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we believe the greater part will be judged to deferve little credit: however, as every thing which has the least pretence to fo great antiquity cannot but be entertaining and curious, we hope our labour in collecting them will not be condemned as useless.

FROM the hiftory of the antediluvian world, we pass to that of the flood, where we produce profane testimonies of that wonderful catastrophe; relate various conjectures of antient and modern writers, as to the manner in which that dreadful devastation was brought on the earth; give fome account of the ark, whereby Noab and his family, with fuch kinds of living creatures as he took in with him, were delivered from that destruction; and, laftly, before we difmifs the hiftory of the old world, take a tranfient view of the antediluvian state of mankind, of their religion, policy, arts, and fciences, of the alterations which have been wrought in nature by the flood, of the longevity of the antediluvians, and the caufes of it, as well as of the prodigious fertility of the firft earth. To these we add an inquiry touching the fituation of mount Ararat, and the various opinions about it.

HAVING thus collected, in the best manner we could, what we have found worthy of notice, from writers of various times, religions, and countries, relating to the antediluvian world, we proceed to the general history from the deluge to the birth of Abraham; but first fettle the chronology from the deluge to the departure of Abraham from Haran. Having ftated the chronology, we come to the hiftory of Noah after the flood, and of his defcendents to Abraham, prefenting the reader with whatever we find curious or entertaining, not only in facred, but profane writers; namely, in the fmall remains which are left us of the Phænician antiquities, collected by Sanchoniatho, and which are fuppofed to relate to the earliest times. As the planting of nations in the two firft general migrations, the forming of focieties and governments, the rife of arts and

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fciences, the beginning of ftates and monarchies, fall within this period, we give the reader as diftinct an account of these important facts, as the records, which have reached us, will allow of.

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FROM the general hiftory of the migrations of the children of Noab, of the peopling of the earth by them, and the fettling of the first governments, we defcend to the particular hiftories of each kingdom, beginning with that of Egypt, which is without doubt one of the moft antient nations of the world, having been peopled either by Ham, or his fon Mizraim, with his own iffue, which inhabited feveral parts of it, under the names of Mizraim, Patbrufim, Coflubim, and Caphthorim. This history we pursue from the firft original of the Egyptian nation to its conqueft by the Perfians, when the fevere prediction of the prophet was fulfilled, There fhall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt. And here to acquaint the reader, in a few words, with the method we have followed in delivering the particular hiftories of each nation; we begin with accounting, in the best manner we can, for the name or names which each nation bears; then we proceed to a defcription of the country, containing an account of its fituation, extent, climate, divifions, fertility; of its animal and vegetable productions; of the natural and artificial curiofities it contains; of its cities, rivers, mountains, lakes, and whatever elfe worthy of notice is to be found in each province. Next, we inquire into the original and antiquity of the inhabitants, confider their laws, government, religion, cuftoms, inftitutions, language, commerce, learning, trade, navigation; and alfo endeavour, as far as fo intricate a fubject will allow, to fettle the chronology of each nation. Laftly, we deliver the feries and hiftory of their kings, which comprifes the wars, treaties, revolutions, and all the most remarkable events of each country. Thus we may say, without vanity or oftentation, that no hiftory has hitherto appeared in any language, which can with more

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juftice challenge the title of an Universal History than the prefent, fince it comprises not only the hiftory of all nations and countries, but of all religions, and religious ceremonies, of all arts and fciences, of the laws that have been any-where obferved, of trade and navigation, and, in fhort, of whatever has been invented for the ufe and convenience of human race. But to return to the fequel of our history:

AFTER delivering the fucceffion of the kings of Egypt, according to the Greek and Latin authors, we thought it might be deemed an omiffion, if we should take no notice of the series of the Egyptian kings given us by the Oriental writers. Wherefore we have set down their names, and briefly mention their principal actions as related by the Eastern hiftorians, leaving the Reader to judge what credit ought to be given them.

NEXT to the hiftory of the Egyptians we give that of thofe nations, with whom the children of Ifrael waged war before, or upon, their fettling in the land of Canaan, namely the Moabites, Ammonites, Midianites, Edomites, Amalekites, Canaanites, and Philistines. From these we proceed to the hiftory of the antient Syrians, Phanicians, and that of the Jews, from Abraham, founder of the Jewish nation, to the Babylonifh captivity. We have enlarged fomewhat on the latter, giving a diftinct account of their patriarchs from Abrabam to Mofes; of their Egyptian bondage, deliverance, and forty years wandering in the wilderness; of their wars with the inhabitants of Canaan, and the neighbouring nations; of their religion, government, laws, cuftoms, learning, arts, commerce, with an accurate description of the Land of Promife, &c. We have alfo fettled the Jewish chronology, from the call of Abraham to the Babylonifh captivity, and then proceeded first to the hiftory of the judges that governed Ifrael, from the death of Joshua to Saul their first king, and thence to the reign of Zedekiah, when the city of Jerufalem was burnt, and the whole nation carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. Having thus delivered the hiftories of the moft antient kingdoms, till they

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were severally fubdued by the great empires, and became parts or provinces of them, we enter upon the hiftory of the faid empires, and then proceed to the hiftories of the Affyrian empire to its conqueft by the Medes and Babylonians, and of the Babylonian empire to its deftruction by Cyrus.

Now, to fay fomething of the authors we have chiefly followed in the work (for we have advanced nothing without quoting our authors, that the reader may, for his fuller fatisfaction, recur, if he pleases, to the originals); we have annexed to this preface a catalogue of the principal authors and books quoted in fome of the former volumes; and fhall here give a fuccinct account of those we have chiefly followed, in treating of the original, and early antiquities of nations. Mofes is the only authentic writer of what happened before, and for several ages after the flood. He is by univerfal confent allowed to be the most antient hiftorian now extant; for whether he was cotemporary with Inachus, as Juftin Martyr, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, Jofephus, Tatian, Clemens of Alexandria, Porphyrius, and others fuppofe, or lived in the time of Cecrops, the first king of Athens, as Eufebius affirms, it is certain, that his history was compofed, not only before all the hiftories, but even before the fables, of the Greeks; fince, according to the calculation of the former, he wrote fix hundred and feventy-five years before the Trojan war, and, according to that of the latter, two hundred and feventy-five years before that æra. His history, as well as the Jewish laws, whereof he was author, are comprised in five books, known under the title of the Pentateuch, which is univerfally received both by the Jews and Chriftians, as penned by him, if we except Abenezra and Spinofa among the former, and fome modern critics among the latter, if their avowed principles can permit us to call them Chriftians, who denied him to be author of it, and who have been learnedly confuted by a late writer. Befides the Pentateuch,

Abbadie, verit. de la relig. Chrétien.

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there have been some other works afcribed to Mofes, though without any certainty, fuch as the Book of Job, which fome fuppofe, upon what grounds we shall fee hereafter, to have been compofed by him, during his forty years abode in Midian. He is alfo fuppofed to have written eleven Pfalms; to wit, the goth, 91ft, and fo on to the 100th. Origen believes him to have translated the book of Job out of the Syriac into Hebrew. Some few fragments of other books are likewise quoted by feveral of the antients, as written by him; fuch as, 1. his Apocalypfe, out of which St. Paul is by them supposed to have taken those words, For in Chrift Jefus neither Circumcifion availeth any thing, &c. 2. his Leffer Genefis; 3. his Afcenfion; 4. Assumption; 5. his Teftament, and other myfterious books. St. Jerom, who quotes a paffage or two out of his Leffer Genefis, tells us, that they had it in Hebrew in his time 8. The Sethites, an antient fect of heretics, quoted his Teftament, and his Myfterious Books or Difcourfes; but all these were fo far from bearing any authority in the church, that they fell into contempt and oblivion, in proportion as Chriftianity prevailed.

THOUGH the writings of Mofes are the only records to be depended upon in the early times, yet we have not omitted to give fome further accounts relating to the fame period, tranfmitted to us by profane writers, namely by Sanchoniatho, Manetho, and Berofus. Sanchoniatho, a Tyrian, according to Athenæus and Suidas, according to others, a native of Berytus, is faid by Porphyry the philofopher", Eufebius, and Theodoret, to have lived about the time of the Trojan war; whence Bochart, Huetius, and others, fuppofe him to have been cotemporary with Gideon. But thefe writers are certainly mistaken in their chronology, and Sanchoniatho must be of a much later date, fince he fpeaks of Tyre, which was built but 91 years before the deftruction of Troy, as a very antient city. He muft there

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