Wesley Corpus

Let us next take a view of the “families of the sons of Noah,” the inhabitants of the earth after the flood. The first remarkable incident we read concerning them is, that while “they were all of one language, they said one to another, Let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth.” It is not easy to determine what were the peculiar aggra vations which attended this attempt. But it is certain, there was daring wickedness therein, which brought upon them the very thing they feared; for “the Lord,” by “confounding their language,” (not their religious worship: Can we suppose God would confound this?) “scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth.” (Gen. xi. 4, 9.) Now, whatever par ticulars in this account may be variously interpreted, thus much is clear and undeniable,--that all these, that is, all the in habitants of the earth, had again “corrupted their way;” the universal wickedness being legiblein the universal punishment. * Mr. Hervey's Theron and Aspasio: Dial. 11. 198 The DOCTRINE OF 4. We have no account of their reforming their ways, of any universal or general repentance, before God separated Abraham to himself, to be the father of his chosen people. (Gen. xii. 1, 2.) Nor is there any reason to believe, that the rest of mankind were improved either in wisdom or virtue, when “Lot and Abraham separated themselves, and Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom.” (Gen. xiii. 11, 12.) Of those among whom he dwelt it is particularly remarked, “The men of Sodom” (and of all “the cities of the plain”) “were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly;” (Gen. xiii. 13;) so that not even “ten righteous persons” could be found among them : The consequence of which was, that “the Lord rained upon them brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” (Gen. xix. 24.) 5. We have no ground to suppose that the other inhabit ants of the earth (Abraham, with his family and descendants, excepted) had either the knowledge or the fear of God, from that time till Jacob “went into Egypt.” This was then, as well as for several ages after, the great seat of learning; inso much that “the wisdom of the Egyptians” was celebrated even to a proverb.