Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

A

CRITICAL ESSAY

ΟΝ ΤΗΕ

LONGEVITY

OF THE

Antediluvian FATHERS.

In a LETTER to a Friend.

LONDON: Printed: And Sold by J. ROBERTS in

[blocks in formation]

1

A

CRITICAL ESSAY

ON THE

LONGEVITY of the ANTEDILU VIAN Fathers.

I

SIR,

SEND you here, according to your Defire and my Promife, my Thoughts concerning the Longevity of the Antediluvian Fathers; and I do not in the leaft doubt but that you will be entirely convinced, the Years by which their Lives are computed, were very near of an equal Length and Duration with ours, when you have heard the Arguments I fhall offer in order to prove it, I therefore will, without any further Introduction, lay them before you.

I might now here fet forth the feveral Errors committed by Commentators, in endeavouring to adjust the Point in question; but it not being my Purpose to fhew wherein others have erred, but, as far as I can, to fet the Matter in its true Light, I fhall decline

A 2

cline entering thereupon, and proceed directly to prove the Affertion I have laid down.

And firft; it will be neceffary to fhew, that the Months in ufe before the Flood, confifted of thirty Days each. This will evidently appear from the feventh and eighth Chapters of Genefis. For it is there faid, (Gen. vii. 2.) that In the fix hundredth Tear of Noah's Life, in the fecond Month, on the feventeenth day of the Month, the fame Day, were all the Fountains of the great Deep broken up, and the Windows of Heaven were opened. This is the beginning of the Flood. In Chap. viii. ver. 4. we're told, that, The Ark refted in the feventh Month, on the feventeenth Day of the Month, upon the Mountains of Arrarat. So, from the beginning of the Flood, to the refting of the Ark upon the Mountains, there were juft five Months, namely, from the feventeenth of the fecond Month, to the feventeenth of the seventh Month.

Now, that each of thofe Months confifted of thirty Days, is plain from what we read Gen. vii. 24, that, The Waters prevailed upon the Earth an hundred and fifty Days; and Chap. viii. ver. 3. that after the end of andred and fifty Days, the Waters were abated; and immediately after in the next Verfe, that upon the feventeenth of the feventh Month, the Ark refted upon the Mountains of Arrarat. For, the Interval of time, from the beginning of the Flood to the reft

ing of the Ark, which we have before found to be equal to five Months, is here said to be an hundred and fifty Days, which being divided by five, gives us thirty Days for each Month.

This being clear beyond difpute, I proceed next to fhew, that the Years mentioned by Mofes, and by which the Lives of the Antediluvian Fathers are computed, were each of them compofed of twelve of those Months, or of three hundred and fixty Days in all.

It may not be improper here to obferve, that several Perfons finding the Months in ufe before the Flood to have confifted of thirty Days each, and the Flood being faid to have lafted a Year, have immediately concluded from thence, that the Year was com pofed of twelve of those Months, or of three hundred and fixty Days; and among others, the learned Dr. Prideaux in the Preface to his excellent Connection of the Old and New Testament: But under favour, that is by no means a juft way of Reasoning. For the Months confifting of thirty Days each, is no Proof that the Year was compofed of twelve Months; it not being an abfolute Property of a Year to be compofed of twelve Months. The Year according to Romulus's Calendar, for Example had but ten. It therefore remains ftill to bepoved, that the Year in use before the Flood, was com

posed

« AnteriorContinuar »