this, that Noah, who lived 349 years after the flood, and whose pious admonitions would be of much greater weight and authority than when he was an unfuccefsful preacher of righteoufnefs to the antediluvians, was the inftructor, and, for fome time at least, the governor of the new world. From all this it will appear, that this was a very juft and proper difpenfation for reforming mankind, and restoring religion in the earth; well adapted to that thoughtless age, (when they feem not to have attained to any confiderable degree of reafoning, and therefore not difpofed to be wrought upon by argument) and to the ftate of things in it, when no regular civil governments and laws were formed for the administration of justice, and the restraint of injury and wrong; and it appears to have had the intended effect, by fuppreffing violence and rapine, which never any more univerfally prevailed in the world; and by fixing a fense of religion upon the minds of men, which afterwards was indeed perverted, but not quite extinguished. And as it ftands recorded in facred writ, it is a warning to the remoteft generations. In which view it is referred to, 2 Pet. ii. 5. And [God] spared not the old world, but faved Noah, the eighth perfon, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into afhes-making them an example unto those that afterwards fhould live ungodly. Of NOAH's Sacrifice, and the Divine Intercourfe on that Occafion. NOAH, being reftored to the poffeffion of the earth, entered upon it with a folemn act of Divine Worship, according to the original inftitution, Gen. viii. 20. He builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, i. e. of fuch beafts and fowls as God hath ordained for Sacrifices, and offered Burnt-Offerings upon the Altar; which as they were intended to denote, fo they were in Noah accompanied with, faith in the mercy of God, thankfulness for the late miraculous deliverance, and the dedication of himself, and of all his, to the honour and obedience of God, through the promifed Redeemer; of whom Noah and the Patriarchs, we may well fuppofe, had a general knowledge and expectation. The Acceptableness of this act of devotion to God, is fignified by his fmelling a fweet favour, ver. 21. This one may call Hieroglyphic language. Hieroglyphics, which by bodily fenfations, or external reprefentations, denoted abstract Of Noah's Sacrifice: 80 abstract notions, or the fentiments of the mind, were the literature of the first ages of the world. So here, the approbation of the judgment, or what is pleafing to the mind, is fignified by an odour or fragrance grateful to the smell. Or the tafte and relifh of the body is transferred to the tafte and relish of the mind. This language is frequently iii. 5, &c. ufed in the Levitical law; as in Lev. i. 9, 13, 17. i. 2, 9. meaning the acceptableness of the Sacrifice or Offering. So the fragrance of burnt incenfe reprefents the acceptablenefs of fincere prayer, Pfal. cxli. 2. Luke i. 10. Rev. viii. 3, 4. It is alfo applied, in the fame fente, to the offering and facrifice of our Lord, Ephef. v. 2. And walk in love, as Chrift alfo hath loved us, and bath given himself for us, an Offering and Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Javour. God, who is a fpirit, can relifh, or be pleafed with, only that which is morally or fpiritually good, the love and obedience of the heart: this is the only favour that is grateful to him. And therefore, the Sacrifice of our Lord must have been an actual exhibition of obedience and love; and the Sacrifices of Noah, and of the Ifraelites, must have been hieroglyphic reprefentations of, or inftructions in, the like moral difpofitions, in order to exprefs, or produce them in the hearts of the worshippers. Smelling a sweet favour is plainly hieroglyphic or figurative language; and therefore the Sacrifice, or Offering, the object of fuch fmelling, muft alfo be figurative, reprefenting thofe good difpo fitions which were, or ought to have been, in the worshipper's heart, and which were in the highest and most perfect degree in our Lord. The Sacrifice of a clean beaft or fowl figuratively reprefented what the worshipper was, or ought to be and do; and our Lord really was, and perfectly did what the Sacrifice reprefented. Hence Sacrifice is applied to beneficent actions, or actions morally good, and pleafing to God, Pfal. iv. 5. 1. 14, 23. Phil. iv. 18. Heb. xiii. 15, 16. And in the Book of Wisdom is applied to the whole of a virtuous life, as gold in the furnace bath he tried them, [afflicted good men,] and received them as a BurntOffering. The fmell, or favour, of a perfon, or thing, is the quality of it, good or evil, which occafions the approbation or diflike of those that país a judgment upon it. Exod. v. 21. You have made our favour, that in us which is the object of Pharaoh's judgment, to be abhorred, to stink, in the eyes, the opinion, of Pharach. So Gen. xxxiv. 30. Jer. xlviii. 11. Moab hath been at eafe from his youth, and he hath fettled on his lees, -therefore his taste, my his relish remaineth in him, and his fcent, w¬ his favour, his bad qualities, is not changed. 2 Cor. ii. 14, 15, 16. Now thanks be unto God, who always caufeth us to triumph in Chrift, and maketh manifeft, difplays, the favour, TV on the excellent qualities, of his knowledge, the knowledge of Chrift, by us in every place. For we are to God, evadia, the fweet-fmelling favour of Chrift, [i.e. my miniftry is to God a Sacrifice of a fweet-fmelling favour, which I offer unto him on the behalf of Chrift. See Rom. xv. 16.] both in regard of them that are faved, and alfo of them that perish. [For in both cafes the counfels and fchemes of Divine Wifdom are accomplished.] Though to the one wi are, ocun, the favour of death unto death; and to the other we are the favour مره of life unto life. [i. e, to the minds of the one my preaching is offenfive; and rejecting it, they are advancing towards eternal death: to the minds. of the other it is grateful and pleafing; and embracing it, they are advancing towards life eternal.] And whe is fufficient for these things of so great confequence? Note- faviour of death unto death, is a faviour which occafions their advancing towards eternal death. Upon the folemn occafion of Noah's Sacrifice, the Lord faid in his beart, i. e. determined, or refolved, that he would not again curse the ground any more for man's fake; (chap. viii. 21.) for [ though] the imagination of man's heart is [fhould be] evil from his youth. From his youth, denotes a corruption of manners of long continuance. See Ifai. xlvii. 12, 15. Jer. iii. 25. Ezek. xxiii. 8. See alfo Job xxxi. 18. The Lord was alfo pleafed to repeat to Noah and his fons the fame bleffing upon the propagation of the human fpecies, and the fame marks of diftinction upon our nature, as he had given Adam at his creation, with an additional grant of animal food, (chap. ix. 3, 4) with this reftriction, that they fhould not eat the fb of an animal in the life thereof, the blood thereof; or that they fhould not eat any flesh cut off from any animal while it is alive. At the fame time God made a covenant with Noah, and with every living creature, or he made a free and abfolute grant or promife to them, that all flesh fhould not any more be cut off with the waters of a flood. Of which more hereafter.. What is here particularly to be obferved is, the inftitution of magiftracy, and the punishment of murder. Ver. 6. Whofo fheds man's blood, by man fhall his blood be shed. Ver. 5. And furely your blood of your lives will I require, at the band of every beast will I require it; and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man. The beaft that killed, or the man that murdered a man, is here commanded to be put to death by man, i. e. by the magiftrate or judge. Here courts of judicature are authorized, not only for the punishment of murder, but, by parity of reafon, of any other great offences which may effect life nearly as much as murder." This feems to be the original inftitution of magiftracy, of which we have not hitherto the leaft intimation in the facred hiftory. On the contrary, it appears from the cafe of Cain, (Gen. iv. 15.) and of Lamech, (Gen. iv. 23, 24.) that murder, the greateft of crimes, was left to be punifhed as God in his providence fhould fee fit. And if murder, much more every lefler inftance of injury. It feems probable, there were no eparate ftates, nor regular governments, among the antediluvians; but eat, as they fpread over the face of the earth, they removed further from the place of public worship, loft a fenfe of God, .and lived in a difor dely manner, exercifing violence and outrage, as they had power; and were inftigated by luft, avarice and revenge, till the earth was filled with violence. Which, I apprehend, could not have been the cafe, under laws and governors armed with power to reftrain outrage and injustice; for though governors themselves, and their creatures, may be tyrannical and oppreffive, yet, for their own fecurity, they will not fuffer their fubjects to break out into anarchy and licentious invafion of life and property, because this is open rebellion against governors. The ftate of VOL. I. F the the old world, probably, was like that of the Ifraelites, when there was no king, no magiftrate among them, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes, Jud. xxi. 25. Which proves the poffibility of fuch a licentious state, and the fhocking diforders that would attend it. The leaving mankind, in the first ages of the world, in this loose and difcretionary state, certainly, was not to lead them into wickedness; but I conceive, to teach them by experience the neceffity of laws and governors, and the reasonablenefs of fubmitting to them. [See Chap. III. § IV. the Corollary.] For even upon the contrary fuppofition, that magiftracy, in fome form or other, was inftituted from the beginning of the world, yet it is plain, that mankind in thofe ages would not bear the yoke, but univerfally fhook it off. Nor could government, in fact, be permanently established, till the ruin of the world demonftrated the neceffity of it. Therefore, if God did not fee fit to establish magiftracy from the beginning, it was because he knew mankind would not bear the reftraints of government with a rational confent and approbation (without which confent and approbation, at leaft from the majority, government could not have been either erected or fupported), till fad experience had taught them the utility and importance of it. Thus a particular fpecies of injuftiee, and even of murder, is permitted under our prefent difpenfation, and, instead of being reftrained, is eftablished by law; I mean perfecution, or the taking away of life for difference of fentiments in religion, which fubfifts in moft Chriftian countries. And this, I apprehend, the wisdom of God has permitted, that Chriftians at length may be rationally convinced of the monftrous iniquity of such practice, and fo be generally induced by the fenfe of their own minds to approve and choofe goodnefs, love and mutual forbearance; which we hope will be the genius and happy temper of the next ensuing difpenfation. This is the only method of moral improvement, namely, when the mind, by proper methods, is led to apprehend, and freely embrace, what is right and fit; and, I doubt not, takes place in the gradual advanses of all, or of any part of mankind in wifdom, as well as of particular fingle perfons. This, with what hath been faid before, is the best account I can give of this antediluvian difpenfation. N. B. The curfe upon Canaan, ver. 25. is to be understood as affecting only the temporal circumftances of his pofterity, a fervant of fervants fhall he be. As in Deut. xxviii. 16, 17, &c. Curfed fhall be thy bafket and thy flore. Nor is it to be confidered in Noah as a malevolent wish, or imprecation, but fimply as a prediction of the future ftate of Ham's pofterity; as appears from the whole of Noah's discourse, which is plainly prophetic. CHAP. XX. СНА Р. XX. Of the DISPERSION at the Tower of BABEL. Gen. x. ERE Mofes gives an account how the earth was peopled by the feveral families, or defcendents of Noah's three fons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, ver. 32. For the particulars of this curious account confult the Commentators, especially Bp. PATRICK. What I would obferve is this-That, after the account of the several nations defcended from each of Noub's fons, it is added, as in ver. 5. By thefe defcendents of Japhet, were the ifles, or tranfmarine countries, of the Gentiles divided in their feveral lands; every one after his tongue, or language, after their families, in their nations. The fame is faid ver. 20, 31. of the pofterity of Ham and Shem. Which plainly fignifies, that they did not all peak the fame language; but that the defcendents from Noah's fons, at leaft in general, if not feveral of the particular nations, had a language peculiar to themfelves, diftinct from the reft, and unintelligible to them. Noah and his pofterity, while they lived together after the flood, which must be for fome confiderable time, could have but one and the fame language amongst them. How they came to have different languages, and how they were feparated into feveral diftant countries, by a very memorable event, Mofes relates in the next chapter. When Noah's family was numerous enough, probably the Lord, by the mouth of Noah, commanded them to feparate into different countries, particularly fpecified, that the earth might be better cultivated and governed. Certainly their divifion and removal into diftant countries (Gen. x. 5.) must have been a general public act. And, as Mofes faith, the earth was divided into nations in Peleg's days, (ver. 25, 32.) it seems to imply, that it was done by a divine command, and not accidentally, as any might choose a more convenient fituation. Which is more clearly expreffed, Deut. xxxii. 8. where it is faid, when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the fons of Adam, [referring to this divifion of the earth] he fet the bounds of the people, the adjacent nations, according to the number of the future children of Ifrael, leaving for them a convenient fituation, and room fufficient. In profecution of this defign, the whole earth, except perhaps the eldest Patriarchs, and their attendants, journeying from the mother-colony towards the weft, and finding a spacious fruitful vale in the land of Shinar, there they determined to fettle, and build a city and a tower, reaching up to heaven, or of a very great height. Deut. i. 28. ix. 1. Pfal. cvii. 25, 26. [An hyperbole. Their intention was to make themselves a name, and to prevent their being scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth, (ver. 4.) as God had probably ordered they should. The fcheme was to keep together, and F 2 very |