༄་ མ lation and fubjection to heathens, and the dispersion and captivity of the Jews for a long period of time. For if we turn to the parallel place in St. Luke, we shall find him expreffing himself in these words, respecting the Jews and their city; "they fhall fall by the edge of the fword, and fhall be led away captive into all nations; and Jeru falem fhall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." That is, not only i vaft numbers of the Jews fhall perish at the fiege of Jerufalem, partly by their own feditions, and partly by the fword of the enemy, but multitudes fhall also be made captives, and be dispersed into all countries; and Jerufalem fhall remain in a ftate of defolation and oppreffion, trampled upon and trodden down by heathen conquerors and rulers, till all the Gentiles fhall be converted to the faith of Chrift, and the Jews themselves fhall acknowledge: him to be the Meffiah, and fhall be reftored to their an cient city. The former part of this prophecy has been already moft exactly fulfilled, and is an earneft that all the reft will in due time be accomplished. The number of Jews flain during the fiege was upwards of one million one hun+ dred thousand, and near three hundred thousand more were destroyed in other places in the courfe of the wart. Befides these as Jofephus informs us, no less than ninetyfeven thousand were made captives and dispersed into different countries, fome into Egypt, fome to Cæfarea, fome carried to grace the triumph of Titus at Rome, and the reft diftributed over the Roman provincest; and the whole Jewish people continue to this hour scattered over all the nations of the earth. With refpect to their city, it has remained for the most part in a state of ruin and defolation, from its deftruction by the Romans to the present time; and has never been under the government of the Jews themfelves, but oppreffed and broken down by a fucceffion of foreign mafters, the Romans, the Saracens, the Franks, the Mamalukes, and laft by the Turks, to whom it is ftill fubject. * Luke xxi. 24. It is not therefore only in the hiftory of Jofephus, and in other ancient writers, that we are to look for the accomplishment of our Lord's predictions; we see them verified at this moment before our eyes, in the defolated state of the once celebrated city and temple of Jerufalem, and in the prefent condition of the Jewish people, not collected together into any one country, into one political fociety, and under one form of government, but difperfed over every region of the globe, and every where treated with contumely and fcorn. There was indeed one attempt made to rebuild their temple and their city, and reftore them to their ancient profperity and fplendor. It was made too for the exprefs and avowed purpose of defeating that very prophecy we have been confidering; and the event was fuch as might be expected from the folly and prefumption of the man who dared to oppose the defigns of Providence, and to fight against God. This man was the emperor Julian, who, as you all know, was firft a Chriftian, then apoftatized from that religion, professed himself a pagan, and became a bitter and avowed enemy to the Gofpel. This prince affured the Jews, that if he was fuccefsful in the Perfian war, he would rebuild their city, restore them to their habitations, re-establish their government and their religion, and join with them in worfhipping the great God of the universe. He actually begun this fingular enterprize, by attempting to rebuild their temple with the greateft magnificence. He affigned immenfe fums for the ftructure; and gave it in charge to Alypius of Antioch, who had formerly been lieutenant in Britain, to fuperintend the work. Alypius exerted himself with great vigour, and was affifted in it by the governor of the province. foon after they had begun the work, dreadful balls of fire bursting out from the foundations in feveral parts, rendered the place inacceffible to the workmen, who were frequently burnt with the flames; and in this manner, the fiery elements obftinately repelling them, forced them at length to abandon the defign. The account of this extraordinary miracle we have not only from ancient Christian writers of credit, who lived at the very time when it happened, but from an heathen author of great veracity, Ammianus, But Marcellinus, who wrote the hiftory of Roman affairs from Nerva to the death of Valens, in the year 378. Though he wrote in Latin, he was a Greek by birth. He had several honorable military commands under different emperors; was with Julian in his Perfian expedition, in the year 363, and was a great admirer of that emperor, whom he makes his hero; yet acknowledges that his attempt to rebuild the temple of Jerufalem was defeated in the manner I have mentioned*. The fact is frequently appealed to by the Christians of thofe days, who affirm that it was in the mouths of all men, and was not denied even by the atheifts themfelves; and "if it seem yet incredible to any one, he may repair (fay they) both to witnesses of it yet living, and to them who have heard it from their mouths; yea, they may view the foundations, lying yet bare and naked+." And of this, fays Chryfoftom, all we Chriftians are witneffes; thefe things being done not long fince in our own time‡. Such are the teftimonies for this miracle, which are collected and stated with great force by the learned Bishop Worburton, in his work called Julian; and most of them are also admitted by Mr. Gibbon, who, in his recital of this miracle, acknowledges that it is attefted by contemporary and refpectable evidence; that Gregory Nazianzen, who published his account of it before the expiration of the fame year, declares it was not difputed by the infidels of thofe days, and that his teftimony is confirmed by the unexceptionable teftimony of Ammianus Marcellinus||. I now proceed to the explanation of the next chapter, the 25th of St. Matthew, which begins with prefenting to us two parables, that of the ten virgins, and that of the fervants of a great Lord entrusted with different talents, of which they are called upon to render an account. As thefe parables contain nothing that requires a very particular explanation, I fhall content myfelf with obferving, that they are defigned to carry on the fubject * Ammianus Marcellinus, 1. xxiii. c. 1. p. 350. Ed. Valefii. Sozomen. Hift. Eccles. I. v. c. 22. p. 632. D. 633. B. Chrys. adv. Judæos. Orat. iii. p. 436. Hiftory of the Roman Empire, v. ii. p. 388. with which the preceding chapter concludes; namely, that of the last folemn day of retribution; and the object of both is to call our attention to that great event, and to warn us of the neceffity of being always prepared for it. Thus in the parable of the ten virgins, the five that were wife took oil in their veffels, with their lamps, and when the bridegroom appeared they were ready to receive him, and went in with him to the marriage. But the five that were foolish took no oil with them; and while they went to procure it, the bridegroom unexpectedly came, and the door was but against them. The application is obvious, and is given by our Lord himself in these words, “watch ye therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Lord cometh." In the fame manner, in the parable of the talents, he that had received the five talents and he that had received the two, did, during the abfence of their Lord, fo diligently cultivate and fo confiderably improve them, that when at length he came to reckon with them, they returned him his own again with ufury, and received both applause and reward: while that flothful and indolent fervant, who had received only one talent, and instead of improving it went and hid it in the earth, when his Lord came and required it at his hands, was feverely reprimanded for his want of activity and exertion, and was cast out as an unprofitable fervant into outer darkness. 1 This, like the former parable, was plainly meant to intimate to us that we ought to be always prepared to meet our Lord, and to give him a good account of the use we have made of our time, and of the talents, whether many or few, that were entrusted to our care. After these admonitory parables, and thefe earnest exhortations to prepare for the last great day, our bleffed Lord is naturally led on to a defcription of the day itself; and it is a defcription which for dignity and grandeur has not its equal in any writer, facred or profane. It is as follows: "When the Son of man fhall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then fhall he fit upon the throne of his glory and before him fhall be gathered all . nations; and he fhall feparate them one from another, as a fhepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he fhall fet the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left. Then fhall the King fay unto them on his right hand, Come, ye bleffed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was fick, and ye vifited me; I was in prifon, and ye came unto me. Then fhall the righteous anfwer him, faying, Lord, when faw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? or when faw we thee fick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King fhall answer and fay unto them, Verily I fay unto you, inafmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then fhall he alfo fay unto thofe on the left hand, Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat ; I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked and ye clothed me not; fick, and in prifon, and ye vifited me not. Then fhall they anfwer him, faying, Lord, when faw we thee an hungred, or athirft, or a stranger, or naked, or fick, or in prifon, and did not minifter unto thee? Then fhall he answer them, faying, Verily I fay unto you, inasmuch a's ye did it not to one of the leaft of these, ye did it not to me. And these fhall go away into everlasting punish ment; but the righteous into life eternal." Such is the defcription which our divine Mafter gives us of the great day of account; and so folemn, so awful, fo fublime a scene, was never before presented to the mind of man. Our Saviour reprefents himself as a great and mighty King, as the fupreme Lord of all, fitting on the throne of his glory, with all the nations of the earth affembled before bim, and waiting their final doom from his lips. What an aftonifhing and ftupendous fpectacle is this! He then |