In the midst of these dismal events, an alarm was made that a Roman army was approachingthe city! Vespasian becoming emperor, and learning the factious and horrid state of the Jews, determined to prosecute the war against them, and sent his son Titus to reduce Jerusalem and Judea. The Jews, on h earing of the approach of the Roman army, wer e petrified with horror. They could have no hope of peace. They had no means of flight. They had no time for counsel. They had no confidence in each other. What could be done? Sever al things they possessed in abundance. They had a measure of iniquity filled up; a full ripeness for destruction. All seemed wild disorder and despair. Nothi ng could be imagined but the confused noise of the warrior, and garments rolled in blood. They knew nothing was their due from the Romans, but exemplary vengeance. The ceaseless cry of combatants, and the horrors of faction, had induced some to desire the intervention of a foreign foe to give them del iver ance from their domestic horrors. Such was the state of Jerusalem wh en Titus appeared before it with a besieging army. But he came not to deliver it from its excruciating tortures; but to execute upon it divine vengeance; to fulfil the fatal predictions of our Lord Jesus Christ, that “when ye see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place--when ye see Jerusalem compassed about with armies,--then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” “Wheresoever the carcass is, there shall the eagles be gathered together.” Jerusalem was now the carcass to be devoured; the Roman eagles had arrived to tear it as their prey . [p.30 - p.31] The day on which Titus had encompassed Jerusalem, was the feast of the Passover. Here let it be r emembered, th at it was the time of this feast, (on a preceding occasion) that Christ was taken, condemned and executed. It was at the time of this feast, that the heifer, in the hands of the sacrificing priests, brought forth a lam b. And just after this feast at another time, that the miraculous besieging armies wer e seen over Jerusalem, just before sunset. And now at the time of the Passover, the antity pe of this prodigy appears in the besieging army of Titus. Multitudes of Jews convened at Jerusalem from surrounding nations to celebrate this feast. Ah, miserable people,--going with intent to feed on the paschal lamb; but reall y to their own final slaughter, for rejecting “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world!” The Jews had imprecated the blood of the true Paschal Lamb, (by them wantonly shed) on themselves and on their children. God was now going in a signal manner to take them at their word. He hence providentially collected their nation, under sentence of death, as into a gr eat prison, for the day of execution. And as their executi on of Christ was signal, low degrading,--the death of the cross; so their execution should be signal and dreadful. The falling city was now crowded with little short of two mil lions of that devoted people. The event came suddenly and unexpectedly to the Jews, as the coming of a thief, and almost like lightning. Josephus notes this; and thus without desi gn, shows the fulfi lment of these hints of Christ, that his coming should be like a thief in the night, and like lightning under the whole heavens. [p.31] The furious conten ding factions of the Jews, on finding themselves environed with the Roman armies, laid aside (for the moment) their party contentions, sallied out, rushed furiously on their common foe, and came near utterly destroying the tenth legion of the Roman army. This panic among the Roman s occasioned a short suspension of hostil ities. Some new confidence hence inspir ed the hopes of the Jews; and they now determin ed to defend their cit y . But bei ng a little r eleased from their terrors of the Romans, their factious resentments again rek indled, and broke out in great fur y . The faction under Eleazer wa s swallowed up in the other two, under John and Simon. Sl aught er: con flagration and plunder ensued. A portion of the centre [sic] of the city was burned, and the inhabitants became as prisoners to the two furious parties. The Romans here saw their own proverb verified: “Quos Deus vult perdere prius dem en tat.” “Whom God will destroy , he gives up to madness.” [p.31 - p.32] The invading armies kn ew how to profit by the madness of the Jews. They wer e soon found by the Jew s to have possession of the two outer walls of their city. This alarm reached the heart of the factions, and once more unit ed them against the common enemy. But they had already proceeded too far to retr eat from the effects of their madness. Famine, with its gh astly horrors, stared them in the face. It had (as might be expected) been mak ing a silent approach; and some of the mor e obscure had already fallen before it. But even this did not annihilat e the fury of faction, which again returned with redoubled fur y , and presented new scenes of wo. As the famine increased, the sufferers would snatch bread from each other’s mouths, and devour their grain unpr epared. To discover handfuls of food, tortures wer e inflicted. Food was violently tak en by husbands from wives, and wives from husbands; and even by mothers from their famishing infants. The breast itself was robbed from the famishing suckl ing, as our Lord denoun ced: “Wo to them that give suck in those day s.” [p.32] This terror produced a new scene of righteous retribution. Multitudes of the Jews were forced by hunger to flee to the enemy’s camp. Here instead of pitying and receiving them, the Romans cut off the hands of many , and sent them back ; but most of them they crucified as fast as they could lay their h ands on them; till wood was wanting for crosses, and space on wh ich to erect them! Behold here thousands of those despairing Jews suspended on crosses round the walls of Jerusalem! Verily “the Lord is known by the judgments that he executeth! ” Yea, this did not suffice. Behold two thousand Jews, who had fled to the mercy of their invaders, ripped open alive (two thousand in one night!) by Arabs and Syrians in the Roman armies, in hopes of finding gold, which these Jews had (or their enemi es fancied they had) swallow ed to carry off with them! Titus being a merciful general, was touched to the heart at the miseries of the Jew s; and in person he tenderly entreated the besieged to surrender. But all the answer he obtained for his tenderness was base revilings. He now resolved to make thorough work with this obstinate people; and hence surrounded the city with a circumvallation of thirty nine furlongs in length, strengthened with thirteen towers. This, by the astonishing activity of the soldiers, was effected in three days. Then was fulfilled this prediction of our blessed Lord; “ Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and k eep thee in on every side.” [p.32 - p.33] As the city was now cut off from all possible supplies, famine became more dreadful. Whole families fell a sacrifice to it; and the dead bodies of women, children, and the aged, were seen covering roofs of houses, and vari ous recesses. You th and the middle aged appeared lik e spectres; and fell many of them dead in public places. The dead became too numerous to be interred. Many died while attempting to perform this office. So great and awful became the cal amities, that l ament ation ceased; and an awful silence of despair overwhelmed th e city . But al l this failed of r estraining the more abandoned from most horrid deeds. They took this opportunity to rob the tombs; and with loud infernal laughter, to strip the dead of their inhabitants of death; and would try the edge of their swor ds on dead bodies, and on some while y et breathing. Simon Georas now vented his rage against Matthias, the high priest, and his three sons. He caused them to be condemned, as thou gh favouring [si c] the Romans. The father asked the favour [sic] to be first executed, and not see the death of his sons; but the malicious Simon reserved him for the last execution. And as he was expiring he put the insulting question, whether the Romans could now reli eve him? [p.33] Things being thus, one Mannaeus, a Jew , escaped to Titus, and informed him of the consummate wr etchedness of the Jews; that in l ess than thr ee months one hundr ed and fifteen thou sand and ei ght hundr ed dead bodies of Jews had been conveyed through one gate, under his care and register; and he assured him of the ravages of famine and death. Other deserters confirmed the accou nt, and added, that not l ess than six hundr ed thousand dead bodies of Jews had been carried out at different gates. The humane heart of Titus was deeply affected; and he, under those accounts, and while surveying the piles of dead bodies of Jews under the walls, and in the visible parts of the cit y , raised his ey es and hands to heaven in solemn pr otestation, that he would have prevent ed these dire calamities; that the obstina te Jews had procured them upon their own heads. [p.33 - p.34] Josephus, the Jew, now earnestly entreated the leader John and his brethren to surrender to the Romans, and thus save the r esidue of the Jews. But he received in return nothing but insolent reproaches and imprecations; John declaring his firm persuasion that God would never suffer his own city, Jerusalem, to be taken by the enemy! Al as, had he forgotten the history of his own nation, and the denunciations of the prophets? Mi cah had foretold that in this ver y calamity they would presumptuously “lean upon the Lord, and say , Is not the Lord among us? No evil shall come upon us.” So blind and presumptuous are hypocrisy and self-confidence! “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these.” [p.34 - p.35] The famine in the city became (as might be expected) still more deadly . For want of food of the Jews ate their belts, sandals, skins of their shiel ds, dried grass, and even ordure of cattle. Now it w as that a noble Jewess, urged by the insufferable pangs of hunger, slew and prepared for food her o w n in fant child! She had eaten half the horrible preparation, when the smell of food brought in a hoard of soldier y , who threatened her with instant death, if she did not produce to th em the food she had in possession. She being thus compell ed to obey , produced the rema ining half of her chi ld! The soldi ers stood aghast; an d the r ecital petrified the hearers with horror; and congratulations were pour ed on those whose eyes death had closed upon such horri d scenes. Humanity seems ready to sink at the recital of the woful [sic] events of that day. No words can reach the horrors of the situation of the female part of the communit y at that period. Such scenes force upon our recollection the tender pathetic address of our Saviour [sic] to the pious females who followed him, going to the cross: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me; but weep for you rselves and for you r children; for behol d the day s are coming, in wh ich they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breast that never gave suck.” Moses had long predicted this very scene. “The tender and delicate woman among you, (said he,) who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness; her ey e shall be evil towards her young one, and toward her children, which she shall bear; for she shall eat them, for want of all things, secretly in the siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.”Probably the history of the world will not afford a parallel to this. God pr epared peculiar judgements for pecul iarl y horrid crimes! “These be the day s of vengeance; that all things that are written may be fulfilled.” Josephu s declares, that if there had not been many credibl e witnesses of that aw ful fact, he never wou ld have r ecorded it; for, said he, “such a shocking viol ation of nature never has been perpetrated by any Greek or barba rian.” [p.35]
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