feated. raim, namely Cafluhim and Caphtorim. And for the CHAP. III. former, they are not improbably thought to have first set- SECT. IV. tled in the country on the other fide of Egypt, called Ca- 23. fiotis; where alfo is a mount called Cafius; both which The Cafluretain fomewhat of the name Cafluhim. And this fitua- him, where tion of them is confirmed by what Mofes adds concerning them, namely, that from them fprang the Philistines; who in procefs of time made themselves masters of the adjoining tract of the land of Canaan, as we read in Scripture, and shall take further notice of where we treat distinctly of the land of Canaan. 24. The Caph torim, 25. whence fo That the Caphtorim were fituated near to the Cafluhim, is inferred not only from Mofes putting them next one to another in the forecited place of Gen. x, but also from where this, that the Philistines, who are in Gen. x. 14. faid to be feated. defcended of the Cafluhim, are elsewhere denoted by the name of Caphtorim, as Deut. ii. 23. Jer. xlvii. 4. and Amos ix. 7. Which perhaps cannot be better accounted for, than by fuppofing the Cafluhim and Caphtorim to be neighbours, and fo in time to have been mutually intermixed, as to be looked upon as one and the fame people. Now the name of Caphtor feems to be preserved in an old city of Egypt, called Coptus; from which as the Egypt, name of Cophtes is ftill given to the Chriftians of Egypt, named. (whence the translation of the Bible used by them is called alfo the Coptic translation,) so it is not unlikely that the common name of Egypt was derived from it; it being called Ægyptus for Ægophtus, as if one would say in Greek Ala Kóñта, the land of Copius. And it is a good remark of the learned Mede, that the Greek Ala, Aia, or Ea, is likely derived from the Hebrew, Ai or Ei: to which may be very pertinently fubjoined this remark; that in the forecited Jer. xlvii. 4. what we render the country of Caphtor, is in the Hebrew text termed Ai Captor; which are the very two words, from which we suppose the Greeks to have moulded the name Aïyuπlos, Ægyptus. And this is taken notice of by our Translators, who in the margin of our Bible obferve, that the Hebrew word PART I. word translated the country in the text, denotes also an ifle. And it is further obfervable, that this name is very properly given to the city Coptus, forafmuch as it stood in a fmall island. So that, upon the whole, we need not doubt thereabout to fix the first fettlement of the Caphtorim. 26. of Phut, where feated. Of the four original nations descended from Ham, there The nation remains now only that of Phut to be spoken of. And the first settlement of this is with good reafon fupposed to be in the parts of the Libyan or African continent, which join on next to those poffeffed by the defcendants of the Mizraim; that is, in the parts adjoining westward to Cyrenaica, and fo to have spread more weftward into Mauritania. For in Africa properly so called, below Adrumetum was a city, named Putea, mentioned by Pliny; and in Mauritania there is a river mentioned by Ptolemy, called Phut. St. Jerom is very full to the point, telling us, that there is a river in Mauritania, which was till his own time called Phut, and from which the adjacent country was called Regio Phytenfis, the country of Phut. And thus we have at length fhewed the reader the feveral places where the more immediate defcendants of Noah are either certainly known, or else probably thought to have at first seated themselves. I may end this Chapter much after the fame manner as Mofes does the tenth chapter of Genefis: These are the plantations of the families of the fons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations and after this manner by these were the nations divided in the earth after the Flood. CHAP. CHAP. IV. 1. why multi Of the Land of Shinar, and the City and Tower of Babel. MOSES having informed us, that the first plantations after the Flood were made, not confusedly or by chance, Languages but regularly and orderly, namely, after their families, plied, and after their tongues, &c. he then proceeds to inform us, to named. Babel why (Gen. xi. I-9.) upon what occafion divine Providence multiplied the languages of mankind, whereas afore the whole earth was of one language. And this was, as the facred hiftorian tells us, to make those, that had undertaken to build a city and tower, whofe top might reach unto heaven, to defist from that enterprize: in order whereunto God confounded their language, that they might not understand one another's speech. Hereupon they left off to build the city; and therefore the name of it was called Babel, (which word in the Hebrew language denotes confufion,) because the Lord did there confound the language of all the then inhabitants of the earth. We are then to fhew, what tract is denoted by the land of Shinar, wherein Mofes tells us mankind dwelt, when they undertook the building of Babel; and in what part of the said tract this city and tower was begun. what. 2. And as to the land of Shinar, it is not to be doubted, but thereby is meant the valley, along which runs the The land of river Tigris, and that, probably, till it falls into the fea. Shinar, In the northern part of this valley, that is, in the parts of Mefopotamia lying next to the Tigris, we find in old writers, both a city called Singara, and also a mountain called Singaras; from which it is most highly probable, that the adjoining valley took the name of the land of Shinar, or, as it may be otherwise spelled agreeably to the Hebrew word, Singar. It is plain from Scripture, that Babel was the fame with the city Babylon; and it is not to be doubted, but that Erech was the fame with the city Aracca, |