dread, without any panic fear; and while we continued to advance, though slowly, the hallooing of the people made the noble beasts gradually change their position, till, in the course of twenty minutes, they disappeared. We then rode up close to the ruins, and I had once more the gratification of ascending the awful sides of the Tower of Babel. In my progress, I stopped several times to look at the broad prints of the feet of the lions, left plain in the clayey soil; and, by the track, I saw, that if we had chosen to rouse such royal game, we needed not to have gone far to find their lair. But while thus actually contemplating these savage tenants, wandering amid the ruins of Babylon, and bedding themselves within the deep cavities of the once magnificent temple, I could not help reflecting on how faithfully the various prophecies had been fulfilled, which relate, in the Scriptures, to the utter fall of Babylon, and the abandonment of the place."

Thus faithfully and beautifully do the word of prophecy and ocular demonstration agree, with reference to the present appearance of Babylon. But the greatness of Babylon did not depart in a day; and each step, in the progress of its decline, was an accomplishment of a prediction. Conquered for the first time, (the particulars of which may be found in the chapter of the kingdom of Assyria,) it was first reduced from an imperial to a tributary city.

"Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, Sit on the ground:

There is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans:

For thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

Take the millstones, and grind meal :*
Uncover thy locks, make bare the leg,
Uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered,

* Dr. Henderson says, that the mill here referred to is a hand-mill, resembling the Scotch quern, and consisting of an upper and lower stone, the latter of which is fixed, and the former is made to move round upon it by means of a handle. The work is very laborious, and in the east is confined to female slaves, or other females in low circumstances. Homer speaks of the employment as the work of slaves:

"Beneath a pile that close the dome adjoin'd,
Twelve female slaves the gift of Ceres grind :
Task'd for the royal board to boll the bran

From the pure flour (the growth and strength of man,)
Discharging to the day the labour due,

Now early to repose the rest withdrew;

One maid, unequal to the task assign'd,

Still turn'd the toilsome mill with anxious mind."-Odyss. xx. 105–108.

Yea, thy shame shall be seen:

I will take vengeance,

And I will not meet thee as a man.

As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, The Holy One of Israel.

Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: For thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.”—Isa. xlvii. 1—5.

According to Herodotus, the Babylonians rebelled against Darius, and the walls were reduced in height, and all the gates destroyed.

"Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about:
All ye that bend the bow,

Shoot at her, spare no arrows:

For she hath sinned against the Lord.

Shout against her round about:

She hath given her hand:

Her foundations are fallen,

Her walls are thrown down:

For it is the vengeance of the Lord:

Take vengeance upon her;

As she hath done, do unto her."-Jer. l. 14, 15.

The temples and palaces of Babylon were rifled and destroyed by Xerxes, in his rage after his ignominious retreat from Greece.

"And I will punish Bel in Babylon,

And I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: And the nations shall not flow together any more unto him. Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,

That I will do judgment upon her graven images.”—Jer. li. 44, 52.

That celebrated warrior, Alexander the Great, attempted to restore Babylon to its former glory; and he conceived an idea of making it the metropolis of an universal empire. But man is impotent to save that which his Maker has doomed to destruction. While the rebuilding of the Temple of Belus, and the reparation of the embankment of the Euphrates were carrying forward, the conqueror was cut off in the height of his power, and the flower of his age.

"Take balm for her pain,

If so she may be healed.

We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed.”—Jer. li. 8, 9.

Diodorus relates, that Seleucia, according to the design of its founder, was the chief cause of the decline of Babylon as a city, and that it drained it of a great part of its population. A later writer also observes, that about 130 years B. C., Hume

rus, a Parthian governor, who was noted as surpassing all tyrants in cruelty, exercised great severities on the Babylonians, and having burned the Forum and some of the temples, and destroyed the best portions of the city, reduced many of the inhabitants to slavery, and caused them, with their families, to be transported into Media.

"For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her,
Which shall make her land desolate,

And none shall dwell therein:

They shall remove, they shall depart
Both man and beast."-Jer. 1. 3.

Thus Babylon gradually verged for centuries, towards poverty and desolation. Although Cyrus chiefly resided there, and sought to reform the government, and remodel the manners of the Babylonians, successive kings of Persia preferred Susa, Persepolis, and Ecbatana, as the seat of government. In like manner, the successors of Alexander made no attempt to carry his design of restoring Babylon into effect; and, after the division of his empire, the very kings of Assyria deserted the "golden city," and dwelt in Seleucia. All appeared to reiterate the words of the prophet:

"Forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: For her judgment reacheth unto heaven,

And is lifted up even to the skies."—Jer. li. 9.

It was not to Babylon alone that the judgments of heaven were confined. They rested on the land, as well as the doomed metropolis; and it is pleasing to trace out how beautifully the word of prophecy and history harmonize in the destruction of Chaldea. Speaking of the nations that were to lay waste the country, the prophet says:

"The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; The Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.

They come from a far country,

From the end of heaven,

Even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation,
To destroy the whole land."-Isa. xiii. 4, 5.

"For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands," Jer. XXV. 14.

Among the nations who have served themselves of the land of the Chaldeans may be enumerated the Persians, Macedo

nians, Parthians, Romans, Saracens, and Turks: and among the great kings who have successively subdued and desolated Chaldea, may be mentioned Alexander the Great; Cyrus and Darius, kings of Persia: Seleucus, king of Syria; Trajan, Severus, and Julian, emperors of Rome; and Omar, the successor of Mohammed. Some of these nations were unknown to the Babylonians, and unheard of in the world at the time in which the prophecy was delivered; and most of them, with reference to their local relation to Chaldea, may be truly said to have come "from a far country," and "from the end of heaven."

The prophet describes their dispositions, exhibiting them as

"Cruel both with wrath and fierce anger,

To lay the land desolate."-Isa. xiii. 9.

The

The Persians and Parthians vied with each other in cruelty and fierceness against both resisting and subjugated enemies. History records, that three thousand Babylonians were impaled at one time, by order of Darius. After this, they were cruelly treated by the Macedonian conquerors of Babylon, and at the time when the possession of Chaldea was contested between Antigonus and Seleucus. So were they, also, under the proverbially cruel Parthians; and in the second century of the Christian era, the Romans, who came "from a far country," proved themselves to be cruel and fierce desolators of Chaldea. "Under the reign of Marcus," says Gibbon, "the Roman generals penetrated as far as Ctesiphon and Seleucia. They were received as friends by the Greek colony; they attacked, as enemies, the seat of the Parthian kings; yet both cities experienced the same treatment. sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with the massacre of 300,000 of the inhabitants tarnished the glory of the Roman triumph. Seleucia sunk under the fatal blow, but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, had sufficiently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate siege against the emperor Severus. Ctesiphon was thrice besieged, and thrice taken by the predecessors of Julian." This emperor carried on the fearful work of his predecessors. The fields of Assyria were devoted by him to the calamities of war; and the philosopher retaliated on a guiltless people, those acts of rapine and cruelty which had been committed by their haughty master in the Roman provinces. The Persians looked from the walls of Ctesiphon, and beheld the desolation of the adjacent country. The extensive region that lies between the river

Tigris and the mountains of Media was filled with villages and towns, and the fertile soil, for the most part, was in a state of high cultivation. But, on the approach of the Romans, this rich and smiling prospect vanished. Wherever they marched, the inhabitants deserted the open villages, and took shelter in the fortified towns; the cattle were driven away; the grass and corn were consumed by fire; and as soon as the flames had subsided which interrupted the march of Julian, the vindictive conqueror beheld the melancholy face of a smoking and naked desert. Perisabor, the second city of the province, resisted a fierce and desperate assault. But it was in vain; a breach having been made in the walls, the soldiers rushed impetuously into the town, and after practising lawless excess, every the city was reduced to ashes, and the engines which assaulted the citadel were planted on the ruins of the smoking houses. In the end, the Turks, aided by the fierce Saracens, Koords, and Tartars, with persevering cruelty, became the scourge of the land of the Chaldeans. Verily,

"The Lord hath opened his armoury,

And hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation:

For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts

In the land of the Chaldeans."-Jer. 1. 25.

"Thus saith the Lord;

Behold, I will raise up against Babylon,

And against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, A destroying wind;

And will send unto Babylon fanners,

That shall fan her, and shall empty her land:

For in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about:

Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow,

And against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine:

And spare ye not her young men ;

Destroy ye utterly all her host.

Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,

And they that are thrust through in her streets."—Jer. li. 1-4.

"Waste and utterly destroy after them saith the Lord,

And do according to all that I have commanded thee.

A sound of battle is in the land,

And of great destruction.

And I will kindle a fire in his cities,

And it shall devour all round about him."-Jer. 1. 21, 22, 32.

Again, the prophet, in describing the ravages in the land of the Chaldeans, says:

"Remove out of the midst of Babylon,

And go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans,

And be as the he goats before the flocks.