"land" (faith their law) " and the land cannot "be cleanfed of the blood that is fhed therein, "but by the blood of him that shed it," Numb. Xxxv. 33. This rule held even of common blood, fpilt by a private hand; and how then was the land to be cleanfed of the blood of the Messiah, the Son of God, which that whole nation fpilt, and made themselves answerable for the guilt of it? How, but by the blood of that whole nation, by their utter ruin and excifion? Which accordingly happened foon afterwards, when the armies of Vefpafian encompaffed Jerufalem. The calamities they underwent in that fiege, were fuch as never befell any other city or nation. The account we have of them is aftonifhing, and would have furpaffed all belief, had it not been given us by one, who was himself an eye-witness of them, and a fharer in them; and who tells us, that no lefs than eleven hundred thoufand Jews fell at that time, either by fword or famine.

It may be worth our while to obferve from that hiftorian fome circumftances, which fhew, how ftrict a correfpondence there was between their crime and their punishment; an hiftorian that had nothing lefs in his view, than to prove, that the one was adapted to the other, and a just confequence of it.

The nation, collected in a body to celebrate that paffover, had committed this crying fin; and the vengeance of God overtook them at another pafchal feason, when they were again thus embodied, when all the Jews were fhut up in Jerufalem, as beafts in a flaughter-houfe, and none could escape the fword of the Romans.

K 2

The

The rejection of the true Mafiah was their crime, and their hearkening to many falfe Meffiabs afterwards was the fource of their calamities; their frequent revolts on that account being the true caufe of the refolution that was taken to extirpate and destroy them.

They purfued our Saviour to the crofs, that they might not be suspected of fetting up a rival title to that of Cafar; left (said they) the Romans come, and take away our place and nation, Joha xi. 48. What they endeavoured to avoid by this wickedness, befell them on the account of it: The Romans came, and took away their place and nation fo entirely, that, after the fecond attempt made upon them by Titus, they never had the leaft fhadow of magiftracy and government amongst them; and after their final destruction by Adrian, they were not allowed, fo much as to live in Jew r, no not upon terms of the lowest, and most ab. ject flavery.

Nor did the vengeance of God ftop here, but hath purfued and doth still purfue them into all the corners of the earth, whither they have been driven; in all which, their circumftances are so fin gular, fo unlike thofe of other exiles and captives, and fo different from what befell them in their former difperfions, that no account can be given of their thus fuffering beyond example, but from their finning beyond example in the crucifixion of our Saviour.

To what elfe can we afcribe that univerfal con◄ tempt and abhorrence they have undergone from Chriftians of all forts. nay, even from Turks and Heathens; fo as to become, in the prophetic ex

preffions

preffions of Mafes, "an aftonishment, a proverb, "and a by-word among all nations, whither the "Lord hath led them ?"

To what elfe can be imputed their exclufion from offices and honours every where, and even from the common benefits of ftrangers? The fre quent oppreffions and exactions, under which they have groaned, the various expulfions and maffacres that have befallen them? Wherever they came, they have (as the pen of the fame prophet defciribes their cafe, Deut. xxviii. 65.) "found no ease, neither hath the fole of "their foot had reft; but the Lord hath given "them a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and forrow of mind."

In other deportations, they had often the favour of their conquerors; were permitted by them freely and publicly to exercise their religion, and even to make profelytes, to live under their own laws and enftoms, and to retain fome fhadow of their domeftic polity and government. But in this Laft, they have had none of thefe privileges, or en couragements; none fecured to them by law, but indulged only by a fecret and precarious contrivance; which has been limited and withdrawn, according to the will and pleasure of their mafters.

Finally, whereas the longeft of their captivities, after they fettled in Canaan, lafted but seventy years; This has endured for above fixteen hundred; that is, for a greater tract of time than intervened, from the first building of their temple by Solomon, to its final destruction by Titus. Thus long have they been no nation, but fo many fcattered herds of vagabonds, without any templeworthip

worship or facrifices (the chief part of their religion) and without any reasonable hope or profpect of enjoying them All the attempts, that have been made towards rebuilding their Holy Place, or even towards recovering their country out of the hands of Infidels, have been defeated and blafted by God in fo remrkable a manner, as i he were jealous of every event, which might seem to open a way home to this wretched people, and give them the leaft glimpfe of a deliverance from their bondage.

And all this while (which is the most ftrange and fingular circumftance of their punishment) they have continued unmixed unincorporated with any of the nations of the earth, amidst whom they dwelt; their prefervation in which feparate state is more wonderful, than their total difperfion; and could not have happened for fo long a time, fo uniformly, every where, without the immediate interpofition of God's providence, to prevent a coalition; in order to render them, by that means, standing and ilustrious monuments of his vengeance, to all nations and ages. The juftice and wifdom of which fevere proceeding, I fhall now in the

Third place, briefly open to you: The justice of God, in refpect to the fufferers themselves; and his wifdom, with regard to the great ends and defigns he proposed to himself in their fufferings.

The juftice of God is manifeft, in thus punishing that race of men, which actually split the

blood

blood of Chrift, and made themfelves, by a dire imprecation, refponfable for it. And as to the con fequences of this punifhment on their children and defcendants, it must be confidered, that they reach only to thofe of their pofterity, who abet their forefathers crime, and continue in their infidelity; for to those of them, who abhor it, who acknowledge Chrift to be the Meffiah, entertain his doctrine, and throw themfelves into the arms of his mercy, an exclufion from the carthly Canaan and its privileges can be thought no grievous punishment, when that lofs is fo amply recompenfed by their gaining admiffion to "a better, an heavenly country, Heb. xi. 16. even a citizenfhip'of that "new Jerufalem, which is from above, and whose builder is God," ver. 10

And if the juftice of God be free from all im~ putation in this great event, his wifdom, I am fure, is highly illuftrated by it. For the deftruction of the Jewish polity and nation was fo ordered by him, in all the steps and methods of its accomplishment, as to confirm the truth, and fpread the interefts, of Christianity.

Could there be a plainer and more irrefragable proof of the divine miffion of our Lord, than the fulfilling of this curfe on his murderers? Who, that faw their wide difperfions and fad fufferings, could forbear arguing after this manner? No nation, from the beginning of the world, was ever punished as this nation; and therefore, if the punishment of nations be for their fins, fome heinous act must have been done by them, which never was done by any other nation: And what could that be, but the effufion of the blood