highest degree, after a certain period of time when it has gathered foil. Is it incredible that the children of Ifrael found the land of Canaan in the highly fertile ftate, known to be common upon the fides of volcanic mountains, where the afhes, that have fallen during an eruption, in a series of years have been mellowed into a productive mould? and that the earthquakes and various convulfions of nature that happened at and fince the destruction of Jerufalem (many of which are recorded in hiftory) have entirely changed the face of the country? Maundrell's defcription greatly ftrengthens the fuppofition of fuch changes. "Not far from Bethany you arrive at the mountainous defert in which our bleffed Saviour was led by the Spirit, to be tempted by the Devil; a most miserable, dry, barren place it is, confifting of high rocky mountains, fo torn and difordered, as if the earth had fuffered fome great convulfion, in which its very bowels had been turned upwards d. And Volney, an intelligent tra veller, but an enemy both to the religion of Mofes and of Chrift, has the candour to con fefs, that the prefent fertility of fome parts

a Maundrell's Travels, p. 79.

Voyages en Syrie, tom. ii. p. 302. 330. 338, &c.

of

of Syria correfponds with the account given of it in the Old Teftament. In the course of his accurate furvey, he remarked that an almost total neglect of agriculture, and of every improvement of the foil, prevailed throughout Paleftine. If the land be unfruitful, it rather proceeds from the nature of the defpotic government, which checks industry, than the want of a prolific power in the earth. Patches of foil that formerly crowned them, were to be seen in the last century upon the rocky mountains of Paleftine; and the rows of ftones could clearly be traced, that were used to fupport the foil upon the flope of the hills. Upon the fides of Libanus there are the remains of antient cultivation; a circumftance which confirms the accounts given by writers of the antient state of the country as to its fertility and population. We may form fome opinion of the fuccefs which crowned the labours of the antient inhabitants of Judea, by obferving the present state of Switzerland, and fome parts of Spain, where the industrious natives reap a harvest from the rocky foil, and obtain wine, corn, and fruits, from fpots which, if left to themselves, would be the most unproductive.

It is difficult, however, for the inhabitants of this and many other nations in Europe, where the attention is fo much confined to manufactures, arts, and commerce, to calculate the produce and effects of agriculture, when the labour of a whole people is directed to it, as was the cafe of the Ifraelites, when fettled in the land of Canaan. It is then evident, that the accounts given in Scripture, and by antient profane writers, of the former fertility of the country, are perfectly reconcileable with its present appearance, from the operation of merely natural caufés. But as a miraculous interruption or fufpenfion of the course of nature is in perfect conformity with the divine difpenfations towards the children of Abraham, we must admit that Providence may have made the once fruitful land of Judea barren, for the wickedness of them that dwelt therein." If this defolation had not been ordained as a punishment of the Jews, a warning to other nations, and a fulfilment of Prophecy; a variety of natural causes might have confpired (as we have already obferved) to restore its original fruitfulness; fo that its prefent ftate can no way be brought as an objection to the truth of Scripture. Whether indeed we confider the prefent ftate of Judea, as owing to natural or

fuper

supernatural caufes, it equally fulfils the Prophecy concerning it.

Can we, however, avoid afcribing its barren and deferted condition to a more than ordinary interpofition of the Deity, when we find even the sentiments arifing in the minds of inquifitive travellers, while contemplating with aftonishment the scene of defolation prefented in the Holy Land, defcribed with fuch inimitable accuracy and animation? The. franger that shall come from a far land shall Say, Wherefore bath the Lord done thus unto the land? What meaneth the beat of this great anger? Then shall men fay, Because they have. forfaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, and he rooted them out of their land in anger, and caft them into another land, as it is this day.

:

The Lord fhall Scatter thee among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other. That the Jews are difperfed all over the world, is a fact to which the various accounts of historians and travellers give the fullest confirmation, In the countries of the Eaft

they abound; they are settled in various parts of Africa and America, and in the kingdoms of Europe. They exift as a confpicuous monument of Prophetical truth and Divine justice, to every nation in which they dwell.

And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not caft them away, neither will I abbor them, to destroy them utterly. No proofs drawn from history are wanted to illuftrate this part of the Prophecy. After the long feries of oppreffion and mifery to which they have been exposed, ever fince their difperfion; after having been given up to fire, famine, and peftilence; to maffacres and perfecutions, as the objects of hatred and malice to every people among whom they have fettled, they are fo far from being destroyed, that they not only exist as a feparate people, but in many places form opulent and flourishing communities.

* One million are fuppofed to be refident in the various provinces of Turkey-three hundred thousand in Perfia, India, and China-and feventeen hundred thousand in Christendom, Africa, and America. Their outward condition and circumstances are generally tolerable, except in Portugal and Spain. Brown's Harmony of Scripture Pro. phecies, p. 322. This statement is confirmed by other writers, See the Jews' Letters to Voltaire, vol. ii. P. 175.

And