of Sancuniathou that wrote the Phaenician history in the same tongue but more of the language he saith not But to the matter That letters were so long in vse before the giuing of the Law I am induced to beleeue vpon these reasons First Iosephus is of this mind that letters were before the flood And the Scripture cites Enochs prophecie which whether it were written by him or not is vncertaine yet if there were any such thing those many places which we find of it in Tertullian Clemens and others do argue that so much could not punctually bee kept by word of mouth A second reason to mooue mee to thinke of letters before the giuing of the Law is to thinke of Iosephs accounts in Egypt which seeme almost impossible without writing Thirdly But omitting that I cannot see how all arts and sciences in the world should then flourish as considering their infancy they did without the groundworke of all learning letters Fourthly Againe for the Iewes vpon the writing of the law to be put to spelling as they that had neuer seene letters before and not to be able to reade it had beene a law vpon the law adding to the hardnesse of it Fiftly Nor can I thinke that when Moses saith blot me out of thy book that hee taketh the Metaphor from his owne bookes which it is probable he had not yet written but from other bookes which were then abounding in the world Sixtly the Egyptian Chronicles of so many thousand yeares in Diodorus and Laertius I know are ridiculous yet their carefulnesse of keeping Records I haue euer beleeued The Greekes were boyes to them as it is in Plato and Moses was scholler to them or their learning Act. 7. Now I cannot thinke that this their exceeding humane learning was kept onely in their braines and none in writing Nor do I think that if it were written that it was decyphered onely in their obscure Hieroglyphicks but that some of it came to ordinary writing of familiar letters CAP. XXX Of the Hebrew tongue WHo so will goe about to commend the Hebrew tongue may iustly receiue the censure that he of Rome did who had made a long booke in the praise of Hercules This labour is in vaine for neuer any one dispraised Hercules Other commendations this tongue needeth none then what it hath of its selfe namely for Sanctitie it was the tongue of God and for Antiquitie it was the tongue of Adam God the first founder and Adam the first speaker of it In this tong were laid vp the mysteries of the old Testament It begun with the world and the Church and continued increased in glory till the captiuitie in Babel which was a Babel to this tongue and brought to confusion this language which at the first confusion had escaped without ruine At their returne it was in some kinde repaired but farre from former perfection The holy Scriptures veiwed by Ezra a scribe fit for the kingdome of heauen in whose treasure were things new and old In the Maccabean times all went to ruine language and lawes and all lost and since that time to this day the pure Hebrew hath lost her familiaritie being onely knowne by schollers or at least not without teaching Our Sauiours times spake the Syrian Kepha Golgotha Talitha and other words do witnesse In aftertimes the vnwearied Masorites arose helpers to preserue the Bible Hebrew intire and Grammarians helpers to preserue the Idiome aliue but for restoring it to the old familiaritie neither of them could preuaile For the Iewes haue at this day no abiding citie no Common wealth no proper tongue but speake as the countries wherein they liue This whereof they were once most nice is gone and this groat they haue lost As the man in Seneca that through sicknes lost his memorie and forgot his own name so they for their sin haue lost their language and forgot their own tongue Their Cain-like wandring after the murther of their brother according to the flesh Christ Iesus hath lost them this precious marke of Gods fauour and branded them with a worse marke Cauterio conspirationis antiquae as saith Saint Bernard in another case Before the confusion of tongues all the world spake their tongue and no other but since the confusion of the Iewes they speake the language of all the world and not their owne And that it is not with them so onely of late but hath been long Theodoret beareth witnesse in these words Other nations saith he haue their children speaking quickly in their owne mother tongue Howbeit there are no children of the Hebrewes who naturally spake the Hebrew tongue but the language of the countrie where they are borne Afterward when they grow vp they are taught the letters and learne to read the holy Scripture in the Hebrew tongue Thus Theod. in quaest on Gen 59.60 About this their training vp of their children and growth of men in their owne tongue and learning a Rabbin hath this saying in Pirke Auoth Perek 1. Ben He He saith At fiue yeares old for the Scripture at ten for Mishneh at thirteene for the Commandements at fifteene for the Talmud At eighteene for Mariage at twentie for Seruice at thirtie for Strength at fortie for Vnderstanding at fiftie for Counsell at sixtie for Old age at seuentie for Gray haires at eightie for Profoundnesse at nintie for Meditation at one hundred he is as dead and past and gone out of the world The Iewes looke for a pompous kingdome when Messias the Sonne of Dauid shall come whom they watch for euerie moment till he come as it is in the 12. Article of their Creed in their common prayer booke Hee shall restore them as they hope a temporall kingdome and of that minde till they were better taught were the Apostles Acts 1.6 and then their tongue shall reuiue againe as they surmise But the diuine Apocaliptick writing after Ierusalem was ruined might teach them what the second Ierusalem must be not on earth but from heauen Apoc. 21 2. But to returne to their tongue The characters we now haue the Hebrew tongue in Scaliger thinkes are but of a latter hatch and not the same that the Iewes vsed from Moses till the destruction of the temple For that they vsed the Phaenician or Cananaean character which now is called the Samaritan How truely I referre to the Readers iudgement The character wee now haue is either a set or a running letter the first the Bible is ordinarily Printed in in the latter the most of the Rabbins The whole tongue is contained in the Bible and no one booke else in the world containes in it a whole language And this shewes that the Scripture speakes to all sorts of people since it speakes of all sorts of things This language is as God said the Iewes should bee if they would keepe his Law A lender to all and a borrower of none All tongues are in debt to this and this to none The
cals his armie and there was another companie of Angels which he cals the Armie of God These are the two Armies that gaue name to Mahanaim two armies one heauenly and the other earthly and from this I take it Salomon compares the Church to the companie of Mahanaim for so the Church consisteth of two Armies one heauenly like these Angels which is the Church triumphant and the other trauailing on earth like Iacobs armie which is the Church militant CAP. XLIIII The booke of Psalmes THe Psalmes are diuided into fiue bookes according to the fiue bookes of Moses and if they bee so diuided there be seuentie bookes in the Bible the vnskilfull may finde where any one of these fiue bookes end by looking where a Psalme ends with Amen there also ends the booke As at Psal. 41.72.89.106 and from thence to the end These may euen in their verie beginnings be harmonized to the books of the Law Genesis The first booke of Moses telleth how happinesse was lost euen by Adams walking in wicked counsel of the Serpent and the woman Psal. 1. The first booke of Psalmes tels how happines may be regained if a man do not walke in wicked counsell as of the serpent woman the diuell and the flesh This allusion of the first booke Arnobius makes Exodus The second book of Moses tels of groaning affliction in Egypt Leuiti The third booke of Moses is of giuing the law Numbers The fourth booke of Moses is about numbring Deutero The last booke of Moses is a rehearsall of all Psal. 42. The second booke of Psalmes begins in groaning affliction Psal. 42 43. Psal. 73. The third booke of Psalmes tels in the beginning how good God is for giuing this law This allusion Rab. Tanch makes very neere Ps. 90. The fourth booke begins with numbring of the best Arithmetick numbring Gods mercie Psal. 90.1 and our owne dayes ver 12. Psa. 107. So is the last booke of the Psalmes from Psa. 107. to the end In the Iewes diuision of the Scripture this peece of the Psalmes and the bookes of the like nature are set last not because they be of least dignitie but because they be of least dependance with other bookes as some of them being no storie at all and some stories and bookes of lesser bulke and so set in a fourme by themselues The old Testament books the Iewes acrostically doe write thus in three letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euerie letter standing for a word and euerie word for a part of the Bible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Aorajetha or Torah the law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Nebhijm the Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Cethubhim or bookes of holy writ this diuiâ—ion is so old that our Sauiour himselfe vseth it in the last of Luke and ver 44. All things written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and the Psalmes By the Psalmes meaning that part of Cethubhim in which the Psalmes are set first CAP. XLV Of the Creation TWo waies we come to the knowledge of God by his workes and by his word By his works we come to know there is a God and by his word wee come to know what God is His workes teach vs to spell his word teacheth vs to read The first are as it were his backe parts by which we behold him a farre off The latter shewes him to vs face to face The world is as a booke consisting of three leaues and euerie leafe printed with many letters and euery letter a lecture The leaues heauen the aire and earth with the water The letters in heauen euery Angel Star and Planet In the aire euery meteor and foule In the earth and waters euerie man beast plant fish and minerall all these set together spell to vs that there is a God and the Apostle saith no lesse though in lesse space Rom. 1 20. For the inuisible things of him that is his eternall power and Godhead are seene by the creation of the world being considered in his workes And so Dauid Psal. 19.1 It is not for nothing that God hath set the Cabinet of the vniuerse open but it is because he hath giuen vs eyes to behold his treasure Neither is it for nothing that he hath giuen vs eyes to behold his treasure but because he hath giuen vs hearts to admire vpon our beholding If wee marke not the workes of God we are like stones that haue no eyes wherewith to behold If wee wonder not at the workes of God when wee marke them we are like beasts that haue no hearts wherewith to admire And if wee praise not God for his workes when we admire them we are like deuils that haue no tongues wherewith to giue thankes Remarkeable is the storie of the poore old man whom a Bishop found most bitterly weeping ouer an vgly toad being asked the reason of his teares his answer was I weepe because that whereas God might haue made mee as vgly and filthy a creature as this toad and hath not I haue yet neuer in all my life beene thankefull to him for it If the works of the creation would but lead vs to this one lecture our labour of obseruing them were well bestowed How much more when they lead vs farre further CAP. XLVI The time and manner of the Creation MOSES in the first verse of the Bible refutes three heathen opinions namely theirs that thought the world was eternall for he saith in the beginning c. Secondly theirs that thought there was no God for he saith Elohim created Thirdly theirs that thought there were many gods for he saith Elohim he created heauen and earth The first word in the beginning may draw our mindes and thoughts to the last thing the latter end and this thought must draw our affections from too much loue of the world for it must haue an end as it had a beginning I will not stand to comment vpon the word Bereshith in the beginning for then I know not when to come to an end To treat how the diuerse expositors labour about the beginning of the world is a world of labour How the Ierus Targ. translates it In wisdome and is followed by Rabbi Tanchum and many Iewes How Targ. Ionath vseth an Arabian word Min Awwala a primo Onkelos in primis or in principio Iarchi in principio creationis creauit How Basil the great Saint Ambrose and hundreds others do interpret this is a worke endlesse to examine Satisfied am I with this that the world and all things had their beginning from God that in the beginning created heauen and earth Some of the Iewes do inuert the word Bereshith and make it Betisri that is in the moneth Tisri was the world created This month is about our September and that the world was created in this moneth to let other reasons alone this satisfies me that the feast of Tabernacles which was
Prouinces Alastarasom and Dodonia Which last word Alastarasom I take to be mistaken by joyning two words together and missing the last letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mem for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Samech which is easily done they bee so like The word Alastarasom should without doubt be Alas or Elis Tarsus Elis frequent in all Authours Eilision in Homer in Baeot. Elensine in Plutarch in Theseo are places in Greece bearing the name of their old planter Elisha Dodonim is registred in the name of old Dodona Tarshish left a memoriall of himselfe in Cilicia in the Citie Tarsus Which was as Pliny saith vrbs libera a free Citie nat hist. lib. 5. and Saint Paul is free of that Citie Act. 22. Tarshish in Gen. 10. is the name of a man in Ionah 13. in Chald. Par. it is vsed for the sea In Exod. 28. for a pearle in Act. 22 the name of a Towne I thinke I may safely suppose that the towne tooke the name from the man the sea from the towne and the pearle from the sea Cittim got into the I le Cyprus neere his brother Tarshish from him that Iland in old time was called Cethin as Ant. di Gueuara nameth it in Relox de los princip And the men of Cyprus acknowledged Cythnon quendam one Cythnus or Cittim for their predecessor as saith Herodotus lib. 7. That Iland sent out colonies further to replenish the Westerne world who bare the memorie and name of their father Cittim with them all along as they went Macedon or Macetia is called Cittim 1. Mac. 1.1 At last they ariued in Italy which is called Cittim Num. 24.24 and so rendered by the Chaldees Thus Iauans posteritie grew great in Greece and Italy and at last sent vs men ouer into these Isles of the Gentiles CAP. VI. Of Iewish Learning THe Iewes chiefe studies are about the Scriptures or about the Hebrew tongue but some haue dealt in other matters Their tongue is their chiefe learning which is indeed the ground of all sacred knowledge In it some are most ignorant and some againe as accurate They value it so highly that the mistaking of a letter in it say they destroyes the world He that in this verse En kadosh caihouah readeth Beth for Caph makes it there is no holinesse in Iehouah and destroyeth the world He that will may see most copious worke of this nicety in Tauch on Gen. 1. How nimble textualists and Grammarians for the tongue the Rabbins are their Comments can witnes But as in Chaucer the greatest Clarkes are not the wisest men so among them these that are so great textualists are not best at the text In humane Arts some of them haue practised Kimchi and Leuita for Grammar Rabbi Simeon for logicke and others in other things as Buxdorfius in his collection of Iewish Authors will fully satisfie CAP. VII Of the Talmud WHo so nameth the Talmud nameth all Iudaisme and who so nameth Mishneh and Gemara hee nameth all the Talmud And so saith Leuita Hattalmudh nehhlak c. The Talmud is diuided into two parts the one part is called Mishneh and the other part is called Gemara and these two together are called the Talmud This in the Iewes Councell of Trent the foundation and groundworke of their religion For they beleeue the Scripture as the Talmud beleeues for they hold them of equall authority Rabbi Tanchum the sonne of Hanilai saith let a man alwaies part his life into three parts A third part for the Scriptures a third part for Mishneh and a third part for Gemara Two for one two parts for the Talmud for one for the Scriptures So highly doe they Papist-like prize the vaine traditions of men This great library of the Iewes is much alike such another worke vpon the old Testament as Thomas Aquinas his Catena aurea is vpon the new For this is the summe of all their Doctors conceits and descants vpon the law as his is a collection of all the Fathers explications and comments vpon the Gospells For matter it is much like Origens bookes of old vbi bene nemo melius c. and where they write well none better and where ill none worse The word Talmud is the same in Hebrew that Doctrine is in Latine and Doctrinall in our vsuall speech It is say the Iewes a Commentary vpon the written law of God And both the law and this say they God gaue to Moses the law by day and by writing and this by night and by word of mouth The Law was kept by writing still this still by tradition Hence comes the distinction so frequent in Rabbins of Torah she baccathubh and Torah she begnal peh the law in writing and the law that comes by word of mouth Moses say they receiued the law from Sinai this traditionall law I thinke they meane and deliuered it to Ioshuah Ioshuah to the Elders the Elders to the Prophets and the Prophets to the men of the great Synagogue And thus like fame in Virgil creuit eundo like a snow-ball it grew bigger with going Thus doe they father their fooleries vpon Moses and Elders and Prophets who good men neuer thought of such fancies as the Romanists for their Traditions can find bookes of Clemens Dionysius and others who neuer dreamed of such matters Against this their traditionall our Sauiour makes part of his Sermon in the mount Matth. 5. But he touched the Iewes freehold when he touched their Talmud for greater treasure in their conceits they had none like Cleopatra in Plutarch making much of the Viper that destroyed them CAP. VIII Talmudisme TO omit the time when it was written and the distinction of Ierusalem and Babilon Talmud the chiefe end of them both as they thinke is to explane the old Testament The titles of the bookes shew their intents Pesachin about the Passeouer Sanhedrin about the high Courts Beracoth about thankesgiuing Sometime they comment sometime they allude sometime controuert sometime fable For this booke containes their common law and ciuill and commonly some things aboue all law and ciuility To instance in one or two that by Hercules foot ye may guesse his body Iudges 9.13 It is said by the vine shall I leaue my wine which cheereth God and man How doth wine cheere God Rabbi Akibhah saith because men giue God thankes for it There also they question or controuert whether a man should giue thankes or say grace for his meate and drinke before he taste it And otherwhere whether a man may blesse God for the sweet smell of incense which hee smells offered to Idols Whether a man may light a candle at another candle that burnes in a candlesticke that hath images on it Whether a man at his Deuotions if a Serpent come and bite him by the heele may turne and stoppe to shake her off or no which question Rabbi Tanchum answers very profoundly that they must not so much as shake the foot to get a Serpent off and
temptations as Sathan doth and yet that God doth tempt men So hee is said in plaine words to haue tempted Abraham And Rabbi Tanchum wittily obserues that Abrahams two great temptations begin both with one straine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Get thee gone The first Get thee gone out of thy country from thy kindâ—ed and fathers house Gen. 12. the second Get thee gone to the land of Moriah and offer thy sonne Isaac vpon one of the mountaines Gen. 22. May we not safely say here that God lead Abraham into temptation But as it followes liberautt à malo God deliuered him from the euill of the temptation which is being ouercome And Saint Iames saith sweetly though at first he may seeme to croste this Petition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Brethren account it all ioy when ye fall into diuerse temptations Iac. 1.2 to be in temptation is ioy for God chastiseth euery sonne that he receiueth and yet pray lead vs not into temptation but deliuer vs from euill let the latter comment vpon the first lead vs not into the euill of temptation which in the Apostles Phrase is suffer vs not to bee tempted aboue our strength CAP. XXII Septuaginta interpreters I Will not with Clemens Iosephus Austen Epiphanius and others spend time in locking them vp seuerally in their closets to make their translation the more admirable I will onely mind that They did the worke of this translation against their will and therefore we must expect but slipperie doing And that appeares by them Their additions variations and without doubt ouersights may well argue with what a will they went about this businesse It were easie to instance in thousands of places How they adde men and yeares Gen. 5. and 10. and 11. and 46. How they add matter of their owne heads as how they helpe Iobs wife to skold Iob 2. adding there a whole verse of female passion I must now saith she go wander vp and downe and haue no place to rest in and so forth And so Iob 1.21 Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither the Lord hath giuen and the Lord hath taken away euen as pleasâ—th the Lord so come things to passe blessed be the name of the Lord which clause euen as pleaseth the Lord so come things to passe is not in the Hebrew but is added by them and so is it taken from them into our common prayer booke in that paâ—t of the manner of buriall To trace them in their mistakes is pretty to see how their vnpricked Bible deceiued them As to instance in one or two for a tast Hebrew Gen. 15.11 It is said that the birds light vpon the carcasses and Abraham droue them away in Heâ—rew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vaijashhebh Iudges 5.8 The Hebrew saith they choose new gods then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lahhem shegnarim was warre in the gates Iudges 7.11 The Hebrew saith and hee and Phurah his seruant went downe to the quarter or side of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hhamushim the armed men Septuag They reade in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vajashhebh hee droue them away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vajeshhebh hee sate by them and of this Saint Austen makes goodly Allegories They say they chose new gods as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lehhem segnorim barly bread They say he and his seruant Pharah went downe to the quarter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hhamishim fiâ—ty men Thus doe they vary in a world of places which the expert may easily see and smile at I omit how they vary names of men and places I will trouble you with no more but one which they comment as it were to helpe a difficulty 1. King 12.2 It is said of Ieroboam that hee dwelt in Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vaijeshhebh bemitzraijm 2. Chron. 10.2 It is said that he reâ—urned from Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vaijashobh mimmitzraijm The septuagint heales this thus thus translating 2. Chron. 10.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he had dwelt in Aegypt and he returned out of Aegypt Such is the manner of that worke of the Greeke Now to examine the Authoritie of this wee shall find it wonderfull That some of the Iewish Synagogues read the old Testament in Greeke and not in Hebrew Tertullian seemeth to witnesse But those were Iewes out of Canaan for they were not so skilfull in the Greeke tongue in Canaan for ought I can find as to vnderstand it so familiarly if they had beene I should haue thought the septuagint to bee the booke that was giuen to Christ in the Synagogue Luke 2.17 Because his text that he reades does nearer touch the Greeke then the Hebrew But I know their tongue was the Mesladoed Chaldee The greatest authority of this translation appeareth in that the holy Greeke of the new Testament doth so much follow it For as God vsed this translation for a Harbinger to the fetching in of the Gentiles so when it was growen into Authority by the time of Christs comming it seemed good to his infinite wisdome to adde to its Authority himselfe the better to forward the building of the Church And admirable it is to see with what sweetnesse and Harmony the New Testament doth follow this translation sometime euen besides the letter of the old to shew that he that gaue the old may and can best expound it in the new CAP. XXIII The Septuagint ouer-authorized by some SOme there were in the Primitiue Church like the Romanists now that preferred this translation of the Greeke as they do the vulgar Latine before the Hebrew fountaine Of these Saint Austen speakes of their opinion herein and withall giues his owne in his fifteenth booke de Ciuitate Dei Cap. 11.13.14 where treating of Methushelahs liuing foureteene yeares after the flood according to the Greeke translation Hence came saith he that famous question where to lodge Methuselah all the time of the flood Some hold saith he that he was with his father Enoch who was translated and that he liued with him there till the flood was past They hold thus as being loath to derogate from the â—uthority of those bookes quos in autoriâ—atem celebriorem suscepit ecclesia which the Church hath entertained into more renowned Authority And thinking that the bookes of the Iewes rather then these do mistake and erre For they say that it is not credible that the seuentie Interpreters which translated at one time and in one sense could err or wouldly or erre where it concerned them not But that the Iewes for enuy they beare to vs seeing the Law and Prophets are come to vs by their interpretation haue changed some things in their bookes that the Authority of ours might be lessened This is their opinion Now his owne he giues Cap. 13. in these words Let that tongue be rather beleeued out of which a translation is made into another by Interpreters and in Cap. 14. The truth of things must be fetched
the writing of the wall so that they could not read it though it were in their owne language because it was not in their owne letter In after-times the very languages themselues began to vary as the Chaldee in Daniel and Onkelos and Ieruselamy and Ionathan and the Syrian in the Testament doe witnesse The Paraphrafts do much differ between themselues for purity of speech and all far short of the Bible Chaldee They are very full of Greeke words and so the Syrian a relique of Alexanders conquests some thinke they finde some Greeke in Daniel Montanus himselfe renders Osphaia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all along Foure kind of characters is the Chaldee to bee had in or if you will the Chaldee in two and the Syrian in two Our Bible and Paraphrasts and Rabbins Chaldee is in the Hebrew letter and the other kind of letter is the Samaritan The Syrian hath either a set letter such as we haue the New Testament imprinted in or their running hand such as the Maronites vse in their writing for speed there is no great difference betwixt them as you may see by their Alphabet CAP. XXXV Of the Arabian Language THis is the most copious of the Hebrew Dialects and a tongue that may brag with the most of tongues from fluencie and continuance of familiaritie This tongue is frequent in Scripture especially in Iob a man of that country How other parts of the Bible vse it I thinke may be iudged by the neerenesse of Iudaea and Arabia and of the two languages In this one thing it differs from its fellow-Dialects and its mother tongue that it varieth terminations in declining of nownes as the Greeke and Latine do and that it receiueth duall numbers in forming verbs as doth the Greeke Of the largenesse of the Alphabet and difference from other Alphabets and quiddits of the tongue or indeed any thing of the tongue I cannot say which I haue not receiued of the most industrious and thrice learned both in this and other the noble tongues Master William Bedwell whom I cannot name without a great deale of thankfulnesse and honour To whom I will rather be a scholler then take on me to teach others This tongue was Mahomads Alcoran written in and is still read in the same Idiome vnder paine of death not to mistake a letter which is as easily done in this tongue as in any CAP. XXXVI Of the Latine Tongue THis is the first Idiome of our Grammar Schooles A tongue next the sacred tongues most necessarie for Schollers of the best profession Whether Latine were a Babel language I will not controuert pro et contra Sure I dare say that what Latine we read now was not at Babel if we may beleeue Polybius who saith that the Latine tongue that was vsed in Iunius Brutus time was not vnderstood in the time of the first Punicke warre but onely by great schollers So much in few yeares it had degenerated The old Poets compared with smooth Ouid and Tully shew much alteration This spacious tongue once almost as big as any and as large as a great part of the world is now bounded in schooles and studies The Deluge of the North the treasurie of men ouerwhelmed the Romane empire scattered the men and spoiled the Latine Goths Vandalls Lombards and the rest of the brood of those frozen Climates haue beaten the Latine tongue out of its owne fashion into the French Spanish and Italian But some sparkes of their hammering are flowne into other languages of the West So that most countries hereabout may owne Rome for a second Babel for their speech confused CAP. XXXVII The Language of Brittaine neere a thousand yeares ago Ex Beda lib. 1. de Hist. Angl. Cap. 1. BRittania in praesenti iuxta numerum librorum c. Brittaine in my time saith Bede doth search and confesse one and the same knowledge of the high truth and true sublimity in fiue tongues according to the fiue bookes wherein the Law of God was written namely in the English Brittaine Scottish Pict and Latine tongues And in the ninteenth chapter of the same booke he saith that when Austen the Monke came from Gregory the great to preach the Gospell in England he brought with him Interpreters out of France to speak to the English That language it seemes was then vsuall in England but whether the French that France speakes now is a question William the Conqueror tooke great care and paines to haue brought in his tongue with his conquest but could not preuaile CAP. XXXVIII Ionathan the Chaldee Paraphrast his conceit of Leuies choosing to the Priesthood translated out of his Paraph. on Gen. 32.24 ANd Iacob was left alone beyond the foord and an Angell in the likenesse of a man stroue with him and said Diddest thou not promise to giue tithe of all that thou hadst and behold thou hast twelue sonnes and one daughter and thou hast not tithed them Out of hand he sets apart the foure first borne to their foure mothers for saith the margin they were holy because of their primogeniture and then were eight left He begins againe to count from Simeon and ended in Leui for the tenth or tithe Michael answereth and saith Lord of the world this is thy lot c. thus the Chaldee On whose words if they were worth commenting on I could say more CAP. XXXIX Of the Iewes abbreuiature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THis short writing is common in all their Authors When they cite any of the Doctors of their schooles they commonly vse these words Ameru rabbothenu Zicceronam libhracah in foure letters thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus say our Doctors of blessed memorie But when they speake of holy men in the old Testament they vsually take this Phrase Gnalau hashalom on him is peace in briefe thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus when they mention Moses Salomon Dauid or others this is the memoriall they giue them The Arabians haue the like vse in their Abbreuiation of Gnalaihi alsalemo on whom is peace The words in Hebrew want a verbe and so may be construâ—ed two wayes On him is peace or on him be peace The learned Master Broughton hath rendered it the former way and his iudgement herein shall bee my law To take it the latter way seemes to relish of Popish superstition of praying for the dead which though the Iewes did not directly do yet in manner they appeare to do no lesse in one part of their Common Prayer booke called Mazkir neshamoth the remembrancer of Soules which being not very long I thought not amisse to translate out of their tongue into our owne that the Reader may see their Iewish Poperie or Popish Iudaisme and may blesse the Creatour who hath not shut vs vp in the same darkenesse CAP. XL. Mazkir neshamoth or the Remembrancer of soules in the Iewes liturgy printed at Venice THe Lord remember the soule or spirit of Abba Mr. N. the sonne of N. who is gone