ΤΟ JOHN ABERCROMBIE, M.D., THE FOLLOWING TREATISE IS INSCRIBED, IN TOKEN OF CHRISTIAN ESTEEM, BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. THE following Treatise was commenced with the intention, on the part of the Author, of drawing out a few retrospective and prospective sketches of Judea and Judaism. On his return from Palestine, he was urged by the esteemed friend to whom it is inscribed, to publish the substance of an evening's conversation in his hospitable house. He naturally reverted to the covenant with Abraham, as the ground-work of such an essay. That subject alone, in connection with kindred themes, called for a more full illustration than he at first anticipated. And as the subsequent essay, which thus originated, may be considered as, in part, a sequel to his Treatise on the Evidence of Prophecy, it may also form the introduction to other Scriptural topics, of momentous import to Gentiles as well as Jews. The writer has thankfully to express his obligations to Colonel Chesney, for the use of his map constructed for his forthcoming work on the Euphrates Expedition, with many of the proofsheets of which he kindly furnished him; to Colonel M'Niven, for the Views of Cæsarea, and the convent at Zahli; to Mr Buckingham, for liberty to use several plates from his Travels among the Arab Tribes; to Mr Ainsworth, and to the publisher of his Researches in Assyria, for the view of Mount Casius; and to Messrs Fisher, for permission to insert the first and largest plates, taken from their splendid work, Views of Syria." NOVEMBER 1843. |