was builded, and the daily facrifices were renewed.

Thus were the people re-eftablished in their own land at the expiration of the allotted punishment for the tranfgreffion of that Law, which was ordained to continue till the Lord should raise up a Prophet "like unto Mofes." And thus the partial difperfion of the people destined to preserve the promises of God, became the means of spreading the knowledge of the most High among the nations of the Eaft, preparatory to the coming of the Meffiah, to whom all nations were to be gathered.

CLASS

CLASS I.

:

CHAPTER THE SIXTH.

The Deftruction and defolate State of Babylon confidered as an awful Example of the Judgments of God upon the Enemies of his People.

THE Prophets point out various reafons, on account of which the Affyrians were made the signal objects of Divine Displeasure. Nebuchadnezzar was remarkable for exceffive pride, and the most grofs and intolerant idolatry, notwithstanding the certain information he received from his Jewish captives concerning the true God. Belshazzar his fucceffor, equally well acquainted with the true religion, and a witness of the awful punishment which had been inflicted upon Nebuchadnezzar, preferred his falfe deities to Jehovah, the God of Ifrael, and profaned at his riotous feasts the confecrated veffels of the Temple.

The Babylonians were marked by blind fuperftition, practised various magical arts, and confided in the pretended discoveries of judicial aftrology. Their vices far exceeded their credulity and their folly. They indulged in exceffive luxury, were avaricious and arrogant, and oppreffed the furrounding nations with exceffive tyranny. Their cruelty was in a peculiar manner directed against the Jews. In their invasion of Judea, they laid the country wafte, put both old and young to the fword, profaned the Temple, and detained all whom they led away captives in a state of the most rigid bondage. For these reasons, the denunciations of Divine vengeance were pronounced with particular severity against them,

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We have seen the city of Babylon taken, and the chofen people of God" delivered from bondage by Cyrus, according to the fure word of Prophecy." We shall now furvey this Metropolis of the World as it stood at the fummit of its greatness, and follow it to the gulph of oblivion, from whence Prophecy and History recall its existence.

According to the most authentic accounts that have.come down to us, Babylon contained

the

the astonishing space of fixty miles, and was adorned in every part with gardens, palaces, and temples. Around it were extended walls of ftupendous height and thickness, compofed of large bricks cemented with bitumen, that by time acquired a folidity harder than ftone. One hundred gates of folid brass commanded the approaches to the city; two hundred and fifty towers of vast dimenfions and elevation were placed at equal diftances along the walls. The buildings most remarkable for fize and magnificence were, the bridge erected over the Euphrates, the fpacious palaces of the Kings, and the antient temple of Belus, compofed of eight towers, rifing one above another, and diminishing in proportion to their prodigious elevation. Such were the majestic edifices of this extenfive and populous capital of the Affyrian Empire; which, at a distance, to use the comparison of antient writers, had the appearance of lofty mountains. They were calculated to brave the fierceft attacks of hoftile power, and to withstand the ravages

of remote ages.

The lofty terms in which Babylon is defcribed in Scripture, correfpond with the account of profane writers. It is called by Ifaiah,

Ifaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel," the golden city," ""the glory of kingdoms," "abundant in treasures, and "the praise of the whole earth." Berofus, Herodotus, Strabo, and Diodorus Siculus, fome of the moft antient and most authentic writers, reprefent it as "the most glorious metropolis upon which the fun ever fhone, and rank it high among the wonders of the antient world." At the precise time when it was rifing to this state of grandeur, when the dominion of its fovereigns was spreading over all the furrounding provinces, and power, opulence, and profperity combined to insure the long continuance of its empire and glory, Ifaiah thus pronounced

its total ruin.

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the

a Ifaiah xlvii. 5. xiv. 4. Jer. li. 41, &c. Goguet's Origin of Laws. Prideaux, vol. i. p. 75. Newton on the Prophecies, vol. i. p. 276, &c.

b Isaiah xiii. 19, 20, 21, 22. xiv. 23. For a more full anticipation of the deftruction of Babylon, fee Ifaiah xiii, xiv, xxi, xlvii. In chap. xiii. the Medes, then an inconfiderable people, are brought forward as the great agents in the overthrow of the Affyrian Monarchy. Chap. xiv. contains the triumph of the various nations of the earth over the fallen King of Babylon. This description, confifting of the most bold and ftriking images, is truly fublime. See Lowth on Ifaiah, xxi, xlvii.

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