the destruction of the old world, perished in the deluge. 

 After the flood had ceased, he again communicated his will , 

 to Noah and his family ; but thence forward we read of no 

 other divine appearance until the days of Abraham, who was 

 born 1072 years after the flood.* 



Noah survived the flood 350 years. During his life it is not 

 probable that his descendants embraced any worship but 

 that which he himself professed, namely, that of one eternal 

 and omnipotent Deing, nor that any other prevailed for 181 

 years after his death, that is, before the dispersion of his 

 posterity over different countries, occasioned by the confusion 

 of languages, which happened 531 years after the flood ; for 

 the sons of Noah, at least Sem, were living during the 

 greater part of that period ; and they having been witnesses 

 of the flood, and acquainted with the causes of it, having 

 heard the voice of God, and received his commands 

 immediately after it, cannot be supposed guilty of adopting 

 polytheism. It was not then until after the dispersion, 

 during the interval that preceded the vocation of Abraham, 

 that polytheism made its first appearance. Now the vocation 

 of Abraham took place 1147 years after the flood, and 616 

 after the dispersion ; or, computing to the Christian aera,-|- the 

 dispersion took place 2638 years B. C. and the vocation of 

 Abraham 2022 years, which presents us with the same 

 interval. We cannot, however, suppose the ancient religion 



to 



* According to the Septuagint corrected by Jackson. 



■t For the grouuds of tliis calculation, see 1 Jackson's Chronology, 126, 127. 



