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to be Years in the litteral and general Acceptation of the Word.

It is also to be observ'd, that all the Verfions that have been made of the Books of Mofes, have all taken the Tears therein mention'd, in the Sense I am now arguing for. For they have all render'd the Word by which Mofes denominates thofe Portions of Time, whereof the Antediluvian Fathers are faid to have lived, feven, eight, and nine hundred, by Words that in the several Languages into which they have been made, denote fuch a Portion of Time as we call a Year, and is equal to three hundred and fixty, or three hundred and fixty five Days. But to illuftrate this by an Example; the Septuagint Verfion makes use of the Word TOS, that in the Greek Language fignifies a Year, which among that People confifted of three hundred and fixty Days. It is therefore moft certain, the Authors of that Verfion, whom we may very reasonably suppofe were the most learned among the Jews, and understood the Hebrew Language the most perfectly of any of them, conceiv'd that the Expreffion made use of by Mofes did really fignify and denote a like Portion of Time. The fame might be inftanced in all the other Versions.

When I faid the Year among the Greeks confifted of three hundred and fixty Days, it must be understood of their common Years,

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Years, that were composed of twelve Lunary Months, which the Greeks mistaking to be of thirty Days, in compounding their Year of twelve of them, made it to confift of three hundred and fixty Days; for they had, befides those common Years, interca lated ones that reduc'd all to the folar Form; which they were obliged to do, for the fake of their Games and Feafts. But this being foreign to my Purpose, I forbear mentioning any more of it, and return to my Subject.

If therefore it should be objected, that Men have always computed the Time from the Creation to the Flood by this Genealogy, that very Objection it self is a manifeft Proof of the universal Agreement of Mankind to allow thofe Years strictly and litterally to be fo. And fure if there were any Grounds for fixing those Years to a lefs Portion of Time, fome one or other would have been fo happy as to have found it out, and would have rectified fo great, and at the fame time fo univerfal an Error, as all Mankind appears to have been in, in relation to this Point. Since therefore it has always been allow'd that the Distance of Time, from the Creation to the Flood, was fixteen hundred and fifty fix Years; and fince by this Genealogy we find it to have been the fame Number of Years; we may, I think, conclude, that if it is not a Proof,

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it is at least a very ftrong Prefumption in favour of the Senfe, in which I conceive the Term Tears is to be understood. But,

III. This Genealogy will afford us another and a very convincing Argument of the Neceffity we lie under of taking the Word Tears in its proper and litteral Senfe, by fhewing us the Abfurdities we muft otherways unavoidably run into.

For we are told, Gen. v. ver. 15. that Mabalebel was but fixty five Years old when he begat Jared. Now I prefume no one will pretend to fay, that we are here to take the Word Tears in any other than its proper and litteral Senfe. For if we should, for example, fuppofe them to be Months, as our Adverfaries would infinuate them to be, then it will follow that Mahalehel was not fix Years old when he begat Jared, and confequently he was a Father before he was of an Age to beget a Child.

Which how abfurd that would be, I leave to any one's Judgment. The fame may be faid of Enoch, who was but fixty five Years old neither when he begat Mathufelah; and of Cainan, Mabalehel's Father, who was but Seventy when he begat him; and indeed of almost all the Patriarchs.

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But let our Adverfaries reduce the Years of Mahalehel's Life, which we are told were eight hundred and ninety five, to what Portion of Time they pleafe, it will follow

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of course that the fixty five Years at the end of which he is faid to have begat Jared, must be reduced in the fame Proportion. Suppose we should reduce his Life to, or near, our Standard, to an hundred for Example, then it will follow that he was but Seven Tears and about two Months old when he begat Jared; which would be abfurd. Let us now suppose that Mahalehel was only twenty Years old when he begat Jared, and much less we cannot; then reducing the eight hundred and ninety five Years he is faid to have lived, in the fame Proportion we have the fixty five, it will follow that he liv'd above two hundred and feventy five Years; which Suppofition, how groundless and extravagant foever it be, will by no means answer their Ends: For a Life of two hundred and feventy five Years will appear almost as improbable and as incredible as one of eight hundred, and will require very near, if not full, as strong an Authority to induce us to the Belief of it; the one being, with us, as much out of the Course of Nature as the other. If we fhould reduce thofe Years to three Months, then Mahalebel will have lived two hundred and twenty odd Years, and have begat Jared at fifteen. If we reduce them to fix Months, then Mahalehel will have lived almost four hundred and fifty Years. All which Suppofitions engage thofe that offer them in

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perplexing Difficulties on one fide or other. Our Adversaries are therefore brought to this Dilemma; either, by reducing the Lives of the Antediluvian Fathers to, or near, our Standard, to run into the most grofs Abfurdities; or by avoiding them, to allow thofe Lives to have confifted of fuch a Portion of Time, as, by their own Arguments, will be full as improbable, and require full as ftrong an Authority to fupport the Belief of them, as thofe we now

contend for.

IV. The Uncertainty our Adverfaries lye under in the determining the Portion of Time we are to understand by the Term Tears, is an evident Proof of the Infufficiency of their Objection. For they can give us no Rule whereby to fix and afcertain it. And there is no more Reason to fuppofe it a Month, than two, or three, or fix Months; there being nothing in holy Writ, or any where elfe, that I know of, that can give any Grounds for any fuch Suppofitions. The most reasonable Conje&ture, feemingly, is the fixing it to a Month. For, fay they, it being certain that the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and all the Eaftern Nations, in computing their Periods of Time, made ufe of the Revolutions of the Moon, it may be poffible that they called one Revolution of the Moon a

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