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they were most of them prefent when Writing was revealed, and that fome of them, when they met with Severities, would defert and return to their own Country Egypt, or fome of the neighbouring Countries, and carry what they had heard of the Discovery with them. And tho' the Egyptians and their Neighbours might have an Antipathy to any Thing that came from the Ifraelites, yet, as many of them were partly convicted by the Miracles, they would take the Advantage of what was reported of the Discovery; and the reft, and moft of this mixed Multitude, would defert and pitch in the Places where they found Pafture and Neceffaries, in that Wilderness, or the neighbouring Parts, which were not fully stock'd, and carry with them what they knew of this Discovery.

As we may have fome Occafion to enquire who the Arabians were, whence they came, whence the Country or they had that Name, we must first look backward. Marius has given us the antient Names of thofe Parts, which have fince been called Arabia. " Nebaioth a Son of Ifmael, Gen. xxv. 13. From him all the Region from Euphrates to the Red Sea is to this Day called Nabathaa, which is

נביות

Part of Arabia. Ifa. Ix. 7. Seba Saba, a Son of Chus (whence Jethro's Daughter, whom Mofes married, was called the ChuShite,) thence the Sabeans who inhabit Arabia Felix, have their Name. There is also a Metropolis of the Arabi ans fituate upon a Mountain called by the Name of Seba. Ifa. xlv 14 Sometimes saw alfo a Son of Jothan, Gen. x. 28. a Son of Jothan, chap. xxv. 3. By this Name, Arabia and the Arabians are also called. Ifa. Ixxi. 10, 15. Heb. lxxii. Ifa.

is a Mountain of the עבר עבריס .6 .lx

Moabites over against Jericho beyond fordan: It is the fame with the Hilly Coun try of Arabia, where is Mount Nebo in the Summit of Phafga where the Ifraelites pitched their Tents the 41. Incampment in the Defart. Numb. xxi. II. where it is ready "y Jeabarim, and chap. xxxiii. 48. Famous for the Death of Mofes, Numb. xxvii. 12. Deut. xxxii. 49. Jerom affirms in his Hebrew Places, that they were fhewn Abarim as they went from Lybias to Hefebon by its old Name; near the Mountain Phoger which retained its former Name, from which the Region about it is called to this Day Phafga-DY Epha a Son of Madian, the Son of Abra

kam

ham, Gen. xxv. 4. From him Ardbia Felix, Arabia the Defart or Petræa, is named Epha. Ifa. lx. 6.— DIN9 Pathros, the Name of a Place in Egypt, Jer. xliv. 1. Ezek. xxix. 14. Alfo the Name of the Region which is called Arabia Petræa. Ifa. xi. 11. Is it the fame perhaps as the foregoing-p Cedar a Son of Ifmael, Gen. xxv. 13. 1 Chron. i. 29. It is also a Region according to Ierom in the Defart of the Hagarens, that is, the Saracens, fo called from Cedar the Son of Ihmael. Some fay that Cedar is a City which Jofephus calls Camela, mentioned, Ifa. Ix. 7. Ezek. xxvii. 21. Pfa. cxx. 5. Heb. cxx. fer. ii. 10. M. - The other Arabia Deferta, which is bounded on the South by Arabia Felix, on the North by Part of Syria and Mefopotamia, as Ptolomy, B. 5. chap. xix. writes, this they call Scenitis, and the Arabians that are there Scenites, that is Wandering Nomades, and Dwellers in Tents. Pliny, B. 5. chap. xi. and xxiv. and Strabo, B. 16. Paleotus of facred and Prophane Images cites Lactantius, B. 2. chap. xiv. One of the Sons of Noah whofe Name was Cham, did not cover his Father's Nakedness; and a little after, being upon that Account expelled

by

by him fettled in that Part of the Earth which is now Arabia, and was called Chanaan from his Name. This was the firft Nation that became ignorant of God; because its Prince and Founder being curfed by his Father did not receive from him the Worship of God; therefore his Defcendants inherited his Ignorance of the Divinity. Into which Opinion went St. Irenæus, B. 5. chap. xix. and Cyrillus, B. 1. against Julian Fol. 9. and many others

befides."

All these fhew that this Country, and the People in it, had not antiently been called by the Name, and one, that the Place and People took a Name from these or such People.

This ftrolling People, who first pitch'd in these Wilderneffes, and fome of their Race, which ftill ftroll about there in the fame Manner; and the reft which are fcattered quite thro' the Turkish Empire, called Arabians, muft take their Name, and also give the Place its new Name from this Word y. And I think it is the first Time it was applied to a People; becaufe before that each Tribe had lived together, which made this a Word of Contempt. I can find no other Reafon for the Name. Indeed there were fome in Canaan who had a Temple to the Heavens by that Name.

Name. But this People, who had neither King, Leader, Heads of Tribes, nor any to govern them, could at that Time never be of any Sect, or come under any one Denomination, by agreeing to one Object of Worship: No, doubtless each carried the Name of the Aleim they had had at Home with them, and fo that they had as many as there were in Canaan, or any other Country, perhaps almost as many as there were in the feveral Countries they came from. So, ever fince, this Word has been a Name to the Country, and to the Race of these People, wherever they were fcattered, and 'twas the Name for the Language which was among them; and when they fixed upon a Character, or Alphabet, or Species of Writing: And as the Alcoran was writ in that Character, fo in that Language as it had been confounded, and afterwards mixed, and then was used; and whatever Words of other Languages were inferted in it, and in their Apocryphal Books, after the Alcoran and thofe Books were writ, it might be the Denomination of the Language fixed by the Law of that Sect, and fo of the acquired Language to the learned People of all the native Languages, who were forced into a Subjection to the Law of that Sect, and to read their Service, &c. in that Language,

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