1

have cited, are more than fufficient to fhew that some of thofe Sirnames might be changed by Mofes.

And therefore their Argument of Primitive Antiquity, deduced barely from Names, is not of that Confequence as the Rabbins, and those that implicitly follow their Authority may imagine. However fince the other reasons that are alledged by the Jews fall infinitely short of this, we lie under no Obligation to trifle away our time in confuting them, especially fince the Vanity of them has been already demonftrated by the Learned Huetius. :

III. There feems to have been but one Language before the Deluge:. This we are fure of, that there was but one in the Family of Noah, till the Fantastical Project of the Building of Babel was fet on foot, that is to fay, as long as they continued all in the fame place. But after that, upon the account of fome Differences arifing at Babylon, Mankind was difperfed into feveral Provinces of the World, and when in process of time these distant Families preserved either none, or but a small Correfpondence one with another, feveral new Dialects fprung up. Thus we fee that the Latin Tongue has given birth to the Italian,Spanish and French Tongues, not to mention the feveral Dialects of each of thefe. So the Saxon Tongue alone begot the Modern German, the Dutch

and English. We have
where fhewn that the variety

* See this handled at

large in the fixth Differtation.

of

of Languages did not immediately arife by any fudden miraculous Impreffion of the Divine Power; and indeed those that maintain the contrary Opinion, own that there was rather a variety of Dialects, than of new Tongues.

Therefore the Primitive or first Language has upon several accounts been changed; as for instance, it was turn'd by the Arabians into the Arabick, by the Chaldees it was wrested into the Chaldean, and by the Canaanites insenfibly changed into the Canaanean Dialect. The Jews, who fanfied it to be the Hebrew Tongue, pretend it remain'd without Change or Corruption in the Family of Heber, which neverthe less is no where attested in the Holy Scripture. Nay, on the other fide, it fufficiently intimates, that the Pofterity of Heber, who continued on the other fide the Euphrates, rather spoke Chaldee, as we fhall fee anon.

Since therefore the Rabbins are not able to produce one pofitive Testimony out of the Bible, to prove that the Antediluvian Language came down intire and incorrupted to the Defcendants of Heber, they endeavour which is the last Refuge of a declining Cause, to evince it by far-fetch'd Reasons. They pretend that neither Heber nor his Son Peleg, from whom the Ifraelites are lineally defcended were concerned in building the Tower of Babel. But this is a downright Dream, fupported by no manner of reafon, as we have fhewn in our fixth Differtation.

First,

First, They pretend that the Family of Cham, affifted by fome of the Pofterity of Shem and Japhet, fell upon this defigo, and that Nimrod was the chief Surveyor and Encourager of the Work, which they gather chiefly from Gen. 10. 9, 10. where Babel, Erech, Acchad and Chalne in the Land of Sinaar, are faid to be the beginning of Nimrod's Kingdom. But nothing more can be evinced from hence, but only that Nimrod, after the reft of Mankind had quitted Babylon, continued there ftill with his Family, and was either the Mafter or Founder of thofe Cities. Secondly, They mightily inveigh against the Impiety of the Builders of Babel in moft Tragical Strains, and thence conclude that the Godly Patriarchs, of which number Heber was one, were not engaged in that wicked Design: But we have fhewn, that though for certain reasons God Almighty was pleased to disapprove the Defign, yet there was no Wickedness in it. Befides I would fain know who it was inform'd the Jews that Heber was fo Pious and Godly a Perfon? I am fure his Piety is no where commended; nay on the contrary, Abraham's Ancestors who liv'd on the other fide the Euphrates, are not obfcurely charged with Idolatry in (d) Joshua 24. 2. Thirdly, They

(d) The Paffage in Fofbua is this, Your Fathers dwelt on the other fide of the Flood in old time, even Terah the Father of Abraham, and the Father of Nachor, and they ferved Other Gods. And indeed the old Jews derived the beginning of their Religion from Abraham, who as Jofephus tells us, lib. 1. c. 8. of his Jewish Antiquities, Fer Tom was the first that had the Courage to profels one God the Creator of all things.

pre

pretend that the Pofterity of Heber escaped the Punishment which this bold Attempt drew upon the rest of Mankind, fince they always preserved the Hebrew Language in its Primitive Purity and Perfection. But we need not now repeat, that the Language, which after. wards was called the Hebrew, can with no more pretence fet up for the firft Tongue than the Chaldee, for we hope we have already demonftrated that Point, but I would fain ask them a few questions, If Heber and his Sons had no fhare in this Tranfgreffion (if it deserve that name) how happened it that the Pofterity of Joktan, who was the Son of Heber abovementioned, came to speak Arabick? How came it to pass, that most of the Children of Shem, who, as they pretend, was none of the Builders of Babel, that his Children, I fay, who fettled beyond the Euphrates, either spoke Chaldee or fome other Language more remote from the Hebrew In a word, whatever the Rabbins impudently prate of the Hebrew Tongue's being preferv'd in one Family, it is, in my Opinion, the Product of their own empty lying Brains, which in all Ages of the World were known to be Famous for inventing of Fables, and Heber's Pofterity liable to the common Fate of the rest of Mankind, as they came to be fcatter'd into various Regions, fo no doubt of it but they expreffed their meaning in different Sounds.

If we should then enquire, what was the Language that Abraham fpoke on the other fide the Euphrates,(letting bare Conjectures, or rather Rabbinical Comments alone) the most probable Opinion is, That he spoke that Language which not long after was received in thofe places, I mean the Chaldee. He lived till the feventieth Year of his Life, perhaps, at Ur of the Chaldees, whither one of his Ancestors went and fetled, after Mankind had refolved to feek their Fortunes in different Countries. Afterwards he continued for fome time at Haran in Mefopotamia.

Now 'tis manifeft beyond all Difpute, that Chaldee was spoke in thefe places, in the days of Jacob the Grand-child of Abraham; for in Gen. 31. 47. Laban is faid to have called a heap of Stones erected in remembrance of the Covenant he made with Jacob, Fegar fchaha doutha, which words are merely Chaldee, and fignifie the Heap of Witneß. Nor does the Language of his Grand-father Nachor feem to be any other than this, because Languages do not use to change in fo fhort a courfe of times for 'tis

to no purpose to say that the Pofteriis

of Peleg preferved the Hebrew Tongue among themfelves, fince no reason can be affigned, why Laban, who defcended from him, as well as Abraham, poke the Chaldean Tongue, while the rest of the Gentiles spoke another. Besides if the Hebrew Language was in ufe among the Defcendants of Peleg beyond Euphrates, certainly

C