[beginning of page 14]
To add to the horrid calamities of the times occasioned by
the bloody factions, Judea was infested by bands of robbers
and murderers, plundering their towns and cutting in pieces
such as made any resistance, whether men, women or children.
Here were exhibited the most horrid pictures of what fallen
man is capable of perpetuating when restraints are taken
off; that they would turn their own towns and societies into
scenes of horror like kennels of mad animals.
One Simon became commander of these factions; John of
another. Simon entered Jerusalem at the head of forty
thousand banditti. A third faction rose: and discord blazed
with terrific fury. The three factions were intoxicated with
rage and desperation, and went on slaying and trampling on
piles of the dead, with an indescribable fury. People coming
to the temple to worship, were murdered, both natives and
foreigners. Their bodies lay in piles, and a collection of
blood defiled the sacred courts.
John of Gischala, head of a faction, burned a store of
provisions. Simon, at the head of another faction, burned
another. Thus the Jews were weakening and destroying
themselves, and preparing the way for "wrath to come upon
them to the uttermost."
In the midst of these most dismal events, an alarm was made
that a Roman army was approaching the city! Vespasian
becoming emperor, and learning the factious and horrid state
of the Jews, determined to prosecute the war against them,
and sent his son Titus to reduce Jerusalem and Judea. The
Jews, on hearing of the approach of the Roman army, were
petrified with horror. They could have no hope of peace.
They had no means of flight. They had no time for counsel.
They had no confidence in each other. What could be done?
Several things they possessed in abundance. They had a
measure of iniquity filled up; a full ripeness for
destruction. All seemed wild disorder and despair. Nothing
could be imagined but the confused noise of the warrior, and
garments rolled in blood. They knew nothing was their due
from the Romans, but exemplary vengeance. The ceaseless cry
of combatants, and the horrors of faction, had induced some
to desire the intervention of a foreign foe to give them
deliverance from their domestic horrors. Such was the state
of Jerusalem when Titus appeared before it with a besieging
army. But he came not to deliver it from its excruciating
tortures; but to execute upon it divine vengeance; to fulfil
the fatal predictions of our Lord Jesus Christ, that "when
ye see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy
place--when ye see Jerusalem compassed
[beginning of page 15]
about with armies,--then know that the desolation thereof is
nigh." "Wheresoever the carcass is, there shall the eagles
be gathered together." Jerusalem was now the carcass to be
devoured; the Roman eagles had arrived to tear it as their
prey.
The day on which Titus had encompassed Jerusalem, was the
feast of the passover. Here let it be remembered, that it
was the time of this feast, (on a preceeding occasion) that
Christ was taken, condemned and executed. It was at the time
of this feast, that the heifer, in the hands of the
sacrificing priests, brought forth a lamb. And just after
this feast at another time, that the miraculous besieging
armies were seen over Jerusalem, just before sunset. And now
at the time of the passover, the antitype of this prodigy
appears in the besieging army of Titus. Multitudes of Jews
had convened at Jerusalem from surrounding nations to
celebrate this feast. Ah, miserable people,--going with
intent to feed on the paschal lamb; but really to their own
final slaughter, for rejecting "the Lamb of God who taketh
away the sins of the world!" The Jews had imprecated the
blood of the true Paschal Lamb, (by them wantonly shed) on
themselves and on their children. God was now going in a
signal manner to take them at their word. He hence
providentially collected their nation, under sentence of
death, as into a great prison, for the day of execution. And
as their execution of Christ was signal, low,
degrading,--the death of the cross; so their execution
should be signal and dreadful. The falling city was now
crowded with little short of two millions of that devoted
people. The event came suddenly and unexpectedly to the
Jews, as the coming of a thief, and almost like lightning.
Josephus notes this; and thus without design, shows the
fulfillment of these hints of Christ, that his coming should
be like a thief in the night, and like lightning shining
under the whole heavens.
The furious contending factions of the Jews, on finding
themselves environed with the Roman armies, laid aside (for
the moment) their party contentions, sallied out, rushed
furiously on their common foe, and came near utterly
destroying the tenth legion of the Roman army. This panic
among the Romans occasioned a short suspension of
hostilities. Some new confidence hence inspired the hopes of
the Jews; and they now determined to defend their city. But
being a little released from their terrors of the Romans,
their factious resentments again rekindled, and broke out in
great fury. The faction under Elezer was swallowed up in the
other two, under John and Simon. Slaughter; conflagration
and plunder ensued. A portion of the centre of the city
[beginning of page 16]
was burned, and the inhabitants became as prisoners to the
two furious parties. The Romans here saw their own proverb
verified: "Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat." "Whom God
will destroy, he gives up to madness."
The invading armies knew how to profit by the madness of the
Jews. They were soon found by the Jews to have possession of
the two outer walls of their city. This alarm reached the
heart of the factions, and once more united them against the
common enemy. But they had already proceeded too far to
retreat from the effects of their madness. Famine, with its
ghastly horrors, stared them in the face. It had (as might
be expected) been making a silent approach; and some of the
more obscure had already fallen before it. But even this did
not annihilate the fury of faction, which again returned
with redoubled fury, and presented new scenes of wo. As the
famine increased, the sufferers would snatch bread from each
other's mouths, and devour their grain unprepared. To
discover handfuls of food, tortures were inflicted. Food was
violently taken by husbands from wives, and wives from
husbands; and even by mothers from their famishing infants.
The breast itself was robbed from the famishing suckling, as
our Lord denounced: "Wo to them that give suck in those
days."
This terror produced a new scene of righteous retribution.
Multitudes of the Jews were forced by hunger to flee to the
enemy's camp. Here instead of pitying and relieving them,
the Romans cut off the hands of many, and sent them back;
but most of them they crucified as fast as they could lay
their hands on them; till wood was wanting for crosses, and
space on which to erect them! Behold here thousands of those
despairing Jews suspended on crosses round the walls of
Jerusalem! Verily "the Lord is known by the judgements that
he executeth!" Yea, this did not suffice. Behold two
thousand Jews, who had fled to the mercy of their invaders,
ripped open alive (two thousand in one night!) by Arabs and
Syrians in the Roman armies, in hopes of finding gold, which
these Jews had (or their enemies fancied they had)
swallowed
to carry off with them!
Titus being a merciful general, was touched to the heart at
the miseries of the Jews; and in person he tenderly
entreated the besieged to surrender. But all the answer he
obtained for his tenderness was base revilings. He now
resolved to make thorough work with this obstinate people;
and hence surrounded the city with a circumvallation of
thirty nine furlongs in length, strengthened with thirteen
[beginning of page 17]
towers. This, by the astonishing activity of the soldiers,
was effected in three days. Then was fulfilled this
prediction of our blessed Lord; " Thine enemies shall cast a
trench about thee, and keep thee in on every side."
As the city was now cut off from all possible supplies,
famine became more dreadful. Whole families fell a sacrifice
to it; and the dead bodies of women, children, and the aged,
were seen covering roofs of houses, and various recesses.
Youth and the middle aged appeared like spectres; and fell
many of them dead in public places. The dead became too
numerous to be interred. Many died while attempting to
perform this office. So great and awful became the
calamities, that lamentation ceased; and an awful silence of
despair overwhelmed the city. But all this failed of
restraining the more abandoned from most horrid deeds. They
took this opportunity to rob the tombs; and with loud
infernal laughter, to strip the dead of their habiliments of
death; and would try the edge of their swords on dead
bodies, and on some while yet breathing. Simon Georas now
vented his rage against Matthias, the high priest, and his
three sons. He caused them to be condemned, as though
favouring the Romans. The father asked the favour to be
first executed, and not see the death of his sons; but the
malicious Simon reserved him for the last execution. And as
he was expiring he put the insulting question, whether the
Romans could now relieve him?
Things being thus, one Mannaeus, a Jew, escaped to Titus,
and informed him of the consummate wretchedness of the Jews;
that in less than three months one hundred and fifteen
thousand and eight hundred dead bodies of Jews had been
conveyed through one gate, under his care and register; and
he assured him of the ravages of famine and death. Other
deserters confirmed the account, and added, that not less
than six hundred thousand dead bodies of Jews had been
carried out at different gates. The humane heart of Titus
was deeply affected; and he, under those accounts, and while
surveying the piles of dead bodies of Jews under the walls,
and in the visible parts of the city, raised his eyes and
hands to heaven in solemn protestation, that he would have
prevented these dire calamities; that the obstinate Jews had
procured them upon their own heads.
Josephus, the Jew, now earnestly entreated the leader John
and his brethren to surrender to the Romans, and thus save
the residue of the Jews. But he received in return nothing
but insolent reproaches and imprecations; John declaring his
firm persuasion that God would
[beginning of page 18]
never suffer his own city, Jerusalem, to be taken by the
enemy! Alas, had he forgotten the history of his own nation,
and the denunciations of the prophets? Micah had foretold
that in this very calamity they would presumptuously "lean
upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? No evil
shall come upon us." So blind and presumptuous are hypocrisy
and self-confidence! "The temple of the Lord, the temple of
the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these."
The famine in the city became (as might be expected) still
more deadly. For want of food the Jews ate their belts,
sandals, skins of their shields, dried grass, and even
ordure of cattle. Now it was that a noble Jewess, urged by
the insufferable pangs of hunger, slew and prepared for food
her own infant child! She had eaten half the horrible
preparation, when the smell of food brought in a hoard of
soldiery, who threatened her with instant death, if she did
not produce to them the food she had in possession. She
being thus compelled to obey, produced the remaining half of
her child! The soldiers stood aghast; and the recital
petrified the hearers with horror; and congratulations were
poured on those whose eyes death had closed upon such horrid
scenes. Humanity seems ready to sink at the recital of the woful events of that day. No words can reach the horrors of
the situation of the female part of the community at that
period. Such scenes force upon our recollection the tender
pathetic address of our Saviour to the pious females who
followed him, going to the cross: "Daughters of Jerusalem,
weep not for me; but weep for yourselves and for your
children; for behold the days are coming, in which they
shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never
bare, and the breasts that never gave suck." Moses had long
predicted this very scene. "The tender and delicate woman
among you, (said he.) who would not venture to set the sole
of her foot on the ground for delicateness; her eye shall be
evil towards her young one, and toward 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." Probably the
history of the world will not afford a parallel to this. God
prepared peculiar judgments for peculiarly horrid crimes!
"These be the days of vengeance; that all things that are
written may be fulfilled." Josephus declares, that if there
had not been many credible witnesses of that awful fact, he
never would have recorded it; for, said
[beginning of page 19]
he, "such a shocking violation of nature never has been
perpetrated by any Greek or barbarian."
While famine thus spread desolation, the Romans finally
succeeded in removing part of the inner wall, and in
possessing themselves of the high and commanding tower of
Antonio, which seemed to overlook the temple. Titus with his
council of war had formed a determination to save the
temple, to grace his conquest, and remain an ornament to his
empire.---But God had not so determined. And "though there
be many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel
of the Lord that shall stand." A Roman soldier, violating
the general order of Titus, succeeded in hurling a brand of
fire into the golden window of the temple; and soon (as
righteous Heaven would have it!) the sacred edifice was in
flames. The Jews perceiving this, rushed with horrid
outcries to extinguish the fire. Titus too flew to the spot
in his chariot, with his chief officers and legions. With
loud command, and every token of anxiety, he enforced the
extinguishing of the fire; but in vain. So great was the
confusion, that no attention was paid to him. His soldiers,
deaf to all cries, assiduously spread the flames far and
wide; rushing at the same time on the Jews, sword in hand,
slaying and trampling down, or crushing them to death
against the walls. Many were plunged into the flames, and
perished in the burning of the out buildings of the temple.
The fury of the Roman soldiers slaughtered the poor, the
unarmed, and the rich, as well as men in arms. Multitudes of
dead bodies were piled round about the altar, to which they
had fled for protection. The way leading to the inner court
was deluged with blood.
Titus finding the fire had not yet reached the inner temple,
entered it with his superior officers, and surveying its
magnificence with silent admiration. He found it to exceed
all he had heard. This view led him to renew his efforts to
save this stupendous pile of building, though so many of the
out-buildings were gone. He even entreated his soldiers to
extinguish the flames, and appointed an officer to punish
any who should disobey. But all his renewed efforts were
still in vain. The feelings of his soldiery were utterly
unmanageable. Plunder, revenge, and slaughter had combined
to render them deaf and most furious. A soldier succeeded in
firing the door posts of the inner temple, and the
conflagration soon became general.
One needs a heart of steel to contemplate the scenes which
followed. The triumphant Roman soldiers were in a most
ungovernable rage and fury.---- They were indeed instruments
prepared for
[beginning of page 20]
their work, to execute the most signal vengeance of Heaven;
the flame of which was now reaching its height! The Romans
slew of the Jews all before them; sparing neither age, sex
or rank. They seemed determined to annihilate the Jewish
race on the spot. Priests and common people; those who
surrendered, and those who still fought; all were alike
subjects of an indiscriminate slaughter. The fire of the
temple at length completely enveloped the stupendous pile of
building. The fury of the flames exceeded description. It
impressed on distant spectators an idea that the whole city
was in flames. The ensuing disorder and tumult, Josephus
pronounces to have been such as to baffle all description.
The outcry of the Roman legions was as great as they could
make. And the Jews finding themselves a prey to the fury of
both fire and sword, exerted themselves in the wildest
accents of screaming. The people in the city, and those on
the hill, mutually responded to each other in groans and
screeches. People who had seemed just expiring through
famine derived new strength from unprecedented scenes of
horror and death, to deplore their wretchedness. From
mountain to mountain, and from places distant, lamentations
echoed to each other.
As the temple was sinking under the fury of the raging
element, the mount on which it stood seemed in that part of
it, (says the historian) to "impress the idea of a lake of
liquid fire!" The blood of the slain ran in rivulets. The
earth around became covered with the slain; and the
victorious Romans trampled over those piles of the dead, in
pursuit of the thousands who were fleeing from the points of
their swords. In a word, the roar and crackling of fire; the
shrieks of thousands in despair; the dying groans of
thousands, and the sights which met the eye whereever it was
turned, were such as never before had any parallel on earth.
They probably as much exceeded all antecedent scenes of
horror, as the guilt which occasioned them, in their
treatment of the Lord of Glory, exceeded all guilt ever
before known among men.
A tragical event had transpired worthy of particular detail.
Before the temple was wrapped in flames, an imposter
appeared among the Jews, asserting a divine commission; and
that if the people would follow him to the temple, they
would see signs, wonders and deliverance. About six thousand
(mostly women and children) followed him, and were in the
galleries of the temple, waiting for this promised
deliverance, when fire was set to that building. Not one
[beginning of page 21]
escaped. All were consumed in the conflagration of the
sacred edifice! What multitudes are by false prophets
plunged in eternal fire!
The place of the temple now presented a vast pile of ruins.
Here terminated the glory and existence of this stupendous
building, this type of the body of Christ and of his church;
this type of the Millennium, and of heaven. Here it reached
its close, after the period of one thousand and thirty
years, from the time of its dedication by Solomon; and of
six hundred and thirty-nine years, from its being rebuilt in
the days of Haggai, after the seventy years captivity. It is
singular, that it should be reduced to ashes not only soon
after the feast of the passover, which convened so many
thousands of Jews to Jerusalem to meet the ruins of their
city and nation; but that it should be consumed on the same
month, on the same day of the month, on which the
Babylonians had before destroyed it by fire.
Josephus records another striking event, which seemed a sign
of the destruction of Jerusalem. He says; (addressing the
Jews who survived this ruin) "The fountains flow copiously
for Titus, which to you were dried up. For before he came,
you know that both Siloam and all the springs without the
city failed; so that water was brought by the amphora, (a
vessel.)--- But now they are so abundant to your enemies, as
to suffice for themselves and their cattle. This wonder you
also formerly experienced, when the king of Babylon laid
siege to your city."
The priests of the temple, after the destruction of their
sacred edifice, betook themselves (those who had thus far
escaped the general slaughter) to the top of one of its
broken walls, where they sat mourning and famishing. On the
fifth day necessity compelled them to descend, and humbly to
ask pardon of the Roman general. But Titus at this late
period rejected their petition, saying; "As the temple, for
the sake of which I would have spared you, is destroyed; it
is but fit the priests should perish also." All were put to
death.
The obstinate leaders of the great Jewish factions,
beholding now the desperateness of their cause, desired a
conference with Titus. One would imagine they would at least
now lay down their arms. Their desiring an interview with
the triumphant Roman general, appeared as though they would
be glad to do this. But righteous Heaven designed their
still greater destruction. Titus, after all their mad
rebellions, kindly offered to spare the residue of the Jews,
if they would now submit. But strange to relate, they
refused to comply. The noble general then, as must have been
expected, was highly exasperated;
[beginning of page 22]
and issued his general order that he would grant no further
pardon to the insurgents. His legions now were ordered to
"ravage and destroy." " With the light of the next morning,
arose the tremendous flame of the castle of Antonio, the
council chamber, register's office, and the noble palace of
the queen Helena. These magnificent piles were reduced to
ashes. The furious legions, (executioners of divine
vengeance, Ezek. ix. 5,6) then flew through the lower city,
of which they soon became masters, slaughtering and burning
in every street. The Jews themselves aided the slaughter.---
In the royal palace, containing vast treasures, eight
thousand four hundred Jews were murdered by their seditious
brethren. Great numbers of deserters from the furious
leaders of faction, flocked to the Romans; but it was too
late. The general order was given, all should be slain. Such
therefore fell.
The Roman soldiers however, being at length weary with
butchery, and more than satisfied with blood, for a short
time sheathed their swords, and betook themselves to
plunder. They collected multitudes of Jews, ---husbands,
wives, children, and servants; formed a market; and set them
up at vendue for slaves. They sold them for any trifle;
while purchasers were but few. Their law-giver, Moses, had
forewarned them of this; Deut. xxviii. 68: "And ye shall be
sold for bond men, and bond women; and no man shall buy
you." Tremendous indeed must the lot of those be, who reject
the Messiah, and are found fighting against the Son of God.
Often had these Jews heard read (but little it seems did
they understand the sense of the tremendous passage)
relative to the Jewish rejectors of Christ, "He that sitteth
in the Heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in
derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and
vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion. Thou shalt break them with a rod
of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel." "Thus saith the Lord, say, A sword, a sword is
sharpened, and also furbished: it is sharpened to make a
sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter; (said
God by the prophet, Ezek. xxi. alluding to this very event;)
the sword is sharpened, and it is furbished to give it into
the hand of the slayer. Cry and howl, son of man; smite upon
thy thigh; smite thy hands together, and let the sword be
doubled a third time; the sword of the slain. I have set the
point of the sword against all their gates, that their
hearts may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: Ah, it is
made bright! it is wrapped up for the slaughter."--- Such,
[beginning of page 23]
and much more, were the divine denunciations of this very
scene, which the infidel Jews would not escape, but would
incur! And even a merciful God shrunk not from the
execution! Let antichristian powers, yea. let all infidels
and gospel despisers, consider this and tremble!
The whole lower city now in the possession of the Roman
legions, (after the respite noted,) was set on fire. But the
insolence of the devoted Jews in a part of the higher city
remained unabated. They even insulted and exasperated their
enemies, as though afraid the work of vengeance might not be
sufficiently executed.
The Romans brought their engines to operate upon the walls
of this higher branch of the city, still standing; which
soon gave way before them. Before their demolition, Titus
reconnoitred the city, and its fortifications; and expressed
his astonishment that it should ever fall before his arms.
He exclaimed, "Had not God himself aided our operations, and
driven the Jews from their fortresses, it would have been
absolutely impossible to have taken them. For what could men
and the force of engines have done against such towers as
these?" Yes, unless their Rock had sold them for their
iniquities, no enemy could have prevailed against Jerusalem.
Josephus, who was an eye witness of all the scene, says;
"All the calamities, which ever befel any nation, since the
beginning of the world, were inferior to the miseries of the
Jews at this awful period."
The upper city too fell before the victorious arms of the
Roman conquerors. Titus would have spared all who had not
been forward in resisting the Romans; and gave his orders
accordingly. But his soldiers, callous to all the feelings
of humanity, slaughtered the aged and sick, as well as the
mass of the people. The tall and most beautiful young men,
however, were spared by Titus to grace his triumph at Rome.
Of the rest, many above the age of seventeen were sent in
chains to Egypt to be disposed of as slaves. Some were
reserved to be sacrificed on their amphitheatres, as
gladiators; to be slain in sham fights, for the sport of
their conquerors. Others were distributed through the
empire. All who survived, under the age of seventeen, were
exposed for sale.
The triumphant general commanded what remained of the city,
to be razed to its foundation, except three of the most
stately towers, Mariamne, Hippocos, and Phasael. These
should stand as monuments of the magnificence of the place
and of his victory. A small part of the wall of the city at
the west also, he commanded should be spared,
[beginning of page 24]
as a rampart for his garrison. The other parts of the city
he wished to have so effectually erased, as never to be
recognized to have been inhabited. The Talmud and Mamonides
relate that the foundations of the temple were so removed,
that the site of it was ploughed by Terentius Rufus. Thus
our Saviour predicted, that " there should not be left one
stone upon another."
One awful occurrence is noted as transpiring during these
scenes; that eleven thousand Jews, under the guard of one
Fronto, a Roman general, were (owing to their own obstinacy,
and to the scarcity of provisions) literally starved to
death!
Josephus informs that eleven hundred thousand Jews perished
in this siege of Jerusalem; that two hundred and
thirty-seven thousand perished in that last war in other
sieges and battles; besides multitudes who perished by
famine and pestilence: making a total of at least fourteen
hundred thousand. Some hundreds of thousands, in sullen
despair, laid violent hands on themselves. About
ninety-seven thousand were captured, and dispersed. Relative
to the two great leaders of the Jewish factions, Simon and
John, they were led to Rome, to grace the triumph of Titus;
after which Simon was scourged and executed as a malefactor;
and John was committed for life to dungeon. Thus ended their
violent factious contentions.
The Roman army, before they left Jerusalem, not only
demolished the buildings there, but even dug up their
foundations. How fatal was the divine judgment on this
devoted city. Five months before it was the wonder of the
world; and contained, at the commencement of the siege, more
than a million and a half of Jews, natives and visiters; now
it lay in total ruins, with not "one stone upon another;" as
Christ had denounced. These ruins Eusebius informs us he
beheld. And Eleazer is introduced by Josephus as exclaiming;
"Where is our great city, which it was believed God
inhabited." The prophet Micah had predicted; "Therefore
shall Zion for your sakes be ploughed as a field, and
Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the Lord's
house as the high places of the forest." A captain of the
army of Titus, did in fact plough where some part of the
foundation of the temple had stood, as the Talmud records,
and thus fulfilled this prediction.
Jesus Christ had foretold of this destruction, that "there
should be great tribulation, such as was not since the
beginning of the world." And of the event Josephus says; "If
the misfortunes of all nations from the beginning of the
world, were compared with those
[beginning of page 25]
which befel the Jews, they would appear far less." Again;
"No other city ever suffered such things; as no other
generation from the beginning of the world, was ever more
fruitful in wickedness."
Other parts of Judea were still to be subdued. Macherus was
attacked. Seventeen hundred Jews surrendered and were slain;
also three thousand fugitives taken in the woods of Jardes.
Titus at Caesarea celebrated in great splendour the birth
day of his brother Domitian. Here a horrid scene, according
to the bloody customs of those times, was presented. To
grace this occasion, more than two thousand five hundred
Jews fell; some by burning; some by fighting with wild
beasts; and some by mutual combat with the sword.
Massada was besieged. The Jewish commander, in despair,
induced the garrison first to destroy their stores, and then
themselves. They (nine hundred and sixty in number)
consented to the horrid proposal. Men, women, and children
took their seats upon the ground, and offered their necks to
the sword. Ten men were selected to execute the fatal deed.
The dreadful work was done. One of the ten was then chosen
to execute the nine, and then himself. The nine being put to
death, and fire being set to the place, the last man plunged
his dagger into his own heart.
Seven persons, (women and children,) found means to conceal
themselves, and escape the ruin. When the Romans approached,
these seven related to them these horrid events.
Most of the remaining places now, through sullen despair,
gave up all opposition, and submitted to the conquerors.
Thus Judea became as a desolate wilderness; and the
following passage in Isaiah had at least a primary
accomplishment; "Until the cities be wasted without
inhabitant; and the houses without man; and the land be
utterly desolate; and the Lord have removed man far away,
and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land."
A line of prophecies is found in the sacred oracles, which
relate to a signal temporal destruction of the most
notorious enemies of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Those were
to have a two-fold accomplishment; first upon the Jews; and
secondly upon the great Antichrist of the last days,
typified by the infidel Jews. Accordingly those prophecies
in the Old Testament are ever found in close connexion with
the Millennium. The predictions of our Saviour, in Matt.
xxiv. Mark xiii. and Luke xxi. are but a new edition of
these sacred prophecies. This has been noted as "the
destruction of the city and temple foretold." It
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is so indeed, and more.--- It is also a denunciation of the
destruction of the great Antichrist of the last days. The
certainty of this will appear in the following things, as
New Testament writers decide. The Thessalonians, having
heard what our Lord denounced, that all those things he had
predicted should take place on that generation, were
trembling with the apprehension, that the coming of Christ
predicted, would then very soon burst upon the world. Paul
writes to them, (2 Thes. ii.) and beseeches them by this
coming of Christ, not to be shaken in mind, or troubled with
such an apprehension. For that day , (that predicted coming
of Christ, as it related to others beside the Jews.) was not
to take place on that generation. It was not to come till
the Antichristian apostacy come first; that man of sin was
first to be revealed. This long apostacy was to be
accomplished before the noted coming of Christ in its more
important sense be fulfilled. After the Roman government,
which hindered the rise of the man of sin, should be taken
out of the way, Paul says, "Then shall that wicked one be
revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming." Here
then is the predicted coming of Christ, in its more
interesting sense, in the battle of that great day, which
introduces the Millennium. Here is a full decision that
these noted denunciations of Christ alluded more especially
(though not primarily) to a coming which is still future.
The same is decided by Christ himself, in Rev. xvi. After
the sixth vial, in the drying up of the Turkish Euphrates,
three unclean spirits of devils, like frogs, go forth to the
kings of the earth, and of all the world, to gather them to
the great battle. The awful account is interrupted by this
notice from the mouth of Christ; verse 15, "Behold, I come
as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his
garments; lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." This
is as though our Lord should say; now the time is at hand,
to which my predictions of coming as a thief, principally
alluded. Now is the time when my people on earth shall need
to watch, as I directed, when predicting my coming to
destroy first the type of Antichrist, and secondly the
antitype.
The predictions in the prophets, which received an incipient
fulfilment in the destruction of Jerusalem, were to receive
a more interesting fulfillment in Christ's coming to destroy
his antichristian foes. Hence it is that the seventh vial is
called (Rev. xvi. 14,) "the battle of that great day of God
Almighty;" clearly alluding to that great day noted through
the prophets. And of the same event it is said,
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Rev. x. 7; "the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath
declared to his servants, the prophets." Here again the
allusion clearly is to the many predictions in the prophets
of the destruction of the enemies of Christ's kingdom, which
were to receive an incipient fulfilment in the destruction
of Jerusalem; and a far more interesting one, in the
sweeping from the earth the last antichristian powers, to
introduce the millennial kingdom of Christ. We accordingly
find those predictions through the prophets clearly alluding
to the last days, and the introduction of the Millennium.
Viewing the destruction of Jerusalem then, as but a type of
an event now pending upon antichristian nations, we peruse
it with new interest; and it must be viewed in the light of
a most impressive warning to this age of the world.--- The
factions, madness, and self-ruin of the former, give but a
lively practical comment upon the various predictions of the
latter. Three great and noted factions introduced the
destruction of Jerusalem. And of the destruction of
Antichrist we read (perhaps alluding to that very
circumstance) Rev. xvi. 19; "And the great city was divided
into three parts."
Then it follows; "and the cities of the nations fell; and
great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto
her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." In
the desolation of Gog and his bands, faction draws the sword
of extermination. "I will call for a sword against him
throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God; every man's
sword shall be against his brother." Exek. xxxviii. 21.
The great coalition against the Jews, in the time of
Jehoshaphat, was destroyed by the sword of mutiny and
faction: See 2 Chron. xx. And in allusion to this very
battle which God fought for his church, the vast coalitions
of Antichrist, in the last days, when the Jews are restored,
is said to be gathered "to the valley of Jehoshaphat:" See
Joel iii. The various circumstances of the destruction of
Jerusalem afforded a lively incipient comment on the many
denunciations of the battle of that great day of God
Almighty, which awaits the antichristian world; while it is
fully evident, that the passages more especially allude to
the tremendous scenes of judgment, which shall introduce the
Millennium.
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