We must now proceed to give some account of the destruction of the city by Titus ;* and, in doing so, we shall adopt the description presented by the author of "The Beauties, Harmonies, and Sublimities of Nature."

"The war began in the month of May, A.D. 66, and the siege was left to the management of Titus, April 14, A.D. 70. Previous to the siege, the city was a prey to the most intolerable anarchy, robbers having broken into it, and filled almost every house

"Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things; and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young; and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: so that the man that is tender among you and very delicate, his eye shall be evil towards his brother, and towards the wife of his bosom, and towards the remnant of his children which he shall leave; so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat; because he hath nothing left him in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil towards the husband of her bosom, and towards her son, and towards her daughter, and towards the 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."-DEUT., xxviii., 47–57.

with thieves, assassins, and broilers of every description. The best citizens were thrown into prison, and afterward murdered, without even a form of trial. At this time Titus appeared before the gates, a vast multitude having previously arrived in the city to celebrate the feast of the Passover. During this celebrated siege there were no less than three earthquakes; and an aurora borealis terrified the inhabitants with forms which their fears and astonishment converted into prodigies of enemies fighting in the air, and flaming swords hanging over their Temple. They were visited with a plague so dreadful that more than one hundred and fifty thousand persons were carried out of the city, at the public charge, to be buried; and six hundred and fifty thousand were cast over the walls and out of the gates. A famine ensued; and so horrible was the want, that a bushel of corn sold for six hundred crowns. The populace were reduced to the necessity of taking old excrement of horses, mules, and oxen to satisfy their hunger; and a lady of quality even boiled her own child and ate it: a crime so execrable, that Titus vowed to the eternal gods that he would bury its infamy in the ruins of the city. He took it soon after by storm; the plough was drawn over it; and, with the exception of the west walls and three towers, not one stone remained above another. Ninety thousand persons were made captives, and one million one hundred thousand perished during the siege. Those made captives, being sold to several nations, were dispersed over a great portion of the ancient world; and from them are descended the present race of Jews, scattered singly, and in detached portions, in every province of Europe, and in most districts of Africa and Asia. Thus terminated this memorable siege: a siege, the results of which meet the eye in every Jew we meet."

The Jews having, in the reign of Hadrian, given way to a turbulent disposition, that emperor resolved

to level all things to the ground-that is, those buildings which were left by Titus for the convenience of the Roman garrison-and to sow with salt the ground on which the city had stood. Thus did this emperor literally fulfil the prophecy, that neither in the city nor in the Temple should one stone be left upon another. This final destruction took place forty-seven years after that by Titus.

A new city, under the name of Elia Capitolina, was soon after built, where the presence of the Jews was absolutely prohibited. In this city the Christians were sometimes persecuted, and sometimes protected by the Roman emperors, till the time when the Empress Helena came to visit it; when, finding it in a most forlorn and ruinous condition, she formed the design of restoring it to its ancient lustre; and her son Constantine, having embraced the Christian doctrines, issued an edict that it should be called by its old name of Jerusalem.

A few years after, an attempt was made to rebuild the Temple by the Emperor Julian, which is recorded to have proved abortive, from fiery eruptions escaping out of the earth and dispersing the workmen.

The Emperor Justinian built a magnificent church at Jerusalem, the foundation being formed by raising part of a deep valley. The stones of a neighbouring quarry were hewn into regular forms; each block was fixed on a peculiar carriage, drawn by forty of the strongest oxen; and the roads were widened for the passage of such prodigious masses. Lebanon furnished her loftiest cedars for the timbers of the edifice; and the seasonable discovery of a vein of red marble supplied its beautiful columns; two of which, the supporters of the extensive portico, were esteemed the largest in the world.

In 613 Jerusalem was taken by Chosroes, king of Persia; the sepulchre of Christ, and the stately churches of Helena and Constantine, wère consumed; the devout offerings of three centuries were VOL. I.-C c

rifled; "the true cross" was transported into Persia; and the massacre of ninety thousand Christians is imputed to the Jews and Arabs, who swelled the disorder of the Persian march.

It was recovered by Heraclius in 627. This emperor banished all the Jews, and interdicted them from coming nearer than three miles from the city.

Nine years after, Jerusalem was taken by Khaled, one of the generals of Omar, who, being apprized of this success of his arms, immediately set out to visit the Holy City. He was attended in his journey by a numerous retinue, riding himself upon a red camel, and carrying with him two sacks of provision and fruits. Before him he had a leathern bottle containing water, and behind him a wooden platter, out of which many of his attendants ate in common. with himself. His clothes were made of camel's hair, and were in a very tattered condition; and his figure altogether was mean and sordid to the last degree. On the morning after his arrival he offered up prayers and preached to his troops. After the conclusion of his discourse, he pitched his tent within sight of the city. There he signed articles of capitulation, by which the inhabitants were granted the free exercise of their religion, the possession of their property, and his protection.

The city continued under the caliphs of Bagdad till 868, when it was taken by a Turkish sovereign of Egypt; during the space of two hundred and twenty years it was subject to different masters, Turkish and Saracenic; and in 1099 it was taken by the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, who was elected king. He was succeeded by his brother Baldwin, who died in 1118, and leaving no son, his eldest daughter Melisandra transferred the kingdom to her husband's family. In 1188, Saladin, sultan of the East, captured the city, assisted by the treachery of Raymond, count of Tripoli, who was found dead in his bed the very morning he was to have deliver