the grounds of this apostasy seem to have been these. At the distribution of families, and the allotment of the different regions upon earth, the house of Shem stood first, and was particularly regarded. The children of Shem were Elam and Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. Their places of destination seem to have been not far removed from the region of descent, which was the place of separation. They in general had Asia to their lot, as Japhet had Europe, and Ham the large continent of Africa. And in Asia, the portion of Elam was to the east. of the river Tigris, towards the mouth of it, which country, by the Gentile writers, was styled Elymaïs and opposite to him, on the western side, was Ashur. In like manner, above Ashur, upon the same river, was Aram, who possessed the countries called Aram and Aramea: and opposite to him was Arphaxad, who in aftertimes was called 5 Arbactus and Arbaces, and his country Arphacitis. Lud probably retired to Lydia, and bordered upon the sons of Japhet, who were possessed of some regions in Asia Minor. This was the original disposition of these families; but the sons of Chus would not submit to the divine dispensation; and "9 Nimrod, who first took upon

59 Justin. 1. 1. c. 3. Ptolemy expresses the country Arrapachitis. 1. 6. c. 1. The chief city was Artaxata.

59 Νεβρώδ, ὁ κυνηγος και γιγας, ο Αιθίοψ

τετῳ τῳ Νεβρώδ την

himself regal state, drove Ashur from his demesnes, and forced him to take shelter in the higher parts of Mesopotamia. This was part of the country called Aram, and was probably ceded to him by his brother. Here the Ashurites built for their defence a chain of cities, equal in strength and renown to those which had been founded by Nimrod. We have, in this detail, an account of the first monarchy upon earth, and of the tyranny and usurpations which in consequence of it ensued.

P

The sacred historian, after this, mentions another act of a rebellious purpose, which con.. sisted in building a lofty tower with a very evil intent. Most writers have described this and the former event as antecedent to the migration of mankind, which they suppose to have been from the plains of Shinar: but it will be my endeavour to shew, that the general migration was not only prior, but from another part of the world. The

βασιλειαν Βαβυλωνος μετα τον κατακλυσμον ή θεία γραφή ανατίθησι, Chron. Paschale. p. 28. Nimrod was styled Qrion, and Alorus by the Gentile writers; and is acknowledged to have been the first king upon earth, and to have reigned at Babylon. Tavτa μεν ὁ Βηρωσος ἱσόρησε πρώτον γενεσθαι Βασιλεα Αλωρον εκ Βαβυλωνος Xandao. Euseb. Chron. p. 5. Syncellus says the same, p. 37.79. We meet with the same history in another place of the Chron. Paschale. p. 36. also Johan. Antiochen. 1. 2. p. 18.

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words of the historian are these: " And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one; and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand each other's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city: therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. It had been in the preceding chapter men

(o Genesis. c. 11. v. 1.