66 Titus affured them, "That the Romans only de"manded a yearly tribute, which had been formerly paid; and that, if this were made good, "the temple and city had nothing to fear, but they fhould enjoy their families, their liberties, " and their eftates, with the free exercise of their "religion, and under the regulation of their own laws ". 66 up Upon the first fight of the Roman camp, the three feditious parties are faid to agree the matter, and to join again, making fome defperate fallies on their befiegers; but no fooner had they a little breathing while from the hoftilities of the Romans, but they fell presently all to pieces among themfelves, till the common enemy made them friends again, fo far as to continue obftinate in resisting the Romans, which they did to the very laft, as a people given up by God, and hardened to pull on themfelves their own deftruction. The next thing remarkable is, that the city was befieged at the time of the great feaft of the paffover, (the fame time of the year in which they had murdered the Meffiah,) when vaft multitudes from all places flocked together to Jerufalem P, which (by a computation, made before that in Nero's time, by reckoning up the number of the lambs, which according to cuftom, were firft offered in the temple before they were eaten in their families, and allowing ten perfons to a lamb,) might amount to twenty feven hundred thoufand perfons: So that, as the historian proceeds, this mighty concourfe of people from abroad, before the Jofephus's Wars, b. vi. c. 11. and b. vii. c. 13. b. vi. c. 3, 4, 7, 8. frege, • Ibid. a Ibid. b. vii. c. 17. Dr Hudfon's Tranflation is, Vicies fepties centena millia, lib. vi. c. 9 fiege, was afterwards, by the righteous judgment of God, crowded up in the city, as in a prison; for Titus had run up a wall round it': Upon which was fulfilled our Lord's prophecy, The days fhall come upon thee, that thine enemies fha'l caft a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every fide. This occafioned a lamentable famine, fo that wives forced the meat out of the very mouths of their husbands; children did the like by their parents, and even mothers by their infants: In Thort, the famine fwept away whole families, and the houses and alleys were ftrewed with dead carcaffes. This forced fome to fteal out by nights for provifion; many of which the Roman foldiers feized on, and after expofing them to all manner of tortures, they were crucified ", as they had treated our Saviour. One who had efcaped out of the city was furprized in the act of fearching for gold, which had been fwallowed, and paffed through him. The foldiers difcovering this, ripped up two thousand of their bellies in one night for their gold. And fo much did the famine increase, that the Jews eat old girdles and fhoes, and the fhred. dings of old hay; and a certain mother killed and boiled her own fucking child, half of which fhe did eat, and covered up the cther half w; whereby was accomplished that dreadful judgment which Mofes had fo many ages before threatened upon their disobedience *, And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy fons, and of thy daughters, in the fiege, and in the ftraitnefs where with thine enemies fhall distress thee: And also that of our Lord, Behold the days are coming, in the which they they fhall fay, bleffed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave fuck. At length the perpetual or daily facrifice, which was wont to be offered morning and evening in the temple ceafed for want of a congregation, or of priests to officiate ', as the prophet Daniel foretold; the famous city of Jerufalem, and the glorious temple therein, were burnt, and razed to the ground and utterly deftroyed a. Eleven hundred thousand Jews were flain, and ninety-feven thousand taken prifoners, and made flaves ", there being a general meeting of them at Jerufalem from all quarters, to celebrate the paffover, as hath been faid: And confidering the direful circumstances defcribed by the hiftorian, in his account of this fiege and of the Roman foldiers ftorming the city and the temple, fuch as "the rage and outcries "of foldiers and citizens, the crackling of the 66 flames, the killing all that were met with, young "and old, men, women, children, priefts and "laicks, mountains of dead bodies piled up a"gainst the altar, ftreams of blood flowing down "the fteps, and the groanings of dying perfons weltering in their own gore," it is poffible there never was fo difmal a fcene in any place whatfoever, as was then in the city and temple: All which, and many other dreadful miferies, came upon them for their fins, and particularly for their rejecting of the Son of God, the Meffiah and Saviour; a fad evidence this of divine juftice, by making good their own dreadful imprecation on themselves, who when they crucified the Lord of glory, (instead of what y Jofephus, b. vii. z Dan. ix. 27. book vii, chap. 17. a c. 4. [Gr. 1. vi. c. 2. andrenaporia See efpecially book vii. chap. 10. 11. what was ufual, his blood be on his own head, cried out, (the guilt of) his blood be on us, and our chil dren. And fo truly was that blood required at their hands, that what our Saviour threatened was in the largest fenfe effected f; fuch tribulation as was not from the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be. This only poor confolation fome of them fancied to themfelves. (as the Roman historian, with Jofephus obferves), that fince their temple was deftroyed, it being that which they had been fo concerned to preferve, the lofs of their lives now was not fo much a ruin as a victory, fafety, and happiness, to perifb with it. Note, that as this was the heavy judgment Chrift forewarned them of ", fo it is often mentioned in the gofpels, by the expreflions of the coming of Christ, the coming of the Son of Man, and the coming of the Lord. -This deftruction was the more remarkable, because Titus the Roman general, would at first have fpared the city and temple, the laft mentioned efpecially, being unwilling (as he faid) to lay fo glorious a building in afhes; for that would be a lofs to the Roman empire, as it would be an ornament, if preferved: But a foldier, without command, being excited by fome divine impulfe, fet fire to the temple, and the flashes were fo violent, as if they would have burnt up the mountain to the very roots, upon which it was built ". This Jofephus obferves, was determined by God, the temple being burnt the fame month and day of the year, on 21. d Jofh. ii. 19. e Mat. xxvii. 25. which f Mat. xxiv. 8 Dion. Caf. apud Xiphilinum in Vefpafianum, p. 217. Jofephus, book vii. chap. 10. h Mat. xxiv. Mat. xxiv. 27. John xxi. 22, &c. k Jofephus book vi. chap. 10. and book vii. chap. 9, 10. 16. 1 Ibid. book vii. chap. 9. in Ibid. book vii. chap. 10. [Græc. 1. vi. chap. 4. daimonio orme tini chromenos.] n Ibid. book vii. chap. 11. which it was formerly burnt by the Babylonians . Afterwards Titus, confidering its great ftrength, and viewing its ruins, declared, that God himself affifted him in fighting against and vanquishing the Jews P. He might have added, that the Jews themselves affifted him therein, who were fo infatuated by the juft judgment of God, that their deftruction was as much the effect of factions and divifions among themselves, as the valour of their enemies; as hath been obferved already. Further, In token of an entire conqueft of the Jews, the emperor Vefpafian caufed medals to be ftruck, with the device of a woman fitting on the ground, (the Jewish pofture of mourning), near to a palm tree, (by which the Romans reprefented Phoenicia and Judea,) with this infcription, JUD. CAPT. Judea Capta; and another, of a woman Standing by, or leaning to a palm tree, with her hands bound, and the infcription, Judæa Divicta, that is, in memory of the Jews being fubdued The emperor alfo laid the tax of the Didrachma, two drachms (fuppofed to be the fame with the half-fhekel, about fifteen pence of our money) upon every few, wherefoever living, to be paid yearly 3 E VOL. I. to • Jofephus, book vii. chap. 9. near the end. P Ibid. book vii. chap. 16. 9 Ifa. iii. 26. Bixi Numifmata Vef pafiani, p. 25. & Antonii Augustini Antiquitates Rom. dialog. iii. num. 14. & Numifmata Vefpafiani & Titi, ab Adolph. Occone. edit. Mediolani, 1683, p. 110. Addit prædictus Augufti nus ibid. "Ad hæc in triumphali arcu Romæ in Titi Vefpafi*ani honorem exædificato, triumphus cernitur de Judæa & "Hierofolyma, fpectanturque candelabra templi Solomonis auro "celebrati." To this may be added Jofephus's account of Vefpafian's and Titus's triumph, fpeaking of the fpoils which were then carried; "The most confiderable pieces were the golden table and the golden candlesticks, which were taken out of the temple of Jerufalem. Jof. Wars, book vii, chap. 24. $ Exod. xxx. II, &c, |