se, they did little execution, while the Roman legions made errible havoc. The rebels were soon compelled to retire rom the ponderous stones, which they threw incessantly From the towers they had erected, and the battering rams vere at full liberty to play against the walls. A breach was soon made in it, at which the Romans entered and encamped in the city, while the Jews retreated behind the second Enclosure.

4. The victors immediately advanced to the second wall, and plied their engines and battering rams so furiously, that one of the towers they had erected began to shake, and the Jews who occupied it, perceiving their impending ruin, set it on fire, and precipitated themselves into the flames. The fall of this structure gave the Romans an entrance into the second enclosure. They were, however, repulsed by the besieged; but at length regained the place entirely, and prepared for attacking the third and inner wall. The vast number of people which were enclosed in Jerusalem occasioned a famine, which raged in a terrible manner; and as their calamities increased, the fury of the zealots, if possible, rose to a greater height. They forced open the houses of their fellow citizens, in search of provisions; if they found any, they inflicted the most exquisite tortures upon them, under pretence that they had food concealed. The nearest relations, in the extremity of hunger, snatched the food from each other.

5. Josephus, who was an eye-witness of the unparalleled sufferings the Jews experienced during the siege of their metropolis, remarks, that "all the calamities that ever befel any nation since the beginning of the world were inferior to the miseries of his countrymen at this awful period." Thus we see the exact fulfilment of the emphatic words of our Savior respecting the great tribulation in Jerusalem. "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

6. Titus, who was apprized of their wretched condition, relaxed the siege four days; and, being still desirous of saving the city, caused provisions to be distributed to his army in sight of the Jews, who flocked upon the walls to behold it.

What distressing consequences resulted from having such multitudes of Jews shut up in Jerusalem?

Josephus was next sent to his countrymen, to attempt to pe suade them not to plunge themselves in inevitable ruin, persisting in defence of a place which could hold out but li tle longer, and which the Romans looked upon as alread their own. He exhorted them, in the most pathetic term to save themselves, their temple, and their country; an painted in strong colors the fatal effects which would resu from their obstinacy. But the people, after many bitter in vectives, began to dart their arrows at him; yet he continue to address them with greater vehemence, and many wer induced by his eloquence to run the utmost risk in order t escape to the Romans; while others became more desperate and resolved to hold out to the last extremity.

7. The Jews who were forcibly seized by the Roman without the walls, and who made the utmost resistance fo fear of punishment, were scourged and crucified near the city Famine made them so daring in these excursions, that fiv hundred, and sometimes more, suffered this dreadful death every day; and, on account of the number, Josephus ob serves, that “ space was wanted for the crosses, and crosse for the captives." And yet, contrary to Titus's intention the seditious Jews were not disposed to a surrender by these horrid spectacles. In order to check desertion, they repre sented the sufferers as suppliants, and not as men taken by resistance. Yet even some, who deemed capital punishment inevitable, escaped to the Romans, considering death, by the hands of their enemies, a desirable refuge, when compared with the complicated distress which they endured. And though Titus mutilated many, and sent them to assure the people that voluntary deserters were well treated by him, and earnestly to recommend a surrender of the city, the Jews reviled Titus from the walls, defied his menaces, and continued to defend the city by every method which stratagem, courage, and despair, could suggest.

8. In order to accelerate the destined ruin of Jerusalem, Titus, discouraged and exasperated by the repeated destruction of his engines and towers, undertook the arduous task of enclosing the city with a strong wall, in order to prevent the inhabitants from receiving any succor from the adjacent country, or eluding his vengeance by flight. Such was the persevering spirit of the soldiers, that in three days they enclosed the city by a wall nearly five miles in circuit. Thus

was the prophecy of our Savior accomplished: "The days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every vide." Upon this, the famine raged with augmented vioence, and destroyed whole families; while Jerusalem exhibited a horrid spectacle of emaciated invalids and putrescent bodies. The dead were too numerous to be interred; and many expired in the performance of this office. The public calamity was too great for lamentation, and the silence of unutterable wo overspread the city.

9. The zealots, at this awful period, endeavored to encourage the obstinacy of the people, by hiring a set of wretches, pretenders to prophecy, to go about the city, and declare the near approach of a speedy and miraculous deliverance. This impious stratagem for a while afforded delusive hopes to the miserable remains of the Jewish nation. But at length an affair took place in Jerusalem, which filled the inhabitants with consternation and despair, and the Romans with horror and indignation. A Jewess, eminent for birth and opulence, rendered frantic with her sufferings, was reduced to the dreadful extremity of killing and feeding upon her infant. Titus, being apprized of this inhuman deed, swore the total extirpation of the accursed city and people; and called Heaven to witness that he was not the author of their calamity.

10. The Romans having pursued the attack with the utmost rigor, advanced their last engines against the walls, after having converted into a desert, for wood to construct them, a country well planted, and interspersed with gardens, for more than eleven miles round the city. They scaled the inner wall, and after a sanguinary encounter, made themselves masters of the fortress of Antonia. Still, however, not only the zealots, but many of the people, were yet so blinded, that, though nothing was now left but the temple, and the Romans were making formidable preparation to batter it down, they could not persuade themselves that God would suffer that holy place to be taken by heathens; but still expected a miraculous deliverance. And though the war was advancing towards the temple, they themselves burnt

What caused Titus to resolve on the complete ruin of Jerusalem, and the extirpation of its inhabitants?

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the portico, which joined it to Antonia; which occasione Titus to remark, that they began to destroy, with their ow hands, that magnificent edifice which he had preserved.

11. The Roman commander had determined in counc not to burn the temple, considering the existence of so prou a structure an honor to himself. He therefore attempted t batter down one of the galleries of the precinct; but as th strength of the wall eluded the force of all his engines, hi troops next endeavored to scale it, but were repulsed wit considerable loss. When Titus found, that his desire of say ing the sacred building was likely to cost many lives, he se fire to the gates of the outer temple, which, being plate with silver, burnt all night, and the flame rapidly commun cated to the adjacent galleries and porticoes. Titus, who wa still desirous of preserving the temple, caused the flames t be extinguished; and appeased the clamors of his troop who vehemently insisted on the necessity of razing it to th ground. The following day was therefore fixed upon for general assault upon that magnificent structure.

12. The utmost exertions of Titus to save the temp were, however, ineffectual. Our Savior had foretold it total destruction; and his awful prediction was about to b accomplished. "And now," says Josephus, "the fatal da approached in the revolution of ages, the 10th of Augus emphatically called the day of vengeance, in which the firs temple had been destroyed by the king of Babylon." Whil Titus was reposing himself in his pavilion, a Roman soldie without receiving any command, but urged as it were by divine impulse, seized some of the blazing materials, an with the assistance of another soldier, who raised him fro the ground, threw them through a window into one of th apartments that surrounded the sanctuary. The whol north side, up to the third story, was immediately envelope in flames. The Jews, who now began to suppose tha Heaven had forsaken them, rushed in with violent lamenta tions, and spared no effort, not even life itself, to preserv the sacred edifice on which they had rested their security.

18. Titus, being awakened by the outcry, hastened to th spot, and commanded his soldiers to exert themselves to th utmost to extinguish the fire. He called, prayed, and threat

What induced Titus to wish the preservation of the temple?

ened his men. But so great was the clamor and tumult, that his entreaties and menaces were alike disregarded. The exasperated Romans, who resorted thither from the camp, were engaged either in increasing the conflagration, or killing the Jews; the dead were heaped about the altar, and a stream of blood floated at its steps.

14. Still, as the flames had not reached the inner part of the temple, Titus, with some of his chief officers, entered the sanctuary and most holy place, which excited his astonishment and admiration. After having in vain repeated his attempts to prevent its destruction, he saved the golden candlestick, the table of shew-bread, the altar of perfumes, which were all of pure gold, and the volume of the law, wrapped up in a rich golden tissue. Upon his leaving the sacred place, some other soldiers set fire to it, after tearing off the golden plating from the gates and timber work.

15. A horrid massacre soon followed, in which prodigious multitudes perished; while others rushed, in a kind of frenzy into the midst of the flames, and precipitated themselves from the battlements of their falling temple. Six thousand persons, who, deluded by a false prophet with the hopes of a miraculous deliverance, had fled to a gallery yet standing without the temple, perished at once by the relentless barbarity of the soldiers, who set it on fire, and suffered none to escape. The conquerors carried their fury to such a height, as to massacre all they met, without distinction of age, sex, or quality. They also burnt all the treasure houses, containing vast quantities of money, plate, and the richest furniture. In a word, they continued to mark their progress with fire and sword, till they had destroyed all, except two of the temple gates, and that part of the court which was destined for the women.

16. In the mean time, many of the zealots, by making the most vigorous exertions, effected their escape from the temple, and retired into the city. But the avenues were so strictly guarded, that it was impossible for them to escape. They therefore fortified themselves, as well as they were able, on the south side of it; from whence John and Simon sent to desire a conference with Titus. They were answer ed, that though they had caused all this ruin and effusion of blood, yet their lives should be spared, if they would surrenAnd what finally determined him to destroy it?