countries first inhabited by mankind, were in those days so thinly peopled,
that [230] four Kings from the coasts of _Shinar_ and _Elam_ invaded and
spoiled the _Rephaims_, and the inhabitants of the countries of _Moab_,
_Ammon_, _Edom_, and the Kingdoms of _Sodom_, _Gomorrah_, _Admah_ and
_Zeboim_; and yet were pursued and beaten by _Abraham_ with an armed force
of only 318 men, the whole force which _Abraham_ and the princes with him
could raise: and _Egypt_ was so thinly peopled before the birth of _Moses_,
that _Pharaoh_ said of the _Israelites_; [231] _behold the people of the
children of _Israel_ are more and mightier than we_: and to prevent their
multiplying and growing too strong, he caused their male children to be
drowned.

These footsteps there are of the first peopling of the earth by mankind,
not long before the days of _Abraham_; and of the overspreading it with
villages, towns and cities, and their growing into Kingdoms, first Smaller
and then greater, until the rise of the Monarchies of _Egypt_, _Assyria_,
_Babylon_, _Media_, _Persia_, _Greece_, and _Rome_, the first great Empires
on this side _India_. _Abraham_ was the fifth from _Peleg_, and all mankind
lived together in _Chaldea_ under the Government of _Noah_ and his sons,
untill the days of _Peleg_: so long they were of one language, one society,
and one religion: and then they divided the earth, being perhaps, disturbed
by the rebellion of _Nimrod_, and forced to leave off building the tower of
_Babel_: and from thence they spread themselves into the several countries
which fell to their shares, carrying along with them the laws, customs and
religion, under which they had 'till those days been educated and governed,
by _Noah_, and his sons and grandsons: and these laws were handed down to
_Abraham_, _Melchizedek_, and _Job_, and their contemporaries, and for some
time were observed by the judges of the eastern countries: so _Job_ [232]
tells us, that adultery was _an heinous crime, yea an iniquity to be
punished by the judges_: and of idolatry he [233] saith, _If I beheld the
sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath
been secretly inticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also were an
iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that
is above_: and there being no dispute between _Job_ and his friends about
these matters, it may be presumed that they also with their countrymen were
of the