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all these people every where fettled during that space of time, fhould quit their several dominions, to come into that spot, to be fubject to the confusion, from very remote places on the oppofite fides of Armenia; certainly this would be an impediment and interruption to the progress they were to make upon the earth, which would be repugnant to the visible scope and defign of Providence for promoting their increase and welfare.

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Now, fince we have no account of the place where Noah died, it is left to be decided by inquifitive men what became of him; and accordingly, fome authors have carried him to China, with a train of people, to found that monarchy. Indeed, if I might take the liberty of difposing of him, I should be very far from impofing such a task upon him in his old age, through such immense tracts of country, when I am of opinion not one of his progeny took such long ftrides on a fudden by land; because it is most likely their removal was gradual, according to their increase and their neceffities; and it was the business of his fons and their iffue to feek new habitations, and not of himself; and therefore I had rather leave him upon the spot he first poffeffed after the deluge, in a state of eafe and tranquillity in his latter days, than either fend him to China, or to be confufed at Babel at the age of about 700 years; nor can we find that there was the leaft reason to suspect a rebellion among his people, which was alledged to be the caufe of his having gone to China, by fome authors, in order to get rid of fome rebellious people about him.

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Now as I find it is infifted on, that the whole race of Noah came down to Babel to be dispersed from thence, I hope I fhall be excused if I take a little further pains in confidering the matter more fully, and clearing up certain seeming inconfiftencies which have escaped fome hiftorians.

WE read, in p. 231, vol. i. of the Universal History, as follows: "It may seem also a little strange, that Nim" rod fhould be preferred to the regal dignity, and enjoy "the most cultivated part of the earth then known, rather "than any other of the elder chiefs, or heads of nations, "even of the branch of Ham." Now although Mofes, who is every where so short in his accounts, makes no mention of any titles affumed by the heads of the other defcendants of Noah, yet as they also increased and multiplied and went off to their several fettlements, there can be no doubt of their having also a regal fway over their people; for, what other kind of government could they have followed so naturally, as that by which Noah governed them, and kept them in order before their departure? Nor is it matter of much confequence what was the title the head of each tribe affumed, fince it is certain the tribes were governed by their respective heads; and as certain that they all removed to the different places allotted them, as far off from the center every way as the land of Shinar was, and perhaps as fertile too.

In the fame page it is faid: "The Scripture does not “ inform us when Nimrod began to reign; fome date it "before the difperfion; but fuch a conjecture does not “ seem to suit with the Mosaical history: for before the

"difperfion,.

difperfion, we read of no city but Babel, nor could "there be well more, while all mankind were yet in a "body together."

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THIS opinion is ftrongly infifted on in another part of this hiftory, p. 328, of the fame volume; and the argument for it is taken from the first part of the eleventh chapter of Genefis; where, in the firft verfe, it is faid: " and the whole earth was of one language and of one speech." And then, in verse 2, "and it came to pass, as they journeyed from the East, that they found a “plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.” Now let us examine what these two verfes import; as to the first, no body will dispute against the whole offspring's fpeaking the fame language, or rather different dialects of the language, fpoken by Noah and his fons before the deluge; for Japhet and his fons certainly spoke a dialect different from that in Shem's family, and it is no wonder that fome changes should happen in the fame language in two hundred years, that is, one hundred before the flood, when Noah's fons were born, and another, and perhaps longer, after the deluge. And it is natural to think they carried their language with them from Armenia, having no fort of means by which they could either have learned or imitated any other; therefore we agree in this particular; and indeed it is with great deference to the authors of that hiftory, which demonftrates fo much labour and learning, that I cannot avoid differing from them in the other.

Now the second verse, (which says: " as they journeyed "from the East, they found a plain in the land of Shi

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"nar, and they dwelt there,") has perhaps induced those. authors to imagine that they fignifies the whole earth; because in the first verse it is faid, the whole earth was of one language. But Mofes here, after he has declared that all mankind spoke the fame language, only repeats, in the fecond verfe, what he was more particular in, in the preceding chapter; which I muft repeat here, for the better. explaining this paffage, in which he clearly shews what part of mankind went into Shinar, and how they were established; and indeed it is something ftrange that it should be fuggefted: " that the Scripture does not inform "us when Nimrod began to reign," when it is fo very clearly and particularly laid down in the following words" and Cub begat Nimrod: he began to be a

mighty man in the earth. He was a mighty hunter "before the Lord; and the beginning of his kingdom "was Babel, and Erech, and Aecad, and Calneh, in the "land of Shinar.”

CAN any thing be more clearly laid down, to fhew that Nimrod and his followers only fettled in that land' and. eftablished a kingdom; becoming mighty in the world, and building the cities juft mentioned? So that the first verse cannot be the proper antecedent to the second; for as foon as he has informed us of the fame language being universal, which he gave no hint of before, he then gives only a general account of what he had more particularly, defcribed before in the going down of Nimrod's people to Shinar, by way of introduction to his history of the confufion and difperfion; which, without it, would have. wanted a proper preamble. Befides, Mofes would have.

been

been guilty of a glaring abfurdity, in telling us that, in journeying from the East they found a plain in the land of Shinar, after he had, before, placed Nimrod and his subjects there; for we may be very fure Noah knew which way his descendants went, and where fettled, on every quarter; and therefore cannot be said to have gone and found a land that was found before; or we can be fure of no part of his hiftory, nor can he be accused of having committed any abfurdity through his whole work.

FROM what has been thus confidered, it is eafy and natural to conclude, first that Nimrod went to Shinar and there founded a kingdom, built cities, and became mighty among his own people: that a confiderable series of time paffed away while he was doing this, before the confusion, or an attempt to build the famous tower of Babel happened; that this building was attempted a much greater time after the flood than chronologers have fixed, in 101, according to the Hebrew calculation: for the Samaritan placed it in 401; and the Septuagint in 531; and indeed the most natural confideration is, that a kingdom was established, and famous cities built, not only under Nimrod, but under the other defcendants of Noah, in their feveral countries; and that Afhur, or Nimrod, went forth out of Shinar into Affyria, and built Nineveh, and Rehoboth, and Calah, and Refen between Nineveh and Calah, which was a great city, as the tenth chapter of Genefis has it, and confequently established a kingdom ́in the neighbourhood of Shinar, and all this before Nimrod had begun to build the tower of Babel; and therefore the confufion of tongues could happen to none but Nimrod's

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