Images de page
PDF
ePub

the land of the Canaanites that impending invafion, by which the judgements proclaimed by Noah were to be accomplished.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

In the days of Peleg, who was born about one hundred years after the flood, and was the fourth in defcent from Shem, "the earth was divided (a).” Mankind, ftill forming one great family, speaking the fame language, and journeying ftill towards the west, fixed themselves in the land of Shinar, or Chaldea; and arrogantly refolved to "build themselves "a city, and a tower whofe top might reach unto heaven; and to make themselves a name, left they should be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth." Baffled in their proud defign by the diversity of languages, which the Supreme Being fuddenly introduced among them, as the inftrument both of bringing to confusion their present enterprise, and of facilitating their dispersion into different regions where they were to become the founders of many nations; they feparated in small bodies from each other, accordingly as Providence impelled them, whether by special command, or by the familiar course of events, through which the Deity influences the proceedings of men no less powerfully and no less efficaciously, for the

(a) Gen. x. 25.

C 3

furtherance

furtherance of his own purposes, than by interpofitions evidently miraculous. By the pofterity of Japheth," the ifles of the Gen"tiles" (many of the maritime countries washed by the Mediterranean fea)" were di"vided in their lands; every one after his

tongue, after their families, in their na"tions (b)." The descendants of Ham occupied, among other lands, Affyria, Egypt, Palestine, and part of Chaldea, and of Arabia. Among the poffeffions of the posterity of Shem, we find Perfia, part of Mefopotamia, and other regions of the eaft.

By this time a ftriking change had been experienced in the duration of human life. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years. His pofterity before the flood appear to have paffed, upon an average, nearly as large a portion of time, and some individuals even a longer period, upon earth (c). Noah lived to the age of nine hundred and fifty years (d). His fon Shem fell far fhort of antedeluvian longevity and in the days of Peleg, man (e) appears not to have attained to one half of the original measure of his existence. In fucceeding generations a rapid diminution continued to take place; until at length by

(b) Gen. x. 5. (c) See Gen. v. (d) Gen. ix, 29. (e) See Gen. xi.

the

the time when the children of Ifrael came out of Egypt, the length of the pilgrimage of man upon earth was reduced nearly within its present span.

Was this event then the natural refult of alterations occafioned by the deluge in the temperature of the air, the fertility of the earth, and the nutritive powers of the sustenance of man? Or was it effected by a fecret change wrought in the human frame and conftitution by the immediate hand of the Creator? The caufe is known to God; but immaterial to us. Our concern is to draw from the fact the moral and religious instruction, which it is fo well adapted to fuggeft; that our lives are in the hands of God, and depend for their continuance, moment after moment, folely on his will. We may alfo discern reasons for concluding that the shortening of the period of human life was intended to be a blefling to mankind; and that, notwithstanding the frailty and corruption of man, it has proved and continues to prove fo. Among the circumftances which contributed to fwell the wickedness of the ancient world to its enormous magnitude, there were probably few more powerful than the apparent distance to which death was removed. In the present day, when he who has numbered feventy

C 4

feventy or eighty fucceffive units, has numbered the years within which he and almost all his contemporaries of the human race will be called to ftand before the tribunal of their judge; to what an excess of iniquity do multitudes advance! What then would be the measure of their guilt, if they might with reasonable expectation look forward to many additional centuries of life? At prefent too, the reign of the oppreffor, whether in a private or in a public station, is neceffarily fhort. The hour that shall sweep him away is at hand. Were life reftored to its antedeluvian period, he might continue for nearly a thoufand years to render his fellow creatures miferable. "I have seen the wicked," faith the Pfalmift, "in great power, and fpreading "himself like a green bay-tree. Yet he "paffed away, and lo, he was not: yea I "fought him, but he could not be found (ƒ).” The common course of nature speedily puts an end to his career: and his place may be filled by the righteous. To the righteous themselves, more especially if they are burthened with afflictions, the fhortnefs of life is a gracious difpenfation. They enter the fooner into the manfions of the "blessed "which die in the Lord: that they may rest "from their labours; and their works do fol"low them (g)."

(ƒ) Psalm xxxvii. 35, 36. (g) Rev. xiv. 13.

CHAP. II.

SUMMARY VIEW OF THE ORIGIN OF THE JEWISH RACE, AND OF THE HISTORY OF THAT PEOPLE TO THE DEATH OF

MOSES.

THE fallen nature of man, that inherent fource of corrupt difpofitions and corrupt practice, remained unaltered by the flood. There does not indeed appear to have been any circumstance in that difpenfation, aweful and ftupendous as it was, which could reach the internal conftitution of the foul. The truth of this conclusion is ascertained by the unequivocal declaration of God himself; who, when speaking immediately after the deluge concerning the future race of mankind which was to spring from the family that defcended from the ark, and even when promifing to that future race his continual protection and bounty, characterises them collectively in terms fimilar to those which he had applied to their wicked ancestors whom he had recently destroyed: "the imagination of

"man's

« PrécédentContinuer »