NAAN and his pofterity, exclufively of the reft of the posterity of HAM; and were therefore the curfe and punishment of the fon, not of the father, properly? The defcendants of MESRAIM, another of his fons, were the Egyptians: and they were fo far from being fervants of fervants to their coufins the Semites, that these were fervants of fervants to them, during more than fourscore years. Why the posterity of CHANAAN was to be deemed an accursed race, it is easy to account; and I have mentioned it just now. But it is not

so easy to account, why the posterity of the righteous SEM, that great example of filial reverence, became flaves to another branch of the family of HAM.

Ir would not be worth while to lengthen this tedious letter, by fetting down any more of the contents of the history of the bible. Your lordship may please to call the substance of it to your mind, and your native candor and love of truth will oblige

you

you

then to confess, that these sacred books do not aim in any part of them at any thing like univerfal chronology and hiftory. They contain a very imperfect account of the Ifraelites themselves; of their fettlement in the land of promife, of which, by the way, they never had entire, and fcarce ever peaceable poffeffion; of their divifions, apoftafies, repentances, relapses, triumphs, and defeats, under the occafional government of their judges, and under that of their kings; of the Galilean and Samaritan captivities, into which they were carried by the kings of Affyria, and of that which was brought on the remnant of this people when the kingdom of Judah was destroyed by thofe princes who governed the empire founded on the union of Niniveh and Babylon. These things are all related, your lordship knows, in a very fummary and confused manner: and we learn fo little of other nations by these accounts, that if we did not borrow fome light from the traditions of other nations, we should fcarce

VOL. I.

I

if of

fcarce understand them. One particular obfervation, and but one, I will make, to fhow what knowledge in the hiftory of mankind, and in the computation of time, may be expected from these books. The Affyrians were their neighbours, powerful neighbours, with whom they had much and long to do. Of this empire therefore, any thing, we might hope to find fome fatisfactory accounts. What do we find? The fcripture takes no notice of any Affyrian kingdom, till just before the time when prophane history makes that empire to end. Then we hear of PHUL, of TEGLATH-PHALASSER, who was perhaps the fame perfon, and of SALMANASER, who took Samaria in the twelfth of the aera of NABONASSER, that is, twelve years after the Affyrian empire was no more. SENACHERIB fucceeds to him, and ASSERHADDon to SENACHERIB. What fhall we fay to this apparent contrariety? If the filence of the bible creates a strong prefumption against the first, may not the filence of pro

phane

phane authority create fome against the
fecond Affyrian monarchs? The pains that
are taken to perfuade, that there is room
enough between SARDANAPALUS and Cy-
RUS for the fecond, will not refolve the
difficulty. Something much more plaufi
ble may be faid, but even this will be hy-
pothetical, and liable to great contradiction.
So that upon the whole matter,
the whole matter, the fcrip-
tures are fo far from giving us light into
general history, that they encreafe the ob-
scurity even of those parts to which they
have the nearest relation. We have there-
fore neither in prophane nor in facred au-
thors fuch authentic, clear, diftinct, and
full accounts of the originals of antient na-
tions, and of the great events of those ages
that are commonly called the first ages, as
deferve to go by the name of history, or as
afford fufficient materials for chronology
and history.

I MIGHT now proceed to obferve to your lordship how this has happened, not

only by the neceffary confequences of human nature, and the ordinary course of human affairs, but by the policy, artifice, corruption and folly of mankind. But this would be to heap digreffion upon digreffion, and to presume too much on your patience. I fhall therefore content myself to apply these reflections on the state of antient history to the study of history, and to the method to be observed in it; as soon as your lordship has rested yourself a little after reading, and I after writing so long a letter.

OF