as written in the Original Character ufed before that Captivity, by that whole Nation; and as continued down to, and received by the Remains of tho Ten Tribes in Samaria, all the Times of their bitter Hatred to the other Jews, even to this very Day. So that this muft needs be a Copy entirely diftinct from the common Mafforite one now current, and in all Probability much older than thofe from whence even the Septuagint made their Tranflation, long before the Times of our Saviour. Yet upon the Comparifon of this Samaritan Pentateuch, with the common Hebrew, and with the Septuagint; abating the Diverfity of fome Chronological Numbers in them all, as to the Lives of the Patriarchs, before and after the Flood, of fmall Importance here, there appears but very little Difference between them; and none at all that I know of in any Points of Confequence, either in Hiftory, Doctrine or Practice. So that, for the main, it exceedingly ftrengthens the Authority and Uncorruptnefs of our prefent Copies of the Pentateuch; and by Parity of Reafon, of the prefent Copies of all the Books of the Old Teftament, which do with us otherwife ftand upon the fame Foot, and are ufually of a much lower Antiquity than these Five Books of Mofes. Tis alfo well known that the Gen. v. Scriptures affirm, what feems to us very fur- and xi. prizing, and next to impoffible, viz. that in the early Times of the World, Men commonly liv'd to many Hundred Years of Age; and that in particular before the Deluge, they liv'd frequently to near a Thoufand; that after the Deluge, their Lives declin'd gradually from T 2 Five