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כרת ברית

HE difpute here is about the radical meaning of the two words, or phrafe

.כרת ברית

The first, n, has no other fignification given it by Lexicographers but that of cutting, &c. They do not deny that it fignifies the fame when joined with, and accordingly render it percutere, icere, ferire, fcindere fœdus. And they give a reason for the phrase, viz. be. cause beasts were cut off, or flain at making covenants or treaties. But then, as cutting off a covenant was an uncouth expreffion, they foften it, by way of accommodation, to customs now in ufe, and render it to make a covenant. Mr. H.

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a Radix hæc () valde ufitata eft de fæderum percuffione propter ceremonias quæ in eo obfervabantur, Pfal. 1. 5. Exod. xxiv. 5, 6, 7, 8. Fæœdus enim facientes primo jurabant, poftea tranfibant inter partes pecudis; quafi dicerent, difcindatur, dividantur ejus membra, fiat ficut pecus iftud, qui juramentum violaverit. Sicut habetur Jer. xxxiv. 18. See Leigh's Critica facra, and Homer's Ikad, T. v. 292,-302.

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not fatisfied with this conftruction of "I Berith, and his attention excited by the oddness of the phrase to cut off a covenant; set about an enquiry after the fignification of ", which, from the nature and genius of the Hebrew, he concluded must have a meaning which would better comport with the verb n to cut off, than covenant. It was not long before he found two places, Jer. ii. 22. and Mal. iii. 2. where the radical idea was given, and which the context determined to be fomething that purifies, by fecreting, or feparating the clean from the unclean; fo purification by fecretion; from whence he concluded, that it must come from a root that fignifies to fecrete, fo purify, or purify by fecretion; and accordingly fixed upon the root

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, or, &c. fo rendered the phrase literally to cut off a purifier. "And in this he rendered " by no other noun, than what was proper to accompany the verb by which it was "governed in compofition." His next enquiry was, what were the things cut off. Thefe he found to be beafts in facrifice. What were these facrifices, originals, or reprefentatives? There is fufficient ground, I apprehend, to fay they were representatives. Of what, is the next queftion? And the anfwer is, of Christ, the great purifier. Hence, naturally, comes out the reason of the phrase to cut off the purifier. And let it, here, be observed, that, though other Hebrew words, befides, are joined with, as

נתן

yet, none of them fignify to-קום and נתן

make. In objecting to this fenfe of the phrafe, one would reasonably expect, that the Doctor would prove that n fignified to make, and fignified covenant; and, indeed, unless he does this, he does nothing. But instead of this, he confeffes that carat does fignify to cut off, and Berith, fomething that purifies; but then fays, that carat, when joined with Berith, muft fignify to make, and the Berith, which is coupled with carat, is a different Berith, from that, which in fer. and Mal. fignifies purification, that it comes from another root; though, what that root is, he, and his confederates are not agreed on, though they will have it to signify a covenant. He might as well have made carat to be one root, when coupled with Berith, and another, when used by itself, or with other words. Let the candid reader judge whether this be decifive evidence, and what weight it ought to have upon ingenuous minds. But what does the Doctor object against carat Berith, in its radical and primary fenfe, fignifying to cut off a purifier? Why, fome texts in fcripture, three of which are particularly marked out, where, he thinks, tranflating it,-making a covenant, runs better.

It must be obferved, that phrafes, to which we have been long accuftomed, gain upon the ear by use and time, and plead a kind of prefcription, whether they be right or wrong; and fubstituting

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fubftituting new ones in their room, be they ever. fo agreeable to fenfe and reafon, are not fo to the ear, but meet with an oppofition from the found, though not from the fenfe. And the Doctor has not, fo fufficiently attended to what Mr. H. has proved concerning the genius of the Hebrew language, as a perfon, who undertook to oppose and anfwer him, should have done; and which, if the Doctor had done, would have foreftalled his objections on this head. Mr. H. fhews that but one ruling or leading idea runs through every root, which it retains, in part, in every one of its derivatives, or branches. But adds, that we cannot, in the other languages, express this idea by one word; because the formers of other tongues, had little, or no regard to ideas, when they framed those languages; fo that the idea must be explained by circumlocution; and the Hebrew word must be tranflated by different words in different places. T deber, ex. gr. expreffes any thing that is fecret, and is to be manifefted to the sense of hearing, seeing, and feeling. So a fecret to be revealed, a mystery to be manifested,—a place or house wherein were things hidden, kept fecret, which were to be revealed, as the Holy of Holies, which was vailed, till the vail was rent upon Chrift's realizing the types, and typical actions, &c.-So a tract of land unknown, afterwards to be inhabited; as each of the vaft wilderneffes were.-Creatures, natives of a place unknown, brought from thence,

and

and fhewed, as apes, or, &c. fetched from the land of Affur.- -Some fmall flying infect, invisible to fenfe, till it fly into the eye and offend it, fo make it fenfible of its being.-A plague, which acts invifibly, and not to be perceived but by its effects or fymptoms, pain and death, -So a word, or, &c. which is the fecret of the heart or mind, till it be spoken, or revealed.

Now, as the original idea is preferved, andyet deber may be tranflated, occasionally, the adytum, logos, a wilderness, an ape, an infect, a plague, a word, precept, inftitution, or matter; -so it is with Berith, which may be rendered, occasionally, covenant, league, confederacy, or bond, as Cranmer often translates it in his Bible, where covenant now stands, or, &c. and yet the original idea of fecretion, or purification be preserved; because covenants, leagues, confederacies, &c. were made and ratified by the parties cutting off a Berith, with a-fo help me the purifier, or so may I bave the benefit of the great purification, &c. as I perform my part. So that the phrase implies making a covenant, though, it does not totidem verbis exprefs it; or, to make a covenant is not the literal tranflation of the words, or fenfe of the phrase, which the Doctor must prove it to be, if he would prove his point, and put an end to the controverfy. Neither is this any newinvented falvo, or is it, in the leaft, weakening, or giving up the phrafe, but a fair state of the cafe, and what Mr. H. has, occafionally, guarded against

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