m which the Prophets Ifaiah and Ezekiel had previously drawn of the happy days that fhould fucceed the captivity, were realized; and the people returning to their own country, enjoyed the bleffings of liberty and affluence. "The men were multiplied, the cities were inhabited, and the waftes were builded; and man and beaft were multiplied, and they were fettled after their old eftates. The defolate land was tilled, and the ruined cities were inhabited; and the Heathen knew that God was the Lord." B. C.. 246. In a subsequent period Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, established many colonies of Jews in his dominions"; caufed the facred books of the Law and the Prophets to be translated into the Greek language, and fent magnificent prefents to the Temple at Jerufalem. In the latter times of the Jewish government a remnant only, as had been foretold by the Prophets, remained faithful to their God amidst the general depravity of the people-among these the family of the Macca Ifaiah xliv. 28. Ezek. xxxvi. 10, &c. bees were most distinguished for valour, as well as for piety; and by them Jerufalem was recovered from the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Temple was purified, its worfhip reftored, and tranquillity reestablished. But the majority of the people pursued their progrefs in wickedness, till the cup of their iniquity was filled by the rejection and the crucifixion of the Meffiah. The great Lawgiver of the Jews, when he proceeds to the alternative of the cafe juft confidered, is much more fevere in pronouncing denunciations of punishment; much more circumstantial in his detail of public calamity, private diftrefs, and affliction both of mind and body, than he was in the detail of rewards; as if he had foreseen, that the difobedience of the Jews would far exceed their obfervance of his laws P But it fhall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to Calmet, vol. i. p. 891. Maccab. b. i, ii. Prideaux, vol. ii. p. 136. 145, &c. P The promises of plenty, profperity, and temporal good are limited to fourteen verfes; the threats of destruction and war are extended to fifty-four. Deut. xxviii. 15: 28.43. 33. 37. 49, 50, 51, 52. 63, 64. 2 j obferve obferve to do all his commandments and his ftatutes which I command thee this day; that all these curfes fhall come upon thee and overtake thee: The Lord fhall fmite thee with madnefs, and blindness, and astonishment of heart. The Stranger that is within thee fhall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, fhall a nation which thou knoweft not, eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway. And thou shalt become an aftonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. The Lord fhall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as fwift as the eagle flieth, a nation, whofe tongue thou shalt not underfland; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the perfon of the old, nor fhew favour to the young. And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be deftroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have deftroyed thee. And he shall befiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedf, throughout all thy land; and he shall befiege thee in all thy gates, throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. And it fhall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you: fo the Lord fhall rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goeft to poffefs it. And the Lord fhall Scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt ferve other Gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and ftones. Such are fome of the moft ftriking parts of the menacing prediction. And if the profeffed brevity of this work did not prohibit the detail, it would be eafy to go through their whole hiftory, and point out the different seasons at which their idolatry and disobedience brought upon them different manifeftations of the divine difpleafure, in all the ordinary calamities of war and famine 9. But it will fuffice for the object of this Chapter, to advert only to thofe remarkable instances when the Jews were conquered by the Affy rians and the Romans; because it is plain that the Prophecy principally relates to the invafion of a formidable enemy, and the 1 Chron. xxi. 12. Ruth i. I. 1 Sam. xxi, I. 2 Kings vi. 25. xxv. 3. 1 Kings xx. 1. 2 Kings xvii. 6. difafters peculiar to the fieges of great and populous cities. The Jews, as we fee above, are threatened in cafe of their rebellion, with captivity; and the character and remote fitua tion of the hoftile nations by whom they were to be taken captive, are particularly described. Ifaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and other Prophets, treading in the steps of Mofes, but nearer the event, repeat many ftriking parts of the Prediction, and exprefsly declare the cause of the impending danger to be, the prevailing idolatry of their countrymen, and their attachment to the prophane rites and customs of the Heathen. Accordingly, in the reign of Zedekiah, a nation [the Affyrian] agreeing with the infpired defcriptions, invade Judea, and fulfilling the Prophecy, pillage and burn the temple, put perfons of both fexes and all ages to the sword, and carry away multitudes as flaves to Babylon. But fulfilled as the Prophecy may seem to have been, and actually was, in this and many inftances, the Jews were not therefore released from the power of it. Temporal bleffings when obedient, and temporal punishments when disobedient, are the terms of the Jewish covenant; in force from the time of the Egyptian bondage, to the present hour. When by their repentance, which the Divine prescience fore+ |