were to pass over it, on account of the sins of the people to whom the Lord had given it, and for whom it is still reserved, to be held by them in perpetuity, when they shall have returned unto the Lord God of their fathers.

The calamities of the Israelites were to rise progressively with their iniquities; and the desolation of their country, as well as their banishment from it, is ranked among the punishments that were denounced against them. And many prophecies respecting it, which admit of a literal interpretation, and which have been literally fulfilled, are abundantly clear and expressive.

I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries into desolation; and I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it; your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest.'*

The particular features of the desolation of Judea are minutely traced out in other prophecies,† exactly as they are described by modern travellers. The vision of the prophets was as clear as the eye-sight of any who now read the history of Judea, or lock upon the land; while the many vestiges of ancient cultivation, ruins abounding everywhere, the remains of Roman buildings and highways, the natural richness of the soil, in many places yet unaltered, agree with

*Levit. xxvi. 31-35, 43.

+ Isa. i. 7; xxiv. 1—13; xxxii. 9—15; xxvii. 10. Jerem. IV. 20, 26-28; xii. 7-14. Ezek. xii. 19, 20.

the universal voice of history in attesting, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that for ages after the era of the prophets, Judea was altogether different from what it now is, or from what any mortal could have conceived that, for so long a period, it ever would have become.

The land was to be overthrown by strangers; mischief was to come upon mischief, and destruction upon destruction; the land was to be desolate; there were to be desolations of many generations. After a long and uninterrupted possession of Judea by the Israelites,-the Chaldeans, Syrians, Egyptians, and Romans, were successive strangers who brought destruction upon destruction, and prepared the way for more savage desolators. The history of Judea for the last twelve hundred years is well recorded by Volney.

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 Mamelukes of Egypt, and ravaged by Tamerlane and his Tartars, it has at length fallen into the hands of the Ottoman Turks.' It has been trodden down of the Gentiles-overthrown by strangers-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. These, though in

general tenantless, retain the names of their ancient cities. Heaps of rubbish and of ruins are all that remain of Cesarea, Zabulon, Capernaum, Bethsaida, Gadara, Tarichea, and Chorazin. Desolators have brought to perfection their destined work on those cities where Christ and his apostles lived and preached. Columns covered with rubbish, and shapeless heaps of ruins, are scattered over the whole country. These are in some instances extensive. The remains of Arimathea show, according to Volney, that it must have been about five miles in circumference. The ruins of Djerash (Gerasa) are described, by different travellers, as finer than those of Palmyra. But of many towns, once illustrious in Palestine, scarcely a vestige remains-they are so utterly laid waste.

The land was to be brought into desolation-to rest, and enjoy her sabbaths, And while the children of Israel were to be in their enemies' land, so long was their land to lie desolate. They have been for nearly eighteen centuries in their enemies' land, and their own land is still desolate. The sword was drawn after them; and the ploughshare has rested in Judea. The most fertile plains lie untilled. The country is overrun by rebel tribes; the Arabs pasture their herds at freedom. The art of cultivation,' says Volney, is in the most deplorable state, and the countryman must sow with the musket in his hand.' Valleys naturally the most fertile are covered with varieties of thistles; some of the hills are scarcely accessible, so closely are they beset with

thorns; the wild plants and grasses on the plains sometimes impede the traveller; and so luxuriant is their growth, that horses with difficulty pass through them, and the whole district of Tiberias, as Burckhardt, a celebrated traveller, relates, is covered with a thorny shrub. The land mourns, and is laid waste; and has become as a desolate wilderness. Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers.'

The

Your highways shall be desolate.'* The highways lie waste; the wayfaring man ceaseth. Judea was traversed with roads in every direction; and the intercourse was incessant between its numerous and populous cities. The remains of highways, no longer passable, are still to be seen. In the interior parts of the country,' says Volney, there are neither great roads, nor canals, nor even bridges over the rivers and torrents, however necessary they may be in winter. roads in the mountains are extremely bad. There are no inns any where; neither posts nor public conveyances; not a wagon nor a cart in all Syria.' The same remarkable facts are stated by others. In a country where there is a total want of wheel carriages of every description, the highways, however excellent and numerous they once might have been, must lie waste; and where dangers are encountered at every step in passing over wastes that are overrun by plundering and lawless Arabs, the wayfaring man ceaseth. But let the disciples of Volney tell how his ample description of these existing facts was

*Lev. xxvi. 22. Isa. xxxiii. 8.

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summed up in a brief prophetic sentenee, by Moses and Isaiah; by the former thirty-three, and by the latter twenty-five centuries past.

The condition of the inhabitants of Judea, as well as of the land, when the house of the Lord would be forsaken, and his heritage left, and given into the hands of her enemies, is described in repeated prophecies. Many pastors (or rulers) were to destroy his vineyard, to tread his portion under their feet, and to make his pleasant portion a desolate wilderness; the spoilers were to come, and the sword was to devour, no flesh was to have peace; they were to put themselves to pain, but they were not to profit, and they were to be ashamed of their revenues. It was prophesied that, when the Israelites should be scattered among the nations and dispersed in the countries, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel would eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land might be desolate from all that was therein, because of the violence of them that dwelt therein.† While the ancient possessors of the land were to be scattered abroad; it was to be defiled under the inhabitants thereof; they that dwelt therein were to be desolate, and few men left. Their joyless state is thus described: The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry-hearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth. The noise of them that rejoice endeth. The joy of the harp ceaseth. They shall not drink wine with a song; strong + Ezek. xii. 19, 20.

Jerem. xii. 7-13.