S rm. CLXXX`'I. of the Chriiian Religion. 56; flood, was almoft burnt up and consumed with the fiercenefs of the fire 5 and the Roman Hillory gives account of the plucking up of the very Foun- dations of the Temple by Rufus Turnas : but the moil remarkable Circum- fiance of all, which is fo fully expreft by our Saviour in this Predi&ion, was the firange and unexampled Calamities which lhould; attend this Deftru&il on; fuch as never bcfel any People before, which our Saviour foretels in thefe words, Then /hall begreat tribulation, fuck as was not from the beginning ofthe world to this time ; nor ever /hall be. And never had any words á more fad and full accomplifhment than this part of our Saviour's Prophecy had, in thofe woful Miferies which befel that People by civil and inteftine Seditions, and the utmoft extremity that Famine could reduce a People to ; beftdes the Cruelties of a foreign Enemy. No Hiftory makes mention of fo vaft a number of Men, that in fo fhort a time did perifh in fuch fad Circum- fiances 5 fourteen or fifteen hundred thoufand within lefs than a Years fpace, and more of thefe by far, cruelly murder'd by one anothers hands, than by the Romane. So that thefe were days of Vengeance, and of great Tribulation, fuch as the World had never feen before, and if they hadnot been fhortned, no flefh could have been Paved, as our Saviour adds in the Prophe- cy ; if things had gone onat that rate a little longer, not one of the Jewifb Nation would have been left alive. Now that çur Saviour lhould foretel fo pun&ually the fad Calamity of this People, I take to be one of the molt material Circumflances of this Prophecy 5 and to be a thing fo contingent and unlikely, that it could not have been forefeen, but by Divine Infpiration. For though one might eafily have foretold from the temper of the People, which was prone to Sedition, and very impatient of the Roman 'Government, that the Yews were very likely in a short time to provoke the Romans againft them ; yet there was no probability at all that things lhould have come to that extremity ; for it was not in the deGgn of the Roman Government to deftroy any of their Provinces ; but that fuch a Calamity lhould have happened unto them un- der Titus, who was the mildef, and fartheft from Cruelty of all Mankind, nothing was more unlikely 5 that ever any People lhould have been fo be- fotted, as the yew: were at that time, and have fo madly confpired together to their own ruin, as they did 5 that they fhould fo blindly and ob[inately run themfelves into fuch Calamities, as made them the pity of their very Enemies, was the mofi incredible thing in the World. Nothing but a Pro- phetic Spirit could have foretold an Event fo contingent, and fo extremely improbable. If. Not only thofe who lived in that Age were capable of fatisfa&ion concerning the accomplifhment of this Predi&ion of our Saviour; but that we alfo might receive full fatisfa&ion concerning this, the Providence of God hach fo ordet'd it, as to preferve to us a more punilual and credibleHiftory of the Deftru&ion of 3erafalem, than there is of any other matter whatfo- ever fo long fince done. And this is more confiderable, than pofïibly at fiat we may imagine. For, a. We have this matter related, not by a Chriflian (who might have been fufpelted of Partiality, and a deGgn to have parallel'd the Event with our Saviour's Predi&ion) but by a yew both by Nation and Religion, who feems defignedly to have avoided, as much as pofliibly he could, the very mention of the Chriftian name, and all particulars relating to our Saviour, tho' no Hiftorian was ever more pun&uat in all other things. 2. We have this matter related by one that was an Eye-witnefs of all thofe fad Calamities that betel the Nation of the yews, and during the War in Ga- lilee againft Vefpatian, was one of their chief Commanders, and being taken CccC 2 by
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