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tory. Now Japheth had seven sons; Shem, five; and Ham four. And the "Northern Hive," as it is called, has always been remarkable for its fecundity, continually pouring forth swarms of colonies both into Europe and Asia.

The clause "He shall dwell in the tents of Shem," is capable of a double construction;-either that God, or that Japheth, should dwell there. The former has the authority of the original text, there being no pronoun in the Hebrew answering to our word he, in this passage. In this sense the prophecy was fulfilled, when the Shechinah or Divine presence rested on the Ark in the Temple of the Jews; and more particularly when Christ who "was with God and was God," came into the world, and ɛσkηvwσɛ, "pitched his tent" and dwelt amongst the Jewish people. In the latter sense, of "Japheth's dwelling in the tents of Shem," it was fulfilled when the Greeks and Romans,-descendants of Japheth,-took possession of Judæa, and other countries of Asia', belonging to Shem. It had also a spiritual fulfilment, when they were converted to Christianity, and received into the family and household of God.

The vast territories possessed by the English and other European states, in India, and other parts of Asia, also serve strongly to exhibit the completion of this Prophecy, even to this day.

Is not this then a most wonderful prophecy, uttered 4000 years ago, and yet in the course of being fulfilled, through the several periods of time, up to this very day! It is both wonderful and instructive : forming, as it were, a very epitome of the history of the world.

DISSERTATION II.

ABRAHAM.-Prophecies concerning ISHMAEL.

FROM the Patriarch Abraham, two extraordinary Nations descended, the Ishmaelites, and Israelites ; concerning each of whom there are some remarkable prophecies.

Ishmael was his son by the bond-woman Hagar; whom, when she fled from the hard treatment of her mistress, God by his Angel directed to return; and promised, saying "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude: Behold thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael. And he will be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." (Gen. xvi. 6, et seq.) And again when Isaac was promised to Abraham, we find

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that God still reserved a blessing for Ishmael; "Behold I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly: twelve princes shall he beget; and I will make him a great nation.” (Gen. xvii. 20.)

The above promises evidently relate not so much to Ishmael himself, as to his posterity. Having married an Egyptian woman, (as his mother also was,) his family increased so rapidly, that in a few years we read of "Ishmaelites trading into Egypt." (Gen. xxxvii. 28.) And his posterity was multiplied exceedingly in the Hagarenes, Nabatheans, Itureans; and the Arabs-(specially the Scenites and Saracens, who overran a great part of the world)—a very numerous people at this day.

"Twelve princes shall he beget." This was punctually fulfilled; Moses hath recorded their names, (Gen. xxv. 13-15.) Of course they were (as kings of those times were) only heads of clans or tribes: this is confirmed also by reference to ancient history'.

His seed grew up into a "great nation :" and continues as such to this day. And specially might they be called a great Nation, when the Saracens made their vast conquests, and erected one of the largest Empires in the world.

And "he will be a wild man;" in the original it is

'Strabo mentions Arabian phylarchs or rulers of tribes, and Alexander Polyhistor says "even to our days the Arabians have twelve kings of the same names as the first."

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"a wild-ass man." Job has described the wild and savage manner of the wild ass; (Job xxxix. 5.) and the posterity of Ishmael, in their character and habits, as a roving unsettled people, fully answer that description; they neither sow nor plant, but range the deserts; most of them, according to the prediction, (in Gen. xxi. 20.) being skilful archers, and even yet not using fire-arms generally.

"His hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him." The one seems a natural consequence of the other.

Ishmael lived by prey

and rapine in the wilderness; and his posterity have always infested Arabia, and its neighbourhood with robbery and incursions. No attempts to extirpate them have succeeded. Robbers by land, and pirates by sea, travellers are obliged to go in caravans, or large armed companies, to protect themselves against them; for they plunder whomsoever they can; and justify it, by alleging the hard usage of their ancestor Ishmael, who was turned out by Abraham into the desert, there to procure subsistence as he could; and by supposing a relationship between all they plunder and the posterity of Isaac, on whom they thus, as it were, indemnify themselves.

"He shall dwell' in the presence of all his brethren.”

Or rather, shall tabernacle, for many of the Arabs dwell in tents, and are therefore called Scenites, from oкηvŋ, a tent.

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