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Little further remains to be said on this subject, if we except the recollection that it was from this time that Jerusalem was to be under the power of the Gentiles. "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

Sion and Acra now desolate, and the greater part of their late inhabitants buried in the ruins of the city, little hopes could exist in the minds, even of the most sanguine amongst the remnant, that Jerusalem should rise again; and the consideration that the remnant was now to be sent captive into all nations, must at once have banished the slightest expectation of this sort, far beyond the limits of probability. No: the land was

now

SON OF MAN COMING IN THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN WITH POWER AND GREAT.
GLORY.
Matt. xxiv. 30.

AND HE SHALL SEND HIS ANGELS WITH A GREAT SOUND OF THE TRUMPET, AND THEY SHALL GATHER TOGETHER HIS ELECT FROM THE FOUR WINDS; FROM ONE END OF HEAVEN TO THE OTHER. WHEN THESE THINGS BEGIN TO COME TO PASS, THEN LOOK UP AND LIFT UP YOUR HEADS; FOR YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH. Matt. xxiv. 31. Luke, xxi. 28,

The violence of persecution began considerably to abate after the destruction of Jerusalem, although it was by no means done away. The Christians suffered much under the Romans after that time; and those living beyond the limits of the empire shared a harder fate. "Sapor the "IId, King of Persia, vented his rage against those of his dominions, in "three dreadful persecutions. The 1st of these happened in the 18th year "of the reign of that Prince; the 2d in the 30th, and the 3d in the 31st "year of the same reign. This last was the most cruel and destructive of "the three; it carried off an incredible number of Christians, and continued "during the space of forty years, having commenced in the year 330, and "ceased only in 370." Mosheim's Ecc. Hist. Lib. ii. ch. 1.

(2) Eusebius says, that

(1) Luke, xxi. 24.

immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem, Vespasian caused all the branches of the house of Judah to be cut off, to deprive them at once of all hopes of a deliverer, or future Messiah.

Ecc. Hist. iii, 12.

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now desolate, and some years were seen to elapse before those Jewish converts, the Nazarenes, who had sought refuge in the siege at Pella, returned to build themselves huts in the place consecrated by the awful accomplishment of Christ's predictions. Here, however, at length they established their church, and preserved the doctrines taught them by the Apostles and their successors, in conjunction with the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law.

The dispersed Jews began again to multiply, and in the course of a century made many attempts to reinstate themselves in the city of their forefathers; in consequence of which continued ruptures broke out between them, and the Nazarenes, till their conduct becoming more violent as their numbers increased, they openly rebelled against the Roman power. On the other hand, the Romans feeling themselves called upon to check this spirit of revolt, once more exercised the powerful and vindictive influence of their arms. against them, and finally quelled the sensation caused by these emotions. The Jews having collected themselves from all quarters, under their false Messiah, Barchochebah, came up to the heights of Jerusalem. "Hadrian deputed some of his best Generals to oppose them, appointing as chief, Julius Severus, whom he sent from his command in Britain for that purpose. Unwilling to hazard a general action with the allied forces of the Jews, from a consciousness of their strength and desperation, Severus engaged them separately, and thus with a superiority of numbers, in comparison

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of

(1) This man, says Eusebius (Ecc. Hist. iv. 6) was a robber and murderer, who from his name signifying a star, pretended that the prophecy of Balaam referred to him. (Numb. xxiv. 7.)

of the enemy's force when disunited; he, before they could effect a junction, by this safer though more tedious mode of operation, broke their lines, and put them to rout with such slaughter, that a few only escaped, Fifty of their best conditioned forts, and nine hundred and eighty-five of the finest and best towns were utterly destroyed. The number of killed in pitched battles and sallies, amounted to five hundred and eighty thousand, besides multitudes that perished by fire, disease, and famine; so that Judea was left little better than a desert,"

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Hadrian afterwards built a new city upon Acra, which he called Ælia, after his own name. . Here he founded a Roman colony, and erected a Temple to Jupiter Capitolinus; and afterwards another to Venus, the former near Moriah, the latter on Calvary? He also issued an edict, by which he not only prohibited the Jews

(1) Hadrianus optimos quosque duces adversum eos mittit, quorum primus fuit Julius Severus: qui ex Britannia, cui imperat, contra Judæos missus est. Hic nulla ex parte ausus est aperte cum hostibus congredi, multitudine ipsorum atque desperatione cognita; sed eos separatim magno militum ac tribunorum numero adortus, commeatu prohibuit, atque interclusos serius quidem, sed minore cum periculo, ita oppressit fregitque ut pauci admodum. evaserint: et quinquaginta eorum arces munitissimæ, vicique celeberrimi atque nobilissimi noninginti octoginta quinque funditus eversi sint. Cæsa - sunt in excursionibus præliisque hominum quingenta octoginta millia: corum autem, qui fame, morbo, et igni interierunt, infinita fuit multitudo, ,ita ut omnis pene Judæa deserta relicta fuerit.

Dion Cass. Hist. Lib. 69.

(2) Ælius Hadrianus.

(3) From whence the city was called Ælia Capitolina.

(4) Soer. Schol. Ecc. Hist. i. 7.

Beausobre imagines that Hadrian endeavoured to deface the site of the

· city, and that he, therefore, levelled Moriah, that no traces of the Temple

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Jews from entering Judea, but denied them even the sight of it from a distance: but before this period, it appears, that only upon one day in the year were they permitted to shed tears over the place where their Temple had formerly stood; an indulgence, which though granted for the shortest space of time, was purchased at a high price.' Incensed against the Jews, Hadrian placed upon the entrance-gate to the city, the sculptured figure of a Hog, in derision and contempt of their religious prejudices; and soon after permitted the abode of their opponents, the Nazarenes, in the city, upon their renouncing the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law; and thus, unintentionally, aided the introduction of Christianity. Consequently, no sooner were matters thus arranged, than the first pure Church of Christ was founded, which continued to flourish, with partial interruptions, to the time of Constantine." It was now that pilgrimages to the Holy Land were first esteemed the most efficient mode of evincing that piety so congenial with the Christian scheme, and so advantageous for the promulgation and exposition of the Gospel particularly amongst those, who having embraced the doctrines of the Apostles and primitive Christians, felt an insatiable desire to visit the scenes. of their great Master's eventful life. Among the first of these who were of greater note, and whose services were attended with the most important consequences,

(1) Greg. Naz. 12 Orat.

may

And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord shall rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought: and ye shall be PLUCKED FROM OFF THE LAND whither thou goest to possess it. Deut. xxviii. 63.

(2) From this time (of Hadrian) the Church of the Gentiles was first constituted there, A. D. 137. Euseb. Ecc. Hist. v. 12.

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may be ranked Helena the mother of Constantine.' It was this Saint who, though advanced in life, undertook the journey with a view to purify the modern city from the corruptions of Heathenism, and to restore the objects of Christian veneration. Having found" the daughter of Zion left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,” she entered it; and levelling the Temple dedicated by the profane Hadrian to Venus, searched with indefatigable zeal for the implements of the crucifixion. The care with which these had been secreted, had before been intimated, and knowing the motives by which Hadrian had been actuated to conceal the sacred relics, she pulled up the statue of the Heathen Goddess, and beneath its foundation discovered, as was pretended, the sacred Sepulchre, and in it the true Holy Cross, said also to have been distinguished from the other two found with

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it,

(1) Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, commonly supposed to have been a British woman, the daughter of Côellus, a British king, of whom Constantine became enamoured on his first coming to Britain, in the reign of Aurelian.

(2) Jerome relates that pilgrims from India, Ethiopia, Britain, and Hibernia resorted to Jerusalem about the year 385. Ep. xxii.

Socr. Schol. says, that though Thomas preached and converted the Parthians, Matthew the Ethiopians, and Bartholomew the Indians, yet, "the "innermost Indians," that is, those far in the country, were not enlightened by the doctrines of Christianity till the time of Constantine.

Ecc. Hist. Lib. i. c. 19.

(3) Socr. Schol. Ecc. Hist. Lib. i. c. 7, and Theodoret, Lib. i. c. 18. Nothing could surpass the zeal with which she visited every spot conseerated by the actions of Jesus Christ and by his Apostles, from the hills of Jerusalem to the shores of the sea of Galilee and over all Samaria, nor the piety with which she endeavoured to perpetuate the remembrance of the holy places by the monuments she erected.

Clarke's Travels, vol. 2, p. 563

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