xxx. 12, 13,) They shall be a base kingdom. It shall be the basest of kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more among the nations. The pride of her power shall come down. I will sell the land into the hand of the wicked; and I will make the land waste and all that is therein by the hand of strangers. I the Lord have spoken it. There shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt. The sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.'

Such,' says Volney, is the state of Egypt. Deprived twenty-three centuries ago of her natural proprietors, she has seen her fertile fields successively a prey to the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Georgians, and, at length, the race of Tartars, distinguished by the name of Ottoman Turks. The Mamelukes, purchased as slaves, and introduced as soldiers, soon usurped the power and elected a leader. If their first establishment was a singular event, their continuance is not less extraordinary. They are replaced by slaves brought from their original country. The system of oppression is methodical. Every thing the traveller sees or hears reminds him he is in the country of slavery and tyranny. In Egypt there is no middle class, neither nobility, clergy, merchants, nor landholders. Ignorance, diffused through every class, extends its effects to every species of moral and physical knowledge,' &c. (Volney's Travels, vol. i. p. 74, 103, 110, 190, &c.) A more unjust and absurd constitution,' says Gibbon, 'cannot be devised than that which

condemns the natives of a country to perpetual servitude under the arbitrary dominion of strangers and slaves. Yet such has been the state of Egypt above 500 years. The most illustrious sultans of the Baharite and Borghite dynasties were themselves promoted from the Tartar and Circassian bands; and the four and twenty beys, or military chiefs, have ever been succeeded, not by their sons, but by their servants.' (Hist. of Decl. of Rom. Empire, vol. vi. p. 109, 110.) This singular power (the Mamelukes) has within. the last few years been destroyed in a most treacherous and sanguinary manner. There has not been a prince of the land of Egypt. It has been laid waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers. It is a base kingdom, and the basest of kingdoms-governed by strangers and slaves. The present pasha is an oppressor and a stranger; and the price paid for his authority and power, and the whole property of the country being at the will of every succeeding pasha, show how it has literally been'sold into the hand of the wicked.'

On a review of the prophecies relative to Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, Egypt, Judea, and all the adjoining territories, is it not a certain fact, which can admit of no disputation, and which needs no argument to support it, but which rests on the testimony of unbelievers no less than of christians, that the fate of all these cities and countries, in reference to their past history and present state, demonstrates the truth of the prophecies concerning them, and that all these prophecies,

ratified by the events, give the most decisive proof that those holy men of old, who all testified of Jesus, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost? No word can be more sure, in regard to past and present things, than theirs was in regard to the future. The desolations were the work of man, and were all effected by the enemies of christianity. And it is the prediction of these literal facts, in all their particulars and minuteness, infinitely surpassing human foresight, which is the word of God alone. The ruin of empires, while it proves the truth of every tittle of these predictions, is thus a miraculous confirmation and proof of the inspiration of the scriptures. By what fatality is it then, and how much does it show the weakness of their cause, that infidels should have chosen for the display of their power this very field, where, without conjuring, as they have done, a lying spirit from the ruins, they might have read the fulfilment of the prophecies on every spot? Every fact related by Volney is a witness against all his speculations—and out of his own mouth is he condemned. Can any purposed deception be greater or more glaring than to overlook these prophecies, and to attempt to raise an argument against the truth of christianity from those very facts which, attesting their fulfilment, thereby so clearly establish it? Or can any evidence of divine inspiration be more convincing and clear than to view, in conjunction, all these marvellous predictions and their perfect completion?

CHAPTER VII.

The Arabs, &c.

THE long-continued slavery of the Africans, the descendants of Canaan, of whom it was said, A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren, and the establishment of European colonies in Asia, or the enlarging of Japheth, whose descendants peopled Europe; and their dwelling in the tents of Shem, whose dwellings were unto the east, or Asia, (Gen. x. 5, 6, 18, 19, 30,) confirm to this day the truth of those words which were spoken by Noah-' Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.' Gen. ix. 25-27.

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Of Ishmael, from whom the ARABS claim their descent, it was said by the angel of the Lord, before his birth, He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand shall be against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.-I will make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; and I will make him a great nation.' And unto his mother Hagar it was said, 'I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.' (Gen. xvi. 10, 12; xvii. 20.) The descendants of Ishmael have been multiplied

exceedingly. His seed cannot be numbered for multitude. The history of the Arabs needs not to be detailed. They are universally known to be a wild people; their hand is against every man, and every man's hand is against them. In the words of Gibbon, the historian, which strikingly assimilate with those of the prophecy, they are • armed against mankind;' and the distinct marks of prophetic truth which the Arabs yet exhibit, cannot be better represented than in the words of an intelligent and observant eye-witness, who thus describes them, after having visited an Arab camp, and examined the peculiarities of their race. On the smallest computation, such must have been the manners of these people for more than three thousand years. Thus in all things verifying the prediction given of Ishmael at his birth, that he, in his posterity, should be a wild man, and always continue to be so, though they shall dwell for ever in the presence of their brethren.* And that an acute and active people, surrounded for ages by polished and luxurious nations, should, from their earliest to their latest times, be still found a wild people dwelling in the presence of all their brethren, (as we may call these nations,) unsubdued and unchangeable, is indeed a standing miracle-one of those mysterious facts which establish the truth of prophecy.' Sir Rob. Ker Porter's Travels, vol. i. p. 304.

Recent discoveries have also brought to light

*The Jews, the Edomites, the Moabites, Amalekites and Ammonites, were literally their brethren, being, like them, descendants of Abraham, and all neighbouring nations.