Under this head, we were also to show where the ungodly and the sinner appeared.  We have already had occasion to state, that Peter in our text refers to the destruction coming upon the Jews.  The time was come when that judgment of persecution, which began at the christians, was to be returned upon the heads of their persecutors in seven fold vengeance and suffering.  Their city and nation were to be destroyed, and their magnificent temple, where their devotions were offered, was to be laid even with the ground.  Not one stone was to be left upon another, but the whole become one general heap of ruins.  Then according to the prediction of Jesus, was there to “be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”  Then was “wrath to come upon them to the uttermost.”  Then was he to “take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Then were “the children of the kingdom to be cast out into outer darkness where there was wailing and gnashing of teeth.”  Then, as a nation, were “they to go away into everlasting punishment;” for “these were the days of vengeance when all things, that were written, might be fulfilled,” and “all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias, should come upon that generation.”

Titus led the Roman army against them, surrounded the walls of the city on the day of the Passover, where a great part of the Jewish nation were then assembled, and to which others had fled for refuge, being driven by the terror of his arms like chaff before the whirlwind.  Here they appeared!  Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, (one promiscuous throng) were gazing in breathless solicitude, while consternation and dismay were depicted in every countenance, and fearful expectation pervaded every bosom!  Death, a long lingering death, was gathering around them in all its horrors!  Old men and young, maidens, matrons and little children poured forth their lamentations to heaven, invoking the protection of the God of Israel.  But, alas! “the things, that made for their peace (as Jesus forewarned them) were hidden from their eyes!” Their hour was come, and the triumphant shouts of the enemy were heard around their stubborn walls, which (massy as they were) dropped to the ground under the subduing power of the battering-rams of war.  With these massive engines of destruction, they laid the two first walls in ruin!  But the third and last wall it was not in the power of the enemy to gain.  The Jews fought with desperation, and by valiant exertions kept the enemy at bay, and for a while seemed to triumph in the fond hope of victory over the foe.  The Roman army was driven to great extremity, and even to hesitation, while many of their most valiant men fell in action, and impending victory seemed to hang doubtful.  In this moment of suspense, they came to a determination to make no further attack