_Chaldea_, and spread every way from thence; but did not yet reach into the land of _Canaan_. Several of the laws and precepts in which this primitive religion consisted are mentioned in the book of _Job_, chap. i. ver. 5, and chap, xxxi, _viz._ _not to blaspheme God, nor to worship the Sun or Moon, nor to kill, nor steal, nor to commit adultery, nor trust in riches, nor oppress the poor or fatherless, nor curse your enemies, nor rejoyce at their misfortunes: but to be friendly, and hospitable and merciful, and to relieve the poor and needy, and to set up Judges_. This was the morality and religion of the first ages, still called by the _Jews_, _The precepts of the sons of _Noah__: this was the religion of _Moses_ and the Prophets, comprehended in the two great commandments, of _loving the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind, and our neighbour as our selves_: this was the religion enjoyned by _Moses_ to the uncircumcised stranger within the gates of _Israel_, as well as to the _Israelites_: and this is the primitive religion of both _Jews_ and _Christians_, and ought to be the standing religion of all nations, it being for the honour of God, and good of mankind: and _Moses_ adds the precept of _being merciful even to brute beasts, so as not to suck out their blood, nor to cut off their flesh alive with the blood in it, nor to kill them for the sake of their blood, nor to strangle them; but in killing them for food, to let out their blood and spill it upon the ground_, _Gen._ ix. 4, and _Levit_. xvii. 12, 13. This law was ancienter than the days of _Moses_, being given to _Noah_ and his sons long before the days of _Abraham_: and therefore when the Apostles and Elders in the Council at _Jerusalem_ declared that the Gentiles were not obliged to be circumcised and keep the law of _Moses_, they excepted this law of _abstaining from blood, and things strangled_ as being an earlier law of God, imposed not on the sons of _Abraham_ only, but on all nations, while they lived together in _Shinar_ under the dominion of _Noah_: and of the same kind is the law of _abstaining from meats offered to Idols or false Gods, and from fornication_. So then, _the believing that the world was framed by one supreme God, and is governed by him; and the loving and worshipping him, and honouring our parents, and loving our neighbour as our selves, and being merciful even to brute beasts_, is the oldest of all religions: and the Original of letters, agriculture, navigation, music, arts and sciences, metals, smiths and carpenters, towns and houses, was not older in _Europe_ than the days of _Eli_, _Samuel_ and _David_; and before those days the earth was so thinly peopled, and so overgrown with woods, that mankind could not be much older than is represented in Scripture. * * * * * CHAP. II _Of the Empire of _Egypt_._