OR, THE Pillar of Cloud and Fire, THAT Guided the ISRAELITES in the BUT A Thing equally practis'd by other nations, and in those places not only useful but neceffary. PERTICAM, quae undique confpici poffet, fupra PRAE- 6 LONDON, Printed in the YEAR 1720. pains, and fhow'd no lefs difcernment, in their inquiries concerning the Greec, the Roman, and other Antiquities. The reafon at first I thought to have been the fmall extent of the Jewish territories, the fterility of their warlike exploits (in comparison of thofe nations I have mention'd) with their ignorance of arts and useful inventions: ungrateful fubjects for pleasure or inftruction. But how juft foever this cenfure may be of the Jews in certain particulars, yet their affairs were at all times intimately link'd, either with those of the Egyptians, or the Affyrians, or the Perfians, or the Phenicians, or the Arabians; which were Nations, wherof fome yielded not to the Greecs for Learning, but rather exceded them in that as well as in Commerce, others of 'em equall'd the Romans in feats of Arms no less than in the arts of Government, and all of 'em went farr beyond both the Greecs and the Romans in point of Antiquity: not to fay that the Jews in procefs of time had, as every one knows, matters of the greatest concern to transact with these fame Greecs and Romans, to whom they were likewife fubjects or tributaries in their turns. Strange therfore they fhou'd be fo much neglected! II. BUT Experience taught me at last, that the true reason why Judea has lain thus uncultivated by the Laity, is the Clergy's wholly ingroffing that province for a long time to themfelves, on the improvement of which they laid out neither fufficient labor nor expense. This has made a foil appear very barren, that is otherwife fruitful enough, and capable to reward the industry of a judicious Critic. Now as fome nations, the better to preferve their Mines to themfelves, reported they were haunted by frightful dragons, or infefted with noxious vapors: fo thofe Clergymen proceded with no lefs art, and they often us'd violence, to deterr others from the ftudy of the antient Jewish books. They made it facrilege fo much as to peep into them, without their licence. They gave out that the reading of them wou'd turn men's heads, and fill them with ftrange fancies. Nay we all know, that at length they quite and clean extorted them out of the hands |