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kept in strict subjection under his son and successor, Constantius.

We now come to the time of Julian the Apostate, the nephew of Constantine, who, from hatred to the Christians, resolved to re-establish the Jewish worship and ceremonies; and thus to defeat our Saviour's prophecy. For this purpose, he invited the Jews to flock back to their land, with the promise of protection; and he commenced rebuilding the Temple. But a signal interposition of Providence rendered his attempt abortive for horrible balls of fire, bursting forth near the foundations, with frequently renewed interruptions, rendered the place inaccessible to the workmen; and thus the impious enterprise was obliged to be abandoned. And this account, be it observed, is only what Julian himself, and his historian, have recorded1.

Julian was the last of the heathen emperors; and under the subsequent ones, Judaism was as much repressed, as Christianity was encouraged. Jerusalem continued under the power of the Greek emperors till, in the seventh century, it fell under Omar, the Saracen prince, with his Arabian Musselman forces. About four hundred years afterwards, the Turks obtained it; and next the Egyptians;-all, however,

1 This account of Ammianus Marcellinus is corroborated by various writers, both Jewish and Christian; and all the Infidel objections raised against it have been triumphantly refuted in Warburton's Julian.

being Mahommedan princes. Then, in the eleventh century, commenced the celebrated Crusades, for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Infidels. Those ended in the Latin Christians, or Franks, recovering Jerusalem by storm, A.D. 1099. They chose Godfrey, of Boulogne, their king; and it was governed for about eighty years by a succession of nine Christian kings.

Saladin, the illustrious sultan of Egypt, succeeded in wresting Judea from the Christian powers, and putting an end to the kingdom; and the Musselman power has remained, with little interruption, in possession of the country ever since. Turks, Arabians, and Christians, of various sects and nations, live there; but very few Jews, and those chiefly beggars, who subsist upon alms.

Thus hath the Saviour's prediction been verified! The Jews have, indeed, been led "away captive into all nations ;" and Jerusalem has been "trodden down of the Gentiles." For nearly eighteen hundred years the Jewish nation has been dispersed over the face of the whole earth; and their land hath groaned under foreign lords and conquerors! It is the same up to this very day; and no doubt will continue so, until, according to prophecy, "the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled." Though dispersed, the Jews are yet distinct; and have been kept so by a sort of per

petual miracle; which affords a clear intimation that God's further purposes respecting them shall, eventually, be accomplished. The times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, when the times of "the four great kingdoms" of the Gentiles, prophesied of by Daniel, shall be expired, and "the fifth kingdom,” viz. the kingdom of Christ, be set up in its place. When "the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in," then "the fulness of the Jews" shall also come in; and so, as St. Paul saith, "all Israel shall be saved," and become again the people of God. (Rom. xi. 25.) And then, "the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever."

DISSERTATION XXI.

Of the TIME when the Destruction of Jerusalem should take place.

SECTION IV.

OUR Saviour, having answered the latter part of His Apostles' questions first, in describing the signs that should precede the destruction of Jerusalem, proceeds (verse 32) to refer to their question as to the time when it should take place. After saying that the signs would be as certain an indication of its approach, as the budding of the fig-tree is a token of approaching summer, He intimates that it would take place at no great distance of time: "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” (verse 34.) In another place (Matt. xvi. 28.) He says,

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"There be some standing here, who shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom;" intimating, that though it should not happen immediately, yet it would not be so remote, but that some then living should be spectators of it. The same is implied in His compassionate address, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children." children." (Luke

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xxiii. 28.)

angels of heaven', but

The word hour might

But yet the exact time of this judgment was unknown to all creatures: "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the my Father only." (verse 36.) better in this passage be translated, as it is frequently in sacred and profane writers, season. Thus, though from the famous prophecy of Daniel, this event might be computed to happen at the conclusion of seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, from a certain date; yet that date not being precisely fixed, the particular season, or exact period when it was to be, might still be a secret to angels and to men. And hence, the world would be going on in its usual course, as the Saviour describes in the three next verses:

In the parallel passage, in Mark, chap. xiii. verse 32, is added, "neither the Son." This, however, forms no valid objection against the divinity of the Son; as man, he might be ignorant of what, as God, he foreknew.

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