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it, would rest on a still more questionable foundation, wholly destitute of the local and national features that establish its general accuracy beyond dispute.

The prefatory matter has swelled far beyond our purposed limits; but Jotopata, Tarichæe and Gamala arrest us by the fearful interest of their melancholy details; while the narrative invests with grim and glaring life the prophetic beast, "which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet."

CHAPTER VI.

prize in immediate prospect: Jerusalem | through their favour his work is preserved was next to be invested, and the army ex- as an invaluable record of what, but for pressed great impatience to march upon the holy city; but Vespasian, hearing from deserters how great were the divisions, and how bitter the internal contests carried on there, refused to advance, deeming it expedient to allow those breaches to widen, and the mischief to proceed as far as possible, before they furnished the Jews with a motive of union by attacking them. There can be no doubt that the wily Roman had emissaries in the city, stirring up strife, and directing many evil works that appeared to be of Jewish origin alone: and Josephus himself, a captive, but in high favour and confidence, would afford many valuable hints for his patron's guidance. How far his patriotism had been subdued, we may gather from the complacency with which he details events that even at this distance of time, must pierce with anguish the heart of every Jew who peruses the tale; how far his feelings had been paganized, we may also discern from the whole tenor of his language, which is that of a Roman, not an Israelite. The "divine fury" that he ascribes to Vespasian could not, to his view, be as the heaven-born courage of Gideon or David; but the legitimate inspiration of Rome's warlike demon, Mars. Touches do appear of natural feeling, but they are very few, and very far between; a glimmer among the ashes of what he had laboured to extinguish, and where scarcely an expiring spark yet lingered. This ought to be borne in mind, when admitting as unquestionable the accuracy of one who took part in the events that he narrates. Every eye-witness is not a true witness; neither is the report of a faithless deserter, such as bore tidings to the Roman camp of what occurred within the walls of Jerusalem, above suspicion. This we know, that they were days of vengeance when all came upon the country and the people, which the prophets had foretold; and whatsoever is borne out by the word of prophecy that we are bound to believe. Beyond it, we have no sure data on which to build, save in the military operations and public events that were known to all men. Josephus certainly did not write for the Jews; but for the Romans he certainly did write, and

THE fortified places of Judæa being reduced, and their gallant defenders slaughtered, or with their helpless families carried into slavery, the Roman army pressed on their general the desirableness of proceeding to Jerusalem; but Vespasian exhorted them to patience, representing that their work was being more effectually done by means of civil dissension, commotion, and blood within the city, than it could be by their immediate advance. John, who had escaped from Gischala, was at the head of a lawless party calling themselves zealots, making havoc of the more peaceable, and committing dreadful acts, not only in Jerusalem, but by occasional excursions to neighbouring places; while some alien bands who had possession of the citadel of Masada, not far from Jerusalem, took advantage of the absence of the male population at the feast of unleavened bread to fall on the surrounding villages, committing dreadful barbarities, and carrying off the spoil to their fortress; insomuch that individuals frequently made their appearance in the Roman camp, inviting Vespasian to advance, and, by completing at a blow the work of desolation, put an end to this slow and torturing process. To this he seemed to yield, rather than to the wishes of his army; and set forward on his sanguinary expedi

lently upon the smaller cities and villages; when he took Abila, and Julias, and Bezemoth, and all those that lay as far as the lake Asphaltites, and put such of the deserters (i. e. traitors) into them as he thought proper. He then put his followers on board the ships, and slew such as had fled to the lake."

tion in the character of a deliverer anxious | Israel, the royal tribe of Judah. "Now to extend the protecting wing of the Ro- this destruction that fell upon the Jews, man Eagle over the whole nation. Ga- as it was not inferior to any of the rest in dara, the chief city of Peræa, surrendered itself, so did it still appear greater than it on their approach; the more hostile party really was. And this because not only having taken to flight, on finding that no the whole country through which they opposition would be offered by the princi- fled was filled with slaughter, and Jordan pal citizens. Vespasian despatched one could not be passed over by reason of the of his commanders in pursuit of the fugi- dead bodies that were in it; but because tives, a body of whom they soon overtook, the lake Asphaltites was also full of dead and completely surrounded, forming with bodies that were carried down into it by their mail-clad ranks an unbroken, imper- the river. And now Placidas, after this vious wall of iron, against which the darts | GOOD SUCCESS that he had had, fell vioof the Jews were hurled in vain. These stood at bay, and fought with desperate courage: but escape was impossible; and there like,-oh, how like!" a wild bull in a net," they struggled and fell, one by one, beneath the practised hands of the enemy, who pierced them at will with their javelins, or trampled them beneath their horses' hoofs. This took place near a village, into which others had previously fought their way through parties of the Roman horse, and where they made a brave but ineffectual defence. The enemy broke in through the slender barriers, where, says Josephus, "the useless multitude were destroyed;" in other words, the aged, the weak, and the helpless Jewish women and babes had their throats cut; the houses were plundered, the village was burnt; and then the fugitives, augmented by all who had strength to flee, were hunted again on the road to Jericho, into which they hoped to throw themselves, and repulse the Romans. But Pla-ing building garrisoned by his soldiers or cidas, the hostile commander, was too rapid for them: he drove them to the side of Jordan, then swelled by the rains, and overflowing its banks, and here, after an unequal battle, he completed the work by slaying fifteen thousand with the sword, selecting twelve hundred for slavery, and compelling the rest to leap into the river, over which their fathers passed dry-shod when the ark of the LORD rested in mid channel. But HE, the God of Abraham, was now wroth with His people; He had forsaken His inheritance, and given them over as a prey into the hands of a barbarous foe. We will here cite the words of that unnatural apostate, Josephus, who thus coolly details the nature and consequences of this savage massacre, perpetrated on his own brethren, the people of 4

VOL. III.

After this, Vespasian himself advanced upon Jericho, hoping for a fresh supply of blood and spoil; but though he laid all waste in the way thither, he was disappointed at the last, for every one had fled, and Jericho was as desolate as though he had already swept it with the Roman besom; and now he began in earnest to prepare for the great siege. He took Gerasae at a blow, slew all the young men who had not escaped, took captive all the families, gave their houses to be plundered by his troops, then set fire to the place. The whole surrounding country being thus completely laid waste, and every remain

mercenary allies, the people of Jerusalem had no longer the power of making excursions from the city walls. The party most opposed to the Roman invader carefully watched such as were suspected of an intention to desert; and of the other classes, none of course ventured to explore a neighbourhood wholly subdued and overrun by the hostile army.

It was not, however, reserved for Vespasian to conclude in person the fearful achievement hitherto so successfully prosecuted. That he longed to add this bloodstained trophy to the wreaths which he had recently won on the shores of our own England, cannot be doubted. It was the Roman fashion of those days to affect contempt the most supreme for every other people under heaven; and com

mensurate with the gallantry exhibited | upon this extraordinary Jew, suggested

by an enemy was the eagerness of those barbarous legions to subdue him. Strong confidence in their own invincible powers, an assured belief that they could not be conquered, upheld them under all reverses, and nerved them to such efforts as never failed to retrieve a temporary loss; this urged them onward to finish the protracted campaign, so unexpectedly lengthened out by the desperate intrepidity of a people, who, like themselves, but on far, far higher grounds, were incapable of realizing the fact of being subdued by mortal man.

To the importunities of his martial followers Vespasian, having so far forced his way, was now fully disposed to accede; but before the needful preparations could be made, events took a new turn at Rome, the imperial crown itself becoming the property of this experienced slaughterer; who, of course, found it necessary to proceed with all haste to the seat of universal empire.

The act of sovereignty recorded by Josephus is one that we must carefully bear in mind. The Jewish historian had, as we have seen, been captured at Jotapata, after heading the garrison of that town in a defence as gallant, as protracted, and as destructive to the enemy as they had anywhere encountered. This, in the eyes of the barbarous conquerors, merited a cruel death, or at least perpetual slavery; but Vespasian and Titus, won upon, as Josephus tells us, by his inspired prediction of their both attaining to the imperial dignity, spared his life; and not only so, for it is evident that, though outwardly in bonds, he accompanied them on their march of blood and desolation more on the terms of a friend than of a captive. Vespasian now took advantage of the high good humour into which the army was thrown by his acceptance of the imperial diadem, and of the glowing loyalty that all were eager to manifest to the monarch of their choice. He set Josephus before them, rehearsed his gallant deeds, his sufferings, and above all, his happy prophecy, now fulfilled by themselves; and appealed to them whether it was right that such a man should still wear the fetters of a captive. Of course, the answer accorded with the emperor's wish; and then Titus, eager to put all possible honour

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that the ceremony of hacking asunder his bonds should be performed, which, according to Roman usage, would remove the stigma of having ever worn them. This also was done; and Josephus very complacently informs us that he "received the testimony of his integrity for a reward; and was moreover esteemed a person of credit as to futurities also." He was regarded as a man high in the imperial favour, and secure of rising by means of that effectual helping hand that kings can give their creatures.

At this distance of time, with no contemporaneous testimony to throw additional light on what he has thought proper to reveal, we cannot undertake to judge the Jewish historian; but it is im possible to avoid remarking, that had he accompanied Vespasian to Rome, his fame would have worn a brighter aspect, his conduct have admitted of a more favourable interpretation, than either can bear under the circumstances of his continuing with Titus, to aid and abet that heathen and his host in the destruction of the Holy City. When to this we again add the fact of his having penned his history under the eye of this imperial pair, father and son, subject to the keen remarks of those who had destroyed the Lord's vineyard, and laid waste His heritage; when we trace in it, as we cannot fail to do, an identification of feeling and interests with those whose hands, whose march, the very streets of whose haughty city, were still reeking with the warm life blood of Judah, we cannot, we will not take the word of this recreant and apostate Jew for any particulars calculated to blacken the darkness of Jerusalem in that day of her unprecedented anguish. Desolate, in captivity, moving to and fro with fettered hands and bleeding feet, and a scourge, yea, a sword ever suspended over their lacerated shoulders, the Jews could not sit down to pen a refutation of what their treacherous brother, clad in soft clothing and feasted at Cæsar's table, securely recorded against them. Away, then, with his testimony in all that concerns the enormities committed within the city: there is no warrant in the prophetic scriptures, no evidence in credible history, no analogy in nature itself, for the atrocities

that he charges upon his brethren. Rome | most Holy," at which time, Messiah should pagan, no less than Rome papal, needed the forging of a considerable number of lying accusations, to palliate in some degree the horrors of her own diabolical barbarity against the Jewish people. She found a hand, expert and willing in the work of calumny; she made the most of it, and after ages have swallowed with unquestioning gullibility the whole incredible tale. A clearer light is now dawning on the world; and while the Lord God removes the covering from all nations, and the vail that is cast over all people, He also begins to take away the reproach of His own peculiar people in many particulars where a false reproach has hitherto rested on them; and soon will all reproach, by His pardoning mercy and redeeming love, be removed from them for

ever.

be cut off, but not for himself; they refused to ponder the solemn message, and fixed their whole heart on the equally sure word that the same Messiah's kingdom should subsequently be established in majesty and might on the ruins of the long-continued Gentile usurpations. When Zechariah declared that for thirty pieces of silver the Lord should be bartered among them, and that they should look on Him (the context proving a divine person) whom they had pierced, and mourn for him in the deepest humiliation of contrite sorrow, they threw it aside as a sealed book, laying an eager grasp on the triumphant sequel where Israel, restored and re-established in his own land, with every ancient privilege confirmed and redoubled, should behold the nations of the earth coming yearly to Jerusalem to keep with them the Yet the Jews of that day were guilty, feast of Tabernacles. In like manner, exceedingly, fearfully guilty; or such what God hath joined in the Law, the overwhelming destruction could not have Psalms, and the Prophets, an atoning fallen on them, nor would the Lord have Sacrifice and a reigning Deliverer, a Prodelivered the dearly-beloved of His soul, phet whom all must hear and obey on pain bound and naked, into the hands of her of destruction, a PRIEST upon his throne, ferocious enemies. What was the crown- they, alas! misled by blind guides, put ing sin of the nation we very well know : asunder, and so filled up the measure of reading by the light of man's instruction the sins of many generations. the words, the inspired words of their own wrath came upon them to the uttermost; holy prophets, they had overlooked the the beauty was defaced, the glory departed, important fact of a suffering Saviour dy- and Judah was cast out for a long, long ing to redeem, and fixed their eyes exclu- pilgrimage of suffering and sorrow through sively on the more distant prospect of that the wilderness of cruel nations, whose inglorious Redeemer coming to reign. To iquitous and impious pleasure it has been that portion of Isaiah's prediction which to help forward the affliction; daring the speaks of him as despised and rejected of awful retribution that must follow from men, a man of sorrows and acquainted that unrevoked assurance given to Israel, with grief, smitten and afflicted; bruised" He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple for their sins, wounded for their transgres- of his eye.” sions, scourged that they might be healed; led as a sheep to the slaughter, numbered with the transgressors, entombed, and by his righteousness justifying them; to this they closed their eyes, and opened them but to behold him coming from Edom, | themselves a dispersion so long, and suftravelling in the greatness of his strength, and in the blood of his and their enemies, and crowned a glorious King.

When Daniel forewarned them of a time being set" to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the

Then,

This has been a long digression, but we would fain place the matter in its true light. For many generations, and in many ways, Israel had provoked the LORD; and the fact of their ultimately bringing on

ferings so bitter, as we know them to have undergone during the last eighteen centuries, was distinctly revealed to, and with terrible exactness set forth by Moses, in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. This event at last took place, under the circumstances now referred to, and the menaced bolt fell. Josephus, evidently a man of most carnal mind and darkened

understanding, takes upon himself to exalt the national grandeur and prowess of the Jews, in order to exalt still higher the glory of those who conquered them: he obtained from the heathen spoilers the loan of the sacred books, the rolls that had been rent from the temple in Jerusalem, and from them, as from common records, he compiled a history of former times. Had he been worthy of the name of Jew, he would have buried those holy books deep in the earth, and shed his life-blood in vindication of the deed that rescued them from foul profanation: but such he was not; and we only note the circumstance as a proof of the extinction of all natural feeling in his breast; and as a landmark whereby to steer through his exaggerated descriptions of what he certainly did not himself see, nor could he know it but from the report of spies, deserters, and other traitors continually coming from the besieged walls.

So far, we may, each for himself, picture the mournful, the dreadful state of the devoted city, divested of the guardian shield that had so long hung over it. The angel of the LORD encamped no more about her palaces, but left them to be the spoiler's prey. The Temple, that spot most holy upon earth's wide surface, in the eyes of a Jew, was no longer owned by Him who had vouchsafed to dwell therein; and in a furious contest of rival parties, Zacharius, the son of Barachius, a man of peace, and of the consecrated' order, was slain between the temple and the altar,—a signal that the righteous blood shed from the beginning thitherto was about to come upon that generation.* Jerusalem could not have fallen, unless the great majority of her inhabitants had forsaken and provoked the LORD to the uttermost; because, for his own name's sake, and for his servant David's sake, did the LORD defend that city from of old. Far be it from us, while rejecting the malicious details of Josephus, to question the extent of prevailing iniquity there! It would be to question the truth of the Most High, to arraign his justice, and to rebel against his power. The language of the Jews, in their synagogues all over the world, on the return of that sorrowful anniversary, and indeed in all their services, would keenly reprove us; for words cannot express a greater depth of contrite humiliation than they are accustomed to declare, on the subject of national provocation. Terrible in his long-delayed vengeance, still the God of Israel was just; and even in the fierceness of his wrath, He remembered mercy. He forgat not the covenants made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but stayed the rough wind in the day of his east wind, or what soul would have escaped the sanguinary murderers without, and their unprincipled tools within the devoted city? How would Judah have survived, and continued, and multiplied, and spread abroad to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south, and retained within him

That fearful scenes were enacted there no one can doubt: that the city was divided, rent into factions, and every division wrought up to madness by the secret operation of suborned emissaries from the enemy's camp, or hired agents whose instructions were thence derived, is obvious. In any population the same means would produce similar effects; and assuredly we must admit the awful fact that the Lord, their own Almighty King, "was turned to be their enemy and fought against them,"* that because they had walked contrary to Him, He at length fulfilled the threat, "I will walk contrary to you also in fury, and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries into desolation; and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste." The fulfilment of this fruitful prediction to the very letter, must prepare the mind to re-self all the elements of a returning greatceive an impression fully commensurate with the prophetic lament, that "under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem."

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ness and glory, as it is at this day? We proceed to the scene of desolation, accompanying Titus and his homicidal band: and with them desiring, "Let our eye * Matt. xxiii. 35.

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