THE illuftrious Author of the Short Chronicle, finding the Primate's Arrangements, for this Period, involved in artificial perplexity, had recourse to a bold, but inadequate conjecture, which brings into coincidence the acceffion of the father, and the military achievements of the fon. IT is inadequate; becaufe Saul was invested with royalty in the 31ft of his age. It has above been shewn that Jonathan is always put firft in the register of his brothers, a not unlikely token of primogeniture ;that Ifhbofheth, or Efhbaal, the youngest of four, fucceeded his father on the throne of the ten tribes, at the age of 40 t; and was confequently born in the first of that reign. Befides Ahinoam, Saul is faid to have had no other wife or concubine. She, therefore, was most probably the mother of his four fons. Suppose them born, each after an interval of 18 months, Jonathan was but fix years old at the time of his father's acceffion; and no more than 15, if born in the 16th of his father's life; the earlieft age of procreation recorded in the Bible. But the age even of 15, though it were certain that he was fo old in the first of that reign, is inadequate to his military skill, experience, courage, and fuccefs, exemplified in the facred hiftory. ON the whole, Sir Ifaac Newton's Scheme is encumbered with all the difficulties which perplex the computation in the Annals. But, if this Philiftine war be brought 28 years lower than the date affigned by 2 Sam. ii. 8. and Chron. viii. 33. † 2 Sam. ii. 1o. Usher; Ufher; and the acceffion of Saul carried 28 years higher than in the Short. Chronicle; the facred history is confiftent with itself, with the verity of computation, and with the courfe of NATURE. 2. Coexiftence of SHISHAC and SESOSTRIS with REHOBOAM. "IN the year before Chrift 974, Sefac fpoils the Temple, and invades Syria and Perfia, fetting up pillars in many places." "Sefoftris in the 5th year of Rehoboam, came out of Egypt with a great army, fpoiled the Temple, reduced Judea into fervitude, and went on conquering, first eastward toward India, which he invaded, and then weftward as far as Thrace t." HERE again is a train of controvertible poftulates. From the tellimony of the facred writers, in two texts ‡, the Greek interpreters call Shishac, Soufakim; and of Jofephus, who gives the name Soufacos; certain it is, that he was contemporary with Rehoboam. The dynafties, as conftructed by Eufebius and Syncellus, characterize Souffakeim as the fon of Smendes, or Vennephes, the 66th king numbered by Syncellus; whereas Sethos, Sethofis, Sefoftris, or Sefac, is the 55th of Manetho. These notations are at variance with identity. SIR I. Newton argues, "That Sefac and Sefoftris were kings of ALL Egypt, at one and the fame time; and that they agree not only in the time, but in their actions and conquests. Where Herodotus defcribes the expe * Short Chronicle, p. 20. † Chronol. ch. ii. p. 216. Kings, xiv. 25. and 2 Chron. xii. 9. dition of Sefoftris, Jofephus tells us, that he defcribed the expedition of Sefac, and attributed his actions to Sefoftris, erring only in the name of the king. Corruptions of names are frequent in hiftory: Sefoftris was otherwise called Sefochris, Sefoofis, Sethofis, Sefonchis*". "Egypt was at first divided into many smaller kingdoms, like other nations, and grew into one monarchy by degrees." ALL great empires were compofed of petty principalities, accumulated by fucceffive conquests; and, if Egypt were at first under the government of several independent chieftains, with local jurifdiction, it was confolidated into one monarchy long before the days of Rehoboam. In the time of Abraham and Jacob, it was under one fovereign. "When Joseph was fet over ALL the land of Egypt, Pharaoh only in THE THRONE was greater than he; and, when the feven years of dearth began to come, and the dearth was in ALL lands; in ALL the land of Egypt was bread; and when ALL the land of Egypt was famifhed, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread +." Every circumftance indicates one fupreme monarch, and one prime minister, over the WHOLE land. About the time of Mofes' birth "arofe A NEW KING, who knew not Jofeph." His name too was Pharaoh. At the egrefs, the Pharaoh of those days, with all his hoft, perifhed in the Red Seat. * Chronol. ch. i. p. 68. HERODOTUS Gen. xli. 40-57. Herodotus makes Pheron the fon and fucceffor of Sefoftris. Sir I. Newton affirms, that he was the first of the Pharaohs; HERODOTUS and D. Siculus, do not mention the father or predeceffor of Sefoftris. But Josephus, quoting from Manetho, records, that Amenôphis was the father of Sethôfis. Africanus and Eufebius place Amenophis laft in the 18th dynafty, and Sethos firft in the 19th; Africanus, in his 12th dynasty, inferts Sefoftris as the successor of Ammenemis. SIR J. Marsham, and Sir I. Newton take for granted, that Amenophis, Ammemenes, Ammon, and Memnon, were one and the fame perfon, otherwife called Jupiter; and that Bacchus, Ofiris, Sethos, Sethofis, Sefonchofis, Sefac, were but different names for Sefoftris. If this be a discovery, it is a fabric built on conjecture, and the conclufion, weak, as the hypothefis is ambiguous. SESOSTRIS and Sefac, it is faid, reigned at the same time over all Egypt. But other chronologers, on grounds equally probable, refer the former to the times of the patriarch Jacob; and a third clafs represent him to be the Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea. Thefe furmifes are, perhaps, all alike uncertain. Of Sefoftris nothing occurs, but in poetical traditions, or legendary catalogues of kings, without chronological notations. The time of Sefac's exiftence is determined by infallible authority. BUT farther; to neither the one nor the other, or to any one Egyptian monarch, fo early as the days of Rehoboam, can the achievements, long voyages, and Pharaohs; that in the reign of Afa he was drowned in the Nile; and that he was afterward deified under the name of Orus. extenfive extenfive conquefts, enumerated by Sir Ifaac Newton, be ascribed. This great author poftulates, "That Amon, the father of Sefoftris, having, by the affiftance of the Edomites, built a fleet on the Red Sea, the fon coafted Arabia Felix, failed beyond the Perfian Gulf, and in those countries fet up columns, with infcriptions, denoting his conquefts. After these things, he invaded and conquered Libya, prepared a fleet on the Mediterranean, penetrated as far as the Ocean, and at the mouth of the Straits fet up the famous pillars. At length he came out of Egypt and spoiled the Temple *. The affiftance of the Edomites is the bafelefs fabric of a vifion. That people firft acquired reputation as navigators in the Chronology of ancient Kingdoms amended. THE Egyptians at the time fpecified, and many ages after, had no skill in maritime affairs. In the infancy of arts, expeditions over a wide trackless sea, for traffic or conqueft, were impracticable. "That of Sefoftris has been considered as the most favourable era in the hiftory of Egypt, for fending a colony into China. But, when examined with the greatest attention, it is nothing more than a facerdotal fiction, without the smalleft particle of reality. Megaftenes, cited by Strabo, was perfectly right in maintaining, that Sefoftris had never fet foot in India. What must be confidered still more extravagant, is the opinion that he conftructed a fleet of 600 long veffels, on the Red |