253 StateandOrdinances ofthe Church, after the food, in the three hundred ninety fecond year of the life ofShem, who out, lived him thirty five years. And he was the firth fromHeber, born in the two hun- dred twenty fitrh year of his age, whocontinuing longeft ofall the Poltdiluvian Pa- triarchs, outlived Abraham about bury four years. But there is a difficulty in this ac- count. For ifAbraham was born in the feventieth year of the age of2rah i Terah living in áfilRtwo hundred and five years, Abraham at the death of Terah mutt needs be oiler hundred thirty five years of age., But the Scripture faith exprefly that at hisdeparture out ofHarán, upon -the death- ofhis Father, 'he Was no more but feventy fiveyears old. And if he was fèventy five years old at the death of his Father who lived- two hundred and five years, he mull be born in the one hundred and thirtieth of his Fathers life,and not before; which carries on his birth anddeath fixty years beyond the former account. So that he outlivedSham twenty fiveyears,. and dyed only fòur.years before Heber. Although therefore he be mentioned before Haran, Geri. i t. z6. yet indeed Haran was the Eldell Son of Terah, and born before Abraham lixty years. And it appears in the Story , that Lot and Sarah who were the Children of Haran ( ifSarahwas the Ifha mentioned, as molt füppofe the was, Gen. t t. 29. ) were not much younger then Abraham himf lf. For when Abraham was an hundred years old, Sarah wasninety, Gen. 17. 17. -and Lot may well be fup- poled to be Elder then the ; fo that of Necellity Haran mull be many years elder then Abraham, evenno lets then lixty, as wehave declared, 1. 6. His Nativity and, Education was in Vr ofthe Chaldeeì, Gen. t 1.28, 31. This place is laid to be, on the otherfideof the flood; tit tt ; or the River, JnfS. 24.2. that is, from the Land of Canaan on the other- fide of the great River Euphrates ealiward. It was fo allo ofT}gris, on the Eat of Aram Nabaraim, or Mefopotamia, 'properly fo called ; which is not infified on, becaufe Abraham came over Tygris unto Haran with his Father Terah. He came out, faith Stephen, from the Land of the Chaldean, and dwelt in Canaan, Atïr 7.4. , he -Cayes indeed, that' before he came unto Canaan, he dwelt in Meopotamia, v. a, wherein Myatt was alto. For the name ofMefpotamia was given of old unto all the adjacent Regions, even unto 'the Perfian Sea. So both Pliny evidently, lib. 6. cap. 26. Mefopotamia rota Affyriorum fuit vicatim dzfperfa, preter Bahylona, 67Ninum. All Mefopotamia belongedunto the Alfyrians, and confified offat- tered Villages , unlefit were Babylonia and the Country- about Nineveth.- And again, Reliqua pars Mefopotamia Afyrieq; Babylonia appellata elf. So that he equals Mefpota mia, with Affyrria i whichhow great a Traci of thofe. Regions .it _comprehended, is manifeft fromPtolomy, Strabo and others. Eupolemus fñEufebius, preparar. Evang. 1.9. placeth Zooid, Vra in Babylonia : and there alfoPliny mentioneth Vra upon the banks ofEuphrates, lib. 5. cap. 24. Fertúr Euphratesufque adVram. But this teems not to be the Vr whereAbraham dwelt. Nor was there any reafon-that in a defign for Ca- naan, he fhogld. remove from any part ofBabylonia uponEuphrates unto Charon. It is more likely to be the place mentioned by Ammianur lib. g; where he (ayes, that the Romans in fix dayes came from Corduena in Armenia, ad Vr nomine, PerfrcumGa- fiel/um ; unto Ur aPerfian Cattle. And this he placeth between Nifibis andTygrit, and . was not far from the place, where it is probably fuppofed that the Ark retied after the flood ; the family ofHeber keepingtheir firlt Seat,not accompanying, thet=110 ¶3 or Sons of men, Gen. it. a, 3, 4. thofe wicked Apoftateswho went from the Eaft, to find a place to fix the Seat of their Rebellion again(} God. Broughton contendeth, that Vr was in the Vale of the Chaldean:, that- is in Babylonia, a very little way, or tome few miles fromCharon ; averring, that Stephen cannot otherwife be defended, who affirms, that he was in Mefopotamia before he dwelt in Charon. But as this de- fence of Stephen isueedlefs, feting as we have manifefied, he took Mefopotamis in a large fence, as others did alto, giving the fameExtent unto it with Affria , the de- nomination anfing from the moll eminent and fruitful of Mete Regions : So the re- moval of a little way, or a few miles, anfwereth not that dcfcription which the Ho- ly Ghoft gives us of this journey, Gen.-, I. 31. And Terah tookAbraham his Son, and Lot the Son of Haran, and they went forth. with them fromUr of the Chaldees, to go in- to the LandofCanaan, and they came unto Haran and dwelt there. Their defign was to go untoCanaan : And as the Vra which was in Babylonia was fcituated on this fde of Euphsatès as Pliny teflifies : Só that Abraham could not gofrom-thence unto Canaan by Flaran,. but he mull twice needlellypals with all his family over Euphrates, fo the ex- preflion of their journying toHaran will not fuit unto any imaginary Vr within afevd Inks of it. Nor is it of any weight that it is called. Vrof the Cbaldees, whole proper feat
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