the reasons and causes of it. And shall we not consider and make like inquiries concerning the captivity by the Romans, which has been attended with so many awful circumstances? Shall we not say : "Why has the Lord done thus unto this land and to this house?" meaning the second house, built after the return from the Babylonish captivity. For that house also was high, and had been erected with divine approbation and encouragement: and the worship had been restored there according to the appointment of Moses, and was so continued there till its final desolation.

If now we ask, Why has the Lord done thus to this land and people, and to this house?" it cannot be said, "because they laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them." For after the return from the Babylonish captivity, they were for the most part free from the sin of idolatry, into which they had so often relapsed before. Nor are they now guilty of that sin, for which their dispersion should be continued. For some while before the last destruction of Jerusalem, they appear from all accounts to have been generally very zealous for the law of Moses, and the rites of it, and very diligent in their attendance on the temple at Jerusalem, to which they resorted in great numbers, from all parts of the world where they inhabited, at the solemn festivals; and where a large part of the nation was assembled to keep the passover, when the final overthrow befell them.

We are therefore led to think that these calamities befell the Jewish people because they rejected and crucified the Lord Jesus, who was a prophet mighty" in deed and word before God and all the people," Luke xxiv. 19; who spake as never man spake before, and performed many wonderful works which none had done before. And God has "required it of them," as he said by Moses he would do, Deut. xviii. 19. And I must again recite bere those affecting and awful, but true, sayings of our Lord, recorded, John xv. 22, 24, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin : but now they have no cloak [or excuse] for their sin. If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father."

The expectation of the Messiah is no new thing. It had not its rise from Jesus or his disciples. It was in being long before the nativity of Jesus. We are assured by Suetonius, and Tacitus, and Celsus, heathen writers of great

Z

* See the passages of those heathen authors, and of Josephus, all alleged Vol. i. p. 138-140.

6

learning, as well as from Josephus, that There had been for a long time, all over the east, a notion firmly believed, that, at that very time, some one coming from Judea should obtain the empire of the world.' Heathen writers say this was contained in the book of the fates: Josephus, who at the time of his writing the History of the War, was disposed to think as the heathen writers above mentioned do, that Vespasian was thereby intended, says, that this expectation was founded upon an ambiguous oracle. Nevertheless he owns that the expectation was general among the Jewish people, and that it was embraced by many of the wise men among 'them,' as well as by others, and that it was the thing which principally encouraged them to undertake the war with the Romans.' But upon this head there is now no difference between the Jews and us; all allowing that the expectation of a Messiah is founded on the writings of Moses and the prophets.

That this was the time of his appearance they may have argued and collected from divers texts of scripture, as Dan. ii. 34–45; vii. 14; ix. 24; and from Hag. ii. 4—9; Mal. iii. 1; iv. 5, 6.

How general and prevailing the expectation of the appearance of the Messiah then was among all sorts of men, the rulers as well as the common people, we farther know from the books of the New Testament. Luke iii. 15, 16: "And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not, John answered, saying unto them all: I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." And from John i. 19—34, we know that the Jews sent priests and Levites, who were of the sect of the pharisees, to John, were he was baptizing, to ask him who he was. He declared "he was not the Christ, but was sent before him; and said: There standeth one among you, whom ye know not. He it is who, coming after me, is preferred before ine; whose shoes' latchet I am not worthy to unloose." I need not cite any other texts.

At that very time Jesus appeared and wrought many wonderful works, irrefragable attestations to his divine mission and authority, and the truth of his doctrine; of which we are as well assured from the concurring and unanimous testimony of all the writers of the New Testament, as we can be of any thing that ever was done in the world; or as the Jews are of the miracles wrought by Moses and the prophets.

Here therefore we may adopt the words of our Lord spoken to his disciples, Matt. xvii. 12, " But I say unto you, that Elias is come already. And they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them." As he did soon afterwards. For which God has reckoned, and is still reckoning with them.

However, though the treatment given to Jesus and his apostles, was a very great offence, there may have been other provocations which occasioned the displeasure of God against his people, and concurred to bring down the vengeance of heaven upon them. One sin is never alone. There is generally a complication of guilt in all great and aggravated transgressions. Though the Jewish people often fell into the practise of heathen idolatry, and that was one great occasion of the Babylonish captivity, that was not the only sin with which they were chargeable. All sorts of immoralities abounded among them. And Daniel, in the confession which he makes of the sins of his people, says, ch. ix. 5, "We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and thy judgments." So now the greatness of their guilt lay in rejecting and crucifying Jesus the Messiah. But that would not have been done if wickedness had not greatly prevailed among them. Josephus owns, that never was there a time more fruitful of wickedness than that.' In the gospels the men of that time are spoken of as an "untoward generation, and a wicked and adulterous generation." They were chargeable with all kinds of evil, and were openly reproved for them by the faithful teacher and prophet whom God sent among them, and whom they so ungratefully used. They were covetous and worldly-minded : Luke xvi. 14, 15. They were exceeding proud and ambitious of respect and honour. They did all their works to be seen of men. They made broad their phylacteries, and enlarged the borders of their garments. They loved the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi ;" Matt. xxiii. 5, 6; and see Mark xii. 38, 39; and Luke xx. 46; and Luke xiv. 7. They were extremely uneasy and impatient under the Roman government, to which, by the disposal of Divine Providence, they were subject. They were very deceitful and hypocritical, who "devoured widows' houses, and for a pretence made long prayers" Mark xii. 40, and see Matt. xxiii. 23-28. At the same time they depended upon their descent from Abraham, and other external privileges; which rendered all

exhortations to repentance fruitless and ineffectual. See Matt. iii. 9; John viii. 33, and 39. Accordingly they are represented to have "hardened their hearts, and shut their eyes:" for which reason they did not understand, nor attend to the signs of the times, and the evidences of truth set before them: Matt. xiii. 14, 15; John xii. 37–41. And moreover, they were at this time very fond of traditions, which made void the moral law of God.

All these charges, now collected from the gospels, might be verified by examples and observations in Josephus. These evil dispositions prevailing among them, especially in their great men who had the chief influence on the people, they did not, and could not believe, but rejected and isl treated the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me recite here John v. 39-44; "Search the scriptures," impartially. "For in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you-How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only ?"

One thing more I must add here. That the time in which our Lord appeared was not a time of gross ignorance. The Jews now had synagogues every where in all parts of Judea, and in many places out of it, where the law of Moses and the prophets were read and explained. The common people in general were well acquainted with those scriptures, and with the explications given of them by their rabbins. Among the scribes and pharisees were many men of very good abilities. Their acuteness and subtilty are manifest in their cavils with our Saviour. Nor were the Jewish people now altogether unacquainted with the Greek literature. Their three sects of the pharisees, sadducees, and essenes, had occasioned disputes and controversies, and spread the knowledge of the things of religion among them.

It is amazing that a prophet who teaches men a reasonable doctrine, and works many miracles, all useful and beneficent, should be rejected. And it would be still more amazing, were it not that we are in some measure able to account for it, by the bad dispositions before taken notice of. Jesus gave no sign from heaven to induce them to expect from him (what suited their carnal and ambitious views) a deliverance from the Roman government. And all other works, of mighty power and of great goodness, were slighted and despised. Thus prejudice and passion prevailed against evidence. And it is a great aggravation of

the guilt of any men, who are knowing and discerning, if they reject the truth of which good evidences are set before them. Our Lord having made some remarks after the cure of the man born blind, and after his being excommunicated by the pharisees, John ix. 39-41, some of them who heard him said unto him: "Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them: If ye were blind ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”

Thus they were incurable. And these evil dispositions prevailing in them, brought on that great sin of rejecting and crucifying the Lord Jesus, which God has required of them.

The destruction therefore of the city of Jerusalem, and the temple, and the continued dispersion of the Jews, are a cogent argument for the truth of the christian religion. They confirm the history of the New Testament, and every part of it. If they had not sinned, as they are there said to have done, these calamities had not befallen them. Their sufferings bear witness to the spotless life, and excellent doctrine, and wonderful works, of the Lord Jesus. They testify that there had been one among them greater than Jonah, and wiser than Solomon; but they slighted all his wisdom and repented not, as the people of Nineveh did at the preaching of Jonah.

They confirm particularly the history recorded in Luke xxiii. Ï—25: “ And the whole multitude of them" [that is, many of the Jewish council]" arose, and led him unto Pilate, saying: We found this man perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying, that he himself is Christ, a king. Pilate then asked him, saying: Art thou the king of the Jews? And he answered him, and said, Thou sayest it." [It is as you say.] "Then said Pilate to the chief priests, and to the people, I find no fault in this man. And they were the more fierce, saying: He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place." He then sent Jesus to Herod, who sent him back again to Pilate. "After which, when Pilate had called together the chief priests, and the rulers, and the people, he said unto them; Ye have brought this man unto ine as one that perverteth the people; and behold, I having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching these things whereof ye accuse him. No, nor yet Herod; for I sent you to him. And lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him, and release him. For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast. And they cried out, all at once, saying: Away