A N T E D 1 
jn the line of Seth, were- begotten, and the length of their 
Ieveral lives; it lias been the bulinets of chronologers to en¬ 
deavour to fix the years of the lives and deaths of thofe 
patriarchs, and the diftance of time from the creation to 
the deluge. In thjs there would be little difficulty were 
there no varieties in the Ieveral Copies we now have of 
Mofes’s writings; which are* the Hebrew, the Samaritan, 
and the Greek verlions of the Scptuagint; but, as thefe 
differ very confiderably from one another, learned men are 
much divided in their opinions concerning the chronology 
of the fil'd ages of the world; fome preferring one copy, 
and fome another. That the reader may the better judge 
of the variations with refpeft to the ages of the patriarchs, 
in the three copies in this period, they are exhibited in the 
following table, with the addition of thofe of Jofephus. 
ages of the antediluvian patSiarchs. 
Years they li- 
Their ages 
at their 
fons’ 
birth. 
ved after their 
foils’ birth. 
Hcb. 
Sam. Sept. 
Jof. 
Heb.Sam.Sept. 
Adam, 
130 
130 
230 
130 
800 800 700 
Seih, 
105 
1 OS 
205 
105 
S07 807 707 
Enos, 
90 
90 
190 
9 ° 
3 iS SiS 715 
Cainan, 
70 
70 
170 
70 
840 840 740 
Mahaluieel, ' 
- 65 
6 S 
» 6 S 
63 
S30 S30 730 
Jared, 
162 
62 
162 
6 2 
800 785 Soo 
Enoch, 
Methufelah, 
65 
6S 
l6 5 
• 65 
300 3OO 200 
- 187 
67 
167 
187 
782 653 802 
Lamech, 
1 S2 
S 3 
188 
182 
59 S 6 °0 5 6 5 
Noah was aged 
at the flood, 
^ 600 
600 
600 
600 
To the flood, 
1656 
1307 
2262 
JSjS 
How long each of thefe lived is at once known by re- 
fpeClively adding the age at his Ions’ birth to the number 
of years he exifted afterwards. Some writers, in order to 
explain the variations in the lives or ages of the fame pa¬ 
triarchs, have added feparate chronological tables, View¬ 
ing in what year of his contemporaries the birth and deatli 
of each patriarch happened, according to the computation 
of each of the three copies alluded to. St. Jerom tells us, 
that, in his time, there Were fome copies of the Samaritan 
Pentateuch which make Methufelah 187 years old at the 
birth of Lantech, and Lamech 182 at the birth of Noah, 
juft as the Hebrew does. Now, if thefe numbers be appro¬ 
ved as the true original numbers, the interval from the 
creation to the flood will be 1556 years; differing from 
■the HebreW computation but 100 years in the age of Ja¬ 
red at the birth of Enoch ; and if this lalt be allowed to 
be a mi flake of the tranferiber, by his droppinga number, 
and writing 62 inftead of 162, as has been fufpe&ed, the 
Samaritan will be perfectly reconciled with the Hebrew, 
and all differences between them will vanilh. As to the 
Septuagint, in the common editions of that verlion, the 
age of Methufelah at the birth of Lamech is 167 ; and 
■ confequently the film of this period, according to them, 
is no more than 2242. But in this cafe Methufelah will 
outlive the flood 14 years ; and we may well wonder, with 
Eufebius, where lie was preferved. To obviate this ob¬ 
jection, we are told, that, in fome copies, Methufelah is 
faid to have lived but 782 (not 802) years after the birth 
of Lamech, and no more than 949 in all. But the Alex¬ 
andrian manufeript entirely takes away the difficulty, by 
-giving the fame number in this place with the Hebrew. 
Pezron is of opinion, that the age of Lamech at the birth 
of Noah fliould be but 182, as it is both in the Hebrew 
and in jofephus, fuppofing, with St. Auftin, that the 
prefent number is the error of the feribe who firft copied 
the original Septuagint manufeript in Ptolemy’s library. 
So that he computes 2256 years to the flood. And, if 
this correction be admitted, and one more mentioned alfo 
by St. Auftin, viz. that Lamech lived 595 years after the 
birth of Noah, and not 565, as in the prefent copies, there 
Vol. I. No. 47 , 
L U V IANS. 749 
there will then remain no other difference between the Sep¬ 
tuagint and the Hebrew than 600 years added to the ages 
of the fix patriarchs when they begat their Ions, and Me- 
thnfelah will, conformably to the Hebrew and Samaritan, 
the in the year ot the flood. Having premifed this chro¬ 
nological view, we fhall proceed to the hiftory of that re¬ 
mote period. The antediluvian world was, in all proba¬ 
bility, flocked with a much greater number of inhabitants 
than the prefent earth either actually does, or perhaps is 
capable of containing or fuppLying. This feems naturally 
to follow from the great length of their lives, which ex¬ 
ceeding the prefent ftandard of life in the proportion, at 
leaft, ot ten to one, thp antediluvians muft accordingly in 
any long fpace of time double themfelves, at leaft in about 
the tenth part of the time in which mankind do now dou¬ 
ble themfelves. It has been fuppofed that they began 
to get children as early, and left oft’as late, in proportion, 
as men do now ; and that the Ieveral children of the fame 
father fucceeded as quickly one after another as they ulu- 
ally do at this day ; and as many generations, which are 
but fuccellive with 11s, were contemporary before the 
flood, the number of people living on the earth at once 
would be by that means fufficiently increafed to anfwer 
any defeft which, might arife from other circumftances 
not confidered. So that, if we make a computation on 
thefe principles, we fhall find, that the number of man¬ 
kind before the deluge would eafily amount to above one 
hundred thouland millions (even according to the Sama¬ 
ritan chronology), that is, to twenty times as many as our 
prefent earth has, in all probability, now upon it, or can 
well be fuppofed capable of maintaining in its prefent con- 
ftitution. With re 1 peel to the patriarchal hiftory, and 
the Mofaic account of the antediluvian world, they are 
already, it is preiumed, fo much imprelfcd on the reader’s 
mind, by his acquaintance with the Scriptures, that it 
would be a needlefs and unneceflary tafk to repeat them 
here. The Jews and eaftern nations, however,‘having re¬ 
corded many important traditions concerning the antedi¬ 
luvians) which ancient and profane hiftory contributes to 
fupport, it may not be unentertaining, nor unacceptable to 
the reader, to be informed how exactly thefe accounts 
agree with thofeof the facred hiftorian. They are as follow : 
After the death of Adam, Seth, with his family, fepa- 
rated themfelves from the profligate race of Cain, and 
chofe for their habitation the mountain where Adam was 
buried, the Cainites remaining below, in the plain where 
Abel was killed} and, according to the tradition, this 
mountain was fo high, that the inhabitants could hear the 
angels finging the praifes'of God, and even join them in 
that fervice. Here they lived in great purity and fanflity 
of manners. Their conftant employment was praifing 
God, Lrom which they had few or no avocations; for their 
only food was the fruits of the trees which grew on the 
mountain, fo that they had no occalion to undergo any 
fervile labours, nor the trouble of fowing and gathering in 
their harveft. They were utter (hangers to envy, injuf- 
t:ce, or deceit. Their only oath was “ By the blood of 
Abeland they every day went up to the top of the 
mountain to worfhip God, and to vilit the body of Adam, 
as a mean of procuring the divine bleffing. Here, by con¬ 
templation of the heavenly bodies, they laid the founda¬ 
tions ot the fcience of a-ftronomy; and, left their inven¬ 
tions fliould be forgotten, or loft before they were publicly 
known, underhanding', from a prediction of Adam’s, that 
there would be a general deftrnction of all things, once 
by fire, and once by water, they built two pillars, one of 
brick, and the other of ftone, that, if the brick one happen¬ 
ed to be overthrown by the flood or otherwife deftroyed, 
that of ftone might remain. This laft, Jofephus fays, was 
to be feen in his time in the land of Syriad, (thought to be 
Upper Egypt.) The defleendants of Seth continued in 
the practice of virtue till the 40th year of Jared, when an 
hundred of them hearing the noi-fe of the tnufi'e and the riot¬ 
ous mirth of the Cainites below, agreed to go down to 
them from the holy mountain. On their arrival in the 
9 E plain, 
