this great event should take place.' And thou shalt know and understand, that from the going forth of a decree to rebuild Jerusalem, unto Messiah the prince, shall be seventy and seven weeks, and three-score and two years: it shall be rebuilt, still enlarging itself, and becoming more and more considerable, even amidst times of distress.'

'From the decree of Cyrus,' says Mr. Belsham, which was dated A. C. 536, seventy-seven weeks of years reach down to A. D. 4, and 62 years more extend to A.D. 66, which was the year in which the war with the Romans broke out. During this period, Jerusalem flourished, notwithstanding the wars in which the Jews were engaged, and it became a large, a strong, and an opulent city.'

And after the times seventy and seven and three-score and two, Messiah shall cut off from belonging to him, both the city and the sanctuary. The prince that shall come shall destroy the people, and the cutting off thereof, shall be with a flood (or hostile invasion), and unto the end of a war carried on with rapidity, shall be desolation. But he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. And in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the meatoffering to cease: and the abomination of desolation shall be upon the border (encompassing and pressing closely upon the city), and an utter end, even a speedy one, shall be poured upon the desolate,'

*See Note upon the passage. Summary View.

The war lasted seven years: the Christians, warned by Christ, escaped from the calamities of their country; in the midst of the war, A. D. 70, Jerusalem was taken, sacked, and pillaged, the temple was completely demolished, and a final period was put to the temple service.'

The prophecies which I have thus quoted, namely, that of Moses, to the children of Israel in the desert, that of Isaiah, in the fifty-second and following chapters, and that occurring in the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel, I deem to be sufficient for our purpose. They afford, as it seems to me, unquestionable evidence of the divine mission of the Lord Jesus, and point him out, as the scriptures assert him to be, the beloved Son of God. Yea, let the unbeliever dispose of the whole remaining mass of prophecy as he pleases, yet these must remain splendid monuments of the truth of Christianity; invulnerable to his attacks, and immoveable from his efforts.

I pass on from the prophecies which foretold the coming of the Messiah, and which were so entirely accomplished in the Lord Jesus, briefly, to notice a few of those which he himself uttered; the remarkable fulfilment of which, has tended so powerfully to confirm the faith of the Christian.

In the twentieth chapter of his Gospel, Matthew thus records our Saviour's prediction of his approaching sufferings, death, and resurrection, And Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, behold we go up to Jerusalem: and the Son

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of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death; and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.' These things he repeatedly foretold, at various periods of his ministry. He predicted that the hypocritical Judas should betray him: that Peter should deny him, and afterwards repent of his sin: that all his Apostles should desert him and flee, yet, that, afterwards, they should return and adhere to his cause. He foretold the persecutions and sufferings of his disciples: They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth God service.'* He predicted, that, when the hatred of all nations should fall on them for his name's sake, then should many be offended, and betray one another:' and, from the pages of the profane historian, we learn, that, when several Christians were at first apprehended, a multitude of others were convicted, and cruelly put to death, in conse quence of their discoveries. He predicted that, after his death, many false prophets should rise, saying, I am Christ; and should deceive many.'‡ Accordingly we find, that, soon after the crucifixion of Jesus, such was the hope excited in the minds of the Jews, by the prophecies, and such their impatience to be delivered from the yoke of their haughty and idolatrous conquerors, that

*John, xvi. 2. + Matt. xxiv. 10,

Matt. xxiv. 5.

several impostors sucessively arose, and led away the people to their destruction. In fact, in the reign of Nero, when Felix was procurator of Judea, such numbers of these impostors made their appearance, that many of them were put to death every day.

But the most remarkable of our Lord's predictions is, that of the destruction of Jerusalem.* This prophecy includes so many particulars, its detail of circumstances is so full, and accords so completely with the event, that, allowing for the figures of speech, it might seem, almost, to be the account of one who had witnessed the siege, and the demolition of the city. Regarding it as a genuine prediction of our Lord's, it affords a most illustrious proof of his divine authority, and, consequently, of the truth of Christianity. The unbeliever has not failed to impugn it; and, struck with the resemblance which the passage bears to the after-relation of the historian, he has endeavoured to set it aside as a spurious prophecy, as an invention of the Evangelists, or of the primitive Christians, subsequent to the event therein spoken of.

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Upon which, I would remark: first, that the publication of the gospels, in which the prophecy is inserted, is universally ascribed, by a series of unconnected writers, to a period previous to the

* Matt. xxiv. Mark xiii. Luke xix. 43, 44, and chap. xxi.

† See Outlines of Evidences, by the Rev. J. Grundy.

destruction of Jerusalem. Secondly, there is not the slightest reason for supposing, that this part was a subsequent production, or was not written and published at the same time with the rest. Thirdly, the predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem are incidentally inserted in different parts of the gospels. Fourthly, the books of the New Testament, immediately after their appear→ ance, were widely dispersed amongst all Christians. No subsequent paragraph or chapter could, therefore, have well escaped detection. Fifthly, neither Jews nor Pagans, the most inveterate enemies of Christians, ever charged them with subsequently inserting these accounts.' It was reserved for the modern opponent of the gospel to bring charges of invention and of fraud against the primitive disciples, in matters, wherein, the ancient unbeliever did not suspect their honesty.

Finally, our Lord foretold those unparalleled calamities which befel the Jews, subsequent to the taking of Jerusalem, and their dispersion throughout all the world; There shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.-For great wrath shall be upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the

* See Lecture on Testimony.