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IX.

The prophecies concerning NINE VEH.

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S the Jews were the peculiar people of God, the prophets were fent to them chiefly, and the main fubjects of the prophecies are the various changes and revolutions in the Jewish church and state. But the spirit of prophecy is not limited there; other fubjects are occafionally introduced; and for the greater manifestation of the divine providence, the fate of other nations is alfo foretold and especially of those nations, which lay in the neighbourhood of Judea, and had intercourse and connexions with the Jews; and whofe good or ill fortune therefore was of fome concern and confequence to the Jews themselves. But here it is greatly to be lamented, that of these eastern nations and of these early times we have very fhort and imperfect accounts; we have no regular histories, but only a few fragments of hiftory, which have escaped the general shipwrack of time. If we poffeffed the Affyrian history written by Abydenus, and the Chaldæan

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by Berofus, and the Egyptian by Manetho; we might in all probability be better enabled to explain the precife meaning, and to demonftrate the exact completion of several ancient prophecies but for want of fuch helps and affistances we must be glad of a little glimmering light, wherever we can fee it. We fee enough however, tho' not to discover the beauty and exactness of each particular, yet to make us admire in the general thefe wonders of providence, and to show that the condition of cities and kingdoms hath been fuch, as the prophets had long ago foretold. And we will begin with the inftance of Nineveh.

Nineveh was the metropolis of the Affyrian empire, and the Affyrians were formidable enemies to the kingdoms both of Ifrael and Judah. In the days of Menahem king of Ifrael Pul the king of Affyria invaded the land, and was bought off with a thousand talents of filver. (2 Kings XV. 19.) A few years afterwards in the days of Pekah king of Ifrael came Tiglathpilefer king of Affyria, and took feveral cities, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Affyria. (2 Kings XV. 29.) This fame Tiglath-pilefer was invited by Ahaz king of Judah to come and affift him against Rezin king of Syria,

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and Pekah king of Ifrael: And Ahaz took the filver and gold that was found in the houfe of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's houfe, and fent it for a prefent to the king of Allyria, (2 Kings XVI. 8.) The king of Affyria came accordingly to his affiftance, and routed his enemies but ftill, as another facred writer faith, diftreffed him, and ftrengthened him not. 2 Chron. XXVIII. 20.) A little after in the days of Hofhea king of Ifrael Shalmaneser the king of Affyria came up throughout all the land, and-after a fiege of three years took Samaria, and carried Ifrael away into Affyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. (2 Kings XVII. 5, 6,) It was in the fixth year of Hezekiah king of Judah, that Shalmanefer king of Affyria carried Ifrael away captive; and in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, did Sennacherib king of Affyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. (2 Kings XVIII. 10, 13.) And the king of Affyria exacted of the king of Judah three hundred talents of filver, and thirty talents of gold; fo that even good king Hezekiah was forced to give him all the filver that was found in the houfe of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house. (ver. 14, 15.) Sennacherib notwithstanding fent his captains with

a great host against Jerufalem (ver. 17:) but his army was miraculously defeated, and he himfelf was afterwards slain at Nineveh. (2 Kings XIX. 35, 36, 37.) His fon Efarhaddon compleated the deportation of the Ifraelites, and · brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthaḥ, and from Ava, and from Hamah, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria inftead of the children of Ifrael; and they poffeffed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. (2 Kings XVII. 24, Ezra IV. 2.) We fee then that the Affyrians totally deftroyed the kingdom of Ifrael, and greatly oppreffed the kingdom of Judah and no wonder therefore that they are made the fubject of feveral prophecies.

The prophet Ifaiah denounceth the judgments of God against Sennacherib in particular, and against the Affyrians in general. O Affyrian the rod of mine anger, or rather Woe to the Affyrian, the rod of mine anger. (X. 5.) God might employ them as the minifters of his wrath, and executioners of his vengeance; and fo make the wickednefs of fome nations the means of correcting that of others: I will fend bim against an hypocritical nation; and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire in the streets, (ver. 6.)

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But it was far from any intent of theirs to execute the divine will, or to chastise the vices of mankind; they only meant to extend their conquefts, and establish their own dominion upon the ruins of others: Howbeit be meaneth not fo, neither doth his heart think fo, but it is in his heart to defroy, and cut off nations not a few. (ver. 7.) Wherefore when they fhall have served the purposes of divine providence, they fhall be feverely punished for their pride and ambition, their tyranny and cruelty to their neighbours: Wherefore it fhall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion, and on Jerufalem, I will punish the fruit of the flout heart of the king of Affyria, and the glory of his high looks. (ver. 12.) There was no profpect of fuch an event, while the Affyrians were in the midst of theit fucceffes and triumphs: but still the word of the prophet prevailed; and it was not long after these calamities brought upon the Jews, of which we have given a fhort deduction, that the Affyrian empire properly fo called was overthrown, and Nineveh destroyed.

Nineveh, or Ninus, as it was moft ufually called by the Greeks and Romans, was, as we faid before, the capital city of the Affyrian empire; and the capital is frequently put for the whole

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