reckons the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic languages, as fifter-dialects of the primeval language; which I am content they should be accounted, allowing the Hebrew to be the pure dialect, which the others are a deviation from, and not fo pure: though I should rather choose to call them daughters, than fifters of the Hebrew tongue; fince, as Jerom fays, the Hebrew tongue is the mother of all languages, at leaft of the oriental ones. And these daughters are very helpful and affifting to her their mother in her declining state, and now reduced as to purity to the narrow limits of the facred scriptures; for I cannot prevail upon myself to agree that the fhould be ftripped of her maternal title, dignity, and honour; fince fhe has the best claim to be the primitive language, as will be feen hereafter. Dr Hunt", though he is of the fame mind with Schultens, that the above languages are fifters, having the fame parent, the Eastern language, yet feems to allow the Hebrew to be the elder fifter. And Schultens himself afferts, that the primeval language, which was from the beginning of the world spoken by our first parents, and the antedeluvian patriarchs, and after the flood to the difperfion, is the fame which was afterwards called Hebrew, from Heber; from whom it paffed through Peleg and Abraham to the nation of the Hebrews, and fo the mother language; but how it could be both mother and fifter, is not eafy to say.

That there was but one language spoken by men, from Adam to the flood in the times of Noah, and from thence to the confufion and difperfion at Babel, seems manifest from Gen. xi. i. and the whole earth was of one language, and of one Speech and which is confirmed by the teftimonies of feveral heathen writers, as by Sibylla in Jofephus, by Abydenus', and others; and which continued in that interval without any, or little variation: the longevity of the patriarchs much contributed to this, for Adam himself lived to the tenth century, and the flood was in the feventeenth. Methuselah, who died a little before the flood, lived upwards of two hundred years in the days of Adam, and fix hundred years cotemporary with Noab, and who doubtless spoke the fame language that Adam did; yea, Lamech, the father of Noab, was born fifty years or more before the death of Adam; fo that the language of Adam to the days of Noab is easily accounted for as the fame: if any variation, it must be in the offspring of those of the patriarchs who removed from them, and fettled in different parts

of f Præfat. ad Comment. in Job. & in Prov. & Orat. de Ling. Arab. Franeker. 1729, & altera Lugd. Batav. 1732. * Comment in Soph. c. 3. fol. 100. A. h Orat. de Antiq. &c.. Ling. Arabic. p. 3, 49, 53, Oxon. 1738. & Orat. de ufu Dialect. Orient, p. 2. Oxon. 1748. i Vid. Orationes fupradictas, p. 6, 41. * Antiq. 1. 1. c. 4. $8.

Apud Eufeb. Evangel. Præpar. 1. 9. c. 14. p. 416.

of the world, but of this there is no proof; the feparation of Cain and his pofterity on account of religion, does not appear to have produced any alteration in language; but the fame language was fpoken by one as another, as is evident by the names of perfons in the line of Cain, and of places inhabited by them to the time of the flood; when, no doubt, the fame language was fpoken by Noah, from whom his fons received it, and was continued unto the difperfion, which before that was but one; and it is the opinion of the Perfian priests or Magi that the time will come when the earth will be of one language again; and if fo, it is probable it will be the primitive one, but what that was, is the thing to be enquired into. The Targums of Jonathan and Onkelos on the place, add, by way of explanation, "and they spoke in "the holy tongue, in which the world was created at the beginning," meaning the Hebrew language, ufually called the holy tongue; and this is the sense of Farchi, Aben Ezra, and the Jewish writers in general, and of many Chrif tians. But moft nations have put in a claim for the fuperior antiquity of their nation and language, the Europeans not excepted. Goropius Becanus pleaded for the Teutonic language, or that which is fpoken in lower Germany and Brabant, to be the original one, and attempted to derive the Hebrew from it; but it has been thought he was not ferious in it, only did it to fhew his acumen, and the luxuriancy of his fancy and imagination; the eastern nations have a much be ter pretext to antiquity, and moft, if not all of them, have put in their claim for it. There was a long contest between the Egyptians and Phrygians about this matter, as before obferved. The Armenians have urged in their favour, that the ark rested on one of the mountains in their country, where Noah and his pofterity continued fome time, and left their language there. The Arabs pretend, that their language was spoken by Adam before his fall, and then changed into Syriac, and was reftored upon his repentance, but again degenerated, and was in danger of being loft, but was preferved by the elder Jorham, who escaped with Noab in the ark, and propagated it among his pofterity. The Chinese make great pretenfions to the primitive language, and many things are urged in their favour, as the antiquity of their nation, their early acquaintance with arts and sciences, the fingularity, fimplicity, and modefty of their tongue. A countryman of ours, in the last century, published a treatise, called, "An Hiftorical Effay, endeavouring a probability that the "language of China is the primitive language, by J. Webb, Efq; London, 1669, 8vo." But as when many candidates put up for a place, they are generally

26

Plutarch. de Ifide & Ofir. p. 370.

* See the Univerfal Hiftory, Vol. 1. p. 346, 347.

generally reduced to a few, and, if poffible, to two; the fame method muft be taken here; for the conteft lies between the Syriac, or Chaldee, and the Hebrew.

The Chaldee, or Syriac language, has its patrons for the antiquity of it; not only Theodoretwho was by birth a Syrian, and Amyra the Maronite, who are not to be wondered at, and others who have made it their favourite study; but even the Arabic writers, the more judicious of them, give it not only the preference to their own language in point of antiquity, but even make it as early as Adam. Elmacinus fays', there are hiftorians (Arabic ones) who affirm, that Adam and his pofterity spoke the Syriac language until the confufion of tongues; and fo Abulpbaragius fays", "Of our Doctors, Bafilius and Ephraim "affert, that unto Eber the language of men was one, and that that was Syriac, "and in which God spoke to Adam ;" and it must be allowed, that there are many things plaufibly faid in favour of this language being primitive: it must be owned that the Chaldean nation was a very ancient one, Jer. v. 15. and that the Syriac language was fpoken very early, as by Laban; but not earlier than the Hebrew, which was spoken at the fame time by Jacob; the one called the heap of ftones which was a witnefs between them Jegar-fabadutha in the Syro-Chaldean language, and the other Galeed in Hebrew, which both fignify the fame thing: what is commonly urged is as follows:

1. That the names of a man and woman are as much alike, if not more fò, in the Chaldee or Syriac language, as in the Hebrew; a man is called Gabra and a woman Gabretha, which is equally as near as I and Ihab produced to prove the antiquity of the Hebrew, Gen. ii. 23. But neither in the Chaldee of Onkelos, nor in the Syriac verfion of that place, is it Gabretha, but Ittetha in the one, and Antetha in the other. Theodoret inftances in the names Adam, Cain, Abel, Noah, as proper to the Syriac language but the derivation of them from the Hebrew tongue is more clear and manifest.

2. That it is rather agreeable to truth, that the primeval and common: Janguage before the confufion fhould remain in the country where the tower was built and the confusion made, which was in Chaldea, and therefore the Chaldee language must be that language; but rather the contrary seems more natural, that the language, confounded and corrupted, fhould continue in the place where the confufion was made, and that thofe poffeffed of the pure and primitive language should depart from thence, as in fact they afterwards did.

3. It is obferved, that both Eber and Abraham were originally Chaldeans, and were brought up in Chaldea, and fo muft fpeak the language of that country, which therefore must be prior to the Hebrew; but it should be confidered, that not only Eber but Abraham lived before the confufion and difperfion; for if the confufion was in the latter end of Peleg's days, Abraham, according to the Jewish chronology, must be forty-eight years of age', and confequently poffeffed of the pure and primitive language, be it what it may; and since it does not appear that either he or any of his posterity, as Isaac and Jacob, ufed the Chaldee language, but the Hebrew only, it feems to follow, that not the Chaldee, but the Hebrew, must be the language spoken by him, and so the primitive one.

4. It is faid, the Hebrews fprung from the Chaldeans, Judith v. 5. and fo their language must be later than theirs; this is founded on Abraham's being of Ur of the Chaldees, from whence he came; but it does not follow, that because he was born and lived in that country before the confufion of Babel, that therefore he spoke the language used in that country afterwards, fince he was foon called out of it; and it appears that he spoke not the Chaldee, or Syriac language, but the Hebrew, as before observed.

5. It is urged', as highly probable, that the language the fecond Adam fpake, the first Adam did; now Chrift and his apostles, and the people of the Jews in their times, fpoke in the Syriac language, as appears from Matt. xxvii. 46. Mark v. 41. and chap. vii. 34. but according to fome learned men, as Mafius", and Fabricius Boderianus", this was not the ancient language of the Syrians and Chaldeans, but a new language, which had its first rife in the Babylonish captivity, and was a mixture of Chaldee and Hebrew; though rather the mixture began in the times of the Seleucide, the Syrian kings, who entered into and diftreffed Judea; and therefore no argument can be taken from it in favour of the Syriac being the primitive language. I proceed now to propofe the arguments that are, or may be used in favour of the Hebrew language being the primitive one; and the

First, may be taken from the alphabet of the tongue itself, which appears to be the first alphabet of all the Eaftern languages. The Chaldee, or Syriac, Phænician, or Samaritan, have their alphabets manifeftly from it; the names,

the So R. Jose in Seder Olam Rabba c. 1. P. 1.

Myricæi Præfat. ad Gram. Syro-Chald. Abarbinel in Pentateuch. fol. 51 3. Juchafin, fol. 8. 1. Shalfhalet Hakabala, fol. 1. 2. • Seder Olam, ibid.

Myricæus, ut fupra.

Præfat. ad Diction, Syro Chald.

↑ Ibid.

Præfat ad Gram Sjr.

the number, and order of their letters, and even the form and ducts of them, seem to be taken from thence, and to be corrupt deviations from it; and the Arabic language, though the order of its alphabet is fomewhat disturbed, yet the names of moft of the letters are plainly from the Hebrew; and fo indeed is the greater part of the names of letters in the Greek alphabet, from whence the Romans have taken theirs, and other European nations. Hermannus Hugo obferves", that it is agreed among all, that from the names of the Hebrew characters, the letters of all nations have their names; now that language, whofe alphabet appears to be the firft, and to give rife to the alphabets of other tongues, bids faireft to be the first and primitive language: let it be obferved that the Hebrew alphabet, as it now is, is exactly the fame as it was in the days of David and Solomon, fo early it can be traced; for it is to be feen in the cxixth Pfalm, and in others, and in the last chapter of the book of Proverbs, as well as in the book of Lamentations, written before, or at the beginning of the Babylonish captivity.

Secondly, Another argument for the antiquity of the Hebrew language, may be formed from the perfection and purity of it. Abraham de Balmis fays of it, that it is perfect in its letters and in its points. Our language, fays he, is the most perfect language, and in its writing the most perfect of all writings of all languages; there is nothing wanting, and there is nothing. "redundant in it, acccording to the laws and rules of things perfect and compleat." It confifts of words which moft fully and effectually express the nature of the things fignified by them; its roots, which are of a certain number, are, for the most part, of three letters only, and it has no exotic or strange words used in it. Whoever compares it with the Syriac or Chaldee, will eafily perceive the difference as to the purity of them, and that the Chaldee is derived from the Hebrew, and is later than that; for as Scaliger long ago obferved, Melech must be before 2p Malca, the latter being derived from the former; and the fame may be observed in a multitude of other inftances: now that which is perfect, pure, and underived, must be before that which is imperfect, corrupt, and derived; or, as the philofopher' expreffes it, that which is vicious and corrupt must be later than that which is incorrupt.