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Twelve Patriarchs, to whom they all owe their Birth, and from those Twelve Patriarchs to Jacob who had but one Brother called Efau, and from these Two Brothers, to Ifaac Brother to Ishmael, and from these to Abraham, and if we follow the same Line downwards, we shall find at first, Abraham who is but a fingle Perfon, and from Abraham we descend to Ishmael and Ifaac, from these to Jacob and Efau, from Jacob to the Twelve Patriarchs; from these last to Twelve Tribes, and from every Tribe, to almost an infinite number of Perfons whereof it is composed; whereupon 'tis very natural to make the following Reflections.

The first is, that in the Succeffion of Genera tions, the Branches are more numerous than the stock; otherwife we should not fee so many defcended from one Man, and confequently there being at prefent but a finite number of Branches, "twould be altogether abfurd to acknowledge an infinity of Stocks.

The Second is, that in the Succeffion of Gene rations, the further the distance of time is, at which you place the Head of any People, the more mumerous will that People be found; and the never their Head is, the less will the number of that People be; and if the Multiende i Creafes proportionably to the distance at which Thure its Principle Head, then 'tis evi

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The Subject

must necessarily acknowledge, either one only Line, or many Lines; or to express my felf more clearly, it must be allowed, that all People of the World descended from one Man, whom afterwards we may suppose, if we please, to have had Ancestors even to infinity; or else that ther are many Successions of Generations independer of one another, or divers Successions from diff rent Stocks.

We cannot reasonably affirm the latter; Fir because as far as we can look back into Hifto we find that Nations are derived one from a ther, or from some common Father. And condly, Because if one only infinite Succe of Generations, must have produced an inf number of Men, many the like Successions had no common tye or connexion, must have produced a much greater effect.

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There are none besides the American seem at first to have a different Original the rest of Mankind, because we are still to what Road they could take in order to i that great Continent which we call the New But what should hinder us Grotius. ceiving the Conjecture of a Man, who will have it, that fed from Norway into Ifeland an Isse situ wards the Northern part of America, a Iseland into Greenland, the name of the America which lies next to that Ifle? deed we cannot comprehend what shou reason why the Inhabitants of the Ol are Polite and Civilized, and those of World Barbarous and Savage, if we to be as ancient as the other; wher suppofe that the Americans take their

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the Inhabitants of our Continent, we may impute their Ignorance and Stupidity to the latentfs of their Establishment,

But if we look back, though to an Hundred Thousand Ages off, and find at last one Man and one Woman who gave life to all the present Inhabitants of the World; how could an Etermity have passed during which there was a Stic ceffion of Generations, and yet this Eternity, or this eternal Succession of Generations have produced no more than one Man and one Woman, which are the First Parents of Mankind?

Let the Incredulous make what Hypothefies they please, 'tis unquestionably true, That the Succeffion of Generations occafion'd the propagation of Mankind, and that it still serves continually for the peopling the Earth we inhabit. By this means it is come to pass, that the Family of one Man which was formerly lodged in a few Tents, is now spread over all the World, and from the abundance of Inhabitants, came Colonies and Plantations. But suppose the number of Men should increase every Year but one, by the continual Succeffion of Generations, all the Earth must

necessarily have already
Inhabitants, (If I may !

one upon another; fince

Eternity.

Twould be in vain to
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Years; for Example, which is the time we can speak of with the most certainty.

CHAP. IX.

That there are certain Marks of Novelty in Human Society, which prove the Existenc of God.

UT though all these Considerations shou Bu not overthrow the Idea we might have the Eternity of Mankind, 'tis but casting c Eyes upon Arts and Sciences, Laws and Gove ments, Commerce and Histories, and we shall in the Marks of their Novelty, that of the ciety of Men.

Philosophy, which consists in the Study of tural things, and such as relate to manners new, that before Pythagoras his time, there no mention of it among the Greeks. Sene one passage of his Works, says, that Wisdo not been known above a Thousand Years Socrates boasted he conjur'd it down from ven, because he was the first who from C plation reduced it to practice.

Thales was the first who taught the G stronomy, and according to Diogenes Laert wrote his Life, he had it from the Egypti these from the Chaldeans, who are so wel for the Inventors of that Science tha the Ancients, the Word Chaldean is tak Aftrologer.

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The Author therefore of the System of Pre-Adamites, does but labour in vain, when to evince that the World is far ancienter than 'tis comhonly thought to be, he shews us the Compofition of the Sphere, and endeavours to demonstrate from thence, that there was need of a great number of Ages for the invention of all the parts of it; and that 'twas impossible that Avraham or even Moses should have known it, if the Antiquity of the World were not greater than we imagin it to be. For who told him that Astronomy was at that time arrived to that degree of perfection 'tis now brought to ? Who knows not on the contrary, that it

- was gradually and insensibly Plin. Lib. 8. improved? Thales observed the

Eclipses, and could foretel when they would happen. Before his time, when ever People saw an Eclipse, they were in as great a Fright and Confternation, as if they had

expected a total dissolution of

Plutarch in the Life

Nature. Armies stopt their Fu- of Nicias.

- ry, and durst not enter upon

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any action, 'till many Days after they were paf

fed.

And though the Art of Physick seems more ne

cessary to Mankind than Aftro as well acquainted with the rife and progress of that. Herodotus tells us, that formerly People carried their Sick into the

10 desired those that went by. to tell

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