Thus it was that Titus, ignorant that he was executing the will of Him, whose word should remain even though the heavens and the earth should pass. away; encompassed with his army, and laid siege against Jerusalem. The Jews little suspecting another more terrible Nebuchadnezzar in the person of the Roman General; little imagining that in his army they beheld another more sanguinary race of Babylonians; at length became unmindful of their own internal feuds, and resisted every attempt at encroachment on the part of the invaders. Regardless of every offer to capitulate or establish peace, they were the foremost to bring judgment upon themselves, and destruction upon the city; in contending, unprepared as. they were, with an army composed of troops inured by long service and rigid discipline, to the arts and hardships of war; and who were gazing on the golden prospects of spoil and plunder, which in the event of victory, seemed to offer a certain recompence for every exertion. Blind to their own interest, and confident of security in their embattled bulwarks, and the protection of the God of "Abraham their Father," the Jews defied the threats and despised the offers of the enemy, who, though unable to stagger the belief that the Almighty was still watching over the preservation of his Heritage, must in a considerable degree, have shaken their boasted confidence in the security of their ramparts, by the success of this encounter, and the demolition of their frontier.'

(1) UNTIL THY HIGH AND FENCED WALLS COME DOWN WHEREIN THOE TRUSTEDST.-Deut. xxviii. 52.

CHAP.

TITUS'S SUCCESSFUL ATTACK UPON THE SECOND WALL... ENCAMPS WITHIN THE FIRST, AND OFFERS TERMS OF PEACE....THESE BEING REFUSED, A SECOND ASSAULT IS MADE, AND THE SECOND WALL TAKEN.... THE FAMINE WITHIN THE CITY DESCRIBED, AND THE HORROURS ATTENDING IT.

TITUS now pitched his camp within the compass of the first wall, keeping himself beyond the reach of the engines, stationed to defend the second. The factions still smothered their mutual animosities to direct, more effectually, their exertions against the common enemy. Alarmed at the progress the Romans had already made, and the success with which their first enterprise had been crowned, they became infuriated, and sallied out in numbers to give them battle; but the cool intrepidity of the legions was not to be subverted by the impulses of heat and passion: the Jews, therefore, were constantly defeated and driven back to their fortifications, while their adversaries were rendered incapable of making any impression upon the wall, defended as it was, by that boldness so characteristic of the Jews, when exasperated by misfortunes, or made frantic by despair. Some, from fear of their Tyrants, or from indifference to life under horrours every where surrounding them, exposed their persons to the greatest dangers: others, still encouraged by expectations of

divine

divine deliverance, fought with equal bravery; whilst those, attached to the person and cause of Simon, were ready to execute his projects under risks the most daring and hazardous. On the other hand, the Romans, proud of that discipline which seldom failed to insure them conquest, and ambitious of the applause of their chief, exerted their utmost energies to intimidate and defeat the enemy. An instance of their enthusiasm at this time, and of their thirst for military glory, is exemplified in the character of Longinus, one of their commanders; who approaching with a body of men against the Jews, burst singly from the ranks into the thickest of the enemy, and having made those immediately around his person, to start backwards by the surprise of so unexpected an encounter, slew two of them in an instant; the second falling by the very dart which had been the instrument of fatality to the other: and having thus effected his purpose, with an activity truly astonishing, re-gained his former station in the ranks. This action would have led the ambition of others to aspire at signalising themselves by feats of equal danger, had they not been restrained by Titus; who gave them to understand that he did not regard the accomplishment of hazardous designs, prompted by a mad indiscretion, as any indication of that true courage, which alone was characterised by cool deliberation and firmness. This bravery, however, was opposed by artifice, as well as by a blind impetuosity on the part of the Jewish people; till Titus, worn out by deceptions, which had too long trifled with his feelings, renewed his exertions with such success, that after four days continued warfare, he gained the second wall; entering the breach at the head of a thousand of Bb

of his chosen men. The Jews fled dismayed in all directions; having lost the two first objects of their contention, they perceived too plainly, that the army whose incroachments they had hitherto endeavoured to oppose, was endued with a spirit of perseverance and ardour not to be resisted, but by equal fortitude and zeal: upon which they collected themselves together with a determination to confront every danger, and to hazard every means of checking the advances of the invaders, if not in driving them back to their intrench

ments.

In the mean while Titus, with a view once more to offer terms of capitulation, kept back his soldiers from further pursuit. Thinking that he had now given a sufficient proof of his superiority over the factions, and that if instigated to it, he could give still greater proofs of his power; it seemed to him the most seasonable opportunity for evincing the motives by which he had been actuated to attack them; and at the same time to exhibit a convincing assurance, that his object was not to destroy, but to bring them to their allegiance. His army, therefore, received orders to protect all who came over to his standard; to give quarter to every Jew whether armed or not, and to practise, indiscriminately, every act of clemency. In vain were these injunctions given, in vain were offers of conciliation made; the factious leaders were too obstinate to listen to any pacific measures. They pretended that the designs of Titus were deceitful, and his real intentions masked in the semblance of pity and compassion; that terms of peace were suggested by his cowardice, and his seeming virtue by despair. The zeal of the parties was buoyed up by these false represen

tations;

tations; some gaining courage from the belief of their reality; others, intimidated by threats, assumed that fortitude they could not feel: when John and Simon combining these with their own forces, as they had previously determined, poured down from the heights upon the enemy with so much impetuosity, that Titus, aware of their intentions, and seeing no possibility of keeping his ground with so small a force, against the thousands every where surrounding him, as well as with a view of sparing the valuable lives of his veteran troops, sounded a retreat, and retired through the breach by which he had so recently entered.

The preparations for a second assault engaged the industry of the legions, and the skill of their com mander, the three following days; during which time, intestine dissensions in the city broke out with increased violence. The factions which had so lately united their forces, now called up their former resentments, indulging a hope that the enemy would not hazard a second attempt: for says Josephus, "God "had blinded their minds, for the transgressions of "which they had been guilty, so that they neither "considered the superior force of the Romans, nor "perceived the visible approach of famine so rapidly advancing. Hitherto they had maintained themselves at the expence of public misery, and had "drank, as it were, the very blood of the city; but poverty had long seized upon the greater part of "the citizens, many of whom died for want of the 66 common

(1) These words of the Historian, that "God had blinded their minds,” very strongly mark the precision of the prophecy of Moses-THE LORD

SHALL SMITE THEE WITH MADNESS AND BLINDNESS.

Deut. xxviii. 28.