CHAPTER II.

The general History from the Deluge to the Confusion of Tongues at Babel.

B. C. 2347.

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MPRESSED with the most lively grati tude to the author and preserver 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 destruction. The patriarch was also honoured 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 herbs and fruits of the earth: he was, however, strictly commanded to abstain from the blood of animals, and to avoid shedding that of man; at the same time receiving authority to punish the crime of manslaughter with death.

God likewise vouchsafed, on this memorable day, to make a solemn covenant with his favoured 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

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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. 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 attitude 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 backwards and covered their father with filial decorum; in return for which they were remuperated 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 orientals have a tradition that he was buried in Mesopotamia, where they show his sepulchre, in a castle near Dair Abunah, or "the monastery of our father."

All mankind being the descendants of the three sons of Noah, who were preserved from destruction in the ark, we may be naturally considered remiss if we pass them over without some particular notice. We shall therefore sketch out such circumstances, respecting these persons or their descendants, as shall appear of most im portance to our design.

Japhet, who, notwithstanding his disadvantageous position in the sacred history,

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was the eldest son of Noah, was pathetically blessed by that patriarch, for his pious behaviour, 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 elder brother.

Of the children of Shem there is little more to be collected from Scripture than their names and the ages of the patriarchs in the line of Peleg, till we come to Terah, the father of Abraham; we must therefore have occasional recourse to the conjectures and traditions of Jewish and Christian writers, where we shall find some particulars worthy of attention.

The birth of Shem must have happened in the year of the world 1558, as at the birth of Arphaxad, two years after the deluge, he was one hundred years old. The only action of his life recorded by Moses is that which he performed together with his brother Japhet, and for which he obtained the blessing of his father. He is said to have lived five hundred and two years after the flood, and to have died in the six hundredth year of his age, leaving behind him five sons; viz. Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram; the second of whom became the founder of the Assyrian kingdom, according to this express declaration of Moses "Out of that land (Shinaar)

(Shinaar) went forth Ashur, and builded Nineveh and the city Rhoboth, and Calah, and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city."

Elam may probably have been intended by the more moderate Persian historians, when they asserted, that their first king, Caumarras, was a son of Shem: and this idea is strictly consonant to the Mosaic account.

Arphaxad had one considerable advantage above his brethren, in having the patriarchal line continued through him. Many authors derive both the name and nation of the Chaldeans from this person; and Josephus, concurring in the same opinion, assures us, that he was the prince of the Arphaxadeans, at present called Chaldeans. It has been already observed, that he was born in the year of the world 1658, and it appears from the sacred records that he lived to the age of four hundred and thirty-eight years.

As we find no circumstance related in Scripture respecting the other sons, viz. Lud and Aram, we shall dismiss our remarks on his family, and return to that of Noah, whose youngest son, Ham, now demands our attention.

When Noah was acquainted with the indeli cacy of his son's conduct, he pronounced a heavy curse, not indeed against the offender himself, but against a branch of his posterity--" Cursed," says the patriarch, "be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." This curse falling upon a son of Ham rather than upon himself, has occasioned many conjectures among the learned. Some have supposed that Noah expressed

pressed himself in this manner to avoid cursing Ham, whom God had so recently blessed on his quitting the ark; others are for extending the curse both to Ham and his descendants, whom they therefore consider as the progenitors of the blacks; and a third class imagine, with a greater appearance of truth, that Mofes, by reciting this prediction, designed to raise and invigorate the spirits of the Israelites, who were appointed to engage and finally vanquish the children of Canaan, previous to their complete possession of the promised land.

Ham, in consequence of his undutiful behaviour on an occasion which should rather have excited his compassion than his ridicule, has been considered by the generality of authors as the first introducer of impiety after the deluge; and the infamous character attached to his name in their writings is perfectly consistent with Sanchoniatho's account of Cronus, who is supposed to have been the same person.

To form an opinion by the number of names mentioned by Moses in the three ge nerations of Ham's line, which exceeds the number of persons descended from both his brothers in the same degree, the most numerous issue of the three sons of Noah must certainly have belonged to the youngest, and the greater division of the earth must consequently have fallen to his share: yet Moses has recorded no particular circumstances relating to any of his first descendants, excepting Canaan and Nimrod.

Canaan, whom, according to Scripture, we may suppose to have been the fourth son of Ham, is believed to have lived and died in the country distinguished