AS THE ORDER of these Discourses, now, leads me to exemplify this last observation, I shall do it in THREE remarkable prophecies concerning the Christian church; I mean those, which respect 1. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 2. THE DISPERSION OF THE JEWS. And 3. THE CONVERSION OF THE GEN TILES. SERMON I refer to these prophecies, as well known. They are in the number of those, which, in part, were delivered by the Jewish prophets; and afterwards, more distinctly revealed by the Christian. I. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWISH CITY AND TEMPLE, is an event of the utmost moment in the view of revealed religion. It accomplished a great number of prophecies, and vindicated the honour of Jesus, by a signal vengeance on his murderers. It answered, besides, other important purposes of divine providence; by putting a visible and necessary end to the Jewish economy, which was now to give way to the dispensation of the Messiah; car l'evenement, qui les a remplies, est un MIRACLE sub- VI. SERMON and by dispersing the Jews into all lands, for many wise and admirable reasons. Hence, of all the prophecies, delivered by Christ himself (who was a prophet, though indeed much more than a prophet) This alone is displayed by him, at large, and in all its circumstances. If any man, unacquainted with these matters, should doubt, whether this prophecy of Jesus, as recorded in three of the four Gospels, were not delivered, that is, forged, after the event, I might refer him to the numerous writers on that subject. But I hold it sufficient to say, 1, On the faith of all antiquity, that these Gospels were not only written, but published to the world, before the destruction of Jerusalem - 2, that the early date of their composition is apparent from many internal characters, dispersed through these writings3, that no interpolation of this prophecy could afterwards take place, because the prophecy is interwoven with the general thread of the history—and, 4, lastly, that no unbeliever of the primitive times, whether Jew or Gentile, when pressed, as both frequently were, by this prophecy, appears to have had recourse to the charge, either of forgery, or interpolatione. For these particulars, see Dr. Jortin's Rem. on Ecclesiastical History, vol. I. p. 20-89. pro The authenticity and early date of the phecy is, then, on these grounds, assumed. I will, further, suppose (because the history of Josephus invincibly proves it) that all the particulars, mentioned in this prophecy, concurred in the event. "But this, you will say, might well be: for what more uniform, than the characters of distress in a great city, forced and desolated by a superior enemy? And what more probable, than that, some time or other, such should be the fate of every great city ?” 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 upon it, in the way it actually happened, in the way of siegef: 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 f 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. xxviði. 52. · SERMON VI. VI. SURMON 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 scepticism 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 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 5; and, Matth. xxiv. 28. and compare Luke xvii. 37. “Oт8 γὰρ ἐὰν ἡ τὸ σῶμα, 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 - VI. without doubt, if it were to happen in any rea- SERMON sonable time, it could not so probably be expected to come from any other quarter. But, then, was it likely that Judæa, 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 mistress of the world, as well as of Judæa? with Rome, then in the zenith of her power, and irresistible 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 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 figurewhen 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. |