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; 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 astonish’d 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 produc’d a vast quantity of drawings and writing, which consider’d as an intire work, may thus be intitled,
Patriarchal Christianity:
OR,
A Chronological HISTORY
OF THE
Origin and Progress of true Religion, and of Idolatry.
The parts of which the whole is compos’d are these:
I. 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 fix’d when creation was begun. This is done in a new manner, and becomes an intire system of chronology from the creation to the Exodus, and is exemplified by many particular Kalendars 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 genealogies, and Manethon’s Egyptian Dynasties, are applied in a new Method to the history and chronology of the Scriptures.