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THE
SACRED AND PROFANE
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
CONNECTED,
FROM THE
CREATION OF THE WORLD
TO THE
DISSOLUTION OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AT THE
DEATH OF SARDANAPALUS,
AND TO THE
DECLENSION OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL
UNDER THE REIGNS OF AHAZ AND PEKAH.
WITH THE TREATISE ON
THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN.
BY
SAMUEL SHUCKFORD, MA.
RECTOR OF SHELTON IN THE COUNTY OF NORFOLK.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
OXFORD,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
MDCCCXLVIII.
:€
THE
PREFACE
T
HE design of this undertaking is to set before the reader
a view of the history of the world, from Adam to the
dissolution of the Assyrian empire, at the death of Sarda-
napalus, in the reigns of Ahaz king of Judah and Pekah
king of Israel. At this period the most learned dean Pri-
deaux began his Connection of the Old and New Testament;
and I would bring my performance down to the times where
his work begins, hoping that, if I can set the transactions
of these ages in a clear light, my endeavours may be of
some service towards forming a judgment of the truth and
exactness of the ancient Scriptvire-history, by shewing how
far the old fragments of the heathen writers agree with it,
and how much better and more authentic the account is
which it gives of things where they differ from it. What
is now published is but a small part of my design; but if
this meets with that acceptance which I hope it may, the
remaining parts shall soon follow.
Chronology and geography being necessary helps to his*
tory, I have taken care to be as exact as I can in both of
them ; and that I might give the reader the clearest view
of the geography, I have here and there added a map, where
I differ in any particulars from other writers, or have men-
tioned any thing not so clearly delineated in the draughts
already extant. And as to the chronology, I have observed,
as I go along, the several years in which the particulars I
treat of happened ; and where any doubts or difficulties may
arise, I have endeavoured to clear thein,[by giving my rea-
a2
iv PREFACE.
sons for the particular times of such transactions as I have
treated of.
In the annalsj as I go along, I have chosen to make use
of the sera of the creation of the world, that seeming to me
most easy and natural. The transactions I am to treat of
are brought down from the beginning, and it will be often
very clear at what interval or distance they follow one an-
other, and how long after the creation ; whereas, if I had
used the same sera with Dr. Prideaux, and computed by the
years before Christ, it would have been necessary to have
ascertained the reader in what year of the world the incar-
nation of Christ happened, before he could have had a fixed
and determinate notion of my chronology : however, when
I have gone through the whole, I shall add such chronolo-
gical tables, as may adjust the several years of the creation
both to the Julian period and Christian sera.
It is something difficult to say of what length the year
was that was in use in the early ages. Before the flood, it
is most probable that the civil and solar year were the same,
and that 360 days were the exact measure of both. In that
space of time the sun made one entire revolution ; and it
was easy and natural for the first astronomers to divide the
circle of the sun's annual course into 360 parts, long before
geometry arrived at perfection enough to afford a reason for
the choosing to divide circles into that number of degrees.
All the time of the antediluvian world, chronology was fixed
and easy ; a year could be more exactly measured than it
now can.
At the flood, the heavens underwent some change : the
motion of the sun was altered, and a year, or annual revo-
lution of it, became, as it now is, five days and almost six
hours longer than it was before. That such a change had
been made% most of the philosophers observed; and without
doiibt, as soon as they did observe it, they endeavoured to
set right their chronology by it: for it is evident, that, as
soon as the solar year became thus augmented, the ancient
a Sec Plutarch de Placit. Philos. 1. ii. edit. Mars. Ficin. Lugd. 1590. and
c. 8. 1. iii. c. 12. 1. V. c. 18. and Plato Laertius in vit. Anaxagor.
Polit. p. 174, 175, 269, 270, 271. ex
PREFACE. V
measure of a year would not do, but mistakes must creep in,
and grow more and more every year they continued to com-
pute by it.
The first correction of the year which we read of was
made in^ Egypt; and Syncellus<= names the person who
made it, viz. Asbis, a king of Thebes, who reigned about a
thousand years after the flood. He added five days to the
ancient year, and inserted them at the end of the twelfth
month. And this, though it did not bring the civil year
up to an exact measure with the solar, yet was a great emen-
dation, and put chronology in a state which it continued in
for some ages. The Egyptian year thus settled by Assis
consisted of months and days as follows :
1
Months.
Containing
Days
Beginning about
I Thyoth
3°
August 29
2 Paophi
3°
September 28
3 Athyr
30
October 28
4 Choiac
30
November 27
S Tubi
30
December 2 7
6 Mecheir
30
January 26
7 Phamenoth
30
February 25
8 Pharmuthi
30
March 27
9 Pachon
30
April 26
lo Pauni
30
May 26
1 1 Epiphi
30
June 25
12 Mesori
30
July 25
'Eirayofjievai, or additional five days, begin
August 24, and so end August 28, that
the first of Thyoth next year may be
August 29, as above.
The Babylonians are thought to have corrected their year
next to the Egyptians : they computed but 360 days to a
year^ until the death of Sardanapalus, about 1600 years after
b Herodot. 1. ii. §. 4.
c Syncell. p. 123. Parisj 1652.
vi PREFACE.
the flood. At his death Belesis began his reign ; and Belesis
being the same person with Nabonassar, from the beginning
of his reign commenceth the famous astronomical sera called
by his name. The Nabonassarean year agrees exactly with
the Egyptian year before mentioned. The months differ in
name only ] they are the same in number, and of equal
lengths : but this year does not begin in autumn, as the
Egyptian does, but from the end of our February, which was
the time when Nabonassar began his reign.
The ancient year of the Medes is the same with the Nabo-
nassarean : it begins about the same time, has the same num-
ber of months and days, and epagomena, or additional days at
its end, and was probably brought into use by Arbaces, who
was confederate with Nabonassar against Sardanapalus, and
who by agreement with him founded the empire of the
Medes, at the same time that the other set up himself king
at Babylon. Dr. Hyde ^ agrees to this original of the Medes'
year, and supposes it to have been instituted about the time
of the founding the empire of the Medes. He very justly
corrects Golius, and accounts for the Median year's begin-
ning in the spring, by supposing it derived from the Assy-
rian, though in one point I think he mistakes. He imagines
all the ancient years to have begun about this time, and
that the Syrians, Chaldajans, and Saba^ans, who began their
year at autumn, had deviated from their first usage ; whereas
the contrary is true ; all the ancient nations began their year
from the autumn. Nabonassar made the first alteration at
Babylon, and his year being received at the setting up the
Median empire, the Medes began their year agreeably to it.
Dr. Hyde supposes the ancient Persian year to be the same
with the Median ; but dean Prideaux was of opinion that
the Persian year consisted but of 360 days in the reign of
D
anus ".
Thalesf was the first that corrected the Greek year. He
flourished something more than fifty years after Nabonassar.
He learned in Egypt that the year consisted of 365 days, and
endeavoured to settle the Grecian chronology to a year of
<• Rcl. vet. Pers. c. 14. Oxon. 1700. f Diogenes Laert. in vit. Thaietia,
s Connect, vol. i. ann. ante Christum Seg. 27.
509-
PREFACE. vii
that measure. StraboS supposes Plato and Eudoxus to have
been the correctors of the Greek year; but he means, that
they were the first of the Grecians who foimd out the defici-
ency of almost six hours in Thales''s year ; for he does not
say that Plato and Eudoxus were the first that introduced
^6^ days for a year, but speaks expressly of their first learn-
ing the defect before mentioned ; ^6^ days were settled for
a year almost two centuries before the times of Eudoxus or
Plato. Thales's correction was not immediately received all
over Greece, for Solon, in the time of Croesus king of Lydia,
was ignorant of it^^.
The most ancient year of the Komans was formed by
Romulus. Whence or how he came by the form of it, is
uncertain ; it consisted of but ten ' months, very irregular
ones'*, some of them being not twenty days long, and others
above thirty-five ; but in this respect it agreed with the
most ancient years of other nations ; it consisted ^ of 360
days, and no more, as is evident from the express testimony
of Plutarch.
The Jewish year, in these early times, consisted of twelve
months, and each month of thirty days ; and three hundred
and sixty days were the whole year. We do not find that
God, by any special appointment, corrected the year for
them; for what may seem to have been done of this sort™, at
the institution of the Passover, does not appear to affect the
length of their year at all, for in that respect it continued the
same after that appointment which it was before : and we do
not any where read that Moses ever made a correction of it.
The adding the five days to the year under Assis, before
mentioned, happened after the children of Israel came out of
Egypt ; and so Moses might be learned in all the learning of
the Egyptians, and yet not instructed in this point, which was
g Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 806. Par. 1620. the year, and Solon determined it one
h Herod. 1. i. §. 32. Solon seems to way, and Thales another.
hint, tliat a month of 30 days should be i Thus Ovid, Fast. lib. i.
intercalated every other year ; but this Tempora digereret cum conditor urbis, in anna
is supposnig the year to contain 375 Constituit menses quinque bis esse suo.
days. Either Solon was not acquainted
with Thales's measure of a year, or k Plutarch, in vit. Num. p. 71. Par.
Herodotus made a mistake in his rela- 1624.
tion ; or the Greeks were about this 1 Id. ibid.
time trying to fix the true measure of m Exod. xii.
vili PREFACE.
a discovery made after his leaving them. Twelve months
were a year in the times of David and Solomon, as appears
by the course of household officers" appointed by the one,
and of captains o by the other; and we nowhere in the books
of the Old Testament find any mention of an intercalary
month ; and Scaliger is positive, that there was no such month
used in the times of Moses, or of the Judges, or of the Kings P.
And that each month had thirty days, and no more, is evident
from Moses's computation of the duration of the flood. The
flood began, he tells us^, on the seventeenth day of the second
month ; prevailed without any sensible abatement for 1 50
days'", and then lodged the ark on mount Ararat, on^ the
seventeenth day of the seventh month ; so that we see, from
the seventeenth of the second month to the seventeenth of
the seventh [i. e. for five whole months] he allows one hundred
and fifty days, which is just thirty days to each month, for
five times thirty days are an hundred and fifty. This there-
fore was the ancient Jewish year ; and I imagine this year
was in use amongst them, without emendation, at least to a
much later pei'iod than that to which I am to bring down
this work. Dean Prideaux' treats pretty largely of the an-
cient Jewish year, from Selden, and from the Talmud and
Maimonides ; but the year he speaks of seems not to have
been used until after the captivity".
From what has been said it must be evident that the chro-
nologers do, in the general, mistake, in supposing the ancient
year commensurate with the present Julian, The 1656 years,
which preceded the flood, came short of so many Julian years
by above twenty-three years. And in like manner after the
flood, all nations, till the sera of Nabonassar, which begins
exactly where my history is to end, computing by a year of
360 days, except the Egyptians only, (and they altered the
old computation but a century or two before,) and the differ-
ence between this ancient year and the Julian being five days
n I Kings iv. 7. r Ver. 24.
0 I Chron. xxvii. s Gen. viii. 3, 4.
P Lib. de Emend. Temp. Lib. iii. in * Preface to the first volume of his
capite de Anno priscorum Hebrseorum Connection.
Abrahameo. u See Scaliger in loc. supr. citat.
1 Gen. vii. 11.
PREFACE. ix
in each year, besides the day in every leap-year ; it is very
clear that the space of time between the flood and the death
of Sardanapalus, supposed to contain about 1600 ancient
years, will fall short of so many Julian years by five days and
about a fourth part of a day in every year, which amounts to
one or two and twenty years in the whole time : but I would
only hint this here ; the uses that may be made of it shall be
observed in their proper places. There are many chronolo-
gical difficulties, which the reader will meet with, of another
nature; but as I have endeavoured to adjust them in the
places they belong to, it would be needless to repeat here
what will be found at large in the ensuing pages.
I shall very probably be thought to have taken great liberty
in the accounts I have given of the most ancient profane his-
tory, particularly in that which is antediluvian, and which I
have reduced to an agreement with the history of Moses. It
will be said, take it all together, as it lies in the authors from
whom we have it, and it has no such harmony with the sacred
writer ; and to make an harmony by taking part of what is
represented, and such part only as you please, every thing, or
any thing, may be made to agree in this manner; but such
an agreement will not be much regarded by the unbiassed.
To this I answer : The heathen accounts which we have of
these early ages were taken from the records of either Thyoth
the Egyptian, or Sanchoniathon of Berytus ; and whatever
the original memoirs of these men were, we are sure their
accounts were, some time after their decease, corrupted with
fable and mystical philosophy. Philo of Byblos in one place''
seems to think that Taautus himself wrote his Sacra, and his
theology, in a way above the understanding of the common
people, in order to create reverence and respect to the sub-
jects he treated of; and that Surmubelus and Theuro, some
ages after, endeavoured to explain his works, by stripping
them of the allegory, and giving their true meaning : but I
cannot think a writer so ancient as Athothes wrote in fable or
allegory ; the first memoirs or histories were, without doubt,
short and plain, and men afterwai'ds embellished them with
X See Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. 10.
X PREFACE.
false learning, and in time endeavoured to correct that, and
arrive at the true. All therefore that I can collect from this
passage of Philo Byblius is this, that Thyoth's memoirs did
not continue such as he left them ; Surmubelus and Theuro
in some time altered them, and I fear, whoever they were,
they altered them for the worse ; for such were the alterations
which succeeding generations made in the records of their
ancestors, as appears from what the same writer further
offersy. " When Saturnus," says he, [now I think Saturnus
to be only another name for Mizraim,] " went to the south,"
[i. e. when he removed from the lower Egypt into Thebais,
which I have taken notice of in its place,] "he made Taautus
" king of all Egypt, and the Cabiri" [who were the sons of
Mizrairn] "made memoirs of these transactions:" such were
the first writings of mankind ; short hints or records of what
they did, and where they settled : " but the son of Thabio,
" one of the first interpreters of the Sacra of the Phoenicians,
" by his comments and interpretations, filled these records
" full of allegory, and mixed his physiological philosophy
" with them, and so left them to the priests, and they to their
" successors ; and with these additions and mixtures they
" came into the hands of the Greeks, who were men of an
" abounding fancy, and they, by new applications, and by in-
" creasing the number, and the extravagancy of the fable, did
" in time leave but little appearance of any thing like truth
" in them." We have much the same account of the writings
of Sanchoniathon. " Sanchoniathon of Berytus," we are
told^ "wrote his history of the Jewish antiquities with the
" greatest care and fidelity, having received his facts from
" Hierombalus, a priest ; and having a mind to write an uni-
" versal history of all nations from the beginning, he took the
" greatest pains in searching the records of Taautus ; but
" some later writers [probably the persons before mentioned]
" had corrupted his remains by their allegorical interpreta-
" tions and physical additions ; for (says Philo) the moie
" modern tepoAoyot, priests, or explainers of the Sacra, had
" omitted to relate the true facts as they were recorded,
y See Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. lo. z See Euseb. Praep. Evang. 1. i. c. 9. ad fin.
PREFACE. xi
" instead of which they had obscured them by'* invented ac-
" counts and mysterious fictions, drawn from their notions of
" the nature of the universe ; so that it was not easy for one
" to distinguish the real facts which Taautus had recorded,
" from the fictions superadded to them. But he [i. e. San-
" choniathon] finding some of the books of the Animonei,
" which were kept in the libraries or registries of the temples,
" examined every thing with the greatest care, and, rejecting
" the allegories and fables which at first sight offered them-
" selves, he at length brought his work to perfection. But
" the priests that lived after him, adding their comments and
" explications to his work, in some time brought all back to
" mythology again." This, I think, is a just account of what
has been the fate of the ancient heathen remains ; they were
clear and true when left by their authors, but after-writers
corriipted them by the addition of fable and false philosophy ;
and therefore any one that would endeavour to give a pro-
bable account of things from the remains of Thyoth or San-
choniathon, must set aside what he finds to be allegory and
fable, as the surest way to come at the true remains of these
ancient authors. This I have endeavoured to do in my ac-
counts of the Phoenician and Egyptian antiquities. I have
added nothing to their history ; and if their ancient remains
be carefully examined, the nature of what I have omitted will
justify my omitting it ; and what I have taken from them
will, I believe, satisfy the judicious reader, that these ancient
writers, before their writings were corrupted, left accounts
very agreeable to that of Moses.
Some persons think the remains we have of Sanchoniathon,
and the extracts from Taautus, to be mere figments, and that
a We have an instance in Plutarch having privately lain with Saturn, begged
(lib. de Iside ad in. p. ,^55. Par. 1624.) of the sun that she might bring forth in
of the manner in which the ancient re- no month nor year ; Mercury hereupon
cords were obscured by fable. The an- was set to play at dice with the moon,
cient Egyptians had recorded the alter- and won from her the seventy-second
ation of the year which I have treated part of each day, which being given to
of, and perhaps observed, that it was the sun, made the five additional days,
caused by the sun's annual course be- over and above the settled months of
coming five days longer than it before the year, in one of which Rhea was
was, and that the moon's course was brought to bed. Five days are the
proportionably shortened. The mytho- seventy-second part of 360 days, which
logic priests turned this account into was the length of the ancient year.
the following fable: Rhea, they say.
xii PREFACE.
very probably there never were either such men or such
writers. But to this I answer with bishop Stillingfleet^ : Had
it been so, the antagonists of Porphyry, Methodius, Apolli-
naris, but especially Eusebius, who was so well versed in
antiquities, would have found out so great a cheat ; for how-
ever they have been accused of admitting pious frauds, yet
they were such as made for them, and not against them, as
the works of these writers were thought to do, when the ene-
mies of Christianity produced them ; and I dare say, that if
the fragments of these ancients did indeed contradict the
sacred history, instead of what they may, I think, when fairly
interpreted, be proved to do, namely, to agree with it, and
to be thereby an additional argument of its uncorrupted truth
and antiquity, our modern enemies of revealed religion
would think it a partiality not to allow them as much au-
thority as our Bible.
As the works of Taautus and Sanchoniathon were cor-
rupted by the fables of authors that wrote after them, so
probably the Chaldeean records suffered alterations from the
fancies of those who in after-ages copied them, and from
hence the reigns [or lives] of Berosus's antediluvian kings [or
rather men] came to be extended to so incredible a length.
The lives of men in these times were extraordinary, as Moses
has represented them ; but the profane historians, fond of the
marvellous, have far exceeded the truth in their relations.
Berosus computes their lives by a term of years called sarus;
each sarus, he says, is 603 years, and he imagines some of
them to have lived ten, twelve, thirteen, and eighteen sar%
i. e. 6030, 7236, 7839, and 10854 years : but mistakes of this
sort have happened in writers of a much later date. Dio-
dorus and other writers represent the armies of Semiramis,
and her buildings at Babylon, more numerous and magnificent
than can be conceived by any one that considers the infant
state kingdoms were in when she reigned. Abraham, with a
family of between three and four hundred persons, made the
figure of a mighty prince in these early times, for the earth
was not full of people : and if we come down to the times of
b Origines Sacrae, b. i. c. 2.
PREFACE. xiii
the Trojan war, we do not find reason to imagine, that the
countries which the heathen writers treated of were more
potent or populous than their contemporaries, of whom we
have accounts in the sacred pages ; but the heathen histori-
ans, hearing that Semiramis, or other ancient princes, did
what were wonders in their age, took care to tell them in a
way and manner that should make them wonders in their
own. In a word, Moses is the only writer whose accounts
are liable to no exception. We must make allowances in
many particulars to all others, and very great ones in the
point before us, to reconcile them to either truth or proba-
bility ; and I think I have met with a saying of an heathen
writer, which seems to intimate it ; for he uses words some-
thing to this purpose : Datur hcec venia antiquitati, ut mis-
cendojicta vieris primordia sua augustior a facial.
In my history of the Assyrian empire after the flood, I
have followed that account which the ancient writers are
supposed to have taken from Ctesias. Herodotus diflfers much
from it; he imagines the'^ Assyrian empiic to have begun but
520 years before the Medes broke oiF their subjection to it,
and thinks Semiramis to have been but five generations older
than*^ Nitocris, the mother of Labynetus, called in Scripture
Belshazzar, in whose reign Cyrus took Babylon. Five gene-
rations, says sir John Marsham^ could not make up 200
years. Herodotus has been thought to be mistaken in this
point by all antiquity. Herennius observes, that Babylon f
was built by Belus, and makes it older than Semiramis by
2000 years, imagining perhaps Semiramis to be as late as
Herodotus has placed her, or taking Atossa, the daughter of
Cyrus, to be Semiramis, as Photius" suggests Conon to have
done. Herennius was indeed much mistaken in the antiquity
of Babylon -, but whoever considers his opinion will find no
reason to quote him, as sir John Marsham^ does, in favour of
Herodotus. Porphyry' is said to place Semiramis about the
time of the Trojan war; but as he acknowledges in the same
c Herodot. 1. i. §. 95. f Ap. Steph. Byz. in voce ;8a/3.
d Id. ibid. §. 184. g Phot. Myriob. Tm. 186. Narrat. 9.
e Can. Chron. §. 17. p. 489. Lend. ^ In loc. supr. cit.
1672. i Euseb. Prsep. 1. x. c. 9.
xiv PREFACE.
place that she might be older, his opinion is no confirmation
of Herodotus's account. From Moses's Nimrod to Nabo-
nassar appears evidently from Scripture to be about 1500
years, for so many years there are between the time that
Nimrod began to be a mighty one^^, and the reign of Ahaz
king of Judah, who was contemporary with Nabonassar ; and
therefore Herodotus, in imagining the first Assyrian kings to
be but 520 years before Deioces of Media, falls short of the
truth above 900 years. But there ought to be no great stress
laid upon Herodotus's account in this matter ; he seems to
own himself to have taken up his opinion from report only,
and not to have examined any records to assure him of the
truth of it^
Ctesias, who was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, and
lived in his court and near his person about seventeen years,
wrote his history about an hundred years after Herodotus.
He was every way well qualified to correct the mistakes
which Herodotus had made in his history of the Assyrian
and Persian affairs ; for he did not write, as Herodotus did,
from hearsay and report, but he searched™ the royal records
of Persia, in which all transactions and afiPairs of the govern-
ment were faithfully registered. That there were such records
was a thing well known ; and the books of Ezra and Esther
give" us a testimony of them. Ctesias's account falls very
well within the compass of time which the Hebrew Scriptures
allow for such a series of kings as he has given us : and we
have not only the Hebrew Scriptures to assure us, that from
Nimrod to Nabonassar were as many years as he computes,
but it appears from what Callisthenes the philosopher °, who
accompanied Alexander the Great, observed of the astronomy
of the Babylonians, that they had been a people eminent for
learning for as long a time backward as Ctesias supposes ;
they had astronomical observations for 1903 years backward,
when Alexander took Babylon ; and Alexander's taking
Babylon happening about 420 years after Nabonassar, it is
evident they must have been settled near 1500 years before
k Gen. x. 8. 2 Kings xvi. 7. ni Diodorus Siculus, lib. ii. p. 84.
1 Lib. i. c. 95. dis Taji/ Xlepffiouv |i€Te- " Ezra iv. 15. Esther vi. i.
^(Ttpot \4yovcri Kara Tavra ypa.\\ia>. o Simplicius, 1. ii. de Coelo.
PREFACE. XV
his reign ; and thus Ctesias's account is, as to the substance
of it, confirmed by very good authorities. The Scriptures
shew us that there was such an interval between the first
Assyrian king and Nabonassar as he imagines. The observa-
tions of Callisthenes prove that the Assyrians were promoters
of learning during that whole interval, and Ctesias's account
only supplies us with the number and names of the kings,
whose reigns, according to the royal records of Persia, filled
up such an interval. Ctesias's accounts and Callisthenes's
observations were not framed with a design to be suited ex-
actly to one another, or to the Scripture, and therefore their
agreeing so well together is a good confirmation of the truth
of each of them.
There are indeed some things objected against Ctesias and
his history. We find the ancients had but a mean opinion
of him ; he is treated as a fabulous writer by Aristotle, An-
tigonus, Caristheus, Plutarch, Arrian, and Photius : but I
might observe, none of these writers ever imagined him to
have invented a whole catalogue of kings, but only to have
related things not true of those persons he has treated of.
There are, without doubt, many mistakes and transactions
misreported in the writings of Ctesias, and so there are in
Herodotus, and in every other heathen historian : but it
would be a very unfair way of criticising, to set aside a whole
work as fabulous, for some errors or falsehoods found in it.
However, H. Stephens has justly observed, that it was the
Indian history of Ctesias, and not his Persian p, that was most
liable to the objections of these writers : in that indeed he
might sometimes romance, for we do not find he wrote it from
such authentic vouchers ; but in his Persian history there are
evident proofs i that he had a disposition to tell the truth,
where he might have motives to the contrary : in a word,
though he might be mistaken in the grandeur of the first
kings, thinks their armies more numerous than they really
■were, and their empires greater, and their buildings more
magnificent, yet there is no room to imagine that he could
P Hen. Stephanus in Disquisitione de Ctesia. 1 Id. ibid.
xvi PREFACE.
pretend to put off a list of kings, as extracted from tke
Persian records, whose names were never in them ; or if he
had attempted to forge one, he could hardly have happened
to fill up so exactly the interval, without making it more
or less than it appears to have been from the Hebrew
Scriptures, and from what was afterwards observed from the
Chaldsean astronomy.
I am sensible that the account which Callisthenes is said
to give of the celestial observations at Babylon is called in
question by the same writers that dispute Ctesias's authority,
but with as little reason. They quote Pliny •^, who affirms
Berosus to say, that the Babylonians had celestial observa-
tions for 480 years backwards from his times ; and Epigenes
to assert, that they had such observations for 720 years back
from his time ; and they would infer from hence, that the
Babylonian observations reached no higher. But it is remark-
able, that both Berosus and Epigenes suppose their observa-
tions to be no earlier than Nabonassar ; for from Nabonassar
to the time in which Berosus flourished is about 480 years,
and to the times of Epigenes about 720^. The Babylonians
had not (as I have observed) settled a good measure of a
year until about this time, and therefore could not be exact
in their more ancient computations. Syncellus* remarks upon
them to this purpose ; and for this reason Berosus, Epigenes,
and Ptolemy afterwards took no notice of what they had
observed before Nabonassar, not intending to assert that
they had made no observations, but, their astronomy not
being at all exact, their observations were not thought worth
examining.
There are some other arguments offered to invalidate the
accounts of Ctesias. It is remarked, that the names of his
kings are Persian or Greek, and not Assyrian; and it is
said that he represents the state of Assyria otherwise than it
appeal's to have been Gen. xiv. when Abraham with his
household beat the armies of the king of Shinaar, Elam, and
three other kings with them. But the latter of these objec-
tions will be answered in its place ; and the former, I con-
"■ Plin. 1. vii. c. 56. s Marsham Can. Chron. 474. t Syncell. p. 207.
PREFACE. xvii
ceive, can have no weight with the learned, who know what
a variety of names are given to the men of the first ages by
writers of different nations.
Upon the whole, Ctesias's catalogue of the first Assyrian
kings seems a very consistent and well-grounded correction
of Herodotu.s's hearsay and imperfect relation of their anti-
quities ; and as such it has been received by Diodorus Sicu-
lus, by Cephaleon and Castor, by Trogus Pompeius, and
Velleius Paterculus, and afterwards by Africanus, Eusebius,
and Syncellus. Sir John Marsham raised the first doubts
about it" ; but I cannot but think that the accounts which
he endeavours to give of the original of the Assyrians will be
always reckoned amongst the peculiarities of that learned
gentleman. There are some small differences amongst the
writers that have copied from Ctesias, about the true number
of kings from Ninus to Sardanapalus, as well as about the
sum of the duration of their reigns ; but if what I have of-
fered in defence of Ctesias himself may be admitted, the
mistakes of those that have copied from him will easily be
corrected in their proper places.
I hope the digressions in this work will not be thought too
many or too tedious ; they were occasioned by the cir-
cumstances of the times I treat of. I have not made it my
business to write at large upon any of them ; but I thought a
few general hints of what might be offered upon them would
be both acceptable to the reader, and not foreign to the
purpose I have in hand ; all of them, if duly considered,
tending very evidently to the illustrating the sacred history.
There are two subjects which the reader might expect at the
beginning of this work ; one of them is the account of the
creation of the world, the other is the state of Adam and Eve
in Paradise, their fall, and their loss of it. Of the former of
these I would give some account in this place : the latter, I
think, may be treated with greater clearness when I come
heareafter to speak of Moses and his writings.
I. The account which Moses gives of the creation is to this
purpose :
" Marsh. Can. Cliron. p. 485. speak- cujtts veritate, cum nemo adhuc sit qui
ing of Ctesias's catalogue, he says, De dubitaverit, &c.
VOL. I. b
xviii PREFACE.
In the heginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth after it was created was for some time a con-
fused and indigested mass of matter, a dark and unformed
chaos : but God in six days reduced it into a world in the
following manner :
First, The Spirit of God moved upon the fluid matter, and
separated the parts it consisted of from one another ; some
of them shined like the light of the day, others were opaque
like the darkness of the night : God separated them one from
the other ; and this was the first step taken in the formation
of the world.
Secondly, God thought it proper to have an'^ expansion
between the earth and heaven, capable of supporting clouds
of water ; the appointing this expansion, and suspending the
waters in it, was the woi'k'of the second day.
Thirdly, After this, God caused the waters of the earth to
be drawn off, so as to drain the ground ; and thus were the
seas gathered together, and the dry land appeared ; and then
God produced from the earth all manner of trees and grass
and herbs and fruits.
On the fourth day God made the lights of heaven capable
of being serviceable to the world in several respects, fitted to
distribute light and heat, to divide day and night, and to
mark out time, seasons, and years : two of them were more
especially remarkable, the sun and the moon ; the sun he
made to shine in the day, the moon in the night, and he gave
the stars their proper places.
Fifthly, Out of the waters God created all the fishes of the
sea, and the fowls of the air.
On the sixth day, out of the earth God made all the other
living creatures, beasts, and cattle, and every thing that
creepeth upon the earth ; and last of all he made man, a
more noble creature than any of the rest : he made his body
of the dust of the earth, and afterwards animated him with a
living soul. And out of the man he made the woman. This
is the substance of the account which Moses has given of
the creation of the world. Moses did not write till above
X Rachiang properly signifies an ex- the Greek word a-repeafjM, or our English
pansion, and not what is implied by word Ji'rmameiit,
PREFACE. xix
2300 years after the creation ; but we have nothing extant so
ancient as this account.
II, We have several heathen fragments, which express
many of the sentiments of Moses about the creation. The
scene of learning, in the first ages, lay in India, in the
countries near to Babylon, in Egypt, and in time it spread
into Greece.
The Indians have been much famed for their ancient
learning. Megasthenes is cited by Clemens Alexandrinusx,
representing the Indians and the Jews as the great masters
of the learning which afterwards the Greeks were famous
for : but the antiquities of these nations have either been
but little known, or their ancient learning is by some accident
lost, for our best late inquirers can now meet no remains of
it. Strabo and Clemens Alexandrinus give hints of several
notions amongst them, which would argue them to have been
a very learned people ; but the only considerable specimen
we now have of their literature is the writings of Confucius :
their present notions of philosophy are mean and vulgar, and
whatever their ancient learning was, it was either destroyed
by their emperor Zio, who, they say, burnt all their ancient
books, or by some other accident it is lost.
The works of the most ancient Phoenician, Egyptian, and
of many of the Greek writers, are also perished ; but succeed-
ing generations have accidentally preserved many of their
notions, and we have considerable fragments of their writings
transmitted to us. The Egyptians, as Diodorus Siculus^
informs us, affirmed, that in the beginning the heavens and
the earth were in one lump, mixed and blended together in
the same mass. This position may at first sight seem to
dififer from Moses, who makes the heavens and the earth dis-
tinct at their first creation : but it is obvious to observe, that
the Egyptians did not take the word heaven in the large
and extended sense, but only signified by it the air and
planetary regions belonging to our world ; for the first
Greeks, who had their learning from Egypt, agree very
fully with Moses in this point. In the beginning, says
y Strom, lib. i. p. 360. edit. Oxon. z Diodor. Sic. 1. i. p. 4.
b2
XX PREFACE.
Orpheus'*, the heavens were made by God ; and in the heavens
there was a chaos, and a terrible darkness was on all the parts
of this chaos, and covered all things under the heaven. This
position is very agreeable to that of Moses : In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth loas with-
out form, and void, i. e. was a chaos, and darkness teas upon
the face of the deep. Orpheus did not conceive the heavens
and the earth to have ever been in one mass, for, as Syrian''
observes, the heavens and the chaos were, according to Or-
pheus, the principia, out of which the rest were produced.
The ancient heathen writers do not generally begin their
accounts so high as the creation of the heavens and the chaos ;
they commonly go no further backward than to the formation
of the chaos into a world. Moses describes this in the follow-
ing manner : The earth was without form, and void, and dark-
ness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters. Anaxagoras, as Laertius
informs us, began his book^, All things were at first in one
mass; but an intelligent Agent came and put them in order:
or as Aristotle^ gives us his opinion, All things, says he, lay
in one mass, for a vast space of time; but an intelligent Agent
came and put them in motion, and so separated them from one
another. We have Sanchoniathon's account of things in
Eusebius ; and if we throw aside the mythology and false
philosophy which those that lived after him added to his
writings, we may pick up a few very ancient and remark-
able truths, namely, that there was a dark and confused
chaos, and a blast of wind or air, to put it in a ferment or
agitation ; this wind he calls ave[xos KoXirLa ; not the wind
Colpia, as Eusebius seems to take it, but ai>e[xos Col-Pi-Jah,
i. e. ^the wind or breath of the voice of the mouth of the
Lord ; and if this was his meaning, he very emphatically
expresses God's making all things with a word, and intimates
a Suid. voc. 'Op(|). Cedren. ex Timol. d ^y^irl yap 'Kvai,a.y6pas, d/xov irivrav
p. 57. Procl. in Tim. )3t;8. p. 117- ovTcev KoXr^pefjiovvToiv rbv&Treipovxpivov,
b Aristot. Metapli. p. 7- edit. Acad. KivTjffw iixiroiriaai Thv T^ovv Ka\ Si.aKp7vai.
Ven. 1558. Arist. Phys. Ausc. 1. viii. c. i.
'^ ndvTa xp^/ttoTa ■^v bfj-ov' efra tiovs ^ n''"''D"^1p.
i\6(iiy avTo, SieKdcTfxriffe. Lib. ii .segm, 6.
PREFACE. xxi
also what the Chaldee paraphrast insinuates from the words
of Moses, that the chaos was put into its first agitation by
a mighty and strong wind.
Some general hints of these things are to be found in
many of the remains of the ancient Greek writers. Thales's
opinion was, that the first principle of all things was vhoop,
or icater^. And this TuUy afiirms" to have been his opinion :
but it should be remarked from Plutarch's observation, that
Thales's vgcop was not pure elementary water. The suc-
cessors of Thales came by degrees to imagine that water,
by being condensed, might be made earth, and by being
rarefied would evaporate into air; and some writers have
hence imagined, that Thales thought water to be the initium
rerum, i. e. the first principle, out of which all other things
were made : but this was not Thales's doctrine. The ancient
philosophers are said to have called water chaos, from x^f«>j
the Greek word which signifies diffusion; so that the word
chaos was used ambiguously, sometimes as a proper name,
and sometimes for water ; and it is conceived that this might
occasion Thales's opinion to be mistaken, and himself to be
represented as asserting the beginning of things to be from
chaos, water, when he meant from a chaos. But take him
in the other sense, asserting things to have arisen from water,
it is easy to suppose him to mean by water a fluid substance,
for this was the ancient doctrine : and thus Sanchoniathon
argues ; from the chaos he supposes IID, or muddy matter,
to arise: and thus Orpheus h, out of the fluid chaos arose a
muddy substance : and ApoUonius \ out of the muddy sub-
stance the earth was formed, i. e. says the Scholiast, the
chaos of which all things were made was a fluid substance ;
this by settling became mud, and that in time dried and
condensed into solid earth. It is remarkable that Moses
calls the chaos water in this sense ; the Spirit of God, he
says, moved upon the face of the maim, waters, or fluid,
matter.
f 'Apxhv Twv iravTuv liSoip inreffTf]- tium rerum. ^ ^
<roTo. Laert. 1. i. segm. 27. h 'Ek tov USaros l\vs KarecTTj.
S Lib. de Natura Deorum i. §. lo. i 'E| iXod ifiKdffrnfff X^'^" «"'^^-
Thales Milesius aquam dixit esse ini-
xxii PREFACE.
The fragments to be collected from the Greek writers are
but few and short ; the Egyptian are something larger.
According to Diodorus'', they assert, i. as I have before
hinted, that the heavens and earth were at first in one
confused and mixed heap. 2. That, upon a separation,
the lightest and most fiery parts flew upwards*, and became
the lights of heaven. 3. That the earth was in time drained
of the water, 4. That the moist clay of the earth, enlivened
by°^ the heat of the sun, brought forth living creatures and
men. A very little turn would -accommodate these par-
ticulars to those of Moses, as may be seen by comparing
the account of Diodorus with that which is given us by
the author of the Pimander in Jamblichus. The ancient
philosophy had been variously commented upon, disguised
and disfigured, according as the idolatry of the world had
corrupted men's notions, or the speculations of the learned
had misled them, before the times of Diodorus Siculus ;
and it is so far from being an objection, that the accounts
he gives do in some points differ from Moses, that it is
rather a wonder that he, or any other writer, could, after so
many revolutions of religion, of learning, of kingdoms, of
ages, be able to collect from the remains of antiquity any
positions so agreeable to one another, as those which he has
given us, and the accounts of Moses are.
But, III. Though the ancients have hinted many of the
positions laid down by Moses, yet we do not find that they
ever made use of any true or solid reasoning, or were masters
of any clear and well-grounded learning, which might lead
them to the knowledge of these truths. All the knowledge
which the ancients had in these points lay at first in a narrow
compass ; they were in possession of a few truths, which
they had received from their forefathers; they transmitted
these to their children, only telling them that such and such
things were so, but not giving them reasons for, or demon-
strations of, the truth of them. Philosophy" was not dis-
k Lib. I. Kpia-if. Plutarch. Placit. Phil. ii. 13.
1 This was the opinion of Empedo- ni Ta {T-jk f'f rrjy l\vos yfvuriO^it'ai,
cles. 'EyUTreSy/cArjj nvpiva to, &ffTpa Sk was a position euiijraced by Archelaus,
rod TTupwSovs, 'diTip d al6r]p iv kavrcf and several other Greeks.
7r€p(«xw^ e|e'0Ati(/e Kara. r)}v vpwTrjv Sid- " Clem. Alex. Strom, viii. adPrincip,
PREFACE. xxiii
putative until it came into Greece ; the ancient professors
had no controversies about it ; they received what was handed
down to them, and out of the treasure of their traditions
imparted to others ; and the principles they went upon to
teach or to learn by were not to search into the nature of
things, or to consider what they could find by philosophical
examinations, but, ask, and it shall be told you; search the
records of antiquity^ and you shall find xohat you inquire
after : these were the maxims and directions of their studies.
And this was the method in which the ancient Greeks
were instructed in the Egyptian physiology. The Egyp-
tians taught their disciples geometry, astronomy, physic, and
some other arts, and in these, it is likely, they laid a founda-
tion, and taught the elements and principles of each science:
but in physiology the case was quite otherwise ; the Egyp-
tians themselves knew but little of it, though they made
the most of their small stock of knowledge «, by keeping it
concealed, and diverting their students from attempting to
search and examine it to the bottom. If at any time they
were obliged to admit an inquirer into their arcana, we
findP they did it in the following manner: i. They put him
upon studying their common letters ; in the next place he
was to acquaint himself with their sacred character ; and in
the last place to make himself master of their hieroglyphic :
and after he had thus qualified himself, he was permitted to
search and examine their collections, and to decipher what
he found in them. And thus they did not furnish their
students with the reasons of things, or teach them by a
course of argument to raise a theory of the powers of nature,
for in truth they themselves had never turned their studies
this way. The art*i which they had cultivated was that
of disguising and concealing their traditions from the vul-
gar; and so, instead of supporting them with reason and
argument, they had expressed them in mystical sentences,
and wrote them down in intricate and uncommon characters ;
and all that the student had to do was to unravel these intri-
cacies, to learn to read what was written, aad to be able to
o Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 806. P Clem, Alex. Strom, v. §. 4. 1 Id. Ibid.
xxiv PREFACE.
explain a dark and enigmatical sentence, and to give it its
true meaning.
If we look into the accounts we have of them, we shall
find that the most eminent Greek masters of this part of
learning were not men of retired study and speculation, but
industrious travellers, who took pains to collect the ancient
traditions. The first hints of physiology were brought into
Greece by the poets Hesiod, Homer, Linus, and some others:
but these men had taken up their notions too hastily; they
gathered up a few of the Egyptian fables, but they had not
searched deep enough into their ancient treasures ; so that
in a little time their notions, though they had taken root
amongst the vulgar, and were made sacred by being of use
and service in religion, came to be overlooked by men of
parts and inquiry, who endeavoured to search after a better
philosophy. From Pherecydes, the son of Badis, to the
times of Aristotle, are about three hundred years ; and
during all that space of time philosophy, in all its branches,
was cultivated by the greatest wits of Greece with all possi-
ble industry : but they had only Thales, Pythagoras, and
Plato, who were the eminent masters ; all the other phi-
losophers must be ranged under these, as being only ex-
plainers or commentators upon the works of these, or at
most the builders of an hypothesis, from some hints given by
them. Thales, Pythagoras, and Plato were the originals of
the Greek learning ; and it is remarkable that they did not
invent that part of their philosophy which I am treating of,
but they travelled for it, and collected it from the records
of other nations.
Thales, we find "■, travelled to Egypt ; and after having
spent some years there, he brought home with him a few
traditions, which, though but few, obtained him the credit
of being the first who made a dissertation upon nature ^ ; for,
in truth, all before him was fable and allegory : but Thales
was so far from having furnished himself with all that might
be collected, or from pretending to build a theory of natural
knowledge upon principles of speculation, that he advised
>■ Laert. 1. i. seg. 24. s Upwros 5« Koi irepl (pva-eus SieXfx^V- Id.
PREFACE. XXV
Pythagoras*, who studied for some time under him, to finish
his studies in the way and method that himself had taken ;
and, according to his directions, Pythagoras, for above forty
years together", travelled from nation to nation, from Greece
to Phoenicia, from Phoenicia to Egypt, and from Egypt to
Babylon, searching every place he came at, and gathering
all the traditions he could meet with; omitting to converse
with no person eminent for learning, and endeavouring to
collect from the Egyptians and the Jews, and all others he
could meet with, every ancient dogma. These were the
pursuits of Pythagoras, and this his course of study ; and
from his diligent searches he acquired a great stock of an-
cient truths, collected in such a manner, that it is no wonder
he afterwards taught them with an air of authority condemned
by Cicero^, who would have set philosophy upon the basis
of reason and argument ; but Pythagoras took up his notions
upon the authority of others, and could therefore give them
to his disciples no otherwise than he had them. His ovtos
e(f)r] was the proof of what he asserted, for he had collected,
not invented, his science, and so he declared or delivered
what he had gathered up, but he did not pretend to argue
or give reasons for it.
If we look into the writings of Plato, we may see that he
confessed what I am contending for in the freest manner.
He never asserted his physiology to be the product of his
invention, or the result of rational inquiries and speculations,
but acknowledged it to be a collection of traditions gleaned
up from the remains of those that lived before him. In the
general he asserts y, that the Greeks received their most valu-
able learning from the traditions of barbarians more ancient
than themselves ; and often speaks of Phoenician and Syrian,
i. e. Hebrew fables z, as the ground of many of their notions.
He particularly instances a Phoenician fable* concerning the
fraternity of mankind, and their first derivation from the
t Jamblic. de vit. Pythag. c. 2. edit. Cant. 1677.
u Porph. de vit. Pyth. et Jamblic. x Lib. deNatura Deorum, i. §. 5.
Voss. de Philos. Sect. 1. ii c. ii. §. 2. y In Cratyl. p. 426.
Clem. Alex. Strom, i. Id. Strom, v. z See Bochart's Phaleg. 1. iv. c. 24.
Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. ix. c. 6. Joseph. a Lib. de Rep. iii. p. 414.
contra Apion. Orig. adv. Cels. 1. i. p. 13.
xxvi PREFACE.
ground, or earth ; and confesses*' that their knowledge of the
Deity was derived from the gods, who communicated it to
men by one Prometheus : nay, he calls it a tradition, which
the ancients, who, says he, were better, and dwelt nearer the
gods than we, have transmitted to us. In his treatise De
Legibus^, he makes mention of an ancient tradition about the
nature of God. And in his Phcedo^^ treating of the immor-
tality of the soul, he introduces Socrates reminding his friend,
that they had an ancient tradition asserting it, and that the
surest and best way to prove it was by the divine account or
tradition of it. In his Timceus^^ being about to treat of the
origin of the universe, he lays down this preliminary ; " It is
" just that both I who discourse, and you that judge, should
" remember that we are but men ; and therefore, receiving
" the probable mythologic tradition, it is meet that we in-
" quire no further into it." In his PoUticus^, he gives a
large account of Adam's state of innocence, in the fable of
Saturn's golden age, which he was so far from taking in the
literal sense of the poets, that he complains of the want of a
fit interpreter to give it its true meaning. In the same man-
ner, his fable of Porus's getting drunk in Jupiter's garden
was very probably derived from the ancient accounts of
Adam's fall in the garden of Eden. In short, Plato's works
are every where full of the ancient traditions, which, as he
had collected very carefully, so he always endeavoured to
deliver without art or reserve, excepting only some fabulous
turn, which he was now and then forced to give them, to
humour the Greeks.
There were many philosophers amongst the Greeks, who
in their several times endeavoured to reason upon the posi-
tions that had been laid down by these masters, and to form
a system by deductions of argument and speculation ; but all
their attempts this way proved idle and insufficient ; truth
suffered instead of being advanced by them. Pherecydes
endeavoured to form a system from the poets", and wrote a
TJieogonia in ten books ; but his performance was dark and
l> In Phileb. p. 17. f P. 272.
c De Legib. 1. iii. S Laert. Ger. Voss. de Histor. Graec.
d In Pheedon. p. 96. 1. iv. c. 4.
e In Timseo, p. 29.
PREFACE. xxvii
fabulous, full of fancy and allegory, but in nowise a specimen
of true philosophy. The followers of Thales made attempts
of the same sort with as little success. Anaximander and
Anaximenes endeavoured to form a system upon Thales's
principles ; but instead of clearing any thing that had been
advanced by their master, or of opening a way to more truth
than he had discovered, they rather puzzled his philosophy
with a number of intricate and confused notions. Anaxagoras
undertook to correct the mistakes of Anaximenes and Anax-
imander, and pretended to set Thales's principles in their
true light, and he is clear and consistent just so far as he
keeps to Thales's traditions ; but wherever we find him at-
tempting to speculate and give reasons, there he appears but
trilling and inconclusive.
Amongst all these philosophers, Leucippus and Democritus
seem to have laid the best foundation for a good and rational
theory of nature. They did not puzzle themselves with hard
words of no meaning'', harmonic forms, ideas, qualities, and
elements ; but considered matter as a system of infinitely
small individuals, contained in an infinite extension of void
or space : but however they came by these principles, they
either set them in so different a light, or the studies of others
had carried them into notions so opposite, that this scheme,
which had the most truths in it, was less understood and
more exploded than any other.
As the traditions of Thales suffered by being mingled with
the philosophy of his successors, so the doctrines of Pytha-
goras met the same fate. His disciples were willing to have a
system, and to give reasons for the truths they had to offer ;
but if we consider what reasons they gave, what schemes
they built, what comments they made upon their master's
doctrines, we shall be abundantly convinced, that the doc-
trines of Pythagoras were not invented by their way of
reasoning. The Pythagoreans must be allowed to have been
in possession of many considerable truths, but the reasons
and arguments they offered to prove them by are weak and
frivolous, and the additions they made to them are trifling
h Burnet. Archseol, c. 12.
xxviii PREFACE.
and inconsistent, and all their speculations so false or so idle,
as to shew that they did not think well enough to discover
the noble and just sentiments which they had concerning the
works of nature. We have nothing of Pythagoras now
extant, nor' are we certain that he ever wrote any philo-
sophical composition ; it is most probable that all his vast
stock of knowledge was contained in a select number of sen-
tences, which he expressed after the manner of the Egyp-
tians, and explained to his disciples : but we have several
Pythagorean fragments, the attempts of his followers, and a
complete book of Timseus Locrus ; and we may see from any
of these performances, that as soon as these men ventured to
enlarge beyond the dogmata of their master, and advanced
speculations which they had not his authority to support ;
instead of maintaining the credit of their philosophy, they
corrupted it by degrees, made it subtle and unintelligible,
until in time they sunk it to nothing.
The last of the ancient philosophers was Aristotle ; his
system was indeed invented. He rejected the ancient tra-
ditional knowledge, thinking it unbecoming a philosopher to
offer opinions to the world which he could not prove to be
true : but then I am sensible it will be allowed me, that
what he advanced is so totally distant from truth, that he
will never be an instance of an ancient, who, by reason and
good argument, produced a well-grounded theory of natural
knowledge.
And thus if we look over all the philosophers, and con-
sider what the treasures of knowledge were which they had
amongst them, we shall find that there were many beams of
true light shining amidst their dark and confused notions ;
but this light was never derived from any use of their reason,
for they never could give any reasonable account of it. The
invisible things of God had been some way or other related
to them, and as long as they were contented to transmit to
posterity what their ancestors had transmitted to them, so
long they preserved a considerable number of truths ; but
i 'O fih ye Oecrireffios TlvOaySpas, fj-n)- Lapsu inter salutandum. The books
Ser ourbs rjiitv "CSiov Ka.Ta\nruv twv ascribed to him by Pliny and other
axirov ri^wcrev. Lucian. in libra pro writers are esteemed fictitious.
PREFACE. xxix
whenever they attempted to give reasons for these opinions,
then in a little time they bewildered themselves, under a
notion of advancing their science ; then they ceased to retain
the truth in their knowledge, changed the true principles of
things, which had been delivered to them, into a false, weak,
and inconsistent scheme of ill-grounded philosophy. And
now let us see,
IV. What does necessarily follow if this be true. If the
natural knowledge which the ancients had was traditional ;
if the succeeding generation received down only some reports
from the generation that went before it ; where was the
fountain ? who was the author of this knowledge ? Moses was
as unlikely as another to make discovery of these truths by
any powers of reason ; he was indeed learned in all the
learning of the Egyptians ; but we do not find any principles
in the Egyptian learning that could lead into the secret of
these things. It is remarkable, that Moses's account of the
creation is a bare recital of facts ; no show of argument or
speculation appears in it. He relates, that things were created
in such and such a manner ; but has no attempt of argument
to establish or account for any part of his relation. We must,
I think, allow Moses either to have had these truths im-
parted to him by immediate revelation, or we must say that
he collected the dogmata of those that lived before him. If
we choose the latter opinion, the question still remains, who
taught the predecessors of Moses these things ? Let us trace
up to the first man — how or whence had he this knowledge"^ :
how should Adam discover the manner of his own creation, or
describe the formation of the world, which was formed before
he had any being ? Besides, if these things were discoverable
by reason, and Adam, or any other person, brought them to
light by a due course of thinking, and related them to their
children ; what were the traces of this reasoning ? where to
be found \ or how were they lost ? It is sti-ange these things
should be so obvious at first, that an early attempt should
k Nee enim mundus certum diem humanae fragilitatis extendere^ ut ori-
habuit ortus sui, nee aliquid interfiiit ginem mundi facile possit ratione con-
eo tempore quo mundus divinse mentis cipere aut explicare. Julius Firmicus
ac providi numinis ratione formatus Maternus. Matlies. lib. iii. c. i .
est : nee eo usque se intentio potuit
XXX PREFACE.
discover so much truth, and that all the wit and learning
that came after, for five or six thousand years, should, instead
of improving it, only puzzle and confound it. If Adam, or
some other person of extraordinary learning, had by a chain
of reasoning brought these truths into the world, some hints
or other of the argument would have remained, as well as
the truths produced by it; or some succeeding author would,
at one time or other, have reasoned as fortunately as his
predecessor : but nothing of this sort happened ; instead of
it, we find that the early ages had a great stock of truths,
which they were so far from having learning enough to in-
vent or discover, that they could not so much as give a good
account of the true meaning of many of them. A due con-
sideration of these things must lead us to believe that God at
first revealed these things unto men ; he acquainted them
with what he had done in the creation of the world, and
what he had thus communicated to them they transmitted to
their children's children. And thus God, who in these last
days hath spoken unto us hy his Son, did in the begin7iing, in
some extraordinary manner, speak unto our fathers; for there
was a stock of knowledge in the world, which we cannot see ,
how the possessors of it could possibly have obtained any
other way : and therefore fact, as well as history, testifies,
that the notion of a revelation is no dream ; and that Moses,
in representing the early ages of the world to have had a
converse with the Deity, does no more than what the state of
their knowledge obliges us to believe of them.
Shelton, Norfolk,
Oct. 2, 1727.
THE
SACRED AND PEOFANE
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
CONNECTED.
BOOK I.
WHATEVER may have been the opinions of philoso-
phers, or the fables of poets, about the origin of man-
kind, we are sufficiently informed from history ^, that we are
descended from two persons, Adam and Eve : they lived in
the eastern parts of the world ; their first children were
Cain and Abel. Josephus ^ mentions their having daughters,
but does not say how many ; what their names were, when
they were born <=, or how they married.
Cain and Abel grew men, but were of a different genius
and disposition ; Cain was an husbandman, Abel a shepherd :
Abel was more virtuous than his brother, and when they
brought their offerings, his sacrifice was accepted beyond
a Gen. i. 26. ii. 7, &c. Sanchonia- count of their births. Gen, iv. i, 2.
tho begins mankind from two mortals, contradicts this notion. Others have
Protogonus and Eon; the other hea- supposed [see Selden de Jure Naturali
then writers are not so particular. Dio- et Gentium, lib. v. cap. 8.] that Eve
dorus Siculus formed his account of at each of their births brought forth a
the origin of mankind not fi-om histo- daughter, and that Cain married the
ry, but from what he thought to be daughter born with Abel, and Abel
the ancient philosophy. the daughter born with Cain : but the
h Antiquit. lib. i. c. 3. p. 7. trifling conceits of this sort that miglit
c Some writers have imagined that be mentioned are innumerable.
Cain and Abel were twins ; but the ac-
VOL. 1. B
2 CONNECTION or THE SACRED [boOK I.
Cain's : Cain hereupon took a private opportunity, and out
of envy and malice killed him. And this was the first act of
violence committed in the world; it proceeded from a prin-
ciple, which many actions of the same sort have since pro-
ceeded from, a spirit of emulation, which being not duly
managed, and made a spur to virtue, took an unhappy turn,
and degenerated into malice and revenge. Soon after Cain
had committed this wicked action, God appeared to him :
— but the examination and result of this affair will be best
seen, if I add it in three or four particulars.
r. God had before both vindicated himself, and excused
Abel, from having either of them given the least reason for
this violent and unjust proceeding. God had indeed ac-
cepted Abel's offering beyond Cain's ; but that was owing to
Abel's being better than Cain, and not to any partiality in
God ; for if Cain would have been as deserving, he should
have been as well accepted. If thou doest well, said God to
him ^, shall thou not ? i. e. thou shalt he accepted : hut if thou
doest not well, ^ sin lieth at the door. And as to Abel ; he had
not affected to slight Cain, or to set himself above him : Abel
would always have been heartily disposed to pay him all re-
spect; and Cain might have had all the superiority of an
elder brother ; for so God argued with him, Unto thee shall
he his desire, [or will be,] atid thou shalt rule over him ^ ; i. e.
thou mayest be his superior.
The expositors seem to treat this as a very difficult passage,
and there are several very wild and foreign senses put upon
the words unto thee shall he Ms desire. The true meaning of
them is clear and easy, if we consider that there are two
expressions in the Hebrew tongue to signify the readiness of
one person to serve or respect another. The one of them
expresses an outward attendance, the other the inward tem-
per or readiness of mind to pay respect or honour : T'~7t^'^3^i^
[ame el yad] or, our eyes are to his hand, is the one expression :
bi^np'^tljn [teshukah el] or, our desire is to him, is the other.
"^ Gen. iv. 7. a due atonement for his sins. See here-
e Dr. Lightfoot renders the word after in Book II.
chatnah here, a sin-offering, as if God ^ Gen. iv. 7.
had reprehended Cain for not making
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 8
Of the former we have an nistance, Psalm cxxiil. The eyes of
servants are to the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maiden
are to the hand of her mistress ; i. e. they stand ready, with a
vigilant observance, to execute their orders. We meet the
other expression in the place before us in Gen. iii. 16. and
it imports an inward temper and disposition of mind to pay
respect and honour. His desire xoill he unto thee^ i. e. he will
be heartily devoted (as we say in English) to honour and re-
spect you, and thou shalt [or mayest] rule over him ; i. e. you
may have any service from him you can desire.
I have had an interpretation of this seventh verse commu-
nicated to me by a person of very great learning, and I find
the critics S favour it. He thought the whole verse was
spoke of Cain's sin, that the Hebrew words might be trans-
lated as I have interlined them below '\ and that it might be
Englished thus : If thou dost tvell, shalt thou not he accepted ;
hut if thou dost not xoell, sin lieth at the door ; indeed the appe-
tite of it [i. e. of sin] loill he at thee [i. e. to tempt thee] ; hut
thou shouldest rule over it. But the words will, I think, in no
wise bear this sense ; inp1tL''n [tcshukato'] is not the desire or
appetite of ?V, but of him. And 11 \bo'\ does not signify «Y, but
hiin. And the expression inpltm 'xh'i^ \cleka teshukato'] is
the Hebrew expression for, he icill heartily respect thee, and
not for, silt ivill tempt thee.
2. After Cain had been so wicked as to kill his brother,
God was pleased to pass a very just sentence upon him : his
aim was to have made himself great and flourishing, in fa-
vour with God, and credit with men, without any one to
stand in competition with him ; but he was disappointed in
every particular he aimed at, for his attempting to compass
his designs so wickedly : the ground was sentenced not to
yield him her st7'ength\ i. e. he was to be unprosperous in his
husbandry and tillage ; and, instead of being in God's favour
without rival, he was hencefor wards to he hid from his face^,,
e See Synop. Critic, in loc.
•> Eum gubernares tu sed appetitus ejus quidem te Apud.
i Gen. iv. 11, 12. ferV^r. 14.
b2
4 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK I .
i. e. he was not to have any longer that happy converse with
the Deity which these first ages of the world were blessed
with ; and he was to be a fugitive and a vagabond ', so far
from being able to live amongst his friends with credit and
satisfaction, that the sense of what he had done should so
hurry ™- him, as to force him to retire from them to a distant
part of the worlds as a mischievous person, not fit to live and
be endured amongst them.
3. Cain had in a little time a full conviction of his folly
and wickedness. He repeats over God's sentence " against
himself, as acknowledging the justice of it, and withal
thought so ill of himself, and had so true a sense of his
crime, as to imagine that every one that happened on him
would kill him °; that mankind would rise against him as a
person not fit to be suffered to live, and in their own defence
destroy him : a sense of these things moved him to a great
compunction ; Is my sin, cried he, too great to he forgiven ?
fbr this is the true sense of ver. 13. We translate the words.
My punishment is greater than I can hear : but the Hebrew
word Dll'* [awwP] signifies iniquity rather than punishment, and
the verb t^U?i \nasha'\ signifies to he forgiven, as well as to
hear ; and the verse may be rendered either positively. My
iniquity is too great to he forgiven, or the Hebrew 4 expositors
take it by way of interrogation, Is my iniquity too great to be
forgiven ? And this last sense is the best ; for,
4. Upon Cain's being brought to a sorrow for his sin,
God was pleased in some measure to pardon his transgression
there was as yet no express law against murder, and God'
gave as trict charge ^ that no one should for this fact destroy
Cain. Some writers ^ make this an addition to his punish-
ment ; but I see no reason for their opinion. As Moses has
represented this affair, it appears that Cain was very sorry
for what he had done, and acknowledged the just sentence
I Gen. iv. 12. and in other places of Scripture so used
m The Hebrew words express an very often, particularly Job xi. 6.
unsettledncss of mind, which probably 1 See Fagius in loco,
induced the LXX. to translate them r Gen. iv. 15.
(TTevoiv Kol Tpefictjv. s Fagius, Menochius, Tirnius, and
" Gen. iv. 14. other expositors, give the place thi*
° Ibid. sense.
P See the word so used i Sam. xx. 8.
AND PROFAXE HISTORY.
of God against him, but represented that he shonld be in
continual danger of a still further evil ; namely, that it should
come to pass, that every one that should find him, or happen
on him, should kill him : hereupon he bewailed the wretched
state he had brought himself into, and cried, Is my sin too
great to he forgiven ? Can I find no mercy ? no mitigation of
the punishment I have brought upon myself? Hereupon
God was pleased so far to favour him, as to give orders that
no one should kill him, and to make him easy by giving him
assurance of it : for so
The words, ver. 15, which we render God set a mark upon
Cain^ should be interpreted. The Hebrew word jllt^ [aotJi]
is a sign or token. The bow (Gen. ix.) was to be mt^b
[leaotJi] for a sign or token that the world should be no
more destroyed by water. So here the expression d2}''1
ni^? rp '' '^"^'^"^ [vejashem Jehovah lecain aotli\ is not as we
render it, And God set a mark upon Cain., but, God gave or
appointed to Cain a sign or token, [i. e. to assure him] that
no one should kill him. And here I might observe that
there is no foundation in the original for the guesses and
conjectures about the mark set upon Cain, about which so
many writers have egregiously trifled ^
After this, Oain removed with his wife and children from
the place where he had before lived, and travelled into the
land of Nod " : here he settled ; and, as his family increased,
took care to have their dwellings built near to one another.
t The ridiculous conjectures upon and forehead were leprous : others,
this point have been almost without that his mark was a wild aspect and
number. Some imagine that God im- terrible rolling eyes ; others say he
pressed a letter on his forehead. And was subject to a terrible trembhng, so
others have been so curious in their as to be scarce able to get his food to
inquiries, as to pretend to tell what his mouth; a notion taken from the
the letter was. A letter of the word LXX. who translate fiigilive and vaga-
Abel, say some ; the four letters of bond, aikvoiv koI Tpe/xwy. And there are
Jehovah, say others; or a letter ex- some writers that have improved this
pressing his repentance, say a third conceit, by adding, that wherever he
sort of writers. There have been some went, the earth shook and trembled
that imagined that Abel's dog was ap- round about him. But there is another
pointed to go with him wherever he notion of Cain's mark, as good as any
went, to warn people not to kill him ; of the rest, namely, that he had a
but this does not come up to the hu- horn fixed on his forehead, to teach
mour of a mark set on Cain, and there- all men to avoid him.
fore other writers rather think his face " Gen. iv. 16.
6 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED. [bOOK I.
and so made a little town or city, which he called Enoch ^,
from a son he had of that name : here his descendants flou-
rished till the flood ; they were the mechanics and tradesmen
of the age they lived in. The sons of Lamech, who was
the fifth in descent from Cain, were the chief artificers of
their time. Lamech had two wives, Adah and Zillah Y : by
Adah he had two sons, Jabal and Jubal. Jabal invented
tents, and gathered together herds of cattle^. Jubal found
out music ^ By Zillah he had a son named Tubal Cain,
who invented the working of brass and iron ^ ; and a daugh-
ter called Naamali : Moses only mentions her name; the
Kabbins say *= she was the inventor of spinning. The de-
scendants of Cain lived a long time in some fear of the fa-
mily of Adam, lest they should attempt to revenge upon
them Abel's death. It is supposed '^ that it was for this rea-
son that Cain built a city, that his children might live near
together, and be able more easily to join and unite for the
common safety. Lamech endeavoured to reason them out
of these fears ; and therefore, calling his family together,
he argued with them to this purpose : " Why should we
" make our lives uneasy with these groundless suspicions ?
" What have we done that we should be afraid of? We
" have not killed a man, nor offered any injury to our bre-
" thren of the other family ; and surely reason must teach
" them that they can have no right to hurt us. Cain in-
" deed, our ancestor, killed Abel ; but God was pleased so
" far to forgive his sin, as to threaten to take sevenfold ven-
" geance on any one that should kill him : if so, surely they
" must expect a much greater punishment who shall pre-
" sume to kill any of us : if Cain shall be avenged seven-
" fold, surely Lamech, or any of his innocent family, seventy-
" seven-fold." This I take to be the meaning of the speech
of Lamech to his wives, Gen. iv. 23. Moses has introduced
it, without any connection with what went before or follows
after ; so that at first sight it is not easy to know what to
X Gen. iv. 17. ^ "Ver. 22.
y Ver. 19. c See Genebrard in Chron. et Lira.
z Ver. 20. tl Menocliius in loc.
'* Ver. 21.
AKD PROFANE HISTORY 7
apply it to ; the expression itself is but dark, and the expositors
have attempted to explain it very imperfectly. The Rabbins
tell a traditional story, which they say will lead us to the
meaning of it : they inform us, that " Lamech being blind,
" took his son Tubal Cain to hunt with him in the woods,
" where they happened of Cain, who used to lurk up and
" down in the thickets, afraid of the converse and society of
" men ; that the lad mistook him for some beast stirring in
" the bushes, and that Lamech, by the direction of Tubal
" Cain, with a dart or arrow, killed him ; this they say was
" the man he killed by Ms looundinci him. Afterwards, when
" he came to see what he had done, he beat Tubal Cain to
" death for misinforming him, and so killed a young man hy
" hurting or beating him." But this unsupported old story
is too idle to need a confutation. The most probable sense
of the words is, I think, that which I have given them in the
paraphrase above. / have slain a man, should be read in-
terrogatively, have I slain a man ? i. e. I have not slain a
man, to my icounding, i. e. that I should be wounded for it,
nor a young man to my hurt, i. e. nor have I killed a young
man, that I should be hurt or punished for it. And this is
the sense which the Targum of Onkelos most excellently
gives the place. I have not killed a man, says Onkelos, that
I should bear the sin of it, nor have I destroyed a young
man, that my offspring should be cut off for it : and the
words of the next verse agree to this sense so exactly, there
will he a seven- fold vengeance 'paid for hilling Cain., surely
then a seventy times seven for killing Lamech, that I wonder
how Onkelos should mistake the true meaning of them., when
he had so justly expressed the sense of the other.
Adam, soon after Cain's leaving him, had a son% whom
he named Seth ; what other children he had we are not cer-
tain; we are told f he had several, both sons and daughters,
probably a number of both suitable to the many years of his
life, and to the increase necessary to people the world. Moses
has given us only the genealogy from Seth to Noah. The
children of Seth lived separate from the rest of mankind ;
e Gen. iv. 25. ^ Chap. v. 4.
8 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [uOOK I.
they led a pastoral life ?, cledicated themselves to the service
of God, and in a little time, in the days of Enos, the son of
Seth, were distinguished by the name of The Sons of God ^.
It is uncertain how long the children of this family were so
eminent for their virtue : Enoch, one of them, was a person
of a distinguished character, and the integrity of his life ob-
tained him a passage into a better world without dying \ It
is probable that all the persons mentioned by Moses, from
Seth to Noah, lived up to their duties ; for the flood was, as
it were, deferred, until they were safe out of the world. In
the days of Noah there was a general impiety. The sons of
God married the daughters of men ^ ; the children of Seth
took wives out of the other families, and aw evil commumca-
tio7i corrupted their manners : the wickedness of the world
grew to such an height, that it pleased God to determine to
destroy it. Noah was a just and upright man, and he found
favour with God ^ God discovered to him that he intended
to destroy the inhabitants of the world by a flood about 120
years beforehand "", and instructed him how to save himself
and family, and a few creatures of every sort, from the deluge.
Noah hereupon, according to God's directions, built an
ark, about six hundred feet long ", an hundred feet wide, and
sixty feet deep, contrived into three stories ; into this ark he
% Joseph. Antiq. lib. i. cap. 3, 4. cubit, which was an hand's breadth
1> Gen. iv. 26. more than the common cubit. 3. The
i We might perhaps be inclined by geometrical cubit, which was about
some of the versions to think that E- nine feet. The reader, if he consults
noch died a natural death, and that Buteo's Treatise about the ark, or reads
his translation here mentioned was what Pool has collected, Syn. Critic,
only such a translation as is spoken of in loc. may be satisfied, that the ark is
Wisd. iv. 10, II. But the writer of to be measured by the common cubit,
the Book of the Hebrews takes it very The standard of the common cubit was
clearly in another sense, Heb. xi. 5. that part of a man's arm, which reaches
By faith Enoch was translated, that he from the bent of the elbow to the
should tiot see death, point of the middle finger. If we
k Gen. vi. 2. think the stature of mankind in Mo-
1 Ver. 8. ses's time larger than it is now, we
m I suppose God determined that may suppose the common cubit some-
mankind should be still continued 120 thing larger than we should now com-
years, ver. 3. about the time that he pute it; if not, the strict measure of
communicated his intentions of a flood the ark will be, length 450 feet, breadth
to Noah. 75, height 45 ; and the best writers
n The Hebrews made use of three generally agree, that the common sta-
sorts of cubits, i. The common cu- ture of mankind has always been much
bit, which was about one foot and the same that it now is.
half of our measure. 2. The sacred
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 9
gathered such a number" of the creatures as God appointed
him, and having prepared sufficient provision, he and his
wife, and their three sons and their wives, went into the ark,
in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, about the begin-
ning of our November P, according to the Hebrew computa-
tion, antio muncli 1656, and God caused a flood of water over
all the world, thirty feet higher than the highest mountains,
and thereby destroyed the inhabitants of it.
This is all the history which Moses has given us of the
antediluvian world. We have short hints of those times in
the remains of some heathen writers; and if we make al-
lowance for the fables which the heathen theology had in-
troduced into all parts of their early history, the substance of
what they offer agrees very remarkably with the accounts of
Moses. Berosus wrote the history of the Chaldeans : San-
choniatho, of the Phoenicians; and the antiquities of Egypt
were collected by Manetho the Egyptian. It may not be
amiss to examine the remains of these writers, in order to see
what their accounts are of the first ages of the world. And,
I. As to the history of Berosus, the substance of it, as it is
given us from Abidenus Apollodorus, and Alexander Poly-
histor'i, is to this purpose, That there were ten kings of
Chaldea before the flood, Alorus, Alasparus, Amelon, Ame-
non, Metalarus, Daorus, Aedorachus, Amphis, Oliartes,
Xisuthrus ; that Xisuthrus was warned in a dream that man-
kind was to be destroyed by a flood upon the 15th day of the
month Dffisius, and that he should build a sort of ship, and
go into it with his friends and kindred, and that he should
make a provision of meat and drink, and take into his vessel
fowls and four-footed beasts : that Xisuthrus acted accord-
o The number of creatures taken altered, and Nisan made the first
into the ark is very ingeniously con- month : but this alteration of the year
jectured by Buteo and bishop Wilkins, was observed by the Jews only in calcu-
and the substance of what both have lating their fasts and feasts, and eccle-
said upon the subject is set down in siastical computations, and it is not like-
Pool's Syn. Crit. Vide Pool in loc. ly that the Book of Genesis contains
P The second Hebrew month, be- any computation of this latter sort, so
fore the children of Israel were deli- the 17th day of the second month,
vered out of Egypt, was Marchesvan, Gen. vii. 11. the day on which the flood
which begins about the iioiddle of our began, is 1 7 of Marchesvan, i. e. first or
October, and ends about the middle of second of our November. Mr. Whiston
our November. After that deliver- says November 28. Theory, p. 1 5 2.
ance, the beginning of the year was 1 Vid. Euseb. Chron.
10 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [iJOOK I.
ing to the admonition ; built a ship, and put into it all that
he was commanded, and went into it with his wife and
children, and dearest friends. When the flood was come,
and began to abate, Xisuthrus let out some birds, which
finding no food nor place to rest on, returned to the ship again :
after some days he let ovit the birds again, but they came
back with their legs daubed with mud : some days after, he
let them go the third time, but then they came to the ship
no more : Xisuthrus understood hereby that the earth ap-
peared again above the waters, and taking down some of the
boards of the ship, he saw that it rested upon a mountain.
Some time after he and his wife and his pilot went out of the
ship to offer sacrifice to the gods, and they were never seen
by those in the ship more. But the persons in the ship, after
seeking him in vain, went to Babylon. ^ — The Xisuthrus here
mentioned was evidently Noah. And Berosus supposes from
Alorus to Xisuthrus ten generations, and so many Moses
computes from Adam to Noah.
II. The history of Sanchoniatho is to this effect. That
the first mortals ^ were Protogonus and ^on ; that by these
were begotten Genus and Genoa; the children of these were
Phos, Pur, and Phlox ; and of these were begot Cassius, Li-
banus, Antilibanus, and Brathys. Memrumus and Hypsu-
ranius were descended from these, and their children were
Agreus and Halieus ; and of these were begotten two bro-
thers, one of them named Chrysor and Ha3ph8estus, the name
of the other is lost. From this generation came two brothers,
Technites and Autochthon, and of them were begotten Agrus
and Agrotes ; Amynus and Magus were their children, and
Misor and Sydec were descended of Amynus and Magus :
the son of Misor was Taautus or Thyoth. This is the Phoe-
nician genealogy of the first ages of the world, and it requires
no great pains to shew how far it agrees with the accounts
of Moses. The first mortals mentioned by Sanchoniatho,
and called Protogonus and ^on, were undoubtedly Adam
and Eve; and his Misor, the father of Taautus, is evidently
the Mizraini of Moses : from Protogonus to Misor, Sancho-
niatho computes eleven generations, and from Adam to Miz-
1" In Euseb. Preep. Evang. i. lo.
AND PHOFAKE HISTORY
11
raim Moses makes twelve ; so that Sanchoniatho falls short
of Moses only one generation ; and this, I conceive, happened
by his not having recorded the flood.
But thirdly, let us in the next place consider the Egyptian
antiquities, as collected by Manetho ; and here, I must con-
fess, we meet with great difficulties. The records of most
nations fall short of the flood ; neither Chaldea nor Phoenicia
have oflered any thing that can seem to be before Moses's
time of the creation ; but Manetho pretends to produce an-
tiquities of Egypt that reach higher than the creation by
thousands of years ^
The accounts of Manetho seem at first sight so extravagant,
that many good writers* look upon them as mere fictions,
and omit attempting to say any thing about them ; but other
learned men » are not so well satisfied with this proceeding,
but think that by a due examination the Egyptian dynasties
may be made tolerably clear, and reduced at least to a de-
gree of probability. The misfortune is, we have none of the
original works from whence they were collected, or which
gave account of them. The historians, Diodorus Siculus
and Herodotus, did not examine these matters to the bot-
tom ; and we have no remains of the old Egyptian Chroni-
con, or of the works of Manetho, except only some quota-
tions in the works of other writers. The Chronographia of
Syncellus, wrote by one George, an abbot of the monastery
of St. Simeon, and called Syncellus, as being suffi-agan to
Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople, is the only work we
have to go to for these antiquities : Syncellus collected the
quotations of the old Chronicon, and of Manetho, and of
Eratosthenes, as he found them in the works of Africanus
and Eusebius ; and the works of Africanus and Eusebius
being now lost, (for it is well known that the work that goes
under the name of Eusebius's Chronicon is a composition of
Scaliger's,) we have nothing to be depended upon, but what
we find in Syncellus above mentioned.
s Scaliger supposes his Julian period ning of that period by above 7000
to begin above 700 years before the years. See Can. Isag. 1. ii. p. 123.
world, but imagined the Egyptian dy- t Petav. Doctrin. Temp. 1. x. c. 17.
nasties to reach higher than the begin- " IMarsh. Can. Chron. p. i.
12 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK I.
Our learned countryman sir John Marsham has collected
from Syncellus the opinions of these writers ; a:id it must ap-
pear to any one that considers what he has offered from
them^, that they every one in their turn took great liber-
ties in correcting and altering what they pretended to copy
from one another ; and though every one of them took a
different scheme, yet not one of them could give a clear and
consistent account of the Egyptian dynasties. Sir John Mar-
sham comes the nearest to it of any ; the account he gives
from Menes downward is exceedingly probable, being con-
sistent with the histories of other nations ; and he has given
some hints, which may, I think, lead to a very good expli-
cation of those dynasties which preceded Menes.
The Egyptian dynasties are by all that have treated of
them allowed to give an account, first of their gods, second-
ly of their dcmi-gods and heroes, thirdly of their kings ;
and in this order the historians agree to treat of the Egyptian
antiquities. From Menes downward y the account is clear,
if we take it as sir John Marsham has explained it : the
number of kings are too many, if supposed to succeed one
another, as Manetho imagined ; but if we suppose them to
be cotemporaries, as sir John Marsham has represented them,
the accounts of Egypt from Menes or Mizraim will be easy,
and will agree very well with the accounts we have of other
nations. Africanus with good reason ^ imagined all that is
prior to or before Menes to be antediluvian ; some broken
reports of what was the state of Egypt before the flood.
Let us therefore consider the antiquities of Egypt in this
view, and trace them backwards. The kings, the first of
whom was Menes, reigned after the flood. Who were the
demi-gods and heroes that preceded them ? how many were
they ? and how long did they reign ? In the next place we
must inquire who were the gods of Egypt, and what are
their reigns ; and perhaps such a thread of inquiry as this
may help us through the difficulties of the Egyptian anti-
quities.
X Marsham Can. Upoa-KaTaffKevfi. z Syncellus, p. 54.
y See Diodorus lib. i.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
13
The substance of the Egyptian accounts is, that there were
thirty dynasties in Egypt, consisting of 1 13 generations, and
which took up the space of 36525 years : that after this pe-
riod was run, then there reigned eight demi-gods in the
space of 217 years: after them succeeded the Cycli Cynici,
i. e. according to Manetho^ a race of heroes, in number fifteen,
and their reigns took up 443 years ; then began the reigns
of their kings, the first of whom was Menes,
Menes therefore, by Syncellus called Mestraim, being the
Mizraim of Moses, the eight demi-gods and fifteen heroes
that reigned in Egypt before him were, as Manetho rightly
conjectures, antediktvians ; and we have to inquire how
their reigns took up 217 and 443, in all 660 years.
Now, in order to explain what is meant by the number of
years in these reigns, I would observe, that perhaps Egypt
was peopled no more than 660 years before the flood ; which
may be true, though we suppose an elder son of Adam's to
have brought a colony thither. Seth was born in the 130th
year of Adam's life, and Seth lived till within 614 years of
the flood ; and therefore a son of Adam but a century younger
than Seth (and Adam lived 800 years after the birth of
Seth, and begat sons and daughters) might plant Egypt, and
live 150 years at the head of his plantation; or if we sup-
pose it first planted by some children of Adam, two or three
centuries younger, they might come to Egypt in the flower
of their days.
It must indeed be allowed that the eight demi-gods and
the fifteen heroes cannot be a series of kings succeeding one
another ; for seven generations in such a succession would
take up very near the number of years allotted to all of them,
as may be seen by looking into the lives of Adam's descend-
ants, set down by Moses. If we begin 46 years before the
death of Seth, we may see that Enos lived 98 years after
Seth, Cainan 95 years after Enos, Mahalaleel ^^ years after
Cainan, Jared 132 years after Mahalaleel, Enoch was trans-
lated before his father's death, Methuselah died 234 years
after Jared, and in the year of the flood, and Lamech died
a SyncelL p. 40.
14) CONNF.CTION OF THK SACRED [bOOK I.
before Methuselah ; the succession of these men^ and there are
but seven of them, and a short piece of Seth's life, took up
660 years ; and therefore if the lives of the other branches of
Adam's family were of the same length with these, as it is pro-
bable they were, eight denii-gods and fifteen heroes, twenty-
three persons, could not succeed one another in so few years.
In this point therefore the Egyptian writers make great diffi-
culties, by supposing these demi-gods and heroes to reign
one after another, when it is impossible to find a good ac-
count of the times of such successive reigns, or to bring the
whole series of them within the compass of time allotted to
them ; but we may make this difficulty easy, if we suppose
the eight demi-gods to be cotemporaries, persons of great
eminence and figure in the age they lived in, and the fifteen
heroes, who lived after these demi-gods, cotemporary with
one another ; and I think their different titles, as well as
what we find about them in the historians, lead us to this
notion of them. If these persons were a successive number
of kings, from the first of them to the flood, why should
eight of them be called demi-gods, and the rest but heroes ?
The superior appellation of the first eight looks as if they
stood upon an equal ground with one another, but something
higher than those that came after them. And perhaps they
were eight children of Adam ; and he had certainly enough
to spare many times eight to people the several parts of the
world. These came together with their families into Egypt,
lived all within the compass of 317 years, (which is an easy
supposition,) and being all the heads of the families that came
with them, and were descended from them, they might be
so revered by their posterity, as to have a title superior to
what their descendants attained to. And it is observable,
that the historians who mention them give them names very
favourable to this account of them: the demi-gods, accord-
ing to Diodorus^, were Sol, Saturnus, Khea, Jupiter, Juno,
Vulcanus, Vesta, Mercurius ; and these are the names of per-
sons, not of different, but of the same descent ; brothers and
sisters, some of whom, according to what was the early cus-
b Lib. i. p. 8.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 15
torn in Adam's family, married one another. In like manner,
if we look among their heroes, we shall find them of the same
sort ; Osiris and Isis, Typhon and Apollo and Veniis, are all
said to be children of the same family ; they taught agricul-
ture and other useful arts, and thereby made themselves
famous ; and we are told ^ that several of them went up and
doM'n together, and were therefore cotemporaries ; and it is
easy to suppose fifteen of them, the number which the old
Chronicon mentions, to flourish within the space of 443 years :
and thus it will appear, that the reigns of the demi-gods and
heroes reach up to the very first peopling of Egypt, and there-
fore what they ofler about a race of gods superior to and
before these must belong to ages before the creation of the
world.
It was a very usual and customary thing for the ancient
writers to begin their antiquities with some account of the
origin of things, and the creation of the world. Moses did
so in his book of Genesis; Sanchoniatho's Phoenician His-
tory began in the same manner; and it appears from Diodorus '^
that the Egyptian Antiquities did so too. Their accounts
began with speculations about the origin of things and the
nature of the gods : then follows an account of their demi-
gods and terrestrial deities ; after them come their heroes,
or first rank of men ; and last of all their kings. Now if
their kings began from the flood ; if their heroes and demi-
gods reached up to the beginning of the world ; then the
account they give of the reigns of gods before these can be
only their theological speculations put into such order as they
thought most truly philosophical.
The first and most ancient gods of the Egyptians, and of
all other heathen nations, after they had departed from the
worship of the true God, were the luminaries of heaven ; and
it is very probable, that what they took to be the period or
time, in which any of these deities finished its course, that
they might call the time of its reign ; thus a perfect and
complete revolution of any star which they worshipped was
the reign of that star : and though it might be tedious to trace
c Lib. i. p. 8. d Lib. i.
16 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK I.
too far into their antiquated philosophy, in order to find out
how they came to imagine that the revolutions of the seve-
ral heavenly bodies answered to such a number of years as
they ascribed to their respective reigns ; yet it is remarkable,
that a whole entire revolution of the heavens took up, ac-
cording to their computations, exactly the number of years
ascribed by them to all their gods. A period of 36525
years is what they call an entire mundane revolution, and
brings on the airoKaTaa-Tacns koctijllki] : in this space of time,
they say, the several heavenly bodies do exactly go through
all the relations which they can have in their motions to one
another, and come round to the same point from which all
their courses began. These heavenly bodies therefore being
their gods, such a perfect and entire revolution of them is a
complete reign of all the gods, and contained ^6^2^ years.
But to the first of their gods, called here Vulcan, they
assign no time, his reign is unlimited. I suppose they meant
hereby to intimate that the supreme God was eternal, his
power infinite, his reign not confined to any one, or any
number of ages, but extending itself through all : and such
high notions the Egyptians certainly had of the supreme
Deity, though they had also buried them in heaps of the
grossest errors. This I take to be a true account of the
Egyptian dynasties ; and if it be so, their history is not so
extravagant as has been imagined. The substance of what
they offer is, that the supreme God is eternal, — to his
reign they assign no time : that the sun^ moon, and stars, ran
their courses thousands of years before man was upon the
earth : into this notion they were led by their astronomy :
that Egypt was peopled 660 years before the flood ; and
very probably it might not be peopled sooner, considering
that mankind began in Chaldea, and that the first planta-
tion went eastward with Cain, and that Seth and his family
settled near home. — Amongst these first inhabitants of Egypt
there were eight demi-gods and fifteen heroes, i. e. three
and twenty persons illustrious and eminent in their genera-^
tions. After the flood reigned Menes, whom Moses called
Mizraim, and after Mizraim, a succession of kings down to
Nectanebus.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 17
Manetho wrote his history by order of Ptolemy Philadel-
phus, some time after the Septuagint translation was made.
When the Hebrew antiquities were published to the world,
the Egyptians grew jealous of the honour of their nation,
and were willing to shew that they could trace up their me-
moirs even higher than Moses could carry those of the
Israelites : for this end Manetho made his collection ; it was
his design to make the Egyptian antiquities reach as far
backwards as he could, and therefore as many king's names
as he could find in their records, so many successive monarchs
he determined them to have had ; not considering that Egypt
was at first divided into three, and afterwards into four sove-
reignties for some time, so that three or four of his kings
many times reigned together. When he got up to Menes,
then he set down the names of such persons as had been fa-
mous before the times of this their first king ; and then, it
being a point of his religion that their gods had reigned on
earth, and their astronomy teaching that the reigns of the
gods took up the space of $6^2^ years, he added these also,
and by this management his antiquities seem to reach higher
than the accounts of Moses ; when in reality, if rightly in-
terpreted, they fall short of Moses by such a number of
years as we may fairly suppose might pass before mankind
could be so increased as to people the earth from Chaldea,
the place where Adam and Eve lived, unto Egypt.
The Chinese have been supposed to have records that
reach higher than the history of Moses : but we find by the
best accounts of their antiquities that this is false. Their
antiquities reach no higher than the times of Noah, for Eohi
was their first king. They pretend to no history or memoirs
that reach up higher than his times ; and by all their ac-
counts the age of Fohi coincides with that of Moses's Noah,
Their writers in the general agree that Fohi lived about
2952 years before Christ: the author Mirandorum in Sind
et Europd computes him to reign but 2847 years before our
Saviour ; and Alvarez Sevedo places his reign not so early,
imagining it to be but 2060 years ; and all these compu-
tations agree well enough with the times of Noah ; for
Noah was born, according to archbishop Usher, 2948 years,
VOL. I. c
18 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK I.
and died 20 1 6 years before Christ ; so that all the several
computations about Fohi fall pretty near within the com-
pass of Noah's life. But we shall hereafter see many reasons
to conclude Moses's Noah and the Chinese Fohi to be the
same person.
The length of the lives of mankind in this world was very
remarkable. Moses ^ numbers the years of some of their
lives as follows :
Years.
Adam lived 930
Seth 912
Enos 905
Cainan 910
Mahalaleel 895
Jared 962
Enoch 365
Methuselah 969
Lamech 777
Some persons have thought it incredible that the human
frame should ever have endured to so great a period ; and for
that reason they suppose that the years here mentioned are
but lunar, consisting each of about thirty days : but this
scheme, under a notion of reducing the antediluvian lives to
our standard, is full of absurdities. The whole time of this
first world would at this rate be less than 130 years. Me-
thuselah himself would have been little more than 80 years
old, not so long-lived as many even now are. The persons
above mentioned would have had children when mere in-
fants. Besides, if we compute the ages of those who lived
after the flood by this way of reckoning, and we have no
reason from the text to alter, they will not amount to the
years of a man. Abraham for instance, who is said to have
died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, was, as
Moses writes ^, 1 75 years old ; but according to the notion
of lunar years, he could not be fifteen. The years there-
fore that Moses computed these men's lives by were solar
6 Gen. V. f Gen. xxv. 7-
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
19
years, of much the same lengths as we now compute by,
and there must have been some reason in their state and con-
stitution, and in the temperament of the world they lived in,
to give them that exceeding length of days which they were
able to come up to. Their houses of clay could stand eight or
nine hundred years ; when, alas ! those we now build of the
hardest stone or marble will scarce last so long.
The curiosity of the learned in all ages has been much em-
ployed in finding out the reasons of this longevity. Some
writers have attributed it to the simplicity of their diet and
to the sobriety of their living ; both of them indeed excel-
lent means to support nature, and to make us able to attain
our utmost period, but not sufficient to account for so vast a
difference as there is between our and their term of life.
"We have had moderate and abstemious persons in latter ages,
and yet they have very rarely exceeded loo years.
Other writers have imagined the length of these men's
lives to have been owing to the strength of their stamina :
they think that we are made of more corruptible materials,
of a nature not so strong as these men were, and therefore
cannot last so long as they did. But this cannot be the sole
cause of their long lives ; for if it were, Avhy should the sons
of Noah, who had all the strength of an antediluvian consti-
tution, fall so far short 'i of the age of their forefathers? This,
and the manner of the decline of our lives, led a very ingeni-
ous writer' to imagine, that this alteration of the length of
human life was in a great measure owing to a change of
the temperament of the world ; that the equality of the sea-
sons, and evenness of weather, in the first eai-th, were in a
great measure the cause of that length of life enjoyed by the
inhabitants of it ; and that the vast contrariety of seasons and
weather which we now have is a great reason for the short-
ness of our days.
If we examine the proportion in which human life short-
ened, we shall find this longevity sunk half in half imme-
diately after the flood ; and after that it sunk by gentler
g Not exactly as long, for the an- •' Shem lived to but 600 years,
cients generally computed 12 months, i Dr. Burnet,
of 30 days each, to be a year.
C 2
20 CONNECTIOlsT OF THE SACRED [boOK I.
degrees, but was still in motion and declension, till it fixed at
length before David's time (Psalm xc, lo.' called a Psalm of
Moses) in that which has been the common standard of
man's age ever since : and how strongly does this intimate
that our decay was not owing to irregular living, or to a de-
bility of nature only, but to our being, as I might say, re-
moved into a different world ! for we fared like some excellent
fruit transplanted from its native soil into a worse ground
and unkinder climate ; it degenerates continually till it comes
to such a degree of meanness as suits the air and soil it is re-
moved into, and then it stands without any further depravity
or alteration.
The antediluvians were placed, according to the best and
most philosophical notions we can form of the then world,
under a constant serenity and equality of the heavens, in an
earth so situated with regard to the sun, as to have a perpe-
tual equinox, and an even temperature of the seasons, with-
out any considerable variety or alteration : and hence it
came to pass that the human body could, by the nourishment
it is made capable of receiving, continue unimpaired to many
generations, there being no external violence to cause decay
in any part of its texture and constitution. But when men
came to live in the world after the flood, the world was
much altered : the state of the earth and heavens was not the
same they had before been ; there were many changes of
seasons, wet and dry, hot and cold, and these of course cause
many fermentations in the blood and resolutions of the hu-
mours of the body ; they weaken the fibres and organs of our
frame, and by degrees unfit them for their respective func-
tions. Noah had lived six hundred years in the first world,
so that Ave may reasonably suppose he had contracted a firm-
ness of constitution, to be able to weather out the inconve-
niences of the new world ; and we find his life was not sen-
sibly shortened by them : but his children came into this se-
cond world very young men, before their natures were fixed
i Dr. Burnet seems to hint in this most of the persons mentioned in
manner that the length of our lives Scripture, who lived to old age, far ex-
was reduced to 70 years about Moses's ceeded that standard, till about Da-
time : but Mr. Whiston observes, that vid's time. Chron. p. 9 and 10,
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
21
and hardened, and so they scarce exceeded two thirds of
what they might probably have otherwise lived to. The
next generation, who began their lives in this disadvantage-
ous state of things, fell a third part short of them. The
change is not indeed immediately sensible, but it stands with
reason that the repeated impressions every year of unequal
heat and cold, dryness and moisture, should, by contracting
and relaxing the fibres, bring in time their tone to a mani-
fest debility, and cause a decay in the lesser springs of our
bodies ; and the lesser springs failing, the greater, that in
some measure depend upon them, must in proportion fail also,
and all the symptoms of decay and old age follow. We see
by experience that bodies are kept better in the same medi-
um, as we call it, than if they often change their medium,
and be sometimes in air, sometimes in water, moistened and
dried, heated and cooled ; these different states weaken the
contexture of the parts : but this has been our condition in
this present world ; we are put into an hundred different me-
diums in the course of a year : sometimes Ave are steeped in
water, or in a misty foggy air for several days together, some-
times we are almost frozen with cold, then as it were melted
with heat ; and the winds are of a different nature, and the
air of a different weight and pressure, according to the wea-
ther and seasons : and now all these things must contribute
apace to our decline, must agitate the air in the little pores
and chinks of our bodies very unequally, and thereby shake
and unsettle our frame continually, must wear us very fast,
and bring us to old age and decay in a short time, in com-
parison of what we might have lived to, if we lived as the
antediluvians, we think, did, in a fixed course of nature, en-
compassed always in the same medium, breathing always an
air of one and the same temper, suited exactly to their frame
and constitution, and not likely to offer them any violence
without, or raise any fermentation within ^'.
The number of persons in this first world must have been
very great : if we think it uncertain, from the difference be-
tween the Hebrew and LXX. in this particular, at what time
k See Dr. Burnet's Theory, vol. i. b. ii. ch. i, 3, 4.
CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK I.
of life they might have their first children, let us make the
greatest allowance that is possible, and suppose that they had
no children till they were lOo years old, and none after
500, yet still the increase of this world must have been pro-
digious. There are several authors which have formed cal-
culations of it, and they suppose upon a moderate computa-
tion that there were in this world at least two millions of
millions of souls, which they think is a number far exceed-
ing that of the inhabitants of the present earth.
It would be very entertaining, if we could have a view of
the religion, politics, arts or sciences of this numerous peo-
ple ; but we can only make a few conjectures about them :
as to their religion, it is certain, i. that they had Adam for
above 900 years to instruct them in all he knew of the crea-
tion of the world, and of the manner how he and Eve came
into it ; and though I think there is no reason to magnify
Adam's knowledge, as some writers have done, yet it must
surely be beyond all question, that the inhabitants of this
first world were most sensibly convinced of God's being the
creator of all things : they needed no deductions of reason, or
much faith, to lead them to this truth : they were almost
eye-witnesses of it. Methuselah died but a little before the
flood, and lived 245 years with Adam ; so that, though the
world had stood above 1600 years at the deluge, yet the tra-
dition of the creation had passed but through two hands.
2. They had a very remarkable promise made them by God
in the judgment passed upon the serpent: / will put enmity
hetween thee mid the woman, and between her seed and thy
seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.
3. God was nioi'e sensibly present in the world then, than he
now is. He appeared to them by angels ; he caused them to
hear voices, or to dream dreams ; and by these, and such ex-
traordinary ways and means as these were, he convinced
them of their duties, instructed them in his will, and gave
them directions for the conduct of their lives : and in this
sense many good and virtuous men in this first world, and
for several ages after the flood, had the happiness to walk
with God ; to have an intercourse Avith the Deity, by divers
extraordinary revelations of himself, which he was pleased
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 23
to give them in all parts of their lives, if they took care to
live up to their duties. If indeed any of them ran into evil
courses of sin and wickedness, then they are said to be hid
from, the face of the Lord ; or God is said to turn away his
face from them ; or, to cast them away from his presence :
by all which expressions is meant, that from that time the
intercourse between God and them ceased, and that God so
far left them, as to give them none of those revelations and
directions about his will and their conduct, which they might
otherwise have had from him. And as this was the state of the
first world with regard to God's presence in it ; so, fourthly,
I believe from hence was derived the religion of it, God him-
self teaching those persons he was pleased to converse with
what sacrifices he would have offered, what religious cere-
monies they should use, and how they should order them-
selves in his worship. We do not meet any of God's ex-
press orders in these matters before the flood, for the history
is very short ; after the flood we have a great many : but the
very nature of the worship that was in use does sufficiently
evidence that it came into use from divine appointment, and
was not invented by the wit of man. Sacrifices were offered
from the fall of Adam ; Cain and Abel, we are sure, used
them : and the method of worshipping by sacrifices does in
no wise appear to be an human contrivance, invented by the
natural light or common reason of men. If God had never
appeared to the first men at all, reason alone, if rightly used,
would have induced them to think that there was a God, and
that they were obliged to live in his fear a virtuous life, and
it might have led them to have prayed to him in their wants,
and to have praised and adored him for his favours ; but I
cannot see upon what thread or train of thinking they could
possibly be led to make atonement for their sins, or acknow-
ledgments for the divine favours, by the oblations or expia-
tions of any sorts of sacrifice : it is much more reasonable to
think that God himself appointed this worship. All nations
in the world have used it. They that were so happy as to
walk M'ith God were instructed in it from age to age : the
rest of mankind, who had caused God to turn his face from
them, and to leave them to themselves, continued the me.
24 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [uOOK I.
thod of worship they had before learned, and so sacrificed;
but they invented in time new rites and new sacrifices, ac-
cording to their humours and fancies, and by degrees de-
parted from the true worship, and at length from the true
God.
We meet with several particulars about the religion of the
antediluvians.
1 , That they had stated annual and weekly sacrifices ; that
Cain and Abel, when they came to offer, came to one of these
solemn and public acts of worship. These things may perhaps
be true, but we have no certain evidence that they are so.
Aristotle is quoted to confirm this opinion, who says that
such stated sacrifices were from the beginning : but it should
be considered, that the heathen records commonly fall vastly
short of these times ; and when Aristotle or any other such
writer speaks of a thing as practised from the beginning,
they can fairly be supposed to mean no more than that it was
in use earlier than the times of which they had any history ;
which it might easily be, and at the same time be much
more modern than the beginning of the world. Other writ-
ers would prove this opinion from some words of Scripture.
Mikkets jamim, Gen. iv. ver. 3. signify, some say, At the
end of the week, others say, At the end of the year : but these,
I think, are precarious criticisms. The words fairly con-
strued are no more than, At the end of days, or, as we render
them, In process of time.
2. Some have thought that the first institution of public
worship was in the days of Enos the son of Seth; others,
that not the public worship of God, but that idolatry, or false
worship, took its rise at that time : both these opinions are
founded upon the expression at the end of Gen. iv. Then
began men to call upon the 7iame of the Lord.
The defenders of the first opinion construe the Hebrew
words in the following manner, TJien men began to invoke the
name of the Lord., i. e. to set up and join in public invocations
of it; for as to private ones, they had without doubt used
them from the beginning. This interpretation is more easy
and natural than that which follows it ; □U?^ ^^Ip 7 \likra be
shem] seems pretty well to answer our English expression, To
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 25
call upon the name, or invoke it; but t^"^)*;) [hard] is a verb
transitive, and Dty t^lp [kara shem] might signify to intoke
the tiame, but Dt2;2 t^Sp [Xar« ^e s/^^/w] has quite a nother
meaning.
The authors of the second opinion, who would prove the
rise of idolatry from these words, think the word 7n"^n [Ao-
chaT] not to signify they began, but they profaned: they
make the sentence run thus, Then they profaned in calling
upon the name of the Lord. The verb 7711 does indeed some-
times signify to profane, and sometimes to legin; but then
it ought to be observed, that when it signifies to profane, it
has always a noun following it ; when an infinitive mood
follows, as in the passage before us, it always signifies to
begin. There are many passages of Scripture which will
ju.stify this remark: Numb. xxx. 3. Ezek. xxxix. 7. are in-
stances of the former sense; Gen. vi. i. xli. 53. 2 Chron.
iii. I. and several other places, are instances of the latter.
And thus I think it may appear that both the opinions found-
ed on this passage are groundless ; they have both of them
been espoused by great authors ; and the latter, which is the
more improbable of the two, is very much favoured by the
Paraphrase of Onkelos, by Maimonides's Treatise of Idola-
try, by Selden, and several other learned men. But since I
am fallen upon this passage, I shall add a few words more to
give it its true meaning : and I think the Hebrew words ver-
bally translated would be, Then it was began to call^ i. e.
them, by the name of the Lord, i. e. as I expressed it p. 8,
they were then first called the sons of God. This is, I
must think, the true meaning of this expression. QU^l t^lp
[kara be sheon] signifies to call or nominate by or after the
name ; thus Gen. iv. 17. b^ip"' l/ikra'] He called the name of
the city D\2}^ \be shem] by or after the name of his son.
Numb, xxxii. 42. t^lp'^ \jikra] He called it Nohah, "it^U?! \be
shemo] by or after his own name. Psalm xlix. ii. Ifc^ip
[karea^i] They call their lands DmtStn [bishmotham] by or
after their own names. Isaiah xliii. 7. Every one that is
t^lpSrr [hcmnikra] called "^?Dt2?l [bishini] by my name. And
the name here hinted is expressly given these men by Moses
26 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK I.
himself, when he afterwards speaks of them, Gen. vi. The sons
of God saw the daughters of men. But to return to the
antediluvians.
As we can only form some few and very general conjec-
tures about their religion, so we can only guess at the pro-
gress they might make in literature or any of the arts. The
enterprising genius of man began to exert itself very early in
music, brass-work, iron-work, in every artifice and science
useful or entertaining ; and the undertakers were not limited
by a short life, they had time enough before them to carry
things to perfection ; but whatever their skill, learning, or
industry performed, all remains or monuments of it are long
ago perished. We meet in several authors hints of some
writings of Enoch, and of pillars supposed to have been in-
scribed by Seth ; and the Epistle of St. Jude ^ seems to cite a
passage from Enoch : but the notion of Enoch's leaving any
work behind him has been so little credited, that some per-
sons, not considering that there are many things alluded to
in the New Testament ™ that were perhaps never recorded
in any books, have gone too far, and imagined " the Epistle
of St. Jude spurious, for its seeming to have a quotation from
this figment.
There is a piece pretending to be this work of Enoch,
and Scaliger °, in his annotations upon Eusebius's Chroni-
con, has given us considerable fragments, if not the whole of
it. It was vastly admired by Tertullian P, and some other
fathers ; but it has since their time been proved to be the
I Ver. 14. these eases, the Apostles and holy writ-
m There are many instances in the ers hinted at things commonly re-
New Testament of facts alluded to, ceived as true by tradition amongst the
which we do not iind were ever re- Jews, without transcribing them from
corded in any ancient books : thus the any real books.
contest between Michael and the Devil n Enochi commentitia oracula ita
about the body of Moses is mentioned, sprevit cordatior antiquitas, uti Hiero-
as if the Jews had somewhere or other nymus Judse epistolam, quae de septem
a full account of it. The names of the Catholicis una est, ob hanc causam a
Egyptian magicians Jannes and Jam- plerisque a catalogo sacrorum volumi-
bres are set down, though they are no- num dical expunctam, quia testimo-
where found in Moses's history. St. nium ibi ritatur ex hoc futili scripto.
Paul mentions that Moses exceedingly Cunteus de Rep. Heb. 1. iii. c. 1. p. 300.
quaked and feared on Mount Sinai; o P. 404.
but we do not find it so recorded any p De habitu mulierum, lib. i. c. 3.
where in the Old Testament. In all
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 27
product of some impostor, who made it, according to Scali-
ger, Vossius, Gale, and Kircher, some time between the cap-
tivity and our Saviour's birth ; but there are, I think ^,
good reasons not to believe it even so old.
As to Seth's pillars, Josephus ■■ gives the following ac-
count of them : " That Seth and his descendants were per-
" sons of happy tempers, and lived in peace, employing
" themselves in the study of astronomy, and in other searches
" after useful knowledge; that, in order to preserve the
" knowledge they had acquired, and to convey it to poste-
" rity, having heard from Adam of the flood, and of a de-
" struction of the world by fire which was to follow it, they
" made two pillars, the one of stone, the other of brick, and
" inscribed their knowledge upon them, supposing that one
*' or the other of them might remain for the use of posterity:
" the stone pillar," says he, " on which is inscribed that there
" was one of brick made also, is still remaining in the land
" of Seriad to this day." Thus far Josephus : but whether
his account of this pillar may be admitted has been vari-
ously controverted ; we are now not only at a loss about the
pillar, but we cannot so much as find the place where it is
said to have stood. Some ^ have thought this land of Seriad
to be the land of Seirath, mentioned Judges iii. 26, and that
the quarries, as we render it, or the pesilim, as it is in the
Hebrew, might be the ruinous stones of which this pillar of
Seth was formerly made : other writers ' think the word
2)esilim to signify idols, and that the stones here mentioned
were Eglon's idols, lately set up there. Bishop Stillingfleet ",
if the word pesilim can signify pillars, approves of Junius's
interpretation of the place, and thinks the stones here spoken
of were the twelve stones pitched by Joshua in Gilgal after the
children of Israel passed over Jordan : but surely this inter-
pretation is improbable ; the stones pitched in Gilgal by Jo-
shua would have been called as they were when they were
pitched, ha ahetiim, from ahen a stone, or else the remem-
1 See Juricu Crit. Hist. vol. i. p. 41. jMarsham Can. Chronic, p. 39.
•■ Antiq. lib. i. c. 3. p. 9. * Chytrseus et alii.
s Vossius de ^tat. Mund. c. 10. et u Origines Sacrse, b. i. c. 2. p. 37.
28 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK I.
brance of the fact to be supported by them would be lost:
the design of heaping them was, that when posterity should
inquire what mean ha abenim, these stones, they might be
told how the waters of Jordan were cut off. It is unlikely
that the writer of the book of Judges should alter the name
of so remarkable a monument.
But it is more easy to guess where Josephus had his story
of Seth's pillars, than to tell in what country they ever stood :
there is a passage quoted from Manetho, the Egyptian his-
torian, which very probably was the foundation of all that
Josephus has said about them. Eusebius '^ has given us the
words of Manetho ; for, relating what he asserted to esta-
blish the credit of his Egyptian dynasties, he says, that he
pretended to have taken them " from some pillars in the
" land of Seriad, inscribed in the sacred dialect by the first
" Mercury Thyoth, and after the flood translated out of the
" sacred dialect into the Greek tongue in sacred characters,
" and laid up amongst the re vestiaries of the Egyptian tem-
" pies by Agathodsemon the second Mercury, father of
" Tat." Josephus very often quotes heathen writers, and
Manetho in particular ; and it is probable, that, upon reading
this account of pillars in that historian, he might think it
misapplied. The Jews had an old tradition of Seth's pillars.
Josephus perhaps imagined Manetho's account to have arisen
from it, and that he should probably hit the truth if he put
the history of the one and the tradition of the other toge-
ther ; and it is likely hence arose all he has given us upon
this subject.
It may perhaps be inquired what the wickedness was for
which God destroyed this first world. Some writers have
imagined it to have been an excess of idolatry ; others think
idolatry was not practised till after the flood ; and indeed
the Scripture mentions no idolatry in these times, but de-
scribes the antediluvian wickedness to have been a general
neglect of virtue and pursuit of evil. The wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thouyhts of
V In Chronico.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 29
his heart loas only evil continually ^. There is one particular
taken notice of by Moses, 77ie earth, he says, tvas filled
with violencey. This expression, and the severe law made
against murder soon after the flood, makes it probable that
the men of this first world had taken a great license in
usurping upon the lives of one another.
There should be something said, before I conclude this
book, of the chronology and geography of this first world.
As to the chronology, several of the transactions in it are not
reduced to any fixed time : we are not told when Cain and
Abel were born ; in what year Abel was killed, or Cain left
his parents ; when the city of Enoch was built ; or at what
particular time the descendants of Cain's family were born :
Moses has given us a chronology of only one branch of
Seth's family. He has set down the several descendants
from Adam to Noah, with an account of the time of their
birth, and term of life ; so that if there was not a variety in
the different copies of the Bible, it would be easy to fix the
year of their deaths, and of the flood, and to determine the
time of the continuance of this first world,
X Gen. vi. 5. y Ver. 13.
30
CONNECTION OF THE SACRED
[book r.
But first of all, according to our Hebrew Bibles, tbe com-
putations of Moses are given us as set down in the following-
table :
Began his life
in the year of
the world
Had his son in
the year of his
Ufe
Lived after his
son's birth,
years
Lived in all
years
Died in the
year of the
world
Adam
I
130
800
930
930
Seth
130
105
807
912
1042
Enos
^35
90
815
905
J 140
Cainan
3^5
70
840
910
^235
Mahalaleel . .
395
65
830
895
1290
Jared
460
162
800
962
1422
Enoch
622
65
300
3^5
987
Methuselah .
687
187
782
969
1656
Lamech
874
182
595
777
165I
Noah
1056
500
According to the foregoing table, the flood, which began in
the six hundredth year of Noah, who was born anno mundi
1056, happened amio mundi 1656 ; it continued about a year,
and so ended 1657.
AND PROFANE HISTORV.
31
But secondly, the Samaritan copies give us these compu-
tations something different ; according to them,
Began his life
in the year of
the world
Had his son in
the year of his
life
Lived after his
son's birth,
years
Lived in aU
years
Died in the
year of the
world
Adam
I
1 30
800
930
930
Seth
130
105
807
912
1042
Enos
'^35
90
815
905
1140
Cainan
325
70
840
910
1235
Mahalaleeh .
395
^5
830
895
1290
Jared
460
62
785
847
1307
Enoch
523
65
300
3^5
887
Methuselah .
587
67
^53
720
1307
Lamech
654
S3
600
653
1307
Noah
707
500
The reader will easily see the difference between the He-
brew and Samaritan computations by comparing the two
tables with one another. Capellus^ makes a difficulty in
reconciling them; but it is not such a hard matter, if we
consider what St. Jerome^ informs us of, that there were Sa-
maritan copies which make Methuselah 187 years old at the
birth of Lamech, and Lamech 182 at the birth of Noah:
now if this be true, it is easy to suppose 62, the age of Jared
at the birth of Enoch, to be a mistake of the transcriber, who
might drop a letter, and write 62 instead of 162, and thus all
the difference between the Hebrew and Samaritan copies will
entirely vanish. Capellus is not satisfied with this account
z Tract, de Chronol. sacr. in Prole-
gom. Bib. Polyglot. Walton.
a In Qusest. in Genes.
32 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK t.
of St. Jerome's, but observes that Moriniis ^ assures us, that
the Samaritan MS, Pentateuch agrees exactly with the cal-
culations given by Eusebius, according to which the fore-
going table is composed; but to this it may be answered,
that the MS. which Morinus saw^ is not older than the be-
ginning of the 15th century; it was, he says himself, writ-
ten in the year of our Lord j 404 ; and surely it must be very
precarious to contradict what St. Jerome has asserted in this
matter from so modern a transcript.
The writers who have given us the Samaritan chronology
do in some respects differ from the foregoing table ; but
their differences are of less moment, and may easily be cor-
rected.
I . Eusebius "^ sets the birth of Methuselah in the 60th year
of Enoch; but this is manifestly an error either of the
printer or transcriber, who wrote £ instead of £e ; the mistake
was certainly not Eusebius's, because he immediately adds,
juerere^Tj ev erei pir' tov Ncoe, i. e. he was translated in tJie iSofh
year of Noah. Now if Enoch was 60 years old at Methuse-
lah's birth, according to Eusebius himself, from Methuselah's
birth to the i8oth year of Noah is but 300 years, and conse-
quently Eusebius, to have been consistent with himself, should
have made Enoch's age at his translation 360 ; but he has
made it ^t^^. But farther, Syncellus^ from Eusebius says,
that the Samaritan computation falls short of the Hebrew
349 years ; but, if in the life of Enoch 60 and 360 are the
true numbers, instead of 6^ and ^6^, the reader, if he com-
putes, will find that the Samaritan calculations fall short of
the Hebrew more than 349 years, namely 354. Once more,
the Samaritan computations, as cited by Scaliger f, have in
this place 65, not 60 ; and 163, not 160.
There are several other mistakes made probably in printing
Eusebius's Chronicon ; namely ", that Cainan lived to the
<^Ka, i. e. the 521st year of Noah, it should have been ^ktj, 528 ;
b Joan. Morinus in Prsefat. Grseco- d Chronicon, p. 4.
Lat. Translationis LXX. Parisiis edit. e Vid. Capelli Chronol. sacr.
1618. fid. ibid.
c See Harduin's Chronol. Vet. Test. gr Id. ibid.
p. 6.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 33
and Mahalaleel to the (p-ire, i. e. the 585th year of Noah, it
should have been cfy-rry, i. e. 583, for otherwise Eusebius con-
tradicts himself; for if a table were made from Euscbius's
computations, it would appear that Cainan died A. M. 1235,
and that would be the 528th year of Noah, not the 521st;
and so likewise Mahalaleel's death would be A. M. 1290,
which, according to Eusebius, would be the 583d year of
Noah, not the 585th.
.2. The Samaritan chronology, as given us by Scaliger^,
differs a little from Eusebius's account of it ; for where Eu-
sebius says that Mahalaleel was £e, i. e. 6^ years old when he
begat Jared ; Scaliger thinks it should be oe, i. e. 75. Again,
where Eusebius makes Methuselah's age £C, i. e. 67, at La-
mech's birth, Scaliger would have it be of, i. e. 77, By
these alterations he computes 20 years longer to the flood
than the received Samaritan copies. Scaliger' does indeed
produce an old Samaritan chronicle, with a table at the end
of it of the lives of the patriarchs, who lived from the crea-
tion to Moses, in which he finds the variations from Eusebius
which he would establish : but, first, he himself owns that
this table contains some very great absurdities ; a confession
which takes away a great deal of its credit. 2. The Sama-
ritan chronology is much more reconcilable to the He-
brew, as Eusebius has given it us, than it would be if these
alterations of Scaligcr's were made in it. 3. The Samaritan
MS. agrees with Eusebius, but favours none of Scaliger's
emendations, as is clear from Morinus's account of that MS.
and was confirmed to Capellus by some letters of Golius to
him. 4. If we alter Eusebius by this table of Scaliger's, we
shall make Jared and Methuselah die A. M. 1317, i. e. ten
years before the flood ; but all versions agree, the Hebrew,
the Samaritan, and the Septuagint, however they diflfer
about the year of the flood, that INIethuselah certainly died
that year.
Thirdly, We come now to the chronology of the Septua-
gint, which differs from the Hebrew in the following man-
ner :
h Vide Capelli Chronol. sacr, i See Capellus before cited.
VOL. I. D
34
CONNECTION OF THE SACRED
[book I.
I. In the lives of Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel,
there are lOO years added before the births of their respec-
tive children, which loo years are again substracted from the
time they lived after the births of them ; so that the Hebrew
and Septuagint make the whole term of their lives exactly
the same, only the Septuagint makes them fathers loo years
later than the Hebrew.
3. In the life of Lamech the Septuagint adds six years
before Noah's birth, and takes away thirty years from the
time he lived after Noah was born, and in the whole makes
his life shorter than the Hebrew by twenty-four years.
These differences, by advancing 600 years before the births
of Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, and Methuselah,
and six years before the birth of Noah, (both the Septuagint
and Hebrew agreeing the flood to be in the six hundredth
year of Noah's life,) do carry forward the time of the flood
606 years, and so fix it A. M. 2263, instead of 1657, accord-
ing to the following table :
According to the
Septuagint.
Began his life
in the year of
the world
Had his son in
the year of his
life
Lived after liis
son's birth,
years
Lived in all
years
Died in the
year of the
world
Adam
J
230
700
930
930
Seth
230
205
707
912
1042
Enos
435
190
7^5
905
J 340
Cainan
625
170
740
910
^535
Mahalaleel . .
795
•65
730
895
1690
Jared
960
162
800
962
1922
Enoch
1122
165
200
3^5
1487
Methuselah .
1387
187
782
969
2256
Lamech
1474
188
565
753
2227
Noah
1662
500
AKD PROFANE HISTORY. 35
How the different computations of the Septuagint and the
Hebrew may be reconciled, or accounted for, is a point
which the learned are not agreed in. The Hebrew compu-
tations are supported by a perfect concurrence and agreement
of all Hebrew copies now in being ; we are sure there have
been no various readings in these places since the Talmuds ^
were composed : nay, the approved Hebrew copies computed
thus in our Saviour's time; for the paraphrase of Onkelos,
which is on all hands agreed to be about that age, is the
same exactly with the Hebrew in these points. St. Jerom,
in his time, took the Hebrew computations to be right, for
he translated from them exactly agreeable to what we now
read them ; and the vulgar Latin, which has been in use in
the Church above looo years, agrees to them : there is no
positive proof that there ever was an Hebrew copy different
from what the common Hebrew now is, in these computa-
tions.
But then, on the other hand, there are several arguments
which have induced learned men to suspect, that the ancient
Hebrew copies might differ from the present ; and that the
Greek computations, according to the Septuagint, are more
likely to be true than the present Hebrew ; for,
1. As all the Hebrew copies agree in their computations,
so do the Greek copies agree in theirs likewise: the most
ancient MSS. have exactly the same computations with the
common Septuagint, except a small variation or two, which
shall be by and by accounted for. And, though indeed we
ought not to oppose even the best translation to the original,
yet what I have mentioned gives us reason at least to inquire
impartially, how and when such a difference began between
the original and the version ; a difference which is not a mis-
take in this or that copy or transcript, but a difference proba-
bly made at first by the translators themselves.
2. These variations are of such a sort, that they cannot be
imagined to be made accidentally by the translators, out of
k The Talmuds were two, the Jem- 300 years after Christ, the Babylonian
salem and the Babylonian ; the Jeru- about 200 years later,
salem Talmud was composed about
D 2
36 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK I.
haste, or by mistake ; the Hebrew computations, as St. Jerom
observes, were not expressed in words in the old copies, but
in small characters scarcely visible : had the Septuagint fallen
short in the numbers, we might have supposed that they
omitted some letter, and so lost lo or loo years; but such
alterations as these are, where there must have been letters
added, and where sometimes both parts of a verse, and some-
times two verses together are altered, and so altered as still to
keep them consistent with one another ; this, whenever done,
must be done designedly, and with deliberation.
3. Though we have no direct proof of any variations in the
old Hebrew copies in these computations, yet we have some
ground to suspect there were some. The Jews, before the
time of Antiochus, had a long enjoyment of peace, and were
very careless about the sacred writings ^, so that numerous
variations had by degrees got into their copies. Antiochus
seized and burnt all the copies he could come at ; there were
only a few of those that were in private hands that escaped
him. After this calamity was over, the Jews inquired, and
got together those few, in order to have more copies wrote
out from them ; and from these came all the copies we have
now in use. Now suppose the private copies, that escaped the
fury of Antiochus, had any of them dropped some numeral
letters, and they were copied, as I said, in an age when they
did not study to be very accurate ; this might be the occasion
'"f the present Hebrew falling short in its calculations, the
Jeptuagint being translated from the copies before Antio-
chus's time, when the computations were not corrupted.
The Pharisees were the rising sect after Antiochus's persecu-
tion, and they were the correctors of the new transcripts, and
it is not likely their pride and stiffness should let them con-
sult the Septuagint, or alter any thing in their copies by it ;
it is more probable, that, if they found any point in their MS.
differing from the Septuagint, they should be fond of pre-
serving the reading of their own originals, in opposition to a
foreign translation of their books, how good in its kind so-
ever it might be.
1 Buxtorf.
AND PROFANE HISTOK.Y
37
4. Josephus is some proof, that there were formerly old
Hebrew copies different in these computations from the pre-
sent ones. He expressly says ^, that he wrote his history
from the sacred pages ; and his account " of the lives of
these patriarchs agrees with the Septuagint, except only in a
very small difference in the life of Lamech ; so that Josephus
must have seen a copy of the Hebrew books, different from
the present ones, and at least very near agreeing with the
Septuagint.
5. The Greek historians who wrote before Josephus,
namely, ° Demetrius Phalereus, Philo the elder, and Eupo-
lemus, give us reason to suspect the same thing. They are
writers very much commended by Clemens Alexandrinus
and Eusebius. They learned their knowledge of the Jewish
affairs from Jews ; and Josephus says, they wrote accu-
rately about them. Now their computations differ very much
from the common Hebrew, and come very near the Septua-
gint. According to Demetrius p, from the creation to the
flood is 2148 years. Etisebius^, from Alexander, (a very
ancient historiail,) computes from the creation to the flood
2284 years. These authors must have seen or been informed
from Hebrew copies different from the present.
6. We may add to all this, that the whole Christian
Church, eastern and western, and all the ancient celebrated
writers of the Church, have neglected the Hebrew computa-
tions, and adhered to the Greek ; till in the last century
some of the Roman writers, and not all of them, in regard to
the decree of the Council of Trent about the vulgar Latin,
took to the Hebrew compvitations ; not because they were
the Hebrew, but because the vulgar Latin agreed with them.
Baronius observes ^, that the Church used anciently to com-
pute the years from the creation, not according to the He-
brew, but according to the Septuagint, and he cites many
writers to confirm it ; and indeed he might justly have cited
m Contra Appion. lib. i. Ed. Exon.
n See it, Antiq. lib. i. c. 3. Q See Walton. Proleg. de versionibus
o Walton. Proleg. de versionibus Grsecis, §. 61.
Graecis. r In Apparatu ad Annales Ecclesias-
P Clem. Alexand. Strom. 1. i. p. 403. ticos, n. 1 18.
38 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK I.
every ancient writer, except St. Jerom and St. Austin.
Amongst the moderns, Beza was the first that had any doubts
about the Greek chronology ; I say, had doubts, for he never
absolutely rejected it, though he seemed most inclined to the
Hebrew. There have been a few that have followed his
opinion, but they are but a few, in comparison of the many
that have gone the other way.
I have now given the substance of what is offered for the
Hebrew and for the Septuagint. I should next observe,
that Capellus « attempts to reconcile the differences in their
computations in the following manner :
I . As to the difference between the Greek and Hebrew, in
the life of Lamech, he quotes St. Austin *, who was of opin-
ion, that the very first transcribers, who took copies of the
original Septuagint MS. in Ptolemy ""s library, made mistakes
in transcribing it ; that the Septuagint computed Lamech to
be 183 years old at Noah's birth, to live 595 after it, and to
live in all 777 years. This one correction will take away all
the difference between the Septuagint and the Hebrew, ex-
cept the 600 years added and substracted, as before mentioned ;
and it will (agreeably to all other copies) make Methuselah
die in the year of the flood.
3. As to the addition and substraction of the several hun-
dred years, in the lives of the fathers before mentioned, the
same author, from St. Austin", answers, that they were not
made by the Seventy themselves, but by some early transcriber
from them, and probably for one or other of these two
reasons : i . Perhaps thinking the years of the antediluvian
lives to be but lunar ones, and computing that at this rate
the six fathers, whose lives are thus altered, must have had
their children at five, six, seven, or eight years old, which
could not but look incredible ; I say, the transcriber finding
this, might be induced to add and substract the 1 00 years, in
order to make them of a more probable age of manhood at
the birth of their respective children. Or, 2. If he thought
the years of their lives to be solar ones, yet still he might
s Lud. Capelli Chron. Sacr. in Ap- " August, de Civit. Dei, lib. xv. c .
parat.u Walton, ad Bibl. Polyglot. 12.
t Aug. de Civitate Dei, 1. xv. c. 13.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 39
imagine, that infancy and childhood were proportionably
longer in men ^, that were to live 7, 8, or 900 years, than
they are in us, and that it was too early in their lives for
them to be fathers at 60, 70, or 90 years of age ; for which
reason he might add the hundred years, to make their ad-
vance to manhood, which is commonly not till one fourth
part of life is near over, proportionable to what was to be
their term of life.
If these arguments are sufficient to answer in part what is
said in favour of the Septuagint, in opposition to the He-
brew, (and they seem to me to carry a great probability,)
what is offered from Josephus, Philo, Demetrius Phalereus,
and the other Greek historians agreeing in their computa-
tions with the Septuagint, is easily answered. They all lived
since the time that the Septuagint translation was made, and
very probably took their computations from that, or some
copies of it, and not from any Hebrew copies of the Scrip-
tures.
Demetrius Phalereus Y was the first president of the col-
lege of Alexandria, to which the library belonged where the
original MS. of the Septuagint was lodged. He was a very
active man in the erecting the library, and storing it with
books ; for all that Ptolemy Soter did in this matter was by
his counsel and direction, and the whole care and manage-
ment of it was committed to him. And when Ptolemy So-
ter died, his son Ptolemy Philadelphus carrying on the same
design made use of Demetrius, as his father had before done.
Ptolemy Philadelphus, says Aristeas, being desirous to raise a
considerable library at Alexandria, committed the care of
this matter to Demetrius Phalereus, a noble Athenian, then
living in his court, directing him to procure from all nations
whatsoever books were of note amongst them : pursuant to
these orders, being informed of the book of the law of Moses
among the Jews, he put the king upon sending to Jeru-
salem for a copy of it. Aristobulus, an Alexandrian Jew,
X Tanto serior fuit proportione pu- Dei xv. c. 15.
bertas, cpianto vitae totius major an- y See Prideaux Connect, part ii. b.
nositas, says St. August, lib. de Civitat. i. p. 14. fourtli edition.
40 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK I.
makes the same mention '- of Demetrius's part in this affair.
We have now only some fragments of Aristobulus, quoted
by Clemens Alexandrinus * and Eusebius '' ; but he is said
to have written a comment on the five books of Moses, and
therein to have mentioned this Greek version, as made under
the care and direction of Demetrius Phalereus. The most
learned Dr. Prideaux <= does indeed imagine, that Demetrius
was put to death in the beginning of the reign of Ptolemy
Philadelphus ; but he brings but very slender proof of it : it
is more likely that he lived till after the library was finished ;
and if he took this care about getting the translation of the
books of Moses, it is likely, when he had them, his curiosity
might lead him to look into them. He was a great scholar,
as well as a statesman and politician ; and if the computations
above mentioned were altered so early as St. Austin imagines,
and upon the reasons he gives for it, the alterations might be
made by Demetrius, or by his allowance and approbation.
I have said all this about Demetrius, upon supposition that
he was one of the Greek historians whose works might prove
the Septuagint computation more probable than the Hebrew.
Bishop Walton '' does indeed quote him for that purpose,
but I doubt he was mistaken. The Phalerean Demetrius
lived a busy, active life, a great officer of state both at home
and abroad, and I do not find he ever wrote any history.
Bishop Walton therefore might perhaps mistake the name,
not Demetrius Phalereus, but Demetrius the historian should
have been quoted upon this occasion. Demetrius ^ the his-
torian was an inhabitant of Alexandria, lived not before the
reign of Ptolemy Philopator, the grandson of Philadelphus,
near seventy years after the Septuagint translation Avas made ;
he compiled the history of the Jews, and continued it down
to the reign of Ptolemy Philopator before mentioned. It is
z In his comment on the books of vcrsionibus Grpecis, §.6i.
Moses; see Euseb. Prsep. Evang. lib. e Clem. Ale.xand. Strom, lib. i. 146.
xiii. c. 12. Hieronymus in catalogo illust. Scriptor.
a Strom. 1. i. 132. et 1. v. 254. c. 38. Vossius de Historicis Grsecis, lib.
b Can. Chron. p. 145. Prsep. Evang. iii. sub litera D. He might possibly live
lib. \di. c. 13. lib. viii. e. 10. lib. xiii. c. some time later than Ptolemy Philopa-
I 2 . tor, for the exact time of his life is not
c Connection, vol. ii. an. 284. told us.
<1 In Proleg. ad Bibl. Polyglot, de
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 41
easy to see that this writer might copy from the Septuagint,
and be misled by any early alterations that had been made
in it.
Philo lived still later, was cotemporary with our Saviour ;
wrote almost 300 years after the Hebrew was translated by
the Seventy, He lived constantly at Alexandria, and there-
fore copied from the Septuagint ; and, as he lived so late, was
more likely to be imposed upon by the early alterations that
had been made in it.
Josephus, though a Jew, notwithstanding he so often as-
serted that he wrote from the sacred pages, did not always
write from the Hebrew Scriptures. He was, I own, a priest,
and of the first family of the priests, broixght up from his
childhood in the Hebrew -law, and perfectly skilled in the
Hebrew language ; and I do not question but that he could
as easily make use of the Hebrew Bible as the Greek : but
still I think it is very evident, that in several parts of his
works, where he ought to have used at least one of them, he
has used neither. The utmost that Dr. Hody f could con-
clude about him was, that he principally followed the He-
brew text, which, if admitted, is consistent with what Dr.
Cave observed of him ^, that he often takes a middle way be-
tween the Septuagint and the Hebrews But Dr. Wills has
examined his chronology with great exactness ^, and produces
several passages, in which he adheres to the Hebrew against
the Greek ; and several others, in which he agrees with the
Greek in opposition to the Hebrew ; and as many in which
he differs from both. From which he very reasonably con-
cludes, that, in compiling his history, he had both the He-
brew and Greek Bibles before him, and sometimes used one
and sometimes the other ; and when he thought there was
reason, he did not scruple to recede from both. The Jews
had other ancient books to which they paid great deference
besides the Scriptures. Josephus copied often from these,
and from heathen writers too ; and he was not only many
f Hody, Dissert, de Septuagint. 1. iii. Joseph,
c. I. §. 2. h Dissertation upon the chronology
S Histor. Literar. p. ii. p. 20. in of Josephus, p. ifi — 21.
42 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK I.
times led away by them from what is contained in the Scrip-
tures, but oftentimes misled by them into trifles and mis-
takes. Josephus is not of sufficient authority to induce us to
alter our Bible.
And as to the fathers of the first ages of the Church, they
were good men, but not men of an universal learning ; they
understood the Greek tongue better than the Hebrew ; used
and wrote from the Septuagint copies, and that was the
reason why the Septuagint computations prevailed amongst
them '. And thus I have put the whole of what may be said
upon this subject together, into as narrow a compass as I
could well bring it. The reader may see the former part of
what I have ofiered treated more at large in Capellus's Sa-
cra Chronologia, prefixed to Walton's Polyglot Bible, and
in Bishop Walton's Prolegomenon upon the Septuagint and
Greek versions of the Scriptures ; and if the latter part may
be allowed, the differences between the Septuagint and
Hebrew, as far as we have yet entered into them, have but
little in them ; they appear considerable only from the
weight which the learned have given them in their disserta-
tions upon them ; but they may, by the suppositions above
mentioned, be very easily reconciled.
There is one thing more that should not be wholly omit-
ted, and this is, a variation or two in the several Greek
copies from one another.
We have in our table of the Septuagint computations sup-
posed Methuselah to be 187 years old at Lamech's birth, to
live 782 years after it, and to live in all 969 years ; but ^ Eu-
sebius, St. Jerom, and St. Austin assert, that according to
the Septuagint he begat Lamech in the i(57th year of his
age, lived after his birth 802 years, and lived in all 969
years. The Roman edition of the Septuagint, printed in
Greek and Latin at Paris, in the year 1628, agrees with them
in these computations. But in answer to them : 1 . St.
Austin himself confesses, that there were various readings in
i St. Jerom and St. Austin (as was Hebrew, yet without doubt much bet-
before hinted) adhered to the Hebrew ter skilled in it than the fathers of
computations ; and they were, though their age, except Origen.
not the only two that understood the ^ Capelli Chronol. Sacra.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 43
the computations of Methuselah's life ; that some copies
(three Greek, one Latin, and one Syriac) made Methuselah
die six years before the flood. Now these copies must have
had 187, and 782, as in our table, for then they will exactly
do it. Nay, 2. As Eusebius allows that some copies supposed
Methuselah to die six years before the flood, so he also ex-
pressly computes him to live 782 years after the birth of La-
mech ; now these copies must make him 1 87 at the birth of
Lamech, for there has been no doubt of his living in all,
according to the Septuagint, 969 years. 3. Africanus, cited
by Eusebius, says from the Septuagint, that Lamech was
born in the 187th year of Methuselah. 4. If the computa-
tions above mentioned be admitted, Methuselah must live
fourteen or fifteen years after the flood, which is too great an
absurdity to be admitted. The two or three copies men-
tioned by Eusebius have probably the ancient reading of the
Septuagint, and Eusebius and Syncellus should have cor-
rected the exemplars, which they computed from, by them,
as most of the modern editors have done. For all the later
editions of the Septuagint agree with our table, namely, the
Basil edition of Hervagius, published anno Domini 1545 :
Wichelius's, published anno Domini 1595, makes no various
reading upon the place, as if all books were the same with
it, or those that were not, were not worth confuting : the
royal edition by Plantin is the same, with this only fault,
that Treyre is put instead of 'i-nra, 185 instead of 187 ; but that
mistake is corrected in the Paris Greek and Latin made from
it anyio Domini 1628.
There is one reading more, in which Eusebius seems to
differ from us. He makes Lamech to live <^Ae, i. e. ^>^^
years after Noah's birth ; we say he lived 565. But it is
probable this mistake was either Scaliger's, or some tran-
scriber's, and not Eusebius's ; ^Ae might easily be writ for
<^£e : for, i . St. Jerom, who translated Eusebius into Latin,
wrote it dlxv. 2. All the modern editions of the Septua-
gint put it 565. 3. St. Austin says expressly, that the He-
brew computations in this place are 30 years more than the
Greek ; now the Hebrew makes Lamech to live 595 years
after Noah's birth, therefore the Greek computation being
44 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK I.
thirty years less, must be ^6^. 4. All copies of the Septua-
gint agree that he was 188 at Noah's birth, and that he lived
in all 753 years ; now from hence it is certain, that they
must suppose him to live ^6^ years after the birth of Noah,
for 188 and 565 is 753.
We are now come to the last point to be treated of, the
geography of the antediluvian world. There are but few
places of it mentioned ; the land of Eden, with its garden ;
the land of Nod on the east of Eden ; and the city of Enoch
in that country.
The land and garden of Eden was in the eastern parts of
the world, remarkable for a river which arose ovit of it, di-
viding itself into four streams or branches ; the first of which
was named Pison, and encompassed the whole land of Havi-
lah ; the second was named Gihon, and encompassed the
laud of Cush ; the third was Hiddekel, and ran into the
eastern parts of Assyria; the fourth was the noted river
Euphrates. This is the description of the place given us by
Moses. The learned have formed diiferent schemes of the
ituation of it from this description of it; two of which are
worth our notice.
First, Some suppose the land to be near Coele-Syria ; they
imagine the river arose somewhere between the mountains
Libanus and Anti-Libanus, and from thence to run to the
place where Euphrates now divides Syria and Mesopotamia,
and there to divide itself, i. into a stream which we now
make part of the Euphrates ; that this stream passed through
the ridge of mountains that run cross the country, and be-
yond them joined itself to the present Tigris, and continued
its course where the Tigris now runs into the Sinus Persicus ;
all this stream they call Hiddekel. 3. Their second river,
which they call Euphrates, is the present Euphrates, from
the place where we divide Tigris from it down to the Per-
sian Gulf; much about the same place they suppose the river
to divide into two other streams, which ran through the land
of the Ishmaelites, and divided the range of hills at the
entrance of Arabia Felix, and so encompassed between their
streams a part of that country, and then met again ; but af-
terwards divided, and ran, the one into the Indian, the other
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 45
into the Red Sea. The name of one of these streams was
Gihon, of the other Pison. The draught which I have added
will set this scheme in the clearest view.
The authors of the second scheme, though they have
every one of them some peculiarities, yet agree in the main,
that Eden was in Chaldea, that the garden was somewhere
near the rivers amongst which BaTjylon was afterwards built :
they prove the land of Havilah, by undeniable arguments,
to be the country adjacent to the present Euphrates, all along
and upon the banks of that river, and spreading thence to-
wards the deserts of Arabia. The land of Cush, which our
English translation erroneously renders Ethiopia, was, they
say, that part of Chaldea where Cush the son of Ham settled
after the flood. A draught of this scheme will set it in a
clearer light than any verbal description ; I have therefore
given a map of it, and shall only add a reflection or two on
both the schemes of the geography of this first world.
As to the former scheme, it is indeed true, there was a
place in Syria called Eden\ but it was of much later date
than the Eden where Adam was placed. Syria is not east to
the place where Moses wrote, but rather north ™. And fur-
ther, none of the descriptions which Moses has given of
Eden do belong to any part of Syria. There are no rivers
in the world that run in any degree agreeable to this fancy ;
and though the authors of it answer, that the earth and
course of rivers were altered by the flood, yet I cannot admit
that answer for a good one. Moses did not describe the
situation of this place in antediluvian names ; the names of
the rivers, and the lands about them, Cush, Havilah, &c., are
all names of later date than the flood; and I cannot but
think that Moses intended (according to the known geogra-
phy of the world when he wrote, and according to his own
notion of it) to give us hints of the place near which Eden in
the former world and the garden of Paradise were seated.
As to the second scheme, it seems to come a great deal
nearer the truth than the other; there are but small objec-
1 See Amos i. 5.
*n Moses wrote, either when he lived in Egypt, or in the land of Midian.
46 CONNECTION OF SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY.
tions to be made against it. There is indeed no draught of
the country which shews the rivers exactly to answer Mo-
ses's description of them ; but how easy is it to suppose,
either that the rivers about Babylon have been at several times
so much altered, by streams and canals made by the heads of
that potent empire, that we never had a draught of them
agreeable to what they were when Moses wrote about them :
or, if Moses wrote according to the then known geography
of a country, which he had never seen, it is very certain, that
all modern observations find greater varieties in the situation
of places, and make greater corrections in all old charts and
maps, than need to be made in this description of Moses, to
have it agree even with our latest maps of the present country
and rivers in and near Chaldea.
THE
SACRED AND PROFANE
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
CONNECTED.
BOOK II.
NOAH, with the remains of the old world in the ark, was
carried upon the waters ; for about five months " there
was no appearance of the flood's abating. In the beginning
of April '^ the ark touched upon the top of Mount Ararat.
After they had stopped here forty days •=, Noah, desirous to
know whether the waters were decreasing any where else in
the world, let a bird or two fly out of the ark''; but they
flew about till weary, and finding no place to light upon,
returned back to him. Seven days after ^ he let out a bird
again ; she returned, but with a leaf in her mouth, plucked
from some tree which she had found above water. Seven
days after f he let the bird fly a third time; but then she
found places enough to rest on, and so returned to him no
more. The waters continued to decrease gradually, and
about the middle of June^, Noah looked about him, and
a 150 days. Gen. viii. 3. i. e. exactly •* Gen. viii. 7, 8.
five Hebrew months, each month con- e Ver. 10, 11.
sisting of 30 days. f Ver. 12.
^ On the I'jth of the Jlk month, Gen. S In the tenth month,on the first day
viii. 4. i. e. of the month Nisan, pretty of the month, i. e. on the first day of Ta-
near answering to the 3rd of our April. muz, answering to about the i6th of
^ Gen. viii. 6. our June.
48 CONNECTION OF THE SACUED [bOOK II.
could see the tops of many hills. About the middle of Sep-
tember '' the whole earth came into view ; and at the be-
ginning of November ' was sufficiently drained ; so that
Noah, and his family, and creatures came out of the ark,
and took possession of the world again. As soon as they were
come ashore, Noah raised an altar, and offered sacrifices :
God was pleased to accept his piety, and promised a blessing
to him and his posterity, granted them the creatures of the
world for their food, and gave some laws, for the future to be
observed by them.
I. God granted them the creatu.res of the world for their
food ; Every moving thing that livetJi shall he meat for you,
even as the green herh have I given you all things ^. In the first
ages of the world, men lived upon the fruits of trees and the
product of the ground ; and it is asserted by some writers,
that the creatures were not used for either food or sacrifice.
It is thought that the offering of Abel ^ who sacrificed of his
flocks, was only wool, the fruits of his shearing; and milk,
or rather cream, a part of his lactage. The heathens are said
to have had a general notion, that the early sacrifices were of
this sort : Theophrastus is quoted by Porphyry, in Eusebi-
us ■", asserting, that the first men offered handfuls of grass ; in
time they came to sacrifice the fruits of trees ; in after-ages
to kill, and offer cattle upon their altars. Many other au-
thors are cited for this opinion ; Sophocles " speaks of wool
and grapes as an ancient sacrifice ; and Pausanias hints the
ancient sacrifice » to have been only fruits of trees, of the
vine especially, and honeycombs and wool ; and Plato was
of opinion, that living creatures? were not anciently offered
in sacrifice, but cakes of bread, and fruits, and honey poured
upon them ; and Empedocles asserts 'J, that the first altars
were not stained with the blood of the creatures. Some
h On the first day of the first month, the word which signifies a sacrifice
(ver. 13.) i. 8. on the first of Tizri, or where any blood is shed.
i6th of our September. m Euseb. Prajp. Evang. lib. i. c. 9.
i 27//; of the second month, i. e. 27th n Sophoclis Polyid. Fr. iv. e Clem,
of Marchesvan, about the loth of No- Alex. Strom, iv. p. 565. Ed. Brunck.
vember. o Pausanias de Cerere Phrygialensi.
l< Gen. ix. 3. P Plato de Legibus, 1. vi.
1 The Hebrew word Minchah, here 1 Vide H. Stephani Poesin Philoso-
used, favours this notion ; ni] being phicam, p. 29^ 30.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 49
Christian writers have gone into this opinion, and improved
it; they have imagined that sacrifices were offered only of
those things which men eat and drank for their sustenance
and refreshment; and that therefore, before the creatures
were used for food, they were not brought to the altars ; and
they go further, and conjecture from hence, that the original
of sacrifices was human, men being prompted by reason to
offer to God, by way of gratitude, part of those things for
the use of which they were indebted to his bounty. I should
rather think the contrary opinion true. God appointed the
skins of beasts for clothing to our first parents, which could
not be obtained without killing them, and this seems to inti-
mate that the creatures were at that time appointed for sa-
crifice. It looks unlikely that God should order the creatures
to be slain merely for clothing, when mankind were already
supplied with another sort of covering ^ ; but very proba-
ble, that, if he appointed a creature to be offered in sacrifice,
he might direct the offerer to use the skin for clothing : and
perhaps from this institution was derived the appointment in
Leviticus s, that the priest should have the skin of the burnt-
offering. There are several considerations which do, I think,
very strongly intimate, both that sacrifices of living creatures
were in use before mankind had leave to eat flesh, and also
that the origin of sacrifices was at first by divine appoint-
ment. The Talmudists agree that holocausts of the crea-
tures were offered in the earliest times, and long before men
had leave to eat flesh ; and it is very plain, that Noah offered
the creatures before God had granted leave to eat them*,
for that grant is represented to be made after Noah's sacri-
fice, and not before it": and it is evident that the distinc-
tion of clean and unclean beasts was before the flood ^; and
it cannot be conceived how there could be such a distinction
if the creatures were neither eaten nor used for sacrifice.
Abel's sacrifice seems rather to have been a burnt-offering of
the firstlings of his flocks, than an oblation of wool and
r Gen. iii. 7. u Gen. ix. 3.
s Levit. vii. 8. x Chap. vii. ver. 2.
t Gen. viii. 20. z See Levit. vi. 12.
VOL. I. E
50 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK I1_
cream. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews took it to
be so ; he supposed Abel's offering to be [^i/o-ia] a sacrifice of
a creature killed, and not an oblation, which would have
been called itpoa^opa, or hStpov ^. And as to the first origin of
sacrifices^ it is extremely hard to conceive them to be an hu-
man institution^ because we cannot, this way, give any toler-
able account of the reasons of them. If mankind had in the
first ages no immediate revelation, but came to their know-
lege of God by the exercise of their reason, it must be al-
lowed, that such notions as they had of God such would be
their way and method of serving him ; but then, how is it
possible that they should go into such notions of God as to
make it seem proper for them to oflfer sacrifices in order to
make atonement for their sins ? Reason, if it led to any, would
lead men to a reasonable service ; but the worship of God in
the way of sacrifice cannot, I think, appear to be of this sort,
if we take away the reason that may be given for it from re-
velation. We sacrifice to the gods, said Porphyry^, for three
reasons; either to pay them worship, or to return them
thanks for their favours, or to desire them to give us good
things, or to free us from evils : Ad hcec autem votum animi
satisfacit. It can never be made out from any natural no-
tions of God that sacrifices are a reasonable method to ob-
tain or return thanks for the favours of Heaven. The re-
sult of a true rational inquiry can be this only, that God is a
Spirit, and they that icorship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth. And though I cannot say that any of the wise
heathens did by the light of nature bring themselves to a
fixed and clear conviction of this great truth, yet it is remark-
able that several of them made great advances towards it;
and all the wise part of them saw clearly that no rational or
philosophical account could be given of their sacrifices. The
institutors of them always pretended to have received parti-
a Heb. xi. 4. Porphyry in Eusebius But we answer, he offers no reason
endeavours very fallaciously to derive for his opinion, nor can it possibly
the word dvaia from Ov/xido), and would be defended ; Bvffia and dvulacrts are,
infer its derivation from Ovw to be according to all rules of etymology,
modern, and taken up to defend the words of a very different derivation,
doctrine of sacrificing living creatui'es. ^ Vid. Porph. de Abstin. ab Animal.
See Euseb. Prsp. Evang. lib. i. c. 9. nee. lib. ii. §. 24.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 51
cular directions from the gods about themc, or at least those
that lived in after-ages chose to suppose so, not knowing
how to support them otherwise. The more forward writers '^
strove to decry them ; the more moderate pleaded a rever-
ence to antiquity, and long and universal use in favour of
them ; and the best philosophers qualified the use of them ^
by using them in a way and manner of their own, always
supposing that the disposition of the offerer, and not the
oblation which was offered, was chiefly regarded by the
Deity f .
%f
The true account therefore of the origin of sacrifices must
be this : God, having determined what should m the fulness
of time be the \x\xq propitiation for the sins of the world, namely
Christ, who by his own blood obtained us eternal redemption,
thought fit from the beginning to appoint the creatures to be
offered by way of figure, for the times then present, to repre-
sent the true offering which was afterwards to be made for
the sins of men. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews
very largely argues the sacrifices in the law to be grounded
upon this reason^; and I should conceive that his reasoning
may be equally applied to the sacrifices that were appointed
before the law ; because sacrifices were not a new institution
at the giving of the law ; For, says the Prophet^', / spake not
unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I
brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offer-
ings or sacrifices : but this thing commanded I them, saying.
Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my
people : and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded
you, that it may be well unto you. There were no sacrifices
appointed in the two tables delivered to Moses ; and it is ex-
ceeding probable, that the rules which Moses gave about
sacrifices and oblations were only a revival of the ancient
institutions, with perhaps some few additions or improvements
c Thus Numa's institutions were from the sacrifices of Pythagoras; vid.
appointed him by the goddess Egeria. Jamb, de vit. Pythag. et Porphyr. de
Florus. Livy. vita ejusdem.
d See the verses of the Greek poet f See Jamb, de vit. Pythag. §. 122.
in Clem. Alex. Stromat. lib. vii. p. g Chap. ix. and x.
303- h Jer. vii. 22.
6 Many instances might be brought
E 2
52 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK II.
which God thought proper for the state and circumstances
through which he designed to carry the Jewish nation ; for
the law was added because of transgressions until the seed should
come\ and not to set up a new religion.
Our blessed Saviour, in his discourse with the woman of
Samaria, John iv. plainly intimated, that the worship of God
by sacrifices was a positive institution, founded upon the
expectation of a promised Messiah; for he hints the Sama-
ritans, who either used sacrifices, imagining them part of
natural religion, or at least did not know the grounds of their
being appointed ; I say, he hints them to be blind and igno-
rant will-worshippers, men that worshipped the]/ knew not
what, ver. 22, or rather it should be translated'', men that
worshipped they knew not how ; i. e. in a way and manner,
the reason and grounds of which they knew nothing of.
But the Jews knew how they worshipped, for salvation was
of the Jews ; the promise of a Messiah had been made to
them, and they had a good reason to offer their sacrifices, for
they were a method of worship appointed by God himself, to
be used by them until the Messiah should come. The wo-
man's answer, ver. 25, I know that Messias cometh, looks as
if she apprehended our Saviour's true meaning.
The reason given in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews
for Abel's sacrifice pleasing God better than Cain's, is an-
other proof that sacrifices were appointed by some positive in-
stitution of God's : By faith Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain. The faith, of which several in-
stances are given in this chapter, is the belief of something
declared, and in consequence of such belief the performance
of some action enjoined by God. By faith Noah, being team-
ed of God, prepared an ark, i. e, he believed the warning
given him, and obediently made the ark which he was or-
dered to make. By faith Abraham, ichen he teas called to go
out into a place ivhich he should after receive for an inheritance,
i Gal. iii. 19. The expression is frequent in all Greek
k In the expressions i;ue?s irpoaKw- writers. If the Being worshipped had
fire t ovK otSaTe — rifiiis TrpocrKvucv/jiiv been referred to, I think it would have
t oWafxev, the preposition Kara is under- been hv, and not '6.
stood, KaO' ii otSuTe, and Ka6' ti otSa/xsj/.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 53
obeyed ; and he went out^ not hnoioing whither he wetit ; i. e. he
believed that God would give him what he had promised
him, and in consequence of such belief did what God com-
manded him. All the other instances of faith mentioned in
that chapter are of the same sort, and thus it was that Ahel
hy faith offered a better sacrifice than Cain. He believed what
God had then promised, that the seed of the woman should
bruise the serpenfs head, and in consequence of such belief of-
fered such a sacrifice for his sins as God had appointed to be
offered imtil the seed should cotne. If God at that time had
given no command about sacrificing, there could have been
no more of the faith treated of in this chapter in Abel's sa-
crifice than in Cain's offering. Cloppenburgh ' has given a
very good account of Cain and Abel's offering.
The abettors of the other side of the question do indeed
produce the authorities of some heathen writers and Rabbins,
and of some Christian Fathers, and of some considerable au-
thors, both Papists and Protestants ; but a general answer may-
be given to what is offered from them. The heathens had,
as I observed, no true notion of the origin of sacrifices :
they were generally received and established in all countries
as positive institutions ; but the philosophers were willing to
prove them to be a reasonable service, and therefore thinking
they could give a better account of the inanimate oblations
than of the bloody sacrifices, they imagined these to be the
most ancient, and that the others were in time added to them :
but there is no heathen writer that I know of that has gone
1 In Schol. Sacrific. p. 15. Etsi di- neglecto^ istoc externo symbolo sup-
versse oblationi videatur occasionem plicationis ex fide pro remissione pec-
prsebuisse diversum vitse institutum, catorum obtinenda. Quemadmodum
ipsi tamen diversitati oblationis hoc ergo in cultu spirituali publicanus sup-
videtur subesse ; quod Abel pecudum plicans cum peccatorum i^ofxaAoyricrfi
oblatione cruenta ante omnia cui-arit, t6 descendit in domum suam justificatus
IXaffr^piov Sia Trjs TriffTeais eV tdD aifMari, prse Pharisaeo cum gratiarum actione
Propitiationem per fidem in sanguine Deo vovente decimas omnium, quag
quo necessario purificanda erant dona possidebat, Luc. xviii. 12: sic cense-
Deo oblata, Heb. ix. 22, 23. Cainus mus hac parte potiorem fuisse Abelis
autem oblatione sola Eucharistica de oblationem prse oblatione Caini, quod
fructu terrse defungens supine neglex- ipse supplicationem suam pro impetran-
erit sacrificium iKaariKhv, ut eo nomine da peccatorum remissione testatus sit,
Deo displicuerit, neque potuerit obti- per sacrificii propitiatorii cruentam ob-
nere justitise Dei, quae ex fide est, lationem, cum alter dona sua Eucha-
testimonium, quod non perhibebat Deus ristico ritu offerret X'^P^^ alixaroxvcriaT.
54 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK II.
SO far as to assert expressly, that sacrifices were at first an
humau institution, or that has proved™ that such a worship
could be invented by the reason of man, or that it is agree-
able to any notions we can have of God. The Rabbins had
a general notion that sacrifices were first appointed, or rather
permitted by God, in compliance with the disposition which
the Israelites had contracted in Egypt; but this opinion is
very weakly grounded. I cannot question but that when
the Epistle to the Hebrews was written the current opinions
of the Jewish Doctors were of another sort ; for it is not to be
supposed that the first preachers of Christianity argued upon
such principles as they knew would not be admitted of by
those whom they endeavoured to convert to their religion.
It is certain that the Jewish Rabbins, when they were
pressed with the force of proofs in favour of Christ from their
Scriptures, did depart from many of the sentiments of their
ancestors, and went into new notions in several points, to
evade the arguments which they could not answer. The
Christian Fathers have some of them taken the side in this
question which I am contending for, especially Eusebius ° ;
aiid if some others of them have thought otherwise, this is
not a point in which we are to be determined by their au-
thority. The Popish writers ° took up their notion of sacri-
fices in order to favour some of their opinions about the mass ;
and as to the Protestant writers, it is not difiScult to see which
of them offer the best reasons. One thing I would observe
upon the whole : if it appears from history that sacrifices have
been used all over the world, have spread as far, as univer-
sally amongst men, as the very notions of a Deity ; if they
were the first, the earliest way of worship in every nation ;
if we find them almost as early in the world as mankind upon
the earth, and at the same time cannot find that mankind
ever did or could by the light of reason invent such notions
of a Deity as should lead them to imagine this way of worship
"1 Jamblichus says of sacrifices, that sacrificioram.
they were derived ex communi homi- » Demonstrat. Evang. lib. i. c. lo.
num ad homines consuetudine, neque " Greg, de Valentia de Missae Sacri-
convenire naturae Deorum mores hu- fie. 1. i. c. 4. et Bellarm. de Missa, 1. i.
mauos supra modum exuperanti. Lib. c. 20.
de Myster. ^Egyp. in sect, de utilitate
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
55
to be a reasonable service ; then we must necessarily suppose
that sacrifices were appointed for some particular end and
purpose, and agree to what we find in Moses's history, that
there was a revealed religion in the beginning of the world.
But however writers have differed about what was offered
before the flood, it is agreed that mankind eat no flesh until
the leave here obtained by Noah for it. Every herb hearing
seed, and every tree, to you it shall he for meat p. This was the
whole allowance which God at first made them ; and all
writers, sacred and profane, do generally suppose that the
early ages confined themselves very strictly within the limits
of it.
If we rightly consider their condition whilst they were
under this restraint of diet, their lives must have been very
laborious ; the sentence against Adam, which denounced that
in the sweat of their hroiv they should eat hread^ must have
been literally fulfilled. We must not imagine that after the
ground loas cursed men received from it a full and plenteous
product, without tilth or culture, for the earth was to bring
forth of itself only thorns and thistles ; pains and labour were
required to produce another sort of crop from it. The poets,
in their accounts of the golden age, suppose the earth to have
brought forth all its fruits spontaneously ; but it is remark-
able that the historians found no such halcyon days recorded
in the antiquities of any nations. Adam and Eve are sup-
posed to have had this happiness whilst they lived in Para-
dise ; and the poets framed their accounts of the golden age
from the ancient notions of the garden of Eden ; but we do
not find that the prose writers fell into them. Diodorus Si-
culus supposes the lives of the first men to have been far from
abounding with ease and plenty ; " Having houses to build,
" clothes to make 'J, and not having invented proper instru-
" ments to work with, they lived an hard and laborious life ;
" and many of them not having made a due provision for
" their sustenance, perished with hunger and cold in win-
" ters." This was his account of the lives and condition of
the first men. The art of husbandry is now so generally
P Gen. i. 29. '1 Lib. i. p. 6.
66 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [liOOK II.
understood, and such plenty is produced by a due and proper
tillage, that it may seem no hard matter for any one that has
ground to work on to produce an ample provision for life ;
but even still, should any family not used to husbandry, nor
supplied with proper tools and instruments for their tillage,
be obliged to raise from the ground as much of all sorts of
grain as they should want, they would find their time taken
up in a variety of labours. And this was the condition of
the first men ; they had not only to till the ground, but to
try, and by several experiments to find out the best and most
proper method of tilling it, and to invent and make all such
instruments as they had occasion for ; and we find them con-
fessing the toil and labour that was laid upon them in the
words of Lamech at the birth of Noah ; This same shall com-
fort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the
ground which the Lord hath cursed^. Lamech was probably
informed from God that his son Noah should obtain a grant
of the creatures for the use of men ; and knowing the labour
and inconveniences they were then under, he rejoiced in
foreseeing what ease and comfort they should have, when
they should obtain a large supply of food from the creatures,
besides what they could produce from the ground by til-
lage.
But secondly, God restrained them from eating blood ^;
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the hlood thereof, shall
ye not eat. What the design of this restraint was, or
what the very restraint is, has been variously controverted.
Mr. Selden *, in his book De Jure Gentium juxta Disciplinam
Hehrceorum, has a very learned chapter upon this subject, in
which he has given us the several opinions of the Rabbins,
though I think they give us but little true information about
it. The injunction of not eating blood has in the place be-
fore us no circumstances to explain its meaning ; but if we
look into the Jewish law, we find it there repeated, and such
a reason given for it as seems very probable to have been the
first original reason for this prohibition : " Whatsoever man
r Gen. v. 29. t Lib. vii. c. i.
s Chap. ix. vcr. 4. « Levit. xvii. 10,11.
AND PUOFAKE HISTORY. 57
there he of the house of Israel^ or of the strangers that sojourn
among yoii^ that eateth any manner of blood ; I will even set
my face against that soul that eateth hlood, and loill cut him off
from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the hlood :
and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement
for your soids ; [or it might be translated, / have appointed you
that to make atonement upon the altar for your souls /] for it is
the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. An an-
cient Jewish commentator upon the books of Moses'' para-
phrases the words pretty justly : " The soul," says he, " of all
" flesh is in the blood, and for that reason I have chosen the
" blood of all the beasts to make an atonement for the soul
" of man," This is by far the best account that can be
given of the prohibition of blood : God appointed that the
blood of the creatures should be offered for the sins of men,
and therefore required that it should be religiously set apart
for that purpose. If we examine the Mosaical law, we shall
find it strictly agreeable to this notion. In some places the
blood is appointed to be offered on the altar ; in others, to be
poured on the ground as water : but these appointments are
easily reconcilable, by considering the reason of each of
them. Whilst the Jews were in the wilderness, and the ta-
bernacle near at hand, they were ordered never to kill any
thing to eat, without bringing it to be killed at the door of
the tabernacle, in order to have the blood offered upon the
altar y. But when they came into the land of Canaan, and
were spread over the country, and had a temple at Jerusalem,
and were commanded strictly to offer all their sacrifices there
only, it was impossible to observe the injunction before
named ; they could not come fi'om all parts to Jerusalem to
kill their provision, and to offer the blood upon the altar.
Against this difficulty Moses provided in the book of Deu-
teronomy, which is an enlargement and explanation of the
laws in Leviticus. The substance of what he has ordered in
this matter is as follows ^ : that when they should come
over Joidan to dwell in Canaan, and there should be a place
X Chauskunni : and Eusebius hints V Levit. xvii. 3, 4.
the same reason, Dem. Evang lib. i. z Deut. xii.
c. 10.
58 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK 11.
chosen by God, to cause his name to dwell there, they were
to bring all their offerings to that place*, and to take heed
not to offer any offerings elsewhere^. But if they lived so
far from the temple, that they could not bring the creatures
up thither which they killed to eat, they had leave to kill and
eat tohatsoever they had a mind to, only, instead of offering the
blood, they were to pour it upon the earth as tvater, and to
take care that they eat none of %t^. Thus the pouring out the
blood upon the earth was appointed, where circumstances
were such that an offering of it could not be made ; and
agreeably hereto, when they took any thing in hunting,
which probably might be so wounded as not to live until
they could bring it to the tabernacle to offer the blood upon
the altar, they were to kill it, and pour out the blood, and
cover it with dust^. And we may from hence see the rea-
son for what David did when his three warriors brought
him water from the well of Bethlehem at the extreme ha-
zard of their lives ^ ; looking upon the water as if it were
their blood, which they hazarded to obtain it, he refused to
drink it, and there being no rule or reason to offer such
wtaer upon the altar, he thought fit to do what was next to
offering it, he poured it out before the Lord.
There is no foundation in either the reason of the thing
or in the prohibition to support the opinion of some persons,
who imagine the eating of blood to be an immoral thing :
if it were so, God would not have permitted the Israelites ^
to sell a creature that died in its blood to an alien or stranger,
that he might eat it. The Israelites were strictly obliged by
their law to eat no flesh until they had poured out the blood,
or offered it upon the altar, because God had appointed the
blood to be an atonement for their sins ; but the alien and
stranger, who knew of no such orders for the setting it apart
for that use, might as freely eat it as any part of the creature.
And I think this account of the prohibition of blood will
fully answer all the scruples which some Christians have
about it. The use of it upon the altar is now over, and
a Deut. xii. ii, 12. ^ Levit. xvii. 13.
b Ver. 13. e i Chron. xi 18.
c Ver. 21. f Deut. xiv. 21.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 59
therefore the reason for abstaining from it is ceased. And
though the Apostles §^ at the council of Jerusalem, that offence
might not be given to the Jews, advised the Gentiles at that
season to abstain from it, yet the eating it or not eating it
is no part of our religion, but we are at perfect liberty in this
matter.
In the third place, God set before them the dignity of hu-
man nature, and his abhorrence of any person's taking away
the life of his brother, and commanded for the future that
murder should be punished with death. Then he promised
Noah that mankind should never be destroyed by water any
more ; and lest he or his posterity should live in fears, from
the frequent rains to which the world by its constitution was
become subject, he appointed the rainbow^ for a perpetual
memorial that he had made them this promise.
The ark, we said, touched upon mount Ararat. We do
not find it floated away from thence, but rather conclude
that here they came ashore. But where this Ararat is has
been variously conjectured. The common opinion is, that
the ark rested on one of the Gordygean hills, which separate
Armenia from Mesopotamia ; but there are some reasons for
receding from this opinion.
I. The journeying of mankind from the place where the
ark rested to Shinaar is said to be from the East' ; but a
journey from the Gordysean hills to Shinaar would be from
the North. 2. Noah is not once mentioned in all the fol-
lowing part of Moses's history ; a strong intimation that he
neither came with these travellers to Shinaar, nor was settled
in Armenia or Mesopotamia, or any of the adjacent coun-
tries. He was alive a great while after the confusion of Ba-
bel, for he lived three hundred years after the flood ; and
surely if he had come to Babel, or lived in any of the nations
into which mankind were dispersed from thence, a person of
such eminence could not at once sink to nothing, and be no
S Acts XV. 'Ej' vf(p4'i o-T7jpi|e repas fxepoTTui/ av-
h Homer seems to have had a no- Opdnrwv.
tion that the rainbow was at first, to That rtpas here signifies a sign is evi-
use Moses's expression, set in the dent from the 4th verse of this Iliad,
cloud to be a sign unto men; for he ' Gen. xi. 2.
speaks to this purpose, Iliad. \'. v. 28.
60 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK II.
more mentioned in the history and settlement of these na-
tions, than if he had not been at alh Some authors, for these
reasons, have attempted to find mount Ararat in another
place, and suppose it to be some of the mountains north to
India; they think that the ark rested in this country, and
that Noah settled here after he came out of it : that only
part of his descendants travelled into Shinaar, the other part
of them settled where he did ; and that the reason why Moses
mentions neither him nor them, was because they lived at
a great distance from, and had no share in the actions of
the nations round about Shinaar, to whom alone, from the
dispersion of mankind, he confines his history. The reasons
to be given for this opinion are, i. If Ararat be situate as far
east as India, the travellers might very justly be said to jour-
ney from the east to Shinaar. 2. This account is favoured
by old heathen testimonies : " Two hundred and fifty years
" before Ninus (says Fortius Cato) the earth was overflowed
" with waters, and mankind began again in Saga Scythia.""
Now Saga Scythia is in the same latitude with Bactria, be-
tween the Caspian sea and Imaus, north to mount Parapo-
nisus : and this agrees with the general notion, that the
Scythians'^ might contend for primevity of original with
the most ancient nations of the world. The later writers,
unacquainted with the original history of this people, recur
to philosophical reasons ^ to support their antiquity, and speak
of them as seated near the Maeotis and Euxine sea ; but
these Scythians so seated must be some later descendants or
colonies from the original Scythians ; so late, that Herodo-
tus ™ imagined their first settlement under Targitaus to be not
above an hundred years before Darius's repelling the Scy-
thians who had invaded his provinces, i. e. about anno
mundi 3400 ; so late ", that they thought themselves the most
recent nation in the world. The original Scythians were
situate", as I said, near Bactria. Herodotus places them as
far east as Persia p, and says that the Persians called them
^ Justin, lib. ii. c. i. iOvecov ehat rh crcpeTepov. Herod. 1. iv.
' Ibid. c. I. et 2. §. 5.
m In Mclpom. o See Ptol. Asise Tab.
" 'SKvOai \4yov(ri viwrmov avavrcov P In Polyhymn. §. 63.
AND PUOFANE HISTORY. 61
Sacse, and supposes tliem and the Bactrians to be near neigh-
bours. 3. The notion of Noah's settling in these parts, as
also his living here, and not coming at all to Shinaar, is
agreeable to the Chaldean traditions about the deluge, which
inform us% that Xisuthrus (for so they called Noah) came
out of the ark with his wife and daughter, and the pilot of
the ark, and offered sacrifice to God, and then both he and
they disappeared, and were never seen again ; and that af-
terwards Xisuthrus's sons journeyed towards Babylonia, and
built Babylon and several other cities. 4. The language,
learning, and history of the Chinese do all favour this ac-
count ; their language seems not to have been altered in the
confusion of Babel ; their learning is reported to have been
full as ancient as the learning of the more western nations ;
their polity is of another sort, and their government esta-
blished upon very different maxims and foundations ; and
their history reaches up indisputably to the times of Noah,
not falling short, like the histories of other nations, such a
number of years as ought to be allowed for their inhabit-
ants removing from Shinaar to their place of settlement.
The first king of China was Fohi ; and as I have before ob-
served that Fohi and Noah were cotemporaries, at least, so
there are many reasons from the Chinese traditions concern-
ing Fohi to think him and Noah the same person, i. They
say Fohi had no father ^, i. e. Noah was the first man in the
postdiluvian world; his ancestors perished in the flood, and
no tradition hereof being preserved in the Chinese annals,
Noah, or Fohi, stands there as if he had no father at all.
2. Fohi's mother is said to have conceived him encompassed
with a rainbow s; a conceit very probably arising from the
rainbow's first appearing to Noah, and the Chineses being
willing to give some account of his original. 3. Fohi is said
to have carefully bred seven sorts of creatures *, which he
used to sacrifice to the supreme Spirit of heaven and earth ;
and Moses tells us", that Noah took into the ark of every
q See Syncellus, p. 30, 31. and Eu- t Le Compte, Mem. of China, p.
sebius in Chron. p. 10. 313.
r Martinii Hist. Sinica, p. 11. « Gen. vii. and viii.
s Td. ibid.
62 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK II.
clean beasts by sevens, and of fowls of the air by sevens :
and after the flood Noah built an altar, and took of every
clean beast and every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offer-
ings. 4. The Chinese derive the name of Fohi from his ob-
lation ^, and Moses gives Noah his name upon account of the
grant of the creatures for the use of men, which he obtained
by his offering. Lastly, the Chinese history supposes Fohi
to have settled in the province of Xeusi, which is the north-
west province of China, and near to Ararat where the ark
rested : but, 6. the history we have of the world does neces-
sarily suppose that these eastern parts were as soon peopled,
and as populous, as the land of Shinaar ; for in a few ages,
in the days of Ninus and Semiramis, about three hundred
years after the dispersion of mankind, the nations that came
of that dispersion attacked the inhabitants of the East M'ith
their united force, but found the nations about Bactria, and
the parts where we suppose Noah to settle, fully able to re-
sist and repel all their armies, as I shall observe hereafter in
its proper place. Noah therefore came out of the ark near
Saga Scythia, on the hills beyond Bactria, north to India.
Here he lived, and settled a numerous part of his posterity
by his counsels and advice. He himself planted a vineyard,
lived a life of retirement, and, after having seen his offspring
spread around him, died in a good old age. It were much
to be wished that we could attain a thorough insight into the
antiquities and records of these nations, if there be any ex-
tant. As they spread down to India south, and farther east
into China, so it is probable they also peopled Scythia, and
afterwards the more northern continent ; and if America be
any where joined to it, perhaps all that part of the world
came from these originals. But we must now speak of that
part of Noah's descendants which travelled from the East.
At what time these men left Noah we are nowhere in-
formed, probably not till the number of mankind was in-
creased. Seventy years might pass before they had any
thought of leaving their great ancestor, and by that time
mankind might be multiplied to hundreds, and they might
f Couplet's Confucius, Prooem. p. 38, 76,
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 63
be too many to live together in one family, or to be united
in any scheme of polity which they were able to form or
manage ; and so a number of them might have a mind to
form a separate society, and to journey and settle in some
distant country.
From Ararat to Shinaar is about twelve hundred miles.
We must not therefore suppose them to have got thither in
an instant. The nature of the countries they passed over,
nay, I might say the condition the earth itself must then be
in, full of undrained marshes and untracked mountains, over-
run with trees and all sorts of rubbish of seventy or eighty
years growth, without curb or culture, could not afford room
for an open and easy passage to a company of travellers ; be-
sides, such travellers as they were, were not likely to press
forwards with any great expedition ; an undetermined mul-
titude, looking for no particular place of habitation, were
likely to fix in many, and to remove as they found inconve-
niences. Let us therefore suppose their movements to be
such as Abraham made afterwards, short journeys, and
abodes here and there, till in ten or twelve years they might
come to Shinaar, a place in all appearance likely to afford
them an open and convenient country for their increasing
families.
And thus about eighty years after the flood, according to
the Hebrew computation anno mundi 1736 >, they might
come to the plain of Shinaar. They were now out of the
narrow passages and fastnesses of the mountains, had found an
agreeable country to settle in, and thought here to fix them-
selves and their posterity. Ambition is a passion extremely
incident to our first setting out in the world ; no aims seem
too great, no attempts above or beyond us. So it was with
these unexperienced travellers ; they had no sooner deter-
mined where to settle, but they resolved to make the place
remarkable to all ages, to build a tower, which should be the
wonder of the world, and preserve their names to the end of
y According to the fragment in Eu- yov p. ii. in which number there is an
sebius in Chron. they began to build evident mistake, /3 instead of a, it
their tower A. M. 1 736 ; ap^dixevoi should be ci\p\r.
(he says) 0i|/Ar trei oiKoSofMelu rov irvp-
64 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK II.
it. They set all hands to the work, and laboured in it, it is
thought, for some years ; but alas ! the first attempt of their
vanity and ambition became a monument of their folly and
weakness ; God confounded their language in the midst of
their undertaking, and hereby obliged them to leave off
their project, and to separate from one another. If we sup-
pose them to spend nineteen or twenty years in settling and
building, before their language was confounded, the division
of the earth must be placed anno mundi 1757, about one hun-
dred and one years after the flood, when Peleg the son of
Eber was born ; for the name Peleg was given him because
in his time the earth was divided^. And thus we have
brought the history of mankind to a second great and re-
markable period. I shall carry it no further in this book,
but only add some account of the nature and original of lan-
guage in general, and of the confusion of it here spoken of.
And,
I. It will, I think, be allowed me, that man is the only
creature in the world that has the use of language. The
fables we meet in some ancient writers, of the languages of
beasts and birds, and particularly of elephants, are but fa-
bles ^. The creatures are as much beneath speaking as they
are beneath reasoning. They may be able to make some
faint imperfect attempts towards both ; they may have a few
simple ideas of the things that concern them ; and they may
be able to form a few sounds, which they may repeat over
and over, without variation, to signify to one another what
their natural instincts piompt them to ; but what they can
do of this sort is not enough for us to say they have the use
of language. Man therefore is, properly speaking, the only
conversible creature of the world. The next inquiry must
be, how he came to have this ability.
There have been many writers Avho have attempted to ac-
count for the original of language : Diodorus Siculus ^ and
2 Gen. X. 25. Queen of Slieba ; and Mahomet was
a The author of the latter Targum silly enough to believe it, for we have
upon Esther reports, that Solomon un- much the same story in his Alcoran.
derstood the language of the birds, and See Walton. Prolegom. i. §.5.
sent a bird with a message to the b Lib. Hist. i.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 65
Vitruvius'^ imagined that men at first lived like beasts, in
woods and caves, forming only strange and uncouth noises,
until their fears caused them to associate together ; and that
upon growing acquainted with one another they came to
correspond about things, first by signs, then to make names
for them, and in time to frame and perfect a language ; and
that the languages of the world are therefore diverse, be-
cause diflferent companies of men happening thus together,
would in different places form diflferent sounds or names for
things, and thereby cause a different speech or language
about them. It must be confessed this is an ingenious con-
jecture, and might be received as probable, if we were to
form our notions of the origin of mankind as these men did,
from our own or other people's fancies. But since we have
an history ** which informs us, that the beginning both of
mankind and conversation were in fact otherwise, and since
all that these writers have to offer about the origin of things
are but very trifling and inconsistent conjectures, we have
great reason with Eusebius ^ to reject this their notion of the
origin of language, as a mere guess, that has no manner of
authority to support it.
Other writers, who receive Moses's history, and would
seem to follow him, imagine, that the first man was created
not only a reasonable, but a speaking creature ; and so On-
kelos ^ paraphrases the words which we render Man was
made a living soul, and says he was made ruah memallela, a
speaking animal. And some have carried this opinion so far,
as not only to think that Adam had a particular language, as
innate to him as a power of thinking, or faculty of reason-
ing, but that all his descendants have it too, and would of
themselves come to speak this very language, if they were
not put out of it in their infancy by being taught another.
We have no reason to think the first part of this opinion to
be true : Adam had no need of an innate set of words, for
he was capable of learning the names of things from his
c Architec. lib. ii. c. i. e Euseb. de Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. 7, 8.
d Viz. that of Moses. f See Targum in loc.
VOL. I. F
66 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK II.
Creator, or of making names for things by his own powers, for
his own use. And as to the latter part of it, that children
would of course speak an innate and original language, if not
prevented by education, it is a very wild and extravagant
fancy ; an innate language would be common to all the
world ; we should have it over and above S any adventitious
language we could learn ; no education could obliterate it ;
we could ^ no more be without it, than without our natural
sense or passions. But we find nothing of this sort amongst
men. We may learn (perhaps with equal ease) any language
which in our early years is put to us ; or if we learn no one,
we shall have no articulate way of speaking at all, as Psam-
miticus \ king of Egypt, and Melabdin Echbar ^, in the In-
dies, convinced themselves by experiments upon infants,
whom they took care to have brought up without being
taught to speak, and found to be no better than mute crea-
tures. For the sound l which Psammiticus imagined to be a
Phrygian word, and which the children he tried his experi-
ment upon were supposed after two years nursing to utter,
was a mere sound of no signification, and no more a word
than the noises are which ^ dumb people do often make, by
a pressure and opening of their lips, and sometimes accident-
ally children make it of but three months old.
Other writers have come much nearer the truth, who say,
that the first man was instructed to speak by God, who made
him, and that his descendants learnt to speak by imitation
from their predecessors ; and this I think is the very truth, if
we do not take it too strictly. The original of our speaking
was from God ; not that God put into Adam's mouth the
very sounds which he designed he should use as the names of
things, but God made Adam with the powers of a man ".
He had the use of an understanding, to form notions in his
mind of the things about him ; and he had a power to utter
g Franc. Vales, de Sacra Philos. c. 3. «i Postellus de Origin, p. 2.
h See Mr. Locke's Essay, b. i. n In this sense the author of Eccle-
i Herod. 1. ii. siasticus conceived man to be endued
k Purchas. b. i. c. 8. with speech from God, chap. xvii.
1 The sound was bee, supposed to ver. 5.
be like the Phrygian word for bread.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 67
sounds, which should be to himself the names of things, ac-
cording as he might think fit to call them. These he might
teach Eve, and in time both of them teach their children ;
and thus begin and spread the first language of the world.
The account which Moses gives of Adam's first use of speech
is entirely agreeable to this ; ° And out of the ground the Lord
God formed every least of the field, and every fowl of the air ;
and hr ought them unto Adam to see what he would call them :
and tvhatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle. God is
not here said to have put the words into Adam's mouth, but
only to have set the creatures before him, to put him upon
using the power he had of making sounds to stand for names
for them. It was Adam that gave the names, and he had
only to fix to himself what sound was to stand for the name
of each creature, and what he so fixed that was the name
of it.
Our next inquiry shall be, of what sort, and what this first
language thus made was. But before we can determine
this matter, it will be proper to mention the qualities which
did very probably belong to the first language.
And, I . The original language must consist of very simple
and uncompounded sounds. If we attend to a child in its
first essays towards speech, we may observe its noises to be a
sort of monosyllables, uttered by one expression of the voice,
without variation or repetition ; and such were probably the
first original words of mankind. We do not think the first
man laboured under the imperfection of a child in uttering
the sounds he might aim at ; but it is most natural to ima-
gine that he should express himself in monosyllables. The
modelling the voice into words of various lengths and dis-
jointed sounds seems to have been the effect of contrivance
and improvement, and was probably begun when a language
of monosyllables was found too scanty to express the several
things which men in time began to want to communicate to
one another. If we take a view of the several languages in
the world, we shall allow those to have been least polished
o Gen. ii. 19, 20.
r 2
68 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK II.
and enriched, which abound most in short and single words ;
and this alone would almost lead us to imagine, that the first
language of mankind, before it had the advantage of any re-
finement, was entirely of this sort.
2. The first language consisted chiefly of a few names for
the creatures and things that mankind had to do with.
Adam is introduced as making a language, by his naming the
creatures that were about him. The chief occasion he had
for language was perhaps to distinguish them in his speech
from one another ; and when he had provided for this, by
giving each a name, as this was all he had a present occasion
for, so this might be all the language he took care to provide
for the use of life ; or if he went further, yet,
3. The first language had but one part of speech. All
that the first men could have occasion to express to one an-
other must be a few of the names and qualities and actions of
the creatures or things about them ; and they might proba-
bly endeavour to express these by one and the same word.
The Hebrew language has but few adjectives ; so that it is
easy to see how the invention of a few names of things may
express things and their qualities. The name man, joined
with the name of some fierce beast, as lion-man., might be
the first way of expressing a fierce man. Many instances of
the same sort might be named ; and it is remarkable, that
this particular is extremely agreeable to the Hebrew idiom.
In the same manner the actions of men or creatures might be
described ; the adding to a person's name the name of a
creature remarkable for some action, might be the first way
of expressing a person's doing such an action : our English
language will afibrd one instance, if not more, of this mat-
ter : the observing and following a person wherever he goes
is called dogging., from some sort of dogs performing that
action with great exactness ; and therefore Cain Dog Abel.,
may give the reader some idea of the original method of ex-
pressing Cain's seeking an opportunity to kill his brother,
when the names of persons and things were used to express
the actions that were done, without observing any variations
of mood and tense, or number or person for verbs, or of case
for nouns.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 69
For, 4. all these were improvements of art and study, and
not the first essay and original production. It was time and
observation that taught men to distinguish language into
nouns and verbs ; and afterwards made adjectives, and other
parts of speech. It was time and contrivance that gave to
nouns their numbers ; and in some languages, a variety of
cases, that varied verbs by mood, and tense, and number,
and person, and voice ; in a word, that found out proper va-
riations for the words in use, and made men thereby able to
express more things by them, and in a better manner, and
added to the words in use new and different ones, to express
new things, as a further acquaintance with the things of the
world gave occasion for them. And this will be sufficient to
give the reader some ground to form a judgment about the
languages, and to determine which is the most likely to have
been the first and original one of mankind : let us now see
how far we can determine this question.
The writers that have treated this subject do bring into
competition the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syrian, or Arabian ;
some one or other of these is commonly thought the original
language ; but the arguments for the Syrian and Arabian
are but few and trifling. The Chaldean tongue is indeed
contended for by very learned writers ; Camden p calls it
the mother of all languages ; and Theodoret, amongst the
Fathers, was of the same opinion ; and Amira i has made a
collection of arguments, not inconsiderable, in favour of it ;
and Myricseus "■, after him, did the same ; and Erpenius % in
his oration for the Hebrew tongue, thought the arguments
for the Hebrew and Chaldean to be so equal, that he gave
his opinion no way, but left the dispute about the antiquity
of these languages as he found it.
I am apt to fancy, that if any one should take the pains to
examine strictly these two languages, and to take from each
what may reasonably be supposed to have been improve-
ments made since their original, he will find the Chaldean
P Britann. 204. Chaldaicam.
1 In Praef. ad Grammat. suam Syri- s Erpenius, in Orat. de ling. Heb.
3cam. ait, adhuc sub judice lis est.
''In Praef. ad Grammaticam suam
70 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK II.
and Hebrew tongue to have been at first the very same.
There are evidently, even still, in the Chaldean tongue
great numbers of words the same with the Hebrew ; perhaps
as many as mankind had for their use before the confusion of
Babel ; and there are many words in the two tongues which
are very different, but their import or signification is very
often such as may occasion us to conjecture that they were
invented at or since that confusion. The first words of man-
kind were, doubtless, as I have before said, the names of the
common things and creatures, and of their most obvious qua-
lities and actions, which men could not live without observ-
ing, nor converse without speaking of. As they grew more
acquainted with the world, more knowledge was acquired,
and more words became necessary. In time they observed
their own minds and thoughts, and wanted words to express
these too ; but it is natural to imagine that words of this sort
were not so early as those of the other ; and in these latter
sort of words, namely, sxich as a large acquaintance with the
things of the world, or a reflection upon our thoughts might
occasion, in these the Chaldean and Hebrew language do
chiefly differ, and perhaps few of these were in use before the
confusion of tongues. If this observation be true, it would
be to little purpose to consider at large the dispute for the
priority of the Hebrew or Chaldean tongue ; we may take
either, and endeavour to strip it of all its improvements, and
see whether in its first infant state it has any real marks of an
original language : I shall choose the Hebrew, and leave the
learned reader to consider how far what I offer may be true of
the Chaldean tongue also.
And if we consider the Hebrew tongue in this view, we
must not take it as Moses wrote it, much less with the im-
provements or additions it may have since received ; but we
must strip it of every thing which looks like an addition of
art, and reduce it, as far as may be, to a true original sim-
plicity. And I. All its vowels and punctuations, which
could never be imagined until it came to be written, and
which are in no wise necessary in writing it, are too modern
to be mentioned. 2. All the prefixed and affixed letters were
added in time to express persons in a better manner than
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 71
could be done without them. 3. The various voices, moods,
tenses, numbers, and persons of verbs, were not original, but
were invented as men found occasion for them, for a greater
clearness or copia of expression. 4. In the same manner, the
few adjectives they have, and the numbers and regimen of
nouns, were not from the beginning. By these means we
may reduce the whole language to the single theme of the
verbs, and to the nouns or names of things and men ; and of
these I would observe, i. That the Hebrew nouns are com-
monly derived from the verbs ; and this is agreeable to the
account which Moses gives of the first inventing the names of
things : when Cain was to be named, his mother observed,
that she had gotten a man from the Lord, and therefore called
him Cain, from the verb which signifies to get. So when
Seth was to be named, she considered that God had appointed
her another, and called his name Setli, from the verb
which signifies to appoint. When Noah was to be named,
his father foresaw that he should comfort them, and so
named him Noah, from the verb which signifies to comfort.
And probably this was the manner in which Adam named
the creatures : he observed and considered some particular
action in each of them, fixed a name for that action, and from
that named the creature according to it. 2. All the verbs of
the Hebrew tongue, at least all that originally belong to it,
consist uniformly of three letters, and were perhaps at first
pronounced as monosyllables ; for it may be the vowels were
afterwards invented, which dissolved some of the words into
more syllables than one : and I am the more inclined to think
this possible, because in many instances the same letter dis-
solves a word, or keeps it a monosyllable, according as the
vowel differs that is put to it. I^i^^j aven, is of two syl-
lables ; lii^, aour^ and mi^, aouth, are words of one ;
and many Hebrew words now pronounced with two vowels
might originally have but one : "^^^^ harah, to bless, might
at first be read T^2, hrak, with many other words of the
same sort. There are indeed several words in this language
which are not so easily reducible to monosyllables, but these
seem to have been compounded of two words put together,
72 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK II.
as shall be observed hereafter. 3. The nouns, which are de-
rived from the verbs, do many of them consist of the very
same letters with the verbs themselves ; probably all the
nouns did so at first, and the difference there now is in some
of them is owing to improvements made in the language.
If we look into the Hebrew tongue in this manner, we shall
reduce it to a very great simplicity ; we shall bring it to a
few names of things, men, and actions ; we shall make all its
words monosyllables, and give it the true marks of an original
language. And if we consider how few the radical words are,
about five hundred, such a paucity is another argument in
favour of it.
But there are learned writers who offer another argument
for the primsevity of the Hebrew tongue, and that is, that
the names of the persons mentioned before the confusion of
Babel, as expressed in the Hebrew, do bear a just relation to
the words from whence they were derived ; but all this ety-
mology is lost, if you take them in any other language into
which you may translate them : thus the man was called
Adam, because he was taken from the ground ; now the He-
brew word C2"T^^5 Adatn, is, they say, derived from nT;D"Ti^'
admah, the ground. So again, Eve had her name because
she was the mother of all living ; and agreeably hereto
mrf' Hevah, is derived from the verb HTI' hajaJi, to live.
The name of Cain was so called because his mother thought
him gotten from the Lord ; and agreeably to this reason, for
his name pp» Kain, is derivable from H^p' Jcanah, to get :
the same might be said of Seth, Noah, and several other
words ; but all this etymology is destroyed and lost, if we
take the names in any other language besides the original
one in which they are given. Thus for instance, if we call
the man in Greek 'Avrjp, or ''Avdp(aTTos, the etymology is none
between either of these words, and yrj, the earth, out of which
he was taken. If we call Eve Eva, it will bear no relation
to Crjv, to live ; and Kalv bears little or no relation to any
Greek word signifying to get. To all this Grotius answers *,
* In Gen. xi. et not. ad lib. i. de Verit. n. i6.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 73
that Moses took an exact care not to use the original proper
names in his Hebrew book, but to make such Hebrew ones
as might bear the due relation to a Hebrew word of the same
sense with the original word from whence these names were
at first derived. Thus in Latin homo bears as good a relation
to humus, the ground^ as Adam, in Hebrew, does to Admah ;
and therefore if Adatyi were translated homo in the Latin,
the propriety of the etymology Avould be preserved, though
the Latin tongue was not the language in which the first man
had his name given. But how far this may be allowed to be
a good answer is submitted to the reader.
There is indeed another language in the world which
seems to have some marks of its being the first original lan-
guage of mankind ; it is the Chinese : its words are even now
very few, not above twelve hundred ; the nouns are but
three hundred and twenty-six ; and all its words are confess-
edly monosyllables. Noah, as has been observed, very pro-
bably settled in these parts ; and if the great father and re-
storer of mankind came out of the ark and settled here, it is
very probable that he left here the one universal language of
the world. It might be an entertaining subject for any one
that understood this language, to compare it with the He-
brew, to examine both the tongues, and strip each of all ad-
ditions and improvements they may possibly have received,
and try whether they may not be reduced to a pretty great
agreement with one another. But how far this can be done,
I cannot say. However, this I think looks pretty clear ; that
whatever was the original of the Chinese tongue, it seems to
be the first that ever was in those parts. All changes and
alterations of language are commonly for the better ; but the
Chinese language is so like a first and uncultivated essay, that
it is hard to conceive any other tongue to have been prior to
it ; and since I have mentioned it, I may add, that whether
this be the first language or no, the circumstance of this
language's consisting of monosyllables is a very considerable
argument that the first language was in this respect like it ;
for though it is natural to think that mankind might begin
to form single sounds first, and afterwards come to enlarge
their speech by doubling and redoubling them ; yet it can in
74 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK II.
no wise be conceived, that, if men had at first known the
plenty of expression arising from words of more syllables than
one, any person or people Avould have been so stupid as to
have reduced their languages to words of but one.
We have still to treat of the confusion of the one language
of the world. Before the confusion of Babel, we are told
that the ichole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
Hitherto the first original language of mankind had been
preserved with little or no variation for near two thousand
years together ; and now, in a little space of time, a set of
men, associated and engaged in one and the same undertak-
ing, came to be so divided in this matter, as not to under-
stand one another's expressions ; their language was confound-
ed, that they did not understand one another's speech, and so
were obliged to leave oflf building their city, and were by
degrees scattered over the face of the earth.
Several writers have attempted to account for this confu-
sion of language, but they have had but little success in their
endeavours. What they offer as the general causes of the
miitability of language does in no wise come up to the mat-
ter before us ; it is not sufficient to account for this first and
great variation. The general causes " of the mutability of
language are commonly reduced to these three ; i . the dif-
ference of climates ; 2. an intercourse of commerce with
different nations ; or, 3. the unsettled temper and disposi-
tion of mankind.
J . The difference of climates will insensibly cause a varia-
tion of language, because it will occasion a difference of pro-
nunciation. It is easy to be observed, that there is a pro-
nunciation peculiar to almost every country in the world, and
according to the climate the language will abound in aspi-
rates or lenes, guttural sounds or pectorals, labials or dentals ;
a circumstance which would make the very same language
sound very different from itself, by a different expression or
pronunciation of it. The Ephraimites^, we find, could not
pronounce the letter Schin as their neighbours did. There
is a pronunciation peculiar to almost every province, so that
u Bodinus in Method. Hist. c. 9. x Judges xii. 6.
AND profanp: history. 75
if we were to suppose a number of inen of the same nation
and language dispersed into different parts of the world, the
several climates which their children would be born in would
so aifect their pronunciation, as in a few ages to make their
language very different from one another.
2. A commerce or intercourse with foreign nations does
often cause an alteration of language. Two nations, by
trading with one another, shall insensibly borrow words from
each other's language, and intermix them in their own ; and
it is possible, if the trade be of large extent, and continued
for a long time, the number of words so borrowed shall in-
crease and spread far into each country, and both languages
in an age or two be pretty much altered by the mixture of
them. In like manner, a plantation of foreigners may by
degrees communicate words to the nation they come to live
in. A nation's being conquered, and in some parts peopled
by colonies of the conquerors, may be of the same conse-
quence ; as may also the receiving the religion of another
people. In all these cases, many words of the sojourners, or
conquerors, or instructors, will insensibly be introduced, and
the language of the country that received them by degrees
altered and corrupted by them.
3. The third and last cause of the mutability of language
is the unsettled temper and disposition of mankind. The
very minds and manners of men are continually changing ;
and since they are so, it is not likely that their idioms and
words should be fixed and stable. An uniformity of speech
depends upon an entire consent of a number of people in
their manner of expression ; but a lasting consent of a large
number of people is hardly ever to be obtained, or long to
be kept up in any one thing ; and unless we could by law
prescribe words to the multitude, we shall never find it in
diction and expression. Ateius Capito would have flattered
Caesar into a belief that he could make the Roman language
what he pleased ; but Pomponius very honestly assured him
he had no such power ^'. Men of learning and observation
y For this reason the great orator cen.si, scienliam mihi reservavi. Cic. de
observes, Usum loquemU popitlo con- Oratore.
76 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK II.
may think and speak accurately, and may lay down rules for
the direction and regulation of other people's language, but
the generality of mankind will still express themselves as
their fancies lead them ; and the expression of the generality,
though supported by no rules, will be the current language ;
and hence it will come to pass, that we shall be always so far
from fixing any stability of speech, that we shall continually
find the observation of the poet verified :
Multa renascentur quae jam cecidere, cadentque
Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus.
Quern penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi.
Language will be always in a fluctuating condition, subject
to a variety of new words and new expressions, according as
the humour of the age and the fancies of men shall happen
to introduce them.
These are the general reasons of the mutability of lan-
guage ; and it is apparently true, that some or other of these
have, ever since the confusion of Babel, kept the languages of
the world in a continual variation. The Jews mixing with
the Babylonians, when they were carried into captivity %
quickly altered and corrupted their language, by introducing
many Syriacisms and Chaldeisms into it. And afterwards,
when they became subject to the Greeks and Romans'', their
language became not only altered, but as it were lost, as any
one will allow that considers how vastly the old Hebrew
differs from the Babbinical diction, and the language of the
Talmuds. The Greek tongue in time suffered the same fate,
and part of it may be ascribed to the Turks overrunning
their country, and part of it to the translation of the Roman
empire to Constantinople : but some part of the change came
from themselves; for, as Brerewood has observed, they had
changed many of their ancient words long before the Turks
broke in upon them, of which he gives several instances out
of the books of Cedrenus, Nicetas, and other Greek writers ^.
z Walton. Prolegom. b Walton, in Prolegom. de Lingua-
a Id. ibid. rum Naturaj &c.
' AND PROFANE HISTORY. 77
The numerous changes which the Latin tongue ^ has un-
dergone may be all accounted for by the same reasons :
they had in a series of years so diversified their language,
that the Salian verses composed by Numa were scarce un-
derstood by the priests in Quintilian's time ; and there were
but few antiquaries within about three hundred and fifty
years that could read and give the sense of the articles of
treaty between Kome and Carthage, made a little after the
expulsion of the kings. The laws of the Twelve Tables col-
lected by Fulvius Ursinus, and published in the words of the
kings and decemviri that made them, are a specimen of the
very great alteration that time introduced into the Latin
tongue : nay, the pillar in the capitol, erected in honour of
Drusillus, about one hundred and fifty years before Cicero,
shews, that even so small a tract of time as a century and
half caused great variations. After the Koman tongue at-
tained the height of its purity, it quickly declined again and
became corrupted, partly from the number of servants kept
at Rome, who could not be supposed to speak accurately and
with judgment ; and partly from the great concourse of
strangers who came from the remote provinces, so that the
purity of it was to a great degree worn off and gone, before
the barbarisms of the Goths quite extinguished it.
And what has thus happened in the learned languages, is
as observable in all the other languages of the world ; time
and age varies every tongue on earth. Our English, the
German, French, or any other, diflPers so much in three or
four hundred years, that we find it diflicult to understand the
language of our forefathers ; and our posterity will think
ours as obsolete as we do the speech of those that lived ages
ago : and all these alterations of the tongues may, I think,
be sufficiently accounted for by some or other of the causes
before assigned ; but none of them does at all shew how or by
what means the confusion at Babel could be occasioned.
Our builders had travelled from their ancestors many hun-
dreds of miles, from Ararat to Shiaaar ; the climates may
diflfer, and suppose we should imagine the country to aflfect
c Walton, in Prolegom. de Linguarum Natura, &c.
78 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK II.
the pronunciation of the children born in it, yet still it will
be hard to say that this should breed a confusion ; for since
they were all born in or near the same place, they would be
all equally affected, and speak all alike. Besides, a difference
of pronunciation causes difficulties only where persons come
to converse, after living at a distance from one another. An
imperfection in our children's speech, bred up under our
wing, would be observed from its beginning, grow familiar
to us as they grew up, and the confusion would be very little
that could be occasioned by it. And as to any commerce
with other nations, they had none ; they were neither con-
quered nor mingled with foreigners ; so that they could not
learn any strange words this way. And though there have
been many changes of language from the variability of men's
tempers, these, we find, have been frequent since this first
confusion ; but how or why they should arise at this time is
the question. Language was fixed and stable, uniformly the
same for almost two thousand years together ; it was now
some way or other unfixed, and has been so ever since. There
are some considerable writers that seem to acknowledge them-
selves puzzled at this extraordinary accident. The confusion
of tongues could not come from men, says St. Ambrose d, for
why should they be for doing such a mischief to themselves,
or how could they invent so many languages as are in the
world ? It could not be caused by angels good or bad, says
Origen e, and the Rabbins f and other writers S, for they have
not power enough to do it. The express words of Moses,
Go to, let us go down and confound their language ; and again,
the Lord did confound the language of the earth, (says bishop
Walton ^',) imply a deliberate purpose of God himself to cause
this confusion, and an actual execution of it. And the way
in which it was performed, says the learned Bochart ', imme-
diately, and without delay, proves it the immediate work of
God, who alone can instantly effect the greatest purposes and
d Thes. Ambros. de Causis Mutatio- S See Luther in Gen. xi. Corn, a
nis Linguarum. Lapide in Gen. xi.
e Origen. Horn. ii. in Num. cap. h Prolegom.
xviii. i Geograph. Sac. p. i. 1. i. c. 15.
f Jonath. et al in Gen. xi. 7, 8.
AXD PROFANE HISTORY. 79
designs. Several of the Rabbins have inquired more curi-
ously into the affair, but I fear the account they have given
of it is poor and trifling. Buxtorf has collected all their
opinions, but they seem to have put him out of humour with
the subject, and to occasion him to conclude in the words of
Mercerus, " There is no reason to inquire too curiously into
" this matter : it was effected instantly, in a way and manner
" which we can give no account of; we know of many things,
" that they were done, but how they were done we cannot
" say. It is a matter of faith."
The builders of Babel were evidently projectors, their de-
signed tower is a proof of it ; and if they had one project, and
an idle one, why might they not have others 1 Language was
but one, until they came to multiply the tongues ; but that
one was without doubt scanty, fit only to express the early
thoughts of mankind, who had not yet subdued the world,
nor arrived at a large and comprehensive acquaintance with
the things of it. There had passed but eight or nine gene-
rations to the building of Babel, and all of them led in a
plain uncultivated method of living : but men now began to
build towers, to open to themselves views of a larger fame,
and consequently of greater scenes of action than their ances-
tors had pursued. And why may not the thoughts of find-
ing new names for the things which their enlarged notions
offered to their consideration have now risen ? God is said to
have sent down and confounded their language ; but it is
usual to meet with things spoken of as immediately done by
God, which were effected not by extraordinary miracle, but
by the course of things permitted by him to work out what
he would have done in the world. Language was without
doubt enlarged at some particular time ; and if a great deal
of it was attempted at once, a confusion would naturally
arise from it. When Adam gave the first names to things,
he had no one to contradict him; and so what he named
things, that was the name of them; for how should his
children refuse to call things what he had taught them from
their infancy to be the names of them ? And indeed Adam's
life, and the life of his immediate children, reached over so
great a part of the first world, that it is hard to conceive men
80 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK II.
could vary their speech much whilst under the immediate
influence of those who taught them the first use of it. But
the men of Shinaar were got away from their ancestors, and
their heads were full of innovations ; and the projectors be-
ing many, the projects might be diflferent, and the leading
men might make up several parties amongst them. If we
were to suppose the whole number of them to be no more
than a thousand, twenty or thirty persons endeavouring to
invent new words, and spreading them amongst their com-
panions, might in time cause a deal of confusion. It does in-
deed look more like a miracle, to suppose the confusion of
tongues effected instantly, in a moment; but the text does
not oblige us to think it so sudden a production. From the
beginning of Babel to the dispersion of the nations might
be several years ; and perhaps all this time a difference of
speech was growing up, until at length it came to such an
height, as to cause them to form different companies, and so
to separate. As to St. Ambrose's argument, that men would
not do themselves such a mischief, it is not a good one ; for,
1 . Experience does not shew us, that the fear of doing mis-
chief has ever restrained the projects of ambitious men.
2. We often see the enterprises of men run on to greater
lengths than they ever designed them, and in time spreading
so far, as to be out of the power and reach of their first au-
thors to check and manage them ; for this is a method by
which God often defeats the counsels and controls the actions
of men : their own projects take turns that are unexpected,
and they are often unable to manage the designs which them-
selves first set on foot ; nay, they are many times defeat-
ed and confounded by them. And, 3. I do not see any
mischief that arose even from the confusion of language.
It would have been inconvenient for men to have been
always bound up within the narrow limits of the first scanty
and confined language ; and though the enlarging speech
happened to scatter men over the face of the earth, it was
fit, and for the public good, that they should be so scat-
tered.
If I may be indulged in one conjecture more, I would of-
fer, that at this time the use of words of more syllables than
AXD PROIAKK HISTORY. 81
one began amongst men ; for we find that the languages
which most probably arose about this time do remarkably
differ from the most ancient Hebrew, in words of a greater
length than the original Hebrew words seem to be of. The
Chaldean words are many times made different from the He-
brew by some final additions ; and the words in that lan-
guage, which differ from the Hebrew, are generally of more
syllables than the old Hebrew radicals. The Syrian, Egyp-
tian, and Arabian tongues do, I think, afford instances of the
same sort ; and the more modern tongues, as the Greek and
Latin, which probably arose by some refinements of these,
have carried the improvement further, and run into more in
number, and more compounded polysyllables ; whereas, on
the contrary, the languages of a more barbarous and less cul-
tivated original keep a nearer resemblance to the peculiar
quality of the first tongue, and consist chiefly of short and
single words. Our English language is now smoothed and
enriched to a great degree, since the studies of polite litera-
ture have spi'ead amongst us ; but it is easy to observe, that
our tongue was originally full of monosyllables ; so full, that
if one were to take pains to do it, we may speak most things
we have to speak of, and at the same time scaice use a word
of more syllables than one. But 1 pretend to hint at these
things only as conjectures. The reader has my full consent
to receive them or reject them as he pleases.
There is one inquiry more about the languages of the
world which I would just mention, and that is, how many
arose from the confusion of Babel. Some writers think Mo-
ses has determined this question by giving us the names of
the leading men in this affair. He has given us a catalogue
of the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and told us, that by
them was the earth divided, after their families, lands, tongues,
and nations. But I think there is some difficulty in con-
ceiving all the persons there mentioned to have headed
companies from Babel ; for it is remarkable, that they differ
from one another in age by several descents ; and it is not
likely that many of them could be at that time old enough
to be leaders ; nay, and certain from history, that some of
them were not so, whilst their fathers were alive. Other
VOL. I. G
82 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [BOOK II.
writers therefore have endeavoured to reduce the number to
seventy, and think that there were seventy different nations
thus planted in the world ^, from the dispersion at Babel ;
and this notion they think supported by the express words of
Moses in another place ' : When the Most High divided to the
nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adami
he set the hounds of the people according to the number of the
children of Israel, i. e. say they, he divided them into seventy
nations, which was the number of the children of Israel when
they came into Egypt. The Targum of Jonathan Ben
Uziel very plainly favours this interpretation of the words of
Moses, but the Jerusalem Targum differs from it : according
to that, the number of nations were but twelve, answering
to the twelve tribes of the children of Israel : but I should
think that neither of the Targums express Moses's meaning.
The people in the text are not the whole dispersed number
that were at Babel, but the inhabitants of Canaan ; and the
true meaning of the words of Moses is this, that when God
divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated
the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people [i. e.
which had Canaan, the designed inheritance of Jacob] ac-
cording to the number of the children of Israel ; i. e. he gave
the Canaanites such a tract of land as he knew would be a
sufficient inheritance for the children of Israel. And thus
this text will in no wise lead us to the number of the nations
that arose at Babel. That question is most likely to be de-
termined by considering how many persons were heads of
companies immediately at the time of the dispersion. One
thing I would observe, that how few or how many soever
the languages were now become, yet many of them, for some
time, did not differ much from one another. For Abraham,
an Hebrew, lived amongst the Chaldeans, travelled amongst
the Canaanites, sojourned with the Philistines, and lived some
k Many writers have been of this lowed them. Aug. de Civit. Dei. Pros-
opinion, but the Geeek Fathers make per de Promiss. et Prsedict. p. i.e. 8,
the number seventy-two. Clem. Alex. 9. S. Ambros. Med. de Vocat. Gen-
Strom. 1. i. p. 146. Eusebiusin Chron. tium, 1. ii. c. 4. et alii.
1- i. p. u. Epiphanius adver. Hseres. i. 1 Deut. xxxii. 8.
§.5. And the Latin Fathers have fol-
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 83
time in Egypt, and yet we do not find he had any remark-
able difficulty in conversing with them. But though the
difierence of the tongues was at first but small, yet every lan-
guage, after the stability of speech was lost, varying in time
from itself, the language of different nations in a few ages
became vastly different, and unintelligible to one another.
And thus in the time of Joseph, when his brethren came
to buy corn in Egypt, we find the Hebrew and Egyptian
tongues so diverse, that they used an interpreter in their con-
versation. The gradual decline of men's lives, from longer
to shorter periods, without doubt contributed a great deal to
daily alterations ; for when men's lives were long, and seve-
ral generations lived together in the world, and men, who
learnt to speak when children, continued to speak to their
children for several ages, they could not but transmit their
language through many generations with but little variation :
but when the successions of mankind came on quicker, the
language of ancestors was more liable to grow obsolete, and
there was an easier opportunity for novelty and innovation to
spread amongst mankind. And thus the speech of the world,
confounded first at Babel, received in every age new and
many alterations, until the languages of different nations
came to be so very various and distinct as we now find them
from one another.
Gil
THE
SACRED AND PROFANE
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
CONNECTED.
BOOK III.
THE people at Shinaar, upon the confusion of their lan-
guage, in a little time found it necessary to separate ; and
accordingly they divided themselves under the conduct of the
leading men amongst them. And some writers imagine,
that they formed as many societies as Moses has given us
names of the sons of Noah, Gen. x. for, say they, in the
words of Moses, These were the sons of Noah after their fami-
lies, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations ; and
by these were the nations divided iti the earth after the flood;
but, I think, this opinion cannot be admitted, for several
reasons.
I . The dispersion of mankind happening about the time of
Peleg's birth, it is very plain that all the persons named by
Moses, which must appear younger, or not much older than
Peleg, could not be heads of nations, or leaders of compa-
nies, at this time, for they were but infants^ or children ; and
therefore the sons of Jocktan, who dwelt from Mesha to Se-
phar, had no hand in this dispersion ; they were perhaps not
born, or at most very young men. They must therefore be
86 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK III.
supposed to have settled at first under their fathers ; in time
each of them might remove with a Httle company, and so
have a kingdom or nation descend from him.
2. The persons named by Moses as concerned in the dis-
persion, both in the families of Japhet and Ham, were none
of them lower in descent than the third generation ; they are
either sons or grandsons of Japhet or Ham ; as Gomer, and
the sons of Gomer ; Javan, and the sons of Javan ; Gush, and
the sons of Gush ; Mizraim, and the sons of Mizraim. The
descendants of these made a figure afterwards, as appears
from the manner of mentioning a son of Gasluhim, out of
whom came Philistim, plainly intimating, that the person so
named was a descendant of Gasluhim, later than these days ;
and if this observation may be allowed in the family of Ar-
phaxad, neither Selah nor Eber were leaders of companies at
the confusion of tongues.
3. Not all the persons here mentioned, even of the third
generation, were immediately heads of different nations at
the time of the dispersion ; for Canaan had eleven sons, but
they did not immediately set up eleven nations, but after-
ward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad '".
They at first lived together under their father, and some time
after separated, and in time became eleven nations in the
land of Ganaan. In the same manner, very probably, the
sons of Aram lived under their father in Syria ; and it is
evident from the history of Egypt, that " Mizraim's children
set up no kingdoms there during his life.
4. The same observation may be made in other families ;
and we may also consider, that sometimes some one of the
children was the leader ; and the father of the family, as
well as the rest, lived in the society erected by him. Thus,
for instance, we do not find that Cush was a king in any
country ; all the countries into which his children separated
came in time to be called after his name, as shall be observed
hereafter ; but the place where he himself lived was en-
*" Gen. X. i8. here used by Moses: however, that I
,'1 The word Mizraim is of the plu- might not vary ft-om the words of Mo-
ral number, as are several other names ses, I have used them as singulars.
AKD PROFANE HISTORY.
87
compassed by the river Gihon °, and therefore most probably
within the compass of his son Nimrod's dominions. And
the names of places do not always prove the persons whose
names they bear to have been kings in them, or to have
first peopled them, for sometimes rulers named places after
the names of their ancestors, and sometimes after the names
of their children. The children of Dan, named Leshem Dan,
after the name of Dan their father •' ; and Kirjath-Arba was
by Caleb called Hebron, after the name of Hebron his grand-
son''.
5. The numbers of mankind at this time is a good proof,
that all the persons named by Moses could not be leaders of
companies, and planters of nations, at the dispersion from
Babel ; for at the birth of Peleg, the men, women, and
children at Shinaar could not be more in number than 1500,
and not above 500 of them of the age of thirty years : such
a body cannot be conceived sufficient to afford people for
sixty or seventy kings to plant nations with, in several dis-
tant parts of the world ; they would not at this rate have
had above one or two and twenty men, women, and children
in a kingdom.
But, 6. The manner in which mankind were dispersed is a
farther proof that they did not go forth at first in many compa-
nies, to plant difierent nations ; for if we consider the situation
of the nations which were named after these men, we shall find,
that notwithstanding all the confusion of tongues, and diver-
sities of their language, yet it so happened in their dispersion
from one another, that, except three or four instances only,
the sons of Japhet peopled one part of the world, the sons of
Shem another, and the sons of Ham a third. Their families
were not scattered here and there, and intermingled with one
another, as would very probably have happened, if sixty or
seventy difierent languages had immediately arose amongst
them, and caused them to separate in so many companies, in
order to plant each a country, to be inhabited by as many as
agreed in the same expression. If, at the first confusion of
o Gen. ii. 13. P Joshua xix. 47. 1 Judges i. 10. i Chron. ii. 42.
88 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK III.
tongues, the sons of Shem had differed from the sons of
Shem, and the sons of Ham from the sons of Ham, and the
children of Japhet from their brethren, each one speaking a
language of his own, the dispersion would in no wise have
been so regular as we shall find it ; each leading man must
have taken his own way, and the several branches of each
family must have been scattered here and there, as the ac-
cidental travels of their leaders might happen to have carried
them. Nothing less than a very extraordinary miracle could
have sorted them, as it were, and caused the children of each
family to sit down round about and near to one another ''.
From all these considerations therefore, I cannot but ima-
gine the common opinion about the dispersion of mankind
to be a very wrong one. The confusion of tongues arose at
first from small beginnings, increased gradually, and in time
grew to such an height, as to scatter mankind over the face
of the earth. When these men came first to Babel, they
were but few, and very probably lived together in three
families, sons of Shem, sons of Ham, and sons of Japhet ; and
the confusion arising from some leading men in each family
inventing new words, and endeavouring to teach them to
those under their direction, this in a little time divided the
three families from one another ; for the sons of Japhet af-
fecting the novel inventions of a son of Japhet ; the sons of
Ham affecting those of a son of Ham ; and the sons of Shem
speaking the new words of a son of Shem ; a confusion would
necessarily arise, and the three families would part, the in-
structors leading off all such as were initiated in their peculi-
arities of speech. This might be the first step taken in the
dispersion of mankind ; they might at first break into three
companies only; and when this was done, new differences
of speech still arising, each of the families continued to di-
vide and subdivide amongst themselves, time after time, as
their numbers increased, and new and different occasions
r The writers upon this subject ge- the poet to the writers of his times is
nerally suppose this particular to have not impertinent to the readers even of
been the effect of a miracle : but I the inspired writers ;
think it may be better accounted for m r> » ■ t •. • • j- • j- j
, / , ,, , . „ Nee Deus intersit, nisi dignus vmdice nodus.
m a natural way; and the advice of Inciderit.
AND PROI'ANE HISTORY. 89
arose, and opportunities offered ; until at length there were
planted in the world, from each family, several nations, called
after the names of the persons of whom Moses has given
us a catalogue. This I think is the only notion we can form
of the confusion and division of mankind, which can give a
probable account of their being so dispersed into the world
as to be generally settled according to their families ; and
the tenth chapter of Genesis, if rightly considered, implies no
more than this : for the design of Moses in that chapter was,
not to determine who were the leading men at the confu-
sion of tongues, but only to give a catalogue or general ac-
count of the names of the several persons descended from
each of Noah's children, who became famous in their gene-
rations ; not designing to pursue more minutely their several
histories : such accounts of families as this is are frequent in
the Old Testament. We meet another of them % where
Moses mentions Esau's family. He gives a catalogue of
their names, and adds, these be the dukes of Edom, according
to their habitations in the land of their possession^ ; not that
these descendants of Esau were thus settled in these habita-
tions at the time of Isaac's death, which is the place where
Moses inserts his account of them ; for at that time Esau
took his wives, aiid his sons, and his daughters, and went into
the country from the face of his brother Jacob — and he went
and dwelt in mount Seir " / they lived all together in the family
of Esau during the term of his life ; when he died, then
they might separate, and in time become dukes and gover-
nors, according to their families, after their places, and bxj their
names, mentioned in this catalogue ; and this probably not
all at once, immediately upon Esau's death : for it seems
most reasonable to imagine, that at his death they might di-
vide into no greater number of families than he had chil-
dren ; though afterwards his grandsons set up each a family
of his own, when they came to separate from their Other's
house. And in this manner the earth was divided by the
several sons of Noah, mentioned Genesis x : After their fa-
s Gen. xxxvi. t Ver. 43. " Ver. 6, and 8.
90 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK III.
milies, after their tongues, in their lands, and after their na-
tions : not that the persons there mentioned were all at one
time planters of nations ; but only, that there were so many
persons of figure descended from the sons of Noah, who, some
at one time, and some at another, became heads of nations,
or had nations called by their names by their descendants ;
and so, by them the nations were divided ^^ i. e. the people
were broken into different nations on the earth ; not at once,
or immediately upon the confusion, but at several times, as
their families increased and separated, after the flood. And
this account will reconcile what I before observed, that the
dispersion of mankind happened about the time of the birth
of Peleg, with the fragment in Eusebius, which seems to
place it thirty years after : for, according to Eusebius, they
continued building their tower for forty years ^ ; but the
birth of Peleg was about ten years after their beginning it.
The confusion of language therefore, and the dispersion of
mankind, were not effected all at once ; they began at the
birth of Peleg, but were not completed until thirty years
after ; some companies separating and going away one year,
and some another ; and thus Ashur did not go away at first,
but lived some time under Nimrod ^.
The authors that have treated upon this subject endea-
vour to determine what particular countries were planted
by these men ; and the substance of what they offer is as
follows :
Noah had three sons ^, Shem, Ham, and Japhet : the
eldest of the three was Japhet. For, i. Ham, or Canaan,
i. e. the father of Canaan, was his youngest son, for so he is
called by Moses *= ; And Noah aivoke from his wine, and
knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said.
Cursed he Canaan : i. e. considering the disrespect which his
youngest son Ham, or Canaan, had shewn him, he cursed
him. 2. Shem was Noah's second son ; for Shem ^ was an
hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad, two years after the
t Gen. X. 32. 0 Gen. v. 32.
z "'Efxuvav oiKoSo/xovfTes eVl stt; ;t. '^ Chap. ix. 24, 25.
Euseb. in Chron. ^ Chap. xi. 10.
^ Gen. X. II.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 91
flood. Now Noah was five hundred years old at the birth
of his eldest son ^ ; but if Shem was no more than an hundred
years old two years after the flood, it is evident that Noah
was five hundred and two years old at Shem's birth, and
consequently that Shem was not his eldest son. 3, It re-
mains therefore that Japhet was the eldest son of Noah, and
so he is called by Moses, Gen. x. 21 .
Japhet is supposed not to have been present at the confu-
sion of Babel. Moses gives no account of his life or death ;
makes no mention at all of his name in the history of the
nations that arose from Babel : so that it is probable that he
lived and died where his father Noah settled after the flood.
The descendants of Japhet, which came to Shinaar, and were
heads of nations, at or some time after the dispersion of man-
kind, were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Mesech, Tubal,
Tiras, Askanez, Eiphath, Togarmah, Elisha, Tarshish, Kit-
tim, Dodanim. The countries which they fixed in were as
follows :
Gomer, Tubal, Togarmah, Magog, and Mesech settled in
and near the north parts of Syria. The prophet Ezekiel,
foretelling the troubles which foreign princes should endea-
vour to bring upon the Israelites, calls the nations he speaks
of by their ancient original names, taken from their first
founders or ancestors : and thus Gog, the king of Magog, is
said to be the chief prince of Mesech and Tubal f. So that
wherever these countries were, this, I think, we may con-
clude, that the lands of Mesech, Tubal, and Magog were
near to one another ; united in time under the dominion of
a prince called by the prophet Gog. And as we learn from
Ezekiel that these countries were contiguous ; so if we con-
sider that Hierapolis, or the present Aleppo, was anciently
called Magog, this will intimate to us the situation of these
nations. The name that Lucian calls this city by is its
common one, Upa ttoAis, or the sacred city ; but he says S ex-
pressly, that anciently it was called by another name. And
Phny ^ tells what that ancient name was ; the Syrians, he
e Gen. v. ^2. ^ Lucian. de Dea Sj^ria.
f Ezek. xxxviii. 2. ^ Lib. v. cap. 23.
92 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK III.
says, called it Magog. Maimonides ' places Magog in
Syria ; and Bochart himself, though he would willingly
plant Magog in Scythia'', acknowledges Hierapolis to have
been named from him. We have therefore reason to think
Magog the country of which Aleppo was chief city, and the
land of Mesech and of Tubal were adjacent to it. In these
parts, therefore, Tubal, Mesech, and Magog fixed, and their
lands were called after their names. The house of Togar-
mah is in the same chapter of Ezekiel' said to be of the
north quarters. There were two remarkable powers pro-
phesied of, who were to afflict the Israelites ; and they are
described in Scripture by the kings of the North and the kings
of the South : by the kings of the south are meant the kings
of Egypt ; by the kings of the north, the kings of Syria-
Togarmah of the north quarters therefore is a country, part
of Syria, very probably bordering upon Magog, which gives
it a situation very fit for trading in the fairs of Tyre with
horses and mules, according to what the Prophet m says of
the Togarmians. Gomer and his bands seem " to be joined
by the same prophet to Togarmah. We may therefore sup-
pose his country to be adjacent.
Askanez planted himself near Armenia ; for the prophet
Jeremiah", speaking of the nations that should be called to
the destruction or taking of Babylon by the Medes binder
Cyrus, mentions Ararat, Minni, and Askanez. It is probable
these three nations, thus joined together by the prophet,
bordered upon one another ; and since Minni is Armenia the
Less, called Aram-minni ; and Ararat the country in which
the mountains of Ararat, or Taurus, take their rise, Askanez
must be some neighbouring and adjacent nation. It is ob-
servable from profane history, that Cyras, before he shut up
Babylon, in the siege in which he took it, after the con-
quest of Croesus king of Lydia P, by his captains subdued
Asia Minor, and with part of his army under his own con-
duct "1 reduced the nations of Upper Asia, and having settled
i In Ilalicoth therumoth, c. i. §. 9. o Jerera. li. 27.
k Phaleg. 1. i. c. 2. P Xenophon. Cyropaed. 1. vii. c. 4.
' Ezek. xxxviii. 6. Hcrodot. 1. i.
>Ti Ezek. xxvii. 14. q Herod. 1. i.
n Ezek. xxxviii. 6,
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 93
them under his obedience, and very probably enforced his
army by levies of new soldiers ^ made amongst them, he
entered Assyria, and besieged Babylon ; and this was the
calling Ararat, Minni, and Askanez to assist the Modes
against Babylon, which the prophet speaks of.
Tarshish planted Cilicia ; for the prophet Isaiah calls a
country of this name to join in lamentation for the destruc-
tion of Tyre, (Isaiah xxiii.) And the country which the
prophet thus calls upon seems to lie over sea from Tyre^,
and to be a frequent trader to Tyre ', and therefore not vastly
distant, and to be a place of considerable shipping "; all
which marks belonged, at the time of these descriptions,
more evidently to Cilicia than to any other nation of the
world.
Kittim was the father of the Macedonians ; for the de-
struction of Tyre, effected by Alexander of Macedon, is said
to be of Kittim '^ ; and Alexander himself is described,
Alexander the son of Philip who came out of the land
of Kittim 2 ; and the navy of Alexander is prophesied of and
called a ships that should come from Kittim ; and Perseus the
king of Macedon, Avho was conquered by the Homans, is
called the king of the Kittims^ ; and the Macedonian or
Greek shipping, which brought the Roman ambassadors to
Egypt, are called the ships of Kittim '^. Bochart ^ thinks that
the ships here spoken of were ships of Italy ; and from this
text, and another or two, which he evidently mistakes the
true meaning of, he would infer the land of Kittim to be
r Bochart in Phaleg. lib. iii. c. 9. en- s Isaiah xxiii. 6.
deavours to prove Askanez to be Phry- t Ezekiel xxvii. 1 1.
gia, from some particular levies which « Isaiah xxiii. i, and 14. And the
Hystaspes made there for the increase heathen writers represent the Cilicians
of Cyrus's army : but as Cyrus made as the ancient masters of the seas. See
use of these for the conquest of many Strab. 1. xiv. p. 678. and Solin. 41.
other nations, before he went back to ^ Isaiah xxiii. i.
Babylon, these levies cannot properly z i Maccab. i. i.
be said to have been raised for the siege ^ Num. xxiv. 24.
of that city. It is more probable, that *> i Maccab. viii. 5.
he enforced his army in all countries c Dan. xi. 30.
he subdued ; and as his last conquests d Bochart would render the isles of
before he went to Babylon were in Ar- Kittim, (Ezek. xxvii. 6.) isles of Italy ;
menia, and the parts adjacent, it was but it is more probably rendered, isles
these nations he took with him to sub- of Greece, or Macedon, i. e. isles near
due Assyria. Macedon, in the ^Egean sea.
94 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK III.
Italy : but if we consider the words of Daniel ^, we shall find
the meaning of them to be this ; that, at the time appointed,
the king of the north, i. e Antiochusf, should return and
come toward the south, i. e. towards Egypt; but it should
not be as the former or as the latter, i, e. his coming should
not be successful, as it had once before been, and as it was
again afterwards ; for the ships of Kittim shovild come against
him ; the Roman ambassadors in ships of or from Macedonia
should come against him, and oblige him to return home
without ravaging or seizing upon Egypt. And it is re-
markable §■, that the circumstances of C. Popilius's voyage,
who was the Roman ambassador here spoken of, do give a
reason for calling the shijDs he sailed in, ships of or from Kit-
tim, or Macedonia ; for his voyage from Rome was in this
manner : he sailed into the ^Egean sea, and designed before
his embassy to have gone to Macedonia, where the consul
was then engaged in war with Perseus ; but the enemy
having some small vessels cruizing in those seas, he was in-
duced for his safety to put in at Delos, and sent his ships
with some message to the consul in Macedonia. He intended
at first not to have waited the return of his ships, but to
have pursued his embassy, by the assistance of the Athenians,
who furnished him with ships for the voyage ; but before he
set sail, his ships came back again, and brought news of
^milius's conquest of Macedon ; upon this he dismissed the
Athenian ships, and set sail towards Egypt. And thus the
ships that carried him to the finishing this embassy came
from Kittim, or Macedonia.
Elisha is thought to have planted some of the Cyclades in
the ^gean sea, for the Cyclades are called by his name by
Ezekiel ^. Blue and purple are said to be brought to Tyre
from the isles of Elisha. In after-ages the best blue and
e Dan. xi. 29, 30. first settled. Caria and Mseonia are
i See Dean Prideaux's Connection, two countries on the coasts of Asia,
b. iii. an. 168. near the jEgean sea. The ancients
s See Livy, lib. xlv. c. 10, 11, 12. often called such countries, isles, as
h Ezek. xxvii. 7. Homer, Iliad 4. bordered upon the sea, though they
mentions the Carians and Maeonians as were really part of the continent, espe-
the ancient dyers in purple, and per- cially if they usually sailed to them.
haps here the family of Elisha might be
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 95
purple were of the Tyrian dye, but in the earlier times it was
brought to Tyre to be sold from the Cyclades ; and, agree-
ably hereto, several authoi's, both poets and prose writers,
speak of a dye for purple found in the Grecian seas, and
particularly among the Cyclades \
Javan is thought to have jolanted Greece ; the LXX. were
of this mind, and constantly translate the Hebrew word
Javan into 'EAAas, or Greece. And the prophet Ezekiel
represents the inhabitants of Javan to be considerable dealers
or traders in persons of men^. And this agrees very re-
markably with the heathen accounts of Greece ; for the
generality of writers speak of the most elegant and best slaves
as coming out of the several countries of Greece. Heliodorus '
mentions two Ionian servants sent as presents to Theagenes
and Chariclea. And in another place ^^ makes Cylebe's cup-
bearer to be a lass of Ionia, ^lian" supposes the cause
of Darius's making war upon the Greeks to be his Avife
Atossa's desire to have some Grecian maidens to attend her.
And Herodotus reports the same fact°, and adds, that she
persuaded her husband to turn his arms from the Scythians
upon the Greeks, in order to get her some servants out of
some particular parts of Greece, where she heard there were
very famous ones. Claudian alludes to this request of AtossaP;
and Martial^ many times speaks in commendation of the
Greek slaves.
Madai was very probably the father of the Modes ; for the
Modes are always called by this name ^.
Tiras was the father of the Thracians^.
Riphath settled near the borders of Paphlagonia.
Where Dodanim settled is very uncertain. His name is
also wrote Rhodanim ^ And it is thought he planted Rhodes ;
i Plin. 1. ix. c. 36. Pausan. in La- P Claudian. lib. ii. in Eutrop.
conicis. id. in Phocicis. Horat. lib. ii. q Epig. 1. iv. 66.
Od. 18. Stat. 1. i. Sylv. 2. Juvenal. Sa- r Dan. v. 28. chap. vi. ver. 8, 12, 15.
tyr. 8. 1. loi. Horat. lib. iv. Od. 13. chap. viii. ver. 20. and Esther i. 3, 14,
Vitruv. 1. vii. c. 13. 18, 19. chap. x. ver. 2.
k Ezek. xxvii. \^. s Abrah. Zacuth. in Ub. Jachusin. f.
I Heliodor. 1. vii. par. 1619. p. 338. 145. Joseph. Antiq. 1. i. c. 7. Euseb.
II Id. 1. viii. in Chron. p. 12. Eustath. in Hexaem.
n Julian, de Animal. 1. xi. c. 27. Lug. 1629. p. 51. et al.
o Herodot. in Thalia, p. 134. t i Chron. i. 7.
96 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK III.
though the arguments to support this opinion are very
slender.
Shem was the second son of Noah. Moses has told us"
how long he lived, and when he died ; so that probably he
lived amongst some of these nations. It is nowhere said
where he lived ; but some writers ^ have imagined him to be
Melchisedec, the king of Salem, to whom Abraham paid
tithes, Gen. xiv. 20. Shem was indeed alive at that time z,
and lived many years after ; but there is no proof of his
being king of Salem. It is not likely he should reign king
over the children of Ham. And Abraham's tithes were not
paid to Shem the ancestor and head of Abraham's family,
but (according to Hebrews vii. 6.) to one of a different and
distinct family ; to one that was (says the sacred writer)
6 ju^ yeveaXoyovjjievos ef avT&v, not of their descent or gene-
alogy. The sons of Shem were Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud,
Aram.
Elam led his associates into Persia, and became the planter
of that country ; and agreeably hereto the Persians are con-
stantly called in Scripture Elamites ■'. Elam could at first
people but a small tract of ground ; but it seems as if he fixed
himself near the place where the kings of Persia afterwards
had their residence ; for when the empire, which began at
Elam, came to be extended over other countries, and to take
a new name, and to be divided into many provinces, the
head province retained the name of Elam ; thus the palace
of Susa, or Shusan, was in the province of Elam''.
Ashur for some time lived under Nimrod, in the land of
Shinaar ; but afterwards removed with his company into
Assyria, and built in time some cities there, Nineveh, Reho-
both, Calah, and Resen '^.
Arphaxad lived at Ur of the Chaldees, which (according to
St. Stephen ^, who supposed Abraham to live in Mesopo-
u Gen. xi. of Sarah, and till Abraham was 151
X Targ. Jonathan et Targ. Hieroso- years old.
lym. et Midras Agada quam citat R. a Isaiah xxi. 2. .Terem. xxv. 25.
Selomo. et Cabbalistre in Baalhattu- Acts ii. 9. et in al. loc.
rim. '> Dan. viii. 2.
z For Shem, who lived to be 600 c Gen. x. 11, 12.
years old, lived 13 years after the death <l Acts vii. 2.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
97
tamia, before he lived at Haran) was near to Shinaar and
Assyria ; but over the rivers, so as to be in Mesopotamia.
Eber, the grandson of Arphaxad, had two sons, Peleg and
Jocktan. Peleg was born about the time of the confusion®;
and when Jocktan came to be of years to head a company,
he lead away part of this family to seek a new habitation.
Jocktan had thirteen sons ^, Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarme-
veh, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Dicklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
Ophir, Havilah, Jobab. These and their families spread
in time from mount Mesha to mount Sephar, two mountains
in the east ° . There were nations in India which took the
names of some of these sons of Jocktan ; namely, Ophir,
whither Solomon sent for gold ; and Havilah, on the bank
of the river Ganges ; and the Sabeans mentioned by Diony-
sius in his Periegesis. And some writers have imagined,
that Sheba, Havilah, and Ophir inhabited India; but it is
much more probable, that as the sons of Jocktan spread from
Mesha to Sephar, so their descendants might in time, in
after-ages, people the countries from Sephar, until they reach-
ed to Ganges, and spread over into India ; and the countries
there planted might be called by the names of the ancestors
of those who planted them ; though the persons whose names
they were called by never lived in them.
The other branch of Arphaxad's family continued at Ur
for three generations. In the days of Terah the father of
Abraham, the Chaldeans expelled them their country, be-
cause they would not worship their gods '\ Upon this they
removed over Mesopotamia to Haran *, and here they con-
tinued until Terah died ; and then Abraham and Lot, and all
that belonged to them, left the rest of their brethen at Haran,
and travelled into Canaan ^.
Lud is generally supposed to be the father of the Lydians
in Lesser Asia.
Aram. The name Aram is constantly in Scripture the
name of Syria ; thus Naaman the Syrian is called the Ara-
mean ^ ; thus the Syrian language is called the Aramean '" ;
e Gen. X. 25. i Gen. xi. 31.
f Vcr. 26—29. k Gen. xii. 15.
e Ver. 30. 1 2 Kings v.^ I.
•> Judith V. 8. m Ezraiv, 7. and Isaiah xxxvi. it.
VOL. I. H
98 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK III.
and the Syrians are called by this name in all places of
Scripture wherever they are mentioned". And they were
known by this name to the ancient heathen writers. Syria,
says Eusebius from Josephus, was called Aram, until in after-
ages it took another name from one Syrus. And Strabo
expressly says, that the people we now call Syrians were
anciently called by the Syrians Aramenians, and Arameans.
And agreeably hereto the adjoining countries, into which
the posterity of Aram might spread, took the name of Aram,
only with some other additional name joined to it. Thus
Armenia the Less came to be called Aram-minni, or the
Little Aram. Mesopotamia was named Padan-Aram, or the
Field of Aram ; and sometimes Aram-Naharaim, or Aram of
the Rivers. And we find Bethuel and Laban", the sons of
Nahor, the descendant of Arphaxad, and not of Aram, are
called Syrians, or Arameans, from their coming to live in
this country. In what particular part of Syria Aram settled
himself is uncertain ; nor have we any reasons to imagine
that his sons Hul, Mesh, or Gether ever separated from him.
Nor is it certain that the land of Uz, which the prophet
Jeremiah P makes part of the land of Edom, and which was
the land in which Job lived, seated near the Ishmaelites and
Sabeans who robbed him, had its name from Uz the son of
Aram.
Ham was the youngest son of Noah. It is thought that he
was at the confusion of Babel; and that after mankind was
dispersed he lived in Canaan, says Jurieu i, and was king of
Salem ; or, say other writers, he went into Egypt. Both
these opinions are at best uncertain. The reasons for the lat-
ter, that Egypt is often called the land of Ham'', and that
Ham, or Jupiter Ammon, was there worshipped, are not con-
clusive arguments that Ham himself ever lived there. The
descendants of Ham might call the land of Egypt, when they
came to dwell in it, after the name of their ancestor, in re-
membrance of him ; as the children of Terah called the
n See 2 Sam. viii. 5. and x. 6. P Lam. iv. 21.
I Kings XX. 20. 2 Kings V. 2. i Chron. ■? Critical Hist.
xix. 10. et in mille al. loc. "■ Ps. cv. 23, 27. Psal. Ixxviii. 51,
o Gen. XXV. 20. &c.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 99
country they travelled into, when they left Ur, by the name
of Haran s. Haran himself died in Ur of the Chaldees ', the
land of his nativity ; and perhaps his being dead occasioned
his kindred to call the part of Mesopotamia where they set-
tled, the land of Haran, in remembrance of him. In like
manner the descendants of Ham, when they came to look
back to their ancestors, and to pay honours to the memory of
such of them as had been of old famous in their generations,
might place their great ancestor Ham at the head of their
deities, though he had never lived amongst them. The sons
of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Phul, and Canaan.
Cush does not appear to have been a leader or a governor
of any particular company. He had so much respect paid
him, as to have a country called by his name, the land of
Cush ; but its situation was where his son Nimrod bore rule ;
for the land of Cush was at first within the compass of the
river Gihon ; for that river, says Moses ^, compassed the
whole land of Cush. Perhaps somewhere hereabouts Cush
lived and died", honoured by his sons, who were fond of
calling their countries after his name ; for we find the name
Cush, though at first confined to a small tract of ground, was
in time made the name of several countries. The children
of Cush spread in time into the several parts of Arabia, over
the borders of the land of Edom, into Arabia Felix, up to
Midian and Egypt ; and we find instances in Scripture of all
these countries being called by the name of the land of
Cush.
I may here take notice of a very gross mistake which runs
through our English translation of the Bible. We con-
stantly render the land of Cush the land of Ethiopia / but
there is not any one place in Scripture where the land of
Cush should be so rendered. By the land of Cush is always
meant some part of Arabia ; for there are some texts which
cannot possibly have any meaning if we render Cush Ethi-
s Gen. xi. 31. of his snn Nimrod's cities. C'lxh (is
t Ibid. ver. 28. est Cutha) fuii rejc terrilorii Bohpl, el
u Gen. ii. 13. residehal in Erne. Tabari. in cap. de
^ According to the Persian and Ara- morte Sarfe, apud Hyde de Rel. vet.
bian traditions, Cush lived at Erac, one Pers. p. 40.
H 2
100 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK III.
opia : but the sense of all is clear and easy if we translate it
Arabia. Thus, for instance, Ezekiel ' prophesying of a deso-
lation which God would bring upon all Egypt, says, that it
should be utterly waste and desolate, /rom the toioer of Sycne
even unto theborder of Gush. Now the tower of Syene stood
upon the borders of Egypt, next to Ethiopia ; Cush, there-
fore, must be the opposite country on the other side of Egypt,
for this only can make the prophet intelligible, who meant
from one side of Egypt to the other, Syene and Ethiopia
join, and are contiguous, and therefore from Syene to Ethio-
pia are words of no meaning, or at most can be no descrip-
tion of Egypt, but must be an evident blunder and mistake
of our translators ^. And as this particular passage does
clearly evidence Arabia to be the land of Cush, so all other
places accord very well to this interpretation. We are told ^
that the Arabians near the Cushites joined with the Philis-
tines against Jehoram. Now if these Cushites are the Ethi-
opians, Ethiopia being situate on the other side of Egypt, no
Arabians could possibly live near them. The Cushites there-
fore here spoken of are the inhabitants of Arabia Felix,
where Dedan and Sheba, descendants of Cush, fixed them-
selves ; and the Arabians bordering upon them, who joined
with the Philistines, were the Edomites who had revolted
lately from Jehoram, and who lay between the Philistines and
these Cushites. So again, when Sennacherib king of Assyria
was laying siege to Libnah, upon hearing that Tirhakah,
a king of Cush ", came out against him, he sent a threatening
message to Hezekiah, and prepared to meet this new enemy.
Our translation makes Tirhakah a king of Ethiopia; but
how unlikely is it that a king living on the other side of
Egypt should cross all that country, and march an army four
2 Ezek. xxix. lo. but this correction, I think, cannot
a A very learned writer would cor- be admitted, for the Hebrew words
rect this mistake in the following man- are not HDlD-iy '7T3?dd, from Migdol
ner. The Hebrew word Migdol, he to Seveneh — but -li-T n3lD St^od
says, which is translated tower, is the ffiiD Si 3:, i. e. from Migdol Seveneh,
name of the city Magdolum, which or of Seveneh, even to the border of
was at the entrance of Egyi't from Pa- Cush.
lestine ; and Sycne was at the other b 2 Chron. xxi. 16.
end, and upon the borders of Ethiopia ; c 2 Kings xix. q.
And PROFANt HISTORY.
101
or five hundred miles to assist the Jews ! The seat of the war
lies too distant for the king of Ethiopia to be so suddenly-
engaged in it. Some neighbouring prince, whose country
bordered upon the nations attacked by Sennachel-ib, might
think it advisable to raise an army on his back to check
his conquests, lest himself in time should suffer from him {
and such a neighbouring prince was this king of Cush, a
king of Arabia, whose country lay near to Ezion-Geber, and
not far from the borders of Judea. The earned Dr. Pri-
deaux '' makes Tirhakah an Ethiopian, kinsman to the king
of Egypt ; and, to make it probable that the Ethiopian might
be concerned in the war, he imagines Tirhakah's army to
march against Sennacherib, when he was besieging Pelu-
sium, a city of Egypt. But this seems contrary to the his-
tory ®. Sennacherib had been warring against Lachish, and
was at Libnah when the rumour of Tirhakah's expedition
reached him, Sennacherib's war with Egypt was over be-
fore this, and he had done to Egypt all that his heart could
desire ; had overrun the country, carried away captive all
the inhabitants of No-Amon, a great and strong city of
Egypt, according to what the prophet Isaiah had foretold f,
and the prophet Nahum observed to the Ninevites^^. That
Sennacherib's conquest of Egypt was over before he came to
Lachish and Libnah, is evident, if we consider that after this
he undertook no expedition. LTpon hearing the riimoiir of
Tirhakah, he decamped ; and soon after God sent the blast
upon him ^ and destroyed his army; and then he was
obliged to return home to his own land, and was there,
some time after, murdered. And agreeably hereto, Rabshakeh
represents the king of Egypt but as a bruised reed ' ; hut a
reed in his greatest strength, easy to be broken by the king
of Assyria ; and a hrvAsed reed, already brought into a very
distressed condition by the victories his master had obtained
over him. Josephus ^ mentions this Tirhakah by the name
of Tharsices, and supposes him to assist Egyptj and not the
d Con. vol. i. book i. an. 706.
e See 2 Kings xix.
f Isaiah xx. 4.
S Nahum iii. 8.
h 2 Kings xix. 7.
i 2 Kings xviii. 2 1 .
•* Joseph. Antiq. 1. x. c. i*
102 CONNECTION OF THE SACREB [boOK III.
Jews, and to march his army when Sennacherib was engaged
at Pelusium : but this is one instance where Joseph us did
not copy carefully from the sacred pages. He was misled
in this particular by Herodotus, whom he quotes in his re-
lation of this story : however, the description which Josephus
gives of Tirhakah's march through the desert of Arabia into
the territories of the king of Assyria shews evidently that
he was a king of Arabia, and not of Ethiopia. The king of
Cush, therefore, was a king of Arabia. I may add further,
that Egypt is described to lie beyond the rivers of Cush ' ;
now if Cush signifies Ethiopia, Ethiopia might possibly be
said to lie beyond the rivers of Egypt, but Egypt cannot
possibly be described to lie beyond the rivers of Ethiopia :
but Cush here signifies Arabia ; and the rivers of Arabia,
beyond which Egypt is said to lie, are that which runs into
the Lake Sirbonis, commonly called the river of Egypt, and
the river Sihor, mentioned Josh. xiii. 3. Again™, we are
told that Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses, because of
the Cushite woman whom he had married ; for he had mar-
ried a Cushite woman. We must not here render Cushite
Ethiopian, as our English translators do ; for Moses never
married one of that country ; rather the Cushite woman was
Zipporah the Arabian, the daughter of Jethro the priest of
Midian". I might bring several other passages of Scripture
to prove the land of Cush to be some or other of the parts of
Arabia where the descendants of Cush settled. In the later
writings of the Scriptures the name of Cush is given only to
the parts remote and distant from Babylon ; the reason
whereof was probably this : when the Babylonian empire
came to flourish, the parts near to Babylon acquired new
names, and lost their old ones in the great turns and revolu-
tions of the empire ; but the changes of names and places
near Babylon not affecting the countries that lay at a dis-
tance, the prophets in after- ages might properly enough give
these the name of Cush long after the places near to which
Cush first settled had lost all name and remembrance of
him.
1 Isaiah xviii. i. ni Numb. xii. i. » Exod. ii. 21.
X
AND PROFAXE HISTORY. 103
The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama,
Sabtecha, Sheba, Dedan, and Nimvod.
Nimrod reigned king at Babel, and built round him
several cities, Erac, Achad, and Calne °.
Havilah lived within the branch of the river Pison, which
ran out of the Euphrates into the bay of Persia; for the
country of the Ishmaelites, which extended itself from Egypt
in a direct line towards Babylonia, or Shinaar, is described
to lie from Shur, which is before Egypt, to Havilah p.
Seba, Sabta, Raamah, Sabtecha, and their descendants and
associates, peopled Arabia Felix. There are but slender
proofs of the particular places where Seba, Sabta, and Sab-
techa first settled. Pliny says, the Sabeans, inhabitants of
Arabia, famous for their spicery, are a number of nations
which reach from sea to sea, i. e. from the Persian gulf to
the Red sea. It is probable they entered the country near
Havilah and Shinaar, and their first little companies took
dififerent paths in it ; and whilst they were infant nations,
they might live distinct and separate from one another ; time
and increase made them sufficient to fill and replenish it, and
so to mingle with and unite to one another.
Raama and his two sons, Sheba and Dedan, peopled the
parts adjacent to the Red sea. Sheba lived on the borders
of the land of Midian ; and hence it happened, that in after-
ages a queen of this country hearing of the renown of king
Solomon, probably from his famous shipping at Ezion-Ge-
ber, on the borders of her kingdom, went to visit himi.
Raama was near to Sheba, for they are mentioned as joint
traders to Tyre in spicery, the noted product of those coun-
tries r. Dedan fixed on the borders of the land of Edom ;
for Ezekiel, prophesying of the land of Edom, and the parts
adjacent, joins Dedan to it s.
Mizraim was second son of Ham. His descendants were
Ludim, Ananim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Caslu-
him, Philistim, Caphtorim.
o Gen. X. lo. •■ Ezek. xxvii. 22.
P Chap. XXV. 18. » Ezek. XXV. 13.
<1 I Kings X.
104 CONNECTION OF THE SACHED [bOOK Ilf.
Mizraim became king of Egypt, which after his death was
divided into three kingdoms by three of his sons. His sons'
names that settled here were Ananim, who was king of
Tanis, or Lower Egypt, called afterwards Delta ; Naphtuhim,
who was king of Naph, Memphis, or Upper Egypt ; and
Pathrusim, who set up the kingdom of Pathros, or Thebes,
in Thebais.
Ludim and Lehabim peopled Libya. The prophet Eze-
kiel ^ speaking of the Libyans, whom he calls by their ori-
ginal name Lnd, calls them a mingled people ; perhaps
hinting their rise from two originals : Libya seems rather
derived from Lehabim than Ludim, but we I'arely find them
called otherwise than Lud ; they are, I think, once named
from Lehabim, 2 Chron. xii. 3. people came out of Egtjpt^
the Luhims.
Casluhim, another son of Mizraim, fixed himself at Cashi-
Otis, in the entrance of Egypt from Palestine. He had two
sons, Philistim and Caphtorim. Caphtorim succeeded him
at Cashiotis. Philistim planted the country of the Philistins,
between the borders of Canaan and the Mediterranean sea,
Cashiotis was called Caphtor, from Caphtorim, the second
prince of it : and the Philistins are said to have been of Caph-
tor", because the place of their parent Casluhim was so
called.
Phut was the third son of Ham. He was, I believe, planted
somewhere in Arabia, near to Cush, not far from Shinaar,
probably in the land of Havilah ; for the prophet Ezekiel, as
the northern enemies of the Jews were put together, so also
joins those that were to come from Babylon "", and makes them
to be Persia, Cush, and Phut. Some writers have imagined
Phut to have planted Mauritania ; but how then could he be
neighbour to Cush or Persia? The prophet Jeremiah, speak-
ing of some nations that should overrun Egypt, calls them
Cush, Lud, and Phut^. Now the nations which fulfilled
this prophecy were, 1. Nebuchadnezzar with his army of
Cushites and descendants of Phut, who were both then sub-
t Chap. XXX. 5. ^ Ezek. xxxviii. 5.
u Amos ix. 7. y Jerem. xlvi. 9.
AND PROFANK HISTOUY.
105
ject to the Babylonian empire, greatly ravaged and laid waste
the land ; and when he had executed his mind, then ^ Apries,
with some forces out of Libya, killed the king of Egypt, and
finished the desolation. Agreeably therefore to what was
before said, the Babylonians are called Cush and Phut, the
descendants of Cush and Phut being part of their army, and
Apries and his Libyan army are the men of Lud.
The fovu'th son of Ham was Canaan. His sons were Sidon,
Heth, Jebusi, Emori, Girgasi, Hivi, Arki, Sini, Arvadi,
Zemari, Hamathi : these peopled the land of Canaan ^.
Sidon fixed in Phoenicia, one of whose chief towns was
called by his name.
Arvad was neighbour to Sidon '^.
Heth lived near Gerar towards Egypt ^.
Where the other sons of Canaan settled in this country
cannot be determined with any certainty and exactness ;
only we must place them somewhere between Sidon, and
Gerar, and Admah, and Zeboim, and Lashah, for these places
were the boundaries of their land according to Moses '^.
This is the substance of what is offered by the best writers
about the first settlements after the dispersion of mankind.
We must not pretend to affirm it in every tittle true ; but
the reader will observe it to be countenanced by arguments
more favourable than any one, that never considered the
subject, wou.ld expect to meet with for a fact that happened
so long ago, and but imperfectly described by the earliest
writers. Josephus disperses these men and their families all
over the world, into Spain and Italy ; but we cannot possibly
conceive mankind so numerous within 130 years after the
flood, as to send otit colonies enough to spread into nations
so distant from the place they dispersed from. We see by all
the mention we have of the names of any of these men in the
books of the Old Testament, that they appear to have been
first seated nearer to the land of Shinaar ; and the utmost that
can be proved from the arguments which some writers offei'
K Prideaux Connect, book ii. an. l> Ezek. xxvii. 8.
570. Herodot. 1. ii. §. 169. c 2 Kings vii. 6.
» Gen. X. i8, d Gen. x. 19.
106 CONNECTION OF SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY.
in favour of Josephus's remote plantations will amovint to no
more than this, that the companies which at the first dis-
persing settled nearer home did afterwards increase, and in
time send forth colonies, which planted the more remote
countries. I believe, if an exact view was taken of all the
several schemes offered upon this subject, all of them that
are supported with any show of argument might be reduced
to a pretty good agreement with one another. For though
there is not a full and absolute proof of any one scheme ; yet
all that can be offered in this matter has the same tendency
to prove this, that the several parts of the world, except
those only where we have supposed Noah to settle, and the
plantations proceeding from them, were inhabited, and the
inhabitants of them cultivated the use of letters, and other
arts, sooner or later, in such a proportion of time as answers
to their distance from the place which Moses calls the land
of Shinaar. On the other hand, there are no broken stories,
nor pieces of antiquity, in all the monuments of learning,
sacred or profane, that either are, or are said ever to have
been in the world, which do make it seem probable that
mankind were first seated in any other place.
The account of the division of the earth given us in the
Chronicon of Eusebius is founded upon the supposition that
Noah, some time before his death, sat down by divine ap-
pointment, and parted the world amongst his three children,
ordering what regions the descendants of each of them should
inhabit ; but this being a mere fiction, no great regard can
be had to it. Noah never came into these parts of the world
at all, as has been observed already from several very probable
arguments for his settling in a far distant place, and will be
further evidenced hereafter, when I come to consider the
maxims and polity upon which kingdoms were founded in
the eastern parts, very different from those which the travel-
lers from Shinaar adhered to in their appointments of kings
and governors.
THE
SACKED AND PROFANE
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
CONNECTED.
BOOK IV.
\ FTER the separation of mankind, Nimrod became the
-^^ head of those which remained at Shinaar. Nimrod was
a mighty hunter before the Lord^. He taught the people to
make up companies, and to chase and kill the wild beasts
abounding in those parts ; and from his gathering them to-
gether, and exercising them in bands for this purpose, he by
degrees led them on to a social defence of one another, and
laid the foundations of his authority and dominion^. His
kingdom began at Babel ; and in time, as his people mul-
tiplied, he extended it further : perhaps he found it incon-
venient to have too large a number dwell together ; a po-
pulous city would not be so easily influenced as a small
neighbourhood ; for we cannot imagine the first kings to be
able either to make or execute laws with that strictness and
rigour which is necessary in a body of men so large as to
^ Gen. X. 9. ment, by hunting. See Xenophon. Cy-
e In this manner the Persians fitted ropsed. 1. i.
their kings for war, and for govern-
lOS CONNECTION OF THK SACRED [bOOK IV.
aiford numerous offenders ; and for this reason it seems to
have been a prudent institution of Nimrod, when his city
Babel began to be too populous to be regulated by his in-
spection, and governed by his influence, to lay the foundations
of other cities, Erac, Achad, and Calne. By this means he
disposed of numbers of his people, and put them under the
directions of such proper deputies as he might appoint over
them, or perhaps they, with his consent^, might choose
for themselves. And thus by steps and degrees he brought
their minds to a sense of government, until the use of it
came to be experienced, and thereby the force and power of
laws settled and confirmed. Many of the Fathers, and some
later writers after' them, represent Nimrod as a most wicked
and insolent tyrant ; and St. Austin in particular says he was
a mighty hunter ; not as we translate it, hefore, or in the pre-
sence of the Lord, but against the Lord. It is very likely
that Nimrod exercised his companions into some sort of skill
in war ; and having a mind to set down with them at Shi-
iiaar, he obliged his brethren that wou.ld not come into his
society to remove and provide for themselves other habita-
tions ; and this might cause them to go away with ill notions
of him, and occasion them to spread amongst their descend-
ants the worst accounts they could give of his hunting, by
which they were thus chased from their first dwellings. How-
ever, we do not find he waged any wars to enlarge his
empire. Ninus, according to Justin, was the first that Used
an army with this view. Nimrod's government was extended
no farther than the necessities or conveniences of his people
required. His country was probably no more than the pro-
vince of Babylonia. He began his reign anno mundi 1 757,
and it is thought he reigned about 148 years, and so died
anno mundi 1905.
Some time in Nimrod's reign ', Ashur, one of the de-
scendants of Shem, led a number of men from Babel ; they
travelled under his conduct up the Tigris, and settled in
Assyria, and laid the first foundations of Nineveh. Ashui'
^ Cush, the father of Nimrod, is Hyde, Rel. vet. Pers. p. 40.
thought to have been governor at Erac. i Gen. x. 11. Joseph. 1. i. c. 7»
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 109
goveined them as Nimrod did the Babylonians, and as they
increased, dispersed them in the country, and set them to
buikl some little adjacent cities, Kehoboth, Resen, and Calah.
Belus succeeded Nimrod, and was the second king of Ba-
bylon. We are not told of what family he was ; and perhaps
he was not much akin to his predecessor. Nimrod himself
was no way by birth entitled to be king of Shinaar ; nor
have we any reason to imagine that mankind, when they
first formed larger societies than those of families, were
directed by any thing in the choice of their kings but the
expectation of some public good to be promoted by them.
The first civil polity was that of kings, according to Justin ^ ;
and the persons advanced to that dignity were promoted to
it not by a giddy ambition, but were chosen for their known
abilities of wisdom and virtue. Nimrod had convinced the
people of the advantages of forming a larger society than
they had before ever thought of; and so the people, under a
sense of the weight and wisdom of what he proposed, chose
him, though a young man in comparison of many alive at
that time, to rule and govern them, for the ends which he
proposed to them ; and when he died, Belus appeared to be
the most proper person, and for that reason was appointed to
succeed him. Belus was a prince of study ; the inventor of
the Chaldean astronomy, says Pliny l He is thought to
have spent his time in cultivating his country and im-
proving his people. He reigned sixty years, and died anno
mundi 1965.
Ashur king of Nineveh dying much about this time,
Ninus became the second king of Assyria. Ninus was of an
enterprising and ambitious spirit. He began the first wars,
and broke the peace of the world '". Babylonia was an ad-
jacent country, too near him to lie out of his view and desires.
He coveted to enlarge his empire ; and having prepared
^ Justin. 1. i. 0. I. and Diodorus Si- kavrwv fiaffiXiis M r^v KotvT)v eufp-
culus was of the same opinion : his yecriav, ejTe koX kot' aKrjdeiav eV rais
words arc, Aih Kal to iraKaiov napaSiSo- Upais avaypa<pa7s ovtoi Trapfi\r]<pSruv.
(rOai Toj fiaa-iKfias m'? to7s (Kyovois tHov Diodor. yic. Hist. 1. i. p. 28.
ap^avTuv, aWa to7s irXiiffTa Koi fi4- 1 Plin. lib. vi. c. 26.
yiara to irArfdos ilifpyerovirtv, eifrf irpoff- m Justin. 1. i. c. I.
Ka\ovi.i.(:Vijov tSjv avdowirtx^v rohs ecf)'
110 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
his people for it, he easily overran his neighbours, who
were employed in cultivating other arts, but were inexpert
at war : he in a little time subdued the Babylonians. Di-
odorus Siculus " makes particular mention of this conquest
of Babylonia, in words very agreeable to the circumstances
of these times. "Ninus (says he) the king of Assyria, as-
" sisted by a king of the Arabians, invaded the Babylonians
*' with a powerful army. The present Babylon was not then
** built, but there were in the country of Babylonia other
" cities of figtire. He easily reduced these his neighbours,
" who had no great skill in war, and laid them under tribute."
After Ninus had subdued the Babylonians, he began to
think of conquering other nations ; and in a few years over-
ran many of the infant states of Asia ; and so by uniting
kingdom to kingdom he laid the foundations of the Assyrian
empire. He was for ever restless and aspiring ; the subduing
one people led him on to attempt another, and the passions
of men being then of the same sort they now are, every new
victory carried him still forwards, without end, till he died.
His last attempt was upon Oxyartes, or Zoroastres king of
Bactria. Here he met a more powerful resistance than he
had before experienced. After several fruitless attempts upon
the chief city of Bactria, he at last conquered it, by the con-
trivance and conduct of Semiramis, a woman, wife of Menon
a captain in his army. The spirit and bravery of Semiramis
so charmed him, that he fell in love with her, and forced her
husband to consent to his having her for his wife, offering him
in lieu of Semiramis his own daughter. Ninus had a son by
Semiramis, named Ninyas ; and after a reign of two and fifty
years died anno mundi 2017.
When Ninus was dead, Semiramis expressed in her actions
such a conduct, as made her appear the fittest person to com-
mand the new but large empire. Her son was but a minor,
and during the latter part of Ninus's life she had had so
great a share in the administration, and always acquitted her-
self to the public satisfaction, that there seems no need of
n Diodorus Sicuhis, 1. ii. §. i. p. 64.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. Ill
the contrivance of personating her son° to obtain her the em-
pire. Her advancement to it was easy and natural. When
she took upon her to be queen, the public affairs were but in
the hands into which Ninus when alive used generally to
put them ; and it is not likely that the people should be un-
easy at her governing, who had for several years together, by
a series of actions, gained herself a great credit and ascend-
ant over them ; especially if we consider, that when she took
up the sovereignty she still pressed forward in a course of
action which continually exceeded the expectations of her
people, and left no room for any to be willing to dispute her
authority. Her first care was to settle and establish her em-
pire. She removed her court from Nineveh to Babylon, and
added much to that city ; encompassed it with a wall, and
built several public and magnificent buildings in it. And
after she had finished the seat of her empire, and settled all
the neighbouring kingdoms under her authority, she raised
an army, and attempted to conquer India : but here again,
as Ninus had before experienced, she found these eastern
countries able to oppose her. After a long and a dangerous
war, tired out with defeats, she was obliged with a small re-
mainder of her forces to return home. Some authors report
her to have been killed on the banks of Indus ; but if she
was not, her fruitless attempts there so consumed her forces,
and impaired her credit, that soon after she came home she
found herself out of repute with her people, and so resigned
her crown and authority to her son p, and soon after died.
Thus lived and died the famous Semiramis, an early instance
of what seems very natural, that an ambitious but defeated
prince should grow sick of empire. Charles the Fifth, em-
peror of Germany, resigned his dominions in much the same
manner, and grew out of love with the pomp and greatness
of the world when his fortune turned, his designs were blast-
ed, and he could not command his triumphs to wait on him
any longer. Justin has accused Semiramis of lewdness and
o Justin, from Trogus Pompeius, ment to her conduct, bravery, and
supposes her to have made use of this success in her undertakings,
stratagem ; but Diodorus Siculus, with P Diodorus Siculus, lib. ii. p. 76.
more probability, ascribes her advance- §. 20.
112 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV,
immodesty; and Diodorus Siculus is not favourable to her
character, though he does not charge her with the same par-
ticulars as Justin does. It is not possible for us to determine
whether she was guilty or innocent ; however we may ob-
serve this, that whilst her enterprises were crowned with
fortune and success, she maintained herself in great credit and
glory with her people ; but she lived to find a character so
supported is at fatal uncertainties ; an unhappy turn of af-
fairs may quickly blast it, and make it difficult to go down
with credit to the grave, Semiramis resigned her empire
after she had reigned forty-two years, anno mundi 2059.
Ninyas was the next king of the empire of Assyria "i. He
began his reign full of a sense of the errors of his mother's
administration, and engaged in none of the wars and danger-
ous expeditions with which Semiramis seems to have tired
out her people. Most writers represent him as a feeble and
eifeminate prince ; but perhaps all these accounts of him
arose from the disposition there is in writers to think a tur-
bulent and warlike reign, if victorious, a glorious one, and
to overlook an administration employed in the silent but
more happy arts of peace and good government. Ninyas
made no wars, nor used any endeavours to enlarge his em-
pire ; but he took a due care to regulate and ■■ settle upon a
good foundation the extensive dominions which his parents
had left him, and by a wise contrivance of annual deputies
over his provinces he prevented the many revolts of distant
countries which might otherwise have happened. He is
said to have begun that state which the eastern kings im-
proved afterwards ; was of difficult access, in order to raise
himself a veneration from his subjects. We do not find but
he had an happy reign. He transmitted his empire to his
successors so well ordered and constituted, as to last in the
hands of a series of kings of no extraordinary fame above a
thousand years. This I take to be the history of the Baby-
lonian or Assyrian empire for about three hundred years.
It may be proper, before I proceed further, to make some
1 Justin. Diodorus iSiculus. ^ Diodorus Siculus, 1. ii. p. 77.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 113
remarks upon the affairs of the time we have gone over.
And,
I. Let us consider and settle the chronology. Nimrod,
we say, began his reign anno mundi 1757, i. e. an hundred
and one years after the flood, at the birth of Peleg, the time
at which the men of Shinaar were first separated. At that
time Nimrod began to be a mighty one in the earth^, and the
beginning of his kingdom was Babel K It is probable that he
was not forthwith made a king ; he might raise himself by
steps, and in time : and if we could say how long he might
be forming the people before he could set up his authority
and rule them, perhaps we might begin his reign a few
years later : but however that be, we are in no great mis-
take in dating it from the first confusion of tongues, for then
he began to be a mighty one. The foundations of his sove-
reignty were then laid, which he proceeded to build up and
establish as fast as he could, and from this time therefore we
date the rise of his kingdom. Nimrod at this time could be
but a young man, in comparison of many others then alive ;
for suppose his father Cush, the son of Ham, was born as
early as Arphaxad, the son of Shem ", two years after the
flood ; and that Nimrod, who seems to be the sixth son of
Cush, was born when his father Cush was about thirty-eight
years old, Nimrod would, according to this account, be
about the age of sixty-one years ; old enough indeed to have
many sons, and perhaps a grandson, but not advanced enough
in years to be the father of a nation of jieople, or to have a
vast number of persons descending from him. He could not
have any paternal right to be a king, nor claim it fairly as
due to the ripeness of his years and the seniority of his age.
But to return to the settling the chronology of his reign.
He began it at Babel anno mundi 1757. But why do we
suppose that he reigned 148 years, and no more I To this I
answer, his reign may easily be allowed to be so long ; for if
he began to reign at the age of sixty-one, and lived 148
years after, we shall extend his life to but 209 years, and the
s Gen. X. 8. t Ver. lo. « Gen. xi. lo.
VOL. I. I
114 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
sons of Shem his cotemporaries lived much longer : so that
the real difficulty will be to give a reason for our ending his
reign anno mundi 1905, not supposing it to be longer. But
to this I think we are determined by the reigns of his suc-
cessors Belus and Ninus. Eusebius has placed the birth of
Abraham in the forty-third year of Ninus, and Bolus's reign
is commonly computed to be sixty years ; so that it is evi-
dent, that the space of time between the death of Nimrod
and the birth of Abraham is 103 years ; and since it will ap-
pear hereafter very clearly, by the Hebrew chronology, that
Abraham was born anno mundi 2008, the 103 years belong-
ing to the reigns of Belus and Ninus, which are the space of
time between the death of Nimrod and the birth of Abra-
ham, will carry us back to anno mundi 1905, and fix the
death of Nimrod, as we do, in that year. I might observe,
that the beginning of Nimrod's reign in this year agrees
perfectly well with the account that was afterwards given of
some astronomical observations made at Babylon. When
Alexander the Great took possession of that city, Callisthenes
the philosopher, who accompanied him y, upon searching into
the treasures of the Babylonian learning, found that the
Chaldeans had a series of astronomical observations for 1903
years backward from that time. The year in which Alex-
ander came to Babylon was ^ anno mundi 3674 ; from which,
if we trace upwards 1 903 years, we shall be brought back to
anno mundi 177 1. So that in this year began the astronomy
of the Chaldeans, i. e. fourteen years after the first begin-
ning of Nimrod's reign ; and it is very likely that so many
years must be spent before the hurry arising from the first
confusion of tongues could be over, before we can conceive
a settlement of the people, or the new kingdom could be
brought into a state quiet and composed enough for the cul-
ture of arts and sciences to appear, and draw the public
attention to them.
But, 2. It is thought by many persons that Nimrod, Belus,
and Ninus were all but one person, and that the first year
of Ninus was the first year of this empire, or at least that
y Simplicius de coelo^ 1. ii. p. 123. z Archbishop Usher's Annals.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 115
Nimrod and Belus were the same man, and that there was but
one king before Ninus, namely Behis. To this I answer ;
the beginning of the Assyrian empire is very justly computed
from the reign of Ninus, for he was king of Nineveh, and
was the first that attempted to enlarge his dominions. The
kingdom was inconsiderable when he first began his reign,
but his conquests soon enlarged it, and from small beginnings
laid the foundations of a mighty empire : but then Ninus
cannot possibly be as ancient as Nimrod, for all authors
agree that the continuance of this empire, from its rise to
Sardanapalus, was no more than 1300 years. The death of
Sardanapalus happened anno mundi 3237, from which year if
we reckon backward 1300 years, we shall come back to anno
mundi 1957, the year in which I have placed the beginning
of Ninus's reign ; but then this year falling 200 years later
than the confusion of mankind, at which time Nimrod hegan
to he a mighty one, Nimrod and Ninus cannot possibly be the
same person.
That the empire of the Assyrians continued no more than
1300 years from Ninus to Sardanapalus is the unanimous
opinion of all the ancient writers. Castor Rhodius makes it
not quite so much ; he computed it, as Syncellus informs us,
but 1280^; but none of them make it more; for the two
passages of Diodorus Siculus, in one of which t" the conti-
nuance of this empire is supposed to be 1360 years, and in
the other above 1400, are both esteemed by the learned to
have been corrupted ; the former is twice quoted by Syn-
cellus, not 1360, but somewhat above 1300, i. e. according
to Agathias '^, 1306 years, for so he cites this passage; and
the other passage contradicts Eusebius and Clemens Alexan-
drinus, and both of them quoted Diodorus, and thought him
to know of no other number of years for the continuance of
this empire than the 1300^.
As to Bolus's being the same person with Nimrod, there
a Syncell. p. 168. opinion, for he computes from the
b Diodor. Sic. 1. ii. p, 77. & p. 81. first year of Ninus to the last of Sar-
Edit. Rhodoman. danapalus but 1 240 years ; but he
c Lib. ii. p. 63. quotes Diodorus, asserting it to be
d Eusebius seems by his own com- 1300 years. Chron. p. 32.
putations to have followed Castor's
1 2
116 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
are no good authors, that I know of, that do directly make
them so. Nimrod is indeed nowhere mentioned but in
Scripture, or in writers that have copied from the sacred
pages ; but still all the writers that have mentioned Belus as-
signing to his reign but about sixty years, he must begin his
reign anno mundi 1905, and so could not be Nimrod, who
began to he a mighty one near a century and half before this
time, namely, at the dispersion of mankind, anno mundi
1757. Belus, reigning but sixty years, must have been an
old man when he was advanced to the throne. He might
be of equal years, nay older than Nimrod himself, live sixty
years after Nimrod's decease, and yet not live to above the
age of 270 years, an age which his cotemporaries in the fa-
mily of Arphaxad far exceeded. I should therefore imagine
Belus to have been of much riper years and a greater age
than Nimrod himself. The enterprising spirit of Nimrod,
and the heat of the times, might put the unsettled affairs of
this part of mankind at first into the hands of a young man,
who did very evidently lead them into schemes effectually
conducing to the public good ; but when he happened to be
taken off, Avhom should they next look to for counsel and di-
rection, but to some venerable person of authority, and years,
and wisdom ? If Belus was the student which Pliny supposes
him, if he first invented the Chaldean astronomy, it is ob-
servable that he had advanced his studies to some degree of
perfection in the early years of Nimrod's reign ; for the ob-
servations, as we said, began anno mundi 177 i. Chronology
was very imperfect in these days ; for the civil or computed
year consisting of but 360 days, and that being almost five
days and a quarter less than the solar year, the seasons did
not return at the times, and months, and days of the month
on which they were expected ; for every year being five
days and a quarter longer than the computations in use had
calculated, it is plain that the seasons of the year must be
carried forward five days and a quarter in every year, and
that in about seventeen years the first day of the winter
quarter would happen on the day of the month that belonged
to the spring, and so on, till in about sixty-eight years the
seasons wovild go almost round, through the whole year, and
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 117
come about near to their true place again. And this con-
fusion and variety of the seasons must have happened twice,
about the time of the dispersion of mankind, and was the
cause of such disorders in their affairs, that in time it became
a part of the priest's office to observe the heavens, and to
make public declarations when the seasons began for tillage
and harvest, which the people had no way to find out by
any diaries then made, or tables of chronology. Perhaps
Belus was the first that became skilful in this matter. If we
consider how slowly this sort of science was advanced, and
that near a thousand years passed before they came to form
any tolerable notion of the true length of the year, we may
imagine that Belus might pursue these studies for several
years together without bringing them to a great height.
He might begin his studies years before the dispersion of
mankind ; might have made such a progress by the fourteenth
year of Nimrod, as to be able to give some, though perhaps
not a very accurate account of the weather and seasons, of
the seed-time and harvest ; and a science of such use to the
public, however imperfect, could not but attract the regard
of the people, and procure great honours to the master of it.
A continued progress through a course of these studies must
have every year more and more raised Belus in the esteem of
the people, and by the time of Nimrod's death have procured
him such a veneration as to make way for his being king.
There is a passage of Eupolemus ^, which seems to make
Belus to be Ham the son of Noah, for he describes him to be
father of Canaan, of Mizraim, of Cous or Cush, and of an-
other son, i. e. of Phut ; and these were the children which
Moses ascribes to Ham. But if any one thinks all this not
probable, and will have it that Belus was a son of Nimrod ;
that when he came to be king, he only made a settlement
and provision for the Chaldean astronomers, and so obtained
e Euseb. PrEep. Evang. 1. Lx. c. 17. which I have cited in its place, that
It must be confessed the ancient writers Phut, one of the sons of Ham, was pro-
have very much confounded these an- bably called by this name ; and perhaps
cient names with one another : as Belus tlie words Chronus and Belus were
seems by this passage to be Ham ; so both like Pharaoh, a name or title given
we shall find from another passage to several kings.
118 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK IV.
the name of their founder, I cannot dispute it ; we can only
guess in these matters.
But, II. Many authors have imagined that Nineveh was
not built by Ashur, but by Nimrod himself, and they inter-
pret the nth verse of the loth chapter of Genesis thus : Out
of that land he [i. e. Nimrod, before spoken of] went forth
into Assyria, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth and
Calah, &c. The reasons they give for this opinion are,
I. they say it does not seem likely that Moses should give any
account of the settlement of one of the sons of Shem under
the head where he is discoursing of Ham's family, when we
see he reserves a distinct head for each family, and after-
■wards mentions Asher in his place, ver 23. 2. Ashur the
son of Shem (says sir W. Haleigh) did not build Nineveh,
but settled in another place. He built Ur of the Chaldees,
where the children of Shem settled until the removal of
Abraham out of that country. That Ashur built Ur of the
Chaldees he collects from Isaiah ^ ; Behold the land of the
Chaldeans ; this people was not, till Ashur founded it for
the inhabitants of the loilderness. 3. They say, if Ashur was
the founder of Nineveh, what became of him ? It is strange
the founder of so great an empire should be but once men-
tioned, and that by the by, and that we should have no further
accounts of him. But to all this may be answered, i. Moses
is not so exactly methodical, but that, upon mentioning Nim-
rod and his people, he may be conceived to hint at a colony
that departed from under his government, though it hap-
pened to be led by a person of another family. 2. If Ur of
the Chaldees was indeed built by Ashur, as is conjectured
from the passage of Isaiah before mentioned, that is in no
wise inconsistent with Ashur's going into Assyria, but rather
agreeable to it ; for Ur was not situate where sir Walter
Raleigh imagines, but in Mesopotamia, probably near the
Tigris, and might therefore be built by the Assyrian, who
bordered upon it. That Ur was in Mesopotamia is evident
from St. Stephen's supposing Abraham to dwell in Mesopo-
tamia before he went to Haran§ ; whereas he removed from
i Isaiah xxiii. 13. % Acts vii. 2.
AND PROFANK HISTORY
119
this Ur of the Chaldees, or, as the same St. Stephen expresses
it, from the land of the Chaldeans, directly to Haran''.
3. As to the silence of history about Assur, neither Nineveh
nor the kingdom of Assyria were raised to any remarkable
grandeur under Assur, the first founder of it. The glory of
Nineveh, and the increase of the empire, was the work of
after-kings. Assur only planted a few people in that coun-
try, and took care to have habitations for them ; however
the country was, in succeeding ages, called by his name,
and that is in reality a greater mention of him than we have
of several other planters, who made perhaps more consider-
able plantations than Assur did. But, 4. It is probable that
Assur built Nineveh, from the conquest of Babylonia by the
Assyrians under Ninus. If Nimrod had built Nineveh, and
planted Assyria, Babylon and Assyria would have been but
one empire, and it would be an inconsistence to talk of a suc-
ceeding king of one of them conquering the other. That
the Assyrian conquered the Babylonians is very particularly
recorded by Diodorus ' ; and therefore before Ninus united
them Babylonia and Assyria were two distinct kingdoms,
and not the plantation of one and the same founder. 5. The
land of Ashur and the land of Nimrod are mentioned as
two distinct countries, Micah v. 6.
III. Another remarkable thing in the transactions of this
time is the opposition that Ninus met at Bactria, and Semi
ramis after him, when she endeavoured to penetrate farther,
and to conquer India. When Ninus had instructed his
people for war, he overran the infant kingdoms of Asia, by
his own force and power, with much ease, and without
meeting any considerable opposition : but when he came to
attempt Bactria, though with an army very probably en-
forced and increased with supplies from the conquered nations,
yet he met a power here equal to his own, and able to defend
itself against repeated attacks made by him. Bactria is about
a thousand miles from Shinaar, and India two or three
hundred miles further ; and now if we suppose that the
whole race of mankind, Noah and all his children, were dis^
h Acts vii. 4. i Loc. sup. cit.
]20 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV,
persed from Shinaar, how is it possible that any one plan-
tation of them could in so few ages reach and plant these
distant countries, and increase and multiply to a number able
to defend themselves against the united force of so many
companies of their brethren ? I dare say, had Ninus extended
his arms as far west, north, and south, as he did east, he
would have found not powerful armies, or considerable na-
tions, but uninhabited countries. At the separation of man-
kind, the only company that travelled this way from Shinaar
was Jocktan and his sons. We are told they lived from
Mesha to Sephar : and if we consider them, we cannot but
think them a younger branch ; their numbers not so great
as those of some other planters born a descent or two be-
fore them. But if we should allow them to be as potent
as any other single people in the then world, able to defend
themselves against the Babylonians, Assyrians, Medes, or any
other particular society of their brethren ; yet how is it pos-
sible that thev should travel to such distant habitations, and
settle themselves into a firm and well-ordered government,
and be able to bring into the field sufficient forces to repel
the attacks of Medes, Persians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and
most of the other colonies united together. The fact there-
fore here related confirms to me the settlement we before
allotted to Noah at his coming out of the ark. Bactria and
India are not very far from the Ararat we mentioned, and if
so, it is easy to say how the inhabitants of Shinaar might
meet here as numerous and as potent armies as their own.
Noah, and those that remained with him, were settled sooner
than the travellers to Shinaar ; and their descendants, with-
out doubt, were as many, as wise, as well instructed in all
arts, if not better ; as potent in arms, and every way as well
prepared to support and maintain their kingdoms. This
therefore, I think, is the reason why Ninus and Semiramis
so easily overran the kingdoms of Asia, but met so consider-
able an opposition at Bactria and India : amongst the former
they found only the young and unexperienced states, that
arose from the divided travellers to Shinaar ; but when they
came to Bactria and India, they had to engage with nations
that were as soon or sooner settled than themselves, that were
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 121
descended from tlieir great ancestor Noah, and those that
continued with him, and had been growing and increasing
as much as they, from the time that their fathers had left
their first seats to travel to Shinaar.
IV. Justin ^ mentions some wars between Sesostris king of
Egypt, and Tanais king of Scythia, which, he says, were
long before Ninus, and prior to all dates and computations
of time. It is something difficult to guess when these wars
happened. Some writers suppose that Justin made a mis-
take, and supposed these wars so early, when in truth they did
not happen until many ages after. Tanais and Sesostris are
modern names ; in these I do not question but he was mis-
taken ; there were no such kings before Ninus. Eusebius
takes notice ^ from Abydenus, that much about the time of,
or soon after, the confusion of tongues, there broke out a war
between Chronus and Titan ; and it is most probable that the
Chronus here spoken of was Mizraim, the first king of Egypt ;
and if so, Titan probably was Nimrod, and the wars here
hinted at were skirmishes that might happen upon Nimrod's
attempting to drive Mizraim, and all others that would not
come into his society, from Babel, the place where he erected
his kingdom. These wars may justly be supposed a great
while before Ninus, at least about 200 years. That Chro-
nus was Mizraim may be hence conjectured: Eupolemus™
makes Chronus to be one of the names of Ham, for he re-
cords the person so named to be the father of the same
children whom Moses affirms to be the sons of Ham, namely,
of Belns, of Canaan, of Cous, and of Mestraim : Canaan
and Mestraim are evidently the same with two of Ham's
sons mentioned by Moses, and Cous may easily be supposed
to be Cush, and then Belus must be Phut. Chronus there-
fore w^as Ham, and these were his sons ; but then it is
remarkable, that one of Ham's children was also called
Chronus, and this second Chronus was the Mizraim we are
speaking of That Chronus, or Ham, had a son called also
Chronus, we are informed by Eusebius " ; and the same
k Lib. i. c. I. m Euseb. Prsep. Evang. lib. ix. c. 17.
1 InChron. p. 13. et in Prsep. Evang. « Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. 10.
lib. ix. c. 14.
122 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
author assures us that this Chronus was Mizraim, by inform-
ing us that he left his kingdom of Egypt to Taautus °, whom
all writers acknowledge to be the son of Menes, or Mizraim,
and to have succeeded him in that kingdom : and this is
what induces me to imagine that the wars ascribed by Justin
to Tanais and Sesostris were some skirmishes that might
happen between Nimrod and Mizraim. Other writers be-
sides Abydenus have mentioned these wars ; we have some
hints of them both in Plutarch p and Diodorus "J, but with a
small change of the names of the warriors : according to
them, these wars happened between Typhon and Osiris; but
Typhon and Titan may be easily conceived, by the accounts
the Greeks give of them, to be the same person ; and there
is good reason to think Osiris the same person with Miz-
raim, both if we consider the name'', and what is affirmed of
him^. Plutarch, in his account of these wars, gives us some
things historically false, and others fabulous ; but that is no
wonder. The Greeks have been observed to augment all
the ancient stories which they brought from Egypt Avith
various additions. His account, that Typhon had the aid of
Aso, a famous queen of Ethiopia*, against Osiris, looks as if
these wars had been imagined to have been carried on in the
times of Semiramis ; but Mizraim died before Belus, the
second king of Assyria. Upon the whole, all we can offer
about these wars must be imperfect and uncertain : we can
only pretend to shew, that the best accounts of them do not
contradict, but rather agree with the history of these times.
Mizraim and his sons were in after-ages worshipped as gods
in Egypt; and the story of this war of Titan", or Typhon,
against them, gave occasion to the Greek fables about the
war of the giants with the gods. But to return to our
history.
Whilst Nimrod was settling his people at Babel, Mizraim,
o Prsep. Evang. lib. i. c. lo. p. 25. of Cuan, which was the ancient pro-
P Lib. de Isid. et Osirid. nunciation of li-OD, or Canaan. Euseb.
q Hist, lib.i. Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. 10. p. 25. Moses
r Mizraim in the singular number is makes Mizraim the brother of Canaan.
Misor ; and Osiris is often written t Ethiopia is the land of Cush.
Jdrh; or I.sor. " Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. 10.
s Isiris is affirmed to be the brother p. 25.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 123
with those that adhered to him, took his way towards
Egypt, and arrived there, it is thought, about the fifteenth
year of Nimrod, anno mundi 1772. He seated himself near
the entrance of Egypt, and perhaps built the city Zoan,
which Bochart proves to have been the seat of the kings of
Egypt in the first ages. The time of Mizraim's settling in
Egypt, fifteen years later than Nimrod at Shinaar, is very
probable. From Shinaar to the entrance of Egypt is near
seven hundred miles, and we cannot suppose that he went
directly* thither. Hebron in Canaan was built seven years
before Zoan in Egypt y, and it seems by its situation to have
stood in the midway between Shinaar and Egypt. Whe-
ther Mizraim was at the building of Hebron, we cannot say ;
he very probably made many stops in several places ; for we
cannot think that he knew any thing of Egypt at his first
setting out, but he travelled in search of a covmtry where he
should like to settle ; and after many journeys, and perhaps
some short abodes in several places, where some inconveni-
ences or other dissuaded him from settling, at length he came
to the banks of Nile. Here he found a plentiful and well
watered country, and therefore here he determined to fix,
and move no further ; and he may well be supposed to have
spent fifteen years in travelling thus far in this manner.
The person whom Moses calls Mizraim is by Diodorus
and the other heathen writers commonly called Menes ; by
Syncellus, Mestraim. Menes is supposed to be the first king
of Egypt by Herodotus % Diodorus % Eratosthenes, Africa-
nus from Manetho, Eusebius, and Syncellus ^ ; and the times
of their Menes coincides very well with those of Moses's
Mizraim, as sir John Marsham has pretty clearly evidenced
in the following manner ^^ :
I . He observes from Diodorus '^, that Menes was succeeded
by fifty-two kings, whose reigns all together took up the
space of above 1400 years, in all which time the Egyptians
had done nothing worth the recording in history. 2. He
supposes these 1400 years to end at Sesostris ; for Herodotus
y Numb. xiii. 22. *> In Chron. Euseb. p. 29.
z Lib. ii. §. 4. ^ Can. Chron. p. 22.
a Lib. i. p. 14. d Lib. i. p. 29.
124 CONNECTION OF THE SACUED [bOOK IV.
is express % that the first illustrious actions were done in
Egypt, in the time of Sesostris ; before Sesostris, says he *",
they had nothing famous; and Diodorus says §■, that Sesos-
tris performed the most illustrious actions, far exceeding all
before him. 3. He supposes with Josephus"^ that this Se-
sostris was Sesac, who besieged Jerusalem in the fifth year of
Kehoboam king of Juda, about anno mimdi 3033. The only
difficulty in this argumentation will be, that it places Menes,
or Mizraim, above a century earlier than his true age ; for
if we reckon backward 1400 years, from the year before-
named, in which Sesac besieged Jerusalem, we shall place
Mizraim anno mundi 1633, i. e. 23 years before the flood,
and 139 years earlier than the true time of his reign,
which began, as we before said, at least 15 years later
than that of Nimrod, anno mtmdi 1772. But this difficulty
may be easily cleared : the number 1400 years is a mistake :
Diodorus says expressly, that there were but fifty-two kings
from Menes to the time where Sesostris's reign is supposed
to begin ; and according to sir John Marsham's tables of
the Theban kings, from Menes to Sesostris is but 1370
years, though we suppose Sesostris the fifty-fifth king from
Menes ; and even this number is too great, if, as Diodorus
computes, there were fifty-two kings only. The ancients
generally allowed about 36 years and an half to the reign
of a king, and therefore if we deduct from 1370 the number
of years between Menes and Sesostris, according to sir John
Marsham's tables, I say, if we deduct three times '^6 years
and an half, or about no years, supposing those tables to
have the names of three kings too many, the number of kings
being, according to Diodorus, fifty-two, and not fifty-five,
we shall then make the space of time between Menes and
Sesostris about 1 260 years ; and so it really is, according to
the Hebrew chronology, Menes beginning his reign, as we
before said, a/mo mundi 1772; and Sesostris, or Sesac, be-
e Lib. ii. §. loi. kvbs tov effX'^Tov avTiHv yio'ipios. Moeris
f Sir John Marsham thus quotes was the immediate predecessor of Se-
Hcrodotus; but Hei-odotus' swords are^ sostris.
in loc. supr. cit. TSiv 5f aWoiv ^acrt- S Lib. i. p. 34.
\ea)v, oh yap t\eyou ovSe/j.irji' fpyuif airS- h Antiquit. lib. viii. c. 4. p. 368.
Se^iu, kut' ovSip ili'ai\afxirp6T7)Tos, ttKtjv edit. Huds.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 125
sieging Jerusalem in the fifth year of Rehoboam, anno mundi
3033. It is remarkable, that the marginal note in Rhodo-
mannus's edition of Diodorus Siculus supposes the number
1400 years to be a mistake : but the annotator was not happy
in his emendation ; for if we should read 1040, as he would
correct it, that would fall as short of the true age of Menes as
the other exceeds it.
There is a quotation from Dicaearchus, the scholar of
Aristotle, a more ancient historian than either Eratosthenes
or Manetho, and a writer of the best character with the
learned', which may also determine the age of Menes.
The passage is preserved by the scholiast upon the Argo-
nautics of Apollonius ^. Dicffiarchus there affirms, that the
reign of Nilus was 436 years before the first Olympiad.
Now, according to archbishop Usher, the first Olympiad
fell anno mundi 3228 ; the reign of Nilus therefore began
anno mundi 2792 : and by the canon of Eratosthenes, Nilus
was the thirty-sixth king from Menes, or Mizraim, and
Mizraim's reign began 987 years before Nilus, and conse-
quently began anno mundi 1805. The diffisrence between
this and the first year of Menes, according to the other com-
putation, is but thirty-three years ; we cannot say which of
them, or whether either of them be the exact truth, but
their agreeing so nearly is an evidence that neither of them
vary much from it.
Menes, though he at first seated himself in the land of
Zoan, in the entrance of Egypt, yet did not settle here for
life. He afterwards removed further into the country, into
the parts afterwards called Thebais, and built the city
Thebes ; he is also said by Herodotus to have built the city
of Memphis ' ; and by Plato '" he is said to have reigned
king over all Egypt. His removal into the south parts of
Egypt, namely, the country of Thebais, is taken particular
notice of by Eusebius ", and the time of this his migration is
i Marsham, Can. Chronic. lo. p. 39. Eusebius calls him Kp6vos :
k Lib. iv. ver. 272. but it is to be obsei-ved, that Kp6yos,
1 Herod, lib. iL §. 99. the father of Taautus, was the son of
™ In Phsedro, p. 1240. Plato calls Kpdvos, or Ham, for so was Mizraim;
him Timaus. and thus he is recorded to have been
" Eusebius, Prsep. Evang. lib. i. c. by Eusebius, p. 37.
126 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
fixed by Apollodorus o, and said to be 124 years after the
dispersion of mankind, i. e. annomundi 1881 , Menes is sup-
posed to have lived sixty- two years after his planting The-
bais, and so to have died anno mundi 1943. Menes cannot
be supposed to have been born much earlier than Arphaxad,
i. e. not before two years after the flood ; at the dispersion
of mankind, therefore, he could be but ninety-nine ; at his
entrance into Egypt but fifteen years older, i. e. 114; at his
removal to Thebais, 1 24 years ; after the dispersion of man-
kind, he might be 238 ; and if he reigned sixty-two years
after this, he died in the three hundredth year of his age.
We find Arphaxad his cotemporary, descendant of Shem,
lived to be 438. So might Mizraim have been, but the
ancients were of opinion that he was killed.
Diodorus Siculus informs us that he was killed by Ty-
phon P. The Egyptian records •! give the account of his
death more obscurely ; they say, 'T770 l-rnio-noTaixov rjpirdcrOr],
that he was pulled in pieces by the crocodile. Eusebius •■ ex-
plains this by observing that the Egyptians, when these
facts afterwards came to be turned into fable and allegory,
represented Typhon by the figure of a crododile ; and Plu-
tarch * informs us that there was such a representation of
Typhon at Hermopolis ; and ^lian remarks *, that the reason
for the aversion which the inhabitants of Apollinopolis had to
a crocodile arose from a tradition that Typhon was turned
into a creature of that shape.
As Mizraim came afterwards to be worshipped, so his
death was commemorated with great solemnity ; and sir
John Marsham " was of opinion, that the ceremony of the
women sitting at the north gate of the temple x, weeping
for Tammuz, was an imitation of some Egyptian rites on
this occasion.
After the death of Mizraim, his seven sons governed each
of them a little kingdom, and these I take to be the Cabiri
of the ancients. There were seven of the Cabiri, sons of one
o In Euseb. Chron. p. 18. s Lib. de Iside et Osiride, p. 371.
P Lib. i. p. 56. §. 89. •- De Nat. Animal, lib. x. c. 71.
q Euseb. Chronic. Syncellus, p. 64- " Can. Chronic, p. 31.
«• Prsep. Evang. lib. iii. c. 12. p. 116. x Ezek. viii. 14.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 127
person, called Sydec ^ ; and there was an eighth person
added to them, concerning whose name they differed a little ;
some of them, according to Eiisebius, calling him -(Escula-
pius ; others, according to Damascus in his life of Isidore in
Photius % naming him Esmunus. It is impossible to reduce
the numerous but fabulous stories we have of these Cabiri
to any tolerable consistency ; for they were all the inventions
of later ages ; and when the fabulous accounts of later ages
were intermixed with the ancient traditions, it often hap-
pened, as is observed in Eusebius ^, that the truth was very
much obscured by them. Diodorus Siculus very justly ob-
serves c, that the Greeks worshipped for their gods some
heroes and great men that had formerly been famous in
Egypt, whose lives at first, or at least short memoirs of them,
had been written in a plain and simple manner, but after-
writers '' embellished the accounts given of them, by adding
to them various fictions. Of this sort I take to be the ac-
counts we have of Chronus bu.ilding^ Byblus and Berytus,
and of the Cabiri dwelling there. This story looks like an
invention of Philo's, to do honour to his own country, or to
raise the reputation of Sanchoniathon's writings. Mizraim
and his sons settled in or near to Egypt, and it does not look
probable that they built cities in Phoenicia, or could travel
all over the world, as Diodorus Siculus relates of them.
They travelled from Shinaar to Egypt, and up and down
Egypt, and back^vards and forwards in the countries near it,
as Abraham did afterwards up and down Mesopotamia, Ca-
naan, and Egypt ; and this was enough to give an handle to
writers to represent them in after-ages as travelling from one
end of the earth to the other. Taautus, one of the Cabiri,
is said to have made schemes and representations of the
deities ^ : but this story confutes itself ; such schemes and
representations could not be made until the mythologic times,
i. e. not till many years after Thyoth or Taautus was dead
z Euseb. Prsep. Evang. c. x. p. 39. d Eusebius, Prsep. Evang. lib. i. c. 10.
a Bibliothec. §. 242. p. 1074. Edit. p. 39.
Paul. Steph. 161 1. e Euseb. Prsep. Evang. p. 38.
b Pr«p. Evang. 1. i. c. 9. & 10. f Id. ibid. p. 39.
c Lib. i. §. 23. p. 14.
128 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK IV.
and buried. The word Cahiri, according to the explanation
given of it by Varro ^ and Macrobius h, signifies potverful de-
ities, and such the idolatrous nations thought their ancient
heroes when they came to worship them. The Cabiri were,
as I observed, eight in number ; seven, sons of one man ;
and so many, according to Moses, were the sons of Mizraim ;
the eighth person added to them might be the father of the
Philistins, whom Moses mentions ^ along with the sons of
Mizraim.
Three of the sons of Mizraim became kings in Egypt,
Ananim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim : Ananim, or rather Anan,
was king of the Lower Egypt, or Delta ; Naphtuhim, or
Naphth, of the parts near and about Memphis ; Pathrusim,
or Pathrus, of the country of Thebais ; and agreeably hereto,
the countries they were kings of took their ancient names
from the names of these men ; Lower Egypt was called
Zoan, or Zanan, or more probably Tanan, according to the
Latin word in Agro Taneos ^ ; the kingdom of Memphis
was called the land of Noph or Naph ' ; and the kingdom
of Thebais, the land of Pathrus or Pathros "\
Ananim was also called Curudes. We have little of this
first king of Lower Egypt but his name and term of life ;
according to Syncellus, he reigned sixty-three years, and so
died anno mundi £oo6.
Naphtuhim was the king of Naph, or land of Memphis ;
his Egyptian name was Tosorthrus, and the Latins after-
wards called him jEsculapius. He was of greater eminence
than his brother Ananim, but not so famous as his other
brother, who was king of Thebes. Pathrusim is imagined
to have first invented the use of letters, but Naphtuhim is
said " to have learnt both them and several other useful arts
from him, and to have instructed his people in them. He is
said to have been the author of the architecture of these
S Varro, lib. iv. Ezek. xxx. 13, 16.
'" Saturnal. lib. iii. c. 4. m Jerem. xUv. i.
' Gen. X. 14. n Syncell. p. 56. Tpa<\)ris i-irefj.f\Ti0ri.
k Psal. Ixxviii. 12. and 43. Isaiah Td quidem non de illarum inventione
xix. II. and 13. chap. xxx. 4. intelligi debet, sed de cura secundaria,
1 Isaiah xix. 13. Jerem. ii. 16. chap, operaque ex prsecepto Mercurii navata.
xliv. ver. i. chap. xlvi. ver. 14. Ibid. 19. Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 40.
ANb PROFANE HISTORY. ] 29
ages °, and to have had some useful knowledge in physic and
anatomy i\ The Egyptians do indeed, in the general "i,
ascribe all their sciences to the other brother ; but it is easy
to conceive how this might happen. Pathrusim, whom
they called Thyoth, was a person so extraordinary, that it
might be difficult for any other name beside his to obtain any
considerable share of reputation in the age he lived in. Let-
ters indeed are said to have come into use in these days, and
men began to minute down in characters upon pieces of
stone, or lumps of burnt earth, some hints of things, in order
to transmit them to future ages ; but as few persons only
were skilled in this art, and as the names of the inventors of
arts were but few, it is probable their names were not always
recorded with their inventions. The age they lived in knew
them and honoured them, and tradition preserved their cha-
racters for generations ; but tradition becomes in time a very
uncertain register of past transactions, and so it happened in
this case ; what was recorded was handed down to posterity ;
but after-ages grew more and more uncertain who were the
authors of what was transmitted to them ; and men ascribed
things more or less to particular persons, according as they
had their names in honour and esteem. The most ancient
fragments of the Egyptian learning'' were some inscriptions
upon lumps of burnt earth, called orijAat, or pillars; and
these were, some ages after these times, found hid in some
caves near Thebes or Diospoliss. Agathodsemon, called the
second Mercury, deciphered them ; they were two and
forty in number'; six and thirty of them were wrote upon
philosophical subjects, i. e. upon the origin of the world,
and history of mankind, which was the philosophy of these
times ; the other six related to medicine. It is probable
none of these pillars had any author's name set on them ;
and the humour then being to ascribe all science to Thyoth,
the decipherer might take them all for his, whereas six and
thirty of them only might be Thyoth's, and the other six
o SynceU. p. 56. s Pausan. lib. i. p. 78.
P SynceU. p. 54. * Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. \t. §. .).
q Jamblich. de Myster. ^Egypt. p. 758. Edit. Potter. Oxon. 1715.
^ SynceU. p. 40.
VOL. I. K
ISO CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK IV.
Tosorthrus's, who is said to have been more skilful than
other men upon this subject. How long Tosorthrus lived
is uncertain.
Pathrusim was king of Thebais ; his Egyptian name was
Thyoth, or, according to the Alexandrian dialect, Thoth.
He was also called Athothes. His Greek name was Hei'-
mes ; and afterwards the Latins named him Mercurius. He
is said to have been a person of a very happy genius for all
inventions of common use and service to mankind ". And
whilst Mizraim was alive, he is supposed ^ to have been his
secretary, and great assistant in all his undertakings ; and
when his father Mizraim died, he is said to have instructed
his brothers in the arts and sciences that he was master of.
Eusebius relates y that Mizraim, (whom he mentions by the
name of Chronus,) when he died, left his kingdom wholly to
this Thyoth, or Taautus, and so perhaps he might; and
Taautus having instructed his brothers, might send them out
to plant each a nation. He made laws ; enriched his lan-
guage, by teaching his people names for many things
which before they had no words for ; and he corrected and
made more expressive the language then in use amongst
them. He is said to have settled their religion, and method
of worship, and to have made some astronomical observations,
and to have taught the use of letters; and his success in
these and other attempts was so great, and obtained him so
much honour, that posterity thought him the sole author of
all their arts and sciences whatsoever. And this is the best
account that can be given of the nations that inhabited Egypt
in the ages next after the dispersion of mankind.
There is no doubt but other nations were settled in these
times, though we have not any hints of their history. It is
certain Canaan was inhabited even sooner than Egypt ; for,
according to Moses % Hebron in Canaan was built seven
years before Zoan in Egypt ; and it is generally thought
that about the fifteenth year of Belus, i. e. 165 years after
the first year of Nimrod's kingdom, and 150 years after
u Diodor. 1. i. §. 15. p. 10. v Euseb. Praep. Evang. bb. i. c. x.
X Euseb. Praep. Evang. c. x. p. 36. p. 39.
Diodor. ut supr. z Numb. xiii. 22.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. l3l
Mizraim's settlement in Egypt, anno mundi 1922% Egialeus
began a kingdom at Sicyon in Greece ; so that mankind was
ere this time dispersed over a considerable part of the world.
But it does not appear that any of these nations made a great
figure in the first ages. The few men of extraordinary emi-
nence that were in the world in these times lived in Egypt
and Assyria ; and for this reason we find little or no mention
of any other countries, until one of thes# two nations came to
send out colonies, by whom the people they travelled to were
by degrees polished and instructed in arts and sciences, made
to appear with credit in their own age, and some accounts of
them transmitted to those that should come after. As Assy-
ria has the credit of the first attempts in astronomy, so some
authors imagine letters to have been first invented in Egypt.
There are other writers that ascribe them to other nations.
The use of letters was certainly very early, for else we could
not have had the short memoirs we have of the first ages of
the world ; and though the learned have not agreed about
the first author of them, and the place where they were in-
vented, yet it is remarkable, that by a review of what has
been written about them, we may trace them backward
from nation to nation, as we have reason to think the use and
knowledge of them has been propagated, and find them
most early used in those parts from whence mankind dispersed
at the confusion of tongues.
For, to begin with the Europeans : as we are settled far
from the first seats of mankind, far from the places which the
descendants of Noah first planted ; so the use of letters ap-
pears to have been in the world much earlier than mankind
can be reasonably supposed to have inhabited these countries.
It is remarkably evident, that many of the European nations
came to the knowledge of letters but in late ages, ^lian ^
makes particular mention of the ignorance of the Thracians,
which was so great and universal, that he quotes Androtion,
affirming, that many of the ancients rejected the accounts
they had of Orpheus, imagining them to be fabulous, be-
cause he was a Thracian, which they thought argument suf-
a Euscb. Chron. p 19. *' Var. Hist. lib. viii. c. 6.
K 2
132 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
ficient to prove him to be illiterate : none of the ancient
Thracians, says he, knew any thing of letters ; nay, the Eu-
ropeans thought it disreputable to learn them, though in Asia
they were in more request. The Goths had their letters and
writing from Ulphila, who was their bishop, so late as 370
years since our Saviour, according to the express testimony of
Socrates ''. So that the opinion of Olaus, of the antiquity of
their letters, is very groundless. The Slavonians received
their letters from Methodius a philosopher^, about the time
of the emperor Lewis II. successor to Lotharius, i. e. about
anno Domini 865 ; and it is but a fiction, that the ancient
Franks^, who set up Pharamond the first king of France, had
letters like the old Greeks, as Cornelius Agrippa^ imagined.
St. Jerome^ translated the Bible into the Dalmatian tongue,
in letters something like the Greek ones, and taught the
people of that country how to read it. St. Cyril did the
same for the Illyrici ; and the people of these countries have
books wrote in these letters, and call them after the names ^
of St. Jerome and St. Cyril to this day. The Latins and
Greeks were certainly the only people of Europe that had
the use of letters very early : let us now see how they came
by their knowledge of them.
And as to the Latins, all writers agree, that they received
their letters from the Greeks, being first taught the use of
them by some of the followers of Pelasgus, who came into
Italy about 150 years after Cadmus came into Greece, or by
the Arcadians, whom Evander led into these parts about
sixty years after Pelasgus. Pliny and Solinus imagined the
Pelasgi'' to have been the first authors of the Latin letters ;
but Tacitus was of opinion that the first Italians 1 were taught
letters by the Arcadians ; and Dionysius Halicarnasseus ™ ex-
pressly affirms the same thing ; so that in this point indeed
there is a difierence amongst writers ; but still the Pelasgi
d Socr. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. c. 33. h Id. ibid.
e Aventin. Annal. lib. iv. p. 334. » Id. ibid.
Edit. Cisiier. Basil. 1580. k Plin. lib. vii. c. 56.
f Vossius de Arte Gram. lib. i. c. 9. 1 Lib. xi. §. 14.
% Corn. Agrip. de vanit. Scientiar. m Dion. Halicar. lib. ii. c. 2,},. p. 26.
lib. i. c. II. Walton. Prolegom. ii. Edit. Oxon. 1704.
§•13-
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 133
and Arcadians being both of them Grecian colonies that
removed to seek new habitations, it remains uncontroverted,
that the Latins received their letters from the Greeks, which-
soever of these were the authors of them. It is very probable
the Pelasgi might first introduce the use of them, and the
Arcadians, who came so soon after them, might bring along
with them the same arts as the Pelasgi had before taught,
and letters in particular ; and some parts of Italy might
be instructed by one, and some by the other ; and this is
exactly agreeable to Pliny ", That the Latin letters were
derived from the Greek seems very probable, from the si-
militude the ancient letters of each nation bear to one an-
other. Tacitus " observes that the shape of the Latin letters
was like that of the most ancient Greek ones ; and the same
observation was made by Pliny p, and confirmed from an
ancient table of brass inscribed to Minerva. Scaligerq has
endeavoured to prove the same point, from an inscription on
a pillar which stood formerly in the Via Appia to old Pome,
and was afterwards removed into the gardens of Farnese.
Vossius is of the same opinion, and has shewn ^ at large how
the old Latin letters were formed from the ancient Greek
with a very small variation.
Let us now come to the Greeks ; and they confess that
they were taught their letters. The lonians^ were the first
that had knowledge of them, and they learned them from
the Phoenicians. The lonians did not form their letters ex-
actly according to the Phoenician alphabet, but they varied
them but little, and were so just as to acknowledge whence
they received them, by always calling their letters Phoeni-
cian. And the followers of Cadmus are * supposed to be the
persons who taught the lonians the first use of their letters.
This is the substance of what is most probable about the ori-
gin of the Greek letters. There are indeed other opinions of
n Lib. vii. c. 56. Philostrat. lib. ii. de vit. Sophist. Critias
o Tacit. Annal. lib. xi. §. 14. apud Athenaeum, lib. i. c. 23. Clem.
P Lib. vii. c. 58. Alex. Strom, lib. i. p. 360. Oxon. 1715.
q Digress, ad Annum Euseb. 1617. Voss. de arte Gram. 1. i. c. 10. Scaliger
' Voss. lib. i. c. II, 12, &c. in Not. ad Euseb. 1617. Grot, in Not.
s Herod, in Terpsichor. §. 58. ad lib. de Veritat. Rel. lib. i. §. 15. n.
^ See Plut. Sympos. lib. ix. prob. 2. Bochart. Geog. Sacra, lib. i. c. 15.
134 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
some writers to be met with; for some have imagined that
Palamedes was the author of the Greek letters, others that
Linus, and others that Simonides ; but these persons were
not the first authors, but only the improvers of the Greek
alphabet. The long vowels 77 and w were the invention of
Simonides : for at first e and o were used promiscuously, as
long or short vowels : (f), x, and 6, were letters added to the
alphabet by Palamedes ; and ^ and yj/, though we are not
certain who was the author of them, did not belong to the
original alphabet ; but still, though these letters were the
inventions of Palamedes, Linus, or Simonides, yet they can-
not be said to be the authors of the Greek letters in general,
because the Greeks had an alphabet of letters before these
particular ones came into use ; as might be shewn from
several testimonies of ancient writers, and some specimens of
ancient inscriptions, several copies of which have been taken
by the curious.
Vossius^ was of opinion that Cecrops was the first author
of the Greek letters ; and it must be confessed that he has
given some not improbable reasons for his conjecture ; and
Cecrops was an Egyptian, much older than Cadmus, and
was remarkable for understanding both the Egyptian and
Greek tongues ; but the arguments for Cadmus are more in
number, and more conclusive than for Cecrops. If Cecrops
did teach the Greeks any letters, the characters he taught
are entirely lost ; for the most ancient Greek letters which
we have any specimen of were brought into Greece by Cad-
mus or his followers. Herodotus y expressly affirms himself
to have seen the very oldest inscriptions in Greece, and that
they were wrote in the letters which the lonians first used,
and learned from Cadmus or the Phoenicians. The in-
scriptions he speaks of were upon the tripods at Thebes in
Boeotia, in the temple of Apollo. There were three of these
tripods : the first of them was given to the temple by Am-
phitryon, the descendant of Cadmus : the second by Laius,
the son of Hippocoon ; the third by Laodamas, the son of
X Loc. supr. cit, y Loc. supr. cit.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 186
Eteocles. Scaliger ^ has given a copy of these inscriptions
(as he says) in the old Ionian letters ; but I doubt he is in
this point mistaken, as he is also in another piece ^ of an-
tiquity which he has copied, namely, the inscription on He-
rod's pillar, which stood formerly in the Via Appia, but was
afterwards removed into the gardens of Fai'nese. The letters
on this pillar do not seem to be the old Ionian, as may be
seen by comparing them with Chishull's Sigean inscription,
or with the letters on the pedestal of the Colossus at Delos,
of which Montfaucon gives a copy ; but they are either (as
Dr. Chishull imagines) such an imitation of the Ionian, as
Herod, a good antiquary, knew how to make ; or they are
the character which the Ionian letters were in a little time
changed to, for they do not differ very much from them.
But to return : it is, I say, agreed by the best writers, that
the Greeks received their letters from the Phoenicians, and
that the ancient Ionian letters were the first that were in use
amongst them. And thus we have traced letters into Phoe-
nicia. We have now to inquire whether the Phoenicians
were the inventors of them, or whether they received them
from some other nation.
We must confess that many writers have supposed the
Phoenicians to be the inventors of letters. Pliny ^ and Cur-
tius'^ both hint this opinion; and agreeable hereto are the
words of the poet ^.
Phoenices primi, famae si credimus, ausi
Mansuram nidibus vocem signare figuris.
And Cretias ^ :
^olviKes d fvpov ypdfifiaT aXe^tXoya.
And so Hesychius makes €K(f)oi.vi^ai, and avayvaxrai, to act the
Phmnician and to read, to be synonymous terms. But there
are other authors, and with better reason, of another opinion.
Diodorus ^ says expressly, that the Syrians were the inventors
z Digress, ad Ann. Euseb. 1617. d Lucan. Pharsal. lib. iii..
a Loc. supr. cit. e Apud Athenseum, lib, i.
^ Plin. lib. V. c. 12. et lib. vii. c. 56. f Lib. v.
« Lib. iv. §. 4.
^'66 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV,
of letters, and that the Phoenicians learned them from them,
and afterwards sailed with Cadmus into Europe, and taught
them to the Greeks. Eusebius assents to this °, and thinks
the Syrians that first invented letters were the Hebrews:
though this is not certain. It is indeed true'^, that the
ancient Hebrews had the same tongue and characters, or
letters, with the Canaanites or Phoenicians, as might be evi-
denced from the concurrent testimonies of many authors ;
nay, all the nations in these parts, Phoenicians, Canaanites,
Samaritans, and probably the Assyrians, for some ages, spake
and wrote alike.
Athanasius Kircher ' imagined that the Phoenicians learned
their letters from the Egyptians, and endeavoured to prove
that the first letters which Cadmus brought into Greece
were Egyptian. He describes the figures of these Cadmean
letters, and endeavours to prove that they were the very
same that were used at that time in Egypt ; but his argu-
ments for this opinion are not conclusive. The letters he
produces are the present Coptic, as the very names and
figures of them shew evidently ; not that the Greek letters
were derived from them, but rather that the Egyptians
learned them from the ancient Greeks ; and I believe, says
bishop Walton, whoever shall read the Coptic books will
find such a mixture of Greek words in them, that he can-
not doubt but that Ptolemy, after his conquests in Greece,
brought their letters, and much of their language, into Egypt.
Kircher endeavours to shew by their form and shape, that
the Greek letters were formed from the Egyptian description
of their sacred animals, which he thinks were the letters
which the Egyptians at first used in their common writing,
as well as in their hieroglyphical mysteries. These letters,
he says, Cadmus communicated to the Greeks, with only
this difierence, that he did not take care to keep up to the
precise form of them, but made them in a looser manner.
He pretends to confirm his opinion from Herodotus ; and
B Prsep. Evang. lib. x. ' ffidip. ^gypt. torn. iii. diati*. prae-
li Lucian. Chferil. de Solymis. Seal, lusor. 3.
Digress, ad Ann. Euseb. 161 7.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 137
lastly affirms from St. Jerome, that Cadmus and his brother
PhcEnix were Egyptians ; that Phoenix, in their travels from
Egypt, stayed at Phoenicia, which took its name from him ;
that Cadmus went into Greece, but could not possibly teach
the Grecians any other letters than what himself had learned
when he lived in Egypt. But to all this there are many ob-
jections. 1. The hieroglyphical way of writing was not the
most ancient way of writing in Egypt, nor that which Cad-
mus taught the Greeks. 2. Herodotus, in the passage cited'',
does not affirm Cadmus to have brought Egyptian letters
into Greece, but expressly calls them Phoenician letters ; and,
as we said before, the Phoenician letters were the same as the
Hebrew, Canaanitish, or Syrian, as Scaliger, Vossius, and
Bochart have proved beyond contradiction. 3. St. Jerome
does not say whether Cadmus's letters were Phoenician or
Egyptian, so that his authority is of no service in the point
before us ; and as to Cadmus and Phoenix's being Egyptians,
that is much questioned ; it is more probable they were
Canaanites, as shall be proved hereafter.
Many considerable writers have given the Egyptians the
credit of inventing letters ; and they all agree that Mercury
or Thyoth was the inventor of them. Pliny 1, in the very
place where he says that some ascribed the invention of letters
to the Syrians, confesses that others thought the Egyptians
the inventors of them, and Mercury their first author. Di-
odorus I" expressly ascribes the invention of them to the same
person ; and so does Plutarch " and Cicero °. Tertullian p
went into the same opinion ; and we also find it in Plato.
Kircher ^ describes the shape of the very letters which this
Thyoth invented. And Philo-Biblius, the translator of San-
choniathon's history, quoted by Eusebius and Porphyry,
mentions the Commentaries of Taautus, or Thyoth, and the
sacred letters he wrote his books in ; and Jamblichus •■ speaks
k In Terpsich. §. 58. Testim. Animse c. 5.
1 Hist. lib. vii. c. 56. Q CEdip. ^gypt. torn. iii. diatrib.
m Diodor. lib. i. §. 16. p. 10. prselusor. 2.
» Sympos. lib. ix. c. 3. r Lib. de Mysteriis, cap. de Deo
o Lib. de Natur. Decorum iii. §. 22. atque Diis.
P Lib. de Corona Militis, c. 8. et de
138 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
of an incredible number of books wrote by this Taautus^
All antiquity agrees that the use of letters was very early in
Egypt, and that Thyoth or Mercury was the first that used
them there, and taught others the use of them; but though
he is by many writers for this reason called the inventor of
letters, yet I cannot think that he really was so ; considering
that mankind was not planted first in Egypt after the flood,
but travelled thither from other countries. We have already
shewn that the use of letters was in Greece first, then in
Italy, and afterwards spread into the other parts of Europe.
We have also considered how they came into Greece, namely,
from Phoenicia ; and they were most probably introduced
into Phoenicia from Syria, and the Syrians, Canaanites, and
Assyrians used originally the same letters ; so that in all pro-
bability they were introduced into all these nations from one
to another, and were earliest at the place where mankind
separated at the confusion of tongues ; and from this place
it is also likely they were propagated into Egypt, and into
all other countries into which any companies dispersed from
Shinaar. I always thought letters to be of an Assyrian ori-
ginal, said Pliny ' ; and this was his opinion after duly con-
sidering what all other writers had offered about them. It is
highly reasonable to think that all arts and sciences flourished
here as much earlier than in other parts, as the inhabitants
of these parts were settled sooner than those that went from
them. We have a sufficient account of the first kings, and of
the ancient history of this part of the world, to induce us to
believe that they began their annals very early ; and we are
sure from the astronomical observations found at Babylon in
the time of Alexander the Great, which were before men-
tioned, that they studied here, and recorded such observations
as they made, very few years after tlie dispersion of man-
kind ; a plain indication that they had at this time the use
of letters ; and we have no proofs that they had the use of
them thus early in Egypt, or in any other of the nations
derived from the dispersion of mankind. Taautus is by all
s By the books of Taautus I sup- not being invented in these early ages,
pose are meant pillars, or lumps of t Hist. Nat. lib. vii. c. 56.
earth with inscriptions on them, books
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 139
writers held to be the first that used letters in Egypt ; and if
we suppose him to have used them before he came to be
king, when he was secretary to his father Mizraim, yet still
the use of them must be later in Egypt than in Assyria,
for they were probably used in the astronomical records at
Babylon even before Mizraim entered Egypt. One thing is
here remarkable, namely, that in these parts, where the
early use of letters is so capable of being proved, there is no
mention of any pai'ticular persons being the author of them ;
for the opinion of Suidas, who imagined Abraham to be the
author of the Assyrian letters, like that of Eupolemus ^ and
Isidorus ^, who thought Moses the inventor of the Hebrew
letters and of the Egyptian, deserve no confutation. Letters
were used in Assyria long before Abraham was born, and in
Egypt much longer before Moses ; and the ancient Hebrew
and Assyrian letters were the same. The true reason why
we meet with no supposed author of the Assyrian letters is,
I believe, this ; antiquity agreed that letters were not in-
vented in Assyria. Mankind had lived above 1600 years
before the flood, and it is not probable they lived without the
use of letters ; for if they had, how should we have had the
short annals which we have of the first world ? If they had
letters, it is likely that Noah was skilled in them, and taught
them to his children. In the early ages, when mankind
were but few, and those few employed in all manner of con-
trivances for life, it could be but here and there one that had
leisure or perhaps inclination to study letters ; and yet it is
probable that there were too many that understood them
amongst the people who remained at Shinaar, to prevent any
rumour of a single person's inventing them. The compa-
nies that removed from Shinaar into the other parts of the
world were but rude and uncultivated people, who followed
some persons of figure and eminence, who had gained an
ascendant over them ; and hence it might come to pass, that
when they had separated their people from the rest of man^
kind, and came to teach them the arts they were masters of,
all they taught them passed for inventions of their own, be^
u Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. ix. c. 26. x Origines, lib. i, c. 3,
140 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
cause they knew no other persons skilled in them. But at
Shinaar there were several eminent persons who lived subject
to Nimrod, and who understood and were masters of the
several arts and sciences which mankind enjoyed together,
before some of the great and leading men made parties for
themselves, and separated in order to disperse over the world ;
and therefore, though we here meet with a reported author,
when any new science was invented, as Belus was imagined
to be author of their astronomy ; yet in the case of letters, in
which there was nothing new, nothing but Avhat several
amongst them, and many that were gone from them, were
very well skilled in, there could arise no account of any one
person amongst them being the author or inventor of them.
There is one consideration more which makes it very pro-
bable that the use of letters came from Noah, and out of the
first world, and that is the account which the Chinese give
of their letters. They assert their first emperor, whom they
call Fohi, to be the inventor of them ; before Fohi they
have no records, and their Fohi and Noah were the same
persons. Noah came out of the ark in these parts of the
world, and the letters used here were derived from him ; and
it happened here, as it afterwards did in other parts of the
world, Noah being the sole instructor of his descendants,
what he taught them was by after-ages reported to be his
own invention, though he himself had learned it from those
who lived before him. Bishop Walton offers arguments to
prove that the Chinese had not the earliest use of letters ; but
all his argviments arise from a supposal that the ark rested in
Armenia, and that mankind lived in Assyria soon after the
flood, and before they came to China ; which I have proved
not likely to be true.
We can carry our inquiry into the original of letters no
higher. Pliny in one place hints them to have been sup-
posed to be eternal ; but that opinion must ^ either be founded
upon the erroneous notion of the world's being eternal, or
can mean no more than that the first men invented them.
z Pliny hints it only fi'om the sup- very ancient having used them. Lib.
posal of some persons imagined to be vii. c. 56.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 141
Some of the Rabbins ascribe them to Adam, and some to
Abel ; but they have nothing to offer that is to be depended
on. But surprisingly odd is the whim of some of the
Jewish doctors, who affirm ten things to have been created
on the evening of the first Sabbath, namely, the rainbow ;
the hole of the rock out of which the water flowed; the
pillar of the cloud and of fire, which afterwards went before
the Israelites ; the two tables on which the law was written ;
Aaron's rod, and letters : but this sort of trash needs no
confutation,
Turpe est difficiles habere nugas,
Et stultus labor est ineptiarum.
If we consider the nature of letters, it cannot but appear
something strange, that an invention so surprising as that of
writing is, should have been found out in ages so near the
beginning of the world. Nature may easily be supposed to
have prompted men to speak, to try to express their minds to
one another by sounds and noises ; but that the wit of man
should, amongst its first attempts, find out a way to express
words in figures, or letters, and to form a method by which
they might expose to view all that can be said or thought,
and that within the compass of sixteen, or twenty, or four
and twenty characters, variously placed, so as to foj'm sylla-
bles and words ; I say, to think that any man could imme-
diately and directly fall upon a project of this nature, ex-
ceeds the highest notion we can have of the capacity we are
endued with. We have great and extraordinary abilities of
mind, and we experience that by steps and degrees we can
advance our knowledge, and make almost all parts and crea-
tures of the world of use and service to us ; but still all these
things are done by steps and degrees. A first attempt has
never yet perfected any science or invention whatever. The
mind of man began to exert itself as soon as ever it was set
on thinking ; and we find the first men attempted many of
the arts which after-ages carried forwards to perfection ; but
they only attempted them, and attained no further than to
leave imperfect essays to those that came after. The first
men, though they had formed a language to be understood
142 CONNKCTlOX OF THE SACKED [bOOK IV.
by, yet certainly never attained to an elegancy of speaking.
Tubal-Cain was the first artificer in brass- work and iron, but
without doubt his best performances were very ordinary, in
comparison of what has been done by later artists. The arts
of building, painting, carving, and many others, were at-
tempted very early ; but the first trials were only attempts ;
men arrived at perfection by degrees ; time and experience
led them on from one thing to another, until by having tried
many ways, as their diflferent fancies at diflferent times hap-
pened to lead them, they came to form better methods of
executing what they aimed at, than at first they thought of
And thus, without doubt, has it happened in the affair of let-
ters : men did not at first hit upon a method extremely arti-
ficial, but began with something easy and plain, simple, and
of no great contrivance, such as nature might very readily
suggest to them.
And if I may be allowed to make some conjectures upon
this subject, I should offer, that it is not probable that the
first inventors of letters had any alphabet, or set number of
letters, or any notion of describing a word by such letters as
should spell, and thereby express the sound of it. The first
letters were, more likely, strokes or dashes, by which the
writers marked down, as their fancies led them, the things
they had a mind to record ; and one stroke or dash, without
any notion of expressing a sound or word by it, was the mark
of a whole action, or perhaps of a sentence. When the first
man began to speak, he had only, as I before hinted, to fix
to himself, and to teach others to know by what particular
sounds he had a mind to express the things which he had
to speak of: in the same manner, whenever mankind
formed the first thoughts of writing, he that formed them
had only to determine by what particular marks he would
express the things or actions he had a mind to mark down ;
and all this he might do, without having any notion of ex-
pressing a sound or word by the characters he made. We
have amongst us, in frequent use, characters which are as
significant as letters, and yet have no tendency to express this
or that particular sound ; for instance, our numeral letters,
I, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. express, as clearly as the words themselves
AMD PROFAKE HISTORY.
143
could do, the numbers intended by them, and they no more
spell one, two, three, four, five, than they do unum, duo,
tria^ quatiior ; or the Greek words for them, kv, bvo, rpia,
Ticraapa, &c. Our astronomical characters are of the same
sort, O, D, ^, ?, c?, %, ^> with many others that
might be named, and are at sight intelligible to persons of
different nations, and who would read them into words of
different sounds, as each of their languages would direct
them. Such as these probably were the letters of the first
men ; they had no notion of spelling, and expressing the
sound of words, but made a few marks to be the signs of the
things which they had a mind to write down, and which
might be easily understood by those that made them, and by
as many others as would take the pains to learn their cha-
racter. This is what nature would directly lead to in the
first attempts of writing. There could be no notion of spell-
ing, nor any thought of a set number of letters ; for men
could hardly have a thought of these, until language came to
be considerably improved; until they had viewed on all
sides the nature of their words, and found out how many
sorts of sounds were required to express them. If we look
amongst the ignorant persons which are nowadays in the
world, we may see enough to shew us what the first attempts
of nature would be, and what is owing to improvement.
There are many persons in the world, who, not having been
taught either to write or read, have no notion of spelling,
and yet can, by their natural parts, form themselves a cha-
racter, and with a piece of chalk record, for their own use,
all that they have occasion to mark down in their affairs.
I have been told of a country farmer of very considerable
dealings, who was able to keep no other book, and yet car-
ried on a variety of business in buying and selling, without
disorder or confusion : he chalked upon the walls of a large
room, set apart for that purpose, what he was obliged to re-
member of his affairs with divers persons ; and if we but
suppose that some of his family were instructed in his marks,
there is no difficulty in conceiving, that he might this way,
if he had died, have left a very clear state of his concerns to
them. Something of this sort is like the first essay of nature,
144 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
and thus, without doubt, wrote the first men. It was tune
and improvement that led them to consider the nature of
words, to divide them into syllables, and to form a method
of spelling them by a set of letters.
If we look amongst the Chinese'', we find in fact what I
have been treating of. They have no notion of alphabetical
letters, but make use of characters to express their meaning.
Their characters are not designed to express words, for they
are used by several neighbouring nations who differ in lan-
guage; nor are there any set number or collection of them,
as one would imagine art and contrivance would, at one
time or another, have reduced them to ; but the Chinese still
write in a manner as far from art as one can conceive the
first writer to have invented. They have a mark for every
thing or action they have to Avrite of, and not having con-
trived to use the same mark for the same thing, with some
common distinctions for the accidental circumstances that
may belong to it, every little difference of time, manner,
place, or any other circumstance, causes a new mark, so that,
though their words are but few, their letters are innume-
rable^. We have in Europe, as I before hinted, characters
to express numbers by, which are not designed to stand for
any particular sounds or words ; but then we have artifi-
cially reduced them to a small number. i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9, and the cipher o, will express all numbers that can
possibly be conceived. Without doubt the Chinese charac-
ter might be contracted by a proper method ; but the writing
of this people, as well as their language, has had little
improvement. When mankind began first to make their
marks for things, having but few things to mark down, they
easily found marks enough for them : as they grew further
acqu-ainted with the world, and wanted more characters,
they invented them, and the number increasing by degrees,
it might cause no great trouble to persons who were skilled
in the received characters, and had only to learn the new
a Alvarez Semedo, apud Walton. say other writers ; and Le Compte says,
Prolegom. ii. §.21. that he is no learned man amongst
b Their letters are 60, 80, or 1 20,000, them that docs not understand 15 or
says Walton (in loc. sup. cit.) ; 54,409 20,000 of their letters.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
145
ones, as they were invented ; but it is strange that a nation
should go on in this method for thousands of years, as the
Chinese have really done : one would think, that it must
easily be foreseen to what a troublesome number their letters
must in time grow, and that a sense of the common con-
venience should, at one time or other, have put them upon
trying to reduce them ; but we find in fact they have not
done it. The Chinese report their letters to have been in-
vented by Fohi, or Noah ; and in reality both their letters
and their language seem so odd, that they might well pass
for the invention of the early and uncultivated ages of man-
kind. Without doubt the Chinese have added to the number
of their letters since the time of their emperor Fohi, and
probably altered the sound of their old words, and made
some new ones ; but they differ so remarkably, both in writ-
ing and language, from the rest of mankind, that I cannot
but think them the descendants of men that never came
to Shinaar, and who had no concern or communication with
those who were thence dispersed, by the confusion of Babel,
over the face of the earth.
We have no remains, nor so much as any hints in ancient
writers, to induce us to imagine that this sort of writing Avas
ever used by any of the nations that were dispersed from
Babel. We read of no letters on this side India truly an-
cient, but what were designed to express the words of the
people that wrote them. Laertius<= indeed seems to hint
that the Babylonians had anciently a sacred character, dif-
ferent from the letters in common use : and Eusebius ^ from
Philo-Biblius represents Sanchoniathon to have searched re-
cords wrote in a character of this sort. The sacred letters of
Egypt are frequently mentioned : there were two pillars in-
scribed in this sort of letters at the tomb of Isis and Osiris ;
and Strabo speaks of a pillar in memory of Sesostris ^, which
had these characters cut upon it ; and the remains of Thyoth
were without doubt written in this character ^. If we con-
c Burnet. Archseolog. lib. i. c. 8. e Lib. xvi. 729. edit. Par. 1620.
edit. 2. i Euseb. Chron. p. 6.
•1 Prsep. Evang. lib. i. c. 9.
VOL. I. L
146 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK IV.
sider that Herodotus and Diodorus mention only two sorts
of letters, the sacred and common letters sr ; and that Cle-
mens Alexandrinus, and Porphyry, and the later writers,
who take in the hieroglyphics, mention ^ three sorts ; it
will perhaps induce us to imagine, with Dr. Burnet', that
the sacred letters of the Egyptians were different from their
hieroglyphics, and that the hieroglyphics were not in use in
the first times. It is true, Diodorus'^, by his description of
the sacred letters, makes them to be hieroglyphics ; but I
imagine that he happened to do so because hieroglyphics
being in use before his time, and the sacred letters, which
were distinct from them, being then wholly laid aside, he
knew of but two sorts, the hieroglyphics and the common
letters ; and so took the sacred letters, which he found men-
tioned by those that wrote before him, to be the hierogly-
phics. But Porj)hyry' very evidently distinguishes them one
from the other : he calls the sacred letters, Upoy\.v<piKa
KoivoKoyov^iva Kara iJLCiJir](riv and the common hieroglyphics,
<TV/x/3oA.iKa aX\riyopoviJL€va kutA Ttvas atviyiiovs. It is indeed
something difficult to apprehend how letters can be said to
imitate the things designed by them ; however we find this
was an ancient notion. Plato puts it into the mouth of So-
crates". But though, for these reasons, I imagine that there
was an ancient character in Egypt, distinct from both the
vulgar letters and common hieroglyphics ; yet I cannot
think, with Dr. Burnet, that it was like the letters used in
China. The Chinese letters express no words or particular
sounds whatsoever ; but the old Egyptian letters did, as ap-
pears plainly from the account we have" of Agathodgemon's
translating them. The remains of Thyoth were inscriptions
on pillars, [a-rriXcav, Upq StaAcKrw kol Upoypa^iKois ypap-fxacn k€-
XapaKTr]pi(r[xiv(i)v] written upon, in the sacred language and
sacred characters : and Agathodsemon translated them \Ik
r^s lepa? hiakiKTov ets t^v 'EA.\rjyi8a (f)(i>vriv yp6,fxiJ.a(rtv lepoyAv^t-
S Herodotus in Euterpe. Diodorus, k Lib. iii. p. loi.
lib. i. p. 51. 1 In lib. de vit. Pythag.
h Strom, lib. v. p. 657. edit. Potter. m In Cratylo.
Porph. de vita Pythag. c. 12. " Euseb. in Chron. p. 6.
' Anrhaeoloa;. lib. i. c. 8.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 147
Kois] out of the sacred language^ into the Greek tonpue, in sa-
cred letters ; i. e. he changed the language, but used the same
letters in which Thyoth wrote °. Here therefore we see, that
the sacred letters were capable of being used to express the
words of different languages, and were therefore not like the
Chinese, or of the same sort with the first letters of mankind,
which expressed no words at all. Plato saysP, that ThyOth
was the first that distinguished letters into vowels and con-
sonants and mutes and liquids, and was the author of the
art of grammar. I doubt these improyements are more mo-
dern than the times of Thyoth ; however, Plato's opinion in
this matter is an evidence that there was no notion in his
days of Thyoth's using any other than alphabetical letters.
The use of alphabetical letters therefore began very early
in the second world, probably not long after the dispersion of
mankind ; for the records of the Chaldsean astronomy reach
almost up to this time, and Thyoth's inscribing pillars was
not above two centuries later. Alphabetical letters were
perhaps invented both in Assyria and in Egypt, and to one
or other of these two nations all other countries are indebted
for the use of them. We find the great project at Babel,
next to the building of the tower, was the improvement of
language ; for this caused the confusion which scattered
mankind over the face of the earth : and if the course they
took in this affair was such as I imagined, namely, an at-
tempt to dissolve the monosyllables, of which the first lan-
guage of mankind consisted, into words of various lengths,
in order to furnish themselves with new sets of names for
new things ; it may be conceived, that a project of this sort
might by degrees lead to the invention of alphabetical
o Bishop Stillingfleet, and several " written in any tongue, when it was
other writer?, translate lepoy\v(piKo7s " in hieroglyphics ? Do hieroglyphics
ypd/ifj.a(nv, hieroglyphic characters ; and " speak in several languages ? And are
the learned bishop remarks upon the " they capable of changing their
passage as follows : " It is well still " tongues ?" The reader will easily
" that this history should be translated observe from this remark, that Upoy\v-
" into hieroglyphic characters ; what (piKols ypdix/aaaiv, in the passage before
" kind of translation is that ? We had us, should be translated not hierngly-
" thought hieroglyphics had been re- phics, but sacred letters, and then the
" presentations of things, and not of sense will be clear and easy.
" sounds and letters, or words. How P In Philebo, p. 374.
" could this history at first have been
l2
148 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
letters. It is not likely that they immediately hit upon
an alphabet, but they made attempts, and came to it by
degrees.
If we look into the Hebrew tongue, which, before it was
improved, was perhaps the original language of the world,
we shall find that its dissyllables are generally two monosyl-
lable words put together : thus the word barah^ to eat, is
only bar, the old word for beer, to declare ; and rah, the
old word for raah, to see ; so the word kashash, to gather, is
only the word hash, which signifies straw, and sash, to
rejoice; ranal, to be moved, is only the old word ran, which
was afterwards wrote ranan, to be etil ; and nain, which
was anciently wrote nan, to direct the eye; abah, to be will-
hig, is made of two words, ab, a father, and bah, the old
word for bohu, for our Lexicons derive bohu from an ancient
word bah, or bahah. This observation may, I believe, be
carried through the whole language ; there is hardly an He-
brew dissyllable, except such only as were anciently pro-
nounced monosyllables, or such as are derived from some
theme, and made up of the letters of that theme, with some
additional afiix, but what are plainly and evidently two
words (i. e. two significant sounds) joined together ; and I
dare say, instances of this kind are not to be found in any of
the modern languages. This therefore was the method
which men took to make words of more syllables than one ;
they joined together their monosyllables, and that aiForded a
new set of words for the enlarging their language ; and if
this may be allowed me, it will, I think, lead us to the first
step taken towards altering the first characters of mankind.
As they only doubled their sounds, so they might at first only
repeat their marks, and the two marks put together, which
singly were the characters of the single words, were the first
way of writing the double ones ; and this I think must
bring them a very considerable step towards the contriving a
method of making letters to stand for sounds, and not for
things. When men spake in monosyllables only, and made
such marks for the things they spoke of as the fancy of the
first author had invented, and custom had made familiar to
all that used them, they might go on as the Chinese have,
AND rilOFANE HISTORY. 149
and never think of making their marks stand for the words
they spoke, but rather for the things they meant to express
by them ; but when they once came to think of doubling or
joining their marks, in a manner that should accord with the
composition of their words, this would evidently lead them
to consider strictly, that as sounds may be made the means of
expressing our thoughts, by agreeing to use particular sounds
for such thoughts as we would express by them ; so also
may characters be made the marks of particular sounds, by
agreeing what character shall be used for one sound and
what for another. To give an instance from some one of the
words I have before mentioned : suppose kashash to be the
new invented word, designed to signify what we call to ga-
ther; and suppose this new word to be made by agreeing, as
I said, to put two known words together, kash, the word for
straw, and sash, to rejoice ; and suppose the ancient charac-
ter for hash was », and for sash was s, the character then for
kashash would be « «. Here then it would be remarkable,
that the reader, however he might not observe it when he
met either of these characters single, yet he could not but
see when he met them together, that each of them stood in
the compound word for a sound, and not for a thing ; for
the two sounds, one of which each character was to express,
were, when put together, to signify a very different thing
from those which each of them single would have offered.
If language therefore was altered as I have hinted, which
looks very probable from considering the nature of the He-
brew dissyllables ; and if this alteration of language led to
such a duplication of character as I have imagined, which is
a method very easy and natural for men to fall into, we may
see that they would be engaged in making characters stand
for sounds before they were aware of it, and they could
hardly do so long, before they must consider it; and if they
came once to consider it, they would go on apace from one
thing to another ; they would observe how many sounds the
words they had in use might be compounded of, and be
hereby led to make as many characters as they could frame
single sounds, into which all others might be resolved, and
this would lead them directly to an alphabet.
150 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
It is pretty certain, that various nations, from a difference
of pronunciation, or from the different turn of imagination
that is always found in different men, would hardly, though
agreeing in a general scheme for the framing their letters, yet
happen to frame an alphabet exactly the same, in either
shape or number of letters ; and this we find true in fact :
the Arabian and Persian alphabet have such a similitude, that
they were probably derived one from the other. And the
old Hebrew and Arabian (and perhaps the old Egyptian)
characters agree in so many respects, as to give reason to
imagine that they were formed from one common plan ;
though they certainly so differ in others, that we* cannot but
think that the authors of them sat down and formed, though
upon a common scheme, yet in their own way, in the coun-
tries which they planted. It is very probable, that there
may have been in the world several other alphabets very
different from these. I think 1 have read of a country in
India where they use an alphabet of sixty-five letters ; and
Diodorus Siculus p informs us, that in the island of Tapro-
bane, which we now call Ceylon, they anciently used but
seven : but perhaps the reader may be better informed in this
matter, if he consults some books which bishop Walton "J
directs to, and which I have not had opportunity of seeing,
viz. Postellus de xii. Linguis, Duretus de Linguis et Characte-
ribus omnium Linguarum ; the Alphabetical Tables of vari-
ous Characters, published at Francfort 1596; and Ja. Bonav.
Hepburn's Seventy Alphabets, published at Rome 1616.
The characters which are now commonly used in Europe
being, as I have said, derived from the ancient Latin ; the
ancient Latin from the old Greek letters ; the Greek letters
from the Phoenician ; and the Phoenician, Syrian, ancient
Hebrew, and Assyrian, having been much the same ; I could
willingly, before I close this essay, add a few observations
upon each of these in their order.
And, I. The ancient Hebrew alphabet was not wrote in
the present Hebrew character, but in a letter pretty much
the same as the present Samaritan. Buxtorf and Lightfoot
P Lib. ii. p. 98. 1 Prolegom.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 151
were not of this opinion ; but it has been abundantly proved
by Scahger, Casaubon, Grotius, Vossius, Bochart, Father
Morin, Breerwood, Capellus, and Walton. Bishop Walton
has proved it beyond contradiction, from some ancient Je-
rusalem coins, called shekels^. The Rabbins, Talmudists,
Christian Fathers, Origen, and St. Jerome, all believed that
there had been a change of the Hebrew letters. St. Jerome
asserts it very expressly s. Spanheim and Dr. Allix took the
other side of the question, but they have answered only a
small part of the arguments against them. This change of
the Hebrew letters was made by Ezra, after the rebuilding
the temple, when he wrote out a new copy of the law.
The old Hebrew letters were wrote in this manner' :
Like to these were the Syrian and Phoenician ; the best
copy we can take of the old Phoenician must be had from
Scaliger, and are wrote thus ;
From the Phoenician were derived the ancient Greek let-
ters, which, according to the most ancient specimen we have
of them, were thus written :
a ^ y ^ 2 b I K A JUL V o tt d c t
These were probably the first letters of the Greek alphabet,
r De Siclorum Formis, in Prolegom. first and most ancient Hebrew alpha-
3- §• 29, 30. See Dr. Prideaux's Con- bet had thus many letters. Irenseus
nect. vol. i. part i. b. v. an. 446. says expressly, Ipsa antiquw et primw
s In Prsefat. ad Lib. Regum. Hebrworum Itttero', et Sacerdolales nvn-
t There is no reason to think the cupatcB, decern quidem sunt numero.
152 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK TV.
which originally were no more than sixteen u. Some time
after, these following letters were added ;
F X © Y ^ +
f K ^ ^ <P X
for we find all these in the ancient Sigean inscription, pub-
lished by Dr. ChishuU.
The Greek letters were not anciently wrote from the left
hand to the right, as we now write them, but from the right
hand to the left, as the Hebrew and Phoenicians wrote ; and
then the letters being inverted had a nearer resemblance to
the Phoenician character, from whence they were taken,
being wrote thus'^ :
In time the Greeks left off writing from the right to the
left in part, and retained it in part ; that is, they began one
line from left to right, the next from right to left, the third
from left to right, &c. This they called writing (3ovcrTpo(j)rib6v,
or, as oxen plough ; the lines in this way of writing being
drawn in the manner of furrows. Pausanias mentions an in-
scription wrote in this manner y, namely, that on the chest
of Cypselus in the temple of Juno at Corinth. Periander,
the son of Cypselus, is supposed to be the person who in-
scribed it. The laws of Solon were wrote in this manner ^.
And Chishull's Sigean inscription is a complete specimen of
this sort of writing.
The letter H in the old Greek alphabet did not sound
what we now call tj, but was an aspirate like the English H.
This was proved by Atheneeus^, and has been since further
evidenced by Spanheim, from several ancient coins ^ ; and
" Euseb. in Chron. Num. 1617. wQiv vS/xos.
X We have instances of this way of a Athenaei. Deipnosophist. lib. ix.
writing in the Etruscan monuments, c. 12.
and upon some ^olic coins. b Spanheim. de Praestant. et Usu
y Pausanias, lib. v c. 17. Numism. antiq. Dissert. 2. p. 59. 74.
z See Suid. et Harpocrat. in 6 Kar-
AXD PROFANE HISTORY. 153
there are no less than four instances of it in the Sigean
inscription.
The letters E and O were anciently wrote in the same
characters, whether they were long or short vowels ; for the
ancient alphabet had neither rj nor <a^. Simonides was
the person that invented these two long vowels^. The
lonians first used them, which occasioned Suidas to call them
Ionian letters f. The Athenians came into them by de-
grees, and they were ordered to be used in the public in-
scriptions when Euclid was archon. Before a came into use,
ot was wrote for o), in the dative case singular of nouns s.
The ancient alphabet having at first no v, s in the geni-
tive case was constantly wrote o : this appears both from
Quintilian and Athenseus. Athenaeus, in his Convivium'*,
introduces Achseus remarking that Atorvcro was wrote upon
an ancient cup, whereupon all the Sophists determined that
the letter v was omitted, because the ancients wrote o instead
of tf. Quintilian * remarks, that o was anciently used some-
times for a long vowel, sometimes for a short vowel, and
sometimes for a syllable, that is, for the diphthong «.
We come now to the letters that have been taken in to the
Greek alphabet ; and the first of them is /^ : this is a cha-
racter which is not now found in it ; it was invented by the
jEolians, who avoided having two vowels come together in
a word, by inserting this p where they happened to do so :
they called it a digamma, and the sound or power of it was
much the same as our English y": Priscian gives several in-
stances of it ; in the word hciiov, wrote bdFiFov ; Ar]iJi6<poov, wrote
Ar]iJL6(f)oFov ; AaoKoov, wrote AafoKofov ; and we have a re-
markable instance of it in the inscription on the pedestal of
the Colossus at Delos'*, where afvTo is wrote for avro ; but
the inscription being a short one, and the letters being truly
•1 See Plato in Cratylo. Theban tripods.
e Suidas in Simonide. •> Lib. xi. c. 5.
f Id. in ^afiicov 6 Arj/xos. i De Institut. Orator, lib. i. c. 7,
S See Scholiast, in Euripid. in Phce- k Montfaucon. Palaeograph. Graeca,
niss. V. 688. And there are two in- lib. ii. c. i. p. 121.
stances of it in the inscriptions on the
154 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
ancient, o being used for «, according to what has been
observed, I shall here transcribe it :
IfCA il OS (!) ^ Ms
i. e. ov avTov kiOov eiixl avbpCas nal to o-0eAas
The P was probably derived from the Hebrew or Phoe-
nician Van, which was thus written : y
The letter V, or v, though an ascititious letter, was cer-
tainly in the Greek alphabet very early, evidently before the
times of this pedestal, or of the Sigean stone. It is used on
the pedestal of the Colossus for the wowel u in the word
aFvTo ; but I fancy it was designed originally for a softer di-
gamma, as the consonant v is softer than J". We have in-
stances of this in some Greek words ; and it is remarkable
that the Latins took it so, and have for that reason put the V
for the Greek f, in the words they have taken out of the
one tongue into the other. This may be observed in the
words aopvos, anciently wrote aFopvos, in Latin, avernus ;
and ^ApyeLoi, Argivi. We find in Priscian, baFiov, or bdvtov,
for b'^'iov, the first the most ancient way, and the second
perhaps after the softer V came into use. He gives another
instance in the word -qcas, wrote aids. Dionysius Halicar-
nasseus observes, that ov4kia was anciently wrote FkXia^,
and in Latin we write it velia.
Z was thought by Pliny to be an original letter of the
Greek alphabet; and he quotes Aristotle in proof of it".
Scaliger derives it from the Hebrew or Phoenician Zain, and
thinks it was another y, from its being wrote in a word in
Dan. i. 8." I should rather think it one of Simonides, or
Palamedes's letters, it being commonly used as a double
1 I imagine that the letter T at the ov ahrov.
beginning of this line must have been m Dion. Halicar. lib. i. c. 20.
worn out when copies were taken of it, n Plin. lib. vii. c. 56.
and that it began rov avTov, and not o Digress, ad num. Euseb. 16 17.
AND PHOFANE HISTORY. 155
consonant, and stands for 2 A or A2, as is evident from
26eus and Ao-evs, being two ancient words for Zeis.
0, (l>, X, are allowed to be Palamedes's letters, and are
only Cadmus's T, n, X, aspirated, and were probably at first
wrote TH, UU, KHp.
There are two letters more belonging to the Greek alpha-
bet, f and \/r. These are only two consonants put together,
and if Palamedes was not the author of them, are certainly
later than Cadmus. £ is only ks or ys ; \//- is only -tts, or /3s ;
this has been observed and proved from several instances in
the Baudelotian marble; and there is such an analogy be-
tween the genitive cases of nouns and their nominatives, and
the future tenses of verbs and their present tenses, that the
spelling of the one shews evidently how the other were
anciently written ; thus a-apKos and (f)\oybs came from the
ancient nominatives aapKs, and (f)\bys ; and otts and ^Ae/3s were
the ancient words instead of o^ and ^Ae\/^, as appears from
their genitives ottos and 0Ae/3os ; KarriKL^f/, KaTrikicpos ; and ort^
(TTLxos, shew that ^ is sometimes used for (f)s, and £ for \s.
The Greek alphabet did thus in time grow from sixteen
to twenty-four letters ; they were never reckoned more ; so
that the F and V must be counted to be but one and the
same, for so they were originally ; and these four and twenty
were received and used, according to Eusebius, 1617 years
after the birth of Abraham, in the year after the overthrow of
the Athenian power ^. Now the surrender of Athens to the
Lacedaemonians happening the year before the magistracy"^
of Euclid, this agrees perfectly well with the account of
Suidas, who supposes the twenty-four letters to be received at
Athens, by the persuasion of Archinous the son of Athenseus,
when Euclid was archon at Athens ^
The Greek letters did not keep exactly their first shape, for
it is observable that length of time introduces changes into
all characters. We do not make alterations in our letters
P There are several instances of this and cp is wrote HH, in the word 'A^-
in the inscriptions on the Theban tri- (piTpvoiv.
pods; a.v(di}K6 is twice wrote ANETHE- q See Chron. Euseb.
KE, and x is wrote KH in two words, <" Usher's Annals.
viz. in TTvyfj-ax^oov, and in Mowapx(<^v- ^ Suidas in 2a/uiwj' 6 A^fios.
156 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
designedly, but accidentally ; all men never did write ex-
actly alike ; and hence it has happened, that frequent muta-
tions are to be found in all ancient specimens of letters.
And thus the old Greek A was sometimes wrote ^ , and
afterwards _/\ ; A was wrote C ? and A "^^s wrote D ;
/ was wrote L ; P was wrote /? ; ^ was wrote c ? and
V , y : when the Greek character had received these
small immutations, the old Roman letters might be easily
derived from them, for they were thus written :
ABCDEFHIKLMNOPR
STV
Time, and the improvement of good hands, brought the
characters of both languages to a more exact shape, as may
be seen by comparing the letters in Scaliger's copy of the
tripods at Thebes, and the inscription on Herod's pillar, with
the common Roman letters.
It may perhaps be entertaining to the reader, to see
copies of some of the ancient inscriptions : I have therefore
taken copies of the Sigean, and of the inscriptions on the
tripods at Thebes, and of that on Herod's pillar ; in which
the reader may see instances of what we have been treating
of, if he has not at hand the works of better writers.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
157
The Sigean inscription, and the ancient Greek alphabet,
according to Dr. Chishull.
^9/Ci/vc?A/ Ko.^/i^i: roH
1 OYo-qnoT :^OTA<J>i(>n<\^^
I'^e^WA^ '."^OTATenAx'
Y3ARA^3^'V : /\>IOA
/4>i:to7(?2/AH:i32ig
In modern characters thus :
'EpjuoKpaTOUs rov irpoKO-
vrjo-Lov. Kayo) Kparripa
KaTrCcTTaTov Koi rjd-
[xov is TTpvTaveiov e-
b(oKa fxvrjixa myeL-
€V(n. eav 8e n Trdax-
Styetets xai fx kiroi
r](r€V 6 ato-ojTTOS Kol
ot ahe\(poi.
The Old Greek Alphabet.
158 OONNECTTON OF THE SACRED [bOOK IV.
The inscriptions on the tripods at Thebes, from Scaliger.
JJAPHl7R^0M.jyi^jiJ\IETHEKEJV^
BOSTAPO TELEBOAQAT.
i. e. 'A/x^trpvcor }j! avidrjKev €u>v otto TrjX.e^od<av.
SKA10J-, PV/M AkHEOJV.ME^
UEMERoLOU A noLLoj/l.
HSK£$/\3.ANETHEkE TEI.N PE
VLKAllE^ A/' ALMA-
i, e. Skoios TTvy/xaxewv jae kKr}(36\(j^ ' AiroXXavL
NtKijo-as avi9r]K€ Tttv TrepiKaAAes ayak}ia.
^V^kOnOL.APOllPNL-
M0\miiKHEOAf.ANErHEKE
TEJU- PERIRALLES-A/A LMA •
i. e. Aaobdixas rplirob^ avrbv ero-KOTrw ' Att6Wo)vi
Movvap\€Q)v dvdOrjKe reiv Trepi/caAXe? ayaXfxa.
The inscription upon Herod's pillar, from Dr. Chishull.
TO Ifiiorio HO E^TI/Sf EPI TO 7R1TQ
^ TBI HoDOr lElJiprl/il ^y TOt
ME^OVO y^F or ^ P I0\y^ TQI
This is wrote on one side of the pillar ; on the other side
thus:
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 159
In modern Greek thus :
ovbevl defxiTop ixeTaKLvrjcrai e/c tov TpLoirCov o ccttlv kiri roJ rpiTia
iv 77/ 68(5 Tr\ 'Attttlo. iv rep 'HpcoSov ayp<2. ov yap \u>'lov rw klvi]-
aavTi. Mapru? AaCjxoiv ^Evobta kol qi Ktoi'ey
A7]iJi,rjTpos Kol Koprjs ^Avadrifxa kol ydovi(av d^Siv.
THE
S ACHED AND PPvOFANE
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
CONNECTED.
BOOK V.
X17HEN Athothes, Thyoth, or Pathrusim, the king of
*▼ Thebais, died, about the year of the world 2002, he
was succeeded in part of his dominions by a person of the
same name ; and the other part was governed by a king
named Cencenes. The country of Thebais is divided into
two parts by the river Nile : Thyoth, the second of that
name, governed the country towards Asia ; the other part,
which was situate on the other side of the river, was subject
to Cencenes, and called the kingdom of This, from a city of
that name ^ near Abydos, which city was the metropolis of
this new erected kingdom. The kings of This never raised
themselves to any height of glory; we have little more of
them than their names. Athothes, the second king of
Thebes, reigned 32 years; and Cencenes, the first king of
This, 3 1 . About this time, at Memphis, Mesochis, Soiphis,
Tesortasis; and in Lower Egypt, called the land of Tanis,
a @h ir6\is AlyvirTta nrX-riffiou 'A/Su5ou. Steph. Byz. in 0,
VOL. I. M
16*2 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
Aristarchus and Spanius succeeded one another as kings of
these countries.
A. M. 2034, when Athothes the second king of Thebes
died, Diabies succeeded him ; he reigned nineteen years,
and died A. M. 2053 ; and the year before Diabies began his
reign, Venephes succeeded Cencenes at This : Venephes
built some pyramids in a plain towards Libya, in the desert
of Cochome''. Of the succeeding kings of Egypt we have
nothing but names, and the dates of their reigns, which the
reader may see by consulting sir John Marsham, who has
given the most exact tables of them.
There was a family which dwelt amongst the Babylonians,
and made a considerable figure in these ages, and must
therefore be particularly mentioned. At the division of
mankind, Arphaxad, the son of Shem, lived near the place
which Ashur some time after built for them'', and which
was named Ur of the Chaldees. Part of his family lived
here with him ; he had two grandsons, Peleg and Jocktan :
Jocktan and his associates travelled, and were seated from
Mesha to Sephar ; Peleg and his descendants lived here at
Ur, until the latter end of the life of Terah, the father of
Abraham''. The Chaldeans, who at this time governed
this country, were corrupted in their religion ; and Terah's
ancestors at first complied with them^; but Terah endea-
voured to begin a reformation, and put his family upon ad-
hering to the true worship of God : this caused a rupture
between him and the Chaldeans, and occasioned the first
persecution on account of religion, for the Chaldeans drove
them out of the landf.
Terah hereupon, with Abram, Nahor, and his sons, and
with Lot the son of Haran, (for Haran died before they left
Ur,) and with as many as would adhere to them, travelled,
in order to find a more quiet residence; they crossed over
Mesopotamia, and settled in the parts of it most distant from
^ Sir John Marsham supposes these c Vid. sup.
Pyramids to be in number eighteen, of a d Gen. xi. 28 — 31.
smaller size than those which were af- e Jos. xxiv. 2.
terwards reckoned amongst the won- f Judith v. 8.
ders of the world. Can. Chron. p. 46.
AND PROFANE HISTOllY. 168
the Babylonians ; and as they increased, they built them-
selves houses, and in time made a little town or city, which
they named the city of Nahor ; and they called the land the
land of Haran, perhaps in remembrance of their relation of
that name, who was dead. Here they lived until the death
of Terah s.
After Terah's death there arose some difference about reli-
gion amongst them also. Terah does not seem to have
brought his family to the true worship of God ; and Nahor,
who continued in the land of Haran after Terah died, ap-
pears evidently to have deviated from it. The God of
Abraham and the God of Nahor is so mentioned'', as to
imply a difference of religion between Laban and Jacob,
founded upon some different sentiments of their forefathers ;
for if their sentiments about the Deity had been exactly
alike, an oath in the same uniform expression had been suf-
ficiently binding to both of them, and there had been no
need for each to adjure the other, as it were, by his own
God : nay, we are expressly told, that both Terah and Nahor
went astray in their religion, and that for that reason Abra-
ham was ordered to remove from them. Your fathers (says
Joshua^) dwelt on the other side the Jlood, or river, namely
Euphrates, i. e. in Mesopotomia, in old time, even Terah, the
father of Abrani, atid the father of Nahor : atid they served
other gods. And I took your father from the other side the
flood, or river, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan.
Abraham therefore, upon account of some defection in his
family from the true worship of God, upon receiving an ad-
monition to do so k, took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother's
son, and all their cattle and substance, and as many persons
as belonged to them, and went away from his country and
kindred, and father's house, and travelled into the land of
Canaan.
The land of Canaan' Avas at this time possessed by the
descendants of Canaan the son of Ham, so that Abram was
only a traveller or sojourner in it. The earth was not at this
g Gen. xi. 28 — 32. k Gen. xii. i, 4, 6.
h Chap. xxxi. 53. 1 Ver. 6.
i Josh. xxiv. 2.
M 2
164 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [uOOK V.
time so full of people, but that there was in every country
ground enough, and to spare, and any traveller might come
with his £ocks and herds, and find convenient places enow
to sustain himself and family, without doing injury to, or
receiving molestation from, any person. Accordingly Abram
travelled until he came to the plain of Moreh in Sichcm "^ :
here it pleased God to repeat a promise which he had before
made him. That lie loould give all that land to his children ;
upon which Abram built an altar, and worshipped. Some
time after he removed thence to a mountain between Bethel
and Hai ", and there he built another altar. He continued
in this place but a little time, for he kept on travelling
to the south, till at length there happened a famine in
Canaan ", upon account of which he went to live in Egypt.
And this is the history of Abram's family for above 300
years after the dispersion of mankind ; and since the first
sera or epoch of the Hebrew chronology is commonly made
to end here, (for from this journey of Abram's into Canaan
they begin the 430 years, during which time the children of
Israel were only sojourners, having only unsettled habitations
up and down in kingdoms not their own P,) I shall carry
on my history no further in this volume, but shall only
endeavour to fix the time of these transactions ; and since
we have met with accounts of different religions thus early
in the world, I will endeavour to inquire what religion at
this time was, and how and wherein it differed in different
countries.
As to the time of these transactions, it is easy to fix them ;
for, first of all, from the flood to the birth of Terah, the
father of Abram, is 222 years, as may be computed from the
genealogies given us by Moses, Gen. xi. 1 And Terah lived
seventy years, and hegat Abra7n, Nahor, and Haran^. We
must not understand this passage as if Terah had these three
m Gen. xii. 7. to the birth of Eber, 30 ; thence to
n Ver. 8. the birth of Peleg, 34 ; thence to the
o Ver. 10. birth of Reu, 30; thence to the birth
P Exod. xii. 40. of Serug, 32; thence to the birth of
q Ver. 10 — 25. From the flood to Nahor, 30; thence to the birth of Te-
the birth of Arphaxad are two years; rah, 29; in all 222 years.
thence to the birth of Salah, 35 ; thence r Gen. xi. 26.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 165
sons when he was seventy years old, or as if Abram was born
in the seventieth year of Terah's life ; for Abram was but
seventy-five years old * when he travelled into Canaan, and
he did not go into Canaan until Terah's deaths and Terah
lived to be 205 years old ; so that Abram must be born in
the 130th year of his father's life, Haran might perhaps be
born in the seventieth year of Terah, for he was, by many
years, the eldest son ; he had a daughter", Milcah, old
enough to be wife to Nahor, brother of Abram : and Lot the
son of Haran seems to have been of much the same age with
Abram. The removal from Ur of the Chaldees into Meso-
potamia was in the seventieth year of Abram : for the pro-
mise made to Abram was before '^ he dwelt in Haran, and it
was 430 years ^ before the Law ; but from the birth of Isaac
to the Law was 400 years ^- ; and therefore the promise made
at Ur, 430 years before the Law, was made 30 years before
the birth of Isaac, who was born when Abram was 1 00 years
old ; so that the promise made 30 years before was w^hen
Abram was 70, and we must suppose the removal to Haran
to be upon this promise, and much about the time of it.
Abram went into Canaan when he was 75 years old ^, i. e.
five years after he came to Haran. And thus Abram was
born in the 130th year of Terah, 353 years after the flood,
A. M. 2008 ; went from Ur to Haran when he was 70 years
old, i. e. 422 years after the flood, A. M. 2078 ; he removed
into Canaan five years after, i. e. 427 years after the flood,
A. M. 2083 ; his going into Egypt was probably two or
three years after this, and, according to the tables of the
Egyptian kings of these times, Abram's coming into Egypt
was about the fifteenth year of Tocgar Amachus, the sixth
king of Thebes, and about the tenth year of Miebidus, the
sixth king of This, and about the thirty-third year of Achis,
s Gen. xii. 4. stranger in a land not theirs for 400
t Chap. xi. 32. Acts vii. 4. years, before God would begin to take
" Gen. xi. 29. vengeance upon the nation that op-
'^ Acts vii. 2. pressed them, Gen. xv. 13, 14. so from
y Gal. iii. 17. hence, to Moses's appearing for the de-
z Isaac was the seed to whom the livei-y of the Israelites, will be found to
promise was made, Heb. xi. 18. Gen. be about 400 years.
xvii. 19. and as he was born in a a Gen. xii. 4. ut supr.
strange land, and the seed was to be a
166 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [liOOK V.
the sixth king of Memphis. The name of the king of
Lower Egypt, into whose kingdom Abram travelled, is lost,
according to Syncellus ; the Scripture calls him Pharaoh,
but that is only a general name belonging to the Egyptian
kings. Africanus ^ says his name was Ramessomenes. Ac-
cording to Castor d, Europs, the second king of Sicyon,
reigned at this time,
In my computations beforegoing, I have indeed fixed the
birth of Abraham according to the Hebrew chronology, that
seeming to me the most authentic. The chronology of these
times, both in the Septuagint and Samaritan versions, is in
many particulars different from the Hebrew ; and if I had
followed either of them, I must have placed the birth of
Abraham later than I have done by several hundreds of years;
but there is so little to be said in favour of the Septuagint or
Samaritan chronology, in the particulars in which it here
differs from the Hebrew, that I think I shall incur no blame
for not adhering to them. I am not willing to enlarge
upon this subject ; the reader may see it fully treated in
Capellus's Chronologia Sacra, prefixed to bishop Walton's
Polyglot Bible ; and he Avill find in the general, that the
Samaritan chronology of this period is not of a piece with
the rest of the Samaritan chronology, but bears such a si-
militude to that of the Septuagint, that it may be justly
suspected to have been taken from it, to supply some defect
in the Samaritan copy. It was indeed not very carefully
transcribed, for it differs in some particulars ; but the differ-
ences are such as unskilful or careless transcribers may be
supposed to have occasioned.
As to the Septuagint, it differs from itself in the different
copies or editions which we have of it ; and the chronology
of these times, given us from the Septuagint by Eusebius
and Africanus, is so different from what we now find in the
printed Septuagints, that it is evident that they had seen
copies different from any that are now extant ; so that there
would be some difficulty in determining what are the true
numbers of the Septuagint, if we were disposed to follow
c In Chron. Euseb, p. 20. <1 In eod. ibid.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
167
them ; but it is of no great moment to settle which are the
best readings, because at last the best is but erroneous, as
differing from the Hebrew text, which seems to offer the
most authentic chronology. The differences between the
Greek and Hebrew chronology (setting aside the variations
occasioned most probably by transcribers) may be reduced to
two heads, i. In the lives of the patriarchs, from Shem to
Terah, the Septuagint insert lOO years before the time at
which they had children, i. e. the Septuagint make them
fathers lOo years later than the Hebrew text. 2. The Sep-
tuagint add a patriarch not mentioned in the Hebrew, namely
Cainan, making thereby eleven generations from Shem to
Abraham, instead of ten. As to the former of these particu-
lars, namely, the addition of the 1 00 years before the births
of the patriarchs' children, it has been already considered
in my account of the antediluvian chronology. Book I. and
the answer that is given there to this point will suffice
here, and therefore I refer the reader to it, to avoid re-
peating what is there set down at large. 2. As to Cainan's
being one of Abraham's ancestors, as the Septuagint sup-
pose, great stress is laid upon it by some learned men ; they
observe, that Cainan's name is inserted in the genealogy of
our Saviour, Luke iii. which, they say, would not have been
done, if the Septuagint were not right in this particular ',
for St. Luke being an inspired writer would not have in-
serted a particular that is false, differing in it at the same
time from the Hebrew Scriptures.
Father Harduin ^ is in great difficulties about this point ;
for finding Cainan omitted in the vulgar Latin translation in
Genesis, and inserted in the same translation in Luke, and
the council of Trent having decreed, under prdn of anathe-
ma, that all the books of the Scriptures are in all points and
particulars to be received, as they are set forth in that par-
ticular translation, he thinks himself obliged to defend both
the omission of Cainan in the one place, and the insertion of
him in the other, and at the same time to make it out that
Salah was born in the thirty -fifth year of Arphaxad, according
eChronolog. Vet. Test. p. 20. Par. 1700.
168 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK V-
to Genesis xi. 1 2. which he does in the following manner :
I. He says, Arphaxad and Cainan were very incontinent
persons, and married more early than usual ; and that Cainan
was born when his father Arphaxad was but eighteen years
old ; and that Salah was born when his father Cainan was
but seventeen : so that Salah, though not the son, yet the
descendant of Arphaxad, was born when his grandfather
Arphaxad was but ihirty-five. 2. He thinks Moses omitted
Cainan's name, being desirous not to expose him and his
father for marrying so soon, and therefore put down Salah as
descended from Arphaxad, in the thirty-fifth year of his life,
which he really was, though not immediately as his son, yet
really descended of him, being his grandson. But, 3. St.
Luke puts in Cainan's name, and he says he might very well
do it, because, not mentioning the times of their nativities in
his genealogy, he did not hereby expose Cainan or Arphaxad,
for their fault before mentioned. And thus the learned men
of the Church of Rome are forced to labour to cover the
blunders and palliate the errors of their Church ; and thus it
will always happen, where foolish and erroneous positions
are established by canons and decrees. Some men of learning
will have a zeal to defend the communion they are members
of, and in so doing must bear the misfortune of being forced
into argumentations, which must appear ridiculous to the
unbiassed world, in order to obtain the character of good
churchmen in their own country. But to return : Cainan
is inserted in the Septuagint Bible, and in St. Luke's Gospel ;
but there is no such name in the Hebrew catalogue of the
postdiluvian patriarchs. To this I answer ; Eusebius and
Africanvis, both of them, (besides other writers that might be
named,) took their accounts of these times from the Septua-
gint, and yet have no su.ch person as Cainan amongst these
postdiluvians. 2. They did not omit his name through care-
lessness, for by the number of generatioiis, and of years
which they compute from Shem to Abraham, it is plain they
knew of no other name to be inserted than what they have
given us: therefore, 3. The ancient copies of the Septua-
gint, from which Africanus and Eusebius wrote, had not the
name of Cainan. 4. This name came into the Septuagint
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 169
copies through the carelessness of some transcriber, who,
through inattention, inserted an antediluvian name (for such
a person there was before the flood) amongst the postdilu-
vians, and having no numbers for his name, he wrote the
numbers belonging to Salah twice over. 5. Other copies
being taken from this erroneous one, the name of Cainan in
time came to be generally inserted. 6. St. Luke did not
put Cainan into his genealogy : but, 7. Learned men finding
it in the copies of the Septuagint, and not in St. Luke, some
transcribers remarked in the margin of their copies this name,
as thinking it an omission in the copies of St. Luke's Gospel.
8. Later copiers and editors finding it thus in the margin,
took it into the text^.
Let us now inquire what religion at this time was, and
how it differed in different countries. Corruptions in reli-
gion were indeed very early ; but it is very probable they
were at first but few. The religion of mankind was almost
one and the same for many years after they were divided
from one another. We read that the Chaldeans were so
zealous in their errors, even in Abram's days, that they
expelled him their country for his dissenting from them ; but
we have no reason to think that either the Canaanite or the
Egyptian were as yet devoted to a false religion. The king
of Salem, who was a Canaanite, of a different family from
Abram, was the priest of the most high Gods, in the country
he was king of; and we do not find that Abram met with
any disturbance upon account of his religion from the in-
habitants of that country, nor have we reason to think that
his religion was at this time different from theirs. In the
same manner when he came to Egypt, God is said to have
sent judgments upon Pharaoh's family'^ because of Abram's
wife ; and the king of Egypt seems to have been in no wise
a stranger to the true God, but to have had the fear of him
before his eyes, and to be influenced by it in, all his actions.
Religion was at this time the observance of what God had
been pleased to reveal concerning himself and his worship ;
and without doubt mankind, in all parts of the world, for
f C'apell. Chron. Sacr. In Not. ad Tabulas 3. et 4. P Heb. vii. i. h Gen. xii. 17.
170 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
some generations, adhered to it. The only wicked persons
mentioned about this time in the world were the Sodomites ;
and their depravity was, not the corruption of false religion,
but immorality. But I shall examine this subject a little
more exactly ; and the best method I can do it in will be to
trace and consider the several particulars of the true religion
of Abram ; and in the next place to inquire what reasons we
have to think that the other nations of the world agreed
with Abram in his religion ; and lastly, to examine when,
and how, by what steps and means they departed from it.
I. Let us consider what was the religion of Abram. And
here, as all religion must necessarily consist of two parts,
namely, of some things to be believed, and others to be per-
formed, so we must inquire into Abram's religion under
these two heads. All religion, I say, consists of faith and
of practice. Faith is a part of even natural religion ; for he
that cometh unto God must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that serve him ' / and this faith will oblige
him to perform the practical part of religion; for if there
is a God, and he is a rewarder of his servants, it necessarily
folloAvs that we must take care to serve and please him.
But let us inquire what the former part of Abram's religion
was, what his faith was, what he believed.
And in the general, Abram must unavoidably have had a
very lively sense and firm belief of the common attributes
of Almighty God ; these he must have been convinced of
from the history of mankind, from God's dealing with the
world. The very deluge must have fully instructed him in
this faith. We cannot imagine that he could receive the
accounts of that astonishing vengeance, executed upon a
wicked world, which, without doubt, were transmitted down
from Noah's sons to their descendants, especially in those
families which adhered to the worship of the true God ; I
say, he could not have the account of this remarkable trans-
action transmitted to him in all its circumstances, without
being instructed from it to think of God, i. That he takes
cognizance of what is done on the earth. 2. That he is a
i Heb. xi. 6.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 171
lover of virtue, but an abhorrer of vice ; for he preserved a
well disposed family, but destroyed a wicked and sinful
world. 3. That God has infinite power to command winds
and rains, seas and elements, to execute his will. 4. That as
is his power, so is his mercy ; he was not desirous that men
should perish; he warned them of their ruin, in order to
their amendment, 120 years before the executing his ven-
geance upon them. A sense of these things must have led
him, lastly, to know and believe, that a Being of this sort
was to be served and worshipped, feared and obeyed. A
general faith of this sort Abram must have had, from a con-
sideration and knowledge of what had been done in the
world ; and the world was as yet so young, the very persons
saved in the flood being still alive, and their immediate
children, or grand-children, being the chief actors in these
times, that no part of mankind can well be conceived to have
deviated much from this faith : but then, Abram's faith
went still further, for he believed some things that were
revealed to him by Almighty God, over and above the
general truths before mentioned. As it had pleased God to
design from the fall of man a scheme, which in Scripture is
sometimes called the loill of God ^^ sometimes the counsel or
design of God^; sometimes the hidden ioisdom, or purpose of
God, by which mankind were to be redeemed from the ruin
which the sin of our first parents had involved us in : so he
was pleased to give various hints and discoveries of it to
several persons in the several ages of the world, from Adam,
to the very time when this purpose, so long before concerted,
was to take eflfect and be accomplished ; and the receiving
and believing the intimations thus given was a part of the
religion of the faithful in their several generations.
From Adam to the flood we have but one intimation of
this sort, namely, that which is contained in the threatening
to the serpent'", That the seed of the looman should bruise the
serpenfs head : a proposition, which if taken singly, and by
itself, may perhaps seem to us something dark and obscure :
1< Eph. i. 9. Hfb. X. 7 — 10. I Cor. ii. 7. Ephcs. iii. 11. 2 Tim. i. 9.
1 Acts ii. 23. XX. 27. Ephes. i. 11. m Gen. iii. 15.
172 COl^JNECTIOX OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
but I would observe from the very learned Dr. Sherlock",
that those writers who endeavour to pervert the meaning of
this promise, and to give the words a sense not relating to
the Messiah, under a pretence of adhering to a literal inter-
pretation of Scripture, cannot in this place make it speak
common sense ; and I might add, that the words of the
prophecy cannot, without breaking through all rules of
grammar and construction, admit of the interpretation which
they would put upon them. They inquire, by what rules
of language the seed of the luoman must signify one particular
person ? I answer, in the place before us it cannot possibly
signify any thing else ; the verse, if translated exactly from
the Hebrew, would run thus : I will put enmity hetiveen thee
and the woman, and hetween thy seed and her seed. He shall
bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel. If by the seed
of the looman, had been meant the descendants of Eve, in the
plural number, it should have been, they shall bruise thy head,
and thou shall bruise their heels. The Septuagint took parti-
cular care in their translation to preserve the true meaning of
it, by not using a pronoun that might refer to the word
seed, but a personal pronoun, which best answers the Hebrew
word b^iri' or he, in English. Airos (tov Tijp-qa-ei /ce(/)aArp, koI
av Tr]pr}(TiL<s avrov TTTspvav.
When God was pleased to admonish Abram to go out of
his country, from his kindred and relations, he encouraged
him by giving larger intimations of the mercies he designed
the world. The first of these intimations is recorded Gen.
xii. God there promises, upon requiring him to leave his
kindred and father's house, " That he would give him and
" his descendants abundance of happiness and prosperity ;
" that of him should arise a great nation ; that his name
" should be famous ; that he should be a blessing,''' i. e. ex-
ceedingly happy or blessed ; " that he would advance his
" friends, bless them that blessed him, and depress his enemies,
" or curse them that cursed him: and moreover added, that in
11 Dr. Sherlock's Use and Intent of place hinting, than I can express, with-
Prophecy, Disc. 3. well wortli every out I were to transcribe at large what
one's serious perusal, and which gives he has offered.
a better account of what T am in this
AND PKOFANE HISTORY. 173
111771 all thefcnnilies of the ea7~th should he blessed, but not in him
personally, for it was afterwards explained to him". In tlnj
seed shall all the nations of the earth he hlesscd.
This expression of all nations being blessed in Abram, or
in Abram's seed, is by some writers said to mean no more,
than that Abram and his posterity should be so happy, as
that those who had a mind to bless, or wish well to their
friends, should propose them as an example or pattern of the
favours of heaven ; in thee shall all the fa77iilies of the eai'th he
blessed, i. e. all people of the world shall bless, or wish well to
their friends [in thee, i. e,] according to what they see in
thee, according to the measure of thy happiness. To be
blessed ill one, says a learned writer!', implies, according to the
genius of the Hebrew language, as much as to wish the
same degree of happiness as is possessed by the person
alluded to, or j)roposed as the pattern of the blessing : of this
(says the same writer) we have a remarkable instance in the
history of the blessing bestowed by Jacob upon Ephraim and
Manasseh i : Aiid he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall
Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and Ma7iasseh:
whence it is plain, that the meaning of Jacob in saying, that
iti thee shall Israel bless, was, that Ephraim and Manasseh
should be proposed as examples of blessing ; so that people
were to wish to those they intended to bless, the same hap-
piness which God had bestowed upon Ephraim and Manas-
seh. As this is an exposition of the promise to Abram,
which is conceived sufficient to shew that that promise had
no relation to the Messiah, so I have expressed it in its whole
force, and I think it may be very clearly confuted ; for, i .
The learned critic above-named has very evidently mistook
the expression. To bless a perso7i m o)ie, especially when ex-
plained by additional words, God make thee as such an one,
which is the case in the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh,
may easily be apprehended to be proposing the person so
mentioned as a pattern of the blessing or happiness wished to
him, and that without laying any stress upon the genius or
o Gen, xxii. i8. p Jurieu Crit. Hist. vol. i. c. i. 1 Gen. xlviii. 20.
174 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [uOOK V,
idiom of the Hebrew tongue, for the words can really have
no other signification ; but to say a person shall he blessed in
or hxj thee, without any addition of words to give the ex-
pression another meaning, is evidently to say, that thou shalt
bless or make that person happy, by being a means of his
prosperity. The expression *■ in the one place is, in thee shall
Israel bless, or express their good wishes to one another ; and
the expression is unquestionably clear, for it is added how
they should so bless, namely, by saying, God make thee as
Ephraim and Manasseh. In the other passage it is, all fami-
lies shall be blessed in or by thee^ i. e. shall be made happy by
thee ; for this is the natural sense of the expression, and, un-
less something else had been added, the words cannot be
turned to any other meaning. 2. None of the ancient ver-
sions give the words our author's sense, but some of them the
very sense I have explained them in. 3. The best inter-
preters have always taken them in the sense I am contending
for. St. PauP expressly tells us, that by the seed of Abram
was meant, not the descendants of Abram, in the plural
number, but a single person ; and the writer of the book of
the Acts* mentions Christ as the particular person, who,
according to this promise, was to bless the world : and in-
deed, the supposing this promise to be fulfilled in Christ is
absolutely necessary, because neither Abram, nor any per-
son descended from him, but Christ, was ever, in any tole-
rable sense, a blessing, or means of happiness to all the
families of the earth. Here, therefore, God enlarged the
subject of Abram's faith, and revealed to him, that a person
should be descended from him who should be a blessing to
the whole world. There are several places in Scripture
where God, as circumstances required, repeated the whole
or part of this promise ; in the plain of Moreh " ; and again,
after Lot and Abram" were parted from one another; and
!■ The expression, Gen. xlviii. 20. is the verb is passive.
bN-nU' I'll'' -J3 in which the verb is s Gal. iii. 16.
active. The other expression is, 131221, t Acts iii. 25.
nm«n nnDCO '?d -]1, Gen. xii. 3. u Gen. xii. 7.
or, yiNH "U '?3 -[inu iD-ianni, x Chap. xiii. ver. 15, &c.
Gen. xxii. 18. in both which places
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 175
afterwards the particulars of this promise were further ex-
plained, as I shall observe in its proper place. This there-
fore was the particular faith of Abram, over and besides what
reason and observation might dictate to him concerning God
and his providence : he received the discoveries which God
was pleased to make him of his designing an universal bene-
fit to the world, in a person to be descended of him, and
Abram believed whatever it pleased God to discover to him,
and such his belief ^vas counted to him for righteousness, it was
a part of his religion.
There is a passage in the New Testament, which, as it
relates to Abram's faith, may not improperly be considered in
this place; our blessed Saviour told the Jews^, that Abra-
ham had seen his day, and rejoiced at it; from whence it is
concluded, that Abraham had a knowledge of Jesus Christ
to come, and that by looking forward, through faith, he
saw him as if then present, and embraced the expectation of
him, and rejoiced in him as his Saviour. But to this it is
objected, i. That it nowhere appears that Abram knew
any thing of Christ '■^ any further than that some one de-
scendant from himself should be a blessing to the whole
world. 2. They say, the interpreting this passage in this
manner seems to destroy the truth which our Saviour in-
tended to establish by it : our Saviou.r spoke it (they say) in
order to hint to the Jews, that he was a greater person than
what they took him to be, for that he not only now ap-
peared and lived amongst them, but that he had ages before
been seen by Abraham; from whence the Jews concluded,
that he meant to assert what he upon their not believing it
assured them was true, ver. 58, that he was older than
Abraham : but if Abraham saw his day only by looking for-
ward in faith to the expectation of it, no such conclusion
could follow from his so seeing it; he might thus see it,
and yet the Saviour, whose day he so looked to, might be
ages younger and later than himself: therefore, 3. As the
design of this passage was to prove Christ older than Abra-
y John viii. 56. faith, Heb. xi. 17. and there is no men-
z We have an account of Abram's tion in it of his believing in Clirist.
176 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK V.
ham, so they argue the true meaning of it is, that Christ was
himself seen by Abraham, and so he really was ; for, as many
of the Fathej's rightly conjecture '', the divine Person, who
was so often seen by Abraham, when God was said to ap-
pear to him, was our blessed Saviour then in being ages be-
fore he took upon him the seed of Abraham ; Abraham there-
fore, literally speaking, saw him ; and our Saviour might
very justly conclude from Abraham's thus seeing him, that
he was really in being before Abraham. I have expressed
this objection in its full force, but I think the objectors do
not consider the accounts we have of Abraham's worship.
Abraham built his altars not unto God, ivhom no man hath
seen at any time ^•, but unto the Lord, who appeared to him ;
and in all the accounts which we have of his prayers, we
find they were offered up in the name of this Lord : thus at
Beersheba, he invoked, in the name of Jehovah, the everlasting
God'^. Our English translation very erroneously renders the
place, he called upon the name of Jehovah ; but the expression
Tcara he shem never signifies to call upon the name : kara
shem would signify to invoke, or call upo7i the name; or,
kara el shem would signify, to cry unto the name; but
kara he shem signifies, to invoke in the name, and seems to
be used where the true worshippers of God offered their
prayers in the name of the true Mediator, or where the
idolaters offered their prayers in the name of false ones ^ ;
for as the true worshippers had but one God and one Lord,
so the false worshippers had gods many and lords many^.
We have several instances of kara, and a noun after it, some-
times with and sometimes without the particle el, and then
it signifies to call upon the person there mentioned ; thus
kara Jehovah is to call upon the Lord ^, and kara el Jehovah
imports the same^; but kara he shem is either, to name by
a See Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. c. 3. b Gen. xii. 7.
Justin. Martyr. Dial, cum Tryph. p. c Chap. xxi. ^^. See Exod. xxiii.
370, &c. Edit. Jebb. Lond. 1719. 21. and tsaiah ix. 6.
Irenseus Hseres. lib. iv. c. 12. Clem. d i Kings xviii. 26.
Alexand. Psedag. lib. i. c. 7. Tertull. c i Corinth, viii. 5.
contra Marcion. lib. ii. c. 27. lib. iii. f Psalm xiv. 4. xvU. 6. xxxi. 7- liii>
c. 6. et contra Prax. c. 14. cum multis 4. cxviii. 5, &c.
aliis, qui citantur, et vindicantur in & i Samuel xii. 17. Jonah i. 6, &c.
illust. Bullii Def. Fidei Nicense c. 1 .
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 177
the name, (as I have formerly hinted,) or, to invoke in the
name, when it is used as an expression of rehgious wor-
ship.
As we have hitherto considered the faith of Abram, we
have now to treat of that part of his religion which con-
cerned his practice in his worship of God. The way and
method of worshipping God in these early times was that of
sacrifice, and, as I have already hinted that sacrifices were a
divine, and not an human, institution, it seems most reason-
able to suppose, that there were some prescribed rules and
appointments for the due and regular performance of this
their worship. Plato ** lays it down for a general rule, that
all laws and appointments about divine matters must come
from the Deity ; and his opinion herein is agreeable to that
of the sacred writer', who observes, that a person cannot be
capable of being a priest, to offer sacrifice for sins, unless he
be appointed by God unto that office ; for no man taheth this
honour unto himself, hut he that is called of God, as loas Aaron.
It is, I think, therefore most probable, that as God at first
aj)pointed sacrifices to be oifered, so he also directed, i . Who
should be the priest, or sacrificer, to offer them ; 2. What
sorts of sacrifices should be offered ; 3. What creatvires should
be sacrificed, and what not ; and, 4. With what rites and
ceremonies their sacrifices should be performed.
As to the person who was to be the priest, or sacrificer, it
is generally agreed by the best writers of all sorts, that the
honour of performing this office belonged to the eldest or
first-born of each family : " ^ Before the tabernacle was
'' erected, private altars and high-places were in use for
" sacrifices, and the eldest of each family performed the sa-
" crifice," and that in the following manner: i. When the
children of a family were to offer a sacrifice, then the father
was the priest : in this manner Cain and Abel offered their
sacrifice; for it is not said', that either of them actually
offered, but that each of them brought his offering. It is
probable that Adam their father offered it for them.
h De Legibus, 1. v\. p. 759. k Tract. Melikim. in Mishna, 14.
i Heb. V. 4. 1 Gen. iv.
VOL. I. N
178 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
2. When the sons of a family were met together to offer sa-
crifice, after they came to be themselves fathers of houses and
families of their own, and were separated from their father
and father's house, their father not being present with them,
the eldest son was the priest, or sacrificer, for himself and his
brethren ; and this was the honour which Jacob coveted
when he bought Esau's birthright : " He had a most earnest
" desire (say the Jewish writers f") to obtain the privilege of
" the first-born from Esau ; because, as we have it by tradi-
" tion, before the tabernacle, whilst private altars were in
" use, the eldest or first-born was the sacrificer, or priest, of
" the family." And it is for this reason that Esau was called
profane" for selling his birthright, because he shewed him-
self to have but little value for that religious office which
was annexed to it. 3. All the children of a family, younger
as well as elder, when they were settled in the world, and
had families of their own, had the right of sacrificing for
their own families, as heads of them : of this we have several
instances in the sacrifices of Jacob in his return from Laban
with his wives and children.
As to the several sorts of sacrifices which were to be
offered, we do not find any express mention of any other
than these following : The expiatory sacrifice ; this was that
which Abel was supposed to offer ; and it is generally held
by all the best writers, that the fathers of every family
offered this sacrifice, as Job did for his children », daily.
2. They had precatory sacrifices, which were burnt-offerings
of several creatures, in order to obtain from God some parti-
cular favours ; of this sort was the sacrifice of Noah after the
flood : Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every
clean beast, and of every clean foiol, and offeredhurnt-offerings
upon the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said,
I will not again curse the ground, — neither will I smite every
thing living any more — Atid God blessed Noah^ and said P.
This sacrifice of Noah's, says Josephus ^, was offered, in ,
order to obtain from God a promise, that the ancient and
ni Bereschit Rabba. fol. 7. P Gen. viii. 20.
1 Hebrews xii. 16. 1 Antiquitat. lib. i. o. 3.
o Job i. 5.
AND PROKANE HISTORY. /.179
natural course of things should be continued, without being
interrupted by any farther calamities. If we attend to the
circumstances belonging to this sacrifice, we find (chap, viii.)
that God promised this favour, and enjoined them the ob-
servance of some laws, and covenanted that they should
assuredly have the mercies which he had prayed for. In
much the same manner God covenanted with Abram, upon
his offering one of these precatory sacrifices, to give him the
land of Canaan''. Abram said unto God, Whereby shall I
Mow that I shall inherit it? And God said unto him, Take
me an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years
old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a
young pigeon; and he took unto him all these, and divided
them in the midst, and laid each piece one against a?iother, hut
the birds divided he not. This was the method and order in
which he laid them upon the altar for a sacrifice ; and he sat
down to watch them, that the fowls of the air might not seize
upon them ; and about the going down of the sun Abram fell
asleep, and in a dream God revealed to him how and in
what manner he designed to give his descendants the land
of Canaan. And after sunset, Behold a smoking^ furnace
and a burning lamp passed betioeen these pieces, i. e. a fire from
heaven consumed the sacrifice, and in that same day, i. e,
then, or at that time, the Lord made a covenant with Abram,
saying, &c. And thus I have set down all the particulars of
this sacrifice, it being the fullest description we meet with
of this sort of sacrifice. These precatory sacrifices might also
be called federal; the Psalmist alludes to them, where he
speaks of those that had made a covenant with God by sa-
crifice ^
3. A third sort of sacrifice in use in these times was a
burnt-offering of some parts of a creature, with a feast upon
r Gen. XV. 8 — 18. much more clear : the meaning of the
s Gen. XV. 17. Here is evidently a place is, that the parts of- the sacrifice
mistake in om- Hebrew Bibles; T2!?, smoked first, and afterwards fell on
to pass, and li-a, to kindle, or burn, fire; and the words rightly taken do
are words of exactly the same letters ; very well express this : Behold a smok-
and through the mistake of some tran- ing furnace and a burning lamp [not
scriber, nabar is in this place instead passed hxxt] kindled amongst the pieces.
of banar, which would make the sense t Psalm 1. 5.
N
O
180 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
the remaining parts, in order to ratify and confirm some
agreement or league between man and man : of this we
have a particular instance in the sacrifice and feast of Jacob in
the mount with Laban and his brethren. 4. They offered by
way of gratitude oblations of the fruits and product of their
tillage ; Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto
the Lord. 5. They made an offering of oil or wine, when
they made a vow, or laid themselves under a solemn promise
to perform some duty, if it should please God to favour them
with some desired blessing. Thus Jacob, when he went
towards Haran ", vowed a vow, saying. If God will he tcith me^
and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread
to eat, and raiment to put on, so that Icome again to 7ny father'' s
house in peace^ then the Lord shall be my God, and I will give
the tenth, &c. And in order to bind himself to this vow, he
took the stone and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil
upon the top of it. In the same manner in another place'',
Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God talked with him,
even a pillar of stone, and he poured a drink-offering thereon,
and he poured oil thereon. These are, 1 think, all the several
sorts of offerings and sacrifices which we can prove to have
been in use in these early times ; if they used any other,
they have left us no hints of them.
Let us now inquire what creatures were offered in sacri-
fice, and what not. To which I answer, all clean beasts
whatsoever, and no other ; and all clean fowls, and no other.
What the number of the clean beasts and fowls were, and
when or how that distinction began, are points which the
learned have not given a full and saisfactory account of.
It seems most probable, from the first chapter of Leviticus,
compared with the sacrifice of Noah after the flood, and
with that of Abram, Gen. xv. 9, that the clean beasts used
for sacrifice were of the cow-kind, or of the sheep, or of the
goats, and that the clean fowls were only turtle-doves and
young pigeons. These were all the creatures which God
appointed the Jews for burnt-offerings ; and these were the
creatures which Abram offered in his solemn sacrifice, in
u Gen. xxviii. 20 — 22. x Chap. xxxv. 14.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 181
order to obtain the assurance of the land of Canaan ; and
in this sort of sacrifice it was usual to offer of every sort of
creature used for sacrifice, for so Noah's sacrifice, which was
of this sort, is described ; He took of every clean beast, and
every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings upon the altar.
Noah took, says R. Eleazar, of all sorts of clean beasts, name-
ly, the bullock, the lamb, and the goat ; and from among the
birds, the pigeon and turtle-dove, and sacrificed them.
Our last inquiry was, what ceremonies were used at this
time in religion. And here we can have but little to offer,
because we have few particulars handed dqwn to us. If
we look into the journeyings of Abram, we find, that where-
ever he made any stop, he constantly built an altar ; this
he did in the plain of Morehx; and afterwards when he
removed, he built another in the place where he pitched his
tent, between Bethel and Hai ^ ; and afterwards another,
when he came to dwell in the plain of Mamre. In the same
manner Isaac built an altar at Beersheba ^ ; and Jacob after-
wards, both at Shalem*^ and at Bethel *=. In all places where
they fixed their habitations, they left us these monuments of
their being very punctual and exact performers of their offices
of religion ; but what the particular ceremonies used in their
religious performances were, or what were the stated or occa-
sional times of such performances, we cannot say with any
certainty ; and therefore, though I cannot but think, with
many learned writers, that a great deal may be guessed upon
this subject, from observing what was afterwards enjoined in
the law of Moses, yet all that amounting at most to no more
than conjecture, I shall choose to omit it in this place. We
have indeed mention made of two particular ceremonies of
religion, a very little after Abraham"'s time. Jacob, in order
to prepare his family to offer sacrifice with him upon the altar
which he designed to make at Bethel, bids them'' be clean,
and change your garments. Be clean, i. e. wash yourselves,
as Dr. Lightfoot® rightly interprets it, this being not only a
y Gen. xii. 7. c Chap. xxxv. 7.
z Ver. 8. Cliap. xiii. 18. <l Chap. xxxv. 2,
a Chap. xxvi. 25. c Har. Evang.
b Chap, xxxiii. 20.
182 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V,
most ancient usage, but a ceremony universally practised
by all nations. It seems at first to have been appointed by
God, to keep up in their minds the remembrance of the de-
luge ; they were to use water upon their having contracted
any defilements, in order to hint to them, how God by water
had formerly washed away all the pollutions of the world ;
for by a flood of waters he washed away all the wicked and
polluted men from ofiF the face of the earth. That this was
the first occasion of God's appointing water to be used for
their purifications, seems very probable from the several opin-
ions which all sorts of writers have handed down to us about
the deluge. We learn from Philo^, that the ancient Jews
reputed the deluge to be a lustration or purification of the
world; and Origen informs us°, that their opinion in this
point was embraced by the first Christians : and the same
writer h says, that some eminent Greek philosophers were
of the same opinion ; and Plato seems to hint it in several
places ' in his works ; and I think I may say St. Peter alludes
to this opinion "^ where he compares the baptism of Christians
to the water of the fiood.
As they had their altars for their sacrifices, so they had
proseuchoi^ or places of retirement, to offer prayers unto
God, at such times as they did not offer sacrifices with them ;
and these proseuchw, or places of prayer, were set round
with trees, in order to make them the more retired. A place
of this sort Abraham prepared for himself in Beersheba', and
in it he called upon the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.
There is one ceremony more, which was appointed to
Abraham, to be observed by him and his posterity, and that is
circumcision, of which Moses has given a full account "^
II. We are in the next place to inquire how far the
several nations at this time in the world agreed with Abram
in his religion. And as all the nations that were at this
time in the world of any figure, or of which we have any
f Lib. quod deterius potior insid. i De Legib. lib. iii. p. 676. et in al.
soleat. ad fin. 1< 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21,
s Contra Celsum, lib. iv. p. 173. cd. l Gen. xxi. 33.
Cant. 1677. m Chap. xvii.
h Tbid. lib. vi. p. 316.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
183
accounts, were either the inhabitants of Persia, Assyria, Ara-
bia, Canaan, or Egypt ; so I shall mention what may be
oiFered concerning these in their order.
And I. the Persians. They for some time adhered to the
true and pure worship of God. They are remarkable beyond
other nations" for having had amongst them a true account
of the creation of the world ; and they adhered very strictly
to it, and founded all their religion upon it. The Persians
were the children of Shem, by his son Elam, as Abraham
and his descendants were by Arphaxad ; and therefore the
same common parent that instructed the one branch in the
true religion did also instruct the other ; and Dr. Hyde re-
marks °, that he could not find any reason to think but that
they were for some time very strict professors of it, though
by degrees they corrupted it, by introducing novelties and
fancies of their own into both their faith and practice. Dr.
Hyde treats of the Persian religion under these three heads :
I. He says the trvie religion was planted amongst them by
Elam, but in time it was corrupted into SabiismP. 2. Their
Sabiism was reformed by Abraham, but in time they re-
lapsed into it again. 3. They afterwards introduced Ma-
giism q. According to this account, the Persians were fallen
into the errors of the Sabians in Abraham's days, and were
reduced by him back again to the true religion ; but in this
point I should think that learned writer to be mistaken : all
his accounts of their having been anciently Sabians are
taken either from the Mahometan writers, or Greek his-
torians ; but these authorities only prove that they were
Sabians before the Magian religion took place amongst them ;
bvit not that they were so as early as Abraham's days. He
also imagines that their religion was reformed by Abraham,
and consequently that it was corrupted before or in his
days. Their ancient accounts (he says) call their religion
Millat IbraMm, or Kish Abraham , i. e. the religion of Abra-
n Hyde, Religio veterum Persarum, Connect, vol. i. book iii. p. 140. edit,
cap. 3. 1718.
o Id. c. I. '1 Magians were worshipjiers of fire.
P Sabians were the worshippers of See Connect, ibid,
the host of heaven. See Prideaux
184 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [l500K V.
ham; and their sacred book, which contains the doctrines
of their religion, is called iiohji Ibrahim, i. e. the book of
Abraham; and he concludes from hence, that their first and
most ancient religion being planted amongst them by Elam
their first founder, their religion could not possibly be called
the religion of Abraham, unless he had reformed it from
some corruptions that were crept into it ; and therefore he
gives it as his opinion, that Abraham did some time or other
in his life reduce them back to the true worship ; but it is
remarkable, that he is very much at a loss to determine in
what part of Abraham's life he made this reformation. He
says, that they report Abraham to have lived some part of
his life in Bactria, agreeably to what is remarked by one of
their writers, that Balch was the city of the prophet Abra-
ham : now the city Balch "was situate in the farther parts of
Persia, towards India ; but Dr. Hyde allows, that we cannot
find from the Scripture that Abraham ever travelled that
way ; nay further, that Balch was built by a king of Persia
long after Abraham's time, and that the true meaning of the
expression above cited, that Balch was the city of the pro-
phet Abraham, was no more than this, namely, that Balch
was a city eminent for the profession of Abraham's religion.
Again, he would imagine the Persians to have been brought
over to Abraham's religion by the overthrow which he gave
the king of Elam and his associates, when he rescued Lot
from him ; but this is an unsupported and very improbable
imagination. The true reason for the Persians having been
anciently recorded to be of Abraham's religion seems more
likely to be this : as the fame of Abraham, and his opposing
the Chaldfcans in their corruptions and innovations, was
spread far and near over all the East, and had reached even
to India, so, very probably, all Persia was full of it ; and the
Persians not being then corrupted, as the Chaldseans were,
but persevering in the true worship of the God of heaven,
for which Abraham was expelled Chaldtea, might, upon the
fame of his credit and reputation in the world, profess, and
take care to deliver themselves down to posterity as pro-
fessors of his religion, in opposition to those innovations
which prevailed in Chaldcca. The first religion therefore of
AND PllOFANE HISTORY. 185
the Persians Avas the worship of the true God ; and they
continued in it for some time after Abraham was expelled
Chakhnea, having the same faith and worship as Abraham
had, except only in those points concerning which he
received instruction after his going into Haran and into
Canaan.
The next people whose religion we are to consider are the
Chalda^ans. They indeed persevered in the true religion but
for a little time ; for (as I before observed) about the seven-
tieth year of Abraham's life the Chaldfeans had so far de-
parted from the worship of the God of heaven, and were so
zealous in their errors, that upon Abraham's family refusing
to join with them, they expelled them their country '^^ so
that we must pass from them until we come to treat of the
nations that were corrupted in their religion.
The people next to be considered are the Arabians, many
of whom persevered in the true worship of God for several
ages, of which Job was an instance perhaps in these times of
which I am treating, and Jethro^, the priest of Midian, in the
days of Moses. Their religion appears in no respect to have
differed from that of Abraham, only we do not find any
proof that they were acquainted with the orders which were
given him, or the revelations made to him after he came
into Canaan.
And if we look amongst the Canaanites, here, as I before
hinted, we shall find no reason to imagine that there was a
religion different from that of Abraham. Abraham travelled
up and down many years in this country, and was respected
by the inhabitants of it as a person in great favour with
God. Melchisedec the king of Salem was a priest of the
most high God, and he received and entertained Abraham
as a true servant and particular favourite of that God whose
priest he himself was ; Blessed, said he, he Abraham, servant
of the most high God, possessor of heanen and earth^. The
Canaanites gave Abraham no manner of disturbance, as the
Chaldaeans had done, during all the time that he sojourned
amongst them, and wc have no reason to imagine that they
•■ Judith V. 7, 8. s Exod. xviii. lo — 12. ^ Gen. xiv. 19.
186 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
clifFered from him in their religion. In the same manner,
when he came to Gerar", into the land of the Philistines,
he found Abimelech to be a good and virtuous king, one
that received the favour of admonitions from God'', and
shewed himself, by his obeying them, to be his true servant.
Abraham indeed, before he came amongst them, thought
the Philistines to be a wicked people, and imagined the fear
of God not to be in that place > : but the address of Abime-
lech to God, upon his receiving intimations that Sarah was
Abraham's wife, shews how much he was mistaken in his
opinion of them : Lord, loilt thou slay a righteous nation ?
Said he not unto me, She is my sister ? and she, even she herself,
said. He is my brother : in the itdegrity of my heart and
innocency of my hands have I done this '. We find also that
Abimelech made no scruple of admitting Abraham for a
prophet, and of getting him to intercede for him. There is
nothing in the whole account of this affair which intimates a
difference in religion between Abraham and Abimelech, nor
any thing which can intimate Abimelech not to be a wor-
shipper of God in great sincerity and integrity of heart.
And this, I believe, was the state of the world at this time :
the Chaldseans were something sooner settled than other
nations ; and so began to corrupt their religion more early ;
but in Abraham's time, all the other nations or plantations
did adhere to the true accounts of the creation and deluge
which their fathers had given them, and worshipped the
true God according to what had been revealed to them, and
in a manner not different from the worship of Abraham, until
God was pleased to make further revelations to Abraham,
and to enjoin him rites and observances in religion, with
which he had not acquainted other nations ; and we shall
find this true amongst those whom we are next to consider ;
for
The Egyptians also at first worshipped the true God. For
as Abraham was received at Gerar, so also was he enter-
tained at Egypt a. We find indeed that the Egyptians fell
" Gen, XX. z Ver. 5.
X Ver. 3. a Gen. xii. 14, &c.
y Ver. II.
AND PKOKAKE HISTOKY. 187
into idolatry very early ; but when they had thus departed
from the true worship of God, we see evident marks of it in
their conversation with those who still adhered to it ; for in
Joseph's time we are told, that the Egyptians miglit not eat
bread ivith the Hebrews^, for that loas then counted ati abo-
mination to them; but in Abraham's time we meet with
nothing of this sort : Abraham was entertained by Pharaoh
without the appearance of any indisposition towards him, or
any the least sign of their having a different religion from
that which Abraham himself professed and practised. The
heathen writers give us some hints, that the Egyptians were
at iirst worshippers of the true God. Plutarch testifies'^, that
in Upper Egypt the inhabitants of that country paid no
part of the taxes that were raised for the idolatrous worship,
asserting themselves to own no mortal being to be a god,
but professing themselves to worship their god Cneph only,
whom they affirmed to be without beginning and without
end. Philo-Biblius informs us '', that in the mythologic
times they represented this deity, called Cneph, by the figure
of a serpent, with the head of a hawk in the middle of a
circle ; but then he further tells us from the ancient records,
that the God thus represented was the creator of all things,
a being incorruptible and eternal, without beginning and
without parts ; with several other attributes belonging to the
supreme God. And, agreeable to this. Porphyry calls this
Egyptian Cneph, rov brjixLovpyov, i. e. the maker, or creator,
of the universe^. If we search the Egyptian antiquities, we
may find in their remains as noble and as true notions of
the Deity as are to be met with in the antiqviities of any
other people ; these were certainly their first principles, and
as long as they adhered to these, so long they preserved
the knowledge of the true religion ; but afterwards, when
they came to add to these speculations of their own, then by
degrees they corrupted and lost it.
And thus at first there was a general agreement about
religion in the world ; and if we look into the particulars of
'' Gen. xliii. 32. fl Eusebius, Prsep. Evang. lib. i.
<^ Plut. de Iside et Osuidc, p. 359, c. 10.
ed. Par. 1624. " e Id. lib. iii. c. 1 1 . ad fin.
188 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
the heathen religion, even after they were much corrupted,
we may evidently find several practices, as well as principles,
sufficient to induce us to think that all the ancient religions
in the world were originally the same. Sacrifices were used
in every coimtry ; and though by degrees they were dis-
figured by many human ceremonies and inventions, in the
way and method of using them; yet I might say, the hea-
thens generally ofifered the same sorts of sacrifices as were
appointed to Noah, to Abraham, and to the other servants
of the true God. They offered expiatory sacrifices to make
atonement for their sins, and precatory sacrifices to obtain
extraordinary favours : they had their vows and their obla-
tions. And many instances of all these may be found in
Homer, and in many other heathen writers. In the next
place, priests were appointed to be the sacrificers for them ;
and though, when civil society came to be set up, it became
as necessary to have national priests, as it was in families
to have private ones ; (instances of which we meet with
amongst the true worshippers of God, Melchisedec at Salem,
as well as Anius at Delphos^, being both priest and king;
and God himself appointing the Israelites a national priest,
when they afterwards became a people ;) yet we find, that
amongst the heathens, for many ages, the original appoint-
ment of the head of every family to be the priest and sacri-
ficer to his family was inviolably maintained, as may be
proved from their private feasts, where neither the public,
nor consequently the public ministers of religion, were con-
cerned ; and thus Homer very remarkably represents Eu-
majus, the keeper of Ulysses' cattle, officiating as priest s in
the sacrifice which he made when he entertained Ulysses,
who visited him in the dress and habit of a poor traveller.
In the same manner we have reason to think, that for a
great while the creatures used in sacrifice were the same as
Noah called the clean beasts ; for supposing them to be, as I
before observed, only bullocks, sheep, or goats, these were
most anciently and most generally used by the heathens :
time, indeed, and a continual increase of superstition, made
i Virgil. JEn. iii. 1. 80. ? Odyss. xiv. 1. 432. 446.
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 189
liiiinerous additions to all parts of their religion ; but Job's
friends amongst the Arabians used bullocks and rams for
their burnt-offerings'', and the Moabites' did the same in
Moses's time; and the common expiations mentioned in
Homer are either [kKaroix^aL ravpiav ?)8' aly&v^ hecatombs of
bulls or ff oats, or [apvwv alyStVTe TeA.e(coy] latnbs and goats with-
out blemish; and Achilles joins them all together\ suppos-
ing that an offering of one or other of these was wanting to
avert the anger of Apollo, hereby intimating these to be the
common and ordinary expiations. As to the ceremonies
used in the early days, we have so short an account of what
v/ere used in the true religion, and there was such a vai-iety
of additions made to the false, that we cannot offer a large
comparison between them ; however we may observe, that
the two ancient ceremonies which I have taken notice of,
namely, of washing and changing their garments, in order
to approach the altar, universally took place in all the seve-
ral sorts of the heathen worship. Various authors might be
cited to prove this, which the reader may see in Dr. Spen-
cer's dissertation upon the ancient purifications : but there
are two lines of the Latin poet which describe these two
rites in words so agreeable to the directions which Jacob
gave his family about them, that I shall set them down as a
specimen of the rest.
Casta placent superis, pura cum veste venite,
Et manibus puris sumite fontis aquam. Tibul.
Upon the whole, it is remarkable, that some learned writers,
and Dr. Spencer in particular, have imagined, that the re-
semblance between the ancient heathen religions, and the
ancient religion which was instituted by God, was in many
respects so great, that they thought that God was pleased to
institute the one in imitation of the other. This conclusion
is indeed a very wrong one, and it is the grand mistake
which runs through all the works of the very learned author
last mentioned. The ancient heathen religions do indeed in
many particulars agree with the institutions and appoint-
h Job xlii. 8. i Numb, xxiii. i. k Homer. II. i. 66.
190 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
ments of that religion which was appointed to Abraham and
to his family, and which was afterwards revived by Moses ;
not that these were derived from those of the heathen na-
tions, but much more evidently the heathen religions were
copied from them ; for there is, I think, one observation
which, as far as I have had opportunity to apply it, will
fully answer every particular that Dr. Spencer has offered,
and that is this ; he is able to produce no one ceremony or
usage, practised both in the religion of Abraham or Moses,
and in that of the heathen nations, but that it may be
proved, that it was used by Abraham or Moses, or by some
of the true worshippers of God, earlier than by any of the
heathen nations.
III. We are to inquire how, and by what means, the
several nations in the world departed from the true religion :
and since Diodorus Siculus has given a very probable ac-
count of the rise of false religion in Egypt, I will begin
there first, and endeavour to illustrate what 1 shall say of
other nations from what we find o£them.
The first men of Egypt, says he^, considering the world,
and the nature of the universe, imagined two first eternal
Gods ; so that it was their speculative inquiries into the
nature of things that led them into errors about the Deity ;
and if we examine, we shall see, that from the beginning to
the present times, it has always been a vain philosophy, and
an affectation of science falsely so called, that has corrupted
religion. The first Egyptians had without doubt a short
account of the history of the world transmitted to them ; an
account of the creation ; of the origin of mankind ; of the
deluge ; and of the method of worship which God had ap-
pointed. As Abraham had received instruction in these
points from his forefathers, so also the Egyptians had from
theirs ; but they did not take a due care not to deviate from
what had thus been transmitted to them : some great genius
or other thinking to speculate, and to establish such specula"
tions as he judged to be true, and therefore very proper to
be admitted into their religious inquiries, happened to think
1 Diodor. Sic. lib. i. p. 7. §. ii.
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 191
wrong, and so began a scheme of error, Avhich others, age
after age, refined upon and added to, until by steps and
degrees they built up the whole frame of their idolatries
and superstitions.
The person that first speculated upon these subjects was
Syphis, the first of that name, (for his successor was likewise
so called,) a king of Memphis. This Syphis began his reign
about A. M. 2164, which is about eighty years after Abra-
ham's coming into Egypt; he reigned sixty-three years,
and so died above forty years after Abraham ; so that he
may well be imagined to have heard of all the transactions
of Abraham's life, of his fame in the several countries where
he had lived; and being a prince that had an ambition to
raise himself a reputation in the world™, and seeing Abra-
ham's greatest glory to be founded upon his religion, and
the revelations which God had been pleased to make him,
he endeavoured to make himself conspicuous the same way,
and for that end TrcptoTrrr/s ets ©eoi/y kyiv^To, koX ttju Upav crvvi-
ypa^G BiySAov". A learned writer" would seem to infer from
these words, that Syphis saw and conversed with God as Abra-
ham and the Patriarchs did. He tells us from Manetho in
Josephus, that Amenophis affected to have seen God, and
answers Josephus's query about it by hinting, that the ex-
pression of seeing God was a form of speahing common to the
Egyptians, Hebrews, and other nations at this time. The
learned author expresses himself so dubiously in his whole
chapter, that one cannot well say, whether he intends to
insinuate that Syphis conversed with God as much as Abra-
ham, or rather that neither of them conversed with God at
all ; but only each of them considering and contemplating
what was most reasonable, they gave the greater authority
to what they had a mind to impose, by pretending to have
conversed with the Deity, and to have received their orders
from him ; but nothing of this sort follows from either
what we read of Syphis, or from what Manetho reports of
Amenophis, or from any of the quotations which sir John
m Manetho ascribes to him the " Syncellus, p. 56. Paris, 1652.
largest of the pyramids, and so does o Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 51.
Herodotus. See Euseb. Chron. p. 14.
192 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK V.
Marsham has cited upon this subject; rather, on the other
hand, the true conclusion from them is this, that God was
pleased to make several revelations to Abraham and to his
descendants, and that, upon the fame of these spreading
abroad in the world, many kings and great men desired
greatly, and used arts to have it thought that they had the
same favours shewn to them ; as the sorcerers and niaa:i-
cians afterwards pretended to work miracles, in order to
appear to have the same powers with those which God
had given to some other persons.
The expression TrepLoirrrjs eis Qeovs iyevcTo does not signify
that he saw the Gods, but coiitemplator in Deos fuit, i. e. he
speculated about the deities, and from his speculations he
wrote his book. Manetho pretends that he had this book
of Syphis ; but sir John Marsham very judiciously queries
whether books were thus early ; or whether they did not
rather at this time mark or inscribe memoirs and hints of
things on pieces of stone, or lumps of burnt earth. Mane-
tho*'s book might be a transcript from some remains of Sy-
phis. "We are told, that Syphis's doctrines were highly
esteemed amongst the Egyptians p, and that they followed
them very strictly ; and sir John Marsham very justly
remarks *J, that this king's Qco-rrrCa, or pretence of having
seen God, was the foundation of all the Egyptian errors in
religion.
The substance of what Syphis speculated upon these sub-
jects is given us by Diodorus Siculus' as the sentiments of
the most ancient Egyptians about religion. He considered
the world, and the nature of the universe, and examined the
influence which the sun and moon had upon it, how they
nourished^ and gave life and vigour to all things; and con-
cluded from hence, that they were two powerful and mighty
deities ; and so instituted a worship for them. And per-
haps this was all that Syphis innovated. Other errors were
P Euseb. Chron. p. 15. cd. 1658. sort of argument, are oiv avra bpZvres
q Can. Chron. p. 54. -nivra dei Uvra SpS/xw koI diovra arrh
■■ Lib. i. in loc. sup. cit. ravTr/s rijs (piiffeaii ttjs tov 6f7v Qfovs
s Plato asserts the ancient Grecians avrohs airovofxacrai.
to have been charmed with the same
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 193
added afterwards, Syphis set himself to lay the foundation
of a rational religion : he considered the influence which the
luminaries of heaven had upon the world ; and because it did
not fall in with his scheme of speculation, he set aside what
his ancestors had before taught, that m the beginning God
created the heavens as well as the earth; the sun, moon, and
stars, as well as the creatures of the lower world : thus he
reasoned wrong, and so, instead of inventing a good one,
he defaced and corrupted the true religion ; and all this he
was probably induced to by the fame of Abraham, out of a
pride and desire to vie with him ; for the Egyptians had a
particular inclination to affect to practise what they heard was
introduced into Abraham's religion ; they in a little time
followed him into the practice of circumcision ; and when
the report of his intending to sacrifice his son Isaac came to
be known amongst them, they instituted human sacrifices, a
barbarous custom, which continued amongst them for five
or six hundred years.
I am sensible that several writers have intimated, that the
Egyptians were so far from copying after Abraham, that
they pretend that Abraham rather imitated them in all his
religious institutions : they say, that Abraham was not the
first that used circumcision, but that he learnt it from the
Egyptians. A noble writer ' seems very fond of this opinion ;
but he has said nothing but what Celsus^ and Julian'' said
before him. Herodotus is cited upon this occasion, affirm-
ing y, that circumcision was a very ancient rite amongst the
Egyptians, instituted by them aii apxvs, from the beginning .
Again, in the same place he says, that other nations did
not use circumcision, except those who learnt it from the
Egyptians. Again he tells us, that the Colchians, Egypt-
ians, and Ethiopians, and the Phoenicians and Syrians that
lived in Palestine, [i. e. as Josephus rightly corrects him ^,
the Jews,] used circumcision ; and they confess themselves,
says he, to have learnt it from the Egyptians. Diodorus
t Lord Shaftesbury Charact. Tr. 6. ed. Spanhem. 1696.
1 Apud Origen. lib. v. p. 259. ed. y Lib. ii. §. 104.
1677. z Contra Apion. lib. i. §. 22. p. 1346.
X Apud Cyrill. lib. x. ad fin. p. 354. ed. Huds.
VOL. I. O
194 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
Siculus'* thought the Colchians and the Jews derived from
the Egyptians, because they used circumcision. And again,
he speaks of some other nations, who, he says^, were cir-
cumcised after the manner of the Egyptians. This is the
whole of what is offered from the heathen writers. That
circumcision was used anciently by several nations besides
the Jews, we do not deny ; nay, we may allow it to have
been practised amongst the Egyptians a-ri apxns, from the
beginning, not meaning by that expression from the first rise
or original of that nation, but that it was so early amongst
them, that the heathen writers had no account of the ori-
ginal of it. When any thing appeared to them to be thus
ancient, they pronounced it to be a-n apxrjs. That Herodotus
himself meant no more than this by the expression, is evi-
dent from his own words. We find him querying, whether
the Egyptians learnt circumcision from the Ethiopians, or
the Ethiopians from the Egyptians ; and he is able to deter-
mine neither way, but concludes it to be a very ancient rite*'.
There had been no room for this query, if he had before
meant that it was an original rite of the Egyptians, when he
said it was used by them from the beginning ; but amongst
the heathen writers, to say a thing was dir' apyj}^, from the
beginning, or that it was very anciently practised, are terms
perfectly synonymous, and mean the same thing. As to
Herodotus and Diodorus declaring that the Jews learnt cir-
cumcision from the Egyptians, we answer, the heathen
writers had but very little knowledge of the Jewish history ;
they are seldom known to mention them without making
palpable mistakes about them. Josephus's books against
Apion give many instances of numerous mistakes, which the
heathen writers were in about the history of the Jews ; and
the account which Justin, the epitomizer of Trogus Pom-
peius, gives of their original ^, shews evidently that they
were but very superficially acquainted with their affairs, and
therefore Origen might justly blame Celsus^ for adhering to
a Lib. i. §. 28. p. 17. ed. Cant. 1677. Sir John Marsham
b Lib. iii. §. 32. p. 115. misrepresents Origen, intimating him
c Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 104. to say, that Moses said in express
<> Justin, lib. xxxvi. c. 2. words, that Abraham was the first per-
e Origen contra Celsum, lib. i. p. 17. son that was circumcised; whereas
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 195
the heathen accounts of circumcision, rather than to that of
Moses : for Moses has given a full and clear account of the
original of the institution ; they only offer imperfect hints
and conjectures ; nay, and Herodotus, who says most of
it, did not know *" at last where it was first instituted, whether
in Egypt or Ethiopia, and therefore not certainly whether
in either. But there is one thing further to be offered ; we
have the testimony of an heathen writer unquestionably
confirming Moses's account of Abraham's circumcision. We
read in Philo-Biblius's extracts from Sanchoniathon», that
it was recorded in the Phoenician antiquities, that Ilus, who
was also called Chronus, circumcised himself, and compelled
his companions to do the same. This Ilus or Chronus, says
sir John Marsham"^, was Noah, or at least, according to
other writers', he is pretended to have been a person far
more ancient than the times of Abraham ; and therefore
they say, from this passage it appears that circumcision was
practised before the times of Abraham. But to this I an-
swer, the same author that gives us this account of Ilus or
Chronus sufficiently informs us who he was, by telling us
that he sacrificed his only son'^ ; nay, and further we are
informed from the Egyptian records' of this very Chronus,
that the Phoenicians called him Israel. Chronus, therefore,
or Israel, who was reported to have sacrificed his only son,
can be no other person than Abraham, whom the heathen
writers represent to have sacrificed his only son Isaac : Jacob
was the person who was really called Israel"^; but the
heathen accounts" oi him were, that he had ten sons ; so that
here is only a small mistake in applying the name Israel to
the person who, they say, offered in sacrifice his only son,
when in truth it was a name that belonged to his grandson :
but these writers make greater mistakes than this in all parts
of their histories : and thus it appears from this passage, not
Origen only deduces what follows by h Can. Chron. p. 72. conf. cum p. 38.
a very just inference fi'om Moses's ' Oper. Spencer, lib. i. c. v. §. 4. p.
account of the institution of circum- 56. ed. 1727.
cision. k Euseb. loc. sup. citat.
f See his query above mentioned. 1 Id. p. 40.
g Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. i. c. 10. m Gen. xxxv. 10.
p. 38. ed Par. 1628. " Justin, lib. xxxvi. c. 2.
O 2
\
\
196 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
as some writers would infer from it, that circumcision was
used in heathen nations ages before Abraham, but that
Abraham and his family were circumcised; and therefore,
unless they can produce a testimony of some other persons
being circumcised cotemporary with, or prior to Abraham,
we have their own confession that Abraham was circumcised
earlier than they can give an instance of any other person's
being circumcised in the world. There are several writers
that have treated upon this subject. Sir John Marsham and
Dr. Spencer favour the opinion of Celsus and Julian : but
as I think what I have already offered is sufficient to shew
what a bad foundation it is grounded upon ; so I shall add
nothing further, but leave the reader, if he thinks fit to
inquire more into the subject, to consult those ° who have
treated of it more at large.
As the Egyptians were led away from the true religion by
speculations upon the nature of the universe ; so the Chal-
daeans were perverted in the same manner. Their idolatry
began earlier than that of other nations, as early as the days
of Abraham, as I before observed ; but it was of the same
sort with that which the Egyptians first practised. We
are told P that Ninus tov Ne/3/)&)8, i. e. tov tov Ne(3pot>b, the de-
scendant, or rather the successor of Nimrod, tvhom they call
the Assyrian, [as being the founder of the Assyrian empire,]
taught the Assyrians to imrship Jire, not common fire, I con-
ceive, but the sun, moon, and stars, which they probably
imagined to consist of fire i ; and in the process of their idol-
atry we are further informed of them, that they were the first
who set up a pillar to the planet Mars, and worshipped it as
a god r. This therefore was the first idolatry of the Baby-
lonians and Assyrians, and it is very probable that their early
skill in astronomy led them into it : they had been students of
o There are several writers cited by Salom. Deylingius, ii. 6. observ. sacrar.
Fabricius, Bibliograph. Antiqu. ed. 2. Rich. Montacutius, parte i. orig. Ec-
17 16. p. 383. as opposers of the opin- cles. et al.
ion of Spencer and sir J. Marsham, P Chronic. Alexand. p. 64.
viz. Ramiresius, cap. 4. Pentecontar- 1 Empedocles took up this opinion
chi Nat Alexand. setate 3. Vet. Test, from the ancients, and held irvpiva ra
diss. 6. Leydecker. de rep. Heb. ii. 4. darpa. Plut. Placit. Philos. 1. ii. c. 13.
Anton. Bynaeus et Sebast. Schmidius r Chronic. Alexand. p. 89.
in diss, et tractat. de circumcisione.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
197
astronomy for at least two hundred and thirty-seven years at
the birth of Abraham, and had made such observations all
the time as they had thought worth recording. What their
observations were, we cannot say ; but it is most likely that
they observed the courses of the heavenly bodies as well as
they were able, and according to their abilities philoso-
phized about their nature and influence upon the world;
and their philosophy being false, a false philosophy naturally
tended to introduce errors in religion.
The sun, moon, and the particular star called Mars, were
the first objects of the Chaldaean, Babylonian, or Assyrian
idolatry ; and this seems to be confirmed by the names
which they gave to their ancient kings. We cannot indeed
infer any thing of this sort from Ctesias's catalogue, for the
names he used are known not to be Assyrian ; they are either
Greek or Persian, for he used such names as the Persians,
from whose records he wrote, had translated the old Assyrian
names into, or he turned them into such as his own lan-
guage offered to him, (a liberty which has been used by
other writers ; by the Greeks, when they called the Egyp-
tian Thyoth Hermes, and again by the Latins, who named
him Mercurius ;) but the ancient Assyrian names were of
another sort ; for in order to raise their kings to the highest
honours, and to cause the people to think of them with the
utmost veneration, they commonly called them by the
names of two or three of these planetary deities put toge-
ther, intimating them hereby to be persons under the ex-
traordinary care and protection of their gods. Thus their
kings and great men were called Peleser % Belshazzar^, Bel-
teshazzar^, Nebuchadnezzar'^, Nahonassar^ , with other names
of the same sort ; in order to explain which, we need only
observe, that Pil, Pal, or Pel, or Baal, or Bal, or Bel, which
was wrote BrjAos in Greek, or Behis in Latin, and sometimes
it is wrote Phel, or Phul, or Pul, for they are all the same
word, signifies lord, or Mng, and was the name of the sun,
whom they called the lord or king of the heaven. Baalah,
s 1 Chron. v. 6. ^ Dan. iii. i.
t Dan. V.I. y The name of Belesis. Dr. Prideaux
u Dan. i. 7. Connect, p. i.
198 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK V.
Baalta, Bella, or Belles, wliich signify lady, or queen, were
the names of the moon, whom they called queen of heaven.
Azer, or Azur, or Azar, was the name of Mars. Gad signi-
fies a troop, or host. And Naho, or Neho, was a name for the
moon. From observing this, it is easy to explain these names
of the Assyrian kings. Peleser is Pel -Azar, or a man in the
especial favour of the sun and of Mars. Belshazzar, i. e.
Bel-Azar, or Bel's-Azar, a word of the same import with
the former. Belteshazzar, i. e. Baalta, or Bella'' s- Azar, i. e.
a person favoured by the moon and Mars. Nabonassar is
Nabo-Azar, i. e. a favourite of the moon and of Mars. Ne-
huchadnessar is Nabo, or Neho-Gad-Azar , or one favoured by
the moon, by the host of heaven, and by Mars. And this
custom spread into other nations. Beleazar was the name
of a king of Tyre ; and Diomedes, i. e. one in the favour of
Jupiter, was one of the Grecians famous in Homer. The
learned Dr. Hyde ^ differs a little from what I have here of-
fered ; he supposes Bel to be the name of the planet Jupiter ;
Bella, of Venus ; JVabo, of Mercury ; and Gad, of Jupiter ;
as if the first Assyrians worshipped the several planets of
these names ; but I think it much to be questioned whether
they distinguished thus early between the planets and the
other stars. We are indeed told from the Alexandrian Chro-
nicon, that they set up a pillar unto Mars, as I before hinted ;
and very probably in time they distinguished the other pla-
nets and remarkable stars, and took them into the number
of their gods : but we do not find that they did this in the
very early days ; for according to Diodorus Siculus ^, when
Jupiter was first worshipped, he was considered not as a star,
or planet, but as one of the elements. And Eusebius, in his
account of the ancient Egyptian worship of Jupiter, observes
the same thing''. And the Phoenicians, in their first use of
this name, intended to signify the sun by it=, and not the
star, or planet, which was afterwards called Jupiter. The
astronomy of the ancients was not so exact as we are apt to
imagine it. Some accidental thought or other might induce
z Rel vet. Persarum, c. 2. p. 67. t^ Prsep. Evang. lib. iii. c. 3.
ed. Ox. 1700. c Id. lib. i. c. 10.
a Lib. i. §. II. et 12. p. 7. et 8.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 199
the Assyrians to pay a greater honour to Mars than to any
other star, as the Egyptians did to the Dog-star, for the
influence ^ which they imagined that star to have upon the
flowing of the river Nile ; and the Assyrians might very pro-
bably pay the like honour to Mars, and not know him to be
a planet, nor yet distinguish him, except by some odd conceit
or other which they had about him, from the rest of the host
of heaven. Vossius^ and several other writers take the words
Bel, Belta, Nabo, and Gad, as I have taken them.
The Persians corrupted their religion in much the same
manner : they are thought not to have fallen into so gross
an idolatry as their neighbours ; but they did not keep up
very long to the true and pure worship of God. Sabiism
was the first error of this nation. The word sabiism is of
Hebrew original ; it comes from sabah, which signifies an
host; so that a Sabian is a worshipper of an host or multi-
tude ; and the error of the Persians was, they worshipped the
host of heaven. When or by whom they were led into this
error is uncertain, but very probably it was efi^ected in much
the same method as that by which the Egyptians were
seduced. It is thought that the Persians^ never were so cor-
rupted as entirely to lose the knowledge of the supreme
God, and that they only worshipped the luminaries as his
most glorious ministers, and consequently with a worship in-
ferior to what they paid the Deity. They looked up to
heaven, and considered the glory and brightness of the
lights of it, their motion, heat, and influence upon this
lower world, and hereby raised in their minds very high
notions of them. It was an ancient opinion, that these beings
were all alive, and instinct with a glorious and divine spi-
rit ^ ; and what could their philosophy teach them better,
when they were far from having true notions about them :
they saw them, as they thought, running their courses day
<l Marsham. Can. Chron. in -rrpoKa- tion given us in Virgil.
TaffKevrj, p. Q. n •• • ■ .
e DeOrigineet Progress. Idololatrise, "^"^uZes. ' '' ^"m'o^^ue h-
lib. i. C. l6. &C. Lucentemque globuni lunse, Titaniaqueastra,
f Hyde, Religio vet. Persarum, C. I. Spiritus intus alit; totamque infusa perar-
g This notion the philosophers in ^ens agitat molem, et magno Be ccrpore
time improved into that noble intima- miscet, Mneid. vi. 725.
200 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
and night over all the world, dispensing life and heat and
health and vigour to all the parts and products of the
earth : they kept themselves so far right as not to mistake
them for the true God ; but they imagined them to be the
most glorious of his ministers that could be made the object
of their sight ; and not taking due care to keep strictly to
what their forefathers had delivered to them from revelation
about religion, they were led away by their own imaginations
to appoint an idolatrous worship for beings which had been
created, and by nature loere no gods.
And of this sort was the idolatry that first spread over
Canaan, Arabia, and all the other neighbouring and adjacent
nations ; and I might say the same was first propagated into
the more distant and remote countries, "When the Israelites
were preparing to take possession of the land of Canaan, the
chief caution that was given them against their falling into
the idolatry of the nations round about them shews what
the religion and idolatry of those nations was : and the vin-
dication which Job made for himself intimates that this
was the idolatry of the Arabians in his days. He tells us^,
that he had tiever beheld the sun when it shined, nor the moon
wdndng in brightness ; and that his heart had not been enticed,
nor his mouth kissed his handy i. e. he had never looked up to
the sun and moon, and bowed down to pay a religious wor-
ship to them ; or, (as Moses expresses it in his caution to the
Israelites',) he had not lift up his eyes to heaven, nor when he
saio the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of
heaven., was driven to worship and to serve them. This there-
fore was the first and most ancient idolatry.
And when the several nations of the world had thus be-
gun to deviate from the true worship of God, they did not
stop here, but in a little time went further and further into
all manner of superstitions, in which the Egyptians quickly
outstripped and went beyond all the other nations of the
earth. The Egyptians began, as I have said, first with the
worship of the sun and moon ; in a little time they took the
*i Job xxxi. 26, 27. i Deut. iv. 19.
AND PROFANE HISTOKY. 201
elements into the number of their gods, and worshipped the
earth, the water, the fire, the air ^ ; in time they looked over
the catalogue of their ancestors, and appointed a worship for
such as had been more eminently famous in their genera-
tions • ; and they having before this made pillars, statues, or
images, in memory of them, they paid their worship before
these, and so introduced this sort of idolatry. In time they
descended still lower, and did not only worship men, but, con-
sidering what creatures had been most eminently serviceable
to their most celebrated ancestors, or remarkably instrumental
in being made use of by the first inventors of the several
arts of living, towards the carrying forward the inventions
that were first found out for the providing for the conveni-
ences of life, they consecrated these also ; and in later ages,
vegetables and inanimate things had a religious regard paid
to them. In this manner they fell from one thing to another,
after they ceased to retain God in their knowledge^ according
to what God had been pleased to reveal to them concerning
himself and his worship ; becoming every day more and
more vain in their imaginations, they wandered farther and
farther from the true religion into all manner of fooleries
and abominations.
At what particular times the Egyptians took the several
steps that led them into their grosser idolatries, we cannot
say, but we find they were got into them very early. They
worshipped images, even the images of beasts, before the
Israelites left them, as appears from the Israelites setting up
the calf at Horeb ^^^ in imitation of the gods which they had
seen in Egypt ; and it is remarkable that they were by this
time such proficients in the art of making these gods, as
to cast them in metal, for such an image was that which the
Israelites set up ; and this makes the observation of Pausa-
nias appear very probable, who remarks ", that the Egyptians
had wooden or carved images at the time that Danaus came
into Greece ; for supposing Danaus's coming into Greece
to be about the time where the Arundelian marble fixes
k Diodor. Sic. lib. i. §. 11,12, &c. « In Corinthiacis, p. 118. ed. Sylb.
' Id. Ibid. Han. 1613.
m Exod. xxxii.
202 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
it°, i. e. a little before the time when Moses visited the
children of Israel, namely, A. M. 2494, it looks very probable
that they had this sort of images thus early, because it
appears from what I before observed, that before twenty
years after this time they were so improved as to make them
of better materials, and in a more curious and artful man-
ner ; for archbishop Usher places the exit of the children
of Israel out of Egypt but nineteen years after this year, in
which Danaus is supposed to have come into Greece. The
observation of Pausanias was, [^dava to. irAvra, ixakiara to.
AiyvTTTLa,] that the Egyptian images were all wooden p or
carved ones at that time, i. e. at the time that Danaus left
Egypt, which being, as will appear hereafter, several years
before he came to Greece, it is very probable that the use of
images in Egypt was then in its first rise and infancy, and
that the makers of them were not got further than to try
their art upon such common and easy materials as young
beginners would choose to make their first attempts on.
The religion of Egypt was so entirely corrupted in Moses's
time, that he could not venture upon sufifering the Israelites
to sacrifice unto the Lord their God in the land ; for he told
Pharaoh, that it would be in no wise proper for them to
attempt it ^, because they would be obliged to sacrifice the
abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, i. e. some of
those living creatures which the Egyptians had consecrated ;
and that they should hereby so enrage them, that they would
stone them for so doing. But they do not seem to have
deviated thus far in the days of Joseph : Joseph appears by
all the actions of his life to have been a man of virtue ; his
o Archbishop Usher supposes the image of either wood or stone ; and
Parian Chronicon to have been com- Hesychius says, ^6a,va ayaA/xara Kuplus
posed A. M. 3741 : and the marble to. i^ ^vAoiv e^eff/xiva ij XiOaiv. The
tells us that Danaus's coming into best explanation of the true meaning of
Greece was 1 247 years earlier, so that the word seems to have been designed
according to this account it was A. M. by Eusebius, [Prsep. Evang. lib. iii. c.
2494, as I have placed it, which is about 8.] where he opposes it to a c/ceA/utoi' ep-
twenty years before the IsraeUtes going 701', meaning perhaps a molten image :
out of Egypt. but the passage is so corrupted, that
P The translator of Pausanias renders there is no guessing at the true mean-
the word i,6ava, e liffno, and so I find ing of it. I have been in some doubts
many authors agree to take it. Cle- whether ^oava in Pausanias might not
mens Alexandrinus [in Cohortat. ad be a mistake for |wiKa, or ^liiva.
Gentes] thinks ^iavov to be a can'cd 1 Exod. viii. 26.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 203
heart was full of the hope and expectation of the promise
which God had made to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob "^ ;
and therefore he took an oath of the children of Israel, that
when God should visit them, and bring them out of Egypt,
they would carry away his bones with them; and yet he
married in Egypt the priest of 0ns daughter s ; and after-
wards, when the land was famished, he took the priests under
his protection, so as not to have them suffer in a calamity
which was so severe and heavy upon all the other inhabitants
of the land K If the religion of Egypt had at this time been
so entirely corrupted, as it was in Moses's time, Joseph,
who had the same faith as Moses had, would surely no more
than Moses did, have sat down in the enjoyment of the
pleasures and honours and riches of Egypt; but at least,
when Pharaoh had put him in full power, so that ivithout
him no man lifted up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt"^^
he would have used his credit with the king, and his au-
thority both with the priests and the people, to have in some
measure corrected their religion, if there had been any of
these grosser abominations at that time in it ; and he might
surely have as easily effected something in this matter, as
he brought about a total change of the property of all the
subjects of the land. But the truth of the matter was most
probably this : the Egyptians and the Israelites were indeed
at this time in some respects of a different religion, and not
being able to join worship at the same altar, they might not
(according to their notions of things) eat with one another :
but their differences were not as yet so wide, but that
they could bear with Joseph, and Joseph with them ; and
therefore all their grosser corruptions, which led them to
worship the images of beasts and of men, must be supposed
to have arisen later than these days ; and the time between
Joseph's death and the children of Israel's going out of
Egypt being about a century and a half, they may very well
be supposed to have been begun in the first part of this time,
and the Egyptians to have had only carved or wooden images,
r Gen. 1. 24, 25. * Gen. xlvii. 22.
s Gen. xli. 45. " Gen. xli. 44.
204 CONNKCTIOX OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
according to Pausanias, until after Danaus left them, and to
have so improved as to make molten images before the
Israelites' departure from them.
There is indeed one passage in Genesis which seems to
intimate that there was that religious regard, which the
Egyptians were afterwards charged with, paid to creatures
even in the days of Joseph ; for we are informed, that he
put his brethren upon telling Pharaoh their profession, in
order to have them placed in the land of Goshen, for, or
because, every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians^. I
must freely acknowledge that I cannot satisfy myself about
the meaning of this passage : I cannot see that shepherds
were really at this time an abomination to the Egyptians ;
for Pharaoh himself had his shepherds ; and when he ordered
Joseph to place his brethren in the land of Goshen y, he
was so far from disapproving of their employment, that he
ordered him, if he knew of any men of activity amongst them,
that he should make them rulers over his cattle : nay, the
Egyptians were at this time shepherds themselves, as well as
the Israelites ; for we are told, when their money failed,
they brought'' their cattle of all sorts unto Joseph, to ex-
change them for corn, and, among the rest, their flocks of
the same kind with those which the Israelites were to tell
Pharaoh that it was their profession to take care of, as will
appear to any one that will consult the Hebrew text in
the places referred to. Either therefore we must take the
expression, that every shepherd was an abomination to the
Egyptians, to mean no more than that they thought meanly
of the employment, that it was a lazy, idle, and unactive
profession, as Pharaoh seemed to question whether there
were any men of activity amongst them, when he heard
what their trade was ; or, if we take the words to signify a
religious aversion to them, which does indeed seem to be
the true meaning of the expression from the use made of it
in other places of Scripture, then I do not see how it is
reconcilable with Pharaoh's inclination to employ them
himself, or with the Egyptians being many of them at this
X Gen. xlvi. 34. y Gen. xlvii. 6. ^ Ver. 17.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 205
time of the same profession themselves, which the heathen
writers agree with Moses ^ in supposing them to be.
The learned have observed, that there are several interpo-
lations in the books of the Scriptures which were not the
words of the sacred writers. Some persons affecting to shew
their learning, when they read over the ancient MSS. would
sometimes put a short remark in the margin, which they
thought might give a reason for, or clear the meaning of,
some expression in the text against which they placed it, or
to which they adjoined it; and from hence it happened now
and then, that the transcribers from manuscripts so remarked
upon did, through mistake, take a marginal note or remark
into the text, imagining it to be a part of it. Whether
Moses might not end his period in this place with the words,
that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen ; and whether what
follows, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians,
may not have been added to the text this way, is entirely
submitted to the judgment of the learned.
As the Egyptians did thus sink into the grossest idolatries
very early, so they propagated their errors into all the neigh-
bouring nations round about them : the Philistines quickly
came to have some of the gods which the Egyptians served ;
they had set up Dagon before Eli's time ^, and the image
of Dagon was in part a human representation, for it had an
head, face, and palms of hands ; and the nations which the
Israelites passed through, after their coming out of Egypt,
had amongst them at that time idols, not only of wood and
stone, [which were the ^oava before mentioned, and the most
ancient,] but of silver and gold also ^ : Egypt was the fruitful
mother of all these abominations ; and the nearer nations
were situated to, or the sooner they had acquaintance with
Egypt, the earlier idolatries of this sort were practised
amongst them : for.
If we go into Asia, into the parts a little distant from
Egypt, we find, that, during all the first ages, the luminaries
of heaven or the elements were the only objects of their
idolatrous worship. Baal, or Bel, or Baal-samen, i. e. accord-
a Diodorus Sic. lib. i. §. 73, 74. p. 47. b i Sam. v. c Deut. xxix. 16, 17.
206 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK V.
ing to their own interpretation 'i, the king or lord of heaven,
as the Hebrew word Baal-shemaim would import, or Baal-
Zehuh, i. e. the lord ofjlies, (by which names they meant ^
the sun,) were the ancient deities of the Phoenicians. The
Ammonites worshipped the same god under the name of
Milcom, or Moloch ^, i. e. Melech, or the king. The Arabians
likewise worshipped the sun under the name of Baal-Peor,
or Baal-Phegor ^. And the men of Sepharvaim, who were
brought out of Assyria into Samaria, in the reign of Ahaz
king of Judah, and Hoshea king of Samaria ^, had Anam-
melech, i. e. the king of the clouds ; and Adram-melech, or
rather Adar-ha-melech, i. e. Adar, or Mars the kitig, for their
gods ; and very probably Nergal and Ashima, Nihhaz and
Tartak, the gods of the other nations that were brought with
them, were deities of the same sort. These, and such as
these, were the gods worshipped in the several countries of
Asia in the first days of their idolatry, and some nations did
not descend lower for many ages. The Persians in their
early times had no temples, statues, altars, or images ' ; but
they sacrificed on the top of mountains, to the sun, moon,
earth, fire, and water. The first image that was set up
amongst them was a statue to Venus, and that was erected
not till almost the end of the Persian empire, by a king whom
Clemens Alexandrinus calls Artaxerxes, and very probably
he meant Artaxerxes Ochus ^, the predecessor of Darius, in
whose reign Alexander the Great overthrew the Persian em-
pire. We read in many places of the Old Testament of the
idols of Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar set up an image of
gold in the plain of Durai ; and though this was not the first
image set up amongst them, (for Isaiah mentions their hiring
goldsmiths to make them gods '",) yet I believe that we may
d Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. lo. h 2 Kings xvii. 31. and 24.
e Procop. Gazseus in i Kings xvi. p. ' Herodot. 1. i. §. 131. Strabo. 1.
231. Ed. Meurs. 1620. Servius in Mn. xv. p 732. Ed. Par. 1620. Xenophon.
lib. ii. V. 83. Damascius in vita Isidori in Cjrropaed. in multis loc. Brissonius
apud Photium. §. 242. p. 1050. Ed. de regno Persarum. lib. ii.
1611. Euseb. Prfep. Evang. 1. i.e. 7. k Cohortat. ad Gentes. p. 37. Ed.
f I Kings xi. 5. 7. Levit. xviii. 21. Sylb.
ibid. XX. 2, 3, 4, 5. 1 Dan. iii.
g Numb. XXV. 3, 5, 18. Psalm cvi. "> Isaiah xlvi. 6.
28. Hosea ix. 10.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 207
place their beginning this idolatry about or but little before
this time ; for the removal of the Cuthites, of the men of Ava,
Hamath, and Sepharvaim, from the" countries of Babylon
into Samaria, was about a century before the reign of Nebu-
chadnezzar, and they seem not to have learnt in their own
countries to become worshippers of these sort of gods ; for
when they set up the idolatries of their nations in Samaria,
they did not set up images, but made Succoth-henoth °, i. e.
shrines, or model-temples, little structures, such as St. Ste-
phen speaks of, when he? mentions the tabernacles of Moloch,
which they took up and carried about in processions ; or they
had sidereal representations of the luminaries of heaven, such
as St. Stephen calls the star of the god Remphan.
The first step which the Babylonians, and very probably all
other nations, took towards image- worship, was the erect-
ing pillars in honour of their gods. All their other idols
were novelties in comparison of these. We read that Jacob
set up a pillar when he vowed a vow unto the true God i ;
so that the erecting these pillars was a very ancient practice,
even as ancient as A. M. 2246, and practised we see by the
professors of the true religion ; and when men fell into idol-
atry, they kept on this practice, and erected such pillars to
their false gods. The Alexandrian Chronicon, in the place
which I have before cited, remarks to us, that the Babylo-
nians set up a pillar to the planet Mars ; and Clemens Alex-
andrinusr observes, that before the art of carving was in-
vented, the ancients erected pillars, and paid their worship
to them, as to statues of their gods. Herodian^ mentions a
pillar or large stone (for it is to be observed that these pillars
were large stones set up without art' or workmanship) erected
in honour of the sun, by the title oi Eligahalus, or El-Gebal^
i. e. the god of Gebal, a city of Phoenicia. Pausanias mentions
several of these uncarved pillars in Boeotia in Greece ", and
he says they were the ancient statues erected to their gods ^.
Some time after the first use of these, they erected wooden
1 2 Kings xvii. 24. s Lib. v. p. 563.
o Ver. 30. t Pausan. in Boeoticis, and in this
P Acts vii. 43. respect they were like Jacob's pillars.
Q Gen. xxviii. 18. and xxxv. 14. 1 In Boeoticis.
' Stromat. 1 i. §. 24. p. ii;i. x Idem in Achaicis.
208 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK V.
ones, and these at first had but little workmanship bestowed
upon them; for we read in Clemens Alexandrinus y, that a
block, or trunk of a tree, was an ancient statue of Juno at
Samos ; and Plutarch informs us, that two beams, or pieces
of timber, joined together with two shorter cross beams, was
the ancient representation of Castor and Pollux '^ ; and hence
it came to pass, that the astrologers pitched upon the figure
of this representation to be the character for the constellation
called Gemini, which they describe thus, n.
Epiphaniusa and other writers have imagined that image-
worship was very early in Assyria and Chaldaea, even as early
as the days of Abraham ; they represent, that Serug, Nahor,
and Terah the father of Abraham, were statuaries and carvers,
and that they made idols, and set up image-worship in
these countries : but there is no proof of this opinion, except
Jewish traditions, which are of no great account. Pillars of
stone were perhaps in use in these times, but they were only
common stones heaped upon one another, as Jacob afterwards
heaped them, and Joshua upon another occasion '^ many
generations after ; or they were large, but apyoi XiQoi, as Pausa-
nias calls them ; they had no workmanship about them which
could intimate the hand of the artificer to have been con-
cerned in them. Laban indeed, a descendant of this family,
had his teraphim, in our translation, gods, which Rachel
stole from himc; but we have no reason to imagine that these
were image-gods ; it is more probable that they were little
pillars, or stones, which had the names of their ancestors in-
scribed upon them. As they erected larger pillars to their
deities, so they made smaller and portable ones in memory
of their ancestors, which were esteemed by them much as
family-pictures are now by us ; and that made Rachel so fond
of taking them when she went away from her father's house,
and Laban so angry at the thoughts of their being taken
from him. In after-ages, when the pillars erected to the
gods were turned into statues, these family-pillars were con-
verted into little images ; and these seem to be the beginning
y Cohort, ad Gentes, §. 4. p. 13. in 'Zepovx, et al.
z Philadelph. p. 478. initio. h Josh. iv. 5.
a Adversus Haeres. 1. i. §. 6. Suidas c Gen. xxxi.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 209
of the Penates^ or family-gods, of which we have frequent
mention in after-times.
Idolatry made its progress in Greece in much the same
manner ; for, according to Plato's express words '*, the first
Grecians esteemed those to be the only gods, which many of
the foreign nations thought so, namely, the sun, moon, and
stars : they worshipped therefore at first the luminaries of
heaven ; in time they came to worship the elements ; for the
same author mentions these also as their ancient deities, and
they erected pillars in honour of them, as the Asians did to
their gods, as appears from the authorities already cited, and
many other places which might be quoted from Pausanias
and other writers. At what time the Greeks came to wor-
ship such gods as Homer sings of is uncertain ; but their
worship was evidently established before his time. All
writei's^ do in the general agree, that the Greeks had the
names and the worship of these gods from Egypt ; and Hero-
dotus was of opinion that the Pelasgi first encouraged the
reception of them ^, at what time he does not tell us ; but we
may remark this, that we cannot suppose it to be before the
plantation of that people, which left Greece under the conduct
and command of OenotrusS, were migrated into Italy; for if
it had, they would have carried these gods and this sort of
worship with them.
But if we look into Italy, we not only find in general that
the writers of their ^^ antiquities remark, that their ancient
deities were of a different sort from those of Greece ; but,
according to Plutarch ', Numa, the second king of Rome,
made express orders against the use of images in the worship
of the Deity; nay, he says further, that for the first 170
years after the building the city, the Romans used no images,
but thought the Deity to be invisible, and reputed it un-
lawful to make representations of him from things of an
d In Cratylo. His words are, *ot- et mult. al.
vovrai fioi oi irpwToi tSiv avdpdiiruv -nepX f In Euterpe, c. 50.
T^v 'EA.Aa5a tovtovs fi6vovs @eovs ryyf'i- S Pausanias in Arcadicis, p. 458. ed.
adai ovffiTfp vvv iroKKol toov BapPdpuv, Sylb. 1613.
^Aiou Hal atKrjvijv Ka.\ 7^^ Koi &<rTpa /col ^ Dionys Halicar. lib. vii. c. 70.
odpavov. i In Numa. Init. et Clem. Alexand.
e Euseb. Prsep. Evang lib. i. c. 6. Stromat. 1. i. §. 15. p. 130.
Diodor. Sic. lib. i. &c. Clem. Alexand.
VOL. I. P
210 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK V
inferior nature ; so that, according to this account, Rome
being built about A. M. 3256 '% the inhabitants of Italy were
not greatly corrupted in their religion even so late as A, M.
3426, which falls when Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon,
and about 169 years after the time where I am to end
this work. It is remarkable that Plutarch does not represent
Numa as correcting or refining the ancient idolatry of Italy ;
but expresses, that this people never had these grosser deities,
either before, or for the first 1 70 years of their city ; so that
it is more than probable that Greece was not thus corrupted
when the Pelasgi removed from thence into Italy ; and
further, that the Trojans were not such idolaters at the
destruction of their city, because, according to this account,
jEneas neither brought with him images into Italy, nor such
gods as were worshipped by the adoration of images ; and
therefore Pausanias^, who imagined that -^neas carried the
Palladium into Italy, was as much mistaken as the men of
Argos, who affirmed themselves to have it in their city"".
The times of Numa are about 200 years after Homer, and
very probably the idolatry so much celebrated in his writings
might by this time begin to appear in Italy, and thereby oc-
casion Numa to make laws and constitutions against it.
There are several other particulars which might be added
to this subject ; but I am unwilling to draw out this digression
to a greater length, and shall only offer a remark or two,
and put an end to this book.
It is observable, that the first corruptions of religion were
begun by kings and rulers of nations. Ninus taught the
Assyrians to worship fire ; and Syphis, king of Egypt, wrote
a sacred book, which laid the foundation of all their errors :
in like manner in after-ages, Nebuchadnezzar set up the
golden image in the plains of Dura ; and when image-
worship was brought into Persia, it was introduced, as the
learned Dr. Hyde observes, by some king, who built temples,
set up statues, appointed priests, and settled them revenues,
for the carrying on the worship according to the rites and
institutions which he thought fit to prescribe to them. And
I' Archbishop Usher's Annals. 1 In Corinthiacis. p. 127. m ibid.
AN1> PROFANE HISTORY.
211
in this manner, without doubt, Sabiism was planted, both in
Persia and all other nations. Kings and heads of families
were the priests amongst the true worshippers of the God of
heaven ; Melchisedec was priest as well as king of Salem ;
and Abraham was the priest of his own household : and we
have reason to believe that other kings were careful to
preserve to themselves this honour, and presided in religion,
as well as ruled and governed their people ; and in reality, as
the circumstances of the world then were, if they had not
done the one, they could not have eifected the other. Kings
and rulers therefore being at this time the supreme directors
in religion, their inventions and institutions were what began
the first errors and innovations which were introduced into
it. This point should indeed be a little more carefully ex-
amined, because some writers have a favourite scheme, which
they think they can build great things upon, and which runs
very contrary to what I have offered. These gentlemen
advance propositions to this purpose : that God had given to
all men innate principles, sufficient to lead them to know and
worship him ; but that the great misfortune of the heathen
world was, too strict a reliance of the laity upon the clergy,
who, for the advancement of their own lucre, invented
temples and altars and sacrifices, and all manner of super-
stitions. Thus they run on at random. The whole of their
opinion may be expressed in these two positions : i . That
the powers and faculties which God at first gave to men led
them naturally to know and to worship him, according to the
dictates of right reason, i. e. in the way of natural religion.
2. That the priests for their own ends set up revealed religion :
and this is in truth the foundation of our modern deism ; the
professors of it believing in their hearts that there never was
a real religion at all, but that the first religion in the world
was merely natural, men worshipping God only according to
what reason suggested to them ; but that in time artful men,
for political ends, pretended to revelations, and led the world
away into superstition ; and the first pretenders to these reve-
lations were, they say, the priests or clergy. But all this is
fiction and chimsera; we can find nothing to countenance
these extravagant fancies in any history of any part of the
p 2
212 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
world : for with regard to the first point, that the priests were
the first corrupters of religion ; let them but tell us when,
and where : all the history we have of the several kingdoms
of the world agree in this, that kings and rulers were in all
the heathen nations the first institutors and directors of the
rites and ceremonies of religion, as well as of the laws by
which they governed their people : and we have not only
plain hints to this purpose in the remains of those early
kingdoms, of which perhaps it may be said, that the accounts
are so short and imperfect that we may be deceived if we lay
too great a stress upon them : but we find, that all antiquity
was so universally agreed in this point, that if we look into
the foundation of those later kingdoms, of which we have
fuller and clearer accounts transmitted to us, we find fuller
and clearer accounts of this matter. Romulus and Numa,
and other succeeding kings, were the authors and institutors
of every part of the Roman religion ; and we are told" that
Numa wrote a book upon the subject : and we find amongst
the appointments of Romulus °, that when he had settled the
several magistrates and ofiicers, which he thought necessary
for the well-governing of his people, he reserved to himself
as king to be the supreme director of the sacra and sacrifices,
and to perform himself the public offices of religion ; for so I
understand the words, irdtyra hi kK^Lvov TrpdrrccrOat to. irpbs tovs
Qeovs ocna. And I think I am directed so to understand
them by what happened afterwards ; for when Brutus and
his associates expelled the kings, banishing Tarquinius, and
erecting a commonwealth instead of the kingly government,
it is remarkable that they found themselves obliged to ap-
point a new officer, whom they called the Rex sacrijlculus ,
that there might be one to oflfer those sacrifices which used
to be offered by the king for the people P. Quia puhlica
sacra qucedam^ says Livy i, per ipsos reges factitata erant, ne
uhiuhi regum desiderium esset, regem sacrificulwn creant : i. e.
*' Because some of the public sacrifices were performed by
" the king himself, that there might not be any want of a
n Dionys. Halicarnass. lib. i. c. 63. P Dionys. Halicarn. 1. iv. c. 74. p.
J). 124. 269.
o Dionys. Halicarn. 1. ii. c. 14. p. 87. 1 Liv. 1. ii. c. 2.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
213
" king, they created a royal sacrificer." In Greece we find
the same institutions ; and, according to Xenophon ^, the
kings of Lacedsemon having officers under them for the
several employments of the state, reserved to themselves to
be the priests of their people in divine affairs, and their
governors and supreme directors in civil. And this was the
most ancient practice in all nations ; and priests were so far
from being the first inventors of superstition, or corrupters of
religion, that in the sense in which these writers use the
word, there were no priests at all until religion was consider-
ably depraved and vitiated. Every man was at first the priest
of his own family, and every king of his own kingdom ; and
though we may suppose that in time, when kingdoms came
to grow large, the people to be numerous, and the affairs to
be transacted full of variety ; that then kings appointed, for
the better governing of their people, ministers under them,
both in sacred and civil matters : yet this was not done at
first ; and when it was done, the ministers so appointed were
only executors of the injunctions and directions, ordex's and
institutions, which the kings who appointed them thought
fit to give them. In time, the ceremonies and institutions of
religion grew to be so numerous, as that kings could not
always be at leisure to attend upon the performance, or the
taking care of the particulars of them, nor could a new king
be sufficiently instructed, at his coming to a crown, in all the
various rites and usages that had, some at one time, and
some at another, being established by his ancestors ; and this
occasioned the appointing a set of men, whose whole business
it might be to take care of these matters, which then princes
began to leave to them ; and from this time indeed the power
and authority of the priests grew daily ; though even after
this time we find some of the greatest kings directing and
acting in these things themselves. Cyrus commonly offered
the public sacrifices himself^ ; and Cambyses his father, when
he sent him with an army to assist Cyaxares his uncle, ob-
served to him, what care he had taken to have him fully
r In Repub. Lacedsem. p. 688. ed. s Xenophont. Cyropaed. 1. iii. et in
Leunclav. 1594. mult. al. loc.
^14 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK V.
instructed in augury, that he might be able to judge for him-
self, and not depend upon his augurs for their directions*. And
thus I have endeavoured to set this matter in the light in which
the best writers and historians agree to place it; and these were,
I believe, the sentiments which Josephus had about it, who
inquiring into what might be the first occasion of the many
heathen superstitions and errors in religion, professes himself
to think that they began at first from the legislators, who
not rightly knowing the true nature of God, or not rightly
explaining and keeping up to that knowledge which they
might have had of it, were hereby led to appoint constitu-
tions in religion not suitable to it, and so opened a door for
those that came after to introduce all sorts of deities and
superstitions". And very agreeable to this is the determina-
tion of the author of the Book of Wisdom, that the heathen
idolatries were set up by the commandments of kings ^. It
will perhaps be here said, that kings then were the first
introducers of revelation and superstition, and that they did it
to aggrandize themselves, to attract the greater regard and
veneration of their people. To this I answer : we find accounts
of revelation earlier than we find any mention of kings. Noah
had several directions from the Deity, and so had Adam ; so
that we must set aside what history assures us to have been
fact, in order to embrace what seems to these sort of writers
to be most probable, instead of it. But I have already con-
sidered y that the worship of God, which all men universally
in all nations performed in the most early times, was of such
a nature, that we cannot with any appearance of probability
imagine, but that it was at first introduced by divine appoint-
ments ; for we cannot learn from history, nor, if we reflect,
can we conceive, that natural reason should ever have led
men into such sentiments as should have induced them to
think of worshipping God in that manner. But there are two
queries which I would put to these writers : i. If there was
no revelation made to the men of the first ages in matters of
religion, how came all nations of the world to be so fully
t Xenophont. Cyropsed. 1. i. x Chap. xiv. 16.
" Contra Apion. lib. ii. §. 35. p. y Book II. p. 50.
1386. ed. Huds.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
215
persuaded that there was, as to make it necessary for legisla-
tors, who made appointments in religion, to pretend to some
revelation or other, in order to support and establish them?
2, How came men to think of acknowledging and worship-
ping a God so early as they did really worship and acknow-
ledge him ? If we look into the religious appointments of
the several kings and rulers whom we have accounts of, we
find their institutions always received as directions from
heaven, by their hands transmitted to their people. Romulus
and Numa were both believed to have been directed by a
revelation what sacra they were to establish ; and Lycurgus
was supposed to be instructed by the oracle at Delphos ^ ; and
thus Syphis the king of Egypt was esteemed to be 0eo77r?7s,
one that had a converse with the gods. The general maxim
of Plato ^, that all laws and constitutions about divine worship
were to be had only from the gods, was every where received
and believed in the world ; and when kings made appoint-
ments in these matters, their subjects received what they or-
dered as the dictates of inspiration, believing that ^ a divine
sentence was in the lips 0/ their kings, and that their mouths
transgressed not in the appointments which they made them ;
and this they readily went into, not being artfully betrayed
by kings into a belief of revelation, but believing them to be
inspired from the universal knowledge which the world was
then full of, that God had revealed to their several ancestors
and heads of families, in what way and manner they should
worship him. If reason only had been the first guide in
matters of religion, rulers would neither have thought of,
nor have wanted, the pretence of revelation, to give credit to
their institutions ; whereas, on the other hand, revelation being
generally esteemed in all nations to be the only true founda-
tion of religion, kings and rulers, when they thought fit to add
inventions of their own to the religion of their ancestors,
were obliged to make use of that disposition, which they
knew their people to have, to receive what came recom-
mended to them under the name of a revelation. But to pro-
ceed to the second query : if there was no revelation made
z Plutarch. Lycurg. a De Legib. 1. vi. •' Prov. xvi. lo.
216 CONNECTION OF THK SACKED [bOOK V.
to the men of the first ages, how came the knowledge and
worship of God so early into the world ? Perhaps some will
answer, according to lord Herbert «, from innate principles:
if they do so, I must refer them to what our ingenious
countryman Mr. Locke has offered upon that subject. The
only way that reason can teach men to know God must be
from considering his works ; and if so, his works must be first
known and considered, before they can teach men to know
the author of them. It seems to be but a wild fancy, that
man was at first raised up in this world, and left entirely to
himself, to find out by his own natural powers and faculties
what was to be his duty and his business in it. If we could
imagine the first men brought into the world in this manner,
we must, with Diodorus Siculus, conceive them for many
ages to be but very poor and sorry creatures. The invisible
things of God are indeed to be understood by the things that are
made ; but men in this state would for many generations be
considering the things of the world in lower views, in order
to provide themselves the conveniences of life from them,
before they would reflect upon them in such a manner as
should awaken up in their minds any thoughts of a God :
and when they should come to consider things in such a light
as to discover by them that there was a God, yet how long
must it be before they can be imagined to have arrived at such
a thorough knowledge of the things of the world as to have
just and true notions of him? "We see in fact, that when men
first began to speculate and reason about the things of the
world, they reasoned and speculated very wrong. In Egypt,
in Chaldaea, in Persia, and in all other countries, false and ill-
grounded notions of the things which God had made in-
duced them to worship the creatures instead of the Creator,
and that at times when other persons, who had less philoso-
phy, were professors of a truer theology. The descendants
of Abraham were true worshippers of the God of heaven ;
when other nations, whose great and wise men pretended to
consider and reason about the works of the creation, did in
no wise rightly apprehend or acknowledge the Workmaster; but
c Lib. de Religione Gentilium, c. i. et 2,
AND PEOFANE HISTORY. 217
deemed either fir e^ or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of ike
stars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven, to he the gods
which govern the world ; being delighted with their beauty, or
astonished at their power, they took them for gods^. In a word,
if we look over all the accounts we have of the several
nations of the earth, and consider every thing that has been
advanced by any or all the philosophers, we can meet with
nothing to induce us to think, that the first religion of the
world was introduced by the use and direction of mere na-
tural reason ; but on the other hand, all history, both sacred
and profane, offers us various arguments to prove, that God
revealed to men in the first ages how he would be worship-
ped; but that, when men, instead of adhering to what had
been revealed, came to lean to their own understandings, and
to set up what they thought to be right in the room of what
God himself had directed, they lost and bewildered themselves
in endless errors. This I am sensible is a subject that should
be examined to the bottom ; and I am persuaded, if it were,
the result of the inquiry would be this, that he that thinks
to prove that the world ever did in fact by wisdom know God^,
that any nation upon earth, or any set of men ever did, from
the principles of reason only, without any assistance from re-
velation, find out the true nature and the true worship of the
Deity, must find out some history of the world entirely dif-
ferent from all the accounts which the present sacred or pro-
fane writers do give us ; or his opinion must appear to be a
mere guess and conjecture of what is barely possible, but
what all history assures us never was really done in the
world.
d Wisdom xiii. i — 4. e 1 Corinth, i. 21.
END OF VOL. I.
THE
SACRED AND PROFANE
HISTOKY OF THE WORLD
CONNECTED.
VOLUME THE SECOND.
THE
PREFACE.
THIS second volume, which I now offer to the public,
carries down the history of the world to the exit of the
children of Israel out of Egypt. The method I have kept to
is the same as in the former volume ; and I have in this, as
in the other, interspersed, as I go along, several digressions
upon such subjects, as either the Scripture accounts, or the
hints we meet with in profane authors concerning the times
I treat of, suggested to me.
Sir Isaac Newton's chronology was not published until
after I had finished both my former volume and the preface
to it : but as his sentiments upon the ancient chronology
have been since that time oifered to the world, it will become
me to endeavour to give some reasons for my having formerly,
and for my still continuing to differ from him. I am not
yet come down to the times where he begins his chronology,
and for that reason it would be an improper, as well as a
very troublesome anticipation, to enter into particulars, which
I shall be able to set in a much clearer light, when I shall
give the history of the times which he has supposed them to
belong to. But since there are in sir Isaac Newton's work
several arguments of a more extensive influence, than to be
confined to any one particular epoch, and which are, in truth,
the main foundation of his whole scheme, and do affect the
whole body of the ancient chronology, I shall endeavour to
consider them here, that the reader may judge, whether I
have already, as well as whether I shall hereafter proceed
rightly, in not being determined by them. The first of them
which I shall mention is the astronomical argument for fixing
the time of the argonautic expedition, formed from the
constellations of Chiron. This seems to be demonstration,
and to prove incontestably, that the ancient profane history
is generally carried about 300 years higher backward than
222 PREFACE.
the truth : the full force of this argument is clearly expressed
in the Short Chronicle ^ as follows.
I. " Chiron formed the constellations for the use of the
" Argonauts, and placed the solstitial and eqviinoctial points
" in the fifteenth degrees or middles of the constellations of
" Cancer, Chelae, Capricorn, and Aries. Meton, in the year
" of Nabonassar 3 1 6, observed the summer solstice in the
" eighth degree of Cancer, and therefore the solstice had
" then gone back seven degrees. It goes back one degree
" in about 72 years, and seven degrees in about 504 years :
" count these years back from the year of Nabonassar 316,
" and they will place the Argonautic expedition 936 years
" before Christ." The Greeks (says our great and learned
author '^) placed it 300 years earlier. The reader will easily
see the whole force of this argument. Meton, anno Nabo-
nass. 3 1 6, found that the solstices were in the eighth degrees
of the constellations : Chiron, at the time of the Argonautic
expedition, placed them in the fifteenth degrees : the solstice
goes back seven degrees in 504 years ; from whence it follows,
that the time when Chiron placed the solstices in the fifteenth
degrees was 504 years before anno Nabonass. 316, when
Meton found that they were in the eighth degrees.
The fallacy of this argument cannot but appear very
evident to any one that attends to it ; for suppose we allow
that Chiron did really place the solstices as sir Isaac Newton
represents, (though I think it most probable that he did not
so place them,) yet it must be undeniably plain, that nothing
can be certainly established from Chiron's position of them,
unless it appears that Chiron knew how to give them their
true place. It was easy for so great a master of astronomy as
sir Isaac Newton to calculate where the solstices ought to
be placed in the year of our Lord 1689'=, and to know how
many years have passed since they were in the fifteenth
degrees of the constellations : but though we should allow,
that Chiron imagined them, in his time, to be in this position,
yet, if he really was mistaken in his imagination, no argu-
ment can be formed from Chiron's position of them ; for
supposing the true place of the solstices, in the days of
Chiron, to be in the nineteenth degrees of the constellations,
it will be evident, from what was the true place of them in
the year of our Lord 1689, as well as from what was the place
of them anno Nabonass. 316, that the time of Chiron's making
his scheme of the heavens was about 300 years earlier than
a See Short Chronicle, p. 25. Lend. p. 83. Lend. 1728.
1728. The argument is offered at t" Chronology of the Greeks, p. 94.
large in Chronology of the Greeks, ^ Ibid. p. 86.
PREFACE. 223
our great and learned author supposes, though Chiron er-
roneously placed the solstices at that time in the fifteenth
degrees of the constellations, instead of the nineteenth ; and
whether Chiron might not mistake four or five degrees this
way or that way, we may judge from what follows.
Chiron's skill in astronomy was so imperfect, that we
cannot imagine he could find the true place of the solstices
with any tolerable exactness. The Egyptians were the first
that found out that the year consisted of more than 360
days. Strabo informs us **, that the Theban priests were the
most eminent philosophers and astronomers, and that they
numbered the days of the year, not by the course of the
moon, but by that of the sun ; and that to twelve months,
consisting each of thirty days, they added five days every year.
Herodotus testifies the same thing-^. " The Egyptians (says
" he) were the first that found out the length of the year,"
And he tells us particularly what they determined to be the
true length of it, namely, " twelve months of thirty days each,
" and five days added besides them." Diodorus Siculus
says, " The Thebans (i. e. the priests of Thebes in Egypt)
" were the first that brought philosophy and astrology to an
" exactness ;" and he adds, " they determined the year to
" consist of twelve months, each of thirty days ; and added
" five days to twelve such months, as being the full measure
" of the sun's annual revolution ^." And thus, until the
Egyptians found out the mistake, all astronomers were in a
very great error, imagining the sun's annual motion to he
performed in 360 days.
It may perhaps be here said, that the Egyptians had im-
proved their astronomy before Chiron's days, and that Chiron
may be supposed to have been instructed by them, and so to
have been a pretty good astronomer. To this I answer :
If the Egyptians had improved their astronomy before
Chiron*'s time, yet the Greeks were ignorant of this measure
of the year until Thales went to Egypt, and conversed with
the priests of that nation : Thales, says Laertius s, was the
first who corrected the Greek year. And this opinion of
Laertius is confirmed by Herodotus, who represents Solon, a
cotemporary of Thales, in his conference with Croesus very
remarkably mistaking the true measure of the year. Thales
fl Strabo. Geogr. lib. xvii. p. 816 rerapTop, or six hours, which were
ed. Par. added afterwards ; but these were not
e Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 4. accounted to belong to the year so
f Diodor. Sic. Hist. lib. i. §. 50. p. parly as the five days.
32. Diodorus indeed mentions the S Laert. in vita Thaletis, lib. i. §. 22.
224 PREFACE.
had found out, that the year consisted of 365 days ; but the
exact particulars of what he had learned in this point were
not immediately known all over Greece, and so Solon repre-
sents to Croesus that the year consisted of 375 days ; for
he represents it as necessary to add a whole month, i. e. thirty
days, every other year, to adjust the year then in use to its
true measure ' : the notion therefore of the received computed
year's being too short was new in Solon's time : he was
apprised that it was so ; but what Thales brought from Egypt
upon the subject was not yet generally known or understood,
and so Solon made mistakes in his guesses about it. Thales,
according to the vulgar account, lived above 600 years after
Chiron, and above 300 years after him according to sir Isaac
Newton ; and therefore Chiron was entirely ignorant of all
this improvement in astronomy. Chiron imagined 360 days
to be a year ; and if he knew no better how to estimate the
sun's annual motion, his axrjfxaTa oKvfi-nov, his draughts of the
constellations, must be very inaccurate ; he could never place
the solstices with any tolerable exactness, but might easily
err four or five degrees in his position of them ; and if we
had before us the best scheme that he could draw, I dare say
we should be able to demonstrate nothing from it, but the
great imperfection of the ancient astronomy. " If indeed it
" could be known what was the true place of the solstitial
" points in Chiron's time, it might be known, by taking the
" distance of that place from the present position of them,
" how much time has elapsed from Chiron to our days :"
but I answer, it cannot be accurately known from any
schemes of Chiron's what was the true place of the solstices
in his days ; because, though it is said that he calculated the
then position of them, yet he Avas so inaccurate an astronomer,
that his calculation might err four or five degrees from their
true position.
Our great and learned author mentions Thales and Meton,
as if the observations of both these astronomers might con-
firm his hypothesis. He says, " Thales wrote a book of the
" tropics and equinoxes, and predicted the eclipses. And
" Pliny tells us, that he determined the occasus matutinus of
" the Pleiades to be upon the 25th day after the autumnal
" equinox." And from hence he argues, i. That the sol-
stices were in Thales's days in the middle of the eleventh
degrees of the signs. 2. That the equinoxes had therefore
moved backwards from their place in Chiron's time, to this
their position in Thales's days, as much as answers to 320
h Herodot. 1. i. c. 32.
PREFACE. 225
years ; and therefore, 3. that Chiron made his scheme, and
consequently the Argonautic expedition was undertaken not
more than so many years before the days of Thales. But
here it cannot but be remarked, that the chief force of this
argument depends upon Chiron's having rightly placed the
solstices in his times ; so that what has been said of Chiron's
inaccuracy must fully answer it. If Chiron erred in placing
the solstices ; if their true place in his time might be in the
nineteenth or twentieth degrees, and not (as he is said to
suppose) in the fifteenth ; then, however true it be that they
were in the eleventh degrees in Thales's time, yet it will not
follow that Chiron lived but 320 years before Thales. If
Chiron could have been exact, there had been a foundation
for the argument ; but if Chiron was mistaken, nothing but
mistake can be built upon his uncorrected computation.
But if Chiron was not concerned in this argument, if it
depended solely upon the skill of Thales, I should still sus-
pect that there might be, though not so much, yet some error
in it: Thales, though a famous astronomer for the age he
lived in, yet was not skilful enough to determine with a true
exactness the time of the setting of the Pleiades, or to fix
accurately the autumnal equinox ; and therefore no great
stress could have been laid upon any guesses which he might
have been reported to make in these matters.
Thales, as I before hinted, was the first of the Grecians
who learned that the year consisted of more than three hun-
dred sixty days ; but though he had learned this, yet he was
ignorant of another material point, namely, that it consisted
of almost six hours over and above the five additional days
before mentioned. When the Egyptians first found this out
is uncertain ; but their discovery of it was not so early as the
time of their coming to the knowledge of the other point,
as is evident from the fable in which their mythologic writers
dressed up the doctrine of the year's consisting of three
hundred sixty-five days' ; for, according to that fable, five days
were the exact seventy-second part of the whole year, and
five is so of three hundred sixty ; and therefore, when the
five days Avere first added, the year was thought to consist of
three hundred sixty-five days only : it is hard to say when
the Egyptians made this further improvement of their astro-
nomy ; but whenever they did, it is certain that Thales knew
nothing of it, for sir John Marsham rightly observes, that
Herodotus takes no notice of the quarter part of a day,
which should be added to the year over and above the five
i See the fable, note in pref. to vol. I.
VOL. 1. Q
226 PREFACE.
additional days, and adds'', that Eudoxus first learned from
the Egyptian priests, that such farther addition ought to be
made to the measure of the year, and he cites Strabo's express
words to confirm his observation^ : now Eudoxus lived about
three hundred years after Thales, and therefore Thales was
entirely ignorant, both of this, and, according to Strabo, of
many other very material points in astronomy, which Eu-
doxus learned in Egypt.
Thales is indeed said to have foretold an eclipse, i. e. I
suppose he was able to foresee that there would be one, not
that he could calculate exactly the time when ; perhaps he
might guess within two or three weeks, and perhaps he
might err twice the number, and yet be thought in his age
a very great astronomer. Sir Isaac Newton says, that he
wrote a book of the tropics and equinoxes ; undoubtedly it
was a very sorry one : I cannot apprehend that Thales could
settle the equinoxes with so much exactness, as that any
great stress could have been laid even upon his account of
the Pleiades setting twenty-five days after the autumnal
equinox : he might or might not happen to err a day or two
about the time of the equinox, and as much about the setting
of the Pleiades.
Sir Isaac Newton observes, that Meton, in order to publish
his lunar cycle of nineteen years, observed the summer sol-
stice in the year of Nabonassar 316; and Columella (he
says) tells us, that he placed it in the eighth degree of
Cancer ; from whence he argues, that the solstice had gone
back from Chiron's days to Meton's at least seven degrees,
and therefore Meton was but 504 years after Chiron ^ : but
here again the argument depends upon Chiron's having
accurately settled the equinoxes in his time, and therefore
the answer I have before given will be here sufficient : as to
Meton ; from this account of his settling the equinoxes, and
from dean Prideaux's of his nineteen years cycle", it would
seem probable that he was a very exact astronomer : but I
must confess there appear to me to be considerable reasons
against admitting this opinion of him ; for how could Meton
be so exact an astronomer, when Hipparchus, who lived al-
most 300 years after Meton °, was the first who found out that
the equinox had a motion backwards ; and even he was so far
k Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 236. 6 iviavThs irapa. to7s "E\A7j<rtv, ws koI
1 Strabo says, that Eudoxus and &\\a wXuu. Strabo, Geog. 1. xvii. p.
Plato learned from the Egyptian priests, 806. ed. Par.
TO, eiriTpexovTa rrjs v/xepas Koi ttjs vvk- m Chronology of the Greeks, p. 93.
Ths iJ.6piaTa7s TpiuKocrlais e^ilKovra TTtvre n Prideaux, Connect, p. II. b. iv. p.
rifiepais (Is t V ^n-rrKi^puxnv rod iuiaucriov 181.
Xpivov : and he adds, oAA' y]yvouro Tt'ws o Newton's Chronology, p. 94.
PREFACE, 227
from being accurate, that he miscounted 28 years in 100 in
calculating that motion P ? Meton might not be so exact an
astronomer as he is represented. The cycle that goes under
his name might be first projected by him ; but he perhaps
did not give it that perfection which it afterwards received.
Columella lived in the times of the emperor Claudius, and
he might easily ascribe more to Meton than belonged to him,
living so many ages after him. Later authors perfected
Melon's rude draughts of astronomy, and Columella might
imagine the corrections made in his originals by later hands
to be Meton's. We now call the nineteen years cycle by his
name ; but I cannot imagine that any more of it belongs to
him, than an original design of something like it, which
the astronomers of after-ages added to and completed by
degrees.
Before I leave the astronomical argument of our truly great
author, I would add the very celebrated Dr. Halley's account
of the astronomy of the ancients ; which he communicated
some years ago to the author of Hefiections upon Ancient and
Modern Learning. His words arei,
" As for the astronomy of the ancients, this is usually
" reckoned for one of those sciences wherein consisted the
" learning of the Egyptians ; and Strabo expressly declares,
" that there were in Babylonia several universities, wherein
" astronomy was chiefly professed ; and Pliny tells us much
" the same thing : so that it might well be expected, that
" where such a science was so much studied, it ought to have
" been proportionably cultivated. Notwithstanding all which,
" it does appear, that there was nothing done by the Chal-
" dseans older than about 400 years before Alexander's con-
" quest, that could be serviceable either to Hipparchus or
" Ptolomy in their determination of the celestial motions;
" for had there been any observations older than those we
" have, it cannot be doubted but the victorious Greeks must
" have procured them, as well as those they did, they being
" still more valuable for their antiquity. All we have of
*' them is only seven eclipses of the moon preserved in
" Ptolomy's Syntaxis, and even those but very coarsely set
" down, and the oldest not much above 700 years before
" Christ ; so that after all the fame of these Chaldseans, we
" may be sure that they had not gone far in this science :
" and though Callisthenes be said by Porphyry to have
" brought from Babylon to Greece observations above 1900
P Newton's Chronology, p. 94. Ancient and IModern Learning, ch.
1 See Wotton's Reflections upon xxiv. p. ^520. Lond. 1697.
q2
228 PREFACE.
" years older than Alexander, yet the proper authors making
" no mention or use of any such, renders it justly suspected
" for a fable ^ What the Egyptians did in this matter is
" less evident, no one observation made by them being to be
" found in their countryman Ptolomy, excepting what was
" done by the Greeks of Alexandria under 300 years before
" Christ; so that whatever was the learning of these two
" ancient nations, as to the motions of the stars, it seems to
" have been chiefly theoretical ; and I will not deny, but
" some of them might very long since be apprised of the sun's
" being the centre of our system, for such was the doctrine of
" Pythagoras and Philolaus, and some others, who were said
" to have travelled into these parts.
" From hence it may appear, that the Greeks were the
" first practical astronomers who endeavoured in earnest to
" make themselves masters of the science, and to whom we
"^ owe all the old observations of the planets, and of the
'* equinoxes and tropics : Thales was the first that could
" predict an eclipse in Greece not 600 years before Christ,
" and without doubt it was but a rude account he had of
" the motions ; and it was Hipparchus who made the first
" catalogue of the fixed stars not above 150 years before
*' Christ ; without which catalogue there could be scarce
*' such a science as astronomy ; and it is to the subtilty
" and diligence of that great author that the world was
" beholden for all its astronomy for above 1500 years. All
" that Ptolomy did in his Syntaxis, was no more but a bare
" transcription of the theories of Hipparchus, with some little
" emendation of the periodical motions, after about 300 years
" interval ; and this book of Ptolemy's was, without dispute,
" the utmost perfection of the ancient astronomy, nor was
" there any thing in any nation before it comparable thereto ;
" for which reason, all the other authors thereof were dis-
" regarded and lost, and among them Hipparchus himself.
" Nor did posterity dare to alter the theories delivered by
" Ptolomy, though successively Albategnius and the Arabs,
" and after them the Spanish astronomers under Alphonsus,
*' endeavoured to mend the errors they observed in their
" computations. But their labours were fruitless, whilst
" from the defects of their principles it was impossible to re-
" concile the moon's motion within a degree, nor the planets
" Mars and Mercury to a much greater space."
Thus we see the opinion of this learned and judicious
r Callisthenes's account may not be because they were in truth such sorry
a fable : the subsequent authors neither ones, that no use could be made of
mentioned nor used these observations, them.
PREFACE. 229
astronomer. He very justly says, that Thales could give but
a rude account of the motions, and that before Hipparchus,
there could be scarce such a science as astronomy ; most cer-
tainly therefore no such a nice argumentation as our great
author offers can be well grounded, upon (as he himself calls
them) the coarse, I might say, the conjectural and unaccount-
able astronomxj of the ancients.
II. Another argument which sir Isaac Newton offers, in
order to shew that the ancient profane history is carried up
higher than it ought to be, is taken from the lengths of the
reigns of the ancient kings. He remarks, that^ " the Egyp-
" tians, Greeks, and Latins, reckoned the reigns of kings
" equipollent to generations of men, and three generations
*' to an hundred years, and accordingly they made their
" kings reign one with another thirty and three years apiece,
" and above." He would have these reckonings reduced to
the course of nature, and the reigns of the ancient kings put
one with another at about eighteen or twenty years apiece * ;
and this, he represents, would correct the error of carrying
the profane history too flir backward, and would fix the
several epochs of it more agreeable to true chronology.
In answer to this I would observe, i. The word yei'ca,
generation, may either signify a descent ; thus Jacob was two
generations after Abraham, i. e. he was his grandson ; or it
may signify an age, i. e. the space of time in which all those
who are of the same descent may be supposed to finish their
lives. Thus we read that Joseph died, and all his brethren,
and all that generation u ; in this sense the generation did not
end at Joseph's death, nor at the death of the youngest of
his brethren, nor until all the persons who were in the same
line of descent with them were gone off the stage. A gene-
ration in this latter sense must be a much longer space of
time than a generation in the former sense : Manasseh and
Ephraim the sons of Joseph were two generations or descents
after Jacob, for they were his grandchildren ; and yet they
were born in the same age or generation in which Jacob was
born ; for they were born before he died. But I confess the
word y^viXK^ or generation, is more frequently used to signify a
descent : in this sense it is commonly found in Herodotus,
Diodorus Siculus, Pausanias, in the profane as well as in the
sacred writers. But I must remark, 2. That reigns and these
generations are equipollent, when the son succeeds at his
father's death to his kingdom. Thus if a crown descends
from father to son, for seven, or more, or not so many suc-
cessions, it is evident that as many successions as there are,
s Newton's Chronology, p. 51. * P. 54. ^ Exodus i. 6.
230 PREFACE.
we may count so many either reigns, or descents, or gene-
rations ; a reign and a descent here are manifestly equipollent,
for they are one and the same thing. But, 3. when it has hap-
pened in a catalogue of kings, that sometimes sons succeeded
their fathers, at other times brothers their brothers, and
sometimes persons of different families obtained the crown,
then the reigns will not be found to be equipollent to the
generations ; for in such a catalogue several of the kings will
have been of the same descent with others of them, and so
there will be not so many descents as reigns, and consequently
the reigns are not one with another equipollent to the gene-
rations : and this being the case in almost all, if not in every
series of any number of kings that can be produced, it ought
not to be said that reigns and generations are in the general
equipollent ; for a number of reigns will be, generally speak-
ing, for the reasons above mentioned, much shorter than a
like number of generations or descents. 4. When descents
or generations proceed by the eldest sons only, then the
generations ought to be computed to be one with another
about as many years each, as are at a medium the years of
the ages of the fathers of such generations at the births of
their eldest sons. And thus we find from the birth of Ar-
phaxad^ to the birth of Terah the father of Abraham ^ are
seven generations, and 219 years, which is 31 years and
above j to a generation : and the seven fathers in these ge-
nerations had their respective sons ; one of them at about ^^
years of age'-, one at 34^, one at 32*", three at 30", and one
at 29*^. 5. When descents or generations proceed by the
younger or youngest sons, the length of such generations will
be accordins: to the time of the father's life in which such
younger sons are born, and also in proportion to what is the
common length or standard of human life in the age which
they are born in. When men lived to about 200, and had
children after they were an hundred years old, it is evident,
that the younger children might supervive their parents near
100 years : but now, when men rarely live beyond 70 or 80
years, a son born in the latest years of his father's life cannot
be supposed, in the common course of things, to be alive near
so long after his father"'s death, and consequently descents or
generations by the younger sons must have been far longer
X Gen. xi. ii. 32. ver. 20.
y Gen. xi. 26. «= Eber was born when Salah was
z Salah was bom wlien Arphaxad 30. ver. 14. Reu when Peleg was 30.
was 35. ver. 12. ver. 18. Nahor when Semg was 30.
» Peleg was born when Ebcr was ver. 22.
34. ven 16. fl Terali was born when Nahor was
^ Serug was born when Reu was 29. ver. 24.
PREFACE. 231
in the ages of the ancient longevity, than they can now be :
and therefore, 6. Since in the genealogies of all families, and
in the catalogues of kings in all kingdoms, the descents and
successions are found to proceed, not always by the eldest
sons, but through frequent accidents many times by the
younger children, it is evident, that the difference there has
been in the common length of human life in the different
ages of the world, must have had a considerable effect upon
the length of both reigns and generations, both which must
be longer or shorter in this or that age in some measure,
according to what is the common standard of the length of
men's lives in the age they belong to. 7. Reigns, as has
been said, are in general not so long as generations : but
from historical observations a calculation may be formed at a
medium, how often, one time with another, such failures of
descent happen as make the difference, and the lengths of
reigns may be calculated in a proportion to the lengths of
generations according to it. Sir Isaac Newton computes the
lengths of reigns to be to the lengths of generations, one with
another, as 18 or 20, to 33 or 34®. These particulars ought
to be duly considered, in order to judge of our learned au-
thor's argument from the length of reigns and generations.
For,
I. The catalogues of kings, which our great and learned
author produces to confirm his opinion, are all of latev date,
some of them many ages later than the times of David. He
says^, the eighteen kings of Judah, who succeeded Solomon,
reigned one with another 22 years apiece. The fifteen kings
of Israel after Solomon reigned 17^ years apiece. The
eighteen kings of Babylon from Nabonassar reigned ii-^-
years apiece. The ten kings of Persia from Cyrus reigned 21
years apiece. The sixteen successors of Alexander the Great
and of his brother and son in Syria reigned 15 j years apiece.
The eleven kings of Egypt from Ptolomseus Lagi reigned 25
years apiece. The eight in Macedonia from Cassander
reigned 17^ years apiece. The thirty kings of England from
William the Conqueror reigned 21^ years apiece. The first
twenty-four kings of France from Pharamond reigned 19
years apiece. The next twenty-four kings of France from
Ludovicus Balbus reigned i8| apiece. The next fifteen
from Philip Valesius 21 years apiece; and all the sixty-three
kings of France one with another reigned 19I years apiece.
These are the several catalogues which our great and learned
author has produced : they are of various dates down from
e See Newton's Chronol. of the Greeks, p. 53, 54.* f Id. ibid.
232 PREFACE.
Solomon to the present times ; but as none of them rise so
high as the times of king David, all that can be proved from
them is, that the observation of David, who remarked that
the length of human life was in his times reduced to what
has ever since been the standard of it ^, was exceedingly just ;
for from Solomon's time to the present days it appears, that
the lengths of kings' reigns in different ages and in different
countries have been much the same, and therefore during
this whole period the common length of human life has
been what it now is, and agreeable to what David stated it.
But,
2. It cannot be inferred from these reigns of kings, men-
tioned by sir Isaac Newton, that kings did not reign one
with another a much longer space of time in the ages which
I am concerned with, in which men generally lived to a
much greater age than in the times out of which sir Isaac
Newton has taken the catalogue of kings which he has pro-
duced. From Abraham down to almost David men lived,
according to the Scripture accounts of the lengths of their
lives, to, I think, at a medium, above lOO years, exceeding
that term very much in the times near Abraham, and seldom
falling short of it until within a generation or two of David :
but in David's time the length of human life was at a
medium but seventy years ** : now any one that considers this
difference must see, that the lengths of kings' reigns, as well
as of generations, must be considerably affected by it. Suc-
cessions in both must come on slower in the early ages,
according to the greater length of men's lives. I am sensible
I could produce many catalogues of successions from father
to son, to confirm what I have offered ; but since there is one
which takes in almost the whole compass of the times which
I am concerned in, and which has all the weight that the
authority of the sacred writers can give it, and which will
bring the point in question to a clear and indisputable con-
clusion, I shall for brevity's sake omit all others, and offer
only that to the reader's farther examination. From Abra-
ham to David (including both Abraham and David) were
fourteen generations': now from Abraham's birth A.M.
2008, to David's death about A. M. 2986'', are 978 years; so
g Psalm xc. vcr. lo. who died when Abraham was 75. If
h Ibid. we compute from hence, the fourteen
' Matt. i. 17. generations take up but 903 years,
k Usher's Annals. It may jierhaps which allows but 64 years and half to
be thought that I ought not to com- a generation, this is but almost double
pute (he.'^e fourteen generations from the length of sir Isaac Newton's gene-
the birth of Abraham, but from the rations.
death of Terah the father of Abraham,
PREFACE. 233
that generations in these times took up, one with another,
near 70 years apiece, i. e. they were above double the length
which sir Isaac Newton computes them ; and which they
were, I believe, after the times of David : we must therefore
suppose the reigns of kings in these ancient times to be
longer than his computation in the same proportion ; and if
so, we mvist calculate them at above 40 years apiece, one with
another ; and so the profane historians have recorded them to
be ; for according to the lists which we have from Castor ' of
the ancient kings of Sicyon and Argos, the first twelve kings
of Sicyon reigned more than 44 years apiece, one with
another, and the first eight kings of Argos something above
46, as our great author has remarked'"; but the reigns of the
first twelve kings of Sicyon extended from A. M. 1920 to
A. M. 2450" ; so that they began 88 years before the birth of
Abraham, and ended in the times of Moses, and the reigns of
the first eight kings of Argos began A. M. 2154°, and ended
A. M. 2525 ; so that they reached from the latter end of
Abraham's life, to a few years after the exit of the Israelites
out of Egypt; and let any one form a just computation of the
length of men's lives in these times, and it will in no wise
appear unreasonable to imagine, that the reigns of kings were
of this length in these days. I might observe, that the
ancient accounts of the kings of difi'erent kingdoms in these
times agree to one another, as well as our great author's more
modern catalogues. The twelve first kings of Assyria, ac-
cording to the writers who have given us accounts of them p,
reigned, one with another, about 40 years apiece. The first
twelve kings of the Egyptian kingdoms, according to sir
John Marsham's tables, did not reign full so long ; but it
must be remembered, that in the first times, the kings of
Egyi^t were frequently elected, and so, many times, sons did
not succeed their fathers "i.
Our great and learned author remarks'", that the seven
kings of Rome who preceded the consuls reigned, one with
another, 35 years apiece. I am sensible it may be observed,
that (the reigns of these kings not falling within the times
I am to treat of) I am not concerned to vindicate the accounts
that are given of them : but I would not entirely omit men-
tioning them, because the lengths of their reigns may be
thought an undeniable instance of the inaccuracy of the
ancient computations, more especially because these kings
1 Euseb. in Chron. p. 19. V Euseb. in Chron. p. 18. 21, &c.
m Newton's Chron. p. 51. '1 See hereafter in book VI.
n See hereafter book V'l. >" Newton's Chronol. p. 5 1.
o See book VI.
284 PREFACE.
were all more modern than the times of David ; for supposing
Rome to be built by Romulus, A. M. 3256 % we must begin
Romulus's reign almost 300 years after the death of David,
and the lives of men in these times being reduced to what
has been esteemed the common standard ever since, it may
perhaps be expected, that the reigns of these kings should not
be longer, one with another, than the reigns of our kings of
England, from William the Conqueror ; or of the kings of
France, from Pharamond ; or of any other series of kings
mentioned by our illustrious author : but here I would ob-
serve, that these seven kings of Rome were not descendants
of one another. Plutarch remarks of these kings, that not
one of them left his crown to his son^ Two of them,
namely, Ancus Martius and Tarquinius Superbus, were in-
deed descendants from the sons of former kings, but the other
five were of different families : the successors of Romulus
were elected to the crown, and the Roman people did not
confine their choice even to their own country, but chose
such as were most likely to promote the public good ". It is
evident therefore, that the lengths of these kings' reigns ought
not to be estimated according to the common measure of suc-
cessive monarchs ; for had these Roman kings been very old
men when advanced to the throne, their several reigns would
have been very short ; and the reason why they are so much
longer than it may be thought they ought to be, may be,
because, as the affairs of the infant state of Rome required
that the city should be in the hands of the most able war-
riors, as well as skilful counsellors, so they chose to the crown
none but persons in their prime of life ; as well to have a
king of sufficient ability to lead their armies, as that they
might not have frequent vacancies of the throne to shake
and unsettle the frame of their government, not as yet firmly
enough compacted to bear too many state convulsions.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus has been very particular in in-
forming us of the age of most of these kings, when they
began to reign, how many years each of them reigned, and at
what age most of them died ^ : he supposes the oldest man of
them all not to have lived to above eighty-three, for that
was Numa's age when he died y ; and he represents L. Tar-
quinius as quite worn out at eighty ^ ; so that none of them
are supposed to have lived to an extravagant term of life.
s Usher's Annals. Livii Hist. Flor. Hist.
t Tovs Twv 'PojyUoi&Ji' '6pa. ^affiKiis, ^v ^ In lib. ii, iii, iv.
oiihih vlw Trtv apxh" aTreMire. Pint, de y Lib. ii. ad fin.
animi tranquillitat. p. 467. ^ L. iii. c. 72.
w See Dionys. Halicar. Antiq. Rom.
PREFACE. 235
But if, after what I have offered, it should be still thought
that their reigns, one with another, are too long to be ad-
mitted ; I might remark farther, that there were interregna
between the reigns of several of them. There was an inter-
regnum between Romulus and Numa ^ ; another between
Numa and TuUus Hostilius ^ ; another between T. Hostilius
and Ancus Martius " ; another between A. Martius and L.
Tarquinius ^. Each of these interregna might perhaps take
up some years. The historians allot no space of time to these
interregna ; but it is known to be no unusual thing for
writers to begin the reign of a succeeding king from the death
of his predecessor, though he did not immediately succeed to
his crown. Numa was not elected king, until the people
found by experience that the interregal government was full
of inconveniences ^, and some years' administration might
make them sufficiently sensible of it. When Tullus Hostilius
was called to the crown, the poorer citizens were in a state
of want, which could no way be relieved, but by electing
some very wealthy person to be king, who could afford to
divide the crown-lands amongst them^. Ancus Martius was
made king at a time when the Roman affairs were in a very
bad state, through the neglect of the public religion, and of
agricultures. And L. Tarquinius was elected upon the ne-
cessity of a war with the Apiolani '^ : and thus these kings
appear not to be called to the crown until some public
exigencies made it necessary to have a king. They seem to
have succeeded one another like the judges of Israel ; the
successor did not come to the crown immediately upon the
demise of his predecessor; but when a king died, the infer-
reges took the government, and administered the public
affairs, until some crisis demanded a new king. If this was
the fact, there can be no appearance of an objection against
the lengths of the reigns of these kings ; for the reigns of
the kings were not really so long, but the reigns, and the
intervening interregna, put together ; and the more I con-
sider the state of the Roman affairs as represented by Diony-
sius, the more I am inclined to suspect that their kings
succeeded in this manner.
Ill, Sir Isaac Newton contends^, that there were no such
kings of Assyria, as all the ancient writers have recorded to
have reigned there from Ninus to Sardanapalus, and to have
governed a great part of Asia for about 1300 years. Our
a Lib. ii. c. 57. e Dionys. Halic. 1. ii. c. 57.
^ Id. lib. iii. c. i. f Id. 1. iii. c. i.
c Id. ibid. c. 36. g Id. ibid. c. 36. h Id. ibid. c. 49.
^ Id. ibid. c. 46. ' Newton's Chron. chap. iii. p. 265.
236 PREFACE.
great and learned author follows sir John Marsham in this
particular ; for sir John Marsham first raised doubts about
these kings ^ ; and indeed that learned gentleman hinted a
great part of what is now offered upon this subject. I have
formerly endeavoured to answer sir John Marsham's objec-
tions, as far as I could then apprehend it to be necessary to
reply to them' : but since sir Isaac Newton has thought fit
to make use of some of them, and has added others of his
own to them, it will be proper for me to mention all the
several arguments which are now offered against these As-
syrian kings, and to lay before the reader what I apprehend
may be replied to them.
And, I. It is remarked "1, that "the names of these pre-
" tended kings of Assyria, except two or three, have no
" affinity with the Assyrian names." To this I answer ;
Ctesias, from whom we are said to have had the names of
these kings, was not an Assyrian : he was of Cnidus, a city
of Caria in the Lesser Asia ; and he wrote his Persian or
Assyrian history (I think) in the Greek tongue ". The royal
records of Persia supplied him with materials ° ; and it is most
reasonable to think, that the Assyrian kings were not regis-
tered by their Assyrian names, in the Persian chronicles ; or
if they were, that Ctesias, in his history, did not use the
names which he found there, but made others, which he
thought equivalent to them. Diodorus Siculus did not give
the Egyptian heroes whom he mentioned their trvie Egyptian
names, but invented for them such as he thought, if duly
explained, were synonymous to them p. The true name of
Mitradates's fellow-servant was Spaco ; but the Greeks called
her Cyno<^i, apprehending Cyno in Greek to be of the same
import as Spaco in the Mede tongue. This was the common
practice of the ancient writers ; and some of the moderns
have imitated it, of which instances might be given in several
of the names in Thuanus''s history of his own times ; but
certainly I need not go on farther in my reply to this ob-
jection. If Ctesias named these kings according to his own
fancy, and really misnamed them, it can in no Avise prove that
the persons so misnamed never were in being.
2. It is argued, that Herodotus did not think Semiramis
so ancient as the writers who follow Ctesias imagined ■■ : I
answer ; by Herodotus's accounts, the Assyrian empire began
k See Marsham's Can. Chron. p. 485. o Id. ibid.
1 Pref. to vol. I. P Id. 1. i. §. 12. p. 8.
>" Newton's Chron. chap. iii. Q Herodot. Hist. lib. i. c. no.
n See Diodor. Hist. 1. ii. §. 32. p. 84. r Newton's Chron. p. 266. 278.
PREFACE. 237
at latest A. M. 2700 ; for Cyrus began his reign at the death
of Astyages, about A. M. 3444 ^ Astyages, according to
Herodotvis, reigned ^^ years ', and therefore began his reign
A.M. 3409; he succeeded Cyaxares". Cyaxares reigned
40 years"', and therefore began his reign A. M. 3369. Phra-
ortes was the predecessor of Cyaxares, and reigned 22 years >',
and so began his reign A. M. 3347. Deioces preceded Phra-
ortes, and reigned 53 years ''■, and therefore began to reign
A. M. 3294. Herodotus supposes the Medes to have lived
for some time after their revolt from the Assyrians without a
king ^, we cannot suppose less than two or three years ; and
he remarks, that the Assyrians had governed Asia 520 years
before the revolt of the Medes ; so that according to his
computations the Assyrian empire began about A. M. 2771,
which is about the time of Abimelech^. Sir Isaac Newton
begins the Assyrian empire in the days of Pul, who was
cotemporary with Menahem ^^ in the year before our Saviour
790**, i. e. A. M. 3212 ; so that Herodotus, however cited in
favour of our learned author's scheme, does, in reality, differ
near 450 years from it. But to come to the particular for
which our learned author cites Herodotus : he says, that
Herodotus tells us, that Semiramis was five generations older
than Nitocris the mother of Labynitus, or Nabonncdus, the
last king of Babylon ; and therefore (he adds) she flourished
four generations, or about 134 years before Nebuchadnezzar.
I answer ; if Herodotus intended to represent, that Semiramis
lived but 134 years befoi-e Nebuchadnezzar, when, according
to his own computations, the Assyrian empire began as
above, A.M. 2771, he was absurd indeed; for all writers
have unanimously agreed to place Semiramis near the begin-
ning of the empire ; but this would be to suppose her in the
later ages of it. Sir Isaac Newton himself, who begins the
empire with Pul, places Semiramis in the reign of Tiglath-
Pileser, whom he supposes to be Pul's successor "^ : and cer-
tainly Herodotus must likewise intend to place her near the
times where he begins the empire, as all other writers ever
did ; and indeed the works he ascribes to her seem to in-
timate that he did so too ^ ; so that I cannot but suspect a
misrepresentation of Herodotus's meaning. Herodotus does
s Usher's Chron. Prideaux. Connect. a Ibid. c. 96.
t L. i. c. 130. b Judges ix. Usher's Chron.
u Ibid. c. 107. c Chron. p. 268.
X Ibid. c. 106. d See the Short Chron.
y Ibid. c. 102. ^ Newton's Chronol. p. 278.
z Ibid. ^ Herodot. 1. i. c. 184,
238 PREFACE.
indeed say, that Semiramis was -nivTe yerefjai. before Nitocris ^;
but the word yevea has a double acceptation. It is sometimes
used to signify a generation or descent ; and I am sensible
that Herodotus has more than once used it in this sense : but
it sometimes signifies what the Latins call cetas, or cevum; or
we in English, an age/ and if Herodotus used it in this sense
here, then he meant that Semiramis was irevre yereT^crt, quinque
cetatihus, [says the Latin translator,] before Nitocris ; not five
generations, or descents, hxiXjive ages^ before her. The an-
cient writers both before and after Herodotus computed a
generation or age of those who lived in the early times to
be an hundred years. Thus they reckoned Nestor, [of whom
Tully says, tertiam cetateni hominum vivehat^; Horace, that
he was ter cevo functus »,] because it was reported that he had
lived three generations or ages, to have lived about 300
years ; Ovid, well expressing the common opinion, makes
him say.
VlXl
Annos bis centum, nunc tertia vivitur aetas''.
The two ages or generations which he had lived were com-
puted to be 200 years ; and he was thought to be going on
for the third century. And now, if Herodotus in the place
before us used the word y^v^a in this sense, then by Semi-
ramis being five ages or generations before Nitocris, he
meant nothing like what our learned author infers from him,
but that she was about 500 years before her : I might add,
this seems most probably to be his meaning ; because, if we
take him in this sense, he will, as all other writers have ever
done, place Semiramis near the times where he begins the
Assyrian empire. I have formerly considered Herodotus's
opinion, about the rise of this empire, as to the truth of it \
and I may here from the most learned dean Prideaux add to
if", that, " Herodotus having travelled through Egypt, Syria,
" and several other countries, in order to the writing of his
" history, did as travellers use to do, that is, put down all
" relations upon trust, as he met with them ; and no doubt he
" was imposed on in many of them," and particularly in the
instance before us ; but Ctesias living in the court of Persia,
and searching the public registers, was able to give a better
account than Herodotus of the Assyrian kings. But be He-
rodotus's account true or false, the whole of it, I am sure,
g Herodot. 1. i. c. 184. k Metamorph. lib. xii.
h Lib. de Senectutc. 1 Pref. to vol. I.
i Lib. ii. Ode 9. m Connect, vol. I. b. ii. p. 156.
PREFACE. 239
does not favour our learned author's hypothesis : nor, as I
apprehend, does the particular cited about Semiramis, if we
take the words of Herodotus according to his own meaning.
3. Sir Isaac Newton cites Nehemiah, chap. ix. ver. 32".
The words are : Now therefore, our God, let not all the
trotible seem little before thee, that hath come upo7i us, on our
kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets,
and on our fathers^ and on all thy people, since the time of the
Jiings of Assyria unto this day. Our learned author says, since
the time of the kings of Assyria ; "that is, since the time of
" the kingdom of Assyria, or since the rise of that empire ;
" and therefore the Assyrian empire arose, when the kings
" of Assyria began to afflict the Jews." In answer to this
objection, I would observe, that the expression, since the time
of the kings of Assyria, or, to render it more strictly, accord-
ing to the Hebrew words, yrom the days of the kings of Assy,
ria, is very general, and may signify a time commencing from
any part of their times, and therefore it is restraining the
expression purely to serve an hypothesis, to suppose the
words to mean, not from their times in general, but from the
very rise or beginning of their times. The heathen writers
frequently used a like general expression, the Trojan ti?nes;
irpb TU)v Tpo)'LK(ov, be/ore the TroJa?i times, is an expression
both of Thucydides and Diodorus Siculus°; but neither of
them meant by it, before the rise of the Trojan people, but
before the Trojan war, with which the Trojans and their times
ended. But as to the expression before us, we shall more
clearly see what was designed by it, if we consider, i. That
the sacred writers represent the Jews as suffering in and after
these times from the kings of two countries, from the kings
of Assyria, and from the kings of Babylon. Israel was a
scattered sheep; the lio7is had drove him aivay : first, the king
of Assyria devoured him ; and last, the king of Babylon brake
his bones ''. 2. The kings of Assyria, who began the troubles
that were brought upon the Israelites, were the kings who
reigned at Nineveh, from Pul, before Tiglath-Pileser s, to
Nabopolassar, who destroyed Nineveh, and made Babylon
the sole metropolis of the empire ^ : Pul first began to af-
flict them : his successors, at divers times, and in different
manners distressed them ; Nebuchadnezzar completed their
miseries in the captivity ^ But, 3 . The sacred writers, in the
titles which they give to these kings, did not design to hint
'I Newton's Chron. p. 267. Q i Chron. v. 26. 2 Kings xv. 19.
o Thucyd. 1. i. p. 3. Diodor. 1. i. p. Usher's Chronol.
4. and the same author uses drrb toSv r See Prideaux, Connect, vol. I. b. i.
Tpiu'CKwv in the same sense. Ibid. s Id. ibid.
P Jcrcm. 1. 17.
240 PREFACE.
either the extent of their empire, or the history of their suc-
cession, but commonly call them kings of the country or city
where they resided, whatever other dominions they were
masters of, and without any regard to the particulars of their
actions or families, of the rise of one family, or fall of an-
other : Pul seems to have been the father of Sardanapalus * :
Tiglath-Pileser was Arbaces, who, in confederacy with I3elesis,
overthrew the empire of Pul, in the days of his son Sardana-
palus " ; and Tiglath -Pileser was not king of such large
dominions as Pul and Sardanapalus commanded : but the
sacred writers take no notice of these revolutions. Pul had
his residence at Nineveh in Assyria, and Tiglath-Pileser made
that city his royal seaf; and for this reason they are both
called in Scripture, kings of Assyria ; and upon the same ac-
count, the successors of Tiglath-Pileser have the same title,
until the empire was removed to Babylon. Salmanezer, the
son of Tiglath-Pileser, is called king of Assyria V ; and so is
Sargon, or Sennacherib ^ : Esarhaddon, though he was king
of Babylon, as well as of Assyria ^, is called in Scripture king
of Assyria, for in that country was his seat of residence'' ; but
after Nabopolassar destroyed Nineveh, and removed the em-
pire to Babylon, the kings of it are called in Scripture kings
of Babylon, and not kings of Assyria, though Assyria was part
of their dominions, as Babylon and the adjacent country had
been of many of the Assyrian kings. There were great turns
and revolutions in the kingdoms of these countries, from the
death of Sardanapalus, to the establishment of Nebuchad-
nezzar's empire ; but the sacred history does not pursue a
narration of these matters ; but as the writers of it called the
kings of the ancient Assyrian empire kings of Elam, when
they resided there *=, kings of Nineveh '' or of Assyria, when
they lived in that city or country ^ ; so they call the several
kings, which arose after the fall of Sardanapalus"'s empire,
kings of the countries where they held their residence ; and
all that can fairly be deduced from the words of Nehemiah is,
that the troubles of the Jews began whilst there Avere kings
reigning in Assyria, that is, before the empire of these coun-
tries was removed to Babylon.
4. " Sesac and Memnon (says our learned author) were
" great conquerors, and reigned over Chaldtea, Assyria, and
" Persia; but in their histories there is not a word of any
t See Usher's Chronol. a See Prideaux, Connect, vol. I. b.
u Prideaux, Connect, ub. sup. i. not. ad ann. 680.
X Ibid. vol. i. b. i. b Ezra iv. 2. ^ Gen. xiv. i.
y 2 Kings xvii. 3. d Jonah iii. 6.
^ Isaiah xx. i. e i Chron. v. 26.
PREFACE. 241
" opposition made to them by an Assyrian empire then
" standing : on the contrary, Susiana, Media, Persia, Bactria,
" Armenia, Cappadocia, &c. were conquered by them, and
" continued subject to the kings of Egypt till after the long
" reign of Rameses the son of Memnon." This objection
in its full strength is this : the Egyptians conquered and
possessed the very cou.ntries, which were in the heart of the
supposed Assyrian empire, in the times when that empire is
imagined to have flourished, and therefore certainly there
was in those days no such empire. I answer, I. The Egyp-
tians made no great conquests until the times of Sesac in
the reign of Rehoboam about A. M. 3033, about 200 years
before Sardanapalus. This Sesac was their famous Sesos-
tris ^ I am sensible, that there have been many very
learned writers who have thought otherwise. Agathias
imagined Sesostris to be long before Ninus and Semiramis°,
and the Scholiast*^ upon Apollonius sets him 2900 years
before the first Olympiad ; but the current opinion of the
learned has not gone into this fabulous antiquity. Aristotle
thought him long before the times of Minos ^; Strabo, He-
rodotus, and Diodorus Siculus, all represent him to have
lived before the Trojan war ; and Eusebius and Theophilus,
from an hint of Manetho's in Josephus ^, imagined him to
be the brother of Armais or Danaus, qudm vere 7iescio, says
the most learned dean Prideaux^ ; and indeed there are no
prevalent reasons to admit of this relation : however, the
sentiments of all these writers may not differ from one
another, but Sesostris may consistently with all of them be
imagined to have lived about the times that Moses led the
Israelites out of Egypt, and this I think has been the com-
mon opinion about him. But if we look into the Egyptian
antiquities, and examine the particulars of them as col-
lected by Diodorus, we shall find great reason not to think
him thus early. Diodorus Siculus informs us, that there
were fifty-two successive kings after Menes or Mizraim
before Busiris came to the crown™: Busiris had eight suc-
cessors ; the last of which was Busiris the Second" : twelve
generations or descents after him reigned Myris °, and seven
after Myris, Sesostris i' ; so that, according to this computa-
tion, Sesostris was about eighty successions after Menes or
f Marsham. Can. Chron. p. 358. ' Ubi sup.
S Lib. ii. p. 55. See Prideaux, not. «> Diodor. lib. i. p. 29. §.45.
Histor. in Chron. Marm. Ep. 9. n Id. ibid.
h Id. ibid. o Id. p. S3- §• Si-
i Politic, lib. vii. c. 10. P Id. p. 34. §. 53.
k Lib. i. contr. Apion. §.15.
VOL. I. R
242 PREFACE.
Mizraim. Diodorus must indeed have made a mistake in
this computation ; for from the death of Menes, A. M. 1943 ^,
to Sesac, about A. M, 3033, are but 1090 years, and fifty-five
successions may very well carry us down thus far, as may
appear from sir John Marsham's tables of the kings of
Egypt. The ancient Egyptian writers are knoAvn to have
lengthened their antiquities, by supposing all their kings
to have reigned successively, when many of them were co-
temporaries, and reigned over different parts of the country
in the same age ; and undoubtedly Diodorus Siculus was
imposed upon by some accounts of this sort ; and there were
not really so many successions, as he imagined, between
Mizraim and Sesostris. But then there is a particular sug-
gested by him, which must fully convince us, that his com-
putation cannot be so reduced as to place Sesostris about
the times of Moses. He observes, that, after the times of
Menes, 1400 years passed before the Egyptians performed
any considerable actions worth recording'". The number
1400 is indeed thought to be a mistake. E-hodomanus
corrects it in the margin, and writes 1040. We will take
this number: from the death of Mizraim 1040 years will
carry us down very near to the times of Sesac : for fifty
years after it Sesac came against Jerusalem : and thus ac-
cording to this account they had no famous warrior until
about the times of Sesac, and therefore Sesostris did not live
earlier. I might confirm this account from another very
remarkable particular in Diodorus Siculus. He tells us of
a most excellent king of Egypt, begat by the river Nile in
the shape of a bull'': I may venture to reject the fable of
the river and the bull, and suppose this person to be the son
of Phruron or Nilus ; his father's name being Nilus might
occasion the mythologists to say, that he was begot by the
river: now Diceearchus informs us, that this Nilus reigned
about 436 years before the first Olympiad, i. e. about A. M.
2792*, and about this time sir John Marsham places him":
according to Diodorus, Sesostris was twenty successions after
this Nilus, and sir John Marsham makes his Sesac to be
nineteen ; so that in all probability they were one and the
same person. And thus a strict view of the Egyptian an-
tiquities will from several concurrent hints oblige us to
think Sesostris to be not earlier than the times of, and con-
sequently to be, the Sesac mentioned in the Scripture. I
might add to all this, that the sacred writers, who fre-
1 See vol. I. b. iv. p. 126. t Vid. vol. I. b. iv. p. 125.
>■ Diodor. p. 29. §. 45. u Vid. ibid,
s Diodor. p. 33. §.51.
PREFACE. 243
quently mention the Egyptians from Abraham's time down
to the times of this Sesac, do give us great reason to think
that the Egyptians had no such famous conqueror as Se-
sostris before Sesac, by giving as great a proof as we can
expect of a negative, that they made no conquests in
Asia before his days. In Abraham's time, in Jacob's,
in Joseph's, we have no appearance of any thing bvit
peace between Egypt and its Asiatic neighbours. Egypt
was conquered by the Pastors who came out of Asia a little
before the birth of Moses, when the new king arose who
knew not Joseph. Whatever power and strength these new
kings might be grown to at the exit of the Israelites, must
be supposed to be greatly broken by the overthrow of Pha-
raoh and his host in the Red sea. The Egyptians had no
part in the wars of the Canaanites with Joshua, nor in those
of the Philistines, Midianites, Moabites, Ammonites, and
Amalekites against Israel in the times of the Judges, or of
Saul, or of king David: Solomon reigned over all the kings
from the river, [i. e. from the Euphrates] unto the land of the
Philistines, and to the border of Egy'pt^ ; so that no Egyptian
conqueror came this way until after his death. In the fifth
year of Hehohoam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against
Jerusalem, loith twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thou-
sand horseme7i ; and he took the fenced cities ivhich pertained to
Judali, and came to Jerusalem^ , and the Israelites were obliged
to become his servants ; and Sesac conquered not only them,
but the neighbouring nations ; for the Jews in serving him
felt only the service of the kingdoms of the countries^- round
about them ; that is, all the neighbouring nations under-
went the same. This therefore was the first Egyptian con-
queror who came into Asia ; and we must either think this
Sesac and Sesostris to have been the same person, or, which
was perhaps the opinion of Josephus^, say, that Sesostris was
no conqueror ; but that Herodotus and the other historians,
through mistake, ascribed^ to him what they found recorded
of Sesac. Josephus represents Herodotus to have made
two mistakes about this Egyptian conqueror, one in mis-
naming him, calling him Sesostris, when his real name was
Sesac; the other, in thinking him a greater c conqueror
X 2 Chron. ix. 26. c Mefj.uriTai 5e ravrris ttjs arparuas
y 2 Chron. xii. 2, 3, 4. koI 6 ' AAiKapvacraivs 'HpSSoTos, irtpl
z 2 Chron. xii. 8. ix6vov rh tov ^aatAeais Tr\avr}6eh ofo/xa,
* Antiq. Jud. lib. viii. c. 10. §. 2. Kal on &\\ois re ttoXAoTs eV^X0e iQvtffi,
° 'XovaaKov irepl ov TT\av7]6i\s'lip6^o- kou rriv Tla\ai(nivr]v 'S.vpiav iSovXwffaTo.
ros Tas irpd^fis avTov 'SfffdoffTpfi TrpocraTr. Id. ibid. §. .^.
Tei. Id. ibid.
u 2
244 PREFACE.
than he really was : and this mistake many of the heathen
historians have indeed made in the accounts they give of
him. For, 2. neither Sesostris nor Sesac did ever conquer
so many nations as the historians represent, nor were they
ever masters of any of the countries that were a part of the
Assyrian empire. Diodorus Siculus indeed supposes, that
Sesostris conquered all Asia, not only all the nations which
Alexander afterwards subdued, but even many kingdoms
that he never attempted ; that he passed the Ganges, and
conquered all India ; that he subjugated the Scythians, and
extended his conquests into Europe '' ; and Strabo agrees to
Diodorus's account of him : what authorities these great
writers found for their opinion, I cannot say ; but I find the
learned annotator upon Tacitus did not believe any such
accounts to be well grounded. In his note upon Germa-
nicus's relation of the Egyptian conquests he says, De hac
tanta potentia ^gyptiorum nihil legi, nee facile creclam ^ ; and
indeed there is nothing to be read, that can seem well sup-
ported, nothing that is consistent with the allowed history
of other nations, to represent the Egyptians to have ever
obtained such extensive conquests. Herodotus confines the
expedition of Sesostris to the nations upon the Asiatic coasts
of the Red sea, and after his return from subduing them,
to the western parts of the continent of Asia : he represents
him to have subdued Palestine and Phoenicia, and the king-
doms up to Europe ; thence to have passed over to the
Thracians ; and from them to the Scythians, and to have
come to the river Phasis : here he supposes him to have
stopped his progress, and to have returned back from hence
to Egypt''. Herodotus appears to have examined the ex-
pedition of Sesostris with far more exactness than Strabo or
Diodorus: he inquired after the monuments or pillars
which Sesostris set up in the nations he subdued = ; but it
no way appears from his accounts that this mighty con-
queror attacked any one nation that was really a part of
the Assyrian empire ; but rather the course of his enter-
prises led him quite away from the Assyrian dominions.
Sesostris did great things, but they have been greatly mag-
nified. The ancient writers were very apt to record a per-
son to have travelled over the whole world, if he had been
in a few different nations. Abraham travelled from Chaldsea
into Mesopotamia, into Canaan, Philistia, and Egypt; the
profane writers, speaking of him under the name of Chronus,
d Diodor. Sic. lib. i. p. 35. §. 55. f Herodot. lib. ii. 0. 102, 103.
6 Lipsii Comment, ad Tacit. Annal. S Id. ibid,
lib. ii. n. 137.
PREFACE. 245
say he travelled over the whole worlcP : thus the Egyptians
might record of Sesostris, that he conquered the whole
world ; and the historians, that took the hints of what they
wrote from them, might, to embelhsh their history, give us
what they thought the most considerable parts of the world,
and thereby magnify the conquests of Sesostris far above
the truth : but Herodotus seems in this point to have been
more careful : he examined particulars, and, according to the
utmost of what he could find, none of the victories of this
Egyptian conqueror reached to any of the nations subject
to the Assyrians. But sir Isaac Newton mentions Memnon
as another Egyptian conqueror, who possessed Chaldsea,
Assyria, Media, Persia, and Bactria, &c. so that it may be
thought that some successor of Sesostris (for before him the
Egyptians had no conquerors) subdued and reigned over
these countries. I shall therefore, 3. give a short abstract of
the Egyptian affairs from Sesac, until Nebuchadnezzar took
entirely away from them all their acquisitions in Asia, At
the death of Sesac the Egyptian power sunk at once, and
they lost all the foreign nations which Sesac had conquered.
Herodotus informs us, that Sesostris was the only king of
Egypt that reigned over the Ethiopians i; and agreeably
hereto we find, that when Asa was king of Judah, about
A. M. 3063 ^, about thirty years after Sesostris or Sesac's
conquests, the Ethiopians ^ were not only free from their
subjection to the Egyptians, but were grown up into a
state of great power, for Zerah their king invaded Judcsa
with an host of a thousand thousand^ and three hundred cha-
riots'^. Our great author says, that Ethiopia served Egypt
until the death of Sesostris, and no longer ; that at the death
of Sesostris, Egypt fell into civil wars, and was invaded by
the Lybians, and defended by the Ethiopians for some time,
but that in about ten years the Ethiopians invaded the
Egyptians, slew their king, and seized his kingdom ". It is
certain, that the Egyptian empire Avas at this time demo-
lished : the Ethiopians were free from it ; and if we look
into Palestine, we shall not find reason to imagine that the
Egyptians had the service of any nation there, from this
time for many years. Asa king of Judah and Baasha king
of Israel had neither of them any dependence upon Egypt,
when they warred against one another ° ; and Syria was in
h See Euseb. Prsep. Evang. lib. i. should have been translated the Ara-
c. 10. bians. See vol. I.b. iii. p. 99.
i Herodot. lib. ii. c. no. m 2 Chron. xiv. 9.
k Usher's Chronol. » Newton's Chron. p. 236. ed. 1728.
1 Hebrew word is the Cushites ,• it ° 1 Kings xv. 16.
246 PREFACE.
a flourishing and independent state, when Asa sought an
alliance with Benhadad. About A. M. 3116, about 83 years
after Sesac, we find Egypt still in a low state ; the Philistines
were independent of them ; for they joined with the Arabi-
ans, and distressed JehoramP. About ] 17 years after Sesac,
when the Syrians besieged Samaria q, it may be thought
that the Egyptians were growing powerful again ; for the
Syrians raised their siege, upon a rumour that the king of
Israel had hired the kings of the Hittites and of the Egypt-
ians to come upon them^ The Egyptians were perhaps
by this time getting out of their difficulties ; but they were
not yet grown very formidable, for the Syrians were not
terrified at the apprehension of the Egyptian power, but
of the kings of the Hittites and of the Egyptians joined
together. From this time the Egyptians began to rise
again ; and when Sennacherib sent Kabshakeh against Jeru-
salem^, about A. M. 3292, the king of Israel thought an
alliance with Egypt might have been sufficient to protect
him against the Assyrian invasions*; but the king of Assy-
ria made war upon the Egyptians, and rendered them a
bruised reed^, not able to assist their allies, and greatly brake
and reduced their power ^ ; so that whatever the empire of
Egypt was in those days, there was an Assyrian empire now
standing able to check it. In the days of Josiah, about
A. M. 3394, the Egyptian empire was revived again. Ne-
cho king of Egypt went and fought against Carchemish by
Euphratesy, and in his return to Egypt put down Jehoahaz,
who was made king in Jerusalem upon Josiah's death, and
condemned the land of the Jews to pay him a tribute, and
carried Jehoahaz captive into Egypt, and made Eliakim,
whom he named Jehoiakira, king over Judah and Jerusa-
lem 2. But here we meet a final period put to all the
Egyptian victories ; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
came up against Jehoiakim, and bound him in fetters, and
carried him to Babylon, and made Zedekiah his brother
king over Judah and Jerusalem ^ ; and the king of Babylon
took from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all
that pertained to the king of Egypt, and the king of Egypt
came not again any more out of his own land''. Whatever
the empire of Egypt over any parts of Asia had been, here
P 2 Chron. xxi. i6. ^ Prideaux ubi sup.
q 2 Kings vi. 24. y 2 Kings xxiii. 29. 2 Chron. xxxv.
r 7 Kings vii. 6. 20.
s 2 Kings xviii. 17. z 2 Chron. xxxvi. 3, 4.
' Prideaux, Connect, vol. I. an. 710. a 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10.
■'> 2 Kings rviii. 21. '^2 Kings xxiv. 7.
PREFACE. Ml
it ended, about A. M. 3399°, about 366 years after its first
rise under Sesac : its nearest approach upon the dominions
of Assyria appears to have been the taking of Carchemish,
but even here it went not over the Euphrates ; however,
upon this approach, Nebuchadnezzar saw the necessity of
reducing it, and in a few years war stripped it entirely of all
its acquisitions. This is the history of the empire of the
Egyptians ; and I submit it to the reader, whether any
argument can be formed from it against the being of the
ancient empire of the Assyrians.
5. Sir Isaac Newton contends, that there was no ancient
Assyrian empire, becavise the kingdoms of Israel, Moab,
Ammon, Edom, Philistia, Zidon, Damascus, and Hamath,
were not any of them subject to the Assyrians until the days
of Pul''. I answer : The profane historians have indeed re-
presented this Assyrian empire to be of far larger extent
than it really was. They say that Ninus conquered Asia;
which might more easily be admitted, if they would take
care to describe Asia such as it was, when he conquered it.
It does not appear that he conquered all this quarter of the
world; however, as he subdued most of the kingdoms that
were then in it, he might in the general be said to have
conquered Asia. All the writers that have contended for
this empire agree, that Ninus and Semiramis were the
founders of it^ ; and they are farther unanimous, that the
successors of Semiramis did not make any considerable at-
tempts to enlarge the empire, beyond what she and Ninus
had made it^ ; Semiramis employed her armies in the
eastern countries^, so that we have no reason to think that
this empire extended westward any, or but little, farther
than Ninus carried it. We read indeed that the king of
Elam had the five cities on the borders of Canaan subject to
him^ ; but upon Abraham's defeating his army, he lost
them, and never recovered them again : but I would ob-
serve, that even whilst he had the dominion of these cities
in the full stretch of his empire, it did not reach to the
kingdoms of Israel, or which then were the kingdoms of
Canaan; for he never came any farther than to the five
cities ; neither was he master of Philistia, for that was farther
westward; nor does he appear to have come near to Sidon.
As to the other kingdoms, mentioned by our learned author,
c Usher's Annal. for many generations : contenli a pa-
d Newton's Chronol. p. 269. rentibus elaborato imperio belli studia
e Diodor. Sic. lib. ii. ad in. Justin. deposuerunt. §. 2.
lib. i. §. I. g Id. Ibid.
i Id. ibid. What Justin says of Ni- ^ Gen. xiv.
nyas may be applied to his successors
248 PREFACE.
namely, the kingdoms of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus,
and Hamath, they were not in being in these times. Moab
and Ammon were the sons of Lot, and they were not born
until after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah* ; and
the countries which were planted by them and their de-
scendants could not be planted by them until many years
after this time. The Emims dwelt in these countries in
these days^, and Chedorlaomer subdued them' ; but as he
lost all these countries upon Abraham's routing his forces,
so I do not apprehend that he ever recovered them again :
the Emims after this lived unmolested, until in after-times
the children of Lot conquered them, and got the possession
of their country™ ; and at that time the Assyrians had no-
thing to do in these parts. The same is to be said of Edom :
the Horites were the ancient inhabitants of this land", and
Chedorlaomer smote them in their mount Seir° ; but as he
lost his dominion over these nations, so the Horites or
Horims grew strong again, until the children of Esau con-
quered themP; and the Assyrians were not masters of this
country until later ages. As to Damascus, the heathen
Avriters thought that Abraham first made a plantation thei'e'i ;
probably it was planted in his times. The Syrians were
grown up to two nations in David's time, and were con-
quered by him'' : in the decline of Solomon's reign, Rezon
made Syria an independent kingdom again % and Damascus
became its capital city*; and in Ahab's time it was grown
so powerful, that Benhadad the king of it had thirty and
two kings in his army"; but all this time Syria and all its
dependants were not subject to the kings of Assyria : in the
tim.es of Ahaz, when Rezin was king, Tiglath-Pileser con-
quered him, took Damascus, captivated the inhabitants of it,
and put an end to the kingdom of Syria ^ ; but before this,
neither he nor his predecessors appear to have had any com-
mand in these countries. God gave by promise to the seed
of Abraham all the land from the river of Egypt to the
river Euphrates y, and Solomon came into the full possession
of it^ ; but neither he nor his fathers had any wars with
the kings of Assyria; so that we must conclude that the
king of Assyria's, dominions reached no farther than to that
i Gen. xix. 37, 38. lib. i. cap. 8.
It Deut. ii. 10. r 2 Samuel viii. 6, 13.
1 Gen. xiv. 5. s i Kings xi 23, 24, 25.
"•Deut. ii. 9. Gen. xix. 37^ 38. ' Ibid. Isaiah vii. 8.
n Deut. ii. 12. "I Kings xx. 1.
o Gen. xiv. 6. x 2 Kings xvi. 5, &c.
P Deut. ii. 12. y Gen. xv. 18, &c. ,
n Damascenus apud Joseph. Antiq. ^- 2 Chion. ix. 26.
PREFACE. 249
river. When Chedorlaomer invaded Canaan, the world
was thin of people, and the nations planted in it were, com-
paratively speaking, but few ; and all the large tract between
the nations which he came to conquer, and the Euphrates,
was not inhabited ; for we find that his auxiliaries that came
with him lived all in and near the land of Shinaar ; so that
there were no intermediate nations ; for if there had been
any, he would have brought their united strength along with
him: and this agrees with the description of the land be-
tween the river of Egypt and Etiphrates in the promise to
Abraham a; the nations inhabiting in and near Canaan are
enumerated, but besides them there were no other ; and
agreeably hereto, when Jacob travelled from Canaan to the
land of Haran^, and afterwards when he returned with a
large family from Laban into Canaan ", we do not read that
he passed through many nations, but rather over uninhabited
countries; so that the kingdoms near Canaan which served
Chedorlaomer were in his times the next to the kingdoms
on or near the Euphrates, and therefore when he lost the
service of these nations, his empire extended no farther than
that river ; and his successors not enlarging their empire, all
the country between Palestine and Euphrates, though after
these days many nations were planted in it, was not a part
of the Assyrian empire, until in after-times the Assyrian, and
after them the Babylonian kings by new conquests extended
their empire farther than ever their predecessors had done.
When the ancient Assyrian empire was dissolved on the
death of Sardanapalus, the dominions belonging to it were
divided between the two commanders, who subverted it;
Arbaces the governor of Media, and Belesis governor of
Babylon. Belesis had Babylon and Chaldsea, and Arbaces
had all the resf^. Arbaces is in Scripture called Tiglath-
Pileser, and the nations he became master of were Assyria
and the eastern provinces, the kingdoms of Elam and Me-
dia; for hither he sent his captives when he conquered
Syria^; and therefore these countries thus divided were the
whole of the ancient empire of the Assyrians. And thus our
learned author's argument does in no wise prove that there
was no ancient Assyrian empire ; it only intimates, what
may be abundantly proved to be true, that the profane his-
torians supposed many countries to be a part of it, which
really were not so : they were not accurate in the particu-
lars of their history : they reported the armies of Semiramis
a Gen. xv. i8 — 21. ^ Prideaux, Connect, vol. I. b. i.
^ Gen. xxviii. xxix. ad in.
c Gen. xxxi. e Td. ibid. 2 Kings xvii. 6.
250 PEEFACE.
to be vastly more numerous than they really were ; but we
must not thence infer, that she raised no armies at all : they
took their dimensions of the Assyrian empire from what
was afterwards the extent of the Babylonian or Persian ; but
though they thus surprisingly magnified it, yet we cannot
conclude that there was no such empire, from their having
misrepresented the grandeur and extent of it.
There are some particulars suggested by our great and
learned author, which, though they do not directly fall under
the argument which I have considered, may yet be here
mentioned. Sir Isaac Newton remarks, i. that " the land
" of Haran mentioned Gen. xi. was not under the Assy-
" rian ^." I answer ; When the Chaldaeans expelled Terah and
his family their land for not serving their gods °, they re-
moved about lOO miles up the country, towards the north-
west ; and the earth was not then so full of inhabitants, but
that they here found a tract of land distant from all other
plantations ; and living here within themselves upon their
pasturage and tillage, and having no business with distant
nations, no one interrupted their quiet. The territoi-ies of
the Chaldees reached most probably but a little way from
Ur, for kingdoms were but small in these times : Terah's
family lived far from their borders and plantations, and
that gave them the peace they enjoyed. But, 2. " In the
" time of the Judges of Israel, Mesopotamia was under its
" own king'^." I answer; So was Sodom, Gomorrah, Ad-
mah, Zeboim, and Zoar, in the days of Abraham, and yet
all the kings of these cities had served Chedorlaomer king
of Elam twelve years •. But it may be said, Chushan-rishi-
thaim the king of Mesopotamia warred against^ and en-
slaved the Israelites, and therefore does not seem to have
been himself subject to a foreign power. But to this it may
be replied : The princes that were subject to the Assyrian
empire were altogether kings^ in their own countries; they
made war and peace with other nations not under the pro-
tection of the Assyrians, as they pleased, and were not con-
trolled if they paid the annual tribute or service required
from them. But, 3. " When Jonah prophesied, Nineveh
" contained but about 130000 persons." I answer; When
Jonah prophesied, Nineveh contained more than 120000
persons, that could not discern between their right hand and
their leff^ : thus many were the children not grown up to
f Newton's Chronol. p. 269. ed. 1 728. k Judges iii. 8.
g Judith V. 8. 1 Isaiah x. 8.
h Newton, p. 269. m Jonah iv. 1 1 .
J Gen. xiv. 4.
PREFACE. 251
years of discretion; how far more numerous were all the
persons in it ? A city so exceeding populous must surely be
the head of a very large empire in these days. But, " the
" king of Nineveh was not yet called king of Assyria, but
" king of Nineveh only." I answer; Chedorlaomer is called
in Scripture only king of Elam", though nations about 900
miles distant from that city were subject to him ; for so far
we must compute from Elam to Canaan. But, " the fast
" kept to avert the threatenings of the prophet was not
" published in several nations, nor in all Assyria, but only in
" Nineveh o." I answer; The Ninevites and their king
only fasted, because the threatenings of Jonah were not
against Assyria, nor against the nations that served the king
of Nineveh, but against the city of Nineveh only p. But, 4.
" Homer does not mention, and therefore knew nothing of
" an Assyrian empire %" If I were to consider at large how
little the Assyrian empire extended towards the nations
which Homer was concerned with, it would be no wonder
that he did not mention this empire in his account of the
Trojan war, or travels of Ulysses ; but since it can in no wise
be concluded that Homer knew of no kingdoms in the
world but what he mentioned in his poems, I think I need
not enlarge so much in answer to this objection.
There is one objection more of our learned author's, which
ought more carefully to be examined ; for,
6. He contends, that " the Assyrians were a people •■ no
" ways considerable, when Amos prophesied in the reign of
" Jeroboam the son of Joash, about ten or twenty years be-
" fore the reign of Pul ; for God then threatened to raise up
" a nation against Israel. The nation here intended was the
" Assyrian, but it is not once named in all the book of
" Amos. In the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea,
" Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Zechariah, after the empire
" was grown up, it is openly named upon all occasions; but
" as Amos names not the Assyrians in all his prophecy, so
" it seems most probable, that the Assyrians made no great
" figure in his days ; they were to be raised up against Israel
" after he prophesied. The true import of the Hebrew
" word, which we translate raise up, expresses, that God
" would raise up the Assyrians from a condition lower than
" the Israelites, to a state of power superior to them : but
" since the Assyrians were not in this superior state when
" Amos prophesied, it must be allowed that the Assyrian
n Gen. xiv. i. q Newton's Chron. p. 270.
" Newton's Chron. p. 270. ^ p. 271.
p Jonah iii. '
252 PREFACE.
" empire began and grew up after the days of Amos."
This is the argument in its full strength : my answer to it is ;
The nation intended in the prophecy of Amos was not the
then Assyrian, I mean, not the Assyrian which flourished
and was powerful in the days of Amos. Sir Isaac Newton
says, that Amos prophesied ten years before the reign of Pul.
Pul was the father of Sardanapalus % and therefore the Assy-
rian king in whose reign Amos prophesied was probably Sar-
danapalus's grandfather ; but it was not any of the descend-
ants of these kings, nor any of the possessors of their empire,
which were to afflict the Jews. Their empire was to be
dissolved ; and we find it was so on the death of Sardanapa-
lus, and a new empire was to be raised on the ruins of it,
which was to grow from small beginnings to great power.
Tiglath-Pileser, who had been Sardanapalus's deputy-go-
vernor of Media, was raised first to be king of part of the
dominions which had belonged to the Assyrian empire, and
some time after this his rise, he conquered Syria, took Da-
mascus, and reduced all that kingdom under his dominion,
and so began to fulfil the prophecy of Amos, and to afflict
the Jeios from the entering in of Haniath^; for Hamath was
a country near to Damascus, and here he began his in-
vasions of their land" : some time after this he seized all that
belonged to Israel beyond Jordan, and went forwards towards
Jerusalem, and brought Ahaz under tribute. After the
death of Tiglath-Pileser, his son Salman ezer conquered Sa-
maria, and after him Sennacherib took several of the fenced
cities of Judah, laid siege to Lachish, threatened Jerusalem,
and reduced Hezekiah to pay him tribute, and marched
through the land against Egypt, and under him the pro-
phecy of Amos may be said to have been completed, and the
affliction of the Israelites carried on to the river of the wilder-
ness'^, i. e. to the river Sihor at the entrance of Egypt on the
wilderness of Etham : thus the Israelites were indeed greatly
afflicted by the kings of the Assyrian empire ; but not by
the kings of that Assyrian empire which flourished in the
days of Amos, but of another empire of Assyria, which was
raised up after his days upon the ruins and dissolution of the
former. The whole strength of our great author's argu-
ment lies in this fallacy ; he supposes what is the point to be
proved ; namely, that there was but one Assyrian empire ;
and so concludes, from Amos''s having intimated that an
Assyrian empire should be raised after his times, that there
s Usher's Chronol. an. 3943. " See Prideaux, Connect, vol. I,
* Amos vi. 14. b. i. ad in.
X Amos ubi sup.
PREFACE. 253
was no Assyrian empire in and before his times ; whereas
the truth is, there were two Assyrian empires, different
from each other, not only in the times of their rise and
continuance, but in the extent of their dominions, and the
countries that were subject to them. The former began at
Ninus, and ended at the death of Sardanapalus : the latter
began at Tiglath-Pileser, and ended about 135 years after, at
the destruction of Nineveh by Nabopolassar y : the former
empire commanded Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Media, and
the eastern nations toward India ; the latter empire began at
Nineveh, reduced Assyria, and extended itself into Media
and Persia, then conquered Samaria, Syria, and Palestine,
and afterwards subdued Babylon also, and the kingdoms
belonging to it 2.
Our learned author has obsex'ved the conquests obtained
over diverse nations by the kings of Assyria. He remarks
from Sennacherib's boast to the Jews a, that these conquests
were obtained by Sennacherib and his fathers : he represents
Sennacherib's fathers to have been Pul, Tiglath-Pileser, and
Shalmanezer, and says, that these kings were great con-
querors, and with a current of victories had newly over-
flowed all nations round about Assyria, and thereby set
up this monarchy^. I answer; Pul was not an ancestor of
Sennacherib: Pul was of another family ; king of a different
empire from that which the fathers of Sennacherib erected :
Pul was the father of Sardanapalus ^ : Tiglath-Pileser the
grandfather of Sennacherib ruined Sardanapalus the son of
Pul, got possession of his royal city, and part of his domin-
ions ; and he and his posterity erected, upon this founda-
tion, a far greater empire than Pul had ever been in posses-
sion of. '2. Pul conquered none of the countries mentioned
by Sennacherib to have been subdued by him and his fathers :
Pul is, I think, mentioned but twice by the sacred histori-
rians. We are told that God stirred up the spirit of Pul
king of Assyria^, and we are informed what Pul did''. He
came against the land of Israel when Menahem the son of
Gadi had gotten the kingdom, and Menahem gave him a
thousand talents of silver ; so Pul turned back, and stayed
not in the land ^ Our great and learned author says, that
Pul was a great warrior, and seems to have conquered Haran,
and Carchemish, and Reseph, and Calneh, and Thelasar, and
y Prideaxix, Connect, vol. I. b. i. ad c Usher's Chron. an. 3943.
an. 626. d I Chron. v. 26.
z Prideaux ubi sup. ^ 2 Kings xv. 19.
a 2 Kings xix. 1 1. f Ver, 20.
b Newton, p. 273 — 277.
254 PREFACE.
might found or enlarge the city of Babylon, and build the
old palace S. I answer ; Pul made the expedition above
mentioned, but he was bought off from prosecuting it, and
we have no one proof that he conquered any one kingdom
upon the face of the earth : he enjoyed the dominions his
ancestors had left him, and transmitted them to his son or
successor Sardanapalus ; and therefore, 3. all the fresh vic-
tories obtained by the kings of Assyria, by which they
appear after these times to have conquered so many lands,
began at Tiglath-Pileser, and were obtained by him and his
successors, after the dissolution of the ancient empire of the
Assyrians ; and the hints we have of them do indeed prove,
that a great monarchy was raised in these days by the kings
of Assyria ; but they do not prove that there had been no
Assyrian empire before : the ancient Assyrian empire was
broken down about this time, and its dominions divided
amongst those who had conspired against the kings of it.
Tiglath-Pileser gat Nineveh, and he and his successors by
steps and degrees, by a current of new victories, subdued
kingdom after kingdom, and in time raised a more extensive
Assyrian empire than the former had been.
From a general view of what both sir Isaac Newton and
sir John Marsham have offered about the Assyrian monarchy,
it may be thought that the sacred and profane history
differ irreconcilably about it ; but certainly the sacred wri-
ters did not design to enter so far into the history of the
Assyrian empire, its rise or dominions, as these great and
most learned authors are willing to represent. The books
of the Old Testament are chiefly confined to the Jews and
their affairs, and we have little mention in them of other
nations, any farther than the Jews happened to be concerned
with them; but the little we have is, if duly considered,
capable of being brought to a strict agreement and clear
connection with the accounts of the profane historians, except
in points wherein these have apparently exceeded or deviated
from the truth. A romantic humour of magnifying ancient
facts, buildings, wars, armies, and kingdoms, is what we
must expect in their accounts, and we must make a due
allowance for it ; and if we do so, we shall find in many
points a greater coincidence of what they write, with what
is hinted in Scripture, than one who has not examined
would expect. The sacred history says, that Nimrod began
a kingdom at Babel'', and the time of his beginning it must
be computed to be about A. M. 1757 ' ; and to this agrees in
g Newton, p. 278. li Gen. x. lo. • See vol. I. b. iv. p. 113.
PREFACE. 255
a remarkable manner the account which Callisthenes formed
of the astronomical observations that had been made at Ba-
bylon before Alexander took that city ; he supposed them to
reach 1 903 years backward from Alexander's coming thither ;
so that they began at A. M. 1771'^, about 14 years after
the rise of Nimrod's kingdom. I have already remarked,
that the writers who deny the Babylonian antiquities, en-
deavour, as their hypothesis requires they should, to set
aside this account of Callisthenes : sir John Marsham would
prefer the accounts of Berosus or Epigenes before iti ; but
to them I have already answered™. Our illustrious author
seems best pleased with what Diodorus Siculus relates ",
that *' when Alexander the Great was in Asia, the Chal-
" dseans reckoned 473000 years, since they first began to
" observe the stars °." This I allow might be the boast of
the Chaldfeans ; but I would observe from what Callisthenes
reported, that a stranger, when admitted accurately to ex-
amine their accounts, could find no su.ch thing. The ancients,
before they computed the year by the sun's motion, had years
of various lengths calculated from diverse estimates, and
amongst the rest the Chaldaeans are remarkable for having
had years so short, that they imagined their ancient kings to
have lived or reigned above 6, 7, or 10 thousand of themP :
something of a like nature might be the 473000 years
ascribed to their astronomy ; and Callisthenes, upon a re-
duction of them to solar years, might judge them to contain
but 1903 real years, and so conclude their observations to
reach no farther backward : this seems to be the most pro-
bable account of those observations ; and I cannot but think,
that our great author's inclination to his hypothesis was the
only reason that induced him to produce the 473000 years
of the Chaldseans, and to seem to intimate that Callisthenes's
report of 1903 reached only to a part of themq, the larger
number being most likely to make the Assyrian antiquities
appear extravagant. The profane historians generally carry
up their kingdom of Assyria to Ninus"", and Ninus reigned
when Abraham was born ^ ; and we are well assured from
the Scriptures, that the Assyrian antiquities are not hereby
carried up too high ; for in the time of Nimrod, Ashur
erected a kingdom, and built several cities in this country '.
k See vol. I. b. iv. p. 1 14. Chron. p. 8. ed. 1658.
1 Marsham. Can. Chron. p. 474. 1 Newton's Chron. p. 44.
"1 See Pref. to vol. I. r See Diodor. Sic. 1. ii. ad in. Justin.
n Lib. ii. §. 31. p. 83. 1. i. §. I, Euseb. Chron. p. 18.
° Newton's Chron. p. 265. s npooi/j.. Euseb.
P See Pref. to vol. I. Euseb. in 'Gen. x. 11.
256 PREFACE.
The profane historians represent Ninus to have been a very
great conqueror, and relate, that he subjected the Asiatic
nations to his empire ; and the sacred history confirms this
particular very remarkably ; for it informs us, that the king
of Elam in the days of Abraham had nations subject to his
service, about 8 or 900 miles distant from the city of his
residence ; for so far we must compute from Elam to the five
cities, which served Chedorlaomer twelve years". We find
from Scripture, that Chedorlaomer lost the obedience of
these countries ; and after Abraham's defeating his armies,
until Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrian kings appear not to have
had any dominion over the nations between the Mediter-
ranean and the Euphrates : this indeed seems to confine
the Assyrian empire within narrower boimds than can well
agree with the accounts which the heathen writers give of
it ; but then it is remarkable, that these enlarged accounts
come from hands comparatively modern : Diodorus informs
us, that he took his from Ctesias " : Ctesias might have the
number of his ancient Assyrian kings, and the times or
lengths of their reigns, from the Persian chronicles Y : but as
all writers have agreed to ascribe no great actions to any of
them from after Ninus to Sardanapalus : so it appears most
reasonable to imagine, that the Persian registries made but a
very short mention of them ; for ancient registries afforded
but little history % and therefore I suspect that Ctesias's esti-
mate of the ancient Assyrian grandeur was rather formed
from what he knew to be true of the Persian empire, than
taken from any authentic accounts of the ancient Assyrian.
The profane historians relate, that the Assyrian empire was
broken down at the death of Sardanapalus ; but the Jews
having at this time no concern with the Assyrians, the sacred
writers do not mention this great revolution; however, all
the accounts in Scripture of the kings of Assyria, and of
the kings of Babylon, which are subsequent to the times of
Sardanapalus, will appear to be reconcilable to the supposal
of such a subversion of this ancient empire, to any one that
reads the first book of the most learned dean Prideaux's Con-
nection of the History of the Old and New Testament.
I have now gone through what I proposed to offer at this
time against sir Isaac Newton's Chronology : I hope I shall
not appear to have selected two or three particulars out of
many, such as I might easily reply to, omitting others more
weighty and material ; for I have considered the very points,
u Gen. xiv. y Id. Ibid.
x Lib. ii. §. 2. z See Gen. v. x. xi. xxxvi. &c.
PBEFACE. 257
whick are the foundation of this new scheme, and which, if I
have sufficiently answered, will leave me no very difficult task
to defend my adhering to the received chronology. If the
argument formed from Chiron's constellations Avere stripped
of its astronomical dress, a common reader might be able to
judge, that it cannot serve the purpose it is alleged for : if
(as the most celebrated Dr. Hal ley represents) the ancient
astronomers had done nothing that could be serviceable to
either Hipparchus or Ptolomy in their determination of the
celestial motions ; if even Thales could give but a rude ac-
couxit of the motions ; if before Hipparchus there could
scarce be said to be such a science as astronomy ; how can it
be imagined that Chiron, who most probably lived iioo
years before Hipparchus, and almost 3000 years ago, should
have really left a most difficult point of astronomy so exactly
calculated and adjusted, as to be a foundation for us now to
overturn by it all the hitherto received chronology ? If Chi-
ron and all the Greeks before and for 600 years after his
time put together, could not tell when the year began and
when it ended, without mistaking above five days and almost
a quarter of a day in every year''s computation ; can it be
possible for Chiron to have settled the exact time of midsum-
mer and midwinter, of equal day and night in spring and
autumn, with such a mathematical exactness, as that at this
day we can depend upon a supposed calculation of his, to
reject all that has hitherto been thought the true chrono-
logy I As to our illustrious author's argument from the
lengths of reigns, I might have observed, that it is intro-
duced upon a supposition which can never be allowed,
namely, that the ancient chronologers did not give us the
several reigns of their kings, as they took them from authen-
tic records, but that they made the lengths of them by
artificial computations, calculated according to what they
thought the reigns of such a number of kings, as they had
to set down, would at a medium one with another amount to :
this certainly never was fact ; but as Acusilaus, a most an-
cient historian mentioned by ^ our most illustrious author,
wrote his genealogies out of tables of brass ; so it is by fiir
most probable, that all the other genealogists, who have
given us the lengths of the lives or reigns of their kings or
heroes, took their accounts either from monuments, stone
pillars, or ancient inscriptions, or from other antiquaries of
unsuspected fidelity, who had faithfully examined such ori-
ginals ; but as I had no occasion to pursue this fact, so I
omitted the mentioning of it, thinking it would be sufficient
a Chronol. p. 46.
VOL. I. S
^58 PREFACE.
to defend myself against our learned author's scheme, to
shew, that the lengths of the kings' reigns, which he sup-
posed so much to exceed the course of nature, would not
really appear to do so, if we consider what the Scriptures re-
present to be the lengths of men's lives and of generations in
those ages which these reigns belong to. As to the ancient
empire of Assyria, I submit what I have offered about it to
the reader.
After so large digressions upon these subjects, I cannot find
room to enter upon the particulars which are contained in
the following sheets. I wish none of them may want a large
apology; but that what I now offer the public may meet
with the same favour as my former volume, which, if it does,
I shall endeavour, as fast as the opportunities I have will en-
able me, and my other engagements permit, in two volumes
more to finish the remaining parts of this undertaking.
Shelton, Norfolk,
Dec. TO, 1729.
THE
SACRED AND PROFANE
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
CONNECTED.
BOOK VI.
WHEN Abram was upon a his entrance into Egypt, he
was full of thoughts of the evils that might befall him in
a strange land ; and considering the beauty of his wife, he was
afraid that the king, or some powerful person of the country,
might fall in love with her, and kill him in order to marry
her : he therefore desired her to call him brother. They
had not been long in Egypt, before the beauty of Sarai was
much talked of, and she was had to court, and the king of
Egypt had thoughts of marrying her ; but in some time he
found out that she was Abram's wife : hereupon he sent for
him, and expostulated with him the ill consequences that
might have happened from the method he had taken, and
in a very generous manner he restored Sarai, and suffered
Abram to leave l^s country, and to carry with him all that
belonged to him. Abram's stay in Egypt was about three
months : the part of Egypt he travelled into was the land
of Tanis, or lower Egypt, for this bordered on Arabia and
a Gen. xii. 1 1.
s2
S60 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
Philistia, from whence Abram journeyed, and his coming
hither was about the tenth year of the fifth king of this
country; for Menes or Mizraim being, as has been before
said, king of all Egypt until A. M. 1943, and the reigns of
the three next kings of lower Egypt taking up (according to
sir John Marsham's tables of them) 133 years, the tenth
year of their successor will carry us to A. M. 2086, which
was the year in which Abram came to Egypt''.
After Abram came out of Egypt, he returned into Ca-
naan, and came to the place where he formerly made his
first stop between Bethel and Hai"; and here he offered a
sacrifice of thanksgiving for the happy events of his travels.
Lot and Abram had hitherto lived together; but by this
time their substance was so much increased, that they found
it inconvenient to be near to one another: their cattle ^ min-
gled, and their herdsmen quarrelled, and the land was not
able to hear them; their stocks, when together, required a
larger tract of ground to feed and support them, than they
could take up, without interfering with the property of the
inhabitants of the land in which they sojourned. They
agreed therefore to separate : the land of Canaan had spare
room sufficient for Abram, and the plains of Jordan for Lot^
and so upon Lot's choosing to remove towards Jordan,
Abram agreed to continue where he was, and thus they
parted. After Lot was gone from him, God commanded
Abram to lift up his eyes and view the country of Canaan %
and promised that the whole of it should be given to his seed
for ever, and that his descendants should exceedingly flourish
and multiply in it : soon after this Abram f removed his
tent, and dwelt in the plain of Mamre in Hebron, and there
he built an altar to the Lord. His settling at Mamre might
be about A. M. 2091.
About this time Abram became an instrument of great
service to the king in whose dominions he sojourned. The
Assyrian empire, as we have observed, had in these times
extended itself over the adjacent and remote countries, and
t> See vol. I. b. v. p. 165.
e Ver. 14.
9 Gen. .xiii. 3.
f Ver. 1 8.
d Ver. 7.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
261
brought the little nations in Asia under tribute and subjec-
tion. The seat of this empire was at this time at Elam in
Persia, and Chedorlaomer was king of it ; for to him the
kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the three other na-
tions mentioned by Moses s, had been in subjection: they
had served him twelve years, but m the thirteenth they re-
helled^. We meet no where in profane history the name
Chedorlaomer, nor any of Moses's names of the kings that
were confederate with him ; but I have formerly observed
how this might be occasioned. Ctesias, from whom the pro-
fane historians took the names of these kings, did not use
their original Assyrian names in his history ; but rather such
as he found in the Persian records, or as the Greek language
offered instead of them.
If we consider about what time of Abram's life this affair
happened, (and we must place it about his eighty-fourth
or eighty-fifth year', i. e. A. M. 2093,) ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ®^^y ^° ^^^
who was the supreme king of the Assyrian empire at the
time here spoken of. Ninyas the son of Ninus and Seniira-
mis began his reign A. M. 2059'', and he reigned thirty-
eight years ^, so that the year of this transaction falls four
years before his death. Ninyas therefore was the Chedorla-
omer of Moses, head of the Assyrian empire, and Amraphel
was his deputy at Babylon in Shinaar, and Arioch and Tidal
his deputies over some other adjacent countries. It is re-
markable, that Ninyas first appointed under him such de-
puties i", and no absurdity in Moses to call them kings ; for it
is observable from what Isaiah hinted afterwards", that the
Assyrian boasted his deputy princes to be equal to royal
governors ; Are not my princes altogether kings ? The great
care of kings in these ages was to build cities ; and thus we
find almost every new king erecting a new seat of his empire ;
Ninus fixed at Nineveh, Semiramis at Babylon, and Ninyas
at Elam; and from hence it happened in after-ages, that
g Gen. xiv. 4. h Ibid. k See vol. I. b. iv. p. 112,
i I.e. about a year or two before the I Euseb. in Chron. p. 18.
birth of Ishinael, who was born when '" Uiodor. Sie. 1. ii. §.21.
Abraiii was eighty-six. Gen. xvi. 16. » Isaiah, x. 8.
262 CONNECTIOX OF THE SACRED [boOK VI.
Ctesias, when he came to write the Assyrian antiquities,
found the names of their ancient kings amongst the royal
records of Persia, which he would hardly have done, if some
of their early monarchs had not had their residence in this
country. Ninyas therefore was the Chedorlaomer of Moses,
and these kings of Canaan had been subject to him for twelve
years : in the thirteenth year they endeavoured to recover
their liberty ; but within a year after their attempting it,
(which is a space of time that must necessarily be supposed,
before Chedorlaomer could hear at Elam of their revolt, and
summon his deputies with an army to attend him,) in the
fourteenth year, the king of Elam with his deputy princes,
the governor of Shinaar, and of Ellasar, and of the other
nations subject to him, brought an army, and overran the
kingdoms in and round about the land of Canaan. He sub-
dued the Rephaims, who inhabited the land afterAvards called
the kingdom of Bashan, situated between Gilead and Her-
mon, the Uzzinis between Anion and Damascus, the Emmirns
who inhabited what was afterwards called the land of Am-
mon, the Horites from mount Seir to El-paran, and then he
subdued the Amalekites and the Amorites, and last of all
came to battle with the king of Sodom, and the king of
Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Ze-
boim, and the king of Bela or Zoar in the valley of Sid-
dim, and obtained a complete and entire conquest over
them. Lot, who at this time dwelt in Sodom, suffered in
this action ; for he and all his family and substance was
taken by the enemy, and in great danger of being carried
away into captivity, had not Abram very fortunately res-
cued him. The force that Abram could raise was but small :
three hundred and eighteen trained servants were his whole
retinue, and with these he pursued the enemy unto Dan.
We do not read that Abram attacked the whole Assyrian
army ; without doubt that would have been an attempt too
great for the little company which he commanded ; but
coming up with them in the night", he artfully divided his
attendants into two companies, with one of which most pro-
o Gen. xiv. 15,
AND PROFAXE HISTORY.
263
bably he attacked those that were appointed to guard the
captives and spoil, and with the other made the appearance of
a force ready to attempt the whole body of the enemy. The
Assyrians, surprised at finding a new enemy, and pretty
much harassed with obtaining their numerous victories, and
fatigued in their late battle, not knowing the strength that
now attacked them, retired and fled before them : Abram
pursued them unto Hobah on the left hand of Damascus p,
and being by that time master of the prisoners and spoil, he
did not think fit to press on any further, or to follow the
enemy until the day-light might discover the weakness of his
forces, and so he returned back, having rescued his brother
Lot, and his goods, and the women, a7id the people^, that were
taken captive. We hear no more of the Assyrian army ;
most probably they returned home, with designs to be so
reinforced, as to come another year sufficiently prepared to
make a more complete conquest of the kingdoms of Canaan ;
but Ninyas or Chedorlaomer dying soon after this, the new
king might have other designs upon his hands, and so this
might be laid aside and neglected. When Abram returned
with the captives and the spoil, the king of Sodom and the
king of Salem r went out to meet him with great ceremony :
Melchisedec Mng of Salem ivas the priest of the most high God^,
and for that reason Abram gave him the tenth of the spoil :
the remainder he returned to the king of Sodom, refusing
to be himself a gainer, by receiving any part of what this
victorious enterprise had gotten him.
God Almighty continued his favour to Abram, and in
diverse and sundry manners, sometimes by the appearance of
angels, at other times by audible voices, or by remarkable
dreams, declared to him in what manner he designed to bless
his posterity, and to raise them in the world. Abram at this
time had no son, but upon his desiring one, he received not
only a promise of a son, but was informed, that his posterity
should be so numerous, as to be compared to the very stars
of heaven '. Abram was so sincerely disposed to believe all
P Gen. xiv. 15. s Vcr. 18.
a Ver. 16. t Gen. xv. 5.
rVer. 17.
264 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
the intimations and promises which God thought fit to give
him, that it was counted to him for righteousness'^^ ^ that he
obtained by it great favour and acceptance with God ; so that
God was pleased to give him a still further discovery of what
should befall him and his descendants : he was ordered to
oiFer a solemn sacrifice^, and at the going down of the sun a
deep sleep fell upon him, and it was revealed to him in a
dreamy, that he himself should die in peace in a good old
age ; but that his descendants should for four hundred years
be but strangers in a land not their own, and should suffer
hardships, even bondage ; but that after this the nation that
had oppressed them should be severely punished, and that
they should be brought out of all their difficulties in a very
rich and flourishing condition, and that in the fourth gene-
ration they should return again into Canaan, and take pos-
session of it ; that they could not have it sooner, because the
hiiquity of the Amorites roas not yet full'^. God Almighty
could foresee, that the Amorites would by that time have
ran into such an excess of sin, as to deserve the severe ex-
pulsion from the land of Canaan, which was afterwards
appointed for them ; but he would in no wise order their
punishment, until they should have filled up the measure of
their iniquities so as to deserve it. After Abram awoke
from this dream, a fire kindled miraculouslv^ and consumed
his sacrifice, and God covenanted with him to give to his
seed all the land of Canaan, from the river of Egypt to the
Euphrates*'.
Ten years after Abram's return into Canaan'', in the
eighty-sixth year of his life, A. M. 2094'', he had a son by
Hagar the Egyptian, Sarai's maid. Sarai herself had no
children, and, expecting never to have any, had given her
maid to Abram to be his wife", to prevent his dying child-
less. Abram was exceedingly rejoiced at the birth of his
son, and looked upon him as the heir promised him by God,
who was to be the father of the numerous jieoplc that were
II Gen. XV. 6. b Ver. i8.
X Ver. 9. c Gen. xvi. 3.
y Ver. 12. cl Ver. 16.
z Ver. 16. e Ver. 3.
a Ver. 17. See vol. I. p. 179.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
265
to descend from him ; but about thirteen years after Ish-
mael's birth, (for so was the child named,) God appeared unto
Abram*^. The person who appeared to him called himself
the Almighty God^, and can be conceived to be no other
person than our blessed Saviour •' : as he afterwards thought
fit to take upon him ourjlesh, and to dwell amongst the Jews ',
in the manner related in the Gospels ; so he appeared to
their fathers in the form of angels in the first ages of the
world, to reveal his will to them, as far as he then thought
fit to have it imparted. In the first and most early days, he
took the name of God Almighty; by this name he was
known to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob''; afterwards he
called himself by a name more fully expressing his es-
sence and deity, and was known to Moses by the name
JEHOVAH I.
God Almighty at this appearance unto Abram entered
into covenant with him, promised him a son to be born of
Sarai, repeated to him the promise of Canaan before made to
him, and gave him fresh assurances of the favours and bless-
ings designed him and his posterity ; but withal acquainted
him, that the descendants of the son whom Sarai should
bear should be heirs of the blessings promised to him ; that
Ishmael should indeed be a flourishing and happy man, that
twelve princes should descend from him ; but that the cove-
nant made at this time should be established with Isaac,
whom Sarai should bear about a year after the time of this
promise. Abram's name was now changed into Abraham,
and Sarai's into Sarah, and circumcision was enjoined him
and his family '^i.
The same divine appearance, for Abraham called him the
Judge of all the earth^\ accompanied with two angels, was
some little time after this seen again by him in the plains of
Harare, as he sat in his tent door in the heat of the day.
They came into Abraham's tent, and were entertained by
f Gen. xvii. i. xlviii. 3. xli.x. 25. Exodus vi. 3.
S Ibid. 1 Exodus vi. 3. and iii. 14.
li See vol. I. b. v. p. 175. m Gen. xvii. lo.
i John i. 14. " Gen. xviii. 25.
k Gen. xvii. i. xxviii. 3. xxxv. 11.
266 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
him, and eat with him°, and confirmed to him again the
promise that had been made him of a son by Sarah ; and
after having spent some time with him, the two angels
went towards Sodom^ ; but the Lord continued with Abra-
ham, and told him how he designed to destroy in a most
terrible manner that unrighteous city, Abraham was here
so highly favoured as to have leave to commune with God,
and was permitted to intercede for the men of Sodom ''. As
soon as the Lord had left communing with Abraham, he
went his way, and Abraham returned to his place ■■: the
two angels before mentioned came to Sodom at even, made
a visit to Lot, and stayed in his house all night® ; they were
offered a monstrous violence by the wicked inhabitants of
Sodom, upon which they acquainted Lot upon what ac-
count they were sent thither ; and after they had ordered
him, his wife and children and all his family, to leave the
place, about the time of the sun rising, or a little after*, the
Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah^ and upon some other
cities in the plain, fire and brimstone from the Lord out of
heaven^, and wholly destroyed all the inhabitants of them.
Lot's wife was unhappily lost in this calamity ; whether she
only looked back, which was contrary to the express com-
mand of the angel to them^, or whether it may be inferred
from our Saviour's mention of her y, that she actuallv turned
back, being unwilling to leave Sodom, and to go and live at
Zoar, God was pleased to make her a monument of his
vengeance for her disobedience, she was turned into a pillar
of salt^ Lot's sons in law, who had married his daughters,
refused to go along with him out of Sodom ^, so that they
and their wives perished in the city : two of his daughters,
who lived with him^ and were unmarried c, went to Zoar,
and were preserved : Lot lived at Zoar but a little while ;
for he was afraid that Zoar might some time or other be
o Gen. xviii. 8. x Ver. 17.
P Ver. 16. y Luke xvii. 32.
n Ver. 23, &c. z Gen. xix. 26.
r Ver. 33. a Ver. 14.
s Gen. xix. b Ver. 15.
t Ver. 23. c Ver. 8.
« Ver. 2*4.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 267
destroyed also'', and therefore he retired with his two
daughters, and lived in a cave upon a mountain, at a distance
from all converse from the world. His daughters grew
uneasy at this strange retirement, and thinking that they
should both die unmarried, from their father's continuing
resolved to go on in this course of life, and so their father's
name and family become 'extinct", they intrigued together,
and imposing wine upon their father, they went to bed to
him •", and were with child by him, and had each of them a
son, Moab and Ammon. The two children grew up, and in
time came to have families, and from these two sons of Lot
the Moabites and the Ammonites were descended.
About this time Abraham removed southward, and so-
journed between Cadesh and Shur at Gerar, a city of the
Philistines : here he pretended Sarah to be his sister =, as he
had done formerly in Egypt ; for he thought the Philistines
to be a wicked people. Abimelech the king of Philistia
intended to take Sarah to be his wife ; but it pleased God to
inform him in a dream, that she belonged to Abraham.
Abimelech appears to have been a man of eminent virtue,
and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah had made a
deep impression in him : he appealed to God for the inte-
grity of his heart, and the innocency of his intentions : he
restored Sarah to her husband, and gave him sheep, oxen,
men-servants and women-servants, and a thousand pieces of
silver, and free liberty to live where he would in his king-
dom, and he reproved Sarah for concealing her being mar-
ried ; observing to her, that if she had not disowned her
husband, she had been protected from any other person's
fixing his eyes upon her to desire her : He is to thee, said he,
a covering of the eyes to or of all that are with thee, and with
all others'^; i. e. he shall cover or protect thee, from any of
those that are of thy family or acquaintance, or that are
not, from looking at thee to desire thee for their wife.
A year was now accomplished, and, A. ]VL 2108, a son
(1 Gen. xix. 30. e Gen. xx. 2.
e Ver. 31, 32. h Ver. 16.
f Ver. iS, 34, 35.
268 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
was born of Sarah ^, and was circumcised on the eighth day,
and named Isaac. When he grew old enough to be weaned,
Abraham made a very extraordinary feast : Ishmael laughed
at seeing such a stir made about this infant • : Sarah was so
provoked at it, that she would have both him and his mother
turned out of doors. Abraham had the tenderness of a father
to his child "i ; he loved Ishmael, and was loath to part with
him, and therefore applied himself to God for direction :
God was pleased to assure him, that he would take care
of Ishmael, and ordered him not to let his aifection for either
Hagar or her son prevent his doing what Sarah requested,
intimating to him that Ishmael should for his sake be the
parent of a nation of people ; but that his portion and in-
heritance was not to be in that land, which was to be given
to the descendants of Isaac ", and that therefore it was proper
for him to be sent away, to receive the blessings designed
him in another place. Abraham hereupon called Hagar,
and gave her water and other necessary provisions, and
ordered her to go away into the world from him, and to take
her son along with her : hereupon she went away, and
wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba °.
Some of the commentators are in pain about Abraham's
character P, for his severity to Hagar and Ishmael in the
case before us. And it may perhaps be thought, that the
direction, which God is said to have given in this particular,
may rather silence the objection, than answer the difficulties
of it ; but a little consideration will be sufficient to clear it.
It would Indeed, as the circumstances of the world now are,
seem a very rigorous proceeding to send a woman into the
wide world with a little child in her arms, with only a bottle
of water, and such a quantity of bread as she could carry out
of a family, where she had been long maintained in plenty,
not to mention her having been a wife to the master of it :
but it must be remarked, that though the ambiguity of our
English translation, which seems to intimate, that Hagar,
when she went from Abraham, took the child upon her shoul-
k Gen. xxi. 2. " Vcr. 12, 13.
1 Vcr. 9. o Vcr. 14.
m Ver. 11, V Pool's Synopsis in loc.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 269
der q, and afterwards that she cast the child under one of the
shrubs'', does indeed represent Hagar's circumstances as
very calamitous; yet it is evident, that they were far from
being so full of distress as this representation makes them.
For, I. Ishmael was not an infant at the time of their going
from Abraham, but at least fifteen or sixteen years old. Ish-
mael was born when Abraham was eighty-six s, Isaac when he
was an hundred f; so that Ishmael was fourteen at the birth
of Isaac, and Isaac was perhaps two years old when Sarah
weaned him, and so Ishmael might be sixteen when Abraham
sent away him and his mother. Hagar therefore had not a
little child to provide for, but a youth capable of being a
comfort and assistant to her. 2. The circumstances of the
world were such at this time, that it was easy for any person
to find a sufficient and comfortable livelihood in it. Man-
kind were so few, that there was in every country ground to
spare ; so that any one, that had flocks and a family, might
be permitted to settle any where, and feed and maintain
them, and in a little time to grow and increase and become
very wealthy : or the creatures of the world were so nu-
merous, that a person that had no flocks or herds might in
the wildernesses, and uncultivated grounds, kill enough of
all sorts for maintenance, without injuring any one, or being
molested for so doing : and thus Ishmael dwelt in the wil-
derness, and became an archer". Or they might let them-
selves for hire to those who had great stocks of cattle to look
after, and find an easy and sufficient maintenance in their
service ; as good as Hagar and Ishmael had had even with
Abraham. "We see no reason to think that Hagar met with
many difficulties in providing for herself, or her son : she in
a few years saw him in so comfortable a way of living, as to
get him a wife out of another country to come and live with
him : she took him a wife old of the land of Egypt ^. 3. Ish-
mael, and consequently Hagar with him, fared no worse
than the younger children used to fare in those days, when
they were dismissed in order to their settling in the world ;
<J Gen. xxi. 14. t Gen. xxi. 5.
r Ver. 15. u Ver. 20.
s Gen. xvi. 16. x Ver. ?i.
270 CONNKCTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
for we find that in this manner the children which Abraham
had by Keturah were dealt by y : Abraham gave all that he
had unto Isaac; hut unto the sons of the co7icuhmes, which Abra-
ham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac
his son, while he yet lived, eastivard, unto the east country:
and much in this manner even Jacob, who was to be heir
of the blessing, was sent away from his father. Esau was the
eldest son, and as such was to inherit his father's substance ;
and accordingly, when his father died, he came from Seir to
take what was gotten for him by his father in the land of
Canaan ^ ; for we have no reason to imagine that Jacob re-
ceived any thing at Isaac's death ; his brother left him only
his own substance to increase within the land ; and yet we
find he had enough to maintain his wives, and a numerous
family, and all this the mere product of his own industry :
when he first went from his father, he was sent a long jour-
ney to Padan-aram ; we read of no servants nor equipage
going with him, nor any accommodations prepared him for
his journey ; he was sent, as we nowadays might say, to seek
his fortune, only instructed to seek it amongst his kinsfolk
and relations^; and he went to seek it upon so uncertain a
foundation, that we find him most earnestly praying to God
to be with him in the loay that he was to go, and not to suf-
fer him to want the necessaries of life to support him, but to
give him bread to eat, and raiment to put on ^; and yet we see,
by letting himself for hire to Laban, he both married his
daughters, and in a few years became the master of a very
considerable substance*'. 4. We mistake therefore, not duly
considering the circumstances of these times, in imagining
Hagar and Ishmael to have been such sufferers in Abraham's
dismissing them. At first it might perhaps be disputed,
whether Ishmael the first-born, or Isaac the son of his wife,
should be Abraham's heir ; but after this point was deter-
mined, and God himself had declared that in Isaac Abra-
ham's seed was to be called^, a provision was to be made, that
Ishmael should go and plant a family of his own, or he must
y Gen. xxv. 6. ^ Ver. 20.
z Chap. XXX vi. 6. <= Gen. xxx. 43.
a Chap, xxviii. 2. '' Gen. xxi. 12.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 271
have been Isaac's bondman or servant, if he had continued
in Abraham's family ; so that here was only that provision
made for him, which the then circumstances of the world
directed fathers to make for their younger children, and not
any hardship put upon either Hagar or her son ; and though
their wandering in the wilderness until they wanted water
had almost destroyed them, yet that was an accident only,
and no fault of Abraham's ; and after it pleased God to ex-
tricate them out of this difficulty, we have no reason to ima-
gine that they met with any further hardships ; but being
freed from servitude, they easily, by taking wild beasts and
taming them, and by sowing corn, gat a stock, and became
in a few years a very flourishing family.
Abimelech saw the increasing prosperity of Abraham, and
fearing that he would in time grow too powerful a subject,
made him swear, that he would never injure him or his
people. Some little disputes had arisen between Abime-
lech's servants and Abraham's about a well, which Abra-
ham's servants had digged; but Abimelech and Abraham,
after a little expostulation, quickly came to a good under-
standing, and both of them made a covenant, and sware
unto each other e. Abraham continued still to flourish : his
son Isaac was now near a man, when it pleased God to make
a very remarkable trial of Abraham's fidelity : he required
him to oflfer his son Isaac for a burnt-oflfering f : this, without
doubt, must at first be a great shock to him : he had before
been directed to send away Ishmael, and had been assured
that the blessings promised to his posterity were not to take
place in any part of that branch of his family ; but that
Isaac should be the son of the promise, and that his descend-
ants should be the heirs of the happiness and prosperity that
God had promised to him : and now God was pleased to re-
quire him with his own hands to destroy this his son, his
only son, Isaac. How could these things be ? What would
become of God's promises, if this child, to whom they were
appropriated, were thus to perish I The writer of the Epistle
to the Hebrews gives a very elegant account of the method
e Gen. xxi. 22, &c. ^ Gen. xxii.
272 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
by which Abraham made himself easy in this particular " :
By faith, says he, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up
Isaac : and he that had received the 'promises offered up his
only hegotten soti ; of tohom it was said, that i?i Isaac shall thy
seed he called : accounting that God was able to raise him up
even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a
figure. He considered, that God had given him this son in a
very extraordinary manner; his wife, who bare him, being
past the usual time of having children ^ ; and that the thus
giving him a son was in a manner raising him one from the
dead; for it was causing a mother to have one, who was
naturally speaking dead in this respect, and not to be con-
ceived capable of bearing ; that God Almighty could as
certainly raise him really from the dead, as at first cause him
to be born of so aged a parent : by this way of thinking he
convinced himself, that his faith was not unreasonable, and
then fully determined to act according to it, and so took his
son, and went to the place appointed, built the altar, and laid
his son upon the wood, and took the knife, with a full re-
solution to kill the victim ; but here his hand was stopped
by a distinct and audible voice from heaven : the angel of
the Lord called to him out of heaven, and said, Abraham,
Abraham ! A?id he said. Here am I. And he said, Lay not
thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him : for
now I know that thou fear est God, seeing thou hast not withheld
thy S071, thitie only son, from me\ Abraham hereupon looked
about, and seeing a ram caught in a thicket, he took it, and
offered that instead of his son ^ : God was pleased in an ex-
traordinary manner to approve of his doing so, and, by an-
other voice from heaven, confirmed to him the promises,
which had been before made him ^ Abraham being deeply
affected with this surprising incident, called the place Je-
hovah-jireh in remembrance of it; and there was a place in
the mountain called by that name many ages after '^. Abra-
ham soon after this went to live at Beersheba.
g Heb. xi. 17, 18, 19. I Ver. 16, 17, 18.
h Ver. II. m Our English translation of the
i Gen. xxii. 11, 12. fourteenth verse is very obscure. Asitis
•t Ver. 13. said to this day; In the mount of the Lord
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 273
There are some Ma-iters who remark upon this intended
sacrifice of Abraham's in the following manner. They hint,
that he was under no surprise at receiving an order to per-
form it", nor do they think that we have any reason to extol
him for this particular, as if he had hereby shewn an uncom-
mon readiness and devotion for God's service : for they say,
that if he had really sacrificed his son, he would have done
only a thing very common in the times which he lived in ;
for that it was customary, as Philo represents °, for private
persons, kings, and nations to offer these sacrifices. The
barbarous nations, we are toldP, for a long time thought it
an act of religion, and a thing acceptable to the gods, to
sacrifice their children. And Philo Biblius informs us, that
in ancient times it was customary for kings of cities, and
heads of nations, upon imminent dangers, to offer the son
whom they most loved a sacrifice for the public calamity, to
appease the anger of the gods^. And it is remarked from
Porphyry, that the Phoenicians, when in danger of war,
famine, or pestilence, used to choose by public suffrage some
one person, whom they most loved, and sacrifice him to
Saturn : and Sanchoniathon's Phoenician history, which Philo
Biblius translated into Greek, is, he says, full of these sacri-
fices. Now from this seeming citation of divers writers one
would expect a variety of instances of these sacrifices before
Abraham's days ; but, after all the forwardness of these wri-
ters in their assertions upon this point, they produce but one
particular instance, and that one most probably a misrepre-
sentation of Abraham's intended sacrifice, and not a true
account of any sacrifice really performed by any person that
ever lived in the world : or if this may be controverted,
il shall be seen. If we take the word Englished verbatim thus : And Abra-
TDX' to be a future tense, the whole ham called the iiame of that place Jeho-
verse may be translated thus : And vah-jireh, which [1. e. place] in the
Abraham called the name of the place mountain is called at this day Jchovah-
Jehovah-jireh ; because it will be said, jireh.
[or told hereafter, that] This day the "Lord Shaftesbury's' Characterist.
Lord was seen in the mountain. The vol. iii. Misc. 2. Sir John Marsham,
LXX. favour this translation. They Can. Chron. p. 76.
render the place koi eKd\f(Teu 'A/3pao^ o Philo Judseus Lib. de Abraham,
rh uvofj-a. Tov TOTTov sKeiuov, Kvptos dSev p. 293. ed. Sigis. Gelen. 1613.
'iva iiiTQxn ari/jiepov, eV Tcji opei Kvpios P Id. ibid.
&(peri. — Or the Hebrew words may be a SeeEuseb. Prsep. Evang. I.iv. c. 16.
VOL. I. T
274 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VI.
and it may be thought that the person they mention did
really offer the sacrifice they give account of; yet it must
appear from the historian from whom they have it, that he
did not live earlier, nor so early as Abraham, and therefore
his sacrifice might be designed in imitation of Abraham's,
and not Abraham's in conformity to any known practice of
the nations he lived in.
The instance they offer is this. They say, that Chronus,
whom the Phoenicians call Israel^, and who after his death
was deified, and became the star called saturn, when he
reigned in that country, had an only son by the nymph
Anobret, a native of the land, whom he called Jeud, (that
word signifying in the Phoenician language only-hegoUen,)
and that, when he was in extreme peril of war, he adorned
his son in the royal apparel, and built an altar with his own
hands, and sacrificed him^. Philo Biblius from Sanchonia-
thon in another place represents it thus : that Chronus, upon
the raging of a famine and pestilence, offered his only son
for a burnt offering to his father Ouranus ' : now upon this
fact we may observe,
I. That the Chronus here mentioned was not more an-
cient than the times of Abraham ; for if any one consults
Sanchoniathon's account given us by Philo", he will find,
that after Sanchoniathon has brought down his genealogy
to Misor, i. e. to the Mizraim of Moses'', to whom he
makes Sydec cotemporary, he then informs us, that Sydec
was father of the Dioscuri, Cabiri, or Corybantes ; and that
KaTa T0VT0V9, or in their life-time, Eliun was born y : Ouranus
was son of Eliun : Ilus or Chronus was son of Ouranus :
and thus, supposing this Chronus to be the person who sacri-
ficed his only son, it will be evident, that the grandfather
of this person was born in the life-time of the sons of Miz-
raim, the grandson of Noah by his son Ham ; and parallel
>■ Sir John Marsham writes it I\, y This expression Kara roirovs im-
and translates it Ihis ; but Eusebius plies Eliun to be younger than the
writes it 'I(rpaT7A. Can. Clu-on. p. 77. Corybantes. Abraham was born in
s Euseb. Proep.'Evang. 1. iv. c. 16. the forty-thu-d year of the reign of
t Id. Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. 10. Ninus, and so Eusebius says he was
u In Euseb. Praep. Evang. 1. i. c. 10. born Kararovrov. Prsef. ad Clironic.
X See vol. I. b. i.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 275
to this, Nahor the grandfather of Abraham was born three
hundred and forty-two years before the death of Salah the
son of Arphaxad, who was Noah's grandson by his son
Shem^. Or we may compute this matter another way :
Mizraim died A. M. 1943 ^ ; his son Taautus lived forty-nine
years after Mizraiin's death, i. e. to A. M. 1992. Taautvis
was cotemporary with the Dioscuri ; for they were said to be
sons of one cotemporary with Taautus's father. Abraham
was born A. M. 2008, i. e. only sixteen years after Taautus's
death, so that Abraham's grandfather must have been long
before the deaths of these men : and thus by both these
accounts Ilus or Chronus cannot be more ancient than Abra-
ham, rather Abraham appears to have been more ancient
than he. And this must be allowed to be more evidently
true, if we consider that it was not Ilus or Chronus, the
son of Ouranus, who made this sacrifice of his only son, but
rather Chronus, who was called Israel, and was the son of
Chronus, called Ilus, and therefore still later by one genera-
tion. Philo Biblius in Eusebius does indeed hint that
Chronus offered his son to his father Ouranus ; from whence
it may be inferred, that the elder Chronus or son of Oura-
nus was the sacrificer : but we must not take the word
father in this strict sense ; for both sacred and profane writers
often mean by that word, not the immediate father, but the
head of any family, though the grandfather, or a still more
remote ancestor. Sir John Marsham asserts, that no one but
Eusebius called this sacrificer Israel; that Philo wrote it //,
meaning Ilus, not Israel; and that Eusebius mistook in
thinking // to be a short way of writing Israel: but to this it
may be answered, that Ilus could not be the person that
offered his only son, because Ilus had more sons than one,
for he had three sons, Chronus, Belus, and Apollo ^. His
son Chronus had but one only begotten son by Anobret,
and this Chronus therefore was the person who sacrificed
his only son, as he was likewise the person who circumcised
z This may easily be collected from a See vol. i. b. 4.
Moses's account of the births and b Eusebius, Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. lO.
deaths of the postdiluvians. Gren.xi. p. 38. ed. Pai-. 1628.
t2
276 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI4
himself and family'^. And thus Eusebius, in calling this
Chronus Israel, only distinguishes him from his father, who
was called Ilus ; and if Philo did indeed write him II, he
could not mean Ilus, because, by his own account of Ilus's
children, he was not the person that offered his only son.
The person therefore whom these writers mention upon
this occasion can in no wise serve their purpose ; for if they
will credit their historian, he must be later than the days of
Abraham, and what he did, and what can be said about
him, will not prove these sacrifices to have been customary
in the days of Abraham ; but rather that the heathen na-
tions, having a great opinion of Abraham and his religion,
fell into this barbarous practice of sacrificing their children,
upon an imagination that he had sacrificed Isaac, and set
them an example. I need offer nothing further about San-
choniathon's Chronus ; what is already said will indisputably
prove him too modern to furnish objections and cavils against
Abraham's religion ; however I cannot but think,
II. That this account of Sanchoniathon's is really a rela-
tion of Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac, with only some
additions and mistakes, which the heathen writers fre-
quently made in all their relations. Sanchoniathon's history
is long ago lost, and the fragments of it, which are pre-
served in other writers, are not entire as he wrote them, but
have many mixtures of false history, allegory, and philoso-
phy, such as the son of Thabio and other commentators
upon his work had a fancy to add to him"^ ; and very proba-
bly, if we had Sanchoniathon himself, we should not find
him exact in chronology, or in the facts which he related, so
that we must not examine his remains with too great a
strictness ; but if we throw away what seems the product of
allegory, philosophy, and mistaken history in his remains,
we may collect from him the following particulars about
Chronus, whom the Phoenicians called Israel, i. He was the
son of a father who had three children e, and so was Abra-
ham. 2. Chronus had one only son by his wife \ and so had
c Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. 10. e Ibid. p. 38.
p. 38. ed. Par. 1628. ^ Ibid. p. 40.
cl Ibid. p. 39.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 277
Abraham. 3. He had another son by another person^, so had
Abraham. 4. This Chronus circumcised himself and fa-
mily '\ so did Abraham. 5. Chronus sacrificed his only son % so
was Abraham reported to have done by some of the heathen
historians. 6. Chronus's son who was sacrificed was named
Jehud'% and thus Isaac is called by Moses ^ 7. Chronus
was by the Phoenicians called Israel '" : here indeed is a
small mistake ; Israel was the name of Abraham's grand-
son ; but the heathen writers commit greater errois in all
their accounts of the Jewish afiairs. They had a general
notion, that Israel was the name of some one famous ances-
tor of the Israelites, but were not exact in fixing it upon the
right person. Justin ", after Trogus Pompeius, comes nearer
the truth than Sanchoniathon, but he mistakes one genera-
tion, and gives the name of Israel to the son of Abraham.
Sir John Marsham hints some little objections" against tak-
ing Chronus here spoken of to be Abraham; but I cannot
think that, after what has been offered, they can want an
answer. The history of Sanchoniathon's Chronus and
Moses's Abraham do evidently agree in so many particu-
lars, that there appears a far greater probability of their
being one and the same person, than there does of the truth
of any circumstances hinted by Sanchoniathon, which may
seem to make them dififer one from the other.
Sarah was now one hundred and twenty-seven years old,
and died in Kirjath-arba in Hebron. Abraham hereupon
bought a field, which had a cave in it, of the sons of Heth P,
and therein deposited the remains of his wife. He began
now to desire to see his son Isaac married 1, and therefore
sent the head-servant of his house into Padan-Aram, or Me-
sopotamia, to choose a wife for his son from amongst his re-
lations there. The servant went with a train and equipage.
S Euseb. Prsep. Evang. lib. i. c. 10, thine only son.
V- 38. m Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. 10.
^ Ibid. p. 40. 1. iv. c. 16. p. 155.
i Ibid, et lib. iv. c. 16. p. 155. " Justin. 1. xxxvi. c. 2.
k Ibid. p. 40. ' o Can. Chron. p. 77.
1 Gen. xxii. 2. Gnd saii to Ahra- V Gen. xxiii, 16.
ham, Take now thy aoii, Jehud ka, i. e. a Gen. xxiv.
278 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
and carried presents suitable to the wealth and circumstances
of his master ^, and obtained for Isaac Rebekah the daughter
of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother. Isaac
was forty years old when he married, and therefore married
A. M. 2148.
After Abraham had thus married his son to his satisfac-
tion, he took himself another wife ; her name was Ketu-
rah * ; he had several children by her : Zimran, Jokshan,
Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah : he took care in his
life-time to send these children into the world ; he gave
them gifts, and sent them away, xchile he yet lived, from Isaac
his son, eastivard, unto the east country t ; and this is the sub-
stance of what Moses has given us of the life of Abraham.
It is very remarkable that the profane writers give us
much the same accounts of him. Berosus indeed does not
call him by his name, but describes a person of his cha-
racter to be ten generations after the flood", and so Moses
makes Abraham, computing him to be the tenth from Noah.
Nicolaus Damascenus calls him by name, and says, that he
came out of the country of the Chaldees, settled in Canaan,
and upon account of a famine went into Egypt ''. Eupole-
mus^ agrees that Abraham was born at Uria (or Ur) of the
Chaldees ; that he came to live in Phoenicia ^ ; that some time
after his settling here, the Armenians (or rather the Assy-
rians) overcame the Phoenicians, and took captive Abra-
ham's nephew ; that Abraham armed his servants, and res-
cued him ; that he was entertained in the sacred city of
Argarize by Melchisedec priest of God, who was king there ;
that some time after, on account of a famine, he went into
Egypt with his whole family, and, fixing there, he called his
wife his sister ; that the king of Egypt married her, but that
he was forced by a plague to consult his priests, and, find-
ing her to be Abraham''s wife, he restored her. Artapanus,
r Gen. xxiv. 10. Tct oiipdvta efxiretpos.
8 Gen. XXV. ^ Joseph. Antiquitat. 1. i. c. 8. Eu-
t Ver. 6. seb. Prsepar. Evang. ut sup.
u Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. ix. c. 16. y Ibid. c. 17. p. 418.
p. 417. Berosus's words are, Mera rhv z The ancient heathen writers often
KaTaKKvfffjibv S^Karr) yiviS. irapa Xa\- call Syria, Canaan, and Phoenicia by
5aiO(s Tts -^v SiKaios avijp Koi fxiyas Kol the same name.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 279
another of the heathen writers, does but just mention himj
he says the Jews were at first called Hermiuth, afterwards
Hehreios by Abraham, and that Abraham went into Egypt,
and afterwards returned into Syria again*: but Melo, who
wrote a book against the Jews, and therefore was not likely
to admit any part of their history that could possibly be
called in question, gives a very large account of Abraham "".
He relates, that his ancestors were driven from their native
country; that Abraham married two wives, one of them of
his own country and kindred, the other an Egyptian, who
had been a bond-woman ; that of the Egyptian he had
twelve sons, who became twelve Arabian kings'^; that of
his wife he had one son only, whose name in Greek is Ge-
los, (which answers exactly to the Hebrew word Isaac:) after
other things interspersed, he adds, that Abraham was com-
manded by God to sacrifice Isaac ; but just when he was
going to kill him, he was stopped by an angel, and offered a
ram instead of him. And as these writers agree with Moses
in their accounts of the transactions of Abraham's life, so
also it is remarkable that they give much the same cha-
racter of him ; all of them allowing him to be eminent for
his virtue and religion ; and they add moreover, that he was
a person of the most extraordinary learning and wisdom : he
was bUacos koI jxiyas kol to, ovpdina l/x7retpos, says Berosus'*.
Nicolaus Damascenus says, that his name was famous all
over Syria, and that he increased the fame and reputation
which he had acquired, by conversing with the most learned
(Aoytwrarots) of the Egyptian priests, confuting their errors, and
persuading them of the truths of his own religion, so that he
was admired amongst them^ as a person of the greatest wit
and genius, not only readily understanding a thing himself,
but very happy in an ability of convincing and persuading
others of the truth of what he attempted to teach them.
a Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. ix. c. i8. d Euseb. Prsep. Evang. lib. ix. c. i6.
p. 420. p. 417. ed. Par. 1628.
t> Id ibid. c. 19. e @av/j.acrdels inr avrSiv eVraTs awov-
c This is but a small mistake; the criais i>s ffweTwraros ko,] duphs arijp, ov
descendants of Ishmael were twelve vorjffai j-lSvov aWa koX iriiffai Kiyoov, -Kipl
kings. Gen. xvii. 20. and settled near oiv av eirixe^pria-eie Sidda-Kfii'. Euseb. in
Arabia. loc. sup. cit.
280 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
Eupolemus says, that in eminence and wisdom he excelled
all others, and that by his extraordinary piety, or strict
adherence to his religion, (iirl ttjv evae^eiav opix'^cravTa,) he
obtained the favour of the Deity, {^vap^a-Tricrai rw ©ew are
his words ^). Both Melo and Artapanus agree likewise in
testify inar Abraham to have been eminent for his wisdom and
religion. There are several particulars of no great moment,
in which these writers either differ from Moses or relate
circumstances which he has omitted. Nicolaus Damasce-
nus relates, that Abraham came with an army out of the
country of the Chaldees ; that he reigned for some time a
king at Damascus ; that afterwards he removed into Canaan :
the little difference between this account and Moses's may
easily be adjusted. Abraham was indeed no king, but
Moses observes, that his family and appearance and pro-
sperity in the world was such, that the nations he con-
versed with treated him and spake of him as of a mighty
prince. And when his family came first from Ur, and con-
sisted both of those that settled at Haran, and those that re-
moved with him into Canaan, he might well be reported, as
the circumstances of the world then were, to be the leader
of an army ; for very probably few armies were at that time
more numerous than his followers. As to his reigning king
at Damascus, it is easy to see how he made this mistake :
the land of Haran, where Abraham made his first settlement,
was a part of Syria, of which Damascus was afterwards the
head city ; and hence it might happen, that the heathen
writers, finding that he made a settlement in this country,
were not so exact about the place of it as they might have
been, but readily took the capital city to have been inha-
bited by him. Damascenus relates further, that when Abra-
ham went to Egypt, he went thither partly upon account of
the famine in Canaan, and partly to confer with the Egyp-
tian pi'iests about the nature of the gods, designing to go
over to them, if their notions were better than his own, or to
bring them over to him, if his own sentiments should be
f Euseb. sup. citat. This was the character which Enoch obtained by his faith.
Heb. xi. 5.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 281
found to be the best grounded ; and that he hereupon con-
versed with the most learned men amongst them. Moses
relates nothing of this matter ; but what we meet with
about Syphis, a king of Egypt S, who reigned a little after
Abraham's time, and was very famous for religious specula-
tions, makes it exceeding probable, that Abraham might be
very much celebrated in Egypt for his religion ; and that
his conversation there might occasion the kings of Egypt to
study with a more than ordinary care these subjects. One
thing I would remark, before I leave these writers, namely,
the life of Abraham was such, that even the profane writers
found sufficient reason to think him not only famous for his
piety, and adherence to the true religion, but very conspi-
cuous also for his learning and good sense, far above and
beyond his cotemporaries : he was accounted not a man of
low and puerile conceptions, nor a bigoted enthusiast; but
one of temper proper to converse with those that differed
from him, and able to confute the most learned opposers ; he
had a reason for his faith, and was able to give an answer to
all objections, which the most learned could make to it •^ :
and not Damascenus only, but all the other writers I have
mentioned, lay a foundation for this character. They all
suppose him a great master of the learning that then pre-
vailed in the world, abundantly able to teach and instruct the
wisest men of the several nations he conversed with. This is
the substance of what these writers offer about Abraham, and
in all this they so agree with Moses, as to confirm the truth
of his history ; and the more so, because in small matters
they so differ from him as to evidence, that they did not
blindly copy after him, but searched for themselves ; and at
last could find no reason in matters of moment to vary from
him. Abraham lived to be an hundred threescore and fif-
teen years old, and died A. M. 2183.
If we look back, it will be easy to see who were Abra-
ham's cotemporaries in all the several parts of his life. He
s See vol. i. p. 191. Euseb. in loc. h See Damasccnus's account of him
sup. citat. in Euseb. loc. sup. citat.
282 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
was born^ according to Eusebiusi, in the forty-third year of
Ninus's reign, and Ninus reigning fifty-two years, died
when Abraham was nine years old. The five next succeed-
ing heads of the Assyrian empire were, Semiramis^, who
governed forty-two years ; Ninyas, who reigned thirty-
eight ; Arius, who reigned thirty ; Aralius, who reigned
forty ; and Xerxes, who reigned thirty years ; and Abra-
ham was cotemporary with all these ; for the years of all
their reigns put together amount to but one hundred and
eighty, and Abraham lived one hundred and seventy-five ;
and therefore having spent but nine of them at the death of
Ninus, his life will extend to the sixteenth year of the reign
of Xerxes. And if we go into Egypt, and allow, as I have
before computed, that Menes or Mizraim began to reign
there A. M. 1772, and that he reigned there until A. M.
1943 ; it will follow that Abraham was born in the reigns
of Athothes, Cencenes, and Mesochris, kings of Egypt, that
kingdom being at this time parted into several sovereignties ;
and he lived long enough to see three or four successions in
each of their kingdoins, as will appear to any one that con-
sults sir John Marsham's tables of these kings, making due
allowance for the difierence between my account and his of
the reign of Menes. Abraham was born, according to Castor
in Eusebius, in the thirty-sixth year of Europs the second
king of Sicyon ; for, according to that writer •, ^gialeus
the first king of Sicyon began his reign in the fifteenth year
ofBelus king of Assyria, i. e. A. M. 1920. ^gialeus reigned
fifty-two years; so that Europs succeeded him A. M. 1972,
and the thirty-sixth year of Europs will be A. M. 2008,
which is the year in which Abraham was born. Europs
reigned forty-five years, and Abraham lived to see five of
his successors, and died ten years before Thurimachus the
seventh king of Sicyon. Ores is said to have been king of
Crete about the fifty-sixth year of Abraham, and about
twenty-nine years before Abraham's death. Inacluis reigned
first king of Argos about A. M. 2154.
i In Chronic, p. 18. ed. Amst. 1658. k Euscb. in. Chronic. 1 Ibid. p. 19.
AND PKOFANE HISTORY. 283
I am sensible that some writers do not think the kings of
Greece, which I have mentioned, to be thus early. As to
the first king of Crete, there can be but little ofiered, for we
have nothing of the Cretan history that can be depended
upon before Minos. Eusebius ^ indeed places Ores in the
fourth or fifth year of Ninyas ; but afterwards he seems in
some doubt whether there really was such a person, and
remarks ", that some writers affirmed Cres to be the first king
of Crete, others that one of the Curetes governed there about
the time at which he imagined Cres to begin his reign ; so
that he found more reason to think that there was a king in
Crete at this time, than to determine what particular person
governed it. We meet the names of three other kings of
Crete in Eusebius ; Cydon, Apteras, and Lapes ; but we
have little proof of the times of their reigns. There is a large
account of the first inhabitants of Crete in Diodorus ° : the
history is indeed in many things fabulous, and too confused
to be reduced into such order as might enable us to draw
any consistent conclusions from it ; but there seem to be
hints of generations enough before Minos, to induce us to
think that they might have a king as early as Eusebius sup-
poses ; but whether their first king was called Cres, or who
he was, we cannot conjecture. Inachus is said to be the
first king of Argos. He scarce indeed deserves the name of
king ; for in his days the Argives lived up and down the
country in companies ; Phoroneus the son of Inachus ga-
thered the people together, and formed them into a com-
munity P : very probably Inachus might be a very wise and
judicious man, who instructed his countrymen in many
useful arts of living, and he might go frequently amongst
them, and head their companies in several parts of the
country, teaching them to kill or take, and tame the wild
beasts for their service, and instructing them in the best
manner of gathering and preserving the fruits of the earth
for their occasions. In this manner he might take the first
steps towards forming them for society ; and having been a
m Chronic, p. 91. num. 56. p. 16. o Lib. v.
Joseph Seal, auimad. p Pausanias in Corinthiacis, p. 112.
" P. 94. ad num. 129. ed. Han. 1513.
284! CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
leader and director of many companies of them, as he hap-
pened to fall in amongst them, he might be afterwards com-
memorated as their king, though strictly speaking it was his
son that completed his designs, and brought the people to
unite in forming a regular society, under the direction of one
to govern them for the public good. Some writers think,
that there was no such person as Inachus : Inachus is the
name not of a king, but of a river, says sir John Marshami :
but here I think that learned gentleman mistaken. Inachus
being the name of a river, may be offered as an argument,
that there had been some very eminent person so called
before the naming the river from him ; for thus the ancients
endeavoured to perpetuate the memories of their ancestors,
they gave their names to countries, cities, mountains, and
to rivers : Haran being the name of a country >■, and Nahor
the name of a city ^, is no proof that there were no men thus
called, but rather the contrary ; and abundance of like in-
stances might be offered from the profane historians : other
writers allow, that there was such a person as Inachus, but
they do not think him near so ancient as we here suppose
him. Clemens Alexandrinus places him about the time of
the children of Israel's going out of Egypt* ; and this was
the opinion of Africauus, and of Josephus or Josippus, and of
Justus, who wrote an history of the Jews " ; and it was
espoused by Clemens, and by Tatian also, most probably out
of a zeal to raise the antiquity of Moses as high as any thing
the heathens could pretend to offer. Porphyry took advan-
tage of this mistake, and was willing to improve it : he not
only allowed Moses to be as ancient as Inachus, but placed
him even before Semiramis ; and this Eusebius hints him to
have endeavoured out of zeal against the sacred writers ",
And thus no endeavours have been wanting to puzzle and
perplex the accounts of the sacred history : at first the hea-
then writers endeavoured to pretend to antiquities beyond
what the sacred writers could be thought to aim at ; but
when the falsity of this pretence was abundantly detected,
1 Canon. Chronic, p. 15. t Strom. 1. i. §. 21.
r Gen. xi. 31. u See Prooem. ad Euseb. Chron.
s Gen. xxiv. 10. .\ Ibid.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 285
then Porphyiy thought he could compass the end aimed at
by another way ; he endeavoured to shew, that the heathen
history did not reach near so far back as had been imagined ;
but that the times which Moses treated of were really so
much prior to the first rise of the most ancient kingdoms,
that all possible accounts of them can at best be but fiction
and fancy : and this put Eusebius upon a strict and careful
review of the ancient history >' : and, in order hereto, he first
collected the particulars of the ancient histories of all na-
tions that had made any figure in the world, and then he
endeavoured to range them with one another. And if any
one will take the pains to look over the materials which Eu-
sebius collected z, he will see that the first year of Inachus's
reign must be placed about the time where I have above
fixed it. The writers, who had treated of the Argive ac-
counts before Castor, could not find^' what to synchronize
the first year of Inachus with, and therefore could at best
but guess where to fix it : but Castor has informed us, that
Inachus began to reign about the time of Thurimachus, the
seventh king of Sicyon ^, I suppose about the sixth year, as
Eusebius computes <=; and this will place him in the year
above mentioned ; for ^Egialeus, the first king of Sicyon,
began his reign A.M. 1930; and from the first year of
^gialeus to the first year of Thurimachus are two hundred
and twenty-eight years *^; carry this account forward to the
sixth year of Thurimachus's reign, and you will place the
first year of Inachus A. M. 2154, as above; and this seems
to be a very just and reasonable position of it. All writers
agree in making Danaus the tenth king of Argos®; and Pau-
sanias ^ has given a very clear account of the several kings
from Inachus to Danaus, so as to leave no room to doubt but
that there really were so many; and the time of Danaus
Y'EyM5fTreplTroK\ovThva.\r]0ri\6you d This will appear by putting toge-
Tifj-diij-frvos KoL rh cLKpi^h avixvevaai Sia ther the years of the reigns of the
a-Kovhr,% TrpoveefiTjv. Euseb. Prooem. kings of Sicyon, from ^gialeus to
z Chron. \oy- irpaiT. iv P. I. Thurimachus.
Si 'OxP&vosavTov ^aai\iiasa.(Tvix<l>(avos e Tatian. Orat. ad Grsec. §. 59. p.
(^eVeTdi Trap"E\\ri(Ti Sia ttju apxaL6TriTa. 131. ed. Oxon. 1700. Euseb. in. Chron.
Chron. p. 23. p. 24. Pausanias in Corinthiacis, p. 112.
o Chron. p. 24. f Pausan. ibid.
c Ad Num. Euseb. 161. p. 96.
*286 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VI.
coming into Greece ", being near the time that Moses visited
the Israelites, A. M. 2494, Inachus must evidently be long
before Moses, and most probably not earlier than the latter
end of Abraham's life. Moses was the sixth in descent
from Abraham, being the third from Levi h, and Moses was
cotemporary with Danaus ; and it is no improbable suppo-
sition to imagine ten successions of kings in any country
within the compass of the generations between Abraham
and Moses. In like manner the accounts we have of the
kings of Sicyon have no appearing inconsistency or impro-
bability, to give any seeming colour of prejudice against
them. ^gialeus, the first king of Sicyon, according to
Castor, began to reign A. M. 1920, that is, two hundred and
thirty-four years before Inachus at Argos ; and according
to the same writer, the Sicyonians had had six kings in that
space of time, and the seventh had reigned a few years ; so
that these first kings of Sicyon must have reigned thirty-
eight years apiece one with another ; but this is no extrava-
gant length of time for their reigns, considering the length
of men's lives in these ages. Moses gives an account of
eight successive kings of Edom, who reigned one with an-
other much longer '. Sir John Marsham ^ endeavours to set
aside these ancient kings of Sicyon ; but his arguments are
very insufiicient : his inference, that there could be no kings
of Sicyon before Phoroneus reigned at Argos, because Acu-
silaus, Plato, or Syncellus, have occasionally spoke at large
of the antiquity of Phoroneus, calling him the first man^ or,
in the words of the poet cited by Clemens Alexandrinus,
the father of m,ortal men^, can require no refutation : for these
writers meant not to assert that there were no men before
Phoroneus, but only that he was of great antiquity. Sir
John Marsham, from the following verse of Homer'",
Kai EtKWft)!', 0^' &p "Abpaaros Trpwr' eix^acrCXcvev,
g See vol. i. b. v. and hereafter l 'AKvcriKaoi ^oopov^a icpSiTov &v6poo-
b. viii. irov yeveadai \4yei, Udev 6 t^j ^opaiviSos
h I Chron. vi. i — 3. irotriT^s elvai avrhv e<(>7] Tlarepa QvqTSiv
i Gen. xxxvi. 31 — 39. and see here- avdpdnrwv. Clem. Alexand. Stromat.
after b. vii. lib. i. §.21.
k Can. Chron. p. 16. m II. ii. ver. 572.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 287
would insinuate, that Adrastus was the first king of Sicyon.
Scaliger had obviated this interpretation of Homer's ex-
pression, but our learned author rejects what Scaliger oiFers
upon it ; but certainly no one can infer what he would have
inferred from it. Had Homer used Trp&ros instead of ttp&t,
there would have seemed more colour for his interpretation ;
but Ttp&T, which is the same as to. Trpwra, can signify no more
than formerhj, heretofore, or in the first or ancient days. Adras-
tus was, according to Pausanias ", (for Castor has misplaced
him,) the eighteenth king of Sicyon ; and Homer meant not
to assert that he was the first king that ever reigned there,
but only that Sicyon was a country of which Adrastus had
anciently been king ; and thus our English poet expresses
Homer's meaning, calling Sicyon
Adrastus' ancient reign o.
Our learned writer makes objections against some particular
kings in the Sicyonian roll: but it is observable, that
Castor and Pausanias differ in some particular names ; and if
we suppose that both of them gave true accounts in the
general, but that each of them might make some small
mistakes, misnaming or misplacing a king or two, his objec-
tions will all vanish ; for they do not happen to lie against
the particular names which Castor and Pausanias agree in.
I was willing to mention the objections of this learned
writer, because he himself seems to lay some stress upon
them, though certainly it must appear unnecessary to con-
fute objections of this nature. And it is surprisingly strange
to see what mere shadows of argumentation even great
and learned men will embrace, if they seem to favour any
notions they are fond of Castor's account of the Sicyonian
kings will appear, when I shall hereafter further examine it,
to be put together with good judgment and exactness : it
has some faults, but is not therefore all error and mistake.
When we shall come down to the Trojan war, and have
seen how far he and Pausanias agree, and where they differ,
and shall consider from them both, and from other writers,
n In Corinthiacis, p. 96. o Pope's Homer.
288 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
what kings of Sicyon we have reason to admit of, before
that country became subject to Agamemnon; we shall find
abundant reason to extend their history thus far backwards,
and to believe that ^gialeus reigned as early as Castor
supposes.
The ages in which these ancients lived were full of
action. If we look into the several parts of the world, we
find in all of them men of genius and contrivance, forming
companies, and laying schemes to erect societies, and to get
into the best way and method of teaching a multitude to
live together in a community, so as to reap the benefits of a
social life. Nimrod formed a kingdom at Babel, and soon
after him Ashur formed one in Assyria, Mizraim in Egypt,
and there were kingdoms in Canaan, Philistia, and in divers
other places. Abraham was under the direction of an ex-
traordinary providence, which led him not to be king of
any country; but we find that he had got together under
his direction a numerous family; so that he could at any
time form a force of three or four hundred men, to defend
himself, or offend his enemies. ^Egialeus raised a kingdom
at Sicyon, Inachus at Argos, and divers other persons [in
other different parts of the world ; but the most ancient po-
lity was that which was established by Noah in the^coun-
tries near to which he lived, and which his children planted
about the time or before the men that travelled to Shinaar
left him.
Noah, as has been saidP, came out of the ark in the parts
near to India ; and the profane historians inform us, that a
person whom they called Bacchus was the founder of the po-
lity of these nations^. He came, they say, into India, before
there were any cities built in that country, or any armies or
bodies of men sufficient to oppose himf; a circumstance,
which, duly considered, will prove to us, that whoever this
person was, he came into India before the days of Ninus :
for when Ninus, and after him Semiramis, made attempts
upon these countries, they found them so well disciplined
P Vol. i. b. ii. r Id. ibid. p. 123. edit. Rhodoman.
q Diodor. Sic. lib. ii §. 38.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 289
and settled, as to be abundantly able to defend themselves,
and to repel all attacks that could be made upon them s.
I am sensible, that some writers have imagined the time of
Bacchus's coming to India to be much later than Ninus ;
but then it must be observed, that they cannot mean by their
Bacchus the person here spoken of, who came into India
before there were any cities built or kingdoms established
in it ; because from the time of Ninus downwards all writers
agree that the Indians were in a well ordered state and
condition, and did not want to be taught the arts, which
this Bacchus is said to have spread amongst them ; nor were
they liable to be overrun by an army in the way and man-
ner in which he is said to have subdued all before him.
And further ; if we look over all the famous kings and
heroes celebrated by the heathen historians, we can find no
one between the times of Ninus and Sesostris who can with
any show of reason be imagined to have travelled into these
eastern nations, and performed any very remarkable actions
in them. Ninus, and after him Semiramis, attempted to
penetrate these countries, but they met with great repulses
and obstructions; and we do not read that the Assyrian or
Persian empires were ever extended farther east than Bac-
tria; so that none of the kings of this empire can be the
Bacchus so famous in these eastern kingdoms. If we look
into Egypt, they had no famous warriors before Sesostris*^.
Mizraim and his sons peopled Egypt, Libya, Philistia, and
the bordering countries, and they might probably be known
in Canaan and Phoenicia ; but we have no reason to imagine
that any of them made any expedition into India. The
Assyrian empire lay a barrier between Egypt and India;
and we have no hints either that the Assyrians conquered
India, or that the Egyptians before Sesostris made any con-
quests in Asia, or passed through Assyria into the more
eastern nations.
It may perhaps be here said, that Sesostris was Bacchus,
who conquered the East, and founded the Indian polity:
but to this I answer ; i . India was not in so low and un-
s See vol. i. book iv. Diodor. Sic. t Diodor. lib. i. §. 52, 53.
lib. ii. §. 6, 7, &c. Justin, lib. i.
VOL. I. IT
290 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
settled a state in the time of Sesostris as it is described to
have been in when this Bacchus came into it ; for^ as I before
remarked, these nations were powerful in the days of Ninus,
and so they continued until Alexander the Great ; and it is
remarkable, that even he met a more considerable opposition
from Porus, a king of this country, than any that had been
made to his victorious arms by the whole Persian empire.
2. All the writers that have offered any thing about Bac-
chus and Sesostris are express in supposing them to be dif-
ferent persons. Diodorus Siculus" refutes at large a mistake
of the Greeks, who imagined the famous Bacchus to be the
son of Jupiter and Semele ; and intimates how and upon
what foundation Orpheus, and the poets that followed him,
led them into this error. And though there were persons
in after-ages called Bacchus, Hercules, and by other cele-
brated names, he justly observes, that the heroes first called
so lived in the first ages of the world''. As to Sesostris, the
same writer, after he has brought down the history of Egypt
from Menes to MyrisX, then he supposes Sesostris to be
seven generations later than Myris, which makes him by far
too modern to be conceived to be the Bacchus who lived,
according to his opinion, in the first ages of the world. But,
3. Sesostris cannot be the Indian Bacchus, because Sesostris
never came into India at all. Diodorus ^ indeed says, that
Sesostris passed over the Ganges, and conquered all India as
far as to the ocean ; but he must have been mistaken in this
particular. Herodotus has given a very particular account
of Sesostris's expeditions % and it does not appear from him
that he went further east than Bactria ; there he turned aside
to the Scythians, and, extending his conquests over their
dominions, he returned into Asia at the river Phasis, a river
which runs into the Euxine sea. And this account agrees
perfectly well with the reason which the priest of Vulcan
gave for not admitting the statue of Darius to take place of
the statue of Sesostris ^ ; because, he said, Sesostris had been
« Lib. i. §. 23. p. 20. edit. Rhodo- y Id. p. 35. §. 55.
man. z Id. p. 35.
X Kara Ti)v 4^ apxv^ yiv^aiv avOpii- a Lib. ii. c, 103.
TTODV. Id. ibid. §. 24. b Herodot. lib. ii. c. no
AND PROPANE HISTORY. 291
master of more nations than Darius, having subdued not
only all the kingdoms subject to Darius, but the Scythians
besides. India was no part of the Persian empire ; and
therefore, had Sesostris conquered India, here would have
been another considerable addition to his glory, and the priest
of Vulcan would have mentioned this, as well as Scythia, as
an instance of his exceeding the power and dominion of
Darius ; but the truth was, neither Darius nor Sesostris had
ever subjugated India ; for, as Justin remarks, Semiramis and
Alexander the Great were the only two persons that entered
this country c. The accounts of the victories of Sesostris given
by Manetho, both in the Chronicon of Eusebius"^ and in
Josephus% agree very well with Herodotus, and confine his
expeditions to Europe and Asia, and make no mention of his
entering India; and to this agree all the accounts we have
of the several pillars erected by him in memory of his con-
quests ; they were found in every country where he had
been ^ ; but we have no account of any such monuments of
him in India. Ctesias perhaps might imagine he had been
in this country, and from him Diodorus might have it ; but
though Ctesias's Assyrian history has by the best writers been
thought worthy of credit, yet his accounts of India were
not so well wrote, but were full of fiction and mistakes s.
It appears from what all other writers have offered about
Sesostris'^, that he never was in India, and therefore he
cannot be the person that first settled the polity of these
kingdoms .
It may perhaps be thought more difficult to say who this
Indian Bacchus was, than to prove that Sesostris was not the
person. The ancient writers have made almost an endless
confusion, by the variety of names which they sometimes
give to one person, and by sometimes calling various persons
by one and the same name. Diodorus Siculus was sensible
*= Justin, lib. i. c. 2. Indise bellum h I have followed the common ae-
intulit ; quo prseter illam et Alexan- counts that are given of Sesostris^
drum nemo intravit. though I shall have occasion hereafter
d Chronic, p. 15. to remark how far they go beyond what
e Contra Apion. 1. i. §. 15. is true: Sesostris was not so great a
f Herodot. ubi sup. conqueror as he is represented.
s Hen. Steph. de Ctesia Disquisit,
u 2
292 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
of the many difficulties occasioned hereby, when he was to
treat of the Egyptian gods '. There have been several per-
sons called by the name of Bacchus, at least one in India,
one in Egypt, and one in Greece ; but we must not confound
them one with the other, especially when we have remark-
able hints by which we may sufficiently distinguish them.
For, I . The Indian Bacchus was the first and most ancient of
all that bore that name'^. 2. He was the first that pressed
the grape, and made wine^ 3, He lived in these parts be-
fore there were any cities in India™. 4. They say he was
twice born, and that he was nourished in the thigh of Jupiter.
These are the particulars which the heathen writers give us
of the Indian Bacchus ; and from all these hints it must
unquestionably appear that he was Noah, and no other.
Noah, being the first man in the postdiluvian world, lived
early enough to be the most ancient Bacchus; and Noah,
according to Moses ", was the first that made wine. Noah
lived in these parts as soon as he came out of the ark, earlier
than there were any cities built in India ; and as to the last
circumstance of Bacchus being twice born, and brought forth
out of the thigh of Jupiter, Diodorus gives us an unexpected
light into the true meaning of this tradition ; he says",
" That Bacchus was said to be twice born, because in Deu-
'* calion's flood he was thought to have perished with the
" rest of the world ; but God brought him again, as by a
" second nativity, into the sight of men, and they say, my-
" thologically, that he came out of the thigh of Jupiter."
This seems very probable to have been the ancient Indian
tradition, in order to perpetuate the memory of Noah's pre-
servation ; and Diodorus, or the writers he took it from,
have corrupted it but very little. Deucalion's flood is a west-
ern expression ; the Greeks indeed called the ancient flood, of
i Lib. i. §. 24. p. 21. \a>v iv t$ Kara rhv AevKa\la)va Kara-
k Id. lib. iii. §. 63. p. 197. edit. kKvct/x^ cpOapriPai koI tovtovs tovs Kap-
Rhodoman. ttoi/s, koX nera Trjv iirofx^piav iraMv
1 Id. lib. iv. §. 4. a.va(pviVTas, wcnrepel Sevrepav eTn(f>aveiav
m Id. lib. ii. §. 37. touttji' inrdp^ai tov @eov irap' ai/dpwTrois,
n Gen. ix. 30. Ka0' ^v «« tov Aihs firtpov yfViffOai iraKiu
o Als 5' avTov rriv yiveaiv tK Aihs rhu @€hv tovtov fj.v9o\oyovcn. Diodor.
7rapa5e56(T9ai, Sia rh SoKtiu nera rwy &\- 1. iii. §. 62. p. 196.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 293
which they had some imperfect traditions, sometimes Ogyges's
flood, and sometimes Deucalion's ; but I cannot think that
the name of Deucalion was ever in the ancient Indian an-
tiquities ; and the tradition itself, not being understood by
the Greeks, is applied to Bacchus''s vine, instead of to him-
self: for it was not the vine more than any other tree, but
the vine-planter, who was so wonderfully preserved, as is
hinted by this mythological tradition. I dare say I need
offer no more upon this particular ; any one, that impartially
weighs what I have already put together, will admit that
Noah was the Indian Bacchus ; and that the heathen writ-
ers had at first short hints or memoirs, that after the deluge
he came out of the ark in the place I have formerly hinted
near to India; that he lived and died in these countries,
and that his name was famous amongst his posterity, for the
many useful arts he taught them, and instructions he gave
them, for their providing and using the conveniences of life ;
though we now have in the remains of these writers little
more than this and a few other fabulous relations about him.
As to the particular which Diodorus mentions, that Bacchus
went out of the west into India with an army, this is a
fiction of some western writer : no western king or army ever
conquered India before Alexander the Great ; Semiramis
only made some unsuccessful attempts towards it. And it
is remarkable, that Diodorus himself was not assured of the
truth of this fact; for he expressly informs us, that though
the Egyptians contended that this Bacchus was a native of
their country, yet the Indians, who ought to be allowed to
know their own history best, denied it, and asserted as posi-
tively, that Bacchus was originally of their country?; and
that having invented and contrived the culture of the vine,
he communicated the knowledge of the use of wine to the
inhabitants of the other parts of the world.
Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the floods,
and died about the time that Abraham was born. He began
to be an husbandman and planted a vineyard ^ soon after the
flood; he was the first that obtained men leave to eat the
P Diodorus, lib. iv. §. i. p. 210. 1 Gen. ix. 29. •■ Ver. 20.
294 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VI.
living creatures s ; and by teaching this, and putting his chil-
dren upon the study and practice of planting and agriculture,
he laid the first foundations for raising a plentiful main-
tenance for great numbers of people in the several parts of
the world. It is very probable that men, whilst they were
but few, lived a ranging and unsettled life, moving up and
down, killing such of the wild beasts of the field or fowls of
the air as they had a mind to for food, or as came in their
way, and gathering such fruits of the earth as the wild
trees or uncultivated fields spontaneously offered them*.
But when mankind came to multiply, this course of life must
grow very inconvenient; and therefore Noah, as his chil-
dren increased, taught them how to live a settled life, and,
by tilling the ground, increase the quantity of provision
which the earth was capable of producing, and hereby to be
able to live comfortably, and without breaking in upon one
another's plenty. At what particular time Noah put his
children upon forming civil societies, we cannot certainly
say; but I should imagine that it might be about the time
that the persons who travelled to Shinaar " left him ; and
that they left him, because they were not willing to come
into the measures, and submit to the appointments, which
he made for those who remained with him. These men
perhaps thought, that the necessity of tilling the ground
was occasioned only by their living too many too near to one
another ; and that, if they separated and travelled, the earth
was still capable of affording them sufficient nourishment,
without the labour of tilth and culture ; and this notion
very probably brought them to Shinaar.
Diodorus Siculus has given us such an account of the an-
cient Indian polity as may lead us to conjecture what steps
Noah directed his children to take, in order to form nations
and kingdoms ^ ; and the Chinese kingdom seems to stand
upon these foundations even to this day, being, as they
s Gen. ix. See vol. i. b. ii. *■ See Ovid. Metam. fab. 3. :
Contentique cibis niiUo cogente creatis,
Arbuteos fcElus, montanaque fraga legebant,
Cornaque et in duris hserentia mora rubetis ;
Et qute deciderant patula Jovis arbore glandes.
u See b. ii. x Lib. ii.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 295
themselves report, little different now from what it was
when framed by their legislators, as they compute, above four
thousand years ago. The ancient writers called all the most
eastern nations by the name of India : they reputed India to
be the largest of all the nations in the worldx, nay as large
as all Asia besides ^ ; so that they took under that name a
much larger tract than what is now called India, most pro-
bably all India, and what we now call China ; for they
extended it eastward to the Eastern sea^, not meaning hereby
what modern geographers call the Eastern Indian ocean, but
rather the great Indian ocean, which washes upon the Phi^
lippine isles. The ancients had no exact knowledge of these
parts of the world, but imagined the land to run in some
parts further east than it is now supposed to do, and in others
not so far ; but still, as they all agreed to bound the earth
every where with waters, according to Ovid,
— Circumfluus humor
Ultima possedit, solidumque coercuit orbem,
so their Mare Eoum, or Eastern sea, was that which termi-
nated the extreme eastern countries, however imperfect a
notion they had of their true situation ; and all the countries
from Bactria up to this Eastern ocean were their India. And
though the ancient antiquities of the countries we now call
India are quite lost or defaced, yet it is remarkable, that if
we go further east into China, to which so many incursions
of the more western kingdoms and conquerors have not so
frequently reached, or so much affected, we find great re-
mains of what Diodorus calls the ancient Indian polity, and
which seems very likely to have been derived from the ap-
pointments of Noah to his children : but let us inquire what
is most probable these appointments were. And
The Indians are divided into seven different orders or sorts
of men: their first legislator considered what employments
were necessary to be undertaken and cultivated for the pub-
lic welfare, and he appointed several sets or orders of men,
that each art or employment might be duly taken care of
y Strabo, lib. ii. z Strabo, lib. xv. a Id. lib. ii. ubi sup.
296 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VI.
by those whose proper business it was to employ themselves
in it. And, i. Some were appointed to be philosophers, and
to study astronomy. In the ancient times, men had no way
of knowing when to sow or till their grounds, but by ob-
serving the rising and setting of particular stars ; for they had
no calendar for many ages, nor had they divided the year
into a set of months ; but the lights of heaven were, as Moses
speaks, ybr sigtis to them, and for seaso?is, and for days, and
for years b. They by degrees found by experience, that when
such or such stars appeared, then the seasons for the several
parts of tillage were come, and therefore found it very ne-
cessary to make the best observations they could of the hea-
vens, in order to cultivate the earth so as that they might
expect the fruits of it in due season. That this was indeed
the way which the ancients took to find out the proper sea-
sons for the several parts of the husbandman's employments
is evident both from Hesiod and Virgil. The seasons of the
year were pretty well settled before Hesiod's time, much
better before Virgil's, as may appear from Hesiod's mention-
ing the several seasons of spring, summer, and winter, and
the names of some particular months ; but both these poets
have given several specimens of the ancient directions for
sowing and tillage, which men at first were not directed to
perform in this or that month, or season of the year ; for
these were not so early observed or settled, but upon the
rising or setting of particular stars. Thus Hesiod advises to
reap and plough by the rising and setting of the Pleiades c, to
cut wood by the Dog-star d, and to prune vines by the rising of
Arcturus. And thus Virgil lays it down for a general rule,
that it was as necessary for the countryman to observe the
stars as for the sailor % and gives various directions for hus-
bandry and tillage in the ancient way, forming rules for the
times of performing the several parts of husbandry from the
lights of heaven. Men could have but little notion of the
seasons of the year, whilst they did not know what the true
length of the year was ; or at least, they must after a few years
b Gen. i. d Id. ibid.
i^ Hesiod. "Epytev Ka\ 'H/uepair lib. ii. ^ Virgil. Georgic. lib. i.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 297
revolutions be led into great mistakes about them. About a
thousand years passed after the flood before the most accu-
rate observers of the stars in any nation came to be able to
guess at the true length of the year, without mistaking
above five days^ in the length of it; and in some nations
they mistook more, and found out their mistake later. And
it is easy to see what fatal mismanagements such an igno-
rance as this would in six or eight years time introduce into
our agriculture, if we really thought summer and winter to
come about five or six days sooner every year than their real
revolutions. And I cannot but think, that the first at-
tempters to till the ground must make their attempts with
great uncertainties, and perhaps occasion many of the fa-
mines which we read were so frequent in the ancient times,
by their being not well apprised of the true course of the
seasons, and therefore tilling and sowing in unseasonable
times and in an improper manner. They in a little time
observed, that the stars appeared to them to be in difierent
positions at different times ; and, by trying experiments, they
came to guess under what star, as I might speak it, this or
that grain was to be sown and reaped ; and so by degrees fixed
good rules for their Geoponics, before they attained a just
and adequate notion of the revolution of the year : but then
it is obvious to be remarked, that any one that could give
instructions in this matter must be highly esteemed, being
most importantly useful in every kingdom. And since no
one could be able to give these instructions, unless he spent
much time in carefully making all sorts of observations ; the
best that could be made at first being but very imperfect ; it
seems highly reasonable that every king should set apart and
encourage a number of diligent students, to cultivate these
studies with all possible industry; and, agreeably hereto,
they paid great honours to these astronomers in Egypt, and
at Babylon, and in every other country where tillage was
attempted with any prudence or success. Noah must be
well apprised of the usefulness of this study, having lived six
hundred years before the flood, and he was, without doubt,
f Pref. to vol. i.
298 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
well acquainted with all the arts of life that had been in-
vented in the first world, and this of observing the stars had
been one of them ; so that he could not only apprise his
children of the necessity of, but also put them into some
method of prosecuting, these studies.
Another set of men were to make it their whole business
to till the ground; and a third sort to keep and order the
cattle, to chase and kill such of the beasts as would be
noxious to mankind, or destroy the tillage, and incommode
the husbandman ; and to take, and tame, and pasture such
as might be proper for food or service. A fourth set of
men were appointed to be artificers, to employ themselves in
making all sorts of weapons for war, and instruments for the
tillage, and to supply the whole community in general with
all utensils and furniture. A fifth set were appointed for the
art of war, to exercise themselves in arms, to be always
ready to suppress intestine tumults and disorders, or to repel
foreign invasions and attacks, whenever ordered for either
service ; and this their standing force was very numerous,
for it was almost equal to the number of the tillers of the
ground. A sixth sort were the ephori, or overseers of the
kingdom, a set of persons employed to go over every part of
the king's dominions, examining the affairs and manage-
ment of the subjects, in order to report what might be amiss,
that proper measures might be taken to correct and amend
it. And lastly, they had a set of the wisest persons to assist
the king as his council, and to be employed either as ma-
gistrates or officers to command his armies, or in governing
and distributing justice amongst his people. The ancient
Indians were, as Diodorus tells us, divided into these seven
diflferent orders or sorts of men ; and the Chinese polity, ac-
cording to the best accounts we have of it, varies but little
in substance from these institutions ; and, according to Le
Compte, it was much the same when first settled as it is now,
and therefore very probably Noah formed such a plan as this
for the first kingdoms. The Chinese say, that Fohi their first
king reigned over them one hundred and fifteen years ; so
that supposing Noah to be this Fohis, Noah began to reign
e See vol. i. b. ii.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 299
in China one hundred and fifteen years before his death, i. e.
A.M. 1891, for Noah was born A.M. 1056^, and he lived
nine hundred and fifty years ' ; so that, according to this ac-
count, we may well allow the truth of what they say, that
their government was first settled about four thousand years
ago. If we begin the Christian sera with archbishop Usher,
A. M. 4004, this present year 1727 will be A. M. 5731 ;
and the interval between this year and that in which Noah
first reigned in China is three thousand eight hundred and
forty years : but we are not to suppose that Noah began the
first kingdom which he erected in China. He came out of
the ark three hundred and fifty years before his death ^ ; he
settled in China but one hundred and fifteen, and it is most
probable to imagine that he did in these countries as Miz-
raim in Egypt. He directed his children in forming so-
cieties, first in one place, and then in another ; and he might
begin in countries not so far east as China, about the time
that part of his descendants removed westward towards Shi-
naar, about A.M. 1736I. And if we date the rise of the
kingdoms founded by Noah about this time, it will in truth
be very near four thousand years ago ; so that there seems to
be in the main but very little mistake in the Chinese ac-
counts ; they only report things done by Noah before he
was, strictly speaking, their king, but hardly before he had
performed those very things in places adjacent and bordering
upon them. There are some remarks that should be added,
before 1 dismiss this account of the plan upon which it
seems so probable that Noah erected the first kingdoms.
And,
I. The king in these nations had the sole property of all
the lands in the kingdom. All the land, says Diodorus"^,
was the king's, and the husbandmen paid rent for their lands
to the king, ttjs x^pos jj-LcrOovs reAoScrt t<2 /Sao-iAei; and he adds
further, that no private person could be the owner of any
land ; and even still the lands in China" are held by soccage,
h Vol. i. b. i. m Lib. ii. §. 39. p. 88. ed. Rhodo-
i Gen. ix. 29. man.
^ lb. ver. 28. n Le Compte, p. 248. ed. 1697.
1 See vol. i. b. ii.
300 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
and the persons that have the use of them pay duties and
contributions for them ; and these began very early, or rather
were at first appointed : for, 2. According to Diodorus, over
and above the rent, the ancient Indians paid a fourth part of
the product of their grounds to the king, and with the
income arising hence, the king maintained the soldiers, the
magistrates, the officers, the students of astronomy, and the
artificers that were employed for the public^: the ground-rent,
as I might call it, of the lands, seems to have been the king's
patrimony, the additional or tax-income was appointed for
the public service. 3, They had a law against slavery?;
no person amongst them could absolutely lose his freedom, and
become a bondsman. Many of the heathen writers thought,
that this was an original institution in the first laws of man-
kind. Lucian says, that there was such an appointment in
the days of Saturn *i, i. e. in the first ages ; and Athenseus
observes, that the Babylonians, Persians, as well as the
Greeks, and divers other nations, celebrated annually a
sort of Saturnalia, or feasts instituted most probably in com-
memoration of the original state of freedom which men lived
in before servitude was introduced i" ; and as Moses revived
several of Noah's institutions, so there are appointments in
the law to preserve the freedom of the Israelites s. 4. We
do not find any national priests appointed in the original in-
stitutions of these nations. This I think a very remarkable
particular ; because we have early mention of the priests in
the accounts we have of many other nations. In Egypt they
were an order of the first rank, and had a considerable share
of the lands in the time of Joseph ; according to Diodorus,
they had the third part of the whole land of Egypt settled
upon them*. Dionysius of Halicarnassus has given us the
institutions of Romulus and of Numa for the establishing
the Roman priesthood"; and in the times of Plato and Ari-
stotle^, though the political writers were not unanimous
o Diodor. Sic. ubi sup. s Leviticus xxv. et in loc. al.
P Diod. lib. ii. §. 39. p. 88. ed. Rhod. * Diodor. Sic. lib. i. §. 73. p. 47. ed.
Nero/uoOeTTjTai nap' avTols 5ov\ov /J.rjdfva Rliod.
rh irapdnau elvai. u Lib. di. Rom. Antiq.
q Lucian. in Saturnal. x De Repub. 1. vii. c. 8. ed. Is.
»■ Athenseus Deipnos. 1. xiv. p. 639. Caus. Lugd. 1590.
ed. Dalcchamp. 161 2.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 301
how they were to be created, yet they were agreed, that an
established priesthood was necessary in every state or king-
dom : but the ancient Indians, according to Diodorus, had
originally no such order. Diodorus does indeed say, that
the philosophers were sent for by private persons of their
acquaintance to their sacrifices and funerals, being esteemed
as persons much in the favour of the gods, and of great
skill in the ceremonies to be performed on such occasions ^r
but it is to be observed, that they were sent for, not as
priests to sacrifice, but as learned and good men, able to
instruct the common unlearned people how to pay their wor-
ship to the Deity in the best manner ; and therefore Diodorus
justly distinguishes and calls the part they performed on these
occasions, not Aetrovpyta, which would have been the proper
term had they been priests for the people, but v-novpyCa, be-
cause they only assisted them on these occasions 2. It will
be asked, how came these nations to have no national priests
appointed, as there were in some other kingdoms ? I answer ;
God originally appointed who should be the priest to every
family, or to any number of families when assembled together,
namely, the first-born or eldest* ; and as no man could justly
take this honour to himself, but he that was called of ox ap
pointed by God to it^ ; and as God gave no further directions
in this matter until he appointed the priesthood of Aaron for
the children of Israel ; so Noah had no authority to make
constitutions in this matter, but was himself the priest to all
his children, and each of his sons to their respective families
in the same manner as before civil societies were erected ;
and this, I think, must have been the true reason for their
having no established priests originally in these nations : and
from this circumstance, as well as from those before men-
tioned, I should imagine, 5. That civil government was in
these kingdoms built upon the fou.ndation of paternal author-
ity. Noah was the father, the priest, and became the king
of all his people ; an easy transition ; for who could possibly
y Lib. ii. §.39. p. 125. His words are, wepl rSiv eV "AiSou /xaXicrTa efnrelpus
Oi <(>tK6ao(poL — irapaXajx^ivovTai virh tu>v ixovres.
iSlwv eis T6 Tos eV rai ^iai dv(Tias Koi els z Diodor. Sic. ibid.
Tos T&Jc T€T6A.6uT»jK0T<uf iiT ififKiias , ws * See vol. i. b. V. p. 177-
©toij ytyov6Tes irpQa<i>i\eaTaToi, koX ^ Hebrews v. 4.
302 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
have authority to set up against him ? nor is it likely that
his children who continued with him should not readily
obey his orders, and sort themselves into the political life
according to his appointments. At his death the priesthood
descended to the eldest son, and the rule and authority of
civil governor came along with it; for how should it well be
otherwise ? Something extraordinary must happen before any
particular person would attempt to set himself above one, to
whom his religion had in some measure subjected him ; and
therefore the eldest son at the father's death being the only
person that could of right be priest to his brethren and their
children, unto him only must he their desire; and he must be
the only person that could without difficulties and oppositions
rule over them. This method of erecting governments is so
easy and natural, that some very learned writers have not
been able to conceive that civil government could possibly
be raised upon any other foundation ; but there will appear
the most convincing evidences against their opinion, when
we come to examine the kingdoms erected by the men who
lived at, and dispersed from, the land of Shinaar. It is na-
tural to think, that Noah formed his children that lived
under him in this method. And if Noah had indeed divided
the world to his three sons, as some writers have without
any reason imagined, giving Afric to Ham, Europe to Japhet,
and placing Shem in Asia, no doubt but he would have in-
structed them to have kept to this method all the world
over. But how can we imagine that Noah ever thought of
making any other division of the world, than only to direct
his children to remove and separate from one another, when
they found living together grew inconvenient? He shewed
them a method by which many families might join, and make
their numbers of use and service to the whole community ;
but such as would not come into his directions took their
way, and travelled to a place far distant, and afterward came
to settlements upon different maxims, and at different times,
as accidental circumstances directed and contributed to it.
But, 6. The supposing Noah to have founded the eastern
kingdoms of India and China upon the model I have men-
tioned, gives a full and clear account, how these nations
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 303
came to be so potent, and able to resist all attacks that could
be made upon them, as Ninus and Semiramis experienced,
when they attempted to invade and overrun them''. If
Noah appointed a soldiery in each of these kingdoms almost
as numerous as their husbandmen, and they began to form
and exercise themselves so early as about A. M. 1736; since
it appears that Ninus did not invade Bactria and India until
almost three hundred years after this time, these nations
must, before he invaded them, have become very considerable
for their military strength, far superior to any armies that
could come from Shinaar. 7. The supposing these kingdoms
to differ at present in their constitution but very little from
what they were at their first settlement, is very consistent
with the accounts we have of their present letters and lan-
guage. In both these they seem to have made very little or
no improvement'', but have adhered very strictly to their
first rudiments; and why may they not very justly be sup-
posed to have been equally tenacious of their original settle-
ment and constitution? But let us now come to the nations
and governors which arose from and in the land of Shi-
naar.
Nimrod was the first of them. Polybius has conjectured,
that the first kings in the world obtained their dominion by
their being superior to all others in strength and courage ^ ;
and this very evidently appears to have been the foundation
of Nimrod's authority. He was a mighty hunter, and from
hence he began to be a mighty one in the earth f. When the
confusion of tongues had determined the builders of Babel
to separate, they must have known it to be necessary for them
not to break into too little companies; for if they had, the
wild beasts would have been too hard for them. Plato ima-
gines that mankind in the first ages lived up and down, one
here and another there, until the fear of the wild beasts
compelled them to unite in bodies for their preservations.
c See vol. i. b. iv. ovK?i<Tav aTruWwro odv virh twv Br^pluf,
d See vol. i. b. ii. p. 73. b. iv. p. SiaThTravraxv avruv atTBeveffrfpoiflvaf
144, 145. 7] Sri/xiovpyiKi] rsx^V avToTs irphs (jiiv
c Polybius, lib. vi. §. 3. Tpocprjv Inay^ 0or]dbs ^u, irpbs ^frhvrwv
f Gen. X. 8, 9. Orjpiwv ■n6\eixov iySeijs. Plato, in Pro-
e OvTw 5e irapea-Kevaffnevoi oi Kar' dp- tag. p. 224.
Xcty &vdpa)Trot, cfKOW (TiropciS-qv, irSXets Se
304 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [UOOK VI.
This does not seem to have been true in fact ; for mankind
always from the beginning lived in some sort of companies ;
and the beasts, which in time became wild and ravenous, do
not appear at first to have been so ; or at least not knowing
the strength of man, they were not so ready to assault him :
but the fear of man and the dread of man was upon ihern^.
And mankind, in the ages before the flood, tamed them, or
reduced them to a great degree, as is evident both from
Noah's being able to get of all sorts of living creatures into
his ark, and from his ark's being capable of containing some
of every kind and species of them. But after the flood,
near an hundred years had passed before any human inha-
bitant had come to dwell in these countries, and the beasts
that might have roved hither had had time to multiply to
great numbers, and to contract a wild and savage nature, and
prodigious fierceness ; so that it could not be safe for single
individuals, or very small companies of men, to hazard them-
selves amongst them. But Nimrod shewed his followers
how they might attempt to conquer and reduce them ; and
being a man of superior strength as well as courage, it was
as natural for the rest of the company to follow him as their
captain or leader, as it is, to use Polybius's comparison i, for
the herds of cattle to follow the stoutest and strongest in
the herd. And when Nimrod was thus become their cap-
tain, he quickly became their judge in all debates which
might arise, and their ruler and director in all the affairs and
offices of civil life'^ Nimrod in a little time turned his
thoughts from hunting to building cities, and endeavoured
to instruct those who had put themselves under him in the
best and most commodious ways of living ^ : but whoever
considers what age he could be of when he began to be a
ruler "% and the hint which Moses gives of his hunting, must
think it most reasonable to found his dominion upon his
strength and valour, which certainly gave the first rise to it.
h Gen. ix. 2. ohx. tn Tr]v ^iav SiSi6TfS, rfj Se yvw/jir)
' Lib. vi. §. 3. €vSoKovvT€s inroTaTTOvrai, koX ffvffaw-
k ''Orav 6 irpoeffTcos Kol rrju ixey'iffTT]!' ^ouffi ttjc apxV avTov. Polyb. Histor.
5wa/j.iv ex^ov aei frvveTrtiTxvri rols irpo- 1. vi. §. 4.
eiprifiivois Kara, Tas rwv ttoWccv Sia- I See vol. i. b. iv.
Xs'leis, Kal 5($|j; rots vworarrofjifvoLS Sta- ni Ibid. p. 1 13.
veixr^riKbs ilvai rov Kar ct|iac 6/co(tto4S'
AND PROFANE HISTORY,
305
In the early ages largeness of stature and prodigious strength
were the most engaging qualifications to raise men to be
kings and commanders. We read in Aristotle", that the
Ethiopians anciently chose persons of the largest stature to be
their kings ; and though Saul was made king of Israel by the
special appointment of God, yet it appears to have been a
circumstance not inconsiderable in the eyes of his people,
that he was a cJioice young man, and a goodly : and there ivas
not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he :
from his shoulders and iqnoard he was higher than any of the
people°. Polybius remarks, that whenever experience con-
vinced them that other qualifications besides strength and a
warlike disposition were necessary for the people's happiness,
then they chose persons of the greatest prudence and wisdom
for their governors P ; and this seems to have been fact in the
land of Shinaar, when Nimrod died and Belus was made
king after his deceases.
All the kingdoms that were raised by the men of Shinaar
were not built upon this foundation. Nimrod began as a
captain, and his subjects were at first only soldiers under
him ; but it is probable that some other societies began in
the order of masters and servants. Some wise and under-
standing men, who knew how to contrive methods to till
and cultivate the ground, to manage cattle, and to prune
and plant fruit-trees, and preserve and use the fruits, took
into their families and promised to provide for such as would
become their servants, and be subject to their directions.
Servitude is very justly defined by the Civilians to be a state
of subjection contra naturam'^, very different from and con-
trary to the natural rights of mankind ; and they endeavour
to qualify the assertion of Aristotle^, who thought that some
persons were by nature designed for servitude. The esta-
blished politics of all nations that Aristotle was acquainted
with could hardly fail of biassing him into this opinion. We
have now a truer sense of things than to think that God has
n Aristot. de Repub. 1. iv."c. 4.
o I Sam. ix. 2.
p Polyb. lib. vi. c. 5.
VOL. I.
q See vol. i. book iv. p. 1 16.
r Justinian. Institut. lib. i. tit. 3.
s Politic, lib. i. e. 5.
X
306 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI,
made some persons to be the slaves and mere property of
others. God has indeed given to different men different abi-
lities both of mind and of body. Some are best able by their
powei's of mind to invent and contrive, and others more fit
to execute with strength those designs which the directions
of other people mark out and contrive for them. In this way
all mankind are made to be serviceable to one another, and
that without absolute dominion in some, or slavery in others,
as is fully experienced in Christian kingdoms. Busbequius',
a very ingenious writer, queries much, whether the abolish-
ing servitude has been advantageous to the public; but I
cannot think what he has said for his opinion is at all con-
clusive. The grandeur of particular persons may be greater
where they are surrounded with multitudes of slaves, but a
community which consists of none but citizens is in a better
capacity to procure and improve the advantages which arise
from government and society ; such a body is, as I might
say, politically alive in all its parts and members, and every
individual has a real interest of its own depending in the
public good : as to all the inconveniences arising from, or
miscarriages of, the low and vulgar people, not their liberty,
but an abuse of it, is the cause of them, and they may be as
easily taught to be good citizens in their stations, as good
servants. And this sense of things prevailed in the parts
where Noah settled u; but his children, who left him and
travelled to Shinaar, quickly fell into other politics. At the
time of the confusion of tongues, they had practised or cul-
tivated but few of the arts of providing for the necessaries of
life ; they had travelled from Ararat to Shinaar, and en-
gaged in a wild project to but little purpose, of building a
tower, but not laid any wise schemes for a settled life ; but
when they came to determine to till the earth, it naturally
offered, that those who knew how to manage and direct in
ordering the ground, should take under their care those who
were not so skilful, and provide for them, employing them
t Epist. iii. Tiixav iv iracrr rovs yap /j.a66vTas /J.i)9'
" Diodorus Siculus says of the an- uTrepe'xe"' fJ-vO' vKoTr'nmLV &KKols, Kpd-
cient Indians, that they every one took tkttov 'i^eiv ^iov irphs awdcras tus irepi-
care, i\ev9epov virdpxovTa tjji/ la6rr)Ta araffeis. Lib. ii. §. 39.
AND PROFANE HISTORY
307
to work under their directions. Husbandry, in the early
days, before the seasons were known, was, as I have said,
very imperfect, and there were but few that can be supposed
to have had much skill in it; so that those who had, must
every where have as many hands at their disposal as they
knew how to employ, and quickly come to be attended
with a great number of servants. It is very evident, that
the heads of Abraham's family acquired servants in this
manner very early; for Abraham himself, though perhaps
the greatest part of his father's house remained at Haran'^,
and some part were gone with Lot^, before he had lived
half his life was master of three hundred eighteen ser-
vants, nay they were [chatiikei] ^ trained servants, or brought
up to be warriors ; probably he had many others besides
these, and all these were born in his house % and he had
others bought with his money '^ : and thus it appears plainly
that servitude arose very early amongst these men. The
confusion of tongues broke all their measures of living to-
gether, and they had lived a wandering life, without cul-
tivating any useful arts to provide themselves a livelihood;
and when they came to settle, the unskilful multitude found
it their best way to take the course which Posidonius the
Stoic mentions, to become voluntarily servants to others,^
obliging themselves to be at their command, bargaining to
receive the necessaries of life for it, edeXov 8' avev fxicrOov Trap
avTois KaTaix€V€LV eirl (tltlols, says Eubulus"^; they knew not
how to provide themselves food and raiment, and were there-
fore desirous to submit to masters who could provide these
things for them. It was no easy thing for men of little genius
and low parts to live independent in those early days ; and
therefore multitudes of people thought it safer to live under
the care and provision of those who knew how to manage,
than to set up for themselves ; they thought like Chalinus in
Plautus, who would not part with the person promised him
in marriage, though he might have had his liberty for her;
X Gen. xi. 31. b Gen. xvii. 27.
y Gen. xiii. c Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, lib.
z Gen. xiv. 14. ii. c. 5. §. 27.
a Ihid.
X 2
308 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK Vl.
but replied to his master, Liher si sim, meo periculo vivatn,
nunc vivo tuo'^: he was well contented with his condition;
a security of having necessaries was, in his opinion, a full re-
compense for all the inconveniences of a servile state. Many-
families were raised in this manner perhaps amongst Nim-
rod's subjects ; and some of them, when they thought them-
selves in a condition for it, removed from under him, and
planted kingdoms in countries at a distance from him. Thus
Ashur went out of his land into Assyria, and with his fol-
lowers built cities there « ; and many other leading men, that
had never lived subject to him, formed companies in this
manner, and planted them in places which they chose to
settle in. Abraham had a very numerous company before he
had a paternal right to goveim any one person ; for he was
not the eldest son of his father f, nor was he the father of one
child, when he led his men to fight with the king of Elam
and his confederates". And thus Esau, who had but five
sons by his three wives, besides some daughters ^^ though he
did not marry, nor attempt to settle in the world until he was
forty years old, had, before he was an hundred, when he
went to meet Jacob in his return from Laban, a familv so
numerous, as to afford him four hundred men to attend him
upon any expedition' ; and with these and the increase of
them his children made themselves dukes, and in time kings
of Edom''. And thu.s it is certain that kingdoms were raised
from men of prudence and sagacity taking and providing for
a number of servants : sometimes a very potent kingdom,
from several of these families agreeing to settle in it, under
the direction of him who had the superior family at the time
of their settlement, or was best able to manage for the public
welfare ; at other times one family became a kingdom, nay,
and sometimes one family branched and divided itself into
several little nations ; for thus there were twelve princes de-
scended from Ishmael'. In all these cases the first masters of
d Plautus Casina, Act. ii. Seen. 4. h Gen. xxxvi.
e Gen. X. II. i Gen. xxxiii. i.
^ Vol. i. b. V. p 165. ^ Gen. xxxvi.
g Gen. xiv. 1 Gen. xvii. 20. xxv. 16.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 309
the families began with a few servants, increased them by
degrees, and in time their servants grew too numerous to
be contained in one and the same family with their masters ;
and when they did so, their masters appointed them a way of
living, that should not entirely free them from subjection, but
yet give them some liberty and property of their own. Eu-
mseus in Homer, the keeper of Ulysses's cattle, had a little
house, a wife and family, and perquisites, so as to have where-
with to entertain a stranger in a manner suitable to the con-
dition of a servant™, whose business was to manage his mas-
ter's cattle, and to supply his table from the produce of them.
Tacitus" informs us that the servants of the ancient Germans
lived in this manner; they were not employed in domestic
attendance, but had their several houses and families, and the
owner of the substance committed to their care required from
them a quantity of corn, a number of cattle, or such clothing
or commodities as he had occasion for. At first a family
could wander like that of Abraham ; but by degrees it must
multiply to too great a bulk to be so moveable or manage-
able, and then the master or head of it suffered little families
to grow up within him, planting them here and there within
the extent of his possessions, and reaping from their labours
a large and plentiful provision for his own domestics. In
time, when the number of these families increased, he would
want inspectors or overseers of his servants in their several
employments, and by degrees the grandeur and wealth of
the master increased, and the privileges of the servants grew
with it. Heads of families became kings, and their houses,
together with the near habitations of their domestics, became
cities; and their servants, in their several occupations and
employments, became wealthy and considerable subjects ; and
the inspectors or overseers of them became ministers of state,
and managers of the public affairs of kingdoms. If we con-
sider the ancient tenures of land in many nations, we shall
find abundant reason to imagine, that the property of sub-
jects in divers kingdoms began from this original. Kings,
or planters of countries, employed their servants to till the
m Odyss. 1. xiv. n Lib. de moribus Germanorum.
310
CONNECTION OF THE SACRED
[book VI.
ground, and in time both the masters and the servants grew
rich and increased ; the masters gave away their lands to
their servants, reserving only to themselves portions of the
product, or some services of those that had the occupation ;
and thus servants became tenants, and tenants in time be-
came owners, and owners held their lands under various
tenures, daily emerging into more and more liberty, and in
length of time getting quit of all the burthen, and even
almost of the very marks of servitude, which estates were at
first incumbered with. There may, I think, be many rea-
sons ofl^ered, for thinking that the kingdom of Assyria, first
founded by Ashur, the kingdom of the Modes, and parti-
cularly that of Persia, as well as other kingdoms, remarkably
subject by their most ancient constitutions to despotic autho-
rity, were at first raised upon these fovmdations. And per-
haps the kingdom of the Philistines, governed by Abimelech
in Abraham's time, was of the same sort ; for that king
seems to have had the property of all the land of Philistia,
when he gave Abraham leave to live where he would", and
Abimelech's subjects seem every where to be called his ser-
vants 1' ; and Abimelech's fear and concern about Abraham
was not upon account of his people, but of himself, and of
his son, and of his son's son'^. In the days of Isaac, when he
went into the land of the Philistines to sojourn, about an hun-
dred years after the time that Abraham lived there, the Phi-
listines seem from servants to have become subjects, in the
way I have before mentioned, and accordingly Moses's style
of them is altered. The persons who in Abraham's time
were called Abimelech's servants'', were in Isaac's time
called Abimelech's people % or the men of Gerar*^, or the
Philistines", or the herdsmen of Gerar^, In Abraham's time
the kingdom of Philistia was in its infancy ; in Isaac's days
the king and his servants with him were in a better condi-
tion y.
o Gen. XX. 15.
P Gen. XX. 8. and xxi. 25.
fi Gen. xxi. 23.
>■ Gen. XX. 8. and xxi. 25.
s Gen. xxvi. 11.
t Gen. xxvi. 7.
u Ver. 14.
X Ver. 20.
y I need not observe, that Abime-
lech seems to be a proper name for the
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 311
Most of the kingdoms in and near Canaan seem to have
been originally so constituted that the people in them had
great liberties and power. One would almost think the chil-
dren of Heth had no king, when Abraham petitioned them for
a burying-place ^ ; for he did not make his address to a parti-
cular person, but he stood up, and boived himself to the people
of the land, even to the children of Heth^. And when Ephron
and he bargained, their agreement was ratified by a popular
council''. If Heth was king of this country, his people had
a great share in the administration : thus it was at Shechem,
where Hamor was king ; the prince determined nothing
wherein the public was concerned, without communing loith
the men of his city about if^. The kingdom of Egypt was not at
first founded upon despotic authority : the king had his estates
or patrimony, the priests had their lands, and the common
people had their patrimony independent of them both. Thus
we read of the land of Rameses*^'; that was the king's land)
so called from a king of that name ® : the priests had their
lands, which they did not sell to Joseph '^; and that the peo-
ple had lands independent of the crown, is evident from the
purchases which Joseph madeS'; and we may conclude from
these purchases, that Pharaoh had no power to raise taxes
upon his subjects to increase his own revenue, until he had
bought the original right, which each private person had in
his possessions, for this Joseph did for him ; and after this was
done, then Joseph raised the crown a very ample revenue,
by regranting all the lands, reserving a fifth part of the pro-
duct to be paid to the kingh; and it is observable, that the
people of Egypt well understood the distinction between sub-
jects and servants, for when they came to sell their land they
ofifered to sell themselves too ; and desired Joseph, buy us and
our land, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh^.
Diodorus Siculus has given a full and true account of the
kings of Philistia, as Pharaoh was for d Gen. xlvii. 1 1 .
those of Egypt. And Phicol was so e Rameses was the eighteenth king
likewise for one employed in the post of Lower Egypt, according to sir J.
which the persons so named enjoyed. Marsham, from Syncellus, p. 20.
z Gen. xxiii. f Gen. xlvii. 22, 26.
a Ver. 7. S Ver. 19, 20.
b Ver. 10, 13. h Ver. 24.
c Gen. xxxiv. 20, 24. ' Ver. 19.
SI 2 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
ancient Egyptian constitution ^ : he says the land was di-
vided into three parts, i. One part was the priests', with
which they provided all sacrifices, and maintained all the
ministers of religion. 2. A second part was the king's, to
support his court and family, and supply expences for wars
if they should happen ; and he remarks, that the king hav-
ing so ample an estate raised no taxes upon his subjects. 3.
The remainder of the land was divided amongst the sub-
jects : Diodorus calls them the soldiers, not making a dis-
tinction, because soldiers and subjects in most nations were
the same, it being the ancient practice for all that held lands
in a kingdom to go to war when occasion required ; and he
says, there were three other orders of men in the kingdom,
husbandmen, shepherds, and artificers, but these were not,
strictly speaking, citizens of the kingdom, but servants or
tenants, or workmen to those who were the owners of the
lands and cattle. When Mizraim led his followers into
Egypt, it is most probable that many considerable persons
joined their families and went with him, and these families
being independent, until they agreed upon a coalition for
their common advantage, it is natural to think, that they
agreed upon a plan which might gratify every family, and
the descendants of each of them, Avith a suitable property,
which they might improve as their own. Herodotus gives
an account of the Egyptian polity '. He says, that the Egyp-
tians were divided into seven orders of men ; but he takes
in the tillers of the ground or husbandmen, the artificers, and
the shepherds, who were at first only servants employed by
the masters of the families they belonged to, and not free
subjects of the kingdom ; and he adds an order of seamen,
which must be of later date. Herodotus's account might
perhaps be true of their constitution, in times much later
than those I am treating of. There is one thing very re-
markable in the first polities of kingdoms, namely, that the
legislators paid a surprising deference to the paternal autho-
rity or jurisdiction which fathers were thought to have over
their children, and were extremely cautious how they made
k Diodor. Sic. lib. i. §. 72, 73, &c. p. 66. 1 Lib. ii. c. 163, &c.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 313
any state-laws that might affect it. When Romulus had
framed the Roman constitution, he did not attempt to limit
the powers which parents were thought to have over their
children ; so that, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus observes, a
father had full power either to imprison, or enslave, or to
sell, or to inflict the severest corporal punishments upon, or
to kill, his son, even though the son at that very time was in
the highest employments of the state, and bore his office with
the greatest public applause ™ ; and when Numa attempted
to limit this extravagant power, he carried his limitation no
further than to appoint, that a son, if married with his
father's consent, should in some measure be freed from so
unlimited a subjection.
The first legislators cannot be imagined to have attempted
any other improvements of their country, than what would
naturally arise from agriculture, pasturage, and planting :
traffic began in after-ages : and hence it soon appeared, that
in fertile and open countries, they had abundance of people
more than they could employ : for few hands would quickly
learn to produce a maintenance for more than were neces-
sary for the tillage of the ground, or the care of the cattle ;
but in mountainous and woody countries, where fruitful and
open plains were rarely met with, men multiplied faster
than they could be maintained : and hence it came to pass,
that these countries commonly sent forth frequent colonies
and plantations, when their inhabitants were so numerous,
that their land could not hear them, i. e. could not produce
a sufficient maintenance for them ; but in the more fruitful
nations, where greater multitu.des could be supported, the
kings had at their command great bodies of men, and em-
ployed them either in raising prodigious buildings, or formed
them into powerful armies ; and thus in Egypt they built
pyramids, at Babylon they encompassed the city with walls
of an incredible height and thickness ; and they conquered
and brought into subjection all the nations round about
them.
The first kings laid no sort of tax upon their subjects, for
m Dionys. Halicarn. lib. ii. c. 26, 27.
314 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
the maintenance of either their soldiers or servants ; but all
the tribute they took vi^as from strangers, and their own
people were free ; but they had in every country larger
portions of land than their subjects, and whenever they
conquered foreign kingdoms, they increased their revenue by
laying an annual tribute or tax upon them. Ninus was the
first king that took this course" j he overran all his neigh-
bours with his armies, and obliged them to buy their peace
by paying yearly such tribute as he thought fit to exact from
them. The conquered nations, however free the subjects of
them were at home with regard to their own king, were yet
justly said to be under the yoke of a foreign servitude, and
were looked upon by the king that had conquered them as
larger farms, to yield him such an annual product as he
thought fit to set upon them ; and the king and all the people
of them, though they were commonly permitted to live ac-
cording to their own laws, were yet reputed the conqueror's
servants. Thus the kings of Canaan, when they became tri-
butary, were said to serve Chedorlaonier° ; and thus Xerxes,
when Pythius the Lydian, presiuning upon his being in great
favour with the king, ventured to petition to have one of his
sons excused following the army, remonstrated to him, that he
was his servant"^. The Persians are frequently called by
Cyrus in Xenophon, avbpes Ile/jcrat, or men of Persia, or ^ikoi^
the king's friends ; and Xerxes keeps up in his answer to
Pythius the same distinction ; he mentions, that his children,
his relations, his domestics, and then his natural subjects,
whom he calls his (piXovs, went with him to the war : And
dare you, says he, who are my servant, ejuos bovkos, talk of
your son ? Lydia was a conquered kingdom, and so Pythius
and all the Lydians were the king's property, to do with them
as he thought fit. And they sometimes used those they had
conquered accordingly, removing them out of one nation into
another as they pleased. But I should think the extrava-
gances of ambitious conquerors not so much to be wondered
at, as the politics of Aristotle, who has laid down such princi-
ples, as, if true, would justify all the wars and bloodshed that
n Justin, lib. i. c. i. " Gen. xiv. 4. P Herodot. lib. vii. c. 39.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 315
an ambitious prince can be guilty of. He mentions war as
one of the natural ways of getting an estate ; for he says, " It
" is a sort of hunting, which is to be made use of against the
" wild beasts, and against those men, who, born by nature to
" servitude, will not submit to it; so that a war upon these is
" naturally justq."
Diodorus Siculus remarks'", that it was not the ancient
custom for sons to succeed their fathers, and inherit their
crowns. This observation was fact in many kingdoms ; but
then it could be only where kingdoms were not raised upon
paternal or despotic authority : where paternal authority
took place, the kingdom would of course descend as that
did, and the eldest son become at his father's death the
ruler over his father's children : and where kingdoms arose
from masters and their servants, the right heir of the sub-
stance would be the right heir to the crown : and this we
find was the Persian constitution. The subjects having
originally been servants, did not apprehend themselves to
have any right or pretence ever to become kings ; but the
crown was always to be given to one of royal blood s.
But in kingdoms which were founded by a number of fami-
lies uniting together by agreement to form a civil society,
the subjects upon every vacancy chose a king as they
thought fit, and the personal qualifications of the person to
be elected, and not his birth, procured his election : many
instances of this might be produced from the ancient king-
doms of Greece, and very convincing ones from the first
Roman kings, of whom Plutarch observes, that none of
them was succeeded in his kingdom by his son' ; and Florus
has remarked of each of them severally, what their qualifi-
cations were which recommended them to the choice of the
people". That Egypt was anciently an elective kingdom, is
evident from Plutarch ^, who remarks, that their kings were
taken either from amongst their soldiers or their priests, as
q Aristot. Politic. 1. i. c. 8. u L. Flor. Hist. lib. i. c. 2 — 7. See
r Hist. lib. i. p. 28. also Dionys. Halicarnass. 1. i.
* Brissonius de Regno Persarum, 1. i. x ol de ^affiKe'is aTreSe'iKi'vi'To /uLii/ iK
p. 5. ed. 1595- '''"''' ifpfi^i' '') T^j/ juox'V'"''? '''oS /"•^'^ 5**
t Plutarch, lib. de Animi Tranquil- avSplaf, tov 5e 81a cro<piav yivovs a^iwfji.a
litate, p. 467. ed. Xyland. Par. 1624. Kal rifi^v ?xo'''''os.
316
CONNECTION OF THE SACRED
[book VI.
they had occasion for a prince of great wisdom or valour.
But whatever were the original constitutions of kingdoms, it
is certain, that power has always in all nations been more
or less fluctuating between the prince and the people, and
many states have from arbitrary kingdoms become in time
republics, and from republics become in length of time ar-
bitrary kingdoms again, from various accidents and revolu-
tions, as Polybius has observed at large y.
It has been an ancient opinion, that kings had their right
to their crowns by a special appointment from heaven :
Homer is everywhere full of it : the sceptres of his kings
were commonly given either to them or some of their an-
cestors by Jupiter ; thus Agamemnon's sceptre was made
by Vulcan, and by Vulcan given to Jupiter, by Jupiter to
Mercury, by Mercury to Pelops, by Pelops to Atreus, by
Atreus to Thyestes, by Thyestes to Agamemnon =^ : and this
account came to be so firmly believed, that the men of
Cha^ronea paid divine worship to a spear, which they said
was this celestial sceptre of Agamemnon^ : Homer places
the authority of all his kings upon this foundation, and he
gives us his opinion at large in the case of Telemachusb.
He introduces Antinous, one of the suitors, as alarmed at the
threatenings of Telemachus ; and therefore, though he ac-
knowledged his paternal right to the crown of Ithaca when
Ulysses should be dead, yet he wished that there might not
be a vacancy for him for many years. Telemachus in his
reply is made to speak as if he depended but little upon an
hereditary right ; and says, that he should willingly accej)t
the crown, if Jupiter should give him it ; but that there
y Historiar. lib. vi. c. 5, 6, &c.
2 II. ii. ver. loi.
a Pausanias in Boeoticis, p. 795. ed.
Kuhn. Lips. 1696.
b Odyss. i. ver. 388.
Thf 5' av Tri\€fiaxos Trfirpvixevos av-
Tiov rivSa'
Kai Kiv TOUT eOeXotfii At6s ye 5iS6y-
Tos apiffBai.
'Pi.K}i^ fJToi PacriXrjfs 'Axaioov flcrt Kal
&\\ot
TloWol iv a.fj.(piaK(f 'I9a/cf), vioi r/Se
•naKaioi'
Tuf Kev ris T(i5' exiiciv, iirtl Odve ^7os
'OSucro'eus"
AvTccp eyaiv oIkolo &va^ taofi Tjfiere-
pOLO,
Kal S/xcowV ovs /J.01 \r]i'crffaro S7os
'OSvacevs.
Thu 5' av Evpv/xaxos VloKv^ov nais
avTiov riiiScf
TrjXefxax', Viroi ravTO. Oeuv iv yowaai
"OcTTts iv a.ix<piaKcfi 'iQaKri fiaaiXfvmt
'Axawv.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 317
were kings of Greece, and many persons of Ithaca^ both
young and old, who perhaps might have it at the death of
Ulysses ; but that he would be master of his father's house,
servants, and substance : Eurymachus replies, and confirms
what Telemachus had said, asserting, that Telemachus should
certainly possess his father's house, servants, and substance ;
but that as to who should be king of Ithaca, it must be left
to the gods. Komulus endeavoured to build his authority
upon the same foundation ; and therefore when the people
were disposed to have him for their king, he refused to
take the honour, until the gods should give some sign to
confirm it to him : and so upon an appointed day, after due
sacrifices and prayers offered to the gods, he was consecrated
king by an auspicious thunder <=. At what time the heathen
nations embraced these sentiments, I cannot certainly say,
but I imagine not before God had appointed the Israelites a
king : for the ancient writers speak of the kings that
reigned before that time in no such strain, as may be seen
from Pausanias's accounts of the first kings of Greece, as
well as from other writers ; but when God had by special
appointment given the Israelites a king, the kings of other
nations were fond of claiming to themselves such a desig-
nation from heaven, lest they should seem to fall short in
honour and glory of the Jewish governors ; and Homer, who,
according to Herodotus, introduced a new theology^, intro-
duced also this account of the original of the authority of
their kings into Greece. Virgil embraced this scheme of
Homer's, and, in compliment to Augustus, the Roman re-
public being overthrown, laid the foundation of ^neas's
right to govern the Trojans, who fled with him from the
ruins of their city, upon a divine designation of him to be
their king, revealed to him by the apparition of Hector®,
and confirmed by Pantheus the priest of Apollo, who
brought and delivered to him the sacra and sacred images f,
which Hector had declared him the guardian and pro-
tector of.
c Dionys. Halicarn. 1. ii. c. 5. e Virgil. JEn. ii. ver. 268.
d Herodot. lib. ii. c. 53. f Ibid. ver. 321, &c.
318 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
It has been the opinion of some modern writers, that
these ancients were very weak politicians in matters of re-
ligion, and were an easy prey to priestcraft. The earl of
Shaftesbury is very copious upon this topic ^^ and his fol-
lowers do commonly think his argumentations of this sort
conclusive : let us therefore examine how well they are
grounded.
We have as full and large an account of the first settle-
ment of the Roman priesthood as of any, so that 1 shall
examine this first, and then add what may be offered about
the established priesthood of other nations. And first of all,
Romulus appointed, that the king should be the head and
controller of all the sacra and sacrifices'', and under himself
he appointed proper persons for the due performance of the
offices of religion, having first made a general law, that none
but the nobility should be employed either in offices of the
state or of religion ' ; and the particular qualifications of the
priests were'', i. They were to be of the best families.
2. They were to be men of the most eminent virtue. 3.
They were to be persons who had an estate sufficient to live
on. And, 4. Without any bodily blemish or imperfection.
5. They were to be above fifty years of age. These were the
qualifications requisite for their being admitted into the
religious order. Let us now see what they were to get by
it; and, i. They were put to no expence in the performance
of their ministrations ; for as the king had in his hands
lands set apart on purpose for the providing the public sacri-
fices, building and repairing temples, altars, and bearing all
the expences of religion, so a set sum was paid to the priests
of each division, to bear the expences of their sacrifices.
2. They themselves were exempted from the fatigue of
going to war, and from bearing city offices. 3. Besides
these slender privileges, I do not find they received any
profits from their office ; for it is evident bhey had no stipend
g Charact. vol. iii. Miscel. 2. Antiq. Rom. 1. ii. c. 14.
h Ba<ri\€r filv oZv i^'pp7]To raSe to. y4pa' i AieroTTei/ tovs fiiv evTrarpiSas tfpn-
irpwTov fxiv ifpSiv Kol Svciwv Tjyf fxoviav ffdal re, koI ^px^t" xal Si/cafeii', /col /ueS'
tXf'j'"''! ■"""''■'■o 5i' eKSiVou Trpdrreadai TO. avrov to. koiuo, irpdmiv. Id. ibid. c. 9.
7r/)6s TOVS deovs '6<na. Dionys. Halirar. k Id. ibid. o. 2r.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 319
nor salaries ; for ministers of state and ministers of religion
also had no advantages of this sort in the early times',
as is abundantly evident from one of the reasons given for
choosing the nobility only to these employments, namely,
because the plebeians or common people could not aiford to
give away their time in attending upon them : as to the
number of them, vv^hich lord Shaftesbury thinks was without
end or measure, Dionysius of Halicarnassus tells us, that no
city ever had so many originally as Rome ; and he observes,
that Romulus appointed sixty'"; telling us withal elsewhere,
that his people were, when he first settled the common-
wealth, two thousand three hundred men, besides women
and children ; and when he died, they were above forty
thousand". There were indeed, over and besides these, three
Augurs, or tepocrKOTrot, appointed by Romulus, and there were
afterwards three Flamens, who, I think, were first instituted
by Numa ; as were the Vestal virgins, who were in number
four°, and the Salii, who were in number twelve^: he insti-
tuted also the college of the Feciales, who were in number
twenty i ; but these were chiefly employed in civil aflfairs ;
for they were the arbitrators of all controversies relating
to war or peace, and heralds and ambassadors to foreign
states^: lastly, Numa appointed the Pontifices Maximi,
being four in number, of which himself was the first ^, and
these persons were the supreme judges of all matters, civil
or religious ; but all these officers were chosen out of the
noblest and wealthiest families, and they brought wealth
into and added lustre to the offices they bore, instead of
coming into them for the sake of lucre and advantage. If we
were to look further into the Roman state, we should find
some additions made to the number of the ministers of re-
ligion, as the city grew in wealth and power ; for when the
plebeians grew wealthy, and were able to bear them, they
would not be excluded from religious offices; and so there
1 Dionys. Halicam. Antiq. Rom. P Id. ibid. c. 70.
1. ii. c. 9. q Id. ibid. c. 72. Plutarch, in Numa.
m Id. ibid. c. 21. r Dionys. Halicarn. 1. ii. ibid,
n Id. c. 16. s Id. ibid. Plut. in Numa.
o Dionys. Halicarn. 1. ii. c. 67.
320 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [SOOK VI.
were in time twelve Flamens elected from the commons,
and there were twelve Salii added to Numa's twelve bv
Tullus Hostilius, Tarquinius Superbus appointed two of-
ficers to be the keepers of the Sibylline oracles, and their
number was afterwards increased to ten, and by Sylla to
fifteen, and in later ages they had particular Flamens for
particular deities : but take an estimate of the Koman re-
ligion when their priests were most numerous, at any time
from the building of the city to Julius Caesar, and it will ap-
pear that ancient E.ome was not overburdened with either
the number or expence of the religious orders. But let us
in the next place look into Gi-eece.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus frequently remarks of Ro-
mulus's religious institutions, that they were formed accord-
ing to the Greek j)lans ; so that we may guess in general,
that the Greeks were not more burdened in these matters
than he burdened the Homans ; especially if we consider
what he remarks upon Numa's institutions, that no foreign
city whatever, whether Grecian, or of any other country,
had so many religious institutions as the Romans*, a re-
mark he had before made, even when Romulus settled
the first orders ". The writers of the Greek antiquities
are pretty much at a loss to enumerate the several orders
of their priests ^ ; and they name but few, and these rather
the assistants, than the priests that offered the sacrifices.
And I imagine the true reason that we have no larger ac-
count of them is, because there were in the most ancient
times no particular persons set apart for these offices in the
Grecian states ; but the kings and rulers performed the pub-
lic offices of religion for their people, and every master of a
family sacrificed in private for himself, his children and ser-
vants. If we look over Homer's poems, we shall find this
observation verified by many instances. After Agamemnon
was constituted the head of the Grecian army, we find him
every where at the public sacrifices performing the priest's
office y, and the other Grecian kings and heroes had their
t Dionys. Halicarn. lib. ii. §.63. ^ See Potter's Antiquities, b. ii. c. 3.
u Id. ibid. §.21. y Iliad. 7. Iliad, tj. et in al. loc.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 321
parts under him in the ministration ; and thus Peleus the
father of Achilles performed the office of priest in his own
kingdom, when Nestor and Ulysses went to see him, and
Patroclus, Achilles, and Mencetius ministered^- ; and Achilles
offered the sacrifices, and performed the funeral rites for
Patroclus^; and thus again in the Odyssey, when Nestor
made a sacrifice to Minerva, Stratius and the noble Echephron
led the bull to the altar, Aretus brought the water, and can-
nisters of corn, Perseus brought the vessel to receive the
blood, but Nestor himself made the libations, and began the
ceremony with prayers ; the magnanimous Thrasymedes son
of Nestor knocked down the ox ; then the wife of Nestor,
his daughters, and his sons' wives offered their prayers ;
then Pisistratus, opyomos avbpcav, perhaps the captain of his
host, an officer in such a post as Phicol under Abimelech^,
stabbed the beast : then they all joined in cutting it in pieces,
and disposing it upon the altar, and after all was ready,
Kale 8' iirl o'X^C'lJS o yipoiv eirl 6' aWoira oXvov
Aet/3e'
Nestor himself was the priest, and offered the sacrifice'^.
Many instances of this sort might be brought from both Iliad
and Odyssey. If we examine the accounts which the best
historians give us, they all tend to confirm this point : Ly-
curgus was remarkably frugal in the sacrifices he appointed '^,
and the Lacedaemonians had no public priests in his days,
nor for some time after, but their kings : Plutarch tells us,
that when they went to battle, the king performed the sacri-
fice s; and Xenophon says, that the king performed the
public sacrifices before the cityf, and that in the army his
chief business was to have the supreme command of the forces,
and to be their priest in the offices of religions : and this was
the practice when Agesilaus was chosen king of Sparta ; for
after he was made king, he ofifered the usual sacrifices for
the cityh. And in his expedition against the Persians, he
would have sacrificed at Aulis, a town of Bceotia, as Aga-
z II. K. a II. ^. e Ibid. p. 53.
b Gen. xxvi. 26. f Xenoph. Lib. de Repub. Lacedsem.
c Odyss. y. ver. 460, &c. p. 688. ed. Leuncl. Francf. 1596.
d Plutarch, in Lycurgo, p. 52. ed. S Id. ibid.
Xyland. Par. 1624. h Xenoph. Hellenic, lib. iii. p. 496.
vol,. I. Y
322 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
memnon did upon undertaking the Trojan war ; but the
Thebans, not being well affected to him or to the Lacedsemo-
nians, would not permit him \ In a word, we have no reason
to think, from any thing we can find in the Greek history,
that the ancient Greeks, until some ages after Homer, had
any other public ministers of religion, than those who were
the kings and governors of the state. Fathers of families
(even though they were in reality but servants) were priests
to those who lived under their direction, and ofiered all sorts
of sacrifices for them, and performed all the ministrations of
religion at their domestic altars; and thus the practice of
religious offices was performed in the several parts of every
kingdom amongst the several families that inhabited it : the
public or national religion appeared at the head of their ar-
mies, or at the court only, where the king was personally
present, and performed the offices of it for himself and all
his people.
There are some persons mentioned by Homer, and called
iepees, or priests, and they ofiered the sacrifices even when
kings and the greatest commanders attended at the altars.
Thus Chryses, the priest of Apollo, burnt the sacrifice which
Ulysses and his companions went to offer at Chrysa, when
they restored Briseis to her father''; but this is so far from
contradicting what I have offered, that it entirely coincides
with and confirms it : Chrysa was a little isle in the ^Egean
sea, of which Chryses was priest and governor ; and when
Ulysses was come into his dominions, it was Chryses's place
to offer the sacrifice, and not Ulysses's. There were in the
ancient times many little islands, and small tracts of land,
where civil government was not set up in form, but the inha-
bitants lived together in peace and quiet, by and under the
direction of some very eminent person, who ruled them by
wise admonitions, and by teaching them religion ; and the
governors of these countries affected rather the name of priests
than kings ; thus Jethro is called by Moses not the king, but
the priest of Midian ; and thus Chryses is called the priest of
Apollo at Chrysa, and not the king of Chrysa ; though both
J Xenoph. Hellenic, lib. iii. p. 496. ^ Homer. II. i.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 323
he and Jethro were the governors of the countries they lived
in. If at any time they and their people came to form a
political society upon more express terms and conditions, then
we find these sort of persons called both priests and kings ;
and in this manner Melchizedec was king of Salem, and priest
of the most high God', and Anius was king of Delos, and
priest of Apollo"^. These small states could have but little
power to support themselves against the encroachments of
their neighbours : their religion was their greatest strength ;
and it was their happiest circumstance, that their kings or
governors were conspicuous for their religion, and thought
sacred by their neighbours, being reputed in an eminent sense
to be high in the favour of the god whom they particularly
worshipped; so as to render it dangerous for any to vio-
late their rights, or to injure the people under their protection,
as the Grecians are said to have experienced, when they re-
fused to restore Briseis to her father.
It is thought by some very judicious writers, that the
word Upevs is sometimes used for a person, who was not
strictly speaking a priest, but a diviner from the entrails of
victims : thus Achilles in Homer ", when the pestilence
raged in the Grecian camp, advised
Tiva jxdvTtv ipeCojJiev, r) leprja
*H /cat ovetpoT^oKov
to send for either a fxavrts, or prophet, or an Upevs, or an
oveipoTToXos, a diviner by dreams, to inform them how to
appease Apollo ; but I imagine the Upevs here mentioned was
some one of these insular priests or kings, of whom all their
neighbours had an high opinion for their great skill in matters
of religion, upon which account they used to be frequently
sent to, or sent for, as the occasions of their neighbour-states
required the assistance of their advice and direction. Such a
king and priest was Rhamnes in Virgil",
Rex idem, et regi Turno gratissimus augur.
Amongst the true worshippers of God, some persons were
very signally distinguished from others by extraordinary
1 Gen. xiv. i8. n Homer II. i.
m Virgil. Mn. iii. ver. 80. o _^n. ix. ver. 327.
Y 2
324 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VI.
revelations of God's will made to them. Abraham was re-
ceived by Abimelech as a prophet P; and God was pleased to
make his \yill known to these persons by visions or by
dreams^, and sometimes by audible voices and divine appear-
ances : and when any persons were known to be thus highly
favoured of God, kings and great men paid a regard to them,
and were willing to consult them upon difficulties and emer-
gent occasions, and were glad to have them, not to sacrifice
for them, which there was no occasion they should do, but to
pray for them ; for their prayers were thought more than or-
dinarily available with God^; and this order of men, namely,
the prophets, are frequently mentioned in Scripture : and as
God was pleased to distinguish his true servants by the gifts
of prophecy ; so in all the heathen nations diverse persons
imitated these powers, and made it their business in various
manners by art and study to qualify themselves to know the
will of their gods, and to discover it to men ; and persons
thought to be thus qualified were in every kingdom re-
tained by kings and rulers, or if they had them not at hand,
they sent for them upon occasion to direct in emergent af-
fairs and difficult circumstances. Balaam the son of Beor had
the character of a prophet in the nations round about the
place where he lived, and therefore Balak in his distress
about the Israelites sent for him to Pethor^ which is by the
river of the land of the children of his people ^ ; and when
Balaam was come to Balak, Balak was ordinarily the sacri-
ficer, and Balaam"'s employment was, to report to him any
revelations it should please God to make him about the Isra-
elites t : and thus when the chiefs of Greece ofiered their
sacrifices, Calchas attended, and explained an omen, which
put them in great surprise". In length of time the number
of the heathen prophets increased greatly ; there were many
of them in Egypt in the days of Moses, and of several orders^,
and there were four orders of them at Babylon in the time of
Daniel, namely, the chartummim or magicians, the ashapim
p Gen. XX. 7. t Numb, xxiii. 30.
n Numb. xii. 6. u II. ii.
r Gen. XX. 7. x Bxod. vii. 11.
s Numb. xxii. 5.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 325
or astrologers, the Chasdim or Chaldfeans, and the mecha-
sepim or sorcerers y : but they were not numerous in Greece
until after the times which I am to treat of; for when Agesi-
laus was made king of Sparta, about A. M. 3600, which is
above 300 years after the building of Rome, and near as much
later than the time where I am to end this undertaking, when
Agesilaus was to offer the sacrifices for the city, he had only
one ixdvTLs or prophet attending to inform him of what might
be revealed to him at the time of his sacrifices, as Agamem-
non in Homer is described to have had at the Trojan war.
There were another sort of officers attending upon the sacri-
fices, called the Kt]pvK€s, or in Latin prcecones, and their busi-
ness was to call together the people, when assemblies were
appointed, and they were frequently sent ambassadors, or
rather as heralds, from state to state, and they assisted at sa-
crifices in dividing the victims, and disposing the several parts
of the ofifering in due form upon the altar 2, before the priests
kindled the fire to burn it ; but I cannot find any reason
to think that the Greeks had, at the time that Kome was
built, so many persons set apart to attend upon the religious
offices, as even Komulus appointed at the first building of
his city.
If we go into Asia : as men were planted there, and cities
built, and governments established earlier than in Greece ;
so we find, as I just now hinted, that the wise men of Babylon
were numerous in the days of Daniel : when they began
there, I cannot say, but 1 am apt to think their first rise was
from Belus the Egyptian, the son of Neptune and Libya,
who travelled from Egypt, and carried with him a number
of Egyptian priests, and obtained leave to sit down at Baby-
Ion, where the king, Avho then ruled there, gave them great
encouragement upon account of their skill in astronomy.
Of this Belus I shall speak more hereafter. His coming to
Babylon was about the time of Moses ^ ; but I would observe,
that the kings of these nations had not parted with their
priesthood in the days of Cyrus ; for Xenophon is very
y Dan. ii. 2. z Homer. II. in loc. var. a See book viii.
326 CONNECTION OF THE SACEED [bOOK VI.
express in his accounts of that prince's performing the public
sacrifices in many places^.
Egypt was the parent of almost all the superstitions that
overflowed the world ; and it is particularly remarked, that
the priests in the most ancient times were more numerous
here, and far more magnificently provided for, than in other
nations. They had lands settled upon them in the time of
Joseph '=, and, according to Diodorus Siculus, a third part of
the whole land of Egypt was theirs ^ : and lord Shaftesbury's
triumphs here run very high against the church lands, and
the landed clergy, as he is pleased to call the Egyptian priests
of these times. This right honourable writer asserts, *' That
" the magistrate, according to the Egyptian regulation, had
" resigned his title or share of right in sacred things, and
" could not govern as he pleased, nor check the growing
" number of these professors e. And that in this mother
" land of superstition the sons of these artists were by law
" obliged always to follow the same calling with their fa-
" thers. Thus the son of a priest was always a priest by
" birth, as was the whole lineage after him without inter-
" ruption." There are a great many other particulars en-
larged upon by this author, which I choose to pass over. If
I give an account of the Egyptian priesthood from what the
ancient writers hint about it, that alone will shew how
widely some writers err in their accounts of ancient facts,
out of humour and inclination to reflect upon the church and
clergy. Religion was in the early times looked upon by all
the nations in the world as a positive institution of God, and
it was as firmly believed, that none could be the ministers of
it but those persons whom God himself had appointed to
perform the offices of it. Aristotle indeed, who threw off
tradition, and founded his opinions upon what he thought to
be the dictates of right reason, seems to give every state or
community a power of appointing their ministers of religion,
hinting at the same time, that the citizens of an advanced
^ Lib. de Cyropsed. lib. ii. iii. viii. d Diodor. Sic. 1. i. §. 72, 73, &c.
&c. e Miscellaneous Reflect. Character-
c Gen, xlvii. istics, vol. iii. Mis. ii. p. 42.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
327
age, who were past engaging in laborious employments for
the service of the public, were the proper persons to be ap-
pointed to the sacred offices^: but Plato, who had a greater
regard to the ancient customs and traditions, makes a divine
designation absolutely necessary for the rightly authorizing
any persorj to perform the offices of religion : he advises
the founders of cities, if they could find any priests, who had
received their office from their fathers, in a long succession
backward, to make use of them ; but that if such could not
be had, but that some must be created, that they would leave
the choice to the gods, appointing proper candidates, and
choosing out of them by lot such as the deity should cause
the lot to fall to; and that they should send to the oracle
at Delphos to be directed what rites, ceremonies, and laws
of religion they should establish § : this was the ancient uni-
versal sense of all nations ; and we may observe, that both
Romulus and Numa took care at least to seem to act accord-
ing to these maxims. Romulus built his city by consulta-
tion with the Etruscan haruspices^, and upon his appointing
new orders of priests, he made a law to devolve the confirm-
ing them to the vates or augurs, who were to declare to the
people the will of the gods about them' : and Numa was
thought to do nothing but by inspiration, pretending the
directions of the goddess Egeria for all his institutions'^. The
most ancient priesthood was that which fathers or heads of
families exercised in and for their own families and kindred :
and the divine institution of this was what all nations were
so fully convinced of, that the public and established reli-
gions did not supersede it, but left it as they found it; so
that though private persons, who were not publicly called to
that office, might not offer sacrifices on the public altars, yet
each head of a family was priest for his own family at his
private ybce^s, or domestic altar; and these private or family
priests, I imagine, were the persons whom Dionysius of Ha-
licarnassus speaks of, as having to? crvyyiVLKas Upcaavpas, or a
priesthood over those of the same lineage with themselves ^ ;
f Ai'istot. de Repub. lib. vii. cap. 9. c. 12.
S Platon. de Legibus, 1. vi. p. 860. k Id. ibid. c. 60. Plutarch, in Vit.
h Plutarch, in Vita Romuli^ p. 22. Numse. Florus, 1. i. c. 2.
i Dionys. Halicar. Antiq. Rom. 1. ii. 1 Dionys. Antiq. Rom. 1. ii. c, 21.
3^8 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
and what reverence and regard was paid them may be guessed
by the observation of Athenaeus, who remarks, that of all
sacrifices those were esteemed the most sacred which a man
offered for his own domestics '" ; and indeed they might well
be so accounted, the persons that offered them being perhaps
the only persons in the heathen nations who had a just right
to offer any sacrifices.
As this sense of things appears not to have been extin-
guished even in the times of Romulus, nay even ages after
him ; so it is most probable, that men kept very strict to it
in the first times : and we must not suppose, that, at the first
erecting kingdoms and civil societies, the several bodies of
men appointed whom they would to be their priests : it is
more likely, that they thought, as Plato the great master of
the ancient customs and traditions of all nations did, that the
priesthood which had descended from father to son was still
to be retained"; and accordingly, where kingdoms were
originally planted by but one single family, the king or head
of that one family might be the sole public minister of re-
ligion to all his people ; but where kingdoms were origi-
nally peopled by many families independent of each other,
they might agree to institute, that the persons who in pri-
vate life had been priests of the several families of which the
body politic was constituted, should become jointly the na-
tional priests to all the land : and thus the Egyptian priests
might be originally the heads of the several families that
constituted the kingdom. That this conjecture does not err
much, if any thing, from the truth, will appear to any one
that considers duly the ancient Egyptian polity: for, i. They
thought their priests almost equal in dignity to their kings ;
and the priests had a great share in the administration of
affairs ; for they continually attended to advise, direct, and
assist in the weighty affairs of the kingdom o. 2. They
thought it an irregularity to have any one made their king
m 'OcnwraTri yap rj dvcrla Beo7s Koi o Ka96\ov yap irepl tZv /j-eyltTTiuv
■7rpo(T<pt\i(nipix 7) 5(a twv olKeiaiv. Athe- ouroi Trpo^ovXivdfxivoi avvSiaTpi0ov(n toj
nseus Deipnosoph. 1. i. c. 8. ySamAe?, rwv fxtf avvcpyoi, tuiv 5e eiVTj-
n 'lipiiov 5t Upeas ols fxev elai iraTpiai y7]ral kuI SiSdaKaAoL yiv6iJ.evoi. Diodor.
[ipuKTvvai. fx^ Kiveiu. Plat, de Legibus, Sic. lib. i. §. 7,^- P- ^'6.
jib. vi. p. S6o.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 329
who was not one of their priests ; but if it did so happen, as
in length of time it sometimes did, the person who was toP
be king was obliged to be first received into the order of
priests, and then was capable of the crown. 3. Whenever a
priest died, his son was made priest in his room^i. I am
sensible, that the very particulars I have produced are fre-
quently made use of to hint the great ascendant, which
priestcraft and religion gained over king and people in the
land of Egypt ; but no one truly versed in antiquity can use
them to this purpose : it was not the priesthood that by re-
ligious craft raised the possessors of it in ancient times to the
highest stations and dignity ; but rather, none but persons of
the highest stations and dignity were thought capable of
being priests, and so of consequence the men of this order
could not but shine with double lustre : they were as great
as the civil state could make them before they entered upon
religious ministrations, for it was reckoned a monstrous thing
to make priests of the meanest of the people"^; and accord-
ingly Romulus appointed the noblest and the wealthiest of
the senators for these offices « ; and Josephus was sensible that
this was the universal practice of all the heathen nations, and
therefore remarks how equitably the Jewish priesthood was
at first founded, that great wealth and possessions were not
the requisites to qualify the persons who were put into it for
their admission into the sacred order *, which he must know
to be required in all heathen nations, or his argument had
been of little force. Divine appointment placed the priest-
hood at first in the head of every family, and men did not for
many ages take upon them to make alterations in this mat-
ter. When Mizraim and his followers sat down in Egypt,
Mizraim was the priest and governor of his own family ;
and the leading men that followed him were, by the same
right, each head of a family, priest and governor of those
that belonged to him ; and what coalition could be more
easy, or what civil government or religious hierarchy better
P Plato in Politico, p. 550. Plutarch. s Dionys. Halicarnass. 1. ii. c. i8.
Lib. de Iside et Osiride, p. 354. t Josephus contra Apion. 1. ii. §. 21,
a Herodot. Ub. ii. c. 37. 22. p. 1379. ed. Huds. Ox. 1720.
»■ I Kings xiii. 3$.
330 CONNECTION OB' THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
grounded, unless they had had a special direction for their
polity from heaven, as the Israelites afterwards had, than for
Mizraim and his followers to agree, that one of them should
have the presidence or superiority, and that they should all
unite to promote religion, order, and government, amongst
their children and their descendants ? And this was the
first polity in Egypt ; which, if duly considered, will give a
clear account of what I observed of the honour paid to the
Egyptian priests, i. Their priests were thought almost equal
in dignity to their kings, and were joined with them in the
public councils and administrations : and surely it cannot be
thought a great usurpation for them to claim this honour :
they were, every one, heads of families, as the king him-
self was, and subordinate to him only for the purposes of civil
life. 2. The kings were commonly chosen out of the priests,
or if any other person became king, he Avas obliged to be
admitted into the priest's order before he received the crown ;
an appointment not improper, if we consider, that, accord-
ing to this constitution of the Egyptian government, all but
the priests were by nature subject to some or other of the
priests, and they only were the persons who could have a
paternal right to govern, and every other order of men in
Egypt owed to them z. filial duty and obedience. 3. When-
ever a priest died, his son was appointed priest in his room ;
Herodotus says, iireav be tis airodavri, toijtov 6 tioX's avriKaTLcrTa-
TttL " ; not, as lord Shaftesbury represents it, that all the chil-
dren of the priests were obliged by law to follow the calling
of their fathers ; but the 6 irais, not Tralbes, not the sons, but
the eldest son, was appointed priest in his room ; so that they
only endeavoured to preserve that order, which God himself
originally appointed, and their priesthood could not hereby
become more numerous, than the original families that first
planted the land. It is remarkable, that the service of the
altar would naturally have descended much in this manner
amongst the Israelites, if God had not thought fit by a new
institution to have the whole tribe of Levi set apart for the
ministry, instead of the firstborn of their several families.
« Herodofc. lib. ii. c. 37.
AND PROFANE HISTOKY. 331
The Egyptian priesthood thus considered will not appear so
extravagant as some writers have imagined ; nor will the di-
vision of the land, supposing that even a third part of it was
the priests, be liable to so much censure and odiiim as these
authors delight to throw upon it ; for the persons, who as priests
seem to have had too much, were in truth the whole body of
the nobility of the land, and the Egyptian polity was really
this, and no other : the king had a third part of the land for
his share as king, to enable him to defray his public expences
without tax or burthen to his subjects : the nobility or heads
of the several families had a third part, and they were to fur-
nish all the expences for religion, and to perform all the offices
of it, without any charge to the people : the common subjects
had the remaining third part, not encumbered with either any
tax to the king or expence upon account of religion : and
I imagine that the commons or plebeians have in few king-
doms had a larger property in land than this is.
The Asiatic priesthoods are in general said to have had a
very exorbitant power over the state. I wish the authors of
this opinion were particular in pointing out the times and
places when and where. I cannot apprehend that the re-
ligious orders had so overbearing either influence or interest
at Babylon in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, when he threat-
ened to cut them all in pieces, and to make their houses a
dunghill X, and gave orders to destroy them all, for their not
answering him in a point in which it was impossible they
should answer him 7; for, as Daniel observed, the secret was
not revealed to him for any wisdom that he had more than any
living^ \ and he remarked, that the wise men of Babylon
could not possibly discover it^. A fair and just representation
of the ancient heathen religions would shew that it was not
priestcraft that ruled the heathen world ; but that kings and
great men having had originally in their hands the offices of
religion, turned the whole into state-policy, and made it a
mere art to govern their kingdoms by, and to carry forward
their designs : these were Plutarch's thoughts upon this
X Dan ii. s. z Ver. 30.
y Ver. 10, II, 27, 28, 30. a Ver. 27.
332 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VI.
subject, when he imagined all the arts of divination from
dreams, prodigies, omens, &c. to be of service [not to the
religious orders, but] to statesmen, in order to their ^ ma-
naging the populace, as the public affairs should require :
and to this use kings and rulers did in these times put all
their power and presidency in the offices of religion, until
they had vitiated and corrupted every part and branch of it.
It is indeed true, that God in the first ages made so many
revelations of his will to particular persons, as might, one
would think, have checked the career of idolatry and super-
stition ; but we do not find, that the rulers of nations were
often willing to allow an order of prophets in their king-
doms to be employed purely to find out and publish to them
the will of Heaven, any further than their political views
might be served by it. When Balak the son of Zippor sent
for Balaam, the employment he had for him was to curse the
Israelites, in order to put life and courage into his people,
whose spirits were sunk by the conquests which Israel had
obtained over the Amorites'^; and we see in him an early
instance what an estimate the heathen kings had formed of
prophets and their inspiration : when Balak thought that
Balaam might have been won to serve his purpose, then he
complimented him, with pretending to believe that he
whom he blessed teas blessed, and he ivhom he cursed was
cursed'^ ; but when Balaam did not answer his expectation,
he paid no regard to him, but dismissed him in anger ; There-
fore now fiee thou to thy place : I thought to promote thee to
great honour; but lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honour^.
Thus their priests or prophets were promoted to very great
honours, if they could serve political views and designs ; but
if they really would not go beyond the commandment of the
Lord, to do either good or bad of their own mind ; but what the
Lord said, that they woidd speak ^ ; then they were neglected,
and anti-prophets, magicians, Chaldseans, or other artificers,
b 'Ovfipara Koi (pafffxara, Koi toiovtov fiiTaaTriaai tovs noWovs. Plutarch, lib.
AWov oyKov S 7ro\(Ti«:o?s /xef av^pd- de Genio Socratis, p. 580.
crt, KOii TTphs avdaZt] Koi aK6\a(nov ux^ov *^ Numb. xxii. 3, 4, 5.
rtvayKafffifvots ^^v, ovk ^XPI"'''''"' ^f<^^ ^ Ver. 6.
fcfTw, liicnrep e/c x^^^'oi' i"^^ SeiffLSatfio- ^ Chap. xxiv. 10, 11.
yias TTphs rh ffuiu.<pepui' afr iffirdcrat kclI ^ Ver. 13.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 333
were opposed to them, to take off all impressions they might
make upon the people, contrary to the public views and in-
terest ; thus the magicians of Egypt were employed against
Moses, when Pharaoh was not willing to part with so great
a number of slaves as the Israelites. And by these means,
religion and the offices of it were much perverted, before the
time that God thought fit to make a change in the priest-
hood, and to have a particular order of men set apart for the
service of the altar ^. In the later ages, the heathen nations
copied after this pattern, and temples were built, and orders
of priests appointed for the service in them in every country ;
and the annual revenues settled, together with the numerous
presents of votaries, raised immense wealth to the religious
orders ; but I do not apprehend that the affairs of kingdoms
were made subject to their arbitrament and disposal, or that
kings and statesmen in the later times of the heathen super-
stitions paid more deference or regard to them, than what
they thought was requisite for the public good.
It has indeed been thought in all ages to be both the duty
and interest of magistrates to establish the worship of a Deity
amongst their people. And it is certainly their duty to do it
as men, who are bound to promote the glory of God; and
there is more sound of words than force of argument in the
pretence of some writers, that the magistrate, as magistrate,
has nothing to do in this matter ; for if it be undeniably
certain, that every man is obliged to promote the glory of
God, it will follow, that the magistrate is not exempted,
but moves in a station of greater influence, and has therefore
ability to perform this, which is a duty universally incum-
bent upon all men, in a more effectual manner. If these
writers would gain their point, they must prove, that the
being a magistrate cancels that duty which the magistrate,
as a man, owes to God, and which is part of his reasonable
service of the Deity ; and which he is indispensably obliged
to perform in the best manner he can, only taking a due
care, that a zeal for his duty does not lead him into unjust
or wicked measures about it : but it is the interest of the
magistrate to establish religion ; for it is the surest way to
S Exodus xxviii. Numbers iii.
334< CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK VI.
obtain the protection of God's providence'*, without which no
wise and prudent writer ever reputed the public affairs of
kingdoms to be in a safe and flourishing condition : and it is
the only, or by far the best way to cultivate those moral
principles of duty amongst a people, without which no com-
munity can be either happy or secure * : thus Tully thought
upon this subject, concluding the happiness of a community
to be founded upon religion, and very judiciously querying
whether \_pietate adversus Deos sublafa] if a general neglect
of religion were introduced, a looseness of principle destruc-
tive of all society would not quickly follow, an evil which if
the magistrate does not prevent, he can do nothing very ef-
fectual to the public welfare. This all the heathen magis-
trates have ever been apprised of; and therefore never were
so wild as to attempt to discharge themselves of the care of
it : their only fault was, that their care of it was too poli-
tical : when they themselves were the ministers of religion,
they set up their fancies instead of religion, as their specu-
lations led them, or their interests directed ; and afterwards,
when they appointed other persons to the ministrations,
they so managed as to have them at their direction for the
same purposes ; as will appear to any one that will fairly ex-
amine this subject.
There should be something said, before I close this book,
about the right which female heirs may be supposed to have
been thought by these ancients to have to crowns and king-
doms. Semiramis was the first queen that we read of in any
nation, and Justin supposes her to have obtained the crown
h I Sam. ii. 30. Tavrd re St; toG av- imperium esse natum et auctum, et
Zpbs liya/xai, koI ert irphs tovtois & fieWeo retentum ? Quam volumus licet, P. C.
\eyeiv, 6ti tov koKSjs olKelffdai ras ttS- ipsi nos amemus, tamen nee numero
\eis alrias vTroKa^wv as BpvWovcri fiiv Hispanos, nee robore Gallos, nee calli-
airai'Tes 01 iroXtriKol, KaracrKevd^ovffi 5' ditate Poenos, nee artibus Grsecos, nee
6\lyor TvpwTTjv fxhv irapa riov 6iS>v evvoi- denique hoc ipso hujus gentis ac terrse
av, ?is irapovaris a.iravra Tois avOpdiwois domestico nativoque sensu Italos ipsos
iir\ ra KpfiTToi (rvficpeperai. Dionys. Ha- ac Latinos, sed pietate ac religione,
liearn. Antiquit. Rom. 1. ii. c. 18. atque liac una sapientia, quod deorum
Diis deabusque immortalibus, quorum immortalium numine omnia regi guber-
ope et auxilio, multo magis hsee res- narique perspeximus, omnes gentes na-
publica, quam ratione hominum et con- tionesque superavimus. Cieero Orat.
silio gubernatur. Cieero Orat. pro C. de Haruspicum Responsis.
Rabirio. Etenim quis est tam vecors, ' Cic. de Nat. Deorum, lib. i. e. 2. et
qui cum deos esse intellexerit, non in al. loc. innum.
intelligat eorum Numine hoe tantum
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 335
by a deceit upon her people, by her being mistaken for her
son Ninyas ^ : but Diodorus gives a much better and more
probable account of her advancement; he says, that Ninus
appointed her to be queen at his deaths It is indeed true,
that the original constitutions of some kingdoms, if they
were founded upon the maxims which I have supposed, do
not seem to admit of any female governors : thus in Egypt
they did not think of having queens at the forming their
first settlement ; and for that reason, in order to make a way
for them, there was a law made when Binothris was king of
This% i.e. about A.M. 2232, that they should not be ex-
cluded. In nations, where civil government began from
despotic authority, queens may be supposed to have suc-
ceeded naturally upon defect of male heirs; and they have
been commonly excluded in elective kingdoms. Two things
are remarkable : i . That in the ancient times, whenever
queens reigned, they presided in religion, and were priest-
esses to their people, as kings were priests ; and thus Dido in
Virgil" made the libation at the entertainment of ^neas and
his companions, as the kings of Greece in Homer did upon
like occasions. 2. The divine Providence has generally dis-
tinguished the reigns of queens with uncommon glory to.
themselves and happiness to their people, of which both our
own and the history of other nations afibrd almost as many
instances as there have been queens upon their thrones.
k Justin, lib. i. c. 2. mSyncellus, p. 54.
1 Diodor. Sic. lib. ii. §. 7. n ^Eneid. i. ver. 740.
THE
SACRED AND PEOFANE
HISTOKY OF THE WOULD
CONNECTED.
BOOK VII.
T SAAC, after Abraham was buried, continued to live where
-■- his father left him : Kebekah for some years had no chil-
dren : about twenty years after her marriage with Isaac,
A. M. 2168, she had two sons, Esau and Jacob'^. The two
children grew up to men ; were of a very diiFerent genius
and temper ; Jacob was very studious, and much versed in
religious contemplations ; Esau had but little thought or care
about them. Jacob, iipon seeing Esau in some absence of his
father officiate at the sacrifice, was very desirous to obtain
himself an employment which he thought so honourable ;
Esau on the other hand had no value at all for it; and so
they bargained together, and, for a small refreshment, Esau
sold Jacob all his right and title to it^. Esau is for this ac-
count called t\ie:profane Esau*^, because he despised his birth-
right, by parting with it for a trifling consideration. Some
writers imagine that the birthright which Esau here sold
a Gen. XXV. 24. Isaac was forty born. ver. 26.
years old when he married, and he b Gen. xxv. 33.
was sixty when Jacob and Esau were c Heb. xii. 16.
VOL. I. Z
338 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
was his right to be the heir of his father's substance : if this
were true, and he sold that only, he might indeed be called
a foolish and inconsiderate person to make so unwise a bargain ;
but why profane ? It is evident, that this could not be the
fact; for when Isaac died, and Esau came from mount Seir,
where he lived*', to join with Jacob in assisting at his father''s
funeral ; at his going away from his brother, he carried with
him not only his wives, and his sons, and his daughters,
and his cattle, and all his beasts ; but, besides all these, all
his substance which he had got in the land of Canaan^ : Esau
had no substance in the land of Canaan of his own getting ;
for he lived at Seir, in the land of Edom, beyond the bor-
ders of Canaan ; the substance therefore, which was gotten in
the land of Canaan, must be the substance which Isaac died
possessed of, and which as heir Esau took along with him ; so
that after his birthright was sold he was still heir to his
father's substance, and as heir had it delivered to him, and
therefore his right to this was not what Jacob had bought
of him. Others think, that the birthright was the blessing
promised to the seed of Abraham ; and the words of the
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews seem very much to favour
this opinion : ^ Lest there he any fornicator^ or 'profane person^
as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright : for
ye know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited
the blessing, he was rejected ; for he found noplace of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears. In these words, the
not inheriting the blessing seems to be connected with his
having sold his birthright, as if, having parted with the one,
he could not possibly obtain the other : but I am in great
doubt whether this be the true meaning of these words.
Esau himself, when he had sold his birthright, did not ima-
gine that he had sold his right to the blessing along with it ;
for when his father told him that his brother had come with
subtilty and taken away his blessing ^, Esau answered, Is he
not rightly named Jacob ? for he hath supplanted me these two
times : he took away my birthright ; and, behold, now he hath
d Gen. xxxii. 3. f Hebrews xii. 16, 17.
e Gen. xxxvi. 6. S Gen. xxvii. 35, 36.
AND PROFAXE HISTORY. 339
taken away my blessing : if Esau had apprehended the bless-
ing and the birthright to have been inseparable, having sold
the one, he would not have expected or pretended to the
other ; but he makes the getting from him the blessing a se-
cond hardship put upon him, distinct from, and independent
of, the former. St. Paul, I think, represents the case of Esau
in the loss of the blessing in the same manner ^ ; he does not
suppose it owing to any thing that Esau had done\ but repre-
sents it as a design of God, determined before Jacob and Esau
were born ^ ; and a design determined purely by the good
will and pleasure of God, without any view to, or regard of,
any thing that Jacob or Esau should do K God made the
promise at first to Abraham, not to Lot, and afterwards de-
termined that Abraham's seed should be called in Isaac, not
in Ishmael ; and in the next generation, in Jacob, not in
Esau; and afterwards he divided the blessing amongst the
sons of Jacob. The Messiah was to be boi-n of Judah, and
each of them in their posterity had a share of the land of
Canaan. The author of the Book of Ecclesiasticus sets this
matter in the clearest light, by distinguishing the blessing
into two parts ; one he calls the blessing of all men, alluding
to the promise made to Abraham, that in his seed all the na-
tions of the earth should be blessed ; the other he calls the cove-
nant^ intimating hereby the covenant made with him about
the land of Canaan; and both these parts of the blessing
were given to Isaac, for Abraham's sake : With Isaac did he
establish likewise, for Abraham his father'' s sake, the blessing of
all men, and the covenant^^, and he made it rest upon the head
of Jacob. He gave the whole blessing entire to Jacob also,
but afterwards amongst the twelve tribes did he part them ".
When the blessing came to descend to Jacob's children, it did
not go entire according to birthright, nor to any one person
who had deserved it better than all the rest ; but as God at
h Rom. ix. blessing,] he parted them amongst the
i Ver. 1 1 . twelve tribes. Abraham is represented
k Ibid. in Gen. xii. to have received only
1 Ibid. a promise of the blessing of all men ,•
m Ecclesiasticus xliv. 22, 23. but God is said to make a covenant
n The words are, Siea-reiKe /xtpiSas with him to give him Canaan, Gen.
avTov, 4v (pvKais i/x^piaev SfKaSvo. i.e. xv. 18.
He separated the parts of it, [i. e. of the
z2
340 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VU.
first made the promise and covenant to Abraham, not to Lot,
and gave the title to it afterwards to Isaac, not to Ishmael,
then to Jacob, not to Esau ; so in the next generation he con-
veyed it entire to no one single person, but divided it, and
gave the blessing of all men to Judah, who was Jacob's fourth
son, and parted the covenant about Canaan amongst all of
them, giving to Joseph, in his two sons, Ephraim and Manas-
seh, two parts of it.
There is a passage in the Book of Chronicles which may
seem to contradict the account I am endeavouring to give of
Jacob's or Esau's birthright. The sons of Heuben the firstborn
of Israel ; for he was (says the historian) the firstborn ; but, for-
asmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given
unto the sons of Joseph : and the genealogy is not to be reckoned
after the birthright; for Judah prevailed above his brethren, and
of him came the chief ruler ; but the birthright was Joseph'' s°.
In this passage the inspired writer may be thought to hint
that there was a birthright to be observed in the division of
Canaan ; and that, when God ordered the blessing to be
parted, he had a respect to such birthright in the division of
it ; though he did not think fit to give it to a person who
by his demerits had forfeited it : and it may be asked, if
Jacob's children had a birthright in this matter, why should
we suppose that Isaac's had not ? To this I answer : the pas-
sage I have mentioned does not in the least refer to any
birthright which was esteemed to be such in the days of
Jacob and Esau. For, i. If the inheritance of the father's
estate was at that time part of the birthright, yet it is evident
that it was not so in the proportion here mentioned : for not
a double portion only did peculiarly belong to the eldest son
in these times, but the whole. Thus Abraham, gave all
that he had unto Isaac ; but unto the children which he had
by Keturah, his second wife, he gave gifts, and sent them away
eastward, while he yet lived, from Isaac his son. If, therefore,
the inheritance of Canaan had been given according to the
birthright in these days, one of Jacob's sons should have had
the whole, and all the rest have been sent to live in some
o I Chron. v. i, 2.
ANl) PROFANE HISTORY. 341
other country. 2. The right of the firstborn was settled
upon another foot by the law of Moses : the priesthood was
separated from it, and settled upon the tribe of Levi, and a
double portion of the father's estate and substance declared
to belong toP the firstborn. 3. Esau, when he sold his birth-
right, did not sell his right of inheriting his father's sub-
stance, for he had that inheritance at his father's death.
4. Jacob had prophesied "i, that Joseph should have one por-
tion of the land of Canaan above his brethren, but does not
any where hint any one of his sons to have a birthright to
any one part of it more than the rest ; nor can we say, but
that as the whole blessing was made to rest upon the head
of Jacob, without Esau's having any part of it, so it might
likewise have descended to any one of Jacob's sons ; and it
could have descended to but one of them, if it had been a
birthright, and had not by the good will and pleasure of
God been designed to be parted amongst the twelve tribes,
to every one such a portion of it as God was pleased to ap-
point, and that part of it which contained the blessing of all
men to Judah only. For these reasons I conclude, 5. That
the author of the Book of Chronicles, writing after that the
law of Moses had altered the priesthood, and appointed two
portions of the inheritance to the eledst son, remarks Joseph
to have had the birthright given to him, meaning to refer
to what was then called the bu'thright, but not to what was
the birthright in Jacob and Esau's days, which was long
prior to, and very different from, this establishment.
The Jews, at the time that the Apostles preached the
Gospel, seem to have been of opinion, that the whole body of
their nation had a birthright and unalienable title to the bless-
ings of the Messiah : this was the hope of the promise made of
God unto their fathers ; unto which promise their twelve tribes,
instantly serving God day and night, hoped to come^. After
the blessing, which had been made to rest upon the head of
Jacob, had been parted amongst the tAvelve tribes, they appre-
hended that this was to be the last distribution of it, and that
P Exod. xxviii. Numb. iii. 6 — 12. 1 Gen. xlviii. 22.
Deut. xxi. 17. r Acts xxvi. 7.
342 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
the whole Jewish nation, or twelve tribes jointly as a people,
were to enjoy the blessing for ever : but St. Paul endeavours
in several places to correct this mistake, and argues very
clearly, that the blessing was never appointed to descend
according to birthright or inheritance ; for that, not the
children of the flesh, but the children of the promise, are to be
counted for the seed of Abraham, who have a title to it ; i. e.
not those who by natural descent may seem to have a right,
but those to whom God by special design and promise had
directed it «. And this he proves by instance from Jacob and
Esau, that, when Rebekah had conceived them, before the
children were born, or had done good or evil, that it might not
be said to be owing to any thing they had done, but to the
mere determination of God"'s good will and pleasure, it was
said unto her, That the elder should serve the younger^ : thus
Esau was the son, who by descent might seem to have the
right, but Jacob had it by promise. In the same manner,
when Christ the promised seed of Abraham was come, the
twelve tribes thought themselves to be heirs of the blessings
to be received from him ; but in this they erred, not rightly
understanding the promise. He was to be the blessing of all
men, or, according to the words of the promise, in him all
the families of the earth^, or all the nations of the earth, were
to be blessed^. And in order to this, God had determined to
call them his people which were not his people, and her beloved
lohich teas not beloved Y, and to receive the Gentiles into the
blessings of the promise. Nor could the Jews justly say,
because the greatest part of their nation was rejected, that
therefore the promise to Abraham was broken, or had taken
none effect : for they are not all Israel which are of Israel,
neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all
children^; but as Esau received not the blessing, though he
was the son of Isaac, so the Jews who fell short through un-
belief were rejected, and yet the promise was made good to
the sons of Abraham, because a remnant was received*, and
some of them with the Gentiles made partakers of it ; God
s Rom. ix. 8. X Gen. xxii. i8. xxvi. 4.
t Rom. ix. 12. y Rom. ix. 25.
u Gen. xii. 3. xviii. 18. ^ Ver. 6, 7. a Ver. 27.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 343
having not promised that all Abraham's sons should be his
children, but only such of them as he should think fit to
choose. I think, if the whole of what I have offered be duly
considered, it will appear that the blessing never was annexed
to the birthright at all, nor did it ever descend as the birth-
right did ; but was always disposed of, either in the whole
or in part, just as it pleased God to think fit to dispose of it
of his own good will and pleasure. Esau by being eldest
son had the birthright, but he never had any title to the
blessing ; for before he was born, God was pleased to declare
that it should belong to Jacob b; and therefore Esau in
selling his birthright does not seem to have parted with any
right to the blessing, for they were two different and distinct
things. Esau's birthright therefore must be his right of
being priest or sacrificer for his brethren; and he is justly
termed profane for selling it, because he hereby shewed
himself not to have a due value and esteem for a religious
employment which belonged to him.
There was a famine about this time in the land of Canaan,
where Isaac sojourned, and he removed on account of it, as
his father had done, and went into the land of the Phi-
listines, and lived at Gerar ". Here he denied his wife, pre-
tending her to be his sister, as Abraham did formerly; but
the king of the country accidentally seeing some familiarities
pass between them, sharply reproved him ; apprised his sub-
jects that she was his wife, and declared that he would
punish any man with death that should offer violence to
either of them. Isaac continued for some years in the land
of the Philistines, sowing some fields, and reaping prodigious
crops from his tillage. He was very prosperous in all his
undertakings, and increased his stock, and grew very great,
until the Philistines envied him, and endeavoured to quarrel
with him, and applied to the king to have him banished
their land. Abimelech hereupon ordered Isaac to go from
them ; for, said he, thou art much mightier than we : Abi-
melech could not mean by these words, that Isaac was
b Gen. XXV. 23. Rom. ix. 11, 12. c Gen. xxvi. ^ Gen. xxvi. 16.
344 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
really more potent than the whole Philistian people ; for we
cannot imagine that possible : he might have as large a
family and as numerous an attendance as the king of Phi-
listia himself had, and might therefore, if he had a mind, have
been able to disturb his government. But the words of
Abimelech above mentioned do not suggest even this to us ;
for our English translation of this passage is very faulty ; the
Hebrew words are cignatzampta mimmennu, not because thou
art migJitier than we, but hecause thou art increased or multi-
plied from or by us; thou hast got a great deal from us, or by
us, and we do not care to let thee get any more. The case
was, not that the Philistines feared him, but they envied
him ^ ; they grudged that he should get so much amongst
them, and were therefore desirous to check him. Abimelech
ordered Isaac to leave Gerar, upon which he departed, and
pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there f.
After Isaac was removed from Gerar, the Philistines thought
him too well accommodated whilst he lived in the valley,
and their envy and malice still pursued him. The herdsmen
of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac's herdsmen, took away their
wells, and put them to many inconveniences ; so that Isaac,
quite tired with their repeated insults, removed farther from
them, and went and lived in the most remote part of their
country towards Egypt, at Beersheba^ : here he hoped to
find a place of peace and quiet. He built an altar, and im-
plored the divine favour and protection, and had the comfort
to be assured that he and his should be defended from all
future evils : and soon after he was settled here, Abimelech,
sensible of the ill usage he had met with from his people,
and reflecting upon the extraordinary manner in which God
had blessed him, and considering that perhaps in time he
might revenge the injuries they had done him, came Avith
his officers, and made an alliance with him''. Esau was
about forty years old, and had married two Hittite women,
very much to the affliction of his parents \ The Hittites
bordered upon the Philistines near to Gerar, so that Esau
e Gen. xxvi. 14. 1> Ver. 26—30.
fVer, 17. i Ver. 34, 35-
g Ver. 23.
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 345
most probably married whilst his father sojourned there.
Esau was forty years old, A. M. 2208, and therefore about
that time Isaac lived at Gerar.
About nineteen years after this died Syphis, the first of
that name, a very famous king of Egypt. He was the tenth
king of Memphis, after Melies or Mizraim, according to
sir John Marsham's tables, who supposes him to begin his
reign about two hundred and twenty-two years after the
death of Mizraim, who died, according to what I have for-
merly offered, A.M. 1943*^, and therefore Syphis began his
reign A. M. 2164. Syphis, according to sir John Marsham
from Manetho, reigned sixty-three years, and therefore died
A. M. 2227, and upon this computation I have supposed
Syphis to begin his reign about eighty years after Abraham's
coming into Egypt, and to die above forty years after Abra-
ham i; for Abraham came into Egypt A.M. 2085 or 2086™,
and died A.M. 2183°. Syphis was the first of the Egyp-
tians who speculated upon religious subjects". According to
Damascenus in Eusebius, Abraham and the Egyptian priests
had many disputes and conferences about religion p. It may
be asked, what disputes could they have upon this subject, if
the Egyptians were not at this time become idolaters, as
I apprehend they were noti? To this I answer, the re-
ligion of Abraham, as it differed from that of Noah and his
descendants in some points, which depended upon special
revelations made to Abraham, must lay a foundation for his
having conferences and disputes with the professors of re-
ligion in all countries into which he travelled. They knew
nothing of the promise made to him, that in his seed all the
nations of the eai'th should he blessed^ nor were they apprised,
that they ought to worship him whom Abraham worshipped,
namely, the Lord, who appeared to him ^ ; and agreeably
hereto we find an expression in the accounts we have of the
worship of Abraham and his descendants, which we do not
meet with any where in the worship of Lot, of Job, or of
^ Vol. i. b. iv. o Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 54.
1 Vol. i. b. V. P Euseb. Praep. Evang. 1. ix. c. 17.
m Vol. i. b. V. p. 165. 1 See vol. i. b. v.
n See book vi. r Gen. xii. 7.
346 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VII.
any other person, who had not received those revelations,
which had been made to Abraham and to his children.
Jikra he sJiem Jehovah, not called upon the name of the Lord,
as we falsely translate the place % but invoked^ i. e. God, in
the name of the Lord, whom he worshipped, and who ap-
peared to him. And this person I take to be the God whom
Jacob prayed to^ and whom he resolved to worship, when
he vowed that the Lord should be his God; by which ex-
pression may be meant, not that the true God should be his
God in opposition to false gods, for that had been no very
remarkable resolution : no wise man ever worshipping false
gods that really knows them to be such; but the Lord,
ivho appeared to Abraham, was to be his God, in distinction
from those who worshipped the true God of heaven^ without
any notion of this Lord at all. In the same manner we find
that this person was worshipped by Isaac, and he is some-
times called the fear of Lsaac, and sometimes the God of Abra-
ham and God of Isaac^ ; and Isaac invoked God as Abraham
did, in the name o/this Lord^. The several expressions de-
noting the worship which different persons paid the Deity
are very remarkable in the Old Testament. Many persons
are said kara Jehovah, to invoke God, or kara el Jehovah, to
cry unto God ; or their worship is described in expressions of
much the same import ; but kara be shem Jehovah y is never
used in a religious sense but of Abraham and his descend-
ants, who invoked in the name of the true Mediator. This
was the difference between their religion and that of the
rest of mankind. Other nations, before idolatry was in-
troduced, worshipped the true God, but not be shem Jehovah,
in the name of the Lord, who had appeared to Abraham. And
this I take to be the point which Abraham disputed with
the Egyptian priests, whether God was to be worshipped
as they worshipped him, or whether he was to be invoked
in the name of Abraham's God and Lord. Damascenus
s Gen. xii. 8. as rendered in our used Gen. iv. but fi-om the persons
English version. there spoken of being called by the
t Gen. xxviii. 21. name of the sons of God, Gen. vi. I
u Gen. xxxi. 42, 53. et in al. loc. imagine the words in that place to sig-
X Gen. xxvi. 25. nify to call by the name- See vol. i. b. i.
y The expression kara be shem is
AND PEOFANE HISTORY. 347
remarks % that the Egyptians admired Abraham as a very
great genius, able to convince and persuade men into his
opinions ; and we find from Scripture that the eminence
both of Abraham and his descendants made great impressions
upon all nations they conversed with. The king of Salem
acknowledged Abraham to be an eminent servant of the
most high God*; Abimelech was convinced that God was
with him in all he did''. And the same confession was made
of Isaac in the same country c ; and Abraham's conversation
raised him a great character and reputation in Egypt; for
after he was gone from thence, the Egyptians copied after
him in the point of circumcision, and introduced human
sacrifices, and imitated many rites which they heard that he
practised in his religion ; but it does not appear that he
entirely persuaded them to acknowledge his God to be their
God. Syphis, a king of the next adjacent country to that
in which Abraham had sojourned, in a little time turned their
thoughts quite another way : he took up the subjects which
Abraham had been famous for, and wrote a book about re-
ligion, which carried away his own people and the neigh-
bouring nations into idolatry*^. And probably he did not
oppose the doctrine of Abraham, that God was to be in-
voked in the name of a mediator, but he set up false me-
diators instead of the true one. For I conclude from the
manner of the worshipping Baal in Elijah's time ^, that men
did not at first wander away from the true God, but they
set up lords man^, or false mediators, in whose names they
worshipped; and in time they went further, and lost all
notion of the true God. Syphis, instead of teaching to in-
voke God in the name of the Lord, who appeared to Abra-
ham, set up the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, and
taught the Egyptians to invoke in their names ; so that
they had not one God and one Lord^ which was the ancient
true religion, but one God and lords many, and in time they
had gods many too. Baal was a false lord of this sort, and
z Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. ix. c. 17. ^ Gen. xxvi. 28.
a Gen. xiv. 19. "> Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 54.
b Gen. xxi. 22. e i Kings xviii.
348 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
the worshippers of Baal invoked in his name. Elijah called
upon the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel \ invoking
God in or by his name ^. The worshippers of Baal, in op-
position to him, invoked in the name of Baal, \jikreau be
shem ha Baal,] they called or invoked, not upon the name, for
the words are not to be so translated, but by or in the name
of Baal. If Syphis was the builder of the largest Egyptian
pyramid, which, according to the best accounts we have of
it, is so large at the bottom as to cover above eleven acres of
ground, and five hundred feet high, and Manetho expressly
says that he built it^; he must have been a prince of great
figure in the age he lived in; and no wonder if his own
and the neighbour nations embraced his religious insti-
tutions.
About the times of this Syphis, or rather something later,
lived Job the Arabian: the LXX. in their translation say
that he lived in all 240 or 248 years' : if he did really live
so long, we ought to suppose him earlier than Syphis;
nay, much earlier than Abraham, for the lives of mankind
were so much shortened ere the days of Abraham, that
though he lived but 175 years ^, yet he is said to have died in
a good old age, an old man, and full of years ^ Peleg, who
was five generations before Abraham, lived 239 years'".
Eeu the son of Peleg lived as many". Serug the son of Reu
lived 230°; but the lives of their descendants were not so
long: Nahor the grandfather of Abraham lived but 148
years P. Terah, Abraham's father, lived 205''. Abraham
lived 175, Isaac lived 180'", and the hves of their children
were shorter: if therefore Job lived 240 or 248 years, he
must have been cotemporary with Peleg, Eeu, or Serug ; for
men's lives were not extended to so great a length after their
days. The LXX. have some remarkable additions to the
Book of Job, which are not found in the Hebrew, Chaldee,
f I Kings xviii. 36. »" Gen. xi. 18, 19.
g Ver. 24. and 32. " Ver. 20, 21.
h Euseb. Chron. Log. irpajT. p. 14. o Ver. 22, 23.
i See cap. ult. Lib. Job. Vers. LXX. P Ver. 24, 25.
ver. 16. 1 Ver. 32.
k Gen. xxv. 7. ' Gen. xxxv. 28.
1 Ver. 8.
ANB PROFANE HISTORY. 349
Syriac, or Arabic copies, and this account of the length of
Job's life is one of them ; but this is in no wise reconcil-
able with what follows, and is said to have been translated
from the Syriac version, namely, that Job's original name
was Jobab ; that his father's name was Zare, of the children
of Esau ; that he was the fifth in descent from Abraham ;
that he was the second king of Edom, next after Bela the
son of Beor : this account will place Job even later than
Moses ; for Bela the first king of Edoni was Moses's cotem-
porary, and if we place him thus late, he could not live 240
years: men lived in Moses's time abovit 130. But this ac-
count is not consistent with itself ; for if Job was the fifth in
descent from Abraham, he must be prior to Moses, Moses
being seven descents later than Abraham ^ : these additions,
which we now find in the last chapter of the LXX. version
of the Book of Job, will therefore so ill bear a strict exami-
nation, that I cannot think the translators themselves did at
first put them there ; but rather that they were the work of
some later hand, added by some transcriber, who thought
Jobab (mentioned Gen. xxxvi. 33.) and Job to be the same
person. There are some circumstances in the history of Job
which may lead us to guess pretty well at the times he lived
in. 1. He lived above ]8o years, for he lived 140 years after
his afflictions*, and he must be more than 40 at the beginning
of them ; for he had seven sons and three daughters, and all
his children seem to have been grown up before the begin-
ing of his misfortunes " ; he could not therefore but live to
be near 200 years old. 2. The idolatry practised in the coun-
tries he lived in, in his days, was the worship of the host of
heaven''. 3. The presents usual in Job's days were earrings
of gold and pieces of money called JceshitahY. Now from
these circumstances it seems most probable, 1. That he could
not be much later than the times of Isaac, for if he had, his
life would not have been so long as it appears to have been.
2. He must have been something younger than Syphis, for
s Moses was in the third generation t Job xlii. 16.
from Levi, i Chron. vi. i, 2, 3. Levi u Job i. 2 — 4.
was son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of '^ Job xxxi. 26, 27.
Abraham. y Job xlii. 11.
350 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
Syphis first 2^ instituted the worship of the host of heaven in
Egypt, which idolatry spread thence into and began to
flourish in Arabia in Job's time. 3. Earrings of gold were
in Abraham's days ^, and they were part of the women's
dress in the days of Jacob ^ ; but the piece of money called
keshitah seems not to have been in use until after Abraham :
when Abraham bought the field of Ephron, he paid the
price in silver, not by number of pieces, but by weight <^;
but when Jacob bought a parcel of a field of the children
of Hamor, he paid for it not by weight, but he gave an
hundred keshitahs ^, or pieces of money, for it ; so that the
keshitah, or piece of money, which Job's friends gave him,
was not in use in Abraham's time, but was in use in Jacob's,
and therefore Job was not so ancient as Abraham, though
the length of his life will not permit us to suppose him
altogether so young as Jacob. Job's friends who visited
him were Eliphaz ha -Temani, perhaps the son of Tema ;
now Tema was the son of Ishmael ^ ; and Bildad ha-Shuachi,
i. e. the son of Shuach ; now Shuach was son of Abraham by
Keturah^ ; and Zophar ha-Naamathi ; and Elihu the son of
Barachel ha-Buzi conversed with them 8^; now Buz was the
son of Nahor, Abraham's brother^ ; Barachel might be his
son or grandson, and Elihu his son be cotemporary with
Isaac, for Nahor being born when his father Terah was little
more than 70, must have been above 50 years older than
Abraham ; and agreeably hereto Abraham's son Isaac married
Nahor's granddaughter*. And thus all the persons con-
versant with Job may reasonably be supposed to have lived
about Isaac's time, and therefore we need not upon account
of their names place Job later. There are some learned
writers that are very positive that Job lived about the time
of Moses ; Grotius was of this opinion ; others place him a
generation later than Esau, imagining Eliphaz the Temanite,
who was one of his friends, to have been Eliphaz the son of
z See vol. i. book v. e Gen. xxv. 15.
^ Gen. xxiv. 22. f Ver. 2.
b Gen. XXXV. 4. S Job xxxii. 2.
c Gen. xxiii. 16. li Gen. xxii. 21.
<i Gen. xxxiii. 19. i Gen. xxiv. 24.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 351
Esau and father of Teman ; but I should think the length
of Job's life to be an unanswerable objection against sup-
posing him to be thus late. Job lived in the land of Uz ^ :
according to the prophet Jeremiah this country was adjacent
to the land of Edom' : the Sabaeans robbed Job'", and the
Sabaeans lived at the entrance of Arabia Felix". The Chal-
daeans also made three bands, and fell upon his camels, and
carried them away " : the Chaldaeans were at first a wander-
ing people, inhabitants of the wilderness, until Ashur built
them a city P ; then they lived at Ur in Mesopotamia, for they
expelled Abraham their land^ ; but it is most probable, that,
like the ancient Scythians, they wandered often from their
country in bands for the sake of robbing, many generations
after their first settlement, this being no unusual practice in
the early times, and three companies of them, might make
an expedition, and fall upon Job's cattle ; so that we need
not suppose Job to live very near to Ur of the Chaldees,
though he was robbed by these men. If we suppose his land
to be adjacent to Edom, as Jeremiah hints it, he was nigh
enough to both Sabseans and Chaldaeans to suffer from each of
them. Some writers have imagined, that there never was any
such person as Job, and that his history is only an instructive
fable ; but nothing can be more wild than this opinion,
which has no colour of argument to support it. The pro-
phet Ezekiel supposes Job to have been as real a person
as either Noah or Daniel i^, and St. James mentions him as
having been a true example of patience s. We may at this
rate raise doubts of any ancient fact and history.
About the hundredth year of Isaac's life there happened
a very remarkable accident in his family ; Isaac and Re-
bekah seem to have had a very different opinion concerning
their two sons Jacob and Esau : Isaac was a very good
man ; but he did not form a true judgment of his children :
he was remarkably fond of Esau, more than he was of
k Job i. I. P Isaiah xxiii. 13.
1 Lam. iv. 21. q Juditli v. 8.
m Job i. 15. r Ezek. xiv. 14 — 16.
n See vol. i. b. iii. s James v. 1 1 .
o Job i. 17.
352 CONNECTIOX OF THE SACRED [bOOK Vlt.
Jacob *■ ; but his affection was but poorly grounded, he loved
Esau hecause he did eat of his venison; hut Rehekah loved
Jacob ; and it is remarkable, that, before she placed her affec-
tion upon either of them, she inquired of God concerning
them, and received for answer, that the younger should be
distinguished by the blessings of heaven"; this she treasured
up in her mind, and her opinion of them was according to it.
From the time that God made the covenant with Abraham
and promised the extraordinary blessings to his seed, which
have been before mentioned, it was requisite for the father
of each family some time before he died to call together his
children, and to inform them, according to the knowledge
which it pleased God to give him, how and in what manner
the blessing of Abraham was to descend amongst them.
Abraham had no occasion to do this ; for God having deter-
mined and declared that in Isaac his seed should be called^,
none of Abraham's other children could have any pretence
to'^expect the particular blessings which God had promised
to the seed of Abraham. Isaac had two sons, and either of
these might be designed by God to be the heir of the pro-
mise, Isaac being now in the decline of life ; he was old, and
his eyes toere dim that he could not see, and, not knowing how
soon he might be taken from them, was willing to deter-
mine this point by blessing them before he died^. If we
compare" this place with that where Jacob afterwards called
his children together, we may observe a remarkable dif-
ference between them: Jacob called his sons, and said,
Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befall
you in the last days, or rather it should be translated, in the
times to come, or in the days of your posterity''- . God had given
Jacob a prophetic view of his intended dispensations to his
descendants and their children, and he called his sons to-
gether to relate to them what God had thus revealed to
him : but Isaac in the place before us seems to have called
Esau, without having received any particular revelation about
him ; nay, it is evident he had received none ; for he de-
t Gen. XXV. 27, 28. y Gen. xxvii. 1.
1 Ver. 23. z Gen. xlix i.
X Gen. xvii. 19 — 21.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 853
designed to tell him, what God never intended should belong
to him. Isaac called Esau, and not Jacob, because he loved
him more than he loved Jacob ; and he loved him more,
because Esau gat him venison ; but Jacob's course of life lay
another way : Kebekah saw the low springs of her hus-
band's affection to his children, and that he was going to
promise the blessing of Abraham where his affection led him
to wish it, and not where, by having made inquiry, she knew
that God designed to bestow it: hereupon she resolved, if
possible, to prevent him^, and therefore sent for Jacob, and
proposed to him a scheme for his obtaining the blessing
which his father designed to give to Esau. Jacob was
at first in great perplexity about it ; was afraid his father
should find out the deceit, and, instead of blessing him, be
provoked to curse him for endeavouring to impose upon
him; but Rebekah was so well assured that God designed
to bless Jacob, and that her whole crime in this attempt
was only an endeavour to deceive Isaac into an action
which he ought to have duly informed himself of, and to
have done designedly, that she took the curse wholly upon
herself, and persuaded Jacob to come into her measures.
One thing is remarkable, that, when the artifice had suc-
ceeded, and Jacob was blessed, Isaac let it go, nay, he con-
firmed the blessing, Yea, says he, and he shall he blessed.
We do not find that he was either displeased with his wife
or angry with Jacob for imposing upon him ; but though
he had before appeared full of fears and cares lest Esau
should be defeated^, yet now he expressed himself fully
satisfied with what he had done. I cannot but think that
it pleased God at this time to open his understanding, and
to convince him that he had given the blessing to the right
person. Before this time he said nothing but what any
uninspired person might have said ^ : he wished his son of
the deio of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of
corn and wine, adding such other circumstances of prosperity
as his affection dictated ; but saying nothing that can in-
timate him to have had any particular view of any thing
a Gen. xxvii. t> Ver. i8, 21, 24. •= Ver. 27 — 29.
VOL. I. A a
354 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
that was to happen to him : but now he began to speak
with a better sense of things, he still wished Esau all possible
happiness, the fatness of the earth and the dew of heaven^; but
he knew that the particular blessings promised to Abraham
and his seed did not belong to him ; he could now enter
into his future life, and tell the circumstances of his pos-
terity and relate to him what should happen in after-days ;
describe how he and his descendants should live ; acquaint
him, that his hrother'^s children should indeed be their go-
vernors ; but that there should come a time, when his chil-
dren should get the dominion, and break his brother's yoke
from off their necks <^; a particular accomplished not until
almost nine hundred years after this prediction of it ; for
this prophecy was fulfilled when the land of Edom, peopled
by the children of Esau, who had been brought into sub-
jection to the seed of Jacob by king David f, revolted in
the days of JehoramS, and set up a king of their own,
and brake the yoke of Jacob off their neck, being never
after that time any more subject to any of the kings of
Judah^.
Esau was exceedingly provoked at his brother's thus ob-
taining the blessing from him, and determined, as soon as
his father should be dead, to kill him'. Rebekah heard of
his intentions, and thought the most likely way to prevent
mischief would be to send Jacob out of the way. She
applied herself therefore to Isaac, mentioned to him the
misfortune of Esau's marriages, and the comfort they might
have of Jacob, if he would take care to dispose of himself
better ; so that Isaac sent for Jacob, and charged him not to
take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, but ordered him to
go into Mesopotamia, and enquire for the family of Bethuel,
his mother's father, and get one of Laban's daughters for a
wife, and that if he did so, God would certainly bless him ^,
and give him the blessing of Abraham, and the land of
d Gen. xxvii. 39. p. 6. ed. 1718.
e Ver. 40. i Gen. xxvii. 41.
' 2 Sam. viii. 14. k Gen. xxviii. the Hebrew words,
& 2 Kings viii. 20 — 22. ver. 3. are, God Almighty will bless
h See Archbishop Usher's Annals, thee, &c.
an. 885. Prideaux, Connect, vol. i.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 355
Canaan to his posterity. Jacob did as his father had directed
him, and set out for Mesopotamia : he was at first a little cast
down at the length of the way, and the hazard of success in
his journey, and when at night he went to sleep, with a
head and heart full of cares, the God of Abraham and of
Isaac^ appeared to him in a dream, and assured him, that he
would preserve and protect him in his journey, and bring
him safe back into Canaan again ; that he would make him
happy in a numerous progeny, and in time multiply them
exceedingly, and give them the land for an inheritance
which he had promised to Abraham : and moreover, that in
him, i. e. in his seed, all the families of the earth should he
blessed : and thus at this time God expressly promised to him
that particular blessing of Abraham, with the covenanted
mercies that belonged to it, which Isaac had before given
him reason to hope for. Jacob was surprised at this extra-
ordinary vision, and took the stones upon which he had laid
his head, and reared them up into a pillar, and poured oil
upon the top of it, and made a vow, that if the God that
thus appeared to him should bless and preserve him, protect
him in his journey, and bring him back in safety, that then
the Lord should he his God "\ and that he would worship him
in the place where he had now erected the pillar, and that
he would dedicate to his service the tenth of all the sub-
stance he should have.
Jacob pursued his journey, and came to Haran in Mesopo-
tamia, and found Laban and his relations, and was received
by them with great joy and welcome"; but as he was not
the only son of his father, nor the elder son ; not the heir of
his father's substance; so he did not pretend to expect a
wife in so pompous a way as his father had formerly °.
Laban had two daughters, Leah and Rachel : Jacob fancied
the younger, and proposed to his uncle Laban, that he
would stay with him seven years as his servant to take care
of his flocks, if he would give him Rachel to wife : Laban
agreed to his proposal, but at the end of the seven years
1 Gen. xxviii. 13. " Gen. xxix.
m Ver. 21. See above, p. 346, 347. « Gen. xxiv.
A a 2
356 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [UOOK VII.
deceived him, and married him not to Rachel, but to Leah :
Jacob expressing some dissatisfaction at it, Laban told him,
that he could not break through the custom of their coun-
try, to marry his younger daughter before his elder ; but
that, if he desired it, he would give him Rachel too, and he
should serve him seven years more for her, after he had
married her : Jacob agreed to this, and when the week
was over for the celebration of Leah's nuptials, he married
Rachel, and continued with Laban, and kept his flocks seven
years more. At the expiration of these seven years, Jacob
had a family of twelve children ; he had six sons and a
daughter by Leah p : two sons by Zilpah, Leah's maid i ; a
son by Rachel'; and two sons by Bilhah, Rachel's maid^..
He began to think it time to get into a way of making some
provision for them, and therefore desired Laban to dismiss
him, and to let him return to his father with his wives and
children *. Laban had found by experience that his sub-
stance prospered under Jacob's care ; and was loth to part
with him, and therefore agreed with him to stay upon such
terms" that Jacob in a few years grew rich under him, and
was master of very considerable flocks of his own. Laban
by degrees grew uneasy at seeing him increase so fast; so
that Jacob perceived that his countenance was not to-
xoards him as before, that he was not so much in his
favour as he used to be, and hereupon he resolved to leave
him.
There is a very obvious remark to be made upon Jacob's
bargain with Laban when he agreed to stay with him, and'
upon his behaviour consequent upon it : he bargained with
Laban to serve him upon condition that he might take for
wages all the speckled and spotted cattle, and this with an
air of integrity, to prevent mistakes about his hire^ ; so shall
my righteousness, says he, answer for me in time to come, when
it shall come for my hire before thy face. Jacob seemed to
desire to make a clear and express bargain, about which they
P Gen. xxix. 32 — 35. xxx. 17, 19. s Ver. 4, 7.
21. t Ver. 25, 26.
Q Gen. xxx. 9, 12. " Ver. 28 — 43.
r Ver. 23. x Ver. 31 — ^^.
AND PllOFANE HISTORY. 357
might have no disputes : if they had agreed for a particular
number of cattle every year, there might have been room for
cavil and suspicions : if any of the flock had by accident
been lost, they might have differed, whether Jacob's or La-
ban's were the lost cattle ; but to prevent all possible dis-
putes, Let me, says Jacob, have all the speckled and spotted
cattle, and then, whenever you shall have a mind to look
into my stock, my integrity will at first sight come before
your face, or be conspicuous ; for you will immediately see
whether I have any cattle besides what belong to me. And
yet we find, that, after all this seeming fairness, Jacob very
artfully over-reached Laban, by using means to have the best
cattle always bring forth such as he was to take, and he so
ordered it, -as to get away all the best of the cattle, so that
the feebler only were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's V ;
an artifice which seems to argue him to have been a man
of very little honesty. But to this it may be answered ;
I. Though Aristotle and Pliny, and several other writers, who
are commonly cited by the remarkers upon this fact, and
who all lived many ages later than Jacob, have been of
opinion, that impressions made upon the imagination of the
dam at the time of conception may have a great effect upon
the form and shape and colour of the young ; and though it
may hence be inferred, that such a method as Jacob took
might possibly produce the effect which it had upon Laban's
cattle ; yet I cannot think Jacob himself knew any thing of
it : men had not thus early inquired far into the powers of
nature ; philosophy was as yet very low and vulgar, and
observations of this sort were not thought of or sought
after : religion and the worship of God was in these days
the wisdom of the world, and a simplicity of manners and
integrity of life was more studied than cvirious and philo-
sophical inquiries. If study and philosophy had helped men
to these arts, how came Laban and his sons to know so very
little ? They surely must have apprehended that Jacob might
by art variegate the cattle as he pleased, and would not have
made so weak a bargain with him; but they certainly had
y Gen. XXX. 42.
858 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
no notion that any such thing could be done, nor had Jacob
any thought of it, when he bargained with Laban ; but he
chose the speckled cattle only to put an end to all cavils
about his wages, not doubting but God would so order it,
that he should have enough, and being determined to be
contented with what God's providence should think fit to
give him. It will here be asked, how came Jacob to make
use of the pilled rods, if he did not think this an artful way
to cause the cattle to bring forth ringstraked, speckled, and
spotted young ones ? To this I answer, i. That we read,
that the angel of God spake unto him about this matter ^.
God saw the injustice of Laban's dealings with him, and the
honesty and fidelity of Jacob in his service, and he deter-
mined to reward Jacob and to punish Laban. We are told,
that God revealed to Jacob in a dream that the cattle should
be thus spotted, and very probably in the same dream God
ordered him to make use of pilled rods in the manner he
used them, and assured him, that, if he did so, the favour
which he had promised him of increasing his wages should
follow. We have frequent instances in Scripture of God's
appointing persons to perform some actions in order to re-
ceive his blessings ; and that in one of these two ways :
sometimes they are directed to do some action, upon which
they should receive some sign or token, that what was pro-
mised them should be performed : thus Abraham was to
take an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat, and a ram.
z Here seems to be a defect of two " behold the rams leaping upon the
or three verses in our present copies of " cattle ringstraked, speckled, and
the Bible. Jacob tells his waives, (Gen. " grislcd ; for I have seen all that La-
xxxi. II.) that the angel of the Lord " ban hath done to thee: I am the
had spoken to him in a dream, upon " God of Bethel, to whom thou anoint-
Laban's ill usage; but we have no ac- " edst a pillar there, and to whom
count of any angel's speaking to him " thou vowedst a vow there : but do
in chap. xxxi. before his using the " thou arise now, and go out of this
pilled rods, in any of our copies : but " land, and retm-n into the land of
the Samaritan Version gives us very " thy father, and I will bless thee."
great reason to think that there was Then follows : " And Jacob took green
originally a full account of this mat- " poplar rods," &c. The early tran-
ter. After ver. 36. of chap. xxxi. the scribcrs, through whose hands we have
Samaritan Version inserts as follows: received our present copies of the
" And the angel of the Lord called Bible, may have dropped some such
" unto Jacob in a dream, and said, passage as this, which very fully an-
" Jacob; and he answered, Here am I. swcrs to what Jacob afterwards told
" And he said. Lift up now thine eyes, his wives.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 359
and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon, and to lay them in
order for a sacrifice, and then he was to receive an assurance
that he should inherit Canaan » : at other times they are
commanded to perform some action which might testify
their believing in God, and depending upon his promise,
and upon doing such action the favour promised was to fol-
low : thus Naaman the Syrian, when he came to beg of
God a cure of his leprosy, was directed to wash seven times
in Jordan''; his washing in Jordan was to be an evidence of
his believing that God would heal him, and upon giving this
evidence of his belief he was to be cured : and this was the
case of Jacob here before us : God had told him that he
had seen all that Lahan had done to him; but that he would
take care that he should not hurt him, and that he designed to
turn all Laban's contrivances to defraud him of his wages so
much to his advantage, as that they should tend to the in-
crease of his prosperity; and then God commanded him, in
token of his belief and dependence upon him, to take the
pilled rods, and use them as he directed him. Jacob believed,
and did as he was commanded ; no more thinking, that the
pilling white strakes in green boughs, and laying them in the
troughs where the flocks were to drink, was a natural way
to cause them to bring forth speckled and ringstraked cattle,
than Naaman did, that washing in a river was a cure for
the leprosy ; but in both cases the favour expected depend-
ing upon the special providence of God, the particular direc
tions of God were to be performed in order to obtain it.
But, 3. I do not think it can be proved, that the method
which Jacob used is a natural and effectual way of causing
cattle to bring forth speckled and ringstraked young. As
almost all the conjectures of the ancient heathen writers
upon the powers of nature had their first rise from some
hints or facts in the Hebrew writings ; so perhaps what is
offered by Aristotle, and other ancient writers, about the
effects which impressions made upon the imagination of the
dam may have upon their young, might be first occasioned
by this fact thus recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, or by
a Geu. XV. 9. ^ 2 Kings v. 10.
360 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
some remarks of ancient writers made from it : but it is
observable, that the ancient naturalists carried their thoughts .
upon these subjects much further than they would bear ;
and we, who live in an age of far better philosophy, do not
find that we know so much as Aristotle thought he did upon
these subjects. The effects of impressions upon the ima-
gination must be very accidental, because the objects that
should cause them may or may not be taken notice of, as
any one would find, that should try Jacob's pilled rods to
variegate his cattle with. The waters of Jordan may cure
a leprosy, or Jacob's pilled rods produce spotted cattle ;
either of these means may have the desired effect, if a par-
ticular providence directs them, but without such providence
neither of these means may have any effect at all. I might
add farther, 4. That if we should allow that the pilled rods,
as Jacob used them, might naturally produce the effect upon
Laban's cattle which followed ; yet since, as I before hinted,
we have no reason to think Jacob remarkably learned be-
yond Laban and all his children, since it is not probable that
he alone should know this grand secret, and all other per-
sons have not the least suspicion of it ; we can at most only
suppose that God directed him to what he did in this matter.
In Hezekiah's sickness ^, the prophet directed an application
of figs in order to his recovery, and Hezekiah recovered
upon the application of them.; but since this application was
made, not by any rules of physic then known, but by a
divine direction, we cannot but ascribe the cure immediately
to God himself, even though it may possibly be argued that
figs were a proper medicine for Hezekiah's distemper :
they were not then known or thought to be so, and there-
fore human skill or prescription had no part in the cure.
And thus in Jacob's case ; if it can be supposed that pilled
rods may be naturally a means to variegate young cattle,
yet, unless we can think that he knew that the use of them
would naturally have this effect, and that he used them, not
in obedience to a special direction from God, but merely as
an art to get Laban's cattle, we cannot lay any blame upon
c Isaiah xxxviii. 21.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 361
him ; it cannot, I think, be supposed that Jacob had any
such knowledge. God Almighty determined to punish La-
ban for his injustice, and to reward Jacob for his fidelity ;
and he revealed to Jacob the manner in which he designed
to bless him, and ordered him to do an action as a token
that he embraced God's promise, and expected the perform-
ance of it. Jacob faithfully observed the orders that were
given him, and God blessed him according to his promise.
And there is no reason for us to think, that Jacob knew of
or used any art to overreach Laban, and get away his cattle ;
but the true conclusion is that which Jacob himself expressed
in his speech to his wives : Ye knoiv, that with all my power
I have served your father ; and your father hath deceived
me, and changed my ivages ten times ; hut God suffered him
not to hurt me. If he said thus, The speckled shall he thy
wages; then all the cattle hare speckled; and if he said thus^
TJie ringstraked shall he thy hire; then hare all the cattle
ringstraked. Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your
father, and given them unto me ^.
Jacob finding Laban and his sons every day more and
more indisposed towards him, took an opportunity, and con-
trived matters with his wives, and separated his own from
his father-in-law's cattle, and retired in a private manner,
and passed over Euphrates, and made for mount Gilead^.
He was gone three days before Laban heard of it : as soon
as it was told him, he gathered his family together, and
pursued him for seven days, and overtook him at Gilead.
From Haran to mount Gilead must be above 250 miles, so
that Jacob made haste to travel thither in ten days, going
about 25 miles each day; and Laban's pursuit of him was
very eager, for he marched about 37 miles a day for seven
days together: but he was resolved to overtake him. And
when he came up with him, he purposed in his heart to
revenge himself upon him ; but here God was pleased to
interpose, and warn Laban not to oflfer Jacob any eviF.
Hereupon, when he came up to him, he only expostulated
with him his manner of leaving him, and complained that he
d Gen. xxxi. 6 — 9. e Ver. 17. f Ver. 24.
362 CONNECTION OF THE SACllED [HGOK Vlt.
had stolen his teraphim, which Rachel, fond of the memory
of her ancestors, had, without Jacob's knowledge, taken away
with her ^ ; but upon Jacob's offering all his company to
be searched, Labau not being able to find where Rachel
had hid them, they grew friends, made a solemn engagement
to each other, and then parted. Laban returned home, and
Jacob went on towards the place where he had left his
father.
Jacob was now returning into Canaan in great prosperity ;
he was a few years before very low in the world, but now
he had wives, and children, and servants, and a substance
abundantly sufficient to maintain them. When he went
over Jordan to go to Haran, his staff or walking-stick was
all his substance ; but now he came to repass it, in order
to return into Canaan, he found himself master of so large a
family, as to make up two bands or companies*'; and all
this increase so justly acquired, that he could with an as-
sured heart look up to God, and acknowledge his having
truly blessed him', according to the promise which he had
made him.
After Jacob had parted from Laban, he began to think of
the danger that might befall him at his return home. The
displeasure of his brother Esau came fresh into his mind, and
he was sensible he could have no security, if he did not
make his peace with him. Esau, when Jacob went to Haran,
observing how strictly his father charged him not to marry
a Canaanite, began to be dissatisfied with his own mar-
riages^, and went hereupon to Ishmael, and married one of
his daughters, and went and lived in mount Seir, in the land
of Edom. And Jacob, finding by inquiry that he was settled
here, thought it necessary to send to him in order to appease
him, that he might be secure of living without molestation
from him.
Some writers have questioned why or how Jacob should
send this message to his brother : Jacob was in Gilead, and
Esau in mount Seir, 120 miles at least distant from one
s Gen. xxxi. 30. Hce vol. i, b. v. • Gen. xxxi. 9. and xxxii. 12.
p. 208. ' k Gen. xxviii. 6 — 9.
^ Gen. xxxii. 10.
AMD PROFANE HISTORY. 863
another. Jacob went down Gilead to the brook Jabbok',
and his way thence lay over Jordan into Canaan, without
coming any nearer to Esau ; why therefore should he send
to him ? or, having himself lived so long at such a distance,
how should he know where he was settled, or what was
become of him? These objections have been thought con-
siderable by some very good writers, and Adrichomius con-
ceived it necessary to describe Seir in a diiferent situation
from that in which the common maps of Canaan place it.
He imagined, that there were two distinct countries called
by the name of the land of Edom, and in each of them a
mountain called Seir, and that one of them, namely, that
in which Esau lived at this time, lay near to mount Gilead ;
and Brocard and Torniellus™ are said to have been of the
same opinion. They say, the children of Esau removed
hence in time into the other Edom or Idumgea, when they
grew strong enough to expel the Horites out of it" ; but
that they did not live in this Edom, which was the land
of the Horites, in Jacob's days. But as there are no ac-
counts of Canaan which can favour this opinion, so I can-
not see how this situation of Edom can be admitted. They
make and invent names and places which no writers but
themselves ever knew of, and so create real difficulties in
geography, to solve imaginary ones in history. The Horites
were indeed the first inhabitants of Seir, and the land of
Edom, and were in possession of it in Esau''s days ; for he
married one of their daughters, namely, Aholibamah the
grand-daughter of Zibeon°, and daughter of Anah; and
this Zibeon was the son of Seir the HoriteP, and Anah was
Seir's grandson 4, and both of them were in their turns
dukes or princes in the land'". Esau therefore lived and
married in this country; for here only we find the persons
whose daughter he took to wife, and he lived here a sojourner
in the kingdoms of other men, until after some generations
God gave this country to his children, who destroyed the
1 Gen. xxxii. 22. v Ver. 20.
m Pool's Syn. in Gen. xxxii. 2. Q Ibid,
n Dcut. ii. 12. r Ver. 29.
o Gen. xxxvi. 2.
364 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
Horims, and took possession of their country, as Israel did of
the land of his posscssioti, which the Lord gave unto them ^.
As to mount Seir's being very distant from Gilead, where
Jacob stopped, and sent messengers to Esau, it is certain it
was so; so far distant, that, after Jacob and Esau had met,
Jacob represented it as too long a journey for his children to
take, or his cattle to be driven, but by easy advances*. It is
easy to say, how Jacob could tell where Esau lived, and why
he thought fit to send to him. It is not to be imagined, that
Jacob could be so imprudent as to carry his wives, children,
and substance into Canaan, without knowing whether he
might safely venture thither ; and therefore very probably,
when he rested at Gilead, he sent messengers to inquire
whether his father was alive ; what condition he was in, and
what temper the inhabitants of the land shewed him, and
whether he might safely come and live near him : and when
he found that he should meet with no obstruction, if he could
but reconcile Esau to him, he very prudently sent to him
also, intending, if he should find Esau averse to him, to bend
his course some other way". And thus Jacob's message to
Esau may be best accounted for, by supposing Esau's ha-
bitation in the land of Edom to be according to the com-
mon and known geography of that country ; and Adri-
chomius's scheme of two Edoms being a mere fiction,
purely to solve a seeming difficulty, ought justly to be
rejected.
Jacob was in more* than ordinary fears of his brother
Esau, and his messengers at their return surprised him still
s Deut. ii. 12. est part of his substance from his fa-
t Gen. xxxiii. 13,14. ther ; and when he came, at Isaac's
u If we consider what had passed deatli, to take away with him into
between Esau and Jacob, before Jacob Edom what his father liad to leave
went from liome, it will appear very him, he would have looked upon Ja-
proper that Jacob should send to him, cob as having for many years been
before he ventured to come and sit contriving to get from him all he
down with his substance near his fa- could. It was therefore Jacob's in-
ther. Esau still expected to be his terest to have Esau fully satisfied in
father's heir ; and if Jacob had re- this point, and for this reason, as
turned home without Esau's know- well as others, he sent to him, to ap-
ledge, it would have laid a foundation prise him that he brought his sub-
for a greater misunderstanding at Isaac's stance with him fi'om Haran, and that
death, than any that had as yet been he was not going into Canaan to do
between them. Esau would have him an injury,
thought that Jacob had got the great-
AND PROFANE HISTORY,
365
more, by informing him, that Esau was coming after them
attended by 400 men". He concluded now that his bro-
ther had a design to take his full revenge, and destroy him
and all that belonged to him. In his distress he cried unto
God, and after that applied himself to contrive the most
likely expedients for his safety. First of all he divided his
company into two parts, that if Esau should fall upon one
part, he might have a possibility of escaping with the other.
In the next place, he ordered a very extraordinary present of
the choice of his flocks and herds, divided into several droves,
and these he sent before him: after this he sent his wives
and children, and all his substance, over the brook Jabbok^,
staying himself alone some time behind them. And here
God was pleased to put an end to his fears, by giving him
an extraordinary sign or token, to assure him that he should
get through all the difficulties that seemed to threaten him.
There came an angel in the shape and appearance of a man,
and wrestled with him. It was the same divine person,
according to Hosea% that appeared to him at Bethel. They
struggled together, but the angel did not overcome him ; and
at parting, when the angel blessed him, he told him the
design of his contest with him ; that it was to instruct him,
that as he had not been conquered in this contest, so neither
should he be overcome by the difficulties that threatened
him. The angel said to him, Thy name shall be called no
more Jacob, but Israel ; for as a prince hast thou power with
God and with 7nen, and hast prevailed^ ; or rather the latter
part of the verse should be thus translated, ybr thou hast been
a prevailer ivith God, and with men thou shalt also poiverfully
'prevail. This is the true verbal translation of the Hebrew
words ; and the'' Vulgar Latin, the LXX. and Onkelos in
his Targum, have very justly expressed the true sense of the
place ; but our English version is too obscure.
X Gen. xxxii. 6. The Vulgar Latin translates the place,
y Ver. 22, 23. Quoniam si contra Deum fortis fuisti,
z Hosea xii. 4. quanta magis contra liomines prcevalebis.
a Gen. xxxii. 28. The LXX. render the place, "On ivi-
b The Hebrew words are nn© O ax"<fa-s n^ra &eov, Kal /xera avdpwiruy
b2"im Q'TCDN Qy") cn'jx oy Quo- dvuarhs ifft). Onkelos has it, Quoniam
niam pravaluisti cum Deo, et cum princeps es tu coram Deo, ct cum ho-
hominibus etiam prcevalebis. minibus prcevalebis.
366 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIT.
Jacob, full of the assurance which the angel had given
him, prepared his wives and children to meet Esau ; and
instructed them, when they should come up to him, to pay
him all possible respect, by bowing down to him : he himself
came up last, and when he met Esau, he bowed himself to
the ground seven times. Whatever apprehensions Jacob
had entertained of Esau's resentments, he had the happiness
to find him in a much better temper than he expected :
Esau was full of all possible affection towards him, he ran at
sight to meet him, he embraced him with the greatest ten-
derness", and wept over him with tears of joy. As to the
present of the cattle, Esau would not have taken it, for he
said he had enough; but Jacob pressed him to accept it.
Esau invited Jacob to Seir, and offered to conduct him
thither ; but Jacob had no design to accept the invitation,
and yet was afraid directly to refuse it. He designed to keep
at a convenient distance, and not to live too near, for fear of
future inconveniences. He therefore represented the ten-
derness of his children and flock, that they could not travel
with expedition; he begged they might not confine him
to their slow movements, but that he would return home
his own pace, and that they would follow as fast as they
could conveniently. Esau then offered him some of his ser-
vants to shew him the way ; but Jacob evaded this offer
also, and so they parted. Esau went to Seir, expecting his
brother should follow him ; but Jacob turned another way,
went to Succoth, and built himself an house, and lived there
some time ; and afterwards removed to Salem, a city of the
Shechemites, and bought some ground of the children of
Hamor, and there settled'^.
Soon after Jacob was fixed at Shechem, there happened a
misfortune, which unsettled him again e. His daughter
Dinah visited the Shechemites, and Shechem the prince
of the country fell in love with her, and lay with her.
Her father and brothers resenting the injury and scandal
of so base an action, could not bear the thoughts of
being reconciled to him, though he all along had a most
c Gen. xxxiii. 4. d Ver. 19. e Gen. xxxiv.
AND PROFANE IIISTOUY. 367
passionate desire to marry Dinah : he had desired his father
Hamor to treat with Jacob about it, and Hamor desired
Jacob's consent to it upon any terms ; but in their treating
about it, the sons of Jacob answered Hamor and Shechem
deceitfully, and pretended that they could make no marriages
with an uncircumcised people. Hereupon Hamor and She-
chem persuaded all their people to be circumcised, in order
to incorporate with Jacob's family : but when this was done,
three days after the operation, when the Shechemites were
not fit for war, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, took
each man his sivord, and came upon the city holdly, and slew all
the males ; and they killed Hamor and Shechem, and took
away Dinah out of the house f. And as soon as Simeon and
Levi had thus executed the part of the revenge, which they
had taken upon themselves to perform for the abuse of their
sister, the other sons of Jacobs, who had very probably
armed their servants, and were ready to have assisted Simeon
and Levi, if they had wanted it, came upon the slain, and
spoiled the city; they seized upon the cattle and wealth of
the Shechemites, and took their wives and their little ones
captive. Jacob was much concerned at these furious pro-
ceedings of his sons, and apprehended that the inhabitants
of the land would unite against him for this violent outrage ;
but his sons Simeon and Levi were so warmed with the
thoughts of the dishonour done their sister and family, that
they did not think they had carried their resentments too
far for so base an injury ^. However, Jacob thought he
should be more secure, if he removed his habitation to
some other part of the country ; and upon receiving a
particular direction from God where to go, he removed to
Bethel \
Upon Jacob's designing to go to Bethel, he found it neces-
sary to make a reformation in his family, and said unto his
household, and to all that were with him, Put away the
strange gods that are among you ^ ; so that one would guess
f Gen. xxxiv. 25, 26. ^ Gen. xxxiv. 31.
g Ver. 27. Quibus egressis irruerunt ' Gen. xxxv. i, 6.
super occisos cseteri filii Jacob. Vers. ^ Ver. 2.
vulg. Lat.
368 CONNECTION OF THP: SACIIED [boOK VII.
from these words that idols and idolatry were crept into his
family; and some writers imagine that Rachel his wife
introduced them, by bringing out of Haran her father's
teraphim, which she stole at her coming away from him. But
it is remarkable that Jacob had now with him more persons
than his own household ; for, over and above these, he spake
unto all that were with him. The captives of Shechem, Avhich
his sons had taken, were now to be incorporated into his
family, and he had to reduce them into new order; to ab-
rogate any habits of their dress or ornaments, or any rites or
usages in religion, which they might have used at Shechem,
if he judged them unsuitable to his religion, or to the order
in which he desired to keep his family ; and agreeably
hereto, the gods he took care to put away were not the
teraphim, or little pillars or statues, which E-achel brought
from Haran 1, but the elohei han-necar , gods of the stranger^
that was in the midst of them, or amongst them, i, e. of the
Shechemites, whom they had taken captive, and brought
into his family. The Hebrew words are remarkably dif-
ferent from our English translation : the word strange in the
Hebrew does not refer to gods, as our translators took it,
and therefore rendered the place strange gods ; but the He-
brew words are as I have translated them, the gods of the
stranger, &c. and these, together with the superfluous orna-
ments of dress which the Shechemitish Avomen had used,
were what he took away, and buried under an oak in She-
chem "1, in order to preserve in his family that purity of wor-
ship and simplicity of life and manners which he designed
to keep up amongst them. After he had done this, he re-
moved for Bethel, and gat safe thither : the inhabitants of
the several cities round about him were so far from any
thoughts of attacking him, that they looked upon him as a
person powerful enough to engage with any of them, and
were very much afraid of him". After Jacob came to
Bethel, God appeared to him, and confirmed the change of
his name, which had been made at Jabbok, and gave him
fresh assurance of his design of blessing and multiplying his
1 See vol. i. b. v. p. 208. m Gen. xxxv. 4. "^ Ver. 5.
AND PROFANE HISTOllY. 369
posterity, and of giving them the inheritance of the land
of Canaan °. Some time after this, Jacob journeyed from
Bethel, and near Ephrath his wife Rachel died in labour
of Benjamin P, and Jacob buried her near Ephrath or Beth-
lehem''. From hence Jacob removed, and spread his tent
beyond the tower of Edar ; and soon after he removed
hence, and came to the plain of Mamre, unto the city of
Arbah or Hebron, unto his father Isaac, who at that time
lived here"". He had met with several misfortunes from the
time that he removed from Bethel ; the death of his wife
at Ephrath, and his son Keuben's baseness in lying with his
concubine Bilhah at Edar ; and besides these, there was a
difference amongst his children, which in a little time ended
in the loss of his son Joseph*.
Joseph was his beloved child, a circumstance which drew
upon him the envy of his brethren, which increased to a
perfect hatred, upon his telling them some dreams, Avhich
seemed to imj)ly that he should be advanced in the world
far above any of them. They told Jacob of Joseph's dreams,
and Jacob thought it proper to discountenance the aspiring
thoughts which he imagined they would too naturally lead
him to ; however, he could not but think in his heart, that
there was something more than ordinary in them'. Some
time after, Jacob sent Joseph from Hebron to Dothan,
where his other sons were taking care of the flocks. As soon
as Joseph came in sight of them, they called to mind his
dreams, and were in a great heat about him, and designed
to kill him ; but Reuben endeavoured to prevent his being
murdered, and persuaded them to throw him into a pit, and
there to leave him, intending when they were all gone to
come back to the place and help him out, and so to send
him home to his father" : but whilst they were in these
debates, there happened to come some Ishmaelites, who were
travelling from mount Gilead to Egypt with spicery, and
upon sight of them they determined to sell him''. They
0 Gen. XXXV. 9 — 12. s Ver. 22. and chap, xxxvii.
P Ver. 16 — 18. t Gen. xxxvii. 3 — 11.
1 Ver. 19. u Ver. 2ij 22.
"■ Ver. 21, 27. . X Ver. 25 — 28.
VOL. I. B b
370 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VII.
sold him, and the Ishmaelites carried him to Egypt, and
there sold him again to Potiphar, the captain of the king's
guards. Jacob's sons killed a kid, and dipped Josephs
coat in the blood of it, and, at their coming home, told their
father that they found it in that condition ; so that Jacob
thought some wild beast had killed him, and he mourned
exceedingly for him 2. Joseph was more than seventeen
years old when his brethren sold him into Egypt% and
about eight or nine years after he was sold thither, Isaac,
being one hundred and eighty years old, died, A. M.
2288b.
Isaac's death brought Esau and Jacob to another meeting ;
for Esau came from Seir to Mamre to assist at his father's
funeral, and to receive as heir his father's substance. Jacob,
though he came to Mamre to live near his father some
years before Isaac died, had yet been exceeding careful
of laying any foundation for a misunderstanding with his
brother, and therefore had not brought his flocks and sub-
stance into that part of the country : for we find that when
he lived at Hebron, his sons were sent to take care of the
flocks to Shechem and Dothan ^ ; so that he had carefidly
kept his substance at a distance, and given Esau no reason
to suspect that he had any ways intermixed what he had
gotten with what was his father's, or taken any oppor-
tunity to get away any thing from his father to Esau's
hinderance. After Isaac was buried, Esau had no mind to
live at Mamre ; for he considered that what he had at Seir,
and what he had now got at Canaan by his father's death,
would be so great a stock, that it would be difficult to find
sufficient room for him to live in Canaan, especially if his
brother Jacob should settle there near him ; and therefore
he took what he had in Canaan^, and carried it with him
into Seir.
The land of Seir was at this time possessed by the Horites
or Horims®, and these were the inhabitants of it in the days
y Gen. xxxvii. 36. b Gen. xxxv. 28, 29.
z Ver. 31 — 35. c Gen. xxxvii. 13. and 17.
a For he was seventeen when Jacob cl Gen. xxxvi. 6.
lived at Edar, ver. 2. e Deut. ii. 12.
AND PROFANE HISTORY
371
of Abraham ; for Chedorlaomer, out of whose hand Abra-
ham rescued Lot, found them here Avhen he brought his
armies to subdue the nations of Canaan^. Seir the Horite
Vas cotemporary with Abraham and Chedorlaomer, though
probably something older than Abraham ; for Esau, Abra-
ham's grandson, married Aholibamah the daughter of Seir's
grandson^. If Seir was king of the Horites, he might fall
in battle ; for Chedorlaomer s7note the Horites in their mount
Seir, unto El-paran^^. Under the sons of Seir, the Horites
gathered some strength again, and were governed by Seir's
sons, who became dukes of the land^, either ruling jointly,
or setting up several little sovereignties ; and in the time of
these dukes, Esau came to live at Seir. His full determi-
nation of settling there was at Isaac's death's towards the
decline of Esau's life ; for Isaac was sixty years old when
Esau was born', and he lived to be one hundred and
eighty!"^ so that Esau at his death was one hundred and
twenty ; and this must be in the time of the third generation
from Seir when the children of Lotan and of Zibeon and
of Shobal and of Anah, the sons of Seir, ruled the land ;
and agreeably hereto Esau married a daughter of the men
of this generation, Aholibamah the daughter of Anah ;
which Anah was not Anah the son of Seir, but Anah the
son of Zibeon, and grandson of Seir"; this was that Anah
tcho found the mules in the wilderness^ as he fed the asses of
Zibeon his father °, for he is by this action distinguished from
the other Anah. The sons of Seir did not keep the domin-
ion of these countries long, for the children of Esau got it
from them. The children of Esau destroyed the Horites, and
dtoelt in their stead, as Israel did in the land of his possessioti,
xohieh the Lord gave unto him^ ; and this conquest of the
Horites happened not in Esau's days, nor in his children's
or grand-children's days, but in the days of his grand-chil-
dren's children ; for the descendants of Esau, who became
f Gen. xiv. 6.
g Gen. xxxvi. 2. and 25.
li Gen. xiv. 6.
' Gen. xxxvi. 21.
k Ver. 6.
1 Gen. XXV. 26.
in Gen. xxxv. 28.
n Gen. x.xxvi. 2. 20. 24.
o Gen. xxxvi. 24.
P Deut. ii. 12.
Bb 2
372 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK Vil.
dukes of Edom, were Timna, Alia, Jetheth, Aholibamah,
Elah, Pinon, Kenaz, Tenian, Mibzar, Magdiel, Iram, as the
writer of the Book of Chronicles has expressly remarked''.
These were the dukes of Edom : Esau, and the children of
Esau, and their children, are all enumerated, but they are
not said to have been dukes of Edom ; but the persons above
mentioned only''. I am sensible, that what I have here
offered may be thought not entirely to agree with what we
find in the thirty-sixth chapter of Genesis. In that chapter
some of the sons of Esau are said to have been dukes s, and
most of his grand-children are likewise said to have arrived
at this dignity*. But in answer to this it should be re-
marked, that the verses from ver, 15. to ver. 20. do not say
that the sons or grandsons of Esau there mentioned were
dukes of Edom, but only that they were dukes in the land of
Edom : and this is a distinction that should carefully be ob-
served ; for the true matter of fact was this ; the children of
Esau, in the days of Esau''s sons and grandsons, set up a
form of government amongst themselves, and over their own
families, and the persons that ruled them were dukes ; not
over the land of Edom ^ for the inhabitants of the land were
not yet subject to them, but they were dukes in the land^ and
ruled the children of Esau, and so were, as they are called,
\alephai'D\ their dukes^. Their children afterwards con-
quered the Horites, and took possession of the whole land,
and so became dukes of Edom ; and the persons that at-
tained this larger dignity were the persons mentioned ver.
40, 41, 42, 43. these be the dukes of Edom. And thus the
several parts of this chapter may be reconciled to one an-
other, and this chapter made entirely agreeable to the first
chapter of i Chronicles. If the dukes that came of Esau
had been all alike dukes of Edom, they would have been
placed all together ; but some of them being only the rulers
of their own children, and the others the governors of the
whole land, the writer of the Book of Genesis separates and
distin squishes the one from the other ; and the writer of the
q I Chron. i. 51, ad fin. * Ver. 15, 16, 17.
r Ver. 35—37. « Ver. 19.
s Gen. xxxvi. 18.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 373
Book of Chronicles does not mention the one order to have
been dukes at all, determining to give the title to those
only who had governed the whole country. The children
of Esau, when they had made themselves dukes of Edom,
continued this form of government but a little while, for
they soon after set up a king. The time when they set up a
king may be determined from Moses : they were governed
by dukes when the Israelites went out of Egypt ^, and they
had a king when Moses would have passed through their
land to Canaan y; so that their first king was cotemporary
with Moses, and began his reign a little after the Israelites
came out of Egypt, i. e. about A. M. 2515^: and his reign-
ing at this time is very consistent with his succeeding Esau's
grand-children's children ; for Moses was the fifth in descent
from Jacob, as this first king of Edom was from Esau; for
the father of Moses was Amram, his father Cohath, Levi
was the father of Cohath, and son of Jacob * ; so that the
descents or generations in each family correspond very
exactly: the first king of Edom was Bela the son of Beor'',
and he was the brother of Balaam, whom Balak sent for
about this time to curse Israel ; for Beor was Balaam's fa-
ther''. The Edomites had eight successive kings hofore
there reigned any king over the children of Israel^ ; and so
they might very well have ; for, from the beginning of
Bela's reign, to the time that Saul was anointed king over
Israel, A. M. 2909% is three hundred and ninety-nine
years ; so that these eight kings of Edom must be supposed
one with another to reign something above forty-eight
years apiece, which suits very well with the length of men's
lives in these times. And thus I have gone through the
account we have of Esau's family, from Esau to the time
that Saul reigned over Israel; and I think from what has
been said it will easily appear, that the several parts of the
thirty-sixth chapter of Genesis are entirely consistent with
one another, and the whole agreeable to the account we
X Exod. XV. 15. t> Gen. xxxvi. 32.
y Numb. XX. 14. c Numb. xxii. 5.
z Archbishop Usher's Chronology. d Gen. xxxvi. 3 1 . i Chron i. 43.
a I Chron. vi. \, 2, 3. ^ Archbishop Usher's Chron.
374 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VII.
have of the same family in the Book of Chronicles. Some
learned writers have made great difficulties in their expli-
cations of Moses's account of this family, and have been in
great doubt whether the kings mentioned from ver. 31. to
40. were sons of Esau, or Horites, and when they reigned:
but 1 think their reigns do fall so naturally into the compass
of time in which I have placed them, that there can be
little reason to imagine that this is not the true place of
them ; and none, if Beor the father of Balaam was the fa-
ther of Bela, the first of these kings, which seems very pro-
bable; for if Beor, mentioned Gen. xxxvi. 32. had not been
the same person with the father of Balaam f, Moses would
either not have mentioned the name at all, or have distin-
guished the one person from the other. The dukes of Edom
being placed after the list of the kings, hath occasioned
some learned writers to imagine that they succeeded them,
and the Latin version in the first chapter of the first Book
of Chronicles favours their opinion very muchs, but the
Hebrew words do not at all countenance such a version ;
and we find from Saul's time, wherever the Edomites are
spoken of, they were governed by a king, and not by dukes.
It is said, that if the dukes at the end of the chapter were
before the kings, then the order of the narration is very un-
natural : I answer, not very unnatural, if rightly considered, for
it is only thus ; i . We have an account of Esau's family from
verse 9. to verse 15. and this family being very numerous, for
we read that Esau had an attendance of four hundred men, it
is remarked, that they set up a civil government amongst
themselves, and we are told who the persons were that bore
rule amongst them, from verse 15. to verse 20. 2. Then fol-
lows an account of the Horites, in whose land Esau and his
children dwelt, from verse 20. to verse 30. 3. In the next place
we have an account of the kings which the children of Esau
were governed by after they had expelled the Horites, and be-
fore the time that the Israelites had a king, from verse 3 1 . to
verse 39. 4. It is remarked, that kings were not the first
f Numb. xxii. 5. Mortuo autem AiJad, duces pro regihus
? I Chron. i. c,\. is translated thus: esse ccepcrunt.
AND PEOFANE HISTOKY. 375
rulers of the land of Edom which the sons of Esau set up,
for they had one generation of dukes of Edom, verse 40. to
the end. The most learned dean Prideaux very justly ob-
serves h, that " the words in the 31st verse of this chapter,
*' And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom,
" before there reigned any king over the land of Israel, could
" not have been said, till after there had been a king
" in Israel, and therefore cannot be Moses's words, but
"must have been interpolated afterwards;" and it is hard
to conceive, that the list of kings there mentioned could be
inserted by him, when all, except the first, reigned after
Moses was dead. If this be the case, if I could have the
authority of any learned writer to suppose that Ezra, or
whoever was the inspired writer that inserted them ^, might
at first insert these kings after the dukes at the end of the
chapter, but that some careless transcribers have misplaced
them, I should readily embrace it.
We meet with no further mention of Esau's life, death,
or actions, in Moses's history; but it may not be amiss,
before we leave him, to take a short view of his character.
Esau was a plain, generous, and honest man : for we have
no reason, from any thing that appears in his life or actions,
to think him wicked beyond other men of his age and
times ; and his generous and good temper appears from all
his behaviour towards his brother. The artifice used to de-
prive him of the blessing did at the time abundantly enrage
him, and, in the heat of passion, he thought when Isaac
should be dead to take a full revenge, and kill his brother
for supplanting him; but a little time reduced him to be
calm again, and he never took one step to Jacob's injury.
When they first met, he was all humanity and affection^;
and he had no uneasiness, when he found that Jacob fol-
lowed him not to Seir, but went to live near his father : and
at Isaac's death, we do not find he made any difficulty of
quitting Canaan, which was the very point which^ if he had
*i Connect, part i. book v. 492. ed. of this and the other interpolations
8vo. 1725. which he mentions, pag. 493.
i The most learned dean intimates ^ Gen. xxxiii. 4.
Ezra to be undoubtedly the author
376 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
harboured any latent intentions, would have revived all his
resentments. He is indeed called in Scripture the profane
Esaui, and he is said to have been hated of God; the chil-
dren, says St. Paul"^, being not yet born, neither having done
any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of tvorhs, but of him that calleth ; it was said
unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. And it is written,
Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated"^. There is, I think,
no reason to infer from any of these expressions that Esau
was a very wicked man, or that God hated and punished
him for an immoral life. For, i. The sentence here against
him is said expressly to be founded not upon his actions,
for it was determined before the children had done good or
evil. 2. God's hatred of Esau, here spoken of by St. Paul,
was not an hatred which induced him to punish him with
any evil ; for Esau was as happy in all the blessings of this
life as either Abraham or Isaac or Jacob, and his posterity
had a land designed by God to be their possession as well as
the children of Jacob : and thev were enabled to drive out
and dispossess the inhabitants of it, as Israel did to the land
of his possession ° ; and they were put in possession of it much
sooner than the Israelites ; and God was pleased to protect
them in the enjoyment of it, and to caution the Israelites
against invading them with a remarkable strictness p, as he
also cautioned them against invading the land which he de-
signed to give to the children of Lofi. And as God was
pleased thus to bless Esau and his children in the blessings
of this life, even as much as he blessed Abraham or Isaac
or Jacob, if not more ; so why may we not hope to find
him with them at the last day, as well as Job or Lot, or any
other good and virtuous man, who was not designed to be a
partaker of the blessing given unto Abraham ? For, 3. All
the punishment that was inflicted on Esau was an exclusion
from being heir of the blessing promised to Abraham and to
his seed, which was a favour not granted to Lot, to Job, to
several other very virtuous and good men. 4. St. Paul, in
1 Heb. xii. i6. o Deut. ii. 5. and 12.
m Rom. ix. iij 12. P Ver. 4, 5.
n Vcr. 13. a Ver. 9.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 377
the passage before cited, does not intend to represent Esau
as a person that had particularly merited God's displeasure,
but to shew the Jews that God had all along given the
favours that led to the Messiah where he pleased ; to Abra-
ham, not to Lot ; to Jacob, not to Esau ; as, at the time
St. Paul wrote, the Gentiles were made the people of God,
and not the Jews. 5. Esau is indeed called profane [/3e/3rjAos] ;
but I think that word does not mean wicked or immoral
[do-e/3^s or a/xaprcoAo?] ^ ; he was called so for not having that
due value for the priest's office which he ought to have had.
In this point there seems to have been a defect in his cha-
racter ; hunting and such diversions of life were more pleas-
ing to him, than the views and prospects which the promises
of God had opened to his family, and which his brother Jacob
was more thoughtful about than he. And therefore, though
I think it does not appear that he was cut off from being the
heir of them by any particular action in his life, yet his
temper and thoughts do appear to be such, as to evidence
that God's purpose towards Jacob was founded upon the
truest wisdom ; Jacob being in himself the fittest person to
be the heir of the mercies which God designed him.
When Joseph was sold into the family of Potiphar, he
soon obtained himself a station in which he might have
lived with great comfort. His master saw that he was a
youth of great wit and diligence, and very prosperous in
his undertaking's, and in a little time he made him his
steward % and put all his afiairs under his management.
When he was thus in a condition of life in which he might
have been very happy, his mistress fell in love with him;
but in the integrity of his heart he refused to comply with
her desires, and took the liberty to reprove her for them,
and shunned all opportunities of being at any time alone
with her*. Whether she feared by his manner and beha-
viour that he might accuse her to her husband, or whether
she was enraged at the slight she thought hereby offered
her, upon his peremptorily refusing to comply with her,
r I Tim, i. 9. s Gen. xxxix. 4. t Ver. 8, 9, 10.
378 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK Vir.
she accused him to Potiphar of a design to ravish her, and
had him laid in prison. Joseph was kept in prison above
two years, but he got into favour with the keeper of the
prison, and was entrusted by him with the management of
all the affairs belonging to the prison, and with the custody
of the prisoners ^^ Two years and something more after
Joseph's imprisonment^, the king of Egypt dreamed two
very remarkable dreams, both which seemed to be of much
the same import : the king had a great uneasiness about
them, and the more, because none of his magi could inter-
pret or tell him the meaning of them. In the midst of
his perplexity, his chief butler or cupbearer called to mind
that himself had been some time before under the king's
displeasure, and in prison with Joseph, and that Joseph had
very punctually interpreted a dream of his, and another of
the king"'s baker, who was in prison with himy : he gave
the king an account of it, which occasioned Joseph to be
sent for. Joseph came, and heard the king's dreams, and
told him the meaning of them was, that there would be all
over Egypt first of all seven years' plenty, and then a severe
famine for seven years ; and added, that since it had pleased
God thus to inform the king what seasons he intended, he
hoped he would make a right use of the information, and
appoint some discreet and wise person, with proper officers
under him, to gather a fifth part of each plenteous year's
product, and to lay it up in store against the time of scarcity.
The king conceived a very great opinion of Joseph, both
from his interpretation of the dreams, and from the advice
he gave upon them, and thought no one could be so fit to
manage the oflice of gathering the corn in the years of
plenty as he who had so wisely thought of a scheme so be-
neficial, and therefore he immediately made him his deputy
over the land of Egypt z. Joseph was, I think, above
twenty years old when his brethren sold him, and he was
thirty when Pharaoh thus advanced him''; so that it pleased
u Gen. xxxix. 22, 23. ^ Ver. 38 — 41.
X Gen. xli. i. ^ Ver. 46.
y Ver. 9.
AKD PROFANE HISTORY. 379
God in less than ten years to promote him, from a lad, the
younger son of a private traveller, through various changes
and accidents of life, by several steps, and not without a
mixture of some severe misfortunes, to be the head of a very
potent kingdom, inferior only to him who wore the crown.
He wore the king's ring, had all the marks and distinctions
that belong to the highest rank of life ; rode in Pharaoh's
second chariot ; and wherever he passed, the officers ap-
pointed cried before him, Bow the Jcnee^. Pharaoh called
Joseph Zaphnathpaaneah'^ , and married him to the priest of
On''s daughter : he had two sons by her, Manasseh and
Ephraimf*.
In the years of plenty Joseph had gathered a sufficient
stock of corn, not for Egypt only, but to supply the neigh-
bouring countries : and in the years of famine, Avhen he
opened his stores and sold out his provision, he acquired for
the king immense riches. The Egyptians bought his corn
with money, until all the money of the land of Egypt, and
all that could be procured out of the land of Canaan, was
in Pharaoh's treasury; then they exchanged their cattle for
corn, until Pharaoh had purchased all them also ; in the
last place, they sold their lands and possessions, so that by
Joseph's conduct, Pharaoh was become sole proprietor of all
the money, cattle, and lands of all Egypt e. There are two
or three particulars very remarkable in Joseph's management
of this affiiir. i.When the Egyptians had parted with all
their money, cattle, and lands, and still wanted sustenance,
they offered to become Pharaoh's servants^; but Joseph re-
fused to accept of this offer. He seems to have had a great
and true insight into things, and could not think that he
should really advance his master's interest by keeping his
b Gen. xli. 41 — 44. The best expo- ton, in verb. "j-iaN Abrek, Vox Mgyptia
sitors do not take the word Abrek, to est XlaLavicTnhs quidam. See Pool. Syn-
signify bow the k7iee, as our transla- opsis in loc.
tion renders it ; but they suppose it to c The name which Pharaoh gave
be a name of honour, which Pharaoh Joseph is an Egyptian name, and sig-
caused to be proclaimed before Joseph, nifies a discoverer of things hidden.
See Vers. LXX. Targum Onkelos. d Gen. xli. 50.
Vers. Samaritan. Vers. Syi-iac. Vers. e Gen. xlvii. 18.
Arab, et Castelli Lexicon Heptaglot- f Ver. 19.
380 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
subjects in poverty and slavery. He was desirous to establish
a sufficient revenue for the occasions of the crown, and at
the same time to give the subject a property of their own,
as well to excite their industry to improve it, as to raise in
them a sense of duty and affection to the government that
protected them in the secure enjoyment of it. For this
reason Joseph returned back possessions to all the people,
upon condition of paying yearly the fifth part of the pro-
duct of their lands to the king for evers. 2. When he re-
turned the lands back again to the people, he did not put
them in possession each man of what was his own before,
but he removed them from one end of Egypt to the other ^ ;
wisely foreseeing, that few men would have so easy sense of
their condition in the enjoyment of what had formerly been
their own without tax or burthen, but now received upon
terms of disadvantage, as they would have in the possession
of what never was their own, though they held it upon the
same conditions. 3. When Joseph bought in the lands of
Egypt for Pharaoh, he bought not the priests' lands, for they
did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them, and there-
fore sold not their lands : and so, when afterwards the whole
kingdom came to be taxed the fifth part, the priests' lands
were excepted, because they became not Pharaoh's'. A
right honourable writer makes the following remark upon
this favour shewn the priests : " To what height of power
" the established priesthood was arrived even at that time,
" may be conjectured hence ; that the crown (to speak in a
" modern style) offered not to meddle with the church lands ;
" and that, in this great revolution, nothing was attempted
" so much as by way of purchase or exchange in prejudice
" of this landed clergy; the prime minister himself having
" joined his interest with theirs, and entered by marriage
*' into this alliance ''.''"' To this I answer: i. I have al-
ready shewn, that the priests of Egypt were the heads of
all the families of the land, not raised to be so by their
priesthood, but they became the priests, because they were
s Gen. xlvii. 24. 26. k Lord Shaftesbury's Characterist.
h Ver. 21. vol. iii. Miscel. 2.
i Ver. 2 2. and 26.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 381
originally persons of the highest rank : they were reputed
almost equal to the kings, consulted upon all public affairs
of consequence, and some of them generally upon a vacancy
succeeded to the crown ; and if this be true, it does not
seem likely that they should want Joseph's alliance to
strengthen their interest, or to obtain them any favour.
2. Whatever favour was shewn them, Moses represents it
as proceeding from the king, and not from Joseph : the
land of the priests bought he not, [ci chock le cohanini meeth
Pharaoh,'\ because there ivas a decree for (in favour of) the
priests from even Pharaoh"^, i. e. because Pharaoh had made
a decree expressly against it; or we may translate the
words agreeably to our English version, hecause there ivas an
appointment for the priests from even Pharaoh, and they did
eat their appointed or assigned portion, which Pharaoh gave
them, wherefore they sold not their lands : take the words
either way the favour to the priests proceeded from Pha-
raoh. It may perhaps be here asked, why Pharaoh, when
he thought fit to lessen the property of his common sub-
jects, did not also attempt to reduce in some measure the
exorbitant wealth .^of the priests, who, according to Diodorus
Siculus"^, were possessed of a third part of the whole land.
To this 'we may answer : the Egyptian priests were obliged
to provide all sacrifices, and to bear all the charges of the
national religion ; and religion was in these days a matter
of very great expence to them, who were to supply what
was requisite for the performance of the offices of it. The
numerous sacrifices, that were appointed to be offered in
these times, could not be provided, nor the preparations
and ceremonies in offering them performed, but at a very
great charge ; at so great an one, that we find in countries
where the soil was not fruitful, and consequently the people
poor, they did not well know how to bear the burthen of
religion ; and therefore Lycurgus, when he reformed the
Lacedaemonian state, instituted sacrifices the meanest and
cheapest he could think of, that he might not make reli-
I Gen. xlvii. 22. ni Diodor. Sic. 1. i. §. 73.
382 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
gion too expensive for his people". Egypt was a fertile
and rich country, and most probably both king and people
were desirous of having the public religion appear with a
suitable splendour : and I do not find that even Aristotle
could compute that less than a fourth part of the lands of
his republic could suffice for these uses°; and suppose we
should allow them no more in Egypt, yet there would
still remain a difficulty ; for the priests of Egypt w.ere the
whole body of the nobility of the land. They were the
king's counsellers and assistants in all affairs that concerned
the public; they were joint agents with him [avfepyol^] in
some things ; in some others the king himself was to be
directed and instructed by them, in these they are said to be
his €l(Tr]yr]Tal koI bibdaKakoi^. They were the professors and
cultivators of astronomy, an useful science at this time,
without which even agriculture itself could not have pro-
ceeded. They were the keepers of the public registers,
memoirs, and chronicles of the kingdom ; in a word, under
the king, they were the magistrates, and filled all the
prime offices'": and if we consider them in some or other
of these views, we may possibly allow, that Pharaoh might
think that they had not too much to support the stations
they were to act in, and for that reason he ordered that no
tax should be raised upon them.
As there came many persons of the neighbouring na-
tions to Egypt to buy corn ; so amongst others Jacob was
obliged to send his sons from Canaan ^ Joseph, as soon as
he saw them, knew them, and upon their bowing down
before him, he remembered his former dreams. He for
some time kept himself very reserved, pretended to suspect
them for spies, and several ways seemed to use them with
an exceeding strictness, so as to make them think them-
selves in great extremities : at last he discovered himself to
them, sent for his father down to Egypt, and obtained for
n Plutarch, in. vit. Lycurgi. •" Aevrepevovres fxtra ySatriXea ra7(nf
o Aristot. de republic. 1. vii. c. iq. SS^ais Koi rais i^ovcriais. Id. ibid.
P Diodor. Sic. ubi sup. s Gen. xlii.
q Ibid.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 383
him and his family a residence in the land of Goshen. Here
they lived and flourished in favour with the king, and with
the Egyptians, for Joseph's sake'.
Jacob came into Egypt A. M. 2298, for he was 130 years
old when he came into Pharaoh's presence " ; and he was
born A. M. 2168^; so that counting 130 years from the
year of his birth, we shall come to the year above men-
tioned. I may here take occasion to fix the chronology of
the several transactions we have passed over. i. Joseph was
about 38 years old in the beginning of the famine; for he
was 30 when he was first brought into Pharaoh's presence,
just at the beginning of the seven years of plenty^" : he was
38 two or three years before his father came into Egypt;
for he revealed himself to his brethren, and sent for his fa-
ther at the end of the second year's famine ^ ; so that he was
38 about A. M. 2295, ^^^ consequently Joseph was born
A. M. 2257. 2. Joseph's birth was six years before Jacob
left Laban; for Jacob served Laban in all twenty years %
and fourteen of the twenty years were over at Joseph's
birth'*, the time being then expired which Jacob was to
serve Laban for his wives ; so that Jacob left Laban
A. M. 2263, and Jacob came to Laban A. M. 2243.
3. Jacob married seven years after he came to Laban *=,
i. e. A. M. 2250; and thus Jacob being born A. M.
2168, was about 75 years old when he first came to La-
ban, and 89 at Joseph's birth. We are not exactly in-
formed when Benjamin was born, when Rachel died, or
when Joseph was sold into Egypt; but we may conjecture
very nearly; for Joseph was 17 years old when he was
feeding his father's flock with the sons of Bilhah*^: Benja-
min was not then born ; for Joseph was at that time the
son of his fathers old age, or youngest son ^ ; and Rachel,
who died in labour of Benjamin, was alive when Joseph
t Gen. xlii, xliii, xliv, xlv, xlvi, a Gen. xxxi. 38.
xlvii. b Gen. xxx. 25, 26.
« Gen. xlvii. 9. c Gen. xxix. 20, 21.
X See p. 337. d Gen. xxxvii. 2.
y Gen. xli. 46. e Ver. 3.
z Gen. xlv. 6.
384 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
dreamed his dreams, for which his brethren hated him^.
Rachel died and Benjamin was born near Ephraths, before
Jacob came to Isaac at Hebron : Jacob did not go directly
to Hebron as soon as Rachel was buried, but made some
stop at Edar ^ : Jacob was come to Hebron, and sent Jo-
seph thence back to his brethren, when they took him, and
sold him into Egypt ^ From these several particulars it
seems most probable, that Benjamin was born, and Rachel
died, when Joseph Avas about i6, A. M. 2273, ^°^ ^^ ^^^
but 17 when he told his father of the evil actions of his
brothers at Edar^, where Jacob lived after Rachel died^.
Jacob might come to Hebron in about five or six years after
this, and soon after his coming thither Joseph was sold into
Egypt, i. e. when he was about 22 years old, about nine
years before the death of Isaac, A. M. 2279.
Seventeen years ^ after Jacob came into Egypt, he fell sick
and died. Jacob was a person in every respect very con-
siderable : his capacity was great, his natural parts quick
and ready, and the revelations which God was pleased to
make him were very many, and very remarkable : it was
an argument of his being a person of great prudence and
sagacity, that he so much prized the privileges of Esau's
birthright: and in every turn of his life, (in his conduct
with Laban ; in his address to his brother Esau ; in his
sense of his sons' revenge upon the Shechemites,) he ex-
pressed himself a man of a quick and ready apprehension, to
foresee the evils that might befall him, and of great courage
and prudence to shape himself the best way through them.
The life of Isaac seems to have been the life of a plain
and virtuous honest man, without any great variety or very
extraordinary turns in it : he had a vast substance left him
by his father Abraham to carry him through the world, and
f Gen. xxxvii. 10. three years: Jacob married Rachel
S Gen. XXXV. i6 — 19. when he had been with Laban a
h Ver. 21, 22. week more than seven years, i. e.
i Gen. xxxvii. 14. A. M. 2250. According to our com-
k Ver. 2. putation Rachel died twenty-three
1 Demetrius in Euseb. Prtep. Evang. years after tliis, so that we agree
lib. ix. c. 21. says, that Rachel died exactly with Demetrius.
when she had lived with Jacob twenty- m Gen. xlvii. 28.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 385
he lived upon it all his life almost always in or near the
same place : Abraham died at Mamre, and there Isaac lived
and died, and we do not find he lived any where else, ex-
cept only when a famine obliged him to remove to Gerar " ;
and Gerar was so near to Mamre, that we may affirm that
he spent his whole life within about the compass of a hun-
dred or a hundred and twenty miles : but Jacob was born
to greater things, and designed to be more known to the
world : he had no great substance left him from his father,
but was to rise by his own industry and God's blessing : he
was sent into Padan-Aram to obtain himself a wife, and by
his diligence to make a provision for his family, which he
was enabled to do in twenty years in so ample a manner, as
to live afterwards in credit and reputation with the princes
of his age° ; nay, and to have even those of his rank stand
in fear of attempting to offer him any injury. Towards the
close of his life God was pleased to strip him of what I
might call all his adventitious happiness, and to leave him
only his children and a few necessaries ; for we find the
pressure of the famine had dispersed his numerous family ;
for he did not go down to Egypt master of two bands of
followers P, nor possessed of his Shechemitish captives, but he
brought thither with him, besides his sons' wives, only sixty-
six persons, being his children and grandchildren, with the
cattle and goods which he then had^ ; but even then, by
the influence of his son Joseph, he was received in Egypt
with credit and respect, and admitted into the king's pre-
sence as a person of great worth and eminence ; for it is
particularly remarked that he blessed Pharaoh''. As the
turns of Jacob's life were thus great and many, so he had
very frequent and remarkable revelations to support and
guide him in his passage through them : we have no men-
tion of any revelations to Isaac above twice or thrice in
his whole life, and, indeed, the circumstances of his life
required no more ; but with Jacob God was pleased to con-
verse more frequently, and to give him a fuller knowledge
n Gen. xxvi. he left Haran. Gen. xxxii. 7.
° Gen. xxxiii. xxxiv. xxxv. 5. 1 Gen. xlvi. 26.
P So numerous was his family when f Gen. xlvii. 10.
VOL. I. C C
386 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
of the manner in which he designed to deal with his pos-
terity. When Isaac purposed to dispose of the blessing
promised to Abraham, it is very evident that he did not know
how God intended it should be given ; for he purposed to
have disposed of it to the person who was not to be the heir
of it^ : he did indeed by the contrivance of Rebekah hap-
pen to give it right; and when he had given it, God was
pleased to enlighten his understanding, and in some small
measure to inform him what should be the circumstances
of his sons and their posterity : but Jacob, when he came to
draw towards his end, had a much greater share of this
prophetical knowledge imparted to him : he was enabled
with great exactness to enter into the circumstances of the
lives of Joseph''s sons * ; and when he came to tell his chil-
dren what should befall them in the latter days ", he could
offer the hints of many things that belonged particularly to
the families of each of his children ; as may be best seen
hereafter, when we shall remark, in their proper places, how
the things foretold by him were fulfilled to their posterity.
As the life of Jacob was more remarkable and various than
the life of his father Isaac, so we find larger accounts of it
amongst the heathen writers. We find but little mention
of Isaac any where but in the sacred writings ; so little, that
some of the heathen historians, who inquired after the ac-
counts of Abraham's familv, did not know there was such a
person as Isaac ; but took Jacob or Israel to be the son of
Abraham ^ ; but Jacob's life was celebrated by many of
their ancient writers : Eusebius y gives a large account of
the life of Jacob, which he took from Demetrius, and De-
metrius had it from the annals of Alexander Polyhistor ^ :
the account agrees in the main with that of Moses ; but in
little particulars differs remarkably from it : Demetrius fixes
the dates and times of many transactions in Jacob's life,
which Moses has not determined, and he fixes some in a
manner which will not exactly agree with some other of
Moses's computations ; which seems to me to evidence, that
s Gen. xxvii. xxxvi. c. 2.
t Gen. xlviii. 10 — 22. y Prsep. Evang. lib. ix. c. 21.
u Gen. xlix. z Id. ibid, ad fin. cap.
X Justin from Trogus Pompeius^ lib.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 387
he did not copy from Moses, as indeed there was no need
he should ; for the ancient history even of these early times
was written by various writers'*^ who differed in some cir-
cumstances from one another, and therefore took their hints
from different originals; and amongst the rest a very large
mention was made of Jacob by Theodotus, a very ancient
historian, who wrote the Phoenician antiquities'^, and whose
works Chaetus translated into Greek, a part of which trans-
lation relating to Jacob is preserved in Eusebius <= : Jacob was
a hundred and forty-seven years old when he died, and so
died A. M. 2315.
When Jacob was dead, Joseph ordered the physicians of
Egypt to embalm him, the performance of which ceremony,
with the circumstances belonging to it, took up forty days '',
and the Egyptians had a solemn or public mourning for him
for seventy days^; a circumstance expressing the greatest
honour they could possibly pay to Joseph and his family, for
they performed but seventy-two days mourning for their
kings f. After the time of this mourning was over, Joseph
obtained leave of Pharaoh to go into Canaan to bury his
father, and the prime officers of the court of Egypt went with
him to attend the funeral ; so that there went out of Egypt
the house of Joseph and his brethren, and his father's house,
the servants of Pharaoh, and the elders of his house, and all
the elders of the land of Egypt, both chariots and horsemen
a very great company = : the procession was so great, and the
solemn stop they made for seven days upon the borders of
Canaan was so remarkable, that the Canaanites ever after
called the place they stopped at Abel-mizraim, or the mourn-
ing place of the Egyptians. Jacob was buried in the cave
of Machpelah by Abraham and Sarah, and Joseph and his
brethren and the Egyptians returned back again to Egypt.
After Jacob was buried, Joseph's brethren began to re-
flect upon the ill treatment which Joseph had formerly re-
ceived from them, and to fear that now their father was
a Josephus cont. Apion. 1. i. p. 1350. d Gen. 1. 3.
h Tatian. Orat. ad Grsec. p. 128. et e Ibid.
Joseph, ubi sup. f Diodor. Sic. lib. i. §. 72. p. 46.
c Prsep. Evang. lib. ix. c. 22. g Gen. 1. 8, 9.
C C 2
388 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VII.
gone, he would remember and revenge it : they came to
him in the most submissive manner, acknowledged all their
former unkindness to him, begged he would pass it over
and forgive it, and offered themselves and children at his
feet to be his servants ; and not thinking all this enough,
they were willing to add weight to their entreaties by tell-
ing him, that their father before he died required them
thus to ask him pardon and forgiveness. Joseph could
not keep from tears at their behaviour : he made a kind
and tender apology for them, observed to them how much
happiness God had produced from their little animosities,
and promised them his favour and protection as long as he
should liveh.
We meet with nothing more of Joseph or his manage-
ment: the king that advanced him was, I think, Thusi-
mares, who was the twentieth king of Tanis, or lower
Egypt, according to sir John Marsham, and Joseph was
advanced in the thirteenth year of Thusimares's reign. Sir
John Marsham places the advancement of Joseph in the
time of Ramesse -Tubaete, the twenty-third king of Tanis ;
but this position of him will appear to be too late : Joseph
was sold into Egypt A. M. 2279, and if we compute the
reigns of sir John Marsham's kings of Egypt, supposing
Mizraim first to reign there A.M. 1772, and to die A.M.
1943', we must place Joseph about the time of the twelfth
king of Tanis, in Achoreus's reign; but this will be much
too high, and there are certainly mistakes in this part of
sir John Marsham's tables, Moses hints to us, that Joseph
placed his brethren in the land of Jameses'* ; the land could
not be so called until there had been such a person as
Rameses ; for the ancient practice was, after kings or famous
men were dead, to call the lands after their names^. Thus
the land of Haran was not so named until after Haran was
dead'". Rameses therefore, who, according to sir John Mar-
sham, was the eighteenth king of Tanis, and began to reign
h Gen. 1. 15 — 21. 1 Psalm xlix. 11.
i See vol. i. book iv. m Gen. xi. 31. •
^ Gen. xlvii. 11.
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 389
a hundred and forty-five years after Achoreus was dead, and
some part of the land of Goshen, where Joseph placed his
brethren, was called after his name, before Joseph brought his
brethren into Egypt ; and this will well agree to ray placing
Joseph in the reign of Thusimares, who was the second king
after Rameses". Thusimares reigned thirty-one years", and
if Joseph was advanced in the thirteenth year of his reign,
Thusimares died sixty-two years before Joseph ; for Joseph
was thirty years old when Pharaoh advanced him?, and he
lived to be a hundred and ten years old^, so that he lived
eighty years after his advancement. And, according to sir
John Marsham's account of the lengths of the reigns of
Thusimares's successors, Joseph lived to serve three of them,
and died in the twentieth year of the reign of Ramesse-
Tubaete. So that he supported his credit with four kings ;
an instance of the stabihty of courts in these times. He was
highly esteemed by the princes, and universally beloved by
all the people : he had advanced the crown of Egypt to a
state of wealth and grandeur, which until his time it had
been a stranger to, and had acquired the king a property
greater perhaps than any king in the world at that time en-
joyed, and established upon a better foundation ; for he had
obliged the subjects of the land, in the manner by which he
acquired it, as much as he had advanced Pharaoh by the
acquisition of it, and was in truth what he styled himself, a
father not only to Pharaoh \ but to every one of his subjects
also ; for by his care and provision the whole land was pre-
served from becoming desolate, and every one of the inha-
bitants preserved from perishing. Joseph lived to see his
grandchildren grown up to be men s, and then he called
his brethen together, and assured them, that God would in
due time bring them out of Egypt into the possession of the
land of Canaan ; and made them swear to him, that when
they should go out of Egypt, they would carry away his
bones with them. Joseph died fifty-two years after his
father, A. M. 2367.
n See sir J. Marsham, Can. Chron. Q Gen. 1. 22.
° Id- ibid. r Gen. xlv. 8.
P Gen. xli. 46. s Gen. 1. 22, 23.
390 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
The children of Israel, or family of Jacob, when they
came into Egypt, were about seventy persons : Jacob and
his children that came with him were in number sixty-
seven, and Joseph and his two sons make up the number
seventy; but besides these, Jacob''s sons' wives came also
with them *. There are some difficulties in Moses's cata-
logues of Jacob's children. We have one catalogue in
chap. XXXV. and another in chap. xlvi. In the 35th chapter
we are told the sons of Jacob were twelve, and after a parti-
cular enumeration of them it is said, These are the sons of Ja-
cob, which were horn to him in Padan-Aram. Now it is evi-
dent that all these sons were not born in Padan-Aram, for
Benjamin was born near Ephrath in Canaan ". Some
writers have remarked, that the expression of the He-
brew is, which were hegat by him in Padan-Aram, and they
imagine that Rachel was with child of Benjamin when
Jacob left Laban, and that this was what Moses intended in
this passage : but this cannot be allowed ; for if the He-
brew words may possibly bear that sense ^, yet Jacob after
he came from Haran lived at Shechem, and bought land
there, and afterwards lived at Bethel, and removed thence
before Benjamin was born ; so that several years passed be-
tween Jacob's leaving Padan-Aram and the birth of Benja-
min : I have computed at least ten years X, so that Rachel
could not be with child of him in Padan-Aram. Other
commentators ^ think the passage to be a synecdoche ; but
surely this pretence is very idle : we must have an odd no-
tion of Moses's eloquence to imagine that he had a mind to
display it in giving us the names of Jacob's twelve sons,
and a still more surprising notion of rhetoric, to make such
a passage as this a figure of speech, which looks ten times
more like a mistake than a synecdoche. I should think it
certain that Moses did not write the words in Padan -Aram
in this place ; but that he ended his period with the words
which were born to him; but that some careless or injudi-
cious transcriber, finding the words in Padan-Aram in Gen.
t Gen. xlvi. 26. OIN ]TD3 l"?-!"?' IfflN 2pl-' '32
u Gen. XXXV. i6 — 18. y Seep. 384.
X The Hebrew words are n'?N z Vid. Pool, Synop. in loc.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 391
xlvi. 15. might add them here also, and be led into the mis-
take by considering that he had twelve children born
there, which is indeed true, but eleven of them only were
sons ; one of his children born in Padan-Aram, namely Di-
nah, was a daughter. In the catalogue in Genesis xlvi.
there seems to be a deficiency : Moses begins it, These are
the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt,
Jacob and his sons : Reuben his firstborn^ ; but then he does
not add the names of Jacob's other sons which he had by
Leah and Zilpah, nor of those which he had by Bilhah;
and if we cast up the number of names which are now
given us, they will fall short of the number which Moses
computes them to be ^ by all the names thus omitted : I
cannot but think therefore, that all these names of Jacob's
sons were inserted by Moses ; but have been dropped by
the carelessness of transcribers : the accounts of each family
might be begun by Moses as the first is. Reuben, Jacob'' s
firstborn, and the sons of Reuben : so Moses most probably
wrote : Simeon, and the sons of Simeon ^ ; Levi, and the
sons of Levi ^ ; Judah, and the sons of Judah ® ; and so in
the accounts of all the rest; and the same word being re-
peated might be easily dropped by an hasty writer : and it
is very evident, that the transcribers have been careless in
these catalogues ; for the children of Leah are said by mis-
take to be thirty- three ^, whereas there are but thirty- two,
and, without doubt, Moses computed them no more than
thirty-two ; for he makes the whole number of the chil-
dren of Jacob that came with him into Egypt to be sixty-
six^; and thirty-two children of Leah, sixteen of Zilpah,
eleven of Kachel, (without Joseph and his two sons,) and
seven by Bilhah, make up exactly the number. If the chil-
dren of Leah had been thirty-three, the number that came
with Jacob into Egypt must have been sixty-seven, as may
be seen by any one that will put together the several persons
named in the catalogue. All the soids of the house of Jacob,
a Gen xlvi. 8. e Ver. 12.
b Ver. 26. f Ver. 15.
c Ver. 10. S Ver. 26.
d Ver. II. ,- •-!
392 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
which came into Egypt, loere threescore and ten ^', i. e. sixty-
six as above mentioned, and Jacob himself, and Joseph, and
Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh ; and thus many
they are always computed to be in all places where they
are mentioned in Scripture ^ The LXX, indeed suppose,
that there were seventy-five of Jacob's family in Egypt,
when he was come thither. They render the latter part of
the 27th verse. All the souls of the house of Jacob, ivhich came
into Egypt, tvere kjihoiiriKovTa Ttevre, i. e. seventy-five. And
thus they number them, Exodus chap. i. ver. 5. and the
number is the same in St. Stephen's speech ^, where they
are said to be threescore and fifteen souls. As to the Septua-
gint, it is evident how we come to find the number seventy-
five instead of seventy in Gen. xlvi. 27 ; for, i. in our pre-
sent copies of the Septuagint there is a very large interpo-
lation, of which not one word is to be found in any He-
brew copy. The LXX. give us the 20th verse of this
chapter thus : And there loere sons horn unto Joseph in the
land of Egypt, ichich Asenath the daughter of Potipherah
priest of Heliopolis bare unto him^ Manasseh and Ephraim,
After these words they add, And there loere born sons unto
Manasseh, which Syra his concubine bare unto him, Machir,
and Machir begat Galaad ; and the so7is of Ephraim the bro-
ther of Manasseh were Sutalam and Taam, and the so?is of
Sutalam loere Edom : and thus our present editions of the
Septuagint compute seventy-five persons instead of seventy,
by taking into the account five sons and grandsons of
Ephraim and Manasseh, which are not in the Hebrew.
But, 2. these five persons were evidently not put into this
catalogue by Moses ; for the design of this catalogue was
to give the names of the persons of Jacob's family who
came with him into Egypt, or who were there at the time
when he came thither ; but Ephraim and Manasseh could
have no children born at this time, and therefore their
children's names cannot be supposed to be inserted by
Moses in this place. Joseph was about thirty years old
when he married ^ and he was about forty or forty-one
h Gen. xlvi. 27. ^ Acts vii. 14.
i Exodus i. 5. Dcut. X. 22. 1 Gen. xli. 45, 46.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 393
when Jacob came into Egypt; so that Manasseh, who was
his elder son. could not be much above ten years old, and
therefore it is an evident mistake in our present Septuagint
copies to insert Joseph's grandchildren, and their children,
in this place. 3. It is not very difficult to guess how these
additions were made to the LXX. I call them additions,
for no one can imagine that the first translators of the He-
brew Bible into Greek could so palpably and erroneously
deviate from the original. The owners of ancient manu-
scripts used frequently to make marginal references, obser-
vations, or notes in their manuscripts, and very probably
some learned person might collect from Numbers xxvi. and
I Chron. vii. that Manasseh and Ephraim had these sons
and grandsons, and remark it in the margin of his manu-
script Septuagint, and some transcribers from that manu-
script might mistake the design ; think it put there as an
omission of the copyist, and so take it into the text ; and, by
degrees, this accident happening very early when there
were but few copies of the LXX. taken, all subsequent
transcripts came to be corrupted by it. 4. As to the 14th verse
of chap. vii. of the Acts, I cannot conceive that St. Luke
wrote threescore and fifteen souls ; but it being pretty certain
that transcribers in the first ages of Christianity did some-
times make such small alterations as these, to make the
New Testament accord with the copies they then had of
the LXX. Bible, (the LXX. being more read by the Christ-
ians of the first ages than the Hebrew Scriptures,) it seems
most reasonable to suppose, that they finding 75, and not 70,
in the 46th chapter of Genesis, and Exodus i. might alter
the ancient reading of this passage in St. Stephen's speech,
to make it accord with the LXX. in the places referred to.
5. That the number 75, instead of 70, came into the Septua-
gint copies in the manner above mentioned, might be con-
firmed from Josephus, who computes but 70 of Jacob's
family in Egypt at this time, agreeing with the Hebrew™,
and perhaps even from the LXX. translation itself ; for that
m Joseph. Antiq. Jud. 1. ii. c. 7. ejus Exscviptores, P. Comestor, Epito-
Ita in omnibus Josephi exeraplaribus mator Cantuar. aliique. Hudson, not.
turn hie, turn c. ix. §. 3. nee aliter in loc.
894) CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
very translation says in another place expressly that they
were but 70 persons ", agreeing fully with the Hebrew,
which may hint to us, that the true ancient reading of the
LXX. itself was 70, and not 75. There is one difficulty
more, which ought not to be passed over : in Genesis xlvi.
12. we are told, that Er and Onan, the sons of Judah, died
in the land of Canaan, and Hezron and Hamul, sons of
Pharez, are inserted in the catalogue of Jacob's family that
came with him into Egypt. Jacob married about A. M.
22,50. Judah was Jacob's fourth son, and might be born
about A. M. 2254. Jacob came into Egypt A. M. 2298, so
that Judah was at this time about forty-four years of age;
but if he was no older, how could Hezron and Hamul, Ju-
dah's grandchildren by his son Pharez, be born at this
time ? We cannot suppose that Judah married Shuah° before
he was twenty ; we cannot well suppose it so early ; he must
be at least twenty-one when his son Er was born, about
twenty-two at Onan's birth, and twenty-three at the birth
of Shelah P ; and if he took a wife for his son Er w^hen Er
was seventeen, then Judah was thirty-eight when Er mar-
ried. Er died soon after he married, and Onan took his
wife: and Onan died also, and Judah desired Tamar his
daughter-in-law to remain a widow until Shelah his son
should be grown q: Tamar did so; but when Shelah was
grown, and she was not given unto him to wife, Tamar
dressed herself like an harlot, and Judah, not knowing her to
be his daughter-in-law, lay with her, and she had two chil-
dren by him, Pharez and Zarah ^ Judah could not be
less than forty-one or forty-two when he lay with Tamar,
and Pharez could not be above two or three years old when
Jacob came into Egypt ; so that it is impossible that Pharez
should have any children born at this time. The most
learned archbishop Usher seems to think that Jacob mar-
ried, and consequently that Judah was born, earlier than I
n Deut. X. 22. It must be acknow- other manuscripts,
ledged, that the Alexandrian manu- o Gen. xxxviii. 2.
script has m this place efiSo/j.iiKoi'ra P Ver. 3, 4, 5.
irffTe. The word irecre might be in- 1 Ver. 6 — 11.
serted to correct a supposed fault of *■ Ver. 14 — 30.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 395
have supposed. He intimates from Gen. xxix. 21, that
Jacob might perhaps marry soon after he came to Laban :
but the place cited does surely prove that he served Laban
seven years, and then said, Give me my vnfe,for my clays are
fulfilled, i. e. the time is now expired which I agreed to
serve for her^: but if we should even suppose that Jacob
married when he first entered Laban's service, this will help
us but to seven years, and can make Pharez not above ten
years old when Jacob came into Egypt, so that Pharez still
iCould have no children at this time. It must be confessed
that all the versions agree exactly in this verse, and it ap-
pears to be fact that Er and Onan died in Canaan '. Mis-
takes in numbers are easily made by even careful tran-
scribers : I am not sensible that it is of any moment to sup-
pose that Jacob and his descendants when they came into
Egypt were exactly seventy ; why may we not suppose that
Moses computed them but threescore and eight, and that
the number teti is a corruption of the text, and the names
Hezron and Hamul, the sons of Pharez, an interpolation ? If
I may not take the liberty to make this correction of the
text, I must freely acknowledge that I do not see how to
clear the difficulty I have mentioned ; but must leave it to
the learnedly, as I do entirely submit to them, what I have
attempted to conjecture about it. The children of Israel
flourished in Egypt, and were protected and favoured by the
kings of it for Joseph's sake, until the government of Egypt
was overthrown in the following manner.
s Gen. xxix. See ver. 20, 21. i. e. was about fifteen, A. M. 2282 ;
t Gen. xxxviii. 7, 10. that Judah lay with Tamar, 2283 ;
« I ought not to omit taking no- that Pharez and Zara were born at the
tice, that the most learned archbishop end of this year; that Pharez was
Usher has left something in a posthu- fifteen, and married, and had twins,
mous work of his, which may perhaps Hezron and Hamul at a time, and in
be thought to solve this difficulty, the year 2298, to have the children
This most learned writer supposes Ju- carried with Jacob into Egypt in that
dah to have been born A. M. 2247, to year. Here is certainly every thing
have married when nineteen years old, offered that can possibly be supposed,
A. M. 2266, that his son Er was born and whether nothing more than can
within that year, that Onan was born reasonably be allowed, I must refer to
A. M. 2267, Shelah 2268, that Er the reader's consideration. See Usher's
married when he was fifteen, i. e. Chronol. Sacra, c. x. p. 170. ed. Oxon.
A. M. 2281, that Onan married within 1660.
the same year, that Shelah was grown.
396 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII,
In the fifth year of Concharis, whom Josephus from Ma-
netho calls Timaeus", and who, according to Syncellus, was
the twenty-fifth king of the land of Tanis, or lower Egypt,
there came a numerous army of unknown people, and in-
vaded Egypt on a sudden ; they overran both the upper and
the lower Egypt, fired houses and cities, killed the inhabit-
ants, and made a terrible devastation all the land over, and
having in a little time subdued all before them, they made
one of their leaders their king, whose name was Salatis :
Salatis being made king, laid the land under tribute, made
the ancient inhabitants of Egypt his slaves, garrisoned such
towns as he thought proper all over the country, and esta-
blished himself upon the throne, and settled his people in
the land. Whence Salatis and his followers came is only to
be conjectured : they called themselves the Pastors or Shep-
herds ; they took particular care to fortify the eastern parts
of Egypt, and seemed most afraid of a disturbance from that
quarter. The government of Egypt being thus subverted,
the protection and happiness which the Israelites enjoyed
perished with it : Salatis knew nothing of Joseph, nor did
he regard any establishment which Joseph had settled : he
made his way into Egypt with his sword, and he brought
his people into the land by conquest, in such a manner and
upon such terms as he thought fit ; and the Israelites were a
rich and increasing people, inhabiting the very parts which
he thought proper to take the greatest care of; and he readily
suspected, that if any invasion should happen from the east,
they would join against themy. He therefore took a par-
ticular care to keep them low.
That this king who oppressed the Israelites was not an
Egyptian, but some foreigner, who with his forces had
overrun the country, seems very evident from the appel-
lations which Moses gives him. He loas a neto king, and
k7iew not Joseph^, both which hints strongly intimate him
to be a foreigner ; the word new is frequently used in this
sense ,• new gods ^ are strange or foreign gods ; and had he
^ Josephus contra Ajiion. 1. i. §.14. ^ Ver. 8.
y Exodus i. 10. » Dcut. xxxii. 16, 17. Judges v. 8.
AXD PROFANE HISTORY. 397
been an Egyptian, he must have known Joseph, for he came
to reign not long after Joseph was dead, and his brethren,
and all that generation^ ; and it is impossible that the kings
of Egypt could in so short a time have forgot Joseph. Some
writers have endeavoured to determine whence this new
king and people came. Cardinal Cajetan says they were
Assyrians, which he collects from Isaiah c; the words of the
prophet are, TJms saith the Lord, My people went down afore-
time into Egypt to sojourn titer e^ and the Assyrian ojypressed
them xoithout cause. If the Hebrew words had been put in
such order, as that the word and in this verse might be read
before there, and there the Assyrian oppressed them without
cause, the cardinal's opinion founded upon this passage would
be unquestionable : but as the verse is worded, the two parts
of it seem to be two distinct sentences, and the design of it
was to comfort the Jews against the prospect of the Babylo-
nian captivity, by hinting to them their former deliverance
out of the Egyptian bondage. My people went down aforetime
into Egypt to sojourn there; and now the Assyrian is about
oppressing them without cause : Now therefore [as it follows]
xohat have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away
for notight? — Therefore my people shall hiov) my name — ivhen
the Lord shall bring again Zioti^. The whole design of this
passage, with what follows, was intended to hint to the
Israelites, that God would certainly bring them out of the
Babylonian captivity e, and the cardinal's conjecture cannot
be at all supported by it. Africanus says, that these pastors
that overran Egypt were Phoenicians f, but hints, that some
other writers thought them to be Arabians : these two opin-
ions are not so widely different as they seem to be, for
Africanus hints that his Phoenicians came out of the eastern
parts, [efc tcov Trpos avaToX7]v /ixepwy] ; and the ancients did not
accurately distinguish, but often called the whole land of
Canaan with the countries adjacent by the name of Phoe-
nicia. It is indeed true that the Arabians are situate rather
southward than eastward, and I should not think these
ii Exod. i. 6. e See Pool's Synopsis in loc.
c Isaiah lii. 4. f Syncell. Chronogi-aph. p. 61. ed.
U Ver. 5—8. Par. 1652.
398 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VII.
Pastors came out of that country : the most probable con-
jecture that I can make about them is, that they were the
Horites, whom the children of Esau drove out of their own
lands. These Horites were a people that lived by pasturage,
and they were expelled their country much about this time :
their passage into Egypt was almost directly from the east,
and they had great reason to fortify the eastern parts of
Egypt, very probably apprehending that the enemy that had
dispossessed them of their own country might take occa-
sion to follow them thither. It may seem unaccountable,
that a number of unsettled people should be able to seize
upon and overturn the government of a large, a wise, and
well-established kingdom : but this will not appear so sur-
prising, if we consider the state of kingdoms in these ages.
Thucydides's observation of the ancient states of Greece
might be applied to all the kingdoms of the world in the
early ages"^. Kings had not so firm and secure a possession
of their thrones, nor yet the people of the countries they
inhabited, as we are apt to think from a judgment formed
from the present state of the world : as there was but little
traffic stirring in these times, so distant kingdoms had little
or no acquaintance with one another, nor did they know of
designs formed against themselves until they came to feel
them. When the Israelites went out of Egypt, and were
come into the wilderness, they exercised and formed their
discipline and government for forty years together ; and
though they were exceedingly numerous, yet no great no-
tice was taken of them by any of the nations that lay near
them, until they were ready to attack them : where could
such a body of people get together now in the world, and not
have an alliance of all the neighbour kingdoms ready to
require an account of their designs ? But in these early days
MoUia securse peragebant otia gentes. — Ovid,
kings apprehended no foreign attacks until the armies that
came to conquer them were at their doors, and so their
kingdoms were more easily overrun by them. Egypt was
e Deut. ii. 12, 22. h Thucydid. 1. i.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 399
a very flourishing kingdom, but not famous for war : we do
not read of any exercise this way, or any trial of their arms
from the days of their first king to this time ; so that these
Horites (if they were indeed the Horites) might easily con-
quer them, and gain themselves a settlement in their king-
dom ; as the Arcadians did in Thrace ; the Pelasgi, and
afterwards the Trojans, did in Italy ; nay, and in much later
days, the Franconians issued out of their own country in
this manner in armed multitudes, and conquered France, and
set up there that government which that kingdom is now
subject to'. The time when these Pastors thus overran
Egypt may be pretty well determined in the following
manner, i . It was before Moses was born ; for the new
king of Egypt had taken several measures to oppress the
Israelites before the time of Moses's birth'', and Moses was
born A. M. 2433. 2. It was after Levi's death, for Joseph
died and all his brethren before this new king arose that
knew not Joseph 1; and Levi lived to be 137 years old'",
and so being born about A. M. 2253", he died A. M. 2390.
3. It was some years after Levi's death, for not only Joseph
and his brethren were dead, but all that generation. Ben-
jamin was born twenty years after Levi, and therefore we
may suppose that he, or at least some of that generation,
lived so long after Levi's death, i. e. to A. M. 2410, so that
it was after that year, and before the year of Moses's birth
2433, perhaps about the year 2420; and this account will
place it much about the same time that the Horites were
expelled Seir by the children of Esau; for they were ex-
pelled by Esau's grandchildren, of the families of his
younger sons Reuel and Aliphaz, and these Pastors came to
Egypt in the time of Jacob's grandchildren by his younger
sons, their fathers being all dead. If we determine the
Pastors coming into Egypt about the year 2420 above men-
tioned, and in the fifth year of the reign of Concharis, we
may count backwards 133 years in sir John Marsham's list
' Davila's History of the Civil Wars " Levi was Jacob's third son. Jacob
of France, book i. married A. M. 2250. Levi might be
k Exod. i. born about three years after Jacob
1 Ver. 6. married.
mExod. vi. 16.
400 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [l500K VII.
of the kings of Tanis, foi' so many years passed between
Joseph's advancement and A. M. 2430, and so determine who
the king was, and in what year of his reign he advanced
Joseph ; and, according to this account, Joseph was ad-
vanced by Thusimares, the twentieth king of Tanis, and in
the thirteenth year of Thusimares's reign, as I have before
supposed.
The Pastors and their king took particular care to keep
the IsraeHtes low. He made them his slaves, employed
them in building him storehouses and walls for Abaris°j
which was afterwards called Pelusium, or, according to
Moses, Pithom, and for RaamsesP, and in making brick,
and in other laborious services ; and, considering that they
increased exceedingly in numbers, he ordered the midwives
to kill every male child that should be born of any of
them^. The midwives did not execute his orders; so he
thought of another way to destroy them, and charged all his
people to have every male child, that was born to the Israel-
ites, thrown into the river •".
There is a difficulty in the account which Moses gives
in this place of the midwives ; It came to pass, because the
midwives feared God, that he made them houses^. Can we sup-
pose that God raised houses for the midwives miraculously?
or could the Israelites, oppressed in slavery, shew so great a
gratitude as to build them any ? or, "if they could, dare they
venture to requite them so publicly, for refusing to act as
the king ordered them ? If I may take a liberty of guessing,
I should think that Moses did not mean in this place that
houses were built for the midwives, but for the Israelites,
It will be queried who was the builder? Why should God
upon the case here before us build the Israelites houses? I
answer; it was not God built the houses here spoken of,
but Pharaoh : the case was this : Pharaoh had charged the
midwives to kill the male children that were born of the
Hebrew women ; the midwives feared God, and omitted to
o Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 105. 1 Exod. i. 16.
§. 8. Josephus cont. Apion. 1. i. §. 14. r Ver. 22.
Eusebius, Prsep. Evang. 1. x. c. 12. * Ver. 21.
P Exod. i. 1 1 .
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 401
do as the king had commanded them, pretending in excuse
for their omission, that the Hebrew women were generally-
delivered before they could get to them ' : Pharaoh here-
upon resolving to prevent their increase, gave a charge to
his people to have all the male children of the Hebrews
thrown into the river ; but this command could not be
strictly executed, whilst the Israelites lived up and down in
the fields in tents, which was their ancient and customary
way of living, for they would shift here and there, and
lodge the women in childbed out of the way, to save their
children ; Pharaoh therefore built them houses, and obliged
them to a more settled habitation, that the people he had
set over them might know where to find every family, and
take account of all the children that should be born : so that
this was a very cunning contrivance of Pharaoh, in order to
have his charge more strictly and efilsctually executed than
it could otherwise have been, and was a remarkable parti-
cular not to be omitted in Moses's account of this affair :
but as to houses built for the midwives, it seems impos-
sible to give any account why they shoidd be built, or how,
or by whom. It will here be asked, but how can the words
of Moses be reconciled to what I have offered ? I answer :
if they be faithfully translated, they can bear no other
meaning whatsoever ; which will be very evident from the
following translation of the place, which is word for word
agreeable to the Hebrew, and which I have distinguished
into verses, as I think the passage ought really to have been
distinguished.
Verse i8. A?id the king of Egtjpt called for the midivives,
and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing^ and saved
alive the children ?
Verse 19. Atid the midwives said imto Pharaoh, Because the
Hebrew toomen are not as the Egyptian ivomen, for they are
lively, and are delivered before the midivife comes to them.
Verse 20. And God dealt tvell with the midivives: and
the people multiplied, and ivaxed very mighty : \^TV'\ vejehi,
i. e.] and this happened, (or was so, or came to pass,) because
the midwioes feared God.
t Exod. i. 1 9.
VOL. T. D d
402 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [eOOK VII.
^^And Pharaoh built them [i. e. the Israelites] houses, and
charged all his people, saying. Every son that is born ye shall
cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
And thus, if I may take the liberty to suppose the passage
not rightly pointed as to the stops, which were the ancient
marks at the end of verses'', the words may well be ren-
dered as I would take them. The division of the Hebrew
Bible into verses is certainly very ancient, but not earlier
than the captivity y; and I do not find that the best writers
imagine the sections made by an unerring hand. I should
think the verses which I am treating of to have been di-
vided as they now are injudiciously by some careless tran-
scriber ; but it is evident that they were thus parted be-
fore the LXX. translation was made, for the LXX. render
the 2 1st verse thus ; 'E-nel 8e €(pol3ovvTO at juaiai tov Qebv, k-noir]-
aav kavra'is otKias' And because the midwives feared God, they
made themselves houses. And hence it is evident, that the
LXX, found a difficulty in the verse, and thought it absurd
to say that God built the midwives houses, and so turned
the expression another way : but their version cannot be
right, for the Hebrew words are not they, but he built, and
in the original, la hem signifies for them, and not for them-
selves : and I do not at present see any way to give a clear
account of the place so easy, as to suppose the punctuation
wrong, as I have imagined. Some of the commentators
have indeed offered a conjecture, at first sight very promising,
to explain the expression as it now stands : they would take
the words, made them houses, metaphorically, and say that
they mean either that God gave the midwives many children,
or that he made them prosperous in their affairs : the former
of these interpretations is vSt. Ambrose's, and it is said that
the expression is thus vised Gen. xvi. 2. xxx. 3. Deut. xxv. 9.
Kuth iv. 1 1 ; but in this point these interpreters make a great
u The words are
IDS? '73'7 nmo isn nTia an'? ©yn
suo pnpulo omni Pharaoh prcecepil et domos illis fecit Et
Our English translators should have our English will not admit of it.
considered that the nominative case to ^ ^eo Prideaux, Connect, b. v. p.
two verbs is commonly put after the 263. ed. fol. 17 18. p. 479. 8vo. 1725.
second verb in other languages^ tliough >' Id. ibid.
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 403
mistake ; the expression before us is Nashah Beith ; but
the expression in the passages cited is a very different one,
it is Banah Beith, and not Nashah : had the expression here
before us been Banah Beithim lahem, it might have signi-
fied, God built up their houses or families, hy making them
numerous ; but Nashah Beithim lahem are words of a very
different meaning. But in the second place it is said, that
Nashah Beithim signifies, that God prospered them, or pro-
vided for them, and Gen. xxx. 30. is cited to justify this in-
terpretation. The words in that passage are. And now, when
shall I [make or] provide for my oion house also ? But here
again the instance fails : the expression cited is not Nashah
Beith, but it is Nashah le Beith ,• not, when shall I make my
house ? but, when shall I make for my house ? or, lohen shall I
do for my house ? between which two expressions there is
evidently a difference.
D d2
THE
SACRED AND PROFANE
HISTOKY OF THE WORLD
CONNECTED.
BOOK VIII.
SALATIS, the new king of Egypt, not only oppressed
the Israelites, but, by the violence of his conquests % so
terrified the ancient inhabitants of the land, that many per-
sons of the first figure thought it better to leave their native
country, than to endeavour to sit down under the calamities
which they feared might be brought upon them ; and from
hence it happened, that several companies made the best
way they could out of Egypt, in hopes of gaining them-
selves an happier settlement in some foreign country. Ister,
a writer cited by Eusebius'^, and by Clemens Alexandri-
nus ", and who lived in the time of Ptolemy Euergetes '^,
wrote a particular account of the colonies that removed
out of Egypt into other nations : his work would perhaps
have been very serviceable in this place ; but this and
other performances of Ister are long since lost : however,
Dioftorus Siculus has particularly remarked, that Egypt
a Josephus cont. Apion, 1. i. § 14. c Stromat. 1. i. §.21. and 1. iii.
p. 1337. ed. Huds. §. 6.
b Prsep. Evang. 1. iv. c. 16. d Marsham. Can. Cliron. p. 107,
406 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
has sent many colonies into diverse parts of the world®; and
we may collect from him, and from hints of other ancient
writers, that Cecrops, Erichthonius, and the father of Cad-
mus, left Egypt about the times we are treating of; and
Danaus and Belus followed them not long after.
Belus was the son of Neptune : who this Neptune was
we are not informed, but it seems to be an Egyptian name :
for the Egyptians called the shores which the sea-waves
beat upon, Nepthun ^ ; and most probably the person called
by this name was an inventor of shipping, and from thence
came to be called the god of the sea; and this tradition
of him was embraced by the Cretans ^. Herodotus ob-
serves, that he had divine honours paid him in a country
next adjacent to Egypt ^, where his wife seems to have
lived ', and where perhaps he might go to live when his
son Belus left Egypt; but either because he died not in
Egypt, or because he lived in these troublesome times, when
the natives of Egypt were under a foreign power that had
invaded them, his name was not recorded amongst the great
and eminent Egyptian ancients; and so, though in after-
ages he was worshipped in many foreign countries, yet he
never was reputed a deity by the Egyptians ^. His son
Belus went to Babylon, and carried with him some of the
Egyptian priests, and obtained them leave to settle and cul-
tivate their studies there, in the same manner, and with the
encouragement and protection which they had been fa-
voured with in their own country^ : if we consider the studies
which these Egyptians were engaged in, it will be easy to
account for their meeting with so favourable a reception at
Babylon. They employed themselves in astronomy, and
making observations on the stars ", and the Babylonians had
been promoters and encouragers of this study above seven
hundred years before these men came amongst them, and
continued to cultivate and cherish these arts for above eleven
6 Lib. i. §. 28. p. 24. i His wife was called Aifivrj, Dio-
^ Plutarch, in Iside et Osiride, p. dor. Li. § 28. p. 24.
366. ed, Xyl. 1624. k Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 50.
S Diodor. Sic. lib. v. §. 69. p. 337. 1 Diodor. lib. i. §. 70. p. 24.
h Lib. ii. c. 50. m Id. ibid.
AND PROFANE HISTOllY. 407
hundred years after ". These Egyptians were probably very
able to put the Babylonians into a better method of prose--
cuting these studies, than they were before masters of; for
though the Babylonians began to make astronomical observa-
tions sooner than any other nation in the world, yet the
Egyptians seem to have been more happy in these studies
than they ; for the first correction in the length of the year
was made in Egypt", and before the Babylonians were able
to attempt it. We may make a conjecture not improbable, of
what this Belus might teach the Babylonians, in order to
improve their astronomical observations. The chief aim of
the ancient astronomers was to observe the times of the rising
and setting of the stars ; and the first and most proper places
they could think of to make their observations in \yere very
large and open plains p, where they could have an extensive
view of the horizon without interruption ; and such plains as
these were their observatories for many generations. But the
Egyptians had, about three hundred years before the time of
this Belus 'i, thought of a method to improve these views,
namely, by building their pyramids, on the tops of which
they might take their prospects with still greater advantage :
and Belus taught the Babylonians the use of these struc-
tures, and perhaps projected for them that lofty tower,
which conveyed the name of Belus down to future ages.
The most learned dean Prideaux remarks of this tower, that
it was more ancient than the temple which was afterwards
built round it, and that it was certainly built many ages ■■
before Nebuchadnezzar ; and, according to this account of
it, it will be more ancient than his reign by almost a thou-
sand years, Bochart asserts it to have been the very same
tower which was built in this country at the confusion of
tongues s ; but it cannot well be imagined to be so, for that
certainly was a mountainous heap raised with no great art,
n See vol. i. b. iv. p. 114. 50. p. 46.
o Pref. vol. i. q The largest pyramid was built by
P Trjr x'^P^^ avTo'is ffvuepyovffris irphs Syphis. See vol. i. b. v. p. 191.
rh TTiKavyearpov bpav ras eVtroAas Koi ^ Connect, vol. i. b. ii. an. 570,
Svaeis Twy &<jrpa)v. Diodor. lib. i. §. s Phaleg. part. i. 1. i. c, 9,
408 CONKECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
by a multitude of untaught and unexperienced builders,
who had no further aim than to raise a monument of their
vanity ' ; but this was a nice piece of workmanship, more
like the production of a more improved age, and it was a
building well contrived and fitted for various uses. I might
add further, that this tower was finished, but the former
never was ; so that at most this could only be raised upon
the ruins and foundations of that, and must have been the
work of later builders. The tower of Belus seems to have
been a great improvement of the Egyptian pyramids ; for
the tower was contrived to answer all the useful purposes of
the largest pyramid, and in a better manner. It was raised
to a much greater height", and had a more commodious
space at top, and more useful and larger apartments within,
and yet was a less bulky building, and raised upon far nar-
rower foundations. In its outward form it looked so like
a pyramid to them that viewed it at a little distance, that it
has been mistaken for one ; and Strabo expressly calls it a
pyramid in the account he gives of it^. And upon these
accounts I should imagine it was projected by one well ac-
quainted with the Egyptian pyramid and its defects, and
therefore able to design a structure that might exceed it ;
and I cannot say to whom we can ascribe it with so great a
show of probability as to the Belus we are speaking of. It
is not probable that the Egyptian name of this man was
Belus, for Bel or Belus is an Assyrian, and not an Egyptian
name ; but it is remarkable that all sorts of persons had
new names given them, whenever they were well received
in foreign countries. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, called Joseph
Zaphnah-Paaneahy ; and the prince of the eunuchs gave
new names to Daniel and his companions, when they were
appointed to be taken care of, and prepared for public em-
ployments in the court of Babylon ^ ; and what name more
proper or more honorary than this could they give this
Egyptian, who was eminent in a science which one of
t See vol. i. b. ii. p. 64. ^ Gen. xli. 45.
u Dr. Prideaux ubi sup. ^ Dan. i. 7.
" L. xvi. ad in. 508. ed. Cans. 1587.
AXD PROFANE HISTORY. ' 409
their first kings of this name was the famous and first pro-
fessor of? It is even now a known figure of speech to call
an excellent orator a Cicero, a poet an Homer, an eminent
and virtuous legislator Lycurgus, a soldier Achilles or
Hector. With the ancients in the first times it was their
common usage ; and thus Agathodaemon'* was called Thyoth
or Thoth in Egypt, because he was the reviver or restorer
of those parts of learning which a son of Mizraim of that
name first planted there, many ages before this second
Thyoth was born. And thus the Babylonians named the
person we are speaking of Belus, because he was a great
and remarkable improver of that astronomy which Belus,
the second king of Babylon, was the celebrated author of.
Sir John Marsham seems to think the Belus we are speak-
ing of, and the king of Babylon of that name, to be but
one and the same person*^; and he imagines him to be
Arius the fourth king after Ninus ; and he endeavours to
support his opinion by a passage from Cedrenus ^, who says,
" that after Ninus, Thurus reigned over the Assyrians ; that
" his father Zames called him Ares ; that the Assyrians set
" up the first pillar to this Ares, and worshipped him as a
" god, naming him Baal." In which opinion of Cedrenus
there are these mistakes: i. Ares here spoken of, to whom
the Assyrians set up the first pillar, was not a deified king or
hero, but a name of the star Mars ; for the Babylonians
worshipped in the first days of their idolatry the luminaries
of heaven, and did indeed set up a pillar to that particular
planet"^. 2. They did not call this particular deity Baal,
but Adar or Azar^. Baal was their name for the sun. 3. It
was not until many ages after that they worshipped their
kings. Gesner very judiciously remarks that the Assyrians
deified Belus, i. e. the king of that name, about A. M.
3 1 85 f, and they cannot be supposed to have deified him
sooner ; for they were not descended so low in their idolatry
a See vol. i. b. i. p. 28. Sir John Chron. p. 32.
Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 231. Euseb. d See vol. i. b. v. p. 196.
in Chron. e See vol. i. b. v. p. 198.
"> Can. Chron. p. 32. 107. f Not. ad Tatian. ed. Worth. Oxon.
c Cedrenus, p. 16. Marsham, Can. p. 126.
410 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [uOOK VIII.
as to woi'ship images, until after A. M. 3274, which is
the twelfth or thirteenth year of Ahaz, and about the time
that the men of Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim
were brought to live in Samaria § ; and it is very probable,
that when they had deified their kings and heroes, image-
worship was introduced soon after. These mistakes of
Cedrenus were most probably occasioned by the planet
Mars and the king Ares bearing the same name : but
omitting to remark, that the names we now have of these
early Assyrian kings are exotic names, and not Assyrian ;
and that the persons intended by them were not so called
in their own countries, nor until they came to be written of
in foreign languages, out of which most of these names are
evidently taken ; and supposing that this Arius had an Assy-
rian name, as agreeable to the Assyrian name for Mars, as
Arius or Ares is to "Apr]s the Greek one ; yet the time he
lived in should have been considered, and the customs of it.
The Assyrians worshipped in these days the luminaries of
heaven ; but, in order to do their kings honour, they called
them by the names of their gods ; and they called one of
them Bel, Baal, or Belus, another perhajjs Adar, another
Nebo, another Gad, and in time they put two or three of
these names together ^ ; and this was their way of putting
the names of their gods upon them^ : but it cannot be con-
cluded from their kings bearing these names, that they
worshipped their kings ; rather these names of their kings
lead us to the knowledge of the gods which they served.
Sir John iMarsham observes, that Pausanias hints, that the
Babylonian Belus had his name from an Egyptian so called :
the passage in Pausanias is this ; he relates that " Manticlus
" built a temple for the Messenians, which he dedicated to
" Hercules, and that they called the god Hercules Manti-
" clus, as they called the African deity Amnion, and the
" Babylonian Belus ; the one being named from Belus
" an Egyptian, the son of Libya, the other from a shepherd,
" who founded the temple"^." Now, from this passage of
S Vol. i. b. V. p. 207. Archbishop i Numb. vi. 27.
Usher's Annals. k In Messeniac. c. 23.
h Vol. i. book v. p. 197.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 411
Pausanias, it can in no wise be concluded, that the Babylo-
nians had had no king named Belus, until this Egyptian
Belus came amongst them : but the true inferences from it
are these : i . That deities had commonly a cognometi or ad-
ditional name from the founders of their temples. 2. That
the Egyptian Belus founded the temple of Belus at Babylon.
This last proposition is indeed not true ; for there were no
temples in the world so early as the days even of this second
Belus ; men at this time worshipping either in groves, or at
their altars in the open air. However, Pausanias might
find reason to think this Belus built the tower which was
called by his name, and he might not separate the tower
from the temple, which, the most learned dean Prideaux
observes', was not built at the same time; so that all that
can be concluded from Pausanias is, that an Egyptian built
the tower of Belus at Babylon ; and this I believe is true :
but this Belus was not so called when he lived in Egypt,
but had the honour of that name given him by the Assy-
rians, in memory of a celebrated king so called by them,
who was famous for the astronomical learning, which this
Egyptian professed. Upon the whole ; that the successor
of Nimrod, and predecessor of Ninus the second king of
Babylon, was called Bel or Belus, we are assured by Africa-
nus and Eusebius"; and Africanus reinarks, that the most
celebrated historians concurred in it. That there was an
Egyptian who led a colony to Babylon, and was there
called Belus, we are assured by Diodorus, and it is also
hinted by Pausanias in the passage above cited. That this
Belus did not come to Babylon before the times we are treat-
ing of, seems probable, because we have no reason to think
that Egypt sent out any colonies until these days ; and fur-
ther, from his being said to build the tower of Belus, which
cannot well be supposed to have been built until after the
largest Egyptian pyramid ; and that he came to Babylon
about these times, seems further probable from his living
about the time that ships were invented : for it is said his
father Neptune was the inventor of ships " ; and that they
1 Ubi sup. m In Chronic. Euseb. " Diodor. sup. cit.
412 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
were invented about these times, appears from what is
recorded of Danans, who was cotemporary with this Belus,
that he made the first ship, and fled with it from Egypt";
his ship, says PhnyP, was called the first ship, because until
his times men used only smaller boats or vessels. Such
ships as Danaus's were a new thing in these days, and
therefore Nepthun the Egyptian was the inventor of them,
and consequently his son Belus lived about this time. And
thus I have endeavoured to clear the history of these two
Belus's, which some learned writers have been fond of per-
plexing. Belus was the father of Danaus '\ ; and as it will
appear that Danaus came to Greece A. M. 249-1-, ^0 i^ ^^ P^*°'
bable that Belus went to Babylon about the same time.
Cecrops left Egypt many years sooner than the time
when Belus went to Babylon, and after some years' travels
he came to Greece, and lived in Attica. He was well re-
ceived there by Actseus, who was at that time king of the
country, and from whom the country was named Actica ^ ;
and some time after he married Actseus's daughter ; and
when Actaeus died, succeeded him in his kingdom «. The
time when Cecrops became king of Attica may be deter-
mined from the Parian Chronicon, which records that Ce-
crops reigned at Athens 13 18 years before that Chronicle
was composed t. Now supposing the Chronicon composed
A. M. 3741 ", it will fix the beginning of Cecrops's reign to
A. M. 2433. Eusebius is thought to differ from this ac-
count'^, 26 years says Selden, and Lydiat from him > : I think
he seems to differ 44 ; for Eusebius's Chronicon begins the
reign of Cecrops 99 or 100 years after the death of Joseph %
and consequently must begin it about A. M. 2467 ^. Lydiat
has attempted to reconcile this difference, but I doubt the
reader will find what he has offered but little to his satis-
o Apollodor. 1. ii. c. 4. Prid. in s Pausanias in Atticis, c. 2.
Marm. Arundel. Ep. 9. * Prid. Ep. Marm. i.
P Lib. vii. 0. 56. " Archbishop Usher's Chron.
q Prideaux, Annotat. ad Clii-on. x Chronic.
Marm. p. 156. ed. 1676. y Lydiat. Annotat. ad Chron. Marm.
r Marm. Arundel. Ep. i. See Pri- p. 13.
deaux, Annotat. in Chron. Marm. p. 91. ^ Numb. Euseb. in Chronic. 460.
ed. 1656. * Book vii.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 413
faction. I should hope, that we may have liberty to cut
knots of this sort, instead of trying to untie them : how-
ever, since all the ancient Greek chronology must depend
upon our fixing this period, I will endeavour to lay before
the reader the whole of what the ancient writers offer about
it, and then he may the better form a judgment of it. And,
1. Castor endeavours to fix the time of Cecrops's reign, in
his list or account of the kings of Sicyon^. He tells us that
^gialeus was the first king of Sicyon, that he reigned 53
years, and began his reign about the 15th year of Belus the
first king of Babylon ; so that we may fix the first year of
^gialeus to A. M. 1920, Belus beginning his reign A. M.
1905C. Castor proceeds, and gives us the reigns of twelve
kings that succeeded ^gialeus, with the particular lengths
of each of their reigns ; and all of them together, including
the reign of ^gialeus with them, amount to 560 years,
ending at the death of Marathonius, and will bring us to
A. M. 2480. Castor remarks after Marathonius's name,
Kara tovtov irpSiTO^ il3aai\ev(r€ Trjs 'Atti/cj^s KeKpoi/^ 6 btcfjvrjs,
that in his time Cecrops began to reign in Attica : now Ma-
rathonius reigned but 30 years, so that placing the first year
of Cecrops very early in his reign, (Eusebius places it in the
third year'i,) we mvist fix the first year of Cecrops, according
to this account, about A. M. 2450 or 2453. I would do
Castor the justice to remark, that his account of these times
seems well adjusted in another particular. After Messapus
he remarks, that in his time Joseph was made governor of
Egypt ; and Messapus, according to his account, began to
reign A.M. 2246, and he reigned 47 years; and Joseph
was advanced e A. M. 2287, i. e. in the 41st year of Mes-
sapus.
2. We may collect the time of Cecrops from another ac-
count of the same chronologer. We have his list of the
Argive kings, from Inachus the first king of that country f;
he says, that Inachus began his reign about the time of
b Eusebii XpoviK. \6y. npior ed. Seal. 1658. p. no.
1658. p. 19. e See book vii.
c See vol. i. b. iv. p. 109. ^ Euseb. XpoviK. \6y. npuir. p. 24. cd.
rt In XpoviK. Kai'. Euseb. ed. Seal. Seal. 16,158.
414 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
Thurimachus, the seventh khig of Sicyon. Now if we cal-
culate, we shall find that Thurimachus began his reign
about A. M. 2148; for Castor places him 228 years later
than the first year of jEgialeus. And supposing Inachus to
begin his reign near as soon as Thurimachus, in Thurima-
chus's sixth year, according to EusebiusS, we shall begin
Inachus's reign A. M. 2154. From the first year of Ina-
chus to the beginning of Triopas's reign, who was the
seventh king of Argos, Castor computes 304 years ; so that
Triopas began to reign A. M. 2458 ; and Tatian and Cle-
mens Alexandrinus both agree, that Cecrops reigned about
the time of Triopas ^ ; and Eusebius, after examining fur-
ther, was of the same opinion'. And thus, from both these
accounts of Castor, we must begin Cecrops's reign later than
A. M. 2450.
3. We have in the next place a computation, which Sca-
liger intended to have pass for Eusebius's, and this will
bring us to about the same year. It is computed that
Ogyges first reigned over the Athenians, and that he was
cotemporary with Phoroneus king of Argos ^ : Castor was
of the same opinion'. It is said further, that Ogyges lived
about the times of Messapus the ninth king of Sicyon, and
that he was later than Belochus the ninth king of Assyria.
Now if any one will make a table of the kings of Assyria,
beginning Belus's reign where I have placed it, he will find
that Belochus died A. M. 2263 ; and from Castor's table of
the kings of Sicyon, it may be computed, that Messapus
began his reign A. M. 2246, and ended it A. M. 2293 ; so
that if we place Ogyges the year after Belochus died, we
shall place him in the i8th year of Messapus, and A. M.
2264 ; and from Ogyges to Cecrops, we are told, are 190
years, so that this account will place Cecrops A.M. 2454.
4. Porphyry's account places Cecrops still later. He says,
that Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt in the 45th year
of Cecrops™. Now Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt
SlnXpoviK. Kav. p. 96. ^ Euseb. KpoviK. \oy. irpwT. p. 27.
h Clem. Stromat. 1. i. p. 380. edit. ed. Seal. 1658.
Oxon. c. 21. Tatian. Orat. ad Grsecos, 1 Ibid. p. 24.
p. 132. §. 60. ed. Oxon. 1700. m Ibid. p. 29.
i Prsep. Evang. lib. x. c. 9. _
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 415
A. M. 2513, and therefore, if Cecrops began his reign but
45 years before this time, we must place him A.M. 2468.
These are the several computations of the ancient writers
which are now extant : but I would in the next place ob-
serve, that Eusebius did not intend to agree with any of
these computations.
We have a general but a full account of what Eusebius,
after the best examination he could make, found to be true,
both in his Prseparatio Evangelica and in his Prooemium to
his Greek Canon Ohronicus " ; and the particulars are,
I. That Cecrops and Moses were cotemporaries. 3. That
they lived 400 years before the taking of Troy ; or rather,
as he expresses it in another place, almost 400 years before
the taking of Troy. 3. That from Moses backwards to the
birth of Abraham are 405 years, and so many likewise from
Ninus to Cecrops. 4. From Semiramis to Cecrops are
more than 400 years. These are the particulars which Euse-
bius thought himself well assured of, and from these parti-
culars it will fully appear, that Eusebius's computations did
not really differ from our epocha on the marble. For, i. if
by Cecrops and Moses being cotemporaries be meant, that
Moses was born after Cecrops was king at Athens, and this
seems to be Eusebius's meaning ; (he says, Mcavaea yevia-Oai.
Kara KeVpoira", which expression is best explained by what
he says of Ninus in the same place, that 'Aj8paa/x eti-at kut
avTov, and he supposes Abraham born towards the latter end
of Ninus's reign, in his 43d year ; and this is evidently the
meaning of the expression several times used in Castor's lists
before mentioned P always in this sense:) if, I say, we are to
understand by this expression, that Moses was born after
Cecrops began his reign at Athens, there is no difference in
this particular between Eusebius and the marble. For
Moses was born A. M. 2433 q, and, according to the marble,
Cecrops began to reign A. M. 2423. 2. Moses and Ce-
crops were 400 years before the taking of Troy, not q^uite
n See Prsep. Evang. 1. X. c. 9. ripooi/i. kings. XpoviK. \oy. irpur. p. 19, 24.
o Upooin. ut sup. ed. 1658.
P Both of the Sicyonian and Argive <l Archbishop Usher.
416 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
SO muchj but almost. Now if we suppose Troy was taken
A. M. 2820, according to archbishop Usher, the year in
which the marble begins Cecrops's reign is 397 years before
the taking of Troy ; or rather, if we fix the taking of Troy
according to the marble'' to A. M. 2796, we begin Cecrops's
reign 373 years before the taking of Troy, and place Moses's
birth before that period 383 years, making it fall short 17
only of 400. 3. From Moses backwards to the birth of
Abraham are 505 years, and from Cecrops to Ninus are the
same number. Now Moses was born A. M. 2433, Abra-
ham was born 2008, so that here evidently wants 80 years
of the computation : but Eusebius tells us expressly, that
he designed this account should begin not at Moses's birth,
but at the 80th year of his life ^ ; how this came to be
omitted in his Prteparatio Evangelica' I cannot tell. And
now, if in like manner we compute backwards from the
80th year after the beginning of Cecrops's reign", we shall
come to Ninus. Ninus died A. M. 2017. The 80th year
after the first of Cecrops is, according to the marble, 2503 ;
deduct out of it 505 years, and the year you will come back
to is A. M. 1998, which falls within Ninus's reign, and is
the 33d year of his reign. 4. From Semiramis to Cecrops
are more than 400 years. Semiramis began her reign A. M.
2017X. Cecrops, according to the marble, began his 2423,
i. e. 406 years after Semiramis. Thus, according to the
particulars upon which Eusebius calculated the time of Ce-
crops, we cannot conclude but that his computation agreed
perfectly well with that of the marble, varying very little,
if any thing at all, from it; and from all these particulars
duly considered, it appears very plainly, that Cecrops is
not placed in the Canon Chronicus which we now have of
Eusebius, where Eusebius did, in all probability, really
place him. For, i. Cecrops is there placed ^^ years after
the birth of Moses ; so that Moses ought not to have been
r Lin. 39. Epocha 25. ^acriXeias, are the words of both in
s 'Airhrov ir'. Mwa-ews &c, npoot/j.. ut c. 9. 1. x. Prsep. Evang. et in Prooem.
sup. And Vigerius the Latin translator ren-
t Prsep. Evang. lib. x. c. 9. p. 484. ders it, Ab illo Cearopis regni anno.
Par. 1628. X See vol. i. b. iv. p. 1 10.
" 'AttJ) Sri\ci>64vTos irovs rijs KeKpoiros
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 417
said to be kuto. K^Kpo-na, or born in the times of Cecrops,
but Cecrops to have been Kara Mava^a, and so Eusebivis
would have expressed it, if this had been his meaning.
2. According to this Canon, Moses is not born ahnost 400
years before the taking of Troy. 3. Cecrops is here made
to be 450 years later than Semiramis, which cannot well be
reconciled with Eusebius. 4. 505 years computed back-
wards from the 80th year of Cecrops will not bring us
back to Ninus ; for, according to this Canon, Cecrops's first
year is 450 years after the last year of Ninus, so that the
position of Cecrops in the present Canon of Eusebius does
but ill agree with two of Eusebius's four marks of Cecrops's
time, and evidently differs from the other two ; whereas the
true time of Cecrops, as fixed by the marble, agrees per-
fectly with all the four. But the learned know that the
Chronicon of Eusebius, which he himself composed, is long
ago lost, and that the work we now have of that name was
composed by Scaliger, from such fragments as he could
find of Eusebius in other writers ; and he has in some things
given us his own sentiments instead of Eusebius's chrono-
logy, of which we have an evident instance in this parti-
cular; which, with several others, ought carefully to be dis-
tinguished by those who would build upon the authority
of Eusebius's Chronicon. And thus at last it appears, that
the marble differs from Scaliger only, and not from Euse-
bius : Scaliger was probably led into this mistake by Castor's
computations, not attending to what Eusebius has said upon
the subject in his other works, and in his preface to this.
I might offer something further to shew how Castor was
led into his mistake in this point; but I fear the reader is
already tired with too long a digression; however, I will
suggest an hint, which the reader may think further of if he
pleases. It is agreed by all the best writers, that Cecrops
lived about the time of Triopas king of Argos, and, according
to Castor's computations, Triopas began to reign A. M.
2458 : but it is remarkable, that Castor sets Triopas lower in
the Argive list than he ought to have done ; for he has in-
sei-ted a king as his predecessor, who never reigned there.
VOL. I. EC
418 CONNECTIOK OF THE SACRED [bOOK Vltt.
He makes Apis the third king of Argos, and says he reigned
35 years; but we find from jEschylusY, that Apis was not a
king of Argos, but a foreigner, who came from ^tolia, and
did indeed do the Sicyonians a public service, and so might
possibly have his name recorded in their registries. Pausanias
confirms this point, for he does not insert Apis amongst the
kings of Argos z, but places Argus or Criasus next to Pho-
roneus, omitting Apis. Now if we strike Apis out of the
roll, and deduct the years of his reign, we shall bring
Castor's opinion 35 years nearer to the marble, and leave
but a small difference between them. Upon the whole,
Africanus observed, that the ancient writers differed in their
sentiments about the times of Cecrops ; some, he says, sup-
posed him cotemporary with Prometheus, Atlas, and Epi-
metheus; others placed him 60, and others 90 years after
them-''. Clemens Alexandrinus places Prometheus, Atlas,
Epimetheus, and Cecrops, together in the time of Triopas^;
and so does Tatian"= : but Eusebius seems to differ from them
in this particular, and to think Atlas, Prometheus, and Epi-
metheus, before Cecrops 'J; how long he has not told us,
nor can we possibly guess from Scaliger's Eusebius's Canon ;
for he has inserted Atlas twice ; 82 years before Cecrops in
one place e, and again with Prometheus and Epimetheus
31 years before him in the other <": most probably Eusebivis
thought that Clemens and Tatian placed him too early, by
making him cotemporary with Atlas, and yet found that
sixty or ninety years after him would be too late, and so
chose a medium ; and we find he was far from being singular
in his opinion ; for the Parian Chronicon agrees very nigh,
if not exactly with him ; so that here are two authorities con-
curring, which is more than can be found in favour of any of
the other computations.
After Cecrops was made king of Attica, he endeavoured
y ^schyl. in Supplic. v. 264. Oxon. 1700.
7. In Corinthiacis, §. Argol. d See Prsep. Evang. 1. x. c. 9. p. 486.
a XpoviK. Xoy. irpuT. p. 26. ed. Seal. Par. 1628.
j6j;8_ e Seal. Num. Euseb. 379.
b Stromal. 1. i. c. 21. ^ Num. 430.
c Orat. ad Grsecos, §. 60. p. 132. ed.
ANU PROFANE HISTORY. 419
to form the people : they were before his time but un-
settled and wandering peasants, that lived up and down the
country, and reaped the fruits of the earth, and took the
cattle for their use when and where they could find them;
for this was the wild and disorderly manner in which the
ancient inhabitants of Greece liveds : but Cecrops instructed
his people, and gave them laws for society, and taught
them how to be of help and comfort and advantage to one
another ; and, in order to teach them this more fully, he
endeavoured to draw them together, and to have them live in
a settled habitation, within the reach of his influence and
inspection, and therefore taught them to build houses, and
make a town or city, which he called Cecropia, from his
own name. Strabo from Philochorus says'^, that Cecrops in-
structed his people to build twelve cities ; but if such a
number of cities were really built by a prince of this name,
I should think, according to what the most learned Dr.
Potter, the present lord bishop of Oxford, has remarked,
that these twelve cities were built by Cecrops, the second of
that name, and seventh king of Attica, and not by this first
Cecrops i. Twelve cities were not to be attempted at once ;
it was a great thing to raise one from so uncultivated a people.
The Scholiast upon Pindar ^ reports from Philochorus, that
Cecrops instituted a poll to see how many subjects he had to
begin with, causing every man to cast a stone into a place
appointed ; and that upon computation he found them to be
in number twenty thousand : but why may we not think this
particular to belong to the second Cecrops also, and not to the
first? I cannot well imagine how Cecrops could at first get
together twenty thousand of these untaught people ; or if
he could have got them together, how he could well have
managed them ; it is more likely he would have chosen to
begin with a less company : but certainly the country itself
could not at this time supply him with so many men ; for if
we look to the Trojan war, though the Athenians had been a
S Thucyd. Hist. 1. i. c. 2. i Archseologia Graeca, c. 2. p. 9. vol. i.
h Lib. Lx. p. 407. ed. Par. 1620. k Olympiori. od. ix. lin. 68.
Ee 2
420 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
growing people all along until that time ; and though Theseus
vastly augmented their numbers by inviting all foreigners
that could be got into his city' ; yet we find the Athenians
sent but twenty ships to Troy, in each of which if we suppose
with Plutarch a hundred and twenty men, or which, from the
calculation of our English Homers", looks more probable,
eighty-five men only in each vessel, it will appear, that
Athens could then furnish out at most but 6000, or rather
4250 men, and therefore could not begin with 20000 ; for,
considering how numerous they made their armies in these
early days, in proportion to the numbers of their people,
twenty thousand men in the days of the first Cecrops must
have made Athens able to have furnished out a greater num-
ber of soldiers for an expedition, in which all Greece was
forward to engage with its utmost strength : Cecrops therefore
began his kingdom, like other legislators, with a far lesser
number of subjects than the Scholiast represented. Romulus
at first had but few inhabitants for his city, which became
afterwards the mistress of the world : when he wanted women
to be wives for his subjects, six hundred and eighty- three
Sabines were a great supply"; and after that, when he had
incorporated the people of two nations with his own", the
bulk of his subjects even then amounted to but six thousand
men. These were the small beginnings of all nations in the
world, and Cecrops must be thought to begin his in like man-
ner. One of the affairs which he took the greatest care of
■was to instruct the people in religion ; for all authors that
speak of him are express and more particular in this point
than one would expect P, so that we may guess he was remark-
ably diligent in this matter. He divided them into four tribes,
orders, ranks, or fraternities, in order to their being capable
of performing, each sort of men in their rank and order, the
1 Plutarch, in Theseo. Sabine wgins taken were but thirty.
m Pope's Notes upon Homer's ca- Valerius Antias makes them 527 ; Juba
talogue of ships, II. ii. See Thucyd. 683. Plut. in Rom.
Hist. 1. i. c. 9. o Id. 1. ii. c. 35. p. 100.
n Dionys. Halicarnass. 1. ii. c. 30. P Euseb. in Chron. Id. Prsep. Evang.
p. 97. ed. Oxon. 1704. All his num- 1. x. c. 9. SynceUus, p. 153. ed. Par,
ber were 2300. lb. p. 86. Some say the 1652. Macrob. Saturnal. I. i. c. 10,
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 421
several offices of civil life, and he taught them all the arts
of living, which he must have been well instructed in, by-
having lived in so flourishing a kingdom as Egypt had been ;
and he applied himself daily to the giving them laws and
rules for their actions, and in hearing and deciding all causes
of difierence that might arise amongst them, and in encou-
raging every thing that might tend to their living in peace
and good order, and suppressing and dissuading them from
all actions that might interrupt their happiness. Before his
time the people of Attica made no marriages, but had their
women in common ; but he reduced them from this wild
and brutish extravagance, and taught them each man to
marry one wife^; and, for this reason, Athenseus and Justin r
say he was called Atcfivrjs, or one born of two parents. Other
writers give other reasons for his having this appellation ;
but this seems by far the best : the Athenians themselves
have given diverse accounts of his having this name; but
they were so different, and many of them so frivolous, that
Diodorus Siculus^ concluded that they had lost the true ac-
count of it. Cecrops governed Attica fifty years*. He had
a son and three daughters ; his son's name was Erysichthon ;
his davighters were Hirce, Aglauros, and Pandrosos. Ery-
sichthon died before his father, and was buried at Prasiae, a
city of Attica". Cecrops died A. M. 2473.
When Cecrops died, Cranaus, a very potent and wealthy
Attican, was made king^. He had several daughters, one
of which married to Amphictyon, who expelled his father-
in-law Cranaus the kingdom, and made himself king; but
in a little time Erichthonius made a party and deposed Am-
phictyon ; and all this happened in about twenty years after
the death of Cecrops ; for, according to the marble >, Am-
phictyon was king within ten years after Cecrops's deatli,
and Erichthonius within ten more 2, Erichthonius was an
q Suidas in npojU7j0. u Pausan. in Atticis, lib. i. c. 2.
f Atlienaeus Deipnosoph. 1. xiii. ad Ibid. c. 31.
in- P- 555- ed. Lugd. 161 2. Justin. 1. ii. x Castor in Euseb. Cliron. Tausan.
c. 6. in Atticisj c. 3.
s Diodor. Sic. 1. i. y Epoch, v. et vii.
t Euseb. in Chron. z Epoch, ix.
422 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
Egyptian, and very probably came with Cecrops into
Greece. Diodorus says that Erechtheus came from Egypt,
and was made king of Athens'* : here is only a small mis-
take of the name, made either by Diodorus, or some tran-
scriber. Erechtheus was the son of Pandion, and grandson
of Erichthonius ^, and Erichthonius was the person that
came from Egypt : and agreeable thereto is the account
which the Greeks give of him. They say he had no mortal
father, but was descended from Vulcan and the earth ^ ; i. e.
he was not a native of their country, for they had no ac-
count to give of his family or ancestors, and so in time they
made a fable instead of a genealogy. Attica was a barren
country, but Erichthonius taught his people to bring corn
from Egypt ^.
About sixty-three years after Cecrops began his reign at
Athens, and about thirteen years after Cecrops's death,
Cadmus came into Boeotia, and built Thebes, A. M. 2486 ^ :
Tatian and Clemens Alexandrinus thought him much later *";
but as they offer no reasons for their opinions, so certainly
they were much mistaken in this, as they are confessed to be
in some other points, which Eusebius wrote after them on
purpose to corrects. Eusebius himself, if Scaliger had in-
deed placed Cadmus according to Eusebius's meaning, has
mistaken this point; for Cadmus stands in the Chronicon'^
above a hundred years lower than his true place, which the
marble seems very justly to have fixed for us, as may clearly
appear by considering what Pausanias has given of Cadmus's
family, and comparing that and what Pausanias further
offers with Castor's account of the Sicyon kings. Labdacus,
Pausanias tells us, was the grandson of Cadmus, and being a
minor when his father died, he was committed to the care
of Nycteus, who was appointed to be his guardian and re-
gent of his kingdom*; now Nycteus was wounded in a
battle with Epopeus^'. Epopeus was the seventeenth king
a Lib. i. c. 29. Clem. Alexand. Stromat. 1. i. c.21.
^ Castor in Euseb. Pausan. ubi sup. S See Euseb. Tlpooi/uL.
c Pausan. ibid. h Euseb. Num. 587.
rt Diodorus Sic 1. i. i Pausan. in Boeoticis, c. 5.
e Marmor. Arund. Ep. vii. k Pausan. in Corinthiacis, c. 6^
f Tatian. Orat. ad Greecos, c. 61.
AKD PROFANE HISTORY. 423
of Sicyon', and was cotemporary with the guardian of Lab-
dacus, Cadmus's grandson. Epopeus reigned but thirty-
five years'^; we may therefore suppose Polydorus, the father
of Labdacus, son of Cadmus, cotemporary with Corax the
predecessor of Epopeus ; and Cadmus, the father of Poly-
dorus, might begin his reign in the time of Echureus, the
predecessor of Corax ; and from the third year of Maratho-
nius, in whose time (according to Castor) Cecrops reigned
at Athens, to the beginning of Echureus's reign, are but
thirty-five _ years n : so that supposing Cadmus to come to
Thebes, according to the marble, sixty-three years after Ce-
crops began his reign at Athens, we must date Cadmus's
coming to Thebes in the twenty-eighth year of Echureus,
and thereabouts we must place Cadmus ; because the grand-
son of Cadmus was a minor and had a guardian in the reign
of Epopeus, who was the second king next after Echureus,
in whose time we suppose Cadmus. I might ofier another
argument to prove that Cadmus cannot be later than the
marble supposes him. Oenotrus, the youngest son of Ly-
caon, led a colony of the Pelasgi into Italy o. These Pelasgi
did not go into Italy until after Cadmus had taught the
Greeks the use of letters ; for they conveyed into Italy the
knowledge of the letters which Cadmus had taught the
Greeks P. Lycaon, the father of Oenotrus, reigned in Ar-
cadia at the same time that Cecrops reigned at Athens '4,
The marble supposes that Cadmus came into Greece about
sixty-three years after Cecrops began his reign at Athens,
and we cannot imagine him later ; for, if he was later, how
could the son of Lycaon, when Lycaon was cotemporary
with Cecrops, learn Cadmus's letters time enough to con-
vey the knowledge of them into a foreign country 1
The reader may perhaps meet with an account of Cad-
mus's ancestors, taken in part from Apollodorus and other
ancient writers >■, which may seem to argue Cadmus to have
1 Castor in Chron. Euseb. p. 19. P Vol. i. b. iv.
ed. Seal. 1658. q Pausaii. in Arcad. c. 2.
ni Id. ibid. r See Prideaux, Not. Historic, ad
" Id. ibid. Chronic. Marmor. Ep. ^^i.
o Pausan. in Arcad. c. 3.
424 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII,
lived much later than we suppose him. It is said that Cad-
mus was the son of Agenor, Agenor son of Libya daughter
of Epaphus, Epaphus son of lo daughter of lasus, who was
son of Triopas king of Argos. lo was carried into Egypt,
and married there. By this account Cadmus will be six
descents lower than Triopas, and consequently as much later
than Oecrops, for all writers agree that Cecrops and Triopas
were cotemporaries ; but from the former arguments and
computations we suppose Cadmus to be about sixty-three
years only later than Cecrops. But there is an evident
mistake in this genealogy; there were two Grecian lo's,
and both of them went into and lived in Egypt ; the former
was lo the daughter of Inachus, the latter lo was the
daughter of lasus ; and Cadmus was descended from the
former, and not from the latter. If we compute from
Castor's table of the Argive kings s, comparing and cor-
recting it in respect of Apis, whom Castor has erroneously
inserted, by Pausanias's account of them ', we shall find that
lo daughter of Inachus is exactly six descents higher than
lo the daughter of lasus ; so that if the computing Cad-
mus's genealogy from the latter To sets him almost six
descents too low, as I just now remarked, the computing
from the former lo exactly answers and corrects this mis-
take. That the former To went to live in Egypt is evident
from Eusebius", as it is from Pausanias that the latter did
so X ; and further, it is expressly remarked by Eusebius, that
To the daughter of Inachus was the mother of Epaphus y;
and therefore this lo, and not the daughter of lasus, was
the ancestor of Cadmus.
It is much disputed by the learned whether Cadmus was
a Phoenician or an Egyptian, and there are arguments not
inconsiderable offered on both sides : but the true account of
him is, that he was born in Phoenicia; his father was an
Egyptian, and left Egypt about the time that Cecrops came
from thence, and he obtained a kingdom in Phoenicia as
s Euseb. in Chronic, p. 24. ed. Seal. u Chronic. Can. Num. 160. 01481,
1658. X Pausan. ubi sup.
t Pausanias in Corinthiacis, c. 15, y Euseb. Num. 481.
16.
AND PKOFANE HISTORY. 425
Cecrops did in Attica, and his sons Phoenix and Cadmus
were born after his settling in this country ; and hence it
came to pass, that Cadmus, having had an Egyptian father,
was brought up in the Egyptian religion, and not a stranger
to the history of Egypt, which occasioned many circumstances
in his life, which induced after-writers to think him an
Egyptian; and at the same time being born and educated
in Phoenicia, he learnt the Phoenician language and letters,
and had a Phoenician name, and from hence has occasioned
most that have wrote of him with good reason to conclude
him a Phoenician. Diodorus Siculus^, Clemens Alexandri-
nus% Pausaniast>, and from them Bochart<=, conclude him
to be a Phoenician. Sir John Marsham and dean Prideaux*^
thought him an Egyptian.
Sir John Marsham offers one argument for his being an
Egyptian from an inscription found in the tomb of Alcmena,
which though it does not seem to prove Cadmus an Egyp-
tian, nor hardly any thing relating to him, yet I would
willingly mention it, in order to take an opportunity of
remarking how artfully the governors of kingdoms in these
days made use of oracles and prodigies merely as engines of
state, to serve their political views and designs. The tomb
of Alcmena, wife of Amphitryon and mother of Hercules,
was at Haliartus, a city of Bceotia, and being opened in the
time of Agesilaus, king of Sparta, there were found in it a
brass bracelet, two earthen pots, which contained the ashes
of the dead, and a plate of brass, upon which were inscribed
many very odd and antique letters, too old and unusual
to be read by the Grecian antiquaries : the letters were
thought to be Egyptian, and therefore Agesilaus sent Age-
toridas into Egypt, to the priests there, desiring them, if
they could, to decypher them. Chronuphis, an Egyptian
priest, after three days examining all the ancient books and
forms of their letters, wrote the king word, that the cha-
racters were the same that were used in Egypt in the time
z Lib. iv. c. 2. d Marsham, Can. Chron. p. ii8. ed.
a Stromat. lib. i. c. 16. 1672. Prideaux, Not. Histor. ad Chron.
b In Boeoticis, c. 12. Marm. Ep. vii. p. 155. ed. 1676.
c In Prsefat. ad Canaan.
426 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VIII.
of king Proteus, and which Hercules the son of Amphitryon
had learnt, and that the inscription was an admonition to
the Greeks to leave off the wars and contests with one
another, and to cultivate a life of peace, and the study of
arts and philosophy. The messengers that were sent thought
Chronuphis's advice very seasonable, and they were more
confirmed in their opinion, in their return home, by Plato's
asking the priests at Delos for some advice from their oracle,
and receiving an answer, which, as Plato interpreted it, inti-
mated that the Greeks should be happy, if they would leave
off their intestine wars, and employ themselves in cultivating
the study of the arts and sciences. This is the substance of
Plutarch's account of this whole affair ^ ; and I cannot see
that we have any light about the inscription in the tomb,
nor that we are told to any purpose what the letters were,
or by whom written. The discovery of them happened
about the end of the war between the Lacedaemonians and
the Thebans, when the Thebans lost their general Epami-
nondas^. At that time Agesilaus had a scheme of being
hired to command the Egyptian armies against the Persians,
and the Egyptians were fond of having him ^ ; but he could
not think it safe to go out of Greece, unless he could be
sure of settling a firm and lasting peace amongst the several
states of it ; in order to which he laid hold of this accident
of the antique inscription in the tomb of Alcmena, and he,
and his messengers, and Chronuphis, joined all together to
frame such an interpretation of it, and to confirm it by a
like order from Delos, as might bind the Greeks to a reli-
gious observance of the general peace which was at that
time just concluded amongst them. Had the brass table
been truly decyphered, without doubt it contained nothing
else but an account of the persons whose ashes were reposited
in the tomb it was found in, and most probably the letters
were such as Amphitryon inscribed upon his tripod at
Thebes^ : but it came up luckily to serve the political views
of Agesilaus and the Egyptians, and so the Egyptians con-
e Plut. de Genio Socratis, p. 579. ed. 661. anno 363.
Par. 1624. S Ibid.
f Prideaux, Connect, vol. i. b. vii. p. h Herodot. in Terpsichor. c. 59.
AND PROFANE HISTOKY. 427
trived such an account of it as might render it effectual for
that purpose. What became of the original we are not in-
formed ; probably the Egyptians did not send it back to
have it further examined. But to return to Cadmus.
When Cadmus came into Greece, he was accompanied
by a number of followers, whom Herodotus calls the Ge-
phyrsei' : they were natives of Phoenicia, and went under
his direction to seek a new habitation ; a custom not very
unusual in these days. When they came into Greece, they
were at first opposed by the inhabitants of the country ; but
being better soldiers than the raw and ignorant Boeotians,
they easily conquered them. Boeotia was inhabited at the
time of Cadmus's coming into it by the Hyantes and the
Aones : one of these, the Hyantes, Cadmus entirely routed,
and compelled them to flee out of the country ; but he
came to terms of accommodation with the Aones ^ ; and
having bought a cow, and marked her according to the
superstitious ceremonies of the Egyptian religion^, he pre-
tended he had a special command from the gods to build a
city where the cow, which he ordered his companions to
drive gently into the country, should lie down when weary ;
and so where the cow lay down he built a city, and called it
Cadmea, and here he settled with his companions ; giving
the Aones free liberty, either to come and live in his city,
and incorporate with his people, or to live in the little vil-
lages and societies which they had formed, in the manner
they had been used to before he came into their country"".
It is commonly said that Cadmus began his travels by his
father's order, in search of his sister Europa" : but some
considerable writers think this a fiction °, and Pausanias hints
Europa not to have been the daughter of Agenor, but of
Phoenix'*. Ovid relates at large an account of Cadmus's
followers being devoured by a serpent; that Cadmus killed
the serpent, and sowed his teeth in the ground; and that
i Herodot. lib. v. c. 58. n Diodorus Sic. 1. iv. c. 2.
k Pausan. in Boeoticis, c. 5. o See Prideaux, Not. ad Chron. Mar-
1 Id. ibid. c. 12. See Prideaux, Not. mor. Epoch, vii.
ad Clironic. Marmor. Ep. vii. P In Achaicis, c. 4.
m Pausanias in Bcx20ticis, c. 5.
428 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
there sprang from this serpent's teeth a number of armed
men, who, as soon as they were grown up out of the ground,
fell to fighting one another, and were all killed except five ;
and that these five, who survived the conflict, went with
Cadmus, and assisted him in building Thebes "i. I am sen-
sible that the men that ever believed this strange story may
be justly thought as weak as the fiction is marvellous ; but
there are hints of it in writers not so poetically inclined as
Ovid, and there is room to conjecture what might give the
first rise to so wild and extravagant a fable. When Cadmus
was come into Bceotia, and had conquered the inhabitants
of it, it might be recorded of him, in the Phoenician or
Hebrew language, which anciently were the same, that he
CJnD ^2W:i D^p^^:i D^tl?:^ \I7Dn h^r\ nm, naskah c/mil
chamesh anosJiim, noshekitn he shenei nachash. These words
might begin the account, and in these words there are the
following ambiguities. Chamesh signifies loarlike, or pre-
pared for war, and a word of the same letters'" may be trans-
lated j^t;e. Shenei may signify spears, or it may be rendered
teeth. Nachash is the Hebrew word for a serjierit, or for
brass: and these words being thus capable of denoting very
diflferent things, a fabulous translator might say^, he raised
a force of five men armed from the teeth of a serpent, when the
words ought to have been translated, he raised a warlike
force of men, [or an army] armed with spears of brass. The
Greeks in the mythological times were particularly fond of
disguising all their ancient accounts with fable and allegory ;
and it is no wonder that they gave the history of Cadmus
this turn, when the words in which his actions were re-
corded gave them so fair an opportunity. Cadmus is said
to have found out the art of working metals and making
armour*; and I imagine that some of his companions were
the Idaei Dactyli mentioned by Pausanias, Diodorus, Strabo,
1 Metamorph. lib. iii. fab. i. nants only, leaving the reader to sup-
r We may easily apprehend, that in ply the vowels, as the Hi-brew was an-
a language where the vowels were ori- ciently written, our own tongue would
ginally not written, many words of afford many instances.
exactly the same letters must have a s See Bocharti Canaan. 1. i. c. 19.
very different signification. If we were t pUn. lib. vii. c. 56.
to write our English words in conso-
AND PROFAKE HISTORY. 429
and other writers ; for these Idaei Dactyli made their first
appearance near mount Ida in Phrygia", and Cadmus tra-
velled this way from Phoenicia into Greece, going out of
Asia into Thrace, and from thence into Greece. Cadmus
and his companions introduced the use of the Phoenician
letters into Greece^ their alphabet consisting of sixteen letters
only ^.
Danaus was another considerable person, who travelled
about this time from Egypt into Greece ; and the ancient
writers agree pretty well in their accounts of him. Chemnis,
says Herodotus v, is a large city near Nea, in Thebais ; and
the Egyptians say, that Danaus and Lynceus were of Chem-
nis, and that they sailed into Greece. ApoUodorus ^, agree-
ing with the Parian marble, says, that Danaus built a ship,
and fled with it from Egypt. Diodorus gives a larger ac-
count of him a, that he came from Egypt to Rhodes with
his daughters, that three of his daughters died at Rhodes,
that the rest went with him to Argos. Pausanias relates,
that Danaus came from Egypt, and obtained the kingdom
of Argos from Gelanor the son of Sthenelus ^. Danaus was
himself descended from a Grecian ancestor. lo the daugh-
ter of lasus king of Argos married into Egypt, and when
lasus died, his brother's children came to the crown, lasus
having no other child but lo, and she being absent and
married into a foreign country. Gelanor was a descendant of
lasus's brother, Danaus of lasus by lo his daughter, and
this must be the plea which he had to offer the Argives to
induce them to accept him for their king. The dispute
between him and Gelanor before the people of Argos, upon
this point, was argued at large on both sides for a whole
day, and Gelanor was thought to have oifered as weighty
and strong arguments for his own right, as Danaus could
offer for his ; and the next day was appointed for the further
hearing and determining their claims, when an accident
put an end to the dispute, and obtained Danaus the crown.
u Diodor. Sic. 1. xvii. c. 7. z Lib. H. §. 4.
X See vol. i. b. iv. a Hist. 1. v. c. 58.
y Lib. ii. c. 91. b Pausan. in Corinthiacis, c. 16. 19,
430 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
There happened a fight between a wolf and a bull near the
place where the people were assembled, and the wolf con-
quering the bull, the crown was hereupon adjudged to
Danaus. The combat was thought ominous, and the wolf
being a creature they were less acquainted with than the
bull, it was thought to be the will of the gods, declared by
the event of this accidental combat, that the stranger
should rule over them. And thus their superstition made
them unanimous in a point of the greatest moment, which
perhaps they would not else have determined without creat-
ing great factions among themselves : a case somewhat like
what happened in Persia, when Darius the son of Hystaspes
was made king. His horse being the first that neighed,
seemed unquestionably to give him, in the eyes of his super-
stitious subjects, a better title to the throne, and perhaps a
securer possession of it, than any other agreement which he
and his princes could have made, that had not had so ap-
pearing a countenance from religion'^. Danaus came into
Greece, when Erichthonius was king of Athens, 1 247 years
before the Parian Chronicon was composed d, i. e. A. M.
2494, about eight years after Cadmus came into Boeotia.
Castor's account of Danaus's coming to Argos, if we take
out of it the years assigned to Apis's reign % agrees well
with this computation from the Parian Chronicon. He
computed that Inachus began to reign at Argos when Thu-
rimachus was king of Sicyon, i. e. about A. M. 2154^; from
the first year of Inachus (including the reign of Apis) he
reckons 382 years to the death of Sthenelus, which would
place Danaus A. M. 2536 : but if we deduct thirty-five
years for the insertion of Apis's reign, it will place him
A. M. 2501, seven years only later than the marble.
There can be but very little offered about the affairs of
Greece, before the times that these men came to settle in
it; though it is certain that Greece was inhabited long
before these days, and that in some parts of it kingdoms
were erected, and men of great figure and eminence lived in
c Herodot. 1. iii. c. 85, 86. Justin. ^ Epoch. Marmor. ix.
1. i. c. ro. Prideaux, Connect, vol. i. e Vid. quae supra.
b. iii. an. 521. f Vide quae supra.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 431
them, ^Egialeus began a kingdom at Sicyon A. M. 19208',
above 500 years before Cecrops came to Athens, durmg
which interval they had thirteen kings according to Cas-
tor*^, and Pausanias found memoirs of the lives and families
of twelve of them^ Inachus erected a kingdom at Argos
A. M, 2 154'^, 269 years before Cecrops, and they had six
kings in this interval 1 ; and these accoiints are in all re-
spects so reasonable in themselves, and do so well suit with
every fragment of ancient history, that no one can fairly
reject them, unless antiquity alone be a sufficient reason for
not admitting annals of so long standing. Kingdoms did
not begin so early in other parts of Greece, but we find
Thessalus a king of Thessaly A. M. 2332; his father's
name was Graicus i" : Deucalion reigned king there A. M.
243 1 , i. e. eight years after Cecrops came to Athens " :
Ogyges reigned in Attica about A.M. 2244 ° ; and the de-
scendants of Telchin, third king of Sicyon, went and settled
in the island E.hodes A. M. 2284 P. Prometheus lived about
A. M. 2340. He was fabulously reported to have made
men, becaiise he was a very wise man, and new-formed the
ignorant by his precepts and instructions q : we have no
certain account in what part of Greece he lived. Callithyia
was the first priestess of Juno at Argos, A. M. 2381 "■. Atlas
lived about A. M. 2385; he was a most excellent astrono-
mer for the times he lived in, and his great skill this way
occasioned it to be said of him in after-ages, that he sup-
ported the heavens s. He lived near Tanagra, a city upon the
river Ismenus in Boeotia*; and near to this place his poste-
rity were said to be found by the writers of after-ages.
Homer supposes Calypso a descendant of this Atlas, who
detained Ulysses, to be queen of an island ^,
-"O^t T 6iJ,(pak6s k<TTi daXda-arjs
N^cros bivbprjeaaa'
e See above, book vi. o Euseb. Cliron. Numb. 236.
b In Chronic. Euseb. part. i. p. 19. P Id. Num. 276.
ed. Seal. 1658. Q Id. Num.332,
i In Corinthiacis, c. 5. r Id. Num. 375.
k See book vi. s Id. Num. 379.
1 Castor et Pausan. t Pausan. in Boeoticis, c. 20.
m Euseb. Chron. Num. 224. u Odyss. i. ver. 50.
»i Marm. Arundel. Epoch, iv.
432 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [BOOK VIII.
i. e. of the island Atalanta near the Sinus Meliacus in the
Euripus ", over against Opus ^, a city of Boeotia.
The several kingdoms that were raised in the other parts
of Greece began not much before or after Cecrops came to
Attica. Pelasgus was the first king of Arcadia, and his son
Lycaon was cotemporary with Cecrops y. Actseus, whom
Cecrops succeeded, was the first king of Attica ^. Athlius
was the first king of Elis ; he was the grandson of Deucalion,
and therefore later than Cecrops a. Ephyre, daughter of
Oceanus, is said to have first governed the Corinthians ^ ; but
we know nothing more of her than her name. The Corin-
thian history must begin from Marathon, who was the son of
Epopeus, and planted a colony in this country. Epopeus
lived about the times of Cadmus ; for he fought with and
wounded Nycteus, who was guardian to Labdacus, the grand-
son of Cadmus '^ ; and therefore Marathon, the son of Epopeus,
must come to Corinth many years later than Cadmus came
into Greece. Phocus was the first king of Phocisd, and he
was five descents younger than Marathon ; for Ornytion was
father of Phocus ^, Sisyphus was father of Ornytion ^ ; Sisy-
phus succeeded Jason and Medea in the kingdom of Corinth,
and Jason and Medea succeeded Corinthus the son of Mara-
thon s, so that the inhabitants of Phocis became a people
several generations later than Cadmus. Lelex formed the
Lacedasmonians much earlier ; for Menelaus, who warred at
Troy, was their eleventh king, so that Lelex reigned about
the times of Cecrops ^i. The Messenians lived at first in little
neighbourhoods ; but at the death of Lelex the first king of
u Wells's map of the mid parts of lies near the country where Pausanias
ancient Greece. informs us that Atlas the father of Ca-
X See Strabo, Geograph. I. i. c. 9. lypso lived ; and Ulysses's voyages, as
The reader will, I am sensible, find but described by Homer, may be well re-
little certainty of the situation of Ca- conciled with this position of it.
lypso's island : Solon gave an account, y Pausanias in Arcadicis, c. 2.
that there was really such a place when z Id. in Atticis, c. 2.
Homer wrote, but that it is since his a Id. in Eliacis, c. i.
time sunk in the sea, i. e. he could b Id. in Corinthiacis, c. i.
not tell where to find it. Some writers c Id. ibid. c. 6.
place it near to Egypt. All I can offer d Id. in Phocicis, c. i.
for my supposed situation of it, is, the e IJ. jn Corinthiacis, c. 4.
island Atalanta in the Euripus hits f Id. ibid.
Homer's description exactly, 6ix<pa\6s S Id. ibid. c. 3.
icTTi da\d<TiTr]s, better than any other h Id. in Laconicis, c. i.
island suj)posed to be the place, and it
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 433
Sparta, Polycaon, one of his sons, became king of this coun-
try'. These were the first beginnings of the several kingdoms
of Greece ; and before the persons I have mentioned formed
them for society, the inhabitants of the several parts of it
lived a wandering life, reaping such fruits of the earth as
grew spontaneously, each father managing his own family or
little company, and having little or no acquaintance with
one another, like the Cyclops in Homer''; or, where most
civilised, like the men of Laish, they dwelt careless after the
manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there teas no
magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in anij
thing ; and they had no business ivith any man.
Most writers, that have mentioned either Ogyges or Deu-
calion, have recorded a deluge to have happened in each of
their kingdoms ; Attica, they say, was overflowed in the
reign of Ogyges, and Thessaly in the reign of Deucalion ;
but it is most reasonable to think, that there were no extra-
ordinary floods in either of these countries in the times of
Deucalion or Ogyges, but that what the heathen writers offer
about these supposed deluges were only such hints as came
down to their hands of the universal deluge in the days of
Noah. Attica, in which Ogyges's flood is supposed to have
happened, is so high situated, that it is hard to imagine any
inundation of waters here, unless the greatest part of the
world were drowned at the same time ; its rivers arc but few,
and even the largest of them almost without water in simi-
mer time'; and its hills are so many, that it cannot well be
conceived how its inhabitants should perish in a dclvigc par-
ticularly confined to this country. Hieronymus, in his Latin
version of Eusebius's Chronicon, seems to have been sensible
that no such flood could be well supposed to have happened
in Attica, and therefore he removes the story into Egypt'",
supposing Egypt to have suflfered a deluge in the time of
• Id. in Messeniacis, c. i. ^ Homer, Oilyss. Lx. io8 :
Ovn (pvrevovaiv x^po'^f (pyrhv, oUt' apSuifftv
'AAA' o'ly" vtpTjAoov opewv valovai Kapv.va,
'El' ffTTfcrffi yXarpvpoifff Q^fxirmixi Se eKaffros
TIaiSoii' r)5' aAdxaiW ovS" aAArtXcov aXeyovcn.
1 Strabo, Geogr. 1. ix. p. 400. ed. hoc tempore fuit,, quod factum est sub.
Par. 1620. Ogyge.
m His words ai-e, Diluvium Mgy\iii
VOL. I. r f
434 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VIII.
Ogyges's reign : but the most learned dean Piideaux " re-
marks from Suidas° and HesychiusP, that the Greeks used
the word 'Q.yvytov, Ogygian^ proverbially, to signify any
thing which happened in the most ancient times ; and there-
fore by the flood of Ogyges they meant, not any particular
deluge, which overflowed his or any other single country,
but only some very ancient flood, which happened in the
most early times; and such was the flood of Noah. The
Greek chronology of the early ages was very imperfect ;
they had some hints that there had been an universal deluge ;
they apprehended nothing to be more ancient than the
times of Ogyges, and therefore they called this deluge by
his name, not intending hereby to hint that it happened
precisely in his days, but only intimating it to have been in
the most early times. As to Deucalion's flood, Cedrenus
and Johannes Antiochenus were of opinion that Deucalion
left his people a written history of the universal deluge, and
that their posterity many ages after his death imagined his
account to be a relation of what happened in the times Pie
lived in, and so called the flood, which he treated of, by
his name "J : but to this it is very justly objected, that
letters were not in use in Greece so early as Deucalion's
days ; so that it is not to be supposed that he could leave
any memoirs or inscriptions of what had happened before
his time ; but then a small correction of what is hinted
from Cedrenus and Antiochenus will set this matter in its
true light. Deucalion taught the Greeks religion ; and the
great argument, which he used to persuade his people to the
fear of the Deity, was taken from the accounts which he had
received of the universal deluge ; some hints of which were
handed down into all nations. But as the Greeks were in
these times not skilled in Avriting, so it is easy to imagine, that
Deucalion and the deluge might, by tradition, be mentioned
together, longer than it could be remembered whether he only
discoursed of it to his people, or was himself a person con-
cerned in it. It is remarkable, that whenever the profane
n Not. Historic, ad Chronic. Marm. P Hesych. in '^17^7101'.
Ep. i. q Prideaux, in Notis Historicis ad
o Suidas in voc. 'Clyvyiov. Chron. Marm. Ep. i.
AND TKOFANE HISTORY. 435
writers give us any particulars of either the flood of Ogyges
or of that of Deucahon, they are much the same with what is
recorded of Noah's deluge. SoHnus and Apollonius hint,
that the flood of Ogyges lasted about nine months'", and
such a space of time Moses allots to the deluged Deuca-
lion is represented to have been a just and virtuous man,
and for that reason to have been saved from perishing, when
the rest of mankind were destroyed for their wickedness* ;
and this agrees to what Moses says of Noah". Deucalion
preserved only himself, his wife, and his children "; and
these were the persons saved by Noah^. Deucalion built
an ark, being forewarned of the destruction that was coming
upon mankind z; and this Moses relates of Noah a. The tak-
ing two of every kind of the living creatures into the ark ^ ;
the ark's resting upon a mountain when the waters abated <=;
the sending a dove out of the ark, to try whether the waters
were abated or no '^ ; all these circumstances are related
of Deucalion, by the heathen writers, almost exactly as
Moses remarks them in his account of Noah: and, as
Moses relates, that Noah, as soon as the flood was over,
built an altar, and offered sacrifices, so these writers say
likewise of Deucahon «; affirming, that he built to apxalov
Upov, or an altar, (for these Avere the most ancient places of
worship,) to the Olympian Jupiter. Upon the whole, the
circumstances related of Noah's flood and of Deucalion's do
so far agree, that our learned countryman sir W. Raleigh
professed, that he should verily believe, that the story of Deu-
calion's flood was only an imitation of NoaJi' s Jlood devised by
the Greeks, did not the times so much differ^ and St. A ityustin,
with others of the fathers and reverend lo'iters, approve the
story of Deucalion. As to the difference of the times, cer-
r See Prideaux, Not. Hist, ad Chron. Dea Syria.
Marm. Ep. i. a Gen. vi. 13, 14.
s Gen. -vii. viii. See vol. i. b. i. and ii. b Lucian. de Dea Syria.
t Lucian. de Dea Syria. Ovid. Me- c Stephanus Etymolog. in T\i.pva.(T.
tarn. 1. i. aos. Suidas in voc. ead. Ovid. Me-
1 Gen. vi. 5. 9. tarn. 1. i.
X Ovid, ubi sup. Lucian. de Dea d Plut. in lib. de Solertia Anima-
Syria. Hum.
y Gen. vii. 7. e Pausan. in Atticis, c. 18.
z Apollodorus 1. i. c. 7. Lucian. de
F f 2
436 COKNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
tainly no great stress can be laid upon it : the Greeks were
so inaccurate in their chronology of what happened so
early as Deucalion, that it is no wonder if they were im-
posed upon, and ascribed to his days things done above
seven hundred years before him; and I cannot but think
that St. Austin, and the other learned writers that have
mentioned either the flood of Ogyges or of Deucalion,
would have taken both of them to have been only difierent
representations of the deluge ; if, besides what has been
offered, they had considered, that we read but of one such
flood as these having ever happened in either Deucalion's or
Ogyges's country. If the floods called by their names
were not the one universal deluge brought upon the ancient
world for the wickedness of its inhabitants, then they must
have proceeded from some causes, which, both before and
since, might, and would in a series of some thousands of
years, have subjected these countries to such inundations :
but we have no accounts of any that have ever happened
here, except these two only, in each country one, and no
more ; so that it is most probable that in Attica and in Thes-
saly they had a tradition that there had anciently been a
deluge ; their want of chronology had rendered the time
when extremely uncertain, and some circumstances not duly
weighed, or not perfectly understood, determined their writ-
ers in after-ages to call this deluge in the one country the
flood of Ogyges, in the other the flood of Deucalion.
According to the Parian Chronicon f, a person named
Mars was tried at Athens for the murder of Halirrothius the
son of Neptune, in the reign of Cranaus the successor of
Cecrops, about A. M. 2473 ' ^^^ ^^ ^^ remarked, that the
place of trial was named Arius Pagus, and this was the
beginning of the senate or court of Areopagus at Athens,
which was instituted, according to this account, soon after
Cecrops's death, in the very first year of his successor,
-^schylus had a very different opinion of the origin of the
name and time of erecting this court. He says, the place
was named Areopagus from the Amazons offering sacrifices
f Epist. iii.
AND PROFANE HISTOEY. 437
there to "Aprjs, or Mars, and he supposes Orestes to have been
the first person tried before the court erected there ^ : but it
is evident from Apollodorus '^ that Cephakis was tried here
for the death of Procris, and Procris was the daughter of
Erechtheus the sixth king of Athens'. And the same
author says, that Daedalus was also tried here for the death
of Talus *•, and Daedalus lived about the timel of Minos
king of Crete ; so that both these instances shew, that ^s-
chylus was much mistaken about the antiquity of the court
of Areopagus, and he may therefore well be conceived to be
ill informed of the true origin of its name. Cicero hints,
that Solon first erected this court ^ ; and Plutarch was fond
of the same opinion ", even though he could not but con-
fess that there were arguments against it, which, I think,
must appear unanswerable : for he himself cites a law of
Solon, in which the court of Areopagus is expressly named
in such a manner as to evidence that persons had been con-
vened before it before Solon's days °. Solon did indeed,
by his authority, make some alterations in the ancient con-
stitution of this court, both as to the number and quality of
those who were to be the judges in it, and as to the man-
ner of electing them : and all this Aristotle remarks of
him expressly p ; saying at the same time, that Solon neither
erected nor dissolved this court, but only gave some new
laws for the regulating it. JEschylus thought this court
more ancient than the times of Solon ; but Apollodorus car-
ries up the accounts of it much higher than ^schylus, to
Minos's times, and to Erechtheus, who reigned about one
hundred years after the times v/hen the marble supposes the
S Eumenid. v. 690. itpvyov. N. B. The party accused in
^ L. iii. c. 14. the court of Areopagus had leave to
' Pausanias in Bceoticis, c. 19. secure himself by flight, and go into
k Apollodorus, 1. Lii. c. 14. §. 9. voluntary banishment^ if he suspected
1 Pausanias in Achaicis, c. 4. judgment would be given against him,
in De Offic. 1. i. c. 22. provided he made use of this liberty
n In vit. Solon, p. 88. before the court entered into the proofs
o Plut. in Solon. His words ai-e/0 5e of the merits of his cause; and by So-
TpiffKatSeKaros &^q3v tov 'SSXccvos rhv 07- Ion's law, a person who had claimed
Soov exei rbi/, vo/xof ovrais avTols ovS/xaffi this privilege was to be for ever in-
yfypa/xneyov ''Arifiaiy ocroi 6,Tifxoi iiaav famous.
irplv ^'Z6Ka>va&pi,ai.,iTziTifxovs iivaL,izK)]v P Aristot. Polit. 1. ii. c. 12,
'6(701 €| 'Apiiov irayov KaraSLKaaOiVTfs —
438 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
trial of Mars, and the trial of Mars there for the death of
Halirrothius is reported by many of the best ancient
writers ^. The number of the judges of this court at its
first origin were twelve'', and the king was always one of
them ; their authority was so great, and by their upright
determinations they acquired themselves so great a reputa-
tion, that their posterity called them gods ; and thus Apol-
lodorus says, that Mars was acquitted by the twelve gods s.
The number of these judges varied according to the differ-
ent circumstances of the Athenian government ; sometimes
they were but nine, at other times thirty-one, and fifty-
one. When Socrates was condemned, they were two hun-
dred eighty-one ; and when E-ufus Festus, the Proconsul of
Greece, was honoured with a pillar erected at Athens, it
was hinted on that pillar, that the senate of Areopagus con-
sisted of three hundred^ : and from hence it is very probable,
that the first constitution of the city directed them to ap-
point twelve judges of this court. Perhaps Cecrops divided
his people into twelve wards or districts, appointing a presi-
dent over each ward, and these governors of the several dis-
tricts of the city were the first judges of the court of Areopa-
gus. That Cecrops divided his people into twelve districts
seems very probable, from its being said of him, that he
built twelve cities": for they say also, that all the twelve
united at last into one : so that it looks most probable, that
Cecrops only parted the people in order to manage them the
more easily, appointing some to live under the direction of
one person, whom he appointed to rule for him, and some
under another, taking the largest number under his own
immediate care, and himself inspecting the management of
the rest : and these deputy-governors, together with the
king, were by Cranaus formed into a court for the joint
government of the whole people. And as the government
came into more hands, or was put into fewer, the number of
the Areopagite ju.dges lessened or increased. This court had
q Pausan. in Atticis. Stephanus, s Ibid.
Suidas, et Phavorinus ia^Afieioy ITayos. t Potter's Antiquities,
r Ajiollodor. 1. iii. e. 13. §. 2. " Strabo, 1. ix.
^
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 439
the cognizance of all causes that more particularly con-
cerned the welfare of the state ; and under this head all in-
novations in religion were in time brought before the judges
of it. Socrates was condemned by them for holding opin-
ions contrary to the religion of his country; and St. Paul
seems to have been questioned before them about his doc-
trines^, being thought by them to he a setter forth of strange
gods. Many learned writers have given large accounts of
the constitution and proceedings of this courts, which ob-
tained the highest reputation in all countries where the
Athenians were known. Cicero says, that the world may
as well be said to be governed without the providence of
the gods, as the Athenian republic without the decisions of
the court of Areopagus ^ ; and their determinations were
reputed to be so upright, that Pausanias informs us, that even
foreign states voluntarily submitted their controversies to
these judges ^. And Demosthenes says of this court, that to
his time no one had ever complained of any unjust sentence
given by the judges of it^. But it belongs to my design
only to endeavour to fix the time of its first rise, and not
to pursue at large the accounts which are given of the pro-
ceedings of it.
The council of the Amphictyones was first instituted by
Amphictyon the son of Deucalion about A. M. 2483 c.
Deucalion was king of Thessaly, and his son Amphictyon
succeeded him in his kingdom. Amphictyon, when he
came to reign, summoned all the people together who lived
round about him, in order to consult with them for the pub-
lic welfare 3 they met at the Pylse or Thermopylae, for by either
of these names they called the streights of mount CEta in
Thessaly ; for through this narrow passage was the only en-
trance into this country from Greece, and therefore they
were called irvXai. ptjlce, or the gates or doors, that being
the signification of the word*^; and Thermopylae, because
there were many springs of hot waters in these passages, the
X Acts xvii. 19. b In Aristocrat.
y See Bishop Potter's Antiquities of c Marmor. Arundel. Ep. 5.
Greece. tl Strabo, 1. ix. p. 428. ed. Par.
? De Nat. Deorum, lib. ii. c. 29. 1620.
* In Messeniac. c. 5.
440 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VIII.
Greek word Oepixos signifying hot®; and here Amphictyon
met his people twice a year, to consult with them, to re-
dress any grievances they might labour under, and to form
schemes for the public good. This seems to have been the
first design of the council of the Amphictyones, so called
from Amphictyon, the person who first appointed it ; or
some writers imagine, that the coassessors in this council
were cjjled 'A/x^tKri^ore?, because they came out of several
parts of the circumjacent countries. This was the opinion
of Androtion in Paiisaniasf; but the best writers generally
embrace the former account of the name of this council, and
it seems to be the most natural. Though Amphictyon first
formed this council out of the people that lived under his
governiuent, and for the public good of his own kingdom,
yet in time it was composed of the members of different
nations, and they met with larger and more extensive views,
than to settle the aifairs of one kingdom. Dionysius of
Halicarnassus says, that the design of it was to cultivate an
alliance of the Grecian states with one another, in order to
render them more able to engage with any foreign enemy ^.
When the design was thus enlarged, the deputies of several
cities were appointed to meet '^ twice a year, at Spring
and at Autumn. Strabo agrees with ^Eschines and Suidas,
and computes the cities that sent deputies to this meeting to
be twelve ; but Pausanias enumerates ten only '. It is most
probable, that the states that agreed to meet in this council
were at first but few, only those who lived near to Thermo-
pylae: in time more nations joined in alliance with them,
and sent their agents to this meeting, and they might be
but ten when the accounts were taken from which Pausa-
nias wrote ; and they might be twelve, when the hints
from which Strabo, Suidas, and the writers that agree with
them wrote, were given. Acrisius king of Argos, who
reigned above two hundred years later than Amphictyon,
composed some laws or orders for the better regulating this
e Id. lib. cod. p. ead. ^ yEscliinis Orat. Trepl TropaTrpetr/Sefos.
f Lib. X. c. 8. Suidas in voc. 'A/x(^i«TWfes.
gr Dionys. Halicarn. Antiq. Roin. i In Phocicis^ c. 8.
I. iv. c. 25.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 441
council, and for the dispatch of the affairs that were laid
before the members of it ; and what he did of this sort occa-
sioned some writers to imagine that he might possibly be
the first institutor of this council^ : but Strabo justly hints,
that he was thought so only for want of sufficient memoirs
of what had been appointed before his times ^ Acrisius did
indeed, in many respects, new regulate this meeting : he
settled a number of written laws for the calling and manage-
ment of it ; he determined what cities should send deputies
to it, and how many each city, and what affairs should be
laid before the council"^ ; and it is easy to conceive, that his
having made these regulations might occasion him to be
thought in after- ages the first institutor of the assembly.
The regulations made by Acrisius were punctually observed,
and the several cities who had votes according to his con-
stitutions continued to meet without any obstruction, until
the time of Philip king of Macedon, the father of Alexander
the Great, each city having two votes in the council, and no
more " ; but in Philip's reign the Phocians and Dorians were
excluded the council for plundering the temple of Apollo at
Delphos, and the two votes belonging to the Dorians were
given to the Macedonians, who were then taken into the
number of the Amphictyones°. About sixty-seven years after
this, the Phocians defended the temple at Delphos with so
much bravery against the Gauls, that they were restored to
their votes again : and the Dolopians at this time being in
subjection to the Macedonians, were reckoned but as a part
of the kingdom of Macedon, and the Macedonian deputies
were said to be their representatives ; and the votes, which
they had in the council before their incorporating with the
Macedonians, were now taken from them, and given to the
Phocians P. The Perrhsebians likewise about the same time
became subject to the Macedonians, and so lost their right
of sending their representatives to the council; and the
k Strabo, 1. ix. p. 420. ed. Par. 1620. " tEscIi. in Orat. irepl napairpfcr^iias.
1 Id. ibid, ra ird\ai fx-ev ovv ayvo^lrai. o Diodor. Sic. 1. xv. Pausan. in Pho-
m Prideaux, Not. Histor. ad C'hron. cicis, c. 8.
Marm. Ep. 5. P Pausan. in Phoc. c. 8. Strabo, 1. ix.
442 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOKVIII.
Delphians, who had before been represented by the Phocians,
were now considered as a distinct and independent city, and
were allowed to send their deputies to the councils. In the
reign of Augustus Csesar, after his building the city of Nico-
polis, he made several alterations in the constitution of this
council'. He ordered several of the states of Greece, which
in former times had been independent, and had sent distinct
representatives, to be incorporated into one body, and to
send the same representatives ; and he gave his new city a
right of sending six or eight. Strabo thought that this
council was entirely dissolved in his time ; but Pausanias,
who lived in the time of Antoninus Pius, informs us, that
the Amphictyones held their meetings in his time, and that
their number of delegates were then thirty. But it is re-
markable, that the ancient constitution of the assembly was
entirely broken^ ; many cities sent but one deputy, and some
of the ancient cities had only turns in sending; they were
not suffered to send all of them to one and the same council,
but it was appointed that some should send their deputies to
the vernal meeting, and some to the autumnal. I imagine,
that when Greece was become subject to the Roman state,
Augustus thought it proper to lessen the power and author-
ity of the council of the Amphictyones, that they might
not be able to debate upon or concert measures to disturb
the Romans, or recover the ancient liberties of Greece ; it
might not perhaps be proper to suppress their meeting, but
he took care to have so many new votes in the Roman in-
terest introduced, and the number of the ancient members,
who might have the Grecian affairs at heart, so lessened, that
nothing could be attempted here to the prejudice of the
Romans ; and perhaps this was all that Strabo meant by
hinting that Augustus dissolved this council. He did not
deprive the Grecians of a council which bore this name,
but he so far new- modelled it, that it was far from being
in reality what it appeared to be ; being in truth, after
Augustus's time, rather a Roman faction than a Grecian
q jEschin. in Orat. irepl irapairpfaPflas. ^ Pausan. in Phocicis, c. 8. s IJ. ibid.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 443
assembly meeting for the benefit of the Grecian states. And
in a little time the Amphictyones were not permitted to in-
termeddle with affairs of state at all, but reduced to have
only some small inspection over the rites and ceremonies of
religion practised in the temples, under their cognizance ;
and so, upon aboh'shing the heathen superstitions by Constan-
tine, this assembly fell on course. The ancient writers are
not unanimously agreed about the place where the Amphicty-
ones held their meeting ; that they met at first at Thermopylae
is undeniable, and in later ages a temple was built there
to Ceres Amphictyoneis *, in which they held their as-
semblies ; but after that the temple of Delphos was taken
into their protection, it is thought by some writers that the
Amphictyones met alternately one time at Thermopylae, the
next time at Delphos, then at Thermopylae, &c. Sir John
Marsham endeavours to argue from Pausanias", that the Am-
phictyones, who met at Delphos, were a different council
from that of the same name which met at Thermopylae ;
but the learned dean Prideaux has shewn this to be a mis-
take, Pausanias's words not necessarily inferring the two
coimcils to be different; and many other good writers at-
testing them to be the same, and that the Amphictyones did
meet at Delphos one time, and at Thermopylae another x,
Strabo mentions a meeting held in the temple of Neptune,
in the island Calauria^, to which seven neighbouring cities
sent their deputies ; this meeting was called by the name
Amphictyonia, most probably because it was instituted in
imitation of the famous council so called ; but this meeting
and that council were never taken to be the same.
Hellen the son of Deucalion reigned at Phthia, a city of
Thessaly, about A. M. 2484, and his people Avere called
Hellenes from his name ; before his times they were called
Graeci, or Grecians % most probably from Graicus the father
of Thessalus. Many of the ancient writers agree with the
t Herodotus, lib. vii. c. 200. Pausan. Marmor. Ep. v.
in Phocicis. y Strabo, lib. viii. p. 374, ed. Par.
u Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 116. ed. 1620.
1672. Pausan. in Achaicis, c. 24. z Marmor Arundel. Ep. vi.
" Prideau,Y, Not. Historic, ad Chron.
444 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK VIII.
marble in this remark ; Apollodorus% Aristotle'', and Pliny'',
and the Scholiast upon Lycophron ; but it should be ob-
served from all of them, that neither Hellenes nor Gra^ci
were at first the names of the inhabitants of the whole
country called Greece in after-ages, but only of a part of it.
The ancient Grseci were those whom Hellen called after
his name, and Hellen was a king of part of Thessaly, and
only his people were the ancient Hellenes. And thus Pau-
sanias remarks, that Hellas, which in later ages was the
name of all Greece, was at first only a part of Thessaly 'I ;
namely, that part where Hellen reigned. In Homer's time,
Hellas was the name of the country near to Phthia, and it
was then used in so extended a sense, as to comprehend
all Achilles's subjects, who were two small nations besides
the Hellenes, namely, the Myrmidons, and the Pelasgian
Ach^eans ^ ; nay, it took in the country round about the
Pelasgian Argos ; for Homer places this Argos in the
middle of it,
^Avbpos, Tov /c\eoj evpv KaO^ 'EWdba /cat jxicrov "Apyoi f.
But it is remarkable that Homer never calls all Greece by
the name of Hellas, nor the Grecians in general Hellenes ;
because, according to Thucydides's observation, none but
Achilles's subjects had this name in Homer's days^^. Strabo
indeed opposes this remark of Thucydides, and cites Archi-
lochus ajid Hesiod to prove that the inhabitants of all
Greece were called Hellenes before the times of Homer ^ ;
but Archilochus was much later than Homer, and the
verse cited from Hesiod falls short of proving what Strabo
infers from it'. The descendants of Hellen were the
founders of many very flourishing families, who in time,
and by degrees, spread into all the countries of Greece, and
in length of time came to have so great an interest, as to
have an order made, that none could be admitted as a can-
a Lib. i. c. 7. §. 2. S Thucyd. Hist. 1. i.
b De Meteoris, lib. i. h Strabo^ 1. viii. p. 370. ed. Par.
c Lib. iv. c. 7. 1620.
'1 Paiisan. in Laconicis, c. 20. > See Prideaux, Not. Hist, ad Chron.
e II. ii. 190. Mai-m. Ep. vi.
f Odyss. i. 344.
AND PEOFANE HISTORY. 445
clidate at the Olympic games who was not descended from
them; so that Alexander the Great, according to Herodo-
tus'^, was obliged to prove himself to be an Hellen before
he could be admitted to contend for any prize in these
games : and, from the time of making this order, every
kingdom was fond of deriving their genealogy from this
family, until all the Greeks were reputed to be Hellenes,
and so the name became universally applied to all the several
nations of the country. The marble hints, that Hellen, the
father of this family, first instituted the Panathensean games ;
not meaning, I suppose, that Hellen called them by that
name, but that he instituted games of the same sort with
the Panathensean. Erichthonius was the first in Greece
who taught to draw chariots with horses, and he instituted
the chariot-race 1 about A.M. 2499™, in order to encourage
his people to learn to manage horses this way with the
greater dexterity. And we are told, that in his days there
was found in some mountains of Phrygia the image of the
mother of the gods, and that Hyagnis made great improve-
ments in the art of music, inventing new instruments, and
introducing them into the worship of Cybele, Dionysius,
Pan, and of the other deities and hero-gods of his country ".
Chariots may very probably be supposed to have been intro-
duced into Greece by Erichthonius ; for he was an Egyp-
tian ; and chariots were used in Egypt in the days of Jo-
seph" : but as to Cybele's image, we cannot reasonably
suppose it thus early, and the heathen music cannot be
thought to have been much improved until after these
times. If Hyagnis invented the pipe or tibia, we must say of
his pipe in the words of Horace,
Tibia non ut nunc orichalco vincta, tubseque
J5mula; sed tenuis simplexque foramine pauco.
^ Herodot. 1. v. c. 22. to have invented the chariot. Num.
1 Virgil. Georg. iii. Euseb. Chron. ccccxlvii ; but it must appear, by
Num. ■543- what we have in the same version,
m Chron. Marmor. Ep. x. Num. dxliii, where Erichthonius is
" Ibid. mentioned, that either Trochilus was
o Gen. 1. 9. In the Latin version of a foreigner, and did not live in Greece,
Eusebius's Chi'onicon, Trochilus is said or what is said of him is a mistake.
446 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VIII.
Aspirare, et adesse choris erat utilis, atque
Nondum spissa nimis complere sedilia flatu.
De Arte Poetica.
His pipe was a mean and simple instrument, of less compass
even than the trumpet, and music was advanced to no re-
markable perfection in his days.
It is generally said, that the religion of Greece was an-
ciently what these Egyptians, Cecrops, Danaus, Cadmus,
and Erichthonius introduced ; so that it may not be amiss,
before we go further, to examine what the ancient Egyp-
tian religion was in their times, how far it might be cor-
rupted when they left Egypt; and this will shew us what
religion these Egyptians carried into the countries which
they removed into. I have already considered, that the
most ancient deities of the Egyptians, and of all other na-
tions, when they first deviated from the worship of the true
God, were the luminaries of heaven P; and if we carry on
the inquiry, and examine what further steps they took in
the progress of their idolatry, we shall find that the Egyp-
tians in a little time consecrated particular living creatures
in honour of their sidereal deities ; and some ages after they
took up an opinion, that their ancient heroes were become
gods ; which opinion arose from a belief, that the souls of
such heroes were translated into some star, and so had a very
powerful influence over them and their aifairs.
I. The first step they took, after they worshipped the
luminaries of heaven, was to dedicate to each particular
deity some living creature, and to pay their religious wor-
ship of the deity before such creature, or the image of it :
this was practised in Egypt very early, evidently before the
Israelites left that country ; for the Israelites had learned
from the Egyptians to make the figure of a calf for the di-
rection of their worship ''; for the most learned, who were
able to give the most plausible accounts of their superstition,
did not allow, that they really worshipped their sacred
animals, but only that they used them as the most powerful
mediums, to raise in their hearts a religious sense of the deity
P See book v. vol. i. 1 Exodus xxxii.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 447
to which they were consecrated f. It may be asked, how
they could fall mto this practice, which to us seems odd
and humoursome ; for of what use can the figure of a beast
be, to raise in men's minds ideas of even the sidereal deities ?
To this I answer, their speculation and philosophy led them
into this practice. When men had deviated from that reve-
lation which was to have been their only guide in points of
religion, they quickly fell from one fancy to another ; and
after they came to think the lights of heaven to he the gods
that governed the world, they in a little time apprehended
these gods to have made the living creatures of the earth
more or less partakers of their divinity and perfections, that
they might be the instruments of conveying a knowledge of
them to men ^ . and men of the nicest inquiry and specu-
lation made many curious observations upon them, which
seemed highly to favour their religious philosophy. After
the worship of the moon was established, and the increase
and decrease of it superstitiously considered by men who had
no true philosophy, the dilatation and contraction of the
2)upiUa of a cat's eye seemed very extraordinary. Plutarch
gives us several reasons why the Egyptians reputed a cat
to be a sacred animal ; but that formed from the contrac-
tion and dilatation of the pupil of its eye seems to have
been the first and most remarkable ' : this property of that
creature was thought strongly to intimate to them, that it
had a more than ordinary participation of the influence of
the lunar deity, and was by nature made capable of exhibit-
ing lively representations of its divinity unto men, and was
therefore consecrated and set apart for that purpose. The
r 'AyanriTeov odv oh ravra riixwVTas, '6irt>)S Kv^ipvarai t6, t6 ffiifiTrav '6Qiv oh
aWaSiaTOVToovTh 6i7ov,o>sivapyiaT4pwv x^^pov if tovtois elKd^erai rh Qilov fj
iffSnrpaiv Kal (pvaei yiyovSTccv. Pin- x'^'^'^^'^ots Kal KiOiyots Srj/j.iovpyrjfj.aaii' —
tarch. de Iside et Osiride, p. 382. ed. vepl /xiv ouv tuv Tip.'jjixivwv ^<haiv ravra
Xyl, 1624. In which words the learned SoK:i,ua^a) /uaAitrra ri;/ Aiyd/xevcov. Id.
heathen gives a more refined and phi- ibid.
losophical reason for the Egyptian t a» 5e iv to7s 6/xfj.acnv ahrov K6pai
image- worship, than the papists can irXiipovadai ixkv koL irKarvvfcr&ai 5o/co0-
possibly give of theii's. (tiv eV -KavcnXvivai, Xt-Krvvecrdai Se Kal
s 'H 5e ^UKTa KoX ^Aeirovaa Kal Kivf]- fxapavyiiv iu rais fieidxreffi tov ixarpov.
aeeus apxh" f'l avTrjs exovffa, Kal yvwffiv t<^ Se avOpcowoixSpcpCj} rod aiXovpov rh
oiKeiwv Kcu aKKoTpinjv (pvffis, eairaKev voephv Kal \oytKbv ifxcpaivirai tu>v irepl
airoppo^v Kal fiolpav e'/c rod (ppofovvros, T))v'S,i\i]vriv fiiTafioKwv. Id. ibid. p. 376.
448 CONNECTION OF THE SACllED [bOOK VUI.
asp and the beetle became sacred upon the same account :
they thought they saw in them some faint images of the
divine perfections, and therefore consecrated them to the
particular deities whose qualities they were thought to ex-
hibit i^. And this practice of reputing some animals sacred
to particular gods was the first addition made to their idola-
try ; and the reason I have given seems to have been the
first inducement that led them into it. In later ages more
animals became sacred than were at first thought so, and
they paid a more religious regard to them, and gave more
in number, and more frivolous reasons for it; but this was
the rise and beginning of this error.
II. Some ages after, they descended to worship heroes or
dead men, whom they canonized : that they acknowledged
many of their gods to be of this sort, is very evident from
the express declaration of their priests, who affirmed, that
they had the bodies of these gods embalmed and deposited
in their sepulchres''. The most celebrated deities they had
of this sort were Chronus, Rhea, Osiris, Orus, Typhon,
Isis, and Nephthe ; and these persons were said to be deified
upon an opinion, that at their deaths their souls migrated
into some star, and became the animating spirit of some lu-
minous and heavenly body : this the Egyptian priests ex-
pressly asserted y, and this account almost all the ancient
writers give of these gods ; thus it was recorded in the
Phoenician antiquities, that Chronus or Saturnus was after
his death made a god, by becoming the star of that name^;
and this opinion was communicated from nation to nation,
and prevailed in all parts of the heathen world, and was evi-
dently received at Home at Julius Ca3sar's death, who was
canonized upon the account of the appearance of a comet,
or a luminous body, for seven days together, at the time
that Augustus appointed the customary games in honour of
him^ : the phenomenon which then appeared was thought
11 "'AcTTTiSa 5e Kal yaXriv koH KixvOapov, a.yevv7)To\ fji.7)5f &(p6apToi rh jjikv onifiaTa
flKSvas Tivas eavTo7s a/iiavpas Sxrirfp iu Trap' avrols Ke7(r6at Ka/xSvra Kal OepaTrsv-
crraySffiv 7)\lov t^s tUv deoov Svvdfxfws ecrOai. Plut. de Iside et Osiride,
Ko.TtSSi'Tes. Plut. de Iside et Osiride. y Tas Se rpuxas xiixireiv &<npa. Ibid.
X Ou ix6vov Se Tovraiv ol If pels \4you- ^ Euseb. Prjep. Evang. 1. i. c. lO.
(Ttu, aW^ Koi Tujv &\\oiv 6euv, '6aoi /xr} a Suetonius, Hist. Caesar. Jul. §. 88.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 449
to be the star which he passed into at his leaving this world,
and was accordingly called by Virgil Dio?icsi Ccesaris Astrum^,
and by Horace Julutm Sldus'^. And an opinion of this sort
appears to have prevailed amongst the Arabians at the time
of our Saviour's birth, when the eastern Magi came to worship
him, convinced of his divinity by an evidence of it, which
God was pleased to give them in their own way, from their
having seen his star in the cast^. Let us now see,
III. When the Egyptians first consecrated these hero-
gods, or deified mortals. To this I answer, not before they
took notice of the appearances of the particular stars which
they appropriated to them. Julius Caesar was not ca-
nonized until the appearance of the Julium Sidus; nor
could the Phoenicians have any notion of the divinity of
Chronus, until they made some observations of the star
which they imagined he was removed into : and this will
at least inform us when five of the seven ancient hero-gods
of the Egyptians received their apotheosis. The Egyptians
relate a very remarkable fable of the birth of these five
gods®. They say that Khea lay privately with Saturn, and
was with child by him ; that the Sun, upon finding out her
baseness, laid a curse upon her, that she should not be de-
livered in any month or year ; that Mercury being in love
with the goddess lay with her also, aiad then played at dice
with the moon, and won from her the seventy-second part
of each day, and made up of these winnings five days,
which he added to the year, making the year to consist of
'^6^ days, which before consisted of 360 days only ; and that
in these days Rhea brovight forth five children, Osiris, Orus,
Typho, Isis, and Nephthe. We need not enquire into the
mythology of this fable ; what I remark from it is this, that
the fable could not be invented before the Egyptians had
found out that the year consisted of 365 days, and conse-
quently, that by their own accounts the five deities said to
be born on the five k-nayojx^vai, or additional days, were not
deified before they knew that the year had these five days
b Eclog. ix. ver. 47. d Matth. ii. 2.
c Od. xii. lib. i. e Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride.
VOL. I. ' G g
450 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VIII.
added to it; and this addition to the year was first made
about the time of Assis, who was the sixth of the Pastor-
kings which reigned in Egypt, and it was towards the end
of his reign f, i. e. about A. M. 2665, a little after the death
of Joshua. Had Osiris, Orus, Typho, Isis, and Nephthe
been esteemed deities before this additional length of the
year was apprehended, we should not have had this, but
some other fabulous account of their birth transmitted to
us ; but from this account one would think that the Egyp-
tian astronomers had about this time remarked the ap-
pearance of five new stars in the horizon, which their pre-
decessors had taken no notice of; and as Julius Csesar was
reported a god from the appearance of the Julium Sidus,
so these five persons, being the highest in esteem amongst
the Egyptians of all their famous ancestors, might be dei-
fied, and the five new appearing stars be called by their
names : and the observation of these stars being first made
about the time when the length of the year was corrected,
this piece of mythology took its rise from them. It is in-
deed asserted in the fable, that these five deities were born
at this time ; but we must remember the relation to be a
fable ; and Plutarch well remarks, just upon his giving us
this story, that we must not take the Egyptian fables about
their gods to relate matters of fact really performed, for
that was not the design of them§': all that this fable can
reasonably be supposed to hint to us is, that the five stars
called by these names were first observed by their astrono-
mers about the time that the addition of five days was
made to the year, and consequently that the heroes and
heroines, whose names were given to these stars, were first
worshipped as deities about this time ; and we are no more
to infer hence, that these persons were born of Rhea as the
fable relates, than that Mercury and Luna really played at
dice, as is fabulously reported. Isis seems at first to have
been reputed to be the star which the Greeks called the
f Syncell. p. 123. ed. Par. 1652. irep\Twv6eS>va.Ko{>(Tris,^eiToovKpoiip-ntxe-
Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 235. ed. vwv iJLV7)tioviveLV,Kai ^jL-n^lvoXeffQanovToiv
I" 7 2. ^ \eye(r6ai yeyovhs ovtw koI irfnpttyfiivov.
S Otoj' ovv t fxvQoKoyovffLv AlyiiwTioi Plut. de Iside et Osiride.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 451
Bog-Star, the Egyptians Sothis'% and this they expressed on
a pillar erected to her*. Orus was the star called Orion,
and Typho the Bear-star''. Afterwards the names both of
these and their other gods were very variously used, and
applied to very different powers and beings.
The Egyptians had other hero-gods besides these five;
they had eight persons whom their chronology called demi-
gods; Diodorus gives them these names, Sol, Saturnus,
Khea, Jupiter, Juno, Vulcanus, Vesta, Mercurius • ; and
their historical memoirs affirm these persons to have reigned
in Egypt before Menes or Mizraim, and before their heroes ;
so that they certainly lived before the flood ™ : and they
had after these a race of heroes, fifteen in number, and the
persons I have been speaking of are five of them ", and
these must likewise have been antediluvians"; but I do
not imagine they were deified until about this time of the
correcting of the year ; for, when this humour first began, it
is not likely that they made gods of men but just dead,
of whose infirmities and imperfections many persons might
be living witnesses ; but they took the names of their first
ancestors, whom they had been taught to honour for ages,
and whose fame had been growing by the increase of tradi-
tion, and all whose imperfections had been so long buried,
that it might be thought they never had any. It has al-
ways been the humour of men to look for truly great and
unexceptionable characters in ancient times ; Nestor fre-
quently tells the Greeks in Homer what sort of persons
lived when he was a boy, and they were easily admitted to
be far superior to the greatest and most excellent then alive ;
and had he been three times as old as he was, he might
have almost deified his heroes ; but it is hard to be con-
ceived, that a set of men could ever be chosen by their co-
temporaries to have divine honours paid them, whilst nu-
merous persons were alive who knew their imperfections,
h Plutarch, lib. de Tside et Osiride. 1 Lib. i. §. 13.
i Diodor. Sic. 1. i. Part of the in- m See vol. i. book i. p. 12, 13.
scription on the pillar is, '£7^^ elfxi fi n Diodorus Sic. 1. i.
if TifAcTpq) T^J Kw\ iiriTfWovcra. o See vol. i. book i. p. 13, 14, 15.
k Plut. ubi sup.
Gg2
452 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
and who themselves, or their immediate ancestors, might
have as fair a pretence, and come in competition with
them : Alexander the Great had but ill success in his at-
tempt to make the world believe him the son of Jupiter
Ammon ; nor could Numa Pompilius, the second king of
Rome, make Romulus 's translation to heaven so firmly
believed, as not to leave room for subsequent historians to
report him killed by his subjects f; nor can I conceive that
Julius Cfesar's canonization, though it was contrived more
politicly, and supported with more specious and popular
appearances, would ever have stood long indisputable, if
the light of Christianity had not appeared so soon after this
time as it did, and impaired the credit of the heathen su-
perstitions. The fame of deceased persons must have ages
to grow up to heaven ; and divine honours cannot be given
with any show of decency but by a late posterity. Plu-
tarch 1 observes, that none of the Egyptian deities were
persons so modern as Semiramis ; for that neither she
amongst the Assyrians, nor Sesostris in Egypt, nor any of
the ancient Phrygian kings, nor Cyrus amongst the Per-
sians, nor Alexander the Great, were able, though they
performed the greatest actions, to raise themselves to higher
glory than that of being famous and illustrious princes and
commanders ; and he remarks from Plato, that whenever
any of them affected divinity, they su-uk instead of raised
their character by it : their story was too modern to permit
them to be gods. Euemerus Messenius in Plutarch is re-
ported to have wrote a book to prove the ancient gods of
the heathen world to have been only their ancient kings
and commanders; but Plutarch thought he might be suffi-
ciently refuted by reviewing all the ancient history, and
remarking, that the most early kings, though of most cele-
brated memory, had not ever attained divine honours. Plu-
tarch himself thought these gods to have been Genii, of a
power and nature more than mortal. The truth seems to
have been this ; they were their antediluvian ancestors, of
whom they had had so little true history, and such enlarged
P Dionys llalicar. lib. li. c. 56. 1 Lib. de Iside et Osiride.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 453
traditions and broken stories, that they thought them far
superior to their greatest kings, whose Hves and actions they
had more exact accounts of.
It may perhaps be said, that if these hero-gods Hved so
many ages earlier than this supposed time of their being
canonized, why should we not imagine that they were dei-
fied sooner? or since eight of them, namely the demi-gods,
are thought more ancient than the rest, and Chronus and
Khea, two of them, are fabled to be parents of some of the
others, why should they be imagined to be all deified at
this one particular time, and not rather some in one age
and some in another ? All I can offer towards answering
these queries is, i. I conclude from the fable related by
Plutarch, that Osiris, Orus, Isis, Typho, and Nephthe, men-
tioned in it, were not deified before the addition of the
five days to the ancient year ; because the whole fable, and
the birth of these deities, is founded upon the addition of
those days. 2. We shall see reason hereafter to conclude,
that no nation but the Egyptians, not even those who re-
ceived their religion from Egypt, worshipped hero-gods
even so early as these days. 3. We have no reason to think
the number of their gods of this sort was very great ; I can-
not see reason to think they had any more besides what I
have mentioned, except Anubis, who was cotemporary with
Osiris'" j so that they had but fourteen demi-gods and hero-
gods, taking the number of both together, and thus many
they might well deify at one time : if these gods had been
canonized at difierent times and in different ages, there
would have been a greater number of them; but all that
the ingenuity of succeeding ages performed was only to
give these gods new names. Thus Osiris, and sometimes
Typhon, and sometimes the sun, was called in after-ages
Serapis ; and Orus was called Apollo, and Harpocrates.
4. Osiris, said to be born when the five days were added to
the year, is reputed to be one of the most ancient of the
Egyptian gods, and therefore sometimes taken for the sun ;
so that this hero seems to have been deified as early as any^,
!■ Diodor. lib. i. §. 18. s ibid. §. 17.
454 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIIT.
and therefore most probably he and all the rest about the
time I have mentioned. 5. About this time lived the se-
cond Mercury ; he was the thirty-fifth king of Thebes,
called Siphoas and Hermes for his great learning, and for
being the restorer and improver of the arts and sciences first
taught by the ancient Hermes or Thyoth. It was perhaps
he who found out the defect in their ancient computations
of the year. Strabo says, this was first found out by the
Theban priests « ; and he adds, that they make Mercury
(meaning undoubtedly this second Mercury) the author of
this knowledge " ; for the first Mercury lived ages before
the length of the year was so far apprehended : and I think
we cannot conjecture any thing more probable, than that as
Syphis, soon after Abraham's time, built the errors of the
Egyptian religion upon his astronomy ; so this prince, upon
his thus greatly improving that science, introduced new
errors in theology by this same learning. The one taught
to worship the luminaries of heaven, thinking them instinct
with a glorious and divine spirit ; the other carried his
astronomy to a greater height than his predecessors had
done : he apprehended some stars to be of a more benign
influence to his country than others, and taught that the
souls of some of their most famous ancestors lived and
governed in them ; and from hence arose the opinion of
Indigetes, d^ol Trarpwoi, or deities peculiarly propitious to
particular countries, of which we have frequent mention in
ancient writers, and which spread universally by degrees into
all the heathen nations. Philo Biblius mentions Taautus as
a person who framed a great part of the Egyptian religion ^ ;
and most probably what he hints at was done by this se-
cond Taautus, Thoth, or Hermes ; and the additions he
made to the religion of his ancestors seem from Philo to
relate to what I have ascribed to him. Herodotus Y seems
to hint, that the Egyptians had at first eight of these gods
only; that in time they made them up twelve, and after-
t Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 8i6. ed. Par. x Eusebius, Prsep. Evang. 1. i, c. lo.
-1620. y Lib. ii. c. 145.
w Id. ibid.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 4!55
wards imagined these twelve to have been the parents of
other gods. If any one thinks it most probable that Sol,
Saturnus, Rhea, Jupiter, Juno, Vulcanus, Vesta, Mercurius,
(these being the eight terrestrial deities which Diodorus
Siculus mentions to have been the first hero-gods which the
Egyptians worshipped,) I say, if any one thinks it most pro-
bable that Siphoas canonized these, and that the five deities
said to be born of E,hea were deified later ; and that a story
was made upon the five additional days, not at the time of
their being first found out, but many years after, and that
afterwards they still added to the number of their gods ;
I cannot pretend to affirm that this opinion is to be rejected :
for I must confess, that all that we can be certain of in this
matter is only this, that the Egyptians did not worship
hero-gods before the times of the second Mercury, and that
Osiris, I sis, Orus, Typho, and Nephthe were not deified
before the five days were added to the Egyptian accounts of
the year ; though I think it most probable, from what is hinted
about the inventions of Siphoas or the second Mercury, that
he began and completed the whole system of this theology ;
perhaps he did not begin and perfect it at once, he might
be some years about it, and thereby occasion some of these
gods to be deified sooner than others.
IV, After the hero-deities were received, a new set of
living animals were consecrated to them, and cyphers and
hieroglyphic characters were invented to express their divi-
nity and worship. The bull called Apis was made sacred to
Osiris =5, and likewise the hawk**: the ass, crocodile, and sea-
horse were sacred to Typho ^: Anubis was said to be the
Dog-star, and the dog was sacred to him*^ ; and a very reli-
gious regard was had to this animal, until Cambyses killed
the Apis '^ : after that, some of the flesh of Apis being
thrown to the dogs, and they readily attempting to eat it,
they fell under great censure, for desiring to profane them-
selves by eating the flesh of so sacred an animal ^ ; but this
2 Plutarch, de Iside ct Osiiide. d See Prideaux, Connect, vol. i. b. iii.
a Id. ibid. an. 524.
'j Id. ibid. e Plutarch, ubi sup.
c Id. ibid.
456 CONNECTIOK OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
accident did not happen until about A. M. 3480. The ser-
pent or dragon was consecrated to Nephthe^, and other
suitable animals to other gods ; and all this seems to have
been the invention of Taautus ; for so Philo represents it,
making him the author of the divinity of the serpents, or
dragon, which was sacred to Nephthe ; and also hinting,
that he invented the hieroglyphic characters, which the
Egyptians were so famous for*", taking his patterns from the
animals which had been consecrated to the luminaries of
heaven. Philo does not sufficiently distinguish the first
Hermes or Taautus from the second, but ascribes some
particulars, that were true of the first Mercury only, to the
person he speaks of; but what he hints about the sacred
animals and hieroglyphics must be ascribed to the second
Mercury ; for if, as I have formerly observed ', the religion
of the Egyptians was not corrupted in the days of Abraham,
the first Taautus must be dead long before the sacred animals
were appointed, and I may here add, that hieroglyphics
were not in use in his days ; for the pillars upon which he
left his memoirs Avere inscribed not in hieroglyphics, but
UpoypaipLKols ypdfjLixaai, in the sacred letters, in letters which
were capable of being made use of b)'^ a translator, who
turned what was written in these letters out of one language
into another k. The hieroglyphical inscriptions of the Egyp-
tians are pretty full of the figures of birds, fishes, beasts, and
men, with a few letters sometimes between them ; and this
alone is sufficient to hint to us, that they could not come
into use before the animals represented in inscriptions of
this sort were become by allegory and mythology capable
of expressing various things, by their having been variously
used in the ceremonies of their religion.
It may perhaps be said, that the Egyptians had two sorts
of hieroglyphics, as Porphyry' has accurately observed, call-
ing the one sort, lepoyXv<piKa KOLVoXoyovpieva Kara p.[p,r](nv, i. e.
f Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride. twv OiSiv h^sis, Kp6vov re Kai AajZvos
S TV i"f '' oiv dpdKovTos (pvaiv KoL tV «"' '''^^ Konrwu Zurvnaiaev koX robs Upovi
6(pfa>v aurbs iife^iaafv 6 Taavros, /cat twu (noixeicov xapaKTJipas. Id. ibid.
(xfT avrbv <PoiutKfs re ical Alyvmiot. • Vol. i. b. v.
Euseb. Vrwyi. Evang. 1. i. c. lo. ^ Hoc vol. i. b. iv. p. 146.
U TdavTos pi.if/i.7)(Tat».ivos rbv Oijpavov, 1 In lib. de vit. Pythag. §. 12.
AKD PROFANE HISTORY. 457
hieroglyphics communicating their meaning to us by an
imitation of the thing designed ; and the other sort, avix/BoXiKa
aXkrjyopovix^va Kara rivas alviyfjiovs, i. e, figures conveying their
meaning by alhiding m to some intricate mythologies ; and
perhaps it may be thought, that this latter sort of hierogly-
phics were probably invented about the times I am treating
of; but that the former were in use long before, and being
nothing else but a simple representation of things by making
their pictures or imitations, might be perhaps the first let-
ters used by men. But to this 1 answer, i . We have no
reason to think that these hieroglyphics were so ancient as
the first letters. 2. They would be but a very imperfect
character ; many, nay most occurrences could be repre-
sented by them but by halves : the Egyptians intermingled
letters with their hieroglyphics to fill up and connect sen-
tences, and to express actions ; and the first men must have
had letters as well as pictures, or their pictures could have
hinted only the ideas of visible objects ; but there would
have been much wanting in all inscriptions to give their full
and true meaning. 3. This picture-character would have
been unintelligible, unless men could be supposed to deli-
neate the forms or pictures of things more accurately than
can well be imagined : the first painters and figure-drawers
performed very rudely, and were frequently obliged to
write underneath what their figures and pictures were, to
enable those that saw them to know what was designed to
be represented by them : the Egyptians drew the forms of
their sacred animals but imperfectly even in later ages, and I
cannot doubt, but if we could see what they at first deli-
neated for a bull, a dog, a cat, or a monkey, it would be
difficult to tell which figure might be this or that, or whether
any of their figures were any of them; and therefore to
help the reader they usually marked the sun and moon, or
some other characters, to denote what god the animal de-
signed was sacred to, and then it was easier to guess without
m These hieroglyphics were some- Plut. lib. de Isidc et Osiridc, p. 354.
thing like Pyfhagoras's precepts; they cd. Xyl. 1624.
expressed one thing, but meant another.
458 CONNECTION OF THE SACEED [bOOK VIII.
mistake what the picture was, and what might be in-
tended by it. And something like this the men of the most
ancient times must have done ; for they cannot be imagined
to be able to picture well enough to make draughts expres-
sive of their meaning : they might invent and learn a rude
character much sooner than they could acquire art enough
to draw pictures, and therefore it is most probable that such
a character was first invented and made use of. But, 4. Por-
phyry did not mean by the expression KotvoXoyovixeva Kara
fxifx-qa-Lv^ that the characters he spoke of imitated the forms or
figures of the things intended by them ; for that was not
the ixifxrjcTis, which the ancient writers ascribed to letters.
Socrates gives us the opinion of the ancients upon this
point, namely, that letters were like the syllables of which
words were compounded, and expressed an imitation, for
he uses that word, [not of the figure or picture, but] of
the ovaia, or substance, power, or meaning of the thing de-
signed by them"; thus he makes letters no more the pic-
tures of things than the syllables of words are. The ancients
were exceedingly philosophical in their accounts of both
words and letters : when a word or a sound was thought
fully to express, according to their notions, the thing which
it was designed to be the name of, then they called it the
dK(av, or picture of that thing ; and they apprehended that a
word could not be completely expressive, unless it was com-
pounded of letters well chosen to give it a sound suitable to
the nature of the thing designed to be expressed by it ; and
when a word hit their fancy entirely in these respects, then
they thought the sound and letters of it to express, imitate,
or resemble the true image of the thing it stood for. All
this may be collected from several passages of Plato upon
this subject"; and in this sense we must take Porphyry's
n 'O Sia Tcov (TvWaficiv re koI ypafi/xd- fj irpoffTidels f) a.(paLpSi)v ypAfi^ara, UKSvas
Twi/ T^v ovcriav tuv Trpaytxaroou aTrofii/xov- /xhv epyd^erai Kol ovtos, aWa irovripas —
/xevos- — Tovro S' icrrlv (jvojxa. Plato in oxnrep Ka\^iKa,T)'6(TTis fiovKei&Wos apiO-
Cratylo, ed. Ficin. Franco f. 1602. p. 295. ^ihs iav acpiA-ps rl f) TrpoffOfjs, irepos eu-
Or in other words he says, A7^\cD/xa dvs yeyovi. — £i jueAAei KaXUs KuaQai
(rvKXa^ats koX ypdififxacTL ovo/j.d icrri. Ibid. rh ovo/xa, to, irpocr'fiKovTa Se7 avrip ypd/j.~
o OvKovv 6 ixfv aTToStSovs -rravra Ka\h fiara exeiv. See Plat. Cratyl. edit.
Tc» ypd/x/xara — Soawep if rais Cooypa(p7i- Ficini, Francof.' 1602. p. 295, 296,
/uacTi — Kol Tas eiKSvas airoSiSccffiv 6 5e 297, &c.
AND PROFA>JE HISTORY. 459
expression : and this will lead us to think the letters he treats
of to be the Egyptian sacred letters, as I have formerly hinted
from this very description of them P. When language con-
sisted of monosyllables only, a single stroke, dash, or letter,
might be thought as expressive of a single sound, as various
letters were afterwards thought of various and compounded
words, or of polysyllables ; and since the [xlixtjo-is, or imitation,
which the ancients ascribed to their letters, was an imita-
tion relating to the expressing well the word they stood for,
and not an imitation of the form or shape of the thing, we
must err widely from their meaning to imagine their letters
to have been pictures or hieroglyphics, because they ascribe
such a mimesis to them,
V. It was customary in Egypt, in the very ancient times,
to call eminent and famous men by the names of their gods ;
this Diodorus Siculus informs us of: after his account of the
celestial deities, he adds, that they had men of great emi-
nence, some of whom were kings of their country, and all
of them benefactors to the public by their useful inventions,
and some of these they called by the name of their celestial
deitiesi ; and of this number he reckons the persons called
Sol, Saturnus, Rhea, Jupiter, Juno, Vulcanus, Vesta, Mer-
curius ; intimating indeed that these were not their Egyp-
tian names, but only equivalent to them. The Egyptians in
the beginning of their idolatry worshipped the sun and
moon, and in a little time the elements, the vis mvijica of
living creatures, the fire, air, earth, and water''; and per-
haps the wind might be the eighth deity, for they distin-
guished the wind and air from one another, and took them
to be two different things *; and as the Assyrians called
their kings and great men Bel, Nebo, Gad, Azar, after the
names of their gods, so did the Egyptians ; and whilst they
worshipped only these deities, they had only the names and
titles of these to dignify illustrious men with : but in after-
times, when the men, who were at first called by the names of
their gods, came to be deified, then the names of these men
P See vol. i. book iv. p. 146. r Diodor. Sic. 1. i. §. 10.
'1 Diodor. I. i. §. 13. s Wisdom, chap. xiii. ver. 2.
460 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK VIII.
were thought honorary titles for those who hved after them.
Thus as Osiris was called Sol, or Isis, Luna*, by those who
had a desire to give them the most illustrious titles and ap-
pellations ; so when Osiris and Isis were reputed deities, a
later posterity gave their names to famous men, who had
lived later than they did. And thus the brother of Cnan or
Canaan, i. e. Mizraim, was called Osii-is". I might add further :
as the Assyrians called their kings sometimes by the names
of two or three of their gods put together, as Nabonassar,
Nebuchadnezzar'' ; so the Egyptians many times gave one
and the same person the names of several gods, accord-
ing as the circumstances of their lives gave occasion ; and
thus Diodorus remarks y, that the same person that was
called Isis was sometimes called Juno, sometimes Ceres, and
sometimes Luna ; and Osiris was at one time called Serapis,
at another Dionysius, at another Pluto, Ammon, Jupiter, and
Pan : and as one and the same person was sometimes called
by different names, so one and the same name was frequently
given to many different persons, who lived in different ages.
Osiris was not the name of one person only, but Mizraim
was called by this name=^, and so were diverse kings that
lived later than he did, amongst the number of whom we
may, I believe, insert Sesostris. But we may see the appli-
cation of these ancient names abundantly in one particular
name, which I choose to instance in, because I have fre-
quent occasion to mention it : the reader will find other
names as variously given to different persons in all parts of
the ancient history. Chronus was the name of the star
called Saturn, and most probably some antediluvian was first
called by this name ; afterwards the father of Belus, Canaan,
Cush, and Mizraim, i. e. Moses's Ham the son of Noah,
was called by this name^ The son of this Ham, and father
of Taautus, i. e. Mizraim himself, was called Chronus b.
The father of Abraham was called Chronus'^, and Abraham
himself was also thus called^. I might observe the same of
t Diodor. Sic. 1. i. §. ii, 12. * See vol. i. b. iv. p. 121.
" Euseb. Praep. Evang. 1. i. c. 10. ^ Ibid.
X Vol. i. b. V. c See b. vi. Euseb. Preep. Evang.
y Diodor. Sic. 1. i. §. 11, 12 1. i. c. to.
2 See vol. i. b. iv. d Ibid.
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 461
Belus, Bacchus, Pan, and of almost every other name : but
abundance of instances will occur to every one that reads
any of the ancient writers.
VI. The Egyptians having first called their heroes by
the names of their sidereal and elementary deities, added in
time to the history of the life and actions of such heroes a
mythological account of their philosophical opinions con-
cerning the gods, whose names had been given to such he-
roes ; and this might be first done by the second Thyoth or
Hermes, and to him must belong what Philo in Eusebius'^
relates of the person of his name ; that being famous for
his great parts and learning, he raised the style (as I might
say) that had been used in subjects of religion, and instead of
a plain way of treating these points, accommodated to the
capacity of the low and vulgar people, he introduced a me-
thod more suitable to the learning that was then in esteem
and reputation : most probably he did what the same author
mentions the son of Thabion to have practised upon San-
choniatho f. To plain narrations of fact and history, he
added mythology and philosophy. He put into a system
the philosophy then in repute concerning the stars and ele-
ments ; and, by inventing such fables as he thought ex-
pressive, he made an history of his system, by inserting the
several parts of it amongst the actions of such persons as
had borne the names of the sidereal or elementary deities, to
whom the respective parts of his system might be applied.
I might confirm all this from numerous explications of the
Egyptian fables, which Plutarch has given us in his treatise
upon Isis and Osiris. The ancient history of these two per-
sons was most probably no more than this, which may be
collected from Diodorus's account of themS. Osiris married
Isis, taught men to live sociably, to plant trees, and to sow
corn ; and he not only taught one set or company of men
6 Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. to. words are, TaCraircJi/Ta (5 0a;3iWojira?j,
The words are, Tdavros hv AtyvnTtot irpwros t&v air alSivos yiyovdruiv 4>ot-
0i)9 TTpocrayopevovffi, <ro(pi(j, SieveyKwv — viKtav hpo<pdvTr]s, aW-qyop-qcras, to7s re
wpcoTos TO. KUTO, Tr)v OfocT^^eLav eK rrjs (pvcriKols Ka\ Kocr/xiKo'is ■rrdOea'iv wa/A,i^as,
Tuiv xi'Saioii' anaplas eh iiri(TTr)iJ.oviK^v irapfSooKe rois bpyiHixn.
ifjLTTfipiav Siera^eu. S Hist. 1. i. §. 13, 14, &c.
f Id. ibid. p. 39. ed. Par. 1628. The
462 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
these useful arts, but he travelled up and down far and near,
instructing all that would be advised by him ; leaving his
domestic family or kingdom to be governed by his wife
Isis, and son Taautus, whenever he went from home to in-
struct the neighbouring nations, or rather families. Osiris,
after several useful and successful expeditions of this sort,
returned home greatly honoured and esteemed by all that
knew him ; but, upon some accident or quarrel, he is said
to have been killed by Typho. Isis raised her family,
fought with Typho, got her husband's body and buried it.
This might be the whole account they had at first of Osiris,
and all this might be true of Mizraim, the first king of
Egypt ; but then, this Osiris having had the names of se-
veral of their gods given to him in after-ages, all that was
believed of these was added in mythology to his history.
Thus Osiris having had the name of the moon given to him,
and it being believed of the moon that it completed its
course in twenty-eight days ; and that the moon, after the
full, decreases, and is diminished by some potent cause for
fourteen days together ; they called the moon Osiris, the
cause of its decrease Typho, and they tell this story ; that
Osiris reigned twenty-eight years, and was killed by Typho,
who pulled him into fourteen pieces ^. Sometimes they
call the element of water by the name of Osiris, and from
hence they raise many fables. Osiris is water, and by con-
sequence moisture : heat is called Apophis, and said to be
the brother of Sol, or nearly related to the sun or fire.
Jupiter is the cause of ail animal or vegetable life ; and the
mythos or fable runs thus : Apophis the brother of Sol
made war against Jupiter, but Osiris assisted Jupiter ; i. e.
heat would parch, dry up, and wither every thing living,
but that moisture affords a supply against it^ Sometimes
Osiris is the river Nile, his wife Isis is the land of Egypt,
which is rendered fruitful by the overflowings of that river.
Orus is the legitimate child of Osiris and Isis, i. e. is the
product of the land of Egypt, caused by the floods of the
h Pint. lib. de Iside et Osiride, p. i Plutarch, ibid. p. 364.
368.ed.Xyl. Par. 1624.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 463
river Nile : Typho is put for heat ; Nephthe is the high
lands, which the floods of Nile seldom reach to, and is said
to be Typho's wife, because they are commonly parched
with heat. If the floods of Nile happen at any time to
reach these high lands, then there commonly grow upon
them some few water plants caused by the inundation, and
these they reckon an uncommon product, and call them
Anubis ; and they hint all this in the following fable. They
say Osiris begat of his wife Isis a legitimate child called
OruSj and that he committed adultery with Nephthe the
wife of Typho, and had by her the bastard Anubis''. They
sometimes carry on this fable still further ; they tell us
Typho found out the adultery, killed Osiris, pulled his body
in twenty-six, sometimes in twenty-eight pieces, put them
in a chest, and threw them into the sea ; i. e. the heat and
warm weather dried up the floods of the Nile in 26 or 28
days, and his stream was received and swallowed up in the
sea, until the time that the Nile flows again : then they say,
Isis found the body of her husband Osiris, conquered Ty-
pho, i. e. the hot and dry weather ; and thus they go on
without end of either fancy or fable. Sometimes they
afl[irm Typho to have been a red man, and Osiris a black
one, not intending to describe the persons of either, but
giving hints of some of their opinions about the elements
of fire and water '. Osiris is sometimes the moon, Isis the
earth, Orus the fruits of the earth, Anubis the horizon, and
Nephthe the parts of the globe that lie beneath it ; and
sometimes all these names are applied to stars, and the
greater lights of heaven, and correspondent fables framed to
express what their philosophy dictated about them. I might
enlarge here very copiously, but I would only give a speci-
men of what may be met with, if the reader thinks fit to
pursue this subject. I am sensible that such a theology as
this must in our age appear ridiculous and extravagant ;
but I would remark, that it was instituted by men who were
universally admired in their days for the greatest learning ;
k Plutarch, lib. de Iside et Osii-ide, p. 364. 1 Id. ibid.
464 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [liOOK VTlt.
for it was accounted no small attainment for a person to be
learned in the learning of the Egyptians; and I might add,
upon what Plato and Plutarch have offered in favour and
defence of the Egyptian superstitions, that if we consult
history, we shall find, that there is nothing so weak, extra-
vagant, or ridiculous, but that men even of the first parts,
and eminent for their natural strength of understanding,
have been deceived to embrace and defend it ; and from
Plutarch it may be abundantly evidenced, that they fell
into these errors, not by paying too great a deference to tra-
dition and pretended revelation, but even by attempting to
set up what they thought a reasonable scheme of religion,
distinct from, or in opposition to, what tradition had handed
down to them. If we look back and make a fair inquiry,
we must certainly allow, that reason in these early times,
without the assistance of revelation, was not likely to offer
any thing but superstitious trifles ; for the frame and course
of nature was not sufficiently understood to make men
masters of true philosophy. It seems easy to us to demon-
strate the being and attributes of God by reason, from the
works of his creation ; but we understand all the hints
given by the inspired writers of the Old Testament, which
are proper to lead us to a right sense of these things, much
better than any of them were understood by the ancient
philosophers of the heathen world -, and by improving
upon these hints, we are arrived at truer notions of the
works of God's hands than they were masters of; but until
men were arrived at such a true philosophy, the only cer-
tain way they had to know the invisible things of God, even
his eternal power and godhead^ in all ages from the creation of
the world, was toUs Trotr^/xacrt, i. e. bg the things ivhich he had
done "1 ; and the heathen nations were ivithout excuse, be-
cause God had sufficiently manifested himself this way, if,
instead of seeking after false philosophy, they would have
attended to what he had revealed to them ; they might
have known by faith, that the loorlds were framed by the word
of God; so that the things tchich are seen loere not made by
m Rom. i. 20.
ANb PROFANE HISTORY. 465
those things which do appear^; i, e. they were the works not
of visible causes, but of an invisible agent. But when, in-
stead of adhering to what had been revealed about these
matters, they imagined they might profess themselves wise
enough to find out these truths in a better manner, by rea-
son and philosophy, they became fools, and changed the glory
of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things^:
they took the lights of heaven to be the gods which govern the
worlds, and believed them animated by the spirits of fa-
mous men, and consecrated birds and beasts and reptiles to
them, and amassed together heaps of mythology; concern-
ing which, when I consider so great a genius as Plutarch
gravely pronouncing that there is nothing in them unrea-
sonable, idle, and superstitious, but that a good and moral,
or historical, or philosophical reason may be given for every
part of every fable ^ ] I cannot but see plainly, that if God
had not been pleased to have revealed himself to men in the
first ages, many thousand of years would have passed before
men could have acquired by reason such a knowledge of
the works of God, as to have obtained any just sentiments
of his being or worship.
The writers of antiquities have made collections of images
and pictures of the Egyptian gods, in order to get the best
light they could into the ancient religion of this people, and
F. Montfaucon has taken great pains this way : but if I
may have leave to conjecture, (and more than that no one
can do on this dark and intricate subject,) I should suspect,
that most of the figures exhibited by the learned antiquaries
for Egyptian deities were not designed for such by those
who made them ; most of those that were designed for gods
are commonly but ill or falsely explained ; and few, very few
of them of great antiquity, the greatest part being evidently
made after the Greeks and Komans had broke in upon the
Egyptians. It is indeed true, that the sculpture in most of
the figures in Montfaucon's collection seems so rude and
n Hebrews xi. 3. 1 Plutarch, lib. de Iside et Osiride,
o Rom. i. 22, 23. P-3S3-
P Wisdom xiii. i, 2, 3, 4.
VOL. 1. H h
466 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
vulgar, as to intimate them to have been made in the first
and most early times of carving, before that art was brought
to any neatness or appearance of perfection : but the rude-
ness of the sculpture is no proof of the antiquity of Egyptian
images ; for Plato expressly tells us, that it was a rule
amongst their statuaries to imitate the antique shapes of the
ancient patterns, and that the carvers were by law restrained
from all attempts that looked like innovation ; so that the
art of carving being thus limited was never carried to any
perfection ; but, as the same author remarks, their most
modern statues were as ill shaped, as poorly carved, and as
uncouth in figure, as those of the greatest antiquity ''. But
the chief reason we have to think the relics that are now
described for gods of Egypt to be modern is, that they are
most of them of human shape ; and we find, by an universal
consent of all good writers, that the ancient Egyptian
images were not of this sort : as they had sacred animals
dedicated to their several gods, so the images of these were
their idols. An hawk was their ancient image for Osiris, a
sea-horse for Typho, a dog for Mercury, a cat for the Moon,
and in the same manner other images of animals for other
deities s ; and this introduced a practice analogous to it even
in their pictures and statues of men. As they represented
their deities by the figures of such animals as they imagined
to exhibit some shadows of their divine qualities or opera-
tions ; the Moon by a cat, because a cat varies its eye, in
their opinion, according to the various phases of the Moon ;
so they pictured or carved men in figures that might repre-
sent, not their visage, shape, or outward form, but rather
their qualities or peculiar actions. Thus a sword was the
known representation of Ochus*, a scarabceus was the
picture of a courageous warrior" ; and we may observe, that
the priests of Egypt in Ptolemy Soter's time^, about A. M.
3700, were so little acquainted with sculptures of human
r Plato de Legibus, 1. ii. p. 789. ed. crrjfjLaivovres, oAAct rod rpSTtov Tiiv ffK\i]-
Ficin. Francof. 1602. p6TT\ra koI KaKiav opydvcfi <poviK(f irapet-
s Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride. Kd^ovres. Id. ibid.
t OvTois iv T(f KaiakSycfi twv ^a<n- " Id. ibid.
\4wy ov Kvpiais S-^ttov T^f ovcriaf avrov x Id. ibid.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 467
form, that they could make no conjectures about the Co-
lossus which was brought from Synope, but by considering
the figures of the animals that were annexed to it. Strabo
expressly tells us, that the Egyi)tian temples had n% images,
or none of human form, but the image of some '';;finimal,
which represented the object of their worship ; and he re-
counts the several animals whose figures were the respec-
tive idols of particular cities y; for some cities paid their
worship before the images of some animals, and some before
those of others. Pausanias says, that Danaus dedicated
Avmov 'A-TToKXiava, perhaps an image to Apollo in the shape
of a wolf^. He remarks, that the statue which was in
the temple of this deity when he wrote was not that which
Danaus had made, but was the workmanship of a more
modern hand, namely, of Attalus the Athenian. In Attalus's
days, the images of the gods might be made in the human
form ; but it is more agreeable to Strabo's observation to
think, that the most ancient delubra had either no imaae at
all, or the image of some beast, for the object of worships
The Israelites, about Danaus's time, set up a calf in the wil-
derness, and of this sort was most probably the wooden statue
which Danaus erected to Apollo ; and perhaps from a statue
of this sort the ancient Argives stamped their coin with a
wolfs headb, F. Montfaucon has given the figures of
several small Egyptian statues swathed from head to foot
like mummies, which discover nothing but their faces, and
sometimes their hands ^ : these, I think, can never be taken
for Egyptian deities. Plutarch informs us, that they pic-
tured their judges and magistrates in this dress ^, so that
these were probably the images of deceased persons that
had borne those offices. We have several representations in
the draughts of the same learned antiquary, which are said
to be Isis holding or giving suck to the boy Orus^: but
y Strabo, Geograph. 1. xvii. 17, 18, 19, 20. plate xxxviii. fig. i, 2,
z Pausan. in Corinth. 1. ii. c. 19. 3, 4, 5, 6.
a Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 805. ed. Par. <» Lib. de Iside et Osiride, p. 355.
1620. ed. Xyl. 1624.
b Marsham, Can. p. 125. ed. 1672. e Montf. ubi sup. plate xxxvi. fig. 3.
c See Montfaucon, Antiq. vol. ii. plate xxxvii. fig. ii. plate xxxviii.
part ii. b. i. plate xxxvii. fig, 15, 16, fig. 9, lo, n.
H h2
468 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VlII,
it should be remarked, that Orus was not represented by
the Egyptians by the figure of a new-born child : for Plu-
tarch expressly tells us that a new-born child was the
Egyptian picture of the sun's rising f; and if so, why may
we not imagine, that these figures were the monuments of
some eminent astronomers? They might be represented
with the faces and breasts of women, to signify that the
observations which they had made had been the cause of
great plenty. They have commonly some plant sprouting
and fiourishing upon their heads, which probably, if well
explained, would instruct us what part of agriculture or
planting was improved by the benefit of their learned ob-
servations. One of them has the head of a cow, and a bird's
head upon thatS; but I should imagine, that we are not to
guess from hence that the Egyptians had received the
Greek fable about lo, as the learned antiquary suggests ;
but that the person hereby figured was so eminent, as that
he had the names of two deities given to him. As Daniel
obtained such a reputation in the court of Babylon as to
have a name given him compounded of the names of two
of their deities, namely Belteshazzar"^ ; so this person, who-
ever he was, was so eminent in Egypt, as to be called by
the names of the two deities put together; the heads of
whose sacred animals were for that reason put upon his
statue. We meet with several figures^ said to be designed
for Harpocrates. All these figures are representations of
young men with their finger upon their mouth, as a token
of their silence : but why may we not suppose these to be
monuments of young Egyptian students who died in their
novitiate, or first years, whilst silence, according to the an-
cient discipline, was enjoined them ? There are a variety of
figures of this sort in various dresses, and with various
symbols, all which, I imagine, might express the diiferent
f Lib. de Tside et Osiride, p. 355. S Montf. ubi sup. plate xxxvi.
Orus, when in later times images of fig. 3.
an human form were introduced, was ^ Dan. i. 7. See vol. i. b. v. p.
represented by a quite different figure. 198.
'Ec KS-rrrcf rh &ya\/j.a Tov''npov Ktyov- i Montfaucon, plate xl. fig. 17, 18,
(TLv iv rp kripa x*'P^ Tv(piuvos al5o7a 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. In plate xli. these
KaTexfiv. Plut. Ub. (le Iside et Osiride, figures are numerous.
P- 373-
AND PROrA^NTE HISTORY. 469
attainments and studies of the persons represented by them.
Jamblichus remarks, that Pythagoras, when he rejected any
of his scholars, and after the five years silence turned them
out of his school for their defects and insufficiency, used to
have statues made for them as if they were dead''. This
perhaps might be the ancient practice in Egypt, where Py-
thagoras long studied: and some of the images which go
for Harpocrates might be Egyptian students thus dismissed
their schools ; and the defect of symbols and want of orna-
ment in some of them may perhaps distinguish those of this
sort from the other. Plutarch does indeed hint that in
his times they had human representations of Osiris in every
city'; and Montfaucon gives us a figure in some respects
well answering to Plutarch's description of the statues of
Osiris'" ; but if that be a statue of Osiris, it must be a mo-
dern one. The ancient image of Osiris was that of an
hawkn, or he was sometimes represented by the picture of
an eye and a sceptre"; and until later times, images and
representations of him were very rare, and seldom to be met
withP; but when he came to be represented in the human
form, sculptures of him were common^. Montfaucon gives
us the figure of an animal without ears, which he calls a
Cynocephalus *■, and supposes to be a representation of Isis.
Plutarch s tells us, that the Cretans anciently pictured
Jupiter in this manner; and may we not imagine that this
figure was an ancient Egyptian Jupiter, and that the Cre-
tans copied after them ? I might enlarge upon this subject,
for I cannot help thinking, that even the animal figures,
like this instance I have mentioned, are commonly deci-
phered amiss ; and that if the learned would review their
accounts and collections, and take the human figures for
monuments of famous men, made after the old Egyptian
custom, which, according to Plutarch, was to picture not
k Jamblichus de Vita Pythag. c. 17. P Id. p. 382.
1 liib. de Iside et Osiride, p. 371. 1 UaPTaxov SeiKveiovffiy, &c.
m Plutarch's words are, nauTaxov >" Antiq. vol. ii. part ii. plate xlii. fig.
5e Kol afOpunrofj-optphi/ 'OcriptSos &ya\fxa 14. See chap. xvi. §. 5-
SetKfvovaii' i^opOid^oi^ t^ alSoicp. ^ 'Ec Kpiirri Aihs ■^v &ya\fj.a /xri fX""
n Id, ibid. Sira. Lib. de Iside et Osu-ide, p. 381.
o Id. ibid.
470 CO-ST-NECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK VIII,
the man, but his manners ; not his person, but his character,
station, and honours, which he attained to : if the animal
figures were reviewed, if the Egyptian astronomy could be
examined, and it could be determined what particular stars
they worshipped, and what birds, beasts, or reptiles were
dedicated to them, I should imagine, that we might obtain
accounts more serviceable towards illustrating their ancient
history, politics, and religion, than any yet extant. Eusebius
gives us hints of some ancient representations* ; but we find, I
think, none that much resemble them in the collections of
our present antiquaries ; and yet the heretics who lived about
Plutarch's time, in the second century, namely, Basilides,
Saturninus, and Carpocras, who introduced the Egyptian
symbols and figures into their religion, formed many, much
like those mentioned by Eusebius, as may be seen by con-
sulting Montfaucon's plates of the gems called Abraxas.
Whether we have now any copies, or but very few, of the
truly ancient Egyptian idols, whether the greatest part of
what are offered to us be not copies taken from schemes
and forms more recent than even the times of Plutarch or
of Eusebius, I entirely submit to the opinion of the learned.
F. Montfaucon has given a draught of a very celebrated
piece of antiquity called the table of Isis, which was a table
made of brass, almost four foot long, and of pretty near the
same breadth. The groundwork was a black enamel, and
it was curiously filled with silver plates inlaid, which repre-
sented figures of various sorts, distinguished into several
classes and copartments, and deciphered by various hiero-
glyphics interspersed. This table fell into the hands of a
common artificer, when the city of Rome was taken and
plundered by the army of Charles V. about the year 1527 »
t 'E-TTeySTjcre to; KpSvcfi irapdar}fia Paai- irpSnov ov 6ei6TaT6v [icrrtv] 6<pts lepuKos
Xfias, ofxnara reffffapa' fK twv ifxirpoff- eX""' t^op'pV"- — Oi Ai7''"rTJ0( Tbv nSfffiov
Oiwv Koi Tciv oTTiadiuv jxipuv 5i;o Se ypdcpovTes irepicpipfi kvkKov aepociSf) Ka\
T}(Tuxv fxvovra, Kal 4itI rwv &fxoov irrfpa irvpuinoi' X'^'-pdcro-ouai koI jx^ffov reTafx-ivov
reiTcrapa, Svo ixlv ws inToi.fJi.ei'a., Svo 5e cos o^'iJ' hpaKoiJLopcpnv kol rh wav ffXVI-'-a ^s
ixpiiixiva.' Tois 5e Xoltvois deo7s, Svo rh Trap' ri/xii' &?]Ta rhv fihv kvkXov
e/ca(TT<f) impdijxaTa eiri tuv w^jloiv — k6<tiiov fxr}vvovT€^, rhf 5e fj.eaou bcpif
Kp6vcu 5e ird\iv iirl ttjs KipaXrjs nrfpa avvsKTiKhv tovtov kyadhv Aaifiova <rr]-
Svo -AiyvnTioiKvr)<piTToi'o/xd(ov(Tt,irpoff- fiaivovTis. Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. i.
TtfeoifTi avT<f UpaKOS Ke(f>a\riv. — rh c. 10.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 471
and it was sold by him to cardinal Bembo, at whose death
it came to the duke of Mantua, and was kept as a valuable
rarity by the princes of that house, until the year 1630,
when the town and palace of Mantua were plundered by the
emperor's general, who carried oiF an immense treasure of
curiosities, which the princes of this house had collected :
and amongst the rest this table of Isis, the original of which
having never been found since this time, is supposed to have
been broken in pieces by some person into whose hands it
might fall ; who, not understanding what it was, might
think the silver plates that were inlaid to be the only valu-
able parts of it, and therefore brake it for the sake of them.
Pignorius gave the world a draught and an account of this
table, in a book by him published at Amsterdam, A. D. 1670;
and from his draught Montfaucon has taken the copy which
he has given us. The table of Isis is said to be so called
because it represents the form and mysteries of the goddess
Isis": but it is remarkable that tlie very writers who ex-
press the greatest inclination to represent Isis as the chief
and principal goddess, upon account of representing whom
the whole table was composed, cannot but acknowledge it
to contain " all the divinities of Egypt of every kind,
" and that it might properly be called a general table of
" the religion and superstitions of Egypt''." F. Montfaucon
acknowledges that no one can determine whether this table
represents some history of the Egyptian gods, or some ob-
scure system of the religion of that country, or of the cere-
monies of that religion, or some moral instruction, or many
of these together. And Pignorius was so far from being
confident that he could sufficiently explain this table, that
he confessed that he did not fully comprehend the design
of it, nor know the certain signification of its several parts ;
that he only pretended to venture to make some conjectures
about it, but that he could not say that he had hit the
design of the composer ; that both these learned men leave
room for any one to conjecture about it as they did, without
incurring censure for dififering from them. And, if I may
u Montfaucon, Antiq. vol. i. part ii. b. ii. c. i. x Id. ibid.
472 CONNECTION OK THE SACRED [boOK VIII.
take this liberty, I should imagine, i. That this table was
not made until after genuflexion was used in the worship of
the heathen deities. This custom began pretty early ; the
worshippers of Baal, in the time of Ahab, bowed the knees
to Baaly ; and this practice of kneeling was used before this
time by the true worshippers of God. Solomon kneeled
down upon his knees when he prayed at the dedication of
the temple 2 ; and this posture of worship is mentioned
Psalm xcv**. At what time it was first introduced into the
heathen worship I cannot say ; but we find in the border
round the table of Isis no less than nineteen persons in
this posture of adoration. 2. We find no one person in this
posture in the table itself: all the figures in the table are
either standing or sitting, or in a moving posture. 3. In
the border, all the images that kneel are represented as
paying their worship to some animal figure : there is not
one instance or representation of this worship paid to an
image of human form, either on the border or in the table,
4. The several animals represented in the border as receiv-
ing worship from their adorers, agree very nearly, both in
number and shape, with the several animals described by
Strabo, Plutarch, Eusebius, and other writers, to be the ob-
jects of worship in the several cities of Egypt^. 5. The
human figures in the table are distinguished by the animal
representation of some deity annexed to, or put over or
under them. 6. There are five figures in the table of an
human form described in a sitting posture, and two of them
very remarkable, one of which has the head of an ibis, and
the other of an hawk ; but figures of the same form are re-
presented in the border of the table on their knees, as wor-
shipping some animal figure placed before them. The hu-
man picture with the hawk's head is represented to worship
a sort of scarabceus, that, with the head of the ibis, is pic-
tured as worshipping the apis, or bull. These are the several
observations which must occur to any one who carefully
views and compares the several parts of this table ; and from
y I Kings xix. 18. '' Strabo, 1. xvii. Plut. lib. de Iside
z I Kings viii. 54. 2 Chron. vi. 13. et Osiride. Euseb. dc Prsep. Evang. in
a Ver. 6. vai'. loc. Hcrodot. 1. ii. &c.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 473
these observations it appears most probable, i. That the
border round about the table exhibits the several sacred
animals worshipped in Egypt when this table was made,
with their respective priests paying worship to them.
2. The table itself represents the several priests of some of
these deities in their several habits, performing not actual
worship, but some other offices of their ministrations. The
animal figures annexed to them point out what particular
gods they were respectively the priests of; and most pro-
bably the hieroglyphics and sacred letters inscribed to each
of them would tell us, if we could read them, what parti-
cular office of their ministration they are described as per-
forming. 3. The figures delineated in the sitting posture,
(like figures to which are in the border represented in pos-
tures of worship to particular animals,) seem to me to be
designed for monuments of some eminent priests, who had
images made in honour of their memory when dead ; which
images might perhaps upon some occasions be carried in
processions, and are therefore here delineated. The ibis and
hawk's head, fixed upon the shoulders of two of them,
was, according to the ancient usage of picturing, not the
person of the men, but the dignity or honours they at-
tained to. These two persons were honoured with the
names of the gods, whose sacred symbols, or animal figures,
were for that reason put upon them. 4. F. Montftiucon
wanders unaccountably from the apparent meaning of this
table, in supposing many of the human figures to be Isis
and Osiris presenting goblets and birds and staves to one
another, when no ancient writers hint any sort of accounts
that they were ever represented as engaged in such trifling
intercourses, and when all those figures may better be sup-
posed to be different priests, employed in different offices
and ministrations of their religion. 5. It does not appear
from this table that the Egyptians worshipped any idols of
human shape at the time when this table was composed ;
but rather, on the contrary, all the images herein repre-
sented, before which any persons are described in postures
of adoration, being the figures of birds, beasts, or fishes,
this table seems to have been delineated before the Egyptians
474 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [booK VllI,
worshipped the images of men and women, which was the
last and lowest step of their idolatry.
From what I have offered about the several steps which
the Egyptians took in the progress of their superstitions and
idolatry, it will be easy to determine what their religion
was when Cecrops, Cadmus, or Danaus left Egypt ; and
consequently what religion or deities these men may be
supposed to have introduced into Greece. The Egyptians
had dedicated sacred animals to their sidereal deities before
these men left them : all their other innovations were more
modern, and consequently this practice these men carried
with them into foreign countries. The Greeks, in the first
days of their idolatry, worshipped, as the Egyptians did, the
sun, moon and stars, and elements ". In after-ages they
worshipped hero-gods ; but these not until about the time of
Homer. Herodotus says expressly, that Hesiod and Homer
introduced these deities'^ ; I should think them something
earlier, but not much. The Greeks worshipped their gods
without any images of any sort, until after Oenotrus the son
of Lycaon led his colony into Italy ^: and agreeably hereto,
Pausanias remarks of some very ancient deluhra, which he
saw at Haliartus, a city of Boeotia, that they had no sort of
images f. Lycaon, the father of Oenotrus, was cotemporary
with Cecrops, the first of the travellers who came to Greece
from Egypt ° ; and most probably Danaus, the last of them,
introduced the image of a wolf, for the direction of his wor-
ship to Apollo Lycius'* ; so that from all these circumstances
it is very plain, that the images of animals were at first set
up as idols in Greece, much about the time of, and by the
direction of these men. As the Israelites made a calf in
Horeb after their patterns, soon after Moses had led them
out of Egypt, about A, M, 2513 ; so much about this
time the Greeks were led into the same sort of idolatry by
the Egyptian travellers, who came to live amongst them.
Danaus taught them to worship Apollo, i. e. the sun, in
the form of a wolf; and it is very probable that he gave
c Plato in Cratylo. f Pausan. in Boeoticis, c. ^^.
d Hcrodot. lib. ii. c. 53. ff Id. in ArcadiciSj c. 2.
e See vol. i. book V. h Id. in Corinthiacis, c. 19.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 475
them the images of other animals for the worship of other
deities. Plutarch tells us, that the Greeks anciently made
a bull for the image of Bacchus'; and the modern images
of their gods, made after their heroes were deified, and
human forms introduced, have commonly such symbols of
birds, beasts, or fishes annexed, as to hint to us what their
sacred animals were, whose figures were made use of in
their worship, before they came to be represented by hu-
man images. The eagle was the bird of the Grecian Ju-
piter, the peacock of Juno, the owl of Minerva, the dolphin
or sea-horse was sacred to Neptune, the ram, the cock,
and other animals to Mercury ; and the images of these and
other animals were undoubtedly made use of at first as idols
in the Avorship of the respective deities they belonged to,
instead of images of those deities. In later ages, when the
images of their gods were made in human shapes, then
the figures of their sacred animals were annexed as sym-
bols ; and so we commonly now find them in the statues or
draughts we have of these deities. As true religion was at
first one and the same to all the world, which it certainly
would not have been, had it not been at first appointed by
positive directions from God, and express revelation ; so
men in all nations upon earth defaced and corrupted this
universal religion by steps and degrees very much the same.
Animal figures were introduced into the idolatry of most
nations, and I might add inanimate ones too. The Egyp-
tians pictured Osiris by a sceptre, the Greeks anciently re-
presented Juno by the trunk of a tree'', and Castor and
Pollux by two cross-beams ; and Clemens Alexandrinus re-
marks from Varro, that the ancient Romans, before they
had learned to give to their gods human shapes, worshipped
a spear instead of an image of Mars*.
It is generally represented, that Cecrops, Cadmus, and
Danaus, built temples in the several counti'ies that they
travelled to : but this is a mistake, arising from a careless
reading of what the ancient writers remark of them. The
i Plutarch, in lib. ile Isid. ct Osirid. 1 Clem. Alex. Cohortat. ad Gentes,
p. 364. ed. Par. 1624. c. iv. p. 41 . cd. Oxon. 1715.
^ See vol. i. book v. p. 208.
476 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
Latin translator of Diodorus Siculus says, that Danaus built
a temple to Minerva at Rhodes, and that Cadmus obliged
himself by vow to build a temple to Neptune : but Diodorus
himself says no such thing ; his expression is, that they
IbpvaavTo Upbv, not built a temple, but appointed or dedicated
a place of worship : and thus the author himself explains it,
by telling us how Cadmus performed his vow, btaa-oiOeh
Ibpvaaro rejueyos"", upon his being preserved, he set out a piece
of ground for the place of the worship of the God who had
preserved him". He did something like to what Jacob did
at Bethel", when he set up the pillar, and poured oil upon
the top of it, and made a vow, that that place should be
God's house : Jacob did not design to erect any building in
that place, but only meant that he would come to worship
there ; which the ancients in these days did, not in tem-
ples, but in groves, or at altars erected in the open air, or in
spaces of ground marked out and inclosed for that purpose ;
and of this sort were the ancient rejue'yr; of the heathens.
Temples were far more modern than the days of Cecrops,
Cadmus, or Danaus. Moses observes, that Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, frequently built altars wherever they fixed their
habitations ; and, agreeable to this ancient practice, Euse-
bius says of Cecrops, that he raised an altar at Athens P ;
and we meet with this practice amongst the first inhabitants
of Greece : they are said to have erected these ^a'/xot, i. e.
altars, in all parts of their country, as is remarked by Pau-
sanias ; and I believe I may add, that we have not any
one passage in any good writer of sufficient authority to
induce us to think that there were any temples in the
world before the Jewish tabernacle was erected, or before
it was known that the Jews were directed to build a temple,
when they should be settled in the land of Canaan, in the
place which the Lord their God should choose to cause his
name to dwell there q. We may indeed meet with the
word raos in Pausanias and in Homer, and in divers other
m Diodor. Sic. lib. v. c. 58. rated or set apart for some sacred use.
n The strict and proper signification " Gen. xxviii. 18.
of the word refifvos, derived from re/x- P Prsep. Evang. 1. x. c. 9.
ya>, is, a part or portion of land sepa- 1 Deut. xii. 1 1 .
AND PKOFANE HISTORY. 477
writers ; and if we always translate that word temple as we
commonly do, it may mislead us to think temples much
more ancient than they really were : but we may remark
from Pausanias, that the word vao-i was at first used as the
word heth^ or house, in Hebrew, and did not always signify
a structure or a temple, but only a place set apart for God's
worship. Thus Jacob called the place where he lay down
to sleep Beth-el, or the house of God i^; and thus the temples,
or vaol, at Haliartus, mentioned by Pausanias, were open
to the air ; they were only inclosures set apart for the
worship of their gods, but they were not covered buildings
or temples s. When the heathen nations first built temples,
they were but small and of mean figure, probably designed
only to defend the image of their idol from the weather,
and to lay up the instruments that were used in the per-
formance of their sacrifices : the house of Dagon amongst
the Philistines was, I believe, of this sort*; and thus we are
told that there was a small temple at Rome made in the
early ages for the reception of the Trojan Penates": and
certainly temples made no great figure in Homer's time ;
for if they had, he would have given us at least one descrip-
tion of a temple in some part either of the Iliad or Odyssey.
Before Virgil's time they were built with great pomp and
magnificence, and accordingly he has described Dido's
building a temple^ to Juno at Carthage with all imaginable
elegance. Homer would not have lost an opportunity of
exerting his great genius upon so grand a subject, if temples
had in his days made a figure that could possibly have
shined in his poem : the true worshippers of God did at
first worship in the open fields, and so did the ancient and
first idolaters : Abraham set apart a place for his private
addresses ; he planted a grove in Beershela, and called there on
the name of the Lord, the everlasting Godv ; and after this
pattern groves were much in use in all the idolatrous na-
tions, and Teixivr], allotments of ground, or sacred fields, or
r Gen. xxviii. 22. lib. i. c. 68.
s Pausan. in Boeoticis, c. 33. x ^neid. i.
t I Sam. V. 2. y Gen. xxi. 33.
" Dionys. Halicarnass. Antiq. Rom.
478 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK VIII.
inclosures, in every country for the worship of their se-
veral gods. When the Jews were gone out of Egypt, and
God had appointed them a moveable temple or tabernacle,
the heathen nations imitated this too ; and thus we read of
a portable temple or tabernacle made to Moloch ^ ; and
when it came to be known that the Israelites were to build
an house to their God when they should be settled in their
land, then the heathen nations began to build houses to
their deities; and Dagon, the god of the Philistines, had an
house, into which the ark of God, when it was taken in
battle, was carried in the days of Eli* ; but these houses
of their gods were not large until after Solomon's time.
After he had built the temple of Jerusalem, according to
the pattern which David had given him'', foreign kings by
degrees began to copy after him, and endeavoured to build
temples with great splendour and magnificence ; but when
Solomon was to build his temple, it is evident from his own
words that the heathen temples were not near so large and
magnificent as his design. The house ivhich I build, said he,
is great, f 01- great is our God above all gods'^. His design
exceeded all other plans, as the God he worshipped was su-
perior to the heathen idols.
I am sensible that Dr. Spencer has endeavoured to prove
that both the Jewish tabernacle and temples were erected
in imitation of the places of worship made use of by the
heathen nations : but whoever shall take the pains to con-
sider what this learned writer has oflfered upon this subject,
will be surprised that he could be satisfied with such slender
proofs in favour of his opinion : but Dr. Spencer's darling
hypothesis, of which what he offers about temples is only
a part, is an unaccountable mistake for a writer of so great
learning to fall into ; and what he has produced in the
several parts of his laborious work will abundantly prove to
every one, that will take the pains duly to weigh and con-
sider the several texts of scripture and authorities cited by
him, that no learning can be sufficient to evince that the
z Acts vii. 43. a i gam. v. 2. b i Chron. xxviii. iij 12. c 2 Chron. ii. 5.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 479
Jewish religion was derived from the customs and practices
of the heathen nations ; but that, on the contrary, most of
the citations upon the subject will evidence^ in a much
clearer manner, that a great part of the heathen ceremonies
and practices was introduced into their worship and religion,
in imitation of what God had by revelation appointed to his
servants.
» i
THE
SACRED AND PROFANE
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
CONNECTED.
BOOK IX.
WE left the children of Israel under difficulties in Egypt,
distressed by all possible measures the king could take
to keep them low. In the time of this affliction Moses was
born : his mother hid him for three months a; and when she
could not hide him any longer, nor bear the thoughts of
having him thrown into the river, she made a sort of chest,
or basket, put the infant into it, and set it amongst the bul-
rushes near the bank of the river, and there left it to God's
providence. The king's daughter came to the river, heard
the child cry, and examined the basket, and was struck
with the sight of the weeping infant, and determined to
preserve it. Moses's sister stood at some distance to see what
would become of him ; and upon the princess's being in-
clined to take care of him, she mixed with her attendants,
and offered to procure a fit nurse for the child. The princess
liked the proposal, and the girl hereupon called Moses's own
mother, and the princess put him out to nurse to her. And
a Exodus ii. 2.
VOL. I. I i
482 CONNECTION OF THE SACEED [bOOK IX.
thus, by a wonderful providence, Moses was preserved, and
nursed by his own mother for a time, but afterwards taken
to court, and educated there by the favour of the princess
as her own son ; instructed in all the learning of the Egyp-
tians^, and became a man of great eminence amongst them ;
was made general and leader of their armies, and fought
some battles with great conduct and success <^. The princess
had no children, nor the king her father any male heir ;
and it is thought that she adopted Moses for her son, and
that her father designed him to be king of Egypt''; but
Moses declined this advancement, as a scheme that would
deprive him and his posterity of the blessings which God
had promised to the Hebrew nation, who were to be but
strangers in Egypt for a time^. He had a full belief that
God would make good his promises to them, and hy faith he
refused to he called the son of Pharaoh'' s daughter^. Under a
full persuasion of the certainty of those things which God
had promised, he turned his eye and heart from the crown
of Egypt to the afflictions of his brethren, and rather
wished that it would please God to have him lead them out
of Egypt to the promised land, than to sway the Egyptian
sceptre. He went amongst them daily, and viewed their
condition, and upon seeing an Egyptian severe with one of
them, he killed hims. The next day he found two He-
brews in contest with one another : he admonished them to
consider that they were brethren, and would have decided
their quarrel ; thinking, that they would consider him as a
person likely to deliver them out of their bondage^, and
b Acts vii. 22. upon the ground, and there played
c Josephus Antiq. Jud. 1. ii. c. lo. with it, and turned it about with his
d Josephus relates, that the princess feet. One of the priests that attended
having no child adopted Moses, and thought his actions ominous, and was
brought him whilst a child to her fa- earnest to have him killed, as a person
ther, and, admiring both the beauty of that would be fatally mischievous to
his person, and the promising appear- the Egyptian crown : but the princess
ance of a genius in him, vnshed he here again saved him from destruction,
would appoint him to be his successor, &c. See Josephus Antiq. 1. ii. c. 9.
if she should have no children : that the e Gen. xv. 13. xlvi. 4. and 1. 24.
king hereupon in a pleasant humour f Hebrews xi. 24.
put his crown upon the child's head; S Exodus ii. 11,12. Acts vii. 24.
and that Moses took it off, and laid it li Acts vii. 25.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 483
that they would have submitted their difference to him :
but they had no such thoughts about him ; his arbitration
was rejected with contempt, and one of them upbraided
him with his killing the Egyptian •. And thus he saw
that the people were not likely to follow his directions if
he should attempt to contrive their leaving Egypt : and he
imagined, that his violence to the Egyptian might be
known to Pharaoh; and he found, that his spending so
much of his time amongst the Hebrews had made his
conduct much suspected, and that the king had determined
to put him to death ; so that he thought it prudent to
leave Egypt, and therefore went to Midian to Jethro, the
priest and chief inhabitant of that country, and lived with
him as keeper of his flocks, and married one of his daugh-
ters'<^. He continued here forty years. Jethro was per-
haps descended from Abraham by Keturah his second wife '.
Moses was forty years old when he first thought of relieving
the Israelites °\ and he was forty years in Midian", being
eighty years old when he led the Israelites out of Egypt";
and the exit of the children of Israel out of Egypt will
appear hereafter to be A. M. 2513; so that Moses was born
A. M. 2433-
Josephus relates several particulars of Moses, which we
find no hints of in the books of Scripture : he has a large
account of a war with the Ethiopians, in which Moses was
commander of the Egyptian armies. He reports him to
have besieged Saba, the capital city of Ethiopia, and to
have taken the city, and married Tharbis the king of
Ethiopia's daughter P ; and very probably this account of
Josephus might be one inducement to our English trans-
lators of the Bible to render Numbers xii. 1. And 3Iirtam
and Aaron spake against Moses, hecause of the Ethiojnan ivo-
man icJiom he had married ; for he had married an Ethiojnan
woman. Eusebius gives an hint about the Ethiopians,
which favours this Egyptian war with them, mentioned by
i Exodus ii. 14. Acts vii. 27, 28. " Acts vii. 30.
k Exodus ii. 21. o Exodus vii. 7.
1 Josephus Antiq. 1. ii. c. 1 1. P Josephus Antiq. 1. ii. c. 10.
m Acts vii. 23.
1 i 2
484 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
Josephus. He says, the Ethiopians came and settled in
Egypt in the time of Amenophis*i, and he places Ameno-
phis's reign so as to end it about 43 1 years after Abraham's
birth, i. e. A. M. 2439 ; so that, according to this account,
the Ethiopians were a new set of people, who planted them-
selves in the parts adjacent to Egypt much about Moses's
time ; and perhaps they might invade some part of Egypt,
or incommode some of the inhabitants of it, and so occasion
the war upon them which Josephus mentions. According to
Philostratus r, there was no such country as Ethiopia beyond
Egypt until this migration ; these people came, according
to Eusebius, from the river Indus s, and planted themselves
in the parts beyond Egypt southward, and so began the
kingdom, called afterwards the Ethiopian. There are many
hints in several ancient writers, which agree to this opinion
of the Ethiopians near to Egypt being derived from a people
of that name in the eastern countries. Homer mentions two
Ethiopian nations, one placed in the western parts, another
in the eastern :
Ot fxkv hvcrcroixivov 'Titepiovos, 01 8' aviovros. Odyss. i. 33.
Strabo indeed endeavours to shew that the true meaning of
this passage is generally mistaken, and that Homer did not
intend by it that there were two Ethiopian nations in parts
of the world so distant as Egypt and India': but the re-
marks of other writers do, I think, determine Homer's
words to this sense more clearly than Strabo's ai-guments
refute it. Herodotus says, that there were two Ethiopian
nations, and he places one of them in the eastern parts of the
world, and reckons them amongst the Indians, and the
other in the parts near Egypt"; and Apollonius was of
the same opinion, and says, that the African Ethiopians
came from India'', and he supposes them to be masters of
the ancient Indian learning, brought by their forefathers
q Euseb. in Chron. ad Num. 402. Par. 1620. 1. ii. p. 103.
r In vit. Apollon. Tyanei, 1. iii. c. 20. u Herodot. 1. vii. c. 70.
s In Chron. ubi sup. ^ Argonaut. 1. vi. c. 1,4, 6.
t See Strabo, Geogr. 1. i. p. 29. ed.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 485
from India to Ethiopia y. Eustathius hints, that the Ethio-
pians came from India z. Thus the Ethiopians were a people
who wandered from their ancient habitations, and settled
in the parts near Egypt, about the time in which Moses
lived, azad very probably they and the Egyptians might
have some contests about settling the bounds of their coun-
try, so as that Egypt might not be invaded by them ; and
perhaps Josej)hus might have reason, from ancient remains,
to relate that Moses was engaged in accommodating this
affair, though it is evident that Josephus has added to the
account some particulars not true. Saba, which Josephus
supposes to be the capital city of Ethiopia, was a city of
Arabia, and Moses did not marry the king of Ethiopia's
daughter, as Josephus supposes ; but it is easy to conjecture
how Josephus was led into these mistakes. The LXX. in
their translation, which Josephus was very fond of, render
the land of Cush, as our English translators have done, the
land of Ethiopia; and Josephus finding that Saba was an
head city in the land of Cush or Arabia, taking Cush, ac-
cording to the LXX. to be Ethiopia, he supposed Saba to
be the capital city of that country ; and, perhaps, finding
also that Moses married a Cushite woman, (which was in-
deed true, for he married the daughter of Jethro the Ara-
bian,) here he mistook again, and translating Cush Ethio-
pia, he married Moses to Tarbis, the king of Ethiopia's
daughter.
Whilst Moses lived in Midian, he is supposed to have used
the leisure which he enjoyed there, in writing his Book of
Genesis, and some writers say the Book of Job also. The
matters treated in both these Books were indeed extremely
proper to be laid before the Israelites : for in one of them
they might have a full and clear view of the history of
the world, so far as they were concerned in it ; of the crea-
tion of mankind ; of their own origin ; of the promises
which God had made to their fathers ; so that it would
give them the best account of their condition and expecta-
tions ; and in the other, they might see a very instructive
y Argonaut. 1. vi. c. 8. z In Dionys. p. 35.
486 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
pattern of patience and resignation to the will of God, in
the life of a virtuous person, led from a great share of
worldly prosperity into the most afflicting circumstances ;
and, after a due time of trial, brought back again to
greater prosperity than ever : a subject very fit to be repre-
sented to them, when the Egyptian bondage pressed hard
upon them, and they might want, not only to know the
good things which God designed to give them, but to
have also some such particular example as that of Job, to
remind them to possess their souls in patience, until the
time should come that God should think fit to end their
troubles. But though the subject matters contained in
these books may very justly be represented to be very
suitable to the circumstances of the Israelites in this junc-
ture, yet I cannot find any other reason to think that Moses
wrote the Book of Job at all, or that he composed that of
Genesis at this time. Some authors have imagined that
the Book of Genesis was composed last of all the five Books
of Moses : but as this opinion is mere conjecture, so, it
miist be confessed, is all that can be said about the precise
time of his writing any of them. As to the Book of Job,
there are many opinions amongst the learned about the
writer of it; but none of them so well supported with ar-
guments as to leave no room to doubt in our admitting it.
What seems most probable is, that Job himself, who could
best tell all the circumstances of his condition, and of what
passed in the conferences which he had with his friends,
did, some time before he died, leave a written account of it ;
but that the Book of Job, which we now have, is not the
very account which was written by Job, but that some in-^
spired writer, who lived later than his days, composed it
from the memoirs left by him. The present Book of Job
is, the greatest part of it, written in verse ; and I suppose no
one will imagine that poetry was attempted so eai-ly as the
days of Job. Some later hand must put what Job left
into the measure which was thoua;ht suitable to such a
subject; but whether this was done by the hand of Moses
or Solomon, or some other of the inspired wi-iters of the
Old Testament, no one can determine ; though I should
I
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 487
think it seems most probable that it was not done so early as
the days of Moses.
St. Jerome informs us% that the verse of the Book of
Job is heroic. From the beginning of the Book to the
third chapter, he says, is prose ; but from Job's words. Let
the day perish loherein I tvas born^, &c. unto these words.
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes c, are
hexameter verses, consisting of dactyls and spondees, like
the Greek verses of Homer or the Latin of Virgil. Maria-
nus Victorius, in his note upon this passage of St. Jerome,
says, that he has examined the Book of Job, and finds St.
Jerome's observation to be true. I have endeavoured myself
to make trial, but cannot say that I find the experiment to
answer exactly to their account. I cannot make the words
run into hexameter verses only, but should rather think
every other line to be a pentameter. If the reader will
put the Hebrew words into Latin characters, making due
allowance for the difficulty of expressing the Hebrew sounds
in our letters, he may perhaps admit, that the third, fourth,
and part of the fifth verse of the third chapter of Job, to
the end of these words. Let darkness and the shadow of
death stain it, runs, in the following words, according to the
measure subjoined under them :
Johad Jom ivvalced bo ve ha Lailah Amur
« w w —
Carah gaber haijom hahuajehi choshek
Aljidreshu eloah Mimnal ve al topan alaiv
Nahrah jegalhu choshek vetzlemaveh teshecon.
I cannot be positive that I have exactly hit the true spelling
of the Hebrew words, but I cannot be far from it ; and I
think that I could so write what follows in the Book of Job
as to make it fall into this sort of verse and measure ; and
the experiment would, I believe, succeed always in like
manner, if tried any where with the words in this Book,
a Prffifat. in Lib. Job. ^J Job iii. 3. f Job xlii. 6.
488 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
beginning with chap. iii. 3, and ending at chap, xlii, 7,
only the several sentences, which direct us to the several
speakers^ such as these ; Moreover the Lord answered Job,
and said, chap, xh 1 . Elihu also proceeded, and said, chap,
xxxvi. I. Elihu spake moreover, and said, chap. xxxv. i.
Then Job ansioered, and said, chap, xxiii. i. all these, and
such other sentences as these, which occur in many places,
to inform us who is the speaker, or to connect different
speeches and argumentations, are in prose, and not in verse.
At what time this sort of verse began is very uncertain, but
perhaps not altogether so early as the days of Moses.
Heroic verse was wrote with great exactness in the times
of Homer, and the measure was then adjusted to a greater
strictness than obtained when this Book of Job was com-
posed : for St. Jerome very justly remarks, that the verses
in the Book of Job do not always consist of dactyls and
spondees, but that other feet frequently occur instead of
them ; and that we often meet in them a word of four sylla-
bles f*, instead of a dactyl or spondee, and that the measure
of the verses frequently differs in the number of the syllables
of the several feet; but allowing two short syllables to be
equal to one long one, the sums of the measure of the
verses are always the same. This incorrectness of measure
evidently hints this poem to be much more ancient than
Homer, for before his times this liberty was laid aside.
The mixture of the short verses agrees very well to Horace's
observation,
Versibus impariter junctis querimonia primum ^.
Melancholy accidents and unfortunate calamities were at
first the peculiar subjects treated of in this sort of verse :
d Propter linguae idioma crebro re- duse breves pro una syllaba longa po-
cipiunt alios pedes, non earundem nantur; nam et proceleusmaticum, hoc
syllabarum, sed eorundem temporum. est, quatuor breves pro dactylo, qui ex
Hieron. Prmfat. in Lib. Job. Ego in- una longa et duabus brevibiis constat,
veni — esse in Job hexametros versus ex poni onines sciunt, quod eadem ratione
spondseo, dactylo et aUis pedibus, ut in spondseo etiam fit apud Job. Marian.
trochseo, iambo, et proceleusmatico cur- Victor. Not. in Prcefat. Hieron. in Lib.
rentes : non enim syllabarum, sed tern- Job.
porum in iis habetur ratio, ut, scilicet, e Horat. Lib. de Ai'te Poetica, v. 75.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 489
iDut as we know not who was the inventor of elegiac verse*",
so we cannot guess from hence at what time to fix the com-
posing this elegiac poem.
It will perhaps be said, that we are so uncertain about
the true pronunciation of the Hebrew tongue, and that the
same Hebrew word may be so diiferently written in our
modern letters, according to the fancy of the writer, that it
is pretty easy to make an Hebrew sentence fall into any
measure, and bear the resemblance of any sort of verse,
which we have a mind to call it. But to this I answer, any
one that makes the experiment will not find this to be
true : let any one try to reduce the words of the song of
Moses ^ to this measure of the verse in Job, or let him try
to reduce the song of Deborah and Barak ^, and any part of
Job, to one and the same measure, and he will presently
see an irreconcilable difference in the structure of the words
and syllables, sufficient to convince him that any Hebrew sen-
tence cannot be made appear to be any verse according to
the fancy of the reader. Uj)on the whole, in the Book of
Job, the words do so naturally fall into the measures I have
hinted, and the short verse does so commonly end a period
in sense, that, though I cannot deny but that any other
person, who might take a fancy to write over any number
of the verses in Job, in our letters, might probably spell the
words differently, nay, and perhaps sometimes measure the
particular feet of some verses differently from me ; yet still
I am apt to think that no one could bring the whole, or a
considerable part of the Book, to bear so remarkable an
appearance of this measure, as it evidently may be made to
exhibit, if it really was not a poem of this sort ; especially
when other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures, which are not
of this composure, can by no way of writing be reduced to
seem to have such a resemblance. But, however, I can by
no means pretend to any thing more than conjecture upon
so nice a subject. St. Jerome has given an hint; I have
endeavoured to examine how far it may be true. I acknow-
f Quis tamen exiguos elegos emiserit auctor
Granimatici certant, et adhuc sub judice lis est. Hor. de Art. Poet. 77.
g Exodus XV. h Judges xv.
490 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
ledge, that many writers have been of opinion that the
Book of Job is not composed in this sort of measure, and I
must entirely submit their opinion, St. Jerome's, and what
I have ventured to offer, to the judgment of the reader.
Moses is by St. Stephen said to have been learned in all
the learning of the Egy2)tians^. The sacred writings bear
abundant testimony to the Egyptian learning, both in these
and in succeeding ages. As St. Stephen thought it re-
markable in Moses's times ; so we find it was as famous in
the days of Solomon, of whom it was said, that his wisdom
excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and
all the ivisdom of Egypt^'^. Agreeably to which sentiment
of the eastern and Egyptian learning, all the ancient pro-
fane writers suppose these countries to have been the seats
of learning in the early ages. It may not be improper to
enquire what the Egyptian learning in the days of Moses
might be. Sir John Marsham puts the question thus ; what
was this learning of the Egyptians when the second Mer-
cury had not deciphered the remains of Thyoth i ? By this
query, this learned gentleman seems to have been of opi-
nion, that the Egyptian learning was but in a low state in
these days ; and it may be thought very reasonable to ima-
gine, that when the Pastor kings broke in upon Egypt, and,
having enslaved the country, forced the priests to fly into
other nations, as has been said, such a revolution might
probably put a stop to the progress of their arts and learn-
ing; but it is not likely that it should altogether suppress
and extirpate them. The tillage of the ground made the
study of astronomy absolutely necessary, in order for their
knowing from the lights of heaven the times and seasons
for the several parts of agriculture ; and the nature of their
country, overflowed yearly by the Nile, made it of continual
use to them to study land-measuring and geometry™. And
though several of the priests might fly from the Pastors,
i Acts vii. 22. k-Ki-KX^lov (:K-Kovoi)<TiV 8 /iifv yap iroTaixhs
k I Kings iv. 30. xar iviavThv Troi/ciAoJs |U6Ta(rxw^'''''C'^''
1 Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 137. ed. r)iv x<^P"-v,i7o\Kas KoiiravToias ajj-cpiafir)-
1672. TTjcrets TTOieiTrepJ tUv '6po>v Tois yeiri^iwfft.
"" rfWfi.iTplai' 5e Ka\ tV api6fjL-i)TiK)]v Diodor. Sic. 1. i. §. 80.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 491
upon their invading the land, yet doubtless they must en-
courage a great many to stay amongst them for the public
good, and to cultivate and carry on the Egyptian studies,
which foreign nations had so high an opinion of, and most
probably were not entirely strangers to. It is not indeed to
be supposed, that the Egyptians had thus early carried the
study of astronomy or geometry to a great height : they
had observed, as well as they could, the times of the rising
and setting of some particular stars, and they had acquired
such a knowledge of geometry, as gave them the reputa-
tion of being very learned, in comparison of other nations
who had not proceeded so far as the Egyptians in these
studies : but if we consider that the Egyptians did not as
yet apprehend the year to consist of more than 360 days,
and that Thales was the first who attempted to foretell an
eclipse ", and that both Thales and Pythagoras, many ages
after these times, were thought to have made vast improve-
ments in geometry, beyond all that they had learned in
Egypt ; the one by his invention of the forty-seventh pro-
position of the first Book of Euclid ; the other, by his finding
out how to inscribe a rectangled triangle within a circle ° ;
we must think, that neither astronomy nor geometry were
as yet carried to any great perfection. The distinction
which Plato made between aa-Tpovofiovs and aa-TpovoixovvrasP ,
may not be improper to be had in mind, when we treat of
these early astronomers or geometricians. They compiled
registers of the appearances of the stars and lights of heaven,
took accounts of the weather and seasons that followed their
several observations, recorded the best times of sowing or
reaping this or that grain ; and, by the experimental learn-
ing and observation of many years, became able prognosti-^
cators of the weather, of the seasons, and good directors for
the tillage of the grounds ; and in geometry they found
out methods of marking out and describing the several parts
of their country, and probably were exceeding careful in
making draughts of the flow and ebb of the river Nile every
n Laert. in vit. Thalet. Seg. 23. Cic. P Plat, in Epinomide.
de Divin. 1. i. Plin. 1. ii. c. 12. 'i Diodor. Sic. 1. i. §. 80.
o Laert. ubi suj).
402 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
year; for they formed many theories and speculations from
their observations made upon it^ We may say of their
skill in these sciences what Plutarch said of Numa's astro-
nomy s; it was not such as would have been extolled in
ages of greater learning, but it was considerable for the
times which they lived in. One part of the Egyptian learn-
ing undoubtedly consisted in physiology, or in the study of
the traditions, which their learned men had amassed toge-
ther, about the creation of the world. Of these I should
imagine the Egyptians had a very rich store *; and the
commenting upon these, and forming notions of the natural
powers of the several parts of the universe, according to
their maxims, and way of thinking, was undoubtedly one
great part of that philosophy in which their men of learning
exercised themselves 'i. Before Moses's time the Egyptian
astronomy had led them into idolatry : Syphis, of whom I
have formerly treated, had taught them to worship the lu-
minaries of heaven ; and, from his times, a great part of the
Egyptian learning consisted in finding out the influence
which these bodies had upon the world. They turned their
learning this way, and formed and fashioned their religion
according to it. Herodotus tells us, that the Egyptians first
found out what deity presided over each day of the week
and every month of the year^. Clemens Alexandrinus says,
that they introduced the use of astrology y; Dion Cassius,
that they supposed the seven planets to govern the seven
days of the week^ ; and Cicero, that by the observation of
the motion of the stars, through a series of a prodigious
number of years, they had got the art of foretelling things
to come, and knowing what fate any person was born to*.
Philastrius Brixiensis supposes this particular science to be
the invention of the Egyptians, and intimates it to have
been begun very early, by his supposing Hermes to be the
•■ See Plut. de Tside et Osiride. u Strabo, 1. xvii.
s"H\paTo 5e /cat rrjs Trepl rbv ovpavhv ^ Herodot. 1. ii. c. 82.
TTpay/xaTeias, ovre aKpi0a>s ovre Travrd- Y Stroniat. 1. i. c. 16.
Trao-ii/ d06a>pTr)Tft)s. Plut. in Numa, p. 71. z Dion Cassius, lilj, xxxvi. p. 37.
ed. Par. 162.4. ed. Leuncl. Hanov. 1606.
t See Diodor. Sic. 1. i. Pref. to vol. i. a Cic. de Divinat. 1. i. c. i.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 493
author of it^; for the invention of all arts and sciences,
which were reputed truly ancient, was ascribed to Her-
mes ^. Necepsos, who, according to Eusebius, reigned in
Egypt about the time that Tullus Hostilius governed Home,
was a great improver of the ancient Egyptian magic'* ; but
it is evident, that the study and practice of it began before
Moses's time, both in Egypt and in the neighbouring na-
tions. The caution which Moses gave the Israelites^ shews
evidently that the idolatrous nations then had their pro-
fessors of these arts, known by various denominations. They
had diviners, observers of times, enchanters, witches, charm-
ers, consnlters with familiar spirits, wizards, necromancers^;
and Balaam was skilful in enchantments, and may probably
be supposed to have built seven altars according to the Egyp-
tian system, which supposed the seven planets to preside
over the seven days of the weeks. Seven bullocks and
seven rams might be a proper offering in his days to be
made to the true God^ ; but the dividing it upon seven
altars implies an offering to more divinities than one, and
seems to have been one of the practices by which he went
to seek for enchantments*. We may come up higher, and
find earlier mention of these artificers. Pharaoh had his
wise men, sorcerers, and magicians of Egypt, who pre-
tended to work wonders with their enchantments ^ ; and
divination was reputed an art, and a cup used in the exer-
cise of it in the days of Joseph i ; and, in his time, the kings
of Egypt had their magicians to interpret dreams"^. All
these were arts, that, in these days, were studied with great
application in the idolatrous nations ; and without doubt
a great part of the learning of the Egyptians consisted in
the study of them : and I cannot see why we may not
suppose, that Moses, as he had an Egyptian education, was
according to their course of discipline instructed in them.
Philo indeed observes of him, that in all his studies he kept
l> Haeres. n. x. See Marsham, Can. S Numbers xxiii. i.
Chron. p. 448. h Job xlii. 8.
c Jamblichus de Myster. ^gypt. i Numbers xxiv. i .
d Ausonius, Ep. 19. k Exodus vii. viii.
e Deut. xviii. 10,11. 1 Gen. xliv. 5.
f Ibid. m Gen. xli. 8.
494 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX;
his mind free from every false bias, and sincerely endea-
voured to find out the truth in all his inquiries ", A happy
disposition this, which the most learned are often very great
strangers to : for it is not abundance of literature which
gives this temper; but it rather arises from a virtuous and
undesigning heart.
Many writers have imagined the magic of the heathen
world, their oracles, interpretations of dreams, prodigies,
omens, and divinations, to have been caused by a commu-
nication of their prophets, priests, and diviners, with evil
spirits. They suppose, that as God was pleased to inspire
his true prophets ; to give signs and work wonders for his
servants; to warn them by dreams, or to reveal to them
his will: so the Devil and his angels affected to imitate
these particular favours, vouchsafed to good and virtuous
men, and gave oracles, omens, signs, dreams, and visions, to
delude their superstitious votaries. When the heathens
came to worship hero -gods, and to suppose the world to be
governed by genii, or spirits of an higher nature than men,
but inferior to the Deity ; then indeed they ascribed oracles,
omens, signs, dreams, and visions to the ministry of such
spirits, entrusted with the government of this lower world.
This opinion is well expressed by one of Plutarch's dis-
putantso; and it was esteemed to be true by Plato and his
followers P: and many of the Fathers of the Christian
Church ascribed the divination of the heathens to the
assistance of their dsemons : but we have no reason to think
any opinion of this sort to have obtained in the first ages of
idolatry, or to have appeared so early as the times of Moses.
We meet with no names of any heathen diviners, men-
tioned in the sacred writings in these early days, which
imply any converse with such spirits. There are indeed
two which may seem to imply it ; but if we rightly translate
n ' htpiXovi'iKcos Tas epiSas vTrep^as, rrjv iTpofTr)K6v (ffrtv, aWa Salfiovas inrrjperai
aK^deiav eTre^rjTei, fj.r]S(:V \f/€vSos rrjs Sta- Oe&v, ov 5ok€? /j.oi KaKws a^iOva-Oai. Plut.
voias avTov irapaZex^aQai Swajxivi)^, ws de Orac. Defectu, p. 418. ed. Xyl. Par.
tdos TOLS alpf(Tiofj.dxoi9. Philo Jud. lib. 1624.
i. de Vita Mosis.p^ 606. ed. Par. 1640. P Plato in Sympos. in Epinomide;
o T^^ ^J.ev icpea-Tauai to7s xpvo-'^vpiots in Tiniseo ; in Phaedro ; in lone ; &c.
fifj diovs, ois air7]\dx6at rm' irepl y^v
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 495
the original words for them, we shall see that they have no
such meaning : we mention consulters with familiar spirits
and necromancers, amongst the heathen diviners, against
whom Moses cautioned the Israelites'!. Our English ex-
pression, consulter with familiar sjnrits, seems to signify one
that divined by the help of such spirit ; but the Hebrew
words mif^ 7t«^vl?' Shoel Aobv, are two persons ; Shoel is the
consulter, Aohv is the diviner. Our English translators
have generally missed the true sense of this expression. We
translate, A man or a looman that hath a familiar spirit, or
that is a toizard, shall surely he put to death^ : by this trans-
lation, a man or xooman that had a familiar spirit, seems to
be one sort of diviner, as a wizard is another ; but the true
translation of the Hebrew words is as follows : A man or a
tvoman, if there shall have been with them [i. e. if they shall
have consulted] an Aobv or an liddnoni, [i. e. a python or a
wizard,] shall be put to death : here the Aobv is the diviner,
and does not signify a familiar spirit in a person, possessing
him, as our English translation seems to intimate : and that
the word Aobn is to be taken in this sense, is abundantly
evident from another passage in this Book of Leviticus ; the
words are% Al tiphnu el ha Aohvoth, veel ha liddnonim: al
tebahheshu letameah bahem. i. e. Ye shall not have regard to
the pythons or to the wizards : ye shall not make inquiries to
the polluting of yourselves by them. Here it is very plain, that
Aobv does not signify a spirit in a person, but is one sort of
diviner of whom the Israelites were not to inquire ; as
Iddnoni, the word translated wizard, is another'; and who-
ever compares our English version of this verse with the
Hebrew words, must see that our translators wandered from
the strict sense of the original text to express their notion
oi familiar spirits. I have translated the Hebrew word Aobv,
python; if it was a woman diviner it should be pythonissa;
the Greek word is kyya(TTpi\ivQo%^ ; and that the diviners of
q Deut. xviii. lo, ii. Syriac, and Arabic versions, render the
r Leviticus xx. 27. passage as I have, and the Hebrew
s n'Di-Tn-'jNI ni^n-bx l3Dn-'j« words cannot fairly bear a different
tDHl n^oa"? l©p3n-'7« Levit. xix. 31. translation,
t The Vulgar Latin, the LXX. the u Vers. LXX.
Targum of Onkelos, the Samaritan,
496 CONKECTTON OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
this sort were anciently thought to answer those that con-
sulted them, without the assistance of any daemon, or familiar
spirit, is evident from Plutarch^. Our English translators
render doresh el hamethimY, necromancers; the vulgar Latin
translates it qucerens a mortuis ; the LXX, eTTcpcorSiv tovs v€-
Kpovs. I must acknowledge, that all the translations, and the
Targum of Onkelos, take the words in the same sense, and
interpret them to signify consulters of departed spirits ; and
by the marginal reference in our English Bibles we are di-
rected at this word to i Sam. xxviii. 7. as if the woman
at Endor, to whom Saul went to raise Samuel, were a doresh
el hamcfhini, ihoMgh she is there said to be a ^^y^Aomssa / and
the python, ox pythonissa^ is here in Deuteronomy mentioned
as a diviner of a different sort from the doresh el hamethim;
or, as we render it, necromancer. The several translations
which we have of the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as the
Targum of Onkelos, were all made much later than the
time of deifying the souls of heroes ; and very probably
the prevailing opinion amongst the heathens, at the time of
making these translations, being, that such departed spirits
were in this manner propitious unto men, this might occa-
sion the translators to think that the words might be ren-
dered as they have translated them : but it should have
been considered, that the notion of hero-gods arose later
than the times of Moses, and the words doresh el hamethim.,
may rather signify one that inquires of the dead idols, which
the heathens had set up in the nations round about the
Israelites, in opposition to those who sought only to the
living God. As in after-ages, the heathens believed the
world to be governed by genii, hero-spirits, or dsemons, by
the appointment of the Deity; so in these earlier and first
ages of idolatry, they worshipped only the lights of heaven
and the elements ; allowing indeed a supreme Deity, but
thinking these all to have intelligence, and to be appointed
X Eu7;0es yap e(rri Kol iraiBiKhv KofiiSrj &c. Plut. de Defectu Orac. p. 414. ed,
rh oUffOai rhv Qehv avrhv, Ssa-irep tovs Xyl. Par. 1624. Vid. Cic. de Divin. 1. i.
iyyaffTpifjLvdovs, EvpoK\eas traAai vvvl c. 19.
Tlvdaivas TrpoaayopevofXfvovs, ivSvSfifvov Y Deut. xviii. II.
eis Ta (rdfiara npo(j)r]Tci>v v7ro(p6eyye(T6ai,
I
AXD PROFANE HISTORY. 497
by him to govern the world ^. And as, when the opinion
of deemons and hero-spirits prevailed, all prophecy, dreams,
prodigies, and divinations of all sorts, were referred to them ;
so, in these earlier times, before men had proceeded to set
up hero-deities, and to worship daemons, when the lights of
heaven and elements were the objects of their worship, it
was thought reasonable to imagine, that the sun, moon,
and stars, by their natural influence upon the air, earth, and
water, did frequently cause vapours and influences, which
might affect the minds of persons who by due art and pre-
paration were fit for divination, so as to enable them to
foretell things to come, to deliver oracles ^ ; nay, and they
thought a proper discipline might make them capable of
working wonders, or procuring prodigies ^ ; and all these
things they conceived might be done without the Deity
being at all concerned in them''. They did not indeed
deny that God sometimes interposed ; they acknowledged
him to be the great Author of all miracles, signs, wonders,
dreams, prophecies, and visions, whenever he thought fit :
but they believed also that they might and would be ef-
fected without his interposition '' ; either from fate, mean-
ing hereby the natural course of things, which God had ap-
pointed to proceed in the universe ^ ; that is, they thought
that God had so framed the several parts of the mundane
system, that from the revolution of the heavenly bodies,
and the temperament and situation of the earth, air, and
water ; or, in general, from the disposition of the several
z Mundum— ^habere mentem, quae disciplina. Cic. de Divinal 1. i. c. 2.
se et ipsum fabricatum sitj et omnia c Natura significari futura sine Deo
moderetur, moveat, regat : erit persua- possunt. Id. ibid. c. 6.
sum etiam solem, lunam, Stellas om- d Primuiii, ut milii videtur, a Deo,
nes, terram, mare, Deos esse, quod deinde a fato, deinde a natura vis om-
qusedam animalis intelligentia per om- nis divinandi, ratioque repetenda est.
nia ea pcrmeet et transeat. Cic. Acad. Id. ibid. c. 55.
Qu. 1. iv. c. 37. Consentaneum est in e Fatum est non id quod supersti-
iis sensum inesse et intelligentiam, ex tiose, sed quod physice dicitur causa
quo efficitur in Deorum numero astra seterna rerum. Id. ihid. Deum — inter-
esse ducenda. Id. de Nat. Deorum, 1. ii. dum necessitatem appellant, quia nihil
c. 15. aUter possit, atque ab eo constitutum
a Plutarch, lib. de Defectu Oracu- sit. Id. Acad. Queest. 1. iv. c. 44. Ti
lorum. KicAvcrei rr/s rov Aihs EIMAPMENH2 Koi
b Cumque magna vis videretur in irpovoias inrriKdoviTravTas dvai; Fhitaxch.
monstris procurandis in haruspicum 1. de Defect. Orac. p. 426.
VOL. I. K k
498 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK IX.
parts of the universe to, and influence upon, one another,
prodigies, omens, signs, dreams, visions, and oracles, would
constantly, at the proper places and seasons, be given as
necessarily as the heavenly bodies performed their revo-
lutions ; and that men might, by long observation and ex-
perience, form rules for the rightly interpreting and under-
standing of what the Deity had thus appointed to be disco-
vered to them<"; or, they said, that these things might be
effected in a natural way, i. e. by the use of natural means
proper to produce them. We are told by one of Plutarch's
disputants, that the earth emits vapours and powerful effluvia
of several sorts, and some of such a nature as to cause men
to divine, if they be in a proper temper of mind to be af-
fected by themS ; and the Pythia at Delphos is supposed,
in Cicero h, to have been inspired from such an influence of
the earth affecting her. In Plutarch it is remarked, that
sometimes the natural temper of the air did cause in the pro-
phet the proper disposition to receive the vaticinal influence ;
at other times, that the vates did dispose themselves for it
by drinks and inebriations \ When the vaticinal influence
operated upon the mind, by the conveyance of the air,
without any artificial assistance, then they said the vatici-
nation proceeded from fate, because it proceeded from the
natural course of things, or order of nature, which God
had appointed to go on in the universe ; but if a drink, or
any other artificial means, were used, then they said the va-
ticination came a natura, or from the use of means which
f Principio Assyrii — trajectiones mo- et notata; nihil est autem, quod non
tusque stellarum observaverunt, qui- longinquitas temporum, excipiente me-
bus notatis, quid cuique significaretur moria, prodendisque monumentis, effi-
memoriae prodiderunt — Chaldaii — diu- cere atque assequi possit. Ib'd. c. 7.
turna observatione siderum, scientiam Affert autem vetustas omnibus in re-
putantur effecisse, ut prsedici posset bus longinqua observatione incredibi-
quid cuique eventurum, et quo quis- lem scientiam ; quse potest esse etiam
que fate natus esset. Eandem artem sine motu atque impulsu Deorum,
etiam ^gjqjtii longinquitate tempo- cum quid ex quoque eveniat. et quid
rum innumerabilibus psene seculis quamque rem significet, crebra ani-
consecuti putantur. Cic. de Diviri. 1. i. madversione perspectum sit. Iljid.c.4g.
0. i. Atque hsec, ut ego arbitror, re- S Plutarch, de Def. Oracul, p. 432.
rum magis eventis moniti quam ra- ed. Xyl. Par. 1624.
tione docti probaverunt. Ibid. c. 3. Ob- h De Divinat. 1. i. c. 19.
servata sunt heec temjjore immenso, et i Plutarch, ubi sup.
in significatione eventus animadversa
AND PROFANE HISTORYi 499
were thought to have a natural power to produce it. These
were the notions which learning and science^ falsely so called,
introduced into the heathen world. Their kings and learned
men did indeed know God, but they did not retain him so
strictly in their knowledge as they ought to have done, but
set up other deities besides and instead of him. They
thought that the sun, moon, stars, and elements were ap-
pointed to govern the world ^ ; and though they acknow-
ledged that God might \ upon extraordinary occasions,
work miracles, reveal his will by audible voices, divine ap-
pearances, dreams, or prophecies ; yet they thought also,
that, generally speaking, oracles were given, prodigies
caused, dreams of things to come occasioned, in a natural
way, by the influence or observation of the courses of the
heavenly bodies, and by the operations of the powers of
nature. And they conceived that their learned professoi-s,
by a deep study of, and profound inquiry into, natural
knowledge, could make themselves able to work wonders,
obtain oracles and omens, and interpret dreams ; and in all
these particulars they thought the Deity not concerned,
but that they were mere natural effects of the influence of
the elements and planets, seeming strange and unaccount-
able to the vulgar and unlearned, but fully understood by
persons of science and philosophy.
That this was Pharaoh's sense of things, when Moses
wrought his wonders in Egypt, is remarkably evident from
the use he made of his magicians upon the occasion : when
Moses and Aaron came to him, to require him in the name
of their God to let the Israelites go, he asked them to shew
a miracle, that he might know that they were really sent
upon a divine mission '" : here he acknowledged, according
to what I remarked from Tully, that God by an extraor-
dinary interposition could work miracles " ; but when Aa-
ron's rod was turned into a serpent, he sent for his sorcerers
and magicians, to see if they could with their enchantments
cause such a transmutation ; and, upon finding that they
If Cic. Acad. Qusest 1. iv. c. 34. n Primum a Deo vis omnis et divi*
1 Id. de Divinat. Li. c. 55. nandi repetenda est ratio. Cic, ubi
^ Exodus vii. 9, 10. sup.
K k2
500
CONNECTION OF THE SACRED
[book IX.
could, he thought it no real mh'acle ", and refused to let
the people go : in the same manner the magicians brought
up frogs ; and from hence Pharaoh concluded, that the
plague of frogs did not arise from any extraordinary divine
interposition. The same observation may be made upon the
river's being turned into blood; but when the magicians
tried, and could not produce lice, then they concluded that
this loas the finger of God v. Thus the trial of the magicians'
skill was to bring Moses''s wonders to the test, in order to
discover whether they were effected by human art or by
the divine assistance ; and shews evidently, that the prevailing
opinion amongst the learned at this time was, that wonders,
prodigies, divinations, &c. might be procured, as I have
remarked, si7ie Deo i, without the Deity's being concerned
in causing them, and that either a fato or a natura '' ; by
the use of natural means or enchantments to cause them,
which artifices Pharaoh's magicians used to this purpose s ;
or from the planetary or elementary powers at set times and
critical junctures of their influence : and I might, I think,
add, that when Pharaoh was convinced that Moses's mira-
cles were not wrought by any magical arts or incantations,
he still hesitated, whether they might not happen from
some influence of the planets or elements, which Moses, as
a master of their learning, might well know the times of,
and thereby be able to denounce what would come in its
place and season ; and in order to take away all possibility
of such suspicion, Moses several times gave Pharaoh liberty
to choose what time he would have the plagues removed
when he desired it*, that he might know that God alone
was the author of them, and that they were brought, and by
his power might be removed, in any hour, and at any season,
o See Philo Jud. de vita Mosis, 1. i.
We may apply here what is said of
Pharaoh upon the river's being turned
into blood ; when he saw the ma-
gicians do so with their enchantments,
he did not set his heai't to this mira-
cle, i. e. he did not regard it. Exodus
vii. 23.
P Exodus viii. 19.
<J Cic. ubi sup.
r Cic. ubi sup.
s I should imagine, that the divi-
nation by drinking out of a cup, hinted
at Gen. xliv. 5. was of the same sort
with the supposed natural way of di-
vining by drinking, which is sug-
gested in Plutarch, lib. de Defect.
Orac. ubi sup.
t Exodus viii. 9, 10. ix. 5, 18.
AND PKOFANE HISTORY. 501
without regard to the stars or elements, their temper, in-
fluence, or situation. These, I think, were the arts in which
the learned men of Egypt chiefly exercised themselves ; and
undoubtedly Moses had a full instruction in all parts of their
learning, though, as Philo remarks of him, he preserved
himself from being imposed upon by their errors and idola-
try; he made himself a complete master of every thing ex-
cellent in their discipline, and rejected what would have
corrupted his religion under a false show of improving his
understanding.
There are other sciences generally esteemed to have been
parts of the Egyptian learning : one of their most early kings
is supposed to have been very famous for his skill in physic,
and to have left considerable memoirs of his art for the in-
struction of future ages ; and his remains upon this subject
were carefully preserved along with their most valuable mo-
numents, and were with the greatest diligence studied by-
posterity" : we read of the Egyptian physicians in the days
of Joseph X ; and Diodorus represents them as an order of
men not only very ancient in Egypt, but as having a full
employment, in continually giving physic to the people,
not to cure, but to prevent their falling into distempers y;
Herodotus says much the same thing, and represents the
ancient Egyptians as living under a continual course of
physic, undergoing so rough a regimen for three days toge-
ther every month ^, that I cannot but suspect some mistake
both in his and Diodorus's account of them in this parti-
cular : Herodotus allows them to have lived in a favourable
climate, and to have been a healthy people ^ which seems
hardly consistent with so much medicinal discipline as he
imagined them to go through almost without interruption.
The first mention we have of physicians in the sacred pages
shews indeed that there was such a profession in Egypt in
u See vol. i. b. iv. Syncell. p. 54- ed. eciore Se rpels J) Terrapas rjfiepas 8mA.ei-
Par. 1652. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. vi. c. 4. Trovres. Diodor. 1. i. c. 82.
X Gen. 1. 2. z 'Svpfj.di^ovo'i Tpe7s fjfiipas 4<pf^rjs fxt]-
y Toi v6(Tovs TTpoKaraKajj.^avSfx.evoi Be- vhs e/cacrTOu, i/xtTOKTi dripcofxivoi. tt/j/
pairivovcn ra (Td>/x.aTa K\v(riJio'is,Kal ttotI- vyieirjv. Herodot. 1. ii. c. 77-
fxois Ticrl KadapT-qpiois Kol frjaTsias Kal a Id. ibid.
eyueVois, eViore /xei' Kad' iKaarriP rj/u-epau,
502 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK IX,
Joseph's time, and Jacob was their patient^ : but their em-
ployment was to embalm him after he was dead ; we do
not read, that any care was taken to give him physic whilst
alive ; which inclines me to suspect, that the Egyptians
had no practice for the cure of the diseases of a sick bed in
these days. We read of no sick persons in the early ages :
the diseases of Egypt, which the Israelites had been afraid
ofc, (if by these Moses meant any other diseases than the
boils inflicted upon Pharaoh and his people *!,) were such as
they had no cure for^; and any other sicknesses were then
so little known, that they had no names for them^. Men
lived temperately in the early times, their constitutions were
strong and good, and they were rarely sick until nature was
worn out ; and age and mortality could have no cure : an
early death was so unusual, that it was generally remarked
to be a punishment for some extraordinary wickedness §■; and
diseases were thought not to come in the ordinary course of
nature, but to be inflicted by the Deity for the correction
of some particular crimes. It is remarkable, that the an-
cient books of the Egyptian physic were esteemed a part of
their sacred records, and were always carried about in*^
their processions by the Pastophori, who were an order of
their priests*; and the Egyptians studied physic, not as an
art by itself, but their astronomy, physic, and mysteries
were put all together, as making up but one science, being
separately only parts of their theology ^ ; for which reasons
I should imagine, that their ancient prescriptions, which
Diodorus and Herodotus suppose them so punctual in ob-
serving, were not medicinal, but religious purifications.
The distinction of clean and unclean beasts was before the
flood' ; and when men had leave to eat flesh, Ihey most
probably observed that distinction in their diet, eating the
b Gen. 1. 2. J Chseremon. apud Porphyr. 1. iv. de
c Deut. xxviii. 6o. Abstinen. §. 8.
d Exod. ix. k Oi AlyvTrrioi ovk ISict fiev to (aTp<)cck,
e Deut. xxviii. 27. IS'iade rci.affrpo\oyiKa,Kal TareXea-TtKa,
f Ver. 61. aWa afxa irdvTa awiypa^av. Scholiast,
g Gen. xxxviii. 8, 10. in Ptol. Tetrabib. vid. Marsham, Can,
^ Clem. Alexandrin. Stromat. I. vi. Chron. p. 41.
<^- iv. 1 Vol i. b. ii.
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 503
flesh of no other living creatures than what they oflerecl in
sacrifice, which were the clean beasts and clean fowls only "^ :
and when the heathen nations turned aside to idolatry, as
they altered and corrupted the ancient rites of sacrificing
and sacrifices, and invented many new ones ; so they inno-
vated in their diet with it : many new rites and sacrifices
being introduced into their religions, new abstinences and
purifications, new meats and drinks came along Avith them,
and it was the physician's business (he being the religious
minister presiding iu these points) to prescribe upon every
occasion, according to the rules contained in their sacred
books". The Egyptians were very exact in these points:
Herodotus informs us that they eat no fish°; but, if we
take either the reasons hinted from Julian by sir John
MarshamP, or the general one assigned by Plutarch'!, their
refusing this diet was not upon account of health, but of
religion. In like manner they eat no beans, for they
thought them a pollution '' : and their rites in diet were so
different from the Hebrew customs, that the Egyptians might
not eat bread with the Hebrews in the days of Joseph, for
that was an abomination to them^. It would be endless to
recount the many figments which these men brought into
religion : the astronomers formed abundance, as I have
hinted already, from the advances made in their science ;
and it is easy to conceive, that in studying the nature of the
living creatures, fruits, and plants in the world, they might
invent as great a variety of abstinences and religious diets
and purifications from this branch of knowledge, as they
did deities from the other, and fill their sacred pharmaceutic
books, not with recipes for sicknesses and distempers, but
with meats and drinks, unguents, lotions, and purgations,
proper to be used in the several services of every deity, and
upon all the occasions of religion; and their monthly pre-
scriptions might vary as the stars took their courses, and as
m Vol, i. b. V. fl Plutarch. Sympos. 1. vii. p. 730. ed.
n Kara v6fxov i-y-ypatpov. Diodor. Sic. Xyl. Par. 1634. His words are, 'A^veios
lib, 1. fxepos anuxv ix^'^""'-
o Lib. ii. c. 37. r Herodot. lib. ii. e. 37.
P Marsham, Can. Cliron. p. 212. * Gen. xliii. 32.
504 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
different deities in their turns called for the observance of
different rituals to obtain their favours. Pythagoras was
duly prepared with this sort of physic before he could be
instructed in the Egyptian mysteries ; and though without
doubt he, or the writers of his life, refined a little upon the
Egyptian doctrines, yet he introduced some share of this
pharmacy into his own school, and disposed the minds of his
scholars for his instructions by many mysteries in eating,
drinking, and fasting*; and he had particular preparations
of diet upon extraordinary acts of worship ", and had his re-
cipes to cause divination by both dreams and vaticination ^ ;
so that we may guess from him in part what the Egyptian
prescriptions in these points were. And as the Egyptian
physicians prescribed the true ritual way of living, so an-
other branch of their profession was to embalm the bodies
of the dead : all nations had their rites for funerals, and the ^
persons that directed in these were commonly either some I
of the priests, or at least persons well skilled in matters of f
religion X: the Egyptian rites in this matter were very nu-
merous, and required many hands to perform them^. Moses
informs us, that the physicians embalmed Jacob »: many of
them were employed in the office, and many days' time was
necessary for the performance b, and different persons per-
t Jamblichus de vita Pythag. c. 24. Elisha, 2 Kings v. and many other
Porphyr. de ead. 42 — ^45. instances might be produced. Perhaps
« Id. de ead. c. 34. Joseph, in the high dignity which he
X Jamblich. ubi sup. was advanced to, might, though in a
y Diodorus, 1. ii. c. 40. lesser number, have officers of state,
z Id. 1. i. c. 91. elders of his house, as the king of Egypt
a Moses's words are, that Joseph himself had ; and persons of the first
commanded his servants the physicians. rank might not refuse to be his ser-
It may be very needless to remark, vants in honourable posts of this sort,
that these words cannot imply that the and he might appoint the embalming
servants of great men were their physi- his father to those of his own house
cians in these days; for physicians only, designing it purely to preserve
were always highly honom-ed in aU his body, in order to carry it into
civilised states, either considered as an Canaan, and not as a religious cere-
order of the ministers of rehgion, as I mony; for which reason he might de-
think they were in these days, or when sire not to have it publicly embalmed
they were afterwards concerned in the by the whole body of the Egyptian
cure of those who wanted their assist- physicians, with all the rites of their
ance. The word servant in Scripture religion to be used in public perform^
is often used as we use it in English, ances of this nature,
not always in the literal sense : thus b Gen. 1. 3.
Naaman called himself the servant of
AND PUOFANE HISTORY. 505
formed different parts of it, some being concerned in the
care of one part of the body, and some of another'^; and I
imagine this manner of practice occasioned Herodotus to
hint, that the Egyptians had a different physician for every
distemper '^, or rather, as his subsequent words express, for
each different part of the body^; for so indeed they had, not
to cure the diseases of it, but to embalm it when dead.
These I imagine were the offices of the Egyptian physicians
in the early days. They were an order of the ministers of
religion ; the art of curing distempers or diseases was not
yet attempted. When physicians first began to practise
the arts of healing cannot certainly be determined; but
this, I think, we may be sure of, that they practised only
surgery until after David's time, if we consult the Scripture ;
and until after Homer's time, if we consult the profane
writers. In Scripture we have mention of many persons
that went to proper places to be cured of their wounds, in
the Books of the Kings and Chronicles ; and in like manner
we read in Homer of Machaon and other physicians; but
their whole art consisted in ^lovs t €KTdixv€Lv, ctti t -Ijina (f)dpiJ.aKa
TToiacreiv^, extracting arroios, healing wounds, and preparing
anodijnes ; and therefore Pliny says expressly, that the art
of physic in the Trojan times was only surgery S. In cases
of sickness, not the physicians, but the priests, the prophets,
or the augurs, were thought the proper persons to be con-
sulted in these days^; for, as Diodorus remarks, it was the
ancient custom for sick persons to obtain health from the
professors of vaticination! by their art, and not by physic.
And this we find was the ancient practice mentioned in the
Scriptures : Jeroboam sent his wife to the prophet, when
his son Ahijah was sick '^. Ahaziah, when sick, sent to
Baal-zebub the god of Ekron^. The king of Syria sent to
c Diodor. 1. i. c. 91. mediis. Plm. Nat. Hist. 1. xxix. c. i.
d Herodot. 1. ii. c. 84. h Homer. Iliad, i. 62.
e 0( ,U€j' yap cxpdaKjxZv larpol Kare- i 'laTpiKTjv iTriffT7ii^Tju,Siarfis fxavriKrjs
ffTeaai ol Se KfpaXrjs, ol 5e 656i'tooi', &c. Texvv^ yiuofj.fvrii', Si ■fjs rh Tra\aihv avvi-
Id. ibid. ^aivi d^pamias, rvyxaveiy roiis appai-
f Iliad, xi. 515. arovvras. Diodorus, 1. v. c. 20.
S Medicina — Trojanis temporibus k i Kings xiv.
clara — vulnerum tamen duntaxat re- 1 2 Kings i. 2.
506
CONNECTION OF THE SACRED
[book IX.
Elisha"", Asa indeed about A. M. 3087" sought, when
sick, to the physicians ; but it was certainly even then a
very novel practice, and stands condemned as an impiety".
In the days of Pythagoras, the learned began to form rules
of diet for the preservation of health p, and to prescribe in
this point to sick persons, in order to assist towards their
recovery ; and in this, Strabo tells us, consisted the practice
of the ancient Indian physicians ; they endeavoured to cure
distempers by a diet- regimen, but they gave no physic*!.
Hippocrates, who according to dean Prideaux lived about
the time of the Peloponnesian war ^, i. e. about A. M.
3570*, raised the art of physic to a greater height than his
predecessors could venture to attempt. He first began the
practice of visiting sick-bed patients, and prescribing medi-
cines with success for their distempers*. This, I think,
was the progress of physic down to times much later than
where I am to end my undertaking ; and it must evidently
appear from it, that the Egyptians could have no such phy-
sicians in the days of Moses as Diodorus and Herodotus
seem to suppose : it is much more probable, that, ages after
these times, they were like the Babylonians, entirely desti-
tute of persons skilful in curing any diseases that might
happen amongst them"^, and that the best method they
could think of, after consulting their oracles, was, when
any one was sick, they took care to have as many persons see
and speak to him as possibly could, that if any one who
saw the sick person had had the like distemper, he might
say what was proper to be dons for one in that condition :
and Strabo expressly tells us, that this was the ancient
practice of the Egyptians ^.
Music is by some thought to be another of the Egyptian
sciences, and their famous Mercury is said to have invented
it. Diodorus hints, that he made the lyre of three strings
>" 2 Kings viii. 8.
n Usher's Annals,
o 2 Chron. xvi. 13.
P Janiblichus de vita Pythag. c. 34.
<l Strabo, Geog. 1. xv. p. 713. ed.
Par. 1620.
!■ Prideaux, Connect, vol. i. an. 43 1 .
s Usher's Annals,
t Plinii Nat. Hist. 1. xxix. c. i .
" Hcrodot. 1. i. c. 197.
X Strabo, Geog. 1. iii. p. 155. ed.
Par. 1620.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 507
in allusion to the three seasons of the yeai-y ; though I
should think that the year was hardly as yet so well calcu-
lated as to be divided into seasons^ : however, it is probable
that the Egyptians had, ere these days, some rude way of
singing hymns to their gods, though music was not as yet
brought to any remarkable perfection. Men have naturally
a difference in the tone and pitch of their voices, and this
might lead them to think of an instrument of more strings
than one : perhaps all the music as yet aimed at in singing
hymns to the gods was no more than this, that some of the
people recited the words in an high tone, others in a low,
and others in a tone or note between both, according to the
different pitch of the several voices of the singers, it being
possible to reduce the voices of all to one or other of these
three, and the three-chorded lyre might be formed
adesse Choris. Hor.
to strengthen the several sounds of the reciters' voices, with-
out their attempting to make more than one note from each
string. A trumpet made of a ram's horn could be but a
mean instrument, and this was a musical instrument in the
days of Joshua^ ; it could be designed to sound but some
one note, and three such trumpets of different lengths
might serve as the ancient tibia described in Horace did,
and perform by blasts what Mercury's three-chorded lyre
was designed to do by strings, namely, to direct the several
pitches of the reciters' voices, and to join and add to the
sound of them ; and I imagine music was not carried higher
thaiflhis in these days,
Philo suggests Moses to have learned in Egypt the art of
writing, both in prose, and in all sorts of measure or verse ^ :
the best and most judicious heathen writers did indeed judge
him to be very skilful in style and language : Longinus gives
him an extraordinary character, and thought him a great
master of the sublime, from his account of the creation*^; an
observation so just, that one cannot but remark with some
y Diodor. Sic. 1. i. b phil. Jud. de vita Mosis, 1. i.
z See book vi. c 'O tuv 'lovSaiaiy diirfiodtT-qs ovx d
* Joshua vi. tvx&iv av-fjp. Longin. de Sublim. c. 9.
508 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
surprise, how much prejudice may vitiate the taste and
judgment of a writer of considerable abilities, of which
Lucian is an instance, who seems to ridicule this very pas-
sage, so judiciously admired by Longinus'^. No understand-
ing reader of Moses's writings can be insensible that he was
in truth, what St. Stephen styles him, mighty in ivords^,
even in Longinus's sense ; for numerous instances may be
given of it ; but perhaps no one more sensibly affecting than
his account of Joseph's revealing himself to his brethren,
where the narration, as he has given us it, strikes the reader
with the warmest pathos which words can give. There
was certainly great force and life in the pen of this writer ;
but I am not apt to think that he acquired these abilities
merely from his Egyptian education, any more than that
made him mighty in deeds also, which St. Stephen joins to
his power in words, and in which he was undoubtedly assisted
in an extraordinary manner by the Deity.
As to Moses writing sometimes in verse, Josephus says,
that his song, after the deliverance from the Egyptians,
was composed iv k^aixirp^^ tovu)^, i. e. say some interpreters,
in what we now call heroic, or hexameter verse ; but I
should think this was not Josephus's meaning ; he might
perhaps call any verse hexameter which consisted of six feet,
or twelve syllables, and give it that name,
cum senos redderet ictus. Hor. s
If we may take Josephus in this sense, there is little or no
difference between his opinion and Scaliger's^ about the
verse or measure of this hymn. As to the lines of it being
heroic verse, I think any one, upon making trial of the
words, may be sure that they are not. AVhether they
may not be, as Scaliger conjectured, a sort of iambics, the
song beginning in words of this measure,
d Avei rh (TkStos, koI t^v aKOfffxlav f Exodus xv.
awn\afTf \6yw ix6vcf> prjOevTi vir' avTov S Lib. de Arte Poetica.
ws 6 fipaSvyXooaffos aTreypd\l/aro. Lucian. 'i Vid. Scaligeri Animadversion, in
Philopat. §. 13. Euseb. Cliron. p. 7. ed. Amst. 1658.
e Acts vii. 22.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 509
133456789 lO II 13
Ashirah la Jehovah ci gaoh gaah
Sus verokbo ramah bajam ;
whether the first verse may not consist of twelve syllables,
or six feet, and be a sort of the trimeter or senarian iambic
verse ; and whether the second line may not consist of eight
syllables, or four feet, and be a sort of dimeter iambic ; and
whether the rest of the hymn can be conceived to be of this
sort of composition, I must entirely submit to the learned.
Verse in Moses's time very probably consisted only in a just
number of syllables, without any strict regard to what was
afterwards observed, the quantity of them : a greater regard
was perhaps had to quantity when the Book of Job was
composed, but verse was not then adjusted to that strictness
which it had in the times of Homer.
From what has been said of the learning of the Egyptians,
and of Moses's education and military skill, he must appear
to have been the most proper person to lead the Israelites
out of Egypt of any that belonged to them ; and as he had
formerly had an inclination to attempt it, and had set some
steps towards it ; so, upon computing the time they were to
be there, and finding it near expired ^ he might consider the
wonderful providence of God in his preservation, and in so
preserving him as to have him so educated, as that at this
time his people had one of their number well qualified in
every respect to be their leader : however, in all the thotights
he might have had of this sort, he found himself disap-
pointed ; the people refused to have him to be a judge and
ruler over them^ ; and he saw that no scheme could be con-
trived by human wisdom that might promise him success in
endeavouring to deliver them ; and therefore he left Egypt,
and went and married in another country, and very probably
had given over all thoughts of ever seeing or coming any
more to the IsraeHtes : but the private affairs of all consi-
derate men do, I believe, afford them many instances of
f Gen. XV. 13 — 16. e Exod. ii. 14. Actsvii. 25^ 27,35.
510 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
some turn of life brought about by the direction of Provi-
dence in unexpected events, when they could not be com-
passed by all the contrived schemes they could lay for them :
and thus it happened in Moses's life in a most extraordinary
manner, Moses was taking care of Jethro's flock, and fol-
lowed them as they wandered in their feeding to the bor-
ders of the desert near to mount Horeb, and he saw before
him a bush on fire, flaming for a considerable time, but not
in the least consumed or diminished with the fire : he was
very much surprised at it, and stood still to consider the
meaning of it, and, whilst he did so, heard a voice, which
declared the design of God Almighty to deliver the Israel-
ites out of Egypt by his hand, and the whole manner and
method by which he would efl^ect it^ Moses had so en-
tirely laid aside all thoughts of this enterprise, and had so
little opinion of his being able to succeed in it, that, though
he was appointed in an extraordinary manner to undertake
it, he very earnestly refused it"", until he had received many
demonstrations of the miraculous power with which God
designed to assist him in it. Then indeed he went to Jethro,
and asked him leave to go from him; and, upon Jethro's
dismissing him, he took his wife and sons, and set out for
Egypt. Moses had, I think, cast away all thoughts of
ever seeing his people more ; and probably began to think
himself to have no part or expectation in the promises made
to Israel. He had not circumcised one of his children ; for
he did it in this journey". Aaron, by God's appointment,
met him in the wilderness °, and from thence they went to-
gether into Egypt, and gathered the elders of the people of
Israel, and acquainted them with the business they came
about, and shewed them the mighty works which God had
enabled them to perform, as signs that he had sent themP;
upon seeing which the people believed that God did indeed
now design to visit them.
And thus Moses and Aaron undertook their expedition
into Egypt, not rashly, nor upon any contrived scheme of
1 Exodus iii. n Exodus iv. 25, 26.
I"! Exodus iii. iv. o Ver. 27. P Ver. 31.
3
AND PROFANK HISTORY. 511
their own ; but at a time when neither of them thought of
being employed in such a manner, at a time when Moses
had a very great disinclination to go at all ; he was settled
in Midian well enough to his satisfaction ; thought he
should find the people very obstinate and unmanageable,
not disposed to believe him, or to be directed by him ; and
he seems most earnestly to have wished, that it would have
pleased God to have permitted him to live quiet and retired
in the land of Midian, and to have sent some other person
for the deliverance of his people i; and when he undertook
to carry the message which God had directed him to go
with unto Pharaoh, he had perhaps some doubts whether
the deliverance of the Israelites might not be a work that
would proceed slowly, and require much time to manage ;
and therefore, uj)on his being informed that the men were
dead which sought his life ^ he took his wife and sons with
him, as if he designed to go and live in Egypt, and not like
one who expected in a short time to return with the people,
and to serve God in mount Horeb^ Certainly in some re-
spects his behaviour was faulty ; and as we are informed
that the anger of the Lord was kindled against him\ when
he expressed the many excuses which he made against his
being sent to Egypt ; so we are told after he had began his
journey, that it catne to pass hy the way in the inn, that the
Lord met him, and sought to kill him ". The account here is
exceeding short, but the circumstances which are hinted are
thought to imply, that God was displeased at Moses's not
having circumcised his younger son : that his wife Zipporah
was unwilling to have the child circumcised''; that as in the
case of Balaam, when Balaam went with the princes of
Moab, according to the command which he had received, an
angel opposed him in the way, because he went with a per-
verse intentiony; so here, though Moses began his journey.
q Exod. iv. 13. nifies only where they rested all night,
r Ver. 19. which most probably was in some cave,
s Ver. 12. or under some shade of trees,
t Ver. 14. X Ver. 25, 26. See Pool's Synops.
u Ver. 24. Our translators have here Critic, in loc.
used a very modern term, in the inn. y Numb. xxii. 32.
The Hebrew word [p'jrs] malon, sig-
512 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK TX.
yet perhaps he had some coldness to the undertaking, or
some thoughts about it which disposed him to keep this
child uncircumcised, not suitable to that better spirit that
ever after appeared in all his conduct, and gained him the
testimony of being faithful to him that appointed him m all
his house^, in every part of his dispensation. It is generally
thought that Moses at this time sent back his wife and chil-
dren to Jethro his father-in-law % and went with Aaron only
into Egypt, according to the directions which he and Aaron
had received. t
Moses, Exodus iii. 13, represents, that when he came
unto the Israelites, they might ask him what the name of
God was, and desires to be instructed what to answer to this
question : God had before told him, that he was the God of
his father ; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob^; and Moses acknowledged himself instructed
before he asked this question, to tell the Israelites that the
God of their fathers had sent him c ; what need could there
possibly be of his either having or asking any further infor-
mation ? the Israelites knew of and acknowledged but one
God. What then could it signify for them to be told, that
his name was Jehovah, El Shaddai, Elohim, Adonai, or any
other ; when, by whatever name he was known, they must
consider him as one and the same, the only God, most high
over all the earth? The ancients, both Jews and heathens,
and afterwards some of the early and learned writers of the
Christian Church, imagined that the names of persons and
things were of the greatest importance to be rightly under-
stood, in order to lead to the truest knowledge that could
be had of their natures : and they frequently speculated
upon this subject with so much philosophical subtlety, that
they built upon it many foolish fancies and ridiculous errors.
The Jewish Rabbins thought the true knowledge of names
to be a science preferable to the study of the written law*^,
and they entertained many surprising fancies about the
word Jehovah : one of which was, that it was so wonderfully
z Heb. iii. 2. c Exod. iii. 13.
a See Exod. xviii. 2 — 5. d Ficini Argument, in Cratyl. Pla-
to Exod. iii. 6. tonis.
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 513
compounded, that no one but an inspired person could give
it a true pronunciation"' : Plotinus and Janiblichus tliought
some names to be of so celestial a composure, that the
rightly using them could not fail of obtaining oracles *" : and
Phoebus and Pythagoras are said to have cured diseases by
the use of such names S ; and such opinions as these might
have their admirers in the days of Origen, and some of
them seem to have been too easily admitted by him^': when
they began I cannot say, nor whether I imagine that Naa-
man the Syrian thought the name of the God of Israel to be
powerful in this manner ' ; but certainly it must be a mistake
to think that Mercury Trismegistus was, as Ficinus hints'',
of this opinion ; for all these opinions took their rise in after-
ages, and began from false notions, which the heathens
took up about the reverence paid to, and the use of, the
name Jehovah amongst the ancient Jews ; and Moses can in
no wise be supposed to have been so absurd, as to have de-
sired to know God's name, as if the use of that could have
given any extraordinary powers, other than God might give
him without his knowing it. It is very evident, that
Abraham and his descendants worshipped not only the
true and living God, but they invoked him in the name of the
Lord}, and they worshipped the Lord, in whose name they
invoked ; so that two persons were the objects of their wor-
ship, God, and this Lord : and the Scripture has distinguished
these two persons from one another by this circumstance ;
6 Ficini Argument. in Cratyl. Platonis. toCto Setroj airoSeiKi/vovai, (TWiffriiS
f Ibid. /J-iv, \6yovs 5' exei a(p65pa 6\iyois yipca-
e Ibid. (TKOfievous, t6t' ipovfiev, Uri rh fxlv %a,-
h IloWol tSiv iirq,S6vTaiv Sai/xovas fiawd ovo/xa, Kal rh ''A^ovai, Kal &\\a
XpSovrai (f To7s \6yois avruv t^ o 0ebs irop' 'E^paiots fMera ttoAA^s ai/xvoAoyias
A^paafj. — ovK iirKxrafxevoi ris iariv 6 napaStSd/JLeva, ovk inl ruv TUXf^vTojr Kal
'Affpaafx 'Efipa7a ovdixara TroWaxov yevr^rwi' K€trai irpayixdruv, aW' iiri t(-
Tojs Alyvtrriois iiTayy€\AoiJ.fvois ivep- vos OfoAoylas airoppiiTov, avacpfpofMevTis
yetdv riva iviffiraprai fxadyifxaai — iav els rhv rwv '6\odv Srifxiovpybv — ovtws oh
Toivvv 5vvr]du>ixei' irapaiTTfiffat (pvcriv ovo- to, (TrtfjLaiv6fXf:Va Kara tSiv izpayfj-drttiv,
/j-aTCtiV ivepywv, S>v ncri p^paJryai Ai^utt- rAA.' al raiv (poevwu iToi6r7]TiS Koi iSi6-
riwv ot 2o<^oi, fi tSjv irapa Hepaais Ma- rrjrts exoi/tri n SvvaThv iv avTois irpbs
yuv ot \6yioL, i) rSiv irap' 'IrSoTs (pLAoffo- rdSe rivd ^ raSe. Leg. Origen. cont.
{powToiv Bpaxfxafes, ^ 'Safj.aualoi, Kal Celsum, I. i. p. 1 7 — 20. ed. Cant.
KaTaffKevdffai oFotTe yiv(i>fj.e6a, '6tl Kal f) 1677.
KaAovfievT] fxayeia ovx, ^s oiovrai ol airb i 2 Kings v. 1 1 .
'EiriKovpov Kal 'ApiffToreAovs, irpay/xd k Ubi sup.
iariv ouTvcrraTov Trdvrr), aAA', uis 01 irepl 1 See book vii.
VOL. I. L 1
514 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
that God no man hath seen at any time, nor can see"^; but the
Lord, whom Abraham and his descendants worshipped, was
the person who appeared to them". God did not always
reveal his will by this Lord, but we meet with instances of
angels commissioned for this purpose ; and therefore I
should imagine that Moses, by asking in whose name he was
to go, might desire to be informed, whether the Lord, who
appeared to Abraham, was to be his mighty assistant and
protector, or whether some angel, such as went to Lot°, was
to deliver the Israelites.
If we take what the ancients offered about the science of
names, rejecting the idle and fanciful superstructures which
they built upon it, we may form a further reason for
Moses's desiring to be informed what the name of God was.
Men did not, at this time, know the works of the creation
well enough to demonstrate from them the attributes of
God ; nor could they by speculation form proper and just
notions of his nature. Some indeed, the philosophers of
these times, thought themselves wise enough to attempt
these subjects; but what was the success? professing them-
selves wise, they hecaine fools , and changed the glory of the un-
corruptible God"^. There was not a sufficient foundation of
a true knowledge of the heavens, elements, and of the
frame of the universe then laid, for men to build upon, so
as to attain from the study of them suitable and proper no-
tions of the Deity : and hence it came to pass that the
builders of these ages, having bad materials to work with,
composed weak and indefensible systems of theology. When
they had speculated upon the flre^ or the wind, the swift air,
or the circle of the stars, the violent water, or the lights of
heaven^ not forming true notions of their natures ; they were
either delighted with their beauty, or astonished at their power,
and, framing very high but false estimates of them, they lost
the knowledge of the workmaster, and took the parts of his
workmanship to be God. And some error of this sort, or
errors as pernicious as these, Moses himself might have
m Exod. xxxiii 20. o Gen. xix.
n Gen. xii. i. P Rom. i. 22, 23.
ANn PR0FA>3E HISTORY. 515
fallen into, if he had endeavoured to have formed his no-
tions of God either from the Egyptian learning, or from
any learning at this time in the world. Faith, or a belief
of what God had revealed n, was the only principle upon
which he could hope rightly to know God ; and this was
the principle which Moses here desired to go upon. For as
the revelation which God had made of himself was as yet
but short, so Moses, by desiring to know God's name, de-
sired that he might have some revelation of his nature and
attributes made to him. We do not find that the ancients
gave their names arbitrarily, and without reason ; but when
Cain, Seth, Noah, Peleg, or when Jacob's children were to
be named, reasons were given for the particular names they
were to be called by ■■ ; and we find some names in Scripture
given by God himself, and these names are always expressive
of the nature or circumstances of the person they belong to ;
thus Adam was so called, because he was taken out of the
ground. God called Abram Abraham, because he designed
to make him a father of many nations ^ ; and men endea-
voured in the naming persons, even from the beginning, to
give names thus expressive, as well as human wisdom
would enable them to do it. Thus Adam called his
wife woman, expressing thereby her origin, because she
was taken out of man*, and afterwards he called her Eve, be-
cause she was the mother of all living " ; and we find that
the Egyptians were curious in attempts to name persons in
this manner, even before Moses's days. For we read that
Pharaoh, upon Joseph's interpreting his dreams, called him
Zaphnath-paa?ieah,'\.e. a discoverer of things hidden^; and
this notion of names was held by the Israelites, who thought
a person rightly named when his name expressed his nature ;
for thus Abigail speaks to David about Nabal her husband ;
As his name is, so is he ; Nabal is his name, and folly is with
him^. Plato observes, that the names of heroes or famous
men cannot always be expressive ; but that we may often
q Heb. xi. 3, 6. t Gen. ii. 23.
' Gen. iv. i, 25. v. 29. and xxx. " Gen. iii. 20.
s Gen. xvii. 5. See Gen. xxxii. x Gen. xli. 45.
28, &c. y I Sam. xxv. 25.
l12
516 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX,
be deceived, if we guess at the characters of persons by their,
names, because, he says, men receive their names according
to those of their ancestors, or their friends express their
good wishes to them in naming them, calling them by such
names as may intimate what the persons so named may
prove to be^ ; so that a dissolute and wicked man may be
named Theophilus by his parents, who wish to have another
sort of person: a weak and insufficient prince may be called
Menelaus by those who name him, in hopes that he may
be a great defender of his people, though he does not after-
wards prove to be so. And he represents Socrates in some
doubts about the names which were given to their gods ;
because, as he expresses it, they were not the true and real
names of the gods, by which they would call themselves,
but only such as men had framed from their opinions and
apprehensions of the deities to whom they gave them'' ; and
he adds, that we should pray to the gods to enable us to
call them by their true names, for that without this we
cannot form any well-grounded speculations of their na-
tures'^. This was Plato's opinion, after he had well weighed
all the learning which had been in the world ; and I cannot
but think it to agree with Moses's sentiments upon this
subject. Moses thought, that when he was to go to the
Israelites to bring them out of Egypt, and to tell them
that their God had appointed him and them to serve him in
mount Horeb, they might ask him, whether he knew what
a being their God was, and how he expected to be served
by them. This question he could not pretend to answer,
unless God thought fit by revelation to enable him*^ ; and
therefore he desired to be informed, as far as God might
think fit to discover it, what name God would call himself
by, knowing that by obtaining this he might form just
notions of his nature and worship. That this was Moses's
z Plato in Cratylo, pag. 273. edit. b Aevrepos 5' a5 rpSnos 6pe6Tr)T6s
Francof. 1602. ecmv 7)fuv evx^o'Sat oirivis re Koi OTrSdev
a ' Ot( TTfpl 6fS>v ovSev Icr/xev, ot/re x^'^povcriv ovofxa^Sfievoi, Tavra Koi 7)|Uay
Trepl avTwi', oUre irepl rwi/ ovofidrwv, avrovs KaKf?;/, ws SA.A.0 /j.rjSfj' eiSJras.
arra iroTe f avrovs KaKovai. SfjA.oi' yap Id. ibid.
'6ri iKitvoi ye r aKridrj KaXovffL. Id. "^ See Exodus iii. 13.
ibid. p. 276.
AKD PROFANE HlSTOllV. 517
design in asking for the name of God, might be confirmed
from several passages of Scripture : when Moses desired to
see God's glory, he obtained that tlie name of the Lord
should be proclaimed before him, and the proclaiming his
name manifested to him that he was JeJiovaJk, El, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and
truth ; keeinng mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the
guilty : visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
and upon the children s children, unto the third and fourth
generation'^. Thus the name, or names, which God thought
fit to give himself, were understood to be appellations that
might discover his attributes : and when God was declared
to be a jealous God, his name was said to be Jealous e. In
the same style and manner of speaking, Isaiah, prophesying
what the Messiah should be, declares his name to be Won-
derful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace f. And the name of the same person was
Emmanuel, because he was God with uss, and Jesus, because
he was to save his people from their sins^. Thus, I think, it
must be plain that the design of Moses, in asking God's
name, was to obtain himself an information, i. Who the
person was that was to be their deliverer ; for we find this
he particularly inquired after '. And, 2. What the nature
and attributes of that person were, in order to know what
duties he would expect from them, and how they were to
serve him.
In the answer, which God thought fit to give to Moses's
question, he declared himself to be I AM THAT I AM,
and bad Moses call his name I AM, and say, I AM hath setit
me unto you^. Moreover he added, that he was the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob^. In those
last words he declares himself to be the person who had ap-
peared to Abraham, and had made the promise to him and
ft Exod. xxxiii. i8, 19. xxxiv, 5, 6, 7. h Matt. i. 21.
e Ver. 14. i Exod. xxxiii. 12.
f Isaiah ix. 6. k Exod. iii. 14.
ar Matt. i. 23. l Ver. 15.
518 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
his seed™; and had made the covenant with him"; and was
worshipped by him and his descendants Isaac and Jacob" :
and in the former words he intimates his essential divinity,
expressing himself to be I AM, or I AM THAT I AM P,
i. e. independent, immutable^ self ~ existent . That the name
here declared to belong to the God of Abraham is of this
signification, is incontestibly proved by the most celebrated
writers, to whose reasonings upon this subject, as I cannot
pretend to add either strength or perspicuity more than they
have given them, so I shall only refer the reader to them^.
But as there is a passage in a most excellent heathen writer,
which, though very apposite, yet, as not offering itself in
a controversy between Christian writers, has not, that I know
of, been taken notice of, I would produce that, because it
may shew what an acute and judicious heathen would have
concluded from this name of God here revealed to Moses.
We are informed, that there was an ancient inscription in
the temple at Delphos, over the place where the image of
Apollo was erected, consisting of these letters, EI. And
Plutarch introduces his disputants, querying what might be
the true signification of it : at length Ammonius, to whom
he assigns the whole strength of the argumentation, con-
cludes, that the word EI was the most perfect title they
could give the Deity r; that it signifies THOU AET, and
expresses the divine essential Being ; importing, that though
our being is precarious, fluctuating, dependent, subject to
mutation, and temporary ; so that it would be improper to
say to any of us, in the strict and absolute sense, Ei, or
THOU ART ; yet we may with great propriety give the
n> Gen. xii. 7- pas yevofj-evj) (pdcrfia irapexfi Kal S6K7j(riv
n Gen. xiii. afj.v5pa,v koI ajSe^atoj/ aur-Jjs — aW' icrTlv
o Gen. xii. 7? 8. xiii. 18. xxvi. 24, 6 Oehs XP^ (pauai, koI fcrri Kar' ovSfva
25. and xxxii, g. xP^vv, aWa Kara rhv alS>va,Thv aKivrj-
P Exod. iii. 14. rov, Kal dxporov Kal avey kKthtov, koX ov
q See Waterland's Vindication, &c. irpSrepov ov^ev iaTiv oiiS' varepoy, oiiSe
Qu. III. vedinpov, aKfC els &v evl rep vvv rh dei
T 'H/xeis Se afxei^SiJievoi rhv 6fhv EI TreTrATjpco/ce, kol fiSvov ecrrl rh Kara rov-
(pafjiv, iis a\ridri Kal aipevSrj Kal ix6v7)v ro ovrws tn/, ov yeyovhs, ovS" icrdfifvoy,
fjL6vu> Trpo(rr)Kov(ray rr]v rov elvai vpocra- oii5' ap^d/iievov, ovSe TvavaSfjievov. Vid.
y6pevaiv airo^L^6vr6s' ri/juv fihv yap ovrois Plutarch. Lib. EI apud Delphos, p. 392,
rov elvai jLterfffriv ovStv, oAAd Traera 393- ed. Xyl. Par. 1624.
fiyrir^ (pvffis iv ixiacf yevsffews Kal <p0o-
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 519
Deity this appellation, because God is independent, un-
created, immutable, eternal, always and every where the
same, and therefore HE only can be said absolutely TO
BE, Plutarch would have called this Being to ovtms ov,
Plato would have named him to ov, which he would have
explained to signify ovaia, implying him to he essentially or
self-existent «.
In the sixth chapter of Exodus, we have a further ac-
count of God's revealing himself to Moses by the name
JEHOVAH, a word of much the same import with I AM,
or I AM THAT I AM ; and we are there told, that the
Lord was not known to Abraham, to Isaac, or to Jacob, by
this name JEHOVAH, but by the name of God Almighty,
or El-Shaddai. This must seem to be the plain meaning of
the words*, and in this sense I thought myself obliged to
take them ", until I should come to examine this subject
more at large here in its proper place. The name Jehovah
was, I believe, known to be the name of the supreme God,
in the early ages, in all nations. The person who here
spoke unto Moses, and declared himself to be the person who
appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, is nowhere
particularly mentioned in the Book of Genesis before the
flood, or after the flood, before the birth of Abraham, But
though this person did reveal himself to Abraham, to
Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of El-Shaddai^ or God
Almighty^; yet it is most evident from some very express
passages in the Book of Genesis, that they all knew him by
the name of Jehovah also ; and therefore if we explain this
passage in Exodus to signify that he was not known until
Moses's time by the name Jehovah, we shall make it directly
contradict some very clear and express passages of the history
of the precedent times.
I. The name Jehovah was known to be the name of
the supreme God in all nations in the early times. Ficinus
remarked, that all the several nations of the world had
a name for the supreme Deity, consisting of four letters
s Plat, in Cratyl. p. 289. ed. Francof. u Book vi.
1602. X Gen. xvii. i, See xxviii, 3. and
t on'? 'nyTi3 «■'; mn' 'ou.n, Ver. 3. xxxv. 11,
520 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
only y. This I think was true at first in a different sense
from that in which Ficinus took it ; for I question not
but they used the very same word, until the languages
of different nations came to have a more entire disagree-
ment than the confusion at Babel at first caused''. When
the corruptions of religion grew to be many, and very
considerable, men found different names for their gods,
according to their different fancies and imaginations about
them '^ ; but whilst they adhered to the knowledge and
worship of the one true God, who had revealed himself
to their fathers, there was no room for them to invent
other names to express his nature or divinity by, than those
by which he had revealed himself to them ; and accord-
ingly, as we find the word Jehovah used in the earliest
days, for it occurs above thirty times in the Book of Genesis
before the flood ; so we meet with many instances of the
supreme God called by this name in different countries,
where the particular revelations b made to Abraham and
his descendants were not known, or not embraced as part
of their religion. The king of Sodom knew the most high
God by the name of Jehovah, for he admitted Abraham's
giving him this appellation ^ ; and Lot knew God by the
name of Jehovah^; and so, I should imagine, did the men
of Sodom ; for though they thought Lot's account of God's
design to destroy their city to be but a romantic imagina-
tion of his, yet they are not represented not to know the
Lord, as Pharaoh was afterwards ^, though they were ex-
ceedingly wicked and abominable in their lives. Abimelech
king of the Philistines knew Jehovah, and was his servant
in Abraham's time^; for the fear of God was then in that
y Ficini Argument, ad Platon. Cra- formed the word @ebs from the verb
tyl. The word Jehovah, though the @e7v, observing the stars and lights of
insertion of the vowels in our language heaven, which they took to be gods,
requires it to be written with seven to run their several courses, and there-
letters, is wrote in Hebrew with four fore they called them &eoi. See Plat,
only, thus, mn' i. e. Jhvh, and is in Cratyl. p. 273. ed. Francof. 1602.
therefore called the tetragrammaton, or ^ See book v. p. 172.
four-lettered name of God. c Gen. xiv. 22.
z See book ii. p. 82. book iii. p. 88, d Gen. xix. 14.
89. e Exod. v. 2.
a Plato supposes that the Greeks f Gen. xx. 1 1, 18.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 521
kingdom, though Abraham had entertained without just
grounds a bad opinion of Abimelech and his subjects ; and
we find Jehovah mentioned here by the king in the days
of Isaacs. God was known by this name in the family of
Bethuel in Mesopotamiia, w^hen Abraham sent thither''; and
afterwards in Jacob's days Laban knew God by this
name"; though it is remarkable, that he did not use the
word entirely in the same sense as Jacob did ; for Laban
meant by it the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor,
the God of their father, but Jacob sware by the fear of his
father Isaac^; i, e. Laban meant by Jehovah the supreme
true and living God, which the fathers of Abraham and
Abraham had worshipped, before he received further reve-
lations than were imparted to the rest of mankind, and be-
fore he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
After this, Abraham and his posterity determined that this
Lord also should be their God ', and they invoked God in
the name of this Lord™. God was known by the name of
Jehovah to Job the Arabian" ; but it was not the Lord , who
appeared unto Abraham, whom he knew by this name ; but
rather God, whom no man hath seen at any time^. Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, in Moses's time, is said not to know Jeho-
vah^; and, indeed, corruptions in religion began in Egypt
very early, and were arrived at a very great height ere
these days ; but still it may be queried, whether Pharaoh
was really ignorant that Jehovah was the name of the su-
preme Deity, or whether he only did not know the God of
the Hebrews by this title "i. God's judgments were exe-
cuted upon Egypt, not to convince Pharaoh and his people
that Jehovah was the supreme God, but to make them
know that the God of the Hebrews was Jehovah^. The
Moabites knew the supreme God by this name% though
they were greatly corrupted with idolatry^; and we have a
g Gen. xxvi. 28. o See Job Lx. 11.
h Gen. xxiv. 31, 50. P Exodus v. 2.
' Gen. XXX. 27. 1 Ver. i. and 3.
k Gen. xxxi. 53. r Exod. vii. 5. and xiv. 18.
I Gen. xxviii. 21. s Numb. xxiv. 11.
"1 See vol. i. book v. t Numb. xxv. 2, 3.
n Job i. 21.
522 CONNECi'ION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
hint from Philo-Biblius, which seems to intimate that the
God of the Phoenicians was anciently called by this name,
if we may suppose that Jeco or Jao may be a corruption
of it ; for it is said that Hierombalus, who supplied San-
choniatho with materials for his Phoenician history, was
^ priest of the God Jevo^. But we have a very remarkable
instance of the word Jehovah used by an heathen for the
name of the supreme Deity, in contradistinction to the God
of the Hebrews, in times very late, even in the days of
Hezekiahx. Rabshakeh, who well understood the Hebrew
language, in delivering his master the king of Assyria's mes-
sage, which he expressed in the Hebrew tongue y, professed
that he was not come up against Jerusalem without the Lord
[i. e. Jehovah'\ to destroy it, for that the Lord said vmto him,
Go up against this land and destroy it^. That Rabshakeh, by
the Lord, or Jehovah, here did not mean the God of the Jews,
though at the same time he knew that they called their
God by this name, is evident, from his very plainly distin-
guishing them one from the other. He asserts, that he had
an order from Jehovah (i. e. he meant from the supreme
God) to destroy Jerusalem ; but as to the God whom the
Jews called Jehovah, and whom Rabshakeh styled the Lord
their God^, he observes, i. That he would not assist them if
he could, for that Hezekiah had provoked him''. 2. That
he could not preserve them if he would; for that none of
the gods of the nations had been able to deliver their fa-
vourites out of his master's hand<^. The gods of Hamath,
of Arpad, and of Sepharvaim, had not been able to deliver
Samaria ; and he thought all hopes of preservation from the
God of the Jews would be alike vain. 3. That Kabshakeh
really thought the God of the Jews to be only an inferior
deity, or god of a country, is evident from the opinion
which the Assyrians had of him: they thought him the
God of the land of the Jews'*, and appointed a priest to teach
the people, which they had planted in Samaria, the manner
u Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. i. c. 9. a 2 Kings xviii. 22.
X 2 Kings xviii. ^ Ibid.
y Ver. 26. <^ Ver.33, 34, 35.
z Ver. 25. '' 2 Kings xvii. 24 — 28.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 523
of the God of the land^ that he might not slay them with lions.
Thus the Greeks in Homer thought it necessary to appease
Apollo, that he might not destroy them with a pestilence ;
or rather I might instance from Xenophon, who represents
Cyrus taking particular care to render the 6io\ naTp^oi, or
gods of the countries which he warred against, propitious
to him^. Such a god as one of these Rabshakeh thought
the God of Israel. For, 4. it is plain that he did not think
him to be the Deity, or the Lord, without whom he affirmed
that he was not come up against Jerusalem ; for Hezekiah
remonstrated, that he had reproached the living God^, and
prayed that God would save them ; that, says he, all the
kingdoms of the earth may know, that thou art the Lord God,
even thou only". When Rabshakeh had professed that he
was not come up loithout the Lord against them, and that
the Lord had said unto him, Go up against this land and
destroy it ; if by the Lord he had here intended the God
of the Jews, what reason could there be to accuse him of
reproaching this God ? But Hezekiah's charge against him
is well grounded, and pertinent to his whole speech and
behaviour, if we take him by the Lord to mean not the God
of the Jews, but the supreme Deity in opposition to him :
for herein consisted his blasphemy, that he thought the God
whom Hezekiah called the Lord, not to be the supreme Deity,
but only a god of a nation, such a deity as the god of Ha-
math, of Arpad, and of Sepharvaim, who in truth were no
gods ; and what Hezekiah prayed for was, that the God
of the Jews would, in opposition to these blasphemous senti-
ments, shew, that he was the Lord God., even he only, and
that there could not be anv divine commission to hurt those
who were under his protection. The heathens, even in the
later days of their idolatry, were not so gross in their notions
but that they believed that there was but one supreme God.
They did indeed worship a multitude of deities, but they
supposed all but one to be subordinate divinities. They had
always a notion of one Deity superior to all the powers of
heaven, and all the other deities were conceived to have
e Xenoph. Cyropsed. 1. iii. ^ 2 Kings xix. 4. % Ver. 19.
524 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [ BOOK IX.
different offices or ministrations under him, being appointed
to preside over elements, over cities, over countries, and to
dispense victory to armies, health, life, and other blessings, to
their favourites, if permitted by the supreme power. Hesiod
supposes one God to be the father of the other deities ;
and Homer, in many passages in the Iliad, represents one su-
preme Deity presiding over all the rest'; and the most cele-
brated of their philosophers always endeavoured to assert
this theology k, and this was undoubtedly Rabshakeh's
opinion ; and as the supreme Deity had in time different
names in different languages, so Rabshakeh thought Jehovah
to be the proper Hebrew name for him.
II. We have no reason to imagine that the patriarchs,
who lived before the days of Abraham, knew tlie Lord who
appeared unto Abraham, and who spoke unto Moses •, by
the name Jehovah. If we consider the history of the Bible,
we may find just reason to remark of the several revelations
recorded in it, that they all tend, Avith a surprising harmony
and consistency, to confirm and illustrate one uniform scheme
of Providence, which was gradually opened through a long
succession of ages, until in the fulness of time Christ was ma-
nifested in the flesh, and the will, counsel, or design, hidden
wisdom, or purpose of God"^, which was ordained before the
world"^, but not fully revealed to the former ages and ge-
nerations, came at length to be made manifest to those who
embraced the Gospel ° : but the further we look backwards,
h Hesiod. Theogon. Divin. 1. i. c. 55. Deum—interdum
i Vid. Iliad, vii. 202. viii. S — 28, &c. Necessitatem appellant, quia nihil aliter
See Virg. ^n. ii. 777- possit atque ah eo constilutum sit. Id.
■NTTTTiTTXTT? V ' AcadeiTi. Quffist 1. iv. c. 44.
-non hsec sine NUMINE divum y. ^.^ j^ j^ib. de Nat. Deorum; in
Eveniunt ; non te hinc comitem aspor- ^^^^_ g^^^^^ ^ ^ ^ y_ ^^id. c. 34.
tare Creusam pj^^. ^^ L^^^, 1 ,0 ^^ Phileb. in Cra-
Fas: baud iUe sunt supen regnator ^^^ ^^^ Aristot. 1. de mundo. c. 6.
Olympi. Plutarch, de Placit. Pliilos. 1. i. Id. in
Jupiter is here supposed to be the Lib. de EI apud Delphos. p. 392. ed.
Numen Divum, and his wUl to be Xyl. Par. 1624.
the fas, or fate, which no one might 1 Exod. vi. 2, 3.
contradict: Fatum est, says Cicero, m gee vol. i. book v. p. 171.
non id quod super slitiose, sed qtmd phij- " i Cor. ii. 7.
sice dicitur causa eeterna rerum. De " Coloss. i. 26.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
525
we find a lesser discovery of this intended scheme, though
we have plain intimations of some part of it in every age
from the foundation of the world. Adam and Eve had a
revelation made to them of a person to come for the great
and universal benefit of mankind?, and the whole system
of worship by way of sacrifice practised in the very first ages
appears most reasonably to have been founded upon the
design of the true propitiation which was to be made by
Christ for the sins of the world'': but we read of no divine
appearance to any person before the days of Abraham : he
was the first who huilt mi altar to and worshipped the Lord
who appeared to him r. Adam heard the voice of God many
tinies^; God spoke to Cain^ to Noah", and probably to
many others of the antediluvians ; but it is nowhere inti-
mated that the Lord appeared unto any one person until we
are told that he appeared unto Abraham x; and then it is ob-
served, as what had not been before practised, that Ah^aham
built an altar unto the Lord who ai^peared to himy ; so that
Abraham seems to have been the first person who knew or
worshipped this Lord. Mankind, before he had received
fresh and further revelations than had been made to the
world, worshipped Jehovah Elohim, the true and living God ;
but they worshipped God whom no man had ever seen nor
could see, and whom Job therefore believed to be invisible ^ ;
but the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their
children, worshipped not only the invisible God, but this
Lord also, and this Lord appeared to Moses, and declared
himself to be the God of their fathers, who had appeared
unto divers of them, and who purposed by his hand to de-
liver the Israelites. This was the person who was to be
Jacob's God^, and whom he called the fear of his father Isaac,
and whom he distinguished from the God of Abraham, the
God of Nahor, the God of their father, i. e. from the God
P See vol. i. b. v. p. 172. ^ Gen. vi. 13. vii. i. viii. 15. ix. i,
q Book ii. p. 84. 8, 12, 17.
r Gen. xii. 7. x Gen. xii. 7. y Ibid.
s Gen. ii. 16, 18. iii. 8, 9, &c. z Job ix. 1 1.
t Gen. iv. 9, 15. a Gen. xxviii. 20.
526 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
whom they worshipped before this Lord had revealed him-
self to them In all the several passages where the word
Jehovah occurs before the Lord's appearing unto Abraham"',
which are near forty, I am not sensible that there are any
where the word necessarily refers to the Lord who appeared
to Abraham; and it is evident that the antediluvians used
the words Jehovah or Elohim as equivalent terms, taking
them both for names of the one true and living God. Thus
Eve, when, upon the birth of Cain she said that she had
gotten a man from \Jehovali\ the Lord^, meant exactly the
same by the term Jehovah as she did by Elohim^ when at
the birth of Seth she said that \^Elohmi\ God had appointed
her another^. And thus likewise it was remarked, that in
Enos's days men were called by the name of [Jehovah] the
Lord^ ; by which expression was meant, that they obtained
the name which we find afterwards given them, and were
called the sojis [ha JElohim] of God^. Elohim and Jehooah
were the names of the God of heaven, and God was ge-
nerally called in the history of these times by both these
names put together, Jehovah Elohim, or, as we render them
in English, the LORD GODs.
III. The Lord, who appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac,
and unto Jacob, did indeed many times reveal himself to
them by the name of El Shaddai, or, as Moses expresses it,
he appeared unto them by the name of God Almighty^; but it
is evident, that by his 7iame Jehovah he was also known
unto them. When Abram was ninety years old and nine,
the LORD [Jehovah] appeared to Abram, and said unto
him, / am the Almighty God [El Shaddaiy. In this pas-
sage is related that Jehovah appeared unto Abraham ; this
is Moses's narration of the fact, and it may be observed,
that he might here as an historian, knowing the person who
appeared to have a right to the name Jehovah, call him
by that name, though it is evident that God who appeared
b Gen. xii. 7. e Gen. ii. 4, 7, 8, 9, 15, &c. iii. 8, 9,
c Gen. iv. i. 13, 14, 22, &c. and thus ix. 26.
d Ver. 25. ^ Exod. vi. 3.
e Ver. 26. See vol. i. b. i. p. 25. i Gen. xvii. i.
f Gen. vi. 2.
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 527
here did not call himself iu this place Jehovah, but said to
Abraham, / am [El Shaddai] the Almighty God, and by that
name only was here known unto him : in the same manner it
is remarkable, that this person manifested himself to Isaac
and his descendants by this particular name of God Almighty.
The God who appeared unto Jacob said unto him, / am God
Almighty^/ and this El Shaddai, or God Almighty, was the
person whom Jacob prayed to be with his sons when he
sent them to Egypt •, and whom he reminded them to have
appeared to him at Luz in Canaan™, and whom he particu-
larly calls the God of Joseph's father, in his blessing him at
his death" ; so that what Moses records, that this their God
was known to them by his name of God Almighty, is abun-
dantly clear from these and many other passages which
might be cited. But that this Lord was also known to
them by the name Jehovah seems apparent from the fol-
lowing passages amongst others. Abraham called the place
where he went to offer Isaac, Jehovah-jireh", which I
imagine he would not have done, if he had not known the
Lord by this name of Jehovah at that time : Abraham's ser-
vant called the God of his master Abraham, Jehovah^; but
Gen. xxviii. 13. is very full and express. Jacob, in the vision
there recorded, saw the Lord standing before him ; and the
Lord said, / a7n the Lord God; or rather, / am Jehovah,
the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac "J.
Here the Lord very expressly revealed himself to Jacob
by his name Jehovah, and, accordingly, Jacob hereupon
resolved, that this Lord should be his God i" ; and, in
pursuance of this resolution, he was reminded afterwards
to build an altar as Abraham had done, not unto God,
whom no man hath seen at any time, nor can see; but unto
God, who had appeared to him^ : it is therefore evidently
clear that God, who spoke unto Moses, and declared him-
self to have appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
•^ Gea. XXXV. ii. directed to God, who appeared to him
1 Gen. xliii. 14. at Bethel, i. e. in^^the place where he
™ Gen. xlviii. 3. saw this vision. And Jacob himself
" Gen. xUx. 25. says, that God Almighty appeared here
0 Gen. xxii. 14. unto him. See Gen. xlviii. 3.
P Gen. xxiv. 12, 26, 40. r Gen. xxviii. 21.
1 See Gen. xxxv. i. where Jacob was s Gen. xxxv. 1.
528 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
Jacob, was known unto them by his name Jehovah; and
therefore our English translation of the latter part of the 3d
verse of the sixth chapter of Exodus, in these words, hut by
my name Jehovah was I not known unto them, is undoubtedly
a faulty translation, not rightly expressing what Moses in-
tended in this place. The best and most accurate writers
have remarked upon this place, that the latter part of the
verse should be read interrogatively, thus ; By my name Je-
hovah was I not known unto them? If we take the sentence
interrogatively, every one will see that it plainly intimates,
that the Lord had revealed himself to them by this name,
which is agreeable to Moses's account of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob's knowledge and worship of the Deity : but to take
the words without the interrogation, and suppose them to
intend that the Lord who appeared to Abraham was not
known to him, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by his name Jehovah,
cannot be reconciled to some very express passages in the
Book of Genesis.
In the LXX. version, the words are agreeable to our
English translation, koX to ovoixa fxov Kvpios ovk ebrikwcra avTols'
but it has been observed by the learned, that some of the
Greek writers read the words /cat to ovoixd fxav Kvpios ib-qX(aaa
avTolr that is, my name Jehovah J mad^ known unto them;
which interpretation is favoured by the Arabic version. The
words of Moses may indeed be supposed to hint that the
Lord, who appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
to Moses, was not known by the name Jehovah before
Abraham's days ; and this I think agrees with the Book of
Genesis ; for we nowhere find him mentioned before he
appeared unto Abraham, and before Abraham built an altar
unto the LORD, who appeared to him'.
I am sensible I have been very large in this digression
upon the name of God : I was willing to be as particular as
might be, because I would observe from the whole that
occurs about it, that it is remarkable from the writings of
Moses, that there were two different and distinct persons
known and worshipped by the faithful from the days of
t Gen. xii. 7.
AND PROFANE HISTORY, 529
Abraham ; God, whom no man hath, seen at any time, and the
Lord, loho at divers times appeared to them. The Lord who
aj^peared to them is allowed, by the best and most judicious
writers", to have been the same divine person who after-
wards took upon him the seed of Abraham, and was made man,
and dwelt amongst the Jews ; and accordingly the prophet
Zechariah calls this person, whom the Jews were to pierce,
Jehovah''^; and therefore, since, according to Plutarch's
sense and interpretation of the Delj)hian EI, this divine per-
son could not justly have been called Jehovah if he had not
been truly and essentially God ; since, according to Plato's
account of the ancient opinions about names, no person
could have a name given from heaven but what truly agreed
to and expressed his nature and person 5^; since we must
conclude from Isaiah that God would not give his name and
glory to another^; since, according to what may be inferred
from the words of the inspired writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, we ought to think this divine person so much better
than the angels^ as he hath obtained a more excellent name
than they^; it must appear (this person being many times
called by the name of Jehovah in the Old Testament) that
we have, if we duly attend to them, great and weighty
proofs of the true and essential deity of our blessed Saviour
in the Old Testament, whatever some very learned and con-
siderable writers have hinted to the contrary. I need not,
before I leave this subject, remark, that neither Abraham nor
his children ran into the errors of polytheism ; for though
it appears that they acknowledged more persons than one to
have a right to the essential name of God, yet their belief
was, that the Lord their God was one [Jehovah] LORD^ :
God^ whofn no man hath seen at any time, nor can see, and the
LORD, tvho appeared unto Abraham, were not su2:)posed to
be one and the same person ; but as they were called by one
and the same name, by a name which could not be given
to another, so they were believed to be of one nature, they
were one being, in a word, as is expressed Deuter. vi. 4.
1 See vol. i. book v. p. 176. z Isaiah xlii. 8.
X Zech. xii. lo. a Hebrews i. 4.
y In Cratylo. 1^ Deuter. vi. 4.
VOL. I. Mm
530 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
they were one Jehovah, though revealed to be more persons
than one".
When Moses and Aaron were come to Egypt, after they
had conversed with the elders of the children of Israel, they
went to Pharaoh, and delivered their message, according to
the orders which God had given them, requiring the king
to give the Israelites leave to go three days' joui'ney into the
wilderness, to perform a sacrifice unto the Lord their God*^.
Pharaoh, as he was satisfied with the belief of his own reli-
gion, did not see that there was any necessity for such a
sacrifice as they spake of, and therefore answered, that he
knew of no such God as the God of Israel e. He thought
that they might serve the gods where they were, and re-
solved not to suifer them to go out of the land. He suspected
that they had a design of revolting from his service, and
had been laying schemes to get out of his dominions ; an
argument to him, that they had too much leisure, and he
thought he should effectually check their indulging them-
selves in contrivances of this sort, if he took care to leave
them fewer vacant hours ; and therefore he ordered greater
tasks, and more work to be enjoined them^. He repri-
manded Moses and Aaron for going amongst the people,
and interrupting them in their employments, and ordered
his task-masters to be more strict with them, and to press
them to harder labour «; so that the people began to be
greatly discouraged, and to wish that Moses and Aaron had
never come among them^.
A few days passed, and Moses and Aaron came again unto
Pharaoh, and repeated the demand, which they had before
made, for his dismissing the Israelites \ Hereupon Pharaoh
desired them to shew him some miracle, to induce him to
believe that they were indeed sent by the God they spake
of. Moses ordered Aaron to cast the rod, which he had in
his hand, upon the ground ; Aaron did so, and the rod was
immediately changed into a serpent. Pharaoh was surprised
c See Dr. Waterland's Defence, &c. f Exod. v. 6.
Qu. iii. g "Ver. 17.
d Exodus V. 3. h Ver. 21.
e Ver. 2. i Exod. vii. 10.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 531
at this transmutation ; but he called together his learned
men^ the magicians and sorcerers of Egypt, and ordered
them to try if they could not by their arts and sciences
cause such a transmutation. They attempted and succeeded,
changing their rods"^ into serpents as Aaron had done ; so
that Pharaoh did not think this a true miracle, but only an
effect, which might be produced by a man who had studied
the secret powers of nature. As it pleased God to permit
the magicians so far to succeed as to delude Pharaoh ; so, at
the same time, God, who never tempts or ensnares any man
into evil', did by a remarkable circumstance in this miracle
give the king sufficient reason to have considered it more
seriously ; Aaron's rod swallowed up all the rods of the ma-
gicians : but Pharaoh's heart was averse to the thoughts of
parting with the Israelites, and so he did not let this circum-
stance make a due impression upon his mind.
I have already hinted, that Pharaoh's design in opposing
his magicians to Moses, was to see whether the wonders
which Moses wrought were the effect of the art of man, of
the powers of nature, or tlie finger of God. Philo Judseus™
and Josephus" do both set this transaction in the same light.
I am sensible it may seem possible to represent it otherwise :
it may perhaps be said, that Pharaoh never questioned but
that the wonders which Moses did vvere real miracles,
wrought by the power of the God which sent him ; and that
he employed his magicians, not in order to judge whether
Moses's works were real miracles or no, but to see whether
his own priests could not, by the help and assistance of the
Egyptian gods, do as great miracles as Moses did by the
power of the God of Israel ; that he might know whether
the God of Israel could really compel him to dismiss his
people, or whether he might not hope to be protected in
keeping them by the power of his .own gods, in opposition
to the threatenings of the God of Israel. But this sup-
position is not to be supported by any true accounts of the
^ Exod. vii. 12. Par. 1640,
1 James i. 13, 14. n Joseph. Anf.iq. Jud. 1. ii. c. 13
m Philo de vita Mosis, 1. i. p. 616. ed.
M m 2
532 CONNE€TION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
heathen theology, nor can it agree with Moses's represen-
tation of the magicians using their enchantments, and the
confession they made when they could not succeed in the
use of them.
It cannot be thought that Pharaoh employed his magi-
cians to vie with Moses in working miracles, in order to
determine whether the gods of Egypt were as powerful to
protect him, as the God of Israel was to afflict him ; for it
was not the custom of the heathens to endeavour to support
themselves by the favour of one god against the express and
known demands of another ; but their belief was, that when
the supreme Deity determined to afflict them, no other god
could help them against his determinations, and that every
or any god had full power to distress them, unless they took
care, when required, duly to make atonement for any
trespasses or commissions against him. Rabshakeh" believed,
that when he was come up against Jerusalem, not without the
Lord^ {non sine Numine Divvm., Virgil would have expressed
it,) that no god could be able to deliver the Jews out of
his hand : and thus Homer represents Hector delivered up
to the fury of Achilles : when Jupiter determined that he
should be killed, then Phoebus left him P ; no deity any
longer interposed in his behalf: and Virgil gives up Turnus
to jEneas in the same manner q. And as they thought no
god able to deliver any favourite from the fate appointed
by the supreme Deity ; so we do not find instances which
intimate, that when any god threatened to afflict them,
that they thought they could support themselves against
divine vengeance, by seeking the more immediate favour of
some other god. When Calchas had informed the Greeks
that Apollo had sent the pestilence among them for neg-
lecting his priest and favourite, the Greeks did not endea-
vour to fly to Jupiter, or to some other god, to be protected
against Apollo's anger ; but they immediately took the best
care they could to appease Apollo ^ And thus, when the
Assyrians thought the people, whom they had planted in
o 2 Kings xviii. 1 ^neid. xii.
P Iliad, xxii. r Homer II. i.
AND PROFANE HISTOEY. 533
Samaria, to have lions sent amongst them by the god of
the country into which they had removed them, they did
not think it sufficient to endeavour to procure them pro-
tection against this strange god, whose manner they did not
know, by setting up the worship of their own gods ; but the
king of Assyria thought fit to command that they should
carry thither one of the priests, whom they had brought
from thence, that he might go and dwell there, and teach
the people the manner of the god of the land s. When
Cyrus invaded Assyria, he made libations to render the soil
propitious to him ; then he sacrificed to the gods and heroes
of the Assyrian nation ; then to Jupiter Patrius ; and it is
remarked, that if there appeared to him to be any other
god, he took care not to neglect him *. This was the
Pagan practice ; and it could have been to no purpose for
Pharaoh to have employed his magicians to try to work
miracles as Moses did, if he had thought them assisted by a
divine power in working them ; for it had been no detection
of Moses's not being sent from God, that, when he had
wrought a miracle to confirm his mission, a person, who, by
the same or a like divine power, could work the same mi-
racle, had been opposed to him. This could not have
proved either of the persons not to have wrought a true
miracle ; for each of them must have known and confessed
that they had either of them wrought a true miracle by di-
vine assistance. It is nowhere suggested, that the gods of
Egypt commanded Pharaoh to keep the Israelites ; nor can
it be conceived that Pharaoh could desire his priests to try
to work miracles, to know whether this was their will or
no ; for supposing him to think that Moses had been able
by the power of one deity to work a miracle to demand
their dismission, it is impossible to think he or his people
could be so absurd as to imagine that the gods would work
miracles in defiance of, and opposition to, one another. In
this case, had he thought Moses had wrought a true miracle,
he would have believed that some deity had really sent
him ; and though this deity was not an Egyptian god, yet,
s 2 Kings xvU. t Xenoph. Cyropsed. 1. iii.
534 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK TX.
when convinced that he really was a god ; like Cyrus,
when he had appeased the several gods he knew of, if he
found that there was any other deity, which he had hi-
therto been a stranger to, he would not have neglected him :
but Pharaoh doubted whether Moses really wrought a mi-
racle or no. The learned in Egypt thought that miracles,
prodigies, and omens, were given by the planetary and
elementary influences, and that students, deeply versed in
the mysteries of nature, could cause them by arts and
incantations. Pharaoh thought his magicians to be great
masters of these arts, and that therefore, if they could
perform what Moses did, that then Moses was only such
a one as they, and endeavoured to delude him by ar-
tificial wonders, instead of real miracles. And this is
abundantly confirmed to be the fact, by the account which
Moses gave of the magicians using their enchantments, and
of the confession extorted from them when they could not
succeed in the use of them.
When the magicians of Egypt endeavoured with their
enchantments to produce lice, and could not do it, the con-
fession which they made hereupon was, not that they were
overpowered by the God of Israel ; not that he assisted his
servants beyond what their gods did them ; but [i?!2!Jfc^
^^in D'^^7^5] Atsha?i Elohim Houa; This is the finger of God^.
The Targum of Onkelos renders it. This plague comes from
God. The Arabic version expresses it, A sigji of this nature
is of God. So that this appears evidently to have been what
Pharaoh endeavoured fully to convince himself of; whether
the works which Moses performed were artificial, or whe-
ther they were the finger of God ; and when the magicians
had answered him this question, we find that he made no
further use of them : whereas, had the question been, whe-
ther the God of Israel or the gods of Egypt were the most
able to assist their servants, Pharaoh might have doubted,
whether the want of success in the experiment was not
more owing to some defect in the magicians' enchantments
than in the power of the gods : he would have thought,
^ Exodus viii. 19.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 535
that the magicians had made improper applications to obtain
the favour of the gods, and that, according to the notions
which prevailed when Balaam was desired to curse the
Israelites y, though some enchantments or religious arts of
address might not obtain the divine favour, yet others
might 2 ; and the being disappointed in one trial would
rather have argued a defect in the priest or magician's at-
tempts to make the gods propitious, than want of power
in their gods to assist them. But the inquiry was evidently
not of this nature : all that Pharaoh wanted to be informed
of was, whether Moses was a magician, or was really sent
by the God which he spoke of; and he expected to be
convinced of this, by examining whether his wonders
were such as the magicians by their arts could perform
or no.
There are several queries which may be very justly made
upon Pharaoh's employing his magicians to attempt to work
the wonders which Moses performed. It may be asked,
was there really any knowledge of the powers of nature, or
arcana of art, by which magicians, without the miraculous
assistance of the Deity, could perform such operations as
Pharaoh here employed his wise men and sorcerers to at-
tempt? Did the Egyptian magicians really perform those
wonders, in which they are recorded to have imitated
Moses ? how could Pharaoh think or imagine that they
could possibly perform them ? or how could they themselves
be so weak as to attempt them ? or how came they to have
success in some instances, wherein they tried and performed
wonders like what Moses had done ? But to all these queries
it is not difficult to find a just and sufficient answer.
I. Was there really any knowledge of the powers of
nature, or any secrets of art, by which magicians might be
able to do such wonders as Moses performed before Pharaoh,
without their having an extraordinary and divine assistance ?
It is easy to return an answer to this question. The know-
ledge of natural causes and effects is so clear in this age,
by the light which has been introduced by experiment and
y Numbers xxiii. z Numbers xxiv. i.
536 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
philosophy, that we may positively say that no effects, like
what these men pretended to accomplish by sorcery and
enchantment, can be artificially produced by any or all the
powers of nature. No art, no study of occult sciences, can
enable a man really to change a rod or stick of wood into a
living serpent : there are no enchantments sufficient to en-
able us to make a living frog, or to strike our neighbour
with a disease or boil, or to inflict any vengeance of this
sort upon him. There never were the instances which are
pretended to of things of this nature eflected by arts of
this sort. How the magicians of Egypt performed their
wonders before Pharaoh shall be by and by mentioned ;
and in the same manner in which we account for them, we
may account for all other wonderful and supernatural works,
represented to have been effected by any heathen magicians
in the sacred pages. As to many accounts of such facts
which are mentioned in profane historians, we may venture
to assert, that they were never really done as they represent
them, but that they are generally some of the Scripture
miracles falsely reported, or attributed to persons who were
never concerned in them, or accounts of facts which were
never done at all. Julian, the son of Theurgus, is said to
have caused the heaven to be black with clouds, and a vast
shower to fall with terrible thunders and lightning, o-o^ta
Tivl, by some magic art ; but others think that Arnuphis the
Egyptian philosopher performed this miracle*. Such as this
are the relations of the heathen wonders : no certainty of
the performer of them, and nothing but a vague and unde-
termined conjecture how they could be performed. This
fact may as well be ascribed to Arnuphis as to Julian, and
was certainly true of neither ; being probably the account
of Elijah's obtaining rain in the time of Ahab'^ falsely
ascribed to one or other of these heathens, in order to raise
the credit of the heathen learning. But it will be asked,
II. Did the Egyptian magicians really perform those
wonders which are ascribed to them ? Some learned writers
have imagined, that there was not any real transmutation,
a Suidas in voc. 'lovKtavSs. b i Kings xviii.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 537
when the rods of the Egyptian magicians were pretended to
be turned into serpents'^; and that they did not really turn
water into blood'', or produce frogs ^, or exhibit any real
miracle in their opposition to Moses ; but that they either
played their parts as jugglers, pretending to do what they
really did not do ; or that some daemons assisted them, and,
by their power over the air, enabled them to deceive the
sight of the beholders, and to cause phantoms, or delusive
appearances of what was really not done, though it seemed
to be performed in the sight of Pharaoh, and those who
were present with him. Many of the Fathers of the Chris-
tian Church are cited as abettors of this opinion f, and Jo-
sephus is said to favour its' : but certainly we have little
reason to admit it. As to the magicians imposing upon
Pharaoh by artifice and pretence, I cannot see how they
could possibly do it, without giving Moses and Aaron an
opportunity of detecting the cheat, and exposing them to
Pharaoh and his people. Elijah found it no great difficulty
to detect the false pretences of the priests of Baal, when
they pretended by prayer to bring fire from heaven, but
could not really obtain it'^. In the same manner Moses
would, without doubt, have brought the artifices of the
Egyptian magicians to a trial, which would have detected
the cheat, if the wonders, which they pretended to perform,
had been only pretended, and not really performed by them.
And as to their being able to exhibit appearances of ser-
pents, frogs, and blood, when no such things really were in
being, but only appeared to be, by the air being so directed
by the agency of beings which had power over it, as to
affect Pharaoh and his subjects in such a manner, as to
cause them to think they saw the magicians' rods turned
into serpents, frogs produced, and Avater converted into
blood, when none of these things were really done : to
this I answer, that to argue in this manner, is indeed to be
unwilling to allow the Egyptian magicians to be able to
c Exodus \i\. f See Pool's Synops. Crit. inloc.
d Ver. 22. S Joseph. Antiq. Jud. 1. ii. c. 13.
e Exodus viii. 7. h i Kings xviii.
538 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
perform a true miracle, and yet at the same time it supposes
them to have performed wonders, of which we can give as
little account as of a miracle. Let any one try to give a
satisfactory account how any magician could, by a power
over the air, either by himself, or by the assistance of a
daemon, represent to the naked view of the beholders, in
opposition to a true miracle, serpents, frogs, and water con-
verted into blood ; nay, and so represent them, as that the
fictitious appearances should not be distinguishable from the
real, but should bear to be seen with them at one and the
same time, in the same light, in the same view, (for so the
rods of the magicians turned into serpents certainly were,
when Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods';) I say, let any
one try to give a reasonable account of this fancy, and he
will quickly see, that he may more reasonably suppose the
magicians able to perform a true and real transmutation,
than to ascribe to them such imaginary powers as this sup-
position requires ; and which, if they could be conceived,
can tend only to destroy the certainty of all appearances
whatever. The account which Moses gave of the miracles
performed by himself and Aaron, and of what the magicians
performed by their enchantments, does not hint any dif-
ference as to the reality of the performances of either of
them ; and undoubtedly the rods of the magicians were
truly and really turned to serpents, as well as the rod of
Aaron, and were truly and really swallowed up by Aaron's
rod. The frogs which the magicians produced were true
real living frogs, as well as those produced by Moses ; and
the magicians certainly turned water into blood truly and
really as Moses himself did. There can be nothing ofiered
from the sacred history, to suppose the one appearances
more real than the other ; and if a believer of revelation
will argue the magicians' performances to be only phantasms,
or deceptions of the sight of the beholders ; why may not
an unbeliever with equal assurance argue all that Moses did
to be of the same sort? Nothing but the most extravagant
scepticism can be built upon so wild a supposition. But,
i Exodus vii. 12.
AND PROFANE HISTOKY. 539
III. If there were no secret arts, no occult sciences, by
the study of which the Egyptian magicians might think
themselves able to perform these wonders ; how could
Pharaoh imagine that his magicians could perform them,
or how could they themselves be so weak or so vain as to
attempt them ? I answer : We read of no miracles of this
sort ever performed in the world before this time. God
had discovered his will to mankind by revelation in all ages.
In the first and most early times by voices or dreams : from
Abraham's time the Lord appeared frequently to his ser-
vants. But no such wonders as were done in Egypt, in the
sight of Pharaoh, are recorded to have ever been performed
in the world before, so that they were a new thing, un-
doubtedly surprising to all that saw them. And accord-
ingly we find that Moses, when he saw the bush on fire,
and not consumed, was amazed, and turned aside to see this
great sight, why the hush teas not hurned^ : and when God
turned his rod into a serpent, Moses was terrified, and fied
from \\y. God had not as yet enabled any person to work
wonders as Moses and Aaron did in Egypt ; and therefore
Pharaoh, upon seeing these things performed, might well
inquire whether his magicians could do such things as
these ; and the magicians might without absurdity try
whether they could or no. God had before this time fre-
quently revealed himself to his servants by dreams, by
voices, by sending angels, or by appearing to them. And
the world in general was in these days full of belief of the
truth of such revelations, until, as human learning increased,
the conceit of science falsely so called seduced the learned
to think themselves able, by philosophy and speculation,
to delineate a religion of nature sufficient to render reve-
lation unnecessary and superfluous. The Egyptians began
early, and had proceeded far in this false way of thinking :
instead of one God, and one Lord, whom Abraham and his
descendants worshipped, they corrupted their faith very
near as early as Abraham's days"^ ; and admitted, that there
was indeed a supreme Deity presiding over the universe,
k Exodus iii. 3. l Exodus iv. 3. m See vol. i. b. v. vol. ii. b. vii.
540 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX,
(for this I think the heathens never really denied, though
the grossness of polytheism, which time introduced, greatly
obscured their knowledge of even this truth,) but they
imagined they had reason to think, that the planets and
elements were gods also°, and governed the world by their
influence, though subject to the fate", will, or direction of
the supreme God. And as to what was generally believed
of dreams, visions, and revelations, which had been made to
men, the learned in these times thought as freely about
them as our modern querists. The belief of them was of
service to the legislators, who knew how to make them a
state-engine to govern their people byP; but they thought
themselves wise enough to know, that they were occasioned
sine Deo, in a natural way, by the planetary and elementary
influences ; and that they were made a part of their reli-
gion only for the utility of their popu.lar influence i, and
for reasons of state, for the government of kingdoms ■■.
Hitherto the Egyptians had proceeded ; and had Moses
come to them, and could only have assured them that he
had received a command from God in a dream, or by a
vision, or by a voice, or any other revelation, neither Pha-
raoh nor his wise men would have regarded him at all, but
have concluded that some natural prodigy had happened ;
for such they would most probably have imagined the bush
on fire to be, and have supposed that Moses had made a
n Mundum — habere mentem, quae et SeicriSai/xovlas trphs rh crvfj-cpfpov wna-n-d-
se, et ipsum fabricatum sit, et omnia traj Ka\ ixeraarriaai rovs izoXKovs. Plut.
moderetur, moveat, regat : erit persua- L. de Socratis Genio, p. 580.
sum etiam solem, lunam, Stellas om- <l Non enim sumus ii nos augures,
nes, terram, mare Deos esse. Cic. qui avium, reliquorumve signorum
o Ti Ka>\iiaii rrjs rov Aths 'EIMAPME- observatione futura dicamus : — errabat
NHS vTTr\K6ovs iravras ilvai. Plut. L. enim multis in rebus antiquitas, quam
de Defect. Orac p. 426. ed. Xyl. Par. vel usu jam vel doctrina vel vetustate
1624. Fatum est non id quod super- immutatam videmus ; retinetur autem
stitiose sed quod physice dicitur causa et ad opinionem vulgi, et ad magnas
aeterna rerum. Cic. Deum Necessita- utilitates reipublicse mos, religio, dis»
tern appellant, quia nihil aliter possit cipluia, jus augurum, coUegii authoritas.
atque ab eo constitutum sit. Cicer. de Divinat. 1. ii. c. ^■^.
P 'Oviipara koX <pd(rfj.aTa, Koi toiovtov r Existimo jus augurum, etsi divina-
&\Kov oyKov Tvpo'Ccndfievoi. — h ttoMtikois tionis opinione principio constitutum
fiiy ai/Spdai, koj trphs auddSr] koI aK6\a- sit, tamen postea reipublicse causa con-
(TTov ox^ov i]vay Kaffixivois (yv, ovk &xP''I- servatum ac retentum. Cic. de Divinat.
arov Iffws iffrlv, Sxrnep iK x«^"'0" '''V^ l-ii-C. 35.
'and profane history. 541
political use of it ; and for this reason Pharaoh bade him shew
a miracle; knowing that if the Deity really sent him, he
could give this proof of it. Hereupon God enabled Moses
to work several very extraordinary signs and wonders, such
as had never been seen or heard of in the world before :
upon seeing which, Pharaoh very naturally consulted his
magi, and they tried all the mystical operations, and ex-
amined all the schemes, which their systems of science fur-
nished, to see whether these things could be done or ac-
counted for by any natural influences, or human learning;
and after several trials, acknowledged that they could not,
but that they were the effect of an omnipotent hand, the
finger of God^. But,
IV. If the Egyptian magicians had no mystical arts, by
the use of which they could really turn their rods into ser-
pents, produce frogs, and change water into blood ; how
came they to succeed in these attempts which they made in
opposition to Moses ? We have no reason to think that the
king knew the works which he employed his magicians to
try to perform, to be within the reach of any art they were
masters of, because he ordered them to try to perform them ;
rather, on the contrary, he ordered them to try to perform
them, that he might know whether art could effect them or
no, or whether they were indeed true miracles. Kings were
wont in all extraordinary cases, where any thing happened
which was thought ominous or surprising, to send for their
priests and learned professors, and to order them to answer
the difficulties that perplexed them. And though much
was pretended to, yet they had not yet advanced so far in
the true knowledge of nature, but that kings sometimes
thought they might require of their magi things impossible.
We have an instance of this in the Book of Daniel^ Nebu-
chadnezzar dreamed a dream, and forgot it ; and required
his magi not only to tell him the meaning of his dream,
but to find out what his dream was ; and though the Chal-
dseans answered him, that no man upon earth could do it, and
that no king, lord^ or ruler, had ever asked such a thing of any
s Exodus viii. 19. * Daniel ii.
542 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK TX.
magician, astrologer, or Chaldcean; yet the king was so reso-
lutely set upon compelling them to use their utmost endea-
vours, that he resolved and commanded to destroy all the magi,
or wise men of Babylon. In these cases the magi might
try all possible experiments, though they had no reason to
hope for success from them. 2. It does not appear from the
magicians here trying their experiments, and succeeding in
them, that they thought at first that their arts would be
effectual, and that they should be able to perform such
works as Moses and Aaron had done. The priests of Baal,
in the time of Elijah", had no reason to think that the
invocations of their god, or the cutting themselves with
knives and lancers, would produce the fire from heaven to
consume their sacrifice ; but yet they tried all the artifices
they could think of from morning until evening. So here
the Egyptians had no reason to think their incantations
would produce serpents ; but they would try all experi-
ments, in order to judge further of the matter ; and, upon
their attempting, God was pleased in some cases to give an
unexpected success to their endeavours, in order to serve
and carry on his own purposes and designs by it. For,
3. The success they had was certainly unexpected, as evi-
dently appears by their not being able to follow Moses in all
his miracles. They produced serpents and frogs, and con-
verted water into blood ; but when they attempted to produce
the lice, they could not do it. It is here evident that the
magicians did not know the extent of their powers, if they
can be conceived to have had any ; for they attempted to
equal Moses in all his performances ; but upon trial they
found they could do some, but in others, though not a whit
more difiicult, they could not obtain any success at all. Had
they had any effectual rules of art or science to work by,
they would at first, without trial, have known what to at-
tempt, and what not ; but, in truth, they had no arts to per-
form any thing of this sort. In some instances God was
pleased to give a success, which they little expected, to their
endeavours, and which they were so far from resting satisfied
u I Kings xviii.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 543
with, that they took the first opportunity that was given
them, when their attempts failed, to acknowledge that
Moses was certainly assisted by the divine power.
Moses and Aaron Avent the third time to Pharaoh, and
urged again the demand they had made for his dismissing
the Israelites ; and, as a further sign that God had really
sent them, upon Aaron's stretching out his hand, and
touching the waters of the river with his rod, all the waters
in the land of Egypt were turned into blood, and continued
so for seven days, so that the fish died, and the Egyptians
could get no water to drink ^ ; but Pharaoh, finding that his
magicians could turn water into blood, was not convinced
by this miracle, and so refused to part with the Israelites.
Some time after, Moses and Aaron came again to him, re-
quiring the dismission of the people, and withal assuring him,
that if he did not grant it, they should bring a great plague
of frogs upon all the land ; and in order hereto Moses di-
rected Aaron to stretch his rod again over the waters, upon
doing which there came up abundance of frogs, so as to cover
the land of Egypt, and to swarm in the houses, bedcham-
bers, upon the beds, in the ovens, and kneading-troughs of
the Egyptians y: but here it also happened that the magi-
cians also prodvTced frogs, so that Pharaoh was not much in-
fluenced by this miracle ='.
There were several other miracles wrought by Moses and
Aaron in Egypt after the same manner. The swarms of
X Exodus vii. 15 — 25. Pharaoh is But the Egyptians used these purifica-
here mentioned to go down in the tions twice every day, says Herodotus,
morning to the river. It is probable 5is ttis rififpas eKd<rTr]s, koI Sis e/cdcTTrjy
that the Egyptians accounted it a ne- vvkt6s. Lib. ii. c. 37. ChEeremon says,
cessary part of rehgion to purify them- thrice every day, [aTreXovovTo ^vxpv °-'^^
selves every morning, by washing in re Kohris, koI irph apia-Tov, Koi irphs v-kvov.
the river. Virgil represents ^Eneas as ap. Porpliyr. Trepl airox- 1- iv- §• 7-] when
thinking such a purification necessary, they came from bed in the morning,
before he might touch the Trojan sa- just before dinner, and at night when
era, having polluted himself in battle; they went to sleep. Moses was here
he says to his father Anchises, directed to go to Pharaoh in the morn-
ing, at his going out to the water; so
'^"' S°J' ''^^^ ^^"^ "''""' ^'''"''''*"^ that Pharaoh was here going to per-
Mefbello'e'tauto digressum, et Cffide recenti, form the morning purification.
Attrectare nefas, donee me flumine vivo ^ Exodus vm. 3 O.
Abluero. Virg. lEn. n.^il. ^ Ver. 7.
544 CONNECTION OF THE SACKED [bOOK IX.
O
lice"; the murrain upou the Egyptian cattle*^; the plague
of the flies ^ ; the boils inflicted upon not only the Egyptian
people, but upon the magicians also'l ; the terrible rain and
hail, and fire mingled with hail^ ; the plague of the locusts^ ;
and the darkness for three days S ; all these things being
caused at the word of Moses exceedingly perplexed the
king. He found that all the powers, art, and learning of
his magicians could not perform these miracles ; nay, upon
attempting one of them, they themselves confessed to him
that it was done by the finger of God^; and in the plague
of the boils the magicians themselves were afflicted \ and
could not stand before Moses, because of the hoil ; for the boil
was upon the magicians, and all the Egyptians. The king's
heart was several times almost overcome : he offered the
Israelites leave to sacrifice to the Lord their God, provided
they would do it in Egypt^ : but to this Moses answered,
that their religion was so different from the Egyptian, that
were they to perform the offices of it in Egypt, the people
would be so offended, as to rise against them and stone themi.
Afterwards Pharaoh would have permitted them to go out
of Egypt, provided the adult persons only would go, and
that thev would leave their children behind them as
pledges of their return"^: but upon Moses insisting to have
the people go loith their young and with their old, with
their sons and loith their daughters, with their flochs and with
their herds, Pharaoh was incensed against him, and having
severely threatened him, ordered him to be turned out of
his presence". Afterwards, Pharaoh was willing that all the
people should go, only that they should let their flocks and
their herds be stayed" ; very probably knowing that they
could not go far without sustenance, and that if they left all
their flocks and their herds, they must soon return again ;
for what nation would receive or maintain with their own
a Exodus viii. i6. h Exodus viii. 19.
^ Exodus ix. 3, 7. i Exodus ix. 11.
c Exodus viii. 21. ^ Exodus viii. 25.
d Exodus ix. 9 — 12. 1 Ver. 26.
e Ver. 18. in Exodus x. 1 1.
f Exodus X. 4. 1 Ibid.
g: Ver. 21. o Ver. 24.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 545
product and provisions so numerous a people ? or how or
where coukl they subsist, if their flocks and herds were left
behind them ? So that the leave of departing, which Pha-
raoh ofl^ered, would soon have been of no service ; and there-
fore Moses rejected it, and required that their cattle also
should go with them, and not ati hoof he left hehind'^: but upon
Moses's requiring this, Pharaoh grew exceeding angry, and
charged him to get him away, and never attempt to see him
more ; for that if he did, he would certainly put him to
death •).
Thus was this unhappy prince, by the obstinacy of his
heart, carried on, through many great misfortunes to himself
and people, at length to his ruin. He had all along suffi-
cient means of conviction. When his magicians' rods were
turned into serpents, and Aaron's rod swallowed up their
rods, how would a circumstance, far less remarkable and
extraordinary, have moved him, if what Moses required had
not been disagreeable to him ! In several of the plagues,
that were inflicted upon him and his people, Pharaoh was
compelled to make application to Moses, to entreat the
Lord his God to remove the evil •■ ; and in others, the king
himself was nice and exact in inquiring, whether the
Israelites did suffer in them with his people or no ; and
found, upon examination, that God had distinguished the
Israelites from the Egyptians, and that they were not par-
takers in the remarkable calamities inflicted upon the land^.
I might add the particular confession of the magicians, that
Moses's works were the finger of God^; and observe how
the magicians themselves suffered in the plague of the
boils ; and how Moses was able, at any time or hour, to
obtain from God a removal of the plagues upon Pharaoh's
address for it. How could the king, if he attended at all
to these circumstances, not be entirely convinced by them ?
And yet I do not see that we have any reason to think that
he fully believed that Moses was really and truly sent from
P Exodus X. 25. s Exodus viii. 21. ix. 7, 26. andx. 23.
1 Ver. 28. t Exodus viii. 19.
r Exodus viii. 8, 29. ix. 28. and x. 1 7.
VOL. T. N n
546 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK 1X<
God to him upon the message which he had delivered.
There were many of the servants of Pharaoh that regarded
not the word of the Lord, but left their servants and cattle
in the field, when Moses had threatened the rain and fire
and hail to destroy them". Undoubtedly, after all that
had been done before this, these men did not believe that
any such storm would happen ; and after this, and after
the inflicting another plague, the Egyptians only thought
Moses to be a snare to them''; a snare which Pharaoh
seemed to think he might perhaps free his people from, if
he put him to death y. All the effect which Moses''s mi-
racles seem to have had was, not that the power of God was
at last revered or acknowledged by Pharaoh or his people,
but the man Moses teas very great in the land of Egtjjit, in the
sight of Pharaoh's servants, and ifi the sight of the people^:
they admired the man as far superior to their own magi-
cians ; but what he had done had no true influence for the
end for which it was intended. For we may reasonably
suppose, that when Pharaoh and his army pursued the Israel-
ites to the E,ed sea, though they were terribly struck at first
at the death of their firstborn, and therefore had dismissed
them ; yet, when they came to consider more at leisure what
they had done, it is probable they believed at last that they
had been imposed upon more by the art of Moses than any
true and real power of God exerted for the deliverance of
his people ; and for that reason they went after them to re-
take them, or to revenge themselves upon them. I am sen-
sible it may be asked, how could men of common sense and
understanding be so wonderfully absurd ? But I answer ;
sense and understanding are not the only requisites to make
men judge rightly of even clear and very evident truths.
The inspired writer most justly advises, to take heed of an evil
heart of unbelief^: Out of the heart are the issues of life^.
Our passions and affections have a very powerful influence
over us ; and where they are not carefully managed and
11 Exodus ix. 21. z Exodus xi. 3.
X Exodus X. 7. a Hebrews iii. 12.
y Ver. 28. b Proverbs iv. 23.
And profane history. 54t
governed, it is amazing to see how the slightest evasions will
pass for most weighty and conclusive arguments ; and how
the brightest and most apparent evidences of truths will be
thought to be of little moment even to persons of the
greatest sense and sagacity in other matters where their in-
terest or their humours do not contradict the truths Avhich
are offered to them. Pharaoh's fault was in his heart ; and
that made him unfortunate in the use of his understanding.
The Israelites were numerous and serviceable slaves, and it
was a terrible shock and diminution to his wealth and gran^
deur to dismiss them ; and not being able to reconcile his
inclinations to the thoughts of parting with them, the
vague and ill-grounded learning of the times he lived in
was thought to afford arguments sufficient to take off the
force of all the miracles that were offered to induce him to
it. It is no very hard matter to judge of truth, if we
are but sincerely disposed to embrace it ; If any man loill do
God's will, he will knoio of the doctrine, whether it be of God",
A common capacity, and an ordinary share of understand'
ing, will afford light enough, if evil passions do not make
the light that is in us to become darkness : but if our heart is
not duly disposed to embrace the truth, neither may we he
persuaded, by the greatest arguments and demonstrations
that can be offered for it, even though we have uncommon
abilities to judge of and understand the force of what is
represented to us.
Some writers have imagined, that the incompliance of
Pharaoh was an effect of temper produced in him by God
himself. They endeavour to support their opinion by the
many expressions of Moses, that God hardened Pharaoh's
hearf^ ; and by St. Paul's seeming to represent, from what is
recorded by Moses, that God raised up Pharaoh on purpose
to make him a terrible example of his power and vengeance
to the whole world e. But, i. God is said in Scripture to do
many things, which are permitted by him to come to pass
in the ordinary and common course of things; according to
c John vii. 17.
d Exodus iv. 21. vii. 3. ix. 12. x. i, 20, 27. xi. 10, &c. e Rom. ix. 17.
N n 2
548 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
which manner of expression God may be said to harden Pha^
raoJi's hearty only because he did not interpose^ but suffered
him to be carried on by the bent of his own passions to that
inflexible obstinacy which proved his ruin. And in this
sense, perhaps, we may interpret the words of St. Paul f,
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and
whom he will he hardeneth. God had not so much mercy upon
Pharaoh as to prevent his being hardened, and therefore in
this sense is said to have hardened him. 2. It is plain that
Moses, unto whom God used these expressions about Pha-
raoh, understood them in this sense, from many parts of his
behaviour to him ; and especially from his earnestly entreat-
ing him to be persuaded, and to let the people go. If Moses
had known or thought that God had doomed Pharaoh to
unavoidable ruin, what room or opportunity could there be
for to endeavour to persuade him to avoid it ? But that
Moses attempted, with all possible application, to make an
impression upon Pharaoh for his good, is very evident from
the following passage, which if rightly translated would be
very clear and expressive. And Moses said unto Pharaoh,
Glory over me, when shall I entreat for thee and for thy ser-
vants— ^f The translating the Hebrew words hithimar gnalai,
glory over me, makes the sense of the place very obscure ;
the true rendering the words would be, Do me glory or ho-
nour, i. e. believe me, which will be to my honour in the
sight of the people ; and the whole of what passed between
Pharaoh and Moses at this time, if rightly translated, is to
this purpose : " Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron,
" and said, Entreat the LORD, that he may take away the
" frogs from me — , and I will let the people go, that they may
" do sacrifice unto the LOPD. And Moses said. Do me the
" honour to believe me, when I shall entreat for thee, and
" for thy servants. — And Pharaoh said, To-morrow I will.
" And Moses said. Be it according to thy word*"." Moses
here made a very earnest address to Pharaoh, to induce him
to be persuaded to part with the people ; which he certainly
would not have done, if he had thought that Pharaoh could
f Rom. ix. 18. s Exodus viii. 9. li Ver. 8, 9, lo.
I
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 549
no ways avoid not being persuaded, but that God himself
prevented his compliance, on purpose to bring him to ruin.
But I might observe, that Moses frequently expresses it, that
Pharaoh hardened his own heart', and not that God hard-
ened it; so that the two expressions, God hardened Pha-
raoh's heart, and Pharaoh hardened his own heart, are syno-
nymous, and mean the one no more than the other ; unless
perhaps it may be said, that as it is agreeable to the Hebrew
idiom to call very high hills, the hills of God^, or very flou-
rishing trees, the trees of the Lord^; so, in the same manner of
speaking, it might be said, that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's
heart, to express, that it was exceedingly and beyond mea-
sure obdurate. 3. The expression cited by St. Paul from
Moses, For this cause have /raised thee up, that I might sheio
my power in thee, does not support the sense which these
expositors would put upon it. The Hebrew word hegne-
madtika, does not signify, / have raised thee up, or brought
thee into being, but, / have made thee to stand or continue.
The LXX. translate the place very justly, eveKev tovtov Stcrr;-
prjO-qr for this cause thou hast been preserved^^^ ; for the words of
Moses were not designed to express to Pharaoh, that he was
born or created on purpose to be brought to ruin ; but the
reason for saying the words, and the true meaning of them,
is this : Moses had wrought several miracles before Pha-
raoh, but they had had no effect upon him. Hereupon
Moses delivered to him a severer message, threatening, that
God would send all his plagues upon his heart, and upon his
servants, and upon his people, to smite him with pestilence,
and to cut him off" from the earth ', and indeed (continues
he, speaking still in the name of God) for this cause have I
preserved thee hitherto, to shew in thee my power ; i. e. I
had cut thee off" sooner for thy obstinacy, but that I intended
to make my power over thee more conspicuous : so that the
words only signify, that Pharaoh was hitherto preserved by
i Exod. vii. 13, 22. viii. 15, 19, 32. true meaning of this place better than
and ix. 7, 34. our English translation. Onkelos ren-
k Psalm Ixviii. 15. ders it, Verutn jjropter hoc siistinui te.
• Psalm civ. 16. The Arabic expresses it, Propter rem
m Most of the versions express the hanc te reservavi.
550 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
the forbearance of God, to be a more remarkable example ;
iiot that he was born to be brought to ruin.
Moses, by command from God, went once more to Pharaoh.
The king had charged him never to see his face more, upon
pain of death"; and Moses had purposed to have so much
regard to his own safety, as never to attempt it"; but upon
God's specially commanding him to go, he was not afraid;
knowing, that he that sent him could abundantly protect
him. Moses now delivered to Pharaoh the severest message
he had ever brought himP ; and represented to him, that at
midnight God would strike dead the first-born of every
family throughout all the land of Egypt; and that there
should hereupon be such a dread and terror upon all the
Egyptians, that they should come to him in the most sub-
missive manner, and beg of him to lead the people out of
the land : and after that, said he, I shall go. Pharaoh was
in a great rage at Moses speaking thus to him; but Moses
not desiring to stay only to incense and provoke him, turned
away and left him.
It is surprising, that not only our EngHsh, but all the
versions, represent Moses to be the person here said to be in
a great anger. The Vulgar Latin is very faulty ; we there
find the place rendered, Exivit a Pharaone iratus nimis; " He
" went out from Pharaoh too much angry q." All the other
versions represent him as exceedingly incensed against the
king ; but how can we suppose this of Moses, who was venj
meek, above all the men wJdch were ujmn the face of the
earth. Besides that, it is hard to imagine he should carry
himself so void of that regard and respect, which he could
n Exod. X. 28. delectarunt literce illius. Cic. His let.
o Ver. 29. ters delighted me not very much. I
P This message was delivered to should translate it, not over much. Fun-
Pharaoh, after the Israelites had dam, tibi nunc nimis vellem dari. Ter.
made preparations for eating the Pass- / wotdd very fain that you had a sling.
over, some time in the day before I think it might be translated, / am,
they left Egypt. over-earnest in wishing you a sling, i. e.
q The Critics imagine the Latin more earnest than J need to be. For it
word nimis to be synonymous to valde, was the flatterer's excess of care that
and to signiiy very much or exceed- wished the soldier this instrument;
ingly: but I should think, that, where and by the word nimis, he seems
it seems to be thus used, it always im- nicely to hint that his valour did not
plies some excess: thus; Non nimis me need it. See Eunuch, act iv. scene 7,
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 551
not but think it his duty to pay, in his behaviour to the
king of Egypt in his own kingdom. Some of the com-
mentators insinuate, that Moses was thus exceeding angry,
and incensed against Pharaoh, because he was made a god
unto Pharaoh'^. But how absurd must it be to imagine,
that Moses should receive any character from the Deity,
that would justify him in rudeness and misbehaviour to a
ruler of a kingdom? Certainly it was not Moses here, but
Pharaoh who was in the passion. Moses undoubtedly de-
livered his message with all the weight and authority which
the divine commission he had received required ; and yet at
the same time behaved himself with all the regard and re-
spect that was due unto the king ; and when he had deli-
vered what he had to say, letzea menini Pharaoh hechari aph:
the words hechari aph, in aftiry of anger ^ belong to Pharaoh,
and not to Moses ; and the place ought to be translated, he
ivent out from Pharaoh who was in a furious atiger.
God had before this instructed Moses and Aaron to direct
the people to prepare the Passover s, the getting all things
ready for which took up near four days ; for they were
to begin on the tenth day of the month Abib', and
to kill the lamb on the fourteenth day in the evening'^;
and accordingly on the fourteenth of Abib in the night^
the Israelites eat the first Passover, and at midnight they
heard a great cry and confusion amongst the Egyptians ;
for Pharaoh and his princes, and his people found that
there was one person dead, and that the first-born, without
any exception or difference in any one family, in every
house of the Egyptians. They came immediately to Moses
and Aaron in a great fright and terror, and desired them to
get the people together, and to take their flocks and their
r Exodus vii. i . but these directions were given before
s The first verse of chap. xii. does the tenth day; for on that day they
not imply that the Lord spake to began to prepare for the Passover. So
Moses about the Passover after he that the former part of this chapter is
came from Pharaoh, for these direc- an account of some particulars that
tions vpere given before he went; for had passed, but were not related his-
he went to Pharaoh the day on which torically in their place,
he told him, that at midnight God * Exodus xii. 3.
would slay the first-born, namely, on " Vcr. 6.
the fourteenth of the month Abib : x Ver. 7.
552 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
herds, and all that belonged to them, and be gone ; and the
Egyptians loere urgent upon the people, that they might setid
them out of the land in haste, for they said. We be all dead
mcnY. Hereupon Moses took the bones of Joseph, which
his brethren had sworn to him should be carried with them
out of Egypt : and the Israelites began to journey in the
morning, and 07i the morroio, after the Passover, on the
fifteenth day of the month, they travelled from Eameses to
Succoth^, about ten or twelve miles. Here they made a
stop, reviewed their company, and found that they were six
hundred thousand besides children =^. In this manner the
Israelites were brought out of Egypt ; a transaction so won-
derful and extraordinary, that the heathen historians could
not avoid taking some notice of it. Justin, the epitomizer of
Trogus Pompeius, gives us hints of it in his account of the
history of the Jewish nation*^. He tells us, that some time
after the birth of Moses, " the Egyptians had the leprosy
" amongst them ; that upon consulting their oracle for
" a cure, they were directed to send away all the infected
" persons out of the land, under the conduct of Moses.
" Moses undertook the command of them, and at his leav-
" ing Egypt stole away the Egyptian sacra. The Egyp-
" tians pursued them in order to recover their sacra, but
" were compelled by storms to return home again. Moses
" in seven days passed the desert of Arabia, and brought the
" people to Sinai." This account is indeed short, imperfect,
and full of mistakes ; but so are the heathen accounts of
the Jews and their affairs. If the reader peruses the whole
of what Justin says of the Jews, he Avill see that his account
of them is all of a piece, and that he had made no true in-
quiry into their history : however, after all the mistakes,
which either the misrepresentation of the Egyptian writers
might cause, or the carelessness and want of examination of
other historians occasion, thus, much we may conclude from
Justin to be on all hands agreed ; that the Jews were sent
out of Egypt under the conduct of Moses, that the Egyp-
y Exodus xii. 33. n Exodus xii. 37.
z Numbers xxxiii. 3. 1> Justin. Hist. lib. xxxvi. caj). 2.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 553
tians might get free from plagues inflicted upon them by
the divine hand; and that, after they were dismissed, the
Egyptians pursued them, but were disappointed in their
pursuit, not by force of arms, but by obstructions from Pro-
vidence, in the direction of storms and weather to defeat
them. Justin hints so many points, that are so near the
truth, in the several parts of the Jewish history, that I ima-
gine, if due pains had been taken to examine, he would
have given a truer account of this, and all the other par-
ticulars which he has hinted about them and their affairs.
Justin relates, that the Jews at their departure stole the
Egyptian sacra: we say, they borrowed of the Egyptians
jewels of silver, and jeivels of gold, and raiment '^. If they
borrowed them, we cannot say that they had any design of
returning them again ; and therefore the injustice may be
thought the same as if they stole them. Some modern
writers have taken the greatest liberty of ridiculing this
particular, and are pleased in thinking that it affords them
a considerable objection against the sacred Scriptures : for
they insinuate with more than ordinary assurance, that no
one can, consistently with plain and common honesty, which
all men know too well to be deceived in, suppose God Al-
mighty to direct or order the Israelites to borrow in this
manner. " The wit of the best poet is not sufficient to re-
" concile us to the retreat of a Moses by the assistance of
" an Egyptian loan," said lord Shaftesbury, amongst other
things, which he thought might bear hard against the
morality of the sacred history''. Some very judicious writers
have endeavoured to justify the Israelites borrowing of the
Egyptians : but I shall not offer any of their arguments,
because I cannot find, that the sacred text does in the least
hint that they borrowed, or attempted to borrow, any thing
of them. The Hebrew word, which our translators have
rendered borrow^ is shaal^, which does not signify to bor-
roiv, but to ask o?ie to give. It is the very word used
c Exodus xii. 35. e See both Exodus iii. 22. and xii.
fl Characteristics, vol. i. p. 358. ed. 35.
1711.
554< CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [uOOK IX.
Psalm ii. 8. [Sheal-ve Ettenah] Ask of me, and I ivill give
thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts
of the earth for thy possessio?i : and the fact was this ; God
had told Moses, that the Israelites should not go out of
Egypt empty, but that every woman should ask her neigh-
bour, and the person she lived with, to give her jewels and
raiment, and that he would dispose the Egyptians ,to give
themf; and thus, when they were leaving Egypt, the chil-
dren of Israel asked the Egyptians for jewels of stiver, and
jewels of gold, and raiment. And the Lord gave the people
favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they gave them
what they asked for so freely, as to impoverish themselves
by making presents to them. Josephus represents this fact
agreeably to the true sense of the sacred text. He says
that the Egyptians [8copots re rov'i 'ElSpaiovs hiixoiV ol jjiev virep
Tov Ta)(j.ov k^^KOelv ol 8e koI Kara y€iTviaK)]v irpbs avrovs crvvq-
Oetav] made the Hebrews considerable presents ; and that
some did so, in order to induce them to go the sooner away
from them ; others out of respect to, and upon account of, the
acquaintance they had had with themS.
The exit of the children of Israel out of Egypt was four
hundred and thirty years after Abraham's first coming into
Canaan : now Abraham came into Canaan A. M. 2083 ^, so
that counting four hundred and thirty years forward from
that year, we shall fix the exit A. M. 2513, and that is the
year in which it was accomplished. Our English translators
have rendered the 12th chapter of Exodus, v. 40. very justly ;
Noiv the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt,
was four hundred and thirty years. The interlinear transla-
tion of the Hebrew Bible, and the Vulgar Latin version, do
both misrepresent the true sense of the place, by rendering
it to this efifect ; Now the inhabiting of the children of Israel,
whereby they inhabited in Egypt, iverefour hundred and thirty
years. The children of Israel did not live in Egypt four
hundred and thirty years ; for they came into Egypt with
Jacob A. M. 2298', and they went out of Egypt A. M. 1513 ;
f Exodus iii. h See vol. i. b. v. p. 165.
K Joseph. Antiq. Jud. lib. ii. c. 14. i See vol. ii. bookvii. p. 383.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 555
60 that they lived in Egypt but two hundred and fifteen
years ; and therefore the sojourning of the children of
Israel must not be limited to their living in Egypt only,
but taken in a more general sense, and extended to the
time of their living in Canaan ; for the four hundred and
thirty years here mentioned begin from Abraham's first
coming into Canaan. The Samaritan text has the verse
thus ; Now the inhabiting of the children of Israel, and their
fathers^ tvherehy they inhabited in the land of Canaan^ and in
the land of Egypt, were four hundred and thirty years. The
most learned dean Prideaux observes, " that the additions
" herein do manifestly mend the text, and make it more
" clear and intelligible, and add nothing to the Hebrew
" copy but what must be understood by the reader to make
" out the sense thereof^ ;" and, therefore, why may we not
suppose that the ancient Hebrew text was in this verse the
same with the present Samaritan, and that the words,
which the Samaritan text now has in this place more than
the Hebrew, have been dropped by some transcribers ?
Josephus fixes the time of the Israelites' departure out of
Egypt very exactly. He says, it was four hundred and
thirty years after Abraham's coming into Canaan, and two
hundred and fifteen years after Jacob's coming into Egypt ^,
both which accounts suppose it A. M. 2513, the year above
mentioned. If the Pastors came into Egypt, A. M, 2420, as
I have supposed, then the exit of the Israelites will be nine-
ty-three years after the beginning of the reign of Salatis, who
was the first of the Pastor-kings ; and, according to sir
John Mai'sham's table of these kings, Apachnas was king of
Egypt at this time.
From the time that the children of Israel were arrived at
Succoth, to their getting over the Red sea into Midian, it
does not appear that Moses led them one step by his own
conduct or contrivance. They removed from Succoth to
Etham, a town near the border of the wilderness of Arabia ;
from thence they moved back into the mountainous parts of
k Prideaux, Connect, vol. ii. part i. 1 Joseph. Antiq. Jud. lib. ii. c. 15.
book vi. p. 602. Lond. 1725.
556 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
Egypt, on the west side of the Red sea, and encamped near
to Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. Accordmg to
Moses's narration of their movements, it was in no wise left
to his conduct where to lead the people. When Pharaoh
had let the people go, God led them not through the way of the
land of the Philistines, although that was near, lest they shoidd
repent when they saw war, and return to Egypt: hut God led
them about through the loay of the loilderness of the Red sea.
A?id the Lord xoent hefore them by day in a pillar of a cloud,
to lead them the way; and by niglit in a pillar of fire, to give
them light; to go by day and night. A?id the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn
and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea,
over against Baal-zephon: before it shall ye encamp by the
sea^. Our very learned countryman, sir Walter Raleigh, re-
presents the conduct of Moses in this march of the Israelites
as in some measure the effect of his own prudence and skill
in the art of war ; and he gives some reasons to shew how
Moses performed, in the several stations of this march, the
part of a very able commander. I cannot pretend to judge of
the reasons of war suggested by him ; but I should imagine,
that sir Walter Raleigh's great military skill might lead
him to draw an ingenious scheme here for Moses, where
we have no reason to think that Moses laid any scheme at
all. It is indeed probable, that reason might suggest to
Moses, that it could be in no wise proper to lead his people
directly through Philistia to Canaan. His people, though
very numerous, were a mixed multitude, not used to, and
altogether undisciplined for war ; and the Philistines were
a strong and valiant people, and could not well be thought
willing to suffer six hundred thousand persons to enter their
country. Discretion and prudence therefore might suggest
to him, that it would be more proper to lead them about
by the wilderness of Arabia, and to retire with them to
Midian, where he was sure he should be well received by
Jethro the ruler there, and there to form them for what un-
dertakings it might please God to design them ; and all this
m Exodus xiii. 17 — 22. xiv. i, 2.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 557
may be consistent with the Hebrew expression of God's
leading them, Avho is often said to do several things, by per-
mitting them to be done by the conduct of the persons
employed to do them. But though all this might reason-
ably be supposed, yet, as I said, the journeying of the
Israelites from Succoth to the E,ed sea was evidently con-
ducted by God's immediate direction. For, i. If Moses de-
signed to carry the people to Jethro's country, he had a
much nearer way from Etham, through the wilderness of
Sinai, than to lead the people into the mountainous and
rocky country, on the Egyptian borders of the E.ed sea, out
of which he could not expect to find any passage into
Midian, without coming back to Etham again. 2. As far
as I am able to judge, this had been a much safer, as well
as a much nearer way. When Pharaoh heard that the
people had taken this route, he immediately concluded that
he could easily destroy them ; for he said, they were en-
tangled in the land, shut up in the rocky and unpassable
parts of a wild and uncultivated country". I cannot possi-
bly see why Moses should lead them so much out of their
way, and into such a disadvantageous country, but upon the
view of the miraculous deliverance which God designed
them at the Ked sea. But, 3. It is evident, that from Suc-
coth to the Red sea the Israelites travelled under the especial
guidance of Heaven ; for the pillar of the cloud and of fire
which went before them, directed them where to go. Moses
had no room left him to choose the way, for the Lord went
before theva hy day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them in the
way ; and hy night in a pillar of fire, to give them light: to go
hy day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud
hy day, nor the pillar of fire hy night, from hefore the people^.
Moses had only to observe the guidance of this glorious and
miraculous direction, and to follow as that led him from
Succoth to Etham, to Pihahiroth between Migdol and Baal-
zephon, and to the sea.
After the Israelites were gone out of Egypt, Pharaoh
repented of his having given them leave to depart, especially
" Exodus xiv. 3. .0 Exodus xiii. 21, 22.
558 CONNECTION OF THE SACllED [bOOK IX.
upon its being remonstrated to him that the people were
fied^; that they were not gone a few days journey merely to
serve the Lord their God, but that they designed never to
return to him any more. The loss of so many slaves was
a very sensible diminution of his grandeur as well as wealth,
and the manner in which they were extorted from him, in-
glorious both to him and his kingdom ; and the hearing,
that Moses had led them into a part of the country where
he thought it would be easy to distress them, made him
resolve to follow them, and to try if possible to redress his
losses, or revenge himself upon them. He therefore imme-
diately summoned together his forces, and with a numerous
army pursued the Israelites q, and overtook them at their
encamping near the Red sea"". At the approach of Pha-
raoh, the Israelites were afraid ; they gave over their lives
for lost, and were ready to mutiny against Moses for bring-
ing them out of Egypt ^ : but Moses exhorted the people to
fear nothing, assuring them, that they should not be exposed
to the difficulty of a battle, but that they should see the sal-
vation of God: that God would give them a miraculous
deliverance, and destroy all the Egyptians that pursued
them*. It was night when Moses thus spake to them, and
soon after he had done speaking, the wonderful appearance
of the pillar of fire, and of the cloud, which went before
them to direct their journey, removed and placed itself be-
tween them and the Egyptians, with its shining or bright
side towards the Israelites, and with its dark or cloudy side
towards the Egyptians : so that the Israelites had light to
be moving forwards towards the sea, and the Egyptians,
not being able so well to see their way, could not follow so
fast as to get up with them". When the Israelites were
come to the sea, they made a stop for some hours. Moses
held up his hand over the sea, and God was pleased by a
P Exodus xiv. 5. c. 15.
q Josephus says, that Pharaoh's army, r Exodus xiv.
\vith which he pursued the Israelites, s Ver. 1 1 .
consisted of six hundred chariots, fifty t Ver. 13.
thousand horse, and two hundi-ed thou- u Ver. 1 9, 20.
sand foot soldiers. Antiq. Jud. lib. ii.
AND PBOFANE HISTORY. 559
mighty wind to divide the waters, and to make a space of
dry ground from one side of the sea to the other, for the
Israelites to pass over. Hereupon Moses and Aaron led
the way ^5 and the Israelites followed them into the midst
of the sea ; and the waters stood on heaps on each side of
them, and were as a wall to them on their right hand and
on their left, all the way they passed. The Egyptians came
on after them, and it being night, and they not having the
light of the pillar, which guided the Israelites, finding
themselves upon dry ground, all the way they pursued,
might perhaps not at all suspect that they were off the
shore ; for, I imagine, that if they had seen the miraculous
heaps of waters on each side the Israelites, they would not
so eagerly have ventured still to press after a people saved
by so great a miracle. When the Israelites were got safe
on the land over the sea, towards morning, the Lord looked
from the pillar of fire, and of the cloud, upon the Egyp-
tians, and troubled their host, and took off their chariot-
wheels, that they drave them heavilyY. The Egyptians began
to find their passage not so easy ; the waters began to come
upon them, and their chariot-wheels to sink and stick fast
in the muddy bottom of the sea, so that they could get no
further, and Moses at the command of God stretched forth
his hand over the sea. The Egyptians began now at day-
break to see where they were, and to fear their ruin ; they
turned back as fast as they could, and endeavoured to get
back to shore; but the waters came upon them in their
full strength, and overwhelmed them. And thus Pharaoh
and his whole army were lost in the Red sea.
X Some of the Hebrew writers re- and this fiction about the tribe of
present, that, when Moses had divided Judah has no better foundation than
the sea, the Jews were afi-aid to at- the numerous other fancies of these
tempt to go over it, but that the head writers, one of which, relating to this
of the tribe of Judah led the way, and passage over the Red sea, is wonder-
that, as a reward for the courage of fully extravagant. They say, that God,
this tribe in this attempt, they were in dividing the waters, made twelve
appointed to march foremost in all the different paths, that each tribe might
fixture journeyings of the Israelites : have a path to itself. But conceits of
but the Psalmist seems to hint that this sort want no refutation.
Moses and Aaron went before the 7 Exodus xiv. 25.
Israelites into the sea. Psalm Ixxvii.
560 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
Some writers have imagined that there might be no real
miracle in this passage of the Israelites over the E,ed sea.
Moses vi^as a great master of all science and learning, and
had lived in Midian, a country near the borders of this sea,
forty years. He had had time and abilities, whilst he kept
the flocks of Jethro in this country, to observe with great
accuracy the ebb and flow of it. The Red sea at its northern
end divides itself into two branches, one of which, namely,
that over which Moses led the Israelites, from Toro, where
the two arms divide, up to the shore upon the wilderness of
Etham, is about thirty leagues or ninety miles in length : at
Toro this sea is about three leagues or nine miles over, and
it continues of much about the same breadth for twenty-six
leagues or seventy-eight miles upwards ; from thence for
about two leagues it is three miles over, and so it continues
up to the land's end for about six miles, three or four miles
over all the way. The adjacent places, Migdol, Pihahiroth,
and Baal-zephon, direct us whereabouts the Israelites passed
over this sea, namely, over this narrow arm, and not above
six miles from the land's end ; and it may be said, that the
flux and reflux of the sea may perhaps cover, and leave dry
every tide, a tract of land, from the place where Moses
passed over the Israelites, up to the wilderness of Etham, as
the ebb and flow of the sea does all the wash on the borders
of Lincolnshire in our country ; and if so, Moses might
easily, by his knowledge of the tides, contrive to lead the
people round about amongst the mountains, so as to bring
them to the sea, and pass them over at low water; and the
Egyptians, who pursuing them came later, might at first enter
the wash safely as they did, but at midway they might find
the waters in their flow loosening the sands, and preventing
their going further. Hereupon they turned back, but it was
too late; for the flood came to its height before they could
reach the shore. Artapanus in Eusebius^ informs us, that the
inhabitants of Memphis related this transaction in this man-
z Euseb. Prsep. Evang. 1. ix. c. 27. X'^P"'^ '''^'^ ^M^'^t'" rr]p-f](TavTa Sia ^ripas
Artapanus's words are, Mffx(piTas /xiv ttjs Qa\d.a(n\s rh trArjdos irepatwffai.
\4yeiv, ff/.ireipoi' ovTa rhv MwiJcrov rrjs
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 561
tier. And it may perhaps be thought that Josephus favoured
this account, and therefore compared the passage of the
Israelites over the Red sea to Alexander's over the sea of
Pamphylia^. I have given this cavil all the weight and
strength it can be capable of; let us now see how it may be
refuted. And I would observe,
I. That the passage of Alexander the Great over the sea
of Pamphylia bears no manner of resemblance to this of
the Israelites over the Red sea. Alexander was to march
from Phaselis, a seaport, to Perga, an inland city of Pam-
phylia. The country near Phaselis, upon the shore of the
Pamphylian sea, was mountainous and rocky, and he could
not find a passage for his army without taking a great com-
pass round the mountains, or attempting to go over the
strand between the rocks and the sea. Arrian observes,
that there was no passing here, unless when the wind blew
from the north c. A wind from this quarter was so di-
rected as to keep back the tide from flowing so far up the
shore as the southern winds would drive it; and therefore
Alexander, perceiving just at this juncture that there was a
violent north wind, laid hold of the opportunity, and sent
some of his army over the mountains, but went himself
with the rest of his forces along the shore. It is evident
that there was no miracle, unless we call the wind's blow-
ing opportunely for Alexander's purpose a miracle ; and
Plutarch justly remarks, that Alexander himself thought
there was nothing extraordinary in this his passage ^ ; and it
was certainly very injudicious in Josephus to seem to com-
pare this passage to that of the Israelites, when they are not
in any one respect like to one another. The Israelites crossed
over a sea, where no historian ever mentions any persons but
they to have ever found a passage. Alexander only marched
upon the shore of the sea of Pamphylia, where the histo-
rians, who most magnified the providence that protected
him, do allow, that any one may go at any time when the
same wind blows which favoured him. It does not appear
from any historian that the Red sea ebbs backward as far as
b Joseph. Antiq. 1. ii. c. i6. d Plut. in AlexancL p. 674. ed. XyL
c Arrian. de Exped. Alex. lib. i. Par. 1624.
VOL, I. 00
56^ CONNECTION' OF THE SACRED [bOOK IX.
where the Israelites passed over, so as to leave a large tract
of sand dry in the recess of every tide, six or seven miles in
length, and three or four miles over. No one but the Israel-
ites ever travelled over dry land in this place, and therefore,
undoubtedly, here is no dry land, unless when God by an
extraordinary miracle was pleased to make it so.
But, II. if the passage of Moses and the Israelites over
the Red sea was upon a recess of the tide, then all the par-
ticulars in Moses's account of this affair are false, i. There
needed no cloud and pillar of fire to direct the journey of
the Israelites to the Ked sea ; for they were, upon this sup-
position, conducted thither by the contrivance of Moses,
who thought that, by his skill in the flux and reflux of the
sea, he could better escape from Pharaoh there than in any
other place. 2. Moses represents that the waters were divided,
and stood on heaps on both sides of the Israelites, and were
a wall to them oti their right hand and on their left : but this
could not be true, if here was only an ebb or reflux of the
tide. For if the tide was driven back by the strongest wind,
the waters could stand on heaps on one side only, namely, to
sea ; the land side would be entirely drained, the water being
driven by the wind down the channel. 3. Moses represents
that God caused a strong east wind to blow, in order to divide
the waters ; and this indeed is a proper wind to have, by
God Almighty's direction, such an effect as he ascribes to it:
but if a reflux of the tide had been the only thing here caused,
an east wind had not been proper to cause it. The Red sea
runs up from the ocean towards the north-west, and therefore
a north or north-west wind would have had the only proper
direction to have driven back the tide, if that had been
what was done in this matter. An east wind blows cross this
sea, and the effect of it must be, to drive the waters partly up
to the land's end, and partly down to the ocean, so as to di-
vide the waters, as Moses relates, and not to cause a great
ebb of tide ; and the blowing of such a wind as this, with a
force sufficient to cause so extraordinary an effect for the
opening the Israelites so unexpected and unheard of a passage
through the midst of a sea, must be looked upon as a mira-
culous interposition of God's power for their preservation.
AND PROFANE HISTORY.
563
III. As to what Artapanus suggests, that the Egyptians
who lived at Memphis related that Moses^ conducted the
Israelites over the Red sea by his skill in the tides, there is
no regard due to this fiction, especially if we consider that
the wise and learned part of the Egyptians rejected it. For
the same author testifies ^, that the priest of Heliopolis re-
lated the affair quite otherwise. Their account agrees with
that of Moses. The Heliopolitans were always esteemed to
be the wisest and most learned of all the Egyptians f; and if
Moses's authority, or the faithfulness of his narration, could
be questioned, this agreement of the Heliopolitans with him
would be of far more weight, with all reasonable inquirers,
to confirm his account, than what is suggested from the
Memphites can be of to impair the credit of it.
We have brought the Israelites out of Egypt over the
Red sea into the wilderness, the period which I designed
for this volume. The reader cannot but observe from the
whole of it, that, from the creation to this time, God had
been pleased in sundry manners to reveal himself to mankind,
in order to plant his true religion in the world ; and yet, not-
withstanding all that had been done, this religion was at
this time well nigh perished from off the face of the earth.
Every nation under heaven, that were of eminence or figure,
were lost to all sense of the true God, and were far gone into
the errors of idolatry. The Apostle seems to hint that the
defection was caused by their not liking to retain God in their
e Euseb. Prsep. Evang. ubi sup. The rovs Se Pdyv-KTiovs v-n-6 re tov irvphs, koI
words are ; 'HXiovwoXlTas 5e Aeyetv, eVi- rrjs irXrififxvpiBos irivras SLa<p6ap7Jvai.
KaraSpafie'iy rhv ISacriXea juera iroWrjs This account of the Memphites is re-
Svvdfi^ais, afj.a. Kal rois KaSiepuifi^vots ^w- markably agreeable toMoses's. It indeed
ois,'5iarhT^v virapi^iv Tohs^lov^aiovs raiv hints that there were some lightnings,
Ajyu-TTTicoj' xpTJCaMf oi's Sm/co/ui'^eji/ Tw 5e which Moses has not expressly men-
y\.wxi(T(fideiav<poi}VT]vyiviff6ai,-KaTd^aiT^v tioned ; but perhaps it may be con-
BaKaaaau ttj pa/35y rhv Si MwiJaov a- jectured from Psalm Ixxvii. 1 6 — 20,
KovcravTo., iiridiyeiv t^ pd^Scii tov vSaros, that there were lightnings contributing
Kal ovTOD rh /xev vajjca SiaorrTJvai, Trjv 5e to the overthrow of the Egyptians in
Siivajj-tv (some word, perhaps irapaa-xv- the Red sea, and very probably there
(Tat, seems here to be omitted in the text) were anciently many true relations of
Sia ^rjpas 68ovTropevi(r9af a-wefxBdi'Tcoi/Sh tliis fact, besides that of Moses, from
rail' Alyvn-TLcov Kal SiqokSvtuu, (pT)(rl irvp some of which tlie Memphites might
aiiTois iK ruiv ifxirpocrOfv fKAdfj.\pai, rr}v deduce their narration.
5e BaKarrcav ird\iv ttjv oShv iwiKXvffaf f Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 3.
o o 2
564 CONNECTION OF THE SACRED [boOK IX.
knowledge^. But why should men not like to retain the
knowledge of God? I can think of no sufficient answer to
this question, suitable to the circumstances of these ages,
unless I may offer what follows. God had given exceeding
great promises to Abraham and his posterity ; that he would
make of him a great nation ; make his name great^ and that in
him, or in his seed, all the families of the earth should be
blessed^; that he would give him northivard and southward,
eastward and westward, all the land, which he then saw in
the length and in the breadth of it, from the river Euphrates
unto the river of Egypi^ ; that he would make him a father of
many nations; that he would raise nations from him, and that
kings shozdd come out of him^. God protected him, wherever
he lived, in so signal a manner, that, whenever he was in
danger of suffering injury, his adversaries were prevented
from hurtinar him'. His son Ishmael was to be made a na-
tion, because he was his seed"'; nay, twelve princes were to
descend from him", and the seed of Abraham was to possess
the gate of his enemies ". Most of these promises were re-
peated to Isaac P, and afterwards to Jacobs ; and the re-
markable favours designed this family were not bestowed
upon them in private, so as to be little known to the world :
but, when they were but a few, even a few, and strangers in
the land where they sojourned, they went from nation to na-
tion, and from one kingdom to another people, and God suffered
no man to do them wrong, hut reproved even kings for their
sakes"^. The name of Abraham was eminently famous in
most nations of the then inhabited world ; and I cannot but
think it probable that the kings of many countries might
greatly mistake the design of God to him and his descendants,
as the Jews themselves afterwards did, when they came to
have a nearer expectation of their Messiah, and imagined
that he was to be a mighty temporal prince, to subdue all
g Rom. i. ^8. n Gen. xvii. 20.
h Gen. xii. 3. o Ch. xxii. 17.
i Ch. xiii. 14 — 17. xv. 18. P Ch. xxvi. 4. and 24.
If Ch. xvii. 4—6. 1 Ch. xxviii. 13 — 15.
1 Ch. XX. 3. •■ Psalm cv. 12 — 14.
»n Ch. xxi. 13.
AND PROFANE HISTORY. 565
their enemies. In this manner the early kings might misin-
terpret the promises to Abraham, and think that in time his
descendants were to cover the face of the earth, and to be
the governors of all nations. I cannot say whether the Hit-
tites might not in some measure be of this opinion, when
they styled Abraham Nesi Elohim^, Bao-tAevy irapa 0eoC, say
the LXX, i.e. a prince from or appointed by God; and per-
haps Abimelech might apprehend that Abraham's posterity
would in time become the possessors of his country ; and,
being willing to put off the evil for at least three generations,
he made a league with him, and obtained a promise that he
would not afflict his people during his time, nor in the days
of his son, or his son's son^ Thus the promises and the
prophecies to Abraham and his children might be thought
to run contrary to the views and interests of the kings and
heads of nations ; and they might therefore think it good
policy to divert their people from attending too much to
them : and for this end, they being in their kingdoms the
chief directors in religion, they might, upon the foundation
of literature and human science, form such schemes of au-
gury, astrology, vaticination, omens, prodigies, and en-
chantments, as the magicians of Egypt became famous for,
in order to make religion more subservient to their interests.
And in these they proceeded from one step to another, in
what they undoubtedly thought to be the result of rational
inquiry ; until, in Moses's time, the rulers of the Egyptian
nation, who were then the most learned body in the world,
beguiled by the deceit of vain philosophy, and too politically
engaged to attend duly to any arguments that might con-
vince them of their errors, were arrived at so intrepid an in-
fidelity, that the greatest miracles had no effect upon them.
I am sensible that these points have been set in a different
light by some writers, but perhaps there may be reason to
re-examine them. The Pagan divinations, arts of prophecy,
and all their sorceries and enchantments, as well as their
idolatry and worship of false gods, were founded, not upon
superstition, but upon learning and philosophical study ; not
s Gen. xxiii. 6. t C'h. xxi. 23.
566 CONNECTION OF SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY.
upon too great a belief of, and adherence to, revelation,
but upon a pretended knowledge of the powers of nature.
Their great and learned men erred in these points, not for
want of freethinking, such as they called so ; but their
opinions upon these subjects were in direct opposition to the
true revelations which had been made to the world, and
might be called the deism of these ages ; for such certainly
was the religion of the governing and learned part of the
heathen world in these times. The unlearned populace
indeed in all kingdoms adhered, as they thought, to reve-
lation ; but they were imposed upon, and received the po-
litical institutions of their rulers, invented by the assistance
of art and learning, instead of the dictates of true revelation.
In this manner I could account for the beginning of the
heathen idolatries in many nations. They took their first
rise from the governors of kingdoms having too great a de-
pendence upon human learning, and entertaining a conceit,
that what they thought to be the religion which nature
dictated, would free them from some imaginary subjections,
which they apprehended revealed religion to be calculated
to bring them under. Length of time, advance of science
falsely so called, and political views, had carried on these
errors to a great height, when God was pleased in a most
miraculous manner to deliver his people from the Egyptian
bondage ; to re-establish true religion amongst them, and to
put the priesthood into different hands from those which
had hitherto been appointed to exercise the offices of it. But
the pursuing these subjects must belong to the subsequent
parts of this undertaking.
END OF VOL. I.
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