In order to demonstrate the accomplishment of these predictions, we appeal, therefore, to universal history, and to every country under heaven*. The un

"In the reign of Adrian," says Bishop Newton, "nine hundred and eighty-five of their best towns were sacked and demolished, five hundred and eighty thousand men fell by the sword, in battle, besides an infinite multitude who perished by famine, and sickness, and fire; so that Judea was depopulated, and an almost incredible number, of every age and of each sex, were sold like horses, and dispersed over the face of the earth*." The war which gave rise to these calamities, happened about sixty-four years after the destruction of Jerusalem; during which time the Jews had greatly multiplied in Judea. About fifty years after the latter event, Ælius Adrian built new city on Mount Calvary, and called it Ælia, after his own name; but no Jew was suffered to come near it. He placed in it a heathen colony, and erected a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, on the ruins of the temple of Jehovah. This event contributed greatly to provoke the sanguinary war to which we have just alluded. The Jews afterwards burnt the new city; which Adrian, however, re-built, and re-established the colony. In contempt of the Jews, he ordered a marble statue of a sow to be placed over its principal gate, and prohibited them entering the city under pain of death, and forbad them even to look at it from a distance. He also ordered fairs to be held annually for the sale of captive Jews, and banished such as dwelt in Canaan into Egypt. ConstanNewton, vol. ii. Diss. xviii.

*

disputed facts are, that Jerusalem has not since been in possession of the Jews, but has been successively occupied by the Romans, Arabic Saracens, Franks, Mamelucs, and lastly by the Turks, who now possess it. It has never regained its former distinction and prosperity. It has always been trodden down. The eagles of idolatrous Rome, the crescent of Mahomet, and the banner of popery, have tine greatly improved the city, and restored to it the name of Jerusalem; but still he did not permit the Jews to dwell there. To punish an attempt to recover the possession of their capital, he ordered their ears to be cut off, their bodies to be marked as rebels, and dispersed them through all the provinces of the empire as vagabonds and slaves. Jovian having revived the severe edicts of Adrian, which Julian had suspended, the wretched Jews even bribed the soldiers with money, for the privilege only of beholding the sacred ruins of their city and temple, and weeping over them, which they were peculiarly solicit ous to do on the anniversary of that memorable day, on which they were taken and destroyed by the Romans. In short, during every successive age, and in all nations, this ill-fated people have been constantly persecuted, enslaved, contemned, harassed, and oppressed; banished from one country to another, and abused in all; while countless multitudes have, at different periods, been barbarously massacred, particularly in Persia, Syria, Pales tine, and Egypt; and in Germany, Hungary, France, and Spain.

by turns been displayed amidst the ruins of the sanctuary; and a Mahomedan mosque, to the extent of a mile in circumference, now covers the spot where the temple formerly stood. The terri tory of Judea, then one of the most fertile countries on the globe, has for more than seventeen hundred years continued a desolate waste. The Jews themselves, still miraculously preserved a distinct people, are, as we see, scattered over the whole earth, invigorating the faith of the Christian, flashing conviction in the face of the infidel, and constituting a uni versal, permanent, and invincible evidence of the truth of christianity.

In order to invalidate this evidence, the apostate emperor Julian, impelled by a spirit of enmity against the Christians, about A. D. 363, made an attempt to rebuild the city and temple of Jerusalem, and to recal the Jews to their own country. He assigned immense sums for the execution

of this great design, and commanded Alypius of Antioch (who had formerly served as a lieutenant in Britain) to superintend the work, and the governor of the province to assist him therein. "But," says Ammianus Marcellinus, "whilst

they urged with vigour and diligence the execution of the work, horrible balls of fire, breaking out near the foundation, with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place, from time to time, inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and the victorious element continuing, in this manner, obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the undertaking was abandoned." Speaking of this event, even Gibbon, who is notorious for his scepticism, acknowledges, that "an earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, which overturned and scattered the new foundations of the temple, are attested, with some variations, by contemporary and respectable evidence, by Ambrose, bishop

of Milan, Chrysostom, and Gregory Nazianzen, the latter of whom published his account before the expiration of the same year*." To these may be added the names of Zemuch David, a Jew, who confesses that" Julian was hindered by God in the attempt;" of Rufinus, a Latin, of Theodoret and Sozomen among the orthodox, of Philostorgius, an Arian, and of Socrates, a favourer of the Novatians, who all recorded the same wonderful interposition of Providence, while the eye-wit nesses of the fact were yet living. The words of Sozomen to this purport are remarkable: "If it yet seem incredible," says he, "to any one, he may repair 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." Besides, it may be added, that no other reason has ever been alleged, why Julian should abandon his magnificent but impious design.

* Decline and Fall, vol. iv. 8vo. page 107.