"&c. I am not jealous of any thing that can produce good to that Empire. My "sentiments for its illustrious Sovereign are "in unison with my policy. When I shall "show myself on the Pyrennees, the fright❝ened Leopard (England) will fly to the ocean to escape shame, defeat, and death. "The triumph of MY ARMS, will be the "triumph of the genius of good over that " of evil." 66 When, in June 1812, his embattled nations stood ready to violate the frontier of Russia at his command, and while the arm of Heaven was actually uplifted to cast down his crest of pride, he thus addressed his armies: "Soldiers!-RUSSIA is led on by a fatality; her destiny must be " fulfilled! - We pass the Niemen, and " will carry war into THE HEART of her terri tory. The second Polish war WILL BE as 66 glorious to the arms of FRANCE as was "the first; but the peace which which we 66 SHALL conclude, will carry its own gua66 rantee; it WILL annihilate that proud "and overbearing influence, which, for 66 fifty years, RUSSIA has exercised over "the affairs of Europe." Thus proclaimed "the mouth speaking "6 GREAT THINGS "own people." -the SAFE-GUARD of his V. 8. After many days — in THE LATTER YEARS.] i. e. in a distant age, in the conclusion of time. Ibid. Thou shalt muster them.] i. e. thou shalt muster the congregated nations before mentioned. The word p, which our translation here renders "visited," signifies likewise, "to muster an army-numeravit, "recensuit, lustravit exercitum," (Castell.) which the context evidently shows to be its proper sense in this place. And it is strange, that our English translators should have missed this obvious sense in this passage, when they have so same word in Isaiah, xiii. 4. "The Lord "of Hosts mustereth the host of the "battle." rendered the Ibid. Collected upon the mountains of ISRAEL;] i. e. brought within the pale of the true, Universal Church of THE MESSIAH. "Populi Christiani Christian nations;" see Vitringa, at page 12; and Preliminary Illustr. sect. viii. V. 9. THOU shalt ascend as A STORM, &c.] "Quasi TEMPESTAS." (Hieron.) The Holy Spirit has elsewhere thus described the human instruments, whichGod has from time to time raised up to execute His terrific judgments upon nations. "Behold, THE LORD "hath A MIGHTY AND STRONG ONE, who, as a TEMPEST of hail and a destroying STORM, as a flood of mighty waters over"flowing, shall cast down to the earth with "his hand.”—Isaiah, xxviii. 2. The true character of the hostile irruption upon Ros, Mosc, and TOBL, and the sudden and stupendous manner in which that irruption was repelled, is powerfully represented in the Imperial Proclamation, published by the Sovereign of that great Empire only four months after the first inroad of his insolent and impious adversary: almost every line of which echoes, unconsciously, to the previous declaration of this Divine Oracle: PROCLAMATION ISSUED BY THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER, DATED "WE, ALEXANDER the First, by the Grace "of GOD, Emperor and Autocrat of all the "RUSSIAS, &c. &c., do hereby make gene rally known: "It is well known to the whole world, in what 66 manner THE ENEMY has entered the boun"daries of OUR EMPIRE. No step or mea, "sure that have so frequently been resorted "to by the punctual fulfilment of the peace"able stipulations, nor our steady endea 66 vours by all possible means to avert the "effects of a bloody and destructive war, "have been able to check his obstinate design, "in which he has shown himself entirely im"moveable. With peaceful promises on his 66 tongue, he never ceased to think on war; "at length, having collected A LARGE "ARMY', and strengthened it with AUST"RIAN, PRUSSIAN, BAVARIAN, WURTEM'Chap. xxxviii. v. 4. H BERG, WESTPHALIAN, ITALIAN, SPA66 NISH, PORTUGUESE, and POLISH regi"ments, who were constrained through "disgrace and fear, he put himself in motion "with this immense force, supplied with vast "quantities of artillery, and penetrated into the INTERIOR OF OUR COUNTRY'. Murder, "fire, and destruction, were his attendants 66 on the march. The plundered property, "the towns and villages set on fire, the "smoking ruins of Moscow, the Kremlin "blown up into the air, the temples and "altars of the Lord destroyed; in a word, "all kinds of cruelty and barbarity hitherto "unheard of, at length prove by his own "actions, that they have long been laying con"cealed in the depth of his mind. The mighty "and happy RUSSIAN EMPIRE, which pos"sesses every thing in abundance, awakened "in the heart of the enemy envy and dread. "The possession of the whole world could not "satisfy him, so long as the fertile fields of "RUSSIA still were happy3. Full of this IV. 6. 2 V. 12, note. 3 V. 11, 12. |