it thus: "We are witnesses of it, for it happened in our time, not long ago. And now, And now, if you should go to Jerusalem, you may see the foundations open; and if you inquire the reason you will hear no other than that just mentioned."*

t

Whether this attempt of Julian was defeated by miraculous interposition, is a question which our present object does not require us to argue. Two things are certain: first, that the power and wealth of the Gentiles were united with the devoted enthusiasm of the Jews, to defeat the prophecy of Christ, by rebuilding the temple, and by reestablishing its ritual, and by reorganizing a Jewish population as possessors of Jerusalem; secondly, that contrary to all expectation, when nothing was lacking for the work, and none in the world lifted a finger against it, it was suddenly abandoned on account of sundry alarming and singular phenomena bursting from the original site of the temple, by which even the fanaticism of the Jews was deterred, and the enmity of Julian to the gospel defeated. These undeniable facts are sufficient to show, with impressive evidence, the hand of God protecting the prophetic character of our Lord. When, in connection with] these, you consider the great anxiety so universally felt among the Jews of all centuries, to enjoy the privilege of living and dying in Jerusalem; that no risk of life, or sacrifice of property, would be thought

Chrysostom. See Lardner, ch. 4, p. 324.

↑ See the miraculous character of this event very ably advocated in Bishop Warburton's Julian.

too great for the purpose of once more setting up the gates and altars of the holy city; that the nation is now as numerous as at any period of its ancient glory; and yet, that during almost the whole period since the destruction of Jerusalem, so entirely have Jews been prevented from living on her foundations, that they have had to purchase dearly the permission to come within sight of her hills, and to this day are taxed and oppressed to the dust, as the cost of being allowed to walk her streets, and look at a distance upon her mount Moriah, you will acknowledge that the prediction of our Saviour in reference to their exclusion from Jerusalem, has been not only most strikingly fulfilled, but fulfilled in spite of the most powerful causes and efforts for its defeat.

But it was predicted that Jerusalem should not only be possessed by the Gentiles, but "trodden down" by them till their times should be fulfilled. What the soldiers of Titus did has already been stated. From that time, during sixty-four years, a Roman garrison alone inhabited the ruins. At the end of these years the city was rebuilt by the emperor Adrian, under the name of Elia; a Roman colony was planted there; all Jews were banished on pain of death; every measure was used to destroy sacred recollections, and desecrate what were esteemed as holy places. The city was consecrated to Jupiter Capitolinus; a temple was erected to the pagan god over the sepulchre of Jesus; a statue of Venus was set up on mount Calvary, and the figure of a swine placed in marble on the gate that looked

towards Bethlehem. session of the Roman emperors till subdued in the year 637 A. D. by the Saracens. The king of Persia. had in the mean while besieged and plundered it, but his dominion was too short-lived to claim an exception from this statement.* In the hands of Mohammedans, sometimes of Arabian, sometimes of Turkish, and sometimes of Egyptian origin, it continued to be literally trampled down and desecrated, during a period of more than four hundred years; when having been taken by the crusaders, its government was assumed by one of their leaders, and Christians alone were allowed to dwell therein. Only about eighty-eight years elapsed, however, before the crescent of Mohammed was again planted upon the hill of Zion, where to this day it has remained, with a single trifling exception, undisturbed either by Jew or Christian. During the seven centuries of this uninterrupted dominion of Mohammedanism, Jerusalem has been captured and recaptured, again and again, by the various contending families and factions. of the followers of the Arabian prophet. The desolations of war, the marches of contending hosts, have indeed "trodden down" her melancholy hills. In the sixteenth century, when Selim the ninth emperor of the Turks visited the city, it lay just as it had been seen by the famous Tamerlane more than one hundred years before, "miserably deformed and ruined," inhabited only by a few Christians, who paid a large tribute to the sultan of Egypt for the * Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. 6, ch. 46, p. 206.

Jerusalem continued in pos

6

possession of the holy sepulchre." Its condition still, is thus stated by a recent traveller. "At every step, coming out of the city, the heart is reminded of that prophecy, accomplished to the letter, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles.' All the streets are wretchedness; and the houses of the Jews more especially, the people who once held a sceptre on this mountain of holiness, are as dunghills." "No expression could have been invented more descriptive of the visible state of Jerusalem, than this single phrase, trodden down.'"+ "Not a creature is to be seen in the streets," says another traveller, "not a creature at the gates, except now and then a peasant gliding through the gloom, concealing under his garments the fruits of his labor, lest he should be robbed of his hard earnings by the rapacious soldier. The only noise heard from time to time in the city is the galloping of the steed of the desert." "The JerusaJem of sacred history is in fact no more. vestige remains of the capital of David and Solomon; not a monument of Jewish times is standing. The very course of the walls is changed, and the boundaries of the ancient city are become doubtful."

Not a

Thus, during a period of seventeen hundred and sixty years have the captivities and dispersions and oppressions of the Jewish people, together with the desolate condition of their city and temple, most signally attested the prophetic character of our Lord.

* Newton on Prophecy, vol. 2, p. 319-334. ↑ Jowett's Researches, p. 200.

Modern Traveller, Palestine, p. 75.

Chateaubriand.

And shall we not hence be confident that what remains of his prediction will be accomplished? Will not the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled? Will not Jerusalem continue, until then, to be trodden down of the Gentiles? And then will it not cease to be subject to them? And does not the expression of the prophecy imply that it will be again rebuilt and possessed by the Jews in the day when "all Israel shall be saved?" "For what reason can we believe, that though they are dispersed among all nations, yet by a constant miracle they are kept distinct from all, but for the further manifestation of God's purposes towards them? The prophecies have been accomplished to the greatest exactness in the destruction of their city, and its continuing still subject to strangers; in the dispersion of their people, and their living still separate from all people; and why should not the remaining parts of the same prophecies be as fully accomplished in their restoration at the proper season, when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled ?"*

13. We have now exhibited the exact fulfilment of all the particulars of this remarkable prophecy, with one exception. The Lord specified the time of those great events which he so minutely foretold. "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Forty years had not elapsed from the date of this prediction, before all things referred to in it had taken place.

And now let me add but a few words in conclusion. * Newton, vol. 2, p. 336.