ment of his promises. The style of Habakkuk is highly poetical, and the hymn is, perhaps, unrivalled for united sublimity, simplicity, and piety.

Zephaniah was the son of Cushi, and was probably of a noble family of the tribe of Simeon. He prophesied in the reign of Josiah, about 630 years before Christ. He denounces the judgments of God against the idolatry and sins of his countrymen, and exhorts them to repentance; he predicts the punishment of the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, and Ethiopians, and foretells the destruction of Nineveh; he again inveighs against the corruptions of Jerusalem, and with his threats mixes promises of future favour and prosperity to his people; whose recall from their dispersion shall glorify the name of God throughout the world. The style of Zephaniah is poetical; but it is not distinguished by any peculiar elegance or beauty, though generally animated and impressive.

Haggai was one of the Jews who returned with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem in consequence of the edict of Cyrus; and it is believed that he was born during the captivity, and that he was of the sacerdotal race. This short book consists of four distinct revelations, all which took place in the second year of Darius king of Persia, which was the 520th year before Christ. The prophet reproves the people for their delay in building the temple of God, and represents the unfruitful seasons which they had experienced, as a divine punishment for this neglect. He exhorts them to proceed in the important work;

and by way of encouragement he tells them that the glory of the second temple, however inferior in external magnificence, shall exceed that of the first, which was accomplished by its being honoured with the presence of the Saviour of Mankind. He again urges the completion of the temple by promises of divine favour, and under the type of Zerubbabel he is supposed to foretell the great revolutions which shall precede the second advent of Christ. The style of Haggai is in general plain and simple; but in some passages it rises to a considerable degree of sublimity.

Zechariah was the son of Barachiah, and the grandson of Iddo. He was born during the captivity, and came to Jerusalem when the Jews were permitted by Cyrus to return to their own country. He began to prophesy two months later than Haggai, and continued to exercise his office about two years.

Like his contemporary Haggai, Zechariah begins with exhorting the Jews to proceed in the rebuilding of the temple; he promises them the aid and protection of God, and assures them of the speedy increase and prosperity of Jerusalem; he then emblematically describes the four great empires, and foretells the glory of the Christian church, when Jews and Gentiles shall be united under their great high priest and governor, Jesus Christ, of whom Joshua the high priest, and Zerubbabel the governor, were types; he predicts many particulars relative to our Saviour and his kingdom, and to the future condition of the Jews. Many moral in

a

structions and admonitions are interspersed throughout the work. Several learned men have been of opinion that the last six chapters were not written by Zechariah; but whoever wrote them, their inspired authority is established by their being quoted in three of the Gospels. The style of Zechariah is so remarkably similar to that of Jeremiah, that the Jews were accustomed to observe, that the spirit of Jeremiah had passed into him. By far the greater part of this book is prosaic; but towards the conclusion there are some poetical passages which are highly ornamented. The diction is in general perspicuous, and the transitions to the different subjects are easily discerned.

Malachi prophesied about 400 years before Christ; and some traditionary accounts state that he was a native of Sapha, and of the tribe of Zabulon. He reproves the people for their wickedness, and the priests for their negligence in the discharge of their office; he threatens the disobedient with the judgments of God, and promises great rewards to the penitent and pious; he predicts the coming of Christ, and the preaching of John the Baptist; and with a solemnity becoming the last of the prophets, he closes the sacred canon with enjoining the strict observance of the Mosaic law, till the forerunner, already promised, should appear in the spirit of Elias, to introduce the Messiah, who was to establish a new and everlasting covenant. Malachi

a Matt. xxvi. 31. Mark, xiv. 27. John, xix. 37. Vide Newcome on the Minor Prophets.

lived in the decline of Hebrew poetry, which greatly degenerated after the return from the Babylonian captivity; but his writings are by no means destitute of force or elegance, and he may justly be considered as occupying a middle place among the minor prophets.

PART I.

CHAPTER THE THIRD.

THE OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY ABRIDGED, AND THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS CONTINUED TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM BY THE ROMANS.

B. C.

THE Old Testament begins with the history of the Creation, which Moses was enabled by divine 4004. Inspiration to relate. From Revelation therefore we learn, that the world was created in six days, and that "on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." The first man, Adam, was created on the sixth day, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and

stand, that man was not created properly and perfectly in the image of God, but in a resemblance of him. For he doth not say in our likeness, says that author, as he had said, in our image, but after our likeness; where the Caph of similitude, as they call it, abates something of the sense of what follows, and makes it signify only an approach to the divine likeness, in understanding, freedom of choice, spirituality, immortality, &c. Thus Tertullian explains it: Habent