CHAP. VIII.

Miscellaneous Communications.

I HAVE already exceeded the limits I originally prescribed to myself. My only apology is, the importance of my subject. The farther I proceed in the discussion of it, the more interesting it appears. Of interested, sinister motives I can hardly be suspected. My expectations of success are far from sanguine. But I am solicitous to do my duty; and leave the event to the sovereign disposer of all things. Were my power equal to my will, all my fellow creatures in distress would experience immediate and effectual relief. But the relief of the children of misfortune and oppression is not my sole object. For the oppressors, as well as the oppressed, I both fear and feel. The signs of our times are truly portentous and alarming. They evidently are big with events of prodigious magnitude. The nations are terribly convulsed. Important revolutions have already taken place; and revolutions still greater seem to approach. The universal spread of Christianity in Europe, some centuries

ago, had almost totally banished slavery from it. In almost every corner of that quarter of the world, the Christian religion is still professed. Nor is slavery tolerated. But, strange to tell! the principal nations of Europe, while they disallow slavery at home, encourage it abroad. How inconsistent and absurd! Is it an evil, an enormous evil? Is it, instead of being suppressed, tolerated and patronized? Can such conduct escape finally unpunished? It is impossible. Every species of oppression God hates, he reprobates, he threatens, and, at an earlier period, or a later, he will infallibly punish. Shall not Europe, therefore, be afraid? Shall not America tremble? Innumerable are the instances on record, in which national sins have. drawn down fearful national judgments. Often, and awfully, does God, by his prophets, threaten oppressors. Does he delay the execution of the threatenings, and the infliction of public judgments? For this delay he has reasons worthy of the design and purposes of his moral government; which, to us may be, for the present, incomprehensible. But the delay is limited and temporary. The execution of the divine threatenings is no less certain than the fulfilment of the divine promises. For a long series of years, I might have said ages, has the punishment of the sins of other nations been threat

ened; and the execution of the threatnings delayed. But was the delay final? No; the fatal day, though long delayed, at last arrived, and the awful denunciations were realized. Examples extant in the annals of the world are many and obvious. Empires, kingdoms, and commonwealths, the most opulent and powerful, have been overthrown. Such is the instability of terrestrial things. Where now are the public monuments which the famous heroes of antiquity left behind them? Have they not long ago perished? Where are their magnificent palaces, their temples, their mausoleums, their rich and populous cities? Where are any remaining visible traces of the battles they fought, the empires they established, the laws they enacted; or the universal desolation they once spread around them? Have not the kingdoms they conquered undergone many revolutions, gained and lost their liberty, and experienced all those reverses and vicissitudes to which earthly glory is necessarily subjected? Does not the curious traveller explore large regions in search of standing records. of the greatness of former princes? Does he not traverse immense countries, once the seat of science and liberty, now the abode of barbarism and slavery? Does he not search, and search in vain, for cities, in the very spot on which they once

stood? Babylon has long ago fallen! Persepolis and Ecbatana are now no more! Long have travellers disputed, without ascertaining, the site of ancient Nineveh, that exceeding great city of three days journey. Where are the remaining signatures, in Asia Minor, or in Judea, of Alexander's victories? How few are the standing memorials in Gaul or in Britain, to evince that there existed such a person as Julius Cæsar, who conquered the one and invaded the other. Such has been the fate of the most extensive empires, the most populous cities, and the most favoured nations! What reason then have the sinful nations of our times to be afraid?

That I may impress, more deeply, the melancholy truth upon the minds of my readers, and that I may, as far as my influence can extend, exhibit a faithful warning to the sinful nations of Christendom, both in the eastern and the western hemisphere; I will exemplify the execution of the divine threatnings in two of the most signal instances, which the histories of former ages have transmitted to our times; the destruction of the famous cities of Babylon and Jerusalem. I begin with Babylon. Before I give an account of the destruction of this celebrated city, and shew the exact fulfilment of scripture-prediction in that

calamitous event, it will not, I trust, be unprofitable or unentertaining to my readers, to prefix a concise description of its origin, regularity, and

extent.

The name of Babylon, by which this famous city has long been known, is, probably, derived from the word Babel. This was the name of that extraordinary tower, which the human race. agreed, by their united art and strength, to build, soon after the flood. But, in a manner most unexpected, the design was rendered abortive, and a final stop put to the work. God, in a manner, which many writers have attempted to explain, but which still remains inexplicable, confounded their language. This extraordinary occurrence seems to have been the occasion of the name of the mighty tower which they intended to build; for Babel literally signifies confusion. Concerning the design of this great tower, or rather the builders of it, the sacred history does not fully inform us. It is supposed to have been intended to secure mankind from the fatal effects of another deluge. Eastern tradition says, they were three years employed in preparing materials, particularly bricks, for this tower, each of which was thirteen cubits long, and five thick; and twentytwo years in building it. That it was built of

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