of the xvith chapter. I have already inferted it at large, page 159, &c. It is there declared, that Babylon should be utterly destroyed, as the criminal cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for merly were; that the fhall be no more inhabited; that the fhall never be rebuilt; that the Arabs fhall not fo much as fet up their tents there; that neither herdsmen, or fhepherd, shall come thither even to reft his herd or his flock; that it shall become a dwelling-place for the wild beafts, and a retreat for the birds of the night; that the place where it ftood fhall be covered over with a marsh, or a fen, fo that no mark or footstep fhall be left to fhew where Babylon had been. It is God himself who pronounced this fentence, and it is for the fervice of religion, to fhew how exactly every article of it has been fucceffively accomplished. I. In the first place, Babylon ceafed to be a royal city, the kings of Perfia chufing to refide elsewhere. They delighted more in Shufan, Ecbatana, Perfepolis, or any other place; and did themselves deftroy a good part of Babylon. (a) II. We are informed by Strabo and Pliny, that the Macedonians, who fucceeded the Perfians, did not only neglec it, and forbear to make any embellifhmetits, or even reparations in it, but that moreover they built Seleucia in the neighbourhood, on purpose to draw away its inhabitants, and caufe it to be deferted. Nothing Nothing can better explain what the prophet had foretold; It shall not be inhabited. Its own maiters endeavour to depopulate it. III. The new kings of Perfia, who afterwards became maf ters of Babylon, completed the ruin of it, by building + Ctefiphon, which carried away all the remainder of the inhabi tants; fo that from the time the anathema was pronounced against that city, it seems as if thofe very perfons, that ought to have protected her, were become her enemies; as if they all had thought it their duty to reduce her to a state of folitude, by indirect means though, and without using any violence; that it might the more manifeftly appear to be the hand of God, rather than the hand of man, which brought about her deftruction. (b) IV. She was fo totally forfaken, that nothing of her was left remaining but the walls. And to this condition was fhe VOL. II. reduced I (b) A. C. 96. nitate Seluciæ, ob id conditæ à Nicatore intra nonagefimum (or quad. ragefimum) lapidem. Plin. l. vi. c, 26. Pro illa Seluciam & Ctefiphontem urbes Perfarum inclitas fecerunt. S. Hieron. in cap. xiii, Isa. reduced at the time when Paufanias wrote his remarks upon Greece. Illa autem Babylon, omnium quas unquam fol afpexit urbium maxima, jam præter muros nihil habet reliqui. Arcad. p. 509. Pauf. in V. The kings of Perfia finding the place deferted, made a park of it, in which they kept wild beafts for hunting. Thus did it become, as the prophet had foretold, a dwelling-place for ravenous beafts, that are enemies to man; or for timorous animals, that flee before him. Instead of citizens, fhe was now inhabited by wild boars, leopards, bears, deer, and wild alles. Babylon was now the retreat of fierce, favage, deadly creatures, that hate the light, and delight in darkness. (c) Wild beasts of the defert fhall lie there, and dragons fhall dwell in their pleafant palaces. (d) St. Jerom has tranfmitted to us the following valuable remark, which he had from a Perfian monk, that had himself feen what he related to him. Didicimus à quodam fratre Elas mita, qui de illis finibus egrediens, nunc Hierofolymis vitam exigit monacharum, venationes regias effe in Babylone, & omnis generis beflias murorum ejus ambitu tantum contineri. In cap. Ifa. xiii. zz. VI. But it was fill too much that the walls of Babylon were flanding. At length they fell down in feveral places, and were never repaired. Various accidents deftroyed the remain. der. The animals, which ferved for pleafure to the Perfian kings, abandoned the place: Serpents and fcorpions remained, fo that it became a dreadful place for perfons that should have the curiofity to vifit, or fearch after its antiquities. The Eu phrates, that used to run through the city, having no longer a free channel, took its course another way, fo that in 4 Theodoret's time there was but a very little ftream of water left, which run across the ruins, and not meeting with a defcent, or free paffage, neceffarily degenerated into a marfh. (e) In the time of Alexander the Great, the river had quitted its ordinary channel, by reafon of the outlets and canals which Cyrus had made, and of which we have already given an account; thefe out-lets, being ill flopped up, had occafioned a great inundation in the country. Alexander, defigning to fix the feat of his empire at Babylon, projected the bringing back of the Euphrates into its natural and former channel, and had actually fet his men to work. But the Almighty, who watched over (c) Ifa. xiii. 21, 22. (d) A. C. 400. (e) Arrian de exped. Alex. 1. viii. He wrote in the reign of Antonius, | vius converfus eft in aliam viam, & her rudera minimus aquarum meatus fuit. Theodor, in cap. 1. Jerem. ver. 9. fucceffor to Adrian. ↑ Empore squondam urbem ipfam mediam dividebat nunc autem flu 38, ver the fulfilling of his prophecy, and who had declared, he would destroy even to the very remains and footsteps of Babylon, (f) [I will cut off from Babylon the name and remnant] defeated this enterprize by the death of Alexander, which happened foon after. It is eafy to comprehend how, after this, Babylon being neglected to fuch a degree as we have seen, its river was converted into an inacceffible pool, which covered the very place where that impious city had ftood, as Ifaiah had foretold: (g) I will make it pools of water. And this was neceffary, left the place where Babylon had ftood, should be difcovered hereafter by the courfe of the Euphrates. VII. By means of all thefe changes Babylon became an utter defert, and all the country round fell into the fame state of defolation and horror; fo that the most able geographers at this day cannot determine the place where it flood. In this manner God's prediction was literally fulfilled; (b) I will make it a poffeffion for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will fee it with the befom of deftruction, faith the Lord of hofts. I myself, faith the Lord, will examine with a jealous eye, to fee if there be any remains of that city, which was an enemy to my name and to Jerufalem. I will thoroughly fweep the place where it ftood, and will clear it fo effectually, by defacing every footftep of the city, that no perfon fhall be able to preferve the memory of the place chofen by Nimrod, and which I, who am the Lord, have abolished. I will fweep it with the befom of deftru&tion, faith the Lord of hofts. VIII. God was not fatisfied with caufing all these alterations to be foretold, but, to give the greater affurance of their certainty, thought fit to feal the prediction of them by an oath. (i) The Lord of hofts hath faworn, faying, Surely as I have thought, fo fhall it come to pass; and as I have purpofed, fo fhall it ftand. But if we would take this dreadful oath in its full latitude, we must not confine it either to Babylon, or to its inhabitants, or to the princes that reigned therein. The malediction relates to the whole world; it is the general anathema pronounced against the wicked; it is the terrible decree, by which the two cities of Babylon and Jerufalem shall be separated for ever, and an eternal divorce be put between the good and the wicked. The fcriptures, that have foretold it, fhall fubfift till the day of its execution. The fentence is written therein, and depofited, as it were, in the publick archives of religion. The Lord of hofts bath fworn, faying, As I have thought, fo fhall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, fo fhall it ftand. (ƒ) Ifa. xiv. 22. I 2 (6) Ibid. Nunc omnino destrusta, ita ut vix ejus fuperfint rudera. What Baud What I have faid of this prophecy concerning Babylon is almost entirely taken out of an excellent treatife upon Isaiah, which is still in manufcript. SECT. IV. What followed upon the taking of B A BYLON. YRUS entered the city after the manner we have de scribed, put all to the fword that were found in the ftreets; then commanded the citizens to bring him all their arms, and afterwards to fhut themselves up in their houses. The next morning, by break of day, the garrison, which kept, the citadel, being apprifed that the city was taken, and their king killed, furrendered themfelves to Cyrus. Thus did this prince, almoft without ftriking a blow, and without any resistance, find himself in peaceable poffeffion of the strongest place in the world. The first thing he did was, to thank the gods for the fuccefs they had given him. And then having affembled his principal officers, he publickly applauded their courage and prudence, their zeal and attachment to his person, and diftributed rewards to his whole army. (1) After which he reprefented to them, that the only means of preferving what they had acquired was to perfevere in their ancient virtue; that the proper end of victory was not to give themselves up to idlenefs and pleasure; that, after having conquered their enemies by force of arms, it would be fhameful to fuffer themselves to be overthrown by the allufements of pleasure; that, in order to maintain their ancient glory, it behoved them to keep up amongst the Perfians at Babylon the fame difcipline they had obferved in their own country, and as a means thereto, take a particular care to give their children education. This (fays he) will neceffarily engage us daily to make further advancements in virtue, as it will oblige us to be diligent and careful in fetting them good examples: Nor will it be eafy for them to be corrupted, when they fhall neither hear nor fee any thing amongst us, but what excites them to virtue, and fhall be continually employed in honourable and laudable exercises. (m) Cyrus committed the different parts and offices of his government to different perfons, according to their various, talents and qualifications: But the care of forming and appointing general officers, governors of provinces, minifters and ambaffadors, he referved to himfelf, looking upon that as the proper duty and employment of a king, upon which depended his glory, the fuccefs of his affairs, and the happiness and mediam op. l. vii. p. 192. (1) Pag. 197, 200, (m) Pag. 202. and tranquillity of his kingdom. His great talent was to ftudy the particular character of men, in order to place every one in his proper fphere, to give them authority in proportion to their merit, to make their private advancement concur with the publick good, and to make the whole machine of the ftate move in fo regular a manner, that every part fhould have a dependance upon, and mutually contribute to fupport each other; and that the ftrength of one fhould not exert itself but for the benefit and advantage of the rest. Each perfon had his diftrict, and his particular sphere of bufinefs, of which he gave an account to another above him, and he again to a third, and fo on, till by thefe different degrees and regular fubordination, the cognizance of affairs came to the king himself, who did not ftand idle in the midst of all this motion, but was as it were the foul to the body of the ftate; which by this means he governed with as much eafe, as a father governs his private family. () When he afterwards fent governors, called fatrape, into the provinces under his fubjection, he would not fuffer the particular governors of places, or the commanding officers of the troops, kept on foot for the fecurity of the country, to depend upon thofe provincial governors, or to be fubject to any one but him; that if any of the fatrapa, elate with his power or riches, made an ill ufe of his authority, there might be found witneffes and cenfors of his mal-administration within his own government. For there was nothing he fo carefully avoided, as the trufting of any one man with an abfolute power, as knowing that a prince will quickly have reafon to repent his having exalted one perfon fo high, that all others are thereby abafed and kept under. Thus Cyrus eftablished a wonderful order with refpect to his military affairs, his treafury, civil government. (o) In all the provinces he had perfons of approved integrity, who gave him an account of every thing that paffed. He made it his principal care to honour and reward all fuch as diftinguished themfelves by their merit, or were eminent in any refpect whatever.. He infinitely preferred clemency to martial courage, because the latter is often the cause of ruin and defolation to whole nations, whereas the former is always beneficent and useful. (p) He was fenfible, that good laws contribute very much to the forming and preferving of good manners, but, in his opinion, the prince by his example was to be a living law to his people: (9) Nor did he think a man worthy to reign over others, unless I 3 (a) Cyrop. 1. viii; p. 229. Pag. 205. he |