Till your more learned friends shall supply you with better, I will take the liberty to recommend the following, which I have found of service to myself.
In the ancient chronology, you will find there were four thousand years from the creation to the redemption of man; and that Noah and his family were miraculously preserved in the ark 1650 years after Adam's creation.
As there is no history, except that in the Bible, of any thing before the flood, we may set out from that great event, which happened, as I have said above, in the year of the world 1650.
The 2350 years, which passed from the deluge to our Saviour's birth, may be thus divided.—There have been four successive Empires, called Universal, because they extended over a great part of the then known world: these are usually distinguished by the name of The Four great Monarchies: the three first of them are included in ancient Chronology, and began and ended in the following manner.
1st, The Assyrian Empire, founded by Nimrod in the year of the world 1800, ended under Sardanapalus in 3250, endured 1450 years.
The Median—though not accounted one of the four great monarchies, being conquests of rebels on the Assyrian empire—comes in here for about 200 years.
2d, The Persian Empire, which began under Cyrus, in the year of the world 3450, ended in Darius in 3670, before Christ 330, lasted a little more than 200 years.
3d, The Grecian Empire, began under Alexander the Great in 3670, was soon after his death dismembered by his successors; but the different parcels into which they divided it were possessed by their respective families, till the famous Cleopatra, the last of the race of Ptolemy, one of Alexander's captains who reigned in Egypt, was conquered by Julius Cæsar, about half a century before our Lord's birth, which is a term of about 300 years.
Thus you see that, from the deluge to the establishment of the first great monarchy—the
| Years | |
| Assyrian—is | 150 |
| The Assyrian empire continued | 1450 |
| The Median | 200 |
| The Persian | 200 |
| The Grecian | 300 |
| From Julius Cæsar, with whom began the fourth great monarchy,—viz. the Roman—to Christ | 50 |
| In all | 2350 |