to the capitol, or temple of the Heathen god Yupiter, which was wont to be paid to the temple of God in Jerufalem. This heavy judgment fell on the Jews fomewhat above fifteen hundred years after their entrance into Canaan; fix hundred and two years after their return from the Babylonian captivity; feventy years after our Lord's birth, and thirty-feven years after his crucifixion. The gofpel having been firft planted up and down the world, especially in all parts fubject to the Roman empire, (as the word, which we tranflate the world, fignifies in the original)" by the travels and preaching of the apostles, and their affiftants, beginning at Jerufalem, as Christ foretold, that the gofpel fhould be fo preached before the end of the Jewish ftate come. St. Mark added the word, firft, as more fignificant, the gospel must first be published among all nations. So St. Paul affirms, that their found went out into all the earth; applying hereto what the Pfalmift fays of the revolution of the heavenly bodies . And if only one apostle, St. Paul, from Jerufalem round about unto Illyricum, fully preached the gospel of Christ, that is, in feveral parts of Afia and Europe, what may we fuppofe of all the other apostles, and all their numerous affiftants? We may further make two obfervations concerning the deftruction of Jerufalem, and the temple of the Jews: The first, That their temple fignified nothing any longer, fince Chrift had fulfilled all that was to be done in it; and therefore there was an end Jofeph. b. vii. c. 26. The like account is given by Dion. Caffius apud Xiphilinum in Vefpafianum, p. 217. Compare Grot. in Mat. xvii. 24. u Luke ii. I. Mat. xxiv. 14. w Chap. xiii. 10. x Rom. x. 18. alfo Rom. i. 8. Coloff. i. 6. 23. y Pfal. xix. 4. See y Rom. xv. 19. d 1 end to be put to it; and fince the Chriftian church had been founded in the city of the earthly Jerufalem, and all had been done therein too, which had been foretold, a period was to be put to that alfo *. In the next place, it is fit to obferve, how the fingular providence of God fhewed itself for the fafety of the Chriftians, who were among the unbelieving Jews; for being warned by the caution our Lord gave them, that when they should fee Jeru falem compaffed with armies, the abomination of defolation ftand in the holy place, or begirting the holy city of Jerufalem, that they fhould then flee to the mountains: I fay, the Chriftians feeing this token when Jerufalem was firft befieged under Ceftius Gallus, (then prefident of Syria, who was incited thereto by Florus,) about four years before its ruin, and having opportunity by the unexpected and fudden breaking up of that fiege, they all f left Jerufalem, and betook themselves to Pella, a city beyond Jordan, in the mountainous country of Cœlefyria, inhabited by Gentiles, (as appears by the Jews demolishing it under Alexander, one of the Maccabees, because they refufed to conform to their laws and customs, or the rites of their religion,) which place was fhewn them by divine revelation, and there they were fafe from that deftruction: But afterwards they appear to have returned to the ruined Jerufalem, and the neighbouring parts; because we have an account of fifteen fucceflions of bishops of Jerufalem, from the apoftles unto 3 E 2 Adrian's с a See Irenæus, 1. iv c. 7. e Mat. xxiv. 15, 16. b. ii. c. 24. b Eufeb. hift. 1. iii. c. 5. Jofephus b. ii. c. 16. e Ibid. f Eufebius fays, the church of Jerufalem, Ofan pantelos, as it were, totally relinquished the city and all 8 Jofephus Antiq. the country, Eufeb. hift. 1. iii. c. 5. book xiii. chap. 23. h Euseb, hift. 1. iv. chap. 5. Adrian's time, who were of the circumcifion, or Jews converted; and one of the ancients acquaints us, that the Chriftians, when returned, wrought great miracles; and when Adrian came to Jerufalem, about fixty years after its deftruction, he is faid to find the city wholly levelled to the ground, except a few houfes, and a little church, which moft likely had been built by the Chriftians at their return thither. After all the dreadful flaughters above-mentioned, fome remains of the Jews held for a little time two or three ftrong caftles; but they were foon fuppreffed, and many thousands of them more were put to death, or fold, or difperfed. At one of those ftrong holds, viz. Maffada, many of them, when befieged, in defpair, first killed their wives and chil dren, and then each other, by confent, to the number of nine hundred and fixty. It is further obfervable, that Jofephus, an eyewitness, fays, that by the command of Titus, the city of Jerufalem and the temple were laid level with the ground, and fo utterly demolished, that the place looked as if it had been never inhabited"; and according to the fashion of the Romans, (as in the first marking out a new city, fo in demolishing towns) a plough was brought over the place where the city and temple had ftood; only three famous turrets, as monuments" of the ftrength of the place, and of the valour of the Romans, and alfo a piece of a wall to the weftward of the town, where they defigned a garrifon; but even those Epiphanius de Menf. & Pond. num. 15. num. 14. were Idem ibid. m Jofe Hor. 1. i. phus, book vii. chap. 18. fephus, book vii. chap. 18. were demolished about fixty-two years after by the emperor Adrian; and in Julian's time the ve ry foundations of the temple were torn up by an earthquake, (of which afterwards;) fo fully and literally was our Saviour's prediction made good, Verily I fay unto you, there fhall not be left here, one ftone upon another, that shall not be thrown down3. Here we may take notice, that as God's fending his fon Jefus Chrift into the world, according to his promise made fo long before, is a fufficient affurance to us, that all the rest of his promifes to his church shall be made good in their feafon; fo this dreadful judgment on the Jews, which was alfo long threatened, being at last executed, does fufficiently inform us, Hieronym. in Joel i. 4. Helii quoque Adriani contra Judæos expeditionem legimus; qui ita Hierufalem murofque fubvertit, ut de urbis reliquiis ac favillis fui nominis Heliam conderet civitatem. Compare Petavii Animadverfiones in Epiphanium de Menf. & Pond. num. 14. r Mat. xxiv. 2. See alfo Luke xix. 42, 43, 44. At this time St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerufalem, affirmed the prophecy to be fully accomplished, as the hiftorian obferves, who adds, then or at that time, was the temple totally demolished, Socrat. hift. Ecclefiaft. 1. iii. c. 20. (Græc. edit. Colon. 1. iii. c. 17. eis teleon anatetrapto.) So that our Saviour's prophecy, There shall not be one ftone left upon another, as it relates to the deftruction of the temple by Titus, feems to be an hyperbolical expreffion, fignifying an ute ter deftruction of it; as, on the contrary, the building of it was expreffed by a stone laid upon a stone, Hag. ii. 15. Nor is it probable that the Romans were fo curious, or fo much at leisure, as to pull down or dig up every stone thereof. The term in Josephus (Bel. 1. vii. c. 1. Gr.) katafkaptein, does not import a digging or ploughing up, but diruere, eis edaphos, a levelling with the ground, (Scapula ;) and Jofephus further adds, outos exomalisan, they laid it fo flat, &c. The ploughing was only a ceremony of the Romans, who used to draw a plough over a place where a city had flood which they demolished, Vid. Grot. in Mat. xxiv. 2. and Glaffi Philolog. Sacr. 1. v. tract. i. chap. 19. de Hyperbole, p. 476. The rooting up of the foundations was in Julian's time, and then indeed was the prophecy literally fulfilled, us, that all his fore judgments mentioned in fcripture for fin, even the eternal torments of hell, fhall fall on all thofe who do not, by hearty and timely repentance and reformation, prevent the fame. God is the fame, as juft, and as much hating fin, and as powerful; and if he at last spared not the pofterity of thofe holy men, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom he owned for his peculiar people, for whom he wrought fo many miracles in Egypt, and divided the fea for them to pass over; whom he fed in the wilderness for forty years together with food from heaven; whom he placed in the land of Canaan, and made his church above all the nations befides; to whom he fent fo many prophets, and at last his only Son: If, I fay, God fpared not fuch as thefe, but deftroyed them in fo terrible a manner, how fhall we efcape, if we go on in the like method, to provoke fo good and merciful, but withal fo juft and powerful a God? As this dreadful calamity befel the Jews in their own country, fo about forty-fix years afterwards (in the eighteenth year of the emperor Trajan) there was a terrible deftruction of fuch of them as were difperfed up and down the caftern parts of the world, occafioned by their confpiracies and rebellion against the Roman governors, in the several provinces where they lived in great numbers: For they fell upon and flew both Romans and Greeks in à mot favage and barbarous manner, eating their very flefh, and befmearing themfelves with their blood, putting on their ikins, fawing fome in two, cafting others to wild-beafts, and forcing many to combat and flay each other. This barbarity was by the emperor's command, foon revenged upon the whole body of the difperfed Jews, wherever they were |