The Aftermath

Before their final demolition, however, Titus took a survey of the city and its fortifications; and, while contemplating their impregnable strength, could not help ascribing his success to the peculiar interposition of the Almighty himself. “Had not God himself (exclaimed he) 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?” After this he commanded that the city should be razed to its foundations, excepting only the three lofty towers, Hippocos, Phasael, and Mariamne, which he suffered to remain as evidences of its strength, and as trophies of his victory. There was left standing, also, a small part of the western wall, as a rampart for a garrison, to keep the surrounding country in subjection.

Titus now gave orders that those Jews only who resisted should be slain; but the soldiers, equally void of pity and remorse, slew even the sick and the aged. The robbers and seditious were all punished with death: the tallest and most beautiful youths, together with several of the Jewish nobles, were reserved by Titus to grace his triumphal entry into Rome. After this selection, all above the age of seventeen were sent in chains into Egypt, to be employed there as slaves, or distributed throughout the empire, to be sacrificed as gladiators in the amphitheatres; whilst those who were under this age, were exposed to sale.

During the time that these things were transacting, eleven thousand Jews, guarded by one of the generals, named Fronto, were literally starved to death. This melancholy occurrence happened partly through the scarcity of provisions, and partly through their own obstinacy, and the negligence of the Romans.

Of the Jews destroyed during the siege, Josephus reckons not less than one million and one hundred thousand, to which must be added, above two hundred and thirty-seven thousand who perished in other places, and innumerable multitudes who were swept away by famine and pestilence, and of which no calculation could be made. Not less than two thousand laid violent hands upon themselves. Of the captives, the whole number was about ninety-seven thousand. Of the two great leaders of the Jews, who had both been made prisoners, John was doomed to a dungeon for life; while Simon, after being led, together with John, in triumph at Rome, was scourged, and put to death as a malefactor.

In executing the command of Titus, relative to the demolition of Jerusalem, the Roman soldiers not only threw down the buildings, but even dug up their foundations, and so completely levelled the whole circuit of the city, that a stranger would scarcely have known that it had ever been inhabited by human beings. Thus was this great city, which, only five months before, had been crowded with nearly two millions of people, who gloried in its impregnable strength, entirely depopulated, and levelled with the ground. And thus, also, was our Lord’s prediction, that her enemies should “lay her even with the ground,” and “should not leave in her one stone upon another,^[1]” most strikingly and fully accomplished!— This fact is confirmed by Eusebius, who asserts that he himself saw the city lying in ruins; and Josephus introduces Eleazer as exclaiming, “Where is our great city, which, it was believed, God inhabited? It is altogether rooted and torn up from its foundations; and the only monument of it that remains, is the camp of its destroyers, pitched amidst its reliques!”

Concerning the temple, our Lord had foretold, particularly, that notwithstanding their wonderful dimensions, there should “not be left one stone upon another that should not be thrown down;” and, accordingly, it is recorded in the Talmud, and by Maimonides, that Terentius Rufus, captain of the army of Titus, absolutely ploughed up the foundations of the temple with a ploughshare. Now, also, was literally fulfilled that prophecy of Micah,—”Therefore shall Zion, for your sakes (i. e. for your wickedness), 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.^[2]”

Thus awfully complete, and severe beyond example, were the calamities which befel the Jewish nation, and especially the city of Jerusalem. With what truth, then, did our Lord declare, that there should “be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, no, nor never shall be!^[3]” Such was the prediction: the language in which Josephus declares its fulfilment is an exact counterpart to it: “If the misfortunes,” says he, “of all nations, from the beginning of the world, were compared with those which befel the Jews, they would appear far less in comparison;” and again, “No other city ever suffered such things, as no other generation, from the beginning of the world, was ever more fruitful in wickedness.” These were, indeed, “the days of vengeance,” “that all things which are written (especially by Moses, Joel, and Daniel) might be fulfilled.^[4]” Nor were the calamities of this ill-fated nation even now ended; for there were still other places to subdue; and our Lord had thus predicted, “wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.^[5]”

After the destruction of Jerusalem seventeen hundred Jews who surrendered at Macherus were slain, and of fugitives not less than three thousand in the wood of Jardes. Titus having marched his army to Cæsarea, he there, with great splendour, celebrated the birthday of his brother Domitian; and, according to the barbarous manner of those times, punished many Jews in honour of it. The number who were burnt, and who fell by fighting with wild beasts, and in mutual combats, exceeded two thousand and five hundred. At the siege of Massada, Eleazer, the commander, instigated the garrison to burn their stores, and to destroy first the women and children, and then themselves. Dreadful as it is to relate, this horrid design was executed. They were in number nine hundred and sixty. Ten were chosen to perform this bloody work: the rest sat on the ground, and, embracing their wives and children, stretched out their necks to the sword: one was afterwards appointed to destroy the remaining nine, and then himself. The survivor, when he had looked round to see that all were slain, set fire to the place, and plunged his sword into his own bosom. Nevertheless, two women and five children successfully concealed themselves, and witnessed the whole transaction. When the Romans advanced to the attack in the morning, one of the women gave them a distinct account of this melancholy affair; which struck them with amazement at the contempt of death that had been displayed by the Jews.

After this event, if we except the transitory insurrection of the Sicarii, under Jonathan, all opposition on the part of the Jews every where ceased. It was the submission of impotence and despair. The peace that ensued was the effect of the direst necessity. The rich territory of Judea was converted into a desolate waste. Every where ruin and desolation presented itself to the solitary passenger, and a melancholy and death-like silence reigned over the whole region. The mournful and desolate condition of Judea, at this time, is exactly described by the prophet Isaiah, in the following passage of his prophecy: “The cities were wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without a man, and the land was utterly desolate, and the Lord had removed men far away, and there was a great forsaking in the midst of the land.^[6]”

The catastrophe which has now been reviewed, cannot but be deemed one of the most extraordinary that has happened since the foundation of the world; and as it has pleased the Almighty to make it the subject of a very large proportion of the prophecies, both of the Jewish and christian scriptures, so he hath ordained that the particular events which accomplished them, should be recorded with very remarkable precision, and by a man most singularly preserved,^[7] qualified, and circumstanced for this purpose. But with respect to this latter point, he shall speak for himself: “At first,” says Josephus, “I fought against the Romans, but was afterwards forced to be present in the Roman camp. At the time I surrendered, Vespasian and Titus kept me in bonds, but obliged me to attend them continually. Afterwards I was set at liberty, and accompanied Titus when he came from Alexandria to the siege of Jerusalem.— During this time nothing was done which escaped my knowledge. What happened in the Roman camp I saw, and wrote down carefully. As to the information the deserters brought out of the city, I was the only man that understood it. Afterwards I got leisure at Rome; and when all my materials were prepared, I procured the help of one to assist me in writing Greek.

Thus I composed the history of those transactions, and I appeal both to Titus and Vespasian for the truth of it; to which also Julius Archelaus, Herod, and King Aggrippa, bore their testimony. All remark here is needless; but it should not be forgotten, that Josephus was a Jew, obstinately attached to his religion; and that, although he has circumstantially related every remarkable event of that period, he seems studiously to have avoided such as had any reference to Jesus Christ, whose history (and even the genuineness of this is disputed) he sums up in about twelve lines. No one, therefore, can reasonably entertain a suspicion, that the service he has rendered to christianity, by his narrative of the transactions of the Jewish war, was at all the effect of design. The fidelity of Josephus, as an historian, is, indeed, universally admitted; and Scaliger even affirms, that, not only in the affairs of the Jews, but in those of foreign nations also, he deserves more credit than all the Greek and Roman writers put together.

Nor is the peculiar character of Titus, the chief commander in this war, unworthy of our particular regard. Vespasian, his father, had risen out of obscurity, and was elected emperor, contrary to his avowed inclination, about the commencement of the conflict; and thus the chief command devolved upon Titus, the most unlikely man throughout the Roman armies to become a scourge to Jerusalem. He was eminently distinguished for his great tenderness and humanity, which he displayed in a variety of instances during the siege. He repeatedly made pacific overtures to the Jews, and deeply lamented the infatuation that rejected them. In short, he did every thing, which a military commander could do, to spare them, and to preserve their city and temple, but without effect. Thus was the will of God accomplished by the agency, although contrary to the wish of Titus; and his predicted interposition, to punish his rebellious and apostate people, in this way rendered more conspicuously evident.

The history of the Jews, subsequently to the time of Josephus, still further corroborates the truth of our Saviour’s prophecies concerning that oppressed and persecuted people. Into this inquiry, however, the limits of the present essay will not allow us to enter particularly. Our Lord foretold, generally, that they should “fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations; and that Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles should be fulfilled;^[8]” and these predictions may be regarded as a faithful epitome of the circumstances of the Jews, and also of their city, from the period in which it was delivered, down even to our own times.

In order to demonstrate the accomplishment of these predictions, we appeal, therefore, to universal history, and to every country under heaven.^[9] The undisputed facts are, that Jerusalem has not since been in possession of the Jews, but has been successively occupied by the Romans, Arabic Saracens, Franks, Mamelucs, and lastly by the Turks, who now possess it. It has never regained its former distinction and prosperity. It has always been trodden down. The eagles of idolatrous Rome, the crescent of Mahomet, and the banner of popery, have by turns been displayed amidst the ruins of the sanctuary; and a Mahomedan mosque, to the extent of a mile in circumference, now covers the spot where the temple formerly stood. The territory of Judea, then one of the most fertile countries on the globe, has for more than seventeen hundred years continued a desolate waste. The Jews themselves, still miraculously preserved a distinct people, are, as we see, scattered over the whole earth, invigorating the faith of the Christian, flashing conviction in the face of the infidel, and constituting a universal, permanent, and invincible evidence of the truth of christianity.

In order to invalidate this evidence, the apostate emperor Julian, impelled by a spirit of enmity against the Christians, about A.D. 363, made an attempt to rebuild the city and temple of Jerusalem, and to recall the Jews to their own country. He assigned immense sums for the execution of this great design, and commanded Alypius of Antioch (who had formerly served as a lieutenant in Britain) to superintend the work, and the governor of the province to assist him therein. “But,” says Ammianus Marcellinus, “whilst they urged with vigour and diligence the execution of the work, horrible balls of fire, breaking out near the foundation, with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place, from time to time, inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and the victorious element continuing, in this manner, obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the undertaking was abandoned.” Speaking of this event, even Gibbon, who is notorious for his scepticism, acknowledges, that “an earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, which overturned and scattered the new foundations of the temple, are attested, with some variations, by contemporary and respectable evidence, by Ambrose, bishop of Milan, Chrysostom, and Gregory Nazianzen, the latter of whom published his account before the expiration of the same year.^[10]”

To these may be added the names of Zemuch David, a Jew, who confesses that “Julian was hindered by God in the attempt;” of Rufinus, a Latin, of Theodoret and Sozomen among the orthodox, of Philostorgius, an Arian, and of Socrates, a favourer of the Novatians, who all recorded the same wonderful interposition of Providence, while the eye-witnesses of the fact were yet living. The words of Sozomen to this purport are remarkable: “If it yet seem incredible,” says he, “to any one, he may repair both to witnesses of it yet living, and to them who have heard it from their mouths; yea, they may view the foundations, lying yet bare and naked.” Besides, it may be added, that no other reason has ever been alleged, why Julian should abandon his magnificent but impious design.

Thus was this celebrated emperor “taken in his own craftiness,” and his presumptuous attempt to frustrate the plans, and falsify the declarations of infinite omnipotence and wisdom, converted into a new and striking evidence of their certainty and truth.^[11]

We shall now proceed to reply to two or three objections, which may be rashly opposed to the impregnable argument which the preceding account furnishes in defence of our religion.

I. It may be alleged, that the prophecies, whose fulfilment has been demonstrated; were not written until after the events to which they refer were past.

Assertion is not proof; and even a conjecture to this effect, in the face of the historic testimony, and general sentiment of seventeen ages, would be ridiculous. On the faith, then, of all antiquity, we affirm, that the gospels containing these predictions were written before the destruction of Jerusalem, and we confirm this assertion by particular proof. The gospel of St. Matthew, who died previously to that event, supposed to have been written about eight years after the ascension of our Saviour, was published before the dispersion of the apostles; for Eusebius says, that St. Bartholomew took a copy of it with him to India; and the dispersion of the apostles took place within twelve years after the ascension of our Lord. Mark must have written his gospel at the latest in the time of Nero, for he died in the eighth year of that emperor’s reign.

The gospel by St. Luke was written before the Acts, as the first verses of that narrative prove; and the Acts were written before the death of St. Paul, for they carry down his history only to A.D. 63; whereas he was not crucified until the 12th of Nero, the very year before the Jewish war commenced. Of Luke’s death the time is uncertain. As to the Evangelist John, he both lived and wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem; but then, as if purposely to prevent this very cavil, his gospel does not record the prophecies which foretold it! Learned men, indeed, differ with regard to the precise year in which the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote their respective gospels; but they universally agree, that they were both written and published before the destruction of Jerusalem. As to the gospel by St. John, some are of opinion that it was written before, and some after that event.

II. If it be objected, that, although the gospel narratives might be written and published before the destruction of Jerusalem, yet that the predictions relating to that event may be subsequent interpolations; we reply, that this cannot but be considered as a preposterous supposition, because those predictions are not confined to the particular chapters to which we have chiefly referred, but are closely and inseparably interwoven with the general texture of the history—because the character of the style is uniform—because there is no allusion, in conformity to the practice of the sacred historians,^[12] to the fulfilment of these prophecies—because such an attempt must have destroyed the cause it professed to serve, and, lastly, because “no unbeliever of the primitive times (whether Jew or Gentile), when pressed, as both frequently were, by this prophecy, appear to have had recourse to the charge of forgery or interpolation.” It may be added also, that, in modern times, no distinguished unbeliever (not even the arch-infidels Voltaire and Gibbon) has had the temerity so much as to insinuate a charge of this nature.

III. It may be alleged, that the accomplishments of our Lord’s predictions relative to the destruction of Jerusalem, ought not to be deemed supernatural, inasmuch as the distresses of all great cities, during a siege, are similar, and because it is probable that, some time or other, such should be the fate of every city of this description; and that, since the obstinacy of the Jews was great, and their fortifications were strong, when war did come, Jerusalem was more likely to suffer under that form of it than any other.

In answer to this objection we remark, that it was not merely foretold that Jerusalem was to be destroyed, but that it was to be destroyed by the Romans; and so it was. But was this then a likely event? When our Lord delivered his predictions, Judea was already completely in their hands. Was it a probable thing that it should be desolated by its own masters? Or was it a natural thing that they should be indifferent to the revenue which was derived from a country so populous and fertile? – Again, was it likely that this petty province should provoke the wrath and defy the power, of the universal empire? Or was it to be supposed that the mistress of the world, irresistible to all nations, instead of controuling, should deem it worthy of her utterly to exterminate a state comparatively so insignificant? Or did it accord with the disposition or custom of the Romans, like Goths, to demolish buildings famed for their antiquity and magnificence? Rather was it not to have been expected that they would preserve them, to maintain the renown and glory of their empire? Nevertheless, as we have seen, they did destroy them, and even the illustrious temple of Jerusalem, the chief ornament of Asia, and the wonder of the world. But it was predicted that “thus it must be;” and therefore Titus himself, with all his authority and exertions, could not preserve it.

But there are a number of very material circumstances closely interwoven with the prophecy, that still further identify the events which fulfilled it, and demonstrate that the prophecy itself was something very different from a happy conjecture, suggested by the aspect of the times, or conclusions from past experience. For,

1. Our Lord foretold, as “the beginning of sorrows,” and as alarming harbingers of his “coming,” as “the Son of Man;” to destroy Jerusalem, that terrible calamities would prevail in various parts of the world, during the intermediate period: and, unquestionably, this was the case. But it is very material to remark here, that our Lord did not describe these calamities in general terms merely, as an impostor might have done, but distinctly specified them thus: rumours of wars—actual wars—nation rising against nation—kingdom rising against kingdom—famines—pestilences—and earthquakes, in divers places: which all came to pass accordingly, and nearly in the very order in which they were foretold. False prophets, also, were not merely to arise—but to personate the Messiah, to pretend to miraculous powers, and to deceive many; and such were the characters and success of those which actually appeared. Again, the prognostics are not described as “sights” merely, but as “fearful sights;” not generally, as “signs,” but as “great signs from heaven;” and such they were. These wonderful appearances stand last in the prophecy, and they occurred, according to Josephus, on the very eve of the Jewish war.^[13]

2. The investment of Jerusalem was to take place “suddenly,” “as a snare,” which predictions, as we have seen, were accomplished in the most surprising and extraordinary manner.

3. Our Lord declared also, that, “except those days (i. e. the “days of vengeance“) should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s^[14] sake (said he) those days shall be shortened.“—And they were shortened accordingly: 1st, by the determination of Titus vigorously to push the siege by assault, in opposition to the opinions of his officers, who recommended the more tedious plan of blockade: 2dly, by the conduct of the Jews themselves, who accelerated the capture of their city by intestine divisions and mutual slaughters, contrary to what is usual upon such emergencies, in which a common sense of danger ordinarily tends to unite contending parties against the common foe: 3dly, by the madness of the factions in burning storehouses full of provisions, and thus wasting the strength which was necessary for the defence of the place: 4thly, by the extraordinary panic by which the Jews were seized when the Romans made their final attack on the higher city, in consequence of which they fled affrighted out of their strong holds, which Titus afterwards pronounced to be impregnable: and, lastly, by the crowded state of the city during the siege, which, as we have before remarked, occasioned pestilential disorders, and hastened the approach of famine.

4. Our Lord likewise foretold that his followers should escape the destruction of Jerusalem; and, accordingly, whilst countless multitudes of unbelieving Jews were fatally involved in this calamity, not a single christian perished therein; for he that “knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished,“^[15] had said, that “not a hair of their heads should perish.“^[16] Who, that seriously meditates on these equitable arrangements of Providence, can help exclaiming, with the devout psalmist—”Verily, there is a reward for the righteous; verily, he is a God that judgeth in the earth!“

5. Our Lord declared also that the extreme miseries of the Jews should be without a parallel: and they certainly were, as Josephus himself repeatedly testifies, and as his history abundantly proves.

6. Again, our Lord foretold, that before the destruction of Jerusalem, the “gospel should be preached in all the world as a witness unto all nations.” This prediction, as we have seen already, was fully accomplished also; and yet, considering the character and condition of the instruments, the nature of the truths which they promulgated, the malignant opposition of their own countrymen, and the contempt with which, as Jews, they were regarded by the Gentile nations—nothing could scarcely have been conceived less probable than such an event.

7. Our Lord further predicted, that the then existing generation should not “pass away before all these things were fulfilled;“^[17] and, in conformity hereto, they were fulfilled within forty years from the date of the prophecy. This is a very different thing from their being accomplished some time or other. Our Lord had intimated also, that the Evangelist John should survive the destruction of Jerusalem; and he survived it, accordingly, more than twenty-five years, and died at Ephesus nearly one hundred years old. How it came to pass that he who foresaw the persecutions of his disciples, and was therefore sensible of the dangers to which their lives would be exposed, should venture to predict that one of the most distinguished and zealous among them should escape martyrdom, and demonstrate, so long after the accomplishment of the prophecy, that the generation to which he addressed it had not even then “passed away?“

Now, if the destruction of Jerusalem were a subject of human conjecture merely, how came so great a variety of remarkable and improbable circumstances, as we have enumerated, to be unnecessarily interwoven with the prophecy? And how happened it that, in relation to those circumstances, as well as all others, of which the number is not small, the prophecy should be exactly fulfilled?

IV. If this prophecy be ascribed to political sagacity, we would ask, on the supposition of the infidel, how it happened that a carpenter’s son, living nearly the whole of his life in privacy, associating chiefly with the poor, without access to the councils of princes, or to the society of the great, should possess a degree of political discernment to which no statesman would deem it less than folly to lay claim? Besides, how came he to predict the ruin of his own country, and at that very season, too, when all his countrymen turned their eyes to a deliverer, who should restore its sovereignty, consolidate its power, and extend both its boundaries and its renown? And, lastly, how came he even to conceive, much more cherish, such an idea, diametrically contrary as it was to all his stubborn and deep-rooted prejudices as a Jew?

Thus we perceive that the very objections which infidelity opposes to our argument, instead of invalidating, tend only more fully to illustrate and confirm it. And such, indeed, must always be the happy effects of that hostility which is directed against the evidences of the christian faith, since, the more carefully and attentively we examine the foundations upon which it rests, the more perfectly must we be convinced of the immovable stability of the superstructure. Of that evidence the prophecy which we have reviewed most certainly constitutes a very striking and prominent part; from every light and position in which it can be contemplated it constantly derives new lustre and effect; and it may safely be considered as an unquestionable proof of the divine foreknowledge of our Lord, and the divine authority of the gospel: and on this ground only, were it necessary, we might securely rest the whole fabrick of our religion. Indeed, this remarkable prediction has always been considered, by every impartial person, as one of the most powerful arguments in favour of christianity; and in our own times, more particularly, a man of distinguished talents, and acknowledged eminence in his profession, and in the constant habit of weighing, sifting, and scrutinizing evidence with the minutest accuracy in courts of justice, has publicly declared, that he considered this prophecy, if there were nothing else to support christianity, as absolutely irresistible.^[18]

1. Luke 19:44.(↩)
2. Mic. 3:12.(↩)
3. Matt. 24:21. (↩)
4. Luke 21:22. (↩)
5. Matt. 24:28. (↩)
6. Isaiah 6:11,12.(↩)
7. Three several times his life was preserved as by a miracle. (↩)
8. Luke 21:24. (↩)
9. “In the reign of Adrian,” says Bishop Newton, “nine hundred and eighty-five of their best towns were sacked and demolished, five hundred and eighty thousand men fell by the sword, in battle, besides an infinite multitude who perished by famine, and sickness, and fire; so that Judea was depopulated, and an almost incredible number, of every age and of each sex, were sold like horses, and dispersed over the face of the earth*.” The war which gave rise to these calamities, happened about sixty-four years after the destruction of Jerusalem; during which time the Jews had greatly multiplied in Judea. About fifty years after the latter event, Ælius Adrian built a new city on Mount Calvary, and called it Ælia, after his own name; but no Jew was suffered to come near it. He placed in it a heathen colony, and erected a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, on the ruins of the temple of Jehovah. This event contributed greatly to provoke the sanguinary war to which we have just alluded. The Jews afterwards burnt the new city; which Adrian, however, re-built, and re-established the colony. In contempt of the Jews, he ordered a marble statue of a sow to be placed over its principal gate, and prohibited them entering the city under pain of death, and forbad them even to look at it from a distance. He also ordered fairs to be held annually for the sale of captive Jews, and banished such as dwelt in Canaan into Egypt. Constantine greatly improved the city, and restored to it the name of Jerusalem; but still he did not permit the Jews to dwell there. To punish an attempt to recover the possession of their capital, he ordered their ears to be cut off, their bodies to be marked as rebels, and dispersed them through all the provinces of the empire as vagabonds and slaves. Jovian having revived the severe edicts of Adrian, which Julian had suspended, the wretched Jews even bribed the soldiers with money, for the privilege only of beholding the sacred ruins of their city and temple, and weeping over them, which they were peculiarly solicitous to do on the anniversary of that memorable day, on which they were taken and destroyed by the Romans. In short, during every successive age, and in all nations, this ill-fated people have been constantly persecuted, enslaved, contemned, harassed, and oppressed; banished from one country to another, and abused in all; while countless multitudes have, at different periods, been barbarously massacred, particularly in Persia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt; and in Germany, Hungary, France, and Spain. *Newton, vol. ii. Diss. xviii. (↩)
10. Decline and Fall, vol. iv. 8vo. page 107. (↩)
11. This subject is discussed at length, with singular ingenuity and force of argument, by the learned bishop Warburton, in his work entitled Julian. (↩)
12. Vide, particularly, Acts 11:28. (↩)
13. Vide page 34—40. (↩)
14. i.e. for the “sake” of the christians, who, no doubt, prayed ardently for the termination of these calamities. (↩)
15. 2 Peter 2:9. (↩)
16. Luke 21:13. (↩)
17. Matt. 24:34.(↩)
18. See the Bishop of London’s “Lectures on the Gospel of St. Matthew;” and Mr. Erskine’s eloquent speech at the trial of Williams, for publishing Paine’s Age of Reason. (↩)