I 791- LIFE of' SIR JAMES SfEd'ARTi ^ 



and the abetters of the latter, entrenching themfelves. 

 behind the falfehoods of the ancients, on the fcope of 

 their remote hiftory, gave the lie to all antiquity, and, 

 in defpair, plunged themfelves into the ocean of fcep-^ 

 ticifm. 



Happy had it been for foclety if this fcepticifm had 

 confined itfelf to the hiftory of ancient nations in ge- 

 neral ; but the fame fpirit, taking difguft at the horrors 

 of Chriftian ambition and bigotry, and contemplating , 

 with derifion the ridiculous legends of modern miracles, 

 gave the lie to all religious fcripture of the Jews and 

 Chriflians, and attempted to banifli divine intelligence, 

 the fuperintending providert.ee of Deity, and the true 

 dignity of the human fpecies from the face of the earth ! 



It was a noble undertaking, therefore, in Sir James, 

 to attempt to difperfe this mifl of error, by dif- 

 paflionately and fcientifically explaining and fupporting 

 the chronology of Sir Ifaac Newton. He has done it 

 with great precifion and effe(fl: ; and it is a book well 

 worth the perufal of thofe who wifh to read ancient 

 hiflory with improvement, or to prevent thimfelves 

 from being bewildered in the mazes of modern con- 

 je£lure. 



And here I cannot help obferving, that the virtuous 

 and judicious ftudent, may, in the perufal of Sir Ifaac 

 Newton's chronology, provide himfelf with an antidote. 

 againfl; one of the moil fubtle poifons of modern infi- 

 delity, which infinuates itfelf through the medium of 

 the Mofaic hirtory. The improvement of mankind, . 

 fays that infidelity, is fo flow, that we are forced, up- 

 on rational principles, to deride the fuppofition of fo 

 fhort an interval between the plantation of our fpecies 

 and its high improvement, in ages almofl too remote to 

 be the fubjeft of hiftory. But from the firft fettlement 

 of the conquerors of Greece, to the age of Greek per- 

 feftion, in all the arts of life there did not intervene 

 more than eight centuries. 



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