years, died in a good old age. The phraseology of that time juftifies the conclufion, that he lived one full century.

In the continually decreasing period of longevity, Eli, about 66 years after, died by accident, at the age of 98, an old man; yet nothing is faid of his having exceeded the ordinary term of life. Samuel fucceeded him in the pontificate. Thirty years. was the age of confecration, and he had ministered in the vocation of a fubordinate prieft, before he rofe to the primacy, when his age was probably 36. His adminiftration, at the inauguration of Saul, was a period of 36 years more. Jofephus reports that Saul furvived him only two years. Every circumstance in the hiftory confirms this notation; and more particularly Saul's confultation with the woman at Endor. If Samuel's death had not been a recent occurrence, it is not fupposable, that the king would have defired an interview with that prophet. All these characters of time evince that Samuel lived 110 years,

UNCERTAIN is the date of Jeffe's birth. He went for an old man in the days of Saul, when his fon, David, was but a ftripling. In the 36th of that reign, David committed his father and mother to the protection of the king of Moab; and they most probably were living at the death of Saul. Hence it may be prefumed, that Jeffe's age filled up one complete century; and that human life was first reduced to the term of 70

* Ant. VI. 14. 8.

or 80 years in the time of David. In the 33d of this reign, and at the age of 80, Barzillai pronounced himold man.

self a very

3. RELYING on the certain truth of his poftulate, Ufher deducts 31 years from the government of Joshua, which, with other mis-arrangements, to be specified in their proper places, abbreviates the chronology from Mofes to Othniel.

4. In the Treatife on the Sacred Chronology *, the age of procreation affigned to the three ancestors of David, after Salmon, contradicts the term of natural life, faid, in the ANNALS, to have been fixed in the year after the Exodus, to 70, or 80. There it is affumed, that Boaz lived 102, Obed and Jeffe each 111, before the birth of their respective fons. The interval from the birth of Boaz to that of David is 324. This fum divided by 3, quotes 108, for the common measure. But is it credible, in a period of the world when very few mortals lived more than 80 years, that the space between three descents, in immediate fucceffion, did exceed a century? To no purpofe is it alleged, that a great many examples of perfons, who lived from 130 to 150 years, from the days of Vespafian to Thomas Parr, are recorded in hiftory. These examples the Primate has been at great pains to collect. His conclufion is a paralogifm. The point to be proved was, that three fathers, in lineal and continuous order, in any period fince the time of David, begat fons at

Fart.I. c. 12.

the

the

after

age of 102, or III; that is 20 or 30 years the ufual and ultimate term of life. Serious reafoning in support of a paradox is ridiculous.

MUCH easier it is to demolish a tottering, than erect a firm and well proportioned fabric. The scheme of fcripture chronology will derive both firmness and proportion from genealogy. In this directory, for computation, two rules are carefully to be observed. The age of procreation muft neither anticipate the course of nature, nor be extended to the utmost term of life. The birth of a fon prior to the 14th of a father's life may, as not vouched by experience or hiftory, be confidered as a physical improbability; and in the facred genealogies no example of procreation before 16 occurs, and none ought to be admitted.

FROM Abraham to David the generations are 14, counting Solomon the first of a new feries.

WHEN the long lives of the first three patriarchs are confidered, (175, 180, and 147), the birth of Ifaac in the 100dth of Abraham, of Jacob in the 60th of Isaac, and of Judah in the 81ft of Jacob, are events in perfect agreement with the course of nature. From the defcent into Egypt, with which the birth of Pharez has been connected, to the egrefs, the years are 215, and the generations four, excluding Nahfhon, whose age at the egrefs is supposed to have been 19. This number taken from 215 leaves 196 for the four intermediate generations, of which the mean quantity for each is precisely 49. The ages of Levi, Jofeph, Kohath, and Amram, were feverally 137, 110, 133, and 137, and

the

the common measure 129. These four were contempo→ rary with Pharez, Hezron, Aram, and Amminadab. It involves no abfurdity to affirm, that 49, was the mean interval of defcents, at a time, when the mean term of life was 129.

FROM the birth of Nahfhon, as above ftated, to that of Solomon, are 475 years, and fix generations, the common measure being 79. It has been fhewn, that the mean term of life in this interval was 108, which exceeds the mean age of procreation by 29. In none of thefe computations is any thing affirmed, at variance with the course of nature.

THE foregoing arrangements proceed on the fuppofition, that David was the laft in the firft feries of 14 generations. But the Evangelifts words may be contidered as placing David at the top of the fecond feries, without cularging the number of generations in that, or the fubfequent divifion.

Tuis conjecture refts on the authority of an inSpived writer: "Pharea begat Hezron, Hezron begat Ram, Ram begat Amminadab, Amminadab begat Nahthon, Nabibon begat Saimah, and Salmon begat Boas; Boas begat Obed, Obed begat Jeffe, and Jete bg David to Salmon is here characenied as the bon of Suman, and grandion of Nabihom. This addison makes JS beth from Abraham, and the 10th Bom Phones. Jackion, in his Chronological Antiqui ma di languked that this vanation of two imigr

D

names denotes two different perfons. In his fecond differtation On the State of the Printed Hebrew Text*, Kennicott approves the conjecture, as ingenious, probable, and fatisfactory. This emendation, if it be one, is mentioned not as abfolutely necessary to ascertain the genuine chronology of the Bible, and its conformity with the courfe of nature; but merely as an expedient for weakening an objection, otherwise not forcible t.

* P. 184. and 543.

†The reafons which juftify the fixing of Nahfhon's birth to the 19th year before the Exodus, evince that he died after Joshua. Certain it is, that fome elders, at least, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, (both in Egypt and at the Jordan), did actually furvive Joshua; Eleazar, for inftance; and if Nahfhon did not, it will be impoffible to find the plurality implied in ALL. The fame reafons which demonftrate the improbability, that the Rachab, Mat. i. 5 was the fame Rahab who entertained the spies, Josh. ii. are set forth at large in the Differtation on the Hebrew Genealogies. If the name in both paffages defcribe the fame perfon, she must have been 180 years old at the birth of Boaz.

Sir Ifaac Newton, finding a Jeshua who had fons in the retinue of Zorobabel from Chaldea, confounds that Levite with the high priest of that name. In the fame register he finds an Ezra, and a Nehemiah, whom he affirms to have been living 100 years after.

Chronology