culative errour-The heretick* is indeed to be rejected, after a first and second admonition-but this is not punishment-it is only withdrawing from him, and leaving him to himself. And this is all the excommunication the church has, on any occasion, a right to exercise-nor this, till means have been used to reclaim the erroneous, and been found unavailing. Neither do speculative errours, agreeably to this text, justify even this-errour must become practical to justify exclusion, or separation. This is assigned as the ground of rejection knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth, BEING CONDEMNED OF HIMSELF. A person may mistake, and err in sentiment, and yet act sincerely, not be condemned of himself-Such must not be rejected. The Church in past ages has acted differently-considered doctrinal errour as highly criminal, apart from the views of the erring in sentiment. For several centuries, those who ruled in the church, doomed those whom they denominated hereticks, (many of whom were Saints of the Most High) to death in its most frightful forms and called on civil rulers to execute their decrees; and some, when so employed, thought themselves doing God service. Strange! Destroy for sentiment! and think it serving God! -Sentiment is the effect of light, real, or supposed, let into the mind. Pains and penalties carry no light in them-have not the *Tit. ii. 10. † John xvi. 2. remotest tendency to correct errour-Strange, that it should ever have been imagined! and stranger still that Christians should resort to such measures, while professing to obey the Gospel!-That Gospel which every where enjoins a temper and conduct wholly diverse. The spirit of the Gospel is love-It declares gifts, knowledge, faith, yea, even martyrdom for the honour of Christianity, vain without it!‡ To the truth of Christianity there is a cloud of witnesses-No impartial enquirer can doubt it. But though honest minds must believe the Gospel, they may put different constructions on Scripture; and as there is now no inspired person to teach, no Urim and THUMMIM to consult, a difference of sentiment may be expected. The best may err— They doubtless often do errChristians, enveloped in darkness, may doubt, and differ in opinion. Dare those who consider such to be their situation, censure and condemn all who differ from them? The good will put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness; looking forward to the world of light, where darkness and doubts will be no more. But, alas! how often are those, who bear the Christian name, found censuring and condemning one another; not for sinful practices, but for supposed errours in sentiment; and often on account of different views respecting matters confessedly dark and difficult, yea, mysterious! matters which I. Cor. 13. Col. iii. 14. have no relation to practice! matters which those who contend about them, do not pretend to comprehend, and relative to which, the most zealous differ widely among themselves! and how many are there who wish to impose their Creeds on the Churches, and are ready to exclude from their communion, all who cannot pronounce their Shibboleths! Christians may write summaries of their Faith, for their own use; but have no right to 'impose them on others, or to censure and reject those who cannot receive them. Deductions in Divinity are dangerous. We should do well to keep to the form of sound words; and should receive, as brethren, all who so do, though they may speculate very differently from ourselves. Suppose our sentiments to be correct, (which doth not hold of some who have no jealousy of themselves) and that others mistake, and err, what injury shall we receive if we bear with them, and walk with them, in discharge of duties confessed by all? If we claim a right to judge of doctrines for ourselves, we must grant the same to our brethren. It becomes us to search the Scriptures, and form our sentiments from them. Are there none who study them less to know the truth, than to defend systems which they have adopted? systems which have been handed down from Ancestors, or which are commonly received as orthodox? Respecting such systems, some are afraid to doubt; yea, are ready to consider inquiry 11. Tim. i. 13. Vol. IV. No. 7. 24 suspicious, if not criminal. Peo ple of this cast would have been any thing different from what they now are, had their lot been differently cast. The principle which renders them zealous for a particular sect of Protestants, would have made them equally so for Popery, Mahometanism, or Paganism-To rise above vulgar prejudice, and judge righteous judgment, judge of truth, and what is truth, by the light of reason and revelation, is a great and good, but not perhaps very common attainment. The excellent Mr. Robinson, Minister of the first settlers at Plymouth, lamented and testified against this spirit of Bigotry, which he discovered among Protestants at so early a period, and warned his dear flock against it. "I charge you before God, and his blessed angels, that you follow me no farther than I follow Christ-If God reveal any thing to you by any other instrument of his, be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive truth by my ministry: for I am verily persuaded that the Lord hath more truth yet to break out of his word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who were come to a period in religion, and will go no further than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw: whatever part of his will our good God hath revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it. And the Calvinists stick fast, where they were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things." Some of the redeemed will be found among all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. Let us think on these things-not be wise in our own conceits; but be kindly affectioned one toward another, with brotherly love, in honour preferring† one another— yea, let us be of one mind; and way the God of love and peace dwell among us. May Christ dmelt in our hearts by faith; that we may be rooted and grounded in love.† L. OUR SAVIOUR'S PROPHECY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM "AND when he came near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace! but now they are hidden from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and encompass thee on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground; and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." Luke xix. 41-44. Whether we consider this passage as a proof of the divine authority and mission of the Messiah, or as a prophetical description of historical events, its importance is remarkable, and no where surpassed. In reading it the mind stands aghast at the horrours it predicts, sinks into awe at the foreknowledge by which it was dictated; and these sentiments are only heightened by reading the historians of the Jewish war: and the pity which the calamities of the Jews cannot * Rev. v. 9. fail to excite, mingles with the profoundest sentiments of humiliation, before the judgments of a retributive and inscrutable providence. If it be really true, that a circumstantial prophecy was delivered by our Saviour, at the time and in the manner which the evangelists have declared, nothing more is wanting to establish the truth of his religion. If it be true, that forty years before these terrible calamities, and the final overthrow of the Jewish state, Christ forewarned his disciples in the words of this prophecy, the work is done! Nothing more need be adduced in support of his mission and the cause of revelation! If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, severally record the prediction of the ruin of Jerusalem; and their gospels contain numerous references of our Saviour to the predicted calamity. After some preliminary observations, I shall attempt to show the fulfilment, † Rom. xii. 10. +Eph. iii. 17. not merely of the general prediction, but of the most important of the minuter circumstances. A conversation of our Saviour with the Pharisees immediately preceded the prophecy; in which, after the most moving lamenta tions over their corruptions, he concluded with the pathetick exclamation, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered," &c. Full of these commiserating thoughts, he went to the Mount of Olives, and sat down in full view of the metropolis of Judea. Before him rose the impregnable walls of the Holy City, and the massy structures with which it was filled. There stood in all its glory, the temple and its spacious courts, the pride of every Jew, and the admiration even of the Romans. It stood in all the lustre of decoration, in all the grandeur of religion. It was thought by the nation, to be as secure as the throne of God, who filled it with his presence, and as lasting as the eternal hills. The zeal of the nation, and of successive kings, had enriched it beyond the puny magnificence of modern times, and even the conceptions of modern architects. The land of Judea was then at peace. Under the sway of the Romans, every thing promised to this tributary nation a tranquillity as great and as lasting as that of their conquerors. The idea of the ultimate destruction of the Jewish state, or the utter razure of that temple, guarded by Jehovah, had perhaps never entered the mind of an uninspired Jew. So far from this, the people were then impatiently looking out for a predicted deliverer, who, as they imagined, would raise the nation to a summit of greatness before unknown, and deposit the spoils of the world, and the trophies of the Roman conquerors themselves, before the altar of the God of Israel. Such were the prevailing sentiments of the nation, and they had rejected Jesus, because, without the characteristicks which they had expected, he claimed the dignity of the Messiah. One of his disciples having desired him to observe the magnitude of the stones of which the temple was built, he replied, "Seest thou these great buildings? The days will come, in which there will not be left one stone upon another, which will not be thrown down." The disciples, astonished at this remark, afterward asked him privately-Tell us when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things shall be accomplished.In another place, the question is stated thus-What will be the sign of thy appearance, and the end of the age e? It may be proper to remark, that the common translation, "end of the world" leads into errour as to the meaning of some parts of the prediction. Nothing can be more explicit than our Saviour's assertion, that the generation then living should not pass away, before all the events which he had predicted should be accomplished. From this it would be natural to infer, that the whole prediction referred to the subversion of the Jewish com monwealth; to the destruction of the city and temple, without any reference to the last judg ment, or to the end of the world. The phrase which is translated end of the world, may as properly be rendered end of the age-that is, of the Jewish dispensation. Our Saviour proceeded to reply to the question respecting the signs. In those days of increasing distresses, and impatient expectation of a deliverer, it was natural that many impostors should appear, claiming this character; and that men oppressed by difficulty and suffering, should greedily listen to their promises. To secure, therefore, the fidelity of his disciples, and to keep them from being wrought upon by the pretensions of demagogues as suming the name of the Messiah, Christ forewarned his followers, and said to them explicitlyTake heed that ye be not deceived for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and the time draweth near. ye not, therefore, after them. Go In conformity with this prediction, it is certain from history, that in the times preceding the calamities of Judea, deceitful men and seducers, under the pretence of a divine impulse, inflamed the expectations of the people, and drew many of them into the desert, asserting that God would there show them signs of deliverance. Josephus mentions several of these impostors, who collected thousands of followers, under the promise of miraculous deliverance. Some of them are mentioned in the speech of Gamaliel, which we have re corded in the acts of the Apos tles. Our Saviour goes on to say, Be not alarmed when ye hear of wars and commotions, for the end, the final subversion of the Jewish state, is not yet. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there. will be great earthquakes in many places, and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights and great signs from heaven.-Before the siege of Jerusalem, Judea was divided into several kingdoms, and was the scene of great commotions, insurrections, bloodshed, and war. Famines and pestilences are mentioned even by Tacitus, and the whole history of those times is a record of insecurity and misery. It would be easy to refer to particular parts, and to quote authors, but these things must have been observed by those who have read the history of that period. Observe, however, that our Saviour says, "These are but the beginnings of sorrow;" and indeed they were but a prelude to the greater sorrows which were experienced during the siege of Jerusalem. In order still farther to secure the fidelity of his disciples, our Lord forewarned them that before the destruction of the city, they would be severely persecuted; they should be delivered up, and brought before kings, and rulers, for a testimony to the truth of the gospel. Is not the whole history in the Acts of the Apostles a commentary on this? Our Saviour predicted the divisions and animosities which |