EVIDENCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, 
 
 DERIVED FROM THE LITERAL FULFILMENT OF 
 
 PROPHECY ; 
 
 PARTICULARLY AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE HISTORY 
 
 OF THE JEWS, AND BY THE DISCOVERIES 
 
 OF RECENT TRAVELLERS, 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDER KEITH, D.D. 
 
 MINISTER OF ST. CYRUS, KINCARDINESHIRE, 
 AUTHOR OF THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 TWELFTH EDITION. 
 
 Opinionum commenta dies delet. Naturae judicia confinnat — Cic De. Nat. Deo. 
 
 EDINBURGH: WAUGH AND INNES; 
 
 M. OGLE, GLASGOW ; J. NICHOL, MONTROSE ; R. M. TIMS, AND 
 
 W. CURRY, JUN. AND CO. DUBLIN ; J. HATCHARD AND SON, 
 
 AND WHITTAKER AND CO. LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXXXIV.
 
 
 SDINBURGU : PRINTED BY A BALFOUR AND CO. NIDDRY STREET.
 
 TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM ADAM, 
 
 LORD CHIEF COMMISSIONER, &c. 
 
 AS A SMALL MARK 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MOST SINCERE ESTEEM AND REGARD, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING 
 
 TREATISE 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 
 
 BY HIS LORDSHIP''s 
 
 MUCH OBLIGED AND VERY FAITHFUL SERVANT, 
 
 ALEXANDER KEITH. 
 
 2000170
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO FIRST EDITION 
 
 The following pages are presented to the public, in 
 the hope that they may not be altogether unproduc- 
 tive of good. The idea of the propriety of such a 
 publication was first suggested to the writer in con- 
 sequence of a conversation with a person who disbe- 
 lieved the truth of Christianity, but whose mind 
 seemed to be considerably affected, even by a slight 
 allusion to the argument from Prophecy. Having 
 endeavoured in vain to obtain, for his perusal, any 
 concise treatise on the Prophecies, considered ex- 
 clusively as a matter of evidence — and having 
 failed in solicitating others to undertake the work, 
 who were far better qualified for the execution of it 
 — the writer was induced to make the attempt, and 
 to endeavour to bring the subject into view. He 
 was urged and encouraged to the prosecution of it 
 by his worthy and learned friend, the Rev. Mr.
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 Brewster of Craig,* to whom, and to another esteem- 
 ed friend, the Rev. Dr. INIitchell of Kemnay, by 
 whose able critical remarks he has profited much, he 
 owes, at least, this acknowledgment of his obligations. 
 
 Unbelievers are often most unreasonably averse to 
 listen to any arguments which establish the truth of 
 Christianity, that may be urged by a clergyman ; and 
 it was therefore intended to have published this sketch 
 anonymously. The advice of the publishers, and 
 of others, prevented this. Testimony the most unex- 
 ceptionable has, however, been adduced to substan- 
 tiate the facts which verify the different Prophecies ; 
 and that testimony cannot be invalidated, by whom- 
 soever it may be produced. 
 
 In the following Essay the argument is brought 
 within narrow limits. Those prophecies are not in- 
 cluded which were fulfilled previously to the era of 
 the last of the Prophets, or of which the meaning 
 is obscure, or the application doubtful. And the 
 only question to be resolved is — Whether there be 
 any clear predictions, literally accomplished, which, 
 from their nature and their number, demonstrate 
 that the Scriptures are the dictates of inspiration, 
 or that the Spirit of Prophecy is the testimony of 
 Jesus ? 
 
 * The writer may here express his sanguine hope that, in 
 yielding to his entreaties and those of other friends, Mr. 
 Brevi'ster will speedily confer a greater and more direct be- 
 nefit on the Christian public by the publication of a volume 
 of his excellent Sermons.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 In the present edition the title has been partly al- 
 tered, in order to convey a more distinct idea of the 
 object of the treatise ; and the fifth chapter, in par- 
 ticular, has been enlarged much beyond the original 
 views of the Author. He has not only endeavoured 
 to obtain a more complete account of the existing 
 state of Judea and of the surrounding countries, 
 from the published works of Travellers of authority, 
 but he has derived much important information from 
 the Travels in Kgypt, Sj/ria, Sj-c. hj/ the Honour- 
 able Charles Leonard Irby, and James Mangles, 
 Esq. F. R. S. Commanders in the Roi^al Navy , which 
 were printed for private distribution, with a copy of 
 which, with full permission to make use of its con- 
 tents, as well as with the copperplate of the Ground 
 Plan of the Ruins of Petra, they kindly furnish- 
 ed him. General Straton also favoured him with
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 the perusal and use of his valuable Manuscript Tra- 
 vels, to which, in several instances, reference is made. 
 A brief description of the Journey of Captains Irby 
 and Mangles, in company with Mr. Banks and Mr. 
 Legh, is published in Dr. MacmichatVs Journey to 
 Constantinople. 
 
 The Researches of Travellers in Palestine have 
 been so abundant, and the prophecies thereby veri- 
 fied are so numerous and distinct, that no labour is 
 requisite for elucidating their truth, but to examine 
 and compare the predictions and the events ; and 
 the literal prophecies need no other interpretation 
 than the literal facts. 
 
 Though well aware that any one who seeks to 
 illustrate the external evidence of the truth of Chris- 
 tianity may be said to stand only at the outer porch 
 of the temple of Christian Faith, yet the Vvriter of 
 these pages humbly hopes that he may be permitted 
 to point to a way, without a stumbling-block, by 
 which some who may be merely the proselytes of the 
 gate, or others who would pass altogether by, may 
 be enabled to enter into that edifice of divine archi- 
 tecture, fitly framed together, which is filled with all 
 the riches of mercy, with all the beauties of holiness, 
 and with all the lisht of truth.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO FIFTH EDITION. 
 
 Prophecy has been rightly called a " growing evi- 
 dence." Of late years that evidence has greatly ac- 
 cumulated. And after the successive additions which 
 have been made to this treatise, no one can be more 
 conscious than the author how very far it yet comes 
 short of fully exhibiting the evidence of prophecy. 
 
 It is not in times like the present that, on such a 
 subject the precept of Horace — nonum prematur in 
 annum — can be regarded. Had it been complied 
 with in the present instance, the following Essay 
 would not yet have been before the public. — But the 
 desire of any credit, as an author, yielded to the 
 better hope as a Christian, that the treatise, in how- 
 ever imperfect a form, might " not be altogether un- 
 productive of good," — and that hope has not been 
 vain. 
 
 For facilitating and promoting the means of its 
 usefulness to a degree which he ventured not even to
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 hope, his grateful acknowledgments are due to the 
 Right Honourable Lord Bexley ; and never was a 
 debt more freely paid than he tenders them. To 
 the public notice which he took of the volume, his 
 Lordship afterwards added a lively interest in the 
 publication of an abridgment of it, the concluding 
 chapter of which, on the Seven Churches of Asia, 
 was written entirely at his suggestion. And, at his 
 expense, the Abridgment has been stereotyped, and 
 published in English and in French, by the Reli- 
 gious Tract Society ; and is now also in the course of 
 publication in the same manner, in German. While 
 it was in preparation, a tract on the prophecies con- 
 cerning Ammon, Moab, and Philistia, was drawn up 
 by one of the secretaries of the Religious Tract So- 
 ciety, of which about twenty thousand copies have 
 already been sold. 
 
 To Sir Robert Ker Porter the writer is also indebt- 
 ed for permission to copy an engraving from the strik- 
 ing view of fallen Babylon, inserted in his Travels, 
 and taken by him on the spot. 
 
 The additional matter in the present volume refers 
 chiefly to Judea and Babylonia.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Page 
 
 Importance of the Subject . . 1 
 
 General View of the Evidence . . 4 
 
 On the Obscurity of Prophecy . . 6 
 
 Nature of Proof from Prophecy . • 8 
 
 Antiquity of the Old Testament Scriptures . 9 
 
 Subjects of Prophecy . . .12 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Prophecies concerning Christ and the Christian 
 Religion, 
 
 The Coming of the Messiah . . 15 
 
 Time of Christ's Advent, &c. . 17 
 
 The Place of his Birth . . 24 
 
 The Manner of his Life . • 27 
 
 His Character, &c. . . .28 
 
 The Manner of his Death . . 29 
 
 Nature of the Christian Religion . . 36 
 
 Its Rejection by the Jews, &c. . 39 
 
 Propagation and Extent of Christianity, &c. . 40 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Destructiok of Jerusalem 50 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Jews . , 68 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Laj^O) of Judea and Circhmjacbnt Countries 93 
 
 The Ancient Fertility of Judea . 106
 
 xn 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The Cities of Judea, &c. 
 
 The Countries, Inhabitants, &c. 
 
 Partial Exceptions from Desolation, &c. 
 
 Samaria, &c. 
 
 Jerusalem 
 
 Ammon . . . 
 
 MOAB 
 
 Edom or Idumka 
 
 Philistia 
 
 Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, &c. 
 
 Lebanon 
 
 108 
 113 
 138 
 140 
 141 
 145 
 152 
 164 
 214 
 216 
 222 
 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 
 Nineveh 
 Babylon 
 Tyre 
 
 Egypt 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 228 
 232 
 308 
 313 
 
 The Arabs 
 
 Slavery of the Africans 
 
 European Colonies in Asia 
 
 322 
 
 324 
 
 ib. 
 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 
 The Seven Churches of Asia • 
 
 328 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Prophecy of the things noted in the Scriptures 
 OF Truth 
 
 Macedonian Empire, Alexander the Great 
 
 Kings of Syria and Egypt 
 
 Roman Empire 
 
 Long continued Spiritual Tyranny 
 
 Turkish Empire 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 Appendix 
 
 344 
 
 345 
 346 
 347 
 348 
 350 
 355 
 373
 
 EVIDENCE 
 
 PROPHECY. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 No subject can be of greater importance, eitber to tbe 
 unbeliever or to the Christian, than an investigation of 
 the evidence of Christianity. The former, if his mind 
 be not fettered by the strongest prejudice, and if he 
 be actuated in the least by a spirit of free and fair in- 
 quiry, cannot disavow his obligation to examine its 
 claim to a divine origin. He cannot rest secure in 
 his unbelief, to the satisfaction of his own mind, with- 
 out manifest danger of the most fatal error, till he has 
 impartially weighed all the reasons that may be urged 
 on its behalf The proof of a negative is acknow- 
 ledged and felt to be difficult ; and it can never, in 
 any case, be attained till all direct and positive evi- 
 dence to the contrary be completely destroyed. And 
 this, at least, must be done before it can be proved 
 that Christianity is not true. Without this careful 
 and candid examination, all gratuitous assumptions 
 
 ^ ^
 
 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and fanciful speculations, all hypothetical reasonings 
 or analogical inferences, that seem to militate against 
 the truth of religion, may be totally erroneous ; and 
 though they may tend to excite a transient doubt, 
 they cannot justify a settled unbelief. Being exclu- 
 sively regarded, or being united to a misapprehension 
 of the real nature of the Christian religion, the un- 
 derstanding may embrace them as convincing ; but 
 such conviction is neither rational nor consistent — it 
 is only a misapplication of the name of freethinking. 
 For, as Christianity appeals to reason and submits its 
 credentials — as it courts and commands the most try- 
 ing scrutiny — that scrutiny the unbeliever is bound, 
 upon his own principles, to engage in. If he be fear- 
 less of wavering in his unbelief, he will not shrink 
 from the inquiry ; or, if truth be his object, he will 
 not resist the only means of its attainment — that 
 he may either disprove what he could only doubt of 
 before, or yield to the conviction of positive evidence 
 and undoubted truth. This unhesitating challenge 
 religion gives, and that man is neither a champion 
 of infidelity, nor a lover of wisdom or of truth, who 
 will disown or decline it. 
 
 To the believer svich a subject is equally important 
 and interesting. The apathy of nominal Christians, 
 in the present day, is often contrasted with the zeal of 
 those who first became obedient to the faith. The 
 moral influence of the Christian religion is not what 
 it has been, or what it ought to be. The difference 
 in the character of its professors may be greatly attri- 
 buted to a fainter impression and less confident assu- 
 rance of its truth. Those early converts who wit- 
 nessed the miracles of our Lord, and of his a])ostles, 
 and heard their divine doctrine, and they who receiv- 
 ed the immediate tradition of those who both saw and 
 heard them, and who could themselves compare the
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 moral darkness from which they had emerged, Avith 
 the marvellous light of the gospel, founded their faith 
 upon evidence ; possessed the firmest conviction of 
 the truth ; were distinguished by their virtues, as well 
 as by their profession, according to the testimony 
 even of their enemies ;* cherished the consolations, 
 and were inspired by the hopes of religion ; and lived 
 and died, actuated by the hope of immortality and 
 the certainty of a future state. The contrast, unhap- 
 pily, needs no elucidation. The lives of professing 
 Christians, in general, cease to add a confirmation to 
 the truth of Christianity, while they have often been 
 the plea of infidels against it. Yet religion and hu- 
 man nature are still the same as they were when men 
 were first called Christians, and when the believers in 
 Jesus dishonoured not his name. But they sought 
 more than a passive and unexamining belief. They 
 knew in whom they believed ; they felt the power of 
 every truth which they professed. And the same 
 cause, in active operation, would be productive of the 
 same effects. The same strong and unwavering faith 
 established on reason and conscious conviction, would 
 be creative of the same peace and joy in believing, 
 and of all their accompanying fruits. And as a mean 
 of destroying the distinction, wherever it exists, be- 
 tween the profession and the reality of faith, it is ever 
 the prescribed duty of all, who profess to believe in 
 the gospel, to search and to try — " to prove all things, 
 and hold fast to that which is good ;" and to " be 
 able to give an answer to every one that asketh them 
 a reason of the hope that is in them." 
 
 To the sincere Christian, it must ever be an object 
 of the highest interest to search into the reason of his 
 hope. The farther that he searches, the firmer will 
 
 * PliniiEpis. 1. 10, ep. 97. 
 3
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 be his belief. Knowledge is the fruit of mental la- 
 bour — the food and the feast of the mind. In the 
 pursuit of knowledge, the greater the excellence of 
 the subject of inquiry, the deeper ought to be the in- 
 terest, the more ardent the investigation, and the 
 dearer to the m.ind the acquisition of the truth. And 
 that knowledge which immediately affects the soul, 
 which tends to exalt the moral nature and enlarge the 
 religious capacities of man, which pertains to eternity, 
 which leads not merely to the contemplation of the 
 •works of the great Architect of the universe, but seeks 
 also to discover an accredited revelation of his will 
 and a way to his favour — and which rests not in ita 
 progress till it find assurance of faith or complete con- 
 viction, a witness without, as well as a witness within, 
 is surely " like unto a treasure which a man found 
 hid in a field, and sold all that he had and bought 
 it." And it is delightful to have every doubt re- 
 moved by the positive proof of the truth of Christi- 
 anity — to feel that conviction of its certainty, which 
 infidelity can never impart to her votaries, — and to 
 receive that assurance of the faith, which is as supe- 
 rior in the hope which it communicates, as in the 
 certainty on which it rests, to the cheerless and dis- 
 quieting doubts of the unbelieving mind. Instead 
 of being a mere prejudice of education, which may be 
 easily shaken, belief thus founded on reason, becomes 
 fixed and immoveable ; and all the scoffings of the 
 scorner, and speculations of the infidel, lie as lightly 
 on the mind, or pass as imperceptibly over it, and 
 make as little impression there, as the spray upon a 
 rock. 
 
 In premising a few remarks, introductory to a Sketch 
 of the Prophecies, little can be said on the general and 
 comprehensive evidence of Christianity. The selec- 
 tion of a part implies no disparagement to the whole.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 Ample means for the confirmation of our faith are 
 within our reach. Newton, Bacon, and Locke, whose 
 names stand pre-eminent in human science, to v,'hich 
 they opened a path not penetrated before, found proof 
 sufficient for the complete satisfaction of their minds. 
 The internal evidence could not be stronger than it is. 
 There are manifold instances of undesijrned coinci- 
 dences in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles, which 
 give intrinsic proof that they are genuine and authen- 
 tic. No better precepts, no stronger motives, than 
 the gospel contains, have ever been inculcated. No 
 system of religion has ever existed in the world at all 
 to be compared to it ; and none can be conceived more 
 completely adapted to the necessities and nature of a 
 sinful being like man, endowed with the faculty of 
 reason and with capacities of religion. And the mi- 
 racles were of such a nature as excluded the idea of 
 artifice or delusion ; — they were wrought openly in 
 the presence of multitudes — they testified the bene- 
 volence of a Saviour, as well as the power of the Son 
 of God. The disciples of Christ could not be de- 
 ceived respecting them ; for they were themselves en- 
 dowed with the gift of tongues, and of prophesying, 
 and with the power of working miracles ; they de- 
 voted their lives to the propagation of the gospel, in 
 opposition to every human interest, and amidst con- 
 tinual sufferings. The Christian religion was speedily 
 propagated throughout the whole extent of the Ro- 
 man empire, and even beyond its bounds. The w-rit- 
 ten testimony remains of many who became converts 
 to the truth, and martyrs to its cause; and the most 
 zealous and active enemies of our faith acknowledged 
 the truth of the miracles, and attributed them to 
 the agency of evil spirits. Yet all this accumulation 
 of evidence is disregarded, and every testimony is re- 
 jected unheard, because ages have since intervened.
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and because it bears witness to works that are mira- 
 culous. Though these general objections against the 
 truth of Christianity have been ably answered and 
 exposed, yet they may fairly be adduced as confirma- 
 tory of the proof which results from the fulfilment of 
 prophecy, and as binding infidels to its investigation. 
 For it supplies that evidence which the enemies of 
 religion, or those who are weak in the faith would re- 
 quire, which applies to the present time, and which 
 stands not in need of any testimony, — which is al- 
 ways attainable by the researches of the inquisitive, 
 and often obvious to the notice of all, — and which 
 past, present, and coming events alike unite in verify- 
 ing ; — it affords an increasing evidence, and receives 
 additional attestations in each succeeding age. 
 
 But, while some subterfuge has been sought for 
 evading the force of the internal evidence, and the 
 conviction which a belief in the miracles would infal- 
 libly produce, and while every collateral proof is ne- 
 glected, the prophecies also are set aside without in- 
 vestigation, as of too vague and indefinite a nature 
 to be applied, with certainty, to the history either of 
 past ages or of the present. A very faint view of the 
 prophecies of the Old and New Testament will suf- 
 fice to rectify this equally easy and erroneous conclu- 
 sion. Although some of the prophecies, separately 
 considered, may appear ambiguous and obscure ; yet 
 a general view of them all — of the harmony which 
 prevails throughout the prophecies — and of their 
 adaptation to the facts they predict, must strike the 
 mind of the most careless inquirer with an apprehen- 
 sion that they are the dictates of Omniscience. But 
 many of the prophecies are as explicit and direct as 
 it is possible that they could have been ; and, as his- 
 tory confirms their truth, so they sometimes tend to 
 its illustration, of which our future inquiry will fur-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 nish us with examples. And if the prophetical part 
 of Scripture, which refers to the rise and fall of king- 
 doms, had been more explicit than it is, it would 
 have appeared to encroach on the free agency of man 
 — it would have been a communication of the fore- 
 knowledge of events which men would have grossly- 
 abused and perverted to other purposes rather than 
 to the establishment of the truth ; and, instead of 
 being a stronger evidence of Christianity, it would 
 have been considered as the cause of the accomplish- 
 ment of the events predicted, by the unity and com- 
 bination it Avould have excited among Christians ; 
 and thus have afforded to the unbeliever a more rea- 
 sonable objection against the evidence of prophecy 
 than any that can be now alleged. It is in cases 
 wherein they could not be abused, or wherein the 
 agents instrumental in their fulfilment were utterly 
 ignorant of their existence, that the prophecies are as 
 descriptive as history itself. But whenever the know- 
 ledge of future events would have proved prejudicial 
 to the peace and happiness of the world, they are 
 couched in allegory, which their accomplishment 
 alone can expound, — and drawn with that degree of 
 light and shade that the faithfulness of the picture 
 may best be seen from the proper point of observation, 
 — the period of their completion. Prophecy must 
 thus, in many instances, have that darkness which is 
 impenetrable at first, as well as that light which shall 
 be able to dispel every dovibt at last ; and, as it can- 
 not be an evidence of Christianity until the event 
 demonstrate Its own truth, it may remain obscure till 
 history become its interpreter, and not be perfectly 
 obvious till the fulfilment of the whole series with 
 which it is connected. But the general and often 
 sole objection against the evidence from the prophe- 
 cies-^that they are all vague and ambiguous — may 
 best be answered and set aside by a simple exhibition
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of those numerous and distinct predictions which have 
 heen literally accomplished ; and therefore to this li- 
 mited view of them the following pages shall chiefly 
 be confined. 
 
 Little need be said on the nature of proof from 
 prophecy. That it is the effect of divine interposition 
 cannot be disputed. It is equivalent to any miracle, 
 and is of itself evidently miraculous. The foreknow- 
 ledge of the actions of free and intelligent agents is 
 one of the most incomprehensible attributes of the 
 Deity, and is exclusively a divine perfection. The 
 past, the present, and the future, are alike open to 
 his view, and to his alone ; and there can be no 
 stronger proof of the interposition of the Most High, 
 than that which prophecy affords. Of all the at- 
 tributes of the God of the universe, his prescience 
 has bewildered, and baffled the most, all the powers 
 of human conception ; and an evidence of the exer- 
 cise of this perfection in the revelation of what the 
 infinite mind alone could make known, is the seal of 
 God, which can never be counterfeited, affixed to the 
 truth which it attests. Whether that evidence has 
 been afforded, is a matter of investigation ; but if 
 it has unquestionably been given, the effect of su- 
 perhuman agency is apparent, and the truth of what 
 it was given to prove, does not admit of a doubt. 
 If the prophecies of the Scriptures can be proved 
 to be genuine — if they be of such a nature as no 
 foresight of man could possibly have predicted — if 
 the events foretold in them were described hundreds 
 or even thousands of years before those events became 
 parts of the history of inan — and if the history itself 
 correspond with the prediction, then the evidence 
 which the prophecies impart, is a sign and a wonder 
 to every age : No clearer testimony or greater assu- 
 rance of the truth can be given, and if men do not 
 believe Moses and the prophets, neither would they
 
 I^^TRODUCTION. 9 
 
 be persuaded though one arose from the dead. Even 
 if one Avere to rise from the dead, evidence of the fact 
 must precede conviction ; and, if the mind be satis- 
 fied of the truth of prophecy, the result, in either case, 
 is the same. The voice of Omnipotence alone covild 
 call the dead from the tomb — the voice of Omni- 
 science alone could tell all that lay hid in dark futu- 
 rity, which to man is as impenetrable as the man- 
 sions of the dead — ^and both are alike the voice of 
 God. 
 
 Of the antiquity of the Scriptures there is the am- 
 plest proof. The books of the Old Testament were 
 not, like other writings, detached and unconnected 
 efforts of genius and research, or mere subjects of 
 amusement or instruction. They were essential to 
 the constitution of the Jewish state : — the possession 
 of them was a great cause of the peculiarities of that 
 people ; — and they contain their moral and their civil 
 law, and their history, as well as the prophecies, of which 
 they were the records and the guardians. They were 
 received by the Jews as of divine authority ; and as 
 such they were published and preserved. They were 
 proved to be ancient, eighteen hundred years ago.* 
 Instead of being secluded from observation, they were 
 translated into Greek abov6 two hundred and fifty 
 years before the Christian era ; and they were read 
 in the synagogues every Sabbath-day. The most an- 
 cient part of them was received, as divinely inspired, 
 and was preserved in their own language, by the Sa- 
 maritans, who were at enmity with the Jews. They 
 have ever been sacredly kept unaltered, in a more re- 
 markable degree, and with more scrupulous care, than 
 any other compositions whatever.*}- And the anti- 
 
 * Joseplnis, c. Aplon. 
 
 f Tliere are not wanting' proofs of the most scrupulous 
 care of the Hebrew text on the part of the Jews : they have
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 quity and authenticity of them rest so little on Chris- 
 tian testimony alone, that it is from the records of our 
 enemies that they are confirmed, and from which it 
 derived the evidence of our faith. Even the very 
 language in which the Old Testament Scriptures 
 were originally written, had ceased to be spoken be- 
 fore the comincr of Christ. No stronccer evidence of 
 their antiquity could be alleged, than what is indis- 
 putably true ; and if it were to be questioned, every 
 other truth of ancient history must first be set aside. 
 
 That the prediction was prior to the event, many 
 facts in the present state of the world abundantly tes- 
 tify ; and many prophecies remain even yet to be 
 fulfilled. But, independently of external testimony, 
 the prophecies themselves bear intrinsic marks of their 
 antiquity, and of their truth. Predictions concerning 
 the same event are sometimes delivered by a succes- 
 sion of prophets. Sometimes the same prophecy con- 
 cerning any city or nation gradually meets its fulfil- 
 ment during a long protracted period, where the 
 truth of the prediction must be unfolded by degrees. 
 They are, in general, so interwoven with the history 
 of the Jews — so casually introduced in their applica- 
 tion to the surrounding nations — so frequently con- 
 cealed in their purport, even from the honoured but 
 unconscious organs of their communication^ and pre- 
 serving throughout so entire a consistency — so differ- 
 ent in the modes of their narration, and each part 
 preserving its own particular character — so delivered 
 
 counted the large and small sections, the verses, the words, 
 and even the letters in some of the books. They have like- 
 wise I'eckoued which is the middle letter of the Pentateuch 
 — which is the middle clause of each book — and how many 
 times each letter of the alphabet occurs in all the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. This, at least, shows that the Jews were reli- 
 giously carofnl to preserve the literal sense of Scripture. — 
 Aliens Mod. Judaism. Simon Crit. Hist. 6, 26.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 without form or system — so shadowed under types 
 and symbols — so complete when compared and com- 
 bined — so apparently unconnected when disjoined, 
 and revealed in such a variety of modes and expres- 
 sions, that the very manner of their conveyance for- 
 bids the idea of artifice ; or if they were false, nothing 
 could admit of more easy detection — if true, nothing 
 could be more impossible to have been conceived by 
 man. And they must either be a number of incohe- 
 rent and detached pretensions to inspiration, that can 
 bear no scrutiny, and that have no reference to futu- 
 rity but what deceivers might have devised ; or else, 
 as the only alternative, they give such a comprehen- 
 sive, yet minute representation of future events — so 
 various, yet so distinct — so distant, yet so true — that 
 none but he who knoweth all things could have re- 
 vealed them to man, and none but those who have 
 hardened their hearts and closed their eyes, can for- 
 bear from feeling and fronci perceiving them to be cre- 
 dentials of the truth, clear as light from heaven. To 
 justify their pretensions to their cotemporaries, the 
 prophets referred, on particular occasions, to some ap- 
 proaching circumstance as a proof of their prophetic 
 spirit, and as a symbol or representation of a more 
 distant and important event. They could thus be 
 distinguished in their own age from false prophets, if 
 their predictions were then true, and they ventured 
 to raise, from the succeeding ages of the world, that 
 veil which no vminspired mortal could touch. They 
 spoke of a deliverer of the human race — they describ- 
 ed the desolation of cities and of nations, whose great- 
 ness was then unshaken, and whose splendour has 
 ever since been unrivalled — and their predictions were 
 of such a character, that time would infallibly refute 
 or realize them. 
 
 Religion deserves a candid examination, and it de- 
 mands nothing more. The fulfilment of prophecy
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 forms part of the evidence of Christianity. And are the 
 prophecies false, or are they true ? Is their fallacy 
 exposed or their truth ratified by the event ? And 
 whether are they thus proved to be the delusions of 
 impostors or the dictates of inspiration ? I'o the so- 
 lution of these questions a patient and impartial in- 
 quiry alone is requisite ; reason alone is appealed to, 
 and no other faith is here necessary but that which 
 arises as the natural and spontaneous fruit of rational 
 conviction. The man who withholds this inquiry, and 
 who will not be impartially guided by its result, is 
 not only reckless of his fate, but devoid of that of 
 which he prides himself the most — even of all true 
 liberality of sentiment : He is the bigot of infidelity, 
 who will not believe the truth because it is the truth. 
 It is incontestable, that, in a variety of ways, a mar- 
 vellous change has taken place in the religious and 
 political state of the world since the prophecies were 
 delivered. A system of religion, widely different 
 from any that then existed, has emanated from the 
 land of Judea, and has spread over the civilized 
 v/orld. JMany remarkable circumstances attended its 
 origin and its progress. The history of the life and 
 character of its Founder, as it was written at the 
 time, and acknowledged as authentic by those who 
 believed on him, is so completely without a parallel, 
 that it has often attracted the admiration, and excited 
 the astonishment of infidels ; — and one of them even 
 asks, if it be possible that the Sacred Personage, 
 whose history the Scripture contains, should be him- 
 self a mere man ; and acknowledges that the fiction 
 of such a character is more inconceivable than the 
 reality.* He possessed no temporal power, — he in- 
 culcated every virtue, — his life was spotless and per- 
 
 * Rousseau's Emilhcs, vol. ii. p. 21-5, fjuotcd in Biewstefs 
 Tiistimonies, p. 133.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 feet as his doctrine, — he was put to death as a cri- 
 minal. His religion was rapidly propagated, — his 
 followers were persecuted, but their cause prevailed. 
 The purity of his doctrine was maintained for a time, 
 but it was afterwards corrupted. Yet Christianity 
 has eftected a great change. Since its establishment, 
 the worship of heathen deities has ceased : — all sa- 
 crifices have been abolished, even where human vic- 
 tims were immolated before ; and slavery, which pre- 
 vailed in every state, is now unknown in every Chris- 
 tian country throughout Europe ; — knowledge has 
 been increased, and many nations have been civilized. 
 The Christian religion has been extended over a great 
 part of the world, and it is still enlarging its boun- 
 dary ; and the Jews, though it originated among 
 them, yet continue to reject it. In regard to the po- 
 litical changes or revolutions of states, since the pro- 
 phecies concerning them were delivered, — Jerusalem 
 was destroyed and laid waste by the Romans — The 
 land of Palestine, and the surrounding countries, are 
 now thinly inhabited^ and, in comparison of their 
 former fertility, have been almost converted into de- 
 serts — The Jews have been scattered among the na- 
 tions, and remain to this day a dispersed and yet a 
 distinct people — Egypt, one of the first and most 
 powerful of nations^ long ceased to be a kingdom 
 — Nineveh is no more — Babylon is now a ruin — 
 The Persian Empire succeeded to the Babylonian — 
 The Grecian Empire succeeded to the Persian, and 
 the Roman to the Grecian — The old Roman empire 
 has been divided into several kingdoms — Rome it- 
 self became the seat of a government of a difterent 
 nature from any other that ever existed in the world 
 — The doctrine of the gospel was transformed into a 
 system of spiritual tyranny and of temporal power 
 — The authority of the Pope was held supreme in 
 Europe for many ages — 1 he Saracens obtained a
 
 14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sudden and mighty power; overran great part of 
 Asia and of Europe ; and many parts of Christendom 
 suffered much from their incursions — The Arabs 
 maintain their warlike character, and retain possession 
 of their ow^n land — The Africans are a humble race, 
 and are still treated as slaves — Colonies have been 
 spread from Europe to Asia, and are enlarging there 
 — The Turkish empire attained to great power ; it 
 continued to rise for the space of several centuries, 
 but it paused in its progress, has since decayed, and 
 now evidently verges to its fall. These form some 
 of the most prominent and remarkable facts of the 
 history of the w'orld from the ages of the prophecies 
 to the present time ; and if, to each and all of them, 
 from the first to the last, an index is to be found in 
 the prophecies, we may warrantably conclude that 
 they could only have been revealed by the Ruler 
 among the nations, and that they afford more than 
 human testimony of the truth of Christianity. 
 
 In the following treatise an attempt is made to 
 give a general and concise sketch of such of the pro- 
 phecies as have been distinctly foretold and clearly 
 fulfilled, and as may be deemed sufiicient to illustrate 
 the truth of Christianity. And, if one unbeliever be led 
 the first sten to a full and candid investifjation of 
 the truth, — if one doubting mind be convinced, — if 
 one Christian be confirmed more strongly in his be- 
 lief, — if one ray of the hope of better things to come 
 arise from hence, to enliven a single sorrowing heart, 
 — if one atom be added to the mass of evidence, the 
 author of this little work will neither have lost his 
 reward, nor spent his labour in vain.
 
 15 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 PROPHECIES CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIAN 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 It is one of the remarkable peculiarities of the Jewish 
 religion, that while it claimed superiority over every 
 other, and was distinguished from them all, as alone 
 inculcating the worship of the only living and true 
 God, and while it was perfectly suited to the purpose 
 for which it was designed, it acknowledged that it was 
 itself only preparatory to a future, a better, and per- 
 fect revelation. It was professedly adapted and li- 
 mited to one particular people ; — it was confined, in 
 many of its institutions, to the land of Judea ; — its 
 morality was incomplete ; — its ritual observances were 
 numerous, oppressive, and devoid of any inherent 
 merit :* and being partial, imperfect and temporary, 
 and full of promises of better things to come, for 
 which it was only the means of preparing the way, it 
 was evidently intended to be the presage of another. 
 It was not even calculated of itself to fulfil the pro- 
 mise which it records as given unto Abraham, that 
 in him all the families of the earth should be blessed : 
 — though its original institution was founded upon 
 this promise, and although the accomplishment of it 
 was the great end to be promoted, by the distinction 
 
 * " Because they had not executed my judgments, but had 
 despised ray statutes, and had polluted my Sabbaths, and their 
 eyes were after their fathers' idols, wherefore I gave them 
 also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby 
 they should not live." Ezek. xx. 2i, 25. Acts xv. 10.
 
 16 PROPHECIES OF THE COMING 
 
 and separation of his descendants from all the nations 
 of the earth. But it was subservient to this end, 
 though it could not directly accomplish it, for the 
 coming of a Saviour was the great theme of prophecy, 
 and the universal belief of the Jews. From the com- 
 mencement to the conclusion of the Scriptures of the 
 Old Testament, it is predicted or prefigured. They 
 represent the first act of divine justice, which was 
 exercised on the primogenitors of the human race, 
 as mingled with divine mercy. Before their se- 
 clusion from paradise, a gleam of hope was seen 
 to shine around them, in the promise of a suffer- 
 ing but triumphant Deliverer. To Abraham the 
 same promise was conveyed in a more definite form. 
 Jacob spoke distinctly of the coming of a Saviour. 
 Moses, the legislator and leader of the Hebrews, pro- 
 phesied of another lawgiver that God was to raise up 
 in a future age."* And while these early and general 
 predictions occur in the historical part of Scripture, 
 which sufficiently mark the purposed design of the 
 Mosaic dispensation, the books that are avowedly pro- 
 phetic are clearly descriptive, as a minuter search 
 will attest, of the advent of a Saviour, and of every 
 thing pertaining to the kingdom he was to establish. 
 Many things, apparently contradictory and irrecon- 
 cilable, are foretold as referring to a great Deliver- 
 er, whose dignity, whose character, and whose office 
 were altogether peculiar, and in whom the fate of hu- 
 man nature is represented as involved. Many pas- 
 sages that can bear no other application, clearly tes- 
 tify of him : Thy king cometh — thy salvation cometh 
 ■ — the Redeemer shall come to Zion — the Lord com- 
 eth — the Messenger of the Covenant he shall come 
 — blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
 
 * Dcut. xviii. 1j, IS.
 
 OF A SAVIOUR. 17 
 
 Lord,* are expressions that occur throughout the 
 prophecies. These unequivocally speak of the coming 
 of a Saviour. But were every other proof wanting, 
 the prophecy of Daniel is sufficient incontrovertibly 
 to establish the fact, ■which we affirm in the very 
 words, — that the coming of the Messiah is foretold in 
 the Old Testament. The same fact is confirmed by 
 the belief of the Jews in every age. It is so deeply 
 and indelibly impressed on their minds, that notwith- 
 standing the dispersion of their race throughout the 
 world, and the disappointment of their hopes for 
 eighteen hundred years after the prescribed period of 
 his coming, the expectation of the JNIessiah still forms 
 a bond of union which no distance can dissolve, and 
 which no earthly power can destroy. 
 
 As the Old Testament does contain prophecies of 
 a Saviour that was to appear in the world ; the only 
 question to be resolved is, whether all that it testifies 
 of him be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ ? 
 On a subject so interesting, so extensive and impor- 
 tant, which has been so amply discussed by many 
 able divines, the reader is referred to the works of 
 Barrow, of Pearson and of Clarke. A summary 
 view must be very imperfect and incomplete ; but it 
 is here given, as it may serve, to the general reader, 
 to exhibit the connexion between the Old and the 
 New Testament, and as of itself it may be deemed 
 conclusive of the argument in favour of Christianity. 
 
 A few of the leading features of the prophecies 
 concerning Christ, and their fulfilment, shall be traced 
 — as they mark the time of his appearance — the place 
 of his birth — and the family out of which he was to 
 arise — his life and character, his miracles, his suffer- 
 ings, and his death — the nature of his doctrine — the 
 
 * Zech. ix. 9; Isa. lix. 20; Isa. Ixii. 11; MaL iii. Ij Isa. 
 XXXV. 4 ; Psal. cxviii. 26 ; Dan. ix. 25, 26.
 
 18 THE TIME OF THE 
 
 design and the effect of his coming — and the extent 
 of his kingdom. 
 
 The time of the Messiah^'s appearance in the world, 
 as predicted in the Old Testament, is defined by a 
 number of concurring circumstances, that fix it to the 
 very date of the advent of Christ. The last blessing 
 of Jacob to his sons, when he commanded them to ga- 
 ther themselves together that he might tell them what 
 should befall them in the last days, contains this pre- 
 diction concerning Judah : " The sceptre shall not 
 depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his 
 feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the ga- 
 thering of the people be."* The date fixed by this 
 prophecy for the coming of Shiloh, or the Saviour, 
 was not to exceed the time that the descendants of 
 Judah were to continvie an united people — that a 
 king should reign among them — that they should be 
 governed by their own laws, and that their judges 
 were to be from among their brethren. The prophe- 
 cy of Malachl adds another standard for measuring the 
 time ; " Behold I send my messenger, and he shall 
 prepare the way before me, and the Lord, whom ye 
 seek, shall come suddenly to his temple, even the 
 messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in ; be- 
 hold he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.*"*f* No 
 words can be more expressive of the coming of the 
 promised Messiah ; and they as clearly imply his ap- 
 pearance in the temple before it should be destroyed. 
 But it may also be here remarked that Malachi was 
 the last of the prophets : With his predictions the 
 vision and the prophecy were sealed up, or the canon 
 of the Old Testament was completed. Though many 
 prophets immediately preceded him, after his time 
 there was no prophet in Israel ; but all the Jews, 
 whether of ancient or modern times, look for a mes- 
 
 * Gen, xlix. 10. t Mai. iii. 1.
 
 BIRTH OF CHRIST. 19 
 
 senger to prepare the way of the Lord, immediately 
 before his coming. The long succession of prophets 
 had drawn to a close ; and the concluding words of 
 the Old Testament, subjoined to an admonition to 
 remember the law of Moses, import that the next 
 prophet would be the harbinger of the Messiah. 
 Another criterion of the time is thus imparted. In 
 regard to the advent of the Messiah, before the de- 
 struction of the second temple, the words of Haggai 
 are remarkably explicit : " The desire of all nations 
 shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith 
 the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter house 
 shall be greater than of the former, and in this place 
 will I give peace."* The contrast which the prophet 
 had just drawn between the glory of Solomon''s tem- 
 ple and that which had been erected in its stead, to 
 which he declares it was, in comparison, as nothing 
 — the solemn manner of its introduction, " Thus saith 
 the Lord of Hosts, yet once it is a little while, and 
 I will shake the heavens and the earth ;" the excellen- 
 cy of the latter house excelling that of gold and sil- 
 ver ; the expression so characteristic of the Messiah, 
 the " desire of all nations ;" and the blessing of peace 
 that was to accompany his coming — all tend to de- 
 note that he alone is spoken of, who was the hope of 
 Israel, and of whom all the prophets did testify, and 
 that his presence would give to that temple a greater 
 glory than that of the former. The Saviour was thus 
 to appear, according to the prophecies of the Old 
 Testament, during the time of the continuance of the 
 kingdom of Judah, previous to the demolition of the 
 temple, and immediately subsequent to the next pro- 
 phet. But the time is rendered yet more definite. 
 In the prophecies of Daniel, the kingdom of the 
 Messiah is not only foretold as commencing in the 
 
 * Haof. ii. 7.
 
 20 THE TIME OF THE 
 
 time of the fourth monarchy, or Roman empire ; but 
 the express number of years, that were to precede 
 his coming, are plainly intimated : " Seventy weeks 
 are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy 
 city, to finish the transgression and to make an end 
 of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and 
 to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up 
 the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the IMost 
 Holy. Know therefore and understand that from 
 the going forth of the commandment to restore 
 and to build Jerusalem, unto Messiah the prince, 
 shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks."* 
 Computation by weeks of years was common among 
 the Jews, and every seventh was the Sabbatical 
 year ; seventy weeks thus amounted to four hun- 
 dred and ninety years. In these words the prophet 
 marks the very time and uses the very name of 
 Messiah, the prince ; so entirely is all ambiguity 
 done away. 
 
 The plainest inference may be drawn from these 
 prophecies. All of them, while, in every respect^ 
 they pre-suppose the most perfect knowledge of fu- 
 turity ; while they were unquestionably delivered 
 and publicly known for ages previous to the time to 
 which they referred ; while there is Jewish testimony 
 of their application to the time of the Messiah, i* 
 which was delivered fifty years before Christ ; and 
 while they refer to different contingent and uncon- 
 nected events, utterly undeterminable and inconceiv- 
 able by all human sagacity ; — accord in perfect uni- 
 son to a single precise period where all their diffe- 
 rent lines terminate at once — the very fulness of 
 time when Jesus appeared. A king then reigned 
 over the Jews in their own land — they were governed 
 
 * Dan. ix. 24-, 25. 
 
 t R. Nchumias quoted by Grotiiis de Verit.
 
 BIRTH OF CHRIST. 21 
 
 by their own laws — and the council of their nation 
 exercised its authority and power. Before that period, 
 the other tribes were extinct or dispersed among the 
 nations. Judah alone remained, and the last sceptre 
 in Israel had not then departed from it. Every 
 stone of the temple was then unmoved : it was the 
 admiration of the Romans, and might have stood for 
 ages. But in a short space, all these concurring tes- 
 timonies to the time of the advent of the Messiah, 
 passed away. During the very year, the twelfth of 
 his age, in which Christ first publicly appeared in 
 the temple, Archelaus the king was dethroned and 
 banished — Coponivis was appointed procurator — and 
 the kine^dom of Judea, the last remnant of the great- 
 ness of Israel, was debased into a part of the pro- 
 vince of Syria.* The sceptre was smitten from the 
 hands of the tribe of Judah — the crown fell from 
 their heads — their glory departed — and, soon after 
 the death of Christ, of their temple one stone was 
 not left upon another — their common^vealth itself be- 
 came as complete a ruin, and was broken in pieces — 
 and they have ever since been scattered throughout 
 the world, a name but not a nation. After the lapse 
 of nearly four hundred years posterior to the time of 
 Malachi, another prophet appeared who was the he- 
 rald of the Messiah. And the testimony of Josephus 
 confirms the account given in Scripture of John the 
 Baptist. -j- Every mark that denoted the time of 
 the coming of the Messiah was erased soon after the 
 crucifixion of Christ, and could never afterwards be 
 renewed. — And, with respect to the prophecies of 
 Daniel, it is remarkable, at this remote period, how 
 little discrepancy of opinion has existed among the 
 most learned men, as to the space from the time of 
 the passing out of the edict to rebuild Jerusalem, 
 
 * Josei)h. Ant. 17. c. 13. f lb. 18. 5.
 
 22 THE TIME OF THE 
 
 after the Babylonish captivity, to the commencement 
 of the Christian era, and the subsequent events fore- 
 told in the prophecy. Our design precludes detail : 
 But the minute coincidence of the narrative of the 
 New Testament and the history of the Jews, with 
 the subdivisions of time which it enumerates, are 
 additional attestations of its general accuracy as ap- 
 plicable to Christ. This coincidence is the more 
 striking, as it is unnoticed by the relaters of the facts 
 which establish it, and it has been left, without the 
 possibility of any adaptation of the events, to the dis- 
 coverv of modern chronolocjists. The following ob- 
 servatlons of Dr. Samuel Clarke, partly communi- 
 cated to him, as he acknowledges, by Sir Isaac New- 
 ton, elucidate this prophecy so clearly that every 
 reader will forgive their insertion: — " When the angel 
 says to Daniel, Seventy weeks are determined upon 
 thy people, S^^c. — Was this written after the event ? 
 Or can it reasonably be ascribed to chance, that from 
 the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king (when Ezra 
 went up from Babylon unto Jerusalem, with a com- 
 mission to restore the government of the Jews,) to 
 the death of Christ, (from Ann. Nahon. 290, to 
 Ann. Nabon. 780) should be precisely 490 (70 
 weeks of) years. When the angel tells Daniel, that 
 in threescore and two weeks the street (of Jerusalem) 
 should be built again, and the wall, even in troub- 
 lous times, (but this, in troublous times, not like 
 those that should be under Messiah the prince when 
 he should come to reign :) — Was this written after 
 the event ? Or can it reasonably be ascribed to 
 chance, that from the 28th year of Artaxerxes, when 
 the walls were finished, to the birth of Christ, (from 
 Ann, Nahon. 311 to ']^o) should be precisely 434 
 (C2 weeks of) years. When Daniel farther says, 
 And he shall confirm (or, nevertheless he shall con- 
 firm) the covenant with many for one week. — Was
 
 BIRTH OF CHRIST. 23 
 
 this written after the event ? Or can it reasonably 
 be ascribed to chance, that from the death of Christ 
 (Ann. Dom. 33,) to the command given first to 
 Peter to preach to Cornelius and the Gentiles (Ann. 
 Dom. 40,) should be exactly seven (one week of) 
 years ? When he still adds, And in the midst of 
 the week, (and in half a week,) he shall cause the 
 sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the over- 
 spreading of abominations he shall make it desolate. 
 Was this written after the event ? Or, can it with 
 any reason be ascribed to chance, that from Vespa- 
 sian's march into Judea in the spring Ann. Dom. 67, 
 to the taking of Jerusalem by Titus in the autumn 
 Ann. Dom. ']0, shovdd be half a septenary of years, 
 or three years and a half ?"" * 
 
 That the time at which the promised Messiah 
 was to appear is clearly defined in these prophecies ; 
 that the expectation of the coming of a great king 
 or deliverer was then prevalent, not only among the 
 Jews, but among all the eastern nations, in conse- 
 quence of these prophecies ; that it afterwards ex- 
 cited that people to revolt, and proved the cause of 
 their greater destruction, — the impartial and unsus- 
 pected evidence of heathen authors is combined, with 
 the reluctant and ample testimony of the Jews them- 
 selves, to attest. 
 
 Tacitus, Suetonius, Josephus, and Philo agree in 
 testifying the antiquity of the prophecies, and their 
 acknowledged reference to that period. •{* Even the 
 
 * Clarke's Works, fol. edit. vol. ii. p. 721. 
 
 f Pluribus persuasio iiierat, mitiqiiis sacerdotum libris 
 contineri — eo ipso tempore fore — ut valesceret Oriens, pro- 
 fectique Judceu, rerura potirentur. Quae ambages Vespa- 
 sianum et Titiini predixerunt. Sed vulg-us (Judseorum) 
 more huraariae oiipidinis, sibi tantmn fatorimi magnitudinem 
 interpretari, ne adversis, quidem, ad vera mutabantur. — 
 Tacit. Ann. V. 13, Percrebuerat Oriente toto constans
 
 24 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 Jews, to this day, own that the time when their 
 Messiah ought to have appeared, according to their 
 prophecies, is long since past, and they attribute the 
 delay of his coming to the sinfulness of their nation. 
 And thus, from the distinct prophecies themselves ; 
 from the testimony of profane historians ; and from 
 the concessions of the Jews, every requisite proof is 
 afforded that Christ appeared when all the concurring 
 circumstances of the time denoted the prophesied pe- 
 riod of his advent. 
 
 The predictions contained in the Old Testament 
 respecting both the family out of which the Messiah 
 was to arise, and the place of his birth, are almost as 
 circumstantial, and are equally applicable to Christ, 
 as those which refer to the time of his appearance. 
 He was to be an Israelite, of the tribe of Judali, of 
 the family of David, and of the town of Bethlehem. 
 The two former of these particulars are implied in 
 the promise made to Abraham — in the prediction 
 of Moses — in the prophetic benediction of Jacob 
 to Judah — and in the reason assigned for the supe- 
 riority of that tribe, because out of it the chief ruler 
 should arise. And the two last, that the JNIessiah 
 was to be a descendant of David and a native of 
 Bethlehem, are expressly affirmed. There shall come 
 forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch 
 shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the 
 Lord shall rest upon him.* That this prophecy re- 
 fers to the deliverer of the human race, is evident 
 from the whole of the succeeding chapter, which is 
 
 opinio esse infatis, ut eo tempore Jiidtea profecti, rerum po- 
 tirentur. Id de imperio Romano, quantum postea eventu 
 patuit, prsedictum Judali ad se habentes, rebellarunt. — Suet, 
 in Vesp. I. 8. c. 4. Julius Maranathus, quoted by Sue- 
 tonius, lib. 2, 93 — Joseph, de Bdlo, vii. 31 ; Philo de Picem. 
 et Pen. p. 923— i. 
 • Isaiah xi. 1.
 
 THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 25 
 
 descriptive of the kingdom of the Messiah, of the 
 calling of the Gentiles, and of the restoration of Israel. 
 The same fact is predicted in many passages of the 
 prophecies : — " Thine house and thy kingdom shall 
 be established for ever before thee. — I have made a 
 covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to David 
 my servant, thy seed will I establish for ever, and 
 build up thy throne to all generations. Behold the 
 days come, saith the Lord, that 1 will raise unto 
 David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and 
 prosper, and shall execute judgm.ent and justice on 
 the earth ; and this is the name whereby he shall be 
 called — the Lord our righteousness,"''* The place 
 of the birth of the Messiah is thus clearly foretold : — 
 " Thou Bethlehem, Ephratah, in the land of Judah, 
 though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, 
 yet out of thee shall he come forth,"" or, as the He- 
 brew word implies, -f" shall he be born — that is to be 
 ruler in Israel, " whose goings forth have been of old, 
 from everlasting."! — That all these predictions were 
 fulfilled in Jesus Christ ; that he was of that country, 
 tribe and family, of the house and lineage of David, 
 and born in Bethlehem, — we have the fullest evidence 
 in the testim.ony of all the evangelists ; in two dis- 
 tinct accounts of the genealogies, (by natural and 
 legal succession), which, according to the custom of 
 the Jews, were carefully preserved ; in the acquies- 
 cence of the enemies of Christ to the truth of the fact, 
 against which there is not a single surmise in history ; 
 and in the appeal made by some of the earliest of 
 the Christian writers to the unquestionable testimony 
 of the records of the census, taken at the very time 
 of our Saviour ""s birth by order of Ccesar.§ Here, 
 
 • 2 Sam. vii. 16. Psal. Lxxxix. 3, 4. Jer. xxiii. 5. 
 t Gen. X. 14; XV. 4; xvii. G. 2 Sam. vii. 12, &c. 
 :f Mic. V. 2. 
 
 $1 Justin Mar. ap. I. p. 55, ed. Thirl. Tert. in Jlark iv. 19. 
 C
 
 26 THE PLACE OF 
 
 indeed, it is impossible not to be struck with the exact 
 fulfilment of prophecies which are apparently contra- 
 dictory and irreconcilable, and with the manner in 
 which they were providentially accomplished. The 
 spot of Christ's nativity was distant from the place of 
 the abode of his parents, and the region in which he 
 began his ministry was remote from the place of his 
 birth ; and another prophecy respecting him was in 
 this manner verified : " In the land of Zebulun and 
 Naphtali, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, in 
 Galilee of the nations, the people that walked in 
 darkness have seen a great light ; they that dwell in 
 the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the 
 light shined.""* Thus, the time at which the pre- 
 dicted ]\Iessiah was to appear, the nation, the tribe, 
 and the family from which he was to be descended — 
 and the place of his birth — no populous city — but of 
 itself an inconsiderable place, were all clearly fore- 
 told ; and as clearly refer to Jesus Christ, — and all 
 meet their completion in him. 
 
 But the facts of his life, and the features of his 
 character, are also drawn with a precision that cannot 
 be misunderstood. The obscurity, the meanness, and 
 poverty of his external condition are thus represent- 
 ed : " He shall grow up before the Lord like a 
 tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground ; he 
 hath no form or comeliness ; and when we shall see 
 him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 
 Thus saith the Lord, to him whom man despiseth, 
 to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of 
 rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall 
 worship.""-!- That such was the condition in which 
 Christ appeared, the whole history of his life abun- 
 dantly testifies. And the Jews, looking in the pride 
 of their hearts for an earthly king, disregarded these 
 
 * Isaiah ix. 1, 2. Matth. iv. 16. f Isaiah liii. 2 ; xlix. 7.
 
 CHRISrS NATIVITY. 27 
 
 prophecies concerning him, were deceived by their 
 traditions, and found only a stone of stumbling, 
 where, if they had searched their Scriptures aright, 
 they would have discovered an evidence of the Messiah. 
 " Is not this the carpenter"'s son ; is not this the son 
 of iNIary ? said they, and they were offended at him." 
 His riding in humble triumph into Jerusalem ; his 
 being betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and scourg- 
 ed, and buffeted, and spit upon : the piercing of his 
 hands and of his feet ; the last offered drauijht of 
 vinegar and gall ; the parting of his raiment, and 
 casting lots upon his vesture ; the manner of his 
 death and of his burial, and his rising again without 
 seeing corruption,*- — were all expressly predicted, and 
 all these predictions were literally fulfilled. If all 
 these prophecies admit of any application to the events 
 of the life of any individual, it can only be to that of 
 the author of Christianity. And what other religion 
 can produce a single fact which was actually foretold 
 of its founder ? 
 
 Though the personal appearance or moral condition 
 of the ^lessiah was represented by the Jewish pro- 
 phets, such as to bespeak no grandeur, his personal 
 character is described as of a higher order than that of 
 the sons of men. " Righteousness shall be the girdle 
 of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 
 He hath done no violence, neither was there any de- 
 ceit in his lips. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest 
 upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, 
 the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of know- 
 ledge and of the fear of the Lord. The Lord God. 
 hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should 
 know how to speak a word in season to him that is 
 weary. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd ; he 
 
 * Zech. ix. 9; xi, 12. Isa. i. 6. Psa. xxii. 16 j Ixix. 21; 
 xxii. 18. Isa. liii. 9. Psa. xvi. 10.
 
 28 THE LIFE AND 
 
 shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them 
 in his bosom. A bruised reed shall he not break, and 
 the smoking flax shall he not quench. Behold, thy 
 king Cometh unto thee : he is just and having salva- 
 tion ; lowly and riding upon an ass. He shall not 
 cXy, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the 
 street. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he open- 
 ed not his mouth ; he was brought as a lamb to the 
 slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, 
 so he opened not his mouth. I gave ixiy back to the 
 smiters, and my cheek to them that plucked off the 
 hair ; I did not hide my face from shame and spit- 
 ting. The Lord God hath opened mine ear that I 
 was not rebellious, neither turned away back. The 
 Lord will help me, therefore shall 1 not be confound- 
 ed ; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I 
 know that I shall not be ashamed."* How many 
 virtues are thus represented in the prophecies, as cha- 
 racteristic of the Messiah ; and how applicable are 
 they all to Christ alone, and how clearly embodied in 
 his character ! His wisdom and knowledge — his 
 speaking as never man spake — the general meekness 
 of his manner and mildness of his conversation — his 
 perfect candour and unsullied purity — his righteous - 
 ness — his kindness and compassion — his genuine hu- 
 mility — his peaceable disposition — his unrepining 
 patience — his invincible courage — his more than he- 
 roic resolution, and more than human forbearance — 
 his unfaultering trust in God, and complete resigna- 
 tion to his v.ill, are all pourtrayed in the liveliest, the 
 most affecting, and expressive terms ; and among all 
 who ever breathed the breath of life, they can be ap- 
 plied to Christ alone. "!• 
 
 * Isa. xi. 2, 5; xl. 1 1 ; 1. 4, 6, 7 ; xlii. 2, 3 ; liii. 7, S, 11 
 Zech. ix. 9. 
 
 -|- See BaiTow on the Creed, p. 19.
 
 CHARACTER OF CHRIST. 29 
 
 IMahomei pretended to receive a divine warrant to 
 sanction his past impurities and to license his future 
 crimes. How different is the appeal of Jesus to earth 
 and to heaven : " If I do not the works of my Father, 
 believe me not. — Search the Scriptures, for these are 
 they which testify of me." They did testify of the 
 coming of a Messiah, and of the superhuman excel- 
 lence of his moral character. And if the life of Jesus 
 was wonderful and unparalleled of itself, how miracu- 
 lous does it appear, when all his actions develop the 
 prophetic character of the promised Saviour ! The 
 internal and external evidence are here combined at 
 once ; and while the life of Christ proved that he was 
 a righteous person, it proved also, as testified of by 
 the prophets, that he w^as the Son of God. 
 
 In describing the blessings of the reign of the 
 Messiah, the prophet Isaiah foretold the greatness 
 and the benignity of his miracles : — " The eyes of 
 tlie blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf 
 shall be unstopped : the lame man shall leap as an 
 hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.""* The 
 history of Jesus shows how such acts of mercy formed 
 the frequent exercise of his power : at his word the 
 blind received their sight — the lame walked — the 
 deaf heard — and the dumb spake.-f* 
 
 The death of Christ was as unparalleled as his life ; 
 and the prophecies are as minutely descriptive of his 
 sufferings as of his virtues. Not only did the paschal 
 lamb, which was to be killed every year in all the fa- 
 milies of Israel — which was to be taken out of the 
 flock, to be without blemish — to be eaten with bitter 
 herbs — to have its blood sprinkled, and to be kept 
 whole that not a bone of it should be broken — not 
 only did the offering up of Isaac, and the lifting up 
 of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, by looking 
 
 * Isa. XXXV. 5. f Matth. xi. 3.
 
 30 DEATH OF CHRIST. 
 
 upon which the people were healed, — and many ritual 
 observances of the Jews, — prefigure the manner of 
 Christ's death, and the sacrifice which was to be made 
 for sin : — but many express declarations abound in the 
 prophecies, that Christ was indeed to suffer. Exclu- 
 sive of the repeated declarations* in the Psalms, of 
 afflictions which apply literally to him, and are inter- 
 woven with allusions to the Messiah''s kingdom, the 
 prophet Daniel,"!* in limiting the time of his coming, 
 directly affirms that the Messiah v\as to be cut off; 
 and in the same manifest allusion, Zechariah uses 
 these emphatic words : " Awake, O sword, against 
 my Shepherd, and against the man that is my fel- 
 low, saith the Lord of Hosts : smite the shepherd, 
 and the sheep shall be scattered. — I will pour upon 
 the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
 the spirit of grace and of supplications ; and they shall 
 look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall 
 mourn for him."! 
 
 But Isaiah, who describes with eloquence worthy of 
 a prophet, the glories of the kingdom that was to come, 
 characterises, with the accuracy of a historian, the hu- 
 miliation, the trials, and the agonies which were to 
 precede the triumphs of the Redeemer of a world ; 
 and the history of Christ forms, to the very letter, the 
 commentary and the completion of his eveiy predic- 
 tion. In a single passage, § — the connexion of which 
 is uninterrupted, its antiquity indisputable, and its 
 application obvious, — the sufferings of the servant of 
 God (who under the same denomination, is previous- 
 ly described as he who was to be the light of the Gen- 
 tiles, the Salvation of God to the ends of the earth, 
 and the Elect of God in whom his soul delighted) |] 
 
 * Psa. ii. xxii. 1, 6, 7, 16, 18; xxxv. 7, 11, 12j Ixix. gO, 
 21 ; cix. 2, 3, 5, 25 ; cxviii. 22. 
 f Dan. ix. 2G. J Zech. xiii. 7; xii. 10. 
 
 9 Isa. lii. 13, &c. and chap. liii. || Isa. xlii. 10 ; xlix. 6.
 
 DEATH OF CHRIST. 31 
 
 are so minutely foretold that no illustration is requi- 
 site to show that they testify of Jesus. Of the multi- 
 tude of parallel passages in the New Testament, a few 
 shall be selected and subjoined to the prophecy. 
 
 " He is despised and rejected of men ; He came un- 
 to his own, and his own received him not ; He had 
 not where to lay his head ; they derided him. — A vian 
 of sorrows and acquainted with grief; Jesus wept at 
 the grave of Lazarus : He mourned over Jerusalem ; 
 He felt the ingratitude and the cruelty of men ; He 
 bore the contradiction of sinners against himself — and 
 these are expressions of sorrow which were peculiarly his 
 own : ' Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from 
 me ; but for this end came I into the world. — My 
 God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ?'' We 
 hid, as it were, our faces from him ; he was despised, 
 and we esteemed him not. — All his disciples forsook 
 him, and fled. Not this man, but Barabbas : now 
 Barabbas was a robber. The soldiers mocked him, 
 and bowed the knee before him in derision." The 
 catalogue of his sufferings is continued in the words 
 of the prophecy — " V/e did esteem him stricken, smit- 
 ten of God and ajflicted ; He was wounded, he was 
 oppressed, he was afjiicted, he was brought as a lamb 
 to the slaughter ; He was taken away by distress 
 and by Judgment.^'' And to this general descrip- 
 tion is united the detail of m.inuter incidents, which 
 fixes the fact of their application to Jesus — " He 
 was cut off out of the land of the living;'''' He 
 was crucified in the flower of his age. They (the 
 people) made his grave with the wicked, but he was 
 with the rich after his death ; Joseph of Arimathea, 
 a rich man, went and begged the body of Jesus, and 
 laid it in his own new tomb. He was numbered with 
 the transgressors ; He was crucified between two 
 thieves. " His visage was so marred, more than any
 
 32 NATURE OF THE 
 
 mans, and his form more than the sons of wiew," — 
 without any direct allusion made to it, but in literal 
 fulfilment of the prophecy — the bloody sweat, the 
 traces of the crown of thorns — his having been snitted 
 on, and smitten on the head — disfigured in the face ; 
 — while the scourge, the nails in his hands and in 
 his feet, and the spear that pierced his side, marred 
 the form of Jesus more than that of the sons of men. 
 That this circumstantial and continuous descrip- 
 tion of the lMessiah''s sufferings might not admit of 
 any ambiguity — the dignity of his person — the in- 
 credulity of the Jews — the innocence of the sufferer 
 — the cause of his sulFerings — and his consequent 
 exaltation, are all particularly marked, and are equally 
 applicable to the doctrine of the gospel. " He shall 
 be exalted and extolled, and be very high ; who hath 
 hdieved our report, and to whom is the arm of the 
 Lord revealed ? For he shall grow up as a tender 
 plant,''"' ^'c. The mean external condition of Christ is 
 here assigned as tlie reason of the unbelief of the 
 Jews, and it was the very reason which they them- 
 selves assigned. The prediction points out the pro- 
 curing cause of his sufferings. — " He hath borne our 
 griefs, he hath carried our sorrows. Christ was once 
 offered to bear the sins of many. He was wounded 
 for our trayisgressions, he was bruised for our ini- 
 quities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, 
 and with his stripes we are healed. His own self 
 bare our sins in his body on the tree, that we, 
 being dead unto sin, should live unto righteousness ; 
 by whose stripes we are healed. All we like sheep 
 have gone astray, and have turned every one to his 
 own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity 
 of us all : All flesh have sinned ; ye were as sheep 
 going astray, but ye are now returned unto the Shep- 
 herd and 13ishop of your souls. He hath done no
 
 DEATH OF CHRIST. 33 
 
 violence ; neither was there any deceit in his mouth : 
 Thou shall make his soul an offering for sin : God 
 made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." 
 
 The whole of this prophecy thus refers to the Mes- 
 siah. It describes both his debasement and his dig- 
 nity — his rejection by the Jews — liis humility, his 
 affliction, and his agony — his magnanimity and his 
 charity— how his words were disbelieved — how his 
 state was lowly — how his sorrow was severe — how he 
 opened not his mouth but to make intercession for 
 the transgressors. In diametrical opposition to every 
 dispensation of Providence which is registered in the 
 records of the Jews, it represents spotless innocence 
 suffering by the appointment of Heaven, — death as 
 the issue of perfect obedience, — his righteous servant 
 as forsaken of God, — and one who was perfectly im- 
 maculate, bearing the chastisement of many guilty, — 
 sprinkling many nations from their iniquity, by vir- 
 tue of his sacrifice, — justifying many by his know- 
 ledge, and dividing a portion with the great, and the 
 spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his 
 soul in death. This prophecy, therefore, simply as 
 a prediction prior to the event, renders the very un-. 
 belief of the Jews an evidence against them, converts 
 the scandal of the cross into an argument in favour 
 of Christianity, and presents us with an epitome of 
 the truth — a miniature of the gospel in some of its 
 most striking features. The simple exposition of it 
 sufficed at once for the conversion of the eunuch of 
 Ethiopia ; and, without the aid of an apostle, it can 
 boast, in more modern times, of a nobler trophy of 
 its truth — in a victory which it was mainly instru- 
 mental in obtaining and securing, over the strongly- 
 rivetted prejudices and long-tried infidelity of a man 
 of genius and of rank, who was one of the most 
 abandoned, insidious and successful of the advo-
 
 34 THE MANNER OF 
 
 cates of impurity, and of the enemies of the Christian 
 faith.* 
 
 Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to 
 suffer, according to the Scriptures ; and thus the 
 apostle testifies — Those things which God had showed 
 by the mouth of all the prophets, that Christ should 
 suffer, he hath so fulfilled. 
 
 That the Jews still retain these prophecies, and 
 are the means of preserving them, and communicat- 
 ing them throughout the world, while they bear so 
 strongly against themselves, and testify so clearly of 
 a Saviovir that w^as first to suffer, and then to be ex- 
 alted, — are facts as indubitable as they are unaccount- 
 able, and give a confirmation to the truth of Christi- 
 anity, than which it is difficult to conceive any strong- 
 er. The prophecies, as we have ssen, by a simple 
 enumeration of a few of them that testify of the suf- 
 ferings of the Messiah, need no forced interpretation, 
 but apply, in the plainest, simplest and most literal 
 manner, to the history of the sufferings and of the 
 death of Christ. In the testimony of the Jews to 
 the existence of these prophecies long prior to the 
 Christian era ; in their remaining unaltered to this 
 hour ; in the accounts given by the evangelists of the 
 life and death of Christ ; in the testimony of heathen 
 authors •,'f and in the arguments of the first opposers 
 of Christianity, from the mean condition of its author, 
 and the manner of his death ; — we have now greater 
 evidence of the fulfilment of all these prophecies, than 
 could have been conceived possible at so great a dis- 
 tance of time. 
 
 But the prophecies farther present us with the 
 
 * Burnefs Life of the Earl of Rochester, pp. 70, 71. 
 
 t Auctor nominis ejus Christus, Tiberio imperitante, per 
 prociiratorem Pontium Pilatura supplicio adfectus erat. — 
 Tacit. An- xv. 44.
 
 CHRIST'S DEATH. 35 
 
 character of the gospel as well as of its author, and 
 with a description of the extent of his kingdom as 
 well as of his sufferings. It was prophesied that the 
 Messiah was to reveal the will of God to man, and 
 establish a new and perfect religion : — " I will raise 
 them up a prophet, and I will put my words in his 
 mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that 1 shall 
 command him ; and it shall come to pass, that who- 
 soever will not hearken unto ray words which he shall 
 speak in my name, I will require it of him. — Unto 
 us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the 
 government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name 
 shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty 
 God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. 
 Of the increase of his govermnent and peace there 
 shall be no end ; upon the throne of David, and upon 
 his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judg- 
 ment and justice from henceforth, even for ever. The 
 zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this. — There 
 shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse ; he 
 shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither re- 
 prove after the hearing of his ears ; with righteous- 
 ness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity. 
 — I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and 
 will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give 
 thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the 
 Gentiles to open the blind eyes. — Incline your ear 
 and come unto me, hear and your soul shall live ; 
 and I vvill make an everlasting covenant with you, 
 even the sure mercies of David. Behold I ha\'e 
 given him for a witness to the people, for a leader and 
 a commander to the people. 1 will set up one shep- 
 herd over them, and he shall feed them, and I will 
 make with them a covenant of peace, and it shall be 
 an everlasting covenant, and I will set my sanctuary 
 in the midst of them ; one king shall be king to them 
 all, neither shall they defile themselves any more with
 
 33 ■ NATURE OF THE 
 
 idols. They shall have one shepherd. They shall 
 also walk in my judgments, and my servant David 
 shall be their prince for ever. Behold the days come, 
 saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant, and 
 this shall be the covenant that I will make with the 
 house of Israel, after these days : I will put my law 
 in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, 
 and will be their God, and they shall be my people ; 
 and they shall teach no more every man his neigh- 
 bour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the 
 Lord ; for they all shall know ine, from the least of 
 them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I 
 will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sins 
 no more.'"''* A future and perfect revelation of the 
 divine will is thus explicitly foretold. That these 
 promised blessings were to extend beyond the confines 
 of Judea, is expressly and frequently predicted : — 
 "It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my ser- 
 vant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore 
 the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a 
 light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salva- 
 tion unto the end of the earth. ""-j- 
 
 While many of the prophecies which are descrip- 
 tive of the glories of the reign of the Messiah, refer 
 to its universal extension, and to the final restoration 
 of the Jews, they detail and define, at the same time, 
 the nature and the blessings of the gospel ; and no 
 better description or definition could now be given of 
 the doctrine of Christ, and of the conditions which he 
 hath proposed for the acceptance of man, than those 
 very prophecies which were delivered many hundreds 
 of years before he appeared in the world. The gos- 
 pel, as the name itself signifies, denotes glad tidings. 
 
 * Deut. xvii. 18, 19. Isa. ix. G, 7 ; xlii. 6 ; xi. 1, 6 ; Iv. 
 3,4. Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 35; xxxvii. 26. Jer. xxxi. 31^ 
 33, 31. 
 
 t Isa. xlix. 6 ; Ivi. 6, &c.
 
 CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 37 
 
 Christ himself invited those who were weary and 
 heavy laden to come unto him that they might find 
 rest unto their souls. He was the messenger of peace. 
 He came, as he professed, to offer a sacrifice for the 
 sins of the world, and to reveal the will of God to 
 man. He published the terms of our acceptance. 
 His word is still that of reconciliation, his law that of 
 love ; and all the duty he has prescribed tends to 
 qualify man for spiritual and eternal felicity, for this 
 is the sura and the object of it all. What more 
 could have been given, and what less could have been 
 required ? In similar terms do the prophecies of old 
 describe the new law that was to be revealed, and the 
 advent of the Saviour that was to come : — " Rejoice 
 greatly, O daughter of Zion ; shout, O daughter of 
 Jerusalem ; behold thy king cometh unto thee. — How 
 beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that 
 bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth sal- 
 vation. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, 
 because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good 
 tidings unto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up 
 the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the cap- 
 tives, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."'' 
 Having read these words out of the law, in the syna- 
 gogue, Jesus said, " this day is the Scripture fulfil- 
 led.'''' He was a teacher of righteousness and of 
 peace, and in him alone it could have been fulfilled. 
 The same character of joy, indicative of the kingdom 
 of the Messiah, is also given by different prophets. 
 He was to " finish transgression, to make an end of 
 sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity ; to 
 sprinkle clean water upon the people of God, to 
 sprinkle many nations, to save them from their un- 
 cleanness, and to open a fountain for sin and for un- 
 cleanness. Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the 
 unrighteous man his thousfhts, and let him return 
 unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him.
 
 38 NATURE OF THE 
 
 I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sins 
 no more. The Messiah was to be anointed to con- 
 fort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn 
 in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil 
 of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise fbr 
 the spirit of heaviness."* And in the gospel of peace 
 these promised blessings are realized. We now see 
 what many prophets and wise men did desire in vain 
 to see. The Christian religion has indeed been sadly 
 perverted and corrupted, and its corruptions are the 
 subjects of prophecy. Bigotry has often tarnished 
 and obscured all its benignity. Its lovely form has 
 been shrouded in a mask of superstition, of tyranny 
 and of murder. But the religion of Jesus, pure from 
 the lips of its Author, and the pen of his apostles, is 
 calculated to diffuse universal happiness — tends effeo- 
 tually to promote the moral culture and the civiliza- 
 tion of humanity — ameliorates the condition and per- 
 fects the nature of man. It is a doctrine of right- 
 eousness, a perfect rule of duty — It abolishes idolatry, 
 and teaches all to worship God only — It is full of 
 promises to all who obey it — It reveals the method 
 of reconciliation for iniquity, and imparts the means 
 to obtain it — It is ffood tidings to the meek— it binds 
 up the broken-hearted, and presents to us the oil of 
 joy for inourning, and the garment of praise for the 
 spirit of heaviness, or the most perfect system of con- 
 solation, under all the evils of life, that can be con- 
 ceived by man. For the confirmation of all these 
 prophecies concerning it, we stand not in need of 
 Jewish testimony, or that of the primitive Christians, 
 or of any testimony whatever. It is a matter of expe- 
 rience and of fact. The doctrine of the gospel is in 
 complete accordance with the predictions respecting it. 
 When we compare it with any impure, degrading, 
 
 * Isa. lii. 7; Ixi. 1 ; xlii. 1, 3. Jer. xxxi. 34^. Dan. ix. 24.
 
 PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 39 
 
 vicious, and cruel system of religion that existed in 
 the world when these prophecies were delivered, its 
 suj>eriority must be apparent, and its unrivalled ex- 
 cellence must be acknowledged. Deities were then 
 worshipped whose vices disgraced human nature ; and 
 even impiety could not institute a comparison between 
 them and the God of Christians. Idolatry was uni- 
 versally prevalent, and men knew not a higher hon- 
 our than the humiliation of bowing down in adoration 
 to stocks and stones, and sometimes even to the 
 beasts. Sacrifices were everywhere offered up, and 
 human victims often bled, when the doctrine of re- 
 conciliation forinicjuity was unknown. And we have 
 only to look beyond the boundaries of Christianity, — 
 to Ashantee, or to India, or to China, — to behold 
 the most revolting of spectacles in the religious rites 
 and practices of man. Regarding the superiority of 
 the Christian religion only as a subject of prophecy, 
 the assent can hardly be withheld, that the prophe- 
 cies concerning its excellence, and the blessings which 
 it imparts, have been amply verified by the peace- 
 speaking gospel of Jesus. 
 
 But, in ascertaining the accomplishment of ancient 
 predictions, in evidence of the truth, the unbeliever is 
 not solicited to relinquish one iota of his scepticism 
 in any matter that can possibly admit of a reasonable 
 doubt. For there are many prophecies, of the truth 
 of which every Christian is a witness, and to the ful- 
 filment of which the testimony even of infidels must 
 be borne. That the gospel emanated from Jerusa- 
 lem — that it was rejected by a great proportion of the 
 Jews — that it was opposed at first by human power 
 — that idolatry has been overthrown before it — that 
 kings have become subject to it and supported it — 
 that it has already continued for many ages — and 
 that it has been propagated throughout many coun- 
 tries, are facts clearly foretold and literally fulfilled :
 
 40 PROPAGATION AND EXTENT 
 
 — " Out of Zion shall go fi)rth the law, and the word 
 of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he shall judge 
 among the nations.* He shall be for a sanctuary, 
 but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence 
 to both the houses of Israel : for a ^in and for a snare 
 to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. -f* The kings of the 
 earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel to- 
 gether against the Lord, and against his anointed." 
 In like manner, Christ frequently foretold the perse- 
 cution that awaited his followers, and the final suc- 
 cess of the gospel, in defiance of all opposition.;): 
 " The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, and 
 the idols he shall utterly abolish ; — from all your 
 idols I will cleanse you ; — I will cut off the name of 
 idols out of the land, and they shall no more be re- 
 membered. § To a servant of rulers, kings shall see 
 and arise, princes also shall worship. The Gentiles 
 shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness 
 of thy rising. Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, 
 and their queens thy nursing mothers. |] The Gen- 
 tiles shall see thy righteousness : — a people that 
 knew me not shall be called after my name. In that 
 day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand 
 for an ensign to the people ; to it shall the Gentiles 
 seek. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. 
 Behold thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest 
 not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto 
 thee."^ 
 
 At the time the prophecies were delivered, there 
 was not a vestige in the world of that spiritual king- 
 dom and pure religion which they unequivocally re- 
 present as extending in succeeding ages, not only 
 throughout the narrow bounds of the land of Judea, 
 
 Isa. ii. 3, 4. Micahiv. 2. -f Isa. viii. li. 
 
 t Psa. ii. 2. Matt. X. 17; xvi. 18; xxiv. U; xxviii. 19. 
 5 Isa. ii. 17. Ezek. xxxvi. 25. Zecb. xiii. 2. 
 11 Isa. xlix. 7—23; lii. 15; Ix. 3. IT Isa. xi. 10 ; Iv. 5.
 
 OF CHRISTIANITY. 41 
 
 and those countries which alone the prophets knew, 
 but over the Gentile nations also, even to the uttermost 
 ends of the earth. None are now ignorant of the facts 
 that a system of religion which inculcates piety, and 
 purity, and love, — which releases man from every 
 burdensome rite, and every barbarous institution, and 
 proffers the greatest of blessings — arose from the 
 land of Judea, from among a people who are the most 
 selfish and worldly-minded of any nation upon earth ; 
 — that, though persecuted at first, and rejected by 
 the Jews, it has spread throughout many nations, and 
 extended to those who were far distant from the scene 
 of its origin ; and that it freely invites all to partake 
 Oi" its privileges, and makes no distinction between 
 b:irbarian, Scythian, bond or free. A Latin poet, 
 who lived at the commencement of the Christian era, 
 speaks of the barbarous Britons as almost divided 
 from the whole world ; and yet although far more 
 distant from the land of Judea than from Rome, the 
 law which hath come out from Jerusalem hath taken, 
 by its influence, the name of barbarous from Britain ; 
 and in our " distant isle of the Gentiles" are the pro- 
 phecies fulfilled, that the kingdom of the JNIessiah, or 
 knowledge of the gospel, would extend to the utter- 
 most part of the earth. And in the present day, we 
 can look from one distant isle of the Gentiles to an- 
 other, — from the northern to the southern ocean, or 
 from one extremity of the globe to another, — and be- 
 hold the extinction of idolatry, and the abolition of 
 every barbarous and cruel rite, by the humanizing 
 influence of the gospel. But it was at a time when 
 no divine light dawned upon the world, save ob- 
 scurely on the land of Judea alone; when all the 
 surrounding nations, in respect to religious knov.-ledge, 
 were involved in thick darkness, gross superstition, 
 and blind idolatry : when men made unto themselves 
 gods of corruptible things : when those mortals were
 
 42 PROPAGATION AND EXTENT 
 
 deified, after their death, who had been subject to the 
 greatest vices, and who had been the oppressors of 
 their fellow-men ; when the most shocking rites were 
 practised as acts of religion ; when the most enlight- 
 ened among the nations of the earth erected an altar 
 to the " unknown God," and set no limit to the num- 
 ber of their deities ; when one of the greatest of the 
 heathen philosophers, and the best of their moralists, 
 despairing of the clear discovery of the truth by hu- 
 man means, could merely express a wish for a divine 
 revelation, as the only safe and certain guide ;* when 
 slaves were far more numerous than freemen even 
 where liberty prevailed the most ; and when there 
 was no earthly hope of redemption from temporal 
 bondage or spiritual slavery ; — even at such a time 
 the voice of prophecy was uplifted in the land of Ju- 
 dea, and it spoke of a brighter day that was to dawn 
 upon the world. It was indeed a light shining in a 
 dark place. And from whence could that light have 
 emanated but from heaven ? A Messiah was promised 
 — a prince of peace was to appear — a stone was to be 
 cut without hands, that should break in pieces and 
 consume all other kingdoms. And the spiritual reign 
 of a Saviour is foretold in terms that define its dura- 
 tion and extent, as well as describe its nature . — " I 
 beliold him, but not now — I see him, but not nigh. 
 — His name shall endure for ever, — his name shall 
 be continued as long as the sun, and men shall be 
 blessed in him, — all nations shall call him blessed. 
 He shall have dominion from sea to sea — and from 
 the river unto the ends of the earth. — Ask of me, and 
 I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, 
 and the uttermost part of the earth for thy posses- 
 sion. — All the ends of the earth shall remember 
 and turn unto the Lord — and all kindreds of the 
 
 * Plato iu Phfedone et in Alcibiadc, II.
 
 OF CHRISTIANITY, 43 
 
 nations shall worship before thee.* — I will give 
 thee for a light of the Gentiles, that thou mayest be 
 my salvation to the ends of the earth. — The glory of 
 the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it 
 together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken 
 it.-f- — The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the 
 eyes of all the nations. He shall not fail nor be dis- 
 couraged till he have set judgment in the earth ; and 
 the isles shall wait for his law.J — He will destroy the 
 face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil 
 that is spread over all nations.§ — I am sought of them 
 that asked not for me, — I am found of them that 
 sought me not, — I said, Behold me, behold me, unto 
 a nation that was not called by my name.|l — It shall 
 come to pass, in the last days, say both Isaiah and 
 Micah in the same words, that the mountain of the 
 Lord's house shall be established on the top of the 
 mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills — and 
 all nations shall flow unto it.^ — In the place where it 
 was said, Ye are not my people, it shall be said, Ye 
 are the sons of the living God.** — The abundance of 
 the sea shall be converted unto Thee — the forces of the 
 Gentiles shall come unto Thee.-j"f- — Sing, O barren, 
 thou that didst not bear — break forth into singing and 
 ci"y aloud — for more are the children of the desolate 
 than the children of the married wife (more Gentiles 
 than Jews.):|:| — Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let 
 them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations, 
 — spare not, lengthen thy cords, for thou shalt break 
 forth on the right hand and on the left — and thy seed 
 shall inherit the Gentiles — for thy Maker is thy hus- 
 band — the Lord of Hosts is his name — the Lord of 
 the whole earth shall he be called — the wilderness and 
 
 • Psa. Ixxii. 8, 17} ii. 8; xxii. 27, 28. f Isa. xl. 5. 
 
 J Isa. Hi. 10; xHii. 4. § Isa. xxv. 7. || Isa. Ixv. I. 
 
 ^ Isa. li. 2. Micah iy. 1. ** Hosea i. 10. tt Isa. Ix. 5. 
 ift Isa- liv. 1, 2, 4, 6,
 
 44 PROPAGATION AND EXTENT 
 
 the solitary place shall be glad — the desert shall re- 
 joice and blossom as the rose.'"* 
 
 These prophecies all refer to the extent of the INIes- 
 siah''s kingdom ; and clear and copious though they 
 be, they form but a small number of the predictions 
 of the same auspicious import ; — and we have not 
 merely to consider what part of them may yet remain 
 to be fulfilled, but how much has already been accom- 
 plished, of which no surmise could have been formed, 
 and of which all the wisdom of short-sighted mortals 
 could not have warranted a thought. All of them 
 were delivered many ages before the existence of that 
 religion whose progress they minutely describe ; and, 
 when we compare the present state of any country 
 where the gospel is professed in its purity, with its 
 state at that period when the Sun of righteousness 
 began to arise upon it, we see light pervading the re- 
 gion of darkness, and ignorance and barbarism yield- 
 ing to knowledge and moral cultivation. In opposi- 
 tion to all human probability, and to human wisdom 
 and power, the gospel of Jesus, propagated at first by 
 a few fishermen of Galilee, has razed every heathen 
 temple from its foundation — has overthrown before it 
 every impure altar — has displaced from every palace 
 and every cottage which it has reached, the worship 
 of every false god : the whole civilized world acknow- 
 ledges its authority — it has prevailed from the first 
 to the last in defiance of persecution — of opposition 
 the most powerful and violent — of the direct attacks 
 of avowed, and the insidious designs of disguised ene- 
 mies ; — and combating, as it ever has been combat- 
 ing, with all the evil passions of men that impel 
 them to resist or to pervert it, the lapse of eighteen 
 centuries confirms every ancient prediction, and veri- 
 fies, to this hour, the declaration of its Author — 
 
 * Isa. XXXV. 1.
 
 OF CHRISTIANITY. 45 
 
 " the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."" How 
 is it possible that it could have been conceived that 
 such a reliirion ^oiild have been characterised in all 
 its parts — would have been instituted — opposed — es- 
 tablished — propagated throughout the world — em- 
 braced by so many nations — protected at last by 
 princes and kings — and received as the rule of faith 
 and the will of God ? How could all these things, 
 and many more respecting it, have been foretold, as 
 they unquestionably were, many centuries before the 
 Author of Christianity appeared, if these prophecies 
 be not an attestation from on high that every predic- 
 tion and its completion is the work of God and not of 
 man ? What uninspired mortal could have described 
 the nature, the effect, and the progress of the Chris- 
 tian religion, when none could have entertained an 
 idea of its existence ? For paganism consisted in ex- 
 ternal rites and cruel sacrifices, and in pretended mys- 
 teries. Its toleration, indeed, has been commended, 
 and not undeservedly : For in religion it tolerated 
 whatever was absurd and impious, in morals it tole- 
 rated all that was impure and alm.ost all that was vi- 
 cious. But the Jewish prophets, when the world was 
 in darkness, and could supply no light to lead them 
 to such knowledge, predicted the rise of a religion 
 which could boast of no such toleratiop, but which was 
 to reveal the will and inculcate the worship of the one 
 living and true God — which was to consist in moral 
 obedience — to enjoin reformation of life and purity of 
 heart — to abolish all sacrifice by revealing a better 
 mean of reconciliation for iniquity — to be understood 
 by all from the simplicity of its precepts — and to 
 tolerate no manner of evil ; a religion in every respect 
 the reverse of paganism, and of which they could not 
 have been furnished with any semblance uioon earth. 
 They saw nothing among the surrounding nations 
 but the worship of a multiplicity of deities and of
 
 46 PROPAGATION AND EXTENT 
 
 idols ; if they had traversed the whole world they 
 would have witnessed only the same spiritual degrada- 
 tion, and yet they predicted the final abolition and 
 extinction both of polytheism and of idolatry. The 
 Jewish dispensation was local, and Jews prophesied 
 of a religion beginning from Jerusalem, which was 
 to extend to the uttermost parts of the earth. So 
 utterly unlikely and incredible were the prophecies 
 either to have been foretold by human wisdom, or to 
 have been fulhlled by human power ; and when both 
 these wonders are united, they convey an assurance 
 of the truth. As a matter of history, the progress of 
 Christianity is at least astonishing ; as the fulfilment 
 of many prophecies, it is evidently miraculous.* 
 
 The prophesied success and extension of the gospel 
 is not less obvious in the New Testament than in the 
 Old. A single instance may suffice: — "I saw another 
 angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlast- 
 ing gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the 
 earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, 
 and people." These are the words of a banished 
 man, seclvided in a small island from which he could 
 not remove ; a believer in a new religion everywhere 
 sjK)ken against and persecuted. They were uttered 
 at a time when their truth could not possibly have 
 been realized to the degree which it actually is at 
 
 * Were it even to be conceded — as it never will in reason 
 be — that the causes assigned by Gibbon for the rapid exten- 
 sion of Christianity were adequate and true, one difficulty, 
 great as it is, would only be removed for the substitution of a 
 greater. For what human ingenuity, though gifted with the 
 utmost reach of discrimination, can ever attempt the solution 
 of the question — how were all these occult causes, (for hid- 
 den they must then have been) which the genius of Gibbon 
 first discovered, foreseen, their combination known, and all 
 their Avonderfiil effects distinctly described for many centu- 
 ries prior to their existence — or to the commeucemeut of 
 th« period of their alleged operation ?
 
 OF CHRISTIANITY. 47 
 
 present, even if all human power had been combined 
 for extending instead of extinguishing the gospel. 
 The diffusion of knowledge was then extremely diffi- 
 cult — the art of printing was then unknown — and 
 many countries which the gospel has now reached, 
 were then undiscovered. And, — multiplied as books 
 now are, more than at any former period of the his- 
 tory of man — extensive as the range of commerce is, 
 beyond what Tyre, or Carthage, or Rome could have 
 ever boasted, — the dissemination of the Scriptures 
 surpasses both the one and the other : — they have 
 penetrated regions unknown to any work of human 
 genius, and untouched even by the ardour of com- 
 mercial speculation ; and, with the prescription of 
 more than seventeen centuries in its favour, the pro- 
 phecy of the poor prisoner of Patmos is now exempli- 
 fied, and thus proved to be more than a mortal vision, 
 in the unexampled communication of the everlasting 
 gospel unto them that dwell on the earth, to every 
 nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. Chris- 
 tianity is professed over Europe and America. Chris- 
 tians are settled throughout every part of the earth. 
 The gospel is nov\r translated into one hundred and 
 fifty languages and dialects, which are prevalent in 
 countries from the one extremity of the world to the 
 other : And what other book, since the creation, hiis 
 ever been read or known in a tenth part of the num- 
 ber "^ Whatever may be the secondary causes by 
 which these events have been accomplished, or what- 
 ever may be the opinion of men respecting them, 
 the predictions which they amply verify must have 
 originated by inspiration from Him who is the first 
 Great Cause. What divine warrant, equal to this 
 alone, can all the speculations of infidelity supply, 
 or can any freethinker produce, for disbelieving the 
 gospel .'' 
 
 It is apparent, on a general view of the prophecies
 
 48 PROPAGATION AND EXTENT 
 
 which refer to Christ and to the Christian religion, 
 that they include predictions relative to many of the 
 doctrines of the gospel which are suhjects of pure re- 
 velation, or which reason of itself could never have 
 discovered ; and these very doctrines, to which the 
 self-sufficiency of human wisdom is often averse to 
 yield assent, are thus to be numbered, in this re- 
 spect, among the criterions of the truth of divine 
 Revelation ; for if these doctrines had not been con- 
 tained in Scripture, the prophecies respecting them 
 could not have been fulfilled. And the more won- 
 derful they appear, they were by so much the more 
 unlikely or inconceivable to have been foretold by 
 man, and to have been afterw^ards embodied in a sys- 
 tem of religion, 
 
 It is also evident that there are many prophecies 
 applicable to Jesus, to which no allusion is made in 
 the history of his life. The minds of his disciples 
 were long impressed with the prejudices, arising from 
 the lowliness of his mortal state, which were prevalent 
 among the Jev;s ; and they viewed the prophecies 
 through the mist of those traditions which had mag- 
 nified the earthly power to which alone they looked, 
 and obscured the divine nature of the expected reign 
 of the Messiah. It was only after the resurrection 
 of Christ, as the Scripture informs lis, that their 
 understandings were opened to know the prophecies. 
 But while the accomplishment of many of these pre- 
 dictions is thus unnoticed in the New Testament, 
 the fulfilment of each and all of them is written, as 
 with a pen of iron, in the life and doctrine and death 
 of Jesus ; — and the undesigned and unsuspicious 
 proof, thus indirectly but amply given, is now stronger 
 than if an appeal had been made to the prophecies in 
 every instance ; — and, freed from the prejudices of 
 the Jevvs, we may now combine and compare all the 
 antecedent prophecies respecting the Messiah with
 
 OF CHRISTIANITY. 49 
 
 tlie narrative of the New Testament, and with the 
 nature and history of Christianity ; and, having seen 
 how the former is a transcript of the latter, we may 
 draw the legitimate conclusion — that the spirit of 
 prophecy is indeed the testimony of Jesus. 
 
 And may it not, on a review of the whole, be war- 
 rantably asserted, that the time and the place of the 
 birth of Christ — the tribe and the family from which 
 he was descended, the manner of his life, his character, 
 his miracles, his sufferings and his death, the nature 
 of his doctrine ; — and the fate of his religion, that 
 it was to proceed from Jerusalem, that the Jews 
 would reject it, that it would be opposed and perse- 
 cuted at first, that it would be extended to the Gen- 
 tiles, that idolatry would give way before it, that 
 kings would submit to its authority, and that it would 
 be spread throughout many nations, even to the most 
 distant parts of the earth — were all of them subjects 
 of ancient prophecy ? 
 
 Why, then, were so many prophecies delivered ? 
 Why, from the calling of Abraham to the present 
 time, have the Jews been separated, as a peculiar 
 people, from all the nations of the earth ? Why, from 
 the age of IMoses to that of Malachi, during the 
 space of one thousand years, did a succession of pro- 
 phets arise all testifying of a Saviour that was to 
 come ? Why was the book of prophecy sealed for 
 nearly four hundred years before the coming of Christ ? 
 Why is there still, to this day, undisputed if not 
 miraculous evidence of the antiquity of all these pro- 
 phecies, by their being sacredly preserved in every 
 age, in the custody and guardianship of the enemies 
 of Christianity ? Why was such a multiplicity of 
 facts predicted that are applicable to Christ and to 
 him alone ? Why, but that all this mighty prepara- 
 tion might usher in the gospel of Righteousness ; 
 and that, like all the works of the Almighty, his 
 
 D
 
 50 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 word through Jesus Christ might never be left with- 
 out a witness of his wisdom and his power. And if 
 the prophecies which testify of the gospel and of its 
 Author, display, from the slight glance which has 
 here been given of them, any traces of the finger of 
 God, how strong must be the conviction which a full 
 view of them imparts to the minds of those who dili- 
 gently search the Scriptures, and see how clearly they 
 testify of Christ. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PROPHECIES CO.VCEKNING THE DESTRUCTION OF 
 JERUSALEM. 
 
 The commonwealth of Israel, from its establishment 
 to its dissolution, subsisted for more than fifteen hun- 
 dred years. In delivering their law, iNIoses assumed 
 more than the authority of a human legislator, and 
 asserted that he was invested with a divine commis- 
 sion ; and in enjoining obedience to it, after having 
 conducted them to the borders of Canaan, he promises 
 many blessings to accompany their compliance with 
 the law, and denounces grievous judgments that would 
 overtake them for the breach of it. The history of the 
 Jews, in each succeeding age, attests the truth of the 
 last prophetic warning of the first of their rulers ; but 
 too lengthened a detail would be requisite for its elu- 
 cidation. Happily, it contains predictions, applica- 
 ble to more recent events, which admit not of any 
 ambiguous interpretation, and refer to historical facts 
 that admit no cavil. He who founded their govern-
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 51 
 
 ment, foretold, notwithstanding the intervention of so 
 many ages, the manner of its overthrow. While they 
 were wandering in the wilderness, without a city, 
 and without a home, he threatened them with the 
 destruction of their cities, and the devastation of their 
 country. While they viewed, for the first time, the 
 land of Palestine, and when victorious and triumphant 
 they were about to possess it, he represented the 
 scene of desolation that it would exhibit to their van- 
 quished and enslaved posterity, on their last depar- 
 ture from it. Ere they themselves had entered it as 
 enemies, he describes those enemies by whom their 
 descendants were to be subjugated and dispossessed, 
 though they were to arise from a very distant region, 
 and although they did not appear till after a millenary 
 and a half of years : — " The Lord shall bring a nation 
 against thee from far — from the end of the earth — as 
 swift as the eagle flieth — a nation whose tongue thou 
 shalt not understand, — a nation of fierce countenance, 
 which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show 
 favour to the young. And he shall eat the fruit of thy 
 cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroy- 
 ed : which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine or 
 oil, or the increase of thy kine or flocks of thy sheep, 
 until he have destroyed thee ; and they shall besiege 
 thee in all thy gates, until thy high fenced walls come 
 down wherein thou trustest, throughout all thy land."* 
 Each particular of this prophecy, though it be only in- 
 troductory to others, has met its full completion. The 
 remote situation of the Romans — the rapidity of their 
 march — the very emblem of their arms — their unknown 
 language, and warlike appearance — the indiscriminate 
 cruelty, and unsparing pillage which they exercised to- 
 wards the persons and the property of the Jews, could 
 scarcely have been represented in more descriptive 
 
 * Deut xxviii. 49, &c.
 
 52 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 terms. Vespasian, Adrian, and Julius Severus, re- 
 moved with part of their armies from Britain to Pales- 
 tine — the extreme points of the Roman world. The 
 eagle was the standard of their armies — and the ut- 
 most activity and expedition were displayed in the 
 reduction of Judea. They were a nation of fierce 
 countenance — a race distinct from the effeminate Asia- 
 tic troops. At Gadara and Gamala — throughout many 
 parts of the Roman Empire, and, in repeated in- 
 stances, at Jerusalem itself — the slaughter of the Jews 
 was indiscriminate, without distinction of age or sex. 
 The inhabitants were enslaved and banished, — all 
 their possessions confiscated — and the kingdom of 
 Israel, humbled at first into a province of the Ro- 
 man empire, became at last the private property of 
 the Emperor. Throughout all the land of Judea every 
 city was besieged and taken — and their high and fenced 
 walls were razed from the foundation. But the pro- 
 phet particularizes incidents the most shocking to hu- 
 manity, which mark the utmost possible extremity of 
 want and wretchedness — the last act to which famine 
 could prompt despair — and the last subject of a pre- 
 diction, thatcouldhave been uttered by man : — "And 
 thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body — the flesh of 
 thy sons and of thy daughters, in the siege and in 
 the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress 
 thee — so that the man that is tender among you, and 
 very delicate, his eye shall be evil towards his brother, 
 and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rem- 
 nant of his children which he shall leave — so that he 
 will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children, 
 whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him 
 in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine ene- 
 mies shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender 
 and delicate woman among you, which would not ad- 
 venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for 
 delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil to-
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, 53 
 
 wards the husband of her bosom, and towards her son, 
 and towards her daughter, and towards her young one, 
 and towards her children, which she shall bear — for she 
 shall eat them for want of all things, secretly, in the 
 siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall dis- 
 tress thee in thy gates."* Six hundred years posterior 
 to this prediction, when Samaria, then the capital of 
 Israel, was besieged by all the host of the king of Sy- 
 ria, the most loathsome substitute for food was of great 
 price, — and an ass's head was sold for eighty pieces of 
 silver.-f* When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, 
 the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread 
 for the people of the land. And Josephus relates the 
 direful calamities of the Jews in their last siege, before 
 they ceased to have a city. The famine was too power- 
 ful for all other passions, — for what was otherwise re- 
 verenced was in this case despised. Children snatched 
 the food out of the very mouths of their fathers ; and 
 even mothers, overcoming the tenderest feelings of na- 
 ture, took from their perishing infants the last morsels 
 that could sustain their lives. In every house where 
 there was the least shadow of food, a contest arose ; 
 and the nearest relatives strufjfjled with each other for 
 the miserable means of subsistence.! He adds a most 
 revolting detail. While, in all these cases, the eye of 
 man v,as thus evil towards his brother, in the siege and 
 in the straitness wherewith their enemies distressed 
 them, — the unparalleled inhuman compact between 
 the two women of Samaria ; the bitter lamentation of 
 Jeremiah over the miseries of the siege which he wit- 
 nessed, " The hands of the pitiful women have sodden 
 their own children — they were their meat in the de- 
 struction of the daughter of my people C and the har- 
 rowing recital, by Josephus, of the noble lady killing, 
 
 • Deut. xxviii. .53, &c, t 2 King's vi, i, 
 
 + Joseph de Bello, 1. 6, 3, § 4.
 
 54 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 with her own hands, and eating, secretly, her own 
 suckling, (the discovery of which struck even the 
 whole suffering city with horror,) which are all re- 
 corded as facts, without the least allusion to the pre- 
 diction, — too faithfully realize, to the very letter, the 
 dread denunciations of the prophet. When any well- 
 authenticated facts, of so singular and appalling a na- 
 ture, were predicted for ages, they could not possibly 
 have been revealed but by inspiration from that om- 
 niscience which alone can foresee the termination of 
 the iniquities of nations. 
 
 Moses, and the other prophets, foretold also that the 
 Jews would be left few in number — that they would 
 be slain before their enemies — that the pride of their 
 power would be broken — that their cities would be 
 laid waste — that they would be destroyed and brought 
 to nought — plucked from off" the land — sold for slaves 
 — and that none would buy them — that their high 
 places were to be desolate — and their bones to be 
 scattered around their altars — that Jerusalem was to 
 be encamped round about — to be besieged with a 
 mount — to have forts raised against it — to be plough- 
 ed over as a field, and to become heaps ; — that the 
 end was to come upon it, and that the Lord would 
 judge them according to their ways, and recompense 
 them for all their abominations ; the sword without 
 and the pestilence and the famine within ; — " he 
 that is in the field shall die with the sword, and he 
 that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour 
 him;'* 
 
 These predictions relative to the siege and destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, which are recorded in the Penta- 
 teuch, and in the subsequent prophecies, accord with 
 the minute prophetic narrative which Jesus gave of 
 
 • Lev. xxvi. 30, &c. Deut. xxviii. G2, &c. Isa. xxix. 3. 
 :Pzek. vi. 5. Micah iii. 12. Jer. xxvi. 18. Ezek. vii. 7— 9— :lo.
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 55 
 
 the same sad event. Any adequate delineation of it 
 alone would far surpass the limits of this treatise. 
 But the subject has been fully and frequently illus- 
 trated, and the prediction harmonizes so completely 
 with the unimpeachable testimony of impartial his- 
 torians, that it is merely necessary, for the elucidation 
 of its truth, to compare the prophetic description with 
 the historical facts. 
 
 Besides frequent allusions, in his discourses and 
 parables,* the predictions of Christ, concerning Jeru- 
 salem, are recorded at length by three of the Evan- 
 gelists. They are omitted by the Apostle John, in 
 whose writings alone, from the age to which he lived, 
 their insertion would have been suspicious. They 
 were delivered to the disciples of Christ in answer to 
 those direct questions which they put, in their sur- 
 prise and alarm, at his declaration of the fate of the 
 temple, " When shall these things be ? What shall 
 be the sign of them, and of the end of the world .^" 
 The reply embraces all the subjects of the query, and 
 is equally circumstantial and distinct. The death 
 of Christ happened thirty-seven years previous to the 
 destruction of Jerusalem. By the unanimous testi- 
 mony of antiquity, the three gospels were published, 
 and at least two of the Evangelists were dead, several 
 years before that event. Copies of the gospels were 
 disseminated so extensively and rapidly, that any 
 deceit must have been instantaneously detected by 
 the powerful and numerous, and watchful enemies of 
 the cross. And the evidence of the prior publicity of 
 the gospels was so strong, that it remained unchal- 
 lenged by Julian, by Porphyry, or by Celsus. The 
 authenticity of the prophecy thus rests on sure 
 grounds, and the facts in which it received its accom- 
 
 • Matt. xxi. 18, 19—33; xxii. 1—7; xxv. 14—30. Mark 
 xi. 12, 13— 20,&c. Luke xiii.6— 9 ; xiv. 17—24.; xx.9— 19; 
 xxiii. 27—31.
 
 56 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 plishment are incontestable. Josephus was one of 
 the most distinguished generals in the commencement 
 of the Jewish war ; he was an eye-witness of the facts 
 which he records ; he appeals to Vespasian and to 
 Titus for the truth of his history ; it received the sin- 
 gular attestation of the subscription of the latter to its 
 accuracy ; it was published while the facts were recent 
 and notorious ; and the extreme carefulness with 
 which he avoids the mention of the name of Christ, 
 in the history of the Jewish war, is not less remark- 
 able than the great precision with which he describes 
 the events that verify his predictions. Not a few of 
 the transactions are also related by Tacitus, Philos- 
 tratus, and Dion Cassius. 
 
 The different prophecies of Christ respecting Jeru- 
 salem may be condensed into a single view. 
 
 " xVnd Jesus went out and departed from the tem- 
 ple ; and his disciples came to him for to show him 
 the buildings of the temple.* And Jesus said unto 
 them, See ye not all these things : verily I say unto 
 you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another 
 that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon 
 the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him 
 privately, saying — Tell us when shall these things 
 be : and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and 
 of the end of the world ? And Jesus answered and said 
 unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you ; for 
 many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, 
 and shall deceive many. And the time draws near ; 
 and ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars, 
 — or commotions : these things must first come to 
 pass, but the end is not yet. Nation shall rise against 
 nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and great 
 earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines 
 and pestilences, and fearful sights, and great signs 
 
 • Matt. xxiv. Mark xiii. Luke xxi.
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 5^ 
 
 shall there be from heaven. All these things are the 
 beginning of sorrows. But, before all these things, 
 shall they lay their hands upon you, and persecute 
 you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into 
 prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my 
 name's sake. And many shall be offended. Ye 
 shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren, and 
 kinsfolk and friends ; and some of you shall they 
 cause to be put to death, and ye shall be hated of all 
 men for my name''s sake. But there shall not a hair 
 of your head perish. And many false prophets will 
 arise and will deceive many ; and, because iniquity 
 shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And 
 the gospel must first be published among all nations, 
 and then shall the end come. When ye, therefore, 
 shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, and 
 the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place, 
 and where it ought not, then let them which are in 
 Judea flee to the movmtains, and let him which is in 
 the midst of it depart out. Let him which is on the 
 house-top not go down into the house, neither enter 
 therein to take any thing out of his house. Neither 
 let him that is in the field turn back again for to take 
 up his garment, for these are the days of vengeance. 
 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them 
 that give suck in those days ; for there will be great 
 distress in the land, and wrath upon this people — 
 and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall 
 be led captive into all nations. There shall be great 
 tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of 
 the world to this time — no, nor ever shall be — and 
 Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, 
 until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. This 
 generation shall not pass away till all these things be 
 done. 
 
 " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees — fill ye up 
 the measure of your fathers. Behold I send unto you
 
 58 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 prophets, and wise men, and scribes, and some of them 
 ye will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from 
 city to city. All these things shall be done in this 
 generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that kill- 
 est the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto 
 thee, how often would I have gathered thy children 
 together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under 
 her wings, and ye would not. Behold your house is 
 left unto you desolate; for I say unto you. Ye shall 
 not see me henceforth till ye shall say. Blessed is he 
 that cometh in the name of the Lord.* 
 
 " When he came near, he beheld the city, and 
 wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, 
 at least in this thy day, the things which belong to 
 thy peace ; but now they are hid from thine eyes.-f- 
 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine ene- 
 mies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee 
 round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay 
 thee even with the ground, and thy children within 
 thee ; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon 
 another, because thou knewest not the time of thy 
 visitation.'' 
 
 These prophecies from the Old Testament and from 
 the New, repel the charge of ambiguity. They are 
 equally copious and clear. History attests the truth 
 of each and all of them ; and a recapitulation of them 
 forms an enumeration of the facts. False Christs 
 appeared. Simon Magus boasted that he was some 
 great one. — Dositheus, the Samaritan, pretended that 
 he was the lawgiver prophesied of by INIoses. — Theu- 
 das, promising the performance of a miracle, persuad- 
 ed a great multitude to follow him to Jordan, and 
 deceived many.| The country was filled with im- 
 postors and deceivers, who induced the people to fol- 
 
 * Matt, xxiii. 34. f Luke xix. 41. 
 
 j Joseph. Ant. xx. 5, 1 ; Jos. xx. 7, 5.
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 59 
 
 low them into the wilderness ; — their credulity be- 
 came the punishment of their previous scepticism, and, 
 in one instance, the tumult was so great that the sol- 
 diers took two hundred prisoners, and slew twice that 
 number. There were wars and rumours of' wars ; 
 nation rose against nation, and kingdom against kifig- 
 dom. The Jews resisted the erection of the statue of 
 Caligula in the temple ; and, such was the dread of 
 Roman resentment, that the fields remained unculti- 
 vated.* At Ca2sarea, the Jews and the Syrians con- 
 tended for the mastery of the city. Twenty thousand 
 of the former were put to death, and the rest were 
 expelled. Every city in Syria was then divided into 
 two armies, and multitudes were slaughtered. Alexan- 
 dria and Damascus presented a similar scene of blood- 
 shed. About fifty thousand of the Jews fell in the 
 former, and ten thousand in the latter.-|- The Jewish 
 nation rebelled against the Romans ; Italy was con- 
 vulsed with contentions for the empire ; and, as a 
 proof of the troubles and warlike character of the 
 period, within the brief space of two years, four em- 
 perors, Nero, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, suffered 
 death. There were famines, pestilences, and earth- 
 quakes in divers places. In the reign of Claudius 
 Caesar there were different famines. They continued 
 to be severe for several years throughout the land of 
 Judea. Pestilence succeeded them. In the same 
 reign there were earthquakes at Rome, at Apamea, 
 and at Crete. In that of Nero there was an earth- 
 quake in Campania, and another in which Laodicea, 
 Hierapolis, and Colosse were overthrown, and others 
 are recorded to have happened in various places, be- 
 fore the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. | " The 
 
 * Joseph, de Bell. 1. ii. 18. 1,2. 
 f Joseph, ib. ii. c. 13 ; c. 18. 1, 2, 7, 8. 
 % Suet. Vit. Clan. 18. Tac. Ann. 1. 12, c 43, 1. 14, c 27. 
 Jos. iv. 6. Tac. I. xiv. 27 ; xii. 43, 58.
 
 (JO PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 constitution of nature," says the Jewish historian,* 
 " was confounded for the destruction of men, and one 
 might easily conjecture that no common calamities 
 were portended." And there were fearful sights and 
 sig}is from heaven. Tacitus and Josephus agree in 
 relating and in describing events so surprising and 
 supernatural, that their narrative perfectly accords 
 with the previous prediction. -|- And the fact cannot 
 be disputed, that, whatever these sights were, the 
 minds of men were impressed with the idea that they 
 were indeed signs from heaven : And even this could 
 never have been foreseen by man. There is surely 
 something at least unaccountable in their prediction 
 and in their relation by historians, unprejudiced and 
 unfriendly to the cause which their testimony sup- 
 ports. The diseiples of Jesus ivere persecuted, im- 
 priso7ied, afficted, and hated of all nations, for his 
 name\s sake, and manij of them were put to death. 
 Peter, Simeon, and Jude were crucified.;}: Paul was 
 beheaded; Matthew, Thomas, James, Matthias, INIark, 
 and Luke were put to death in different countries, 
 and in various manners. There was a war against 
 the very name. They were accused of hatred to the 
 human race. The prejudices and the interest of the 
 supporters of paganism were everywhere against them ; 
 and, in one memorable instance, Nero, to screen him- 
 s^^lf from the guilt of being the incendiary of his capi- 
 tal, accused the imiocent but hated Christians of that 
 atrocious deed, and inflicted upon them the most ex- 
 
 * Jos. iv. 4. 
 
 -f- Eveneraiit prodi^ia, qu?e nefjiie liostiis, iieqiie votis piare 
 fas liabet jrens superstitioni obnoxia religionibus adversa. 
 Visa? per coelum concurrere acies, nitilautia arma, et subito 
 mibium igne collucere templum. Expassae repeute delubri 
 fores ot audita major humana vox excedere dcos ; sinuil 
 iiijiens motus excedentium. Tacit. Hist. 1. o, c. 13. 
 
 J Cave's Lives of the Ap. Diipin.
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 61 
 
 cruciatiiig tortures.* He made their sufferings a spec» 
 tacle and a sport to the Romans. To compensate for 
 his disappointment in not trampling on the ashes of 
 Rome, as well as to cloak his iniquity, the monster 
 (for the man and the monarch were both laid aside,) 
 gratified his savage lust of cruelty, by the substitution 
 of one feast for another ; he selected the Christians for 
 his victims, from the general odium under which they 
 lay — and their very name became the warrant for 
 that selection, and sufficed to sanction the infliction, 
 of unheard of barbarities. Many shall he offended, 
 and shall betray one another ; and the love of many 
 shall wax cold. The apostle of the Gentiles often 
 complained of false brethren, that many turned away 
 from him, and that he stood alone, forsaken by all, 
 when he first appeared before Nero. And Tacitus 
 testifies that very many were convicted, on the evi- 
 dence of others who had previously been accused. 
 But the gospel leas published throughout the world, in 
 defiance of all peril and persecution. In the age of the 
 apostles, epistles were addressed to Christians at Rome, 
 Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi,Colosse, Thessalonica, and 
 in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 
 After Christ delivered this prophecy, he was in a little 
 time forsaken by all his disciples, and put to death as 
 a criminal. At their first assembly, they were a little 
 flock, the number of the names together were about a 
 hundred and twenty. And, unpromising as the 
 prospect was, a few fishermen of Galilee, aided after- 
 wards by a tent-maker of Tarsus, circumscribed not 
 their labours, in the preaching of the gospel, by the 
 boundaries of the Roman empire. Could the recep- 
 tion or the fate of Christ himself have warranted such 
 a conclusion ? Did ever any cause triumph by such 
 means ? or was ever any cause opposed like his ? 
 
 * Tac. Ann. 1. xv. c. 44.
 
 62 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 And could any thing be more unlikely to have been 
 clearly foreseen and positively affirmed ? All these 
 events preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, and then 
 the end of that city was at hand. The signs of its 
 approaching ruin are given as a warning to depart 
 from it. Jerusalem was encompassed with armies. 
 The Roman armies, with their idolatrous ensigns, 
 which were an abomination to the Jews, surrounded it 
 — but instead of beins a signal for flight, this would 
 naturally have implied the impossibility of escape, 
 and the warning would have been in vain. Yet the 
 words of Jesus did not deceive his disciples. Cestius 
 Gallus, the Roman general, besieged Jerusalem ; but, 
 immediately after, contrary to all human probability, 
 an interval was given for escape. He suddenly and 
 causelessly retreated, though some of the chief men of 
 the city had offered to open to him the gates. Jose- 
 phus acknowledges that the utmost consternation pre- 
 vailed among the besieged, and that the city would 
 infallibly have been taken.* And he attributes it to 
 the just vengeance of God, that the city and the sanc- 
 tuary were not then taken, and the war terminated at 
 once. He relates also, how many of the most illus- 
 trious inhabitants departed from the city, as from a 
 sinking vessel ; and how, upon the approach of Ves- 
 pasian afterwards, multitudes fled from Jericho into 
 the mountainous country. Thither, and to the city 
 of Pella, fled all the disciples of Jesus, as credible 
 historians assert. *!• And, amidst all the succeeding 
 calamities, not a hair of their heads did perish. 
 
 There shall be great tribulation, such as was not 
 from the beginning of the world to this time — wo, 
 nor ever shall be. There shall be great distress in the 
 
 * Joseph, 1. 2, c. 19, 20. 
 
 f Epiphanius in Herts, Nazar. c. 7. Eusebii Ec. His. lib. 
 iii. c. 5.
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 63 
 
 layid, and u-rath upon this people. These are the dai/s 
 of vengeance. Such are some of the words of Jesus, 
 relative to the destruction of Jerusalem ; and all the 
 previous prophecies regarding it were of the same sad 
 import. The particulars of the siege are all related 
 by Josephus, and form a detail of miseries that admit 
 not of exaggeration ; and which he repeatedly de- 
 clares, in terms that entirely accord with the language 
 of prophecy, are altogether unequalled in the history 
 of the world. — No general description can give a just 
 idea of calamities the most terrible that ever nation 
 suffered. The Jews had assembled in their city from 
 all the surrounding country, to keep the feast of un- 
 leavened bread. It was crowded with inhabitants 
 when they were all imprisoned within its walls. The 
 passover, which was commemorative of their first 
 great deliverance, had collected them for their last 
 signal destruction. Before any external enemy ap- 
 peared, the fiercest dissensions prevailed — the blood of 
 thousands was shed by their brethren ; they destroy- 
 ed and burned in their frenzy their common provi- 
 sions for the siege ; they were destitute of any regu- 
 lar government, and divided into three factions. On 
 the extirpation of one of these, each of the others con- 
 tended for the mastery. The most ferocious and fran- 
 tic, — the robbers or zealots, as they are indiscrimi- 
 nately called, prevailed at last. They entered the 
 temple, under the pretence of offering sacrifices, and 
 carried concealed weapons for the purpose of assassi- 
 nation. They slew the priests at the very altar ; and 
 their blood, instead of that of the victims for sacri- 
 fice, flowed around it. They afterwards rejected all 
 terms of peace with the enemy : None were suffered 
 to escape from the city — every house was entered — 
 every article of subsistence was pillaged — and tbe 
 most wanton barbarities were committed. Nothing- 
 could restrain their fury ; wherever there was the ap-
 
 64! PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 pearance or scent of food, the human bloodhounds 
 tracked it out ; and, though a general famine raged 
 around ; though they were ever trampling on the 
 dead ; and though the habitations for the living were 
 converted into charnel-houses, nothing could intimi- 
 date, or appal, or satisfy, or shock them, till Mary, 
 the daughter of Eleazar, a lady once rich and noble, 
 displayed to them and offered them all her remaining 
 food, the scent of which had attracted them in their 
 search — the bitterest morsel that ever mother or mor- 
 tal tasted — the remnant of her half-eaten suckling. 
 8ixty thousand Roman soldiers unremittingly be- 
 sieged them ; they encompassed Jerusalem with a 
 wall, and hemmed them in on every side ; they 
 brought down their high and fenced walls to the 
 ground ; they slaughtered the slaughterers, they 
 spared not the people ; they burned the temple in de- 
 fiance of the commands, the thi'eats and the resistance 
 of their general. With it the last hope of all the 
 Jews was extinguished. They raised, at the sight, an 
 universal, but an expiring cry of sorrow and despair. 
 Ten thousand were there slain, and six thousand vic- 
 tims were enveloped in its blaze. The whole city, 
 full of the famished dying, and of the murdered dead, 
 presented no picture but that of despair — no scene 
 but of horror. The aqueducts and the city sewers 
 were crowded as the last refuge of the hopeless. Two 
 thousand were found dead there, and many were 
 dragged from thence and slain. The Roman soldiers 
 ])ut all indiscriminately to death, and ceased not till 
 they became faint and weary and oveqiowered with 
 the work of destruction. But they only sheathed the 
 sword to light the torch. They set fire to the city in 
 various places. The flames spread everywhere, and 
 were checked but for a moment by the red streamlets 
 in every street. Jerusalem became heaps, and the 
 Mountain of the house as the high places of the
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 65 
 
 forest. Within the circuit of eight miles, in the space 
 of five months — foes and famine, pillage and pesti- 
 lence, within — a triple wall around, and besieged 
 every moment from without — eleven hundred thou- 
 sand human beings perished — though the tale of 
 each of them was a tragedy. Was there ever so con- 
 centrated a mass of misery ? Could any prophecy be 
 more faithfully and awfully fulfilled ? The prospect 
 of his own crucifixion, when Jesus was on his way to 
 Calvary, was not more clearly before him, and seem- 
 ed to affect him less, than the fate of Jerusalem. 
 How full of tenderness, and fraught with truth, was 
 the sympathetic response of the condoling sufferer, to 
 the wailings and lamentations of the women who foL 
 lowed him, when he turned unto them, and beheld 
 the city, which some of them might yet see wrapt in 
 flames and drenched in blood, and said : " Daughters 
 of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for your- 
 selves and for your children. For behold, the days are 
 coming, in the which they will say — Blessed are the 
 barren, and the womb that never bare, and the paps 
 which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say 
 to the mountains, fall on us ; and to the hills, cover 
 us. For if they do these things in the green tree, 
 what shall be done in the dry t'"' No impostor ever 
 betrayed such feelings as a man, nor predicted events 
 so unlikely, astonishing, and true, as an attestation 
 of a divine commission. Jesus revealed the very 
 judgments of God ; for such the instrument, by whom 
 it was accomplished, interpreted the capture and de- 
 struction of Jeiusalem, acknowledging that his own 
 j>ower would otherwise have been ineffectual. When 
 eulogized for the victory, Titus disclaimed the praise, 
 affirming that he was only the instrument of execut- 
 ing the sentence of the divine justice. And their 
 own historian asserts, in conformity with every de- 
 claration of Scripture upon the subject, that the ini-
 
 66 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 quities of the Jews were as unparalleled as their pu- 
 nishment. 
 
 All these pi'ophecies, of which we have been re- 
 viewing the accomplishment, were delivered in a time 
 of perfect peace, when the Jews retained their own 
 laws, and enjoyed the protection, as they were subject 
 to the authority, of the Roman empire, then in the 
 zenith of its power. The wonder excited in the 
 minds of his disciples at the strength and stability of 
 the temple, drew forth from Jesus the announcement 
 of its speedy and utter ruin. He foretold the ap- 
 pearance of false Christs and pretended prophets ; the 
 wars and rumoursof wars ; the famines and pestilences 
 and earthquakes and fearful sights that were to ensue ; 
 the persecution of his disciples ; the apostacy of many ; 
 the propagation of the gospel ; the sign that should 
 warn his disciples to fly from approaching ruin ; the 
 encompassing and enclosing of Jerusalem ; the griev- 
 ous affliction of the tender sex ; the unequalled mi- 
 series of all ; the entire destruction of the city ; the 
 shortening of their sufferings, that still some might 
 be saved ; and that all this dread crowd of events, 
 which might well have occupied the progress of ages, 
 was to pass away within the limits of a single gene- 
 ration. None but He who discerns futurity could 
 have foretold and described all these things : and 
 their complete and literal fulfilment shows them to 
 be indubitably the revelation of God. 
 
 But the prophecies also mark minuter facts, if pos- 
 sible more unlikely to have happened. Jerusalem 
 was to be ploughed over as a field ; to be laid even 
 with the ground ; of the temple one stone was not to 
 be left upon another ; the Jews were to be few in 
 number ; to be led captive into all nations ; to be 
 sold for slaves and none would buy them. And each 
 of these predictions was strictly verified. Titus com- 
 manded the whole city and temple to be razed from
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 67 
 
 the foundation. The soldiers were not then disobe- 
 dient to their general. Avarice combined with duty 
 and with resentment : The altar, the temple, the 
 walls, and the city, were overthrown fi-om the base, 
 in search of the treasures which the Jews, beset on 
 every hand by plunderers, had concealed and buried 
 during the siege. Three towers and the remnant of 
 a wall alone stood ; the monument and memorial of 
 Jerusalem ; and the city was afterwards ploughed 
 over by Terentius Rufus. In the siege, and in the 
 previous and subsequent destruction of the cities and 
 villages of Judea, according to the specified enumera- 
 tion of Josephus, about one million three hundred 
 thousand suffered death. Ninety-seven thousand 
 were led into captivity. They were sold for slaves, 
 and were so despised and disesteemed, that many re- 
 mained unpurchased. And their conquerors were so 
 prodigal of their lives, that, in honour of the birth- 
 day of Domitian, two thousand five hundred of them 
 were placed, in savage sport, to contend with wild 
 beasts, and otherwise to be put to death.* 
 
 ♦ Tacitus, w ho flourished about thirty years after the fle- 
 structiou of Jerusalem, spealcs of the strength of the fortifi- 
 cations of that city, the immense riches and strength of tlie 
 emple, the factions that raged during- the siege, as well as of 
 he prodigies that preceded its fall. And he jjarticularly 
 mentions the large army brought by Vespasiao to subdue 
 Judea, " a fact tthich shows the magnitude and importance 
 of the expedition." Philostratus particularly relates that Titus 
 declared, after the capture of Jerusalem, that he was not 
 worth}' of the crowu of victory, as he had only lent his hand 
 to the execution of a work in which God w;is pleased to 
 manifest his anger. Dion Cassius records the conquest of 
 Judea by Titus and Vespasian, the obstinate and bloody re- 
 sistance of the Jews during the siege, the destruction of the 
 temple by fire. It is recorded by Maimonides, and in the 
 Jewish Talmud, (as cited by Basnage and Larduer,) that 
 Tereutius Uufus, an officer in the Roman army, tore up 
 with a ploughshare the foundations of the temple. The
 
 68 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 But the miseries of their race were not then at a 
 close. There was a curse on the land, that hath 
 scathed it, a judgment on the people that hath scat- 
 tered them throughout the world. JNIany prophecies 
 respecting them yet remain to be considered, and 
 much of their history is yet untold. The prophecies 
 are as clear as the facts are visible. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE JEWS. 
 
 While Moses, as a divine legislator, promised to the 
 Israelites that their prosperity, and happiness, and 
 peace, would all keep pace with their obedience, he 
 threatened them with a gradation of punishments, 
 rising in proportion to their impenitence and ini- 
 quity ; and neither in blessings nor in chastise- 
 ments hath the Ruler among the Nations dealt in 
 like manner with any people. But their wickedness, 
 and consequent calamities, greatly preponderated, 
 and are yet prolonged. The retrospect of the history 
 of the Jews, since their dispersion, could not, at the 
 present day, be drawn in truer terms, than in the 
 unpropitious auguries of their prophet above three 
 thousand two hundred years ago. In the most an- 
 
 triuraphal arch of Titus, commemorative of the destruction 
 of Jerusalem, and with figures of Roman soldiers, bearing on 
 their shoulders the holy vessels of the temple, is still to be 
 seen at Rome. 
 
 /
 
 THE JEWS. C9 
 
 Cieiit of all records, we read the lively representation 
 of the present condition of the most singular people 
 upon earth. Moses professed to look through the 
 glass of ages : The revolution of many centuries has 
 brought the object immediately before us — we may 
 scrutinize the features of futurity as they then ap- 
 peared to his prophetic gaze, — and we may determine 
 between the probabilities whether they were conjec- 
 tures of a mortal, who " knows not what a day may 
 bring forth," or the revelation of that Being, " in 
 whose sight a thousand years are but as yesterday." 
 
 " I will scatter you among the heathen, and draw 
 out a sword after you, — and your land shall be deso- 
 late, and your cities waste ; and upon them that are 
 left of you I will send a faintness into their hearts, in 
 the land of their enemies ; and the sound of a shaken 
 leaf shall chase them — and they shall flee as fleeing 
 from a sword — and they shall fall when none pursueth 
 — and ye shall have no power to stand before your 
 enemies — and ye shall perish among the heathen ; — 
 and the land of your enemies shall eat you up — and 
 they that are left of yovi shall pine away in their ini- 
 quity in your enemies' land ; and also in the iniqui- 
 ties of their fathers, shall they pine away with them, 
 — and yet for all that, when they be in the land of 
 their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will 
 I abhor them to destroy them utterly.* And the 
 Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye 
 shall be left few in number among the heathen whi- 
 ther the Lord will lead you.-f- The Lord shall cause 
 thee to be smitten before thine enemies — thou shalt 
 go out one w'ay against them, and flee seven ways be- 
 fore them — and shalt be removed into all the king- 
 doms of the earth, j The Lord shall smite thee with 
 
 • Lev. xxvi. 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 44). t Dcut. v. 27. 
 :;: Deut. xxviii. 23, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 37—45, 46.
 
 70 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart, — 
 and thou shalt grope at noon-day as the blind gropeth 
 in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways, 
 and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled ever- 
 more, and no man shall save thee. Thy sons and 
 thy daughters shall be given to another people. 
 There shall be no might in thine hand. The fniit of 
 thy land and all thy labour shall a nation, which thou 
 knowest not, eat up, and thou shalt be only oppressed 
 and crushed alway — so that thou shalt be mad for the 
 sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. The Lord 
 shall bring thee unto a nation which neither thou nor 
 thy fathers have known, — and thou shalt become an 
 astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all 
 the nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. Be- 
 cause thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joy- 
 fulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance 
 of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies 
 which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger 
 and in thirst — and in nakedness, and in want of all 
 things — and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy 
 neck, until he have destroyed thee. — And the Lord 
 will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plague of 
 thy seed, even great plagues and of long continuance.* 
 All these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pur- 
 sue thee, and overtake thee, and they shall be upon 
 thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed 
 for ever — and it shall come to pass, that as the Lord 
 rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you 
 — so 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 goest to possess it, and the 
 Lord will scatter thee among all people, from the one 
 end of the earth even unto the other — and among 
 these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the 
 
 * Deut. xxviii. 47, i8, 59. 
 
 i
 
 THE JEWS. 71 
 
 sole of thy foot have rest ; hut the Lord shall give 
 thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and 
 sorrow of mind — and thy life shall hang in doubt be- 
 fore thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt 
 have none assurance of thy life. In the morning, 
 thou shalt say, would God it were even ! and at even 
 thou shalt say, would God it were morning, for the 
 fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for 
 the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.* 
 
 The v,ritings of all the succeeding prophets abound 
 with similar predictions. " I will cause them to be 
 removed into all nations of the earth. I will cast 
 them out into a land that they know not, where I will 
 show them no favour. I will feed them with worm- 
 wood, and give them water of gall to drink.-j- I will 
 scatter them also among the heathen — whom neither 
 they nor their fathers have known. I will deliver 
 them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the 
 earth for their hurt, to be a reproach, a proverb, a 
 taunt, and a curse in all places whither I shall drive 
 them : and I will send the sword, the famine, and the 
 pestilence among them, till they be consumed from 
 off the land that I gave unto them and to their fa- 
 thers.;]; I will bereave them of children. I will de- 
 liver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the 
 earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hiss- 
 ing, and a reproach, even among all the nations whi- 
 ther I have driven them.§ I will execute judgment 
 in thee — and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter 
 into all the winds. || I will scatter them among the 
 nations, among the heathen, and disperse them in the 
 countries.^ They shall cast their silver in the 
 streets, and their gold shall be removed — their silver 
 
 * Deut. xxviii. 63—67. t Jer. ix. 16. 
 
 I Jer. xxiv. 9, 10; xv. 7. § Jer. xxix. 18. 
 
 Ij Ezek. V. 10. H Ezek. xii. 15.
 
 72 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the 
 day of the wrath of the Lord, — they shall not satisfy 
 their souls, neither fill their bowels, because it is the 
 stumbling-block of their iniquity.* I will sift the 
 house of Israel among the nations, like as corn is sift- 
 ed in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon 
 the earth. Death shall be chosen rather than life by 
 all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, 
 which remain in all the places whither I have driven 
 them, saith the Lord of hosts. They shall be wan- 
 derers among the nations. •!" JSIake the heart of this 
 people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their 
 eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their 
 ears, and convert and be healed. Then said I, Lord, 
 how long .'' and he answered, until the cities be wasted 
 v.ithout inhabitants, and the houses without man, and 
 the land be utterly desolate — and the Lord have re- 
 moved men far away — and there be a great forsaking 
 in the midst of the land.| Though they go into cap- 
 tivity before their enemies, thence will I command the 
 sword, and it shall slay them, — and I will set mine 
 eyes upon them for evil, and not for good. But he 
 that scattcreth Israel will gather him and keep him. § 
 And fear not thou, my servant Jacob, and be not dis- 
 mayed, O Israel ; for behold I will save thee from afar 
 off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity. I 
 will make a full end of all the nations whither I have 
 driven thee ; but I will not make a full end of thee, 
 but correct thee in measure ; yet will I not utterly cut 
 thee off, or leave thee wholly unpunished. || The child- 
 ren of Israel shall abide many days without a king and 
 without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and with- 
 out an image, and without an ephod, and without 
 
 • Ezek. vii. 19. -|- Amos ix, 9. Jer. viii. 3. Hos. ix. ]7. 
 X Is. vi. 10, 11, \2. § Jer. xxxi. 16. 
 
 Jl Jer. xlvi. 27, 28. 
 
 2
 
 THE JEWS. 73 
 
 tcraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel re- 
 turn, and seek the Lord their God, and David their 
 king, and shall fear the Lord, and his goodness, in the 
 latter days."* 
 
 All these predictions respecting the Jews are de- 
 livered with theclearnessof history and the confidence 
 of truth. They represent the manner — the extent — 
 the nature — and the continuance of their dispersion — 
 their persecutions — their blindness — their sufferings 
 — their feebleness — their fcarfulness — their pusillani- 
 mity, — their ceaseless wanderings — their hardened 
 impenitence — their insatiable avarice, — and the griev- 
 ous oppression — the continued spoliation — the mark- 
 ed distinction — the universal mockery — the unex- 
 tinsuishable existence, and unlimited diffusion of 
 their race. Thetj were to le plucked from off their 
 own land — smitten before their enemies — consumed 
 from off their own land, and left few in number. The 
 Rom.ans destroyed their cities and ravaged their coun- 
 try, and the inhabitants who escaped from the famine, 
 the pestilence, the sword, and the captivity, were for- 
 cibly expelled from Judea, and fled as houseless wan- 
 derers into all the surrounding regions. But they 
 elung, for a time, around the land which their fathers 
 had possessed for so many ages, and on which they 
 looked as an inheritance allotted by heaven to their 
 race ; and they would not relinquish their claim to 
 the possession of it by any single over'lirow, however 
 great. Unparalleled as were the miseries which they 
 had suffered in the slaughter of their kindred, the 
 loss of their property and their homes, the annihila- 
 tion of their power, the destruction of their capital 
 city, and in the devastation of their country by Titus 
 — yet the fugitive and exiled Jews soon resorted again 
 to their native soil ; and sixty years had scarcely 
 
 * Hcs. iii. i, 5. 
 
 E
 
 74 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 elapsed, when, deceived by an impostor, allured by 
 the hope of a triumphant Messiah, and excited to 
 revolt by intolerable oppression, they strove, by a 
 vigorous and united, but frantic effort, to reconquer 
 .Tudea — to cast oft' the power of the Romans, which 
 had everywhere crushed them, and to rescue them- 
 selves and their country from ruin. A war, — which 
 their enthusiasm and desperation alike protracted for 
 two years, and in which, exclusive of a vast number 
 that perished by famine and sickness and fire, five 
 hundred and eighty thousand Jews are said to have 
 been slain, — terminated in their entire discomfiture 
 and final banishment. They were so beset on every 
 side, and cut down in detached portions by the Ro- 
 man soldiers, that, in the words of a heathen histori- 
 an, very few of them escaped. Fifty of their strong- 
 holds were razed from the ground, and their cities 
 sacked and consumed by fire ; Judea was laid waste 
 and left as a desert.* Though a similar fate never 
 befell any other people without proving the extirpation 
 of their race or the last of their miseries, that awful 
 prediction, in its reference to the Jews, met its full 
 completion — which yet they survive to await, in every 
 country when exiles from their own, an accumulation 
 of almost unceasing calamities, protracted through- 
 out many succeeding ages. The cities shall be wasted 
 wilhout inhabitant. Every cilj/ shall be forsaken, and 
 not a man dwell therein. They were rooted out of 
 their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great in- 
 dignation.'f A public edict of the emperor Adrian 
 rendered it a capital crime for a Jew J to set a foot in 
 Jerusalem ; and prohibited them from viewing it even 
 
 * Dion. lib. Ixix. 
 
 t Isaiah vi. 11. Jer. iv. 29. Deut. xxix. 28. 
 % Tert. Ap. c 21, Basnage's Continuution of Josejjhus, 
 h. vi. ^ 1.
 
 THE JEWS. 75 
 
 at a distance. Heathens, Christians, and Mahome- 
 tans have alternately possessed Judea : It has been 
 the prey of the Saracens : — the descendants of Ishmael 
 have often overrun it : The children of Israel have 
 alone been denied the possession of it, though thither 
 they ever wish to return — and though it forms the 
 only spot on earth where the ordinances of their reli- 
 gion can be observed. And, amidst all the revolutions 
 of states, and the extinction of many nations, in so 
 long a period, the Jews alone have not only ever been 
 aliens in the land of their fathers, but whenever any 
 of them have been permitted, at any period since the 
 time of their dispersion to sojourn there, they have 
 experienced even more contumelious treatment than 
 elsewhere. Benjamin of Tudela, who travelled in 
 the twelfth century through great part of Europe and 
 of Asia, found the Jews everywhere oppressed, pai'- 
 ticularli/ in the Holy Land. And to this day, (while 
 the Jews who reside in Palestine, or who resort thither 
 in old age, that their bones may not be laid in a 
 foreign land, are alike ill treated and abused by 
 Greeks, Armenians, and Europeans,*) the haughty 
 deportment of the despotic Turkish soldier, and the 
 abject state of the poor and helpless Jews, are painted 
 to the life by the prophet. The stranger that is 
 within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou 
 shalt come down very low.\ 
 
 But the extent is still more remarkable than the 
 manner of their dispersion. Many prophecies describe 
 it, and foretold, thousands of years ago, what we now 
 behold. They have been scattered among the nations, 
 — among the heathen — among the people, even from 
 one end of the earth unto the other : They have been 
 removed into all the kingdoms of the earth ; the whole 
 remnant of them have been scattered into all the winds ; 
 
 * General Straton's MS. Travels. f Deut. xxviii. 43.
 
 7G PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 iheij have heen dispersed throughout all countries, cvd 
 sifted among the nations like as corn is sifted in a 
 sieve, and yet not the least grain has fcdlen upon the 
 earth — though dispersed throughout all nations, they 
 have remained distinct from them all. And there is 
 not a country on the face of the earth where the 
 Jews are uiilcnovrn. They are found alike in Europe, 
 Asia, America, and Africa. They are citizens of 
 the world without a country. Neither mountains, 
 nor rivers, nor deserts, nor oceans — -which are the 
 boundaries of other nations, — have terminated their 
 wanderings. They abound in Poland, in Holland, 
 in Russia and in Turkey. In Germany, Spain, 
 Italy, France, and Britain, they are more thinly 
 scattered. In Persia, China, and India — on the east 
 and on the west of the Ganges, — they are few in 
 mauler among the heathen. They have trcde the 
 snows of Siberia, and the sands of the burning de- 
 sert ; — and the European traveller hears of their ex- 
 istence in reo'ions which he cannot reach — even in the 
 very interior of Africa, south of Timbuctoo.* From 
 Moscow to Lisbon — from Japan to Britain — from 
 Borneo to Archangel — from Hindostan to Honduras, 
 no inhabitant of any nation upon the earth would be 
 known in all the intervening regions but a Jew alone. 
 But the history of the Jews throughout the whole 
 world, and in every age since their dispersion, verifies 
 the most minute predictions concerning them, — and 
 to a recital of facts too well authenticated to admit of 
 dispute, or too notorious for contradiction, may be 
 added a description of them all in the very terms of 
 the prophecy. In the words of Basnage, the elabor- 
 ate historian of the Jews — " Kings have often em- 
 ployed the severity of their edicts, and the hands of 
 the executioner, to destroy them — the seditious mul- 
 
 * Lyon's Travels in AiVica, p. !4G.
 
 THE JEWS. 
 
 77 
 
 titude has performed massacres and executions infi- 
 nitely more tragical than the princes. Both kings 
 and people, heathens, Christians, and jNIahometans, 
 who are opposite in so many things, have united in 
 the design of ruining; this nation, and have not been 
 able to effect it. The Bush of Closes, surrounded with 
 flames, has always burnt without consuming. The 
 Jews have been driven from all places of the world, 
 which has only served to disperse them in all parts 
 of the universe. They have, from age to age, run 
 through misery and persecution, and torrents of their 
 own blood."* Their banishment from Judca v/as 
 only the prelude to their expulsion from city to city, 
 and from kinfrdom to kino-dom. Their dispersion 
 over the globe is an iiTefragable evidence of this, 
 and many records remain that amply corroborate the 
 fact. Not only did the first and second centuries ai 
 the Christian era see them twice rooted out of their 
 own land, but each succeeding century has teemed 
 with new calamities to that once chosen but now long 
 rejected race. The history of their sufferings is a 
 continued tale of horror. Revolt is natural to the 
 oppressed; and their frequent seditions were productive 
 of renewed privations and distresses. Elmperors, 
 kings, and caliphs all united in subjecting them to 
 the same " iron yoke." Constantine, after having 
 suppressed a revolt v.-hich they raised, and having 
 commanded their ears to be cut off, dispersed them 
 as fugitives and vagabonds into different countries, 
 whither they carried, in terror to their kindred, the 
 m.ark of their suffering and infamy. In the fifth 
 century they were expelled from Alexandria, which 
 had long been one of their safest places of resort. Jus- 
 tinian, from whose principles of legislation a wiser 
 and more humane policy ought to have emanated, 
 
 * Easnage, h. vi, c. 1.
 
 78 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 yielded to none of his predecessors in hostility and 
 severity against them. He aholished their syna- 
 gogues — prohibited them even from entering into 
 caves for the exercise of their worship — rendered their 
 testimony inadmissible, and deprived them of the 
 natural right of bequeathing their property : and when 
 such oppressive enactments led to insurrectionary 
 movements among the Jews, their property was con- 
 fiscated, many of them were beheaded, and so bloody 
 an execution of them prevailed, that, as is expressly 
 related, " all the Jews of that country trembled ;"* 
 a treinhling heart was given them. In the reign of 
 the tyrant Phocas, a general sedition broke out among 
 the Jews in Syria. They and their enemies fought 
 with equal desperation. They obtained the mastery 
 in Antioch ; but a momentary victory only led to a 
 deeper humiliation, and to the infliction of more ag- 
 gravated cruelties than before. They were soon sub- 
 dued and taken captive ; many of them were maimed, 
 others executed, and all the survivors were banished 
 from the city. Gregory the Great afforded them a 
 temporary respite from oppression, which only ren- 
 dered their spoliation more complete, and their suffer- 
 ing more acute, under the cruel persecutions of Her- 
 aclius. That emperor, unable to satiate his hatred 
 against them by inflicting a variety of punishments 
 on those who resided within his own dominions, and 
 by finally expelling them from the empire, exerted 
 so effectually against them his influence in other 
 countries, that they suffered under a general and sim- 
 ultaneous persecution from Asia to the farthest ex- 
 tremities of Europe. -j- In Spain, conversion, im- 
 prisonment, or banishment, were their only alterna- 
 tives. In France a similar fate awaited them. They 
 
 * Basnage's Hist. b. y\. c. 21, sect. 9, 
 -}• Ibid. b. vi. c. 21, sect. 17.
 
 THE JEWS. 79 
 
 fled from country to country, seeking in vain any 
 rest for the sole of their foot. Even the w id e-ex tend- 
 ed plains of Asia afforded them no resting-place, but 
 have often been spotted with their blood, as well as 
 the hills and vallies of Europe. Mahomet, whose 
 imposture has been the law and the faith of such 
 countless millions, has, from the precepts of the Ko- 
 ran, infused into the minds of his followers a spirit of 
 rancour and enmity towards the despised and misbe- 
 lieving Jews. He set an early example of persecu- 
 tion against them, which the Mahometans have not 
 yet ceased to imitate. In the third year of the He- 
 gira, he besieged the castles which they possessed in 
 the Hegiasa, compelled those who had fled to them 
 for refuge and defence to an unconditional surrender, 
 banished them the country, and parted their propertv 
 among his mussulmen. He dissipated a second time 
 their re-combined strength, massacred many of them, 
 and imposed upon the remnant a permanent tribute. 
 The church of Kome ever ranked and treated them 
 as heretics. The canons of different councils pro- 
 nounced excommunication against those who should 
 favour or uphold the Jews against Christians — en- 
 joined all Christians neither to eat nor to hold any 
 commerce with them — prohibited them from bearing 
 public offices or having Christian slaves — appointed 
 them to be distinguished by a mark — decreed that 
 their children should be taken from them, and brought 
 up in monasteries ; and what is equally descriptive of 
 the low estimation in which they were held, and of 
 the miseries to which they were subjected, there was 
 often a necessity, even for those who otherwise op- 
 pressed them, to ordain that it was not lawful to take 
 the life of a Jew without any cause.* Hallam*'s ac- 
 count of the Jews, during the middle ages, is short, 
 
 * Dupin's Ecc. Hist. Canons of difFei'ent councils.
 
 eO PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 but significant. " They were everywhere the objects 
 of popular insult and oppression, frequently of a gene- 
 ral massacre. A time of festivity to others was often 
 the season of mockery and persecution to them. It 
 was the custom at Thoulouse to smite them on the 
 face every Easter. At Beziers they were attacked 
 with stones from Palm Sunday to Easter, an anni- 
 versary of insult and cruelty generally productive 
 tf bloodshed, and to which the popvdace were regvilar- 
 ly instigated by a sermon from the bishop.* It was 
 the policy of the kings of France to employ them as 
 a sponge to suck their subjects'" money, which they 
 might afterwards express with less odium than di- 
 rect taxation would incur. It is almost incredible 
 to what a length extortion of money from the Jews 
 was carried, A series of alternate persecution 
 and tolerance was borne by this extraordinary peo- 
 ple with an invincible perseverance and a talent 
 of accumulating riches which kept pace with the 
 exactions of their plunderers. Philip Augustus re- 
 leased all Christians in his dominions from their 
 debts to the Jews, reserving a fifth part to himself. 
 He afterwards expelled the whole nation from France.'' 
 St. Louis twice banished, and twice recalled them ; 
 and Charles VI. finally expelled them from France. 
 From that country, according to Mezeray, they were 
 seven times banished. They were expelled from 
 Spain ; and, by the lowest computation, one hundred 
 and seventy thousand families departed from -that 
 kingdom. -f- " At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, Spires, 
 Worms, many thousands of them were pillaged and 
 massacred. A remnant was saved by a feigned and 
 transient conversion ; but the greater part of them 
 barricadoed their houses, and precipitated themselves, 
 
 * Ilallam, v. i. 2, 33, c. ii. p. 2. 
 -|- Basiiage, b. vii. c. 21.
 
 THE JEWS. 81 
 
 their families, antl their wealth into the rivers or the 
 flames. These massacres and depredations on the 
 Jews were renewed at each crusade."* In England, 
 also, they sutfered great cruelty and oppression at the 
 same period. During the crusades, the whole nation 
 united in the persecution of them. In a single in- 
 stance, at York, fifteen hundred Jews, including 
 women and children, were refused all quarter — could 
 not purchase their lives at any price — and, frantic 
 with despair, perished by a mutual slaughter. Each 
 master was the murderer of his family, when death 
 became their only deliverance. The scene of the 
 castle of Massada, which was their last fortress in 
 Palestine, and when nearly one thousand perished 
 in a similar manner, "f* was renewed in the castle of 
 York. So despised and hated were they, that the 
 barons, when contending with Henry III., to in- 
 gratiate themselves with the populace, ordered seven 
 hundred Jews to be slaughtered at once, their houses 
 to be plundered, and their synagogue to be burned. 
 Richard, John,! and Henry III. often extorted money 
 
 * Gibbons Hist. v. vi. p. 17. 
 
 •f Basnage, b. vii. c. 10, sect. 20 ; Rapin's Hist, of England, 
 vol. iii. p. 97 ; Joseph, b. vii. cli. 8. 
 
 J The persecutions to which the Jews were subjected at 
 that period, are described with strict truth in the historical 
 romance of" Ivanhoe. They are characterised as " a race 
 which, during these dark ages, was alike detested hy the 
 credulous and prejudiced vulgar, and persecuted by the 
 greedy and rapacious nobilit3\" — (v. i. p. 83.) — " Except 
 perhaps the flyiiig fish, there was no race existing on the 
 earth, in the air, or the M'aters, who Mere the objects of" such 
 an Tinreniitting, general, and relentless persecution as the 
 Jews of this period. Upon the slightest and most unreason- 
 able pretences, as well as upon accusations the most absurd 
 and groundless, tlieir persons and property were exposed to 
 every turn of popular fury ; for Is'orman, Saxon, Dane, and 
 Briton, however adverse the races were to each other, con- 
 tended which would look with greatest detestation upon a 
 people whom it was accounted a point of religion to bate, to
 
 82 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 from them ; and the last, by the most unscrupulous 
 and unsparing measures, usually defrayed his extra- 
 ordinary expenses with their spoils, and impoverished 
 some of the richest among them. Kis extortions at 
 last became so enormous, and his oppression so griev- 
 ous, that, in the words of the historian, he reduced 
 the miserable wretches to desire leave to depart the 
 kingdom ;* but even self-banishment was denied them. 
 Edward I. completed their misery, seized on all their 
 property, and banished them the kingdom. Above 
 fifteen thousand Jews were rendered destitute of any 
 residence, were despoiled to the utmost, and reduced 
 to ruin. Nearly four centuries elapsed before the 
 return to Britain of this abused race. 
 
 revile, to despise, to phmder and to persecute. The kings 
 of tlie Korman race, and the independent nobles, who fol- 
 lowed their example in all at-ts of tyranny, maintained against 
 this devoted people a peisecution of a moie regular, calcu- 
 lated, and self-interested kind. It is a well known story of 
 King John, that he confined a wealthy Jew in one of the 
 royal castles, and daily caused one of his teeth to be torn 
 out, until, when the jaw of the unhappy Israelite was half 
 disfurjiished, he consented to pay a large sum, which it was 
 the tyrant's object to extort from him. The little ready 
 money that was in the country was chiefly in the possession 
 of this persecuted people, and the nobility hesitated not to 
 follow the example of their sovereign in wringing it from 
 them by every species of oppression, and even personal tor- 
 ture." (Pp. 120, 121.) The fictitious history of Isaac of 
 York is delineated in a manner equally descriptive of the 
 facts, and confirmatory of the prophecies respecting the 
 Jewish people ; and there exists not the history of any indi- 
 vidual of any other nation, M'hether drawn from fancy or 
 from fact, which combines so many of the prophetic charac- 
 teristics of the fate of a Jew, as that w hich has thus been 
 delineated, by a mastei's hand, as a representation of their 
 condition, at a period about twenty-six centuries posterior to 
 the prediction, and in a country two thousand miles remote 
 from the platre wliere it was first uttered, and from the only 
 land ever possessed by the Jews. 
 
 * Rapiu's Hist, of Eng. b. viii. vol. iii. p. 40u.
 
 I 
 
 THE JEWS. 83 
 
 Some remarkable circumstances attest, v>itliout a 
 prolonged detail of their miseries, that they have been 
 a people everywhere peculiarly oppressed. The first 
 unequivocal attempt at legislation in France was an 
 ordinance against the Jews. And towards them alone 
 one of the noblest charters of liberty on earth — Magna 
 Charta, the Briton's boast — legalized an act of injus- 
 tice.* For many ages after their dispersion, they 
 found no resting-place in Europe, Africa, or Asia, 
 but penetrated in search of one to the extremities of 
 the world. In Mahometan countries they have ever 
 been subject to persecution, contempt, and every abuse. 
 They are in general confined to one particular quarter 
 of every city (as they formerly were to old Jewry m 
 London ;) they are restricted to a peculiar dress ; and 
 in many places shut up at stated hours. In Ha- 
 raadan, as in all parts of Persia, " they are an abject 
 race, and support themselves by driving a peddling 
 trade ; — they live in a state of great misery — pay a 
 monthly tax to the government — and are not per- 
 mitted to cultivate the ground, or to have landed 
 possessions.'""}' They cannot appear in public, much 
 less perform their religious ceremonies, without being 
 treated with scorn and contempt. j The revenues of 
 tlie prince of Bohara are derived from a tribute paid 
 by five hundred families of Jews, who are assessed ac- 
 cording to the means of each. In Zante they exist iu 
 miserable indigence, and are exposed to considerable 
 oppression. § At Tripoli, when any criminal is con- 
 demned to death, the first Jew who happens to be at 
 hand is compelled to become the executioner, — a de- 
 gradation to the children of Israel to which no Moor 
 is ever subjected. || In Egypt they are despised and 
 
 * Articles XII. XIII. 
 
 •j- Moriei''s Travels, p. 379. 
 
 I Sir J. Malcolm's Hist, of Persia, vol. ii. p. 4:25. 
 
 ^ Hugh's Travels, vol. i. p. 130. j| Lyou's Travels, p. 16,
 
 84 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 persecuted incessantly.* In Arabia they are treated 
 with more contempt than in Turkey. "j- The remark 
 is common to the most recent travellers both in Asia 
 and Africa, ;|; that the Jews themselves are astonish- 
 ed, and the natives indignant, at any act of kindness, 
 or even of justice, that is performed towards any 
 of this " despised nation" and persecuted people. In 
 Southey''s Letters from Spain and Portugal, this re- 
 markable testimony is borne respecting them : " Till 
 within the last fifty years the burning of a Jew form- 
 ed the highest delight of the Portuguese ; they 
 thronged to behold this triumph of the faith, and the 
 very women shouted with transport as they saw the 
 agonized martyr writhe at the stake. Neither sex 
 nor age could save this persecuted race ; and Antonio 
 Joseph de Silvia, the best of their dramatic writers, 
 was burned alive because he was a Jew." — Few years 
 have elapsed since there was a severe persecution 
 against them in Prussia and in Germany, and in se- 
 veral of the smaller states of the latter country they 
 are not permitted to sell any goods even in the com- 
 mon markets. The Pope has lately re-enacted some 
 severe edicts against them : and ukases have recently 
 been issued in quick succession § restraining the Jews 
 from all traffic throughout the interior government of 
 Russia. They are absolutely prohibited, (on pain of 
 immediate banishment,) from " offering any article 
 to sale,"|| whether in public or private, either by 
 themselves or by others. They are not allowed to 
 
 * Denon's Travels in Egypt, vol. i. p. 213. 
 
 ■f Niebhur's Travels, vol. i. p. 408. 
 
 j jNlorier's Travels ia Persia, p. 2GG. Lyon's Travels in 
 Al'iica, p. 32. 
 
 § 15th November 1797. 2jth February 1S23- 8tli June 
 1S26. (August or November) 1827. 
 
 II Ukase, quoted from " the World," cf date 3 1st October 
 1&27. ^Ib. Article Vill.
 
 THE JEWS. 85 
 
 reside, even for a limited period in any of the cities 
 of Russia, without an express permission from go- 
 vernment, which is granted only in cases where 
 their services are necessary, or directly heneficial to 
 the state. A refusal to depart v/hen they become 
 obnoxious to so rigid a law, subjects them to be 
 treated as vagrants ; and none are suffered to pro- 
 tect or to shelter them. Though the observance of 
 such edicts must, in numerous instances, leave them 
 destitute of any means of support, yet their breach or 
 neglect exposes them to oppression under the sanction 
 of the law, and to every privation and insult, without 
 remedy or appeal. And though they may thus be- 
 come the greatest objects of pity, all laws of humanity 
 are reversed, by iinperial decrees towards them. For 
 those who harbour Jews that are condemned to ban- 
 ishment for having done what all others may inno- 
 cently do, are, as the last Russian ukase respecting 
 them bears, " amenable to the laws as the abettors of 
 vagrants,"* ayid, as in numberless instances besides, 
 no man shall save them. 
 
 * Note. — While the ])roi)hecies descri!)e(l the past and ex- 
 isting miseries of the Je«s, ihey refer with no less precision 
 to the time yet to come, when the children of Israel shall 
 have returned to the loved land of their fathers, and their 
 rehuke shall have ceased from off the face of the earth, and 
 when they shall prize their blessings the more highly, as 
 contrasted with the former sufferings of their race. And 
 the Word of God, confirmed as its prophetic truth is by the 
 workings of the wrath of man, and by the policy of earthly 
 monarcTis, \\ ill doubtless triumph over the highest mandates 
 of mortals, and receive new illustrations of its truth, when 
 these shall have passed a^ay. And the eleventh article of 
 the ukase, now in force, merits, in reference to a special pre- 
 diction, particular notice, and may here be suLjoiued, to- 
 gether Mith its corresponding text, premising merely that it 
 is to a specific district of dismembered Poland that the Kab- 
 bis are sent away, " Kabins, or other religious functionaries, 
 are to be sent av, ay by the police officer, immediately on the
 
 86 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 These facts, though they form but a brief and most 
 imperfect record, and therefore but a very faint image 
 of all their sufferings, show that the Jews have been 
 removed into all kingdoms for their hurt — that a 
 sword has been di^awn after them — that thcj/ have 
 found no rest for the sole of their foot — that they have 
 not been able to stand before their enemies ; — there 
 has been no might in their hands — their very avarice 
 has proved their misery — they have been spoiled ever- 
 more — they have been oppressed and crushed alway 
 —they have been mad for the sight of their eyes that 
 they did see, as the tragical scenes at Massada, and 
 York, and many others testify — they have ofoen been 
 left in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in 
 want of all things ; — a trembling heart and sorrow of 
 mind have been their portion : — they have often had 
 none assurance of their life, — their plagues have been 
 wonderful and great, and of long continuance, — and 
 that they have been for a sign and for a wonder dur- 
 ing many generations. 
 
 But the predictions rest not even here. It was 
 distinctly prophesied that the Jews would reject the 
 gospel ; that, from the meanness of his mortal ap- 
 pearance, and the hardness of their hearts, they 
 would not believe in a suffering Messiah, — that they 
 
 discovei-y thut they are such." *' Thy teachers shall not be 
 removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see 
 thy teacliers." Isaiah xxx. 20. 
 
 Lord Byron's brief and emphatic description of the Jews 
 is equally characteristic of the fact, and illustrative of the 
 predictions. 
 
 Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast. 
 When shall we flee au'aj^ and be at rest ? 
 
 " They shall find no rest for the sole of their foot — I will 
 send a faintness into their heart, — a trembling heart and sor- 
 row of mind."
 
 THE JEWS. 87 
 
 would be smitten with blindness and astojiishmc7it of 
 heart — that theij woidd continue long, having their 
 ears deaf, their eyes closed, and their hearts hardened 
 — and that they would grope at noon-dai/ as the blind 
 gropeth in darkness* And the great body of the 
 Jewish nation has continued long to reject Christian- 
 ity. They retain the prophecies, but discern not their 
 light, having obscured them by their traditions. 
 Many of their received opinions are so absurd and 
 impious, their rites are so unmeaning and frivolous, 
 their ceremonies are so minute, frivolous, and con- 
 temptible, — that the account of them would surpass 
 credulity, were it not a transcript of their customs 
 and of their manners, and drawn from their own au- 
 thorities. "|* No words can more strikingly or justly 
 represent the contrast between their irrational tenets 
 — their degraded religion — their superstitious obser- 
 vances, and the dictates of enlightened reason, and of 
 the gospel which they vilify, than the emphatic de- 
 scription, — " They grope at noon-day, as the blind 
 gropeth in darkness." And if any other instances be 
 wanting of the prediction of events infinitely exceed- 
 ing human foresight, the dispositions of all nations 
 respecting them are revealed as explicitly as their 
 own. That the Jews have been a proverb, an aston- 
 ishment, a by-word, a taunt, and a hissing among 
 all nations, — though one of the most wonderful of 
 facts, unparalleled in the whole history of mankind, 
 and as inconceivable in its prediction as miraculous 
 in its accomplishment, — is a truth that stands not 
 in need of any illustration or proof — and of which 
 witnesses could be found in every country under 
 heaven. Many prophecies concerning the Jews, of 
 
 * Deut. xxviii. 29. 
 
 f See Allen's Modern Judaism. Brewster's Encyclopsedia, 
 Art. Jews.
 
 88 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 more propitious import, that yet remain to be ac- 
 complisliecl, are reserved for testimonies to future 
 generations, if not to the present. But it is worthy 
 of remark, as prophesied concerning them, that they 
 have not been utterly destroyed, though a full end 
 has been made of their enemies, — that the Egyptians, 
 the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Romans — though 
 some of the mightiest monarchies that ever existed, — 
 have not a single representative on earth ; while the 
 Jews, oppressed and vanquished — banished and en- 
 slaved — and spoiled evermore, have survived them all 
 — and to this hour overspread the world. Of all the 
 nations around Juuea, the Persians alone, who re- 
 stored them from the Babylonish captivity, yet re- 
 main a kingdom. 
 
 The Scriptures also declare that the covenant with 
 Abrahana, — that God would give the land of Canaan 
 to his seed for an everlasting possession — would never 
 be broken ; but that the children of Israel shall be 
 taken from among the heathen, — gathered on every 
 side, and brought into their own land, to dwell for 
 ever where their fathers dwelt. Three thousand seven 
 hundred years have elapsed since the promise was 
 given to Abraham : And is it less than a miracle, 
 that, if this promise had been made to the descend- 
 ants of any but of Abraham alone, it could not now 
 possibly have been realized, as there exists not on 
 earth the known and acknowledged posterity of any 
 other individual, or almost of any nation, contempo- 
 rary with him ? 
 
 That the people of a single state (which was of 
 very limited extent and power in comparison of some 
 of the monarchies which surrounded it) should first 
 have been rooted up out of their own land in anger, 
 wrath, and great indignation, the like of which was 
 never experienced by the mightiest among the ancient 
 empires, which all fell imperceptibly away at a lighta*
 
 THE JEWS. £9 
 
 stroke, — antl that afterwards, though scattered among 
 all nations, and finding no ease among them all, they 
 should have -withstood eighteen centuries oi' almost 
 unremitted persecution, and that after so many gene- 
 rations have elapsed, they sliould still retain their dis- 
 tinctive form, or, as it iriay be called, their individu- 
 ality of character, is assuredly the most marvellous 
 event that is recorded in the history of nations ; and 
 if it be not acknowledged as a " sign," it is in reality 
 as well as in appearance, " a wonder," the most in- 
 explicable within the province of the philosophy of 
 history. But that, after the endurance of such ma- 
 nifold woes, such perpetual spoliation, and so many 
 ages of unmitigated suffering, during which their life 
 was to hang in doubt within them, they should still 
 be, as actually they are, the possessors of great 
 wealth ; and that this fact should so strictly accord 
 with the prophecy, which describes them on tlieir final 
 restoration to Judea, as taking their silver and their 
 gold with them ;* and also that, though captives or 
 fugitives " few in number," and the miserable rem- 
 nant of an extinguished kingdom at the time they 
 v/ere " scattered abroad," — they should be to this hour 
 a numerous people, — and that this should have been 
 expressly implied in the prophetic declaration descrip- 
 tive of their condition on their restoration to Judea, 
 after all their wanderings — that the land shall be too 
 narrow by reason of the inhabitants — and that place 
 shall not be found for them,*f- are facts which as clear- 
 ly show, to those who consider them at all, the opera- 
 tion of an overruling providence, as the revelation of 
 such an inscrutable destiny is the manifest dictate of 
 inspiration. 
 
 Such are the prophecies, and such are the facts re- 
 specting the Jews ; — and from premises like these the 
 
 * Isa. Ix. 9. f Isa. Ixix. 19. Zech. x, 10.
 
 DO PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 feeblest logician may draw a moral demonstration. If 
 they had been utterly destroyed — if they had mingled 
 among the nations, — if, in the space of nearly eigh- 
 teen centuries after their dispersion, they had become 
 extinct as a people, even if they had been secluded in 
 a single region, and had remained united — if their 
 history had been analogous to that of any nation up- 
 on the earth, an attempt might, with some plausibi- 
 lity or reason, have been made, to show cause why the 
 prediction of their fate, however true to the fact, ought 
 not in such a case to be sustained as evidence of the 
 truth of inspiration. Or if the past history and pre- 
 sent state of the Jews were not of a nature so singular 
 and peculiar, as to bear out to the very letter the 
 truth of the prophecies concerning them, with what 
 triumph would the infidel have produced those very 
 prophecies, as fatal to the idea of the inspiration of 
 the Scriptures ? And when the Jews had been scat- 
 tered throughout the whole earth — when they have 
 remained everywhere a distinct race — when they have 
 been despoiled evermore, and yet never destroyed — 
 when the most wonderful and amazing facts, such as 
 never occurred among any people — form the ordinary 
 nan*ative of their history, and fulfil literally the pro- 
 phecies concerning them, — may not the believer chal- 
 lenge his adversary to the production of such creden- 
 tials of the faith that is in him ? They present an 
 unbroken chain of evidence, each link a prophecy and 
 a fact, extending throughout a multitude of genera- 
 tions, and not yet terminated. Though the events, 
 various and singular as they are, have been brought 
 about by the instrumentality of human means, and 
 the agency of secondary causes, yet they are equally 
 prophetic and miraculous ; for the means were as im- 
 possible to be foreseen, as the end and the causes were 
 as inscrutable as the event ; and they have been, and 
 still in numberless instances are, accomplished by the
 
 THE JEWS. 91 
 
 instrumentality of the enemies of Christianity. Who- 
 ever seeks a miracle, may here behold a sign and a 
 wonder, than which there cannot be a greater. And 
 the Christian may bid defiance to all the assaults of 
 his enemies from this stronghold of Christianity, im- 
 penetrable and impregnable on every side. 
 
 These prophecies concerning the Jews are as clear 
 as a narrative of the events. They are ancient as the 
 oldest records in existence; and it has never been de- 
 nied that they were all delivered before the accom- 
 plishment of one of them. They were so unimagin- 
 able by human wisdom, that the whole compass of na- 
 ture has never exhibited a parallel to the events. And 
 the facts are visible, and present, and applicable even 
 to a hair's breadth. Could Moses, as an uninspired 
 mortal, have described the history, the fate, the dis- 
 persion, the treatment, the dispositions of the Israelites 
 to the present day, or for three thousand two hundred 
 years, seeing that he was astonished and amazed, on 
 his descent from Sinai, at the change in their senti- 
 ments, and in their conduct, in the space of forty days.-^ 
 Could various persons have testified, in different ages, 
 of the self-same and of similar facts, as wonderful as 
 they have proved to be true ? Could they have di- 
 vulged so many secrets of futurity, when of necessity 
 they were utterly ignorant of them all ? The proba- 
 bilities were infinite against them. For the mind of 
 man often fluctuates in uncertainty over the nearest 
 events, and the most probable results ; but in regard to 
 remote ages, when thousands of years shall have elapsed 
 — and to facts respecting them, contrary to all previous 
 knowledge, experience, analogy, or conception, — itfeels 
 that they are dark as death to mortal ken. And, view- 
 ing only the dispersion of the Jews, and some of its at- 
 tendant circumstances — how their city was laid deso- 
 late, — their temple, which formed the constant place 
 of their resort before, levelled with the ground, and
 
 92 PROPHECIES CONCERNING 
 
 ploughed over like a field — their country ravaged, 
 and themselves murdered in mass — falling before the 
 sword, the famine and the pestilence — how a remnant 
 was left, but despoiled, persecuted, enslaved, and led 
 into captivity — driven from their own land, not to a 
 mountainous retreat, where they might subsist with 
 safety, but dispersed among all nations, and left to 
 the mercy of a world that everywhere hated and op- 
 pressed them- — shattered in pieces like the \vreck of a 
 vessel in a mighty storm — scattered over the earth, 
 like fragments on the waters, — and, instead of disap- 
 pearing, or mingling with the nations, remaining a 
 perfectly distinct people, in every kingdom the same, 
 retaining similar habits and customs, and creeds, 
 and manners, in every part of the globe, though with- 
 out ephod, teraphim, or sacrifice — meeting every- 
 where the same insult, and mockery, and oppression 
 — finding no resting-place without an enemy soon to 
 dispossess them — multiplying amidst all their mise- 
 ries — surviving their enemies — beholding, unchanged, 
 the extinction of many nations, and the convulsions 
 of all — robbed of their silver and of their gold, though 
 cleaving to the love of them still, as the stumbling- 
 block of their iniquity — often bereaved of their very 
 children — disjoined and disorganized, but uniform 
 and unaltered — ever bruised, but never broken — 
 weak, fearful, sorrowful and afflicted — often driven 
 to madness at the spectacle of their own misery — ta- 
 ken up in the lips of talkers — the taunt, and hissing, 
 and infamy of all people, and continuing ever, what 
 they arc to this day, the sole proverb common to the 
 whole world ; how did every fact, from its very nature, 
 defy all conjecture, and how could mortal man, over- 
 looking a hundred successive generations, have fore- 
 told any one of these wonders that are now conspicu- 
 ous in these latter times ? Who but the Father of 
 Spirits, possessed of perfect prescience, even of the
 
 JUDEA, C3 
 
 knowledge, of the will and of the actions of free, in- 
 telligent and moral agents, could have revealed their un- 
 bounded and vet unceasing wanderinjrs — unveiled all 
 their destiny — and vinmasked the minds of the Jews, 
 and of their enemies, in every age and in every clim.e ? 
 The creation of a world might as well be the v.crk of 
 chance as the revelation of these things. It is a 
 visible display of the power and of the prescience 
 of God, an accvimulation of many miracles. And al- 
 though it forms but a part of a small portion of the 
 Christian evidence, it lays not only a stone of stumx- 
 bling — such as infidels would try to cast in a Chris- 
 tian's path, — but it fixes an insurmountable barrier at 
 the very threshold of infidelity, immoveable by all 
 human device, and impervious to every attack. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PKOFHECIES CONCEBNING THE LA>'D OF JUDEA AND 
 CIRCUMJACENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 The writings of the Jewish prophets not only de- 
 Scribed the fate of that people for m,any generations, 
 subsequent to the latest period to which the most un- 
 yielding scepticism can pretend to affix the date of 
 these predictions, but while the cities were teeming 
 with inhabitants, and the land flowing with abun- 
 dance, for centuries before Judea ceased to count its 
 millions, they foretold the long reign of desolation 
 that would ensue. The land is a witness as well as 
 the people. Its aspect in the present day, and for 
 many a past age, is the precise likeness delineated by 
 the pencil of prophecy, when eveiy feature that could 
 admit of change was the reverse of v>'hat it now is :
 
 94 JUDEA. 
 
 And it is necessary only to compare the predictions 
 themselves with that proof of their fulfilment, which, 
 were all other testimony to be excluded, heathens and 
 infidels supply. 
 
 The calamities of the Jews were to arise progres- 
 sively with their inicjuities. They were to be punished 
 again and again, " yet seven times, for their sins.""* 
 And in the greatest of the denunciations which were 
 to fill up the measure of their punishments, the long- 
 continued desolation of their country is ranked among 
 the worst and latest of their woes : and the prophe- 
 cies respecting it, which admit of a literal interpre- 
 tation, and which have been literally fulfilled, are 
 abundantly clear and expressive. 
 
 " I will make your cities waste, and bring your 
 sanctuaries into desolation. And 1 will bring the 
 land into desolation ; and your enemies which dwell 
 therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter 
 you among the heathen, and draw out a sword after 
 you ; and your land shall be desolate and your cities 
 waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as 
 long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies'' 
 land ; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sab- 
 baths. The land also shall be left of them, and shall 
 enjoy her sabbaths while she lieth desolate without 
 them.-f- So that the generation to come of your child- 
 ren that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that 
 shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see 
 the plagues of that land, and the sickness which the 
 Lord hath laid upon it : — Wherefore hath the Lord 
 done this unto the land, what meaneth the heat of 
 this great anger ? The anger of the Lord was kin- 
 dled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses 
 that are written in this book.| Your country is de- 
 
 * Levit. xx-vi. 18, 21, 24. f Levit. xxvi. 31, 45, 53. 
 
 :;: Deut. xxix. 22, 24, 27.
 
 JUDEA. 95 
 
 solate, your cities burned with fire ; your land, stran- 
 gers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate as 
 overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of ZIon 
 is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a gar- 
 den of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the 
 Lord of Hosts had left a very small remnant, we 
 should have been as Sodom, and we should have been 
 like unto Gomorrah.* Ye shall be as an oak whose 
 leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.-f- I 
 will lay my vineyard waste. Of a truth many houses 
 shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inha- 
 bitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one 
 bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. 
 There shall the lambs feed after their manner, and 
 the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.| 
 Then said I, Lord, how long.-* and he answered, Un- 
 til the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the 
 houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate ; 
 and the Lord have removed men far away, and there 
 be a great forsalang in the midst of the land. But 
 yet in it shall be a tenth ; and it shall return and 
 shall be eaten ; as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose 
 substance is in them when they cast their leaves. § 
 The Lord of Hosts shall make a consumption, even 
 determined, in the midst of all the land.|| The glory 
 of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his 
 flesh shall wax lean ; and it shall be as when the har- 
 vest-man gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with 
 bis arm ; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in 
 the valley of Rephaim. Yet gleaning grapes shall be 
 left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three 
 berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or 
 five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the 
 Lord God of Israel.^ Behold the Lord maketh the 
 
 I 
 
 * Isa.i. 7, 8, 9. f Isa. i. 30. + Isa. v. 6,9, 10, 17. 
 
 § Isa. vi. 11, 12, 13. II Isa. x. 23. % Isa. xvii. 4, 5, 6.
 
 96 JUDEA. 
 
 earth* (the land) empty, and raaketh it waste, and 
 turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the in- 
 habitants thereof. The land shall be utterly emptied 
 and utterly spoiled : for the Lord hath spoken this 
 word. The earth (land) mourneth and fadeth away : 
 it is defiled under tlie inhabitants thereof; because 
 they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, 
 broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the 
 curse devoured the land, and they that dwell therein 
 are desolate, and few men left. The new wine mourn- 
 eth, the vine langulsheth, all the merry-hearted do 
 sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them 
 that rejoice cndeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth. They 
 shall not drink wine with a song, strong drink shall be 
 bitter to them that drink it. The city of confusion is 
 broken down ; every house is sliut up that no man may 
 ccme in. There is a crying for wine in the streets, all 
 joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. When 
 thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the 
 people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive-tree, 
 "nd as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.'f' 
 Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habi- 
 tation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall 
 the calf feed, and there shall he lie down and consume 
 the branches thereof. When the boughs thereof are 
 
 * The twenty-fourtli chapter of Isaiah contains a continu- 
 ous prophetic description (exactly analogous to other pre- 
 dictions) of the desolation of Judca, during- the time that the 
 " inhabitants thereof" were to be " s(attered abroad ;" and it 
 is only necessary, in order to prevent any appearance of am- 
 biguity, to remark, that the very same tcord in the original, 
 which, in the English translation, is here rendered earlh, — 
 is, in subsequent verses of the same chapter, also translated 
 land — evidently implying the land of Israel, the inhabitants 
 of \^hicl) were to be " scattered abroad," — and so obvioasly 
 is this the meaning of the word, that the chapter is properly 
 entitled " the deplorable judgments of God upon the land," 
 
 t Isa. xxix. 1-^, 13. 
 
 7
 
 JUDEA. 97 
 
 withered they shall be broken ofF: the women come 
 and set them on fire ; for it is a people of no under- 
 standing.* ]Many days and years shall ye be troubled, 
 ye careless women ; for the vintage shall fall, the ga- 
 thering shall not come. Tremble, ye women that are 
 at ease ; be troubled ye careless ones ; strip you and 
 make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. 
 They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, 
 for the fruitful vine. Upon the land of my people shall 
 come up thorns and briars ; yea upon all the houses of 
 joy in the joyous city ; because the palaces shall be for- 
 saken, the multitude of the city shall be left ; the forts 
 and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild 
 asses, a pasture of flocks ; until the Spirit be poured 
 upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful 
 field, anel the fruitful field be counted for a forest. "f* — 
 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth ; 
 he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the 
 cities, he regardeth no man. The earth mourneth and 
 languisheth ; Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down ; 
 Sharon is like a wilderness ; and Bashan and Carmel 
 shake off their fruits. | Destruction upon destruction 
 is cried ; for the whole land is spoiled. I beheld, 
 and lo the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the 
 cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the 
 Lord ; for thus hath the Lord said, the whole land 
 shall be desolate, yet will I not make a full end. Fov 
 this shall the earth mourn, because I have spoKen it. 
 I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will 
 I turn back from it.§ How long shall the land 
 mourn and the herbs of every field wither, for the 
 wickedness of them that dwelt therein .'' — I have for- 
 saken mine house, I have left mine heritage. — Many 
 pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trod- 
 
 Isa. xxvii. 10, 1 1. f Isa. xxxiv. 10 — 15. 
 
 Isa. xxxiii. S, 9. § Jer. iv. 20, 26—28.
 
 98 JUDEA. 
 
 den my portion under foot, they have made my plea- 
 sant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made 
 it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me ; 
 the whole land is made desolate, because no man 
 layeth it to heart. The spoilers are come upon all 
 high places through the wilderness ; — no flesh shall 
 have peace. They have sown wheat, but shall reap 
 thorns ; they have put themselves to pain, but shall 
 not profit ; and they shall be ashamed of your reve- 
 nues because of the fierce anger of the Lord.* Thus 
 saith the Lord God to the mountains of Israel, and 
 to the hills, and to the rivers, and to the vallies ; be- 
 hold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, I will 
 destroy your high places. In all your dwelling-places 
 the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places 
 shall be desolate, and your altars shall be laid waste 
 and made desolate ; I will stretch out my hand upon 
 them, and make the land more desolate than the 
 wilderness towards Diblath, in all their habitations. "f" 
 I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall 
 possess their houses ; I will also make the pomp of 
 the strong to cease ; and their holy places shall be 
 defiled. Say unto the people of the land, thus saith 
 the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and 
 of the land of Israel, they shall eat their bread with 
 carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, 
 that her land may be desolate from all that is there- 
 in, because of the violence of all them that dwell 
 therein.;]; Every one that passeth thereby shall be 
 astonished. — Hear this, all ye inhabitants of the land. 
 Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of 
 your fathers ? Tell ye your children of it, and let 
 your children tell their children, and their children 
 another generation. That which the palmer-worm 
 
 • Jer. xii. 4, 7, 10— 1.3. f Ezek. vi. 2, 3, G, 14, 
 
 X Ezek. xii. 19,
 
 I 
 
 JUDEA. S9 
 
 hath left hath the locust eaten ; and that which the 
 locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten ; and tliat 
 which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar 
 eaten. — The field is wasted, the land mourneth, and 
 joy is withered from the sons of men. — And I will 
 restore unto you the years that the locust hath eaten, 
 and the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the 
 palmer-worm. And my people shall never be asham- 
 ed.* — The city that went out by a thousand shall 
 leave a hundred, and that which went out by a hun- 
 dred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. — Seek 
 not Bethel. Bethel shall come to nought. -f* — Behold 
 1 will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people 
 Israel. I will not pass by them any more. And the 
 high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanc- 
 tuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. ;{: I will make 
 Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of 
 a vineyard ; and I will pour down the stones thereof 
 into the valley, and I will discover the foundations 
 thereof''§ 
 
 Numerous and clear as these denunciations are, 
 yet such was the long-suffering patience of God, and 
 such the rebellious spirit of the Israelites of old, that 
 it had become a proverb in the land, '' the days are 
 prolonged, and every vision faileth." But though 
 that proverb ceased, when great calamities did over- 
 take them, and a temporary desolation came over their 
 land, yet the curses denounced against it were not 
 obliterated by a partial and transient fulfilment, but, 
 on the renewed and unrepented wickedness of the 
 people, fell upon them and their land with stricter 
 truth, and, as foretold, with sevenfold severity. 
 
 Moses and all the prophets set blessings and curses 
 before the Israelites, with the avowed purpose that 
 
 • Joel i. 2, 4, 10, 12 ; ii. 25, 2G. + Amos v. 2, 5. 
 
 t Amos vii. 8, 9. ;) Micah i. G.
 
 ICO JUDEA. 
 
 they TOight choose between them. But while the 
 j)rophetical writings abound with warnings, the Scrip- 
 tural records of Israelitish history show how greatly 
 these warnings were disregarded. The word of" God, 
 which is perfect work, abideth for ever : — and it re- 
 turns not to him void, but fulfils the purpose for 
 which he sent it. And after the statutes and judg- 
 ments of the Lord had been set before the Israelites 
 for the space of a thousand years from the time that 
 they were first declared, the " burden of the word of 
 the Lord to Israel by IMalachi," instead of speaking, 
 even then, of repealed judgments, closes the Jewish 
 Scriptures with this last command, " Remember ye 
 the law of jMoses my servant, which I coinmanded 
 unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes 
 and judgments ;'"* and, affixed to the command to 
 remember these, the very last words of the Old Tes- 
 tament, which seal up the vision and the prophecies, 
 plainly indicate that however long the God of Israel 
 might bear with the Jews for transgressing the law, 
 while the law only was given them, yet on their re- 
 fusal to repent when the prophet, who was to be " the 
 messenger of the Lord,'^ would be sent unto them^ 
 the Lord would come and " smite the earth, or the 
 land, with a curse."" 
 
 The term of the continuance of these judgments 
 and of their full completion, is distinctly marked, as 
 commensurate with the dispersion of the Jews, and 
 terminating with their Jinal restoration. So long as 
 they be in their enemies'' land, their own land lieth 
 desolate. The judgments were not to be removed 
 from it " until the Spirit be poured (upon the Jews) 
 from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field. ""-f- 
 And the prophecies not only pourtray Judca while 
 forsaken of the Lord, his heritage left, and given into 
 
 * Malaclii iv. 4. f Isa. xxxii. 15.
 
 JUDEA. lOl 
 
 the hands of Its enemies, but they also delineate the 
 character and condition of the dwellers therein, while 
 its ancient inhabitants were to be scattered abroad, 
 and ere the time come when he shall reign in Jerusa- 
 lem before his ancients gloriously.* Annunciations 
 of a future and final restoration, almost uniformly 
 accompany the curses denounced against the land. 
 And frequent, and express as words can be, are the 
 references throughout the prophecies to the period 
 yet to come, when the children of Israel shall be ga- 
 thered out of all nations, and when the land then, at 
 last and for ever, brought back from desolation, and 
 the cities, repaired after the desolations of many ge- 
 nerations, and the mountains of Israel, which have 
 been alwaijs waste, shall be no more desolate, nor the 
 people termed forsaken any more.-j- After the Mes- 
 siah was to be cut off, and the sacrifice and oblation 
 to cease, the ensuing desolations were to reach even to 
 the consummation, and till that determined shall be 
 poured upon the desolate.j And Jerusalem, as Jesus 
 hath declared, shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, 
 till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. § 
 
 Neither the dispersion of the Jews nor the desola- 
 tion of Judea are to cease, according to the prophe- 
 *cies, till other evidence shall thereby be given of pro- 
 phetic inspiration. The application to the present 
 period, or to modern times, of the prophecies relative 
 to the desolation of Judea, is thus abvmdantly mani- 
 fest. And the more numerous they are, so much 
 the more severe is the test which they abide. And 
 while the Jews are not yet gathered from all the na- 
 tions, nor planted in their own land to be no more 
 pulled out of it, II — nor its destroyers and they that 
 
 * Isa. xxiv. 1, 23. 
 
 t Isa. Ixi. 4. Ezek. xxvi. 8, 10; xxxvii. 21 ; xxxviii. 8. 
 Isa. Ixii, 4. 
 X Dau. ix. 27. § Luke xxi. 24. |j Araos ix. 14, 15.
 
 102 JUDEA. 
 
 laid It waste, gone forth from it ; * nor the old waste 
 places built, nor xhe foundations of many generations 
 raised up — nor the land brought back from desola- 
 tion ;-f--^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 com- 
 plete 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.j 
 
 The devastation of Judea is so " astonishing," and 
 its poverty as a country so remarkable, that, foi'getful 
 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 deny- 
 ing 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 
 
 * Isa. xlix. 17. t lb. Iviii. 12. J 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 know- 
 ledge of the historical and geographical fact, — speaks of the 
 ancient state of Palestine with derision, describes it as one 
 of the woi'st countries of Asia ; likens it to Switzerland, and 
 says that it can only be esteemed fertile when compared with 
 the desert. (La Palestine n'etait que ce qu'elle est au- 
 jourd'hui, un des plus mauvais pa3's de I'Asie. Cette petite 
 province, &c. Oeuvi-es de Voltaire. Ed. A. Gotha, Tom. 
 xxvii. p. 107.) Without citing, on the other hand, the am- 
 ple 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 at- 
 tached 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 ap- 
 preciated even by that high priest of modern infidelity, if the
 
 JUDEA. 103 
 
 instances at least, voluntarily abandoned this indefen- 
 sible assumption, they have left to the believer the 
 fruits of their concession ; they have given the most 
 unsuspicious testimony to the confirmation of the pro- 
 phecies, 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 clotlied 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 ex- 
 tensive but uncultivated and desert plains, bear wit- 
 ness that there was a numerous and condensed po- 
 pulation 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 descrip- 
 tion which he gives from personal observation, are 
 sufficient to confute entirely the gratuitous assump- 
 tions and insidious sarcasms of Voltaire ; and, won- 
 derful as it may appear, copious extracts may be drawn 
 
 sacrifice of truth on the altar of wit had not been too cora- 
 niou an act of his devotion to the chief god of his idolatry. 
 Corpora hominum salubria et ferentia laborem ; rari imbres, 
 uber solum, fruges nostrum ad morem ; praterque eas balsa- 
 mmn et palmce. Magna pars Judeje vicis dispergitur, habent 
 et oppida. Hiei'osolyma genti caput. Illic immenspe opu- 
 leutiaj templum et priniis munimcntis urbs. — l\iciti Hist. 
 lib. V. c. 6, 8. Ultima Syriarum est Palestina, per intervalla 
 magna protenta, cultis abundans terris et nitidis, et civitates 
 habens quasdara egregias, nuUam sibi cedentem sed sibi vicis- 
 sim velut ad peiijendiculura semulas. — Ammiani Marcell. lib. 
 xiv. cap. 8, sect. 11. Ed. Lips. 1808. Nee sane viris, opi- 
 bus, armis qiiicquara copiosius Syria. — Flori Hist. lib. ii. cap. 
 8, sect. 4. Syria in hortis operosissima est. Inde quoque 
 est proverbium Grsecis. Multa Syrorum olera. — Plinii 
 Hist. Nat. lib. xx. cap. 5.
 
 104 JUDEA. 
 
 from that writer, whose unwitting or unwilling testi- 
 mony is 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 
 any better witness of facts confirmatory of the prophe- 
 cies, and in so far conclusive against all his specula- 
 tions, than Volney himself. Of the natural fertility 
 of the country, and of its abounding population in an- 
 cient times, he gives the most decisive evidence. 
 " Syria unites different climates under the same sky, 
 and collects within a small compass pleasures and pro- 
 ductions 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 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 ap- 
 pealing to the positive testimony of history, there are 
 
 * Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria. Eng-. Trans. 
 Loud. 1787, vol. i. pp. 310, 32[.
 
 JUDEA, ]05 
 
 innumerable monuments which depose in favour ol 
 the fact. Such are the prodigious quantity of ruins 
 dispersed over the plains, and even in the moun- 
 tains, 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 Maron- 
 ites, the rocks, now abandoned to fir-trees and bram- 
 bles, present us in a thousand places with terraces, 
 which prove that they were anciently better cultivat- 
 etl, and consequently much more populous than in 
 our days."* 
 
 " 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 cli- 
 mate is tempered by the vicinity of the sea and moun- 
 tains, by the plenty of wood and water ; and the pro- 
 duce of a fertile soil affords the subsistence and en- 
 courages 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 evi- 
 dence has merely been selected as the most unsuspi- 
 cious, though that of many others inight also be ad- 
 duced. The country in the immtdiate vicinity of Je- 
 rusalem 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 moun- 
 tains 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 
 
 * Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. ii. p. 368. 
 
 T Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. p. 520. (ieneral 8ti-aton de- 
 scribes these terraces as resembling the gradus of a theatre. 
 and particularly marked them as vestiges ol' aucieut " luxu- 
 riance."
 
 106 JUDEA. 
 
 part of Juclea,''' Dr. Clarke adds, " the effects of a be- 
 neficial 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 cli- 
 mate, 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 them- 
 selves had once assvimed, and have given room where- 
 on 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 pre- 
 dicted truth, then the greater the difficulty of recon- 
 ciling 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 in- 
 vestigation of the change in that country from one 
 
 * Clarke's Travels, v. ii- p. 521.
 
 I 
 
 JUDEA. 107 
 
 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 contradic- 
 tory to every suggestion of experience and of reason, 
 must have been altogether inconceivable by man. But 
 the land was to he overthrown hy strangers, to he trod- 
 den down ; mischief was to come upon mischief and 
 destruction upon destruction, and the land was to he 
 desolate. The Chaldeans devastated Judea, and led 
 the inhabitants into temporary captivity. The kings 
 of Syria and Egypt, by their extortions and oppres- 
 sion, impoverished the country. The Romans held 
 it long in subjection to their iron yoke. And the Per- 
 sians contended for the possession of it. But in suc- 
 ceeding 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, seiz- 
 ed, or rather laid it waste. Since that period, torn to 
 pieces by the civil wars of the Fatimites and the Om- 
 miades ; wrested from the califs by their rebellious go- 
 vernors ; 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 heen overthrown hy 
 strangers — trodden underfoot, — destruction has come 
 upon destruction. 
 
 The cities were to he laid waste. By the concur- 
 ring testimony of all travellers, Judea may now be 
 called a field of ruins. Columns, the memorials of 
 
 * Volney's Travels, v, i. p. 357.
 
 108 JUDEA. 
 
 aiicient magnificence, no^v covered with rubbish, and 
 buried under ruins, may be found in all Syria.* From 
 Mount Tabor is beheld an immensity of plains, inter- 
 spersed 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 desola- 
 tion. -f- Of the celebrated cities Capernaum, Beth- 
 saida, Gadara, Tarichea, and Chorazin, nothing re- 
 mains but shapeless ruins. j Some vestiges of Em- 
 maus may still be seeii. Cana is a very paltry vil- 
 lage. The ruins of Tekoa present only the founda- 
 tions of some considerable buildings. "§ The city of 
 Nain 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, appear 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.** 
 Cffisarea can no longer excite the envy of a conqueror, 
 and has long been abandoned to silent desolation. -{"I- 
 
 * Mariti's Travels, v. ii. p. 141. 
 
 + Buckingham's Travels in Palestine, p. 107. Mariti's 
 Travels, v. ii. p. 177. 
 
 * lb. Wilson's Travels, p. 227. 
 
 § Macraichaers Journey to Constantinople, p. 190. 
 II Clarke's Travels, v. ii. p. 40]. 
 « Volney's Travels, v. ii. pp. 332—334. 
 ** Ibid. V. ii. p. 334. 
 
 ft Captain Light's Travels, p. 204. Buckingham's Tra- 
 vels, 12fc;.
 
 JUDEA. 109 
 
 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.* Zabulon, once the 
 rival of Tyre and Sidon, is a heap of ruins. A few 
 shapeless stones, unworthy the attention of the travel- 
 ler, mark the sight of the SafFre.*|" The ruins of Je- 
 richo, covering no less than a square mile, are sur- 
 rovmded with complete desolation ; and there is not a 
 tree of any description, either of palm or balsam, and 
 scarcely any verdure or bushes to be seen about the 
 site of this abandoned city.:|: Bethel is not to be 
 found. The ruins of Sarepta, and of several large 
 cities in its vicinity, are now <' mere rubbish, and are 
 only distinguishable as the sites of towns by heaps of 
 dilapidated stones and fragments of columns.''§ But 
 at Djerash (supposed to be the ruins of Gerasa) are 
 the magnificent remains of a splendid city. The form 
 of streets, once lined with a double row of columns, 
 and covered with pavement still nearly entire, in which 
 are the marks of the chariot wheels, and on each side 
 of which is an elevated path-way — two theatres, and 
 two grand temples, built of marble, and others of in- 
 ferior note — baths — bridge — a cemetery, with many 
 sarcophagi, which surrounded the city — a triumphal 
 arch — a large cistern — a picturesque tomb, fronted 
 with columns, and an aqueduct, overgrown with wood 
 — and upwards of tv/o hundred and thirty columns 
 still standing amidst deserted ruins without a city to 
 adorn — all combine in presenting to the view of the 
 traveller, in the estimation of those who were succes- 
 sively eye-witnesses of them both, '' a much finer 
 
 * Captain Light's Travels, p. 204. 
 
 t Mariti's Travels, v. ii. pp. 158 — 169. 
 
 t Buckingham's Travels, p. 300. 
 
 § Captains Irby aud Mangles' Travels, p. 199-
 
 110 JUDEA. 
 
 mass of ruins" than even that of the boasted Pahnyra.* 
 But how marvellously are the predictions of their deso- 
 lation verified, when, in general, nothing but ruined 
 ruins form the most distinguished remnants of the ci- 
 ties of Israel ; and when the multitude of its towns 
 are almost all left, with many a vestige to testify of 
 their number, but without a mark to tell their name. 
 And your land shall he desolate, and your cities waste. 
 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths as long as it 
 lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies land : even then 
 shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths, e^'C. A 
 single reference to the jMosaic law respecting the sab- 
 batical year, renders the full purport of this predic- 
 tion perfectly intelligible and obvious. " But in the 
 seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, 
 thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vine- 
 yard." And the land of Judea hath even thus en- 
 joyed its sabbaths so long as it hath lain desolate. In 
 that country, where every spot was cultivated like a 
 garden by its patrimonial possessor, where every little 
 hill rejoiced in its abundance — where every steep ac- 
 clivity was terraced by the labour of man, and where 
 the very rocks were covered thick with mould, and 
 rendered fertile ; even in that self-same land, with a 
 climate the same,-f* and with a soil unchanged, save 
 only by neglect, a dire contrast is now, and has, for a 
 lengthened period of time, been displayed by fields 
 unfilled and unsown, and by waste and desolated 
 
 * Irby and Mangles' Travels, pp. 317, 318. 
 
 The ruins of Djerash were iirst discovered by Seetzen, in 
 1806. They have since been visited by Sheikh Ibrahim, 
 (Burckhardt) Sir William Chatterton, Mr. Bankes, the Hon. 
 Captain Irb}-, Captain Mangles, Mr. Leigh, Mr. Leslie, and 
 Mr. Buckingliam. Both Burckhardt and ]Mr. Buckingham 
 have also given a description of them. Many of the edifices 
 were built long after the period of the prediction ; yet they 
 are not excluded from the sentence of desolation. 
 
 f See Brewster's Philosophical Journal, No. xvi. p. 227,
 
 JUDEA. in 
 
 plains. Never since the expatriated descendants of 
 Abraham were driven from its borders, has the land 
 of Canaan been so " plenteous in goods," or so abun- 
 dant in population as once it was ; never, as it did 
 for ages unto them, has it vindicated to any other 
 people a right to its possession or its own title of the 
 land of promise — it has rested from century to century ; 
 and while that marked, and stricken, and scattered 
 race, who possess the recorded promise of the God of 
 Israel as their charter to its final and everlasting pos- 
 session, still " he in the land of their enemies, so lo7ig 
 their land lieth desolate.''^ There may thus almost be 
 said to be the semblance of a sympathetic feeling be- 
 tween this bereaved country and banished people, as if 
 the land of Israel felt the miseriesof its absentchildren, 
 awaited their return, and responded to the undying 
 love they bear it, by the refusal to yield to other 
 possessors the rich harvest of those fruits, with which, 
 in the days of their allegiance to the Most High, it 
 abundantly blessed them. And striking and peculiar, 
 Vv'ithout the shadow of even a semblance upon earth, 
 as is this accordance between the fate of Judea and of 
 the Jews, it assimilates as closely, and may we not 
 add, as miraculously, to those predictions respecting 
 both, which Moses uttered and recorded ere the tribes 
 of Israel had ever set a foot in Canaan. The land 
 shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her rest while 
 she lieth desolate without them. 
 
 To the desolate state of Judea every traveller bears 
 witness. The prophetic malediction was addressed to 
 the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the 
 vallies ; and the beauty of them all has been blighted. 
 Where the inhabitants once dwelt in peace, each under 
 his own vine, and under his own fig-tree, the tyranny 
 of the Turks, and the perpetual incursions of the 
 Arabs, the last of a long list of oppressors, have spread 
 one wide field of almost unminq;led desolation. The 
 1
 
 112 JUDEA. 
 
 plain of Esdraeloii) naturally most fertile, its soil con- 
 sisting of " fine rich black mould," level like a lake, 
 except where Mount Ephraim rises in its centre, 
 bounded by Mount Hermon, Carmel, and jNIount 
 Tabor,* and so extensive as to cover about three hun- 
 dred square miles, is a solitude, -f- " almost entirely 
 deserted : the country is a complete desert/'j Even 
 the vale of Sharon is a waste. In the valley of Ca- 
 naan, formerly a beautiful, delicious, and fertile val- 
 ley, there is not a mark or vestige of cultivation. § 
 The country is continually overrun with rebel tribes ; 
 the Arabs pasture their cattle upon the spontaneous 
 produce of the rich plains with which it abounds. || 
 Every ancient landmark is removed. Law there is 
 none. Lives and property are alike unprotected. The 
 vallies are untilled, the mountains have lost their 
 verdure, the rivers flow through a desert and cheer- 
 less land. All the beauty of Tabor that man could 
 disfigure is defaced ; immense ruins on the top of it, 
 are now the only remains of a once magnificent city ; 
 and Carmel is the habitation of wild beasts.^ " The 
 art of cultivation," says Volney, " is in the most de- 
 plorable state, and the countryman must sow with 
 the musket in his hand ; and no more is sown than 
 is necessary for subsistence." " Every day I found 
 fields abandoned by the plough,"** In describing his 
 journey through Galilee, Dr. Clarke remarks, that 
 the earth was covered with such a variety of thistles, 
 tliat a complete collection of them would be a valua- 
 
 * General Stratoivs MS. Travels. 
 
 ■t Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. p. 497. Mauudrell's Travels, 
 p. 95. 
 
 X Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, pp. 334, 342. 
 
 § General Straton's MS. 
 
 II Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 484, 491. 
 
 IT Mariti, vol. ii. p. 140. 
 
 *• Volney's Travels, vol. ii. p. 413. Volney's Ruins, c. 11»
 
 JUDEA. 113 
 
 ble acquisition to botany.* Six new species of that 
 plant, so significant of wildness, were discovered by 
 himself in a scanty selection. " From Kane-Leban 
 to Beer, amidst the ruins of cities, the country, as far 
 as the eye of the traveller can reach, presents nothing 
 to his view but naked rocks, mountains and preci- 
 pices, at the sight of which pilgrims are astonished, 
 balked in their expectations, and almost startled in 
 their faith."' -)* " From the centre of the neighbour- 
 ing elevations (around Jerusalem) is seen a wild, 
 rugged, and mountainous desert ; no herds depastur- 
 ing on the summit, no forests clothing the acclivities, 
 no waters flowing through the vallies ; but one rude 
 scene of savage melancholy waste, in the midst of 
 which the ancient glory of Judea bows her head in 
 widowed desolation. "| It is needless to multiply 
 quotations to prove the desolation of a country which 
 the Turks have possessed, and which the Arabs have 
 plundered for ages. Enough has been said to prove 
 that the land mourns and is laid waste, and has become 
 as a desolate wilderness. 
 
 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and 
 shall be eaten : as a teil-tree and an oak whose siibstanct 
 is in them when they cast their leaves. Though the 
 cities be waste, and the land be desolate, it is not from 
 the poverty of the soil that the fields are abandoned 
 by the plough, nor from any diminution of its ancient 
 and natural fertility that the land has rested for so 
 many generations. Judea was not forced only by ar- 
 tificial means, or from local and temporary causes, in- 
 to a luxuriant cultivation, such as a barren country 
 might have been, concerning which it would not have 
 needed a prophet to tell, that if once devastated and 
 
 • Clarke's Trowels, vol. ii. p. 451. 
 
 f Maundreirs Travels, p. 1G8. 
 
 ■!; JolittVs Letters from Palestine^ vol. i. p- 104. 
 
 »
 
 114 JUDEA. 
 
 abandoned it would ultimately and permanently revert 
 into its original sterility. Phenicia at all times held 
 a far different rank among the richest countries of the 
 world ; and it was not a bleak and sterile portion of 
 the earth, nor a land which even many ages of deso- 
 lation and neglect could impoverish, that God gave, in 
 possession and by covenant, to the seed of Abraham. 
 No longer cultivated as a garden, but left like a wil- 
 derness, Judea is indeed greatly changed from what it 
 was ; all that human ingenuity and labour did devise, 
 erect, or cultivate, men have laid waste and desolate ; 
 all the " plentous goods," with which it was enriched, 
 adorned, and blessed, have fallen like seared and wi- 
 thered leaves, when their greenness is gone ; and strip- 
 pedlof its " ancient splendour,'" it is left as mi oak 2vhose 
 leaffadeth : — but its inherent sources of fertility are 
 not dried up ; the natural richness of the soil is un- 
 blighted ; the substance is in it, strong as that of the 
 teil-tree or the solid oak, which retain their substance 
 when they cast their leaves. — And as the leafless oak 
 waits throughout winter for the genial warmth of 
 returning spring, to be clothed with renewed foliage, 
 so the once glorious land of Judea is yet full of latent 
 vigour, or of vegetative power strong as ever, ready 
 to shoot forth, even " better than at the beginning," 
 whenever the sun of heaven shall shine on it again, 
 and the " holy seed" be prepared for being finally 
 " the substance thereof" The substance that is in it 
 — which alone has here to be proved — is, in few words, 
 thus described by an enemy : " The land in the 
 plains hfat and loamy , and exhibits every sign of the 
 greatest fecundity.'''' — " Were nature assisted by art, 
 the fruits of the most distant countries might be pro- 
 duced within the distance of twenty leagues."* " Ga- 
 lilee," says JSIalte-Brun, " would be a paradise, were 
 
 * Voluey's Travels, i. pp. 308, 317.
 
 JUDEA. 115 
 
 it inhabited by an industrious people, under an en- 
 lightened government. Vine-stocks are to be seen 
 here a foot and a halt' in diameter."* 
 
 / will give it into the hands of strangers for a 
 prey, and unto the wicked of the earth for a spoil. 
 The ROBBERS shall enter into it and defile it. Instead 
 of abiding under a settled and enlightened govern- 
 ment, Judea has been the scene of frequent invasions, 
 " which have introduced a succession of foreign na- 
 tions (des peuples etrangersy^-]- " When the Otto- 
 mans took Syria from the Mamelouks, they consider- 
 ed it as the spoil of a vanquished enemy. According 
 to this law, the life and property of the vanquished 
 belong to the conqueror. The government is far from 
 disapproving of a system of robbery and plunder which 
 it finds so profitable ."'*;|; 
 
 Many pastors have desiroyedmy vineyard, they have 
 TRODDEN viy portion under foot. The ravages com- 
 mitted even by hosts of enemies are in general only 
 temporary : or if an invader settle in a conquered 
 country, on becoming the possessor, he cultivates and 
 defends it. And it is the proper office of government 
 to render life and property secure. In neither case 
 has it fared thus with Judea. But besides successive 
 invasions by foreign nations, and the systematic spo- 
 liation exercised by a despotic government, other 
 causes have conspired to perpetuate its desolation, and 
 to render abortive the substance that is in it. Among 
 these has chiefly to be numbered, its being literally 
 trodden imderfoot by many pastors. Volney devotes 
 a chapter, fifty pages in length, to a description, as he 
 entitles it, " Of the pastoral or wandering tribes of 
 Syria," chiefly of the Bedouin Arabs, by whom, espe- 
 
 * Schulze, in Pallas, cited by Malte-Brun, Geogr. v. ii. 
 p. 148. 
 I t Vohiey's Travels, i. p. 356. % lb. v. ii. pp. 370, 381.
 
 116 JUDEA. 
 
 cially, Judea is incessantly traversed. " The pachalics 
 of Aleppo and Damascus may be computed to contain 
 about thirty thousand wandering Turkmen (Turko- 
 mans). All their property consists in cattle." In the 
 same pachalics, the number of the Curds " exceed 
 twenty thousand tents and huts," or an equal number 
 of armed men. " The Curds are almost everywhere 
 looked upon as robbers. Like the Turkmen, these 
 Curds are pastors and wanderers * A third wandering 
 people in Syria are the Bedouin Arabs. "*|* " It often 
 happens that even individuals turned robbers, in order 
 to withdraw themselves from the laws, or from tyranny, 
 unite and form a little camp, which maintain them- 
 selves by arms, and increasing, become new hordes 
 and new tribes. We may pronounce that in culti- 
 vable countries, the wandering life originates in the 
 injustice or want of policy of the government ; and 
 that the sedentary and the cultivating state is that to 
 which mankind is most naturally inclined. ""| " It is 
 evident that agriculture must be very precarious in 
 such a country, and that, under a government like that 
 of the Turks, it is safer to lead a wandering life, than 
 to choose a settled habitation, and rely for subsistence 
 on agriculture. § " The Turkmen, the Curds, and 
 the Bedouins, have no fixed habitatiojis, hnt keepj>e?'- 
 petiially wandering with their tents and herds, in 
 limited districts, of which they look upon themselves 
 as the proprietors. The Arabs spread over the whole 
 frontier of Syria, and even the plains of Palestine." |1 
 — Thus, contrary to their natural inclination, the 
 peasants, often forced to abandon a settled life, and 
 pastoral tribes in great numbers, or many, and with- 
 out fixed habitations, divide the country, as it were 
 by mutual consent, and apportion it in limited districts 
 
 Volney's Travels, ii. 370, i. 4, 5. + Ibid. i. p. 377. 
 Ibid. p. 383. § Ibid. p. 3b7. || Ibid. pp. 367, 368.
 
 JUDEA. 117 
 
 among themselves by an assuimed right of property, 
 and the Arabs, subdivided also into different tribes, 
 spread over the plains of Palestine, " wandering per- 
 petually," as if on very purpose to tread it down. — 
 What could be more unlikely or unnatural in such a 
 land ! yet what more strikingly and strictly true ! or 
 how else could the eifect of the vision have been seen ! 
 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard ; they have 
 trodden my portion under foot. 
 
 Ye shall be as a garden that hath no water. How 
 lon<r shall the land mourn and the herbs of every field 
 wither., for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. 
 — " In all hot countries, wherever there is water, ve- 
 getation may be perpetually maintained and made to 
 produce an uninterrupted succession of fruits to flow- 
 ers, and flowers to fruits."'* " The remains of cisterns 
 are to be found (throughout Judea,) in which they 
 collected the rain-water ; and traces of the canals by 
 which those waters were distributed on the fields. — 
 These labours necessarily created a prodigious fertility 
 under an ardent sun, where a little water was the 
 only requisite to revive the vegetable world.^-f- Such 
 labours, with very slight exceptions, are now unknown. 
 Judea is as a garden that hath no water, and the herbs 
 of every field wither. " We see there none of that gay 
 carpeting of grass andfowers which decoi'ate the mea- 
 dows of Normandy and Flanders, nor those clumps of 
 beautiful trees which give such richness and animation 
 to the landscapes of Burgundy and Brittany. — The 
 land of Syria has almost always a dusty appearance.^ 
 Had not these countries been ravaged by the hand of 
 man., they might perhaps at this day have been shaded 
 with forests. That its productions do not correspond 
 with its natural advantages is less owing to its physi- 
 
 * Volney's Travels, ii. 3.59. 
 
 t Malte-Bruii's Geo. ii. 150, 131. 
 
 J Volney's Travels, ii. p. 339.
 
 118 JUDEA. 
 
 cal than political state."* " The whole of the moun- 
 tain (near Tiberias) is covered with dry grass. "-f- 
 
 The forts and towers shall be for dens for ever. 
 " At every step we meet with ruins of toK-ers, dun- 
 geons, and castles with fosses — frequently inhabited 
 by Jackals, owls, and scorpions. ''"'^ 
 
 The multitude of the city shall be left. The defenced 
 city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken. 
 There are a " prodigious quantity of ruins dispersed 
 over the plains, and even in the mountains, at this 
 day deserted.''''^ 
 
 There shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down 
 a7id consume the branches thereof. A pasture of 
 fiochs. There shall the lambs feed after their man- 
 ner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers 
 eat. Josephus describes Galilee, of which he was the 
 governor, as " full of plantations of trees of all sorts, 
 the soil universally rich and fruitful, and all, without 
 the exception of a single part, cultivated by the inha- 
 bitants. Moreover,"" he adds, " the cities lie here 
 very thick, and there are very many villages, which 
 are so full of people by the richness of their soil, that 
 the very least of them contained above fifteen thou- 
 sand inhabitants." II Such was Galilee, at the com- 
 mencement of the Christian era, several centuries af- 
 ter the prophecy was delivered ; but now, " the plain 
 of Esdraelon, and all the other parts of Galilee which 
 afford pasture, are occupied by Arab tribes, around 
 whose brown tents the sheep and lajnbs gambol to 
 the sound of the reed, which at night-fall calls them 
 home.""^ The calf feeds and lies down amidst the 
 ruins of the cities, and consumes, without hinderance, 
 
 * Voluey's Travels, ii. pp. 359, 360. 
 
 f Burckliaidt's Travels, p. 331. 
 
 j Voluey's Travels, ii. p. 336. § Ibid. p. 368. 
 
 II Josephus' Wars, book iii. chap. 3, sect. 2. 
 
 i Schulze, quoted by Malte-Brun, vol. ii. p. 148.
 
 JUDEA. 119 
 
 the branches of the trees ; and however changed 
 may be the condition of the inhabitants, the lambs 
 feed after their manner, and, while the land mourns, 
 and the merry-hearted sigh, they gambol to the sound 
 of the reed. 
 
 The precise and complete contrast between the 
 ancient and existing state of Palestine, as separately 
 described by Jewish and Roman historians and by 
 modern travellers, is so strikingly exemplified in their 
 opposite descriptions, that, in reference to whatever 
 constituted the beauty and the glory of the country, 
 or the happiness of the people, an entire change is 
 manifest, even in minute circumstances. The uni- 
 versal richness and fruitfulness of the soil of Galilee, 
 together with its being " full of plantations of all 
 sorts of trees," are represented by Josephus as " invit- 
 ing the most slothful to take pains in its cultivation." 
 And the other provinces of the Holy Land are also 
 described by him as " having abundance of trees, full 
 of autumnal fruit, both that which grows wild and 
 that which is the effect of cultivation."* Tacitus 
 relates, that, besides all the fruits of Italy, the palm 
 and balsam-tree flourished in the fertile soil of Judea. 
 And he records the great carefulness with which, 
 when the circulation of the juices seemed to call for 
 it, they gently made an incision in the branches of 
 the balsam, with a shell, or pointed stone, not ventur- 
 ing to apply a knife. No sign of such art or care is 
 nov/ to be seen throughout the land. The balm-tree 
 has disappeared where it long flourished : and hardier 
 plants have perished from other causes than the want 
 of due care in their cultivation. And instead of re- 
 lating how the growth of a delicate tree is promoted, 
 and the medicinal liquor, at the same time, extracted 
 from, its branches, by a nicety or perfectibility of art 
 
 ■ Josephus' Wars, book iii. chap 3, sect. 2.
 
 120 JUDEA. 
 
 worthy of the notice of a Tacitus, a different task has 
 fallen to the lot of the traveller from a far land, who 
 describes the customs of those who now dwell where 
 such arts were practised. " The olive trees (near 
 Ariniathea) are daily perishing through age, the 
 ravages of contending factions, and even from secret 
 mischief. The Mamelouks, having cut down all the 
 olive trees, for the pleasure they take in destroying, 
 or to make Jires, Yafa has lost its greatest conveni- 
 ence.'"* Instead of " abundance of trees being still 
 the effect of cultivation," such, on the other hand, 
 has been the effect of these ravages, that many places 
 in Palestine are now " absolutely destitute of fuel.''' 
 Yet in this devastation, and in all its progress, may 
 be read the literal fulfilment of the prophecy, which 
 not only described the desolate cities of Judea as a 
 pasture of flocks, and as places for the calf to feed 
 and lie down, and consume the branches thereof; 
 but which, with equal truth, also declared, when the 
 boughs thereof are withered., they shall be broken off ; 
 the women come and set them on fire. 
 
 For it is a people of no understanding. " The 
 most simple arts are in a state of barbarism. The 
 sciences are totally unknown ."'j' 
 
 Upon the land of my people shall cojne up thorns 
 and briars. " The earth produces (only) briars and 
 wormwood."! A thorny shrub, (Merar) and others 
 of a similar kind, abound throughout the desolated 
 plains and hills of Palestine. Some of the latter are 
 so closely beset, in many places, with thorns, that 
 they can be ascended only with great difficulty : and 
 " the whole district of Tiberias is covered with a 
 thorny shrub.''''^ 
 
 * Volney's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 332, 333. 
 
 f Ibid. p. 442. ij: Volney's Ruins, p. 9. 
 
 § Burokhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 333.
 
 JUDEA. 121 
 
 Your Jiighivaj/s shall be desolale.* The highn-ays 
 fie waste ; the wa^-faring man ceaseth. So great inust 
 have been the intercourse, in ancient times, between 
 the populous and numerous cities of Judea, and so 
 much must that intercourse have been increased by 
 the frequent and regular journeyings, from every 
 quarter, of multitudes going up to Jerusalem to wor- 
 ship, in obser%ance of the rites, and in obedience to 
 the precepts of their law, that scarcely any country 
 ever possessed such means of crov."ded highways, or 
 any similar reason for abounding so much in way- 
 faring men. In the days of Isaiah, who uttered the 
 latest of these predictions, " the land was full of 
 horses, neither was there any end of their chariots-^'f- 
 And there not only subsist to this day in the land of 
 Judea, numerous remains of paved ways formed by 
 the Romans at a much later period, and " others 
 evidently 7wt Roman ;'\| but among the precious 
 literary remains of antiquity which have come down 
 to our times, three Roman itineraries are to be num- 
 bered, that can here be confidently appealed to. From 
 these, and from the testimony of Arrian and Diodo- 
 rus Siculus, as well as of Jose])hus and Eusebius, it 
 appears, as Reland has clearly shown, that in Pales- 
 tine, long after it came under the power of the Ro- 
 mans, and after it was greatly debased from its an- 
 cient gloiy, there were forty-two different highways, 
 (vis publica?) all being distinctly specified, which in- 
 tersected it in various directions ; and the number of 
 miles exceeding eight hundred and eighty. § Yet the 
 prophecy is literally true. " In the interior part of 
 the country, there are neither great roads, nor canals, 
 
 • Levit. XXVI. 22, + Isaiah xxxiii. 8. 
 
 t Geueral Straton's MS. 
 
 § Relaiidi Palestina ex monuniciitis veteribiis illustrata. 
 Tom. i. lib. ii. cap. 3, 4, 5, pp. 405, i-26. 
 G
 
 122 JUDEA. 
 
 nor even bridges over the greatest part of the rivers 
 and torrents, however necessary they may be in win- 
 ter. Between town and town there are neither post 
 nor public conveyances. Nobody travels alone, from 
 the insecurity of the roads. One must wait for seve- 
 ral travellers who are going to the same place, or take 
 advantage of the passage of some great man who 
 assumes the ofHce of protector, but is more frequently 
 the oppressor of the caravan. The roads in moun- 
 tains are extremely bad ; and the inhabitants are so 
 far from levelling them, that they endeavour to make 
 them more rugged, in order, as they say, to cure the 
 Turks of their desire to introduce their cavalry. It 
 is remarkable that there is not a waggon nor a cart 
 in all Syria."* " There are," continues Volney, 
 "no inns anywhere. The lodgings in the khans (or 
 places of reception for travellers) are cells where you 
 find nothing but bare walls, dust, and sometimes scor- 
 pions. The keeper of the khan gives the traveller 
 the key and the mat, aiid he provides himself the 
 rest. He must therefore carry with him his bed, his 
 kitchen utensils, and even his provisions ; for frequent- 
 ly not even bread is to be found in the villages."-|- 
 " There are no carriages in the country," says another 
 traveller, " under any denomination." " Among the 
 hills of Palestine,"! according to a third witness, 
 " the road is impassable ; and the traveller finds him- 
 self among a set of infamous and ignorant thieves, 
 who Vvould cut his throat for a farthing, and rob him 
 of his money for the mere pleasure of doing it.'^§ In 
 a country where there is a total want of wheel car- 
 riages of every description, the highwai/s, however 
 excellent and numerous they once might have been, 
 
 • Voliiey's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 417, 419. 
 
 t Ibid. pp. 417,418,419. 
 
 t Wilson's Travels, p. 100. 
 
 § Riciiardson's Travels, vol. ii. 225.
 
 JUDEA. 123 
 
 must lie waste ; and where such clangers have to be 
 encountered at every step, and such privations at 
 every stage, it is not now to be wondered that the 
 waj/ faring viaii ceaseth. But let the disciples of Vol- 
 ney tell by what dictates of human wisdom the whole 
 of his description of these existing facts was summed 
 up, in a brief sentence, by Moses and Isaiah ; by the 
 former, thirty-three, and, by the latter, twenty-five 
 centuries past. 
 
 The spoilers shall come upon all high places through 
 the wilderness. " These precautions are above all ne- 
 cessary in the countries exposed to the Arabs, such as 
 Palestine, and the whole frontier of the desert.""* 
 
 The inhabitants oj" Jerusalem and of the land of Is- 
 rael, shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink 
 their water with astonishment, that her land may be 
 desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence 
 of all them that dwell thereifi. " In the great cities'* 
 (in Syria, none of which are in the Holy Land) " the 
 people have much of that dissipated and careless air 
 which they usually have with us, because there, as 
 well as here," says Volney, alluding to France, " in- 
 ured to suffering from habit, and devoid of reflection 
 from ignorance, they enjoy a kind of security. Hav- 
 ing nothing to lose, they are in no dread of being 
 plundered. The merchant, on the contrary/, lives in 
 a state of perpetual alarm, under the double appre- 
 hension of acquiring no more, and losing what he 
 possesses. He trembles lest he should attract the 
 attention of rapacious authority, which would con- 
 sider an air of satisfaction as a proof of opulence and 
 the signal for extortion. The same dread prevails 
 throughout the villages, where everi/ peasant is afraid 
 of exciting the envy of his equals, and the avarice of 
 the Aga and his soldiers. In such a country, where 
 
 • Volney's Travels, vol. ii. p. 417.
 
 124 JtJDEA. 
 
 the subject is perpetually watched by a despoiling go- 
 vernment, he must assume a serious countenance for 
 the same reason that he wears ragged clothes ;"* or, 
 as the description might appropriately have been con- 
 cluded, in the very words of the prophet, because of 
 the violence of them that dwell therein. 
 
 They shall he ashamed of your revemies. " From 
 the state of the contributions of each pachalic, it 
 appears that the annual sum paid by Syria into the 
 Kasna, or treasury of the Sultan, amounts to 2345 
 purses, viz. 
 
 For Aleppo, . . 800 purses. 
 
 Tripoli, . . 750 
 
 Damascus, . . 45 
 
 Acre, . . 7^0 
 
 Palestine, . . — 
 
 2345 purses : 
 Which are equal to 2,931,250 livres, or ^£^22,135 
 sterling.^' After the specification of some identical 
 sources of revenue, it is added^ " we cannot be far from 
 the truth, if we compute the total of the Sultan's reve- 
 nue from Syria to be 7,500,000 livres," (=£^312,500 
 sterling,)-|- or less than the third part of one mil- 
 lion sterling, and less than a seventh part of what it 
 yielded, in tribute, unto Egypt, long after the pro- 
 phecies were sealed. This is the whole amount that 
 a government which has reached the acme of despo- 
 tism, and which accounts pillage a right, and all pro- 
 perty its own, can extort from impoverished Syria. 
 But, insignificant as this sum is as the revenues 
 of those extensive territories, which included in an- 
 cient times several opulent and powerful states, the 
 greater part must be deducted from it, before es- 
 timating the pitiful pittance, which, under the name 
 
 • Vohiey's Travels, v. ii. pp. 477, 478. f Ibid. p. 3G0.
 
 JUDEA. 125 
 
 of revenue, its oppressive masters can now drain from 
 the land of Israel. A single glance at the preceding 
 statement, affords the obvious means of distinguish- 
 ing the comparative desolation and poverty of the 
 different provinces of Syria. And the least unpro- 
 ductive of these in revenue, — the pachalics of Aleppo 
 and Tripoli, and a considerable portion of what now 
 forms the paclialic of Acre, were not included within 
 the boundaries of ancient Judea. Palestine, — con- 
 taining the ancient territory of Philistia and part of 
 Judea — was then gifted in whole, by the Sultan, to 
 two individuals. The very extensive pachalic of Da- 
 mascus, so unproductive of revenue, includes Jerusa- 
 lem and a great proportion of ancient Judea, so that of 
 it, even with greater propriety than of the rest, it rnay 
 be said, — they shall be ashamed of your revenues. 
 
 Instead of viewing separately each special predic- 
 tion, the prophecies respecting the desolation of the 
 land of Judea are so abundant, that several may be 
 grouped together ; and their meaning is so clear that 
 any explanatory remarks would be superfluous. Nor 
 is the evidence of their complete fulfilment indistinct 
 or difficult to be found ; for Volney illustrates six 
 predictions in a single sentence, to which he subjoins 
 a reflection, not less confirmatory than them all, of 
 prophetic inspiration. 
 
 / will destroy your high jylaces, and bring your 
 SANCTUARIES luto desohitiou. — The palaces shall 
 be forsaken. — I will destroy the remnant of the sea- 
 coast. — / will make your cities waste. — The multitude 
 of the city shall be left., the habitation forsaken, c^c. 
 The land shall he utterly spoiled. — / will make the 
 land more desolate than the wilderness. " The temples 
 are thrown down — the palaces demolished — the ports 
 filled up — the towns destroyed — and the earth, strip- 
 ped of inhabitants, seems a dreary burying-place.^^* 
 " Volney's Huios, c. 11, p. 8,
 
 126 JUDEA. 
 
 " Good God !" exclaims Volney, " from whence 
 proceed such melancholy revolutions ? For what 
 cause is the fortune of these countries so strikingly 
 changed? Why are so many cities destroyed? 
 Why is not that ancient population reproduced and 
 perpetuated ?" " 1 wandered over the country — I 
 traversed the provinces — I enumerated the kingdoms 
 of Damascus and Idumea ; of Jerusalem and Sama- 
 ria. This Syria, said / to inj/self, now almost de- 
 populated, then contained a hundred flourishing ci- 
 ties, and abounded with towns, villages, and hamlets. 
 What are become of so many productions of the hands 
 of man ? What are become of those ages of abun- 
 dance and of life .^" &:c. Seeking to be wise, men 
 become fools, when they trust to their own vain ima- 
 ginations, and will not look to that word of God, 
 which is as able to confound the wise, as to give un- 
 derstanding to the simple. These words, from the 
 lips of a great advocate of infidelity, proclaim the cer- 
 tainty of the truth which he was too blind or bigotted 
 to see. For not move unintentionally or unconscious- 
 ly do inanj/ illiterate Arab pastors, or herdsmen, 
 verify one prediction, while they literally tread Pa- 
 lestine 2mder foot, than Volney, the academician, 
 himself verifies another, while, speaking in his own 
 name, and the spokesman also of others, he thus con- 
 firms the unerring truth of God''s holy word, by what 
 he said, — as well as by describing what he saw. " The 
 generation to covie of your children that shall rise 
 up after yon, and the stranger that shall come 
 FROM A FAR LAND shall SAY, when they see the 
 plagues of that land and the sickness which the Lord 
 hath laid upon it. Wherefore hath the Lord done this 
 tinto the land ? what meaneth the heat of his great 
 anger .^" 
 
 It is no " secret malediction," spoken of by Vol- 
 ney, which God has pronounced against Judea. It
 
 JUDEA. 127 
 
 is the curse of a broken covenant that rests upon the 
 land — the consequences of the iniquities of the peo- 
 ple, not of those only who have been plucked from off 
 it and scattered throughout the world, but of those 
 also that dwell therein. The ruins of empires origi- 
 nated not from the regard which mortals paid to re- 
 vealed religion, but from causes diametrically the re- 
 verse. Neither Jews nor Christians who possessed a 
 revelation, were the desolators : Under them Judea 
 flourished. The destruction of Jerusalem, and of 
 the cities of Palestine, was the work of the Romans, 
 who were pagan idolaters ; and the devastation in 
 more recent ages, was perpetuated by the Saracens 
 and Turks, believers in the impostor Mahomet, and 
 the desolations were wrought by the enemies of the 
 Mosaic and Christian dispensations. The desolations 
 are not of divine appointment, but only as they have 
 followed the violations of the laws of God^ or have 
 arisen from thence. The virtual renunciation of a 
 holy faith brought on destruction. A.nd none other 
 curses have come upon the land than those that are 
 written in the book. The character and condition 
 of the people are not less definitely marked, than the 
 features of the land, that has been smitten with a 
 curse because of their iniquities. And when the un- 
 believer asks, wherefore hath the Lord done this unto 
 the land, the same word which foretold that the 
 question would be put, supplies an answer and assigns 
 the cause. Then shall men say, because they have 
 forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fa- 
 thers, &■€. 
 
 The land is defied under the inhabitants thereof, 
 because they have transgressed the laws, changed the 
 ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant. There- 
 fore halh the curse devoured the earth, &;c. These 
 expressive words, while they declare the cause of the 
 judgm.ents and desolation, denote also the great de-
 
 128 JUDEA. 
 
 pravity of those who were to inhabit the land of Ju- 
 dea during the time of its desolation, and while its an- 
 cient inhabitants were to be " scattered abroad." And 
 although the ignorance of those who dwell therein 
 may be pitied, their degeneracy will not be denied. 
 The ferocity of the Turks, the predatory habits of 
 the Arabs, the abject state of the few poor Jews who 
 are suffered to dwell in the land of their fathers, the 
 base superstitions of the different Christian sects, — 
 the frequent contentions that subsist among svich a 
 mingled and diversified people, and the gross igno- 
 rance and great depravity that prevail throughout the 
 whole, have all sadly changed and stained the moral 
 aspect of that country, which, from sacred re- 
 membrances, is denominated the Holy Land, — have 
 converted that region, where alone in all the world, 
 and during many ages, the only living and true God 
 was worshipped, and where alone the pattern of per- 
 fect virtue was ever exhibited to human view-, or in 
 the human form — into one of the most degraded 
 countries of the globe, and in appropriate terms, may 
 well be said to have defiled the land. And it has 
 been defiled throughout many an age. The Father 
 of mercies afHicteth not willingly, nor grieves the 
 children of men. Sin is ever the precursor of the 
 actual judgments of heaven. It was on account of 
 their idolatry and Avickedness that the ten tribes were 
 earliest plucked from off the land of Israel. The 
 blood of Jesus, according to their prayer, and the 
 full measure of their iniquity, according to their do- 
 ings, was upon the Jews and upon their children. 
 Before they were extirpated from that land which their 
 iniquities had defiled — it was drenched with the blood 
 of more than a million of their race. Judea after- 
 wards had a partial and temporary respite from de- 
 solation, when Christian churches were established 
 there. But in that land, the nursery of Christian-
 
 JUDEA. 129 
 
 ity, the seeds of its corruption, or perversion, began 
 soon to appear. Tlie moral power of religion decay- 
 ed, the worship of images prevailed, and the nomi- 
 nal disciples of a pure faith " broke the everlasting 
 covenant.''* The doctrine of Mahomet, — the Ko- 
 ran or the sword, — was the scourge and the cure of 
 idolatry ; but all the native impurities of the JMaho- 
 metan creed succeeded to a grossly corrupted form 
 of Christianity. Since that period, hordes of Sara- 
 cens, Egyptians, Fatimites, Tartars, Mamelukes, 
 Turks, (a combination of names of unmatched barbar- 
 ism, at least in modern times,) have, for the space of 
 twelve hundred years, defiled the land of the children 
 of Israel with iniquity and with blood. And in very 
 truth the prophecy savours not in the least of hyper- 
 bole, — the worst of the heathen shall possess their houses. 
 And the holij places shall be dejiled. Omar, on the 
 first conquest of Jerusalem by the Mahometans, erected 
 a mosque on the site of the temple of Solomon ; and, 
 jealous as the God of Israel is that his glory be not 
 given to another, the unseemly and violent and bloody 
 contentions among Christian sects around the very se- 
 pulchre of the author of the faith which they dishon- 
 our — bear not a feebler testimony in the present day, 
 than the preceding fact bore, at so remote a period, to 
 the truth of this prediction. The frenzied zeal of cru- 
 sading Christians could not expel the heathen from 
 Judea, though Europe then poured like a torrent upon 
 Asia. But tlie defilement of the land, no less than 
 that of the holy places, is not yet cleansed away. And 
 Judea is still defiled to this hour, not only by oppres- 
 sive rulers, but by an unprincipled and a lawless peo- 
 ple. " The barbarism of Syria," says Volney, " is 
 complete. "-f- " I have often reflected," says Burck- 
 
 • Isa. xxiv. 5. 
 
 + Volney's Travels, vol. ii. p. 442.
 
 130 JUDEA. 
 
 hardt, in describing the dishonest conduct of a Greek 
 priest in the Hauran, (but in words that admit of too 
 general an application.) " that if the English penal 
 laws were suddenly promulgated in this country, 
 there is scarcely any man in business, or who has mo- 
 ney dealings with others, who would not be liable to 
 transportation before the end of the first six months."* 
 " Under the name of Christianity, every degrading 
 superstition and profane rite, equally remote from the 
 enlightened tenets of the gospel and the dignity of 
 human nature, are professed and tolerated. The pure 
 gospel of Christ, everywhere the herald of civilization 
 and of science, is almost as little known in the Holy 
 Land as in California or New Holland. A series of 
 legendary traditions, mingled with remains of Ju- 
 daism, and the wretched phantasies of illiterate asce- 
 tics, may now and then exhibit a glimmering of hea- 
 venly light ; but if we seek for the effects of Christi- 
 anity in the land of Canaan, we must look for that 
 period, when the desert shall blossom as the rose, and 
 the wilderness become a fruitful field. "-f- The land 
 is defiled under the inhalntants thereof : because they 
 have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, 
 broken the everlasting covenant. — Therefore hath the 
 curse devoured the land, and 
 
 They that dwell therein are desolate. " The govern- 
 ment of the Turks in Syria is a pure military despo- 
 tism, that is, the bulk of the inhabitants are subject 
 to the caprices of a faction of armed men, who dispose 
 of every thing according to their interest and fancy." 
 " In each government the pasha is an absolute despot. 
 In the villages, the inhabitants, limited to the mere 
 necessaries of life, have no arts but those without 
 which they cannot subsist." " There is no safety 
 
 * Burckhardt's Travels in Sj-ria, p. 89. 
 + Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. p. 403.
 
 JUDEA. 131 
 
 without the towns, nor security within their pre- 
 cincts ;"* and 
 
 Few men left. While their character is thus de- 
 praved and their condition miserable, their number is 
 also small indeed, as the inhabitants of so extensive 
 and fertile a region. After estimating the number of 
 inhabitants in Syria, in general, Volney remarks — 
 " So feeble a population in so excellent a country, 
 may well excite our astonishment ,• but this Avill be in- 
 creased, if we compare the presfent number of inhabi- 
 tants with that of ancient times. We are informed 
 by the philosophical geographer, Strabo, that the ter- 
 ritories of Yanmia and Yoppa, in Palestine alone, 
 were formerly so populous as to bring forty thousand 
 armed men into the field. At present they could 
 scarcely furnish three thousand. From the accounts 
 we have of Judea, in the time of Titus, which are to 
 be esteemed tolerably accurate, that country inust 
 have contained four millions of inhabitants. If we 
 go still farther back into antiquity, we shall find the 
 same populousness among the Philistines, the Phoeni- 
 cians, and in the kingdoms of Samaria and Dair^as- 
 cus."-!- Though the ancient population of the land 
 of Israel be estimated at the lowest computation, and 
 the existing population be rated at the highest, yet 
 that country does not now contain a tenth part of the 
 number of inhabitants, which it plentifully support- 
 ed exclusively from the industry and from the rich 
 resources of its own luxuriant soil, for many succes- 
 sive centuries ; and how could it possibly have been 
 imagined that this identical land would ever yield so 
 scanty a subsistance to the desolate dwellers therein, 
 and that there would be so few men left ? 
 
 Yet in it shall be a tenth. The city that went out 
 
 • Volney's Travels,' vol. ii, pp. 370, 37G, 38a 
 t Ibid. p. 366.
 
 132 JUDEA. 
 
 hy a thousand shall leave an hundred^ and that which 
 went out bj/ an hundred shall leave ten. The present 
 population of Judea has been estimated, without re- 
 ference to any prediction, at a tenth of the number by 
 which it was peopled previous to the dispersion of 
 the Jews. Volney, on a comparative estimate, re- 
 duces it even to less. It is impossible to ascertain 
 the precise proportion. The words of Pierre Bello, 
 quoted by Malte-Brun, though the same in substance 
 with the testimony of others, here afford the closest 
 commentary. " A tract from which a hundred indi- 
 viduals draw a scanty subsistence, formerly maintained 
 thousands.''''^ 
 
 The mirth of the tahret ceaseth, the 7ioise of them 
 that rejoice endeth, the Joy of the harp ceaseth. Instru- 
 mental music was common among the Jews. The ta- 
 bret and the harp, the cymbal, the psaltery, and the 
 viol, and other instruments of music, are often men- 
 tioned as in familiar use among the Israelites, and re- 
 gularly formed a great part of the service of the tem- 
 ple. At the period when the prediction was delivered, 
 the harp, the viol, and the tabret, and pipe, and wine 
 were in their feasts ; and even though the Jews have 
 long ceased to be a nation, the use of these instruments 
 has not wholly ceased from among them. But in the 
 once happy land of Judea, the voice of mirthful music 
 is at rest. In a genei'al description of the state of the 
 arts and sciences in Syria (including the whole of the 
 Holy Land,) Volney remarks, that adepts in music are 
 very rarely to be met with. " They have no music 
 but vocal ; for they neither know nor esteem instru- 
 viental ; and they are in the right, for such instruments 
 as they have, not excepting their flutes, are detest- 
 able.'"*!' The mirth of the harp ceaseth, thejoj/ of the 
 tabret ceaseth. 
 
 * Malte-Brun's Geography, vol. ii. p. Ijl. 
 ■f Volney's Travels, vol. ii. p. 439. 
 
 7
 
 JUDEA. 133 
 
 But this is not the sole instance in which the me- 
 lancholy features of that desolate country seem to be 
 transferred to the minds of its inhabitants. And the 
 plaintive language of the prophet (the signiflcancy of 
 which might well have admitted of some slight modi- 
 fication, if one jot or tittle could pass away till all be 
 fulfilled,) is true to the very letter, when set side by 
 side, unaided by one syllable of comment, v.ith the 
 words of a bold and avowed unbeliever. 
 
 All the merry-hearted do sigh ; they shall not drink 
 wine with a song ; all Joy is darkened^ the mirth of the 
 land is gone. Their shouting shall he no shouting. 
 " Their performance,'''' (singing) " is accompanied 
 with sighs and gestures. They may be said to excel 
 most in the mchnchohj strain. To behold an Arab 
 with his head inclined, his hand applied to his ear, 
 his eyebrows knit, his eyes languishing ; to hear his 
 plaintive tones, his sighs and sobs, it is almost im- 
 possible to refrain from tears.''"'* If any further illus- 
 tration of the prediction be requisite, the same ill- 
 fated narrator of facts exhibits anew the visions of the 
 prophet. From his description (chap, xl.) of the 
 manners and character of the inhabitants of Syria, it 
 is obvious that melancholy is a predominating feature- 
 " Instead of that open and cheerful countenance, 
 which we either naturally possess or assume, their 
 behaviour is serious, austere, and melancholy. They 
 rarely laugh ; and the gaiety of the French appears to 
 them a fit of delirium. When they speak, it is with 
 deliberation, without gesture, and without passion ; 
 they listen without interrupting you ; they are silent 
 for whole days together ; and by no means pique 
 themselves on supporting conversation. Continually 
 seated, they pass whole days musing, with their legs 
 crossed, their pipes in their mouths, and almost with- 
 
 * Volney's Travels, pp. 439, 440.
 
 134 JUDEA. 
 
 out changing their attitude. The orientals, in gene- 
 ral, have a grave and phlegmatic exterior ; a stayed 
 and almost listless deportment ; and a serious, nay, 
 even sad and melancholy countenance."* Having 
 thus explicitly stated the fact, Volney, by many ar- 
 guments, equally judicious and just, most successfully 
 combats the idea that the climate and soil are the 
 radical cause of so striking a phenomenon : and after 
 assigning a multiplicity of facts from ancient history, 
 which completely disprove the efficacy of such causes^ 
 he instances that of the Jews, " who, limited to a 
 little state, never ceased to struggle for a thousand 
 years against the most powerful empires. •[* If the 
 men of these nations were inert," he adds, " what is 
 activity ? If they were active, where then is the in- 
 fluence of climate ? Why, in the same countries, 
 where so much energy was displayed in former times, 
 do we at present find such profound indolence ?''' And 
 having thus relieved the advocate for the inspiration 
 of the Scriptures from the necessity of proving that 
 the contrast in the manner and character of the pre- 
 sent and of the ancient inhabitants of Syria is (even 
 now, when the change has become matter of history 
 and observation, and when the circumstances respect- 
 ing it are known,) incapable of solution from any 
 natural causes, such as by some conceivable possibility 
 might have been foreseen, he proceeds to point out 
 those real, efficacious, and efficient causes, viz. the 
 mode of government and the state of religion and of 
 the laws — the nature of which no human sagacity 
 could possibly have descried, and which came not 
 into existence or operation in the manner in which 
 they have so long continued, for many ages subse- 
 quent to the period when their full and permanent 
 effect was laid open to the full view of the prophets 
 
 » Volney's Travels, pp. 461, 476. t Ibid. p. 464.
 
 JUDEA. 135 
 
 of Israel. The fact, thus clearly predicted and prov- 
 ed, is not only astonishing as referable to the inhabi- 
 tants of Judea, and as exhibiting a contrast, than 
 which nothing, of a similar kind, can be more com- 
 plete ; but it is so very contradictory to the habits of 
 men and customs of nations, that it is totally inex- 
 plicable, how, by any human means, such a fact, 
 even singly, could ever have been foretold. From 
 the congregated groups of savages, cheered by their 
 simple instruments of music, exulting in their war- 
 songs, and revelling in their mirth, to the more ele- 
 gant assemblages of polished society, listening with 
 delight to the triumphs of music : from the huts of 
 the wilderness to the courts of Asia and of Europe, 
 and from the wilds of America, the jungles of India, 
 and even the deserts of central Africa, to the mea- 
 dows of England, the plains of France, or the valleys 
 of Italy ; the experience of mankind in every clime, 
 — except partially where the blasting influence of the 
 crescent is felt, — proclaims as untrue to nature the 
 predicted fact, which actually has been permanently 
 characteristic of the inhabitants of the once happy 
 land of Israel. The fact perhaps would have been 
 but slowly credited ; and the synonymous terms of 
 the ample description, and of the repeated prophecies, 
 might have been reckoned the fiction of a biassed 
 judgment, had a Christian, instead of Volney, been 
 the witness. 
 
 They shall not drink wine with a song. Strong 
 drink shall be bitter unto them that drink it. The 
 more closely that the author of the Ruins of Empires 
 traces the causes in which the desolation of these re- 
 gions, and the calamities of the inhabitants originate, 
 he supplies more abundant data for a demonstration 
 that the prophecies respecting them cannot but be 
 divine. " One of the chief sources,'''' continues Vol- 
 ney, " of gaiety with us is the social intercourse of
 
 136 JUDEA, 
 
 the table, and the use of wine. The orientals (Syri- 
 ans) are almost strangers to this double enjoyment. 
 Good cheer would intallibly expose them to extortion, 
 and wine to corporal punishment, from the zeal of the 
 police in enforcing the precepts of the Koran. It is 
 with great reluctance the Mahometans tolerate the 
 Christians the use of the liquor they envy them.*'"* 
 To this statement may be subjoined the more direct, 
 but equally unapplied, testimony of recent travellers. 
 " The wines of Jerusalem,"" says Mr. JoliiTe, " are 
 most execrable. In a country where every species of 
 vinous liquor is strictly prohibited by the concurrent 
 authorities of law and gospel, a single fountain may 
 be considered of infinitely greater value than many 
 wine-presses."-]' Mr. Wilson relates that " the wine 
 drank in Jerusalem is probably the very worst to be 
 met with in any country.""! While the intolerance 
 and despotism of the Turks, and the rapacity and 
 wildncss of the Arabs, have blighted the produce cf 
 Judea, and render abortive all the influence of cli- 
 mate, and all the fertility of that land of vines, the 
 unnatural prohibition of the use of wine, and the 
 rigour with which that prohibition is enforced, have 
 peculiarly operated against the cultivation of the vine, 
 and turned the treading of the wine-press into an odi- 
 ous and unprofitable task. Yet in a country where 
 the vine grows spontaneously, and which was cele- 
 brated for the excellence of its wines,§ nothing less 
 than the operation of causes unnatural and extreme as 
 these, could have verified the language of prophecy. 
 But in this instance, as truly as in every other, a re- 
 capitulation of the prophecies is the best suinmary of 
 the facts. And, by only changing the future into the 
 
 » Volney's Travels, v. ii. p. 480. 
 
 + JoliftVs Letters from Palestine, v. i. p. 184. 
 
 t Wilson's Travels, p. 130. 
 
 § Reland. Palest, pp. 381, 792.
 
 JUDEA. 137 
 
 present and the past, after an interval of t^vo thousand 
 five hundred years, no eye-witness, writing on the spot, 
 could delineate a more accurate representation of the 
 existing state of Judea, than in the very words of Isa- 
 iah, in which, as in those of other prophets, the vari- 
 ous and desultory ohservations of travellers are con- 
 centrated into a description equally perspicuous and 
 true. 
 
 " jMany days and years shall ye be troubled, for the 
 vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come. They 
 shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for 
 the fruitful vine. Upon the land of my people shall 
 coine up thorns and briars ; yea, upon all the houses of 
 joy in the joyous city. Because the palaces shall be 
 forsaken — the multitude of the city shall be left — the 
 forts and towns shall be for dens — a joy of wild asses 
 — a pasture of flocks.* The highways lie waste — the 
 wayfaring man ceaseth — the earth mourneth and lan- 
 guisheth. Lebanon is ashamed, or hewn down, or 
 withered away — Sharon is like a wilderness — and Ba- 
 shan and Carmel shake off their fruits. *!- The land 
 shall be utterly emptied and utterly despoiled. The 
 earth mourneth and fadeth away — it is defiled under 
 the inhabitants thereof. Because they have trans- 
 gressed the laws, therefore hath the curse devoured 
 the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate, and 
 few men left : 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 drink shall be bitter to them that drink it — the 
 city of confusion is broken down — all joy is darkened 
 — the mirth of the land is gone.''"';]; 
 
 To this picture of common and general devastation, 
 
 Isaiah xxxii. 10 — 14. t Isaiah xxxiii. 8, 9, 
 
 Isaiah xxiv. 3, &c.
 
 138 JUDEA. 
 
 that no distinguishing feature might be left untouched 
 or untraced by his pencil, the prophet adds : — " When 
 thus it shall be in the midst of the land, there shall be 
 as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning 
 of grapes when the vintage is done.* The glory of 
 Jacob shall be made thin ; and it shall be, as when 
 the harvestman gathereth the corn and reapeth the 
 ears with his arm — yet gleaning grapes shall be left 
 in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three 
 berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or 
 five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof '^-f* These 
 words imply, as is otherwise declared without a meta- 
 phor, that a small remnant would be left — that though 
 Judea should become poor like a field that has been 
 reaped, or like a vine stripped of its fruits, itsdesolation 
 would not be so complete but that some vestige of its 
 former abundance would be still visible, like the few 
 grains that are left by the reaper when the harvest 
 is past, or the little remaining fruit that hangs on the 
 uppermost branch, or on a neglected bough, after the 
 full crop has been gathered, and the vine and the 
 olive have been shaken. And is there yet a glean- 
 ing left of all the glory of Israel 't There is ; and 
 there could not be any simile more natural or more 
 expressive of the fact. Napolose (the ancient Sy- 
 char or Sichem) is luxuriantly embosomed in the 
 most delightful and fram-ant bowers, half concealed 
 by rich gardens and by stately trees, collected into 
 groves all around the beautiful valley in which it 
 stands. + — The garden of Geddin, situated on the 
 
 " Isaiah xxiv. 13. -f- Isaiah xvii. 5, G. 
 
 if Clarke, vol. ii. 506. The remark may be interesting to 
 the Christian reader, that, — while Capernaum, the capital of 
 Galilee, which was " exalted unto heaven," or the hij^hest 
 prosperity, when Jesus and his apostles preached there in 
 vain, is brought down to hell, (to hades) to death, or entire 
 destruction, being nothing now but shapeless ruins, as Cho- 
 razin and Betbsaida also are, — and while Samaria, the capital
 
 JUDE4. 139 
 
 borders of Mount Sharon, and protected by its chief, 
 extends several miles in a spacious valley, abound- 
 ing with excellent fruits, such as olives, almonds, 
 peaches, apricots and figs. A number of streams 
 that fall from the mountains, traverse it, and water 
 the cotton plants that thrive well in this fertile 
 soil.* The scenery in the plain of Zabulon is, to 
 the full, as delightful as in the rich vale upon the 
 south of the Crimea ; — it reminds the traveller of 
 the finest part of Kent and Surrey. -|- The soil, al- 
 though stony, is exceedingly rich, but now entire- 
 ly neglected. But the delightful vale of Zabulon 
 appears everywhere covered with spontaneous vege- 
 tation, flourishing in the wildest exuberance. Even 
 along the mountains of Gilead, the land possessing 
 extraordinary riches, abounds with the most beauti- 
 ful prospects, is clothed with rich forests, varied with 
 verdant slopes ; and extensive plains of a fine red soil, 
 are now covered with thistles as the best proof of its 
 fertility. I The valley of St. John's, in the vicinity of 
 Jerusalem, is crowned to the top with olives and vines, 
 while the lower part of the valley bears the milder fig 
 and almond. § Whenever any spot is fixed on as the 
 residence, and seized as the property, either of a Turk- 
 ish Aga or of an Arab Sheikh, it enjoys his protection, 
 is made to administer to his wants, or to his luxury, 
 and the exuberance and beauty of the land of Canaan 
 
 of the country which bore its name, is cast down into the val- 
 ley, — Sycbar, then one of its inferior cities, from which the 
 inhabitants came forth to meet Jesus, and in which many 
 believed in him as the Saviour when they heard his word — 
 is ranked by every traveller, who describes it, among^ the 
 most striking- exceptions to the general desolation, which has 
 otherwise left but a remembrance of the cities of Judah, of 
 Samaria and Galilee. 
 
 • Mariti's Travels, ii. 151. f Clarke, ii, 400. 
 
 + Buckingham's Travels, p. 322. 
 
 § General Straton's MS. Travels.
 
 140 SAMARIA. 
 
 soon appear. But such spots are, in the words of an 
 eye-witness, only " mere sprinklings'" in the midst of 
 extensive desolation. And how could it ever have been 
 foreseen, that the same cause, viz. the residence of de- 
 spotic spoliators, was to operate in so strange a manner 
 as to spread a wide wasting desolation over the face 
 of the country, and to be, at the same time, the very 
 means of preserving the thin gleanings of its ancient 
 glory ; or that a few berries on the outmost bough 
 would be saved by the same hand that was to shake 
 the olive "^ 
 
 Among such a multiplicity of prophecies, where the 
 prediction and the fulfilment of each is a miracle, it is 
 almost impossible to select any as more amazing than 
 the rest. But that concerning Samaria is not the 
 least remarkable. That city was, for a long period, 
 the capital of the ten tribes of Israel. Herod the 
 Great enlarged and adorned it, and, in honour of 
 Augustus Caesar, gave it the name of Sebaste. There 
 are many ancient medals which were struck there.* 
 It was the seat of a bishopric, as the subscription of 
 some of its bishops to the acts of ancient councils at- 
 test. Its history is thus brought down to a period 
 unquestionably far remote from the time of the pre- 
 diction ; and the narrative of a traveller, which al- 
 ludes not to the prophecy, and which has even been 
 unnoticed by commentators, shows its complete ful- 
 filment. Besides other passages which speak of its 
 extinction as a city, the word of the Lord which Mi- 
 call saw concerning Samaria, is — " I will make Sa- 
 maria as a heap of the field, and as plantings of a 
 vineyard : and I will pour down the stones thereof 
 into the valley ; and I will discover the foundations 
 thereof,"' And this great city is now wholly convert- 
 ed into gardens ; and all the tokens that remain to 
 testify that there has ever been such a place, are only 
 * Calmet's Dictionary. Relandi Palest, p. 98i.
 
 JERUSALEM. 141 
 
 on the north side — a large square piazza, encompass- 
 ed with pillars, — and on the east some poor remains 
 of a great church. Such was the first notice of that 
 ancient capital given by Maundrell in 1696, and it is 
 confirmed by Mr. Buckingham in 1816. The rela- 
 tive distance, local position, and unaltered name of 
 Sebaste, leave no doubt as to the identity of its site ; 
 and he adds, its local features are equally seen in the 
 threat of Micah.* 
 
 But the predicted fate of Jerusalem has been more 
 conspicuously displayed and more fully illustrated 
 than that of the capital of the ten tribes of Israel. It 
 formed the theme of prophecy from the deathbed of 
 Jacob, — and, as the seat of the government of the 
 children of Judah, the sceptre departed not from it 
 till the Messiah appeared, on the expiration of seven- 
 teen hundred years after the death of the Patriarch, 
 and till the period of its desolation, prophesied of by 
 Daniel, had arrived. A destiny diametrically opposite 
 to the former, then awaited it, even for a longer dura- 
 tion ; and, ere its greatness was gone, even at the 
 very time when itwas crowded with Jews, from all quar- 
 ters, resorting to the feast, and when it \<'as inhabited by 
 a numerous population dwelling in security and peace, 
 its doom was denounced — that it was to be trodden 
 down of theGentiles, till the time of the Gentiles should 
 be fulfilled. The time of the Gentiles is not yet ful- 
 filled, and Jerusalem is still trodden down of the Gen- 
 tiles. The Jews have often attempted to recover it : 
 No distance of space or of time can separate it from 
 their affections — they perform their devotions with 
 their faces towards it, as if it were the object of their 
 
 * Buckingham's Travels, pp. 51 1, 512. It has also hecn de- 
 scribed in similar terms by other travellers. The stones are 
 poured down into the valley, the foundations discovered, and 
 there is now only to be seen " the hill uhere once stood Sa- 
 maria." Tsapolose has been mistaken by one ti'aveller tor the 
 ancient Samaria.
 
 142 JERUSALEM. 
 
 worship as well as of their love ; and although their 
 desire to return be so strong, indelible, and innate, 
 that every Jew, in every generation, counts him- 
 self an exile — yet they have never been able to 
 rebuild their temple, nor to recover Jerusalem 
 from the hands of the Gentiles. But greater power 
 than that of a proscribed and exiled race has been 
 added to their own, in attempting to frustrate the coun- 
 sel that professed to be of God. Julian, the emperor 
 of the Romans, not only permitted but invited the Jews 
 to rebuild Jerusalem and their temple ; and promised 
 to re-establish them in their paternal city. By that 
 single act, more than by all his writings, he might have 
 destroyed the credibility of the gospel, and restored 
 his beloved but deserted paganism. The zeal of the 
 Jews was equal to his own — and the work was begun 
 by laying again the foundations of the temple. In the 
 space of three days, Titus had formerly encompassed 
 that city with a wall when it was crowded with his ene- 
 mies; and, instead of being obstructed, that great work, 
 when it was confirmatory of an express prediction of 
 Jesus, was completed with an astonishing celerity ; — 
 and what could hinder the emperor of Romefrom build- 
 ing a temple at Jerusalem, when every Jew was zeal- 
 ous for the work ? Nothing appeared against it but a 
 single sentence uttered, some centuries before, by one 
 who had been crucified. If that word had been of 
 man, would all the power of the monarch of the world 
 have been thwarted in opposing it ? And why did not 
 Julian, with all his inveterate enmity and laborious 
 opposition to Christianity, execute a work so easy and 
 desirable ? A heathen historian relates — that fearful 
 balls of fire, bursting from the earth, sometimes burned 
 the workmen, rendered the place inaccessible, and 
 caused them to desist from the undertaking:.* The 
 
 " Imperii sui memoriam magnitudine operum gestiens pro- 
 pagare, ambitosum quondam apud llierosolymara templum,
 
 JERUSALEM. 143 
 
 same narrative is attested by others. Chrysostom, who 
 was a living witness, appealed to the existing state of 
 the foundations, and to the universal testimony which 
 was given of the fact. And an eminent modern tra- 
 veller, who visited, and who minutely examined the 
 spot, testifies that " there seems every reason for be- 
 lieving, that, in the reticulated remains still visible on 
 the site of the temple, is seen a standing memorial of 
 Julian's discomfiture.""* While destitute of this addi- 
 tional confirmation of its truth, the historical evidence 
 was too strong even for the scepticism of Gibbon alto- 
 gether to gainsay ; and brought him to the acknow- 
 ledgment that such authority must astonish an incredu- 
 lous mind. Even independent of the miraculous inter- 
 position, the fulfilment is the same. The attempt was 
 made avowedly, and it was abandoned without any 
 apparent cause. It was never accomplished — and the 
 prophecy stands fulfilled. But, even if the attempt of 
 Julian had never been made, the truth of the pro- 
 phecy itself is unassailable. The Jews have never 
 beeii reinstated in Judea. Jerusalem has ever been 
 trodden down of the Gentiles. The edict of Adrian 
 
 quod, post multa et interneciva certamina obsidente Vespa- 
 siauo, posteaque Tito, segre est expugnatura, instaurare 
 sumptibus cogitabat imraodicis; negotiiimque maturandum 
 Alypio dederat Antiocheusi, qui olini Britaunias curaverat 
 pro prsefectis. Cum itaque rei eidem instaret Alypius, juva- 
 retque provinciaj rector, metuendi globi flaramarum, prope 
 fuudamenta, ciebris assultibus erumpentes, fecere locum ex- 
 ustis aliquoties operautibus inaccessum; hocque modo, ele- 
 mento destinatius repellente, cessavit inceptum — Ammian. 
 Marcell. lib. xxiii. cap. 1. § 2, 3. Rufini Hist. Eccles. lib. i. 
 c. 37. Socrat. lib. ii. c. 17. Theodorit. 1. iii. c. 17. Sozo- 
 niin, 1. V. c. 21. Cassiod. Hist. Tripart. 1. vi. c. 43. Nice- 
 phor. Callis. lib. x. 32. Greg-. Naziaz. iu Julian. Orat. 2. 
 Chrysos. de Ian. Bab. Mart, et contra Judeos, iii. p. 491. 
 Lind. — Vide Am. Mar. tom. iii. p. 2. 
 
 * Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. note 1, at the end of the volume. 
 3
 
 144 JERUSALEM. 
 
 was renewed by the successors of Julian — and no 
 Jews could approach unto Jerusalem but by bribery 
 or by stealth. It was a spot unlawful for them to 
 touch. In the crusades, all the power of Europe 
 was employed to rescue Jerusalem from the heathens, 
 but equally in vain. It has been trodden down for 
 nearly eighteen centuries by its successive masters — 
 by Romans, Grecians, Persians, Saracens, INIame- 
 lukcs, Turks, Christians— and again by the worst of 
 rulers, the Arabs and the Turks. And could any 
 thing be more improbable to have happened, or more 
 impossible to have been foreseen by man, than that 
 any people should be banished from their own capi- 
 tal and country, and remain expelled and expatriated 
 for nearly eighteen hundred years ? Did the same 
 fate ever befall any nation, though no prophecy ex- 
 isted respecting it .'* Is there any doctrine in Scrip- 
 ture so hard to be believed as was this single fact at 
 the period of its prediction ? And even with the ex- 
 ample of the Jews before us, is it likely, or is it cre- 
 dible, or who can foretell — that the present inhabi- 
 tants of any country upon earth shall be banished in- 
 to all nations — retain their distinctive character — 
 meet with an unparalleled fate — continue a people — 
 without a government and without a country — and 
 remain for an indefinite period, exceeding seventeen 
 hundred years, till the fulfilment of a prescribed 
 event which has yet to be accomplished ? ]Must not 
 the knowledge of such truths be derived from that 
 prescience alone which scans alike the will and the 
 ways of mortals, the actions of future nations, and 
 the history of the latest generations ? 
 
 But the prophecies are not confined to the land of 
 Judea ; they are equally unlimited in their range over 
 space as over time. After a lapse of many ages, the 
 countries around Judea are now beffinninjj to be 
 known. And each succeeding traveller, in the com-
 
 AMMON. 145 
 
 munication of new discoveries concerning them, is 
 gradually unfolding the very description Vrhich the 
 prophets gave of their poverty and desolation, at the 
 time of their great prosperity and luxuriance. The 
 countries of the Ammonites — of the Moabites — of 
 the Edomites, or inhabitants of Idumea, and of the 
 Philistines, all bordered with Judea, and each is the 
 theme of prophecy. The relative positions of them 
 all are distinctly defined in Scripture, and have been 
 clearly ascertained.* And the territories of the an- 
 cient enemies of the Jews, long overrun by the ene- 
 mies of Christianity, present many a proof of the in- 
 spiration of the Jewish Scriptures, and of the truth 
 of the Christian religion. 
 
 AMMON. 
 
 The country anciently peopled by the Ammonites, 
 is situated to the east of Palestine, and is now jx)s- 
 sessed partly by the Arabs and by the Turks. It is 
 naturally one of the most fertile provinces of Syria, 
 and it was for many ages one of the most populous. 
 The Ammonites often invaded the land of Israel ; 
 and at one period, united with the ISIoabites, they re- 
 tained possession of a great part of it, and grievously 
 oppressed the Israelites for the space of eighteen 
 years. Jephthah repulsed them, and took twenty of 
 their cities ; but they continued afterwards to harass 
 the borders of Israel — and their capital was besieged 
 by the forces of David, and their country rendered 
 tributary. They regained and long maintained their 
 
 * Relandi Palestina Illustrata ; D'Anville's Map ; Maps 
 in Volney's, Burokhardt's, and Buckingham's Travels; Well's 
 Scripture Geograpliy; Gibbon's History; Shaw's Travels, 
 &c. 
 
 u
 
 146 AMMON. 
 
 independence, till Jotham, the king of Judah, sub- 
 dued them, and exacted from them an annual tribute 
 of an hundred talents, and thirty thousand quarters 
 of wheat and barley ; yet they soon contested again 
 with their ancient enemies, and exulted in the mise- 
 ries that befell them, when Nebuchadnezzar took 
 Jerusalem, and carried its inhabitants into captivity. 
 In after times, though successively oppressed by the 
 Chaldeans, (when some of the earliest prophecies re- 
 specting it were fulfilled) and by the Egyptians and 
 Syrians, Ammon was a highly productive and po- 
 pulous country, when the Romans became inasters of 
 all the provinces of Syria ; and several of the ten al- 
 lied cities, which gave name to the celebrated Deca- 
 polis, were included within its boundaries. Even 
 " when first invaded by the Saracens, this country 
 (including Moab) was enriched by the various bene- 
 fits of trade, was covered with a line of forts, and 
 possessed some strong and populous cities.""* Vol- 
 ney bears witness, " that, in the immense plains of 
 the Hauran, ruins are continually to be met with, and 
 that what is said of its actual fertility perfectly corre- 
 sponds with the idea given of it in the Hebrew writ- 
 ings. ""•[• The fact of Its natural fertility is corroborated 
 by every traveller who has visited it. And " it is evi- 
 dent,'"' says Burckhardt, " that the whole country 
 must have been extremely well cultivated, in order to 
 have afforded subsistence to the inhabitants of so 
 many towns,"j as are now visible only in their ruins. 
 
 * Gibbon's Hist. vol. v. p. 240, c. 51. 
 
 f Voliiey's Travels, vol. ii. p. 299. 
 
 t Burckhardt's Travels iu Syria, p. 357. 
 
 Having frequent occasion, in the subsequent pages, to re- 
 fer to the authority of the celebrated and lamented traveller, 
 J. Lewis Burckhardt, the folloMing ample testimonies to his 
 talents, perseverance, and veracity, will show witli what per- 
 fect confidence his statements may be relied on, especially as 
 the subject of the fulfilment of prophecy, being never once
 
 AMMON. 1 47 
 
 While the fruitfulness of the land of Ammon, and 
 the high degree of prosperity and power in which 
 it subsisted, long prior and long subsequent to the 
 date of the predictions, are thus indisjiutably estab- 
 lished by historical evidence, and by existing proofs, 
 the researches of recent travellers (who were actu- 
 ated by the mere desire of exploring these regions 
 and obtaining geographical information,) have made 
 known its present aspect ; and testimony the most 
 clear, unexceptionable, and conclusive, has been borne 
 to the state of dire desolation to which it is, and has 
 long been reduced. 
 
 It was prophesied concerning Ammon — " Son of 
 man, set thy face against the Ammonites, and pro- 
 phesy against them. I will make Rabbah of the 
 
 alluded to in all his writings, seems to have been wholly 
 foreign to his view. — " He was a traveller of no ordinary 
 description, a gentleman by birth, and a scholar by educa- 
 tion ; he added to the ordinary acquirements of a traveller, 
 accomplishments which fitted him for any society. His de- 
 scription of the countries through which he passed, his nar- 
 rative of incidents, his transactions with the natives, are all 
 placed before us with equal clearness and simplicity. In 
 every page they will find that ardour of research — that pa- 
 tience of investigation — that passionate pursuit after truth, 
 for which he was eminently distinguished." — Quarterly Re- 
 vieic, Vol. xxii. p. 437. " He appears, from his books and 
 letters, to have been a modest, laborious, learned, and sensi- 
 ble man; exempt from prejudice, ?<?jaiftoc/ierf^o systems ; de- 
 tailing what he saw plainly and correctly, and of veiy pru- 
 dent and discreet conduct." — Edinburgh Review, No. 
 Ixvii. p. 109. The following extract from General Strat- 
 on's manuscript travels, was written at Cairo, and is the more 
 valuable, as containing the result of personal knowledge and 
 observation. — "Burckhardt speaks Arabic perfectly, has 
 adopted the costume, and goes to the religious places of wor- 
 ship, has been at Mecca; in short, follows in every thing 
 the Turkish manners and customs, and he is not to be dis- 
 tinguished from a Mussulman. With what advantage must 
 he travel! He is by birth a Swiss, but having been educated 
 in England, speaks our language perfectly."
 
 148 AMMON'.' 
 
 Ammonites a stable for camels and a couching-place 
 for flocks. Behold I will stretch out my hand upon 
 thee, and deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen ; I 
 ■will cut thee off from the people, and cause thee to 
 perish out of the countries ; I will destroy thee. The 
 Ammonites shall not be remembered among the na- 
 tions. Rabbah (the chief city) of the Ammonites 
 shall be a desolate heap. Ammon shall be a per- 
 petual desolation."* 
 
 Ammon was to be delivered to he a spoil to the hea- 
 then — to be destroyed, and to be a perpetual desolation. 
 *' All this country, formerly so populous and flour- 
 ishing, is now changed into a vast desert. ""•!• Ruins 
 are seen in every direction. The country is divided 
 between the Turks and the Arabs, but chiefly pos- 
 sessed by the latter. The extortions of the one and 
 the depredations of the other, keep it in perpetual de- 
 solation and make it a spoil to the heathen. " The 
 far greater part of the country is uninhabited, being 
 abandoned to the wandering Arabs, and the towns 
 and villages are in a state of total ruin.*"| " At every 
 step are to be found the vestiges of ancient cities, the 
 remains of many temples, public edifices, and Greek 
 churches.""§ The cities are desolate. " Many of 
 the ruins present no objects of any interest. They 
 consist of a few walls of dwelling-houses, heaps of 
 stones, the foundations of some public edifices, and a 
 few cisterns filled up ; there is nothing entire, but it 
 appears that the mode of building was very solid, all 
 the remains being formed of large stones. — In the 
 vicinity of Ammon there is a fertile plain interspersed 
 with low hills, which for the greater part are covered 
 with ruins." It 
 
 * Ezek. XXV. 2, 5, 7, 10; xxi. 32. Jerem. xlix. 2, Zepb. ii. 9. 
 + Seetzen's Travels, p. 34. J Ibid. p. 37. 
 
 § Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia, introd. pp. 37, 38, 44. 
 [j BmxUliardt's Travels in Syria, pp. 3od, 357, 364.
 
 AMMOX. 149 
 
 While the country is thus despoiled and desolate, 
 there are valliesand tracts throughout it, which " are 
 covered with a fine coat of verdant pasture, and are 
 places of resort to the Bedouins, where they pasture 
 their camels and their sheep.'"* " The whole way we 
 traversed,''"' says Seetzen, " we saw villages in ruins, 
 and met numbers of Arabs with their camels,'''' &c. 
 Mr. Buckingham describes a building among the 
 ruins of Ammon, " the masonry of which was evi- 
 dently constructed of materials gathered from the 
 ruins of other and older buildings on the spot. On 
 entering it at the south end,''"' he adds, " we came to 
 an open square court, with arched recesses on each 
 side, the sides nearly facing the cardinal points. The 
 recesses in the northern and southern wall were origi- 
 nally open passages, and had arched door-ways facing 
 each other — but the first of these was found wholly 
 closed up, and the last was partially filled up, leaving 
 only a narrow passage, just sufficient for the entrance 
 of one man and of the goats, which the Arab keepers 
 drive in here occasionally for shelter during the night." 
 He relates that he lay down among " flocks of sheep 
 and goats," close beside the ruins of Aramon ; — and 
 particularly remarks that, during the night, he was 
 almost entirely prevented from sleeping by the bleat- 
 ing of flocks. "'"'"I* So literally true is it, although 
 Seetzen, and Burckhardt, and Buckingham, who re- 
 late the facts, make no reference or allusion whatever 
 to any of the prophecies, and travelled for a different 
 object than the elucidation of the Scriptures — that 
 the chief city of the Ammonites is a stable for camels, 
 and a coiiching-place for focks. 
 
 The Ammonites shall not be remembered among the 
 nations. While the Jews, who were long their here- 
 
 * Buckingham's Travels in Palestine, &c. p. 329. 
 f Buckingham's Travels among' the Arab Tribes, untUr 
 the title of Ruins of Ammon, pp. 72, 73, &c.
 
 3 50 AMMON. 
 
 ditary enemies, continue as distinct a people as ever, 
 though dispersed among all nations, no trace of the 
 Ammonites remain — ^none are now designated by 
 their name, nor do any claim descent from them. 
 They did exist, however, long after the time when 
 the eventual annihilation of their race was foretold, for 
 they retained their name, and continued a great mul- 
 titude until the second century of the Christian era.* 
 Yet thei/ are cut off from the people. Aminon has per- 
 ished out of the countries ; it is destroyed. No people 
 is attached to its soil — none regard it as their country 
 and adopt its name : Arid the Ammonites are not re- 
 membered among the nations. 
 
 Rahhah — (Rabbah Ammon, the chief city of Ara- 
 mon,) shall be a desolate heap. Situated as it was, on 
 each side of the borders of a plentiful stream — encir- 
 cled by a fruitful region — strong by nature and forti- 
 fied by art, nothing could have justified the suspicion, 
 or warranted the conjecture in the mind of an unin- 
 spired mortal, that the royal city of Aminon, whatever 
 disasters might possibly befall it in the fate of war or 
 change of masters, would ever undergo so total a trans- 
 mutation as to become a desolate heap. But although, 
 in addition to such tokens of its continuance as a city, 
 more than a thousand years had given uninterrupted 
 experience of its stability, ere the prophets of Israel 
 denounced its fate — yet a period of equal length has 
 now marked it out, — as it exists to this day, — a deso- 
 late heap ; a perpetual or permanent desolation. Its 
 ancient name is still preserved by the Arabs, and its 
 site is now " covered with the ruins of private build- 
 ings — nothing of them remaining except the founda- 
 tions and some of the door-posts. The buildings, ex- 
 posed to the atmosphere, are all in decay ,""•]- so that 
 
 • Justin Martyr, p. 392. Ed. Thirlb. 
 t Bnrckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 359.
 
 AMMON. 151 
 
 they may be said literally to form a desolate heap. 
 The public edifices, which once strengthened or adorn- 
 ed the city, after a long resistance to decay, are now 
 also desolate ; and the remains of the most entire 
 among them, subjected as they are to the abuse and 
 spoliation of the wild Arabs, can be adapted to no 
 better object than a stable for camels. Yet these bro- 
 ken walls and ruined palaces, which attest the ancient 
 splendour of Ammon, can now be made subservient, 
 by means of a single act of reflection, or simple pro- 
 cess of reason, to a far nobler purpose than the most 
 magnificent edifices on earth can be, when they are 
 contemplated as monuments on which the historic and 
 prophetic truth of Scripture is blended in one bright 
 inscription. A minute detail of them may not there- 
 fore be uninteresting. 
 
 Seetzen, (whose indefatigable ardour led him, in 
 defiance of danger, the first to explore the countries 
 which lie east of the Jordan, and east and south of the 
 Dead Sea, or the territories of Ammon, INIoab, and 
 Edom,) justly characterises Ammon as " once the re- 
 sidence of many kings — an ancient town which flou- 
 rished long before the Greeks and Romans, and even 
 before the Hebrews ;""* and he briefly enumerates 
 those remains of ancient greatness and splendour 
 which are most distinguishable amidst its ruins. "Al- 
 though this town has been destroyed and deserted for 
 many ages, I still found there some remarkable ruins, 
 which attest its ancient splendour. Such as, 1st, a 
 square building, very highly ornamented, which has 
 been perhaps a mausoleum. 2dly, The ruins of a 
 large palace. 3dly, A magnificent amphitheatre of 
 immense size, and well preserved, with a peristyle of 
 
 • A brief accouut of the countries adjoining the Lake of 
 Tiberias, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea, by IM. Seetzen, 
 Conseiller d'Ambassade de S.^ M. I'Empereur de Russe, 
 pp. 35, 36.
 
 152 MOAB. 
 
 Corinthian pillars without pedestals. 4th, A temple 
 with a great numher of columns. 5th, The ruins of 
 a large church, perhaps the see of a bishop in the 
 time of the Greek Emperors. 6th, The remains of 
 a temple wath columns set in a circular form, and 
 which are of an extraordinary size. Y^^^Ij The re- 
 mains of the ancient wall, with many other edifices.*"* 
 Burckhardt, who afterwards visited the spot, describes 
 it with greater minuteness. He gives a plan of the 
 ruins ; and particularly noted the ruins of many tem- 
 ples, of a spacious church, a curved wall, a high arch- 
 ed bridge, the banks and bed of the river still partial- 
 ly paved ; a large theatre, with successive tiers of 
 apartments excavated in the rocky side of a hill ; Co- 
 rinthian columns, fifteen feet high ; the castle, a very 
 extensive building, the walls of which are thick, and 
 denote a remote antiquity ; many cisterns and vaults ; 
 and a plain covered with the decayed ruins of private 
 buildings :"f- — monuments of ancient splendour stand- 
 ing amidst a desolate heap. 
 
 MOAB. 
 
 The prophecies concerning Moab are more numer- 
 ous and not less remarkable. Those of them which 
 met their completion in ancient time, and which re- 
 lated to particular events in the history of the ^loab- 
 ites, and to the resvilt of their conflicts with the Jews 
 or any of the neighbouring states, however necessary 
 they may have been at the time for strengthening the 
 faith or supporting the courage of the children of Is- 
 rael, need not now be adduced in evidence of inspira- 
 tion ; for there are abundant predictions which refer 
 
 * Seetzen"s Travels, pp. .35, .'iG. 
 
 •f Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 358, &c.
 
 MOAB. 153 
 
 so clearly to decisive and unquestionable facts, that 
 there is scarcely a single feature peculiar to the land 
 of Moab, as it now exists, which was not marked by 
 the prophets in their delineation of the low estate to 
 which, from the height of its wickedness and haughti- 
 ness, it was finally to be brought down. 
 
 " Against ]\Ioab, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the 
 God of Israel, Woe unto Nebo ! for it is spoiled ; 
 Kiriathaim is confounded and taken : Misgab is con- 
 founded and dismayed. There shall be no more 
 praise of Moab. — And the spoiler shall come upon 
 eveiy city, and no city shall escape ; the valley als') 
 shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the 
 Lord hath spoken. Give v.'ings unto ^loab, that it 
 may flee and get away ; for the cities thereof shall be 
 desolate, without any to dwell therein. — ^loab hath 
 been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on 
 his lees ; and hath not been emptied from vessel tr> 
 vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity. Behold 
 the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send unto 
 him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander. — How 
 is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod ? — 
 Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, com_e down 
 from thy glory and sit in thirst ; for the spoiler of 
 Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy 
 thy strongholds. Moab is confounded, for it is broken 
 down. Moab is spoiled. And judgment is come 
 upon the plain country : upon Holon, and upon Ja- 
 hazah, and upon ]Mephaath, and upon Dibon, and 
 upon Nebo, and upon Beth-diblathaim ; upon Kiria- 
 thaim, Bethgamul, Bethmeon, and upon Kerioth, 
 and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land 
 of Moab, far and near. The horn of Moab is cut 
 off, and his arm is broken, saith the Lord. O ye that 
 dwell in Moab, leave the cities and dwell in the rock ; 
 and be like the dove that raaketh her nest in the sides 
 of the hole's mouth. We have heard of the pride
 
 154) MOAB. 
 
 of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his 
 arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his 
 heart. — And joy and gladness is taken from the plen- 
 tiful field, and from the land of Moab. I have caused 
 wine to fail from the wine-presses. None shall tread 
 with shouting ; their shouting shall be no shouting. 
 From the city of Heshboneven unto Elealeh ; and even 
 unto Jahaz, have they uttered their voice from Zoar 
 even unto Horonaim ; the waters also of Nimrini 
 shall be desolate. I have broken INIoab like a vessel 
 wherein is no pleasure. They shall cry, how is it 
 broken down ! And JNIoab shall be destroyed from 
 being a people, because he hath magnified himself 
 against the Lord. The cities of Aroer are forsaken ; 
 they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and 
 none shall make them afraid. Moab shall be a per- 
 petual desolation."* 
 
 The land of Moab lay to the east and south-east of 
 Judea, and bordered on the east, north-east, and partly 
 on the south of the Dead Sea. Its early history is 
 nearly analogous to that of Ammon ; and the soil, 
 though perhaps more diversified, is, in many places 
 where the desert and plains of salt have not encroached 
 on its borders, of equal fertility. There are manifest 
 and abundant vestiges of its ancient greatness. " The 
 whole of the plains are covered with the sites of towns, 
 on every eminence or spot convenient for the construc- 
 tion of one. And as the land is capable of rich culti- 
 vation, there can be no doubt that the country, now so 
 deserted, once presented a continued picture of plenty 
 and fertility.'"-)- The form of fields is still visible ; 
 and there are the remains of Roman highways, which 
 in Sonne places are completely paved, and on which 
 
 • Jerera. xlviii. 1, 2, 8, 9, 11, 12, 18—28, 29—42. Isaiah 
 xvii. 2. Zeph. ii. 9. 
 f Captains Irby and Mangles' Travels, p. 370. 
 6
 
 MOAB. 155 
 
 there are milestones of the times of Trajan, Marcus 
 Aurelius, and Severus, with the number of the miles 
 legible upon them. Wherever any spot is cultivated 
 the corn is luxuriant ; and the riches of the soil cannot 
 perhaps be more clearly illustrated than by the fact, 
 that one grain of Heshbon wheat exceeds in dimensions 
 two of the ordinary sort, and more than double the 
 number of grains grow on the stalk. The frequency, 
 and almost, in many instances, the close vicinity of 
 the sites of the ancient towns, " prove that the popu- 
 lation of the country was formerly proportioned to its 
 natural fertility.'"* Such evidence may surely suf- 
 fice to prove, that the country was well cultivated and 
 peopled at a period so long posterior to the date of 
 the predictions, that no cause less than supernatural 
 could have existed at the time when they were deli- 
 vered, which could have authorized the assertion, with 
 the least probability or apparent possibility of its 
 truth, that Moab would ever have been reduced to 
 that state of great and permanent desolation in which 
 it has continued for so many ages, and which vindi- 
 cates and ratifies to this hour the truth of the Scrip- 
 tural prophecies. 
 
 The cities of Moab were to he desolate without ayiy 
 to dwell therein ; no city was to escape. Moab was to 
 Jlee away. And the cities of Moab have all disap- 
 peared. Their place, together with the adjoining 
 part of Idumea, is characterised, in the map of Vo!- 
 ney''s Travels, by the ruins of towns. His informa- 
 tion respecting these ruins was derived fi'om some of 
 the wandering Arabs ; and its accuracy has been fully 
 corroborated by the testimony of different European 
 travellers of high respectability and undoubted vera- 
 city, who have since visited this devastated region. The 
 
 • Captains Irby and Mangles' Travels, pp. 377, 378, 4:56, 
 460.
 
 156 MOAB. 
 
 whole country abounds with ruins. And Burckhardt, 
 who encountered many difficulties in so desolate and 
 dangerous a land, thus records the brief history of a 
 few of them ; " The ruins of Eleale, Heshbon, Meon, 
 Medaba, Dibon, Aroer, still subsist to illustrate the 
 history of the Beni Israel.'"* And it might, with 
 equal truth, have been added, that they still subsist 
 to confirm the inspiration of the Jewish Scripture, or 
 to prove that the seers of Israel were the prophets of 
 God, for the desolation of each of these veiy cities 
 was the theme of a prediction. Every thing worthy 
 of observation respecting them has been detailed, not 
 only in Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, but also by 
 Seetzen, and, more recently, by Captains Irby and 
 IMangles, who, along with Mr. Bankes and Mr. Legh, 
 visited this deserted district. The predicted judg- 
 ment has fiillen with such truth upon these cities, and 
 upon all the cities of the land of Moab far and near, 
 and they arc so utterly broken down, that even the 
 prying curiosity of such indefatigable travellers could 
 discover among a multiplicity of ruins, only a few re- 
 mains so entire as to be worthy of particular notice. 
 The subjoined description is drawn from their united 
 testimony. — Among the ruins of El Aal (Eleale) are 
 a number of large cisterns, fragments of buildings, 
 and foundations of houses. -j* At Heshban (Hesh- 
 bon) are the ruins of a large ancient town, together 
 with the remains of a temple, and some edifices. A 
 few broken shafts of columns are still standing ; and 
 there are a number of deep wells cut in the rock. J 
 The ruins of Medaba are about two miles in circum- 
 ference. There are many remains of the walls of 
 private houses constructed with blocks of silex, but 
 not a single edifice is standing. The chief object of 
 
 * Biirckhardt's Travels in Nubia, Introduction, p. 38. 
 f Burck. Travels in Syria, p, 3G5, J Ibid.
 
 MOAB. 157 
 
 interest is an immense tank or cistern of hewn stones, 
 " which, as there is no stream at Medaba," Burck- 
 hardt remarks, " might still be of use to the Be- 
 douins, were the surrounding ground cleared of the 
 rubbish to allow the water to flow into it ; but such 
 an undertaking is far bevond the views of the wander- 
 ing Arabs.'''' There is also the foundation of a tem- 
 ple built with large stones, and apparently of great 
 antiquity, with two columns near it.* The ruins of 
 Diban (Dibon) situated in the midst of a fine plain, 
 are of considerable extent, but present nothing of in- 
 terest. -f* The neighbouring hot wells, and the si- 
 milarity of the name, identify the ruins of jNIyoun 
 with Meon, or Beth jNIeon of Scripture.;]: Of this 
 ancient city, as well as of Araayr, (Aroer) nothing is 
 now remarkable but what is common to them with 
 all the cities of Moab — their entire desolation. The 
 extent of the ruins of Rabba (Rabbath jMoab,) for- 
 merly the residence of the kings of Moab, sufficiently 
 proves its ancient importance, though no other object 
 can be particularized among the ruins, except the re- 
 mains of a palace or temple, some of the walls of 
 which are still standing ; a gate belonging to another 
 building ; and an insulated altar. There are many 
 remains of private buildings, but none entire. There 
 being no springs on the spot, the town had two bir- 
 kets, the largest of which is cut entirely out of the 
 rocky ground, together with many cisterns. § 
 
 Mount Nebo was completely barren when Burck- 
 
 * Burck. p. 3G6. Seetzen's Travels, p. .37. Captains Irby 
 and Mangles' Travels, p. 471. 
 
 f Captains Irby and Mangles' Travels, p. 402. Seetzen's 
 Travels, p. .38. 
 
 * Burckhardt's Travels, p. 365. Irby and Mangles' Tra- 
 vels, p. 464. 
 
 9 Seetzen's Travels, p. 39. Burckhardt's Travels, p. 377.
 
 158 MOAB. 
 
 hardt passed over it, and the site of the ancient city 
 had not been ascertained.* Neho is spoiled. 
 
 While the ruins of all these cities still retain their 
 ancient names, and are the most conspicuous amidst 
 the wide scene of general desolation, and while each 
 of them was In like manner particularized in the vi- 
 sions of the prophet, they yet formed but a small 
 number of the cities of INIoab ; and the rest are also 
 in similar verification of the prophecies, desolate, with- 
 out any to dwell therein. None of the ancient cities 
 of INIoab now exist, as tenanted by men. Kerek, 
 which neither bears any resemblance in name to any 
 of the cities of Moab which are mentioned as existing 
 in the time of the Israelites, nor possesses any monu- 
 ments which denote a very remote antiquity, is the 
 only nominal towTi in the whole country ; and, in the 
 words of Seetzen, who visited it, " in its present ruin- 
 ed state it can only be called a hamlet ;" " and the 
 houses have only one floor.^-f* But the most popu- 
 lous and fertile province in Europe (especially any 
 situated In the interior of a country like Moab) is not 
 covered so thickly with towns as Moab is plentiful in 
 ruins, deserted and desolate though now it be. Burck- 
 hardt enumerates about Jifty ruined sites within its 
 boundaries, many of them extensive. In general they 
 are a broken down and undlstinguishable mass of 
 ruins ; and many of them have not been closely 
 inspected. But, in some instances, there are the 
 remains of temples, sepulchral monuments, the 
 ruins of edifices constructed of very large stones, in 
 one of which buildings " some of the stones are 
 twenty feet in length, and so broad, that one con- 
 stitutes the thickness of the wall ;" traces of hanging 
 
 • Burckhardt's Travels, p. 370. 
 
 t Burckhardt's Travels, p, 338. Seetzen's Travels, p. 39.
 
 MOAB. 159 
 
 gardens ; entire columns lying on the ground, three 
 feet in diameter, and fragments of smaller columns ; 
 and many cisterns cut out of the rock. — When the 
 towns of jNIoab existed in their prime, and were at 
 ease, — when arrogance, and haughtiness and pride 
 prevailed amongst them — the desolation, and total de- 
 sertion and abandonment of them all, must have ut- 
 terly surpassed all human conception. And that such 
 numerous cities, — which subsisted for many ages— 
 which were diversified in their sites, some of them 
 being built on eminences, and naturally strong ; others 
 on plains, and surrounded by the richest soil ; some 
 situated in vallies by the side of a plentiful stream ; 
 and others where art supplied the deficiencies of na- 
 ture, and where immense cisterns were excavated out 
 of the rock — and which exhibit in their ruins many 
 monuments of ancient prosperity, and many remains 
 easily convertible into present utility — should have all 
 fled away — all met the same indiscriminate fate — and 
 be all desolate without any to dvaell therein, notwith- 
 standing all these ancient assurances of their perma- 
 nent durability, and their existing facilities and in- 
 ducements for being the habitations of men — is a 
 matter of just wonder in the present day, — and had 
 any other people been the possessors of INIoab, the fact 
 would either have been totally impossible, or unac- 
 countable. Trying as this test of the truth of pro- 
 phecy is — that is the word of God, and not of erring 
 man, which can so well and so triumphantly abide it. 
 They shall cry of Moab, how is it broken down ! 
 
 The valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be 
 destroyed. JNIoab has often been a field of contest be- 
 tween the Arabs and the Turks ; and although the 
 former have retained possession of it, both have mu- 
 tually reduced it to desolation. The different tribes 
 of Arabs who traverse it, not only bear a permanent 
 and habitual hostility to Christians and to Turks,
 
 160 MOAB. 
 
 but one tribe is often at variance and at war with 
 another ; and the regular cultivation of the soil, or 
 the improvement of those natural advantages, of which 
 the country is so full, is a matter either never thought 
 of, or that cannot be realized. Property is there the 
 creature of power and not of law ; and possession 
 forms no security when plunder is the preferable right. 
 Hence the extensive plains, where they are not par- 
 tially covered with wood, present a ban-en aspect, 
 which is only relieved at intervals by a few clusters 
 of wild fig-trees, that show how the richest gifts of 
 nature degenerate when unaided by the industry of 
 man. And instead of the profusion which the plains 
 must have exhibited in every quarter, nothing but 
 "'patches of the best soil in the territory are now 
 cultivated by the Arabs ;" and these only " whenever 
 they have the prospect of being able to secure the 
 harvest against the incursions of enemies."* The 
 Arab herds now roam at freedom over the vallies and 
 the plains ; and " the many vestiges of field en- 
 closures"-!* form not any obstruction ; they wander 
 undisturbed around the tents of their masters, over 
 the face of the country ; and while the vallei/ is per- 
 ished, and the plain destroyed, the cities also of Aroer 
 are forsaken ; they are for focks which lie down, and 
 none juake them afraid. 
 
 The strong contrast between the ancient and the 
 actual state of Moab is exemplified in the condition of 
 the inhabitants as well as of the land ; and the coin- 
 cidence between the prediction and the fact is as strik- 
 ing in the one case as in the other. 
 
 The days come, saith the Lord, that I will send unto 
 him (Moab) wanderers that shall cause him to wander, 
 and shall empty his vessels. The Bedouin (wander- 
 
 * Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 369. 
 t Ibid, p. 365.
 
 MOAB. 161 
 
 ing) Arabs are now the chief and ahnost the only in- 
 habitants of a country once studded with cities. Tra- 
 versing the country, and fixing their tents for a short 
 time in one place, and then decamping to another, 
 depasturing every part successively, and despoiling 
 the whole land of its natural produce, they are wan- 
 derers who have come np against it, and who keep it 
 in a state oj" perpetual desolation. They lead a v/an- 
 dering life ; and the only regularity they know or 
 practise, is to act upon a systematic scheme of spolia- 
 tion. They prevent any from forming a fixed settle- 
 ment who are inclined to attempt it; for although the 
 fruitfulness of the soil would abundantly repay the 
 labour of settlers, and render migration wholly unne- 
 cessary, even if the population were increased more 
 than tenfold ; yet the Bedouins forcibly deprive them 
 of the means of subsistence, compel them to search 
 for it elsewhere, and, in the words of the prediction, 
 literally cause them to wander. " It may be remark- 
 ed generally of the Bedouins," says Burckhardt, in 
 describing their extortions in this very country, " that 
 wherever they are the masters of the cultivators, the 
 latter are soon reduced to beggary by their unceasing 
 demands."* 
 
 O ye that dwell in Moah, leave the cities and dwell 
 in the rock^ and be like the dove that niaketh her 7iest 
 in the sides of the hoWs mouth. In a general descrip- 
 tion of the condition of the inhabitants of that exten- 
 sive desert which now occupies the place of these 
 ancient flourishing states, A'^olney, in plain but vin- 
 meant illustration of this prediction, remarks, that 
 the " wretched peasants live in perpetual dread of 
 losing the fruit of their labours ; and no sooner have 
 they gathered in their harvest, than they hasten to 
 secrete it in private places, and retire among the rocks 
 
 * Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 381.
 
 162 MOAB. 
 
 which border on the Dead Sea."* Towards the op- 
 posite extremity of the land of Moab, and at a little 
 distance from its borders, Seetzen relates, that "there 
 are many families living in caverns ;"" and he actually 
 designates them " the inhabitants of the rocks.''''"|* 
 And at the distance of a i'ew miles from the ruined 
 site of Heshbon, " there are many artificial caves in 
 a large range of perpendicular cliffs — in some of which 
 are chambers and small sleeping apartments."! While 
 the cities are desolate without any to dwell therein, 
 the rocks are tenanted. But whether flocks lie down 
 in the former, without any to make them afraid, or 
 whether men are to be found dwelling in the latter, 
 and are like the dove that maketh her nest in the 
 sides of the hole's mouth — the wonderful transition, 
 in either case, and the close accordance, in both, of 
 the fact to the prediction, assuredly mark it in cha- 
 racters that may be visible to the purblind mind, as 
 the word of that God before whom the darkness of 
 futurity is as light, and without whom a sparrow can- 
 not fall unto the ground. § 
 
 * Volney's Travels, vol. ii. p. 344. 
 
 f Seetzen's Travels, p. 26. See Monthly Review, vol. 
 Ixxi. p. 405. 
 
 X Captains Jrby and Mangles' Travels, p. 473. 
 
 § Another prediction respecting the dwellers in Moab onght 
 uot perhaps to be passed over in silence, although the terms 
 in which it is expressed are not so clear and unambiguous as 
 those to which the observations in the text are confined, and 
 although it may have met its primary fulfilment in a much 
 eailier age. Yet it is so intelligible, that the fact, to which 
 it bears an unrestrained appli('ation, may be left as its sole 
 and adequate exposition ; and the continued truth of the pro- 
 phecy greatly strengthens, instead of weakening the evidence 
 of its inspiration. And how is Moab broken down and spoil- 
 ed, when, in lieu of the arrogancy and exceeding pride and 
 haughtiness of its ancient inhabitants, the following descrip- 
 tion is characteristic of the wanderers who now possess it. 
 " In the valley of Wale," which is situated in the immediate 
 vicinity of the river Arnon, into which the Wale flows,
 
 MOAB. 163 
 
 And although chargeable with the impropriety of 
 being somewhat out of place, it may not be here alto- 
 gether improper to remark, that, demonstrative as all 
 these clear predictions and coincident facts are of the 
 inspiration of the Scriptures, it cannot but be gratify- 
 ing to every lover of his kind, when he contemplates 
 that desolation, caused by many sins, and fraught with 
 many miseries, which the wickedness of man has 
 wrought, and which the prescience of God revealed, 
 to know that all these prophecies, while they mingle 
 the voice of wailing with that of denunciation, are 
 the word of that God, who, although he suffers not 
 iniquity to pass unpunished, overrules evil for good, 
 and makes the wrath of man to praise him, and who 
 in the midst of judgment can remember mercy. And 
 reasoning merely from the " uniform experience" (to 
 borrow a term, and draw an argument from Hume) 
 of the truth of the prophecies already fulfilled, the un- 
 prejudiced mind will at once perceive the full force of 
 the truth derived from experience,* and acknowledge 
 that it would be a rejection of the authority of reason 
 as well as of revelation, to mistrust the truth of that 
 
 Burckhardt observed " a large party of Arabs Shererat en- 
 camped — Bedouius of the Arabian desert, who resort hither 
 in siiraiuer for pasturatfe." Being oppressed and hemmed in 
 by other Arab tribes, " they ivander about in misery, have 
 very few horses, and are not able to feed any flocks of sheep 
 or goats." " Their tents are very miserable ; both men and 
 women go almost naked, the former being only covered round 
 the waist, and the women wearing nothing but a loose shirt 
 hanging in rags about them." Moab shall be a derision. 
 As the wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters 
 of Moab shall be at the ford q/" Arson. Burckhardt's Tra- 
 vels, pp. 370, 371. Isaiah xvi. 2. 
 
 * " Being determined by custom to transfer the past to the 
 future, in ail our inferences ; where the past has been entire- 
 ly regular and uniform, we expect the event with the great- 
 est assurance, and leave no room for any contrary supposi- 
 tion." Hume's Essays of Probability, vol. ii. p. Gl. Ediu. 
 1800.
 
 164 IDUxMEA. 
 
 prophetic affirmation of resuscitating and redeeming 
 import, respecting Ammon and Moab, which is the 
 last of the series, and which alone now awaits futurity 
 to stamp it with the brilliant and crowning seal of its 
 testimony. I will bring again the captivity of Moab 
 in the latter days, saith the Lord.* I will bring 
 again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith 
 the Lord. "I* The remnant of my people shall possess 
 them.j They shall build the old wastes, they shall 
 raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair 
 the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. § 
 
 IBUMEA. 
 
 But a heavier and irreversible doom was denounced 
 against the land of Edom or Idumea ; and the testi- 
 mony of an infidel was the first to show hov,' it has 
 been realized : That testimony, as forming an ex- 
 position of itself, may, in a primary view of them, 
 be subjoined to the prophecies, and must have its duje 
 influence on every unbiassed mind. There are nu- 
 merous prophecies respecting Idumea, that bear a 
 literal interpretation, however hyperbolical they may 
 appear. " (My sword shall come down upon Idu- 
 mea, and upon the people of my curse to judgment.) 
 — From generation to generation it shall lie waste, 
 none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But 
 the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it ; the 
 owl also and the raven shall dwell in it ; and he shall 
 stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the 
 stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles 
 thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and 
 all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall 
 
 * Jerera. xlviii. 47. -^ lb. xlix. 6. % Zeph. ii. 9. 
 § Isa. Ixi. 4' J Iviii. II. Ezek. xxxvi. 33, 36.
 
 IDUMEA. 165 
 
 come up m her palaces, nettles and brambles In the 
 fortresses thereof ; and it shall be a habitation of dra- 
 gons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the 
 desert shall also meet wtih the wild beasts of the is- 
 land, and the satyr (or hairy creature) shall cry to 
 his fellow ; the screech-owl also shall rest there, and 
 find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great 
 owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather 
 under her shadow ; there shall the vultures also be 
 gathered every one with her mate. Seek ye out of 
 the book of the Lord and read ; no one of these shall 
 fail, none shall want her mate ; for my mouth it hath 
 commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. 
 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand 
 hath divided it unto them by line ; they shall possess 
 it for ever, from generation to generation shall they 
 dwell therein."* " Concerning Edom, thus saith the 
 Lord of Hosts : Is wisdom no more in Teman ? Is 
 counsel perished from the pi-udent ? I will bring the 
 •calamity of Esau upon him the time that I will visit 
 him. If grape-gatherers come to thee, w^ould they 
 not leave some gleaning grapes ? If thieves by night, 
 they will destroy till they have enough. But I have 
 made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, 
 and he shall not be able to hide himself Behold 
 they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup 
 have assuredly drunken ; and art thou he that shalt 
 altogether go unpunished ? Thou shalt not go unpun- 
 ished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. — I have 
 sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah (the 
 strong or fortified city) shall become a desolation, a 
 reproach, a waste, and a curse ; and all the cities 
 thereof shall be perpetual wastes. Lo, I will make 
 thee small among the heathen, and despised among 
 men. Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the 
 
 * Isaiah xxxiv. 5, 10 — 17. .
 
 166 IDUMEA. 
 
 pride of thine heart, O thou that clwellest in the 
 clefts of the rock, that holdcst the height of the hill : 
 Though thou shouldst make thy nest as high as the 
 eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the 
 Lord. Also Edom shall be a desolation ; every 
 one that goeth by shall be astonished, and shall 
 hiss at all the plagues thereof As in the over- 
 throw of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbour 
 cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall abide 
 there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it."* 
 '< Thus saith the Lord God, I will stretch out mine 
 hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast 
 from it, and I will make it desolate from Teman/'"f* 
 " The word of the Lord came unto me, saying. Son 
 of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, and pro- 
 phesy against it, and say unto it, Thus saith the Lord 
 God, I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I 
 will make thee most desolate. I will lay thy cities 
 waste, and thou shalt be desolate.""! Thus will I 
 make Mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it 
 him that passeth out, and him that returneth.§ I 
 will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities 
 shall not return. || When the whole earth rejoiceth, 
 I will make thee desolate. Thovi shalt be desolate, 
 O Mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it ; and 
 they shall know that I am the Lord.^ Edom shall 
 be a desolate wilderness.** " For three transgressions 
 of Edom, and for four I wall not turn away the pun- 
 ishment thereof. "-f"|- " Thvis saith the Lord concern- 
 ing Edom, I have made thee small among the hea- 
 then, thou art greatly despised. The pride of thine 
 heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the 
 clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high. Shall 
 
 * Jerem. xlix 7—10, 12—18. f Ezek. xxv. 13. 
 
 i Ezek. XXXV. 1,2,3,4. § lb. 7. || lb. 9. 
 
 IF lb. 14, 15. »* Joel iii. 19. ft Amos i. 11.
 
 IDUiMEA. 167 
 
 I not destroy the wise men out of Edom, and under- 
 standincf out of the INIount of Esau ? The house of 
 Jacob shall possess then* possessions, but there shall 
 not be any remaining of the house of Esau.* I laid 
 the mountains of Esau and his heritage waste for the 
 dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith we 
 are impoverished, but we will return and build the 
 desolate places ; thus saith the Lord of Hosts, they 
 shall build, but I will throw down ; and they shall 
 call them the border of wickedness."-)- Is there any 
 country once inhabited and opulent, so utterly deso- 
 late .'' There is, and that land is Idumea. The 
 territory of the descendants of Esau affords as mira- 
 culous a demonstration of the inspiration of the Scrip- 
 tures, as the fate of the children of Israel. 
 
 Idumea was situated to the south of Judea and of 
 INIoab ; it bordered on the east with Arabia Petrea, un- 
 der which name it was included in the latter part of 
 its history, and it extended southward to the eastern 
 Gulph of the Red Sea. A single extract from the Tra- 
 vels of Volney will be found to be equally illustrative 
 of the prophecy and of the fact. " This country has 
 not been visited bj/ any traveller, but it well merits such 
 an attention ; for from the report of the Arabs of Ba- 
 kir, and the inhabitants of Gaza, who frequently go to 
 Maan and Karak,on the road of the pilgrims, there are 
 to the south-east of the lake Asphaltites (Dead Sea,) 
 within three days'' journey, upwards of thirty ruined 
 towns absolutely deserted. Several of them have large 
 edifices, with columns that may have belonged to the 
 ancient temples, or at least to Greek churches. The 
 Arabs sometimes make use of them to fold their cattle 
 in ; but in general avoid them on account of the enor- 
 mous scorpions with which they swarm. We cannot 
 be surprised at these traces of ancient population, when 
 
 * Obad. V. 2, 3, 8, 17, 18. t Malachi i. 3, 4;
 
 1-68 IDUMEA. 
 
 we recollect that this was the country of the Naba- 
 theans, the most powerful of the Arabs, and of the 
 Idicmeans^ who, at the time of the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem, were almost as numerous as the Jews, as ap- 
 pears from Josephus, who informs us, that on the first 
 rumour of the march of Titus against Jerusalem, thirty- 
 thousand Idumeans instantly assembled, and threw 
 themselves into that city for its defence. It appears 
 that besides the advantages of being under a tolerably 
 good government, these districts enjoyed a considerable 
 share of the commerce of Arabia and India, which in- 
 creased their industry and population. We know that 
 as tar back as the time of Solomon, the cities of Asti- 
 oum Gaber (Esion Gaber,) and Ailah (Eloth) were 
 highly frequented marts. These towns were situated 
 on the adjacent Gulph of the Red Sea, where we still 
 find the latter yet retaining its name, and perhaps the 
 former in that of El Akaba, or the end (of the sea.) 
 These two places are in the hands of the Bedouins, 
 who, being destitute of a navy and commerce, do not 
 inhabit them. But the pilgrims report that there is 
 at El Akaba a wretched fort.* The Idumeans, from 
 whom the Jews only took their ports at intervals, must 
 iiave found in them a great source of wealth and po- 
 pulation. It even appears that the Idumeans rival- 
 led the Tyrians, who also possessed a town, the name 
 of which is unknown, on the coast of Hedjaz, in the 
 desei't of Tib, and the city of Faran, and without 
 doubt, El-Tor, which served it by way of port. From 
 this place, the caravans might reach Palestine and Ju- 
 dea," (through Idumea,) " in eight or ten days. 
 This route, which is no longer than that from Suez to 
 Cairo, is infinitely shorter than that from Aleppo to 
 Bassprah."-}- Evidence which must have been unde- 
 
 " This fort is at present in the .possession of the Pasha of 
 Egypt, 
 t \ ohicy's Travels^ vol. ii. pp. 344 — 6.
 
 IDUMEA. 169 
 
 sign eel, which cannot be suspected of partiality, and 
 which no illustration can strengthen, and no ingenuity- 
 pervert, is thus borne to the truth of the most won- 
 derful prophecies. That the Idumeans were a popu- 
 lous and powerful nation long posterior to the delivery 
 of the prophecies ; that they possessed a tolerably 
 good government, (even in the estimation of Yolney,) 
 — that Idumea contained many cities — that these 
 cities are now absolutely deserted, and that their ruins 
 swarm with enormous scorpions — that it was a com- 
 mercial nation, and possessed highly frequented marts 
 — that it forms a shorter route than an ordinary one 
 to India, and yet that it had not been visited by any 
 traveller, are facts all recorded, or proved to a wish, 
 by this able but unconscious commentator. 
 
 A greater contrast cannot be imagined than the 
 ancient and present state of Idvimea. It was a king- 
 dom previous to Israel, having been governed first by 
 dukes or princes, afterwards by eight successive kings, 
 and again by dukes, before there reigned any king 
 over the children of Israel.* Its fertility and early 
 cultivation are implied not only in the blessings of 
 Esau, whose dwelling was to be the fatness of the 
 earth, and of the dew of heaven from above ; but also 
 in the condition proposed by Moses to the Edomites, 
 when he solicited a passage for the Israelites through 
 their borders, " that they would not pass through 
 the fields nor through the vineyards ;" and also in 
 the great wealth, especially in the multitudes of 
 flocks and herds, recorded as possessed by an indivi- 
 dual inhabitant of that country, at a period, in all 
 probability, even more remote.-f* The Idumeans 
 were, without doubt, both an opulent and a powerful 
 people. They often contended with the Israelites, 
 
 * Genesis xxxvi. 31, &c. 
 
 f Genesis xxvii. 39. Numbers xx. 17. Job xlii. 12. 
 I
 
 170 IDUMEA. 
 
 and entered into a league with their other enemies 
 against them. In the reign of David they were in- 
 deed subdued and greatly oppressed, and many of them 
 even dispersed throughout the neighbouring countries, 
 particularly Phoenicia and Egypt. But during the 
 decline of the kingdom of Judah, and for many years 
 previous to its extinction, they encroached upon the 
 territories of the JeAvs, and extended their dominion 
 over the south-western part of Judea. Though no 
 excellence whatever be now attached to its name, 
 which exists only in past history, Idumea, including 
 perhaps Judea, was then not without the praise of the 
 first of Roman poets. 
 
 Primus Idumeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas. 
 
 Virg. Georg. lib. iii. 1. 12. 
 
 And of Lucan, (Phars. lib. iii.) 
 Arbustis palmarum dives Idume. 
 
 But Idumea, as a kingdom, can lay claim to a 
 higher renown than either the abundance of its flocks, 
 or the excellence of its palm trees. The celebrated 
 city of Petra, (so named by the Greeks, and so wor- 
 thy of the name, on account both of its rocky vicinity 
 and its numerous dwellings excavated from the rocks,) 
 was situated within the patrimonial territory of the 
 Edomites. There is distinct and positive evidence 
 that it was a city of Edom,* and the metropolis of 
 
 * Petra being afterwards more particulai'ly noticed, some 
 quotations from ancient authors respecting it may here be 
 subjoined. 
 
 IlgrgK •xi'Kii; h yri Edufi rrti 'APuQiag. 
 
 Eusebii Onomast 
 
 Petra, civitas Arabise in terra Edom. — Hieron. 
 Vide Relandi Palestina, torn. i. p. 70. 
 
 5
 
 IDUMEA. 171 
 
 the Nabatheans, * whom Strabo expressly identifies 
 with the Idumeans — possessors of the same country, 
 and subject to the same laws.-j- '-^ Petra," to use 
 the words of Dr. Vincent, by whom the state of its 
 ancient commerce was described before its ruins were 
 discovered, " is the capital of Edom or Seir, the Idu- 
 mea or Arabia Petra^a of the Greeks, the Nabatea, 
 considered both by geographers, historians, and poets 
 as the source of all the precious commodities of the 
 east.""^ " The caravans, in all ages, from Minea, in 
 the interior of Arabia, and from Gerrha on the Gulf 
 of Persia, from Hadramaut on the ocean, and some 
 even from Sabea or Yemen, appear to have pointed 
 to Petra as a common centre ; and from Petra the 
 trade seems again to have branched out into every 
 direction, to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, through 
 Arsinoe, Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, and a 
 variety of subordinate routes that all terminated on 
 the Mediterranean. There is every proof that is re- 
 quisite to show that the Tyrians and Sidonians were 
 the first mei'chants who introduced the produce of In- 
 dia to all the nations which encircled the Mediter- 
 ranean, so is there the strongest evidence to prove 
 that the Tyrians obtained all their commodities from 
 Arabia. But if Arabia was the centre of this com- 
 merce, Petra § was the point to which all the Arabians 
 tended from the three sides of their vast peninsula. "j| 
 At a period subsequent to the commencement of the 
 Christian era, there always reigned at Petra, according 
 
 * Mjjr^OTro/jS hi tmv Nc-Zuraluv sdiv tj IlsTga y.aXr/j/JLiiirj. 
 
 Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 779. Ed. Paris, 1620. 
 ■f* NaSara<o/ ds sisiv 61 Ih^iJMioi. 
 
 Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 760. Ed. Paris, 16:^0. 
 ± Vincent's Commerce of the Ancients, vol. xi. p. 263. 
 § Agatharchides.Huds. p. 37. Pliny, lib. vi. c. 28, quoted 
 by Vincent. Ibid.'p. 262. 
 II Ibid. 260, 261, 262.
 
 1)2 IDUMEA. 
 
 to Strabo, a king of the royal lineage, with whom a 
 prince was associated in the government.* It was a 
 ])lace of great strength in the time of the Romans. 
 Pompey marched against it, but desisted from the 
 attack ; and Trajan afterwards besieged it. It was a 
 metropolitan see, to which several bishoprics were at- 
 tached in the time of the Greek emperors, and Idu- 
 mea was included in the third Palestine — Palest ina 
 tertia site sahitaris. But the ancient state of Idumea 
 cannot in the present day be so clearly ascertained 
 from the records respecting it which can be gleaned, 
 from history, whether sacred or profane, as by the 
 wonderful and imperishable remains of its capital 
 city, and by " the traces of many towns and villages," 
 which indisputably show that " it must once have 
 been thickly inhabited. "-f* It not only can admit of 
 no dispute, that the countries and cities of Idumea 
 subsisted in a very different state from that absolute 
 desolation in which, long prior to the period of its 
 reality, it was represented in the prophetic vision ; 
 but there are prophecies regarding it, especially those 
 in the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, that have yet 
 a prospective view, and which refer to the time when 
 " the children of Israel shall possess their possessions, 
 or to " the year of recompenses for the controversy of 
 Zion." But, dangerous as it is to explore the land 
 of Idumea, and difficult to ascertain those existing 
 facts, and precise circumstances, which form the 
 strongest features of its desolate aspect, (and that ought 
 to be the subject of scientific as well as of religious 
 inquiry,) enough has been discovered to show that the 
 sentence against it, though fulfilled by the agency of 
 nature and of man, is precisely such as was first re- 
 corded in the annals of inspiration. 
 
 * Strabo, p. 779. 
 
 t Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 436.
 
 IDUMEA. 173 
 
 There is a prediction which, being peculiarly re- 
 markable as applicable to Idumea, and bearing refer- 
 ence to a circumstance explanatory of the difficulty of 
 access to any knowledge respecting it, is entitled in 
 the first instance to notice. None shall pass throuirh 
 it for ever and ever. — / will cut off from Mount Seir 
 him that passeth out and him that retiirneth.* The 
 ancient greatness of Idumea must, in no small de- 
 gree, have resulted from its commerce. Bordering 
 with Arabia on the east, and Egypt on the south-west, 
 and forming from north to south the most direct and 
 most commodious channel of communication between 
 Jerusalem and her dependencies on the Red Sea, as 
 well as between Syria and India, through the con- 
 tinuous vallies of K\ Ghor and El Araba, which 
 terminated on the one extremity at the borders of Ju- 
 dea, and on the other at Elath and Esiongaber, on the 
 Elanitic gulph of the Red Sea, Idumea may be said 
 to have formed the emporium of the commerce of the 
 east. A Roman road passed directly through Idu- 
 mea, from Jerusalem to Akaba, and another from 
 Akaba to JNIoab ;-|- and when these roads were made, 
 at a time long posterior to the date of the predic- 
 tions, the conception could not have been formed, 
 or held credible by man, — that the period would ever 
 arrive when none would pass through it. Above 
 seven hundred years after the date of the prophecy, 
 Strabo relates, that " many Romans and other fo- 
 reigners'"' were found at Petra by his friend Atheno- 
 dorus, the philosopher, who visited it.j The predic- 
 
 * Isaiah xxxlv. 10, Ezek. xxxv. 7. The first of these 
 predictions is coujoiaeil with others, the period of whose full 
 conipletiuu — the year of recompeuses for the coulroversy of 
 Ziou — is yet to come. 
 
 t Map ill Biirckliardt's Travels. 
 
 p. 779.
 
 174 IDUMEA. 
 
 tion is yet more surprising, when viewed in conjunc- 
 tion with another, which implies that travellers would 
 pass bi/ Idunaea, — every one that goeth by shall be 
 astonished. And the Hadj routes (routes of the 
 Pilgrims) from Damascus and from Cairo to Mecca, 
 the one on the east and the other towards the south of 
 Idumea, along the whole of its extent, go by it, or 
 touch partially on its borders without passing through 
 it. The truth of the prophecy (though hemmed in 
 thus by apparent impossibilities and contradictions, 
 and with extreme probability of its fallacy, in every 
 view that could have been visible to man,) may yet be 
 tried. 
 
 The words of the prediction might well be under- 
 stood as merely implying that Idumea would cease to 
 be a thoroughfare for the commerce of the nations 
 which adjoined it, and that its " highly frequented 
 marts" would be forsaken as centres of intercourse and 
 traffic ; and easy would have been the task of demon- 
 strating its truth in this limited sense, whith scep- 
 ticism itself ouo'ht not to be unwilling to authorize. 
 But the fact to which it refers, forbids that the pro- 
 phecy should be limited to a general interpretation, 
 and demands that it be literally understood and ap- 
 plied. The fact itself being of a negative nature, 
 requires a more minute investigation and detail than 
 any matter of observation or discovery that is prove- 
 able at once by a simple description. And instead of 
 merely citing authorities in affirmation of it, evidence, 
 as remarkable as the prediction, or at once the most 
 undesigned and conclusive, shall be largely adduced 
 to establish its truth. 
 
 The remark of Volney, who passed at a distance to 
 tke west of Idumea, and who received his information 
 from the Arabs in that quarter, <« that it had not been 
 visited by any traveller," will not be unobserved by the 
 attentive reader. Soon after Burckhardt had entered.
 
 IDUMEA. 175 
 
 on the north-east, the territories of the Edomites, the 
 boundary of which he distinctly marks, he says, that 
 " he was without protection in the midst of a desert, 
 where no traveller had ever before been seen."* It 
 was then, " that for the first time he had ever felt 
 fear during his travels in the desert, and his route 
 thither was the most dangerous he had ever travel- 
 led."-f- Mr. Joliffe, who visited the northern shore of 
 the Dead Sea, in alluding to the country south of its 
 opposite extremity, describes it as " one of the wildest 
 and most dangerous divisions of Arabia,"" and says 
 that any research in that quarter was impracticable.:|: 
 Sir Frederick Henniker, in his Notes, dated from 
 Mount Sinai, on the south of Idumea, unconsciously 
 concentrates striking evidence in verification of the 
 prediction, while he states a fact that would seem, at 
 first sight, to militate against it. " Seetzen, on a 
 vessel of paper pasted against the wall, notifies his 
 having penetrated the country in a direct line between 
 the Dead Sea and Mount Sinai," (through Idumea), 
 " a route never before accomplished.^ This was the 
 more interesting to me, as I had previously deter- 
 mined to attempt the same, it being the shortest way 
 to Jerusalem. The Cavaliere Frediani, whom I met 
 in Egypt, would have persuaded me that it was im- 
 practicable, and that he having had the same inten- 
 tion himself, after having been detained in hope five 
 weeks, was compelled to relinquish his design. While 
 I was yet runainating over this scrap of paper, the 
 Superior paid me a morning visit ; he also said it was 
 impossible; but at length promised to search for guides. 
 I had already endeavoured to persuade those who had 
 
 • Biirckhardt's Syria, p. 4.:ai. + Ibid. p. 400. 
 
 i Letters from Palestine, vol. i. p* 129. 
 
 § The words upon the paper itself are, entre la ville d'He- 
 bron et entre le Mout Sinai, par un chemin jusqu'a ce tems 
 Ja inconnu. Burck. Syr. p. 553.
 
 176 IDUMEA. 
 
 accompanied me from Tor, but they also talked of 
 dangers, and declined."* Guides were found, who, 
 after resisting for a while his entreaties and bribes, 
 agreed to conduct him by the desired route ; but, 
 unable to overcome their fears, deceived him, and led 
 him towards the Mediterranean coast, through the 
 desert to Gaza. 
 
 There yet remains a detail of the complication of 
 difficulties, which, in another direction still, the near- 
 est to Judea, and apparently the most accessible, the 
 traveller has to encounter in reaching that desolate 
 region, which once formed the kingdom of Idumea, 
 difficulties that it may safely be said are scarcely to be 
 met with in any other part of Asia, or even in any 
 other quarter of the world, where no natural obstruc- 
 tions intervene. " To give an idea," says Captains 
 Irby and Mangles, " of the difficulties which the 
 Turkish government supposed there would be for an 
 Englishman to go to Kerek and Wady Mousa, it 
 is necessary to say, that when INIr. Bankes applied 
 at Constantinople to have these places inserted in his 
 firman, they returned for answer, ' that they knew of 
 none such within the Grand Seignor's dominions f-j- 
 but as he and Mr. Frere, the British Minister, press- 
 ed the affair very much, they at length referred him 
 to the Pasha of Damascus, who, (equally averse to 
 have any thing to do with the business) passed him 
 on to the Governor of Jerusalem ."| The Governor 
 of Jerusalem, " having tried all he could to dissuade 
 them from the undertaking," referred them in like 
 manner to the Governor of Jaffa, who not only " evad- 
 ed the affair altogether," but endeavoured to put a 
 stop to their journey. Though frustrated in every 
 attempt to obtain any protection or assistance from 
 
 * Sir Frederick Henniker's Travels, pp. 223, 224.. 
 
 f Captains Irby and Mangles' Travels, p. 336. :f lb. 337
 
 IDUMEA. 1 
 
 n 
 
 the public authorities, and also warned of the danger 
 that awaited them from " Arabs of a most savage 
 and treacherous race,'"' these adventurous travellers, 
 intent on visiting the ruins of Pctra, having provided 
 themselves with horses and arms, and Arab dresses, 
 and being eleven in num.ber, including servants and 
 two guides, " determined to proceed to try their for- 
 tune with the Sheikh of Hebron." He at first ex- 
 pressed compliance wich their wishes, but being soon 
 '* alarmed at his own determination,"" refused them the 
 kast aid or protection. Repeated offers of money to 
 guides, met a decided refusal ; and they procured no 
 means of facilitating their journey.* The peculiar 
 difficulty not only of passing through Idumea, (which 
 they never attempted,) but even of entering within its 
 borders, and the greater hazard of travellinff thither, 
 than in any other direction, are still further illustrated 
 by the acquiescence of an Arab tribe afterwards to ac- 
 company and protect them to Kerek, at a reasonable 
 rate, and by their positive refusal, upon any terms or 
 stipulation whatever, to conduct them to a spot that 
 lay within the boundaries of Edom. " We offered 
 five hundred piastres if they would conduct us to 
 Wady Mousa, but nothing could induce them to con- 
 sent. They said they would not go if we would give 
 them five thousand piastres," (forty times the sum 
 for which they had agreed to accompany them to 
 Kerek, although the distance was not nearly double) 
 " observing that money was of no use to a man if he 
 lost his life."-|- Having afterwards obtained the pro- 
 tection of an intrepid Arab chief, with his followers, 
 and havin<i advanced to the borders of Edom, their 
 further progress Avas suddenly opposed in the most 
 
 • Macmithael's Journey to Constantinople in 1S18. Ap- 
 pend, p. 199. 
 
 f Captains Irby and I^Iangles' Travels, p. 349.
 
 178 IDUMEA. 
 
 threatening and determined manner. And in the 
 whole course of their travels, which extended to about 
 three thousand miles, in Thrace, Asia Minor, Cyprus, 
 the Desert, Egypt, and in Syria in different longi- 
 tudinal and lateral directions, from one extremity to 
 the other, they found nowhere such a barrier to their 
 progress except in a previous abortive attempt to 
 reach Petra from another quarter ; and though they 
 were never better prepared for encountering it, they 
 never elsewhere experienced so formidable an opposi- 
 tion. The Sheikh of Wady Mousa and his people 
 swore that they would not suffer them to go forward, 
 and, " that they should neither drink of their water, 
 nor pass into their territorj/^ The Arab chief who 
 had espoused their cause, also took an oath, " by the 
 faith of a true Mussulman," that they should drink 
 of the water of Wady Mousa, and go whithersoever 
 he pleased to carry them. " Thus," it is remarked, 
 " were both the rival chiefs oppositely pledged in their 
 resolutions respecting us." 
 
 Several days were passed in entreaties, artifices, 
 and mutual menaces, which were all equally unavail- 
 ing. The determination and perseverance of the one 
 party of Arabs was equalled by the resistance and ob- 
 stinacy of the other. Both were constantly acquiring 
 an accession of strength and actively preparing for 
 combat. The travellers, thus finding all the dangers 
 and difficulties of which they had been forwarned fully 
 realized, " could not but compare their case to that 
 of the Israelites under Moses, when Edom refused to 
 give them a passage through his country .''''* " They 
 offered even to abandon their object rather than pro- 
 ceed to extremities," and endanger the lives of many 
 others, as well as their own ; and they were told that 
 they were fortunate in the protection of the chief who 
 
 • Captains Irby and Mangles' Travels, p. 392.
 
 IDUMEA. 179 
 
 accompanied them, otherwise they never would have 
 returned. The hostile Arabs, who defied them and 
 their protectors to approach, having abandoned their 
 camps, and having concentrated their forces, and 
 possessed themselves of the passes and heights, sent 
 messengers with a renewal of oaths and protestations 
 against entering their territory/ : announced that they 
 were fully prepared to maintain their purpose — that 
 war " was positively determined on as the only alter- 
 native of the travellers not being permitted to see 
 what they desired ;"* and their Sheikh vowed that 
 " if they passed through hislands, they should be shot 
 like so many dogs."-j' Abou Raschid, the firm and 
 fearless chief who had pledged his honour and his 
 oath in guarantee for the advance of the travelers, 
 and whose obstinate resolution nothing could exceed, 
 his arguments, artifices, and falsehoods having all 
 failed, despatched messengers to the camps under his 
 influence, rejected alike all compromise with the op- 
 posing Arabs, and all remonstrances on the part of 
 his adherents and dependants (who thought that the 
 travellers were doomed to destruction by their rash- 
 ness,) and resolved to achieve by force what he had 
 sworn to accomplish. " The camp assumed a very 
 warlike appearance ; the spears stuck in the sand : 
 the saddled horses before the tents with the arms 
 hanging up within, altogether had an imposing effect."^ 
 The travellers, however, were at last permitted to 
 proceed in peace : but a brief space was allowed them 
 for inspecting the ruins, and they could plainly dis- 
 tinguish the opposing party of Arabs, in great num- 
 bers, watching them from the heights, Abou Ras- 
 chid was then dismayed, " he was never at his ease, 
 and constantly urged them to depart." Nothmg 
 
 * Captains Irby and Mangles' Travels, p. 392, 
 
 f Macmichael's Journey to Constantinople^ p. 218,
 
 180 IDUMEA. 
 
 could obtain an extension of the time allotted them, 
 and they returned, leaving much unexplored, and 
 even unable by any means or possibility to penetrate 
 a little farther, in order to visit a large temple which 
 they could clearly discern. Through Idumea they 
 did not i^ass. 
 
 Thus ^"olney, Burckhardt, JolifTe, Henniker, and 
 Captains Irby and Mangles, not only give their per- 
 sonal testimony to the truth of the fact which corro- 
 borates the prediction, but also adduce a variety of 
 circumstances, which all conspire in giving superflu- 
 ity of proof that Idumea, which was long resorted to 
 from every quarter, is so beset on every side with dan- 
 gers to the traveller, that 7inne pass tliroitgh it. Kven 
 the Arabs of the neighbouring regions, whose home 
 is the desert, and whose occupation is wandering, are 
 afraid to enter it, or to conduct any within its bor- 
 ders. Yet amidst all this manifold testimony to its 
 truth, there is not in any single instance the most 
 distant allusion to the prediction ; and the evidence 
 is as unsuspicious and undesigned, as it is copious and 
 COvnpletQ.* 
 
 * Not even the cases of two individuals, Seefzen and 
 Burckhardt, can be stated as at all opposed, to the literal in- 
 terpretation of the prophecies. Seetzen did indeed pass 
 through Idumea, and Burckhardt traversed a considerabLe 
 part of it. But the former met his death not lonjr after the 
 completion of liis journey throu^'-h Idumea, the latter never 
 recovered from the effects of the hardships and privations 
 wliich he suffered there, and without even commencinjj the 
 exclusive design which he had in view (viz. to explore the 
 interior of Africa), to which all his journeyings in Asia were 
 merely iiitouded as preparatory, he died at Cairo. Neither 
 «if them lived to return to Europe. I ivill citt offfrom Motuit 
 Seir him. that passeth out, and him that retnrneth. 8trabo 
 mentions that there was a direct road from Petra to Jericho, 
 rf three or four days' journey. Captains Irby and Manj^U's 
 were e-glitecn days in reaching- it from Jerusalem- Tht^y 
 did ao\ p'jiss through Idumea, and they did return. Seetzeu.
 
 IDUMEA. IBl 
 
 Kdom shall he a desolation. From generation to ge- 
 neration it shall lie icaste, S:c. Juclea, Ammon, and 
 jNIoab, exhibit so abundantly the remains and the 
 means of an exuberant fertility, that the wonder arises 
 in the reflecting mind, how the barbarity of man could 
 have so eftectually counteracted, for so " many gene- 
 rations,"" the prodigality of nature. But such is 
 Kdom^s desolation, that the first sentiment of aston- 
 ishment on the contemplation of it is, how a wide ex- 
 tended region, now diversified by the strongest features 
 of desert wildness, could ever have been adorned with 
 cities, or tenanted for ages, by a powerful and opulent 
 people. Its present aspect would belie its ancient his- 
 tory, were not that history corroborated by " the manv 
 vestiges of former cultivation," by the remains of 
 walls and paved roads, and by the ruins of cities still 
 existing in this ruined country. 
 
 The total cessation of its commerce — the artificial 
 irrigation of its vallies wholly neglected — the destruc- 
 tion of all the cities, and the continued spoliation of 
 the country by the Arabs, while aught remained that 
 they could destroy — the permanent exposure, for 
 ages, of the soil unsheltered by its ancient groves, and 
 unprotected by any covering from the scorching rays 
 of the sun— the unobstructed encroachments of the 
 desert, and of the drifted sands from the borders of 
 the lied Sea, the consequent absorption of the water 
 of the springs and streamlets during summer, are 
 causes which have all combined their baneful opera- 
 tion in rendering Edom most desolate, the desolation 
 of desolations. Volney's account is sufficiently de- 
 scriptive of the desolation wliich now reigns over Idu- 
 mea : and the information which Seetzen derived at 
 
 jwid Burckhardt did pass through it, and tliey did not return. 
 The period, however, to which the ])fediclioi!, that none sluli 
 j)ass through it, expressly refers, is still future.
 
 182 IDUMEA. 
 
 Jerusalem respecting it is of similar import.* He 
 was told " that at the distance of two days' journey and 
 a half from Hebron, he would find considerable ruins 
 of the ancient city of Abde, and that for all the rest 
 of the journey he would see wo place of habitation ; 
 he would meet only with a few tribes of wandering 
 Arabs." From the borders of Edom, Captains Irby 
 and Mangles beheld a boundless extent of desert view, 
 which they had hardly ever seen equalled for singu- 
 larity and grandeur. And the following extract, de- 
 scriptive of what Burckhardt actually witnessed in 
 the different parts of Edom, cannot be more graphi- 
 cally abbreviated than in the words of the Prophet. 
 Of its eastern boundary, and of the adjoining part of 
 Arabia Petrsa, strictly so called, Burckhardt writes 
 — " It might with truth be called Petraea, not only 
 on account of its rocky mountains, but also of the ele- 
 vated plain already described, -|* which is so much co- 
 vered with stones, especially flints, that it may with 
 great propriety be called a stony desert, although 
 susceptible of culture ; in many places it is overgrown 
 with wild herbs, and must once have been thickly 
 inhabited ; for the traces of many towns and villages 
 are met with on both sides of the Hadj road, between 
 Maan and Akaba, as well as between Maan and the 
 plains of the Hauran, in which direction are also 
 many springs. At present all this country is a de- 
 sert, and Maan, (Teman)| is the only inhabited 
 place in it.§ / will stretch out my hand against thee, 
 O Mount Seir, and will make thee most desolate. I 
 will stretch out my hand upon Edom, and will make 
 it desolate from remand 
 
 In the interior of Idumea, v/here the ruins of some 
 
 * Seetzeu's Travels, p. 4G. 
 
 + Sheera (Seir) the territory of the Edomites, pp. 410, 435. 
 
 4: See map prefixed to Burckhardt's Travels. 
 
 ^ Burckhardt's Travels, p. 436.
 
 IDUMEA. I{j3 
 
 of its ancient cities are still visible, and in the exten- 
 sive valley which reaches from the Red to the Dead Sea 
 — the appearance of which must now be totally and sadly 
 changed from what it was — " the whole plain present- 
 ed to the view an expanse of shifting sands, whose 
 surface was broken by innumerable undulations and 
 low hills. The same appears to have been brought 
 from the shores of the Red Sea, by the southern 
 winds ; and the Arabs told me that the vallies con- 
 tinue to present the same appearance beyond the la- 
 titude of Wady Mousa. In some parts of the valley 
 the sand is very deep, and there is not the slightest; 
 appearance of a road, or of any work of human art. 
 A few trees grow among the sand hills, but the depth 
 of sand precludes all vegetation of herbage."* If 
 grape gatherers come to thee, would they not leave 
 some gleaning grapes ? if thieves hi/ night, they will 
 destroy till they have enough ; but I have made Esau 
 BARE. Edom shall he a desolate wilderness. " On 
 ascending the western plain on a higher level than 
 that of Arabia, we had before us an immense expanse 
 of dreary country, entirely covered with black flints, 
 and here and there some hilly chain rising from the 
 plain."'!* I ^'^^^ stretch out upon Idianea the line of 
 confusion, and the stones of emptiness. 
 
 Of the remains of ancient cities still exposed to 
 view in different places throughout Idumea, Burck- 
 hardt describes " the ruins of a large town of which 
 nothing remains but broken walls and heaps of stones, 
 the ruins of several villages in its vicinity ; j the ruins 
 of an ancient city consisting of large heaps of hewn blocks 
 of silicious stone ; the extensive ruins of Gherandel Ar- 
 indela, an ancient tov,n of Palestina Tertia."§ " The 
 following ruined places are situated in Djehal Shera 
 
 • Burckhardt's Travels, p. 4'i2. t lb. p. 444. 
 
 X lb. p. 418. § lb. p. 441.
 
 TS4 IDUMEA. 
 
 (Blount Seir) to the S. and S. W. of Wady Mousa, 
 Kalaat, Djerba, Basta, Kyi, Ferdakh, Anyk, Bir el 
 Beytar, Sheraakhj and Syk. Of the towns* laid down 
 in DWn villa's map, Thona excepted, no traces re- 
 main. '"-f* / will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt 
 he desolate. O Mount Seir, I will make thee perpe- 
 tual desolations ; and thij cities shall not return. 
 
 ^Vhile the cities of Idumea, in general, are thus 
 most desolate ; and while the ruins themselves are as 
 indiscriminate, as they are undefined in the predic- 
 tion, (there heing nothing discoverable, as there was 
 nothing foretold, but their excessive desolation, and 
 that they shall not return.) there is one striking ex- 
 ception to this promiscuous desolation, which is alike 
 singled out by the inspired prophet and by the scien- 
 tific traveller. 
 
 Burckhardt gives a description of no ordinary inte- 
 rest, of the site of an ancient city which he visited, the 
 ruins of which not only attest its ancient splendour, 
 but they " are entitled to rank among the most curious 
 remains of ancient art." Though the city be desolate, 
 the monuments of its opulence and power are durable. 
 These are — a channel on each side of the river for con- 
 veying the water to the city — numerous tombs — above 
 two hundred and fifty sepulchres, or excavations — 
 many mausoleums, one, in particular, of colossal dimen- 
 sions in perfect preservation, and a work of immense 
 labour, containing a chamber, sixteen paces square, and 
 above twenty-five feet in height, with a colonnade in 
 front thirty -five feet high, crowned with a pediment 
 highly ornamented, &i:c. ; two large truncated pyramids, 
 and a theatre with all its benches, capable of contain- 
 
 * The names of these towns, in the map referred to, are 
 Elu.s^, Tamara, Zoara, Thoana, Necta, Phenon, Suziima, 
 Cai'caria, Oboda, Berzumraa, Lysa, Gypsaria, Zodocata, Gera- 
 sa, Havara, Presidium ad Dianani, Qilana, Asiou Gaber. 
 
 I Burckbai-dt's Travels, pp. 443, 444.
 
 IDUMEA. 185 
 
 ing about three thousand spectators, all cut out of the 
 rock. In some places these sepulchres are excavated 
 one over the other, and the side of the mountain is so 
 perpendicular, that it seems impossible to approach the 
 uppermost, no path \vhatever being visible. " The 
 ground is covered with heaps of hewn stones, founda- 
 tions of buildings, fragments of columns, and vestiges 
 of paved streets, all clearly indicating that a large city 
 once existed here. On the left bank of the river is a 
 rising ground, extending westwards for nearly three 
 quarters of a mile, entirely covered with similar re- 
 mains. On the right bank, where the ground is more 
 elevated, ruins of the same description are to be seen. 
 There are also the remains of a palace and of several 
 temples. In the eastern cliff there are upwards of 
 fifty separate sepulchres close to each other."* These 
 ai'e not the symbols of a feeble race, nor of a people 
 that were to perish utterly. But a judgment was de- 
 nounced against the strongholds of Edom. The pro- 
 phetic threatening has not proved an empty boast, and 
 it could not have been the word of an uninspired mor- 
 tal. / will make thee small among the heathen ; thy 
 terrihleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thinu 
 heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that 
 holdest the height of the hill ; though thou shouldest 
 make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee 
 downj'rom thence, sailh the Lord : also Edom shall be 
 a desolation. 
 
 These descriptions given by the prophet and by the 
 observer are so analogous, and the precise locality of 
 the scene, from its peculiar and characteristic features, 
 so identified — and yet the application of the prophecy 
 to the fact so remote from the thoughts or view of 
 Burckhardt, as to be altogether overlooked — that his 
 single delineation of the ruins of the chief (and assur- 
 
 * BurckharJt's Travels in Syi-ia, pp. i2-2 — 432.
 
 186 IDUMEA. 
 
 edly the strongest and best fortified) city of Edom was 
 deemed in the first edition of this treatise, and in the 
 terms of the preceding paragraph, an illustration of 
 the prophecy, alike adequate and legitimate. And 
 though deprecating any allusion whatever of a per- 
 sonal nature, and earnest only for the elucidation of 
 the truth, the author yet trusts that he may here be 
 permitted to disclaim the credit of having been the 
 first to assign to the prediction its wonderful and ap- 
 propriate fulfilment ; and it is with no slight gratifi- 
 cation that he is now enabled to adduce higher evi- 
 dence than any opinion of his own, and to state, that 
 the self-same prophecy has been applied by others — 
 with the Bible in their hands, and with the very 
 scene before them — to the self-same spot. Yet it 
 may be added, that this coincident application of the 
 prophecy, without any collusion, and without the pos- 
 sibility at the time of any interchange of sentiment, 
 aiFords, at least, a strong presumptive evidence of the 
 accuracy of the application, and of the truth of the 
 proj)hecy, and it may well lead to some reflection in 
 the mind of any reader, if scepticism has not barred 
 every avenue against conviction. 
 
 On entering the pass which conducts to the theatre 
 of Petra, Captains Irby and Mangles remark ; — " The 
 ruins of the city here burst on the view, in their full 
 grandeur, shut in on the opposite side by barren 
 craggy precipices from which numerous ravines and 
 vallies branch out in all directions ; the sides of the 
 mountains covered with an endless variety of excavat- 
 ed tombs and private dwellings, (O thou that du:eUest 
 in the clefts of the rock, &:c. — Jer, xlix. 16,) pre- 
 sented altofjether the most sin.<;ular scene we ever be- 
 held." 
 
 In still farther confirmation of the identity of the 
 site, and the accuracy of the application, it may be 
 added, in the words of Dr. Vincent, that " the name
 
 yfouni . 
 
 OF THE 
 
 at' the Htlit)Titt, it w-ill</ ,i; ■„, 
 lluat they hoil .,;T\fA .xj /',.j-/, 
 ofJidreilt.in <vzj«,c ct'.Jtt.iy-i 
 
 Gixnmtl nan 
 
 Jfi'.Ju^^J Ov .
 
 c
 
 VIF.W TAKEN FROM ENTRANCE OF THE VALLEY.
 
 IDUMEA. 187 
 
 of this capital, in all the various languages in which 
 it occurs, implies a rock, and as such it is described 
 in the Scriptures, in Strabo, and Al Edrissi."''* And 
 in a note he enumerates among the various names 
 having all the same signification — Sela, a rock, (the 
 very word here used in the original), Petra, a rock, 
 the Greek name, (which has precisely the same signi- 
 fication) and The Rock, pre-eminently — expressly 
 referring to this passage of Scripture. -f- 
 
 Captains Irby and Mangles, having, together with 
 Mr. Bankes and Mr. Legh, spent two days in dili- 
 gently examining them, give a more particular detail 
 of the ruins of Petra than Burckhardt's accovmt sup- 
 plied ; and the more full the description, the more 
 precise and wonderful does the prophecy appear. 
 Near the spot where they awaited the decision of the 
 Arabs, " the high land was covered upon both its 
 sides, and on its summits, with lines and solid masses 
 of dry wall. I'he former appeared to be traces of an- 
 cient cultivation, the solid ruins seemed to be only 
 the remains of towers for watching in harvest and 
 vintage time. The whole neighbourhood of the spot 
 bears similar traces of former industry ; all which 
 seem to indicate the vicinity of a great metropolis.''^ 
 A narrow and circuitous defile, surrounded on each 
 side by precipitous or perpendicular rocks, varying 
 from four hundred to seven hundred feet in altitude, 
 and forming, for two miles, " a sort of subterranean 
 passage," opens on the east the way to the ruins of 
 Petra. The rocks, or rather hills, then diverge on 
 either side, and leave an oblong space, where once 
 stood the metropolis of Edom, deceived by its terri- 
 blencss, where now lies a waste of ruins, encircled on 
 
 * Commerce of the Ancients, vol. ii. p. 264. 
 
 f See Blaney, in loco. 
 
 j Captains Irby and Mangles' Travels, p. 408.
 
 II 
 
 IDUMEA. 
 
 every side, save on the north-east alone, by stupen- 
 dous cliffs, which still show how the pride and labour 
 of art tried there to vie with the sublimity of nature. 
 Along the borders of these cliffs, detached masses of 
 rock, numerous and lofty, have been wrought into 
 sepulchres, the interior of which is excavated into 
 chambers, while the exterior has been cut from the 
 live rock into the forms of towers, with pilastres, and 
 successive bands of frieze and entablature, wings, 
 recesses, figures of animals, and columns.* The 
 subjoined cut may convey an idea of some of these 
 singular excavations : 
 
 Yet, numerous as these are, they form but a part 
 of " the vast necropolis of Petra." " Tombs present 
 themselves, not only in every avenue to the city, and 
 upon every preci[)ice that surrounds it, but even inter- 
 mixed almost promiscuously with its public and do- 
 mestic edifices ; the natural features of the defile grew 
 moj'e and more imposiivg at every step, and the exca- 
 vations and sculpture more frequent on both sides, 
 till it presented at last a continued street of tombs."" 
 
 • Cai»taiiis Irby and Maiij^Iei' Travels, p. 497.
 
 IDUMEA. 189 
 
 The base of the clilis wrought out in all the symme- 
 try and regularity of art, with colonnades, and pe- 
 destals, and ranges of corridors adhering to the per- 
 pendicular surface ; flights of steps chiselled out of the 
 rock ; grottos in great numbers, " which are certainly 
 not sepulchral ;" some excavated residences of large 
 dimensions, (in one of which is a single chamber, sixty 
 feet in length, and of a breadth proportioned;) many 
 other dwellings of inferior note, particularly abundant 
 in one defile leading to the city, the steep sides of 
 which contain a sort of excavated suburb, accessible by 
 flights of steps ; niches, sometimes thirty feet in exca- 
 vated height, with altars for votive offerings, or with 
 pyramids, columns or obelisks ; a bridge across a 
 chasm now apparently inaccessible ; some small pyra- 
 mids hewn out of the rock on the summit of the 
 heights ; horizontal grooves, for the conveyance of 
 water, cut in the face of the rock, and even across the 
 architectural fronts of some of the excavations ; and, 
 in short, " the rocks hollowed out into innumerable 
 chambers of different dimensions, whose entrances are 
 variously, richly, and often fantastically decorated 
 with every imaginable order of architecture""* — all 
 united, not only form one of the most singular scenes 
 that the eye of man ever looked upon, or the imagi- 
 nation painted — a group of wonders perhaps unparal- 
 leled in their kind — but also give indubitable proof, 
 both that in the land of Edom there was a city where 
 human ingenuity, and energy, and power, must have 
 been exerted for many ages, and to so great a degree, 
 as to have well entitled it to be noted for its strength 
 or terrihkness, and that the description given of * 
 by the prophets of Israel was as strictly literal as the 
 prediction respecting it is true. " The barren state 
 
 • Captains Irby and Mangles' Travels, pp. 407 — 437. 
 Macniichael's Journey, pp. 228, 229.
 
 190 IDUMEA. 
 
 of the country, together with the desolate condition of 
 the city, without a single human being living near it, 
 seem," in the words of those who were spectators of 
 the scene, " strongly to verify the judgment de- 
 nounced against it."* O thou that dwellest in the 
 clefts of the rock, <^c. — also JEdom shall be a desola- 
 tion, Sfc. 
 
 Of all the ruins of Petra, the mausoleums and se- 
 pulchres are among the most remarkable, and they 
 give the clearest indication of ancient and long conti- 
 nued royalty, and of courtly grandeur. Their im- 
 mense number corroborates the accounts given of 
 their successive kings and princes, by Moses and Stra- 
 bo ; though a period of eighteen hundred years inter- 
 vened between the dates of their respective records 
 concerning them. The structure of the sepulchres 
 also shows that many of them are of a more recent 
 date. " Great," says Burckhardt, " must have been 
 the opulence of a city which could dedicate such mo- 
 numents to the memory of its rulers."-!- But the 
 long line of the kings, and of the nobles of Idumea, 
 has for ages been cut off; they are without any repre- 
 sentative now, without any memorial but the multi- 
 tude and the magnificence of their unvisited sepul- 
 chres. Thei/ shall call the nobles thereof to the king- 
 dom, (or rather, they shall call, or summon, the no- 
 bles thereof,) but there shall be no kingdom there, and 
 all her princes shall be nothijig. 
 
 Amidst the mausoleums and sepulchres, the remains 
 of temples or palaces, and the multiplicity of tombs, 
 which all form, as it were, the grave of Idumea, where 
 its ancient splendour is interred, there are edifices, the 
 Roman and Grecian architecture of which decides that 
 they were built long posterior to the era of the pro- 
 
 * Irby and Mangles' Travels, p. 439. 
 f Burckhardt's Travels, p. 425.
 
 IDUMEA. 191 
 
 phets.* They shall huild^ hut I will throw down. 
 The description given by Volney, and depending for 
 its accuracy on the authority of Arabs, formed till 
 very recently the only account of the modern state of 
 Idumea ; and though the testimony was recorded in 
 a manner and came through a channel the most un- 
 suspected possible, yet the evidence was not sufficient- 
 ly direct or discriminating to mark, as ^^olney had 
 otherwise done, the exact, prophetic, and characteris- 
 tic features of the scene. The interesting details, 
 from personal observation, communicated by Burck- 
 hardt, and subsequently by Captains Irby and Man- 
 gles, rescued the subject from obscurity, and brought 
 to light the remarkable fact of the ruins of a city, so 
 to speak, cut out of the rock, in the midst of a desert. 
 When, in the streets of Jerusalem, the people shout- 
 ed hosannahs to the Son of David, and while some of 
 the Pharisees among the people said unto him, Mas- 
 ter, rebuke thy disciples, he answered and said unto 
 them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, 
 the stones would immediately cry out. And in an in- 
 fidel age, while many modern cities and nations dis- 
 owned the authority of the God of Israel, and disbe- 
 lieved his word, those of ancient times stood forth 
 anew before the world, like witnesses arisen from the 
 dead, to show the authority, the power, and the truth 
 of his word over them, and to raise a warning and in- 
 structive voice to the cities of the nations, lest they 
 too should become the monuments of the wrath which 
 they have defied. And when men would not hear of 
 hosannahs to the Son of David, or of divine honours to 
 the name of Christ, deserts immediately spake and 
 rocks cried out, and, responding to the voice of the 
 prophets, testified of them who testified of Jesus. The 
 capital of Edom, as well as those of other ancient 
 
 • Burckhardt's Travels, p. 4:25.
 
 192 IDUMEA. 
 
 kingdoms, was heard of again ; and its rocks now 
 send forth a voice that may well reach unto the ends 
 of the earth. 
 
 It entered not into the thoughts of the writer, and 
 far surpassed his hopes, when first led to look into the 
 prophecies concerning Edom, from the statement of 
 an Arab report, recorded by Volney, that in so short 
 a time, the fulfilment of these prophecies might be 
 set before the eyes of men, even without their having 
 to " come and see." And atter havmcj adduced new 
 evidence in successive editions from strikincp facts, 
 clearly illustrative of the predictions relative to Edom, 
 and to its once terrible metropolis, an appeal may 
 now be made to the sight as well as to the under- 
 standing of men. For just as these pages are pass- 
 ing through the press, the author has timely receival 
 from Paris, (and would that that city would give 
 heed to the truth, which it thus farther aifords the 
 means of confirming.) the first six livraisons of a 
 work entitled, Voyage de U Arabic Petree par Mess. 
 Leon de Laborde et Linant, now in the course of pub- 
 lication, v."hich contains, in the numbers already pub- 
 lished, seventeen splendid engravings of the Ruins of 
 Petra alone, in which, by merely affixing a text, the 
 beauties of art become immediately subservient to the 
 interests of religion. ^Vhere, very recently, it was 
 difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain a single fact, 
 and where only indirect evidence could be obtained, 
 men may now, as it were, look upon Iduraea, and 
 see how the lines of confusion and the stones of 
 emptiness have been stretched over it. And we may 
 now, in like manner, look upon the ruins of the chief 
 city of Edom, of which the very existence was, till 
 lately, altogether unknown. All the plates attest its 
 vast magnificence, and the almost incredible and in- 
 conceivable labour, continued as it must have been 
 from age to age, prior to the days of Moses and later 
 
 2
 
 ^ 
 
 ^^mr
 
 IDUMEA. 193 
 
 than the Christian era — by which so great a multipli- 
 city of dwellings, tombs, and temples were excavated 
 from the rock. And Truth speaks out, not from the 
 lips of a lying spirit evoked by the fancy of a scepti- 
 cal philosopher,, but from the face of the live rock, 
 which exhibits the dwellings in the clefts, singularly 
 characteristic of the scene, and declares by the order 
 of architecture, as if still told by every stroke of the 
 chisel, that the citizens of Petra did build, after the 
 era of the prophets, while the fragments of ruins, of 
 Grecian and Roman architecture, as well as of more 
 ancient date, which are strewed over the ground, and 
 cover the valley which was the site of the cit), and 
 which is surrounded by precipitous hills and excavat- 
 ed rocks, shows that those buildings whose doom was 
 pronounced before their erection, have, according to 
 the same sure word, been throKii down. 
 
 The topographical view of the land of Idumea, 
 taken from d'El Nakb, gives us to see that Edom is 
 most desolate, the desolation oj^ desolations. That the 
 country which was given unto Esau, as the fatness of 
 the earth, and in which many cities were built, has 
 been ynade bare, and that the lines of confusion and 
 the stones of emptiness have been stretched over it. In 
 the brief explanatory note which accompanies the 
 plate, it is stated that " no map, however well exe- 
 cuted, can represent the aspect of a country so well as 
 views taken from an elevated point, and compreheyiding 
 a great extent. It is from such demi-panoramas alone 
 that a correct idea can be formed. Such has been the 
 object proposed in drawing these two views." (The 
 other view, of a similar character, represents the 
 southern coast of Edom, on the borders of the Red 
 Sea. The accompanying view has been selected, as 
 comprehending the greatest extent, and showing the 
 aspect of the country.) 
 
 " The view is taken from d'El Nakb, a precipitous 
 
 K
 
 194 IDUMEA. 
 
 ascent, six miles south of Mount Hor, and consequent- 
 ly of Petra. It comprehends to the left, or the west, 
 Ouadi Araba, (or the valley of Araba) a long and 
 straight plain of sand, which, commencing at the Red 
 Sea, extends to the north, in a direct line, to the Jor- 
 dan, and was, without doubt, the ancient bed of that 
 river before the volcanic eruption which formed the 
 actual basin of the Dead Sea, and of which the Bible 
 has given so faithful a recital. On the right bank, 
 towards the west, lies the adjoining valley of Ouadi 
 Gcbb, through which the Fellahs of Petra repair to 
 Gaza. Towards the east, (on the right of the view) 
 there is seen, in the middle of a small plain, an insu- 
 lated rock called El Aase, on which is a tomb of the 
 same form of construction as those of Petra. Farther 
 to the right is a high rock, which forms, as it were, 
 the first rampart in the environs of Petra, elevated in 
 the form of a cone, with a tree on the summit. Fol- 
 lowing the same direction, we meet with Mount Hor, 
 the highest rock in the country, on the summit of 
 which is seen the Tomb of Aaron, held in great ve- 
 neration in that region. To the east of that moun- 
 tain, in a small plain of unequal surface enclosed in 
 the midst of rocks, of which the masses seem to be 
 accumulated and pressed together, is built the city of 
 Petra, the capital of the Nabatheans. The picture 
 is terminated by the grand chain of mountains, which 
 separates Arabia Deserta from Arabia Petrea, properly 
 so called " 
 
 One engraving is peculiarly striking, as indirectly 
 exemplifying the unique character of the scenery, by 
 which, at a glance, Petra is identified, and distin- 
 guished from any other city that ever existed. The 
 design of the picture is to represent an isolated co- 
 lumn. But the back-ground exhibits to view " a 
 part of the valley of Moses" (Ouadi jNIousa) with the 
 high rocks in the more distant perspective " pierced
 
 Ed thi
 
 "W
 
 7 
 
 ILTOHE; 11 mSJ AaO ilk TIBE(!BIBIPIE15
 
 VXnV O^&N ISOLATCO COLUMN IN THE OUAM MOf:;!
 
 IDUMEA. 195 
 
 ^^ith thousands of excavations, (perces de milliers ex- 
 cavations.''"') The reader will be aware that the minute 
 appearance of the excavations is occasioned by the dis- 
 tance of the view, and consequent diminution of the 
 apparent height of the rocks ; and in the multiplicity 
 of excavations, perceptible even in the rocks which 
 border the elongated valley, he will not fail to ob- 
 serve the dwellings in the clefts of the rocks, and to 
 see how the inhabitants of the capital of Edom made 
 their nest as high as the eagle's. This perfect coinci- 
 dence both with the description, as identifying the 
 vspot, and with the prediction of the prophet, as now 
 abandoned and desolate, is the more remarkable as 
 it is incidentally and indirectly placed in view, the 
 title of the print being, A View of an Isolated or De- 
 serted Column, (Vue d\me Colonne Isolee.) 
 
 In the notes connected with the y^uins of a temple, 
 of which two views are given, it is stated that — ^'- be- 
 sides the gigantic and singular tombs cut out of the 
 rock, Petra contains a great number of monuments, 
 «f which the ruins attest the beautiful style and the 
 magnificence; but of all these buildings, the only one 
 which has resisted the ravages of time is that which 
 is here represented. Situated to the west of the city, 
 on the bank of the river, it towers over the innumer- 
 able wreck of buildings, (debris) which cover the soil, 
 and yet present, though in ruins, a beautiful mass, 
 and beautiful details of architecture. The cornice 
 which surmounts the temple is in a pure and elegant 
 style. In the back-ground is seen the antique pave- 
 ment, as it still exists." 
 
 In explanation of the plate which represents the 
 ruins of a triumphal arch, it is stated, " The passage 
 vmder the triumphal arch leads to a public place, a 
 species of forum, paved with large flag-stones, which 
 reach to the temple that is seen in the back-ground. 
 The monument represented in this view formed three
 
 196 IDUMEA. 
 
 arcades, of which one, that in the middle, is by far the 
 largest, and served for carriages, and the two others 
 for foot-passengers. There is observable in the con- 
 struction some analogy to the triumphal arch which 
 terminates the colonnade of Palmyra, towards the 
 east. The pilaster, which still remains, is that which 
 separates the middle arch from that of one of the cor- 
 ners." " This view is taken from the west, and re- 
 presents the same monument described (as above) in 
 the preceding livraison. In the back-ground is seen 
 one part of the grand funereal monuments." 
 
 Other plates present to view the vast magnificence 
 of the tombs of Petra — the effect of which, it is appre- 
 hended, wovild in a great measure be lost, in etchings 
 on so small a scale as the size of this volume could con- 
 veniently admit. There is one tomb, of which a view 
 is given, which is peculiarly deserving of notice, there 
 being engraven on it a Latin inscription, with the 
 name of a magistrate, Quintus Pretextus Florentinus, 
 who died in that city, being governor of that part of 
 Arabia Petrea. " It behoved to be," it is said, 
 " about the time of Adrian or Antoninus Pius," or 
 at a period unquestionably several centuries posterior 
 to the predictions. 
 
 They shall he called the border of wickedness. 
 Strabo contrasts the quiet disposition of the citizens 
 of Petra with the contentious spirit of the foreigners 
 who resided there ; and the uninterrupted tranquillity 
 which the townsmen mutually maintained together, 
 excited the admiration of Athenodorus.* The fine 
 gold is changed : no such people are there now to be 
 found. Though Burckhardt travelled as an Arab, 
 associated with them, submitted to all their priva- 
 tions, and was so completely master of their language 
 and of their manners, as to escape detection, he was 
 
 • Strabo, p. 779.
 
 IDUMEA. 197 
 
 yet reduced to that state, within the boundaries of 
 Edom, which can alone secure tranquillity to the tra- 
 veller in the desert ; " he had nothing with him that 
 could attract the notice, or excite the cupidity of the 
 Bedouins," and was even stripped of some rags that 
 covered his wounded ankles.* The Arabs in that 
 quarter, he observes, " have the reputation of being 
 very daring thieves."" In like manner, a Motselim, 
 who had been twenty years in office, pledged himself 
 to Captains Irby and Mangles, and the travellers who 
 accompanied them, (in presence of the Governor of 
 Jerusalem,) that the Arabs of Wady Mousa are " a 
 most savage and treacherous race," and added, that 
 they would inake use of their Franks'* blood for a 
 medicine. That this character of wickedness and 
 cruelty was not misapplied, they had too ample proof, 
 not only in the dangers with which they were threat- 
 ened, but by the fact which they learned on the sjwt, 
 that upwards of thirty pilgrims from Barbary had 
 been murdered at Petra the preceding year, by the 
 men of Wady Mousa."}* Even the Arabs of the sur- 
 rounding deserts, as already stated, dread to approach 
 it ; and towards the borders of Edom on the south, 
 " the Arabs about Akaba," as described by Pococke, 
 and as experienced by Burckhardt, '• are a very bad 
 people, and notorious robbers, and are at war with 
 all others."! Such evidence, all undesignedly given, 
 clearly shows that in truth Edom is called the border 
 of ivicked?iess. 
 
 Thorns shall covie in her palaces^ nettles and bram- 
 bles in the fortresses thereof. In lieu of any direct 
 and explicit statement in corroboration of the literal 
 
 * Burckhardt's Travels, p. 438. 
 
 t Irby and Matigies' Travels, p. 417. Macraichael's Joui 
 liey, pp. 202, 234. 
 X Pococke's Description of the East, vol. i. p. 136.
 
 198 IDUMEA, 
 
 fulfilment of this prediction, it may be worthy of ob- 
 servation that the camels of the Bedouins feed upon 
 the thorny branches of the Talh (gum arabic) tree, 
 of which they are extremely fond ; that the large 
 thorns of these trees are a great annoyance to them, 
 and to their cattle ; and that they are so abundant in 
 different parts of Idumea, that each Bedouin carries 
 in his girdle a pair of small pincers to extract the 
 thorns from his feet.* 
 
 / will make thee small among the nations ,• than art 
 greatly despised. Though the border of wickedness, 
 and the retreat of a horde of thieves, who are distin- 
 guished as peculiarly savage even among the wild 
 Arabs, and thus an object of dread, as well as of as- 
 tonishment to those who pass thereby, yet contrasted 
 with what it was, or reckoned among the nations, 
 Edom is small indeed. Within almost all its boundary, 
 it may be said, that none abide, or have any fixed or 
 permanent residence ; and instead of the superb 
 structures, the works of various ages, which long 
 adorned its cities, the huts of the Arabs, where even 
 huts they have, are m.ere naud hovels of " mean and 
 ragged appearance," which, in general, are deserted 
 on the least alarm. But, miserable habitations as 
 these are, they scarcely seem to exist anywhere 
 throughout Edom, but on a single point on its bor- 
 ders ; and wherever the Arabs otherwise wander in 
 search of spots for pasturage for their cattle, (found 
 in hollows, or near to springs after the winter rains,) 
 tents are their only covering. Those which pertain 
 to the more powerful tribes, are sometimes both nu- 
 merous and large ; yet, though they form at best but 
 a frail dwelling, many of them are " very low and 
 small." Near to the ruins of Petra, Burckhardt 
 passed an encampment of Bedouin tents, most of which 
 
 * Burckliardt's Travels in Syria, p. 440^
 
 IDUMEA. 199 
 
 were " the smallest he had ever seen, about four feet 
 high, and ten in length ;" and towards the south- 
 west border of Edorn, he met with a few wanderers 
 who had no tents with them, and whose only shelter 
 from the burning rays of the sun, and the heav}^ 
 dews of nighty was the scanty branches of the Talh 
 trees. The subsistence of the Bedouins is often as 
 precarious as their habitations are mean ; the flocks 
 they tend, or which they pillage from more fertile 
 regions, are their only possessions ; and in that land 
 where commerce long concentrated its wealth, and 
 through which the treasures of Ophir passed, the 
 picking of gum arable from thorny branches is now 
 the poor occupation, the only semblance of industry, 
 practised by the wild and wandering tenants of a 
 desert. Edom is small a77iong the nations ; and how 
 greatlj/ is it dcsjn'sed, when the public authorities at 
 Constantinople deny any knowledge of it, or of the 
 ruins of its capital, which once defied the power of 
 Rome — when the city of Petra is thus forgotten and 
 unknown among the representatives of the villagers 
 of Byzantium ! 
 
 Concerning Edom, thus saith the Lord, Is wisdom 
 no more in Teman ? Is understanding perished from 
 the prudent ? Shall I not destroi/ the wise men out of 
 Edom, and understanding out of the Mount of Esau ? 
 Fallen and despised as it now is, Edom, did not the 
 prescription of many ages abrogate its right, might 
 lay claim to the title of having been the first seat of 
 learning, as well as the centre of commerce. Sir Isaac 
 Newton, who was no mean master in chronology, and 
 no incompetent judge to give a decision in regard to 
 the rise and first progress of literature, considers Edom 
 as the nursery of the arts and sciences, and adduces 
 evidence to that effect from profane as well as from 
 sacred history. " The Egyptians," he remarks, " hav- 
 ing learned the skill of the Edomites, began now to
 
 200 IDUMEA. 
 
 observe the position of the stars, and the length of the 
 solar year, for enabling them to know the position of 
 the stars at any time, and to sail by them at all times 
 without sight of the shore, and this gave a beginning 
 to astronomy and navigation."* " It seems that 
 letters, and astronomy, and the trade of carpenters, 
 were invented by the merchants of the Red Sea, and 
 that they were propagated from Arabia Petrsea, into 
 Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Asia IMinor, and Europe.'"-!* 
 While the philosopher may thus think of Edom with 
 respect, neither the admirer of genius, the man of 
 feeling, nor the child of devotion will, even to this 
 day, seek from any land a richer treasure of plaintive 
 poetry, of impassioned eloquence, and of fervid piety, 
 than Edom has bequeathed to the world in the book 
 of Job. It exhibits to us, in language the most pa- 
 thetic and sublime, all that a man could feel, in the 
 outward pangs of his body and the inner writhings of 
 his mind, of the frailties of his frame, and of the dis- 
 solution of his earthly comforts and endearments; all 
 that mortal can discern, by meditating on the ways, 
 and contemplating the works of God, of the omnisci- 
 ence and omnipotence of the Most High, and of the 
 inscrutable dispensations of his providence ; all that 
 knowledge v,'hich could first tell, in written word, of 
 Arcturus, and Orion, and Pleiades ; and all that 
 devotedness of soul, and immortality of hope, which — 
 with patience that faultercd not even when the heart 
 was bruised, and almost broken, and the body cover- 
 ed over with distress — could say, " Though he slay 
 me, yet will I trust in him."" 
 
 But if the question now be asked, is understand- 
 ing perished out of Edom .'* the answer, like every 
 response of the prophetic word, may be briefly given : 
 
 * Sir Isaac Newton's Chronolojiiv of Ancient King^doms, 
 p- a08. t Ibid. p. 212.
 
 IDUMEA. 201 
 
 it is. The minds of the Bedouins are as uncultivat- 
 ed as the deserts they traverse. Practical wisdom is, 
 in general, the first that man learns and the last that he 
 retains. And the simple but significant fact, already 
 alluded to, that the clearing away of a little rubbish, 
 merely " to allov/ the water to flow " into an ancient 
 cistern, in order to render it useful to themselves, " is 
 an undertaking far beyond the views of the wandering 
 Arabs," shows that understanding is indeed perished 
 from auiong them. They view the indestructible works 
 of former ages, not only with wonder, but with super- 
 stitious regard, and consider them as the work of genii. 
 They look upon a European as a magician, and be- 
 lieve that, having seen any spot where they imagine 
 that treasures are deposited, he can afterwards com- 
 mand the guardian of the treasure to set the whole 
 before him."* In Teman, which yet maintains a 
 precarious existence, the inhabitants possess the desire 
 without the means of knowledge. The Koran is their 
 only study, and contains the sum of their wisdom. — 
 And although he was but a " miserable comforter,''' 
 and v/as overmastered in argument by a kinsman 
 stricken with affliction, yet no Tcmanile can now dis- 
 course with either the wisdom or the pathos o^ Eliphaz 
 of old. Wisdom is no more in Teman, and under- 
 standing has perished out of the Mount of Esau. 
 
 While there is thus subsisting evidence and proof 
 that the ancient inhabitants of Edom v/ere renowned 
 for wisdom, as well as for power, and while desolation 
 has spread so widely over it, that it can scarcely be 
 said to be inhabited by man ; there still are tenants 
 who hold possession of it, to whom it is abandoned 
 by man, and to whom it was decreed by a voice more 
 than mortal. And insignificant and minute as it 
 
 * Burckhardt's Travels, p. 429. 
 5
 
 202 IDUMEA. 
 
 may possibly appear to those who reject the light of 
 revelation, or to the unreflecting mind, (that will 
 use no measuring line of truth, which stretches be- 
 yond that which inches out its own shallow thoughts, 
 and wherewith rejecting all other aid, it tries, by the 
 superficial touch of ridicule alone, to sound the un- 
 fathomable depths of infinite wisdom) yet the fol- 
 lowing scripture, mingled with other words already 
 verified as the voice of inspiration, and voluntarily in- 
 volving its title to credibility in the appended appeal 
 to fact and challenge to inv-estigation, may, in con- 
 junction with kindred proofs, yet tell to man — if 
 hearing he will hear, and show him, if seeing he will 
 see — the verity of the divine word, and the infallibi- 
 lity of the divine judgments ; and not without the 
 aid of the rightful and imbiassed exercise of reason, 
 may give understanding to the sceptic, that he may 
 be converted, and that he may be healed by him 
 whose word is ever truth. 
 
 " But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess 
 it (Idumea) ; the owl also, and the raven shall dwell 
 in it. It shall be a habitation for dragons and a 
 court for owls ; the wild beasts of the desert shall also 
 meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr 
 (the hairy or rough creature) shall cry to his fellow ; 
 the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for her- 
 self a place of rest ; there shall the great owl make 
 her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her 
 shadow ; there shall the vultures also be gathered every 
 one with her mate. Seek ye out of the book of the 
 Lord and read ; no one of these shall fail, none shall 
 want her mate ; for my mouth it hath commanded, 
 and his Spirit it hath gathered them. And he hath 
 cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it 
 unto them by line : they shall j)ossess it for ever ; 
 from generation to generation shall they dwell there-
 
 IDUMEA. 203 
 
 in."* " I laid the mountains of Esau, and his heri- 
 tage waste, for the dragons of the wilderness. ""f- 
 
 Such is the precision of the prophecies, so remote 
 are they from all ambiguity of meaning, and so dis- 
 tinct are the events which they detail, that it is al- 
 most unnecessary to remark, that the different animals 
 here enumerated were not all in the same manner, 
 or in the same degree, to be possessors of Edom. 
 Some of them were to rest, to meet, to be gathered 
 there ; the owl and the raven were to dwell in it, and 
 it was to be a habitation for dragons ; while of the 
 cormorant and bittern, it is emphatically said, that 
 they w^ere to possess it. And is it not somewhat be- 
 yond a mere fortuitous coincidence, imperfect as the 
 information is respecting Edom, that, in " seeking 
 out" proof concerning these animals, and whether none 
 of them do fail, the most decisive evidence should, in 
 the first instance, be unconsciously communicated 
 from the boundaries of Edom, of the one which is 
 first noted in the prediction, and which was to pos- 
 sess the land '' It will at once be conceded, that in 
 whatever country any particular animal is unknown, 
 no proper translation of its name can there be given ; 
 and that for the purpose of designating or identifying 
 it, reference must be had to the original name, and to 
 the natural history of the country in which it is known. 
 And, without any ambiguity or perplexity arising 
 from the translation of the word, or any need of tracing 
 it through any other languages to ascertain its import, 
 the identical word of the original, with scarcely the 
 slightest variation (and that only the want of the final 
 vowel in the Hebrew word ; vowels in that language 
 being often supplied in the enunciation, or by 
 points) is, from the affinity of the Hebrew and 
 Arabic, used on the very spot by the Arabs, to. 
 
 * Isa. xsxiv. 11, 13—17. t ^^al- i- 3=
 
 204 IDUMEA. 
 
 denote the very bird, which may literally be said to 
 possess the land. While in the last inhabited village 
 of Moab, and close upon the borders of Edom, Burck- 
 hardt noted the animals which frequented the neigh- 
 bouring territory, in which he distinctly specifies Shcra, 
 the land of the Edomites ; and he relates that " the 
 bird katta* is met with in immense numbers. They fly 
 in such largo flocks that the Arab boys often kill two or 
 three of them at a time, merely by throwing a stick 
 among them."'"'-|- If any objector be here inclined to 
 say, that it is not to be wondered at, that any par- 
 ticular bird should be found in any given country, 
 that it might continue to remain for a term of ages, 
 and that such a surmise would not exceed the natural 
 probabilities of the case, the fact may be freely ad- 
 mitted as applicable, perhaps, to most countries of 
 the globe. But who ever, elsewhere, saw raiy wild 
 bird in any country, in flocks so immensely numerous 
 that two or three of them could be killed by the 
 single throw of a stick from the hand of a boy ; and 
 that this could be stated, not as a forcible, and per- 
 haps false^ illustration, to denote their number, nor as 
 a wonderful chance, or unusual incident, but as a fact 
 of frequent occurrence .'* Who ever, elsewhere, heard 
 of such a fact, not as happening merely on a sea-rock, 
 the resort of myriads of birds, or their temporary 
 resting-place when exhausted in their flight, but in 
 an extensive country, their permanent abode '^ Or if, 
 among the manifold discoveries of travellers in modern 
 times, it were really related that such occupants of a 
 country are to be found, or that a corresponding fact 
 exists in any other region of the earth which was once 
 
 * DNp kat, a species of partridge. It is sometimes writ- 
 ten, in the original, kata. Onkel. Knp vide Simonis Lexi- 
 con, p. 1393. 
 
 t Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 406.
 
 IDUMEA. 205 
 
 tenanted by man, who can also " find" in the records 
 of a high antiquity, the prediction that declared it ? 
 Of what country now inhabited could the same fact 
 be now with certainty foretold ; and where is the seer 
 who can discern the vision, fix on the spot over the 
 worWs surface, and select, from the whole winged 
 tribe, the name of the first in order, and the greatest 
 in number, of the future and chief possessors of the 
 land ? 
 
 Of the bittern (kephud) as a joint possessor with 
 the katta of Idumea, evidence has not been given or 
 ascertained ; — but numerous as the facts have been 
 which modern discoveries have consigned over to the 
 service of revelation, that word of truth which fears no 
 investigation can appeal to other facts, unknown to 
 history, and still undiscovered — but registered in pro- 
 phecy, and there long since revealed. 
 
 The owl also, and the raven (or crow) shall duell 
 in it. — The owl and raven do dwell in it. Captain 
 Mangles relates, that while he and his fellow-travellers 
 were examining the ruins, and contemplating the 
 sublime scenery of Petra, — " the screaming of the 
 eagles, hawks, and owls, who were soaring above their 
 heads in considerable numbers, seemingly annoyed at 
 any one approaching their lonely habitation, added 
 much to the singularity of the scene.'^ " The fields 
 of Tafyle," situated in the immediate vicinity of 
 Edom, are, according to the observation of Burck- 
 hardt, " frequented by an immense number of crows."* 
 " I expected," says Seetzen, (alluding to his purposed 
 tour through Idumea, and to the information he had 
 received from the Arabs,) " to make several disco- 
 veries in mineralogy^ as well as in the animals and 
 vegetables of the country, on the manna of the desert, 
 the ravens,"-|- &c. 
 
 * Burckhardt's Travels, p. 405. 
 f Seetzen's Travels, p. 46.
 
 206 IDUMEA. 
 
 It shall he a habitation for dragons (serpents.) I 
 laid his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilder- 
 ness. — The evidence, though derived from testimony, 
 and not from personal observation, of two travellers of 
 so contrary characters and views as Sliavv and Volney, 
 is so accordant and apposite, that it may well be sus- 
 tained in lieu of more direct proof. The former 
 represents the land of Edom, and the wilderness of 
 ■which it now forms part, as abounding with a variety 
 of lizards and vipers, which are very dangerous and 
 troublesome.* And the narrative given by A^olney, 
 already quoted, is equally decisive as to the fact. The 
 Arabs, in general, avoid the ruins of the cities of 
 Idumea, " on account of the enormous scorpions with 
 which thei/ swarm.'''' Its cities thus deserted by man, 
 and abandoned to their undisturbed and hereditary 
 possession, Edom may be justly called the inheritance 
 of dragons. 
 
 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with 
 the'wild beasts of the island, (or of the borders of the 
 sea.) Instead of these words of the English version, 
 Parkhurst renders the former the ravenous birds inha- 
 biting the wilderness. The interpretation was given 
 long before the fact to which it refers was made 
 known. But it has now been ascertained, (and with- 
 out any allusion, on the other hand, to the predic- 
 tion,) that eagles,-f- hawks, and ravens, all ravenous 
 birds, are common in Edom, and do not fail to illus- 
 trate the prediction as thus translated. But when 
 animals from different regions are said to meet, the 
 prophecy thus implying that some of them at least 
 did not properly pertain to the country, would seem 
 to require some farther verification. And of all the 
 wonderful circumstances attached to the history, or 
 
 * Shaw's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 105, 338. 
 f Burckhardt's Travels, p. 405.
 
 IDUMEA. 207 
 
 pertaining to the fate of Edom, there is one which is 
 not to be ranked among the least in singularity, that 
 bears no remote application to the prefixed prophecy, 
 and that ought not, perhaps, to pass here unnoted. 
 It is recorded in an ancient Chronicle, that the em- 
 peror Decius caused fierce lions and lionesses to be 
 transported from (the deserts of) Africa to the borders 
 of Palestine and Arabia, in order that propagating 
 there they might act as an annoyance and a barrier 
 to the barbarous Saracens :* Between Arabia and 
 Palestine lies the doomed and execrated land of Edom. 
 And may it not thus be added, that a cause so unna- 
 tural and unforeseen would greatly tend to the destruc- 
 tion of the flocks, and to the desolation of all the ad- 
 joining territory. — and seem to be as if the king of 
 the forest was to take jwssession of it for his subjects ? 
 And may it not be even literally said tli'il the wild 
 beasts of the desert meet there with the wild beasts of 
 the borders of the sea ! 
 
 The Sat\jr shall dwell there. — The satyr is entirely a 
 fabulous animal. The word (soir) literally means a 
 rough hairij one : and, like a synonymous word in both 
 the Greek and Latin languages which has the same 
 signification, has been translated both by lexicogra- 
 phers and commentators, the goat.-f Parkhurst says, 
 that, in this sense, he would understand this very pas- 
 sage : and Lowth distinctly asserts, without assigning 
 to it any other meaning, that " the word originally sigr 
 
 * 'O aurog AcXios ^affiJ.rjg -/jyaysv ccro rr,g AZoiy.rig /.lov- 
 7ag (pojSi^ag x.ai /.Baivag y-ai a-fAvsn/ iig to ^j'mtcv avardkr^g 
 a.'xo Aoa^iag vmi UaXaidTivrjg 'iug t K'^r.idia Kaffsj? 5r;J05 to 
 mir,Gai yzviav bia Tug ^af,aoisg l.apax.rivag. Chronicon Akx- 
 andi-inum, ad aim. C. 358. Relan. Palest, p. 97. 
 
 •|- " So the Greek T^ayog a he-goat, is from T^axug rough, 
 on account of the roughness of his hair, and the Latin hir- 
 cus, a he-goat, fi-om hirtus, rough." Parkhurst's Lexicon.
 
 903 IDUMEA. 
 
 nifies goat.''^* Such respectable and well knov.n au- 
 thorities have been cited, because their decision must 
 have rested on criticism alone, as it was impossible 
 that their minds could have been biassed by any 
 knowledge of the fact in reference to Edom. It was 
 their province, and that of others, to illustrate its 
 meaning — it v/as Burckhardt''s, however unconscious- 
 ly, to bear, from ocular observation, witness to its 
 truth. " In all the Wadys south of the Modjei and 
 El Asha," (pointing to Edom,) " large herds of 
 mountain-goats are met with. They pasture in flocks 
 of forty and fifty together."*!* — Thej/ dwell there. 
 
 But the evidence respecting all the animals speci- 
 fied in the prophecy, as the future possessors of Edom. 
 is not yet complete, and is difficult to be ascertained. 
 And, in v.'ords that seem to indicate this very diffi- 
 culty, it is still reserved for future travellers, — per- 
 haps seme unconscious Volney — to disclose the facts ; 
 and for future inquirers, whether Christian or infidel, 
 to seek out of the book of the Lord and read : and to 
 " find that no one of these do fail." Yet recent as 
 the disclosure of any information respecting them has 
 been ; and offered, as it now for the first time is, for 
 the consideration of every candid mind, the positive 
 terms and singleness of object of the prophecies them- 
 selves, and the undesigned and decisive evidence, are 
 surely enough to show how greatly these several spe- 
 cific predictions and their respective facts exceed all 
 possibility of their being the word or the work of man, 
 and how clearly there may be discovered in them all, 
 if sight Itself be conviction, the credentials of inspira- 
 tion, and the operation of His hands, to whose pre- 
 
 * Lou'th assigns the reason why the word is translated 
 sati/r — it is supposed, that evil spirits of old time appeared 
 ill the shape of goats, as the learned Bochart hath proved. 
 Isa. xiii. 21. 
 
 -f- Burckhardt's Travels in Syria.
 
 IDUMEA. 209 
 
 science futurity is open, — to whose power all nature 
 is subservient, — and '' whose mouth it hath com- 
 manded, and whose spirit it hath gathered them."' 
 
 Noted as Edom v/as for its terribleness, and pos- 
 sessed of a capital city, from which even a feeble 
 people could not easily have been dislodged, there 
 scarcely could have been a question, even among its 
 enemies, to what people that country would eventually 
 belong. And it never could have been thought of by 
 any native of another land, as the Jewish prophets 
 were, nor by any uninspired mortal whatever, that a 
 kingdom, which had previously subsisted so long, 
 (and in v>hich princes ceased not to reign, commerce 
 to flourish, and " a people of great opulence" to dvrell 
 for more than six hundred years thereafter,) would be 
 finally extinct, that all its cities would be for ever 
 desulatc, and though it could have boasted, more than 
 any other land, of indestructible habitations for men, 
 that their habitations would be desolate ; and that 
 certain wild animals, mentioned by name, would, in 
 different manners and degrees, possess the country 
 from generation to generation. 
 
 There shall not be anj/ remaining of the house of 
 Esau. Edom shall be cut off for ever. The aliens 
 of Judah ever look with wistful eyes to the land of 
 their fathers ; but no Edomite is nov*- to be found to 
 dispute the right of any animal to the possession of 
 it, or to banish the owl from the temples and palaces 
 of Edom. But the House of Esau did remain, and 
 existed in great power, till after the commencement 
 of the Christian era, a period far too remote from the 
 date of the prediction for their subsequent history to 
 have been foreseen by man. The Idumeans were 
 soon after mingled with the Nabatheans. And in 
 the third century, their language was disused, and 
 their very namie, as designating any people, had
 
 210 IDUMEA. 
 
 utterly perished ;* and their country itself having be- 
 come an outcast from Syria, among whose kingdoms 
 it had long been numbered, was united to Arabia 
 Petr^a. Though the descendants of the twin-born 
 Esau and Jacob have met a diametrically opposite 
 fate, the fact is no less marvellous and undisputed, 
 than the prediction in each case is alike obvious and 
 true. While the posterity of Jacob have been " dis- 
 persed in every country under heaven," and are " scat- 
 tered among all nations," and have ever remained dis- 
 tinct from them all, and while it is also declared that 
 " a full end will never be made of them ;*" the Edom- 
 ites, though they existed as a nation for more than 
 seventeen hundred years, have, as a period of nearly 
 equal duration has proved, been cut off for ever ; and 
 while Jews are in every land, there is not any remain- 
 ing on any spot of earth, of the house of Esau. 
 
 Idumea, in aid of a neighbouring state, did send 
 forth, on a sudden, an army of twenty thousand armed 
 men, — it contained at least eighteen towns, for cen- 
 turies after the Christian era — successive kings and 
 princes reigned in Petra, — and magnificent palaces 
 and temples, whose empty chambers and naked walls 
 of wonderful architecture still strike the traveller with 
 amazement, were constructed there, at a period un- 
 questionably far remote from the time when it was 
 given to the prophets of Israel to tell, that the house 
 of Esau was to be cut off for ever, that there would 
 be no kingdom there, and that wild animals would 
 jwssess Edom for a heritage. And so despised is 
 Edom, and the memory of its greatness lost, that there 
 is no record of antiquity that can so clearly show us 
 what once it was, in the days of its power, as we can 
 now read, in the page of prophecy, its existing deso- 
 
 * Orinfen. lib. iii. in Job,
 
 IDUMEA. 211 
 
 lation. But in that place where kings kept their court, 
 and where nobles assembled, where manifest proofs of 
 ancient opulence are concentrated, where princely ha- 
 bitations, retaining their external grandeur, but be- 
 reft of all their splendour, still look as if " fresh from 
 the chisel,'" — even there no man dwells, it is given by 
 lot to birds, and beasts, and reptiles ; it is a " court 
 for owls," and scarcely are they ever frayed from their 
 " lonely habitation," by the tread of a solitary travel- 
 ler from a far distant land, among deserted dwellings 
 and desolated ruins. 
 
 Hidden as the history and state of Edom has been 
 for ages, every recent disclosure, being an echo of the 
 prophecies, amply corroborates the truth, that the w-ord 
 of the Lord does not return unto him void, but ever 
 fulfils the purpose for which he hath sent it. But the 
 ■whole of its work is not yet wrought in Edom, which 
 has farther testimony in store : and while the evidence 
 is not yet complete, so neither is the time of the final 
 judgments on the land yet fully come. Judea, Amnion, 
 and JNIoab, according to the word of prophecy, shall 
 revive from their desolation, and the wild animals who 
 have conjoined their depredations with those of barbar- 
 ous men, in perpetuating the desolation of these coun- 
 tries, shall find a refuge and undisturbed possession in 
 Edom, when, the year of recompenses for the contro- 
 versy of Zion being past, it shall be divided unto them 
 by line, when they shall possess it for ever, and from 
 generation to generation shall dwell therein. But 
 without looking into futurity, a retrospect may here 
 warrant, before leaving the subject, a concluding 
 clause. 
 
 That man is a bold believer, and must with what- 
 ever reluctance forego the name of sceptic, who pos- 
 sesses such redundant credulity as to think, that all 
 the predictions respecting Edom, and all others re- 
 corded in Scripture, and realized by facts, were the
 
 212 IDUMEA. 
 
 mere hap-hazard results of fortuitous conjectures. 
 And he v,ho thus, without reflecting how incongruous 
 it is to " strain at a gnat and swallow a camel," can 
 deliberately, and with an unruffled mind, place such 
 an opinion among the articles of his faith, may indeed 
 be pitied by those who know in whom they have be- 
 lieved, but, if he forfeit not thereby all right of ever 
 appealing to reason, must at least renounce all title 
 to stigmatize, in others, even the most preposterous 
 belief. Or if such, after all, must needs be his phi- 
 losophical creed, and his rational conviction ! v/hat 
 can hinder him from believing also that other chance 
 words — such as truly marked the fate of Kdom, but 
 more numerous and clear, and which, were he to 
 " seek out and read," he would find in the self-same 
 " book of the Lord," — may also prove equally true 
 to the spirit, if not to the letter, against all the ene- 
 mies of the gospel, whether hypocrites or unbelievers .'' 
 May not his belief in the latter instance be strength- 
 ened by the experience that many averments of Scrip- 
 ture, in respect to times then future, and to facts 
 then unknown, have already proved true ? And may 
 he not here find some analogy, at least, on which to 
 rest his faith, whereas the conviction, which, in the 
 former case, he so readily cherishes, is totally destitute 
 of any semblance whatever to warrant the possibility 
 of its truth ? Or is this indeed the sum of his boast- 
 ed wisdom, to hold to the conviction of the fallacy of 
 all the coming judgments denounced in Scripture till 
 " experience," personal though it should be, prove 
 them to be as true as the past, and a compulsory and 
 unchangeable but unredeeming faith be grafted on 
 despair ? Or if less proof can possibly suffice, let him 
 timely read and examine, and disprove also, all the 
 credentials of revelation, before he account the be- 
 liever credulous, or the unbeliever wise ; or else let 
 him abandon the thought that the unrepentant ini-
 
 IDUiMEA. 213 
 
 quity and wilful perversity of man, and an evil heart 
 of unbelief (all proof derided, all offered mercy reject- 
 ed, all meetness for an inheritance among them that 
 are sanctified unattained, and all warning lost,) shall 
 not finally forbid that Edom stand alone — the seared 
 and blasted monument of the judgments of heaven. 
 
 A word may here be spoken even to the wise. 
 Were any of the sons of men to be uninstructed 
 in the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of 
 wisdom, and in the knowledge of his word, which 
 maketh wise unto salvation, and to be thus ignorant 
 of the truths and precepts of the gospel, which 
 should all tell upon every deed done in the body ; 
 what in such a case — if all their superior knowledge 
 were unaccompanied by religious principles — would 
 all mechanical and physical science eventually prove 
 but the same, in kind, as the wisdom of the wise men 
 of Edom ? And were they to perfect in astronomy, 
 navigation and mechanics, what, according to Sir 
 Isaac Newton, the Edomites began, what would the 
 moulding of matter to their will avail them, as mo- 
 ral and accountable beings, if their own hearts were 
 not conformed to the divine will ; and what would all 
 their labour be at last, but strength spent for nought .'* 
 For were they to raise column above column, and 
 again to hew a city out of the cliffs of the rock, let 
 but such another word of that God, whom they seek 
 not to know, go forth against it, and all their mechani- 
 cal ingenuity and labour would just end in forming — 
 that which Petra is, and which Rome itself is destin- 
 ed to be — " a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."" 
 The experiment has already been made ; it may well 
 and wisely be trusted to, as much as those which mor- 
 tals make ; and it is set before us that, instead of pro- 
 voking the Lord to far worse than its repetition in 
 personal judgments against ourselves, we may be 
 warned by the spirit of prophecy, which is the testi-
 
 2U PHILISTIA. 
 
 monv of Jesus, to hear and obey the \roids of Hiili — 
 " even of Jesus, \vho delivereth from the wrath to 
 come/"' For how much greater than any degradation 
 to which hewn but unfeeling rocks can be reduced, is 
 that of a soul, which while in the body might have 
 been formed anew after the image of an all-holy God, 
 and made meet for beholding his face in glory, — 
 passing from spiritual darkness into a spiritual state 
 where all knowledge of earthly things shall cease to 
 be power, — where all the riches of this world shall 
 cease to be gain — where the want of religious princi- 
 ples and of Christian virtues shall leave the soul na- 
 ked, as the bare and empty dwellings in the clefts of 
 the rocks, — where the thoughts of worldly wisdom, to 
 which it was inured before, shall haunt it still, and be 
 more unworthy and hateful occupants of the immortal 
 spirit than are the owls amid the palaces of Edom — 
 and where all those sinful passions, which rested ou 
 the things which were seen, shall be like unto the 
 scorpions which hold Edom as their heritage for ever, 
 and which none can now scare away from among the 
 wild vines that are there entwined around the broken 
 altars, where false gods were worshipped. 
 
 PHILISTIA. 
 
 The land of the Philistines bordered on the west 
 and south-west of Judea, and lies on the south-east 
 point of the INIediterranean sea. The country to the 
 north of Gaza is very fertile, and long after the Chris- 
 tian era, it possessed a very numerous population, 
 and strongly fortified cities. No human probability 
 could possibly have existed, in the time of the pro- 
 phets, or at a much more recent date, of its eventual 
 desolation. But it has belied, for many ages, everl- 
 promise which the fertility of its soil, and the excey
 
 PHILISTIA. 215 
 
 lence both of its climate and situation, gave for many 
 preceding centuries, of its permanency as a rich and 
 well cultivated region. And the voice of prophecy, 
 which was not silent respecting it, proclaimed the fate 
 that awaited it, in terms as contradictory, at the time, 
 to every natural suggestion, as they are descriptive of 
 what Philistia now actually is. 
 
 " I will stretch out my hand upon the Philistines 
 and destroy the remnant of the sea-coasts.""* " Bald- 
 ness is come upon Gaza ; Ashkelon is cut off with the 
 remnant of their valley .""-f* " Thus saith the Lord, 
 for three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will 
 not turn away the punishment thereof. I will send a 
 fire upon the wall of Gaza which shall devour the 
 palaces thereof. And I will cut ofi the inhabitant 
 from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from 
 Ashkelon ; and I will turn ray hand against Ekron ; 
 and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith 
 the Lord God.";]: " For Ashkelon shall be a desola- 
 tion ; it shall be cut oft with the remnant of the val- 
 ley ; and Ekron shall be rooted up — O Canaan, the 
 land of the Philistines, I will even destroy you, that 
 there shall be no inhabitant ; and the sea-coast shall 
 be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for 
 flocks. "■''§ " The king shall peri^h from Gaza, and 
 Ashkelon shall not be inhabited."" || 
 
 The land of the Philistines was to he destroyed. It 
 partakes of the general desolation common to it wnth 
 Judea and other neighbouring states. While ruins 
 are to be found in all Syria, they are particularly 
 abundant along the sea-coast, which formed, on the 
 south, the realm of the Philistines. But its aspect 
 presents some existing peculiarities, which travellers 
 
 * Ezekiel xxv. 16. f Jeremiah xlvii. 5. 
 
 i Amos i. G, 7, 8. § Zephauiah ii. 4, 5, 6. 
 
 II Zechariah ix. o.
 
 216 PHILISTIA. 
 
 fail not to particularize, and which, in reference, both 
 to the state of the country, and the fate of its different 
 cities, the prophets failed not to discriminate as justly, 
 as if their description had been drawn both with all 
 the accuracy which ocular observation, and all the 
 certainty which authenticated history could give. 
 And the authority, so often quoted, may here again 
 be appealed to. Volney, (though, like one who in 
 ancient times was instrumental to the fulfilment of a 
 special prediction, " he meant not so, neither did his 
 heart think so,^') from the manner in which he gene- 
 ralizes his observations, and marks the peculiar fea- 
 tures of the different districts of Syria, with greater 
 acuteness and perspicuity than any other traveller 
 "wiiatever, is the ever ready purveyor of evidence in all 
 the cases which came within the range of his topogra- 
 phical description of the wide field of prophecy — 
 while, at the same time, from his known, open, and 
 zealous hostility to the Christian cause, his testimony 
 is alike decisive and unquestionable ; and the vindi- 
 cation of the truth of the following predictions may 
 safely be committed to this redoubted champion of 
 infidelity. 
 
 The sea-coasts shall be dwellings and cottages for 
 shepherds, and folds for jlocks. The remnant of the 
 Philistines shall perish. Baldness is come upon Gaza ; 
 it shall be forsaken. The king shall perish from Gaza. 
 I will cut off the inhabitants foom Ashdod. Ashkelon 
 shall be a desolation, it shall be cut off' with the remnant 
 of the valley ; it shall not be inhabited. " In the 
 plain between Ramla and Gaza," (the very plain of the 
 Philistines along the sea-coast) " we met with a 
 number of villages badly built of dried mud, and 
 which, like the inhabitants, exhibit every mark of 
 }X)verty and wretchedness. The houses, on a nearer 
 view, are only so many huts (cottages), sometimes 
 detached, at others ranged in the form of cells, around
 
 PHILISTIA, &c. 217 
 
 a court-yard, enclosed by a mud wall. In winter, 
 they and their cattle may be said to live together, the 
 part of the dwelling allotted to themselves being only 
 raised two feet above that in which they lodge their 
 beasts — (dwellings and cottages for shejjherds, and 
 folds for flocks.) Except the environs of these vil- 
 lages all the rest of the country is a desert, and aban- 
 doned to the Bedouin Arabs, who feed their flocks 
 on it.* The remnaiit shall perish: the land of the 
 Philistines shall be destroyed that there shall be no 
 inhabitant, and the sea-coasts shall be dwellings, and 
 cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. 
 
 " The ruins of white marble sometimes found at 
 Gaza, prove that it v/as formerly the abode of luxury 
 and opulence. It has shared in the general destruc- 
 tion ; and, notwithstanding its proud title of the ca- 
 pital of Palestine, it is now no more than a defence- 
 less village,''' (baldness has come upon it) " peopled 
 by, at most, only two thousand inhabitants."''*!* It is 
 forsaken and bereaved of its king. " The sea-coast, 
 by which it was formerly washed, is every day re- 
 moving farther from the deserted ruins of Ashkelon.*"j' 
 It shall be a desolation. Ashkdon shall not be inha- 
 bited. " Amidst the various successive ruins, those 
 of Edzoud, (Ashdod) so pov/erful under the Philis- 
 tines, are now remarkable for their scorpions."" The 
 inhabitants shall be cut off from Ashdod. 
 
 Although the Christian traveller must yield the 
 palm to Volney,§ as the topographer of Prophecy, 
 
 * Vohiey's Travels, vol. ii. pp. .335, 336. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 340. ;•: Ibid. 33S. 
 
 § Had Voluey been a believer ; bad be "souoht out of tbe 
 book of tbe Lord and read ;" and bad be applied all tlio facts 
 wbicb he knew in iUiistration of the prophecies, bow com- 
 pletely would be have proved their inspiration ! But it is 
 well for the cause of truth th.at such a witness was himself 
 an unbeliever J for his evidence, in many an instance, comes 
 L
 
 218 PHILISTIA, &c. 
 
 and although supplementary evidence be not requisite, 
 yet a place is here willingly given to the following 
 just observations. 
 
 " Ashkelon was one of the proudest satrapies of 
 the lords of the Philistines ; now there is not an in- 
 habitant within its walls ; and the prophecy of Ze- 
 chariah is fulfilled. The king shall perish from 
 Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. When 
 the prophecy was uttered, both cities were in an 
 equally flourishing condition ; and nothing but the 
 prescience of heaven could pronounce on which of the 
 two, and in what manner the vial of its wrath should 
 be poured out. Gaza is truly without a king. The 
 lofty towers of Ashkelon lie scattered on the ground, 
 and the ruins within its walls do not shelter a human 
 being. How is the wrath of man made to praise his 
 Creator ! Hath he not said, and shall he not do it ? 
 The oracle was delivered by the mouth of the pro- 
 phet more than five hundred years before the Chris- 
 tian era, and we beheld its accomplishment eighteen 
 hundred years after that event."* 
 
 Cogent and just as the reasoning is, the facts stated 
 by Volney give wider scope for an irresistible argu- 
 ment. The fate of one city is not only distinguished 
 from that of another ; but the varied aspect of the 
 country itself, the dwellings and cottages for shepherds 
 in one part, and that very region nained, the rest of 
 the land destroyed and uninhabited, a desert, and 
 
 so very close to the pi'edictions, that his testimony in the 
 relation of positive facts, would have been utterly discredited, 
 and held as purposely adapted to the very words of prophecy, 
 by those who otherwise lent a greedy ear to his utterance 
 of some of the wildest fancies and most gross untruths that 
 ever emanated from the mind of man, or ever entered into a 
 deceitful heart. He who so artfully could pervert the truth, 
 falls the victim of facts stated by himself. 
 * Kichardsou's Travels, vol. ii. p. 204.
 
 PHILISTIA, &c. 219 
 
 abandoned to the flocks of the wandering Arabs ; Gaza, 
 bereaved of a king, a defenceless village, destitute of all 
 its fortifications ; Ashkelon, a desolation, and without 
 aninhabitant; the inhabitants also cut off from Ashdod, 
 as reptiles tenanted it instead of men — form in each 
 instance a specific prediction, and a recorded fact, and 
 present such a view of the existing state of Philistia, 
 as renders it difficult to determine, from the strictest 
 accordance that prevails between both, whether the 
 inspired penman or the defamer of Scripture give the 
 more vivid description. Nor is there any obscurity- 
 whatever, in any one of the circumstances, or in any 
 part of the proof. The coincidence is too glaring, 
 even for wilful blindness not to discern ; and to all, 
 the least versed in general history, the priority of the 
 predictions to the events is equally obvious. And 
 such was the natural fertility of the country, and such 
 was the strength and celebrity of the cities, that no 
 conjecture possessing the least shadow of plausibility 
 can be formed in what manner any of these events 
 could possibly have been thought of, even for many 
 centuries after " the vision and prophecy " were seal- 
 ed. After that period, Gaza defied the power of 
 Alexander the Great, and withstood for two months a 
 hard-pressed siege. The army, with which he soon 
 afterwards overthrew the Persian empire, having there, 
 as well as at Tyre, been checked or delayed in the 
 first flush of conquest, and he himself having been 
 twice wounded in desperate attempts to storm the city, 
 the proud and enraged king of Macedon, with all the 
 cruelty of a brutish heart, and boasting of himself as 
 a second Achilles, dragged at his chariot-wheels the 
 intrepid general, who had defended it', twice around 
 the walls of Gaza.* Ashkelon was no less celebrated 
 for the excellence of its wines, than for the strength 
 of its fortifications.f And of Ashdod, it is related 
 
 • Quiuti Curtii, lib. iv. cap. 26. f Relandi Palest. .Sll, 586.
 
 220 PHILISTIA, &c. 
 
 by an eminent ancient historian, not only that it was 
 a great city, but that it withstood the longest siege 
 recorded in history, (it may almost be said, either of 
 prior, or of later date.) having been besieged for the 
 space of twenty-nine years by Psymatticus, king of 
 Egypt.* Strabo, after the commencement of the 
 Christian era, classes its citizens among the chief in- 
 habitants of Syria. Each of these cities, Gaza, Ash- 
 kelon, and Ashdod, was the see of a bishop from the 
 days of Constantino to the invasion of the Saracens. 
 And, as a decisive proof of their existence as cities 
 long subsequent to the delivery of the predictions, it 
 may further be remarked, that different coins of each 
 of these very cities are extant, and are copied and de- 
 scribed in several accounts of ancient coins. -j* The 
 once princely magnificence of Gaza is still attested 
 by the " ruins of white marble ;" and the house of 
 the present Aga is composed of fragments of ancient 
 columns, cornices, Sec ; and in the court-yard, and 
 immured in the vrall, are shafts and capitals of granite 
 columns. I 
 
 In short, cottages for shephei'ds, and folds for Jlocks, 
 partially scattered along the sea-coasts, are now truly 
 the best substitutes for populous cities, that the once 
 powerful realm of Philistia can produce ; and the rem- 
 nant of that land, which gave titles and grandeur to 
 the lords of the Philistines, is destroyed. Gaza, the 
 chief of its satrapies, " the abode of luxury and opu- 
 lence," now bereaved of its king and bald of all its for- 
 tifications, is the defenceless residence of a subsidiary 
 ruler of a devastated province ; and, in kindred degra- 
 dation, ornaments of its once splendid edifices are now 
 bedded in a wall that forms an enclosure for beasts. 
 
 • Herodot. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 157. 
 f Relandi Palest, pp. 393, 609, 797. 
 ± General Stratou's MS.
 
 PHILISTIA, &c. 221 
 
 A handful of men could now take unobstructed 
 possession of that place, where a strong city opposed 
 the entrance, and defied, for a time, the power of the 
 conqueror of the world. The walls, the dwellings, 
 and the people of Ashkelon have all perished ; and 
 though its name was, in the time of the crusades, 
 shouted in triumph throughout every land in Europe, 
 it is now literally without an inhabitant. And Ash- 
 dod, which withstood a siege treble the duration of 
 that of Troy, and thus outrivalled far the boast of 
 Alexander at Gaza, has, in verification of " the word 
 of God, which is sharper than any two-edged sword," 
 been cut off, and has fallen before it to nothing. 
 
 There is yet another city which was noted by the 
 prophets, the very want of any information respecting 
 which, and the absence of its name from several mo- 
 dern maps of Palestine, while the sites of other ruined 
 cities are marked, are really the best confirmation of 
 the truth of the prophecy that could possibly be given. 
 Ekron shall be rooted up. It is rooted up. It was 
 one of the chief cities of the Philistines ; but though 
 Gaza still subsists, and while Ashkelon and Ashdod 
 retain their names in their ruins, the very name of 
 Ekron is missing.* 
 
 The wonderful contrast in each particular, whether 
 in respect to the land, or to the cities of the Philis- 
 tines, is the exact counterpart of the literal predic- 
 
 * In the map prefixed to Dr. Shaw's Travels, Akron is in- 
 deed marked ; but it is placed close upon the sea-coast, 
 whereas Ekron was situated in the interior, and was at least 
 ten miles distant. Shaw did not visit the spot. Dr. Richard- 
 son passed some ruins near to Ashdod, and conjectures that 
 they were probabli/ Ekron. But neither does the site of 
 them correspond with that of Ekron, which, according to 
 Eusehius, lay between Ashdod and Jamnia, towards the east 
 or inland. Vide Relan. Pal. 77. Any diversity of opinion 
 respecting its site is not the least conclusive proof that it is 
 rooted up.
 
 222 PHILISTIA, &c. 
 
 tion ; and, having the testimony of Vohiey to all the 
 facts, and also indisputable evidence of the great pri- 
 ority of the predictions to the events, what more com- 
 plete or clearer proof could there be, that each and 
 all of them emanated from the prescience of heaven ? 
 
 The remaining boundary of Judea was the momi- 
 taius of Lebanon on the north. Lebanon was celebrat- 
 ed for the extent of its forests, and particularly for the 
 size and excellency of its cedars.* It abounded also 
 with the pine, the cypress and the vine, &c. But, de- 
 scribing what it now is, Volney says, " Towards Le- 
 banon the mountains are lofty, but they are covered 
 in many places with as much earth as fits them for 
 cultivation by industry and labour. There, amid the 
 crags of the rocks, may be seen the no very magnifi- 
 cent remains of the boasted cedars."*!* The words of 
 the prophets of Israel answer the sarcasm, and con- 
 
 * Relaiuli Palest, pp. 320, 379. Tacit. Hist. lib. v. cap. vi. 
 
 f Travels, vol. i. p. 292. — Volney remarks, in a note, that 
 there are but four or five of those trees which deserve any 
 notice ; and in a note, it may be added, from the words of 
 Isaiah, — the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that 
 a child may ivrite them, c. x. 19. Could not the infidel 
 write a brief note, or state a minute fact, without illustrating 
 a prophecy ? Maundrell, who visited Lebanon in the end 
 of the seventeenth centurj^ and to whose accuracy in other 
 matters all subsequent travellers who refer to him bear wit- 
 ness, describes some of the cedars near the top of tlie moun- 
 tain as " very old, and of a prodigious bulk, and othei s 
 younger of a smaller size." Of the former he could reckon 
 only up sixteen. He measured the largest, and found it 
 above twelve yards in girth. Such trees, however few in 
 number, show that the cedars of Lebanon had once been no 
 vain boast. But after the lapse of more than a century, not 
 a single tree of such dimensions is now to be seen. Of those 
 which now remain, as visited by Captains Irbyand Mangles, 
 there are about fifty in whole on a single small eminence, 
 from ^^•llich spot the cedars are the only trees to be seen ia 
 Lebanon. P. 209.
 
 PHILTSTIA, &c. 223 
 
 vert it into a testimony of the truth : — " Lebanon is 
 ashamed and hewn down. The high ones of stature 
 shall be hewn down : Lebanon shall fall mightily.""* 
 " Upon the mountains, and in all the vallies, his 
 branches arc fallen ; to the end that none of all the 
 trees by the water exalt themselves for their height, 
 neither shoot vip their top among the thick boughs. ""■[• 
 " Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may de- 
 vour thy cedars. The cedar is fallen ; the forest of 
 the vintage is come down.""! 
 
 Such are the prophecies which explicitly and avow- 
 edly referred to the land of Judea, and to the sur- 
 rounding states. And such are the facts drawn from 
 the narratives of travellers, and given, in general, in 
 their own words, which substantiate their truth ; 
 though without any allusion, but in a few solitaiy 
 instances, to the predictions which they amply verify. 
 The most unsuspected evidence has been selected ; 
 and the far greater part is so fully corroborated, and 
 illustrated by other testimony, as to bid defiance to 
 scepticism. The prophecies and the proofs of their 
 fulfilment, are so nuncierous, that it is impossible to 
 concentrate them in a single view, without the ex- 
 clusion of many ; and they are, upon a simple com- 
 parison, so obvious and striking, that any attempt at 
 their farther elucidation must hazard the obscuring of 
 their clearness, and the enfeebling of their force. 
 There is no ambiguity in the prophecies themselves, 
 for they can bear no other interpretation but what is 
 descriptive of the actual events. There can be no 
 question of their genuineness or antiquity, for the 
 countries whose future history they unveiled contain- 
 ed several millions of inhabitants, and numerous 
 
 * Isa. xxxiii. 9 ; x. 43, 34;. t Ezek. xxxi. 12, li. 
 
 % Zech. xi. 1, 2.
 
 224 SUMMARY OF THE PROPHECIES 
 
 flourishing citie?, at a period centuries subsequent to 
 the tlelivery, the translation, and publication of the 
 prophecies, and when the regular and public perusal 
 of their Scriptures was the law and the practice of the 
 Israelites ; and they have only gradually been reduced 
 to their existing state of long-prophesied desolation. 
 There could not possibly have been any human means 
 of the foresight of facts, so many and so marvellous ; 
 for every natural appearance contradicted, and every 
 historical fact condemned the supposition ; and no- 
 thing but continued oppression and a succession of 
 worse than Gothic desolators, — no government on 
 earth but the Turkish, — no spoliators but the Arabs, 
 — could have converted such natural fertility into 
 such utter and permanent desolation. Could it have 
 been foreseen, that after the lapse of some hundred 
 years, no interval of prosperity or peaceful security 
 would occur throughout many ensuing generations, 
 to revive its deadened energies, or to rescue from un- 
 interrupted desolation one of the richest, and one of the 
 most salubrious regions of the world, which the great- 
 er part of these territories naturally is ? Could the 
 present aspect of any country, with every alterable 
 feature changed, and with every altered feature mark- 
 ed, have been delineated by different uninspired mor- 
 tals, in various r.ges from 2200 to 3300 years past ? 
 And there could not, so far as all researches have 
 hitherto reached, be a more triumphant demonstra- 
 tion, from existing facts, of the truth of manifold pro- 
 phecies. In reference to the complete historical truth 
 of the predictions respecting the successive kings of 
 Syria and Egypt, Bishop Newton emphatically re- 
 marks, (as Sir Isaac Newton''s observations had pre- 
 viously proved) that there is not so concise and com- 
 prehensive an account of their affairs to be found in 
 any author of these times ; that the prophecy is really 
 more perfect ..ban any single history, and that no one
 
 CONCERNING JUDEA, &c. 225 
 
 historian hath related so many circumstances as the 
 prophet has foretold : so that " it was necessary to 
 have recourse to several authors for the better explain- 
 ing and illustrating the great variety of particulars 
 contained in the prophecy." The same remark, in 
 the same words, may, more obviously and with equal 
 truth, be now applied to the geographical, as well as 
 to the historical proof of the truth of prophecy. Judea, 
 which, before the age of the prophets, had, from the 
 uniformity and peculiarity of its government and laws, 
 remained unvaried in a manner, and to a degree un- 
 usual among nations, has since undergone many con- 
 vulsions, and has for many generations been unceas- 
 ingly subjected to reiterated spoliation. And now, 
 after the lapse of more than twenty centuries, travel- 
 lers see what prophets foretold. Each prediction is 
 fulfilled in all its particulars, so far as the facts have 
 (and in almost every case they have) been made 
 known. But while the recent discoveries of many 
 travellers have disclosed the state of these countries, 
 each of their accounts presents only an imperfect de- 
 lineation ; and a variety of these must be combined 
 before they bring fully into view all those diversified, 
 discriminating, and characteristic features of the ex- 
 tensive scene, which were vividly depicted of old, in 
 all their minute lines, and varied shades, by the pen- 
 cil of prophecy, and which set before us, as it were, 
 the history, the land, and the people of Palestine. 
 
 Judea trodden down by successive desolators, — re- 
 maining uncultivated from generation to generation — 
 the general devastation of the country, — the mould- 
 ering ruins of its many cities, — the cheerless solitude 
 of its once happy plains, — ^the wild produce of its 
 luxuriant mountains, — the land covered with thorns, 
 — the highways waste and untrodden, — its ancient 
 possessors scattered abroad, — the inhabitants thereof 
 depraved in character, few in number, eating their
 
 226 SUMMARY OF THE PROPHECIES 
 
 bread with carefulness, or in constant dread of the 
 spoiler or oppressor, — the insecurity of property, — 
 the viselessness of labour, — the poverty of their reve- 
 nues, — the land emptied and despoiled, — instrumental 
 music ceased from among them, — the mirth of the 
 land gone, — the use of wine prohibited in a land of 
 vines, — and the wine itself bitter unto them that drink 
 it ; — some very partial exceptions from universal de- 
 solation, some rescued remnants, like the gleanings 
 of a field, and emblems of the departed glory of Ju- 
 dea, the devastation of the land of Ammon, the ex- 
 tinction of the Ammonites — the destruction of all 
 their cities — their country a spoil to the heathen, 
 — and a perpetual desolation ; — the desolation of 
 Moab, its cities without any to dwell therein, and 
 no city escaped, — the valley perished, the plain de- 
 stroyed, — the wanderers that have come vip against 
 it, and that cause its inhabitants to wander, — the 
 manner of the spoliation of the dwellers in Moab, 
 their danger and insecurity in the plain country, and 
 flying to the rocks for a refuge and a home — while 
 flocks lie down among the ruins of the cities — 
 none there to make them afraid — and the despoiled 
 and impoverished condition of some of its wretch- 
 ed wanderers : Idumea untrodden and unvisited by 
 travellers, — the scene of an unparalleled and irre- 
 coverable desolation, — its cities utterly abandoned 
 and destroyed, — of the greater part of them no trace 
 left, — a desolate wilderness, over which the line of 
 confusion is stretched out, — the country bare, — no 
 kingdom there, — its princes and nobles nothing, and 
 empty sepulchres their only memorials, — thistles and 
 thorns in its palaces, — a border of wickedness — and 
 yet greatly despised, — wisdom perished from Teman, 
 and understanding out of the mount of EsaU) — aban- 
 doned to birds and beasts and reptiles, specified by 
 jiarne, — its ancient possessors cut off for ever — ancl
 
 CONCERNING JtJDEA, kc. 227 
 
 no one remaining of the house of Esau ; — the de- 
 struction of the cities of the Phihstines — cottages for 
 shepherds and folds for flocks, along the sea-coasts, — 
 the remnant of the plain destroyed and unoccupied 
 by any fixed inhabitant : Lebanon ashamed, — its 
 cedars, few and diminutive, now a mockery instead 
 of a praise ; and finally, the different fate of many 
 cities particularly defined, — the long subjectioii of 
 Jerusalem to the Gentiles, — the buildings of Samaria 
 cast down into the valley, its foundations discovered, 
 and vineyards in its stead, all so clearly marked both 
 in the prophecy and on the spot, that they serve to 
 fix its site, — Rabbah-Ammon, the capital of the 
 Ammonites, now a pasture for camels, and a couch- 
 ing-place for flocks, — the chief city of Edom brought 
 down, — a court for owls, — and no man dwelling in 
 it, — the forsaken Gaza, bereaved of a monarch, bald 
 of all its fortifications, or defenceless — Ashkelon, 
 desolate, without an inhabitant, — and Ekron rooted 
 up : These are all ancient prophecies, and these are 
 all present facts, which form of themselves a phalanx 
 of evidence which all the shafts of infidelity can never 
 pierce. 
 
 Though the countries included in these predictions 
 comprehend a field of prophecy extending over up- 
 wards of one hundred and twenty thousand square 
 miles, the existing state of every part of which bears 
 witness of their truth ; yet the prophets, as inspired 
 by the God of nations, foretold the fate of mightier 
 monarchies, of more extensive regions, and of more 
 powerful cities : and there is not a people, nor a coun- 
 try, nor a capital, which was then known to the Is- 
 raelites, whose future history they did not clearly re- 
 veal. And, instead of adducing; arjiuments from the 
 preceding very abundant materials, or drawing those 
 facts already adduced, to their legitimate conclusion., 
 they may be left in their native strength, like the
 
 228 NINEVEH. 
 
 unhewn adamant ; and we may pass to other proofs 
 wliich also show that the temple of Christian faith 
 rests upon a rock that cannot be shaken. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 NINEVEH. 
 
 To a brief record of the creation, of the antediluvian 
 world, and of the dispersion and the different settle- 
 ments of mankind after the deluge, the Scriptures of 
 the Old Testament add a full and particular history 
 of the Hebrews for the space of fifteen hundred years, 
 from the days of Abraham to the era of the last of 
 the prophets. While the historical part of Scripture 
 thus traces, from its origin, the history of the world, 
 the prophecies give a prospective view which reaches 
 to its end. And it is remarkable that profane his- 
 tory, emerging from fable, becomes clear and authen- 
 tic about the very period when sacred history termi- 
 nates, and when the fulfilment of these prophecies 
 commences, which refer to other nations besides the 
 Jews. 
 
 Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was for a long 
 time an extensive and populous city. Its walls are 
 said, by heathen historians, to have been a hundred 
 feet in height, sixty miles in compass, and to have 
 been defended by fifteen hundred towers, each two 
 hundred feet high. Although it formed the subject 
 of some of the earliest of the prophecies, and was the 
 very first which met its predicted fate ; yet a heathen
 
 NINEVEH. 229 
 
 historian, in describing its capture and destruction, 
 repeatedly refers to an ancient prediction respecting 
 it. Diodorus Siculus relates, that the king of Assy- 
 ria, after the coinplete discomfiture of his army, con- 
 fided in an old prophecy, that Nineveh would not be 
 taken, vuiless the river should become the enemy of 
 the city ;* that after an ineffectual siege of two 
 years, the river, swollen with long-continued and 
 tempestuous torrents, inundated part of the city, and 
 threw down the wall for the space of twenty furlongs ; 
 and that the king, deeming the prediction accom- 
 plished, despaired of his safety, and erected an im- 
 mense funeral pile, on which he heaped his wealth, 
 and with which himself, his household and palace, 
 were consumed .•!• The Book of Nahum was avow- 
 edly prophetic of the destruction of Nineveh : and it 
 is therelbre told " that the gates of the river shall be 
 opened, and the palace shall be dissolved." " Nine- 
 veh of old, like a pool of water — with an overflowing 
 flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof. ""j 
 The historian describes the facts by which the other 
 predictions of the prophet were as literally fulfilled. 
 He relates that the king of Assyria, elated with his 
 former victories, and ignorant of the revolt of the 
 Bactrians, had abandoned himself to scandalous inac- 
 tion ; had appointed a time of festivity, and sup- 
 plied his soldiers with abundance of wine ; and that 
 the general of the enemy, apprised, by deserters, of 
 their negligence and drunkenness, attacked the As- 
 syrian army while the whole of them were fearlessly 
 giving way to indulgence, destroyed great part of 
 them, and drove the rest into the city.§ The words 
 of the prophet were hereby verified : " While they 
 
 * Diod. Sic. lib. ii. pp. 82, 83. Ed. Wessel. 1793. 
 t lb. p. Si. X ^aliiira, ii. 6 ; l8. 
 
 § Diod. Sic. lib. ii. pp. 81, 84.
 
 230 NINEVEH. 
 
 be folden together as thorns, and while they are 
 drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as 
 stubble fvill dry."* — The prophet promised much 
 spoil to the enemy : " Take the spoil of silver, take 
 the spoil of gold ; for there is no end of the store and 
 glory out of all the pleasant furniture."*|- And the 
 historian affirms, that many talents of gold and silver, 
 preserved from the fire, were carried to Ecbatana.;|: 
 According to Nahum, the city was not only to be de- 
 stroyed by an overflowing flood, but the fire also was 
 to devour it ;§ and, as Diodorus relates, partly by 
 water, partly by fire, it was destroyed. 
 
 The utter and perpetual destruction and desolation 
 of Nineveh were foretold : " The Lord will make an 
 utter end of the place thereof. Affliction shall not 
 rise up the second time. She is empty, void and 
 waste. — The Lord will stretch out his hand against 
 the north, and destroy Assyria, and will make Nine- 
 veh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. How is 
 she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down 
 in. "11 In the second century, Lucian, a native of a 
 city on the banks of the Euphrates, testified that 
 Nineveh was utterly perished — that there was no 
 vestige of it remaining — and that none could tell 
 where once it was situated. This testimony of Lucian, 
 and the lapse of many ages during which the place 
 was not known where it stood, render it at least some- 
 what doubtful whether the remains of an ancient city, 
 opposite to Mosul, which have been described as such 
 by travellers, be indeed those of ancient Nineveh. 
 It is perhaps probable, that they are the remains of 
 the city which succeeded Nineveh, or of a Persian 
 city of the same name, which was built on the banks 
 
 * Nahum, i. 10; iii. 2. t Nahum, ii. 9. 
 
 X Diod. p. 87. § Nahum, iii. 15. 
 
 II Nahum, i. 8, 9 ; ii. 10 ; iii. 17, 18, 19. Zeph.ii. 13, 14,, 
 15.
 
 NINEVEH. 231 
 
 of the Tigris by the Persians, subsequently to the 
 year 230 of the Christian era, and demolished by 
 the Saracens, in G82.* In contrasting the then ex- 
 isting great and increasing population, and the ac- 
 cumulating wealth of the proud inhabitants of the 
 mighty Nineveh, with the utter ruin that awaited it, 
 — the word of God, (before whom all the inhabitants 
 of the earth are as grasshoppers,) by Nahum was — 
 " Make thyself many as the canker-worm, make thy- 
 self many as the locusts. Thou hast multiplied thy 
 merchants above the stars of heaven : The canker- 
 worm spoileth and flieth away. Thy crowned are as 
 the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers 
 which camp in the hedges in the cold day ; but when 
 the sun riseth, they flee away ; and their place is not 
 known where they are," or were. Whether these 
 words imply that even the site of Nineveh would in 
 future ages be uncertain or unknown, or as they ra- 
 ther seem to intimate, that every vestige of the pala- 
 ces of its monarchs, of the greatness of its nobles, and 
 of the wealth of its numerous merchants, would whol- 
 ly disappear ; the truth of the prediction cannot be 
 invalidated under either interpretation. The avowed 
 ignorance respecting Nineveh, and the oblivion which 
 passed over it, for many an age, conjoined with the 
 meagreness of evidence to identify it still, prove that 
 the place was long unknown where it stood, and that 
 even now, it can scarcely with certainty be determined. 
 And, if the only spot that bears its name, or that 
 can be said to be the place where it was, be indeed 
 the site of one of the most extensive of cities on which 
 the sun ever shone, and which continued for many 
 centuries to be the capital of Assyria — the " princi- 
 pal mounds," few in number, w4iich " show neither 
 bricks, stones, nor other materials of building, but are 
 
 * Marshami Can. Chron. sec. xvii, p. GOO, ed. Franeq 
 1696. 
 
 6
 
 232 BABYLON. 
 
 in many places overgrown with grass, and resemble 
 the mounds left by intrenchments and fortifications 
 of ancient Roman camps," and the appearances of 
 other mounds and ruins, less marked than even these, 
 extending for ten miles, and widely spread, and seem- 
 ing to be " the wreck of former buildings,"* show 
 that Nineveh is left without one monument of royalty, 
 without any token whatever of its splendour or 
 wealth ; that their place is not known where they 
 were ; and that it is indeed a desolation — " empty, 
 void, and waste," its very ruins perished, and less than 
 the wreck of what it was. " Such an utter riwi" in 
 every view, " has been made of it ; and such is the 
 truth of the divine predictions.""!* 
 
 BABYLON. 
 
 If ever there was a city that seemed to bid defiance 
 to any predictions of its fall, that city was Babylon. 
 It was for a long time the most famous city in the 
 whole world.j Its walls, which were reckoned among 
 the wonders of the world, appeared rather like the 
 bulwarks of nature than the workmanship of man.§ 
 
 * Bucking-ham's Travels in Mesopotamia, v. ii. pp. 49, 51,62. 
 
 •f See Bishop Newton's Dissertations. 
 
 X Plinii Hist. Nat. lib. v. cap. 20. 
 
 § The extent of the walls of Babjdon is variously stated 
 by Herodotus at 480 stadia, or furlongs, in circumference ; 
 by Pliny, and Solinius, at si-xty Roman miles, or of equal ex- 
 tent; by Strabo at 385 stadia; by Diodorus Siculus, accord- 
 ing- to the slightly different testimony of Ctesias and Clitar- 
 chus, both of whom visited Babylon, at 360 or 365 ; and to 
 the last of these statements that of Quintus Curtius nearly 
 corresponds, viz. 368. The difference of a few stadia rather 
 confirms than disproves the general accuracy of the three 
 last of these accounts. There may have been an error in 
 the text of Herodotus of 480, instead of 380, which Pliny 
 and Solinus may ha\e copied. The variation of 20 or 25 
 stadia, in excess, may have been caused by the line of mea-
 
 BABYLON. 233 
 
 The temple of Belus, half a mile in circumference 
 and a furlong in height — the hanging gardens, which, 
 piled in successive terraces, towered as high as the 
 walls — the emhankments which restrained the Eu- 
 phrates — the hundred brazen gates — and the adjoin- 
 ing artificial lake — all displayed many of the mighti- 
 est works of mortals concentrated in a single spot.* 
 Yet, while in the plenitude of its power, and accord- 
 ing to the most accurate chronologers, 160 years be- 
 fore the foot of an enemy had entered it, the voice of 
 prophecy pronounced the doom of the mighty and un- 
 conquered Babylon. A succession of ages brought 
 it gradually to the dust ; and the gradation of its fall 
 is marked till it sunk at last into utter desolation. 
 At a time when nothing but magnificence was around 
 Babylon the great, fallen Babylon was delineated 
 exactly as every traveller now describes its ruins. — 
 And the prophecies concerning it may be viewed con- 
 nectedly from the period of their earliest to that of 
 their latest fulfilment. 
 
 The immense fertility of Chaldea, which retained 
 also the name of Babylonia till after the Christian 
 era,*f* corresponded, if that of any country could vie, 
 with the greatness of Babylon. It was the most fertile 
 
 sureraent having- been the outside of the trench, and not im- 
 mediately of the wall. And thus the various statements may 
 be brought nearly to correspond. Major Rennel, estimating^ 
 the stadium at 491 feet, computes the extent of the wall at 
 34 miles, or eight and a half on each side. The opposite 
 and contradictory statements of the height and breadth of 
 the wall may possibly be best reconciled on the supposition 
 that they refer to different periods. Herodotus states the 
 height to have been 200 cubits, or 300 feet, and the breadth 
 50 cubits, or 75 feet. According to Curtius, the height was 
 150 feet, and the breadth 32; while Strabo states the height 
 at 75 feet, and tlie breadth at 32 feet. 
 
 * Herod, lib. i. c. 178. Diodor. Sic. lib. ii. p. 23G. Pliii. 
 lib. v. c. 26. Qiiinti Curt. lib. v. c. 4. 
 
 ■f Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 743.
 
 234 BABYLON. 
 
 region of the whole east.* Babylonia was one vast 
 plain, adorned and enriched by the Euphrates and 
 the Tigris, from which, and from the numerous 
 canals that intersected the country from the one river 
 to the other, water was distributed over the fields by 
 manual labour and by hydraulic machines, -f- giving 
 rise, in that warm climate and rich exhaustless soil, 
 to an exuberance of produce without a known parallel, 
 over so extensiv'e a region, either in ancient or modern 
 times. Herodotus states, that he knew not how to 
 speak of its wonderful fertility, which none but eye- 
 witnesses would credit ; and, though writing in the 
 language of Greece, itself a fertile country, he ex- 
 presses his own consciousness that his description of 
 what he actually saw would appear to be improbable, 
 and to exceed belief. In his estimation, as well as 
 in that of Strabo and of Pliny, (the three best ancient 
 authorities that can be given,) Babylonia was of all 
 countries the most fertile in corn, the soil never pro- 
 ducing less, as he relates, than two hundred fold, an 
 amount, in our colder regions, scarcely credible, though 
 Strabo, the first of ancient geographers, agrees with 
 the " father of history " in recording that it reached 
 even to three hundred, the grain, too, being of pro- 
 digious size.;|; After being subjected to Persia, the 
 government of Chaldea was accounted the noblest in 
 the Persian empire. § Besides supplying horses for 
 military service, it maintained about seventeen thou- 
 sand horses for the sovereign's use. And, exclusive 
 of monthly subsidies, the supply from Chaldea (in- 
 cluding perhaps Syria) for the subsistence of the king 
 and of his army, amounted to a third part of all that 
 was levied from the whole of the Persian dominions, 
 
 * AgTUni totius orieutis fertilissimum. Plin. Hist. Nat. 
 lib. V. c. 26. 
 
 t Herod, lib. i. c. 192. % Ibid. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 742. 
 
 § Herod, lib. i. c. 192.
 
 BABYLON. 235 
 
 which at that time extended from the Hellespont 
 to India.* Herodotus incidentally mentions that 
 there were four great towns in the vicinity of Ba- 
 bylon. 
 
 Such was the " Chaldee''s excellency,"'' that it de- 
 parted not on the first conquest, nor on the final ex- 
 tinction of its capital, but one metropolis of Assyria 
 arose after another in the land of Chaldea, when Ba- 
 bylon had ceased to be " the glory of kingdoms."''' — 
 The celebrated city of Seleucia, whose ruins attest its 
 former greatness, was founded and built by Seleucus 
 Nicator, king of Assyria, one of the successors of 
 Alexander the Great, in the year before Christ 293, 
 — three centviries after Jeremiah prophesied. In the 
 first century of the Christian era it contained six hun- 
 dred thousand inhabitants. -f- The Parthian kings 
 transferred the seat of empire to Ctesiphon, on the 
 opposite bank of the Tigris, where they resided in 
 winter ; and that city, formerly a village, became great 
 and powerful.:|: Six centuries after the latest of the 
 predictions, Chaldea could also boast of other great 
 cities, § such as Artemita and Sitacene, besides many 
 towns. When invaded by Julian, it was, as describ- 
 ed by Gibbon, a " fruitful and pleasant country." 
 And at a period equally distant from the time of the 
 prophets, and from the present day, in the seventh 
 century, Chaldea was the scene of vast inagnificence, 
 in the reign of Chosroes. " His favourite residence 
 of Artemita or Destagered, was situated beyond the 
 Tigris, about sixty miles to the north of the capital, 
 (Ctesiphon.) The adjacent pastures,"" in the words 
 of Gibbon, " were covered with flocks and herds ; the 
 paradise, or park, was replenished with pheasants, 
 peacocks, ostriches, roebucks, and wild boars, and the 
 
 * Herod, lib. i. c. 192. f Plin. lib. v. c. 26. 
 
 X Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 743. § Ibid. p. 7U,
 
 236 BABYLON. 
 
 noble game of lions and tigers was sometimes turned 
 loose for the golden pleasures of the chase. Nine 
 hundred and sixty elephants were maintained for the 
 use and splendour of the great king ; his tents and 
 baggage were carried into the field by twelve thousand 
 great camels, and eight thousand of a smaller size ; 
 and the royal stables were filled with six thousand 
 mules and horses. Six thousand guards successively 
 mounted before the palace gate, and the service of the 
 interior apartments was performed by twelve thou- 
 sand slaves. The various treasures of gold, silver, 
 gems, silk, and aromatics, were deposited in an hun- 
 dred subterranean vaults."* — " In the eighth century, 
 the towns of Samarah, Horounieh, and Djasserik, 
 formed, so to speak, one street of twenty-eight 
 miles."-}- Chaldea,witli its rich soil and warm climate, 
 and intersected by the Tigris and Euphrates, was one 
 of the last countries in the world, of which the de- 
 solation could have been thought of by man. For to 
 this day " there cannot be a doubt, that if proper 
 means were taken, the country would with ease be 
 brought into a high state of cultivation."" j 
 
 Manifold are the prophecies respecting Babylon 
 and the land of the Chaldeans ; and the long lapse 
 of ages has served to confirm their fulfilment in every 
 particular, and to render it at last complete. The 
 judgments of heaven are not casual, but sure ; they 
 are not arbitrary, but righteous. And they were de- 
 nounced against the Babylonians, and the inhabitants 
 
 * Gibbon's History, c. 46, v. iv. p. 4-23. 
 
 \ Malte-Brun's Geography, vol. ii.p. 119. Historical do- 
 cuments are not wanting- to prove that the richness of Chal- 
 dea down to the time of the Arabian califs, M'as such as to 
 give the charm of truth («hich, indeed, it is generally ad- 
 mitted that they possess) to many of the splendid descrip- 
 tions which abound in the otherwise fictitious narratives of 
 the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. 
 
 J Bombay Philosophical Transactions, vol. i. p. 124,
 
 BABYLON. 
 
 237 
 
 of Chalclea, expressly because of their idolatry, ty- 
 ranny, oppression, pride, covetousness, drunkenness, 
 falsehood, and other wickedness. So debasing and 
 brutifying was their idolatry, — or so much did they 
 render the name of religion subservient to their pas- 
 sions, — that practices the most abominable, which 
 were universal among them, formed the very observ- 
 ance of some of their religious rites, of which even 
 heathen writers could not speak but in terms of in- 
 dignation and abhorrence. Though enriched with a 
 prodigality of blessings, the glory of God was not re- 
 garded by the Chaldeans ; and all the glory of man, 
 with which the plain of Shinar was covered, has be- 
 come, in consequence as well as in chastisement of 
 prevailing vices, and of continued though diversified 
 crimes, the wreck, the ruin, and utter desolation 
 which the Avord of God (for whose word but his?) thus 
 told from the beginning that the event would be. 
 
 " The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of 
 Amos did see : The noise of a multitude in the moun- 
 tains, like as of a great people ; a tumultuous noise of 
 the kingdoms of nations gathered together ; the Lord 
 of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. They come 
 from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the 
 Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the 
 whole land. — Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, 
 cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land 
 desolate ; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out 
 of it. — Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of 
 the Chaldees'' excellency, shall be as when God over- 
 threw Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inha- 
 bited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to 
 generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; 
 neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But 
 wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; and their 
 houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls 
 shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And
 
 238 BABYLON. 
 
 the ■wild beasts of the island shall cry in their deso- 
 late houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces."* 
 " Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king 
 of Babylon, and say. How hath the oppressor ceased ! 
 the golden city ceased ! Thy pomp is brought down 
 to the grave, and the noise of thy viols : the worm is 
 spread vuider thee, and the worms cover thee. — Thou 
 shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. 
 Thou art cast out of the grave like an abominable 
 branch. — 1 will cut off from Babylon, the name and 
 remnant, the son and nephew, saith the Lord. I 
 will also make it a possession for the bittern and pools 
 of water : and I will sweep it with the besom of de- 
 struction, saith the Lord of hosts.""!- " Babylon is 
 fallen, is fallen ; and all the graven images of her 
 gods, he hath broken unto the ground. 'j '- Thus 
 saith the Lord, that saith unto the deep, be dry ; and 
 I will dry up thy rivers ; that saith of Cyrus, he is 
 my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, — 
 and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him 
 the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be 
 shut.''''§ " Bel boweth down," &c.|| "Come down 
 and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon ; 
 sit on the ground, there is no throne, O daughter of 
 the Chaldeans. — Sit thou silent, and get thee into 
 darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans ; for thou 
 shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms. Thou 
 hast said, I shall be a lady for ever — Hear now this, 
 thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest care- 
 lessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else 
 besides me ; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall 
 1 know the loss of children. But these two things 
 shall come to thee in a moment, in one day, the loss 
 
 * Isaiah xiii. 1,4, 5, 9, 19—22. 
 
 f Ibid. XIV. 4, 11, 19, 22, 23. * Ibid. xxi. 9. 
 
 § Ibid. .\liv. 27, 28; xlv. 1. || Ibid. xlvi. 1.
 
 BABYLON. 239 
 
 of children, and widowhood : they shall come upon 
 thee in their perfection, for the multitude of thy sor- 
 ceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchant- 
 ments. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, &c. 
 Therefore shall evil come upon thee ; thou shalt not 
 know from whence it riseth ; and mischief shall come 
 upon thee ; thou shalt not be able to put it off; and 
 desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou 
 shalt not know."* 
 
 " I will punish the land of the Chaldeans, and will 
 make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon 
 that land all my words which I have pronounced 
 against it, even all that is written in this book which 
 Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. For 
 many nations and great kings shall serve themselves 
 of them also : and I w'ill recompense them according 
 to their deeds, and according to the works of their own 
 hands."f " The word that the Lord spake against 
 Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by 
 Jeremiah the prophet. Declare ye among the nations, 
 and publish, and set up a standard ; publish, and con- 
 ceal not ; say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, 
 Merodach is broken in pieces ; her idols are con- 
 founded, her images are broken in pieces. For out 
 of the north there cometh up a nation against her, 
 which shall make her land desolate, and none shall 
 dwell therein ; they shall remove, they shall depart, 
 both man and beast."! " For, lo, I will raise and 
 cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of 
 great nations from the north country : and they shall 
 set themselves in array against her ; and from thence 
 she shall be taken ; their arrows shall be as of a 
 mighty expert man ; none shall return in vain. And 
 Chaldea shall be a spoil ; and all that spoil her shall 
 
 * Isa. xlvii. 1, 5, 7— li. f Jerem. xxv. 12—14. 
 
 J Jerem. 1. 1, 2, 3. 
 
 I
 
 240 BABYLON. 
 
 be satisfied, saith the Lord. Behold the hindermost 
 of the nations a wilderness, a dry land and a desert. 
 Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be in- 
 habited, but it shall be wholly desolate : every one 
 that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss 
 at all her plagues."* " Her foundations are fallen, 
 her walls are thrown down ; for it is the vengeance of 
 the Lord : take vengeance upon her ; as she hath 
 done, do unto her. Cut off the sower from Babylon, 
 and him that handleth the sickle in the time of har- 
 vest ; for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn 
 every one to his people, and they shall flee every one 
 to his own land.""'"}* — " Go up against the land of 
 Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabi- 
 tants of Pekod ; waste and utterly destroy after them. 
 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great de- 
 struction. How is the hammer of the whole earth 
 cut asunder and broken ! how is Babylon become a 
 desolation among the nations ! I have laid a snare 
 for thee and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou 
 wast not aware : thou art found, also caught, because 
 thou hast striven against the Lord. The Lord hath 
 opened his armory, and hath brought forth the wea- 
 pons of his indignation : for this is the work of the 
 Lord God of Hosts in the land of the Chaldeans. 
 Come against her from the utmost border, open her 
 store-houses ; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her 
 utterly, let nothing of her be left.""! " Let none 
 thereof escape ; and the most proud shall stumble and 
 fall, and none shall raise him up : I will kindle a 
 fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about 
 him.''§ — " A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith 
 the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, 
 and upon her princes, and upon her wise men. A 
 sword is upon the liars ; a sword is upon her mighty 
 
 • Jeiera. 1. 9—13. t Ibid. 15, 16. 
 
 :;: Ibid, 21—26. § Ibid. 29—32.
 
 BABYLON. 241 
 
 men— ^a sword is upon their horses, and upon their 
 chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in 
 the midst of her ; — a sword is upon her treasures; and 
 thej'^ shall be robbed. A drought is upon her waters; 
 and they shall be dried up; for it is the land of graven 
 images, and they are mad upon their idols. Therefore 
 the wild beasts of the desert, with the wild beasts of 
 the islands, shall dwell there, and the oavIs shall dwell 
 therein : and it shall be no more inhabited for ever ; 
 neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to gene- 
 ration. As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
 the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord ; so shall 
 no more man abide there, neither shall any son of man 
 dwell therein. Behold a people shall coine from the 
 north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be 
 raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall 
 held the bow and the lance ; they are cruel and will 
 not show mercy ; their voice shall roar like the sea, 
 and they shall ride on horses, every one put in array, 
 like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of 
 Babylon. — Behold he shall come up like a lion, from 
 the swelling of Jordan into the habitation of the 
 stroncT ; but I will make them suddenly run away 
 from her, and who is a chosen man, that I may ap- 
 point over her ? For who is like me ? And who 
 will appoint me the time ? And who is that shep- 
 herd that will stand before me ? Therefore hear ye 
 the counsel of the Lord, that he hath taken against 
 Babylon ; and his purposes that he hath purposed 
 against the land of the Chaldeans ; surely the least 
 of the flock shall draw them out ; surely he shall 
 make their habitation desolate with them.* — I will 
 send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and 
 shall empty her land. — The slain shall fall in the 
 land of the Chaldeans. — Babylon is suddenly follen 
 
 * Jerem. 1. 35'— 45. 
 M
 
 242 BABYLON. 
 
 and destroyed : howl for her ; take bahn for her paiii, 
 if so be she may be healed. We would have healed 
 Babylon, but she is not healed ; forsake her, and let 
 us go every one unto his own country ; for her judg- 
 ment reacheth into heaven, and is lifted up even to 
 the skies.* — The Lord hath raised up the spirit of 
 the kings of the Medes ; for his device is against 
 Babylon to destroy it, &c. — O thou that dwellest 
 upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end 
 is come, and the measvn-e of thy covetousness. The 
 Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, surely 
 I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars ; and 
 they shall lift up a shout against thee.-f- Behold I 
 am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the 
 Lord, which destroyest all the earth ; and I will 
 stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down 
 from the rocks, and I will make thee a burnt moun- 
 tain. Set up a standard in the land, blow the trum- 
 pet among the nations, prepare the nations against 
 her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, 
 Minni, and Aschenaz ; prepare against her the na- 
 tions, with the kings of the Medes, the captains 
 thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of 
 his dominion. And the land shall tremble and sor- 
 row ; for every jmrpose of the Lord shall be per- 
 formed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon 
 a desolation without an inhabitant. The mighty 
 men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have re- 
 mained in their holds ; their might hath failed ; they 
 became as women ; they have burnt her dwelling- 
 places ; her bars are broken. One post shall run to 
 meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to 
 show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at 
 one end : and that the passages are stopped. — Thus 
 saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the daugh- 
 
 * Jerem. li. 2, 8, 9. f Ibid. 11, 13, 14.
 
 BABYLON. 243 
 
 tev of Babylon is like a threshing-floor — it is time to 
 thresh her ; yet a little while, and the time of her 
 harvest shall come :* — I will dry up her sea, and 
 make her springs dry. And Babylon shall become 
 heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, 
 and an hissing without an inhabitant. — In their heat 
 I will make their feasts, — that they may sleep a per- 
 petual sleep, and not wake : — how is the praise of the 
 whole earth surprised ! how is Babylon become an as- 
 tonishment among the nations ! The sea is come 
 upon Babylon : she is covered with the multitude of 
 the waves thereof. Her cities are a desolation, a dry 
 land and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwell- 
 eth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. And 
 I will punish Bel in Babylon ; and I will bring forth 
 out of his nnouth that which he hath swallowed up : 
 and the nations shall not flow together any more unto 
 him ; yea the wall of Babylon shall fall. — A rvimour 
 shall come one year, and after that in another year 
 shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler 
 against ruler. Therefore, behold, the days come that 
 I will do judgment upon the graven images of Baby- 
 lon : and her whole land shall be confounded, and all 
 her slain shall fall in the midst of her, Scc.-f* And I 
 will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her 
 captains, and her rulers, and mighty men : and they 
 shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the 
 King, whose name is the Lord of hosts. Thus saith 
 the Lord of hosts, the broad walls of Babylon shall 
 be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned 
 with fire ; and the people shall labour in vain, and 
 the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. — And 
 it shall be when thou hast made an end of reading 
 this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast 
 
 * Jerem, li. 25—33. 
 
 t Ibid. li. 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47.
 
 244 BABYLON. 
 
 it into the midst of Euphrates : and thou shalt say, 
 thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the 
 evil that I will bring upon her.* 
 
 The enemies who were to besiege Babylon — the 
 cowardice of the Babylonians — the manner in which 
 the city was taken, and all the remarkable circum- 
 stances of the siege, were foretold and described by the 
 prophets as the facts are related by ancient historians. 
 
 Go up, O Elam, (or Persia,) besiege, Media. 
 The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the 
 Medes,for his device is against Babylon to destroy it. 
 The kings of Persia and Media, prompted by a com- 
 mon interest, freely entered into a league against Ba- 
 bylon, and with one accord intrusted the command of 
 their united armies to Cyrus,-|- the relative and even- 
 tually the successor of them both. — But the taking of 
 Babylon was not reserved for these kingdoms alone ; 
 other nations had to be prepared against her. 
 
 Set up a standard in the land ; blow the trumpet 
 among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call 
 together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, 
 and Aschenaz ; Lo, I will raise and cause to come up 
 against Babylon, an assembly of great nations from 
 the north country, (Sfc. Cyrus subdued the Armeni- 
 ans, who had revolted against Media, spared their 
 king, bound them over anew to their allegiance, by 
 kindness rather than by force, and incorporated their 
 army with his own. j He adopted the Hyrcanians, 
 v.ho had rebelled against Babylon, as allies and con- 
 federates, with the Medes and Persian s.§ He con- 
 quered the united forces of the Babylonians and Ly- 
 dians, took Sardis, with Croesus and all his wealth, 
 spared his life, after he was at the stake, restored to 
 
 * Jerem. li. 57, 58, 63, 64. 
 
 t Xenoph. Cyrop. lib. i. p. 53. Ed. Hutch. Glas. 1821. 
 
 t Xenoph. Cyrop. 1. iii. p. 156. § Ibid. 1. iv. pp. 215, 217.
 
 I 
 
 BABYLON. 245 
 
 him his family and his household, received him into 
 the number of his counsellors and friends, and thus 
 prepared the Lydians, over whom he reigned, and 
 who were formerly combined with Babylon, for comi7ig 
 tip against it.* He overthrew also the Phrygians 
 and Cappadocians, and added their armies in like 
 manner to his accumulating forces. -j- And by succes- 
 sive alliances and conquests, by proclaiming liberty 
 to the slaves, by a humane policy, consummate skill, 
 a pure and noble disinterestedness, and a boundless 
 generosity, he changed, within the space of twenty 
 years, a confederacy which the king of Babylon had 
 raised up against the jMedes and Persians, whose junc- 
 tion he feared, into a confederacy even of the same 
 nations against Babylon itself, — and thus a slaiiday^d 
 was set up against Babylon in many a land^ king" 
 doms were summoned, prepared, and gathered together 
 against her ; and an assemble/ of great 7iations from 
 the north, — including Ararat and Minni, or the 
 greater and lesser Armenia, and Asehenaz, or accord- 
 ing to Bochart, Phrygia, — were raised iip, and caus- 
 ed to come against Babi/lon. Without their aid, and 
 before they were subjected to his authority, he had 
 attempted in vain to conquer Babylon ; but when he 
 had prepared and gathered than together, it was 
 taken, though by artifice more than by power. 
 
 Thej/ shall hold the bow and the lance — thet/ shall 
 ride upon horses — let the archer bend his bow — all ye 
 that bend the bow, shoot at her. They rode upoii 
 horses. Forty thousand Persian horsemen were armed 
 from among the nations which Cyrus subdued ; many 
 horses of the captives were besides distributed among 
 all the allies. And Cyrus came up against Babylon 
 with a great multitude of horse ;| and also with a 
 
 * Xenoph. Cyrop. 1. ii. pp. 408— IIG. 
 
 t Ibid. I. iv. pp. 427, 428. J Ibid. p. 428,
 
 246 BABYLON. 
 
 great multitude of archers and javelin-men* — that 
 field the bow and the lance. 
 
 No sooner had Cyrus reached Babylon, with the 
 nations which he had prepared, and gathered against 
 her, than in the hope of discovering some point not 
 utterly impregnable, accompanied by his chief officers 
 and friends, he rode around the walls, and examined 
 them on every side, after having for that purpose 
 stationed his whole army round the city.-f* They 
 camped against it round about. They put themselves 
 in array against Babylon round about. 
 
 Frustrated in the attempt to discover, throughout 
 the whole circumference, a single assailable point, and 
 finding that it was not possible, by any attack, to make 
 himself master of walls so strong and so high, and 
 fearing that his army would be exposed to the assault 
 of the Babylonians by a too extended and conse- 
 quently weakened line, — Cyrus, standing in the 
 middle of his army, gave orders that the heavy armed 
 men should move, in opposite directions, from each 
 extremity towards the centre ; and the horse and light 
 armed men being nearer and advancing first, and the 
 phalanx being redoubled and closed up, the bravest 
 troops thus occupied alike the front and the rear, and 
 the less effective were stationed in the middle. | Such 
 a disposition of the army, in the estimation of Xen- 
 ophon, himself a most skilful general, v.as well adapt- 
 ed both for fighting and preventing flight ; while 
 the Christian, judging differently of their successive 
 movements, may here see the fulfilment of one pre- 
 diction after another. For as in this manner " they 
 stood facing the walls," in regular order, and not as a 
 disorderly and undisciplined host, though composed 
 of various nations, they set themselves in array against 
 Babylon, — every man put in array. 
 
 * Xenoph. Cyrop. p. 429. t I^J"!- | Ibid, p, 430.
 
 BABYLON. 247 
 
 A trench was dug round the city, — towers were 
 erected — Babylon was besieged — the army was divid- 
 ed into twelve parts, that each, monthly by turn, 
 might keep watch throughout the year ;* — and though 
 the orders were given by Cyrus, the command of the 
 Lord of Hosts was unconsciously obeyed — Itt none 
 thereof escape. 
 
 The nu'ghtj/ men of Bahx/lon have forborne to fight. 
 They have remained in their holds ; their might hath 
 failed, they became as women. Babylon had been the 
 hammer of the whole earth, by which nations were 
 broken in pieces, and kingdoms destroyed. Its mighty 
 men carried the terror of their arms to distant re- 
 gions and led nations captive. But they were dis- 
 mayed according to the word of the God of Israel, 
 whenever the nations which he had stirred up against 
 them stood in array before their walls. Their ti- 
 midity, so clearly predicted, was the express com- 
 plaint and accusation of their enemies, who in vain 
 attempted to provoke them to the contest. Cyrus 
 challenged their monarch to single combat, but also 
 in vain ;"!• for the hands of the king of Babylon waxed 
 feeble. Courage had departed from both prince and 
 people ; and none attempted to save their country 
 from spoliation, or to chase the assailants from their 
 gates. They sallied not forth against the invaders 
 and besiegers, nor did they attempt to disjoin and dis- 
 perse them, even when drawn all around their walls, 
 and compciratively weak along the extended line. 
 Every gate was still shut ; and they remained in their 
 holds. Being as unable to rouse their courage, even 
 by a close blockade, and to bring them to the field, 
 as to scale or break down any portion of their stupen- 
 dous walls, or to force their gates of solid brass, 
 
 * Xenoph. Cyrop. pp. 430 — ISl. 
 t Ibid. 1. v. p. 290.
 
 248 BABYLON. 
 
 Cyrus reasoned that the greater that was their num- 
 ber, the more easily would they be starved into sur- 
 render, and yield to famine, since they would not 
 contend with arms nor come forth to fight. And 
 hence arose for the space of two years his only hope 
 of eventual success. So dispirited became its people, 
 that Babylon, which had made the world as a wilder- 
 ness, was long unresistingly a beleaguered town. But, 
 possessed of many fertile fields and of provisions for 
 twenty years, which in their timid caution they had 
 plentifully stored, they derided Cyrus from their im- 
 pregnable walls within which they remained.* Their 
 profligacy, their wickedness and false confidence were 
 unabated ; they continued to live carelessly in plea- 
 sures, but their might did not return : and Babylon 
 the great, unlike to many a small fortress and im- 
 walled town, made not one effort to regain its freedom 
 or to be rid of the foe. 
 
 Much time having been lost, and no progress hav- 
 ing been made in the siege, the anxiety of Cyrus 
 was strongly excited, and he was reduced to great 
 perplexity, when at last it was suggested and imme- 
 diately determined on, to turn the course of the 
 Euphrates. But the task was not an easy one. The 
 river was a quarter of a mile broad, and twelve feet 
 deep, and in the opinion of one of the counsellors 
 of Cyrus, the city was stronger by the river than 
 by its walls. Diligent and laborious preparation was 
 made for the execution of the scheme, yet so as 
 to deceive the Babylonians. And the great trench, 
 ostensibly formed for the purpose of blockade, which 
 for the time it effectually secured, was dug around 
 the walls on every side, in order to drain the Euphra- 
 tes, and to leave its channel a straight passage into 
 the city, through the midst of which it flowed. But, 
 
 * Xenoph. Cyrop. 1. vii. p. iSi. Herod. I i. c. 190,
 
 BABYLON. 249 
 
 in the words of Herodotus, " if the besieged had 
 either been aware of the designs of Cyrus, or had dis- 
 covered the project before its actual accomplishment, 
 they might have effected the total destruction of their 
 troops. They had only to secure the little gates which 
 led to the river, and to man the embankment on either 
 side, and they might have enclosed the Persians as in 
 a net from which they could never have escaped.''"* 
 Guarding as much as possibly they could against such 
 a catastrophe, Cyrus purposely chose, for the execu- 
 tion of his plan, the time of a great annual Babylo- 
 nish festival, during which, according to their prac- 
 tice, " the Babylonians drank and revelled the whole 
 night." And while the unconscious and reckless 
 citizens " were engaged in dancing and merriment,'''' 
 the river was suddenly turned into the lake, the 
 trench and the canals ; and the watchful Persians, 
 both foot and horse, so soon as the subsiding of the 
 water permitted, entered by its channel, and were 
 followed by the allies in array, on the (by part of 
 the river.-j- " / icill dry up thy sea, and make thy 
 spi'ings dry. That sayeth to the deep be dry, I uill 
 dry up thy rivers.'''' 
 
 " One detachment was placed where the river first 
 enters the city, and another where it leaves it.'"! And 
 " one post did run to meet another, and one messenger 
 to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his 
 city is taken at the end, and that the jiassages are 
 shut.'''' " They were taken," says Herodotus, " by 
 surprise : and such is the extent of the city, that, as 
 the inhabitants themselves affirm, they who lived in 
 the extremities were made prisoners before any alarm 
 was communicated to the centre of the place,'"§ 
 
 • Herod, lib. i. c. 191. 
 
 •f Herod, ibid. Xeuoph. Cy op. 1. vii. pp. 434 — 437. 
 
 t Herod, lib. i. 191. 
 
 § Ibid.
 
 250 BABYLON. 
 
 where the palace stood. Not a gate of the city wall 
 was opened ; not a brick of it had fallen. But a 
 snare was laid for Babylon — it was taken and it was 
 not aware ; it was found and also caught, for it had 
 sinned against the Lord. How is the j)raise of the 
 whole earth surprised! For thou hast trusted in 
 thij wickedness, and thij wisdom, and thy knowledge, 
 it hal.h jjcrverted thee, therefore shall evil come upon 
 thee, and thou shalt not know from whence it riseth, 
 and mischief shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not 
 be able to put it off, Sfc. — A'one shall save thee. 
 
 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will 
 make them drunken, that they may rejoice and sleep 
 a perpetual sleep and not wake, saith the Lord. I 
 will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, S^c. 
 I will make drunken her princes and her wise men, 
 her captains and her rulers, and her mighty men, and 
 they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, c^x. Cyrus, as 
 the night drew on, stimulated his assembled troops 
 to enter the city, because in that night of general 
 revel within the walls, many of them were asleep, 
 many drunk, and confusion universally prevailed. 
 On passing, without obstruction or hinderance, into 
 the city, the Persians, slaying some, putting others 
 to flight, and joining with the revellers as if slaugh- 
 ter had been merriment, hastened by the shortest 
 way to the palace, and reached it ere yet a messenger 
 had told the king that his city was taken. The 
 gates of the palace, which were strongly fortified, were 
 shut. The guards stationed before them were drink- 
 ing beside a blazing light, when the Persians rushed 
 impetuously upon them. The louder and altered 
 clamour, no longer joyous, caught the ear of the 
 inmates of the palace, and the bright light showed 
 them the work of destruction, without revealing its 
 cause. And not aware of the presence of an enemy 
 in the midst of Babylon, the king himself (who, as 
 every Cln-istian knows, had been roused from his
 
 BABYLON. 251 
 
 revelry by the hand writing on the wall,) excited by 
 the warlike tumult at the gates, commanded those 
 within to examine from whence it arose ; and accord- 
 ing to the same word, by which the gates (leading 
 from the river to the city) were not shut, the loins of 
 kings were loosed to open before Cyrus the two-leav- 
 td gates. At the first sight of the opened gates of 
 the palace of Babylon, the eager Persians sprang 
 in. The king of Babylon heard the report of them — 
 anguish took hold of hiniy — he and all who were 
 about him perished : God had numbered his king- 
 dom and finished it : it was divided and given to the 
 Medes and Persians ; the lives of the Babylonian 
 princes, and lords, and rulers, and captains, closed 
 with that night's festival : the drunken slept a perpe- 
 tual sleep, and did not wake.* 
 
 Her young men shall fall in the streets, and all 
 her men of war shall be cut off in that day. Cyrus 
 sent troops of horse throughout the streets, with or- 
 ders to slay all who were found there. And he com- 
 manded proclamation to be made, in the Syrian lan- 
 guage, that all who were in the houses should re- 
 main within ; and that, if any one were found abroad, 
 he should be killed. These orders were obeyed. "?• 
 They shall wander every man to his quarter. 
 
 I will Jill thee with men as with caterpillars. Not 
 only did the Persian army enter with ease as caterpil- 
 lars, together with all the nations that had come up 
 against Babylon, but they seemed also as numerous. 
 Cyrus, after the capture of the city, made a great dis- 
 play of his cavalry in the presence of the Babylonians, 
 and in the midst of Babylon. Four thousand guards 
 stood before the palace gates, and two thousand on 
 each side. These advanced as Cyrus approached ; two 
 thousand spearmen followed them. These were suc- 
 
 * Herod, lib. i. c. 191. Xen. Cyr, 1. vii. pp. i34, 439. 
 t Ibid. p. 439.
 
 252 BABYLON. 
 
 ceeded by four square masses of Persian cavalry, each 
 consisting of ten thousand men ; and to these again 
 were added, in their order, the Median, Arme- 
 nian, Hyrcanian, Caducian, and Sacian horsemen, — 
 a//, as before, 7'i(h'7ig upon horses, everi/ man in ar- 
 ray — with lines of chariots, four abreast, concluding 
 the train of the numerous hosts.* — Cyrus afterwards 
 reviewed, at Babylon, the whole of his army, con- 
 sisting of one hundred and twenty thousand horse, 
 two thousand chariots, and six hundred thousand 
 foot.-f- Babylon, which was taken when not aware, 
 and within whose walls no enemy, except a captive, 
 had been ever seen, was also Jilled with men as with 
 caterpillars, as if there had not been a wall around 
 it. — The Scriptures do not relate the manner in 
 which Babylon was taken, nor do they ever allude 
 to the exact fulfilment of the prophecies. But there 
 is, in every particular, a strict coincidence between 
 the predictions of the prophets and the historical nar- 
 ratives, both of Herodotus and Xenophon. 
 
 On taking Babylon suddenly, and by surprise, Cy- 
 rus, as had been literally prophesied concerning him, 
 and as the sign by which it was to be known that the 
 Lord had called him by his name (Isa. xlv. 1 — 4.;};) 
 became immediately possessed of the most secret trea- 
 sures of Babylon. No enemy had ever dared to rise 
 up against that great city. To take it, seemed not a 
 work for man to attempt ; but it became the easy prey 
 of him who was called the servant of the Lord. And 
 as at this day, — from the perfect representation given 
 by the prophets, of every feature of fallen Babylon, 
 
 * Xen. Cyr. 1. viii. pp. 49i, 495. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 532, 
 
 J Isaiah prophesied above one hundred and sixty years 
 before the taking of Babylon, two hundred aud fifty years 
 before Herodotus, aud nearly three hundred aud tifty before 
 Xenophon.
 
 BABYLON. 253 
 
 now at last utterly desolate, — men may know that 
 God is the Lord, seeing that all who have visited and 
 describe it, show that the predicted judgments against 
 it have been literally fulfilled ; so at that time, Cyrus 
 — who, for two years, could only look on the outer 
 side of the outer wall of Babylon, and who had be- 
 gun to despair of reducing it by famine, — was to 
 know by the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches 
 of secret j)laces being given into his hand, that the 
 Lord, which had called him by his name, was the God 
 of Israel. And when the appointed time had come 
 that the power of their oppressor was to be broken, 
 Babylon was taken ; and when the similarly pre- 
 scribed period of the captivity of the Jews, for whose 
 sake he was called, had expired, Cyrus was their de- 
 liverer. 
 
 Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose 
 right hand I have hidden, to subdue nations before 
 him. Cyrus, commencing his career with a small 
 army of Persians, not only succeeded to the kingdom 
 of the Medes and Persians, first united under him, 
 but the Hyrcanians yielded also voluntarily to his 
 authority. He subdued the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabs, 
 Cappadocians, both Phrygias, the Lydians, Carians, 
 Phenicians, and Babylonians. He governed the 
 Bactrians, Indians, and Cilicians, and also the Sa- 
 cians, Paphlagonians and INIariandinians, and other 
 nations. He likewise reduced to his authority the 
 Greeks that were in Asia, and the Cyprians, and 
 Egyptians.* Nations were thus subdued before him. 
 
 I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall 
 not regard silver ; and as for gold they shall not de- 
 light in it. He who was called the anointed of the 
 Lord was free from covetonsness. His character is 
 drawn by Xenophon, (who states that he excelled all 
 
 • Xen. Cyr. lib. i. 45.
 
 254 BABYLON. 
 
 other kings,) as the model of a wise and generous 
 prince. The liberality of Cyrus was more noble than 
 the mere possession of immensity of wealth, though 
 including both the riches of (^rcesus and the treasures 
 of Babylon. He reckoned that his riches belonged 
 not any more to himself than to his friends.* And 
 he made as well as pronounced it his object to use and 
 not to hoard his wealth, and to apply it to the reward 
 of his servants, and in relief of their wants. So little 
 did he regard silver or delight in gold, that Crcesus 
 told him that, by his liberality, he would make him- 
 self poor, instead of storing up vast treasures to him- 
 self. The Medes possessed, in this respect, the spirit 
 of their chief, of which an instance, recorded by 
 Xenophon, is too striking and appropriate to be passed 
 over."f* When Cobryas, an Assyrian governor, whose 
 son the king of Babylon had slain, hospitably en- 
 tertained him and his army ; Cyrus appealed to the 
 chiefs of the Medes and Hyrcanians, and to the 
 noblest and most honourable of the Persians, whether 
 giving first what was due unto the gods, and lea^•ing 
 to the rest of the army their portion, they would not 
 overmatch his generosity by ceding to him their whole 
 share of the first and plentiful booty, which they had 
 won from the land of Babylon. Loudly applauding 
 the proposal, they immediately and unanimously con- 
 sented ; and one of them said : " Cobryas may have 
 thought us poor, because we came not loaded with 
 golden coins,;J; and drink not out of golden cups ; 
 but by this he will know, that men can be generous 
 even without gold.*"'§ — As for gold, they did not delight 
 in it. 
 
 Cobryas, it may be presumed, was stirred up and 
 prepared, by gratitude on the one hand, as well as by 
 
 ■ Xen. Cyr. lib. viii. p. 516. -j- lb. lib. viii. p. 482. 
 
 t Darics. § Xeu. 1. v. p. 289.
 
 BABYLON. 255 
 
 revenge on the other, to go up against Babylon. And, 
 it rcay be mentioned, he was afterwards the first to 
 lead the way to the palace ; and — for, though a great 
 deep, the judgments of God are altogether righteous, — 
 his hand was amonij those who slew the mvirderer of 
 his son. 
 
 None shall rkturn in vain. The walls of Ba- 
 bylon were incomparably the loftiest and the strongest 
 ever built by man. They were constructed of such 
 stupendous size and strength, on very pvirpose that no 
 possibility might exist of Babylon ever being taken. 
 And, if ever confidence in bulwarks could not have 
 been misplaced, it was when the citizens and soldiery 
 of Babylon, who feared to encounter their enemies in 
 the field — in perfect assurance of their safety and be- 
 yond the reach of the Parthian arrow, scoffed from 
 the summit of their impregnable walls the hosts which 
 encompassed them. But though the proud boast of 
 a city so defended, and which had never been taken, — 
 that it would stand for ever, — seemed scarcely pre- 
 sumptuous ; yet, subsequently to the delivery of the 
 prophecies concerning it, Babylon was not only re- 
 peatedly taken, but was never once besieged in vain. 
 Cyrus, indeed, departed, after he first appeared before 
 its walls, but he went to prepare and gather together 
 the nations against it. And he did not return in vain. 
 But this prediction, as it is applicable also to all others, 
 is true, not of him only, but also of all who, in after 
 ages, came up against Babylon. It fell before every 
 hand that was raised against it ; yet its greatness did 
 not depart, nor was its glory obscured in a day. Cy- 
 rus was not its destroyer ; but he sought by wise 
 institutions to perpetuate its pre-eminence among the 
 nations. He left it to his successor in all its strength 
 and magnificence. Rebelling against Darius, the 
 Babylonians made preparations for a siege, and bade 
 defiance to the whole power of the Persian empire.
 
 256 BABYLON. 
 
 Fully resolved not to yield, and that famine might 
 never reduce them to submission, they adopted the 
 most desperate and barbarous resolution of putting 
 every woman in the city to death, with the exception 
 of their mothers, and one female, the best beloved in 
 every family, to bake their bread. All the rest were 
 assembled together and strangled.* These two thhigs 
 shall come upon thee in a moment, in one dai/, the loss 
 of children and widowhood, they shall come upon thee 
 in their perfection, for the multitude of thy sorceries, 
 and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. 
 For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, cS'C. They 
 did come upon them in their perfection, when their 
 wives and children were strangled by their own hands ; 
 and so suddenly, as before, in a moment, in one day, 
 did these things come upon them, that the victims 
 were assembled for the sacrifice ; so general was the 
 instant widowhood, that fifty thousand women were 
 afterwards taken, in proportionate numbers, from the 
 different neighbouring provinces of the empire, to 
 replace those who had been slain ; and the very reser- 
 vation of their mothers multiplied the lamentations 
 for the loss of children. But trust in their wickedness 
 brought them no safety. For, while they were thus 
 instrumental in the infliction of one grievous judg- 
 ment, for which such murderers were ripe ; their ini- 
 quity was not thereby lessened, and therefore, at how- 
 ever great a price, they procured not any security 
 against another judgment, which also had been de- 
 nounced against Babylon for its wickedness. They 
 deemed themselves absolutely secure against famine 
 and against assault. The artifice of Cyrus could not 
 again be a snare ; and an attempt to renew it was, 
 along with eveiy other, entirely frustrated. But still 
 it was not in vain that Darius besieged Babylon. 
 
 • Herod. 1. iii. c. 150. Tom. iii. 160, ed. Foul.
 
 BABYLON. 257 
 
 In the twentieth month of the siege a single Per- 
 sian whose body was covered over with the marks of 
 stripes and with blood, and whose nose and ears had 
 been newly cut off, presented himself at one of the 
 gates of Babylon, — a helpless object of pity, and, if 
 not a great criminal indeed, the obvious victim of 
 wanton and savage cruelty. He had fled, or escaped, 
 from the camp of the enemy. But he was not a 
 common deserter, such as they might not have ad- 
 mitted within their walls, — but it was Zophyrus, who 
 was well known as one of the chief nobles of Persia. 
 He represented to the Babylonians, that, not for any 
 crime, but for the honest advice which he had given to 
 Darius to raise the siege, as the taking of the city 
 seemed to all impossible, the enraged tyrant (his 
 pride wounded, or his fears perhaps awakened, that 
 his army would be discouraged by such counsel,) had 
 inflicted upon him the severest cruelties, caused him 
 to be mutilated as they saw, and to be scourged, of 
 which his whole body bore the marks ; — to one of his 
 proud spirit and high rank, disgrace was worse than 
 suffering, and he came to join the revolters, his soul 
 burning for vengeance against their common tyrant. 
 " And now," addressing them, he said, " I come for 
 the greatest good to you, for the greatest evil to Da- 
 rius, to his army, and to the Persians. The injuries 
 which I have suffered shall not be unrevenged, for I 
 know, and will disclose all his designs." 
 
 On such proofs, and cheered by such hopes, the 
 Babylonians did not doubt the sincerity of Zophyrus, 
 nor his devotion to their cause, identified, as it clearly 
 seemed, with the only hope of revenge against the 
 cruel author of his wrongs, towards whom they could 
 not conceive but that he would cherish an inflexible 
 hatred. He sought but to fight against their enemies. 
 At his request, they gladly and unhesitatingly in- 
 trusted him with a military command. Forgiveness
 
 258 BABYLON. 
 
 of injuries was not then reckoned a virtue — which it 
 is too seldom practically accounted even in a Chris- 
 tian land ; and vengeance, still called honour, sleeps 
 not in an unforgiving breast. Zophyrus soon satis- 
 fied the Babylonians that his wrongs would not long 
 be unavenged. To their delight, having watched the 
 first opportunity, he sallied forth from the gates of 
 Semiramis, on the tenth day after his entrance into 
 the city, and falling suddenly on a thousand of the 
 enemy, slew them every one. After an interval of 
 only seven days, twice that number were, in like 
 manner, slain, near to the Ninian gates. The men 
 of Babylon were animated with new vigour and new 
 hopes ; and the praise of Zophyrus was on every 
 tonofue. He received a higher command. But the 
 Persians, seemingly more wary, were nowhere open 
 to attack for the space of twenty days. On the ex- 
 piry of that period, however, Zophyrus, by a noted 
 exploit, again proved himself worthy of still greater 
 authority, by leading out his troops from the Chal- 
 dean gates, and killing, in one spot, four thousand 
 men. In reward for such services, and such tried 
 fidelity, skill, and courage, as none, they thought, 
 could be more worthy of the honour and of the trust, 
 they not only raised him to the chief command of 
 their army, but appointed him to the dignified and 
 most responsible office in Babylon, which it was his 
 aim to attain, that of (rnKopuka^) guardian of their 
 walls.* 
 
 Darius, as if to be secure against the continued re- 
 petition of such desultory carnage of his troops, ad- 
 vanced with all his army to the walls. They were 
 manned to repel the assault. But the treachery of 
 Zophyrus, however incredible, and unknown and un- 
 suspected, alike by the Babylonians and the Persians, 
 
 * Herod, c. 152—157, pp. 166—173.
 
 BABYLON. 259 
 
 became immediately apparent. Intrusted as he was, 
 in virtue of his office, v/ith the gates of the city, no 
 sooner had the enemy approached, and the armed 
 citizens ascended the wall, than he opened the Beli- 
 dian and the Cissian gates, close to which the choicest 
 Persian troops were stationed."* The whole scheme 
 was a preconcerted snare, known only to Darius and 
 Zophyrus, and invented solely by the latter, the mu- 
 tilation of whose body was his own voluntary act. To 
 the glory of the deed were added the greatest gifts 
 and honours, and the governorship of Babylon with- 
 out tribute, for his reward. The numbers of the dif- 
 ferent detachments of the Persian troops who fell, 
 their positions, and the precise time of their succes- 
 sive advancements, had all been resolved on and ar- 
 ranged. And Darius as freely sacrificed the lives of 
 seven thousand men, as Zophyrus had inflicted in- 
 curable wounds upon himself. "■ Thus," says Hero- 
 dotus, *^' was Babylon a second time taken." And 
 thus was the word of God, — from whom nothing past, 
 present, or future, can be hid, — a second time fulfil- 
 led against Babylon — tiojie shall return in vain. 
 
 Babylon was a third time taken by Alexander the 
 Great. Maza^us, the Persian general, surrendered 
 the city into his hands, and he entered it with his 
 army drawn up, " as if they were marching to bat- 
 tle.'""}* Again was it Jilled with men, — and literally 
 was every man put in array, like a man to the battle. 
 The siege of so fortified a city;}; v/ould have been a 
 work of great difficulty and labour, even to the con- 
 queror of Asia. But the inhabitants eagerly flocked 
 upon the walls to see their new king, and exchanged, 
 without a struggle, the Persian for the Macedonian 
 
 • Herod, c. 138, 159. 
 
 + Quadrato a^^miue, quod ipse ducebat, velut in acieia 
 ireut, iiigredi suos jubet. Qiiin. Curt, lib, v. c. 2. 
 t — tam rmiuitffi urbis. lb.
 
 260 BABYLOX. 
 
 yoke. — Babylon was afterwards successively taken by 
 Antigonus, by Demetrius, by Antiochus the Great, 
 and by the Parthians. But whatever king or nation 
 came up against it, none returned in vain. 
 
 Each step in the progress of the decline of Babylon 
 was the accomplishment of a prophecy. Conquered, 
 for the first time,* by Cyrus, it was afterwards re- 
 duced from an imperial to a tributary city. Come 
 down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Baby- 
 lon : sit on the ground, there is no throne, O daughter 
 of the Chaldeans. — After the Babylonians rebelled 
 against Darius, the walls were reduced in height, and 
 all the gates destroyed."|* The wall of Babi/lon shall 
 fall, her walls thrown down. — Xerxes, after his ig- 
 nominious retreat from Greece, rifled the temples of 
 Babylon,! the golden images alone in which were 
 estimated at L.20,000,000, besides treasures of vast 
 amount. / will punish Bel in Babj/lon, and I will 
 bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swal- 
 lowed I'.p ; I will do judgment upon the graven images 
 of Babi/lon.^ — Alexander the Great attempted to re- 
 store it to its former glory, and designed to make it 
 the metropolis of an universal empire. But while 
 the building of the temple of Belus, and the repara- 
 tion of the embankments of the Euphrates, were ac- 
 tually carrying on, the conqueror of the world died, 
 at the commencement of this his last undertak hig, in 
 the height of his power, and in the flower of his age.|| 
 Take balm for her pain, if so be that she viai/ be 
 healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not 
 healed.^ — -The neighbouring city of Seleucia, which 
 
 * Herod, lib. i. c. 191. f Herod, lib. iii. c. 150. 
 
 f Herod, lib. i. c. 183. Arrian. de Expeditioue Alex. lib. 
 vii. c. 17, cited by Bishop Newton. 
 § Jer. li. 4-t, 47, 52. 
 
 II Arrian. lib. vii. c. 17. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 738. 
 n Jer. li. 8, 9.
 
 BABYLON. 261 
 
 was built with that intent, was the chief cause of the 
 decline of Babylon as a city, and drained it of great 
 part of its population.* And at a later period, or 
 about 130 years before the birth of Christ, Humerus, 
 a Parthian governor, who was noted as excelling all 
 tyrants in cruelty, exercised great severities on the 
 Babylonians, and having burned the forum and some 
 of the temples, and destroyed the fairest parts of the 
 city, reduced many of the inhabitants to slavery on 
 the slightest pretexts, and caused them, together with 
 all their households, to be sent into ]Media.-|- The}/ 
 shall remove, thei/ shall depart, both man and beast. 
 
 The " golden city"" thus gradually verged, for cen- 
 turies, towards poverty and desolation. — Notwith- 
 standing that Cyrus resided chiefly at Babylon, and 
 Rouffht to reform the government and remodel the 
 manners of the Babylonians, the succeeding kings of 
 Persia preferred, as the seat of empire, Susa, Perse- 
 pclis, or Ecbatana, situated in their ow7i country/ : 
 and in like manner the successors of Alexander did 
 not attempt to complete his purpose of restoring Ba- 
 bylon to its pre-eminence and glory ; but, after the 
 subdivision of his mighty empire, the very kings of 
 Assyria, during their temporary residence even in 
 Chaldea, deserted Babylon, and dwelt in Seleucia. 
 And thus the foreign inhabitants, first Persians, and 
 afterwards Greeks, imitating their sovereigns by de- 
 serting Babylon, acted as if they verily had said, — 
 Forsake her, and let 7is go every man unto his own 
 country ; for her judgment is reached unlo heaven, 
 and is lifted iq? even to the skies. 
 
 But kindred judgments — the issue of common 
 crimes — rested on the land of Chaldea, as well as on 
 its doomed metropolis ; and the tracing of their ful- 
 
 * Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. v. c. 26. 
 
 t Diod. Siculifrag-mentimi, apud Valesium. Vide Vitrin. 
 com. iu lesaiam, cap. 13, pp. 420, 421.
 
 262 BABYLON. 
 
 filment may best lead to the view of the utter deso- 
 lation of fallen Babylon. 
 
 They come from a far country ^ frovi the end of the 
 earth, to destroy the whole land. Many nations and 
 great kings shall serve themselves of thee also, 8fc. 
 The Persians, the Macedonians, the Parthians, the 
 Romans, the Saracens, and the Turks, are the chief 
 of the many nations who have unscrupulously and un- 
 sparingly served themselves of the land of the Chal- 
 deans ; and Cyrus and Darius, kings of Persia ; 
 Alexander the Great ; and-Seleucus, king of Assyria ; 
 Demetrius, and Antiochus the Great ; Trajan, Se- 
 verus, Julian, and Heraclius, emperors of Rome ; 
 the victorious Omar, the successor of Mahomet ; — 
 Holagou, and Tamerlane, are great Icings, who suc- 
 cessively subdued or desolated Chaldea, or exacted 
 from it tribute to such an extent, as scarcely any other 
 country ever paid to a single conqueror. And, though 
 the names of some of these nations were unknown to 
 the Babylonians, and unheard of in the world at the 
 time of the prophecy — most of these many nations 
 and great kings need now but to be named, to show 
 that, in local relation to Chaldea, they came from the 
 utmost border from the coasts of the earth. 
 
 They are cruel both in anger and fierce wrath to 
 lay the land desolate, &c. The Persians vied with 
 the Parthians in cruelty and fierceness against re- 
 sisting and against subjugated enemies. Three thou- 
 sand Babylonians were at once impaled by order of 
 Darius. Conqviest was the object, and kindness was 
 not in the nature of the Macedonian conquerors of 
 Babylon. The possession of Chaldea was contested 
 between Antigen us and Seleucus, and ruler rose 
 against ruler. After its long subjection to the Se- 
 leucidae, the proverbially cruel Parthians held Baby- 
 lonia in bondage. In the second century of the 
 Christian era, the Romans, coming from afar.
 
 BABYLON. 263 
 
 still maintained the character of the cruel and 
 fierce desolators of Chaldea, and were thus the un- 
 conscious instruments of the fulfilment of other pro- 
 phecies. " Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman 
 generals penetrated as far as Ctesiphon and Seleucia. 
 They were received as friends by the Greek colony ; 
 they attacked as enemies the seat of the Parthian 
 kings, yet both cities experienced the same treat- 
 ment. The sack and conflagratioii of Seleucia with 
 the massacre of three hundred thousand of the inhabi- 
 tants, tarnished the glory of the Roman triumph. — 
 Seleucia sunk under the fatal blow ; but Ctesiphon, in 
 about thirty-three years, had sufficiently recovered its 
 strength to maintain an obstinate siege against the 
 emperor Severus. Ctesiphon was thrice besieged and 
 thrice taken by the predecessors of Julian.'"* And 
 when attacked by Julian, the anger of that Roman 
 emperor and that of his army was not moderated, 
 nor their cruelty abated, by the effectual resistance 
 of the citizens of Ctesiphon against sixty thousand 
 besiegers. " The fields of Assyria were devoted by 
 Julian to the calamities of war ; and the philoso- 
 pher retaliated on a guiltless people the acts of rapine 
 and cruelty which had been committed by their 
 haughty master in the Roman provinces. The Per- 
 sians beheld from the walls of Ctesiphon the desola- 
 tion of the adjacent country .""-f- With such violence 
 did he wreak his vengeance on the inhabitants of 
 Chaldea, that their fierce wrath was conjoined with 
 the cruelty of their enemies to lay the land desolate. 
 " The extensive region that lies between the river 
 Tigris and the mountains of Media, was filled with 
 villages andtowns; andthefertile soil, for themost part, 
 was in a very improved state of cultivation. But on the 
 approach of the Romans, this rich and smiling prospect 
 
 " Gibbon, v. i. c. viii. p. 212. f lb. y. ii. c xsiv. p 369.
 
 264 BABYLON. 
 
 was instantly blasted. Wherever they moved, the in- 
 habitants deserted the open villages and took shelter 
 in the fortified towns ; the cattle were driven away ; 
 the grass and ripe corn were consumed with fire ; 
 and as soon as the jlames had subsided which inter- 
 rupted the march of Julian, he beheld the melancholy 
 face of a smoking and naked desert.""* But " the 
 second city of the province, large, populous, and well 
 fortified,"" — in vain resisted a fierce and desperate as- 
 sault ; and a large breach having been made by a 
 battering-ram in the walls, " the soldiers of Julian 
 rushed wxpetnousli/ into the town, and after the full 
 gratification of every military appetite, Perisabor was 
 REDUCED TO ASHES ; and the engines which assault- 
 ed the citadel were planted on the ruins of the smok- 
 ing houses. ''"'■f When, in after ages, the Romans, 
 under Heraclius, penetrated to the royal seat of Des- 
 tagered, and spread over Chaldea to the gates of 
 Ctesiphon, " whatever could not be easily transport- 
 ed, thei/ consjimed tvithjire, that Chosroes might feel 
 the anguish of those wounds, which he had so often 
 inflicted on the provinces of the empire ; and justice 
 might allow the .excuse," says Gibbon, " if the de- 
 solation had been confined to the works of regal lux- 
 ury, if national hatred, military license, and religious 
 zeal, had not wasted with ecjual irtge the habitations 
 and the temples of the guiltless subjects. ""I — The 
 fierce Abassides, proverbially reckless of committing 
 murder, which was the very work that their mission- 
 aries went forth to execute, long reigned over Chal- 
 dea ; and Bagdad, its new capital, distant about 
 fifteen miles from Seleucia and Ctesiphon, was their 
 imperial seat for five hundred years. § — " Their dag- 
 gers, their only arms, were broken by the sword of 
 
 " Gibbon, v. ii. c. xxiv.p. 374. + lb. v. ii. p. 361. 
 
 J lb. c. 46, V. iv. p. 441. $ lb. c. 51, vol. v. p. 338.
 
 BABYLON. 265 
 
 Holagou, and except the word assassin, not a vestige 
 is left of the enemies of mankind,''''* — for again and 
 again has it proved true of the land of Chaldea — / 
 will destroy the sinners thereof out of it. The Mo- 
 gul Tartars succeeded as the guilty possessors and 
 cruel desolators of the land of Babylon. " Bagdad, 
 after a siege of two months, Avas stormed and sacked 
 by the Moguls, under Holagou Khan, the grandson 
 ofGhengis Khan."-f* And Tamerlane, another greaf 
 kiyig, "reduced to his obedience the whole course of 
 the Tigris and Euphrates, from the mouth to the 
 sources of these rivers ; and he erected on the ruins 
 of Bagdad a pyramid of ninety thousand heads.";); 
 Finally, not with abated, but if possible, w'ith in- 
 creasing or with more persevering cruelty, the Turks, 
 aided by Saracens, Coords and Tartars, have become 
 the weapons of the indignation of the Lord, brought 
 forth out of his armory "which he hath opened ; for 
 — fearful as a token of judgment, and clear as the 
 testimony of truth — tliis is the work of the Lord God 
 of Hosts in the land of the Chaldeans — Waste and 
 utterli/ destroi/ after them. A sword is npon the 
 Chaldeans. A sound of battle is in the land, and of 
 great destruction. I will kindle a fire in his cities, 
 and it shall devour all round about him. A 
 sound of great destruction cometh from the land of 
 the Chaldeans. 
 
 Arid Chaldea shall be a spoil ; all that spoil her 
 shall be satisfied, saith the Lord. Come against her 
 from the 7itmost border, open her storehouses. A sword 
 is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed. thou 
 that dwellestupon mani/ waters, abv^bai^t in treasures, 
 thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetotisness. 
 On taking Babylon suddenly and by surprise, Cyrus 
 
 * Gibbon, c. 64, vol. vi. p. 278. f Ibid. 
 
 t lb. c. 65, vol. vi. pp. 312, 322. 
 
 N
 
 266 BABYLON. 
 
 became immediately possessed of the treasures of 
 darkness, and hidden riches of secret places. On his 
 first publicly appearing in Babylon, all the officers of 
 his army, both of the Persians and allies, according 
 to his command, wore very splendid robes, those be- 
 longing to the superior officers being of various co- 
 lours, all of the finest and brightest dye, and richly 
 embroidered with gold and silver ; and thus the 
 hidden riches of secret places were openly displayed. 
 And when the treasures of Babylon became the spoil 
 of another great king, Alexander gave six mino' 
 (about L.15) to each Macedonian horseman, to each 
 INIacedonian soldier and foreign horseman two mi- 
 na^ (h.5), and to every other man in his army, a 
 donation equal to two months'' pay. Demetrius or- 
 dered his soldiers to plunder the land of Babylon for 
 fheir own use.* But it is not in these instances 
 alone that Chaldea has been a spoil, and that all who 
 spoil her have been satisfied. It was the abundance 
 of her treasures which brought successive spoliators. 
 IMany nations cam.e from afar, and though they re- 
 turned to their own country, (as in formerly besieging 
 Babylon, so in continuing to despoil the land of 
 Chaldea,) none returned in vain. From the richness 
 of the country new treasures were speedily stored up, 
 till again the sword come upon them, and they were 
 robbed. The prey of the Persians and of the Greeks 
 for nearly two centuries after the death of Alexander, 
 Chaldea became afterwards the prey chiefly of the 
 Parthians, for an equal period, till a greater nation, 
 the Romans, came from the coasts of the earth to pil- 
 lage it. To be restrained from dominion and from 
 plunder, was the exciting cause, and often the shame- 
 less plea, of the anger and fierce wrath of these fam- 
 ed, but cruel, conquerors of the world. Yet within 
 
 * Plutarch, Life of Demetrius. 
 6
 
 BABYLON. 267 
 
 tlie provinces of their empire, it was their practice, 
 on the submission of the inhabitants, to protect and 
 not to destroy. But Chaldea, from its extreme dis- 
 tance, never having yielded permanently to their 
 yoke, and the limits of their empire having been 
 fixed by Hadrian on the western side of the Euph- 
 rates, or on the very borders of Chaldea, that hap- 
 less country obtained not their protection, though re- 
 peatedly the scene of ruthless spoliation by the Ro- 
 mans. The authority of Gibbon, in elucidation of 
 Scripture, cannot be here distrusted any more than 
 that of heathen historians. To use his words, "a 
 hundred thousand captives, and a rich booty, re- 
 warded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers,"* when 
 Ctesiphon was taken, in the second century, by the 
 generals of Marcus. Even Julian, who, in the 
 fourth century, was forced to raise the siege of 
 Ctesiphon, came not in vain to Chaldea, and failed 
 not to take of it a spoil ; nor, though an apostate, 
 did he fail to verify by his acts the truth which he 
 denied. After having given Perisabor to the flames, 
 '• the plentiful magazines of corn, of arms, and of 
 splendid furniture, were partly distributed among the 
 troops, and partly reserved for the public service ; 
 the useless stores were destroyed by fire, or thrown 
 into the streams of the Euphrates. '"'"j* Having also 
 rewarded his army with a hundred pieces of silver, 
 to each soldier, he thus stimulated them (when still 
 dissatisfied) to fight for greater spoil — " Riches are 
 the object of your desires .'' those riches are in the 
 hands of the Persians, and the spoils of this fruit- 
 ful country are proposed as the prize of your valour 
 and discipline. ""j The enemy being defeated after 
 
 * Gibbon, c. viii. v. i. p. 211. 
 + lb. c. xxiv. V. ii. p. 3G1. 
 X lb. p. 364. 
 
 6
 
 2C'8 BABYLON. 
 
 an arduous conflict, " the spoil was such as might 
 be expected from the riches and hixury of an oriental 
 camp ; large quanlitks of silver and gold, splendid 
 arms and trappings, and beds and tables of massy 
 Silver. " 
 
 When the Romans under Heraclius, ravaged 
 Chaldea, " though much of the treasvn-e had been 
 removed from Uestagered, and much had been ex- 
 pended, the remairdng wealth appears to have ex- 
 ceeded, their hopes, and even to have satiated their 
 avarice."*!' 
 
 While the deeds of Julian and the words of Gib- 
 bon show how Chaldea was spoiled — how a sword 
 continued to be on her treasures — and how, i/car 
 after year, and age after age, there was rumour on 
 rumour, and violence in her land, and that all that 
 spoil her would be satisfied — more full illustrations 
 remain to be given of the truth of the same pro- 
 phetic word. And as a painter of great power may 
 cope with another by drawing as closely to the life 
 as he, though the features be different, so Gibbon\s 
 description of the sack of Ctesiphon, as previously 
 he had described the sack and conflagration of Se- 
 Jeucia, (cities, each of which may aptly be called 
 " the daughter of Babylon,'''' having been, like it, 
 the capital of Chaldea,) is written as if, by the most 
 graphic representation of facts, he had been aspiring 
 to rival Volney as an illustrator of Scripture pro- 
 phecy. " The capital was taken by assault ; and 
 the disorderly resistance of the people gave a keener 
 edge to the sahjrs of the Moslems, who shouted with 
 religious transport, ' This is the Avhite palace of 
 Chosroes ; this is the promise of the apostle of God.' 
 The naked robbers of the desert were suddenly cn- 
 
 * Gibboiij p. 3G9. f Ibid.
 
 BABYLON. 269 
 
 riched hcT/ojid (he measure of their hope or know- 
 ledge. JEach chamber revealed a new treasure, 
 secreted with art, or ostentatiously displayed ; the 
 gold and silver, the various wardrobes and precious 
 furniture, surpassed (says Abultbda) the estimate of 
 fancy or numbers ; and another historian defines the 
 untold and almost infinite mass by the fabulous 
 computation of three thousands of thousands of 
 thousands of pieces of gold. One of the apartments 
 of the palace was decorated v,ith a carpet of silk 
 sixty cubits in length, and as many in breadth, 
 (90 feet) ; a paradise, or garden was depicted on 
 the ground ; the flowers, fruits, and shrubs were 
 imitated by the figures of the gold embroidery, and 
 the colours of the precious stones ; and the ample 
 square was encircled by a variegated and verdant 
 border. The rigid Omar divided the prize among 
 his brethren of I\Iedina ; the picture was destroyed ; 
 but such was the intrinsic value of the materials, that 
 the share of Ali alone was sold for ,20.000 drachms. 
 A mule that carried away the tiara and cuirass, the 
 belt and bracelets of Chosroes, was overtaken by the 
 pursuers ; the gorgeous trophy was presented to the 
 commander of the faithl'ul, and the gravest of the 
 companions condescended to smile when they beheld 
 the white beard, hairy arms, and uncouth figure of 
 the veteran v,ho was invested with the spoil of the 
 fjreat kinff.''* 
 
 Recent evidence is not wanting to show, that, 
 wherever a treasure is to be found, a sword, in the 
 hand oi a. fierce enemy, is upon it, and spoliation has 
 not ceased in the land of Chaldea. 
 
 " On the west of Hillah, there are two towns, which, 
 in the eyes of the Persians and all the Shiites, are ren- 
 dered sacred by the memory of two of the greatest 
 
 * Gibboii; c. li. pp. 111,451.
 
 270 BABYLON. 
 
 martyrs of that sect. " These are Meshed Ali and 
 Meshed Housein, lately filled with riches, accumu- 
 lated hy the devotion of the Persians, but carried off' 
 by the Jh'ocious Wahabees to the middle of their de- 
 serts.'"'* 
 
 And, after the incessant spoliation of ages, now 
 that the end is come of the treasures of Chaldea, the 
 earth itself fails not to disclose its hidden treasures, so 
 as to testify that they once were abundant. In proof 
 of this an instance may be given. At the ruins of 
 Hoomania, near to those of Ctesiphon, pieces of silver 
 having, (on the 5th of March 1812.) been accident- 
 ally discovered, edging out of the bank of the Tigris, 
 " on examination, there were found and brought 
 away," by persons sent for that purpose by the Pasha 
 of Bagdad's officers, " between six and seven hundred 
 ingots of silver, each measuring from one to one and 
 a half feet in length ; and an earthen jar, containing 
 upwards of two thousand Athenian coins, all of silver, 
 ^'lany were purchased at the time by the late ]\Ir. 
 Rich, formerly the East India Company's resident at 
 Bagdad, and are now in his valuable collection, 
 since bought by government, and deposited in the 
 British jMuseum."'-|- Amidst the ruins of Ctesiphon 
 " the natives often pick up coins of gold, silver, and 
 copper, for w'hich they always find a ready sale in 
 Bagdad. Indeed, some of the wealthy Turks and 
 Armenians, who are collecting for several French and 
 German consuls, hire people to go and search for 
 coins, medals, and antique gems ; and I am assured 
 they never return to their employers empty-handed,";); 
 — as if all who spoil Chaldea shall be satisfied, till 
 even the ruins be spoiled unto the uttermost. 
 
 * Malte-Brun's Geogr. vol. ii. p. 119. Buckinghim's Tra- 
 vels in Mesopotamia, v. ii. p. 246. 
 
 t Captain Mignau's Travels, p. 53. J Ibid. p. 74,
 
 BABYLON. 271 
 
 The past history of the land of the Chaldeans may- 
 be briefly closed in the language of prophecy ; for the 
 prophets, in their visions, saw it as it is ; although 
 historians knew not, even after its grandeur was par- 
 tially gone, how to tell of its fertility, which they 
 witnessed, and hope to be believed. Those who re- 
 corded the word that the Lord spake against Babylon 
 and against the land of the Chaldeans, had no such 
 fear, though two thousand four hundred years have 
 elapsed since they described what is now only at last 
 to be seen. 
 
 / will pimish the land of the Chaldeans, and will 
 make it perpetual desolations ; cut off the sower from 
 Babi/lon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time 
 of harvest. A drought is on her waters, and they 
 shall be dried up. Behold the hindermost of the na- 
 tions, a dry land and a desert. Her cities are a de- 
 solation, a dry land and a wilderness, a land where 
 no man dwelleth, neither doth son of man pass thereby. 
 I will send unto Babylon fanners that shall fan her, 
 and empty her land. The land shall tremble and sor- 
 row ; for every purpose of the Lord shall be per- 
 formed against Babylon, to make the land of Baby- 
 lon a desolation without an inhabitant. The land of 
 the Chaldeans was to be made perpetual, or long con- 
 tinued desolation. — Ravaged and spoiled for ages, the 
 Chaldees'' excellency finally disappeared, and the land 
 became desolate, as still it remains. Rauwolff, who 
 passed through it in lo'J4!, describes the country as 
 bare, and " so dry and barren that it cannot be till- 
 ed."* And the most recent travellers all concur in 
 describinsx it in similar terms. 
 
 The land of Babylon was to be fanned and emptied. 
 
 * RauwolflTs Travels, in Ray's Collection of Travels, 1693, 
 
 p. le-t.
 
 272 BABYLON. 
 
 — io be a dri/ land, a wilderness, and a desert, Sj-c. — 
 On the one side, near to the site of Opis, " the coun- 
 try all around appears to be one wide desert of sandy 
 and barren soil, thinly scattered over with brushwood 
 and tufts of reedy grass."* On the other, between 
 Bussorah and Bagdad, " immediately on fither bank 
 of the Tigris, is the untrodden desert. The absence 
 of all cultivation, — the sterile, arid, and wild charac- 
 ter of the whole scene, formed a contrast to the rich 
 and delightful accounts delineated in Scripture. The 
 natives, in travelling over these pathless deserts, are 
 compelled to explore their v/ay by the stars.*"*}* " The 
 face of the country is open and flat, presenting to the 
 eye one vast level plain where nothing is to be seen 
 but here and there a herd of half-wild camels. This 
 immense tract is very rarely diversified with any trees 
 of moderate growth, but is an immense v.lld bounded 
 only by the horizon."'''t In the intermediate region, 
 " the whole extent fi-om the foot of the wall of Bag- 
 dad is a barren v^^aste w^ithout a blade of vegetation of 
 any description ;"" on leaving the gates, the traveller 
 has before him " the prospect of a bare desert, — a flat 
 and barren country." — " The whole country between 
 Bagdad and Hillah is a perfectly flat and (with the 
 excej)tion of a few spots as you approach the latter 
 place) uncultivated waste.''''^ " That it was at some for- 
 mer period in a far different state, is evident from the 
 number of canals by which it is traversed, now dri/ 
 and neglected ; and the quantity of heaps of earth 
 covered with fragments of brick and broken tiles, which 
 are seen in every directionj — the indisputable traces 
 
 # Buckinjjham's Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. ii. p. 155. 
 
 iMii;nan's Travels, p. 5. 
 + Ibid. pp. 31, 32. Keppel's Nar. vol.i. p. 260. Bucking-- 
 liam's Travels, p. 2-t2. Kinuier's Memoirs of Persia, p. 279, 
 § Rich's Memoir, p. 4.
 
 BABYLON. 273 
 
 of tormer population. At present the only inhabi- 
 tants of the tract are the Sobeide Arabs."* " Around, 
 as far as the eye can reach, is a trackless desert. ''''■f 
 " The abundance of the country has vanished as clean 
 away as if the ' besom of desolation' had sv/ept it from 
 north to south ; the whole land from the outskirts of 
 Babylon to the farthest stretch of sight lying a melan- 
 choly waste. Not a habitable spot appears for count- 
 less miles."'''! ^^^^ land of Babj/lon is desolate without 
 an inhabitant. The Arabs traverse it ; and every man 
 met with in the desert is looked on as an enemy. 
 Wild beasts have now their home in the land of Chal- 
 dea ; but the traveller is less afraid of them, — even of 
 the lion, — then of " the wilder animal, the desert 
 Arab." The country is frequently " totally impass- 
 able." " Those splendid accounts of the Babylonian 
 lands, yielding crops of grain two or three hundred 
 fold, compared with the modern face of the coun- 
 try, afford a remarkable proof of the singular de- 
 solation to which it has been subjected. The ca- 
 nals at present can only be traced by their decayed 
 banks. "§ 
 
 " The soil of this desert," says Captain Mignan, who 
 traversed it on foot, and who, in a single day, crossed 
 forty water-courses, " consists of a hard clay, mixed 
 with sand, which at noon became so heated with the 
 sun''s rays that I found it too hot to walk over it with 
 any degree of comfort. Those who have crossed those 
 desert wilds, are already acquainted with their dreary 
 tediousness even on horseback : what it is on foot they 
 can easily imagine." || 
 
 * Transactions of the Literary Society, Bombay, vol. i- 
 pp. 12.3, 138. Captain Frederick on tlie State of Babylon. 
 
 t Keppel's Nar. p. 87. 
 
 j Sir K. K. Porter's Travels in Biibylonia, &c. vol. ii. 
 p. 285. 
 
 § Mi^jnans Travels, p. 2. U Ibid. pp. 2, 31—3:1.
 
 0^4 BABYLON. 
 
 Where astronomers first registered eclipses, and 
 iTiarP.ed the motions of the planetary bodies, the na- 
 tives, as m the deserts of Africa, or as the mariner 
 without a compass on the pathless ocean, can now 
 direct their course only by the stars, over the pathless 
 desert of Chaldea. Where cultivation reached its 
 utinost height, and where two hundred fold was stated 
 as the common produce, there is now one wide and 
 uncultivated waste ; and the sower and reaper are cut 
 off from the land of Babylon. Where abundant 
 stores and treasures were laid up, and annually re- 
 newed and increased, yV/Hwers ha\e fmned, and spoil- 
 ers have spoiled them till they have emptied the land. 
 Where labourers, shaded by palm-trees a hundred 
 feet high, irrigated the fields till all was plentifully 
 watered from numerous canals, the wanderer, without 
 an object on which to fix his eye but " stinted and 
 short-lived shrubs," can scai'cely set his foot without 
 pain, after the noon-day heat, on the " arid and 
 parched ground," in plodding his weary way through 
 a desert, a dry land, and a ivilderness. Where there 
 were crowded thoroughfares from city to city, there is 
 now " silence and solitude C for the ancient cities of 
 Chaldea are desolations, — where no man dwelleth, 
 neither doth any son of man pass thereby.^' 
 
 * Sin has wrought desolation in Chaldea, as finally, if un- 
 repented of, it must in any, and in every land. But justice 
 shall yet d\\'ell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain 
 in the fruitful field. And — not in Judea alone, on the re- 
 storation and conversion of all the house of Israel, but 
 throughout all nations, when enlightened by the word of 
 God, and renewed by his Spirit, moved by whom the pro- 
 phets spake, — the ttork of righteousness shall be peace ; and 
 the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever, 
 (Isa. xxxii. 15 — 17) : And it is pleasing to pause for a mo- 
 ment, and to turn from the direful retrospect of sin, judg- 
 ment, and desolation, Avhich the past history of Chaldea 
 holds up to view, to a word of Scripture, (one word, if 
 rightly inteqjreted, is enough,) which, like u bright star
 
 BABYLON. 275 
 
 Her cities are desolations. The course of the Ti- 
 gris through Babylonia, instead of being adorned, 
 as of old, with cities and towns, is marked with the 
 sites of " ancient ruins.""* Sitace, Sabata, Narisa, 
 Fuchera, Sendia, " no longer exist.'''i* A succession 
 of longitudinal mounds, crossed at right angles by 
 others, mark the supposed site of Artemita, or De- 
 stagered. Its once luxuriant gardens are covered 
 with grass ; and a higher mound distinguishes " the 
 royal residence" from the ancient streets. | Exten- 
 sive ridges and mounds (near to Houmania,) varying 
 in height and extent, are seen branching in every di- 
 
 ju the east, shines as the harbinger of a brighter day, after 
 the long night of darkness vihich has rested on that land 
 which was full of wickedness, and therefore has been emptied 
 in judgment. And seemingly commencing convulsions, in 
 the war and the trial of principles, throughout the wide 
 world, that must come, — the rising " hurricane" which, con- 
 trolled by the Lord, shall yet sweep every moral " pesti- 
 lence" from the earth — seem in their beginning, to betoken, 
 that the time may not be distant, when the effect of the 
 vision shall be seen. Then said I to the angel that talked 
 with me, (Zechariah v. 10, \.\ .) ivhither do these bear the 
 ephah ? And he said unto me. To build it an house in the 
 land of Sliinar ; and it shall be established, and set there on 
 its oim base, — in the land of Shinar, but it is not said, in 
 the city of Babylon. Building, establishing, and setting, all 
 appear to be signiticative of blessing — of reconstruction, oa 
 a new base, and not reducible to heaps — and though the 
 previous vision be of judgment, he ^\hose name is The 
 Branch, is immediately after spoken of; and, in "building 
 the temple of the Lord," his office is redemption. But, 
 without a metaphor, it is said, and, without a doubt, it shall 
 prove true — AH the ends of the earth shall see the salvation 
 of the Lord. The whole earth shall rejoice, — the tcilderness 
 and the solitary places shall be glad for them ; and the desert 
 shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. 
 
 * See Chart prefixed to INIajor Keppel's Narrative. 
 
 f Plan of the Environs of Babylon, &c. in Major Ren?, 
 nell's Geographj' of Herodotus, p. 3.35. 
 
 X Keppel's Narrative, v. i. p. "4^1.
 
 278 BAEYLON. 
 
 rection.""* A v.-all, ^YiLh sixteen bastions, is the only 
 memoria] of Apollonia.-f' The once magnificent Se- 
 ieucia is now a scene of desolation. There is not a 
 single building, but the country is strewed for miles 
 with fragments of decayed buildings. " As far,"* 
 says Major Keppel, " as the eye could reach, the ho- 
 rizon presented a broken line of mounds ; the whole 
 of this place was a desert flat.""| On the opposite 
 bank of the Tigris, where Ctesiphon its rival stood, 
 besides fragments of walls and broken masses of brick- 
 work, and' remains of vast structures encumbered 
 with heaps of earth, there is one magnificent mo- 
 nument of antiquity, " in a remarkably perfect state 
 of preservation,""" "a large and noble pile of build- 
 ing, the front of which presents to view a wall 
 three hundred feet in length, adorned with four 
 rows of arched recesses, with a central arch, in span 
 eighty-six feet, and above an hundred feet high, sup- 
 ported by walls sixteen feet thick, and leading to a hall 
 which extends to the depth of one hundred and fifty- 
 six feet," the v.idth of the building. § A great part 
 of the back wall, and of the roof, is broken down ; but 
 that which remains " still appears much larger than 
 Westminster Abbey ."|1 It is supposed to have been 
 the lofty palace of Chosroes ; but there desolation now 
 reigns. " On the site of Ctesiphon, the smallest in- 
 sect under heaven would not fi.nd a single blade of 
 grass wherein to hide itself, nor one drop of water to 
 allay its thirst.''^ In the rear of the palace and 
 attached to it, are mounds two miles in circumference, 
 indicating the utter desolation of buildings, formed 
 to minister to luxury. But, in the words of Captain 
 I\Iignan, " such is the extent of the irregular mounds 
 
 * INlignan's Travels, p. 49. t Kep}^e\ p. 275. 
 
 j Keppel's >'arrative, p. 125. § Ibid. p. 130. 
 
 II Miguaii's Travels; p. 79. % Buck. p. 411.
 
 BABYLON. 277 
 
 and hillocks that overspread the sites of these re- 
 nowned cities, that it would occupy some months to 
 take the bearings and dimensions of" each with accu- 
 racy. * 
 
 \yhile the ancient cities of Chaldea are thus deso- 
 late, the sites of others cannot be discovered, or have 
 not been visited, as none pass thereby ; the roore 
 modern cities, which flourished under the empire of 
 Califs, " are all in ruins."*!* '^'^^ second Bagdad 
 has not indeed yet shared the fate of the first. And 
 Hillah, — a town of comparatively modern date, near 
 to the site of Babylon, but in the gardens of which 
 there is not the least vestige of ruins — yet exists. 
 But the former, " ransacked by massacre, devasta- 
 tion, and oppression, during several hundred years," 
 has been " gradually reduced from being a rich and 
 powerful city to a state of comparative poverty, and 
 the feeblest means of defence."! And of the inha- 
 bitants of the latter, about eight or ten thousand, it 
 is said that " if any thing could identify the modern 
 inhabitants of Hillah as the descendants of the an- 
 cient Babylonians, it would be their extreme pro- 
 fligacy, for which they are notorious even amongst 
 their immoral neighbours."§ They give no sign of 
 rejxintance and reformation to Avarrant the hope that 
 judgment, so long continued upon others, will cease 
 from them ; or that they are the people that shall 
 escape. Twenty years have not passed since towns 
 in Chaldea have been ravaged and pillaged by the 
 Wahabces ; and so lately as 1823, the town of Shehre- 
 ban " was sacked and ruined by the Coords,'^ and 
 reduced to desolation. || Indications of ruined cities, 
 whether of a remote or more recent period, abound 
 throughout the land. The process of destruction is 
 
 * ]Mij,nian's Travels, p. 8 1 . "i- Ibid. p. 82. 
 
 % Sir li. K. Porter's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 265, 2G6. 
 ^ Keppel's Narrative, v. i. 16<?, 183. || Ibid. pp. 272, 278. 
 •i
 
 278 BABYLON. 
 
 still completing. Gardens which studded the banks 
 of the Tigris have very recently disappeared, and 
 mingled with the desert, — and concerning the cities 
 also of Chaldea, the word is true that they are deso- 
 Intions. For " the whole country is strewed over with 
 the debris of Grecian, Roman, and Arabian towns, 
 confounded in the same mass of rubbish."* 
 
 But while these lie in indiscriminate ruins, the 
 chief of the cities of Chaldea, the first in name and 
 in power that ever existed in the world, bears many 
 a defined mark of the judgments of heaven. 
 
 The progressive and predicted decline of Babylon 
 the Great, till it ceased to be a city, has already 
 been briefly detailed. About the beginning of the 
 Christian era a small portion of it was inhabited, and 
 the far greater part was cultivated. "j* It diminished 
 as Seleucia increased, and the latter became the 
 greater city. In the second century nothing but the 
 walls remained. It became gradually a great desert ; 
 and, in the fourth century, its walls, repaired for that 
 purpose, formed an enclosure for wild beasts, and 
 Babylon was converted into a field for the chase — a 
 hunting-place for the pastime of the Persian mo- 
 narchs. The name and the remnant were cut off 
 from Babylon ; and there is a blank, during the in- 
 terval of many ages, in the history of its mutilated 
 remains and of its movildering decay. It remained 
 long in the possession of the Saracens ; and abun- 
 dant evidence has since been given, that every fea- 
 ture of its prophesied desolation is now distinctly 
 visible — for the most ancient historians bore not a 
 clearer testimony to facts confirmatory of the prophe- 
 cies relative to its first siege and capture by Cyrus, 
 than the latest travellers bear to the fulfilment of 
 
 * Malte-Brun's Geography, v. ii. p. 119. 
 I Diod. Sic. torn. ii. p. 35.
 
 BABYLON. 279 
 
 those which refer to its final and permanent ruin. 
 The identity of its site has been completely establish- 
 ed.* And the truth of every general and every par- 
 ticular prediction is now so clearly demonstrated, that 
 a simple exhibition of the facts precludes the possi- 
 bility of any cavil, and supersedes the necessity of any 
 reasoning on the subject. 
 
 It is not merely the general desolation of Babylon 
 — however much that alone would have surpassed all 
 human foresight, — which the Lord declared by the 
 mouth of his prophets. In their vision, they saw not 
 more clearly, nor defined more precisely, the future 
 history of Babylon, from the height of its glory to 
 the oblivion of its name, than they saw and depicted 
 fallen Babylon as now it lies, and as, in the nineteenth 
 century of the Christian era, it has, for the first time, 
 been fully described. ■}* And now when an end has 
 come upon Babylon, after a long succession of ages 
 has wrought out its utter desolation, both the pen and 
 the pencil of travellers, who have traversed and in- 
 spected its ruins, must be combined, in order to de- 
 lineate what the w^ord of God, by the prophets, told 
 from the beginning that that end v.ould be. 
 
 Truth ever scorns the discordant and encumbering 
 aid of error : but to diverge in the least from the 
 most precise facts, would here weaken and destroy the 
 argument; for the predictions correspond not closely 
 with any thing, except alone with the express and 
 literal reality. To swerve from it is, in the same 
 
 * Rennell's Geography of Herodotus, p. 349. Keppel's 
 Narrative, p. 171, 
 
 f Niebuhr, Ives, Irwin, Ottar, Evirs, Thevenot, Delia 
 Valle, Texeira, Edrisi, Abulfeda, and Balbi, were consulted 
 by Major Keunell — to these may now be added — Mr. Rich, 
 Sir Robert Ker Porter, Captain Frederick, the Hon. Major 
 Keppel, Colonel Kinuier, JNIr. Buckingham, and Captaii* 
 Mignan, — most of whom were accompanied by others.
 
 280 BABYLON. 
 
 degree, to vary from them : and any misrepresen- 
 tation would be no less hurtfvd than iniquitous. 
 But the actual fact renders any exaggeration impos- 
 sible, and any fiction poor. Fancy could not have 
 feigned a contrast more complete, nor a destruction 
 greater than that which has come from the Almighty 
 upon Babylon. And though the greatest city on 
 which the sun ever shcie be now a desolate wilder- 
 r'.ess, there is scarcely any spot on earth more clearly 
 defined — and none could be more accurately delineated 
 by the hands of a draftsman — than the scene of Ba- 
 bylon's desolation is set before us in the very v.ords of 
 the prophets ; and no words could now be chosen like 
 unto those, which, for two thousand five hundred years 
 have been its " burden'" — the burden v.-hich now it 
 bears. 
 
 Such is the multiplicity of prophecies and the ac- 
 cumulation of facts, that the very abundance of evi- 
 dence increases the difficulty of arranging, in a con- 
 densed form, and thus appropriating its specific ful- 
 filment to each precise and separate prediction, and 
 many of them may be viewed connectedly. All who 
 have visited Babylon, concur in acknowledging or 
 testifying that the desolation is exactly such as was 
 foretold. They, in general, apply the more promi- 
 nent predictions ; and, in minute details, they some- 
 tivnes unconsciously adopt, without any allusion or 
 reference, the very words of inspiration. 
 
 Babylon is wholly desolate. It has become heaps 
 — it is cut down to the ground — brought down to the 
 grave — trodden on — uninhabited — its foundations fal- 
 len — its walls thrown down, and utterly broken — its 
 loftiest edifices rolled down from the rocks — the gold- 
 en city has ceased — the worms are spread under it, 
 and the worms cover it, &c. There the Arabian 
 pitches not his tent ; there the shepherds make not 
 their folds ; but wild beasts of the desert lie there, and
 
 BABYLON. 281 
 
 their houses are full of doleful creatures, and owls 
 dwell there, &c. It is a possession for the bittern, 
 and a dwelling-place for dragons — a wilderness, a dry 
 land and a desert — -a burnt mountain — pools of water 
 — spoiled — empty — nothing left — utterly destroyed 
 — every one that goeth by it is astonished, &c. 
 
 Babylon shall become heaps. Babylon the glory 
 of kingdoms is now the greatest of ruins. " Immense 
 tumuli of temjples, palaces, and human habitations of 
 every description,'' are everywhere seen, and form 
 " long and varied lines of ruins," which, in some 
 places, " rather resemble natural hills than mounds 
 which cover the remains cf great and splendid edi- 
 fices.''''* Those buildings which were once the labour 
 of slaves and tlie pride of kings, are now mis-shapen 
 heaps of rubbish. " The whole face of the country 
 is covered v.'ith vestiges of building, in some places 
 consisting of brick-walls surprisingly fresh, in others, 
 merely a vast succession 0/ m own Js of rubbish, of such 
 indeterminate figures, variety and extent, as to in- 
 volve the person who should have formed any theory 
 in inextricable con fusion .'"•J* " Long mounds run- 
 ning from north to south, are crossed by others from 
 east to west ;"" and are only distinguished by their 
 form, direction, and number, from the decayed banks 
 of canals. " The greater part of the mounds are 
 certainly the remains of buildings, originally disposed 
 in streets, and crossing each other at right angles."! 
 The more distinct and prominent of these " heaps'" 
 are double, or lie in parallel lines, each exceedmg 
 twenty feet, and " are intersected by cross passages, 
 in such a manner as to place beyond a doubt, the 
 fact of their being rows of houses or streets fallen to 
 decay .''''§ Such was the form of the streets of Baby- 
 
 * Porter's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 294, 297. 
 
 f Rich's Memoirs, p. 2. 
 
 t Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. ii. p. 298. 
 
 § Ibid. p. 299.
 
 282 BABYLON. 
 
 Ion, leading towards the gates ; and such are now the 
 lines of its heaps — " There are also, in some places, 
 two hollow channels, and three mounds, running pa- 
 rallel to each other for a considerable distance, the 
 central mound being, in such cases, a broader and 
 flatter mass than the other two, as if there had been 
 two streets going parallel to each other, the central 
 range of houses which divided them being twice the 
 size of the others, from their being double residences, 
 with a front and door of entrance to face each ave- 
 nue/^* " Irregular hillocks and mounds, formed 
 over masses of ruins, present at every step memorials 
 of the past."*!- 
 
 From the temple of Belus and the two royal pa- 
 laces, to the streets of the city and single dwellings, 
 all have become heaps ; and the only difference or gra- 
 dation now is from the vast and solid masses of ruins 
 which look like mountains, to the slight mound that 
 is scarcely elevated above the plain. Babylon is fallen, 
 literally fallen to such a degree that those who 
 stand on its site and look on numerous parallel mounds, 
 with a hollow space between, are sometimes at a loss 
 to distinguish between the remains of a street or a 
 canal, or to tell where the crowds frequented or where 
 the waters flowed. Babylon is fallen ; till its ruins 
 cannot fall lower than they lie. It is cut down to the 
 s;round. Her foundations are fallen ; and the ruins 
 rest not on them. Its palaces, temples, streets and 
 houses, lie " buried in shapeless heaps.";!: And " the 
 view of Babylon," as taken from the spot, is truly a 
 picture of utter desolation, presenting its heaps to the 
 eye, and showing how, as if literally buried under 
 them, Babylon is brought down to the grave. 
 
 * Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. ii. p. 299. 
 f Mignan's Travels, vol. ii. p. 116. 
 X Porter's Travels, p. 294'.
 
 BABYLON. 283 
 
 Cast her up as heaps. Mr. Rich, in describing a 
 grand heap of ruins, the shape of which is nearly a 
 square of seven hundred yards length and breadth, 
 states that the workmen pierce into it in every direc- 
 tion, in search of bricks, " hollowing out deep ravines 
 and pits, and throwing up the rubbish in heaps on 
 the surface."* " The summit of the Kasr," (sup- 
 posed to have been the lesser palace) is in like man- 
 ner "covered with heaps of rubbish.'''' 
 
 Let nothing of her be left. " Vast heaps consti- 
 tute all that now remains of ancient Babylon.'"-f" All 
 its grandeur is departed ; all its treasures have been 
 spoiled ; all its excellence has utterly vanished ; the 
 very heaps are searched for bricks when nothing else 
 can be found ; even these are not left wherever they 
 can be taken away, and Babylon has for ages been 
 " a quarry above ground," ready to the hand of every 
 successive despoiler. Without the most remote allu- 
 sion to this prophecy, Captain Mignan describes a 
 mound attached to the palace, ninety yards in breadth 
 by half that height, the whole of which is deeply fur- 
 rowed in the same manner as the generality of the 
 mounds. " The ground is extremely soft, and tire- 
 some to walk over, and appears completely exhausted 
 of all its building materials : nothing now is left save 
 one towering hill, the earth of which is mixed with 
 fragments of broken brick, red varnished pottery, tile, 
 bitumen, mortar, glass, shells, and pieces of mother 
 of pearl,"j — worthless fragments, of no value to the 
 poorest. From thence shall she be taken — let nothing 
 of her be left. One traveller, towards the end of last 
 century, passed over the site of ancient Babylon, with- 
 out being conscious of having traversed it.§ 
 
 * Rich's Memoirs, p. 22. f Keppel's Narrative, p. 1&6, 
 t Mignan's Travels, pp. 190, 200. 
 
 § Transactions of the Literary Society at Bombay, v. i. 
 p. 130. Note Cunningham's Journey to India, 1785,
 
 284 BABYLON. 
 
 Bahylon shall be pools of water. While the work- 
 men cast her up as heaps in piling up the rubbish 
 while excavating for bricks, that they may take them 
 from thence, and that nothing may be left ; they la- 
 bour more than trebly in the fulfilment of prophecy, 
 for the numerous and deep excavations form pools of 
 water, on the overflowing of the Euphrates, and, an- 
 nually filled, they are not dried up throughout the 
 year. " Deep cavities are also formed by the Arabs, 
 when disjcring for hidden treasure."* " The ground 
 is sometimes covered with pools of water in the hol- 
 lows, "f 
 
 Sit on the dust, sit on the groiind, O daughter of 
 the Chaldeans. The surface of the mounds, which 
 form all that remains of Babylon, consists of decom- 
 posed buildings, reduced to dust ; and over all the 
 ancient streets and habitations, there is literally no- 
 thing but the dust or the ground on v.'hich to sit. 
 
 Thy nakedness shall be imcovered. " Our path," 
 says Captain Mignan, " lay through the great mass 
 of ruined heaps on the site of ' shrunken Babylon.'' 
 And I am perfectly incapable of conveying an ade- 
 quate idea of the dreary, lonely nakedness that appear- 
 ed before me.'"j 
 
 Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness. There 
 reigns throughout the ruins " a silence profound as 
 the grave."§ Babylon is now a " silent scene, a su- 
 blime solitude."" II 
 
 It shall never be inhabited, nor dwelt in from genera- 
 tion to generation. From Rauwolif 's testimony it ap- 
 pears that in the sixteenth century " there was not a 
 
 * Mignan's Travels, p. 213. 
 
 t Buckingham's Travels, vol. ii. p. 296. Keppel's Travels, 
 vol. i. p. Itb. 
 
 X Mioiiairs Travels, p. 116. 
 
 § Porter's Travels, v. ii- p. 29 1. |j lb. p. 407.
 
 BABYLON. 285 
 
 house to be seen.""* And now " the eye wanders over 
 a barren desert, in which the ruins are nearly the only- 
 indication that it had ever been inhabited.'' " It is im- 
 possible," adds Major Keppel, " to behold this scene 
 and not to be reminded how exactly the predictions of 
 Isaiah and Jeremiah have been fulfilled, even in the 
 appearance Babylon was doomed to present, that she 
 should never he inhabited ; that the ' Arabian should 
 not pitch his tent there ;' that she should ' become 
 heaps ;' that her cities should be « a desolation, a dry 
 land, and a v/ilderness.' "-f* " Babylon is spurned 
 alike by the heel of the Ottomans, the Israelites and 
 the sons of Ishmael.''| It is "a tenantkss and de- 
 solate metropolis.''''§ It shall not be inhabited, but 
 wholli/ desolate. 
 
 Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; neither 
 shall the shepherds make their folds there. It was pro- 
 phesied of Ammonthat it shovild be a stable for camels 
 and a couching-place for ilocks ; and of Philistia, that 
 It should be cottages for shepherds, and a pasture of 
 flocks. But Babylon was to be visited with a far 
 greater desolation, and to become unfit or unsuiting 
 even for such a purpose. And that neither a tent 
 would be pitched there, even by an Arab, nor a fold 
 made by a shepherd, implies the last degree of soli- 
 tude and desolation. " It is common in these parts 
 for shepherds to make use of ruined edifices to shelter 
 their flocks in."!] But Babylon is an exception. 
 Instead of taking the bricks fro7n thence, the shep- 
 herd might with facility erect a defence from wild 
 beasts, and make a fold for his flock amidst the heaps 
 of Babylon ; and the Arab who fearlessly traverses it 
 by day, might pitch his tent by night. But neither 
 the one nor the other could now be persuaded to re- 
 
 * Porter's Travels, v. ii. p. 174. 
 
 t Keppel's Nar. vol. i. p. 197. t Mignan's Travels, p. 108, 
 
 § Ibid. 234. II Ibid. p. 235.
 
 286 BABYLON. 
 
 main a single night among the ruins. The super- 
 stitious dread of evil spirits, far more than the na- 
 tural terror of the wild beasts, effectually prevents 
 them. Captain ISIignan was accompanied by six 
 Arabs, completely armed, but he "• could not induce 
 them to remain towards night, from the apprehension 
 of evil spirits. It is impossible to eradicate this idea 
 from the minds of these people, who are very deeply 
 imbued with superstition."" And when the sun sunk 
 behind the Mujelibe, and the moon would have still 
 lighted his way among the ruins, it was with infinite 
 regret that he obeyed " the suvwiojis of his guides.''''* 
 "■ AH the people of the country assei't that it is ex- 
 tremely dangerous to approach this mound after night- 
 fall, on account of the m.ultitude of evil spirits by 
 which it is haunted."'''-f- JVeither shall the Arabian 
 pitch tent there ; neither shall the shepherds make 
 their folds there. But 
 
 IVild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their 
 houses shall be full of doleful creatiires ; and owls shall 
 dwell there., and satTjrs (goats) shall dance there., SfC. 
 " There are many dens of wild beasts in various parts. 
 There are quantities of porcupine quills"' (kephud ?). 
 And while the lower excavations are often pools of 
 water, " in most of the cavities are numbers of bats 
 and owls.""^ " These souten-ains (caverns) over which 
 the cham.bers of majesty may have been spread, are 
 now the refuge of jackalls and other savage animals. 
 The iTHDUths of their entrances are strewed with the 
 bones of sheep and goats ; and the loathsome smell 
 that issues from most of them is sufficient warning 
 not to proceed into the den.'"§ The king of the forest 
 now ranges over the site of that Babylon which Ne- 
 buchadnezzar built for his own glory. And the tem- 
 
 « Travels, pp. 201, 23o. 
 
 f Rich's Mem. p. 27. Buckingham's Travels, v. ii. p. 397. 
 
 X Ibid. p. 30. § Sir R. K. Porters Travels, v. ii. p. 342.
 
 BABYLON. 287 
 
 ])\e of Belus, the greatest work of man, is now like 
 unto a natural den of lions. " Two or three majes- 
 tic lions" were seen upon its heights, by Sir Robert 
 Ker Porter, as he was approaching it ; and " the 
 broad prints of their feet were left plain in the clayey 
 soil."* Major Keppel saw there a similar foot-print 
 of a lion. It is also the unmolested retreat of jack- 
 alls, hyenas, and other noxious animals.-j- Wild 
 beasts are " numerous" at the Muj'elibe, as well as 
 on Birs Nimrood. " The mound was full of lar^e 
 holes ; we entered some of them, and found them 
 strewed with the carcasses and skeletons of animals re- 
 cently killed. The ordure of wild beasts was so 
 strong that prudence got the better of curiosity, for 
 we had no doubt as to the savage nature of the in- 
 habitants. Our guides, indeed, told us that all the 
 ruins abounded in lions and other wild beasts ; so li- 
 terally has the divine prediction been fulfilled, that 
 wild beasts of the desert should lie there, and their 
 houses be full of doleful creatures ; that the wild beast 
 of the islands should cry in their desolate houses.''";J: 
 
 The sea is come ujion Babylon. She is covered icith 
 the multitude of the waves thereof. The traces of the 
 western bank of the Euphrates are now no longer dis- 
 cernible. The river overflows unrestrained ; and the 
 very ruins, " with every appearance of the embank- 
 ment," have been swept away. " The ground there 
 is low and marshy, and presents not the slightest ves- 
 tige of former buildings, of any description whatever."^ 
 " Morasses and ponds tracked the ground in various 
 parts. For a long time after the general subsiding of 
 the Euphrates, great part of this plain is little better 
 
 * Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, p. 387. 
 t Kiunier's Memoirs, p. 279, 
 f Keppel's Narrative, vol. i. pp. 179, 180. 
 § Buckingham's Travels, vol. ii. p. 278.
 
 288 BABYLON. 
 
 than a swamp," &:c.* " The ruins of Babylon are 
 then immdated, so as to render many parts of them 
 inaccessible, by converting the vallies among them 
 into morasses.""*!* But while Babylon is thus covered 
 with the vndtitude of waves and the waters come upon 
 it, yet, in striking contrast and seeming contradiction 
 to such a feature of desolation, (like the formation of 
 2)ools of water, from the casting up of heaps) at all 
 times the elevated sun-burnt ruins, which the waters 
 do not overflow, and generally throughout the year, 
 the " dry waste and parched and burning plain,"'''t 
 on which the heaps of Babylon lie, equally prove that 
 it is a desert, a dry land, and a 7i-ildcrness. One 
 part, even on the western side of the river, is " low 
 and marshy, and another an arid desert. "'§ 
 
 It shall never he inhabited. It shall be utterly deso- 
 late. *' Ruins composed, like those of Babylon, of 
 heaps of rubbish impregnated with nitre, cannot be 
 cultivated.'" 11 " The decomposing materials of a Ba- 
 bylonian structure doom the earth on which they per- 
 ish to lasting sterility. — On this part of the plain, both 
 where traces of buildings were left, and where none 
 had stood, all seemed equally naked of vegetation ; the 
 whole ground appearing as if it had been washed over 
 and over again, by the coming and receding waters, 
 till every bit of genial soil was swept away ; its half- 
 clay, half-sandy surface being left in ridgy streaks, 
 like what is often seen on the flat shores of the sea 
 after the retreating of the tide."^ Babylon, which 
 in its pride did say, I shall be a lady for ever, is no 
 more called the lady of kingdoms, but is desolate for 
 ever. 
 
 • Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 389, 390. 
 
 f Rich's Memoir, p. 13. 
 
 J Buckingham's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 302, 305. 
 
 $ Mignan's Travels, 139, Plan. || Rich's Memoir, p. 16. 
 
 1l Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, vol. ii. p. 392.
 
 BABYLON. 289 
 
 Bel boweth down. The temple of Belus or Baal, 
 here evidently spoken of, Avas a stadium, or furlong, 
 in height, computed by TJajor Rennell at five hun- 
 dred, and by Prideaux at six hundred feet. By the 
 lowest computation it was higher than the greatest of 
 the pyramids. The highest of the heaps which now 
 constitute fallen Babylon, is the Birs Nimrood, gene- 
 rally supposed to have been the temple of Belus. The 
 heap occupies a larger space of ground than that on 
 which the temple stood, having spread, in Hilling down, 
 beyond its original base. It rests not now upon its 
 ancient foundations, but lies upon the earth, an enor- 
 mous mass of ruin. " At first sight it presents the 
 appearance of a hill, with a castle at the top,"* so as 
 not only to deceive the eye in beholding it at a dis- 
 tance, or in looking on its picture ; but, "incredible as 
 it may seem, the ruins on the summit of it are actually 
 those spoken of by Pere Emanuel, who takes no sort 
 of notice of the prodigious mound on which they are 
 elevated. It is almost needless to observe, that the 
 whole of the mound is itself a ruin ;"'•]* and it is alto- 
 gether needless to add another word, to show that it 
 is bowed down, as may be seen by the sketch here in- 
 serted, of the comparative ancient and modern height 
 annexed to the plan of Birs Nimrood, in Sir Robert 
 K. Porter's Travels. | 
 
 * Mignan's Travels, p. 192. f Rich's Memoir, p. 37. 
 ■jf. Vol. ii. p. 323.
 
 290 BABYLON. 
 
 Mevafion- cf^irsJVcmrooci (JVorthfaoe) 
 Clccordingr to ^trabo a?icl Herodabus 
 
 I f}^ —^ T heDotteclZines 
 
 I ,.-' — ---,. IShow iheTrtsevi 
 
 I y'' _ ^>^ Remains 
 
 SuJlhoSBJi^ - ...V--- — '\1 
 
 Entrance . St-'""' | \J 
 
 600 J'eet- 
 
 JPZan qf^irs JYlmrood 
 
 Bel is confounded. Originally constructed of eight 
 successive towers, one rising above another, it is now 
 consolidated into one irregular hill, presenting a dif- 
 ferent aspect, and of different altitudes on every side, 
 — a confused and misshapen mass. " The eastern 
 face presents two stages of hill ; the first showing an 
 elevation of about sixty feet cloven in the middle into 
 a deep ravine, and intersected in all directions by fur- 
 rows channelled there by the descending rains of suc- 
 ceeding ages. The summit of this first stage stretches 
 in rather a flattened sweep to the base of the second 
 ascent, which springs out of the first in a steep and 
 abrupt conical form, terminated on the top by a soli- 
 tary standing fragment of brick-work, like the ruin of 
 a tower. From the foundation of the whole pile to the 
 base of this piece of ruin, measures about two hundred 
 feet ; and from the bottom of the ruin to its shattered
 
 BABYLON. 291 
 
 top, are thirty-five feet. On the western side, the 
 entire mass rises at once from the plain in one stu- 
 pendous, though irregular, pyramidal hill, broken, in 
 the slopes of its sweeping acclivities, by the devasta- 
 tions of time and rougher destruction. The southern 
 and northern fronts are particularly abrupt."* Such, 
 and so confounded is now the temple of Belus. 
 
 / will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee 
 doam from the rocks, and will make thee a hurnt- 
 mountain. On the summit of the hill are " immense 
 fragments of brick-work of no determinate figures, 
 tumbled together, and converted into solid vitrified 
 masses. "-[• " Some of these huge fragments mea- 
 sured twelve feet in height, by twenty-four in circum- 
 ference ; and from the circumstance of the standing 
 brick-work having remained in a perfect state, the 
 change exhibited in these is only accountable from 
 their having been exposed to the fiercest fire, or ra- 
 ther, scathed hy lightning. ''''\ "They are completely 
 molten — a strong presumption that fire was used in 
 the destruction of the tower, which in parts resembles 
 what the Scriptures prophesied it should become, « a 
 burnt mountain.' In the denunciation respecting 
 Babylon, fire is particularly mentioned as an agent 
 against it. To this Jeremiah evidently alludes, vvheli 
 he says that it should be, ' as when God overthrew 
 Sodom and Gomorrah,' on which cities it is said, « the 
 Lord rained brimstone and fire.' — ' Her high gates 
 shall be burned with fire, and the people shall labour 
 in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be 
 weary.' "§ " In many of these immense unshapen 
 masses, might be traced the gradual effects of the 
 
 * Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, vol. ii. p. 310. 
 
 "f Rich's Memoir, p. 36. 
 
 t Mignan's Travels, p. 207. 
 
 § Keppel's Narrative, pp. 191, 193.
 
 292 BABYLON. 
 
 consuming power, which had produced so remarkable 
 an appearance ; exhibiting parts burnt to that varie- 
 gated dark hue, seen in the vitrified matter lying 
 about in glass manufactories ; while, through the 
 whole of these awful testimonies of the fire (whatever 
 fire it was !) which, doubtless, hurled them from their 
 original elevation,'''' (I will roll thee down from the 
 rocksf) " the regular lines of the cement are visible, 
 and so hardened in common with the bricks, that 
 when the masses are struck they ring like glass. On 
 examining the base of the standing wall, contiguous 
 to these huge transmuted substances, it is found to- 
 lerably free from any similar changes, in short, quite 
 in its original state ; hence," continues Sir Robert Ker 
 Porter, " I draw the conclusion, tliat the consuming 
 power acted from above, and that the scattered ruin 
 fell from some higher point than the summit of the 
 present standing fragment. The heat of the fire 
 which produced such amazing effects, must have burn- 
 ed with the force of the strongest furnace ; and from 
 the general appearance of the cleft in the wall, and 
 these vitrified masses, 1 should be induced to attribute 
 the catastrophe to lightning from heaven. Ruins, 
 by the explosion of any combustible matter, would 
 have exhibited very different appearances."* 
 
 " The fallen masses bear evident proof of the oper- 
 ation of fire having been continued on them, as well 
 after they were broken down as before, since every 
 part of their surface has been so equally exposed to 
 it, that many of them have acquired a rounded form, 
 and in none can the place of separation from its ad- 
 joining one be traced by any appearance of superior 
 freshness, or any exemption from the influence of the 
 destroying flame. ""|* 
 
 * Sir Robert Ker Porter's Travels, vol. il. pp. 312, 313. 
 •f Buckiugham's Travels, vol. ii- p. 375.
 
 1?3 O ]( 
 
 iniil !«lNiiilliillllllillinHiniir[[;i«ijIllllllllllJ||i|liliijiii|_iillE!._
 
 I 
 
 I
 
 BABYLON. 293 
 
 The high gates of the temple of Belus, which were 
 standing in the time of Herodotus, have heen hurnt 
 withjirc ; the vitrified masses which fell when Bel 
 bowed doicn, rest on the top of its stupendous ruins. 
 The hand of the Lord has been stretched npon it ; it 
 has heen rolled down from the rocks, and has been 
 made a burnt mountain, — of which it was farther pro- 
 phesied, 
 
 Thej/ shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor 
 a stone for foundations, but thou shalt be desolate for 
 ever, saith the Lord. The old wastes of Zion shall be 
 built ; its former desolations shall be raised up ; and 
 Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, 
 even in Jerusalem. But it shall not be with Bel as 
 with Zion, nor with Babylon as with Jerusalem. For 
 as the " heaps of rubbish, impregnated with nitre,'' 
 which cover the site of Babylon, " cannot be culti- 
 vated,"* so the vitrified masses on the summit of 
 Birs Nimrood cannot be rebuilt. Though still they 
 be of the hardest substance, and indestructible by the 
 elements, and though once they formed the highest 
 pinnacles of Belus, yet incapable of being hewn into 
 any regular form, they neither are, nor can now be 
 taken for a corner or for foundations. And the 
 bricks on the solid fragments of wall, which rest on 
 the summit, though neither scathed nor molten, are 
 so firmly cemented, that, according to Mr. Rich, " it 
 is nearly iinpossible to detach any of them whole,''"]** 
 or as Captain JMignan still more forcibly states, " they 
 are so firmly cemented, that it is utterly impossible 
 to detach any of them.":}: " My most violent at- 
 tempts," says Sir Robert Ker Porter, " could not 
 separate them,"§ and Mr. Buckingham, in assign- 
 ing reasons for lessening the wonder at the total dis- 
 
 * Rich's Memoir, p. 16. f Ibid. p. 36. 
 
 J Mignaii's Travels, p. 206. § Travels, vol. ii. p. 31 1.
 
 29 i BABYLON. 
 
 appearance of the walls at this distant period, and 
 speaking of the Birs Nimrood generally, observes, 
 " that the burnt bricks (the only ones sought after) 
 which are found in the Mujelibe, the Kasr, and the 
 Birs Nimrood, the only three great monuments in 
 which there are any traces of their having been used, 
 are so difficult, in the two last indeed so impossible, to 
 be extracted whole, from the tenacity of the cement in 
 which they are laid, that they could never have been 
 resorted to while any considerable portion of the walls 
 existed to furnish an easier supply ; even now, though 
 some portion of the mounds on the eastern bank of 
 the river" (the Birs is on the w-estern side) " are oc- 
 casionallv dug into for bricks, they are not extracted 
 without a comparatively great expense, and very few 
 of them whole, in proportion to the great number of 
 fragments that come up with them.'"* Around the 
 tower there is not a single whole brick to be seen.-f* 
 
 These united testimonies, given without allusion 
 to the prediction, afford a better than any conjectural 
 commentary, such as previously was given without 
 reference to these facts. 
 
 ^^lliIe of Babylon, in 'general, it is said that it 
 would be taken from thence ; and while, in many 
 places nothing is left, yet, of the burnt mountain, 
 which forms an accumulation of ruins enough in macj- 
 nitude to build a city, men do not take a stone for 
 foundations nor a stone for a corner. Having under- 
 gone the action of the fiercest fire, and being com- 
 pletely molten, the masses on the summit of Bel, on 
 which the hand of the Lord has been stretched, can- 
 not be reduced into anv other form or substance, nor 
 be built up again by the hand of man. And the 
 tower of Babel, afterwards the temple of Belus, which 
 
 '" Bucking-ham's Travels, vol. ii. p. 332. 
 t Porter's Travclsj voL ii. p. 329.
 
 BABYLON. 295 
 
 witnessed the first dispersion of mankind, shall itself 
 be witnessed by the latest generation, even as now it 
 stands, desolate for ever, — an indestructible raonu- 
 ment of human pride and folly, and of divine judg- 
 ment and truth. The greatest of the ruins, as once 
 of the edifices of Babylon, is rolled down into a vast, 
 indiscriminate, cloven, confounded, useless, and 
 blasted mass, from which fragments might be hurled 
 with as little injury to the ruined heap, as from a 
 bare and rocky mountain"'s side. Such is the triumph 
 of the word of the living God over the proudest of the 
 temples of Baal. 
 
 Merodach is broken in pieces. Merodach was a 
 name or a title common to the princes and kings of 
 Babylon, of which, in the brief Scriptural references 
 to their history, two instances are recorded, viz. ]SIe- 
 rodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, 
 who exercised the office of government, and Kvil- 
 Merodach who lived in the days of Jeremiah. From 
 Merodach being here associated with Bel, or th« 
 temple of Belus, and from the similarity of their 
 judgments — the one bowed down and confounded, and 
 the other broken in pieces — it may reasonably be in- 
 ferred that some other famous Babylonian building 
 is here also denoted ; while, at the same time, the 
 express identity of the name with that of the kings of 
 Babylon, and even with Evil-lNIerodach, then resid- 
 ing there, it may with equal reason be inferred that, 
 under the name of Merodach, the palace is spoken of 
 by the prophet. And next to the idolatrous temple, 
 as the seat of false worship which corrupted and de- 
 stroyed the nations, it may well be imagined that the 
 royal residence of the despot who oppressed the people 
 of Israel, and made the earth to tremble, would be 
 selected as the marked object of the righteous judg- 
 ments of God. And secondary only to the Birs Nim- 
 rood, in the greatness of its ruins, is the Mujelibe,
 
 20()- BABYLON. 
 
 or Makloube, generally understood and described by 
 travellers as the remains of the chief palaces of Baby- 
 lon. 
 
 The palace of the king of Babylon almost vied 
 with the great temple of their God. And there is 
 now some controversy, in which of the principal 
 mountainous heaps the one or the other lies buried. 
 But the niter desolation of both leaves no room for 
 any debate on the question, — which of the twain is 
 bowed down and confounded, and which of them is 
 broken in pieces. 
 
 The two palaces, or castles, of Babylon were strong- 
 ly fortified. And the larger was surrounded by three 
 walls of great exteiit.* When the city was suddenly 
 taken by Demetrius, he seized on one of the castles 
 by surprise, and displaced its garrison by seven thou- 
 sand of his own troops, whom he stationed within 
 it.^ Of the other he could not make himself m.astcr. 
 Their extent and strength, at a period of three hun- 
 dred years after the delivery of the ])rophecy, are thus 
 sufficiently demonstrated. The solidity of the struc- 
 ture of the greater, as well as of the lesser palace, might 
 have warranted the belief of its unbroken durability 
 for a^es. And never was there a buildin-j whose 
 splendour and magnificence were in greater contrast 
 to its present desolation. The vestiges of the walls 
 which surroimded it are still to be seen, and serve 
 with other circumstances to identify it with the Mu- 
 jelibe, as the name Merodach is identified with the 
 palace. It is broken in pieces, and hence its name 
 Mujelibe, signifying overturned, or turned upside 
 down. Its circumference is about half a mile ; its 
 height one hundred and forty feet. But it is " a mass 
 of confusion, none of its members beinjj distinfjuish- 
 
 * Diodor. Sic. lib. ii. Herod, lib. i. c. ISl. 
 -j- Plutarch's Life of Demetrius.
 
 BABYLON. 297 
 
 able.""* The existence of chambers, passages, and 
 cellars, of different forms and sizes, and built of dif- 
 ferent materials, has been fully ascertained. -J- It is 
 the receptacle of wild beasts, and full of doleful crea- 
 tures : wild beasts cry in the desolate houses, and 
 dragons in the pleasant palaces — " venomous reptiles 
 being very numerous throughout the ruins."".! " -^'^ 
 the sides are worn into furrows by the weather, and in 
 some places where several channels of rain have united 
 together, these furrows are of great depth, and pene- 
 trate a considerable way into the mound."''§ " The 
 sides of the ruin exhibit hollows worn parcly by the 
 weather.""!! It is brought down to the grave, to the 
 sides of the fit. 
 
 T/tey that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, 
 and consider thee, saying, is this the man that made the 
 earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms ? Is^ar- 
 rowlj/ to look on and to consider even the view of the 
 Mujelibe, is to see what the palace of Babylon, in 
 which kings, proud as " Lucifer,'"* boasted of exalt- 
 ing themselves above the " stars of God," has now 
 become, and how, cut down to the ground, it is broken 
 in pieces.^ 
 
 * Delia Valle. Buckingham's Travels, vol. ii. p. 273. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 274.. t Miguau's Travels, p. 168. 
 
 § Rich's JNIemoir, p. 29. || Mignaii's Travels, p. 167. 
 
 If By the kindness of Sir Robert Ker Porter's family, in 
 his absence abroad, the author was presented with the ori- 
 ginal drawings of the Birs Kimrood and Mujelibe, for en- 
 gravings, as here inserted. His Travels in Persia, Babylo- 
 nia,^-c. contain four vievvs of each, which show how, on every 
 side, they are bowed down and broken in pieces. Small en- 
 gravings of tiiem are also inserted in Mines de V Orient, Vi- 
 enne; in Rich's Memoirs on the Ruins of Babylon, and in 
 Mr. Buckingliam's Travels. There is a view of each in 
 Captain Miguau's Travels. The curious reader may con- 
 trast the iNIujelibe with Martin's splendid picture of " Bel- 
 shazzar's Feast." The place, no longer a palace, is the same 
 Every child is familiar \\ ith the common picture of the tem- 
 ple of Belus, the ancient niagniMcence of wliiijh could ko:
 
 298 BABYLON". 
 
 " On pacing over the loose stones and fragments 
 of brick-work which lay scattered through the ii;n- 
 mense fabric, and surveying the sublimity of the 
 ruins,"" says Captain Mignan, " I naturally recurred 
 to the time when these walls stood proudly in their 
 original splendour, — when the halls were the scenes 
 of festive magnificence, and when they resounded to 
 the voices of those whom death has long since swept 
 from the earth. This very pile was once the seat of 
 luxury and vice ; now abandoned to decay, and ex- 
 hibiting a melancholy instance of the retribution of 
 heaven. It stands alone ; — the solitary habitation of 
 the goat-herd marks not the forsaken site."* Th^ 
 pomp is bi^ou^ht down to the grave, and the noise of 
 thy viols ; the worms are spread under thee, and the 
 worms cover thee. 
 
 Thou art cast out of thi/ grave like an abominable 
 branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, 
 thrust.through with a sword, that go down to the stones 
 of the pit ; as a carcase trodden under feet. " Several 
 deep excavations have been made in different places, 
 into the sides of the iNIujelibe ; some probably by the 
 wearing of the seasons ; but many others have been 
 dug by the rapacity of the Turks, tearing up its 
 bowels in search of hidden treasure,"'"' — as if the pa- 
 lace of Babylon were cast out of its grave. " Seve- 
 ral penetrate very far into the body of the structure,"''' 
 till it has become as the raiment of those that are 
 slain, thrust through with a sword. " And some it 
 is likely have never yet been explored, the wild beasts 
 of the desert literally keeping guard over them.''''"f* 
 
 well be exair^erated, any more than the faintest resemblance 
 to it could be rocognised in what it now is — the Birs iSim- 
 rood. 
 
 * Mionan's Travels, pp. 172, 173. 
 
 t Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, vol. ii. p. 34.2.
 
 BABYLON. 299 
 
 " The mound was full of large holes"* — thrust 
 through. 
 
 Near to the Mujelibe, on the supposed site of the 
 hanfrinff gardens which were situated within the walls 
 of the palace, " the ruins are so perforated, m conse- 
 quence of the digging for bricks, that the original 
 design is entirely lost. All that could favour any 
 conjecture of gardens built on terraces, are two sub- 
 terranean passages. — There can be no doubt that both 
 passages are of vast extent, they are lined with bricks 
 laid in with bitumen and covered over with large 
 masses of stone. This is nearly the only place where 
 stone is observable/''-^ Arches built upon arches rais- 
 ed the hanging gardens from terrace to terrace, till 
 the highest was on a level with the top of the city 
 walls. Now they are cast out like an abominable 
 branch — and subterranean passages are disclosed, — 
 down to the stones of the pit. 
 
 As a carcase trodden under feet. The streets of 
 Babylon were parallel, crossed by others at right 
 angles, and abounded with houses three and four 
 stories high ;;J: and none can now traverse the site of 
 Babylon, or find any other path, without treading 
 them under foot. The traveller directs his course to 
 the highest mounds ; and there are none, whether 
 temples or palaces, that are not trodden on. The 
 Mujelibe " rises in a steep ascent, over which the 
 passengers can only go up by the winding paths iiorn 
 by frequent visits to the ruined edifice.'"§ 
 
 Her idols are confounded, her images are broken 
 in pieces : all the graven iinages of her gods he hath 
 broken imto the ground^' " This place (says Beau- 
 
 * Keppel's Travels, vol. i. p. 179. 
 ■[" Keppel's Travels, vol. i. p. 205, 
 
 Herod, lib. i. c. 180. 
 
 Buckingham's Travels, vol. ii. p. 258.
 
 £00 BABYLON. 
 
 champ, quoted by Major Rennell), and the mount of 
 Babel, are commonly called by the Arabs Rlakloube, 
 that is, turned topsy-turvy. I was informed by the 
 master mason, employed to dig for bricks, that the 
 places from which he procured them were large thick 
 walls, and sometimes chambers. He has frequently 
 found earthen vessels, engraved marbles, and about 
 eight years ago, a statue as large as life, which he 
 threw anions: the I'ubbish. (3n one v.all of the cham- 
 ber, he found the figure of a cov/, and of the sun and 
 m^oon, formed of varnished bricks. Sometimes idols 
 of clay are found, representing human figures,"* 
 " Small figures of brass or copper are found at Baby- 
 Ion. ""-j- " Bronze antiquities, generally much cor- 
 roded with rust, but exhibiting small figures of men 
 and animals, are often found ainong the ruins. "'';|: 
 
 The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken. 
 They were so broad, that, as ancient historians relate, 
 .six chariots could be driven on them abreast ; or a 
 chariot and four horses might pass and turn. They 
 existed^ as walls, for more than a thousand years after 
 the prophecy was delivered ; and long after the sen- 
 tence of utter destruction had gone forth against them, 
 they were numbered among " the seven wonders of 
 the world."" And what can be more wonderful nov/, 
 cr what could have been more inconceivable by man, 
 when Babylon was in its strength and glory, than that 
 the broad walls of Babylon should be so utterly 
 broken, that it cannot be determined v.ith certainty 
 that even the slightest vestiije of them exists ? 
 
 "All accounts agree,"" says IMr. Rich, "in the 
 height of the walls, which was fifty cubits, having 
 been reduced to these dimensions from the prodigious 
 
 * Rennell's Geography of Herodotus, p. 358. 
 ■f- Iliuh's Second Memoir, p. i8. 
 J iMijjp.aii's Travels, p. 220.
 
 BABYLON. SOI 
 
 height of three hundred and fifty feet," (formerly 
 stated, by the lowest computation of the length of the 
 cubit, at three hundred feet,) " by Darius Hystaspes, 
 after the rebellion of the town, in order to render it 
 less defensible. I have not been fortunate enough to 
 discover the least trace of them in ani/ part of the 
 ruins at Hillah ; which is rather an unaccountable 
 circumstance, considering that they survived the final 
 ruin of the town, long after which they served as an 
 enclosure for a park ; in Avhich comparatively perfect 
 state St. Jerome informs us they remained in his 
 time."'* 
 
 In the sixteenth century they were seen for the last 
 time by an European traveller, (so far as the author 
 has been able to trace,) before they were finally so 
 utterly broken as totally to disappear. And it is in- 
 teresting to mark both the time and the manner in 
 which the walls of Babylon, like the city of which 
 they were the impregnable yet unavailing defence, 
 were brought down to the grave, to be seen no more. 
 
 " The mean w-hile," as Rauwolff describes them, 
 " when we were lodged there, I considered and view- 
 ed this ascent, and found that there were two behind 
 one another,"" (Herodotus states that there was both 
 an inner, or inferior, and outer wall) " distinguished 
 by a ditch, and extending themselves like unto two 
 parallel walls a great way about, and that they were 
 open in some places, where one might go through like 
 gates ; whcrelbre I believe that they were the wall of 
 the old town that went about them ; and that the places 
 where they were open have been anciently the gates 
 (whereof there were one hundred) of that town. And 
 this the rather because I saw in som.e places under the 
 sand (wherewith the two ascents were almost covered) 
 the old wall plainly appear.""-f* 
 
 • Rich's Memoirs, ])p. 4.3, i^. 
 
 + Ray's CoUectiou of Travels, pp. 177, 178.
 
 3 02 BABYLON. 
 
 The cities of Seleucia, Ctesiphon, DestageredjKufa, 
 and anciently many others in the vicinity, together 
 with the more modern towns of Mesched AH, Mes- 
 ched Hussein, and Hillah, " with towns, villages and 
 caravansaries without number,'"* have, in all proba- 
 bility, been chiefly built out of the walls of Babylon. 
 Like the city, the walls have been taken from thence, 
 till none of them are left. The rains of many hundred 
 years, and the waters coming upon them annually by 
 the overflowing of the Euphrates, have also, in all 
 likelihood, washed down the dust and rubbish from 
 the broken and dilapidated walls into the ditch from 
 which they were originally taken, till at last the sand 
 of the parched desert has smoothed them into a plain, 
 and added the place where they stood to the wilder- 
 ness, so that the broad walls of Babylon are utterly/ 
 broken. And now, as the subjoined evidence, sup- 
 pletory of what has already been adduced, fully proves, 
 — it may verily be said that the loftiest walls ever 
 built by man, as well as the " greatest city on which 
 the sun ever shone," which these walls surrounded, 
 and the most fertile of countries, of which Babylon 
 the great was the capital and the glory, — have all 
 been swept by the Lord of Hosts itilh the besom of 
 destruction. 
 
 A chapter of sixty pages in length, of Mr. Buck- 
 ingham's Travels in Mesopotamia, is entitled, " Search 
 after the walls of Babylon." After a long and fruit- 
 less search, he discovered on the eastern boundary of 
 the ruins, on the summit of an oval tnound from seven- 
 ty to eighty feet in height, and from three to four 
 hundred feet in circumference, *' a mass of solid wall, 
 about thirty feet in length, by twelve or fifteen in 
 thickness, yet evidently once of much greater dimen- 
 sions each way, the work being, in its present state, 
 
 * Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, vol. ii. p. 338.
 
 BABYLON. 303 
 
 hrokenanA incomplete in every part :""* and this heap 
 of ruin and fragment of wall he conjectured to be a 
 part — the only part, if such it be, that can be dis- 
 covered — of the walls of Babylon, so nUeriij are they 
 broken. Beyond this there is not even a pretension 
 to the discovery of any part of them. 
 
 Captain Frederick, of whose journey it was the 
 " principal object to search for the remains of the wall 
 and ditch that had compassed Babylon," states, that 
 " neither of these have been seen by any modern tra- 
 veller. All my inquiries among the Arabs," he adds, 
 " on this subject, completely failed in producing the 
 smallest effect. Within the space of twenty-one miles 
 in length, along the banks of the Euphrates, and 
 twelve miles across it in breadth, 1 was unable to per- 
 ceive any thing that could admit of my imagining 
 that either a wall or a ditch had existed within this 
 extensive area. If any remains do exist of the walls, 
 they must have been of greater circumference than is 
 allowed by modern geographers. I may possibly have 
 been deceived ; but I spared no pains to prevent it. 
 1 never was employed in riding and walking less than 
 eight hours for six successive days, and upwards of 
 twelve on the seventh.""!* 
 
 Major Keppel relates, that he and the party who 
 accompanied him, " in common with other travellers, 
 had totally failed in discovering any trace of the city 
 walls," and he adds, " the divine predictions against 
 Babylon have been so literally fulfilled in the appear- 
 ance of the ruins, that I am disposed to give the fullest 
 signification to the words of Jeremiah, — the broad 
 walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken.''''^ 
 
 Babylon shall be an astonishment — Every one that 
 
 " Buckingham's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 306, 307, 
 f Transactions of the Literary Society, Bonibaj^, vol. i. 
 pp. 130, 131. 
 
 + Keppel's Narrative, vol. i. p. 175. Jer. li. 58..
 
 304 BABYLON. 
 
 goeih bj/ Babylon shall be astonished. It is impos- 
 sible . to think on what Babylon was, and to be an 
 eye-witness of what it is, without astonishment. On 
 first entering its ruins. Sir Robert Ker Porter thus 
 expresses his feelings, " I could not but feel an inde- 
 scribable awe in thus passing, as it were, into the 
 gates of fallen Babylon/'* " I cannot pourtray," 
 says Captain Mignan, " the overpowering sensation 
 of reverential awe that possessed ray mind, while 
 contemplating the extent and magnitude of ruin and 
 devastation on every side/'*|* 
 
 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder ! 
 How is Babylon become a desolation among the na- 
 tions ! — The following interesting description has 
 lately been given from the spot. After speaking of 
 the ruined embankment, divided and subdivided 
 again and again, like a sort of tangled net- work, 
 over the apparently interminable ground — of large 
 and wide-spreading morasses — of ancient founda- 
 tions — and of chains of undulated heaps — Sir Ro- 
 bert Ker Porter emphatically adds : — " The whole 
 view was particularly solemn. The majestic stream 
 of the Euphrates, wandering in solitude, like a pil- 
 grim monarch through the silent ruins of his devas- 
 tated kingdom, still appeared a noble river under all 
 the disadvantages of its desert-tracked course. Its 
 banks were hoary with reeds ; and the grey osier wil- 
 lows were yet there on which the captives of Israel 
 hung up their harps, and, while Jerusalem was not, 
 refused to be comforted. But how has the rest of the 
 scene changed since then ! At that time those broken 
 hills were palaces — those long undulating mounds, 
 streets — this vast solitude filled with the busy sub- 
 jects of the proud daughter of the east. — Now wast- 
 ed with misery, her habitations are not to be 
 
 * Sir Robert Ker Porter's Travels, vol. ii. p. 29i. 
 t Mignaii's Travels, p. 117.
 
 BABYLON. 305 
 
 found — and for herself, the worm is spread over 
 herr* 
 
 From palaces converted into broken hills ; — from 
 streets to long lines of heaps ; — from the throne of 
 the world to sittinjr on the dust ; — from the hum of 
 mighty Babylon to the death-like silence that rests 
 upon the grave to which it is brought down ; — from 
 the great storehouse of the world, where treasures 
 were gathered from every quarter, and the prison- 
 house of the captive Jews, where, not loosed to re- 
 turn homewards, they served in a hard bondage, to 
 Babylon the spoil of many nations, itself taken from 
 thence, and nothing left ; — from a vast metropolis, 
 the place of palaces and the glory of kingdoms, 
 whither multitudes ever flowed, to a dreaded and 
 shunned spot, not inhabited nor dwelt in from ge- 
 neration to generation, where even the Arabian, 
 though the son of the desert, pitches not his tent, 
 and where the shepherds make not their folds ; — 
 from the treasvircs of darkness, and hidden riches of 
 secret places, to the taking away of bricks, and to 
 an uncovered nakedness ; — from making the earth 
 to tremble, and shaking kingdoms, to being cast 
 out of the grave like an abominable branch ; — from 
 the many nations and great kings from the coasts of 
 the earth, that have so often come up against Baby- 
 lon, to the workmen that still cast her up as heaps, 
 and add to the number of pools in the ruins ;— from 
 the immense artificial lake, many miles in circum- 
 ference, by means of which the annual rising of the 
 Euphrates was regulated and restrained, to these 
 pools of water, a few yards round, dug by the work- 
 men, and filled by the river ; — from the first and 
 greatest of temples to a burnt mountain desolate for 
 ever ; — from the golden image, forty feet in height, 
 
 " Sir Robert Ker Porter's Travels, v. ii. p. 507.
 
 306 BABYLON. 
 
 which stood on the top of the temple of Belus, to 
 all the graven images of her gods that are broken 
 unto the ground and mingled with the dust ; — from 
 the splendid and luxuriant festivals of Babylonian 
 monarchs, the noise of the viols, the pomp of Bel- 
 shazzar's feast, and the godless revelry of a thousand 
 lords drinking out of the golden vessels that had 
 been taken from Zion, to the cry of wild beasts, the 
 creeping of doleful creatures of which their desolate 
 houses and pleasant palaces are full, the nestling of 
 owls in cavities, the dancing of wild goats on the 
 ruinous mound as on a rock, and the dwelling-place 
 of dragons and of venomous reptiles ; — from arch 
 upon arch, and terrace upon terrace, till the hang- 
 ing gardens of Babylon rose like a mountain, down 
 to the stones of the pit, now disclosed to view ; — 
 from the palaces of princes who sat on the mount of 
 the congregation, and thought in the pride of their 
 hearts to exalt themselves above the stars of God, to 
 heaps cut down to the ground, perforated as the rai- 
 ment of those that are slain, and as a carcase trod- 
 den under feet ; — from the broad walls of Babylon, 
 in all their height, as Cyrus camped against them 
 round about, seeking in vain a single point where 
 con<Tre<Tated nations could scale the walls or force an 
 opening, to the untraceable spot on which they stood, 
 where there is nothing left to turn aside, or impede in 
 their course, the worms that cover it ; — and finally, 
 from Babylon the great, the wonder of the world, to 
 fallen Babylon, the astonishment of all who go by it ; 
 in extremes like these, whatever changes they in- 
 volve, and by whatever instrumentality they may have 
 been wrought out, there is not to this hour, in this 
 most marvellous history of Babylon, a single fact that 
 may not most appropriately be ranked under a pre- 
 diction, and that does not tally entirely with its express 
 and precise fulfilment, while at the same time they all
 
 BABYLON. SO7 
 
 united show, as may now be seen, — reading the judg- 
 ments to the very letter, and looking to the facts as 
 they are, — the destruction which has come from the 
 Almighty upon Babylon. 
 
 Has not every purpose of the Lord been performed 
 against Babylon ? And having so clear illustrations 
 of the facts before us, what mortal shall give a nega- 
 tive ansv/er to the question, subjoined by their omni- 
 scient Author to these very prophecies ? — " Who hath 
 declared this from ancient time ? Who hath told it 
 from that time ? Have not I the Lord ? and there is 
 no god beside me ; — declaring the end from the be- 
 ginning, and from ancient times the things that are 
 not yet done — saying, my counsel shall stand, and I 
 will do all my pleasure.'^ Is it possible that there 
 can be any attestation of the truth of prophecy, if it 
 be not witnessed here ? Is there any spot on earth 
 which has undergone a more complete transforma- 
 tion ? " The records of the human race," it has 
 been said with truth, " do not present a contrast more 
 striking than that between the primeval magnificence 
 of Babylon and its long desolation.'"'* Its ruins have 
 of late been carefully and scrupulously examined by 
 different natives of Britain, of unimpeached veracity, 
 and the result of every research is a inore striking de- 
 monstration of the literal accomplishment of every 
 prediction. How few spots are there on earth of 
 "which we have so clear and faithful a picture, as pro- 
 phecy gave of fallen Babylon at a time when no spot 
 on earth resembled it less than its present desolate so- 
 litary site ! Or could any prophecies respecting any 
 single place have been more precise or wonderful, or 
 numerous, or true, — or more gradually accomplished 
 throughout many generations .'' And when they look 
 at what Babylon was, and what it is, and perceive 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, No. 50, p. 439.
 
 308 TYRE. 
 
 the minvite realization of them all — may not nations 
 learn wisdom — may not tyrants tremble — and may 
 not sceptics think ? 
 
 TYRE. 
 
 Tyre was the most celebrated city of Phoenicia, and 
 the ancient emporium of the world. Its colonies were 
 numerous and extensive. " It was the theatre of an 
 immense commerce and navigation — the nursery of 
 arts and science, and the city of perhaps the most in- 
 dustrious and active people ever known.'^* The king- 
 dom of Carthage, the rival of Rome, was one of the 
 colonies of Tyre. While this mart of nations was in 
 the height of its opulence and power, and at least one 
 hundred and twenty-five years before the destruction 
 of old Tyre, Isaiah pronounced its irrevocable fall. 
 Tyre on the island succeeded to the more ancient city 
 on the continent : and, — being inhabited by the same 
 people, retaining the same name, being removed but 
 a little space, and perhaps occupying in part the same 
 ground, — the fate of both is included in the prophe- 
 cy. The pride and the wickedness of the Tyrians 
 — their exultation over the calamities of the Israel- 
 ites — and their cruelty in selling them to slavery, are 
 assigned as the reasons of the judgments that were to 
 overtake them, or as the causes of the revelation of 
 the destiny of their city. And the whole fate of Tyre 
 was foretold. 
 
 Bishop Newton shows, at length, how the follow- 
 ing prophecies were all exactly fulfilled, as well as 
 clearly foretold, viz. that Tyre was to be taken and 
 destroyed by the Chaldeans, who were, at the time 
 
 * Vohiey's Travels, vol. il. p. 210. Stepli. Die. p. 2039. 
 Mars. Can. Ch. p. 30-1, &c.— Strabo.
 
 TYRE. 309 
 
 of the delivery of the prophecy, an inconsiderable peo- 
 ple, and particularly by Nebuchadnezzar, king of 
 Babylon ; — that the inhabitants should fly over the 
 ]\Iediterranean into the island and countries adjoin- 
 ing, and even then should not find a quiet settle- 
 ment ; that the city should be restored after seventy 
 years, and return to her gain and merchandize ; that 
 the people should in time forsake their idolatry, and 
 become converts to the true religion and worship of 
 God ; — and finally, that the city should be totally 
 destroyed, and become a place only for fishers to spread 
 their nets upon. 
 
 But, instead of reviewing the whole of these, a few 
 of the most striking predictions which were accom- 
 plished after the era of the last of the Old Testament 
 prophets, and the fulfilment of which rests on the most 
 unexceptionable testimony, shall be selected. 
 
 One of the most singular events in history was the 
 manner in which the siege of Tyre was conducted by 
 Alexander the Great. Irritated that a single city 
 should alone oppose his victorious march, enraged at 
 the murder of some of his soldiers, and fearful for his 
 fame, — even his army's despairing of success could not 
 deter him from the siege. And Tyre was taken in a 
 manner, the success of which was more wonderful than 
 the design was daring ; for it was surrounded by a 
 wall one hundred and fifty feet in height, and situat- 
 ed on an island half a mile distant from the shore. 
 A mound was formed from the continent to the island ; 
 and the ruins of old Tyre,* two hundred and forty 
 years after its demolition, afforded ready materials for 
 the purpose. Such was the work, that the attempts 
 at first defeated the power of an Alexander. The 
 enemy consumed and the storm destroyed it. But 
 
 • Mao^ua vis saxorura ad manuin erat, Tyro vetere prce- 
 bente. Quint. Cur. lib. iv. cap. 9. 
 7
 
 310 TYRE. 
 
 its remains, buried beneath the water, formed a bar- 
 rier which rendered successful his renewed efforts. A 
 vast mass of additional matter was requisite. The 
 soil and the very rubbish were gathered and heaped. 
 And the mighty conqueror, who afterwards failed in 
 raising again any of the ruins of Babylon, cast those 
 of Tyre into the sea, and took her very dust* from 
 off her. He left not the remnant of a ruin — and the 
 site of ancient Tyre is now unknown. -f- Who then 
 taught the prophets to say of Tyre — " They shall 
 lay thy stones, and thy limber, and thy dust, in the 
 midst of the water — / ivill also scrafe her dust 
 froyn her. I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt 
 be no more. Thou shalt be sought for, yet thou shalt 
 never be found again.''^\ 
 
 After the capture of Tyre, the conqueror ordered 
 it to be set on fire. Fifteen thousand of the Tyrians 
 escaped in ships. And, exclusive of multitudes that 
 were cruelly slain, thirty thousand were sold into sla- 
 very. Each of these facts had been announced for 
 centuries : — " Behold the Lord will cast her out — he 
 will srnite her power in the sea, and she shall be de- 
 voured with fire. — / will bring forth a fire from 
 the midst of thee — / will bring thee to ashes upon 
 the earth. Pass ye over to Tarshish — pass over to 
 Chittim. The isles that are in the sea shall be troubled 
 at thy departure. — Thou shalt die the death of them 
 that are slain in the midst of the sea. The children 
 of Israel also, and the children of Judah have ye 
 sold. I will return the recompense upon your own 
 head:' 
 
 But it was also prophesied of the greatest commer- 
 
 * Humus aggerabatur, ib. cap. 11. Arrian. de Exp. Al. 
 lib. ii. c. 21— -24. Quint. Cur. lib. iv. c. 7—19. 
 
 -)- Volney's Travels, vol. ii. Pococke's Descrip. of the East, 
 b. i. c. 20. Buckingham's Travels, p. 46. 
 
 * Ezek. xxiv. 4, 12,21. 
 
 6
 
 TYRE. 311 
 
 cial city of the world, whose merchants were princes, 
 = — whose traffickers were thehonourable of the earth : — 
 '' / will make thee like the top of a rock. Thou shall 
 be a place to spread nets vpon.''''^' The same predic- 
 tion is repeated with an assurance of its truth : — " / 
 will make her like the top of a rock ; it shall be a 
 place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, 
 for I have spoken it.''''-f 
 
 Tyre, though deprived of its former inhabitants, 
 soon revived as a city, and greatly regained its com- 
 merce. It was ])opulous and flourishing at the be- 
 ginning of the Christian era. It contained many 
 disciples of Jesus, in the days of the apostles. An 
 elegant temple and many churches were afterwards 
 built there. It was the see of the first archbishop under 
 the patriarch of Jerusalem. Her merchandize and her 
 hire, according to the prophecy, were holiness to the 
 Lord. In the seventh century Tyre was taken by the 
 Saracens. In the twelfth by the Crusaders — at which 
 period it was a great commercial city. The jNIame- 
 lukes succeeded as its masters ; and it has now re- 
 mained for three hundred years in the possession of 
 the Turks. But it was not excluded from among the 
 multitude of cities and of countries whose ruin and 
 devastation, as accomplished by the cruelties and ra- 
 vages of Turkish barbarity and despotism, were fore- 
 told nearly two thousand years before the existence of 
 that nation of plunderers. And although it has more 
 lately, by a brief respite from the greatest oppression, 
 risen somewhat from its ruins, the last of the predic- 
 tions respecting it has been literally fulfilled, accord- 
 ing to the testimony of many witnesses. But that 
 of Maundrell, Shaw, Volney, and Bruce, may suf- 
 fice : — 
 
 " You find here no similitude of that glory for 
 
 Bzek, xxvi. 14, 15. -j- lb. 5.
 
 312 TYRE. 
 
 which it was so renowned in ancient times. You 
 see nothing here but a mere Babel of broken walls, 
 pillars, vaults, &c. Its present inhabitants are only 
 a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the 
 vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing, who seem 
 to be preserved in this place by divine providence, as 
 a visible argument how God hath fulfilled his word 
 concerning Tyre."'''* " The port of Tyre, small as it 
 is at present, is choked up to that degree with sand 
 and rubbish, that the boats of those fishermen who 
 now and then visit this once renowned emporium, 
 and dry their nets upon its rocks and ruins, can with 
 great difficulty only be admitted.""*!- And even Vol- 
 ney, after quoting the description of the greatness of 
 Tyre, and the general description of the destruction 
 of the city, and the annihilation of its commerce, 
 acknowledges that " the vicissitudes of time, or 
 rather the barbarism of the Greeks of the Lower Em- 
 pire and the INIahometans have accomplished this pre- 
 diction. Instead of that ancient commerce, so active 
 and so extensive. Sour, (Tyre,) reduced to a misera- 
 ble village, has no other trade than the exportation 
 of a few sacks of corn and raw cotton ; nor any mer- 
 chant but a single Greek factor, in the service of the 
 French of Saide, who scarcely makes sufficient profit 
 to maintain his family." But though he overlooks 
 the fulfilment of minuter prophecies, he relates facts 
 more valuable tban any opinion, and more corrobora- 
 tive of jbeir truth : — " The whole village of Tyre 
 contains only fifty or sixty poor families, who live 
 obscurely on the produce of their little ground and a 
 triflhig Jishcry. The houses they occupy are no 
 longer, as in the time of Strabo, edifices of three or 
 four stories high, — but wretched huts, ready to crum- 
 
 • Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 82, 
 t Shaw's Travels, vol. ii. p. 31. 
 
 i
 
 EGYPT. 313 
 
 ble into ruins/"* Bruce describes Tyre as " a rock 
 whereon fishers dry their nets,"" 
 
 It matters not by what means these prophecies 
 have been verified ; for the means were as inscrutable, 
 and as impossible to have been foreseen by man, as 
 the event. The fact is beyond a doubt that they have 
 been literally fulfilled — and therefore the prophecies 
 ARE TRUE. They may be overlooked — but no inge- 
 nuity can |iervert them. No facts could have been 
 more unlikely or striking — and no predictions le- 
 sjiecting them could have been more clear. 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 Egypt was one of the most ancient and one of the 
 mightiest of kingdoms, and the researches of the tra- 
 veller are still directed to explore the unparalleled 
 memorials of its power. No nation, whethor of an- 
 cient or of modern times, hath ever erected such great 
 and durable monuments. While the vestiges of other 
 ancient monarchies can hardly be found amidst the 
 mouldered ruins of their cities, those artificial moun- 
 tains, visible at the distance of thirty miles, the py- 
 ramids of Egypt, without a record of their date, have 
 withstood, unimpaired, all the ravages of time. The 
 dynasty of Egypt takes precedence, in antiquity, of 
 every other. No country ever produced so long a 
 catalogue of kings. The learning of the Egyptians 
 was proverbial. The number of their cities, -f* and 
 the population of their country, as recorded by an- 
 cient historians, almost surpass credibility. Nature 
 
 • Volnej^'s Travels, vol. ii. p. 212. 
 f Twenty thousand. — Herod, lib. ii. c. 177. 
 P
 
 314 EGYPT. 
 
 and art united in rendering it a most fertile resrion. 
 It was called the granary of the world. It was di- 
 vided into several kingdoms, and their power often 
 extended over many of the surrounding countries.* 
 Yet the knowledge of all its greatness and glory de- 
 terred not the Jewish prophets from declaring, that 
 Egypt should become a base kingdom, and never ex- 
 alt itself any more among the nations. And the li- 
 teral fulfilment of every prophecy affords as clear a 
 demonstration as can possibly be given, that each and 
 all of them are the dictates of inspiration. 
 
 Egypt was the theme of many prophecies, which 
 were fulfilled in ancient times ; and it bears to the 
 present day, as it has borne throughout many ages, 
 every mark with which prophecy had stamped its 
 destiny : — 
 
 " They shall be a base kingdom. It shall be the 
 basest of kingdoms. Neither shall it exalt itself any 
 more among the nations : for I will diminish them 
 that they shall no more rule over the nations. -j- The 
 pride of her power shall come down. And they shall 
 be desolate in the midst of the countries that are 
 desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the 
 cities that are wasted. I will make the land of Egypt 
 desolate, and the country shall be desolate of that 
 whereof it was full. I will sell the land into the 
 hand of the wicked. I will make the land waste and 
 all that is therein, by the hand of strangers. I the 
 Lord have spoken it. And there shall be no more a 
 prince of the land of Egypt."! 
 
 Egypt became entirely subject to the Persians 
 about three hundred and fifty years previous to the 
 Christian era. It was afterwards subdued by the Ma- 
 
 * Marsliami Cmi. Chron. pp. 239, 242. 
 
 t Ezek. xxix. 14, 15. 
 
 X Ezek. XXX. G, 7, 12, 13 ; xxxii. 15.
 
 EGPVT. 315 
 
 cedonians, and was governed by the Ptolemies for the 
 space of two hundred and ninety-four years ; until 
 about thirty years before Christ, it became a province 
 of the Roman empire. It continued long in subjec- 
 tion to the Romans — tributary first to Rome, and 
 afterwards to Constantinople. It was tran^^ferred, 
 A.D. 641, to the dominion of the Saracens. In 
 1250 the Mam.elukes deposed their rulers, and usurp- 
 ed the command of Kgypt. A mode of government 
 the most singular and surprising that ever existed on 
 earth, was established and maintained. Each suc- 
 cessive ruler was raised to supreme authority, from 
 being a strange)' and a slave. No son of the former 
 ruler — no native of Egypt succeeding to the sove- 
 reignty ; but a chief was chosen from among a new 
 race of imported slaves. When Egypt became tri- 
 butary to the Turks in 151 7? the Mamelukes retain- 
 ed much of their power, and every Pasha was an op- 
 pressor and a stranger. During all these ages, every 
 attempt to emancipate the country, or to create a 
 prince of the land of Egypt, has proved abortive, and 
 has often been fatal to the aspirant. Though the facts 
 relative to Egypt form too prominent a feature in tiie 
 history of the world to admit of contradiction or doubt, 
 yet the descrij)tion of the fate of that country, and of 
 the form of its government, shall be left to the testi- 
 mony of those whose authority no infidel will question, 
 and whom no man can accuse of adapting their de- 
 scriptions to the predictions of the event. Gibbon 
 and Volney are again our witnesses of the facts. 
 
 " Such is the state of Egypt. Deprived twenty- 
 three centuries ago of her natural proprietors, she has 
 seen her fertile fields successively a prey to the Per- 
 sians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, 
 the Arabs, the Georgians, and, at length, the race 
 of Tartars distinguished by the name of Ottoman 
 Turks. The jNIamelukes, purchased as slaves and
 
 316 EGYPT. 
 
 Introduced as soldiers, soon usurped the power and 
 elected a leader. If their first establishment was a 
 singular event, their continuance is not less extraor- 
 dinary. They are replaced by slaves brought from 
 their original country. The system of oppression 
 is methodical. Every thing the traveller sees or 
 hears, reminds him he is in the country of slavery 
 and tyranny."* " A more unjust and absurd consti- 
 tution cannot be devised than that which condemns 
 the natives of a country to perpetual servitude, under 
 the arbitrary dominion o( strangers and slaves. Yet 
 such has been the state of Egypt above five hundred 
 years. The most illustrious sultans of the Baharite 
 and Borgite dynasties, were themselves promoted 
 from the Tartar and Circassian bands ; and the four 
 and twenty Beys or military chiefs, have ever been 
 succeeded, not by their sons, but by their servants.'''^* 
 These are the words of Volney and of Gibbon ; — and 
 what did the ancient prophets foretell ? " / will lay 
 the land waste, and all that is therein by the hands of 
 strangers. I the Lord have spoken it. — And there 
 shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt. — The 
 sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.''"' The prophecy 
 adds, — '"' they shall be a base kingdom — it shall be the 
 basest of kingdoms.'''' After the lapse of two thousand 
 and four hundred years from the date of this pro- 
 phecy, a scoffer at religion, but an eye-witness of the 
 facts, thus describes the self-same spot. " In Egypt 
 there is no middle class, neither nobility, clergy, mer- 
 chants, landholders. An universal air of misery, mani- 
 fest in all the traveller meets, points out to him the 
 rapacity of oppression and the distrust attendant upon 
 slavery. The profound ignorance of the inhabitants 
 equally prevents them from perceiving the causes of 
 
 * Volney's Travels, vol. i. pp. 74, 103, 110, 108. 
 
 t Gibbon's History, vol. vi.pp. 109, 110. Dublin ed. 1789, 
 
 2 
 
 I
 
 EGYPT. 317 
 
 their evils, or applying the necessary remedies. 
 Ignorance, diffused through every class, extends its 
 effects to every species of moral and physical know- 
 ledge. Nothing is talked of but intestine troubles, 
 the public misery, pecuniary extortions, bastinadoes, 
 and murders. Justice herself puts to death without 
 formality."* Other travellers describe the most ex- 
 ecrable vices as common, and represent the moral 
 character of the people as corrupted to the core. As 
 a token of the desolation of the countiy, mud-walled 
 cottages are now the only habitations where the ruins 
 of temples and palaces abound. Egypt is surrounded 
 by the dominions of the Turks and of the Arabs ; 
 and the prophecy is literally true which marked it i:i 
 the midst of desolation : — " Thei/ shall he desolate in 
 the midat of the countries that are desolate, and her 
 cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are 
 wasted^ The systematic oppression, extortion, and 
 plunder, which have so long prevailed, and the price 
 paid for his authority and power by every Turkish 
 Pasha, have rendered the country desolate of that 
 whereof it was full, and still show both how it has 
 been wasted bj/ the hands of strangers, and how it has 
 been sold into the hand of the wicked. 
 
 Can any Avords be more free from ambiguity, or 
 could any events be more wonderful in their nature, 
 or more unlikely or impossible to have been foreseen 
 by man, than these prophecies concerning Egypt ? 
 The long line of its kings commenced with the Hrst 
 ages of the world, and, while it was yet unbroken, its 
 final termination was revealed. The very attempt 
 once made by infidels to show, from the recorded 
 number of its monarchs and the duration of their 
 reigns, that Egypt was a kingdom previous to the 
 Mosaic era of the deluge, places the wonderful nature 
 of these predictions respecting it in the most striking 
 * Volney's Travels, vol. i. pp. 190, 198.
 
 318 EGYPT. 
 
 view. And the previous experience of two thousand 
 years, during which period Egypt had never been 
 without a prince of its own, seemed to preclude the 
 possibility of those predicted events which the expe- 
 rience of the last tv.o thousand years has amply veri- 
 fied. Though it had often tyrannized over Judea 
 and the neighbouring nations, the Jewish prophets 
 foretold that its own sceptre should depart away ; and 
 that that country of kings (for the number of its 
 cotemporaiy as well as successive monarchs may war- 
 rant the appellation J would never have a prince of its 
 own : and that it would be laid waste by the hands 
 of strangers. They foretold that it should be a base 
 kingdom — the basest of kingdoms — that it should be 
 desolate itself and surrounded by desolation — and 
 that it should never exalt itself any more among the 
 nations. They described its ignominous subjection 
 and unparalleled baseness, notwithstanding that its 
 past and present degeneracy bears not a more remote 
 resemblance to the former greatness and pride of its 
 power than the frailty of its mud-walled fabrics now 
 bears to the stability of its imperishable pyramids. 
 Such projihecies accomplished in such a manner, 
 prove, without a comment, that they must be the 
 revelation of the Omniscient Ruler of the Universe.* 
 
 * Egypt has, indeed, lately risen, under its present spirited 
 but despotic Pasba, who is both an oppressor and a stranger, 
 to a degree of political importance and power unknown to 
 it for many past centuries. Yet this facf, instead of militat- 
 ing- against the truth of prophecy, may, possibly at no dis- 
 tant period, serve to illustrate another prediction, which im- 
 plies that, however hase and degraded it might continue to 
 be throughout many generations, it would, notwithstanding, 
 have strength sufficient to be looked to for aid or protec- 
 tion, even at the time of the restoration of the Jews to Ju- 
 dea, who will seek " to strengthen themselves in the 
 strength of Pharaoh, and trust in the shadow of Egypt." 
 Other prophecies respecting it await their fulfilmeut. Yet, 
 whatever its present apparent strength may be, it is still but
 
 EGYPT. 319 
 
 On a review of the prophecies relative to Nineveh, 
 Babylon, Tyre, and Egypt, may we not, by the 
 plainest induction from indisputable facts, conclude 
 that the fate of these cities and countries, as well as of 
 the land of Judea and the adjoining territories, de- 
 monstrates the truth of all the prophecies respecting 
 them ? And that these prophecies, ratified by the 
 events, give the most powerful of testimonies to the 
 truth of the Christian religion ? The desolation was 
 the work of man, and was effected by the enemies of 
 Christianity ; and would have been the same as it is, 
 though not a single prophecy had been uttered. It 
 is the prediction of these facts, in all their particulars, 
 infinitely surpassing human foresight, which is the 
 word of God alone. And the ruin of these empires, 
 while it substantiates the truth of every iota of these 
 predictions, is thus a miraculous confirmation and 
 proof of the inspiration of the Scriptures. By what 
 fatality is it, then, that infidels should have chosen 
 for the display of their power this very field, where, 
 without conjuring, as they have done, a lying spirit 
 from the ruins, they might have read the fulfilment 
 of the prophecies on every spot ? Instead of disprov- 
 ing the truth of every religion, the greater these ruins 
 are, the more strongly do they authenticate the scrip- 
 tural prophecies ; and it is not, at least, on this strong- 
 hold of the faith that the standard of infidelity can 
 be erected. Every fact related by Volney is a wit- 
 ness against all his speculation — and out of his own 
 mouth is he condemned. Can any purposed decep- 
 
 " the shadow of Egypt." Tsa. xxx. 2 ; xxxi. 1. The whole 
 earth shall yet rejoice ; and Egypt shall not be for ever base. 
 The Lord shall smite Egypt; he shall smite and heal it ; 
 and they shall return to the Lord, and he shall be entreated 
 of them, and shall heal them. In that day shall Israel be 
 the third with Egypt and ivith Assyria, even a blessing in 
 the midst of the land, §x. Isa. xix. 19 — 25.
 
 320 ARABS. 
 
 tion be more ijlaring or (jreat, than to overlook all 
 these prophecies, and to raise an argument against 
 the truth of Christianity from the very facts by which 
 they have been fulfilled ? Or can any evidence of 
 divine inspiration be more convincing and clear, than 
 to view, in conjunction, all these marvellous predic- 
 tions, and their exact completion ? 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 THE ARABS. 
 
 The history of the Arabs, so opposite in many re- 
 spects to that of the Jews, but as singular as theirs, 
 was concisely and clearly foretold. It was prophesied 
 concerning Ishmael : — " He will be a wild man ; 
 his hand will be against every man, and every man"'s 
 hand will be against him : and he shall dwell in the 
 presence of all his brethren. I will make him 
 fruitful, and multiply him exceedingly; and I will 
 make him a great nation.""* The fate of Ishmael is 
 here identified with that of his descendants ; and the 
 same character is common to them both. The histo- 
 rical evidence of the fact, the universal tradition, and 
 constant boast of the Arabs themselves, their lan- 
 guage, and the preservation for many ages of an 
 original rite, derived from him as their primogenitor, 
 confirm the truth of their descent from Ishmael. 
 The fulfilment of the prediction is obvious. Even 
 Gibbon, while he attempts from the exceptions which 
 
 * Genesis xvi. 12; xvii. 20.
 
 ARABS. 321 
 
 he specifies, to evade the force of the fact, that the 
 Arabs have maintained a perpetual independence, ac- 
 knowledges that tliese exceptions are temporary and 
 local ; that the body of the nation has escaped the 
 yoke of the most powerful monarchies ; and that 
 "the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and 
 Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia."* 
 But even the exceptions v.hich he specifies, though 
 they were justly stated, and though not coupled with 
 such admissions as invalidate them, would not detract 
 from the truth of the prophecy. The independence 
 of the Arabs was proverbial in ancient as well as in 
 modern times ; and the present existence as a free 
 and independent nation, of a people who derive their 
 descent from so high antiquity, demonstrates that they 
 have never been wholly subdued, as all the nations 
 around them have unquestionably been ; and that they 
 had ever dwelt in the presence of their brethren. 
 They not only subsist unconquered to this day, but 
 the prophesied and primitive wildness of their race, 
 and their hostility to all, remain unsubdued and un- 
 altered. " ^'/''fy ore a wild people: their hand is 
 against everj/ man, and eveiy mans hand is against 
 them.'''' In the words of Gibbon, which strikingly 
 assimilate with those of the prophecy, they are " arm- 
 ed against mankind.'''' Plundering is their profes- 
 sion. Their alliance is never courted, and can never 
 be obtained ; and all that the Turks, or Persians, 
 or any of their neighbours, can stipulate for from 
 them, is a partial and purchased forbearance. Even 
 the British, who have established a residence in al- 
 most every country, have entered the territories of the 
 descendants of Ishmael to accomplish only the pre- 
 meditated destruction of a fort, and to retire. It can- 
 not be alleged, with truth, that their peculiar cha- 
 
 * Gibbon's Hist. vol. y. p. Ui.
 
 322 ARABS. 
 
 ractev and manner, and its uninterrupted permanency, 
 are the necessary result of the nature of their country. 
 They have continued wild or uncivilized, and have 
 retained their habits of hostility towards all the rest 
 of the human race, though they possessed for three 
 hundred years couiitries the most opposite in their 
 nature from the mountains of Arabia. Ihe greatest 
 part of the temperate zone was included within the 
 limits of the Arabian conquests ;* and their empire 
 extended from India to the Atlantic, and embraced a 
 wider range of territory tkan ever was possessed by the 
 Romans, those boasted masters of the world. The 
 period of their conquest and dominion was sufficient, 
 under such circumstances, to have changed the man- 
 ners of any people ; but whether in the land of Shi- 
 nar or in the vallies of Spain, on the banks of the 
 Tigris or the Tagus, in Araby the blessed, or Araby 
 the barren, the posterity of Ishmael have ever main- 
 tained their prophetic character : They have remain- 
 ed, under every change of condition, a wild people ; 
 their hand has still been against every man, and every 
 man's hand against them. 
 
 The natural reflection of a recent traveller, on ex- 
 amining the peculiarities of an Arab tribe, of which he 
 was an eye-witness, may suffice, v.ithout any art of 
 controversy, for the illustration of this prophecy : — 
 '• On the smallest computation, such must have been 
 the manners of those people for more than three thou- 
 sand years : Thus in all things verifying the predic- 
 tion given of Ishmael at his birth, that he, in his pos- 
 terity should be a wild man, and always continue to 
 be so, though they shall dwell for ever in the pre- 
 sence of their brethren. And that an acute and ac- 
 tive people, surrounded for ages by polished and lux- 
 urious nations, should from their earliest to their 
 
 " Gibbon, vol. v. pp. 226, 317.
 
 ARABS. 323 
 
 latest times, be still found a wild people, dwelling in 
 the presence of all their brethren, (as we may call 
 these nations,) unsubdued and unchangeable, is, in- 
 deed, a standing miracle — one of those mysterious 
 facts which establish the truth of prophecy."* 
 
 Recent discoveries have also brought to light the 
 miraculous preservation and existence, as a distinct 
 people, of a less numerous, but not less interesting 
 race — " a plant which grew up vmder the mighty 
 cedar of Israel, but was destined to flourish when that 
 proud tree was levelled to the earth. "-j- " Thus saith 
 the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab, the 
 son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before 
 me for ever."! The Beni Rechab, sons of Rechab, 
 still exist, a " distinct and easily distinguishable ''^ 
 people. They boast of their descent from Rechab, 
 profess pure Judaism, and all know Hebrew. Yet 
 they live in the neighbourhood of Mecca, the chief 
 seat of Mahometanism, and their nvmiber is stated to 
 be sixty thousand. The account given of them by 
 Benjamin of Tudela in the twelfth century, § has 
 very recently been confirmed by Mr. Wolff; and, ag 
 he witnessed, and heard from an intrepid " Recha- 
 bite cavalier,''"' there is not a man wanting to stand up 
 as a son of Rechab. 
 
 * Sir R. K. Porter's Travels, p. 304. 
 i Quarterly Review, No. Ixxv. p. 14-i. 
 X Jer. XXXV. 19. 
 § Basnage's History, p. 620.
 
 324 AFRICANS, Sec. 
 
 SLAVERY OF THE AFRICANS EUROPEAN COLONIES 
 
 IN ASIA. 
 
 Not only do the clifFerent countries and cities, which 
 form the subjects of prophecy, exhibit to this day 
 their predicted fate, but there is also a prophecy re- 
 corded as delivered in an age coeval with the de- 
 luge, when the members of a single family included 
 the whole of the human race — the fulfilment of which 
 is conspicuous even at the present time. And while 
 the fate of the Jews and of -^e Arabs, throughout many 
 ages, has confirmed in e\%ry instance in which the 
 period of their prediction is already past, the prophe- 
 cies relative to the descendants of Isaac and of Ish- 
 mael — existing facts, which are prominent features 
 in the history of the world, are equally corroborative 
 of the predictions respecting the sons of Noah. The 
 unnatural conduct of Ham, and the dutiful and re- 
 spectful behaviour of Shem and Japheth towards their 
 aged father, gave rise to the prediction of the future 
 fate of their posterity, without being at all assigned 
 as the cause of that fate. But whatever was the oc- 
 casion on which it was delivered, the truth of the 
 prophecy must be tried by its completion : — " Curs- 
 ed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be unto 
 his brethren. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and 
 Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge 
 Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and 
 Canaan shall be his servant.'"* 
 
 The historical part of Scripture, by its describing 
 so particularly the respective settlements of the des- 
 cendants of Noah, " after their generations in their 
 
 " Geu. ix. 25, 2G, 27.
 
 AFRICANS, &c. S2o 
 
 nations," affords, to this day, the means of trying 
 the truth of the prediction, and of ascertaining whe- 
 ther the prophetic character, as given by the patri- 
 arch of the postdiluvian world, be still ap])licable to 
 the inhabitants of the different regions of the earth 
 which were peopled by the posterity of Shem, of 
 Ham, and of Japhet. The Isles of the Gentiles^* 
 or the countries beyond the Mediterranean, to which 
 they passed by sea, viz. those of Kurope, were divid- 
 ed by the sons of Japhet. The descendants of Ham 
 inhabited Africa and the south-western parts of Asia.-f* 
 The families of the Canaanites were spread abroad. 
 The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon.^ The 
 city of Tyre was called the daughter of Sidon ; and 
 Carthage, the most celebrated city of Africa, was 
 peopled from Tyre. And the dwellings of the sons 
 of Shem were w?(^o //ie easf,§ or Asia. The particu- 
 lar allotment, or portion of each, " after their fami- 
 lies, after their tongues, in their countries, and in 
 their nation s,"]] is distinctly specified. And although 
 the different nations, descended from any one of the 
 sons of Noah, have intermingled with each other, and 
 undergone many revolutions, yet the three great divi- 
 sions of the world have remained distinct, as separately 
 peopled and possessed by the posterity of each of the 
 sons of Noah. On this subject the earliest commenta- 
 tors are agreed, before the existence of those factswhich 
 give to the prophecy its fullest illustration. The facts 
 themselves by which the prediction is verified, are so 
 notorious and so applicable, that the most brief and 
 simple statement may suffice. Before the propaga- 
 tion of Christianity, which first spoke peace to earth, 
 taught a law of universal love, and called all men 
 brethren, slavery everywhere prevailed, and the 
 
 • Gen. X. 5. f Vd. % lb. x. 6, 18, 19. 
 
 § lb. X. 30. il lb. SI, 32 — See Mede. Die. L. p. 211, cScc.
 
 326 AFRICANS, &c. 
 
 greater part of the human race, throughout all the 
 world, were born to slavery, and unredeemed for life. 
 Man can now boast of a nobler birthright. But, 
 though long banished from almost all Europe, slavery 
 still lingers in Africa. That country is distinguish- 
 ed above every other as the land of slavery. Slaves 
 at home, and transported for slavery, the poor Afri- 
 cans, the descendants of Ham, are the servants of 
 servants, or slaves to others. Yet so unlikely was 
 this fact to have been foreseen by man, that, for cen- 
 turies after the close of the Old Testament History, 
 the inhabitants of Africa disputed with the Romans 
 the empire of the world. But Hannibal, who was 
 once almost master of Rome and of Europe, was 
 forced to yield to and to own the fate of Carth- 
 age. * 
 
 " God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell 
 in the tents of Shem." Some of the ablest inter- 
 preters of prophecy, of a former age, conceived that 
 this prediction was fulfilled, not only by the con- 
 quests which the Macedonians and the Romans ob- 
 tained over many of the countries of Asia, but that 
 the promise or blessing of enlargement to Japhet was 
 also verified in a metaphorical sense, by the exten- 
 sion of the knowledge of true religion to the nations 
 of Europe. But it stands not now in need of any 
 questionable interpretation, having received a literal 
 accomplishment. What is at present the relative 
 situation or connexion of the inhabitants of Europe 
 and of Asia, the descendants of Japhet and of 
 Shem .'* May not the former be said literally to 
 dwell in the tents of the latter .'' Or what simile, 
 drawn from the simplicity of primeval ages, could be 
 more strikingly graphic of the numerous and exten- 
 .sive European colonies in Asia ? And how much 
 
 • Liv. i. 27.
 
 AFRICANS, &c. 327 
 
 have the posterity of Japhet been enlarged within 
 the regions of the posterity of Shem ? In how many 
 of their ancient cities do they dwell ? How many 
 settlements have they established ? — while there is 
 not a single spot in Europe the colony or the pro- 
 perty of any of the nations whom the Scriptures re- 
 present as descended from Shem, or who inhabit any 
 part of that quarter of the world which they possess- 
 ed. And it may be said, in reference to our own 
 island, and to the immense extent of the British 
 Asiatic dominions, that the natives of the Isles of 
 the Gentiles dwell in the tents of the East ! From 
 whence, then, covild such a prophecy have emanated, 
 but from inspiration by Him whose presence and 
 whose prescience are alike unlimited by space or by 
 time ? 
 
 Wliatever events the prophecies reveal, they never 
 sanction any iniquity or evil. The wrath of man 
 worketh not the righteousness of God, though it be 
 made to praise him. And any defence or attempted 
 justification of slavery, or of man having any moral 
 right of property in man, must be sought in vain 
 from the fulfilment of this prediction. Nebuchad- 
 nezzar was the guilty instrument of righteous judg- 
 ments ; and although, in the execution of these, he 
 was the servant of the Lord, it was his own gain 
 and glory which he sought, and after having subdu- 
 ed nations not a few, he was driven from men, and 
 had his dwelling v\'ith the beasts. Never were judg- 
 ments more clearly marked than those which have 
 rested on the Jews in every country under heaven. 
 Yet he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his 
 eye ; and the year of recompenses for the controversy 
 of Zion shall be the day of the Lord's vengeance, when 
 he will plead with all flesh for his people and for his 
 heritage. And if these examples suffice not to show 
 that it is a wresting of Scripture to their destruction, 
 
 1
 
 328 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 
 
 for any to seek from them the vindication of slavery, 
 because Canaan was to be the servant of servants unto 
 his brethren, yet they who profess to look here to the 
 Ao(y Scriptures for a warrant, because that fact was 
 foretold, should remember, that though Christ was 
 delivered into the hands of his enemies " by the 
 determinate counsel and for eknovoleds^e of God ; it was 
 by wicked hands that he was crucified and slain." 
 God hath made of one flesh all the nations of the 
 earth. And, were the gospel universally and rightly 
 appealed to, no other bond would be known among 
 men but that of Christian brotherhood. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 
 
 Incomplete as has been the view given in the fore- 
 going pages of the Evidence of Prophecy, yet do not 
 the joint clearness of the prophecies themselves, and 
 the profusion of precise facts which show their literal 
 fulfilment, bid defiance to the most subtle sceptic to 
 forge or feign the shadow of a just reason to prove 
 how they could all have been spoken, except by in- 
 spiration of God ? The sure word of prophecy has 
 indeed unfolded many a desolation which has come 
 u}K)n the earth ; but while it thus reveals the opera- 
 tion, in some of its bearings, of the " mystery of ini- 
 quity,^' it forms, itself, a part of the " mystery of god- 
 liness :" and it is no less the testimony of Jesus, be-
 
 THE 6EVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 329 
 
 cause it shows, as far as earthly ruins can reveal, the 
 progress and the issue of the dominion of " other 
 lords'" over the hearts of the children of men. The 
 sins of men have caused, and the cruelty of men has 
 effected, the dire desolations which the word of God 
 foretold. Signs and tokens of his judgments there 
 indeed have been, but they are never to be found but 
 where iniquity first prevailed. And though all other 
 warnings were to fail, the sight of his past judgments, 
 and the sounding of those that are to come, might 
 teach the unrepenting and unconverted sinner to give 
 heed to the threatenings of His word and to the ter- 
 rors of the Lord, and to try his ways and turn unto 
 God, while space for repentance may be found, ere, 
 as death leaves him, judgment shall find him. And 
 may not the desolations which God has wrought upon 
 the earth, and that accredit his v.'ord, wherein life 
 and immortality are brought to light, teach the man 
 who^e God is the world, to cease to account it worthy 
 of his worship and of his love, and to abjure that 
 " covetousness, which is idolatry," till the idol of 
 mammon in the temple within shall fall, as fell the 
 image of Dagon before the ark of the Lord, in which 
 " the testimony" was kept ? 
 
 JBut naming, as millions do, the name of Christ, 
 without departing from iniquity, there is another 
 warning voice that may come more closely to them 
 all. And it is not only from the desolate regions 
 where heathens dwelt, which show how holy luen of 
 old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost ; 
 but also from the ruins of some of the cities where 
 churches were formed by apostles, and where the re- 
 ligion of Jesus once existed in its purity, that all may 
 learn to know that God is no respecter of persons, 
 and that he will by no means clear the guilty. " He 
 that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith 
 unto the churches."
 
 330 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 
 
 What church could rightfully claim. or ever seek a 
 higher title than that which is given in Scripture to 
 the seven churches of Asia, the angels of which were 
 the seven stars in the right hand of Him, who is the 
 first and the last — of Him that liveth and was dead 
 and is alive for evermore, and that hath the keys of 
 hell and of death ; and which themselves were the 
 seven golden candlesticks in the midst of which he 
 walked ? And who that hath an ear to hear, may 
 not humbly hear and greatly profit by what the Spi- 
 rit said unto them r* 
 
 The Church of Ephesus, after a commendation 
 of their first works, to which they were commanded to 
 return, were accused of having left their first love, 
 and threatened with the removal of their candlestick 
 out of its place, except they should repent.^f* Ephesus 
 is situated nearly fifty miles north of Smyrna. It 
 Avas the metropolis of Ionia, and a great and opulent 
 city, and (according to Strabo) the greatest emporium 
 of Asia Minor. It was chiefly famous for the temple 
 of Diana, " whom all Asia worshipped," which was 
 adorned with one hundred and twenty-seven columns 
 of Parian marble, each of a single shaft, and sixty 
 feet high, and which formed one of the seven wonders 
 of the world. The remains of its magnificent theatre 
 in which it is said that twenty thousand people could 
 easily have been seated, are yet to be seen, j But " a 
 few heaps of stones, and some miserable mud cottages, 
 occasionally tenanted by Turks, without one Christian 
 residing there,§ are all the remains of ancient Ephe- 
 sus." It is, as described by different travellers, a 
 solemn and most forlorn spot. The Epistle to the 
 Ephesians is read throughout the world : but there is 
 
 * Rev. ii. and ili. f Rev. ii. 5. 
 
 J Acts xix. 29. 
 
 § Arundel's Visit to the Seven Churches of Asia, p. 27. 
 
 I
 
 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 331 
 
 none in Ephesus to read it now. They left their first 
 love, they returned not to their first works. Their 
 candlestick has been removed out of its place ; and 
 the great city of Ephesus is no more. 
 
 The Church of Smyrna was approved of as " rich," 
 and no judgment was denounced against it. They 
 were warned of a tribulation of ten days, (the ten 
 years' persecution by Diocletian,) and were enjoined 
 to be faithful unto death, and they would receive a 
 crown of life.* And, unlike to the fate of the more 
 famous city of Ephesus, Smyrna is still a large city, 
 containing nearly one hundred thousand inhabitants, 
 with several Greek churches ; and an English and 
 other Christian ministers have resided in it. The 
 light has indeed become dim, but the candlestick has 
 not been wholly removed out of its place. 
 
 The Church of Pergamos is commended for hold- 
 ing fast the name of the Lord, and not denying his 
 faith, during a time of persecution, and in the midst 
 of a wicked city. But there were some in it who 
 held doctrines, and did deeds, which the Lord hated. 
 Against them He was to fight with the sword of his 
 mouth ; and all were called to repent. But it is not 
 said as of Ephesus, that their candlestick would be 
 removed out of its place. -f- Pergamos is situated to 
 the north of Smyrna, at a distance of nearly sixty- 
 four miles, and " was formerly the metropolis of Hel- 
 lespontic Mysia." It still contains at least fifteen 
 thousand inhabitants, of whom fifteen hundred are 
 Greeks, and two hundred Armenians, each of whom 
 have a church. 
 
 In the Church of Thyatira, like that of Perga- 
 mos, some tares were soon mingled with the wheat. 
 He who hath eyes like unto a flame of fire discerned 
 both. \et happily for the souls of the people, more 
 
 * Rev. ii. 8—11. + lb. ii. 12— IG.
 
 332 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 
 
 than for the safety of the city, the general character of 
 that church, as it then existed, is thus described : " I 
 know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, 
 and thy patience, and thy works ; and the last to be 
 more than the first."* But against those, for such 
 there were among them, who had committed fornica- 
 tion, and eaten things sacrificed unto idols, to whom 
 the Lord gave space to repent of their fornication, and 
 they repented not, great tribulation was denounced ; 
 and to every one of them was to be given according to 
 their works. These, thus warned while on earth in 
 vain, have long since passed, where all are daily 
 hastening, to the place where no repentance can be 
 found, and no work be done. " But unto the rest in 
 Thyatira (as many as have not known the depths of 
 Satan) I will put upon you, saith the Lord, none 
 other burden.^-f" There were those in Thyatira who 
 could save a city. It still exists, while greater cities 
 have fallen. INIr. Hartley, who visited it in 1826, 
 describes it as " embosomed in cypresses and poplars. 
 The Greeks are said to occupy three hundred houses, 
 and the Armenians thirty. Each of them have a 
 church.*" 
 
 The Church of Sardis differed from those of Per- 
 gamosand Thyatira. They had not denied the faith ; 
 but the Lord had a few things against them, for there 
 were some evil doers among them, and on those, if they 
 repented not, judgment was to rest. But in Sardis, 
 great though the city was, and founded though the 
 church had been by an apostle, there were only a few 
 names which had not defiled their garments. And to 
 that church the Spirit said, " I know thy works, that 
 thou hast a name, that thou livest and art dead." But 
 the Lord is long-suffering, not willing that any should 
 perish, but that all should come to repentance. And 
 
 * Rev. ii. 19, t ^^- v- 21.
 
 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 333 
 
 the church of Sardis was thus warned — " Be watch- 
 ful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are 
 ready to die., for I have not found thy works perfect 
 before God. Remember, therefore, how thou hast 
 received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If 
 therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as 
 a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I shall 
 come upon thee.""* 
 
 The state of Sardis now is a token that the warning 
 was given in vain ; and shows that the threatenings of 
 the Lord, when disregarded, becomecertain judgments. 
 Sardis, the capital of Lydia, was a great and renowned 
 city, where the wealth of Croesus, its king, was accu- 
 mulated, and became even a proverb. But now a few 
 wretched mud huts, " scattered among the ruins," 
 are the only dwellings in Sardis, and form the lowly 
 home of Turkish herdsmen, who are its only inha- 
 bitants. As the seat of a Christian church, it has 
 lost — all it had to lose — the name. " No Christians 
 reside on the spot." 
 
 " And to the angel of the Church in Phil.*- 
 DELrHiA, write. These things saith He that is holy, 
 He that is true. He that hath the key of David, He 
 that openeth and no man shutteth ; and shutteth 
 and no man openeth : — I know thy works ; behold I 
 have set before thee an open door, and no man can 
 shut it ; for thou hast a little strength, and hast 
 kept my word, and hast not denied my name. — 
 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I 
 also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, 
 which shall come upon all the world. ""f" The pro- 
 mises of the Lord are as sure as his threateninjjs. 
 Philadelphia alone long withstood the power of the 
 Turks, and in the words of Gibbon, " at length ca- 
 pitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among 
 
 * Rev. iii. 3, 4. t lb. iii. 8, 10.
 
 334- THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 
 
 the Greek colonies and churches of Asia,"" he adds, 
 " Philadelphia is still erect ; a column in a scene 
 of ruins."* "It is indeed an interesting circum- 
 stance," says Mr. Hartley, " to find Christianity 
 more flourshing here than in many other parts of 
 the Turkish empire ; there is still a numerous 
 Christian population ; they occupy three hundred 
 houses. Divine service is performed every Sunday 
 in five churches.*" Nor is it less interesting, in 
 these eventful times, and notwithstanding the gene- 
 ral degeneracy of the Greek church, to learn that 
 the present bishop of Philadelphia accounts " the 
 Bible the only foundation of all religious belief;'"' 
 and that he admits that " abuses have entered 
 into the church, which former ages might endure ; 
 but the present must put them down."'"' It may well 
 be added, as stated by Mr. Hartley,*)- " the circum- 
 stance that Philadelphia is now called AUah-Shehr, 
 the city of God, when viewed in connexion with the 
 promises made to that church, and especially with 
 that of writing the name the city of God upon its 
 faithful meiTibers, is, to say the least, a singular con- 
 currence. From the prevailing iniquities of men 
 many a sign has been given how terrible are the 
 judgments of God. But from the fidelity of the 
 church in Philadelphia of old in keeping his word, a 
 name and memorial of his faithfulness has been left 
 on earth, while the higher glories, promised to those 
 that overcame, shall be ratified in heaven ; and to- 
 wards them, but not them only, shall the glorified 
 Redeemer confirm the truth of his blessed words, 
 " Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the 
 temple of my God ;"" even as assuredly as Philadel- 
 phia, when all else fell around it, " stood erect/' 
 
 * Gibbon, Ixiv. 
 
 t Missionary Register, June 1827.
 
 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 335 
 
 our enemies themselves being judges, " a column in 
 a scene of ruins." 
 
 " And unto the angel of the Church of the 
 Laodiceans write, — These things saith the Amen, 
 the faithful and true witness, the beijinninor of the 
 creation of God. — I know thy works, that thou art 
 neither cold nor hot ; I would thovi wert cold or hot. 
 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold 
 nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because 
 thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and 
 have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art 
 wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
 naked : I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the 
 fire that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that 
 thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy 
 nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes with 
 eye-salve that thou mayest see."* All the other 
 churches were found worthy of some commendation ; 
 and there were some blessing in them all. The 
 church of Ephesus had laboured and had not fainted, 
 though she had forsaken her first love ; and the 
 threatened punishment, -except she repented, was 
 the removal of her candlestick out of its place. A 
 faithless and wicked few polluted the churches of 
 Pergamos and Thyatira by their doctrines or by their 
 lives ; but the body was sound ; and the churches had 
 a portion in Christ. Even in Sardis, though it was 
 dead, there was life in a few, who had not defiled 
 their garments ; " and they shall walk with me in 
 white, said the Lord, for they are worthy." 
 
 But in what the Spirit said to the Church in Laodi- 
 cea, there was not one word of approval ; it was luke- 
 warm, without exception ; and therefore it was wholly 
 loathed. The religion of Jesus had become to them 
 as an ordinary matter. They would attend to it just 
 
 *Rev. iii. 14., &c.
 
 336 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 
 
 as they did to other things, which they loved as well. 
 The sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross was 
 nothing thought of more than a common gift hy man. 
 They were not constrained by the love of Christ 
 more than by other feelings. They could repeat the 
 words of the first great commandment of the law, and 
 of the second that is like unto it ; but they showed 
 no sign that the one or the other was truly a law to 
 them. There was no Dorcas among them, who, out 
 of pure Christian love, made clothes for the poor. 
 There was no Philemon to whom it could be said, 
 "• The church in thy house,"" and who could look on 
 a servant as a " brother beloved." There was no ser- 
 vant who looked to the eye of his Father in heaven 
 more than to that of his master on earth, and to the 
 recompense of eternal reward more than to the hire- 
 ling wages of a day ; and who, by shewing all good 
 fidelity, sought to adorn the doctrine of God his 
 Saviour in all things. There was nothing done as 
 every thing should be, heartily, as to the Lord, and 
 not unto men. 
 
 They neither felt nor lived as if they knew that 
 whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Their lukewarm- 
 ness was worse, for it rendered their state more hope- 
 less than if they had been cold. For sooner would a 
 man in Sard is have felt that the chill of death was 
 ujx)n him, and have cried out for life, and called to 
 the physician, than would a man of Laodicea, who 
 could calmly count his even pulse, and think his life 
 secure, while death was preying on his vitals. The 
 character of lukewarm Christians, a self-contradicting 
 name, is the same in every age. Such was the church 
 of the Laodiceans. — But what is that city now, or 
 how is it changed from what it was ! 
 
 Laodicea was the metropolis of the Greater Phry- 
 gla ; and as heathen writers attest, it was an exten 
 sive and very celebrated city. Instead of then verg-
 
 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 337 
 
 ing to its decline, it arose to its eminence only about 
 
 the becinninsj of the Christian era. " It was the 
 
 • • • 
 
 mother-church of sixteen bishoprics." Its three thea- 
 tres, and the immense circus, which was capable of 
 containing upwards of thirty thousand spectators, the 
 spacious remains of which (with other ruins buried 
 under ruins) are yet to be seen, give proof of the 
 greatness of its ancient wealth and population, and 
 indicate too strongly, that in that city where Chris- 
 tians were rebuked, without exception, for their luke- 
 warmness, there were multitudes who were lovers of 
 pleasure more than lovers of God. The amphitheatre 
 was built after the Apocalypse was written, and the 
 warning of the Spirit had been given to the church 
 of the Laodiceans to be zealous and repent ; but what- 
 ever they there may have heard or beheld, their hearts 
 would neither have been quickened to a renewed zeal 
 for the service and glory of God, nor turned to a deeper 
 sorrow for sin, and to a repentance not to be repented 
 of. But the fate of Laodicea, though opposite, has 
 been no less marked than that of Philadelphia. There 
 are no sights of grandeur, nor scenes of temptation 
 arovmd it now. Its own tragedy may be brieHy told. 
 It was lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, and there- 
 fore it was loathsome in the sight of God. It was 
 loved, and rebuked, and chastened in vain. And it 
 has been blotted from the v\'orld. It is now as deso- 
 late as its inhabitants were destitute of the fear and 
 the love of God, and as the church of the Laodiceans 
 was devoid of true faith in the Saviour, and zeal in 
 his service. It is, as described in his Travels by Dr. 
 Smith, " utterly desolated, and without any inhabi- 
 tant, except wolves and jackals, and foxes."" It can 
 boast of no human inhabitants, except occasionally 
 when wandering Turkomans pitch their tents in its 
 spacious amphitheatre. The " finest sculptured frag- 
 ments " are to be seen at a considerable depth, in 
 Q
 
 338 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 
 
 excavations which have been made among the ruins.* 
 And Colonel Leake observes, "f* " there are few an- 
 cient cities more likely than Laodicea to preserve 
 many cm'ious remains of antiquity beneath the sur- 
 face of the soil. Its opulence, and the earthquakes 
 to which it was subject, rendering it probable that 
 valuable works of art were often there buried be- 
 neath the ruins of the public and private edifices."''' 
 A fearful significancy is thus given to the terrific 
 denunciation, " Because thou art lukewarm, and nei- 
 ther cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." 
 
 " He that hath ears to hear let him hear what the 
 Spirit saith unto the churches." The Spirit searcheth 
 all things, yea the deep things of God. Each church, 
 and each individual therein, was weighed in the ba- 
 lance of the sanctuary according to their works. Each 
 was approved of according to its character, or rebuked 
 and warned according to its deeds. Was the church 
 itself pure, the diseased members alone were to be cut 
 off. Was the church itself dead, yet the i'ew names, 
 in which there were life, were all written before God, 
 and not one of those v/ho overcame would be blotted 
 out of the book of life. All the seven churches were 
 severally exhorted by the Spirit according to their 
 need. The faith delivered to the saints was preached 
 unto them all ; and all, as Christian churches, pos- 
 sessed the means of salvation. The Son of man walk- 
 ed in the midst of them, beholding those who were, 
 and those who were not his. 
 
 By the preaching of the gospel, and by the written 
 word, every man, in each of the churches, was warned, 
 and every man was taught in all wisdom, that every 
 man might be presented perfect in Christ Jesus. And 
 in what the Spirit said unto each, and all of the 
 churches, which he that hath ears to hear was com- 
 
 * Arundel's Travels, p. 85. f Journal, p. 252.
 
 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 339 
 
 manded to hear, the promise of everlasting blessedness, 
 under a variety of the most glorious representations, 
 was given without exception, restriction, or reservation 
 to him that overcometh. The language of love, as 
 well as of remonstrance and rebuke, was urged even 
 on the lukewarm Laodiceans. And if any Christian 
 fell, it was from his own resistance and quenching of 
 the Spirit ; from his choosing other lords than Jesus 
 to have dominion over him ; from his lukewarmness, 
 deadness, and virtual denial of the faith ; and from 
 his own wilful rejection of freely offered and dearly 
 purchased grace ; sufficient, if sought and cherished, 
 and zealously used, to have enabled him to overcome 
 and triumph in that warfare against spiritual wicked- 
 ness to which Christ hath called his disciples ; and 
 in which, as the finisher of their faith, he is- able to 
 make the Christian more than conqueror. 
 
 But if such, as the Spirit described them and knew 
 them to be, were the churches, and Christians then, 
 what are the churches, and what are Christians now ? 
 Or, rather, we would ask of the reader, what is your 
 own hope towards God, and what the work of your 
 faith ? If, while Christianity was in its prime, and 
 when its divine truths had scarcely ceased to reach the 
 ears of believers from the lips of Apostles, on whose 
 heads the Spirit had visibly descended, and cloven 
 tongues, like as of fire, had sat ; if, even at that time, 
 one of the seven churches of Asia had already departed 
 from its first love ; if two others were partially polluted 
 by the errors in doctrine, and evils in the practice, of 
 some of their members ; if another had only a few 
 names that were worthy, and yet another none : and 
 if they, who formed the last and worst of these, thought 
 themselves rich and increased with goods, and that 
 they had need of nothing ; and knew not, that, being 
 lukewarm, they were wretched, and iniserable, and 
 poor, and blind, and naked ; have you an ear to heax
 
 3:10 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 
 
 or a heart to understand such knowledge ? and do you, 
 professing yourself a Christian, as they also did, see 
 no cause or warning here to question and examine 
 yourself; even as the same Spirit would search and 
 try you, of your works, and charity, and service, and 
 faith, and patience, and thy works, and the last more 
 than the first ? 
 
 What is your labour of love, or wherein do you 
 labour at all for His nanie's sake, by whose name 
 you are called ? What trials does your faith pa- 
 tiently endure, what temptations does it triumphantly 
 overcome ? Is Christ in you the hope of glory, and 
 is your heart purified through that blessed hope ? 
 To a church, we trust, you belong; but whose is the 
 kingdom within you ? What principles ever ac- 
 tuate you v^hich Christ and his apostles taught ? 
 Vv^here, in your affections and life, are the fruits of 
 the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
 ness, goodness, meekness, temperance ? Turn the 
 precepts of the gospel into questions, and ask thus, 
 what the Spirit would say unto you, as he said unto 
 the churches ? 
 
 What the Spirit said unto primitive and apostolic 
 churches, over which " the beloved disciple '^ person- 
 ally presided, may suffice to prove that none who 
 have left their first love, if ever they have truly felt 
 the love of Jesus — that none who are guilty of se- 
 ducing others into sin and uncleanness — that none 
 who have a name that they live and are dead — and 
 that none who are lukewarm, are worthy members of 
 any Christian communion ; and that, while such 
 they continue, no Christian communion can be pro- 
 fitable to them. But unto them is " space to re- 
 pent " given. And to them the word and Spirit 
 speak in entreaties, encouragements, exhortations, 
 and warnings ; that they may turn from their sins 
 to the Saviour, and that they may live and not die. 
 
 4
 
 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 3-tl 
 
 But were there one name in Sodom, or a few in 
 Sardis, that are the Lord's, He knows and names 
 them every one ; and precious in his sight is the 
 death of his saints. Some, on the other hand, may- 
 be sunk into the depths of Satan, though in outward 
 fellowship with a church, were such to he found, as 
 pure as once was that of Thyatira. Whatever, there- 
 fore, the profession of your faith may be, seek the 
 kingdom of God and his righteovisness ; that king- 
 dom which is righteousness and peace, and joy in 
 the Holy Ghost, and that righteousness which is 
 through faith in Christ, who gave himself for the 
 church that he might sanctify and cleanse it. And 
 whatever dangers may then encompass you around, 
 fear not — only believe ; all things are possible to 
 him that believeth. 
 
 It was by keeping the word of the Lord, and not 
 denying his faith, by hearing what the Spirit said, 
 that the church of Philadelphia held fast what they 
 had, and no man took their crown, though situated 
 directly between the church of Laodicea, which was 
 lukewarm, and Sardis, which was dead. And dead 
 as Sardis was, the Lord had a few names in it which 
 had not defiled their garments — Christians, worthy 
 of the name, who lived, as you yourself should ever 
 live, in the faith of the Lord Jesus — dead unto sin, 
 and alive unto righteousness; while all around them, 
 though naming the name of Jesus, were dead in 
 trespasses and sins. Try your faith by its fruits ; 
 judge yourselves that you be not judged; examine 
 yourselves whether you be in the faith ; prove your 
 own selves ; and, with the whole counsel of God, as 
 revealed in the gospel, open to your view, let the rule 
 of your self-scrutiny be what the Spirit said unto the 
 churches. 
 
 If you have seen any wonderful things out of the 
 la.w of the Lord, and have looked, though from afar
 
 342 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 
 
 off, on the judgments of God that have come upon 
 the earth, lay not aside the thought of these things 
 when you now lay down this little book. Treat them 
 not as if they were an idle tale, or as if you yourself 
 were not to be a witness — and more than a witness — 
 of a far greater judgment which shall be brought 
 nigh unto you, and shall be your own. 
 
 If, in traversing some of the plainest paths of the 
 field of prophecy, you have been led by a way which 
 you knew not of before, let that path lead you to the 
 well of living waters, which springeth up into ever- 
 lasting life to every one that thirsts after it and 
 drinks. Let the words of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ be to you this well-spring of the Chris- 
 tian life. Let the word of God enlighten your eyes, 
 and it will also rejoice your heart. Search the Scrip- 
 tures, in them are no lying divinations ; they testify 
 of Jesus, and in them you will find eternal life. Pray 
 for the teaching and the aid of that Spirit by whose 
 inspiration they were given. And above all ChriS' 
 tian virtues, that may bear witness of your faith, put 
 on charity, love to God, and love to man, the warp 
 and woof of the Christianas new vesture without a 
 seam ; even that charity, or love, by which faith 
 worketh ; which is the fruit of the Spirit, the end of 
 the commandment, the fulfilling of the law, the 
 bond of perfectness, and a better gift and a more 
 excellent way than speaking with tongues, or inter- 
 preting or prophesying ; and without which you 
 would be as nothing, though you understood all 
 mystery and all knowledge. From the want of this 
 the earth has been covered with ruins. Let it be 
 yours, and, however poor may be your earthly por- 
 tion, it will be infinitely more profitable to you than 
 all the kingdoms of the world, and all their glory. 
 Prophecies shall fail ; tongues shall cease ; know- 
 ledge shall vanish away ; the earth and the works
 
 THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 343 
 
 that are therein shall be burned up ; but charity 
 never faileth. 
 
 If you have kept the word of the Lord, and have 
 not denied His name, hold that fast which thou hast, 
 that no man take thy crown. But if heretofore you 
 have been lukewarm, and destitute of Christian faith 
 and zeal, and hope, and love, it would be vain, in 
 closing a chapter on such a subject, to leave you 
 with any mortal admonition ; hear what the Spirit 
 saith, and harden not your heart against the heaven- 
 ly counsel, and the. glorious encouragement given 
 unto you by that Jesus, of whom all the prophets 
 bear witness, and unto whom all things are now com- 
 mitted by the Father. — " I counsel thee to buy of 
 me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich ; 
 and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and 
 that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and 
 anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest 
 see. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten ; be 
 zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold I stand at 
 the door and knock : if any man hear my voice, and 
 open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup 
 with him, and he with me. To him that over- 
 cometh will 1 grant to sit with me in my throne, 
 even as I also overcame, and am sat down with my 
 Father in his throne. He that hath an ear to 
 hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the 
 churches.'"
 
 344 PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Daniel's prophkcy of the things noted in the 
 scripture of truth. 
 
 There is a connected series of predictions, emphati- 
 cally denominated the Things noted in the Scripture 
 of Truth, which forms a commentary upon some of 
 the more obscure prophecies — which give a condensed 
 but precise account of the history of many kings — 
 which marks the propagation, the persecution, the 
 establishment, and the corruptions of Christianity — 
 and which, while it commences with the reign of Cy- 
 rus, who delivered the Jews from their first captivity, 
 describes, with the utmost precision, the rise, extent, 
 and fall of that power which was to possess Judea in 
 the latter times, previous to their final restoration. 
 The prophecy is both local and chronological. It is 
 descriptive of the government of the same identical 
 region, and of the chief facts which relate to it, for 
 many successive ages, and also of the spiritual tyran- 
 ny which reigned for so long a period over Christen- 
 dom. The events follow in succession, in the exact 
 order of the prediction. They are not shadowed un- 
 der types or figures, but foretold, in general-, Avith the 
 plainness of a narrative, and with the precision of facts. 
 And Daniel relates them, not as delivered by him to 
 others, but as declared in a vision to himself by an 
 angel. These claims upon attention might well com- 
 mand it, even although the prophecy referred not, as 
 it does, to a subject peculiarly interesting at the pre- 
 sent critical period of the history of the world. 
 
 To enumerate all the particulars would be to tran-
 
 MACEDONIAN EMPIRE. 345 
 
 scribe all the words of the prophecy ; — but they afford 
 too conclusive an evidence to be passed over in silence. 
 ,The observations of Sir Isaac Newton on this pro- 
 phecy contain a circumstantial detail of the historical 
 events, and of their application to the prediction.* 
 A succinct and general view may be here given. The 
 prophecy includes the vrhole of the eleventh chapter 
 of Daniel : — " And now I will show thee the truth. 
 Behold there shall stand up three kings in Persia : 
 (Cambyses, Smerdis, and Darius Hystaspes,) and 
 the fourth (Xerxes) shall be far richer than they all : 
 and hy his strength through his riches he shall stir up 
 all against the realm of Grecia. And a mightj/ king 
 (Alexander the Great,) shall stand up, that shall rule 
 with great dominion, and do according to his will. 
 And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be 
 broken, and shall be divided towards the four winds of 
 heaven ; and not to his posterity/, nor according to his 
 dominion which he ruled : for his kingdom shall be 
 plucked up even for others besides those.'''''f' 
 
 Soon after the death of Alexander the Great, his 
 kingdom was divided towards the four winds of heaven, 
 but not to his posterity ; four of his captains, Ptolemy, 
 Antigonus, Lysimachus, and. Cassander, reigned over 
 Egypt, Syria, Thrace and Greece. The kingdoms of 
 Eg}^t and of Syria became afterwards the most power- 
 ful : they subsisted as independent monarchies for a 
 longer period than the other two ; and, as they were 
 more immediately connected with the land of Judea, 
 which was often reduced to their dominion, they form 
 the subject of the succeeding prediction s/j: Bishop 
 Newton gives even a more copious illustration of the 
 historical facts, which verify the whole of this pro- 
 phecy, than that which had previously been given by 
 
 * Sec Appendix III. f Dan. xi. ?, 3, h 
 
 X Dan. V. J, .30.
 
 346 KINGS OF SYRIA AND EGYPT. 
 
 his illustrious predecessor of the same name — -ivho 
 has rendered that name immortal. He quotes or 
 refers to authorities in every instance : and his disser- 
 tation on that part of the prophecy which relates to 
 the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt, is wound up in 
 these emphatic words : " It may be proper to stop 
 here, and reflect a little how particular and circum- 
 stantial this prophecy is concerning the kingdoms of 
 Egypt and Syria, from the death of Alexander to the 
 time of Antiochvis Epiphanes. There is not so com- 
 plete and regular a series of their kings — there is not 
 so concise and comprelensive an account of their 
 affairs to be found in any author of these times. The 
 prophecy is really more perfect than any history. No 
 one historian hath related so many circumstances, 
 and in such exact order of time, as the prophet hath 
 foretold them ; so that it was necessary to have re 
 course to several authors, Greek and Roman, Jewish 
 and Christian ; and to collect here something from 
 one, and to colleet there something from another, for 
 better explaining and illustrating the gi'eat variety of 
 particulars contained in this prophecy." So close is 
 the coincidence between the prophetic and the real 
 history of the kings of Egypt and of Syria, that 
 Porphyry, one of the earliest opponents of Christi- 
 anity, laboured to prove its extreme accuracy, and 
 alleged, from thence, that the events must have pre- 
 ceded the prediction. The same arguinent is equally 
 necessary, at the present hour, to disprove the sub- 
 sequent parts of the same prophecy — though none 
 can urge it now. The last of those facts to which it 
 refers, the accomplishment of which is already past, 
 are unfolded with equal precision and truth as the 
 first — and the fulfilment of the whole is yet incom- 
 plete. The more clearly that the event corresponds 
 to the prediction, instead of being an evidence against 
 the truth, the more conclusive is the demonstration
 
 PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 347 
 
 that it is the word of Him who hath the times and 
 the seasons in his own power. 
 
 The subject of the prophecy is represented in these 
 words : — " I am come to make thee understand what 
 shall befall thy people in the latter days ; for the 
 vision is for many days.''* And that which is noted 
 in the Scripture of Truth terminates not with the 
 reign of Antiochus. At that very time the Romans 
 extended their conquests towards the East. iSIaee- 
 donia, the seat of the empire of Alexander the Great, 
 became a province of the Roman empire. And the 
 prophecy, faithfully tracing the transition of power, 
 ceases to prolong the history of the kings of Egypt 
 and of Syria — and becomes immediately descriptive 
 of the progress of the Roman arms. The very term 
 (shall stand up,) which previously marked the com- 
 mencement of the Persian and of the Macedonian 
 power, is here repeated, and denotes the commence- 
 ment of a third era or a new power. The word, in 
 the original, is the same in each. And arms (an 
 epithet sufficiently characteristic of the extensive 
 military power of the Romans,) shall stand tip, 
 and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and 
 shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall 
 place the abomination that maketh desolate.-f All 
 these things, deeply affecting the Jewish state, the 
 Romans did — and they finally rendered the country 
 of Judea " desolate of its old inhabitants." The 
 propagation of Christianity — the succeeding import- 
 ant event — is thus represented : — The people that 
 do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. 
 And they that understand among the people shall in- 
 struct many. The persecutions which they suffered 
 are as significantly described : — Yet they shall fall by 
 the sword arid by fame, by captivity and by spoil 
 
 * Dan. X. 14. f lb. xi.31.
 
 348 SPIRITUAL TYRANNY 
 
 many dar/s. Now, when tliey shall fall, they shall he 
 holpen with a little help, and many shall clearc to them 
 with jlalteries.^ And such was Constantine's con- 
 version and the effect which it produced. No other 
 government but that of the Romans stood up — but 
 the mode of that sjovernment was chantred. After 
 the days of Constantine, Christianity became gradu- 
 ally more and more corrupted. Previously to that 
 period, there had existed no system of dominion ana- 
 logous to that which afterwards prevailed. The 
 greatest oppressors had never extended their preten- 
 sions beyond human power, nor usurped a spiritual 
 tyranny. But, in contradiction to every other, and 
 diverse from that of the ten kingtloms into which the 
 Roman empire was subdivided, and peculiarly mark- 
 ed by its persecuting spirit, (Dan. vii. 24, 25,) the 
 next succeeding form of governm.ent, unparalleled in 
 Its nature, in the annals of despotism or of delusion, 
 IS thus characterised by the prophet : — And the king 
 (the ruling power, signifying any government, state, 
 or potentate)-)- shall do according to his will ,• and he 
 shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every 
 god, and shall speak marvellous things against 
 the God of gods, and shall prosper till the in- 
 dignation be accomplished.^ The papal power of 
 Rome gradually succeeded to the imperial ; and the 
 pretension of the popes, and the prerogatives which 
 they actually exercised during many ages, far exceed- 
 ed that of the Ca?sars, or of any earthly potentates 
 whatever. They claimed and exercised a sovereignty 
 of a higher order, over the minds as well as over 
 the bodies of men, than kings ever ventured to as- 
 sume. They dispensed with, alike, and altered at 
 
 * Dan xi. 32, 33, 34, 35. 
 
 t See Bishop Nevvtou on this Prophecy. 
 
 X Dan. xi. 38, &c.
 
 OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 34,9 
 
 their pleasure, the laws botli of God and of man, 
 wherever these would have otherwise limited their au- 
 thority, or controlled their mill. They claimed supre- 
 macy and infallibility as inalienably their own. " The 
 cominandments of the church" were not only held of 
 equal authority with the word of God, but the inter- 
 pretation given to them by the church was held as the 
 only rule of faith ; and the Bishop of Rome suppress- 
 ed the propagation of the gospel. A bull, or edict of 
 the pope, once sufficed throughout Christendom for 
 the deposition of monarchs ; and millions were releas- 
 ed from their allegiance by a word. By dispensa- 
 tions from the pope, oaths lost their validity, and sin 
 its guilt. He did according to his will, and exalted 
 and magnified himself above every god, and spake 
 marvellous things against the God of gods ; and long 
 did he continue to prosper. But the recent termina- 
 tion of his power may show that the indignation, if 
 not already in progress, is about to be accomplished. 
 
 The prevalence of superstition, the prohibition, or 
 discouragement of marriage, and the worship of saints, 
 as characteristic of the same period and of the same 
 power, are thus prophetically described : — " Neither 
 .^hall he regard the God of his fathers nor the desire 
 of icomen (or matrimony,) neither shall he regard any 
 God.^ But in his estate shall he honour the God of 
 forces''"' — MAHUZZiM — protectors or guardians, a term 
 so applicable to the worship of saints, and to the con- 
 fidence which was reposed in them, that expressions 
 exactly synonymous are often used by many ancient 
 v.riters in honour of them— of which JMcde and Sir 
 Isaac Nevvton have adduced a multiplicity of in- 
 stances. Mahuzzim were the tutelary saints of the 
 Greek and Romish churches. The subserviency, 
 which long existed, of spiritual power to temporal 
 
 * Dan. xi. 37, 38,
 
 350 TURKISH EMPIRE. 
 
 aggrandizement, is also noted in the prophecy : — 
 and he shall cause them to rule over mamjf and shall 
 divide the land for gain.* And that the principal 
 teachers and propagators of the worship of Mahuzzim 
 — " the bishops, priests and monks, and religious or- 
 ders, have been honoured and reverenced, and esteem- 
 ed in former ages ; that their authority and jurisdic- 
 tion have extended over the purses and consciences of 
 men ; that they have been enriched with noble build- 
 ings and large endowments, and have had the choicest 
 of the lands appropriated for church-lands ," — are 
 points of such notoriety that they require no proof, 
 and will admit of no denial."-!- 
 
 Having thus described the Antichristian Power, 
 which prospered so long and prevailed so widely, the 
 prophecy next delineates, in less obscure terms, the 
 manner in which that power was to be humbled and 
 overthrown, and introduces a move particular defini- 
 tion of the rise, extent, and fall of that kingdom 
 which was to oppress and supplant it in the latter 
 days. And at the time of the end shall the king of the 
 south push at him.\ The Saracens extended their con- 
 quests over great part of Asia and of Evirope : They 
 penetrated the dominions of the Grecian empire, and 
 partially subdued, though they could not entirely sub- 
 vert it, nor obtain possession of Constantinople the ca- 
 pital city. The prediction, however brief, significantly 
 represents their warfare which was desvdtory, and their 
 conquest which was incomplete. And Arabia is situated 
 to the south of Palestine. The Turks, the next and the 
 last invaders of the Grecian empire, were of Scythian 
 extraction, and came from the North. § And, while 
 a single expression identifies the Saracen invasion — 
 the irruption of the Turks being of a more fatal cha- 
 
 * Dan. V. 39. t Bishop Newton. % Dan. xi. 40. 
 
 § Gibbon's Hist, vol, iv. 13G— vol. v. 527,
 
 TURKISH EMPIRE. 351 
 
 racter and more permanent in its effects, is fully de- 
 scribed. Every part of the description is most faithful 
 to the facts. Their local situation, the impetuosity of 
 their attack, the organization of their armies, and the 
 success of their arms, form the first part of the predic- 
 tion respecting them. And the king of the north shall 
 come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots and 
 with horsemen and with many ships ; and he shall enter 
 into the countries, and shall overjlow and pass over.* 
 Although the Grecian empire withstood the predatory 
 warfare of the Saracens, it gave way before the over- 
 whelming forces of the Turks, whose progress was 
 tracked with destruction, and whose coming was in- 
 deed like a whirlwind. Chariots and horsemen were 
 to be the distinguishing marks of their armies, though 
 armies in general contain the greatest proportion of 
 foot soldiers. And, in describing their first invasion of 
 the Grecian territory. Gibbon relates, that " the myri- 
 ads of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of six hun- 
 dred miles, from Taurus to Arzeroum, and the blood of 
 one hundred and thirty thousand Christians was a 
 grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet. "f" The 
 Turkish armies at first consisted so exclusively of 
 horsemen, that the stoutest of the youths of the cap- 
 tive Christians were afterwards taken and trained as 
 a band of infantry, and called janisaries, (yengi cheri) 
 or new soldiers. "| In apparent contradiction to the 
 nature of their army, they were also to possess many 
 ships. And Gibbon again relates, that " a fleet of 
 two hundred ships was constructed by the hands of 
 the captive Greeks."§ But no direct evidence is ne- 
 cessary to prove, that many ships must have been re- 
 
 • Dan. xi. 40. 
 
 -|- Gibbon's Hist. vol. v. p. 538, c. 57, 
 
 ;': lb. vi. p. -297, c. 64. 
 
 § Gibbon's Hist. vol. v. p. 55.3.
 
 352 TURKISH EMPIRE. 
 
 quisite for the capture of so many islands, and the 
 destruction of the ^"^enetian naval power, which was 
 once the most celehrated in Europe. " The words, 
 shall enter into the countries and overjlow and pass 
 over, give us an exact idea of their overjlowing the 
 western parts of Asia, and then passing over into 
 Europe.""* 
 
 He shall enter also into the f^lorious land, and many 
 countries shall be overthrown.^ This expression, the 
 olorious land, occurs in the previous part of this pro- 
 phecy, (v. 1 G,) and in both cases, it evidently means 
 the land ol" Israel: and such the Syriac translation ren- 
 ders it. The Holy Land formed part of the earliest 
 conquests of the Turks, before their career of conquest 
 was suspended. And many countries shall he ovcr^ 
 thrown, or, according to the original, many shall be 
 overthrown. The entrance of the Turks into Pales- 
 tine led the way to the Crusades, which, as much as 
 any event in the history of man, was marked by the 
 overthrow of many. The king of the north, or the 
 Turkish sultan, entered into the countries and over- 
 Jlowed them, before his conquests extended to Judea ; 
 and after the crusades had ceased, he stretched his 
 hand anew over the countries. In the intervening 
 period mam/ were overthrown.'^. " The recovery of 
 the Holy Land,"" was deemed an adequate recompense 
 for the sacrifice of the lives of many thousands ; aaid 
 Europe contended with Asia for the possession of Pa- 
 lestine, which it could not ultimately rescue from the 
 Turks. Yet, while Europe could not wrest from them 
 one portion of Syria, another did escape out of their 
 hands, though that region partially intersects the 
 Turkish dominions, and divides one portion of them 
 
 * Bishop Kcwtoii. 
 t Dan xi. 41. 
 
 X The writfT lias entered more fully into the propheliial 
 history of the Turks in a separate publication.
 
 TURKISH EMPIRE. 353 
 
 from another, forming a singular contrast to the ge- 
 neral continuity of kingdoms. And, while every par- 
 ticular prediction respecting these separate states has 
 been fully verified, their escaping out of the hands of 
 the Turks has been no less marvellously fulfilled. 
 But these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and 
 Moab, and the chief of the children of Amman* 
 IMede, Sir Isaac and Bishop Newton, in applying 
 this prophecy to the Turkish empire, could only ex- 
 press, in general terms, that the Arabs possessed these 
 countries, and exacted tribute from the Turks for per- 
 mitting their caravans to pass through them. But 
 recent travellers, among whom"^"olney has to be num- 
 bered, have unconsciously given the most satisfactory 
 information, demonstrative of the truth of all the mi- 
 nutia? of the prediction. Volney described these coun- 
 tries in part — Burckhardt traversed them all — and 
 they have since been visited by other travellers. Edom 
 and Moab are in possession of the Bedouin (or v.an- 
 dering) Arabs. I'he Turks have often attempted, in 
 vain, to subjugate them. The partial escape of Am- 
 mon from their dominion is not less discriminating 
 than just. For, although that territory lies in the 
 immediate vicinity of the Pachalic of Damascus, to 
 which part of it is subjected, — though it be extremely 
 fertile by natui'e,- — though its situation and its soil 
 have thus presented, for several centuries, the strong- 
 est temptation to Turkish rapacity — though they have 
 often attempted to subdue it, — yet no fact could have 
 been more explicitly detailed, or more incidentally com- 
 municated, than that the inhabitants of the greater 
 part of that country, particularly what adjoins the an- 
 cient but now desolate city of Ammon, " live in a 
 state of complete independence of the Turks."-[- 
 
 • Dan. xi. 41. 
 
 f Buckingham's TravelSj pp. 32^, 329, 337. Burckhardt's
 
 So4 TURKISH EMPIRE. 
 
 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the cnun-' 
 tries.* How significantly do these words represent 
 the vast extent of the Turkish empire, which alone 
 has stretched its dominion over many countries of 
 Asia^ of Europe, and of Africa. Ill-fated Egypt 
 was not to escape from subjection to such a master. 
 And the land of Egi/pt shall 7iot escape ; but he 
 shall have power over the treasures of gold and of 
 silver, and over all the precious things of Egi/pt.-f- 
 The Turks have drained Egypt of its wealth, of its 
 gold, and of its silver, and of its precious things : 
 and such power have they exercised over them, that 
 the kingdom of the Pharaohs, the land where ever- 
 lasting pyramids were built, despoiled to the utmost, 
 is now one of the poorest, as it has long been the 
 basest of the kingdoms. The Lybians and Ethi~ 
 opians shall be at his steps.^ These form the ex- 
 tremities of the Turkish empire, and were partially 
 subject to its power. " After the conquest of P^gypt, 
 the terror of Selim's victories,'" says the historian, 
 " spreading wide, the kings of Africa, bordering 
 upon Cyrenaica, sent their ambassadors, with olrers 
 to become his tributaries. Other more remote na- 
 tions also towards Ethiopia were easily induced to 
 join in amity with the Turks."§ Such is the prophe- 
 tic description of the rise and extent of that power 
 which was to possess Judea in the latter days ; and it 
 is a precise delineation of the rise and extent of the 
 Turkish Empire to which Judea has been subject for 
 centuries. 
 
 Travels in Nubia, p. 44:tli of INIemoir. Letter to Sir Joseph 
 Banks. Biirckhardt's Travels in Svria, pp. 349, 355. 
 
 * Dan. xi. 42. f Ibid. "43. % Il>id. 
 
 § Pauli Jovi Hist, r^uoted by Bishop Newton.
 
 CONCLUSION. 355 
 
 But other events seem to be rising up to view — 
 and the time would also seem to be drawing nigh — 
 when that which shall befall the Jews in the latter 
 dar/s, shall become the subject of history, and when 
 the last part of the vision shall be unsealed. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The whole of the preceding brief and imperfect 
 sketch forms little else than an enumeration of some 
 of the more striking prophecies, and of facts which 
 demonstrate their fulfilment ; and a recapitulation 
 of all the particulars would be an unnecessary re- 
 petition. The numerous obscure prophecies which 
 contain much and striking evidence, have hither- 
 to been omitted, that the charge of ambiguity, too 
 generally and indiscriminately attached to them all, 
 might be proved to be unfounded. But, having 
 seen, in hundreds of instances, that prophecies which 
 were plainly delivered, have been as clearly fulfilled, 
 comprehending them all in a single argument, and 
 leaving the decision to the enemies of Christianity, 
 or to those who are weak in the faith, and appealing 
 to their reason without bespeaking their favour, — 
 may it not, in the first instance, be asked if it be an 
 easy task which is assigned them, to disprove even 
 this part of the positive evidence to the truth of
 
 353 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the religion of Jesus ? If they have ever staggered at 
 the promises or threatenings of the Scriptures because 
 of unbelief — discrediting all revelation from on high 
 — can they not here discern supernatural evidence in 
 confirmation of supernatural truths ? May not sight 
 lead them to faith ? ]\Iust they not concede that the 
 Christian has some reason for the hope that is in 
 him ? And may they not, at the very least, be led 
 from thence to the calm and unprejudiced investiga- 
 tion, not only of the other prophecies, but of all the 
 evidence which Christianity presents? 
 
 It cannot be alleged, with truth, that the prophe- 
 cies which have been selected are ambiguous ;, that 
 they bear the character of those auguries v.'hich is- 
 sued from the cloud that always overhung the temple 
 of Apollo, or of those pretended inspirations which 
 emanated from the cave of Hera. It cannot be 
 denied, that they were all foretold hunch'eds or 
 thousands of years before the events, which even at 
 the present day demonstrate their fulfilment, though 
 every other oracle has ceased for ages to appeal to 
 a single fact. And the historical and geographical 
 facts, which were so clearly foretold, are, in general, 
 of so Vv'oiiderfal a nature, that the language of pro- 
 phecy, though expressive of literal truths, seems at 
 first sight to be hyperbolical ; and the prophecies of 
 Isaiah, in particular, have been charged with being 
 " full of extravagant metaphor;"'* the more extrava- 
 
 * Were it not for the impiety wWa which they are con- 
 joine*), the remarks of Paine on the prophecies wouhl, to 
 those who have studied these at all, be snfficiently amusinjf. 
 He characterises the book of Isaiah as " one continued boni- 
 bastical rant, full of extravagant metaphor, without applica- 
 tion, and destitute of moaning." The predictions respecting 
 Babylon, Moab, Ike. are forsootli compared " to the story of 
 the Knight of the Buraing Moujitain, the story of ('in-
 
 CONCLUSION. 357 
 
 gant the metaphor, or the more remarkable the pre- 
 dicted fact, the farther are the prophecies removed 
 from all possibility of their having been the words of 
 human invention. 
 
 The following comprehensive and luminous state- 
 ment of the argument, extracted from a review of 
 the former edition of this treatise, is here so appo- 
 site, that no apology need be offered for inserting it 
 at length. 
 
 " This geographical argument (viz. the fulfilment 
 of those prophecies which describe the future fate of 
 particular nations, and the future aspect of their 
 countries,) has always appeared to us one of the 
 most impregnable strongholds of Christian prophe- 
 cy ; or rather one of the most resistless and wide- 
 ranging instruments of aggressive evidence. There 
 is no obscurity in the language of the prophet. 
 
 derella," and such like. Isaiah, in short, " was a lyin;^ pro- 
 phet and impostor." And " what can we say," he asks, " of 
 these prophets, but that they were all impostors aud liars ?" 
 Such words are not merely' harmless; tliey may be also 
 useful, as they show, that while every possible conoboratkm 
 from history, fact, reason, aud even the unconscious testi- 
 mony of inlidels themselves, is <>iven to tlie truth of the pro- 
 phecies ; nothing- can be alleged on the other hand but what 
 in the sight of all men manifestly is " bombastical rant, and 
 extravagant metaphor, without application, and destitute of 
 meaning-. Aud since both speak not the truth, who is the 
 liar y" Isaiah the prophet or Paine the infidel ? And " what 
 can we say " of this staunch assertor of rights, but that his 
 right to the title is undisputed, and that these very words 
 of his, were others wanting, must in every "age of reason" 
 rivet to his unblest memory the foul aspersions he so falsely- 
 applied ? Argument iu such a case would be an idle waste 
 of words. But wliile it would be an act of mere prodigality 
 aud folly to cast pearls before swiue, the filth which they 
 have snorted out may m ell be cast into their own kennel 
 again, that they and their kind may partake of what per- 
 tains to them.
 
 358 CONCLUSION. 
 
 There is no variety of opinion with regard to the 
 object in his view. There is no denying of the 
 change which he predicts. There is no challenging 
 of the witnesses who prove the facts of the case. 
 The former glory of these regions and kingdoms is 
 recorded by ancient heathen historians, who knew 
 nothing of the fall foretold. Their present state is 
 described by recent and often infidel travellers, who 
 knew often as little of the predictions which they were 
 verifying by their narratives. It is not a particular 
 event which has passed avvay, or a particular character 
 who has perished, for whose era we must search in 
 the wide page of history, and of whose description 
 we may find so many resemblances as to become per- 
 plexed in our application. The places and the people 
 are named by the prophet, and the state in which 
 they now exist is matter of actual observation. The 
 fulfilment of the prediction is thus inscribed as upon 
 a public monument, which every man who visits the 
 countries in question may behold with his own eyes ; 
 and is expressed in a language so universally intelli- 
 gible, that every man may be said to read it in his 
 own tongue. To these scenes of Scripture prophecy 
 we may point with triumph as to ocular demonstra- 
 tion ; and say to the sceptical inquirer, in the words 
 of the evangelist, ' Come and see.' The multitude 
 of travellers who have recently visited the Holy Land 
 and the adjacent regions, have furnished ample and 
 authentic materials for the construction of so irrefrag- 
 able an argument. Many of these travellers have 
 discovered no intention of advocating by their state- 
 ments the cause of revealed truth ; and some of them 
 have been obviously influenced by hostility to its 
 claims. Yet in spite of these prejudices, and alto- 
 gether unconsciously on their part, they have recorded 
 the most express confirmation of the Scripture pro- 
 
 3
 
 CONCLUSION. 350 
 
 phecies, frequently employing in their descriptions 
 the very language of inspiration, and bringing into 
 view (though evidently without design) those features 
 of the scene which form the precise picture painted 
 in the visions of the prophet.'*" 
 
 Willingly might the Christian here rest his assur- 
 ance " in the faith once delivered to the saints," and 
 leave to the unbeliever his hopeless creed. But the 
 reasonings of one class of infidels must be combined 
 with the researches of another to give full force to the 
 Evidence of Prophecy : and they jointly supply both 
 the clearest facts and the strongest arguments, and 
 have made ready the means which need only to be 
 applied for bringing the controversy with them, in its 
 various bearings, and in their own words, to a short 
 issue. 
 
 The metaphysical speculations of Hume,* and the 
 mathematical demonstrations of La Place, which have 
 
 * It may iiot be here amiss to allude to tbat kind and 
 coiu'teous admonition to Christian writers, so meekly given, 
 and with wisdom rivalling- its modesty, by this great master 
 of ideal philosophy, in which, in order peihaps to bring their 
 arguments to cope the better with his own, he prescribes to 
 them, as best suited to their cause, the total rejection of rea- 
 son ! After quoting a passage from Lord Bacon's Works, 
 which has a very different application, he adds, — This method 
 of reasoning (about monsters, magic, and alchymy, &c.) may 
 serve to confuitnd those dangerous friends or disguised ene- 
 mies of the Christian religion, who have undertaken to de- 
 fend it bij the principles of human reason, (of whom, by the 
 bye. Lord Bacon was one, and Sir Isaac Newton another.) 
 Our most holy religion is founded 07i faith, not on reason; 
 and it is a sure method of exposing it to put it to such a trial 
 as it is by no means fitted to endure. (Hume's Essays, § 10. 
 V. ii. pp. 136, 7. Ed. Edin. 1800.) If these woi'ds may not 
 justly be retorted against the " unbelievers creed," exclud- 
 ing the epithet of holy ; or if Mr. David Hume was better 
 acquainted with the principles of the Christian Religion than 
 the Author of it, «ho appealed to the reason of men, and
 
 SCO CONCLUSION. 
 
 been directed against the credibility of the miracles, 
 rest entirely on the " Theory of Frobabilitt/." As- 
 suming its logical and ligitimate application to the 
 testimony of any supernatural evidence of a divine 
 reA-elation, it is argued that the improhahilities of the 
 occurrence of miracles, being contradictory to uniform 
 experience, are so extreme as to destroy entirely the 
 
 asked them why they did not of themselves judge that which 
 was right, and than the apostles Peter and Paul, who enjoin 
 Christians to try all things, and to hold fast to that Avhich is 
 good, and to he able to give an answer to ever}' one that ask- 
 eth them a reason of the hope that is in them ; then the 
 w-riter of this treatise having only the hard alternative of be- 
 ing either " a dangerous friend or a disguised enemy of the 
 christian religion," would, with whatever reluctance, prefer 
 the former, and has to lament the evil he has done, and tlie 
 " sure method" he has taken " of exposing it." And although 
 he may hope that Christians in their charity will forgive 
 him, he must yet leave to unbelievers the comfort and the 
 joy of the triumph, which, in the exercise of that reason 
 which they have monopolized, these pages must necessarily 
 give them. Or if, on the other hand, in somewhat stricter 
 accordance with the truths of Scripture, the author of the 
 Essay on Human Nature supplies, by the prefixed words, as 
 clear practical proof, in his " Academical Philosophy," or 
 Scepticism in Theory, that it is one of the characteristics of 
 the heart of man to be deceitful above all things, as mere 
 wwldly wisdom and infidelity in practice too frequently de- 
 monstrate that it is also desperately wicked: and if Scripture 
 prophecy can " endure the trial of reason," and its evidence 
 be rejected — then the disciples of Hume, the traducers of 
 the Christian religion as not founded on reason, holding to 
 " human nature" as of itself it is, and deriding the idea of 
 its pi'oifered ransom from the guilt and rescue from the power 
 al sin, have need, A\ithout exhausting their reason in abstract 
 speculations, to look to their own harder alternative, and (if 
 both be not possibly conjoined) to choose between the in- 
 comparable deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the 
 heart within — evils greater far than all that the Christian 
 can ever fear for himself from all the sneers of the sophist, 
 or the railings of tlie ungodlv.
 
 CONCLUSION. 361 
 
 validity of awy testimony to their truth which has 
 been transmitted through so many ages. " And 
 upon the whole, wc may conclude,'" says Hume, 
 " that the Christian religion, even at this day, can- 
 not be believed by any reasonable person without a 
 miracle." What then is the evidence, that, even at 
 this day, there are subsisting miracles which must 
 command the belief of every person to the truth of 
 the Christian religion, who is not so utterly unreason- 
 able, and his mind so steeled against conviction, as not 
 to be persuaded even by miraculous demonstration ? 
 And in what better or less exceptionable " method " 
 can this evidence be meted out than according to the 
 very '» measure of probability ""' in use with unbeliev- 
 ers ; and by means of which they profess to have dis- 
 covered the deficiency of testimony to the truth of 
 ancient miracles ? 
 
 Archimedes demanded only a spot whereon to stand 
 that he might move the world. H the most reason- 
 able concession from the infidel be not as impossible 
 to be obtained as the demand of Archimedes ; and if 
 he will adiriit either the truth of his own principles, 
 or the force of mathematical proof, or if his preju- 
 dices be not immoveable as a world, the existing and 
 obvious fulfilment of a multiplicity of prophecies 
 might well excite his attention, and convince him of 
 the truth. 
 
 The doctrine of chances, or calculation of probabi- 
 lities, has been reduced into a science, and is now in 
 various ways of great practical use, and securely acted 
 upon in the affairs of life. But it is altogether im- 
 possible that short-sighted man could select, from the 
 infinite multitude of the possible contingencies of dis- 
 tant ages, any one of such particular facts as abound 
 in the prophecies ; and it is manifest that, upon the 
 principle of probabilities, the chance would be incalcu- 
 lable against the success of the attempt, even in a 
 
 B
 
 362 CONCLUSION. 
 
 single instance. Each accomplished prediction is a 
 miracle. But the advocate for Christianity may safe- 
 ly concede much, and reduce his data to the lowest 
 terms. And if the unbeliever reckon not his own 
 cause utterly hopeless, and " by no means fitted to 
 endure the trial of reason," he must grant that there 
 was as great a probability that each prediction would 
 not as that it would have been fulfilled ; or that the 
 probabilities were equal for and against the occurrence 
 of each predicted event. The Christian may fearless- 
 ly descend to meet him even on this very lowly 
 ground. And without enumerating all the particulars 
 included in the volume of prophecy respecting the life 
 and character and death of Christ — the nature and ex- 
 tent of Christianity, &c. — the destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem — the fate of the Jews in every age and nation — 
 the existing state of Judea, of Ammon, Moab, Edom, 
 Philistia, Babylon, Tyre, Egypt, the Arabs, &c. the 
 Church of Rome, and the prophetic history which 
 extends throughout tv.'o thousand three hundred 
 years ; may it not be assumed (though fewer would 
 suffice, and though incontestable evidence has been 
 adduced to prove more than double the number) that 
 a hundred different particulars have been foretold 
 and fulfilled ? What, then, even upon these data, 
 is the chance, on a calculation of probabilities, that 
 all of them would have proved true, — the chance di- 
 iriinishing one-half for every number, (or what, in 
 other words, is the hundredth power of two to 
 unity .'')* Such is the desperate hazard to which the 
 unbeliever would trust, that even from these premises, 
 it is mathematically/ demonstrable that the number of 
 chances is far greater against him than the number of 
 
 * Essai Philosophique sur les Probabilites, par. M. Le 
 Conite La Place. Emerson on Chances, prop. 3. Hutton's 
 edit, of Ozanam's Malhemat. Recr. v. i.
 
 CONCLUSION. 36*3 
 
 drops in the ocean, although the whole world were one 
 globe of water. Let the chance at least be counted 
 before it be confided in. But who would risk a 
 single mite against the utmost possible gain, at the 
 stake on which unbelievers here recklessly put to 
 certain peril the interests of eternity ? 
 
 But each prediction recorded in Scripture, being 
 a miracle of knowledge.) is equal to any miracle of 
 power, and could have emanated only from the 
 Deity. " All prophecies are real miracles, and as 
 such only can be admitted as proof of any revela- 
 tion."* They may even be said to be peculiarly 
 adapted, in the present age of extended knowledge 
 and enlightened inquiry, for being " the testimony 
 of Jesus ;" and they cannot justly be viewed as of 
 inferior importance or authority to any miracles 
 whatever. 
 
 Though the founder of a new religion, or the mes- 
 senger of a divine revelation, and his immediate fol- 
 lowers, who had to promulgate his doctrine, would 
 give clear and unequivocal proof, by working mira- 
 cles, that their commission was from on high : yet, 
 
 * Hume's Essays, vol. ii. p. 137. This statement of 
 Hume's, combined with the manifest truth of prophecy, 
 shoe's how all his theory against the truth of miracles may 
 easily be overthrown by an admission of his own. Pro- 
 phecy being true, and uniformly true, and all prophecies 
 being real miracles, miracles are not contrary to universal, 
 or even in a restricted sense, to uniform experience. They 
 " are rendered probable by so many analogies," (lb. p. 134,) 
 that on sufficient testimony they become proveable, even upon 
 Hume's own principles, especially when the inspiration of 
 those very Scriptures, which record the disputed miracles, 
 is verified by other miracles, the truth of which is establish- 
 ed and experienced. And thus the boldest dogmas of scepti- 
 cism may not only be braved but reversed ; and it is more 
 wonderful that the testimony, sealed in blood and rendered 
 credible by miracles equally great, should be false, than that 
 the miracles should be true.
 
 3C4 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the relation between any mii^culous event, wrought 
 in after-ages, and a religion previously established, 
 might not be so apparent. Or, even if it were, yet 
 any single and transient act of superhuman power, 
 being confined to a particular region, and cognizable 
 only by a limited number, the testimony of these 
 witnesses would be regarded only as secondary evi- 
 dence, and could not, at least in a Christian land, 
 be substantiated by proof so complete as that which 
 was sealed by the blood of martyrs. And even if 
 perpetual manifestations of miraculous power (how- 
 ever much men in apparent vindication of their un- 
 belief may unreasonably ask such proof,) were submit- 
 ted to tlie inspection and experience of each indivi- 
 dual in every age, they would only seem to distort 
 the order and frame of nature, and by thus disturb- 
 ing the regularity and uniformity of her operations, 
 would, fiom their very frequency, cease to be re- 
 garded as supernatural ; and influenced by the 
 same sceptical thovights, those who now demand a 
 sign would then be the first to discredit it. And 
 true to reason and to nature it is, that those who 
 will not believe Moses and the prophets would not 
 be persuaded though one rose from the dead. For 
 the prophecies bear a direct reference to religion that 
 is easily comprehended, and that cannot be misap- 
 ^ilied. They have a natural and obvious meaning 
 that may be known and read of all men. " Thus 
 saith the Lord " is their prefix ; this is the fact is 
 their proof. Instead of being weakened by the great- 
 ness of their number, the more they are multiplied, 
 or the more frequently that facts formerly un- 
 known, or events yet future, spring up in their verifi- 
 cation, their evidence is redoubled, and they are ever 
 permanent and existing witnesses that the word is of 
 God. And farther, the testimony which, in every 
 passing age, confirms their truth cannot be cavilled at :
 
 CONCLUSION. 365 
 
 it is not "diluted by trarjsmission through many ages;"" 
 it is borne, not to events in themselves miraculous, but 
 to natural facts, whether historical or geographical, 
 which have been proved by conclusive evidence, and 
 which in numerous instances still subsist to stand the 
 test of any inquiry. And even many of the facts, 
 (such as the whole history of the expatriated Jews,) 
 are witnessed by all, and need no testimony whatever 
 to declare them. And the records of the prophecies, 
 preserved throughout every age by the enemies of 
 Christianity, are in every hand. If, then, no evi- 
 dence less exceptionable, more conclusive, or more 
 clearly miraculous could be given, the disciples of 
 Hume, in resigning an " academic'' for a Christian 
 faith, have only to apply aright the words of their 
 master — " a wise man proportions his belief to the 
 evidence;""* and they may thus find — what he in 
 vain thought that he had discovered — an " everlast- 
 ing check" against " delusion. ""j* 
 
 It was the boa-t of Bolingbroke, in summing up 
 his " Philosophical " labours, that '-he had pushtd 
 inquiry as far as the true means of inquiry are open, 
 that is, as far as phenomena could guide him."' 
 Christian philosophy asks no more. It lays open the 
 " means of inquiry," and presents, in the fulfilment 
 of many prophecies, " phenomena " more wonderful 
 than external nature ever exhibited, and demands 
 only integrity of purpose, and that " inquiry be push- 
 ed unto the uttermost,'" that candour and reason may 
 thus guide the impartial inquirer, by the light of 
 positive evidence and miraculous proof, to the convic- 
 tion and acknowledgment of the inspiration of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 The argument drawn ly Volnty from " The Ruin 
 of Empires," is completely controverted by facts 
 
 * Harae's Essay on Miracles, vol. ii. p. 117. f lb p. 116.
 
 366 CONCLUSION. 
 
 stated by himself, which, instead of militating against 
 religion, directly establish the truth of prophecy ; — 
 and the unsubstantial fabric which he raised needs no 
 other hand but his own to lay it in the dust. 
 
 But ridicule alone has often supplanted reason, and 
 has been held as a test of the truth, and directed es- 
 pecially against the pro])hecies. And may not an evi- 
 dence of their inspiration be found even in this last re- 
 treat of infidelity ! The ruins of the moral world are 
 as obvious in the sight of Omniscience as the ruins of 
 the natural — of cities or of kinfjdoms : and his word 
 can fortel the one as well as the other. And if those 
 who scoff at religion can perceive no evidence from 
 any historical facts, or any external objects, they might 
 look within, and they would find engraven on their 
 own hearts, in characters sufficiently legible, a confir- 
 mation of the prophecies. And if they substitute rail- 
 ing for reason, and think to mar religion with their 
 mockery, to all others they stand convicted, the living 
 witnesses of the truth. " There shall come in the 
 last days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and 
 saying, where is the promise of his coming ? for, since 
 the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they 
 
 WERE FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION. For 
 
 this they wilfully are ignorant of that, by the Word of 
 God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing 
 out of the water and in the water, whereby the world 
 that then was perished." *' There shall be mockers 
 in the last time.""* 
 
 * 2 Pet. iii. 3. Jude 18. " 
 
 The Christian religion has thus to rank among its enemies 
 ma.nj false teachers who were to arise, and uho, as charac- 
 terised in Scripture, speak evil of the thinrjs that they under- 
 stand not — luho despise government — who are prcsu7nptu- 
 ous and self-ivilled, who speaker eat swellimj words (fvanitij 
 to allure others, promising them liberty while they them- 
 selves are the children of corruption, and foaming out their
 
 CONCLUSION. 367 
 
 But if unbelievers lay just claim to wisdom, and 
 make a fair appeal to reason, then rather than place 
 their security in abstract speculations, and tamper thus 
 
 shame, 2 Peter, chap. i. verses 1, 10, 12, 18. — Blasphemy, 
 obscenit}', and uiimeaniiij*- abuse, are the weapons of theii* 
 Avarfare : they seek to debase religion into a conformity with 
 their gross and grovelling imaginations, speaking of things 
 that they know not, they utter great spelling words of 
 vanity, as if by a mere glance of their jaundiced mental 
 vision, they could compass at once the m hole of I'eligious 
 truth. But their argiunents are as weak as their principles 
 are base. And so manifestly does reason disclaim them, 
 that for subverting their false assumptions, it is only neces- 
 sary, in general, to make the contradiction as flat as the as- 
 sertion is positive. As an example, it may be remarked, 
 that in a list of aphorisms which lately issued from the Lon- 
 don mart of iniidelity, the most specious of the whole Avas 
 thus expressed — " All other religions are false, and, there- 
 fore, the Christian religion is false also," or as the ai'gument 
 may be more logically stated — all other religions are false, 
 and, therefore, the Christian religion is true. Yet who can 
 look but with sorrow for the fate, as \^■eU as disgust and 
 derision at tlie eftorts of such pitiful cavillers, carping at the 
 truth of the Clu-istian religion — like unto foul and small 
 fry (the less dignilied the more befitting is the simile) nib- 
 bling at some weeds that have been cast by human hands 
 upon a rock, and pressing with all their little strength to 
 move it. 
 
 But there is another, and a different class of unbelievers, — 
 to whom the words in the text no less strikingly appl}' ; for 
 they may be brought to confute the subtlest arguments of 
 the ingenious sceptic, as well as to condemn the profane 
 mockery of the most senseless railer. The great argument 
 of infidelity, urged so strenuously iu these lust days, against 
 the credibility of miracles, from the inviolability of the 
 laws of nature, could not be more plainly or forcibly 
 stated than in the Mords of the apostle, declaring what 
 that argument, tlie lesnlt of modern science, would be. 
 If it had not been urged, a part of C^hristian evidence, 
 derived I'rom the fullilment of this prediction, would still 
 have been wanting, and we should still have had to 
 wait for the last argument of infidelity, from whence to 
 draw a neu' illustration of the truth. But the apostle not 
 only states, he also confutes Aihat scoffers iu the last days
 
 368 CONCLUSION. 
 
 with the immortal hopes of their fellow-men, rather 
 than trust in ridicule as the test of religious truth, and 
 call an assumed and yet unpaid license to blasphemy 
 
 would say, and not from scriptuiiil authority, unavailing 
 witli them, but on philosophical principles, or from facts of 
 which they are willingly ignorant, — viz. the creation of the 
 world, ancl its having- been overflowed by water, which show 
 that all things are not as they were at the beginning of the 
 creation. Hume, Bentham, and La Place, must yet veil 
 their heads, in the academy as well as in the temple, before 
 the humble fishermen of (ialileo. And their reasonings need 
 only to be rightly applied, that they may as strongly advo- 
 cate the undoubted evidence which miracles give, that the 
 doctiine is of God, as the facts attested by Gibbon and Vol- 
 ney demonstrate that the prophecies of Scripture were given 
 by inspiration of God. — But such a subject can only be 
 touched on in a concluding note; aifd abundant is the evi- 
 dence qfprophecj/y seeing that it here needs only to be thus 
 noticed. The transference of the leading argument of in- 
 fidelity, — which a text and a fact may suffice to transfer, — 
 into an additional and fundamental evidence of the truth, 
 merits a more full consideration : and this new method of 
 dealing with the deist is here referred to, that it may be free 
 to every Christian's use ; for it rests not on human invention, 
 but is drawn from the infallible Mord of the living God — 
 the same Scriptures which, to all v\ ho search them, are ever 
 full of treasures, and in which are to be found the words of 
 eternal life. 
 
 In these times of inquiry and discovery, it is pleasing to 
 observe how the progress of science becomes ultimately sub- 
 servient to the cause of truth. Philosophy begins to con- 
 fess its great error, and to offer some expiation to religion. 
 And in the short space since the publication of the sixth 
 edition of this treatise, new testimony may now be sub- 
 joined to the preceding note, not less important towards the 
 illustration of the evidences of Christianity, than the plates of 
 Petra. The recent origin of man is a fact now universally 
 admitted by geologists ; and in a late number of the Edinburgh 
 Review (No. 104, p. 396,) it is said, in reference to that fact 
 alone, that " it seems to us to be fatal to the theory which 
 we have presumed to call a misconception of the uniformity of 
 causation, as signifying an unalterable sequence of causes 
 and eifects" — or in other words, that it is a demonstration
 
 CONCLUSION. 369 
 
 by the name of liberty — does it not behove them to 
 look first to the positive evidence and miraculous 
 proof of revelation, to detect its fallacy or own its 
 power, and to quit their frail entrenchments, if, in- 
 deed, they find that the standard of Christian faith 
 may, in despite of all their eftbrts, be fixed upon the 
 
 that all things have not continued as they were from the 
 beginning of the creation. " Certain strata have been 
 identified," continues the Reviewer, " with the period of 
 man's first appearance. We cannot do better than quote 
 from Dr. Pritchard's excellent book, Researches into the 
 Physical History of Mankind, his comment and application 
 of this fact. ' It is well known that all the strata of which 
 our continents are composed were once a part of the ocean's 
 bed. There is no land in existence that was not farmed be- 
 neath THE SURFACE OF THE SEA, Or that haS NOT RISEN FROiSI 
 
 BENEATH THE WATER. Mankind had a beginning-, since we 
 can now look back to the period when the surface on which 
 they lived began to exist. We have only to go back, in ima- 
 gination, to that age, to represent to ourselves that there ex- 
 isted nothing on this globe but unformed elements, and that 
 in the next period there had begun to breathe, and move, iii 
 a particular spot, a human creature, and \\q sliall already 
 have admitted, perhaps, the most astonishing miracle re- 
 corded in the whole compass of the sacred writings,' " &c. 
 Thus, in a better and nioie philosophic spirit, resting on a 
 fact, of which the structure of the earth bears witness, and 
 not on an unwarrantable and false assumption, men, without 
 reference to the prediction, have at last discovered the xery 
 argument urged by the apostle in refutation of the sceptical 
 saying of scoffers in the last days. The heavens were of 
 old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the 
 waters. The earth at first was without form and void. 
 And since the beginning of the creation man himself was 
 created. An unalterable experience has not therefore to 
 be set up against the testimony of the Christian miracles; 
 for there is experience of the truth of, " perhaps, the most 
 astonishing miracle recorded in the whole compass of the 
 sacred writings." The argument of the scoffers, and its 
 manifest confutation, are alike confii'niatious of the truth ot" 
 prophecy, itself^ too, a miracle.
 
 370 CONCLUSION. 
 
 proudest towers of infidelity ? Let them, in the 
 words of the prophet, bring forth their witnesses, 
 that they may be justified, or let them hear, and say, 
 it is truth. 
 
 But, in conclusion, it may in reason be asked, if 
 there be not something repugnant to the principles 
 of Christianity in the mind of that man who will 
 not hear Moses and the prophets, and who is slow 
 of heart to believe all that they have spoken, though 
 they afforded the means of detection in every pre- 
 diction which they uttered, if their prophecies had 
 been false — though they appealed to a vast variety 
 of events which distant ages would bring into ex- 
 istence — though history has answered, and ocu- 
 lar demonstration has confirmed that appeal, our 
 enemies themselves being witnesses — and although 
 there never tvas any other truth that could be 
 tried by such a test ? Might he not be convinced 
 of a doctrine less moral, or not quite according to 
 godliness, by evidence less miraculous ? Is there no 
 reason to fear that the light of evidence, though suf- 
 ficient to dispel the clovid upon the understanding, is 
 yet unable to penetrate " the veil upon the heart ?" 
 Scepticism, at best, is not a subject for boasting. It 
 is easy to exclude the noon-tide light by closing the 
 eyes ; and it is easy to resist the clearest truth by 
 hardening the heart against it. And while, on the 
 other hand, there are minds, (and Newton's was 
 among the number) which are differently affected by 
 the Kvidence of Prophecy, and which cannot be cal- 
 lous, when touched by the concentrated rays of such 
 light from heaven, whence can this great dissimilarity 
 of sentiment arise from the same identical and abun- 
 dant proof ? And into what else can the want of con- 
 viction be resolved than into the scriptural solution 
 of the difficulty — an evil heart of unbelief.'' " They
 
 CONCLUSION. 371 
 
 will not come unto the light because the light would 
 make them free."" 
 
 But while the unbeliever rejects the means of con- 
 viction, and rests his hope on the assumed possibility 
 that his tenets may be true — the positive evidence of 
 Christianity convinces the unprejudiced inquirer, or 
 rational and sincere believer, that it is impossible that 
 his faith can be false. And when he searches out of 
 the book of the Lord, and finds that none of them do 
 fail, he looks on every accomplished prediction, even 
 though it be the effect of the v.rath of man, as a wit- 
 ness of God — he knows in whom he believes — he sees 
 the rise and fall of earthly potentates, and the con- 
 vulsions of kingdoms, testifying of Him v.ho ruletli 
 among the nations, and accrediting his word — he ex- 
 periences the conviction that the most delightful of 
 all truth, the hope which perisheth notj is confirmed 
 by the strongest of all testimony, that heaven itself 
 hath ratified the peace which it hath proclaimed — he 
 rests assured that prophecy came not of old time by 
 the will of man, but that holy men of old spake as 
 they were moved by the Holy Ghost — and, although 
 he knows not the mode of the operations of the Spi- 
 rit, he sees the demonstration of his power. And 
 " taking heed thus unto the sure word of prophecy 
 until the day dawn and the day-star arise in his heart,'' 
 the true believer learns, from the things that are past, 
 the certainty of the things that are to come hereafter 
 — he rests not satisfied with a mere name that he 
 livcth, while yet he might be dead — but, having ob- 
 tained that " precious faith," the germ of immortality, 
 which springeth up into eternal life, he experiences 
 the power of the world to come, and unites the prac- 
 tice with the profession of religion — he copies the zeal 
 of those who spend their strength for that which is 
 in vain, and their labour for that which profiteth not.
 
 372 CONCLUSION. 
 
 but he directs it to the attainment of an incorruptible 
 inheritance, for he knows that his labour shall not 
 be in vain while he yields obedience to that Word 
 ■which is the Charter of his Salvation, and which so 
 unequivocally bears the seal and superscription of the 
 King of kings.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 CURSORY REMARKS ON SOME OF THE PROPHECIES OF 
 DANIEL. 
 
 The preceding pages are so far from exhausting the 
 subject, or presenting a complete view of the evidence 
 of prophecy, that they only occupy, for the greater part, 
 a space which writers on prophecy have very sparingly 
 touched. Prophecies fulfilled are the miracles of every 
 age of the church. And while new evidence of the in- 
 spiration of the Scriptures can so abundantly be educed 
 fi'om geographical facts, discovered in the nineteenth 
 century of the Christian era, there are other predictions, 
 of far more momentous import, which have only par- 
 tially met their completion, and which the future fate 
 of the world has yet more fully to unseal. Much has 
 been written on the more obscure prophecies, which 
 have already been fulfilled. And different writers have 
 speculated freely on the mode in which the predicted 
 events, according to their interpretation, are to be 
 brought to pass. But " the times and the seasons the 
 Father hath in his own power." And, without enter- 
 ing into any minute exposition or detail, the following 
 remarks may tend, in some measure, to show how the 
 obscurity of the symbolical prophecies, which refer to 
 events already past, is, in some instances at least, great- 
 ly over-rated — how the objections of infidels may be 
 obviated, and their very arguments be still farther ad- 
 duced in testimony of the truth of revelation, and ho-w,
 
 3/4 SYMBOLICAL 
 
 notwithstanding the obscurity in wliieh these prophe- 
 cies are involved, it may be manifestly discerned in 
 them, that He who ruletii among the nations has re- 
 vealed his word to mortals, and that each vision de- 
 picted there is the glance of omniscience through tiie 
 history of man. 
 
 The question respecting the more obscure prophecies 
 which the Christian has to argue with the unbeliever is 
 not — whether the same events might not have been 
 foretold in a more distinct and definite manner, (for the 
 predictions themselves are declared to be sealed, or to 
 remain obscure, till the time of the end. or the period 
 of their completion ; and as they refer to the political 
 state of the world, or to the successive governments that 
 were to arise, there are obvious reasons for this pur- 
 posed obscurity, which apply not to the numerous lite- 
 ral predictions.) — But the question is, ^\ hether, such as 
 they are, and viewed in connexion with other prophe- 
 cies, they bear not a closer and less convertible simili- 
 tude to the events of which they were avowedly pre- 
 dictive, than human sagacity could have discerned or 
 invented. 
 
 Although the divine mind be perfect in wisdom, yet 
 that wisdom is unsearchable, and the mode of commu- 
 nicating any super-human knowledge must not only be 
 regulated by the nature of the ultimate design of the 
 special revelation, but be adapted also to the perception, 
 capacities, and habits of thought of the human reci- 
 pients. In the symbolical predictions of Daniel both 
 tiiese ends are perfectly attained. The first, as so ex- 
 pressed, required that the prophecy should be sealed 
 for many days, A\'hich was therefore conveyed in a 
 figurative manner. And the symbols themselves are 
 such as were adopted in the practice, and familiar to the 
 understanding of men, and when viewed in conjunctiou 
 with the explanation given by the prophet, they are, 
 after the event, abundantly significant. It is obvious 
 from history, as well as from ancient coins, that differ- 
 ent kingdoms were signified or marked by differ- 
 ent emblematical representations. And, notwithstand- 
 ing the diffusion of knowledge, the same practice is 
 4
 
 PROPHECIES. 373 
 
 continued to the present cla3\ Instead, therefore, of 
 their being singidar or unintelligible, the very method 
 of representing kingdoms is used in these prophetic 
 similitudes, which was then, and still is, common in the 
 world, and which arose perhaps at first from necessity, 
 and was sanctioned afterwards by use. 
 
 Not only is the emblematical representation given, 
 but the significancy of the emblems is also explained. 
 And in relation to the same events, in the cases about 
 to be noticed, two different images or figures are repre- 
 sented to view. An accordance in each particular be- 
 ing requisite to a just historical interpretation of the 
 propheoy, there is thus no possibility of any strained 
 accommodation of the events to the prediction ; and 
 that interpretation, which is just in every particular, 
 must be strictly and exclusively applicable. And such 
 interpretatiun having been given, instead of their being 
 now chargeable with impenetrable obscurity, it is not 
 perhaps in the power of human language to give a more 
 unequivocal and less ambiguous symbolical representa- 
 tion, which designedly was to be understood only after 
 the event — of the rise of successive governments, than is 
 given in the book of Daniel, by two different figures, 
 accompanied by an explanation of each. 
 
 While the truth of the predictions of Daniel may be 
 investigated in the present day, the undoubted certainty 
 of his inspiration was accredited at the time in a man- 
 ner at once easy to be understood, and impossible to 
 be controverted, and altogether unparalleled in the an- 
 nals of heathen oracles. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, at that time 
 the most potent monarch in the world, had, in his con- 
 quests over the surrounding nations, subjected the Jews 
 to his authority ; and, among other tokens of obeisance 
 which he demanded of the king of Judah, he required 
 that certain princes of the children of Israel, high in 
 character and skilful in wisdom, should be sent from 
 Jerusalem, in order to be placed in his household, and 
 to be numbered among the magicians and astrologers 
 whom he was wont to consult, and who formed one of 
 the appendages of his splendid court. Daniel was ojie
 
 376 INTERPRETATION OF 
 
 of them. He and his friends of the house of Jiidah 
 were soon " preferred for beyond all the wise men that 
 were in all the realm." But in the court of a despot 
 the highest subject is a slave. And it soon happened 
 that their lives were in tlie greatest peril, fron^ wliich 
 no human prudence could have rescued them. It was 
 the business of every courtier to minister to the will 
 and pleasure of the king, otherwise their lives were in 
 danger of being forfeited at once. And a cause of 
 mental disquietude soon arose in the breast of the king, 
 which his magicians were commanded to remove. His 
 mind had been disturbed by dreams, " his spirit was 
 troubled, and his sleep brake from him ;" and he whose 
 will would brook no control called his wise men, and 
 commanded them to make known the dream and the 
 interpretation thereof. This was a test which all their 
 pretensions could not abide, and a difficulty which all 
 their artifice could not elude. They asked the king 
 " to make known to them the dream, and they would 
 show him the interpretation." In the latter respect 
 they might easily have practised on the credulity of the 
 monarch, and put his mind at ease. " But the dream 
 had gone from him ;" if recalled to his recollection he 
 would at once recognise it ; and those who pretended 
 in other matters to be astrologers, and magicians, and 
 sorcerers, and who could not then deceive him, were 
 commanded to tell the dream itself, and then he should 
 know that they " could also shew him the interjireta- 
 tion." Compliance with a demand so unreasonable was 
 impossible for man ; the attempt was utterly hopeless ; 
 and " they answered the king and said, there is not a 
 man upon the earth that can show the king's matter ; 
 therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler that asketh 
 such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. 
 And it is a rare thing that the king requireth ; and 
 there is none other that can show it before the king 
 except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh." 
 These words were true ; though they may have been 
 inconsistent with the pretensions of the magicians when 
 they were not so severely tried. But when the passions 
 are inflamed, the spirit troubled or pride wounded,
 
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM. 377 
 
 reason and truth are alike disregarded ; and however 
 unjustifiable or bai'barous the deed, none could gainsay 
 it : and tlie king lieing angry and very furious, and hav- 
 ing previously told them that there was hut one decree 
 fur them, commanded to destroy all the wise men of 
 Babylon. All the art of man was baffled ; " lying and 
 corrupt words" could be of no avail ; something bej'ond 
 deception, and that could not be accused of it, was ne- 
 cessary here, and wholly unattainable by mortal. A fit 
 occasion, combined as it afterwards proved to be with 
 the revelation of the future fate of the world, was pre- 
 sented for the display of more than human M'isdom. He 
 alone, who knoweth the thoughts and intents of the 
 heart, and who is a discerner of the spirit, could com- 
 municate to the mind of man that knowledge which 
 the king required. And the God of Abraham, of Isaac, 
 and of Jacob, who had chosen the children of Israel for 
 his peculiar people, that all the families of the earth 
 might finally be blessed in the seed of Abraham, 
 heard the prayers of Daniel, and of the other captive 
 princes of Judah, when innocently condemned to die ; 
 and he who turneth the hearts of men as the rivers of 
 water, and who holds in his hands the thoughts of kings 
 as well as of their subjects, was pleased to reveal the 
 secret unto Daniel in a night vision. And it Mas to 
 God that he expressed his gratitude, and ascribed ail 
 the praise — " Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 
 Blessed l)e the name of God for ever and ever, for Avis- 
 dom and might are his. And he changeth the times 
 and the seasons. He rernoveth kings and setteth up 
 kings : he giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to 
 them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep 
 and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness, 
 and the light dvvelleth with him. I thank thee and 
 praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given 
 me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me 
 now what we desired of thee, for thou hast made known 
 unto us the king's matter." And as Daniel thus ofl^'er- 
 ed up his praise and gratitude in secret prayer unto 
 God, so he boasted not of himself before the king, nor 
 attributed the knowledge of the secret to his own w is-
 
 378 SUCCESSIVE 
 
 dom, but gave all the glory unto God, declaring that 
 there is a God in heaven tliat revealeth secrets, and 
 maketh known what shall be in the latter days. 
 (Dan. chap, ii.) 
 
 Daniel told unto the king his dream — the vision of 
 his head upon his bed — and the thoughts that had come 
 into his mind^ and that (till Daniel recalled them) had 
 passed from his own remembrance. 
 
 It is impossible to conceive a more discriminating 
 test of superhuuian knowledge, or any means by which 
 a stronger impression could have been made upon the 
 mind of the king of the most positive conviction that Da- 
 niel was indeed the Prophet of God, and that as he had 
 told him the dream, he had shown also the true inter- 
 pretation thereof. And as the revealing of the dream 
 afforded this indubitable proof to Nebuchadnezzar, so 
 the dream itself, and its interpretation, and the exact 
 completion of this prediction of events then future, 
 gives to us in the present day proof as indubitable — 
 that Daniel did make known the dream to Nebuchad- 
 nezzar — that the dream is certain and the interpreta-- 
 tion thereof sure. 
 
 It is as easy for an impartial inquirer in the present 
 day as it Avas for Nebuchadnezzar to judge of the truth 
 of the v>ords of Daniel. Every word of the Prophet 
 would bring back to the mind of the king his own for- 
 mer thoughts, and every part of the prophecy still 
 gives as striking demonstration that Daniel did indeed 
 reveal what would come to pass thereafter, and what 
 would be in the latter days. And although it was as 
 utterly impossible for Nebuchadnezzar to know of those 
 future events which Daniel foretold, as it was for the 
 magicians to restore to him his own lost thoughts, yet 
 nothing is now easier than to discern and to apply to 
 each and every part of the prediction its successive and 
 corresponding event. And it Mas not merely to satisfy 
 the disquietude of Nebuchadnezzar's mind — it was not 
 merely that the life of Daniel and of his fellows might 
 be spared — that a condemned captive became thus an 
 inspired prophet, but that the word of God might be 
 ratified by supernatural evidence — that Christians iji
 
 GREAT EMPIRES, 379 
 
 every age might know in whom they have believed — 
 that the providence of God might finally be manifested 
 over all, and that if the gospel be hid, it may be hid 
 only to them that are lost, who seeing, see not, and 
 who hearing, will not understand. 
 
 The only requisite commentar}' on the predictions is 
 a simple and succinct recapitulation of the events which 
 they avowedly prefigured. The interpretation, which 
 is alike prophetic with the symbolical image, declares, 
 that a kingdom inferior to the B(iht/loiiia>i was immedi- 
 ately to succeed it — that another kingdom of brass was 
 then to arise, which tvas to bear rule over all the earth — 
 that the fourth kingdom was to be strong as iron, to 
 break in pieces and subdue all things, or all other king- 
 doms. The Persian empire was established on the sub- 
 version of the Babylonian, — the power or duration of 
 which it did not attain. The Macedo-Grecian empire 
 under Alexander the Great, succeeded to the Persian. 
 It is called a kingdom of brass, a metal more justly em- 
 blematical of the Grecian than any other — as they were 
 distinguished by their coats of brass, and denominated 
 the brass-clothed Greeks.* This empire is described 
 as having ruled over all the earth. It not only surpassed 
 in the extent of its conquests and dominion, the Baby- 
 lonian and the Persian, but was literally called an uni- 
 versal empire ; and its founder is still known to fame, 
 as one of the greatest of conquerors who ever lived. 
 (These empires are more particularly described by 
 Daniel in his subsequent projjhecies.) The next em- 
 pire which extended its power over these countries was 
 the Roman. It was strong as iron : forasmuch as iron 
 breakcth in pieces, and subdueth all, and as iron that 
 hreaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruise. Iron 
 A\as its apjiropriate emblem. It Mas an iron crown 
 which its emperors wore (provei'bially the iron crown 
 of Italy ;) — and an iron yoke to which it subjected 
 many nations: It bruised all the residue of the former 
 kingdoms, and brake them in pieces. It is impossible, 
 en a retrospect of this history, to give any representa- 
 
 • Horaeri II. B. 47.
 
 380 GRECIAN, PERSIAN, 
 
 tion, in so few words, more justly descriptive of the 
 Persian, Grecian and Roman empires. But the Ro- 
 man empire itself was broken down — divided into dif- 
 ferent kingdoms — some of them powerful, and others 
 comparatively weak. The sovereigns of these different 
 kingdoms have been perpetually contracting matrimo- 
 nial alliances with each other — but, notwithstanding 
 this seeming bond of union, they have not united or 
 adhered together. The knowledge of these historical 
 truths, familiar to every reader, alone suffices for the 
 elucidation of the prophecy. And whereas Ihou sarvest 
 (he feet and toes part cf potter's clay and part of iron ; 
 the kingdom shall he divided ; bid there shall be in it of 
 the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron 
 mixed tvith miry clay. And as the toes of the foct were 
 part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be 
 partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou 
 sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle them- 
 selves with the seed of men : but they shall not cleave one 
 to another, even as iron is not mixed ?vith clay. 
 
 To Xebuchadnezzai', who aspired only after human 
 power and glory, the various empires that were in their 
 order to succeed his own, and tyrannize over the world, 
 were represented by a splendid image. But in the pro- 
 phetic vision of the " Man of God" they appeared in 
 other colours, and assumed a very different form. And 
 under the appropriate symbol of wild beasts, varying in 
 fierceness and cruelty, and distinguished by monstrous 
 peculiarities, the successive empires of Babylon, Persia, 
 Macedon or Greece, and Rome— the future promoters 
 of idolatry and oppressors of man — were aptly charac- 
 terised. 
 
 In the vision of the prophet, not only the number of 
 the kingdoms and the order of succession are the same, 
 and also the different characteristic features accordant 
 with those of the preceding symbolical representation, 
 but, to the brief outline given in the former, several 
 additional circumstances are annexed, and (in a manner 
 totally at variance with any wild and extravagant 
 fancies arising from mere pretended foreknowledge) the 
 nearer that the vision approaches to " the latter times"
 
 AND ROMAN EMPIRES. 381 
 
 it becomes the more copious and the more minutely 
 defined. 
 
 The first kingdom, viz. the Babylonian, then existing, 
 was represented by a lion that had eagle's wings. But 
 although then wortliy of such emblems, the wings 
 wherewith it was lifted up were to be plucked. " It 
 was to be humbled and subdued, and made to know its 
 human state,* — a man's heart (instead of a lion's) was 
 given it. — The second kingdom was the Persian ; it was 
 noted by historians for its brutal cruelty, — and is pre- 
 figured by a bear. This beast raised itself upon one 
 side, the Persians being under the Medes at the fall 
 of Babj'lon, but presently rising up above them. And 
 it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it, 
 signifying the kingdoms of Sardis, Babylon, and Egypt, 
 which were conquered by it, but did not belong to its 
 proper body."-j- The third beast represents the king- 
 dom that was to succeed the Persian, which was the 
 empire of the Greeks, first established over the east bj' 
 Alexander the Great. It consisted of various nations, 
 far more diversified in their manners and customs than 
 were the Babylonians, Medes and Persians, and was 
 thus spotted like a leopard. The rapidity of its rise and 
 conquests is aptly denoted by its four Mings, while the 
 four heads are significative of the exact number of king- 
 doms into which it was divided. The fourth empire 
 was the Roman. It was dreadful and terrible, and 
 strong exceedingly, and diverse from all kingdoms. 
 Such was the Roman empire, and such are the very 
 Mords of the prophecy concerning the " fourth king- 
 dom." The beast was terrible ; it had great iron teeth, 
 it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the resi- 
 due with the feet of it. — The Roman empire was larger, 
 stronger, and more terrible, and of greater duration 
 than any of the former ; it was diverse from all king- 
 doms that were before it ; and, on its fall, it was sub- 
 divided into a greater number of distinct kingdoms. 
 Machiavel (for whose creed the church of Rome and 
 
 • Sir Isaac Newton's Observations on the Piophecies of Daniel, p. 29. 
 t Ibid.
 
 382 GRECIAN, PERSIAN, 
 
 infidelity can alone contend) who M'otted not of tlie con- 
 sequences of the historical fact, specifies by name the 
 ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire was divided. 
 Some of these kingdoms at length fell, and new ones 
 arose. But, as Sir Isaac Newton remarks, they are 
 still called the ten kings from their first number. And 
 like the ten toes of the image, the fourth beast had ten 
 horns, which the prophet interprets kingdoms, (v. 7, 
 24.) After these another power, diverse from the first, 
 (v. 24.) and little at its commencement, was to arise, 
 which was to subdue three kings. In this horn were 
 eyes like the eyes of a man, and a month speaking very 
 great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. 
 He was to sjyeak great words against (" by the side of," 
 or on an assumed equality with) the Most High, to wear 
 out the saints qf the Most High : and to think to change 
 times and laws, and they were to be given into his hands 
 for a long but yet limited period. The church of Rome 
 rose to power, diverse from that of any other, after the 
 dismemberment of the Roman empire. The exarchate 
 of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the 
 state of Rome, were subjected to its temporal as well as 
 spiritual authority,* and plucked up before it. In this 
 horn were eyes like the eyes of a man. " By its eyes it 
 was a seer, E5r<9-'t07ro?, a bishop in the literal sense of 
 the word ; and this church claims the universal bishop- 
 ric. With his mouth he spake very great things ; gave 
 laws to kings and nations as an oracle, pretends to in- 
 fallibility, and that his dictates are binding on the Avhole 
 world."f His look was more stout than his fellows ; 
 the Pope, as head of the church, has not only ever 
 claimed supremacy over every other bishop, but kings 
 have often prostrated themselves before him and done 
 the office of menials. And hoM'^ closely does the char- 
 acter of wearing out the saints of the Most High befit the 
 church of Rome ? However much its character may 
 now in reality or in appearance be altered, the time is 
 
 * Sir Isaac Newton's Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel, 
 p. 73. Bishop Newton's Dissert, xiv. 
 -|- Sir Isaac Newton on Daniel, p. 75.
 
 AND ROMAN EMPIRES. 383 
 
 not distant, when every onto dafe {act of ^omis\i faitli) 
 brought the recusants of idolatry — the worshippers of 
 the Most High — to the statue, and by every refinement 
 in cruelty did it try to Avear them out. And he shall 
 think to change times and laws ; " appointing fasts and 
 feasts, canonizing saints, granting pardons and indul- 
 gences for sins, instituting new modes of worship, im- 
 posing new articles of faith, enjoining new rules of prac- 
 tice, and reversing at pleasure the laws both of God 
 and men."* 
 
 The prophetic interpretation of another vision of Da- 
 niel now presents such a retrospective view of the history 
 of the east, that scarcely the slightest comment is re- 
 quisite to show its perfect adaptation to the events. 
 At the time of the end shall he the vision. I mill muke 
 thee know nhat shall be in the last end qf the indignation, 
 for at the time appointed the end shall be. The ram 
 which thou sawest having two horns are the kings qf Me- 
 dia and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Gre~ 
 cia ; and the great horn that is between his eyes is the 
 first king (Alexander the Great.) Now, that being 
 broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall 
 stand up out qf the nation, hut not in his power (which 
 none of them ever attained.) — And in the latter time qf 
 their kingdom, (at a distance of time, but prevailing 
 over the same territory,) when the transgressors are 
 come to the full, (Isa. xxiv. 5, 6,) a king of fierce coun- 
 tenance (Mahomet, who proffered only submission or 
 the sMord,) and understanding dark sentences (where- 
 with the Koran pre-eminently abounds,) shall sta7id up. 
 And his power shall be might ij, hut not by his own power, 
 (he possessed no hereditary dominion, and arose from 
 nothing.) And he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall 
 prosper and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the 
 holy people, or the people oft he holy ones{i\\e Christians.) 
 A7id through his policy shall lie cause craft to prosper in 
 his hand, (by a faith accommodated to the passions of 
 men.) And he shall tnagnify himself in his heart. 
 
 * Bishop Newton on Daniel, p. 75.
 
 384. CONCLUDING REMARKS 
 
 (" There is no God but one, and Mahomet is his pro- 
 phet.") And by peace shall he destroy viani/. Such 
 is the intrinsic despotism and withering influence of 
 Mahometan government, that under their sway coun- 
 tries naturally the most fertile, and long exuberant in 
 population and produce, have been depopulated and 
 destroyed to a greater degree by peace than any other 
 countries have been by war. He shall stand up against 
 the prince of princes, magnifying himself even to the 
 prince of the host, (calling himself a greater prophet 
 than Christ.) // waxed exceeding great toward the 
 south, and toivard the east, and toward the pleasant land, 
 (Palestine) the very direction and progress, according 
 to Gibbon, of the greatest and most permanent of the 
 Mahometan conquests. It cast down of the host and 
 (xf the stai's to the ground (Christian churches) and 
 stamped upon them, and the place qf the sanctuary (Jeru- 
 salem) was cut down. The vision wasjor many days. 
 Many days have passed, and all is accomplished but 
 the last end of the " desolation, which has given the 
 sanctuary to be trodden under foot." 
 
 Looking back then upon those successive empires 
 which are the best known, and have been tlie most in- 
 fluential on the fate of the world, and comparing the 
 bare predictions and the prominent events, is there not 
 visible a chain of prophecy, without a link distorted or 
 broken, stretched by no human hand over the history of 
 man from the days of Nebuchadnezzar to the present 
 hour, and on which the future fate of the world hangs 
 suspended still ? And without diverging to other mat- 
 ters, may not the primary question be here reverted to, 
 whether such as they are, these predictions bear not a 
 closer and less convertible similitude to the events of 
 which they were avowedly predictive, than human sa- 
 gacity could have discovered or invented ? And may 
 not a case be here put, which would try the reasoning 
 powers of reckless mockers, and bring this question to 
 the proof? 
 
 Were a despot now troubled at the thought, a thought 
 which no tyrant could brook, that the Bible is the word 
 of God, and that he who is higher than the highest re- 
 
 3
 
 ox PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 3S5 
 
 garded him ; and were he to possess the power, and to 
 congregate around him all the illuminati — tlie magi- 
 cians and astrologers — of modern times, and to demand 
 of them the cause why the image of Nebuchadnezzar 
 and the visions of Daniel bear so striking a resemblance 
 to those future kingdoms, and to the latter times of 
 which they were avowedly symbolical ; and how, by 
 natural causes and human wisdom alone, the whole his- 
 tory of the Jews to the present hour was written, at the 
 very least, two thousand years ago ; and how all the 
 countries, and all the people, and all the cities of whose 
 destiny they spoke, should accredit, to every jot and to 
 a very tittle, the words of the seers of Israel, and pre- 
 sent in their history and fate, an exact counterpart of a 
 professedly prophetic delineation ; and were they far- 
 ther to be debarred from ridicule, and bound to reason, 
 and told that " they dared not prepare lying and cor- 
 rupt words to speak before him," and that " there was 
 but one decree for them," if they did not make good 
 their professed claim to such wisdom, show the sure in- 
 terpretation of the matter, resolve all his doubts, and 
 restore quietude to his troubled thoughts, such as words 
 of truth like Daniel's gave to the mind of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar; then, verily, much do we fear, would the lives 
 of the pMlosophes and savcins of Europe be in no less 
 jeopardy than were those of their prototypes the wise 
 men and the soothsayers of Babylon. And their poor 
 faith having no treasures in store to repay the life-blood 
 of a single mortal ; no hope, though otherwise forfeited, 
 sufficient to bribe one solitary martyr to the block ; to 
 what fitter terras than these (if their wisdom on such a 
 trial should fail them) could their blanched and quiver- 
 ing lips, long used to mockery before, give utterance 
 at last, — " There is not a man upon earth that can show 
 the king's matter ; therefore there is no king, lord, nor 
 ruler that asketh such things at any magician, or astrolo- 
 ger, or Chaldean. And it is a rare tiling that the king 
 requireth ; and there is none other that can sliew it be- 
 fore the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not 
 with flesh."* 
 
 • Daniel ii. 10, 11.
 
 386 CONCLUDING REMARKS 
 
 The frequent perversion of the " truth as it is in Je- 
 sus," and the substitution in its stead of the " com- 
 mandments of men ;" the party animosities, and reli- 
 gious wars and persecutions, so contrary to the spirit 
 of the gospel, Avhich have so long prevailed : the gross 
 impostures, absurd superstitions, and impious rites 
 which have often been forced into vmnatural alliance 
 with Christianity, and grafted by human hands into the 
 heavenly stock; the domineering spirit of an unholy 
 priesthood ; the partial diffusion of the religion of Je- 
 sus during many ages; and the delusions of a mani- 
 fest impostor triumphing over the Christian religion 
 even in the regions which gave it birth — have all prov- 
 ed stumbling-blocks in the way of many, or a rock of 
 offence on which they have made shipwreck of faith 
 and of a good conscience. Yet all these are but the 
 various combatings of the impure passions, and the 
 worldly-mindedness of man against a holy and spiritual 
 faith — the workings of a predicted " nn'stery of iniqui- 
 ty :" and not only does the purify of the gospel itself 
 remain unaffected by them all, but its truth, as the in- 
 spired word of God, is the more fully established. 
 Even here " God has not left himself without a wit- 
 ness ;" and " we do well to give heed to the sure word 
 of prophecy, which shineth as a light in a dark place." 
 
 But the church of Christ, though long militant 
 " against spiritual wickedness in high places," shall, ac- 
 cording to the Scriptures, become even on earth finally 
 triumphant. And it is not merel}^ from the analogy of 
 the truth of the past that the certainty of the events yet 
 future may be confided in ; for there is not wanting, in 
 the actual state of the world, subsisting evidence of the 
 germinating fulfilment of prophecy. The rapid diffu- 
 sion of knowledge; the numerous inventions and disco- 
 veries in physical science ; and the immense accession 
 they have given to the power of man ; the facilities of 
 communication and frequencies of intercourse that now 
 prevail throughout the world ; the nature of recent wars 
 — contests for principles rather than for property ; the 
 abandonment in different states and kingdoms of the 
 principles and the practice of unrestricted and unmiti-
 
 ON PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. S87 
 
 gated despotism, and the establishment of constitutional 
 governments in its stead ; the ready expression and 
 powerful efficacy of public opinion, sobered down as it 
 is to the desire of substantial rather than theoretic li- 
 berty, and of its expansion throughout the world, and 
 awed b}'' the remembrance of all the exhibited horrors 
 of anarchy and atheism ; the manifold philanthropic and 
 religious associations, so diversified in their objects, and 
 active in their operation for alleviating the miseries, en- 
 lightening the ignorance, and ameliorating the moral 
 condition of our species ; and though last not least of 
 all, the unexampled and astonishing dissemination of 
 the Scriptures, and the avidity with which they are 
 sought after in many a land ; all these unite in giving 
 the same promise to mortal hope which the words of 
 Scripture impart to religious faith, that the " appointed 
 time," whp.tever convulsions may yet intervene, is ap- 
 proximating, when despotism and superstition shall 
 come to an end, and when brutal power, or govern- 
 ments fitly symbolized by wild beasts, shall cease to 
 trample on the liberties of man. The powers of dark- 
 ness are already shaken. He whose " look was more 
 stout than his fellows" has been greatly humbled. His 
 dominion has in part been taken away, and it will be 
 consumed and destroyed until the cfid. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE FINAL RESTORATION 
 OF THE JEWS AND THEIR RETURN TO THE LAND OF 
 JUDEA. 
 
 " The Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and will 
 have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather 
 thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God 
 
 7
 
 388 RESTORATION 
 
 hatli scattered tliee. If any of thine be driven out un- 
 to the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the 
 Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence Avill he 
 fetch thee. And the Lord thy God Avill bring thee un- 
 to the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt 
 possess it ; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee 
 above thy fathers." (Deut. xxx. 3, 4, 5.) " And it shall 
 come to pass that the Lord shall set his hand again the 
 second time, to recover the remnant of his people, 
 which shall be left, from Assyria, and fi'om Egypt, and 
 from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from 
 Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the Islands of the 
 sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and 
 shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather to- 
 gether the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of 
 the earth." (Isaiah xi. II, 12, tSrc.) " Who are these 
 that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows ? 
 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tar- 
 shish first, to bring th}' sons from far, their silver and 
 their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy 
 God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath 
 glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build 
 up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee, 
 for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I 
 liad mercy on thee." (Isa. Ix. 9, 10, &c.) " And they 
 shall build the old M'astes, they shall raise up the former 
 desolations, they shall repair the waste cities, the deso- 
 lations of many generations." (Isa. Ixi. 4, &c.) " Thus 
 saith the Lord, if heaven above can be measured, and 
 the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will 
 also cast off all the seed of Israel, for all that they have 
 done, saith the Lord. Behold the days come, saith 
 the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord, from 
 the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner; and 
 the measuring line shall go over against it ; and it shall 
 not be jilucked up nor throw n down any more for ever." 
 (Jer. xxxi. 37, Sec.) " But ye, O mountains of Israel, 
 shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to 
 my people of Israel ; and I will multiply men upon you, 
 all the house of Israel, even all of it ; and the cities 
 shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded, &c.
 
 OF THE JEWS. 389 
 
 For I will take you (O house of Israel,) from among 
 the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and 
 will bring you into your own land." Ezek. xxxvi. 8. 
 10—24. " Thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will 
 take the children of Israel from among the heathen, 
 whither they be gone, and will gather them on every 
 side, and bring them into their own land." (Ibid, xxxvii. 
 21, <S:c.) " Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners 
 of hope ; even to-day do I declare that I will render 
 double unto thee : when I have bent Judah for me, 
 filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, 
 
 Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as 
 a sword of a mighty man," &c. (Zech. ix. 12, &c.) 
 " Behold the days come, saitli the Lord, that the 
 ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader 
 of grapes him that sowcth seed ; and the mountains 
 shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. — And 
 
 1 will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, 
 and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them ; 
 and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine 
 thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit 
 of them. And I will plant them upon their own land, 
 and they shall be no more pulled up out of their land 
 which 1 have given them, saith the Lord thy God." 
 (Amos ix. 13, 14, 15.) " I will surely assemble, O 
 Jacob, all of thee. I will surely gather the remnant 
 of Israel ; I will put them together as the sheep of 
 Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold ; they 
 shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of 
 men." (Micah ii. 12.) 
 
 These prophecies, exclusive of many others, need no 
 comment. They declare, as clearly as language can, 
 that the Jews shall return to Judea, and be at last per- 
 manently re-established in the land of their fathers. The 
 uniform experience of the literal truth of ever}^ predic- 
 tion respecting their past history may suffice to give 
 assurance of the certainty of their predicted restoration. 
 And, amidst many signs that tite times of the Gentiles 
 are drawing towards i\ie\v fuljilment, many concurring 
 circumstances seem also to be preparing the way of the 
 children of Israel. Scattered as they have been for
 
 390 RESTORATION 
 
 so many ages through the v/orld, and maintaining still 
 their distinctive character, their Mhole history forbids 
 the thought that they ■nill ever mingle among the na- 
 tions, or cease to be, what they have ever been, a pe- 
 culiar people. But while their history as a nation, 
 gave, for the space of many generations, unequivocal 
 attestations of an overruling providence, sustaining the 
 theocracy of the commonwealth of Israel ; and while, 
 during a period of still greater duration, they have been 
 '' a people scattered and peeled ;" yet after the lapse of 
 so many ages, they are still reserved for illustrating the 
 truth, the mercy, and the glory of the God of Israel ; 
 at eveniidc it shall he light. They now begin, centuries 
 of persecution and spoliation having passed awa}', to 
 participate, in cases too numerous to be specified, of 
 benefits arising from the altered spirit of the times. And 
 possessed, as in an unexampled degree they are, of 
 silver and gold, and of large portions of the public funds 
 of various kingdoms, they may be said, even now, in 
 some manner, to inherit the riches of the Gentiles. And 
 commanding, as in a great measure they do, the rate of 
 exchange throughout Europe, they are entitled, from 
 the present influence of money on the security of go- 
 vernments, and on the art and results of war, to high po- 
 litical consideration ; and the time may not thus be re- 
 mote, when they shall be raised up as an ensign among 
 the nations. Not naturalized to the isles of the Gentiles, 
 either by law or affection, or bound to any soil by the 
 possession of fixed property, which vv'ould be of no 
 easy transference ; but ever looking with undiminished 
 love to the land of their fathers, even after an expatria- 
 tion uninterrupted for nearly eighteen centuries, they 
 are read}^ — whenever the time shall be fulfilled — to Jti/ 
 thither lilie a cloud, and like doves to their windows. 
 But to what degree, and in what manner the present 
 convulsions of the Turkish empire, combined with the 
 peculiar, and in many instances, novel c;mdition of the 
 Jews, throughout Europe and America, shall be the 
 means of facilitating their eventual restoration to their 
 own land (which is ravaged by Arabs, and yields but 
 a scanty revenue to the Turks) no mortal can deter-
 
 OF THE JEWS. 391 
 
 mine. It is enough for Christians to know, that two 
 thousand of years, through nearly which period it has 
 been dormant, can neither I'ender extinct tlie title nor 
 prescribe the heaven-chartered right of the seed of 
 Abraham to the final and everlasting possession of the 
 land of Canaan ; that God will remember the land and 
 gather together unto it his ancient people ; and that his 
 word concerning Zion, which he hath neither /oro-o/^e» 
 not forsaken, is, / have graven thee upon the palms of 
 my hands, thy walls are continually before me. Thy 
 children shall make haste : thy destroyers and they that 
 made thee waste shall go forth of thee, S:c. — (Isa. xlix. 
 16, 17, &c.) " And that through all the changes which 
 have happened in tlie kingdoms of the earth from the 
 days of Moses to the present time, which is more than 
 three thousand two hundred years, nothing shoiild have 
 happened to prevent the possibility of the accom- 
 plishment of these prophecies, but, on the contrary, that 
 state of the Jewish and Christian nations at this day 
 should be such as renders them easily capable, not only 
 of a. figurative, but even of a literal completion in every 
 particular, if the will of God be so ; this is a miracle, 
 which hath nothing parallel to it in the phenomena of 
 nature." 
 
 No. III. 
 
 ABSTRACT OF PROPHECIES RELATIVE TO THE GREAT 
 APOSTACY. 
 
 Clearly revealed as is the will of God in Scripture, 
 and perfectly calculated as is the gospel to effect the 
 happiness of man, and faithful unto the death as many 
 of the primitive Christians were, — it is no less manifest 
 that an apostacy, or falling away from the faith, was
 
 392 THE GREAT 
 
 foretold. And who can read the Scriptures with an un- 
 biassed mind, and look to the history of the Christian 
 Church, and doubt for a moment that there has been 
 an apostacy, or falling away from the truth and simpli- 
 city of the faith as it is in Jesus ? Or who, in a like 
 unbiassed manner, can read the prophecies respecting 
 that apostacy, and cherish even a momentary doubt of 
 their application ? 
 
 It woidd be foreign to the object of this treatise, and 
 it would require a volume rather than a concluding 
 page, to enter at large upon such a subject. But the 
 simple comparison of a few prominent predictions and 
 undeniable facts, which scarcely need any illustration, 
 may tend to show that much evidence of the inspira- 
 tion of Scripture may be drawn from the obscure pro- 
 phecies, and that their obscurity in a great measure 
 vanishes, on the most succinct combination of predic- 
 tions and of facts. 
 
 The coincidence, not in meaning only, but in words, 
 which subsists between the following predictions, strik- 
 ingly denotes their reference to, or connexion with the 
 same subject. And when viewed as a portraiture of 
 events now passed (or still in progress,) the apparent 
 obscurity arising I'rom the adoption of symbols, or figu- 
 rative representations, may be at once removed by 
 merely bearing in mind that in Scripture itself the term 
 beast is explained as denoting a king, kingdom, or reign- 
 ing power; and that, in the phraseology of the Old 
 Testament, idolatry, or the worship of false gods or 
 images, in any form, is uniformly represented as whore- 
 dom or fornication. Without straining either a word of 
 sacred writ, or a fact in historjs it is left to every un- 
 prejudiced reader to determine on whose forehead it 
 is that the marks of apostacy and names of blasphemy 
 are so conspicuously written, that they legitimately 
 form a part of the testimony of Jesus. Rev. xvii. 
 
 The '■\forb'ulding to marrij, and commanding to ab- 
 stain from meats a\ hich God hath created to be receiv- 
 ed with thanksgiving of them which believe and know 
 the truth," 1 Tim. iv. 3, are mentioned literally as pro- 
 minent marks of the apostacy. And the celibacy of the
 
 APOSTACY. 393 
 
 clergy, both regular and secular, and the multiplicity of 
 fasts, appointed and observed by the church of Rome, 
 are in complete and manifest accordance with the pre- 
 diction. The former is expressly contrary to the sanc- 
 tion and authority of Scripture, which saitli — " a bishop 
 must be blameless, the husband of one wife ;" — and the 
 reason assigned for the latter, as taught in thejirsl Ca- 
 techism or abridgment of Christian doctrine,* " that by 
 fasting we may satisfy God for our sins," is a monstrous 
 perversion of all Christian doctrine, and shows with how 
 great a falling away from the faith the observance of 
 such " commandments of the church" of Rome is ac- 
 companied. 
 
 Giving heed to doctrines of devils — literally of, or con- 
 cerning, demons — a term otten applied by Greek writers 
 to those who were canonized or deified after their death, 
 or who were accounted agents or mediators between 
 gods and men, 1 Tim. iv. 3. The same word was used 
 by the Athenians, (Acts xvii. 18.) when they accused 
 Paul of being a setter up of strange gods or demons — 
 because he preached unto them Jesus who had been 
 raised from the dead. — But in his estate, (or in the steatl 
 of God) shall he honour the God of forces, or, as ren- 
 dered in the margin, Gods protectors, divine guardians, 
 or tutelary saints, Dan. xi. 38. The corruption of the 
 pure worship of God, the introduction of demonolatry 
 into the Christian Church, and the trusting to other in- 
 tercessors than the one only Mediator, seem here evi- 
 dently referred to. It is not needful to ask what church, 
 as well as the Grecian, has given heed to doctrines con- 
 cerning departed mortals, such as were believed on by 
 heathens ; or who have canonized dead men, worshipped 
 them in the stead of God, believe on them as strong pro- 
 tectors, address them as intercessors, worship at their 
 shrines, regard their glory, and honour them with gold, 
 silver, and precious stones, andpleasant things. Dan. xi.38. 
 
 Giving heed to seducing spirits, speaking lies in hypo- 
 crisy, 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2. Whose coming is (fter the power 
 
 * Published for the use of the London District, and printed by 
 R. Keating, Brown & Co. Loudon, Printers to the Pi. Pv. tl.e 
 Vicars Apostolic, 1812, p. 33.
 
 394) THE GREAT 
 
 of Satan with, all power and signs and lying wonders, and 
 ivith all deceivableness of tinrigliteoiisncss, 2 Thess. xi. 
 9, 10. Bij ihy sorceries were all nations deceived, Rev. 
 xviii. 23. The power of working miracles is held by 
 the church of Rome as a mark of the true church : but 
 the assumption of that power is truly a mark of the 
 great apostacy. And what else are wili'ul impositions, 
 ]\'ing legends, and pretended miracles, the liquefying of 
 the blood of St. Januarius, for example, still practised, 
 thrice every year, in a church in Naj)les, but the de- 
 ceivableness of unrighteousness ? Or what creed is more 
 common in Rome, to which the Pope and the Cardi- 
 nals have given their sanction, than the working of mi- 
 racles by the images of saints ? 
 
 Speaking of the selfsame apostacy, it is said by the 
 Apostle Paul, " the day of Christ shall not come ex- 
 cept there come a falling away first, and that man of 
 sin be revealed, the son of perdition, v/lio opposeth and 
 exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is 
 W'orshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the Temple 
 OF God, showing himself that he is God," 2 Thess. ii. 
 3, 4. These words, descriptive of tJie man of sin, are 
 linked to the description of the little horn in Daniel, 
 (p, 315) not only by a similarity of character, but by an 
 identity of fate. And he shall speak great words against 
 the Most High. Dan. vii. 25. Rev. xiii. 5, 6. It admits 
 of no question who it is that has exalted himself most 
 highly in the Church, that has assum.ed the claim of in- 
 fallibility, and of titles which pertain to God alone, and 
 to whom " adoration" is paid, when he is enthroned, in 
 the most magnificent temple on earth, as the head of 
 the Church. 
 
 The more closely that tlie connexion is traced be- 
 tween the prophecies of St. Paul, Daniel, and St. John, 
 they become the more copious, discriminative, and de- 
 fined. The beast having seven heads and ten horns,* 
 which was subject to the authority of the great whore, f 
 (or idolatrous church) is evidently connected, in its 
 character, duration, and fate,:]: with the little horn of 
 
 * Rev. xiii. 1 ; xvii. 7. t I^<^v- ^'i'- 1-5- 
 
 + Dan. vii. 20, 21, 25, 26. Rev. xiii. 5, 7, 10; xvii. 14.
 
 APO STACY. 395 
 
 Daniel's fourth kingdom, or the Roman. The locality, 
 or seat of this dominion, diverse from the former king- 
 doms, could scarcely be more cii'cumstantially defined. 
 The seven heads are seven mountains on which the tvo- 
 vian sitteth, (Rev. xvii. 9.) Rome was proverbially the 
 city on seven hills : and there are seven kings, Jive are 
 fallen and one is, (v. 10.) Five forms of government 
 had before that time fallen, and another then existed. 
 A?id the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which 
 have received no kingdoms as yet. The Roman empire, 
 then entire, was, about the time of the establishment of 
 poper}', divided into ten kingdoms, corresponding with 
 the ten horns of the fourth beast, or the toes of the 
 great image, (pp. 313, 315.) The woman which thou 
 sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings 
 of the earth. The great city which then reigned over 
 the kings of the earth was Rome. It is all but named. 
 And under a symbol the very name was hid. The 
 beast had a name, a number, and a mark, (Rev. xiii. 18 ; 
 XV. 2.) and his number is six hundred threescore and six. 
 (Among the Hebrews and Greeks all the letters were 
 numerals, or equivalent to figures, which were not in 
 use among them.) Three different designations being 
 given, th)-ee corresponsive words, instead of one, as has 
 been generally sought, seem to be required. The beast 
 was first described by Daniel; and in Hebrew charac- 
 ters, Romiith,* Roman, agreeing Avith beast or kingdom, 
 contains the precise number, or that of his name ; while 
 Lateinos,f the number of his name, " which is the num- 
 ber of a man ;" and apostates,^ the mark, the brand of 
 
 * 1 i? = 200 
 
 t 
 
 A L = 30 
 
 + 
 
 AA= 1 
 
 -10= 6 
 
 
 a a r=. 1 
 
 
 -Tf p =1 80 
 
 72 m = 40 
 
 
 T < = 300 
 
 
 « = 70 
 
 ^ i = 10 
 
 
 £ e = 5 
 
 
 <; St = 6 
 
 •• i = 10 
 
 
 - i = 10 
 
 
 « a = 1 
 
 nth-^ 400 
 
 
 y 71= 50 
 
 
 Tt =300 
 
 
 
 = 70 
 
 
 »!C = 8 
 
 G66 
 
 
 5 i- = 200 
 
 
 J s = 200 
 
 666. OCG
 
 396 THE GREAT APOSTACY. 
 
 the apostacy, both fatally contain the same prophetic 
 number. 
 
 There are other characteristics which need no com- 
 ment. " Come hither; I will show unto thee the judg- 
 ment of the f^reat whore that sitleth upon many waters : 
 with whom the kings of the earth have committed forni- 
 cation, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made 
 drunk with the wine of her fornication. The waters which 
 thou sawest where the whore siiteth are peoples, and mid- 
 'titudes, and nations, and tongues, Rev. xvii. 2, 15. 
 They shall be given into his hand, Dan. vii. 25. And 
 power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and 
 nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall wor- 
 ship him, whose names are not ?vritten in the book of 
 life," Rev. xiii. 7, 8. The catholic means the universal 
 church. The same horn made war with the saints, and 
 prevailed against them. He shall wear out the saints of 
 the Most High, Dan. vii. 21, 25. // ivas given unto him 
 to make war with the saints, and to overcome them, Rev. 
 xiii. 7. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of 
 the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, 
 Rev. xvii. 6. 
 
 She ivas arrayed in purple and scarlet colour. Rev. 
 x\ ii. 4. the official clothing of the pope and of the car- 
 dinals, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, 
 as also they are, and wherewith the decking of their 
 churches, altars, and images did abound. 
 
 We ask not how all the subtilty of Jesuitism, or all 
 the deceivableness of unrighteousness can rescue popery 
 from the grasp of so many prophecies encircling it on 
 every side ; it is the purpose of these remarks, as con- 
 nected with the evidence of prophecy, to show that 
 even the long-continued and wide-spread apostacy from 
 the Christian faith, which has often given a seeming 
 sanction to infidelity, is itself a proof of the inspiration 
 of Scripture ; and that the war which has long been 
 waged against those who kept the commandments of God, 
 and had the testimony of Jesus, only serves the more to 
 confirm the truth of that testimony.
 
 397 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM SIR ISAAC NEWTON S OBSERVATIONS ON 
 THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL ; CHAP. XII. P. 169, Of" 
 THE PROPHECY OF THE SCRIPTURES OF TRUTH. 
 
 The kingdoms represented by the second and tbird 
 beasts, or the bear and leopard, are again desciibed by 
 Daniel, in his last prophecy written in the tliird year of 
 Cyrus over Babylon — the year in which he conquered 
 Persia. For this prophecy is a commentary upon the 
 vision of the ram and he-goat. 
 
 " Behold," saith he, " there shall stand up yet three 
 kings in Persia, and the fourth (Xerxes) shall be far 
 richer than they all ; and, by his strength, through his 
 riches, he shall stir up all against the I'ealm of Grecia. 
 And a mighty king {Akwander the Great) shall stand 
 up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do accord- 
 ing to his will. And when he shall stand up, his king- 
 dom shall be broken, and shall be divided towards the 
 four winds of heaven, and not to his posterity, (but 
 after their deaths,) nor according to his dominion 
 which ruled : for his kingdom shall be plucked up, 
 even for others besides those." * Alexander the Great, 
 having conquered all the Persian empire, and some 
 parts of India, died at Babjdon, a month before the 
 summer solstice, in the year of Nabonassar 425 ; and 
 his captains gave the monarchy to his bastard brother, 
 Philip Aridoeus, a man disturbed in his understanding ; 
 and made Perdiccas administrator of the kingdom. Per- 
 diccas, with their consent, made Meleager commander 
 of the army — Seleucus, master of the horse — Craterus, 
 treasurer of the kingdom — Antipater, governor of Ma- 
 cedon and Greece — Ptolemy, governor of Egypt — An- 
 
 • Tan. xi. 2, 3, 4.
 
 398 SUCCESSORS OF 
 
 tigonus, governor of Pamphylia, Lj^cia, Lycaonia, and 
 Phrygia Major — Lysimachus, governor of Thrace — 
 and other captains, governors of other provinces ; as 
 many as had been so before in the days of Alexander 
 the Great, The Babylonians began now to count by 
 a new era, which they called the era of Philip, using 
 the year of Nabonassar, and reckoning the 425th era 
 of Nabonassar to be the first year of Philip. Roxana, 
 tlie wife of Alexander, being left big with child, and, 
 about three or four months after, brought to bed of a 
 son — they called him Alexander — saluted him king, 
 and joined him with Philip, whom they had before 
 placed in the throne. Philip reigned three years under 
 the administratorship of Perdiccas — two years more 
 under the administratorship of Antipater, — and above 
 a j'ear more under that of Polysperchon : — in all six 
 years and four months ; and then was slain, with his 
 queen Eurydice, in September, by the command of 
 Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great. 
 
 The Greeks being disgusted at the cruelties of Olym- 
 pias, revolted to Cassander, the son and successor of 
 Antipater. Cassander, affecting the dominion of Greece, 
 slew Olympias ; and soon after shut up the j'oung king 
 Alexander, with his mother Roxana, in the castle of 
 Amphipolis, under the charge of Glaucias, an.Nabonass. 
 4-32. The next year Ptolemy, Cassander, and Lysima- 
 chus, by means of Seleucus, formed a league against 
 Antigonus ; and, after certain wars, made peace with 
 him, an. Nahonass. 438 — upon these conditions ; — that 
 Cassander should command the forces of Europe till 
 Alexander, the son of Roxana, came to age; and that 
 Lysimachus should govern Thrace ; Ptolemy, Egypt 
 and Lybia : and Antigonus all Asia. Seleucus had pos- 
 sessed himself of Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Susiana, and 
 INIedia the year before. About three years after Alex- 
 ander's death, he was made governor of Babylon by 
 Antipater ; then was expelled by Antigonus ; but now 
 he recovered, and enlarged his government over a great 
 j)art of the east, which gave occasion to a new era, 
 called aera Seleucidarum. Not long after the peace 
 made with Antigonus, — Diodorus saith, the same
 
 ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 399 
 
 Olympic year, — Cassander, seeing tliat Alexander, the 
 son of Roxana, grew iip:, and tliat it was discoursed 
 througliout Macedonia, that it was fit he should be set 
 at liberty, and take upon him the government of his fa- 
 ther's kingdom, commanded Glaucias, the governor of 
 the castle, to kill Roxana and the young king Alexan- 
 der her son, and conceal their deaths. Then Polysper- 
 chon set up Hercules, the son of Alexander the Great, 
 by Barsyne, to be king; and soon after, at the solicita- 
 tion of Cassander, caused him to be slain. Soon after 
 that, upon a great victory at sea, got by Demetrius, the 
 son of Antigonus, over Ptolemy, Antigonus took upon 
 himself the title of king, and gave the same title to his 
 son. This was an. Kabonass, 441. After his example, 
 Seleucus, Cassander, Lj'simachus, and Ptolemy took 
 upon themselves the title and dignity of kings, having 
 abstained from this honour while there remained any 
 of Alexander's race to inherit the crowns. Thus the 
 monarchy of the Greeks, for want of an heir, was broken 
 into several kingdoms ; four of which, seated to the four 
 "winds of heaven, were very eminent. For Ptolemy 
 reigned over Egj'pt, Lybia, and Ethiopia — Antigonus 
 over Syria and the Lesser Asia — Lysimachus over 
 Thrace — and Cassander over Maeedon, Greece, and 
 Epirus, as above. 
 
 Seleucus at this time reigned over the nations which 
 were beyond the Euphi'ates, and belonged to the bodies 
 of the two first beasts ; but after six years he conquered 
 Antigonus, and thereby became possessed of one of the 
 four kingdoms. For Cassander being afraid of the power 
 of Antigonus, combined with Lysimachus, Ptolemy, 
 and Seleucus against him ; — and while Lysimachus in- 
 vaded the parts of Asia next to the Hellespont, Ptole- 
 my subdued Phoenicia and Ccelosyria, the sea-coasts of 
 Asia. 
 
 Seleucus came down with a powerful armj' to Cap- 
 padocia, and, joining the confederate forces, fought 
 Antigonus in Phrygia, and slew him, and seized his 
 kingdom, an. Nabonass. 447. After which Seleucus 
 built Antioch, Seleucia, Laodicea, Apamea, Ber- 
 rhoea, Edessa, and other cities in Syria and Asia : and
 
 400 KINGS OF 
 
 in them granted the Jews equal privileges with the 
 Greeks. 
 
 Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, retained but a 
 small part of his father's dominions, and at length lost 
 Cyprus to Ptolemy ; but afterwards killing Alexander, 
 the son and successor of Cassander, king of Macedon, 
 he seized his kingdom, an. Nabonass. 454. Some time 
 after, preparing a very great army to recover his fa- 
 ther's dominions in Asia — Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysima- 
 chus, and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, combined against 
 him ; and Pyrrhus, invading Macedon, corrupted the 
 army of Demetrius, put him to flight, seized his king- 
 dom, and shared it with Lysimachus. After seven 
 months, Lysimachus beating Pyrrhus, took iMacedon 
 from him, and held it five years and a half, uniting the 
 kingdoms of Macedon and Thrace. Lysimachus, in his 
 wars with Antigonus and Demetrius, had taken from 
 them Caria, Lydia, and Phrygia ; and had a treasury 
 in Pergamus, a castle on the top of a conical hill in 
 Phrygia, by the river Caicus, the custody of which he 
 had committed to one Philatasrus, who was at first faith- 
 ful to him, but in the last year of his reign revolted. 
 For L3'simachus having, at the instigation of his wife 
 Arsinoe, slain first his own son Agathocles, and then 
 several that lamented him — the wife of Agathocles fled 
 "witli her children and brothers, and some others of their 
 friends, and solicited Seleucus to make war upon Lysi- 
 machus ; whereupon Philatserus also, who grieved at 
 the death of Agathocles, and was accused thereof by 
 Arsinoe, took up arms and sided with Seleucus. On 
 this occasion Seleucus and Lj'simachus met and fought 
 in Phrygia ; and Lysimachus being slain in the battle, 
 lost his kingdom to Seleucas, an. Kahonass. 465. Thus, 
 the empire of the Greeks, which at first broke into four 
 kingdoms, became now reduced into two notable ones, 
 henceforward called by Daniel the kings of the south 
 and north. For Ptolemy now reigned over Egypt, 
 Lybia, Ethiopia, Arabia, Phoenicia, Ca'losyria and Cy- 
 prus ; and Seleucus, having united three of the four 
 kingdoms, had a dominion scarcely inferior to that of 
 the Persian Empire, conquered by Alexander the Great.
 
 SYRIA AND EGYPT. 401 
 
 All which is thus represented by Daniel."* " And the 
 khig of the south (Ptolemy,) shall be strong : and one 
 of his princes (^eleucu^, one of Alexander's princes,) 
 shall be strong above him and have dominion : his do- 
 minion shall be a great dominion. 
 
 After Seleucus had reigned seven months over Ma- 
 cedon, Greece, Thrace, Asia, Syria, Babylon, Media, 
 and all the east as far as India — Ptolemy Ceraunus, the 
 younger brother of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of 
 Egypt, slew him treacherously, and seized his do- 
 minions in Europe ; while Antiochus Soter, the son of 
 Seleucus, succeeded his father in Asia, Syria, and most 
 of the east ; and, after nineteen or twenty years, was 
 succeeded by his son Antiochus Theos, who having a 
 lasting war with Ptolemy Philadelphus, at length com- 
 posed the same by marrying Berenice, the daughter of 
 Philadelphus ; but after a reign of fifteen years, his first 
 wife Laodice poisoned him, and set her son Seleucus 
 Callinicus upon the throne. Callinicus, in the begin- 
 ning of his reign, by the impulse of his mother Laodice, 
 besieged Berenice, in Daphne, near Antioch, and slew 
 her with her young son and many of her women. Here- 
 upon Ptolemy Euergetes, the son and successor of 
 Philadelphus, made war upon Callinicus ; took from him 
 Phoenicia, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Su- 
 siana, and some other regions ; and carried back into 
 Egypt 40,000 talents of silver, and 2500 images of the 
 gods, amongst which were the gods of Egypt, carried 
 away by Cambyses. Antiochus Hierax at first assisted 
 his brother Callinicus, but afterwards contended with 
 him for Asia. In the mean time, Eumenes, governor of 
 Pergamus, beat Antiochus, and took from them both 
 all Asia, westward of Mount Taurus. This Avas in the 
 fifth year of Callinicus, who, after an inglorious reign 
 of twenty years, was succeeded by his son Seleucus 
 Ceraunus; and Euergetes, after four j'ears more, an. Na~ 
 bonass. 527, was succeeded by his son Ptolemy Philo- 
 pater. All which is thus signified by Daniel :f — " And 
 in the end of years, they (the kings of the south and 
 
 * Chap. xi. o. -)- Chap. xi. G, 7, 8,
 
 402 KINGS OF 
 
 north) shall join themselves together ; for the king's 
 daughter of the south (Berenice J shall come to the king 
 of the north to make an agreement, but she shall not 
 retain the power of the arm ; neither shall she stand, 
 nor her seed, but she shall be delivered up, and he 
 (CaUinicus) that brought her, and he whom she brought 
 forth, and they that strengthened her in (those) times, 
 (or defended her in the siege of Daphne. J But out of a 
 branch of her roots shall one stand up in his seat (her 
 brother Euergetes,) who shall come with an army, and 
 shall enter into the fortress (or fenced cities) of the king 
 of the north, and act against them and prevail ; and 
 shall carry captives into Egypt their gods with their 
 princes, and precious vessels of silver and gold ; and he 
 shall continue some years after the king of the north." 
 
 Seleucus Ceraunus, inheriting the remains of his fa- 
 ther's kingdom, and thinking to recover the rest, raised 
 a great army against the Governor of Pergamus, now 
 king thereof, but died in the third year of his reign. 
 His brother and successor, Antiochus Magnus, carrying 
 on the war, took from the king of Pergamus almost all 
 the Lesser Asia, recovering also the provinces of Me- 
 dia, Persia, and Babylonia, from the governors who had 
 revolted ; and, in the fifth year of his reign, invading 
 Coelosyria, he with little opposition possessed himself 
 of a good part thereof; and, the next year, returning to 
 invade the rest of Coelos3^ria and Phoenicia, beat the 
 army of Ptolemy Philopater near Berytus ; he then in- 
 vaded Palestine and the neighbouring parts of Arabia, 
 and the third j'ear returned with an army of 78,000; 
 but Ptolemy, coming out of Egj'^pt with an army of 
 75,000, fought and routed him at Raphia, near Gaza, 
 between Palestine and Egypt, and recovered all Phoe- 
 nicia and Coelosyria ; an. Nabonass. 332. Being puffed 
 up with this victory, and living in all manner of luxury, 
 the Egyptians revolted, and, in the broils, 60,000 Egyp- 
 tian Jews were slain. All which is thus described by 
 Daniel ; — " But his sons (Seleucus Ceraunus and An- 
 tiochus Magnus, the sons of CaUinicus,) shall be stirred 
 up, and shall gather a great army, and he (Antiochus 
 Magnus) shall come effectually and overflow, and pass
 
 SYRIA AND EGYPT. 403 
 
 through and return, and (again the next year) be stir- 
 red up (inarching even) to his fortress (llie frontier 
 towns of Egypt ;) and the king of the south shall be 
 moved \xith cholor, and come forth (the third year,) and 
 light with him, even the king of the north ; and he (the 
 king of the Jiorth) shall lead forth a great multitude, but 
 the multitude shall be given into his hand. And the 
 multitude being taken away, his heart shall be lifted up, 
 and he shall cast down many ten thousands ; but he 
 shall not be strengthened by it ; for the king of the 
 north shall return," &c.* 
 
 About twelve years after the battle between Philopa- 
 ter and Antiochus, Philopater died, and left his king- 
 dom to his young son, Ptolemy Epiphanes, a child of 
 five years old. Thereupon Antiochus Magnus confe- 
 derated with Philip king of Macedon, that they should 
 each invade the dominions of Epiphanes which lay next 
 to them. Hence arose a various war between Antio- 
 chus and Epiphanes, each of them seizing Phoenicia and 
 Ccelosyria by turn ; whereby those countries were much 
 afflicted by both parties. First Antiochus seized them ; 
 then one Scopas, being sent with the army of Egypt, 
 recovered them from Antiochus the next year, an. Na- 
 bonass. 550. Antiochus fought and routed Scopas near 
 the fountains of Jordan, besieged him in Sidon, took the 
 city, and recovered Syria and Phoenicia from Egypt, 
 the Jews coming to him voluntarily. Bat, about three 
 years after, preparing for a war against the Romans, he 
 came to Raphia, on the borders of Egypt, made peace 
 with Epiphanes, and gave him his daughter Cleopatra. 
 Next Autumn he passed the Hellespont, to invade the 
 cities of Greece under the Roman protection ; but was 
 beaten by the Romans the summer following, and forced 
 to return back with his army into Asia. Before the 
 end of the year the fleet of Antiochus was beaten by 
 the fleet of the Romans near Phocoea ; and, at the same 
 time, Epiphanes and Cleopatra sent an embassy to 
 Rome to congratulate the Romans on their success 
 against their father Antiochus, and to exhort them to 
 
 * Ver. 10, &c.
 
 404 KINGS OF 
 
 )3rosecute the war against him into Asia. The Romans 
 beat Antiochus again at sea near Ephesus, passed their 
 army over the Hellespont, and obtained a great victory 
 over him by land ; took from him all Asia westward 
 Mount Taurus ; gave it to the king of Pergamus, who 
 assisted them in the war ; and imposed a large tribute 
 upon Antiochus. Thus the king of Pergamus, by the 
 power of the Romans, recovered what Antiochus had 
 taken from him ; and Antiochus retiring into the re- 
 mainder of his kingdom, was slain two years after by 
 the Persians, as he was robbing the temple of Jupiter 
 Belus in Elymais to raise money for the Romans. All 
 which is thus described by Daniel : " For the king of 
 the north fAiifiochusJ shall return and shall set forth a 
 multitude greater than the former; and shall certainly 
 come after certain years, with a great army and with 
 much riches. And in those times there shall many 
 stand up against the king of the south (partindarlij the 
 Macedonians ; ) also the robbers of thy people (the Sa- 
 mfiritans, S^^c.) shall exalt themselves to establish the 
 vision, but they shall fall. So the king of the north 
 shall come and cast up a mount, and take the most 
 fenced cities ; and the arms of the south shall not with- 
 stand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be 
 any sti-ength to withstand. But he that cometh against 
 him shall do according to his own will, and none shall 
 stand before hini ; and he shall stand in the glorious 
 land, which shall fail in his hand. He shall also set his 
 face to go with the strength (or army) of all his king- 
 dom, and make an agreement with him, (at Raphia,) 
 and he shall give him the daughter of women, coi'rupt- 
 ing her, but she shall not stand on his side, neither be 
 for him. After this he shall turn his fece unto the isles, 
 and shall take many ; but a prince for his own behalf 
 (the Romans) shall cause the reproach offered by him 
 to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to 
 turn upon him. Then he shall turn his face towards 
 the fort of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall, 
 and not be found."* 
 
 • Ver. 13^19.
 
 SYRIA A^'D EGYPT. 405 
 
 Seleucus Pbilopater succeeded his father Antiochus, 
 on. Ncibonass, 561, and reigned twelve years, but did 
 nothing memorable, being sluggish, "and intent on rais- 
 ing mone}^ for the Romans, to whom he was tributary. 
 He was slain by Heliodorus whom he had sent to rob 
 the temple of Jerusalem. Daniel thus describes his 
 reign : — " Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of 
 taxes in the glor}' of the kingdom, but within few days 
 he shall be destroj'ed, neither in anger nor in battle."* 
 
 A little before the death of Philopater, his son De- 
 metrius was sent hostage to Rome, in the place of An- 
 tiochus Epiphanes, the brother of Philopater : and An- 
 tiochus was at Athens, in his way home from Rome 
 when Philopater died ; whereupon Heliodorus, the trea- 
 surer of the kingdom, stept into the throne. But An- 
 tiochus so managed his affairs that the Romans kept 
 Demetrius at Rome, and their ally the king of Perga- 
 mus expelled Heliodorus, and placed Antiochus on the 
 throne, while Demetrius, the right heir, remained an 
 hostage at Rome. Antiochus, being thus made king 
 by the friendship of the king of Pergamus, reigned 
 powerfully over S^'ria and the neighbouring nations ; 
 but carried himself much below his dignity, stealing 
 privately out of his palace, rambling up and down the 
 city in disguise with one or two of his companions, con- 
 versing and drinking with people of the lowest rank, 
 foreigners and strangers ; frequenting the meeting of 
 dissolute persons to feast and revel; clothing himself 
 like the Roman candidates and officers, acting their 
 parts like a mimic ; and, in public festivals, jesting and 
 dancing with servants and light people : exposing him- 
 self by all manner of ridiculous gestures. This con- 
 duct made some take him for a madman, and call him 
 Antiochus ETtiyAvA;. In the first j'car of his reign be 
 deposed Onias the High Priest, and sold the high priest- 
 hood to Jason the younger brother of Onias; for Jason 
 had promised to give him 440 talents of silver for that 
 office, and 150 more for a license to erect a place of 
 exercise for the training up of youth in the fashions of 
 
 • Ver. 20."
 
 406 KINGS OF 
 
 the heathen ; which license was granted b}' the king, 
 and put into execution by Jason. Then the kind send- 
 ing one Apollonius into Egypt, to the coronation of 
 Ptolemy Philometer, the young son of Philometer and 
 Cleopatra, and knowing Philometer not to be well af- 
 fected to'his aifairs in Phoenicia, provided for his own 
 safety in those parts ; and for that end came to Joppa 
 and Jerusalem, where he was honourably received ; from 
 thence he went in like manner with his little army to the 
 cities of Phoenicia to establish himself against Egypt, by 
 courting the people and distributing extraordinary fa- 
 vours amongst them. Ail which is thus described by 
 Daniel : — " And in his ( Philometer s) estate shall stand 
 up a vile person, to whom they (the Si/}'ict?ts who set tip 
 HeliodonisJ shall not give the honour of the kingdom. 
 Yet he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom 
 by flatteries; (made principallij to the king qfPergamus) 
 and the arms (which in favour of Heliodon/s oppose 
 him) shall be overflowed with a flood from before him 
 and be broken ; yea, also, (Onias the High Priest J the 
 prince of the covenant. And after the league made with 
 him (the /ii7}g of Egypt, hy sending Apollonius to his co- 
 ronation) he shall work deceitfully (against the king of 
 Egypt,) for he shall come up and become strong (in 
 Phoenicia) vith a snsall people. And he shall enter 
 into the quiet and plentiful cities of the province (of 
 Phcenicia ) , and (to ingratiate himself with the Jews of 
 Phoenicia and Egypt, and with their friends) he shall do 
 that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' 
 fathers : he shall scatter among them the prey and 
 .spoil, and the riches (exacted from other places ; ) and 
 shall forecast his devices against the strongholds (of 
 Egypt) even for a time.* 
 
 These things were done in the first years of his reign, 
 an. Nabonass. 573; and thenceforward he forecast his 
 devices against the strongholds of Egypt, until the 
 sixth 3'ear. For three years after, that is, the fourth 
 year of his reign, Menelaus bought the high priesthood 
 from Jason, but not having the price, was sent for by 
 
 • Ver. 21, 24.
 
 SYRIA AND EGYPT. 4O7 
 
 the king; and the king, before he could liear the cause, 
 M'ent into Cilicia to appease a sedition there, and left 
 Andronicus, his deputy, at Antioch. In the mean time, 
 the brother of Menelaus, to make up the money, con- 
 vej'ed several vessels out of the Temple, selling some 
 of them at Tyre, and sending others to Andronicus. 
 When JNIenelaus was reproved for this by Onias, he 
 caused Onias to be slain by Andronicus ; for which 
 fact, the king, at his return from Cilicia, caused Andro- 
 nicus to be put to death. 
 
 Then Antiochus prepared his second expedition 
 against Egypt ; wliich he performed in the sixth year 
 of his reign, an. Nahonass. 378 ; for, upon the death of 
 Cleopatra, the governor of her son, tlie young king of 
 Egypt, claimed Phcenicia and Ccelos^a-ia from him, as 
 her dowry ; and to recover the countries, raised a great 
 army. Antiochus considering that his father had not 
 quitted the possession of those countries, denied they 
 were her dowry ; and, with another great army, met 
 and fought the Egyptians on the borders of Egypt, be- 
 tween Pelusium and the mountain Casius. He there 
 beat them, and might have destroyed their whole arm}^ 
 but that he rode up and down, commanding the sol- 
 diers not to kill them, but to take them alive ; by which 
 humanity he gained Pelusium, and soon after all Egypt 
 — entering it with a vast multitude of foot and chariots, 
 elephants, and horsemen, and a great navj\ Then, 
 seizing the cities of Egypt, as a friend he marched to 
 INIemphis, laid the whole blame of the war upon Eulceus, 
 the king's governor, entered into outward friendship 
 with the young king, and took upon him to order the 
 affairs of the kingdom. While Antiochus was thus em- 
 ployed, a report being spread in Phoenicia that he was 
 dead, Jason, to recover the high-priesthood, assaulted 
 Jerusalem with above a thousand men, and took the 
 city. Plereupon the king, thinking Judea had revolted, 
 came out of Egypt in a furious manner, retook the 
 city, slew forty thousand of the people, made as many 
 prisoners, and sold them to make money ; went into the 
 Temple, spoiled it of its treasures, ornaments, utensils, 
 and vessels of gold and silver, amounting to 1800 ta-
 
 408 KINGS OF 
 
 lents, and carried away all to Antioch. This was done 
 in the year Nabonassar 578, and is thus described by 
 Daniel ; — " And he shall stir up his powers and his 
 courage against the king of the south, with a great ar- 
 my ; and the king of the south shall be stirred up 
 to battle with a very great and mighty army ; but he 
 shall not stand ; for they, (even Antiochus and his 
 ^friends,) shall forecast devices against him ; (as is re- 
 presented above :) yea, they that feed of the portion of 
 his meat shall betray and destroy him, and his army shall 
 be overthrown, and many shall liill doM'n slain. And both 
 these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief; and thej', 
 being now friends, shall speak lies at one table, ao-ainsl 
 the Jews and against the holij covenant, but it shall not 
 prosper; for yet the end, in which the setting vp of the 
 abomination of the desolation is to prosper, shall be at the 
 time appointed. Then shall he return into his land with 
 great riches, and his heart shall be against the holy co- 
 venant, and he shall act against it by spoiling the temple, 
 and return to his native land."* 
 
 The Egyptians of Alexandria, seeing Philometer 
 first educated in luxury by the eunuch Euloeus, and 
 now in the hands of Antiochus, gave the kingdom to 
 Euergetes, the younger brother of Philometer; where- 
 upon Antiochus pretended to restore Philometer, made 
 war upon Euergetes, beat him at sea, and besieged him 
 and his sister Cleopatra in Alexandria ; while the be- 
 sieged princes sent to Rome to implore the assistance 
 of the senate. Antiochus, finding himself unable to 
 take the city that year, returned from Syria, leaving 
 Philometer at Memphis to govern Egypt in his absence. 
 But Philometer made friendship with his brother that 
 winter ; and Antiochus returning next spring, an. 
 Nabonass. 580, to besiege both the brothers in Alexan- 
 dria, was met in the way by the Roman ambassadors, 
 Popilius Lfiena, C. Decimus, and C. Hostilius. He 
 olf'ered them his hand to kiss ; but Popilius, delivering 
 to him the tables wherein the message of the senate was 
 written, bade him read those first. When he had read 
 
 * Ver. 25—28.
 
 SYRIA AND EGYPT. 40D 
 
 them, he replied he would consider ivith his friends 
 what was fit to be done ; but Popilius drawing a circle 
 about him, bade him answer before he went out of it. 
 Antiochus, astonished at this blunt and unusual imper- 
 iousness, made answer he would do what the Romans 
 demanded ; and then Popilius gave the king his hand 
 to kiss, and he returned out of Egypt. The same year, 
 an. Nabonass. 580, his captains, by his orders, spoiled 
 and slaughtered the Jews, profaned the temple, set up 
 the worship of the heathen gods in all Judea, and be- 
 gan to persecute and make war upon those who would 
 not worship them ; which actions are thus described by 
 Daniel : — " At the time appointed he shall come again 
 towards the south, but the battle shall not be as the 
 former. For the ships of Shittim shall come, with an 
 embassy from Rome against him. Therefore he shall 
 be grieved and return, and have indignation against the 
 holj'' covenant. So shall he do ; he shall even return 
 and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy 
 covenant."* 
 
 In the same year that Antiochus, by the command 
 of the Romans, retired out of Egypt, and set up the 
 worship of the Greeks in Judea, the Romans conquer- 
 ed the kingdom of Macedon, the fundamental kingdom 
 of the empire of the Greeks, and reduced it into a Ro- 
 man province, and thereby began to put an end to Dan- 
 iel's third beast. This is thus expressed by Daniel : — 
 " Atid after him arms, that is, the Romans, shall stafid 
 up." As -jb?3n signifies after the king, Dan. xi. 8, so 
 13)373 may signify after him. Arms are ever^-^where, in 
 this prophecy of Daniel, put for the military power of 
 a kingdom ; and they stand up when they conquer or 
 grow powerful. Hitherto Daniel described the actions 
 of the kings of the north and south ; but upon the con- 
 quest of Macedon by the Romans, he left off describing 
 the actions of the Greeks, and began to describe those 
 of the Romans in Greece. They conquered Macedon, 
 Illyricum and Epirus, in the year of Naboiassar 580 ; 
 thirty-five years after, by the last will and testament of 
 
 • V. 29, 30. 
 T
 
 410 ROMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Attalus, the last king of Pergamus, they inherited that 
 rich and flourishing kingdom, that is, all Asia westward 
 of Mount Taurus ; sixty-nine years after, they conquer- 
 ed the kingdom of Syria, and reduced it to a Roman 
 province ; and thirty-four years after, they did the like 
 to Egypt. By all these steps, the Roman arms stood 
 up over the Greeks; and after ninety-five years more, 
 I'y making war upon the Jews, they polluted the sanc- 
 tuary of stre?igth, and took away the daily sacrifice, and 
 then placed the abomination of desolation.* For this 
 abomination was placed after the days of Christ, Matt, 
 xxiv. 15. In the sixteenth year of the Emperor Adrian, 
 A. C. 132, they placed this abomination, by building a 
 temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, where the temple of God 
 in Jerusalem had stood. Thereupon the Jews, under 
 the conduct of Barchochab, rose up in arms against the 
 Romans, and in the war had fifty cities demolished, nine 
 hundred and eighty-five of their best towns destroyed, 
 and five hundred and eighty thousand men slain by the 
 sword; and in the end of the war, A. C. one hundred 
 and thirty-seven, were banished Judea, upon the pain 
 of death; and thenceibrward the land remained deso- 
 late of its old inhabitants. 
 
 In the beginning of the Jewish war, in Nero's reign, 
 the apostles fled out of Judea with their flocks, — some 
 beyond .Jordan to Pella and other places ; some into 
 Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia jNIinor, and elsewhere. 
 Peter and John came into Asia, and Peter went thence 
 by Corinth to Rome, but John staying in Asia, was 
 banished by the Romans into Patmos, as the head of a 
 party of the Jews, whose nation was at war with the 
 Romans. By this dispersion of the Christian Jews, the 
 Christian religion, which was already propagated west- 
 ward as far as Rome, spread fast in all the Roman em- 
 pire, and sufl^ered manj^ persecutions under it, till the 
 days of Constantine the Great and his sons. All which 
 is thus described by Daniel : — " And such as do wicked- 
 ly against the covenant, shall he, who places the abomi- 
 nation, cause to dissemble and worship the heathen gods; 
 
 * V. 31.
 
 TURKISH EMPIRE. 411 
 
 but the peojDle among them v*ho do know their God, 
 shall be strong and act, and they that understand among 
 the j^eople shall instruct many ; yet they shall fall by the 
 sword, and b}' flame, and by captivity, and by spoil 
 man^- days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be 
 holpen with a little help, viz. in the reign of Constantinc 
 the Great ; and at that time, hy reason of their prosper- 
 ity, many shall come over to them from amo7ig the hea- 
 then, and cleave to them with dissimulation. But those 
 of understanding there shall still fall to try God's peo- 
 ple b\- them, and to purge them from the dissemblers, 
 and to make them white even to the time of the end, 
 because it is yet for a time appointed."* 
 
 Hitherto the Roman empire continued entire. But 
 now, by the building of Constantinople, and endowing 
 it with a senate, and other like privileges with Rome, 
 and by the division of the Roman empire into the two 
 empires of the Greek and Latin, headed by those two 
 cities, a new scene of things commences, in which " a 
 king, the empire of the Greeks, doth according to his 
 will, and, by setting his own laws above the laws of God, 
 exalts and magnifies himself above every God, and 
 speaks marvellous things against the God of gods, and 
 shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished. 
 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the 
 laniful desire of women in matrimony, nor any god, but 
 shall magnify himself above all. And in his seat he 
 shall magnify Mahuzzims, that is strong guardians, 
 the souls of the dead ; even with a God whom his fathers 
 knew not shall he honour them, in their temples, with 
 gold and silver, and with precious stones and valuable 
 things."f All which relates to the overspreading of 
 the Greek empire Mith monks and nuns, who placed 
 holiness in abstinence from marriage, and the invoca- 
 tion of saints, and \eneration of their relics, and such 
 like superstitions, which these men introduced in the 
 fourth and fifth centuries. " And at the end the king 
 of the south (^or the empire of the Saracens,) shall push 
 at him ; and the king of the north, (or empire of the 
 
 • y. 32, 35. t ^- 36, 39.
 
 412 TURKISH EMPIRE. 
 
 Turks.) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with 
 chariots and with horsemen, and with many ships ; and 
 he shall enter into the countries of the Greeks, and 
 shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into 
 the glorious land, and many countries shall be over- 
 thrown ; but these shall escape out of his hands, even 
 Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of Am- 
 mon : fthat is, those to whom the caravans pay tribute.) 
 He shall stretch forth his hands also upon the countries, 
 and the land of Egypt shall not escape ; but he shall 
 have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and 
 over all the precious things of Egypt ; and the Lybians 
 and Ethiopians shall be at his steps."* All these na- 
 tions compose the empire of the Turks, and therefore 
 this empire is here to be understood by the king of the 
 north. They compose also the bodj' of the he-goat ; 
 and therefore the goat still reigns in his last horn, but 
 not by his own power. 
 
 * V. 40, 43. 
 
 Lately Published, 
 
 By the name Author, in 2 vols. 12mo. fourth edition, 
 
 10s. 6d. 
 
 THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES, 
 
 As denoted by the Fulfilment of Historical Predictions, 
 traced down from the Babylonish Captivity to the 
 present time. 
 
 WITH MAPS.
 
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