The factions in the upper town continued obstinately determined to hold out to the last moment; upon which the Romans had recourse to their former measures of raising banks against it. This, from the great scarcity of materials calculated to answer such designs, had with difficulty been effected when they lately attacked the Temple; the labour was consequently excessive to procure wood from a distance sufficient for the present purpose: yet eighteen days only elapsed before those mounds were seen to threaten the western and north eastern sides of Zion. These struck so great a consternation into the minds of the Idumæans, that forsaking their allies, they entered into treaties with the enemy; and though unable wholly in a body to leave the factions, succeeded in privately deserting to Titus, notwithstanding the precaution of the tyrants to prevent it: they were all well received by the Romans, because Titus had been negligent in the execution of his former orders; and the soldiers were becoming merciful from being weary of the slaughter, as well as from the hope of gaining ransoms by sparing them. These, and other Jewish captives, were disposed of, with their wives and children, at a low and trifling valuation, from the circumstance of there being many for sale, and few to purchase; and though the multitude of the sold was prodigious, yet there were forty thousand of the people saved whom Titus permitted to go wherever they pleased.' "Against for your children; for behold! the days are coming in the which they shall say-blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck: THEN SHALL THEY BEGIN TO SAY TO THE MOUN" : TAINS, FALL ON US! AND TO THE HILLS, COVER US!"-Luke xxiii. 28-30. (1) AND YE SHALL BE PLUCKED FROM OFF THE LAND WHITHER THOU GOEST TO POSSESS IT.-Deut. xxviii. 63. YE Against a city so strongly fortified, and defended by such an obstinate race, Titus saw that nothing "could be done either by surprise, or a general assault. "He threw up mounds and ramparts, and prepared "battering engines. He stationed the legions at "different posts, and assigned to each a distinct share "of duty. For some time no attack was made. In "the interval, the Romans prepared all the machines "of war, which either the ancients had employed, or "modern genius invented;" and by an active and most desperate effort, put the enemy to flight. Panic struck and astonished at the destructive operations of the Romans, they relinquished three of their strongest forts; these, had they not quitted in their surprise and fear, YE SHALL BE SOLD UNTO YOUR ENEMIES FOR BOND-MEN AND BOND-WOMEN, AND NO MAN SHALL BUY YOU. Deut. xxviii. 68. I WILL SCATTER A THIRD PART INTO ALL THE WINDS, AND I WILL DRAW OUT A SWORD AFTER THEM. Ezek. v. 12. THEY THAT ESCAPE OF THEM SHALL ESCAPE, AND SHALL BE ON THE MOUNTAINS LIKE DOVES OF THE VALLIES, ALL OF THEM MOURNING, EVERY ONE FOR HIS INIQUITY. Ezek. vii. 16. THOU SELLEST THY PEOPLE FOR NOUGHT, AND TAKEST NO MONEY FOT THEM. Psalm, xliv. 12. AND THEY SHALL FALL BY THE Edge of the sword, anD SHALL BE LED AWAY CAPTIVE INTO ALL NATIONS. Luke, xxi. 24. Josephus tells us, that Titus sent many of his captives, above seventeen years old, to the works in Egypt, and those under that age were sold. Bell. Jud. 6, viii. 2 and 6, ix. 2. "They who had bought our Saviour," says Abp. Tillotson," for thirty "pieces of silver, were afterwards themselves sold at a lower rate." Sermon ccxl. (1) Hanc adversus urbem gentemque Cæsar Titus, quando impetum et subita belli locus abnueret, aggeribus vineisque certare statuit. Dividuntur Legionibus munia, et quies præliorum fuit; donec cuncta expugnundis urbibus reperta apud veteres, aut novis ingeniis struerentur. SS Tacit. Hist. v. 19, fear, could never have been taken by force, or, indeed, by any other means than by famine.' Thus the enemy, with the possession of the strongest holds, carried every thing before them; whilst some of the besieged exerting the last efforts of which they were capable, assaulted the Roman wall of circumvallation; but enervated by long-endured afflictions, their attempts were so feeble, and so ill directed, that the assailants were dispersed, and driven to the only shelter that subterranean caverns could afford them. The Romans at the same time becoming masters of the city barriers, could hardly reconcile themselves to the belief of their being conquerors, as the opposition made against them had been so small and ineffectual. The legions divided, and, with sword in hand, ranged through every street; killing, without distinction, all whom they encountered on their way: at the same time burning houses, which were filled with the putrid carcasses of the famished people.* The (1) These were the three towers before mentioned: Hippicus, Phasælus, and Mariamne (see page 46). (2) I WILL NO MORE PITY THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND, SAITH The Lord: BUT, LO, I WILL DELIVER THE MEN EVERY ONE INTO HIS NEIGHBOUR'S HAND, AND INTO THE HAND OF HIS KING: AND THEY SHALL SMITE THE LAND, AND OUT OF THEIR HAND I WILL NOT DELIVER THEM. Zech. xi. 6. Here was the fulfilment of the imprecation the Jews brought upon themselves-WE HAVE NO KING BUT CÆSAR. John, xix. 15. WHERESOEVER THE CARCASE IS, THERE WILL THE EAGLES BE GATHERED TOGETHER. Matt. xxiv. 28. This strongly identifies the people who were destined by the Almighty to punish the nation of the Jews—and as an exposed carcase invites the eagles to prey upon it, so the judicially dead body of the Jews called down the Roman eagles, or soldiers, to tear it piece-meal, and bear away the prey in their talons. The horrour of this dreadful spectacle, although it excited feelings of regret for the dead, raised none of compassion for the living. The narrow passages, and some of the streets were now choked up with the bodies of the slain: and the channels of the city ran down in such copious streams of blood, as would have been sufficient to quench the fires that had been kindled,' The day was devoted to slaughter, and the night (1) Bell. Jud. 6, viii. 5. THE BLOOD OF THY SERVANTS HAVE THEY SHED LIKE WATER ROUND ABOUT JERUSALEM, AND THERE WAS NO MAN TO BURY THEM.-Psalm, lxxix. 3. THE BLOOD OF ALL THE PROPHETS WHICH WAS SHED FROM THE FOUNDATION BEHOLD, AND SEE IF THERE BE ANY SORROW LIKE UNTO MY SORROW, WHICH IS DONE UNTO ME, WHEREWITH THE LORD HATH AFFLICTED ME IN THE DAY OF HIS FIERCE ANGER. Lamen. i. 12. Bishop Newton, remarking the correspondence between the crime of the Jews and their punishment, says " They put Jesus to death when the nation was assembled to celebrate the Passover; and when the nation was assembled too, to celebrate the Passover, Titus shut them up within the walls of Jerusalem. The rejection of the true Messiah was their crime; and their following false Messiahs to their destruction, was their punish. ment. They sold and bought Jesus as a slave; and they themselves were afterwards sold and bought as slaves at the lowest prices. They preferred a robber and murderer to Jesus whom they crucified between two thieves; and they themselves were afterwards infested with bands of robbers and thieves. They put Jesus to death, 'lest the Romans should come and take away their place and nation;' and the Romans did come and take away their place and nation. They crucified Jesus before the walls of Jerusalem; they themselves were crucified in such numbers, that it is said, room was wanting for the crosses and crosses for the bodies. I should think it hardly possible for any man to lay these things together and not conclude the Jews' own imprecation to be remarkably fulfilled upon them—“ His blood be on us and on our children." Dissertation on the Prophecies, vol. iii. p. 326. night, to conflagration; till at length, on the eighth day of the month, a conclusion was put to both; "and," says Josephus, "if all the blessings it ever en"joyed from its foundation, had been in proportion to "the calamity and distress it suffered in this siege; "that city had undoubtedly been the envy of the "whole world." Titus, at this advanced stage, commanded none to be put to death, but such only, as were either found in arms, or continued to defy his power: intending to preserve the lives of the remainder to grace his triumphal entrance into Rome. Yet though the vanquished could hope to derive less mercy from further resistance, than by such a submission as common policy in their situation dictated; they obstinately persisted in offensive conduct, and "all," says Tacitus, "who were "capable of serving, still appeared in arms. The num"ber of effective men was beyond all proportion greater "than could be expected, even in so vast a multitude. "The women no less than the men, were inflamed "with zeal and ardour; if doomed to quit their country, life, they declared, was more terrible than death "itself." (1) Bell. Jud. 6, viii. 5. HE SENT FORTH HIS ARMIES, AND DESTROYED THOSE MURDERERS, AND BURNT UP THEIR CITY. Matt. xxii. 7. THEN SHALL BE GREAT TRIBULATION, SUCH AS WAS NOT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THIS TIME, NO; NOR EVER SHALL BE. Matt. xxiv. 21. THERE SHALL BE GREAT DISTRESS IN THE LAND, AND WRATH UPON THIS PEOPLE. Luke, xxi. 23. "Indeed," says Bishop Newton," all history cannot furnish us with a parallel to the calamities and miseries of the Jews." Dissertation on Prophecies, ii. p. 253. "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it." Luke, xix. 41. |
