on which it was formerly burnt by the Babylonians". Afterwards Titus, considering its great strength, and viewing its ruins, declared, that" God himself assisted him" in fighting against and vanquishing the Jews. He might have added, that the Jews themselves assisted him therein, who were so infatuated by the just judgment of God, that their destruction was as much the effect of factions and divisions among themselves, as the valour of their enemies; as hath been observed already. Further, in token of an entire conquest of the Jews, the emperor Vespasian caused medals to be struck, with the device of a woman sitting on the ground (the Jewish posture of mourning) near to a palm tree, (by which the Romans represented Phoenicia and Judæa,) with this inscription, JUD. CAPT. Judæa capta; and another, of a woman standing by, or leaning to a palm tree, with her hands bound, and the inscription, Judæa devicta, that is, in memory of the Jews being subdued. The emperor also laid the tax of the didrachma, or two drachms, (supposed to be the same with the half shekel, about fifteen pence of our money) upon every Jew, wheresoever living, to be paid yearly to the capitol," or temple of the heathen god Jupiter," which was wont to be paid to the temple of God in Jerusalem." z Joseph. b. vii. c. 9. near the end. a Ibid. b. vii. c. 16. b Isa. iii. 26. Biæi Numismata Vespasiani, p. 25. et Antonii Augustini Antiquitates Rom. dialog. iii. num. 14. et Numismata Vespasiani et Titi, ab Adolph. Öccone. Edit. Mediolani, 1683, p. 110. addit prædictus Augustinus ibid. "Adhæc in triumphali arcu Romæ in Titi Vespasiani honorem exædificato, triumphus cernitur de Judæa et Hierosolyma, spectanturque candelabra templi Solomonis adeo celebrati." To this may be added, Josephus's account of Vespasian's and Titus's triumph, speaking of the spoils which were then carried; "The most considerable pieces were the golden table and the golden candlesticks, which were taken out of the temple of Jerusalem." Wars, b. vii. c. 24. d Exod. xxx. 11, &c.. • Joseph. Wars, This heavy judgment fell on the Jews somewhat above fifteen hundred years after their entrance into Canaan, six hundred and two years after their return from the Babylonian captivity, seventy years after our Lord's birth, and thirty-seven years after his crucifixion. The Gospel having been first planted up and down the world, especially in all parts subject to the Roman empire, (as the word, which we translate the world, signifies in the original',) by the travels and preachings of the apostles, and their assistants, beginning at Jerusalem, as Christ foretold, that the Gospel should be so preached before the end of the Jewish state come. St. Mark added the word first, as more significant, the Gospel must first be published among all nations. So St. Paul affirms, that their sound went out into all the earth'; applying hereto what the Psalmist says of the revolution of the heavenly bodies. And if only one apostle, St. Paul, from Jerusalem round about anto Illyricum, fully preached the Gospel of Christ', that is, in several parts of Asia and Europe, what may we suppose of all the other apostles, and all their numerous assistants! We may further make two observations concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and the temple of the Jews: the first, that their temple signified nothing any longer, since Christ had fulfilled all that was to be done in it, and therefore there was an end to be put to it; and since the Christian church had been founded in the city of the earthly Jerusalem, and all had been done therein too that had been foretold, a period was to be put to that alsoTM. h Chap. b. vii. c. 26. The like account is given by Dion. Cassius apud Xiphilinum in Vespasianum, p. 217. Compare Grot. in Matt. 8 Matt. xxiv. 14. k Psal. xix. 4. See also Rom. i. I See Irenæus, 1. iv. xvii. 24. f Luke ii. 1. xiii. 10. c. 7. q r In the next place it is fit to observe, how the singular providence of God shewed itself for the safety of the Christians, who were among the unbelieving Jews; for being" warned by the caution our Lord gave them, that when they should see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place, or begirting the holy city of Jerusalem, that they should then flee to the mountains: I say, the Christians seeing this token when Jerusalem was first besieged under Cestius Gallus, (then president of Syria, who was incited thereto by Florus,) about four years before its ruin, and having opportunity by the unexpected and sudden breaking up of that siege, they all left Jerusalem, and betook themselves to Pella, a city beyond Jordan, in the mountainous country of Coelesyria, inhabited by Gentiles, (as appears by the Jews demolishing it under Alexander, one of the Maccabees, because they" refused to conform to their laws and customs," or the rites of their religion,) which place was shewn them by divine revelation, and there they were safe from that destruction: but afterwards they appear to have returned to the ruined Jerusalem, and the neighbouring parts; because we have an account of fifteen successions of bishops of Jerusalem, from the apostles unto Adrian's time, who were of the circumcision, or Jews converted; and one of the ancients acquaints us", that the Christians, "when returned, wrought great miracles;" and when Adrian came to Jerusalem, about sixty years after its destruction, he is said to "find the city wholly levelled to the ground, except a few S C. n Euseb. Hist. 1. iii. c. 5. • Matt. xxiv. 15, 16. P Jos. Wars, b. ii. 16. q Ibid. b. ii. c. 24. r Eusebius says, the church in Jerusalem, woar wavreλws, as it were, totally relinquished the city and all the country, Euseb. Hist. 1. iii. c. 5. Joseph. Antiq. h. xiii. c. 23. t Euseb. Hist. 1. iv. c. 5. "Epiphanius de Mens. et Pond. num. 15. * Idem ibid. num. 14 houses, and a little church," which most likely had been built by the Christians at their return thither. After all the dreadful slaughters above mentioned, some remains of the Jews' held for a little time two or three strong castles; but they were soon suppressed, and many thousands of them more were put to death, or sold, or dispersed. At one of those strong holds, viz. Massada, many of them, when besieged, in despair first killed their wives and children, and then each other, by consent, to the number of nine hundred and sixty. b It is further observable, that Josephus, an eyewitness, says, that by the command of Titus, "the city of Jerusalem and the temple were laid level with the ground, and so utterly demolished, that the place looked as if it had been never inhabited";" and according to the fashion of the Romans, (as in their first marking out a new city, so in demolishing towns,) a plough was brought over the place where the city and temple had stood; only they left three famous turrets as a monument of the strength of the place, and of the valour of the Romans, and also a piece of a wall to the westward of the town, where they designed a garrison; but even those were demolished about sixty-two years after by the emperor Adrian; and in Julian's time the very foundations of the temple were torn up by an earthquake, (of which afterwards; so fully and literally was our Saviour's. prediction made good, Verily I say say unto unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown downf. b y Jos. Wars, b. vii. c. 25, 26. Joseph. Wars, b. vii. c. 18. • Hostile Aratrum, Hor. 1. i. od. 16. Lightf. Hor. in Matt. xxiv. 2. Joseph. Wars, b. vii. c. 18. d Hieronym. in Joel i. 4. Helii quoque Adriani contra Judæos expeditionem legimus; qui ita Hierusalem murosque subvertit, ut de urbis reliquiis ac favillis sui nominis Heliam conderet civitatem. Compare Petavii Animadversiones in Epiphanium de Mens. et Pond. num. 14. * Matt. xxiv. 2. See also Luke xix. 42. Here we may take notice, that as God's sending his Son Jesus Christ into the world, according to his promise made so long before, is a sufficient assurance to us, that all the rest of his promises to his church shall be made good in their season; so this dreadful judgment on the Jews, which was also long threatened, being at last executed, does sufficiently inform us, that all his sore judgments mentioned in Scripture for sin, even the eternal torments of hell, shall fall on all those who do not by hearty and timely repentance and reformation prevent the same. God is the same, as just, and as much hating sin, and as powerful; and if he at last spared not the posterity of those holy men, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom he owned for his peculiar people, for whom he wrought so many miracles in Egypt, and divided the sea for them to pass over; whom he fed in the wilderness forty years together with food from heaven; whom he placed in the land of Canaan, and made his church above all the nations besides ; 43, 44. At this time St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, affirmed the prophecy to be fully accomplished, as the historian observes, who adds, "then, or at that time, was the temple totally demolished." Socrat. Hist. Eccles. 1. iii. c. 20. (Gr. ed. Col. 1. iii. C. 17. ELS TEλεOV AvaTergaтo.) So that our Saviour's prophecy, there shall not be one stone left upon another, as it relates to the destruction of the temple by Titus, seems to be an hyperbolical expression, signifying an utter destruction of it; as, on the contrary, the building of it was expressed by a stone laid upon a stone, Hag. ii. 15. Nor is it probable that the Romans were so curious, or so much at leisure, as to pull down, or dig up every stone thereof. The term in Josephus (Bell. 1. vii. c. 1. Gr.) xataσxat, does not import a digging or ploughing up, but diruere us εdapos, a levelling with the ground, (Scapula;) and Josephus further adds, Outws wμarioa», they laid it so flat, &c. The ploughing was only a ceremony of the Romans, who used to draw a plough over a place where a city had stood which they demolished. Vide Grot. in Matt. xxiv. 2. and Glassii Philolog. Sacr. de Hyperbole. The rooting up of the foundations was in Julian's time, and then indeed was the prophecy literally fulfilled. |