fer'd in Dialect from others, a different Language.

In any of these Cafes much more, where a Nation attempted to make Characters of their own, differing each in Figure from thofe of the Ifraelites, and affix'd Powers or Sounds to several of them differing from any of the Sounds affix'd to thofe of the Ifraelites, or omitted fome which the Iraelites had, or added some which the Ifraelites had not, tho' they had spoke the fame Language, and pronounced each Word in it exactly as the Ifraelites did; yet when they had applied thofe Characters to the Words in Writing, when those Words came to be used in Matters about Worship, Laws, Hiftory, or, &c. by the Heads of the People, that would determine the Pronunciation of the Words, and they would be the Standard, not only in Writing but also in Speaking, and would in Proportion destroy the Communication between the two Nations, either by Words or Writing, and the Poffibility of reconciling or conftruing that corrupted Language exactly.

To illuftrate the Cafe by Comparison with one of the Things not then in Being: If a Letter were changed in a Word, fuppofe in a Greek Word, where there might

be

be perhaps ten; except it be in a Prepofition, or the firft Letter, it may make no great Alteration in the Meaning of the Word, but might have paffed for this or that Dialect, where the Kingdoms or Provinces lay near together, and correfponded: But where there were but two or three Letters in a Word, if they changed one of them, nay, even one Word for another, where they were not by the Rules of the Hebrew Language changeable, the Root was changed; and if there was another Word with the fame Letters in the Hebrew Language, it became of another Signification, not the fame which that Word had, and had no Relation at all in the Writing of the antient Language, to the Word aim'd at. If there were not fuch a Word in the antient Language, it fignified nothing, and was a new Word, coined for an Idea. As foon as they mifapply'd, alter'd or added Letters, and feparated Words from their Ideas, they confounded the attibutive Names of their Aleim, and, by Zeal or Emulation, began to form other Names for them, or the Emblems of them; they loft the phyfical Knowledge convey'd by the old Names, and fo began to lose their Religion: And before any will be allow'd to produce fuch Words

in Evidence, concerning Things in Hebrew, where varying a Letter in a Word lofes an Article in Philofophy, nay, in any one of feveral Words, would destroy a chief Article in our Faith: They must to Demonstration fhew which Letters were changed for which, and that they have kept the fame Rule in every Kingdom or Province where that Language was used and several other Things, before they can write the Words of that Language with the Hebrew, as we term it, interlinearly; which I am very well affured will be impracticable.

So the fame Means which fixed the Hebrew Tongue, where handled by the Prophets, and preferved the Knowledge of the true Aleim, and their Worship; the Knowledge of the fecond Caufes, &c. at the fame Time in the Hands of Men, was the Means of the Confufion of Tongues, and occafioned the Lofs of the Knowledge of the falfe Aleim, and of the Attributes and Services which had been paid to them.

And even now, when we have fo many Letters in a Word, in most of the Words in any modern Language, if a Set of People were to remove out of the Reach of Correfpondence, who were illiterate, and did not know the Number, Names, or

Powers

Powers of the Letters, but only knew there was such a Science as Writing; whenever they should devife and fix the Elements which we call Letters and Syllables, they would in feveral fo far mistake the Alphabet they left behind them, and the Rules of applying them in Writing, that in a fhort Time it would vary the Pronunciation of their Words in Reading, which presently forms that of Speaking, that in a few Ages it would not be in the Power of them and thofe, who kept their own Language and Manner of Writ ing, to correfpond.

When the Ifraelites had got Poffeffion of a great Part of Canaan, and at fome Diftance of Time difpoffeffed, and drove out fome of the remaining Tribes of the Canaanites; and they would be forced to seek new Settlements: Or when the Ifraelites had fuffered Idolatry to get Root; and the religious Princes, from Time to Time, made Reformations, deftroy'd their Temples, Altars, Images, &c. and flew the Priests: Tho' the History does not defcend to fuch minute Circumftances, as what be came of the Canaanites driven out, or of the Ifraelites feduced; no Doubt, fuch of the feduced Ifraelites as they catched, they put to Death: But 'tis certain, when

fuch

fuch Reformations were beginning, fuch as were guilty would fave them that Trouble, and would make the best of their Way to find out new Quarters. And after fuch Time as the Land was fully ftocked thereabout, no doubt they made Weftward: And as fuch, no doubt, understood the Hebrew Manner of Writing, they would carry it with them. Hence, befides the Fugitives in Joshua's Time, thefe would fpread what they called the Punick Tongue, and the Hebrew Letters, wherever there was Room, on both Sides of the Mediterranean: But as the Hebrew would before that time be corrupted there, it would not be in their Power to reform it, but they would be forced to conform. I have mentioned fomething of the Nature of the Original Tongue preferved among the Ifraelites, and of the Confufion of that Tongue in other Nations, by introducing the Discovery of Writing, which formed feveral other Languges of Tongues moftly of Words, being compofed of three or four, or a few Letters at first. I am next to fhew how the third Sort of Languages or Tongues must of Course be formed. When the firft Rank of the People of thofe Nations had fo far loft the Knowledge of the Roots of, and the Man

ner