nations whither the LORD shall lead thee," Lev. xxvi. 14, 15. 31. 33. Deut. xxviii. 37. The prophet Jeremiah predicted; "I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth; to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations whither I have driven them because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them," Jer. xxix. 18, 19. The prophet Hosea also declared ; For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim," Hosea iii. 4. The prophets were also directed to write" And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God," Lev. xxvi. 44. "Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days," Hosea iii. 5.

All these predictions are delivered with the confidence of truth, and the perspicuity of history. They represent the manner, the extent, the nature, and the continuance of their dispersion; their persecutions, their sufferings, their blindness, their hardened impenitence, and their grievous oppression; the universal mockery, the unlimited diffusion, and the unextinguishable existence of that extraordinary people. Strong were the ties which bound the Jews to Canaan. It was not only a glorious land, but the land of their fathers, and the peculiar gift of Heaven, where only, many of their religious customs could be observed. As nothing could separate them from their temple till it was blazing around them, and multitudes perished in its flames, so nothing could tear them from their country but the overwhelming power of the Roman armies. They were rooted up as a nation and banished from their own land and by an imperial

edict it was death for a Jew to set his foot in Jerusalem, though every Gentile trod upon its ruins.

But the extent of their dispersion is still more remark. able than the manner of its accomplishment. They have traversed the wide world; and there is not a kingdom upon the face of the earth in which they are not to be found. They are numerous in Poland, in Turkey, in Germany, and in Holland; in Russia, France, Spain, Italy, Britain, and America. In Persia, China, and India, on the east and the west of the river Ganges, they are found more thinly scattered. They have trodden the snows of Siberia, and the sands of the burning desert; and the European traveller hears of their existence, in regions which he cannot reach, even in the very interior of Africa. From one end of the earth unto the other, the Jews and the Jews only have been dispersed among all nations.

As christians we are looking forward to times more glorious than the present; when, as Hosea predicted, ch. iii. 5. "The children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David (the Messiah) their king;" when they shall be brought into the church of Christ with the fulness of the Gentiles. That throughout all the changes which have happened in the kingdoms of the earth, from the days of Moses to the present time, a period of more than three thousand years, nothing should have transpired to prevent the accomplishment of these prophecies; but, on the contrary, that the state of the Jewish, and Christian, and Heathen nations at this day should be such as renders them easily capable, even of a literal completion, in every particular, if the will of God be So, is a miracle, a standing miracle to us; and which hath nothing parallel to it in the phenomena of nature! The Jews were once the peculiar people of God: and Paul saith, "Hath God cast away his people? God forbid!" Rom. xi. 1. We see that after so many ages they are still preserved, by a miracle of Providence, a distinct people: and why is such a continual miracle exhibited, but for the greater illustration of divine truth and grace, and the accomplishment of the divine promises,

The remains of highways no longer passable, are still to be seen. In the interior parts of the country, there are neither great roads, nor canals, nor even bridges over the rivers and torrents, however necessary they may be in winter. The roads in the mountains are scarcely passable. There are no inns in any part of the country; neither ports, nor public conveyances; not a wagon nor a cart in all Syria. These statements are made by different and respectable travellers, who agree in testifying to the perfect fulfilment of the predictions, written by Moses three thousand three hundred years ago; and by Isaiah, at the distance of about two thousand five hundred years. It must be acknowledged, that in this is the hand of the righteous LORD, and here we behold the awful severity of God, and the truth of his word.

SECTION IV.-IDUMEA.

Idumea or Edom, was the country of Esau the son of Isaac, and brother of Jacob. This land formed the southern boundary of Judea; but though the people were descended from Isaac as were the Israelites, they were enemies to the Jews. They united with Nebuchadnezzar when he besieged Jerusalem, and urged him to raze it with its temple even to the ground. On account of their idolatry, wickedness, and enmity to the people and worship of God, Isaiah was directed to write, among others, the following awful predictions: "For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. For the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of dragons, and a court for owls," Isa. xxxiv. 5, 6. 13. "I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse, and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thy heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest

as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD. As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it," Jer. xlix. 13. 16. 18. "Thus saith the LORD God; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end: therefore, as I live, saith the LORD God, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee. I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD," Ezek. xxxv. 3. 5. 9. "Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of Teman? And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter: and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it," Obad. ver. 8, 9. 18.

An intelligent traveller remarks, "From the reports of the Arabs of Bakir, and from the inhabitants of Gaza, who frequently go to Maan (or Teman) and Karak, on the road of the pilgrims, there are, within three days' journey to the south-east of the Dead Sea, upwards of thirty ruined towns absolutely deserted. The Arabs, in general, avoid them, on account of the scorpions with which they swarm. We cannot be surprised at these traces of ancient population, when we recollect that this was the country of the Nabatheans, the most powerful of the Arabs, and of the Idumeans, who, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, were almost as numerous as the Jews." Yet the ruins of these cities are not the chief monuments of the ancient greatness of Edom. Its capital city, now without an inhabitant, except the wild animals foretold by the prophet a thousand years before it ceased to be tenanted by men, presents one of the most wonderful scenes that can possibly be conceived.

In the vicinity of mount Seir, the extensive ruins of a large city, heaps of hewn stones, foundations of buildings, fragments of columns, and vestiges of paved streets, are spread over a valley which is enclosed on each side by perpendicular cliffs, varying from four hundred to seven hundred feet in height, which are hollowed out into innumerable chambers of different dimensions, rising in the cliffs, tier above tier, till it seems impossible to approach the uppermost. Columns also rise above columns, and adorn the fronts of the dwellings; horizontal grooves for the conveyance of water, run along the face of the cliffs; flights of steps formed the means of ascent, and the summit of the heights, in various places, is covered with pyramids cut out of the rock. The identity of the scene, as described by the prophet, Jer. xlix. 16. in all the terribleness of the human power which pertained to it, and as depicted in the desolate aspect it now exhibits, is such as cannot be mistaken.

The mausoleums and sepulchres are very numerous and magnificent. They are of various periods and orders of architecture. One of them in particular is described as a work of immense labour and colossal dimensions, in perfect preservation, containing a chamber sixteen paces square, and about twenty-five feet high, crowned with a pediment highly ornamented, and all cut out of the rock. By these splendid monuments, dedicated to the memory of its rulers, the opulence of the city is demonstrated.

The enemies of the gospel might be admonished by the fate of the enemies of the ancient church, who have been cut off according to the word of the LORD; and whose very land, that especially of the Edomites, for their violence against their brethren of Israel, has been wasted with a curse which shall cleave to it for ever. The most high God will surely avenge the quarrel of his everlasting covenant, as certainly as he did that which was to be disannulled. And though the enemies of the christian faith were to league together, as did the confederate tabernacles of Edom against Judah, all the terribleness of their strength would become like chaff before the whirlwind. Men of worldly wisdom should be instructed