Monaftery of the ark formerly there. Second tradition a bout Mount Ararat. Called Mafis by the Armenians. we are told, the emperor Heraclius went from the town of Thamanin up the mountain Al Judi, and faw the place of the ark. This town of Thamanin is, or was, fituate at the foot of the mountain Al Judi; the name fignifies eighty, in memory of the eighty perfons who, according to a Mohammedan tradition, were faved in the ark; though the Chriftian writers among the Arabs, who fay this city was built by Noah and his fons, near Forda, and fuppofe it was fo called because they were eight 2. There was formerly a famous monaftery, called The Monastery of the Ark, upon the Cardu mountains, where the Neftorians ufed to celebrate a feftival on the spot where they supposed the ark refted; but in the year of Christ 776, that monaftery was deftroyed by lightning; fince which time, probably, the credit of this tradition has declined, and given place to another which at present obtains. The fecond opinion, therefore, places Mount Ararat towards the middle of Armenia, near the river Araxes, or Aras, above two hundred and eighty miles distant from Al Judi, to the north-east. Jerom feems to be the first who hath given an account of this tradition: "Ararat, fays that father, is a champaign country, incredibly fertile, through which the Araxes flows, at the foot of Mount Taurus, which extends fo far." Wherefore, by the mountains of Ararat, whereon the ark refted, are not to be understood the mountains of Armenia in general, but the highest mountains of Taurus, which overlook the plains of Ararat. Thefe, probably, are the plains mentioned before, which gave name to the country. An author of the middle age obferves, that near the city of Naxuhan (Naxh-chuvan) are the mountains on which the ark rested, the Araxes running at the foot of them; and fince that time, all the travellers into those parts mention these as the real mountain of Ararat. But the Armenians are convinced that this is the very mountain on which the ark refted; they call it Mafis, and derive the name from Amafia, the third fucceffor of Haikh, the founder of their nation. The Turks named it Agridagh, that is, the heavy or great mountain, and Parmack-daghi, or the mountain of the finger, in allufion to its z Vide Berofus apud Jofeph. Antiq. lib. i. cap. 4. Eufeb. Chron Græc. & Præp. Evan. lib. ix. cap. 4. Hift. Arab. lib. i. cap. 1. D'Herbelot, p. 677. Abyden. apud appear appearance: it ftands about twelve leagues to the east (or rather fouth-east) of Erivan, and of Ejmiadzin, or the three churches (from which laft it is two short days journey), four leagues from the Aras, and ten to the north-west of Naxh-chuvan. Sir Walter Raleigh refts the ark, not upon the mountains of Armenia, but on fome of those between Perfia, Tartary, and India: he takes the mountains of Ararat in a more extended fenfe than either the ancient traditions or Scripture will allow : he supposes the mountains of Caucafus, towards Bactria and Scythia, to be part of a branch of Taurus, which, in its way through Afia, croffed Armenia. All that has been faid by all the writers who have treated on this fubject, amounts to no more than frivolous conjecture, unfupported by fact, or philosophy. Mount Mount Mafis is encompaffed by feveral petty hills, on the Defcriptops of which are found many ruins, faid to have been tion of the buildings of the first men, who feared, for a time, Mafis. to defcend into the plains. It ftands by itself, in form of a fugar-loaf, in the midst of a very extenfive_plain, detached from the other mountains of Armenia. It confifts of two hills; the leffer is the more fharp and pointed; the higher, which is that of the ark, lies north-west of it, and raises its head far above the neighbouring mountains. When the air is clear, it does not appear to be above two leagues from Erivan, and may be seen four or five days journey off. Yet travellers agree that the the height of it is not extraordinary: one thinks, he hath paffed a part of Caucafus, which was higher; and another fays, it is not above twice as high as Mount Valerian, near Paris: they therefore impute its being visible fo far off, to its lonely fituation, in a vaft plain, and upon the most elevated part of the country. The Armenian monks tell a thousand idle ftories concerning the ark, the whole, or a part of which, they pretend, is ftill to be feen on the top of the mountain ; though at the fame time they affirm, that no man ever reached the fpot: they pretend that those who have attempted to afcend the hill out of zeal, or otherwife, have been punished, or at leaft brought back again by angels at night, to the place they set out from in the day, to prevent their approaching that veffel; this was the cafe with a monk of Ejmiadzin, afterwards bishop of Nifbin, called James; though God at length fo far complied with his defires, as to fend an angel to him with a piece of the ark, who bid him, at the fame time, not fatigue himself in Fables of the Arme cerning it. vainly endeavouring to afcend the mountain; for that God had prohibited the access to the top of it, and would not suffer men to pull in pieces a veffel which had faved so many creatures. But if they are asked, whether they have any relics of the ark, they gravely anfwer, that it ftill lies buried in the vast heaps of fnow; which, indeed, is the charm that hinders the afcent, and is fufficient to defend the ark without the help of an angel. Yet a certain miffionary conceits, that the earthly Paradise ftill remains in fome agreeable plain of this mountain, which God preferves from heat and cold, and where the prophets Enoch and Elías enjoy a thoufand delights. The Armenian patriarch informed Tournefort, that God had favoured one faint with the fight of the ark itfelf. And Rubruquis was affured by a bifhop, that the before mentioned piece of the ark (brought to James) was in their church; and the Copts fhew part of a beam of that veffel in theirs at Old Cairo in Egypt: what credit ought to be given to these venerable teftimonies, appears from the account Tournefort has left us of his attempt to climb this mountain, in which having spent a whole day with infinite fatigue, he was obliged, by the fnow and in tenfe cold, to return without accomplishing his defign, though it was then in the middle of fummer. The fituation of Ararat, whether it be Mount Mafis, or the mountain of Cardu, is very convenient for the journey of the fons of Noah from thence to Shinaar, the diftance not being very great, and the defcent easy, efpecially from the latter, into the plains of Mefopotamia, of which Shinaar is a part. We discover plainly, through the Mosaic history, a neighbourhood between the land of Eden, where man was created; that of Ararat, where the remains of mankind were faved; and that of Shinaar, where they fixed the centre of their plantations ". a Vid. Rubruquis de Tartaris, cap. xlviii. Tournefort's Voyages, lett. vii. Tavernier's Voyage, p. 181. Poulet Nouv. Relat. du Levant, part. i. chap. 10. Chardin Voy. en Perfe, tom. i. p. 157、 Shuckford's Connect. vol. i. p. 98. CHAP. CHA P. II. From the Deluge to the Birth of Abraham. SECT. I. The Chronology from the Deluge to the Departure of BE EFORE we proceed to the poftdiluvian hiftory, we fhall fettle the chronology of this first period of it, which, as well as that of the preceding, can be adjusted only from the records of Mofes. For the planting of the world, the forming of focieties and governments, the rife of arts and fciences, and the beginning of states and monarchies, falling within this province, nothing could have been more ferviceable to history, than a fixed and uniform chronology of these early ages; whereas authors, divided in their opinions about the authenticity of the feveral copies, have every one chosen to follow that which agreed beft with his own notions or hypothefis; whereby they have fo perplexed and confounded all tranfactions, both facred and profane, which fall within this period, that the hiftory thereof can be compared to nothing but the original chaos. After the birth of Abraham, indeed, we enter upon a more certain series of time, about which chronologers are more generally agreed; the variety of the feveral copies making a difference of but a few years, not several ages, as we find the difference arifes to in this period; for the better exhibiting of which, we have inferted the following tables, adjufted in the fame form with thofe we have given of the antediluvian patriarchs. ATA 77 ATABLE of the Years of the Poft diluvian Patriarchs, to the birth of Abraham. 2 O Their ages at their fons birth. Heb. Shem, aft. the flood 2 2 135 135 Cainan, O Salah, 30 130 130 130 Eber, 34 134 134 Fhaleg, 130 Jof. Sam. Sept. | Heb. Sam. Sept. 30 130 352 892 1002 1132 A Chronological TABLE of the Years of the Poftdiluvian Patri |