3. The new dispensation was likewise introduced, in the first place, among the Jews who continued to reside in Palestine, and when a sufficient number of them were fully initiated persecutions were caused to arise which scattered them abroad among the nations; and the Gentile languages not being known to them, they were miraculously endowed with the gift of tongues, that they might communicate to others the treasures of Divine knowledge committed to them. Thus, when the old dispensation had fulfilled its design in disciplining the Jews, in imparting first ideas, and thus, as a 'schoolmaster,' preparing the people for the higher instruction of Christ; and when the fulness of the times had come that the means and the material were prepared to propagate the spiritual truth of the new dispensation, then the Mosaic cycle would appropriately close--it would not be consistent that it should remain longer, for the plain reason given by Jesus himself, that new wine should not be put into old bottles, nor the old and imperfect forms be incorporated with the new and spiritual system. Therefore it was that so soon as the new dispensation had been introduced, and its foundations firmly laid, Jerusalem, the centre of the old economy, with the temple, and all things pertaining to the ritual service, was at once and completely destroyed, and the old system vanished away for ever. It would not have been expedient for God to destroy the old system sooner, because it was necessary to engraft the new system upon the old; and it ought not to have remained longer, for the reasons above stated.[24] [24] It was necessary that the old system should be destroyed at this time in order to throw the Jews upon Christ as the sacrifice for their sins. Under the old dispensation the sacrifices for sin were allowed to continue to the end. From this sacrifice they were taught to hope for pardon. An idea had been, by the process which God himself instituted, originated in their mind, that death must ensue for sin; but by transferring their sins to the head of the sacrifice, it died as a vicarious expiation, and they lived. It had become a part almost of the Jewish mind, that they could not hope for pardon, unless the sacrifice was offered. They felt that their life was forfeited by sin, and they were unpardoned until the sacrifice was made, and it could be made nowhere else but at Jerusalem. Now God destroyed Jerusalem, and caused the offering for sin to cease, and entirely annihilated the possibility of their ever again expiating their sins by the bloody sacrifices; they were therefore shut up to the doctrine of Christ's sacrifice for sin. By the destruction of Jerusalem the alternative was presented to the Jews--Accept of Christ's sacrifice, or you have no propitiation for your sins. CHAPTER X. THE MEDIUM OF CONVEYING TO MEN PERFECT INSTRUCTION IN DOCTRINE AND DUTY.