I 34. ] 



Thus alfo, when Petronius fays, 



Orbemjam totum victor Romanus habebat, 



Qua mare, qua tellus, qua fidus currit utrumque, 



it is well known, that there were many parts even then unfub- 

 dued ; as there were in the time of Antoninus, whom Oppi'an 

 addreffes as, 



Koigxvs youv\q. 



■ .- 'hi ' • 



It mould feem therefore, from the common rules and obfer- 

 vations by which a paffage or words ufed by any other writer 

 would be explained, that the general terms of the three chapters 

 of Generis which relate to the deluge, are to be confined to the 

 country in which Noah lived ; and to contend otherwife feems 

 mofl unneceffarily to multiply unanfwerable difficulties and ob- 

 jections.. As the univerfality of the deluge is no article of faith, 

 it may be freely difcuffed ; and I have already fhewn, that a 

 living and diftinguifhed prelate of our church hath explained the 

 expreflion of all the world, in Acts xi. 28. to be confined to the 

 Roman, empire, or perhaps Judea, when the Jews had greater in- 

 tercourfe with other nations, than in the time when the Old 

 Teftament was- written. The Jews indeed, before the Roman 



After a few generations from Noah the attempt was made to build 

 the tower of Babel, and the fLrft verfe of the chapter which relates to 

 this intention begins, " and the whole earth was of one language and of 

 one fpeeeh." Can this pafli ige poffibly relate but to the immediate de- 

 fcendants of Noah, and the diftridt which they inhabited? And does it 

 not mofl flrongly prove, that the expreflion of all the earth continues to 

 be ufed in the book of Generis, according to its original import, with 

 regard to the flood ? 



In thefe early times indeed the deftrudion of the neighbouring inha- 

 bitants feems to have been fuppofed to include thofe of the whole o-lobe, 

 for Lot's daughter, after the deftrudion of Sodom, conceive that their 

 father is the only furviving male upon the earth, Gen. xix. 31. 



conqueftj 



