nificence; nor have (5) the hiftorians and poets painted the one in more lively colors, than He cenfures the prophet hath the other.

likewife the pride of the king of Tyre in arrogating to himself divine honors, (XXVIII. 2, &c.) Son of man, fay unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus faith the Lord God, Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou haft faid, I am a God, I fit in the feat of God, in the midst of the feas; yet thou art a man, and not God, tho' thou fet thine heart as the heart of God: With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and haft gotten gold and filver into thy treafures: By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: Therefore thus faith the Lord God, Because thou haft fet thine heart as the heart of God; Behold therefore, I will bring frangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations; and they fhall draw their fwords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness: They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are flain in the midst of the feas. The pro

phets

(5) Plutarch in Antonio. p. 913. Vol. 1. Edit. Paris 1624. Shakespear. Dryden.

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(6) Annales

phets Joel and Amos had before denounced the divine judgments upon the Tyrians for their wickedness in general, and in particular for their cruelty to the children of Ifrael, and buying and felling them like cattle in the markets. Thus faith the Lord by the prophet Joel, (III. 5, &c.) Because je bave taken my filver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: The children alfo of Judah, and the children of Ferufalem have ye fold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border: Behold, 1 will raise them out of the place whither ye have fold them, and will return your recompenfe upon your own head. Amos fpeaketh to the fame purpose, (I. 9.) Thus faith the Lord, For three tranfgreffions of Tyrus, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant, that is the league and alliance between Hiram king of Tyre on one part, and David and Solomon on the other. The Pfalmift reckons them among the most inveterate and implacable enemies of the Jewish name and nation, (Pfal. LXXXII. 6, 7.) The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites, of Moab, and the Hagarenes, Gebal, and Ammon,

and

and Amalek, the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre. Ezekiel alfo begins his prophecy against them with a declaration, that it was occafioned by their infulting over the Jews upon the taking of Jerufalem by Nebuchadnezzar, (XXVI. 2, 3.) Son of man, Because that Tyrus bath faid against Jerufalem, Aha, he is broken that was the gates of the people; She is turned unto me, I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste: Therefore thus faith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and.will caufe many nations to come up against thee, as the fea caufeth his waves to come up.

These were the occafions of the prophecies against Tyre: and by carefully confidering and comparing the prophecies together, we fhall find the following particulars included in them; that the city was to be taken and deftroyed by the Chaldæans, who were at the time of the delivery of the prophecy an inconfiderable people, and particularly by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; that the inhabitants fhould fly over the Mediterranean into the ilands and countries adjoining, and even there should not find a quiet fettlement; that the city fhould be restored after 70 years, and her gain

return to

and her merchandise; that it fhould be taken and destroyed again; that the people should in time forfake their idolatry, and become converts to the true religion and worship of God; and finally that the city fhould be totally deftroyed, and become a place only for fishers to spread their nets upon. We fhall find these particulars to be not only distinctly foretold, but likewife exactly fulfilled.

I. The city was to be taken and destroyed by the Chaldæans, who were at the time of the delivery of the prophecy an inconfiderable people. This, we think, is fufficiently implied in these words of the prophet Isaiah, (XXIII. 13.) Behold, the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not till the Affyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness, they set up the towers thereof, they raifed up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin. Bebold, an exclamation to fhow that he is going to utter fomething new and extraordinary; the land of the Chaldæans, that is Babylon and the country about Babylon; this people was not, was of no note or eminence, 'till the Allyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wil derness, they dwelt before in tents, and led a wandring life in the widerness, till the Affyrians

built Babylon for their reception; they fet up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof, and Herodotus, Ctefias, and other ancient hiftorians agree that the kings of Affyria fortified and beautified Babylon; and he, that is, this people mentioned before, the Chaldæans or Babylonians, brought it to ruin, that is Tyre, which is the fubject of the whole prophecy. The Affyrians were at that time the great monarchs of the eaft; the Chaldæans were their flaves and fubjects; and therefore it is the more extraordinary, that the prophet should so many years beforehand forefee the fucceffes and conquefts of the Chaldæans.

Ezekiel lived nearer the time, and he declares exprefly that the city fhould be taken and deftroyed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; (XXVI. 7-11.) Thus faith the Lord God, Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings from the north, with borfes, and with chariots, and with borsemen, and companies, and much people; he shall flay thy people by the fword, and thy frong garrisons fhall go down to the ground. Salmanefer king of Affyria (6) had befieged

(6) Annales Menandri apud Jofephum, Antiq. Lib. 9.Cap. 14. Sect. 2. p. 428. Edit. Hudfon.

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(7) Jofeph.