fign of making it the feat of his empire; but death put a fudden stop to his intention. The rival city of Seleucia, fometimes called by the name of Babylon, and erected upon the neighbouring banks of the Tigris, gradually drew away its inhabitants; and the city of Ctefiphon, afterwards built by the Perfian Kings, who fucceeded the Macedonian empire, completed its ruin. Herodotus, the moft antient of the Greek hiftorians, who visited Babylon about a century and a half after the time of Cyrus, mentions, that even at that period the walls were in a great degree decayed. Strabo, the accurate Geographer, who flourished in the reign of Auguftus, fix centuries after the conquests of Cyrus, relates, that a great part of the city, once fo fplendid and populous, was then a mere, defert. Even then her foundations were fallen, and her walls were thrown down. Paufanias, a celebrated Greek traveller and author, who flourished in the third century af→

The walls of Babylon were built partly of brick and bitumen, and partly of brick alone. The bricks were made upon the fpot, and hardened in the fun. When a wall of this fort comes to be out of repair, and is neglected, in no long courfe of ages it must be totally destroyed by the heavy rains, and at length washed away, and reduced to its native earth. Lowth's Ifaiah, p. 95Notes.

ter

ter Chrift, records, that of " Babylon, the greatest city that the fun ever fhone upon, nothing remained but fome of its walls." Jerom, an eminent Father of the Church, in the following century faw it when reduced to ruins, and remarked, that the part of the walls which remained, ferved only as an inclosure for a royal park. Benjamin of Tudela, a learned Jew, in his Journal, written more than seven centuries ago, has recorded, that Babylon was then laid waste, but that fome remains might be traced of the royal palace of the antient Kings. Perfons feared to approach too near to this fpot, as it was infefted by ferpents and other venomous animals." The wild beasts of the defert laid there, and the houfes were full of doleful creatures. From the accounts of more modern travellers, it appears that the traces of this once magnificent city are become less and less visible. Rauwolf, a German, who travelled at the clofe of the fixteenth century, relates, that fome parts of what he fuppofed to be the celebrated Tower of Belus, remained ruinous, low, and full of poisonous animals. Petrus Vallenfis, a noble Roman, reported at the beginning of the seventeenth century, that a

↑ Ifai. xiii. 21.

huge

huge pile of ruins remained upon the fame fpot, and within fifty or fixty paces were traced fome foundations of buildings. Succeeding travellers have afferted, that even the ruins were fo much decayed as to leave very flight traces of the fituation of the city. Every one that goeth by is aftonished to behold her that was queen among nations, now a wilderness, a dry [or barren] land, and a defert. The daughter of Babylon has long fat in duft; there has been no throne for the queen of the Chaldeans. She has not been inhabited from generation to generation, except by the wild beasts. The Almighty has executed his awful purpose declared by the mouth of his holy Prophets. This great city has been fwept with the befom of deftruction, and hardly a memorial of it remains but in history, in the denunciations of the Prophetic writers, and in the accounts of their accomplishment.

The truth and clearness of these Prophecies concerning Cyrus and Babylon, and the correfponding historical facts, are fo well known and fo generally acknowledged, that a short statement of the principal circumstances has

• Jer. 1. 13, &c.

been

been deemed fufficient. Many other particulars relating to the fiege of Babylon, the time and manner of its reduction, and the various nations that joined in the confederacy against it, are mentioned by the Prophets, and confirmed with equal exactness by both facred and profane hiftorians. But, as the subject of the preceding is closely connected with that of the prefent Chapter, I fhall beg permiffion to consider them together.

It may be remarked, that Cyrus, the generous deliverer of the Jewish people, was equally celebrated in profane and in facred history, for his eminent virtues and extensive conquests. He was at once the shepherd of the Lord to gather his flock into their fold; and the fword of his vengeance against an impious nation, who had filled up the measure of their iniquities. The apoftacy and wickednefs of the children of Ifrael required especial correction; but to prove to them and to the world, that they were ftill under his peculiar care (as deftined to fulfil the gracious defigns. of his Providence), and subjected to the power of an idolatrous nation by the express appointment of their God, and not by what is called the chance of war, or the fuperior force of the Affyrians, it pleafed God to declare by

his fervants the Prophets, while his people dwelt in peace and safety, previous even to the threats of the King of Babylon, the name of the nation by whom their city and temple were to be destroyed, and themselves conquered and carried away captive- the time when this event was to take place-the term of years during which their captivity was to laft and the name of their deliverer, Cyrus, by whofe authority they should be reftored to their own land at the appointed time, with fignal marks of favour, allowed to rebuild Jerufalem, and afterwards to enjoy a period of fecurity and happiness. And, notwithstanding the high improbability that a people fo long and fo perverfely addicted to idolatry, fhould renounce the worship of idols, in a city where every enticement must have been offered at a time too, when they feemed to be forfaken by their God, and when many of the vifible demonftrations of his prefence were withdrawn thefe people, it

was alfo declared, fhould remain for ever free from the fin for which they had fo feverely fuffered; and faithful to the Law, which, after their refidence in the capital of Afiatic luxury and vice, it must have been more difficult to obey.

VOL. I.

It