DISPERSION, 
was called by ‘the Gentile wine Ely mais ; os Jofephus 
calis pau Llamites- the e Perfians: Adthur, 
was driveo out of Shinar be imrod, 
fettled in Y Adlyra, and there built Nineveh, and oth 
rabited, and, as fome on gave name os the country 
e river Meander, remarkab:é for its 
Mediterranean fea; within 
Aram, his four fons pr sa fettled 
fon of Noah, had four fons, vis. Cufh 
f{pread into the feveral parts of Arabia, over the borders 
of the land of Edom, isto Arabia Felix, up to Midian and 
: Mizraim, the father of them who inhabited Egypt, 
and other parts of Africa: Phut, to whom Bochart afligns 
the remaining part of Africa, from the oo ei to the 
Atlantic ocean, called Libya: end Canaan, to whom Le- 
longed the land of Canaan, whence the Pic iene derived 
their origin. 
Upon this diftribution of Noah’s pofterity, we fhall only 
obferve, that the Deity prefided over all their counfels an 
sodas Caan? and that he guided and fettled all mankind, 
To this purpofe, the ancicnts themfelves, 
d. vii.) retained fome idea, 
that they had been f{ettled in different countries by the ap- 
a of Providence. (See Gen. xi. 8, 9. Deut 
“This difperfion, and that confufion of languages with 
to e 
h had been projected by the pee tere of Noah, for 
maintaining their union, avd, of courfe, their fuperiority and 
c-eminence ; implied in their propofing 
which Schultens (in Tob. i 
of “fate policy, for keeping all men 
fs and their fucceffors, a 
Le 
bad effects whi ch this ae meal have ee upon i 
orals, and re.igion of mankind, was, proba- 
why God Gemoie to fate it as 
ioon as it was formed. It had manifeftly a dire tendency 
to tyranny, opprefli and flavery. Whereas in formirg 
feveral independent governments by a {mall body of men, 
the en vernment, and the fecurity of liberty and 
property, i e ch better attended to, and more 
firmly eftablifhed ; which, in fa@, was really the cafe; 
if we may judge of the reft by the conftitution of one of 
the moft a ica the kingdom of Egy t. 
A& tians were matters of their perfons and pro- 
perty, till they fold them to Pharoah for bread; and t 
their fervitude amounted to no more than the fifth part of 
the produce of the country, as an annual tax payable to 
the king, 
By this event, coafidered. as a wife difpenfation of Pro- 
(Gen. xlvii. 15— 
af terwards 
the father of the. 
e diétates of his all-comprebending wifdom the 
effe& of chance, but o 
? 
aaraes the purpofes of an idolatrous temple, 
vidence, bounds were fet to the contagion of wickednefa 5 
evi] example was confined, and could not extend its anes 
gether by a variety of langu 
her. oreover, in this difperied 
ever God pleafed, be 
other, by anon 8 an 
power, and humble the pride of corrupt and vic 
munitics. 
aries rd’s Conn. vol. 1. book i. and 
Un. Hift. vo art 3. booki. chap. 2 
Dr. Bryant hae aed a new biota: on this fub- 
jet, and fupported it with his ufval acutenefs and learn- 
ing: he maintains, that the eaten as well as the con- 
fulion o tongues, was local, and limited to the inhabitants 
abel ; that the feparation and dif- 
en. X. 25s ara 
e Meffiah was to ee 
was particularly regarded in this difteibution ; the portion 
his children was near the pl of feparation ; they in 
general had Afia to their lot 3 as Japh d Europe, and 
am the large continent of Afr But the fons of Chus 
would {ubmit to the civine difpenfation ; they went off 
under the condu& of Nimrod, and feem to have been for a 
time in a roving >: however, at laft they arrived at 
lains of Shinar, and having ejeGted Afhur and his fons, 
narchy. t afterwards fearing left they oat be ‘vided 
“ae {cattered abroad, they built the tower o 
rk, to which they might repair, me Probably - 
dedicated to the hol of heaven, from which t 
never long to be abfent. They only, viz. the fons o 
or the Cuthites, and their aflociates from other families 
who had been guilty of rebeliion sale divine authority, ° 
and of wicked ambition and tyra with 
labial utterance, and of the -dilperfion recorded in Gen. x 
e 8,9: in confequence of which they were fcattered abiosd 
from this city and tower, without any certain place of defti- 
nation, The Cuthites invaded Egypt or the land of Mizraim, 
in its infant ftate, feized the whole country, and held it for 
fome ages in {ubjeGion ; and they extended likewife to the 
Indies and Ganges, ane ftill farther into “China and Japan. 
From them the province of Cufhan or Gofhen in Egypt 
derived its name; here they obtained the al sapricia of royal 
fhepherds; and when they were by for 7 iven out of 
the country, after having been in off-flion it for two 
hundred and fixty, or two hundred and eighty oa the land 
which they had been obliged to quit was given to the Hraele 
ites, who were alfo denominated fhepherds, but fhould not — 
be confounded with the former or the antecedent inhabitants 
of Gofhen. Bryant’s Analyfis of Ancient Mythol, vol. iii, 
p- 16, &. See Cus. 
Dispersion of inflammations, in Medicine. See Inviam+ 
MATIONS 
DISPLANT- 
