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than "woe to Jesulalem!" He was severely scourged without making the least complaint, and at length was dismissed as one deranged. His predictions were uttered repeatedly for some years, and though on these occasions he spoke with every possible exertion to be heard, his voice was never enfeebled. When the siege had commenced, and he was in the act of going round upon the walls, he exclaimed with violence, "Woe to the City! Woe to the Temple! Woe to the "People!" and added at last, "Woe to myself!" and in that moment a stone from a battering engine struck him dead upon the spot. I

"The name of this man," says Bousset, "was Jesus; and it may be, that since the first who offered grace and mercy and eternal life expired on the cross; the second of the name was ordained to denounce the ruin of the nation."

A sword seemed to hang over the city, or a comet pointing down upon it for the space of nearly a year, which seemed to portend destruction by the sword. 2 Before

1 It is not easy to deny the truth of the history of this man (says Basnage in his History of the Jews)" this is not a thing about which men might be "deceived, so that if there be any thing to which we ought to attend, it is this, "which we must acknowledge somewhat extraordinary."—" And if," as Le Clerc observes," this be true, Josephus rightly says, it was in a great measure divine"-" quæ si vera sint, non immerito Josephus rem divinitus 66 contigisse censuit." Vide Bell. Jud. 6, v. 5.

2 Virgil enumerating the portentous signs preceding, and consequent upon the death of Julius Cæsar, says; 66 at that time, never did keener lightnings "dart from a more serene sky, or comets of such direful omen so often blaze." Non alias cœlo ceciderunt plura sereno Fulgura, nec diri toties arsere cometæ.

Geo. i. 487.

Plutarch says this comet shone very brightly for seven successive nights after the death of Cæsar. In vitâ Cæs.

So

Before the sun went down there were seen in the clouds, armies in battle array, and chariots encompassing the country, and investing other cities; which there are men, now living, ready to attest. 1

The great gate of the Temple, which twenty men could scarcely shut, and which was made fast with bolts and bars; was seen to open of its own accord, as if to let in the enemy.2 At the ninth hour of the night, at the feast of unleavened bread, a light of great brightness shone upon the Temple and the altar, as if it had been

So Suetonius" Stella crinita per septem dies continuas fulșit, exoriens circa undecimam horam. In vitâ Cæs..

-from his horrid hair

Shakes pestilence and war

Milton's Par. Lost, i. 170.

That hairy comet, that long streaming star,

Which threatens earth with famine, plague, and war.

1 Bell. Jud. 6, v. 3.

Sylvester Du Bartas.

Newcome has endeavoured to shew to what this phenomenon may be ascribed, by a quotation from Whitelock's Swedish Embassy, vol. i. 455. Many observed strange appearances in the sky, exceeding brightness in the night, mingled with various colours, chiefly red, and swiftly passing from one part of Heaven to another; and one colour, as it were, OPPOSING and encountering the other. In the evening, about nine, the flashes of lightning and clouds came swiftly one against another, as it were in CHARGING and making breaches where they went, and divided themselves AS INTO BODIES OF PIKES AND MUSKETEERS: then the sky appeared some time all blood colour, afterwards green, yellow, and grey, then all black, and as it were, a new BATTAILE, from the North to the South.

Obs. on the Conduct of our Lord, p. 240. Matthew of Westminster relates, that A. D. 555, a certain appearance of lances were seen in the air from north to west-" quasi species lancearum in aëre visæ sunt a septentrione usque ad occidentem”—and again, in 567, that fiery spears were seen in the air portending the incursion of the Lombards into Italy" Hastæ igneæ in aëre visæ sunt, portendentes irruptionem "Longobardorum in Italiam." P. 101.

2 Bell. Jud. 6, v. 3.

been at noon day: and at the feast of Pentecost, when the priests went at midnight into the Temple to attend the service; they first heard a noise, as of a multitude in motion, and then a sound of many voices, saying, "Let us remove hence." These several circumstances and supposed events, Tacitus thus endeavours to establish.

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"Portents and prodigies announced the ruin of the city; but a people blinded by their own national superstition, and with rancour detesting the religion "of other states, held it unlawful by vows and victims "to deprecate the impending danger. Swords were seen glittering in the air; embattled armies appeared, " and the Temple was illuminated by a stream of light "that issued from the heavens. The portal flew open "and a voice more than human denounced the imme"diate departure of the Gods. There was heard at the same time a tumultuous and terrific sound, as if supe"rior beings were actually rushing forth. The impres"sion made by these wonders fell upon a few only; "the multitude relied upon an ancient prophecy con"tained,

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1 Dr. Willes in his discourse upon Josephus, says,-" The prodigies which " he saith happened before the destruction of Jerusalem, would agree better to Livy and Tacitus, than to a Jewish Historian. The flying open of the "brazen gates of the Temple is the same as happened at Thebes just before "the great battle of the Lacedemonians at Leuctra, when the great gates "of the Temple of Hercules opened of themselves, without any one touching them."-Quid? Lacedemoniis paullo ante Leuctricam calamitatem quæ significatio facta est in Herculis fano arma sonuerant, Herculisque simulacrum multo sudore manavit? Ad eodem tempore Thebis ut ait Callisthenes, in templo Herculis valvæ clausæ repagalis, subito se ipsa aperuerunt: armaque quæ fixa in parietibus fuerant, ea sunt humi inventa. (Cicero de div. 1, xxiv. 74.)—I omit many other things of the same nature, whence it is evident that Josephus endeavoured to Grecise and shape the History of the Jews, as like as he could to the Greeks and Romans,

tained, as they believed, in books kept by the priests, by which it was foretold, that in this very juncture, "the power of the East would prevail over the nations, " and a race of men would go forth from Judea to ex"tend their dominion over the rest of the world. The

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prediction, however, couched in ambiguous terms, "related to Vespasian and his son Titus; but the Jewish "mind was not to be enlightened. With the usual propensity of men ready to believe what they ardently wish, the populace assumed to themselves the scene of grandeur which the fates were preparing to bring "forward. Calamity itself could not open their eyes."2

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Such were the portents which were said to overhang the city; and such the particulars of the entire destruction

1 "Tacitus condemns the Jews for not rightly understanding a prophecy which he himself has misapplied; this cannot be wondered at, when it is considered that Josephus, willing, perhaps, to pay his court to the Imperial family, did not hesitate to say that the prophecy related to Vespasian."

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2 Evenerunt prodigia, quæ neque hostüs, neque votis piare fas habet gens superstitioni obnoxia, religionibus adversa. Visæ per cœlum concurrere acies, rutilantia arma, et subito nubium igne collucere templum. Expassæ repente delubri fores, et audita major humana vox, EXCEDERE DEOS; simul ingens motus excedentium. Quæ pauci in metum trahebant: pluribus persuasis inerat, antiquis sacerdotum litteris contineri eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret Oriens, profectique Judæa rerum potirentur quæ ambages Vespasianum ac Titum prædixerant. Sed Vulgus, more humana cupidinis, sibi tantum fatorum magnitudinem interpretati, ne adversis quidem ad vera mutabantur. Hist. v. 13.

"Such is the testimony of Tacitus," says Bishop Newton," and whether these prodigies were supernatural or not, they had all the effect of realities, and they were certainly fearful sights and great signs in heaven,' as much as if they had been created on purpose to astonish the earth."

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AND THERE SHALL BE FEARFUL SIGHTS AND GREAT SIGNS FROM HEAVEN.

Luke xxi. 11.

AND I WILL SHEW WONDERS IN THE HEAVENS AND IN THE EARTH, BLOOD AND FIRE AND PILLARS OF SMOKE. Joel, ii. 30,

tion of the Jewish Temple; an edifice which had been reared with so much pains and labour, and on which had been expended the wealth of a once great and unrivalled nation, the pride of Judea and the admiration of the world! Thus was it destroyed by the obstinacy of those who professed a profound veneration for it; and thus was it levelled to the ground by the permission of that God, who, to punish the unbounded impiety even of his chosen people; ordained a reviled and Gentile nation to be the instruments of his vengeance.1

The Jews having fled into the city after leaving the Temple and the adjoining buildings in flames; the Romans lodged their ensigns against the eastern gate, where they offered sacrifice to them; and with shouts and acclamations proclaimed Titus, IMPERATOR. 2

The

1 Bell. Jud. 6, iv. 5.

This dreadful catastrophe happened on the 10th of August, A. D. 70, emphatically called "The Day of Vengeance." The same day of the year on which the first temple, built by Solomon, was burnt to the ground by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon. A. M. 3416, A. C. 580.

THESE BE THE DAYS OF VENGEANCE, THAT ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN MAY BE FULFILLED. Luke xxi. 22.

A DAY OF DARKNESS AND GLOOMINESS, A DAY OF CLOUDS AND THICK DARKNESS, AS THE MORNING SPREAD UPON THE MOUNTAINS: A GREAT PEOPLE AND A STRONG; THERE HATH NOT BEEN EVER THE LIKE, NEITHER SHALL BE ANY MORE AFTER IT EVEN TO THE YEARS OF MANY GENERATIONS. A FIRE DEVOURETH BEFORE THEM, AND BEHIND THEM A FLAME BURNETH: THE LAND IS AS THE GARDEN OF EDEN BEFORE THEM, AND BEHIND THEM A DESOLATE

WILDERNESS; YEA AND NOTHING SHALL ESCAPE THEM.-See Joél ii. 2—11, where the words of the Prophet apply in so many respects to this siege, though in their primary signification they refer to that of Sennacherib.

2 The ensigns bore the images of the Roman Emperours, which Suetonius informs us, their subjects worshipped: Tacitus calls them as we have already seen their Gods of war. "Bellorum Dii."

Suetonius

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