Lamech; and that Lamech, at the age of 182 years, begat Noah; therefore, if we sum up together the age of Lamech when he begat Noah, and the age of Methuselah when he begat Lamech, we shall find that Methuselah was 369 years old when Noah was born. Now Methuselah lived 600 years after this event; and we are also told, that Noah entered the ark when he was in the six hundredth year of his age; therefore, it follows, that when Noah entered the ark, Methuselah was still alive; and as there is no mention made of his having accompanied his grandson into the ark, he must have perished in the flood. Let the defenders of the chronology of the Hebrew text explain this calculation as well as they can, and reconcile it with the account which Moses gives in Genesis.

Now for the birth of Abraham. On that period all writers agree, and the testimony of the sacred pages gives an indisputable weight to their authority, that powerful kingdoms were already established; great cities had been built; regular armies were maintained; mankind already witnessed the pomp of courts, and the luxury of individuals; Pharaoh appeared surrounded with his princes; Abimelech came attended with the captain of his host; the use of coined money was introduced, and Abraham himself was rich in gold and silver, in tents, flocks, and herds.

Now according to the genealogical computation of the Hebrew Bible, Abraham was born in the two hundred and ninety-second year after the

flood. This is too short a period to produce so much civilization and luxury; by far too short to suppose so great a multiplication of the human species; because, if such was the state of things in Egypt, and in other countries at a comparatively great distance from the first seat of population, we are also to suppose, that in this first seat of population, in the plain of Shinar, and on the borders of the Euphrates and Tigris, kingdoms had been formed, cities built, and courts established. We are in fact, informed by Moses, that the beginning of a regular government and of regal power was at Babel. Nimrod, the son of Cush, the grandson of Ham, the mighty hunter mentioned in Genesis, "began to be a mighty one in the earth;" that is, Nimrod was the first sovereign who aspired to independence and the prerogative of an autocrat.

Upon this evidence therefore, we are authorized to believe, that prior to the birth of Abraham, the Babylonian empire had been founded. The difficulty therefore, will be to ascertain the date of the birth of Nimrod. If we admit the chronology of the Hebrew text, he was born 2218 years before Christ, that is, 130 years after the flood.

Now I contend that this period is much too short to allow mankind to multiply to such a degree, as to be able to establish a regular government at Babylon, to erect the building of Babel, and to divide themselves into different societies. The reasons which lead me to this conclusion are the following:

We know, that after the flood, the race of man

kind proceeded from the three sons of Noah; for there is no mention made any where that that patriarch had any other child after the deluge. According to the Hebrew genealogy, we cannot possibly admit, during the course of the first century, more than three generations. The text is clear. Noah begat Ham, Ham begat Cush, and Cush begat Nimrod; and this is said to have happened in the year 130 after the flood. Upon this statement I beg leave to make the following observations:

According to the sacred text, in the first generation which proceeded from the three sons of Noah, we have seven male individuals in the family of Japheth, four in that of Ham, and five in that of Shem; in all, sixteen males only. Now before we can give a wife to each of these, we must suppose an equal number of daughters born in the respective families of Japheth, Ham, and Shem. Taking ten years as the shortest possible period for the birth of these sixteen females, and thirty-five years as the usual age for marriage, nearly one-half of the first century must have passed away before these thirty-two cousins could intermarry with one another.

Now let us suppose that these thirty-two cousins, or sixteen married couples, were as fruitful as their parents had been, and consequently that each begat five sons and five daughters, the result will be sixteen multiplied by ten, 16×10=160, that is, one hundred and sixty people, amongst whom we

have Cush the son of Ham, as the produce of the second generation of the three sons of Noah.

Now these 160 people make eighty married couples; and upon the same principle, allowing to all these couples ten children each, we shall have eight hundred individuals as the third generation from Noah, for such is the product of eighty, which is the number of the married couples, multiplied by ten, the number of children begotten by each of them. To these, if we add their fathers and their mothers, their grandfathers and their grandmothers, and even their great-grand parents, with the common stock of all Noah and his wife, we shall have one thousand individuals as the sum total of mankind at the birth of Nimrod, that is, in the year 130 after the flood. For the whole account runs

thus.

Noah, with his wife and three sons, and their wives, saved in the ark Children of Shem, Ham, and Ja

pheth, amongst whom Cush Grand-children of these three patriarchs, amongst whom Nimrod, the son of Cush, the son of Ham

Great-grand-children of Shem,

Ham, and Japheth, Nimrod,
and the rest of mankind.

Making altogether

8 individuals.

32

160

800

This is much too small a number to justify the

account of the usurpation of Nimrod, the building of Babel, and the dispersion of mankind. Indeed, the very building of that tower required more means and more tools, and materials, and instruments, than men could have produced or collected in so short a space. For in the computation just made, the greatest part were children and infants, and therefore unable, for some time, to do any sort of work, for they must have reached the years of manhood about the time when Nimrod usurped the supreme power, and began to build Babylon, which could not have been sooner than thirty years after, if even then.

Nor can it be objected, that in the computation just made, too small a number of children has been allowed to each married couple; for the fact is quite the reverse. The Scripture in fact, in the second generation, reckons only thirty-six males as the grandsons of Noah, and we have allowed him eighty, which is more than double that number. For the truth of this assertion I have only to refer you to the tenth and eleventh chapters of Genesis, in which we have seven sons recorded in the family of Japheth, twenty-four in that of Ham, and five in that of Shem; in all thirty-six.

I am aware that other computations have been made, which give a number not a little at variance with that which we have had. Amongst these computations we must record that of Dr. Cumberland, bishop of Peterborough, who published, about a century ago, an amusing tract on this subject.