firmed by Herodotus and Xenophon, and the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy attested by three distinct witnesses. He had declared, two hundred years before, that Cyrus, a Persian king, should overthrow Babylon, and that the bed of the river should be dried for his entrance, and the gates of the city not be shut against him. Josiah the last reformer of Israel, and Cyrus their great deliverer, are the only two monarchs whom the Spirit of God has seen fit thus to announce by their own name, long before their birth; and they are each of them a striking type of the true Messiah, who shall restore to his people a pure worship, and ransom them for ever from all their proudest enemies.

II. The history of the First Empire has now been traced, by the light of Scripture and other testimonies, down to the time of its fall. But there are several features of the prophecy which call for a further notice, and many lessons may be drawn from the record to illustrate the whole course of these sacred visions.

The description of the First Empire, both in Jeremiah and Daniel, (Jer. xxvii. 1-7. Dan. ii. 37, 38.) has a remarkable resemblance to the charter of dominion which was given to Man on the day of creation. Not only the children of men, but the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, are solemnly delivered into the hand of the king. The analogy between the Great Image and the wide-spread tradition of the four ages of the world has often been noticed. These words of the prophet exhibit the same tradition, stripped of all fiction, in a practical and striking form. After the close of the visible theocracy which the Most High had set up on earth, and while the spiritual Church was preparing for its glory, it was His purpose to exhibit fallen humanity, in all its various stages, from its highest dignity to its lowest decay. Under the first kingdom, and its great monarch, the glory of the natural man was to be presented in a form, like that in Paradise, of lofty and imperial command. But while the Church should

be gradually preparing for its final union, the world was to sink gradually from its splendour into a miry sensual debasement. And yet the description of the king of Babylon is an earnest of man's recovered dignity in the ages to come; and the kingdom of the mountain shall far exceed in honour the sublime character of the head of gold. Man's dominion over nature shall then be restored, and all creation be made visibly subject to the second Adam and his redeemed people.

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The eagle wings of the lion are a fit emblem of Nebuchadnezzar's ambition. They express the strength of his monarchy, and the ambitious daring of his lofty spirit. They began to be plucked, when that voice from heaven arrested him in the midst of his pride"O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: thy kingdom is departed from thee." And this prostration of strength and greatness continued and increased under his successors, while the growing conquests of Darius the Mede and Cyrus weakened and abased the once mighty empire.

The plucking of these wings is the first action desIcribed in the vision of the four beasts. And this corresponds with its date in the second of Belshazzar. For under that king, in the last seventeen years of the monarchy, the work of debasement and dissolution went on apace, till it was completed amidst the revelry of the ungodly feast.

The lion was made to stand on its feet as a man, and to receive a man's heart, in that last festival; when the hand-writing awoke the slumbering conscience of Belshazzar, and he acknowledged, too late, the dominion of God. The fierce and mighty lion, standing in feeble attitude, and receiving a human heart, fitly denotes the proud and cruel empire, humbled in the person of its last monarch to hear the voice of God, and to tremble at the sentence of its own doom.

The words of the prophet-" Thou art this head of gold"-apply to the king simply as the ruler of the empire, as those which introduce them clearly prove. Hence

they can yield no warrant for dating the image from the birth of Nebuchadnezzar; and besides, the date of that event is unknown. But the periods of Scripture begin from eras known and well defined. The image dates solely from the captivity, when the Divine theocracy was rejected and overthrown. Yet the same words imply that the history of Nebuchadnezzar, while he was king, represents and typifies that of the whole image. Hence the idol-worship on the plains of Dura, the persecution of the three witnesses, their miraculous preservation, and the repentance of the monarch, are types of great truths to be fulfilled through all the four empires, and in the kingdom of Messiah which succeeds them. So also the mighty tree, its sentence and fall, the bands of iron and brass, and its final recovery, with the seven times to pass over it,—are types, in like manner, of the long debasement of worldly power, and its final recovery and redemption in the kingdom of God. Viewed in this light, the interposed narratives (Dan. iii. iv.) form a glorious illustration of these sacred visions, and clothe them with a majestic grandeur and moral sublimity of Divine truth and holiness.

The title of Babylon is applied in the Apocalypse to the seat of the Fourth Empire. This illustrates, in a beautiful manner, the unity of the whole succession of Gentile kingdoms. Confusion is their name; because they have never fully received the true source of order and union, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. Two thousand years before the time of Nebuchadnezzar the city had been called Babel; and when the seat of worldly power is removed far away to the seven hills of Rome, it still retains, in a mystery, the same title. The strict historical sense, indeed, and local application of the literal and mystical Babylon, must never be cast aside; but the moral significance of the name ought equally to be kept in view. Whether in Chaldea under the first empire, or under the fourth, on the banks of the Tiber, as in the days of Nimrod the mighty hunter,

Babylon is still the city of confusion, and the moral contrast of Jerusalem, the city of holiness, and the abode of peace.

III. Let us now endeavour to derive a few general lessons from this brief review of the history of Babylon.

And first, we read here, in an affecting light, the transient and fleeting nature of all worldly greatness. In the time of the prophet, and during the half century which passed between these two visions, Babylon was in the height of its grandeur, and the exploits of its proud monarch filled the ear and eye of the civilized world. Greece had scarce emerged from obscurity; Rome was still buried amidst the barbarous Latin tribes. Britain, Spain, and Gaul, and the countries of the west, were the abodes of scattered, nomade tribes, and scarcely known, even by name, to the great kingdoms of the East, the birthplace and nursery of mankind. But Aram and the plains of the Euphrates were crowded with inhabitants, covered with fertility, ennobled by art, science, and every form of human greatness. Populous and mighty cities lined the course of the two mighty rivers of Paradise, and Babylon stood forth in stupendous and unequalled magnificence, the mistress of the world. And what now remains of all this greatness? Apart from the inspired word, a few scattered fragments of history, scarce amounting to twenty pages; and a few mounds of earth and dreary ruins, that scarcely break the monotony of one unbroken plain of desolasion! What an affecting illustration of those words, "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like unto the beasts that perish!" The sites which once formed the proud pinnacle of the world's greatness, are now forsaken and desolate. Few care even to inquire into their past history or present state. When, of late, a British steamer sailed up the Euphrates to explore its ruins, and the triumphs of modern science were seen in strange contrast with the river that watered Paradise, by the tower of Nimrod, or the ruined palace of Semi

ramis, the wonderful spectacle could scarce arrest, for one moment, the busy children of the world, or awaken them to adore the everlasting and unchangeable God. But surely the review of this wondrous change should lead the Christian to deep reflection and adoring reverence. The time will come, in the everlasting kingdom of Christ, when the present system of worldly power and human interests will be, as Babylon is now, like the dream of a night vision. The image which now dazzles the eyes of mortals will have disappeared, and eternal realities alone will remain. The kingdom of God will have consumed all other kingdoms, and itself will abide for ever.

The power of the first empire had its period strictly defined. It was to last only seventy years. It began and closed with the captivity of Judah. The harps of the exiles were on the willows, while Babylon was revelling in its pride. And this was a parable for the time to come, until the last of the four empires should have given place to Messiah's kingdom. The continuance of the powers of this world is strictly defined. The times of the Gentiles have their appointed bound. While they continue, Israel will be scattered, and the true church of Christ will have still to wait for the redemption to come. But when those times are fulfilled the joyful deliverance will ensue, and the loud voices in heaven will proclaim the tidings, "The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." And just as Daniel, when the time drew near to its close, understood by books the number and date of the seventy years' captivity; so, when the times of the Gentiles have nearly run their course, the Church may expect the mysterious dates to be gradually unsealed, and again be stirred up to prayer and hope by the distinct assurance that her redemption is drawing nigh.

After the bright and terrible image had been revealed to Nebuchadnezzar, he set up the idol image for worship on the plains of Dura, under penalty of death. The world,