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SECTION XLIV.

Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar.

B.C. 500-530.

THESE were the sovereigns of Babylon during the captivity of the Jewish nation. They were both professed idolaters, and, as such, the former had commanded the Jews to worship his image of gold. But he was so wrought upon by the miraculous deliverance of certain Jews whom he had cast into a fiery furnace, that he commanded his people to reverence the God of Israel, "because no other God could deliver after that sort." Dan. iii.

The same monarch was afterwards exercised with great afflictions, which produced such a salutary effect on his mind, that he made this acknowledgment: "Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, and extol, and honour the King of Heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase." Dan. iv. 37.

But his son and successor, Belshazzar,

forgot his father's good example; "he did not humble his heart, though he knew all

this," &c. Dan. v. 22.

cordingly punished.

And he was ac

"In that night was

Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain," &c. ver. 30.

From this account, it is plain, these Pagan monarchs were treated by God, just as Jews or Christians are treated by him. The one was pardoned on his repentance; the other was punished for his contumacy. But, if so, it follows that, whether amongst Pagans or others, when the wicked turneth away from his wickedness, he shall save his soul alive."

66

"It was during the captivity of the Jews, and their consequent dispersion amongst the inhabitants of the most illustrious empire in the civilized world, that God principally employed them as the means of exciting the attention of the Heathen to his majesty and his providence," &c. Graves, vol. ii. p. 306.

SECTION XLV.

Cyrus.-B. C. 530–430.

THIS illustrious character of Pagan antiquity forms a striking link in the chain of prophecy, and he is also a striking evidence for the salvability of Pagan nations. "The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation, &c. Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem," &c. Ezra i. The same monarch is termed by Isaiah, “the Lord's shepherd" (ch. xliv. 28); and "the Lord's anointed" (ch. xlv. 1.).

Without giving credit to all the virtues which Xenophon has ascribed to Cyrus, it is difficult not to believe, that he was an eminently moral character, and that, as such, he was noticed and blessed by God. Whether you consider him, then, as described by sacred or prophane historians, it seems impossible to separate him from

our general argument. "I have raised him up in righteousness: I will direct all his ways." Isaiah xlv. 13.

These observations may also be extended, in some degree, to Darius, Artaxerxes, and the other Gentile princes who were connected with the Jews in the building of the second temple. They apply also to the whole book of Esther, and to the transactions of Ahasuerus with the Jews. But, when it is remembered, that Ahasuerus reigned "over an hundred and twenty provinces from India even to Ethiopia," and "that the Jews had light, and gladness, and joy in every province, and that many of the people of the land became Jews" (See Ch. i. and viii. 17.); these circumstances will go far to establish our general conclusion.

"These public testimonies to the majesty of the God of Israel, must have contributed materially to check error and idolatry, in a country where the form of the government rendered the examples of the monarchs so powerful," &c. Graves, vol. ii.

p.

310.

SECTION XLVI.

The Dispersions of the Jews.

THE various captivities and dispersions of the Jews which are recorded in Scripture, seem to have been principally ordained for the dissemination of religious knowledge amongst the Gentile nations. That a great effect must have been thus produced in every part of the east cannot be questioned; and, indeed, the fact, that the Jewish Scriptures were translated, during the age of the Ptolemies, into the most popular of all languages, is a plain confirmation of this reasoning.

In consequence of these events, vast multitudes of Gentiles became Jewish proselytes; some, under more strict, others, under more general obligations, as to the observance of the Jewish Law. But, even where this knowledge did not lead to proselytism, it must have had a great indirect influence on their religious sentiments.

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