"the idolatrous line of Cain, as Mofes did that of Seth, "who were the worshippers of the TRUE GOD.

"WHO the men were whose names are preferved by "Sanchoniatho in the fucceeding generations, we know not; their memory perished with the flood. But in the "twelfth generation from Æon and Protogonus, we find Mifor: and Mifraim is in the fame diftance from Adam "and Eve. Here again we are got within our knowledge. But we have not, in Sanchoniatho, one word about "the deluge. What wonder is it we should not? Sancho"niatho was an idolater; he writes avowedly a defence, or apology, for idolatry. The deluge was a judgment on the idolatrous world, and swept it away. The worshipers of the TRUE GOD gloried in this, and reproached "the heathens with it. No wonder then that they were "defirous to conceal fuch a matter of fhame to themfelves..

"Cronus, who makes the great figure in this hiftory, our "author fuppofes to be Ham; and brings good vouchers "for his opinion from antiquity. Confequently there"fore Ouranus, the father of Cronus, must be Noah. "Ham, among the fons of Noah, was the man of ambi“tion, and the restorer of idolatry after the flood. How

long he lived, we know not: we are affured by Moses, "that his brother Shem lived 502 years after the flood. “ Ham, in all probability, lived long, though perhaps not "fo long as that religious and peaceable man, Shem. "He defired to make his fons great: therefore, befides "Canaan, who peopled Syria, two others of his fons, Cufh and Mifraim, were the founders of two great empires, the Affyrian and the Egyptian. Sanchoniatho reprefents

"represents him as a fort of universal monarch, travelling over the world to plant colonies. He intimates, that "he out-lived Misor, (Mifraim) and fettled the son of Mifor, Thoth, the great Hermes of the Egyptians, in "the kingdom of Egypt. From the records left by this Thoth, Sanchoniatho collected his history, and with him "this fragment ends.

"WHERE Sanchoniatho ends, Eratofthenes begins: the two first kings in his catalogue are Menes and Athothes. "That Menes was the first king of Egypt, and the same

man with Misraim, is, I think, allowed on all hands. “Athothes is plainly the fame name with Thoth. A is arbitrarily prefixed, or omitted. He is called indifferently "Thoth or Athoth, es is only the Greek termination.

"Eratofthenes was the learnedeft man of his time, a na"tive of Cirene, bordering on Egypt, librarian to Ptolo“mæus Euergetes, had greater opportunities and helps, "for searching the Egyptian records than any other man. “The priests of Egypt had ever been in a combination to "relate extravagant and incredible accounts of their kings, thinking thereby to aggrandize their monarchy. Eratofthenes went with a defire to find out the truth. The "names of the first 38 of his catalogue of the kings of "Thebes in Egypt, are preserved; they are a fucceffion for "the space of 1055 years. Nilus, the last king but one “of this list, is supposed to have lived about the time of "Troy. Dicæarchus, a learned hiftorian, cotemporary "with Ariftotle, fays, that from this Nilus, to the begin"ning of the Olympiads, were 436 years.

"THIS account has an air of probability; it places "Menes about 1400 years before the Olympiads, near 200 years after the flood, and it agrees well with the Mofaic hiftory.

“We have, by this means, a series of profane history, "from the first man to the first Olympiad, agreeing with "the Scripture. Sanchoniatho begins his hiftory with "Protogonus (Adam) and brings it down to Thoth, the "fecond king of Egypt. Eratosthenes begins his catalogue "with Menes (Mifor) and Athothes (Thoth) which is "connected with the Olympiads.

"THIS is what I take to be an improvement on the subject; a discovery that has hitherto escaped the inquifitiveness of all other learned men."

THIS quotation, from a man who was well acquainted with the bishop's views and genius, must have great force in confirming the real sense of what that heathen's, Sanchoniatho's, true meaning was; and the fagacious methods he made use of to investigate the matter of his fragment, when he was first struck with the hint, mentioned above, foon broke through the difficulty and obscurity that seemed, at first fight, to veil it.

ONE part of the confideration, that opened the way to his enquiry, was, that because those who were deified in one place, were not owned with the fame honour in all places, and fome of their relations were ftill known, and not deified any where, he thought the difficulty of finding out their gods not altogether infuperable. "Thus, (fays he) in that place from Eupolemus, which I before quoted from Eufebius, Canaan not being any where

deified, his name is left unchanged; and his being owned "the fon of Cronus, leads us to know that Cronus is Ham, "who was his father. And fo Meftraim's, or Mifraim's

Zлcléoσs, being not fo much regarded at Babylon, left "his name unchanged there; which was a key to let me "into this whole hiftory, ftill taking it in conjunction "with divers other things.

“THIS observation, fays he, gives a fatisfactory account why all the deified perfons, we meet with in this hiftory, are found under other names here than in Moses's books:. "Elioun for Lamech, Ouranus for Noah, Cronus for

Ham, Ifiris or Ofiris for Mifraim, Sydyc for Shem, &c. દ yet their natural relations, fathers and children, owned "in this history, are certain marks which determine them

to be the fame perfons: for the fame reason, Protogonus "must be Adam. No other perfon can be the firft man, "and be just ten generations before Noah."

THESE judicious obfervations, by which this great man found fo many interesting truths, were feconded by others, relating to a comparison of what Sanchoniatho delivers concerning the times of certain of his deities, with the line of Shem, which was the particular care of Mofes. He therefore lays it down as a poftulate for his foundation, that the fons of Cain may be rationally concluded, in their feveral fucceeding generations, to live about the fame number of years before the flood, that the fons of Seth's line attained to; and in like manner after the flood, that the descendants from Ham and Japhet lived about as long as the defcendants of Shem downwards to Abraham's time, or farther, to the time of the deliverance from the Egyptian bondage.

"THIS

"THIS poftulate is rational, fays the bishop, because we find just ten generations in Cain's line recorded by our Sanchoniatho, to reach to the time of Ouranus, or "Noah; and an eleventh generation supposed by him fynchronal to Cronus, or Ham; and befides, it has "been always agreed that fuch temporal favours, as length "of life, are difpofed of by Providence much alike, to the good and to the bad.

Now though this heathen author, in his fragment, intended only to record the line of Ham, in order to aggrandize the idolatrous religion, which he profeffed himself, and very likely was as willing to conceal every thing that related to the TRUE GOD, as Hermes or Thoth was, whofe theogony he followed, as copied by the Cabiri, who were the amanuenfes of that prince; yet he has juft mentioned the two brothers of Ham, Shem by the name Sydyc, and Japhet by that of Nereus; this latter he mentions, in a very brief manner, as having concerns in the affairs of Ouranus: affirming, that this line was not derived from Cronus, but that it was cotemporary with him. He intimates, that this Nereus was the first of his line; that from him Pontus defcends, with whom Typhon is joined: from Pontus descends Pofidon, whom the Latins call Neptune, and a famous woman for fongs, called Sidon. It is well proved from Scripture, and the strongest reasoning by our bishop, that this Nereus is Japhet, and the others his defcendants, to whom I refer the reader; my business being only to fhew briefly how the names given by the Greek writers to the patriarchs, may be known to fignify the fame whom Mofes calls by the Scripture names,