The young-students-library, containing extracts and abridgments of the most valuable books printed in England, and in the forreign journals, from the year sixty five, to this time. To which is added, a new essay upon all sorts of learning. Wherein the use of the sciences is distinctly treated on / By the Athenian Society. [Ed. by John Dunton] Also, a large alphabetical table, comprehending the contents of this volume. And of all the Athenian mercuries and supplements, &c. printed in the year 1691.

The Athenian Society

Date:: 1692

Credit: The young-students-library, containing extracts and abridgments of the most valuable books printed in England, and in the forreign journals, from the year sixty five, to this time. To which is added, a new essay upon all sorts of learning. Wherein the use of the sciences is distinctly treated on / By the Athenian Society. [Ed. by John Dunton] Also, a large alphabetical table, comprehending the contents of this volume. And of all the Athenian mercuries and supplements, &c. printed in the year 1691. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$2 j OST of the Treatifes which are M in thefe two Volumes, have ap- peared only in Englith; many of _ the Learned beyond Sea look up- on them as Pieces perfectly new. This Work hath been tranflated out of Englifh into Latine. Firft, asco the Preface; tho’ it be not Lightfoot’s, becaufe it treats of the principal Subjeéts upon which Lightfoot hath written, yet we thall mention it, fince there is to be found in it very curious Remarks. Mr. Bright {peaks there, firft of the Ufeful- ne{s of Chronology, and fhews us that it may be very ferviceable to the underftand- ing of Sacred Hiftory. He brings for ex- ample this paflage, 2 Chron. 16. 1. where it is faid, that iw the 36th year of the Reign of Judah. We mutt not underftand this date fince Baafha afcended to the Throne of Jfrael, but the third year of the Reign of Aja; and Reigned but 24 years, that is to fay, to the 27ch year of King -A/7’s Reign, 1 Kings 15. 33. The fame numbers are found in all the Antient Interpreters; fo that ic is not. very likely that any’ faule fhould have flipped herein. * If we confule Chronology, it tells us, that the year in which Baafha King of I/rael made War again{t ‘fudah, was the 36th from the divi- fion of the Ten Tribes; fo that by the Reign of Judah took its beginning from the time that \eroboam difmembred the Ten Tribes. *Tis thus that Lighrfoor interprets it, p. 80. from his Harmony of the Old Teftament. See alfo p. 81. and 87: It’s alfo: remarked; that thefe two paflages of the Chronicles, to wit, the 2d of Chron, 27. 2. where it is faid, That King, Achaias was 42 years. old when he began. to Reign; and Chap.23.v-9. where Feboiachim in the beginning of his Reign, \is faid to be eight years old, ought to be tran lated'otherwife, if we fuppofe . that there is is contrary to Chronology. But in the Anrient Verfion the firft paflage is 20, or 22. andin the 2d.18. which makes us believe that there may be a ‘fault in our Hesrew Copies. . You; may fee what Lightfoot faith of Achaia in the preceding Difcourfes of his Harmony of the Evangelifts. 5 Mr. Bright maintains againft Grotivs, chat the ordinary manner of reading that paflage, Ifa. 8. 8. is better than the corrections chat Grotius would have made. It is'65 in the Hebrew, and in all other Tranflations; and Grotius pretends that it ought to be read 6 and 5, that is to fay, eleven. - The Author of ‘this Preface fhews upon what (he thought) Grotius buile this Conje@ure, and fell into an Error contradifting& co the the true Chronology of the Kingdom of I{rael. He fends the Reader back again to the Computation of Lightfoot, who removes all the. difficulty. ‘Tis not, that he‘was of the Opinion of Lightfoot, who believed there was no fault in the Hebrew Text; he thoughe that ie was better to follow the Samaritan Penta- teach way of reading, and the Tranflation of the Seventy, than thae of the Hebrew Text, which faith;Exod.12.40 that the time that the Children of I/rael abode in Ezype was 430 years, whereas they continued no more than 210 years. But it is in the Sama- ritan Pentateuch, and in the Septuagine ac- cording to the’ Manufcript of Alexandria, that the time of abode:which the Children of Ifrael and their Fathers made in Egypt and in the Land of Canaan, was 430 years, which agrees exactly with Chronology. After ha- ving {poken fomething of the neceflity that there is to fiudy Sacred Geography for the better underftanding of the’ Scripture, he paffes to the Original Text and Antient Tranflations. He {hews fir by fome ex- amples, that the confent of all the Antient Tranflations with the Hebrew and Samari- tan Texts, proves: that thofe places which may be fufpected, have not been’corzupted, and. that when all the Tranflations agree with either of thefe Texts, ir is fomething very confiderable ‘in favour ‘of them to whom they. are found conformable. Se- condly, He fhews that by the fame confent one’ may find divers faulrs in the Hebrew Texts at ‘this day: “As our Hebrew. Copies (faith he) ate withour doubt thofe’ which re- prefent the “Antiert Originals beft, and which ought to be preferred toad others; it .would ne- verthtlefs be a fign of obftinacy and fuperftition to believe that there's no confiderable fault which may be corrected by means of the Tranflations.. There aré many examples in other$

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