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, 0 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. 0 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}^ —^ TheDotteclZines
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,
0 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
« 0 = 70
^ i = 10
£ e = 5
<; St = 6
•• i = 10
- i = 10
« a = 1
nth-^ 400
y 71= 50
Tt =300
0 0 = 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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