transmigration of souls, at least to the extent of their passing from one human body into another. This opinion was, however, much more ancient than the Grecian or Roman philosophers; it was prevalent among the ancient Egyptians and Asiatics.

No doctrine was more dear to the Pharisees, or had more influence on their life, than that God had pledged himself to accept, protect, bless with special favour in this life, and eternally exalt the Jews, on account of Abraham's excellence, if they carefully observed the law and the traditions. They believed that he hated every other people, and purposed to reduce them to a state of slavery under them, when Messiah appeared and ascended the throne of David his father. They extended ceremonial washing far beyond the laws of Moses, and declared the neglect of the most unmeaning of them, such as the washing of hands before meals, a crime equally great as fornication, and worthy of death. They refused to eat with Gentiles or any who adhered not to the traditions. They assumed the appearance of extreme gravity and devotion, making broad their phy. lacteries, fasting twice a week, praying frequently in public places, and ostentatiously supplying the wants of the poor.

A few of them were distinguished by integrity, steadfastly obey. ing the laws of justice, truth, and purity; according to the letter of the law, as interpreted by the traditions, they were "blameless." But the leaders of the sect were generally destitute of moral principle, and unmoved by the dictates of conscience. Their ambition, thirst for applause, covetousness, and sensual habits and pursuits, were unbounded, except by whatever was necessary to prevent the multitude from detecting their real character; for they omitted nothing that was calculated to induce all ranks to venerate them for piety and zeal towards God, and to confide in them as the only safe guides in religion and the affairs of life. To augment their authority and power, they laboured and travelled to disseminate their opinions, they compassed sea and land to make proselytes, who might be prepared to execute any scheme, however immoral or atrocious, which they conceived would advance their worldly interests or gratify their malignant and licentious desires and appetites. They indeed claimed to be the legitimate successors of the holy prophets; their fathers had killed them, but their monuments they carefully preserved and profusely ornamented.

Nothing satisfied these rabbins short of completely enslaving the minds of the multitude. To effect this they undermined the authority of the Scriptures, and exalted their own as that alone which was infallible. Thus, like the corrupt Christian teachers of later centuries, they maintained that the written law could not be understood without the Mishna, or traditions of the church. The spirit of the pharisees pervades the Talmuds and their expositors. The oral and written laws, remarks a rabbi, "depend on each other like two twins of a roe. And to him who separateth the one from the other, are directed the words, 'A whisperer separateth chief friends.' He is as one that hath no God." Others thus write: "To study the Scriptures is neither virtue nor vice. It is something of a virtue to study the Mishua; but the greatest of all virtues is the study of the Gemara. The Scripture is like water; the Mishna like wine; and the Gemara spiced wine. The words of the scribes are more delightful than those of the prophets. You must believe the

judge, should he say that thy right hand is the left, or the left the right. He who mumurs against his rabbi, doth as much as he who mumurs against God. He who transgresses the precepts of one learned in the law is worthy of death. It is duty to respect the disciples of the wise, but much more their instructions. The fear due to the rabbins is equal with the fear of God. It is proper for every man to honour his father, but much more his teacher; for the former is merely the instrument of bringing him into this life, while the latter guides him to the life hereafter, which is eternal. He who teaches a Talmud ordinance in the presence of his instructor, is guilty unto death. Every one who partakes of a feast where a wise man is present, doth as much as if he shared in the presence of the Divine glory. To receive the disciple of a rabbi into one's house, is a service equal to offering daily sacrifice; and to do him any service, or suffer him to enjoy and use your goods, is, as it were, to be linked to the Divine glory."

CHAP. IV.

STATE OF THE PAGAN WORLD IN THE REIGN OF

ARTAXREXES LONGIMANUS.

CYRUS stands in the system of prophecy on a loftier eminence than any other king, if we except good Josiah, king of Judah: the name of each was announced hundreds of years before his birth, by Him to whom all things are ever present. And it is worthy of notice, that the principal work performed by each is described by the prophetic Spirit with a particularity which occurs very frequently in Divine predictions, 1 Kings xxii. 2; Isa. xliv. 27, 28; xlv. 1–3. Whether we can perceive it or not, doubtless these kings discovered, in character or conduct, some peculiar excellence, to show the Divine propriety of the exclusive honour conferred on them. No king of the chosen people exhibited a life as blameless, or a reformation as perfect, as did Josiah. We can speak with less certainty of the character and deeds of Cyrus. But in two things, and these the most interesting to the true religion, he surpassed all the former kings who reigned over the Pagan world. He was the first, and perhaps the last, who, without any apparent service received from the race of Jacob, bestowed on them the greatest and most valuable favours, which sovereign, ample, and uncontrolled power, and overflowing wealth, can command. He generously and spontaneously liberated them from slavery,-restored them to their land,—and, from his treasures of state, for which, as a despotic monarch, he was responsible to no man, he supplied them with means to rebuild their city and re-establish their religion. But his exaltation had, we conceive, a still more extensive influence on the true religion; for he was the first of a succession of Pagan sovereigns who exposed idol-worship and idols to the scorn and derision of the human race.

Cyrus appears to have been the first conqueror who laid the basis of that political connexion between Asia and Europe, which

eventually produced, or was followed by, exceedingly great and permanent changes in the principles and conduct of mankind. The only Europeans probably known to the Asiatics were Greeks; and for them they do not seem to have entertained much respect. They, however, soon learned to admire and fear them. The Grecian race had been for a number of ages rising in rank among the nations. Colonies from Egypt had early brought into Greece the learning, arts, and religion of their native country; and several of the most ta lented Greeks, by persevering investigation of the state of knowledge in Egypt, and other countries which they visited, enriched their minds; and, on returning to their own country, successfully laboured to advance its civilization. Even before the age of Cyrus, the Grecian race had filled Greece Proper, and established large and prosperous colonies along the coast of the Egian sea in Asia Minor, and towards Thrace on the Italian coast, south-east from Rome, and in Sicily. The principal kingdom in Western Asia at this period appears to have been Lydia, whose capital was the magnificent Sardis, situated at the foot of Mount Tmolus, in Asia Minor. Its reigning sovereign, Croesus, celebrated for his immense wealth, had formed an alliance with Babylon, whose king, Nabonadius, or Labynatus, instead of defending his throne against Cyrus, fled to Sardis, and persuaded Croesus to raise a vast army to subdue the Persians. He collected at Thymbra, a city not far from Sardis, more than four hundred thousand men, consisting of Egyptians, Thracians, Greeks, and natives of all the nations of Asia Minor, who were his allies. Cyrus quickly led his army to Thymbra, obtained a complete victory, and Croesus was among the captives; but he was liberated by the generous conqueror, on condition of becoming a tributary king to Persia. From this time many Greeks served in the Persian armies, and were acknowledged to excel in war all their companions in arms. "Cyrus, after the conquest of Lydia, continued in Lesser Asia till he had subdued the several nations inhabiting that great continent, from the Egean sea to the Euphrates. From thence he marched into Syria and Arabia, and having reduced those nations likewise into subjection, he again entered Assyria, and marched towards Babylon, the only city in the East that now held out against him; the king Labynatus, having blocked himself up in the capital. Cyrus, however, by perseverance, after a vigorous siege of two years, surmounted all difficulties, and became master of the kingdom, B.C. 538. The taking of Babylon put an end to the Babylonian empire, and fulfilled the predictions which the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, had uttered against that proud metropolis." The siege and capture of this great city are thus described by Keith. -"Babylon had been the hammer of the whole earth, by which nations were broken in pieces, and kingdoms destroyed. Its mighty men carried the terror of their arms to distant regions, and led nations captive. But they were dismayed,' according to the word of the God of Israel, whenever the nations which he had stirred up against them stood in array before their walls. Their timidity, so clearly predicted, was the express complaint and accusation of their enemies, who in vain attempted to provoke them to the contest. Cyrus challenged their monarch to single combat, but in vain; for the hands of the king of Babylon waxed feeble.' Courage had departed from both prince and people; and none attempted to save

their country from spoliation, or to chase the assailants from their gates. They sallied not forth against the invaders and besiegers, nor did they attempt to disjoin and disperse them, even when drawn all around their walls, and comparatively weak along the extended line. Every gate was still shut; and they remained in their holds.' Being as unable to rouse their courage, even by a close blockade, and to bring them to the field, as to scale or break down any portion of their stupendous walls, or to force their gates of solid brass, Cyrus reasoned that the greater that was their number, the more easily would they be starved into surrender, and yield to famine, since they would not contend with arms nor come forth to fight. And hence arose, for the space of two years, his only hope of eventual success. So dispirited became its people, that Babylon, which had made the world as a wilderness, was long unresistingly a beleaguered town. But, possessed of many fertile fields, and provisions for twenty years, which in their timid caution they had plentifully stored, they derided Cyrus from their impregnable walls, within which they remained. Their profligacy, their wickedness, and false confidence were unabated; they continued to live carelessly in pleasures, but their might did not return; and Babylon the great, unlike to many a small fortress and unwalled town, made not one effort to regain its freedom or to be rid of the foe. Much time having been lost, and no progress having been made in the siege, the anxiety of Cyrus was strongly excited, and he was reduced to great perplexity, when at last it was suggested and immediately determined on, to turn the course of the Euphrates. But the task was not an easy one. The river was a quarter of a mile broad, and twelve feet deep; and in the opinion of one of the counsellors of Cyrus, the city was stronger by the river than by its walls. Diligent and laborious preparation was made for the execution of the scheme, yet so as to deceive the Babylonians. And the great trench, ostensibly formed for the purpose of blockade, which for the time it effectually secured, was dug around the walls on every side, in order to drain the Euphrates, and to leave its channel a straight passage into the city, through the midst of which it flowed. But, in the words of Herodotus, If the besieged had either been aware of the designs of Cyrus, or had discovered the project before its actual accomplishment, they might have effected the total destruction of their troops. They had only to secure the little gates which led to the river, and to man the embankment on either side, and they might have enclosed the Persians as in a net from which they could never have escaped.' Guarding as much as possibly they could against such a catastrophe, Cyrus purposely chose, for the execution of his plan, the time of a great annual Babylonish festival, during which, according to their practice, the Babylonians drank and revelled the whole night. And while the unconscious and reckless citizens were engaged in dancing and merriment, the river was suddenly turned into the lake, the trench, and the canals; and the watchful Persians, both foot and horse, so soon as the subsiding of the water permitted, entered by its channel, and were followed by the allies in array, on the dry part of the river. I will dry up thy sea, and make thy springs dry. That sayeth to the deep be dry, I will dry up thy rivers.' One detachment was placed where the river first enters the city, and another where it leaves it. And 'one

post did run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at the end, and that the passages are shut. They were taken,' says Herodotus, 'by surprise; and such is the extent of the city, that, as the inha bitants themselves affirm, they who lived in the extremities were made prisoners before any alarm was communicated to the centre of the place,' where the palace stood. Not a gate of the city wall was opened; not a brick of it had fallen. But a snare was laid for Babylon--it was taken, and it was not aware; it was found and also caught, for it had sinned against the Lord. How is the praise of the whole earth surprised! For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, and thy wisdom, and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee, therefore shall evil come upon thee, and thou shalt not know from whence it riseth, and mischief shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not be able to put it off, &c.-None shall save thee.' 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. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, &c. 1 will make drunken her princes and her wise men, her captains and her rulers, and her mighty men, and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep,' &c. Cyrus, as the night drew on, stimulated his assembled troops to enter the city, because in that night of general revel within the walls, many of them were asleep, many drunk, and confusion universally prevailed. On passing, without obstruction or hinderance, into the city, the Persians, slaying some, putting others to flight, and joining with the revellers as if slaughter had been merriment, hastened by the shortest way to the palace, and reached it ere yet a messenger had told the king that his city was taken. The gates of the palace, which were strongly fortified, were shut. The guards stationed before them were drinking beside a blazing light, when the Persians rushed impetuously upon them. The louder and altered clamour, no longer joyous, caught the ear of the inmates of the palace, and the bright light showed them the work of destruction, without revealing its cause. And not aware of the presence of an enemy in the midst of Babylon, the king himself, (who, as every Christian knows, had been roused from his revelry by the hand-writing on the wall,) excited by the warlike tumult at the gates, commanded those within to examine from whence it arose ; and according to the same word, by which the gates' (leading from the river to the city) were not shut, the loins of kings were loosed to open before Cyrus the two-leaved gates.' At the first sight of the opened gates of the palace of Babylon, the eager Persians sprang in. The king of Babylon heard the report of them-anguish took hold of him, he and all who were about him perished: God had numbered his kingdom and finished it: it was divided and given to the Medes and Persians: the lives of the Babylonian princes, and lords, and rulers, and captains, closed with that night's festival: the drunken slept a perpetual sleep, and did not wake. Her young men shall fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day.' Cyrus sent troops of horse throughout the streets, with orders to slay all who were found there. And he commanded proclamation to be made, in the Syrian language, that all who were in the houses should remain within; and that, if any were found abroad, he should be killed. These orders were obeyed. They