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Languages formed in the Regions near Pa laftine, much fooner than we can imagine to have been, had they gradually arifen from the fame common Stock. When Jacob and Laban made a Covenant together, Genefis xxxi. 47. they erected a Heap of Stones on which they eat; and Laban called it Fegar Sabadutha, and Jacob Gal-Ed; which Words fignify one in Chaldee, the other in Hebrew, a Heap of Witness. Laban's are genuine Chaldee Words, as Jacob's are Hebrew. Pharaob called Jofeph Tophnath-Paaneahh, i.e. a Revealer of hidden Things, which Words are not Hebrew, though Tfophnath has an Affinity with the Hebrew Root Haphan, which figni fies to hide. Here then we fee three distinct Dialects formed in Jacob's Time, The He brew seems to have been the Language of Ca naan, when Abraham who was by Birth a Chaldean, came thither m.

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The particular Texture of the Arabic, which is much more operofe, and yet more. regular than the Hebrew, leads me to think that it is as old as the Hebrew. Before Mahomet's Time, who was a Native of Arabia, the Inhabitants of that noble Countrey feem to have been very little known to, or knowing of the Inhabitants of the reft of the World. They had then no Learning among them, nor

m See Mr Le Clerc's first Differtation before his Commentary upon Genefis.

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long afterwards till the Time of Almamoun, who was the 28th Chaliph of the Saracens, and the 7th of the Race of Abaffidae. Their Language was then the fame that it is now, and the Alcoran is looked upon as the Standard of the Tongue, and allowed to be fo by the best Judges among the Europeans, who cannot be fuppofed to be led by any fuperftitious Motive to pass fuch a Judgment. They never were conquered by any Foreign Nation, and tho' fome of those who lived the nearest to Egypt and Syria drove a Trade in Caravans in Jacob's Time, Gen. xxxvii. 25. as they do to this Day, yet Strangers feem to have known very little of the Heart of their Countrey. Excepting the Inroads which Sefoftris made among them, before his great Expedition into Afia, when he led his victorious Army up as high as the Euxine Sea, we read of no Foreign Enemy that ever made any great Impreffion upon their Countrey. Neither the Perfians, nor the Macedonians, nor the Romans, could ever conquer them. They lived in Tribes like the Jews, deriving themselves from Ishmael and Joktan; and Nations that live after that Manner, if they are not overrun by at Foreign Force, keep themselves more unmix'd, and their Language confequently is far lefs fubject to Alteration, than that of other People' who converse more promifcuously with Strangers. The Ethiopians feem by their Language, which agrees very much with the Ara

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bic,

bic, to have been a Colony of the Arabians, rather than of the Ægyptians".

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From all these Things put together, I am apt to conclude, that 'tis hard to judge which of these three Languages, the Hebrew, the Chaldee, or the Arabic, was the oldeft. Their mutual Agreement in the Fundamentals which I have before defcribed, is no Argument to me that any one them is derived from the reft, if we confider their great Antiquity. The Syriac indeed comes from the Chaldee, and was formed upon the Plan of that Language after the the Babylonifh Captivity. It is natural to fuppofe (as I hinted before) that when God confounded the Speech of the Builders at Babel, he made the Dialects of those People who were to live near one another fo far to agree, that they might with lefs Difficulty, and in a fhorter Space of Time, mutually understand each other, and fo the more cafily maintain an Intercourfe together, which it was neceffary for them to do.

The Children of Japhet were fent farther off, to the North and to the Weft, and for the fame Reafon feveral Dialects among them too, agreed in fome common Principles, as the Eaftern ones alfo did. Junius who published

"Debet qui Linguae Ethiopicae operam dare inftituit, Arabicae peritum effe, tanta enim eft inter has cognatio, ut quot Arabicas voces didiceris, tot fere Æthiopicas difces. Ockleii Introd. ad Lingg. Orient, pag. 160.

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the Fragments of the four Gofpels out of a very ancient Copy which he found in Germany, in a Language which is manifeftly a Dialect of the Teutonic, obferves and proves by Abundance of Instances in his Gloffary upon that Book, that the Greek and Gothic (as he calls it, fuppofing it to have been the Translation made by Ulfilas) were but different Dialects which feem to have fprung from the fame common. Root. This Language fpread it self throughout Germany and Scandinavia, and got at last into England and the Netherlands. That the Latin owes its Original in a great Measure to the Greek, is, I believe, allowed by most learned Men that have confidered of the Matter. But now whether all these Colonies of the Japhetic Line, who were difperfed into these Regions, had at first but one Language; or whether there were at firft feveral Kindred-Branches, (as I fuppofe to have been in those Countries that bordered upon the Land of Canaan) which though different in very many Things, yet had fome common Fundamentals to testify their Relation, it is impoffible at this Distance, for want of knowing the History of those People, to determine. But the Finnish, the Slavonian, and the Hungarian feem to be original Tongues, and to have no real Affinity with the Teutonic, or the Greek. Whether the Cantabric, and the ancient Gaulish, (of which the British, the Irish, the Aremorican, and the Manks are but Dialects) be not fo likewife I

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will not decide. Still there is Perfia, China, the Eaft-Indies, the Midland Parts of Afric, and all America behind. It is enough to my Purpose that I have proved there were fome diftinct Languages, at leaft two, I think many more formed at Babel; whereas Mofes fays exprefly there was but one before. The Miracle is equally great and visible in making one Language at once, as one Hundred. This is all I contend for, and what I think conducive to Religion to grant.

For I muft own that I have often with Concern obferved that fome Interpreters, otherwise very learned Men and very ufeful Commentators, have fhewn a great Averfion to allow any Thing to be miraculous in the History of the Old Teftament, where they could poffibly avoid it without abandoning their Religion. Prophecies require a fupernatural Knowledge, as well as Miracles do a fupernatural Power; and therefore we have seen some of the Prophecies in the Old Teftament, which relate to the Meffiah, industriously and artificially eluded, when they have been applied out of the Old Teftament, to the Circumftances of our Redemption in the New. This, in my Opinion, is a Matter of pernicious Confequence to Religion, tho' I dare not arraign those Interpreters who have done it of Irreligion, especially fince they have fo folemnly acquitted themselves of that Imputation.

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