SERMON this part of the prophecy was, it seems, com

pleted

VI.

Lastly, this prophecy was incumbered with another strange event, needlessly incumbered with it, if the whole were an imposture. It is said, that the Gospel should be preached in all the world, for å witness unto all nations, before it should be fulfilled. Was it not enough to say, that the prophecy should be accomplished in the time of that generation, and in the life-time of St. John, without adding so unlikely a circumstance, as that a general promulgation of the Gospel, by a few unlettered and unfriended fishermen, should precede the accomplishment of it? _I know, that this part of the prophecy admits a secondary sense: but, in the primary sense, it was so far fulfilled, as to astonish us with the divine foresight of its author.

8. I omit other considerations, that might be alledged. But you see that, setting aside such particulars in the prophecy, as sceptical men may

think themselves able to draw within the sphere of human conjecture, there are several things expressed in it, so strange to all appre- SERNTON hension, so unlikely to happen, so impossible for any natural sagacity to foresee, and yet so certainly and punctually fulfilled, that nothing short of divine inspiration can possibly account for them. The prophecy, in all its parts, is divine : but in these, its divinity is clear and incontestable.

II. THE DISPERSION OF THE Jews, is another event, which deserves

your

consideration.

Moses himself had predicted this circumstance of their fortune, in terms of the greatest energy He had told them -- that they should be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, and that they should be scattered among all people from one end of the earth even unto the other -- that, among the nations, into which they should be driven, they should find no ease, nor rest, and that they should be only oppressed and crushed alway--- that they should become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all nations and that their plagues should be wonderful, and of long continuance. These prophecies had been, to a certain degree, fulfilled in other parts of their

P Deut. xxviii,

VI."

SERPON history: but there was to be a time, when the

wrath of God should come upon them to the uttermost 4. This time was now come, when their city was destroyed, and their land desolated, by the arms of Titus. . Then, as Jesus prophesied of them, were the days of vengeance, that all things, which were written should be fulfilled : then, were they to be led away captive into all nations : and thenceforth, was Jerusalem to be trodden down of the Gentiles, until THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES SHOULD BE FULFILLED".

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Nor say, that this last prophecy is indefinite: for the times of the Gentiles is a period, well known in the prophetic writings; a period, of long duration indeed, as the event hath shewn; yet a period, marked out by other prophecies (which may come, in turn, to be considered in this Lecture) no less distinctly, than their other captivities had been.

For, to all these predictions there must be added one more, which expressly asserts the return of this people, in some future age, from their long and wretched dispersion : for blindness, in part, only, hath happened to Israel;

; and that again, till the fulness of the Gentiles

VI.

be come ins. This, St. Paul terms a mystery: and yet the ancient prophets had a glimpse of it, when they foretold, that the Lord would not make a full end of them, and that a remnant of them should remain, and should rein turn in the latter daysų. Moses himself, who had denounced such heavy judgements upon them, and of so long continuance, during their dispersion, had mingled, with 'his' woes, this one note of mercy And yet for all that, when they lie in the land of their enemies, Í will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them UTTERLY, and to break my covenant with them w

Consider these predictions, and compare them with the present and past state of this people for seventeen hundred years ; and see

, if there be nothing to take your attention, or, rather, your astonishment, in the completion of them.

Why is this dreadful vengeance, singular in its circumstances, and never yet experienced, by any other people on the face of the earth,

f *

Rom. xi. 25. t Jer, xlvi, 28. u Isai. x. 21. Ezek. vi. 8, w Lev. xxvi. 44.

VI.

SERMON why is this peculiar vengeance executed on the

Jews ? _Or, whatever the cause may be, is not the fact such as was predicted ?

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“The predictions, you will say, have the appearance of being fulfilled. But where is the wonder, that a people, distinguished by a singular religion, and above measure addicted to it, should continue to exist under that distinction, and should be every where known by it? That a people, on account of their profession, more than commonly obnoxious to the other religious sects, among whom the earth hath been chiefly parcelled out to the Heathen, for their unconquerable aversion to idolatry-- to the Christians, for the atrocious murder of their founder-- to the Mahometans, for the constant rejection of their prophetshould be the scorn and outcast of all three; and that, beïng excluded from the only country, to which they have any attachment, they should be vagabonds on the earth, and should disperse themselves indifferently through every quarter of it, as caprice, or interest, or convenience, invites them ? that, lastly, being thus distinguished from all men, and thus at enmity with all, they should never be suffered to enter into any other civil community, or to establish a distinct community of their own ?"

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