the condition of Greece the Learned Part of the World after their subjugation by the Turks and this possibly may be the condition of China in a few years after the great Irruption and Devastation by the Tartars wherein possibly if an Age or two hence the state of things should be judged according to the present appearance it would be looked upon as if it had never been the habitation of those Curious Arts which some time dwelt there and possibly the setting on foot some of those very Arts that were once well known in those parts would be looked upon as the Natales of those Arts or the first Inchoation of them Wars and Desolations having obliterated the Monuments of their former practices which yet nevertheless would be in truth but the reviving of those Arts which were long before practised though intermitted and interrupted by the vicissitudes of Wars And upon the same account are those alterations that have hapned in the condition and state of People by other accidents as Inundations Epidemical Diseases Corruption of the Air in some Parts and Continents either by some eruption of pernicious Vapours or other Inclemency of the Heavens Plato in his third Book de Legibus in the beginning though he suppose an interminate Beginning of Mankind and that there were successively Cities Laws and Arts yet he supposeth that upon these and the like Occurrences those that escaped these common Calamities betook themselves to the Mountains kept Sheep and preserved the Species of Mankind but most of those Arts and Sciences which formerly were common became disused and forgotten among them But after Mankind multiplying they descended into the Vallies and by degrees mutual conversation the necessity of their condition and the due consideration of things did gradually revive those Arts which Men had formerly lost by long intermission For such is the indoles of the Humane Nature where it is not strangely over-grown with Barbarousness that it will by a kind of Natural Sagacity discover things especially necessary for the use of Humane Life and Society as Husbandry Laws Government Architecture Clothing and the like as Bees or Ants provide for their common habitation and supply Upon all which it may seem that we are over-hasty when we conclude That because Arts or Sciences do perchance discover themselves first to our view in such Places or Ages that therefore this was their first and primitive production or that they were never before For it may very reasonably be that those or the like Arts might have been either in other places and by a kind of migration or circulation be transmitted to those new places either by Armies or Colonies deduced hither or that even among the same People or Nation these Arts were sometimes flourishing though possibly having received some intermission by great Accidents and Occurrences they again do repullulare and revive upon the opportunity of Peace Trade Commerce and Popular Increase Nay many times it comes to pass as is before observed That when People are multiplied so that their places grow strait and narrow and their supplies not proportionable to their number necessity and exigence it gives an edge to their Industry and Invention and produceth new Discoveries of things that were either not known before or forgotten And even this one thing hath advanced the Dutch to that eminence of Manufacture Industry and Arts that they exceed the rest of the World therein We may have an Instance of this Circulation of Arts even in this Kingdom of England in that which is our great Manufacture namely Woollen Cloth It appears very plainly by those ancient Gilds that were settled in England for this Manufacture as at Lincoln York Oxford and divers other Cities that in the time of H. 2. and R. 1. this Kingdom greatly flourished in that Art but by the troublesom Wars in the time of King John H. 3. and also in the times of E. 1. and E. 2. this Manufacture was wholly lost and all our Trade ran out in Wools Wool-fells and Leather carried out in specie and the Manufacture during those Warly times held its course in France the Netherlands and the Hans Towns but by the Wisdom and peaceable times of E. 3. and his fair treating of forein Artists which he invited and entertained in this Kingdom he regained that Art hither again which for near one hundred Years had been for the most part intermitted which hath hitherto continued to the great Wealth and Benefit of this Kingdom So that we are not to conclude every new appearance of any Art or Science is the first production of it but as they say of the River Tigris and some others they sink into the ground and keep a subterranean course it may be 40 or 50 miles and then break out above ground again which is not so much a new River as the continuation and new appearance of the old So many times it falls out with Arts and Sciences though they have their non-appearances for some Ages and then seem first to discover themselves where before they were not known it is not so much the first production of the Art as a transition or at least a restitution of what possibly was either before in another or in the same Country or People And thus some tell us that Guns and Printing though but lately discovered in Europe yet were of far ancienter use in China So that notwithstanding this Consideration of the late Invention of Arts or Discoveries of things Natural or Artificial Mankind might have had an infinite succession or at least such a continuance as surmounts all those Accounts which the most prodigal Computations have given and that Saying of the Wise Man may be verified Ecclesiast 1.9 The thing that hath been is that which shall be and that which hath been done is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the Sun Is there any thing whereof it may be said See this is new It hath been already of old time before I shall here add a farther Consideration because it hath a cognation with the Subject of this Chapter There seems to be very probable Conjectures made touching the Origination of Mankind because there seems to be one Radical Language from which all others have their derivation though some carry in them more some less Memorials of their Original as they were more or less remote in their Inception The Languages of the World may be aptly enough divided into the Primo primae the Primo secundae and the Secundo secundae The Language which I call Primo primae must needs be but one if the Original of Mankind were but two common Parents of either Sex as the Holy Scriptures teach us and this one Language they must needs learn either from a conformation of Voices by the Angels such might that vocal Language be between Almighty God by the ministration of Angels and Adam whereof we read in the first and second Chapters of Genesis or it
by Wars Oppressions and Internecions Plagues Famines and other Calamities we find the Product of one Nation derived from only two Persons Isaac and Rebecca in the compass of about 5000 Years swoln into incredible numbers of Millions of Persons now existing and known to be of that Linage and Descent and still continuing unquestionably in that Distinction besides those multitudes derived from the Line of Esau and the ten Tribes which are as it were lest and confounded without any distinction among other Nations And thus far of the first Instance concerning the Multiplication of the Nation of the Jews The next Instance that I shall give shall be nearer home the Kingdom of England I shall not give any Instance touching it before the Conquest because those times are dark and besides the Vicissitudes and Successions of various Nations in this Kingdom renders the discovery of the Progress of Generations of Men or the Increases thereof difficult as Britons Romans Picts Saxons and Danes The ancient Inhabitants were the Britons the Body of which People hath been in a great measure shut up and contained within the Country of Wales but what by the transplanting of many of the Welsh into England and by transplanting of the English into Wales it is not possible to say that all the Britons are confined to the Country of Wales or that none but Britons are there and therefore there can be no particular or evident Conclusion made touching their Increase or Multiplication But I shall take a shorter Period or Compass of Time namely the last 600 Years or thereabouts since the Norman Conquest And although it may be true that many Persons of Forein Countries have come into England and planted themselves here so that the whole Increase of this Kingdom cannot be singly attributed to those that were either Natives or such as came in with the Conquerour but many Scotcâ— Irish Dutch but especially French either by Naturalizations or Transmigrations have increased the Inhabitants of this Island yet considering that probably the Migrations of the English into Scotland Holland France and other Countries have made amends for their Migrations hither We may make a reasonable Conjecture that the Descendents from those that inhabited this Kingdom in the time of the Conquerour have increased exceedingly above what they were in that time And the Evidence thereof is this King William the First after his Victory over Herald did in the 16 th Year of his Reign over England caule a Survey to be made of all the Cities Towns Mannors and inhabited Lands in England Northumberland Cumberland Durham and North-Wales This Survey was finished in the 20 th Year of his Reign and the Book it self preserved to this Day among the Records of the Exchequer not only a Transcript or Copy but the very Original Book it self and is called Doomsday In this Book are entred the Names of the Mannors or inhabited Townships Boroughs and Cities and the Owner of them the Number of Plough-Lands that each contains and the Number of the Inhabitants upon them under the several Names appropriate to those Places As for Instance Ibi 12 Burgenses 5 Villani 5 Bordarii 5 Nativi 5 Radiminches 5 Cotterelli and the like according to the quality or condition of the Inhabitants So that this Book in effect gives an Account not only of the Manurable Lands in every Mannor Town or Vill but also of the Number and Natures of their several Inhabitants To make a Calculation of the Number of Plough-Lands and Inhabitants through all England as they are recorded and to make therewith a Comparison unto the present State and Number of Inhabitants at this Day throughout England is a laborious piece of work but it is not difficult to be done in any one County I have tryed the Comparison in the County of Gloucester through some great Boroughs as Gloucester it self Thornbury Tetbury and other places and in effect through the whole County and I do find 1. That there are very many more Vills and Hamlets now than there were then and very few Villages Towns or Parishes then which continue not to this Day but now there are as many as then and many more The 5 th of March 9 E. 2. there issued Writs to the Sheriffs of the several Counties to return the Names of the several Vills and Land-Owners in their several Bayliwicks which was accordingly done and remains of Record in the Exchequer under the stile of Nomina Villarum and the Sum of the Vills of Gloucestershire together with the five Boroughs of Gloucester Bristol Berkley Dursly and Newenham amounted to 234 which I take it are more than are in Doomsday and yet not so many as are at this day and those that continue to this day are far more populous than they were at the taking of either of those Surveys 2. That there is much more Tillage and more Plough-Lands now than there were then which happens by the reduction of many great Wasts and Commons into Tillage or Meadow or Pasture which then were only Wasts and therefore not particularly surveyed because of no considerable Value and not taken notice of in that Survey 3. That the number of Inhabitants now are above twenty times more than they were at that time as well in particular Towns Boroughs and Mannors as in the general extent of the County and yet that Survey even as to the number and quality of those that resided in those Towns or Mannors at least as Housholders is very precise and particular I have not yet made an exact particular Calculation of the Number recorded in that Book through the whole County but I will give a few Instances of particular Towns which may give an estimate touching the whole Gloucester is now a very great and populous City formerly before the time of H. 8. a Borough In the Survey of Doomsday it is surveyed distinct from the Bertun of Glouc ' the gross of the Borough is surveyed together in the beginning of the County but there are some other particular Burgages thereof mentioned under the Titles of particular Mens Possessions as Terra Rogeri de Lacy Terra Elnuffi de Hesding c. The whole concretion of the City of Gloucester consists partly of what was the ancient Borough partly of accessions from the Mannors or Villages adjacent as Barton and some others I shall therefore cast up the whole Number of all that were in Gloc ' or Barton In the Survey of Gloucester there are reckoned 23 Burgages and Houses 16 that were demolished for the building of the Castle 14 that were wasted and some that belonged to Osbertus Episcopus not numbred but yielded the yearly Rent of 10 Shillings which according to the usual rate of the Houses in Gloucester at that time which was at 5 d or 6 d a House might produce 20 Houses in toto 73. Besides these there are surveyed under the Titles of several Owners of Lands sparsim through the Book as under the Title
Terra S. Dionysii Ecclesia S. Martini and others according to my best Computation and Observation 82. Besides these under the Title of the Poffessions of S t Peter of Glouc ' there are reckoned up as many Burgenses as yielded the Abbot anciently the Rent of 19 s and 5 d and 16 Salmons but at that time 16 Salmons and 50 s Rent without any certain number of Burgesses but if we allow 6 d for a Burgess we may suppose them to 100. The Total 255. The Mannor of Barton or the Barton of Glouc ' some part whereof hath been taken into the Suburbs of Glouc ' was of two Owners part was the King's Lands part belonged to the Abbey of S t Peters but the whole number of the Housholders inhabiting the whole Barton with its members Tuffly Barnwood c. were as followeth Villani 56 Bordarii 39 Servi 19 Molini 04 Liberi homines 10 In toto 128 And the Total of the whole Account of the City of Glouc ' the Barton with its members Brewere Upton Merwin Barnwood Tuffly Norwent amounted then only to 383. And the single City of Gloucester within the Walls contains at this day near 1000 Houses and Housholds Again the Borough and Mannor of Barclay with the members thereof enumerated in Doomsday viz. Alkington Hinton Cam Gosington Dersiloge Cowly Ewly Nimsfield Wotton Simondshall Kingscote Beverscote Oselword Almondsbury part of Cromhall Harefell Weston Elberton Cromale Erlingham Escelword are surveyed to contain in the whole to 590 Families whereas at this time there are near 5000 Families in this Precinct the Parish of Wotton yielding upon the point of 2000 Comunicants and that of Dersilege above 500 at this day Again Tetbury and the Hamlet of Upton belonging to it the Survey of Doomsday gives us an Account of about 73 Families of all kinds belonging to it But now I believe there are little less than 1500 Communicants in that Parish Sodbury the Survey gives us an Account of about 46 Families of all sorts they are now near twenty times so many Thornbury with the Hamlets thereunto belonging the Account of Doomsday is of 105 Families of all sores there is now near six times so many Aderly a little Village at the time of making of that Survey consisting not of above 17 Families of all sorts now above twice as many The like Instances might be produced with the like evidence of very great Increases in the Towns of Cirencester Minchin Hampton Teuxbury Campden Winchcomb Avening Westbury near Bristol and generally through the whole County of Gloucester which I do not without just reason suppose hath more than twenty times the Inhabitants which it had at the time of the coming in of William the First which is not now above 604 Years since And if we should institute a later Comparison viz. between the present time and the beginning of Queen Elizabeth which is not above 112 Years since and compare the numbers of Trained Souldiers then and now the number of Subsidy-men then and now they will easily give us an Account of a very great Increase and Multiplication of People within this Kingdom even to admiration And let any man but consider the Increase of London within the compass of 40 or 50 Years we shall according to the Observations framed to my hands find That the In-Parishes until the late Fire in that time have increased from 9 to 10 or a 10 th part and that the 16 Out-Parishes have in that time increased from 7 to 12 and yet without any decrement or decay of the rest of the Kingdom By which and infinite undeniable Instances that might be given it is apparent that within the compass of the last 600 Years this Kingdom hath increased mightily in its number of Native Inhabitants And yet it is most apparent that it hath had as great Allays and Abatements of the Multiplication of Mankind in it as any Kingdom in the World For Instance 1. In respect of the nature of its Situation which is all Maritim and consists much in Navigation which exhausts abundance of People by Diseases and Casualties at Sea 2. It hath been as often visited with sore Pestilences Epidemical Diseases and Mortality by reason thereof as any Country the experience of the last 60 Years gives us abundance of Instances thereof and former Ages were as frequently visited in this kind as later 3. Forein Wars both at Sea and Land have devoured great multitudes of our Inhabitants as those formerly with Scotland France Spain and lately with the Netherlands and French 4. No Kingdom in Europe hath had greater Experience of Civil Wars nor greater Consumption of Men thereby than England hath had since the time of William the First For not to instance in our Wars with the Welsh and Irish let any man read but the Histories of the Wars here in England between King Stephen and H. 1. and his Mother King John and his Nobles King H. 3. and the Nobility between King E. 2. and the Earls of Lancaster and Mortimer the Wars between the two Houses of York and Lancaster and their Partizans from the time of H. 4. unto the beginning of H. 7. in one Battel between H. 6. and E. 4. killed of one side 30000 the Rebellions in the times of H. 7. and others the Kings and Queens that succeeded him and the loss of many lives that happened by the suppression thereof the late cruel Wars within these 30 Years last past in England there cannot be Instances given in any one Kingdom of greater Abatements of the Increase by Wars and Internecions than may be given in England 5. Let us also consider the vast Evacuations of Men that England hath had by Forein Assistances lent to Forein Kingdoms and States by Volunteers and Auxiliaries as to Scotland in the late Queens time to France to the Netherlands to Germany 6. To these also add the vast numbers of Men that have transplanted themselves not only into France Holland and our neighbour Nations but also to Virginia Maryland New England Barbadoes Bermudas to Amboyna and other places in the East India and lastly into Jamaica we shall find upon these and other Accounts that England hath had as great Correctives of the Excesses of their Generations within these last 600 Years as any People in the World Add to these the great Famines and Pestilences which have happened within the compass of 600 Years recorded in History and obvious to our own Experience And therefore if notwithstanding all these Correctives the number of Men have continually increased and that in so vast and observable a degree above their decrease we have as much reason to conclude a parity in the rest of Mankind and possibly were we as well acquainted with the Concerns of other Kingdoms or States especially of the Netherlands and France the Instances of this Increase would he as much and possibly more conspicuous than among us Upon the whole matter therefore I conclude That as the Correctives instanced in the
the evidence of the same thing their very multiplicity and consent makes the evidence the stronger as the concurrent testimonies of many Witnesses or many Circumstances even by their multiplicity and concurrence make an evidence more concludent Now these Evidences of Fact I shall cast into these ranks 1. We have no authentical History of former Ages extant but what hath been written within the compass of four thousand years 2. The subject matter of those Histories give us no account of the Original of great Monarchies Kingdoms or Commonwealths but what appear thereby to have begun within the compass of about five thousand years 3. The original Invention and Inventors of most considerable Arts had their Origination as far as we can find by Monuments of ancient times within the compass of about six thousand years 4. The Original of the Apotheoses of most of the Heathen fictitious Deities appears by the ancient Monuments of former times to have had their beginning within the compass of five thousand years 5. The most authentick Histories and Monuments of Antiquity give us an account of the first Fathers or Capita familiarum and of the Plantation of the known Parts Continents and Islands of the World within the compass of five thousand years 6. The Inhabitants of the World do daily increase and their increment surmounts daily their decrease which could not be unless the World of Mankind had their original within some proportionate time and could not consist with such a vast excess of duration which some would assign much less with an eternal duration or such as never had a beginning 7. There hath in all Ages and among all People been a constant tradition retained and believed touching the Origination of Mankind ex non genitis vel per generationem propagatis These are the Heads of those Evidences of Fact which I shall use in this Argument touching the Origination of Mankind whereunto possibly other occasional Topicks of the like nature may be added And touching these Evidences of Fact this I shall subjoyn 1. That I do not lay the weight of this Argument upon those Evidences of Fact because they have or may have their several allays and fallibilities which I shall impartially subjoyn to every particular Topick But I lay the weight of the Argument upon what hath been before said which to me seems to be little less than demonstrative drawn from the intrinsick nature of the thing and from that absurdity which would arise upon the Supposition of the Eternity of Mankind and the incompossibility of an eternal duration à parte ante to successive Natures 2. That although singly and apart these Evidences of Fact are not so conclusive but have their allays and exceptions yet they have these advantages that advance their evidence as very credible 1. In that the Supposition which they are produced to prove is not impossible to be true 2. That there is nothing of probability of Reason or Instance that can be produced against the truth of that Supposition which is contended to be proved by them 3. They have so much the more weight and evidence in that they do suffragate and bear witness to the truth of that Supposition namely the Inception of Mankind which holds so great a congruity with the intrinsick reason and nature of the thing the contrary whereof namely the Eternity of Mankind is apparently contradictory to a strict and true reason 3. That although these Evidences of Fact taken singly and apart possibly may not be so weighty yet the very concurrence and coincidence of so many Evidences that contribute to the Proof of the thing designed carries with it a great weight even as to the point of Fact it is not probable that that Supposition should be false which hath so many concurrent Testimonies bearing witness to it And therefore although I shall impartially subjoyn those Allays and Abatements which may be brought against the several Instances whereby if single they might seem of less weight and moment yet I do not thereby take off that Evidence which in consort and conjunction they give to the truth of the Supposition intended to be proved by them 4. That it cannot be expected in an Argument of this nature which is touching a matter of Fact that Evidences of Fact can be no more than topical and probable and therefore though there may be Allays and Abatements that may take away a necessary or infallible concludency in these Evidences of Fact yet it is sufficient that they be probable and inductive of Credibility though not of Science or Infallibility Aristotle as I remember in the beginning of his Politicks tells us that all Truths have not the same kind of Evidence neither indeed can have and therefore it is unreasonable to expect such an Evidence as the thing cannot possibly bear though it be a real Truth 5. That among these Evidences of Fact though all contribute to the Proof of the Supposition yet the three last seem to be of that nature that they are of greatest weight and less subject to exception 6. That in as much as in this Argument I design only the use of Reason and Reasonable Evidence and endeavour to make my Supposition evident to Reasonable Men as such I do not therefore make use of the divine and irrefragable Authority of the Holy Scriptures For they that subscribe to the Infallibility and Divine Authority of them need none of this Method of Ratiocination that I use to prove this Supposition of the Origination of Mankind which is so plainly and distinctly delivered in the Holy Scriptures and therefore where I have recourse to the Holy Scriptures I use it but as a Moral Evidence a History highly credible and I demand of my Reader◠this equal Justice That he would at least give it that credit that the Antiquity Congruity and Moral Evidence of it deserves which certainly would be much more than what the most do ordinarily allow to the History of Thucydides Herodotus Livy Tacitus Manethon Xenophon Ctesias or Berosus 7. Though in this large Discourse I may seem to lose time by proving of that which is not questioned by sober Men that in a laborious Discourse of this nature I do rather raise a Question that would be at quiet if let alone at least I lose time and magno conatu nihil efficiam yet I hope in the Conclusion it will be of use to confirm our Faith to magnifie the value of the Holy Scriptures and to give some stop to those Atheistical and Epicurean Opinions that begin more than formerly to obtain in the World CAP. II. Concerning the first Evidence the Antiquity of History and the Chronological account of Times BUT before I begin I shall prefix a short Chronological Scheme of Times to which I shall have occasion oftentimes to refer wherein I shall not be over-sollicitous for great curiosity or exactness For although there is scarce any one Chronological Writer that differs not from another in
Beginning of the Assyrian Kingdom under Ninus was 631 years after the Flood and one Age after the Confusion of Languages in the time of Phaleg But which way soever we take yet we find a Beginning of the Assyrian Empire though they that suppose it 440 years before Belus thrust the Deluge and the Creation farther back than the Jewish Account 2. The Authority of the Holy Scripture by the Pen of Moses gives us the Original of the Babylonian or Assyrian Monarchy in Nimrod which possibly may be the Name in Hebrew of Belus the first Founder of it And here I do not take advantage of the Divine Authority of the Sacred Scripture but make use of it only as a History and singly upon that account hath greater evidence of its truth than any Heathen Historian whatsoever 1. The Writer thereof was most certainly nearer the times of the first Foundation of that Monarchy by above 800 years than any other Historian that gives us the account of the Assyrian and Babylonian Monarchy which is a great advantage in point of evidence touching the truth of any Historical Relation Again 2. He was not very far distant from the Place or Seat of that Monarchy the Wilderness and Palestine being not far distant from Assyria 3. He was descended from him that was the native of that Country namely Abraham who was born and lived many years in the Caldean Country and doubtless did bring along with him and transmit to his Posterity a fair Tradition of that Empire being contemporary with Peleg in whose time the famous dissipation of Mankind and distinction of Languages hapned 4. He was educated in Egypt the people whereof were greatly learned especially in Chronological Computations 5. The coherence and synchronism of all the parts of the Mosaical Chronology especially after the Flood bears a most singular testimony to the truth of his History and Computation for although he draws not down the lineal Descendents of Ham and Japhet down to his time but only mentions their Children and Grand-children for two or three Generations at most yet he draws down the lineal Pedigree from Sem in the Sacred Line down to his very Age together with their Births and Ages which are a great evidence of the probability of the rest of his Account So that if we take the History of Moses upon a bare Moral account abstracted from the Authority of Divine Revelation he hath greater evidence of the truth of what he relates than any Historian whatsoever that takes upon him the narrative of the Antiquity of Kingdoms or Empires the ancientest of which Historians were above 1000 years later than Moses But this I shall have occasion farther to improve hereafter The Objections against this late Original of the Assyrian or Babylonian Monarchy for it had its successive translation into these denominations are principally these 1. That it appears by the Account of ancient Historians that the Caldeans in whom the Assyrian Monarchy began and ended at the Taking of Babylon by Alexander had preserved Astronomical Calculations for about 400000 years thus Diodorus Siculus lib. 3. cap. 8. Quadringenta tria annorum millia usque ad ascensum Alexandri numerant and Tully in his second Book de Divinatione mentions the number to be greater Quadringenta septuaginta millia annorum in periclitandis experiendisque Pueris quicunque essent nati Babylonios posuisse 2. That it seems impossible that if their Monarchy began but in Nimrod or so short a time after the Universal Deluge that in the time of Ninus by some supposed the first by some the second King of the Assyrians or Babylonians the Empire could have grown so populous as to build that vast City of Babylon and that of Nineveh whose state and magnificence and amplitude were of incredible greatness or that his Widow Semiramis could at once bring into the field against Zoroastres an Army of 1700000 Foot-men 500000 Horse-men 100000 Chariots 2000 Ships as Diodorus Siculus out of Ctesias l. 3. cap. 5. And therefore as well Mankind as the Empire of Assyria must have had a longer continuance to have set out such an Army than the succession of an Empire for two or three Governours at most or the successions or propagations of Mankind within so short a time as this is supposed to succeed the Universal Deluge could afford To the first I answer 1. That some will have these Years to be but Months which they suppose to be accounted Years by the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians But as we have no certain evidence that they used to account a Month a Year but if we had yet that reduction will not serve for that number of Lunar Months reduced to Solar Years will arise to above 40000 Years which will over-reach the Creation of Mankind 2. Therefore we may with the same Tully and Diodorus Siculus pronounce it to be an incredible and fabulous Account warranted by no credible evidence but meerly their own fancy or imposture that because they held the World eternal would gratifie their people with a succession of an incredible Antiquity And it appears to be fabulous 1. For that in all this time they would probably have gotten the perfect Theory of the Planetary Motions and Positions which it is plain they did not if we believe the same Author for they were at a loss touching the true discoveries and periods of the Eclipses especially of the Sun 2. For that Calisthenes who was very curious in searching the famous Periods of the Babylonian or Caldean Celestial Observations at the very time when they pretended so great an Antiquity namely at the Taking of Babylon by Alexander upon a strict enquiry found their Astronomical Observations not to be above 1903 years old which he accordingly reported to Aristotle that employed him specially in that Enquiry as Simplicius reports in his Commentaries upon the Book of Aristotle de Caelo The prodigious Accounts therefore of the Caldeans of the Times past deserve as little credit as their Predictions of things to come who as the same Tully there observes flattered both Caesar and Pompey with long Lives and happy and peaceable Death both which fell out in the success to both extremely contrary 2. I come to the second Objection namely That it seems altogether impossible that the General Flood should put a period to all former Governments and indeed to the whole Race of Mankind except eight persons and yet that from these in so short a time such vast and powerful Monarchies especially as that of the Babylonian or Syrian should arise To which I answer 1. That if we should admit the Computation of the Seventy now much magnified by Vossius and others it would easily deliver us from that difficulty for whereas the Hebrew Computation gives the Universal Flood to be but 1656 years after the Creation of Mankind the Septuagint gives it to be 2262 years and whereas the Hebrew Account gives us about 300 years from the Flood to
as I remember that in Rome it self in process of time the Latin Language was so altered that the Priests could not readily understand the Hymns composed for their Idol-Service by the ancient Priests of Rome 4. As succession of Ages so variety of places in the same Country and Nation gives such variety of Dialects in the same Language that one side of a Kingdom scarce understands the other witness the four Dialects of the Greek Language and the several Pronunciations of the French in several parts of France and the various Dialects of the English in the North and West that render their Expressions many times unintelligible to the other and both scarce intelligible to the Midland various Provinces of the same Kingdom and that at first used the same Language in process of time use various manners of Pronunciation which in time also alter the structure of the Words as they are spoken or written which in farther process of time alters the Language into several Dialects as it did in Greece and other places 5. Every Nation hath a certain humour or disposition appropriate to it which by a kind of Natural necessity frames the very Air of Words Speech and Accents accommodate and similar to that Natural humour or inclination Graiis dedit ore rotundo Musa loqui In the very frame of the Speech of the Spaniard Italian French Dutch Welsh English we may find a kind of Image of their Complexions and Tempers suiting and framing their Speech Accents Tone Pronunciation Vowels conform thereunto no less than in their Gate and Gesture and this very Account would in a little time diversifie one and the same Language in the Mouths of several Nations so that in a little space they would not be the same 6. Commerce and Trade with forein Nations gives great alterations in Languages each Country borrowing some Words Accents or Expressions from the other whereby in a little time it is quite altered and becomes a mixt confused Language made up of the Ingredients of several Languages 7. As in Clothes so in Words Phrases and Expressions there commonly grow new Fashions whereby it comes to pass that the same Words and Phrases that were not used or scarce understood in former Ages become in Fashion Reputation and Vogue in another Age and this obtains sometims from the Courts of Princes wherein a Word a little in request soon grows in fashion with the Gentry and from them at the third hand passeth over to the Tradesman or Countryman 8. Many times the Literati and Scholares coyn new Words and sometimes in common Speech or Writing in their Native Language give Terminations and Idiotisms sutable to their Native Language unto Words newly invented or translated out of other Languages which is sometimes done out of Affectation sometimes out of Necessity by reason of the want of sufficient significancy in their own Language and when such Phrases or Words come abroad in printed Books in Sermons or Orations they become more general and incorporate into the Native Language 9. Many Languages of Countries are greatly altered and mingled and sometimes totally eradicated and lost by Invasions and Victories or by transmission of Colonies by Forein Princes of a different Language Thus by the chacing the Britons out of England into Wales their Language was wholly exterminated from hence with them and by the successive Incursions and Invasions of the Saxons Danes and Normans the English Language grew a kind of mixture of them all which yet in process of time hath been so much varied that the English that was written in the time of H. 1. is not now intelligible It is true that those Languages that are not now Native though sometimes they were but are preserved in Writing or Rules or Canons have long kept their simplicity as the Hebrew Greek and Latin which have been indeed preserved from being lost by vulgar use but when a Language once becomes of vulgar use it soon loseth its integrity thus the Latin degenerated into the Italian and the very Hebrew and Greek more barbarous by much where they are popularly used than in the ancient Writings wherein they have been preserved and kept to their ancient integrity Considering therefore the great instability of Languages the great variations and changes to which they are subject the great alterations that they have had the great difficulty of finding any Language which upon grounds barely of Reason without Divine Revelation we can safely call Original and the great difficulty of deducing other Languages entirely from it It is hard for us singly to lay any weight upon this Instance to prove the Origination of Man upon a meer Moral Account or Topical Ratiocination thereof CAP. V. The Fourth Instance of Fact seeming to evince the Novity of Mankind namely the Inceptions of the Religions and Deities of the Heathens and the deficiency of this Instance REligion seems to be as connatural to Humane Nature as Reason and possibly a more distinguishing property of Humane Nature than it For almost in all sensible Creatures especially those of the more perfect kind a certain Image or weak Adumbration of something like Reason appears yet we find in no Creatures below Mankind any thing like Religion or Veneration of a Deity And those faint Conjectures touching something analogical to Religion observed in Elephants are too weak to give any reasonable admission thereof in them Religion therefore seems as ancient as Humanity it self at least of some kind of dress or fashion or other therefore if we can arrive at the Inception of Religion Veneration of a Deity and those Rites Adorations and Services that result from thence we have reason to conjecture that the Inception of Mankind was not long before And because the Inception of Mankind is not doubted by Jews or Christians who acknowledge the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures that reveal and discover the Origination both of Mankind and the World but the doubt only resteth among those of the Gentile World it hath been thought a reasonable Argument to convince the Heathen World of the Origination of Mankind by discovering the Origination not only of the Religious Worship of the Heathens but even of those very Deities which they celebrated and venerated and paid that Religious Worship unto And this Discovery of the Origination of their Heathenish Deities hath been endeavoured by two Methods First by following the ancient Histories of the Phenicians Egyptians Grecians and Romans by which means they have traced up most if not all their Heathenish Deities to their Original and their first Inauguration into Deities whereas they were in their original for the most part but Men of great Note and Merit or Power in the Ancient World or such who outgoing the ordinary rate of Mankind by some signal Excellence Learning or Industry were by the admiring inferior sort of Men translated into the Opinion and Veneration of Gods and then there wanted not Poets and Priests to derive from them a
of these places from whence People were transplanted to Samaria were places conquered by the Assyrian Monarch who did as Victors use prudently to do transplant the conquered into other places and the same seems evident for some of these places at least and as probably for Babylon also 2 Kings 18.24 Isaiah 10.10 particularly for Hamath Sepharvaim and Avah And accordingly he transplanted the conquered People into Gozan and other places 2 Kings 18.11 which were won by Salmanassar from the Medes by Conquest 2 Kings 19.12 Senacherib succeeded Salmanassar and came up against Hezekiah in the fourteenth year of his Reign where he received that great blow of 185000 Men which sent him back to Nineveh where he was slain and Ezarhaddon his Son reigned in his stead 2 Kings 20.35 36 37. This gave opportunity to the new usurped Kingdom of Babylon again to break the Yoak of Assyrian Monarchy for it evidently appears that Berodach-Baladan the Son of Baladan was King of Babylon and sent to complement Hezekiah when there was another King of Assyria 2 Kings 20.12 Hezekiah having reigned 29 years dyed and Manasseh his Son succeeded him Manasseh reigned 55 years and towards the latter end of his Reign he was carried Captive to Babylon by the King of Assyria 2 Chron. 33.11 whether the King of Assyria had regained Babylon or whether the King of Babylon had overcome the Assyrian and so held the stile of that Monarch appears not though the latter seems probable by comparing the reprehension of Isaiah 2 Kings 20.17 Ammon succeeded and reigned 2 years Josiah succeeded and reigned 31 years Jehoahaz 3 months Jehoiachim 11 years Jehoiachin 3 months Zedekiah 11 years the last year of whose Reign was contemporary with the 19 th year of Nebuchadnezzar Now putting all the years together from the first of Ahaz to the last of Zedekiah are about 155 years and 6 months out of which subducting 19 years for the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar there remains from the first of Ahaz to the first of Nebuchadnezzar 136 years which comes very near to the Aera Nabonassaris for according to the common Calculation the first of Nebuchadnezzar hapned in the 138 th year of Nabonassar which began about two years before the first year of Ahaz or in the second year of the 8 th Olympiad And that in all probability Baladan who was the Father of Merodach-Baladan that sent to visit Hezekiah might be that Nabonassar whose Aera is so much celebrated After the beginning of the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar the entire Assyrian Monarchy was translated to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar the King thereof Herodotus in his First Book tells us that Cyaxares the Grand-child of Dioces first attempted the taking of Niniveh but was repulsed by the aid of the Scythians and that afterwards he took it and became Master of all Assyria Excepta Babylonica quadam portione But according to the Histories of Tobit and Judith Niniveh was taken by Assuerus and Nebuchadnezzar and afterwards entirely possessed by Nebuchadnezzar Tobit 10.17 Judith 11. But this is obscure because it hath been conceived that Nebuchadnezzar was a common Name used amongst the Babylonian Kings as Pharaoh among the Egyptians only it may not be impossible that Nebuchadnezzar who was certainly contemporary with Cyaxares the Mede might be an assistant in the Destruction of Niniveh with Cyaxares called it may be by Tobit Assuerus but how he came to be sole Possessor after in the time of Judith is hard to unriddle This Nebuchadnezzar made Babylon the Seat of his Empire and so far enlarged it that it seemed as new built as his own arrogant and vain-glorious expression witnesseth Is not this great Babel that I have built Dan. 4.30 Upon all this that hath been said it seems plain 1. That Babylon or Babel was the first or ancient Seat of the Assyrian Empire 2. That the same was first built by Belus or Ninus or Semiramis as the Heathen Writers tell us or by Nimrod as the Holy History tells us who possibly might be the same with Belus 3. That afterward the Seat of the Assyrian Empire was translated to Nineveh the great City of that Empire 4. That afterward Babylon was again either repaired or enlarged by the Assyrian Empire and was the Metropolis of that part of Assyria called Caldaea the Inhabitants whereof were greatly addicted to the Celestial Observation and became so famous for it that a Caldean and an Astrologer were terms equivalent in common appellation 5. That afterward the Babylonians or Caldeans obtained or usurped a divided Kingdom from the Assyrian Empire 6. That the first King of that divided Kingdom was called Nabonassar which give the original to the Aera Nabonassaris beginning about the 8 th Olympiad 7. That about 140 years after the beginning of that Kingdom it grew so potent that it acquired the whole Assyrian Monarchy and became the Seat thereof under Nebuchadnezzar 8. That Nebuchadnezzar again enlarged the City of Babylon with Buildings and Walls of incredible strength and glory This being premised I now come to those Reasons that satisfie me that the Assyrian or Babylonian Monarchy was not of that great Antiquity that the Babylonians and the favourers of their Tradition pretended but had its known Original or Epocha from whence it began 1. The Authority of the Heathen Authors allow not above 1400 years at most for the continuance of the Assyrian Monarchy and lodge the Original of it in Belus the Father of Ninus the beginning of whose Reign is by computation to be cast in the 153 d year after the Flood according to the Jewish Account Vide probationes indè Petavii doctrina temp l. 9. per totum The Account according to Diodorus Siculus runs thus The Assyrian Monarchy beginning with Ninus lasted 1360 years unto the fall of Sardanapalus by Arbaces the Mede after which that Monarchy fell in with the Mede it continued there until Pul became the Head of the Assyrian Monarchy and after him Tiglah Pileser and then Salmanassar and afterwards Senacherib The Proof they add to this Supputation is this That from the Fall of Sardanapalus to the Taking of Babylon by Alexander are accounted 543 years which added to the former number gives 1903 years the Epocha of the Caldean Astrological Calculation brought by Calisthenes to Aristotle at the Taking of Babylon by Alexander which casts the Beginning of the Assyrian Monarchy under Belus or at least under Ninus his Son to be about the year of the World 1717 about 60 years after the Flood according to the Jewish Account though others following also the Jewish Account cast the same to be about 104 years after the Flood But Africanus and others that follow the Account of the 70 Interpreters tell us of seven Kings of the Caldeans and six Kings of the Arabians that were antecedent to Belus in that Empire that successively reigned in Babylon 440 years that Belus obtained by Conquest the Kingdom and reigned 55 years and by this Account the
incendium Hercules Amphitryonis filius Expeditio Argonautarum Bellum Trojanum Reditus Heraclidarum Ionica migratio and many other fine Stories that have furnished some of the Poetical Historians of after Ages But however Censorinus makes his Computation Inachus who was the first King of the Argives though he were about 375 years after the beginning of the Assyrian Monarchy and contemporary with Isaac yet he began his Reign about 100 years before the Ogygian Flood which hapned in the latter end of Phoroneus the Son of Inachus and second King of the Argives So that Inachus was about 100 years before the Ogygian Flood and about 1070 or 1080 years before the first Olympiad upon this account This then being as it seems the state of these Periods there seem two Nations of the Grecians that pretend to greatest Antiquity namely the Argivi and the Attici The former had their beginning with Inachus whether before or after the Ogygian Flood it will not be much of moment but at least within 1070 years before the first Olympiad which is the highest time that the Grecians pretend unto Touching the Attici the Grecian Memorials give us no higher Account than of Ogyges in whose time it is supposed the Ogygian Flood hapned in that part of Greece called Attica and takes its name from him namely Diluvium Ogygium Out of this Kingdom arose the Dynasty of the Athenians about 200 years after the Ogygian Flood wherein Cecrops was the first Governour contemporary with Moses he first set up the Worship of Jupiter as some report And so we have the Original of the Government of the Argives in Inachus of the Athenians in Cecrops It is true the Egyptian Priest under the name of Timaeus in Plato tells us a large Story of the Island of Atlantis far bigger than Asia and that although now that goodly Island be lost and swallowed up in the Sea yet the Athenians were a kind of Colony transplanted from that Island into Greece about 7000 years before Solon's time But this is one of those Poetical Fictions wherewith Plato plays mingling more serious things with it in the following part of his Discourse and the Story hath no footsteps of any evidence for it unless we shall suppose that Atlantis to be an Island that was before the Universal Deluge and destroyed by it 4. Concerning the Seres or Chineses a People whose Customs and Histories were strangers to Europe till of late times wherein some Travellers have lately given us some account of those great Periods both of their Histories and Government Vossius in that little Book de Aetate Mundi tells us by relation from others That by their Histories and Monuments their Empire hath lasted 4505 years in the year of Christ 1658 which reacheth some Ages beyond the Flood according to the Hebrew Account but according to the Septuagint the beginning thereof falls in the time of Phaleg 531 years after the Flood which he brings as an Argument for the Authority of the Septuagint But the truth is we are still strangers to the true state of Chronology of the Seres or Chineses what we have touching it is by broken relation of some few Travellers and what they had possibly may be gathered up from the vulgar Traditions of that People upon which little of sound conclusion can be made touching their Antiquity But be it true or not which we have from these Relations yet their longest Period gives them a Beginning and reacheth not so high as the pretended Epoch of the Babylonians or Egyptians much less is there any thing in them that gives any colour of Evidence of an Eternal Duration And thus I have gone through the Examination of those Kingdoms and Monarchies which pretend to greatest Antiquity the Babylonian or Assyrian the Egyptian the Grecian and the Seres or Chineses upon all which we may observe 1. That though many of them pretend to a very great Antiquity yet there are none that give us any sufficient Evidence of an Eternal Duration for what are those Periods of the Egyptians or Babylonians to Eternity Nay many of these Nations that pretend to the longest continuance as the Egyptians and Grecians yet disclaim an Eternal Succession pretend themselves to be Aborigines and to be the first People but yet not to be Eternal Indeed their vast continuance if admitted would seem to contradict the Authenticalness and Authority of the Mosaical History which contains a Relation of the Beginnings of Mankind within the compass of about 5660 Years according to the Hebrew Account and about 7240 Years according to the Septuagint but doth not so much as suppose an Eternity thereof 2. That notwithstanding these great pretensions of Antiquity yet upon a true examination their great pretended Antiquity is fabulous and the Origination of their Monarchies began some Ages after the general Deluge and so the truth of the Holy History concerning the Inception of Mankind and the Inception of all the Monarchies in the World after the Deluge that happened under Noah 1656 Years after the Creation of Mankind is not at all weakened by those Fabulous Antiquities of the Babylonians Egyptians or Grecians 3. That this Inception of the Notable Empires and Kingdoms of the World even of those that pretend greatest Antiquity and the termination of the uttermost Extent of the Histories of the Babylonians Egyptians and Grecians within the compass of the Extent of their pretended Monarchies is an Evidence against the Eternity of Mankind for had Mankind been Eternal they had infinite Ages since arrived to all the perfection of Political Government and to all those Means and Arts for the preserving the Memorials of things past as they have now attained unto there would have been no tempus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or obscurum among the Grecians but there would have been as fair Monuments and Historical Narratives of things past before the Olympiads or the Ogygian Flood which was not universal as after I shall conclude therefore with Lucretius lib. 5. Preterea si nulla fuit genitalis origo Terrai Coeli semperque aeterna fuerunt Cur supra bellum Thebanum funera Trojae Non alias alii quoque res cecinere Poetae Qui tot facta virum toties cecidere neque usquam Aeternis famae monumentis insita florent Verùm ut opinor habet novitatem summa recensque Natura est mundi neque pridem exordia cepit Quare etiam quaedam nunc artes expoliuntur Nunc etiam augescunt c. But yet this Consideration touching the Antiquity of Monarchies their Inception and the Narratives and Historical Monuments of things happening within the Periods of their Commencement and Continuances are not of that weight that we can lay the stress of this Hypothesis of the Inception of Mankind upon And therefore this Consideration must be taken with its allay I shall therefore fully set down those Instances that do give this Consideration its due abatement 1. It is no Consequence That
of one Country supplied by another as Canaan was by Egypt 2. It is ordinarily not sudden but gradual and foreseen before felt in the extremity which gives People opportunity of transmigrations 3. Though the ordinary supplies fail yet necessity makes Men ingenious and hardy and if they have but Landroom or Sea-room they find some supplies for their hunger which they did not before think of or use though it be otherwise in a close Siege but that is but a narrow compass and not of moment to be compared to the multitudes abroad 2. Plagues are indeed a sharp and speedy Visitation yet it hath these Allays 1. Many there are that are able to escape it by Flights some by Physick and some by their Age and Complexion 2. It is not ordinarily of long continuance the strength of the Disease seldom continuing longer than a Year 3. Though the Desolation be terrible while it lasts yet it rarely consumes one half of the Inhabitants The late Computation of the Number of the Inhabitants Men Women and Children in the City of London and the 16 and 10 Out-Parishes are estimated at 384000 and about six Millions in the whole Kingdom of England 2. The greatest Plagues in our remembrance have not swept away above 100000 at most in London and the Suburbs Indeed that before mentioned by Walsingham which was in a manner Universal and successively in several places of the World lasted about 15 Years is said to be so great that scarce a tenth part of People survived it yet if it left a tenth part suppose in England it left near a Million of People which in a little time would and did recover and increase considerably as shall be shewn 4. Again suppose the Devastation by Plagues greater than History gives us an Account yet it is for the most part a Disease that reigns in some times and some places it may fall in those places where the numbers are already too small and need an Increase And so taken singly by it self is incompetent and unsuitable to the Excess unless managed by the wise Conduct of Almighty God 3. Touching Wars and Internecions It is true it hath been a great Consumption of Mankind but yet it is not an equal Corrective of the Excess of Generations 1. Though such have happened and frequently yet they seem against the nature and disposition of Mankind ordinarily and in a course of Humane Constitution Naturally Mankind is a sociable Creature and more than Bees as the Philosopher observes and though sometimes Passions Jealousies and Politick ends produce Wars yet naturally Man is not a Creature of prey upon others as Lions and Tigers are 2. Ordinarily though Wars are by one Kingdom or State upon another yet they preserve their own Societies with increase under Forein Wars and therefore Civil Wars as they are more destructive so they are more rare because they are more unnatural and destructive to that which Men usually are careful to preserve namely their own Societies 3. It seems an improper and unsuitable Corrective because Accident and the Wills of Men have so great an Influence in the production of Wars whereby it may fall out that Wars may happen in those Ages Times or Places and consequently Devastations upon them where or when they need not to correct And though it be true that a Plethory or Excess of Numbers of Men sometimes by a kind of Natural or at least Moral Consequence cause Wars yet we have hardly known any produced singly upon that Account though it hath oftentimes occasioned Transmigrations deductions of Colonies and new Plantations and the World hath been never yet so full but a weaker or oppressed Party have sound room to retreat from the violence or insolence of their Oppressors 4. Touching Floods and Conflagrations It is true that Almighty God as he manageth the forementioned Reductives by his Wisdom and Providence so he hath done these especially in that Universal Deluge But as they are instanced in by the Philosophers as Natural or Periodical Events whereby Mankind is reduced to an equability we have no reason to believe them Therefore I say 1. That there doth not appear either in History or in the Observation of Nature any such Periodical Floods or Conflagrations those that we have Relations of happened indeed near together and in the same Country viz. in Greece had they been Periodical or Natural probably either by a continued Circulation or Rotation or else by the interposition of some reasonable intervals the like would have happened before in Persia or some Easterly parts of Asia or since in Italy or Germany or some other Western parts of the World which we have not observed to be And therefore this Supposition of the Hyems magna whereby parts of the Earth should be successively drowned seems to be only an Imagination or at least it cannot be known with any tolerable certainty in as much as the Periods are supposed to be vast and not happening within any competent time to give us an Observation or Proof thereof And therefore although we yearly see a reduction of the numerous increase of Insects by the Winter Frost and Storms yearly happening we have no warrant from thence to imagin that great Winter that must make the like reduction of Men and Brutes for every Year gives us Experience of the one but never any Age gave us any reasonable Observation upon which to build an Hypothesis of the like Periodical Revolution of the other and the same I say touching Conflagrations Indeed there have been accidental and particular Instances of both but not any Periodical Return or Revolutions thereof quasi in quodam ambitu circuitu naturali 2. If such were supposed yet unless they were very sudden and very general they would not be sufficient to make the Correction Men would escape Floods by running up to Mountains and Hills and though some might perish through improvidence or though the suddenness of a Deluge many would escape 3. Natural and Periodical Floods or Conflagrations would not be sutable nor commensurate to the Increase which depending either upon Accidents or the Wills of Men would possibly be more in one place than in another The Country of Palestine would be more peopled than the Sands and Desarts of Arabia Egypt than the Mountains of Ethiopia and fruitful Countries or Countries open to Trade and safe from Incursions and Invasions more populous than barren Countries or such as are out of the way of Trade or subject to Inroads But Natural and Periodical Floods or Conflagrations would probably keep some constant or ordinary Tract or Course either from East to West or from North to South and possibly keeping in such a Climate or Latitude possibly in another whereby possibly these Plagues might be more fierce in those places or Continents where the World wants People and less vehement in those places where there needs a Corrective for their excess If these should be Universal they would destroy the Race
and upwards were Six hundred and one thousand seven hundred and thirty among these was the Land after divided by Joshua Numb 26.51 53. I do not remember any Numeration of the People from this time till the time of King David and in that Interval that People suffered very great detriments 1. By the Wars with the Canaanites under Joshua wherein though they were victorious yet it could not be without great loss of Men. 2. After this they endured in the time of the Judges great diminutions under the Kings of Mesopotamia Canaan the Midianites the Philistims the Ammonites besides about 65000 Men slain in the Civil Wars with the Benjamites 3. The Wars in the time of Saul wherein though he was often victorious yet at last he suffered a great Slaughter by the Philistims 4. The Wars of David both with Foreiners and the Rebellious in his own Kingdom wherein though he were victorious yet those Victories could not be obtained without great Losses In the Business of Absalom 40000 of the Israelites slain and lost in one Battel 2 Sam. 18.7 in the latter end of the Reign of David about the Year of the World 2925 which was 435 Years after the Numbring of the People by Moses and Eleazar David again Numbers the People and then the Account of the People of Israel was 800000 valiant Men that drew the Sword and of Judah 500000 valiant Men 2 Sam. 24.9 in all 1300000 fighting Men and if we should take in Women Children and Aged it is probable they were above five Millions So that in the space of 435 Years notwithstanding all these Decrements they were increased about three Millions The next Account of the Numbers of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin only under Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 17.14 and though in the interval between David and Jehosaphat these two Tribes received considerable Allays by Wars Plagues and Famines yet the Number of the mighty Men of valour of Benjamin was 380000 and of the Tribe of Judah 780000 mighty Men of valour The Increase of Judah between that and David's Numeration was 280000 fighting Men and therefore the Increase of Women Children and Aged not fit for War must needs be much greater and more considerable and yet this was in a Period only of those Years that intervened between David and Jehosaphat After this the ten Tribes were carried away Captives by Salmanasser 2 Kings 17. and only Judah and Benjamin remained so that now all our Account must run upon these two Tribes the rest being carried away and probably confounded and mingled among the Gentiles And if we consider what Calamities these two Tribes endured by Wars and Captivities from the time of Hezekiah until their deportation into Babylon we may reasonably suppose that they had as great a Reduction as ordinarily could befall a People Manasseh carried Captive to Babylon which probably was the issue of some great Siege or Battel Josiah slain in Battel by Pharaoh King of Egypt Jerusalem taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the 8 th Year of Jehojachim 2 Kings 24.12 again in the 9 th Year of Zedekiah the City again besieged and after two Years Siege and great Famine and Slaughter taken Jer. 39.12 These severe Administrations of War could not be without great Desolations Slaughters and Mortalities though their Number is not recorded The People were carried away Captive to Babylon in the Year of the World 3362 or thereabouts which was about 437 Years after the Reign of David seventy Years after the Captivity viz. about the Year of the World 3420 there was a Return of the Jews under Cyrus which continued in Partial Remigrations for some time after The numbers of those that returned first with Ezra were 42360 Ezra 2.64 this seems to be the greatest number there were other Remigrations in the time of Darius and Artaxerxes both in the 27 th Year though the certain number be not mentioned We will therefore take scope enough and suppose them in all 100000 Persons which is more than double to those that came up with Ezra These continued in a troubled condition from the time of the cessation of the Persian Monarchy until the time of Christ and rarely without Wars as the History of the Maccabees gives us an account especially under Antiochus Epiphanes who made great slaughter of them After that Pompey by Arms took Jerusalem and subdued Syria in general not without great bloodshed and as they were naturally an unquiet People so the Histories tell us that the Romans and their Governours exercised great severity and bloodshed among them And yet for all these Correctives and Decrements of this unquiet People Josephus tells us that Nero willing to take some Account and Estimate of them by their great convention and concourse in their Paschal Solemnity found their number to be Seven and twenty hundred thousand Persons Joseph de Bello Judaico l. 7. pag. 968. where Strangers might not be mingled with them in that Solemnity The Destruction of Jerusalem under Titus and Vespasian is supposed to be under the 66 th Year after the Birth of Christ about the Year of the World 4006 which was about 586 Years after the Return under Cyrus Josephus gives us an Account of those that were slain at the Siege of Jerusalem viz. 110000 and Prisoners taken 90000 Joseph lib. 7. cap. penult besides the multitudes slain in Cyrene Alexandria and other places not easie to be remembred By which we may reasonably conclude That in the Period of about 600 Years this Nation of the Jews increased to 27 times more than when they returned under Cyrus for then we allow the number of them that returned to be 100000 but now they were increased to 2700000. It is true some of the Jews escaped this Slaughter and Captivity suppose we the number of those that escaped were a Million of Jews such I mean as held rigorously to their Jewish Law for many became Christians and left much of the Jewish strictness and possibly mingled with other Nations But if we should now examin the multitude of the Jews in Europe Asia and Africa we shall find vast numbers of them in all the Trading Cities ' and Countries except England France Spain Portugal Naples and Sicily from whence they were formerly banished yet even in those Countries from whence they have been banished they are in great numbers but yet under the disguise of other Names and Nations But if all the Jews I mean those descended from the Reduces captivitatis Babylonicae which are in Germany Bohemia Poland Lituania Russia Venice Rome and other parts of Italy in the Dominions of the Turks Persia Arabia India Africa at Alexandria and other parts of Egypt were collected into one Body they would exceed in number any one of the greatest Nations of the World and yield an irresistible Army if they had Weapons and Courage in any measure proportionable to their Wealth Craft Subtilty and Numbers So that notwithstanding all the Abatements and Decrements they have had
last Chapter are not in themselves likely to be sufficient and sutable to the Reduction of the Increase of Mankind to an Equability especially in an infinite succession of Eternal Generations So by plain Experience it is apparent and sensible that de facto they have not done it in a finite limit of Ages but Mankind have notwithstanding them increased every Age and the multitude of them that are born and live over-ballance the number of them that dye communibus annis or being taken upon a medium though possibly some one Year gave the advantage of Number to the Descendents yet it is not common nor ordinary but more than two or three Years for one give the advantage of Number to them that are born and live CAP. XI The Consequence and Illation upon the Premisses against the Eternity of Mankind THe great Assertors of the Eternity of the World and of Mankind have certainly gathered their Opinion principally from this That they find that Mankind is propagated by ordinary course of Generation and this they see by Experience And as they do so now so they did a hundred or a thousand Years since and as far as those Histories they credit give them account it was so in those times and in the times before them as far as Tradition could instruct them And although those various Occurrences of Wars Pestilences Migrations Floods Changes of Religion and Languages have obscured the Histories Relations and Traditions of former times before those Histories that are extant yet they think it becomes them as reasonable Men to believe that things have been always so as now they are and that it were a fondness to suppose or believe things to be otherwise than they have appeared in the tract of all Times or Ages And upon the same ground that these Men assert the Eternity of the World the Instance and Argument now produced of the plain and experienced Increase of the numbers of Men upon the face of the Earth seems much more forcibly to conclude against that supposed Eternity of Mankind For it is plain and evident to Sense that the World grows every day fuller than formerly notwithstanding all those Correctives and Reductives thereof And we have reason to think it is so in all places at least one with another and in all Ages and among all People as we find it in England for these 600 Years or among the People of the Jews for above 2000 Years For among these People and in these Periods of Time there have been as many and as great Diminutions and Abatements as ever were in such Periods of Time and yet though perchance in one Age they have diminished yet they have not been so diminished but that in the compass of four or five hundred Years their Increase above what they were before such Diminution is upon a medium always exceeding their Decay And since we have reason to believe what we see namely the Excess of Generations above their Decays we have reason to believe it was so always and if it were so always it is not possible the Generations of Mankind could be eternal For if we should suppose the Eternity of the World an Increase of but one Man in the Period of Millions of Years would have filled more space than all the Earth or the Concave of Heaven could receive For in as much as in a Duration that never had a Beginning there must needs be infinite Millions of Years the Increase of one Man in every Million above what was before must needs produce an infinite coexisting number and an infinite moles of Mankind much more if the Increase were in any measure proportionable to what our daily Experiences give us Instances of Whereby we find that although it be possible that several Families may be wholly extinct in a Kingdom in the Period of 5 or 600 Years and though possibly in some one Age there may be a diminution of the People of a Kingdom from what they were in the Age before yet in the succession of a very few Ages they again increase beyond the diminution and neither successively decrease nor hold an equality which we may reasonably suppose to be the common condition of the World And as to that Supposition That even upon a Natural account when the World grows too full of Inhabitants they must break the Bonds of Society and Peace and so diminish each other by Internecions and Wars As Air compressed or expanded beyond the measure of the Vessel containing it breaks the Vessel wherein it is compressed to give it self room I shall only say that although the Pride and Ambition and Insolence of neighbouring Princes or People or the sense of too much Oppression and Hardship hath many times raised Wars yet we never knew Wars to grow meerly upon the account of the Fulness of any Country indeed that Plethory hath many times occasioned Emigrations and Transplantations and Navigation and increase of Trade or Manufactures and other industrious Employments but Wars have always grown upon other Occasions though as I before observe the great wise and intellectual Governour of the World hath by his over-ruling Conduct of the Passions of Men brought about ends for the convenience and benefit of Mankind in this respect also as well as to punish their Excesses and Enormities CAP. XII The Eighth Evidence of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely the Consent of Mankind I Come now to the Eighth and last Evidence of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely The general Consent of Mankind in that Perswasion wherein I shall pursue this Order First to consider the more Popular or Vulgar Opinion of Nations in all or most Places and Ages of the World agreeing in this Sentiment or Perswasion and what may be reasonably concluded of the truth or at least great probability of the truth of that Supposition of the Origination of Mankind upon the Supposition of such a Consent Secondly to consider the more restrained Perswasion of the Learned and more considerate sort of Men that guided themselves in their Sentiments not barely upon Popular or Vulgar Opinions but searched deeper into the Reasons and Evidences of things namely the learneder Tribe of Men Physiologists and Philosophers And then I shall also consider the several Suppositions of those that agreed in that Perswasion touching the several Manners and Methods of such Originations and wherein their several Suppositions seem to be deficient insufficient or untrue First touching the National or Popular Opinions touching the Origination of Mankind There hath prevailed among the generality of Mankind a common Perswasion that Mankind had an Original ex non genitis and those Nations that pretend to the greatest Antiquity suppose themselves to be Terrigenae or at least by some other Method than the ordinary course of Generation Kircherus in his Oedipus Aegyptiacus Syntagm 3. Cap. 1. out of Maimonides gives us an Account of the Zabei descended from Cush and inhabiting the Coast of the Red