Of the Siudï os H i s t o n y 65

Thís ínay serve as a sample of Jewiíli chronology,formed on their scriptures which afford iníufficientlights, and on their traditions which afford' falselights We are indeed more correct, and cornenearer to the truth in these instances, perhaps ins»me others, because we make use os profanechronology to help us. But profane chronology isitselt so modem, so precarious, that this help doesn ot reach to the greatest part of that time towhich sacred chronology extends ; that when itbegins to help , it begins to perplex us too ; andfinally, that even with this help we Ihould nothâve ’nad so much as the appearance of a complétéchronological fystem, and the famé may be faîd ofuniversal history, if learned men had not proceededvery wistly, on one uniform maxim , from the firstâges of Christianity , when a cuífom of sanctifyingprofane learning, as well as profane rites, whichthe Jews had imprudently laid a6de, was takenu p by the Chriffians. The maxim í mean is this,that profane authority be admitted withoutsemple or doubt, whenever it says, or wheneverit can be made to fay, if not totidem verbis,”yet totidem syllabisor “ totidem literis” atleast, or whenever it can be made by any inter-prétation to mean, what confirms, or supplies ina consistent mariner , the holy writ; and that thefamé authority be rejected, when nothing of thiskind can be done , but the contradiction or incon-sistency remains irreconcileable buch a liberty asthis would not be aliowed in any other case,because it supposes the very thing that is to ba

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