passages I have quoted, which does not appear to have been exactly and literally fulfilled. The resemblance, indeed, is sometimes so strong that the very words of the history and of the prophecy are almost the same. Yet there cannot be a shadow of a suspicion as to the faithfulness of the testimony, or to any interpolation in the works of Josephus. The correspondence pervades the whole tissue of his writings, and before we can tear away the support he gives to the fulfilment of the prediction against Jerusalem, we must destroy the entire web of his history. Least of all, however, could it be the intention of Josephus thus to bear witness to the authority of Jesus. The historian was the enemy of the prophet and of his religion; and has studiously avoided, as we have already pointed out, and as far as the fidelity of his narrative would permit, every mention of those circumstances which might have a tendency to increase the prevalence of the Christian sect. There is much force and much reason for thankfulness in this observation, because it teaches us the superintending wisdom of our heavenly Father in overruling the words, as well as the works of man, and his abundant kindness in supplying us with the best and most unsuspicious means of becoming acquainted with the minutest occurrences in that portion of the revolutions of the

world, which, of all others, it is, perhaps, the most important for us to know.

The first of the woes which our Saviour pronounced upon Jerusalem was, that she should suffer the evils of a siege. "The days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side." There could not be a more plain and distinct description of a besieged city, nor could language more accurate have been found to describe the actual state of the city of Jerusalem when, for the fifth and last time she was taken by foreign foes. Cæsar and his host did éncompass her round, and to prevent all hope of escape to her miserable children, they began and accomplished in the space of three days, the mighty task of surrounding her with a wall, which went out from the camp of the enemy and returned to it again; and every avenue to flight was guarded, both by night and by day, with the utmost caution and a perpetual vigilance. Are not these the words of Jesus," They cast a trench about her, and kept her in on every side?"

The second particular to which our Saviour directs the attention of his disciples is, the complete success which would attend the efforts of the

enemies of Jerusalem. 68

They shall" not only "keep thee in on every side," says he, "but they shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee,; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another. There shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people, and they shall fall by the edge of, the sword." Many cities have been taken and afterwards flourished in all their former splendor and magnificence; and many nations have been subdued without feeling the vengeance of the conquerors. Jerusalem herself had already four times fallen into the hands of strangers, and yet survived or risen again from her ruins. Pompey had triumphed with his Romans over the land, and yet sent forth no angel of destruction, no decree of blood. He vanquished, but he spared. But here we have a positive prediction of that which no Roman example could have taught men to: expect, the utter desolation of the city when taken, and an express condemnation of her inhabitants to slaughter and the grave. And it was so. Flame and famine, and pestilence and division, and the sword, were, day by day, slaying their thousands, and ten thousands, in her streets; and young and old, and women and children, became the victims of one indiscriminate ruin. Truly "there was distress in the land, and wrath upon that people" in those

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days, and grievously they did fall by the edge of the sword."

Worn out and weakened, at length, by the excess of their misery, and the slaughter of the destroying angel, the enemies of Jerusalem prevailed, and she was given over into the will and power of strangers. It was their will, and one would have thought it might have been in their power, after they had taken her, to have spared her beauty and her splendor, and to have preserved her buildings and her temple untouched and uninjured, as a monument to posterity of the greatness and the might of those by whom she had been vanquished. But a stronger hand than theirs the hand of God, and the word of him who ruleth in the kingdoms of men according to his own will and not theirs, were against her. Her towers, her walls, her palaces, the beautiful gate of her temple and her holy place were all thrown down and laid even with the ground. Even the very foundations of the city and the temple were dug up, and the ploughshare passed over the glory of that house which the wisdom of Solomon had built, and the wisdom of Jesus adorned. That holy tabernacle, before which the Redeemer worshipped and the Redeemer taught, we know not now with certainty where it was; for in deed and in truth they have not left in

her "" one stone upon another" to tell the traveller the exact spot upon which the beauty of these goodly buildings stood. Each conjectures for himself and satisfies nobody. Man then laboured to avert, as I have said, a destruction so signal and sad, but he laboured in vain, because he laboured against the sure word of prophecy. It came to pass, as the Lord had spoken, and because the city of David knew not the hour of her visitation, that "behold her house is left unto her desolate."

Thus fully, thus literally, thus awfully were accomplished the predictions of our Saviour upon the city over which he wept; and much there is in what we have already considered, to bow down the pride of the most stubborn heart in humble reverence before the authority of the Gospel. But we have not finished the theme of triumph. We have still to examine what is to us the most wonderful and irresistible part of the prophecythat part I mean whose accomplishment is taking place in our own days, and though still fulfilling, is still unfulfilled. Thy children," says Jesus, "shall not only fall by the edge of the sword, but they shall also be led away captive into all nations" and have dominion in the land of Israel no more, until the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his