71 



in particular. Li\y, (4-20) remarks, " Quidam annaks velut 

 funesti nihil prater nomina Cousuhnn Siiggerunt ;" and Job 

 " wishes tiie day of his birth nia}'^ not be counted in the 

 months." Several, and in particular Pezron, (the great anta- 

 gonist of Marsham, in every question of chronologic discus- 

 sion to Avhich that great man has lent the sanction of his au- 

 thority,) have adopted this solution, and have founded upon 

 it a system sufficiently daring and unauthorized; the latter 

 enlarging the interval between the exod and the foundation of 

 thp temple to no less than 873 years, the excess of which 

 above the number assigned in the Book of Kings (viz. 393 

 years) he fills up with servitudes, and anarchies, in the manner 

 most agreeable to his hypothesis, and his fancy. The idea 

 seems ingenious, except when pushed to the monstrous 

 lengths of Pezron and his followers ; but it is no more: it will 

 not stand the touch-stone of judicious criticism, and if it was 

 not sufficiently refuted in itself, from the very fact, (as we shall 

 see in the sequel) of the years of the servitudes being distinctly 

 enumerated and marked in the Book of Judges, we might ask, 

 in the words of Strauchius, " Quare igitur diluvii, mentioneni 

 fecit Mo^'ses, quod universo mundo, incomparabilem attulit 

 Iristitiam ; & quid fiet de excidii tum Israclitici, tuni Judaici 

 historia ? Certe si in sacris libris non tantum anarchi8e,sed etiam 

 servitutis, tempora tauquam tristia 8c inauspicata non memo- 

 rantur, nee tristissiina hsec meruorari debuissent. (Stranchius 

 Brev. 422.; 



VOL. XI. L In 



