orrible Defection of Mankind, tho' we do
not find the beginning of it particularly recorded, yet we are certain
it was not long after the Confusion of _Babel_; for _Nimrod_, as is
said, was no more than _Noah_'s great Grandson and _Noah_ himself, I
suppose, might be alive some Years after _Nimrod_ was born; and as
_Nimrod_ was not long dead, before they forgot that he was a Tyrant and
a Murtherer, and made a _Baal_, that is a Lord or Idol of him, I say, he
was not long dead, for _Nimrod_ was born in the Year of the World 1847,
and built _Babylon_ the Year 1879; and we find _Terah_ the Father of
_Abraham_, who liv'd from the Year 1879 was an Idolater, as was
doubtless _Bethuel_, who was _Terah_'s Grandson; for we find _Laban_,
who was _Bethuel_'s Son, was so, and all this was during the Life of the
first Post-Diluvian Family, for _Terah_ was born within one hundred
ninety three Years after the Flood, and one hundred fifty seven Years
before _Noah_ was dead; and even _Abram_ himself was eight and fifty
Years old before _Noah_ died, and yet Idolatry had been then, in all
probability, above an hundred Years practised in the World.

N. B. It is worth Remark here, what a terrible Advantage the Devil
gain'd by the debauching poor _Noah_, and drawing him into the Sin
of Drunkenness; for by this, as I said, he silenc'd and stop'd the
Mouth of the great Preacher of Righteousness, that Father and
Patriarch of the whole World, who not being able for the Shame of
his own foul Miscarriage, to pretend to instruct or reprove the
World any more, the _Devil_ took hold of them immediately, and for
want of a Prophet to warn and admonish, ran that little of Religion
which there might be left in _Shem_ and _Japhet_, quite out of the
World, and delug'd them all in IDOLATRY.

How long the whole World may be said to be thus overwhelm'd in Ignorance
and Idolatry, we may make some tolerable guess at by the History of
_Abraham_; for it was not till God call'd him from his Father's House,
that any such Thing as a Church was establish'd in the World; nor even
then, except in his own Family and Successors for almost four hundred
Years after that Call; and till God brought the _Israelites_ back out of
_Egypt_, the whole World may be said to be involv'd in Idolatry and
_Devil_ worship.

So absolute a Conquest had the _Devil_ made over Mankind immediately
after the Flood, and