Art. 14. The WORKS of the LEARNED. 197 pofes, would have been to lay a weak and fandy Foundation, unable to fupport the weighty Fabrick defigned to be erected on it. But, on the contrary, I firmly believe, that both he and St. Matthew have given us a genuine Genealogy of our bleffed Lord; fuch as will ftand the feverest Examination, and fuch as might prove a ftable and folid Bafis, on which they might raise the Meffiahfhip of the Holy Jefus, and the fubfequent Truths of his Gofpel."

Our Author now, in the second Place, confiders the Opinion of thofe who allow there was fuch a Man as Cainan, but not that he was the Son of Arphaxad, and Father of Salah. Thus, as he fays, Lyra will have Salah to be the natural Son of Arphaxad, and the adoptive Son of Cainan. According to which, as he obferves," St. Luke "breaks into the regular Chain of the Genealogy,

and that without any apparent Reason, to give "us the two Parents of Salah, both by Nature

and by Law, which he hath not done by any "other of the Perfons named, and hath not given "us the leaft Hint that he hath done fo here."

Others imagine both Cainan and Salah to be the Sons of Arphaxad, and fo Brethren; and that Cainan being elder of the two, died before his Brother, and left his Name and Inheritance to him, having no Children :-That when St. Luke faith, Salah, of Cainan, of Arphaxad, if we fupply it with the Words which are understood, it ought to run thus, Salah, which was the Brother of Cainan, which was the Son of Arphaxad:-That this Cuftom of naming a Perfon from his Brother, is to be found both in Luke vi. 16. and Acts i. 13. where Jude the Brother of James, as he ftiles himself in the Beginning of his Epiftle, is called Jude of James, as here, Salah of Cainan :- That Mofes pmitted Cainan, probably because he died without

Iffue,

Iffue, and fo was no Progenitor to thofe Patriarchs whom he afterwards speaks of:- And laftly, that St. Luke inferts him, perhaps, to fhew that though Salah was not the eldest Son of Arphaxad, yet at least he had the Right and Preheminence of an eldest Son, on the Death of his Brother; or, it may be, for fome other good Reafon, which we at this time cannot guefs at.

In answer to this, our Author obferves, "that "though this Hypothefis hath fomething more "of Art in it, yet the fame Objections lie against

this, as against the former; for they both de"pend upon mere Conjecture, and equally break "the Connection of St. Luke. And both of them, "whilft they are devised to reconcile St. Luke with "the Hebrew Text of Mofes, do exprefly contra"dict the Letter of the ancient Septuagint Ver" fron."

In the third Place, Mr. Yardley proceeds to examine the Opinion of thofe that believe Cainan ought to be taken, as he ftands in our present Copies, for the Son of Arphaxad, and Father of Salah.

The Patrons of this Notion feem, he tells us, to be divided into two Claffes; fome adhering to the prefent Hebrew Text of Mofes; and others, fufpecting that to be corrupt, no lefs ftrenuously defend the Version of the LXX, taking it to be a faithful Tranflation from the Mofaic Text, as it was in its Purity, about 280 Years before Chrift. To thefe he might, he says, fubjoin a third Clafs, who infift upon the divine Inspiration of the Seventy Interpreters: But because he does not fee how this Opinion, allowing it to be true, could be of Service to clear up the present Difficulty, he here bestows but a very few Words on it. With respect to the others, he thus represents the Senfe of those who efpouse them.

First, those who adhere to the present Reading of the Hebrew Text alledge, that it is no Objec tion to the Being of Cainan, that Mofes omits him, seeing it is no uncommon Thing in Scripture Genealogies for fome of the Intermediates to be omitted. And yet in these Inftances, the former Perfon named is faid to beget him who was perhaps either his Grandfon, or great Grandfon, or, it may be, further removed from him. Thus, in the prefent Cafe, when Arphaxad is faid to beget Salah, it may mean, not immediately as his Son, but that Arphaxad was the Father, that is, the Progenitor of Salak, because he begat Cainan, who begat Salah.

If it be objected, that the Age of Arphaxad, at the Birth of Salah, will by no means allow him to be the Grandfather of Salah; it may be answered, "that there is no Impoffibility nor Improbability ❝herein; and therefore when St. Luke, under the "Direction of the Holy Spirit, avers the Fact, it

will be high Prefumption for any to object to "his pofitive Teftimony, and to deny the Proba"bility of the Thing." We may, from our own Obfervation, Mr. Yardley fays, alledge many Inftances where Men have been Fathers before the Age of feventeen or eighteen Years; nay, some have been Fathers before they had compleated their twelfth, or their tenth Years; and, according to the Scripture Reckoning, Abaz could not have been above eleven Years old when Hezekiah was born to him. "Can it therefore be thought impoffible or improbable that Cainan might be born when his Father Arphaxad was but eighteen Years old, and that the fame Cainan "might have Salah for his Son at the Age of "Seventeen?" Especially when we confider, as Mr. Yardley adds, that feveral Causes may confpire

to

to this End; of which he is at the Pains of giving us a Catalogue:To go on,

Perhaps it may be faid, we have the prefent Hebrew Copies true and entire, and Cainan is not there to be found. But yet, fays our Author, the Patrons of this Opinion cannot well object to St. Luke, for inferting this Name into his Genealogy. They may indeed question, if neither the Books of Genefis nor Chronicles mention Cainan, where did the Evangelift find him? To which we may answer, that this Name might be retained in fome ancient "Tradition of the Jews, though not mentioned

in the Scripture that this Tradition was pre"ferved in the Verfion of the Seventy; that "whatever Opinion the Evangelift might have of "the Authenticknefs of that Tranflation, yet there "he might find it, and, by the Illumination of "God's Spirit, be informed of the Truth thereof; "and by the fame infallible Director of his Pen "might be ordered to place Cainan in this Part of "his Genealogy of our Lord: Or, if this is not fatisfactory, we may give a much fhorter An"fwer, that St. Luke was acquainted with, and

affured both of the Perfon of Cainan, and of "the Relation he bare both to Salah and Arphaxad, "by him who throughly inftructed Mofes, and en"abled him to record the Formation of the Hea"vens and the Earth."

Mr. Yardley proceeds, in the next Place, to confider thofe, who, fufpecting the prefent Hebrew Reading to be corrupt, ftrenuously defend the Septuagint, as a faithful Verfion of the original Text. It is the Business of thefe, as he tells us, to vindicate the Tranflation they efpouse, from the Charge to which it is liable, on account of its differing from the prefent Hebrew Copies, wherewith they cannot reconcile it: For however the Name of Cainan being found in the one and not in the other,

other, implies no Oppofition between them; yet the Years annexed in the one intirely contradicting those fet down in the other, both cannot be true; and therefore they are obliged to juftify the Verfion, and to invalidate that which now paffes for the genuine Writing of Mofes. Accordingly Mr. Yardley has laid before us the principal Topics whereon the Proof of this Point is founded, amounting to nineteen. After which he declares, he will not take upon him to determine this momentous Question, but leave it with the Reader to allow what Weight he thinks proper to what has been alledged; his Concern being only to defend the Evangelift, in placing Cainan in his Genealogy of our Lord: And he hopes, by what hath been faid it will appear, "That neither those who defend the prefent Hebrew "reading, nor those who reject it, and infift on the "Authority of the Septuagint, have any Pretence to "throw Cainan out of the Gofpel, or to tax the Evangelift with any thing unbecoming his Cha"racter, for allowing him a Place in it."

He finishes his Difcourfe upon this Subject, by fome Animadverfions on Mr. Shuckford, who has, it feems,expreffed himself in fuch Manner upon it, in the firft Volume of his Connexion, &c. that it may be said he has banished Cainan, both out of the LXX, and out of the Gofpel.

After fo large an Abstract of what Mr. Yardley has offered for the Solution of this weighty Difficulty, which is the firft that occurs in the Confideration of St. Luke's Genealogy of our Lord, I must barely mention the others which he encounters in the Sequel of it. The firft is the Variation of this Evangelift from St. Matthew in the following Cafe, viz. This latter gives us the Royal Line of the Kings by Solomon the Son of David; and St. Luke, on the other hand, traces the Defcent of our Lord, through the Line of Nathan, another Son of the fame King

David: