nignant condescension to the weakness of human faith, he further pronounced, that the rainbow, an appearance uniformly produced by drops of falling rain illuminated by the fun, was ordained to be the sign of this everlasting covenant between himself and his creatures; and when beheld by him, should for ever bring his promise to his remembrance. And in order that he might completely dissipate the suspicious fears of men, that, if not a deluge, yet some other convulsion should afterwards be commissioned to ravage the earth and extinguish their race; he made known his merciful and unalterable determination: "I will not again curse the ground "any more for man's fake—neither will I again "smite any more every thing living, as I have "done. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and "harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and win"ter, and day and night, shall not cease (*)."

Shortly after the deluge, Noah, in consequence of the difference between the conduct of his eldest and youngest sons towards him, and that of his other son Ham, was commissioned prophetically to announce to the latter the future subjection which the posterity of Canaan, the child of the offender, should experience under the descendants of Shem and Japheth; and to foretel that signal blessings should attend the race of these two righteous men. Among the reasons for which the prophecy was emphatically detailed by Moses, we may conclude this to have been one; that it was singularly adapted to encourage the children of Israel to carry without

fear

(x) Gen. viil. 22.

sear into the land of the Canaanites that impending invasion, by which the judgments proclaimed by Noah were to be accomplished.

Im the days of Peleg, who was born about one hundred years after the flood, and was the fourth in descent from Shem, "the earth was divided (y)." Mankind, still forming one great family, speaking the same language, and journeying still towards the west, fixed themselves in the land of Shinar, or Chaldea; and arrogantly resolved to "build them"selves a city, and a town whose top might reach "unto heaven; and to make themselves a name, "lest they should be scattered abroad upon the face ** of the earth." Basfled in their proud design by the diversity of languages, which the Supreme Being suddenly introduced among them, as the instrument 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 separated 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 esficaciously, for the furtherance of his own purposes, than by interpositions evidently miraculous. By the posterity of Japheth, "the isles of the Gentile?" (many of the maritime countries washed by the Mediterranean sea) "were divided in their lands j "every one after his tongue, after their families,

C "ia

(y) Gen. x. 25.

"in their nations (z)." The descendants of Ham occupied, among other lands, Assyria, Egypt, Palestine, Chaldea, and part of Arabia. Among the possessions of the posterity of Shem, we find Persia, and other regions of the east.

By this time a striking change had been experienced in the duration of human life. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years. His posterity before the flood appear to have passed, upon an average, nearly as large a portion of time, and some individuals even a longer period, upon earth (a). Noah lived to the age of nine hundred and sifty years (A). His son Shem fell far short of antediluvian longevity: and in the days of Peleg, man (<r) appears not to have attained to one half of the original measure of his existence« In succeeding generations a rapid diminution continued to take place: until at length by the time when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, and perhaps a century before their departure, the length of the pilgrimage of man upon earth was reduced nearly or altogether within the present span.

Was this event then the natural result of alterations occasioned 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 secret change wrought in the human frame and constitution by the immediate hand of the Creator? The cause is known to God j but immaterial to us. Our concern is to draw from the fact the moral and

religious

(a) Gen. x. 5. (b) Gen ix. 29.

(a) See Gen. v. {c) See Gen. si.

religious instruction, which it is so well adapted to suggest; that our lives are in the hands of God, and depend for their continuance, moment after moment, solely on his will. We may also discern reasons for concluding that the shortening of the period of human life was intended to be a blessing to mankind; and that, notwithstanding the frailty and corruption of man, it has proved and continues to prove so. Among the circumstances which contri. buted to swell the wickedness of the ancient world to its enormous magnitude, there were tew probably more powerful than the apparent distance to which death was removed. In the present day, when he who has numbered seventy or eighty successive units, has numbered the years within which he and almost all his cotemporaries of the human race will be called to stand before the tribunal of their judge; to what an excess of iniquity do multitudes advance I 'What then would be the measure of their guilt, if they might with reasonable expectation look to many additional centuries of life? At present too, the reign of the oppressor, whether in a private or in a public station, is necessarily short. The hour that shall sweep him away is at hand. Were life restored to its antediluvian period, he might continue for nearly a thousand years to render his fellow creatures miserable. "I have seen the wicked," faith the Psalmist, "in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not: yea I sought him, but he could not be found (d)." The common course of nature speedily puts an end to his career; C 2 and

(J) Psalm xxxvii. 35, 36.

and his place may be filled by the righteous. To the righteous themselves, more especially if they are burthened with afflictions, the shortness of life is a gracious dispensation. They enter the sooner into the mansions of the " blessed which die in the "Lord: that they may rest from their labours; and "their works do follow them (/)'"

CHAPTER II.

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

X H E fallen nature of man, that inherent source of corrupt dispositions and corrupt practice, remained unaltered by the flood. There does not indeed appear to have been any circumstance in that dispensation, awful and stupendous as it was, which could reach the internal constitution 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 descended from the ark, and even when promising to that future race his continual protection and bounty, characterises them collectively

(c) Rev. xiv. 13.