"all the prophets prophesied until John." Malachi is likewise elsewhere frequently cited as a prophet by the writers of the New Testament.

THE

* FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY.

Prophecies concerning Nineveh.

NAHUM prophesied and plainly foretold the destruction of Nineveh; his whole prophecy relates to this single event; and the city was accordingly destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians. Nahum foretold not only the thing, but the manner of it. For he prophesies that the Assyrians should be taken while they

* By THOMAS NEWTON, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Bristol.

were drunken," For while they be sodden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble full dry" and Diodorus relates, that "it was while all the Assyrian army were feasting for their former victories, that those about Arbaces, being informed by some deserters of the negligence and drunkenness in the camp of the enemy, assaulted them unexpectedly by night, and falling orderly upon them disorderly, and prepared on them unprepared, became masters of the camp, and slew many of the soldiers, and drove the rest into the city." Nahum foretels, that "the gates of the rivers shall be

opened, and the palace shall be dissolved:" and Diodorus informs us, "that there was an old prophecy, that Ninevah should not be taken till the river became an enemy to the city; and in the third year of the siege, the river, being swollen with continual rains, overflowed part of the city, and broke down the wall for twenty furlongs; then the king thinking that the oracle was fulfilled, and the river become an enemy to the city, built a large funeral pile in the palace, and collecting together all his wealth, and his concubines and eunuchs, burnt himself and the palace with them all; and the enemy entered the breach that the waters

had made, and took the city." What was predicted was therefore literally fulfilled. Nahum promises the enemy much spoil of gold and silver, and we read in Diodorus, that Arbaces carried many talents of gold and silver to Echbatana, the royal city of the Medes. According to Nahum, the city was to be destroyed by fire and water: and we see in Diodorus, that by fire and water it was destroyed.

Nahum also foretold the total and entire destruction of this city. The Prophet Zephaniah likewise, in the days of Josiah King of Judah, foretold the same sad event. But what probability was there that the capital city of a great kingdom; a city