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and true Church, call Harlots, and thofe facred Penmen charge him with fpending his Substance with, in riotous Living; he went on merrily, made no Complaints: But when this fpiritual Famine, which I have described, came upon them, when they had loft first the Knowledge of God, and next the Knowledge of the Powers and Operations of thefe Agents; then our fine Gentleman, who had fet up for himfelf, entered upon another Project: He would join himself unto a certain Citizen, perhaps to Nebuchadnezzar, or to a King, or &c. of Athens, or of Rome: The Citizen fent him to feed Swine, the most oppofite Employment to thofe in his Father's House, nay, to the old Heathens, which could be thought of, to force in People to worship Gods and Images, fet up by the Appointment of the King, the Senate, or

c. to perform all Manner of brutish Rites, to gratify beaftly Lufts, to believe ftupid filly Stories, to break through all Rules of Virtue, and profecute the most deftructive Vices. He would then have been content with the Hufks, the Outfide of Food, in which Food is formed with feeding upon the Contemplations of thofe Powers in the Heavens, and no Man

would

;

would give it him; they had none who could teach or inftruct in that Knowledge, they had left that for Food to Brute Creatures. This was that State, and that Time, when our Teachers tell us, Men were arrived to the Height of Wisdom : This had the happy Effect intended upon him, let him fee, nay, feel his Condition, in that frong Idea Hunger; brought him to reflect upon the Plenty in his Father's Houfe, and to return and make that glorious Submiflion and Confeffion, Father, 1 bave finned against Heaven, I have abus'd thofe Evidences exhibited in the Heavens, of thy Effence Perfonality, Power, Goodness, &c. and fet them up against thee, call d them Father, attributed Knowledge to them, and Property in the Things they give us; they know not, they cannot fee, and they are thine: Much more have I finn'd against thee, to whom I owe my Being, and the Enjoyment of all thefe Things, with the Aggravation of doing it in thy Sight, before thee who feeft all Things. I am no more worthy, I cannot expect to bear th. Name of thy Son, to be initiated and received into thy Temple: Permit me to come into the outward Courts for Jeveral Generations, as a Profelyte. This was a Qualification at once to admit him into thofe happy Terms, I 4 that

that glorious State of the Gofpel. His Father receives him with the greatest Joy and Marks of Favour, to wear a Robe, which covered all his Nakedness and Poverty; to wear a Ring, the Infigné of him who was next to the King's Perfon, and admits him at once to that Feaft which none but those who are thus qualified can receive any Benefit by. The Murmuring of the Jews, and the Apology of the Father, is now plain enough.

A Man who knows nothing of the Matter, what all this Confufion was for, muft think, the Trouble of learning Languages, especially as 'tis now managed, very great: If that had not been, for any Thing that appears to me, Christianity could not have kept the Ground it has '; and he, humanly fpeaking, 'tis very likely, must have been born an Idolater, à Worshipper of the Heavens.

As feveral have pretended to make an Exception to what I have affirmed in general of all Heathen Languages, and affert, that the Arabians, and none elfe, have preferved the Ufage of the antient, or Hebrew Tongue, and retained the true Meaning of the Words in it, I must endeavour to ftate that Cafe, and fhew, that if what ap of that Language prove

appears

any

any Thing, it proves moft of the general Things I have afferted.

About Eighty Years ago, when Chriftians found they were impofed upon by the Writings of the Chaldee Jews, and the Imaginers found they could do little or no Mischief upon the Credit of them; and when moft of our new Religions or Sects were fpawn'd and hatch'd, the only Project that was pretended to be about the Improvement of Learning and Knowledge, and fo of Religion, by Languages, was to fend Men to Turkey, to learn the Arabic, or the Language of the Alcoran. The Clergy of Sion College petitioned the Mayor and Aldermen of London to give Encour agement to them. Others abroad, who knew it feryed their Purposes, gave great Affiftance in this Affair. Ravis, &c. brought home MSS. &c. and affumed to themselves a Degree of Knowledge fuperior to their Neighbours, upon a Prefumption, that this Language could convey more Knowledge than the Hebrew, &c. So it was to fettle a Trade, to fend Miffionaries to fetch Knowledge about Religion from Turkey, and export it to the West Indies, and thereby induce us to neglect the Original, and our Home Products

or

or Improvements out of the Original: But this Commodity would not fell but among Friends; fo all who attempted it, were baulk'd, and the Project has, ina great Measure, lain quiet ever fince. Indeed it has been hung upon, as you may fee, by a Difciple of Lud. Capellus, in his Phaleg as he owns to be, with high Encomiums of him, at p. 90; which Language he, at p. 66, calls, as indeed it is, their Sacra Anchora; till one (I hope for the fake of his Character, when in his fecond Infancy) has, as it appears, been perfuaded to divert himself, by fhewing us how one may, from the Arabic, conjecture about, and play with the Meanings of Words in the facred Hebrew Text. And another has afferted what none before him ever durft, about it, and I hope none will ever do the like again; and has taken fuch Methods of proving it (to pay in his own Coin) as have demonftrated, that he has no Ideas of the Agents in this System, nor of their mechanical Powers and Actions upon other Things, nor of thofe Things, any more than those who ufed the Language he has ftudied and fets up, had, or has; and, confequently, none of the Ufe of Words which

are

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