also are the senses in the quality even in the place of this world; far otherwise in one country than in another. And even so God did likewise form the languages according to the property of every land and country.
74. For seeing that people were to be dispersed into every country and climate, he opened to each people a language, according as it should be in a land; which did apply itself unto the same quality [of sense], and accord therewith; so that the quality of the country did not introduce toe turba into it, if they, with the word of their voice, agreed to the sound of the formed spirit in the soul of the great world in that place.
75. For, as the manifestation of the formed word was in the spirit of the world in every place, even so the spirit of God did form, through the nature of the properties, the language and speech in every country. First the seventy-two head languages out of nature, and afterward the collateral affinities, 1 proceeding from the senses of every head language; as we plainly see, that a man doth scarce find, in any place of the world, among all the head languages, one and the same sense in any head language, within the compass of fifteen or eighteen miles: 2 they alter and change almost every fifteen or eighteen miles, all according as the properties of that pole, or elevation, are: [Look] what kind of property the lubet has in its predominant constellation, even such a property the vulgar people have in their language and speech.
1 Or dialects of language.
2 Fifteen or eighteen miles. According to the elevation of the pole, climate, or zenith and nadir.
The Thirty-Sixth Chapter
Of the Antichristian Babylonical Whore of all Nations, Tongues and Speeches;
showing what is contained under the Languages and Tower of Babel
AN OPEN GATE OF THE MYSTERY
OF THE GREAT BABYLON
1. COURTEOUS reader, I desire to warn you in love, that you would not understand our sense and meaning according to partial affections, to detract, revile, or especially to contemn or despise any, as from us; much less to set upon them, in their office, function and dignities, out of passion; but we shall speak in general. Let every one prove himself; he shall indeed find the great mystery of the Babylonical tower in himself; and also the number of the false beast. Let him but read our meaning with patience, and take himself along, as to his evil innate hereditary property, under the same, as really the earthly mortal man in all men belongs unto this text.
2. We will here write what the time has brought forth and manifested, and if it were not manifest by man, yet the beasts should be driven to manifest the same; for the time is born, 1 and nothing can hinder: The Most High accomplishes his work.
1 Or fulfilled.
3. Moses says, Nimrod, Ham's [grand-] son, began his kingdom at Babel, and was the first lord upon the earth after the flood, and was the first erector of the tower, and the city Babylon (Gen. x. 8-10). Yet we are not to understand that only Ham's children would build the tower, but also Japheth's and Shem's, for they were yet all together as one people, and would build them a tower, whose top should reach even unto heaven, that they might thereby nlake themselves a great name (Gen. xi. 4).
also are the senses in the quality even in the place of this world; far otherwise in one country than in another. And even so God did likewise form the languages according to the property of every land and country.
74. For seeing that people were to be dispersed into every country and climate, he opened to each people a language, according as it should be in a land; which did apply itself unto the same quality [of sense], and accord therewith; so that the quality of the country did not introduce toe turba into it, if they, with the word of their voice, agreed to the sound of the formed spirit in the soul of the great world in that place.
75. For, as the manifestation of the formed word was in the spirit of the world in every place, even so the spirit of God did form, through the nature of the properties, the language and speech in every country. First the seventy-two head languages out of nature, and afterward the collateral affinities, 1 proceeding from the senses of every head language; as we plainly see, that a man does scarce find, in any place of the world, among all the head languages, one and the same sense in any head language, within the compass of fifteen or eighteen miles: 2 they alter and change almost every fifteen or eighteen miles, all according as the properties of that pole, or elevation, are: [Look] what kind of property the lubet has in its predominant constellation, even such a property the vulgar people have in their language and speech.
1 Or dialects of language.
2 Fifteen or eighteen miles. According to the elevation of the pole, climate, or zenith and nadir.
The Thirty-Sixth Chapter
Of the Antichristian Babylonical Whore of all Nations, Tongues and Speeches;
showing what is contained under the Languages and Tower of Babel
AN OPEN GATE OF THE MYSTERY
OF THE GREAT BABYLON
1. COURTEOUS reader, I desire to warn you in love, that you would not understand our sense and meaning according to partial affections, to detract, revile, or especially to contemn or despise any, as from us; much less to set upon them, in their office, function and dignities, out of passion; but we shall speak in general. Let every one prove himself; he shall indeed find the great mystery of the Babylonical tower in himself; and also the number of the false beast. Let him but read our meaning with patience, and take himself along, as to his evil innate hereditary property, under the same, as really the earthly mortal man in all men belongs unto this text.
2. We will here write what the time has brought forth and manifested, and if it were not manifest by man, yet the beasts should be driven to manifest the same; for the time is born, 1 and nothing can hinder: The Most High accomplishes his work.
1 Or fulfilled.
3. Moses says, Nimrod, Ham's [grand-] son, began his kingdom at Babel, and was the first lord upon the earth after the flood, and was the first erector of the tower, and the city Babylon (Gen. x. 8-10). Yet we are not to understand that only Ham's children would build the tower, but also Japheth's and Shem's, for they were yet all together as one people, and would build them a tower, whose top should reach even unto heaven, that they might thereby nlake themselves a great name (Gen. xi. 4).
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