on the one hand, and for an eternity of spiritual happiness, on the other. If you are saved at all, it must be by grace that you are saved through faith in Christ Jesus;' neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.' As Christians, you can neither conquer your natural corruptions, nor perform works pleasing in the sight of God, but on the strength of your faith. Our Saviour gently reproved Thomas, who had seen all his miracles, and had wrought some himself, for doubting after hearing the testimony of the good women, and the other apostles, concerning his resurrection, until an opportunity should be given of trying the fact by his own senses, not excepting his very feeling. His gracious Master however on this occasion, shewing himself to Thomas as well as to the rest, called upon him to put his finger into the print of the nails in his hands,' and to put his hand into the wound, made in his side, that he might not continue an unbeliever any longer.' On this Thomas appears to have been convinced by the testimony of his eyes, without that of his feeling, and confesses Christ to be his Lord and his God.' That this man was fully satisfied with the reality of what he saw, without waiting for farther cause of conviction, appears from the words of Christ, which follow his confession. Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.' This blessing was certainly intended for you and me. We believe in the resurrection of our Lord, not merely on the report of others who had ocular proof of the fact, but also on the testimony of the Spirit, who had not descended upon Thomas before his doubts, but is ever with us as an inspirer of faith, for ' our faith standeth not in man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,' 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5.

The promise of God, and the faith of a real Christian, are mutually and conditionally engaged to each other in the baptismal covenant. The land of promise, and the land of faith are either but one and the same land, or if two, so closely conjoined, that promise and faith are fed on the frontiers by a continual exchange of fruits. In all sorts of covenants and traffic with men, on performing your part, you trust to them for the performance of theirs; and why

not rather trust in God, who will never fail you, if on your part you are found faithful, than on men not always true to themselves, and still less frequently to their engagements with others? It must be confessed, that neither you nor I are able, of ourselves, to perform our part in this covenant, particularly to believe as we have vowed to do. Our merciful God knows this, and therefore sends us his Holy Spirit, that we may be enabled both to believe and to do according to his good pleasure,' and suitably to the expectations of infinite goodness from creatures so frail as we are.

Which Spirit and power are still with us to all the necessary purposes of faith, obedience, God's glory, and our salvation; but not in working miracles, or preaching a new gospel, or adding any thing to that which had been preached by Christ himself, and by the Holy Spirit, who still speaks to us in the Scriptures of the apostles and evangelists. How these witnesses of Christ went on, after they had received the Holy Ghost, writing, and preaching Christ risen from the dead, with innumerable other necessary gospel doctrines, to Jews and Gentiles, and every where confirming the same with signs and wonders;' how they rejoiced and glorified' in being thought worthy to suffer' all manner of afflictions and miseries for the name of our Redeemer; and how they prospered in making converts to Christ and his holy religion, sometimes by thousands at once, you read in their Acts, written by St. Luke, until Christ came with power, given to a Roman army, to execute vengeance on the Jewish nation, which they themselves had prayed for,' when they called aloud for his blood before Pilate, who, wicked as he was, declared he found no fault in him, and was desirous to let

him go.

How soon, that is, in about thirty-seven years after this transaction, the most astonishing by far ever known throughout the universe, did these Jewish apostates from all their own prophets and expectations, these infernal murderers of God's only and beloved Son, according to his threatening prophecy, Matt. xxiv. 2; Luke xxi. 6, taste the bitter fruits of his vengeance in a total ruin of their temple, their city, and their whole nation! The particular account of their sufferings may be seen in Josephus, a learned Jew, and no Christian, who was present in the Roman army, when this

vengeance was executed. But you may see it in the prophecy of Moses, Deut. xxviii. almost as particularly, and more strongly related, one thousand four hundred and fifty years before the dreadful event. A most hideous havoc had been made of the Jews, throughout their other towns before the Roman army formed the siege of Jerusalem; but as soon as they began to throw up ramparts, &c. about it, all the Christians then in the city, warned by the signs which Christ had given them, fled from it with the utmost haste, Matt. xxiv. 17, and did not stop till they passed the river Jordan; by which means they happily escaped the most severe calamity that ever fell on mankind, before or since. When the siege was so perfectly formed, that nobody could go in or out of the city, there were men enough in it, and they of the most desperate resolution, to have easily destroyed all the Romans. There was also so great a plenty of arms and provisions in it, that the defenders held their besiegers in the utmost contempt. Three numerous parties of them fell to plundering and murdering one another with a rage and barbarity never heard of among nations, most furiously set on mutual destruction; while a very few appeared on the walls for defence of the rest. As any of these parties prevailed, which they all did by turns, they murdered as many of the rest as they could lay their hands on, carried away their provisions, and hid them in the most secret places they could find. The effect of this was such a famine among the aged, the women, and the children, that the mothers, in great numbers, killed and devoured their own infants. It would be as tedious as it is shocking, to dwell any farther on the horrible particulars, as Josephus hath done. But it is worth observing, that when the Romans had taken the city, they found a quantity of provisions, concealed here and there, sufficient to have supported all the inhabitants for twice the time of the siege; some say for a whole year longer than it lasted. The Roman general, Titus, a man of great humanity, would have saved the temple; but between his exasperated soldiers, and the execrable Jews, it was burnt to the ground. Of the Jews, one million and a hundred thousand were put to the sword, ninety-seven thousand carried into captivity, and it is thought, not a smaller number perished,

throughout the rest of the country, by their own hands, and the calamities of that war.

From that time to this, the Jews who escaped by flight, or happened to be dispersed in other countries, have lived a vagabond life, often oppressed and massacred, and every where abhorred, throughout the far greater part of the world, not excepting those nations who have never yet owned Christ for their Saviour. Some think they are now more numerous than ever they were. This is probable; but be it as it will, they bear testimony every where to the truth of those prophecies, which fix the time and place of Christ's appearance in the world; which foretell his miracles, his death, and his resurrection. Theirs is that sort of testimony or evidence, which among mankind is esteemed the most convincing, as it is the testimony of implacable enemies. As soon, however, as the benefit of this testimony shall have been, in the eye of Providence, sufficiently enjoyed by the Church of Christ, and the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in,' this blindness in part, which hath fallen upon the Jews, will be removed, and they shall turn to Christ in such a manner as to greatly refresh the faith of that generation, and to draw in with them prodigious multitudes of the still unbelieving Gentiles, who will be convinced that the prophecies of the New Testament, concerning the kingdom of Christ, in their surprising completion, bear such a testimony to the truth of his religion, as will render that of the formerly unbelieving Jews no longer useful.

About three hundred years after the ruin of Jerusalem and its temple, the Roman emperor Julian, formerly a Christian, but then a heathen, and a bitter enemy to Christ and his religion, not so much to please the Jews, as to mortify the Christians, and still more to defeat the prophecy of Christ concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, invited the Jews, then grown somewhat wealthy, to come from all parts of the empire, and to rebuild their temple; promising to assist them with his treasures and artificers. They assembled, and great preparations of materials, &c. were made on the spot where the old temple stood. But as soon as they began to clear the ground, an earthquake threw all again into confusion. This being thought a mere acci

dent, or the effect only of a natural cause, they renewed their attempt, and opened the foundation, when fire burst out from thence, slew many of the workmen, and forced them entirely to lay aside the design. Some of the fathers of that age make mention of this extraordinary miracle, but the account of it here given, is taken from Ammianus Marcellinus, the pagan historian, a flatterer of Julian, and, if I mistake not, an officer then in his army; but certainly living and writing at that time. This, however, did not make a convert of Julian, nor of Marcellinus, for ought we read in the writings of that age; so hardened was the pride and selfsufficiency of these two infidels, of Pharaoh, and of thousands in every age.

Give me leave to shut up this historical account of prophecies and miracles with one, in each kind, more astonishing, and better known, than all I have hitherto mentioned or referred to. Our blessed Saviour said, John xii. 31-33,

Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.' That he was lifted up on the cross from the earth, and there expired, is universally known; and that he drew mankind unto him, is as well known: but that he will draw the residue of men to him, we are sufficiently assured by this and other prophecies to the like effect, and particularly by the miraculous manner in which he drew the Roman empire, and many other nations so soon after his death, notwithstanding the offence of his cross. We are filled with amazement when we look at this event with eyes accustomed to the transactions of this world, wherein men only, and the natural course of things, seem to be concerned as agents or causes. A few poor men, all unlearned but two, undertake to contend with the whole world, with emperors, kings, philosophers, politicians, armies, devils, and to subdue them to the obedience of their crucified Master; to the adoration of this Master; to a contempt of all their own wisdom, policy, power, and gods, all hitherto by them equally idolized. And by what weapons? preaching, suffering, dying. Not by these alone, but the Holy Spirit, enabling them to out-reason the philosophers, to outspeak the orators, to conquer the armies, by a courage su