* operation of God's Spirit, the deceiver may be difcovered by the following appearance! he comes with a gloomy countenance, and commands a folemn awe: his deportment is grave, his voice hollow, his looks declarative of penfiveness and deep thought; he deals much in morality, death and judg ment to come; his eyes ftare, his face is pale, and his accents are weighty; a folemn gloom, difimal fenfations follow, and are communicated to all the audience; a cold 'chill runs thro' the blood, and every thought of the heart is brought into captivity to the boufe appointed for all living. This is a fo lemn meeting, and a folemn opportunity; and is called the powerful operations of the Holy Spirit.'

Merodach-Baladan fending his ambaffadors to Hezekiah king of Judah, and making his fuit at the Lord's court, was an accomplished measure; this was a fair fpecimen of the mystery of iniquity, and deceivableness of unrighteoufnels, which has been fo fatally practifed, in these last days, upon the Chrif tian church. Satan, in this business, began be times to be transformed into an angel of lights to which character the prophet refers, by calling the king of Babylon Lucifer, Jon of the morning. Ifai. xiv. 12. It was, doubtlefs, in the view of all natural men, a very promifing incident, that death and hell fhould propofe truce and lafting league with life and heaven. O the boldness of this fon of darkness! This propofal was not unlike the very generous proffer of the devil to Jefus Chrift; that if he

would confent to his being honored and worfhipped as the king of heaven, he should be made king below, and all the kingdoms and glory of this world should be given to him for his own; or, in other words, that he would exchange kingdoms with him. The people of Ifrael were altogether an elect people; but the prophets, upon whom came the Holy Spi rit, were among them the very elect. This bufinefs deceived Hezekiah, but even this could not deceive Isaiah.

The authority and miniftrations of the prophets formed a high court of heaven over the kingdoms of the world; by the word of the Lord in their mouth, they planted and plucked up nations, erected and pulled down kingdoms. We have their commiffion, Jer. i. 9, 10. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord faid unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.— See, I have this day fet thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to deftroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. Agreeably to this, Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, was ordained and fet up; and her extenfive dominions, and long ages, were affigned to her by the word of the Lord in the mouth of the prophets; and first, by the prophet Ifaiah, whofe declarations, upon the occafion of the cordial reception by Hezekiah of the ambassadors of the king of Babylon, require particular notice.

Then came Ifaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and faid unto him, What faid these men? Ggg

and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah faid, They came from a far country, even from Babylon. And he faid, What have they feen in thine houfe? And Hezekiah anfwered, All the things that are in mine houfe, have they feen: there is nothing among my treafures that I have not fhewed them. And Ifaiah faid unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine houfe, and that which thy fathers have laid up in ftore unto this day, fhall be carried into Babylon: nothing fhall be left, faith the Lord.And of thy fons that fhall iffue from thee, which thou shalt beget, fhall they take away, and they fhall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Ba bylon. Thus, upon this moft melancholy occafion, the great commiffion of Babylon was taken out, and regiflered in this high court of the prophets; and the children of Zion, and her princes, with all her treasures, were made over by an unalterable decree, for the ufe, enriching, and aggrandizement of this proud city.

The giving forth of this word of the Lord forms a memorable date in the annals of the powers that be. It appears, however, by the anfwer of Hezekiah, it was underflood that this folemn denunciation would not go into effect in his days; but, fometime in the days of his fon, when, as has been observed, the land of Judah was firft invaded by this pow er, it may be concluded that the long, long reign of Babylon, as by this decree of hea ven, and the great captivity of the fons of Zion, commenced.

What appears to have contributed principally to the rife of Babylon, was the great event of the deftruction of the army of Sennacherib, which took place about this time before Jerufalem. The Lord fent an angel and cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp; and the flower of the army, to the number of an hundred and eighty five thousand men, died in one night. By this blow, the Affyrian power, commonly ftyled the dragon, was incurably wounded.This event opened the way for Babylon to rife unrivalled to empire. There is a remarkable coincidence of this event with those just mentioned.

It has been fuppofed, that the feven times which were to pafs over Nebuchadnezzar, whilft he fhould have the heart, and act the part of a beast, were intended, in a figure, to defignate the times in which the king of Babylon fhould come up as a lion from the fwelling of Jordan, and ketch prey upon the mountains of Zion.-Seven times, or one full week of years, upon the great prophetic fcale, is 2520 years. This fuppofition is much ftrengthened by the confideration, that the continuance of myftical Babylon is faid exprefsly to be for a time, times, and an half; and as the times allotted for this divifion of the empire, is the half of a week, three times and an half, it is natural to conclude, that the whole of the times, called the times of the Gentiles, is a whole week, or seven times. And this thought is further ftrengthened by other agreements.

The measures of the Babylonian empire, for fome time, were adopted with great fo briety and moderation; but, about fixty years after it was first founded by Nabonaffar, in the time of Manaffeh, which was about 690 or 700 years before Chrift, the Nebuchadnez zar madness fell upon the brain of this power, when it began to ravage like a lion driven from his wonted haunts. From this time, 220 years bring us down to the age of Xerxes, when a fimilar madness feized the Perfian monarch; and he is reprefented, Dan. viii. like an infuriated beast, as pushing every way, and ftaving all that flood before him.-At which time, it is thought, we are to begin the computation of the 2300 days, which reckoning is the duration of the vifion concerning the daily facrifice; and the 220 added to this, complete the feven times.

The order of Magians, who were the great repofitories of the fciences and counsellors at law, together with other religious orders, were early introduced as conftituent parts of the government, and made a great figure in Babylon. -In this connexion, it may be worthy of re mark, that the Greeks and Romans, who, in their turn, came in for a fhare in the glory of this city of nations, formed their codes of laws, which, to this day, remain the great pillars of this moft ftupendous fabric of human wifdom, about the fame time that the golden crown of Babylon was formed for the great image. Of the firft laws of Greece it was faid, that they were written in the blood the people. The law of Zion is written in

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