this act of power, shall equally have this signification; and, without such appointment, no one sound can have it, in the nature of things, more than another. The manner in which Adam and Eve were brought into the world, duly considered, will lead us to suitable thoughts concerning the rise and improvement of their language. If it could be conceived that they instantly talked copiously about all things, before time and experience had taught them to know them; there would be reason to think that they had words for such conversation not of their own inventing. But Moses hints nothing of this nature; nay, the very contrary appears most plainly throughout his narration. Accordingly many expressions occur in his Hebrew, of which, I apprehend, the following words, the Lord is a man of war, may be one instance; which hint,

b mambo wa mim. Exod. xv. 3. I may say of this expression, as also of another, which occurs later, wherein God is represented like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine, Psal. lxxix. 65, that nei

that in the most early times, the expressions used had their rise not from any innate sentiments of the nature of things, nor from innate words concerning them, further than what men had felt, seen, or heard, and agreeably thereto conceived and understood of them. With respect to such words as God was pleased to speak to our first parents in the beginning of their lives; I have considered what, I think, must be admitted concerning them. That names formed from words agreed to signify qualities of things, may denote the nature of the things so named, so far as to inform us, that they are reputed to have the qualities expressed by the

ther of them can be supposed to express any thing of the nature of the power of God. Rather, human imagination, struck with the terror of a man of war coming forth armed to battle; or of the terrible fury of a giant, awakened, and refreshed with wine, furnished the ideas which occasioned these expressions. Other words, very different, would have been used, had a natural description of the tremendous power of God, terrible in majesty, infinitely beyond what these words convey to us, been at all intended.

See hereafter, chap. ii.

words which are given as names to them, may reasonably be allowed. If I know that Nabal in Hebrew signifies to be of no value or moment; I may possibly conclude, that a man called by that name is one of that cha-: racter: but had any other word than Nabal been the verb to signify the having this character, the sound Nabal might have conveyed a very different idea to me. It is the same respecting all other circumstances of things, which their names can hint to us. If terra be the allowed word to signify earth; the saying that a person is terrestris, may denote that he is earthy; but had the first agreed idea annexed to terra, been what we call heaven, it is evident that nothing in nature would have prevented terrestris from having a signification opposite to what is now understood by it. What a learned writer very clearly thought upon this subject, he has expressed as intelligibly. "There is,"

lation: words signify things, from no other than the arbitrary agreement of men: it is evident that language is not natural, but instituted:"-" that the human organs being admirably fitted for the formation of articulate sounds; these, with the help of reason, might in time lead men to the use of language; I own it is imaginable that they might." The judicious author, I think, after all this, would not have imagined, that without an inspiration of language from God, mankind might have lived a series of generations without having a sufficient use of it; if he had happened to consider the steps and gradual progress in which Moses represents our first parents coming into their knowledge of themselves and the world."

The reader will find in the following sheets, that I have had great assistance from Mr. Pope's very excellent Essay upon Man. The poet himself confesses, that he could not have expressed his thoughts with

f Sce Revelation examined with Candour, vol. i. p. 36.

that force and conciseness in prose, as he could in verse.' With respect to myself, I am sure, that I should have deprived the reader of a pleasure, and the subject of an advantage, had I used only my own language: what

I oft had thought

would have come far short of being

so well express'd;

I wish I could have had the like assistance of this powerful pen for some other sentiments, which I have endeavoured to defend ; but in these I have ventured to desert the poet, thinking that he has some lines, which require correction. Speaking of the primaval state of mankind, he seems to represent that their only guidance had been the light of nature, He says,

The state of nature was the reign of God."

He in no wise supposes that man, in his

See what the author says in the design of the poem. *Pope's Essay upon Man, Ep. iii. ver. 147.