It may further be insinuated, "That, if ever Jerusalem was to be destroyed, the obstinate humour of its inhabitants, and the nature of the place, would probably draw this destruction up. on it, in the way it actually happened, in the way of siege:* that, then, all the miseries, endured by the Jews, would naturally fall on a desperate people from an irritated and successful conqueror; above all, in ancient times, when conquest and clemency were little acquainted with each other: that, as for the preceding wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes (which are mentioned, in the prophecy, as signs of the approaching desolation) these, are such usual things in the course of the world, as may be safely made the prognostics of any predicted event whatsoever : that Jesus, therefore, as any other wise man, might form his prediction on these principles; and trust to time, and the passions of mankind, for the completion of it."

Now, let all this be allowed (and skepticism itself will hardly make other or greater demands upon us) still, the honour of Jesus stands secure ; and this fine fabric of suspicion is overturned at

* An event, it must be owned, the more likely to happen, as the Jews had always been disposed to trust to their high and fenced walls §. which yet could never defend them from their enemies, as their history shews, and, as Moses had distinctly foretold, Deut. xxviii. 52.

once, if we reflect on two or three circumstances, unluckily, and, if the prophet be not divine, unnecessarily wrought into the texture of this famous prophecy.

First, I observe, that this destruction was to come from the hands of the Romans;* and without doubt, if it were to happen in any reasonable time, it could not so probably be expected to come from any other quarter. But, then, was it likely that Judea, at that time a Roman province, should be thus desolated by its own masters? Was it to be presumed, that so small a province should dare to engage in a formal contest with Rome, the misstress of the world, as well as of Judea? with Rome, then in the zenith of her power, and irre

* Matth. xxiv. 28. and compare Luke xvii. 37. «"OT8 yàg éàv ἢ 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.hic quoque accidit, quod in multis aliis vaticiniis, ut verba-non tantum secundum proverbialem loquendi modum, sed etiam secundum 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 Ferusalem 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.

sistible to all nations? Was it conceivable, if any future distraction of that mighty empire should tempt the Jews to oppose their feeble efforts to its high fortune, that a vengeance so signal, so complete, should be taken upon them? that nothing less than a total extermination should be proposed, and effected? The ruin of the temple of Jerusalem was to be so entire, that one stone should not be left upon another. Allow for the exaggerated terms of a prophetic description; still, was it imaginable, that the Romans should, in any proper sense of the words, execute this denunciation ? Was it their way, as it was afterwards that of the Goths, to wage war with stones? Was it a principle with them, to beat down the pride of buildings, as well as of men?* Would even their policy, or their pride, have suffered them to blot out an ancient, a renowned, an illustrious temple, the chief ornament of their province, the glory of the east, and the trophy of their own conquests?

Such an event was very improbable, in contemplation and history shews, that it did not come to pass in any ordinary way. For the instrument, in the hands of heaven, of this exterminating vengeance, was a man, the most unlikely of all others, to inflict it; a man, who by nature abhorred such

debellare superbos. Virg.

extremities; who, in fact,did his utmost to prevent this dreadful catastrophe, and could not prevent it.*-Still, a more unmanageable circumstance, than this; occurs in the prophecy. For,

Secondly, it is implied that ONE of our Lord's disciples should survive this desolation :† and it is expressly asserted, that the then subsisting generation should not pass away, before all these things were accomplished. They WERE accomplished, within forty years from the date of the prophecy, and before the death of that disciple. The fact is certain and undeniable: I leave the rest to your own reflections.

Thirdly, warning is given in this prophecy to the disciples of Jesus, to fly from this impending ruin; and a signal is held out to them, for that purpose.§ It is further predicted, that they should avail themselves of this signal; and so entirely escape the snare, in which the rest of their countrymen should be taken, that not a hair of their heads should

Assuredly this prophecy was not in the number of those, of which it hath been said—The prophecy is not occasioned by the event, but the event by the prophecy-L'evenement n'est pas predit parce qu'il arrivera ; mais il arrive parce qu'il a ete predit. ROUSSEAU, Nouv. Hel. t. iv. p. 314. n. Neuf. 1764.

Matth. xvi. 28.

Matth. xxiv. 34.

$ Luke xxi. 20.

perish. And this part of the prophecy was, it seems, completed.†

Lastly, this prophecy was incumbered with another strange event, needlessly incumbered with it, if the whole were an imposture. It is said, that the gospel should be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, before it should be fulfilled. Was it not enough to say, that the prophecy should be acomplished in the time of that generation, and in the life-time of St. John, without adding so unlikely a circumstance, as that a general promulgation of the gospel, by a few unlettered and unfriended fishermen, should precede the accomplishment of it ?—I know, that this part of the prophecy admits a secondary sense but, in the primary sense, it was so far fulfilled, as to astonish us with the divine foresight of its author.

I omit other considerations, that might be alleged. But you see that, setting aside such particulars in the prophecy, as skeptical men may think themselves able to draw within the sphere of human conjecture, there are several things expressed in it, so strange to all apprehension, so unlikely to happen, so impossible for any natural sagacity to

*Luke xxi. 18. Acts ii. 21. Mark xiii. 20.

See the learned bishop Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. ii. p. 268. n.