Ess. III.]

Destruction of Jerusalem.

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of these periods, the temple and city of Jerusalem were to be destroyed, and the power and coming of the Son of man to be made manifest in the punishment of the rebellious Jews; and all these things were to take place before the passing away of that very generation. On the arrival of the second period, 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; namely, 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 divided—the 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: see Gill on Matt. xxiv. Then came the end; when the holy city was encompassed with armies, and "the abomination of desolation" was found 66 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 prediction 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

40

"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 favourite 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 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 contemporary 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, a historian of acknowledged learning and veracity, a cool philosopher, a personal friend of Julian, and a pagan: lib. xxiii. cap. 1.1 See Warburton's Julian

"Et licèt, accidentium varietatem solicitâ mente præcipiens, multiplicatos expeditionis apparatus flagranti studio perurgeret; diligentiam tamen ubique dividens [Julianus], imperiique sui memoriam magni

-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 wellauthenticated fact, a wonderful display of the wisdom and power of the Deity in support of the revealed designs of his own providence, and in confirmation of the predictions of the greatest of prophets.

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

tudine operum gestiens propagare, ambitiosum quondam apud Hierosolymam templum, quod post multa et interneciva certamina obsidente Vespasiano posteàque Tito ægrè est expugnatum, instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis; negotiumque maturandum Alypio dederat Antiochensi, qui olim Britannias curaverat pro præfectis. Cùm itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alypius juvaretque provinciæ rector, metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes, fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum: hôcque modo elemento destinatiùs repellente, cessavit inceptum." "And though Julian, carefully guarding against every kind of accident, zealously urged on the numerous preparations for the expedition; yet, extending his care in every direction, and desiring to prolong the memory of his reign by the greatness of his works, he determined to rebuild, at an immense expense, the ancient magnificent temple at Jerusalem, which had been captured with great difficulty after many murderous conflicts in the sieges of Vespasian and Titus; and he entrusted the execution of the project to Alypius, of Antioch, who had formerly held the government of Britain for the prefects. When Alypius accordingly, with the aid of the governor of the province, was vigorously pressing on the work, dreadful globes of flame burst out near the foundations in repeated jets, often preventing the workmen from approaching the place, who were sometimes burned by them. Being thus continually repelled by the fire, he desisted from his undertaking.”

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Hebrew Scriptures.

[Ess. II.

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 Cetubim, or Hagiographa (Holy Writings). 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 several stages of the Israelitish history. The Hagiographa, lastly, comprised the Psalms, the general name given to the sacred songs of David, Asaph, and others, and the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Canticles of Solomon: 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

Ess. III.]

Their Genuineness.

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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 parts, and in various other particulars, we find, in the Old as well as in the New Testament, plain internal indications of a genuine origin; see Horne's Introd. to the New Test., vol. 1. chap. ii. sect. 1.

Nor have we any reason to doubt the general correctness of the text of the Hebrew Scriptures, as it has come down to us in the present day. On the contrary, we have sufficient warrants for that correctness in the careful preservation of these Divine writings by the Jews before the Christian era; and afterwards in the labours of the textual doctors or Masorites, who elaborately employed themselves in ascertaining the readings, and even in numbering the letters of the several books: see Prideaux Conn., vol. i. p. 278; in the ancient translations and paraphrases of the Old Testament; in the early multiplication of copies; and in the guard which the opposing sects of the Jews, before the coming of Christ, and the Jews and Christians after that era, must have reciprocally maintained, so as to prevent any wilful alteration of the common record.

Since the Hebrew Scriptures are thus indisputably genuine, and since, through a long series of ages, they have been so carefully preserved, we may proceed without further hesitation in making our appeal to their contents. Now, there is nothing which more distinguishes them, and more clearly indicates their sacred character, than the comprehensive and varied line of prophecy which runs in a rich vein through all their principal parts. In his dealings with Abraham and his descendants, (directed as those dealings were to the ultimate advantage of mankind in general,) God was pleased to make himself manifest, not merely by the operation of his grace, but by the two undoubted