posterity how strong a city had yielded to the valour of the Romans, and that the wall might be a camp to the tenth legion, which he intended to leave as a garrison. Accordingly, the pioneers so levelled all the other circuit of the city, as not to leave those who approached it any proof that it had ever been inhabited. "And it is recorded in the Talmud, and by Maimonides, that Terentius Rufus ploughed up the foundations of the temple. We also find that Eleazar is introduced by Josephus as addressing the garrison of Masada in these words: "Where is our great city, which God was believed to inhabit? It is altogether rooted out and torn up from its foundations; and the only monument of it is the camp of its destroyers pitched in its relics." Thus were our Lord's prophecies fulfilled: "Thine enemies shall lay thee even with the ground; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another." "Behold "your house is left unto you desolate." "Seest thou these great buildings [of the temple ?] one stone upon another, which shall not be thrown down." The obstinacy of the Jews led Titus to destroy the city and temple against his will; and contrary to the usual manner of the Romans in the course of their victories. Not leaving one stone on another is a proverbial and hyperbolical way of speaking, to denote very exemplary destruction. But with respect to the buildings of the temple, and the inhabited part of the city, our Lord's words were literally fulfilled : There shall not be left Luke xix. 44. See Whitby on Matt. xxiv. 2. AS A DIVINE INSTRUCTOR. and they need not be strained so far as to be supposed applicable to the foundations of the city and temple, and the fragments of towers and walls. * On the reduction of Jerusalem, Titus marched part of his army to Cesarea, where he celebrated the birth day of his brother Domitian with great splendour; and, according to the cruel manner of those times, capitally punished many Jews in honour of it. The number of those who were burnt, and who fell by fighting with wild beasts and by mutual combats, exceeded two thousand five hundred. " After this Herodium was taken by Bassus; and 'when the castle of Macherus surrendered to him, one thousand seven hundred Jews were killed, and the women and children were made slaves: and not less than three thousand, who had escaped from the sieges of Jerusalem and Macherus, were slain to a man at the wood Jardes. "When the Romans had made a practicable breach at Masada, and intended to storm it the next day, Eleazar the commander instigated the garrison to burn the valuable stores of the castle, and to destroy first their women and children, and then themselves. The whole number was nine hundred and sixty. Those who bore arms chose ten to execute this dreadful purpose: the rest sat on the ground with their wives and children; and, embracing them, stretched out their necks to the slaughter. When the executioners had proceeded thus far, they * B. J. vii. iii. 1. and vii. ix. 1, 2. y ib. vii. vi. 1, 4, 5. zib. vii. viii. 5. appointed one who was to destroy the nine and then himself. The survivor, when he had looked round to see that all were slain, set fire to the place, and plunged his sword into his own bosom. However, two women and five children escaped by hiding themselves while the rest were intent on slaughter. When the Romans advanced to the attack in the morning, one of the women distinctly related to them the whole transaction; and struck them with wonder at the contempt of death shewn by their enemies. Without this general view of the history, there are expressions in our Lord's prophecies relating to it of which the reader could not have an adequate idea: and I have preferred this method of illustrating our Lord's words, to impress these instructive facts on the memory, and to diversify my manner from that of the a eminent writers who have gone before me on this subject. I proceed to make remarks on such of these predictions as have not yet been sufficiently explained. с It was foretold by Christ that "fearful sights, and great signs from heaven," should precede the destruction of the Jewish polity. I have supposed that this prophecy was partly applicable to the tempest, attended with thunderings, lightnings and earthquakes, which happened on the night when the And Idumean army was admitted into Jerusalem. Josephus says, in one of his addresses to the Jews, "The fountains flow copiously for Titus, which to a See p. 174. note [b]. timorem incutit. v. Wetstein. b Luke xxi. 11. qúßurgov, quicquidd B. J. v. ix. 4. p. 231. you were dried up. For before he came, you know that both Siloam failed, and all without the city; só that water was bought by the amphora. But now they are so abundant to your enemies, as to suffice not only for themselves and their cattle but also for their gardens. This wonder you also formerly experienced, on the taking of your city when the king of Babylon waged war against it.” In another place this historian relates some events, or appearances, which he calls & wonders, signs, and divine forewarnings. He laments that his countryi men did not attend to clear prognostications of their * destruction; "partly when a star like a sword stood over the city, and a comet which continued for a year; and partly when, before the revolt and the beginning of the war, as the people were assembling to keep the passover, about three in the morning on the eighth of Xanthicus, so great a light shone round the altar and temple that it seemed to be clear day : and this phenomenon continued for the space of half an hour." The politest nations weakly considered the appearance of comets as portentous. The time before the • It contained about seven gallons. B. J. vi. v. 3, line 4. frigas. Η περαία honusa. B. J. vi. v. 4. last line of the page. kib. § 3. và sĩ Đông ty pala B. J. vi. v. 3, line 6 : and $ 4, line 2. ! So Virgil, speaking of the period preceding the death of Julius Cesar, says, Nec diri toties arsere cometa. Georg. i. 488. And Milton refers to the popular error, when he observes that a comet from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war. Par. Lost, b. ii. l. 719. Jewish war may have been remarkable for them. Some have been denominated by astronomers from their resemblance to a sword: and as one could not appear during the whole time mentioned, I suppose that the historian speaks of more than one, which successively occupied a considerable space of the year spoken of. The light in the temple I suppose to have been occasioned by a vivid aurora borealis ; which is an appearance morem anciently observed than has been commonly supposed. The historian goes on to mention that a cow brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple; and that "the eastern gate of the inner temple, made of brass, very heavy, with difficulty closed every evening by twenty men, supported by bars bound with iron, and fixed by very deep bolts let into a pavement of continued stone, was seen at midnight opened of its own accord. The guards of the temple hastened to inform the " curator; and when he came to give assistance, it could scarcely be shut." There may have been a monstrous birth with some of the circumstances mentioned; but partly mistaken Nocturnasque faces cali, sublime volantes, Lucr. ii. 206, &c. Where the aurora is described in the three first lines; and distinguished from what men vulgarly call falling stars, which are mentioned in the fourth line. See also Tac. Hist. v. 13. Στρατηγός, ο Jewish officer mentioned Luke xxii. 52. Acts iv. 1. v. 24, 26. |