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This was the cafe in every other part round about Armenia, and must have been more especially fo in Japhet's family, whofe iffue increased more rapidly than is accounted for by any of the learned men, who have attempted to. calculate the increment of mankind from the flood. Befides this, if we confider the cafe of Nimrod, he was called a mighty man when he founded the Babylonish monarchy; and that was as early as the 131ft year of the flood. Now if we afk what it was that entitled him to be called a mighty man in the earth, the answer is natural, that he was mighty from the number of his fubjects, because no king can with any reafon be called mighty, or powerful, with but a few subjects, unless: ftrength of body could entitle him to that character.

THERE are many tranfactions recorded, which fhew, that a great part of the world was very populous, and a bufy world too, about the time of Serug's death, which was in 393 for it was but thirty years after, that Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, invaded the inhabitants of the vale of Siddim, and made five kings tributary to him: and four years after, Abram was called out of Uk, of the Chaldeans, into Haran; and the year after, settled in Canaan, near Schechem, which God promised to him and his pofterity. Abram then went into Egypt, with his wife and fervants, because of the famine; and the next year returned into the land of Canaan, and fettled there. But the place where his and Lot's family dwelt not being capable of containing the numerous herds of both, they parted, and Lot fettled in the plains of Sodom; and in four or five years after, the five kings of the plains of Siddim

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Siddim revolted against their conqueror, Chedorleomer, after being tributary thirteen years, and he marched against them, destroying great numbers of them, and carrying away, among many captives, Lot and his family.

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ALL these things plainly fhew, that about the end of the fourth, and very beginning of the fifth century of the deluge, these nations were exceedingly populous; that kings were invading one another, and driving out colonies from their fettlements, and almost as full of revolutions as kingdoms are now; and, confequently, that their early colonies were by this time poffeffed of diftant parts of the world, even to the ends of the earth. It will, however, be easily concluded, from comparing these things together, that these records of the Northern authors, of king Eric's having led his people, where we have mentioned, from Scandinavia, in the time of Serug, may be true; and this will be supported in the sequel of this little work, by other good authorities. In the mean time, however, it is very probable, that Ireland had fome of its inhabitants from those that followed Eric, mentioned above, even before the arrival of Partholanus in the ifland, who is faid, by Dr. Keating, to have been the firft planter after the flood, of whom I fhall make fome mention hereafter. And if we confult Propertius, in his fourth book, eleg. 3, we fhall find him intimating, that the Getes, a people of Scythia, fixed their fettlements in this country:

Hibernique Getes, Pictoque Britannia curru.

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

An explanation of the names given to the defcendants of Japhet, and fome of thofe of Ham, by the Greeks; a reconcilation of them with the names by which they were called by Mofes and the prophets, with further proofs of their migrations.

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ROM what has been offered in the foregoing. chapters, it appears that Japhet's fons spread very rapidly over all Europe to its most western boundaries, by the two grand routs mentioned before ; that in the mean time those remaining of Magog's iffue, as well as of that of his brothers, Mefbech and Tubal, were fituated, and founded monarchies, in the northern quarters, about and beyond the Euxine Sea; and those remaining of the defcendants of Gomer, filled Greece, and every other country fouth and fouth-west of Europe, in their turns. Now what I am to enquire further concerning them in this chapter is, what denominations they went under in their fubdivifions in and about Greece, the ifles of Elisha, and by whofe incurfions the first introduction of exotic words was made into their original language.

I HAVE amply fhewed before, where the fons and grandchildren of Japhet were firft fettled; yet, in order to introduce this enquiry, I must enforce it by a quotation from the fixth volume of the Univerfal Hiftory, p. 139, where the learned authors have given credit, as I have before, to Jofephus, in his account of the Jones, as being

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originally fo called from Javan, or Jon, rather than from fon, the grandfon of Deucalion; which is justly suspected of being fabulous, and of Greek invention.

SOME authors fuppofed, that the Pelafgians were so called from Peleg, defcended from Shem, mifled by a paffage in Epiphanius, who fays, that Peleg, or Phaleg, removed, towards Europe, to part of Scythia, and was joined to those nations from which the Thracians came. Now the Thracians were abfolutely defcended from Japhet's iffue; which were the Aborigines of every part about the Euxine Sea, and fouthward all over Greece, as faft as they increased and multiplied; which though I have proved before, yet I am willing to insert the following quotation, because the opinion of authors of fo much credit adds great weight to my own; and, in a matter of so high antiquity, I am the more careful to benefit my account with proofs that agree fo well with Holy Writ.

“THE paffage from Epiphanius, say these authors, "wherever he got it, has been fufficiently confuted by "Bochart, who fhews that both Phaleg and Ragau, and "their defcendants, continued ftill in the confines of Me"dia and Armenia; and we have elsewhere fhewn, that "the Scythians were the defcendants of Magog, and not “of Phaleg, or Ragau. They were the fons of Japhet, "and not of Shem, that divided the ifles of the Gentiles; "we shall therefore leave the Pelafgians to their own «founder, and find a much more likely one for the an"cient Greeks in the following note:

FIRST, from the authority of Jofephus, above quoted. "Secondly, from the name itself of the patriarch, found

"ing more properly Jon, than Javan, without the points. "Thirdly, from the authority of Mofes, who fays, that by "the fons of Japhet were the ifles of the Gentiles divided; "which, according to the genius of the Hebrew, means not islands, properly fo called, but all maritime coun"tries, at any distance from Palestine, especially thofe "which are along the Mediterranean. Fourthly, from "that of the prophets, who call Gracia by the name of Jon, or Javan, as pointed, according to which, the Jews. "have all along to this day called the Greek tongue Javanish. All this is further confirmed, from the clear "remains of Elisha, Javan's eldest son, which were still. "to be found in that of Elis, one of the ancient kingdoms "of Peloponnefus."

THE changes of the names of the Aborigines of the first nations inhabited after the flood, which the Greeks made, are certainly not only very arbitrary, but also have been the means of rendering the hiftories of the highest antiquity much lefs intelligible than they otherwife would. have been, if the names of perfons and places were inviolably preserved; but these were a people, who, when they had formed their language out of the adventitious mixture of feveral others from Phenicia, Egypt, and fome of the divided nations of the East, together with the original tongue of the houfe of Japhet, grew conceited and idolatrous, embracing the rites of the Egyptian mythology, and corrupting, by degrees, thofe who inhabited more northward in Greece, and who, till now, were worshippers of the TRUE GOD, not only with their heathenish worship, but with a gradual change of language too, by the intro

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