Note 77 — SERMON VI. PROPHECIES CONCERNING CHRIST’S SECOND COMING. Isaiah xlii. 9.

Matth. xxiv. 28. and compare Luke xvii. 37. Ὅπου γὰρ ἐὰν ᾖ τὸ πτῶμα, ἐκεῖ συναχθήσονται οἱ ἀετοί.—Meaning by eagles, the standards of the Roman army.—Some writers of name have, indeed, observed, that this is only a proverbial expression. True: but proverbial prophecies are often fulfilled in the strict literal sense of the expression; as Grotius well observes on Matth. xxvi. 23. hîc quoque accidit, quod in multis aliis vaticiniis, ut verba—non tantùm secundùm proverbialem loquendi modum, sed etiam secundùm exactissimam verborum significationem implerentur.—If the reader calls to mind the prediction of our Lord, as it is elsewhere expressed, without a figure—when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with ARMIES [Luke, xxi. 20]—and compares it with the event, he will hardly make a doubt whether eagles, in those figurative predictions, which respect the same subject, namely, the destruction of Jerusalem, were not intended by our Lord to denote, the Roman armies.