measures of time, in its various integral parts. Years too were combined into larger integral parts, of unequal quantity, called INTERVALS or FIXED PERIODS, whence new terms in computation, each beginning with unity... COMPUTATION derives additional certainty from the periodical folemnities: of the Jewish worship, regulated by the phases of the moon, and adjusted to the apparently annual circuits of the fun. By all these, and many other expedients, fuggefted from natural phenomena, in connexion with institutions civil and facred, has it been attempted to define the number of days, weeks, lunations, folftices, equinoxes, and astronomical years, from the primeval week to that of our Lord's refurrection. From the vague, fictitious, and contradictory annals of paganifm, impoffible it is to folve a problem, for which operation the Bible alone affords fufficient principles. The past duration of the folar fyftem is a discovery, derived folely from the books of Mofes and the ancient hiftory of the pagan world must be adjusted to that ftandard, not the facred history to the annals of the gentiles. THOUGH unequivocal and decifive in this matter are the notations of times in the books of Moses and the Prophets, yet it is with truth affirmed, that fuch notations have not yet been generally understood, and judiciously applied. Foreign chronologers, fuch as Scaliger and Petau, mistook by many years the first point in hiftorical time. Our revered countryman, Sir Ifaac Newton, left this point unexamined. Bedford and Kennedy Kennedy rectified Ufher's primary term in computation, but retained all his fubfequent mifarrangements. IN the foregoing Analyfis, the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch has been adopted as the model of computation prior to the birth of Abram, in the 130th year of his father Terah. To the critical annotations of Wall, Kennicott, Mill, Kufter, Wetstein, Bowyer, and others, the author acknowledges his obligations for various readings in the printed and manuscript copies of both Teftaments, by which feveral numerical In fome cafes parallel mistakes have been rectified. texts, in others the course of nature, or hiftorical connexion, have been admitted, as equivalent to the authority of approved various readings in particular texts or their verfions, especially those of the earliest dates. THE writer of these papers reftricted his enquiries to thofe numbers alone, which he judged fubfervient to the elucidation of the Sacred Annals, with a reference to chronology, genealogy, and hiftory. Few and inconfiderable are the propofed emendations, which rest on no better authority, than his own private conjecture. THE texts where these emendations have been propofed, the numbers to be corrected, and the subjects to which they refer, are specified as below. THIS very diminutive sum of difcordant numbers, in the pedigrees, and chronology of the whole Bible, does not exhibit fo bulky and portentous a figure, as might be prefumed, from the loud and frequent clamours of modern free-thinkers, who would not hefitate to apologize for errata far more numerous and important, in the puny volumes of Eutropius or Florus. THESE ftrictures, on this great man's laft bequeft to the literary world, might have been extended to a much more minute fpecification of articles fufceptible of improvement, or tranfcendently excellent. A small fpecimen of either kind was intended to be fet before the public, with quite other views, than to difparage a character, every way refpectable, and whofe renown his own valuable works will transmit to a very remote pofterity, with increasing honour. SIR I. Newton's principles of computation are applicable to many more hiftorical fynchronisms, than are mentioned by himself, or can here be enumerated. Those who wish to see the fubject profecuted more diffusively, from the time of the Judges in Ifrael to the captivity of Zedekiah, may confult Dr. Winder's Hiftory of Knowledge, chiefly religious, 2 vols. 4to, 1746, a work now almost forgotten. FROM the facts established in this chapter, natural is the inference, that the fall of Troy is the rife of the true historical era among the gentiles. For, in a very fhort time after, commenced four famous national eras as in the fubjoined scheme of their dates. Troy Troy overthrown, A. P. J. 3813, coinci dent with New Salamis built by Teucer Dido lays the foundation of Carthage Source of computation by the Olympiads First year of Nabonaffar's era Sir Ifaac Newton's chronology ends A. P. J. 4383, A. M. 3678. ONE general reflection, though obvious, is too important to be omitted. The arts of computation had made fuch progress in the pagan world, that the four principal fixed periods of gentilifm commenced before the Annals of the Old Teflament were concluded. These periods are called the artificial chronology. But the Greeks had calculated eclipfes about the time of the 70 years captivity, which is the era of aftronomical chronology. Before the clofe of the Hebrew canon 49 of the 490 prophetical years had elapsed, so that the remaining 341, ending with the crucifixion, parallel with the corresponding years of the Olympiad, of Rome, of Nabonaffar, and of the Seleucidæ. Such was the providential care of overruling Wisdom in appointing fit and efficient means for explaining the oracles of prophecy by the chronology and history of kingdoms. run CHAP. V. FALCONER'S Chronological Tables. WHILE this last sheet was under the compofitor's hands, this publication was advertifed for fale. Its profeffed defign is to conftruct a chronological chain, uniting the common hiftory with the facred, from the demife of David to that of Alexander the Great, by the late Thomas Falconer of Chefter Efq. The title prompted curiofity, and even impatience, to peruse the volume, fo recently announced. IN a PREFATORY DISCOURSE of 134 quarto pages, are explained the principal columns in the Tables, which were intended to fill up the dark period between the ceffation of the Jewish, and the certainty of the Greek hiftory. Thofe on the left hand, representing the kingdoms of Judah and Ifrael, are regulated by the admirable fyftem of A. B. Ufher, but without following him implicitly year by year. The first column on the left hand is the Julian Period, which may be compared with that on the oppofite fide, denoting the years before the birth of our blessed Saviour, according to the vulgar era; and the other column of numbers, adjoining on the right hand, to the chronicle of Ifrael, is |