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overthrow ,, render his warning and prediction the more striking . Tyre and Sidon were cities of Phoenicia on the coast of the Mediterranean sea , famous in ancient times for their valuable manufactures , their extensive commerce , the princely riches and splendour of their merchants ,, and the general prosperity of their —peopl © r ™ 4 Ehey—were-th the whole civilized world . _ Owing to their situation hear the borders of Israel , there was at times much intercourse between
them and the ' chosen people . Consequently , we find frequent mention made of them in the sacred books . Isaiah and Ezekiel especially prophesied their destruction , on account of their iniquities . And , there are few portions of their writings at once so highly poetical , and displaying in so powerful a manner the righteousness of God ' s government , the sure calamities which wait
upon crying wickedness . The prophecy of Isaiah is in the 23 rd chapter , that of Ezekiel , in the 26 th , 27 th , and 28 th chapter ; and . let no one say lie is a lover of poetry , or that he is a diligent and reverential searcher out of the ways of the Most High , who can read these denunciations without strong emotion , and a deep conviction that the only path of wisdom is the path of righteousness , to do justly , to love mercy , and to walk humbly with God . '
Tyre was first taken and ransacked by Nebuchadnezzar : that po ' rtion of the city which had stood " upon the ~ continent being laid in ruins . The remainder , at that time , secured by its position on an island , was in a succeeding age taken by Alexander of Macedon . Much of its commerce and opulence subsequently returned ; but , after suffering numerous reverses , it was sacked and razed by
the Mamelukes , towards the close of the thirteenth century . Its present inhabitants are few and miserable . Their occupation is fishing , their habitations the vaults over which proud palaces once rose . To the letter is the prophecy of . Ezekiel fulfilled ; 'I will make thee like the top of a rock ; thou shait be a place to spread nets upon , thou shalt tfbt be built any more : for I the Lord have spoken it , saith the Lord God /
Sidon , now Saide , has not sunk so low as Tyre , but is sufficiently fallen to make good the prophecy of Ezekiel . Its port is so choked up with sand .. that it can be entered only by boats . The criminality and fate of Sodom are familiar to every reader of the Scriptures ; and , the prediction that worse calamities awaited Capernaum than befell that ill-fated city 5 gives us a most awful idea of the impending judgment .
The comparison instituted by Jesus does not necessarily imply that the actual state of Chorazin , Bethsaida , and Capernaum , was worse than that of Tyre , Sidon , and Sodom . The probability is t that , with regard to the latter especially , their vices were not so gross , their debasement not so deep : but their hardness of heart , their impenetrability , their deafness to warning , their incapability of being moved by kindness , were greater than had been found in
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362 A DECLARATION OF JUDGMENT ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 1, 1833, page 362, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2627/page/10/
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