that they were
very good and virtuous, and at the same time very happy, without any
considerable misfortunes, for seven generations, [see ch. 2. sect. 1,
before; and ch. 3. sect. 1, hereafter,] is exactly agreeable to the
state of the world and the conduct of Providence in all the first ages.

[10] Of Josephus's mistake here, when he took Seth the son of Adam, for
Seth or Sesostris, king of Egypt, the erector of this pillar in the
land of Siriad, see Essay on the Old Testament, Appendix, p. 159,
160. Although the main of this relation might be true, and Adam might
foretell a conflagration and a deluge, which all antiquity witnesses
to be an ancient tradition; nay, Seth's posterity might engrave their
inventions in astronomy on two such pillars; yet it is no way credible
that they could survive the deluge, which has buried all such pillars
and edifices far under ground in the sediment of its waters, especially
since the like pillars of the Egyptian Seth or Sesostris were extant
after the flood, in the land of Siriad, and perhaps in the days of
Josephus also, as is shown in the place here referred to.

[11] This notion, that the fallen angels were, in some sense, the
fathers of the old giants, was the constant opinion of antiquity.

[12] Josephus here supposes that the life of these giants, for of
them only do I understand him, was now reduced to 120 years; which is
confirmed by the fragment of Enoch, sect. 10, in Authent. Rec. Part I.
p. 268. For as to the rest of mankind, Josephus himself confesses their
lives were much longer than 120 years, for many generations after
the flood, as we shall see presently; and he says they were gradually
shortened till the days of Moses, and then fixed [for some time] at 120,
ch. 6. sect. 5. Nor indeed need we suppose that either Enoch or Josephus
meant to interpret these 120 years for the life of men before the flood,
to be different from the 120 years of God's patience [perhaps while the
ark was preparing] till the deluge; which I take to be the meaning of
God when he threatened this wicked world, that if they so long continued
impenitent, their days should be no more than 120 years.

[13] A cubit is about 21 English inches.

[14] Josephus here truly determines, that the year at the Flood began
about the autumnal equinox. As to what day of the month the Flood began,
our Hebrew and Samaritan, and perhaps Josephus's own copy, more rightly
placed it on the 17th day, instead of the 2