Books as treat of them: And till, by the Method propofed, I have proved the Bible to be of Divine Authority, I fhall alledge it only as an Historical Relation of Things paft; in which respect, it would be unreasonable to deny it that credit which is allowed to other Books of that nature. And this is all that is now desired, in order to the clearing of what I am at present upon; which is to fhew, That nothing requifite to a true Revelation is wanting to the Scriptures; and therefore, that they have been fufficiently promulged and made known to the World.

In the Beginning of the World, God was pleased to create but one Man, and one Woman, and to people the Earth from them; which muft exceedingly tend both to the preservation of Order and Obedience amongst Men, and to the retaining of the Knowledge of God, and of his Ways and Dealings with the first Parents of Mankind. But if Multitudes had been created, and the Earth had been peopled at once, the natural effect of this had been Ambition and Strife. Confufion and Ignorance: For as the Inhabitants of the World multiplied, fo did all Sin and Wickedness encrease; though all defcended from the fame Parents, and these Parents lived to fee many Generations of their Off-spring, and to inftruct and admonish them; which, if any thing could have done it, muft have kept up a sense of God and Religion amongst Men. Adam himself performed the Office of a Father, a Priest, and a King, to his Children; and the Office and Authority of thefe three defcended upon the Heads of Families, in the feveral Generations and Succeffions of Kingdoms amongst his Pofterity: For that the fame Perfon was both King and Prieft in the earlier Ages of the World, we learn from the best Antiquities of other Nations; and it was fo likewife amongst the Hebrews, till God had appointed an Or

Omnéfq, primogenitos Noe, donec facerdotio fungeretur Aaron fuiffe Pontifices (Hebræi tradunt.) Hieronym. Quæftion. seu Tradit. Hebraic. in Genef.

der

der and Succeffion of the Priesthood in one Tribe : and therefore Efau is ftiled a profane Perfon, for felling his Birth-right, because the Priesthood went along with it, Heb. xii. 16.

By all the Accounts we have of the World before the Flood, we are affured, that God was pleased, at firft, to afford frequent Communications of himself to Mankind; and even to the Wicked, as to Cain, whose Punishment it afterwards was, to be hid from the face of the Lord, and driven out from his prefence, Gen. iv. 14, 16. And when the Wickedness of Men had provoked God to drown the World, he revealed this to Noah, and refpited the execution of this Judgment an Hundred Years; and Noah, in the mean time, both by his Preaching, and by preparing an Ark, warned them of it, and exhorted them to Repentance: by preparing of an ark to the faving of his houfe, he condemned the world, Heb. xi. 7. and he was a preacher of righteoufnefs to the old world, 2 Pet. ii. 5. He made it his bufinefs, for above an Hundred Years together, to forewarn the wicked World of their approaching Ruine; which he did by all the Ways and Means that a Wife and Great Man could contrive, proper for that End.

Noah lived, after the Flood, Three hundred and fifty Years, Gen. ix. 28. and it was between One and Two hundred Years before the Divifion of Tongues, and the Difperfion of the Sons of Noah. And when all the Inhabitants of the Earth were of one Language, and lived not far afunder, Noah himself living amongst them; the Judgment of God upon the wicked World, in overwhelming them with the Flood; his Mercies to Noah and his Family, in their preservation, when all the rest of the World perished; and the Commandments which God gave to Noah at his coming out of the Ark, with his Promises and Threatnings refpectively to the performance or tranfgreffion of

them,

them,must be well known: and the fin in building the Tower of Babel, for which the Univerfal Language was confounded, and the Race of Mankind difperfed, could proceed from nothing but the heighth of Prefumption and Perverseness. After the Confufion of Languages, and the Difperfion of Mankind, they could not on the fudden remove to very diftant and remote Places, by reason of the unpaflable Woods, and Defarts, and Marshes, which, after so vast an Inundation, must be every where to be met with, to obstruct their passage, in those hot and fruitful Countries, when they had lain uninhabited for so many Years. This we may the better understand, from the flow progrefs which was made in the Discoveries of the Weft-Indies. For the Spaniards, in thofe places where they found neither Guide nor Path, did not enter the Country ten Miles in ten Years. And in thofe Ages they could not but be ill provided, either by their own Skill, or by convenient Tools and Inftruments, with fit means to clear the Country which they were to pass; and they were likewife unprovided of Veffels to transport any great numbers of Men, with their Families, and Herds of Cattel, which were for many Ages their only Riches, and abfolutely neceffary for their Sustenance: for Navigation had never had fo flow an Improvement in the World, if it had fo foon been in that Perfection as to enable them for fuch Tranfportations.

And as for thefe Reasons, the Difperfion of Noah's Posterity over the Earth must be gradual, and many Generations muft pafs, before the remoter Parts of it could be inhabited; fo the feveral Plantations muft be fuppofed to hold Correfpondence with those to whom they were nearest allyed, and from whom they went out; they must be fuppofed to own fome fort of Dependence upon them, and pay them fuch Ac

See Sir W. Rawleigh, 1. 1. c. 8. §. 3.

know

knowledgments as Colonies have ever done to their Mother-Cities. It is natural to fuppofe that they first spread themselves into the neighbouring Countries; and (as Sir Walter Raleigh has obferved) the first Plantations were generally by the Banks of Rivers, whereby they might hold Intelligence one with another; which they could not do by Land, that being overspread with Woods, and altogether unfit for travelling. And the great affinity which is obfervable between the Eastern Languages, proves that there was a continual Correfpondence and Commerce maintained between the feveral Nations, after the Difperfion.

All which, confidering the great Age that Men lived to in thofe times, muft, without a very grofs Neglect and Contempt of God, preferve a true Notion of Religion in the feveral Parts of the World: For Noah himself lived Three Hundred and Fifty Years after the Flood; his Sons were not foon difperfed; their Difperfion was gradual, and they held a Correfpondence after their Separation, and lived long to educate and train up their Children in that Knowledge of God, which they had received and been instructed in themselves; and befides, they had little elfe to difcourfe upon, but fuch things as would neceffarily lead them to it: The History of their own Nation and Family is that which Men are naturally most fond of; and in these Ages the Particulars could be but few, and thofe very remarkable, and almost within the memory of fome yet living; and every Occurrence must bring to their remembrance what they had heard and had been taught concerning God, and his Dealings with them and their Forefathers.

Moreover, there was the fpecial Hand of God, and a particular Over-ruling Providence, in the Difperfion and Divifion of Nations: For, when the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he

Separated

Separated the fons of Adam, he fet the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Ifrael, Deut. xxxii. 8. He determined the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if haply, they might feel after him, and find him, Acts xvii. 26, 27. This was the reafon of the Division of the Nations, according to the number of the children of Ifrael, who are ftiled a Peculiar Treafure, a Kingdom of Priefts, and a Holy Nation, Exod. xix. 5, 6. There was a particular regard had to the Number of the Chofen Seed, that they might bear a fit proportion to the rest of Mankind, and might be as fo much Leaven to the whole Mafs, as a quickning and enlivening Principle to excite and maintain due Apprehenfions of God, and his Worship and Service in the World: And this is the Reafon given, why Polygamy was permitted them; That they who were the peculiar People of God, and were to teach his Commandments to the reft of the World, might fufficiently encrease and multiply. For though it appears by our Regi fters that here more Males are born than Females, to a confiderable difproportion, and that therefore Polygamy amongst us, would not tend to the multiplication of Mankind, but rather to the contrary; yet in Judea it might be otherwife; or the Captive Women, whom they were permitted to marry, might raise the number of Females above that of the Males; or their perpetual Wars leffen'd the number of Males to a degree beneath the Females. However, this is the reafon alledged by learned Men, why Polygamy, which was not permitted from the Beginning, fhould be allowed the Ifraelites for, indeed, it was of great confequence that they fhould multiply fo as to have. a due proportion to the reft of the World; and for the fame reason, the furviving Brother was to raise up Seed to the deceafed. Barrennefs was a Reproach;

d

d

:

4 See Graunt on the Bills of Mortality.

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