vered by Ezekiel, who prophecied during the time of the Babylonish captivity. Ez. xxvi. 3. &c. Thus fays the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the fea caufeth his waves to come up, and they Shall deftroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers. I will alfo fcrape her duft from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the fea; for I have spoken it faith the Lord God. The fame circumftance is repeated afterwards, v. 14. 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, faith the Lord God; and again, v. 21. I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more. Though thou be fought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, faith the Lord God.

If we trace the hiftory of this great city, we fhall find that it fuffered fo much in confequence of feveral conquefts, that there is not now the leaft trace of the antient

city; and that which was afterwards built upon an island, and was called the new city, is now a heap of ruins, and is only visited by a few fishermen. Parvillerius, a Jefuit, whom Huetius, who was acquainted with him, calls a very candid man, and who refided ten years in Syria, faid, that when he approached the ruins of Tyre, and beheld the rocks ftretched forth to the sea, and the great ftones fcattered up and down on the fhore, made clean and fmooth by the fun, the waves, and the winds, and of no ufe but for the drying of fishermen's nets, many of which happened to be at that time spread upon them, the profpect brought to his mind the prophecies of Ezekiel above mentioned.

The fulfilment of prophecies concerning EGYPT is alfo very remarkable. They correfponded to several fucceffive periods of its history, and the laft of them is completely verified in the present state of that once great and noble, but now enslaved and miferable country. After the defolation of that

land,

land, and the captivity of the people by Nebuchadnezzer, Ezekiel prophecied (xxix. 14, 15) that it should be a bafe kingdom. It fhall be the bafeft of the kingdoms, neither fhall it exalt itself any more above the nations; for I will diminish them, that they shall no me rule over the nations. xxx. 12, 13. I will fell the land into the hand of the wicked, and I will make the land wafte, and all that is therein by the hand of ftrangers; and there fhall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt.

History fhews that, from that time to the prefent, Egypt has never had a prince of its own; but has been fucceffively under the power of the Babylonians, Perfians, Macedonians, Romans, Saracens, Mamluks, and Turks.

VOL. I.

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SEC

SECTION II.

Prophecies relating to the MESSIAH.

A

LMOST the whole of the JEWISH

HISTORY was the fubject of exceedingly clear and diftinct prophecies. The multitudes that should defcend from Abraham were repeatedly foretold to that patriarch; the different fates of Efau and Jacob were foretold to Ifaac; and the condition of each of the twelve tribes was the subject of the prophecy of Jacob when he lay on his death-bed, and alfo of that of Mofes. The duration of their state of bondage in Egypt was made known to Abraham, and a great number of particular events were foretold by several prophets in every period of their history to the Babylonish captivity, which Jeremiah foretold would last feventy years; and fo long, and no longer, it did continue, from the firft captivity under Jehoiakim, to the return of the Jews

under

under Cyrus, or from the deftruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar to the rebuilding of it under Darius.

But thofe prophecies in which we are most interested as chriftians, are thofe which relate to the MESSIAH; whofe coming was kept in view from the firft of the communications of God to mankind, to the fufpenfion of prophecy under Malachi.

As Christ and his apoftles affert that all these prophecies are fulfilled, or to be fulfilled in him, it becomes us the more to ftudy them, and to trace the correfpondence between the prophecies and the events. I fhall therefore collect into one view the principal circumstances relating to the Meffiah, which are referred to by the prophets of the Old Teftament, and which are known to correfpond to the history of Chrift.

We learn from these prophecies, that the Jews had reafon to expect the appearance of a very glorious perfon, by means of whom both themselves and the reft of the world would

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