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in which that ungrateful city should be besieged, aud the dreadful circumvallation that was to encompass it: he had foretold that terrible famine, which was to devour its citizens; nor had he forgotten the false prophets, by whom they were to be seduced. He had warned the Jews, that the time of their calamity was at hand: He had given certain signs, which were to mark the precise hour of it. He had laid open to them the long series of crimes, which were to draw such punishment upon them: In a word, he had traced the whole history of the siege and desolation of Jerusalem.

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And observe, Sir, that he spake to them all these predictions near the time of his passion, that so they might the better know the cause of all their miseries. His passion drew nigh, when he said to them: "hold I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye "shall kill and crucify: and some of them "shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and

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persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous "blood shed upon the earth, from the blood "of righteous Abel unto the blood of Za

charias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew be"tween the temple and the altar. Verily I "say unto you, all these things shall come "upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Je"rusalem, thou that killest the prophets, " and stonest them which are sent unto "thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen ga

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"thereth her chickens under her wings; "and ye would not! Behold, your house is " left unto you desolate *."

Such is the history of the Jews! They persecuted their Messiah, both in his person, and in that of his followers: they stirred up the whole world against his disciples, and allowed them no rest in any city: they armed the Romans and Emperors against the infant church: they stoned St. Stephen, killed the two James's, whose sanctity rendered them venerable even among them, slew St. Peter and St. Paul with the sword, and by the hands of the Gentiles. They needs must perish. So much blood mingled with that of the prophets, whom they have massacred, cries to God for vengeance: Their houses and their city shall be desolate: Their desolation shall be no less than their wickedness: JESUS CHRIST forewarns them of itt: The time is at hand: This tion shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled; and again, This generation shall not pass till all these things be done; that is, that the men then living were to be witnesses of them.

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But let us hear the series of our Saviour's predictions. As he made his entry into Jerusalem some days before his death, touched with the calamities it was to bring upon that wretched city, he wept over it: "Ah!" says he, "unhappy city, if thou hadst "known, even thou, at least in this thy day, that is yet allowed thee to repent, the

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Mat. xxiii. 34, &c.

+ Mat. xxiv. 34. Mark xiii. 30.

"things which belong unto thy peace! but "now they are hid from thine eyes. For "the days shall come upon thee, that thine "enemies shall cast a trench about thee, "and compass thee round, and keep thee "in on every side, and shall lay thee even "with the ground, and thy children within "thee: and they shall not leave in thee one "stone upon another: because thou knew"est not the time of thy visitation*.

This was marking out clearly enough both the manner of the siege, and the final effects of the vengeance. But JESUS must not go to execution without denouncing to Jerusalem, how dearly it should one day pay for the unworthy treatment it was giving him. As he went to Calvary, bearing the cross upon his shoulders, "there followed "him a great company of people, and of "women, which also bewailed and lament"ed him. But Jesus turning unto them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never "bare, and the paps which never gave suck. "Then shall they begin to say to the moun

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tains, fall on us! and to the hills, cover

us. For if they do these things in a green "tree, what shall be done in the dry †?" If the innocent, if the just one suffer so rigorous a punishment, what are the guilty to expect?

* Luke xix. 42, &c. † Luke xxiii. 27, &c.

Did ever Jeremiah more bitterly lament the destruction of the Jews? What stronger expressions could the Saviour make use of to paint to them their misery and despair, and that dreadful famine fatal to children, and fatal to mothers, who saw their breasts dried up, who had no longer any thing but tears to give their children, and who eat the fruit of their wombs?

IX. Two memorable Predictions of our Lord explained, and their accomplishment evinced from History.

SUCH are the predictions he made to all the people. Those he made in particular to his disciples deserve still greater attention. They are contained in that long and admirable discourse, wherein he joins together the destruction of Jerusalem and that of the world. This connexion is not without mystery, the design of which was this.

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Jerusalem, the blessed city, which the Lord had chosen, so long as it continued in the covenant, and in the faith of the promises, was a type of the church, and figure of heaven, where God manifests himself to his children. For this reason do we frequently see the prophets join in the progress of the same discourse, what concerns Jerusalem, with what concerns the church and the celestial glory. This is one of the secrets of the prophecies, and one of the keys which open the meaning of them.But Jerusalem, reprobate and ungrateful

towards its Saviour, was to be the image of hell. Its perfidious citizens were to represent the damned; and the terrible judgment which JESUS CHRIST was to execute upon them, was a type of that, which he shall execute upon the whole world, when he shall come at the end of time in his glory, to judge the quick and the dead. It is a custom in Scripture, and one of the means it makes use of to imprint mysteries upon the mind, to interweave for our instruction the type with the truth. Thus our Lord hath interwoven the history of the destruction of Jerusalem with that of the end of the world, as appears in the discourse we are speaking of.

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Let us not, however, imagine that these subjects are so blended, that we cannot discern what belongs to each. JESUS CHRIST hath distinguished them by certain characters, which I could easily specify, were it a thing in question. But it is sufficient for me to explain to you, what concerns the desolation of Jerusalem and of the Jews.

When the apostles (and this was at the time of the passion) were assembled round their master, shewing him the temple, and the buildings about it; when they were admiring its stones, its regularity, its beauty, its solidity; he saith unto them*, "See ye "these great buildings! there shall not be " left one stone upon another that shall not "be thrown down." Astonished at the saying, they ask him the time when so ter

* Mat. xxiv, 1, 2. Mark xiii. 1, 2. Luke xxi, 5, 6.

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