SERM. fingular, fo unlike those of Other ExV. iles and Captives, and so different from

Deut.

xxviii.37.

what befell them in their former Disperfions, that no Account can be given of their thus Suffering beyond Example, but from their Sinning beyond Example in the Crucifixion of our Saviour.

To what else can we afcribe that Universal Contempt and Abhorrence they have undergone, from Chriftians of all forts, nay even from Turks and Heathens; so as to become, in the Prophetick Expreffions of Mofes, an Aftonishment, a Proverb, and a By-word among all Nations, whither the Lord hath led them?

To what else can be imputed their Exclufion from Offices and Honours eve. ry where, and even from the Common Benefits of Strangers? The frequent Oppreffions and Exactions, under which they have groaned, the various Expulfions and Maffacres that have befallen them? Wherever they came, they have (as the Pen of the fame Prophet describes their Case) Deut. found no Eafe, neither hath the Sole of xxviii.65 their Foot had Reft; but the Lord hath

given them a Trembling Heart, and Fail- SERM. ing of Eyes, and Sorrow of Mind.

In their Other Deportations, they had often the Favour of their Conquerors; were permitted by them freely and publickly to exercise their Religion, and even to make Profelytes, to live under their own Laws and Customs, and to retain fome Shadow of their Domestick Polity and Government. But in this Laft, they have had none of these Privi leges, or Encouragements; none secured to them by Law, but indulged only by a Secret, and Precarious Connivance; which has been limited and withdrawn, according to the Will and Pleasure of their Masters.

Finally, whereas the longest of their Captivities, after they ettled in Canaan, lafted but seventy Years; This has endured for above Sixteen hundred; that is, for a greater Tract of Time than intervened, from the first building of their Temple by Solomon, to its final Destruction by Titus. Thus long have they been no Nation, but so

many

V.

V.

SERM. many scattered Herds of Vagabonds, without any Temple-worship, or Sacrifices, (the chief Part of their Religion) and without any reasonable Hope, or Profpect of enjoying them. All the Attempts that have been made towards rebuilding their Holy Place, or even towards recovering their Country, out of the Hands of Infidels, have been defeated, and blasted by God, in so remarkable a manner, as if he were jealous f of every Event, which might feem to open a Way home to this wretched People, and give them the leaft Glympfe of a Deliverance on their Bondage.

And all this while (which is the most ftrange and fingular Circumftance of their Punishment) they have continued unmixed, unincorporated with any of the Nations of the Earth, amidst whom they dwelt; their Prefervation in which Separate State, is more wonderful, than their Total Difperfion; and could not have happened for so long a time, so uniformly, every where, without the Immediate Interpofition of God's Provi

dence,

dence, to prevent a Coalition; in order SERM. to render them, by that means, Standing V. and Illuftrious Monuments of his Vengeance, to all Nations and Ages. The Justice and Wisdom of which Severe Proceeding, I shall now in the

Third place, briefly open to you: The Justice of God, in refpect to the Sufferers themselves; and his Wifdom, with regard to the great Ends and Defigns he proposed to himself in their Sufferings.

The Justice of God is manifeft, in thus punishing that Race of Men, which actually fpilt the Blood of Chrift, and made themselves, by a dire Imprecation, responsible for it. And as to the Confequences of this Punishment, on their Children and Defcendants, it must be confidered, that they reach only to those of their Pofterity, who abett their Forefathers Crime, and continue in their Infidelity; for to those of them, who abhorr it, who acknowledge Christ to be the Meffiab, entertain his Doctrine, and VOL. I. throw

K

SERM. throw themselves into the Arms of his V. Mercy, an Exclufion from the Earthly Canaan, and its Privileges, can be thought no grievous Punishment, when that Lofs is fo amply recompenfed by Heb. xi. their gaining Admission to a better, an Heavenly Country, even a Citizenship of Ver. 1o. that new Ferufalem, which is from above, and whofe Builder is God.

16:

And if the Justice of God be free from all Imputation in this great Event, his Wisdom, I am fure, is highly illuftrated by it. For the Destruction of the Fewish Polity and Nation was fo ordered by him, in all the Steps and Methods of its Accomplishment, as to confirm the Truth, and spread the Interefts of Chriftianity.

Could there be a plainer, and more irrefragable Proof of the Divine Milfion of our Lord, than the fulfilling of this Curse on his Murtherers? Who that faw their wide Difperfions, and fad Sufferings, could forbear arguing after this manner? No Nation, from the Beginning of the World, was ever punished

as