Vol. Íl. 6666 `7 he Evidences of the Truth from Heavenhave consumed them ; which is vety much the lame with that the Apoflle fays of them, r Thrff. z. r6. That they were filling up the mea- fstre of their Sins, that wrath might come upon them to the uttermofl. Now what can we imagine their great Sin should be at that time t Alt along the Hiftory of the Oid Teflament ufually the ,(seat Sin whereby they provoked God, was their Idolatry, for which God Pent many Judgments up- on them, and at laft fold them into Captivity. But when this Defolatiom came upon them, and for a long time before, even ever after the Captivity, they had been free from that great Tranfgreflicn, and were mightily bent againft Idolatry, fo that they would rather die than commit that Sin. The account which yofephus gives of their Sin, was their intestine Sediti- ons, and the Crueltiesand Profanations of the Temple that wereconfeqùent upon them. But that this could not be the original provocation, is plain, becaufe by the acknowledgment of lofephus, and the 7ews themfelves, this w,ts the greateft Judgment and Calamity that came upon them ; yea much greater than any thing which they fuffered by the Romans ; yea fo great, that it render'd them the pity of their very Enemies ; and when the Romano would have granted peace to them, and gladly have put an end to thofe Miferies they faw them involved in, yet they continued their inteftine Seditions, and would not be taken off from deflroying one another. Let them then give us any probable account, for what great fin it was, that God first gave them up to this great Judgment of an induftrious endea- vour to destroy one another : or if they cannot, let them believe the ac- count which the Hifory of the New Teftament gives of it, and the truth whereof was fo remarkably confirmed by the fulfilling of our Saviour's Pre- dietions against them. The Apoftle gives a clear account of their Sin, in the forementioned place, t Theff. 2. 15, 16. that it was becaufe They had kill'd the Lord yeJus, and their own Prophets, and Perfecuted the .Apostles by thefe fteps they fill'd up theirfins, and wrath came upon them to the ut- termost. V. The punifhment that was infli&ted upon them bath very fhrewd Marks and Signatures upon it, fromwhich it is eafie to conjeéture, for what Sin it was that they were thus punifb'd. Titus laid his Siege to yerufalens at the very fame time and feafon that the 7ews Crucified Christ, namely, at the time of the Paf over ; and the very day that he beganhis Siege, he.Cru- cified one before their Walls, anti afterward, almeft the only cruelty that the Romans exercifed toward them by the command and permiffion of Titus, was Crucifixion ; infomuch that fometimes five hundred were Crucified in a day, till they wanted Wood for Croffes. So that they who earneftlycryed out againft our Saviour, Crucifie, Crucifie, had at last enough ; God made them eat thefruit of their own ways, and filled them with their own devises : and they who had bought Christ for thirty pieces of Silver, were after- ward themfelves fold at a lower rate. VI. Their Religion was remarkably (truck at, and . affronted, as if God intended to put an end to that Difpenfation, and to abrogate their Law. Most of their great Calamities happened to them upon the Sabbath-day, and upon their great Feftivals. Ceftius Gallus fat down with his. Army be- fore yeraJalem on the Sabbath. Titus befieged them at the time of the Paff- over. S And day, 'that a da taken, (as Dio which the yews havenfo great abveneration. the Sabbath-day, y The Zealots profaned the Temple by making it a Garrifon, and by the ra- pine and bloodshed committed in it ; they brought the Priefthood into con- tempt, by chufng the meaneft of the People into the higheft Offices; they turned the materials of the Temple into Inflruments of War. The Romans themfelves were as much grieved to fee how the yews profaned their Temple, as
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