or Noe, the son of Lamech, was born in the year of the world 1056. Amidst the general corruption into which all mankind were fallen at this time, Noah alone was found to be just and perfect in his generation, walking with God. (Gen. vi. 9.) This extraordinary person having therefore found favour in the eyes of the Lord, and God seeing that all flesh had corrupted their ways, told Noah, that he was resolved to destroy mankind from the face of the earth, by a flood of waters; and not them alone, but all the beasts of the earth, and every creeping thing, as well as the fowls of the air. (Id. ib. 7.) The Lord therefore directed Noah, as a means of preserving him and his family (for he had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who were all married before the flood), to build an ark or vessel, of a certain form and size fitted to that end, and which might besides accommodate such numbers of animals of all sorts, that were liable to perish in the flood, as would be sufficient to preserve the several species, and again replenish the earth; together with all necessary provisions for them; all which Noah performed, as may be seen more particularly under the article Ark.

In the year of the world 1656, and in the 600th year of his age, Noah, by God's appointment, entered the ark, together with his wife, his three sons, their wives, and all the animals which God caused to come to Noah; and being all entered, and the door of the ark being shut upon the outside, the waters of the deluge began to fall upon the earth, and increased in such a manner, that they were fifteen cubits above the tops of the highest mountains, and continued thus upon the earth for 150 days; so that whatever had life upon the earth, or in the air, was destroyed, except such as were with Noah in the ark. But the Lord remembering Noah, sent a wind upon the earth, which caused the waters to subside; so that upon the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat: and Noah having uncovered the roof of the ark, and observing the earth was dry, he received orders from the Lord to come out of it, with all the ani- mals that were therein; and this he did in the six hundred and first year of his age, on the 27th day of the second month. But the history of the deluge is more circumstantially related already under the article DELUGE.

Then he offered as a burnt sacrifice to the Lord one of all the pure animals that were in the ark; and the Lord accepted his sacrifice, and said to him, that he would no more pour out his curse upon the whole earth, nor any more destroy all the animals as he had now done. He gave Noah power over all the brute creation, and permitted him to eat of them, as of the herbs and fruits of the earth; except only the blood, the use of which God did not allow him. He bid him increase and multiply, make a covenant with him, and God engaged himself to send no more an universal deluge upon the earth; and as a memorial of his promise, he set his bow in the clouds, to be as a pledge of the covenant he made with Noah. (Gen. ix.)

Noah being an husbandman, began now to cultivate the vine; and having made wine and drank thereof, he unwarily made himself drunk, and fell asleep in his tent, and happened to uncover himself in an indecent posture. Ham, the father of Canaan, having observed him in this condition, made himself sport with him, and acquainted his two brothers with it, who were without. But they, instead of making it a matter of sport, turned away from it, and going backwards they covered their father's nakedness by throwing a mantle over him. Noah awaking, and knowing what Ham had done, said, that Canaan the son of Ham should be accursed, that he should be a slave of slaves in respect of his brethren. It is thought he had a mind to spare the person of his son Ham, for fear the curse might light upon the other children of Ham, who had no part in this action. He cursed Canaan by a spirit of prophecy, because the Canaanites his descendants were after this to be rooted out by the Israelites. Noah added, Let the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and let Canaan be the servant of Shem. And he was so in effect, in the person of the Canaanites subdued by the Hebrews. Lastly, Noah said, Let God extend the possession of Japheth; let Japheth dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. This prophecy had its accomplishment, when the Grecians, and afterwards the Romans, being descended from Japheth, made a conquest of Asia, which was the portion of Shem.

But Noah lived yet after the deluge three hundred and fifty years; and the whole time of his life having been nine hundred and fifty years, he died in the year of the world 2066. He left three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, of which mention is made under their several names; and according to the common opinion, he divided the whole world amongst them, in order to repopulate it. To Shem he gave Asia, to Ham Africa, and Europe to Japheth. Some will have it, that besides these three sons, he had several others. The spurious Berossus gives him thirty, called Titans, from the name of their mother Titaea. They pretend that the Teutons or Germans are derived from a son of Noah called Thuiscon. The false Methodius also makes mention of Jonithus or Jonicus, a pretended son of Noah.

St Peter calls Noah a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter ii. 5.), because before the deluge he was incessantly preaching and declaring to men, not only by his discourses, but by his unblamable life, and by the building of the ark, in which he was employed five score years, that the wrath of God was ready to pour upon them. But his preaching had no effect, since, when the deluge came, it found mankind plunged in their former enormities. (Mat. xxiv. 37.)

Several learned men have observed, that the Heathen confounded Saturn, Deucalion, Oggyes, the god Cacus or Ouranus, Janus, Proteus, Prometheus, &c. with Noah. The wife of Noah is called Noriah by the Gnostics; and the fable of Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha is manifestly invented from the history of Noah.

The Rabbins pretend, that God gave Noah and his sons (all who are not of the chosen race of Abraham they call Noachidae) certain general precepts, which contain, according to them, the natural right which is common to all men indifferently, and the observation of which alone will be sufficient to save them. After the law of Moses, the Hebrews would not suffer any stranger to dwell in their country, unless he would conform to the precepts of the Noachidae. In war they put to death, without quarter, all that were ignorant of them. These precepts are seven in number.

The first directs, that obedience be paid to judges, magistrates, and princes.

By the second, the worship of false gods, superstition, and sacrilege, are absolutely forbidden.

The third forbids cursing the name of God, blasphemies, and false oaths.

The fourth forbids all incestuous and unlawful conjunctions, as sodomy, bestiality, and crimes against nature.

The fifth forbids the effusion of blood of all sorts of animals, murder, wounds, and mutilations.

The sixth forbids thefts, cheats, lying, &c.

The seventh forbids to eat the parts of an animal still alive, as was practised by some pagans.

To these the Rabbins have added some others: but what inclines us to doubt the antiquity of these precepts is, that no mention is made of them in scripture, or in the writings of Josephus or Philo; and that none of the ancient fathers knew anything of them.