a

The times of the first and second temple are computed by Dr. Lightfoot in this manner: The time of the standing of the first temple, from its finishing in the eleventh year of Solomon, to its firing by Nebuzaradan, was four hundred and twenty years.' From the first year of Cyrus (in which he proclaimed redemption to the captives, and gave commandment to restore and build Jerusalem,) to the death of Christ, were four hundred and ninety years, as they are summed up by an angel, Dan. ix. and from the death of Christ to the fatal and final "destruction of Jerusalem, were forty years more; five hundred and thirty years in all.' Which two sums make no more than nine hundred and fifty years. In another place he computes the times of the two temples to be exactly one thousand years. Others may make different computations; but now we need not concern ourselves about a nice exactness: however, I refer to Prideaux, who may be consulted.

III. I shall now shut up these reflections with some concluding observations.

Obs. 1. The temple at Jerusalem was designed by David, and erected by Solomon with divine approbation; and the worship there performed was of divine appointment: and as the building itself, and the worship there, had a divine sanction, it was fit that a suitable respect should be shewn to the place itself, and to the ordinances there enjoined, by all the worshippers of the true God.

Solomon, and all understanding Israelites, were persuaded of the divine omnipresence. Nevertheless, as God had determined to make peculiar manifestations of himself at the temple, it was fit that respect should be shewn to it. 1 Kings, viii. 27-30. "But will God dwell on this earth? Behold the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee: how much less this house that I have built? Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servantThat thine eyes may be open toward this house, night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: [Deut. xii. 11.] And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place. And hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and when thou hearest forgive." See likewise ver. 45-50.

"And when Solomon had made an end of praying, fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering, and the sacrifice; and the glory of the Lord filled the house," 2 Chr. vii. 1. "And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him: I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven, that there be no rain-or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land-For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually:" ver. 12-16.

Accordingly, Daniel, who was renowned for secular wisdom, as well as for divine illuminations, and eminent piety, when his fidelity to God met with a severe trial, as we are told, ch. vi. 10," he went into his house, and, his window being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled down upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did afore time." Comp. 1 Kings, viii. 48: Ps. v. 3. Jonah, ii. 4. And the Lord Jesus was often at Jerusalem, especially at the great festivals. And twice in the course of his ministry he cleared the temple of some abuses and incumbrance, and severely rebuked those who practised those indecencies, or connived at them.

Obs. 2. The temple and the city of Jerusalem were twice destroyed; once by the Chaldeans, a second time by the Romans.

The city of Jerusalem was besieged, and taken several times besides; by Antiochus Epiphanes, Pompey, and Herod the great, and others. But now we confine ourselves to those seasons when the city was ruined, and the temple also was destroyed.

Obs. 3. The taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans was a very grievous calamity.

The particulars are related Jer. lii. 2 Kings, xxiv. xxv. 2 Chron. xxxvi. Daniel, in his confessions, ch. ix. 12, says: "For under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem." It was a calamity not easy to be paralleled in all its circumstances. Which was agreeable to the maxim before observed," " "that where much is given, there also much will be required," and to the words of God by the prophet Amos: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities."

Obs. 4. The final captivity of the Jewish people by the Romans has been a much greater calamity than that by the Chaldeans. It exceeds in many respects.

(1.) The distresses of the siege of Jerusalem, and the numbers that perished there by famine or sword, by the hands of the Romans, or by their own intestine divisions, and the numbers carried captive, exceeded all the desolations that ever were. It happened when the city was crowded with people, they being assembled together at one of their festivals; and the city itself, its buildings, its walls, and the temple were demolished, and thrown down to the foundation, so as they had never been before. So our Lord foretold Matt. xxiv. 21. "For then shall be

great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world, to this time: no, nor ever shall be." So Jesus said it would be; and Josephus says, it was so, and that it exceeded all the destructions ever brought upon the world by God or man.'

(2.) The captivity by the Romans has exceeded the former in duration.

This second captivity has now already lasted almost seventeen hundred years, without any the least prospect of a period to it. That was limited to seventy years only according to the word of God by Jeremiah, ch. xxv. 12—18, xxix. 10-14, and Dan. ix. 1, 2.

(3.) During the captivity by the Chaldeans, the Jewish people had prophets among them, but now they have none.

In this second captivity, as they are without altar, and sacrifice, and temple, and city of their own, so are they, all this while, without visions, and prophecies, and divine illuminations of every kind.

In the former captivity they had several prophets of great eminence. Jeremiah continued to prophesy to the remains of the people in Judea several years after the beginning of the captivity. Ezekiel and Daniel prophesied in Babylon. These, and other good men, may have been of great service for bringing men to repentance, and fitting them for the expected deliverance. And, during that period of seventy years, there were miraculous deliverances vouchsafed to some: the preservation, particularly, of the three young men in the fiery furnace: Dan. iii. Then Daniel's satisfactory interpretations of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams, ch. ii. and iv. and Daniel's great advancement, and some other extraordinary occurrences were much in their favour. They must have tended to influence the minds of the great princes to whom they were subject; and must have been means of facilitating their deliverance, and accomplishing their safe return into their own country, and to their happy settlement in it. But we hear not of any such like favourable appearances in the present captivity and dispersion.

Obs. 5. All these calamities, those of the former and of the latter captivity, have happened to the Jewish people, agreeably to the original plan of divine dispensations concerning them. This observation was mentioned formerly: but it is repeated here as a thing of great importance and we have an acknowledgment of it in Daniel's confessions, with regard to the Babylonish captivity, ch. ix. 11: "Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice. Therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned against him-13: As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us." See Lev. xxvi. 14-46. Deut. xxviii. 15, &c. What is here said of the captivity by the Chaldeans, is as true of the captivity by the Romans, and ought to be in like manner acknowledged.

Obs. 6. Our blessed Lord's predictions therefore of evil coming upon Jerusalem and the people of Judea, did not proceed from private resentment, enmity, malice, ill-will, or any other unsociable affection, from which the mind of the blessed Jesus was always free: but they were declarations of the counsel of God, prophetical denunciations of evil to come, if men did not repent; faithful warnings to men to take heed to themselves; and earnest and affectionate calls to repentance and reformation, that the impending and threatened calamities might be averted and avoided. A prophet, who is intrusted with the mind of God, must faithfully deliver both promises to

obedience, and threatenings to disobedience, as is required. Says Moses to the people under his care, for whose welfare and prosperity he was greatly concerned, Deut. iv. 5: "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me-ver. 25, 26— "But if thou do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land, whereunto you go over Jordan to possess it: ye shall not prolong your days upon it: but shall utterly be destroyed.' Nor was Jeremiah to be charged with ill-will to the Jewish people when he foretold the desolations of the Chaldean captivity.

Obs. 7. The great aggravation of the transgressions of the Jewish people, lay in their not hearkening to the messages of the prophets, which God sent among them.

This was observed before from 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, 16, and from Jerem. xxv. 1-11, to which I now add that it is particularly mentioned by Daniel in his devout and humble confession of the sins of that people, which brought upon them the Babylonish captivity, ch. ix. 5, 6. “ We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, who spoke in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of Israel." By which, certainly, these prophets manifested their fidelity. And the reason of this is, that refusing to hearken to messages of God, faithfully delivered by his prophets, demonstrates obstinacy and irreclaimableness. This is represented by our Lord in the parable of the fig-tree, Luke xiii. 6-10. and of the husbandman, Matt. xxi. 33, &c. and in other parables and discourses. The parable of the fig-tree, just mentioned, is thus: "A certain man had a fig-tree, planted in his vineyard. And he came, and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he to the dresser of the vineyard: Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said: Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it; if it bear fruit, well; if not, thou shalt cut it down." So God said of old to the people of Israel by Isaiah, after having in a like manner represented his care and cultivation of his vineyard. Is. v. 3, 4, 5. "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, than I have done in it? Wherefore when I looked, that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard; I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down."

This was the case in the time of our Saviour. After all other prophets, came Jesus, who taught the people in the name of God, and faithfully delivered his mind to them, and called them to repentance, and wrought many wonderful works. There was then a great profusion of spiritual gifts in himself, and his apostles. If their message was not hearkened to, but rejected, and they abused, it would be an aggravated provocation, and would be required of the people to whom they had spoken in the name of God.

Obs. 8. Finally, in the eighth and last place, let us now inquire and consider what was the sin, what the sins or offences, that occasioned the great calamity which befell the Jewish people about forty years after the times of the Lord Jesus, under the conduct of those two generals Vespasian and Titus.

We have seen accounts in Josephus, and other Jewish writers, of the distresses then suffered by the Jewish people at Jerusalem, and in other parts of Judea, and of the destruction and demolition of their city and temple, and their captivity and dispersion, which still continue. And we have seen evident proofs that the hand of God was therein, and that all came to pass by the overruling providence of God. It is an affecting subject. And if we make inquiries into the reasons and causes of these great calamities, we should do it seriously and impartially, and may be disposed also to compassion and candour.

When God appeared to Solomon, after he had finished and dedicated the temple, he graciously assured him that he accepted the prayer which he had made, and that he would hearken to the prayers which his people should make to him toward that place in their distresses. Nevertheless he declares, 2 Chron. vii. 19-22: « But if ye turn away and forsake my statutes, and my commandments, which I have set before you, and serve other gods, and worship them: then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them. house which I have sanctified for my name will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a

And this

proverb, and a byword among all nations. And this house, which is high, shall be an astonish. ment to every one that passeth by it: so that he shall say: Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and unto this house? And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them. Therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them."

66

This was fulfilled in the Babylonish captivity, when Jerusalem was taken, and the temple built by Solomon was burnt down. That was an event which occasioned inquiries into the reasons and causes of it. And shall not we consider and make like inquiries concerning the captivity by the Romans, which has been attended with so many awful circumstances? Shall we not say: Why has the Lord done thus unto this land, and to this house?" meaning the second house, built after the return from the Babylonish captivity. For that house also was high, and had been erected with divine approbation and encouragement: and the worship had been restored there according to the appointment of Moses; and was so continued there till it's final desolation. If now we ask, "Why has the Lord done thus to this land and people, and to his house ?" it cannot be said," because they laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them." For after the return from the Babylonish captivity, they were for the most part free from the sin of idolatry, into which they had so often relapsed before. Nor are they now guilty of that sin, for which their dispersion should be continued. For some while before the last destruction of Jerusalem, they appear from all accounts to have been generally very zealous for the law of Moses, and the rites of it, and very diligent in their attendance on the temple at Jerusalem, to which they resorted in great numbers, from all parts of the world where they inhabited, at the solemn festivals; and where a large part of the nation was assembled to keep the passover, when the final overthrow befell them.

We are therefore led to think that these calamities befell the Jewish people because they rejected and crucified the Lord Jesus, who was a prophet mighty "in deed and word before God and all the people," Luke xxiv. 19. who spake as never man spake before, and performed many wonderful works which none had done before. And God has " required it of them," as he said by Moses he would do. Deut. xviii. 19. And I must again recite here those affecting and awful, but true, sayings of our Lord, recorded John xv. 22, 24. " If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak [or excuse] for their sin. If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin: but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.”

a

The expectation of the Messiah is no new thing. It had not its rise from Jesus, or his disciples. It was in being long before the nativity of Jesus. We are assured by Suetonius, and Tacitus, and Celsus, heathen writers of great learning, as well as from Josephus, that There had been for a long time, all over the east, a notion firmly believed that, at that very time, some one coming from Judea should obtain the empire of the world.' Heathen writers Heathen writers say this was ⚫ contained in the book of the fates:' Josephus, who at the time of his writing the History of the War, was disposed to think as the heathen writers above mentioned do, that Vespasian was thereby intended, says, that this expectation was founded upon an ambiguous oracle. Nevertheless he owns that the expectation was general among the Jewish people, and that it was embraced by many of the wise men among them,' as well as by others, and that it was the thing which principally encouraged them to undertake the war with the Romans.' But upon this head there is now no difference between the Jews and us; all allowing that the expectation of a Messiah is founded on the writings of Moses and the prophets.

That this was the time of his appearance they may have argued and collected from divers texts of scripture, as Dan. ii. 34-45. vii. 14. ix. 24. and from Hag. ii. 4-9. Mal. iii. 1. iv. 5, 6. How general and prevailing the expectation of the appearance of the Messiah then was among all sorts of men, the rulers as well as the common people, we farther know from the books of the New Testament. Luke iii. 15, 16: "And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not, John answered, saying unto them all I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." And from John i. 19-34, we know that the Jews sent priests and Levites, who were of the sect of the Pharisees, to John, where he was baptizing, to ask him who he was. He declared "he was not

a See the passages of those heathen authors, and of Josephus, all alleged Vol. i. p. 73-75.

the Christ, but was sent before him; and said: There standeth one among you, whom ye know not. He it is who, coming after me, is preferred before me; whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose." I need not cite any other texts.

At that very time Jesus appeared and wrought many wonderful works, irrefragable attestations to his divine mission and authority, and the truth of his doctrine; of which we are as well assured from the concurring and unanimous testimony of all the writers of the New Testament, as we can be of any thing that ever was done in the world; or as the Jews are of the miracles wrought by Moses and the prophets.

Here therefore we may adopt the words of our Lord spoken to his disciples, Matt. xvii. 12. "But I say unto you, that Elias is come already. And they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them." As he did soon afterwards. For which God has reckoned, and is still reckoning with them.

However, though the treatment given to Jesus and his apostles, was a very great offence, there may have been other provocations which occasioned the displeasure of God against his people, and concurred to bring down the vengeance of heaven upon them. One sin is never alone. There is generally a complication of guilt in all great and aggravated transgressions. Though the Jewish people often fell into the practice of heathen idolatry, and that was one great occasion of the Babylonish captivity, that was not the only sin with which they were chargeable. All sorts of immoralities abounded among them. And Daniel, in the confession which he makes of the sins of his people, says, ch. ix. 5. "We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and thy judgments.' So now the greatness of their guilt lay in rejecting and crucifying Jesus the Messiah. But that would not have been done if wickedness had not greatly prevailed among them. Josephus owns, that never was there a time more fruitful of wickedness than that.' In the gospels the men of that time are spoken of as an "untoward generation, and a wicked and adulterous generation." They were chargeable with all kinds of evil, and were openly reproved for them by the faithful teacher and prophet whom God sent among them, and whom they so ungratefully used. They were covetous and worldly minded: Luke xvi. 14, 15. They were exceeding proud and ambitious of respect and honour. They did all their works to be seen of men. They made broad their phylacteries, and enlarged the borders of their garments. They loved the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi ;" Matt. xxiii. 5, 6. and see Mark xii. 38, 39; and Luke xx. 46; and Luke xiv. 7. They were extremely uneasy and impatient under the Roman government, to which, by the disposal of Divine Providence, they were subject. They were very deceitful and hypocritical, who " devoured widows houses, and for a pretence made long prayers:" Mark xii. 40. and see Matt. xxiii. 23-28. At the same time they depended upon their descent from Abraham, and other external privileges; which rendered all exhortations to repentance fruitless and ineffectual. See Matt. iii. 9; John viii. 33, and 39. Accordingly they are represented to have "hardened their hearts, and shut their eyes :" for which reason they did not understand, nor attend to the signs of the times, and the evidences of truth set before them: Matt. xiii. 14, 15; John xii. 37 -41. And moreover, they were at this time very fond of traditions, which made void the moral law of God.

All these charges, now collected from the gospels, might be verified by examples and observations in Josephus. These evil dispositions prevailing among them, especially in their great men who had the chief influence on the people, they did not, and could not believe, but rejected and ill treated the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me recite here John v. 39-44; "Search the scriptures," impartially. "For in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you-How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?"

One thing more I must add here. That the time in which our Lord appeared was not a time of gross ignorance. The Jews now had synagogues every where in all parts of Judea, and in many places out of it, where the law of Moses and the prophets were read and explained. The common people in general were well acquainted with those scriptures, and with the explications given of them by their rabbins. Among the Scribes and Pharisees were many men of very good abilities. Their acuteness and subtilty are manifest in their cavils with our Saviour. Nor were