Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

62
2. Nothing of the kind has been laid to the ciiarge of the
Jews. The pious men who revised the sacred books after tlie
captivity, certainly used the best copies that were to be found.
Their transcripts were long preserved. The people after
tliis pejiod never relapsed into idolatry. Their numerous
scribes must have deteóted eiTor, and the mutual jealousy of
their seels exposed corruption. Beside, the lawgiver of the
house of Jndah was under the care of a special providence till
the Shiloh came, and our reliance upon the authority of the
scriptures rests^ in a great measure, upon the firm belief that
they have not been wilfully corrupted.
3. The half pagan Skmaritans, who rejeded a great part
of the sacred canon, may be supposed to have taken unwar-
ranted liberties with the books tliey retained, in order to
countenance their heathenish errors. And it was an error of
the Heathens that dnrwg the second or Silver age men
remained with their mothers for 100 years, in a state of
infancy, which was succeeded by a short and infirm period of
manhood. Hesiod. Έςγ. «α* Hji* «. v. 129. How contrary is
this to the pui^pose of Providence declared Gen. ix. 1. ?
4. The very old and grey-headed friends of Job, about the
time of Abraham, repeatedly speak of men of a former age
(and whose term of life abundantly exceeded theirs) as still
existing. This could not have been the case upon the Sama-
ritan scheme of chronology ; but upon that of the Hebrew
text, it was a certain truth.
5. As the Samaritan copy does not add to the number of
generations, but only retards the population of mankind, I
cannot perceive how its chronology would remove the objeélion
respeéting the age of Peleg. If the race was prolific at the
age of thirty, it must evidently have increased as much in 100