Page:Jerusalem's captivities lamented.pdf/8

 Now their was no temple after the holy of holies was burnt Titus entered it and saw the glory of it, and said, I well perceived that this is no other than the house of God, and the dwelling place of the king ot heaven : the God of heaven, who is God of this house take vengeance on the seditious whose hineous deeds have brought this evil upon themselves, and this holy place. On September the seventh, Titus commanded all the lower city to be set on fire, and assaulted the upper city, breaking over their fences, and destroying all before them with fire and sword; then he commanded the city and temple to be raised to the foundation, and the ground to be forthwith plowed. And Jehonanan and Shimeon were sent prisoners to Rome, with seven hundred of the Jews; the book of the law, and purple vail of the sanctuary were taken in triumph to Rome. About that time neither sun nor moon were seen for fifteen days, as Christ foretold, Matth. xxiv. 15. St. Jerome writes, that in this time, on that day of the year wherein Jerusalem was taken by the Romans, you might have seen aged men and women, and several other wretched people, but pitied by none, who with blubbered cheeks and dishevelled hair, went howling and lamenting for the ruin of the temple and sanctuary, wearing and bearing, in their habits and bodies, the sad characters of divine vengeance, of whom the soldiers exacted a fee for liberty of weeping, and they who formerly sold the blood of Jesus were now forced to buy their own tears. Thus the city and temple of Jerusalem were destroyed by Titus, and them which saw it afterwards could not believe that ever there had been such a city there, yet the despised Jews begged leave to build part of the city, but after sixty-five years, when they began to revolt, then Ehus Adrianus, the emperor, flew many thousands of them; and when his fury was over, he took one part of the city without the wall mount Calvary and Christ’s sepulchre, and made it a spacious city, which he called after his own name Aelio Capitolia, which was inhabited by all nations but most by Christians for five hundred years; and in six hundred and thirty-nine, it was taken by the Egyptians and 'saracens, who held it four hundred years, and in one thousand and thirty-nine, it was regained by Godfrey Bollogn, who being elected king, refused to be crowned with a crown of gold where Christ was crowned with a crown of thorns: it continued to him and his successors eighty eight years, till in 1127, it was taken by Salacine, king of Egypt ; and in one thousand five hundred and seventeen the Turks took it and called it in their own language Cunembare, or the holy of holies.