There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord. Prov. xxi. 30.

From thence did the Lord scatter them abroad. Their main end in building this tower was to prevent their dispersion, and behold the thing that they were afraid of is come upon them. That dispersion which they thought by their rebellion to evade, they did by their rebellion bring upon themselves. To seek to avoid any trouble by unlawful means, is one ready way to fall into it.

The hand of God is to be acknowledged in all our scatterings. Is the family scattered, are relations scattered, friends and acquaintances scattered, Christian societies scattered? God is the author of such scatterings; for this evil, as well as other evil, is not in a city but the Lord hath done it. Amos iii. 6.

And now we take our leave of the sons of men, the estranged Gentile world, being to hear no more of them in all the book of God, to the best of my remembrance, any further than either the church of God in general, or some of his people in particular, are concerned with them. What care has the householder for his lumber, in comparison with his jewels, unless his jewels chance to fall among it? The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth; but it is to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

2 Chron. xvi. 9. God is pleased to give us an account of Abraham's servants, Isaac's wells, and Jacob's sheep, whilst we are not told a word of the thirty-one dynasties of the Egyptian kings, of the mighty monarchs of Babel, or of the other renowned kingdoms of the earth; for the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. Deut. xxxii. 9..

10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:

11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:

13 And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:

15 And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

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16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg :

17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.

18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:

19 And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.

20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:

21 And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.

22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:

23 And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:

25 And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years,

and begat sons and daughters.

26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

We have here an account of the pedigree of the sons of God, from Shem to Abraham, for ten generations; just as many as were before the flood from Adam to Noah. Gen. v. But the account is here, as it was there, very brief and succinct; the sacred writer seeming as if he were hastening on towards the history of Abraham, the father of the faithful. 'Tis however observable what a manifest decrease there is in the years of their lives; all of them falling far short of the years of the antediluvian patriarchs. The days of the years of their pilgrimage began now to be few as well as evil; and did not attain unto the days of the years of the lives of their fathers in their pilgrimage. Gen. xlvii. 9. It seems that as iniquity did abound, life did shorten; and Moses fixes the term of man's life at about the one half of Nahor's age,-threescore years and ten, where it still abides; and to which, with much ado, scarcely one in a hundred reaches. The wages of sin being death, when men are so busy about the work, 'tis no wonder if the wages be soon paid.

This genealogy terminates in Abraham, because his genealogy was also that of Christ, who was not

only the son of David, but also the son of Abraham; and it is with Abraham that Matthew resumes the pedigree of the Saviour. Matt. i. 1. So that in Gen. v., Gen. xi., and Matt. i., we have the entire genealogy of Jesus Christ; in which we find that twice ten, and thrice fourteen generations passed between the first and the second Adam; making it clear concerning Christ that he was indeed the son of man.

27 Now these are the generations of Terah Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.

28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.

29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives; the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son,