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remarkable passage was evidently introduced by 

 Moses in a parenthesis. He prophetically knew 

 that their conquerors would often have to con- 

 fess the superiority of the God of Israel over 

 their own defties ; and accordingly many ex- 

 amples of it may be collected in Scripture. I 

 need scarcely remind you of Nebuchadnezzar's 

 decree, when he perceived the three faithful 

 Jews escaping unhurt from his fiery furnace * ; 

 nor of his touching acknowledgment of the one 

 true God when he regained his reason f ; and in 

 profane history you no doubt recollect the decla- 

 ration of the Roman emperor Titus, after the 

 conquest of Jerusalem, That he was only an 

 instrument in the hand of God, whose wrath 

 had been so signally manifested against the 

 Jews. 



" The last part of this celebrated song is called 

 the consolation of Israel : it holds out a gracious 

 promise of future reconciliation when they should 

 have repented of their obstinacy, and abjured 

 the vain idols in whom they had trusted for 

 protection ; it gives an awful warning to their 

 oppressors, that the day of account and of 

 vengeance for them also will come ; and the 

 words in the concluding verse, ' Rejoice, O ye 

 nations with his people,' seem to have been 

 cited by St. Paul, to prove the future conversion 



* Daniel iii, 29. f iv, 34. J Romans xv. 10, 



