the city had least natural defence, there were also three of these towers between every two of the gates; and the same number between each corner, and the nearest gate on its two sides. The city was composed of fifty streets, each fifteen miles long, and one hundred and fifty feet broad, proceeding from the twenty-five gates on each side, and crossing each other at right angles, besides four half streets, two hundred feet in breadth, surrounding the whole, and fronting towards the outer wall. It was thus intersected into six hundred and seventy-six squares, which extended four furlongs and a half on each of their sides, and along which the houses were built, at some distance from each other. These intermediate spaces, as well as the inner parts of the squares, were employed as gardens, pleasure grounds, &c.; so that not above one half of the immense extent which the walls inclosed was occupied by buildings.

The walls of Babylon were of extraordinary strength, being eighty-seven feet broad, and three hundred and fifty feet high, and they were surrounded on the outside by an immense ditch. The city comprehended a regular square, forty-eight miles in circuit, and was eight times larger than London with its appendages. Gillies' Hist.

of the World, Vol. I. p. 166.

The celebrated French Historian, M. Rollin, gives, in his Ancient History, the following account of the besieging and taking of Babylon, by Cyrus. "The taking of Babylon," says he, "is one of the greatest events in ancient history; and the principal circumstances with which it was attended were foretold in the Holy Scriptures many years before it happened.

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Cyrus, whom the Divine Providence was to make use of, as an instrument for the executing his designs of mercy and goodness towards his people, was mentioned in the

Scripture, by his name, above 200 years before he was born. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron. And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know, that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel: for Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.' Isaiah xlv. 1-4.

"God Almighty was pleased not only to cause the captivity, which his people were to suffer at Babylon, to be foretold a long time before it came to pass, but likewise to set down the exact number of years it was to last. The term he fixed for it was seventy years--after which he promised he would deliver them, by bringing a remarkable and irretrievable destruction upon the city of Babylon, the place of their bondage and confinement. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.' Jer. xxv. 11.

"That which kindled the wrath of God against Babylon was, 1. Her insupportable pride; 2. Her inhuman cruelty towards the Jews; and 3. The sacrilegious impiety of her king.

1. Her pride. She believed herself to be invincible. She said in her heart, I am the queen of nations, and I shall remain so for ever. There is no power equal to mine. All other powers are either subject or tributary to me, or in alliance with me. I shall never know either barrenness or widowhood. Eternity is written in my

destiny, according to the observation of all those that have consulted the stars to know it.

2. Her cruelty. It is God himself that complains of it. I was willing, says he, to punish my people, as a father chastiseth his children. I sent them for a time into banishment at Babylon, with a design to recall them, as soon as they were become more thankful and more faithful. But Babylon and her prince have added to the paternal chastisement which linflicted, such cruel and inhuman treatment as my clemency abhors. Their design has been to destroy; mine was to save. The banishment they have turned into a severe bondage and captivity, and have shown no compassion or regard either to age, infirmity, or virtue. Isaiah xlvii. 6.

3. The sacrilegious impiety of her king. To the pride and cruelty of his predecessors, Belshazzar added an impiety that was peculiar to himself. He did not only prefer his false divinities to the true and only God, but fancied that he had vanquished his power.

Make bright the arrows, gather the shields, saith the prophet, speaking to the Medes and Persians. The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple. Jer. li. 11.

Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand,-a day cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate. Isaiah xiii. 6, 9. Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon, and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. Jer. 1. 18.

Shout against her round about. Jer. 1. 15, 29, and li. 3. Recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her:-and spare not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host. Every

one that is found shall be thrust through, and every one that is joined to them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. daughter of Babylon, (Ps. cxxxvii. 8, 9,) who art to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, and the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. (Isaiah xiii. 19-22.) It shall never be inhabited; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there; but wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell there; and satyrs shall dance there; And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; (Isaiah xiv. 23, 24;) and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have proposed, so shall it stand.

1. We have already seen that the army by which Babylon will be taken, is to consist of Medes and Persians, and to be commanded by Cyrus.

2. The city shall be attacked after a very extraordinary

manner, in a way which she did not at all expect: Therefore shall evil come upon thee: thou shalt not know from whence it riseth. (Isa. xlvii. 11.) She shall be all on a sudden and in an instant overwhelmed with calamities, which she was not able to foresee: Desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. (Isa. xlvii. 11.) In a word, she shall be taken, as it wcre in a net, before she perceiveth that any snares have been laid for her: I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware. (Jer. 1. 24.) 3. Babylon reckoned the Euphrates alone was sufficient to render her impregnable, and triumphed in her being so advantageously situated and defended by so deep a river: 0 thou that dwellest upon many waters: (Jer. li. 13:) it is God himself who points out Babylon under that description. And yet that very river Euphrates shall be the cause of her ruin. Cyrus, by a stratagem (of which there had never been any example before, nor has there been any thing like it since) shall turn the course of that river, shall lay its channel dry, and by that means open himself a passage into the city: I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. (Jer. 1. 38, and li. 36.) A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up. Cyrus shall take possession of the quays of the river; and the waters which rendered Babylon inaccessible shall be dried up, as if they had been consumed by fire: The passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burnt with fire. (Jer. li. 32.)

She shall be taken in the night time, upon a day of feasting and rejoicing, even whilst her inhabitants are at table, and think upon nothing but eating and drinking: In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord. (Jer. li. 39.) It