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difobedient fervants, and will protect and preferve the former, but leave the latter to be taken or destroyed by their enemies; although they may both be in the fame fituation of life, may be engaged in the fame occupations, and may appear to the world to be in every respect in fimilar circum ftances.

Here ends the prophetical part of our Lord's discourse; what follows is altogether exhortatory. It may be called. the moral of the prophecy, and the practical application of it not only to his immediate hearers, but to his disciples in all future ages; for this concluding admonition most certainly alludes no less to the final judgment than to the destruction of Jerufalem, and applies with at least equal force to both. Indeed the prophecy itself, although in its primary and strictest sense it relates throughout to the deftruction of the temple, city, and government of Jerufalem, yet, as I have before observed may be confidered, and was probably intended by Jefus, as a type and an emblem of the diffolution of the world itself, to which the total fubverfion of a great city and a whole nation bears fome resemblance. But with respect to the conclufion, there can be no doubt of its being intended to call our attention to the last folemn day of account; and with a view of its producing this effect, I fhall now prefs it upon your minds in the very words of our Lord, without any comment, for it is too clear to require any explanation, and too impreffive to require any additional enforcement. "Watch ye therefore, for ye know not at what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the houfe had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have fuffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye alfo ready; for in fuch an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and a wife fervant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them 'meat in due feafon? Bleffed is that fervant, whom his Lord when he cometh fhall find fo doing. Verily I fay unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil fervant fhall fay in his heart, my

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Lord delayeth his coming; and begin to fmite his fellowfervants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the Lord of that fervant fhall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him afunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

LECTURE XX.

MATTHEW xxiv.-xxv.

IN my

N my last Lecture I explained to you that remarkable prophecy respecting the destruction of Jerufalem, which is contained in the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew; and by a reference to the historians who record or mention that event, I proved to you the complete and exact accomplishment of that wonderful prediction in all its parts. And this, in a common cafe, I fhould have thought fully fufficient for your fatisfaction. But this prophecy stands so eminently distinguished by its fingular importance, and the great variety of matter which it embraces, and it affords fo decifive, fo irresistible a proof of the divine authority of our religion, that it appears to me to be well worthy of a little more attention and confideration. I fhall therefore, before I proceed to the next chapter, make fuch further remarks upon it, as may tend to throw new light upon the subject, to shew more distinctly the exact correspondence of the prediction with the event, and to point out the very interesting conclufions that may be drawn from it.

And first I would observe, that, in some instances, the providence of God feems evidently to have interpofed in order to bring about several of the events, which Jesus here alludes to or predicts. Thus, in the twelfth year of Nero Ceftius Gallus, the prefident of Syria, came against Jerufalem with a powerful army; and, as Jofephus affures us, he might, had he affaulted the city, eaiily have taken it, and thereby have put an end to the war*. But without any apparent reason, and contrary to all expectation, he fuddenly raised the fiege, and departed. This, and fome other very incidental delays, which took place before Vefpafian befieged the city, and Titus furrounded it with a wall, gave the Chriftians within an opportunity

* De Bell. Jud. I. 2. c. 19.

of following our Lord's advice, and of efcaping to the mountains, which afterwards it would have been impoffible for them to do.

In the fame manner the besieged inhabitants themselves helped to fulfil another of our Saviour's predictions, that thofe days fhould be fhortened; for they burnt their own provifions, which would have been fufficient for many years, and fatally deserted their strongest holds, where they never could have been taken by force, the fortifications of the city being confidered as impregnable. Titus was fo fenfible of this, that he himself afcribed his fuccefs to God. "We have fought, faid he to his friends, with God on our fide; and it is God who hath dragged the Jews out of their strong holds; for what could the hands of men and machines do against fuch towers as these*?”

In the next place, it is worthy of remark, that at the time when our Lord delivered this prophecy, there was not the flighteft probability of the Romans invading Judæa, much lefs of their befieging the city of Jerufalem, of their furrounding it with a wall, of their taking it by storm, and of their destroying the temple fo entirely, as not to leave one ftone upon another. The Jews were then at perfect peace with the Romans. The latter could have no motives of intereft or of policy to invade, deftroy, and depopulate a country, which was already fubject to them, and from which they reaped many advantages. The fortifications too of the city were (as I have before obferved) fo ftrong, that they were deemed invincible by any human force, and it was not the custom of the Romans to demolish and raife the very foundations of the towns they took, and exterminate the inhabitants, but rather to preferve them as monuments of their victories and their triumphs.

It could not therefore be from mere human fagacity and forefight that our Saviour foretold these events; or had he even hazared a conjecture respecting a war with the Romans, and the fiege of Jerufalem, yet he could only have done this in general terms; he could never have imagined

• Newton's Differt. on Prophecy, v. 2. p. 276.

or invented fuch a variety of minute particulars as he did predict, and as actually came to pass.

It is indeed of great importance to obferve the furpriz ing affemblage of ftriking circumftances, which Chrift pointed out in this prophecy. They are much more numerous than is commonly fuppofed, and well deferve to be diftinctly specified.

They may be arranged under three general heads.

The first confifts of thofe figns that were to precede the deftruction of Jerufalem.

And these figns were, falfe Chrifts, falfe prophets, ru mours of wars, actual wars, nation rifing against nation, famines, peftilences, earthquakes, fearful fights, the perfecution of the apoftles, the apoftacy of fome Chriftians, and the treachery of others, the prefervation of Chrift's faithful difciples, and the propagation of the Gospel through the whole Roman world.

The fecond head is the commencement of the fiege.

Under this head are fpecified the diftinguishing ftand ard of the Roman army, the eagle, with the images of their gods and their emperors affixed to it.

The idolatrous worship paid to this standard, called the abomination, for fo it was to the Jews.

The planting of this standard near the holy city, and afterwards in the very temple.

The defolation which the Roman armies fpread around them.

The escape of the Chriftians to the mountainous coun try round Jerufalem.

The inconceivable and unparalleled calamities of every kind which the wretched inhabitants endured during the

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