As to the probable reasons why God so pro longed the life of man in the earlier ages of the world, and as to the subordinate means by which this might have been accomplished, Josepbus says (Antiy. i. 3) : For those ancients vvere beloved of God, and lately made by God himself ; and be cause their food was then fitter for the prolonga tion of life, they might well live so great a number of years : and because God afforded them a longer time of life on account of their virtue and the good use they made of it in astronomical and geometri cal discoveries, which would not have afforded the time for foretelling the periods of the stars unless tbey had lived 600 years ; for the great year is completed in that interval.' To this he adds the testimony of many celebrated profane historians, who affirm that the ancients lived woo years.
In the above passage Josephus enumerates four causes of the longevity of the earlier patriarchs. As to the first, viz., their being dearer to God than other men, it is plain that it cannot be maintained, for the profligate descendants of Cain were equally long-lived, as mentioned above, with others. Neither can we agree in the second reason he assigns, be causc we find that Noah and others, though born so long subsequently to the creation of Adam, yet lived to as great an age, some of them to a greater age, than he did. lf, again, it were right to attri bute longevity to the superior quality of the food of the antediluvians, then the seasons, on which this depends, must about Moses's time—for it was then that the term of human existence was reduced to its present standard—have assumed a fixed cha racter. But no change at that time took place in the revolution of the heavenly bodies, by which tbe seasons of heat, cold, etc., are regulated ; hence we must not assume that it was the nature of the fruits they ate which caused longevity. How far the antediluvians had advanced in scientific re search 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 remained from the old world (see Antiv. i. 2. 3). We are not, therefore, able to determine, with any confi dence, that God permitted the earlier generations of man to live so long, in order that they might arrive at a high degree of mental excellence. From the brit/ notices which the Scriptures afford of the character and habits of the antediluvians, we should rather infer that they had not advanced very far in discoveries in natural and experimental philosophy (see ANTEDILUVIANS). We MIISt 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 tmdition 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 labour 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. It the antediluvians began to bear children at the age on an average of 'co, 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 me chanical arts which so much abridge human labour now, we can easily understand how difficult they nmst 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 pro longed 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 absence of any well-regulated system of government, we can imagine what evils must have arisen : the unprin cipled 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 must admire the providence of God in the longevity of man imme diately after the creation 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 900 and upwards. But after the flood, when there were three couples to re-people the earth, none of the patriarchs ex cept Shen: reached the age of 5oo ; and only the three first of his line, viz., Arphaxad, Selah, and Eber, came near that age, which was in the first century after the flood. In the second century we do not find that any attained the age of 240 ; and in the third century (about the latter end of which Abra ham 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. ; see also Usher and Petavius on the increase of mankind in the three first centuries after the flood).
That the common age of man has been the same in all times since the world was peopled, is manifest from profane as well as sacred history. Plato lived to the age of 81, and was accounted an okl man ; and those whom Pliny reckons up (vii. 48) as rare examples of long life, may, for the most part, be equalled in modern times. We can not, then, but see the hand of God in the propor tion that there is between births and deaths ; for by this means the population of the world is kept up. If the fixed standard of human life were that of Methuselah's age, or even that of Abraham's, the world would soon be overstocked ; or if the age of man were limited to that of divers other animals—to ro, 20, or 30 years only—the decay of mankind would then be too fast. But on the pre sent scale the balance is nearly 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 him self to be indeed the ruler of the world. We may, then, conclude in the language of the Psalmist (Ps. civ. 29, 30), Thou hidest thy face, all crea tures are troubled ; thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created ; and thou re newest the face of the earth.'—J. W. D.