bers, however, are deduced much in the fame manner as the preceding, and are therefore liable to the fame objections.

But perhaps the strongest objection that can be made to these numbers of Mr. Kennedy, will arife from the confideration, that they are deduced folely from the revolutions of the earth and moon, as if thofe of the other planets in the solar system had no influence or effect on them: whereas it is notorious, that the planets have a mutual and reciprocal effect on each other's orbits. Our author denies this doctrine, and tells us, that our proofs of it, are only the effects of inaccurate obfervation. But this is to be proved, not only from actual obfervation, but from a theory, founded on the strictest geometrical reafoning, and the most accurate physical experiment. Mr. Kennedy indeed objects, that if the doctrine be true, that there are such disturbances in the planets motions as affect the earth's annual period, they must produce their effects upon the equator. We imagine, however, he would be greatly at a lofs to give us a mechanical defcription of what these effects fhould be; and very certain we are, that neither obfervation nor calculation could afford the means of commenfurating those effects. We will not pretend to deny that the near approach of a planetary body to the earth, might not even vary the time of its diurnal rotation; but, as the mechanical caufe of gravitation would be at the fame time equally affected thereby, it would be impoffible to difcover by any clock or pendulum, whether its motion was affected or not.

That there is an established and uninterrupted harmony in the fyftem of nature, we may very readily admit; but this harmony is general, and not partial: and we are fo far from thinking the apparent irregularities in the motion of the planets arguments against it, that we think them the ftrongest arguments for fuch an eftablished harmony. Indeed our Author might as well affirm, that there is no established proportion between geometrical figures and quantities, becaufe nature will not admit of the quadrature of the circle, as that there is no eftablished harmony in nature, if the revolutions of the earth and moon are not found perfectly to coincide in a determinate period.

Having thus examined into the defects of Mr. Kennedy's poftulata, confidered as aftronomical principles, we come to confider the ufe he hath made of them in chronology. And here we cannot help teftifying our admiration at the numerous inftances he hath given of his ingenuity and industry, in his endeavours to adopt and reconcile the text of facred history to his aftronomical data,

The

The first thing remarkable in his chronological fyftem, is the fixing the date of creation, or the commencement of time; which, he fays, took place 5770 years ago, on the fourth day of the week at noon, in a meridian paffing over the great Pacific Ocean: on which occafion, he obferves, it would furely be highly incongruous and abfurd, to date the beginning of time from an intermediate and not from the central point of the day." We apprehend, however, that many of his readers may discover an equal incongruity and abfurdity in dating the commencement of time from any part of the day after the beginning of the FIRST. But it is to be obferved, that our Author confines himself literally to the terms of Scripture; and fuppofes fome days to have elapfed before the computation of time by means of the combined appearance of the fun and moon. As he must nevertheless be supposed to speak always aftronomically, he fhould have explained himself a little more fully in refpect to thefe extra days; which he supposes to have exifted before the commencement of time. "Thefe four firft days, fays he, [by the way, however, they can be by his fcheme but three and an half] had a real exiftence, and are to be reckoned real natural days, with their evenings and mornings, in which the earth, by the immediate power of the Creator, was made to revolve about its axis in the space of 24 hours, as we have defined the time by common confent; yet they existed before the earth was caused to proceed in its orbit, or had any progreffive motion." Now, nothing can teem with greater incongruity than this paffage : for, in the first place, there could be neither evening nor morning, aftronomically fpeaking, till the formation of the fun. And though we fhould fuppofe, in order to accommodate our meaning to the fcriptural terms, that a certain light previously exifted, which, for that time, fupplied the place of the fun, yet the earth, revolving in lefs than 24 hours, or a folar day, those days could not be with any propriety reckoned as fuch among the days of the week, taken up in the creation, unless fuch days were admitted not to be equal with the reft. And if they were unequal, the first week, or the week of creation, muft have been fhorter than any fucceeding week: in which cafe, we refer it to Mr. Kennedy's confideration, whether this circumftance will not derogate from the dignity and veracity of his fyftem of feven days, which, he fays, "derives its origin from the immediate inftitution of the Deity; the term feventh day implying an inftituted æra, for which the uninterrupted fucceffions of an eftablifhed period or cycle must be computed, the firft of which was completed on the feventh day of the creaNow, by our Author's own method of calculation, the three days and half, or time elapfed from the beginning of Monday morning to Thurfday noon, would be fourteen mis

99

nutes

nutes lefs, than the three days and half following, or from thence to Sunday at midnight: and thus the ftandard week, or æra completed as a model for the reft, would be fhorter than any fucceeding one.

The next propofition our Author endeavours to establish, is, that time commenced at the autumnal equinox, in coincidènce with a full moon. We have already intimated what he means by the commencement of time; what we are to understand by its taking place in coincidence with a full moon is, that he dates the earth's annual motion from the extreme, or laft, point of the original full-moon day. Not that he conceives the moon made its appearance to enlighten the earth, till the evening of the fourth day, full thirty hours after the time of the oppofition; fuppofing the original station of the full moon to have been fixed, by the ordination of the Creator, in ipfiffimis nodis; or in that point in which the orbit of the moon interfects the annual orbit of the earth. So that had the fun, moon, and earth existed, the moon must have fuffered a total and central eclipfe.

Mr. Kennedy is very elaborate in his calculations, to prove that fuch was the pofition of the two great luminaries, with respect to each other, at the creation; and that their revolutions have ever fince perfectly corresponded with aftronomical obfervations, and with the chronology of facred hiftory, as it is to be gathered from the Maforetic Hebrew text. At the fame time, he charges the Septuagint Greek verfion with an error of no less than 1386 years, which have been hypothetically ine ferted in its computations; and calls upon the advocates for that verfion, to fhew by calculation, from the original full-moon in coincidence with the vernal equinox, agreeable to their principles, that a total eclipfe of the fun will be obfervable at London, on the first of April, upon a Sunday, between ten and eleven o' clock in the morning, in the folar tropical year of the world 7189, anfwering, according to their chronology, to the year of our Lord 1764. For the particular fteps and methods of reafoning, by which his chronological inferences are deduced from fcripture, we muft refer the Reader to his work, page 152-158, and alfo under the article of the fcriptural year; where he will find fufficient proofs of Mr. Kennedy's induftry and ingenuity, whatever he may think of the juftice of his conclufions. Indeed there are many learned, as well as fenfible and pious men, who ftill maintain, that the dates and times mentioned in the Old Testament, muft be on many accounts erroneous and defective: how far Mr. Kennedy's calcuJations may in time operate to convince them of the contrary,

experience

experience will fhew. "If any one, fays he, can fairly and critically prove, that my deductions from the writings of Mofes are mere fictions and fancies, then it must be faid, that I have luckily misinterpreted fome general expreffions into a true aftronomical æra, refpecting the fun and moon, and corresponding day of the week." It will behove Mr. Kennedy, however, to re nove all the objections above mentioned, before his æra willbe allowed to be strictly aftronomical: but as he appeals for the truth of it to the effects, which, in its ufe and application, he fays, "it never fails to produce, in an exact agreement with the natural fituation of the fun and moon in the heavens, without any exceptions to the contrary," it is to those effects alfo we chufe to appeal; without concluding any thing for or against it, from his numerous calculations, applied to texts of Scripture, and the inaccurate obfervation of the ancients. It would, indeed, be too tedious a tafk for us to purfue our Author through the labyrinth of thofe calculations, or of his interpretations of Scripture, in order to detect the errors he may very poffibly have fallen into in both; it would be alfo fo far needlefs, in that Mr. Kennedy, if his aftronomical principles are true, can with much greater eafe obviate the objections which aftronomers will make against them. Our Author, indeed, affures us, that his calculations perfectly coincide with the obfervations of the best modern obfervers, and that they come nearer the truth, than those which are deduced from the tables. We do not think this affe: tion, however, fufficiently proved, or confirmed by a competent number of trials; although we fhould not wonder, as before obferved, that Mr. Kennedy's calculations fhould, in a number of years, frequently approach, or hit on the truth when the lengths of his tropical year, as well as of his mean lunation are fo nearly what they have been actually obferved; and are probably mean proportionals of what fuch obfervations would be, if taken for many ages. On this fuppofition, it is not fur; prifing, therefore, if fuch numbers fhould anfwer all the purpofes of chronology. They cannot be brought, nevertheless, with any propriety, to afcertain either the exact aftronomical length of the folar day, the tropical year, or of a mean lunation; nor indeed do they afford any phyfiological argument to prove the age of the world. For could our Author even afcertain the exact pofition of all the planets in the fyftem, with regard to each other, at the creation, or trace them back by a calculation to the inftant when they lay all in one meridian, yet this would be no proof that they might not have defcribed a cycle previous to that inftant. Suppofing, however, that Mr. Kennedy's chronology is exactly taken from the Hebrew text, we will admit that it is a good hiftorical proof of the world's age. But, as our Author's leading principles are, that without aftronomy

there

there is no certainty in chronology, and without chronology there is no hiftory, we conclude his whole fcheme must, in a great measure, ftand or fall with his aftronomical principles.

Having thus gone through the principal fubjects of his first, fecond, and third Differtations, we fhall content ourselves with juft giving the outlines of the fourth, fifth, and fixth, which compleat the work. The firft fubject of enquiry, in the fourth Differtation, is, a perfect national kalendar; no fuch thing being to be found in all the computation of times ufed by European nations. The next is the fcriptural kalendar, or primæval form of the year; all practical knowlege of which, fays our Author, is as entirely loft to the Jews, as it is unknown to the Chriftians. Indeed we do not remember, any more than our Author, to have met with one writer, who feems to have any notion or idea of the reality of its existence; nay, we are under fome doubt, whether, notwithstanding all the pains Mr. Kennedy hath taken to illuftrate this point, there will not be ftill found many writers and readers too, in the very fame circumftances. We think, nevertheless, that great ingenuity is fhewn in this part of his work; and that his divifion of the primitive and fcriptural year into a twofold epoch, the one refpecting the fun, the other of the moon, is well worthy the confideration of our chronological divines.

The defign of the fifth Differtation, is, to fettle the chronology of that year in which the Ifraelites went out of Egypt, when the Paffover was inftituted: and the purport of the fixth, which, in the work is blended with the former, is, to fettle the chronology of that year in which our Saviour fuffered on the Paffover day. These two fcriptural years, our Author tells us, were felected, not only because they are diftinguished by very remarkable and interefting events, but alfo on account of their clofe connection with each other. Hence it is, that the endeavours to illuftrate the harmony fubfifting between the law and the gospel, and to fhew that the latter is but a counterpart of the former; fpecifying how and in what manner the prophecies of the law were punctually accomplished in the actions and perfon of Jefus; how fhadows gave way to fubftance, and how type was fulfilled in antitype; it being evident, according to Mr. Kennedy, that Jefus expired on the crofs on the very month, day, hour, and minute, in which the Pafchalimb was ordered, by God himself, to be flain.

In order to fhew this correfpondency and agre the legal type and the evangelical antitype, M difcuffed at large that agitated and peplexing

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