Lord alludes to the following passage of the Prophet Hosea, who, when he had a view in the spirit of the misery of the ten tribes under the Assyrian captivity, cries out, 'Give them, O Lord, a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts,' (Hosea ix. 14.) i. e. rather give them no offspring, than suffer them to live to be a cause of so much sorrow to their parents. Hence our blessed Saviour, before, denounced this woe to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Woe unto them that are with child, and unto them that give suck in those days,' (Matt.. xxiv. 19.) namely, when flight will be the only means of safety, and such persons will be less fit for it than others. Those unhappy women would therefore feel all the woes and calamities of the siege of Jerusalem ; and that in a double portion, on account of their beloved offspring.

This prediction was abundantly verified by the melancholy event. For in less than forty years after this woe was denounced, this day of vengeance came attended with all its terrors on the Jewish people. Among other miseries, which the inhabitants of Jerusalem suffered during the siege, they were oppressed with such an intolerable famine, that some of the most tender mothers eat their own children. Other unhappy mothers saw their offspring making the most deplorable lamentations, pining away for hunger, dying of the pestilence, stabbed, cut to pieces, or dashed against the stones by the Roman soldiers before their eyes. Thus the circumstances of the childless being in several respects more tolerable, than of those who had a numerous offspring; how many mothers must have passionately wished, that they had never borne or suckled children!

In the next place, our blessed Lord adds, then will they begin to say to the mountains, fall on us! and to the hills, cover us!' Christ here alludes to another passage of the Prophet Hosea, who gives a pathetic representation of the wretchedness of the ten Tribes in the Assyrian captivity, in these words,

and they shall say to the mountains, cover us! and to the hills, fall on us!' (Hosea x. 8.) Thus the Prophet Isaiah, in his description of the deplorable siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, says, and they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for the fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his Majesty' (Isaiah ii. 29.) In these words, borrowed from the prophetic writings, the Lord Jesus here foretels the calamities which Jerusalem should endure, when besieged by the Romans'; and thereby gives the Jews to understand, that their misery and affliction would be so great when the Romans should invest their city, that many families of distinction leaving their splendid houses, would betake themselves with their wives and children to the most lonely caves of the mountains, in order to avoid the cruelty of the Roman army; that hunger and cold would render those subterraneous retreats so insupportable to them, that they should ardently long for death; and, in their misery and despair, wish the mountains would fall on them, and be their grave.

This prophecy likewise, whether the words be taken in a literal or figurative sense, was fully accomplished. For Josephus informs us, that on the approach of the Roman army, the Jews fled in crouds to the mountains and hills, and wandered about or concealed themselves in caves, where, in all probability, most of them must have perished with hunger, while the rest, being weary of such a miserable life, a thousand times ardently wished for death. But those who survived the destruction of Jerusalem were dispersed into all countries, and obliged to seek refuge among other nations, and to request of them that they might be, as it were covered by them; being persecuted every where by the wrath of God and of the Lamb. These heavy judgments the son of God here publicly denounces, that the whole Jewish nation might be awakened to repentance, be rouzed from their lethargic security, and be moved by a true conversion to

God, to avert his heavy wrath which otherwise must be a necessary consequence of their enormous transgressions. For this end,

3. He acquaints them with the true cause of such terrible judgments, by drawing the following inference for if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?' our blessed Lord in these words, which are taken from the prophet Ezekiel (Chap. xx. 47. xxii. 3.) compares himself to a green, 2. e. sappy and fruitful tree. Thus he is likewise called in the Revelation of St. John, the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God,' (Chap. ii. 7.) On the other hand, he compares the impenitent Jews to dry and unfruitful trees, without any sap of the spiritual life, who, consequently, could bring forth no fruit of repentance and grace.

Hence it appears, that the primary cause of their approaching calamity was of a twofold nature. First, they rejected, and crucified the Messiah, to which our Saviour alludes in these words, ' if they do these things in a green tree;' if they thus deal with me, who am entirely innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge. This was indeed the capital sin of the Jewish nation. They had already embrued their hands in the blood of many of the Prophets. But now they filled up the measure of their iniquities, by putting to death the son of God himself. For by their repeated clamours, they insisted in their savage fury, that he should be crucified; and when the Pagan judge himself bore witness that he was an innocent and a just person, they rather chose that the divine vengeance should pursue their latest posterity, than that he should be suffered to live.

The second cause of the calamities was their obstinate impenitence; for they wantonly abused the patience and long-suffering of God, and, notwithstanding all the labours of John the Baptist, of Christ himself, and his apostles, continued the same dead and unfruitful trees as they were before. Therefore, Bb

VOL. II.

they could expect nothing else at last, but the execu> tion of that sentence, which Christ had long since denounced against them in a parable, viz. cut down [the barren fig-tree] why cumbereth it the ground? (Luke xiii. 7.) John the Baptist had before, in God's name, declared to the Jews the same truth, in these words, and now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees: therefore every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

Moreover the blessed Jesus by these words, as it were, called upon the Jewish people to look on his sufferings as in a mirror, which represented to them the wrath that should come on their city and nation. As if our blessed Lord had said, a green tree has a kind of power in itself, by which it resists the fire; whereas a dry tree is soon consumed by the flames, without making any opposition. Thus if I, who am by nature a green and fruitful tree, am dried up by the fire of God's displeasure, on account of the sins of others which are imputed to me; if I am loaded with a curse, and as it were rooted out from the land of the living, in a most painful manner; much more will the unbelieving Jews, who are dead and barren trees, without any sap or life of the spirit, and even thorny briars and sons of Belial, be seized by the divine wrath, and consumed by temporal and eternal judgments on account of their own sins, if they persevere in their impenitence.

Now these words are still more remarkable on the following account. The Jews, by their repeated clamours, had prevailed on the Roman governor to crucify Christ the Green Tree, and hang him as a curse on a dry tree; but our Saviour intimates, that the time would come, when the Jews, who where dry trees, should be hanged on green trees. For when the Jews, who were besieged in Jerusalem by the Romans, were unable to hold out any longer against the miseries which raged within the city, they went out of Jerusalem in multitudes to surrender them

selves prisoners. Now the number of such deserters being very great, Titus the Roman general ordered them to be executed in a most dreadful manner. For above five hundred of them, after they had been tortured and scourged, were crucified, for several days successively before the city walls, in all manner of frightful postures. According to Josephus, such vast numbers of Jews perished in this manner, that at length there was neither room to erect the crosses near the walls, nor a sufficient number of crosses for the condemned. Thus the divine retaliation manifested itself; for God permitted these dry barren trees to suffer the same barbarous treatment, which the green tree had met with from them.

H. Having thus illustrated the true sense and meaning of these words of the Lord Jesus, let us, in the next place, turn our thoughts to a salutary application of them, and consider the advantages which both impenitent and penitent souls may derive from them.

Among the impenitent we may reckon those who impiously despise the covenant of grace, and live in a total neglect of God's ordinances, and particularly the sacrament of the Lord's supper; those who live in the open violation of the divine laws, and commit all the works of darkness; those who are given to lasciviousness, gluttony, and drunkenness; and those who live in enmity, and bear an irreconcilable hatred to their neighbours. Concerning these and the like scandals of the christain name, who, alas, are too numerous, the spirit of God has declared by St. Paul (Gal. v. 19.) that while they continue in such a state, they shall not inherit the kingdom of God

Moreover, to this unhappy class likewise belong all those who have not, with their whole hearts, conceived such a hatred against every sin, that they would rather suffer death, than commit any deliberate offence. But much more justly may they be numbered among the impenitent, who are enamoured