ery imagination of their hearts was polluted with iniquity.

There were likewise in those days persons whose extraordinary strength and stature were equally remarkable with their acts of rapine and impiety: these were most probably the offspring of the murderer, both by father and mother, who tyrannised over the weak, by dint of superior power. A similar mode of conduct appears to have been adopted by some others who are adverted to in holy writ under the appellation of mighty men, or men of renown.

The wickedness of mankind now increased rapidly with the increasing population, and the earth was literally filled with violence; yet the forbearance of God was continued towards them, and he mercifully resolved to grant them the space of one hundred and twenty years for repentance; during which time he declared his spirit should strive with man, in order to awaken him to a sense of his depravity, and eventually to recal him to the paths of peace and virtue.

It is here proper to remark, that, notwithstanding the general corruption, one man was found perfect in his generation, and walking humbly with his God. This person was Noah the son of Lamech, who exerted himself, on all occasions, to introduce a reformation both of worship and conduct; and to this end undertook the laborious task of public admonition, warning his auditors of the fatal consequences that must result from their enormities. His zealous counsel was however treated with disdain, and the deluded race continued in the practice of every vice, till God is said to have been grieved at his heart for the reformation of his incorrigible creatures, and, at the end of their fruitless probation, to have decreed an universal deluge that should utterly destroy them, together with the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. From this tremendous sentence Noah and his family were excluded, having "found favour in the eyes of the Lord," and the venerable patriarch received instructions concerning a certain vessel which he was appointed to build for the preservation of his own

family, and for such a quantity of animals of every spe cies as would be sufficient to replenish the earth again, when the threatened flood should subside.

In obedience to the divine command Noah undertook the construction of this vessel, mentioned in the scriptures by the name of the ark. With respect to its dimensions we read, that its length was three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty, and its height thirty. Its form was that of an oblong square with a flat bottom, and a sloping room, elevated one cubit in the middle. It consisted of three stories, each of which, excluding the thickness of the floors, might be eighteen feet high, and was divided into separate apartments. It was, in all probability, well supplied with light and air, and though it had neither sails nor rudder, it was admirably contrived for lying steadily on the surface of the water, and for thus preserving the lives of its various inhabitants.

The appointed time of vengeance being come, and the ark completed, Noah went on board, in the year of the world sixteen hundred and fifty-six, with his wife, his sons and his daughters-in-law, taking with him all kinds of birds, beasts and reptiles, by pairs and by sevens, as he was expressly commanded; while the rest of mankind, regardless of his repeated warnings, continued to indulge in luxury and dissipation, till the flood came and overwhelmed them with a swift destruction; for, in the self same day, were the fountains of the great deep broken up, the windows of heaven were opened, and the inundation began to fall, which descended without intermission forty days and forty nights. The waters also increased gradually during the space of five months, when they rose to the elevation of twenty-seven feet above the summits of the highest mountains.

Towards the end of the ensuing month, Noah opened one of the windows of the ark, and sent forth a raven, which flew to and fro till the earth was dry, but afforded him no satisfactory intelligence; he therefore let out a dove three successive times, allowing seven days to elapse between each excursion. The first time she returned quickly, having found no place suffi

ciently firm to afford a resting place; the second time she came back in the evening, bringing an olive leaf in her mouth, as a proof that the flood had greatly abated; and the third time she returned no more.

On the first day of the first month, or the twenty-third of October, the patriarch, who was now in the six hundred and first year of his age, removed the covering of his vessel, in order to take a view of the surrounding scenery, and discovered that the surface of the earth was perfectly free from water; he continued, however, in the ark till the twenty-seventh of the second month, or the eighteenth of December, when he came forth, in pursuance of the Divine Command, together with his wife, his family, and every living creature which had been intrusted to his care for one year and ten days, according to the antideluvian computation, or during the space of three hundred and sixty-five of our present

time.

Having thus given a concise account of the universal deluge, with a strict regard to the word of God, we feel it our duty to lay such particulars before our readers as, being gathered from profane authors, may afford collateral evidence of this dreadful catastrophe.

The Chaldeans supposed this event to have happened in the reign of Xisthrus, who being warned in a dream that mankind should be destroyed by a flood, built a vessel of extraordinary dimensions, and by that means preserved himself and his family from ruin, besides a variety of fowls and quadrupeds that were recommended by Saturn to his protection. This vessel rested on a mountain, after being 365 days on the water. Xisthrus came out with all his companions, and raised an altar, whereupon he sacrificed to the gods.

The Egyptians were no strangers to this general destruction by water. The history of Osiris and Typhon mentions the very day when Osiris was shut up in the ark; the name of Typhon signifies a deluge, in conse. quence of which the Egyptian Priests gave that name to the sea. The inhabitants of Heliopolis in Syria are said

C

to have shewn a chasm in the earth in the temple of Juno, which swallowed up the waters of the deluge.

The classical writers had evidently some traditionary account of a general deluge, from which, according to Ovid, Deucalion and Pyrrha alone were saved.

The Chinese also have some notions of the flood, and of the providential escape of a single family from its destroying effects. The American Aborigines are said to acknowledge its reality.

CHAPTER II.

The General History from the Deluge to the Confusion of Tongues at Babel, b. C. 2347.

IMPRESSED with the most lively gratitude to the Author of his existence, Noah, immediately upon his landing, erected an altar, and offered a burnt sacrifice of every clean beast and of every clean fowl. This act of piety proved highly acceptable to God, who graciously affirmed, that he would no more curse the earth for man's sake; but, on the contrary, it should retain all its privileges, and enjoy an uninterrupted succession of seasons, till the period of its final dissolution. The patriarch was also honored with the divine blessing, and received permission to appropriate all living creatures to his own use, and to eat of them as freely as of the fruits and herbs of the earth: he was, however, strictly commanded to abstain from the blood of animals, and to avoid shedding that of man.

God likewise vouchsafed, on this memorable day, to make a solemn covenant with his favorite mortals, respecting the future safety of the habitable globe; and promised, as a sacred token of his inviolable decree, to set his bow in the clouds when it rained, that the posterity of Adam might look on it, and contemplate the effects of his sovereign mercy.

Having received the warmest blessings and the most inestimable marks of affection from his appeased Creator, Noah descended from the mountain, applied himself to husbandry, and planted a vineyard. At the time of the. vintage he became inebriated with the juice of the grape, and lay carelessly uncovered within his tent. In this

situation he was discovered by his son Ham, who immediately hastened to inform his brothers of the circumstance, and invited them to behold the disgraceful situation of their parent.

Shem and Japhet were, however, too modest in themselves, and too tender of the patriarch's honour, to comply with such a request; and, therefore, having provided themselves with a garment, they went backward, and covered their father with filial decorum: in return for which they were remunerated with an ample blessing, whilst the posterity of Ham were loaded with the most dreadful curses.

Subsequent to the recital of these particulars, Moses informs us that the patriarch paid the debt of nature in the nine hundred and fiftieth year of his age; and the eastern nations have a tradition that he was buried in Mesopotamia, where they shew his sepulchre, in a castle near Dair Abunah, or "the monastery of our Father." Japhet, the eldest son of Noah, (b. C. 1998) was particularly blessed by that patriarch, for his pious be haviour, in these terms:- God shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." This appears to have been spoken in the spirit of prophecy, and has been fully accomplished in the great possessions which fell to the posterity of Japhet in different parts of the world: in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire by the Medes, in conjunction with the Babylonians; and, finally, in the subjugation of the Canaanites, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, and other descendants of Ham, to the children of his eldest brother.

Of the children of Shem there is little more to be col. lected from scripture than their names and the ages of the patriarchs in the line of Peleg, till we come to Tera,