for refusing to pay divine honors to his statutes, (6) was murdered in the flower of his age, after a short and wicked reign. But where are now, fince they have abfolutely rejected the gospel, and been no longer the peculiar people of God, where are now such visible manifestations of a divine interposition in their favor? The Jews would do well to confider this point; for rightly confidered, it may be an effectual means of opening their eyes, and of turning them to Christ our Saviour.

III. The defolation of Judea is another memorable instance of the truth of prophecy. It was foretold fo long ago as by Mofes, (Levit. XXVI. 33,) I will fcatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a fword after you; and your land shall be defolate, and your cities waste. It was foretold again by Ifaiah, the prophet speaking, as prophets often do, of things future as prefent: (I. 7, 8, 9.) Your country'is defolate, your cities are burnt with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your prefence, and it is defolate as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. This passage may relate immediately to the times of Ahaz and Hezekiah; but it must have a farther reference to the devastations made by the Chaldæans, and especially by the Romans. In this sense it is understood by (7) Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Jerome, and most ancient interpreters: and the following words imply no less than a general destruction, and almost total excision of the people, such as they fuffered under the Chaldaans, but more fully under the Romans; Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. The fame thing was again foretold by Jeremiah; for speaking afterwards of the converfion of the Gentiles, and of the restoration of the Jews in the latter days, he must be understood to speak here of the times preceding, (XII. 10, 11.) Many paftors (princes or leaders) have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a defolate wilderness; they have made it defolate, and being defolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made defolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

The fame thing is expressed or implied in other places: and hath not the state of Judea now for many ages been exactly answerable to this description? That a country should be depopulated and defolated by the incursions and depredations of foreign armies is nothing wonderful; but that it should lie so many ages in this miferable condition is more than man could foresee, and could be revealed only by God. A celebrated French writer (8) in his history of the Crusades, pretends to exhibit a true picture of Palestine, and he says that then "it was just what it is at present, the worst of all the " inhabited countries of Afia. It is almost wholly co"vered with parched rocks, on which there is not one " line of foil. If this small territory were cultivated, it

might not improperly be compared to Swisserland." But there is no need of citing authorities to prove that the land is forsaken of its inhabitants, is uncultivated, unfruitful, and defolate; for the enemies of our religion make this very thing an objection to the truth of our religion. They say that so barren and wretched a country could never have been a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have fupplied and maintained fuch multitudes, as it is represented to have done in scripture. But they do not fee or confider, that hereby the prophecies are fulfilled; so that it is rather an evidence for the truth of our religion, than any argument against it.

The country was formerly a good country, if we may believe the concurrent teftimony of those who should best know it, the people who inhabited it. Aristeas and Jofephus too (9) speak largely in commendation of its

(8) Voltaire's Hift. not far from the beginning.

(9) Arifteas, p. 13, 14. Edit. Hody.

Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. Lib. 8. Cap. 3p. 1120. Edit. Hudson.

fruitfulness:

fruitfulness: and tho' something may be allowed to national prejudices, yet they would hardly have had the ' confidence to affert a thing, which all the world could eafily contradict and disprove. Nay there are even heathen authors who bear teftimony to the fruitfulness of the land: tho' we presume, that after the Babylonish captivity it never recovered to be again what it was before. Strabo (1) describes indeed the country about Jerufalem as rocky and barren, but he commends other parts, particularly about Jordan and Jericho. Hecatæus (2) quoted by Josephus giveth it the character of one of the best and most fertil countries. Tacitus (3) faith, that it raineth feldom, the foil is fruitful, fruits abound as with us, and befides them the balfam and palm trees. And notwithstanding the long desolation of the land, there are still visible such marks and tokens of fruitfulness, as may convince any man that it once deserved the character, which is given of it in scripture. I would only refer the reader to two learned and ingenious travelers of our own nation, Mr. Maundrell and Dr. Shaw; and he will fully be fatisfied of the truth of what is here afferted.

The (4) former says, that "all along this day's tra"vel (Mar. 25.) from Kane Leban to Beer, and also as far as we could fee around, the country discovered a quite different face from what it had before; pre"senting nothing to the view in most places, but naked "rocks, mountains, and precipices. At fight of which, "pilgrims are apt to be much astonished and baulked in "their expectations; finding that country in such an "inhofpitable condition, concerning whose pleasantness "and plenty they had before formed in their minds such "high ideas from the defcription given of it, in the word "of God: infomuch that it almost startles their faith

(1) Strabo. Lib. 16. p. 761. Edit. Par. p. 1104. Edit. Amstel. p. 755. Edit. Par. p. 1095. Edit. Amstel. p. 763. Edit. Par. p. 1106. Edit. Amstel. 1707.

(2) Jofeph. contra Apion, Lib. 1. Sect. 22.------ της αρισης και παμφωρωτατης χωρας-optimi et feVOL. I.

raciffimi foli.p. 1348. Edit. Hudson.

(3) Taciti. Hift. Lib. 5. rari imbres, uber folum, exuberant fruges nostrum ad morem, præterque eas, balfamum et palmæ.

(4) Maundrell, p. 64, &c. 5th

Edit.

K

" when

"when they reflect how it could be possible for a land "like this to fupply food for fo prodigious a number "of inhabitants, as are faid to have been polled in the " twelve tribes at one time; the fum given in by Joab "2 Sam. XXIV, amounting to no less than thirteen "hundred thousand fighting men, befides women and "children. But it is certain that any man, who is not " a little biaffed to infidelity before, may fee, as he paffes "along, arguments enough to fupport his faith againft "fuch scruples. For it is obvious for any one to ob"serve, that these rocks and hills must have been an"ciently covered with earth, and cultivated, and made "to contribute to the maintenance of the inhabitants,

no less than if the country had been all plain: hay, per"haps much more; forafmuch as fuch a mountainous "and uneven furface affords a larger space of ground "for cultivation, than this country would amount to, if "it were all reduced to a perfect level. For the hufband"ing of these mountains, their manner was to gather

66

up the ftones, and place them in feveral lines, along "the fides of the hills, in form of a wall. By fuch bor"ders they supported the mold from tumbling or being "washed down; and formed many beds of excellent "foil, rifing gradually one above another, from the bot"tom to the top of the mountains. Of this form of "culture you fee evident footsteps, wherever you go in "all the mountains of Palestine. Thus the very rocks were made fruitful. And perhaps there is no fpot of ground in this whole land, that was not formerly im"proved, to the production of fomething or other, miniftering to the fuftenance of human life. For than the plain countries nothing can be more fruitful, whether "for the production of corn or cattle, and confequently "of milk. The hills, though improper for all cattle

except goats, yet being difpofed into fuch beds as are "before defcribed, ferved very well to bear corn, me"lons, gourds, cucumbers, and fuch like garden stuff, "which makes the principal food of these countries for "feveral months in the year. The most rocky parts of "all, which could not well be adjusted in that manner "for the production of corn, might yet serve for the " plantation

chiefly out of fuch dry and flinty places. And
-at plain joining to the dead fea, which by rea-
its faltness might be thought unserviceable both
tle, corn, olives and vines, had yet its proper
efs for the nourishment of bees, and for the fa-
honey; of which Josephus gives us his tefti-
De Bell. Jud. Lib. 5. Cap. 4. And I have
to believe it, because when I was there, I per-
in many places a smell of honey and wax, as
as if one had been in an apiary. Why then
not this country very well maintain the vast
r of its inhabitants, being in every part so pro-
e of either milk, corn, wine, oil, or honey,
are the principal food of these eastern nations?
nftitution of their bodies, and the nature of their
inclining them to a more abstemious diet than
in England, and other colder regions."
5) other afferts, that "the Holy Land, were it
1 peopled and cultivated, as in former time,
still be more fruitful than the very best part of
ast of Syria and Phoenice. For the foil itself
erally much richer, and all things confidered,
a more preferable crop. Thus the cotton that
hered in the plains of Ramah, Efdraelon and
an, is in greater esteem, than what is cultivated
Sidon and Tripoly; neither is it possible for
wheat or any fort of grain, to be more excellent
what is commonly fold at Jerufalem. The bar-
S or scarcity rather, which fome authors may
ignorantly or maliciously complain of, does not
d from the incapacity or natural unfruitfulness
country, but from the want of inhabitants, and
eat averfion there is to labor and industry in
Few who possess it. There are befides fuch per-
difcords and depredations among the petty
s, who share this fine country, that allowing it
etter peopled, yet there would be small encou-

(6) Shaw's Travels, p. 395, &c.

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