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Within forty years after the resurrection of Christ
came on the destruction of Jerusalem, a most important
event, upon which the credit and the fate of Christianity
depended. Christ had foretold it so expressly,
that, if he had failed, his religion could not have supported
itself. But his predictions were exactly accomplished,
and proved him to be a true prophet.
Christ fixed the time also, say ing that the days were
at hand, and would come before that generation should
pass away, and whilst the daughters of Jerusalem, or
their children, should be living.
The completion of Christ's predictions has been fully
shewed by many writers, particularly by Whitby. To
him I refer the reader, on Matth. xxiv. and shall here
insert in the notes some f remarks on this part of the
subject, *
As the Jews did to Peter, when they said to him, Thou art a Galilean,
and thy speech bevirayeth thee.
t Our Saviour, foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem, applies to
the Jews in a prophetic sense this proverbial saying, Wheresoever the
carcase is, there will the eaglet be gathered together, Mat. xxiv. 28.
The Jewish writers had this maxim among them, that wicked men
while they live are to be reckoned amongst the dead : see Drusius on
Mat. iv. 4. and viii. 22. see also Luke xv. 32. Eph. ii. i. I Tim. v. 6.
But wicked men are spoken of in scripture under this figure with still
greater propriety, if for their crimes they were devoted to death, and
condemned to it by a divine or human sentence, Gen. xx. 3. By the
word carcase, Christ means the Jewish nation, which was morally and
judicially dead, and whose destruction was pronounced in the decrees
of heaven.

subject, which Dr Pearce the bishop of Banger was so
land as to communicate ; observing only that Christ
ferctold,
1. The total destruction of the city.
2. Of
In Eusebius, E. H. iii. 23. •nlnr.i is explained by &if rifapu' arsCu )»%
mvfif £ -I*' r.; Xy T3 »l<« Airx';. '.:•-:.
2s i.,..:y.v-'7;i i» T«S i»*t nugM;. Aristoph.. Ran. Act. i. sc. j. in choro. See L. Capell. and Grotius on Matth. viii 22. who says, NSXJM vocantur homines a vera disciplina, quse animi vita est, alieni. 3w <£ t» «j" (ait Clemens Alex. Strom, v.) c.^W .' Zi'.-r,;.-,:'^, nr.qt-, M^STI TV; tmrafiitf rut Soyiiv'.T^v, >£ >we(l«7r«T«|i*ii!*s TO* vff» Tttf nmdri •^yvaeeif. Hausit queque h;tc, ut alia, ab orientis phtlosophia Pythagoras, ai \\icaMn oikts ft:i:,'.:-. '.., ut de eo scribit Hermippus : siquidcm f 'EOJOJ'SJ a^iKiro, ut de eo ex Diogcne scribit Malchus ; un- de mos ortus ut his qui coDtu Pythagoreorum esscnt ejccti, centKajihia ttruerentur, quod Hipparcho cuidam factum legimus, &c. Under the metaphor of eagles, which fly swiftly, and seize upon their prey violently, conquerors with their armies, are frequently spoken of in scripture; Jeremiah, Lament, iv. 19. says, Our persecutors are naifter than eagles ; and Hosea, viii. I. says of the king of Assyria, He sbati come as an eagle against the \>ouse of ibe Lord, because they have transgressed bis covenant. Ezekiel, xvii. 3. pronounces a parable under the same figure ; Thus faith the Lord, A great eag/e, with great wing; fulland. Th

2. Of the temple.
3. The coming of false christs and false prophe
magicians, and sorcerers, leading the people to t
desarts.
4. Famine
The sense of the proverb then is this : wheresoever the wicked Je
are, there will the Roman eagles, the destroying armies, follow ther
and whithersoever they fly, ruin and desolation will overtake them .
Christ had been foretelling to his disciples the destruction of t
Jewish nation, and the vengeance which he was to take upon the
for their obstinate refusal of him and his doctrine. This he express-
by the coming of the Son of Man ; and he told them many particula
of what was to happen before, and at that great day of visitation. A
mong others he acquainted them that there would be some impostoi
who should set up themselves for the Christ, or Messiah of the Jew;
Wherefore, says he, if they shall say unto you, Behold be it in the sort, go not forth : behold be is in the secret chambers, believe it not i. e. none but false christs will be found there. The true coming c Christ will be of another nature ; not with observation, Luke xvii. 20 not with a display of his person, but of his power in the vengeanc •which he is to take upon the Jews j not restrained to the desart o the chambers, not confined to holes and comers, nor to any one part o Judea, but extended through every province of it ; for as the light aing, says he, comelb out of the east, and sbinetb even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, i. e. as extensive and u- niversal over the land, as the lightning shines ; the comparison bein^ brought in to shew, not so much its swiftness, as its wide extent and compass •, for wheresoever the carcase, &c. In St Luke when our Lord had been describing this calamity which was to befal the Jews, his disciples asked him, Where, Lord? where shall this happen ? to which he repl
ied, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. If then his words contain any direct answer to the question, they must
be understood as pointing out the place and extent of the c
alamity. This prophecy was pronounced by our Saviour near forty years, and recorded by St Matthew near thirty years, before the event was to take place. And, for the literal accomplishment of it, we have the authority of Josephus. He was a general on the side of the Jews in the beginning of that war, and a prisoner at large in the Roman army


Famines.

5. Pestilences.

6. Earthquakes*

7. Fearful sights, and great signs from heaven.

8. The

during the rest of it : he was a party concerned in much of the calamity
of his countrymen, and an eye-witness to almost all of it. And,
besides this, it is to be considered, that if he ever had heard of this
prophecy, which it ia probable he had rot, yet as he was a Jew by religion,
and a Jeiyish priest too, he is therefore a witness not to be suspected
of partialky in this case, and was every way qualified to give us
an exact history of those times ; which he has accordingly done, by describing
very punctually all the particulars of that terrible-destruction.
From his account it may be observed, that the Roman army entered
into Judea OB the ea3t side of it, and carried on their conquests
vrestwardi, as if not only the extensiveness of the ruin, but the very
route, which the army would take, was intended in the comparison of
the lightning coming out of the east, and. shining even unto the west.
In the course of his history, he gives us a very particular account of
the prodigious numbers of such as were slain in Judea properly so called,
in Samaria, the two Galilees, and the region beyond Jordan : and
be confirms the prophecy of Christ by making a remarkable observation
to this purpose, that there was not any the least part of Judea,
vibicb did not partake of the calamities of the capital city ; B. J. v. 3.
There, at Jerusalem, the last and finishing stroke was given to the
ruin of the church and state ; for after a long and sharp siege, in
which famine killed as many as the sword, in which the judgments of
heaven appeared as visibly as the fury of man, in which intestine factions
helped on the desolation which the foreign armies completed,
Jerusalem was at last taken, not then a city, but a confused mass of
mins. affording a sadder scene of calamity than the world had ever
seen, and exactly fulfilling the words of Christ, Mat. xxiv. 2r. Then
tball be great tribulation, ntcb as tt'aj not since the beginning of the •
world unto this lime, no, nor ever shall be. To which Josephus bears
express testimony, and says that tbe calamities cf all nations from the
beginning of the world were exceeded hy those ivbich befclbis country.
men on ibis occasion, B. J. i. I.
Christ foretold, that Jerusalem should be enc cmpassed with armies,
Luke Jtxi. 2O. and accordingly it was besieged and taken by the Rc~
pans j a circumstance which had no necessary connection ivith the


8. The persecution of the Apostles.
9. The apostasy of some Christians.
10. A preservation of the faithful,
11. The spreading of the gospel through the Roman,
world.
12. The
revolt and conquest of Judea : For at the time when Christ spake this,
the Roman governor resided in that city, and had troops there surti-
cient to keep it in obedience ; whence it was more probable, that Jerusalem
would have continued in a quiet subjection to the Romans, •
whatever troubles might be raked in other parts of the Jewish dominions.
He foretold, that the Roman ensigns, called the abomination of desolation ^
ver. 15. should be seen standing in the holy place, or temple :
an event not to be foreseen by human skill, because very unlikely to
happen. The great care which the Jews took at other times not to
defile that holy place, and the small strength which it had to defend
them long from the Roman arms, as they had twice experienced in
the memory of man, were both circumstances, which, in all human appearance,
would have kept them from the rash experiment. And yet,
against all probability, they fled to the temple, and there made a last
and desperate resistance. Having thus defiled it with their own arms,
they made it necessary for the Romans to follow them into the sanctuary ;
so that they took it by storm, and of consequence caused their
military ensigns to be seen standing there.
Christ foretold, Matt. xxiv. 2. that when the temple should be taken,
there should not be left there one stone upon another that should
not be thrown down. And yet the building was so magnificent, that
it wTas esteemed for cost, for art and beauty, one of the wonders of the
world; whence it was natural to expect, that the Romans, according to
their usual custom amidst their conquests, would endeavour to preserve
it safe and entire. And Josephus, B. J. vi. 2, 4. tells us, that Titus laboured
with all his power to save it, but that his soldiers, as if moved ^
eufttn'a ifff, by a divine impulse, would not hearken to his positive
and repeated orders, but set fire to every part of it, till it was entirely
consumed j and then the ruins were removed, and the soil on which
it stood was ploughed up, and not one stone left upon another. See
Drusius and Calmet on Matt. xxir. 2. and Lightfoot's Horee Hebr.
on the same text, where he quotes for proof of this the Taanitb of
Maimo aides,

12. The Roman standards defiling the holy place.
13. The city encompassed with armies, walls, and
trenches.
14. The retiring of the Christians to the mountains.

15.
The

Maiinonides, c. 4. Josephus indeed, in B, J. vii. I. speaking of the
temple, says only that it was demolished, without expressly telling us
that the foundations of it were digged up. And yet it seems probable,
that some parts at least of those foundations were digged up, from what
he says there in the following chapter concerning one Simon. He lived
n Jerusalem, in the upper part of it, near to the temple ; and, when
the city was taken, he endeavoured to escape by letting himself down
with some of his companions into a cavern ; where, when they had digged
but a little way for themselves, he crept out from underground in
that very place where the temple had before stood. Therefore either
he crept out in that hollow where the foundation had stood ; or, if it
was in any other part of the temple, the foundations must have been
removed there at least where he worked his way through the ground
torn the outside to the inside of the temple.
To these circumstances we may add the time : This generation shell
ml pats away, till alt these things be fulfilled, ver. 34. and again,
Mat. xvi. 28. Then be some standing here, who shall not lane of
itatb till they see the Son of Man coming in bis kingdom; pointing out to
his hearers, that this train of calamities was not to come upon the Jews
immediately, nor yet so late but that some then living should see the
accomplishment of his prophecies. The fixing of this circumstance
hid no connection with any thing which might serve for the foundation
of human conjecture.
He also foretold, that the gospel of bit kingdom should be preached
in all the wui-ld for a wit nest unto all na lions, ver. 14. before this
aid of the Jewish state should come j than which no circumstance
was less likely in all human appearance to happen, if we consider the
time when this prophecy was delivered ; for we find that within two
days afterwards, as himself foretold, Mat. xxvi. 2, and 31. all his Jis-
cifles forsook him and fled upon his being apprehended. It could not
be expected that they who had deserted his person when alive, would
adhere to his cause after his death, and with so much steadiness and
fourage, as to preach a crucified Jesus in spite of all opposition thro'


15. The greatest tribulation that ever was known.
16. The time when these things should happen.
17- The comparative happiness of the barren women,
when a mother killed and eat her own child.
18. Wars and rumours of wars, nation rising against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
19. The sea and the waves roaring.
20. The dispersion of the captive Jews through all
nations.
21. The continuance of the desolation.
22. A shortening of the days of vengeance, for the
sake of the Elect.
All which things came to pass.
To bring about this great event, and to -certify
posterity of its truth, God raised up an illustrious
and worthy prince to accomplish it, and an illustrious
historian to record it, to record the things of
which he was an eye witness, and in which he had
borne a considerable share.
Vespasian was lifted up from obscurity to the empire,
he was strangely spared, and promoted, and employed
by Nero who hated him. If he had not put
an end to the civil wars, and to the great calamities
of the empire, Jerusalem would not have been destroyed
at the time foretold by Christ. Lucent caligantired-
didit mundo, says Q. Curtius, speaking most probably
of Vespasian, X. 9.
Josephus assured Vespasian that he and his son Titus
should be emperors after Nero, and some others,
who should reign only a short time, B. J. iii. 8. Unas
ex
all the nations of the then known earth. And yet this they did
with great success, so that St Paul could say to the Colossians with
truth, that the gospel was come unto them, as it was in all the world,
16.

ex nobilibits capticis Josef hits, cum conjiceretur in rinca- /«,
consfantissime asseveravit fore at ab eudem brevi sot-
vervtur, verumjam imperatore. Sueton. Vesp. f>. When
Josephus made this declaration there was no appearance
of such an event. He says that he had received
the knowledge of these things in a dream, which was
accounted by the Jews to be a lower degree of prophecy,
and to have been sometimes granted to them,
after the prophetic afflatus had ceased at the death of
Malachi. Josephus says that Hyrcanus had been favoured
with such kind of revelations. Ant. xiii. 12.
Be/L Jud. 1. 2. He records a prophetic dream of his
own, in his Life, sect. 42. He mentions also strange
deliverances vouchsafed to himself from seemingly unavoidable
destruction, B. J. iii. 8. He had taken
shelter in a cave with forty desperate persons, who
were determined to perish rather than to yield, and
who proposed to pay him the compliment of killing
him first, as the most honourable man in the company.
When he could not divert them from their frantic resolution
of dying, he had no other refuge than to engage
them to draw lots who should be killed, the one
after the other, and at last only he and another remained,
whom he persuaded to surrender to the Romans.
I would not willingly be imposed upon, or
impose upon the reader ; but I leave it to be considered
whether in all this there might not be something
extraordinary, as both Vespasian and Josephus were
designed and reserved for extraordinary purposes, to
assist in fulfilling and justify ing the prophecies of Daniel
and of our Lord. The same providence which raised
up and conducted Cyrus, and preserved the rash*
Macedonian *
I call htm rash, because he exposed his own person too much ;
for his enterprise, though very bold, was perhaps neither rash nor
rashly conducted.


Macedonian conqueror from perishing, till he had o-
verthrown the Persian empire, that the prophecies-
might be accomplished, might take the Roman emperor
and theJifim/j tcriter under a singular protection
for reasons of no less importance. The historian was
on all accounts a proper person to deliver these things
to posterity, and one to whom the Pagans, the Jews,
and the Christians could have no reasonable objection.
He was of a noble family, he had enjoyed the advantage
of a good education, he had acted in the war as
a general, he had much learning, singular abilities, a
fair character, and a great love for his own country.
The service which he has done to Christianity was on
his side plainly undesigned, he never gives even the
remotest hint that the Jews suffered for rejecting the
Messias. His book had the approbation of Vespasian
and Titus, Herod and Agrippa *, and of several persons
of distinction, and he wanted not adversaries who
would have exposed him if he had advanced untruths ;
so that though in some other points he might have
been capable of deceiving, and of being deceived, yet
as to the transactions of his own times, he must pass
in general for a candid, impartial, accurate writer, and
has passed for such in the opinion of the most competent
judges.
But though we are indebted to him for several particulars,
which surprisingly agree with the predictions
of Christ, yet the destruction of the Jewish state vests
not upon his single authority, but upon ancient history
and general consent, and is a fact which never was
questioned.
What Josephus says concerning the outrageous wickedness
and strange infatuation of many of the Jews,
must *
Contr. Apion, i. y.

must be true ; the facts related by him sufficiently
shew it : but the reason for which he dwells so much
on a subject so disagreeable to one who loved his nation,
seems to have been this ; he knew not how to
account otherwise for God's giving up his own people
to such calamities, and seeming to fight against them
himself, and he was afraid of consequences which Pagans
and Christians would draw from it against the
Jewish religion. Cicero, because it served his purpose,
had inferred from the calamities which in his
days befel the Jews, that they were a nation not acceptable
to the Deity. Stantibus Hiwosolymis, paca-
tisque Jud&is, tarncu istorum reltgio sacrorum a splendo-
re hujus imperil, gravitate nomirus nostri, majorum imti-
tetis, abhor rebat : nunc vero hoc tnagis, quod ilia gens,
tjiiid fie imjterio nostro sentiret, ostendit armis : quam ca-
ra diis immortalibus esset, doatit, quod est victa, quod
docata, quod servata. Pro Flacco, 28. Some would
read serca. DrThirlby conjectured sen-it : and I find
it so cited by Hammond, in his notes on Revel, xiii. 5.
In his Antiquities he takes too great liberties with
sacred history', and accommodates it too much to the
taste of the Gentiles, which yet probably he did to recommend
his oppressed and unhappy nation to the favour
of the Greeks and Romans. There are few of
his suppressions, or alterations, or embellishments, for
which a prudential reason might not be assigned. In
his History he shews an instance of his art, in complimenting
Titus without saying an untruth ; he relates
that Titus engaged with the Jews, who had made a
sally and fought desperately, and that Titus himself
slew twelve of their bravest men, who headed the rest.
He says not how he slew them ; but Suetonius tells
us, that Titus, at the siege of Jerusalem, shot twelve
Of

the foremost of the enemies with So many arrows.
The circumstances give great reason to suppose that
both relate the same Story.
Ka/ JuStxa ftiv auVcf TUV iarpofAa%uv otrtufei. Ct ipse tiUldcin
stemit duodccim odversi agminis propugnatores. B. J.
v. vi. 6.
Nacitsima Hierosofymontm oppugnatione, duodeclm
propugnatores toUidem saggitarum confecit ictibiis. Sue-
ton. Tit. A.
The history of the Jewish war by Josephus seems to
be a commentary upon the prophecies of Christ. Josephus,
amongst other particulars, gives a distinct account
of the Jearf it/ sights, and great signs from heaven, which
preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, and Tacitus has
confirmed the narration of Josephus. If Christ had not
expressly foretold this, many who give little heed to portents,
and who know that historians have been too
credulous in that point, would have suspected that
Josephus exaggerated, and that Tacitus was misinformed ;
but as the testimonies of Josephus and Tacitus
confirm the predictions of Christ, so the predictions
of Christ confirm the wonders recorded by these
historians.
Let us proceed to shew, that tile predictions of
Christ were extant before the destruction of Jerusa*-
lem, before A. D. 70. for this is the important point.
The booksand epistles of the New Testament were written
by disciples of Christ, or their companions. We cannot
suppose thatany persons, of whatever abilities, could
have forged them after the decease of the apostles, for,
These writings * contain various and numerous in-
o
cidcnts of time, place, persons, names, and things ;
occasional discourses, differences of style, epistles in
answer *
Discourse vi. on the Christian Religion

answer to epistles, and passages cited from those which
they answer, directions and observations suited to the
state of several churches, Seeming contradictions, and
real difficulties which might have easily been avoided,
things mentioned which worldly considerations would
have suppressed, and things omitted which invention1
and imagination might have supplied ;- a character of
Christ, arising from his words and actions, of a most
singular kind, left to its intrinsic merit, and aided by
no art ; and in the writings of St Paul, sentiments
warm . pathetic, and coming from the heart ; particularities
in each gospel suitable to the character, knowledge,
situation, and circumstances of each evangelist,
&c. &c.
The forgers of these things, if they were such, must
have equalled Father Harduin's * atheistical monks of
the thirteenth century, who, according to his fantastical
account, in an age of ignorance arid barbarity,
surpassed in abilities- all the ancients and moderns, fbr-
ged the Latin and Greek authors whom we call classical,
and were not only great poets, orators, gramma-'
nans, linguists, and knaves, but great mathematicians,
chronologers, astronomers, geographers^ and
critics, and capable of inserting, in their proper
places, names and accounts of men, rivers, cities,
and Regions, eclipses of the sun and moon, A-
thenian archons, Attic months, Roman consuls, and
olympiads, all which happy inventions have been since,
confirmed by astronomical calculations and tables,,
voyages, inscriptions, fasti capitolini, fragments, manuscripts, *
HardumY craziness consisted in rejecting what all the world re-
cewed j the opposite folly to which is the receiving whnt all the
world rejects. . ' *
VOL. I. D


nuscripts, and a diligent comparing of authors witl
each other.
There is not one page in the New Testament, whicr
affords not internal characters of being composed by
men who lived at the time when the things happened
which are there related. This is as evident, as it is
that the noble English historian, who wrote an account
of the troubles in the time of Charles the First^ was
himself concerned m those transactions. The discourses
of Christ, as I have observed elsewhere,- are always
occasional, and full of allusions to particular incidents.
The historical parts of the New Testament,
and the travels of Christ and of his apostles correspond
with the accounts and descriptions which may be
collected from other authors. In the judgment which
Pilate passed upon Christ, the rules of the Roman
law were observed *. What is accidentally mentioned
concerning the behaviour of Felix and Gallic, and
some others, agrees with the character which Roman
write re have gi-veji of them. There ape endless particularities
of this kind which mrght lie produced. A
man of very ordinary abilities, who relates various
things of which lie has been an ear and an eye-witness,
is under no difficulty or pain : but a- forger, if he had
the abilities of an angel, whose imagination must sup- •
p'y *
M. Huber rcmar'qtie fort bieh, qu*5l pafoit, par toutes les circon-
Etances du jugement de Pilate, qni toutes fes regies du Droit Remain
y furent exactement observees ; et que cela peut nous convaincre de
la veriti- de cette histoire. DCS gens du petit peuple panel les JuiiV,
tels qu'etoient les Evangelistes, ne pouvoient pas dire si bien instruits
tic cela -, ct s'ils ne 1'avoient apprise de temoins oculaires, ils n'auroi-
ent jamais pu la raconter, comme ils out fait, sans dire quclque cliose
qui se trouveroit contraire & 1'usage des gxmverncurs, dans les provinces
Romaines. Lt C/crtf Bill. anc. et mod. T. xiii. p. 100. See also I I/
tier, Disseit.

ply him with materials, can never write in such a manner,
and if he has tolerable sense, will avoid entering
into such a minute detail, in which he must perpetu-*
ally expose his ignorance and his dishonesty.
Christ began to preach when he was about thirty
years of age, and the Jews from his countenance judged
him to be more advanced in life *. He chese apos
ties, some of whom were married, one was employed
in a public office, and. most were probably as old as
himself, if not older. If they had not been cut off
by martyrdom, yet few of them, in the course of nature,
would have survived the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D.
70. which was about 74- years after the
birth of Christ. Ecclesiastical history assures us that
St Peter and St Paul died before that time ; and Christ
had told Peter that he should be put to death in his
old age.
History informs us, that St John lived long after
the destruction of Jerusalem, and Christ had given an
intimation that he should see that event, for he said
once to his disciples, There be some standing here iohn
slutll not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming
in his kingdom ; and afterwards, when Peter was
desirous to know what should befal John, Christ replied,
If' I will that he tarry till I comet what is that to
thee? *
St John had seen the three. gospels, for he wrote his
own as a supplement to them, which appears plainly
in the harmony of the Evangelists. He omits these
predictions of Christ, though he was present at that
discourse, of which omission the most probable reason
is, that the other three had mentioned them.
D2 Matthew, *
John viii. jy.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, relate, that when the
Jews came to seize Christ, a disciple drew his sword,
and wounded one of them. John alone naraea him,
and says that it was Simon Peter. The cause of tlieir
silence is obvious ; Peter was living when they wrote,
and they s«ppres'sed his name tor several reasons, but
when John wrote, Peter was dead.
The three first evangelists make no mention of the
resurrection of Lazarus, perhaps lest the Jews, who
had consulted to put him to death, should assassinate
htm. When St John wrote, it is probable that he was
dead, and therefore he gave a particular account oi"
that resurrection.
There is reason to think, that St John also might
compose a part at least of his gospel a little before the
destruction of Jerusalem, since he speaks of the porches
of Bethesda as standing*, v. 2-. though this amounts
not to a full and conclusive proof, and may be a small
inaccuracy of style, or, it may be, those porches remained
undemoliiihed.
St Luke ends his history of the Apostles with St
Paul's dwelling at Rome for two years, A. D. 6,5. He
mentions nothing farther, and therefore probably wrote
the Acts before the death of that apostle ; and he refers
us to his own gospel, as to a book which he had
published before.
Ecclesiastical history f informs us, that Mark's gospel
had the approbation of Peter, and that Mark was
instnicted by him, which opinion seems somewhat favoured
by the narration of Peter's fall and repentance.
Matthew and Luke say, that he icept bitterly; Mark say*
only -* * "
En 3J — r.t,\ii£r.tyt.. TH» )$, which is in some few copies, is probably
the emendation of a critic. •
J- Euseb. ii. 1 5.

only, he STytf, but represents his crime in stronger
terms than Luke. Matthew relates at lar^e the commendation
and the commission which Christ ijavc to
Peter : Blessed art thoti, Simon ttttrjnna : for flesh and
b!j Father K'///C/«
if in heaven. And I sat/ a/so unto thee, that thoa art Peter,
and upon this rock I iviif btii'd mil church, and the
fatet of hell shall not prarail ayaintt it. And I wi// give
tint'} tkee the /ift/y of the ifia^dont of hetwcn ; and ic/mt-
soever thoa sJtaU bind on ecrrt/t, shitJl be bound in /leavex;
md chutnoever thuu shvlt Iwse on cwih, shall be /oossd
in heaze*, xvi. 17. Mark mnits it, viii. 29.
St Peter, who died before A. D. 70. mentioned the
approaching ruin of Jerusalem, in the Acts of the A-
postles*, and in his own epistles f, as the best commentators
agree ; and so doesSt James J, andSt Panlj),
and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews^.
Papias * "
And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the
f.rth beneath, blood, and fire, and pillars cf smoke. The sun shall be
turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and
terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pa"*s, that whosoever
shall call upon the name of tike Lord, shall be saved." Acts ii. 19.
f " But the end of all things is at hand.-r-The time is come, that
judgment roust begin at the house of God. And if it first begin ivith
us, what will be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God •?
And if die righteous scarcely be saved, vjihere shall the ungodly and
the sinner appear ?" I Pet. iv. 7.
J ' Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl fov the miseries that
shall come upon you. — Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto tLe com .
ing of our Lord. — For thecoming of the Lord draweth ni;;h. — The
judge standeth before the door," James v. I. (
I " The Lord is at hand," Phil. iv. 5. " T» fill up their s^ns «i-
ways ; for wrath is come upon them to the uttermost," I Thess. \\.
16. " The day of the Lord cometh as a ihicf in th; night," &c.
i Thess. v. 2. The same event is also perhaps allndud to, i Thess.
i. 6 ifc. and 2 Thess. ii. 2. iyc. ^ "
Ye have need of patience that— ye might rccti /e the promise.

Papias conversed with the disciples of the apostles
about the beginning of the second century. He speaks
of the gospels of Matthew and Mark as extant, and
written by them*.
Justin Martyr, A. D. 150. mentions the gospels as
universally received and read in the congregations in
his time. He must have conversed with Christians-
who were old men, and from them have learned that
the gospels were extant when they were young, o/
A;roro\o/ (says he) iv roi( ytycjuiroif UTT auray a7ro/jLtrtfjitnvp.a.yif^ £ *.«
UT-/, EJa/y«Ai«, »T4)f orajJiWar — And again, Tot aVe-
ftrtifjunvficLla. rut 'Axori*.ur otVcfy/KuaxtTa/. Apol. 1 . A nd
his citations from the four gospels, from the epistles
ofSt Paul, and from the Revelation, shew to a demonstration
that he had them as we now have them,
in the main.
In the interval between A. D. 70. and Justin, are
the authors called apostolical, as Clemens, Hernias,
Barnabas, Ignatius. These authors make use of some
of the gospels and epistles, and allude to them ; which
makes them highly valuable, and serviceable to the
Christian cause. We cannot suppose that they had
the inclination, we may positively affirm that they had
not the capacity to forge them. Their own writings
prove it.
Barnabas, in his Epistle, makes use of Matthew,
Luke, John, and the Epistle to the Romans,
Clemens, in hisjirst Epistle, makes mention of St Paul's
Epistle fo the Corinthians, and takes passages from
Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Romans, \ and 2 Corinthians,
Philif>pians, 1 Thessalonians, Ephesians, 1 and 2
of
For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come," 4yc. Heb.. •'••
36- *
Eas«b. Eccl. Hirt. iii. 39. sttbfntm

of Peter, I Timothy, 1 and 3 of Juhn, Re-celations, and
particularly from the Epistle to the Hebrews. He also
speaks of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul.
In his second Epistle, if it -be his, there are passages
from Matthew, Luke, 1 ftoriathians, and Hebrews.
Hernias says,-i. 2. Jaravit Doni'mus per Fifium tntum :
Qai denegaterit ftliuin $ se — $ ipsi Jt'iiegatitri saat ilium —
from Matth. x. 33.
I. 6. Cum ergo venerit tribttlatio,, proper dhitias snas
& negotiationea, ubnegent Dqmixum — f com Mittt. xiii . 2 1 .
I. 9.. Videte ergo vos ytti gloriamini in divitiis, nefor-
te ingemiictint it qui egad, § gemitus eorum asceudat ad
Dominion — from James-v. 4-.
Ib. Qnt ' amatin primos consessus ; fix>m Matt, xxiii.
6. Melius erat illis non nasci. from Matt. xxvi. 24.
II. Mancl. v. Spiritus sanctus^ qui in te est, angustia- ••••'.•'/-.-
from Ephes. iv. 30.
Si resistis Diabolo, fugiet a te ; from James iv. 7.
II. Aland, vi. -$o£>i(W< Tor Kv^/cc rot aurauttot cuvxi xa< aVo- >
Jfar from James iv. 12.
Such references should have been marked .in the e-
Jitions of the apostolical Jatiws.
In the apostolical constitutions also, and in the recognitions
and the homilies of Pseudo-Cteme&s there are
many passages taken from the New Testament ; bu.t
as these books are not so ancient .as they pretend to •
be, I pass them by for the present, and shall pay nly
respects to them in another place.
The numerous and large citations from the LXX, .
and the New Testament, in the Constitutions, arehow-
SVCT so far useful, that they help to shew how those
places stood in the copies of the fourth century, and
somewhat earlier.



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