They sold and bought Jesus as a slave; and they themselves were afterwards sold and bought as slaves at the lowest prices. They preferred a robber and a murderer to Jesus, whom they crucified between two thieves; and they themselves were afterwards infested with bands of thieves and robbers. They put our Saviour to death, lest the Romans should come and take away their place and nation; and the Romans did come and take away their place and nation. They crucified Jesus before the walls of Jerusalem; and before the walls of Jerusalem, they themselves were crucified in such numbers, that Josephus says, that room was wanted for the crosses, and crosses for the bodies. Is it possible, my brethren, for any man to lay these things together, and not to conclude that their own prediction hath been amply fulfilled: "His blood be on us, and on our children." In the opinion of Josephus, the flagrant crimes of the Jews, and the principal sources of their calamities were their trampling upon all human laws, deriding divine things, and making a jest of the prophecies, as so many dreams and fables. And how remarkably, my

brethren, hath a similar spirit of licentiousness and infidelity prevailed, likewise in our own land! How have the laws and lawful authority been insulted? How have the holy scriptures not only been rejected, but despised and abused to the worst of purposes? In a word, how have the articles of our faith been derided? Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apostles been ridiculed, and impiety and blasphemy not only been whispered in the ear, but proclaimed openly from the press! God grant, my brethren, that we may not exhibit abroad this spirit of infidelity, which hath thus prevailed at home; but with firmness and moderation be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is within us. Above all, having a good conscience, that with well doing, we may put to silence those who oppose the truth.

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SERMON VIII.

THE SUBJECT OF PROPHECY CONTINUED.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light; and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."-Matt. xxiv. 29-31.

WE have already shown the fulfilment of the signs which our Lord had predicted should precede and accompany the destruction of Jerusalem. It now only remains that we consider those that were to follow, relating to the final dissolution of the Jewish polity, or government in church and state. These our Lord thought fit, after the example of the prophets, to disclose in figurative language; that as the

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prediction, as was observed in a former discourse, in its primary sense, would have its fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the consequent termination of the Jewish economy; so in its remote or secondary sense it might relate to the coming of Christ in judgment at the last day-the destruction of Jerusalem being a lively image, type, or emblem, of the end of the world.

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Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." From the words, "immediately after the tribulation of those days," it is evident that what follows could not relate to any distant event; and therefore could not be, as some persons have supposed, a distinct prediction of the day of judgment, but must relate to something consequent upon the tribulation before mentioned, which was the destruction of Jerusalem. It is true the figurative language in which our Lord hath clothed his discourse is extremely strong; but not stronger than is used by the prophets on similar occa

sions. Thus, in the 13th chapter of Isaiah, the fall of Babylon is represented by the "stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof," withdrawing their light, and the sun and the moon being darkened. The prophet Ezekiel uses the same figures, in the 32d chapter, respecting Egypt. Daniel describes, in the 8th chapter, the destruction of the Jews, by some of the "host of heaven, and the stars being cast to the ground." And the prophet Joel, predicting the very destruction of Jerusalem which we are now considering, describes it as attended" with wonders in the heavens and in the earth; with the darkening of the sun, and the turning of the moon into blood." Thus we perceive how frequently, in the prophetic language, great revolutions and commotions upon earth, whether relating to church or state, are represented by great commotions and changes in the heavens; and consequently we see the propriety of our Lord's using this language.

Our Saviour proceeds in the same figurative style: "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the