judgment, Jude 14, 15. Enoch's great grandson was Noah, who, being righteous, was chosen to be saved from the approaching flood, in an ark, which God taught him to make. It was an immense barge, or ship, without masts, 450 feet long, 75 wide, and 45 deep, more than capacious enough, at the lowest computation, to contain all the known species of animals, with food for man and beast. The flood, which covered the tops of the mountains, lasted five months, and destroyed man, and beasts, and birds, except those that were received into the ark. The proofs of this event, of which there are ample traditions, but no history except in the Bible, are seen in layers of shells and bones of fish, in such positions as nothing but the flood can account for. Skeletons of hyenas, which belong to a much warmer climate, are found in this country, showing a former state of the earth far different from the present.*

After the waters had subsided, the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat, near the Black Sea.

* The date of the flood is made out by the lives of the Patriarchs, thus :—

Adam was, on the birth of Seth,

130 yrs. old, Gen. v. 3.

105

Jared......

Enoch 162

Noah's three sons divided the earth among their descendants. Asia was peopled by Shem, who was probably the most pious, as religion flourished in his family, from which Christ was to descend. Ham was the father of Canaan, on whom fell the curse due to him that mocketh his parents. Ham's descendants, who settled in Canaan and in Africa, were smitten with the curse of slavery. Japheth was the ancestor of the Europeans, who, according to Noah's prediction, have entered into the tents of Shem, by possessing the territory of Asia, and by enjoying the religion of Christ.

After the flood, the flesh of animals was granted for the food of man, who was forbidden to eat it in the blood, that is, while the animal was alive; the punishment of death was denounced against murder; and the rainbow was made a sign of a covenant of peace, to secure us against the dread of a second deluge.

While the whole earth spoke one language, of which Hebrew is a dialect, men built the tower of Babel, as a landmark for a rendezvous, that they

might not be dispersed. But God, giving them up to discordant counsels, compelled them to desist, and thus, accomplishing his purpose of scattering them over the earth, produced a variety of languages, which gave the name of Babel, or confusion, to the tower. The earth was 1757 years old when the tower was built. For Arphaxad was born two years after the flood, and he was thirty-five when Selah was born, who was thirty when he begat Eber, who, after four and thirty years, had Peleg, when the earth was divided. At Babel, idolatry seems to have commenced; for the tower being. used as an observatory, men turned, from studying, to worship the heavenly bodies. Nimrod made his skill and prowess in hunting the occasion of founding the Babylonish monarchy; Ashur commenced, at Nineveh, not far distant, the Assyrian empire; and Mizraim began to rule in Egypt, which the Arabs called Mezr. In the line of Shem there were ten generations, until Abraham was born to Terah. The following list and dates will show the order of succession :

Which, added to 1656, the age of the earth at the deluge, gives 2083 years, the age of the world at the calling of Abraham.

Terah is said to have been seventy years old when he begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. But as it is not probable that all these sons were born in one year, it must mean that then the oldest was born. Abram, being the youngest, was not born till his father was a hundred and thirty. This number added to 75, the age of Abram when he left Haran, makes two hundred and five, according to Gen. xi. 32.

CHAP. II.-FROM THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM TO THE REIGN OF DAVID.

This was the era of the triumphs of providence and grace. That 430 years elapsed from the calling of Abraham to the Exodus, or the going out of Egypt, we know from Exod. xii. 40. The former half of this period was spent by the patriarchs in a pilgrim state. For, when idolatry became so pre

valent that the holy seed was corrupted, and the ancestors of Abraham began to serve other gods (Josh. xxiv. 2), Jehovah called Abraham out from his country, promising him the land of Canaan, on the coast of the Mediterranean, where his posterity might live as witnesses for God.

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Abraham brought into Canaan Lot, his nephew, who, settling near Sodom, was carried off by the kings who had attacked it, but was recovered by Abraham, who routed them, after their victory. On his return, the father of the faithful was met, and refreshed, and blessed, by Melchizedec, who reigned at Salem, afterwards called Jerusalem, where he was cherishing, as a priest, the last remains of Jehovah's worship, among the descendants of Canaan. But the inhabitants of Sodom, and the neighbouring towns, became so corrupt that it was deemed necessary to make examples of them, by fire from heaven, after which the earth seems to have opened, and swallowed up the cities; so that the river Jordan, which formerly flowed on to the Red Sea, now terminates in the dreary lake of Sodom, whose peculiarities confirm the traditions of the east, concerning this event, of which the records are no where found but in divine revelation.

For the son, from whom it was promised that the Saviour should descend, Abraham was kept so long