ably emphatical, and the accomplishment of them has been no leis remarkably exact. If. xiii. 19.—22. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Challies excellency, fall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrak. It fall never be inhabited, neither fall it be dwelt in from generation 19 generation; neither foall the Arabian pitch bis tint there, neither shall the shepherds make their fuld there, but wild beats of the deferts fhall lie there, and their boufes fhall be full of doleful creatures, and owls fhall dwell there, and fatyrs fhall dance there; and the wild beats of the islands fhall cry in their defolate Loufes, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come, and her days Shall not be prolonged.

Also 14. 22, 23. For I will rise up against them, faith the Lord of hofts, and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and fon and nephew, faith the Lord. I will alfo make it a poffeffion for the bittern, and pools of water, and I will fweep it with the beefom of deflruction, faith the Lord of hosts.

Jer.

Jer. 1. 9. &c. For lo, I will raife, and caufe to come up against Babylon, an affembly of great nations from the North country, and they shall fet themfelves in array against her. From thence fhe fhall be taken. Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited; but it shall be wholly defolate. Every one that goeth by Babylon fhall be aftonished, and bifs at all her plagues. For it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols. Therefore, the wild beasts of the defert, with the wild beasts of the island (that is, foreign wild beafts, not natives of the country) fhall dwell there, and the owls fhall dwell therein, and it shall be no more inhabited for ever, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

Hiftory fhews the full accomplishment of these, and many other very circumftantial prophecies concerning the deftruction of Babylon. This great city never recovered the blow which it received from Cyrus; for the river never returned to its old channel; and the neighbouring country be

coming marfhy, it foon became a very difagreeable fituation, and in time not habitable. The destruction of the idols of Babylon had been very particularly foretold, and it was fully accomplished by Xerxes, who returning defeated, and disappointed from Greece, wreaked his vengeance upon Babylon, taking its treasures, and destroying all its idols, which the Perfians held in abhorrence. If. xxi. 9. Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her Gods he has broken to the ground. xlvi. 1. Bel boweth down, Nebo floopeth, their idols were upon the beafs, and upon the cattle. Jer. 1. 2. Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. li. 44. &c. And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. The fame circumftance is repeated afterwards, and it was fulfilled when Cyrus reftored to the Jews the veffels of gold and filver, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple of Jerufalem, and had lodged in the temple of Bcl.

The

The gradual defolation of Babylon, till it

to that ftate of utter deftruction, which is defcribed by the prophets, is truly remarkable. Diodorus Siculus, who wrote a little before the time of Chrift, fays that the buildings were then ruined and decayed, a fmall part of it only being inhabited, and the reft of the inclosure imployed in tillage. Pliny, who wrote in the first century after Christ, fays that Babylon was reduced to folitude; being exhausted by the neighbourhood of Selucia, which had been built upon the Tygris, not very far from it. Paufanias, who wrote about the middle of the fecond century, fays that of Babylon, the greatest city that the fun ever faw, there was nothing remaining but the walls; and Lucian, who wrote about the fame time, fays that in a little time it would be fought for and not be found, like Nineveh. In the time of Jerome, who lived in the fourth century, the whole inclosure of the walls of Babylon was actually converted into a chace for keeping wild beafts, and was used for that, and no other purpose, by many of the kings

of

of Perfia. At length even the walls of Babylon, fo much celebrated for their height and strength, were demolished; but whether by the Saracens, who conquered that country, is not known.

We find no mention made of Babylon for many centuries after this; but Benjamin, a Jew of Tudela, who travelled into that country, about feven hundred years ago, fays that there then remained fome of the ruins of Babylon, particularly of Nebuchadnezzar's palace, but that people were afraid to go into the place, on account of the ferpents and fcorpions with which it swarmed. At prefent it is not agreed among travellers where the great city of Babylon stood.

The prophecies concerning TYRE were, likewife, exceedingly numerous, referring to several fucceffive periods in the history of that great commercial city; and they have all been remarkably fulfilled. I fhall only mention the last of them, as it correfponds to the prefent ftate of Tyre. It was deli

vered