274 
PALESTINE. 
hiftorians have related. Mofes defcribes the richnefs of 
it in the ftrorjgeft terms, even before the Ifraelites got pof- 
feffion of it. (Deut. viii.) It even exceeded the land of 
Egypt, fo much celebrated by ancient hiftorians; efpe- 
cialiy in the vaft numbers of cattle which it produced, 
in the quantity and excellence of its wine, oil, and fruits. 
With refpeft to the oil and fruits, it is plain, that the 
olives and oil of Canaan exceeded in goodnels thofe of 
Egypt, (ince the tribes fent them thither from thence ; 
and as for vines, Herodotus tells us that the Egyptians 
had none at all, but fupplied the want of them by a li- 
■quor brewed from barley. The prefents which Jacob fent 
to his fon Jofeph, of honey, fpices, myrrh, almonds, and 
other fruits of Paleftine, (how that they mult have been 
much better in the land of Judea than in Egypt. The 
wines of Gaza, Afcalon, and Sarepta, were famous among 
the moft remote nations; though it is allowed, that the 
wine which was made at, and in the neighbourhood of, 
Bethlehem, in great quantities, was equal at lealt, if not 
fu peri or, to any of the reft; and that of Libanus, men¬ 
tioned by the prophet Hofea, was no lefs celebrated for 
its excellent flavour. 
Several circumftances contributed to this wonderful 
fecundity : fuch as the excellent temperature of the air, 
which was never fubjeft to exceflive heats or colds; the 
regularity of its feafons, efpecially the former and latter 
rain ; and the natural fatnefs and fertility of its foil, which 
required neither dunging nor manuring, and could be 
ploughed with a Angle yoke of oxen and a fmall kind of 
plough ; for the foil was, and is (till, fo (hallow, that to 
have gone deep into it would rather have endangered 
than improved the crop. With refpeft to the excellency 
of its corn, we are told, that the bread of Jerufalem was 
preferred above all other; and the tribe of Afher produced 
the beft of both, and in greater quantity than any other 
tribe ; and fuch plenty was there of it, that, befides what 
fufficed the inhabitants, who made it their chief fufte- 
nance, Solomon, we read, could ajfiord to fend 20,000 cors, 
or meafures, of it, and as many of oil, yearly, to Hiram 
king of Tyre ; befides what they exported into other 
countries. And we find, even fo late as king Herod, fur- 
named Agrippa, the countries of Tyre and Sidon received 
moft of their fuftenance from his tetrarchy. 
As to their fruits, the grapes were delicious, finely 
flavoured, and very large. The palm-tree, and its dates, 
were in no lefs requeft; and the plain of Jericho, among 
other places, was famed for the great plenty and excel¬ 
lence of that fruit; inlomuch, that the metropolis of 
that territory was emphatically ftyled the city of palm- 
trees. But, what both this plain and other parts of Pa¬ 
leftine were moft celebrated for, was the balfam-fhrub, 
whofe balm was efteemed fo precious a drug among the 
Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and other nations, and is 
ftill to this day under the name o f balm of Gilead. They 
had likewife the greateft variety of other fruit-trees in 
the higheft perfection ; and which might be, in fome fenfe, 
ftyled perpetual, becaufe they were not only covered with 
a conftant verdure, but becaufe the new buds always ap¬ 
peared on the fame boughs before the old fruit was ripe; 
and of thofe buds, which were in too great quantities 
to be allowed to come to maturity, they gathered enough 
to make very delightful pickles and fweetmeats, efpe¬ 
cially of their citrons, oranges, and apples of paradife, 
which laft commonly hung by hundreds in a duller, and 
as big as hens’ eggs, and of an excellent tafte and flavour. 
Their vines yield grapes twice, and fometimes three times, 
a-year, great quantities of which were dried and pre- 
ferved for ufe, as well as their figs, plums, and other 
fruits. They had plenty of honey ; the very trees dis¬ 
tilled it; and the rocks yielded it in great quantities : 
but, whether that of the latter kind was there depofited 
by the induftrious bees, or produced fome other way, is 
much difputed by travellers and naturalifts. They like¬ 
wife cultivated fugar-canes in great abundance 5 and the 
cotton, hemp, and flax, were moffly of their own growtlr 
and manufacture, except fome of a finer fort, that were- 
brought to them from Egypt, and worn by thofe of the 
higher rank. Their vicinity to Libanus made the cedars, 
cypreffes, and other (lately fragrant trees, very common 
in moft parts of the land, but more efpecially in Jerufa¬ 
lem. Cattle, both large and fmall, they fed in vaft quan¬ 
tities ; and the hilly countries not only afforded them 
variety and plenty of pafture, but alfo of water, which 
defcended thence- into the valleys and low lands, and fer¬ 
tilized them to the degree we have feen ; befides feveral 
other rivers and brooks, fome of the moft remarkable of 
which we (hall fpeak of in their proper places. 
As to the deferts and forefts, which were fometimes 
called vvildernefles, upon which fome ft refs has been laid, 
fome were indeed horrible, but others, when the Jews 
poffeffed the land, as delightful: for many of them were 
then inhabited, and furrounded by cities and villages, 
rich and well peopled; and, indeed, there were but few 
cities, which had not fome defert, according to the fcrip- 
ture-idiom, belonging to it, for feeding their cattle ; fo 
that the word commonly meant no more than a land, or 
trad, that bore neither corn, wine, nor oil; but was left 
to its natural production ; and generally abounded with 
thyme, marjoram, fage, and other aromatic herbs. But 
the moft fertile pafture-grounds were thofe on each fide 
of the river Jordan ; befides thofe of Sharon, or Sarona, 
the plains of Lydda, Jatnnia, and fome others, then juftly 
famed for their fecundity. As for fifh, the river above- 
mentioned, the lake of Tiberias, and the Mediterranean 
Sea, afforded, as they do to this day, great plenty and va¬ 
riety. Vaft quantities were brought to Jerufalem, on 
which the inhabitants tnoftly fubfifted ; and hence one 
of the gates of that metropolis was, according to St, Je¬ 
rome, called the fjh-gate. The Lake Afphaltites yielded 
fait in abundance, wherewith to feafon and preferve their 
fifli, which Galen affirms to have been preferable to any 
other for wholefomenefs, digeftion, and extenuation. In 
fliort, the Scripture is fo pregnant with proofs of the ex¬ 
traordinary richnefs and fecundity of this once-happy 
land, and the vaft number of people that lived in it, al- 
moft wholly upon its prodiuff, to fay nothing of the vaft 
exports of its corn, wine, oil, raifins, and other fruits, &c. 
that a man muff have taken a ft range warp to infidelity, 
that can call it in queftion, merely on account of the me¬ 
lancholy figure it makes under its prefent tyrannical go¬ 
vernment. 
We may further obferve, after the judicious Mr, 
Maundrell, that there is no forming an idea of its ancient 
flourifhing ftate, when under the influence of heaven', 
from what it is now, under a vifible curfe. And, if we had 
not feveral concurring teftimonies from profane authors, 
who have extolled the fecundity of Paleftine, that fingle 
one of Julian the Apellate, a fworn enemy to Jews and 
Chriftians, would be more than fufficient : he frequently 
makes mention, in his Epiftles, of the perpetuity, as well 
as excellence and great abundance, of its fruits and pro- 
dtuffs. The vifible effefls of God’s anger, which this 
country has felt, not only under Titus Vefpafian, (when 
myriads of inhabitants were either flain, or peri (lied by 
the moft fevere famine, peftilence, and other calamities, 
and the reft fold for (laves into all lands;) but much more 
fince that emperor’s time, in the inundations of the 
northern barbarians, of the Saracens, and of the more 
cruel and deftriuffive Chriftians during the crufades ; and 
in the oppreffion it now feels under the Turkifh yoke; 
may be eafily owned to be more than fufficient to have 
wrought the difmal change we are fpeaking of, and to 
have reduced the far greater part into a mere defert. 
Neverthelefs, if we may credit thofe who have viewed 
it in this doleful condition, they will tell us, there are 
ftill fuch vifible figns of its natural richnefs and fertility, as 
plainly (how, that the bare want of culture is the main, if 
not the only, caufe of its prefent poverty and barrennefs. 
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