Rome two years, it is probable that this book was writ-teen foon after that time, and before the death of St Paul. It may be concluded then as certain, that three of the four Gofpels were written and published before the deftruction of Jerufalem; Dr Lardner himself, who fixed * the time of writing the three first Gospels later than most other authors, yet f maintains that they were all published fome years before the deftruction of Jerufalem; and in all probability the writers themselves were dead before that period; St Matthew and St Mark were certainly so : and confequently it cannot with any colour of reafon be pretended, that the predictions were written after the events, St John is the only evangelift, who lived and wrote after the deftruction of Jerufalem; and he purposely omits these prophecies, to prevent this very cavil, aş we may fuppofe with reason. Neither can it be pretended, that these predictions were & interpolations made afterwards, because they are inferted in feveral places, and woven into the very fubftance of the Gofpels; and because they are cited and alluded to by ancient writers, as well as other parts; and because they were not to be accomplished all at once, but required feveral ages to their fect completion; and we fee them, in fome instances, fulfilling to this very day.

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In the conclufion of the twenty-third chapter of St Matthew, our Saviour had with the moft merciful feverity, with the most compaffionate juftice, pronounced the fentence of defolation upon Jerufalem; ver. 37. 38. 'OJerufalem, Jerufalem, thou that killeft the prophets, and ftoneft them which are fent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your houfe is left unto you defolate.' In like manner, upon another occafion, when he was approaching to Jerufalem, Luke xix. 41, 42. 'he beheld the city, and wept over it, faying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at leaft in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.' So deep

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f See Vol. 1. of his Supplement to the Credibility of the Gospel History.

8 See this argument pursued more at large in Dr Jortin's Remarks: on Ecclefiaftical History, Vol. 1. p. 72-77..

ly was our Saviour affected, and fo tenderly did he lament over the calamities, which were coming upon his nation! Such a generous and amiable pattern of a patriot fpirit hath he left to his difciples; and fo contrary to truth is the infinuation of a noble writer, that there is nothing in the Gospels to recommend and encourage the love of one's country.

When our Saviour uttered that pathetic lamentation recorded in the twenty-third chapter of St Matthew, he was in the temple, fpeaking to a mixt audience of his dif ciples and the multitude: and as he was departing out of the temple, (ver. 1ft of the twenty-fourth chapter), 'his difciples came to him for to thow him the buildings of the temple,' intimating what a pitiable calamity they thought it, that fo magnificent a ftructure fhould be deAtroyed. In the other Gofpels they are represented as faying, Mark xiii, 1. Mafter, fee what manner of ftones, and what buildings are here;' and as speaking of the temple, Luke xxi. 5. how it was adorned with goodly ftones, and gifts. The gifts of ages were repofited there, the i prefents of kings and emperors as well as the offerings of the Jews: and as the whole temple was built with the greatest coft and magnificence, so nothing was more ftupendous than the uncommon measure of the ftones. The difciples appear to have admired them particularly, and to have thought them very extraordi nary; and indeed they were of a fize almoft incredible. Thofe employed in the foundations were in magnitude forty cubits, that is above fixty feet, a cubit being fomewhat more than a foot and a half: and the fuperftructure was worthy of fuch foundations. There were fome stones of the whiteft marble forty five cubits long, five cubits high, and fix cubits broad, as a priest of the temple hath defcribed them.

h Shaftsbury's Characteristics. Vol. 1. p. 99.

Such

i Vide Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. Lib. 5. Cap. 13. Sect. 6. Edit. Hud. k WETRUS င်း τεσσαρακονταπέχεις το μεγεί ήσαν το δομημα. G. Saxis vero in extructione ufi funt quadragenorum cubitorum magnitudinis. - Ην δε αξία των τοιέτων θεμελίων και τα ὑπερ αυτων εργα. Tantis autem fundamentis digna erant opera illis impofita-των δε εν αυτώ λίθων ενιοι μηκα πεντε και τεσσαράκοντα πήχων ήσαν, ὑψα πέντε ευρω δε έξ. Saxo orum autem quibus exftructum erat templum, quædam erant XLV cubitos longa, alta V. et lata VI. Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. Lib. 5. Cap. 5. Sect. 1, 2, 6. Edit. Hudfon,

Such a ftructure as this, one would have expected, might have endured for many generations; and was indeed worthy of the highest admiration; but notwithstanding our Saviour affures his disciples, ver. 6. There fhall not be left here one ftone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.' Our Saviour in his prophecies frequently alludes to phrafes and expreffions used by the ancient prophets; and as the prophet Haggai, ii. 15. expreffeth the building of the temple by a tone being laid upon a stone, fo Chrift expreffeth the deftruction of it by one stone not being left upon another.' <

In the fame manner he speaketh of and to the city, Luke xix. 44. They fhall lay thee even with the ground, and fhall not leave in thee one ftone upon another.' It is a pro verbial and figurative manner of expreffion, to denote an utter destruction, and the prophecy would have been amply fulfilled, if the city and temple had been ut terly ruined, though every fingle ftone had not been o verturned. But it happened in this cafe, that the words were almost literally fulfilled, and scarce one stone was left upon another.' For when the Romans had taken Jerufalem Titus ordered his foldiers to dig up the foundations both of all the city and the temple. The temple was a building of fuch strength and grandeur, of fuch fplendour and beauty, that it was likely to be preferved, as it was worthy to be preserved, for a monument of the victory and glory of the Roman empire. Titus was accordingly very defirous of preferving it, and protefted to the Jews, who had fortified themselves within it, that he would preferve it, even against their will. He had expreffed the like defire of preferving the city too, and fent Jofephus and other Jews again and again to their countrymen, to perfuade them to a furrender. But an over-ruling providence directed things otherwife. The Jews themselves first set fire to the porticoes of the temple,

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1 κελεύει Καισαρ ήδη την τε πολιν άπασαν και τον νέων κατασκάπτειν, jubet eos Cæfar totam funditus jam evertere civitatem et templum. Jofeph de Bell. Jud. Lib. 7. Cap. 1. Sect, 1. p. 1295. Edit. Hudfon.

τι τηρησω δε τον ναον ἡμῖν και μη θέλεσι, Vobis autem etiam invitis templum fervabo. Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. Lib. 6. Cap. 2. Sect. 4. p 1269. Edit. Hudfon.

n Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. Lib. 5. Cap. 8. Sect. 1. Cap. 9. Sect. 2, &c. Cap. 11. Sect. 2. Lib. 6. Cap. 2. Sect. 1. Edit. Hudson.

• Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. Lib. 6. Cap. 2. Sect. 9. Edit. Hudson.

ple, and then the Romans. One of the foldiers, P neither waiting for any command, nor trembling for fuchan attempt, but urged by a certain divine impulfe, threw a burning brand in at the golden window, and thereby fet fire to the buildings of the temple itself. Titus ran immediately to the temple, and commanded his foldiersto extinguish the flame. But neither exhortations nor threatenings could reftrain their violence. They either could not hear, or would not hear; and those behind encouraged thofe before to fet fire to the temple. He was ftill for preferving the holy place. He commanded his foldiers even to be beaten for difobeying him: but their anger, and their hatred of the Jews, and a certain warlike vehement fury overcame their reverence for their neral, and their dread for his commands. A foldier in the dark fet fire to the doors: and thus, as Jofephus fays, the temple was burnt against the will of Cæfar. Afterwards, as we read in the Jewish Talmud and in Maimonides, Turnus Rufus, or rather Terentius Rufus, who was left to command the army at Jerufalem, did with a ploughfhare tear up the foundation of the temple; and thereby fignally fulfilled those words of Micah, iii. 12. Therefore fhall Zion for your fake be ploughed as a field.' Eufebius" too affirms, that it was ploughed up by the Romans, and he saw it lying in ruins. The city also shared the fame fate, and was burnt and destroyed as well as the temple.

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Γ' ενθα δη των τρατιωτων τι, 8τε παραγγέλμα περιμείναι, ετι επι τηλικα. TW δεισας εγχειρήματι, δαιμονιῳ όρμη τινι χρομενα, κ. τ. λ. Quo tempore miles quidam, non expectato cujufquam mandato, neque tantum facinus veritus, divino quodam impetu fretus, &c. Jofeph. de Bell, Jud. Lib. 6. Cap. 4. Sect. 5. p. 1278. Edit. Hudfon.

9 Jofeph. ibid. Sect. 6. et 7.

Τ ὑ μεν εν ναΘ' έτων κα, το; Ο ΚαισαρΘ, εμπιπραται. Et templum qui dem hoc modo exuritur, invito Cæfare, Sect. 7. P. 1279.

s See them quoted in Lightfoot, Whitby, Wetstein, &c. upon the place.

* Τερεντία Ρεφα ότι γαρ αρχών της στρατίας κατελελειπτε. Terentius Rufus; namque is exercitui præfectus relictus erat. Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. Lib. 7. Cap. 2. p. 1298.

u Eufebii Demonf. Evangel. Lib. 6. Cap. 13. p. 273. Edit, Paris. 1628.

* Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. Lib. 6. Cap. 6. Sect. 3. Cap. 7. Sect. 2. Cap. 8. Sect. 5. Edit. Hudson.

temple. The Romans burnt the extremeft parts of the city, and demolished the walls. Three towers only, and fome part of the wall were left ftanding, for the bet ter incamping of the foldiers, and to fhow to posterity what a city and how fortified the valour of the Romans had taken. All the reft of the city was fo demolished and levelled with the ground, that they who came to fee it, could not believe that it was ever inhabited. After the city was thus taken and destroyed, a great riches were found among the ruins, and the Romans dug it up in search of the treasures, which had been concealed and buried in the earth. So literally were our Saviour's words accomplished in the ruin both of the city and of the temple: and well might Eleazar b fay, that God had delivered his most holy city to be burnt, and to be fubverted by their enemies; and wifh that they all had died, before they faw that holy city demolished by hands of their enemies, and the facred temple fo wickedly dug up from the foundations.

c

In this plain manner our Saviour, now drawing near to his fatal hour, foretold the abfolute ruin and deftruction of the city and temple. The disciples were curious to know more of thefe events, when they fhould be, and how they should be; but yet thought it not proper to ask him at prefent, the multitude probably ftill flocking about him and therefore they take an opportunity of coming unto him 'privately, as he was fitting upon the mount of Olives,' from whence was a good prospect of the city and temple, and there prefer their request to him, ver. 3. 'Tell us when shall these things be, and what fhall be the

7 Ρωμαίοι δε τας τε εσχατιάς τε ας β' ενιπρήσαν, και τα τείχη κατέσκα v. Romani vero extremas urbis partes incenderunt, et mænia funditus everterunt, Jofeph. ibid. Cap.9. Sect. 4. p. 1292. Ed. Hudfon. Z Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. Lib, 7. Cap. 1. Sect. 1. Edit. Hudson. a Jofeph. ibid. Cap. 5. Sect. 2.

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b προκατα την ἱερωτα την αυτ8 πολιν πυρί και κατασκαφαίς πολεμίων, Urbemque fibi facratiffimam tradidiffet hoftibus ut incendio periret et funditus dirueretur. Jofeph. ibid. Cap. 8. Sect. 6. p. 1318. - αλλ' είθε παντες ετεθνηκειμεν, πριν την ἱεραν εκείνων πολιν χερσιν κατασκαπτομένην πολεμίων, πριν τον ναον τον άγιον έτως ανοσίως εξορωρυγμέ voy. Atque utinam omnes fuiffemus mortui, priufquam illam facram civitatem hoftium manibus excindi videremus, priufquam templum tanta impietate funditus erui. Jofeph. ibid. Sect. 7. p. 1322. Edit. Hudfon.