whose merchants were princes, whose traffickers were the honourable of the earth,”—was consigned to destruction by the prophets Joel and Amos, for their enmity to the chosen people, for exulting in their ruin, and for selling the captives of Judah like the cattle in their markets. For these offences especially, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, likewise uttered. many prophecies against them, which are all summed up by a celebrated writer* in the following particulars: "That the city was to be taken, and destroyed by the Chaldeans, who were, at the time of the delivery of the prophecy, an inconsiderable people, and particularly by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; that the inhabitants should fly over the Mediterranean into the islands and countries adjoining, and even there should not find a quiet settlement; that the city should be restored after seventy years, and return to her gain and merchandize; that it should be taken and destroyed again; that the people. should, in time, forsake their idolatry, and become converts to the true religion and worship of God; and, finally, that the city should be totally destroyed, and become only a place for fishers to spread their nets upon." Of Nineveh, that immense metropolis of Assyria, it was declared, that" an utter end" should be made of her; that Nineveh should be " a desolation, and dry like a wilderness;" that "flocks should lie down in the midst of her;" "all the beasts of the nations, both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it, their voice shall sing in the windows, desolation shall be in the thresholds."+ * Newton. + Zephaniah, chap. ii. Babylon, another cruel enemy of God's people, became for this cause obnoxious to divine wrath. After Nineveh was destroyed, Babylon became "the queen of the east," and although less in extent, she surpassed her predecessor in splendour. Her public works, excelling in strength and grandeur, were justly esteemed among the wonders of the world. Yet this stupendous city, whose removal might only be supposed amongst the possibilities of human power-this admirable city is called "to come down and sit in the dust-for she should be swept with the besom of destruction!" "Her palaces (she is told) should be a den of wild beasts, and be inhabited by men no more for ever!"* The prophecies against Babylon are very numerous,† and particularly even to the name of Cyrus, her conqueror, above an hundred years before his birth; and to the manner in which the city should be taken. A second siege of the city by Darius, after the death of Cyrus, and the cruelties he should exercise on the vanquished people, is also foretold. In the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, the wrapt bard, foreseeing, by divine prescience, the ruin of Babylon accomplished, and the proud oppressors of nations broken in pieces, breaks out into that incomparable ode, which is said to have no parallel in the utmost efforts of human genius. Inimitably sublime in thought and regular in construction, it is called the most perfect model of lyric poetry.‡ Of Egypt, too, the inveterate enemy of the Hebrews, and the great academy of the early ages---the prophecies are not less various and circumstantial. Noah had declared Isaiah in a variety of places. See Jer. 50 and 51 chap. and Isaiah 44 and 45, T that the posterity of Ham should "be a servant of servants;" and now Ezekiel tells them,---they "shall be the basest of kingdoms, and governed by strangers." Another event, most unlikely to happen in a country debased above all others by the grossest superstitions, it was foretold should be seen; that the pure religion of Jehovah should be partially known and acknowledged by the Egyptians. That all these predictions have been fulfilled, is perfectly well known to every reader of profane history. In Bishop Newton's excellent Dissertations on the Prophecies, you have both the prediction and its accomplishment, to the very letter, exhibited in the most ample and convincing form. Tyre, the emporium of nations, is described by all travellers, both ancient and modern, as " a place only for fishers to dry their nets upon ;"---her walls a heap of ruins, and her shores whitened by the winds and waves ; ---the remains of her stately structures afford only a mean shelter to a few wretched fishermen ! Egypt is the most ancient kingdom of any note, although her antiquity is not so high as has been pretended, But she flourished in wealth and wisdom so early as the days of Joseph, and to this day there remain the most magnificent monuments of her power. Yet Egypt has verified the words of Ezekiel---it has been for ages a base kingdom, and has had no prince of its own: for from the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar to this day, it has been "tributary to strangers." "It is now, (says Bishop Newton) a great deal above two thousand years since this prophecy was first delivered; and what likelihood or appearance was there, that the Egyptians should for so many years bow unto a foreign yoke, and never in all that time be able to recover their liberties, and have a prince of their own to reign over them? But, as is the prophecy, so is the event. For not long afterwards, Egypt was conquered by the Babylonians; and after the Babylonians, by the Persians; and after the Persians, it became subject to the Macedonians; and after the Macedonians, to the Romans ; and after the Romans, to the Saracens, and then to the Mamelukes, and is now a province of the Ottou.an empire." But it is also said by the prophet, that a great prince should be sent by God, to deliver Egypt from the Persians, and that peace and plenty should be restored for a time, and that the true religion should be known in that country. These things came to pass under Alexander the Great, and some of the Ptolomys, his successors. Many of the Jews dwelt in Egypt at this time, and were highly favoured by the prince. They were allowed to exercise their own faith, and even to build a temple after the model of that in Jerusalem. By these means the Hebrew religion became so honourable in Egypt, that a translation of their scriptures was made into the Greek language, under the auspices of the king. This translation is called the Septuagint, because it is said to have been made by seventy or seventy-two learned Jews. Historians are not agreed as to the precise time when Nineveh was destroyed; but the fact is incontrovertible. Nineveh is completely swept away, "that its place is not known!" Who now, when the curiosity and enterprize of man has penetrated every spot almost on the surface of the globe-who is he that has seen those mighty walls that encircled sixty miles-whose height was one hundred feet, with fifteen hundred towers of two hundred feet in height, and so broad that three chariots could drive abreast upon them-or who can say that he has discovered even the spot where once they stood? Of the site of Babylon," the glory of the kingdoms," "the golden city," there is almost as much uncertainty! Heaps of ruins are found on the Euphrates, where it is believed she held her proud domain; but whether they are the remains of her superb edifices, or of some other ancient city, cannot now be ascertained. The place, however, is the resort of doleful creatures," according to the prophecy. “The Arabian cannot pitch his tent there, neither can the shepherd make his fold there !" FANNY. Were these nations destroyed solely for their oppression of the Jews? MRS. M. No, certainly; although that is assigned as one cause, yet their vices were abundantly enormous to subject them to the severest vengeance of Heaven. Nor were they less cruel to one another: one hundred and sixty years after the prophecy of Isaiah, and fifty-six after a similar prediction by Jeremiah, when Babylon was taken the second time by the Medes and Persians, in consequence of their rebellion against their masters, and after a siege of twenty months-the exasperated victor, in revenge of their protracted opposition, ordered three thousand of the principal citizens to be crucified. (B. C. 516.) CATHERINE. Every act of Supreme Wisdom must have an end but I do not see what good purpose could be effected by predictions concerning these nations, inasmuch as not being delivered to themselves, they could not operate in bringing them to repentance. MRS. M. The light of nature, without the aid of prophecy, might have restrained their gross immorality. |
