haps it may be faid they got the best Accounts they could of them. Their Forgery appears by the Accounts they gave of Mofes and the Ifraelites going out of Egypt, &c. fhew'd by Grotius, Abrahamus, &c. cited in Witz Egypt. p. 214, &c. Some Excuse may be made for them, in that, when they lied for their Gods and their Country; but it appears they had no Regard to their Characters, even by their Accounts of Things which they knew would remain, and are still to be feen, as you may fee, by comparing their Defcriptions with the Accounts Greaves and others have given us of the Egyptian Pyramids, and in many other Things, efpecially in their Accounts of Time, which all fhew they had no Accounts in Writing till very late, and then but of very few Things.

As fome who never look'd further than the Heathen Writings, when they were arriv'd at their Perfection, place the Height of Knowledge at that Time; fo others who had looked a little higher to the Times, when they were beginning to write, and no further, and found them perfectly ignorant of all Science, and were themfelves ignorant of the Caufe, took it for granted, H 4

that

that Knowledge must be acquir'd by Degrees, and encrease or grow gradually from the Beginning; and concluded from thence, that Mankind, long before that, for Example, in the Time of the Jewish State, must be next a-kin to Brutes, and have talk'd, preach'd, and writ of them in every Article of Science, not only in human, but in divine Knowledge, as fuch. I hope I fhall fhew the Difference between them and the People they have treated fo.

When they had loft the Hebrew Names for Things or Actions, and found other Words for them, and gave new Defcriptions of the Things, each Nation pretended to the Discovery of the Thing, Action, Ufe, or &c. For Example, the Grecians, Romans, &c. who knew nothing at first, as they acquir'd the Knowledge of any Thing, would rarely own whence they had it; but, like our modern Thieves, would tell you, the Thing was never known before, and a Thoufand Lies about their Gods, Men, the Time when, and Manner how they invented it. And fuch Stuff as this is pick'd up to difcredit the Relations of Things reveal'd, or writ hiftorically in Scripture; tho Jer. xxxvi. 18, the Matter they writ with be exprefs'd; and Ezek. ix, 2, the Inftrument or Veffel that held

it; and Jud. v. 14, & al. the Tool they writ with; and Jer. xxxvi. 23, the Thing in which they writ, a Book, a Roll, frequently mention'd, there described to have Leaves to have been cut afunder with a Pen-knife, how many ftupid Stories have we of writing upon Leaves of Trees, Rind of Plants, Tables and Boards cover'd with Wax, with an Iron Tool like a Bodkin, &c. And tho' Dr. Hide, in his Rel. Vet. Perf. tells you at large, that Zerdufht writ his Book in Skins, beautified the Letters, &c. Dr. Prideaux, in his Connect. Vol. I. p. 495, at the fame Time he tells you that Parchment was us'd from the Beginning, repeats these idle Stories, and tells you, that they made Eumenes the firft Inventor of Parchment. What Objections have been made against the Veracity of the Scripture, upon a Suppofition that the Jews had not the Knowledge of the Ufe of the Loadftone or Needle (for either will ferve) in Navigation; but the Knowledge, at least of that Ufe of it, was invented long after; and that they could not fail to the Land of y Opher (the Duft Coast) without it, every one knows. The others affert they coafted it, which those who have fail'd in thofe Seas fay, is impoffible

impoffible to be done against the TradeWinds, Tides, &c. The very Acts they make incredible, without fuch Knowledge, and many others are without Difficulty, when 'tis fhew'd by the Scripture, that they had the Knowledge and the Means neceffary: What Lucretius, in plain Words, attributes to the grofs Air, the Spirit, and fhews how it preffes the Iron to this Stone, Plato attributes to the divine. Force in their God, the Air. Johan Kirchman, de Annulis, p. 129. Plato in Ione"It is not Art which makes thee Excel, as I juft now faid, but it is a Divine Power that moves thee, fuch as is in the Stone which Euripides named the Magnet, and fome call the Heraclian Stone: which attracts Iron Rings, &c. Austin speaks of the fame B. xxi. of the City of God, chap. iv. We know that the Magnet or Loadstone is a wonderful Attracter of Iron, &c. Dr. Hide in his Religion of the Antient Perfians, p. 495, fhews, that the Chaldee Jews mention the Loadftone in their eldest private Writings, and that the Arabians understood its Ufes; and that fome have thought that the Heathens made an Emblem of it in Worship, which he thinks

is

is a Mistake,

פנה

This Stone is fix Times mentioned in Scripture, by the Name "D. M. " to turn the Face, to turn, to be turned from one to the other; to be turned about or towards any Thing; to fee any Thing by turning ones felf; to turn to, from, back, look back, look to, to be inclined, or decline, to return, &c. D or

an Angle," the doubled (we have no expreffive Word) that which is turn'd, or turns, and regards the Faces of fome Thing or Things, which fhift, and fo makes, takes, or gives the Angles. The Condition which makes Iron and other Things follow it, is exprefs'd, Job. xxviii. 18, 7 Exusov, Attraction. Its Colour is defcribed Lament. iv. 7, by , Flesh-colour'd, n, ruddy, as 'tis when dug, and more approaching black, as Flesh, and many of thofe Stones are, when each of them are dry'd and their Parts contracted; of the Colour of reddish Clay. Its Ufefulness,

טובה by יקרה fo Worth, is exprefsd by

&c. because no other Stone of that Size is of any real Value, except a Spark of Diamond, to cut Glafs. I need not enter into the further Conftruction of the Texts, nor of the Tranflations, but leave them till the Causes of its Turning, Pointing,, Attraction