able ftill, Isaiah mentions Cyrus by name, as the conqueror of Babylon, and the perfon who was destined to favour the people of Ifrael, by ordering the rebuilding of Jerufalem and the temple, though in his time they were both standing. Ifa. xliv. 24, " Thus "faith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that "formed thee from the womb, I am the "Lord that maketh all things, that stretch"eth forth the heavens above, that spreadeth "abroad the earth by myfelf; that faith to "Jerufalem, Thou shalt be inhabited, and

to the cities of Judah, Ye fhall be built, " and I will raife up the decayed places "thereof; that faith to the deep, Be dry, " and I will dry up their rivers; that faith to

Cyrus, He is my fhepherd, and fhall per"form all my pleafure, even saying to Jeru"falem, Thou fhalt be built, and to the tem

ple, Thy foundation fhall be laid. Thus "faith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, "whose right hand I have holden, to subdue "nations before him, and I will loofe the "loins of kings, to open before him the two "leaved gates. I will break in pieces the 66 gates of brafs, and cut in funder the bars "of iron. And I will give thee the trea"fures

"fures of darkness, and hidden riches of fe

66

cret places, that thou mayeft know that "I the Lord, who call thee by thy name,

66

ແ am the God of Ifrael. I have furnamed "thee though thou haft not known me. I

am the Lord, and there is none else. "There is no god befides me. I girded thee though thou haft not known me; that

66

they may know, from the rifing of the fun "and from 'the Weft, that there is none befides me. I am the Lord, and there is "none else. I form the light, and create "darkness; I make peace, and create evil; "I the Lord do all these things."

3. Not lefs remarkably have the prophecies concerning Tyre received their accomplishment. In the eleventh year after the captivity of the Jews, which was before the fiege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, Ezekiel fays, chap. xxvi. 1, "The word of the Lord "came unto me, faying, Son of man, be"cause that Tyrus hath faid against Jerufa"lem, Aha, fhe is broken, that was the gate. "of the people, fhe is turned unto me, I "fhall be replenished now she is laid waste, "Therefore thus faith the Lord God, Be"hold I am against thee, O Tyrus, and

will caufe many nations to come up

against thee, and they fhall destroy the "walls of Tyrus, and break down her "towers. I will alfo fcrape her duft from "her, and make her like the top of a rock. "It fhall be a place for the fpreading of nets "in the midst of the fea, for I have spoken "it, faith the Lord God, and it shall become "a spoil to the nations." It is added, v. 14, "Thou shalt be built no more.

When this prophecy was delivered Tyre was in its glory, probably the most wealthy and the strongest city in the world. It was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, but not till it had fuftained a fiege of thirteen years. That city was never rebuilt, but another on an island, at the distance of half a mile from the fhore, which in time became as flourishing, and as powerful, as the former. This, however, was taken by Alexander the Great, and it never recovered itself. It is now a heap of ruins, visited, not inhabited, by a few fishermen. A traveller, who, about a century ago, gave an account of it, fays, that when he approached the ruins of Tyre, he found rocks ftretched out into the fea, and great ftones scattered up and down on the

fhore, made clean fmooth by the fun, the waves, and the wind, and of no ufe but for the drying of fishermen's nets, many of which were at that time spread upon them; fo that the full completion of this prophecy, delivered above two thousand three hundred years ago, did not take place till within the laft two or three centuries.

4. The prophecies of Daniel relate to the moft diftant times, even those which we have not yet reached; but fome of the great events indicated in them by emblems, and afterwards explained in words, have so evidently come to pass, that for this, and no other reafon, (which is merely taking the queftion for granted, against the strongest evidence, internal and external) it has been faid, that they must have been written after them.

To Nebuchadnezzar, chap. iv. was revealed in a vision of a great image, confifting of different kinds of metal, overturned by a stone, which afterwards became a great mountain, filling the whole earth, the fucceffion of four great monarchies, of which his own was declared to be the first, and of which the laft can be no other than the Roman,

man, terminating in ten kingdoms, which now exift; after which is to come what is called the kingdom of heaven, which will continue for ever; and this, according to many other accounts of it, is to be the reign of peace and righteousness.

In another vision, feen by Daniel himself, chap. vii. four great empires, and no doubt the fame with the former, are represented by four beafts, the last of which had ten horns, fucceeded by the appearance of one like to the son of man, to whom was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom which should be univerfal and everlasting. The first of these empires being the Babylonian, it is impoffible not to interpret the fucceeding ones to be the Perfian, the Macedonian, and the Roman, divided at last into ten kingdoms as before.

Farther than this, another power is described as arifing among the ten kingdoms, in which the last of the four empires terminates, and by this it is almoft impoffible not to understand the papal. I confidered the ten horns, fays Daniel, chap. vii. 8, and behold there came up among them another little horn, before whom were three of the firft horns plucked up