.) Our Master knowing that it was not profitable nor seemly for them to know these secrets, gave them by way of Prophecy warning of diverse miseries, signs, and tokens, that should fall, some further off, and some nearer the later day: by which the Faithful might always prepare themselves, but never be certain of the hour, day, month, nor year, when it should fall, Aug. Ep. 80.
↑ 4. Seduce.) The first and principal warning, needful for the faithful from Christ’s Ascension to the very end of the world, is, that they be not deceived by Heretics, which under the titles of true teachers, and the name of Christ and his Ghospel, will seduce many.
↑ 5. I am Christ.) Not only such as have named themselves Christ, as Simon, Menander, and such like; but all Arch-heretics be Christs to their followers, Luther to the Lutherans, Calvin to the Calvinists, because they believe them, rather than Christ speaking in his Church.
↑ 12. Iniquity abound.) When Heresy and false teachers reign in the world, namely toward the later day, wicked life aboundeth, and charity decayeth.
↑ 14. Shall be preached.) The Ghospel hath been preached of late years, and now is, by holy Religious men of diverse Orders in sundry great Countries which never heard the Ghospel before, as it is thought.
↑ 15. Abomination of desolation.) This abomination of desolation foretold, was first partly fulfilled in diverse profanations of the Temple of Jerusalem, when the Sacrifice and service of God was taken away, but specially it shall be fulfilled by Antichrist, and his Precursors, when they shall abolish the holy Mass, which is the Sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood, and the only sovereign worship due to God in his Church: as St. Hypolitus writeth in these words: The Churches shall lament with great lamentation, because there shall neither Oblation be made, nor incense, nor worship grateful to God. But the sacred houses of Churches shall be like to cottages, and the precious body and blood of Christ shall not be extant (openly in Churches) in those days, the Liturgy (or Mass) shall be extinguished, the Psalmody shall cease, the reciting of the Scriptures shall not be heard, Hippol. de Antichristo. By which it is plain, that the Heretics of these days be the special fore-runners of Antichrist.
↑ 22. Shall be shortened.) The reign of Antichrist shall be short, that is, three years and a half, Dan. 7, Apoc. 11. Therefore the Heretics are blasphemous and ridiculous, that say, Christ’s Vicar is Antichrist, who hath sat these 1500 years.
↑ 24. Great signs.) These signs and miracles shall be to the outward appearance only: for St. Paul calleth them * lying signs, to seduce them only that shall perish. Whereby we see that if Heretics could work feigned and forged miracles, yet we ought not to believe them, much less when they can not so much as seem to do any.
↑ 26. In closets.) Christ having made the Church’s authority bright and clear to the whole world, warneth the Faithful to take heed of Heretics and Schismatics, which have their conventicles aside in certain odd places and obscure corners, alluring curious Persons unto them, Aug. lib 1 q. Evang. q. 38. For as for the coming together of Catholics to serve God in secret places, that is a necessary thing in time of persecution, and was used of Christians for three hundred years together after Christ; * and the Apostles also and Disciples came so together in Jerusalem for fear of the Jews. And Catholics do the same at this day in our country, not drawing religion into corners from the society of the Catholic Church, but practising secretly the same faith, that in all Christendom shineth and appeareth most gloriously.
↑ 29. Immediately.) If the later day shall immediately follow the persecution of Antichrist, which is to endure but three years and a half, as is aforesaid: then is it mere blasphemy to say, God’s Vicar is Antichrist, and that (by their own limitation) these thousand years almost.
Margin Notes
- 3–8. The Ghospel for a votive Mass in time of war, and for many Martyrs.
- 3. HOLY week. TUESDAY night.
- 15–35. The Ghospel upon the last Sunday after Pentecost.
- 41–47. The Gospel upon St. Clement martyr his day November 23. And for some Confessors Bishops.
- annot. 2. The Church can never fail.
- annot. 4. Heretics seduce under fair titles.
- annot. 12. The Ghospel now preached to Infidels.
- annot. 15. The abomination of desolation.
- annot. 15. The abolishing of the holy sacrifice of the Mass by Antichrist and his ministers.
- annot. 22. Antichrist.
- annot. 26. The secret conventicles of Heretikes.
- annot. 29. Catholic Christians secretly assembling in time of persecution.
Margin References
- 2. Mar. 13, 1. Luc. 21, 5.
- 9. Mat. 10, 17.
- 15. Dan. 9, 27.
- 29. Eze. 32, 7. Joel 3, 15. Dan. 7, 15.
- 37. Gen. 7, 5.
- 43. 1 Thess. 5, 1.
- annot. 2. Matt. 16.
- annot. 2. Lib. adv. Gentes quod Christus sit Deus, prope finem.
- annot. 24. 2 Thess. 2.
- annot. 26. Act. 1:12.
