A. M. 1759. A. C. 2245; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 2859. A. C. 2552. GEN. CH. x.; AND CH. xi. VER. 10. TO THE END. and Lower Egypt; Phut, in part of Lybia; and Canaan, merly the Scythians, but now the Tartars dwell: that in the land which was afterwards called by his name, and the posterity of Ham held in their possession all Africa, in other adjacent countries. and no small part of Asia; 2 Mizraim, both the Upper, Lower, and Middle Egypt, Marmorica, and Ethiopia, both east and west; Phut, the remainder of Africa, Lybia Interior and Exterior, Numidia, Mauritania, Getulia, &c.; Cush, all Arabia that lies between the Red Sea and the Gulf; beyond the Gulf, Carmania, and no small part of Persia; and towards the north of Arabia (till expelled by Nimrod), Babylonia, and part of Chaldea: and Canaan, Palestine, Phoenicia, part of Cappadocia, and that large tract of ground along the Euxine Sea, even as far as Colchis: and that the posterity of Shem had in their possession part both of the Greater and Lesser Asia; 3 in the Lesser, Lydia, Mysia, and Caria; and in the Greater, Assyria, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Susiana, Arabia Felix, &c., and perhaps eastward all the countries as far as China. The sons of Cush, were Seba, who settled on the south-west part of Arabia; Havilah, who gave name to a country upon the river Pison, where it parts with Euphrates, to run into the Arabian Gulf; Sabtah, who lived on the same shore (but a little more northward) of the Arabian Gulf; Raamah, who, with his two sons, Sheba and Dedan, occupied the same coast, but a little more eastward; and Sabtecha, who (we need not doubt) placed himself among the rest of his brethren. But among all the sons of Cush, Nimrod was the person who in those early days distinguished himself by his bravery and courage. His lot chanced to fall into a place that was not a little infested with wild beasts; and therefore he betook himself to the exercise of hunting, and, drawing together a company of stout young fellows, not only cleared the country of such dangerous creatures, but, procuring himself likewise great honour and renown by his other exploits, he raised himself at length to the dignity of a king (the first king that is supposed to have been in the world), and, having made Babylon the seat of his empire, laid the foundation of three other cities, namely, Erech, Accad, and Calneth, in the neighbouring provinces; and so, passing into Assyria, and enlarging his territories there, he built Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen, (Larissa,) situate upon the Tigris. But to return to the remainder of Ham's posterity. These are the plantations of the families of the sons of Noah in their generations,' and after this manner were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.' And now to descend to a more particular account of the posterity of his son Shem, from whom the Hebrews (who are the proper subjects of our history) were descended. A. M. 1658, or 2258. A. M. 1693, A. M. 1723, or 2657. or 2787. Mizraim, his second son, became king of Egypt, which after his death was divided into three kingdoms by three of his sons; Ananim, who was king of Tanis or Lower Egypt, called afterwards Delta; Naphtulim, who was king of Naph or Memphis in Upper Egypt; and Pathrusim, who set up the kingdom of Pathros or Thebes in Thebais. Ludim and Lehabim peopled Lybia. A. M. 1757, Caslubim fixed himself at Cashiotis, in the entrance of Egypt from Palestine; and having two sons, Philistim and Caphterim, the latter he left to succeed him at Cashiotis, and the former planted the country of the A. M. 1787, Philistines, between the borders of Canaan and the Mediterranean Sea. The sons of Canaan were Sidon, the father of the Sidonians, who lived in Phœnicia; Heth, A. M. 1819, the father of the Hittites, who lived near Hebron; Emor, the father of the Amorites, who lived in the mountains of Judea; and Arvad, the father of the Arvadites, not far A. M. 1849, from Sidon: but whether the other sons of Canaan settled in this country cannot be determined with any certainty and exactness; only we must take care to place A. M. 1878, them somewhere between Sidon and Gerar, and Admah and Zeboim; for these were the boundaries of their land. 1 Upon the whole, then, we may observe, that the posterity of Japheth came into the possession, not only of all Europe, but of a considerable portion of Asia; 1 for two of his sons, Tiras and Javan, together with their descendants, had all those countries which from the Mediterranean Sea, reach as far as Scandinavia northward; and his other sons, from the Mediterranean extending themselves eastward over almost all Asia Minor, and part of Armenia, over Media, Iberia, Albania, and those vast regions towards the north, where for 1 Heidegger's Hist. Patriar. vol. 1. Essay 22. Sect. 1. or 2919. or 3049. or 3128. A. M. 1948, Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he had a son named Arphaxad; after which time he lived 500 years; so that the whole of his life was 600. Arphaxad, when 35 (135),a had a son named Salah, after which he lived 403 (303); in all 438. Salah, when 30 (130), had a son named Eber (from whom his descendants were called Hebrews), after which he lived 403 (303) years; in all, 433. Eber, when 34 (134), had a son named Peleg, in whose time (as we said) the earth came to be divided; after which he lived 430 (330) years; in all, 464. Peleg, when 30 (130), had a son named Reu, after which he lived 209 (109), years; in all, 239. Reu, when 32 (132), had a son named Serug; after which he lived 207 (107) years; in all 239. Serug, when 30 (130), had a son named Nahor, after which he lived 200 (100) years; in all 230. son named Nahor, when 29 (79), had a Terah; after which he lived 119 (69) years; in all 148. But of all these persons, it must be remarked, that they had several other children of both sexes, though not recorded in this history. Terah, when 70 (130), had three sons, one after another, Abram, Nahor, and Haran; whereof Haran, the eldest, died, before his father, in his native country of Ur, leaving behind him one son, whose name was Lot, and two daughters, 2 Heidegger's Hist. Patriar. vol. 1. Essay 22. Sect. 2. a All the dates within () are taken from Dr Hales's Analysis. CHAP. II.-Difficulties Obviated, and Objections A M. 1997. A. C. 2007; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3318. A. C. 2093. GEN. Ch. x.; AND CH. xi. VER. 10. TO THE END. whereof the elder, namely, Milcah, was married to her uncle Nahor, and the younger, a whose name was Sarai, was married to her uncle Abram; but at this time she was barren, and had no children. 2 1 Answered. It may seem not a little strange to some, perhaps, why The corruption of mankind was now become general, Moses, in his account of the times, both preceding and and idolatry and polytheism began to spread like a con- subsequent to the flood, should be so particular in setting tagion; 6 the people of Ur in particular, as is supposed down the genealogies of the patriarchs; but he who by the signification of the name, worshipped the element considers that this was the common method of recording of fire, which was always thought a proper symbol of the history in those days, will soon perceive that he had sun, that universal god of the east. Terah, the father reason sufficient for what he did, namely, to give content of Abram, was certainly a companion (some say a and satisfaction to the age wherein he wrote. We priest) of those who adored such strange gods; nor was indeed, according to the present taste, think these Abram himself (as it is generally imagined) uninfected.genealogies but heavy reading; nor are we at all conBut God being minded to select this family out of the rest of mankind, and in them to establish his church, ordered Terah to leave the place of his habitation, which was then corrupted in this manner; which accordingly he did, and taking with him his son Abram and his wife, together with his grandson Lot, left Ur, with an intent to go into Canaan, but in his journey fell sick at Haran (which Stephen calls Charran) a city of Mesopotamia, where being forced to make his abode for some time, d in the 145th (205th) year of his age he died. 'See Calmet's Dictionary on the word Ur. It is very probable that Sarai was called Iscah, before she left Ur; because, in the 29th verse, we read that Harau had a daughter of that name; and yet we cannot suppose but that, had she been a distinct person, Moses would have given us an account of her descent, because it so much concerned his nation to know from whom they came both by the father and mother's side.Patrick's Commentary. The city of Ur was in Chaldea, as the Scripture assures us in more places than one; but still its true situation is not so well known. For some think it to be the same as Camarina in Babylonia; others confound it with Orcha, or Orche in Chaldea; while others again take it for Ura or Sura, upon the banks of the tiver Euphrates. Bochart and Grotius maintain that it is Ura, in the eastern part of Mesopotamia, which was sometimes (as it apears from Acts vii, 2, 4.) included under the name Chaltea; and this situation seems the more probable, not only because it agrees with the words of St Stephen in the above-cited place, but with the writings of Ammianus Marcellinus likewise, who himself travelled this country, and mentions a city of this name, in the place where Bochart supposes it, about two days' journey from Nisibis.-Wells' Geography, vol. 1. Haran, which is likewise called Charan, according to the Hebrew, and Charran, according to the Greek pronunciation, was a city situated in the west or north-west part of Mesopotamia, on a river of the same name, which very probably runs into the river Chaboras, as that does into the Euphrates. It is taken hotice of by Latin writers, on account of the great overthrow which the Parthians gave the Roman army under the command of Crassus, and, as some think, had its name given by Terah, in memory of Haran, his deceased son. But others think it is much better derived from the word Hharar, which denotes its soil to be hot and adust, as it appears to be from a passage out of Plutarch, in the life of Crassus, and several other ancient testimonies.-See Calmet's Dictionary, Wells' Geography, and Le Cere's Commentary in locum. cerned who begat whom, in a period that stands at so distant a prospect; but the people, for whom Moses wrote, had the things either before their eyes, or recent in their memories. They saw a great variety of nations around them, different in their manners and customs, as well as their denominations. The names whereby they were then called, were not to them so antique and obsolete as they are to us. They knew their meaning, and were acquainted with their derivation. And therefore it was no small pleasure to them to observe, as they read along, the gradual increase of mankind; how the stem of Noah spread itself into branches almost innumerable, and how, from such and such a progenitor, such and such a nation, whose history and adventures they were no strangers to, did arise. Nor can it be less than some satisfaction to us, even at this mighty distance, to perceive, that, after so many ages, the change of languages, and the alteration of names, brought in by variety of conquests, we are still able to trace the footsteps of the names recorded by Moses; by the help of these can discover those ancient nations which descended from them, and with a little care and application, the particular regions which they once inhabited; whereof the best heathen geographers, without the assistance of these sacred records, were never in a capacity so much as to give us a tolerable guess. But there is a farther reason for our historian's writing in this manner. God had promised to Adam, and, in him, to all his posterity, a restoration in the person of the Messiah. 3 This promise was renewed to Noah, and afterwards confirmed to Abraham, the great founder of 3 See Bishop Sherlock's Use and Intent of Prophecy. years only; whereas the account in Genesis is, that he lived 205. This therefore must certainly proceed from a fault crept into the text of Moses; because of the 205 years which are given to Terah, when he died at Haran, he only lived 145, according to the Samaritan version, and the Samaritan chronicle, which, without doubt, do agree with the Hebrew copy, from which they were translated.-An Essay for a New Translation. But, as Dr Hales justly remarks, the chronology of this period has been considerably embarrassed by the vulgar error that Abraham was the eldest of Terah's sons, because he is first named. The cond St Stephen (in Acts vii. 4.) tells us, that after the death of sequence of this has been, that the date of his birth is usually his father, Abraham removed from Haran, or, as he calls it Char-assigned to the seventieth year of Terah, because it is said that ran, to the land of Canaan. In Gen. xii. 4. we are told that Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Harau. Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed out of "But this is the date of the birth of Haran, who was undoubtedly Charran.' In Gen. xi. 26. it is said that Terah was 'seventy the eldest son; because his daughters, Milcah and Iscah (the years old when he begat Abraham;' and yet, in verse 32. of the latter surnamed Sarai and Sarah) were married to their uncles, same chapter, it is affirmed, that he died, being two hundred Nahor and Abram respectively; and Sarah was only ten years and five years old.' But at this rate Terah must have lived 60 younger than her husband, Gen. xvii. 17.; Abram was probably years after Abraham's going from Haran: for 75 (the number of the youngest son, born by a second wife, Gen. xx. 12, when Abraham's years when he left Haran) being added to 70, the Teral was 130 years old, Gen. xi. 32; xii. 4.”—Analysis, &c. Bumber of Terah's years when he begat Abraham, make 145 vol. 2. p. 107, second edition.—ED. 46 A. M. 1997. A. C. 2007; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3318. A. C. 2093. GEN. CH. x. AND CH. xi. VER. 10. TO THE END. the Jewish nation. Fit therefore it was, in this regard, manner, when he comes to the life of Isaac, Jacob's was that he should record exact genealogies, and that all the next line wherein his history was to run, and thereother sacred historians should successively do the same: fore he contents himself with giving us a catalogue of nor can we sufficiently admire the divine wisdom, in some of Esau's race, but such of them only as were in settling such a method, in the beginning of the world, by after-ages the dukes of Edom, according to their Moses, and carrying it on by the prophets, as might be habitations in the land of their possession,' as he expresof general use, as long as the world should last. For, ses it. Unless, therefore, we would desire it in an as the expectation of the Messiah put the Jews upon author, that he should be luxuriant and run wild, we keeping an exact account of all their genealogies; so, cannot, with any colour of reason, blame the divine when Christ came into the world, it was evident, beyond historian for stopping short upon proper occasions; for dispute, that he was of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe had he pursued all the families descended from Noah of Judah, and of the lineage of David, according to the into their several plantations, and there given us the promises, which had, from time to time, been recorded history of all their various adventures, the world, we of him. may almost say, would not have contained the books which he must have written. It is well worth our observation, however, that, in the catalogue which Moses gives us of the descendants of Noah, he makes mention of no more than sixteen sons of the three brothers, or principal founders of so many original nations; nor of any more than seven of these sixteen, of whom it is recorded that they had any children; and even of these seven, there is one (we may observe) whose children are not numbered. But it is not to be imagined, that in two or three hundred years, upon a moderate calculation, or even but in one hundred years, at the lowest account, Noah should have had no more than sixteen grandsons, and that, of these too, the majority should go childless to the grave; it is much more likely, or rather self-evident that the nine grandsons, of whom we find nothing in Scripture, were nevertheless fathers of nations, as well as any of the rest, and not only of original nations called after their names, but of lesser and subordinate tribes, called after their sons' names; and (what makes the amount to seem much less) there is reason to suppose, that how many soever the grandchildren of Noah were, we have, in this tenth chapter of Genesis, the names of those only who were patriarchs of great nations, and only of such nations as were in the days of Moses known to the Hebrews. For, if we read it attentively, we shall perceive, *that the design of the holy penman, is not to present us with an exact enumeration of all Noah's descendants, (which would have been infinite) no, nor to determine who were the leading men above all the rest; but only to give us a catalogue, or general account of the names of some certain persons, descended of each of Noah's children, who became famous in their generations; and so pass them by, as having not space enough in his history to pursue them more minutely. For we may observe, that the constant practice of our author (as it is indeed of all other good authors) is to cut things short that do not properly relate to his purpose; and when he is hastening to his main point, to mention cursorily such persons as were remarkable (though not the subject he is to handle) in the times whereof he treats. 3 Thus, in the entrance of his history, his business was to attend to the line of Seth, and therefore, when he comes to mention the opposite family of Cain, he only reckons up eight of them, and these the rather because they were the real inventors of some particular arts, which the Egyptians vainly laid claim to. And, in like 1 Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1., Occasional Annotations, 17. 2 Shuckford's Connection, b. 3. * Gen. iv. What grounds there may be for the supposition I cannot tell; but to me there seems to be no reason why we should be obliged to maintain, that all the parts of the habitable world were peopled at once, immediately after the confusion of languages. The historian, indeed, speaking of the persons he had just enumerated, gives us to know, that by these were the nations divided after the flood;' but how long after the flood he does not intimate: so that there is no occasion to understand the words, as though he meant, that, either by these only, or by these immediately, or by these all at once, was the earth replenished; but only, that among others (unmentioned because not so well known to the Jews) there were so many persons of figure descended from the sons of Noah, who, some at one time, and some at another, became heads of nations, and had, by their descendants, countries called after their names; so that by them the nations were divided, that is, people were broken into different nations on the earth, not all at once, or immediately upon the confusion, but at several times, as their families increased and separated after the flood. For, considering that the number of mankind was then comparatively small, and the distance of countries, from the place of their dispersion, immensely wide; it is more reasonable to think that these several plantations were made at different times and by a gradual progression. Moses indeed informs us, that the earth was portioned out among the children of Noah after their tongues: supposing, then, that the number of languages was, according to the number of the heads of nations, sixteen, these sixteen companies issued out of Babel at separate times, and by separate routes, and so took possession of the next adjacent country whereunto they were to go. Here they had not settled long before the daily increase of the people made the bounds of their habitation too narrow; whereupon the succeeding generation, under the conduct of some other leader, leaving the place in possession of such as cared not to move, penetrated farther into the country, and there settling again, and again becoming too numerous, sent forth fresh colonies into the places they found unoccupied; till, by this way of progression on each side, from the centre to every point of the circumference, the whole world came in time to be inhabited in the manner that we now find it. If then the several parts of the globe were, by the sons of A. M. 1997. A. C. 2007; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3318. A. C. 2093. GEN. CH. x. AND CH. xi. VER. 10. TO THE END. Noah, gradually and at sundry times peopled, there | the flood, in which Peleg died, there might rise a suffiwanted not all at once so many; and if several of the cient number (< as appears by the table under the page) sons of Noah, who had their share in peopling the globe, to spread colonies over the face of the whole earth. are not taken notice of by Moses, there might possibly | And, if to these the several collateral descents of Noah's be many more to plant and replenish the earth, than we posterity were taken in; if the children which Noah himare aware of. Let us then see what their number, upon self might possibly have in the 350 years he lived after a moderate computation, might at this time be supposed the flood; which Shem and his two brothers might have to be. in the last 160; which Salah and his contemporaries might have in the last 160; and which Heber and his contemporaries might have in the last 191 years of their lives, which are not reckoned in the account, together with the many more grandsons of Noah and their progeny, which in all probability (as we observed before) are not so much as mentioned in it; it is not to be imagined how much these additions will swell the number of mankind to a prodigious amount above the ordinary calculation. To this purpose we are to remember, that we are not to make our computation according to the present standard of human life, which, a since the time of the flood, is vastly abbreviated; that the strength of constitution, necessary to the procreation of children, which, by a continued course of temperance and simplicity of diet, then prevailed, is now, by an induction of all manner of riot and excess, sadly impaired; and that the divine benediction which, in a particular manner, was then poured out upon the children of Noah, could not but prove effectual to the more than ordinary multiplication of mankind; so that length of days, assisted by the blessing of God, and attended with a confirmed state of bealth, could not but make a manifestly great difference between their case and ours. Bishop Cumberland's Origines Gentium, Tract. 4, and Miar's Church History, ch. 1. part 2. In the Mosaic history we find by what degrees the long lives which preceded the flood were after it shortened. The fost three generations recorded in Scripture after the deluge, Arphaxad, Salah, and Heber, lived above 130 years; yet not so ng as their ancestor Shem, who, being born 100 years before the flood, lived above 500 after it. The three next generations, Perg, Reu, and Serug, lived not much above 230 years; and them their time, only Terah lived about 200. All the others aber him were below that number. Moses came not to be above 120); and, in his days, he complains, that the age of man was artened to about seventy or eighty years; and near this stanGard it has continued ever since.-Millar's Church History, p. 35. Petavius (de Doct. Temp. b. ix. c. 14.) supposes that the posterity of Noah might beget children at seventeen; and that ach of Noah's sons might have eight children in eight years after the flood; and that every one of these eight might beget eight are: by this means in one family (as in that of Japheth, 238 years after the flood) he makes a diagram, consisting of almost an innumerable company of men. Temperarius, (as the learned Usher in his Chron. Sacra, ch. 5. tells us,) supposes that all the sterity of Noah, when they attained twenty years of age, had ery year twins; and hereupon he undertakes to make it appear, that in 102 years after the flood, there would be in all 1,534,400; it, without this supposition of twins, there would, in that time, te 38,605 males, besides females. Others suppose, that each of the sons of Noah had ten sons, and, by that proportion, in a few nerations, the amount will rise to many thousands within a etery And others again insist on the parallel between the multiplication of the children of Israel in Egypt, and thereupon pute, that, if from seventy-two men, in the space of 215 years, there were procreated 600,000, how many will be born of three ren in the space of 100 years? But what method soever we tase to come to a probable conjecture, we still have cause to believe, that there was a more than ordinary multiplication in the posterity of Noah after the flood.-Stillingfleet's Origines Sacræ, biii e. 4. 4 3 But allowing the number at this time to be not near so large as even the common computation makes it; yet we are to remember that, at the first planting of any country, an handful of men as it were took up a large tract of ground. 2 At their first division they were scattered into smaller bodies, and seated themselves at a considerable distance from one another, the better to prevent the increase of the beasts of the field upon them.' These small companies had each of them one governor, who, in Edom, seems to be called a duke, and in Canaan, a king, whereof there were no less in that small country than one and thirty at one time: but of what power or military force these several princes were, we may learn from this one passage in Abraham's life, namely, that when Chedorlaomer, in conjunction with three other kings, had defeated the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, with three kings more that came to their assistance, plundered their country, and taken away Lot and his family, who at this time sojourned in these parts; Abraham, with no more than 318 of his own domestics, pursues the conquerors, engages them, beats them, and, together with his nephew Lot, and all his substance, recovers the spoil of the country which these confederate kings were carrying away. A plain proof this, one would think, that this multitude of kings which were now in the world were titular, rather than real; and that they had none of them any great number of subjects under their command. For though Canaan was certainly a very fruitful land, and may therefore be presumed to be better stored with inhabitants than any of its neighbouring provinces; yet we find that when Abraham and Lot first came into it, though they had flocks and herds, and tents, that the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together;' yet, as soon as they were 64 A. M. 1997. A. C. 2007; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3318. A. C. 2093. GEN. CH. x. AND CH. xi. VER. 10. TO THE END. separated, they found no difficulty to settle in any part thereof, with the rest of its inhabitants. 56 and as the Scripture expresses it, stirred up the spirit of Pul, and the spirit of Tiglathpilneser, king of Assyria, And in like manner we may observe, that, whatever noise has been made in the world with the astronomical observations of the Chaldeans, which Aristotle is said to have sent into Greece, and which Alexander is thought to have taken at Babylon, the whole is a mere fiction and romance. There is nothing extant (as a very good judge of ancient and modern learning tells us) in the Chaldaic astrology of older date than the era of Nabonassar, which begins but 747 years before Christ. By this era the Chaldeans computed their astronomical observations, the first of which falls about the 27th year of Nabonassar, and all that we have of them are only seven eclipses of the moon, and even these but very coarsely set down, and the oldest not above 700 years before Christ. And, to make short of the matter, the same author informs us farther, that the Greeks were the first practical astronomers who endeavoured in earnest to make themselves masters of the sciences; that Thales was the first who could predict an eclipse in Greece, not 600 years, and that Hipparchus made the first catalogue of the fixed stars not above 650 years before Christ." How great soever the growth of the Assyrian monarchy became at last, yet we have too little certainty of the time when it began, ever to question, upon that account, the truth of the population of the world by the sons of Noah. Ninus, whom profane history generally accounts the first founder of it, is placed,' by one of our greatest chronologers, in the 2737th year of the world, according to the Hebrew computation; so that, living in the time of the Judges, he is supposed to have been contemporary with Deborah, but 2 others think this is a date much too early. Nimrod, we must allow, founded a kingdom at Babylon, and perhaps extended it into Assyria, but this kingdom was but of small extent, if compared with the empires which arose afterwards; and yet, had it been ever so much greater, it could not have been of any long continuance, because the custom in those early days was for the father to divide his territories among his sons. After the days of Nimrod, we hear no more in the Sacred Records of the Assyrian empire till about the year 3234, when we find Pul invading the territories of Israel, and making Menahem tributary to him. It is granted indeed, that the four kings who, in the days of What the history of the Chaldeans and Egyptians, and Abraham invaded the southern coast of Canaan, came their boasted antiquity is, we have had occasion to take from the countries where Nimrod had reigned, and per-notice elsewhere, and need only here to add, that, haps were some of his posterity who had shared his conquests; but of what small significance such kings as these were, we are just now come fron relating. Sesac and Memnon, two kings of Egypt, were great conquerors, and reigned over Chaldea, Assyria, and Persia; and yet in all their histories there is not one word of any opposition they received from the Assyrian monarchy then standing and though Nineveh in the time of Joash king of Israel, was become a large city, yet it had not yet acquired that strength, as not to be afraid (according to the preaching of Jonah) of being invaded by its neighbours, and destroyed within forty days. Not long before this, it had freed itself indeed from the dominion of Egypt, and had got a king of its own, but what is very remarkable, its king was not as yet called the king of Assyria, but only the king of Nineveh; nor was his proclamation for a fast published in several nations, no nor in all Assyria, but only in Nineveh, and perhaps the villages adjacent; whereas, when once they had established their dominion at home, secured all Assyria properly so called, and began now to make war upon their neighbouring nations, their kings were no longer called the kings of Nineveh, but began to assume the title of the kings of Assyria. These, and several more instances which the author I have just now cited has produced, are sufficient arguments to prove that the Assyrians were not the great people some have imagined in the early times of the world; and that if they made any figure in Nimrod's days, it was all extinguished in the reigns of his successor, and never revived until God, for the punishment of the wickedness of his own people, was pleased to raise them from obscurity, Usher's Annot. Vet. Test. A. M. 2737. 8 bating that strange affectation wherein they both agree, of being thought so many thousand years older than they have any authentic testimonies to produce, there is a manifest analogy between Scripture history and what Berosus has told us of the one, and Manetho of the other. Referring therefore to what has been already said of them, we have only to observe, that the genealogy which the Chinese-another people pretending to high antiquity-give us of the family of their first man, Puoncuus, seems to carry a near resemblance to Moses' patriarchal genealogies; Thienhoang, their second king's civilizing the world, answers very well to Seth's settling the principles and reforming the lives of men; and Fohi's fourth successor, whom they accuse of destroying their ancient religion and introducing idolatry, is plainly copied from the history of Nimrod, who was probably the first establisher of idol worship. So that from these, and some other particulars in their history, we may be allowed to conclude that the ancient Chinese (as all other nations did) agreed in the main with Moses in their antiquities; and that the true reason of their chronological difference is, that the reigns of the Chinese kings (in the very same manner as the Egyptian dynasties) were not successive, but of several contemporary princes, who at one and the same time had dif ferent and distinct dominions. 3 1 Chron. v. 26. 9 Wotton's Reflections, ch. xxiii. a The most ancient astronomical observations known to us are Chinese, next to them are the Chaldeans or Hindoos, both of whom had made considerable progress in astronomy at a very early period; to them succeed the Egyptians, who in placing their pyramids exactly facing the four cardinal points of the coinpass and, by the zodiacs discovered in Egypt, are proved to have 2 Stillingfleet's Origines Sacræ, b. iii. c. 4. and Sir Isaac New-made considerable progress in the science; and, after the Egyp ton's Chronology. Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology, ch. 3. Jonah iii. tians, came the Greeks, who certainly made greater progress in the science than any of their predecessors.- ED. |