DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26300#0015
PREFACE.
v
We now therefore behold in Egypt the awful fpeCta-
cle of a kingdom in ruins; the ruins not merely of tem-
ples, and cities, and the mighty efforts of labour and
art ; but of fcience, and the human mind itfelf, of which
thofe works were but the imperfect and perithable me-
morials. Surely then, from this view of a nation once
fo glorious, and in the eye of human forefight fo guarded
again!!: the ftroke of calamity, but now fo humbled and
hopelefs, we are taught to look beyond the natural
caufes of fuch events, to that Being from whom they iflue.
Concerning this kingdom God was pleafed long fince to
declare his purpofea. And among all the examples
that hiftory can fhew, there is not a more fignal objeCl
than Egypt, thus lying under the Divine interdiction,
and left as a fearful witnefs of his eternal prefcience and
power.
But an attempt has been made of late to raife this
country from its degraded and fallen condition, to re-
ftore it to liberty and independence, and replace it in
its ftation among the kingdoms of the earth. Or rather,
let us fay, that, under the pretence of conferring thefe
unfolicited benefits, a people, regardlefs of every princi-
ple of moral propriety, and every law of civilized na-
tions, has carried thither without provocation all the
a Ezek. xxx. and Newton on the Prophecies, Works, vol. i. p. 197.
v
We now therefore behold in Egypt the awful fpeCta-
cle of a kingdom in ruins; the ruins not merely of tem-
ples, and cities, and the mighty efforts of labour and
art ; but of fcience, and the human mind itfelf, of which
thofe works were but the imperfect and perithable me-
morials. Surely then, from this view of a nation once
fo glorious, and in the eye of human forefight fo guarded
again!!: the ftroke of calamity, but now fo humbled and
hopelefs, we are taught to look beyond the natural
caufes of fuch events, to that Being from whom they iflue.
Concerning this kingdom God was pleafed long fince to
declare his purpofea. And among all the examples
that hiftory can fhew, there is not a more fignal objeCl
than Egypt, thus lying under the Divine interdiction,
and left as a fearful witnefs of his eternal prefcience and
power.
But an attempt has been made of late to raife this
country from its degraded and fallen condition, to re-
ftore it to liberty and independence, and replace it in
its ftation among the kingdoms of the earth. Or rather,
let us fay, that, under the pretence of conferring thefe
unfolicited benefits, a people, regardlefs of every princi-
ple of moral propriety, and every law of civilized na-
tions, has carried thither without provocation all the
a Ezek. xxx. and Newton on the Prophecies, Works, vol. i. p. 197.