there is abundant evidence to complete the proof that that which was determined has been poured upon the desolate, and that ALL the curses that are written in the book of the Lord have been brought upon the land.* The devastation of Judea is so "astonishing," and its poverty as a country so remarkable, that, forgetful of the prophecies respecting it, and in the rashness of their zeal, infidels once attempted to draw an argument from thence against the truth of Christianity, by denying the possibility of the existence of so numerous a population as can accord with Scriptural history, and by representing it as a region singularly unproductive and irreclaimable. But though they have, in some instances at least, voluntarily abandoned this indefensible assumption, they have left to the believer the fruits of their concession; they have given the most unsuspicious testimony to the confirmation of the prophecies, and have served to establish the cause which they sought to ruin. The evidence of ancient authors-the fertility of the soil wherever a single spot can be cultivated-the remains of vegetable mould piled by artificial means upon the sides of the mountains, which may have clothed them with a richer and more frequent harvest than the most fertile vale; and the multitude of the ruins of cities that * Deut. xxix. 27. † Voltaire, without adducing any authority whatever in support of his assertion, and without expressly declaring that, in lieu of such evidence, he was gifted with an intuitive knowledge of the historical and geographical fact,— speaks of the ancient state of Palestine with derision, describes it as one of the worst countries of Asia, likens it to Switzerland, and says that it can only be esteemed fertile when compared with the desert. (La Palestine n'était que ce qu'elle est aujourd'hui, un des plus mauvais pays de l'Asie. Cette petite province, &c.-Euvres de Voltaire. Ed. A. Gotha, Tom. XVII. p. 107.) Without citing, on the other hand, the ample evidence of Josephus and of Jerome, both of whom were inhabitants of Judea, and more adequate judges of the fact, the following testimony to the great fertility of that country, not being chargeable with the partiality which might be attached to the opinion either of a Christian or of a Jew, may be given in answer to the groundless assertion of Voltaire-testimony which ought to have been better known and appreciated even by that high-priest of modern infidelity, if the sacrifice of truth on the altar of wit had not been too common an act of his devotion to that chief god of his idolatry. Corpora hominum salubria et ferentia laborem; rari imbres, uber solum, fruges nostrum ad morem; præterque eas balsamum et palma. Magna pars Judea vicis dispergitur, habent et oppida. Hierosolyma genti caput. Illic immensæ opulentiæ templum, et primis munimentis urbs.-Taciti Hist. Lib. V. c. 6, 8. Ultima Syriarum est Palestina, per intervalla magna protenta, cultis abundans terris et nitidis et civitates habens quasdam egregias, nullam sibi cedentem sed sibi vicissim velut ad perpendiculum æmulas.—Ammiani Marcell. Lib. xiv. cap. 8, 11. Ed. Lips. 1808. Nec sane viris, opibus, armis quicquain copiosius Syria.-Flori. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 8, § 4. Syria in hortis operosissima est. Inde quoque est proverbium Græcis. Multa Syrorum olera.-Plini Hist. Nat. lib. xx. cap. 5. now cover the extensive, but uncultivated and desert plains, bear witness that there was a numerous and condensed population in a country flowing with food; and that if any history recorded its greatness, or any prophecies revealed its desolation, they have both been amply verified. The acknowledgments of Volney, and the description which he gives from personal observation, are sufficient to confute entirely the gratuitous assumptions and insidious sarcasms of Voltaire; and, wonderful as it may appear, copious extracts may be drawn from that writer, whose unwitting or unwilling testimony is as powerful an attestation of the completion of many prophecies, when he relates facts of which he was an eyewitness, as his untried theories, his ideal perfectibility of human nature if released from the restraints of religion, and his perverted views both of the nature and effects of Christianity, have proved greatly instrumental in subverting the faith of many, who, unguarded by any positive evidence, gave heed to such seductive doctrines. There needs not to be any better witness of facts confirmatory of the prophecies, and in so far conclusive against all his speculations, than Volney himself. Of the natural fertility of the country, and of its abounding population in ancient times, he gives the most decisive evidence. Syria unites different climates under the same sky, and collects within a small compass pleasures and productions which nature has elsewhere dispersed at great distances of time and places. To this advantage, which perpetuates enjoyments by their succession, it adds another, that of multiplying them by the variety of its productions." "With its numerous advantages of climate and soil, it is not astonishing that Syria should always have been esteemed a most delicious country, and that the Greeks and Romans ranked it among the most beautiful of their provinces, and even thought it not inferior to Egypt.' After having assigned several just and sufficient reasons to account for the large population of Judea in ancient times, in contradiction to those who were skeptical of the fact, he adds, "Admitting only what is conformable to experience and nature, there is nothing to contradict the great population of high antiquity. Without appealing to the positive testimony of 66 Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria. Eng. Trans. Lond. 1787, vol. i. pp. 316, 321. history, there are innumerable monuments which depose in favour of the fact. Such are the prodigious quantity of ruins dispersed over the plains, and even in the mountains, at this day deserted. On the remote parts of Carmel are found wild vines and olive-trees which must have been conveyed thither by the hand of man; and in the Lebanon of the Druses and Maronites, the rocks, now abandoned to fir-trees and brambles, present us in a thousand places with terraces, which prove that they were anciently better cultivated, and consequently much more populous, than in our days."* 66 Syria," says Gibbon, "one of the countries that have been improved by the most early cultivation, is not unworthy of the preference. The heat of the climate is tempered by the vicinity of the sea and mountains,—by the plenty of wood and water; and the produce of a fertile soil affords the subsistence and encourages the propagation of men and animals. From the age of David to that of Heraclius the country was overspread with ancient and flourishing cities; the inhabitants were numerous and wealthy." Such evidence has merely been selected as the most unsuspicious, though that of many others might also be adduced. The country in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem is indeed rocky, as Strabo represents it, and apparently sterile; and is now, in general, perfectly barren; but "even the sides of the most barren mountains in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem had been rendered fertile by being divided into terraces, like steps rising one above another, where soil has been accumulated with astonishing labour."+ "In any part of Judea," Dr. Clarke adds, "the effects of a beneficial change of government are soon witnessed, in the conversion of desolated plains into fertile fields. Under a wise and beneficent government the produce of the Holy Land would exceed all calculation. Its perennial harvest, the salubrity of its air, its limpid springs, its rivers, lakes, and matchless plains, its hills and vales, all these, added to the serenity of the climate, prove this to be indeed a field which the Lord hath blessed." But the facts of the former fertility, as well as of the present desolation of Judea are established beyond contradiction; and, in attempting, in this respect, * Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. ii. p. 368. 66 † Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. p. 520. General Straton describes these terraces as resembling the gradus of a theatre; and particularly marked them as vestiges of ancient "luxuriance." + Ibid. p. 521. 4 to invalidate the truth of sacred history, infidels have either been driven, or have reluctantly retired, from the defenceless ground which they themselves had once assumed, and have given room whereon to rest an argument against their want of faith as well as of veracity. For, in conclusion of this matter, it surely may, without any infringement of truth or of justice, be remarked, that the extent of the present and long-fixed desolation, the very allegation on which they would discredit the Scriptural narrative of the ancient glory of Judea, being itself a clearly-predicted truth, then the greater the difficulty of reconciling the knowledge of what it was to the fact of what it is, and the greater the difficulty of believing the possibility of so "astonishing" a contrast, the more wonderful are the prophecies which revealed it all, the more completely are they accredited as a voice from heaven, and the argument of the infidel leads the more directly to proof against himself. Such is "the positive testimony of history," and such the subsisting proofs of the former grandeur and fertility of Palestine, that we are now left without a cavil to the calm investigation of the change in that country from one extreme to another, and of the consonance of that change with the dictates of prophecy. Under any regular and permanent government, a region so favoured by climate, so diversified in surface, so rich in soil, and which had been so luxuriant for ages, would naturally have resumed its opulence and power; and its permanent desolation, alike contradictory to every suggestion of experience and of reason, must have been altogether inconceivable by man. But the land was to be overthrown by strangers, to be trodden down, mischief was to come upon mischief, and destruction upon destruction, and the land was to be desolate. The Chaldeans devastated Judea, and led the inhabitants into temporary captivity. The kings of Syria and Egypt, by their extortions and oppression, impoverished the country; the Romans held it long in subjection to their iron yoke; and the Persians contended for the possession of it. But in succeeding ages still greater destroyers than any of the former appeared upon the scene to perfect the work of devastation. "In the year 622 (636), the Arabian tribes, collected under the banners of Mahomet, seized, or rather laid it waste. Since that period, torn to pieces by the civil wars of the Fatimites and the Ommiades; wrested from the califs by their rebellious governors; taken from them by the Turkmen soldiery; invaded by the European crusaders; retaken by the Mamelouks of Egypt; and ravaged by Tamerlane and his Tartars-it has at length fallen into the hands of the Ottoman Turks."* It has been overthrown by strangers,—trodden under foot,—destruction has come upon destruction. The cities were to be laid waste. By the concurring testimony of all travellers, Judea may now be called a field of ruins. Columns, the memorials of ancient magnificence, now covered with rubbish, and buried under ruins, may be found in all Syria.† From Mount Tabor is beheld an immensity of plains, interspersed with hamlets, fortresses, and heaps of ruins. The buildings on that mountain were destroyed and laid waste by the Sultan of Egypt in 1290, and the accumulated vestiges of successive forts and ruins are now mingled in one common and extensive desolation.‡ Of the celebrated cities Capernaum, Bethsaida, Gadara, Tarichea, and Chorazin, nothing remains but shapeless ruins. Some vestiges of Emmaus may still be seen.. Cana is a very paltry village. The ruins of Tekoa present only the foundations of some considerable buildings. The city of Naim is now a hamlet. The ruins of the ancient Sapphura announce the previous existence of a large city, and its name is still preserved in the appellation of a miserable village called Sephoury. Loudd, the ancient Lydda and Diospolis, appears like a place lately ravaged by fire and sword, and is one continued heap of rubbish and ruins.** Ramla, the ancient Arimathea, is in almost as ruinous a state. Nothing but rubbish is to be found within its boundaries. In the adjacent country there are found at every step dry wells, cisterns fallen in, and vast vaulted reservoirs, which prove that in ancient times this town must have been upwards of a league and a half in circumference.tt Cæsarea can no longer excite the envy of a conqueror, and has long been abandoned to silent desolation. The city of Tiberias is now almost abandoned, and its subsistence precarious; of the towns that bordered on its lake there are no traces left. §9 * Volney's Travels, vol. i. p. 357. † Mariti's Travels, vol. ii. p. 141: Buckingham's Travels in Palestine, p. 107. Mariti's Travels, vol. ii. p. 177. Ib. Wilson's Travels, p. 227. Macmichael's Journey to Constantinople, p. 196. Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. p. 401. ** Volney's Travels, vol. ii. p. 332–334. tt Ibid. p. 334. Captain Light's Travels, p. 204. Buckingham's Travels, p. 126. |