imaginary they tell us not, and the Stars named after them; all their Images, Spheres and Representations for magical Ufes or jugling Tricks: The Beafts facred, because these Devils, as they thought, appear'd in their Shapes; and have alfo made Mofes pick up all thefe Reprefentations of Devils and magical Practices, to form a Place of Worship, and introduce almost all their Practices for a Form of Worship to the Being we take for our God: I cannot put Things in a worfe Light, and fhall, I hope, put them all in a natural and more honourable State, fhew the ancient Heathens to have been great Philo fophers, their Service to the Powers which formed, fupported and fubfifted them without Revelation, natural, that properly paid to God as Author of thofe Powers, and that these Men and their Evidence, the latter Heathens were Fools, and Worshipers of Devils or nothing; nor can I have any Disputes with them with respect to the present Tranflations, because in the Manner of doing it, I only attempt to explain a few Words, which I take to be expreffive of the natural Powers, and which they have not thought fit to tranflate, and the Senfe of a few Phrafes, which as they say were spoken, ad captum B 3 bumanum,

humanum, and fo not capable of being brought to the Teft of Truth by Obfervations and ocular Demonftrations, which I alfo take to be fpoken philofophically, with which in either Senfe they pretend not to have any Bufinefs. I fhall pafs over the Hiftory of the Formation of Vegetables in this; because at laft they have for the prefent yielded their fpontaneous Productions, and agree that each has its Seed in its felf; and becaufe nothing can be faid clearly about it, till the Operations mention'd be further explain'd, and because such Weeds as they have planted, can never be deftroy'd, till their Roots be pluck'd up; I mean till they be difpoffeffed of their imaginary Caufe of the Motion of the Globes, and because no useful Herb will thrive among Weeds.

As my Intent is no other but to make the Scripture intelligible, which has no Difficulties in thefe Points, but what has been made by Philofophers, who have always adapted the Meaning of fome of the Words about the Heavens, and from them. the Tranflators, to the Notions and Philofophies of the Times and Places: For 'tis but lately that they were fo filly as to pretend to give any Accounts about the Formation of the Earth, and it has been often

predicted,

predicted, that medling with it would be their Ruin, except where the Tranflators, by unneceffary Jealoufy, have made God's Agents himself, their Actions his perfonal Actions, and the Defcriptions of their Subftances the Description of his Effence In order to fet these right, I must observe what Things were made at the Beginning by God, what Names he gave them, what has been made by Imaginers fince, and what Names they have given thofe imaginary Things or Actions; what Errors are inferted into the Translations, &c. and take the Liberty not only to throw off all the Opinions of the Philofophers, but their very Names of material Things or Actions, in the Tranflations or Paraphrafes in all Languages; and begin with them alfo, as if the Scripture were newly writ, or at least as the Jews left it; and take the Names and Relations as they stand in Scripture; and where any Difpute arifes between the Original and the Tranflation, whether the Thing, Action, or &c. be the fame as it is tranflated; I thall be determin'd by the Comparifon, Defcription, Situation, Action, or Ufe of the Thing or Word in other Places of the Scriptures, without any other Allowance than to vary the Senfe of a Word; for Example, of B 4 Action

Action according to the Effect it will have upon the Thing it is joined with, or where fuch Action has Effects in Succeffion, and the Interpreters have not put the first or that which is proper; I mean only of the Word in each Citation, upon which the Strefs turns; for to correct each Word would take up too much Room, and make Confufion; and as I am fufficiently convinced that there was no other Difference between the Language of the Chaldeans and that of the Jews, who ftaid longer with them than thofe of other Countries, tho' there is little preferv'd of that, or any other Language, but what was writ long after the Books of Mofes, nor by the Natives of Chaldea, but by the Jews, long after the Captivity; nor any Difference between either of theirs, and thofe of other Countries, than what had been produced by Time, their different Notions in Philofophy, and fo in Worfhip, in their Employments or Manner of Living; fo where a Word occurs not in Cafes enow to explain it fufficiently, we must get what Helps we can from the Languages nearest in Place or Time: If a Word happens to be but once or twice us'd in the Bible, and no fufficient Explanation, and we find the fame Word

ΟΙ

or Branches of that Root in Chaldee or any other Language, they have concluded it of that Language, tho' perhaps 'tis only from Occafion of using the Word, from the Accident of Books being preferv'd, of their coming to the Hands of those who have writ Lexicons, &c. Where any Word in Scripture is taken from fomething in Ufe in the Place where the Scene of Action treated of was, or in fome other Nation, or Allufion made to Things which were the fittest to compare with, or illuftrate by, which were not in Ufe among the Jews, and for which perhaps they had no expreffive Words; or if God was pleas'd to condefcend fo far as to use Words which other Nations us'd for the celeftial Agents which they worship'd as Gods, and the Jews understood: In order to set them right, as thofe Words in fome Cafes may not, and in fome cannot, each have a Root or Affinity to other Words in their Language, tho' there be fome Difference in fpelling and forming the Words of the first Languages in the Countries whither the People were difpers'd, and by degrees Names, different from those us'd for Things before the Difperfion were given, and Names for Things which had no Exiftence before they parted, nor among the

Jews.