THE TEMPLE OF BELUS. 
317 
by the Chaldeans, which means supreme lord. That the Tower 
of Babel, and that of Belus, were one and the same, I presume 
there hardly exists a doubt. And that the first stupendous work 
was suddenly arrested before completion, we learn, not only 
from the Holy Scriptures, but from several ancient authors, in 
direct terms ; while the traditions of distant heathen nations, in 
some localising garb, support the particular fact; and almost 
every testimony agrees in stating, that the primeval tower 
was not only stopped in its progress, but partially overturned 
by the Divine wrath, attended with thunder and lightning, and 
a mighty wind; and that the rebellious men, who were its 
builders, fled in horror and confusion of face, before the pre¬ 
ternatural storm. 
Bochart writes, that fire fell from heaven on the centre of the 
tower, and split it through to the very foundation. Neither is 
it improbable, according to the idea of Mr. Faber, that fiery 
globes, similar to those which checked the mad enterprise of 
Julian at Jerusalem, might burst from the pile itself, and by 
that miracle overthrow the impious builders; who had under¬ 
taken the erection for the special purpose of concentrating their 
idolatrous superstitions, and of obstructing the Divine command, 
that they should further spread themselves over the earth. In 
this ruinous, and abandoned state, most likely the tower re¬ 
mained, till Babylon was refounded by Semiramis ; who, in 
harmony with her character, would feel a proud triumph, in 
repeopling the city with a colony from the posterity of those 
who had fled from it in dismay ; and covering the shattered 
summit of the great pile with some new erection, would there 
place her observatory and altar to Bel. It is not unreasonable 
to suppose, that the first altars of the Babylonians, on this, or on 
