The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk to day, and tomorrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
I pass over everything in this passage, as being of a plain and self-evident nature, to attend to what our Lord hath said, concerning Jerusalem, the beloved city. Jesus here expressly refers to some period, antecedent to his tabernacling openly in Jerusalem. And I beg the Reader not to overlook it, neither hastily pass it by. But when was it that Jesus would have done those frequent acts of mercy to his beloved Jerusalem before the period of his coming openly in our flesh? Though we cannot follow the question in all its bearings, yet we must conclude that those frequent manifestations of Jehovah in the Old Testament which we read of, must have been in the Person of Christ. And let the Reader observe further, what love must there have been in the heart of Christ, thus to have watched over his Church, by the secret workings of his holy Spirit, through so long a period before his coming. And when the Reader hath duly pondered these things, let him think what the Lord Jesus is carrying on now, over his people, in the ten thousand times ten thousand instances of his affection, which he sheweth to them, otherwise than he doth to the world? Every ordinance of Jesus, is with this express view, in order to lead his redeemed into an apprehension of his love for them, and his grace to them, as evidences of his good will. Are not all these similar tokens to those of Jesus over Jerusalem, when with the tenderness of an hen over her little brood, she spreads her wings to shelter them from all danger?
But while we behold the beauty of the Scripture, thus explained with an eye to Jesus, in his watchful care over his Church, as his Church and people, let the Reader no less notice how Christ is here describing the ruin of Jerusalem, as a nation and people unconnected with his Church (except in outward privileges), and to whom were never extended the real union of interest with the Church in Christ her Lord. How often (saith Jesus) would I have gathered thy children together, and ye would not. Not gathered them in grace, for the Pharisees to whom Jesus was then speaking, and concerning whom he was then speaking, were never children of grace, and consequently never to be gathered. Neither is Jesus speaking of gathering to Christ; but gathering together, nationally considered. Had they, as a nation and people, received Christ instead of crucifying the Lord of life and glory, they would have been saved as a nation, and the Romans not have taken away (as they afterwards did) both the nation and people. How totally ignorant must those men be, who construe our Lord's expressions here concerning Jerusalem, into a sense with which it hath no connection; and, instead of considering it as our Lord's lamentation over the temporal ruin which was coming upon his countrymen, as a nation, which he foresaw and foretold, take a latitude from it, as if a man might outstay the time of grace, and lose, contrary to God's design, his own eternal salvation. It is a national, not an individual ruin, Christ referred to. It is a temporal, not an eternal business, the Lord is speaking of. It is the house that is left to them desolate, not the soul. Here is not a word of grace in all this, in reference to a man's making his peace with God; but so acting by an outward profession as to secure the peace of the nation. And when that desolation came upon Jerusalem, then was the Lord's words fulfilled, When the sinner, in Zion were afraid; and they were constrained to cry out, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! Isaiah 33:14.