chap. xxiii. ver. 37. 38.) where, with that compaffion and kindness which fo eminently distinguished his conduct, even towards those who reviled, infulted, and perfecuted him to the death, he addreffes himself to Jerufalem, after charging upon her all the righteous blood which had been spilt from the time of Abel to his own time, in the following moft pathetic words: "O Jerufalem, Jerufalem, thou "that killeft the prophets, and stonest "them which are fent unto thee; how " often would I have gathered thy chil

dren together, even as a hen gathereth "her chickens under her wings, and ye "would not! Behold, your house is left "unto you defolate."

Many of those who were concerned in the crucifixion of our Saviour, lived to fee his predictions verified in the destruction of the Temple and city of Jerufalem,

der Titus, and the total dispersion of their nation. Their pofterity have continued wanderers over the face of the earth to the present time; and though poffeffed

of

of enormous wealth, have never been ablé to gain a regular establishment, although many attempts have been made for that purpose: they seem to be held out to mankind, by Providence, as a constant and perpetual warning against prefumptuous and crying offences: we can in no other manner account for their not having, long ago, acquired that degree of power and influence which great wealth generally brings with it, instead of being the object of scorn and reproach to the nations of the earth.

I cannot conclude this part of my subject better, than in the words of a very amiable and ingenious friend of mine, in a work which the has lately given to the public: "The terrible exclamation of the Jews, (St. Matthew, chap. xxvii. ver. 25.) His "blood be on us, and on our children!

"

was fulfilled in a manner so strikingly

'remarkable, that it remains incontro

vertible to all times and all nations. "The prophecies of our Lord, concern"ing the deftruction of Jerufalem, were ftrictly

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ftrictly and literally fulfilled; infomuch, "that one ftone was not left upon ano, "ther. The miseries of the Jews, during "the fiege of Jerufalem, were fuch as ftrike every reader with horror and “with awe. The difperfion of the Jews "became a standing miracle, and proof "of the truth of the Chriftian religion, "to every one who is willing to be con "vinced of it,"-Clara Reeve.

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'49. And one of them, named Caiaphas, "being the high priest that fame year, faid "unto them, Ye know nothing at all,

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50. Nor confider that it is expedient for us, that one man fhould die for the people, and that the whole nation perish

not.

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51. And this fpake he not of himself: "but, being high priest that year, he prophefied that Jefus fhould die for that

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52. And not for that nation only, but "that also he should gather together in

"one

one the children of God that wère scat"tered abroad.

53. Then, from that day forth, they took counsel together for to put him to death."

The office of high priest, by the Jewish law, was confined to the elder fon of the houfe of Aaron, and, except through mifconduct, was to continue for life; but when the Jews became subject to the Roman yoke, this regulation was difregarded, and a very different mode was adopted: all offices of importance were bought and fold, and the facred one of high priest amongst the reft: neither the law, therefore, refpecting the family of Aaron, nor even the moral character of the person, was attended to, in the choice of a high priest. Caiaphas was a ftriking proof of the latter: he did not pretend to fay that it was lawful, but only that it was 'expédient' to take away the life of one for the sake of the many; taking care to point out Chrift Jefus as the victim. He feared Fff

not

not the cry of innocent blood, though fuch fevere vengeance was denounced by their law against the shedding of it: he, like many other wicked and deteftable politicians, would facrifice every fentiment of honor, religion, and virtue, rather than risk their power and influence. There seems to have been fome peculiar virtue attached to the office of high priest, independent of the character who poffefsed it. It can never be supposed that Caiaphas was indulged by Providence with any particular mark of its favor; yet he prophefied the truth respecting the death of Jefus Chrift his carnal mind does not seem to have comprehended the spiritual meaning of the prophecy: what he recommended was with a view to promote their tem poral, rather than their eternal welfare. What God has ordained, he sometimes obliges the wicked to publish: we have many inftances of this recorded in Scripture: one of a very striking nature may be found in the twenty-second chapter of Numbers; where Balaam having been fent for to

curfe