and Ophir (or Sofala,) a country, distant from that of Job not less than 35 degrees of latitude, and on the course, actually pursued, not less, perhaps, than 3000 English miles. How much more must have been known and done, by those, who knew and did these things, I leave to your consider ation.

With the account, which I have here given, compare the following facts. Silk was first brought from India into Europe 274 years after the Christian era. It was first manufactured in Europe in the year 551; and was first worn in England in 1534.

Glass seems to have been first discovered in 664.

The arithmetical figures were brought into Europe in the year 991 by the Saracens.

In the year 1015, parents were in England forbidden by law to sell their children.

The musical notes were in vented in 1070.

In 1180 glass windows were first used in England.

Chimnies were unknown in that country in the year 1200. After the year 1233, houses in the great cities of England, France, and Germany, thatched with straw.

were

In 1298, splinters of wood were used instead of candles. In 1330, gold was first coined in Christendom.

In 1336, two weavers came to England from Brabant; the first, that ever settled in Great Britain.

In 1509, gardening was first introduced into England from the Netherlands. Until that time the English imported their hortuline vegetables from that country.

In 1563, knives were first made in England.

These facts, which might easily be swelled to a long list, sufficiently indicate the whole state of society at these several periods; and prove indisputably, that knowledge and arts had their first seat in Asia, and that they spread gradually, but irregularly, throughout the several countries of Europe; that this has taken place at no great distance of time; at periods, therefore, long since the deluge; and that the whole face of human affairs is such, as comports only with the supposi tion, that mankind began first to think, and to act, with intelligence and skill on the spot here assigned; as well as at the date, and in the circumstances.

The Chronology of all nations, who have been in possession of a chronology, accords only with this scheme; and as nearly, as the imperfect state of chronological information can be supposed to permit.

Other

It is justly observed by Howard, that the pretensions of ancient nations to extreme antiquity fall, because they are obliged to fill up their several epochs with fables of Gods, ruling on earth, instead of men. writers have with equal justice observed, that, where these periods are not marked as the reigns of the Gods, they are filled up with the names of men, without any facts; and therefore are to to be regarded merely as matters of invention, and not as truth; not as facts, which have descended from antiquity, but as devised, to gratify the wish of being believed to be ancient: a thing, not less coveted by nations, than by families. This is eminently true concerning the accounts of Mc

netho.

The Chaldean and Hindoo pretensions, of this nature, are plainly mere astronomical periods, formed by the multiplication of favorite cycles into each other; and have not a particle of evidence to support them, when considered as realities. Sir William Jones has by a most ingen fous and satisfactory investigation proved, that the Hindoo chronology, when stripped of its astronomical and poetical embellishments, very nearly coincides with the Mosaic. From that of Josephus it differs still

less.

The Chinese pretensions are not supported even by their own history. The Authors of the Kang-mo, or great annals of the Chinese Empire, fix the beginning of their authentic history, or chronology, within four centuries before Christ: and even these annals are shewn by M. Sale and M. Deguignes, to be erroneous, and incapable of being relied upon.

The golden age of various nations terminates at the date of the deluge. This indicates the reality of this extraordinary event, and proves its recency.

Not a single nation carries its -history, even by tradition, beyond that period. I speak of a history made up of facts; not the recital of mere names. No other cause, beside the deluge, can be assigned for this sudden and universal termination of the history of mankind; especially when the traditions of many nations reach back to this date.

Moses, in the 10th chapter of Genesis, has given us an account of the descendants of Noah, by whom he says the nations were divided in the earth after the

flood. It is a fact, which in an investigation of this subject ought never to be forgotten, that all the subsequent scriptural writers adopt the account of Moses, exactly, in their direct recitals, and in their allusions to the history of the Gentiles, whether historical or prophetical. That no one of these writers should have ever found himself under any necessity of varying at all from this account of Moses, but that every one of them should have been able to make his own account of nations, tribes and cities, of lakes, rivers, and mountains, provinces, countries, and empires, without even a seeming difficulty, exactly accordant with the narrative of Moses, is a proof of its truth, which, it may be boldly said, can never be shaken. The very people, whom he mentions 1500 years before Christ, are found under the very same names by the prophet Jeremiah, 900 years afterwards. The very Babel, which began to be built 2247 years before Christ, furnished an army, which destroyed Jerusalem, 588 years only before the Christian era. In the first of these periods we find Ashur, the son of Shem, building Nineveh, and laying the foundation of an empire. The monarch of this empire, 721 years before the birth of the Savior, conquered the kingdom of Israel; and carried the inhabitants captive into the same country, still bearing the same name.

Aram was the father of the Syrians. The countries, which they inhabited, were in the time of Jeremiah called Aram Naharaim; Syria of the rivers, or Mesopotamia: Aram Minni, or Arme, nia; and Arum, or Syria Proper,

Thus also Elam, or the Elamites, the Medes, the Idumeans, the Arabians, the Cushites, the Phanicians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the descendants of Ophir, Havilah, and Sheba, of Tarshish, Canaan, &c. all inhabited the countries, called by the names of their respective patriarchs.

To this scheme of the descent and location of mankind, also, the nations themselves accord, so far as we have their testimony concerning this subject; and much farther than we should naturally expect from the confusion of languages, their mixture, the fluctuating state of pronunciation, and the extensive loss of traditionary accounts, in periods of extreme ignorance, by migrations, and by conquests. Thus Egypt is to this day called the land of Ham, and of Mesr. The people on the mountains of Habesh now style themselves the descendants of Cush. Saba is still the name of the ancient capital of Abyssinia. The Arabians trace their descent from Joktan and Ishmael; and style a province, or kingdom, of their peninsula Hadramauth from Hatsermauth, the son of Joktan. Sidon is to this day the name of a city, given to it by the first born of Canaan. The Tatars to this day claim their descent from Targoma, or Turgoma; and Ramah, the son of Cush is the here, supremely celebrated in the songs and histories of Hindoostan.

To this it ought to be added, that ancient historians and geographers, Greek, Roman, and Arabian, call many of the places, mentioned in Scripture, and de

rived from these descendants of Noah, by the same names, or names as little changed, as the convenient adoption of them in their own native languages would admit. A numerous train of specimens may be found in Bochart's Geog. Sac. and other books of a similar nature.

Nor ought it to be forgotten, that a single alphabet has spread chiefly through the world; adopted in Hindoostan, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, and among the Celtic nations, at a period, when there was no commerce between those, by whom it was adopted. It was therefore derived by descent from a common stock; and this common stock is found with certainty in Noah and his family.

In a manner, perfectly correspondent with this scheme, and this only, the sphere and the zodrac of Hindoostan, Chaldea, Egypt, and Greece is the same, with a small number of variations,formed by the fancy of these people. All of them, therefore, derived it from an original, antediluvian sphere and zodiac, communicated to their descendants by the sons of Noah.

If every man of sobriety and intelligence will coolly consider these several facts, if he will mark their perfect consistency with the Mosaic deluge, the necessity, if I may call it such, with which as consequences they flow from that event, and their absolute irreconcilableness with the contrary supposition, he must, I think, be satisfied, that whether Moses was inspired or uninspired this part at least of his story is true.