hostility of the Jewish people, who would never have tolerated any declaration from our Saviour, which openly asserted the rejection of the Jews, and the admission of the Gentiles amongst the Church and the people of God. The whole conduct of our Saviour with regard to these prophecies, exhibits such a consciousness of authority and of infinite controul over the visible and the invisible world, and such a perfect knowledge of every event relating to our redemption, and the whole dispensation of prophecy connected with it, as we can conceive to belong to that Divine Being alone, who himself planned this great scheme in the councils of eternity, and then came upon earth to accomplish it, for the everlasting happiness and salvation of man.

But there are some other important observations, which it is important to make in connection with this prophecy; namely, the manner in which our Lord employs the judgments attending the execution of divine vengeance on the city and temple of Jerusalem, as a type of that still more awful display of divine vengeance, when He, the Son of Man, shall appear in his glorious majesty as the Judge of mankind. For though our Lord doubtless intended, in the first instance, to direct the attention of his disciples to that tremendous judgment which awaited the Jewish people, he has so intermixed, as it were, the prophecy of the events, which were more immediately before him, with those; in which all mankind are concerned, that it is impossible to separate

those different classes of events from this prophecy. Because however closely some parts of this prophecy may apply to the destruction of Jerusalem, there are others which will admit of no application short of the day of judgment: and it was probably the intention of our divine Master, by connecting the two events together, to lead his disciples to that care and watchfulness, which would equally fit them, either to meet the terrors which would attend the destruction of Jerusalem, or the awful period of their own death. This double sense, as it has been called, confessedly belongs to a large portion of ancient prophecy and it assuredly increases the evidence for the divine character of our Saviour, that he should make such an application of ancient prophecy, in an instance, where it was so peculiarly appropriate. For his office as the Judge of the world is immediately connected with his character as the Son of Man: and to whom with so much propriety, as to Him, who came from heaven to redeem them, could belong the execution of vengeance on that guilty people, who had crucified their Saviour and their King?

On the whole, the evidence which we derive from the prophecies which were delivered by our Saviour himself, is of a very extraordinary character. When we reflect on the accurate foreknowledge of everything which was to happen both to himself and his disciples; the predictions of his death, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, and the sending of the Holy Ghost upon

the Apostles,-which all of them had a complete and accurate fulfilment ; the entire selfpossession and confidence with which he spoke of his own death, and the glory which should follow; the assurance with which he declared the universal propagation of his religion; and, lastly, his great prophecy relative to the destruction of Jerusalem,—involving, as it does, the events of the Christian Church to the end of all things, and affording in its most remarkable features, the most wonderful evidence of fulfilment,-it is impossible to separate all these things from the claim, which he so repeatedly made, to a divine origin. And when we consider the manner, in which, whenever he speaks of the events of his Church, eternity appears to be open to his view; the light which his predictions throw upon former prophecies; and, above all, what most of all distinguishes him from all the prophets who spoke in his name and by his Spirit,-when we consider the authority with which he speaks, when he declares himself as the almighty Instrument, by which his predictions were to have their accomplishment; declarations, of which the truth is attested by miracles the most astonishing, and by the fulfilment of prophecies, which God alone could bring to pass, we have irrefragable evidence of the divine character of Him, whose knowledge appears to be commensurate with eternity, and his power to comprehend the absolute controul of all things in heaven and in earth.

CHAPTER XI.

OUR SAVIOUR'S CONDUCT WITH

JEWISH LAW.

RESPECT ΤΟ THE

IN order that we may obtain a just idea of the object and intention of the Jewish Law, and how far it was abrogated, and how far fulfilled, by our Saviour, we must have recourse to the writings of the Apostles of the Lord: and in these, and especially in the Epistles of St Paul, we learn, that it was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ'; and that in its sacrifices, and in all its institutions which were not merely of a temporary character, or ordained for a temporary purpose, it was to have its fulfilment in our Saviour and his religion. This is the great doctrine, which is contained in the Epistles of St Paul, and especially in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which the typical character of the Jewish Dispensation is so fully and plainly set forth.

Now, we may observe, that the cessation of the Jewish Law is implied in those prophecies, which foretold the destruction of the Jewish polity and the dispersion of the Jewish people;

1 Gal. iii. 24.

because, when these events happened, and the Jews were scattered amongst all nations, the means would be taken away from them of fulfilling the greater part of the injunctions contained in it. It is implied in those prophecies which foretold the universal extension of a purer worship; for instance, in that prophecy of Malachi; For from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered to my name and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts1; in which words the Prophet declares, that this spiritual service shall be offered up in every place, instead of being confined to the Temple at Jerusalem: and, lastly, in that celebrated prophecy of Jeremiah, in which the Almighty is made to declare, that he will make a new covenant with the houses of Israel and of Judah, the promise is expressed in terms, which were never fulfilled in their utmost extent, in the Jews after their return from the captivity at Babylon,-which was the event, which the prophecy of Jeremiah had more immediately in view; Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt;

1 Mal. i. 11.