Babylon from his Indian expedition, proposed to rebuild it; and accordingly set ten thousand men to work, in order to clear away the rubbish; but his death happening foon after, a ftop was put to all further proceedings in that defign, and from thenceforward this magnificent city began to decline apace.

We have now feen Nebuchadnezzar in all his majefty and fplendour, both at home and abroad. What remains to fay of him, will be of a different nature. A confpicuous inftance of the mutability of fortune, we shall see him under great trouble and anxiety of mind, and even, as the text is commonly understood, degraded beneath the meaneft of mankind; we fhall fee him exhibited as an example to princes, of the confequences of being too much elated with power.

He was scarcely returned from his late wars, when he had the famous dream of the tree that was hewn down, as recorded in the book of Daniel. His wife His wife men, aftrologers, and Chaldeans, not being able to give him any fatisfactory interpretation of fuch an extraordinary vision, he at length revealed it to

Daniel,

Daniel, who no fooner heard the dream, than (as he himself expreffes it) he was aftonished for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him.

At length, after he had recovered from his furprife, he deprecated the evil omen, and excufed himself to the king, who was very folicitous with him to utter the truth without fear or difguife. In obedience to this command, he informed Nebuchadnezzar, that the tree he had feen in his dream, was meant for himself: that, by the order of the watcher and the holy one concerning the tree, it was fignified, that he should be driven from the fociety of men, and become as a beast; and that, in fine, he fhould fo continue till he had been brought to a due fense of the fupremacy and omnipotence of God. To which he added, that the ftump of the tree, which was to be left, fignified that the kingdom fhould nevertheless revert to him once

more.

Such was Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which he clofed with an exhortation to him to abftain from fin, and to show mercy to the poor, that fo he might procure to himself a prolongation of peace

and tranquillity. But though this extraordinary fentence was pronounced by a perfon on whom, judging from the experience he had already had of Daniel's fkill in divination, he could entirely rely, it seems to have made no lasting impreffion on the king's mind; and not being immediately executed, the terrors of the denunciation probably wore off before the time was quite come.

However, about twelve months afterwards, as he was one day walking in his palace, or, as fome think, on the uppermoft terrace of his hanging garden, and contemplating the glories of the city he had taken fo much delight in adorning, unable to contain the pride of his heart, he thus exclaimed: "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the houfe of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ?" He had no fooner expreffed this vaunting exclamation, than there fell a voice from heaven, faying, "O king Nebuchadnezzar! to thee it is spoken: the kingdom is departed from thee." And strait he was driven from the fociety of men, and dwelt with the beafts of the field, and he eat grafs as an ox; and his body was wet with

the

the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles feathers, and his nails like birds. claws.

Thus runs the letter of the text, which is fometimes taken in its ftricteft fenfe; it being fuppofed, that lofing his fenfes, he wandered about in the fields, and there took up his abode with the cattle, till feven times, or feven years, had paffed over his head. But, concerning this metamorphofis, and the duration of it, there are a great variety of opinions. Certain it is, that it was of a most degrading nature, and calculated to restore the arrogant king to a due fenfe of his dependence on a fuperior potentate.

During Nebuchadnezzar's disorder, his fon, Evil-merodach, is faid to have taken in hand the reins of government, and to have behaved fo ill as to draw upon himself his father's most heavy displeasure, when he came to understand what had been done. For, when his feven years were expired, the king threw him into the prifon where Jehoiachin, the captive king of Judah, had lain thirtyfeven years. Having fatisfied his injured fubjects by this exemplary justice on his fon, and, by a public decree, given that honour

and praife to God, which he now acknowledged to be his due, he continued in the poffeffion of his kingdom a year longer, and then died, having reigned upwards of forty years.

The circumftances of Nebuchadnezzar's death are omitted in Scripture; but may be fabulously fupplied from profane authors, who tell us, that when he had completed all the mighty deeds before related, he ascended the top of his palace, and being there fuddenly inspired by a fpirit from heaven, he prophefied to the following effect:

"Behold, O Babylonians! I foretel you a calamity at hand, which, nor the fates, nor "our forefather Belus, nor our queen Beltis, can poffibly avert. A Perfian mule fhall

come, and, by the affiftance of your own gods, fhall load your necks with a moft 'galling yoke; and this deftruction fhall be"fal you by means of a Mede, in whom the Affyrians were wont greatly to glory themfelves. O, would that he, ere thus he betrays my people, were fwallowed up by "fome whirlpool, or overwhelmed in the depths of the fea! or that, hurried away "into fome lonely defert, he might there re