is not at all probable that the Egyptians will ever recover their liberty, and have a king of their own. Indeed, Egypt has been so often conquered and enslaved, fo many perfons of foreign extraction have fettled in it, that it must be hard to fay who of the prefent inhabitants are of the flock of the ancient Egyptians. But it is not probable that any native of the country, of whatever ftock, will ever have the fovereignty of it.

2. Ifaiah lived in the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, about one hundred and fifty years before the conquefts of Nebuchadnezzar, and more than two hundred before those of Cyrus, while the kingdom of Babylon was inferior to that of the Affyrians; yet he foretold the fall of the Babylonian empire, in language peculiarly emphatical, and his predictions have been verified by the events in a most remarkable manner, fome of the particulars not having taken place till many ages had elapfed. Ifaiah xiii. 9, Babylon the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency, fhall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It fhall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation, neither

fball

fball the Arabian pitch his tent there; and their houfes fhall be full of doleful creatures, and awls fhall dwell there, and fatyrs shall dance there, and wild beasts of the islands (that is foreign wild beasts) fhall cry in their defolate houfes, and dragons in their pleasant palaces, and the time is near to come, and her days fhall not be prolonged. He also fays, chap. xiv. 22, I will rife up against them, faith the Lord of hofts, and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and fon, and nephew, faith the Lord. I will also make it a possession for bitterns, and pools of water; and I will fweep it with the befom of deftruction, faith the Lord of hofts. The prophet even mentioned the nations, then in their very infant ftate, by which Babylon would be conquered, when he said, chap. xxi. 2, Go up, Elam, (i. e. Perfia) befiege, O Media, for they were the Medes and Perfians in conjunction that overturned the Babylonian empire.

Jeremiah, who lived in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, at the time when the Babylonian empire was in its greatest ftrength and glory, prophefied to the fame purport with Isaiah, chap. 50. "Lo, I will raife up, and caufe to come up against Babylon, an affembly of

66 great

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great nations from the north country, and they fhall fet themselves in array against her. From thence the fhall be taken. "Becaufe of the wrath of the Lord it shall "not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly de"folate. Every one that goeth by Babylon "fhall be aftonished, and hifs at all her plagues, "for it is a land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols. Therefore "the wild beafts of the defert, and the wild "beafts of the islands, fhall dwell there, and "the owls fhall dwell therein, and it shall more inhabited for ever, neither "fhall it be dwelt in from generation to ge"neration."

66

be no

This prophet alfo mentions the names of the future enemies of Babylon, chap. li. 11. 1 "The Lord fhall raife up the fpirit of the

kings of the Medes; for his device is "against Babylon to deftroy it." The duration of the captivity of his countrymen by the Babylonians, Jeremiah exactly foretold. After mentioning the conquefts of this nation, he proceeds thus, chap. xxv. II. "Those nations fhall ferve the king of Babylon seventy years, and it fhall come to

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plished, I will punish the king of Babylon, "and that nation, faith the Lord.' Chap. xxix. 10, "For thus faith the Lord, that "after feventy years be accomplished at Ba"bylon, I will vifit you, and perform my "good word towards you, in caufing you to "return to this place."

The prophecies concerning the defolation of Babylon were not fulfilled in their full extent, till long after the time of our Saviour. Babylon was taken by Cyrus exactly seventy years after the conqueft of Judea; but it was not reduced to the state mentioned in these prophecies but by flow degrees. Cyrus having taken the city by turning the river which flowed through it out of its channel, all the neighbourhood became marshy and unhealthy. Diodorus Siculus, who wrote a little before the time of our Saviour, fays, that the buildings of Babylon were then decayed, that only a small part of it was inhabited, and that the reft of the inclosure was employed in tillage. Pliny, who wrote in the first century after Chrift, fays that Babylon was then reduced to folitude, being exhaufted by the neighbourhood of Seleucia, which was not far from it. Paufanias, who

wrote

wrote about the middle of the second century, fays, that " of Babylon, the greatest city that "the fun ever faw, there was nothing re "maining but the walls;" and Lucian, who wrote about the fame time, fays, that very foon it would, like Nineveh, be fought for, and not be found. In the time of Jerom, who lived in the fourth century, the whole inclosure of the walls of Babylon was actually converted into a place for keeping wild beafts, and was ufed for that and no other purpose by many of the kings of Perfia. At length even the walls of this great city, fo much celebrated for their height and thicknefs, were demolished, but by whom is not known. About feven hundred years ago, Benjamin, a Jew, found fome remains of the ruins of Babylon, but people were afraid to go among them on account of the serpents and fcorpions with which it fwarmed; and at present it is not agreed among travellers, in what place the great city of Babylon stood. In this cafe, furely, there cannot be any pretence for faying that the prediction was fubfequent to the event, and yet no event was ever more distinctly described.

What is perhaps, however, more remark

able