volutions that have happened there have always, from time to time, introduced misery and ignorance, after prosperity and good manners. So Italy is now in a much better condition than it was eight hundred years ago. But eight hundred years before that, under the first Cæsars, it was happier, and in a more prosperous state, than it is at present. It is true, if we go back eight hundred years more, near the time that Rome was founded, the same Italy will appear much poorer and less polished, though at that time very populous: and still the higher we ascend, it will seem more wretched and uncultivated. Nations have their periods of duration, like particular men. The most flourishing state of the Greeks was under Alexander; of the Romans, under Augustus; and of the Israelites, under Solomon.

We ought therefore to distinguish in every people their beginning, their greatest prosperity, and their declension. In this manner I shall consider the Israelites, during all that space of time that they were a people, from the calling of Abraham to the last destruction of Jerusalem. It contains more than two thousand years, which I shall divide into three periods, according to the three different states of this people. The first of the Patriarchs; the second of the Israelites, from their going out of Egypt to the Babylonish captivity; and the third of the Jews, after they returned from captivity to the promulgation of the Gospel.

CHAP. II.

Of the Patriarchs."-Their Nobility.

THE Patriarchs lived after a noble manner, in perfect freedom and great plenty, notwithstanding their way of living was plain and laborious. Abraham knew the whole succession of his ancestors; and no way lessened his nobility, since he married into his own family. He took care to provide a wife of the same race for his son, in whom were fulfilled all the promises that God had made to him : and Isaac taught Jacob to observe the same law.

The long lives of the fathers gave them an opportunity of educating their children well, and of

Patriarch, from the Greek Tarpiapxns, which literally signifies the chief, or head of a family. The term is applied properly to the progenitors of the Jewish people; and especially to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve sons of the latter. The patriarchal government existed in the fathers of families, and their first-born sons after them; and included the regal and sacerdotal authority, and not unfrequently the prophetic. This authority, which every first-born son exercised over all the widely extended branches of a numerous family, is termed in Scripture the birth-right. The patriarchal dispensation includes all the time from the creation of the world till the giving of the Law. The Patriarchs are divided into classes, the Antediluvian and Postdiluvian: to the former belong Adam, Seth, Enosh, &c.; to the latter, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, &c.

making them serious and considerate betimes. Abraham lived more than a hundred years with Shem, and no doubt learned from him the state of the world before the deluge. He never left his father Terah; and was at least seventy years old when he lost him. Isaac was seventy-five when Abraham died; and, as far as we know, never went from him all that time." It was the same with respect to the other Patriarchs. Living so long with their fathers, they had the benefit of their experience and inventions. They prosecuted their designs, adhered firmly to their maxims, and became constant and uniform in their conduct. For it was a difficult matter to change what had been settled by men who were still alive; especially as the old men kept up their authority, not only over the youth, but also the elders that were not so old as themselves.

The remembrance of things past might be easily preserved by the bare relation of old men, who naturally love to tell stories of antient times, and had so much leisure for it. By this means they had no great use for writing; and it is certain we find no mention of it before Moses. However difficult it may seem to conceive that so many calculations as he recites should have been preserved in the me

The author here follows the chronology of Archbishop Ussher, who supposes that Shem did not die till 150 years after the birth of Abraham. But Ussher leaves the second Cainan out of his chronology, whom the Septuagint and St. Luke place between Arphaxad and Salah. This second Cainan throws the birth of Abraham much farther forward.

mory of men, as the ages of all the Patriarchs, the exact dates of the beginning and end of the Flood, the dimensions of the Ark, &c. ; yet there is no necessity for recurring to miracle and revelation. For it is probable that writing was found out before the deluge; as we are sure musical instruments were, though not so necessary. But though Moses might have learned, in the common way, most of the facts which he has written, I believe, nevertheless, that he was influenced by the Holy Spirit to record these facts, rather than others, and express them in terms most proper for the purpose.

f

g

Besides, the Patriarchs took care to preserve the memory of considerable events by setting up altars and pillars, and other lasting monuments. Thus, Abraham erected altars in the different places where God had appeared to him. Jacob consecrated the stone which served him for a pillow while he had the mysterious dream of the ladder;" and the heap of stones, which was witness to his covenant with Laban, he called Galeed. Of this kind was the sepulchre of Rachel; the well called Beersheba; and all the other wells mentioned in the history of Isaac. Sometimes they gave new names to places. The Greeks and Romans relate the same of their heroes, the oldest of whom lived near the times of the Patriarchs.' Greece was

full of their monuments: Eneas, to mention no others, left some in every place that he passed through in Greece, Sicily, and Italy."

The very names of the Patriarchs were besides a sort of more simple and familiar monuments. They signified some remarkable circumstance of their birth, or particular favour received from God. So they were in effect a short history." For they took care to explain the reason of these names to their children, and it was hardly possible to pronounce them without refreshing the memory with it. This care for posterity, and providence for the future, was an argument of true generosity and greatness of mind.

The Patriarchs enjoyed perfect freedom; and their family was a little state, of which the father was, in a manner, king. For what did Abraham

a father of mul

"Such for instance as ABRAM, from ax ab, a father, and ram, high; called afterwards Abraham, On titudes, then being inserted before; for traction for an hamon, a multitude.

n ham, is a con

PELEG, from 15 palag, he divided; for in his days, says the text, Gen. x. 2, the earth (na nipilogah) was divided.

MANASSES, the son of Joseph, signifies forgetting, from n nashah, he was forgetful; for, said he, (Gen. xli. 51.) God hath made me forget ( nashshapi) all my labours, and my father's house.

EPHRAIM, fruitful, from 5 pharah, he was fruitful; for, said Joseph his father, hiphrani, God hath made me fruit

ful in the land of my affliction. Gen. xli. 51, 52.

JOSEPH, addition, or increase, from Yasaph, he added, or increased; because, said his mother, no Yoseph Jehovah, the Lord shall add to me another son. Gen. xxx. 25.