taken from him were carefully preferved'; and others were provided. Commanders were appointed, and their refpective departments allotted them. In Jerufalem the fage Ananus, though a friend to peace, prepared every article neceffary or useful for carrying on war or fuftaining a fiege. And the prudent Josephus, who commanded in Galilee, not only fortified the towns and advantageous pofts, but likewise raised an army of fixty thousand men, whom he laboured with indefatigable industry and skill to inure to military difcipline and the use of arms. Thefe circumstances feemed to prognofticate an arduous enterprife, worthy of the fame and fortune of Vefpafian, aided by the active and intrepid bravery of his fon. Nor indeed was the success, though the exertions were great and the troops powerful, fuch at first as might be called rapid. Two campaigns were employed in reducing the remoter parts of the province; and hoftilities in the east were during the third year fufpended by commotions at Rome. To gain victories abroad, there was fmall incite 1 B. J. L. II. c. XIX. §. 9. Ibid. c. xx. §. z. &c. et c. xxii. ment, ment, when it was uncertain, whether the empire itself might not, in the mean time, be loft at home". But when Vefpafian was invefted with the imperial purple, and Rome folicited the return of Titus to fhare his honours; the war was carried to the walls of Jerufalem, and pushed with a vigour that is almost incredible. The effects of famine, though fure, feemed tedious; and the splendor of a conqueft, purchased at the expence of a long blockade, would be much diminished. Modes of affault therefore, which might give them immediate poffeffion of their wishes, were forthwith planned and refolutely profecuted. These however were rendered abortive, as well by the ftrength of the place itself, as the ferocious courage of thofe who defended it?. But the fpirit of Titus was not to be daunted. Holding a council of war, he recommended a work, the magnitude of which might excite our wonder, were not the dispatch, with which it was executed, far more aftonishing. A wall in circumference almoft five miles, 1 entirely furrounding the city, and fortified with thirteen spacious garrifons, was begun and completed in three days 2. Such were the operations on the part of the Romans to accelerate the capture. But the befieged themselves contributed much more effectually than the enemy without to haften their destruction, The patriotic Ananus would either by his vigilance have protracted the fiege, or by his moderation and authority have made terms with the Romans: he therefore was flain '. The city, though crouded with inhabitants, was stored with corn and other provifions, which would have fufficed feveral years: these therefore were burnt by the feditious, When other parts of the city were reduced, there still remained towers of impregnable ftrength these therefore the tyrants abandoned '. : By these means the city, which in the time of Zedekiah had endured a close fiege of more than twelve months, was taken by the Romans in less than five. Titus himself, 4 B. J. L. V. c. xii. §. 2. B. J. L. IV. c. v. §. 2. Ibid. L. VI. c. viii. §. 4. on on furveying the scene of his paft labours and future renown, acknowledged it was GoD who had delivered into his hands places invincible by human power or mans device". He affumed therefore no name from the country which he had vanquished; and though, in conjunction with his father, he accepted a triumph, he professed himself not worthy of the crown of victory which was offered him*; declaring, That he had only been the inftrument of divine vengeance. Thus then did GoD, in confirmation of the promise made by his beloved Son, evidently shorten these days of wrath, that peace might revifit the habitation of his chofen, and that even that rebellious and ftubborn generation might not be totally cut off from the earth, by mutual flaughter, by the extremity of famine, or the fword of the Ro mans. But in order to illuftrate other parts of the prophecy, it is neceffary, for a moment, to caft our eyes back on the days of the fiege; and though the spectacle there exhibited may " B. J. L. VI. c. ix. §. 1. * Philoftrat. Vit. Apoll. L. VI. c. xxix. He probably did not entirely reject the honour. See B. J. L. VII. c. v. §. 2. be painful to behold, it will not however be unprofitable, if from contemplating what the Jews fuffered, we are careful to avoid the remotest resemblance of what they did. Of all the calamities which the Almighty, in his righteous judgement, fuffers to fall on human fociety, perhaps the most grievous is divifion and difcord. Here therefore the forrows of Judah, which were to exceed all other forrows, first began; and this was also the latest cause of mourning. In itself indeed the evil was not peculiar. The daughters of Jerufalem were not the first, neither have they been the last, who have had occafion to bewail the dire effects of civil diffenfion. In one respect however the case is perhaps without a parallel. In these days alone was the difeafe fo malignant, that it could not be healed by a foreign fword and common danger. Had they all been peaceable, they all had been happy; had they been unanimous in revolt, they might have withftood their enemies. But their mutual animofities and unconquerable hatred doubled their plagues, and haftened their ruin. When the Romans, by regular and fuccessful war, were breaking down their fenced cities, |