At the fame time lived Lamech, who was contemporary both with Adam and Noah, and probably well acquainted with the counfels of God; and foretelling that that part of the curfe which related to the barrenness of the earth, would in a great measure be taken off; as it was in his fon's days *. At length, when the whole world became full of unbounded luft, and impurity †; of rapine and violence: when thofe giants in wickedness ||, had filled the earth with tyranny, injuftice, and oppreffion; and the whole race of men were grown entirely carnal §, and abandoned, and every imagination of their hearts was only evil continually**: God, whose spirit had been hitherto striving with them, was at length obliged, even in mercy to themselves, as well as their pofterity, to cut them off; after having raised up another prophet ++, to give them frequent warn over an intimation to mankind, that, if they overcame the depravity of their nature as he did, they should be delivered from the ill confequences of it as he was; the chiefeft of which was death, temporal and eternal, both which he avoided:' and this ingenious author fupposes him to be a type of many others being able to do the very fame. Efay, P. 72, &c. * Gen. v. 29. See Sherlock's Ufe and Intent, p. 89, &c. and Ogilby on the Deluge. Comp. Dawfon in loc. p. 57. ↑ Gen. vi. 2. I ver. 11. ver. 4. ver. 3. Seeing that really be is [nothing but] flesh, or wholly given up to the works of it. ver. 5. ++ 1 Pet. iii. 19. Heb. xi. 7. Noah the eighth, a preacher of righeoufnefs; (2 Pet. ii. 5.) or, as fome more juftly render it, the eighth preacher. (fee Jenkin, Vol. I. p. 46. and Pool in loc. n. 4.) For he was neither the eighth perfon in defcent from Adam, nor does his being one of the eight perfons in the ark, feem to be a conftruction either very natural or pertinent. Add Pearfon on the Creed, Part II. p. 115. 2d Edit. Cumberland de Leg. Patr. p. 419. warning of their fate; and allowed them a hundred and twenty years for repentance *. Thus did God make ample provifion for the instruction, and improvement of the world, for the first fixteen hundred years; namely, by frequent appearances, as we have feen; by the fpirit of prophecy, which is by fome fuppofed to have been hereditary in the heads of families in those times; and by uninterrupted tradition; there being but two generations from Adam to Noah; so that we cannot well imagine that the knowledge and true worship of God, during that time, could be entirely loft in any part of the world ‡. But we are to remember, that the world was ftill but in its state of childhood; which it most aptly resembled, in those extraordinary aids, and occafional supports afforded it; in the repeated in * Gen. iv. 3. This difpenfation [of the Deluge] as all the reft, had relation to the morals of mankind; and the evident defign of it was to leffen the quantity of vice and prophaneness, and to preferve and advance religion and virtue in the earth; the great end for which the earth, and man in it were created. This end it was well adapted to obtain in the then present state of things, and in all future generations. In the prefent ftate of things it prevented a total corruption. For if the whole tainted part had not been cut off, a fingle family would foon have been drawn in, or deftroyed: and then the whole globe muft have been ruined, and the fchemes and purposes of God from the beginning of the world had been defeated. But by referving a select family for the continuation of the human fpecies, the fyftem of the divine counfels was preferved entire, and the most proper method was devised for the establishment of religion and virtue in the new world; as the family of Noah enjoyed much greater advantages for this end than the family of Adam at the beginning of things. Taylor, Scheme of Script. Divin. c. 18. Com. Owen's Intent and Propriety of Script. Miracles, fect. z. + Jurieu Crit. Hift. Vol. I. p. 34. That Tradition was the chief way of conveying religion in those early ages, fee Leland's Advantage, &c. of the Christian Revelation. Vol. I. c. 1. inftances of that paternal care, and tenderness, with which the Creator watched over it: and I have been the more particular in examining whence it might derive its notices of God and religion, and how far thefe could probably extend; in order to obviate some mistakes, which are commonly made in the hiftory of those times, by fetting out wrong; and fuppofing the first man to have been once fuperior to all his pofterity *, both in natural abilities, and actual knowledge, because more innocent than they; and imagining that the primitive religion was more perfect, because it was more naked, plain, and fimple than that in after times: by which means, we are forced to make the state of the world often go backwards, rife and fall again; and abound with great breaks and inequalities; instead of obferving that regular, even progress, which will appear in all parts of the divine oeconomy. To proceed. After the deluge, God is pleased to converse again, and make another more clear and extenfive covenant with mankind in the perfon of Noah; who was a new inftance of his power, his justice, and his goodness; and whose family had been fufficiently convinced of his fupreme dominion over the earth and heaven; of his utter abhorrence of fin; and his determination not to let it go unpunished. Nor could they, or their chil * Vid. Gen. Di&t. art. Adam, p. 228, &c. or South's very extraordinary fermou on that fubject. Comp. Taylor on Orig. Sin, p.170, &c. 2d Edit. and Script. Scheme of Divin. c. 10. Adam, when created, may be confidered as a child, without knowledge, learning, and experience. ib. p. 32. children, for fome time, want any other argument to enforce obedience, fear, and worship *. The knowledge of mankind therefore after the flood, must for a confiderable time be better than ever it was before; might fafely be propagated by tradition; and did not stand in need of any farther revelation. But when by degrees many of them † had corrupted this tradition in the most effential parts, especially with relation to the object of their worship; and instead of one supreme God, had set up several orders of inferior ones; and worshipped all the hoft of heaven; (as they began to do in the time of Peleg, the fifth, according to the Hebrew computation, from Noah) and at the same time See Alix, B. i. c. 13. The obfervations and reflections they might make on this extrordinary tranfaction are well imagined by Winder, Hift. of Know. c. 5. fect. 2, 3, 4. and Taylor, ib. c. 18. + Vid. Winder's Hift. of Kn. p. 110, &c. Patrick in Gen. xi. 2. Lord Bolingbroke, in his 2d & 3d Effays, has taken great pains to prove, that fuch corruptions in religion could never be introduced fo faft: and Eff. 2. p. 20. fuppofes it impoffible for any man in his fenfes to believe, that a tradition derived from God himself through fo few generations, was loft among the greatest part of mankind, or that Polytheism and Idolatry were eftablished on the ruins of it in the days of Serug, before thofe of Abraham, and fo foon after the 'deluge.' To which a fufficient anfwer may be had within two pages of the fame extraordinary author. The vulgar embrace them [Polytheifm and Idolatry] eafily, even after the true doctrine of a Divine Unity has been taught and received; as we may learn from the example of the Ifraelites: and fuperftitions grow apace and fpread wide, even in thofe countries where Christianity has ⚫ been established, and is daily taught; as we may learn from the ⚫ examples of the Roman churches, to fay nothing of the reformed, 'who are lefs liable to the objection.' ib. p. 22. Vol. IV. Comp. p. 224, &c. where he contradicts this again, difallows both the facts and application of them, but does not deny the truth of the former so much as the latter, and all in a breath. But if any one wants to fee more of his Lordship's contradictions, a pretty complete lift of them may be found ready drawn out, in the Analyfis of his philofophical works, printed A. D. 1755 E time were uniting under one head, and forming an univerfal empire; and erecting a monument or mark*, to preserve and perpetuate this their union +: in order to prevent their being all corrupted at once, God faw it neceffary to come down‡, and disperse them into several diftinct colonies, by dividing them into fo many languages, (or caufing that difcord § among them, a natural confequence of the former,) which made their future intercourse impracticable; and thereby rendered it impossible for any one fpecies of idolatry to be universally established; nay, gave a confiderable check to the progrefs of false worship in general; which had most probably been introduced by the rulers ** of those times; and for which reason, their people then might be driven from them, to hinder its That this is the meaning of the word D. Gen. xi. 4. which our tranflators have improperly rendered name here, fee Goguet, Introd. p. 2. *. De L'Origine des Loix, &c. + See Worthington, B. Lect. § 8. 1 Gen. xi. 5, 7. See Le Clerc upon the place, with Winder, Hift. of Kn. p. 118. or Taylor, Scheme of Script. Div. c. 21. Some underfland it literally of a local defcent of the Son of God, attended by the Divine Shechinah. Tenifon, of Idolatry, c. 14. P'. 4. The date of this great event is fixed with fome probability to anno 240 poft Diluv. See Rowland's Mona Antiq. Reftor. 281, &c. 2d Ed. That there was not only a general difperfion of the fons of Noah about this time, but also a particular divifion of the earth amongst them, fee Bryant's Obferv. on parts of ancient Hift. p. 260, &c. Some of the benefits of this Difperfion are defcribed by Dr. Owen, B. L. § vii. SP.lv. 9. Le Clerc, ibid. & Prolegom. in Com. Diff. 1. § 3. & in Gen. xi. 9. Add 1 Cor. i. 10. and Vitringa, Obf. Sac. L. 1. c. 9. $6, &c. Shuckford, Vol. I. B. iii. p. 146. Hutchinson on the Confufion of Tongues. Another account of this Confufion, making it rather an oblivion of the old language, than any infufion of new ones, is given by Rowland, ib. ** See Shuckford, Vol. I. B. v. p. 353, &c. The fame author gives a probable reafon for this, Vol. II. B. ix. p. 457, &c. Comp. Taylor's Scheme of Script. Div, c. 20. |