But for their number of years nothing is more certain 59 than their forgery; for the Egyptians did preserve the antiquities of other nations as well as their own, and by the evident fallacy in others have betrayed their own vanity. When Alexander entered Egypt with his victorious army, the priests could shew him out of their sacred histories an account of the Persian empire, which he gained by conquest, and the Macedonian, which he received by birth, of each for eight thousand years'; whereas nothing can be more certain, out of the best historical account, than that the Persian empire, whether begun in Cyrus or in Medus, was not then three hundred years old, and the Macedonian, begun in Coranus, not five hundred. They then which made so large additions to advance the antiquity of other nations, and were so bold as to present them to those which so easily might refute them (had they not delighted to be deceived to their own advantage, and took much pleasure in an honourable cheat), may without any breach of charity be suspected to have extended the account much higher for the honour of their own country. Beside, their catalogues must needs be ridiculously incredible, when the Egyptians make their first kings' reigns above one thousand two hundred years a-piece2; and the Assyrians theirs λήνης δὲ ὀκτακοσίους τριάκοντα δύο. Diog. Laert. Proœm. § 2.

1 This fallacy appeareth by an epistle which Alexander wrote to his mother Olympias, mentioned by Athenagoras [Legatio pro Christianis, c. 28.], Minucius Felix [Octavius, c. 21.], St Cyprian [quod Idola dii non sunt, § 3, p. 20. where Bp Fell refers to the testimony of Plutarch, in his life of Alexander, c. 27.], and St Augustin: 'Persarum autem et Macedonum imperium usque ad ipsum Alexandrum, cui loquebatur, plus quam octo millium annorum [octo et annorum millium, ed. Bened.] ille constituit; cum apud Græcos Macedonum usque ad mortem Alexandri quadringenti octoginta quinque reperiantur; Persarum vero, donec ipsius Alexandri victoria finiretur, ducenti et triginta tres computentur.' S. August. de Civ. Dei, 1. xii. c. 10. [Vol. VII. p. 309 c.]

2 As Diodorus Siculus, [1. i. 26]

takes notice of the Egyptians, and Abydenus of the Chaldæans, whose ten first kings reigned one hundred and twenty Sari. Ὡς τοὺς πάντας εἶναι βασιλεῖς δέκα· ὧν ὁ χρόνος τῆς βασιλείας συνῆξε σάρους ἑκατὸν εἴκοσι. [ap. Syncell. Chronograph. p. 69. Dind.] Now this word capos was proper to the Babylonian or Chaldæan account. Hesych. Záρος ἀριθμός τις παρὰ Βαβυλωνίοις but what this number was he tells us not. In the fragment of Abydenus preserved by Eusebius, [Chron. Lib. I. c. 6.] Σάρος δέ ἐστιν ἑξακόσια καὶ τρισχίλια ἔτεα, every Σάρος is three thousand six hundred years, and consequently the one hundred and twenty σápo belonging to the reign of the ten kings, four hundred and thirty-two thousand years. Neither was this the account only of Abydenus, but also of Berosus; neither was it the interpretation only of Eusebius, but also of Alexander Polyhistor, [ap. Euseb. Chron. Lib. i. c. 2. § 6.] who likewise

above forty thousand: except we take the Egyptian years for months', the Assyrians for days; and then the account will not seem so formidable.

Again, for the calculation of eclipses, as it may be made. for many thousand years to come, and be exactly true, and yet the World may end to-morrow; because the calculation must be made with this tacit condition, if the bodies of the earth, and sun, and moon, do continue in their substance and constant motion so long: so may it also be made for many millions of years past, and all be true, if the World have been so old; which the calculating doth not prove, but suppose. He then which should in the Egyptian temples see the description of so many eclipses of the sun and moon, could not be assured that they were all taken from real observation, when they might be as well described out of proleptical supposition.

Beside, the motions of the sun, which they mention toge ther and with authority equal to that of their other observa

expresseth: τὸν χρόνον τῆς βασιλείας αὐτῶν σάρους ἑκατὸν εἴκοσι, ἤτοι ἐτῶν μυριάδας τεσσαράκοντα τρεῖς καὶ δύο Xádas. This seemed so highly incredible, that two ancient monks, Anianus and Panodorus, interpreted those Chaldæan years to be but days, so that every capos should consist of three thousand six hundred days, that is, nine years, ten months and a half, and the whole one hundred and twenty σápol for the ten kings, eleven hundred and eighty-three years, six months, and odd days. This is all which Jos. Scaliger, or Jacobus Goar of late, could find concerning this Chaldæan computation: and the first of these complains that none but Hesychius makes mention of thisaccount. I shall therefore supply them not only with another author [Suidas], but also with a diverse and distinct interpretation. Σάροι μέτρον καὶ ἀριθμὸς παρὰ Χαλδαίοις· οἱ γὰρ ρκ' σάροι ποιοῦσιν ἐνιαυτοὺς βσκβ, οἳ γίνονται ή ενιαυτοὶ kai pĥves eg that is, according to the translation of Portus: Sari apud Chaldæos est mensura et numerus: nam 120 Sari faciunt annos 2222, qui sunt anni 18 et sex menses. Well

PEARSON.

might he fix his N. L., or, non liquet, to these words; for, as they are in the printed books, there is no sense to be made of them; but by the help of the MS. in the Vatican library, we shall both supply the defect in Suidas, and find a third valuation of the σápol. Thus then that MS. represents the words : Οἱ γὰρ ρκ' σάροι ποιοῦσιν ἐνιαυτοὺς βσκβ' κατὰ τὴν Χαλδαίων ψῆφον, εἴπερ ὁ σάρος ποιεῖ μῆνας σεληνιακῶν σκβ', οἷοι γίνονται ιή ἐνιαυτοὶ καὶ μῆνες ἕξ. And so the sense is clear. Zápos, according to the Chaldee account, comprehends two hundred and twenty-two months, which come to eighteen years and six months; therefore one hundred and twenty σápol make two thousand two hundred and twenty years; and therefore for Boxẞ', I read, leaving out the last 8, Box, that is, two thousand two hundred and twenty.

1 Εἰ δὲ καὶ ὅ φησιν Εὔδοξος ἀλη θές, ὅτι Αἰγύπτιοι τὸν μῆνα ἐνιαυτὸν ἐκάλουν, οὐκ ἂν ἡ τῶν πολλῶν τούτων ἐνιαυτῶν ἀπαρίθμησις ἔχοι τι θαυμαστόν. Proclus in Timæum, Lib. i. p. 31. 1. 50.

8

tions, are so incredible and palpably fabulous, that they take off all credit and esteem from the rest of their narrations. For with this wild account of years, and seemingly accurate observations of the heavens, they left it written to posterity, that the whole course of the celestial motions were four times changed; so that 'the sun hath twice risen in the east and 60 set in the west, as now it does; and, on the contrary, twice risen in the west and set in the east. And thus these prodigious antiquaries confute themselves.

What then are these feigned observations and fabulous descriptions for the World's antiquity, in respect not only of the infallible annals of the Spirit of God, but even of the constant testimonies of more sober men, and the real appearances and face of things, which speak them of a far shorter date?

If we look into the historians which give account of ancient times, nay, if we peruse the fictions of the poets, we shall find the first to have no footsteps, the last to feign no actions of so great antiquity. If the race of men had been eternal, or as

1 Εν τοίνυν τούτῳ τῷ χρόνῳ τετράκις ἔλεγον ἐξ ἠθέων τὸν ἥλιον ἀνατεῖλαι· ἔνθα τε νῦν καταδύεται, ἐνθεῦτεν δὶς ἐπαντεῖλαι· καὶ ἔνθεν νῦν ἀνατέλλει, ἐνθαῦτα δὶς καταδύναι. Herod Euterp. [c. 142.] 'Mandatumque literis servant, dum Ægyptii sunt, quater cursus suos vertisse sidera, ac Solem bis jam occidisse unde nunc oritur.' Pompon. Mela, 1. i. c. 9. § 8. Whereas Aristotle more soberly: Ἐν ἅπαντι γὰρ τῷ παρεληλυθότι χρόνῳ κατὰ τὴν παραδεδομένην ἀλλήλοις μνήμην οὐθὲν φαίνεται μεταβεβληκός, οὔτε καθ ̓ ὅλον τὸν ἔσχατον οὐρανόν, οὔτε κατὰ μόριον αὐτοῦ τῶν οἰκείων οὐθέν. De Calo, Lib. i. cap. 3. Vide Simplic. ad loc.

As the Chaldees did affirm that they had taken observations of the celestial motions for four hundred and seventy thousand years; and withal they also affirmed, that for the same space of time they had calculated the nativity of all the children which were born. Which last is certainly false. 'Nam quod aiunt, quadringenta septuaginta millia annorum in periclitandis experiendisque pueris, quicunque essent nati, Babylonios posuisse,

fallunt: si enim esset factitatum, non esset desitum. Neminem autem habemus auctorem qui aut fieri dicat, aut factum sciat.' Cicero, 1. ii. de Divinat. c. 46. § 97. And if the last be false, we have no reason to believe the first is true; but rather to deny their astronomical observations by their vain ambition in astrological predictions. And indeed those observations of the Chaldees being curiously searched into by Callisthenes, appointed by Aristotle for that purpose, were found really to go no farther than one thousand nine hundred and three years before Alexander, as Porphyrius hath declared, who was no friend to the account of Moses. Atà τὸ μήπω τὰς ὑπὸ Καλλισθένους ἐκ Βαβυλῶνος πεμφθείσας παρατηρήσεις ἀφικέσθαι εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα τοῦ Αριστ τοτέλους τοῦτο ἐπισκήψαντος αὐτῷ· ἃς τινας διηγεῖται ὁ Πορφύριος χιλίων ἐτῶν εἶναι καὶ ἐννεακοσίων τριῶν μέχρι τῶν χρόνων 'Αλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος σωJóuevas. Simplic. ad 2. Aristot. de Cœlo, p. 123.

3 This argument is therefore to me the stronger, because made by him.

old as the Egyptians and the Chaldees fancy it, how should it come to pass that the poetical inventions should find no actions worthy their heroic verse before the Trojan or the Theban war, or that great adventure of the Argonauts? For whatsoever all the Muses, the daughters of Memory, could rehearse before those times, is nothing but the creation of the World, and the nativity of their gods.

If we consider the necessaries of life', the ways of freedom. and commerce amongst men, and the inventions of all arts and sciences, the letters which we use, and languages which we speak, they have all known originals, and may be traced to their first authors. The first beginnings were then so known and acknowledged by all, that the inventors and authors of them were reckoned amongst their gods, and worshipped by those to whom they had been so highly beneficial: which honour and adoration they could not have obtained, but from such as were really sensible of their former want, and had experience of a present advantage by their means.

If we search into the nations themselves, we shall see none without some original: and were those authors extant which have written of the first plantations and migrations of people, the foundations and inhabiting of cities and countries, their first rudiments would appear as evident as their later growth and present condition. We know what ways within two thousand years people have made through vast and thick 61 woods for their habitations, now as fertile, as populous, as

any. The Hercynian trees, in the time of the Cæsars, occupying so great a space as to take up a journey of sixty days', were thought even then coeval with the world. We read without any shew of contradiction, how this western part of the world hath been peopled from the east: and all the pretence of the Babylonian antiquity is nothing else, but that we all came from thence. Those eight persons saved in the ark, descending from the Gordiæan mountains and multiplying to a large collection in the plain of Sinaar, made their first division at that place; and that dispersion, or rather dissemination, hath peopled all other parts of the world, either never before inhabited, or dispeopled by the flood.

These arguments have always seemed so clear and undeniable, that they have put not only those who make the world eternal, but them also who confess it made (but far more ancient than we believe it), to a strange answer, to themselves uncertain, to us irrational.

For to this they replied, that this world3 hath suffered

1 Silvarum, Hercynia,-dierum sexaginta iter occupans, ut major aliis, ita et notior.' Pompon. Mela, 1. iii. c. 3. § 3.

2 'Hercyniæ silvæ roborum vastitas intacta ævis et congenita mundo, prope immortali sorte miracula excedit.' Plin. 1. xvi. c. 2.

3 Thus Ocellus, who maintained the World was never made, answers the argument brought from the Greek histories which began with Inachus, as the first subject, not author of history (as Nogarola in his Annotations mistakes Ocellus): Διὸ καὶ τοῖς λέγουσι τὴν τῆς ̔Ελληνικῆς ἱστορίας ἀρχὴν ἀπὸ Ινάχου εἶναι τοῦ ̓Αργείου, προσεκτέον οὕτως, οὐχ ὡς ἀπό τινος ἀρχῆς πρώτης, ἀλλὰ τῆς γενομένης μεταβολῆς κατ ̓ αὐτ Tý, c. iii. § 5. So that he will have Inachus to be the first not absolutely, but since the last great alteration made in Greece; and then he concludes that Greece hath often been, and will often be, barbarous, and lose the memory of all their actions: Πολλάκις γὰρ καὶ γέγονε καὶ ἔσται βάρβαρος ἡ Ἑλλάς, οὐχ ὑπ' ἀνθρώπων μόνον γινομένη μετάνασ τατος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπ' αὐτῆς τῆς φύσεως οὐ

μείζονος οὐδὲ μείονος αὐτῆς γινομένης, ἀλλὰ καινοτέρας ἀεὶ καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀρχὴν Xaußavoúons. Ocellus de Universo, ibid. Thus Plato, who asserted the creation of the World, but either from eternity, or such antiquity as does not much differ from it, brings in Solon inquiring the age of the Greek histories, as of Phoroneus, and Niobe, Deucalion and Pyrrha; and an Egyptian priest answering, that all the Greeks were boys, and not an old man amongst them, that is, they had no ancient monuments, or history of any antiquity, but rested contented with the knowledge of the time, since the last great mutation of their own country: Πολλαὶ καὶ κατὰ πολλὰ φθοραὶ γεγόνασιν ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἔσονται, πυρὶ μὲν καὶ ὕδατι μέγισται, μυρίοις δὲ ἄλλοις ἕτεραι βραχύτεραι. Τη Timao, [p. 22 c.] Origen of Celsus: Tò πολλὰς ἐκ παντὸς αἰῶνος ἐκπυρώσεις γεγονέναι, πολλὰς δ ̓ ἐπικλύσεις, καὶ νεώτερον εἶναι τὸν ἐπὶ Δευκαλίωνος κατακλυσμὸν ἔναγχος γεγενημένον, σαφῶς τοῖς ἀκούειν αὐτοῦ δυναμένοις παρίσ τησι τὸ κατ' αὐτὸν τοῦ κόσμου ἀγένητον, 1. i. § 19. [Vol. 1. p. 337 c.] And Lucretius the Epicurean, who thought