fuits, I fhall arrange my obfervations under different heads, that the chief lines of evidence may not be interfected and obfcured by fuch etymological difquifitions, as fome part of the subject may still require.

SECT. II.

Inconfiftency in the Chronology of the Analyfis.

As

S chronological accuracy ought ever to form the ground-work of every rational historical deduction, it should apparently have been an object of peculiar attention in the conftruction of a Syftem, which was to reform all former fyftems; to render fuperfluous every future system; and to clear up the perplexing difficulties, which had long embarraffed our greatest men in the chronological line. But this, I am apprehenfive, is rather to be wifhed for, than to be found, in the New Analyfis of Ancient Mythology.*

Το pave the way for the expedition of his Cuthites, two great eras ought to have been ftudied with care. I mean those of the Uni

verfal Deluge, and of the Divifion of the Earth among the posterity of Noah. As we can have no true lights to guide us to those great events, but the Books of Mofes, it cannot be improper to enquire how far, with regard to thefe, the principles of the Analyfis are just. And here it may be neceffary to premife, as the learned gentleman does not appear to have fufficiently attended to circumftances of fo much confequence to his hypothefis, That two systems of Chronology have, for a long time, chiefly divided the attention of the Christian world: the Patriarchal Genealogies, according to the Hebrew Bible; and those adopted by the Septuagint. It is foreign to the prefent queftion, to enter into the difcuffion of a fubject, on which fo many learned men have differed: but, as the Hebrew, from which our tranflation is made, has long been almost generally received into common ufe, it seems to be incumbent upon every writer, who chufes to depart from that fyftem, to aflign his reafons, and to inform his readers, upon what canons he proposes to proceed. This however the learned gentleman has not done: neither has he adhered to any regular standard. He has taken the range of many volumes and his extracts are copi

ous.

But their jarring chronologies he feems

to have followed without reflexion; and to have involved himself in a labyrinth of perplexity, which makes him at variance with the Bible, with its verfions, and with himself. By the Hebrew Bible, the Deluge happened in the year of the Creation 1656: by the Septuagint, in 2262 and both agree in fixing the Division of the Earth to the days of Peleg.

:

THE Migration of the posterity of Noah to the different regions affigned to them by divine appointment, the learned gentleman labours to prove, as the leading point of his Syftem, to have been an event prior to the Babel Difperfion. And this Migration, on the authority of Eufebius, he has placed in the year of the world 2672, when Noah was 930 years old. But in another place, tranfcribing from Epiphanius, he fuppofes Noah to have refided with his pofterity, before the Migration 659 years, in the neighbourhood of Mount Ararat, where the ark is faid to have rested after the Deluge *. These facts and dates he confiders as undifputed; he reasons from them, and makes them the groundwork of his fubfequent pofitions.

с

* Mr. Bryant, after obferving that the diftribution of the earth was by divine appointment, quotes the following words of Eufebius, "The diftribution of the earth

Now let us try their validity. And first, by the chronology of the Hebrew Bible. The Flood, as before obferved, happened in the year 1656 Noah, being then 600 years of

happened in the two thousand fix hundred and seventy-second 66 year of the creation, and in the nine hundred and thir"tieth year of the Patriarch's life. Then it was that "Noah, by divine appointment, divided the world be"tween his three fons."-The like is found, he adds, in Syncellus, Epiphanius, and other writers.- Many of the Fathers, fays Mr. Bryant afterwards, were of opinion, that they (the posterity of Noah) did not for some ages quit this region. According to Epiphanius, they remained in the vicinity of Ararat for five generations, during the space of fix hundred and fifty-nine years. "After "the ark, upon the decrease of the waters, had rested up"on the mountains of Ararat, upon that particular emi"nence called Lubar, which bounds the countries of "the Armenians and Cardueans; the region where it "fettled became the first place occupied by mankind. "Here the Patriarch Noah took up his refidence, and "planted the vine. In this place he faw a large progeny defcend from him, children after children-to the fifth generation, for the fpace of fix hundred and fifty-nine "years." As the learned gentleman has been at much pains to fhew, that thefe Fathers were very wrong, in many points of lefs importance, it is wonderful he did not question them, upon the very ground-work of his St.m. Vid. Mythology Vol. III. p. 15. 22. Euseb, Chron. p. 10. Syncel. p. 89. Epiphan. 1. 2. t. 2. p. 703. 1. 1. p. 5 and 6.

age. He lived afterwards 350 years, and died in the year 2006. Peleg, in whose days the earth is declared by Mofes to have been divided, was born in the year 1757; and died in 1996. But, according to the calculations adopted by the learned gentleman, the Division, instead of being in the lifetime of those two patriarchs, could not take place till 666 years after the death of Noah; and 676 after the death of Peleg. Whilft, in the other paffage, as quoted from Epiphanius, a ftill greater impoffibility is fuppofed for Noah is there faid to have been alive 659 years after the deluge; which would not only postpone the Migration 249 years later than 2672, which he had already determined upon, but extend Noah's life to 1259 years; although every concurring authority makes the fum of his age to have been only 950.

LET us now confider these positions by the Septuagint chronology. Noah, at the era of the flood, which is fixed by the chief copies of that verfion to the year 2262, was, as above noticed, 600 years old: to which, if we add the 350 years he lived after it, he must have died in the year 2612, fixty years before the migration, inftead of being alive twenty years afterwards. Whilft Peleg, not