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Our translators have indeed supposed, that the city, mentioned in the third chapter, is Jerusalem: but the whole context of the prophecy seems to me to shew, that Nineveh, not Jerusalem, is intended. The Holy Spirit is here foretelling not the dispersion of Judah, but his restoration; not the downfal of Jerusalem, but of Nineveh and the assembled nations. This will sufficiently appear to any person, who attentively reads the whole of the third chapter in connection with the latter end of the second. Nothing indeed, I am persuaded, could have given rise to such an opinion, except the arbitrary division of chapters, and the mention of prophets and priests and a sanctuary as all appertaining to the polluted city.

Zephaniah himself however, unless I be greatly mistaken, puts the matter out of all doubt by describing in a very remarkable manner the city mentioned in the third chapter. Our translators speak of it as the oppressing city; and such no doubt it is: yet neither does this character accord with that of Jerusalem, which was notoriously an oppressed not an oppressing city, a city successively oppressed by the iron rod of foreign tyrants; nor does Zephaniah, I apprehend, mean thus to designate it in the words which he here uses. He had already represented it as a city swelling with pride and deeply polluted, a city exalting itself above all other cities; whence it would appear somewhat tautological and unnecessary to style it the oppressing city, which is an idea plainly involved in what he said before respecting it. Instead therefore of the oppressing city, I translate his words the city of the dove, and consider them as allusive to a wellknown object of worship among the Assyrians. And in this translation I find myself confirmed by the LXX, the Vulgate, and the Latin translations of the Syriac and the Arabic; all of which so understand the original word rendered in our version oppressing. None of them indeed, except the Latin version of the Syriac, have translated the expression quite properly; for they read the city the dove, instead of the city of the dove: but, so far as the word itself is concerned, they manifestly understood it to mean a dove, not oppressive.

How greatly the dove was venerated by the Assyrians is well known to every person in the least degree con

versant with ancient mythology. Diodorus informs us, that they worshipped it as a goddess *; and Semiramis, one of their fabulous sovereigns, was reported to have been changed into a dove †. She was in fact the sacred emblem of the dove itself: whence, according to Athenagoras, she was worshipped by the Syrians; and was esteemed the daughter of Derceto, and the same as the Syrian goddess ‡. She was likewise the same, in the mythology of Syria, as Rhea, Isis, Astarte, and Atargatis. In her temple at Hierapolis, her image bore upon its head a golden dove; which the Assyrians themselves called Semeion ||, a compound oriental word denoting the emblem of the dove. As the western natións mistook the character of Semiramis, and fancied that she was a princess, they had a tradition that her standard was a dove; because they found that such was the national insigne of Assyria, the standard of all the Assyrian kings, as the eagle was of Rome both republican and imperial¶. This being the case, the Assyrian empire itself was poetically styled the dove; in allusion to its favourite badge**; and accordingly it is thrice mentioned by Jeremiah under the name of that very symbol. Speaking of the land of Israel being laid waste by the Babylonians, he styles them

* Διο και της Ασσυρίας την περιτεραν τιμαν ὡς θεούς. Diod. Bibl. L. ii. p. 107.

† Το Σεμιράμιδος τελος ες περίπερην απιηετο (Lucian. de dea Syra. Vol. ii. p. 885.) Ενιοι δε μυθολογόντες φασιν αυτην γενεσθαι περιτεραν (Diod. Bibl. L. ii. p. 107.). Diodorus further says, that the person who was supposed to have named her, bestowed the appellation Semiramis upon her from Doves: όνομα θέμενον απο των περιτερων (L. ii. p. 93.). Hence Hesychius informs us, that Semiramis signifes a wild pigeon: Σεμίραμις, περιτερα ορεῖος ἑλληνισι. See likewise Ovid. Metam. Lib. iv. ver. 44---48: and Athen. Legat. p. 33. * Την Σεμίραμιν σεβεσι Συροι Η θυγατης της Δερκετος Σεμίραμις έδοξε Συρια θεος. Athen. Legat. p. 307.

Chron. Pasch. p. 36---Luc. de dea Syra, Vol. ii. p. 885.

|| Καλείται δε σημεΐον και ὑπ' αυτων Ασσυρίων (Luc. de dea Syra :) : not merely by the Greeks, but by the Assyrians themselves. Semeïon is SemJonah, the name or sign of the dove.

¶ Signum vexilli Semiramidos fuit figura columbæ; quod vexilli signum imitati sunt omnes Assyrii reges (David Ganz Chronolog. L. ii. ad annum 1958.). After the conquest of Babylon by the Assyrians, all the tract of country between the Tigris and Euphrates was called Assyria.

** Our Lord alludes in a similar manner to the Roman ensign, when predicting the siege of Jerusalem by Titus: Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together (Matt. xxiv. 28.). The apocryphal Esdras likewise symbolizes the Roman empire, or Daniel's fourth beast, by an eagle. See 2 Esdras xi. xii. and particularly xii. 11.

Jonah or the dove; which passage is properly rendered by the Vulgate, Their land was made a desolation from the face of the anger of the dove *. In another place, foretelling that the Jews should be restored to their own land, in consequence of the downfal of Babylon, he puts these words into the mouth of the people, as they are likewise properly rendered by the Vulgate Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the face of the sword of the dovet. So again, speaking of the overthrow of the Assyrian empire, he says; From the face of the sword of the dove, they (the captive Jews) shall turn every one to his people, and every one to his own land. In all these passages Jeremiah uses the very same word Jonah or a dove to designate the Babylonian or later Assyrian empire, that Zephaniah does to describe Nineveh which was the capital city of the dove or first Assyrian empire §. And here I think we may observe a singular propriety in the name of the prophet, who was sent to preach repentance to the Ninevites. Jonah seems rather to be a title than a proper From the circumstance of the sacred dove being accounted oracular by the heathens, their priests and prophets were sometimes denominated doves, as at other times for the same reason they were denominated ravens ||. The prophet then, assuming the title of Jonah or the dove, calls upon Nineveh, the city of the dove, to repent of her iniquities; and, instead of consulting the false oracle of

name.

* Jerem. xxv. 38.

Jerem. 1. 16.

† Jerem. xlvi. 16.

§ It was probably in allusion to the sacredness of this bird among the Assyrians, that Hosea uses for a comparison the flight of a dove out of the land of Assyria (Hos. xi. 11.). There are still some remains in the East of the ancient diluvian veneration of the dove and the fish. "In Mecca there are thousands of blue pigeons, which none will affright or abuse, much less kill them; and they are therefore so very tame, that they will pick meat out of one's handThey come in great flocks to the temple, where they are usually fed by the pilgrims." The people of Mecca call them the pigeons of the prophet (Pitts cited by Harmer, Observ. Vol. iii. p. 57.). In a similar manner Sir John Chardin twice mentions the sacred fishes of the East; and tells us, that an Armenian Christian, who had ventured to take some of them, was killed on the spot. Ibid. p. 58, 59.

Hence_Herodotus, when speaking of two priestesses Thebes in Egypt and settled in Dodona, styles them doves. ii. c. 54.

who came from Herod. Hist. L.

I am indebted to Mr. Bryant for these remarks on the Assyrian dove. See his Anal. Vol. ii. p. 283-320.

her favourite dove, to attend to the true oracle sent by the living God *.

But I have said enough to shew the propriety with which Nineveh is styled the city of the dove; a title, which the decorum of the type required to be conferred upon her, although all that is said in the third chapter relates, not to the literal, but to the mystical Nineveh. It remains to be shewn, how exactly the description answers to the corrupt communion of the church of Rome.

The Nineveh then, which according to Zephaniah will be destroyed at the era of the restoration of Judah, is, like her type, an exulting city. She dwells in confident security; and boasts, that there is none beside herself. Such is the church of Rome. She fancies, that she is the only true church, and esteems all without the pale of her communion to be heretics. Hence she styles herself the catholic church; and applies to her own ecclesiastical polity the promise made to the true universal church, that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it-Nineveh swells with pride, and yet is polluted. The church of Rome does the same-Nineveh obeyeth not the voice, she receiveth not correction. The infatuated church of Rome hardens herself against all the judgments of the Lord. Unawed by the downfal of the eastern empire, she repents not of the work of her hands, that she should not worship demons, and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk; neither does she repent of her murders, nor of her sorceries, nor of her spiritual fornication, nor of her thefts -The princes of Ninevah are roaring lions, her judges are evening wolves. The princes of the Romish communion have been notorious for persecuting the faithful. The load of innocent blood presses alike upon the houses of Austria, Bourbon, and Savoy. They have all, in all their branches, in all their different domi

*Mr. Bryant, in a later publication, seems to think that Jonah was so called from his being a semi-idolater, partly worshipping God, and partly the Jonah or dove but, in his Analysis, he conceives, and perhaps more justly, that this title was bestowed upon him as being an oracular messenger of the Deity to the Ninevites. Compare his Observ. on passages of Scripture, p. 232, with his Anal. Vol. ii. p. 294.

Rev. ix. 20, 21.

nions, been guilty of shedding the blood of the saints and martyrs; they have all been as roaring lions to the sheep of Christ's flock; they have all sold themselves to be tools to the harlot church; none of them have repented of the evil of their ways. And what have been the ecclesiastical judges of Rome? Do the merciless and iniquitous wretches, that preside in the diabolical court of the Inquisition, deserve a better name than evening wolves, wolves that cease not to devour their prey until the morning? The prophets of Nineveh are licentiously extravagant, gross hypocrites: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. It is plain, that this description can only relate to the mystical Nineveh; and with her how accurately does it accord!—The just Lord however is in the midst of Nineveh. So is he in the midst of papal Rome by his word and ordinances: but no one attendeth to his judgments; the unjust knoweth no shame-He will not however destroy Nineveh, till enough has been done to rouse her to a sense of her condition. Exactly so has it been, and still is, with papal Rome. By the instrumentality of a tremendous monster of impiety, the great Antichrist of the last days, the nations in the communion of Rome have been cut off; their towers have been made desolate; their streets have been made waste; their inhabitants have been slain. Yet do we behold any reformation? The Lord might well say, Surely thou wilt fear me, surely thou wilt receive instruction, so that thy dwelling place should not be utterly cut off. But what has been the event? They rose up early, and corrupted all their doings. To complete her sins, Rome became the tool of Antichrist, and, lent herself to sanction the ambitious tyranny of a vile usurper *.

* In objection to this interpretation it may perhaps be urged, Why may not the city, described in Zephan. iii. 1-5, be Jerusalem immediately before its destruction by the Romans; and why may not the 6th and 7th verses relate to the dispersion of the Jews? To this I answer; that the event, predicted in the 8th verse, is clearly the gathering together of the Antichristian faction to Jerusalem at the era of the restoration of the Jews, and this gathering together is represented as being the consequence, although the judgment of God has been long delayed, of the hardened iniquity of the city, which the prophet had immediately before described. But the gathering together of the Antichristian faction to their destruction is the consequence of the sins of the Roman Babylon (see Rev. xvi. 1, 2, 6, 10, 14, 16, 19, and xix. 19, 20, 21.), certainly not of ancient Jerusalem therefore the city must be the Roman

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