in the palace, and in the houses of the principal inhabitants. And having collected all the precious things of the sanctuary, and of the citizens, he set fire to the temple and city,-overthrew the walls, towers, bulwarks, and fortresses,— razed Jerusalem to its foundation, and, levelling all to the ground, left it in utter desolation. According to Josephus, the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar happened on the same day of the same month, in which the second temple was afterwards destroyed by Titus. In the pillage of the sanctuary, Nebuzaraddan carried off the vessels of gold and silver-the great laver or brazen sea made by Solomon-also the pillars of brass, and their chapiters, with the golden table and the candlesticks, and all the treasure and precious things of the royal palaces of the kings of Judah. The high-priest Seraiah, and the second priest Zephaniah, with seventy of the principal persons, were sent to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, who commanded them to be put to death. Nabuzaraddan left only "the poor of the people" to till the ground, and to dress the vineyards of desolate and depopulated Judah, and L appointed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, governor over them. Of all the remnant of this devoted race, Jeremiah alone found favour in the sight of the imperial and barbaric victor, who commanded that he should be protected and provided for, either in his own country or at Babylon. The patriot prophet made choice of Judea, and, amid the ruins of his country, he remained secure under the protection of Gedaliah, till Gedaliah himself was murdered by Ishmael, one of the blood royal of Judah, in league with Baalis, king of the Ammonites. The terror occasioned by this act of treachery, induced the remainder of the people to flee into Egypt, where they carried Jeremiah and Baruch along with them: And thus the land was left in utter desolation till she had enjoyed her seventy years of Sabbaths. Such was the melancholy end of the Hebrew nation, a people whose privileges had been great above all nations, so their iniquities abounded more than all. If the heathen-who knew not God, and were impious and abominable, sinning against the light of conscience, and blind to those visible indications by which creation is made capable of manifesting the eternal power of the Godhead, were without excuse-what palliation shall be offered for Judah and Israel, to whom Jehovah had shewn himself a Father, King, and God, for so many ages and generations, by signs and wonders -of mercy, of judgment, and of power? We thus perceive that sin is not only the reproach, but the ruin of a people; and when the Lord determines to execute vengeance, he spares neither populous cities-magnificent templesillustrious princes-nor holy prophets,-but, in one general ruin, hurls all to destruction and desolation, or to captivity and death. Among all their iniquities, the sin of idolatry appears to have been that immedicable canker in the heart of Israel which no balm could heal, and no instrument could uproot. Jehovah had anointed the Hebrews as a nation of priests for his own service and worship, to reclaim the other nations of the earth, and to make war upon every other creed under heaven; but false to the sacred trust, and impiously cold to his loving-kindness and peculiar favour, they corrupted themselves after the abo minations of the heathen around them,-they passed their sons through the fire to Moloch, and burnt incense to the queen of heaven, until the Lord arose in his wrath and scattered them among those nations whose gods they had preferred, and whose pity they might now vainly attempt to propitiate. "As the Lord spared not the angels that sinned, and has doomed the whole race of fallen man to ne grave, and all unbelievers to hell, --and as he spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all,"*-we need not be astonished that he spared not the beloved people. "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at her first time; but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved. Therefore, my God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations. He shall not return unto the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king." • Scott. CHAPTER V. "The Scythian hills, "The margin of the Syrian sea, the isles Milman. THE Chaldean monarch having completed the final destruction of the Hebrews as a nation, and arranged the affairs of Syria and Palestine, returned in triumph to Babylon. It was at this period that he appears to have commanded a magnificent image of his god Bel, to be formed out of the golden spoils of the Holy City, and which was dedicated to the idol, by an august ceremony, in the plains of Dura. Eut before we relate the in |