was not wrote by a few, but by fome Profelyte of a neighbouring Nation.

THE Book of Ecclefiaftes, or the Preacher, he chufes to entitle not Concionator, but Concionatrix; because the Original, being a Participle of the feminine Gender, muft be fupplied, fays he, with a Subftantive of the fame, i. e. Hhochmah or Sapientia; as Wisdom, in feveral Chapters, is introduced fpeaking by the Mouth of Solomon. In his Commentaries on this Book, as well as on the preceding Proverbs, our Author abounds with great variety of Citations from Greek and Latin Authors, thereby to illuftrate the Senfe of many fimilar Paffages in thefe Sacred Writings.

IN the Song of Songs, which is afcribed to Solomon, our Author declares, that he is only follicitous about the Grammatical Senfe of it; tho' he cannot bring himself to condemn thofe, who pretend to efpy a Myftical Meaning in it, fo long as they do not obtrude upon us their wild and extravagant Conjectures for the Sense and Determination of God's Spirit. He feems however rather inclinable to the Sentiments of thofe, who look upon it as a mere Epithalamium, made in the form of a Dialogue; for which reason he has prefixed the Names of the Interlocutores to every Part, which contributes not a little to our better understanding it.

It is much to be wifhed, that our Author's Health and Strength of Faculties had permitted him to explain the other Prophets in the fame manner that he has done Ifaiab and Jeremiah; for therein he has verified the Defcription which he gives (in the Preface to Vol. 27. of his Bibliotheque Anc.& Mod.) of a competent Interpreter

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of the Old Teftament, viz. " that he should "give diligent Attention to all ancient Hiftories, "to the Manners and Opinions of the People of the East, and to Chronology and Geography: for in the Writings of the Prophets, fays he, there are frequent Allufions to these Matters; and in the Dialogues between Job and his Friends, there is in a manner a continued Re"ference to the Customs of the ancient Arabians "which (as modern Travellers tell us) by rea "fon of their little or no Intermixture with

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People of other Nations, are not at all al"tered even to this day." What he farther remarks in his Sentimens de quelques Théologiens, Let. 9. p. 194. is, that the Stile of the Prophets is extremely hyperbolical, in fo much that they make no fcruple to defcribe even the commoneft thing in the strongest and most emphatical Expreffions. Thus, upon the taking and facking of any Town, they make the Earth tremble, and the Stars of Heaven, and the Constellations thereof, not give their Light, the Sun to be darkened in its going forth, and make the Moon not to caufe her Light to fhine, as Ifaiah foretels the Deftruction of Babylon; and yet it is certain that these Expreffions are not to be taken literally, and according to the Extent of their natural Signification, because both facred and profane History tells us, that there were no fuch dreadful Signs as thefe, at the taking of Babylon by the Medes. All therefore that the Prophet intended, was to defcribe the great Calamities which would befall the Kings of Babylon, and how that City would change its Mafter, which accordingly came to pafs in the Time of Cyrus. And in like manner the Prophet Joel, fpeaking of the Devastation, N°XIII. 173.1. VOL. III.

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which the Armies, invading Judæa, were to make, The Earth fhall quake before them, fays he, the Heavens fball tremble, the Sun and the Moon fhall be dark, and the Stars fhall withdraw their fhining. Now the misfortune is, fays our Author, that when Perfons, unacquainted with this manner of Prophetick Writing, apply themselves to the reading of any abftrufe Book, efpecially the Revelation of St. John, which is wrote in imitation of the ancient Prophets, they commonly understand nothing of it, because they take that in a literal, which ought to be taken not only in a figurative, but even in an hyperbolical Senfe: and, for the fame reafon, moft Interpreters are of Opinion, that our Saviour in St. Matthew, [chap. xxiv.] fpeaks not only of the Destruction of Jerufalem, but even of the End of the World likewife; whereas it is evident that his Difcourfe relates only to the former Event, as the learned Hammond has inconteftably proved.

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OUR Author's two former Volumes were agreeably intermixed with Differtations upon ficult Paffages and other fuch Points as were matter of Theological Debate; and 'tis much to be wifhed, that as he himself grew incapable of the Work, fome other Perfon of fufficient Abilities, had, from his Materials (as whoever knew him, and his Method of Study, must believe that he had Materials enough for the purpose) fupplied the Defect, before the Work was made publick;

Sed, feffo Atlante, fubire

Qui valeant Humeri Pondus grave?

The Reader however is to be informed, that there are two critical. Differtations, one wrote by Mr. John Smith, a Divine of the University

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of Cambridge, which ftands in the Beginning, and the other by the Author himself, which is placed in the Conclufion, of the latter of these Volumes.

The Differtation by Mr. Smith (which is concerning Prophecy and the Prophets) is to be found among his felect Difcourfes, wrote in English, and published after his Death, Anno 1660, by Dr. Worthington, who wrote a Preface to the whole, and added his Funeral Sermon, preached by Dr. Patrick Bishop of Ely.

THIS Mr. Smith was born in the County of Northampton, and firft admitted into Emanuel College in Cambridge, Anno 1636, where he took his Batchelor and Mafter of Arts Degrees; and thence removed to Queen's College, where. he was chosen Fellow, June 9th, 1644; and died in the fame College 1652. a Person of wonderful Learning for his Age, efpecially in the Platonick Philofophy and Writings of the ancient Rabbins; upon which accounts, our Author, finding this Differtation mentioned with great Refpect among his Countrymen, thought it not improper to tranflate it into Latin, as the beft Compofition in its kind, and to which we frequently find him remitting his Reader.

THE Differtation by our Author himself, is, concerning the Poefy of the Hebrews, first publifhed in French, in his Univerfal and Historical Library, Anno 1688, Vol. 9. Art. 8. p. 219, &c. and fince tranflated into Latin to be annexed to his Commentaries. In which Treatife he has fhewn, by Examples taken from the clth or laft Pfalm; from the Song of Mofes, Exod. xv. and Deut. xxxii; and from the Song of Deborah, Jud. v. that the manner of Verfification among the ancient Jews was not Metre, as it is in Latin and Greek; but Rhime, as it is in C 2 French

French and English, and other modern Languages: and in this Opinion he has the happinefs to have the concurrence of feveral Learned Men in feveral Nations.

THUS We have given the Reader a true Account of the two laft Works of our Author which will ever be published, and have thereby perhaps raised his Curiofity to know fome thing more of the Life and Labours of fo great a Man: And in this we fhall endeavour to give. him Satisfaction, according to the best Information that we could gather.

OUR Author John le Clerc, was the Son of Stephen le Clerc, (a learned and eminent Citizen of Geneva, who first practised Phyfick, but was afterwards made Greek Profeffor of that Academy, and Senator of that Republick,) by Sufanna Gallatin, whofe Father Marinus was another Senator. He was their fecond Son, born at Geneva, March 19th, 1657, and had two Brothers; Daniel, an eminent Phyfician, and Senator of Geneva, who wrote the History of Phyfick, as far as Galen's Time, a Book of great Repute among the Profeffors of that Science; and Francis, who fettled at Leipfick in the Condition of a Merchant.

THEIR Father took great care of all their Education, and fent his Son John, when about eight Years old, to the Grammar-School; where he foon discovered a strong Inclination to reading, a very quick and retentive Memory, and a Genius to Poetry that did not leave him, even in the Course of his more ferious Studies, and more advanced Years: for, upon his tranflating two Sermons, preached by Gilbert Lord Bishop of Salisbury, before William the Third, into the French