As the Gods or ancient Deified Kings and Princes of _Greece_, _Egypt_, and _Syria_ of _Damascus_, have been made much ancienter than the truth, so have those of _Chaldæa_ and _Assyria_: for _Diodorus_ [344] tells us, that when _Alexander_ the great was in _Asia_, the _Chaldæans_ reckoned 473000 years since they first began to observe the Stars; and _Ctesias_, and the ancient _Greek_ and _Latin_ writers who copy from him, have made the _Assyrian_ Empire as old as _Noah_'s flood within 60 or 70 years, and tell us the names of all the Kings of _Assyria_ downwards, from _Belus_ and his feigned son _Ninus_, to _Sardanapalus_ the last King of that Monarchy: but the names of his Kings, except two or three, have no affinity with the names of the _Assyrians_ mentioned in Scripture; for the _Assyrians_ were usually named after their Gods, _Bel_ or _Pul_; _Chaddon_, _Hadon_, _Adon_, or _Adonis_; _Melech_ or _Moloch_; _Atsur_ or _Assur_; _Nebo_; _Nergal_; _Merodach_: as in these names, _Pul_, _Tiglath-Pul-Assur_, _Salman-Assur_, _Adra-Melech_, _Shar-Assur_, _Assur-Hadon_, _Sardanapalus_ or _Assur-Hadon-Pul_, _Nabonassar_ or _Nebo-Adon-Assur_, _Bel Adon_, _Chiniladon_ or _Chen-El-Adon_, _Nebo-Pul-Assur_, _Nebo-Chaddon-Assur_, _Nebuzaradon_ or _Nebo-Assur-Adon_, _Nergal-Assur_, _Nergal-Shar-Assur_, _Labo-Assur-dach_, _Sheseb-Assur_, _Beltes-Assur_, _Evil-Merodach_, _Shamgar-Nebo_, _Rabsaris_ or _Rab-Assur_, _Nebo-Shashban_, _Mardocempad_ or _Merodach-Empad_. Such were the _Assyrian_ names; but those in _Ctesias_ are of another sort, except _Sardanapalus_, whose name he had met with in _Herodotus_. He makes _Semiramis_ as old as the first _Belus_; but _Herodotus_ tells us, that she was but five Generations older than the mother of _Labynetus_: he represents that the city _Ninus_ was founded by a man of the same name, and _Babylon_ by _Semiramis_; whereas either _Nimrod_ or _Assur_ founded those and other cities, without giving his own name to any of them: he makes the _Assyrian_ Empire continue about 1360 years, whereas _Herodotus_ tells us that it lasted only 500 years, and the numbers of _Herodotus_ concerning those ancient times are all of them too long: he makes _Nineveh_ destroyed by the _Medes_ and _Babylonians_, three hundred years before the Reign of _Astibares_ and _Nebuchadnezzar_ who destroyed it, and sets down the names of seven or eight feigned Kings of _Media_, between the destruction of _Nineveh_ and the Reigns of _Astibares_ and _Nebuchadnezzar_, as if the Empire of the _Medes_, erected upon the ruins of the _Assyrian_ Empire, had lasted 300 years, whereas it lasted but 72: and the true Empire of the _Assyrians_ described in Scripture, whose Kings were _Pul_, _Tiglath-pilesar_, _Shalmaneser_, _Sennacherib_, _Asserhadon_, &c. he mentions not, tho' much nearer to his own times; which shews that he was ignorant of the antiquities of the _Assyrians_. Yet something of truth there is in the bottom of some of his stories, as there uses to be in