cies could be fully accomplished: Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations t come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock; It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God,'---xxvi. 3, 4, 5, He repeats it, to show the certainty of it, I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more; for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God,'--ver. 14; and again, I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more; though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God,'--ver. 21. These prophecies, like most others, were to receive their completion by degrees. Nebuchadnezzar, as we have seen, destroyed the old city; and Alexander employed the ruins and rubbish in making his causey from the continent to the island, which henceforwards were joined together. "It is no wonder, therefore," as Bishop Pococke observes, "that there are no signs of the ancient city and as it is a sandy shore, the face of every thing is altered, and the great aqueduct in many parts is almost buried in the sand."* So that, as to this part of the city, the prophecy hath literally been fulfilled, Thou shalt be built no more; though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again.' It may be questioned whether the new city ever after that arose to that height of power, wealth, and greatness, to which it was elevated in the time of Isaiah and Ezekiel. It received a great blow from Alexander, not only by his taking and burning the city, but much more by his building of Alexandria in Egypt, which in time deprived it of much of its trade, and thereby contributed more effectually to its ruin. It had the misfortune afterwards of changing its masters often, being sometimes in the hands of the Ptolemies, kings of Egypt, and sometimes of the Seleucidæ, kings of Syria, till at length it fell under the dominion of the Romans. It was taken by the Saracens about the year of Christ 639, in the reign of Omar their third emperor.† It was retaken by the Christians, during the time of the holy war, in the year 1124, Baldwin, the second of that name, being then king of Jerusalem, and assisted by a fleet of the * Pococke's Description of the East, vol. 2, b. 1, chap. 20, p. 81, 82. + Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, vol. 1, p. 340. Venetians. From the Christians it was taken again in the year 1289 by the Mamelucs of Egypt, under their Sultan Alphix, who sacked and rased this and Sidon, and other strong towns, that they might not ever again afford any harbour or shelter to the Christians. From the Mamelucs it was again taken in the year 1516, by Selim, the ninth emperor of the Turks ; and under their dominion it continues at present. But alas, how fallen, how changed from what it was formerly! For, from being the centre of trade, frequented by all the merchant ships of the east and west, it is now become a heap of ruins, visited only by the boats of a few poor fishermen. So that as to this part likewise of the city, the prophecy hath literally been fulfilled, 'I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon.' The famous Huetius knew one "Hadrianus Parvillerius, a Jesuit, a very candid man, and a master of Arabic, who resided ten years in Syria; and he remembers to have heard him sometimes say, that when he approached the ruins of Tyre, and beheld the rocks stretched forth to the sea, and the great stones scattered up and down on the shore, made clean and smooth by the sun and waves and winds, and useful only for the drying of fishermen's nets, many of which happened at that time to be spread thereon, it brought to his memory this prophecy of Ezekiel concerning Tyre: xxvi. 5, 14, I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more; for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God.'§" - Dr. Shaw in his account of Tyre thus expresseth himself, "I visited several creeks and inlets, in order to discover what provision there might have been formerly made for the security of their vessels. Yet notwithstanding that Tyre was the chief maritime power * Abul Phaṛajii Hist. Dyn. 9, p. 250, vers. Pocockii. Savage's Abridgment of Knolles and Ricaut, vol. 1, p. 26. + Savage's Abridgment, vol. 1, p. 95. Pococke's Description of the East, vol. 2, b. 1, cap 20, p. 83. 241. + Savage's Abridgment, vol. 1, p. Hadrianum Parvillerium, e societate Jesu, virum candidissimum et Arabice doctissimum, qui decem annos in Syria egit, memini me audire aliquando cum diceret, sibi olim ad collapsas Tyri ruinas accedenti, et rupes mari prætentas, ac disjectos passim in littore lapides procul spectanti, sole, fluctibus et auris detersos ac levigatos, et siccandis solum piscatorum retibus, quæ tum forte plurima desuper expausa erant, utiles, venisse in memoriam hujus prophetiæ Ezekielis de Tyro (XXVI. 5, 14,) Dabo te in limpidissimam petram: siccatio sagenarum eris, nec ædificaberis ultra, quia ego locutus sum, ait Dominus Deus.' [Translated in the text] Huetii Demonstrat. Evang. Prop. 6, ad finem, p. 358. of this country, I could not observe the least token of either cothon or harbour, that could have been of any extraordinary capacity. The coasting ships, indeed, still find a tolerably good shelter from the northern winds under the southern shore, but are obliged immediately to retire, when the winds change to the west or south; so that there must have been some better station than this for their security and reception. In the N.N.E. part likewise of the city, we see the traces of a safe and commodious bason, lying within the walls but which at the same time is very small, scarce forty yards in diameter. Neither could it ever have enjoyed a larger area, unless the buildings, which now circumscribe it, were encroachments upon its original dimensions. Yet even this port, small as it is at present, is notwithstanding so choaked up with sand and rubbish, that the boats of those poor fishermen, who now and then visit this once renowned emporium, can with great difficulty only be admitted."* But the fullest for our purpose is Mr. Maundrell, whom it is a pleasure to quote as well as to read, and whose journal of his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, though a little book, is yet worth a folio, being so accurately and ingeniously written, that it might serve as a model for all writers of travels. "This city," saith he, "standing in the sea upon a peninsula, promises at a distance something very magnificent. But when you come to it, you find no similitude of that glory, for which it was so renowned in ancient times, and which the prophet Ezekiel describes, chap. 26, 27, 28. On the north side it has an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle; besides which you see nothing here, but a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, &c. there being not so much as one entire house left; its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing, who seem to be preserved in this place by divine Providence, as a visible argument, how God has fulfilled his word concerning Tyre, viz. that it should be as a top of a rock, a place for fishers to dry their nets on.'"* Such hath been the fate of this city, once the most famous in the world for trade and commerce. But trade is a fluctuating thing: it passed from Tyre to Alexandria, from Alexandria to Venice, from Venice to Antwerp, from Antwerp to Amsterdam and London, the English rivalling the Dutch, as the French are now rival Shaw's Travels. p. 330. Maundrell, p. 48, 49, 5th edit ling both. All nations almost, are wisely applying themselves to trade and it behoves those who are in possession of it, to take the greatest care that they do not lose it. It is a plant of tender growth, and requires sun, and soil, and fine seasons, to make it thrive and flourish. It will not grow like the palm-tree, which with the more weight and pressure rises the more. Liberty is a friend to that, as that is a friend to liberty. But the greatest enemy to both is licentiousness, which tramples upon all law and lawful authority, encourages riots and tumults, promotes drunkenness and debauchery, sticks at nothing to supply its extravagance, practises every art of illicit gain, ruins credit, ruins trade, and will in the end ruin liberty itself. Neither kingdoms nor commonwealths, neither public companies nor private persons, can long carry on a beneficial flourishing trade without virtue, and what virtue teacheth, sobriety, industry, frugality, modesty, honesty, punctuality, humanity, charity, the love of our country, and the fear of God. The prophets will inform us how the Tyrians lost it; and the like causes will always produce the like effects. Is. xxiii. 8, 9,--- Who hath taken this. counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to brink into contempt all the honourable of the earth.' Ezek. xxvii. 3, 4,--- Thus saith the Lord God, O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty,' xxviii. 5, &c.--By thy great wisdom, and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned; therefore will I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth, in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people, shall be astonished at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.' N DISSERTATION XII. THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING EGYPT. EGYPT is one of the first and most famous countries that we read of in history. In the Hebrew scriptures it is called Mizraim' and 'the land of Ham,' having been first inhabited after the deluge by Noah's youngest son Ham or Hammon, and by his son Mizraim. The name of Egypt is of more uncertain derivation. It appears that the river was so called in Homer's time; and fror: thence, as Hesychius imagines, the name might be derived to the country. Others more probably conceive that the meaning of the name Egyptus is aua Cuphti, the land of Cuphti,' as it was formerly called by the Egyptians themselves and their neighbours the Arabians. All agree in this, that the kingdom of Egypt was very ancient; but some have carried this antiquity to an extravagant and fabulous height, their dynasties being utterly irreconcilable to reason and history both, and no ways to be solved or credited but by supposing that they extend beyond the deluge, and that they contain the catalogues of several contemporary, as well as of some successive kings and kingdoms. It is certain, that in the days of Joseph, if not before those in the days of Abraham, it was a great and flourishing kingdom. There are monuments of its greatness yet remaining to the surprise and astonishment of all posterity, of which, as we know not the time of their erection, so in all probability we shall never know the time of their destruction. This country was also celebrated for its wisdom, no less than for its antiquity. It was, as I may call it, the great academy of the * Hom. Odys. XIV. 257, 258— Πεμπταίοι δ' Αίγυπτον ἐϋῤῥειν ην ἱκομεσθα Στησα δ' ἐν Αἰγυπτω ποταμω νεας ἀμφιελισσας. Quinto die autem ad Ægyptum pulchre fluentem venimus. And tilting o'er the bay the vessels ride: To anchor there my fellows I command."--POPE.] Hesychius: Αίγυπτος, ο Νείλος ο ποταμος ἀφ' ἑ και ἡ χώρα άπο των νεωτέρων Αίγυπτος 70. Ægyptus, Nilus fluvius; a quo ipsa regio recentioribus appellata est Ægyptus [Egypt the river Nile, whence the country itself has been called Egypt by later writers.] Mede's Work's, b. 1, Disc. 50, p. 231. Hoffmanni Lexicon, &c. |