vifitation, and for rejecting him; whence it followed, that as long as their rebellion and difcbedience continued, the fentence against them would not be reverfed. If it should be faid that Chrift, as a wife and fagacious man, might foresee the storm, Ἔσεται ἦμαρ, ὅτ ̓ ἄν ποὺ ὀλώλη Ἴλι@ ἱρή ; this would be a difingenuous fhift to evade a plain truth. Chrift would not have acted fuitably to his character and ufual conduct, and to common prudence, if he had staked his reputation on conjectures; and in the reign of Tiberius there was no appearance of fuch an event, and much lefs of the various circumftances attending it, which he foretold. The Romans had no intereft to deftroy and depopulate a country which was fubject to them, and whence they reaped many advantages, and the Jews had not strength to hope for fuccefs in a war against them. If it should be faid that Chrift took his pro phecies from Daniel, his juft interpretation of Daniel fhews him to be the Meffias mentioned by Daniel, fince none befides himself at that time had even a tolerable claim to that character. Daniel foretold, that in seventy weeks of years, or four hundred and ninety years, a most holy person should be anointed; that this Meffias fhould be cut off; that a prince should come with an army, and caufe the facrifices to cease, and plant abominable idols in the holy place, and deftroy the city and temple, and The day will come, when facred Troy fhall fall: E 2 make make the land utterly defolate, and put an end to the Jewish polity. ch. ix. But Chrift is more explicit and circumftantial than Daniel, and in many refpects his prediction was new and altogether his own. Jofephus fays that the Zealots trampled under foot all laws divine and human, and made a jeft of their own facred books, and derided the writings of the prophets. ἐγελᾶτο ἢ τὰ θεῖα, καὶ τις 7 προφητῶν θεσμὸς ὥσπερ ἀγυρικὰς λογοποιίας ἐχλεύαζον Exλevalov — divina autem quæque deridebantur, et prophetarum oracula ut præfigiatorum commenta fubfannabant — ἦν γδ δή τις παλαιὸς λόγΘ ἀνδρῶν, ἔνθα τότε τὰ πίλιν αλώσεως, καὶ καταφλεγήσεως τα ἅγια νόμῳ πολέμε, τάσις ἐὰν κατασκήψη, και χάρες οἰκεῖαι προμιάνωσι τὸ τὸ Θεὸ τέμνω οἷς οὐκ ἀπισήσαντες οἱ ζηλωταί Διακόνες ἑαυτὸς ἐπέδοσαν. Vetus enim virorum fermo quidem erat, tum urbem captum iri, et loca fancta conflagratura jure belli, ubi feditio invaferit, et indigenarum manus polluerint facratum Deo locum. Quibus licet fidem NON detraherent Zelota, tamen ipfi fe earum rerum miniftros præbuerunt. B. J. iv. 6. This feems to have been a traditionary interpretation of Daniel, a λó, a report, and not a written prophecy. But here is a negative which feems to contradict what was faid before. It should perhaps be ἷς ἀπιςήσαντες -or fomething to the fame effect, and the meaning may be, that the impious Zealots caufed thofe prophecies to be fulfilled in the deftruction of themfelves and their nation, which they had ridiculed and difbelieved. Many Many of the firft Chriftians, who were Jews dwelling in Judæa, fold their lands and poffeffions. The Gentiles did it not when the Gospel came to them, and none of St. Paul's Epiftles contain any fuch precept, or intimate any fuch practice. The Jews acted thus, though not by the command, yet doubtless with the approbation of the Apoftles, and the most probable reafon for it was this; They knew that Chrift had foretold the deftruction of their country, which fhould come upon it before that generation were paffed away, and therefore they thought it proper, whilft there was opportunity, to improve to the best use their eftates, which they should not long enjoy, by relieving their poorer brethren, and by enabling the first teachers to pursue their travels from place to place. Therefore alfo when the Gospel was fpread amongst the Gentiles, the Apostles were careful to make collections in their churches for the relief of the poor faints at Jerufalem, fince it was just that a provifion fhould be made for those who had given up all for the common good, and at whofe charges the Gospel was at first preached amongst fome of the Gentiles. See fof. Mede Difc. on Prov. xxxvii. 7. We read in the Acts of the Apoftles that the Jews fuborned and fet up falfe witneffes against Stephen, who faid, We have heard him fay, that this Jefus of Nazareth fhall deftroy this holy place, and fhall change the customs which Mofes delivered us. Now though thefe were calumniators, yet probably fomething had been faid, which E 3 which gave occafion to the accufation, and St. Stephen had been heard to mention the approaching deftruction of Jerufalem, and the inferiority of the ceremonial to the moral Law. See Grotius. This is one reason why the unbelieving Jews hated the disciples of Chrift fo implacably, because they did not prophefy good concerning the nation, but evil. Μάνι κακῶν, & πώποτέ μοι τὸ κρήδυον εἶπας. The Author of the Recognitions of Clemens introduces St. Peter telling the Jews that the temple would be deftroyed, and adds, well enough, that upon this all the priests were highly enraged. i. 64. The deftruction of the Jewish nation is not mentioned by Jefus Chrift, as a threatened calamity which might be averted by repentance, but as a decree which was fixed and unalterable. If thou hadst known &c. but now they are hid from thine eyes.-Heaven and earth fhall pass away, but my words fhall not pass away: that is, fooner fhall heaven and earth pass away, than my predictions pafs away unfulfilled. The beft and the most probable method, by which a Jew might fecure himself from being involved in this national evil, was to embrace Christianity: for which, amongst other reafons, St. Paul fays to the Jews; Beware therefore left that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets: Bebold, ye defpifers, and wonder, and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wife believe, though a man declare it to you. Acts Acts xiii. 40. which words of St. Paul, and of the Prophets, as they are applied by him, feem plainly to intimate the approaching ruin of that people. Apud Lucam Paulus optime hæc verba aptat ad excidium fimile eventurum per Romanos. Grotius ad Habac. i. 5. Patet proprie de Chaldais agi, Habak. i. 5, 6. Paulus tamen hoc opus paradoxum confiderans tanquam cohærens cum aliis graviffimis Dei judiciis, proceffu temporis vulgandis in eandem gentem, id ad judicia et mala, quæ Judæos fui temporis manebant, tranfulit. Vitringa ad Jefai. x. 12. See him alfo on Ifai. xxviii. 21. and Hammond on Acts xiii. 40. These things amount to an evidence which cannot reasonably be refifted : -ita res accendunt lumina rebus. The ancient Chriftians faw it plainly, and infifted upon it ftrongly, as upon a fatisfactory proof of the truth of Christianity; and the proof is as evident now as it was then. It highly deferves the serious confideration of those who doubt or difbelieve. Whofoever is of a ftudious and inquifitive difpofition, and not of a fanguine complexion, has probably known * Συγκρίνας δέ τις τὰς τὰ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν λέξεις ταῖς λοιπαῖς τα (υγγραφέως ισορίαις ταῖς περὶ τὸ παντὸς πολέμε, πῶς ἐκ ἂν Σπιθαυμάσειεν θείαν ὡς ἀληθῶς καὶ ὑπερφυῶς παράδοξον τω πρόγνωσίν τε καὶ πρόῤῥησιν το Σωτήρῷ ἡμῶν ὁμολογήσας; Quod fi quis Servatoris noftri verba cum iis comparet, quæ ab eodem fcriptore de univerfo bello commemorata funt, fieri non poteft quin admiretur præfcientiam ac prædictionem Servatoris noftri, eamque vere divinam & fupra modum fupendam effe fateatur. Euleb. Hift. Eccl. iii. 7. E 4 what |