Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN / THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GENERAL HISTORY. C /»-*>»> V 2*.^ -~r)T^^vc GENERAL HISTORY, BRIEFLY SKETCHED, UPON SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. C. BARTH, D.D. LATE PASTOR OP MOTTLINGEN, IN WIRTEMBERO. TRANSLATED BY THE . R. F. WALKER, A.M. CURATE OF PURLEIGH, ESSEX, AND FORMERLY CHAPLAIN OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD. LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY ; Instituted 1799. SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY, 56, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND 6.i, ST, PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. 1840. &2?^ PREFACE. This Work is a brief Universal History, upon scriptural principles. There is a freshness about it, from its German origin, which is pleasing to English readers, who may find in the Bri- tons AND Saxons, The Middle Ages of England, and the historical papers in the Visitor, more full particulars of their own country. In preparing this volume for the press, some parts have been revised or abridged, and a few particulars added ; also, some opinions expressed by the author, on passing and future events, have been omitted. The Historical Maps exhibit the known world at four different periods: — 1. At the Foundation of Rome. 2. At the Birth of Christ. 3. At the Reformation. 4. a. d. 1840. A ^l .4S732 CONTENTS. Page Introduction 1 First Period. — Froiii the Creation, to the Deluge. A.M. 1 to 1656. B.C. 3943 to 2287. 1 The creation 7 2. The fall of man 9 3. Thedeluge 15 Second Period. — From the Deluge, to the Time of Ne- buchadnezzar. A.M. 1656 to 3338. B.C. 2287 to 605. 1 . The sons of Noah IS 2. The buildinp of Babel 22 3. The dispersion of mankind 25 4. Earliest notices of Babylon, Nineveh, Phenicia, and Egypt .... 27 5. Israel and the kingdom of God. a. Abraham and his family 31 b. The Exodus, or departure from Egypt 39 c. The period of the Judges 42 d. Israel at their most flourishing period 46 e. Israel in their decline 52 6. Traces of earliest cultivation 57 Third Period. — Frmn Nebuchadnezzar, to Augustus. A.M. 3338 to 3916. B.C. 605 to 27. 1 . The Babylonian empire , 63 2. The Medo-Persian empire. a. History of Cyrus 70 Vlll CONTrNTS. Vac-. b. End of the Bnbylonish captivity TS c. History ol' tlio Greeks TS d. Conllict ol' Greece with Persia US e. Macedonia and Alexander the Great 89 3. The Grecian empire. a. Alexander's conquests and death 9H b. Alexander's successors 100 c. Syria and Kpypt 103 (i. The age of the Maccabees 103 e. Couditioii of the East and West 109 •I. The Roman empire. a. Rome's earliest history Ill b. Rome under the Consuls 117 f. The Punic wars .,, l'J5 d. Gradual introduction of the imperial monarchy 132 5. Retrospect of ancient history ., 139 Fourth Period.— Frow the Time of Angnstvs^to the Irruption 0/ the Northern Nations. B.C. 27. a.d. .375. 1. The birth and history of Christ 146 2. The lirst promulfjatiou of Christianity l.=S3 3. Reign of Augustus and his successors, to the time of Vespasian 155 4. The destruction of Jerusalem, and persecution of the Chris- tians 158 5. The Roman emperors from Vi-spasian to Constantine 1(38 Fifth Period. — From the Irruptimis of the Northern Barbarians y to the Age of Charlemagne, a.d. 375 to 800. 1. Constantine and the Christian church 170 2. The intTeased decline of the Roman empire 175 3. The irruptions of the Northern barbarians. «. The fall of the Roman empire 176 h. Settlement and position of the nations at this period \Xi c. The Eastern empire 185 d. The Keodal system , 187 u. Christianity among the Germanic nations 189 1. The E;slerii clnncli 191 CONTENTS. IX Page 5. Mohammedism , , 193 t). External and spiritual state of the nations at the close of this period 198 Sixth Period. — Frmn Cliarlemagne^ to the Reformation. A.D. 768 to 1517. 1. Account of the Carlovingian dynasty 202 2. Germany under Conrad I. and the Saxon emperors. . 214 3. Conrad II. and Henry III 218 4. Other countries of Europe 220 5. Henry IV. and the Papacy. . . , 221 6. The Feodal and Hanse system 229 7. State of cultivation and letters 232 8. The Crusades. a. Their origin and design 234 b. The first Crusade 240 c. Chivalry 242 9. House of Hohenstaufen. a. Conrad III 246 5. The second Crusade 248 c. Frederic I. and the third Crusade 250 d. Henry VI. and Frederic II 254 e. Conrad IV. and Conradin 257 /. Literature, and the Church 259 10. Termination and issue of the Crusades 263 11. History of independent governments at this period 268 12. The house of Hapsburg. a. From Rudolph of Hapsburg to Albert 1 277 6. The Helvetic Confederation 283 c. From Henry VII. to Sigismund 286 d. Contentions for the Papal chair— Council of Constance .. 292 e. The Bohemian Brethren and the Hussites 294 /. From Albert U. to Maximilian 1 298 13. England, France, Spain, and other countries 303 14. Important changes at this period. a. The invention of gunpowder 314 b. Discovery of America 316 c. Invention of printing 325 d. Important changes in political goveratnent. , 329 X CONTENTS. iSKVF.XTH Period. — From the Eefurmation, to our oirn Times. A.D. 1517 to 1839. . PufCe 1. History of the Reformation. a. Its commencement in Germany 3.S2 b. The emperor Charles V 335 c. Progress and difiiculties of the reformation in Germany .. 33S) d. Ferdinand I. and Maximilian II 354 e. The Hugonots in P'rance 356 ./'. The reformation in Kngland and Scotland 361 g. Portugral, Spain, Italy, and other countries, at the reform- ation 367 A. Reflections upon this period .379 !. Progress of letters 381 2. The thirty years' war 383 3. Religious state of Germany at this period 398 i. Britain, and the Netherlands 403 5. The new political system, and'LouisXtV. of France 407 6. Leopold 1., and Joseph I. of Germany ..•.. 420 7. Britain, and North America 422 f^. Conflict of Sweden with Russia 425 9. The emperor Charles VI. and the province of Brandenburg .. 430 10. The papal power at this period 433 11. Religious state of Germany 435 1 2. Frederic II. of Prassia, and Maria Theresa 438 13. Russia 446 14. The emperor Joseph II , 447 15. War of independence in North America 451 16. Franc ■, and the progress of Infidelity 453 17. The French Revolution , 455 IS. Napoleon, emperor of the French 463 19. War of independence in Europe 466 20. Chinge to the presentstate of things in Europe, A.D. 1839 .. 470 CONTLCSION ,. 475 DESCRIPTION THE HISTORICAL MAPS Page THE WORLD, AS KNOWN AT THE FOUNDATION OF ROME 110 Assyrian Empire Blue Judah and Israel Red Phenieia Dark Bruwii Carthage Yellow Egypt Purple Syria Dark Green Greece Light Green Italy Crimson THE WORLD, AS KNOWN AT THE BIRTH OF CHRIST 146 Roman Empire Crimson Parthian Blue Green. China Light Green Hindoostan Yellow THE WORLD, AS KNOWN AT THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION 332 England, Wales, and Ireland Crimson Scotland Pink France Yellow Spain Light Blue Portugal Dark Blue Germany Purple Russia Yellow Green XII DESCRIPTION OF MAPS. Poland Red Brow )i Hungary Red Ottoman Empire Blue Green Mohammedan and Tartar Countries ... Ligh( Green Hindoostan Grey China -. Yellow Italy Dark Brown Denmark, Sweden, and Norway Chocolate THE WORLD, A.D. 1840 Frontispiece British Empire, and Dependencies Crimson America — United States Blue Green Spain Light Green Portugal Dar/c Blue France Yellmv Russia, and Dependencies Light Blue Holland Red Germany, States of Greeii Hanover Dark Crimson Switzerland Dark Olive Sweden and Norway Light Yellmv Denmark Dark Yellono Prussia Chocolate Austria Pink Italy Yellow Green Turkey RedBrmvn Persia Purple China Green Yellow India, Native Powers Green Cabul Red Brown Baloochistan Olive Brwm South American States — Mexico Pink Red Guatimala Lilac Patagonia, Columbia, Bolivia, Banoa } J)ark Brmim Oriental > Paraguay, Peru, Chili Sap Green Brazil, La Plata Dark Grey a GENERAL HISTORY, BRIEFLY SKETCHED, UPON SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. INTRODUCTION. To review the human race as one large family, and to trace it through all its stages of develope- ment, from the earliest to the latest times, is the province of general history. It enters into de- tail respecting particular nations, only so far as they have borne an essential or a material part in the concerns of the family at large ; for which reason it may also be sometimes more occupied with the memoirs of some renowned individual than with those of a whole uncivilized nation, and may properly attribute more importance to a John Guttenberg, the inventor of printing, than to all the Taladshangas of Asia. But as we cannot certify a traveller of his having taken the right road, until we know whither he is des- tined ; so must we feel bewildered with unac- countable things in general history, till we have received some information concerning the great B 2 INTRODUCTION. " end of all." Nor can this " end" be guessed at, by observing only the course of" any one jiar- ticular nation ; every such coarse being nothing more than as a"" single tributary rivulet, or but as one of the numy mechanical arts or nuiterials re- quired for the erection of a palace. Neither can we learn it, by contemplating the state of the world at any one particular j^eriod of its history ; every such period being only, as it were, a stage in the transition to some further developement : and because the history of man so often appears to take a retrograde movement, or at least a dif- ferent course from that to which it is ultimately bound. Were mankind the arbiters of the rise and fall of nations, then might it be possible for the events of every passing age to declare to us the grand general result. But as the cur- rent of events is under the influence of man's Lord and Ruler, who prescribes the courses of nations and of individuals, so as that all shall concur to the fulfilment of the secret counsel of his own will, the ultimate result can be learned only by communications from himself. Divine INSTRUCTION, thercfoi'e, is rcquhitc to all proper tinderslandhuj of human hidory. Had God left man to wander in total igno- rance, excluded from all means of arriving at the knowledge of his ways, tlien would it indeed be hopeless to attempt to understand the general drift of historical events, until the final consummation of all things. But since his whole determinate counsel, by which even the minutest contingencies are overruled, is briefly comprehended in his revealed word, Ave are en- INTRODUCTION. 3 iibled, by this Divine lamp, to discern our way clearly, at whatever section of man's histoiy we pause to inqidre ; and to perceive the fitting i-elation which every such portion of history bears to things past, and to things future. But the greater number of our historians, though they have so far honoured the Bible as to give it the credit of beinff an authentic recoi'd of an- tiquity, yet have treated it too commonly as a mere human book, which they allow may be consulted with advantage in the absence of other documents ; and have failed to notice as of prime importance, that it contains the solution of all historical mysteiy ; that it gives, as it were, a voice to the dead letter of visible nature, and exhibits that perfect and complete outline of Providence, which all the apparent confusion arising from man's free agency is only filling up according to a Divinely preconcerted and settled plan. Men's ordinary way of consideration dis- covers to them, as it were, but the outside of events ; like the exterior of a city to a stranger, who is ignorant of the order of its interior, and who mistakes for its centre one of the more pi'o- minent buildings observed by him from his sta- tion without the walls ; whereas that centre is some humble fountain in the market-place, which of course he is unable to descry. Very different are the views of one who makes use of the word of God as vantage ground, from whence to cast his eye over the whole plan of general history, its multifarious ramifications, their variety of instruction, their mutual connexion, and their uniform tendency to demonstrate the wisdom 4 INTRODUCTION. and goodness of the supreme Ruler and Go- vernor of the world. The only key, then, to a sotind and coinprehensive knowledge of history, is the sacred volume of Divine revelation. But this sacred vohime is like a sealed book to the unconverted. For " the natural man per- ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God," One part is too high for him — he cannot " un- derstand what he reads ;" another is too low and insignificant — it appears to him as " foolishness.'' What Avas intended to be taken literally, he mis- takes for figurative ; and what was to be re- garded as deep and holy mystery, he regards as common place. Real proi3hecy is treated by him as historical narrative ; predictions concerning yet distant futurity, ai'e, in his account, already fulfilled ; and the counsel of God is considered as human device, or is retained merely to grace the annals of human achievement. None but the Holy Spirit himself can instruct us how to regard the ways of God, or enlighten us in the true import of his own words, and point out their due proportion in reference to single or collective events. He who hy such teaching un- derstands the sacred record, can easily under- stand general history. Here, then, let it be no- ticed, once for all, that both the one and the other can he comjyrehended only hy those rvho surrender themselves to the guidance of the Spirit of God. The merely natural process of human thought, as it never can go deeper than the outward ap- pearance, so it theorizes upon events simply as upon a concatenation of physical or moral causes. INTRODUCTION. 5 and effects. Tlius it labours at finding out what jirinciples or forces must liave operated, in pro- ducing all the variety of historical phenomena presented to it. But, in the vast multitude of in- stances, it has ever failed of arriving at any satis- factory conclusion. The great occurrences which have so signally influenced the condition of man, are involved in obscurity to our unassisted reason. It knows nothing of the interposition of that jjarticular providence, which is every where and at all times exercised by our great Creator and Ruler. The inspired volume directs us to com- mence our consideration of the world's history, with the great First Cause himself. It points out to us on every side the Divine agency, and opens to us a glimpse of " the mvisible things of God." It teaches that it is by the activity of those in- visible things that the movements in the visible world are originated and conducted ; and more- over that unseen agencies, both good and evil, have all along been bearing an important part in the concerns of nations and of individuals. Light is thus thrown upon the most important matters of history ; and facts, which would other- wise appear isolated and inexplicable, i-eceive harmonious and satisfactory solution. Here, then, let it be further remembered, that history is intelligible, only as it is accomjjanied by Scr'ip- tural discoveries of Divine and spiritual agency. The infallible key of history, is the recognition of the Lord Jesus Christ as its central point. The whole system of the Divine government revolves around him. Historical works, in general, have l2 U INTRODUCTION. hardly taken notice of this ; and the manifesta- tion of God in the flesh finds a place therein to little purpose, beyond that of chronological refer- ence to the Christian era. Rarely, indeed, have historians looked at events in any subordination to this great and principal one : either because infidelity denies or stumbles at the fact, that in Christ the Godhead itself condescended to assume our nature ; or because it is easier to relate things in their simple historical order, than to trace di- rectly or indirectly their connexion with that great deed of infinite love. If the history of man be no fortuitous series of changes, but a regular system of events proceeding upon a Divine plan, then must the moment when God himself came personally into this world in our nature, be re- garded as the most eventful in human history. Every thing that preceded it, must have been designed as preparatoiy to the ushering in of this mighty deed of God ; and every thing sub- sequent to it, must have been equally foreor- dained to the setting forth of its intent and ap- plication. Christ is the centre of universal his- tory ; rvithout rohich centre the reco7'ds of the world must ever present themselves as a mass of confmion. This is a most important truth, to the elucidation of which the following pages are mainlv devoted. '^ FIRST PERIOD. FROM THE CREATION TO THE DELUGE, [A.M. 1 to 1656. B.C. 3943 to 2287.] I. THE CREATION. As man could not have been an eye witness of how the creation began and proceeded, we should have possessed no information upon the subject, had not God himself condescended to reveal it. There can be no doubt that he imparted to our first father all requisite information of the kind, and that a faithful tradition of the same was thus handed down from Adam to Moses. In the inspired record we are taught, that *' in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." We are next told of the creation of light, and the preparation of the earth for the abode of man. Man then, as the crowning or- nament of this lower world, came forth on the sixth day from the hands of his Maker, in the. Divine image and likeness. God, having already manifested himself in heaven as Lord of all, or- dained and fitted man to represent him in that respect upon earth. He appointed the inferior creation to render homage to this his representa- tive, and they did so, not from compulsion or dread, much less from being trained to it by art, 4 » THE CREATION. but from instinctive disposition, or of their own natur.il inclination. The Lord God planted in the regions we cull the east, a gai-dcn, or paradise of innocent de- light, lor man's primitive residence. The names of the four rivers that issued from it, point ra- thei- at Armenia than India. Although the earth's surface must sul^sequently have been much al- tered by the universal deluge, which would par- ticularly affect the course of streams and rivers, yet it is natural to suppose that such rivers as could subsequently be recognized, still bore, after the flood, their antediluvian names. The first pair having been expelled from paradise, they and their descendants were prohibited from any attempt to return thither, and indeed fi-om all curiosity that way, by a tieiy guard of che- rubim appointed over against it : and then the deluge in Noah's time must have destroyed every trace of it ; unless we may say, with some, that the Caspian Sea is the memorial of its site, even as the Dead Sea was once the beautiful vale of Sodom and Gomorrha. But we must not pronounce our maps of Asia defective, be- cause they contain no trace of the situation of Eden, w^hich can be considered as absolutely certain. With respect to language, we consider the faculty of it as having been conferred upon man simultaneously with his other original endow- ments, and that he could never have been him- self its inventor. This also may be inlei-red with suflicient clearness from Scripture testimony. God, who conversed with him face to face, and THE FALL OF MAN. 9 probably in human form, " as a father with the son in whom he delighteth," declares, in the book of Exodus, eh. iv. 11, with express refer- ence to speech and eloquence, that he hath made man's mouth. And we learn, from Gen. ii. 19, that he brought to Adam, before Eve was form- ed, every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, to see what he ivould call them ; and that, upon this occasion, Adam gave names to all cattle, and to every fowl of the air and beast of the field. II. — THE FALL OF MAN. That our first parents came forth " good," from the hand of the Creator, is a truth which even if it had not been recorded in Scripture, might have been inferred from the consideration, that God cannot be the author of evil. Their condi- tion was, doubtless, one of such intimate love to God as admitted of their having no other will but his ; from which, indeed, we can hardly imagine it possible for them to deviate. What higher degree of felicity they might have reached, had they continued innocent, we know not ; but we know, that because God saw^ it best, on the whole, to place them in a state of proba- tion, he did so, by laying on them an injunction not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree, known by the name of " the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." But the invisible enemy of mankind, who himself had apostatized from innocence. 10 THE FALL OF MAN. and who looked with envy upon their felicity, contrived a plot to effect t])cir ruin. For this l>urj)ose he took possession of the serpent, " the most subtle of all the beasts of the field," and, l)y the instrumentality of this animal, he insinu- ated into the mind of Eve those false i-epresent- ations, by wliich Adam was likewise beguiled to a distrust and disbelief of God. Thus becoming discontented with their present condition, they were instigated to raise themselves to a higher one, suggested to them by Satan. They, there- fore, by his advice, partook together of the for- bidden fruit, whereupon the word of the Lord God was immediately fulfilled ; "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." For they lost at once the Divine life which had been originally bestowed upon them ; their dis- obedience having excluded them from commu- nion with their Creator ; so that their condition was now no other than that of spiritual death, of which the death of the body was the await- ing result. After then hearing from the Most High several additional announcements, relative to temporal punishment for their sin, they were finally ejected from their earthly paradise, and hence precluded from partaking of that " tree of life" which had been the visible pledge of their immortality. Had permission to eat of this tree been continued to them, it would have implied a ])crniission of their living for ever in irremedia- ble corruption and hopeless ruin. How long their state of innocence lasted is uncertain. The threatened spiritual death thus realized was soon found to be accompanied by a train of THE FALL OF MAN. 11 temporal evils. The physical condition of the earth ajipears to haVe been from that time re- markably altered ; and the ground, having been cursed for man's sake, produced now its " thorns and thistles" in more senses ihan one, for the chastening of man. He had been sentenced to obtain his bread by the sweat of his brow, and, the soil no longer spontaneously yielding its fruits, " weariness and painfulness" had become part of his allotment, and requisite to his sub- sistence in this life. This, with the consciousness of having brought it all upon himself, miglit have proved intolerable to him, had he not been supported by that hope of redemption and deli- verance, for which Jehovah had graciously pro- vided. God might in holy indignation have an- nihilated the very name of man, or at least have given him up to the ruin he had incurred. But, instead of this, his infinite mercy contrived a plan of restoration ; and his infinite loving-kind- ness announced it at once, to preserve his guilty creatures from utter despair. Thus, at the very moment when the justly offended Deity ratified the punishment of original sin, he permitted man to hear of redeeming love. For nothing less than redeeming love was embodied in those words of vengeance against our great adversary : " I will put enmity between thee and the wo- man, and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Here is in reality a promise concerning our Di- vine Messiah, by whom the power of the enemy was to be broken, as also concerning a perpetual conflict to be maintained between the children of 12 TFIK I'ALL OF AFAN. God and the children of the wicked one. All the temptations, sufferings, and persecutions, which have come upon lioly persons ever since, may be regarded as so many bruises on the heel of the woman's promised Seed, inflicted by " the old serpent ;" and, in like manner, every triumph of faith, and every victory over sin, obtained by the children of God, is a kind of treading upon the serpent's head. That our first parents un- derstood this prediction as containing a promise of the future Redeemer, though they knew not the time of its special fulfilment, and that they re- ceived from God some further information about him, though it be not recorded, appears from that remarkable saying of Eve at the birth of her first-born, " I have gotten the man Jeho- vah ;" on which account she also gave him the name of Cain, which signifies gain or acquisi- tion. Thus it must have been Divinely inti- mated from the beginning, that the promised Re- deemer w^ould himself be Jehovah. The expect- ation formed by Eve, respecting the time and hu- man person of the Messiah was jDremature ; and Cain, of whom she anticipated such great things, proved to be an " evil worker,'' and a murderer. So early had our first parents to learn, by wo- ful experience, what an abyss of misery their sin had opened. Adam's descendants in general were begotten, as the Scripture expressly informs us, " in his own image, after his own likeness ;" that is, they were by nature spiritually dead in Adam, under the dominion of indwelling sin, and liable to all its evil consequences. See Rom. V. 21. Nevertheless, from the very first. THE FALL OF MAN. 13 a gracious process of recovery from this wretched condition began to manifest itself; and hence, as an anticipated fulfilment of the promise above- mentioned, the human race soon became divided into two distinct parties : the one consisting of Cain's descendants, and the other of the pos- terity of Seth, who was the righteous person " appointed" (as his name signifies) to suptply the place of slaughtered Abel. The latter appear to have been those who are designated in Scrip- ture " the sons of God ;" because from Seth, their progenitor, the knowledge and holy fear of God had continued among them : whereas those who are called " the daughters of men" seem to have been the lineal descendants of Cain ; as we may well suppose that they exhibited without restraint the effects of human corruption. Cain is the first who is recorded to have built a city ; and this was intended by him perhaps both as a refuge from human vengeance, and to prevent the dispersion of his posterity. The Scriptures frequently, as in the present instance, relate the simple fact, without accounting for it. But if our minds are not prejudiced by the wrong notions of modern pretenders to wisdom above what is written, we shall often be able to deduce a train of valuable inferences from a sincjle and slight notice in Holy Writ. Devout familiarity with the Scriptures, faithfulness to their instructions, and acquaintance with the human heart, will be found to strengthen this faculty of discernment. There is every probability that the knowledge of God soon became extinct among Cain's de- scendants. Hence, " going in the way of Cain," c 14 THE FALL OF MAN. was proverbial of flajijrant wickedness, Jude 11. Those who live in the present apje of invention and refinement should not forget that Jidjal, tlio inventor of musical instruments, and Tubal-cain, the inventor of hniss and iron-works, were sons of that Lamech who introduced polygamy, and who, like Cain his progenitor, was also a murderer. From the express mention likewise of the sister of Tubal-cain, and from her name, Naumah., which signifies heautiful, we may well conjec- ture, that with her commenced that seduction,* by which, in process of time, the posterity of Seth became mingled with that of Cain, and adopted its impiety. From this pernicious con- nexion sprang a powerful and tyrannical race, which aimed at the subjugation and oppression of the rest of mankind ; and as in those times there was no Bible, nor the civil order we at present enjoy, every one taking an unbridled liberty to do according to his will, the licentious- ness of the world became more and more out- rageous. In those its youthful days, the human powers being fresh and vigorous, and men com- monly living to nearly a thousand years, the violent had sufficient time to accomplish their giant plans of mischief, and to consolidate their union for the purpose. Their only remaining check, the inward rebuke of the Spirit of God in * It should seem that heathen mythology has borrowed from the names of Tubal-cain (pronounced, in Hebrew, Tuval-cain) and Naumah, those of its Vulcan and Venus ; re- taining tiie meaning of the latter {Venus as venusta^ and tiie chief sound of tiie former (Valcain ;) and converting the brother and sister into a husband and wife. — Trans. THE DELUGE. 15 the conscience, becoming daily less and less felt and recognized after that the sons of God had allied themselves with the daughters of men, and had entered into full communion with repro- bates, was now to be withdrawn entirely. The single family that still heeded the voice of God, and lamented the growth of general corruj)tion, had lost all influence over their godless fellow- men, and was exposed to their hatred and con- tempt. " All flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth." III. THE DELUGE. Had the enormities of the world been permitted to take their course, the moral condition of our race might have sunk past recovery. But God had purposed for it a redeeming plan, which nothing should be allowed to frustrate. Hence there remained but one expedient ; namely, to destroy that corrupt generation from the earth, and to commence a new race from the above- mentioned single and less infected family of Adam's descendants, the family of Noah. For the once goodly field of human nature had now become as a wild desert, overrun with pestiferous weeds. It required to be wholly broken up, in order to be sown with a new and godly seed. Divine forbearance, however, still granted it the respite of one hundred and twenty years, and meanwhile vouchsafed that repentance and righteousness should be preached abroad by 16 THE DELUGE. Noah. But the woi-kl regarded it not. " They did eat, they drank, they married and were given in marriage ; they bought, they sohl, they planted, they buikled." Tliey presumed upon the usual longevity, and thought that as the course of nature had all along continued the same, it was never likely to experience any change, much less such a change as Noah in his preaching predicted. That holy man, however, by Divine direction, had in the meantime con- structed an ark, as an asylum for the representa- tives of the animal world, and especially for his own family, who, as the seed-corn of our present human nature, Avere to be preserved from the coming deluge. At a set time, and likewise by Divine appointment, all the animals which God had directed to be preserved, and then Noah w'ith his wife, his three sons and their wives, entered into the ark, and " the Lord shut them in." And now " the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the cataracts of heaven were opened," until the earth, with even the tops of the highest mountains, Avas covered with a universal deluge, and all its inhabitants were drowned in the mighty waters. Even to this day are traces every Avhere to be found, at- testing Avhat a change was Avrought by that great event, which indeed gave another form to the eartli's surface. Extensive beds of elephant's re- mains have recently been discovered in the wilds of Siberia, Avhere, from the rigour of the climate, none of the larger quadrupeds, much less the elephant, or any animal of tropical countries, can live in a wild condition, and where only the THE DELUGE. 17 blue fox and the white bear can roam at large. In high northern latitudes are imbedded trunks of palm trees, metamorphosed to coal, whereas it is well known that the palm tree can live only in wai-m climates. On the High Alps, and in the slate pits of Germany, are found in a pe- trified state large beds of muscles, shoals of sea fish, and layers of marine plants ; while many of our roads are made and repaired witli innumera- ble fragments of cornu-ammonis and other petri- fied animals, which once played in antediluvian seas, but which are now dug up as stone images from the depths of our mountain quarries. Such well known facts clearly testify that whole re- gions, which at present form part of the conti- nent, and are overrun with chains of steep and rugged hills, composed in former ages the bed of the ocean. To this we may add, that of all the nations wherever travellers have penetrated, whether in the old world or in the new, there is scarcely one, however barbarous, that does not retain some tradition of the deluge, and some story of the man who was saved from it in a vessel constructed for the purpose, although none of these nations had ever seen or heard of tlie Scriptures. God has even converted the stub- born rock into a depository of his truth, and into a record of his righteous judgments. Thus in the very substance of a school-boy's slate, on which the child writes out passages from the sacred narrative of the deluge, may sometimes be seen the skeleton form of some small animal that perished in the general overthrow. c2 SECOND PERIOD. FROM THE DELUGE TO THE TIME OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR. [A.M. 1656 to 3338. B.C. 2287 to 605.] I. — THE SONS OF NOAH. When the iiat of the Almighty had gathered back the waters of the dehige from off the face of the ground, and the ark now rested upon the mountains of Ararat, Noah, with his family, came forth, and settled probably in the country of Ar- menia. From hence were his offspring, as a new race of mankind, to overspread all the regions of the earth. It was at that time that God ap- pointed the rainbow, to be a token and pledge that he would never again destroy the world with a flood. This natural and beautiful phenomenon in the clouds is supposed by some to have then first existed, by virtue of a supervening change in the atmosphere. Some new arrangements were now appointed, to prevent the return of such gi- gantic corruption as had " filled" the antediluvian earth. The ordinary life of man was henceforth rapidly shortened to about one tenth of its former duration. To this effect the Divine permission of animal sustenance; of which we read nothing pre- THE SONS OP NOAH. 19 viously, may have perhaps in some degree con- tributed. 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 com- municated by him to the new race of men, as their most sacred trust. But Avhat God had pro- mised 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 imme- diate descendants. Hence, in the spirit of pro- phecy, did that patriarch announce to them the opposite conditions of their remoter posterity. His predictions have evei- 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 i-ervant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Blessed be Jehovah the God of tihem ! 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 in- serted in the curse, instead of that of Ham, his father. Whether this is on account of his havintr 20 THE SONS OF NOAH. personally taken part in his father's impiety, we are not informed. History, however, shows that not Canaan's j)osterity alone have partaken oi that curse, but that the other descendants of Ham have been jjearinsi; it likewise to the present hour. The nations of unhappy Africa are all d(;scended from Ham ; and how many of these nations have for ages been struggling with adver- sity, or groaning imder the yoke of slaveiy, 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 en- joying 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 ap- proaching nearer to the light, and this has al- ready been experienced by African negroes in. the West Indies. Shem is the progenitor of the swarming eastern woi'ld 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 pre- sently take more particular notice, are still, " as touching the election, beloved for the fathers' sakes," Kom. xi. 28. Their rejection is now, 2 THE SONS OF NOAH. 21 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 eidarge 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, Avill virtually be re- stored to his dominion. As to where the immediate children of these three patriarchs respectively fixed themselves, the Scripture intimates but occasionally, by men- tioning some of the heads of their families and nations ; as it I'ecords 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 re- cord concerning them merely what is most re- markable. 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 woidd 1656 and 1946 ; a period respecting which we have else nothing beyond a list of names. That event is the buildinfr of Babel. 22 THE BUILUINO OF BABEL. II. THE BUILDINO OF BABEL. From the mountainous regions of Armenia, where Noah with his descendants liad settled, the increase of the human family took a south- east direction towards the plains of Shinar, a pro- verbially 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 wei-e found two nar- row 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 build- ing 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 them- selves, 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, w^hich admits of THE BUILDING OF BABEL. 23 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 imdertaking 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 set- ting up an impious independence, which they in- tended should command the admiration of pos- terity. How morally ruinous would have been the consequences, had Babel been established ac- cording 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 dia- lects or languages, and went forth to their re- spective stations, more or less mutually remote. This was no other than a disposal of Divine goodness and mercy ; and, without it, the wick- edness of mankind nii