240 



Canaan, is eminently subject to this censure. His systeu) 

 is clearly either erroneous, or, at least, inconsistent with 

 his authorities, in its principles, for, if to the 450 years of 

 St. Paul, from the conquest to Samuel, we add the 40 

 years of Saul and Samuel, and the 40 of David, Ave have 

 .530 years, which sum, with the 40 in the desart and the 

 34 Petavius himself allots to Joshua and the elders, com- 

 pletes the aggregate of 594 years, and with the four first of 

 Solomon, 598; a number sufficiently removed from that he 

 would compute on the authority of St. Paul. "Whether, then, 

 we reject the numbers of the Apostle, as falsified by the co- 

 pyists, and substitute, Avith the exemplar of Beza, 350 years; 

 or whether, with Usher, we distinguish the points of the text, 

 and suppose the period assigned is from the birth of Isaac to 

 the conquest of the land; or, whether, in fine, we consider 

 the Apostle on his own principle of " being all things to all 

 men, that he might gain some," merely stating the compu- 

 tation he knew to be familiar to his auditory, and not his own. 

 In whatever aspect, or point of view, we behold this cele- 

 brated text, we shall find, that it by no means authorizes the 

 calculus of our adversaries — that they reject its computation, 

 while they quote its authority, and seem satisfied to force the 

 expressions of the Apostle to countenance and support their 

 dissent from the acknowledged evidence of Scripture, in order 

 afterwards, to extend the principle of rejection even against 

 the alledged advocate of their heresy. 



In 



