14 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book L 



Rochfort, in his hillory of thefe Antilles Ifl:inds, who fays, that the 

 ordinary life of the Caribbs is 150 years. This author is quoted by 

 Mr Ray^ in his work upon the JV'i/dom of God^'K 



If any of my readers fliould doubt the fadls which I have collecfl- 

 ed, from antient authors and modern travellers, concerning the health 

 and longevity of men living in the natural ftate or near to that ftate, 

 I mud refer him to an authority which no Chriftian will difpute, I 

 mean Mofes's account of the lives of the antient Patriarchs. Thefe 

 lives, while men lived in the natural way, upon vegetables, and 

 drank no ftrong liquor, lafted for a period betwixt 900 and 1000 

 years; which to many may appear quite incredible, but to me is not 

 fo, when I confider that they Uved in the moft natural way, and 

 in one of the beft clhiiates of the world. And, indeed, I fhould 

 think it would be fomething incongruous in nature, if man, the 

 nobleft animal on this earth, and who is fuperior to all the other 

 animals in fo many other things, fhould not alfo exceed them in 

 longevity, when he lives in the way which God and nature have 

 deftined he fhould live. The account of their generations, and the 

 length of their lives, are given us fo accurately and diftindly by 

 Mofes, that there can be no miftake in the matter ; for he has not 

 only told us the length of the lives of the firft Patriarchs, while they 

 abftained from the ufe of flefli and wine, but he has informed us 

 how much the lives of their pofterity were fliortened, when they 

 came to ufe the unnatural diet of fleih and wine. But here I will 

 fay no more upon this fubjedt, unlefs to refer to what I have faid 

 of it, at confiderable length, in volume third of this work f . 



There are other two nations, that we have lately difcovered, more 

 advanced in civility and arts than the people of the Ladrone Iflands, 



but 

 * Page 232. 

 f Page 1 20. and following. 



