one stone upon another, even of the old foundations: yet, after all, behold them! Their time is now come, and the work is allowed. Yes, two deliverances already from Egypt and from Babylon are pledges of the third.

But more particularly, observe that three events are here foretold; some dreadful siege of Jerusalem, a vision of the Messiah, and a consequent mourning of the Jews. As to this mourning, you have already heard it largely described.

As to the siege, when so many nations shall be gathered together against one city, great must needs be the tribulation of that city. Besides, the tribulation of that day is not left to the imagination. For it follows, a little below:-" Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem to the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and

half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." (Zech. xiv. 1-5.)

Let us then inquire, lastly, as to the vision of the Messiah, the greatest event of all; and for which all this tribulation should be preparatory: Is it literal? Is it a vision of himself in person? Decidedly. It is apparent on the face of the whole writing. You will grant that a literal siege is foretold. You will grant that the mourning must be literal, described as it is so particularly, every family by name. Well then, with regard to the Messiah; the Jews themselves concede that the Messiah was to be literally pierced; and they will tell you that this is what the word pierced properly signifies, and not only the puncture of grief or reproach. You may yourselves perceive that the whole context of mourning, as for an only son, or as for King Josiah in the valley of Megiddon, can relate only to a literal death: you are satisfied that, in fact, the Messiah was literally transfixed, or thrust through with a spear: then where all is so unquestionably literal, the siege literal, the piercing

literal, the death literal, the mourning literal, how can the vision be otherwise than literal also ?

But what needs even this inference when the rally to the rescue is obviously literal and personal? "Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations." But this does not satisfy you? Yet surely this will: "And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee!" But here we have the descriptive accuracy almost of a legal instrument laying down the abutments of a field: "His feet shall stand that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem, towards the east." These are not figures but facts. It is the plain announcement of a matter of fact and personal arrival (in the midst of a literal earthquake too) at that very Mount of Olives from which, when he ascended up in the presence of his apostles, until a cloud received him out of their sight, immediately a vision of angels stood beside them and said, that his return should be even in like manner as they had seen him go into heaven. They certainly shall look upon that very Messiah whom they have pierced, and standing too on that very Mount of Olives. This is proof even to the Jew acknowledging only the authority of the prophet.

Simple and strong as this evidence is, confirmed it is to absolute certainty by the testimony and

authority of the Lord himself; for, upon two several occasions, and in both foretelling his own return, he has pointed (by a short and rapid reference peculiar to the Jews) to this very prophecy, as then to be fulfilled; then, when he himself shall return. when he delivered that disciples sitting on this and immediately before his crucifixion.

The first occasion was great prophecy to his same Mount of Olives,

You recollect, that our Lord arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived whom he raised from the grave, six days before the passover, and thence proceeded in a kind of state to Jerusalem amidst the hosannas of the multitude. The tenant of the tomb, Lazarus, was in that procession, and hence those acclamations; that miracle extorted from their lips the fulfilment of another prediction by our prophet: "Rejoice, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy king cometh!" And let us remark, by the way, that in the midst of all this joy and jubilee he commanded a sudden halt; when, at the foot of that same Mount of Olives, he stood and passed sentence upon Jerusalem, tears interrupting speech. Consider all these circumstances; the call of Lazarus from the grave, his presence there almost in his winding sheet, the acclamations of the multitude, the sentence upon

Jerusalem, the temple swept again; all this considered, say, whether there was not even then a sort of rehearsal of that great day which is at hand, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven? Then all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; he shall descend with the thundering acclamations of the heavenly host; he shall both pass sentence and execute judgment, "in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

But this is a digression; that night he lodged at Bethany, and the next day returning to the city and temple, he foretels what would be the result of his last efforts to save them; they would persecute his messengers and perish in their sins! At that thought, again he melts: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, How often would I have gathered together thy children, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say

unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." With these words he turned his

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