of Solomon, and the Temple of Jerufalem? The astonishment, admiration, and awe, expreffed by Alexander and by Titus, when they beheld the Temple, preclude the idea of exaggerated defcription, and appear to eftablish its claim to fuperior grandeur and riches, while the fimple patriarchal manners of the people (manners which still prevail in Arabia and in a part of India) must increase the wonder. With refpect to power, and its attendant, fame, the Ifraelites were forbidden to extend their conquefts beyond certain limits; for it is evident, that their reputation in the world as a people made no part of the intended object, for which they were distinguished by the Almighty-perhaps was inconfiftent with it :-but nothing human could refift the power with which they were endued, whenever they were permitted to exert it. It is allowed, however, that the frequent punishments, to which they were subjected by their frequent disobedience to the commands of God, confined the nation much within the bounds prefcribed, till the age when Solomon "reigned over all the kings, from the river Euphrates, even unto the land

See Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, and Jofephus, lib. vi. c. iv. &c.

of

of the Philistines, and to the borders of Egypt," and "exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wifdom," and, it may be added, for "honour" or fame; a fact to which eastern tradition still gives teftimony. It is allowed too, that this extended greatnefs of the kingdom was of short duration, and that it feemed to fink into infignificance just as the kingdoms of the Heathen world rofe into importance: but it is maintained, that all these circumstances confirm the credibility of the Jewish history, because they are all in strict conformity with the conditional promifes and the prophetic word of God, and with the great defign for which the Jews were to continue a peculiar people. The ignorance and the obfcurity imputed to the Jewish people will, indeed, furnish no inconfiderable argument to prove the divine origin of their prophecies.-If their knowledge and their experience were limited to the narrow confines of their own country-if their means of information were fmall, and their connexions with other nations precarious and accidental, they had the less ground to foretell, with any probability of being right, the

2 Chron. ix. 26.

1 Kings iv. 34.-iii. 13. 2 Chron. i. 12.

future

future condition of other nations; and much lefs to decide pofitively and circumftantially as to their decline, decay, and ruin. And yet we find that the great events of foreign ftates, the fate of Nineveh, of Tyre, and of Babylon, the revolutions of Greece, and the power of Rome, were exactly foretold, and the predictions as exactly fulfilled.

Having premised thus much concerning the Scene of Prophecy, I now hasten to the Prophets themselves.

Mofes was of the tribe of Levi, and was born in Egypt during the bondage of the Children of Ifrael, in the year before Christ 1567, and in the year of the World 2433°. He was miraculously rescued from destruction by the daughter of Pharaoh, of which circumftance his name Mofes, or Moyfes, which fignifies in the Egyptian language, preferved out of water, is defcriptive; and he was educated by her direction in all the learning and

• Calmet's Dictionary: Articles Mofes, Vol. II. p. 223, Bible, Vol. I. p. 292. Prophets, Vol. II. p. 455. Pentateuch, Vol. II. p. 379. Grotius de Veritate Chriftianæ Religionis. Du Pin's Canon. Du Pin's Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. Watfon's Apology for the Bible. Gray's Key, p. 45, &c.

accom

accomplishments of the Egyptians. He was chofen by God to be the deliverer and lawgiver of the Children of Ifrael, and to conduct them to the land of Canaan, according to the promise given to their father Abraham. He died in the 120th year of his age, "when his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated," on mount Nebo, on the borders of that land, which it was declared by the Lord he fhould fee, but not enter. As a prophet he was eminently diftinguished. The Jews have constantly attributed to him the highest degree of inspiration; and in the New Teftament he is always mentioned with fingular honour. By the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and other heathen nations, Mofes was acknowledged not only as the most ancient lawgiver, and as an hiftorian of the stricteft veracity, but, according to the style, in which they expreffed their veneration for the greatest characters of antiquity, he was placed among the Gods, and worshipped under various names. And writers of the earliest ages have either confirmed his history by yet earlier tradition, or have borrowed from thence the ground-work of their fictions. He has been celebrated as a general, a legiflator, a prophet, and a magician by prophane writers of almost all descriptions, and

of

of almost all ages; and his character is established by the uninterrupted testimony, which the Jews have given, from the time in which he lived to the prefent hour. His writings we shall confider presently.

Ifaiah was of the tribe of Judah, and of noble birth. He began to prophefy about B. C. 758, Y. W. 3246, was nearly contemporary with Hofea, Joel, Amos, and Micah, and, according to a tradition among the Jews, was put to death in the first year of the reign of Manaffeh, B. C. 698. His name, which fignifies the falvation of Jehovah, is strongly defcriptive of the character of his prophecies, which give a remarkably clear and accurate view of the Meffiah and his kingdom, and he is therefore emphatically styled by Chriftian writers, the Evangelical Prophet.

Jeremiah was of the line of the priesthood, and confequently of the tribe of Levi. He was called to the prophetic office, which he exercised for more than 40 years, nearly at the fame time with Zephaniah, in the 13th year of the reign of Jofiah, He was permitted to remain in Judea, the defolation of which he fo pathetically laments, after the first conquest of Jerufalem by Nebuchad

nezzar,