government and wars of these nations, which the Celts were in poffeffion of, and never attempting to rife higher than the time of Abraham, or thereabouts: yet however fhort Mofes may have been in his antidiluvian, as well as. his postdiluvian, account of the inhabitants of the world, he has fufficiently fulfilled the great purpose for which the DIVINE SPIRIT inspired him to write; which was to preserve, and hand down to thinking men, thofe genealogies of perfons who lived both before and after the flood, till he fell upon Abraham, and began the extenfion of that chain of perfons and transactions which in due time terminated in the birth of the SAVIOUR of the world, which was the whole scope of what he had to do.

Ir is between the deluge and the birth of Abraham, that I think I have found a very probable foundation whereon to form fuch conjectures as will, I hope, fall in, without forcing the matter, in a manner not altogether unnatural, in tracing what relates to the origin of the Celtic language: without taking much notice of the Hebrew, that might be thought either coæval, or more ancient than this; nor is there the leaft occafion for it, because indeed it will appear, in the sequel, that the thread of what I shall offer, feems to be unconnected with any other.

WE find that Noah was five hundred years old when he begat his fons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet; and that when the flood came upon the earth, he was one hundred year older; therefore these fons were about that age in their degrees. Now these men must have been verfed in all the knowledge and arts that were practised in the antidiluvian

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luvian world, as well as in the geography of the states and kingdoms round about them, and though we have no accounts of any particulars relative to these and such like matters, yet we cannot but believe that the family of Noah was very confiderable and refpectable among mankind; and we find his father, Lamech, was favoured with the gift of philofophy; for when Noah was born, he faid: "this fame shall comfort us concerning our work " and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the "Lord hath curfed," which, without the gift of prophecy, he could not foresee fix hundred years before it happened.

By the way, it may not be amiss here to make one remark concerning the ftate of the earth after the waters of the flood were retired; a certain theorist has afferted, that there was a thorough diffolution of all the matter of the earth during the time of the deluge, and he is followed by fome other ingenious authors; which is plainly otherwife, because we find that immediately after the departure of the waters, and the earth became dry, Noah turned husbandman, which, no doubt, he well underftood all his life before, for he planted a vineyard and made wine. Now if there had been any material deftruction upon the face of the earth, there could have been no tillage of any kind; whence it would feem that nothing of the vegetable world was totally destroyed; though no doubt many trees were torn up and carried away, and fettlements of ouze and mud deposited in many places, with marine bodies of various kinds, which naturalifts are well acquainted with. Befides, if we confider that the ark refted upon a mountain, and that after nine months the tops of other

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other mountains were seen, we must not allow of any such diffolution, nor any very great alteration of the face of the earth for if it had been all broken up and blended with the waters, thofe fubfidences, which have been vainly imagined, would have fallen equally all round, by the laws of gravitation, and left an uniform furface, inftead of mountains and plains. Again, the dove that Noah fent out a fecond time, brought in an olive-leaf plucked off of a tree now ftanding.

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BESIDES, if we confider that it was the divine purpose to repeople the earth, we cannot imagine it was so spoiled and destroyed as fome authors affert. It was from the earth the future inhabitants were to be nourished, and therefore it would be inconfiftent with the gracious defign of God to restore mankind, if he had permitted the deftruction of the only means that could be expected to fupport the offspring of Noah; and indeed fuch a conjecture appears the more extraordinary in these ingenious authors, fince the facred text is our charter upon which we must found our notions of thefe remarkable events.

Now if we look into the feventh chapter of Genefis, we fhall find, verfe 17, that the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth; and that the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon the face of the waters; and, ver. 19, that the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that were under the whole heavens were covered; and, verse 20, that fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered.

PERHAPS

PERHAPS the notion of a total deftruction of the earth, with the inhabitants, might proceed from our English translation of the 13th verfe of chapter vi. where it fays: "I will deftroy them with the earth;" but this is by feveral Hebrew interpreters tranflated, from the earth, which is certainly the more rational meaning; because the earth was not ruined, which the above verfes fufficiently prove; for the waters and the earth are well diftinguished, and the highest hills and mountains were covered, &c. How is a folution of all matter, making one amalgama with the waters, compatible with the waters covering the mountains in the above texts?

But to return: God gave his blessing to Noah and his fons, ordering them to increase and multiply upon the face of the earth; and, without all manner of doubt, gave them at the fame time all the requifites to enable them speedily to make fuch increase; as longevity, health, and ftrength, as well as the ufe of all the animal and vegetable worlds for their fuftenance and comfort. ·

THEY then ranged themselves in due order, and a regular government was established among them, in proportion to their increafe; which was prodigious in their numbers, fince, according to the genealogy given of the fors of Shem, we find that after Shem, who was an hundred years old before he begat Arphaxed, and lived five hun dred years after, begetting fons and daughters; his for, Arphaxed, married at the age of thirty-five, and begat his first born; and afterwards all that line, as well as their fons, began to get children at about the age of thirty down to Terah, Abram's father; and even he was but

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seventy when he begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This, without question, was the case with Japhet and Ham, though their genealogies are not fo particularly marked out, for the reasons I mentioned, viz. that Mofes intended only to be punctual in that line to which Abram belonged.

We have no account of any children of Noah before the flood, although he was five hundred years old before he begat the three fons who were to people the world after the flood; and yet it is not presumptuous to imagine he had, fince it may well be supposed, by analogy between him and his ancestors; for his father, Lamech, was but one hundred and eighty-two when he begat him ; and his father, Mathufelah, was but five years older when he was born; Enos alfo was but fixty-five when he begat Mathufelah; and all these, both before, and those long after the flood, lived to great ages, begetting fons and daughters after those children mentioned in Scripture to have been first born.

THE ufe I would make of this observation is, by the bye, to ftrengthen what I had before hinted (as I would omit nothing that I thought of confequence towards elucidating fuch paffages as clearly fhew the consistency and truth of Holy Writ); which is: that although Noah, or any of his forefathers, might have had children in numbers before, who had perhaps run into the enormous vices which brought on the divine wrath for their destruction; yet none were put into genealogical order but those who were to continue the line down to Abram, and no doubt these were all righteous men in succeffion to one another down to Noah, and from him to Abram.

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