be Goshen in Egypt; for no history, sacred or profane, mentions the supposed occupation of that country by the people of Israel, after their departure from it under the conduct of Moses. In the seventeenth verse, Joshua says, that the whole country which he conquered lay from 66 mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon, under mount Hermon." In this tract, then, lay the Goshen that he conquered; and the only point to be settled is, what was the situation of the mount Halak, which terminated the southern boundary toward Egypt. This is rendered easy by a short notice concerning Goshen in the tenth chapter, which is couched in these words: "Joshua smote them from Kadesh-barnea even unto Gaza; and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon." Goshen therefore extended to Gibeon; but this was a city of Canaan, whose inhabitants artfully prevailed on Joshua and the elders of the congregation to enter into a treaty of peace; and which lay so near Gilgal, where Joshua had pitched his camp, that the army of Israel came to its assistance against the confederate kings, after no more than one night's march; which, on the hypothesis of Dr. Shaw, was quite impossible. The situation of mount Halak affords another proof that the Goshen subdued by Joshua is not to be sought for in the kingdom of Egypt. That mountain did not lie on the road to Egypt, but on the road from Canaan to Seir, the country of Esau. Now Seir lay on the south of Canaan, between the lake Asphaltites and the Red sea; while the Egyptian Goshen lay to the south-west, in the east side of Egypt, upon the eastern channel of the Nile, afterwards called

* Ver. 10.

Trajan's river. Hence it is evident, that Joshua spake of Goshen in the land of Canaan, in the immediate neighbourhood of Gibeon, on the south side of the inheritance of Judah.

Goshen in the Sanscreet language, signifies a shepherd; and Goshana, the land of shepherds. It seems to have had the same meaning in Egypt, and in the Lesser Asia, and to have been given as an appropriate name to regions distinguished by the richness and extent of their pastures. We know from the sacred writings, that the country of Goshen in Egypt was admirably fitted for the rearing of cattle; and on this very account selected for the residence of Jacob and his family, who, following the example of their fathers, had from their earliest days devoted themselves to the pastoral life. For the same reason, the land of Goshen in Canaan probably received its name; it was a land more adapted than the surrounding districts, by its rich and abundant pastures, to the trade of a shepherd.

The land of Canaan was reserved by the wisdom and goodness of heaven, for the possession of his peculiar people, and the display of the most stupendous wonders. The theatre was small, but admirably situated for the convenient observation of the human race, at the junction of the two great continents of Asia and Africa, and almost within sight of Europe. From this highly favoured spot, as from a common centre, the report of God's wonderful works, the glad tidings of salvation through the obedience and sufferings of his own eternal Son, might be rapidly and easily wafted to every part of the globe, and circulated through every nation. When the Most High therefore fixed the boundaries of the

f

postdiluvian kingdoms, he reserved the inheritance of Canaan for the future seat of his glory; and while powerful states and extended empires rose and flourished in the circumjacent regions, his secret providence parcelled out the land of Promise among a number of petty kings, whose individual weakness and jarring interests gave them an easy prey to the armies of Israel. To this arrangement the inspired prophet certainly refers in these words, "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask thy father and he will shew thee, thy elders and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people, according to the number of the children of Isreal." Canaan and his posterity were directed to take possession of Palestine, rather than any other branch of Noah's descendants, because he had already fallen under the solemn malediction of his grandfather Noah, for his unnatural conduct; and they were permitted to fill up the measure of their iniquity by a general corruption of manners, and particularly, by departing from the knowledge and worship of the true God, to the service of idols; and therefore might be justly driven out, when the time fixed in the divine purpose arrived, to make room for the chosen people of Jehovah. Their bounds, says the inspired writer, he set according to the number of the children of Isreal; for Canaan and his eleven sons exactly corresponded with the twelve tribes, into which the family of Jacob was divided.

f Deut. xxxii, 8.

CHAP. VII.

OF THE MOUNTAINS OF CANAAN.

Palestine a mountainous country-Frequent waterings necessary in summer. -Surface of Canaan very diversified.—Mountains of Lebanon—Boundary both to Judea and Assyria-Tops entirely covered with snow-Ascent very difficult-Accidents to the inhabitants.-Lebanon consists of a hard calcareous stone.-Iron the only mineral which abounds in it.—Olive plantations. Vineyards. Cedars.-Scenery beautiful and romantic. Storms and tempests of Lebanon.-Beasts of prey.-Exquisite wines of Lebanon-Their fragrance.-Glory of Lebanon-Symbolizes the extent, stability, and fruitfulness of Gentile churches.—Mount Hermon or Sirion. -Halak.-Gilead.-Mountains of Abarim.-Nebo and Pisgah.-Mount Seir.-Gilboa.-Carmel.-Tabor.-Pastoral districts: Bashan-Mount Salmon-Hill of Samaria—Mount Zion-Mount of Olives.

PALESTINE is in general, a mountainous country; even the whole of Syria, of which the Holy Land is reckoned ́a part, is in some degree a chain of mountains, branching off in various directions, from one great and leading ridge. Whether the traveller approach it from the sea, or from the immense plains of the desert, he beholds at a great distance, a lofty and clouded chain running north and south as far as the eye can reach; and as he advances, sees the tops of the mountains sometimes detached, and sometimes united in ridges, uniformly terminate in one great line, towering above them all. This line, which extends without interruption from its entry by the north quite into Arabia, runs at first close to the sea, between Alexandretta and the Orontes; and after opening a passage to that river, proceeds to the south

ward, quitting for a short distance the shore, and in a chain of summits stretches as far as the sources of the Jordan; where it divides into two branches, to enclose as it were in a capacious bason, this river and its three lakes. During its course, a countless number of branches separate from the main trunk, some of which are lost in the desert, where they form various enclosed hollows, as those of Damascus and Haran; while others advance towards the sea, where they sometimes end in steep declivities as at Carmel, or Nekoura, or by a gentle descent sink into the plains of Antioch and Tripoli, of Tyre and Acre.a

Such is the general appearance of the country which Moses taught his people to expect, while they traversed the burning and dreary wilderness: "For the land whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of herbs; but the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." The striking contrast, in this short but glowing description, between the land of Egypt, where the people of Israel had so long and cruelly suffered, and the inheritance promised to their fathers, where Jeho

a Volney's Travels in Syria and Egypt, vol. i, p. 202, Perth edition. Hasselquist's Trav. p. 126, 127.

b Deut. xi, 11. Note. This does not mean that no rain falls in Egypt, but only that it is quite insufficient for the irrigation of their fields. Dr. Richardson says he was informed by some of his countrymen who had resided there for eighteen months, that it had rained pretty smartly; and there are many proofs in the mountains of its having rained in torrents, which, however, it is said, does not occur above once in seven years. Trav. vol. ii, p. 138.