and are fulfilling to the present day. As the fulfilment of prophecy is one grand argument for the truth of divine revelation, a few remarks on this subject, gathered chiefly from Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, and other biblical critics of established reputation, may not be unacceptable to the reader.

It was predicted of Ishmael, (Gen. xvi. 12.) that he should be a wild man, properly signifying a wildass man, resembling that creature in his wild, roving, independent, untameable disposition; these characters have been strikingly seen in his posterity to the present period. The Hagarenes, Saracens, and various other tribes of Arabs, descendants of Ishmael, have in all ages been a hardy untamed race of freebooters, unlike every other nation of the world, and subsisting chiefly by plundering their neighbours and strangers.

"His hand will be against every man ; and every man's hand against him,"-a natural and necessary conquencese of the other. Thus living by depredation, they have provoked the enmity of the neighbouring nations, and lived in a continual state of hostility with all men; there is no travelling in safety through those countries, except in large armed companies, called caravans, and these are often plundered. Many powerful but ineffectual attempts have been made to extirpate or subjugate this extraordinary people. The Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, and the Turks, have in succession attacked and distressed, but never effectually subdued them; even

now the Turks are obliged to pay a large tribute to the Arabs, for the safe passage of their pilgrims to Mecca, the city which is the centre of their religion.

"He shall dwell (or tabernacle) in the presence of his brethren." Many of the Arabs dwell in tents, and are therefore called Samites. It appears they dwelt thus in the wilderness, as long back as the times of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and they do so still, Isa. xiii. 20. Jer. iii. 2. "In the presence of their brethren." This was the case with Ishmael himself, for the sacred historian expressly relates, Gen. xxv. 17, 18. that "the years of the life of Ishmael were an hundred and thirty-seven years, and he died in the presence of all his brethren." It was true also of his posterity; they dwelt in the presence of Abraham's sons by Keturah; of the Moabites and Ammonites, the descendants of Lot; of the Israelites, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and of the Edomites, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Esau. How remarkable, that a state of constant hostility should subsist between the descendants of Ishmael and these their brethren, and yet that they should be able to maintain their dwelling among them; nor can we account for it, but as a striking fulfilment of the predictions, "his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him," yet ❝he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." Farther on it is predicted, that Ishmael should be the father of twelve princes, (Gen. xvii. 20.) This We find was accordingly fulfilled, Gen. xxv. 16.

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How unlikely, that the children of this son of a bondwoman should be twelve princes, while even the twelve sons of Jacob, the heirs of promise, were only shepherds! and how unlike the manner of men! yet so it was. "I will make of him a nation, a great nation," said Jehovah to the parents of Ishmael, Gen. xxi. 13, 18.-and God did so the descendants of Ishmael speedily became a great and distinct nation, and so have continued to the present day, notwithstanding all attempts to subjugate and scatter them. They are the only people, besides the Jews, who have subsisted as a distinct people from the beginning. "The great empires around them have all in their turns fallen to ruin, while they have continued the same from the beginning, and are likely to continue the same to the end: and this, in the natural course of human affairs, was so highly improbable, if not altogether impossible, that as nothing but a divine prescience could have foreseen it, so nothing, but a divine power could have accomplished it." The Arabs, as well as the Jews, are singular in several of their customs, and are standing monuments, to all ages, of the exactness of the divine predictions, and of the veracity of scripture history. We may with confidence believe the particulars related of Abraham and Ishmael, when we see them verified in their posterity at this day; this is having as it were ocular demonstration for our faith; this is proving, by plain matter of fact, that the Most High ruleth in the

plain of Mamre, where the family had long resided before they removed into the land of the Philistines, and whither they had since returned.

On a comparison of Gen. xii. 11, 14. with xxiii. 4. we are struck with the humbling lesson conveyed to those possessed of personal beauty, and perhaps too apt to indulge vanity and pride on account of it: Ah! how transient is that which you so fondly prize, how soon will age wither the roses on your cheeks, and quench the lustre of your eye; or sooner, perhaps, disease may rob the fairest countenance of all its attractions, and death compel the fondest admirer to say, as did Abraham, "Bury my Sarah out of my sight:" hence let young persons learn no longer to set their hearts on these transient superficial attractions, but cultivate those graces that shall outlive the waste of time and the ravages of death.

There is something very pleasing in the transaction between Abraham and the sons of Heth, concerning the purchase of a burying-place for Sarah : every thing appears courteous, generous, and lovely. Were commerce conducted on such principles, how pleasant it would be! how different from that selfish spirit described by Solomon, and still so prevalent among men: "Naught, naught, saith the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth." Civility, courtesy, and generosity adorn religion. plainness of Christianity is not a rude, or an insolent one; it stands aloof from flattery, but not from oblig

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