\Vheii they found therefore that neither their guards 
nor feverities could prevent the people’s flight, they 
had recourfe to another ftratagem equally impious and 
cruel; which was, to hire a pack of vile pretenders to 
prophecy, to go about and encourage the defpairing re¬ 
mains of the people to expeft a fpeedy and miraculous 
deliverance; and this impofture proved a greater expe¬ 
dient with that infatuated nation than their other precau¬ 
tions. 
Nothing could be more dreadful than the familhed con¬ 
dition to which they were now reduced. The poor, having 
nothing to truft to but the Romans’ mercy or a fpeedy 
death, ran all hazards to get out of the city; and if in 
their flight, and wandering out for lierbs or any other 
j'uftenance, they fell into the hands of any of Titus’s par¬ 
ties feat about to guard the avenues, they were unmerci- 
TiUly.fcourged, and crucified if they made the leaf}; refin¬ 
ance. The rich within the walls were now forced, though 
in the moll private manner, to give a very large fum for 
a meafure of wheat, ami the middling fort for one of bar¬ 
ley. This they were forced to convey into fome private 
place in their houfes, and to feed upon it as it was, with¬ 
out daring to pound or grind it, much lets to boil or 
bake it, left the nolle or finell fjould draw the rapacious 
zealots to come and tear it from them. Not that thefe 
•were reduced to any real want of provifions, but they had 
a double end in this barbarous plunder; to wit, the ftar- 
ving what they cruellyItyled all ufelefs perfons, and the 
keeping their own Itores in referve. 
It was in this fad and mournful conjuncture, that an.un¬ 
happy mother was reduced to the extremity of butchering 
and eating her own child, as mentioned underthe word Je¬ 
rusalem. When this news was fpread through the city, 
the horror and confternation w-ere as univerfal as they 
were inexprefllble. It was then that they began to think 
theml'elves forfaken by the Divine Providence, and to ex¬ 
pert. the mod terrible effects of his anger again!! the poor 
remains of their nation; infomuck that they began to 
*mvy thofe that had perifhed before them, and to wifli 
their turn-might come before the fad expefted cataftrophe. 
Their fears were but too juft; fince Titus, at the very 
firft hearing of this inhuman deed, fwore the total extir¬ 
pation of city and people. “ Since (faid he) they have 
fo often refufed my proffers of pardon, and have prefer¬ 
red war to peace, rebellion'to obedience, and famine, 
fuch a dreadful 6ne efpecially, to plenty, l am determin¬ 
ed to bury that accurfed metropolis under its ruins, that 
the fun may never lhaot its beams on a city where the 
mothers feed on .the flefn of their children, and the fa¬ 
thers, no lefs guilty than they, choofe to drive them to 
fuch extremities, rather than lay down their arms.’ 5 
The Romans having now purfued their attacks with 
frelh vigour, made themfelves mailers of the fortrefs An¬ 
tonia ; which obliged the Jews to fet fire to thofe ftately 
galleries which joined it to the temple, left they Ihould 
afford an eafy paffage to the befiegers into this lalt. 
About the fame time Titus, with much difficulty, got 
materials for railing new mounds and terraces, in order 
to batten the fiege_, and fave, if poffible, the fad remains 
of that once-glorious flrubture; but his pity proved Hill 
•worfe and worfe bellowed on thofe obftinate wretches, 
-who only became the more furious and delperate by it. 
Titus at length caufed fire to be fet to the gates, after 
having had a very bloody encounter, in which his men 
-were repulled with lofs. The Jews were fo terrified at 
at, that they fuffered themfelves to be devoured by the 
flames, ' without attempting either to extinguilh them Or 
fave themfelves. All this while Jofephus did not ceafe 
exhorting the infatuated people to furrender, reprefenting 
to them the dveadful confequences of an obftinate refin¬ 
ance, and alluring them that it was out of merecompaf- 
fion to them that he thus hazarded his ovyn life to fave 
their’s; he received one day fuch a wound in his head by 
a Hone from the battlements, as laid him for dead on the 
JEW, 80 S 
ground. The Jews fall led- out immediately, to have 
leized on his body; but the Romans proved too quick 
and ftrong for them, and carried him oft. 
By this time the .two fafilions within, but efpecially 
that of John, having plundered rich and poor of all they 
had, fell alfo on the treafury of the temple, whence. John 
took a great quantify of golden utenfrls, together with 
thofe magnificent .gifts which had been prefented to-.that 
facred place by the Jevvilh kings, by Auguftus, Livia, and 
many other foreign princes, and melted them all fo Iiis 
own ufe. The repolitories of the facred oil which was to 
maintain the lamps, and of the wine which was referved 
to accompany the ufual facrifices, were likewife- fe.ized 
upon, and turned into common ufe ; and the lalt o-f this 
to fuch exsefs, as to make himfelf and Ivis party’drunk 
with it. All this--while, not only the zealots, but many 
of the people, were Hill under fuch an infatuation, that 
(though the fortrefs Antonia was loft, and nothing left 
but the temple, which the Romans were preparing to 
batter dow.n) they could not perfuade themfelves that 
God would fuffer the holy place to be taken by heathens,, 
and were ftill expecting fome fudden and miraculous de¬ 
liverance. Even that vile monlter John, who command¬ 
ed there, either feemed confident of it, or elfe endeavour¬ 
ed to make them think him fo. For, when Jofephus was 
fent for the lalt time to upbraid his obftinately expoling- 
that facred building, and the miferable remains of God’s 
people, to fudden and fure deftruction, he only anfvvered. 
him with the bitterelt invectives ; adding, that , he was 
defending the Lord’s vineyard, which he was fure could 
not be taken by any human force- Jofephus in vain re¬ 
minded him of the many ways by which he had polluted 
both city and temple; and in particular of the feas of 
blood which he caufed to be Hied in both thofe facred 
places, and which, he allured him from the old prophe¬ 
cies, were a certain fign and forerunner of their fpeedy 
furrender and deftruction. John remained as inflexible 
as if all the prophetp had affured him of a deliverance-; 
till at length Titus, forefeeing the inevitable ruin of that 
ftately edifice, which he was ftill extremeiy-defirous to fave, 
vouchfafed even himfelf to fpeak to them, and to perfuade ‘ 
them to furrender. But the factious, looking upon this 
condefcenfion as the effects of his fear rather than ge- 
nerofity, only grew the more furious upon it, and forced 
him at laft to come to thofe extremities, which he had 
hitherto endeavoured to avoid. That his army, which 
was to attack the temple, might have the freer paffage to¬ 
wards it through the caltle Antonia, he caufed a con- 
fiderable part of the wall to be pulled down, and levelled; 
which proved- fo very ftrong, that.it took him up feven 
whole days, by which time they were far advanced in the 
month of July. 
It was on the 17th day of that month, as all Jofephus’s 
copies have it, that the daily facrifice ceafed for the firft 
time fince its reiteration by the brave Judas .Maccabeus, 
there being no proper perfon left in the temple to offer it 
up. Titus caufed the'factious to be leverely upbraided 
for it; exhorted John to fet up whom he would to per¬ 
form that office, rather than fuffer the fervice of God to 
be fet afide ; and then challenged him and his party to 
come out of the temple, and fight on a more proper 
ground,, and thereby fave that facred edifice from the 
fury of the Roman troops. When nothing could prevail 
on them, they began-to fet fire again to the gallery,which 
yielded a communication between the temple and the 
cattle Antonia. The Jews had already burnt about 
twenty cubits of it in length ; but this i fecond blaze, 
which was likewife encouraged by the befieged, confumed 
about fourteen more;- after which, they beat down what 
remained Handing, On 27th of juiy, the Jews, having 
filled part of the weftern portico with combultible- mat¬ 
ter, .made a kind of flight; upon which, fome of the for¬ 
ty,ardeft of the Romans having fcaled up to the top,, the 
Jews fet fire to it, which Earned with fuck fudden. fury* 
that. 
