over the whole region. The mournful and desolate condition of Judea, at this time, is exactly described by the prophet Isaiah, in the following passage of his prophecy: "The cities were wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without a man, and the land was utterly desolate, and the Lord had removed men far away, and there was a great forsaking in the midst of the land*."

The catastrophe which has now been reviewed, cannot but be deemed one of the most extraordinary that has happened since the foundation of the world; and as it has pleased the Almighty to make it the subject of a very large proportion of the prophecies, both of the Jewish and christian scriptures, so he hath ordained that the particular events which accomplished them, should be recorded with very remarkable precision, and by a man most

* Isaiah vi. 11, 12.

singularly preserved*, qualified, and circumstanced for this purpose. But with respect to this latter point, he shall speak for himself: "At first," says Josephus, "I fought against the Romans, but was afterwards forced to be present in the Roman camp. At the time I surrendered, Vespasian and Titus kept me in bonds, but obliged me to attend them continually. Afterwards I was set at liberty, and accompanied Titus when he came from Alexandria to the siege of Jerusalem.During this time nothing was done which escaped my knowledge. What happened in the Roman camp I saw, and wrote down carefully. As to the information the deserters brought out of the city, I was the only man that understood it. Afterwards I got leisure at Rome; and when all my materials were prepared, I procured the help of one to assist me in writing Greek. Thus I composed the

*Three several times his life was preserved as by a miracle.

history of those transactions, and I appeal both to Titus and Vespasian for the truth of it; to which also Julius Archelaus, Herod, and King Aggrippa, bore their testimony." All remark here is needless; but it should not be forgotten, that Josephus was a Jew, obstinately attached to his religion; and that, although he has circumstantially related every remarkable event of that period, he seems studiously to have avoided such as had any reference to Jesus Christ, whose history (and even the genuineness of this is disputed) he sums up in about twelve lines. No one, therefore, can reasonably entertain a suspicion, that the service he has rendered to christianity, by his narra. tive of the transactions of the Jewish war, was at all the effect of design. lity of Josephus, as an historian, is, indeed, universally admitted; and Scaliger even affirms, that, not only in the affairs of the Jews, but in those of foreign nations

The fide

also, he deserves more credit than all the Greek and Roman writers put together.

Nor is the peculiar character of Titus, the chief commander in this war, unworthy of our particular regard. Vespasian, his father, had risen out of obscurity, and was elected emperor, contrary to his avowed inclination, about the commencement of the conflict; and thus the chief command devolved upon Titus, the most unlikely man throughout the Roman armies to become a scourge to Jerusalem. He was eminently distinguished for his great tenderness and humanity, which he displayed in a variety of instances during the siege. He repeatedly made pacific overtures to the Jews, and deeply lamented the infatuation that rejected them. In short, he did every thing, which a military commander could do, to spare them, and to preserve their city and temple, but with. out effect. Thus was the will of God ac complished by the agency, although contrary to the wish of Titus; and his pre

102 SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS, SUBSEQUENT

dicted interposition, to punish his rebellious and apostate people, in this way rendered more conspicuously evident.

The history of the Jews, subsequently to the time of Josephus, still further corroborates the truth of our Saviour's prophecies concerning that oppressed and persecuted people. Into this inquiry, however, the limits of the present essay will not allow us to enter particularly. Our Lord foretold, generally, that they should "fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations; and that Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles should be fulfilled," and these predictions may be regarded as a faithful epitome of the circumstances of the Jews, and also of their city, from the period in which it was delivered, down even to our own times.

* Luke xxi. 24.