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 disorders that would attend it. The leaving mankind, in the first ages of the world, in this loose and discretionary 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 reasonableness of submiting 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 begining of the world, yet it is plain, that mankind in those ages would not bear the yoke, but univerfally fhook it off. Nor could government, in fact, be permanently eftablished, till the ruin of the world demonftrated the neceffity of it. Therefore, if God did not fee fit to establish magiftracy from the begining, it was because he knew mankind would not bear the restraints of government with a rational confent and approbation; (without which confent and approbation, at least 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 injuftice, and even of murder, is permited under our present difpenfation, and, inftead of being reftrained, is established 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 fuch 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 enfuing dispenfation. This is the only method of moral improvement, namely, when the mind, by proper methods, is led to apprehend, and freely imbrace, what is right and fit; and I doubt not, takes place in the gradual advan ces of all, or of any part of mankind in wisdom, 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 circumstances of his pofterity, a fervant of fervants fhall be be. As in Deut, xxviii. 16, 17, &c. Curfed fhall be thy baf ket and thy ftore. Nor is it to be confidered in Noah as a malevolent wifh, 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. CHA P. XX. Of the DISPERSION at the Tower of BABEL. Gen. x. CERE Mofes gives an account how the earth was peopled by the Hfeveral families, or Defcendents of Noah's three fons, Shem, Ham, xx 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 Noah'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 fpeak the fame language; but that the defcendents from Noah's fons, at least in general, if not feveral of the particular nations, had a language peculiar to themselves, 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 same language amongst them. How they came to have different languages, and how they were feparated into feveral distant 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 specified, 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 expreft, Deut. xxxii. 8. where it is faid, when the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the fons of Adam, [refering 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 elder Patriarchs, and their attendants, journying from the mother-colony towards the weft, and finding a fpacious 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 themfelves a name, and to prevent their being fcattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth, (ver. 4.) as God had probably ordered they should. The scheme was to keep together, and F 2 Schultens, upon Job i. 1. derives a very likely under one head. nent. is a mark or fign, standing out, rifing up, or expofed to open view; a 7. -it fhall be to the Lord for a name, i. e. for an everlasting fign, that shall not be cut off. chap. lxiii. 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 should carry off parties, and fo break the body, and fet up feparate Governments. It seems to have been a piece of state-policy, to keep all 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 wisdom perfectly forefaw the mischievous effects of such an attempt, determined to fruftrate and defeat it. By this scheme a great part of the earth must for a long time have been uninhabited, uncultivated, and over-run with beggary, and wild beafts; which, as it was, for a long time, according to ancient authors, exercised the induftry and valor 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 most eminent thing of any kind. Acts vii. 20. ASEIOS TW Dew, exceeding fair; 2 Cor. viii. 1. T xag re be, the very great liberality bestowed by the churches of Macedonia. chap. x. 4. Auvata TW DEW, exceeding powerful. Pfalm. lxxx. 10, 11. the goodly cedars. ,the cedars of God אַרְזֵי אֵל 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 soon as it was formed. It manifeftly had a direct tendency to tyranny, oppreffion, and flavery. Whereas in forming feveral independent governments by a small 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 most 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 so much as we, with all our English liberties, pay yearly to the church and government. Corruption 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 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 state 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 baseft fervility of mind, and have stockt the earth with a mean spirited 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 pleasure and thankfulness. Hucu yag τ' αρετης αποκινυταί δάλιον nuag, faith Homer (Odyss. p. ver. 322.) Whatever day makes a man a slave, 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 those who are inclosed in them, but also "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 deservedly be called, the prison of the foul, and the public "dungeon." For these wife and beneficent reafons, I prefume, the Divine Providence interpofed, and baffled the project; which in the then circumstances 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 fameness of speech, 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 least, 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 affociating together by a variety of languages unintelligible to each other. And further, in this difperfed ftate, they would, whenever God pleased, be made checks reciprocally upon each other by invafions 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 ftate and circumstances. This Difperfion probably happened about 240 years of the flood. Of the D COUNCIL of GOD; or a Criticifm upon thofe Words, **LL allow, that the Lord's coming down to fee the City, and Tower, A Gen. xi. 5, is to be understood avgwenabws by way of accomXxmodation 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 state, a very proper way of reprefenting 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 spake to fome beings included in his own nature and substance. 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 defcribed, 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 purpofe, 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. Of this Council, I apprehend, Fob fpeaks, 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 seemed to be his peculiar care to profper me and my family. To this Council the Prophets in vifion are fuppofed to be admitted as standers-by, and hearers of what is there decreed, and refolved upon. Job xv. 8. by any haft thou heard, or been a hearer, in the fecret Council of God. Jer. xxiii. 17, 18. They, the falfe prophets, fay ftill unto them that defpife me, the Lord hath faid, Ye shall have peace; and they fay unto every one that walketh after the imagination of For כי מי עמד בסוד יהוה .bis own heart, No evil ball come unto you לפני מֶלֶךְ עמד his people. So who hath stood [as a waiter, or fervant, ready to carry God's meffages to one that stands before the King, is pro perly the King's Minifter. And when Elisha faith, (2 Kings iii. 14.) as the Lord liveth before whom I ftand, he means, whofe Minifter I am.] in the fecret Council, or Affembly, of Jehovah, and hath feen and heard his word? q. d. Which of you hath been wrapt in vifion, and admited 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 go prefumptuously with meffages of your own heads. Verse 21., I have not |