CHAPTER II.

EXPOSURE OF THE PERVERSION

AND MUTILATION RE

SORTED TO, IN THE EXTRACTS FROM THE RUINS.

HAVING given extracts from Ezekiel and Isaiah, as illustrative of the predictions which should be accomplished in Egypt, Tyre, Babylon, &c., the Author of the Remarks says, "now to the questions of infidelity, respecting (the destruction of) the ramparts of Nineveh, the walls of Babylon, and the causes of such melancholy revolutions, it is replied, they are in the very condition which the Hebrew prophets foretold they should come into." Volney asks, "this Christian, this Mussulman, this Jew, are they not the elect of heaven, loaded with gifts and miracles? Why then is this race beloved of the divinity, deprived of the favours which were formerly showered

down upon the heathen? Why do these lands, consecrated by the blood of the martyrs, no longer boast their former temperature and fertility? Why have those favours been banished as it were, and transferred for so many ages, to other nations and different climes?" The distinction therefore made, between "this Christian, Mussulman, and Jew," and the heathen, who formerly had favours showered down upon them, plainly assigns to the heathen an existence, antecedent to the Hebrews, whose writings are asserted to predict that desolation, which may therefore have existed at a period antecedent to, or coeval with the productions of the writings themselves.

Our Critic's strictures respecting the 'glory and felicity of mankind,' are characterized by any thing but fair illustrations of what this consists in, by simply adducing examples of what may be termed negative proofs respecting it. He says, "it is perfectly well-known, that the people of those (the eastern) countries are sunk by the glory and felicity' of their governors, into a state of the most abject misery, stupidity, and ignorance." But whence it may be asked, is this glory and felicity of their governors, or their existence as such derived? It may be replied, immediately from Mahommedanism; but that

this has for its basis Christianity itself, although the doctrines of Christianity, and the precepts it enforces, are carried to a more destructive and deplorable extent. He then remarks on what Volney assumes as the causes of such melancholy revolutions, that a fatal necessity rules by chance the lot of mortals; or that they are the decrees of celestial justice that are accomplishing! A mysterious God exercises his incomprehensible judgments! He has doubtless pronounced a secret malediction against the earth; he has struck with a curse the present race of men, in revenge of past generations. Oh! who shall dare to fathom the depths of the Divinity.' From which "melancholy reflections, Volney is aroused by the approach of an apparition," who controverting some of his conclusions, "assures him, that there is no such thing as a fatal necessity, ruling by chance the lot of mortals;' and that men are the fabricators of their own destiny." What follows however, our Critic takes the liberty of stating, manifestly independent of Volney's assertions, or rather of those of the apparition ;viz: that "because God suffers the world and the planets, the sun and stars, to continue to move or rest as they have done in past ages, he has no concern in the government of the events 1 Hails.

which take place in mundane affairs." The application of the term "rest" in this quotation, is however a manifest inconsistency, or can only be resolved into a miraculous interposition, as respects "the world and the planets, the sun and stars."

1

Such a melange he says, of truth and error, (so that it is admitted there is some truth in the work he criticises,) of true premises and false conclusions, &c., "would require more time and patience to analyse and expose, than would be worth bestowing on them." After some quotations from the Hebrew scriptures, respecting the divine government, that Cyrus shall subdue nations before him,' that 'every purpose of Jehovah shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without an inhabitant,' &c., Jer. li. 29, &c., it is stated, -the fifty-fifth verse of the same chapter “might also be quoted with great propriety,- Because the Lord hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice, &c.'' So that it appears the desolation had already been accomplished, at a period antecedent to the prediction; or that the fifty-fifth verse quoted, must have been an interpolation, subsequent to the prophecy; either of which conclusions annihilate the merit of its prophetic cha

racter.

1 Hails.

In controverting what is assumed as Volney's definition of that which constitutes the glory and felicity of mankind,' Mr. Hails exhibits manifest perversions of meaning, and mutilations of the original. Volney says, in enumerating “the kingdoms of Damascus and Idumea; of Jerusalem and Samaria; the warlike states of the Philistines; and the commercial republics of Phoenicia,—this Syria, now almost depopulated, then contained a hundred flourishing cities, and abounded with towns, villages, and hamlets. Every where one might have seen cultivated fields, frequented roads, and crowded habitations. What is become of those ages of abundance and of life? What is become of so many productions of the hand of man? Where are those ramparts of Nineveh, those walls of Babylon, those palaces, of Persepolis, those temples of Balbec and of Jerusalem? Where those husbandmen, those harvests, that picture of animated nature of which the earth seemed proud?" Volney says again, "thus absorbed in contemplation, new ideas continually presented themselves to my thoughts. Every thing misleads my judgment, and fills my heart with trouble and uncertainty." And then, manifestly as illustrative of such uncertainty in judgment, it is added, "when these countries enjoyed what constitutes the glory and felicity of mankind, (as previously