403. [Gen. xi. 1.] As to the antiquity of the Chinese language, it is not without good grounds, say the Editors of Universal History, that several very learned men have given it the preference above all the antient ones, that of the Mosaic books not excepted, as carrying a much greater variety of such characteristics as one would reasonably expect to find in an original or primitive tongue. (Sce HOWELL'S Essay on the Chinese language, passim.)-This accounts for the singular contempt they have ever had for all other nations; their interdicting all commerce and intercourse with them; their shutting up the entrance into their dominions against all strangers, unless by way of embassy; and their forbidding their natives to go into foreign countries, without the emperor's permission, lest their religion, laws, and customs, should become corrupted by such intermixtures.

Modern Univer. Hist. vol. viii, pp. 201, 323.

[Gen. x 31.] These are the sons of SHEM, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their

nations.

404. [Gen. x. 22.] When the name Ashur signifies the son of Shem, it should be kept in a version; but when it signifies his country, it should be rendered Assyria, and when it signifies the inhabitants of the country, it should he translated Assyrians.--Apply this remark to ver. 4, 6, 13, 14, of this Chap., and to 1 Chron. i. 7, 8, 11, 12. ; and read Kittites, Dodanites, Egyptians (from Cham), Ludites, Hanamites, Lekabites, Naphtuhites, Pathrasites, Cashlaites and Caphtorites. See Essay for a New Translation, part ii. pp. 2, 3, 4.

405. Persia, in Gen. x. 22, called Elam, is in Daniel, Esdras, &c., called Paras, agreeably to the Persian name Pars or Phârs, its present denomination.-In its most antient state, it reached from the Hellespont to the river Indus, about 2800 English miles; extending in breadth from Pontus to the Arabian gulph, about 2000 miles. In its more modern state, it extended from the river Araxes to the mouth of the Indus, about 1840 of our miles; and in breadth, from the river Oxus to the Persian gulph, about 1080 of our miles: bounded on the north by the Caspian sea, the river Oxus, and mount Caucasus; on the cast, by the river Indus and the dominions of the great Mogul; on the south, by the Persian gulph and the Indian ocean, and on the west by the dominions of the grand Signior.

See Univer. Hist. vol. iv. pp. 407, 409.

406. [Gen. x. 25.] The universal tradition of Arabia is, that Yoktan, the son of Eber, first settled his family in that country; which settlement, by the computation admitted in Europe, must have been three thousand six hundred years ago: consequently Nuumen, king of Yemen, in the ninth generation from Eber, was contemporary with Joseph.-It is

generally believed that the old religion of the Arabs was entirely Sabian: it is indeed certain, that the majority in Yemen very soon fell into the common, but fatal error of worshipping the sun, the planets, and fixed stars; but from an inscription found on a marble in that country, it should seem that many of its inhabitants, from whom the idolaters had divided or separated, did still preserve for a long time the religion of Eber, professing a belief in miracles and a future state. Sir W. JONES.-See Bib. Research. vol. ii. p. 95.

407. It appears from Scripture, that Joktan and his posterity remained in Chaldea, within the lot of their great ancestor Arphaxad, till Terah, the father of Abram, left Ur of the Chaldees, to remove into the land of Canaan. Univer. Hist. vol. i. p. 374.

408. [Gen. xi. 32.] And the days of Terah were 145 years, and Terah died in Haran (five years after he left UrChasdim, or Ur of the Chaldees). Exod. xii. 40. Samaritan Pentateuch-See KNATCHBULL'S Annot. on Acts xiii. 20.

409. [Gen. xi. 26] When Terah was seventy years of age he begat Abram, and lived afterwards seventy-five years, until the seventy-fifth of Abram (when he left Haran, or Charran). See EUSEBIUS's Samaritan Chronology.

410. [Gen. xi. 31.] Abram came from a northern province on the east side of the Black sea. SMITH'S Michaelis, vol. iii. p. 83.

411. [Gen. xi. 29–31.] Abram having no son of his own adopted Lot, his brother Haran's son, and his wife Sarai's brother; and he left the land of Chaldea, when he was seventy-five years old, and at the command of God went into Canaan, and therein he dwelt himself, and left it to his posterity.

JOSEPH. Antiq. b. i. ch. vii. § 1.

412. [Gen. xi. 26.] That Abram was born in the forty-third year of king Ninus, is most authentically attested by Castor, Thallus, Eusebius Pamphilus, Cedrenus, Epiphanius, Gerard, Mercator, Sethus Calvisius and Capellus.

See Dr. GREGORY's Assyrian Monarchy, p. 229.

413. [Gen. xi. 31.] The birth of our Saviour might be taken as a common point of Bible Chronology, at which all numeration should begin; so that as we now reckon after the birth of Christ all the events posterior to it, one might reckon the foregoing by the number of the years by which they are distant from his coming into the world. Thus,

M

424.

ALEXANDER'S Hist. of Women, vol. i. p. 287.

Numa proposed to harmonize the minds of men, in their state of maturity, from their having been, in childhood, trained in the same habits of order, and cast in the same moulds of virtue. This, independent of other advantages, greatly contributed likewise to the support of the Laws of Lycurgus; for respect to the oath, by which the Spartans had bound themselves, must have produced a much more powerful effect, from his having by early instruction and nurture, as it were, dyed in the wool the morals of the young, and made them suck in with the milk from their nurse's breast the love of his Laws and Institutions.

PLUTARCH, comparison of Numa and Lycurgus. The education which a man receives on the breast, extends its influence even to decrepitude.

427. [Gen. xii. 6.] It was under this Oak (elon) that God appeared again to Abraham, Gen. xviii. 1. Jacob hid the strange gods which his servants (slaves) kept, and the ear-rings that were in their ears; and it was likewise under it that Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, was buried, Gen. xxxv. 4,8. It was also under it that Joshua set up a great stone, Josh. xxiv. 26, and that Abimelech was made king, Judg. ix. 6; and under it likewise, the sons of the old prophet found the man of God sitting, 1 Kings xiii. 14.

SOZOMENE writes that this oak was still famous in the time of Constantine the emperor for pilgrimages, and for an anniversary feast which was solemnized there; that it was distant from Hebron but six miles, where were still to be seen some cottages which Abram had built near to that oak, and a well which he had digged; and where the Jews, Christians and Pagans travelled every year, either out of devotion, or with a design to trade. BOCHART assures us that he had seen this oak, and had carried home some of its fruit and wood: he also observes that its leaves are somewhat larger than those of the mastick-tree, but that its fruit resembles an acorn. Essay for a New Trans. part ii. pp. 148, 149.

428. [Gen. xiii. 18.] At the distance of six furlongs from Hebron, there is still shewn a very large turpentine tree, or grove, which some of the Antients call an oak. It has been eminently famous in all past ages, not only as Abram's first shady abode after he had removed out of Mesopotamia, but as the place whence his posterity descended into Egypt. It is also particularly distinguished at present, as a mart for the annual meeting of merchants, according to the accounts of modern travellers.

See JOSEPH. Wars, b. iv. ch. ix. § 7;

and Whiston's Note there.

429. [Gen. xxxv. 4, 8.] PLINY (Nat. Hist. l. xvi. c. 44.) quotes instances of holmes, of plane-trees, and of cypresses, which existed in his time, and which were more antient than Rome; that is, more than seven hundred years old. He further tells us, that there were still to be seen near Troy, around the tomb of Ilus, oaks which had been there from the time that Troy took the name of Ilium, which carries us back to an antiquity more remote.

St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. ii p. 409. In America, there are upwards of twenty different species WELD, vol. i. p. 281.

of oak.

430. [Gen. xxi. 33.] The trees of our natal soil have a farther and most powerful attraction, when they are blended, as was the case among the Antients, with some religious idea, or with the recollection of some distinguished personage. Whole Nations have attached their patriotism to this object.

Trees, from the different seasons at which they send forth leaves, flowers and fruits, are in Savage Nations their only calendar; and even our own peasantry make frequent use of it. Jer. i. 13. St. PIERRE'S Studies of Nature, vol. iii. pp. 248, 249.

435. [Gen. xiv. 18.] In Melchizedek, the GOD OF HEAVEN had still a Priest at Salem; and I have often thought it probable, says Michaelis, that it was in order to extricate Abraham from idolatry, that God guided him from his native country into this land, where the worship of the One True God yet subsisted. (SMITH'S Michaelis, vol. i. p. 186.)— It was to this Priesthood of the Noahic Covenant, that Abraham would have devoted his son Isaac.

436. -Abraham was also a priest of the Most High God; and, I think (says HUTCHINSON) the chief of all the men on earth, by right of birth (as Shem's heir). Natural History of the Bible, p. 117.

437. [Heb. vii.1-3.] Cunæus, Hutchinson, and others, have vainly supposed that JESUS, the Son of God, was the very same MELCHIZEDEK who met Abraham (Gen. xiv.), clothed in human flesh, and habited as a High-priest and King-On this supposition the Apostle is made to say, absurdly enough, that the Son of God (Melchizedek) was made like to the Son of God (Jesus) v. 3; that the Son of God (Jesus) arises a high-priest after the likeness of the Son of God (Melchizedek) v. 15; and that God has testified, Thou (my Son Jesus) art a Priest for ever after

the order or similitude of my Son (Melchizedek, a Priest also for ever) v. 21. In refutation of such absurdities, EPIPHANIUS simply remarks, that in the nature of things no man can be said to be like himself; and BEZA hesitates not to assert, that such interpreters are notorious fanatics. -It is certainly more rational to admit with Sir NORTON KNATCHBULL, and other solid expositors, that Melchizedek, a mere man, is here represented by the Apostle only as a type 'of Christ.-Words, says RIBERIUS (in Heb.), are always to be taken in their proper sense, unless some circumstance necessarily vary their meaning; otherwise nothing in Scripture will be firmly established. His words are: Proprie semper sumenda sunt vocabula, nisi quid aliter accipere cogat, alioqui nihil firmum erit in Scripturâ.-Now on solid, circumstantial, and scriptural ground, the acute Knatchbull thus argues; "As Melchizedek is by Moses styled the priest of the Most High God, and the king of righteousness and peace; and as neither his genealogy, birth, nor death are recorded in Scripture, he was therefore a most fit and proper type or figure of the eternal priesthood and royalty of Christ, and for that cause said to be (aphomoiomenos to uio tou Theou) made like to the Son of God." See his Annotations.

438. [Heb. vii. 3.] The laws and constitution of England do not admit of any interregnum; therefore, in the eye of the law, the king never dies.

439.

Archæologia. vol. xiv. p. 163.

History speaks of several people who had no (traceable) original. They who inhabited the country where Rome is built since, were called Aborigines before Eneas and the Phrygians came thither and took the name of Latins. Seneca, speaking of two of the first kings of the Romans, says, the one had no father, and the other no mother; which he explains thus, they doubted of the mother of Servius, and there was no mention made of the father of Ancus: but Canulcius explains it in Livy, by saying, that Servius was born of a captive; an idea confirmed by HORACE:

Persuades hoc tibi recte
Ante Potestatem Tulli atque ignobile regnum,
Multos sæpe viros nullis majoribus ortos,
Et vixisse probos, magnis et honoribus auctos.

Sat. lib. i. sat. vi. 8-12.
See Essay for a New Translation, part ii. p. 190.
-See also HUTCHINSON'S Nat. Hist. of the
Bible, p. 117.

446. [Gen. xvi. 15.] In Heb. xi. 17 (as in Gen. xxii. 2.), Isaac is called Abraham's only begotten son; Ishmael, therefore, like Lot's children by his daughters, was only adopted at the instigation of Sarah by a ceremonious introduction to Hagar, when presumed to be with child, probably, by her newly married husband. Eliezer, the husband of Hagar Sarah's handmaid, was Abraham's heir, till Ishmael Eliezer's son was born and adopted by Abraham; who in his turn was supplanted by Isaac. Gen. xv. 3.

adopted him, as if he were his own child; and in consequence of the death of his adopting father, he possessed his estates. If a person, after he had adopted a child, happened to have children of his own; then the estate was equally divided The Romans had between the adopted and real children. regular forms of law, by which all these matters were settled. Dr. A. CLARKE, on Rom. viii. 15.

448. [Gen. xv. 3.] It is still the custom in India, especially among the Mahomedans, that in default of children, and sometimes where there are lineal descendants, the master of a family adopts a slave, frequently a Haff'shee, Abyssinian, of the darkest hue, for his heir: he educates him agreeably to his wishes, and marries him to one of his daughters. As the reward of superior merit, or to suit the caprice of an arbitrary despot, this honor is also conferred on a slave recently purchased, or already grown up in the family; and to him he bequeaths his wealth, in preference to his nephews, or any collateral branches. This is a custom of great antiquity in the East, and prevalent among the most refined and civilized nations. In the earliest period of the patriarchal history, we find Abraham complaining for want of children, and declaring that either Eliezer of Damascus, or probably one born from him in his house [Ishmael ?], was his heir; to the exclusion of Lot, his favourite nephew, and all the other collateral branches of his family.

FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 201.

449. [Gen. xvi. 2.] Among the American Indians, if any neighbours are bereaved by death or by an enemy of their children, those, who are possessed of the greatest number of slaves, supply the deficiency; and these are adopted by them, and treated in every respect as if they really were the children of the person to whom they are presented.

CARVER'S Trav. in North America, p. 158.

450. [Gen. xxi. 10, 13.] But if to a man, who has before patronised an adopted son, a son should afterwards be born of his own seed; after the death of the father, the adopted son shall receive a single share, aud the begotten son shall receive a double share of his property.

HALHED'S Gentoo Laws, p. 81.

451. [Gen. xv. 2.] Among the Mamelukes the freed man is called the child of the house." Ibrahim, one of the Kiayas or colonels of the Janisaries, had so multiplied and advanced his free-men, that of the twenty-four Beys, which should be their number, no less than eight were of his household.-At his death, which happened in 1757, his house, that is, his enfranchised slaves, divided among themselves, but united against all others, continued to give the law." VOLNEY'S Trav. vol. i. pp. 112, 113, 153, and the Note.

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