Mr. Blount's oracles of reason examined and answered in nine sections in which his many heterodox opinions are refuted, the Holy Scriptures and revealed religion are asserted against deism & atheism / by Josiah King ...

Pag. 224.

Diodorus Seculus was famed for his great Learning, Reading, Enquiring; speaking of the Chaldeans, he relates, 'That they thought very long ago, that the World, according to its own Nature, was eternal, having no Beginning, nor that it should have Corruption, in order to an End. And p. 225. Before the Expedition of Alex∣ander, they reckoned Four hundred and se∣venty thousand Years. Likewise Cicero, (who was cotemporary with Diodorus) menti∣ons the very same Account of Time, and Num∣ber of Years.

ANSWER.

The Opinion of the Chaldeans, as to the Original of the World, is laid down by Di∣odorus Siculus, Book the second, in these Words; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The Chaldeans (says Diodorus) affirm the World to be eternal, that it had no Beginning of its Production,

neither hereafter shall it have any Corrupti∣on. But the Order and Beauty of the Uni∣verse must be acknowledged to proceed from Divine Providence; and all the glorious things which we see in Heaven, owe not their Glory to Chance and Accident, but to the firm and unalterable Determinations of the Gods.

Of what Necessity Revealed Religion is, and of what Benefit to Mankind, and under what great Errors men labour who are desti∣tute of it, this Instance of the Chaldeans ful∣ly evinces.

The Reader cannot but observe the Art of our Deist, in relating the Opinion of the Chaldeans; for he hath wholly concealed what they say of Divine Providence, that being not for his design. As also, their great difference from his beloved Ocellus Lucanus. The Chaldeans make the World only eter∣nal as to the Matter of it, the Form they own to be from Providence; whereas Ocellus makes it eternal, not only with respect to its Matter, but also with respect to its Form.

What he writes as to their Computation of Four hundred and seventy thousand Years before Alexander, amounts to nothing; un∣less he had proved by what kind of Years they computed, as we have done in the Mo∣saic Computation, which we have proved to be Solar.

Diodorus observes, that the Chaldeans, in things pertaining to their Arts, made use of Lunar Years of Thirty Days, which will make this monstrous Account shrink conside∣rably.

The Chaldeans make some of their first Kings to Reign above Forty thousand Years, which is so incredible, that Anianus and Pa∣nodorus interpret those Chaldean Years to be but Days.

That which will for ever cramp these vain Pretences of the Chaldeans, is that we have from Simplicius, on Aristotle's second Book de Coelo, where he tells us, that Aristotle de∣sired of Callisthenes, that he would certifie him of the Chaldean Observations, which Callisthenes did, and gives an Account not ex∣ceeding Two thousand Years. Callisthenes was a grave Person, not to be imposed on by the vain Brags of the Chaldeans; he would believe nothing that they could not make to appear out of good Monuments of Antiquity.

This Argument will admit of no Soluti∣on; the Authority of one single Manuscript to the contrary, mentioned by Sir Henry Savil, in his second Lecture on Eucleid, is not to be opposed to all the vulgar Codes.

What our Author says concerning Cicero's mentioning the same Account of Time and Number of Years, proves nothing but this, That Mr. Blount is a Man of unparallell'd

Boldness, and abuses good Authors. 'Tis true, that Cicero mentions this monstrous Account of the Chaldeans in two places, in his first and second Books of Divination; but then he explodes the same as false and ridiculous. 'Tis to be noted, that Mr. Blount cites Cicero in general, and refers to no Book; he well knowing that all his Readers were not conversant in Cicero; and that if he had mentioned the place where this was remark∣ed, the Reader would have cried shame on his Disingenuity Both these places being to the same purpose, I will relate only that in the first Book, where Cicero writing of the Babylonians (who are the same with the Chaldeans) hath these Words; Condemne∣mus hos aut stultitiae, aut vanitatis, aut impru∣dentiae qui quadringenta & septuaginta millia an∣norum ut ipsi dicunt, monnmentis comprehensa continent, & mentiri jndicemns— We cannot but cnndemn the Chaldeans of Folly, Vani∣ty, and Imprudence, who boast that they have Antiquities of 470000 Years; and in our Judgment they are guilty of Falshood.