PREFACE.

A few years ago I spent some time every summer in viewing, measuring, and considering the works of the ancient Druids in our Island Referring to Great Britain.; I mean those remarkable circles of Stones which we find all over the kingdom, many of which I have seen, but of many more I have had accounts. Their greatness and number astonished me, nor need I be afraid to say, their beauty and design, as well as antiquity, drew my particular attention. I could not help carrying my inquiries about them as far as I was able. My studies this way have produced a vast quantity of drawings and writing, which considered as an entire work, may thus be entitled,

I. The Canon of Mosaic Chronology original: "Canon Mosaicæ Chronologiæ", or the year of Moses settled, by which he reckons time in the history of the old world; the time of the year fixed when creation was begun. This is done in a new manner, and becomes an entire system of chronology from the creation to the Exodus, and is exemplified by many particular Calendars of the most remarkable transactions; which are proofs of the truth of the Canon. There are interspersed a great many astronomical and historical illustrations of the sacred pages, particularly Sanchoniathon's A Phoenician author whose works survive only in fragments; Stukeley uses him to synchronize pagan and biblical history. genealogies, and Manetho's An Egyptian priest and historian; Stukeley refers to his lists of Egyptian kings. Egyptian Dynasties, are applied in a new Method to the history and chronology of the Scriptures.

II. Melchizedek A mysterious biblical figure, king and priest, whom Stukeley views as a representative of the "true" religion before the era of Jewish Law., or a delineation of the first and patriarchal religion, from the best light we can gather in the sacred history; and from the most ancient heathen customs, which were remains of that religion. In this Treatise it is shown, that the first religion was no other than Christianity, the Mosaic dispensation The religious laws and systems established by Moses., as a veil, intervening; that all mankind from the creation had a knowledge of the plurality of persons in the Deity A reference to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity being known to ancient patriarchs..

III. Of the mysteries of the ancients, one of the first deviations from true religion, to idolatry; this is chiefly pursued in an explication of the famous Table of Isis Also known as the Bembine Table, an elaborate bronze tablet with Egyptian-style imagery, once thought to be an ancient ritual object., or Bembin-table, published by Pignoria Lorenzo Pignoria (1571–1631), an Italian antiquarian., Kircher Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), a Jesuit scholar famous for his attempts to decode Egyptian hieroglyphs., &c. wherein that knowledge which the ancients had concerning the true nature of the Deity, is further explained.