r

laid it waste, gone forth from it,-nor the old waste places built, nor the foundations of many generations raised up, nor the land brought back from desolation, the effect of every vision is still to be seen, and even now, at this late period of the times of the Gentiles, though the blessed consummation may not be very distant, 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.s

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

q Isa. xlix. 17. r Ibid. lviii. 12. s Deut. xxix. 27. t 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. 66 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, tom. xxvii. 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

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 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

sacrifice of truth on the altar of wit had not been too common an act of his devotion to the chief god of his idolatry. Corpora hominum salubria et ferentia laborum; rari imbres, uber solum, fruges nostrum ad morem; præterque eas balsamum et palma. Magna pars Judææ vicis dispergitur: habent et oppida. Hiersolyma genti caput. Illic immensæ opulentiæ templum, et primis munimentis urbs." (Taciti Hist. lib. v. cap. vi. viii.) "Ultima Syriarum est Palæstina, per intervalla magna protenta, cultis abundans terris et nitidis, et civitates habens quasdam egregias, nullam sibi cedentem, sed sibi vicissim velut ad perpendiculum æmulas." (Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xiv. cap. viii. § 11.) "Nec sane viris, opibus, armis quicquam copiosius Syria." (Flori Hist. lib. ii. viii. § 4.) Syria in hortis operosissima est. Indeque proverbium Græcis, Multa Syrorum olera." (Plinii Hist. Nat. lib. xx. cap. v.)

cap.

mony

any

66

from that writer, whose unwitting or unwilling testiis as powerful an attestation of the completion of many prophecies, when he relates facts of which he was an eye-witness, 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 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."u 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 sceptical 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 history, there are

u Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. i. pp. 316,321. English translation, Lond. 1787.

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."x

"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 of David to that of Heraclius the country was age 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."y

In any

Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. ii. p. 368. 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 "luxu riance."

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 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

Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. p, 521.