*

above a cubit high, who fought at the fiege of Tyre.' And he undoubtedly alludes to the 11th verfe of that prophet's 27 th chapter, where the Vulgate has, Sed et pygmaei, qui erant in turribus tuis, pharetras fuas fufpenderunt in muris tuis per gyrum;' but we have, O Tyrus, the Gam'madims were in thy towers; they hanged their 'fhields upon thy walls round about.

But is there not the fame caufe of complaint here, as on other occafions? I acknowledge indeed, fome like him have understood pygmies, perfons of a cubit's heighth, who were dextrous at fhooting with arrows, to be here intended. They are not however even all who adhere to the Vulgate version, for some of them make the fenfe of its + pygmaei to be, not men of fo low and puny ftature, but men ftrong and robuft, able at fift, or fit for combat. Nay the notion of pygmies is not only oppofed by Proteftants, who pay lefs regard to that tranflation, as Junius and Grotius, the last of whom pleasantly ‡ ridicules the choice of fuch defenders as only proper in a war against cranes, but alfo by writers of the Romish church who reverence it moft, as Cornelius a Lapide, who obferves, that all the ftories of Homer, Ariftotle,

I fuppofe every reader knows the Jewish cubit was twenty-one inches or thereabouts.

† As Menochius and others, who derive the word from the Greek uyun, in the fenfe of, fight or fift; which feems alfo to have been Jerome's explication, who framed that tranflation. Vid. Scapul. Lexicon, voc. πυγμαίοι.

Bene' fays he upon the text, 'fi cum gruibus bellandum fuit. Alioqui quorfum ad militiam deligere eos,

⚫ Quorum tota cohors pede non eft altior ano.
F

Ovid and Pliny, about nations or tribes of such human beings, black and hairy all over, fituated on the Ethiopic fhore of the Red Sea, had been confuted by * Aldrovandus, Gellius and Cardan, as unworthy of any credit. Why then does Mr. Voltaire attempt to pafs it upon us as the inconteftable and true meaning of Ezekiel? It seems most probable that the term +Gammadim, if it be the genuine reading, was the

* See Pol. Synopfis in loc. The falfhood of these tales hath been alfo fhewn by Julius Caefar Scaliger, Jo. Voffius, Ifaac Cafaubon, and more lately by the learned Fabricius, professor of divinity at Hamburgh, whatever fports of nature, if I may ufe the expreffion, there have been through different countries, in refpect of the extremely diminutive fize of this or that individual of our kind, even as fuch may be found also among the brute fpecies; See Fabricii Sylloge Opufculorum, &c. where he hath a differtation De hominibus orbis noftri incolis, fpecie et ortu avito inter fe non differentibus,' in oppofition to Peyrerius's book, who endeavoured to prove from the variety of figure, colour, and ftature among mankind, that all were not fprung from the fame common parent; by which topic, Mr. Voltaire likewife endeavours to difcredit the Scripture account of our common original, Phil. of Hift. chap. 2. page 5. &c.

+ Mr. Hallet, in the third volume of his notes on Scripture texts, difallowing the notion that a nation is meaned here, fuppofes the Jewish transcribers have mifpelt the word, writing inftead of 'U as it must have been in the more correct Hebrew copies, from which the Greek, Arabic, and Syriac verfions were made, and renders the whole verfe thus, The men of Arvad, with thine ar

my upon thy walls round about were the guards in thy towers;' The rather that the Syriac feems to have been made in this place directly from the Hebrew text itfelf, fince it does not here follow the Greek, as the Arabic does. But this I am inclined to think too bold an emendation upon fuch authority alone, the more that the Chaldee has Cappadoces, Symmachus Mor, and Theodotion Taupaderu. Nor do the copies even of the Seventy concur to fupport the reading he would fubflitute. For the Complutenfian edition disjoins this fentence from

name of a people in Phenicia, or in fome adjacent country, tho' they may be now unknown, fince they appear among other foreign foldiers who were auxiliaries to the Tyrians, as the best critics do agree.

SECTION VII.

That the Vulgate translation favours thefe accounts, which Mr. Voltaire hath given, is no fufficient apology for his fairness and candour.

THUS, to name no more examples under this clafs, hath Mr. Voltaire detracted from Scripture, mocked at its relations, and reproached the Jewish prophets and people, upon the authority of the Vulgate chiefly or folely. And is it not difhonourable in him, to have thrown out fuch fcoffs and cenfures as he hath done, where he had no better foundation for them?

the preceding, and turns it, Αλλα και Μήδοι εν τοις πυργοις σε ήσαν φυλακες, 'But even the Medes were guards in thy towers.'

So Michaelis understands the word in his Bible: for had the Medes been intended, they would have been introduced fooner with the Perfians and others, at the fame great distance; and refers to Pfeiffer in his Dubia Vexata, and Ludolf in his Hiftory of Ethiopia, as strongly fupporting it.--It is an ingenious conjecture of Grotius, that the inhabitants of Ancon, in Phenicia, are fo called, as ayxwv in the Greek tongue fignifies a cubit like in the Hebrew, Judges, iii. 16.-Vonder Hardt, in his Detecta Mythologia Graecorum, understands the inhabitants of Megiddo, a town belonging to the Manaffites, on the coaft of the Mediterranean fea, as does the anonymous author of ub fervationes Philologicae et Geographicae, printed at Amfterdam, 1748; but, so far as I can judge, without any probability. Indeed, who they were, cannot, in my opinion, be afcertained. Only they feem to have

It may be pled in his behalf, The council of Trent, whofe decrees are received with profound refpect by the church of Rome, in the ceremonies of which our author, if we may credit public accounts, at times. joins, declared this translation authentic, and prohibited the ufe of any other, either in the difputations of the schools, or in public worship, upon any pretext whatsoever; wherefore, he cannot be blamed for unfairness and difingenuity, in making it his guide.

But I answer, It can scarce be imagined, that a man of fo free a fpirit as our author, ever underflood this council by the term, authentic, to fignify, that it was exempted from all faults and mistakes, and entitled to an entire fubmiffion through all its parts, as if it was the pure and uncorrupted original. For such a sense hath been exploded and disclaimed by the moft able Papifts themselves, as cardinal Pallavicini, Pere Simon, and others, † who contend it t

been people of Phenicia, or the neighbourhood, as Arvad or Arad, whofe men are mentioned in the fame verfe, was a maritime place in Phenicia. See Reland. Palaeft. p. 137, 216, &c.

* London Chronicle, May 16,-18. of the last year, page 2. column 2. Mr. de Voltaire, not content with performing the cuftomary ceremonies observed at Easter, by the church of Rome, made

a kind of fermon, containing his confeffion of faith, during the holidays, to a very numerous congregation, and took two notaries public, to witnefs to the orthodoxy of it.'

+ See Simon's Hiftoire Critique du Vieux Teftament, liv. 2. fect. 19. The fame hath been alfo the interpretation of the decree by later writers. Towards the end of last century, there was published by Natalis Alexander, a Parifian divine, and regent of a college of preaching friars, A Differtation concerning the Errors which still remained in the Vulgate verfion, after its correction by order of Clement VIIL'

was only the intention of the council to affert, that it was, in general, a good and faithful tranflation, though not without its errors and flaws; wherefore they obferve, the fame council, which pronounced the decree in favour of its authenticity, ordered alfo its correction and amendment. But fuppofing Mr. Voltaire interpreted their words in that high sense, which is only embraced by the greatest bigots of the Romish church, it can never be thought that he did not look upon the claim as abfurd and ridiculous. Efpecially, when fuch variations are to be found between the two editions of that version itself, which

(of this prefently) and which might be rectified by authority of the church. Differtatio circa Sphalmata,' &c. Being attacked for this, as inconfiftent with the decrees of the council of Trent, which appointed the Vulgate verfion to be received as authentic, he defended him. felf, faying, He still revered thefe, as the council's meaning only was, that it was to be preferred to every other tranflation; not that it was to be esteemed beyond the origina: Hebrew and Greek text: which he endeavoured to show by the teftimonies of Alphonfus Salmero who was prefent at it, and of Andreas Vega, and of other theologians of the Romish church.-A&t. Erudit. Decemb. 1682.

In like manner, about the fixteenth year of this century, Paffini, doctor in theology, and lecturer on the Oriental languages in the college of Padua, hath declared his fentiments about the import of the decree; for, fpeaking of the Vulgate verfion's being approved and declared authentic by the council of Trent, feff. 4. can. 2. he has these words, 'Non ut fontibus Graecis et Ebraicis fit praeferenda, fed aliis Latinis verfionibus, relictis exemplaribus in eodem authentiae ftatu quo prius fruebantur.' And fo concludes they never intended to reftrain their industry, who, through greater skill in the original languages, were able to propose a sense more commodious and just than that which it expreffed, however it might be no way contrary to faith and found morals. Differtatio Polemica de praecipuis S. S. Bibliorum linguis et verfionibus. Apud Suppl. Act. Lipfiae, tom. 7. anno 1721,