them every where in the track of the Tyrian merchants: from which circumstance it has been supposed, that the vessels of these merchants, built for the particular purpose of these long voyages, were called by the general appellation of ships of Tarshish, and themselves merchants of Tarshish.

But, surely this formerly inexplicable mystery is almost revealed, by the present relations of the nations of the earth. Are not the merchants of Tarshish, or of the western coasts, in possession of the trade of India? Do they not cover its ocean with their ships? And have not the warriors of Tarshish gone with its merchants, and established a powerful empire in the East? at this moment holding in subjection an hundred millions of men, and extending their influence over fifty millions more? and all these, it appears from the able Discourses of Sir William Jones on the first population of the Eastern nations, are descendants of Cush, and as it should seem by his son Raamah, and Raamah was the father of Sheba and Dedan. * So that it is extremely probable, that by Sheba and Dedan may be designated, not merely the course of the Indian trade on the side of Arabia, but the population of Hindoostan itself, primarily derived from these earlier colonies of the Arabian Cushites. May we not then wondering say, here are the merchants of Tarshish, and the young lions thereof?

Now, supposing the great leading power of continental Europe, in the latter days, to have extended its

* Gen. x. 7.

See Anniversary Discourses of Sir WILLIAM JONES, vol. iii. of his works, and compare the situa

tion of Raamah, or Ragma, Sheba, and Dedan, in Dr. Wells.

influence over the north, and over the remains both of the Turkish and Persian empires, with Egypt and the neighbouring Cushite nations; what so probable that some remote regions of Arabia, or of its islands, or of their remoter colonies, before connected in trade with the merchants of "Tarshish and of the isles," should escape the general infatuation of the nations, and maintain their previous relations with the merchants and warriors of Tarshish? May we not suppose, besides, that some knowledge of the Scripture prophecies that are then fulfilling, have been communicated to them by these ships of Tarshish? How well would this illustrate the circumstance we notice in the prophecies of Isaiah, where the remotest west and the deserts of Arabia are called to unite together in congratulating the approach of the glorious appearance of Israel's Protector!

So shall they fear the name of Jehovah from the west,
And his glory from the rising of the sun;
When the enemy shall come in as a flood,
The Spirit of Jehovah shall dry it up,
And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, &c.*

Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift
The villages that Kedar doth inhabit:

Let the inhabitant of the rock sing,

up
their voice,

Let them shout from the top of the mountains,
Let them give glory to Jehovah,

And declare his praise to the distant coasts. †

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents,
The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. †

And I think this confirms the conjecture, that we are

Isaiah, lix. 19.

† Isaiah, xlii. 11.

Psalm lxxii. 10.

to look for the land, extending the shadow of its wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush, in an eastern direction, rather than in the direction of the Nile.

Ah, country, continually extending the shadow of its wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of Cush!

That sendeth ambassadors by sea,

Even in light vessels on the face of the waters, &c. *

Surely then will I turn to the nations a pure language,
That they may all of them call upon Jehovah, and serve
him with one consent.

From beyond the rivers of Cush,

My suppliants shall bring as an offering the daughter of my dispersed. +

14. "Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto GoG, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; In that day, when my people Israel dwelleth securely, shalt thou not know it, and come from thy place, from the north parts,' thou and many nations with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty force! Shalt thou not come against my people Israel as a cloud to cover the land? It shall come to pass, in the latter days, that I will bring thee against my land, that the nations may know me when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes."

Thus we see that the issue of the destruction of Gog and his followers is precisely the same as that which was before foretold to be the issue of the destruction of

• Isaiah, xviii.

Every invasion by land of the European nations would be from the north with respect to the Holy Land; but the enumeration of nations given above plainly

+ Zeph. iii. 10.

describes a general combination both of the northern, the western, and the southern nations, by whatever conquests or influence these nations become united.

Israel's last enemy, in Isaiah, in the Psalms, and in the more ancient prophecies, a clear proof that the " Gog" and "Magog" of Ezekiel is no other than the "foe from Chittim," the "wicked one" of the Psalms, and the enemy so variously described in Isaiah, and typified both by the Assyrian and Babylonian invaders. Does not,

indeed, the following verse tell us as much?

"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Art thou not he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years, that I would bring thee against them?"

This plainly declares that one great invading foe, and the same final catastrophe of his fate, had been the continued theme of the former prophecies; and, accordingly, our inquiries have found this to be the case. The passage further declares, that GoG is this same subject of prophecy, whose fall is immediately connected with the coming of Messiah's kingdom.

18. "And it shall come to pass, at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy, Surely in that day

and in the fire of my wrath, have I spoken:

there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord Jehovah: every man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an over

flowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone; and I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am Jehovah."

The thirty-ninth chapter contains a still more detailed account of this fatal catastrophe of the armies of Gog on the mountains of Palestine, when "Jehovah ariseth to shake terribly the earth," and to introduce the glorious kingdom of Messiah.

1. "Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the prince of Rhos, Meshech and Tubal; and I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee;' and I will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: and I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and wilt cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and all the peoples that are with thee: I will give thee to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field, to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah."+

So much for the armies that are gathered in the land of Canaan. At the same time, - exactly consonant with what we read in Isaiah,- the judgment of God falls upon the country from whence they, or a part of them at least, come.‡

See Sim. Lex. Heb.

• Deut. xxxii. 40; Psalms xi. 6; xxi. 9; lxviii.; lxxxix.; Isaiah, xxx. 27; xxxiii. 10; xxxiv. 1, and 9, 10; lxvi. 16; Zeph. i. 14; Joel, iii. 1.

† Compare Joel, iii.

Isaiah, xxxiv. 5, &c.