posterity, having four sons, as you will hear hereafter, who were the founders of so many nations. He left his brethren, and departed into Africa, which is therefore frequently called the land of Ham, and took up his seat in Egypt. He is the same whom the Egyptians and the people of Lybia worshipped under

the name of Ammon.

Japheth, who was the eldest son of Noah, though he commonly is mentioned last, possessed Europe and part of Asia; and his posterity spread over the isles of the Mediterranean sea, of Europe and those that bordered upon Asia, all lesser Asia and the northern parts of Asia about the sources of the rivers Tygris and Euphrates and in conscquence of his father's blessing, his posterity, the Grecians, and afterwards the Romans, reduced Asia and Africa, the habitations of Shem and Ham, to their obedience. He had seven sons, who all became ruders of so many nations, as you will find in the sequel of this history. The poets make him the father of Cœlum or Titan and of Terra; and that he possessed the delightful country of Thessalia, and had Hesper, Atlantis, Epimetheus and Pronetheus by the nymph Asia. The Grecians claim him for the founder of their nation, assert him to be the first man, and it is very probable he was the person understood by them, under the title of Neptune.

out of Egypt: but it is in regard to those beasts which were fit for sacrifices, and to such as were unfit, from the very beginning: therefore unclean beasts relate to all those that were of a rapacious nature, which were never offered up to God.

to take seven pair of the clean, and S. Why did God command Noah' only two pair of the unclean, into the ark?

T. That besides the making pro. vision for sacrifices, he might manfest his wisdom and goodness; preserving a greater number of those that are useful for the service and food of man, and restraining the numbers of those beasts, which are hurtful. Hence it may not be im proper to remark, that the same order is by Divine Providence conuseful creatures increasing, at least tinued to this day; the innocent and five times more than the rapacious.

S. How did Noah behave after

he, and his family, with all the creatures, were permitted to come

out of the ark?

T. He built the first altar, that we read of, and thereon offered an agreeable sacrifice unto God; whe then also promised that he would no more destroy the world as he had then done; but that while the earth remained, seed-time and harvest, winter and spring, summer and autumn, night and day should not ccase; and gave him the rainbow S. What is meant by the clean that promise. He also gave Noah for a perpetual token of the truth of

and unclean beasts ?

T. The distinction made here between clean and unclean beasts, is not in respect to man's food, which did not take place by a positive institution till the Israelites were come

and his sons several grants; for, as hitherto it does not appear, that God had permitted man to eat flesh, he gives them leave to kill any of the beasts for food, provided they did not put them to umezessary tor

ture, nor eat any part of their
blood;
and to put both man and
beast to death, that should be con-
victed of killing any of the human
kind. Here you may observe the
first appointment of magistrates,
with power to punish evil doers;
and that God, who, before the flood,
punished murder with his own hands,
as in the case of Cain, commits that
power now to men in authority. To
these promises and grants he added
this further encouragement, to be
fruitful and multiply, and to reple-

nish the earth.

S. Was this promise and these grants obtained by any merit in the sacrifice offered by Noah?

T. There was no merit in the offering or sacrifice. God never regards the oblation itself. It is not the flesh, nor the blood that is of fered up to the Almighty, but it is the grateful sense, the thanksgiving, and the sincere affections of the offerer that are acceptable to him; which is all that is meant by being grateful to him. And even then, all the merit our oblation can have is through Christ alone. And thus Noah sought God in his sacrifices, by commemorating the Lamb of God, which was slain from the foundation of the world, and so found acceptance before God. But, had there been any merit in Noah's sacrifice, it was not the procuring cause of the covenant or promise here mentioned, which had been in the divine council from everlasting, and was now only, as the properest time, declared to Noah.

living thing in the manner he had done; that is, with an universal deluge: therefore no local inundation can be a breach of this covenant, nor is it any bar to his destroying the world by fire at the last day.

S. Was there no rainbow before

the flood?

T. Most probably there was not : for, though the curious mixture of colours discernable in the rainbow arises naturally from the disposition of the air, the sun, and a cloud; yet it is false to assert that every disposition of them, is fitly qualified to produce a rainbow. And as God, when he gives a sign in the heavens or on the earth, of any prophecy or promise to be fulfilled, must do it by something new or by some change wrought in nature, whereby he testifieth to us that he is able and willing to perform his promise; so if every thing continues to be as it was before, and the face of nature in all its parts the very same, it cannot signify any thing new, nor any new intention of the author of nature, and consequently cannot be a sign or token, of the accomplishment of any new covenant or promise made by him.

S. What does philosophy say concerning the rainbow?

T. Common philosophy affirms it to be a natural sign that the clouds begin to disperse, and consequently that there will not be much rain. And because it always appears in a thin cloud, after heavy showers, God chose this sign before any other,

S. Has not this promise been bro- to convince us that he would never ken?

T. No. God says only, that he will never smite any more every

suffer the clouds to gather again to such a degree, as to bring another deluge upon the whole earth.

S. I am surprised to hear that Noah, who bore such a good character before the flood, and had received so many favours from God, should so soon get drunk, and expose his nakedness.

T. Moses did not intend to accuse Noah of intemperance, but purely to describe to the Israelites the cause of the curse under which the Canaanites, against whom they were marching, had lain ever since the days of Noah. So that I may venture to say, that he drank plentifully, without impeaching his sobriety; and that he was accidentally uncovered in his sleep, without any stain to his modesty. But if this interpretation is not satisfactory, take this character in the wors sense; and therein you read an excellent instruction to take heedlest you fall into the like excess, though you have hitherto escaped the pollations of the world, and approved your fidelity to God in every trying juncture: for wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby, is not wise.

having conquered their land, subdyed the remainder under a heavy yoke. And that he should be a servant to Japheth: which came to pass, when the Greeks and Romans, the descendants of Japheth, utterly destroyed those Canaanites that had taken refuge at Tyre, Thebes, Carthage, and the adjacent countries. But I must not forget to tell you that some eastern writers say the effect of this curse was, that all on a sudden the skin of Ham and Canaan turned black, and that all the

blacks are descended from them.

S. How do you make it out that Canaan became a servant of servants to his brethren?

T. Thus Shem's posterity overpowered, and reduced the Canaanites; and the sous of Japheth subdued, and made the sons of Shem their vassals: thus the posterity of Canaan became the servant oftervants in the literal sense.

S. How did Noah bless his son Japheth?

T. By foretelling that his territories should be enlarged, which is 5. Why did Noah curse Canaan in part shewn already, and of which

and not Ham?

T. Because according to the Jewish tradition, which indeed is far from being improbable, Canaan having first discovered Noah's nakedness, made himself merry therewith, and afterwards ridiculed him to his father Hum.

5. What was the curse, and how was it fulfilled?

T. That Canaan should be a servant to Shem: which was accom

plished when the Israelites, the descendants of Shem, about 800 years after, drove some of the Canaanites into Egypt, Africa and Greece, and

more hereafter; and that he should dwell in the tents of Shem. So the Greeks and Romans invaded and conquered that part of Asia, where the posterity of Shem had planted themselves: and both Alexander and Cæsar took Jerusalem, and made all the countrics thereabout tributary,

S. How was the blessing of Shem verified?

T. This blessing is very peculiar, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem,

says Noah; a blessing founded upon a better covenant, and established upon better promises than any tem poral or worldly grant can be, Ia

!

fine he knew it to be the council of
God, that of his loins the Messiah
or promised seed should be born in,
the fulness of time.

S. When did Noah die?

T. In the 950 year of his age, 350 years after the flood: and he is reported to be buried iu Mesopotamia.

S. Did he leave any precepts bchind him?

T. The Jews reckon up seven; six whereof are those I have remark ed in the days of Ada.n, and the seventh is a prohibition to eat raw flesh, or any member of the flesh of a beast taken from it alive. They that transgressed any of these among the Jews were to be killed with the sword. And such heathens that consented to keep them, though they were not circumcised, nor kept any of the other ordinances, given to the Israelites, were permitted to dwell

among them as shangers, by the name of Proselytes of the Gate. Besides these seven precepts, the blood of man was expressly forbid to be shed, and murder was commanded to be punished with death. This was the Noachial dispensation.

S. What language did Noah and his children speak?

T. The same as God taught Adam and his posterity: for not only Noah conversed many years with his grandfather Methuselah, but Shem, in whose family the same language was continued down, and was some time contempory with Abraham: so there can be no doubt but that Moses recorded the history of his own nation, in his native language; and that which we have now in the Pentateuch, is in all probability the same which God taught Adam, and Adam his posterity.

CHA P. IV.

The confusion of Languages: the Dispersion of the Children of Noah, and their Settlement in different Parts of the Earth.

ment of their fame, but as the head of an universal kingdom, and the centre of their unity: the tower also was probably intended as a grand mark, the sight of which would direct such of them, as were obliged to go abroad in that vast plain, their way to return. This being contrary to the design of God, who knoweth our thoughts long before, and taketh the crafty in the imagination of their own hearts; he presently put a stop to their project, by so confounding their language, that they who were all of one speech before, spake so differently, as now

S. Who where concerned in this procreation of children, and that the work, and great event?

S. In what country was this tow- N. W. part of lesser Asia near the er attempted to be built?

S. What were the dimensions of the N. of Judea, close to his fathis tower?

T. It was above a half a mile in circumference, the height vastly