mans, perfuaded themselves that the city could never be taken, adds, in a strain of obfervation that throws the strongest light.

upon the Prophecy of Mofes, that God had fo darkened their minds with extreme blindnefs, on account of their numerous tranfgreffions, that they did not calculate the superior force of the Romans, or reflect on the dreadful effects of a ftubborn oppofition to their arms.

The regular train of the Prophetical declarations leads us to a remarkable threat in the fpeech of Mofes, moft ftriking for its fingularity; most shocking for its oppofition to the feelings of nature; and most improbable ever to happen".

And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy fons, and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the fiege and in the ftraitnefs wherewith thine enemies fhall diftrefs thee. -The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to fet the fole of her foot upon the. ground for delicatenefs and tenderness, her eye fhall be evil towards the husband of her bofom,

and towards her fon, and towards her daughter, and towards her children, which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things fecretly, in the fiege and ftraitnefs wherewith thine enemy shall diftrefs thee in thy gates.

The fact nevertheless did happen; first in Samaria, the capital of the idolatrous tribes, when befieged by Benhadad, king of Affyria: a fecond time in Jerufalem, when befieged by Nebuchadnezzar: and Jofephus particularly relates a third inftance of the fulfilment of this Prediction during the laft fiege of Jerufa lem by the Romans, Throwing a veil over a story at which humanity shudders, we shall only observe, that the rank of the lady men-, tioned by Jofephus, agrees precisely with prophetical description; that the fact predicted is perhaps the only one of the kind in history fo circumftantially recorded"; and that

y Deut. xxviii. 56. The word translated "delicate," may be better rendered, voluptuous, luxurious, accustomed to a life of pleasure, and indulgence. See Parkhurft's Heb, Lexicon, p. 487.

z The Hiftorian deplores the cruel deed, as a moft flagrant violation of nature; fuch as was never perpetrated by Greek or Barbarian; and fuch as he expressly declares

he

that these facts happening in conformity to the Prophecy, are perhaps the only ones of the kind in the hiftory of the world.

And it fhall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, fo the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goeft to poffefs it. The Romans expelled the inhabitants that furvived the fiege of Jerufalem, and forcibly carried away great numbers of them into different countries. When the Emperor Hadrian built a city upon the foundation of Jerufalem, he called it Elia Capitolina; and forbade the Jews, on pain of death, to approach within fight of it. From that time to the present day, Judea has been fubject to foreign Princes; and few Jews, and thofe of low condition who live as strangers in their own country, are to be found among its inhabitants. The deftruction of Jerufa

he would not have related, if there had not been many credible witneffes of its truth, Jofephus, lib. vi. c. 3. fect. 8.

• See the Travels of Sandys, who vifited the Holy Land in the last century; and Volney, who accurately surveyed it in 1783; and the accounts of preceding hiftorians and travellers.

lem by Titus is acknowledged to have been far more fatal in its effects, than any preceding event of the kind, that ever happened to the Jews: it was therefore, in the opinion of both Jews and Chriftians, the memorable occafion, in which the Prophecy was accomplifhed in its fullest extent and moft fignal manner, and it was followed by a train of the most remarkable confequences b.

and your

And if ye will not hearken unto me, then will I punish you feven times more for your fins'; your land fhall not yield her increafe, neither fball the trees of the land yield their fruits. And I will bring the land into defolation; and your enemies, which dwell therein, fhall be aftonifhed at it. And your land shall be defolate, cities wafte. Such has been the ftate of the Holy Land ever fince the judgments of God have fallen upon the Jews. After their expulfion by Titus, it was left a prey to neglect and barrennefs. During the crufades, it was ravaged by the hoftile armies of Saracens and Chriftians: and fince it became a province of the Ottoman Empire, it has exhibited the fame fcene of defolation. The

25.

Levit. xxvi. 18. 20. 32, 33. Deut. xxix. 22. 24,

face

face of the country, once fo populous and flourishing, has for many ages prefented nothing to the eye of the traveller, but mean villages thinly inhabited, ruins of antient buildings, fields uncultivated, naked hills, and barren rocks.

Judging by the present forlorn and desolate ftate of Palestine, the infidel is difpofed to call in queftion the truth of the Scripture history. He maintains, that it never could have been a fruitful land, and that the people who fettled in it, exhausted by the oppreffive. labour of its cultivation, could not enjoy, in any fair sense, the rest promised them in the wilderness. But of all objections this is furely the most futile. The present state of the islands in the Archipelago, of Greece, and of the country around Rome, formerly fo fertile and productive, contradicts all accounts of their antient condition, as much as the present state of Judea can poffibly do. Travellers agree that a great part of the rocky foil of Judea is compofed of Tufa; and volcanic matter is known to be fertile in the

Tufa is a name given to stone formed of volcanic afhes, concreted with other, fpecies, in which argil pre

vails.

I 2

highest