nations their inheritance; and to effect this, he interposed in a miraculous manner, by putting an end to that which constituted the strongest bond of their union-their sameness of speech. 66 Behold, said the Lord, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us now go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."* It is not from these words to be inferred that every individual spoke a distinct language, so as not to be understood by his neighbour, but simply that such a discordance of speech was introduced among them, as was sufficient to bring to pass the design of the Almighty, which was to cause their separation, and as a consequence of that, the cessation of the work in which they were engaged. From hence the city, left them incomplete, though finished afterwards upon a less ambitious scale, derived its name of Babel, or confusion,† "because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth." A variety of conjectures, for we can hardly call them more, have been produced as to the number of languages then begun to be spoken: some have estimated them at seventy-two, corresponding to the families mentioned by Moses; others at sixteen, corresponding to the nations; while the opinion which seems to rest less upon fancy, and more upon actual investigation than the other, fixes them at three, namely, the Sanscrit, Arabic, and Tartarian. But whether this threefold division applies properly to the languages of men or not, it certainly does so to the races from which they sprang. Among the three families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, sons of Noah, the whole earth was divided. The posterity of Japheth, * Gen. xi. 6, 7. † Ver. 9. who, though named last, was the eldest, took possession of "the isles of the Gentiles,"* by which was probably meant the more remote regions of the earth, whether in an easterly or westerly direction, embracing Europe at one extremity, and India at the other. The posterity of Ham extended themselves over Arabia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, the greater part of Africa, and that land called the land of Canaan, afterwards the scene of so many wonderful events recorded in the Bible. The posterity of Shem, the youngest son, occupied, it would seem, the smallest extent of territory, being divided into two principal branches, under Peleg and Joktan, the former settling in Chaldea, the latter in Arabia, on the coasts of the Persian Gulf. But however less amply endowed with territorial possessions the line of Shem might be, in one point it had a notable advantage over those of his brethren-the worship of the true Jehovah, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, was continued in it, when the rest of the world were given over to the most base idolatries; and it was honoured by giving birth, according to the flesh, to the promised Seed of the woman, the Vanquisher of Satan, the Redeemer of mankind. "Blessed," said Noah in his prophecy, "be the Lord God of Shem." Nor was the race of Japheth, though not thus privileged in the first instance, to be without their share of the blessing in the latter days: "God shall persuade (or enlarge) Japheth," said the prophet, "and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem;" a declaration evidently made good by the coming in of so many heathen and barbarous nations from various quarters of the globe, to worship in that spiritual Jerusalem, of which the Church of Christ is the representative upon earth-the spiritual tabernacle of Shem, which, according to the prophet * Gen. x. 5. Isaiah, was to be enlarged for the reception of the * Gentiles. The curse of Canaan was, to be in servitude. to both his brethren, which, as to Shem, was brought upon the Canaanites when they were subdued by the children of Israel under Joshua, and the succeeding rulers of that people; and as to Japheth, when those of them who fled from before the sword of Joshua, and settled on the northern shores of Africa, were subjugated by the Roman power. Henceforward the nations springing from Ham and Japheth, will be only mentioned incidentally, so far as they were connected with, or had influence upon the fortunes of the family of Shem, and especially of that part of it which descended from him through Eber and Peleg, at the time of whose birth took place the dispersion from Babel. This patriarch, it appears, or possibly his son Nahor, departed in an easterly direction, and dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees-a place, as its name denotes, in which the deluded inhabitants, again forgetting the God of Noah, became worshippers of fire, besides, as it is probable, giving way to other temptations of idolatry; for thus did Joshua afterwards speak to the Israelites, as of a well-known thing: Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood (the river Euphrates) in old time, and they served other gods."+ Terah, the father of Abraham, and son of Nahor, is expressed by name, as having yielded to defile himself with these abominations; and thus we see that even in the chosen family there was a period of darkness, in which it would seem that the name and dignity of the Highest was almost forgotten upon the earth. In the following chapter, I shall endeavour to show that it was still held in remembrance in another quarter, and served to sustain a righteous man under the pressure of most sore afflictions. *Isaiah liv. 2. 66 + Josh. xxiv. 2. CHAP. VII. THE HISTORY OF JOB. THERE WAS A MAN IN THE LAND OF UZ, WHOSE NAME WAS JOB: AND THAT MAN WAS PERFECT AND UPRIGHT, AND ONE THAT FEARED GOD, AND ESCHEWED EVIL."* THE HE time when the celebrated personage lived, of whom this excellent character is given, has always been a subject of much difference of opinion among those who have attempted to arrange the events recorded in Scripture in the proper order of their Occurrence. In bringing forward his history before that of Abraham, I am influenced by the following considerations. There are in it no allusions to the history of Abraham, or of any of his descendants: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, an event which would have afforded so decided an argument in the debates between Job and his friends, is passed over without notice. The customs mentioned in it are those of very early times: the worship of the sun and moon is the only idolatry alluded to, and the practice of Job in offering sacrifice in behalf of his children, seems to point to a period when as yet no regular priesthood was established. The great age of Job, who lived a hundred and forty years after his trial, and speaks of himself as then an elderly man, carries us back to a remote period of the patriarchal times. And therefore it seems not improbable that when idolatry was beginning to extend itself over the earth, among the nations dispersed from Babel, and had * Job i. 1. + See these reasons more fully stated in Townsend's Arrangement of the Old Testament, vol. i. p. 28; a work of which have frequently availed myself in the course of these Lectures. Mr. Townsend has taken them from Dr. Hales. F even, as it appears, infected the chosen family of the line of Shem, God did not even for that temporary interval leave himself without a witness, but raised up the righteous and patient Job, to testify his trust in the providence, and his faith in the promises, of his Creator.* He appears to have been a prince or chieftain in his own country; not only enjoying his rank and power for the purposes of mere gratification, but, according to the character given of him in the text, applying them to the uses of practical benevolence. "Thou hast instructed many," said his friend to him, "and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees." Of himself he says, compelled to vindicate his character from the insinuations and reproaches of his false comforters, "When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth."+ "Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?"-"Did I despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me ?"§-"I rejoiced not at the destruction of him that hated me, nor lifted up myself when evil found him, neither did I suffer my mouth to sin, by wishing a curse to his soul."|| He was hospitable: "The stranger did not lodge in the street," he says; "I opened my doors to the • Whenever he lived, "there was none like him on the earth." Ch. i. 8. St. Augustine remarks this, in his treatise on the Deserts and Remission of Sins, b. ii. ch. 12. t Job xxix. 11-17. Ibid. xxx. 25. || Verses 29, 30. |