and they shall be weary.' Though Babylon was a city of great fame and state and riches, and deservedly accounted one of the world's nine wonders ; though the compass of the walls was three hundred and sixty-five furlongs, or forty-six miles, according to the number of the days in the year, and the height fifty cubits, and of so great a breadth that carts and carriages might meet on the top of them ; yea, though it was so great and vast a city, that Aristotle saith that it ought rather to be called a country than a city, adding withal, that when the city was taken, it was three days before the furthest part of the city could take notice of it ; yet at last, accord- ing to the word of the Lord, it was set on fire ; and though the inhabitants did weary and tire out themselves to quench the flames, and to save their stately houses and ill-gotten riches, yet all was labour in vain, and to no purpose. In the days of Pliny it was an utter desolation, and in the time of Jerome it was turned into a park, in which the king of Persia did use to hunt. So Ezek. xxviii. 18, ' Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic ; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it sliall devour thee ; and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee : ' ver. 19, ' All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee : thou slialt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.' Tyrus, among the sea-bordering cities, was most famous and renowned for merchandise and trade ; for thither resorted the merchants of all countries for traffic of Palestina, Syria, Egypt, Persia, and Assyria. They of Tarshish brought thither iron, lead, brass, and silver. The Syrians brought thither carbuncles, purple, broidered work, fine linen, coral, and pearl. The Jews brought thither their honey, oil, treacle, cassia, and calamus. The Arabians brought thither lambs, muttons, and goats. The Sabeans brought thither their exquisite spices and apothecary stuff, with gold and precious stones. Now by fraud and deceit they grew exceeding rich and wealthy, which in the close issued in their total ruin, according to that of the prophet : Zech. ix. 3, 4, ' And Tyrus did build herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea ; and she shall be devoured with fire.' The Tyrians did hold themselves invincible, because of their situation being round about environed by the sea ; liut yet the prophet tells them, that though they were com- passed about with deep waters, yet they should be destroyed by fire, which was executed by Alexander the Great, as historians testify. ^ It is not the strength, nor riches, nor situation, nor trade, nor honour, nor fame, nor antiquity of a city, that can preserve it, when God before- hand has by fire determined the destruction of it. Tyrus was a city of the greatest merchandising, it was a city of mighty trade, they were set upon heaping up of riches by hook or by crook ; so riches came in, though it were at the door of o])pression, violence, or injustice, all was well, Ezek. xxvii. ; Isa. xxiii. 5-9. The traffic of Tyrus was great, and the sins that attended that traffic were very great, and for these God sent a devouring fire amongst them, which
^ Curtius, lib. iv., and Diod. Siculus, lib. xvii.
72 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
destroyed their palaces and treasuries, and reduced their glorious city to ashes. By the iniquity of their traffic they had built palaces and stately houses, and filled their shops and warehouses and cellars with rich and choice commodities ; but when God brought Nebuchadnezzar upon them, what the Chaldeans could not destroy by the sword they consumed by fire, turning all their glorious palaces, and stately build- ings, and costly sho})s, and warehouses, into ashes, as historians testify, So Ninoveh, for greatness, riches, and antiquity, was one of the noblest cities in the world, it was the capital and chief city of tlie Assyrian empire ; and though God, upon their repentance and humiliation, did si)are them for a time, Jonah iii., yet afterwards, she returning to her old trade of robberies, covetousness, extortions, fraud, deceitful deal- ings, &c., God delivered her up as a prey into the hands of many of her enemies, who wonderful!}^ spoiled and i)illaged her ; and at last God gave her into the hands of the Medes, who brought her to a final and irrecoverable dcvsolation, according to the prophecy of the prophet Kahum, chap. ii. 10, ' She is empty, and void, and waste ; and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness,' — that is, such black- ness as is on the sides of a pot. Ver. 13, ' Behold, I am a;.^ainst thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke;' see also chap. iii. 12-15. The like judgment fell upon Sidon, [Sabel:] and upon that rich and renowned city of Corinth, which, through the commodiousness of the haven, was the most frequented place in the world for the intercourse of merchants out of Asia and Europe, and great and many were their sins about their trade and traffic ; and for these she was finally destroyed, and turned into cinders and ashes by the Komans, [Thucyd.]
So bribery is a sin that brings desolating and destroying judgments both upon persons and places: Amos v. 11, 12, ' Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat : ye have built houses of hewn stones, but ye shall not dwell in them ; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.' Bribery is one of those mighty sins, or one of those bony or big-boned sins, as the Hebrew hath it, for Avhich God threatens to turn them out of house and home. Bribery is a bony sin, a huge sin, a heinous sin, a monstrous sin, a sin that is capable of all manner of aggravations, and therefore the Lord punisheth it with desolating judgments: Job xv. 34, 'And fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery,' or the receivers of gifts, as both the Hebrew and the Septuagint may be read. When wicked men build their houses, their tabernacles, by pilling and polling, by bribery, cheating, defrauding, or overreaching others, it is a righteous thing with God to set their houses on fire about their ears. Thus Dioclesian had his house wholly consumed by lightning and a flame of fire that fell from heaven upon it, as Eusebius tells us.^ Upon such a generation of men as build their houses by bribery, or oppres-
' De vita Constant., lib. v.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 73