without a parallel: and they certainly were, as Josephus himself repeatedly testifies, and as his history abundantly proves.

6. Again, our Lord foretold, that before the destruction of Jerusalem, the gospel should be preached in all the world as a witness unto all nations." This prediction, as we have seen already, was fully accomplished also; and yet, considering the character and condition of the instruments, the nature of the truths which they promulgated, the malignant opposition of their own countrymen, and the contempt with which, as Jews, they were regarded by the Gentile nations-nothing could scarcely have been conceived less probable than such an event.

7. Our Lord further predicted, that the then existing generation should not "pass away before all these things were fulfilled*;" and, in conformity hereto, they were fulfilled within forty years from the

Mat. xxiv. 34.

date of the prophecy. This is a very dif ferent thing from their being accomplished some time or other. Our Lord had intimated also, that the Evangelist John should survive the destruction of Jerusa lem; and he survived it, accordingly, more than twenty-five years, and died at Ephesus nearly one hundred years old. How it came to pass that he who foresaw the persecutions of his disciples, and was therefore sensible of the dangers to which their lives would be exposed, should venture to predict that one of the most distinguished and zealous among them should escape martyrdom, and demonstrate, so long after the accomplishment of the prophecy, that the generation to which he addressed it had not even then "passed away?"

Now, if the destruction of Jerusalem were a subject of human conjecture merely, how came so great a variety of remarkable and improbable circumstances, as we have enumerated, to be unnecessarily in

terwoven with the prophecy? And how happened it that, in relation to those.circumstances, as well as all others, of which the number is not small, the prophecy should be exactly fulfilled?

IV. If this prophecy be ascribed to po. litical sagacity, we would ask, on the supposition of the infidel, how it happened that a carpenter's son, living nearly the whole of his life in privacy, associating chiefly with the poor, without access to the councils of princes, or to the society of the great, should possess a degree of political discernment to which no statesman would deem it less than folly to lay claim? Besides, how came he to predict the ruin of his own country, and at that very season, too, when all his countrymen turned their eyes to a deliverer, who should restore its sovereignty, consolidate its power, and extend both its boundaries and its renown? And lastly, how came he even to conceive, much more cherish, such an idea, diametrically contrary as it was to all

his stubborn and deep-rooted prejudices as a Jew?

. Thus we perceive that the very objec tions which infidelity opposes to our argument, instead of invalidating, tend only more fully to illustrate and confirm it. And such, indeed, must always be the happy effects of that hostility which is directed against the evidences of the christian faith, since, the more carefully and attentively we examine the examine the foundations upon which it rests, the more perfectly must we be convinced of the immovable stability of the superstructure. Of that evidence the prophecy which we have reviewed most certainly constitutes a very striking and prominent part; from every light and position in which it can be contemplated it constantly derives new lustre and effect; and it may safely be considered "as an unquestionable proof of the divine foreknowledge of our Lord, and the divine authority of the gospel: and on this ground only, were it necessary, we might

securely rest the whole fabrick of our religion. Indeed, this remarkable prediction has always been considered, by every impartial person, as one of the most powerful arguments in favour of christianity; and in our own times, more particularly, a man of distinguished talents, and acknowledged eminence in his profession, and in the constant habit of weighing, sifting, and scrutinizing evidence with the minutest accuracy in courts of justice, has publicly declared, that he considered this prophecy, if there were nothing else to support christianity, as absolutely irresistible*."

Let us, then, if we are christians indeed, offer up our grateful acknowledgments to the Almighty, who hath laid such firm foundations for our faith. Let us exult in the inviolable certainty of his holy word, and assure ourselves that his promises are

See the Bishop of London's "Lectures on the Gospel of St Matthew;" and Mr. Erskine's eloquent speech at the trial of Williams, for publishing Paine's Age of Reason.