A.C.

*.3, 4.

The earth begins to be filled, and wickedness in- a. M. Genes creases. Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve, shows $875 the infant world the first tragical action; and from that 129. time virtue dates her persecution from vice. There we see the contrary manners of the two brothers; the innocence of Abel, his pastoral life, and his offerings accepted; those of Cain rejected, his avarice, bis impiety, his fratricide, and jealousy the parent of murders; the punishment of that crime, the conscience of the parricide racked with continual terrors; the first city built by this miscreant, now a vagabond upon the face of the earth, seeking an asylum from the hatred and horror of mankind; the invention of some arts by his children; the tyranny of passions, and the prodigious malignity of man's heart, ever prone to evil; the posterity of Seth, faithful to God, notwithstanding that 3017. depravation; the pious Enoch, miracuously snatched 987. out of the world, which was not worthy of him; the distinction of the children of God from the children of men; that is, of those who lived after the spirit, from those who lived after the flesh; their intermix. ture, and the universal corruption of the world: the destruction of men decreed by a just judgment of God; his wrath denounced against sinners by his ser2468. vant Noah; their impenitence and hardness of heart 1556, 2848. punished at last by the deluge; Noah and his family 1656. reserved for the restoration of mankind.

This is the sum of what passed in 1656 years. Such is the beginning of all histories, wherein are displayed the omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness of God; innocence happy under his protection; his justice in avenging crimes, and at the same time his long suffering patience in waiting the conversion of sinners; the greatness and dignity of man in his primitive state; the temper of mankind after their corruption, the nature of jealousy, and the secret causes of violences and of wars, that is, all the foundations of religion and morality.

With mankind Noah preserved the arts, as well

* Gen.

AC. those which were essential to human life, and which men fi. 15. knew from their original, as those they bad afterwards 18, 18. invented. Those first arts which men learned imme

iii. 17,

iv. 2.

2.

iv. diately, and probably from their creator, were agriIb. i. culture, the pastoral † art, that of

Berof

clothing them21. selves, and, perhaps, that of building houses of their Chald. accommodation. And indeed, do we not trace the commencement for these arts from those places of the Hie- east from whence mankind was propagated?

Hist

Ch

ron

Phoen.

Manas

Da

xcvi

Egypt The tradition of the universal deluge prevails over Hist. all the earth. The ark, wherein the remnant of manNic kind was saved, has ever been celebrated in the east, mase 1 particularly in those places where it rested after the Av deluge. Many other circumstances of that famous de story are to be found marked in the annals and tradiAssyr. tions of ancient nations; the times agree, and every Antiq. thing answers as far as could be expected in so remote & a piece of antiquity.

Med &

Ap Jos

l.ic. 8. 4 li.

cont

Apion

1. ix.

Ev. c.

or the

luge

NEAR the deluge are to be ranged the decrease of poch. Ens. man's life, the alteration of diet, and a new food sub- Moah, Præp stituted in place of the fruits of the earth; some oral de E precepts delivered to Noah; the confusion of langua- second Plat at the tower of Babel, which was the first monu- the Opusc. ges Plasne ment of the pride and weakness of men; the portion world of the three sons of Noah, and the first distribution of 1657, lands.

Solert

terr.

an

aquat. Lucian de

Syr.

The memory of those three first fathers of nations Dea has still been preserved among men. Japetus, who 2348. peopled the greatest part of the western world, has 2247. continued famous there under the celebrated name of

2347.

Japheth. Ham, and his son Canaan, have been no
less noted among the Egyptians and Phoenicians; and
the memory of Shem has ever lasted with the He-
brew people, who are descended from him.

A little after this first division of mankind, Nimrod, a man of a fierce and violent disposition, becomes the first conqueror; and such is the origin of conquests. Gen. x He set up the throne of his kingdom at Babylon, in the same place where the tower had been begun, and

21

age of

1656.

1757.

AC already raised to a great height, but not so high as A. M. man's vanity wished it. About the same time Nineveh was built, and some ancient kingdoms established. They were but petty in those early times, for in Egypt alone we find four Dynasties or Principalities, those of Thebes, Thin, Memphis, and Tanis; this last was the capital of the lower Egypt. To this time we may also refer the commencement of the laws and polity of the Egyptians, that of their pyramids which stand to this day, and that of the astronomical observations, as well of that people as of the Chaldeans. So we may trace 1771. 233. up to this time, and no higher, the observations which Por the Chaldeans, who were, without dispute, the first phyr. observers of the stars, gave in Babylon to Calisthenes Sip for Aristotle.

ap.

lib ii.

de

Every thing begins: there is no ancient history Coelo wherein there do not appear, not only in those early ages, but long after, manifest vestiges of the newness of the world. We see laws establishing, manners polishing, and empires forming. Mankind by degrees get out of their ignorance, experience instructs them, and arts are invented or perfected. According as men multiply, the earth is closer and closer peopled; they pass mountains and precipices; they cross rivers, and at length seas, and establish new habitations. The earth, which at the beginning was but an immense forest, takes now another form, the woods cut down make room for fields, for pastures, for hamlets, for towns, and at length for cities. Men learn to catch certain animals, to tame others, and to inure them to service. They were obliged at first to encounter wild beasts. The first heroes signalised themselves in those wars. These occasioned the invention of arms, which men Geax turned afterwards against their fellow creatures. Nimrod, the first warrior, and the first conqueror, is called in scripture, a mighty hunter. Together with animals, man acquired also the arts of managing fruits and plants; he bended the very metals to his use, and gradually made all nature subservient to it. As it was

9.

A. G. natural that time should cause many things to be in- AM. vented, it must also cause others to be forgot, at least by the greater part of mankind. Those first arts, which Noah bad preserved, and which we also find always flourishing in the countries where mankind was first established, were lost according as men removed from them. These behoved others either to learn them anew in process of time, or those who had preserved them, must have carried them again to the rest. Therefore do we see every thing come from those lands that were always inhabited, where the principles of the arts remained entire, and even there were daily made many important discoveries. The knowledge of God, and the memory of the creation were preserved there, but began to decay by degrees. The ancient traditions were now falling into oblivion and obscurity; the fables, which succeeded them, retained but gross ideas of them; false deities multiplied; and this gave occasion to the calling of Abraham.

III E

pach.

call

Abra

world.

and

FOUR hundred twenty six years after the deluge, The when men walked every one in his own way, grew ing of forgetful of him that made them, that great God, to ham stop the progress of so great an evil, in the midst of Third corruption begun to set apart a chosen people for himthe self. Abraham was made choice of to be the stock 1921. and father of all believers. God called him into the 2085. land of Canaan, where he intended to establish his worship, and the children of that patriarch, whom he had resolved to multiply as the stars of heaven, and as the sand of the sea. To the promise he made him of giving that land to his offspring, he added somewhat far more glorious, and this was that great blessing which was to be extended to all the nations of the world in Jesus Christ proceeding from his race. was that Jesus Christ whom Abraham honours in the person of the high priest Melchisedec who presents 3. 3. him; it is to him he pays the tithe of the spoil he had won from the vanquished kings; and it is by him he is blessed. Though possessed of immense riches,

Heb.

vii. 1,

aud

foll

It

0.

A. and of a power which equalled that of kings, Abraham AM. preserved the primitive manners; he led always a

$759.

2245.

plain and pastoral life, which, however, wanted not its magnificence; and this that patriarch showed par1856. ticularly by exercising hospitality to all men. Heaven 2148. furnished him with guests; angels imparted to him the counsels of God; he believed, and in every thing approved himself full of faith and piety. In his time Inachus, the most ancient of all the kings acknowledged by the Greeks, founded the kingdom of Argos. After Abraham we find Isaac his son, and Jacob his grandson, imitators of his faith and simplicity in the same pastoral life. God repeats to them also the same promises he had made to their father, and conducts them, as he had done him, in all things. Isaac blesseth Jacob, to the prejudice of Esau bis elder brother, and though deceived in appearance, he in effect executes the counsels of God. Jacob, whom God protected, in every thing excelled Esau. An angel, with whom he had a mysterious wrestling, gave him the name of Israel, whence his children are called Israelites. To him were born the twelve patriarchs, fathers of the twelve tribes of the Hebrew people; among others Levi, from whom were to proceed the ministers in sacred things; Judah, from whom was to spring, together with the royal race, the Christ, king of kings, and lord of lords; and Joseph, whom Jacob loved above all his other children. There new secrets of divine providence are disclosed. We see before all things the innocence and wisdom of young Joseph, ever an enemy to vice, and careful to reprove it in his brethren; his mysterious and prophetical dreams; his brethren jealous, and jealousy a second time the cause of a parricide that great man sold; the fidelity he observes to his master, and his admirable chastity; the persecutions it draws upon him; his imprisonment and constancy; his predictions; his miraculous deliverance; that famous interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams; the merit of so great a man acknowledged;

1728.

1.717.

1715.

2276.