if the epoch of the Egyptian kingdom began the same year with that of the Babylonians, as is exprefsly faid, the total of the reigns of their antediluvian princes could not exceed twelve hundred years. Befides, the number of fixteen kings feems too large in proportion to that of the Babylonian kings, and of the generations of Mofes in the fame period. It is therefore more conformable to Manetho's chronology, to fuppofe the firft feven only, whom he calls gods, and the old chronicle ftyles Auritæ, were antediluvians; and that they reigned twelve hundred years, part of the nineteen hundred and eighty-five, the remainder of which will be accounted for hereafter. And this hypothefis seems to be confirmed from the confideration of the laft of thefe gods, Typhon, who probably reigned immediately before the flood, and perifhed therein. For feveral circumftances of the deluge are mentioned in the hiftory of Ofiris and Typhon; particularly the very day when it began, or when Ofiris (who is taken for Noah) was fhut up in the ark. The name of Typhon, according to fome learned men, fignifies also a deluge or inundation (H); whence the Egyptian priests called the Sea-Typhon; and Typhon, or, as the Latin poets call him, Typhæus, is reprefented as a monftrous giant, warring against heaven, and at laft overcome by Jupiter, and overwhelmed in water. It appears probable, therefore, that he was one of thofe mighty men of old, whose wickedness was fo exceeding great, that it drew down that judgment upon them f. By thefe gods Manetho, as he elsewhere explains himself, meant no more than mortal men, who, for their wifdom and goodnefs, were feverally promoted to the regal dignity, and afterwards made immortal. Their particular inventions, and inftitutions, which gained them this honour from the people, we may more conveniently confider, when we enter on the hiftory of the Egyptian nation. It would be in vain to endeavour to reconcile the foregoing table with the accounts of the Greek authors, which feem rather to relate to the times after the flood. For the Greeks were very liberal in bestowing the names of their gods, and frequently gave the fame name to feveral perfons. This confufion might have f Vide Plutarch. de Ifid. & Ofir. p. 356. Appolon. Argon, lib. ii, Maneth. apud Eufeb. de Præp. Ev. lib. i. (H) The Arabs at this day the word al tufan. exprefs the general deluge by been been avoided, had they given us the true Egyptian names, inftead of undertaking to interpret them. Nor is it the only inftance in which thofe writers, efpecially the later Greek chronologers, have corrupted and confounded Manetho's history. Having mentioned the old Egyptian chronicle, it may be proper to acquaint the reader, that, according to that record, Vulcan has no time affigned him, as appearing both night and day: the Sun, who was the fon of Vulcan, reigned thirty thousand years; after him, Saturn, and the other twelve gods, reigned three thoufand nine hundred and eighty-four years; then the eight demigods, two hundred and seventeen years; and after these began the thirty dynasties %. SE C T. VII. Of the Deluge. A. M. 1656. Ante Chr. 2348. Sixteen hundred and fifty-fix years after the creation, the earth was overflowed and deftroyed by a deluge of water, which overfpread the face of the whole globe, from pole to pole, and from east to west; so that the floods over-reached the tops of the highest mountains; Abort hifthe rains defcending after an unusual manner, and the tory of the fountains of the great deep being broke open, a general flood. deftruction and devaftation was brought upon the earth, and all things in it, mankind and other living creatures; excepting Noah and his family, who, by a special providence of God, were preserved in a certain ark, or veffel, with fuch kinds of living creatures as he took on board. After these waters had raged for fome time on the earth, they began to leffen and thrink. The great waves and fluctuations of this deep, or abyfs, being quieted by degrees, the waters retired into their former channels and caverns within the earth the mountains and fields began to appear, and the whole habitable earth affumed that. form and fhape wherein we now fee it. From that little remnant preferved in the ark, the prefent race of mankind, and of animals, in the known parts of the earth, were propagated. Thus perifhed the old world, and the prefent arofe from its ruins. That there was such an univerfal deftruction by water, is confirmed by the concurrent teftimonies of several Diod. Sicul. Chron. vet. apud Syncell. Profane teftimonies of this cataftrophe. A. M. 1656. of the most ancient writers and nations in the world. What account the Chaldean records give of it, we have Ante Chr. already feen. The Indian and Perfian tradition we may 2348. Whether to pical. mention hereafter. That the Egyptians were no ftrangers to this event, appears not only from thofe circumftances in the ftory of Ofiris and Typhon mentioned above; but also from the teftimony of Plato; who fays, that a certain Egyptian prieft recounted to Solon, out of their facred books, the hiftory of the univerfal flood, which happened long before the particular inundations known to the Grecians. The inhabitants of Heliopolis, in Syria, fhewed a chafm or cleft in the earth in the temple of Juno, which fwallowed up the waters of the flood. Nay, the very Americans are faid to acknowlege and speak of it in their continent: and we are told, that there is a tradition among the Chinese, that Puoncu, with his family, escaped the general deluge; though another exprefly afferts, the Chinese annals make no mention at all of the flood, and that it is a mistake in those who imagine they do however it feems, their hiftorians do speak of a flood, which fome fuppofe to be that of Noah, but they do not make it univerfal. Moft nations have fome tradition of a deluge, which happened in their respective countries but it must be owned, at the fame time, that, several of them were particular inundations only, and therefore carefully to be distinguished from that of Noah ; though ancient and modern writers frequently confound them together (I). Some difficulties, which feem to attend the Mofaic account of the deluge, fuch as the finding waters fufficient to drown the world, and the improbability that all forts of animals were preferved in the ark, have induced fome men of learning, to fuppofe, that Noah's flood was not univerfal, but national only, confined to Judæa, and the h Lucian. de Dea Syria, tom. ii. p. 882. dorus, from the Samothracian regions A. M. 1656. 2348. regions thereabouts (K); or perhaps to that tract of land which lies between the four feas, the Perfian, Caspian, Euxine, and Mediterranean, or, at moft, that it reached Ante Chr. no farther than the continent of Afia. And to support this prefumption, they allege, that, fince the primary defign of the flood was to deftroy mankind only, who could hardly be thought in fo fhort a time to have overfpread the face of the whole earth, there was no neceffity to carry the waters beyond the bounds of what was inhabited. Bedford indeed has gone fo far as to fuppofe, that all mankind did not perish in the deluge; and has endeavoured to prove, from a peculiar expofition of the curfes of Cain and Lamech, that the Africans and Indians are of their posterityi. gener If the deluge was univerfal, the quantity of water required to effect it is fo immenfe, that it has been ally thought extremely difficult, if not impoffible to say whence it came, or whither it went. The proportion of water, fufficient to caufe fuch an inundation, has been computed at eight oceans. But Dr. Keil, who was well able to make the calculation, fays, that there must have been, at the lowest computation, twenty-two oceans. And where to find this quantity is the question. There are the clouds above, and the deeps below, and in the bowels of the earth; and these are all the ftores we have for water; and Mofes directs us to no other, for the causes of the deluge: "The fountains of the great deep," fays he, "were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened; and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights." By the great deep fome understand the ocean; but others, with more reason, fay it means the fubterraneous abyfs, or vaft collection of waters in the bowels of 1 Vid. Le Clerc's Differtations: Stillingfleet Orig, Sacr. book iii. Voff. de Et. Mundi, p. 203. Bedford's Scripture Chronology, p. 39. * Burnet's Theory, book i. chap. 2. Dr. Keil, in his Remarks on Whifton's Theory. Ray's Dif. p. 118. (K) Melo, who wrote a book against the Jews, fpeaking of the deluge, feems to make it topical, and not to have reached Armenia. His words are thefe: "At the time of the deluge, a man who had efcaped with his fons, went from Armenia, being driven (7) Melo apud Eufeb. de Præp. Ev. lib. ix. cap. 19. the Conjectures as to the manner wherein the deluge was effect ed. the earth (L). But it is thought the waters which either the abyfs or the rain could afford, will fall prodigiously fhort of the proportion required. According to the obfervations made of the quantity of water that falls in rain, this fupply could not afford one ocean, nor half an ocean, and would be a very inconfiderable part of what was neceflary for a deluge. If it rained forty days and forty nights throughout the whole earth at once, the lower grounds might be laid under water, but fuch a fource would fignify very little as to the overflowing of the mountains; fo that it has been faid, that, if the deluge proceeded from rains only, not only forty days, but forty years would have been required for that effect. If we fuppofe the whole atmosphere condensed into water, it would not at all have been fufficient. And as to the abyfs, if by it we mean the fea, that it is no higher than the land, and therefore could contribute nothing to the deluge; if we understand the fubterraneous waters, they would be quiet in their cells, and not afcend. otherwife than by force; and, if force were used to draw them out on the surface of the earth, their places must be filled again with other waters; fo that this turns to no account upon the whole (M). After all, the divine afliftance must be called in, on this occafion. For though the waters, which covered the earth at the creation, might be fufficient to cover it again; yet how this fhould be effected by mere natural means, cannot be conceived. The waters which were fufpended in the clouds, might, indeed, defcend upon the earth, and that in cataracts, or fpouts of water, (as the Septuagint interpret the windows of heaven), like thofe in the Indies, where the clouds frequently, instead of dropping, fall, with a terrible violence, in a kind of torrent; and this alone might caufe a great inundation in the lower grounds; (L) Notwithstanding the word, tehom, depth, in fome paffages, is fuppofed to fignify the fea, yet it may be there much better interpreted of fubterraneous waters, as it manifeftly muft in other places. And, being here joined with the epithet rabbah, great, it feems Mofes intended that vaft collection of waters, which the most fagacious naturalifts place in the womb of the earth, the receptacle of the greatest part of that deep which covered the earth at the beginning of the creation. (M) Those who would know how far human philofophy has proceeded in accounting for this phenomenon upon natural principles, may confult the theories of Burnet, Whif ton, and Woodward, but |