as owing to natural or fupernatural caufes, it equally fulfils the Prophecy concerning it.

Can we, however, avoid afcribing its barren and deserted condition to a more than ordi-1 nary interpofition of the Deity, when we find even the fentiments arising in the minds of inquifitive travellers, while contemplating with aftonishment the fcene of defolation presented in the Holy Land, described with fuch inimitable accuracy and animation"? The Stranger that shall come from a far land shall fay, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto the land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then shall men fay, Because they have forfaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, and he rooted them out of their land in anger, and caft them into another land, as it is this day.

The Lord fhall Scatter thee among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other. That the Jews are difperfed all over the world, is a fact to which the various accounts of hiftorians and travellers give the fulleft confirmation. In the countries of the Eaft they

1

abound; they are fettled in various parts of Africa and America, and in the kingdoms of Europe. They exift as a confpicuous monument of Prophetical truth and Divine juftice, to every nation in which they dwell.

And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not caft them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly. No proofs drawn from history are wanted to illuftrate this part of the Prophecy. After the long feries of oppreffion. and mifery to which they have been exposed, ever fince their difperfion; after having been given up to fire, famine, and peftilence; to maffacres and perfecutions, as the objects of hatred and malice to every people among whom they have fettled, they are so far from being deftroyed, that they not only exist as a feparate people, but in many places form opulent and flourishing communities.

• One million are fuppofed to be refident in the various provinces of Turkey-three hundred thoufand in Perfia, India, and China-and feventeen hundred thousand in Christendom, Africa, and America. Their outward condition and circumftances are generally tolerable, except in Portugal and Spain. Brown's Harmony of Scripture Prophecies, p. 322. This flatement is confirmed by other writers. See the Jews' Letters to Voltaire, vol. ii.

P. 175.

And

And thou shalt be an aftonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all the nations whither the Lord fhall lead thee. This has literally been the cafe at all times, fince their national punishment has been inflicted. The very name of a Jew has been used as a term of peculiar reproach and infamy. Their avarice, ufury, and infenfibility have long been in a manner proverbial; being confidered as more peculiarly marking their character, than that of any other people in the world.

Reflexions upon the common course of events would naturally have induced Mofes to draw conclufions very different from the fate which we have feen he denounced against the Ifraelites, in case of disobedience. It was natural to suppose, that, if they were reduced to subjection, it would be by fome neighbouring power, with whom, and with whose

ap

pearance, they were well acquainted; that if they were driven from their country, another people would poffefs it, and the land itself preserve the fame character and description as before; and if they were completely difperfed and carried captives into foreign countries, that they would fuffer the common lot of other captive nations, and be blended with their conquerors; and in time entirely lose their peculiar

peculiar name and character. The fact, as well as the prediction, has been directly the reverse. According to the Prophetic words of the infpired writers, they have been twice enflaved by diftant and unknown nations; their land has become not only defolate, but barren; and they exift at this day difperfed among all nations, but not deftroyed; the living, confpicuous, and well-known witneffes of the truth of Prophecy. The long period of three thousand years has paffed fince this Prophecy was delivered, which the lapfe of ages, and the revolutions of human events, have only ferved to confirm and to fulfil.

CLASS I.

CHAPTER THE FIFTH.

The Fulfilment of the Prophecy, that Cyrus was to be the Conqueror of Babylon, and the Deliverer of the Jews.

THE Prophecy which is next to be the subject of our attention, is in itself a peculiar one: clear and explicit in its language; important in its reference to the great design for which the Jews were diftinguished from the reft of the world; and an epitome of fome of the most fignal events recorded in antient. history. It was delivered by Ifaiah, according to the shortest computation, more than an hundred years before the birth of the elder

* Isaiah delivered the Prophecy, Y.W. 3292. B. C. 712. Jofephus places this Prophecy two hundred and ten years before the birth of Cyrus. Critici facri, tom. iv. p. 5190.

Cyrus ;