then prince become the instrument of effecting, in part, the divine purpose declared by Ezekiel.* "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him."

Having overthrown the Persian empire, Alexander pushed his conquest into Phenicia Every place opened its gates until he came to the ancient city Tyre, where he met a serious check. Tyre belonged to the tribe of Asher, but was never taken from the Canaanites. Situated upon the sea, it became a place of great trade, opulence and splendour. But it abounded also in pride and wickedness, and gloried over Jerusalem, the city of God, when chastened of heaven. God therefore determined to display over it his righteous indignation, and by his prophets, he declared that he would destroy it utterly. He first brought against it Nebuchadnezzar. It was a city of amazing strength and for thirteen years this mighty potentate besieged it, until "every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled." At length it was taken 572 B. C. and the predictions of the prophets were, in part, fulfilled. But the inhabitants removed themselves and their effects to an island, and it was not utterly destroyed. It was for Alexander to complete the divine purpose. He found it again populous and strong; but after a costly and terrible siege he took the city by force, put 8000 of the inhabitants to the sword crucified 2000, and sold 30,000 for slaves. After this it never rerecovered its glory. It is now, in fulfilment of the divine decree, a place for fishermen to spread their nets. So true is it that God reigneth in the earth, and will do all his pleasure. "The Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who can disannul."

The next movement of this weapon of the Lord, was against Jerusalem. The Jews, pleading their oath to Darius, refused to furnish Alexander with supplies for his army while encamped against lyre. This exceedingly enraged that suc. cessful monarch, and he determined to wreak his vengeance upon Jerusalem. At his approach, the Jews were thrown into the greatest consternation. They immediately offered to God sacrifices, prayers and supplications; and, being directed, as it is said, in a vision by night, Jaddua, the High Priest went out to meet the conqueror, dressed in his pontifical robes, with all the priests in their sacerdotal vestments, and the people in white garments. Struck with profound awe at the sol

emn spectacle, Alexander hastened forward, and bowed himself to the earth before the High Priest, and worshipped Jehovah, whose name was inscribed on the mitre. Parmenias, his favourite, astonished at his behaviour, enquired why he did thus? Alexander, who well knew how to improve every occurrence in his own favour, assured him that when he was at Dio, in Macedonia, and deliberating with himself what he should do, this very pontiff, in this habit, appeared to him in a dream and encouraged him to pursue the war against the Persians, assuring him of complete success in all his undertakings. The king embraced the High Priest, entered Jerusalem in a friendly manner, with the procession; and offered sacrifices to God in the Temple. Jaddua then shewed him the prophecies of Daniel, which predicted the overthrow of the Persian empire by a Grecian king. This produced a feeling of great exultation in the king, and made him favour the Jewish nation. He suffered them to remain unmolested under their own laws, and in the enjoyment of their own religion; exempted them from the usual tribute, on the seventh or sabbatical year, and gave many of them a place, with important privileges, in a new city which he built in Egypt, and which he called Alexandria, after his own name. No power was yet to destroy a place where God had recorded his name.

Beholding the attention which the conqueror paid to the Temple and city of Jerusalem, the Samaritans immediately advanced to meet him and asked the like favors; but as they were not Jews, they plead in vain : and when, a short time after, some of them mutinied against his Syrian governor, he drove them all from Samaria and planted there a small colony of Greeks. The Samaritans retired to Shechem under mount Gerizim, the place of their temple, and there they have remained to the present time.

ses.

It will not be uninteresting to trace the further course and end of this distinguished man, so plainly pointed out in prophecy, and raised up for the execution of such important purpoFrom Jerusalem, Alexander went into Egypt; founded the city of Alexandria and visited the Heathen Temple of Jupiter Ammon, situated about 200 miles in the deserts of Lybia. Having caused himself to be declared the son of that Heathen god, he returned to Syria and Persia; overcame again the Persians who had gathered against him, pushed his conquests beyond the Indus and would gladly have gone beyond the Ganges; but his soldiers refused to follow him farther and he returned to Babylon. There he suddenly died of a fever produced by a

drunken revel, 323 B. C. in the thirteenth year of his reign and thirty-third of his age. Thus, when "the he-goat had waxed very great and when he was strong" "the great horn was broken.' He had subjected to himself all the countries from the Adriatick sea to the Ganges, embracing all the habitable world then known. God had raised him up for this purpose. He had marked out, hundred's of years before, his victorious path. He gave him his talents and his success and carried him through all his difficulties. Alexander was unquestionably a great military commander. But he knew not God. He formed himself on the model of Homer's heroes, and was destroyed by vain glory. His ambition was to conquer the world, and to effect this object he could wade through seas of blood; totally regardless of human happiness. His triumph led him to the grossest sensuality, and he died as a fool dieth, in bacchanalian revelries. Thus we see that God, who is higher than the highest, can employ the wicked to accomplish his purposes, though they mean not so; and when they have fulfilled his designs, then he casts them out of his hand as no longer useful, except it be in their everlasting destruction for their own vices and follies.

"The great horn was broken and for it came up four notable ones from toward the four winds of heaven." This termination of the distinguished prophecy Gabriel thus interpreted, "Now, that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.' It was now literally fulfilled. Alexander's brother and sons took the throne, but they were all soon murdered and the horn or kingdom was entirely broken. The governors of provinces usurped dominion, and being reduced to four, they divided Alexander's empire into four kingdoms, which are the four horns which stood up for the one which was great and terrible. Cassander held Macedon and Greece and the more western parts; Lysimachus had Thrace, Bithynia and the northern regions; Ptolemy took Egypt and the southern countries; and Seleucus, Syria and the provinces of the east.

Lying between these various kingdoms, Judea was often greatly distracted with their wars. At first, it was held by Laomedon, one of Alexander's captains. He was soon subdued by Ptolemy. The Jews, however, would not violate their engagements to him. They therefore drew upon them the wrath of Ptolemy, who, not being able easily to subdue so strong a place as Jerusalem, took advantage of their regard for the Sabbath, entered the city unresisted on that holy day, and carried

one hundred thousand of the inhabitants with him into Egypt. Their firm character and sacred regard to their oath attracted his favour, and he placed many of them in stations of power and trust. Some he settled in Lybia and Cyrene. From these descended the Cyrenian Jews, of whom mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles.

In the year 292 B. C. died Simon, called the just, High Priest of the Jews. He was a man of distinguished uprightness and purity of character. He was an ardent patriot, who repaired and fortified the city and Temple. By him. it is supposed, the canon of the scriptures of the Old Testament was perfected and settled in the Jewish Church. The genealogy in the book of Chronicles, is evidently carried down to about this period, and some books, especially Malachi, were written after Ezra had copied out the sacred writings. No one, it is certain, later than Simon, ventured to perfect the holy oracles; for he was the last of the grand synagogue-a council of 120 elders, who, in regular succession, from the time of Ezra, laboured to restore the Jewish state and extend a correct knowledge of the Scriptures.

The whole of the sacred books thus collected and arranged, is called the Old Testament, simply because it contains the former covenant, or the Mosaic dispensation; though that in reality occupies but a very small part of it-the historical books, the book of Job, the psalms and the prophets having no particular connection with it. In the arrangement which was made, it is manifest to every reader, that a strict order of time, is not observed. A division of the books into chapters and verses, was not made until the thirteenth century of the Christian era. Even a division of letters into words was then unknown. A whole line was written as though it was one word.

Ptolemy Philadelphus, who succeeded Soter, 285 B. C. was very favorable to the Jews. He ransomed many of those who had been brought captive into Egypt, and established others on favourable foundations in his own dominions. He was a great patron of learning, and collected a library of seven hundred thousand volumes or manuscripts. During his reign the Jewish Scriptures were translated from the Hebrew into the Greek language-forming the Septuagint version. It was formerly the popular belief from the tradition of one Aristeas, that, desirous of forming a perfect library and hearing of the books of Moses, Ptolemy sent to Jerusalem for seventy elders, who came to Alexandria, where they were shut up in the island of Pha

because of his valor, prudence, industry and success. The transactions of his life and the wars in which he was engaged with Ptolemy, were accurately delineated in the eleventh chapter of the prophecy of Daniel, from the tenth to the nineteenth

verse.

Under his son and successor Seleucus, the Jews enjoyed the privileges and immunities which had been granted them by Antiochus; and might have enjoyed many years of peace and quietness, had it not been for a bitter contention between Simon the governor of the Temple, and Onias, the High priest. The former proving unsuccessful, fled to Apollonius, governor of Palestine, and gave him an exaggerated account of the treasures in the Temple. When Seleucus heard of them, he resolved to possess them, and sent his treasurer to bring them away. But, while in the act of robbery, Heliodorus, the treasurer, was suddenly struck with awful terror, by a vision, which caused him instantly to quit the city, fearing the power and wrath of God. The whole of the reign of Seleucus is expressed in the twentieth verse of the eleventh chapter of Daniel. He was little besides "a raiser of taxes."

CHAPTER VIII.

Desolations of Jerusalem under Antiochus Epiphanes. Jason erects a gymnasium. Temple shut up for three years. Bold and artful plot of Antiochus to extirpate the Church. The Temple consecrated to Jupiter Olympus. Jewish martyrdoms. General revolt under Matathias. Wars of the Maccabees. Death of Antiochus. Prophecies fulfilled in him. Destruction of the Grecian, and establishment of the Roman empire, the legs and feet of Nebuchadnezzar's image. Prosperous state of the Jews under Jonathan and Simon. Apocryphal books.

We have hitherto contemplated the Jews in favourable circumstances. They had had some internal conflicts, and outward oppressions, but they had also enjoyed the protection of mighty monarchs, and had become a populous and wealthy nation. Vital piety had exceedingly declined, especially after the death of Simon the Just; but the Temple stood in its glory, and its service was strictly observed. But we are now to contemplate an awful and melancholy reverse. We are to