Moreover, the remarkable circumstance that _three_ of the Hebrew _Antepaidogonian_ ages, namely, those of Jared, Methuselah, and Lamech, exceed _other three_, namely—those of Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Enoch, by a difference of about 100 years, although the former patriarchs stood so nearly related to the latter, argues that some good reason must have existed in the minds of those who dared to make the alterations, for not abstracting the usual _centenary difference_ from the former. Accordingly, we find that if this alteration had been effected on the _Hebrew Antepaidogonian_ ages of Jared, Methuselah, and Lamech, in order to make them uniform with the rest in this respect, the flood would, according to that text, have taken place in A.M. 1356, their _Postpaidogonian_ ages would have been 900, 882, and 695 years, and they would, contrary to Scripture, _have survived the flood_ by 66, 200, and 95 years respectively! This anticipated result affords the strongest presumptive evidence that the _Hebrew Antepaidogonian_ ages must all have been _originally_ the same as those of the Septuagint; and that to serve some particular purpose, a _century_ was abstracted from _six_ of them, but not from the remaining _three_; because if this had been done, either the integrity of the _whole lives_ corresponding to them would have been destroyed, or the _three_ patriarchs in question would have been falsely represented, as having long survived the deluge. The Hebrew text (as it now exists), represents Methuselah as dying in the very year of the flood, although only _forty_ days of it had elapsed when Noah entered the Ark! Thus, according to that text, the only man of that age who “walked with God,” and was “righteous before him in that generation,” would have, in addition to the distressing cares and the unutterable sympathies attending the arrival of God’s awful judgment,—the personal and relative sorrow of heart arising from the death and burial of his pious and aged grandfather; but we know that God “doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men;” and we have much reason, therefore, to question the accuracy of this coincidence; for, to suppose with some, that Methuselah was swept away by the deluge, would be to contradict the Scripture, which affirms that Noah was “just and perfect in his generations.”