CH. XX. very likely under one one head. Schultens, upon fob i. 1. derives a name, from the Arabic verb now or How to be high, elevated, eminent. And according to him, the primary and proper notion of v is a mark or fign, ftanding out, rifing up, or expofed to open view; a ftanding mark or title of distinction and eminence. 2 Sam. vii. 23.and to make him a name, a monument of honour and eminence. chap. viii. 13. 1 Kin. v. 3, 5. build an houfe unto, or for, the name, honour, eminent diftinction of the Lord, to denote that he is the only true God, and King of the Ifraelites. 1 Kings viii. 16, 29. 1 Chron. xvii. 21.to m.ke thee a name, a monument, of greatnefs and terribleness. Ifai. xviii. 7. lv. 13. --it fhall be to the Lord for a name, i. e. for an everlasting fign, that foall not be cut off. chap. Ixiii. 12, 14. So in this place, Gen. xi. 4.-and let us, fay the heads or leaders, make us a name, a monument or token of fuperiority and eminence, I conceive to fignify to all fucceeding generations, that they were the true original governors, to whom all mankind ought to be in fubjection; left other leaders ftarting up fhould carry off parties, and fo break the body, and fet up feparate governments. It feems to have been a piece of late-policy, to keep ali mankind together, under the prefent chiefs and their fucceffors. And the lofty Tower was probably intended to command every part of the town, and keep off any body of men, that should attempt to break in upon them.

But God, whofe wifdom perfectly forefaw the mifchievous effects of fuch an attempt, determined to fruftrate and defeat it. By this fcheme a great part of the earth muft for a long time have been uninhabited, uncultivated, and overrun with beggary and wild beafts; which, as it was, for a long time, according to ancient authors, exercifed the induftry and valour of the primitive heroes in hunting and fubduing them. It was thus Nimrod, that mighty hunter, gained his renown. Gen. x. 9. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Which is an Hebrew phrase, to fignify the greateft, and moft eminent thing of any kind. As`vii. 20. Asos Tw bew, exceeding fair; 2 Cor. viii. 1. T xag To be, the very great liberality beflowed by the churches of Macedonia. chap. x. 4. Aurata To DEN, exceeding powerful. Pfalm lxxx. 10, 11. the cedars of God, the goodly cedars.

Moft probably the bad effects which this project would have had upon the minds, the morals, and religion of mankind, was the chief reafon why God interpofed to crush it as foon as it was formed. It manifeftly had a direct tendency to tyranny, oppreffion, and flavery. Whereas, in forming feveral independent governments by a fmall body of men, the ends of government, and the fecurity of liberty and property, would be much better attended to, and more firmly established; which, in fact, was generally the cafe, if we may judge of the reft, by the conftitution of one of the moft eminent, the kingdom of Egypt. Gen. xlvii. 15-27. The Egyptians were mafters of their perfons and properties, till they fold them to Pharaoh for bread: and then their fervitude amounted to no more than the fifth part of the produce of the country, as an annual tax payable to the king; which is not near fo much as we, with all our Englith liberties, pay yearly to the church and government.

Corruption may creep into religion under any conftitution; but tyranny and defpotic power is the readieft and fureft way to deprive men of the use of understanding and confcience; and vice and idolatry would

haye

have spread much fafter, had the whole world, in one body, been under the abfolute dominion of vicious, infolent, idolatrous monarchs. This would have been a ftate of things juft in the oppofite extreme to the antediluvian licentioufnefs, and would have been nearly as pernicious to virtue; as it must have funk mankind into the bafeft fervility of mind, and have stocked the earth with a mean-fpirited race of mortals, who durft not open their own eyes, make any generous ufe of their own faculties, or relish the bounty of heaven with pleafure and thankfulness. Hou yag τ' αρετης αποαινυτών δέλιον ημας, faith Homer (Odyll. p. ver. 322.)— Whatever day makes a man a flave, takes half his worth away. "Thus "I have heard, faith Longinus, Sect. XLIV. if what I have heard in "this cafe deferve credit, that the cafes in which dwarfs are kept, not "only prevent the future growth of thofe who are enclofed in them, but "alfo diminish what bulk they already have, by too clofe conftriction "of their parts. So flavery, be it never fo eafy, yet is flavery ftill; and may defervedly be called, the prifon of the foul, and the public "dungeon."

For thefe wife and beneficent reafons, I prefume, the Divine Providence interpofed, and baffled the project; which, in the then circumftances of the projectors, would otherwife have been unhappily fuccefsful, by confounding and altering their language in fuch manner, as that they could not understand one another; and fo were obliged to defift from the work they had begun, to feparate into many fmaller bodies, and to feek for fettlements at a distance from each other, as the feveral companies, by the famenefs of fpeech, were capable of converfing together, and poffibly in the very countries which God had marked out

for them.

Thus the contagion of wickednefs, for fome time at leaft, had bounds fet to it; evil example was confined, and could not ftretch its influence beyond the limits of one country; nor could wicked projects be carried on with univerfal concurrence by many little colonies, feparated by the natural boundaries of mountains, rivers, deferts, feas, and hindered from aflociating together by a variety of languages unintelligible to each other. And further, in this difperfed ftate, they would, whenever God pleafed, be made checks reciprocally upon each other by invasions and wars; which would weaken the power, and humble the pride of corrupt and vicious communities. This difpenfation, therefore, was properly calculated to prevent a fecond univerfal degeneracy. God therein dealing with men as rational agents, and fuiting his scheme to their prefent state and circumstances. This Difperfion probably happened about 240 years of the flood.

CHA P. XXI.

Of the COUNCIL of GOD; or a Criticism upon thofe Words Let us go down, Gen. xi. 7.

A

LL allow, that the Lord's coming down to fee the City and Tower, Gen. xi. 5, is to be understood avlewrorales by way of accommodation to our conceptions; and means no more, but that by the effects, he made it appear, that he obferved their motions, and knew their intentions. This is a very common, and in our present embodied ftate, a very proper way of representing the actions of Deity. But when Jehovah is reprefented as faying, Go to, let us go down, verfe 7, as before, chap. i. 26, he had faid, Let us make man, &c. learned men have fuppofed, that this is to be taken literally, and that God here fpake to fome beings included in his own nature and fubftance. Whereas this alfo is a figure of fpeech, which is to be understood as the foregoing. Kings tranfact their most important affairs in a folemn council. Hence, God is pleased to reprefent himself as having likewife his TD or privy council. And the determinations of his Providence are described, after the manner of men, as having been made in that Council, in order to exprefs the wisdom, importance, and certainty of them. Thus, and for this purpose, Jehovah is here, and in Gen. i. 26, represented as speaking in his Council, Let us make man, let us go down, and there confound their language.

הבסוד אלוה תשמע

Of this Council, I apprehend, Job speaks, chap. xxix. 4.—when the fecret Council TD of God was upon my tabernacle; when the auguft Affembly, where God's Counfels and Decrees are paffed, was held, as it were over my habitation; and it feemed to be his peculiar care to profper me and my family. To this Council the Prophets in vifion are fuppofed to be admitted as ftanders-by, and hearers of what is there decreed, and refolved upon. Job xv. 8. yown mix non bast thou heard, or been a hearer, in the fecret Council of God. Jer. xxiii. 17, 18. They, the falfe prophets, fay fill unto them that defpife me, the Lord hath faid, Yefball have peace; and they fay unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil fhall come unto you. who hath flood [as a waiter, or fervant, ready to carry God's meffages to his people. So one that ftands before the King, is properly the King's Minifter. And when Elifba faith (2 Kings, iii. 14.), as the Lord liveth, before whom I ftand, he means, whofe Minifter I am.] in the fect Council, or Affembly, of Jehovah, and hath seen and heard his word? q. d. Which of you hath been wrapt in vifion, and admitted as a ftander-by and hearer in that great Affembly, where God's Councils are held, and hath brought a meflage to his people from thence? No, you

For כי מי עמד בסוד יהוה

go

go prefumptuously with meffages of your own heads. Verfe 21. I have not fent thefe prophets, yet they ran: I have not fpoken to them, yet they prophefied. 10 17DY ON But if they had flood in my Council, and had caufed my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. This connexion of the Prophets with the Council of God, may ferve to explain Jonah's fleeing from the prefence of, or from before, the Lord, Jon. i. 2. He was fent upon a frightful and dangerous meflage; but as he judged, I fuppofe, that the Council of God was held in no other land but that of Ifrael, he hoped to break off his connexion with it, by removing to a remote country among the Gentiles.

The vifion of Micaiah (1 Kings xxii. 19-24.) will fet this affair in the ftrongest light. And he faid, Hear thou the word of the Lord: I faw the Lord futing on his throne, and all the boft of heaven ftanding by him, on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord faid, Who shall perfuade Ahab, that he may go up, and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one faid on this manner, and another on that manner. And there came forth a fpirit, and food before the Lord, and faid, I will perfuade him. And the Lord faid unto him, Wherewith? And be faid, I will go forth, and I will be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt perfuade him, and prevail alfo: go forth and do fo. Here the Lord is fhewn in Council, after the manner of men, deliberating upon this affair. Now, whether there was any fuch real confultation is not neceffary for us to inquire. Thus it was reprefented in all its circumftances to the prophet, and ftampt upon his mind in vifion; and it was God who directed him to use it in this form, as appears plainly from the folemn introduction, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord. And though it should only be a parabolical vifion, yet the drift and fubftance of it was a divine infallible truth, namely, that Ahab's prophet prophefied lies; and this by the Divine Permiffion, and the inftigation of the wicked fpirit, who was a liar from the beginning, and the father of lies.

A paffage fimilar to this, is that in the book of Job, chap. i. 6. Now there was a day when the Sons of God, Angels, came to prefent themselves before the Lord, and Satan came alfo among them. And the Lord faid unto Satan, Whence comeft thou? Then Satan anfwered the Lord, &c. And again, chap. ii. 1, &c. Here we fee is the fame grand affembly in the cafe of Job, as in the foregoing inftance of Abab. The fame hoft of heaven, called here the Sons of God, prefenting themselves before Jehovah, as in the vision of Micaiah they are faid to ftand on his right hand and on his left. A wicked fpirit appears among them, here called Satan, an adverfary, and there a lying jpirit; both of them bent on mischief, and ready to do hurt, as far as God fhould give them leave. And the meaning in both cafes is the fame, that God in his wife providence permitted Satan to afflict Job, and the lying spirit to deceive hab. Only Micaiah delivers his reprefentation as a Prophet, in the exercife of his office, and as he received it, that is to say, in a vifion; I faw the Lord fitting on his throne, &c. The other [probably Job himself, who was not unacquainted with the Council of God, as we have feen], as an historian, interweaves it with the hiftory in the plain, narrative ftile, There was a day, &c. The things

F 4

delivered

delivered to us by both thefe facred writers, are in fubftance the fame, equally high, and above the reach of mere human fight and knowledge. Note the reprefentations of this kind are founded in the doctrine of Angels, good and bad, especially the former, as the inftruments of Providence. A point revealed, no doubt, from the beginning, and well understood in the earlicft ages; witnefs Jacob's ladder, with the Angels of God afcending and defcending upon it. Gen. xxviii. 12.

Ifaiah alto in a vifion ftood in the Council of God, chap. vi. 1, &c. Where he faw the Lord fitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it flood the Seraphim, the angelic hoft, &c. The matter in confultation was, verfe 7. Whom Shall I fend, and who will go upon the prophetic errand for us, ufing deliberative language, and the plural number, as in the two texts under confideration, Let us make man

Let us go down.Ifaiah readily offered his fervice, verfe 8. And the Lord delivered to him his commiffion and meffage, verfe 9. And he faid, Go and tell this people, &c.

Ezekiel in the fame manner in vifion stood in the Council of the Lord, chap. i. 1. The heavens were (i. e. the temple was) opened, and I saw vifions of God; namely, the four living creatures, or Cherubims, reprefenting the church of God attending upon the glory of the Lord, or the Shechinah, verfe 28, and feated upon a throne, verf: 26. And be faid unto Ezekiel, chap. ii. 3. Son of man, I fend thee to the children of Ifrael, &c.

1. Zechariah, too, chap. i. 7, 8, &c. to the end of the fixth chapter, is reprefented as converfing with the Lord in his Council, and with an Angel; though the fcene is not defcribed fo diftinctly as in the other places.

John alfo in the fpirit, i. e. in a vifion, Rev. i. 10, was prefent in the fame Council of God, defcribed in the 4th and 5th chapters of the Revelation, chap. iv. 1. A door was opened in heaven, in the temple; John was invited to attend, a throne was fet in heaven, with a majestic Perfonage upon it, attended by the Cherubim, or the Church, and the Angelic Hoft. The matter, which was there very folemnly transacted, was the future ftate of the Church, to the end of the world.

This is the prophetic way of telling us how a thing was done, which really was done, but in a way to us invifible. Thus things of the greatest importance were reprefented in the frongeft images to the mind of the Prophet; and in this way Infinite Wifdom would have them defcribed and reprefented to us. Nor fhould we quarrel with our Maker for creating us with fuch faculties as are most affected and impreffed with truths that are conveyed in this manner; for thofe truths make the deepest impreffion which firft enter like a picture into the imagination, and from thence are ftamped upon the memory.

Not Homer, previously to Events, reprefents the confultations of his fictitious deities in the fame narrative way, to denote, that all things are fubject to an over-ruling Providence. A method practifed long before him, and very probably derived from the truly-inspired.

I fhall only further obferve, (1.) That D is fometimes applied to worfhipping affemblies, Pfal. lxxxix. 7. cxi, 1. (2.) Sometimes it fignifies the thing that is tranfacted, commanded, or established in the

Council