to perceive any thing that could admit of my imagining | that either a wall or a ditch had existed within this extensive area. If any remains do exist of the walls, they must have been of greater circumference than is allowed by modern geographers, I may possibly have been deceived; but I spared no pains to prevent it. I never was employed in riding and walking less than eight hours for six successive days, and upwards of twelve on the seventh."

Major Keppel relates that he and the party who accompanied him, in common with other travellers, had totally failed in discovering any trace of the city walls;" and he adds, "the Divine predictions against Babylon have been so literally fulfilled in the appearance of the ruins, that I am disposed to give the fullest signification to the words of Jeremiah,-the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken."

Babylon shall be an astonishment.-Every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished. It is impossible to think on what Babylon was, and to be an eyewitness of what it is, without astonishment. On first entering its ruins, Sir Robert Ker Porter thus expresses his feelings: "I could not but feel an indescribable awe in thus passing, as it were, into the gates of fallen Babylon."-"I cannot portray," says Captain Mignan, "the overpowering sensation of reverential awe that possessed my mind while contemplating the extent and magnitude of ruin and devastation on every side."

How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder! How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! -The following interesting description has lately been given from the spot. After speaking of the ruined embankment, divided and subdivided again and again, like a sort of tangled network, over the apparently interminable ground-of large and wide-spreading morasses-of ancient foundations-and of chains of undulating heaps-Sir Robert Ker Porter emphatically adds:-"The whole view was particularly solemn. The majestic stream of the Euphrates, wandering in solitude, like a pilgrim monarch through the silent ruins of his devastated kingdom, still appeared a noble river, under all the disadvantages of its desert-tracked course. Its banks were hoary with reeds; and the gray, osier willows were yet there on which the captives of Israel hung up their harps, and while Jerusalem was not, refused to be comforted. But how is the rest of the scene changed since then! At that time those broken hills were palaces -those long undulating mounds, streets-this vast solitude filled with the busy subjects of the proud daughter of the East.-Now, wasted with misery, her habitations are not to be found and for herself, the worm is spread over her."

From palaces converted into broken hills;-from streets to long lines of heaps;-from the throne of the world to sitting in the dust; from the hum of mighty Babylon to the deathlike silence that rests upon the grave to which it is brought down;-from the great storehouse of the world, where treasures were gathered from every quarter, and the prisonhouse of the captive Jews, where, not loosed to return homewards, they served in a hard bondage, to Babylon the spoil of many nations, itself taken from thence, and nothing left; -from a vast metropolis, the place of palaces and the glory of kingdoms, whither multitudes ever flowed, to a dreaded and shunned spot not inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to generation, where even the Arabian, though the son of the desert, pitches not his tent, and where the shepherds make not their folds;-from the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, to the taking away of bricks, and to an uncovered nakedness;-from making the earth to tremble, and shaking kingdoms, to being cast out of the grave like an abominable branch;-from the many nations and great kings from the coasts of the earth that have so often come up against Babylon, to the workmen that still cast her up as heaps and add to the number of pools in the ruins;-from the immense artificial lake, many miles in circumference, by means of which the annual rising of the Euphrates was regulated and restrained, to these pools of water, a few yards round, dug by the workmen, and filled by the river;-from the first and greatest of temples to a burnt mountain desolate for ever; from the golden image, forty feet in height, which stood on the top of the temple of Belus, to all the graven images of her gods, that are broken unto the ground and mingled with the

dust-from the splendid and luxuriant festivals of Babylonian monarchs, the noise of the viols, the pomp of Belshazzar's feast, and the godless revelry of a thousand lords drinking out of the golden vessels that had been taken from Zion, to the cry of wild beasts, the creeping of doleful creatures of which their desolate houses and pleasant palaces are full, the nestling of owls in cavities, the dancing of wild goats on the ruinous mound as on a rock, and the dwelling-place of dragons and of venomous reptiles ;from arch upon arch, and terrace upon terrace, till the hanging gardens of Babylon rose like a mountain, down to the stones of the pit now disclosed to view ;-from the palaces of princes who sat on the mount of the congregation, and thought in the pride of their hearts to exalt themselves above the stars of God, to heaps cut down to the ground, perforated as the raiment of those that are slain, and as a carcass trodden under feet;-from the broad walls of Babylon, in all their height, as Cyrus camped against them round about, seeking in vain a single point where congregated nations could scale the walls or force an opening, to the untraceable spot on which they stood, where there is nothing left to turn aside, or impede in their course, the worms that cover it;-and finally, from Babylon the great, the wonder of the world, to fallen Babylon, the astonishment of all who go by it ;-in extremes like these, whatever changes they involve, and by whatever instrumentality they may have been wrought out, there is not to this hour, in this most marvellous history of Babylon, a single fact that may not most appropriately be ranked under a prediction, and that does not tally entirely with its express and precise fulfilment, while at the same time they all united show, as may now be seen,-reading the judgments to the very letter, and looking to the facts as they are, the destruction which has come from the Almighty upon Babylon.

Have

"The

Has not every purpose of the Lord been performed against Babylon? And having so clear illustrations of the facts before us, what mortal shall give a negative answer to the questions, subjoined by their omniscient Author to these very prophecies?" Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? not I, the Lord? and there is no god beside me ;-declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done-saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Is it possible that there can be any attestation of the truth of prophecy, if it be not witnessed here? Is there any spot on earth which has undergone a more complete transformation? records of the human race," it has been said with truth, “ do not present a contrast more striking than that between the primeval magnificence of Babylon and its long desolation." Its ruins have of late been carefully and scrupulously examined by different natives of Britain, of unimpeached veracity, and the result of every research is a more striking demonstration of the literal accomplishment of every prediction. How few spots are there on earth of which we have so clear and faithful a picture as prophecy gave of fallen Babylon, at a time when no spot on earth resembled it less than its present desolate solitary site! Or could any prophecies respecting any single place have been more precise, or wonderful, or numerous, or true,-or more gradually accomplished throughout many generations? And when they look at what Babylon was, and what it is, and perceive the minute realization of them all-may not nations learn wisdom, may not tyrants tremble, and may not skeptics think?-Keith.

Ver. 62. Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.

The course of the Tigris through Babylonia, instead of being adorned, as of old, with cities and towns, is marked with the sites of "ancient ruins." Sitace, Sabata, Narisa, Fuchera, Sendia "no longer exist." A succession of longitudinal mounds, crossed at right angles by others, mark the supposed site of Artemita, or Destagered. Its once luxuriant gardens are covered with grass; and a higher mound distinguishes "the royal residence" from the ancient streets. Extensive ridges and mounds, (near to Houmania,) varying in height and extent, are seen branching in every direction. A wall, with sixteen bastions, is the only me

66

morial of Apollonia. The once magnificent Seleucia is how a scene of desolation. There is not a single entire building, but the country is strewed for miles with fragments of decayed buildings. "As far," says Major Keppel, as the eye could reach, the horizon presented a broken line of mounds; the whole of this place was a desert flat." On the opposite bank of the Tigris, where Ctesiphon its rival stood, besides fragments of walls and broken masses of brick-work, and remains of vast structures encumbered with heaps of earth, there is one magnificent monument of antiquity," in a remarkably perfect state of preservation," "a large and noble file of building, the front of which presents to view a wall three hundred feet in length, adorned with four rows of arched recesses, with a central arch, in span eighty-six feet, and above a hundred feet high, supported by walls sixteen feet thick, and leading to a hall which extends to the depth of one hundred and fifty-six feet," the width of the building. A great part of the back wall, and of the roof, is broken down; but that which remains "still appears much larger than Westminster Abbey." It is supposed to have been the lofty palace of Chosroes; but there desolation now reigns. "On the site of Ctesiphon, the smallest insect under heaven would not find a single blade of grass wherein to hide itself, nor one drop of water to allay its thirst." In the rear of the palace, and attached to it, are mounds two miles in circumference, indicating the utter desolation of buildings formed to minister to luxury. But, in the words of Captain Mignan, "such is the extent of the irregular mounds and hillocks that overspread the site of these renowned cities, that it would occupy some months to take the bearings and dimensions of each with accuracy."

While the ancient cities of Chaldea are thus desolate, the sites of others cannot be discovered, or have not been visited, as none pass thereby; the more modern cities, which flourished under the empire of califs, are "all in ruins." The second Bagdad has not indeed yet shared the fate of the first. And Hillah-a town of comparatively modern date, near to the site of Babylon, but in the gardens of which there is not the least vestige of ruins-yet exists. But the former, "ransacked by massacre, devastation, and oppression, during several hundred years," has been "gradually reduced from being a rich and powerful city to a state of comparative poverty, and the feeblest means of defence." And of the inhabitants of the latter, about eight or ten thousand, it is said that "if any thing could identify the modern inhabitants of Hillah as the descendants of the ancient Babylonians, it would be their extreme profligacy, for which they are notorious even among their immoral neighbours." They give no sign of repentance and reformation to warrant the hope that judgment, so long continued upon others, will cease from them; or that they are the people that shall escape. Twenty years have not passed since towns in Chaldea have been ravaged and pillaged by the Wahabees; and so lately as 1823, the town of Sheereban "was sacked and ruined by the Coords," and reduced to desolation. Indications of ruined cities, whether of a remote or more recent period, abound throughout the land. The process of destruction is still completing. Gardens which studded the banks of the Tigris have very recently disappeared, and mingled with the desert, and concerning the cities also of Chaldea the word is true that they are desolations. For "the whole country is strewed over with the debris of Grecian, Roman, and Arabian towns, confounded in the same mass of rubbish."

But while these lie in indiscriminate ruins, the chief of the cities of Chaldea, the first in name and in power that ever existed in the world, bears many a defined mark of the judgments of heaven. The progressive and predicted decline of Babylon the great, till it ceased to be a city, has already been briefly detailed. About the beginning of the Christian era, a small portion of it was inhabited, and the far greater part was cultivated. It diminished as Seleucia increased, and the latter became the greater city. In the second century nothing but the walls remained. It became gradually a great desert; and, in the fourth century, its walls, repaired for that purpose, formed an enclosure for wild beasts, and Babylon was converted into a field for the chase -a hunting-place for the pastime of the Persian monarchs. The name and the remnant were cut off from Babylon; and there is a blank, during the interval of many ages, in the history of its mutilated remains and of its mouldering

decay. It remained long in the possession of the Saracens ; and abundant evidence has since been given, that every feature of its prophesied desolation is now distinctly visible-for the most ancient historians bore not a clearer testimony to facts confirmatory of the prophecies relative to its first siege and capture by Cyrus, than the latest travellers bear to the fulfilment of those which refer to its final and permanent ruin. The identity of its site has been com pletely established. And the truth of every general and of every particular prediction is now so clearly demonstrated, that a simple exhibition of the facts precludes the possibili ty of any cavil, and supersedes the necessity of any reasoning on the subject.

It is not merely the general desolation of Babylon,however much that alone would have surpassed all human foresight, which the Lord declared by the mouth of his prophets. In their vision, they saw not more clearly, nor defined more precisely, the future history of Babylon, from the height of its glory to the oblivion of its name, than they saw and depicted fallen Babylon as now it lies, and as, in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, it has, for the first time, been fully described. And now when an end has come upon Babylon, after a long succession of ages has wrought out its utter desolation, both the pen and the pencil of travellers, who have traversed and inspected its ruins, must be combined, in order to delineate what the word of God, by the prophets, told from the beginning that that end would be.

Truth ever scorns the discordant and encumbering aid of error: but to diverge in the least from the most precise facts would here weaken and destroy the argument; for the predictions correspond not closely with any thing, except alone with the express and literal reality. To swerve from it, is, in the same degree, to vary from them and any misrepre sentation would be no less hurtful than iniquitous. But the actual fact renders any exaggeration impossible, and any fiction poor. Fancy could not have feigned a contrast more complete, nor a destruction greater, than that which has come from the Almighty upon Babylon. And though the greatest city on which the sun ever shone be now à desolate wilderness, there is scarcely any spot on earth more clearly defined-and none could be more accurately delineated by the hands of a draftsman-than the scene of Babylon's desolation is set before us in the very words of the prophets; and no words could now be chosen like unto these, which, for two thousand five hundred years, have been its "burden"-the burden which now it bears.

Such is the multiplicity of prophecies and the accumulation of facts, that the very abundance of evidence increases the difficulty of arranging, in a condensed form, and thus appropriating its specific fulfilment to each precise and separate prediction, and many of them may be viewed connectedly. All who have visited Babylon concur in acknowledging or testifying that the desolation is exactly such as was foretold. They, in general, apply the more prominent predictions; and, in minute details, they sometimes unconsciously adopt, without any allusion or reference, the very words of inspiration.

Babylon is wholly desolate. It has become heaps-it is cut down to the ground-brought down to the grave-trod den on-uninhabited-its foundations fallen-its walls thrown down, and utterly broken-its loftiest edifices rolled down from the rocks-the golden city has ceased-the worms are spread under it, and the worms cover it, &c. There the Arabian pitches not his tent; there the shepherds make not their folds; but wild beasts of the desert lie there, and their houses are full of doleful creatures, and owls dwell there, &c. It is a possession for the bittern, and a dwelling-place for dragons; a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert; a burnt mountain; pools of water; spoiled, empty, nothing left, utterly destroyed; every one that goeth by is astonished, &c.

Babylon shall become heaps. Babylon, the glory of king doms, is now the greatest of ruins. Immense tumuli of temples, palaces, and human habitations of every description, are everywhere seen, and from long and varied lines of ruins, which, in some places, rather resemble natural hills than mounds which cover the remains of great and splendid edifices. Those buildings which were once the labour of slaves and the pride of kings, are now misshapen heaps of rubbish. "The whole face of the country is cov ered with vestiges of building, in some places consisting of

brick walls surprisingly fresh, in others, merely a vast succession of mounds of rubbish, of such indeterminate figures, variety, and extent, as to involve the person who should have formed any theory in inextricable confusion." Long mounds, running from north to south, are crossed by others from east to west; and are only distinguished by their form, direction, and number, from the decayed banks of canals. The greater part of the mounds are certainly the remains of buildings, originally disposed in streets, and crossing each other at right angles. The more distinct and prominent of these "heaps" are double, or lie in parallel lines, each exceeding twenty feet in height, and are intersected by cross passages, in such a manner as to place beyond a doubt the fact of their being rows of houses or streets fallen to decay. Such was the form of the streets of Babylon, leading towards the gates; and such are now the lines of heaps-"There are also, in some places, two hollow channels, and three mounds, running parallel to each other for a considerable distance, the central mound being, in such cases, a broader and flatter mass than the other two, as if there had been two streets going parallel to each other, the central range of houses which divided them being twice the size of the others, from their being double residences, with a front and door of entrance to face each avenue." "Irregular hillocks and mounds, formed over masses of ruins, present at every step memorials of the past."

From the temple of Belus and the two royal palaces, to the streets of the city and single dwellings, all have become heaps; and the only difference or gradation now is, from the vast and solid masses of ruins which look like mountains, to the slight mound that is scarcely elevated above the plain. Babylon is fallen, literally FALLEN to such a degree that those who stand on its site and look on numerous parallel mounds, with a hollow space between, are sometimes at a loss to distinguish between the remains of a street or a canal, or to tell where the crowds frequented or where the waters flowed. Babylon is fallen, till its ruins cannot fall lower than they lie. It is cut down to the ground. Her foundations are fallen; and the ruins rest not on them. Its palaces, temples, streets, and houses, lie "buried in shapeless heaps." And "the view of Babylon," as taken from the spot, is truly a picture of utter desolation, presenting its heaps to the eye, and showing how, as if literally buried under them, Babylon is brought down to the grave.

Cast her up as heaps. Mr. Rich, in describing a grand heap of ruins, the shape of which is nearly a square of seven hundred yards in length and breadth, states that the workmen pierce into it in every direction, in search of bricks, "hollowing out deep ravines and pits, and throwing up the rubbish in heaps on the surface." "The summit of the Kasr" (supposed to have been the lesser palace) is in like manner covered with heaps of rubbish."

Let nothing of her be left. Vast heaps constitute all that now remains of ancient Babylon. All its grandeur is de

parted; all its treasures have been spoiled; all its excelfence has utterly vanished; the very heaps are searched for bricks, when nothing else can be found; even these are not left wherever they can be taken away, and Babylon has for ages been "a quarry above ground," ready to the hand of every successive despoiler. Without the most remote allusion to this prophecy, Captain Mignan describes a mound attached to the palace ninety yards in breath by half that in height, the whole of which is deeply furrowed, in the same manner as the generality of the mounds. "The ground is extremely soft, and tiresome to walk over, and appears completely exhausted of all its building materials: nothing now is left save one towering hill, the earth of which is mixed with fragments of broken brick, red varnished pottery, tile, bitumen, mortar, glass, shells, and pieces of mother-of-pearl"-worthless fragments, of no value to the poorest. From thence shall she be taken let nothing of her be left. One traveller, towards the end of the last century, passed over the site of ancient Babylon, without being conscious of having traversed it.

While the workmen cast her up as heaps in piling up the rubbish while excavating for brick, that they may take them from thence, and that nothing be left; they labour more than trebly in the fulfilment of prophecy, for the numerous and deep excavations form pools of water, on the overflowing of the Euphrates, and, annually filled, they are not dried up throughout the year. Deep cavities are also formed by the Arabs, when digging for hidden treasure. The ground is sometimes covered with pools of water in the hollows." Sit on the dust, sit on the ground, O daughter of the Chaldeans. The surface of the mounds, which form all that remains of Babylon, consists of decomposed buildings reduced to dust; and over all the ancient streets and habitations there is lit-. erally nothing but the dust of the ground on which to sit. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered. "Our path," says Captain Mignan, "lay through the great mass of ruined heaps on the site of 'shrunken Babylon.' And I am perfectly incapable of conveying an adequate idea of the dreary, lonely nakedness that appeared before me."-KEITH.

CHAPTER LII.

Ver. 21. And concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it; and the thickness thereof was four fingers: it was hollow.

In the same way do the people of the East speak of any thing which is less in measure than a SPAN. "What height are your pepper vines ?"-"About two fingers." "When the rice becomes five fingers in height we shall want more rain." That which is less than a finger is spoken of as a grain of rice; the next gradation is an ellu, i. e. gingelly seed; the next is a mustard seed; and the last an anu, i. e. an atom.-ROBERTS.

CHAPTER I. Ver. 1. How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how is she become as a widow ! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

Jerusalem had been sacked by a ruthless foe, and her sons had been carried off to Babylon. "As a widow." When a husband dies, the solitary widow takes off her marriage jewels, and other ornaments; her head is shaved! and she sits down in the dust to bewail her lamentable condition. In the book Scanda Purana, it is said, after the splendid city of Kupera had been plundered by the cruel Assurs, "the city deprived of its riches by the pillage of the Assurs, resembled the winow!" Jerusalem became as a widow in her loneliness bemoaning her departed lord.ROBERTS.

Ver. 3. Judah is gone into captivity, because of affliction, and because of great servitude; she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overlook her between

the straits.

It was the practice with those who hunted wild beasts to drive them, if possible, into some strait and narrow passage, that they might more effectually take them, as in such a situation an escape could hardly be effected. It is to this circumstance that the prophet alludes in these words.BURDER.

Ver. 11. All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.

What a melancholy picture have we here! the captives, it appears, had been allowed, or they had concealed, some of their "pleasant things," their jewels, and were now obliged to part with them for food. What a view we also have here of the cruelty of the vile Babylonians! The people of the East retain their little valuables, such as jewels and rich robes, to the last extremity. To part with that, which has, perhaps, been a kind of heir-loom in the family, is like parting with life. Have they sold the last wreck of their other property; are they on the verge of death; the emaciated members of the family are called together, and some one undertakes the heart-rending task of proposing such a bracelet, or armlet, or anklet, or ear-ring, or the pendant of the forehead, to be sold. For a moment all are silent, till the mother or daughters burst into tears, and then the contending feelings of hunger, and love for their "pleasant things," alternately prevail. In general the conclusion is, to pledge, and not to sell, their much-loved ornaments; but such is the rapacity of those who have money, and such the extreme penury of those who have once fallen, they seldom regain them. Numbers give their jewels to others to keep for them, and never see them more. I recollect a person came to the mission house, and brought a large casket of jewels for me to keep in our iron chest. The valuable gems were shown to me one by one; but I declined receiving them, because I had heard that the person was greatly indebted to the government, and was led to suspect the object was to defraud the creditor. They were then taken to another person, who received them,-decamped to a distant part of the country, and the whole of the property was lost, both to the individual and the creditors.-ROBERTS.

CHAPTER II.

Ver. 1. How hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger.

Those who are in favour with the king, or those who obey him, are called his footstool. But the figure is also used in a degrading sense. Thus, do two men quarrel, one says to the other, "I will make thee my footstool." "Ah! my lord, be not angry with me, how long have 1 been your footstool ?" "I be that fellow's footstool! Never! Was he not footstool to my father ?"-ROBERTS.

Ver. 15. All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

See on Job 27. 23.

The vulgar, the low triumph of a victorious party, in the East, is extremely galling; there is nothing like moderation or forbearance in the victors. No, they have recourse tc every contemptuous and brutal method to degrade their fallen foe. Has one party triumphed over another in a court of law, or in some personal conflict, the conquerors shout loud, Aha! aha! fallen, fallen;" and then go close to the vanquished, and "clap their hands."-ROBERTS.

Oriental females express their respect for persons of high rank, by gently applying one of their hands to their mouths; a custom which seems to have existed from time immemorial. In some of the towns of Barbary, the leaders of the sacred caravans are received with loud acclamations, and every expression of the warmest regard. The women view the parade from the tops of the houses, and testify their satisfaction by striking their four fingers on their lips as fast as they can, all the while making a joyful noise. The sacred writers perhaps allude to this custom, in those passages where clapping the hand in the singular number is mentioned. Striking one hand smartly upon the other, which we call clapping the hands, was also used to express joy, in the same manner as among ourselves; but in the East it appears to have been generally employed to denote a malignant satisfaction, a triumphant or insulting joy. In this way, the enemies of Jerusalem expressed their satisfaction, at the fall of that great and powerful city.—

ΡΑΧΤΟΝ.

CHAPTER III.

Ver. 7. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. This figure is taken from a prisoner having a heavy chain to drag as he goes along. Husbands sometimes