Critical History of Dogmas and Cults [with] Supplement

catchword: li-

Perhaps some persons will be astonished to find here the system of the Pre-Adamites, which passes for a pure reverie. But the more singular things are in their kind, the more they deserve that we preserve the memory of them. Grave Authors, such as St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Epiphanius, have taken the trouble to preserve and give to posterity the systems of the Valentinians, Marcionites, and other dreamers called Gnostics, who are a hundred times more ridiculous than that of the Pre-Adamites. In speaking of this period, which begins with the birth of the world and the first man, it was not possible that one would not think of the reverie of the Jew La Peyrere, who found in his imagination men more ancient than Adam, and who even wished to support his visions by the Holy Scripture. Few people have seen the Work of this man; he is dead and his sect has died with him. This is why we were persuaded that the curious who are yet to be born would not be displeased to be informed of an affair about which posterity will perhaps never be in a state to give them news.

This is not, it is true, a matter of necessity. It is not the same with the question between the Greeks and the Latins regarding the antiquity of the world. The Greeks make the world 1400 or 1500 years older than the Latins do. One must be surprised that there can be such a great difference in Chronology between the calculations of people who follow the same originals, namely the Hebrew text and the Greek text. After having spoken of the principal things that happened in the first period of the world, it was appropriate to examine how long its duration was. In answering the objections of Isaac Vossius and several other scholars, we demonstrate that four or five hundred years after the flood there could have been a large number of millions of men on earth, which we prove by reflections that perhaps had never been made.

We have refrained from touching upon all the other chronological difficulties of this period, which are quite numerous, except for that one, which is too considerable to be neglected. There is, however, one that we must clarify, because it would be too noticeable to readers who are a little attentive, especially to those who have read a small book entitled, History of the Holy Scripture in the form of a Catechism. At the end of this book, one finds a Chronology that is drawn from good Authors, but which is not accurate and does not agree with our calculation. For example, we make...