A GENERAL INDEX to the Whole. Ισορίας ἀρχαίας ἐξέρχεται μὴ κατανοει· ἐν αὐταῖς γὰρ ἑυρίσεις Bafil. Imp. ad Leon. fil. IN RECTO DECVS Printed for T. OSBORNE, in Gray's-Inn; A. MILLAR, in M.DCC.XLVIII. THE PREFACE. H ISTORY is, without all doubt, the most inftructive and useful, as well as entertaining, part of literature, more efpecially when it is not confined within the narrow bounds of any particular time or place, but extends to the tranfactions of all times and nations. Works of this nature carry our knowlege, as Tully obferves, beyond the vaft and devouring space of numberless years, triumph over time, and make us, though living at an immenfe distance, in a manner eye-witneffes to all the events and revolutions, which have occafioned aftonishing changes in the world. By these records it is that we live, as it were, in the very time when the world was created; we behold how it was governed in its infancy, how overflowed and deftroyed in a deluge of water, and again peopled; how kings and kingdoms have rifen, flourished, and declined, and by what fteps they brought upon themselves their final ruin and deftruc tion. From thefe and other like events occurring in hiftory, every judicious reader may form prudent and unerring rules for the conduct of his life, both in a private and public capacity. But as the eminent advantages accruing to us from this valuable branch of learning, have been fufficiently difplayed by many others, we fhall not trouble our readers with a minute detail of them, but haften to what is peculiar to the work, which we now offer to the Public. WE promised, in the preface to vol. i. to prefix to this volume, when it was completed, a general one, wherein, after fome account of the method we have obferved, and the authors we have chiefly followed in the work, we should examine the different computations of time, the coins, weights, and measures, ufed by the feveral nations, whofe hiftories fhould be therein delivered, with fuch other particulars as we fhould judge useful and neceffary. This promife is what we now intend to discharge, and to begin with a fuccinct account of the method we have pursued. OUR intent was to write a General Hiftory of Mankind, from the earliest Account of Time to the present. Pursuant to this defign, before we enter upon the history itself, we have thought it neceffary to premise, by way of introduction, an account of the cofmogony or production of the earth, as being the theatre on which the scenes of the enfuing hiftory were to be acted. In this preludious difcourfe, after having related, without omitting any thing that was really curious, or entertaining, the various opinions both of the antient and modern philofophers, concerning the formation of the animate and inanimate world, we proceed to the only authentic and genuine history of the creation, that which has been left us by Mofes. The opinions of the philofophers are, for the most part, abfurd, incoherent, and contradictory; whereas the Mofaic account, if rightly understood, carries with it all the marks of truth and probability, even though it be regarded only as an human compofition, abstracted from divine authority. Having attended the earth through its feveral degrees of formation, feen it perfected, cloathed with trees and plants, replenished with animals, and at last man, for whom the whole was defigned, and to whom the dominion of it was exprefly given by its Maker, introduced and placed in it; we take fome notice of the opinion of thofe, who think mankind were in being before Adam, whom they suppose to have been the progenitor of the Jews only; we touch upon feveral inquiries that have been made. concerning concerning the time and feafon of the creation, the place where Adam was created, &c. and clofe the introduction with fome account of the creation of the angels, of the nature, power, employments, &c. of those fpiritual beings, that fo eminently concerned themfelves in the affairs of mankind, at leaft in the firft ages of the world. The introduction, we hope, will not be thought of a difproportionable length: fo copious a fubject as the origin of the world and mankind, could not be well reduced into a narrower compafs. If there fhould be fome little obfcurities or inconfiftencies, where we have delivered or explained the opinions of the old philofophers, we need not fay much to excufe ourselves to thofe, who know in what uncertainty and confusion the hiftory of thofe philofophers and their opinions have been left by the Antients. FROM the cofmogony or formation of the earth, and things that were made for the ufe of man, we proceed to the general history of the world till the flood; but premife feveral curious inquiries touching the fituation of the garden of Eden, the ftate of innocence, and its continuance, the two trees, the prohibition laid on the firft pair, the tempter, and his punishment, the fall of man, and the effects it had on human nature, and on the earth, with the different opinions touching the manner in which the change in the conftitution of man, and of the earth, was effected. The chronology from the creation to the deluge is what we likewife thought neceffary to fettle, before we entered upon the hiftory of the antediluvian world. That we ftate and fettle accordingly, and then deliver the history of the antediluvian patriarchs, as tranfmitted to us in the writings of Mofes, which are the only records to be depended upon in thofe early times. However, we have thought it not amifs to collect the most material pieces of hiftory to be found in profane authors, relating to the times preceding the flood; among which, though there be fome which bear the apparent marks of truth, yet a Vol. i. p. 142, &c. |