CHAP.

IV.

7.

ing the

tower of

Babel. And

and ix. I. of cities

And the like ex

the words oupacaros, reaching

As to the defign of this fabrick, fome have been fo abfurd as to think, that the undertakers thereof defigned to get up to heaven thereby, because Mofes ufes this expreffion; Let us The defign build us a city and tower, whofe top may reach unto heaven. of undertak- Hence arose the fable among the poets of the Giants endeavouring to get up to heaven, by putting one mountain upon firft, falfe another. But it is to be remembered, that it is evident from opinions re- other places of Scripture, that, by the aforefaid expreffion, jected, Mofes intended no more than to denote a tower of a great height. For thus we read, Deut. i. 28. great, and walled or fenced up to heaven. preffion was familiar to the Greeks, whence voμnuns, reaching to or as high as heaven, and to the fun, are frequently used by the poets, to denote things of a more than ordinary height. Befides, that fuch was not the defign of this tower, may be reasonably inferred from those words of the text: Now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Whereby is plainly intimated, that their defign was fuch as they might have completed, had not God thought fit to have interrupted them: but this cannot be understood of a design to build a tower, which fhould literally reach up to heaven. Nor yet do those other opinions seem true; one of which will have this tower defigned to preserve them from being destroyed by a fecond flood, the other to preserve them from the general conflagration, which they are supposed to have had some notice of. For, to omit other confiderations, had they a design to preserve themfelves from a fecond deluge, it is likely, they would not have chofen fo low a ground to build their tower on; and on the other hand, had they defigned to preserve themselves from fire, it seems more rational for them to have fecured themselves under ground.

8.

Secondly,

But to spend no more time in refuting false opinions; the the true opitrue defign of this tower is plainly enough told us by Mofes, nion fhewn. where he tells us, that they thus encouraged one another: Let us build a city and tower, whefe top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, left we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth, Gen. xi. 4. Now to make one's self a name,

IV. I

is a scripture expreffion for to make one's felf famous, as 2 Sam. C H A P. viii. 13. Ifa. lxiii. 12, &c. whence it follows, that the defign of these undertakers was, by erecting a tower of fo great a height, out of pomp or fhow, rather than use, to render themselves famous to pofterity. By their adding, left we be scattered abroad on the face of the whole earth, they seem to have foreseen, that it would become neceffary for them to separate into diftinct parts of the earth, for the better conveniency of fubfifting. And it pleased divine Providence to take this very occafion so to scatter them, which it did by confounding their language, fo as that they could not understand one another.

A method

fion of lan

And here it is remarkable, that in the very confusion of 9. tongues there feems to have been a rule observed, God fo obferved in caufing them to speak with diverfe tongues, that their tongues the confuwere ordered after their families, and after their nations. So guages. that the tongues of the fame branch, though diverse, yet had a greater affinity among themselves, than with the tongues of another branch. Thus, the languages of the branch of Sem in the East agree more one with another, than with the languages of the branch of Japhet in the West.

10.

As to the number of languages then begun to be spoken, The number they could not probably be, as Mr. Mede obferves, fewer than of primary there were nations, nor more than there were families. If languages. there were no more than there were nations, or heads of nations, then the number is eafily counted; feven in Japhet, four in Ham, and five in Sem. But if there were as many as there were families at the confufion, their number cannot be known; because Mofes, as Mr. Mede obferves, does not make an enumeration of all the families, or heads of families. However, the common opinion is, that their number was according to the number of families; and this Mofes feems to infinuate, because he joins throughout Genef. x. families and tongues together. Hence the number of the original languages is commonly esteemed to be about feventy, according to the number of families mentioned by Moses.

mory of the

I fhall only add, that the memory of the confufion of The metongues feems to have been a long time preferved among the confufion of Heathen, whence the epithet of Mépores, Meropes, is given to among the

tongues

mankind Heathen.

IV.

CHAP. mankind by old Homer and other poets, the full import of which word denotes, that whereas mankind was all once of one language, their language was afterward divided into feveral languages.‘

12

The tower

I fhall conclude this chapter, with the account Dr. Heylin of Babel's gives us of the tower of Babel, as to its height, &c. It was height, &c. reared, fays he, five thoufand one hundred forty-fix paces from the ground, having its basis and circumference equal to the height. The paffage to go up went winding about the outfide, and was of an exceeding great breadth; there being not only room for horses, carts, and the like means of carriage to meet and turn; but lodging for man and beaft, and, as Vorftegan reports, grafs and corn-fields for their nourishment. The reader is left to give what credit he pleases to this relation.

CHAP.

CHA P. V.

Of the Conquefts and Kingdom of Nimrod.

MOSES

OSES having named the other fons and grandsons of Cush, he fubjoins, Gen. x. 8. And Cush begat Nimrod. By this diftinct mention of Nimrod, after the rest of his brethren, the facred hiftorian is fuppofed to intimate, that Nimrod was indeed the youngest of the fons of Cush, but however the most remarkable of them. And accordingly it immediately follows in the text; He began to be a mighty one upon the earth.

2.

The manner

of his be

By what method Nimrod became thus mighty, the facred hiftorian is thought to denote by the words fubjoined; He and occafion was a mighty hunter before the Lord, i. e. he was in reality coming a very well skilled in hunting, and performing notable exploits warrior. therein; infomuch that it became a proverb, or common way of commending a man for his valour and strength, to say, that he was even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. The occafion of Nimrod's applying himself to hunting is probably conjectured to be in order to deftroy the wild beasts, that began to grow now very numerous, and fo to infeft very much the parts adjoining to the nation of Cufh; the defarts of Arabia being a convenient place for them to harbour in. Hereupon having got together a body of ftout young men of his own nation like himself, he began by degrees to be a great master in the art of hunting, and deftroying the beasts of prey; by which means he not only very much ingratiated himself with the inhabitants of the adjoining countries, but also inured himself and his companions to undergo fatigue and hardship, and withal to manage dexterously several sorts of offenfive weapons.

3.

Being thus occafionally trained up to the art of war, and He invades perceiving at length his skill and strength fufficient to act of the land of

Shinar, fenfively why.

and

V.

CHA P. fenfively even against men, he invades first the neighbouring parts of the nation of Sem, which, upon the divifion of the earth, fell to the lot of the family of Arphaxad; and fo makes himself master of the lower part of the land of Shinar. The extraordinary fruitfulness and also pleasantness of this tract, might be the motive that induced Nimrod to invade this part, rather than any other adjoining part of the nation of Sem. As for the land of Canaan and Mizraim, they were poffeffed by the defcendants of Ham, as well as himself; and therefore he might fhew them the more respect on that account.

4.

Babel or Babylon, the

Having conquered the southern parts of the land of Shinar, he pitches upon that very place, as is probable, where the capital of his city and tower of Babel had been begun, to build the capitał

kingdom.

By whom built, enlarged, and beautified.

city of his kingdom; which therefore was called by the fame name Babel, whence by the Greeks and Latins it was called Babylon. It ftood, as has been faid, on each fide the Euphrates, having ftreets running from north to fouth parallel with the river, and others croffing these from east to west. The compafs of the wall was three hundred fixty-five furlongs, that is about forty miles: the height of it was fifty cubits, and the breadth fo great, that carts or carriages might meet on the top of them, and pass by one another without danger. It is faid to have been finished in one year, by the hands of two hundred thousand workmen employed daily in it. Over the Euphrates there was a sumptuous bridge; and at each end of the bridge there was a magnificent palace. It was famous for the Penfile Garden, so called by writers, because it seemed at a diftance to hang in the air, being made not on the ground, but at a confiderable height from the ground, borne up with fquare pillars. In this artificial garden, thus borne up with pillars, there are said to have grown trees, which were no less than eight cubits thick in the body, and fifty feet high. There ftood alfo in this city a beautiful temple, dedicated to Belus or Bel; and in the middle hereof ftood a tower, which is fuppofed by fome to have been the very tower, or at least part of that tower, which was begun before the confufion of tongues.

The city, as has been faid, is probably supposed to have been first built by Nimrod; it was afterwards beautified and

enlarged