image, and defied the king's threats, telling him they trusted in a God, who was able to deliver them from his rage. 0 Nebuchadnezzar, said they, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy Gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Nebuchadnezzar was so incensed at this peremptory reply, that he ordered the sentence pronounced in the decree to be immediately put in execution against the three youths, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego; and farther com. manded that, on this occasion, the furnace should be made seven times hotter than usual, which being done, they should be bound and thrown into it, as contemners of his royal will and pleasure. These orders were strictly obeyed, and the furnace was made so intensely hot, that the persons appointed to throw them in, were scorched to death. But the three persons consigned to destruction by the king received not the least hurt: no sooner were they thrown into the furnace than the cords with which they were tied were loosed, and they walked in the midst of the fire, blessing and praising God.* The king who had placed himself at a secure distance in order to see the sentence executed, observing the fierceness of the fire to abate, and that instead of three, there were four persons in the

According to the vulgar Latin edition of the Bible, in the third chapter of Daniel, between the twenty-third and twenty-fourth verses, is added the Song of the three Children; but being no where extant, either in the Hebrew or Chaldee language, and never received in the canon of Holy Writ by the Jewish church, it is placed among the apochryphal writings, where it stands next to the book of Baruch, though the church of Rome, by a decree of the council of Trent, has not only given it, but likewise the history of Susanna, and of Bel and the Dragon, a place among the canonical scriptures. The Song of the three Children consists of two parts, namely, a Prayer and a Thanksgiving. The Prayer is a devout confession of the sins of the people, and an acknowledgment of God's righteousness in bringing their captivity, and other calamities, upon them. The Thanksgiving is a more solemn excitation to all persons whatever, but more especially the three Hebrew children, who were thus saved from the hand of death, to bless the Lord, praise him, and exalt him above all for ever

and ever.

furnace, cried out with surprize and amazement, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. The king then approaching the furnace, called to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, saying, Ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. They accordingly came out of the furnace in the presence of the king and all his attendants, who saw them unhurt, not a hair of their heads being singed, or the least scent of fire arising from their bodies.

The haughty king was now convinced that there was a more powerful Being than himself, who could protect his servants from the rage of the most insolent and arbitrary tyrant. He therefore, in a sudden transport of devotion, broke out into the following exclamation: Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God. Therefore, I make a decree, that every people, nation and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Having said this, Nebuchadnezzar dismissed Daniel's three friends, and afterwards promoted them to much greater honors than they had before enjoyed in the province of Babylon.

Some time after this, the judgments which the prophet Jeremiah had denounced against his countrymen the Jews, when they rejected the counsel of God, and fled into Egypt for protection (as they vainly thought) began to operate. Nebuchadnezzar, notwithstanding that the subjects of Pharaoh-Hophra, king of Egypt, had revolted from him, and declared Amasis, an officer of his court, their king, he took advantage of the intestine troubles that ensued; and marching with a great army into the country, in a short time, laid it waste from one end to the other. Of the Jews, who, after the murder of Gedaliah, had fled thither, some he slew, and others he carried away captive to Babylon; so that scarce any escaped, but such as fled

out of Egypt, and afterwards settled themselves in their own land at the end of the captivity.

Nebuchadnezzar, having thus reduced the kingdom of Egypt, and constituted Amasis his viceroy, returned in triumph to Babylon, where he indulged himself in the pleasures of his court, and, for a time, quietly enjoyed the fruits of his conquests. At length his peace of mind was interrupted by another dream, which he perfectly remembered, and, therefore, sent for his own magicians first, to give him the interpretation of it. The Chaldeans, after hearing the dream, were as much at a loss how to interpret it, as when the king demanded the discovery of his former dream which he had forgot. The revealing of these great secrets was reserved for the servant of God; and, therefore, the king, not meeting with any satisfaction from his own subjects, at length sent for Daniel, to whom he recounted his dream in words to this effect: "I saw (said "he) a tree of a prodigious bigness, which seemed to reach "from earth to heaven. It was fair, and full of fruit; "yielded shelter to the beasts and fowls, and sustenance "to all flesh. I saw likewise an angel coming down from "heaven, who cried with a loud voice, Hew down the "tree, cut off the branches, shake off the leaves, scatter "the fruit, and let all creatures depart from it; but let the "stump remain in the earth, and bind it with a band of "iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field, and let "it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be "with the beasts in the grass of the earth: let his heart be "changed from that of a man, and a beast's heart be given "him, and let seven times pass over bim.-This dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now thou, O Daniel, "declare the interpretation thereof, forasmuch as all the "wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known "unto me the interpretation: but thou art able; for the "spirit of the Holy God is in thee."

When Daniel heard the dream, he was so affected at the dreadful judgments it portended to the king, that, for some time, he was unable to speak. Nebuchadnezzar, judging the cause of his silence, endeavored to encourage him, saying, Let not the dream, or the interpretation thereof, trouble thee. To which Daniel replied, My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation

thereof to thine enemies. Daniel then addressing himself with great tenderness and concern for the king, proceeded to the interpretation of his dream, in words to this effect: "The tree (said he) O king, which thou sawest in thy "dream, is thyself; for thy greatness reacheth unto the "heavens, and thy dominions to the end of the earth: "But the angel, who came from heaven with orders to "cut down the tree, denotes the decree of the Most High, "which is determined against thee, viz. that thou shalt be "driven from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the "beasts of the field; that thou shalt eat grass with the 66 oxen, and be wet with the dew of heaven; that seven "years shall pass over thee, before thou comest to con"sider, that God ruleth over the kingdoms of men; and

that, after such a term, thou shalt be restored to thy "kingdom, which is the thing intimated by the stump of "the tree that was ordered to be left. And now, that thou

hast heard the interpretation of this dream, permit me, "O king, to advise thee to atone for thy sins by a holy "life, and by acts of mercy to the poor; and to recom"mend thyself to the mercy of God, that he may prolong "thy posterity."

It might very naturally have been supposed, that Nebuchadnezzar, who had seen the verifying of Daniel's prophecies, and had likewise been an eye-witness of God's great power and providence, would have been somewhat depressed in mind at this interpretation of his dream, which was a judgment of the most severe nature pronounced solely against himself. But, instead of humbling himself, and endeavoring, by repentance, to deprecate the Divine decree as Daniel advised him, he became intoxicated with pride and arrogance, and, being detached from war, employed his time in raising buildings in Babylon, as monuments of his greatness.

About twelve months after Daniel had interpreted the king's last dream, Nebuchadnezzar, being one day walking about the palace, and surveying his new buildings, he ostentatiously said to one of his attendants, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the king. dom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? No sooner had the king uttered these words, than a voice from heaven was heard to say, O king Nebu

chadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: the kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. This dreadful sentence immediately took place, the king, for exalting himself above the state of men, being deprived of his senses, and reduced to the condition of a beast. He continued in this state for seven years, during which, agreeable to the interpretation of his dream, he lived abroad in the fields, eat grass like an ox, laid on the ground in the open air, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till at length his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.

After Nebuchadnezzar had continued his appointed time in this sad and forlorn condition, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and God was pleased not only to restore him to his understanding and form, but likewise to his former state and dignity; for which he made this thankful acknowledgment: Now I Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol, and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those who walk in pride he is able to abase.

Nebuchadnezzar lived but a very short time after being restored to his kingdom. The punishment he had undergone, which he knew to have been inflicted on him by the hand of Providence, was deeply impressed on his mind, and his time was spent in doing acts very different to those he had formerly practised. He died in the year of the world 3442, and before Christ, 562; after having reigned from the death of his father, according to the Babylonish account, forty-three years. He was certainly one of the greatest princes that had appeared in the East for many ages before him; and, according to Megasthenes, both for his enterprizes and performances, far excelled any other monarch of his time. The same historian informs us, that a little before his death, he foretold the coming of the Persians, and their subduing the kingdom of Babylon; but this he might gather from the prophet Daniel, and especially from the interpretations of his dreams.