As to the Antiquity of this horrible 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.