dig up the city, this was fo completely done; by levelling the whole compass of it, except three 'towers, that they who came to fee it were per⚫ fuaded it could never be built again.'

4. IN the times of Claudius and Nero,' (a few years before the deftruction of Jerufalem,)' there happened in Judea a prodigious tempeft, and • vehement winds with rain, and dreadful lightning and thunder, and roarings of the trembling 'earth.'

5. ARMIES feemed to encounter, and weapons to glitter, in the fky; the temple feemed to blaze with fire iffuing from the clouds; and a ' voice more than human was heard, declaring, 'that the deities were quitting the place, which was attended with the found of a great motion, as of perfons going away.'

6

6. THE great gate of the temple' (which twenty men could scarcely fhut, and which was fecured by bolts and bars) was feen to open of its own accord a fword appeared hanging over the city: a comet was feen pointing down upon ' it for a whole year together. Before the fun ' went down, there appeared armies in battle-array, and chariots compaffing the country, and invefting the cities: a thing fo ftrange, that it 'would pass for a fable, were there not men living to atteft it.'

7. NEVER was any nation more wicked, hor ever did a city fuffer as they did.-All the mi'feries that mankind had fuffered from the begin'ning of the world were not to be compared with

those that the Jewish nation did then suffer.

The number of captives was ninety-feven thoufand. Titus fent many to Egypt, and most of them he difperfed into the Roman pro

• vinces.'

IN Jerufalem, during the fiege, there perished by famine, disease, and the fword, fix-hundred thousand, according to Suetonius; eleven hundred thousand, according to Jofephus, and Jornandes. And not long after, a general persecution of the Jews took place throughout the Roman empire. All these things came to pass within the space of forty years after the death of our Saviour; fo that the generation, which was on earth when he uttered this memorable prophecy, had not passed away, when it was in all its parts accomplished.

THIS extraordinary revolution has had confequences not lefs extraordinary. Ever fince the period I speak of, the Jews have been dispersed through all nations, without obtaining a regular establishment in any; have been generally despised wherever they went; have been without a king, without a prince, and without a facrifice:

and yet have not loft their religion, nor been incorporated with the Gentiles among whom they wander but ftill remain a diftinct people. Has fuch been the fate of any other nation? Could this, then, have been foreseen or foretold, except by supernatural means? Yet of them this was foretold by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hofea, and Moses. Indeed the whole hiftory of this people, before their difperfion by Titus and fince, bears irrefragable teftimony to the truth of both the Old Teftament and the New. See Addifon's remarks on it, in the four hundred and ninety-fifth paper of the Spectator. So much for prophecy. The argument arifing from the excellency, and fingular nature, of the Chriftian doctrine, will be confidered by and by.

SECTION III.

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED,

THE FAITH OF THE FIRST DISCIPLES WAS THE EFFECT, NOT OF WEAKNESS, BUT OF WELL-GROUNDED CONVICTION.

THE hiftorical part of the New Testament was

written by men, who were eye-witneffes of many of the facts they relate, and had the reft from the authentic information of eye-witnesses, Those men either DID NOT BELIEVE what they wrote, or

DID BELIEVE IT.

I. IF they did not believe what they wrote, they were impoftors, and wanted to deceive the world. Now men never form a plan of that nature, unless with a view to gain fome end; that is, to obtain fome good, real or imaginary. For it is inconceivable, that a rationable being should give himself the trouble to invent an imposture, and support it through life; a work of great difficulty, and in a cafe like that before us, of the greatest danger; in order to draw down mifchief upon himself and it is not more probable, that

he should do all this by chance, and without any purpose or intention whatever. When Pfalmanaazar forged his fable of the island Formosa, can we imagine that he had no meaning in it, or that by fo doing he intended to hurt his own intereft? Is it not more likely, that he hoped to make his fortune by it? What then was the motive, that could induce the apoftles to deceive mankind? what fortune did they hope to make? what good, real or imaginary, could they have in view, if they were conscious, that what they affirmed was falfehood?

CERTAIN it is, that, when their Lord left them, they could no longer expect to advance their temporal intereft, by adhering to his caufe. On the contrary, they were told from the firft, and after his death, they knew and believed, that perfecution and martyrdom would be their lot in this world; and, as their Jewish education must have taught them that God is just and holy, they, knowing themselves to be deceivers, could entertain no hope with refpect to the next. And this muft equally have been the ftate of their mind, whether with the Pharifees they believed a future life, or with the Sadducees denied it. Surely, the certain prospect of perfecution here, with no hope of reward, or with the apprehenfion of punishment, hereafter, can never be the mo