But He who pruned begg'd another year
It might remain; and He to make it bear
Would try his utmost; it should surely have
The culture kindest industry could give;
And then, if found unworthy of more care,
It should be cut to feed the greedy fire.
O proud Jerusalem! how oft have I
Desir'd thy children to resort to Me?
As the maternal fowl protects her brood
How often I protection offered ?
But no entreaties wouldst thou ever hear
Nor listen kindly to My good desire;
Therefore thou shortly wilt be desolate,
Are coming foes thy sons to extirpate,
Thy sumptuous temple level with the ground,
So that no stone in order can be found.*
Around thy bulwarks shall a fence be made
Thereby thou be inclos'd on ev'ry side;
War, famine, pestilence, in deadly rage,
Traverse thy streets; their fury nought assuage,†
Until destruction, dreadful and complete,
For thy offences shall make restitute.
Be you, My followers, when you shall behold
The sign which Daniel long ago foretold,
Th' abominated Desolation stand
Around the holy place, assur'd the end
* See Luke chap. xix. ver. 43.
+Ibid xxi. and Matt. xxiii. xxiv.
Is near; then to the desert mountains flee,
Where you may rest in safe tranquillity,
And see such tribulation as before
In Judah was not, nor will evermore !
God in these days will justice execute,
Make sinners of His dreadful wrath partake;
Yet, for believer's sake the awful reign
Of carnage shall be stopp'd, while some remain,
Of stubborn Israel, to be captives made,
And bound in chains, to distant climes convey'd.
Jerusalem! Thou shalt be trodden down
By feet unhallow'd till the moment's come,
When heathens shall the sacred truth believe,
My holy gospel rev'rence and receive,
Their fulness enter My protected fold,
They, and thy sons, but one belief to hold.
A certain Prince, in bounteous regal state,*
The marriage of his son to celebrate,
Prepared a banquet, invitations sent
To select friends to welcome the event,
By their partaking of the richest fare
His royal bounty could for them prepare;
Yet this, his kindness, met their gross abuse,
For all invent so friv❜lous an excuse
To keep them from their sov'reign's special care,
As told they were unwilling to come there.
* See Matthew chap. xxii.
He, still solicitous his own to see,
Sent others more to press their company;
These they with savage cruelty beset,
And ev'ry one or slew, or bound, or beat.
The king, when he these horrid actions knew,
Said to his armies, " March ye to destroy,
"These murd'rers extirpate, their city burn,
"Their stately dwellings into ruins turn,
"Such vile ingratitude I will not bear,
"These as my chosen I'll regard no more;
"But go, my faithful, to the barren plain,
"And ask the stranger, destitute, forlorn,
"To be partakers of my gracious treat,
"And who will come I'll willingly accept;
My will's that all obey your earnest call,
"I wish my princely mansions to be full."
Obey'd with joy this gracious command,
And numbers to the pressing call attend;
Yet some were so audacious as appear
Who did not the connubial garments wear.
The king, surpris'd, ask'd how they durst presume,
Thus in his royal mansion to be seen;
Pierc'd by the sting of having acted wrong
The guilty stood as lifeless statues dumb,
But he commands they be to quit compell'd,
And from his presence evermore expell'd.*
* Let those who pretend to be christians and assume the name, when their conduct in life declares they pay no regard to the solemn precepts of the gospel, be warned to repent by the awful conclusion of this parable; for these nominal christians are the very persons who presumed to enter the courts of their Lord without the wedding garment.
Ere Israel shall the visitation see,*
Come to destroy her state and polity,
Pale famine will its ghostly spectres shew,
And pestilence with corpses strew the way;
War shall her horrid devastations spread,
And millions in the furious battle bleed;
In Judah fearful prodigies appear,†
As heav'nly warnings her destruction's near;
The earth shall quake, dread cries the ear astound,
And splendour lie prostrated on the ground;
Impostors raise commotions in My name,
But, O My faithful, be not led by them!
Injustice will to torture hurry you
On My account, and take your lives away.
The world with hatred will My friends receive,
And some My cause adopt but to deceive,
Iniquity in fullest state appear,
In many love be cold to glow no more;
But, they who faithful stand to see the end,
God's saving power assuredly shall find,
And spread My gospel o'er the spacious world,
Jerusalem her dreadful fate behold.‡
* See Matthew chap. xxiv.
+ See Josephus's history of this war, and a particular account of these prodigies will be found.
Some commentators will have this part of our Lord's prophecy respecting the destruction of Jerusalem, applicable only to the dissolution of the world before the day of Judgment: but I think that the former, alone, is intended, as the Roman arms, before the desolation of Judea, subdued many kingdoms and states which our Lord symbolizes by the heavenly lu
This tribulation pass'd, its fury gone,* Days yet more awful surely are to come; The kingdoms of this world shall pass away, God, o'er all nations sov'reignty display, Kings, potentates, His justice made to see, Power held by rapine forc'd from earth to flee; Ambition curb'd, combin'd oppression die, Benevolence and love their place supply. Regard you that which holy David said, "The stone refused shall in time be made "The chief, the great, foundation corner-stone, "And they shall fall who stumble thereupon; “ But they, on whom it falls, such force shall feel, "As into grains of dust to crush the whole."
As lightning darts its flame along the sky,
So quick, more brilliant, will My coming be:
Let thoughts of this event so frame the soul
As to receive your Judge you're fitting all;
You know nor day nor hour you must remove
To meet your God descending from above.
Let not this world, then, be so coveted
As for a better you be unprepar'd;
But, called hence, may confidently greet
Death's summons, joyful your Redeemer meet,
And, at the last, the awful judgment day,
It may be found you here your God obey.
minaries, and the indefatigable zeal of his apostles had spread the gospel far and wide before the end of the Jewish state and polity took place.
* See Matthew chap. xxiv.
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