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"itself." All the rest, above seventeen years of age, were made prisoners, and sent to work the mines in Egypt.

John and Simon, the leaders of the expiring factions, and authors of every evil, having made the most surprising efforts to escape by mining, were at last driven, by the distress of hunger, from their hiding vaults; and begged that mercy of the Romans which they had so long, and so often despised. John, therefore, was made a prisoner for life, and Simon preserved to grace the triumph.* Titus now laid the whole city in ashes, excepting the three forts which the Jews had forsaken upon

(1) Arma cunctis, qui ferre possent; et plures, quam pro numero; audebant. Obstinatio viris fæminisque par: ac si transferre sedes cogerentur, major vitæ metus quam mortis. Hist. v. 13.

(2) AND THE LORD SHALL BRING THEE INTO EGYPT AGAIN WITH SHIPS, BY THE WAY WHEREOF I SPAKE UNTO THEE, THOU SHALT SEE IT NO MORE AGAIN: AND THERE YE SHALL BE SOLD UNTO YOUR ENEMIES FOR BOND-MEN AND BONDWOMEN, AND NO MAN SHALL BUY YOU.

Deut. xxviii, 68,

NOW WILL HE REMEMBER THEIR INIQUITY AND VISIT THEIR SINS; THEY SHALL RETURN TO EGYPT. Hosea, viii. 13-also ix. 6.

HALF OF THE CITY SHALL GO FORTH INTO CAPTIVITY, AND THE RESIDUE OF THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT BE CUT OFF FROM THE CITY, Zech. xiv. 2. Vide also Jer. xliv. 7-14; and 2 Esd. xv. 10.

(3) Josephus, speaking of these tyrants, says, " There was a contest between "them for dominion, but a concord in crimes." Bell. Jud. 5, x. 4.

(4) Simon, when he found it impossible to escape, shewed himself above ground in a white tunic and purple coat, on the spot where the Temple had stood, with the hope of astonishing and deceiving the Romans. But when the guards required him to declare who he was, he desired a conference with the commander Terentius Rufus, who put him in chains. Afterwards he was led in triumph to Rome; then with a halter about him, dragged to that part of the city where malefactors were executed, and there scourged and slain. Bell. Jud. 7, ii. 1.

AND THOU SHALT BE BROUGHT DOWN,AND SHALT SPEAK OUT OF THE GROUND, AYD THY SPEECH SHALL BE LOW OUT OF THE DUST, AND THY VOICE SHAll be, AS OF ONE THAT HATH A FAMILIAR SPIRIT, OUT OF THE GROUND, AND THY SPEECH SHALL WHISPER OUT OF THE DUST:

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Isaiah, xxix. 4.

This

upon his first entrance into the upper city; these he preserved as monuments of his victory and good fortune, for without them he never could have effected that which he had at length achieved.

The number of the prisoners taken, during the time of the whole siege, amounted to ninety-seven thousand, and of the slaughtered to one million, three hundred and fifty-seven thousand, six hundred and sixty! They who perished in the siege itself, one million, one hundred thousand; out of which six hundred thousand were buried at the public charge; the greater part of them Jews by nation, though not all natives of Judea; the time of this overthrow being, as before related, at the general assemblage of the Jews to celebrate the great feast of the Passover; and, indeed, "the destruc"tion of the rest of their cities served to increase the "number of the besieged. A prodigious influx poured

"in

This, in its prophetic sense, applies to the humiliation and overthrow of Jerusalem; its literal signification singularly describes John's present situation and circumstances.

(1) Josephus (Bell. Jud. 6, ix. 3.) gives this account of the number of the prisoners and those who perished in the siege. To estimate the whole number of those who came up and were in Jerusalem to celebrate former Passovers, we must reckon by what he further mentions, that there were two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred lambs or sacrifices, and ten persons to each; making an amount of two millions five hundred and sixty-five thousand at that time in the city. Tacitus computes the number of the besieged at six hundred thousand. "Multitudinem obsessorum omnis ætatis, virile ac "muliebre sexus, sexcenta millia accepimus."-This could not possibly be the number of the besieged, but might be meant for those only who were buried at the public charge, as stated by Josephus (5. xiii. 7); or Tacitus might imagine it to be the number of permanent inhabitants of Jerusalem, the surplus being made up by Jews and Proselytes from Galilee, Samaria, Judea, Perea, and other remoter parts.

From the beginning to the conclusion of the Jewish war, Justus Lipsius (de Constantia) has calculated the number of the slaughtered Jews

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"in from all quarters, and amongst them, the most "bold and turbulent spirits of the kingdom."

In this manner was the nation of the Jews depopulated by the Romans, and Jerusalem subdued and totally destroyed by Titus, in the second year of Vespasian, his father. Upon taking his last view of

the

at one million three hundred and thirty-seven thousand four hundred and ninety; but if those be added who died in caves, woods, wildernesses, in banishment, and as prisoners, the amount cannot be less than a million and a half. THE HOLY CITIES ARE A WILDERNESS. Isaiah, lxiv. 10.

AND YE SHALL BE LEFT FEW IN NUMBER, WHEREAS YE WERE AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN FOR MULTITUDE. Deut. xxviii. 62.

EXCEPT THE LORD OF HOSTS HAD LEFT UNTO US A VERY SMALL REMNANT, WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN AS SODOM, AND WE SHOULD have BEEN LIKE UNTO GOMORRAH.

Isaiah, i. 9.

THY MEN SHALL FALL BY THE SWORD, AND THY MIGHTY IN THE WAR. AND HER (Zion's) GATES SHALL LAMENT AND MOURN; AND SHE BEING DESOLATE, Isaiah, iii. 25, 26.

SHALL SIT UPON THE GROUND.

That so great an influx of Jews should be found in the city at this time, was thus foreshewn :-IN THE LAST DAYS, IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT THE MOUN

TAIN OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD SHALL BE ESTABLISHED IN THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAINS, AND IT SHALL BE EXALTED above the hiLLS, AND PEOPLE SHALL FLOW UNTO IT. Micah, iv. 1.

THEY SHALL FALL BY THE EDGE OF THE SWORD, AND SHALL BE LED AWAY CAPTIVE INTO ALL NATIONS. Luke, xxi. 24.

(1) Magna colluvie et cæterarum urbium clade aucti: nam pervicacissimus quisque illuc perfugerat, eoque seditiosius agebant. Tacit. Hist. v. 12.

(2)" YOUR COUNTRY IS DESOLATE, YOUR CITIES ARE BURNT WITH FIRE; YOUR LAND, STRANGERS DEVOUR IT IN YOUR PRESENCE, AND IT IS DESOLATE, AS 66 OVERTHROWN BY STRANGERS." Isaiah, i. 7.

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So literally were these words accomplished in the ruin both of the city and the Temple, that well might Eleazar say; "that God had delivered his most holy city to be burned, and to be subverted by their enemies," and wished that they had all died before they saw that holy city demolished by the hands of their enemies, and the sacred Temple so wickedly dug up from the foundations (Bell. Jud. 7, viii. 6.)-The Babylonian Talmud thus mentions the destruction of the Temple.-" Go and see how the blessed and holy God "helped Barkamtza, and he destroyed his house and burned up his Temple, "and made Jerusalem desolate."-(Vide Lardner's Works, vol. 7.)--The siege lasted about five months, computing from the 14th April to the 8th of September, A. D. 70.

the ruins of this once glorious city, the works, the fortifications, and especially the towers, which he had left standing, as memorials of his triumph, and of the glory of the Roman name: "when," says Josephus, "he was contemplating the vast design and workman

ship of those Forts; and was reflecting on the beauty "and wonderful contrivance of the whole city, now "laid in ashes; he broke out into these words-" We "have fought under the auspices of a God! it was "God who drew the Jews away from these strong "holds; for what could the hands of men, or the effect "of machines have done, against such towers as "these."

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MANY PASTORS" (Princes and Leaders)" HAVE DESTROYED MY VINEYARD, THEY HAVE TRODDEN MY PORTION UNDER FOOT, THEY HAVE MADE MY 66 PLEASANT PORTION A DESOLATE WILDERNESS, THEY HAVE MADE IT DESO"LATE."

Jer. xii. 10, 11.

(1) Bell. Jud. 6, ix. 1.

Titus, as we have already stated, commanded the three forts, Phasælus, Hippicus, and Mariamne, to be left, that posterity might know the wonderful strength of that city which had been made to yield to the Roman arms— (Bell. Jud. 7, i. 1.) And Pausanias, who lived in the second century, and wrote A. D. 180, speaks of “ a monument of Queen Helena (of Adiabene) "at Jerusalem, which city an Emperour of the Romans had destroyed to the foundations.”Ἑβραιος δέ Ἑλένης γυναικὸς ἐπιχωριάς τάφος ἑεὶν ἐν πολέι Σολυμοῖς ἤν ἷς ἔδαφος καλεβάλεν ο Ρώμαῶιν Βασιλεύς.

Paus. viii. 16.

It is mentioned also by Eusebius. Ecc. Hist. ii. 12. (2) Cicero, because it served his purpose, had inferred from the calamities which in his days befel the Jews, that they were a nation not acceptable to the Deity." Stantibus Hierosolymis peccatisque Judæis tamen istorum "religio sacrorum a splendore hujus imperii gravitate nominis nostri, majorum institutis, abhorrebat: nunc vero hoc magis, quod illa gens quid ❝ de imperio nostro sentiret, ostendit armis, quam cara Diis immortalibus "esset, docuit, quod est victu, quod elocata, quod servata."

Cicero pro Flacco.

(3) Bell. Jud. 6, ix. 1.-Even here once more the besieged themselves helped to fulfil the prediction of Christ-" EXCEPT THOSE DAYS BE SHORTENED, THERE .86 SHALL BE NO FLESH SAVED."

"Jpsi

After this, the army was commanded to dig beneath many of the walls, both of the Temple and the city, in search of those riches and treasures, which were supposed to have been buried for concealment in their foundations; in consequence of which the whole circuit of the city was so levelled, as not to leave those who approached it the faintest proof that it had ever been inhabited: then, having left a small garrison behind him, Titus marched in triumph to Cæsarea.1

Thus were the magnificent Temple, and the great

and

"Ipsi Tito Roma, et opes, voluptatisque ante oculos; ac ni statim Hierosolyma considerent, morari videbantur.-Titus had his private motives: Rome was before his eyes; wealth and magnificence dazzled his imagination; and pleasure presented its amusements. If the city were not taken by assault, a siege in form would have detained him too long from the splendid scene that lay before him." Tacit. Hist. v. 11.

"Philostratus tells us, when some of the nearer nations would have crowned Titus for his victories over the Jews, he refused, saying that he deserved nothing upon that account; for it was not his work, but God had made him an instrument of his wrath against that people."-Tillotson's Serm. clxxxvi.

We may say with Gamaliel, "If this counsel, or this work, had been of men, it would have come to nought," but as it was of God, nothing could overthrow it.

(1) Bell. Jud. 7, i. s.

AND THEY SHALL LAY THEE EVEN WITH THE GROUND, AND THY CHILDREN WITHIN THEE; AND THEY SHALL NOT LEAVE IN THEE ONE STONE UPON ANOTHER; BECAUSE THOU KNEWEST NOT THE TIME OF THY VISITATION.-Luke, xix. 44.

Maimonides adds (Taanith, ch. 5.) that Rufus, a captain of the army of Titus, did with a plough-share tear up the foundations of the Temple, and thereby signally fulfil the words of the prophet.

THEREFORE SHALL ZION FOR YOUR SAKE BE PLOUGHED AS A FIELD, AND JERUSALEM SHALL BECOME HEAPS, AND THE MOUNTAIN OF THE HOUSE AS THE HIGH PLACES OF THE FOREST.-Micah, iii. 12.-The words of Jeremiah (xxvi. 13) almost exactly resemble these.

Oh God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance, thy holy Temple have they defiled, and MADE JERUSALEM AN HEAP OF STONES.

Psalms, lxxix. 1.

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