After this, Josephus, in the name of Titus, earnestly exhorted John and his adhe rents to surrender; but the insolent rebel returned nothing but reproaches and impre-. cations, declaring his firm persuasion that Jerusalem, as it was God's own city, could never be taken: thus literally fulfilling the declaration of Micah, that the Jews, in their extremity, notwithstanding their crimes, would presumptuously "lean upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us’*.”

Meanwhile the horrors of famine grew still more melancholy and afflictive. The Jews, for want of food, were at length compelled to eat their belts, their sandals, the skins of their shields, dried grass, and even the ordure of oxen. In the depth of this horrible extremity, a Jewess of noble family, urged by the intolerable cravings of hunger, slew her infant child, and prepared it for a meal; and had actually eat

*Micah iii. 11.

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en one half thereof, when the soldiers, allured by the smell of food, threatened her with instant death if she refused to disco.ver it. Intimidated by this menace, she immediately produced the remains of her son, which petrified them with horror. At the recital of this melancholy and affecting occurrence, the whole city stood aghast, and poured forth their congratulations on those whom death had hurried away from such heart-rending scenes. Indeed, humanity at once shudders and sickens at the narration, nor can any one of the least sensibility reflect upon the pitiable condition to which the female part of the inhabitants of Jerusalem must at this time have been reduced, without experiencing the tenderest emotions of sympathy, or refrain from tears while he reads our Saviour's pathetic address to the women who "bewailed him" as he was led to Calvary, wherein he evidently refers to these very calamities:" Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but for yourselves and for

• Blessed

jour children; for, behold, the days are coming in which they shall say, are the barren, and the wombs that never bear, and the breasts that never gave suck'*."

The above melancholy fact was also li terally foretold by Moses: "The tender and delicate woman among you (said he, addressing Israel) who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil... toward her young one... which she shall bear," and "eat for want of all things, secretly, in the siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall dis tress thee in thy gatest." This predic tion was partially fulfilled, when Samaria, the capital of the revolted tribes, was besieged by Benhadad; and afterwards at Jerusalem, previously to its capture by Nebuchadnezzar; but its exact and literal accomplishment, in relation to † Deut. xxviii. 56, 57.

*Luke xxiii. 29.

a lady of rank, delicately and voluptuously educated, was reserved for the period of which we are now speaking. And it deserves particular regard, as a circumstance which very greatly enhances the importance of this prophecy, that the history of the world does not record that a parallel instance of unnatural barbarity ever occurred during the siege of any other place, in any other age or nation whatsoever. Indeed, Josephus himself declares that, if there had not been many credible witnesses of the fact, he would not have recorded it, "because," as he remarks,"such a shocking violation of nature never having been perpetrated by any Greek or barbarian," the insertion of it might have diminished the credibility of his history.

While famine continued thus to spread its destructive rage through the city, the Romans, after many ineffectual attempts, at length succeeded in demolishing part of

the inner wall, possessed themselves of the great tower of Antonia, and advanced towards the temple, which Titus, in a council of war, had determined to preserve as an ornament to the empire, and as a monument of his success; but the Almighty had determined otherwise; for now, in the revolution of ages, was arriv ed that fatal day*, emphatically called a "day of vengeancet," on which the temple had formerly been destroyed by the king of Babylon. A Roman soldier, urged, as he declared, by a divine impulse, regardless of the command of Titus climbed on the shoulders of another, and threw a flaming brand into the golden window of the temple, which instantly set the building on fire. The Jews, anxious above all things to save that sacred edifice, in which they superstitiously trusted for security, with a dreadful outcry, rushed in to extinguish the flames. Titus also, being informed of the conflagration, † Luke xxi. 22.

# The 10th of August.