flow far the antediluvians had advanced in scientific research generally, and in astronomical discovery particularly, we are not informed; nor can we place any dependence upon what Josephus says about the two inscribed pillars which re mained from the old world (see Antio. 1, 2, 9). We are not, therefore, able to determine, with any confidence, that God permitted the earlier gen erations of man to live so long in order that they might arrive at a high degree of mental ex cellence. From the brief notices which the Scrip tures afford of the character and habits of the antediluvians, we should rattler infer that they had not advanced very far in discoveries in natural and experimental philosophy. (See ANTE DILUVIANS.) We must suppose that they did not reduce their language to alphabetical order; nor was it necessary to do so at a time when human life was so prolonged that the tradition of the creation passed through only two hands to Noah. It would seem that the book ascribed to Enoch is a work of postdiluvian origin (see Jurieu, Crit. Hist., i. 41). Possibly a want of mental employment, together with the labor they endured ere they were able to extract from the earth the necessaries of life, might have been some of the proximate causes of that degeneracy which led God in judgment to destroy the old world.
If the antediluvians began to beget children at the age on an average of too, and if they ceased to do so at 600 years (see Shuckford's Connect., i. 36), the world might then have been far more densely populated than it is now. Supposing, moreover, that the earth was no more productive antecedently than it was subsequently to the Flood, and that the antediluvian fathers were ignorant of those mechanical arts which so much abridge human labor now, we can easily understand how difficult they must have found it to secure for themselves the common necessaries of life, and this the more so if animal food was not allowed them. The prolonged life, then, of the generations before the Flood would seem to have been rather an evil than a blessing, leading as it did to the too rapid peopling of the earth. We can readily conceive how this might conduce to that awful state of things expressed in the words, 'And the whole earth was filled with violence.' In the ab sence of any well regulated system of govern ment, we can imagine what evils must have arisen : the unprincipled would oppress the weak, the crafty would outwit the unsuspecting, and, not having the fear of God before their eyes, destruction and misery would be in their ways.
Still we admire the providence of God in the longevity of man immediately after the Crea tion and the Flood. After the Creation, when
the world was to be peopled by one man and one woman, the age of the greatest part of those on record was 9oo and upwards. But after the Flood, when there were three couples to repeople the earth. none of the patriarchs, except Shem, reached the age of 5oo; and only the first three of his line, viz., Arphaxad, Salah, and Eber, wlm came in the first century after the Flood, lived nearly to that age. In the second century we do not find that any attained the age of 24o; and in the third century (about the latter end of which Abraham was born), none, except Terah, arrived at zoo; by which time the world was so well peopled, that they had built cities, and were formed into distinct nations under their respective kings (see Gen. xv).
That the common age of man has been the same in all times since the world was well peopled is manifest from profane as well as sacred history. Plato lived to the age of 81, and was accounted an old man; and those whom Pliny reckons up (vii :48) as rare examples of long life may, for the most part, be equaled in modern times. We cannot, then, but see the hand of God in the proportion that there is between births and deaths ; for by this means the population of the world is kept up. If the fixed standard of hu man life were that of Methuselah's age, or even that of Abraham, the world would soon be over stocked; or if the age of man were limited to that of divers other animals, to TO, 20, or 3o years only, the decay of mankind would then be too fast. But on the present scale the balance is near ly even, and life and death keep an equal pace. In thus maintaining throughout all ages and places these proportions of mankind, and all other creatures, God declares himself to be indeed the ruler of the world. (See CHRONOLOGY.) J. W. D.
LONG-SUFFERrNG (Ring'stirfEr-Ing), (Heb.
r.g 17.5, eh-reh'afi-ah-yeenz', slow to anger; Gr.
Faxpohkaa, mak-rot h-oo-nzee' ah).
God's "Iong-suffering," is his patient bearing with manifold affronts, while he forbears to ex ecute deserved wrath upon men, and waits to be gracious to them (Exod. xxxiv :6 ; Num. xiv 18; Ps. lxxxvi :15 ; Jer. xv :15; Rom. ii :4 ; ix :22; I Tim. i :16; I Pet. iii :20; 2 Pet. hi :9, 15). The saints' "Iong-suffering," is their unwearied firm ness of mind under manifold trouble, their con stant hope of the performance of God's promises, and their patient bearing with others to promote their reformation (Col. iii:12; comp. 2 Cor. vi 6 ; Eph. iv :2; 2 Tim. iv :2).
LOOKED (15-6kt), (Gr. rpocroomico,firos-dok-ah'o), to expect (Acts xxviii :6).