The conqueft of Egypt at the fame time is largely defcribed, with the fteps that lead to it, in chapters xviii. and xix. of Isaiah.

The three laft verfes of the nineteenth chapter are evidently defcriptive of the Millennium, and can apply to no other period. The whole of the preceding prophecy is connected with that period by the expreffions, "in that day," frequently repeated; fo that the application of this prophecy to the conqueft of Senacherib, or to any period already paft, muft be erroneous, while the application of it I now offer must be juft.

The eighteenth chapter fhews the cause of the punishment inflicted on the Egyptians, which is recorded in the nineteenth chapter. Egypt is the land of "the winged cymbal," (as Lowth properly explains it), if by Cush we understand Ethiopia or Arabia; the word tranflated beyond fignifies either on this fide or the other, and fo is applicable to Egypt, as bordering on both these countries.

The crime laid to the charge of the Egyptians is, that they "fend ambaffadors by the fea, and " in veffels of bulrushes (papyrus) on the wa"ters, faying, Go ye fwift meffengers, to a na❝tion scattered and peeled, to a people terrible "from their beginning hitherto; a nation

"meted

"meted out and trodden down, whofe land the "rivers have spoiled 1."

The meffengers are fent to collect troops, in order to affift the beaft at Armageddon.

The people against whom thefe troops are fent, are the Jews. The defcription given of the Jews by the Egyptians, (for the address to the meffengers is put in their mouth), feems intended, to excite the hatred, and animate the courage of their troops, against the Jews. They are represented as a people " fcattered" or dif perfed throughout the world, "peeled," or oppreffed by all nations, "terrible from their be

ginning hitherto ;" either that they are to be dreaded by other nations, on account of their enmity to them, or that they are objects of terror and astonishment, on account of the judgments inflicted on them: " a nation meted out"

(of

(1) Bishop Lowth tranflates the paffage thus: "Go "ye fwift meffengers to a nation stretched out in length, "and fmoothed; a nation meted out by line, and trodden "down, whofe land the rivers have nourished." But with all deference to the learned prelate, I think the common tranflation preferable. He fuppofes the meffengers fent to the land, and defcribed by its appearance; no doubt confidering the land as a metaphor, fignifying the people but then I find the words nation and people three feveral times inferted in the addrefs, in all which, the term land should have been expreffed or understood, in order to make the metaphor tolerable.

(of line)', on whom God himself has extended the line of deftruction; " trodden down," defpised, and treated like the mire of the streets; "whofe land the rivers have spoiled," has been fucceffively over-run by every conquering army. The defign of this defcription is, to represent them as a people hated of God, and therefore worthy of being extirpated by men. The refult of this expedition is given us, verfes 3.-6. and it corresponds exactly with the description of the battle of Armageddon.-After a folemn invitation to all the inhabitants of the world to give ear, as to a matter of importance, in which all are interested; God intimates, that he will at first give fuccefs to the expedition, so far as to collect a formidable army; but that he will afterwards blaft the expedition, by utterly deftroying the forces fo collected. All this is represented, by a fit and elegant metaphor. The conduct of Providence, in the first stage of the expedition, is compared to a "clear heat after rain, or a dewy cloud in a day of harveft,” which rapidly

(1) 2 Kings xxi. 13. Ifà. xxxiv. H.

(2) A conquering army is frequently compared to an overflowing river; as Ifa. viii. 8. and Dan. xi. The defcription is moft applicable to the land of Judea, for it has been fucceffively over-run, by the Affyrians, Babylonians, Perfians, Grecians, Romans, Saracens, and Turks.

pidly advances vegetation, perfects the bud and forms the bloffom of the vine into a fwelling grape. But when the hope of the hufbandman is thus raised to a plentiful vintage, it is fuddenly blafted, before the grapes are fully ripe; the fhoots of the vine cut off with pruning hooks; the branches hewed down and scattered on the ground, become a prey to the rapacious birds of the mountains, and to the wild beafts of the earth'. The laft verfe is a chronological note added to the prophecy, to fhew the time of its completion. It fhall "be ful"filled in that time," when the people defcribed, ver. 2. against whom the expedition was contrived, "shall be brought as a prefent unto "the Lord of hofts-to the place of the name "of the Lord of hofts, the mount Zion;" that is, when the Jews fhall be reftored to their own land, for fo the phrase is used, Isa. lxvi. 20. Now, we have seen that the battle of Armageddon and the restoration of the Jews exactly coincide. The fpirit of prophecy having unfolded the crime of Egypt proceeds to fhew the punishment of it. It is therefore entitled the Burden of Egypt. In order to illuftrate it, he

gives

(1) You will find this circumftance of making the forces collected at Armageddon a prey to rapacious birds, clearly afferted, Rev. xix. 17, 18.

gives a hiftory of Egypt for fome time before, probably from the fall of the Turkish empire; as, that there fhall be great divisions among the Egyptians, Ifa. xix. 2.-That they shall be much under the influence of fuperftition, ver. 3.That God will deliver them over to the dominion of "a cruel lord;" meaning Antichrist, or the blafphemous king, then refident in Judea, ver. 4.-That he fhall feize on all the fources of their wealth, as the produce of their foil, of their manufactories, of their river and fish ponds, ver. 5.-10. ; which correfponds exactly with the representation of Daniel xi. 43• "He fhall have power over the treafures of

gold and of filver, and over all the precious "things of Egypt." God charges the counfellors of Egypt with folly, and the people of it with cowardice, in fubmitting tamely to fuch delufion and oppreffion; Ifa. xix. 11.-16. Then follows an account of the punishment he had in view, and the confequences of it.

He reprefents it in general, as a divine interpofition, ver. 16. then adds the manner of it. "And the land of Judah fhall be a terror unto "Egypt, every one that maketh mention there"of, fhall be afraid in himself; because of the "counsel of the Lord of hofts, which he hath "determined against it ;" ver. 17. Tidings of the fall of the beast and his adherents in Judea,