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have been given up, and others seem never to have been seriously urged. An Author who had more Learning it feems, than Judgment to fpare, wrote a Book, to prove that there were Men before Adam; but this was rejected by Judicious Men, as a very abfurd and ridiculous Conceit, particularly by Grotius, as the Author complains, who yet afterwards retracted it himfelf. Some, notwithstanding, are so fond of any Paradox, that they are still for maintaining it. I confefs, it agrees admirably with a Tradition of the Arcadians, that their Ancestors were before the Moon; and if any Man should pretend, that this might very well be true, according to the Cartefian Hypothefis, by attempting to prove, that Arcadia might be inhabited before the Moon, of a Luminous became an Opake Body; in fo curious an Age, he must have ill Luck if he should want his Applauders. If fome object, that the Originals of the Books of Scripture in the Hand-writing of the feveral Authors, are not still remaining; doth this deferve to be answered till they can produce the Original Writings of all other Books? or at least of all or any that are as ancient, as even the last written of the Books of the New Testament? Would they have an Office erected, to prove the Titles to all Estates by Original Deeds and upon what Period of Time will they fix for the Date of them, which will admit of any Comparison with the Date of the Manufcript Copies now extant of the Scripture? It has been objected against the History

of

of the Flood, that America is divided from all the rest of the World by the Ocean, and that divers Beasts are found there of a different Species from any known in other Parts of the World, which therefore cannot be of any of thofe Kinds contained in the Ark. But this Objection deserves no Answer, till those that make it, can give an Account of all the Species of Animals in the World, and an exact Defcription of the Limits of North America, and how it borders upon the Sea, or the adjacent ContiIn the mean time, are not Elephants Natives only of India, and of fome Parts of Africa? And are not divers other Animals peculiar to fome Countries, and not the natural Breed of other Places on the fame Continent?

nent.

It is as vain to object, that the Negroes are not defcended from Noah, unless the Arguments could be confuted, by which it is prov'd, that Africa was peopled from Cham. Egypt is the land of Cham, (Pfal. cv. 23, 27.) or Ham, the Jupiter Hammon: Chemmis was a great City

i

of Thebais, and the Inhabitants were call'd Chemmites, or Chammites. * Pliny fays, that Ethiopia was denominated from Ethiops, the Son of Vulcan: which were reasonable to believe, if it could be proved, that there ever was fuch a Man. And there is the fame Reason to think, that the Æthiopians are descended from Cham, fince his Name carries in it the fame importance with Ethiops: For Cham fignifies Hot,

Herodot. l.ii. c. 19.

* Plin. 1. vi. c. 30.

and

୮

1

and Chum Black, from Chamam, to be Hot. Eupolemus delivers it as a Tradition among the Babylonians, that Chum was the Father of the Ethiopians, whom, by mistake, he makes the Son of Chanaan the Father of the Phanicians, and the Brother of Miftraim, (or Miz raim; in the Septuagint Verfion, Mefrain, and Mefraim,) the Father of the Egyptians: but he fays, that Chum was, by the Greeks, called Asbolus 5 that is, Soot, Blackness; and m Chemia, the ancient Name of Egypt, fignified Blackness. Ægypt, in the Old Testament, has its Name from Mizraim, the Son of Cham, and Æthiopia from Cush, another of his Sons: Can the Ethiopian (the Cushite) change his Skin, (Jer. xiii 23.) and thefe Cufbites or Ethiopians were far fpread, and are divided into " Eastern or Western by Homer, who is followed therein by Pliny. From all which it appears, that the People of Africa were originally defcended from Cham, and that their Colour was always the fame. And it may be confidered, that if the Hairiness of Efau had defcended to his Pofterity, it would have distinguished them as much from other Men as thofe of Cham's Pofterity are distinguish'd by their Blackness. Some have alledged, that the Sea, through which the Ifraelites paffed, is not Red: But they may be pleased to know, that Religion is nothing con

1 Apud Eufeb. Præpar. Evang. l. ix. c. 17.

Plut. de Ifid. & Ofir.

2 Odyff. d. v. 24. Plin, I. v. c. 8. 1. viii. c. 32.

cerned

cerned in what has been written on both fides upon this fubject; for it is not called the Red Sea in the Hebrew, but the Sea of Weeds, with which it abounds. It has the denomination of the Red Sea from the Greeks, however it came by it, (for the Criticks are not agreed about it) and is best known by that Name, which is therefore made ufe of by the Septuagint, and in our own and other Tranflations, which herein follow St. Luke and the Apostle to the Hebrews. Men muft call things by known Names if they will be understood, whatever gave the first occafion to those Names. As to many Objections, let Men but do Mofes the fame Right, which they would do Thucydides or Tacitus, and we need defire no more, tho' they should not allow for the great distance of Time between them: Indeed, they might live in the fame Age, for all that many of these Objectors know, and be next Neighbours. I have known divers Objections made, which the looking only into the Bible would answer, and many proceed from the want of being converfant in it. Some have supposed, that they had great matter of Obje&tion from Chrift's Curfing the Fig-tree, and caufing it to wither away: But never fo little Reflection might serve any one to take notice, how merciful a thing it was in the Son of God, and how fuitable to the Gospel which he preach'd, for him to fhew his Power of punishing upon a Tree rather than upon a Man: it was then, and is at any time as eafie for him to

punish

punish his Revilers, as it was to Curfe this Trée, or as it can be for them to Revile him, tho' they be never fo ready at it. But to manifest himself to be the Saviour, not the Deftroyer of Mankind; He Cured all manner of Diseases, and raised the Dead; but never took away the Life of any Man, nor inflicted any Disease: He fpared his worst Enemies, the Scribes and Pharifees, and punished their Hypocrifie in the Emblem only of a Fig-tree flourishing in Leaves before the Time and Seafon of Figs, and thereby promifing very much and early Fruit, but having none; it made a fhew of Figs out of Season, but had nothing to anfwer so fair an Appearance. This is the Parable of the Fig-tree reprefented in Fact, which we find exprefs'd in Words, Luke xiii. 6. and denoted the Destruction of Jerufalem, whither our Saviour was then going, for its Unfruitfulnefs and Hypocrifie, Matth. xxi. 18.

Other Objections, which may feem more confiderable, have been confuted even to a Demonftration. Cavils which have been raised concerning the Quantity of Space, which will be required to contain the Bodies of all Men at the Resurrection, and concerning the P Bottomlefs Pit, have been demonftrated to be frivolous. That the 9 Capacity of the Ark was fuffi

Tacquer. Geometr. Pract. lib. iii. c. 20. Probl. 2.

P Sir Sam. Morland's Urim of Confc. p. 95.

Buteo de Arca Noe. Kircher de Arc. Noe. Sir W. Rawleigh's Hift. lib. i. c. 7. §. 9. Bishop Wilkin's Real Character, Part 3. c. s.

da

cient