Ess. 111.]

Destruction of Jerusalem.

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the Son of Man was to appear in glory, as the judge of all flesh; and "of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven," but God only: Matt. xxiv, 34-36.

Now, although the consideration of these awful and still future events, which are to take place at the latter of these periods, is obviously placed beyond the scope of our argument, it is enough for our present purpose that the former branch of the prophecy has long since received its exact fulfilment.

The various signs which were to precede the destruction of Jerusalem; viz., the rising up of false Messiahs-the sore persecution and dismay of the Christians-the wars and rumours of wars among the various factions and petty nations into which Judea and the neighbouring countries were then dividedthe famines, and the earthquakes, and other portents of nature-the preaching of the Gospel in every part of the Roman empire-all these things are declared in the prophecy and we learn, from Josephus and other authors, that they all took place during that period of forty years which elapsed between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem: vide Gill, on Matt. xxiv. Then came the end; when the holy city was encompassed with armies, and "the abomination of desolation" was found "standing in the holy place"-when that intense suffering was experienced by the wicked and obstinate Jews, to which the annals of history afford no parallel-when the city was utterly demolished, and not one stone of the temple left upon another-and when, lastly, such of the Jews as fell not by the sword were reduced to a condition of bondage and degradation, and were gradually dispersed among all nations-the whole of these circumstances being in precise and punctual accordance with the same prophetic record. Here, then, was such a pre

48

Julian.

[Ess. III. diction of a remarkable, complex, and wholly unexpected, series of events, as could arise out of no other source than the foreknowledge of God.

It is expressly declared by Jesus, that the days when all these calamities should overtake the Jews were to be the "days of vengeance." The calamities in question were appointed in the counsels of divine justice, as a punishment for that long course of rebellion against their Lord which had marked the history of the Jewish people, and especially for that most aggravated of their national sins, the rejection, persecution, and crucifixion, of their Messiah. Another purpose, to which this remarkable dispensation appears to have been directed (in conformity with a correspondent prophecy uttered by our Lord, respecting the approaching cessation of the Jewish and Samaritan worship, John iv, 21), was, to establish the superiority of the Gospel over the law, by forcing to its termination that ritual system, on which the Jews were placing so dangerous and untimely a dependence. Under these circumstances, it is plain that the rebuilding of the temple, which had been thus levelled with the ground, and the restoration of the Jews to their ancient customs and privileges, would have been in direct opposition to the whole bearing and spirit of the remarkable prophecy now under consideration.

It was, in all probability, for the very purpose of contradicting this prophecy (as well as others of the like import) and of thus throwing discredit on the religion of Christ, that the apostate Julian assembled the Jews in their own land, and committed to them, under the command and protection of his favorite Alypius, the task of rebuilding their magnificent temple. That task was eagerly undertaken; vast sums were set apart for the purpose, and multitudes of persons were zealously engaged in the prosecution of the work. But

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Julian.

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the work was constantly impeded, and was finally relinquished in despair, in consequence of vehement and repeated eruptions of fire from the once consecrated mountain of Moriah. This fact is recorded by Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Gregory Nazianzen, three cotemporary Christian writers, whom Gibbon himself allows to be "respectable witnesses;" and it is fully confirmed by the explicit and perfectly-unexceptionable testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus, an historian of acknowledged learning and veracity, a cool philosopher, a personal friend of Julian, and a pagan: lib. xxiii, cap. 1. See Warburton's Julian-Gibbon's Rom. Emp. ch. xxiii. Thus was the site of the ancient temple of God, notwithstanding the most powerful human efforts, left to its appointed desolation. Now, whether the phenomenon which then occurred can be justly traced to any second or physical cause, or whether (under circumstances which rendered a miracle highly probable) it is to be regarded as entirely supernatural, it is in either case impossible not to perceive in this well authenticated fact, a wonderful display of the wisdom and power of the Deityin support of the revealed designs of his own providence, and in confirmation of the predictions of the greatest of prophets,

"Et licèt accidentium varietatem sollicita mente præcipiens; multiplicatos expeditionis apparatus flagranti studio perurgeret: diligentiam tamen ubique dividens, [Julianus] imperiique sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens propagare, ambitiosum quondam apud Hierosolymam templum, quod post multa et interneciva certamina obsidente Vespasiano posteáque Tito ægrè est expugnatum, instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis: negotiúmque maturandum Alypio dederat Antiochensi, qui olim Britannias curaverat pro Præfectis. Cùm itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alypius juvarétque provinciæ rector, metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes, fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum hócque modo elemento destinatiùs repellente, cessavit inceptum,"

D

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Hebrew Scriptures.

[Ess. III. Having thus considered some of the most remarkable predictions uttered by Jesus Christ, it will be desirable for us, in the second place, to take a view of those still more ancient prophecies, which are recorded in the Old Testament-in the sacred books of the Hebrews. Before, however, we can properly enter on this branch of our subject, I must premise a few general observations on that important part of Holy Writ.

When Ezra had returned with the people from captivity, and had settled with them in their own land, he employed himself, as is generally supposed, in arranging and determining the canon of Scripture ; and the few books which were afterwards written are considered to have been added to the canon by Simon the Just, one of his divinely-authorized successors. Whether, however, the work be rightly attributed to these individuals or not, it is certain that the canon of Hebrew Scripture was formed long before the coming of Christ, and that the sacred books, thus collected together, were classed by the ancient Jews in three divisions-the law, the prophets, and the psalms, or hagiographa. "The Law" consisted of the first five books of the Bible, which contain the history of the creation, and of the Lord's servants for the first 2500 years after it, as well as a detailed account of the whole Mosaic institution; and which, during the successive ages of the Jewish church, appear to have been uniformly attributed to Moses himself. "The

Prophets" embraced the book of Job and all the more ancient historical books, as well as those writings which bear the names of these inspired penmen; for the whole of the works now mentioned were ascribed by the Jews to the Prophets who rose up in succession during the several stages of the Israelitish history. "The Psalms," lastly, was the general name

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Hebrew Scriptures.

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given to the sacred songs of David, Asaph and others, and to the Proverbs, the Ecclesiastes, and the canticles of Solomon: and to these were added by the Jews, under the general name of Cetubim, or holy writings, the Books of Ruth, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, and Chronicles; see Prideaux Conn., fol. edit. vol. i, pp. 261, 262, 452.

Now, that these various books of Hebrew Scripture are really of the antiquity which is usually attributed to them, and that those of them which are not anonymous were written by the rulers and prophets whose names they bear, we may safely conclude, for a variety of reasons. For, in the first place, they were universally esteemed as sacred, and of course also as genuine, by the Jews, at the Christian era; as we learn from very many passages of the New Testament, and from the express testimony of Josephus and Philo: Joseph. contra Apion. lib. i, cap. 8; Philo, passim. Secondly, both the historical and prophetical parts of the Jewish Scriptures are largely quoted by both these authors, and also by the Talmudic writers, as well as by Christ and his apostles. Thirdly, they were translated, as a complete canon, into Greek, nearly 300 years before the Christian era, and of this version (the well-known Septuagint) we are still in possession. Fourthly, the book of the law was deposited in the archives of the tabernacle and temple from the days of its author, and was on many occasions publicly read to the people; and to this sacred deposit appear to have been added, in succession, the writings of David, of Solomon, and of the prophets: see Gray's Key to the Old Test., p. 4. Fifthly, after the captivity, copies of the whole Hebrew Scriptures were multiplied, and both the law and the prophets were regularly read in the Jewish synagogues. And lastly, in the language, in the circumstantiality of the narrative, in the reciprocal adaptation of its several