of the Prophet who predicted, and of the people, to whom the prophecy was delivered; this circumstance alone, added to the natural reluctance which every mind, busy in purfuit of things, feels in acquiring merely words, would in itself have been almost fufficient to have induced him, to relinquifh the attempt. But, he had ftill a better reason, which is derived from the moft unqueftionable authority of thofe, well versed in the Hebrew; and amongst the reft, from one of the firft ornaments of the literature of the prefent age. Take the decifion in his own words, from Lowth's Prelimi

nary

nary Differtation to his Translation of Ifaiah. P. 66.

"The Greek verfion, commonly "called the SEPTUAGINT, or of "the feventy interpreters, probably "made by different hands, (the "number of them uncertain) and "at different times, as the exigence "of " of the Jewish church at Alexandria, and in other parts of Egypt

<< BREW TEXT;

THE HE

as being the most "antient of all: and as the copy, "from which it was tranflated, appears to have been free from many

"( errors,

errors, which afterwards by degrees got into the text. But, the " verfion of Ifaiah is not fo old as "that of the Pentateuch, by a hun"dred years, and more; having "been made, in all probability, after the time of Antiochus Epi

phanes, when the reading of the Prophets in the Jewish Synagogues began to be practifed; and even "after the building of Onias's tem

་

ple; to favour which, there feems

"to have been fome artifice em

ployed, in a certain paffage of "Isaiah, in this verfion. And, it "unfortunately happens, that Ifaiah "has had the hard fate to meet "with a tranflator very unworthy

"of him; there being hardly any "book of the Old Teftament fo "ill rendered in that version, as "this of Ifaiah. Add to this, that "the verfion of Ifaiah, as well as "other parts of the Greek version, "is come down to us in a bad

condition, incorrect, with frequent omiffions and interpolations. YET,

WITH ALL THESE DISADVAN

<< TAGES, WITH ALL IT'S FAULTS (c AND IMPERFECTIONS, THIS VER

SION IS OF MORE USE IN COR

RECTING THE HEBREW TEXT,

Let not however the reader fuppofe, that the author of the following

work is amongst the number of those, who defpife, what they do not understand. For, he most readily acknowledges, that from the attainment of Hebrew literature, the world is much indebted to the induftry of a Kennicot, the elegance of a Lowth, and the learning of a Newcome, and a Blany. He hopes, that other learned writers, encouraged by their examples, will publifh new tranflations of other books of the Old Teftament. For, he trufts, that those days of BIGOTRY will never more return, when IGNORANCE fhall be deemed the BEST SECURITY for the FAITH of the multitude:

and

that fanctified by that end, it is

e 2

even