means by which they were to fave them felves from the approaching danger: and their implicit obedience and confequent fafety are recorded by many writers of that age; by whom it is afferted, that "none of the Christians perifhed in the destruction of Jerufalem." Ceftius Gallus, who firft affaulted Jerufalem, might with ease have taken it, the Jews not being prepared for a fiege, and have put an end to the war; but, without any apparent reafon he fuddenly raised the fiege. Jofephus" obferves, "this afforded a happy opportunity to many of the eminent Jews to escape from the city, as from a fhip that was finking." Under the name of Jews thus mentioned by the hif torian, were included thofe converts to Christianity who were afterwards known to have furvived the destruction of Jerufalem. Warned by the prediction of their Lord, and encouraged by his promise of safety, that not a hair of their head should perish, they fled to the mountains of Perea, and other places governed by Agrippa, who was an ally of the Romans, and difpofed to be a friend to the cause of Christianity. There they found

" Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 20.

* Eufebii Hift. Evang. lib. iii. c. 5.

a fecure

a fecure retreat from the ftorm that was bursting upon their devoted country: and when Titus was leading on his army to Jerufalem, a great number of the inhabitants of Jericho retired from that city alfo to the mountains. But the difficulty of fubfifting in the mountains, and the dangers to which the Chriftian Jews were continually expofed from the hatred of their countrymen, and the fury of the Romans, required that the days fhould be shortened for their prefervation. Accordingly, we find Titus, contrary to the advice of his officers, resolved to take the city by ftorm, rather than by blockade the infatuated Jews weakening their force by divifions and mutual flaughters-burning their provifions, which might have lasted many years-and quitting their strongest holds, which Titus himself confidered as impregnabley.

But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give fuck in those days; for there

y "We have fought," faid Titus to his friends, while viewing the fortifications of the city after it was taken, “with God on our fide, and it is God who hath pulled the Jews out of their ftrong holds; for what could the hands of men or machines effect against these towers ?”. De Bell. Jud. lib. ix. c. 9.

Shall

Shall be great diftrefs in the land, and wrath upon this people.

Again does our Lord refer to former Prophecies, and fix the time of their accomplish→ ment. "The land was now to be made defolate, and the cities were now to be laid wafte." But amidst the horrors of this fcene, which impiety and obftinacy had prepared for this guilty people, the helpless condition and peculiar diftreffes of the feebler fex called forth this pathetic lamentation from our Lord. Direful indeed was the lot of those whofe circumstances rendered flight impracticable, and aggravated the miferies of a fiege. Jofephus relates, that the houses were filled with women and children, who perished with hunger; and that fuch was the merciless rage of famine, that mothers were seen to snatch the food from their dying infants. The memorable inftance of the lady, who facrificed the feelings of a mother to the love of existence, was mentioned when we examined the Prophecy of Moses a. Our Lord probably had this in view, among other examples of the height of wickedness and the extremity of fuffering afterwards

z De Bell. Jud. lib. v. c. 10,

* Page 112.

difplayed during the fiege, both in this predictive ftrain of pity, and when, bending beneath the weight of his crofs, he checked the lamentations of the "daughters of Jerufalem" for his share in the forrows which this fentence of their countrymen must produce, and compaffionately directed them rather to bewail the impending miferies which more immediately related to themfelves, their families, and their defcendants.

Then fhall be great tribulation, fuch as was not fince the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever fhall be.

Though the hiftory of mankind will furnish numerous inftances of the hardships and fufferings to which the inhabitants of great and populous cities have been exposed during a protracted fiege, yet we may venture to affert, that the detail of the horrible diftreffes related by an eye-witnefs of the fiege of Jerufalem, exceeds any defcription that can be found in any other author, both in the nature and extent of the miferies to which it was fubjected. Jofephus remarks, calamities that ever befel any

"that all the

other nation

fince the beginning of the world were inferior to thofe which happened to his coun

trymen

trymen at this awful period of their history." And this fact is corroborated by the opinion of their enemies, who afcribe these extraor dinary fufferings to the character of this extraordinary people, as fome extenuation of their own oppreffion and cruelty. Our Lord's emphatic words therefore need not be confidered as hyperbolical, but as intended to mark that peculiar accumulation of woe, which the peculiar aggravation of the fins of this people would draw down upon Jerufalem.

There fhall arife falfe Chrifts, and false Prophets, and fhall fhew great figns and wonders, infomuch that, if it were poffible, they shall deceive the very elect".

These words clearly relate not only to the prognoftics, but to circumstances which happened during the fiege. "The tyrannical zealots who ruled the city," fays Jofephus,

Jofephus makes ufe of the exact words, figns and wonders, σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα, when fpeaking of the falfe Prophets foretold by our Saviour. "If they fhall fay he is in the defert, go not forth." Jofephus fays, they drew many people after them into the defert. Tillotson, vol. xiii. p. 118.

Bell. Jud. lib. vi. c. 5.

" fub