** flow and is reddish, you come to the ancient city "Nineveh, which is now an heap of rubbish only, for "a league along the river, full of vaults and caverns." Mr. (3) Salmon, who is an induftrious collector and compiler from others, faith in his account of Affyria, "In this country the famous city of Nineveh once "ftood, on the eastern bank of the river Tigris, oppofit "to the place where Moful now ftands-There is "nothing now to be feen but heaps of rubbish, almost "a league along the river Tigris, overagainst Moful, "which people imagin to be the remains of this vaft

city." But it is more than probable that these ruins are the remains of the Perfian Nineveh, and not of the Affyrian. Ipfe periere ruina: Even the ruins of old Nineveh have been, as I may fay, long ago ruined and deftroyed: fuch an utter end hath been made of it, and fuch is the truth of the divine predictions!

This perhaps may ftrike us the more ftrongly by fuppofing only a parallel inftance. Let us then fuppofe, that a perfon fhould come in the name of a prophet, preaching repentance to the people of this kingdom, or otherwife denouncing the deftruction of the capital city, within a few years; with an overrunning flood will God make an utter end of the place thereof, he will make an utter end; its place may be fought, but it shall never be found. I prefume we fhould look upon fuch a prophet 1 as a madman, and fhow no farther attention to his meffage than to deride and defpife it: and yet fuch an event would not be more ftrange and incredible than the de ftruction and devaftation of Nineveh. For Nineveh was much the larger, and much the stronger, and older city of the two; and the Affyrian empire had fubfifted and flourished more ages than any form of government in this country: fo that you cannot obje& the inftability of the eastern monarchies in this cafe. Let us then, fince this event would not be more improbable and extraordinary than the other, fuppofe again, that things fhould fucceed according to the prediction, the floods

(3) Salmon's Modern Hift. Vol. 1. Chap. 12. Prefent State of the Turkish Empire. Quarto,

fhould

fhould arife, and the enemy fhould come, the city fhould be overflown and broken down, be taken and pillaged, and deftroyed fo totally, that even the learned could not agree about the place where it was fituated. What would be faid or thought in fuch a case: Whoever of pofterity fhould read and compare the prophecy and event together, muft they not by fuch an illuftrious inftance be thoroughly convinced of the providence of God, and of the truth of his prophet, and be ready to acknowledge, Verily this is the word that the Lord hath Spoken, Verily there is a God who judgeth the earth!

A

X.

THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING BABYLON.

1

FTER Nineveh was deftroyed, Babylon became the queen of the eaft. They were both equally enemies to the people of God; the one fubverted the kingdom of Ifrael, and the other the kingdom of Judah; the one carried away the ten tribes, and the other the two remaining tribes into captivity. No wonder therefore that there are feveral prophecies relating to each of thefe cities, and that the fate of Babylon is foretold as well as of Nineveh. As Jeremiah faid, (L. 17, 18.) Ifrael is a scattered sheep, the lions have driven him away; first the king of Affyria hath devoured him, and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones: Therefore thus faith the Lord of hosts the God of Ifrael, Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Affyria.

Babylon was a very great and a very ancient city as well as Nineveh. It is indeed generally reckoned lefs than Nineveh; for according to Strabo (who was cited in the laft difcourfe) it was only 385 furlongs in compafs,

ог

or 360 according to (1) Diodorus Siculus, or 368 according to Quintus Curtius but (2) Herodotus, who was an older author than any of them, reprefents it of the fame dimenfions as Nineveh, that is 480 furlongs or above 60 miles in compafs; but the difference was, that Nineveh was conftructed in the form of a parallelogram, and Babylon was an exact fquare, each fide being 120 furlongs in length. So that according to this account Babylon contained more ground in it than Nineveh did; for by multiplying the fides the one by the other, it will be found, that Nineveh contained within its walls only 13500 furlongs, and that Babylon contained 14400. It was too as ancient, or more ancient than Nineveh; for in the words of Mofes fpeaking of Nimrod (Gen. X. 10.) it was the beginning of his kingdom, that is the first city, or the capital city in his dominions. Several heathen authors fay that Semiramis, but most (as (3) Quintus Curtius afferts) that Belus built it: and Belus was very probably the fame as Nimrod.

But whoever was the firft founder of this city, we may rea fonably fuppofe that it received very great improvements afterwards, and Nebuchadnezzar particularly repaired and inlarged, and beautified it to fuch a degree, that he may in a manner, be faid to have built it; as he boasted himfelf (Dan. IV. 30.) Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the houfe of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majefty? Nor is this afferted only in fcripture, but is likewife attefted by heathen authors, Megafthenes, Berofus, and: Abydenus, whofe words are quoted by (4) Jofephus and Eufebius. By

(1) Weg BaraTOTELY TY Woher σαδίων τριακοσίων εξήκοντα. CCCLX Radiorum muro urbem circumdedit. Diod. Sic. Lib. 2. p. 68. Edit. Steph. P. 95. Edit. Rhod. Totius operis ambitus CCCLXVIN ftadia complectitur. Quint. Curt. Lib. 5. Cap. 1.

(2) κεεται εν πεδίῳ μεγάλω; μετ γαθών εισα, μελωπον έκαςον, εικοσι και εκα τον σαδίων, εισην τεραίωνε στοι ταδίοι της περίοδο της πολι gevorlas Cuvaranles oydanqila nas re#gax. oppidum fitum eft in pla

nitie ingenti, forma quadrata, magnitudine quoquo verfus centenim vi. cenûm ftadiorum, in fumma quadringentorum et octoginta, in circuitu quatuor laterum urbis. Herod. Lib. 1. Cap. 178. p. 74. Edit. Gale.

(3) Semiramis eam condiderat: vel, ut plerique credidere, Belus. Quint. Curt. ibid.

(4) Jofeph. Antiq. Lib. 10. Cap. 11. Sect. 1. p. 459. Edit. Hudson, Eufeb. Præpar. Evang. Lib. 9. Cap. 41. p. 457. Edit. Vigeri.

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one means or other Babylon became fo great and famous a city as to give name to a very large empire; and it is called in fcripture (Dan. IV. 30.) great Babylon; (If. XIII. 19.) the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency; (I. XIV. 4.) the golden city; (II. XLVII. 5.) the lady of kingdoms; (Jer. LI. 13.) abundant in treasures; (Jer. LI. 41.) the praife of the whole earth: and its beauty, ftrength, and grandeur; its walls, temples, palaces, and hanging gardens; the banks of the river, and the artificial canals and lake made for the draining of that river in the feafons of its overflowings, are defcribed with fuch pomp and magnificence by heathen authors, that it might defervedly be reputed one of the wonders of the world. The fulleft and beft account of thefe things in England is to be found in the fecond book of that very valuable and very useful work, Dr. Prideaux's Connection. Tho' Babylon was feated in a low watry plain, yet in fcripture (Jer. LI. 25.) it is called a mountain on account of the great highth of its walls and towers, its palaces and temples: and (5) Berofus fpeaking of fome of its buildings, faith that they appeared most like mountains. Its gates of brass and its broad walls are particularly mentioned in fcripture: (If. XLV. 2. Jer. LI. 58.) and the city (6) had an hundred gates, 25 on each fide, all made of folid brafs: and its walls according to (7) Herodotus were 350 feet in highth, and 7 in thicknefs, and 6 chariots could go abreaft upon them, as (8) Diodorus affirms after Ctefias.

Such a city as this, one would imagin, was in no danger of being totally abandoned, and coming to nought. Such a city as this might furely with lefs vanity than any other, boaft that the fhould continue for ever, if any thing human could continue for ever. So fhe vainly gloried, (If. XLVII. 7, 8.) I shall be a lady for ever; I am, and none else beside me; I shall not fit as a widow,

neither fhall I know the lofs of children. But the prophets Ifaiah and Jeremiah, plainly and particularly foretold the deftruction of this city. They lived during the declenfion of the kingdom of Judah; and as they predicted the captivity of the Jews, fo they likewife foretold the downfal of their enemies: and they fpeak with fuch affurance of the event, that they defcribe a thing future as if it were already paft. (If. XXI. 9.) Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. (Jer. LI. 8.) Babylon is fuddenly fallen and deftroyed; howl for her, take balm for her pain, if fo be the may be healed. It is fomewhat remarkable, that one of Ifaiah's prophecies concerning Babylon is intitled (XXI. 1.) the burden of the defert of the fea, or rather of the plain of the fea, for Babylon was feated in a plain and furrounded by water. The propriety of the expreffion confifts in this, not only that any large collection of waters in the oriental stile is called a fea, but alfo that the places about Babylon, as (9) Abydenus informs us of Megafthenes, are faid from the beginning to have been overwhelmed with waters, and to have been called the fea.

Cyrus, who was the conqueror of Babylon, and transferred the empire from the Babylonians to the Medes and Perfians, was particularly foretold by name (If XLIV. 28. XLV. 1.) above an hundred years before he was born. He is honored with the appellation of the Lord's anointed, and the Lord is faid to have holden his right hand, and to have girded him : (If. XLV. 1, 5.) and he was raifed up to be an inftrument of providence for great purposes, and was certainly a perfon of very extraordinary endowments, though we fhould allow that Xenophon had a little exceeded the truth, and had drawn his portrait beyond the reality. It was promised that he fhould be a great conqueror, fhould fubdue nations before him, (If. XLV. 1.) and I will loofe the loins of kings to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the

(9) λέγεται δε παντα μεν εξ αρχης ὕδωρ είναι, θαλασσαν καλεομένην. Ferunt, inquit, loca hæc omnia jam inde ab initio aquis obruta fuiffe,

VOL. I.

marifque nomine appellata. Eufeb. Præp. Evang. Lib. 9. Cap. 41. Po 457. Edit. Vigeri.

M

gates