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for making a treaty of friendship with them, "Befides "this, how they had discomfitted in battle Philip, and. "Perfeus, king of the Citims." And in the eighteenth verfe of the fame chapter, the business of his meffengers is partly declared thus: "and to intreat them that they "would take off the yoke from them; for they faw that "the kingdom of the Grecians did opprefs Ifrael with " fervitude." How wonderfully was Noah's prophetic promise fulfilled, of the enlargement of Japhet; and how conformably to that has Mofes informed us, that the ifles of the Gentiles should be possessed by Javan's pofterity, who accordingly were the founders of the governments and language of all Greece, as I fhall endeavour to prove it hereafter more fully. There is no other account of the fourth fon of Javan, than what is suggested from the Septuagint by the ingenious authors of the Universal History, and feems probable enough; which changes the name Dodanim to Rodanim, and fettles him in the island of Rhodes: this, in the opinion of these historians, seems a more likely derivation, than to extract the name Doris from Dodanim, which, in my fentiment, can have no natural relation to one another.

THE seventh son of Japhet, Tiras, or, according to Jofephus, Thiras, was the founder and planter of the people called from him the Thiraans, or, as the Greeks afterwards altered it, Thracians. This hiftorian upbraids the Greeks in his time for taking the liberty of altering names and terms of perfons and things to their own fancy: “They have, says he, gotten a method of changing names to tickle the ear, and carry the word glibber off the

tongue;

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tongue; but our people neither allow, nor practise any fuch thing. The Greeks have turned Noe into No"chos; but we keep to the fame form and fyllables, "without varying the termination."

A particular view of the farther migrations and changes of the offspring of Japhet in their passages northward, north-westward and weftward.

HAVING now brought the descendants of Japhet regularly to the places where the Scriptures fettle them, let us proceed to follow them severally to their remoteft, though very early settlements; and this will chiefly regard the colonies which proceeded from Magog, and his brothers, Mefbech and Tubal, who were his fubjects, in their advances to the northwest, on the one hand; and thofe which came from Gomer, and his brother Javan's iffue, who spread over the western parts of Europe, on the other hand. We must, however, remind our readers, that Togarmah, one of Gomer's fons, went off north-eastward, and peopled Eaftern Tartary, great part of the Mogul's country, and other parts of India, whom we fhall have occafion to mention in the sequel of this work.

THUS there appears to be two grand routs, by which all Europe was inhabited in due time, by Japhet's fucceffors; and it will appear, that the migrations of Magog's fubjects was much more rapid than those of Gomer's iffue, and that confequently all the Northern countries of Europe were much fooner inhabited by the former, than the most Southern were by the latter.

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CHA P. II.

The progress of the Gomerians, or offspring of Gomer.

L

ET us begin with Gomer, who, being the eldest fon, claims our first notice, and examine the different appellations by which his descendants were known in the world. They were firft called Gomerians, from his name, and were known by that appellation for feveral ages; even after their mixing with their brethren, the Scythians, in peopling Germany, Poland, and other Northern countries. They were indeed called in these countries Cimmerii, Cimbri, Coimbri; for it was a very ancient colony of these that gave name to the Cimbric Kerfonefus, now part of the Danish territory, after their conjunction with the Scythians; but this word, Cimmerians, is no other than a corruption of Commerians, changed from Gomerians; fuch changes being common, through all languages and nations of the world, to this day.

WHILE they were in Afia, a colony of them were called Sace, Saces, or Saques; the occafion of which, as it is related by authors of great credit, fuch as Trag. Pompeius,: Arian, in Parthicis apud Photium, and feveral others, was, that the Gomerians increafing, and migrating through Margiana in great multitudes, had many quarrels and diffentions among themselves, and the ftronger, driving out the weaker parties, forced them into neighbouring countries, fome of which were then in the poffeffion of

the

the Medes, who fprung from Madai; where, from their being a banished people, and fugitives, they were called Parthians, Parthu fignifying divided, or separated from another people, in the Gomerian language; from hence those parts where they fettled were called Parthia, and from these arose the Perfians, who were also called Elamites, from one of the fons of Shem; so that Perfia had its inhabitants from the North by the Parthians, and in the Southern parts by the fons of Elam, much about the fame time, who, at length, became a mixed people whom we fhall mention hereafter.

Now these Parthians, in refentment for having been forced away to shift for themselves, gave their enemies the fcandalous name, Sace, which fignifies to rob or commit great violence, and which, among historians, remains upon them at this day. Now as these were a part of the people of Margiana, though fprung from Gomer, they, and indeed all the Northern people, were called Scythians very early; and the Perfians afterwards gave all the Scythians the name of Sace, according to Herodotus.

If we were to enumerate all the names given to the first people inhabiting the ifles of Elisha, by thofe writers who blended their hiftories with fables and allegories, and many times invented matters that never exifted, this work would be fwelled to a greater bulk than is intended; but our purpose is to be as concife as poffible, and to adopt nothing fabulous. It would indeed have been happy, if mythologic fables had never been handed down to us; because it is very evident they have occafioned many errors among writers, who were not always able to weed out falfhoods

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falfhoods from truth; and often were induced to lay hold of what pleased their own fancy, rather than what was conformable to truth; befides other evils, which even the true revealed religion of God has not shaken off, in but too many places, at this time.

WHEN Javan and his fons fettled in thefe ifles, the whole people were, from him, called Jones, and Jaones, which name other nations also always gave them, ages before they were called Graii, or by any other appellation whatsoever. And yet among themselves, and by fome neighbours, they were ftill called Gomerians, which never was quite taken off, till, in after-ages, when the defcendants of that family, by commerce with the Phænicians, had blended the Jonian or Gomerian tongue with those of that conflux of people, who afterwards traded from all parts to Tyrus, and who formerly, being fubject to the confufion at Babel, were called Grecians, and then they began to call their former brethren Galatai and Keltai, from which arofe the names Celte and Galli among the Latins.

BUT we have the best proofs of their being long called Jonians from authorities not to be queftioned. It is, in the first place, but natural to derive this name from that of the patriarch, its founder, Javan, by a very easy alteration; and, as he was the father of the first inhabitants of Greece, he had a right to have his people called after his name. Jofephus makes this very derivation, and him the father of the Grecians; and the Scriptures, as I have before said, gives the Grecians the name of Jones, or Javans in the Hebrew tongue, and call the Greek language Javanith to this day.

ALL

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