The next thing that claims our attention, is the extra ordinary longevity of the antediluvians.
Some have endeavoured to explain away the wonder altogether, by supposing that the time was calculated according to lunar years ; but there are invincible ob jections to this supposition. 1st, It would make the age of many of the antediluvians shorter than Our own ; and, 2d, If we adopt this mode of calculation, it is impossible to say where we are to stop. Shem lived 600 years ; Arphaxad 438 ; Peter 239 ; Terah 205 ; Abraham 175; Jacob 147. These periods will still be thought too long, by those who startle at the longevity of the ante diluvians ; but if we apply their mode of calculation to them, they will dwindle into perfect insignificance. Methuselah himself would barely exceed fourscore ; and Arphaxad, who, according to the reckoning in scrip ture, appeared to have attained to a good old age, would be little more than thirty-six. This way of calculating, then, must be abandoned ; and we must endeavour to assign some reason for the extended duration of human life in the first ages of the world. Various conjectures have been advanced on this subject. It has been al. hedged, that the bodies of the first race of men were much more robust than they are at present ; and that the fountain of life was then hut little contaminated by hereditary disease. Both these suppositions are proba bly true ; and if so, must have contributed much to pro tract the life of man. It is also probable, that the ante diluvians enjoyed a much milder temperature of air, than has ever been experienced since the flood ; and that they were not exposed to those violent extremes of heat and cold, dryness and humidity, which relax our frames, and produce disease and debility.
It appears that the life of man was not contracted during the whole of the antediluvian period ; for Adam lived to the age of 930, and Noah to the age of 950. Immediately after the flood, however, we observe the period of human life gradually diminishing, till at last it shrunk into the present contracted span of existence. These circumstances render it probable that the ante diluvians enjoyed a mild and equal temperature of cli mate ; or, according to the poetical description of the golden age, But, in consequence of the deluge, a fatal revolution took place in the constitution of nature ; and the elements were charged with hostility against the life of man. That such a revolution did take place there can be little doubt ; the phenomenon of the rainbow, which, it ap pears, had been unknown in the antediluvian world, and which is so expressly mentioned immediately after the flood, is a proof of it ; and the facts mentioned respect ing the gradual contraction of the period of human life, are perfectly consistent with what we might naturally have expected to be the case on this supposition. The
immediate descendants of the antediluvians, inheriting from their forefathers the stamina of longevity, were enabled to resist, for a considerable time, the effects of a deteriorated climate ;-:and the first postdiluvian race attained nearly to half the!;.age of their ancestors. The healthiness of the human constitution, however, was gradually undermined, and sunk by a progressive dege neracy, till it rested at the point where it now stands, and where it is preserved by the power and goodness of the Almighty.
Another remarkable circumstance, connected with the history which we are now examining, is the exist ence of giants in the antediluvian world. We are not to suppose, as some have absurdly done, that the whole race of antediluvians were giants ; from their being so particularly specified, it is evident that they were of rare occurrence ; though, from the circumstances men tioned above, it is probable, that the human race in general was, in that early period, greatly superior in stature to the present race of men. Many attempts have been made to bring discredit on the account of the ante diluvian giants. Among other things, an attempt has been made to demonstrate, that the existence of giants is mathematically impossible. We wonder that an ar gument so obviously absurd should have been counte nanced by respectable authority.* The argument is, that animals, trees, or vegetables, if extended far be yond their natural size, would fall to pieces by their own weight ; which is much about as good logic, as if one were to argue, from the structure of a mouse, or a min now, that the existence of an elephant or a whale is im possible. The scripture account of the giants is very short : " There were giants in the earth in those days : and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them ; the same became mighty men, which were of old men of renown." It is conjectured by Le Clerc, that the Centaurs of fabulous history, were in fact the antedilu vian giants ; and he supports this conjecture by an inge nious etymology. The giants are called in scripture, and the Centaurs are said to have been begot ten £>: rEpE).45, or to have been the offspring of Nephale.