Mankind and Political Arithmetic | Page 8

10 and 1,200 years, we do for the present, and in this country,
admit of 360 years to be the time wherein the people of England do
double, according to the present laws and practice of marriages.
Now, if the city double its people in 40 years, and the present number
be 670,000, and if the whole territory be 7,400,000, and double in 360
years, as aforesaid, then by the underwritten table it appears that A.D.
1840 the people of the city will be 10,718,880, and those of the whole
country but 10,917,389, which is but inconsiderably more. Wherefore it
is certain and necessary that the growth of the city must stop before the
said year 1840, and will be at its utmost height in the next preceding
period, A.D. 1800, when the number of the city will be eight times its
present number, 5,359,000. And when (besides the said number) there
will be 4,466,000 to perform the tillage, pasturage, and other rural
works necessary to be done without the said city, as by the following
table, viz.:-
A.D. Burials People in People in London England 1565 2,568 77,040
5,526,929 As in the } 1605 5,135 former table } 1642 11,883 } 1682

22,331 669,930 7,369,230 1722 44,662 1762 89,324 1802 178,648
5,359,440 9,825,650 1842 357,296 10,718,889 10,917,389
Now, when the people of London shall come to be so near the people of
all England, then it follows that the growth of London must stop before
the said year 1842, as aforesaid, and must be at its greatest height A.D.
1800, when it will be eight times more than now, with above 4,000,000
for the service of the country and ports, as aforesaid.
Of the aforementioned vast difference between 10 years and 1,200
years for doubling the people, we make this use, viz.:- To justify the
Scriptures and all other good histories concerning the number of the
people in ancient time. For supposing the eight persons who came out
of the Ark, increased by a progressive doubling in every ten years,
might grow in the first 100 years after the Flood from 8 to 8,000, and
that in 350 years after the Flood (whereabouts Noah died) to 1,000,000
and by this time, 1682, to 320,000,000 (which by rational conjecture
are thought to be now in the world), it will not be hard to compute how,
in the intermediate years, the growths may be made, according to what
is set down in the following table, wherein making the doubling to be
ten years at first, and within 1,200 years at last, we take a discretionary
liberty, but justifiable by observations and the Scriptures for the rest,
which table we leave to be corrected by historians who know the
bigness of ancient cities, armies, and colonies in the respective ages of
the world, in the meantime affirming that without such difference in the
measures and periods for doubling (the extremes whereof we have
demonstrated to be real and true) it is impossible to solve what is
written in the Holy Scriptures and other authentic books. For if we
pitch upon any one number throughout for this purpose, 150 years is
the fittest of all round numbers; according to which there would have
been but 512 souls in the whole world in Moses' time (being 800 years
after the Flood), when 603,000 Israelites of above twenty years old
(besides those of other ages, tribes, and nations) were found upon an
exact survey appointed by God, whereas our table makes 12,000,000.
And there would have been about 8,000 in David's time, when were
found 1,100,000, of above twenty years old (besides others, as
aforesaid) in Israel, upon the survey instigated by Satan, whereas our
table makes 32,000,000. And there would have been but a quarter of a
million about the birth of Christ, or Augustus's time, when Rome and

the Roman Empire were so great, whereas our table makes 100,000,000.
Where note, that the Israelites in about 500 years, between their coming
out of Egypt to David's reign, increased from 603,000 to 1,100,000.
On the other hand, if we pitch upon a less number, as 100 years, the
world would have been over-peopled 700 years since. Wherefore no
one number will solve the phenomena, and therefore we have supposed
several, in order to make the following table, which we again desire
historians to correct, according to what they find in antiquity
concerning the number of the people in each age and country of the
world.
We did (not long since) assist a worthy divine, writing against some
sceptics, who would have baffled our belief of the resurrection, by
saying, that the whole globe of the earth could not furnish matter
enough for all the bodies that must rise at the last day, much less would
the