207 



were introduced, only as collateral testimonies to some insula- 

 ted facts they were recording; and which of course were totally .. 

 independent of the system, or the principles of the writers 

 from whom they had been quoted. He surely was aware 

 that the first professional chronologist among the Christian 

 writers was Julius Africanus, in the beginning of the second 

 century, and Africanus, I shall shew in the sequel, was well 

 acquainted with the contested verse; and it is clear that the 

 others who may incidentally refer to the chronology of Scrip- 

 ture, are not to be produced in evidence against the existence 

 of the text; anymore than the opinion of Petavius or the 

 moderns, who reject its computations while they acknow- 

 ledge its authority ; with respect to the Jews, from the very 

 first they have been unanimous, without a single exception, 

 in supporting it. 



3. The third is already answered, in the reply to the last 

 objection. It is indeed true, that the generality have pur- 

 sued the system attributed to them, but it by no means 

 follows, that it was from an ignorance of the contested pas- 

 sage, or a disregard of its authority ; it originated in the same* 

 spirit of system, the same principles of inductional and prob- 

 lematical reasoning, which have induced many of the mo- 

 derns to reject or to paraphrase it, according to the particular 

 hypotheses they may have adopted ; but it is by no means 

 true, that the ancient chronologists, because they do not fol- 

 low the supputation of the text, were consequently ignorant 



VOL. XI. 2 E of 



