[ 3'4° J 



floated. It mnft fee added to this, that it is fhted, the moun- 

 tains were covered with water to the depth of fifteen cubits ; this 

 cannot, however, relate to every mountain on our glole, but 

 to thofe only which Noah might be acquainted with the height 

 of; even mount Ararat, on which the ark is fuppofed to have 

 refled, is by no means the higheft mountain of our earth. 



Befides this, inch general words (as all} mud frequently be ccn- 

 fined in their fignification. 



Thus when it faid by St. Luke, that there went out a decree 

 from C<efar Auguftus that all the world mould be taxed, Luke 

 ii. i this can. only refer to that part of it which was under the 

 Roman government ; for Parthia (not far from Judea). was. fo 

 far from being fubje&ed to the Roman yoke, that they had not 

 more than half a century before this, totally defeated Cr.aiius's 

 army. 



Thus 



1 The expreffionan the Greek is-ww«j/ r,p oi^^sy/iv, bat this is equally 

 inaccurate, if the words are tranllated in their more literal fenfe, and 

 confined to the inhabited part of the globe. Thus alio three of the 

 Evangelifts inform us (Matthew xxvii. 45. ^u(tuv TYjvyrjv. Mark xv. 

 33. and Luke xxiii. 44. e(p ? o?^v tqy yrf;,) that- darknefs prevailed over the 

 whole earth for three hours after the crucifixion ; this, however, muft 

 relate only to Judea, for fuch a moft remarkable event is not mentioned 

 by any other writer who lived at the time or later. The elder Pliny 

 muft have probably remembered this darknefs, if it had extended to 

 Italy ; and he would certainly have introduced it into his Natural Hillary, 

 as he hath a chapter, entitled, Die rum lux nocte, 1. ii. c. 33. which 

 would have been followed by " Nodtuum tenebrae die." 



" The Lord God of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the 

 " earth? Ezra fpeakingin the name of Cyrus, ift and 2d. 



<l And there flood up one of them, 7 named Agabus, and fignified by 

 the fpirir, that there ihould' be a great dearth throughout all the ivojid 

 o?\y,v Tr,v ciKHjji-v/ivJ which came to pafs in the days of Claudius Ca-far," 

 Aclrsxi, 2,8. Which exprcffion Bifhop l.owth, in his lately puhlilhed 

 commentary on Ifaiah, confines to the Roman empire, or judea, p. 91. 

 ?ivtes t 



After 



