"that it is certain that it was built by Nimrod." The dimensions of Babylon were as follows: the walls were in thickness 87 feet, in height 370 feet, and in length 480 furlongs. And it is recorded that when Nimrod subsequently built Nineveh, it was exactly on the same plan, in the form of a square, of the same dimensions: although the height and width of the walls multiplied into each other, did not amount to more than one-tenth of the walls of Babylon. And then to establish the hypothesis that the Titánian war was postdiluvian, Mr. Bryant as confidently asserts that, from the time they left off to build the city of Babylon, which according to Scripture was only 140 years after the deluge, or A. M. 1797, Babylon was never heard of, until about 600 years before Christ, when it was rebuilt by Nebuchodonozor; adding, in fact "the account given by Berosus is of so early a date, as to be almost coeval with the annals of the new world, and must be looked upon as the basis of historic knowledge. The supposed antediluvian accounts are trifling; the former world is far separated from us. It is like a vast peninsula joined to the continent by a strip of land, which hardly admits of any connection: he must have been wise, indeed, after an interval of so many thousand years, to have known that Babylon originally bare sesamum and dates." The old world ended in the autumn of A. M. 1656; the new world commenced at the same season of A. M. 1657; consequently, if the account given by Berosus is of so "early a date as to be almost coeval with the annals of the new world, the first year being the first year of renewal of time, the first year after the deluge," he might have stepped one year further back, and gathered a date, as well as an apple, without much danger of falling from the little strip of land: even had the antediluvian. records from which he copied, neither been buried at Sipora, or taken into the ark by Noah. For as Ham resided on that vast peninsula for an hundred years, and was ninety years of age, when his grandfather Lamech died, who lived fifty-six years during the time of Adam, Berosus, who was a priest of Belus, had an opportunity, even if writing was unknown before the flood, of examining the records left by Ham, the first founder of Babylon; who received the accounts from his grandfather Lamech, as they were related to him by the great father of mankind, Adam. But the philosopher Callisthenes informs us, that he had found written and regular astronomical observations at Babylon carried back so far as A. M. 1776; which renders it highly probable, that Berosus should have found historic ones. To this Mr. Bryant objects, that neither Noah nor his descend ants, for at least 737, were enabled to record any transactions, they being totally ignorant of letters. This he elucidates as follows: "it is said that Oannes, or Sisuthrus, who is Noah, instructed men in the knowledge of letters, and committed many things to writing. For my part, I believe there was no writing antecedent to the law of Mount Sinai here the divine art was promulgated." Which is as much as to say, that the Almighty appeared to Moses for the purpose of promulgating that law, by which mankind was to be guided in this world and judged in the next, in a mode which it was utterly impossible for them to comprehend. Such may have been the practice of wily priests in the dark ages of superstition, but it is incompatible with the character of a just and merciful God. But the Pentateuch informs us, that the commands were issued from the mouth of God. "God spake these words, and said*,” can admit of but one interpretation. It is true, in a subsequent chapter, it is recorded, "that the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables +." But this is a figurative expression, as we frequently say on an unexpected event, the hand of God was perceptible therein. Had these tables been of divine workmanship, would Moses have presumed to have dashed them beneath his feet? " And Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount*.” This passage is fully explained. For in chap. iv. ver. 4. it is expressly said, that "Moses wrote all the words which the Lord had spoken." Again, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words; and he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread nor drink water; and he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments †." But writing was not confined to the few, nor to the learned. It was general among all the tribes. For Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanded the people to set up great stones and plaster them with plaster; and when they had passed over Jordan, the people were directed to write the law thereon; "And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law." They were likewise commanded, every man to write them upon the door-posts of their house, and upon the gates §." Now every word of this must be false, if writing was a divine art, first promulgated when the tables were delivered to Moses. But of this we may be assured, * Exod. xxxii. 19. + Exod. xxxiv. 27, 28. § Deut. xi. 20. that the law was promulgated in that mode which was the most easily comprehended by the people, for whose instruction it was ordained: and then, whether the law was delivered in writing, according to this author, or whether, according to the Scripture, Moses wrote those commands which the Almighty dictated, it is equally certain, that writing was an art in general use. To suppose otherwise, is not only to impeach the justice of the Almighty, but to rest the history of the world, for the first two thousand five hundred years, on the doubtful authority of hieroglyphics. In which case, if this author is correct in asserting the invention of hieroglyphics was certainly a discovery of the Chaldeans," then were the Chaldeans the most likely people in the world to have had correct accounts relative to the antediluvian world; more especially as he admits, that "the Chaldeans had as much learning as could arise from hieroglyphical representations: they might," he adds, “ have had a knowledge of lines, by which geometrical problems must be illustrated; and the use of figures, for numeration: but were without letters for ages. In fine had they been possessed of letters, they would never have descended to symbols." The former is universally admitted ; but the latter is an inverted argument. That they were in possession of lines and figures is proved |