The profpect of the fame evils drew from our Saviour, upon another occafion, the following affecting expreffions of concern, which are preserved by St. Luke (xix. 41): "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, faying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes; for the days fhall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every fide, and fhall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and fhall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy vifitation." Thefe paffages are direct and explicit predictions. References to the fame event, fome plain, fome parabolical, or otherwife figurative, are found in divers other dif courses of our Lord.a

The general agreement of the defcriptions with the event, viz. with the ruin of the Jewish nation, and the capture of Jerufalem under Vefpafian, thirty-fix years after Chrifl's death, is moft evident and the accordancy in various articles of detail and circumftance has been fhewn by many learned writers. It is also an advantage to the inquiry, and to the argument built upon it, that we have received a copious account of the tranfaction from Jofephus, a Jewish and contemporary hiftorian. This part of the cafe is perfectly free from doubt. The only queftion which, in my opinion, can be raised upon the subject, is, whether the prophecy was really delivered before the event. I fhall apply, therefore, my obfervations to this point folely.

1. The judgment of antiquity, though varying in the precife year of the publication of the three gofpels, concurs in affigning them a date prior to the deftruction of Jerufalem."

2. This judgment is confirmed by a ftrong probability arifing from the courfe of human life. The deftruction of Jerufalem took place in the feventieth year after the birth of Chrift. The three evangelifts, one of whom was his immediate companion, and the other two affociated with his companions, were, it is probable, not much younger than he was. They muft, confequently, have been far advanced in life when Jerufalem was taken; and no reafon has been given why they should defer writing their histories fo long.

a Mat. xxi. 33-46. xxii. 1-7. Mark xii. 1-12. Luke xiii. I9. XX. 9-20. xxi. 5—13.

b Lardner, vol. XIII,

a

3. If the evangelifts, at the time of writing the gofpels, had known of the deftruction of Jerufalem, by which catastrophe the prophecies were plainly fulfilled, it is moft probable, that, in recording the predictions, they would have dropped fome word or other about the completion; in like manner as Luke, after relating the denunciation of a dearth by Agabus, adds, "which came to pafs in the days of Claudius Cæfar :" whereas the prophecies are given diftinctly in one chapter of each of the three firft gofpels, and referred to in feveral different paffages of each, and, in none of all these places, does there appear the fmalleft intimation that the things fpoken of were come to pafs. I do admit that it would have been the part of an impoftor, who wished his readers to believe that his book was written before the event, when in truth it was written after it, to have fuppreffed any fuch intimation carefully. But this was not the character of the authors of the gofpel. Cunning was no quality of their's. Of all writers in the world, they thought the leaft of providing against objections. Moreover, there is no claufe in any one of them, that makes a profeffion of having written prior to the Jewish wars, which a fraudulent purpose would have led them to pretend. They have done neither one thing nor the other. They have neither inferted any words, which might fignify to the reader that their accounts were written before the deftruction of Jerufalem, which a fophift would have done; nor have they dropped a hint of the completion of the prophecies recorded by them, which an undefigning writer, writing after the event, could hardly, on fome or other of the many occafions that prefented themselves, have miffed of doing.

4. The admonitions which Chrift is reprefented to have given to his followers to fave themselves by flight, are not eafily accounted for upon the fuppofition of the prophecy being

a Le Clerc. Diff. III. de quat. ev. Num. VII. p. 541. b Acts xi. 28. e Luke xxi. 20, 21. “When ye shall see Jerufalem compassed with armies, then know that the defolation thereof is nigh; then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are fa the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto."

Matt. xiv. 18. "When ye shall fee Jerufalem compaffed with armies, then let them which be in Judea flee unto the mountains; let him which is on the houfe top, not come down to take any thing out of his houfe, neither let him which is in the field, return back to take his clothes."

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fabricated after the event. Either the Chriftians, when the fiege approached, did make their escape from Jerufalem, or they did not if they did, they must have had the prophecy amongst them if they did not know of any fuch prediction at the time of the fiege; if they did not take notice of any fuch warning, it was an improbable fiction, in a writer publishing his work near to that time (which, upon any even the lowest and most disadvantageous fuppofition, was the cafe with the gospels now in our hands) and addreffing his works to Jews and to Jewish converts (which Matthew certainly did) to state that the followers of Chrift had received admonitions, of which they made no ufe when the occafion arrived, and of which, experience then recent proved, that thofe, who were most concerned to know and regard them, were ignorant or negligent. Even if the prophecies came to the hands of the evangelifts through no better vehicle than tradition, it must have been by a tradition which fubfifted prior to the event. And to suppose, that, without any authority whatever, without fo much as even any tradition to guide them, they had forged these paffages, is to impute to them a degree of fraud and impofture, from every appearance of which their compofitions are as far removed as poffible.

5. I think that, if the prophecies had been compofed after the event, there would have been more fpecification. The names or defcriptions of the enemy, the general, the emperor would have been found in them. The defignation of the time would have been more determinate. And I am fortified in this opinion by obferving, that the counterfeited prophecies of the Sybilline oracles, of the twelve patriarchs, and, I am inclined to believe, most others of the kind, are mere tranfcripts of the history moulded into a prophetic form.

It is objected that the prophecy of the deftruction of Jerufalem is mixed, or connected with expreffions which relate to the final judgment of the world; and fo connected, as to lead an ordinary reader to expect, that these two events would not be far diftant from each other. To which I answer, that the objection does not concern our present argument. If our Saviour actually foretold the deftruction of Jerufalem, it is fufficient even although we fhould allow, that the narration of the prophecy had combined together what had been faid by him upon kindred fubjects, without accurately preferving the order, er always noticing the tranfition of the difcourfe.

CHA P. II.

The Morality of the Gospel.

IN ftating the morality of the gospel as an argument of its

truth, I am willing to admit two points, first, that the teaching of morality was not the primary defign of the miffion; fecondly, that morality, neither in the gofpel, nor in any other book, can be a fubject, properly fpeaking, of discovery.

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The mem

If I were to defc.ibe in a very few words the fcope of Chrif tianity, as a revelation, I fhould fay, that it was to influence the conduct of human life, by establishing the proof of a future ftate of reward and punishment-" to bring life and immortality to light." The direct object, therefore, of the defign is to fupply motives and not rules, fanctions and not precepts. And thefe were what mankind ftood moft in need of. bers of civilized society can, in all ordinary cafes, judge tolerably well how they ought to act; but without a future ftate, or, which is the fame thing, without credited evidence of that state, they want a motive to their duty; they want at least strength of motive fufficient to bear up against the force of paffion, and the temptation of the prefent advantage. Their rules want authority. The most important service that can be rendered to human life, and that, confequently, which, one might expect beforehand would be the great end and office of a revelation from God, is to convey to the world authorised affurances of the reality of a future existence. And although, in doing this, or by the ministry of the fame perfon by which this is done, moral precepts or examples, or illuftrations of moral precepts may be occafionally given, and be highly valuable, yet still they do not form the original purpose of the miffion.

Secondly, morality, neither in the gofpel, nor in any other book, can be a fubject of discovery, properly fo called. By which propofition, I mean that there cannot, in morality, be any thing fimilar to what are called difcoveries in natural philofophy, in the arts of life, and in fome sciences; as the system

a Great, and ineftimably beneficial purpofes, may be attained by Chrift's miffion, and efpecially by his death, which do not belong to Christianity as a revelation, that is, they might have existed, and they might have been accomplished, though we had never, in this life, have been made acquainted with them.

of the univerfe, the circulation of the blood, the polarity of the magnet, the laws of gravitation, alphabetical writing, decimal arithmetic, and fome other things of the fame fort; facts, or proofs, or contrivances, before totally unknown and unthought of, Whoever therefore expects, in reading the New Testament, to be ftruck with discoveries in morals, in the manner in which his mind was affected, when he firft came to the knowledge of the difcoveries above-mentioned; or rather in the manner in which the world was affected by them, when they were first published; expects what, as I apprehend, the nature of the fubject renders it impoffible he should meet with. And the foundation of my opinion is this, that the qualities of actions depend entirely upon their effects, which effects must all along have been the fubject of human experience.

When it is once fettled, no matter upon what principle, that to do good is virtue, the reft is calculation. But fince the calculation cannot be inftitated concerning each particular action, we establish intermediate rules: by which proceeding the bufnefs of morality is much facilitated, for then, it is concerning our rules alone that we need inquire, whether in their tendency they be beneficial; concerning our actions we have only to afk, whether they be agreeable to the rules. We refer actions to rules, and rules to public happiness. Now in the formation of thefe rules, there is no place for difcovery properly fo called, but there is ample room for the exercise of wisdom, judgment, and prudence.

As I wish to deliver argument rather than panegyric, I fhall treat of the morality of the gofpel, in fubjection to thefe obfervations. And after all, I think it fuch a morality, as, confidering from whom it came, is moft extraordinary; and fuch, as, without allowing fome degree of reality to the character and pretenfions of the religion, it is difficult to account for; or to place the argument fomewhat lower in the fcale, it is fuch a morality, as completely repels the fuppofition of its being the tradition of a barbarous age or of a barbarous people, of the religion being founded in folly, or of its being the production of craft; and it repels alfo, in a great degree, the fuppofition of its having been the effufion of an enthulaftic mind.

The divifion, under which the fubject may be moft conveniently treated of, is that of the things taught, and the manner of teaching.