ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES: IN THREE PARTS. I. FROM THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE EAST. II. FROM THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE EAST. III. FROM THE CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN NATIONS. BY THE REV. GEORGE PAXTON, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY UNDER THE GENERAL ASSOCIATE SYNOD, IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR OGLE, ALLARDICE & THOMSON, AND WAUGH & INNES; 1819. PREFACE. THE present times are happily distinguished by an uncommon attention to the Holy Scriptures. By the unprecedented exertions of the religious public, this inestimable gift of Heaven, which has brought life and immortality to light, is circulated far and wide among the nations; and the day seems to be rapidly approaching, when every people and every tribe shall read in their own language the wonderful works of God. The object is worthy of even greater exertions than have yet been made, and of a much larger expense than has yet been incurred; for the Scriptures are the power of God and the wisdom of God, to the salvation of perishing sinners. They present the most sublime and instructive subjects of contemplation to the human mind; they restrain the angry and impetuous passions which agitate the bosom of man, and too frequently break forth in deeds of shame; they purify his desires and affections; they expand and invigorate his faculties; they elevate and enlarge his views; and wherever they come, wherever their voice is heard and their authority acknowledged, they rescue from a state of ignorance and barbarity, vice and profligacy; they humanize the heart, and adorn the life; they form the strongest and sweetest bond of civil society, and open the purest and most abundant sources of individual and public happiness. To what is to be ascribed the remarkable difference between the wisest, the most learned and polished nations of antiquity, and the communities of modern Europe among whom the Scriptures are allowed to circulate freely? Is it, as many contend, to the instruction and influence of a more enlightened and efficacious philosophy; or to the unobserved, but powerful energy of the divine word? An impartial and intelligent observer will be at no loss to determine. Philosophy herself has been indebted to Revelation for much the greater part of her wisdom and refinement; she has detected many of her principal errors at the light of divine truth; has relinquished her prejudices and follies by its secret influence; and has borrowed from it her wisest lessons, her most powerful motives, and her brightest and most elevated views. To this, and not to any power of her own, must be referred the superiour and more salutary impressions which she produces in modern times. BUT the great and important amelioration in the sentiments and conduct of civil society, is the least part of the benefit which the Scriptures bestow. They discover the real character of God, and of his rational creature; they describe the state of sin and misery into which we have fallen, and the wonderful method which infinite wisdom contrived for our deliverance-the obedience and death of the Son of God. The change which they produce in the unrenewed mind, is of incalculable value and of eternal duration; it cannot be described with |