or to know what is to come: This is peculiar to the Holy Bible, as being written from the Mouth of God.

You have seen how the Current of the Prophecies of the Old Teftament did point at, and centre in, that great Event, the Coming of the Meffiah.

When he was come, then he told us more plainly of what was to come after him, even to the Confummation of all Things: And by what we have feen exactly fulfilled of all he told us, to this Time, we must believe what remains yet to come.

18. How particularly did he foretel the Deftruction of Jerufalem, and the Temple, Matth. xxiv. And that that Age fhould not pafs, till it fhould be fulfilled? And his very Expreffion was literally fulfilled, That there fhould not be left one Stone upon another in the Temple; for the very Foundations of it were ploughed up by Tur. aus Rufus. See Scaliger's Canon. Ifagog, P. 304.

When Jerufalem was firft befieged, it was full of Chrif tians: But the Siege was raifed unaccountably, and for no Reason that Hiftory gives. In which time the Chrif tians feeing thofe Signs come to pafs, which Chrift had foretold would precede its Deftruction, and particularly laying hold of that Caution he gave, Then let them that are in Judea flee to the Mountains, and that in fuch Haste, as that he that was in the Field was not to return (to Jerufalem) to fetch his Garment; or he on the House-top there, to ftay to take his Goods with him; accordingly all the Christians left Jerufalem, and fled to Pella, a City in the Mountains: And as foon as they were all gone, the Romans returned and renewed the Siege. And fo it came to pass, that when Titus facked the City, there was not one Chriftian found there, and the Destruction fell only upon the unbelieving Jews; the others efcaped, as Lot out of Sodom, by believing the Prediction of that Ruin.

19. Another very remarkable Prediction of our bleffed Lord, in that fame Chapter, was, of the many falle Chrifts that should come after him; and he warned the Jews not to follow them, for that it would be to their Deftruction. Behold (fays he, ver. 25.) I have

told

told you before: But they would not believe him: And accordingly it came to pafs. Jofephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, 1. xviii. c. 12. 1. xx. c. 6. and de Bell. Jud. 1. vii. c. 31. tells of abundance of these false Meffiabs, who appeared before the Destruction of Jerufalem, and led the People into the Wilderness, where they were miferably deftroyed; the very Thing of which our Saviour cautioned them, ver. 26. If they fay unto you, behold, He (that is, Chrift) is in the Defert, go not forth. And, de Bell. Jud. 1. vii. c. 12. Jofephus fays, that the chief Cause of their Obftinacy, in that War with the Romans, was, their Expectation of a Meffiab to come and deliver them; which brought on their Ruin, and made them deaf to the Offers of Titus, who courted them to Peace.

And fince the Deftruction of Jerufalem, there have been fo many falfe Meffiahs, that Johannes a Lent has wrote a Hiftory of them, printed Herbone, 1697. which brings them down as far as the Year 1682,; and tells the lamentable Deftruction of the Jews in following

them.

20. But the next Prophecy of our bleffed Lord, which I produce, is more remarkable than thefe; and of which you fee the fulfilling, in a great measure; viz. That his Gospel fhould prevail over all the World, and that the Gates of Hell fhould not prevail against it: And this told when he was low and defpifed, and had but twelve poor Fishermen for his Followers: And that his Religion fhould conquer, not by the Sword, like Mahomet's, but by patient Suffering, as Lambs among Wolves. And in this State the Church endured moft terrible Perfecu tions, when all the Rage of Hell was let loofe against her, for the first three hundred Years, without any Help but from Heaven only; till, at last, by the Divine Providence, the great Emperor of Rome, and other mighty Kings and Princes, without any Force or Compulfion, did voluntarily and freely submit their Sceptres to Chrift.

No Religion that ever was in the World was fo begun, so propagated, and did so prevail: And hence we

affuredly

affuredly trust, that what remains will be fulfilled, of the Promife of Chrift to his Church in the latter Days. But I fpeak now only of this Prophecy fo long beforehand, and when there was fo little Appearance of its coming to pass, fo far as we have seen already. Let me here remember one particular Paffage, foretold by Chrift, concerning the Woman who anointed his Body to the Burying, That where- Mark xiv. foever this Gospel fhould be preached through- 8, 9. out the whole World, this also that he hath

done fhall be spoken of, for a Memorial of her: And we fee how it is fpoken of to this Day.

DE. If this Book had been loft, we had not heard of this Prophecy.

CHR. So you may say of all the Bible, or of any other Book; but Providence has fulfilled this Prophecy by preferving the Book: And it is a Prophecy that this Book, at least this Fact of the Woman, fhould be preferved for ever; and it may be preserved, though that Book were loft.

12. DE. When Prophecies are fulfilled, and the Events come to pafs, they are plain to every body; but why might they not have been as plain from the Beginning? And then there could have been no Difpute about them; as if it had been faid, that fuch a one by Name, at fuch a Time, and in fuch a Place, fhould do fuch things, &c.

CHR. Because God having given Man Free-Will, he does not force Men to do any wicked thing. And it would be in the Power of wicked Men to defeat a Prephecy against themselves, as to the Circumftance of Time, Place, or the Manner of doing the Thing. For Example: If the Jews had known that Chrift had told his Apoftles he was to be crucified, they would not have done it; they would have stoned him, as they did St. Stephen; for that was the Death appointed by the Law for Blafphemy: And they feveral times attempted to have ftoned Chrift for this, because he said, I am the Son of God, John vii. 59. x. 31, 32, 33. But Crucifixion was a Death by the Roman Law. There

fore

fore the Jezus, to fulfil this Prophecy (but not knowing it), delivered Chrift to the Romans to be put to Death: Yet he told them fo much of it, that after he was crucified they might know it; as he faid to them, Joh. viii. 28. When ye have lift up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am he; and Chap. x. 32, 33, And I, if I be lifted up from the Earth, will draw all Men unto me: This be faid, fignifying what Death he should die. But they understood it not till they had done it: Then they knew what the lifting up meant. And Chap. xviii. 31, 32. When Pilate would have had them judge him according to their Law, which was Stoning, they were cautious at this Time only, and faid, It is not lawful for us to put any Man to Death; because they were then under the Government of the Romans. But the next Words fhew the Defign of Providence in it, That the Say ing of Jefus might be fulfilled, which he spake, fignifying what Death he should die. They had no fuch Caution upon them, when they ftoned St. Stephen after this; nor the many times before, when they took up Stones to have foned the fame Jefus.

Then again, the piercing his Side with the Spear was no Part of the Roman Sentence of Execution, but happened, feemingly, by mere Accident; for the Sentence of the Law was to hang upon the Cross till they were dead: But that being the Day of Preparation for the Sabbath, which began that Evening, foon after Chrift and the Thieves were fastened to the Cross, before it could be fuppofed they were dead; therefore, That the Podies might not remain upon the Cross on the Sabbath Day, the Jews befought Pilate that their Legs might be broken (which was no Part of the Sentence neither, but done), left they fhould escape when taken down: Accordingly the Logs of the Thieves were broken, for they were yet alive; and the Reason why they broke not the •Legs of Chrift was, because they faw that he was dead already; but, to make fure, one of the Soldiers pierced his Side with a Spear, little knowing that they were then fulfilling Prophecies, as that a Boue of bim fhould not be broken: And again, They fhall look on him whom they pierced.

pierced. As little did the Soldiers think of it, when they were cafting Lots upon his Vefture: And the Chief Priefts (if they had known it, or reflected upon it) would not have upbraided him in the very Words that were foretold in the xxii.Pfalm, which I have before quoted: And they would have contrived the Money they gave to Judas to have been one Piece more, or lefs, than just thirty: They would not have come fo punctually in the Way of that Prophecy, Zech. xi. 12, 13. They weighed for my Price thirty Pieces of Siver: And they would not have bought any other Field with it, but efpecially that of the Potter; which Zechariah there likewife mentions.

And as the Enemies of Chrift did not know they were fulfilling thefe Prophecies of him, so neither did his Difciples, at that time when they were fo doing; as it is faid, Joh. xii. 16. Thefe Things understood not his Difciples at the firft; but when Jefus was glorified, then remembered they that thefe Things were written of him, and that they had done thefe Things unto him. This makes the fulfilling thefe Prophecies yet more remarkable,

Where Providence fees that Prophecies will not be minded, they are more exprefs and plain; as likewise where the Paffions and Interefts of Men will hurry them on towards fulfilling them: Thus Alexander the Great is described as plainly almost as if he had been named, Dan. viii. 20, 21, 22. And it is faid, That this Prophecy. which was fhewed him by the High Prieft at Jerufalem, did encourage him in his Expedition against the Perfians. But it is not so when a Man is to do foolish and wicked Things, and Things hurtful to himself; for if thefe were told plainly and literally, it would be in his Power to do otherwife; unless God fhould force his Will, and then he would not be a free Agent.

(22.) DE. I must have recourfe to the Jews, in Anfwer to these Prophecies of the Meffiah, which you have brought For they, owning thefe Scriptures as Revelations given them by God, muft have fome Solution or other for them; or else give themselves up 23 felf-condemned.

CHR.