"Twelve princes shall he beget." * Now, this remarkable prediction lays the foundation, from the outset, of a strict historical parallel between the posterity of Ishmael and the posterity of Isaac, from whom was to spring the same prophetic number of princes, or heads of tribes; and whose offspring are elsewhere enumerated, in similar terms, by an inspired authority: "And Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs." + Moses, also, dwells on the appointed number of the patriarchs: "Now the sons of Jacob were twelve."‡

Let us examine how far the history of the two families, in its earliest stages, corresponds with these parallel enumerations. The Pentateuch records the existing state of both progenies, in the time of Moses; that is, about six centuries subsequent to the promulgation of the two covenants. The following are the conclusive scriptural statements:

POSTERITY OF ISAAC.

Exod. xxviii. 21.

"And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel; twelve, according to their names; every one with his name shall they be,

POSTERITY OF ISHMAEL.

according to the twelve according to their [twelve] tribes." nations."

The first link of the connection, between the prophecies concerning Isaac and Ishmael, and the history of their descendants, and between the parts, also, of the historical analogy itself, is so far perfect: the twelve patriarchs, sprung from the former, and the twelve princes, sprung from the latter, in the time of Moses, had severally arisen into twelve tribes, or nations.

Again, in the prophecy respecting Isaac, we read this promise, that God would give to him, and to his seed after him, "all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession *:” in that relating to Ishmael, we meet the equivalent prediction, that "he shall dwell in the face (or presence) of all his brethren." In this next link of its connection with the two covenants, the historical parallel stands out with the same accuracy and clearness as in the preceding

*Gen. xvii. 8.

+ Gen. xvi. 12.

example. For we find the twelve tribes of Israel, on the one hand, in actual and permanent possession of all the land of Canaan; and the twelve nations of Ishmaelitish Arabs, on the other, stretching themselves along the entire frontier of Canaan, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea.

But further, the expression, "he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren," is determined, by the context, and by the consent of most interpreters, to imply a posture of hostility; and to convey the intimation, that Ishmael should live in a state of perpetual hostile contact and collision with the legitimate descendants of Abraham. When this characteristic feature, in the prophetic portion of Ishmael, is compared with the history of the Jews and Arabs, the exactness of the correspondence between the prediction and accomplishment must strike even the cursory observer. Scripture, and Jewish history, alike abound with evidence of the rooted and hereditary antipathy, reciprocally indulged by the two nations; and with notices of the incessant, though desultory, warfare, which was carried on between them. Such, in fine, was the proverbial inveteracy of this international hatred, that we find Tacitus, in his enumeration of the forces which composed the army of Titus, pre

paratory to the siege of Jerusalem, accompanying his laconic allusion to the Arab auxiliaries, with the mention of their notorious hostility towards their neighbours, the Jews.*

Nor is the matter-of-fact connection, between the two covenants and the two histories, destitute of marks of a spiritual correspondence, answerable to the foregoing political analogy. Traces of this nature are to be found, not only in the common use, by the Jews and Arabians, of the rite of circumcision, but in their common knowledge and preservation of the doctrine of the Divine Unity, and even in the common character of their idolatrous deflections from the faith and worship of the one true God.

1. The rite of circumcision, it has been shown, was the original sign, or bond, ordained by God himself, when he established his covenant with Abraham; the bond of that covenant, alike in both parts of it. At the period of institution, Isaac and Ishmael equally received this seal of their respective covenants; and so permanent was its transmission in both families, that, in the time of Josephus, after the lapse of nearly two thousand years, the sign of circumcision remained nationally in use among the Jews and the Arabians: the one people administering the rite

* See Introduction, p. 94. note *.

on the eighth day after the birth, in commemoration of the circumcision of Isaac; the other, in the thirteenth year, in memory (as the Jewish historian testifies) of the circumcision of Ishmael, their father.*

2. The foundation of the two covenants, originally, was laid, in the immediate revelation of Himself to Abraham, by the ONe true Jehovah. The stedfastness with which the Jews, on the whole, maintained the great doctrine of the Divine Unity, is allowed, on all hands, to rank as the most prominent and peculiar feature of Jewish history. Now, it is a singular fact and coincidence, in the history of the Ishmaelitish Arabs, that, amidst the darkness of surrounding heathenism, amidst their own gross and multiplied forms of idol, or angel worship, the patriarchal belief in the One most high God, appears, by every species of evidence, to have been preserved and transmitted, uninterruptedly, from age to age, so as to form a fundamental part of the popular belief, among the Saracens, in the age of Mahomet. †

3. The original identity of the belief of the two nations in this prime fundamental of the true religion, may be inferred even from the sameness of character observable in their idola

* For the decisive testimony borne by Josephus, see Appendix, No. I. + See Appendix, Nos. I. II.