burned incenfe in the valley of the Son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire, after the abominations of the Heathens, whom the Lord had caft out before the children of Ifrael.

Ahaz was fucceeded by the pious Hezekiah, in whose reign there occurs a miracle the most directly calculated to establish the fole divinity of the God of Ifrael, and confequently the truth of the Mofaic difpenfation, of any that we find in the history of the kings of Judah.

The ten tribes had been conquered, and carried into captivity, by Shalmanezer king of Affyria, in the fixth year of Hezekiah, agreeably to an exprefs prediction of the prophet Ifaiah, delivered in the first year of Ahaz; and in the fourteenth of his reign Sennacherib, another king of Affyria, having greatly enlarged the bounds of his empire, invaded Judah; and having taken fome of the defenceless cities, he fent an infulting meffage to Hezekiah, demanding the furrender of his country, and admonifhing him not to truft in the protection of his God. In his addrefs to the people

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on this occafion he fays, Ifa. xxxvi. 18, &c. Beware left Hezekiah perfuade you, faying, Jehovah will deliver us. Has any

of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hands of the kings of Affyria? Where are the gods of Hamath, and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are those among all the gods of thy land, that have delivered their land out of my hands, that Jehovah should deliver Jerufalem out of my band? I cannot help obferving by the way, how temporal profperity was confidered in these times as a proof of the power of the gods that were acknowledged by different nations; and on this account, perhaps, as I have obferved, the true God was pleased to propofe temporal felicity as the fanction of the religion inftituted by Mofes, taking the teft of real divinity that was actually adopted by all nations. But to refume the thread of this remarkable history.

In this diftreffing fituation this pious prince, having no fufficient force to oppose to this haughty and powerful invader, applied

applied to the prophet Ifaiah, who im mediately answered, ch. xxxvii. 6. Thus fhall ye fay to your mafter, Thus faith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words that thou baft heard, wherewith the fervants of the king of Affyria has blafphemed me. Behold I will fend a blast upon him, and he shall bear a rumour, and return to his own land, and I will caufe him to fall by the fword in his own land.

After this a letter was fent by the king of Affyria to Hezekiah, to the fame purport with the preceding meffage. This letter Hezekiah took to the temple, Ifa. xxxvii. 14. and Spread it before the Lord; at the fame time making the following folemn prayer! O Lord of Hofts, God of Ifrael, who dwelleft between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou haft made heaven and earth. Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and fee, and bear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has fent to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Affyria have laid waste all nations, and their countries, and

have caft their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and flone; therefore they have deftroyed them. Now, therefore, O Jehovah, fave us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou alone.

Upon this Ifaiah was directed to fend to the king, and he concluded his message with faying, Therefore, thus faith Jehovah, concerning the king of Affyria, He shall not come into this city, nor fhoot an arrow there, nor come before it with fhields, nor caft a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the fame fhall he return, and fhall not come into this city, faith Jehovah; for I will defend this city, to fave it, for my own fake, and my fervant David's fake.

The event verified this prediction; for after this we read, ver. 30, Then the angel of the Lord went forth and fmote in the camp of the Affyrians, an hundred and fourfcore and five thousand; and when they (the remainder) rofe early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpfes. This fudden deftruction of the army of the Affyrians is mentioned

mentioned by Herodotus, the oldest heathen hiftorian. After this, to verify the remainder of the prophecy, the following events took place. Sennacherib, after his return to Nineveh his capital, was killed by two of his fons, as he was worshipping in the house of Nifroch his God, as it were to demonftrate the impotence of this boafted god to fave his moft zealous worshipper.

Notwithstanding this moft extraordinary event, Manaffeh, the fon of Hezekiah, but 'who was born after this time, and who came to the throne at the early age of twelve years, falling, as we may well fuppofe, into the hands of evil counfellors, revolted to the worship of Baal, and, as we read, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3, worshipped all the host of heaven, and ferved them. He even built altars to them in the temple itself. He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the houfe of the Lord, and he caufed his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the fon of Hinnom. Also he obferved times, and ufed enchantments, and ufed witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar Spirit,

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