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pleafing with what le Bruyn heard at Perfepolis. The imagination finds a fine contrast between the inartificial fongs and mufic of fhepherds, mingled with the wild notes of finging birds; and the luxurious concerts' of Nineveh: as well as between the awful filence, interrupted by the howlings of doleful and favage creatures of ruinated Babylon; and the melody of former times there. Though less gloomy, and overwhelming to the mind, would the ruins of Nineveh in that cafe appear to a traveller, than thofe of Babylon.

OBSERVATION XXXIV.

The Scriptures, in defcribing the ruined ftate into which fome celebrated cities were to be reduced, represents them, not unfrequently, as fo to be defolated, that no shepherds with flocks fhould haunt them, which supposes they were to be found on the remains of others.

This is a proper representation of complete deftruction, For, in the Eaft, it is common for fhepherds to make use of remaining ruins, to fhelter their flocks from the heat of the

' In both Nineveh and Babylon, without doubt, as well as in Jerufalem, the harp and the viol, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, were in their frequent feafts; but they regarded not the work of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, If. 5. 12.

* See If. 13. 20. Jer. 49. 18, &c.

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middle of the day, and from the dangers of the night,

So Dr. Chandler, after mentioning the exquifite remains of a temple of Apollo, in Afia Minor, which were fuch as that it was impoffible perhaps to conceive greater beauty and majefty of ruin, goes on', "At evening 46 a large flock of goats, returning to the "fold, their bells tinkling, fpread over the "heap, climbing to browfe on the shrubs "and trees growing between the huge "ftones."

Another paffage of the fame writer shows, that they make use of ruins alfo to guard their flocks from the noon-tide heat. Speaking of Ajafaluck, generally understood to be the ancient Ephefus, and certainly near the fite of that old city, and at least it's fucceffor, he says, "An herd of goats was

driven to it for fhelter from the fun at "noon; and a noify flight of crows from "the quarries feemed to infult it's filence. "We heard the partridge call in the area "of the theatre and of the stadium. The

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glorious pomp of it's heathen worship is "no longer remembered; and Christianity, "which was there nurfed by apoftles, and

foftered by general councils, until it in"creafed to fulness of ftature, barely lingers ❝on in an existence hardly visible.'

This defcription is very gloomy and melan

? Travels, p. 151.

* P. 130, 131.

choly;

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choly; however, the usefulness of these ruins is fuch, for the habitation of thofe that tend flocks, that it often prevents a place's being quite defolate, and continues it among inhabited places, though miferably ruinated. Such is the ftate of Ephefus: it is described by Chandler, as making a very gloomy and melancholy appearance, but as not abfolutely without people. "Our horfes," fays he', "were difpofed among the walls and rubbish, with their faddles on; and a mat was fpread for us on the ground. We fate here, in the open air, while fupper was "preparing; when fuddenly, fires began to "blaze up among the bushes, and we faw "the villagers collected about them in fa46 vage groups, or paffing to and fro with lighted brands for torches. The flames, "with the ftars and a pale moon, afforded us a dim prospect of ruin and desolation 2. "A fhrill owl, called Cucuvaia from it's note, with a night-hawk, flitted near us;

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• P. 115.

This defcription may be placed after Zeph. 2. 7, as a moft lively comment on that paffage of the prophet, "And "the coaft fhall be for the remnant of the houfe of Judah, "they fhall feed thereupon, in the houses of Ashkelon fhall "they lie down in the EVENING: for the Lord their God "fhall vifit them, and turn away their captivity. But the account that follows there, of the animals they found in those ruins, the Cucuvaian owl, the night-hawk, and the jackall, may not with precifion anfwer the Hebrew words of the 14th verfe, translated the cormorant and the bittern in our verfion, and that tranflated by the Bishop of Waterford the raven, instead of defolation,

" and

" and a jackall cried mournfully, as if for"faken by his companions, on the mountain.'

Thofe places fpoken of by the prophets might have been inhabited, though terribly ruinated, as Aiafaluck is now by a few poor fhepherds, and the ruins might have afforded the poor people there a miserable habitation; but the fpirit of prophecy fpeaks of the deftruction of fome cities as more thoroughly complete: even shepherds were not to make ufe of their ruins, but entire defolation take place,

And though wild Arabs, as well as other fhepherds, might fometimes find a comfortable retreat under the ruins, yet at other times they might want a tent, for Dr. Chandler flept, it feems, in the open air, which fhows a want of fuch arched remains as might have sheltered him in the ruins of Ephefus, Not to say that the Arabs, who commonly live in tents, might choose oftentimes to erect them, when they might in a different manner have covered themselves from the injuries of the night-air, This will account for what is faid, If. xiii. 20, " It fhall never be “inhabited, neither fhall it be dwelt in from "generation to generation: neither shall the "Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the "fhepherds make their fold there."

OESER

OBSERVATION XXXV.

A grotto or cave must be imagined to be to them that live in tents the moft convenient stable they could have; nor would it be a defpicable advantage to them that live in more fixed habitations: there is nothing then improbable in the tradition, that our Lord, who was confeffedly born in a ftable, was born in a grotto in or very near the city of Bethlehem,

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The celebrated Reland, in his account of Bethlehem', takes notice of a remark of Mr. Maundrell, that many of the facred places which are shown to pilgrims in the HolyLand are fubterraneous, fo that almost all the facts that are recorded in the facred hiftory must have happened in grottos. Among others, a grotto is shown as the place of our Lord's nativity in Bethlehem. With refpect to this, Reland takes fome pains to fhow, that this was fuppofed before the æra at which Maundrell imagined that great veneration for grottos took place, which was after the time that hermits were wont to choose them for their dwelling-places, who became fo highly esteemed in the church. He shows in particular, that Origen, who lived a confiderable time before these hermits, yet writing

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