2 Reg. 3. v. 26, 27.
Lastly, the Holy Scripture saith thus, When the King of Moab saw that the Battel was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred Men that drew Swords, to break through even to the King of Edom; but they could not. Then he took his eldest Son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a Burnt-offering on the Wall.
These Testimonies are sufficient Witnesses, That the Ancient Heathens express’d the height of their Devotion, and fury of mad Zeal, in such execrable Rites, as to this day the like is practised by the Indians, Chineses, Japanners, and others: Wherefore it can no ways be a sufficient ground to prove, that the Americans are deriv’d from the Phenicians, because of their Humane Sacrifices, for that they were usual Customs in all Places.
Third testimony, That the Americans are deriv’d from the Phenicians, because their Language agrees
Is contradicted.
The third Proof they offer us, is borrow’d from the similitude and likeness of the Phenician and American Languages: Comtœus sets down some Words, viz. the Phenicians call’d a Mountain, Abila; Blood, Edom; a Mother, Anech; a Maid, Hellotia; Water, Heni, and Jam: With the first agrees the American Anthla; with the second, Holedonch; with the third, Anam; with the fourth, Hellotie; with the fifth, Ame, and Jame. But those that will thus corrupt the Words, may as well make the unseemliest Comparisons. It is certain, that the Phenicians and some of the Americans call a Cup Asur, and Red Wine, Belàsa; But does it therefore follow by this, that the one is extracted from the other? How many Names do signifie all one, amongst People that never had any Conversation together? This proceeds only from meer accident; Or else if some Words of one, sound like the same Words us’d in a remote Countrey, and be of one signification, must they therefore be deriv’d from one another? Then upon necessity the Greeks, Latins, and Germans had their Original from the Hebrews, or the Latins from the Greeks, or the Germans from the Latins, or the Persians from the Germans; or, on the contrary, the last owe their Extract to the first. I will as a Testimony, and to give you a Pattern, pick out a few from a greater number.
Greek and Hebrew agree
Also the Hebrew and Latin.
How little difference is there in many Words between the Greek and Hebrew? The Hebrews call a Church-Congregation Sanhedrim, the Greeks Συνέδριον; the Greeks for I advise, use πείθω, the other פתה; the Hebrews call Wise-men Zophei, the other Σόφοι: And less difference there is between Symphoniah and Συμφονία, A well-set Lesson; or Psanterin and Ψαλτέριον, A Spiritual Hymn: And who also will not find a near resemblance in the consonating of divers Latin and Hebrew Words? For there is little difference betwixt Mesurah and Mensura, a Measure; Shekar and Saccarus, a sweet Moisture; Levya and Leæna, a Lioness, Sabbeca and Sambuca, a Chopping-board; Pesa and Passus, a Pace.
Likewise the Teutonick, the great Language of Germany, Britain, the Low-Countreys, and other Northern Nations.