Year of the world I 130 Died in the Adam created; he lived 930 years, to the 56th year of Lamech, the father of Noah. 126th year before the birth of Noah. Seth born; he lived 912 years; died in the year of the world 1042: 112 years after the death of Adam, and 14 years before the birth of Noah.. 235 Enos born; lived 905 years; died in the 1140th year of the world; lived, or was cotemporary, with Noah 84 years. year 325 Cainan born; lived 910 years; died in the of the world 1335. 395 Mahalaleel born; lived 895 years; died in the 366th year before the flood; when Noah was 234 years old. 460 Jared born; lived 962 years; died in the year of the world 1422; was cotemporary with Noah 266 years. 687 Methufalem born; he lived 969 years; died in the very year of the flood. 874 Lamech born, the father of Noah; lived 777 years, and died five years before the flood. 930 Adam died, when Lamech was 56 years old. 987 Enoch was translated alive to heaven 57 years after the death of Adam, when all the reft of the fathers, or patriarchs, were yet alive, and perhaps were eyewitneffes of his translation. 1042 Seth dies in the 55th year after Enoch's translation, Year of the word 1056 Noah born; in the 182d year of his father Lamech; in the 126th year of the death of Adam 14 years after the death of Seth: he lived 950 years, to the 58th year of Abraham's age; therefore he lived with Enos 84 years; with Cainan, 179; with Mathufalem, 600; with Lamech, 595 with his fon, Shem, 448; and with all the patriarchs after the flood, to the 58th year of Abraham. 1558 Shem, the son of Noah, born, 98 years before the deluge; lived with his father 448 years, and these patriachs after the flood: with Abraham, as long as he lived; with Ifaac, 110 years; with Jacob, 50; and died in the year of the world 2158, 35 years after the death of Abraham. 1656 The deluge overwhelmed the whole earth, when Noah was 600 years old. IN confidering this table, and the correfpondence that must have been kept up from Adam to Noah, furely it must be allowed, that none of this happy family was ignorant of the true theogony; nor of the providential dispenfation, under which they were at all times protected, in the midst of the general defection of the reft of the world. And, indeed, it feems to me a moft wonderful mark of the DIVINE favour to this pious family, that none of them lived to be fubject to that great calamity, the deluge; for, all the righteous went to the grave, in peace, before it happened; and even Methufalem, who lived 969 years, finished his days in the very year of the flood. WHO WHO can be acquainted with this dispensation, and not be amazed at the goodness of the ALMIGHTY, especially, too, as he was pleased to preserve the only remaining people of the family, Noah and his children, to propagate a new race. LET us now examine why it could be thought, that so many centuries should have paffed, after the deluge of Noah, without the use of letters in the world: the following fentiments may perhaps have fome weight, in this enquiry; and it is matter of no small confequence, to throw fome light upon a subject of so much importance. We find, that even the moft ancient Greek authors had very little, if any, notion at all of Holy Writ, and scarce any remembrance of the ancient ftate of their own nation. The facred records were preserved in the families of Japhet and Shem, I mean the knowledge and worship of the TRUE GOD, and the deeds of their ancestors, which, as I amply proved before, they had men among them, whofe only business it was to preserve and take care of. Whereas, the iffue of Ham had all along forfaken the GOD of heaven and earth, and run into the same idolatrous worship, which the antediluvian inhabitants were guilty of. This was propagated, even to the deifying their parents, and one another; and by these means, and the great power given to their priests, all knowledge of their origin became obliterated, and buried in fabulous mythology; infomuch, that those authors mentioned have obfcured what little may be gathered from them, under new names, and dressed them up into heathen deities, treating of them in the most fabulous manner. These were followed by all the modern authors, who, if they Aaa 2 they quote Herodotus, and the rest of them, seem.content with their authorities. But, if we confider, thefe began to write long after the face of things was quite altered in Greece, which then had scarce any of the ancient Pelafgians left among them in maritime places, and whofe inhabitants confifted of Phoenicians and Egyptians, and now were quite another people; we need not wonder they should talk of the invention of letters by Cadmus, or their fuppofing the first people of countries fprung out of the earth, when they had no light to lead them to the true knowledge of the origin of mankind from the hand of the CREATOR. I WOULD also ask another question: why do the greatest part of our moft modern writers, of all the academical feminaries of Europe, when they are employed in fuch researches as these, rest contented with only what is delivered by the Greek authors mentioned, in the fame manner with their immediate predeceffors? Certainly the answer is very obvious, and it probably may be thus accounted for the education of the youth of all Europe, confifts in the study of the Greek and Latin claffics; and when they come to the higher links of this chain of learning, and are well versed in these two languages, the ne plus presents itfelf; and their future researches and lucubrations foar no higher, in matters like these which are my present business. But, not quite contented with my informations from them, I had recourfe to Holy Writ, and to the Irish records, and there found fufficient matter to carry me many links higher, to a fummit which produced me better prospects and clearer views of what I fought after, whereby, I flatter my felf, myself, I have with some success opened several paths which have not been trodden before; making the facred writings a principal part of my ftudy in matters of high antiquity, which most commonly are only looked into for the purposes of religion; as if they had no tendency to any other historical lights whatsoever: but they have fully answered my expectations, and confirmed the ancient Irish records. we BUT, however that may be, it will be to our purpose to confider the wonderful agreement between the German and Perfian languages; fomething of which has been mentioned in a former chapter, and will properly be further taken notice of here. Salmatius, as quoted by Henfelius, in the forty-ninth epistle of his first book, says: "have here a moft learned German, a Silefian, who is a "doctor of phyfic, and an able chemift, and who is well "-versed in the Oriental languages, especially in the Arabic “and Perfian, whose name is Elichman; this person has "found fo great an agreement between the Perfian and "German languages, that he does not doubt the Scythian language being the mother of all the dialects of Europe, "and of a great part of the East; he has collected above "four hundred Perfian words, which are intirely German; "and has obferved alfo a great refemblance in the gram"matical terminations of the verbs of both; which, with "the analogy of their words and syntax, makes us judge, "that they have the fame origin, which is the Scythian. "These people formerly over-ran all Europe, and made "incurfions even to the river Indus, and made their name "famous in all the neighbouring parts of that river. The Perfians |