THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM

“And his heart shall be against the holy covenant.” After the overthrow of Egypt and the return of the Romans to their own land with great riches, being masters of the world, they engaged in no great enterprise until their persecutions; first, of the Christians, under Nero, the Roman emperor, A. D. 64; and then, soon after, the overthrow of Judea, and the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. The holy covenant is the covenant God had made with Abraham and his seed, to give them the land of Canaan for an inheritance; and the ratification of that covenant to Israel, when they were put in possession of the land of promise under Joshua; with the assurance that if they were obedient they should never be plucked up out of the land. The condition of their retaining it after Christ should make his appearance as the true heir, and prophet like unto Moses, was, that they should hear that prophet in all things whatsoever he should say to them. And every soul who would not obey that prophet, should be destroyed from among the people. That prophet came; the Jews, as a nation, rejected him; but a people, of both Jewish and Gentile extraction, the believers in and servants of Christ, became the true heirs of the land, and children of Jerusalem. But under the destroying hand of the Romans, both Christians and Jews suffered; and the holy place was desecrated and then destroyed. The Christians escaped from the city and were saved; the Jews entered into it and perished. This war is thus described by a historian:PREX2 61.3

“Under Vespasian, the Romans invaded the country and took the cities of Galilee, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, where Christ had been rejected; destroyed the inhabitants, and left nothing but ruin and desolation.PREX2 62.1

“Jerusalem was destroyed A. D. 70. Its destruction was distinctly foretold by Christ; but no tongue can tell the sufferings of its devoted inhabitants. Josephus, who was an eye-witness of them, remarks, ‘that all the calamities that ever befel any nation since the beginning of the world, were interior to the miseries of his country men at that awful period.PREX2 62.2

“After the death of Herod, the Jews were subject to Roman jurisdiction, but they were divided into violent factions, led by profligate wretches, and soon openly revolted from the imperial dominion. Warned by Christ, before his crucifixion, of the storm that was about to burst upon the devoted city, the Christians all fled to Pelia, a city beyond Jordan. On the day of the passover,-the anniversary of the crucifixion of Christ-Titus, the Roman general, encamped before Jerusalem with a formidable army. A tremendous siege ensued. The Jews defended themselves with astonishing valor; but they were unable long to resist the power of the Roman engines To accelerate the ruin, Titus enclosed the city by a circumvallation, strengthened by thirteen towers, by which the prophecy of Christ was fulfilled: ‘The days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee around on every side.’ Then ensued a amine, the like to which the world has never witnessed. An eminent Jewess, frantic with her sull rings, devoured her infant. Moses had long before predicted this very thing: ‘The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness, her eye shall be evil towards her young one, and towards her children which she shall bear, for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.’ Heading of the inhuman deed, Titus swore the eternal extirpation of the accursed city and people.PREX2 63.1

“The Roman commander had determined to save the temple, as an honor to himself; but the Lord of Hosts had purposed its destruction. On the 10th of August, a Roman soldier seized a brand of fire, and threw it into one of the windows. The whole temple was soon in flames. The frantic Jews, and Titus himself, labored to extinguish it, but in vain. Titus entered into the sanctuary, and bore away the golden candlestick, the table of shew bread, and the volume of the law, wrapped up in a rich golden tissue. The complete conquest of Jerusalem ensued. Christ had foretold that ‘there should be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world.’ During the siege, which lasted five months, eleven hundred thousand Jews perished, and ninety-seven thousand were taken prisoners. The number destroyed during the war, which lasted seven years, is computed at one million four hundred and sixty-two thousand. This city was amazingly strong. Upon viewing the ruins, Titus exclaimed, ‘We have fought with the assistance of God.’ The city was completely levelled, and Tarentius Rufus ploughed up the foundations of the temple. Thus literally were the predictions of Christ fulfilled: ‘Thine enemies shall lay thee even with the ground, and there shall not be left one stone upon another.’”PREX2 64.1

It was thus he did exploits, and returned again, as he did after the conquest of Egypt, to his own land.PREX2 64.2