his neighbours, united different people
under one and the same authority, by the band of the same polity and the
same laws, and formed them into one state; which, for those early times,
was of a considerable extent, though bounded by the rivers Euphrates and
Tigris; and which, in succeeding ages, made new acquisitions by degrees,
and at length extended its conquests very far.

"The capital city of his kingdom," says the Scripture,(962) "was Babylon."
Most of the profane historians ascribe the founding of Babylon to
Semiramis,(963) others to Belus. It is evident, that both the one and the
other are mistaken, if they speak of the first founder of that city; for
it owes its beginning neither to Semiramis nor to Nimrod, but to the
foolish vanity of those persons mentioned in Scripture,(964) who desired
to build a tower and a city, that should render their memory immortal.

Josephus relates,(965) upon the testimony of a Sibyl, (who must have been
very ancient, and whose fictions cannot be imputed to the indiscreet zeal
of any Christians,) that the gods threw down the tower by an impetuous
wind, or a violent hurricane. Had this been the case, Nimrod's temerity
must have been still greater, to rebuild a city and a tower which God
himself had overthrown with such marks of his displeasure. But the
Scripture says no such thing; and it is very probable, the building
remained in the condition it was, when God put an end to the work by the
confusion of languages; and that the tower consecrated to Belus, which is
described by Herodotus,(966) was this very tower, which the sons of men
pretended to raise to the clouds.

It is further probable, that this ridiculous design having been defeated
by such an astonishing prodigy, as none could be the author of but God
himself, every body abandoned the place, which had given Him offence; and
that Nimrod was the first who encompassed it afterwards with walls,
settled therein his friends and confederates, and subdued those that lived
round about it, beginning his empire in that place, but not confining it
to so narrow a compass: _Fuit principium regni ejus Babylon_. The other
cities, which the Scripture speaks of in the same place, were in the land
of Shinar, which was certainly the province of which Babylon became the
metropolis.

From this country he went into that which has the name of Assyria, and
there built Nineveh: _De terra illa egressus est Assur, et aedificavit
Nineven_.(967) This i