Arabians without any respect had to each other do alter their Alphabet by changing their order and name upon the authority and good liking of private men or teachers among their country men but the Jewes keepe their order as they found it in the Psalmes of David Now whereas Arabic and Ethiopic seemes to have many more Letters then Calde Syriac Samaritan and Ebrew it comes to passe onely by the addition of a point to note some small diversity of their pronunciation in some places Yet because that in the Ebrew Galde and Syriac also there is some such point to be added unto so many letters as by the Arabians unto fewer by the Ethiopians not withstanding not just the same thence it comes to passe if ye will reckon up 22. Ebrew letters and six of them with a point now and then added you will make 28 letters just as many as the Arabians have And if from these 28 Arabic letters you will take off those fix that are twice in the Alphabet because of one accidentall point more or lesse then you have 22 letters in Arabic also no more nor lesse And that there is in Ebrew and Calde one letter more than in Syriac and Arabic even from thence it is easie to be observed that that letter is but onely brought in by some accident and was never at the first nor esteemed as a letter a part The Etiopic Alphabet is in essence also the same with Ebrew the names of the letters now and then changed doe not argue at all the changing of the tongue Alf-Bet Geml Dent Hoi Vaw Zai Haut Tait Jaman Caf Lavi Mai Nahas Savt Ayin Af Zadai Qaf Res Saat Taui Who sees not these to be the very same letters deemed with Alef Bet Gimel Dalet He Van Zayin Khet Thet Yod Caf Lamed Mem Nun Shin Ayin Fe Zadeh Quf Res Sin Tau only that besides these the Ethiopians have another Khet as the Arabians have Ha and Kha which they call Kharam and another Tzadeh as the Arabians likewise cal'd Zappa another Fe pronounced P Pait and Ps Psait as also a surperfluous V after Khet or Kharm K or Caf Geml or G Qaf or q thus gua gue gui guo guu khua khue khui khuo khuu kua kue kui kuo kuu Jua que qui quo quu just as in some Greeke Latine â—talian Spanish French and in some English words Which additions are all but accidentall not materiall For is this part concerning the matter of the letters of the Alphabet enough to make it out that these fix are but one tongue there must bee the same forme also For not withstanding the Turkish Persian Malaie Mogul great and lesse Tatarian and Greeke tongues hath the same Alphabet yet because these tongues have not the same forme therefore they are not the same with Ebrew THREE OF ANY LEITER OF THE ALFABET MAKES A ROOT FROM WHENCE COMES A NOUN AND VERB So that as three the same letters found in divers tences persons number and gender in sundry places of the Bible yet for all that doe not make divers roots but the selfesame root remaines still so also the same letters if under some other accoutrement or fashion under other names shorter or bigger than in Ebrew joyned or seperately written are not for all that new letters nor able to make a diversity of roots but only that one and the selfe same root without alteration The signification or taste of that root doth spread it selfe as well as the root unto the veth and nounes and yet as the root is but one so also is the radicall signification but one and no more This signification having the nature of the soule of the body which consists of the matter and forme cannot be but only one because the body being one cannot have more soules to dwel within it and one soule cannot dwel in two bodies yea that one soule is able and active enough to doe and performe many thousand actions by and in this body so this signification is able to be active and extending it selfe into many matters and occasions and shewes its vertues still the same and tending to the same effects only proportionable according to the matter and with a consent So that if there should be found a thousand Greek and Latine words in one and the same Ebrew or Calde Syriac or Arabic word all these would nor could shew a diversity of significations in the Orientall tongue but an agreement among themselves and that a naturall or radicall one of all these significations how many soever tending unto one and the same thing And that has been the greatest and hardest block whereon all the strongest and most learned men did and doe stumble to wit at the diversitie of the significations which at the first sight were certainly many and secondly the same learned men lying in a dreame of divers Alphabets of Ebrew and the rest as they speake of the Tongues these two fancies did lead them to that judgment of divers tongues Now as it is very true that there is only one signification because only one root one soule because only one body not as a cause but a signe of the number of soules Yet the actions from one soule being divers have caused the Phylosophers to make divers termes and titles of that soule so is Rhetoric that Art which shewes by how many means a signification in the root may be divided differenced and diversly applyed in divers members and yet all this according to reason and nature without any the least wrong at all And learned men know how that in Ebrew it selfe many men have spoken unto that sense that every root of the Ebrew tongue hath only one radicall effentiall ideall abstract and proper signification only that that one and necessary work was never yet done by any one For if that had been once done then would it never have made such a great and hard task to undertake that the same root in Ebrew and Arabic have one and the very same radical signification without changings those such only as may be and are certainly and frequently in Ebrew it selfe From this fundamentall Vnity and essentiall Identity either of the root or signification descends a double Vnity first in things belonging to the words which are Nounes and Verbs in their matter and forme secondly in things belonging to their signification Because that the root is the same therefore all Ebrew roots are Arabic Ethiopic Caldaic Syriac and Samaritic and again all the Arabic or Ethiopic Syriac Samaritic and Caldaic roots are Ebrew whether extant in this or that book in the Ebrew Bible or not where I find the same letters because letters make the root and not the significations whence it is that all the Dictionaries are ordered according to the Alphabet of the Letters not according to the significations therefore am I certain and fully satisfied that I have the same root be it with the signification as it
Samaritan Syriac Arabic or Etiopic whereas if you aske a man skilfull in Ebrue but not in the other dialects what the nature of the roots in these dialectsare he will doubt not being able to give a determinate answer Thus learned men make themselves seeme to be unlearned and whereas I can make them more learned viz. by giving them a good and true notion whereby they may inlarge the use of their knowledge and that without their paines invented as I may terme it by my owne industry and yet I know not whither I shall ever have thanks for it or not sure I am hereafter it will do much good Secondly it is against those tenents that the root is either in the Noune or Verbe and herein the most excellent men do disagree some will have it in the Noune others in the Verbe and by some againe it is attributed to the Noune in Siriac others deny it thus they strive one against another and that neither de lana caprina of the Woole of a Goate who has none for whatsoever party hath the prerogative will give Law unto others and all the rest if there be more than two And it is a great matter in a Kingdom who swayes the Scepter the Verbe being Soveraigne in Ebrue will be so in Siriac and yet Emira will have it by the Nounes De Dieu thinkes the Verb hath it by the Syrians and yet beginnes with the Noune In this manner I could name above 300 men the most whereof I consesse do give the radicall dignity and soveraignty unto the verb yet many unto the Noun But they all faile herein for the root is neither in the Verb nor Noune nor in any other part of speech if there weare any as there are not which I shall make more cleare hereafter but absolutly in the letters though not considered as yet if a Noune or Verbe lesse if active passive neuter deponent Masculine Feminine singular plurall present preter or future participle or pronoun c. The reason for this assertion is because it contradicts the nature of a root which is never the tree it selfe the branches the leaves the blosomes the fruits nor the tronke or body of the tree but that part which lies under ground and none of all these is cald the root and is the first principle and cause of all these Thirdly it shewes that the letters onely and not joyned with the pricks make the root The reason is plaine for if it be pronounced by putting the vowells thereunto it is no longer a root but a Noune or Verbe for the letters onely and not the pricks esteemed Vowels are in the Alfabet much lesse the third singular in the pretertense or the infinitive or imperative or any Noune And therefore it is a false assertion to say that because the third person singular in pretertense is not found in the Bible ergo the root is not extant in Ebrue Calde c. Whereas if there be but one forme found of any root whatsoever in any dialect person gender number declination or conjugation nay if but onely one radicall be extant so that either the first or second or third first or third or any two of them be cast away yet if there be but one radicall letter to bee found so that by Grammar rules the two dissident may be recovered the root is truly extant in this Orientall Tongue Thereby it is also cleare that the division of the letters into radicall and servile is false because all the letters are radicall viz. They have all one and the same right to make a root not onely this but every one of them Otherwise the Alfabet had not the same honour in the Etymology which it hath in the Orthography For as all letters are used in the reading so all letters are used in the constitution of any word and than you might with all reason say that these 11 Members of the Alfabet viz. msh v k l b a tyn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might be also questioned whither they had any right at all in the pronounciation or not if they have none in the constitution of the root 3. Then would the practise of all the Lexicâs be false who have roots not onely forthe first but also second and third radicall of euery letter of the Alfabet none excluded 4. There must then be given sufficient reason how it came that those 11 letters were not radicall nay why never radicall which is impossible to give But if yee say the Grammarians do not conceave that they are never radicall but alwayes servile and the radicalls never servile but alwayes radicall I answer that I wish they would then speake plainer and clearer but when I dare say above an hundred Grammarians make that distinction that 11 are radicalls and 11 servile why should I not believe them to speake proper Why doe they not then call all the letters radicall and then give a distinction which of those are for the most part radicalls though many times servile and why do they never set downe what servise those 11 letters by them called perpetuall radicals do performe when they are now and then found in the Ebrue Bible not to bee radicall As if it were not as easy to speake proper and plaine as well in the Rule as in the explication of the Rule Rule 5. The three quiescent letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do change among themselves without alteration of the essence of the Roote As these three letters in the Alfabet are opposite to all the other 19 letters in Orthography and stand onely as one man representing the five Vowels so here in Etymology they doe stand as one man too and represent but one letter not three And that by these following arguments 1. You see no practice in any Grammar of any of these dialects to the contrary but you may finde a multitude of examples in every one and out of many many thousands not only in the permutation of the radicall letters but even when they are but servile and do stand to wait upon radicals in any respect whatsoever of place part of the word or speech Open but any Grammer if yee have skill to understand its precepts and yee will finde it And yet of all those Grammarians there is not one that sayes they are but one letter in respect of Etymology 2. It is the practise in all Dictionary and Lexicâs of whatsoever dialect of this tongue that in truth I pity all the Authors of Dixionaries not one excepted that out of so many examples they could not see so much 3 That this rule doth shew in a very great measure that all the dialects of this tongue none excluded have one and the same nature with each other if not in other things which hereafter will bee seene yet in this particular 4. Because all the Authors speake of that changement of the quiescents onely I reduce them 1. From foure unto three and 2. Unto a unity not
sixt order is omitted through all the persons tenses The Aethiopile manner of forminge verbs hauing but 4 order The other Orders being formed as the first it shall suffice to set downe the first words onely The Noune 〈◊〉 of the first order is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are also imperfect verbs yet none but what are likewise declined perfectly according to the Analogy but in regard that some doe occurre sometimes defective in one of their radicall it may be requisite to know for the finding of their rootes that such as double the Second radicall 〈◊〉 it in the Second person Sing foem and second and third person 〈…〉 of the future and no where else Those whose first radical is 〈◊〉 cast it away through the whole future present of the first order and no where else Those whose second or third radical is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast away throughout the first order and no where else what other speciall anomalyes there are may be learnt by exercise A DISCOURSE Concerning the Easterne Tongues to wit Ebrew Calde Samaritane Syriac Arabic and Ethiopick IF there were not a great dimnesse in our sight and dulnesse in the understanding of our judgements which should ordinarily be led by reason more than by received opinions there is no doubt but all things would goe far better and in a higher way yea whole Nations would be truely honorable glorious magnificent rich mighty powerfull and redoubtable unto their enemies spread more large enjoy far more Kingdomes then now they possesse shires governe them with more facility and lesse trouble then now a handfull of Cities The lack of true noble principles spoyles all great affaires Nothing is easie because we are childish in our actions Let us lay a good foundation and upon a little ground we may erect an excellent high and glorious steeple which will be seen far abroad It is not money that gives splendor to the world but reason The sunne is that which carries the bravest sway in the world discovering all things seeing all things of any colour nature and condition good or bad And in that vastnes of the heaven it occupies but a little space yet gives light and glory unto the whole Hemisphere The reason withus man-kinde is the sunne of our judgement whereby we are able to learne all things quickly and easily because thereby wee can comprehend all things taught us Let there be never so many actions it will easily discerne them all Never so voluminous workes it will leade us through them and make way even in the darkest passages of them and shew us what method it had by the author when he pen'd the booke and that it is the same sun both for his our Hemisphere like as we know that the sunne is the same to them at Jerusalem and al other parts of the world that it is to us in England If then these things that come under our eyes are so certaine why should the eyes of our judgement bee so dimsighted as not to discerne by reason such things as are onely to bee made easie and delightsome unto us therby except we delight more in ignorance then knowledge Yet that can never be said of mankind wheresoever or whatsoever but must still be granted that indeed it doth rather imbrace according to that light of Nature which God hath bestowed upon it REASON than UNREASON LIGHT than DARKENES LOVE then HATRED And thence it comes to passe that yet so many things are done because reason leades us on shewes us the hope to come through the waies wherby to endeavour how to shunne the snares to avoid the enemies to imbrace the friends and to improve all to the best advantage thus to come at our journeys end Only we confesse that this Honorable Councellor within us given by God Almighty is never or very seldome heard by the greatest part of men not out of hatred but slownesse of spirit unwillingnesse of paines unthankefullnes after having received good counsell but rather subdued or oppressed by vices lewdnes corruption or malice to the great hurt and griefe of this our sunne This neglect of reason hath troubled and made all Learnings uneasie because without it wee have them all given to us without life Reason is the life of all actions of all learnings And thence it is that the Mathematicks are the most true and delightfull studies because the fullest of reason And where that layes the ground-worke the fabrick will bee durable Thus all Languages when they are taught or learned by and with reason have an excellent easinesse and that is the cause why people generally beleeve that in Heaven they shall speak some other than their mother tongue and yet attaine to it without the least difficulty because reason will make any tongue easier than a thousand rules The principles of all tongues are laid by reason as well as the principles of Physick Metaphysick Logick or any other Art whatsoever But our opinions and principles not being regulated thereby doe invert all the waies to learne them to a difficulty Whence it comes to passe that even al people cry out Tongues are difficult and lay that downe as a certaine principle If now people build upon such ground can we expect any thing from them but foolish talking and writings Can we finde figs on thornes or grapes on thistles or is it possible for the fruit to bee sweet where the very root of the tree is bitternes it selfe Let us then lay aside and that with your leave all such principles and imbrace this viz. That Tongues are the easiest things in the world to learne and that with great delight To come then neerer to our Tongues the subject of this our present discourse I confesse that still I find among all men nay the learned themselves many strange opinions of them and such principles that if they should be truely scanned they would make the world to laugh at them The nearest way that I am able to shew to speake and judge truely of these Tongues viz. Ebrew Calde Samaritan Syriac Arabic and Ethiopic is onely that you believe all things on the contrary If they tell you there are many believe them to be but one If hard to be gotten to be easie If without use there are none more usefull If of a hard pronunciation not much harder than English Vngracious the sweetest expressions in English are found in them Not many Bookes in them More than any man is able to read through in all his life time Of no comely Characters as neate as English Of few words And the more wise grave serious majestaticall speeches Contemptible by none but ignorant and malicious men They are lost no more than the German French Italian Spanish Latine or the English No good Authors extant in them The Bible is originally in this tongue And if you can forget or slightly passe by that booke which the spirit of God himselfe
wisdome by whose workes he will finde out wayes to teach his Schollers more easily Fifthly let him labour willingly not being forced not subdued and oppressed by some superiours as being certaine every time when hee doth worke hee makes himselfe fitter to teach and the worke easier for him and the Schollar more disposed towards the work and himselfe which is the easinesse Sixthly let him never expect till he be called but begin to teach in private first then afterwards in publique before hee be called striving every day to shew himselfe as willing minded to do the worke as if the whole Kingdome had called him and having his heart still in a willingnesse to worke if the State would desire his service as deserving it not getting it for money Seventhly let him go still further than hee was desired If to read but once let him do it twice For as all other great and mighty workes must not be done with a tedious toyle somnesse but with an instancy and pursuance of the matter and that the more violent the lesse it suffers any delay so truly he must have his desires to do good increasing by trust that thereby he may act more good because more free Eighthly let him thinke and be perswaded that God will have him do good not onely unto a few Auditours but even unto the whole Kingdome of England He may truly believe and I am sure he has the warrant of Gods Word and his owne conscience for it that he doth not amisse in teaching Ebrew and this holy tongue even to the most common sort of people His Kingdome doth not consist in meat and drinke not in that or this great and wise or low and despicable man but in the power of the will of God revealed in his word in his own tongue towards all and every soule Ninthly let him love the Ministers of the word of God and all pious and Christian soules with a tender and hearty love and honour them with all his strength minde affection expressions actions But with a fatherly love knowing that hee has so many ghostly sons to be instructed who shall further instruct others and the easinesse of the worke will be seene more fully and clear Tenthly let him have an undaunted spirit against all opposers in that way of learning being sure of that except there bee no God at all and all this called Gods Word to be a meare tale and his tongue to be unexpressable in English all which may be the thoughts and speeches of wicked Atheists hee will truly assist him adde to him strength to strength joy in the spirit easines to easines advance to profit benifit and much good in the Church and Common-wealth and will make him a blessing and not a curse to his time and following ages Eleventhly let him not onely be willing to teach privately and publickly but also to give in print his thoughts and learning that whersoever hee cannot reach with his voice he may reach with his Pen. God blesses those that use their tongue and pen for the profit of Church and Common-wealth and not for the disgrace and dishonour or tending to the destruction thereof It is very needfull to have a mind to write as willingly fast and carefully as to teach heartily For otherwise he cannot stirre up so many drowsie spirits if hee will not awake them by the trumpets of his holy alarm Twelfthly let him read good Authors which have laboured before him with all tendernesse to observe how farre they have brought the worke unto what easnesse if there can be added yea or no without any detraction of their labours with a thankfull heart and if hee knowes of any such who are truly profitable and have bin so to him let him give notice of it that many mens paines may ease the work Thirteenthly and yet if the very ground worke be rotten or if it may be suspected to be so because that almost in all parts of learnings the cause and reason of unsound proceedings in studies lies at the roote ground and foundation of the worke let him make clear before all things that place to himselfe others and than he may build upon it with an easines Fourteenthly let him have still in mind his reason that nothing must be done spoken or taught without it and still direct his heart to finde out the reason of the things he teaches or is taught to desire and search if by Authors reason is given for that or this thing Being certaine that nothing makes things easier than that golden beam of that gracious Sun within our selves REASON And therefore must hee be skilled in these Arts that teach to use it well and desire it may be inlightned and not obstructed and to worke by reason unto his Schollers Fifteenthly let him still shew to every one of his disciples and cause them to consider whither it be possible and reasonable or not that such a little book as the Ebrew Bible should be difficult to be learned nay not to be learned in a short time especially when out of our translations wee have already given unto us the contents of every Booke Chapter and Verse whereby it is impossible if we will but read the Ebrew constantly and diligently considering rationally how we in such and such a matter use to expresse our minds either I am utterly deceived or in the most part of the Bibell our own wit will lead us so that all people shall agree in it and shall not nor may deem it fancies In the rest wee must go to this holy tongue Sixteenthly let him never be led out of the whole store of Gods provision that is out of this whole tongue Ebrew Calde Samaritic Syriac Arabic and Etiopic as if he might do well enough in learning only Ebrew or at the highest Ebrew and Calde being certaine that that notion is no more reasonable than as if a man would be able to expound the first Chapter of Moses in Ebrew if hee never had any Ebrew more than occurres in that Chapter For as hee his great need of all the Ebrew that is in the whole bible nay more to than there is in the Ebrew Bible how much more then will there be a necessity of all and the whole tongue to understand so many thousand passages which are yet to be cleared up Seventeenthly let him not onely wish but labour to get TEN or TWENTY more labourers with him and if it be possible more rare and choyce men then himselfe Let him be the ablest most diligent rare painfull pious humble meeke courteous free and loving spirit yet wish and pray heartily to God and the Magistrate to set downe with him many labourers more and if he can heare espy and procure such as are farre transcending him let him rejoyce in that as a speciall blessing of God Almighty Eighteenthly let him never forget the poore Brethren in other Countries under the persecutions of forraigne States within or without the