and ISLANDERS of Asia. . f^ 



The feat of the firft Pbenicians having extended to Idume, with which 

 we began, we have now completed the circuit of Afia ; but we muft not 

 pafs over in filcnce a molt extraordinary people, whoefcaped the attention, 

 as Barrow obferve-s more than once, of the diligent and inquifitive Hero<- 

 dotus : I mean the people of J'udea, whofe language" demon'ftrates their 

 affinity with the Arabs; but whofe manners, literature, and hiftory are 

 wonderfully diftinguifhed from the reft of mankind. Barrow loads them 

 with the fevere, but juft, epithets of malignant, unfoeial, obftinate, diftruft- 

 ftil, fordid, changeable, turbulent; and defcribes them as furioufly zealous in 

 fuccouring their own countrymen, but implacably hoftile to other nations; 

 yet, vvith all the fortilli'. perverfenefs,, the flupid arrogance, and the brutal 

 atrocity of their character, they had the peculiar merit, among all races of 

 men under heaven, of preferring a rationaland pure fyftenv of devotion in 

 the midft of wild polytheifm, inhuman or obfcene rites, and a dark laby- 

 rinth of errours produced by. ignorance- and Supported by interefted fraud. 

 Theological inquiries are no part of my prefent fubjecl;- but I. cannot refrain 

 from adding, that the collection of tracts, which we call from their excellence 

 the Scriptures, contain, independently of a divine origin, more true fublimity, 

 more exquifite beauty, purer morality, more important hiftory, and- 

 finer ftrains both of poetry and eloquence, than could be colledted with- 

 in the fame compafs from, all other books, that were ever compofed 

 in any age or in any idiom. The twos parts, of which the Scriptures 

 confift, are connected by a-chain of compofitions, which bear no refemblance 

 inform or ftyle to any that can be produced from the ftores of Grecian,, 

 foidi 'an, P 'e.tfj 'an, or even Arabian, learning : the antiquity of thofe compoli- 

 tions no^-man doubts; and the unftrained application of them to events 

 long fubfequent to their publication is a folid ground of belief, that they 

 were genuine predictions, and confequently infpircd ; but, if any thing be 



