mulated, they would be under a necessity of inventing a word to signify that specific mode of worship, through which such superstitions were conveyed. Thus Judaism being of necessity to cease on the establishment of Christianity, we see for what reason it was predicted, that when Shiloh came, the sceptre should depart from Judah. Admirable are the ways of Providence! and so will they be always found, whenever we happen upon the clue, that leads us to the right opening. If then, from the nature of things, it doth appear, that the TEMPLE WORSHIP must fall with the rise of that which is in spirit and in truth; and that the abolition of the Mosaic law is essential to the establishment of the Gospel; we cannot but conclude, that a matter of this importance (so illustrious a proof of the relation and dependance between these two religions!) must be predicted, both by the prophets of the old, and the Founder of the new dispensation. They both, indeed, have done it. And fully to comprehend the force and just value of their expressions was the end for which we have here deduced things from their original, and given this general view of the course and order of God's moral œconomy; on which, the sense of the prophecies relating to it must needs be determined: and without which, the several predictions of the destruction of the temple, expressed in general terms, would be subject to cavil, as in themselves implying only a total, and not a final subversion. Whereas now, from the nature of the dispensations, we understand that a destruction, thus foretold, necessarily implied a final one. The prophet Isaiah, predicting, as usual, the triumphs of the Gospel under the terms of a temporal · deliverance of the Jews from their hostile neighbours, delivers delivers himself in the following words: "And in this mountain [viz. of Zion] shall the Lord of Hosts "make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast "of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of "wines on the lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all "nations. He will swallow up death in victory *" And to shew, that some great event in a remote and future age was the principal object of his prophecy, he introduces it with this song of triumph: "O Lord, "thou art my God, I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; "thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth † :” i. e. What thou hast originally decreed, thou wilt, in the latter ages, bring to pass. Therefore having, in the sixth verse, enigmatically described that salvation which should arise from mount Zion; in the seventh, he more openly intimates the abolition of the Templeworship, by the figure of destroying that veil, which, at the crucifixion of the Lord of life, the evangelist informs us, was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; called by the prophet, from the confined nature of the Jewish religion, the veil that hid truth from the nations. In this sense St. Paul appears to have understood the prophecy; for he applies the concluding words to the last triumph of Christ over death ‡. Conformably to these ideas, Jesus says to the woman of Samaria, "Believe me, the hour cometh, "when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father......But the hour "cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall "worship the Father in spirit and in truth §." And * Chap. xxv. ver. 6, 7, 8. 1 Cor. xv. 54. + Isai. xxv. 1. § John iv. 21, 22, 23. to to secure the honour of this great event, Providence had decreed that the city and temple of Jerusalem should be destroyed; of which the angel informs Daniel in the following words: "And after threescore "and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not "for himself and the people of the prince that "shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; " and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto "the end of the war desolations are determined. "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for 21 one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for "the overspreading of abominations he shall make it "desolate even until the consummation, and that "determined, shall be poured upon the desolate *.” In which we see a plain and circumstantial description of the overthrow of the city and temple by the Romans under Titus. Jesus foretels the then approaching event in the following manner: "And when "Jesus was come near, he beheld the city, and "wept over it, saying-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 anothert." Two other evangelists inform us, that "Jesus went out, and departed from the temple; and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings "of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye "not all these things? Verily, I say unto you, there "shall not be left here one stone upon another, "that shall not be thrown down." And when the + Luke xix. 41. 43, 44. Mark xiii, 1, 2. 14. disciples * Dan. ix. 26, 27. disciples privately asked him when these things should be, he answered, When ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place; referring to the prophecy quoted above. Hitherto we see a total destruction indefinitely predicted. The following passage of St. Luke's Gospel marks the fixed duration of it. "And Jerusalem (says Jesus) shall be "trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of "the Gentiles be fulfilled*." But, of the period here meant, commentators differ: Some, as Hammond, suppose it reaches no lower than till the empire became Christian: others, as Dr. S. Clarke, that it extends to the future conversion of the Jews. Amidst this uncertainty, arising from the general expressions of these prophecies considered alone, the only way of coming to the truth, i.e. to know whether they mean a final destruction, or, if not, what sort of restoration; and when it is to succeed; the only way, I say, is to recur to what hath been discoursed above, concerning the nature of the Two DISPENSATIONS: In which we have shewn, that Christianity and the Temple-worship cannot subsist together: and so must conclude, that these prophecies foretel not only the total, but the final destruction of the Jewish temple. And now, What are we to conclude from all this, to the case in hand?-It is evident, a repugnancy in the co-existence of Judaism and Christianity, would require God's interposition to prevent the restoration of the temple: it is as evident, that a prophecy of its final destruction would do the same. Either of these facts therefore being sufficient to establish our point, so much discourse had not been employed on both, had they stood independent of one another. But the prophecies being so delivered, as to be of themselves ambiguous, there was a necessity of calling in the nature of God's dispensations, to explain their precise meaning; which prophecies would, then, reciprocally support what we infer from the different genius of the two religions. If it be asked (as there is now no secret in the counsels of God but what audacious man will ask the reason of) "Why the final destruction of the temple was so doubtfully delivered, that there was need of our having recourse to the nature and genius of the two dispensations, to comprehend the full meaning of the prophecy?" I answer, in general, that it seems very irreverent, when God hath clearly made known his will to us, to cavil with his wisdom, for not doing it in that way which to us may seem the most direct and simple. But, in this case it happens, that we see great ends obtained, by the very way he hath been pleased to use. For by obliging us to have recourse to the nature of his dispensations, in order to ascertain the full meaning of his prophecies, he hath put us under the necessity of having always in view a circumstance of great moment, which we might otherwise be apt to forget; a circumstance which impresseth on us the strongest ideas of the divine wisdom. Had the abolition of Judaism, on the establishment of Christianity been only expedient, and not necessary, as even in that case we may be assured it had been in God's counsel never to suffer, the temple to be rebuilt, so we may well believe that the revelation of this counsel by prophecy had been in the express terms of a final destruction ; because, from the expediency only of an abolition, general terms could never lead us to conclude the predicted |