indeed, have forefeen and foretold what that would be fo many ages afterwards? And yet they have exprefly foretold that it should be reduced to defolation. Ifaiah is very strong and poetical: (XIII. 19 &c.) Babylon the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency, fhall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither Shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the Shepherds make their fold there: But wild beasts of the defert fhall lie there, and their houfes Shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls fhall dwell there, and fatyrs fhail dance there: And the wild beasts of the iland fhall cry in their defolate houses, and dragons in their pleafant palaces; and ber time is near to come, and her day's fhall not be prolonged. Again (XIV. 22, 23.) I will rife up against them faith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and fon and nephew (or rather fon and grandfon) faith the Lord: I will alfo make it a poffeffion for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will fweep it with the befom of defruction, faith the Lord of bols. Jeremiah fpeaketh much in the fame frain: (L. 13, 23, 39, 40.) Because of the wrath of the Lord, it fall not be inhabited, but it fhall be wholly defolate; every one that goeth by Baby

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Babylon fhall be astonished, and bifs at all ber plagues: How is the hammer of the whole earth cut afunder and broken? how is Babylon become a defolation among the nations? Therefore the wild beafts of the defert, with the wild beasts of the ilands fhall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein; and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither fhall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbour cities thereof, faith the Lord; So no man shall abide there, neither shall any fon of man dwell therein. Again (LI. 13, 26, 29, 37, 42, 43.) O thou that dwelleft upon many waters, abundant in treasures; thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness: And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a ftone for foundations; but thou shalt be defolate for ever, faith the Lord: And the land shall tremble and forrow, for every purpose of the Lord fhall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a defolation without an inhabitant: And Babylon fhall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an aftonishment and an biffing without an inhabitant: The fea is come up upon Babylon ; She is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof: Her cities are a defolation, a dry land and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any fon of man pass thereby. We · fhall

fhall fee how thefe and other prophecies have by degrees been accomplished, for in the náture of the things they could not be fulfilled all at once. But as the prophets often speak of things future, as if they were already effected; fo they speak often of things to be brought about in process of time, as if they were to fucceed immediately; paft, prefent and to come being all alike known to an infinite mind, and the intermediate time not revealed perhaps to the minds of the prophets.

Ifaiah addreffeth Babylon by the name of a virgin, as having never before been taken by any enemy: (If. XLVII. 1.) Come down and fit in the duft, O virgin daughter of Babylon, fit on the ground: and (9) Herodotus faith exprefly, that this was the first time that Babylon was taken. After this it never more recovered its ancient fplendor; from an imperial, it became a tributary city; from being governed by its own kings, and governing ftrangers, it came itself to be governed by ftrangers; and the feat of empire being transferred to Shushan, it decayed by degrees, till it was reduced at last to

utter

(9) Kaι Baßurwo MET sputar avauspaito. Atque ita primo capta eft Babylon, Herod.

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Lib. 1. Cap. 191. p. 79. Edit,
Gale.

(1) Kugas

utter defolation. Berofus in Jofephus (1) faith, that when Cyrus had taken Babylon, he ordered the outer walls to be pulled down, because the city appeared to him very factious and difficult to be taken. And (2) Xenophon informs us, that Cyrus obliged the Babylonians to deliver up all their arms upon pain of death, distributed their beft houfes among his officers, impofed a tribute upon them, appointed a ftrong garrison, and compelled the Babylonians to defray the charge, being defirous to keep them poor as the beft means of keeping them obedient.

But notwithstanding thefe precautions, (3) they rebelled against Darius, and in order to hold out to the laft extremity, they took all their women, and each man choofing one of them, out of those of his own family, whom he liked beft, they ftrangled the reft, that unneceffary mouths might not confume their provifions. "And hereby," faith (4) Dr. Prideaux," was very fignally fulfilled the prophecy of Ifaiah against "them, in which he foretold (Chap. XLVII.)

9.) That two things should come to them in a "moment, in one day, the loss of children and wi"dowhood, and that thefe fhall come upon them in "their perfection, for the multitude of their force"ries, and the great abundance of their inchant"ments. And in what greater perfection could "these calamities come upon them, than when they themselves thus upon themselves be

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came the exccutioners of them?" Or rather, this prophecy was then fulfilled a fecond time, having been fulfilled before, the very night that Babylon was taken, when the Perfians flew the king himself and a great number of the Babylonians. They fuftained the fiege and all the efforts of Darius for twenty months, and at length the city was taken by ftratagem. As foon as Darius had made himfelf mafter of the place, he ordered three thoufand of the principal men to be crucified, and thereby fulfilled the prophecies of the cruelty, which the Medes and Perfians should use towards the Babylonians; (If. XIII. 17, 18. Jer. L. 42.) and he likewise demolished the wall, and took away the gates, neither of which,

expugnatu difficilem-Contra Apion. Lib. 1. Sect. 20. p. 1344. Edit. Hudfon.

(2) Xenoph. Cyropæd. Lib. 7. P. 114. & 117. Edit. Steph.

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(3) Herod. Lib. 3. Cap. 150 &c. p. 220. Edit. Gale.

(4) Prid. Connect. Part 1. Book 3. Anno 517. Darius 5.

(5)