guage, now about eighteen hundred years after the flood, and above five hundred before CHRIST, where the prophet has these words: "AND the word of the Lord came unto me, faying: son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him and fay, thus faith the LORD GOD, Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Mefbech and Tubal, and I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horfes and horfemen, all of them clothed with all forts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling fwords. Perfia, Ethiopia, and Lybia with them, all of them with shield and helmet. Gomer and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters and all his bands, and many people with thee." FROM these paffages of Ezekiel, we are informed of feveral interesting things relative to our defign in this enquiry: first, we are undeniably certain that Japhet's fons spread themselves northward every way, as I have said before; and that Togarmah, the youngest fon of Gomer, was also a great prince of the north quarters. Secondly, that Magog had the ascendancy and command over two of his brothers, Meshech and Tubal, and their people, as well as over his own, in the northern countries, and was a great prince. Thirdly, that when this prophecy was delivered, though fo many years as I have mentioned after the flood, the places of Sheba and Dedan, two nephews of Nimrod, are afcertained, their defcendants still retaining retaining their names, and being merchants and rich men: for in the 12th and 13th verfes of the fame chapter, when it was foretold that this great conflux of the Northern armies should meet those of the Ethiopians, Perfians and Lybians, and go down to a land at reft, without bars or gates, upon a people that had gotten cattle and goods, to take a spoil and to take a prey; that Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish should say: "Art thou "come to take a spoil? haft thou gathered thy company "to take a prey? to carry away filver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?" And, fourthly, that the Northern people were to fend a mighty army of horsemen against the children of Ifrael, which shews that they were famous for the multitude of horses they bred, as the Tartars are to this day, who are their defcendants. WHILE I am treating of this prophefy of Ezekiel, it will not be a digression to recur to the 27th chapter of the fame book, which throws a very fplendid light upon what was but briefly delivered by Mofes concerning the fettlements of fome of his descendants, in confirmation of what I had, all along, imagined upon the subject; for where the testimony of Holy Writ has any share, and it has a great relation to my present purpose, I would not be thought negligent of fuch valuable authority. And I am the more willing to introduce in this place the greatest part of that chapter, because it gives a lively description not only of the locality of fome of Noah's descendants, so many hundred years after the flood, but of the ftate of the mercantile traffic of these parts of the world in those days. F WHEN WHEN the famous city Tyrus grew very rich, and was reforted to by all the world, being as it were the center of all manner of merchandize and commerce, its inhabitants grew haughty and proud, and began to disdain Jerusalem, and fet at naught that city where the worship of the true GOD was established. Their luxury produced that pride, and that brought upon them the wrath of GOD ALMIGHTY, who commanded his prophet to inform them of their enfuing defolation: in which he begins with a fine description of their fituation and shipping: "O! thou that art “fituate at the entry of the fea, which art a merchant of "the people for many ifles; thy borders are in the midst "of the feas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty; they “ have made all thy fhip boards of the fir trees of Senir, "they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for "thee; of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars :" to what a pitch of grandeur must this city have grown, being placed upon the fea in the very center of commerce, to which the nations of Afia, Africa and Europe had easy and convenient accefs. And it appears, by the particular notice the prophet takes of the ship-building, that they were a great maritime power; for, no doubt, all the ports round about those coafts that traded to Tyrus, had shipping of their own to carry their goods thither; yet it would seem that this city had a great naval force in particular; because the prophet, by way of introduction to the judgment he was to pronounce against them, mentions the feveral causes of the arrogance and pride for which they were to be ruined as the beauty of their city, their grand flcets, and their prodigious trade in all forts of riches ; : which he specifies in the fequel of this chapter, at the fame time mentioning the feveral nations that imported them into Tyrus, of which we fhall give fome account, because it will fix the abode of the nations defcended from the fons of Noah, even at that time. He begins with the Aburites, who are faid to have made their benches of ivory, brought out of the ifles of Chittim, and who still retained the name of their founder, and traded to Tyrus in ivory. THE Egyptians are faid to bring embroidery to that city, of which it is faid they made fails, which fhews the magnificent appearance of their shipping; and the isles of Elisha produced their fine colours, as blue, purples and fcarlet. This Elisha was the eldest son of Javan, the third son of Gomer, and his people were settled, conformable to the promise of Noah to Japhet, in the ifles of the Gentiles, called by Ezekiel in this place, the ifles of Elifba, the ifles of Greece, whence thofe fine dyes were brought to Tyrus, from him: and it appears that the Tyrians wore garments of thefe colours; for the text fays, "blue and purple was that which covered them." The people of Zidon and the Arvadites, which were fome of the defcendants of Canaan, the youngest fon of Cush, were their mariners, and from themselves they chofe their pilots; but their caulkers came to them from Gebal. THE army of Tyrus was compofed of Perfians, and the men of Lud and Phut; and the Arvadites appear to have garisoned the city, as well as to have been employed as failors, with the Gammadians; for they are faid to have been stationed upon the walls, and to hang their fhields Tarshish upon the walls round about. The people of Tarfbifh brought to the fairs of that great city filver, iron, tin, and lead; which tin was probably procured in Cornwal, as well as lead, by the offspring of Tarshish, who dwelt in Cilicia; and afterwards by the Elifbans, or defcendants of Elifba, the elder brother of Tarshish, inhabiting the islands of Greece. The defcendants of Javan and of Mefbech and Tubal traded to Tyrus in flaves, and vessels of brafs, which were manufactured out of materials carried from Britain, and of a more delicate contexture than our modern brass, as may be proved from the fineness of the Corinthian brafs, of which numbers of medals were made. And as to the flaves fold to that city, they were brought from the northern quarters by the defcendants of Meshech and Tubal, who appear from Scripture to have been subject to their brother Magog; for he is called by the phet Ezekiel, the chief prince of Meßbech and Tubal, more than once; and the numbers of these flaves were fo great, that they equalled the number of the other inhabitants, if we may rely on the remarkable story told of them by Justin in his eighteenth book, chapter the third, to which the reader is referred. Their horfes, horfemen and mules were imported from the house of Togarmah, which was in the north quarters, and he was one of the fons of Gomer. pro In short, this famous city was the very center of commerce, from all parts of the world; for, befides what are mentioned already, it appears that the Africans brought them ebony, ivory, embroideries of all forts; Syria fold them emeralds, embroidery, purple, fine linen, coral and agates. The land of Ifrael traded with them in wheat, pannag, |