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the nations." Accordingly we learn from history, that since the days of Ezekiel, it hath been succes sively subject to the Babylonians, the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Saracens, the Mamalucs, and last of all to the Turks, of whose empire it is, at this moment, a province, though in fact it be governed by a number of chiefs, called Beys, who are the very refuse of mankind, having risen by various means from the condition of slaves.t

The same prophet foretold the ruin of Tyre. “I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon thou shalt be built no more: for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God." And how punctually hath the prediction been fulfilled! The city, which was a "mart of nations," as Isaiah calls it, is now become a heap of ruins; and instead of being the resort of ships from every region of the earth, it is visited only by the boats of fishermen, whose nets are seen spread out to dry in the sun.

Concerning Babylon it was predicted, that it should be besieged by the Medes and Elamites; that its river should be dried up; that the city should be taken in the time of a feast, while her mighty men were drunken; and that God would make the country around it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water.§ Now it is well known, that, in conformity to these prophecies, Babylon was besieged by the Medes and Persians, who are the

Ezek. xxix. 15.

At the time of printing this edition, it is not decided, wheth er the Turks or the Beys shall be its masters; but under the domimation of either, that miserable country will be equally base.

Ezek. xxvi. 14.

Isa. xiii. 17. xxi. 2. Jer, l. 38. li. 36. 39. 57. Isa. xiv. 23.

same with the Elamites; that Cyrus turned the Euphrates, which ran through the midst of it, out of its course, that his troops might find a passage by its channel; that it was taken in the night during the dissipation and security of a feast; and that the water of the river not having been afterwards confined to its ancient bounds, the adjacent country was converted into a marsh, frequented by aquatic birds. If any man shall suspect, as infidels have often insinuated, but were never able to prove, concerning the prophecies of scripture, that the prediction was written after the event, let him think of the following words, which are fulfilling at this hour. "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their folds there: But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged."* It is long since the populous city was turned into a solitude; long since it was converted into a chace for wild beasts by the kings of Persia; long since it was rendered inaccessible by the poisonous animals which lodged in its ruins; long since it ceased to be known. So completely hath God, according to his word, swept

Isa. xiii. 19-22

it with "the besom of destruction," that no man can now tell with certainty the place where it stood.*

Not to multiply particulars, there is one grand subject, in which, as a centre, all the lines of prophecy meet. This is the Messiah, to whom gave all the prophets witness. The minuteness, with which the circumstances relative to him are foretold, is truly astonishing, when viewed in connexion with the exactness of the accomplishment. It is predicted, that he should be a descendant of David, and that he should be born of a virgin, in the town of Bethlehem; that having been anointed with the Holy Ghost, he should assume the character of a public teacher; that he should perform great and beneficent miracles; that his countrymen should despise and persecute him, and put him to death; that he should rise from the grave, ascend to heaven, triumph over his enemies, and, though rejected by the Jews, be acknowledged and served by the Gentiles. Nay, the time of his death is particularly mentioned; and are there not obscure hints of the manner of it, though crucifixion was a species of capital punishment unknown among the Jews, in the days of the prophets. These are only a few, selected from a great variety of particulars.

There are two classes of predictions concerning the Messiah, of which the one describes his humiliation, and the other his glory. He is represented at one time, as a worm and no man, and, at another, as a prince higher than the kings of the earth; as

*Isa. xiv. 23.

Isa. xi. 1. vii. 14. Mic. v. 2. Isa. lxi. 1. xxxv. 5, 6. liii. 1-10.
Psal. xvi. 9, 10. Ixviii 18. ii. 8. Isa. xlii. 1-4. xlix. 5, 6.

Dan. ix. 26.

Dan. ix. 24-27. Psal. xxii. 16, 17. Zech. xii. 10.

a man of sorrows, and as made exceeding glad with the light of God's countenance; as dying, and yet abolishing death; as despised and rejected, and as honoured and followed.* These things are so contradictory, that it seems impossible, that they should be united in the same person. Accordingly the Jews, unable to reconcile the predicted humiliation of Christ, and the glory which necessarily belongs to his office, have invented, for the solution of the difficulty, the notions of two Messiahs, of whom the one is to suffer, and the other to reign. But this character, which is apparently made up of inconsistent qualities, was realized in Jesus Christ, who, though mean in respect of his manhood, is, in his divine person, the image of the the first-born of every creature; quered death, and by his sorrows obtained for himself and his followers everlasting felicity; who was contumeliously treated, and indignantly rejected, by the Jews, but was preached to the Gentiles, and believed on in the world. A character, in which the extremes of abasement and exaltation meet, in which the weakness of humanity is associated with the power of the godhead, it could not have entered into the mind of any man to conceive. He would have disjoined these extremes; he would have described a mortal like ourselves, feeble and imperfect; or a God elevated above all created beings, by the infinitude of his attributes. When we see, therefore, this character not only

invisible God, and who by dying con

drawn by the

prophets, but exemplified in our Redeemer, we are convinced, that as, on the one hand, it could not

* Psal. xxii. 6. lxxxix. 27. Isa. liii. 3. Psal. xxi. 6. Isa. liii. 10 12. xxv. 8. Psal. xxii. 27-31. lxxii. 15. 17.

be a creature of their own fancy, so, on the other, it must have been suggested to them by divine revelation. Were they not artists, endowed, like Aholiab and Bezaleel, with the spirit of wisdom, that they might paint the likeness of that singular personage, who, in the fulness of time, was to visit the earth?

As the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old Testament in Jesus Christ, was a proof of his Messiahship, to which he appealed, and from which his apostles reasoned, in a most conclusive manner, with the Jews; so it is a proof of the divinity of their scriptures, or of those books, at least, in which the prophecies are inserted. Prophecy is founded on the foresight of futurity; and the knowledge of futurity is a prerogative of the true God, by which he is distinguished from the vanities of the Gentiles. "They have no knowledge, that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God beside me, a just God and a Saviour, there is none beside me. 99* The foretelling, therefore, of future events, of which it was not possible to acquire the previous knowledge by any natural means, is an evidence, that God hath spoken by the prophet; and as the fulfilment of a prediction assures us, that the person who uttered it was divinely inspired, so it warrants us to receive as divine every other thing which he hath delivered to us in the name of God. A prophecy, like a miracle, attests in general the commission of the person by whom it was spoken.

* Isa. xlv. 20, 21.

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