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SERM ON VII.

Rom. XI. 25, 26.

I would not, brethren, that ye fhould be ignorant of this mystery (left ye fhould be wife in your own conceits) that blindness in part is happened to Ifrael, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And fo all Ifrael fhall

be faved.

T

HE hiftory of the Jews is, in every part, fingular and aftonishing. From their first designation as a peculiar people to the present hour they ftand forth a confpicuous proof of God's fpecial providence and conftant direction of the affairs of men; a glorious example of the blessed fruits of faith and obedience to the will of Heaven, and a ftupendous inftance of the dreadful confe0 4 quences,

quences, even in this life, of stubbornness and fin.

Their unparalleled fufferings in one age we have furveyed at large. We have seen their calamities commencing at the time and in the manner which our bleffed Lord had foretold, and daily multiplying, till the fword of the Romans finished what their own diffenfions began, and their heinous offences merited ; till their land was laid waste, their beauty confumed, and the city of their folemnities burnt to the ground.

But although the exact completion of our Lord's prediction, in all the particulars of this amazing feries of events, is abundantly fufficient to demonftrate the infpiration of those holy Gospels which contain this important prophecy, and to establish, in confequence, the truth of that religion which is therein taught; yet we cannot here conclude our meditations. Beholding, amidst the revolutions of empire and viciffitudes of fortune, this extraordinary people still subfifting, at the distance of more than feventeen centuries from the final defolation of their country, we cannot look upon them with indifference. Spread as it were on the surface of the ocean, but not blended with its waves, scattered

fcattered through the mafs of mankind, but ftill preserved diftinct, like the bodies which in the heart of the earth remain as tokens of an univerfal deluge, they fhew that they once belonged to one common ftate; they fhew that those scriptures must be divine, which foretel their difperfion and prefervation; events that none but the Allwife could foresee, and none but the Almighty could bring to pass. We cannot therefore but inquire, whether those same scriptures, to the truth of which they are living though involuntary vouchers, have declared the future will of Heaven concerning them; what calamities are yet behind, or what bleffings ftill in ftore for them,

To this interesting inquiry, that fame prophecy of our Lord, which has been the subject of our late meditations, directs our prefent thoughts; when it informs us, that

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Jerufalem fhall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Had the Jews, in any age fince Jerufalem was destroyed by the Romans, been fuffered to rebuild their city and temple, and to settle there; or were the Gentiles univerfally converted to Chriftianity, the Jews ftill continuing in unbelief; on either fuppofition,

a Luke xxi. 24.

this prophecy would appear to be defeated, and confequently would merit no serious attention. But neither of these events has yet taken place.

In the time of Adrian, when the Jews were gaining ftrength, and under the aufpices of a pretended Meffiah were feating themfelves in Judea, many thousands of them were flain; and they were exprefsly forbidden by an imperial edit to fet their feet on the land of their forefathers. In the next century, when an apoftate emperor attempted to perform for them what they were unable themselves to accomplish, to rebuild their temple and restore their worship; the impious undertaking, zealously as it was profecuted, was foon interrupted and finally defeated by fire bursting forth from the bowels of the earth". "The children of Ifrael" therefore "abide," as it was predicted of them, "many days without a king, and

Enfeb. H. E. L. IV. c. vi.

This attempt of Julian was A. C. 363. and is recorded by Ammianus Marcellinus, a contemporary pagan hiftorian, L. XXIII. c. i. It is mentioned also by several Christian writers of the fame century. See Chryfoft. Hom. 4. in Matt. T. II. p. 20. 1. 16. Hom. 41. in A&t. T. IV. p. 389. l. 7. Orat. 2. in Babyl. T. V. p. 470. 1. 19. Greg. Naz. Orat. 2. contr. Julian. Ambrof. Epift. xvii. But for a full proof and vindication of the miracle by which the attempt was defeated, See Bp. Warburton's Julian.

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