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facts, and though they often add circumstances, yet they are, in general, in some sort dependent on the text. 1. They say, Babel was builded by the giants, because Nimrod, one of the builders, is called in. the Hebrew text gibbor, a mighty man, or, as the Septuagint has it, a giant. 2. These giants, they say, sprang from the earth, because in Genesis 10, 11, it is said, he went minhaarets hahie, i. e. out of that earth; but in the English translation it is, Out of that land went forth Ashur; but this is rather spoken of Ashur, who was another of the Babel builders. 3. These giants are said to have waged war with the Gods, because it is said of Nimrod, Genesis 10, 9, he was a mighty hunter before the Lord; or, as others have rendered it, a warrior and a rebel against the Lord. These giants are said to have raised a tower up to heaven, as if they had intended to have ascended thither. This appears to have been founded on, and its top shall reach to heaven. 4. It is said that the Gods sent strong winds against them, which dispersed both them and their work. This appears to have been taken from the Chaldean history, in which it is said their dispersion was made to The four winds of heaven, be arba ruchey schemyia, i. e. to the four winds of the world. 5. And because the verb phuts or naphats, used by Moses in the original, signifies not only to scatter, but also to break to pieces, whence thunder. Isa. 30, 30, is called nephets in the original, a breaking to pieces; hence, they supposed the whole work was broken to pieces, and overturned. It is probable, from this disguised representation of the Hebrew text, that the Greek and Roman

poets took their fable of the giants waging war with the Gods, and piling mountain upon mountain in order to scale heaven.

Concerning their language, which was spoken at the" building of Babel, it is likely it was one, and was composed of monosyllables-that each had a distinct ideal meaning, and only one meaning; as different acceptations of the same word would undoubtedly arise, either from compounding terms, or when there were but few words in a language, using them by a different mode of 'pronunciation to express a variety of things. Where this simple monosyllabic language prevailed, and it must have prevailed in the first ages of the world, men would necessarily have simple ideas, and a corresponding simplicity of manners. The Chinese language is exactly such as this; and the Hebrew, if stripped of its vowel points, and its prefixes, suffixes, and postfixes, separated from their combinations so that they might stand by themselves, it would answer nearly to this cha rácter, even in its present state. In order, therefore, to remove this unity of sentiment and design, which I suppose to be the necessary consequence of such a language, caused them to articulate the same word differently, to affix different ideas to the same term, and, perhaps, by transposing of syllables and interchanging of letters from new terms and compounds, so that the mind of the speaker was apprehended by the hearer in a contrary sense to what was intended.

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A third and more terrible overthrow of sinners is demonstrated by the destruction of the four cities, which were in the vale of Sodom and Gomorrah, The

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tract of country called Sodom and Gomorrah, was eighteen miles wide by seventy long, but is now filled. with water, and is called the Dead Sea.

From the bottom, it is said by Dr. Clark, arises frequently large lumps of a bitumenous matter, from which a foetid odour escapes. A phenomenon also of the same nature, though more surprising, is frequently seen in these dreary waters, which is, the rising up of large hemispheres of this bitumen, which, as soon as they touch the surface, and are acted on by the external air, burst at once with a great smoke and noise. This happens generally near the shore; but farther out in the deep is as frequently soon large columns of smoke to suddenly shoot up from the bottom. From this phenomena, it is supposed that beneath this sea is still a subterranean fire; hence, some authors have asserted, that Sodom still continue to burn, and has burnt from the day of its ruin till now: From which circumstance, I should certainly suppose that those cities, and the territory on which they stood, was destroyed by the eruption of subterranean fire, rather than by lightning, which some have thought, in glancing along on the surface of the earth, might have caught accidentally, and fired the bitumenous substance of this plain, of which it was chiefly composed. But undoubtedly it was a storm of fire just then created for that express purpose; for in that case, it was as easy for God to pour down from the atmosphere, a shower of fire. and brimstone, as it was for him, as the request of Elijah the prophet, to send a flash or great flame of fire from heaven, twice in succession, and destroyed at cach

time a captain and his men. And if we may rely upon the sacred word, those cities were destroyed in a supernatural way, for the sins of their inhabitants, who were equally involved in the tremendous overthrow. Their numbers were unquestionably very great, for they inhabited four cities in the vale of Sodom, besides those who dwelt in villages and country seats. One hundred thousand persons would be quite as small a number, as is reasonable to suppose.

A fourth instance of God's severity against flagitious sinners, was the universal death which was effected at midnight by the destroying angel in all the families of the Egyptians--the number of whom, though not spoken of in the Scriptures, must have been very great, for at that time the Egyptians were a strong and numerous people. Also the destruction of Pharaoh's great army in the Red Sea immediately after.

A fifth, is the case of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who conspired against Moses and Aaron about the priesthood; but God ended the contest by causing the earth to open and swallow up all that appertained to them in a moment; and with them there was two hundred and fifty men who had favoured this project, anè had, according to the desire of Moses, appeared before the Lord, with ceusers in their hands, in order that God should decide whether the priesthood should belong to the Levites, or should belong to any of the people who were capable, which was the thing Korah and his company had contended for. But against these there came out a great flame of fire from the Lord, and destroyed the two hundred and fifty pretenders to the

sacred office. But before this thing could terminate, and the subject be at rest, and the people satisfied that the priesthood was given to Moses and to Aaron, and to the seed of Aaron forever, it was necessary that God should vindicate the fact by further severity, because on the morrow there arose a great murmuring against Moses and his brother Aaron, in which they alleged that they had killed the Lord's people, insinuating that they had done it of themselves by some art or device of which they were possessed, more than the people knew of, thinking probably it was a necromantic power by which they had effected it. But while this vile slander and mockery of God's power was fermenting among them, for they were rising en masse against Moses and Aaron, there went out from the Lord suddenly a great plague, for Moses saw that the people at a distance were melting away, and he hastened Aaron with a censer and fire in it, to the place where they were dying; and he stood between the living and the dead, and made atonement. But before this was accomplished, there was slain fourteen thousand seven hundred of the ple who had thus sinned against God in this matter. Numbers, 16, 14.

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We observe, as the sixth instance, that of the Israelites there twenty-three thousand in the wilderness at once, by ne bite of fiery serpents, because they sinned by murmuring against God and against Moses, his

Our seventh instance of God's severity against enormcus sinners, is demonstrated in the discomfiture of the Assyrian host, who came against the Jews in the reigu