viously, may have perhaps in some degree contributed. Opportunities for accumulating so large a measure of iniquity as heretofore were thus curtailed; men's natural powers were also considerably restricted, and other external limits. to unbridled self-will, such as laws, magistracy, and civil regulations, now gradually arose. The knowledge and fear of God, which, through so many centuries, had been transmitted from Adam, and faithfully fostered by Noah, were to be communicated by him to the new race of men, as their most sacred trust. But what God had promised concerning the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, the everlasting distinction between the children of God and the children of men, soon began to re-appear in Noah's immediate descendants. Hence, in the spirit of prophecy, did that patriarch announce to them the opposite conditions of their remoter posterity. His predictions have ever since been fulfilling in the history of all nations unto this day, and their fulfilment is likely to continue in some respects for a length of time to come. The predictions we refer to are as follows:

"Cursed be Canaan !

A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
Blessed be Jehovah the God of Shem!

And Canaan shall be his servant.

God shall enlarge Japheth:

And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem:

And Canaan shall be his servant."

It is remarkable that the name of Canaan is inserted in the curse, instead of that of Ham, his father. Whether this is on account of his having

personally taken part in his father's impiety, we are not informed. History, however, shows that not Canaan's posterity alone have partaken of that curse, but that the other descendants of Ham have been bearing it likewise to the present hour. The nations of unhappy Africa are all descended from Ham; and how many of these nations have for ages been struggling with adversity, or groaning under the yoke of slavery, while the oppressions they have been suffering have all along more and more plainly fulfilled the prophecy of Noah! Yet the curse is expressed in general terms; and as it evidently relates to a temporal rather than a spiritual condition, so it does not preclude individuals of the race of Ham from enjoying even temporal freedom. The hereditary bondage of that race makes indeed its conversion to the true God, and its consequent prosperity, the more unpromising to human effort; yet the curse of slavery may have been overruled to be the means of vast numbers of individuals approaching nearer to the light, and this has already been experienced by African negroes in the West Indies.

:

Shem is the progenitor of the swarming eastern world in general, and of the nation of Israel in particular that wonderful people, who for ages bore the distinction of the chosen seed, and on whose special account it is that Jehovah is here emphatically called, "The Lord God of Shem." This people, moreover, of whom we shall presently take more particular notice, are still," touching the election, beloved for the fathers' sakes," Rom. xi. 28. Their rejection is now,

as

we hope, very near to the close of its appointed period; for they are not cast off for ever.

Japheth is the forefather of the European West, and of a large portion of Asia. In him is accomplished that prediction of Noah, "God shall enlarge Japheth;" that is, shall spread his descendants very extensively abroad. They have settled in the tents of Shem, and have become proprietors of all those countries which are part of Shem's allotment, and which, in the future prosperity of the Israelites, will virtually be restored to his dominion.

As to where the immediate children of these three patriarchs respectively fixed themselves, the Scripture intimates but occasionally, by mentioning some of the heads of their families and nations; as it records only the great leading events, and those which characterize a whole age or a whole people. It passes, with a very slight notice, over centuries that were requisite to the early developement of the human race, or what may be called its juvenile formation, just as it passes over the early years of our Saviour's life; or as our modern biographical memoirs give but a slight sketch of a person's younger days, or record concerning them merely what is most remarkable. One very remarkable event in the earlier history of man, appears suddenly in the midst of a vacant space of nearly three centuries, namely, between the years of the world 1656 and 1946; a period respecting which we have else nothing beyond a list of names. That event is the building of Babel.

II. THE BUILDING OF BABEL.

FROM the mountainous regions of Armenia, where Noah with his descendants had settled, the increase of the human family took a southeast direction towards the plains of Shinar, a proverbially fertile country, situated between those famed rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, and thence called by the Hebrews, Aram Naharaiam, (or Syria of the two rivers,) and by the Greeks, Mesopotamia. But as in process of time the limits even of this country were found two narrow for the increasing population, and as men perceived that a large portion of their number would soon have to seek out remoter settlements, whereby the human family was likely to become scattered, they resolved to build a great city and tower, as well for their own reputation and glory as for establishing a metropolitan centre of union. Now in this enterprise they did not first ask counsel of God, neither did they intend the building for the honour of his holy name, but simply for their own renown: so soon was the bulk of mankind again estranged from their Maker. And, indeed, it is a fact of daily experience, that the farther men decline from the true God, the more is it their aim and endeavour to exalt themselves, and thus to usurp his authority. Hence do men still combine together and form associations, with no other design than to increase their power of self-gratification. They have learned that union is strength; and this lesson, which admits of

such excellent use, is often misapplied to the very worst of purposes. Such was also the case at that period, when mankind had but one common language, a circumstance that made it the easier to accomplish whatever they concerted. Their undertaking amounted to a conspiracy against God himself; for, in immediate opposition to his counsel and command, they had virtually agreed to refrain from replenishing the distant regions of the earth. See Gen. ix. 1. They had also appointed to themselves another centre of unity instead of God, and had formed a plan for setting up an impious independence, which they intended should command the admiration of posterity.

How morally ruinous would have been the consequences, had Babel been established according to the intention of its builders! It would have been the rendezvous of every evil from every country; so that from thence mischief would have gone forth, in tenfold variety and strength, to consummate the corruption of all the families of the earth. God, therefore, “came down to visit the city and the tower which the children of men had builded;" he so confounded their language that they no longer understood one another. Hence, they not only desisted from their enterprise, but became divided into distinct nations, according to their several dialects or languages, and went forth to their respective stations, more or less mutually remote. This was no other than a disposal of Divine goodness and mercy; and, without it, the wickedness of mankind might soon have emulated