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the Flood, as it will then ftand; which we fhall find to be fo perfectly confiftent with it's felf, that we fhall have no need to have recourfe to Conjectures, to make the Account of the Particulars agree with the ge'neral one of it.

We are told, that the Flood begun on the twenty feventh of the fecond Month, of the fix hundredth Year of Noah's Life, and ended on the twenty feventh of the fecond Month of the fix hundredth and first Year of Noah's Life, and confequently the Flood lafted juft a Year. I have already fhewn that the Months there spoken of, confifted of thirty Days each; and fhall therefore now fhew, that the Year did confift of twelve Months, or of three hundred and fixty Days in all. From the twenty feventh of the fecond Month, to the twenty feventh of the Seventh Month, there were, as I have faid before, five Months, for the Increase, Duration, and part of the Decrease of the Flood. The Waters, we find, continued decreasing until the first of the eleventh Month, when the Tops of the Mountains were feen. Here is a further Decrease of the Waters, of three Months and three Days, namely, the remaining part of the feventh Month, and all the eighth, 'ninth, and tenth Months; which makes in all eight Months and three Days. We read afterwards, that after forty Days, Noah opened

pened the Window of the Ark, and fent out a Raven, which brings us to the tenth of the twelfth Month, and makes nine Months and thirteen Days. We read after that (chap. viii. ver. 10) that he ftaid yet other. Seven Days, ἡμέρας ἑπτὰ ἑτέρας, for fo the Alexandrian and Vatican MSS. have it; this implies, as I have before mentioned, his having waited already feven Days; allowing then he waited feven Days after he fent out the Raven, and then fent out the Dove; that will bring us to the seventeenth of the twelfth Month, and makes nine Months and twenty Days. We're told, he faid yet other feven Days, and sent out the Dove a fecond time, when he returned with the Olive Branch; which brings us to the twenty fourth of the twelfth Month, and makes nine Months and twenty seven Days. We find, he ftaid feven Days and fent out the Dove a third time, when he returned no more; which brings us to the first of the thirteenth Month, or more properly to the first of the first Month of the enfuing Year of Noah's Life; and makes ten Months and four Days. The Waters continued drying off the Earth, all the first Month, fo that makes eleven Months and four Days; and on the twenty seventh of the fecond Month the Earth was dried. Which is the End of the Flood, and makes twelve Months and one Day, including the

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twenty feventh, or just twelve Months exclufive of it.

Now Noah being faid to be fix hundred Years, one Month and twenty feven Days old, when the Flood began, and fix hundred and one Years, one Month and twenty feven Days old, when the Flood ended and I having made it plainly appear, that from the beginning of the Flood to the end of it, there were twelve Months, and that each of those Months confifted of thirty Days; I think it is evident to a Demonstration, that Noah was three hundred and fixty Days older at the end of the Flood, than he was at the beginning of it; and confequently, that the Years by which the Lives of the Antediluvian Fathers are computed, are to be strictly and litterally understood to be Years, confifting of three hundred and fixty Days each, and not of any lefs Portion of time.

II. It is generally agreed by all Chronologers, that the Flood happened fixteen hundred and fifty fix Years after the Creation of the World; and if we examine the Genealogy of the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah, as it is fet down in the fifth Chapter of Genefis, we shall find the fame Number of Years from the Creation to the Flood; which will afford us another Proof in favour of the Affertion I have laid down.

It is there faid, (ver. 3.) that Adam lived an hundred and thirty Tears, and begat a Son in his own Likeness, and called his Name Seth. So from the Creation to the Birth of Seth, there were an hundred and thirty Years; Seth, we're told (ver. 6.) liv ed an hundred and five Years, and begat Enos. So from the Creation to the Birth of Enos, there were two hundred and thirty five Years.

But this will appear at one View in the following Table.

From the Creation, to the Birth of Seth
From the Birth of Seth, to that of Enos
From the Birth of Enos, to that of Cainan
From the Birth of Cainan, to that of Mabalehel·
From the Birth of Mabalehel, to that of Jared
From the Birth of Jared, to that of Enoch
From the Birth of Enoch, to that of Mathuselah
From the Birth of Matbufelah, to that of Lamech
From the Birth of Lamech, to that of Noah

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From the Birth of Noab, to that of Shem, Ham and soo Japheth

Total 1556

Now that the Flood happened an hundred Years after the Birth of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, is plain from Gen. xi. 10. where we are told, that Shem was an hundred Years old, and begat Arphaxad, twa Tears after the Flood. And tho' it appears

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by that Text, that Shem was but ninety eight Years old at the time of the Flood, and that therefore the Account comes but to fixteen hundred and fifty four Years, and feems to fall fhort two Years; yet that may easily be fet right, by what we're told, namely, that Japheth, tho' named laft, was nevertheless Noah's eldest Son, and that Shem was born two Years after him; and confequently could be but ninety eight Years old at the time of the Flood. So that it is manifeft, this Genealogy agrees exactly with all Chronologers Accounts.

But perhaps it will be objected, that it is no wonder that all Chronologers Accounts fhould agree fo perfectly with this Genealogy, fince there being no History of fo great an Antiquity as Mofes's Writings, they neceffarily must have fixed the Distance of time from the Creation to the Flood, by this Genealogy it felf; and that therefore f ought not to have brought this as a Proof. To which I anfwer, that this Objection, rightly confidered, will be far from destroying the Argument I have brought to fupport my Affertion. For if Mankind in all Ages have agreed to fix the Distance of time from the Creation to the Flood by this Genealogy, and have determined it to be fuch a number of Years, as it appears from thence to have been, it is evident, they always understood the Years there spoken of

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