ments, when he saw them, God wonderfully turned
his heart to spare and favour them, much as he did
the heart of Esau when he met Jacob. After this,
one of the kings of Egypt, a successor of one of
Alexander's four captains, entertained a design of
destroying the nation of the Jews ; but was re-
markaJDly and wonderfully prevented by a strong
interposition of heaven for their preservation.

But the most wonderful preservation of them all
in this period, was under the cruel persecution of
Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, and successor
of another of Alexander's four captains. The Jews
were at that time subject to the power of Antiochuc;



IROM THE CAl'TIVITY TO CHRIST. 1^9

unci he being enraged against them, long strove to
liis utmost to destroy them, and root them out ; at
least all of them that would not forsake their reli-
gion, and worship his idols. He in a great measure
wasted the country, and depopulated, the city of
Jerusalem ; profaned the temple, by setting up his
idols in some parts of it, and persecuted the people
with insatiable cruelty ; so that we have no account
of any persecution like this before. Many of the
particular circumstances of this persecution would
be very affecting, if I had time to insist on them.
This cruel persecution began about an hundred and
seventy years before Christ. It is much spoken of
in the prophecy of Daniel, and referred to in the
New Testament. Dan. viii. 9— 25. xi. 31— 38. Heb.
xi. 36—38.*

Antiochus intended not only to extirpate the
Jewish religion, but as far as in him lay, the very
nation ; and in particular he laboured to the utmost
to destroy all the copies of the law. Considering
how weak they were in comparison with a king of
such vast dominion, the providence of God appears
very wonderful in defeating his design. Many times
the Jev/s seemed to be on the very brink of ruin,
and just ready to be wholly swallowed up : their
enemies often thought themselves sure of obtaining
their purpose. They once came against the people
with a mighty army, and with a design of killing all,
except the women and children, and of selling these
for slaves ; and they were so confident of obtain-
ing their purpose, and others of purchasing, that
above a thousand merchants came with the army,
with money in their hands, to buy the slaves that
should be sold. But God wonderfully stirred up
and assisted one Judas, and other his successors,
that were called Maccabees, who, with a small hand-
ful in comparison, vanquished their enemies time
after time, and delivered their nation. This was

* The particulars of this persecution are also recited at length in
the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the second book of Maccabees,
and the most material parts of it are confirmed by Josephus.



IGO HISTORY OF REDEiMPTION.

foretold by Daniel, chap. xi. 32. Speaking of An-
tiocluis's persecution, he says, ' And such as do
wickedly against the covenant, shall he corrupt by
flatteries : but the people that do know their God,
shall be strong, and do exploits.'*

God afterwards brought this Antiochus to a fear-
ful, miserable end, by a loathsome disease, under
dreadful torments of body, and horrors of mind.
This also was foretold, Dan. xi. 45. ' Yet he shall
come to his end, and none shall help him.' After
his death, attempts were still made to destroy the
church of God ; but they were all defeated.

17. The next thing to be taken notice of is the
destruction of the Grecian empire, and setting up
of the Roman. This was the fourth overturning of
the world in this period ; and though it was brought
to pass more gradually, than the setting up of the
Grecian empire, yet it far exceeded that, and was
much the greatest and largest temporal monarchy
that ever appeared on earth. Hence the Roman
empire was commonly called all the world, as in
Luke ii. 1. And there went out a decree from
Caesar Augustus, that ' all the world should be
taxed,' that is, all the Roman empire. This empire
is spoken of as much the strongest and greatest of
any of the four. Dan ii. 40. ' The fourth kingdom
shall be strong as iron ; forasmuch as iron breaketh
in pieces, and subdueth all things ; and as iron that
breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and
bruise.' So also Dan. vii. 7, 19, 23. The time that
the Romans first conquered and brought under the
land of Judea, was between sixty and seventy years
before Christ was born. Soon after this the Roman
empire was established in its greatest extent, and
the world continued subject to it till Christ came,
and many hundred years afterwards.

The nations being thus united under one monarchy
when Christ came, and when the apostles went forth



* This prediction refers to the courage and success of Judas Mac-
cabeus. See I Maccabees iii. iv.



FROM THE CAPTIVITY TO CHHIST. 161

to preach, tended greatly to prepare the way for the
spread of the gospel, and the setting up of Christ's
kingdom in the world : for the world being thus
subject to one government, opened a communication
from nation to nation, and so opportunity was given
for the more swiftly propagating the gospel through
it. Thus in the British nation, the communication
from one part of its dominions to another, is much
easier than to foreign kingdoms. There are innu-
merable difficulties in travelling through nations un-
der different independent governments, which are
not in travelling through different parts of the same
realm, or different dominions of tlie same prince.
So the world being under one government, that of
the Romans, in Christ's and the apostles' times, faci-
litated the apostles travelling, and the gospel's
spreading throughout the world.

18. About the same time learning and philosophy
were risen to their greatest height in the heathen
world. Almost all the famous philosophers tliat we
have an account of among the heathen, lived after
the carrying away into Babylon. Almost all the wise
men of Greece and Rome flourished m this time.
Many of them were indeed men of great temporal
wisdom ; and that which they in general professed
to make their business was to inquire wherein man's
chief happiness lay, and the way in which they
might obtain it. They seemed earnestly to busy
themselves in this inquiry, and wrote multitudes of
books about it, many of which are still extant.
There have been reckoned up several hundreds of
their different opinions concerning it. Thus they
wearied themselves in vain, wandering in the dark,
not having the glorious gospel to guide them. God
was pleased to suffer men to do the utmost they
could with human wisdom, and to try the extent of
their own understandings to find out the way to
happiness, before the true light came to enlighten
the world ; before he sent the great Prophet to lead
men in the right way to happiness. God suffered
these philosophers to try what they could do for six



1G2 HISTOUY OF REDEMPTION.

hundred years together ; and then it proved, by the
events of so long a time, that all they could do w^as
in vain. The world did not become wiser, better,
or happier under their instructions, but grew more
and more foolish, wicked, and miserable;* He suf-
fered their wisdom and philosophy to come to the
greatest height before Christ came, that it might
be seen how far reason and philosophy could go in
their highest ascent, that the necessity of a divine
teacher might appear before Christ came. And God
was pleased to make foolish the wisdom of this
world, to show men the folly of their best wisdom,
by the doctrines of his glorious gospel which were
above the reach of all their philosophy. 1 Cor. i.
19—21.

After God had shown the vanity of human learning,
he was pleased to make it subservient to the pur-
poses of Christ's kingdom, as a handmaid to divine
revelation ; and so the prevalence of learning in the
world before Christ came, made way for his coming



* The heathen philosophers, thougli tliey have advanced fine say-
ings and sublime precepts, in some points of moralit}^ have grossly
tailed in others : such as the toleration or encouragement of revenge,
slavery, unnatural lust, fornication, suicide, &c. For example: Plato
expressly allowed of excessive drinking at the festivals of Bac(;hus. —
Maximu.s Tyrius forbad to pray.— Socrates directs his hearers to con-
sider the Greeks as brethren, but all who were of any other country
as natural enemies. — Aristotle maintained that nature intended bar-
barians, all who were not Grecians, to be slaves. — The Stoics held
that all crimes were equal.— Plato, Cicero, Epictetus, allow and advise
men to continue the idolatry of their ancestors. — Aristotle and Cicero
both speak of the forgiveness of injuries, as meanness and pusilla-
nimity. — These were trillcs to what follows.— Aristotle and Plato both
direct, that means should be used to prevent weak ciiildren being
brought up. — Cato commends a young man for frequenting the stews.
— Cicero expressly speaks of fornication as a thing never found fault
with. — Plato recommends a community of women, and advises that
soldiers should not be restrained from sensual indulgence, even the
most unnatural species of it. — Xenophon relates, witljout any marks
of reprobation, that unnatural lust was encouraged by the laws of se-
veral Grecian states. —Solon, their great lawgiver, forbad it only to
slaves. — Diogenes inculcated, and openly practised, the most brutal
lust. — Zeno and Cato killed themselves.

At this time; Christianity broke forth from the east, like a rising
sun, and dispelled this universal darkness, which obscured every part
of the globe ; and which even at this day, prevails in all those remoter
regions, to which its salutary iuHuence has not as yet extended.
[Soame Jenyns's Internal Evidence of the Christian" Religion.]



FKOM THE CAPTIVITY TO CHRIST. 163

by showing the vanity of human wisdom, and the
necessity of tlie gospel. Hereby also a handmaid
was prepared to the gospel ; and it was made use
of as such by the apostle Paul, who was famed for
his learning, and was skilled not only in that of the
Jews, but also of the philoso])hers ; and improved it
to the purposes of the gospel, as you may see he did
in disputing with the philosophers at Athens. Acts
xvii. 22. He by his learning knew well how to
improve what he had read in their writings, and even
cites their own poets.* And now Dionysius, who
was a philosopher, was converted by him ; and as
ecclesiastical history gives us an account, made a
great instrument of promoting the gospel. There
were also many others in that and the following
ages, who were eminently useful by their human
learning, in promoting the interests of Christ's king-
dom.

19. Just before Christ was born, the Roman em-
pire was not only raised to its greatest height, but
also settled in peace. About four and twenty years
before this, Augustus Caesar, the first Roman empe-
ror, ascended the throne : till then the Roman em-
pire had of a long time been a commonwealth under
the government of the senate, but now it became
an absolute monarchy. This Augustus Caesar, as
he was the first, so he was the greatest of all the
Roman emperors. Thus the power of the heathen
world, which was Satan's visible kingdom, was
raised to its greatest height, after it had been rising
gradually and strengthening itself more and more
from the days of Solomon to this day, which was
^bout a thousand years. Now the heathen world



* Those words, ' For in him we live,' &c. have been supposed by
some to be an allusion to an old Greek poet ; but be this as it may, the
folJowinjf words, ' For we are also his offspring,' or as Doddridge
more properly renders them, preserving their poetic air,

' For we his offspring are' —
These are unquestionably the words of Aratus,apoet of Cilicia, Paul's
own country, who wrote three hundred >ears before his time. I Cor.
;Xv. 33, is supposed to be a quotation from Mcnander, another Greek
poet.



)64 HISTORY or KEDEMPTIOX.

was in its greatest glory for strength, wealth, and
learning.

God did two things to prepare the way for Christ's
coming, wherein he took a contrary method from
that which human wisdom would have taken. He
brought his own visible people very low, and made
them weak ; but the heathen, who were his enemies,
he exalted to the greatest height, for the more glo-
rious triumph of the cross of Christ. With a small
number in their greatest weakness, he conquered his
enemies in their greatest glory. Thus Christ tri-
umphed over principalities and powers in his cross.

Augustus Csesar had been for many years esta*
blishing the state of the Roman empire, subduing
his enemies in one part and another, till the very
year that Christ was born ; when all his enemies
being subdued, his dominion over the vv^orld seemed
to be settled in its greatest glory. All was esta-
blished in peace ; in token whereof the Romans
shut the temple of Janus, which was an established
symbol among them of there being universal peace
throughout the Roman empire.* And this universal
peace, which was begun the year that Christ was
born, lasted twelve years, till the year that Christ
disputed with the doctors in the temple.

Thus the world, after it had been, as it were, in
a continual convulsion for so many hundred years
together, like the four winds striving together on the
tumultuous raging ocean, whence arose those four
great monarchies ; being now established in the
greatest height of the fourth and last monarchy, and
settled in quietness, all things are ready for the
birth of Christ. This remarkable universal peace,
after so many ages of tumult and war, was a fit pre-
lude for the ushering of the glorious Prince of
Peace into the world.

* The temple of Janus was a square building', some say of intirc
brass, which contained a statue of Janus five feet high ; with brazen
gates always kept open in time of war, but shut in time of peace ;
which however seldom happened. Historians mention eight times of
its being shut up, three of which were in the reign of Augustus, and
one of them in the time of our Lord's birth.



FROM THE CAPTIVITY TO CHRIST. 1C5

Thus I have gone through our first grand period,
that from the fall to the time of the incarnation of
Christ ; and have shown the truth of the iirst pro-
position, viz. That from the fall of man to the incar-
nation of Christ, God was doing those things that
were preparatory to Christ's coming, and forerun-
of it.



IMPROVEMENT OF PERIOD I.

Before I proceed to the next proposition, I would
make some few remarks, by way of improvement,
upon what has been said under this.

1. We may strongly argue, that Jesus of Nazareth
is indeed the Son of God, and the Saviour of the
world ; and that the Christian is the true religion,
seeing Christ is the very person so evidently pointed
at, in all the great dispensations of divine providence
from the fall of man, and was so undoubtedly in
many instances foretold from age to age, and sha-
dowed forth in a vast variety of types and figures.
If we seriously consider the course of tilings from
the beginning, and observe the motions of all the
great wheels of providence from one age to another,
we shall discern that they all tend hither. They
are all as so many lines, whose course, if accurately
followed, will be found to centre here. This person
came into the world with a commission and authority
from God to do his work, and to declare his mind.
It cannot be any vain imagination, but a plain and
evident truth, that that person who was born at
Bethlehem, and dwelt at Nazareth and at Caper-
naum, and was crucified w ithout the gates of Jeru-
salem, must be the great Messiah, or anointed of
God. And blessed are all they that believe in and
confess him, and miserable are all that deny him.
This shows the unreasonableness of the Deists, who
deny revealed religion ; and of the Jews, who deny
that this Jesus is the Messiah foretold and promised
to their fathers.



166 HISTORY OF HEDEMPTIOM. • J

Here some persons maybe ready to object, that
perhaps some subtle or cunning men contrived to
forge this history, and these prophecies, so that they
should all point to Jesus Christ on purpose to prove
him to be the Messiah. To such it may be replied,
how could their craft and subtilty help them to fore-
see and point at an event that was to come to pass
many ages afterwards ; for no fact can be more
evident, than that the Jews had those writings long
before Christ was born ; as they have them still in
great veneration, wherever they are throughout the
world ; and they would never have received such a
contrivance from Christians, to point to and confirm
Jesus to be the Messiah, who they always denied to
be so ; and much less would they have been made
to believe that they always had these books in their
hands, if they had been an imposition.

2. What has been said, affords a strong argument
for the divine authority of the books of the Old Tes'
tament, from that admirable harmony there is in
them, whereby they all point to the same object.
For we may see from what has been said, how all
the parts of the Old Testament, though written by
so many different penmen, and in ages distant one
from another, do all beautifully harmonize : all agree
in one testimony, and all centre in the same event ;
an event which it was impossible any one of them
should foreknow, but by a divine revelation, even the
future coming of Christ. This is evident from what
has been said above.

Now, if the Old Testament was not inspired by
God, what account can be given of such an agree-
ment ? For if these books were only human writings,
written without any divine direction, then none of
these penmen knew that there would come such a
person as Jesus Christ into the world ; his coming
was only a mere figment of their own brain. And
if so, how happened it that this imagination of theirs,
which they foretold without any manner of ground
for their prediction, was so exactly fulfilled ? Espe-
cially how did they come all to agree in it, all point-



IMPROVEMF.XT OF PFRIOD I. 1 G7

iiig- exactly to the same thing, though they lived so
many hundred years distant one from another? This
admirable agreement in a future event, is therefore
a clear and certain evidence of the divine authority
of those writings.

3. Hence we may learn what a weak and igno-
rant objection it is which some make against some
parts of the Old Testament, that they consist so
much of the histories of their kings and rulers, of
their wars with the neighbouring nations, and of the
changes that happened from time to time in their
state and government. Other nations, say they, used
to keep histories of their public aftairs as well as
the Jews, why then should we think that these his-
tories are the word of God, more than those of other
people? But what has been said, shows the folly
and vanity of such an objection. For hereby it ap-
pears, that the case of these histories is very differ-
ent from that of all others. This alone gives us an
account of the original of all things ; and deduces
them down in a regular series from that original,
giving a view of the whole scheme of divine provi-
dence, from the beginning to the consummation of
all things ; with an account of the wise and holy
designs of the Governor of the world in all. — By
these histories it appears how God has been carry-
ing on the glorious work of redemption from age to
age. And though histories, yet are they full of di-
vine instruction,"and show forth Christ, and his glo-
rious gospel, no less than other parts of the holy
scriptures which are not so.

The objection, that it is a common thing for na-
tions and kingdoms to write histories and keep re-
cords of their "wars, and the revolutions that come
to pass in their territories, is so far from being a
weighty objection against the historical part of
scripture, as though it were not the word of God,
that it is a strong argument in favour of it. For if
reason and the light of nature teaches all civilized
nations to keep such records, and to publish them
for the information of others ; how much more may



IG8 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.

we expect that God would give the world a record
of the dispensations of his divine government, which
doubtless is infinitely more worthy of an history for
our information ? If wise kings have taken care that
there should be good histories written of the nations
over which they have reigned, shall we think it in-
credible, that Jesus Christ should take care that his
church, M^hich is his kingdom, his peculiar people,
should have in their hands a history of their nation,
and of his government over them ?

If it had not been for the history of the Old Tes-
tament, how ignorant should we have been of God's
dealings towards mankind, and especially his church,
from the beginning ? We should have been wholly
in the dark about the creation of the world, the fall
of man, the first rise and continued progress of the
dispensation of grace towards fallen mankind ; how
the light of the gospel first began to dawn in the
world, how it increased, and how things were pre-
paring for the coming of Christ.

If we are christians, we belong to that divine
building of God that has been the subject of our
discourse : but if it had not been for the history of
the Old Testament, we should never have known
what was the first occasion of God's going about
this building, and how the foundation of it was laid,
or how it has gone on from the beginning. The
times of the history of the Old Testament are mostly
such as no other history reaches up to ; and there-
fore if God had not preserved an account of these
things in his word, we should have been wholly
without them.

Those that object against the authority of the Old
Testament history of the nation of the Jews, may
as well make it an objection against Moses's account
of the creation that it is historical ; for in the former
we have the history of a work no less important,
viz. the work of redemption. Nay, this is a far
greater and more glorious work, as we observed be-
fore ; and if it were inquired which of the two
works, the work of creation, or the work of provi-



li\ir«OVEMENT OF PKRIOD I. 1 G9

dence, is greatest ; it 'must be answered, the work
of providence; but the work of redemption is the
greatest of the works of providence. And let those
who make this objection consider what part of the
Old Testament can be spared, without making a
great breach in that thread or series of events by
which this glorious work has been carried on. — This
leads me to observe,

4. That from what has been said, we may see
much of the wisdom of God in the composition of
the scriptures of the Old Testament. Let us briefly
take a view of the several parts of it, and of the
need there was of them.

First it was necessary that we should have some
account of the creation of the world, of our first
parents and their primitive state ; of the fall, of the
old world and its degeneracy, and of the universal
deluge ; also of the origin of nations after this de-
struction of mankind.

It seems proper that there should be some ac-
count of thi succession of the church of God from
the beginning ; and seeing God suffered all the
world to degenerate, and only took one nation to be
his people, to preserve the true worship and religion
till the Saviour should come, that in them the world
might gradually be prepared for that great lij;ht,
and those wonderful things of which he was to be
the author; and that they might be a typical nation,
in whom God might shadow forth the future glo-
rious things of the gospel. It was therefore neces-
sary that we should have some account of this, how
it was first done by the calling of Abraham, by their
being bondslaves in Egypt, and by their being
brought thence to Canaan. It was necessary that
we should have some account of the revelation
which God made of himself to that people, in giving
their law, in the appointment of their typical wor-
ship, and of the formation of their civil and eccle-
siastical state.

It seems necessary that we should have some ac-
count of their being actually brought to Canaan,



170 }IIST0IIV OF H ED E MPT I ox.

their promised land. That we should have a history
of the successions of the church of Israel, and of
those providences of God tov^^ards them, w^hich were
most considerable and fullest of gospel mystery.
That we should have some account of the highest
external glory of that nation under David and So-
lomon, and more particularly of the former, whose