¦iWTt^m; YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. BY THE RIGHT KEVEEESD WILLIAM WARBURTON, D.D., LOUD BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER. TO WHICH IS FREFIKED, ¦ A DISCOURSE BY WAY OF GENERAL PREFACE : containing some account op the life, writings, and character of THE author. BY RICHARD KURD, D.D., LORD BISHOP OF WORCESTER. THE TENTH EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE. MDCCCXLVI. LONDON : PRINTED BY. JAMES NICHOLS, HOXTON-SQUABE. CONTENTS. BOOK III. CONTINUED. SECTION Page. VI. — The atheistical pretence of religion's being an invention of statesmen, and therefore false, clearly confuted, and shewn to be both impertinent and false. For that, vfas the Atheist's account of religion right, it would not foUow that religion was false, but the contrary — But the pretence false and groimdless, religion having existed before the civil magistrate was in being 1 Appendix, showing that the omission of a future state in the Mosaic dispensation doth not make it unworthy of the original to which believers ascribe it 50 Notes to the Third Book 67 Dedication of Books iv. v. vi. to Lord Mansfield, 1765 84 Dedication to the Jews, 1740 93 Preface to Books iv. v. vi. 1740.., 104 Preface to the Edition of 1758 109 BOOK IV. Proves the high antiquity of the arts and empire of Egypt ; and that such high antiquity illustrates and CONFIRMS THE TRUTH OF THE Mosaic History 135 SECTION • I. — Introduction, shewing that the universal Pretence to Revelation, proves the Truth of some, and particularly of the Jewish 137 11. — Enters on the third Proposition — Some general reflections on the liigh anti quity of Egypt ; and of the equal extravagance of both parties in their attempts to advance or depress that antiquity 144 111. — The high antiquity of Egypt proved tiom Scripture — And from the ancient Greek historians, supported and confirmed by Scripture — In the course of this inquiry the rise and progress of the art of medicine is treated of and explained 149 IV. — The high antiquity of Egypt proved from their Hieroglyphics —Their natm-e, original, and various kinds, explained — Proved to be the original of the art of Onirocritics or interpretation of Dreams, and likewise of Brute-wOrshipr— In this inquiry is contained the history of the various modes of information by Speech and Writing — And of the various modes of ancient idolatry, in the order they arose from one another 1 72 V. — Sir Isaac Newton's chronology of the Egyptian empire confuted, and shewn to contradict aH sa«red and profane antiquity, and even the nature of things — In the com'se of this Dissertation the causea^of that infinite confusion in the ancient Greek history and mythology are injured into and explained 246 VI. — Proves that Moses was skilled in all the learning of Egypt, and the Israelites violently inclined to all their superstitions — That the Ritual Law was insti tuted partly in opposition to those superstitions, and partly in compliance to the People's prejudices— That neither that Ritual nor Moses's Learning is any objection to the divinity of his Mission — But a high confirmation of it — In which Herman Witsius' ai-guments to the contrary are examined and con futed ; and the famous Prophecy in the twentieth chapter of Ezekiel explained and vindicated against the absurd interpretation of the Rabbins and Dr. Shuckford , .... 298 Notes on the Fourth Book .- ^^^ CONTENTS. BOOK V. p,^,. The nature of the Jewish Theocracy explai<.ed: And the Do^"'"*^ of a future St^te proved NOT to be in, nor to make PAKl > ^jg the Mosaic Dispensation SECTION I —Little light to be got from the systems of Christian writers, or the objections of Deists, or from the Rabbins, or from the CabaUsts, concerning the true nature of the Jewish Republic— The Hebrew People separated from the rest of mankind not as favourites, but to preserve the knowledge of the true God amidst an idolatrous world— Vindicated from the calumnious falshoods of the Poet Voltaire 418 II. Proves the Jewish Government to be a Theocracy- This form shewn to be necessary — There being no. other, by which opinions could be justly punished by civil Laws— And without such Laws against idolatry, the Mosaic Religion could not he supported — The equity of punishing opinions under a Theocracy, explained— Bayle censured— Foster confated— The 'Theocracy easily introduced, as founded on a prevailing notion of tutelary Deities — An objection of Mr. Collins to the truth of Revelation examined and confuted — The easy introduction of the Theocracy, it is shewn, occasioned as easy a defection from the Laws of it — The inquliy into the reason of this leads to an expIana,tion of the nature of the Jewish idolatry — Lord Bolingbroke's accusa tion of the Law of Moses examined and exposed ¦^29 111. — Treats of the Duration of the Theocracy — Shevra to have continued tiU the coming of Christ — The arguments of Spencer and Le Clerc to the contrary examined — The Prophecy of Shiloh explained — The Bishop of London's dis course upon it examined and confated 468 IV. — The Consequences of a Theocracy considered — Shewn that it must be administered by an extraordinary Providence, equally dispensing temporal Rewards and Punishments, both to the Community and to Particulars — That Scripture gives this representation of God's government — And that there are many favourable circumstances in the character of the Jewish People, to induce an impartial Examiner to believe that representation to be true 489 For the remainder of the Contents of Book V. see the Contents qf the third volume. DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING THE PLATES IN THIS VOLUME. Paee. Plates 1. II. and 111 I75 For Plate IV. which ought to appear in page 175, see page 308, where it is engraved with Plate X. Plate V. and VI jgQ V" 374 vm. ought to appear in page 202; but it is conjoined with Plate IX. in page 235 ^ 308 THE DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. BOOK III. SECTION VL I HAVE now gone through the second general proposition, which is. That all mankind, especially the most wise and LEARNED NATIONS OP ANTIftUITY, HAVE CONCURRED IN BELIEV ING, AND TEACHING, THAT THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE STATE OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS WAS NECESSARY TO THE WELL- BEING OF SOCIETY. In doing this, I have presumed to enter the very Penetralia of Antiquity, and expose its most venerable secrets to •open day. Some parts of which having been accidentally and obscurely seen by the owl-Ught of infideUty, were imagined by such as Toland, Blount, and Coward (as is natural for objects thus seen by false Braves), to wear strange gigantic forms of terror : and with these they have endeavoured to disturb the settled piety of sober Christians. The ridiculous use these men have made of what they did not understand, may perhaps recal to the reader's mind that stale atheis tical objection, that Religion is only a creature of politics, a State-engine invented by the Legislator, to draw the knot of Civil Society more close. And the rather, because that objection being founded on the apparent use of Eeligion to CivU PoUcy, I may be supposed to have added much strength to it, by shewing in this work, in a fuller manner than, perhaps, has been done before, the EXTENT OF THAT UTILITY ; and the large sphere of the Legislator's agency, in the application of it. For thus stood the -case : I was to prove Moses's divine assistance, from his being able to leave out of his Eeligion, the doctrine of a future state. This required me to shew, that this doctrine was naturally of the utmost importance to Society. But of all the argu- VOL. II. B 2 THE DIVINE LEGATION book m. ments, by which that importance may be proved, the plainest, if no the strongest, is the conduct of Lawgivers. Hence the long detail of circumstances in the second and third books. But indeed it not only served to the purpose of my particular question, but, appeared to me, to be one of the least equivocal proofs of the truth of Religion in general ; and to deserve, in that view only, to be carefully examined and explained. I considered this part, therefore, and desire the reader would so consider it, as a whole and separate work of itself, to prove the truth of religion in GENERAL, FROM ITS INFINITE SERVICE TO HUMAN SOCIETY, though it be but the introduction to the truth of the mosaic. Let us examine it : Lawgivers have unanimously concurred in pro pagating Eeligion. This could be only from a sense and experience of its UTILITY ; in which they could not be deceived : EeUgion therefore has a general utility. We desire no more to establish its truth. For, TRUTH AND GENERAL UTILITY NECESSARILY COINCIDE ; that is. Truth is productive of UtUity ; and Utility is indicative of Truth. That truth is productive of utility, appears from the nature of the thing. The observing truth, is acting as things really are : he who acts as things really are, must gain his purposed end : all disappointment proceeding from acting as things are not : Just as in reasoning from true or false principles, the conclusion which follows must be necessarUy right or wrong. But gaining this end is utUity or happiness ; disappointment of the end, hurt or misery. If then Truth produce utility, the other part of the proposition, that utihty indicates truth, foUows of necessity. For not to follow, supposes two different kinds of general utility relative to the same creature, one proceeding from truth, the other from falshood ; which is impos sible ; because the natures of those utiUties must then be different, that is, one of them must, at the same time, be, and not be, utUity.* Wherever then we find general utility, we may certainly know it for the product of Truth, which it indicates. But the practice of Lawgivers shews us that this utility results from ReUgion. The consequence is, that Eeligion, or the idea qf the relation between the creature and the Creator, is true. However, as the unanimous concurrence of Lawgivers to support ReUgion, hath furnished matter for this poor infidel pretence, I shall take leave to examine it more thoroughly. Our Adversaries are by no means agreed amongst themselves : Some of them have denied the truth of ReUgion, because it was of no utility ; Others, because it Tvas of so great. But commend me to the man, who, out of pure genuine spite ,to EeUgion, can employ * See nota II, at the end of this book. SECT. VI. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED 3 these two contrary systems together, without the expense so much as of a blush.* However, the System most followed, is the political invention of Religion for its use : the other being only the idle exercise of a few dealers in paradoxes. f I have begun these volumes with an examination of the first of these systems ; and shall now end them with a confutation of the other. For the Unbeliever, driven from his first hold, by our shewing the utility of religion, preposterously retires into this, in order to recover his ground. Critias of Athens, one of the thirty tyrants, and the most execra ble of the thirty, is at the head of this division ; whose principles he delivers in the most beau^tiful Iambics. f His words are to this purpose : " There was a time when man lived Uke a savage, without government or Laws, the minister and executioner of violence ; when there was neither reward annexed to virtue, nor punishment attendant upon vice. Afterwards, it appears, that men invented civil Laws to be a curb to evil. From hence, Justice -presided over the human race ; force became a slave to right, and punishment irremissibly pursued the transgressor. But when now the laws had restrained an open violation of right, men set upon contriving, how to injure others, in secret. And then it was, as I suppose, that some cunning poli tician, weU versed in the knowledge of mankind, counterplotted this design, by the invention of a principle that would hold wicked men in awe, even when about to say, or think, or act iU in private. And this was by bringing in the belief of a God ; whom, he taught to be immortal, of infinite knowledge, and of a nature super latively excellent. This God, he told them, could hear and see every thing said and done by mortals here below : nor coiUd the first con ception of the most secret wickedness be concealed from him, of whose nature, knowledge was the very essence. Thus did our Poli tician, by inculcating these notions, become the author of a doctrine wonderfully taking ; whUe he hid truth under the embroidered veil of fiction. But to add servUe dread to this impressed reverence, the Gods, he told them, inhabited that place, which he found was the repository of those Mormo's, and panic terrors, which man was so dexte rous at feigning, and so ready to fright himself withal, while he adds imaginary miseries to a Ufe already over-burthened with disasters. That place, I mean, where the swift coruscations of enkindled meteors, accompanied with horrid bursts of thunder, run through the starry vaults of heaven ; the beautiful fret- work of that wise old Architect, TIME. Where a social troop of shining orbs perform their regular * See Blount's .^nima Mundi, and " Original of Idolatry." t Such aa the Author of Du Contract Social, ch. viii. p. 129. t See note KK, at the end of this book. B 2 4 THE DIVINE LEGATION eo°^ "'• and benignant courses : and from whence refreshing showers descend to recreate the thirsty earth. Such was the habitation he assigned for the Gods ; a place most proper for the discharge of their func tion : And these the terrors he appUed, to circumvent secret mischief, stifle disorder in the seeds, give his Laws fair play, and introduce Religion, so necessary to the magistrate. — This, in my opinion, was the TRICK, whereby mortal man was first brought to beUeve that there were immortal Natures." How exceUent a thing is justice ! said somebody or other, on observing it to be practised in the dens of thieves and robbers. How useful, how necessary a thing is Religion ! may we say, when it forces this confession of its power, from its two most mortal enemies, the Tyrant and the Atheist. The account here given of religion is, that it was a state INVENTION : that is, that the idea of the relation between the crea ture and the Creator was formed and contrived by politicians, to keep men in awe. From whence the Infidel concludes it to be visionary and groundless. From the Magistrate's large share in the EstabUshment of ancient national EeUgions, two consequences are drawn ; the one by Believers ; the other by Unbelievers. The First con clude that therefore these national Religions were of poUtical original : and this the ancient Fathers of the Church spent much time and pains to prove. The Second conclude, from the same fact, that there fore Religion in general, or the idea of the relation between the crea ture and the Creator, was a poUtic invention, and not founded in the nature of things. And if, in confuting this, I strengthen and sup port the other conclusion, I suppose, that, in so doing, I give addi tional strength to the cause of Revelation ; otherwise the Fathers were very much mistaken. And though Infidels, indeed, in their writings, affect to dweU upon this conclusion, " that Superstition was a State-invention j " it is not, I presume, on account of any service, which they imagine it can do their cause ; but because it enables them to strike obliquely, under that cover, at Religion in general, when they do not care to appear without their mask. But if ever they should take it into their heads to deny, that there is any better proof of Superstition's being a mere politic invention than that Reli gion in general is so, let them take notice that I have here answered them beforehand. On the whole, then, if I prove that Eeligion in general was not a poUtic invention, I enervate aU the force of the Atheist's argument against Revelation, taken from the invention of Religion. For that Superstition was of human original, both parties seem to agree : though not all of it the invention of Statesmen, as we shall see presently, when we come to shew that one species of Idolatry was in use even before the institution of civil Society. SECT. VI. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. I shall prove, then, and in a very few words, that their fact or position is first, impertinent, and secondly, false. For, Were it true, as it certainly is not, that Religion was invented by Statesmen, it would not therefore foUow that Religion is false. A consequence that has been, I do not know how, allowed on aU hands ; perhaps on the mistaken force of one or other of these Proposi tions : I. Either, that Religion was not found out, as a truth, by the use of Reason. II. Or, that it was invented only for its Utility. III. Or lastly, that the Inventors did not believe it. I. As to Religion's not being found out, as a truth, hy the use of reason, we are to consider, that the finding out a truth by reason, neces sarUy impUes the exercise of that faculty, in proportion to the import ance and difiiculty of the search : so that where men do not use their reason, truths of the utmost certainty and highest use wUl remain unknown. We are not accustomed to reckon it any objection to the most useful civil truths, that divers savage nations in Africa and America, remain yet ignorant of them. Now the objection against the truth of Religion, is founded on this pretended fact, that the Lawgiver taught it to the people from the most early times. And the Infidel System is, that man from his first appearance in the world, even to those early times of his coming under the hands of the Civil Magistrate, differed little from brutes in the use of his rational faculties ; and that the improvement of them was gradual and slow ; for which. Antiquity is appealed to, in the account it gives us concerning the late invention of the arts of Ufe. Thus, according to their own state of the case, ReUgion was taught mankind when the generaUty had not begun to cultivate their rational faculties ; and, what is chiefly remarkable, it was taught by those few who had. It is true, our holy EeUgion gives a different account of these first men : But then it gives a different account too of the origin of Reli gion. And let our Adversaries prevaricate as they will, they must take both or heither. For that very thing which was only able to make the first men so enlightened, as they are represented in Scripture, was Revelation ; and, this allowed, the dispute is at an end. If it should be said. That " supposing ReUgion true, it is of so much importance to mankind, that God would never suffer us to remain ignorant of it : " I allow the force of the objection : but then we are not to prescribe to the Almighty his way of bringing us to the knowledge of his Will. It is sufiicient to justify his goodness. 6 THE DIVINE LEGATION hook iu. that he hath done it : and whether he chose the way of Revelation, or of Reason, or of the civil magistrate, it equaUy manifests his wisdom. And why it might not happen to this truth, as it hath done to many others of great importance, to be first stumbled upon by chance, and mistaken for a mere utility ; and afterwards seen and proved to be what it is ; I would beg leave to demand of these mighty Masters of reason. II. As to Religion's being invented only for its utility: This, though their palmary argument against it, is, of aU, the most unlucky. It proceeds on a supposed inconsistency between utility and truth. For men perceiving much of it, between private, partial, utUity and truth, were absurdly brought to think there might be the same incon sistence, between general utility and some truths. This it was which led the ancient Sages into so many errors. For neither Philosopher nor Lawgiver apprehending that truth and utility did coin cide ; the First, whUe he neglected utiUty, missed (as we have seen) of the most momentous truths : and the Other, whUe Uttle solicitous about truth, missed in many instances (as we shaU see hereafter) of utility. But general utUity and aU trut^, necessarily coincide. For truth is nothing but that natural or moral relation of things, whose observance is attended with universal benefit. We may therefore as certainly conclude that general utility is always founded on truth, as that truth is always productive of general utility. Take then this concession of the Atheist for granted, that Religion is productive of public good, and the very contrary to his inference, as we have seen above, must follow : namely, that Religion is true. If it should be urged. That " experience maketh against this rea soning ; for that it was not Religion, but Superstition, that, for the most part, procured this public utUity : and superstition, both sides agree to be erroneous." To this we reply, that Superstition was so far from procuring any good in the ancient world, where it was indeed more or less mixed with all the national Religions, that the good which ReUgion procured, was aUayed with evU, in propor tion to the quantity of Superstition found therein. And the less of Superstition there was in any national Religion, the happier, ceeteris paribus, we always find that people ; and the more there was of it, the unhappier. It could not be otherwise, for, if we examine the case, it vrill appear. That all those advantages which result from the worship of a superior Being, are the consequences only of the true principles of Religion : and that the mischiefs which result from such worship, are the consequences only of the false ; or what we call Superstition. The wiser Ancients (in whose times, Superstition, with it's maUgnant embraces, had twined itself round the noble trunk of SECT. VI, OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 7 Religion, had poisoned her benignest qualities, deformed aU her comeliness, and usurped her very name) were so struck and affected with what they saw and felt, that some of them thought, even Atheism was to be preferred before her. Plutarch composed a fine rhetorical discourse in favour of this strange paradox; which hath since given frequent occasion to much sophistical declamation. M. Bayle hath supported Plutarch's Thesis at large, in an Historical and Philosophical Commentary : Yet, by neglecting, or rather con founding, a real and material distinction, neither the ancient nor the modern Writer hath put the reader fairly into possession of the question. So that, both the subject and the predicate of the Proposition are left in that convenient state of ambiguity which is necessary to give a Paradox the air and reputation of an Oracle. The ambiguity in the subject ariseth from the word Supersti tion's being so laxly employed as to admit of two senses : either as a thing adventitious to Religion, with which it is fataUy apt to mix itself; Or as a corrupt species of religion. In the first sense. Superstition is of no use at all, but of infinite mischief ; and worse than Atheism itself : In the second sense, of a corrupt ReUgion, it is of great service j For, by teaching a Providence, on which man kind depends, it imposeth a necessary curb upon individuals, so as to prevent the mischiefs of mutual violence and injustice. It is like wise, indeed, of great disservice : for, by infusing wrong notions of the moral attributes of God, it hinders the progress of Virtue ; and sometimes sets up a false species of it. However, in the sense of a corrupt Religion, the Reader sees, it is infinitely preferable to Athe ism : As in a Drug of sovereign efiicacy, the application even of that which by time or accident is become decayed or violated, is, in despe rate disorders, greatly to be preferred to the rejection ; though it may engender bad habits in the Constitution it preserves ; which, the sound and pure species would not have done. Now one of the lead ing fallacies, which runs through Plutarch's little Tract, keeps under the cover of this ambiguity, in the subject. The ambiguity in the predicate does as much service to sophis try. "Superstition" (they say) "is worse than Atheism." They do not tell us, TO whom ; but leave us to conclude, that they mean, both to particulars and to society ; as taking it for granted, that if worse to one, it must needs be worse to the other. But here they are mistaken : and so, from this ambiguity arises a new faUacy, which mixes itself with the other. The degree of mischief caused by Superstition is different, as it respects its objects. Individuals or Societies. Superstition, as it signifies only a corrupt rite, is more hurtful to Societies than to Individuals ; and, to both, worse than Atheism. But as it signifies a corrupt religion, it is less 8 THE DIVINE LEGATION book hi- hurtful to Societies than to Individuals; and, to both, better tha.n Atheism. The confounding this distinction makes the ambiguity m which Bayle principaUy delights to riot. And this, by the assistance of the other from Plutarch, supports him in all his gross equivoca tions, and imperfect estimates : TiU at length, it encourages him to pronounce, in the most general terms, that Superstition is worse than Atheism.* Bayle .is a great deal too diffused to come within the Umits of this examination. But as Plutarch led the way ; and hath even dazzled Bacon himself,t with the splendour of his discourse ; I propose to examine his arguments, as they lie in order : Whereby it wiU appear that, besides the capital faUacies above detected, it abounds with a variety of other sophisms, poured out vrith a profusion which equals, and keeps pace with, the torrent of his wit and eloquence. This famous Tract is, as we have observed, a florid declamation, adorned with all the forms and colouring of Rhetoric ; when the question demanded severe reasoning, and philosophical precision. At the same time, it must be owned, that it is of a genius very different from those luxuriant, and, at the same time, barren Dissertations of the Sophists. It is painted aU over with bright and Uvely images, it sparkles with witty allusions, it amuses with quaint and uncommon similies ; and, in every decoration of spirit and genius, equals the finest compositions of Antiquity : Indeed, as to the soUdity and exact ness of the Logic, it is on a level with the meanest. His reasoning is the only part I am concerned with : and no more of this, than hes in one continued comparison between Atheism and Superstition : For, as to his positive proofs, from fact, of the actual mischiefs of Superstition, I am wiUing they should be allowed all the force they pretend to. It wiU be proper, in the first place, to observe. That it is hard to say. What Plutarch intended to infer from this laboured Comparison between Atheism and Superstition ; in which, he, all the way, gives the preference to Atheism : For though, throughout the course of the argument, he considers each, only as it affects Particulars, yet, in his conclusion, he makes a general inference in favour of Atheism with regard to Society. But, it wiU not foUow, that, because Atheism is less hurtful to Particulars, it is therefore less hurtful to Societies likewise. So that, to avoid all sophistical deaUng, it was necessary these two questions should be distinguished ; and separately con sidered. However, let us exarnine his reasoning on that side where it hath most strength. The effects of Atheism and Superstition on Particulars. 'Pensees diverses ecrites & un Docteur de Sorbonne a V Occasion de la Comete am parut au .Mms de Deeev.hre, 1680. Ei Continuation des Pensies diverses, \c. t face his Essays ; " where this paradox of Plutarch is supported. SECT. VI. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 9 1 . He sets out in this manner — " Ignorance concerning the nature of the Gods, where it meets with a bold and refractory temper, as in a rough and stubborn soil, produces Atheism ; where it encounters flexible and fearful manners, as in rank and low land, there it brings forth Superstition." * — This is by no means an exact, or even generally true account of the origin of these evUs. There are various causes which incline men to Atheism, besides fool- hardiness ; and, to Superstition, besides cowardice. The affectation of singularity ; the vanity of superior knowledge ; and, what Plutarch himself, in another place of this very Tract, assigns as a general cause, the sense of the miseries of Superstition, have frequently incUned men to this fatal obliquity of judgment. On the other hand, ignorance of Nature ; impatience to pry into futurity ; the unaccountable turns in a man's own fortune, to good or bad ; and, above all, a certain reverence for things estabUshed, carry them into Superstition. And as these con siderations are equally adapted to affect the hardy and the pusUlani- mous ; so the others, mentioned before, as soon get possession of- the fearful as of the bold. T^ay, Fear itself is often the very passion which most forcibly incUnes a wicked man, who hath nothing favour able to expect from divine Justice, to persuade himself that there is none to fear. Plutarch owns as much ; and says expresly, that " the end the Atheist proposes in his opinions is to exempt himself from all /eor of the Deity." f — Again, we find, by the Histories of aU times, that Superstition seizeth, along with the weak and fearful, the most daring and determined, the most ferocious and untractable. Tyrants, Conquerors, Statesmen, and Great Generals, vrith aU the savage tribes of uncivilized Barbarians, submit tamely to this galUng Yokfr. But our Author's account of the different births of Atheism and Superstition was no more than was necessary to support his Thesis. He aU along estimates the two evils by the miseries they bring on those who are under their dominion. These miseries arise from the passions they create. But, of all the passions, fear is the most tormenting. The pusiUanimous mind is most subject to fear. And it is over the fearful (he' says) that Superstition gains the ascendant. This, therefore, was to be laid down as a postulatum. The rest foUows in order. 2. For now coming to his paraUel, he begins with a confession — " That both errors are very bad. But as Superstition is accompanied with passion or affection, and Atheism free from aU passion. Supersti tion must needs be the greater evU; as in a broken Umb, a compound • TBr ¦mepl ^^S,r afioBlas /cal l^ymlas (bebs '^ &PXVS SlXa Havs, rh iJ.h,S,'«'; a-^drv 1>K.y^,aivoma Sa,, Sfc. T "'"^"' """Tai Ti«j (tmi aaifia ri,v hper^v, Sue P. 286. SECT. VI. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. H make, and hath little more in it than sound. He says " the very name shews, the essence of superstition to be Fear : For the Greek name of this moral mode, SsKriSai/AOv/a, signifies a fear of the gods." A Roman might with the same pretence aver, that the essence of superstition is Love : for that the Latin word superstitio, hath a reference to the love we bear to our children, in the desire that they should survive us; being formed upon the observation of certain reUgious practices deemed efficacious for procuring that happy event. The other sophism is more material ; and consists in putting the change upon us, and representing the God of the Superstitious man, by whom he supposes the world to be governed, in false and odious colours, as an envious Being, hurtful to man : * For it is not the good, but the EVIL Demon whom the superstitious man thus represents : Not the Being which he worships ; but the Being which he avoids and detests. The superstitious man, indeed, fooUshly enough, sup poseth, that the God whom he acknowledgeth to be good, is capri cious, inconstant, and rindictive. But then, from that essential quaUty of goodness, which belongs to him as God, he concludes, that this Being may be appeased by submission, and won upon by oblations and atonements. AU this, Plutarch himself confesseth : and in words which directly contradict the account he here gives of the God of the superstitious man. Superstition (says he) agitated by many contrary passions, suffereth itself to suspect that the Good itself may be evil.f Plutarch has therefore acted unfairly, and to serve a purpose, in thrusting in the superstitious man's evil Demon, in the place of his God. This conduct wUl bear the harder upon his ingenuity, as he held the doctrine of the two principles : and, therefore, can hardly be supposed to have changed the object inad vertently, or without design. 4. Haring made the God of the superstitious man, a Devil, he hath, consistently enough, represented the superstitious man's condi tion to be the very state of the damned : " That his pains have not remission ; that he carries HeU in his bosom, and finds the Furies in his dreams." J The terms of the original are very elegant : But as they plainly aUude to the shews of the mysteries, I think the author should have been so fair to recoUect, that there was an Elysium as weU as a Tartarus both in the Dreams of the superstitious man and in the shews of the Mysteries. And that as Tartarus and Elysium • 0\6u.(v6v T ^hai Sreobs, elrai Sk \imripoiis Kal $\aS^poi5 .—^ . 287. t H Se *XoX £rl Tobs S>eois.-V. 291. faa^^P i" f-^^^"", XW. Z'^ ^"V ^'^ ZTaColtJabrhv if' aU^, - "*' ^"'P-' ««' »"^« ^poardy^ara not a^^6Kora \ntt.eiivou(rav.—y. 288. 12 THE DIVINE LEGATION =0°^ "*" were alike the fictions of superstition, they were aUke the objects of the superstitious Man's dreams. His natural temperament and tne redundancy of a particular humour would determine the colour ot the Scene. The Atheist therefore, who, he says, enjoys the benefit of repose, might have his sleep disturbed by the cries of the damned as weU as the superstitious man ; whom he represents as kept m per petual alarms by this passion ; because the habit of the body makes the very same impressions on the fancy, in sleep, which the state of the mind does on the imagination whUe awake. 5. But, "from the tyranny of Superstition," he says, "there is no respite nor escape ; because, in the opinion of the superstitious man, aU things are vrithin the jurisdiction of his God ; and this God is inexorable and implacable." * From such a Being, indeed, there can be no escape, nor respite from torment. But, as was said before, this is not the superstitious man's God, but his Devil. Besides, the attri bute of implacability totally removes, what our Author makes the other half of the miseries of Superstition ; its slavish attention to the foolish and costly business of expiations and atonements : A practice arising from the idea of placability, and necessarily faUing with it. 6. Therefore, as if conscious of this prevarication, he adds: "That the superstitious man fears even his best-conditioned Gods, the Bene ficent, the Preservers : that the Gods, from whom men seek grandeur, affluence, peace, concord, and success, are the objects of his dread and terror." f Here we see the superstitious man is at length con fessed to have Gods very different from those before assigned unto him. However, we must not think that even these wUl afford him any solace or consolation. It is well that the whole proof of this cruel exclusion lies in the ambiguity of the terms, tpp'tTrcav and rpef^cov : which, when they signify the fearing slavishly, do indeed imply misery : But when they signify fearing religiously, do as cer tainly imply a blessing; because they deter the subject, they influ ence, from evU. Now, when these terms are applied to the Gods confessedly beneficent, they can signify only a religious fear ; unless when Plutarch hath defined Superstition to be, the fearing sla vishly, we wiU be so complaisant to aUow that the Superstitious MAN J cannot fear religiously. And where is the absurdity in flying for refuge to Gods, so feared ? Though Plutarch puts it among the contradictions of Superstition. § — It is remarkable, that these good- conditioned Gods, here described as rov; a-aiTtipas xa) too; iJi,si\t^loui, '- ° '^ '^^'' ™'' ^«^'' «PXV &s rvpamlSa foSoifi^ms (TKvBpuTriiv koX ajrapatrnToy, ¦wou ^eTao-Tp, TiroD ^uyp, ¦arolav yvv &Biop eSpr,, ¦woiav ^dKaaaav ;— P. 289. t 'O toinZZ"^) 7"? ¦^'.^-^Pfovs Kal yeveBhiovs, b tpplrrwr robs awrnpas Ka! robs ii^iKixiovs, ii(ovs, Kal Kara^ivyoua-ii, M robs Sleois.—P. 2!)J. SECT. VI, OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 13 are called by our author ¦oraTpcpov; xa) ysveMovs, his native and coun try Gods. Yet if we consider the stories of Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Bacchus, Diana, &c. we shall find no great reason to extol their morals. But here lay the distress of the affair. Plutarch was a Priest of this class of Deities ; and Greece, at that time, being over run with strange Gods, and labouring under Eastern superstitions, it was proper - to blacken this foreign worship, for the sake of the national: So that Plutarch, Uke the fair Trader, in an iU humour with Interlopers, reckons aU Eastern Rites as even worse than Athe ism. Hence his famous exclamation to his Countrymen, which the noble author of the Characteristics quotes with much exultation, and transferred bitterness. "0 wretched Greeks" (says Plutarch, speak ing to his then declining countrymen) " who in a way of superstition run so easUy into the reUsh of barbarous nations, and bring into EeUgion that frightful mien of sordid and vUifying devotion, ill- favoured humiliation and contrition, abject looks and countenances, consternations, prostrations, disfigurations, and in the act of worship distortions, constrained and painful postures of the body, wry faces, beggarly tones, mumpings, grimaces, cringings, and the rest of this kind. — A shame indeed to us Grecians ! — ShaU we, whUe we are nicely observant of other forms and decencies in the Temple, shall we neglect this greater decency in voice, words, and manners ; and with rile cries, fawnings, and prostitute behaviour, betray the natural dig nity and majesty of that divine EeUgion, and national worship, delivered down to us by our forefathers, and purged from every thing of barbarous and savage kind." * Such then were the circum stances of the time ; and these, together with the personal riews of our Author, were, I suppose, the causes which gave birth to this famous Tract, of Superstition. To proceed, 7. Another advantage of Atheism over Superstition, in Plutarch's reckoning, is, " that the Atheist is secured from the impressions of a future state." f It is no wonder that we find this in the number of the Atheist's blessings, when we consider that our Author regarded a future state as a Fable, at best, invented for the restraint of evU. Yet, whatever pleasure the Atheist may take in his security from this terror, it is certain. Society would suffer by taking off so useful a curb upon the manners of the people. 8. Our Author then proves, and indeed proves it effectuaUy, " That superstition is much worse than the true knowledge of the Deity." J 9. He considers next the different effects of Atheism and Supersti- • " Miscel. Reflections," vol. iii. misc. ii. c. 3. t Ti' Se? iMK^h A4yew ; -sripas iarl ToS Blov ¦sraaw kvBp&rois b Myaros- ttjs Sk S^ufiSatiioplas ob^ oiros ¦ dA^ iTr^^SaKAei robs -6povs i^^K,wa rov Qp, ^,aKp6r,poy rod fiiov^owia-a rbp J,6gov,Kal av^a^rovaa r^ »aydrv «aKS>v ^^(^o,a^ dBavdrm, Sf.-Pp. 289, 290. X i-,\ocr6fo,y S, Kal UoM- TWav dvSpaiv Karacppoyovinv, 3rc.-P. 291. 14 THE DIVINE LEGATION book hi. tion on their subjects, in the disastrous accidents of life. And here again, Atheism, as usual, is found to have the advantage. "The Atheist indeed curses Chance, and blasphemes Providence ; but the superstitious man complains of his Gods, and thinks himself hated or forsaken of them." * — The Atheist is weU come on. Hitherto Plu tarch had represented his Favorite as always calm and undisturbed : Indeed, he makes one great part of the Atheist's advantage over Superstition to consist in his freedom from aU unruly passions. Here, they labour both aUke under their tyranny. WeU, but some passions make their owner more miserable than others. It is confessed, they do. But, is that the case here ? Or if it be. Is it to the advantage of the Atheist ? By no means. The disasters of life are supposed to have betrayed them both into passion. But he surely is least oppressed by the commotion, who sees a possibiUty of getting out of his distresses. It is impossible the Atheist can have any such pros pect. There is no Fence against a FlaU, nor provision against blind Chance : The superstitious man may easUy hope to appease the irri tated Deity : for though he fears and dreads the Gods, yet, as Plutarch acknowledges, he flies to them for refuge. I might mention another advantage which the superstitious man hath over the Atheist in the disasters of Ufe, namely, that he is frequently bettered hj his misfor tunes ; and this the Atheist never is ; because the superstitious man may suppose them sent by the Gods in punishment for his crimes ; which the Atheist never can. " But " (says our Author) " If the disaster in question be disease or sickness, the Atheist referring it to the right cause, intemperance, seeks out for the proper cure. WhUe the superstitious man imagin ing it to be a judgement from Heaven, neglects to have recourse to medicine." f The delusion here is evident. It is buUt on that false position, which the experience of aU ages hath discredited, namely. That men always act according to their principles. In this case espe ciaUy, of avoiding or freeing themselves from instant physical eril, men of the most different Principles go aU one way ; and however divided in their religious opinions, they all meet in an uniformity to medical practice. It is an idle sophism which would persuade us, that, because the superstitious man useth sacred Eites to remove what he esteems a sacred disease, that, therefore, he employs no other TldvTas eTrl t^v tuxi^v koX rb avT6fjJxrov dnepeLdofi4vov robs bbvp/ju)bs, Kal ^ouinos us ovbev Kark SIkt^v, ovb' erc 'wporoias, dAAa 'wdi/ra avyKexvfi^yws Kal dKpiras (peperat, Kal a"jraBarai ra ruv dvBpdyirwv — urdvTcav rbv Sfebv aiTLarai — Kal ws oh bvarvxhs i>v, dWa Sreoiua-i)s tis &vBpaTTos.—P^. 291, 292. t 1^6, 4k ¦arpovaias ky, ovk ayeVrijo-ac, *c.— P. 294. § "HSiffTa Se ro7s avBpiimis kopral, *c. iyravBa roiyvv axSirei rby dBeoy, yfXuyra ^ey fiavmbv Kal aap- Sdywv •ye'A.wra to;5tois ziroiov/Uyois —&\Xo Se obSey exovra KttK6y 6 Se SdaiSatiiay fiovKerai iiev, ob Siyarai Se xaip^'"' ""^^ ^SeaBai—^aTefayaneyos iixp'?> ^^" f"' (^ogerra., &e.— Pp- 294, 295. 16 THE DIVINE LEGATION book m. celebration of his reUgious Festivals is a contradiction to aU common sense. Our author next attempts to shew. That "the crime of impiety is rather to be charged upon the superstitious man than the Atheist : for Anaxagoras," he says, "was accused of impiety, for holding the Sun to be only a red-hot stone : But nobody chaUenged the Cimmerians of that crime for denying its existence." * By this, our Author would insinuate, that it is more injurious to the Gods, to hold dishonourable notions of their Nature, than to caU in question their Being. The opposition of these cases is witty and ingenious : but very defective, in the integrity of the application. Plutarch's PhUosophic atheist in question, corresponds no more with the Cimmerians, than his Theist does with Anaxagoras. — The Atheist, after haring had a full view of the works of God, denies the existence of the Workman. The Cim merians, because debarred, by their situation, the use of that sense which alone could inform them of the Sun's nature, had no concep tion of his Being. In the first case, the conclusion being derogatory to the Nature of the Power denied, the Denier is justly charged with impiety; In the latter, as no such derogation is implied, no such crime can be reasonably inferred. But this brisk saUy was only to introduce the famous declaration which foUows, and hath been so often quoted f by the modern advocates of this paradox. . " For my own part I had rather men should say of me. That there neither is nor ever was such a one as Plutarch ; than they should say, there was a Plutarch, an unsteady, changeable, easily-provoked, and revengeful man." These, says the noble author of the Character istics, ^ are the words of honest Plutarch. And, without doubt, did God stand only in that relation to the rest of Beings in which one creature stands to another ; and were his existence no more necessary to the Universe of things than the existence of honest Plutarch, every body would say the same. But the knowledge of a Creator and Governor is so necessary to the rational system, that a merciful Lord would chuse to have it retained and kept aUve, though he might happen to be dishonoured by many false and absurd opinions concerning his Nature and Attributes. A private man of generous morals might rather wish to continue unknown than to be remembered with infamy. But a supreme • "Oflev e/.toi'ye Kal ^avfjui(etv eTreto't robs t^v aSiSrirra fdaKovras dadgeiay eZroi, firj tpdaKoyras Se T^y SeuriSatfioyiay • Kairoiye 'Aya^ay6pas 5iK7]V €y, hs6eviarep6s eariy ^ toB Sojafeiv vrepl SkSv t PoiKtrai. — P. 297. t Ka! uV ^ ^^^"5 SsiaiSai/iOvias obSaf^TJ avvaWws- n Se Seio-iSai^oyfa rp afleiJTTjTi /ca! yeviaBai wapeVxe''0PXV--P-297- t Bacon. VOL. II- ^ 18 THE DIVINE LEGATION P°°^ "'• then impelled, being increased by the struggle between its old preju dices, which would restrain it, and its new aversion, which dn^^s it on, rarely remits, tiU it arrives at the opposite extreme. Ihe behaviour of aU Ages supports this observation : and of none, more than the Present. Where a contempt of Revelation having for some time spread amongst the People, we see them now become an easy prey to fanaticism and superstition . and the Methodist and the Popish Priest succeed, with great ease and sUence, to the Libertine and the Freethinker. To say, that an Atheist, while he is such, cannot become supersti tious, betrays great ignorance of human nature. How many Princes and Ministers of State hath the history of the two or three last Ages delivered down to us as UnbeUevers in aU Religion, and yet strongly devoted to the dotages of judicial Astrology ! The Italians, in parti cular, have not been more noted for their irreUgion and refined Politics, than for their creduhty in this gross Imposture. Should I stay to enquire at large into the cause of so strange a phenomenon, it would be seen, how much honour it does to Religion. At present I shaU only observe. That these men finding (and none have so good opportunities) how perpetuaUy pubUc events faU out beside their E.xpectation, and contrary to their best-laid schemes of Policy, are forced to confess that human affairs are ordered by some power extrinsical. To acknowledge a God and his Providence would be the next way to introduce a morality destructive of that public system, which they think necessary for the government of the World. They have ^'ecourse therefore to that absurd scheme of Power, which rules by no other Law than Fate or Destiny. I have now gone through our Author's various arguments in sup port of his Paradox ; or, to call them by their right name, a group of Ul-combined sophisms, tricked off by his eloquence, or varnished over with his wit. But there is one master-sophism stUl behind, that animates the Whole, and gives a false rigour to every Part. Let us consider the question which Plutarch invites his reader to debate with him. It is not. What the simple qualities of Atheism and Superstition, if found alone in man, are severally capable of producing : but what each reaUy doth produce, as each is, in fact, found mingled with the rest of man's passions and appetites. He should not, therefore, have amused us with inferences from the abstract ideas of Atheism aud Superstition; but should have examined their effects in the cona-ete,^ as they are to be found in the Atheist, and in the superstitious man. For, nature having sown in the human breast the seeds of various and differing passions and appetites, the ruling passion, in each Character, is no more in its simple, unmixed state, than the predominant colour in SECT. VI. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 19 a weU-wrought picture : Both the passion and the colour are so darkened or dissipated by surrounding hght and shade, so changed and varied by the refiection of neighbouring tints, as to produce very different effects from what, in their separate and simple state, whether real or imaginary, they were capable of affording.* Let the reader apply this observation to any part of Plutarch's Declamation, who considers Atheism and Superstition not iu the concrete, but in the abstract only, and it wiU presently expose the inconsequence of his reasoning. I will but just give an example, in one instance. He prefers Atheism to Superstition, " because this is attended with passion ; that is free from all passion." Now the only support of this remark is the sophism in question. Consider the ideas of Atheism and Superstition in the abstract, and there is a shew of truth : for Superstition, simply, implying the fear of the gods, is of the essence of passion ; and Atheism, simply, implying the denial of their existence, includes nothing of the idea oi passion. But consider these moral modes in the concrete, as in this question we ought to do, and Atheism wUl be always found accompanied with passion or affec tion ; and of as uneasy a kind, perhaps, as Superstition. It is of no moment, to. this discourse, whether Plutarch hath here imposed upon himself or his reader. It is possible, that, in the drawing his two characters, he might imitate, or be misled by, Theophrastits : Whose various pourtraits have all this fundamental defect. That is, if we understand them as given for copies of any thing reaUy existing. But, I apprehend, this is not their true character. I rather think This curious fragment of Antiquity was only the remains of a Promp- tuary for the use of the Comic Poet, from whence he might be supplied with his materials, the simple passions ; in order to blend, and shade, and work them into his pictures of real life and manners. However, if Plutarch considered them under the common idea, and, under that, would make them his model, he shewed as Uttle judgment as that painter would be found to do, who should apply his simple colours just as he received them from the colourman ; without form ing them into those curious — " Lights and shades, whose weU-accorded strife Gives all the strength and colour of our life." To proceed with our author's Argument : It is directed, we see, to shew the advantage of Atheism above Superstition, only as these opinions and practices regard particulars : Though, by the turn and management of his reasoning, he appears wiUing, you should infer that the same advantage holds equaUy, with regard to society also : And therefore he concludes, " That it had been better for the * See note LL, at the end of thi.-i book. c 2 20 THE DIVINE LEGATION '^°°^ '"• Gauls and Scythians to be without any Religion, than to have had such a one as taught them to beUeve that the Gods delighted in the blood of human rictims : And much better for Carthage to have had the Atheists, Critias and Diagoras, for Lawgivers, than such as those who authorized the Sacrifices performed to Saturn."* The sophisms which support these assertions are fully exposed in the introductory observation to these remarks ; aud so. stand in need of no further detection. Lord Bacon's chapter on Superstition, in his Essays civil and moral, is no other than an epitome of this tract of Plutarch, Now whether that great man thought his Original defective, in not attempt- ing to shew the advantage of Atheism over Superstition, as well with regard to Society ds to Particulars ; Or whether he thought, that though his Author did attempt it, yet he was too concise and obscure ; and therefore judged it expedient to comment on his hints : It is remarkable, that he addresses himself very strenuously, to make out this important point. " Atheism " (saith his Lordship) " did never perturb States : for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no farther : And we see, the times incUned to Atheism, as the time of Augustus Csesar, were ciril times. But Superstitiqji hath been the confusion of many States ; and bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth aU the spheres of Government. The Master of Super stition is the People." This is a paragraph totaUy unworthy so great a Genius. Atheism, he says, did never perturb States. The observation might, perhaps, pass for true, when he wrote. But, true or false, to make it to his purpose, he must suppose, that this negative advantage ariseth from the essential nature and intrinsic quality of Atheism, and not from mere accident ; and so he plainly insinuates, in the reason subjoined — For it makes men wary of themselves, &c. but falsely. It is not from the nature of things, but by mere accident, that Atheism never perturbed States; it haring rarely, or never, spread amongst the People, but hath been confined to a few speculative men. If ever it should become thus extensive, if ever it should infect the Sovereign, it must not only perturb States (as we have sad experience that it does, even under its negative form of irreligion) but, as we have shewn at large,t would certainly overturn Society. Indeed his Lord ship himself fairly confesseth thus much, where, charging this very mischief on Superstition, he subjoins the cause of its maUgnity— the Master of Superstition is the People, i. e. the people are they • ObK d/ietmr oby ?,v TaKdrais iKeiyois Kal :S.Kieais roirapdiray u-hre iwotay ?Yew ft"' ^f " /""^f^T'/"" 'fropiay, ^ aeoij ehai yo^ii(,iy xaipoyrasdy6pdmu,y ff^arro- ^,ywy alfLaaiy-Ti Se Kapxnboylois ofi/c ^A«" >^ '" si'-CT. VI. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 3I But as Greece and Egypt, the two Countries where civil Policy took deepest root, and spread its largest influence, had, by the long cugtom of deifying their pubUc Benefactors, so erased the memory of a prior idolatry, as to have this second species of it, by some moderns, deemed the first ; I shaU produce an ancient testimony or two, of the highest credit, to shew that the adoration of the celestial Bodies was the first idol-worship in those two grand Nurseries of Superstition, as weU as in all other places. 1. It appears to me (says Plato in his Cratylus) that the first men who inhabited Greece, held those only to be gods, which many barbarians at present worship; namely, the sun, moon, earth, stars, and heaven.* The barbarians here hinted at, were both such as remained in, and such as had got out of, the state of nature. As first, the civilized Persians, of whom Herodotus gives this account : " They worship the Sun, Moon, and Eartli, Fire, Water, and the Winds : And this adoration they have all along paid from the very beginning. Afterwards, indeed, they learned to worship Urania," f &c. And so goes on to speak of their later idolatry of dead mortals. Secondly, the savage Africans, of whom the same Herodotus says, "They worship only the Sun and Moon : The same do aU the Africans." J 2. Diodorus Siculus, speaking of the Egyptians, teUs us. That the first men looking up to the world above them, and terrified and struck with admiration at the nature OF THE universe, SUPPOSED THE SuN AND MoON TO BE THE principal AND ETERNAL GODS.§ The rcasoii which the historian assigns, makes his assertion general ; and shews he beUeved this idolatry to be the first every where else, as weU as in Egypt. But that it was so there, we have likewise good internal evidence, from a circumstance in their hieroglyphics, the most ancient method of recording knowledge : Where, as we are told by Horus ApoUo, a star denoted or expressed the idea of the Deity. || Such was the genius and state of Idolatry in the uncivilized world. So that the Author of the book caUed, The Wisdom of Solomon, said well, " Surely vain are all men by nature who are ignorant of God ; and could not by considering the Work, acknow ledge the Work-master : but deemed either Fire or Wind, or the • ialyovTai jwi ol tsrpaToi Tay dvBpdmay -arepl T7)y 'EXXdSa tovtovs fiiyous Aeobs iryeiaBai, Siawep vSy ¦nroXXol tm;' 0apgapay. "HXiov, Kal -ZeXivnv, Kal rijy, Kal "Aarpa, Kal Ovpay6y. t (Svovai 8e 'HAiV Te Kal 2eA'i)j'?), Kal rfj, Ka! Uvpl, ical"TSaTi, Ka! 'AyeuouTi- Toinoun iJ-ev ti) fiobyouTi Siiovat dpxvBey iiretiefiaBiKaai Se Kal t^ Obpaylr, i^Ejy. Lib. i. cap. 131. I eiouiTL Se 'HA^^ Kal SeA'^vp fiovyoia-i- TOVTOiai (Ley yby ¦ardyres Aig'ves SivouaL.—Uh. iv. cap. 188. § Tobs dyBptiirovs rb -nraXaibv yeyoiJ.eyovs dyagxH/avras els rby K6a-fioy, Kal ri/y ray SXay (piaiv KaTatrXayeyTas koX ^avfidaayras, ¦tmoXage^y elwi Srfovs aiSious Te Kal taparovs, Tiv re "WXioy Kal :SeXriyriy.—Uh. i. II 'Aa-riip -tsap' AlyvTrrioii ypacpineyos Beby arifmlyei — Lib. ii. cap. 1. 32 THE DIVINE LEGATION book hi. swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water, or the Lights of Heaven, to be the Gods which govern the World." * II. But when now Society had produced those mighty blessings, which exalt our brutal nature to a life of elegance and reason ; and, in exchange for penury, distress, and danger, had estabUshed safety, and procured all the accommodations of CivU intercourse, the reli-^ Gious system received as great, though far from so advantageous, a change as the political. 1. Gratitude and admiration, the warmest and most active affections of our nature, concurred to enlarge the object of Religious worship ; and to make men regard those Benefactors of human nature, the Founders of Society, as having more in them than a common ray of the Dirinity. So that, god-like benefits bespeaking, as it were, a god-Uke Mind, the deceased Parent of a People easily advanced into an Immortal. From hence arose, though not till some time after, their metaphysical distribution of Souls into the several classes of human, heroic, and demonic. A distinction which served greatly to support this species of Idolatry. 2. When the religious bias was in so good a train, natural affection would lave its share in advancing this new mode of Adoration. Piety to Parents would easily take the lead ; as it was supported by gratitude and admiration, the " primum mobile " of this whole system : The natural Father of the Tribe often happening to be the political Father of the People, and Founder of the State. 3. Fondness for the Offspring would next have its turn. And a disconsolate Father, at the head of a People, would contrive to sooth his grief for the untimely death of a favourite child, and to gratify his pride under the want of Succession, by paying dirine honours to its memory. " For a Father afflicted with untimely mourning, when he had made an image of his child, soon taken away, now honoured him as a God, which was then a dead man, and delivered, to those that were under him, ceremonies and sacrifices." f 4. Lastly, the Subject's reverence for his Master, the Citi zen's veneration for the Law-giver, would not be far behind, to complete this reUgious Farce of mistaken gratitude and affection. This was the course of the second species op Idolatry ; as we may collect from ancient history both sacred and profane : And, especially, from the famous fragment of Sanchoniatho, which partakes so much of both ; where these various motives for this species of Idolatry are recounted in express words : " After many generations came Chrysor ; and he invented many things useful to civil life ; for which, after his decease, he was worshipped as a God. ' '^''"P- ^'"- 1> 2. t " Wisdom of Solomon," xiv. 15. s-^ur. VI. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 33 Then flourished Ouranos and his sister Ge ; who deified and offered sacrifices to their Father Upsistos, when he had been torn in pieces by wUd beasts. Afterwards Cronos consecrated Muth his Son, and was himself consecrated by his Subjects." * III. But Idolatry did not stop here. For when men, as the Apostle says, would not retain God in their knowledge. He gave them up to their own vain imaginations, whereby they changed the truth of God into a lye — into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and to creeping things.f How this last monstrous change was effected, I have discoursed of at large, elsewhere. J It is sufficient to observe at present, that it was begun m Egypt, and was propagated from thence : Where the method of their Learned, to record the history of their Hero-gods, in improved hieroglyphics, gave birth to Brute-worship. For the characters of this kind of writing being the figures of animals^ which stood for marks of their Elementary Gods, and principally of their Heroes, soon made their Hieroglyphics, sacred. And this, in no great space of time, introduced a symbolic worship of their Gods, under hieroglyphic Figures. But the People (how naturaUy, we may see by the practice of saint-worship in the church of Rome) presently forgot the symbol or relation ; and depraved this superstition stUl farther, by a direct worship : till at length, the animals themselves, whose figures these hieroglyphic marks represented, became the object of religious adoration. Which species of Idolatry, by the credit and commerce of the Egyptians, and their Carriers and Factors the Phoenicians, in course of time, spread amongst many other nations. And this was the third and last species of Pagan Idolatry. And here again, as weU for the original as the order of this Idolatry, we have the confirmation of Sanchoniatho's authority : " Ouranos " (says he) " was the Inventor of the Baetylia, a kind of animated stones framed with great art. And Taautus [the Egyptian] formed allegoric figures, characters and images of the celestial Gods and Elements." § By these animated stones (as is observed above) must needs be meant, stones cut into a human figure. For, before this invention, brute, unformed, or pyramidal Stones, were consecrated and adored. The allegoric figures and characters more plainly describe Hiero glyphic writing : From whence, as we say, this species of Idolatry was first derived. This is a plain, consistent account of the rise and progress of Pagan Idolatry ; supported as weU by the scattered evidence of • See vol. i. p. 213. t Bom. i. 23. t Book iv. sect. 4. § See vol. i. p. 213. VOL. II. D 34 THE DIVINE LEGATION """" - Antiquity, as by the more certain reason of things. I say, "the scattered eridence of Antiquity:" For I know of no writer who hath given us a direct, or so much as consistent, account of this matter. And it is no wonder. For a system of ReUgion, of which the MORTAL Gods are so considerable a part, would appear too hard even for the digestion of the People. An expedient therefore was soon found, and by a very natural incident, to throw a veU over this shocking absurdity ; and this was by pretending one whUe, to those who grew inquisitive concerning the nature of the Hero-Gods, that these Gods were only symbolic of the Celestial : and at another, to those who pried too closely into the elementary worship, that this was only symbolical of their Heroes : who were not dead men, as might be suspected, but a species of superior Beings, which, in affection to mankind, had once been conversant on Earth : and whom, now, a deification had reinstated in their original Rights. Thus the popular beUef presented nothing but one uniform order of Immortals : The secret of the human original of one part of them being reserved for the private instruction of the mysteries. This cover for their absurd Idolatries, would naturaUy produce two orthodox Parties of SymboUzers in the Pagan Church. They, who most favoured liERO-worship, would find the Symbol in Element ary : And they, who best Uked the Elementary, would find the Symbol in the Heroic. Both parties, as usual, laid claim to primi tive Antiquity. For true it is, that the degrees and manner by which the early Mortals superinduced the worship of decul men on the primary idolatrous worship of the heavenly Bodies, gave coun tenance to either side. This was the natural incident I spoke of above, as favouring the expedient employed to hide the dishonours of Paganism. The matter is worth knowing ; and I shaU endeavour to explain it. I . The first step to the Apotheosis was the compUmenting their Heroes and pubUc Benefactors, with the Name of that Being, which was most esteemed and worshipped. Thus a King, for his beneficence, was called the Sun ; and a Queen, for her beauty, the Moon. Diodorus relates, that Sol first reigned in Egypt; called so from the luminary op that name in the heavens.* This wUl help us to understand an odd passage in the fragment of Sanchoniatho, where it is said, " that Cronus had seven sons by Rhea, the youngest of which was made a God, as soon as born." f The meaning, I suppose, is, that this youngest son. was npi5Toj'/tei/"HAioy /8o(nAei;(roi Tay kut' ^yvjiTov, S/juiyvfiov iyra rf Kar olipavhii &aTpti>.—lAb. i. In the language of Egypt called men, as we see in Herod, lib. ii. cap.' 99. The practice of Assyrian superstition was the same ; their kmg Belus being named from Baal the Sun. f Tv abr^ [Kpdytp] yCvoyrai dirh 'P^os -sraTSes hni- Sy i yearaTos afjia rrj yeyeaei dtpLepdtBy}. SECT. VI. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 35 caUed after some luminary in the Heavens, to which they paid dirine honours : and these honours came, in time, to be transferred to the terrestrial name-sake. The same Historian had before told us, that the sons of Guenos, mortals Uke their father, were called by the names of the elements, light, fire, and flame, whose use they had discovered.* 2. As this adulation advanced into an EstabUshed worship, they turned the compliment the other way : And now the Planet or Luminary was caUed after the Hero ; I suppose, the better to accustom the people, even in the act of Planet-worship, to this new adoration. Diodorus, in the passage quoted a little before, having told us that the Sun and Moon were the first Gods of Egypt, adds, THE FIRST OF WHICH, THEY CALLED OsiRIS, AND THE OTHER Isis.f But this was the general practice. So the Ammonites called the Sun, Moloch; the Syrians, Adad ; the Arabs, Dionysius ; the Assyrians, Belus ; the Persians, Mithra ; the Phoenicians, Saturn; the Carthaginians, Hercules; and the Palmyrians, Ele- gabalus.X Again, the Moon, by the Phrygians was caUed Cybele, or the mother of the Gods ; by the Athenians, Minerva ; by the Cyprians, Venus ; by the Cretans, Diana ; by the Sicilians, Proser pine ; by others, Hecate, Bellona, Urania, Vesta, Lucina,§ &c. PhUo Byblius, in Eusebius, explains this practice : " It is remark able" (says he) "that they [the ancient idolaters] imposed on the ELEMENTS, and on those parts of nature which they esteemed Gods, the NAMES OF THEIR KINGS : For the natural Gods, which they acknowledged, were only the Sun, Moon, Planets, Elements, and the Uke ; they being, now, in the humour of having Gods of both classes, the MORTAL and the immortal." || 3. As a further proof that Hero-worship was thus superinduced upon the planetary, let me add a very singular circumstance in the first formation of Statues, consecrated to the Hero- Gods ; of which circumstance, both ancient ^ and modern ** writers have been at a loss to assign a reason. It is, that these first Statues were not of human form, but conical and pyramidal. Thus the Scholiast, on the Vespse of Aristophanes, teUs us, that the Statues of ApoUo and * 'E|^s, (fniair, dvb Tevovs yeyr]8TJyai aSBis woiSas &V7)Tois, oh ehai oy6naTa, *wj Kal nSp Kal ^XJ^- oStoi, iXa(ro(j>e?v abxovvTCS, tV S-njpvaiKaTepay t?)s urepl @eav loTopias SS^av elarrfffavro, aefivoTepas evpeaioXoylas To7s liiBois vrpoaemyoria-ayTes . — Praip. Evang. lib. ii. cap. 6. SECT. VI. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 39 examples, to be bleached and purified from the grossness and poUu- tion of their ideas. The first of these AUegorizers, as we learn from Laertius,* was Anaxagoras ; who, with his friend Metrodorus, turned Homer's Mythology into a system of Ethics. Next came HeracUdes Ponticus, and, of the same fables made as good a system of Physics : which, to shew us with what kind of spirit it was composed, he intitled 'AvTippriat; tcov y.ar avTOU ['0/x^pou] jSAao-^jj/Ajjo-avTcov. And last of aU, when the necessity became more pressing, Proclus undertook to shew that aU Homer's Fables were no other than physical, ethical, and moral allegories. For we are to observe, that the PhUosophers invented and revived this way of interpretation, as at two differ ent times, so on two different occasions. 1. It was invented to encounter such men as Euhemerus, who attempted to overthrow aU ReUgion, by this pretended fact. That the First Worship was paid to dead men deified; which they supported on a real one, namely, that the greater Gods of Greece were only deified Mortals ; as appeared from Homer and the other early Greek Poets : whose writings being become a kind of Scripture in the popular ReUgion, the Defenders of the common faith had it not in their power to repudiate their fables as only the idle visions of a poetic fancy : Nothing was left but to spiritualize the sense, by aUegorical interpretations. And this proved so lucky an expedient, that, at the same time that it covered their fables from the attacks of their adversaries, it added new reverence and veneration both to them and their Authors. So Tertullian. " Ipsa quoque vulgaris super stitio communis Idololatrise, cum in simulacris de nominibus et fabulis veterum mortuorum pudet, ad interpretationem naturalium refugit, et dedecus suum ingenio obumbrat, figurans Jovem in substantiam fervi- dam, et Junonem ejus in aeream,"-^ &c. 2. What These began for the sake of their Theologers, their successors continued for the sake of their Theology. For it is to be noted, that the first Christian Apologists took up so much of the argument of Euhemerus and his Fellows, as concerned the real nature and original of the greater Gods of Greece. And as they had disencumbered this truth, of the false consequence with which those audacious Freethinkers had loaded it, they were enabled to urge it with superior force. But if the Christians added new rigour to this attack, the Philosophers became stiU more animated in their defence : for they hated this new Sect as an enemy equaUy to the Philosophy and to the Religion of Greece. And their accidental advantages in the appUcation of this rerived method of allegory, were not inferior to their most studied arts of improring it : For their * Lib. ii. Anaxag. Vita. t Adversus Marc. lib. i. 40 THE DIVINE LEGATION book hi. Christian Adversaries could vrith no grace object to a way of interpre tation which they themselves had just borrowed from Paganism, to SPIRITUALIZE, forsooth, their sacred Scriptures, which the PhUoso phers had long used with more sense and better judgment, to make theirs, reasonable. But here we are to take notice of this difference between these AUegorizers before, and the AUegorizers after the time of Christ. The first were principally employed in giring a physical* or matal interpretation of the Fables ; the latter, a theological. As we may see in the case of Plutarch ; who was both Priest and Philoso pher in one. His famous tract, of Isis and Osiris, is directly written to support the national Religion, which had just taken the alarm ; and not without reason. His purpose, in it, is to shew. That all its multiform worship was only an address to the supreme Being, under various names and covers. But then ancient history, which acquaints us with the origin of their Gods, stood in his way. He denies therefore, what these histories invariably attest. He calls Euhemerus, who inforced their eridence, an Impostor :f And hath many other evasions to elude such circumstances as are most decisive. Thus, when he cannot deny, that, what is recorded of their Gods shews them to be subject to human passions, he wUl not yet aUow the inference for their humanity ; because the Genii and Demons are agitated by the like passions. J Thus again, the bewailing and lament ing gestures, in many of their estabUshed Rites, which looked so hke mourning for the dead, signified, he assures us, no more than an aUegorical representation of corn sown and buried.^ In this manner, the postulate having supported the allegories ; the aUegories come, in good time, to the assistance of the postulate. Thus stood the matter in the ancient World. Let us see now what use the Moderns have made of what they found recorded there. Our Freethinkers, such as Toland and his school, have rerived the old rank doctrine of Euhemerus. That Pantheistic PhUosopher's under standing had so strong a bias to impiety, that it seemed rather a * So Arnobihs. " Fttlnerari, vexari, bella inter se gerere forialium memorantur ardore discriminum : Vobis ilia e3t descriptio voluptati, atgue ut scriptorum tantam defendatis audaciam, allegorias res illas, et naturalis scienti^ mentimini esse doctrinas." — Adversus Gentes, lib. iv. p. 150, ed. quarto. \ "Os avrbs [Eu^/iepra] dvTiypas a'nov, Kal -nroievv- TON K02M0N EIHE *eEIPE2eAI. It appears too from this passage that he spoke popularly, when he said that the world was made, or had a beginning ; and that this doctrine was merely popular, may be seen too from the following words of Themistius. Kal yap 6 Tlapjxevlbrfs iv toIs mpos So'|av, to "Sepfiiiv - tsroiei Kal TO yjfvxpnv dpxas, av to p^vaCp, to 8e y^v uspoirayopevei. It is then erident from these passages that, in his exoterics, he gave the world both a beginning and an end. But then in his other writings he denied that it had either. I need not quote Cicero, Plutarch, or Eusebius, to prove this ; the following verses of his own are sufiicient for my present purpose : hindp aKlvriToy neydXuv 4y ¦nre/pacri Sea/uSv 'E^™ANAPX0N, AnATSTON, 4-Kei rENE2I2 Kai OAE0PO2 TpSe fuiX iTrXdyxinta'av, diraae Se ¦orlaTis oA»jft)s." Seethe Critical enquiry into the opinions atid practice of the ancient phUo sophers, p. 226, 2d edit. »OTEs- OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 59 P. 420. G. One of the Answerers of 2%e Divine Legation says, " What a noble field would have been here opened for the Fathers, could they have charged the Pagan sages and philosophers with the dissimulation which Mr. W. has here dona ! Could they have loaded them with the crime of believing one thing amd teaching another, with lying, with imposing on the credulity of the people ; what a display of rhetoric should we have had ! Could there have been a more fit occasion for satire or declamation ? — ^but they never reproach them Off THAT ACCOUNT." — ^Dr. Sykes's Exam. p. 88. The gravity of all this is so rarely contrasted with its profound knowledge, that the Reader cannot find in his heart to be angry vrith him for what follows, from these Fathers ; with whom tha good Doctor appears to be so weU acquainted. Arnobius, speaking of this custom of believing cme thing and teaching another, says : " Nunc vero, cum aliud creditis et aliud fingitis, et in eos estis contumeliosi, quibus id attribuitis, quod eos confitemini non esse : et irreUgiosi esse monstramini, cum id adoratis quod fingitis, non quod in re esse, ipsai|ue in veritate censetis." — L. iii. p. 109. Lugd. ed. !I5psebius reproaches Plato on this very account : charges him with mean dissimulation for teaching doctrines which he beUeved to be false, merely out of reverence to tha laws of his country. Kai to ¦aapa. yvap-rpi he Tavra \eyeiv rav v6pi,tt>v eveKa hiapprihr)vvsaplaTi)(Tiv 6p.oKoryi](ras, on Se'oi eTTop,evavs ra vofic^ vftOTeveiv airols. Prsep. Evang. C. xiu. 1. — ciWa yap tovto>v be X^P^^ aTToXetiTTeos tjiuv oStos, &eei ^avdrov tok 'K6r)vaiav Srjpov Ka6vnoKpivdp.evos. c. 15. Lactantius reproves Cicero for the same practice : " Cum rideamus etiam doctos et prudentes viros, cum reUgionum inteUigant vanitatem, nihUo- minus tamen in iis ipsis, quae damnant, colendis, nescio qua pravitate, perstare. InteUigebat Cicero falsa esse, quae homines adorarent : nam cum multa dixisset, quse ad eversionem religionum valerent : ait tamen non esse ilia vulgo disputanda, ne susceptas publice reUgiones disputatio talis extin- guat : Quid ei facies, qui, cum errare se sentiat, ultro ipse in lapidas im- pingat, ut populus omnis offendat ? Ipse sibi oculos eruat, ut omnes cseci sint ? Qui nee de aUis bene mereatur, quos patitur errare ; nee de seipso, qui alienis accedit erroribus ; nee utitur tandem sapientise suse bono, ut factis impleat, quod mente percepit." Div. Instit. 1. ii. c. 3. St. Austin's account of Seneca is not at all more favourable. " Sed iste quem phUosophi quasi liberum * fecerunt, tamen quia illustris populi Romani Senator erat, colebat quod reprehendebat ; agebat, quod arguabat ; quod culpabat, adorabat. — Eo damnabilius, quod iUa quae mendaciter agebcU sic ageret, ut populus veraciter agere existimaret." De civ. Dei, 1. yi. c. 10. But this Father concludes aU the Pagan sages and philosophers under the same condemnation, for imposing (as Dr. Sykes expresses it) on the credulity of the people, and with satire and declamation enough of con science, if that wiU satisfy the Doctor.— " Quod utique non aUam ob causam factum videtur, nisi quia homines velut prudentimn et sapientium negotium fuit, populuu in religionibus fallere, at in eo ipso non solum colare, sed imitari etiam Dmnones. Sicut enim Dsemones nisi eos quos fallendo deceparint, possidere non possunt, sic et homines principes^ non sane justi sed Dcemonum similes, ea quse vana esse noverant, religionis nomine populis tanquam vara suadabant, hoc modo eos oivUi societati velut arctius aUigantes." De civit. Dei, 1. iv. c. 132. • Alluding to the Stoical wise man. 70 THE DIVINE LEGATION book »ii. P. 424. H. One scarce meets with any thing in antiquity concerning Pythagoras's knowledge in physics, but what gives us fresh cause to admire the wonderful sagacity of that extraordinary man. This story of his pre dicting earthquakes has so much the air of a fable, that I beUeve it has been generaUy ranked (as it is by Stanley) with that heap of trash, which the enthusiastic Pythagoreans ahd Platonists of the lower ages have raked together concerning him. Yet we learn from the coUections of Pliny the Elder, which say — " future terrae motu, est in puteis turbidior aqua" 1. ii. c. 83, that the ancients profited of this discovery, verified by a modem relation of Paul Dudley, Esq. in the PhUosophical Transactions, No. 437. p. 72, who, speaking of an earthquake which lately happened in New England, gives this remarkable account of its preceding symptoms : " A neighbour of mine, that has a Well thirty-six feet deep, about three days before the earthquake, was surprized to find his water, that used to be very sweet and limpid, stink to that degree that they could make no use of it, nor scarce bear the house when it was brought in ; and thinking some carrion was got into the WeU, he searched the bottom, but found it clear and good, though the colour of the water was turned wheyish, or pale.. In about seven days after the earthquake, his water began to mend, and in three days more returned to its former sweetness and colour." P. 426. I. " CsBsar " (says Cato) " bene et composite paulo ante, in hoc ordine, de vita et morte disseruit, credo falsa existumans ea quae de inferis memorantur." Apud eund. Cicero's reply is to the same purpose : " Itaque ut aliqua in vita formido improbis esset posita, apud inferos ejusmodi qusedam illi antiqui supplicia impiis constituta esse -voluerunt : quod ride- licet intelUgebant, his remotis, non esse mortem ipsam pertimescendam." Orat. iv. in Catilin. § 4. I cannot conceive what the very ingenious Mr. Moyle could mean in his Essay on the Roman Government, by saying, — if the immortality of the soul (by which he means the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments) liad been an established doctrine, Cceswr would not have derided it in the face of the whole senate. — Do not the words of Cicero — Antiqui supplicia impiis constituta esse voluerunt, expressly declare it to be an established doctrine ? When Juvenal speaks of the impiety of Rome, with regard to this religious opinion, he exhorts the sober part of them to adhere to it, in these words : " Sed tu vera puta. Carina quid sentit, et amho Scipiadse ? quid Fabricius manesque Camilli ? quoties hmc talis ad illos Umbra venit ? cuperent lustrari, si qua darentur Sulphura com taedis, et si foret homlda laurus. Illuc, hen ! Miseri traducimur " Those who understand these lines can never doubt whether a future State was the established doctrine in Rome. — Yet, stranger than aU this, the very learned Mosheim, in his De Rebus Christ. Comment, p. 15, speaking of this licentious part of Caesar's speech, seems to copy Mr. Moyle's opinion (whose works he had translated) in these words — " Ita magni hi Homines et Romance civitatis principes nunquam ausi fuissent loqui, in ConcUio Patram conscriptorum si Religio credere jtississet, mentes hominum per- ennes esse." By his, si ReUgio credere jussisset, he must mean — if this had been the established Doctrine — He could not mean — had the Pagan Religion in general enjoined it to be believed— Fov there was no national Religion of Paganism without it. But -the reason he gives for his opinion exceeds all beUef. He say^ " Cato is so far from blaming Ca;sar for this declaration, NOTES. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 71 that he rather openly applauds it " — " Quam orationem M. Fortius Cato, aiud Stoicae FamUiae pnesidium et decus, tantum abest, ut reprehendat, ut potius pubUce pariter in Senatu laudat." What are these terms of praise ? — " Sic enim Bene et Composite," inquit, " Cwsarpauh ante in hoe Ordine de vita et morte disseruit: falsa, credo, existimans qum de inferis memorantur." Surely this bene et composite disseruit, was so far from being intended by the rigid Stoic as a compliment on his capital Adversary, that it was a severe censure, implying, in every term made use of, that Caesar's opinion was no crude or hasty sentiment, taken up, as an occasional topic, out of an iU-judged compassion for the Criminals, but that it was the System of his School in this matter, deUberately dressed out with all the charms of his own eloquence, in a studied and correct dissertation. P. 431. K. Acad. Qucest. 1. ivi — The learned Mosheim has done me the honour of abridging my resisoning on this head in the following manner — "Academici, meliores licet et sapientiores Scepticis videri vellent, aeque tamen maii et perniciosi erant. Id ipsum enim dogma, in quo vis et ratio disci- plinse Scepticae posita erat, probabant ' Nihil cognosci, nihil peTcipi, nihil Bchi posse, et de omnibus idcirco rebus, nuUo interposito judicio, disputan- dum esse.' Hoe unum inter utrosque intererat, quod cum Sceptici sta- tuerent, "nuUi rei ad sentiendum, sed perpetuo disputandum esse.' Academici e contrario sciscerent ' in iUis quae veri speciem haberent seu probabiUa viderentur, acquiescendum esse.' Atqui hoc ipsum probabile cui sapientem adsentiri volebant Academici, nunquam illi bbperiebant. Quare non sacus ac Sceptici infirmare omnia et incerta reddere studebant. Id vero qui agunt, ut dubium prorsus et anceps ridentur Utrum — Animi moriantur an supersint" S;c. De rebus Christ. Comment, p. 22. P. 431. L. ' The reader may not be displeased to see the judgment of a learned French writer on the account here given of the Academics — " L'on fait voir que l'on doit exclure de ce nombre [|des sectas dogmatistas] les nouveaux Academiciens, purs scaptiques, quoy qu'il y ait quelques auteurs modernes qui pretendent le contraire, et entre autres M. Middleton, auteur de la nouveUe Vie du Ciceron Anglois. Mais si l'on examine la source ou il a puise ses sentimens, l'on trouvera que c'est dans les apologies que les Academiciens eux memos ont faites pour cacher le scepticisme qui leur etoit reproche par toutes les autres sectas ; et de cette maniere on pourroit soute- nir que les Pyrrhoniens memos n'Stoient point sceptiques. Qu'on se res- souvienne seulement que, suivant le raport de Ciceron, ArcesUaus, fondateur de la nouveUe Academic, nioit qua l'on fut certain de sa propra existence. Apres un trait semblable, et plusieurs autres qui sont raportes — on laisse au lecteur a decider du caractere de cette secte et du jugement qu'en porte M. Middleton." M. De S. Dis. sur I' Union de la Religion, de la Morale, et de la Politique, Pref. p. 12. P. 432. M. TuUy assures us that those of the Old Academy were Dog matists, Quaest. Acad. lib. i. " Nihil enim inter Pebipateticos et Acade miam illam veierem differebat ; " for that the Peripatetics ware dogmatists no body ever doiibted. Yet the same TuUy, towards the conclusion of this book, ranks them with the sceptics, " Hanc Academiam novam appeUa- bant, quse mihi vetus videtur ; " for such certainly was the New Academy. The way of reconciUng Cicero to himself I take to be this : Where he speaks of the conformity between the Peripatetics and the Old Academy, he considers Plato as the founder of the Old Academy ; this appears from the foUowing words, Academ. 1. ii. c. 5. " Alter [nempe Plato] quia reUquit perfectissimam discipUnam, Peripateticos et Academicos, nominibus differ- entes re congruentes ; " And where he speaks of the conformity between 72 THE DIVINE LEGATION book hi. the New Academy and the OU, he considers Socrates as the founder of the Old Academy. For the New, as we here see, claimed the nearest relation to their master. Thus De Nat. Deor. \. i. c. 6, he says, " Ut haec in phUoso- phia ratio contra omnia disserendi, nuUamque rem aperte judicandi,^r-o/ecfa a Socrate, repetita ab Arcesila, confirmata a Carneade" &c. But TuUy, it may be said, in the very place where he speaks of the agreement between the New and Old Academy, understands Plato as the founder of the old ; " Hanc Academiam novam appellant ; quae mihi vetus videtur, si quidem Platonem ex ilia vetere numeramus ; cujus in libris nihil adfirma- tur, et in utramque partem multa disseruntur ; de omnibus quaeritur, nihil carti dicitur." But it is to be observed, that Plato had a twofold cha racter : and is to be considered, on tha one hand, as the Disciple and His- torian of Socrates ; and on the other, as the Head of a Sect himself, and master of Xenocrates and Aristotle. As the disciple, he affirms nothing ; aa the master, he is a Dogmatist. Under the first character, Socrates and he are the same ; under the second, they are very different. TuUy here speaks of him under the first, as appears from what ha says of him, nihil adfirma- tur, S^o. Plato, in this place, therefore, is the same as Socrates. The not distinguishing his double character, hath occasioned much dispute amongst the Ancients ; as the not observing that Cicero hath, throughout his writ ings, made that distinction, hath much embarrassed the moderns. Diogenes Laertius tells us, there were infinite disputes about Plato's character ; some holding that he did dogmatize, others that he did not. 'Eirel Se woXX^ frrdois earl, Kal oi pev (paoiv avTov boypM-Ti^eiv, oi 8 ov. Lib. iii. Seg. 61. Sextus Empiricus says the same thing : roj' TiXdrova ovv, oi pjkv 8oyp,anKbv evi^6p.evos ntpos (To^iorar, yvfivaonKov re Kal divoprjjiaTiKov (jtao'iv ex^tv avTov X'^P'^^r^pai SoypanKov Se, ev6a crTTovSd^wv, d7rov tolovtoiv. That Cicaro made the distinction, delivered above, we shall now see. In the Academic Questions, he speaks of him as the disciple and historian of Socrates"; and, under that character, " nihU adfir- matur, et in utramque partem multa disseruntur, da omnibus quaeritur, nihil carti dicitur." In his Offices ha speaks of him as different from Socrates, and ih& founder of a sect : and then ha is a Dogmatist, and, as he says elsewhere, " reliquit perfectissimam discipUnam Peripateticos et Aca demicos nominibus differentes, re congTuentes." His words to his son are : " Sed tamen nostra [nempe Academica] leges non multum a Peripateticis dissidentia, quoniam utrique et Socratici et Platonici esse volumus ; " i. e. He tells his son, that he would both dogmatize like Plato, and scepticize Uke Socrates. But Grserius, not apprehending this double chai-acter df Plato, would change Socratici to Stoici. For, says he, " qui dicere potest se utrumque esse voluisse Platonicum et Socraticum ; perinde est ac si scrip- sisset utrumque se velle esse Peripateticum et Aristoteleum." But there was a vast difference between Plato, founder of the Academy, and Socrates ; though none between Plato the disciple and historian of Socrates, and Socrates. — The fortune of this note has been very singular ; and wiU afford us a pleasant picture of the temper and genius of Answerers and thair ways. Ona man writing something about Plato and tha ancients ; and reading what is here said of Plato's dogmatizing, abuses the author for making him a dogmatist : And another who had to do, I do not know how, with Socrates sxA the moderns, and reading what relates to Plato's scepticiz- ing, is as plentiful, in his ribaldry and ill language, for making him a notes. of MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 73 sceptic : while the author was, all the time, giring an historical relation of what others made him ; and only endeavoured to reconcile their various accounts. P. 435. N. Tusc. Disp. 1. i. c. 16. — Honore refers to his philosophic character ; and auctoritate to his legislative. The common reading is, " cum honore et disciplina, turn etiam auctoritate." Dr. B. in his emen dations on the Tusc. Qucest. saw this was faulty ; but not refiecting on the complicated character of Pythagoras, and perhaps not attending to Cicero's purpose (which was,- not to speak of the nature of his philosophy, but of the reputation he had in Magna Graecia) he seems not to have hit upon the true reading. He objects to honore, because the particles cmn and turn require a greater difference in the things spoken of, than is to be found in honos and auctoritas : which reasoning would have been just, had only a pldlosophic character, or only a legislative, been tlie subject. But it was Cicero's plain meaning, to present Pythagoras under both these riews. So that honos, which is the proper consequence of succeeding in the first ; and auctoritas, of succeeding in the latter ; have all the real difference that cum and tum require ; at least Plutarch thought so, when he applied words of the very same import to the Egyptian soldiery and the priesthood; to whom, Uke the legislator and philosopher, the one having power and the other wisdom, auctoritas and honos distinctly belong : — toO piv 8t' dvSplav, Tov Se Sta a-oiav, pevovs ASIQMA Kal TIMHN exoVTOs. De Isid. et Osir. Another objection, the learned critic brings against the common reading, has more weight ; which is, that in honore et disciplina, two words are joined together as very similar in sense, which have scarce any affinity or relation to one another : on which account he would read more et disci plina. But this, as appears from what has been said above, renders the whole sentence lame and imperfect : I would venture therefore to read, (only changing a single letter) " tenuit Magnam illam Graeciam cum honore EX disciplina, tum etiam auctoritate : " and then all will be right, disciplina referring equally to honore and auctoritate, as implying both his philosophic and civil institutions.* P. 438. 0. Demonstratio Evangelica ; which, because the World would not accept for demonstration, and because he had no better to give, after a long and vain search for certainty throughout all the Regions of Erudition, he attempted, by the help of Sextus Empiricus, in order to keep himself in credit, to shew that no such thing was to be had. And so composed his book of the Weakness of human understanding. Malebranch has laid open his ridiculous case vrith great force and skiU— «I1 est vrai qu'U y en a qualques-uns qui reconnoissant apres ringt ou trente annees de temps perdu, qu'ils n'ont rien appris dans leurs lectures ; mais U ne leur plait pas de nous le dire avec sincerite. H faut auparavant qu'Us ayent prouve, a leur inode, qu'on ne peut rien sfavoir ; et puis apres ils le confessent ; parce qu'alors Us croyent le pouvoir faire, sans qu'on se mocque de leur igiwrai^ce. ^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ j^j^ Qiasgow editors, (to mention them for once) in the essay on the composition of the ancients, are here very angry at the author for charging Plato with making a monstrous mzs-^lhance, merely (as they say) because he added the study oi physics to that, oi morals ;^A employ six pages in defending Plato's conduct. As these insolent scnbblers coiUd not see then, so possibly they wiU not be ready o learn now that the term of monstrous mis-allianee, which I gave to Plato's project, of incorpo- r. In the references to the notes N and O in pages 435 and 438, the edition of 1811 has been foUowed, which by mistake quotes them as M and P.] 74 THE DIVINE LEGATION book hi. rating the Pythagoric and Socratic Schools, referred to the opposite and contrary geniuses of those Schools in their manner of treating their Sub jects, not to any difference which there is in their Subjects themselves. The mis-alliance was not in joining Physics to Morals ; but in joining a Fanatic Mysticism to the cool logic of common sense. P. 454. Q. The unfairness of readers when their passions have made them become writers, is hardly to ba conceived : some of these have repre sented the three last testimonies as given to prove that Plato believed no future state at all : though the author had plainly and expresly declared, but a page or two before, p. 452, as weU as at p. 414, that there was a sort of futwre state which Plato did believe ; he refers to it again at p. 465, and, what is more, observes here, on this last passage, that Celsua sUudes to this very future state of Plato. And what was it but this, — ^that future happiness and misery were the natural and necessary consequences of Virtue and Vice ; Vice being supposed to produce that imbecUity and slug gishness which clogged and retarded the Soul, and hindered it from pene trating into the higher regions. P. 466. R. This -will explain the cause of a fact which Cicero observes concerning them, where he speaks of the liberty which the Greek Philoso phers had taken, in inventing new Words — " ex omnibus Philosophis Stoioi plurima novaverunt." de Fin. 1. ii. c. 2. For the more a Teacher deviates from common notions, and the discipline of Nature, the less able he wiU be to express himself by Words already in use. P. 457. S. This strange Stoical fancy, that the same Scenes of men and things should revive and re-appear, can be only wall accounted for by the credit they gave to the dotages of Judicial Astrology, to which their doc-i trine of Fate much disposed them. This renovation was to happen in the • GREAT Platonic Year, whan all the heavenly Bodies were supposed to begin their courses anew, from the same points from which they first set out at their Creation. So Ausonius, -" Consumpto Magnus qui didtnr anno Rursus in antiquum venient vaga sidera cursum, Qualia dispositi steterant ah Origine Mundi.'' P. 469. T. Cicero makesthe famous orator, M. Antonius, give this as the reason why he hid his knowledge of the Greek Philosophy from the People. — " Sic decrevi [inquit Antonius] phUosophari potius, ut Neopto- lemus apud Ennium, ^fflwa's : nam omnino haud placet. Sad tamen haec est mea sententia, quam videbar exposuisse. Ego ista studia non improbo^ moderata modo sint : opinionem istorum studiorum, et suspicionem artificii apud eos, qui res judicent, oratori advarsariam esse arbitror. Imminuit enim et oratoris auctoritatem et orationis fidem." De Orat. 1. ii. c. 17. P. 469. U. Orat. pro Mwrasna. It must be owned, that these wotds, at first sight, seem to have a different meaning. And the disputandA causa looks as if the observation was confined to Stoicism. For tWs Sect had so entirely engrossed the Dialectics, that the followers of Zeno ware more frequently caUed Dialectici than Stoici. Notwithstanding this, it plainly appears, I think, from the context, that the other sense is the true. TuUy introduces his observation on Cato's singularity in these words : et quoniasii non est nobis hoeo oratio habenda aut cum imperita multitudine, aut in aliquo conventu agrestium, audacius paulo de studiis humanitatis, quce et mihi et vobis nota et jucunda sunt, disputabo. Here he declares, his design is not to give his thoughts of tha Stoics in particular (though thay furnished the occa sion) but of the Greek philosophy in general, de studiis humanitatis. He NOTES. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 75 then runs through the Stoical paradoxes, and concludes — Haec homo inge- niosissimus M. O. arripuit, S^c. But had it been his intention to confine the observation to the Stoics, on account of their great name in Logic, he must have said heme, not hoec : it being their Logic, not their Paradoxes, which was of use in disputation'. P. 461. X, LucuUus had beafi declaiming -very tragicaUy against the Academy, when TuUy entered on its defence ; in which he thought it pro per to premise something concerning himself. " Aggrediar igitur," (says he) " si pauca ante, quasi de fama mea, dixero." He then declares, that, had he embraced the Academy out of vanity, or love of contradiction, it had not only reflected on his sense, but on his honour : " Itaque nisi ineptum puta- rem in taU disputatione id facere, quod cum de republica disceptatur fieri interdum solet : jurarem per Jovem," &c. From hence, I gather that though the question here be of the Academic phUosophy, and of Cicero as an Academic ; yet, as he teUs us, he is now to vindicate himself in a point in which his honour was concerned ; the protestation is general, and con cerns his constant turn of mind ; which always inclined him, he says, to speak his sentiments. P. 465. Y. The learned Author of the exact and elegant History of Cicero, hath since turned this circumstance to the support of the contrary opinion, with regard to his Hero's sentiments : — " But some " (says he) " have been apt to consider them \j. e. the passages in TuUy's philosophic vmtings in favour of a future state] as the flourishes rather of his eloquence than the conclusions of liis reason. Since in other parts of his works he seems to intimate, not only a diffidence, but a disbelief of the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments, and especially in his letters, where he is supposed to declare his mind with the greatest frankness. But — in a melancholy hour, when the spirits are depressed, the same argument would not appear to him with the same force, but doubts and difficulties get the ascendant, and what humoured his present chagrin find the readiest admission. The passages alleged .p. e. in this place of the Divine Legation^ were all of this kind, written in the season of his dejec tion, when aU things were going wrong with him, and in the height of Caesar's power," &c. Vol. ii. p. 561. ed. 4. Thus, every thing hath two Academical handles. But stiU, my candid friend wiU allow me to say, they cannot both be right. It is confessed, that a desponding temper, like that of Cicero, will, in a melancholy hour, be always inclined to fear the worst. But to what are its fears confined ? Without doubt to the issue of that very affair, for which we are distressed. A melancholy hour would have just the contrary influence on our other cogitations. And this by the wise and gracious disposition of Nature ; that the mind may endeavour to make up by an abundance of hope in one quarter, what through the persua sion of its fears, it hath suffered itself tp part from, in another. So that unless Cicero were made differently from aU other men, one might venture to say, his hopes of future good (had Philosophy permitted him to entertain any hopes at aU) would have risen in proportion to his fears of the present. And this is seen every day in fact. For it is nothing but this natural dis position that makes men of the world so generally fly even to Superstition for the solace of their misfortunes. But the excellent author of the Critical Inquiry into the Opinions of ihe Ancient Philosophers goes further. « Cicero " (says he) " very frankly declares in his Tusculans themselves that this [the mortality or the no separate existence of the soul] was the most real and effec tual, the most soUd and substantial comfort that could be administered against the fear of death. In his fii-st Tusculan, he undertakes to prove, that death 76 THE DIVINE LEGATION book hi. was-not an evU ; and this, 1st, Because it was not attended with any actual punishment, or positive and real misery. 2dly, He rises higher, and labours to prove, that men ought to look upon death as a blessing rather than an evil, as the soul, after its' departure from the body, might be happy in another life. In the first part he supposes tha mortaUty and extinction of the soul at death ; in the second he plainly supposes, that it wiU survive the body. Now the question is, on which doctrine does he lay most stress ; or, which of these two notions, in the opinion of Cicero, would serve best to fortify and prepare men against the fear of death? And luckily Cicero himself has long since determined this point for us ; having in the first Tus culan brought several reasons to prove the immortality of the soul, he after all very frankly declares, that they had no great validity and force ; that the most soUd and substantial argument, which could be urged against the fear of death, was the vary consideration advanced in his letters, or the doe- trine which makes it the utter period of our being : And in tha remaining part of the book ha proceeds to argue chiefly on this supposition, as being the best calculated to support men against the fear and terror of death. The arguments which he urged to prove the immortality of the soul, seem some times to have had great weight with the person to whom they were immediately addressed ; he declares himself fond of the opinion, and resolves not to part with it. 'Nemo me da immortalitate dapellet.' To thia Cicero replies, ' laudo id quidem ; etsi nihil nimis oportet confidere : move- mur enim saepe aliquo acute concluso ; labamus mutamusque sententiam clarioribus etiam in rebus ; in his est enim aliqua obscuritas. Id igitur si acciderit, simus armati,' c. 32. He does not seem to lay any great stress on the notion of a future state ; ' nihil oportet nimis confidere.' He owns that the arguments, aUeged in support of it, were rather spacious than soUd : ' movemur enim saepe aliquo acute concluso.' That they were not plain and clear enough to make any strong and lasting impression : ' Labamus mu tamusque sententiam clarioribus etiam in his rebus ; in his est enim aUqua obscuritas.' — That therefore the best remedy at all events, would be the notion that the soul dies with the body ; ' id igitur si acciderit, simus armati.' Having then explained what he had to say on the immortality of the soul, he proceeds to shew, that death could not be considered as an eril, on the supposition that the soul was to perish with the body. " When therefore he would teach men to contemn tha terrors of death, he grounds his main argument on the mortaUty of the soul. As to the notion of a future state, it was maintained by arguments too subtile to work a real and lasting conviction ; it was not thought clear enough to make any deep and strong impression. He has therefore recourse to the extinction of the soul, as the most comfortable consideration that could be employed against iha fear of death. This was not than a topic that was peculiar to the season of dejection and distress ; it was not thrown out only accidentally, when he was not considering the subject, but was used in the works that were deliberately and professedly written on this very point. It could not therefore be occasional only, and suited to the present circum stances, as Dr. Middleton in his reasoning all along supposes." P. 476. Z. Dion Cassius tells us, that in the year of Rome 689 the Government consulted, what tha Historian calls, the Augury of safety; a sort of divination to learn, if tha Gods received in good part tha Prayers for the Safety of the People. This ceremony was only to be performed in that year, during tha course of which, no Allies of Rome had defected from her, no Armies had appeared in the field, and no Battle had been fought. A ceremony-which plainly arose from the ancient notion of an NOTES. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 77 envious Demon, then most to be dreaded whan the felicity of States or of private men was at its height. P. 480. AA. Tusc. Disp. 1. v. c. 13. The words, si hoc fas est dictu, had been omitted by accident, in my quotation. — But Answerers saw a mystery in this omission, which could be nothing but my consciousness that the omitted words made against me. They are now inserted to show that they make entirely for me ; and that Cicero used the word decerptus in the literal sense ; for, if only in a, figurative, he had no occasion to soften it with a salva reverentia. P. 480. BB. It properly signifies what hath neither beginning nor end; though frequently used in the improper sense of having no end. And indeed, we may observe in most of the Latin writers, an unphilosophio licence in the use of mixed modes by substituting one for another : The providing against the iU effects of this abuse, to which these sort of words are chiefly liable, gave the ancient Roman lawyers great trouble ; as appears from what one of them observes, " Jurisconsultorum summus circa verbo- rum PROPRifeTATBM labor est." Hence the Composers of the Justinian Digest found a necessity of having one whole book of their Pandects employed de verborum significatione. The abuse arose,"in a good measure, from their not being early broken and inured to abstract reasoning : It is certain at least, that the Greeks, who ware eminent for speculation, are infinitely more exact in their use of mixed modes; not but something must be allowed for tha superior abundance of the Greek language. P. 482. CC. It hath been objected to me, that this doctrine of the refu sion of the soul was very consistent with the beUef of a future state of rewards and punishments, in the intermediate space between death and the resolution of the soul into the to ey. But these Objectors forgot that it had been shown, that those Philosophers who held the refusion not to be immediate, believed the soul to be confined to a successive course of trans migrations entirely physical. So that thera was no more room for a moral state of reward and punishment hereafter, than if tha resolution had been immediate. Pp. 489, 600. DD. Averai eKacFTt] Sivapis AAOrOS els rr/v o\rjv fm^i' tou taavTos. But the elder Platonists talked another language : if Virgil may be aUowed to know what they said : " Esse apibus partem divinse mentis, et haustus jEtheru'S dixere. Deum namque ire per omnes.'' P. 489. EE. But they were not content to speak a language different from their Master. They would, sometimes, make him speak theirs. So Hierocles tells us, Plato said, that " When God made the visible world, he had no occasion for pre-existent matter to work upon. His will was suffi cient to bring aU creatures into bemg." 'Apx^'tv ydp avra els iirioTaa-iv tS>v 8vTa>v TO oiKelov ^ovXtjpa. Defato et prov. ap. Phot. But where Plato said this we are yet tolaam. " Terrasque, tractusque maris, coelumque profundum, Hinc peoudes, armenta, VIEOS, genus omne ferarum, Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas. Scilicet hue reddi deinde, ac resolhta referri Omnia:"- Georg. U. 222. But now what temptation could the later Platonists have to make this alteration in favour of Paganism, if their master and his first followers called the human soul a part of God only in a loose metaphorical sense? for such a sense could have refiacted no disgrace upon their systems. A passage of Plutarch will shew us the whole change and alteration of 78 THE DIVINE LEGATION book hi. this system in one view ; where, speaking of the opinions of the philoso phers, he says, " Pythagoras and Plato held the Soul to be immortal ; for that launching out into the Soul of the universe, it returns to its Parent and original. The Stoics say, that on its leaving the body, the more infirm (that is, the Soul of the ignorant) suffers the lot of the body : But the more vigorous (that is, the Soul of the wise) endures to the conflagration. Demoeritus and Epicurus say, the Soul is mortal, and perishes with the body : Pythagoras and Plato, that the reasonable Soul is immortal (for that the Soul is not God, but the workmanship of the eternal God) and that the irrational is mortal." Hvdayopas, nXdrcov, a(ji6apTov^ ejvat rjv yjnixrjV e^iovoav yap els t6 tov ¦mavTos i/'^X^" dvaxaipelv Jffpbs to opoyeves. Ol StmIkoi i^iovo'av rav a-atpdrav viT0(f>epe6eipopevr]v. Ilvdayopas Kal HKdrav to pev \oyi. K&v, a6dppji indifferently, as they were disposed to hide or to reveal its real nature. While thay held all souls subject to this resolution, thay would, of course, keep it amongst their secrets, and call it immortality. When they began to make a distinction, and only subjected the irrational soul to this resolu tion, as in the passage of Porphyry, then they would call it mortality, as in the passage of Plutarch ; a passage though hitherto esteemed an indigested heap of absurdity and contradiction, is now, we presume, reasonably well explained and reconciled to itself. NOTES. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 79 . P. 492. FF. It is remarkable that Demoeritus the Master of Epicuras gave but two qualities to matter, figure and bulk, i. e. extension. His dis ciple gave three, by adding gravity. This_ quaUty wais as sensible as the other two. What shall we say ? That Demoeritus penetrated so far into matter, as to see that gravity did not essentiaUy belong unto it, but was a quality superinduced upon it. Certain it is, what Dr. Clarke conjectures, in his dispute with Leibnitz, that Epicurus^ s Philosophy was a corrupt and atheistical perversion of some more ancient, and perhaps better Philosophy. P. 499. GG. But this has been the humour of the zealous Partizans of a favourite Cause, in aU Ages. Honest Anthony Wood, recommending a MS. of a brother Antiquary, one Henry Lyte, intitled. Conjectural Notes touching the Original of the University of Oxon and also of Britain, observes with great complacency — " In this are many pretty fancies, which may be of some use, as occasion shall serve, by way of reply for Oxon, against the far-fetehed antiquities of Cambridge." — ^A dispute had arisen between these two famous Universities, not concerning the superior Excel lence of the one or other Institution ; but of the superior Antiquity only. In a contention of the first kind, the disputants would have had some need of Truth ; aU that was wanted in the latter, was weU-invented Fable. Wisely therefore did our reverend Antiquary recommend to the Managers of this important question, the pretty fancies of this Oxford Champion ; to oppose to the pretty fancies of the far-fetched Antiquities of the Cam bridge Athlet. P. 609. HH. As what is here said relates entirely to the revolutions in the state of ReUgion here at home, strangers will not be able to see the force of it, without some further account of this matter. — Justification BY faith alone, buUt upon the doctrine of the Redemption of Mankind by the death and saerifice of Christ, was the great Gospel-Principle on which Protestantism was founded, when the Churches of the North-West of Europe first shook off the Yoke of Rome : By some perhaps pushed too far, in their abhorrence of the Popish doctrine of merit ; the Puritan schism amongst us being made on the panic fancy that the Church of England had not receded far enough from Rome. However, Justification hy Faith alone being a Gospel-Doctrine, it was received as the badge of true Protestantism, by all ; when tha Puritans (first driven by persecution from religious into civil Faction, and thoroughly heated into Enthusiasm by each Faction, in its turn) carried the Doctrine to a dangerous and impure Antinomianism. This fanatic notion soon after produced the practical virtues of these modem Saints. The mischiefs which ensued are well known. And no small share of them has been ascribed, to this impious abuse of the doctrina of Justification by faith alone ; first by depreciating Morality, and then by dispensing with it. When the Constitution was restored, and had brought into credit those few learned Divines whom the madness of the preceding times had driven into obscurity, the Church of England, stiU smarting with the wounds it liad received from the abuse of the great Gospel-principle of Faith, very ¦wisely laboured to restore Morality, the other essential part of the Chris tian System, to its Rights, in the joint direction of the Faithful. Hence, the encouragement the Church gave to those noble discourses which did such credit to ReUgion, in the licentious times of Charles the Second, composed by these learned and pious men, abused by the Zealots with the nickname Latitudinarian Dirines. The reputation they acquired by so thoroughly weeding out these rank remains of Fanaticism, made their Successors fond of sharing with them in the same labours. A laudable 80 THE DIVINE LEGATION book hi. ambition ! but, too often mixed with a vain passion for improving upon those who have gone, successfully, before. The Church was now triumph ant. The Sectaries were humbled ; sometimes oppressed ; always regarded with an eye of jealousy and aversion ; tiU at length this Gospel-principle of Faith came to be esteemed by those who should have known better, as wild and fanatical. While they who owned its divine Original found so much difficulty in adjusting the distinct Rights and Prerogatives of Faith and Morality, that by the time this Century was ready to commence, things were come to such a pass (Morality was advanced so high, and Faith so depressed and encumbered with trifling or unintelligible explanations) that a new definition of our holy Religion, in opposition to what its Founder taught, and unknown to its early FoUowers, was aU in fashion ; under the title of a Republication of the Religion of Nature : natural ReUgion, it seems, (as weU as Christianity) teaching the doctrine of life and immor tality. So says a very eminent prelate.* And the Gospel, which tUl now had been understood as but coeval with Redemption, was henceforth to be acknowledged, as old as the Creation. P. 2, vol. ii. II. How expedient it was to give this detailed proof of the coincidence of truth and general utility, may be seen by the strange em- barras which perplexes that ingenious Sceptic, Rousseau of Geneva, when he treats of this subject. " Je vols," (says he, in his letter to the Arch bishop of Paris,) " deux maniares d' examiner et comparer les ReUgions diverses, I'une selon le vrai et le faux, qui s'y trouvent — I'autre selon leurs effets temporels et moraux sur la terre, selon le bien ou le mal qu'eUes peuvent faire a la Societe et au genre humain. II ne faut pas, pour empecher ce double examen, commencer par decider que ces deux choses 'vont toujours ensemble, et que la Religion la plus vraya est ausi la plus sociable." — But then again ha says, — " II paroit pourtant certain, ja I'avoue, que si I'homme est fait pour la Societe, la Religion la plus vraya est ausi la plus sociale et la plus humaine." — Yet for all this he concludes — "Mais ce sentiment, tout probable qu'il est, est sujet a de grandes difficultes par I'historique et les faits qui le contrarient."— Pp. 7l, 72. But Antiquity, which had intangled itself in this question, apparently drew him, in. The Sagas of old saw clearly that Utility and Virtue perfectly coincided. They thought Utility and Truth did not : as conceiring the constitution of things to be so framed, that falsehood (as it was circumstanced) might at one time be of general benefit, just as Truth is at another. P. 3, vol. U. KK. 'Hi/ xp^yos St' ^y Stoktos dvOpdway ^los, Kal ^puiSris, laxios St' vmipeTT]!- "Ot oiiSev iBXoy oSre tois eaBXoTaiy ^y, OUt oS KSXaapa toTs KaKo7s iylyero. Ka,ireiTd pot SoKovaiv dyBpairoi vSpovs ®eir0at KoXuo'Tds, 'lya AIkt] Tipavvos ^ rivovs PpoTelov, tV 8" "tSpiv SoiXriv'lxV 'E(ripiovTo, S' et tis 4^ap,afTdvoi. "EiretT iireiSii, Tdptpavfj pev oi y6pjaL ATnjyov avroTs epya pi) •arpdaaety ^ia, AdBpa S" iirpaaaov, TtiviKavrd fiot SoKeT nt/KciJj TIS dXXos Kal (TodlTtf ^dX?ui!V pl, * SHEitLOCK's "Sermons," vol. i. sei-m. 6. ^°'^'^s. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. gl Noq) r' dKoiav, Kal fiXewav, ^povay Te, Kal Tlpoaexav re Tavra, Kod (f)uaiy ^eiay tpopay. {'Pup' oS) Tirdy fiiv rh \ex0iv iv $poTo7s ixoieTai. Oy Spdpeyov Se way iSeiv Svy^ifrerai. 'Edy Te aity ffiy^ ti ^ovXevris KaKhy, Tovr' ovxl X-t)aeL tovs beovs' rh ydp rj>poyovy EyeCTt. TovaSe tovs Xdyovs avTo7s Xeyay AtSaypdruv ^SiaToy elarfyiiaaTo VeuSe7 KoXi^as T^y dXi)Seiav Xiytf Elvai S* etpaiTKe tovs ^eohs ivTavff, %ya MdXiffrd y' ^KirX-fi^eiev dvOpdmovs &yay, 08ey wep e7i/ftj toiis (pSSovs eTvai ^pdrois, Kol TOS "moyijaets t^ TaXaiirdtptfi ^Ittj, 'Ek tt\s }jTrep6e Tuepupopds, V daTpairds KaTeTSey otiaas, SeLvd re KTvirf]fiaTa ^ Bpoyrrjs, t6, t daTepaitby oupavov Sepas, Kpdyov KaXhv woiKiXpa, reKTovos aocpov- OBev Te Xapirpbs dtTTepav areixei xop^^f 'O, ^' vyphs eis y^v tjpSpos eiairope^eTat. TotoiffSe wepieaTTjaey dvOpdmots ^66ovs. Al ots KoAws Te T^ X6ytp KarcpKiae Tovs Satpovas Kal 4v 'wpeiroyrt xoipicfj, T^y dvopiay Te to7s y6fwis KareaSeaev. OtVoj Se TsrpaToy oXopai isreitrai Tiya @y7]Tobs voiii^eiv Sai/j.6yuv elyai yeyos. There are many variations in the reading of this fragment ; and I have every where chosen that which appeared to me the right. That Critias was the author, how much soever the critics seem inclined to favour the claim of Euripides, I make no scruple to assert. The difficulty lies here : Sextus Empiricus expressly gives it to Critias ; and yet Plutarch is still more express for Euripides ; names the play it belonged to ; and adds this farther circumstance, that the poet chose to broach his impiety under the character of Sisyphus, in order to keep clear of the Laws. Thus two of the most knowing writers of Antiquity are supposed irreconcilable in a plain matter of fact. M. Petit, who has examined tha matter at large [Observ. MisceU. lib. i. cap. I.], declares for the authority of Plutarch. And M. Bayle has fully shewn the weakness of his reasoning in support of Plutarch's claim. [Crit. Diet. Art. Critias, Ram. H.] Petit's System is to this effect, that there is an hiatus in the text .of Sextus : That a Copyist, from whom all the existent MSS. are derived, when he came to Critias, unwarily jumped over tha paissage quoted from him, together with Sextus's observation of Euripides's being in the same sentiments, and so joined the name of Critias and the Iambics of Euripides together. But this is such a liberty of conjecturing, as would unsettle all the monuments of Antiquity. I take the true solution of the difficulty to be this : Critias, a man, ais the Ancients deliver him to us, of atheistic principles, and a fine poetic genius, composed these Iambics for the private solace of his Fraternity ; which ware not kept so close but that they got air, and came to the knowledge of Euripides ; to whom the general stream of antiquity concurs in giving a very virtuous and religious character, notwithstanding the iniquitous insinuations of Plutarch to the contrary. And the Tragic Poet, being to draw the Atheist, Sisyphus, artfully projected to put these Iambics into his mouth : for by this means the sentiments would ba sure to be natural, as taken from real Ufa ; and the poet safe from the danger of being caUed to account for them. And supposing this to be the case, Plutarch's account becomes very reasonable ; who teUs us, the Poet deUvered this atheistic doctrine by a dramatic character, to evade the justice of the Areopagus ; •but, without this, it can by no means be admitted : For, thinly to screen VOL. II. G 82 THE DIVINE LEGATION book hi. impiety by the mere interposition of the Drama, which was an important part in their festivals, and under the constant eye of the Magistrate, was a poor way of evading the penetration and severity of that formidable judi cature, how good a shift soever it might prove against modern penal Laws. But tha giving the known verses of Critias to his Atheist, was a safe way of keeping under cover. For all resentment must needs fall on the real author ; especially when, it wa.s seen, they were only produced for con demnation, as wUl now be shoi\Ti. Without doubt, the chief motive Euripides had in his contrivance, was tha satisfaction of exposing a very wicked man ; in which he had nothing from his adversaiy's power to deter him, for Critias was then a private man ; the Sisyphus being acted in the 91st Olymp. and tha tyranny of the Thirty not beginning till tha latter end of the 93d. But what is above aU, the genius and cast of that particu lar Drama wonderfully favoured his design : for the Sisyphus was the last of a tetralogy (rerpaXoyia rpayiKcov SpapaTav) or a satiric tragedy, in which species of poetry, a licence something resembling that of the old comedy, of branding evil citizens, was indulged ; and where the same custom of paro dying the verses of rival poets was in use. And we may be sure that Euripides, who was wont to satirize his fellow- writers in his serious, trage dies (as where in his Electra he ridicules the discovery in the Choephoroi of Jischylus) would be little disposed to spare them in this ludicrous kind of composition. Admitting this to be the case ; it could not but be, that, for a good while after, these Iambics would be quoted by soma as Critias's, whose property they were ; and by others, as Euripides s, who had got the use, and in whose Tragedy they ware found ; and by both with reason. But in after-times this matter was forgotten or not attended to ; and then some took them for Euripides's, exclusive of the right of Critias ; and others, on the contrary : And as a Copyist fancied this or that man the author, so they read the text. Of this, we have a remarkable instance in the 35th verse, where the transcriber, imagining tha fragment to be the Tragic Poet's, chose to read, "OBev Te Xapirphs dtTTepos UTeixei piSpos. Because this expresses the peculiar Physiology of Anaxagoras, the pre ceptor of Euripides ; which Mr. Barnes thought a convincing proof of the fragment's being really his < whereas that reading makes a sense defective and impertinent ; tha true being evidently this of Grotius : Aap-nphs dffTepav tTTel^ei X^P^^' And thus, I suppose, Plutarch and Sextus may be well reconcUed. P. J 9. LL. The exquisitely learned Author of the English Commen tary and Notes on Horace's Art of Poetry, has with admirable acumen detected and exposed tha same kind of mistake in the dramatic Poets. Who when, as he observes, they were become sensible of the preference of Plays of character to Plays of intrigue, never rested tiU they ran into this other extreme. But hear this fine writer in his own words : — " The view of the comic scene being to delineate characters, this end, I suppose, will be attained most perfectly by making those characters as universal as possible. For thus tha person shown in tha drama being the representative of all characters of the same kind, furnishes, in the highest degree, the entertainment of humour. But then this universality must be such as agrees not to our idea of the possible efi'ects of the character, as conceived in the abstract ; but to the actual exertion of its powers which experience justifies, and common life aUows. Moliere, and before hira, Plautus, had offended in this ; that, for a picture of the avaricious man NOTES, OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. ^^3 they presented us with tha fantastic unpleasing draught of the passion of om«ce.— This is not to copy Nature, which affords no specimen of a man turned aU into a single passion. No metamorphosis could be more strange or incredible. Yet portraits of this vicious taste are the admiration of common starers. — But if the reader would see the extravagance of build ing dramatic manners on abstract ideas in its fuU light, he need only turn to Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour ; which, under the name of a play of character, is, in fact, unnatural, whoUy chimerical, and unlike any thing wa obseiwe in real life. Yet this comedy has always had its admirers. And Randolph, in particular, was so taken with the design, that he seems to have formed his Mus^s Looking-glass in express imitation of it." Dissertation on the several provinces of the Drama, p. 239. When Pliny therefore compliments SUarion for giving one of his statues the expression not of an angry man, but of anger itself, aither it is a mere flight of rhetoric, to show the just force of the artist's expression :' or, if, indeed, the ferocious air did exceed the traces of humanity, the Philoso pher's praise was misappUed, and the Statuary's figure was a caricature. P. 23. MM. His picture of Scipio Africanus is, however, so very curious, that the learned reader will not be displeased to find it in this place : — " Quam ubi ab re tanto impetu acta solicitudinem curamque hominum animadvertit, advocata conoione, ita de aetate sua imperioque mandate, et beUo quod gerendum esset, magno elatoque animo disseruit, ut impleret homines certioris spei, quam quantam fides promissi humani, aut ratio ex fiducia rerum subjicere solet. Fuit enim SciPio, non veris tantum virtuti- bus mirabiUs, sed arte quoque quadam ab juventa in ostentationem earum compositus : pleraqua apud multitudinem, aut per noctumas visa species, aut velut divinitus, mente monita, agens : sive ut ipse capti quadam super- stitione animi, sive ut imperia consiliaque, velut sorte oraculi missa, sine cunctatione assequeretur. Ad haec jam inde ab initio praeparans animos, fex quo togam virilem sumpsit, nuUo die prius uUam publicam privatamque rem egit, quam in Capitolium iret, ingressusque aedem consideret, et ple- rumque tempus solus in secreto ibi tereret. Hie mos, qui per omnem ritam servabatur, seu consulto, seu temere, vulgatae opinioni fidem apud quosdam fecit, stirpis eum divinae virum esse, retulitque famam, in Alexandre Magno prius vulgatam, et vanitate et fabula parem, anguis immanis concubitu con- ceptum, et in cubiculo matris ejus persaepe visam prodigii ejus speciem, interventuque hominum evolutam repenta, atque ex oculis elapsam. His iniraculis numquam ab ipso elusa fides est ; quin potius aucta arte quadam, nee abnuendi tale quicquam, nee palam affirmandi." — Hist. lib. xxvi. Hence we see with what judgment Cicero in his Republics makes the dream sent from Jove, concerning a future state, to be communicated to his Scipio. P. 24. NN. That great observer of Nature, Cervantes, having made Sancho (to save himself from the vexation of a sleeveless errand) palm upon his Master a supposititious Dulcinea, when the Squire comes to relate this adventure to the Duchess, she extols his ingenuity so highly, that he begins to suspect himself tricked by the Enchanter into his own con trivance ; who had presented him with a true Dulcinea in Masquerade, whUa ha thought he was barefacedly imposing on his Master a false one. P. 40. 00. This ingenious conceit of Sebdcorn did not escape the Abbe Pluche, who in his Histoire du del, hath judiciously employed it for the foundation of a reformed system on this matter; which, however, brings us to tha same place, by a back way ; and ends in this, that the Gods were not dead men deified. DEDICATION OF THE FOURTH EDITION OF BOOKS IV. V. AND VI. OF THE DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES^ MDCCLXV. TO THE RIGHT HON.- WILLIAM LORD MANSFIELD, lord chief justice of england. My Lord, The purpose of this Address is not to make a return for the ftivours I have received from you, for they are many and great ; but to add one more security to myself, from the malice of the present and the forgetfulness of future times. A purpose, which though it may be thought less sober than the other, is certainly not more selfish. In plain terms, I would wUUngly contrive to Uve, and go down to posterity under the protection of your Name and Character : from which, that Posterity, in the administration of pubUc justice, must receive their instruction ; and in the duties of private Ufe, if they have any virtuous ambition, wUl take their example. — But let not this alarm you. I intend not to be your Panegyrist. To praise you for Eloquence, would be to praise you for a thing below your Character, unless it were for that species of Eloquence which Milton describes, and You have long practised. " True Eloquence,'' says he, " I find to be none, but the serious and hearty love of Truth ; And that, whose mind soever is fuUy possessed with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the dearest Charity to infuse the knowledge of them into Others, -when such a man -would speak, his words, like so many nimble and airy Servitors, trip about him at command, and in weU-ordered FUes, as he would wish, faU aptly into their own places." To live in the voice and memory of Men is the flattering dream of every adventurer in Letters : and for me who boast the rare feUcity of being honoured with the friendship of two or three superior Charac ters, Men endowed with virtue to atone for a bad age, and of abUities to make a bad age a good one, for me not to aspire to the best mode of this ideal existence, the being carried down to remote ages along with those who wUl never die, would be a strange insensibility to human glory. DEDICATION TO LORD MANSFIELD. 85 But as the protection I seek from your Lordship is not like those bUnd Asylums founded by Superstition to skreen iniquity from civil vengeance, but of the nature of a Temple of Justice, to vindicate and support the Innocent, You wiU expect to know the claim I have to it ; and how, on being seized with that epidemic malady of idle, visionary men, the projecting to instruct and reform the Public, I came to stand in need of it. I had Uved to see — it is a plain and artless tale I have to tell — I had lived to see what Law-givers have always seemed to dread, as the certain prognostic of pubUc ruin, that fatal Crisis when Religion HATH LOST It's HOLD ON THE MINDS OF A PeOPLE. I had observed, almost the rise and origin, but surely very much of the progress of this evU : for it was neither so rapid to elude a dis tinct view, nor yet so slow as to endanger one's forgetting or not observing the relation which its several parts bore to one another : And to trace the steps of this evU may not be altogether useless to those, whoever they may be, who, as the Instruments of Providence, are destined to counter-work its bad effects. The most painful circumstance in this relation is, (as your Lordship wiU feel) that the mischief began amOngst our friends ; by men who loved their Country ; but were too eagerly intent on one part only of their Object, the security of its civil liberty. To trace up this matter to its source, we need go no further back than to the happy Accession of that iUustrious House to whom we owe all which is in the power of grateful Monarchs, at the head of a free People, to bestow ; I mean, the full enjoyment of the common rights of Subjects. It fortuned that at this time, some warm friends of the Accession, newly gotten into power, had too hastUy perhaps suspected that the Church (or at least that party of Churchmen which had usurped the name) was become inauspicious to the sacred Mrs. from whence we were to date the estabUshment of our civU happiness ; and there fore deemed it good poUcy to lessen the credit of a body of men, who had been long in high reverence with the People, and who had so lately and so scandalously abused then: influence m the opprobrious aff'au- of SachevereU. To this end they inrited some learned men, who in the preceding reign had served the common cause, to take up the pen once more against these its most pestUent enemies, the Jacobite Clergy. They readily assumed the task, and did it so effectually, that under the professed design of confuting and decrying the usurpations of a popish Hierarchy, they rirtuaUy deprived the Church of every power and privUege, which, as a simple Society, she had a claim to ; and, on the matter, deUvered her up gagged and bound, as the rebel-Creature of the State, Their success (with tha 86 DEDICATION TO LORD MANSFIELD. prejudice of Power, and what is stUl stronger, the power of Prejudice, on their side) became yet the easier, as the Tory Clergy, who opposed these Erastian notions, so destructive to the very being of a Church, reasoned and disputed against the Innovators on the principles com monly received, but indeed supported on no sounder a bottom than the authority of Papal or (if they like it better) of Puritanical usurpa tions : principles, to speak without reserve, ill founded in them selves, and totally inconsistent with the free administration of Ciril government. Tn this then, that is, in humbling disaffected Churchmen, the friends of Liberty and the Accession carried their point. But in con ducting a purpose so laudable at any time, and so necessary at that time. They had, as we observe, gone much too far ; for instead of reducing the Church within its native bounds, and thereby preserring it from its two greatest dishonours, the becoming factious, or the being made the tool of Faction, which was aU that true PoUtics required, and aU perhaps that these PoUticians then thought of; their Instruments, by discrediting every right it had, and even strip ping it of some of them, in a Uttle time brought it into general contempt. But this was not the worst. These Enemies of obnoxious Church men found much assistance in the forward carriage of the Enemies of Religion itself; who, at this time, under pretence of seconding the views of good Patriots, and serring the State against the encroach ments of Church-power, took aU occasions to vent their malice against Revelation itself : And Passion, inflamed by opposition, mixing with PoUtics throughout the course of this affair, these Lay-writers were connived at ; and, to mortify rebeUious Churchmen stiU more, even cried up for their free reasonings against Religion, just as the Clergy- writers had been, for their exploits against Church-government. And one man in particular, the Author of a weU-known book caUed the Independent Whig, early a favourite, and to the last a Pensioner, carried on, in the most audacious and insulting manner, these two several attacks, together : A measure supported perhaps in the execu tion, by its coinciding with some Statesmen's private opinions; though the most trite maxims of Government might have taught such to separate their private from their public Character. However, certain it is, that the attack never ceased operating tUl aU these various kinds of Free-writing were gotten into the hands of the People. And now the business was done : and the sober Friends of the Government were become, before they were aware, the Dupes of their own poUcy. In their endeavours to take off the influence of a Church, or rather of a party of Churchmen inauspicious to a free DEDICATION TO LORD MANSFIELD. 87 State, they had occasioned at least, the loosning all the ties which tUl then ReUgion had on the minds of the Populace : and which tUl then. Statesmen had ever thought were the best security the Magistrate had for their obedience. For though a rule of right may direct the PhUo- sopher to a principle of action ; and the point of honour may keep up the thing caUed Manners amongst Gentlemen ; yet nothing but Religion can ever fix a sober standard of behaviour amongst the common People. But those bad effects not immediately appearing, our PoUticians were so Uttle apprehensive that the matter had already gone too far, that they thought of nothing but how to improve some collateral advantages they had procured by the bargain ; which, amongst other uses, they saw likewise, would be sure to keep things in the condition to which they were reduced. For now Religion having lost its hold on the People ; the Ministers of ReUgion were of no further conse quence to the State ;. nor were Statesmen any longer under the hard necessity of seeking out the most eminent, for the honours of their Profession : And without necessity, how few woiUd submit to such a drudgery 1 For Statesmen of a certain pitch are naturally appre hensive of a Uttle sense, and not easUy brought, whether from experi ence or conviction, to form ideas of a great deal of gratitude, in those they have to deal with. AU went now according to their -vrishes. They could now employ Church-honours more directly to the use of Government, that is, of their own, by conferring them on such sub jects as most gratified their taste or humour, or served best to strengthen their connexions with the Great. This would of course give the finishing stroke to their System. For though stripping the Church of aU power and authority, and exposing it naked and defenceless to its enemies, had abated men's reverence for it ; and the detecting Revelation of imposture, serving only for a State-engine, had destroyed aU love for ReUgion ; yet they were the intrigues of Church-promotion which would make the People despise the whole Ordinance. Nor did the hopes of a better generation give much reUef to good men's present fears or feeUngs. The People had been reasoned out of their religion, by such Logic as it was : and if ever they were to be brought back to a sober sense of their condition, it was erident they must be reasoned into it again. Little thought and less learning were sufiicient to persuade men of what their rices incUned them to beUeve ; but it must be no common share of both, which, in opposi tion to those rices, shall be able to bring them to themselves. And where is that to be expected, or Ukely to be found ? In the course of forty or fifty years (for I am not speaking of present transactions) a new Generation or two are sprung up : And those, whom their Pro- 88 DEDICATION TO LORD MANSFIELD. fession has dedicated to this service. Experience has taught, that the talents requisite for pushing their fortune, Ue very remote from such as enable men to figure in a rational defence of Religion. And it is very natural to think that, in general, they wUl be chiefly disposed to cultivate those qualities on which they see their Patrons lay the greatest weight. I have, my Lord, been the longer and the plainer in deducing the causes of a recent evil, for the sake of doing justice to the English Clergy ; who in this instance, as in many others, have been forced to bear the blame of their Betters. How common is it to hear the irreligion of the times ascribed to the vices or the indiscretions of Churchmen ! Yet how provoking is such an insult ! when every chUd knows that this accusation is only an Echo from the lewA clamours of those very Scribblers whose flagicious writings have been the principal cause of these disorders. In this disastrous state of things, it was my evU stars inclined me to write. I began, as these Politicians had done, with the Church. My purpose, I am not ashamed to own, was to repel the cruel inroads made upon its Rights and Privileges ; but, I thank God, on honester principles than those which have been employed to prop up, with Gothic buttresses, a Jacobite or High-Church Hierarchy. The success was what I might expect. I was read ; and by a few indif ferent and intelUgent Judges, perhaps, approved. But as I made the Church neither a Slave nor a Tyrant (and under one or other of these ideas of it, almost aU men had now taken party) The Alliance between Church and State, though formed upon a Model actuaUy existing before our eyes, was considered as an Utopian refinement. It is true, that so far as my own private satisfaction went, I had no great reason to complain. I had the honour to be told by the heads of one Party, that they allowed my principles ; * and by the heads of the other, that they espoused my conclusion ; f which however amounted only to this, that the One was for Liberty, however they would chuse to employ it ; and the Other for povfer, however they could come at it. I had another important view in writing this book. — Though nobody had been so shameless to deny the use of Religion to civil Government, yet certain friends of Liberty, under the terror of the mischiefs done to Society by Fanaticism, or ReUgion run mad, had, by a strange preposterous poUcy, encouraged a clamour against Establishments : the only mode of ReUgion which can prevent what they pretended to fear ; that is, its degenerating ioto Fana' ticism. It is true, had these Clamourers not found more enemies to the Establishment than they had made, (enemies on soUder grounds, • Bishop Ho. t Bisliop SIi. DEDICATION TO LORD MANSFIELD. 80 to wit, the sense of their exclusion from the emoluments of a national Church) an Establishment had hardly given umbrage to the appointed Protectors of it. But these had the Sectaries to caress : and a private and pressing interest wUl often get the better of the most indispensible maxims of good poUcy. It was for this reason, my Lord, that so much of the book is employed - in the defence of a national or an established ReUgion ; since, under such a Form, Fanaticism can never greatly spread : and that little there will always be of this critical eruption of our diseased Nature, may have the same good effect on the Established Religion which weak Factions are observed to have on the administra tion of Government ; it may keep men more decent, alert, and attentive to the duties of their Charge. Where then was the wonder, that a subject so managed, and at such a juncture, should be violently opposed, or to speak more truely, be grossly misrepresented. Those in the new system accused me of making the State a slave to the Church ; those in the old, of making the Church a slave to the State : and one passionate Declaimer, as I remember, who cared equaUy for Church and State, was pleased to say, that, the better to banter mankind, I had done both.* Having thus, in the fooUsh confidence of youth, cast in my Goose- quill, to stem a torrent that in a Uttle time was to bear down all before it ; I proceeded, with the same good faith, in another romantic effort. The support of Religion itself. You, my Lord, who feel so humanely for the Injured, on whomso ever popular injustice may chance to fall, have hardly forgotten the strange reception with which this my fair endeavour was enter tained ; and principaUy by Those whose interests I was defending. It awaked a thousand black passions and idiot prejudices. The Zealots infiamed the Bigots. ' Twas ihe timers pkigue, When madmen led the blind. For, the noble prosecution of real Impiety was now over ; or, at least, no longer serious. What remained, to belye a zeal for ReUgion, was a ridiculous Tartiiffism ; ridiculous because vrithout the power to persecute : otherwise, sufficiently serious, as it was encouraged by men, at that time, in eminence of place.f For false Zeal and unbe lieving Politics always concur, and often find their account in sup pressing novelties. But things, unnaturaUy kept up in a state of riolence, in a Uttle time subside : And though the first Writers, let loose against me, came on as if they would devour ; yet the design of those who, at spring and fall, have ever since annually succeeded them, has been, I . Lord B. t Ai-clibisliop P. 90 DEDICATION TO LORD MANSFIELD. think, only to eat. The imputation that yet sticks to my notions, amongst many well-meaning men, is, that they are paradoxical. And though this be now made the characteristic of my Writings, yet, whether from the amusement which Paradoxes afi'ord, or from whatever other cause of maUce or curiosity, the PubUc seem stUl sufliciently eager to see what, in spite of the Argument, and perhaps in spite to it, they are pleased to caU my conclusion. And as in your Lord ship's progress through your high Stations (for I vriU not take my comparison lower while my subject is pubUc favour) men no sooner found you in one than they saw you necessary for a higher ; so every preceding Volume seemed to excite a stronger appetite for the following ; tiU, as I am told, it came to a kind of impatience for the last : which must have been strangely obstinate if in aU this time it has not subsided. And yet it is very possible it may not : For the good-natured pleasure of seeing an Author fiU up the measure of his Paradoxes is worth waiting for. Of aU men, I would not appear vain before your Lordship ; since, of all men. You beSt know how UI it would become my pride. Nor am I indeed in much danger to have my head turned by this flattering circumstance, while I remember that Rabelais tells us, and I dare say he teUs us truth, that the Public of his times were full as impatient for the conclusion of the unfinished story of the giant Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. I have now, both leisure and incUnation to gratify this Public fancy, after having put my last hand to these two Volumes : A work of reasoning ; and though fairly pursued, and, as I thought, brought home to its Conclusion, yet interspersed with variety of PhUologic dissertations : For I had to do with a sort of Readers not less deUcate than that fastidious Frenchman, who teUs us in so many words, that — La reason a tort des qu'elle ennuye. As my purpose therefore was to bring Reason into good Company, I saw it proper now and then, to make her wait without, lest by her constant presence she should happen to be thought tiresome. Yet still I was careful not to betray her rights : and the Dissertations brought in to reUeve the oppressed attention of the Reader, was not more for his sake than for hers. If I was large in my discourse concerning the nature and end of the Grecian Mysteries, it was to shew the sense the ancient Lawgivers had of the use of Religion to Society : and if I expatiated on the origine and use of the Egyptian Hieroglyphics, it was to vindicate the logical propriety of the Prophetic language and senti ment. For I should have been ashamed to waste so much time in classical amusements, and at last to join them to your Lordship's Name, had they not had an intimate relation to the things most con nected with Man and his interests. I have detained your Lordship with a tedious Story ; aud still I DEDICATION TO LORD MANSFIELD. 91 must beg your patience a little longer. We are not yet got to the end of a bad prospect — WhUe I, and others of my Order, have been thus vainly contending pro Aris -with the unequal arms of Reason, we had the further displeasure to find, that our Rulers (who, as I observed above, had needlessly suffered those ties of ReUgion to be unloosed, by which, tUl of late, the passions of the People had been restrained) were struggUng, almost as unsuccessfuUy, pro Fods with a corrupt and debauched Community. General History, in its Records of the rise and decay of States, hath delivered down to us, amongst the more important of its lessons, a faithful detaU of every symptom, which is wont to forerun and to prognosticate their approaching ruin. It might be justly deemed the extravagance of foUy to beUeve, that those very Signs, which have constantly preceded the faU of other States, should signify nothing fatal or alarming to our own. On the other hand, I would not totaUy condemn, in such a dearth of ReUgious prorision, even that species of piety, which arises from a national pride, and flatters us with being the peculiar attention of Heaven ; who wiU avert those evils from his favoured People, which the natural course of things would otherwise make inevitable : For, indeed, we have seen (and, what is as strange as the blessing itself, the Uttle attention which is paid to it) something very like such an extraordinary protection already exerted; which resists, and, tiU now, hath arrested, the torrent just ready to overwhelm us. The circumstance, I mean, is this : — That whUe every other part of the Community seems to lie in face Romuli, the administration of PubUc Justice in England, runs as pure as where nearest to its coelestial Source ; purer than Plato dared venture to conceive it, even in his feigned Republic. Now, whether we are not to caU this, the interposing hand of Pro vidence ; for sure I am, aU History doth not afford another instance of so much purity and integrity in one part, coexisting with so much decay and so many infirmities in the rest : Or whether, profounder Politicians may not be able to discover some hidden force, some pecuUar rirtue in the essential parts, or in the weU-adapted frame, of our exceUent Constitution :— In either case, this singular and shming Phsenomenon, hath afforded a chearful consolation to thinking men, amidst all this dark aspect from our disorders and distresses. But the evU Genius of England would not suffer us to enjoy it long ; for as if enrious of this last support of Government, he hath now instigated his blackest Agents to the very extent of their malig nity ; who, after the most riUainous insuUs on aU other Orders and Ranks in Soijiety, have at length proceeded to calumniate even the King's Supreme Court of Justice, under its ablest and most unble mished Administration. 92 DEDICATION TO LORD MANSFIELD. After this, "who wUl not be tempted to despair of his Country, and say, with the good old man in the Scene, ' Ipsa si cupiat Sa LUS Servare, prorsus non potest, hanc Familiam." Athens, indeed, feU by degenerate manners like our own : but she feU the later, and with the less dishonour, for having always kept inviolable that reverence which she, and indeed aU Greece, had been long accustomed to pay to her August Court of Areopagus. Of this modest reserve, amidst a general disorder, we have a striking instance in the conduct of one of the principal Instruments of her ruin. The witty Aristophanes began, as all such Instruments do (whether with wit or without) by deriding Virtue and Religion ; and this, in the brightest exemplar of both, the godUke Socrates. The Libeller went on to attack all conditions of Men. He calumniated the Magistrates ; he turned the Public AssembUes into ridicule ; and, with the most beastly and blasphemous abuse, outraged their Priests, their Altars, nay, the very estabUshed Gods themselves. — ^But here he stopped ; and, unawed by all besides, whether of divine or human, he did not dare to cast so much as one Ucentious trait against that venerable Judicature. A circumstance, which the Readers of his witty ribauldry, cannot but observe with surprize and admiration ; — not at the Poet's modesty, for he had none, but at the remaining virtue of a debauched and ruined People ; who yet would not bear to see that clear Fountain of Justice defiled by the odious Spawn of Buffoons and LibeUers. Nor was this the only consolation which Athens had in its calami ties. Its pride was flattered in faUing by apostate Wits of the first Order : while the Agents of pubUc mischief amongst us, with the hoarse notes and blunt pens of Ballad-makers, not only accelerate our ruin, but accumulate our disgraces : Wretches the most contemptible for their parts, the most infernal for their manners. To conclude. Great Men, my Lord, are sent for the Times ; the Times are fitted for the rest, of common make. Erasmus and the present Chief Justice of England (whatever he may think) were sent by Providence, for the sake of humanity, to adorn two periods, M'hen Religion at one time, and Society at another, most needed their support; I do not say, of their great talents, but of that heroic moderation so necessary to aUay the violence of pubUc disorders : for to be moderate amidst party-extremes, requires no common degree of patriotic courage. Such characters rarely fail to perform much of the task for which they were sent ; but never without finding their labour iU repaid, even by those in whose service it was employed. That glory of the Priest hood left the World, he had so nobly benefited, with this tender com- DEDICATION TO THE JE^rS. 93 plaint, — " Hoc tempore nihU scribi aut Agi potest quod non pateat Calumnie.; nee raro fit, ut dum agis cihcumspectissime utram que Partem offendas, quum in utraque sint qui pariter insaniant." A complaint, fated, alas ! to be the motto of every Man who greatiy serves his Country. I have the honour to be. My Lord, Your Lordship's most obUged, most obedient and faithful Servant, W. GLOUCESTER. February 2, 1765. DEDICATION OF THE FIRST EDITION OF BOOKS IV. V. AND VI. OF THE DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES, MDCCXL. TO THE JEWS. SIRS, The purpose of this Work being to prove the Divine Legation OP Moses, it wiU, I hope, have so much merit -with you, as to engage your serious attention to the foUowing Address ; which, from the dirinity of Moses's Law, as in this work demonstrated, attempts to shew you, how, by necessary consequence, it foUows, that the religion of Jesus is also dirine. But, wMle I am laying my conclusions before you, let me beseech you not to suffer yourselves to be prejudiced against the evidence, by such kind of faUacies as these ; Both Jews and Christians confess that the religion of Moses came from God : but one only, of these two Sects, believe the divinity of that of Jesus : the safest way, therefore, is to adhere to what both sides own to be true. An argument, which however Uke, hath not, in aU its parts, even so much force as what the idolatrous Romanists are wont to urge against the Reformed — That as both parties hold salvation may be had in the church of Rome, and only one party holds it may be had in the churches of the Reformed, it is safest to adhere to Popery . which I dare say you laugh at for its impertinence, how much soever you may have deluded 94 DEDICATION TO THE JEWS. Others by the same kind of sophistry.* For if the Roman cathoUcs, or you, wiU not take our word for Christianity or Reformation, why do you buUd any thing upon it, in favour of Popery or Judaism ? Both of you wiU say, perhaps, "because we are prejudiced in the; former conclusion ; but that the mere force of eridence extorts the latter from us even against ourselves." This is easUy said ; and may, perhaps, be easUy beUeved, by those who taking their Religion from their ancestors, are apt to measure Truth only by its antiquity. But genuine Christianity offering itself only to the private judgments of men, every sincere enquUer beUeves as he finds cause. So that if either you or they would give yourselves the trouble to examine our motives, it would appear, that the very same reasons which force us to conclude that Christianity in general, and the Reformed reUgion in particular, are true, force us at the same time to conclude that the Jewish was from God ; and that salvation may \e obtained, though with much difiiculty, in the church of Rome. Either, therefore, the whole of our conclusion is prejudice, or no part of it is so. As I would not have you harden your habitual obstinacy in favour of your own ReUgion, by bad arguments ; so neither vriU I use any such to draw you over to ours. I shall not therefore attempt that way to bring you to the truth, which some amongst us, Uttle acquainted, as should seem, either with your Dispensation, or the Christian, imagine they have discovered : Who, taking it for granted that the Mosaic Law can be defended only by the Gospel of Jesus, pretend you must first acknowledge our Reli gion, before you can support your own : and so, which is very hard, wUl not allow you to have any reasonable assurance of the truth of your Religion tUl you have forsaken it.f But I would not urge you with such kind of reasoning, if it were only for this, that I suspect you may not be such utter strangers to the New Testament as not to know, that it lays the foundation of Christianity in Judaism. Besides, right reason, as well as St. Paul (which with us, at present, are stUl the same thing) would teach you to reply to such Convertists : Boast not against the branches of the native olive-tree : but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee." J Much less would I employ, in this Address, the quainter project of • This, the miserable Uriel .^costa tells us, was one of the principal arguments that induced liim to embrace Judaism, — " Prseterea veteri federi fidem dabant tam Judaei quam Christiani ; novo autem fcedei-i soli Cbristlani." — Ea^eTnplar humante Vitce, p. 346, in fin. Arnica Collat. Phil, a Limborch. t " Dr- Rogers bas declared as I remember in one of his sermons, that he could not believe tbe truth of Moses's preten sions, were it not for tbe confirmation given to them by tbe Gospel. This I take to be a dangerous assertion, that saps the veiy foundation of Christianity ; and supersedes at once tbe whole purpose of your intended work, by denying any original intrinsic cha racter of divinity to the institution of Moses." — Dr. Middleton's Letter to Mr. If. Nov. 30, 1736. Vol. V. of his Works. t Rom. xi. 18. DEDICATION TO THE JEWS. 95 our common Adversary, the Free-thinker. For you are to know, that as those I spoke of before, make Christianity too recent, so these make it as much too old ; even as old as the Creatio7i. Those faU short of the support of Judaism ; these overleap it ; and assure us, that the only way to bring you to beUeve in Jesus is to prove Moses an impostor. So, says a late writer : who, by the singular happiness of a good choice, having learnt his morality of our Tyndal, and his philosophy of your Spinoza, calls himself, by the courtesy of England, a MORAL Philosopher.* The road I have taken is indeed very different : and the principles I go upon for your conversion, wiU equaUy serve, to their confutation. For I have shewn that the Law of Moses was from God ; and, at the same time, that it is only preparatory to the more perfect Religion of Jesus. The limits of this Address wUl not aUow me to point out to you any other arguments than what arise immediately from those import ant circumstances of the Law, discoursed of in this Work. Much less shall I have room to urge you with a repetition of those reason ings, which Christian writers have already used with so superior a force against you. Let us see then what it is that keeps you still enslaved to a gaUing DiscipUne, so long after the free offers of Redemption. The two principal feasons, I suppose, are these : I. First, a presumption that the ReUgion of Moses is perfect ; so fuU and complete in aU its members as to be abundantly capable of supplying the spiritual wants of men, by preparing and fitting human nature for the enjoyment of the supreme Good, and by proposing and procuring the possession of that Good. Hence you conclude, and were your presumption weU grounded, not unreasonably, that the Law was given as a perpetual ordinance, to be observed throughout all your generations for ever. II. The second is a persuasion that the Prophecies (a necessary credential of the Messiah) which, we say, relate to Jesus, relate not to him in a primary sense ; and that a secondary sense is a fanatic vision raised by deluded Christians to uphold a groundless claim. For thus one of our common enemies, who hath inforced your arguments against us, teUs the world, you are accustomed to speak. All the books written by Jews against the Christian Religion (says he) some of which are printed, and others go about Europe in manuscript, chiefly, attack the New Testament for the allegorical interpretations of the Old Testament therein, and with the greatest insolence and con tempt imaginable on that account ; and oppose to them a single and literal interpretation as the true sense of the Old Testament. And • Morgan. 96 DEDICATION TO THE JEWS. accordingly the allegorical interpretations given by Christian expositors of the Prophecies are now the grand obstacle and stumbling-block in the way of the conversion of the Jews to Christianity.* These, it seems, are the two great impediments to your conversion. Give me leave then to shew you how the reasoning of this book removes them. I. As to the perfection of your Religion, it is here proved, that, though it indeed » had that specific perfection, which no Religion coming from God can want,f that is, a fuU capacity of attaining its end, which was the separation of the race of Abraham from an idola trous world ; yet that it was perfect only in this restrained and rela tive sense. As to absolute independent perfection, the Law had it not. 1. That it had no perfection with regard to the improvement of human nature for the enjoyment of the supreme Good, I have shewn from the genius of your whole religious Worship ; and its general direction against the various idolatries of those early ages. And in this I have a Doctor of your own, the famous Maimonides, for my warrant : who indeed little thought, whUe he was proring this truth in so inrincible a manner, that he was preparing the more rea sonable part of his Brethren for the reception of the Gospel. It is true, some of your later writers have seen better into this conse quence : and Orobio, in his dispute with Limborch, hath part of a chapter J to disprove, or, rather, to deny the fact. But if your reli gious Worship consist only of a multifarious burdensome Ritual, relative to the Superstitions of those early times, it must needs be altogether unable to perfect human nature in such a manner, as you do and must allow to be God's design, in a revealed Religion, universal and perpetual. 2. Again, as to the second branch of this perfection, the proposing and procuring the possession of the supreme Good : I have shewn that the Law of Moses revealed no future state of rewards and punish ments, but studiously declined the mention of any doctrine pre paratory to it : that no Mosaical Tradition suppUed this omission : and that it did not become a national doctrine amongst you tiU the later times of your republic ; when it arose from various and dis cordant sources ; and was brought in on foreign occasions. But it is certain, that That ReUgion must faU very short of absolute perfection, which wants a doctrine so essential to Religion in general. § And • Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion, pp. 82, 83. t See this proved against Lord Bolingbroke, book v. sect. 2. t The title of th-e chap ter is : " Quod ritualia non erant preecise ut Israel ab aliis popuUs separaretm- ; neque lex neque populus propter Messiam, sed bic propter populum, ut ei inserviret." — P. 86, ed. Goud. § Here Dr. Stebbing charges me -with contradiction ; [Exam. p. 9.] first m asserting, that a future state made no part of the Religion of Moses; and then that a future state was essential to Religion in general. Now this which be is pleased to call a contradiction, I. brought as an argument for the divinity of the Law ; and sup- DEDICATION TO THE JEWS. 97 this, you yourselves at length seem to have been aware of: for though, during the existence of your RepubUc, the deniers of a future state, such as the Sadducees, were not cut off from the rights of the Synagogue ; yet since that time, it hath been generally held by your Doctors for a prime cause of excommunication :— One of them says, that it is the very fundamental of fundamentals ; * — Another, that to deny this is the same thing as to deny God himself, and the Divinity of his Law ;-\ and a third, that even to believe it, and yet not believe that it was revealed hy the Law, is the same thing as not to believe it at all.X ¦> But you wiU do weU, when you have considered the force of those reasonings by which I prove a future state not to be revealed by the Law of Moses, to go on -with me, (for the free thoughts of many amongst you, concerning Revelation in general, give scandal to the posed it to be conclusive by its consistency. — Where 1 speak of Religion in general, I explain my meaning to be, a Religion universal and perpetual, such as Natural Reli gion and the Christian ; and from thence I argue, that if a future state be essential to a Religion universal and perpetual ; and a future state be not found in tbe Religion of Moses, that then the Religion of Moses was not universal and perpetual, but local and temporary ; tbe point I was inforcing, in order to bring over the Jews to tbe Gospel of Jesus. If the Doctor supposes, that what is essential in one species of Religion must be essential in the other, this is supposing them not to be of difierent species, but one and the same j that is, it supposes, that they are and that they are not of the same species. -But, continues our Doctor, *' If you should say, that your argument is levelled against the Jews, considered only in their present state, in which they are not under an equal Providence, this answer will not serve you. For as in their present state they are not imder any extraordinary Providence, so neither do they want the doctrine of a future st«.te, of which you tell us they have been in possession long ago," p. 11 . What pains does this learned Doctor take to make raj application to tbe Jews, in favom- of Christianity, ineffectual ! Your Religion (say 1 to them) teaches no future state. You are at present under the common unequal Providence of Heaven. How disconsolate is your condition ! Not eo bad neither, replies their Advocate, Doctor Stebbing. Tbey NOW have a future state. How came they by it ? By the Law ? No matter, says he, they have it, and that is enough to destroy all tbe force of your persuasion to embrace the Gospel. Not altogether enough, good Doctor : for if they have not tbe future state by the Law, (and that truth I take tor granted in this address to them, as 1 think 1 reasonably might, after I had proved it at large) their future state, even by tb^ir own confession, is a Phantom ; and to gain the Substance there is no way left but to embrace the Gospel. Tbey themselves own this truth : for in the words quoted, below, they con fess that io believe a future state, and yet that it was not revealed by the Law, is the same thing as not to believe ii at all. — It is » sad thing when Polemics or blacker pas sions have gotten so entire possession of a man's heart, that he caxes not what bai-m he does to a common cause, or even to common sense, so he can but answer tbe man or the opinion be happens to dislike. * " Scripsit Rab. (Maimon.) p.m. Articidus fundamentalis decimus tertius agit de resurrectione, cujus rationem (quomodo se habeat) ct fimdamenta jam exposuimus. Quod si homo crediderit ftmdamenta ilia omnia, seque ilia credere declaraverit, ingre- ditur Ecclesiam Israelis, et juhemiur diligere ilium, et misericordiam iUi exhibere, et conversari cum illo juxta omnia, quae praecepit Deus benedictus cuilibet erga proxi- mum facienda. — Si quis autem vilipenderit hoc fimdamentum excellentium fiindamento- rum, ecce exit Ule ex Ecclesia, quippe qui abnegat articulum fldei, et vocatur impius ac Epicnreus, amputatque plantas, quem odio habere et perdere jubemm-." — E.v btth Elohim. Vid. Dassoviom De Resurrectione, ed. 1693. t " Hasc fides [da Resurrectione mortuoram]— numeretur inter articnlos Legis et fimdamenta ejus, quam qui negat, perinde facit acsi negaret esse Deum, legem esse u, coelo, et quod in aUia istis articulis tractatur."— R. Salomo apud Dassovium De Reswrrect. \ " Opor tet te scire articulum fidei de resurrectione mortuorum ex lege esse. Quod si quis flde finna crediderit resun-ectionem mortuorum, non autem crediderit esse illam ex lege, ecce ille reputafnr acsi btec omnia negaret."— R. Jehud. Zabara apud Dassov. vnr.- II. H 98 DEDICATION TO THE JEWS. professors of more than one ReUgion) whUe I prove, from thence, by necessary consequence, that this Law came from God : And, in con clusion, join with me in adoring the infinite Wisdom of the God of your Fathers, here so wonderfully displayed, in making one and the same circumstance a standing eridence of the dirinity of the Mosaic ReUgion, and, at the same time, an irrefragable proof that it was pre paratory only to the Christian ; The logical result of aU our reasoning being the confirmation of this sacred truth, long since enounced by a great Adept in your Law, That the Law made nothing perfect, BUT THE BRINGING IN OF A BETTER HoPE DID.* Permit me to observe farther,, that this rabbinical notion of a future state of rewards and punishments in the Mosaic Dispensation, which stUl encourages the remnant of your Nation to persist in rejecting the Gospel of Jesus, was the very prejudice which, in the first ages of Christianity, so superstitiously attached the Converts from Judaism, to the whole observance of the Law. As a CoroUary to aU this, I have shewn, that the punishment of Children for the crimes of their Parents, which hath given a handle to the enemies of your Law to blaspheme, can be only weU explained and vindicated on the Principle of no future state in the religion of Moses : And farther, that, on this Principle, aU the inextricable embarras of your Rabbins, in their endeavours to reconcUe the different accounts of Moses and the Prophets concerning that method of punishment, is intirely removed, and a perfect harmony and con cord is seen to reign amongst them. But at the same time that the Principle does this, take notice, it disables you from accounting for the length of your present dispersion. For the only reason your best defender, Orobio, had to assign for it was, that you now suffer not for your own sins, but for the sins of your Forefathers. But the Princi ple which reconciles Moses and the Prophets, shews that this mode of punishment hath long since ceased. II. In answer to the second part, your prejudices against the cre dentials of Jesus's Messiahship, for the want of rational eridence in a secondary sense of Prophecy ; I have proved those prejudices to be altogether vain and groundless, 1 . By tracing up the nature of human converse in speech and writing, from its early original ; and from thence evincing, that a secondary sense of Prophecies is proper, rational, and conformable to the justest rules of grammar and logic. Ji. By shewing that this method of information was so exactly suited to the occasion, that if ever you were to have a Messiah to compleat your Law, the body of the Prophecies, relating to him, must needs be given in the very manner which those in dispute are actuaUy given : For that, had these Prophecies recorded the nature of the Messiah's • Heb. vii. 19. DEDICATION TO THE JEWS. gg Kingdom in plain and direct terms, it would have defeated the very end. and purpose of the Law. And this, on reflexion, you wiU find a sufficient answer to those four Queries into which your ablest Defender* has coUected the whole strength of your cause. As a CoroUary, Ukewise, to this part, I shew, in order to reconcile you StiU farther to the Messiahship of Jesus, that the history of God's Dispensations to your Fathers, even before his giring the Law, can never be rightly understood, or fuUy cleared from the objections of Unbelievers, but on the supposition of the redemption of mankind by the death and sufferings of Jesus. And of this I have given a convincing proof m the famous history of the Command to Abraham to offer up his Son. Which I prove to be no other than a Revela tion of that Redemption, deUvered in action instead of words. This strongly corroborates the Mission of Jesus, and should incline you seriously to consider its force. — Here God reveals to your father Abraham the Redemption of Mankind by the death and passion of his Son. Why then, I ask you, should you not conclude with our learned Apostle, that to Abraham and his seed the Promises being made, the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul ; that it should make the Promise of none effect ? -f Having thus shewn your Religion to be partial, imperfect, and pre paratory ; and consequently shewn the necessity of its completion by the teaching of a Messiah; to whose character in the person of Jesus, I have endeavoured to reconcile you, by removing your only plausible objection, the mistaken nature of the Prophecies concerning him ; As a Corollary to the whole, I have proved, in order to remove your prejudices for a worldly Prince, and a restoration to a carnal Dominion in Judea, that your race was not at first chosen by God, and settled in the land of Canaan as his favourites, for whom he had a greater fondness than for other of the sons of Adam ; but only to serve the general ends of Providence, in its Dispensations to the whole Species ; which required the temporary separation of one People from the rest of Mankind, to preserve, amidst an idolatrous world, the great doctrine of the Unity, as the foundation of that • " Orobio. 1. Ut assignetur locus aliquis in quo Deus mandaverit, aut dixerit expresse, quod fides in Messiam est absolute necessaria ad salutem generis humani ; adeo ut qui non crediderit damnandus esset. 2. Ut assignetur locus, in quo Deus dixerit, quod unicum medium ad salutem Israelis, et restitutionis in divinam gratiam, est fides in Messiam jam adventum. 3. Ut assignetur locus, in quo Deus dixerit, quod Israel propter infideUtatem in Messiam erat deperdendus, et abjiciendus in natio - nibus, ut non sit amplius Populus Dei, sed in setemum damnandus donee Messiam adven tum non crediderit. 4. Tandem assignetur locus, in quo dixit Deus, omnia Legalia praeter moralia, fiiisse umbram, seu figuram futurorum in adventu Messiae, et quod fere omnia quae et in divina Lege et in Prophetis fuere revelata, mystjce et tropologice explicare liceat, quantumvis sensus literalis omnino flespiciatur." — 4mica Collatio LiM- liORCH. pp. 1,2. t Gal. iii. 16, 17. H 2 100 DEDICATION TO THE JEWS. universal Religion to be dispensed by Jesus, when the fulness of time should come. Which time being now come, and the ,end obtained, you cannot but confess there is no further use or purpose of a national separation. Let me add the foUowing observation, which ought to have some weight with you. Whoever reads your history, and believes you, on your own word, to be stiU tied to the ReUgion of Moses, and to have nothing to expect from that of Jesus, must needs regard you as a People long since abandoned of God. And those who neither read nor believe, wiU pretend at least to think you forsaken of aU reason. Our Scriptures alone give us better hopes of your condition: and excited by the Charity they inspire, I am moved to hazard this address unto you. For a time, as they assure us, wiU come, when this veU shaU be taken from your hearts. And who knows how near at hand the day of risitation may be 1 At least, who would not be zealous of contributing, though in the lowest degree, to so glorious a work ? For if the fall of you be the riches of the World, and the diminishing of you, the riches of the Gentiles, how much more your fulness ! * says the Apostle Paul. Who at the same time assures us, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be eome in. And so all Israel shall be saved.-\ I know you wiU be ready to say, " that much of this sort of Charity hath been preached to your People even amidst the horrors of the Inquisition ; and that it has always made a suitable impression : that indeed, in a land of Uberty like Britain, you should have thought much more favourably of our good-wiU, had not a late transaction, in which your natural rights came in question, amply conrinced you that Christian Charity is every where the same." Sufferers, even imaginary ones, may be excused a little hard lan guage ; especiaUy when they only repeat the clamours of those amongst ourselves ; who, on the defeat of your Naturalization project, affected to feel most sensibly for the interests of Liberty and Com merce. And yet I think it no difficulty to convince unprejudiced men, that the Sanctity of Government was, in the first instance, sm-- prised ; and that the Legislature did justly as weU as politicly in acting conformably to their second thoughts. A People like this of Great Britain, the genius of whose ReUgion and Government equaUy concur to make them tender and jealous of the rights of mankind, were naturaUy led by their first motions to think they might extend those privileges to your Nation, which they saw plainly were the due even of the followers of Mahomet : And yet for all this they were mistaken. As much a paradox as this may seem, it is easy to shew that in this • Rom. Ki. 12. t Verses 25, 26. DEDICATION TO THE JEWS. 101 point. You stand distinguished to your disadvantage from aU the Nations upon earth : there being in your case, a peculiar circumstance which must eternaUy exclude your claim to the general right of Naturalization, in every free Government in Christendom, while men act, not to say with common integrity, but even with common decency, according to their profession. Let us then consider your case as it is understood by Christian Communities; for men must always act, would they act honestiy, according to their own conceptions of the case, not according to the conceptions of other men. No-sv it is a common principle of Christianity, that God, in punish ing your Nation for the rejection of their promised Messiah, hath sen tenced it to the irremissible infamy of an unsettled vagabond condi tion, without Country or CivU poUcy, tiU the fulness of the Gentiles be come in : and then, as we observed before, our St. Paul declares, that your Nation, converted to the faith in Jesus, shaU be received again mto favour, and intitled to the privilege of Sons. The sentence denounced upon you was not only the loss of your own Community, but the being debarred an entrance into any other. For you are condemned to be aliens and strangers in every land where you abide and sojourn. A punishment which can only respect Particulars, and not the Community ; for one People can be no other than aUens and strangers to another People, by the constitution of Nature. So that the sentence against you imports, that the Particulars of your race shaU not be received by Naturalisation, to the rights and pririleges of the free-born Subjects of those civU States amongst which you shall happen to be dispersed. And we have seen this sentence wonderfully confirmed by the actual infiiction of it for the space of seventeen hun dred years ; which must be confessed to give great credit to the truth of our interpretation of your Prophecies. But to understand more clearly what share a Christian Community ought to take in preventing any insult on those Prophecies which it holds to be divine, it wUl be necessary to consider what will be the worldly condition of your Nation when reinstated in God's favour ; which both you and we are equaUy instructed to expect. If it shaU be, as you imagine, a recovery of your CivU-policy, a rerival of the Temple-serrice, and a repossession of the land of Judea ; if this be the mercy promised to your Nation, then indeed the inter;- mediate punishment, between the abolition and the restoration of your dirine PoUcy, can be only the temporary want of it; and conse quently the facUitating your entry at present into the several civil Communities of christian men, might weU be thought to have no more tendency to insult the general Economy of revealed Religion than the naturalizing of Turks and Tartars. 102 DEDICATION TO THE JEWS But the genius of Christianity and the tenor of those Prophecies, as interpreted by Christ and his Apostles, declare such a restoration to the land of Judea and a rerival of the Temple-service, to be manifestly absurd, and altogether inconsistent with the nature of the whole of God's reUgious Dispensation : for by this it appears, that the Mosaic Law or ReUgion (as distinguished from its foundation, natural Reli gion, on which it was erected) was only preparatory to, and TYPICAL of the Gospel. Consequently, on the establishment of Christianity, the PoUtical part of your institution became aboUshed ; and the Ritual part entirely ceased ; just as a scaffold is taken down when the building is erected ; or as a shadow is cast behind when the substance is brought forward into day. Nor were you, after this pro mised conversion, to expect any other CivU policy or religious Ritual pecuUar to yourselves, or separate from those in use amongst men who profess the name of Christ : because the Gospel, of which you are now supposed to be professors, disclaims all concern with political or civil matters ; and because all its professors compose but ONE reUgious Body, under one head which is Christ. All therefore that remains for us to conceive of your civil condition, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in, and Israel be received into grace, is this. That, on your conversion, you shaU be naturalized and incorporated, as your convenience or incUnation may lead you, into the various civU Communities of the Faithful. This is the only idea we Christians can entertain of your future condition : and this may and must regulate our conduct whenever an alteration of your present condition comes in question. And now to justify the CouncUs of our Lawgivers in their last and perhaps final determination concerning you. If the declared punishment of heaven on your Nation, while you continue in nnbeUef, be dispersion through the world, without a Civil policy of your own as a People, and without a country, as Particulars ; and that your restoration to favour, on your em bracing the Gospel, is the being received into the Church of Christ, and (as you can be received therein only as Particulars, and not as a Nation) the being incorporated into the several ciril Communities of Christians ; then, any attempt to incorporate you by Naturahza- tion into such civil Communities, before the time predicted and whUe you adhere to your old Religion, as directly opposes the Prophecies, or the declared wiU of Heaven, as the attempt of JuUan to rebuild your Temple, after the sentence of its final destruction had been put in execution : because it aims to procure for you a civil condition while Jews, which it is foretold you shall not enjoy tUl you are become Christians. Nor is it of any avaU to those PoUticians who were concerned of late in your favour, to pretend that JuUan's DEDICATION TO THE JEWS. IQ3 attempt was with malice, and their' s with much integrity of heart ; since this difference makes no change in the nature of the action, al it respects God's Dispensations, whatever it may be supposed to do, m the quaUty of it, as it respects the Actors. In either case the declared wUl of Heaven is opposed. When it is done with knowledge of the Prophecy, and with intention to discredit it, the attempt is wicked and impious : when with a forgetfulness qf it, with a disre gard to. ReUgion, and a neglecft of its interests, the attempt (even in this best way of considering it) is indecent and dishonourable. Not that He who thus conceives of things, hath the least apprehension that Prophecy can be dishonoured, or have its predictions defeated by CivU Power : But this He thinks, that a Christian State while it enacts Laws, though unwarily, whose operation combats the truth of those Predictions, may very easUy dishonour itself. A Nation professing Christianity, though principaUy busied in the office of protecting liberty and commerce, ceases not to be a nation of Christians, amidst aU their cares to discharge the duties of good Citizens. They have the interests and honour of their Religion to support as weU as the common-rights of Mankind. For though Ciril society be totally and essentially different from the Ecclesiastical, yet as the same Individuals compose the members of both ; and as there is the closest Coalition between both, for their mutual support and benefit ; such Ciril society can never decently or honourably act with a total disregard to that co-aUied Religion, which they profess to believe, and of which, under another consideration, they compose the body. Perhaps You may teU me, it appears from the manner in which this late affair was conducted, that none of these considerations ever entered into the heads, either of your Friends, or those you wUl call, your Enemies, when, at length, they both agreed to leave you as they found you. It may be so. Yet this does not hinder but that the result of a Council, may be justified on principles which never influ enced it. And as for the credit of Revelation, that generaUy becomes more conspicuous when, through the ignorance and perverseness of fooUsh men, the predictions of Heaven are supported by Instruments which knew not what they were about. Had they acted with more knowledge of the case, the enemies of Religion would he'apt to say. No wonder that the honour of Prophecy is supported, when the Power which could discredit it, held it an impiety to make the attempt. Thus you see the British Legislature is justified in its last deter mination concerning you, on all the general principles of piety, honesty, and decency. I speak of men, and I speak to men, who believe the Religion they profess. As for those proffigates, whether amongst yourselves or us, who are ready to profess any Religion, but 104 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION much better disposed to believe none, to them, this reasoning is not addressed. Have a fairer opinion therefore of our Charity, and beheve us to be sincere when we profess ourselves. Your ^c. PREFACE to the FIRST edition OF BOOKS IV. V. AND VI. OF THE DIVINE LEGATION OE MOSES : MDCCXL. The Author of The Divine Legation of Moses, a private clergyman, had no sooner given his first volume * to the PubUc, than he was faUen upon in so outrageous and brutal a manner as had been scarce pardon able had it been The Divine Legation of Mahomet. And what was most extraordinary, by those very inen whose Cause he was sup porting, and whose Honours and Dignities he had been defending. But what grotesque instruments of vengeance had bigotry set on foot ! If he was to be run down, it had been some kind of conso lation to him to fall by savages, of whom it was no discredit to be devoured. Optat aprum, aut fulvum, descendere monie Leonem. However, to do them justice, it must be owned, that, what they wanted in teeth, they had in venom ; and they knew, as all Brutes do, where their strength Jay. For reasons best known to Bigotry, he was, in spite of all his professions, to be pushed over to the Enemy, by every kind of provocation. To support this pious purpose, pas sages were distorted, propositions invented,f conversation betrayed, and forged letters written. J The attack was opened by one who bore the respectable name of a Country Clergyman, but was in reality a Town-Writer of a Weekly Newspaper ; § and with such excess of insolence and malice, as th? Public had never yet seen on any occasion whatsoever. Amidst all this unprovoked clamour, the Author had his reasons for sparing these wretched tools of impotence and envy. His friends thought it beneath him to commit himself with such writers ; and he * Books i. ii. iii. f See the Author's Letter to Smallbrooke, Bishop of Lich field and Coventry, in which he accuses the Bishop of this crime ; To which accusation, the public never yet saw either defence or excuse. J By one-Romaine and one Julius Bate iu conjimction. § Dr. Webster by name. Who soon after, hy a cir cular letter to the bench of Bishops, claimed a reward for this exploit. OF BOOKS IV. V. VI. 105 himself supposed it no good policy to irritate a crew of Zealots, who had, at their first opening, called loudly upon the secular arm. Our Author indeed could talk big to the free-thinkers ; for alas, poor men ! he knew their weapons : AU their arms were arguments, and those none of the sharpest ; and wit, and that none of the brightest. But he had here to do with men in Authority ; appointed, if you wUl believe them, Inspectors-General over clerical Faith. And they went forth in all the pomp and terror of Inquisitors ; with Suspicion before. Condemnation behind, and their two assessors. Ignorance and Inso lence, on each side. We must suspect his faith (say they) — We must condemn his book — We do not understand his argument.* — But it may perhaps be of use to Posterity at least, if ever these sUght sheets should happen to come down to it, to explain the provo cation which our Author had given for so much unUmited abuse and calumny. The Reader then may be pleased to know, that the Author's first Volume of The Divine Legation of Moses was as well a sequel and support of The Alliance between Church and State (a book written in behalf of our Constitution and Established Clergy) as it was an introduction to a projected Defence of Revelation. It might Uke-srise be regarded as an entire work of itself, to shew the usefulness of Religion to Society. This, and the large bulk of the Volume, disposed him to publish it apart ; whUe the present state of Religion amongst us seemed to give it a peculiar expediency, " an open and professed disregard to reUgion " (as an exceUent pastor of our church observes) " being become the distinguishing character of the present age. An eril grown to a great height in the Metropolis of the Nation, and daUy spreading through every part of it ; which hath already brought in such dissoluteness and contempt of principle in the higher part of the world, and such profligate intemperance and fearlessness of com mitting crimes in the lower, as must, if this torrent of impiety stop not, become absolutely fatal." f Our Author therefore thought, that as this evil, which is now spread through the populace, began in the higher part of the world, it must be first checked there, if ever it were checked at aU. And he knew no better way to do this, than by shewmg those People of Condition (who, amidst aU their contempt of religious Principle, yet professed the greatest zeal for their country and mankind) that Religionis absolutely necessary for the support of civil Government. He thought too, this no iU derice to get the advocate of Revelation a fair hearing. For he supposed, that unless they could be inade to see the usefulness of Christianity to Society (which then: contempt of Principle shewed they yet did not see) they would never be brought to beUeve its Truth or Divinity. • Webster, Venn, Stebbing, Waterland, and others. t Bishop of Oxford's "Charge," Loudon, 1738, 4to. p. 4. 106 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION These were his endeavours and designs. What he got for his pains, I have already told the Reader. — In vain had he endeavoured to deserve weU of Religion at large, and of the Church of England in particular :— by fixing the true grounds of moraUty ; — by confuting the atheistic arguments of Bayle, and the flagitious Principle of ManderiUe ;— by explaining the natures, settUng the bounds, and adjusting the distinct rights of the two Societies ;~ and by exposing the impious tenet, of ReUgion' s being the contrivance of PoUticians. AU this went for nothing with the Bigots. He had departed from the old posture of defence, and had projected a new plan for the support of Revelation. His Demonstration (says one of them) if he could make one of it, could never make us amends for changing our posture of defence, and deserting our strong holds.* For though they wUl talk, indeed, of the love of truth, and the inrincible evidence of our Faith, yet I know not how, even amidst all their Zeal and Fury, they betray the most woful apprehensions of Christianity, and are frighted to death at every foolish Book new written against ReUgion, though it come but from the Mint or Bedlam. And what do our directing Engineers adrise you to, in this exigence ? Do they bid you act offensively, and turn the enemies' artiUory upon them ? By no means. Keep within your strong holds. Watch where they direct their battery, and there to your old mud waUs clap a buttress ; and so it be done with speed, no matter of what materials. If, in the mean time, one more bold than the rest, offer to dig away the rubbish that hides its beauty, or lack down an aukward prop that discredits its strength, he is sure to be caUed by these men, perhaps to be thought by those who set them on work, a secret enemy, or an indiscreet friend.^ He is sure to be assaulted with aU the rude clamours and opprobrious names that Bigotry is ever ready to bestow on those it fears and hates. But this was the fortune of all his betters. It was the fortune of Hooker, Hales, StiUingfleet, Cudworth, Bp. Taylor. They were called Politiques, Sceptics, Erastians, Deists, and Atheists. But Cud- worth's case was so particular, that it wiU excuse a Uttle enlarge-i ment. The PhUosopher of Malmesbury was the terror of the last age, as Tindal and CoUins have been of this. The press sweat with contro versy : and every young Churchman militant would needs try his arms in thundering upon Hobbes's steel cap. The mischief his writings had done to Religion set Cudworth upon projecting its defence. Of this he pubUshed one immortal volume ; vrith a boldness uncommon indeed, but very becoming a man conscious of his own integrity and • Webster's " Country Clergyman's second Letter." t Waterland, OF BOOKS IV. V. VI. 107 strength. For instead of amusing himself with Hobbes's pecuUar whimsies, which in a little time were to vanish of themselves, and their answers with them; which are aU now forgotten, from the Curate's to the Archbishop's ; * he launched out into the immensity of the Intellectual System ; and, at his first essay, penetrated the very darkest recesses of Antiquity, to strip Atheism of its disguises, and drag up the lurking Monster into day. Where, though few readers could foUow him, yet the very slowest were able to overtake his purpose. And there wanted not Country Clergymen to lead the cry, and teU the world, — That, under pretence of defending Revelation, he wrote in the very manner that an artful Infidel might naturally be su,pposed to use in writing against it ; that he had given us all the filthy stuff that he could scrape together out of the sink of Atheism, as a natural introduction to a demonstration of the truth of Revelation ; that with incredible industry and reading he had rummaged all anti quity for atheistical arguments, which he neither knew, nor intended to answer. In a word, that he was an Atheist in his heart, and an Arian in his book.f But the worst is behind. These siUy calumnies were beUeved. The much injured Author grew disgusted. His ardour slackened ; and the rest, and far greatest part of the Defence, never appeared ; a Defence, that would have left nothing to do for such as our Author, but to read it ; and for such as our Author's Adversaries, but to raU at it. Thus spiritual Hate, Uke carnal Love, levels aU distinctions. And thus our Author came to be honoured with the same treatment which it had bestowed upon a Cudworth. But as this hate is for the most part, only en-vy, under the name of zeal, the Bigots, for their own ease, should be more cautious in conferring their favours. They have given our Author cause enough to be proud : who, as inconsiderable as he is, has, it seems, his : as weU as a Locke his Edwards, or a Chillingworth his Cheynel. But alas! the PubUc, I am afraid, distinguish better. They see, though these men cannot, that the Edwardses and Cheynels increase upon us, whUe the Lockes and Chillingworths are become exceeding rare. Turn then, good Creatures ! while you have time, turn your envy on their few remain ing successors : and leave our Author in peace. He has parts (had he but suitable morals) even to be of your party. But no time is to be lost. We have a sad prospect before us. The Chillingworths of the present age wUl, in a Uttie time, be no more ; while the race of Cheynels threatens to be immortal. But this is the fate of human things. The Geese of the Capitol, we know, remamed for ages, after ' Tenison t See Webster's " Country Clergyman's first Letter against The Divine Legation ; " and one Mr. John Turner's '< Discourse " (a Clergyman likewise) " against The Intellectual System." 108 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION OF BOOKS IV. V. VI. those true defenders of it, the Manlii, the Camilli, the Africani, were extinct and forgotten. And alas ! how ominous are the fears of friendship ! I had but just written this, when the death of Dr. Francis Hare, late bishop of Chichester, gave me cause to lament my Dirination. In him the PubUc has lost one of the best patrons and supports of letters and religion. How steadUy and successfully he employed his great talents of reason and Uterature, in opposing the violence of each reUgious party in their turns, when court-favour was betraying them into hurtful extremes, the unjust reproaches of Libertines and Bigots -wiU never suffer us to forget. How generously he encouraged and rewarded Letters, let them teU who have largely shared in his bene ficence : for his character may be trusted with his enemies, or even with his most obliged friends. In him our Author has lost, what he could but iU spare, one of the most candid of his Readers and ablest of his Critics. What he can never lose, is the honour of his esteem and friendship. But whatever advantage our Author may have received from the outrage of his enemies, the Public is a real sufferer. He had indeed the honour to be known to those few, who could have corrected- his errors, reformed his course, and shewn him safely through the wide and trackless waste of ancient times. But the calumnies of the Bigots obliged him to a kind of quarantine, as coming lately from suspected places, from the cabinet-councU of Old Lawgivers, and the schools of Heathen Philosophers ; whose infection was supposed to be yet sticking on him. And under such circumstances it is held Ul- breeding to come near our Superiors. This disadvantage was the more sensible to him, as few writers have been under greater obUgations to consult the satisfaction of capable readers ; who gave his first Volume so kind a reception ; and waited with a favourable expectation for the following. And if he has made these readers wait too long; he has only this to say, that he would not foUow the example of paradoxical writers, who only aim to strike by a novelty. For as his point was truth, he was content his notions should become stale and common, and forego aU advantages but their native eridence, before he submitted the prosecution of them to the judgment of the PubUc. PHEFACE to the edition or THE DIVINE LEGATION OP MOSES, MDCCLVIII. The subject of these Volumes had occasionaUy led me to say many things of the genius and constitution of Pagan ReUgion, in order to Ulustrate the divinity of the Jewish and the Christian : Amongst the rest, I attempted to explain the true origin of that opprobrium of our common nature, persecution for opinions : * And I flattered myself, I had done revelation good service, in showing that this evil owed its bu-th to the absurdities of Pagan Eeligion, and to the iniquities of Pagan Politics : for that the persecutions of the later Jews, and afterwards, of the first Christians, arose from the reasonable constitution of these two Religions, which, by avoiding idolatry, opposed that universal principle of Paganism, intercommunity of worship; or, in other words. That the Jews and Christians were persecuted as the enemies of mankind, for not having Gods in common with the rest of the World. But a learned Critic and Divine hath lately undertaken to expose my mistake ; He hath endeavoured to prove, that the first persecution for opinion was of- Christian original; and that the Pagans persecuted the primitive Church, not, as I had represented the matter, for the unsociable genius of its Religion, which forbad aU intercourse with idolaters, but for its nocturnal and clandestine assemblies. From whence it follows, as wiU be seen by and by, that the first Christians were fanatics, libertines, or impostors ; and that the per secuting Emperors, provident for the pubUc safety, legaUy pursued a bigotted or immoral sect, for a crime of state, and not for matter of opinion. If it be asked. How a Doctor of Laws, a Minister of the Gospel, and a Judge ecclesiastical, would venture to amuse us with so strange a fancy ; all I can say for it is, he had the pleasure, in common with many other witty men, of writing against The Divine Legation ; and he had the pleasure too, in common with many wise men, of thinking he might indulge himself in any Uberties against a writer whom he * See " Divine Legation," book ii. sect. 6. 110 PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1758. had the precaution not to name.— But he says, he never read the Dirine Legation. I can easUy beUeve him : and will do him this further justice, that, when many have written against it without read ing it, he is the first who has had the ingenuity to own it. His system or hypothesis, as we find it in a late quarto volume, caUed Elements of the Civil Law,* is, in substance, this,—" That the same principle, which set the Roman Senate upon prosecuting the abominable rites of Bacchus, excited the Roman Emperors to persecute the primitive church." But U is fit, this marvellous discovery should be revealed in his own words. — It may be asked (says he) in that almost universal licence and toleration, which the ancients, the Romans particularly, extended to the professors of all religions whatsoever, why the Christian profession alone, which might have expected a favourable treatment, seems to stand exempted, and frequently felt the severity of the bitterest per secution.-^ — If the learned Critic be serious in asking a question, which had been answered, and as would seem, to the general satis faction, near twenty years ago, I suppose it is, to intimate that no other answer wiU content him but one from the persecutors themselves. This then he shaU have ; though it be of sixteen hundred years' standing. Pliny the younger, when proconsul of Bithynia, acquaints his master with the reasons why he persecuted ; and the satisfaction he had in so dojug : — " Neque dubitabam, qualecumque esset quod fate- rentur, certe pertinaciam, et inflexibilem obstinationem debere puniri." J What was this froward and inflexible obstinacy ? He tells us, it was refusing all intercommunity with Paganism ; it was refusing to throw a single grain of incense on their altars. Tacitus, speaking of the persecution which followed the burning of Rome by Nero (the impiety of which action that mad tyrant had charged upon the Christians) says, " Haud perinde in crimine incendii, quam odio humani generis convicti sunt." § By which, I under stand him to mean, — That though the emperor falsely charged them ' with the burning of Rome, yet the people acquiesced in the persecu tion, on account of the enormous crime of which they were conricted, \i.. e. judged guilty in the opinion of all men;] their hatred to the whole race of mankind ; || for nothing but such an unnatural aversion, • By the Rev. Dr. Taylor, Chancellor of Lincoln. f Page 579. I Lili- x. ep. 97. § Annalium lib. xv. cap. 44. || Tacitus, speaking of the Jews, observes that the end of their pecidiar Rites was to separate them from all other peopte. From their separation he inferred their aversion. In this sense we are to imderstand him and other Pagan writers, when they exclaim against the Jews for their peculiar Rites. Each Nation had its own : so that peculiarity was a circumstance common to all. What differenced the Jewish Rites from all others was their end; which was to keep the people from all intercommunity with the several religions of Paganism ; each of ^ which, how different soever in their Rites, held fellowship with one another. — But here a famous French Critic, who writes " de omni scibfli," comes in support of our English Critic's system of the Pseudo-martyrs of the primitive Church, and says, we all mis take Tacitus's Latin. His words are these — '* J'oserais dire que ces mots odio humani PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1758. m they thought, could induce men to persevere in rejecting so universal ¦a principle, as intercommunity of worship. The good emperor Aurelius was himself a persecutor. It is not to be doubted, when he speaks in condemnation of the Christian sect, but that he would teU the worst he conceived of them : and it must certainly have been that worst, which made him a Persecutor, so much against the mUdness of his nature, and the equity of his phUosophic manners. Now this sage magistrate, in his book of Meditations, speaking of the wise man's readiness to give up life, expresses himself in this manner, — " He should be so prepared that his readiness may be seen to be the issue of a weU-weighed judgment, not the effect of mere obstinacy, Uke that of the Christians." * For intercom munity being in the number of first principles, to deny these, could be owing to nothing but to mere obstinacy, or downright stupidity. Here, the mistaken duty of the magistrate, overcame the lenity of the man, and the justice of the phUosopher : at other times, his specula tions happUy got the better of his practice. In his constitution to the community of Asia, recorded by Eusebius, he says, — " I know the Gods are watchful to discover such sort of men. And it is much fitter that they themselves should punish those who refuse to WORSHIP them, than that we should interfere in their quarrel." f The emperor, at length, speaks out : and what we could only infer from Pliny, from Tacitus, _ and from the passage in the Meditations, he now declares in so many words ; viz. that the Christians were persecuted for refusing, to worship the Gods of the gentiles. Lastly, the imperial Sophist, who, of aU the idolaters, was most learned in this mystery of iniquity, as haring employed aU his poUtics and his pedantry to varnish over the deformities of persecution, frankly owns, that " the Jews and Christians brought the execration of the world upon them, by their aversion to the Gods op the gentiles." X generis convicti peuvent bien signifier, dans le stile de Tacite, convaincns d'Mre hais du genre-humain, autant que convaincus de hair le genre-hwniain." [Traite sm- la Toler ance, 1763, p. 60.] He teUs us. Ho dare «ay,— what not one of " Westminster's bold race dare say;— that these words, odio humani generis convicti, may well signify, in the style of Tacitus, convicted of being hated by ihe human race, as well as convicted of hating the human race." And now Tacitus, so long famed for his political sagacity, wiU be made to pronounce this galimatias from his oracular Tripod, " The Jews were not con victed so properly for the crime of setting fire to Rome, as for the crime of being HATED by all mankind." , , , , / > . • Tb S'e '4T01U.0V Todro, 'lya iTri. ISiKrjs Kplaeas ipXTtrai, p.^ KaraJiX^v japaTa^w, as ol Xpio-Tiavol.--U-b. -xi. sect. 3. t '^ji' P^" ot^, »" Kai tois Sieois impieXes eari, p^Xavedveiv Tohs Toioirovs- ^oXv ydp pdXXoy iKelyoi KoXaaaiey dy tous ffl f^"'^"!^^: vovs avTobs ¦urpoaKm.ely ?) ipe'is—Eccles. Hist. bb. iv. cap. 13^ t AAAa Th, Ou ¦srpoaKwitaeisSieo'is kripois- t> Sh p4ya Trjs -arepl Thy Srejy Gopds, iKOeffpovs Te Kai Tsrapaydpovs ydpovs, piaKpovtas Te Kal TxraTpoKTOvias, tIkvuv re Kai dSeXcpuy aifiayds, koX p-^v Kal TffoXepovs Kai ardxreis Ttreirpaypeyas ^vras to7s oiKetois 'orpoa'TdTais, ovs ^eohs Tiyovyrd Te Kal d-KeKdXovv, Siairep iy pepei KaTopOapdruy Kal dvSpayad[as direpyjipdyevoy, t^v To-inav pv^p7\y as aepyay Kal dySpelay to7s ofpiy6voiS dnoXnrdyTes. — EuSEBii Praep. Evang. lib. ii. cap. 6, edit. Steph. p. 46. * See book ix. and, in the mean time, " Sermons on the Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion," serm. v. -sol. ix. t See book ii. sect. 2. SECT T OF JIOSES DEMONSTRATED. 141 n„fr ^ "^t ^"""^ ^°'"^^ *^^ ^'^^'i^^* ^°>-lji/of,* to be of their number. For by an odd chance, though not uncommon in bUnd scuffles, the infidels and we have changed weapons : Our enemies attack us with the Bible, to prove the Egyptians very learned and very superstitious in the time of Moses ; and we defend ourselves with the new Chronology of Sir Isaac Newton, to prove them very barbarous and very innocent. • Heeodotcs, lib. iii. cap. 28, VOL. II. '^ 146 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. Would the reader know how this came about ; it was in this wise : The infidels had observed (as who that ever looked into sacred and profane Antiquity hath not ?) that in the Jewish Law there were many ordinances respective of the institutions of Egypt. This cir cumstance they seized ; and, according to their custom, envenomed ; by drawing from thence a conclusion against The Divine Legation of Moses. The defenders of Revelation, surprised with the novelty -of the argument, did that, in a fright and in excess of caution, which one may observe unprepared disputants generally do, to support their opinions ; that is, they chose rather to deny the premisses than the conclusion. For such, not knowing to what their adversary's prin ciples may lead, think it a point of prudence to stop him in his first advance : whereas the skUful disputant weU knows, that he never has his enemy at more advantage, than when, by aUowing the premisses, lie shews him arguing wrong from his own principles ; for the ques tion being then to be decided by the certain rules of logic, his confu tation exposes the weakness of the advocate as weU as of the cause. When this is over, he may turn with a good grace upon the pre misses ; to expose them, if false j to rectify them, if misrepresented ; or to employ them in the serrice of Religion, if truly and faithfuUy delivered : and this serrice they wiU never refuse him ; as I shall shew in the previous question of the high antiquity of Egypt, and in the main question of the omission of a future state in the institution of the Hebrews. CK And I am well pWsuaded that, had those excellent advocates of Religion (whose labours have set the truth in a Ught not to be resisted) but duly weighed the character of those -with whom they had to do, they would have been less startled at any consequences the power of their logic could have deduced. The Tolands, the Blounts, the Tindals, are, in truth, of a temper and complexion, in which one finds more of that quality which subjects men to draw wrong Conclusions, than of that which enables them to invent false Principles. The exceUent Spencer, indeed, endeavoured to dissipate this panic, by shewing these premisses to be the true key to the reason OF the law ; for the want of a sufficient reason in the ceremonial and positive part of it, was the greatest objection, which thinking men had, to the divinity of its original. But all this did not yet reconcile men to those premisses. It would seem as if they had another quarrel with them, besides the poor unlearned fear of their leading to the infidel's conclusion; namely, for their being an adversary's principle simply ; and, on that score alone to be disputed. This, is a perverse, though common prejudice, which infects our whole communication ; and hath hurt unity in the church, and humanity in civil life, as well as peace in ^^CT, It. QF MOSES DEMONSTRATED, 147 the schools. For who knows not that the same impotent aversion to things abused by an enemy, hath made one sort of sectaries diride from the national church, and another reprobate the most indifferent manners of their country ? * And it is to be observed, that tiU that unlucky time when the infidels first blundered upon truth, this principle met -with a very general reception : the ancient Fathers, and modern Dirines of aU denominations, concurring in their use of it, to iUustrate the wisdom of God's Laws, and the truth of his Son's interpretation of them, where he assureth us that they were given to the Hebrews for the hardness of their hearts ; no sort of men sticking out, but a few visionary Jews, who, besotted with the nonsense of their cabbala, obstinately shut their eyes against aU the Ught which the exceUent Maimonides had first poured into this palpable obscure. Not that I would be understood as admitting the premisses in the latitude in which our adversaries deliver them ; Iliacos intra muros peccatur et esctra. The human mind, miserably weak and instable, and distracted with a great variety of objects, is naturaUy inclined to repose itself in system ; nothing being more uneasy to us than a state of doubt ; or a view too large for our comprehension. Hence we see, that, of every imaginary fact, some or other have made an hypothesis ; of every cloud, a castle : And the common vice of these castle-builders is to draw every thing withia its precincts, which they fancy may contri bute to its defence or embellishment. We have given an instance, in the foregoing book, of the foUy of those who have run into the con trary extreme, and are for deriving all arts, laws and reUgions, from the People of God : an extravagance at length come to such a height, that, if you will believe certain writers,! the poor heathen had neither the grace to kneel to prayers, nor the wit to put their Gods under cover, tUl the IsraeUtes taught them the way. But our wise adver saries are even with them ; and wiU bate no beUever an inch, in driving on an hypothesis : for had not the Egyptians, by great good luck, as they give us to understand,^ enjoined honour to parents, and restrained theft by punishment, the Jews had been in a sad bUnd condition when they came to take possession of the promised land. Are these men more sober in their accounts of the reUgious Insti tutions of the Hebrews ? I think not ; when they pretend to prove circumcision of Egyptian original from the testimony of late writers, who neither speak to the point, nor in this point are in reason to be regarded, if they did.§ • Puritans, Quakers, &c. t See note C, at the end of this book. J See Marshals Canon Chron. ed. Franeq. pp. 177, 188. § bee note D, at the end of this book. L 2 148 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. But why all this strife for or against the one or other hypothesis ? for assuredly it would no more foUow, from this of our adversaries, that the Jewish ReUgion was false, than from a lately revived one of our friends, which supposes aU the Gods of Egypt to have come out of Abraham's famUy,* that the Egyptian was true. It must indeed be of use to true reUgion, where or whatever it be, to trace up things to their original : and for that reason alone, with out any views to party, I shaU endeavour to prove the four following propositions. 1. That the Egyptian learning, celebrated in Scripture, and the Egyptian superstition there condemned, were the very learning and superstition represented by the Greek writers, as the honour and opprobrium of that Kingdom. 2. That the Jewish people were extremely fond of Egyptian manners, and did frequently faU into Egyptian superstitions : and that many o"f the laws given to them by the ministry of Moses, were instituted, partly in compliance to their prejudices, and partly in opposition to those superstitions. 3. That Moses's Egyptian learning, and th£ laws he instituted in corapUance to the people's prejudices, and in opposition to Egyptian superstitions, are no reasonable objection to the dirinity of his mission. And, 4. That those very circumstances are a strong confirmation of the truth of his pretensions. The inquiry, into which the proof of these points wUl lead us, is, as we said, very necessary to the gaining a true idea of the nature of the Jewish Dispensation : as that idea wUl enable the reader to form a right judgment of the force of those arguments, I am preparing for the support of my third proposition. That the doctrine of a future state is not to be found in, nor did make part of, the Jewish Dispensation. But the enquiry has stUl a further use. I shall employ the result of it to strengthen that general conclusion, that MoSES HAD really A DIVINE MISSION, which I have promised to deduce through the medium of this third proposition : so that the reader must not think me in the humour to trifie with him, if this enquiry should prove longer than he expected. And here, on the entrance, it wiU be no improper place to explain my meaning, when, in my first setting out, I promised to demon strate the truth of the Jewish revelation, on the principles of a RELIGIOUS DEIST. Had I moaut no more by this, than that I would argue with him on common principles, I had only insulted the reader's understanding by an affected expression, while I pretended to make that pecuUar to my defence, which is, or ought to be, a cir- • Voyez Reflexions Critiques sur les Histoires des ,,4nciens Peuples. SICT. in. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 149 cnmstance common to aU : or had I meant so much by it, as to imply, that I would argue with the Deist on his own false principles, I had then unreasonably bespoke the reader's long attention to a mere argument ad hominem, which, at best, had only proved the free-thinker a bad reasoner ; and who wants to be convinced of that ? but my point was not so much to shew that the Infidel was in the wrong, as that the BeUever was in the right. The only remaining sense then of the Deist's own principles is this. Those true principles of his, which because they are generally held by the enemies of ReU gion, and almost as generaUy rejected by the friends of it, have got the titie of deistical principles. Such, for instance, as this I am going upon, the high antiquity of the Egyptian wisdom ; and such as that, for the sake of which I go upon it, the omission of the doc trine of a future state in the Mosaic dispensation. And these are the principles by which I promise, in good time, to overturn aU his conclusions. SECTION III. The first proposition is, — That the Egyptian learning, celebrated in Scripture, and the Egyptian superstition there condemned, were the very learning and superstition represented by the Greek writers as the honour and opprobrium of that kingdom. To prove this, I shaU in the first place shew (both by external and internal evidence) the just pretensions which Egypt had to a supe rior antiquity : and then examine the new hypothesis of Sir Isaac Newton against that antiquity. It is confessed on aU hands, that the Greek writers concur in representing Egypt as one of the most ancient and po-werful monar chies in the world. In support of what they deUver, we may observe, that they have given a very particular account of the ciril and reU gious customs in use from the most early times of memory : customs of such a kind, as shew the foUowers of them to ha-?ie been most poUte and powerful. — Thus stands the Grecian evidence. But to this it may be repUed, that the Greeks are, in aU respects, incompetent -witnesses, and carry with them such imperfections as are sufficient to discredit any eridence ; being, indeed, very ignorant, and very prejudiced. As this made them Uable to imposition ; so falling, as we shaU see, into Ul hands, they actually were imposed on. Their ignorance may be fairly coUected from their age ; and from the authors of tiieir inteUigence. They all Uved long after the times in question ; and, though they received indeed their mformation from Egypt itself ; yet, for the most part, it was not tUl after the entire destruction of that ancient empire, and when it was now become a province, in succession, to Asiatic and European conquerors : when 150 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv, their ancient and pubUc records were destroyed ; and their very learning and genius changed to a conformity with their Grecian masters, who would needs, at this time of day, seek wisdom from Egypt, which could but furnish them vrith their own ; though, because they would have it so, disguised under the stately obscurity of an Eastern cover.* Nor were their prejudices less notorious. They thought themselves Autocthones, the original inhabitants of the earth, and indebted to none for their advantages. But when knowledge and acquaintance with foreign nations had convinced them of their mistake ; and that, so far from owing nothing to others, they owed almost every thing to Egypt ; their writers, stiU true to their natural vanity, now gave the post of honour to these, which they could no longer keep to themselves ; and complimented their new instructors with the most extravagant antiquity. What the Greeks conceived out of vain-glory, the Egyptians cherished to promote a trade. This country was long the mart of knowledge for the Eastern and Western world : and as nothing so much recommends this kind of commodity as its age, they set it off by forged records, which extended their history to a most unreasonable length of time : accounts of these have been conveyed to us by ancient authors, and fuUy confuted by the modem. Thus stands the objection to the Grecian evidence. And, though I have no business to determine in this question, as the use I make of the Greek authority is not at aU affected by it ; yet I must needs confess that, were there no writings of higher antiquity to confirm the Grecian, their testimony would be very doubtful : but, could writings of much higher antiquity be found to contradict it, they would deserve to have no credit at all. > Whatever therefore they say of the high antiquity of Egypt, unsupported by the reason of the thing, or the testimony of holy Scripture, shaU never be employed in this enquiry; but whatever Reason and Scripture seem to contradict, whether it serve the one or other purpose, I shaU always totaUy reject. The unanimous agreement of the Greek writers in representing Egypt as the most ancient and best poUcied empire in the world, is, as we say, generaUy known and acknowledged, I, Let us see then, in the first place, what reason says concern ing this matter. There is, if I be not much mistaken, one circumstance in the situation of Egypt, which seems to assert its claim to a priority amongst the civiUzed Nations ; and consequently to its eldership in Arts and Arms. There is no soil on the face of the globe so fertile but what, in a * See " Diuine Legation," book iii, sect. 4., SECT. III. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 151 little time, becomes naturaUy effete by pasturage and tillage. This, in the early ages of the world, forced the unsettled tribes of men to be perpetually shifting their abode. For the world lying aU before them, they saw a speedier and easier relief in removing to fresh ground, than in turning their thoughts to the recovery * of the fertiUty of that already spent by occupation : for it is necessity alone, to which we are indebted for all the artificial methods of supplying our wants. Now the plain of Egypt having it's fertility annuaUy restored by the periodic overfiowings of the NUe, they, whom chance or choice had once directed to sit down upon it's banks, had never after an occasion to remove their tents. And when men have been so long settled in a place, that the majority of the inhabitants are become natives of the soil, the inborn love of a Country has, by that time, struck such deep roots into it, that nothing but extreme violence can draw them out. Hence, civU poUcy arises ; which, while the unsettled tribes of mankind keep shifting from place to place, remains stified in its seeds. This, I apprehend, if rightly considered, wUl induce us to conclude, that Egypt was very likely to have been one of the first civUized countries on the globe. II. Let us see next what scripture has recorded in support of the same truth. 1. So early as the time of Abraham we find a king in Egypt of the common name of Pharaoh :f which would induce one to beUeve, that the civil policy was much the same as in the times of Joseph and Moses : and how perfect it then was, wiU be seen presently. This kingdom is represented as abounding in corn, and capable of reliering others in a time of famine ¦.% which no kingdom can do, where agriculture has not been improved by art, and regulated by a civU policy. We see the splendor of a luxurious court, in the princes who resided in the monarch's houshold: amongst whom, we find some (as the most thriving trade for royal favour) to have been prc- curers to his pleasures : § nor were the presents made by Pharaoh to Abraham, at aU unworthy of a great king.|l An adventure of the same sort as this of Abraham's with Pharaoh, happened to his son Isaac with Abimelech ; which wUl instruct us in the difference between an Egyptian monarch, and a petty roitelet of the Philistines. Abhnelech is described as Uttle different from a simple particular,^ without his guards, or great princes : so jealous and afraid of Isaac's growing power, that he obliged him to depart out of his dommions ;** • See note E, at the end of this book. t Genesis xii. 15. J Verse 10. 6 Thevrinces also of Pharaoh saw her, und commenced heb befoke Pharaoh : IndL'wZL was iiken into PiiaraohS house. (Gen. xn. 15.) || Gen. xn. 16. ir Chap. xxvi. 7, 8. " Verse 16. 152 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. and, not satisfied with that, went afterwards to beg a peace of him, and would swear him to the observance of it.* 2. The caravan of IshmaeUte merchants, going from GUead to Egypt,t brings us to the second scripture period of this ancient monarchy. And here their camel-loads of spicery, balm, and myrrh, and their traffic in young slaves,J commodities only for a rich and luxurious people, sufficiently declare the estabUshed power and wealth of Egypt. We find a captain of Pharaoh's guard ; a chief butler, and a baker. § We see in the vestures of fine linen, in the gold chains, and state-chariots given to Joseph, || aU the marks of luxury and poUteness : and in the cities for laying up of stores and prorisions,^ the effects of wise government and opulence. Nor is the poUcy of a distinct priesthood, which is so circumstantiaUy described in the his tory of this period, one of the least marks of the high antiquity of this flourishing kingdom. It is agreed, on aU hands, that there was such an Institution in Egypt, long before it was known in any other parts of the East. And if what Diodorus Siculus 'intimates to be the original of a distinct priesthood, be true, namely the grovring multi tude of reUgious rites, we see the whole force of this observation. For multipUcity of reUgious rites is generaUy in proportion to the advances in ciril life. 3. The redemption of the Hebrews from their slavery is the thircE period of the Egyptian monarchy, recorded in Scripture. Here, the buUding of treasure cities,** and the continual employment of so vast a multitude, in only preparing materials -|-|^ for public edifices, shew the vast power and luxury of the State, Here too, we find a fixed and standing militia f J of chariots ; and, what is more extraordinary, of cavalry : §§ in which kind of mUitary address the Greeks were unskilled tiU long after the times of the Trojan war. And indeed, if we may believe St. Paul, this kingdom was chosen by God to be the scene of aU his wonders, in support of his elect people, for this very reason, that through the celebrity of so famed an empire, the power of the true God might be spread abroad, and strike the observation of the whole habitable world. — For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee ; and that my name might be declared throughout all the earM.IIII oC To this let me add, that Scripture every where, throughout these three periods, represents Egypt as an entire kingdom under one monarch ;^^ which is a certain mark of great advances in ciril poUcy and power : all countries, on their first egression out of barbarity, • Gen. xxvi. 26, et seq. t Chap, xxxvii. 25. J Verse 28. § Chap. xxxix. xl. II Chap. xii. 42, 43. U Chap. xii. " Exod. i. 11. tt Chap. V. 14. tt Chap. xiv. 7. §§ Verse 9. |||| Rom. ix. 17. "[Fir See Gen. xii. 41, 43, 45, 46, 55 ; xlvii. 20 ; and Exod. passim. SECT. III. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. I53 bemg dirided into many Uttle States and principaUties ; which, as those arts improved, were naturaUy brought, either by power or poUcy, to unite and coalesce. But here let me observe, such is the ceaseless revolution of human affairs, that that power which reduced Egypt into a monarchy, was the very thing which, when it came to it's height, occasioned it's faU ing back again under it's Reguli. Sesostris, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, dirided the lower Egypt to his soldiery, by a kind of feu dal Law, into large patrimonial tenures. The successors of this mUitia, as Marsham reasonably conjectures,* gro-wing powerful and factious, set np, each leader for himself, in his own patrimonial Nome, The powerful empire of the Franks, here in the West, from the same causes, underwent the same fate, from the debUity of which it did not recover tUl these latter ages. Thus invincibly do the Hebrew records j- support the Grecian evi dence for the high antiquity of Egypt, Aud it is further remark able, that the later inspired writers of the sacred canon co.nfirm this concurrent testimony, in the constant attributes of antiquity and wis dom, which, upon aU occasions, they bestow upon the Egyptian nation. Thus the prophet Isaiah, in denouncing God's judgments against this people : — " Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the coun sel of the WISE counseUors of Pharaoh is become brutish : How say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient Kings ? Where are they ? where are thy wise men ? and let them teU thee now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts hath pur posed upon Egypt," % But the Greek writers do not content themselves to teU us, in a vague and general manner, of the high antiquity and power of Egypt, which in that case was Uttle to be regarded ; but they support the fact, of which their books are so fuU, by a minute and circumstantial account of institutions, ciril and religious, said to be observed by that people from the most early times, which, in their very nature, speak a great and powerful people ; and belong only to such as are so. Now this account sacred Scripture remarkably confirms and verifies, "if^- I. The priesthood being the primum mobUe of the Egyptian poUcy, we shaU begin vrith that. Diodorus Siculus thus describes its state and establishment: — "The whole country being dirided into three parts ; the first belongs to the body of Priests ; an order in the highest reverence amongst thek countrymen, for their piety to the Gods, and their consummate wisdom, acquired by the best education, and the closest appUcation to the improvement of the mmd. With their revenues they supply aU Egypt with pubUc sacrifices ; they sup- • Can. Chron. p. 446. t See note F, at the end of this book. t Isaiah xix. 11, 12. See note G, at the end of this book. 154 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv, port a number of inferior officers, and maintain their own famiUes : for the Egyptians think it utterly unlawful to make any change iu their public worship ; but hold that every thing should he adminis tered by their priests, in the same constant invariable manner. Nor do they deem it at aU fitting that those, to whose care the public is so much indebted, should want the common necessaries of Ufe : for the priests are constantly attached to the person of the King, as his coadjutors, counseUors, and instructors, in the most weighty matters. — For it is not amongst them as with the Greeks, where one single man or woman exercises the office of the priesthood. Here a Body or Society is employed, in sacrificing and other rites of pubUc wor ship ; who transmit their profession to their chUdren, This Order, Ukewise, is exempt from aU charges and imposts, and holds the second honours, under the King, in the public administration." * Of aU the coUeges of the priesthood, Herodotus teUs us, that of Heliopolis was most famed for wisdom and learning : f and Strabo says that,„in his time, very spacious buildings yet remained in that place ; where, as the report ran, was formerly the chief residence of the Priests, who cultivated the studies of phUosophy and astronomy.J Thus these three celebrated historians ; whose account, in every particular, is fully confirmed by Moses ; who teUs us, that the Egyp tian Priests were a distinct order in the state, and had an estabhshed landed revenue ; that when the famine raged so severely that the people were compeUed to seU their lands to the crown for bread, the Priests stiU kept theirs, unalienated, and were supplied gratis. § Diodorus's account, which gives us the reason of this indulgence, con firms the scripture-history, and is fuUy supported by it : for there we see, not only the reverence in which the Order was held, but the pub Uc uses of religion, to which two thirds of their revenues were appUed, kept Pharaoh from attempting on their property. Again, Moses supports what Diodorus says of the pubUc and high employ- • Ttjs Se x^P^^ diTda'i)s eis Tpia pepr) 5i7ip7ipey7]s, t^v pev •nrpdmjy e^ei pepiSa rh fxi(TT7iiJ.a Tay lepeay, peyiaTTjs ivTpoTrrjs Tvy^dyoy •mapd to7s iyxapiois, Std Te tV ^*s TOVS ^eohs evffe§etay, Kal Sid Th 'mXelffT't]y avyeffiy Tobs ti,vSpas To{rrovs iK israiSeias eio-(pepea-6ai. Sk Se Tolrrav -Tay 'wpoff6Say rds re ^aias dirda'as rds KaT' Atywrrov avvTeXovffi, Kal tovs inrriperas rpeipovai, Kol tois IS'iais xp^lais xopvyovaiv. ofk-e ydp TOS Tay ^eay Tifids ^ovTO Se7v dXXdrTeiv, dXX' vnh Tay ainay ctel /col 'arapairXTiaias o'vyTeXe7(r$ai' o^Te rohs 'wdvTwv TsrpoSovXevopevovs , ivSeeis etyai Tay dyayKoiav. KaSo- Xov ydp 'urepl ray peyiaray ovToi 'arpoSovXev6peyot avyStaTpiSovat tijJ ^aaiXet, ray pey avyepyol, Tay Se e'lffrryrfral koX Si^dffKaXoi ytySpevoi' — ov ydp liia-Kep tj^apd To7s''EXX'iiaiy, els dy^p f} pla yvy^ t^c tepaciynv 'srapeiXT]ey, a\Adi -nroAAol -nrepi t^s Ttiy ^eav ^fftas Kal Tipds SiarpiSovai, /cal to7s iyydyois T^y Spoiav tov ^lov is-pocupeffiy israpaSiSifao-H'. Eiffl Sh O'Stoi 'ordvTav Te dTeXe7s, Kal SevTepeiovTes perd Thy ^aaiXea rdis re S6lais, Kal tois it,ovatais. — Biblioth. Hist. p. 46, Steph. ed. t Ot 7^^ 'HAiowTroXiToi Xeyoyrai Alymrrlay eTvai XoyidiTaToi. — Lib. ii. cap. 3. t 'Ev Si TJ; "RXiowrdXei Kcd oIkovs etSopey peydXovs, iy oh SieTpiSoy ot tepe7s' pdXiara ydp 5^ Talrnjy KaroiKlay Upeav yeyoyeyiu (paal Th liraXaihv, (piXoadipay dySpuy Kal darpoyopiKay. — Geogr. lib. xvii. § Only the la/nd of the priests bought he not : for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them ; wherefore they sold not their lands, (Gen. xlvii. 22.) ?ECT, 111. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. I55 ment of the Priests (who were privy counseUors and ministers of state), where speaking of the. priest of On,* he caUs him Chohen, which, as J. Cocceius shews in his lexicon,t signifies as well the friend and privy counseUor of the King, as a Priest ; and accordingly, the Chald. Paraphr. caUs him Princeps On. The word often occurs ; and, I imagine, was borrowed from the Egyptian language ; the Hebrews having no order of priesthood before that mstituted by Moses. This further appears from the name Coes,J given to the priests of the Samothracian Mysteries, plainly a corruption of Coen or Chohen. The Mysteries in general, we have shewn, § were derived from Egypt, and particularly those of Ceres or Isis, at Eleusis : Now, in Samothrace, the Mysteries were of Ceres and Proserpine, as at Eleusis. II Lastly, Moses confirms Herodotus's and Strabo's account of the superior learning and dignity of the HeUopolitan coUege. When Joseph was exalted to the prime ministry, he tells us, that , Pharaoh married him to a daughter of the priest of On ; ^ which the Septuagint and vulgar Latin rightly interpret Heliopolis : that the king was then in a disposition to do Joseph the highest honours, is plain from the circumstances of the story ; and that he principaUy consulted his estabUshment in this aUiance, appears from the account given us by these Greek historians. We see the pubUc administration was in the hands of the priesthood ; who would unwiUingly bear a stranger at the head of affairs. The bringing Joseph therefore into their famUy, and Order** which was hereditary, was the best expe dient to allay their prejudices and envy. And this Pharaoh did most effectually, by marrying him into that Cast which was then of greatest name and credit amongst them. I will only observe, that this superior nobUity of the Priests of On seems to have been chiefiy owing to their higher antiquity. HeUopo- hs, or the city of the Sun, was the place where that luminary was principaUy worshipped ; and certainly, from the most early times : for Diodorus teUs us, that the first gods of Egypt were the sun and moon ; ft the truth of which, all this, laid together, remarkably con firms. Now if we suppose, as is very reasonable, that the first established Priests in Egypt were those dedicated to the Sun at On, • Gen. xlvi. 20. t " Chohen, proprie et ex vi voois, qui accedit ad Regem, et etim, qui summus est. Ideo explicationis ergo adjungitur tnnqnam etymologiae evolntio, Exod. xix. 22.' ' Sacerdotes qui accedunt ad Jehovam.' — Non, quod vox Chohen notet primatum, ut vult Khnchius, sed quod notet primes accedentium— Certe in .ffigypto fnerunt tales, et his alimonia a rege debebatur." J Koir)!, iepetts^ KaSe'ipay — Hesych. §" Divine Legation," book ii. sect. 4. \l Mvovyrai Seiy rp Sapo- epdxri To7s KaSeipois, S:y Myaaeas val "dl Tct oySpaTU. Teaaapes S' elal Thy dpiBphy, ,'A^iepos,'A^i6Kepaa, 'AlioKepaos. 'A^tepos pey ovy iariy v Arip'/irrip- 'A^ioKepaa S eji Uepaeipivri- 'A^i6Kepcros Se S "AiSrjs- 6 Se •arpoa-neepevos Terapros KdapiXos S'Epiirjs eariy, as iaToae7 AioyvaiSapos. — Schol. in Apoll. Argon, lib. i. 917. If Gen. xlvi. 20. •• See note H, at the end of this book. tt See " Divine Lega tion," book ii. 156 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. we shaU not be at a loss to account for their titles of nobiUty. Strabo says, they were much given to astronomy ; and this too we can easily beUeve : for what more Ukely than that they should be fond* of the study of that system, over which their God presided, not only in his moral, but in his natural capacity ? For whether they received the doctrine from original tradition, or whether they invented it at hazard, which is more likely,t in order to exalt this their visible God, by giring him the post of honour, it is certain they taught that the sun was in the centre of its system, and that aU the other bodies moved round it, in perpetual revolutions. This noble theory came, with the rest of the Egyptian learning, into Greece (being brought thither by Pythagoras ; who, it is remarkable, received it from (Enuphis, a priest of Heho- poUs ;) \ and, after having given the most distinguished lustre to his school, it sunk into obscurity, and suffered a total ecUpse throughout a long succession of learned and unlearned ages ; tiU these times relumed its ancient splendor, and immovably fixed it on the most unerring principles of science. II. Another observable circumstance of conformity between the Greek historians and Moses, is in their accounts of the religious RITES of Egypt. Herodotus expresly teUs us, that the Egyptians esteemed it a prophanation, to sacrifice any kind of cattle, except svrine, bulls, clean calves, and geese ; § and, in another place, that heifers, rams, and goats were held sacred, || either in one prorince or in another : though not from any adoration paid in these early times to the living animal. I shall shew hereafter that the Egyptians at first only worshipped their figures or images. However picture wor ship must needs make the animals themselves sacred, and unfit for sacrifice. Now here again, in confirmation of this account, we are told by Scripture, that when Pharaoh would have had Moses sacrifice to God, in the land of Egypt, according to his own family-rites, the prophet objected, — It is not meet so to do ; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God : Lo shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us ? ^ And if Herodotus came any thing near the truth in his account of the early superstition of Egypt, the IsraeUtes, we see, could not avoid sacrificing the abomination, i. e. the Gods of the Egyptians. And with what deadly hatred and revenge they * See note I, at the end of this book. t See " the Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated," book i. t See note K, at the end of this book. § To7ai ydp oliSe KT^iyea dairi ^eiy earl, x^P'S vay, Kal ipaeyay $ouy, Kai pdaxav, iaoi dy KoBapolemn, Kal xvy^^y^ Kas tiv oSroi dyOptvTrovs ^otev ', — Lib. ii. cap. 45. || tAs j8ow rds ^Xeas Aiy^TTTioi isrdyTes dpolas aeSoVTOi is-poSdrav wdyTiay pAXiffra paKp^. — Cap. xii. "Oo-oi fiey S^ Aihs ®riSatov XSpvvToi iphy, f) yofiov rot! @ri§aiov e'la-l, oxrroi pev ¦aiyrfs oiay direx.dfj.evoi, alyds ^6ovffi. ©col's ydp S^ ov tovs avToiis a7ron-€s dpoius Aiybrrrioi a'e€oyTat, wX^v "laids re Kal 'OaipiSos. Thy 5^ AiSyvaov elvai Xeyovffi. tovtovs 5e hpotas dtravTes aeSoyrai. ^aoi Se tov MeySriTos eKTrivrai tphy, ^ yopov tov MevSijfflou eial, oVtoi Se a'lyuy dnexdpevoi, ois ^ovm. — Cap. xiii. % Exod. viii. 26. SECT. III. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. I57 pursued such imaginary impieties, the same Herodotus informs us, in another place.* III. To come next to the civil arts of Egypt. — Concerning their practice of physic, Herodotus says, that it was divided amongst the faculty in this manner: "Every distinct distemper hath its own physician, who confines himself to the study and cure of that alone, and meddles with no other : so that all places are crouded with physicians : for one class hath the care of the eyes, another of the head, another of the teeth, another of the region of the beUy, and another of occult distempers." f After this, we shaU not think it strange that Joseph's physicians are represented as a number — And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father : and the physicians embalmed Israel. % A body of these domestics would now appear an extravagant piece of state, even in the first minister. But then, we see, it could not be otherwise, where each distemper had its proper physician : so that every great famUy, as weU as city, must needs, as Herodotus expresses it, swarm with the Faculty : and a more convincing instance, of the grandeur, luxury, and politeness of a people, cannot, I think, be weU given. But indeed it was this circumstance for which the Egyptian nation was pecuUarly distinguished, not only by the earliest Greek writers (as we shaU see hereafter), but likewise by the holy prophets. There is a remarkable passage in Jeremiah, where, foretelling the overthrow of Pharaoh's army at the Euphrates, he describes Egypt by this charac teristic, her skUl in medicine. Go up into Cfilead, and take balm, O virgin the daughter of Egypt : in vain shalt thou use many medi cines ; for thou shalt not be cured.% The Prophet deUghts in this kind of imagery, which marks out a people by its singularities, or pre-eminence. So again, in this very chapter : Egypt, says he, is like a fair heifer, but destruction cometh : it cometh from the north. Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks, ^or they also are turned back and are fled away together. \\ For the worship of Isis and Osiris, under the figure of a cow and a huU, and afterwards by the animals themselves, was the most cele brated in aU the Egyptian Ritual. But a learned writer, frightened by the common panic of the high antiquity of Egypt, wUl needs shew, the art of medicine to be of much later original.^ And to make room for his hypothesis, he contrives to explain away this direct testimony of Herodotus, by a very uncommon piece of criticism. This is the substance of his * Lib. ii. cap. 65. t 'H Se iryrpiin) Kara rdSe aaXrjs' ol Se, oSdyruy 01 Se, Kard yr)Siy ol Se, raV d^ayeay Koriffon/.— Lib. ii. cap. 84. X Gen. 1. 2. § Jer. xlvi. 11. || Verses 20, 21. f See note L, at the end of this book. 158 THE DIVINE LEGATION boOk iv. reasoning, and in his own words : — "We read of the Egyptian physi cians in the days of Joseph; and Diodorus represents them as an order of men not only very ancient in Egypt, but as havmg a fuU employment in continually giring physic to the people, not to cure, but to prevent their faUing into distempers. Herodotus says much the same thing, and represents the ancient Egyptians as living under a contmual course of physic, undergoing so rough a regimen for three days together, every month, that I cannot but suspect some mistake, both in him, and Diodorus's account of them in this particular. He rodotus aUows 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 Joseph's time, and Jacob was their patient ; but their employment 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 IsraeUtes had been afraid of, were such as they had no cure for ; and any other sicknesses were then so Uttle known, that they had no names for them. — An early death was so unusual, that it was generaUy remarked to be a punish ment for some extraordinary wickedness. 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, and different persons performed different parts of it, some being concerned in the care of one part of the body, and some of the other : 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. — We may be sure the physicians practised only surgery until after Homer's time ; — for we read in him, that their whole art consisted in extracting arrows, healing wounds, and preparing ano dynes. — In the days of Pythagoras the learned began to form rules of diet for the preservation of health, and to prescribe in this point to sick persons, in order to assist towards their recovery. And ia this, Strabo teUs us, consisted the practice of the ancient Indian physicians. They endeavoured to cure distempers by a diet regimen, but they gave no physic. Hippocrates — began the practice of visiting sick-bed SECT. 111. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 159 patients, and prescribed medicines with success for their distempers. Ihis, I think, was the progress of physic. — And it must evidently appear from it, that the Egyptians could have no such physicians in the days of Moses as Diodorus and Herodotus seem to suppose."* — So far this writer. But if it be made appear, that the very contrary of every thing here advanced be the truth ; I shaU hope, that what Herodotus and Diodorus, conformable to Scripture, do not seem to suppose, but directly and circumstantiaUy to affirm, may be admitted for certain. He teUs us, first, " that Diodorus represents the Egyptian physicians as administering physic to the people in the early times, not to cure, but to prevent their falling into distempers." One would conclude, from his manner of expression, that the historian had said they did not administer to the infirm, but to the healthy only ; which gives us the idea of a superstitious kind of practice, by charms and amulets : and so indeed the writer is -wUhng we should think of it. I should ima gine, says he, that their ancient prescriptions, which Diodorus and Herodotus suppose them so punctual in observing, were not medicinal, but religious purifications. ^ Let Diodorus then speak for himself: " They prevent distempers," says he, " and keep the body in health by refrigerating and laxative medicines ; by abstinence and emeticks ; sometimes in a daUy regimen, sometimes with an intermission every three or four days : for they hold a superfiuity in aU food, as usuaUy taken ; and that it is the original of distempers : so that the above- mentioned regimen removes the cause, and greatly contributes to pre serve the body in a state of health." J Here we have a very rational theory, and expert and able practice ; this prescribing to prevent distempers, being, as amongst us, the result of the physician's long experience in his art : for the regimen, we see, was intermitted or continued according to the habit and constitution of the patient. But the Egyptians being a healthy people, and living under a favourable climate, could not have occasion (says the learned -writer). for so much physic ; therefore he will suspect their accounts. I have observed, that these accounts are a proof of that grandeur, luxury, and politeness, which sacred and prophane history ascribe to this ¦ people, and which so many other circumstances concur to make credible. Now a too great repletion, the effect of a luxurious diet, would certainly find employment for the whole tribe of evacuants (as we may see by the various experience of our own times), notwith- 361 Treiovai to. aibpara lZTJrKTLd::;yl^;pa;iyf'')-'»^P"-'«^ A.a.poDANEi2N NOT2i2N]." Notwithstanding aU this, by every distemper, is meant, it seems, each part of a dead body : Death, indeed, has been often caUed a remedy, but never, I beUeve, a disease, before. — But the subsequent words, he says, lead us to this sense. The reader wU] suspect by this, that I have not given him the whole of the account : But the subsequent words, whereby our author would support his interpretation, are the beginning of a new chapter about funeral rites : — As to their mournings for the dead, and funeral rites, they are of this kind,* ^c. Now because Herodotus speaks next of their obsequies, which, methinks, was methodical enough, after his account of their physicians, this writer would have the foregoing chapter an anticipation of the foUowing ; and the historian to treat of his subject before he comes to it. — He goes on : — For so indeed they had \i. e. a different physician for each different part of the body] not to cure the diseases of it, but to embalm it when dead. How comes he to know this ? Doth Scripture inform him that they had a differ ent physician for every different part of a dead body? No. They are only the Greek writers (in his opinion) misunderstood who are supposed to say it. But why will he depend so much upon them in their account of funeral rites, and so little in their account of phy sicians ? Scripture, which says they used embalming, and had many physicians, is equally favourable to both accounts : But it may be, one is, in itself, more credible than the other. It is so ; but surely it is that which teUs us they had a different physician to every different distemper ; for we see great use in this ; it being the best, nay per haps the only expedient of advancing medicine into a science. On the other hand, what is said of the several parts assigned to several men, in the operation of embalming, appears, at first view, much more wonderful. 'Tis true, it may be rendered credible ; but then it is only by admitting the other account of the Egyptian practice of physic, which the learned writer hath rejected : for when each dis order of the body had a several physician, it was natural, it was expe- • Qprivoi Si /cal raipaX iripeav, eiol a?5e. — Lib. ii. cap. 85. s^CT. irr. Qp MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 163 lent, that each of These who were the embalmers Ukewise should inspect that part of the dead corpse to which his practice was con ned ; partly to render the operation on the dead body more com pleat, but principaUy, by an anatomical inspection, to benefit the Living, On this account every interment required a number, as their work was to be dirided in that manner which best suited the ends of their inspection. It is true, subsequent superstitions might introduce vanous practices in the dirisions of this task amongst the operators, which had no relation to the primitive designs. These, I imagine, concludes our writer, were the offices of the Egyp tian physicians, in the early days ; they were an order of the minis ters of religion. — He then employs some pages* to prove that the Egyptian physicians were an order of ¦ Religious ; and the whole amount comes to this, that their practice was intermixed with super stitions ; a circumstance which hath attended medicine through all its stages ; aad shall be accounted for in the progress of this enquiry. — But their office of embalming is Ukewise much insisted on ; for this being part of the Egyptian funeral rites, and funeral rites being part of their reUgion ; the consequence is, that these were religious minis ters. The physicians had indeed the care of embalming ; and it was, as we have hinted above, a wise designation, if ever there was any : For, first, it enabled the physicians, as we have observed, to discover something of the causes of the etfaviaov vous-uiv, the unknown diseases, which was the district of one class ; and, secondly, to improve their skiU by anatomical enquiries into the cause of the known, which was the business of the rest. Pliny expresly says, it was the custom of their kings to cause dead bodies to be dissected, to find out the origin and nature of diseases ; of which he gives a particular instance : f and SynceUus, from Manetho, relates, that books of anatomy were written in the reign of the second king of the Thinites. — But to make their employment, in a sacred rite, an argument of their being an order of Religious, would be just as wise as to make the priests of the church of Rome, on account of their administering extreme unction, an order of physicians. But though the learned writer's arguments to support his fanciful opinions be thus defective, yet what he imagined in this case is very true ; these physicians were properly an order of the ministers of religion ; which (though it make nothing for his point, for they were still as properly physicians) I shall now shew by better arguments than those of system-makers, the testimonies of antiquity. — In the most early times of the Egyptian monarchy there • Pp. 361 364. t " Cmdos [raphanos] Medici suadent ad coUigenda acria viscerum dandos cum sale jejunis esse, atque ita vomitioniljus praiparant meatam. Tradunt et priecordiis necessarium hunc succum; quando phthisim cordi intus inbae- rentem, non alio potuisse depelli compertum sit in iEGYPTO, regibus corpora morti/- OBUM AD SCKUTANOOS MORBOS INSECANTIBUS." Nat. Hlst. Ub. yilTi. cap. 5. M 2 164 THE DIVINE LEGATION .book iv. was no accurate separation of science * into its distinct branches. The scholiast on Ptolemy's Tetrabiblus expresly tells us, that their ancient writings did not treat separately of medicine, astrology, and reUgion, but of aU these together : f and Clemens Alexandrinus says, that of forty-two books of Metcury, which were the Bible of the Egyptians, six and thirty contained all their philosophy ; and were to be well studied by the several orders of the priesthood, which he before mentions ; the other six, which related entirely to medicine, belonged to the ¦maarofopoi, i. e. such as wore the cloak ; J and these, as in another place he teUs us, were an order of ministers of religion : § and even in Greece, the art of medicine being brought thither from Egypt, went in partnership, during the first ages, with philosophy ; though the separation was made long before the time which Celsus assigns to it,|| as we shall see presently. Thus it appears that these artists were properly both priests and physicians, not very unUke the monk and friar physicians of the late ages of barbarism. ^ Our author now proceeds to the general history of physic. Let us see if he be more happy in his imaginations here. We may be sure, says he, the physicians practised only surgery 'till after Homer's time. — What must we say then to the story of Melampus,^ who learnt the art of physic and divination in Egypt ; ** and cured Proetus's daughters of an Atrabilaire disorder, with heUebore, a hundred and fifty years before the argonautic expedition? But why not 'till after the time of Homer, who wrote not of his own time, but of the Trojan, near three hundred years before ; and this, in a kind of work which requires decorum, and wUl not suffer a mixture of later or foreign manners to be brought into the scene ? The writer, therefore, at least should have said, 'till after the Trojan times. But how is even this supported? Why we read in Homer, that their whole art con sisted in extracting arrows, healing wounds, and preparing anodynes; and again, where Idomeneus says to Nestor, That one physician is worth a many other men, for extracting arrows, and applying lenitives to the wound ; 'iTjrphs ydp dy^p woXXav dvrd^ios &XXay, 'lo6s T iKrdpy'eiy, eiri r fynia (pdppaKa Txrdaaeiv.tt * See " Divine Legation," vol i. book i. t Oi Aiytmrioi ovk iSiif pey to 'larpiKd, iSiif Se TO 'AarpoXoyiKd, Kal rd TeXeoriKd, aAA.a dfia wdyra avyeypw^ay. X Alio jxlv olty Kod reffffapdKoyra at isrdvv dyayKotai rif 'Fpp-^ yeydvaai ^i€Xoi' &v tos pey Ar', r^y wdaay Aiyvirriay 'urepiexoiaas ipiXoao^iav, ol "wpoeipripeyoi iKpavOdyovat' rds Se Xoiirds e|, oi ilA2TO*OPOI, iarpiKds otaas, Sfc. — Lib. vi. Strom. § IIAS- T04»OP05 Se, ^ TIS dXXos ray ieponoioliyray 'wepl rh repeyos, ffepvhy SeSopKfhs, 8;c. — Pa^dagog. lib. iii. cap. 2. From this passage -we understand, that it was an inferior order of the priesthood which practised physic ; for such were those who sacrificed. II '* Hippocrates Cous, primus quidem ex omnibus memoria dignis, ab studio sapientise ^discipUnam hanc separavit." — De Med. lib. i. Prffif. He adds, we see, to save his cre dit, ex omnibus memoria dignis ; taking it for granted, that those who were not remem bered, were not worth remembering. IT See " Divine Legation," vol. i. book i. •• See note M, at the end of this book. ft ft/af,'lib. xi. 514, 515. SECT. III. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 165 Homer's speakers rarely talk impertinently. Idomeneus is shewing the use of a physician in an army : now, surely, his use on these occa sions consists in healing wounds. The poet therefore chose his topic of recommendation with good judgment ; and we may be certain, had he spoken of the use of a physician in a peaceable city, he had placed it in the art of curing distempers : and this is no imagination : we shall see presently that he hath in fact done so. In the mean time let me ask, what there is in this passage, which in the least intimates that the whole art consisted in extracting arrows, and applying anodynes? But Pliny says so,* who understands Homer to inti mate thus much. What then 1 Is not Homer's poem stiU remain ing ; and cannot we see, without PUny, what inference the rules of good sense authorise us to draw from the poet's words ? The general humour of Antiquity, which was strangely superstitious vrith regard to this Father of the poets,-|- may be some excuse for PUny in con cluding so much from his silence ; for Homer was their bible ; and whatsoever was not read therein, nor could be expresly proved thereby, passed with them for apocryphal. But let us, whose venera tion for Homer rises not quite so high, fairly examine the nature of his first great work : This, which is an intire scene of war and slaughter, gave him frequent occasion to take notice of outward apph cations, but none of internal remedies ; except in the history of the pestUence ; which being beUeved to come in punishment from the Gods, was supposed to submit to nothing but religious atonements : not to say, that it was the chirurgical part of heaUng only that could be mentioned with sufficient dignity. The Greeks were large feeders, and bitter raUers ; for which excesses, I suppose, Machaon, during the ten years siege, administered many a sound emetic and cathartic : but these were no proper ornaments for an epic poem. I said, his subject did not give him occasion to mention inward apphcations ; nor was this said evasively, as shaU now be shewn from his second poem, of a more peaceable turn ; which admitting the mention of that other part of the art of medicine, the use of internal remedies, he has therefore spoken in its praise : Helen is brought in, giving Telemachus a preparation of opium ; which, the poet tells us, she had from Polydamna, the wife of Thon the Egyptian, whose country abounded with medicinal drugs, many of which were salubrious, and • " Medicina— Trojanis temporibus clara — vtdnenun tamen duntaxat remediis." — Nat Hist. lib. xxix. cap. 1. Celsus too talks in the same strain : " Quos tamen Home rus non in' pestUentia, neque in variis generibus morborum aliquid attulisse auxiUi, sed vuhieribns tantummodo ferro et medicamentis mederi soUtos esse proposuit. Ex quo apparet bas partes medicinae mlas ab bis esse tentatas, easque esse vetiistissimas."— Ue Medicina lib i Praef t " Homerum poetam multiscmm, vel potms cunctarum rerum adprime peritum." And again : " Ut omnis vetustatis certissimus auctor Home rus docet " This was said by Apnleius, a very celebrated platonic philosopher, in a juridical defence of himself before a proconsul of Africa. 166 THE DIVINE LEGATION Sook iv. many baneful ; whence the physicians of that land were more skUful than the rest of mankind, Toiix Aihs dvydrrip ^x^ pdppaKa pr)Ti6evTa, '^aBXd, rd oi UoXiSapya ludpev @Siyos ¦BrapdKoms AirTIITIH, T5 ¦nrAf«rTa cjiepei (eiSapos dpovpa PdppaKa, TiroXXd pey iaBXd pepiypeya, ¦a-oXXd Se Kvypa. *lr}Tphs Se eKoaros itrtardpeyos -srepi ¦oroi^a'j' 'AvSpdnruV ^ ydp Hai^ovds e'lai yeveBXr/s.' Here then is an express testimony much earlier than the time of Homer, for the Egyptian physicians practising more than surgery ; which was the thing to be proved. Our author goes on : In the days of Pythagoras the learned began to form rules of diet for the preservation of health, and to pre scribe in this point to sick persons. This is founded on the rules of diet observed in the Pythagoric school. There seems to be something strangely perverse in this writer's way €>f arguing ; — In the case of the Egyptian regimen, though it be expresly deUvered by the Greek writers as a medicinal one, yet by reason of some superstitions in it, our author wUl have it to be a religious observance ; on the contrary, this Pythagoric regimen, though it be generaUy represented, and even by JambUchus himself, as a superstitious practice, yet by reason of its healthfulness, he wUl have to be a course of physic. He proceeds: — Hippocrates began the practice of visiting sick-bed patients, and prescribed medicines with success for their distempers. For which, PUny is again quoted ; who does indeed say he was the founder of the cUnic sect : but it is strange he should ^ay so ; since Hippocrates himself, in numerous places of his writings, has informed us that it was founded long before. His tract De diceta in acutis, begins in this manner : " Those who have coUected what we caU the cnidian sentences, have accurately enough registered the various symptoms or affections in the several distempers, with the causes of some of them : thus far might be weU performed by a writer who was no physician, if so it were, that he carefuUy examined each patient about his several affections. But what a physician should preriously be weU instructed in, and what he cannot learn from his patient, that, for the most part, is omitted in this work ; some things in this place, others in that ; several of which are very useful to be known in the art of judging by signs. As to what is said of judging by signs, or how the cure should be attempted, "I think very differently from them. And it is not in this particular only that they have not my approbation : I as little Uke their practice in using so smaU a number of medicines ; for the greatest part they mention, except in acute distempers, are purgatives, and whey, and • Odyss. lib. iv. 121, et seq. Clarke on this place of Homer observes that Pliny, lib. xxv. cap. 1, quotes this passage as ascribing a knowledge of medicinal herbs to the Egyptians before Lo-wer Egypt was inhabited. SECT. III. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 167 mUk for the time : indeed, were these medicines proper for the distempers to wbicTi they direct them to be appUed, I should think them worthy of double praise for being able to attain their purpose so easUy. But this I do not apprehend to be the case : however, those who have since revised and new-modeUed these sentences, have shewn much more of the physician in their prescriptions."* From this long passage we may fairly draw these conclusions : 1 . That there was a physic-school at Cnidus : this appears from the sentences col lected under its name. 2. That the Cnidian school was derived from the Egyptian : this appears from their sole use of evacuants, in all but acute distempers. 3. That it was now of considerable standing ; haring had a reform in the teaching of more able practitioners. 4. And lastly, which is most to the point, that the physicians of this school were of the clinic sect ; it being impossible they should com pose such a work as Hippocrates here criticizes, without a constant attendance on the sick-bed : and therefore Hippocrates was not the founder of this sect, as Pliny, and our author after him, supposed. — But, for the estabUshed state of physic, its study as an art, and its practice as a profession, when Hippocrates made so superior a figure, we have the fuU evidence of Herodotus, his contemporary ; who teUs us, that in the time of Darius Hystaspis the physic school at Crotona was esteemed by the Greeks first in reputation ; and that, at Cyrene, second ; f which both impUes, that these were of considerable stand ing, and that there were many others : and if Galen may be beUeved, who, though a late writer, was yet a very competent judge, there were many others : % so that Hippocrates was so far from being the first that risited sick-beds, and prescribed with success in distempers, that he was not even the first amongst the Greeks. The truth of the matter is this, the divine old man (as his disciples have been wont to call him) so greatly eclipsed all that went before him, that, as poste rity esteemed his works the canon, so they esteemed him the father of medicine : And this was the humour of antiquity. The same eminence in poetry made them regard Homer as the founder of his • Oilvyypwi/avTes rds KNIAIA2 KaXeopeyas TNi^MAS, SKo7a. /i'ey^iirdaxoya-iy oi Kdavovres ey eKdoTOKXi ray yovavpdrav, opBUs eypa) ^ \rjTpiiiri, as the pharmaceutic above irjTpix^ sub stantively) he says, the art of medicine was neither found out in the most early times, nor sought after. § And in his de diceta in acutis, he teUs us. That the ancients (meaning aU who had preceded him) wrote nothing of diet worthy notice ; and that, notwithstanding it was a matter of vast moment, they had intirely omitted it, although they were not ignorant of the numerous subdivisions into the species of distempers, nor of the various shapes and appearances of each. \\ Hence it, appears, that, before the time of Hippocrates, the visiting of sick-beds and prescribing medicines were in practice ; but that the diaetetic medicine, as an art, was intirely unknown : so that had PUny caUed Hippocrates the author of this, instead of the founder of the clinic sect, he had come much nearer to the truth. But without this evidence we might reasonably conclude, even from the nature of the thing, that the dieetetic was the latest effort of the art of medicine. For, 1. The cure it performs is slow and tedious, and consequently it would not be thought of, at least not employed, * « Diis primum inventores suos assignavit, et ccelo dicavit ; necnon et hodie multifa- riam ab oracuHs medicina petitnr."-PLrNii Nat. Hist. lib. xxix. Procem. t The Rabbins, amongst their other pagan conceits, adopted this ; and taught that God him self instracted Adam in the art of medicine ;- " Et ductus Adam per onmes Paradisi semitas vidit omne lignum, arbores, plantas, et lapides, et docmt eum Dommus omnem natm-am eorum, ad sanandum omnem dolorem et mflrmitatem "-R. Ebenezra^ Which however, shews then- opinion of tbe high antiquity of the art.^ ^ I l-rjrpiK^ S'e ¦mdira -ardXai Wpx«— Cap. 3. 5 Thvyap apxvf oifr^ ay evpedr, rexyr, n l-nroiKh oi^T dy ^fr,T^er,.-Cap. 5. II 'Ardp ou5e -mepl Siairvs oi apxaioi ^vyeypav yoiaay, koX tV -aroXv^rx^Si-nv abriav oiiK nyydovy.-Cap. 2. 170 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. tiU the quick and powerful operation of the pharmaceutic (which is therefore most obvious to use) had been found to be ineffectual. 2. To apply the diaetetic medicine, vrith any degree of safety or suc cess, there is need of a thorough kno-ysrledge of the animal oeconomy, and of its many various complerions ; with long experience in the nature and quaUties of aUments, and their different effects on differ ent habits and constitutions.* But the art of medicine must have made some considerable progress before these acquirements were to be expected in its professors. If I have been longer than ordinary on this subject, it should be considered, that the clearing up the state of the Egyptian medicine is a matter of importance ; for if the practice, in the time of Joseph, was what the Greek writers represent it, as I think I have shewn it was, then this topic seems absolutely decisive for the high antiquity of Egypt ; and the learned person's hypothesis lying in my way, it was incumbent on me to remove it. IV. We come, in the last place, to the funeral rites of Egypt ; which Herodotus describes in this manner : " Their mournings and rites of sepulture are of this kind : When any considerable person in the family dies, all the females of that family besmear their heads or faces with loam and mire ; and so, leaving the dead body in the / hands of the domestics, march in procession through the city, with their garments close girt about them, their breasts laid open, beating themselves ; and aU their Relations attending. In an opposite pro cession appear the males, close girt Ukewise, and undergoing the same discipUne. When this is over, they carry the body to be salted : there are men appointed for this business, who make it their trade and employment : — They first of all draw out the brain, with a hooked iron, through the nostrils, &c. — after this they hide it in nitre for the space of seventy days, and longer it is not lawful to keep it salted."f Diodorus agrees with Herodotus in all the essen tial circumstances of mourning and embalming. In this last he ". ^pl S: Se7y rhy peXXovra opBas ^vyypdfpeiy -wepl SiairTjS dyBpamivris, 'arpuroy pev 'zsravrhs ipijaiv dvBpdnrov yyavai KaX Siayyavai' yyiayai pky, dirh rivay ^vyeanjHey e| dpxv^' Siayyavat Se, inrh rtyay pepay KeKpdrTjrai^ ei pij ydp r-i]y i^ dpxvs ^daratriy iTriyydiaerai, KoX rh iiriKpareov iy Tip fft^pari, ovx olds t dy efTj rd ^vpaX'i]y -WTjAip ^ Kai rh •arpdaaTrov K^ireira iy ro7ffi oiKrfioiffi Xiirovtrcii rhy yeKphy, aSrot dyd ttjv tsdXiy arpo^dipevai, rinrroyrai eTre^aapevai, Kal i ai rxrpoa'i}Kovaai rsdaai' erepaBey Se oi dvSpes Tlnrroyrai, iire- ^afffieyoi Kal ovroi' iiredy Sk ravra ¦moi-fiaaai, oiha is rijv rapixevaiy Kopi^ovai. EiVt Se oi en abr^ rovrip Karearai, koX rexyriy ^X"""^' ralrrTjv. — IlpuTa pky aKoXt^ aiSriptfi sect. hi. of MOSES DEMONSTRATED, 171 seems to vary in one particular : " They then anoint the whole body with the gum or resin of cedar, and of other plants, with great cost and care, for above thirty days ; and afterwards seasoning it -with myrrn, cinnamon, and other spices, not only proper to preserve the body for a long time, but to give it a grateful odour, they deUver it to the relations," &c,* AU this operose circumstance of embalming, scripture history confirms and explains ; and not only so, but recon- cUes the seemingly different accounts of the two Greek writers, con cerning the number of days, during which the body remained with the embalmers: "And the physicians," says Moses, " embaUned Israel ; and forty days were fulfiUed for him (for so are fulfiUed the days of those which are embalmed) and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days."-)- Now we learn from the two Greek historians, that the time of mourning was whUe the body remained with the embalmers, which Herodotus teUs us was seventy days : this explains why the Egyptians mourned for Israel threescore and ten days. During this time the body lay in nitre ; the use of which was to dry up aU its superfluous and noxious moisture ; J and when, in the compass of thirty days, this was reasonably weU effected, the remaining forty, the Ip' yjp^spa; ¦sjKslovg raiv rpiaxovra of Diodo rus, were employed Ui anointing it with gums and spices to preserve it, which was the proper embalming. And this explains the meaning of the forty days which were fulfilled for Israel, being the days of those that are embalmed. Thus the two Greek -writers are recon cUed ; and they and Scripture mutuaUy explained and supported by one another. But if it should be said, that though Moses here mentions embalming, yet the practice was not so common as the Greek histo rians represent it, tiU many ages after ; I reply, that the company of IshmaeUtish merchants with their camels bearing spicery, balm, and myrrh, to carry down into Egypt, § clearly shews, that embalm ing was at this time become a general practice. On the whole, what stronger eridence can any one require of a rich and powerful monarchy, than what hath been here given? — Scripture describes Egypt under that condition, in the times of the Patriarchs, and the egression of their posterity : the Greek -writers not only subscribe to this high antiquity, but support their testimony by a minute detaU of customs and manners then in use, which Sid rav pv^ariipav i^dyovai rhy eyKeipaXov, Itc— ravra ^ Se ¦aroiiaayres, rapixeiovai yirpa Kpiif/ayres ripepas eSSop-fiKovra- inXevyas Se rovreay ovk e^eari rapixeieiy.— Lib. ii. cap. 85, 86. , , ,^ . • KaBdXov Sk vdyTh (ra/ia rh pey ¦srparoy xeSptif Kai riaiy dXXois empeXelas a^iovaiv is' vuipas wXeiovs ray rpidKoyra, erreira apipyv Kal Kiyap^pcp, Kal rois Suvapeyais p.)) adyov moXby vpdyoy Tr,pe7y, 'aXKd Kal r^y e'vaSiav -aapex^aBai Stepairevoyres, ¦arapaSi- Siaai To7s avyyeyiai.— Biblioth. lib. i. p. 58. t Gen. 1. 2, 3. t T«J Se aipKos rh virpoy KarariiKei.-HERODOT. p. U 9. § Gen. xxxvii. 25. 172 THE DIVINE LEGATION ' book iv. could belong only to a large and weU policied kingdom ; and these again are distinctly confirmed by the circumstantial history of MoSES. But it is not only in what they agree, but Ukewise in what they differ, that sacred and profane accounts are mutually supported, and the high antiquity of Egypt established. To give one instance : Diodorus expresly tells us, that the lands were divided between the hing, the priests, and the soldiery ; * and MosES (speaking of the Egyptian famine and its effects) as expresly ^ays that they were divided between the king, the priests, and the people.^ Now as con trary as these two accounts look, it wUl be found, upon comparing them, that Diodorus fuHy supports aU that Moses hath deUvered concerning this matter. Moses teUs us, that before the famine, all the lands of Egypt were in the hands of the king, the priests, and the people ; but that this national calamity made a great revolution in property, and brought the whole possessions of the people into the king's hands ; which must needs make a prodigious accession of power to the crown. But Joseph, in whom the offices of minister and patriot supported each other, and jokitly concurred to the public service, J prevented for some time the ill effects of this accession, by his farming out the new domain to the old proprietors, on very easy conditions. We may weU suppose this wise disposition to continue "till that new king arose, who knew not Joseph /§ that is, would obli terate his memory, as averse to his system of poUcy.|| He, as appears from Scripture, greatly affected a despotic government ; to ¦ support which, he first established, as I coUect, a standing miUtia; and endowed it with the lands formerly the people's ; who now became a kind of ViUains to this order, which resembled the Zaims and Timariots of the Turkish empire ; and were obliged to personal service : this, and the priesthood, being the orders of nobUity in this powerful empire ; and so considerable they were, that out of either of them, indifferently, as we observed before,^ their kings were taken and elected. Thus the property of Egypt became at length divided in the manner, the SiciUan relates : and it is remarkable, that from this time, and not tUl now, we hear in Scripture of a standing mUitia,** and of the king's six hundred chosen chariots, &c. SECTION IV. Having thus proved the high antiquity of Egypt from the concur rent testimony of sacred and profane history ; I go on, as I proposed, * Biblioth. lib. i. t Gen. xlvii. J See note N, at the end of this book. § Exod. i. 8. II In this sense is the phrase frequently used in Scripture, as Judges ii. 10. — "And there arose another generation after them, which knsvi not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel." — Here, kneui not, can only sig- rafy despised, set at nought. •[[ See the first volume, p. 421. •• Exod. xiv. 8, 9. SECT. IV. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 173 to evince the same from internal evidence ; taken from the original use of their so much celebrated Hieroglyphics. But to give this argument its due force, it wUl be necessary to trace up hieroglyphic writing to its original ; which a general mis take concerning its primeval use hath rendered extremely difficult. ihe mistake I mean, is that which makes the hieroglyphics to be invented by the Egyptian priests, in order to hide and secrete their wisdom from the knowledge of the vulgar : * a mistake' which hath involved this part of ancient learning in much obscurity and con fusion. I. Men soon found out two ways of communicating their thoughts to one another ; the first by sounds, and the second by figures : for there being frequent occasion to have their conceptions either perpetuated, or communicated at a distance, the way of figures or characters was next thought upon, after sounds (which were momentary and confined), to make their conceptions lasting and extensive. The first and most natural way of communicating our thoughts by marks or figures, is by tracing out the images of things. So the early people, to express the idea of a man or horse, delineated the form of those animals. Thus the first essay towards writing was a mere picture, I. We see an example of this amongst the Mexicans, whose only method of recording their laws and history, was by a picture-writ- ing.f Joseph Acosta tells us, that, when the inhabitants of the sea shore sent expresses to Montezuma with news of the first appear ance of the Spanish navy on their coasts, the adrices were delineated in large paintings, upon cloth. J The same writer gives us, in another place, a more particular account of this sort of painting : " One of our company of Jesus " (says he) " a man of much experience and discernment, assembled in the province of Mexico the Ancients of Tuscuco, TuUa, and Mexico; who, in a long conference held vrith him, shewed him their records, histories, and calendars ; things very * See note 0, at the end of this book. t " In cliffetto di lettere usarono gl' ingegnosi Mexicani figure, e Geroglifci, per significar le cose corporee, che ban ligura; e per lo rimanente, altri caratteri propri : e in tal modo segnavano, a prd della posterita, tutte le cose accadute. Per ragion d' esemplo per significai-e 1' entrata degU Spagnuoli dipinsero un' uomo col cappello, e colla veste rossa, nel segno di Canna di' era propno di quelV anno."— Gi™ del Mondo del DoTTOR D. Gio Fr. Gemelli Carebi, tom. sesto. Ar". Nuova Upagna, cap. vi. p. 37. X " Quando era case de unportancia lleuanana a los Sefiores de Mexico pintado el negocio de que les quenan mformar; como lo hizieron quando aparecieron los primeros navios de Espanoles, y quando fueron a tomar a Toponchan."— Acosta's "History of tbe Indies," Madr 1608, 4to. hb. vi. cap 10 — " Con este recado fueron a Mexico los de la costa Ueuando pintado en unos panos todo quanto auian visto, y los navios, y hombres, y su figura, y juntamente las piedras que les auien dado." — Lib. vii. cap. 24. 174 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. worthy notice, as containing their figures and hieroglyphics, by which they painted their conceptions in the foUowing manner : things that have a bodUy shape were represented by their proper figures ; and those which have none, by other significative characters : and thus they writ or painted every thing they had occasion to express. — For my own satisfaction I had the curiosity to inspect a paternoster, an ave-maria, the creed, and a general confession,* written in this man ner by the Indians : — To signify these words, / a sinner confess myself, they painted an Indian on his knees before a reUgious in the act of one confessing : and then for this. To God almighty, they painted three faces adorned with crowns, representing the Trinity ; and. To the glorious virgin Mary, they delineated the visage of our Lady, with half a body, and the infant in her arms ; To St. Peter and St. Paul, two heads irradiated, together vrith the keys and sword, &c. — In Peru I have seen an Indian bring to the confessional a con fession of all his sins written in the same way, by picture and charac ters ; portraying every one of the ten commandments after a certain manner."f There is yet extant a very curious specimen of this American picture-writing, made by a Mexican author : and deciphered by hira in that language, after the Spaniards had taught him letters; the explanation was afterwards translated into Spanish, and, from thence, into EngUsh. Purchas has given us this work engraved, and the explanations annexed. The manner of its coming into his hands is curious. f It is in three parts ; the first is a history of the Merican • Acosta's woids are, Y symholo y la confession general ; which Purchas has trans lated, — And symbol or general confession of our faiih. . This is wrong : by la confes sion general is meant a general confession of sins, a formulary very different from the creed, -f ** Una de los de nuestra Compauia de Jesus, hombre muy platico y diestro, junto en la provincia de Mexico a los Ancianos de Tuscuco, y de Tulla, y de Mexico, y confirio mucho con eUos, y le monstraron sus Librerias, y sus Historias, y Kalendarios, cosa mucho de Ver. Porque tenian sus figuras, y Hieroglyficas con que piiitauam los cosas en esta forma, que los cosas que tenian figuras, las poniau con sus proprias Ymagines, y para las cosas que no aula Ymagen propria tenian otros caracteres significatiuos de acquello, y con este modo figurauam quanto queriam — e yo he visto para satisfazerme en esta parte, las Oraciones del Pater Noster, y Ave Maria, y Sym- bolo, y la Confession general, en el modo dicho de Indios. — Para significar Aquella palabra, Yo pecador me tonfesso, pintan un Indio hincado de rodillas a los pies de un Religioso ; como que se conQessa ; y luego para aquella, A Dios todo poderoso, pintan tres caras con sus corouas, al modo de la Trinidad ', y a la gloriosa Virgen Maria, pintan un rostro de nuestra Senora, y medio cuerpo con un Niiio ; y a San Pedro y a San Pablo, dos cabepas con coronas, y unas llaues, y una espada For la misma forma de pinturas y caracteres vi en el Piru e.scrite la contession que de todos sus pecados im Indio traya para confessarse. Piutando cada uno de los diez mandamientos por cierto modo." — Lib. vi. cap. 7. X "Reader, 1 here present thee with the choicest of my jewels, &c. — a poUtic, ethic, ecclesiastic, oeconomic history, with just distinction of time. — The Spanish governor having, with some dUficulty, obtained the book of the Indians, with Mexican interpretations of the pictures (but ten days before the departure of the ships) committed the same to one skilful in the Mexican language, to be inter preted ; who in a very plain style, and verbatim, performed tbe same. This history thus written, sent to Charles V. emperor, was, together with the ship that carried it, taken by French men of war ; from whom Andrew Thevet the French king's geographer obtained the same. After whose death master Hakluyt (then chaplaine to the English FLATS. 1 . , /t ?/y/cu /i( //I ._ //¦/ / r7ro) . '^ _Zon^on,7^.'.I"''i-^' -'-t Sj/ J^.07n^.? Tsi^^ ^ S^ri, 7S, CA<;ap^ids-, SECT. IV. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 175 empire : the second, a tribute roll of the several tributes which each conquered to-wn or province paid into the royal treasury; and the third, a digest of their ciril law, the largest branch of which was, de jure patrio. Ihis was the first, and most simple way of recording their concep tions ; obvious to every one, and common not only to the North as well as South Americans, but to aU mankind.f II. But the inconveniencies attending the too great bulk of the volume in writings of this kind would soon set the more ingenious and better civilized people upon contriring methods to abridge their characters : and of all the improvements of this kind, that which was invented by the Egyptians, and called Hieroglyphics, was by far the most celebrated. By this contrivance, that -writing, which amongst the Mexicans was only a simple painting, became in Egypt a pictured character. J This abridgment was of three kinds ; and, as appears from the more or less art employed in the contrivance of each, made by due degrees ; and at three different periods. 1 . The first way was. To make the principal circumstance in the subject stand for the whole. Thus when they would describe a battle, or tw^ armies in array, they painted (as we learn from that admirable fragment of antiquity, the hieroglyphics of HorapoUo) two hands, one holding a shield, and the other a bow ; § when a tumult, or popular insurrection, — an armed man casting arrows ; || when a siege, — a scaling ladder. ^ This was of the utmost simplicity ; and, conse quently, we must suppose it the earliest way of turning painting into an hieroglyphic ; that is, making it a picture-character. And this is embassadour in France) bought the same for twenty French crowns ; aud procmred master Michael Locke, in Sir Walter Raleigh's name, to translate it. It seems that none were vrilling to be at tbe cost of cutting the pictures, and so it remained amongst his papers till his death : whereby (according to bis last will in that kind) I became possessour thereof, and have obtained, with much earnestness, tbe cutting thereof for the press." — Pdrchas's " Pilgrimage," 3d p-art, pp. 1065, 1066. See plate I. • " Quant aux caracteres, Us n'en avoient point : et ils y suppleoieut par des especes d'hieroglyphes."— Charlevoix, of the Northern Americans, vol. v. p. 292. Lafitau gives us a specimen of these hieroglyphics. See plate 11. t The same kind of characters Stahlenberg found upon rocks in Siberia in the province of Permia, and near the river Jenesei. Of -which he has given a drawing. See plate III. Tbe author De vet. Lit. Hunn Scyth. p. 15, seems to admire this natural expression of things, as some uncommon stretch of invention. " Miraius ego saepe foi caupones idiotas (nempe in Hungaria) iotis, quibus aliquid credere bnjusmodi ficto chacactere inter debitores non adscribere tantum, sed longioris etiam temporis intervallo post, non secus, quam si alphabetbario scribf-ndi genere adnotati fuissent, promere, debitamque summam et rationes indrcare potuisse ; ita si debitor miles est, rudi quadam linea frameam aut puffioniim pingebant; si faber, mallenm aut securim: si anriga, fiagrum, atque sic poiTO " J See plate IV. 5 Horapoll. Hierogl. Ub. ii. cap. 5, ed. Com. Ue Pauw, Tiaj.,ad Rhen, 1727, 4to. II Idem, Ub. ii. cap. 12. IT Idem, lib. ii. cap. 28. .176 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. what we shaU hereafter distinguish by the name of the curiologic hieroglyphic. 2. The second, and more artful method of contraction, was by putting the instrument of the thing, whether real or metaphorical, for the thing itself. Thus an eye, eminently placed, was designed to represent God's omniscience ; * an eye and sceptre, to represent a monarch ;-f a sword, their cruel tyrant Ochus : J and a ship and pilot, the governor of the universe. § And this is what we shall caU the TROPICAL HIEROGLYPHIC. 3. Their third, and stUl more artificial method of abridging pic ture writing, was, by making one thing to stand for, or represent another, where any quaint resemblance or analogy, in the representa tive, could be collected from their observations of nature, or their traditional superstitions. And this was their symbolic hiero glyphic. Sometimes it was founded in their observations on the form, or on the real or imaginary natures and qualities, of Beings. Thus the universe was designed by a serpent in a circle, whose variegated spots signified the stars ; || and the sun-rise by the two eyes of the crocodile, because they seem to emerge from its head ; ^ a widow who never admits a second mate, by a black pigeon ; ** one dead of a fever, con tracted by the over great solar heat, by a blind scar'abtsus ;ff a client fiy- ing for reUef to his patron, and finding none, by a sparrow and owl; J J a king inexorable, and estranged from his people, by an eagle ; §^ a man who exposes his children through poverty, by an hawk ; \\ \\ a wife who hates her husband, or chUdren who injure their mother, by a viper ; ^^ one initiated into the mysteries, and so under the obUga tion of secrecy, by a grashopper,*** which was thought to have no mouth- Sometimes again, this kind of hieroglyphic was derived from the popular superstition. Thus he who had borne his misfortunes with courage, and had at length surmounted them, was signified by the ky77te72, fct!pi7U77z ciurz ecu7c>,7.7'e^e7-eiai.r2u72c lia, 'H.pinauni. VoIuc7-e772, aal7ir2a772, Tfi a7iu722, /zio., 720C e77, nahviz /peczC^TVL. f' 7-eu7^z^/cn laiarzf,- tzzz/zc Az^ ifuchiu.9,\Q .'\2 •ep exp7zca7ihir. jBadeci pertcs nzt 7i07'U7n. 7zle rzj' Suzzcis ac7 Tex zziveiyi^S' mocs7o,p co/i' /c7-zptu77z, opus aniiaziiTyzmizr/z arzzZ ra7~ur7T,, SmLS cli vefu/czzlern, rvtr-c^aleTn^ue Tnaorio /e7nper z/i preizo Tz aT/ztizzTz. Jfi eo . 77727V a7ziiae£ 7zfc7-oc Tor7rza72i zifczzrzozze re/eric7zZ earzem, ^ua.i^ 7l07t2a' zrt cie7i7pz6' £ mc vzc7e7V memzrzi (iipe FL.iTE. 3 ^ )-^ ^^ ^ ^J .'7.^7//,:r,,7,,:7z c7,//iC 72l.irtc 77U'ir/cZ72"7'/i!./ie.M C/,,ilacteiyJ 7?i/^(,i Ac„i ,/iz.-l r„c2c 77r,ti,,,i/. ¦7/,c/r,.^/J,,r 7//,J,-i,i Ae .i-^;cc72d 77„/,7„/ ll,u:,/>cnr/,'ri/ 7c//»:7'-i-i7-7}i^'2,i .7,;r/c'f^ C7u72a y77i/,rhaJa. 2, ,„/..„.IuiU!7nd ly Ihomas Tcif^,,i:.S'an..l3,Oi.ca.psidc SECT. IV. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 181 nave observed that the easiest, and most natural expression of the abstract conceptions of the mind, was by arbitrary marks : but yet the most ingenious way of representing them was by analogic or sym boUc figures ; as omniscience, by an eye ; ingratitude, by a viper ,- impudence, by the river-horse. Now the Egyptians, who were of a Uvely imagination, and studious of natural knowledge, though at first, like the Chinese, they expressed mental ideas by arbitrary marks, yet, as they improved their inventive faculties by use, they feU natu raUy into this method of expressing them by analogic or symbolic figures ; and their love of mystery disposed them to cultivate it : for these figures necessarily make the Character mysterious, as implying in the Inventor, and requiring in the User, a knowledge of physics ; whereas arbitrary marks Ue open to aU, as requiring no knowledge but that of the institution. Hence we have a plain reason how it happened, that the Egyptian Hieroglyphics, from very early times, consisted principaUy of symboUc and analogic marks, and that those Chinese Hieroglyphics were turned altogether into marks by institu tion. For as the Egyptians had soon learnt to express abstract ideas by analogic signs, so the Chinese were at last drawn to express even material things by arbitrary marks. In a word, the Chinese method of thus conducting hieroglyphic writing through aU its changes and improvements, from a picture to a simple mark, was the occasion that the Missionaries, who con sidered the history of their writing only by parts, have given us such different accounts of it. Sometimes they represent it Uke the Mexican pictures ; sometimes like the knotted cords of the Peru rians ; sometimes as approaching to the characters found upon the Egyptian obeUsques ; and sometimes again as of the nature of the Arabic marks for numbers. But each man speaks only of the monu ments of which he himself had got information ; and these differed according to their age and place. He, whose attention was taken up with the most ancient only of the Chinese monuments, did not hesi tate to pronounce them hieroglyphics, like the Egyptian ; because he saw them to be analogic or symboUc signs, Uke the Egyptian : he who considered only the characters of later use denied them to be Uke the Egyptian, because he found them to be only marks by institution. These imperfect accounts have misled the learned into several mis takes concerning the general nature and use of Hieroglyphics them selves. Some supposing it of their nature to be obvious marks of institution ; and others, that it required a very comprehensive know ledge of physics to be able to compose them. Mr. Freret, speaking of the Chinese characters, says, " Selon eux [les Chinois] ces anciens caracteres etoient tous fond^s sur des raisons 182 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. phUosophiques. lis exprimoient Id nature des choses qu'Us signifi- oient : ou du moins la determinoient en d^signant les rapports de ces mfemes choses avec d'autres mieux connues." * But he doubts whether entire credit is to be given to their accounts ; for he observes that "La construction d'une pareUle langue demande une parfaite connoissance de la nature et de I'ordre des id6es qu'U faut exprimer, c'est-k-dire, une bonne metaphysique, et, pent-6tre meme un systeme complet de philosophic. — Les Chinois n'ont jamais eu rien de pareU." He concludes therefore, that the Chinese hieroglyphics " n'ont jamais eu qu'en rapport d'lNSTixuTiON avec les choses qu'eUes signifient." This is strange reasoning. To know whether the ancient Chinese characters were founded on phUosophic relations, does not depend on their having a true system of physics and metaphysics, but on their haring a system simply, whether true or false, to which to adapt those Characters : Thus, that part of the Egyptian physics which taught, that the viper tore its way through its mother's entraUs, and that the skin of the hysena preserved the wearer invulnerable, served fuU as well for hieroglyphical uses, as the soundest part of their astronomy, which placed the sun in the center of its system. Again, others have denied the Chinese characters to be properly Hieroglyphics, because they are arbitrary marks and not analogical, P. Parennin saySj " Les caracteres Chinois ne sont hieroglyphes qu'im- proprement. — Ce sont des signes arbitraires qui nous donnent I'idee d'une chose, non par aucun rapport qu'Us aient avec la chose signi- fi^e, mais parce qu'on a voulu par tel signe signifier teUe chose. — En est-U de m6me des hieroglyphes Egyptiens?" P. Gaubil says, — " On voit I'importance d'une histoire critique sur 1' origine et les changemens arrives si plusieurs caracteres Chinois qui sont certaine- ment hieroglyphes. D'un autre cote, il y a des caracteres Chinois, qui certainement ne sont pas hieroglyphes. Une histoire de ceux-ci seroit aussi importante." These Fathers, we see, suppose it essential to hieroglyphic characters, that they be analogic or symboUc signs ; and finding the more modern Chinese writing to be chiefly composed of arbitrary marks, or signs by institution, they concluded that the Chinese characters were not properly Hieroglyphics. Whereas, what truly denotes a writing to be hieroglyphical is, that its marks are signs for things ; what denotes a writing not to be hieroglyphical, is that its marks are signs for words. Whether the marks be formed by analogy or institution makes no alteration in the nature of the writing. If they be signs for things, they can be nothing but hieroglyphics ; if they be signs for words, they may be, and I sup pose always are, alphabetical characters ; but never can be hiero glyphics. However, it is but justice to these learned Fathers to * Mem. de VAcai, tom. vi. p. 609. SECT. IV. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 183 observe, that one of them, from whom the others might have profited, appears to have a much clearer conception of this matter. — " La nature des hieroglyphes" (says he) "n'est pas d'etre des figures natureUes des choses qu'Us signifient, mais seulement de les repre sentor ou naturellement, ou par I'institution des hommes. Or tous les lettres Chinoises, ou sont des figures natureUes, comme les an- ciennes, du soleU, de la lune, ou autres semblables, ou sont des figures destinees pour signifier quelque chose, comme sont toutes ceUes qui signifient des choses qui n'ont aucune figure ; comme I'ame, la beaute, les vertus, les rices, et toutes les actions des homnies et des animaux." * On the whole, therefore, we see that, before the institution of letters to express sounds, all characters denoted only things ; 1. By representation. 2. By analogy or symbols. 3. By arbitrary institution. Amongst the Mexicans, the first method was principally in use : The Egyptians chiefly cultivated the second : And the Chinese, in course of time, reduced almost aU their characters to the third. But the empires of China and Egypt long flourishing in their different periods, had time and inclination to cultivate aU the three species of hieroglyphic writing : only with this difference ; the Egyp tians beginning, like the Mexicans, vrith a picture, and being ingeni ous and much given to mystery, cultivated a species of hieroglyphics most abounding in signs by analogy, or symbols ; whereas the Chinese, who set out like the Peruvians with a knotted cord,f and were less inventive, and without a secret worship, cultivated that species which most abounds in marks of arbitrary institution.! In a word, aU the barbarous nations upon earth, before the inven tion or introduction of letters, made use of Hieroglyphics, or signs for things, to record their meaning : the more gross, by representation ; the more subtUe and cirilized, by analogy and institution. Thus we have brought down the general history of writing, by a gradual and easy descent, from a picture to a letter ; for Chinese marks which participate of Egyptian hieroglyphics on the one hand, and of alphabetic letters on the other (just as those hieroglyphics par took equally of Mexican pictures and Chinese characters) are on the very border of letters ; an alphabet invented to express sounds instead of things being only a compendium of that large volume of arbitrary marks. Some alphabets, as the Ethiopic and Coptic, § have taken in hiero glyphic figures to compose their letters ; which appears both from their shapes and names. The ancient Egyptian did the same, as • p. W.iGAih-LMiS, Jlelat. de la Chine. t " Les premiers inventeurs de I'ecri- ture Chinoise, en s'attachant a des signes, qui n'ont qu'un rapport d'institution avec les choses signifiees, ont suivi le genie de la nation Chinoise ; qui meme avant Fo-hi, c'est a dire, dans la plus profonde antiquite, se servoit de cordelettes nouees en guise d'ecri- ture." — Mem. de l'.,icad. tom. vi. Freket. X See note S, at the end of this book. § See note T, at the end of this book. 184 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. a learned French writer hath shewn in a very ingenious and convince ing manner.* But this is seen even from the names which express letters and Uterary-writing in the ancient languages : thus the Greek words 5HMEIA and 2HMATA signify as weU the images of natural things as artificial marks or characters ; and rPA4>i2 is both to paint and to write. The not attending to this natural and easy progress of hieroglyphic images from pictures to alphabetic letters, made some amongst the ancients, as Plato and TuUy, when struck with the wonderful artifice of an alphabet, conclude that it was no human invention, but the gift of the immortal Gods. Here then we see the first beginnings of Hieroglyj^ics amongst the Mexicans, and the end of them amongst the Chinese ; yet we never find them employed in either of these places for mystery or conceal ment : what there was of this practice, therefore, in the middle stage of their cultivation amongst the Egyptians, we must needs conclude had some private or pecuUar cause, unrelated to their general nature. But the course of the Mexican empire was too short to improve picture into an hieroglyphic ; and the Chinese, which, in its long duration, hath brought this picture down, through hieroglyphics, to a simple mark, or character, hath not yet (from the poverty of its inventive genius,f and its aversion to foreign commerce) been able to find out an abridgment of those marks, by letters ; it was the old and well established monarchy of Egypt, so propitious to arts and civil policy, which carried the picture, through aU the stages of its improvement, quite down to letters, the invention of this ingenious people. J Now such a general concurrence in the method of recording the thoughts, can never be supposed the effect of chance, imitation, or partial purposes ; but must needs be esteemed the uniform voice of nature, speaking to the first rude conceptions of mankind : for the reader may be pleased to observe, that not only the Chinese of the East, the Mexicans of the West, and the Egyptians of the South, but the Scythians Ukewise of the North (not to speak of those interme diate inhabitants of the earth, the Indians, Phoenicians, Ethiopians, Etruscans, &c,) aU used the same way of writing by picture and hieroglyphic. § But to shew StUl clearer, that it was nature and necessity, not choice and artifice, which gave birth and continuance to these several specieses of hieroglyphic writing, we shaU now take a riew of the * See note U, at the end of this book. t See note X, at the end of this book. t " Piiiai ^ei Jiguras aniTnalium Mgyttii sensus mentis effingebant; et antiquissima monumenta memoriae huitanaB impressa saxis cemuntur, et litlerarum semet inventores perhibent; inde Phcenicas, quia mari prsepollebant, intulisse Graeciae, gloriamque adeptos, tanquam repererint, quai acceperant." — Taciti .Annates, lib. xi. cap. 14. 5 See nbte Y, at the end of this book. SECT, IV, OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 185 rise and progress of its sister-art, the art of speech ; and having set them together and compared them, we shaU see with pleasure, how great a lustre they mutuaUy reflect upon one another ; for, as St. Austin elegantly expresses it, Signa sint verba visibilia ; verba, SIGNA^AUDIBILIA. I, JLanguage, as appears from the nature of the thing, from the records of history, and from the remains of the most ancient lan guages yet remaining, was at first extremely rude, narrow, and equivocal : * so that men would ba perpetuaUy at a loss, on any new conception, or uncommon accident, to explain themselves intelligibly' to one another ; the art of inlarging language by a scientific analogy being a late invention : this would necessarily set them upon supply ing the deficiencies of speech by apt and significant sicNs.f Accord ingly, in tUe first ages of the world, mutual converse was upheld by a mixed discourse of words and actions ; hence came the eastern phrase of the voice of the sign ; J and use and custom, as in most other affairs of Ufe, improring what had arisen out of necessity, into ornament, this practice subsisted long after the necessity was over; especiaUy amongst the eastern people, whose natural temperament incUned them to a mode of conversation, which so weU exercised their vivacity, by motion ;• and so much gratified it, by a perpetual repre sentation of material imagesj Of this we have innumerable instances ' in holy Scripture : as where the false prophet pushed with horns of iron, to denote the entire overthrow of the Syrians ; § where Jeremiah, by God's direction, hides the Unen girdle in a hole of the rock near Euphrates ; |1 where he breaks a potter's vessel in sight of the peo ple, ^ puts on bonds and yokes, ** and casts a book into Euphra tes ; f f where Ezekiel, by the same appointment, delineates the siege of Jerusalem on a tile ; %% weighs the hair of his beard in balances ; §§ carries out his houshold-stuff; |||| and joins together the two sticks for Judah and Israel.^^ By these actions the prophets instructed the people in the wUl of God, and conversed with them in signs : but where God teaches the prophet, and, in compliance to the custom of that time, condescends to the same mode of instruction, then the significative action is generaUy changed into a rision, either natural or extraordinary : as where the prophet Jeremiah is bid to regard the rod of the almond-tree, and the seething pot ; *** the work on the potter's wheel, fff and the baskets of good and bad figs ; JJJ and • See note Z, at the end of this book, t If tl"^ ^^ true, it must be the case at all times, and in all places, where language remains within those narrow bounds. Thus Lafitau, speaking of the savages of North America, observes, " lis parlent autant du GESTE que de la voix." — Mmurs des Sauvages, vol. i. p. 482, 4to edit. | Exod. iv. 8. And not for the reason given by Le Clero on the place : " Ideoque vox iis [pro- digiis] tribuitur, cum eorum opeik Deus, non minus ac voce, suum hunc prophetam esse significaret." t 1 Kings xxii. 11. || Jer. xiii. ^ Chap. xix. *• Chap, xxvii. tt Chap. 11. Jt Ezek. iv. §§ Chap. v. |||| Chap. xii. Tin Cljap. xxxvii. 16. ••" Jer. i. ttt Chap, xviii. XXX Chap. xxiv. 186 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. the prophet Ezekiel, the ideal scene of the resurrection of dry bones.* The significative action, I say, was, in this case, generaUy changed into a rision ; but not always. For as sometimes, where the instruction was for the people, the significative action was, perhaps, in vision : so, sometimes again, though the information was only for the prophet, God would set him upon a real expressive action, whose obrious meaning conveyed the inteUigence proposed or sought. Of this, we shaU give, at the expence of infidelity, a very iUustrious instance.f The excellent Maimonides, not attending to this primitive mode of information, is much scandaUzed at several of these actions, unbecoming, as he supposed, the dignity of the prophetic office ; and is therefore for resolving them in general into supernatural visions, impressed on the imagination of the prophet ; J and this, because some few of them may, perhaps, admit of such an interpretation. In which he is followed by Christian writers, § much to the discredit, as I conceive, of Revelation ; and to the triumph of Ubertinism and infidelity ; || the actions of the prophets being deUvered as realities ; and these writers representing them as mean, absurd, and fanatical, and exposing the prophet to contempt.^ But what is it they gain by this expedient ? The charge of absurdity and fanaticism wiU foUow the prophet in his risions, when they have removed it from his waking actions : for if these actions were absurd and fanatical in the real representation, they must needs be so in the imaginary ; the same turn of mind operating both asleep and awake.** The judicious reader therefore cannot but observe that the reasonable and true defence of the prophetic writings is what is here, offered : where we shew, that information by action was, at this time, and place, a very famiUar mode of conversation. This once seen, aU charge of absur dity, and suspicion of fanaticism, vanish of themselves : the absurdity of an action consists in its being extravagant and insignificative ; but use and a fixed appUcation made these in question both sober and perti- • Ezek. xxxvii. 2. t See the case of Abraham, book vi. sect. 5. X More Nevochim, p. ii. cap. xlvi. which chapter he thus intitles, Qudd opera ea, guts prophetce dicunt se fecisse, non fuerint facta reverd et extern^, sed tantum in visione prophetia; ; and then goes on : — ** Scias ergo, quemadmodum in somnio accidit, ut homini videatur, ac si in hanc vel illam regionem profectus esset, uxorem in ea duxisset, ac ad tempus aliquod ibi habit^sset, filium, quem N. appellarit, et qui talis aut talis fuerit, ex ea sus- cepisset ; ita se quoque rem habere in illis parabolis prophetarum, quas vident aut faciunt in visione prophetiae. Quicquid enim decent paxabolse illae de actione aliqu^ et rebus, quas propheta facit, de mensiu'a et spatio temporis inter unam et alteram actionem, de profectione ex tmo loco in alium ; illud omne non est nisi in visione pro- phetica, nequaquam verd sunt actiones verse et in sensus incurrentes, licet quaedam partes praecise et absolute commemorentur in libris prophetarum." § Vide Joannis Smith, Theol, Ca/ntaf)., Dissertationem, de Prophetia et Prophetis ex transl. Joannis Clerici, cap. vi. and his late followers. || See note AA, at the end of this book. IT See note BB, at the end of this book. •• *' Prophetic dreams and visions were so very lively" (says a learned writer) " and affected the imagination vrith such force, that ihe prophet himself could not at the time distinguish such visions from realities. Something of this hind we experience in our dreams and reveries." — See " Dissertation on Balaam," p. 193. SECT. IV. OP MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 187 nent : the fanaticism of an action consists in a fondness for unusual actions and foreign modes of speech ; but those in question were idiomatic and famUiar. To Ulustrate this last observation by a domestic example : when the sacred writers taUc of being born after the spirit, of being fed with the sincere milk of the word, of putting their tears into a bottle, of bearing testimony against lying vanities, of taking the veil from merCs hearts, and of building up one another ; they speak the common, yet proper and pertinent phraseology of their country ; and not the least imputation of fanaticism can stick upon these original expressions. But when we see our own countrymen reprobate their native idiom, and affect to employ only scripture phrases in their whole conversation, as if some inherent sanctity resided in the Eastern modes of expression, we cannot chuse but sus pect such men far gone in the delusions of a heated imagination. The same may be said of significative actions.* But it is not only in sacred story that we meet with the mode of speaking by action. Profane antiquity is full of these examples ; and it is not unUkely but, in the course of our enquiry, we shaU have occasion to produce some of them : the early Oracles in particular frequently employed it, as we learn from an old saying of HeracUtus : That the king whose Oracle is at Delphi, neither speaks nor keeps silent, but reveals by siGNS.f Now this way of expressing the thoughts by action perfectly coincided with that, of recording them by picture. There is a remarkable case in ancient story, which shews the relation between speaking by action and writing by picture, so strongly, that we shaU need no other proof of the simUar nature of these two forms. It is told by Clemens Alexandrinus : They say, that Idanthura, a king of the Scythians (as Pherecydes Syrius relates the story), when ready to oppose Darius, who had parsed the Ister, sent the Persian a symbol instead of letters, namely, a mouse, a frog, a bird, a dart, and a plow.X Thus this message being to supply both speech and writing, the purport of it was, we see, expressed by a composition of action and picture. IIjAs speech became more cultivated, this rude manner of speaking by action was smoothed and poUshed into an apologue ov fable ; where the speaker, to inforce his purpose, by a suitable impression, • See Clem. Walker's story of the fanatic soldier with his five lights. " Hist. Indep." part ii. p. 152. t Oin-t Ae'yei, oiSre Kpirrrei, oWa atipalvei — Plhtarchus Tlepl rov pij XP^^ ^PP^rpa, p. 992, which being a less precise and more equivocal mode of information excellently weU fitted the trade of oracles. The Lacedaemonians [see Herodotus in Thalia] preferred it to speech for another reason, viz. to hinder their being misled by the illusions of oratory. I ^aal yovy Kal 'iSdvSovpay ray ^kvBSv fiaaiXea, OIS iffrope7 ^epeKdSris 6 ^vpios, Aapeit^ SiaSayri rhy larpov ¦aroXepov direiXovyra lireptpou avpSoXov dyrl ray ypappdray, pvv, Pdrpaxov, 6pytSa, dCarhv, dporpov.— Strom, lib. v. p. 667. 188 THE DIVINE LEGATION book ir. told a famiUar tale of his own invention, accompanied with such circumstances as made his design evident and persuasive : for language was yet too narrow, and the minds of men too undiscipUned, to support only abstract reasoning and a direct address. We have a noble example of this form of instruction in the speech of Jotham to the men of Shechem ; in which he upbraids their folly, and foretells their ruin, in chusing Abimelech for their king. As this is not only the oldest, but the most beautiful * apologue of antiquity, I shaU need no excuse for transcribing it : " The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them, and they said unto the olive-tree, Eeign thou over us. ( But the oUve-tree said unto them. Should I leave my fat- ness, wherewith, by me, they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees ? And the trees said to the fig-tree. Come thou, and reign over us. But the fig-tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees ? Then said the trees unto the vine. Come thou, and reign over us. And the vine said unto them. Should I leave my wine, which cheareth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees ? Then said aU the trees unto the bramble. Come thou, and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees. If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow : and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon." f . How nearly the apologue and instruction by action are related, may be seen in the account of Jeremiah's adventure with the Rechab- ites ; X an instruction partaking of the joint nature of action and apologue. This was the birth of the fable ; a kind of speech which corre sponds, in aU respects, to writing by hieroglyphics, each being the symbol of something else understood. And, as it sometimes hap pened, when au Hieroglyphic became famous, it lost its particular signification, and assumed a general one ; as the Caduceus, for instance, which was, at first, painted only to denote the pacific ofiice of Hermes, became, in time, to be the common symbol of league and amity : so it was with the Apologue ; of which, when any one became celebrated for the art and beauty of its composition, or for some extraordinary efiicacy in its appUcation, it was soon converted and worn into a proverb. We have a fine instance of this in the message of Jehoash to Amaziah, " S&ying, The thistle that was in Lebanon, sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying. Give thy daughter to my son to wife : and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine • See note CC, at the end of this book. t See note DD, at the en4 of thia book. X Jer. xxxv. SECT. IV. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 189 heart hath Ufted thee up : glory of this, and tarry at home : for why should est thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou and Judah with thee ? " * Where we see plainly that this satyric apologue of the thistle and cedar was now become a proverb : of a like kind is that of the prophet ; Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen ; f to denote the danger of the lower people, when their superiors^cannot withstand the civU tempest. III.jBut as speech improved into an art, the Apologue was con tracted into a SIMILE, in which men consulted closeness as well as brerity ; for here the subject itself being stUl kept in sight, there was no need, as in the Apologue, of a formal application : and how easily the Apologue slid into the Similitude, we may see by the following passage of Jeremiah, which, being something between both these forms of speech, communicates of cither's nature : The Lord called thy name a green olive-tree, fair and of goodly fruit : with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken, ^c.J This way of speaking by SimUe, we may conceive to answer to the Chinese marks or characters in writing. L Again, as from such marks proceeded the abbreriated method of alphabetic letters, so from the SimUe, to make language stUl more expedite and elegant, came the metaphor ; which is indeed but a SimUe in little : for men so conversant in matter still wanted sensible images to convey abstract ideas. The steps by which the Simile was contracted into the Metaphor, may be easily traced by a careful perusal of the prophetic writings ;| there being no mode of speech more common than that compounded of both ; where the Simile is just about to be forsaken, and the Metaphor to be received. In this manner are God's judgments denounced against the king of Assyria : " Therefore thus saith the Lord God, because thou hast lifted up thy self in height, and he hath shot up his top amongst the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height ; I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen : — and strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him : upon the mountains and in aU the vaUeys his branches are faUen, and his boughs are broken by aU the rivers of the land, and aU the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. Upon his ruin shall aU the fowls of heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shaU be upon his branches. To the end that none of aU the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top amongst the thick boughs." § QuintUian considering this matter in an inverted order, yet makes an observation, where he speaks of metaphors, much to our purpose. — " Continuus [usus] vero • 2 Kings xiv. 9, 10. t Zech. xi. 2. X Jer. xi. 16. 5 Ezek. xxxi. 10, et seq. 190 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. in aUegoriam et senigmata exit." * That is, As the aUegory may, by degrees, be contracted into a Metaphor, so the Metaphor, by beating long upon it, may be drawn back again into an aUegory. As tjie Simile sBd into a Metaphor, so the metaphor often softened into a simple epithet, which soon discharged all the colouring of the figure. This is observable in the words decrepit,-\- capricious, and a great many others, when appUed either to the body or mind. Which being first used in simile, then in metaphor, at length, by fre quent use in epithet, lost the very memory of their original.J Thus we see the common foundation of aU these various modes of ¦WRITING and speaking, was a picture or image, presented to the imagination through the eyes and ears ; which being the simplest and most universal of all kinds of information (the first reaching those who could not decypher the arbitrary characters of an alphabet; and the latter instructing those who were yet strangers to abstract terms), we must needs conclude to be the natural inventions of rude necessity. ' And here it may not be amiss to repeat an observsttion made before, I that the primitive and more simple way of expression, whether in j writing or speaking, did not always straight grow into disuse on the invention of a more improved manner. Thus we see in Scripture, the way of speaking by action was stUl used after the introduction of the Apologue ; and the Apologue, after that of the SimUe and Meta phor. And so again in writing ; the first and simplest hieroglyphics continued to be used in Egypt (as we shall see) long after the refine ment of them into those more artful ones caUed symbolical; and these, after that further improvement into characters or marks resem bUng the Chinese, and even after the invention of letters. But how, as in these several modes of speech, so in the several forms of writing, men made a virtue of necessity, and turned that into ornament and mystery, which had its birth in poverty, and was brought up in simplicity and plainness, is to be our next enquiry. II. It is now, I suppose, apparent, that the hitherto received opinion, that the Egyptians invented hieroglyphics to conceal their knowledge, and render it mysterious, is altogether without foundation. However, as it is very certain they did, at length, employ hieroglyphic writing to such a purpose, it wUl be proper to examine how this came about ; How one of the simplest and plainest means of instruction came to be converted into one of the most artificial and abstruse. ' Lib. viii. cap. 6. t " Decrepiths. Comparatio vitae nostrae cum lucema nota fuit Latinis, ut pMet ex decrepitorum senum nuncupatione." — Prima Scaligerana, p. 48. X See note EE, at the end of this book. SECT, IV, OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED, 191 To support what we have to say on this head with proper authority, it wiU be necessary to produce two important passages from Porphyry and Clemens Alexandrinus, concerning the several natures and kinds of Egyptian writing. On these, we shaU regulate our discourse ; which wUl, in its turn, contribute to iUustrate these passages, hitherto, as we conceive, very imperfectly understood. But it will be proper first of aU to give the reader a general idea of the several natures and kinds of Egyptian writing, according to the order of time in which each was invented and improved ; and for the truth, as weU as perfect intelUgence of the account, refer him to the whole of the discourse. Egyptian vnriting was of four kinds : the first, hieroglyphic, and this twofold : the more rude, called curiologic ; and the more artificial, called tropical : the second, symbolic ; and this Ukewise was two fold ; the more simple, and the more mysterious ; that tropical, this allegorical. These two kinds of writing, namely the hieroglyphic and symbolic (which went under the generic term of hieroglyphics, dis tinguished into proper, and symbolic hieroglyphics), were not composed of the letters of an alphabet, but of marks or characters which stood for things, not words. The third epistolic, so called, as we shaU see, from its being first applied to civil matters : and the fourth and last, hierogrammatic, from its being used only in religious. These two last kinds of writing, namely, the epistolic and hierogrammatic, expressed words, and were formed by the letters of an alphabet. We come now to the passages in question. Porphyry, speaking of Pythagoras, teUs us : That he sojourned with the priests in Egypt, and learnt the wisdom and the language of the. country, together with their three sorts of letters, the epistolic, the hieroglyphic, and the SYMBOLIC; of which the hieroglyphic expressed the meaning of the writer, by an imitation or picture of the thing intended to be expressed ; and the symbolic, by allegorical enigmas.* Clemens is larger and more explicit : — Now those who are instructed in the Egyptian wisdom, learn first of all the method of their several sorts of letters ; the first of which is tailed epistolic ; the second sacerdotal, as being used by the sacred scribes ; the last, with which they conclude their instruct tions, hieroglyphical. Of these different methods, the one is in the plain and common way of writing by the first elements of words, or letters of an alphabet ; the other by symbols. Of the symbolic way of. writing, whieh is of three kinds ; the first is that plain and common one of imitating the figure of the thing represented ; the second is by tropical marks ; and the third, in a contrary way, of allegorising by Enigmas. Of the first sort, namely, by a plain and direct imitation of the figure, let this stand for an instance : — to * See note FF, at the end of this book. 192 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. signify the sun, they made a circle ; the moon, a half circle. The second, or tropical way of writing, is by changing and transferring the object with justness and propriety : * this they do, sometimes by a simple change, sometimes by a complex multifarious transformation ; thus they leave engraven f on stones and pillars the praises of their kings, under the cover of theologic fables. Of the third sort, by enigmas, take this example : the oblique course of the stars occasioned their representing them by the bodies of serpents ; but the sun they likened to a scarabaeus, because this insect makes a round ball of beast's dung, and rolls it circularly, with its face opposed to that luminary. X Thus these two ancient Greeks : but both of them being in the general mistake concerning the original of the Egyptian hierogly phics, it is no wonder their accounts should be inaccurate and con fused. The first mistake common to both, and the natural conse quence of that false principle, is making the epistolary writing first, in order of time,§ which was indeed the last. For that this was their sentiment appears from Clemens's caUing hieroglyphic writing uo-Tarrjv xai tsKsutkiccv, the last and most perfect kind. The second common mistake is their counting but three sorts of writing, when, indeed, there were four ; as is discoverable even from their own reckoning : Porphyry naming epistolic, hieroglyphic, and symbolic ; Clemens, epistolic, sacerdotal, and hieroglyphical; the First leaving out sacerdotal, which the Second supplies ; and the Second symbolic, which the first suppUes, Their other mistakes are peculiar to each : Clemens errs most in enumerating the several sorts ; and Porphyry in explaining their several natures. This latter writer names the three sorts, epistolic, hieroglyphic, and symbolic; and this was not much amiss, because the fourth, the hierogrammatic, or sacerdotal, not differing from the epistolic in its nature, but only in its use, he comprised it, we may suppose, under the generic term of epistolic : but when he comes to explain the nature of the symbolic, which is performed two ways, tropically and allegorically, he quite omits the first, and insists only on the latter. Clemens, on the other hand, gives us these three kinds, the epis tolic, the sacerdotal or hierogrammatical, and the hieroglyphical. Here epistolic is used as a specific term, and hieroglyphical as a generic ; just contrary to Porphyry, who, in his enumeration, employs them the other way : but then, as to their nature, Clemens says, the epistolic and sacerdotal were by letters of an alphabet, and the hieroglyphic by symbols : the first part of the explanation is exact. We have observed * See note GG, at the end of this book. t See note HH, at the end of this book. J See note JI, at the end of this book. § See note KK, at the end of this book. SECT. IV. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. 193 that Porphyry judiciously omits to explain epistolary writing, as supposing it to be well known : but Clemens, who adds to epistolary, sacerdotal, a way of writing, though Uke the epistolary, by an alpha bet, yet being confined to the use of the priests, not so weU known, he with equal judgment explains their nature : but the latter part of his account, where he says hieroglyphic writing was by symbols, making symboUc, which is a specific term, to be equivalent to hiero glyphical, which he uses genericaUy, is an unlucky blunder ; of which this is the consequence, that proceeding to diride symbolic, as a generic term, into three sorts, curiologic, tropical, and allegorical ; he falls into a direct contradiction : rijf 8e SuftSoXiK^, says he, ^ p.h KvpioXoysirai xara ft/(U,>)0"(v, the first kind of symbolic writing is by a plain and simple imitation of the figure of the thing intended to be represented ; which is directly contrary to the very nature of a sym bol ; a symbol being the representation of one thing by the figure of another. For instance, it was the buU Apis, and not the picture or image of Osiris, that was the symbol of Osiris : Clemens therefore, we conceive, should have said — hieroglyphics were written curiologically and symbolically ; that the turiologic hieroglyphics were by imitation ; the symbolic, by conversion ; and that, of this conversion, there were two kinds, the tropical and allegorical; and then aU had answered to his foregoing dirision. For the rest. He explains the nature of curiologic and symbolic hieroglyphics with sufficient exactness ; save that the first instance he gives of allegoric symbols seems to belong to the tropical. Thus yre see how these writers contribute to the correcting one another's mistakes. What is necessary for the further clearing up their accounts, which, obscure as they are, are the best that antiquity wUl afford us, shaU be occasionally considered as we go along. Let us next enquire how hieroglyphics came to be employed for the vehicle of mystery. I. The Egyptians, in the beginnings of their monarchy, wrote like all other infant nations, in a kind of universal character by picture ; of which rude original essays, we have yet some traces remaining amongst the hieroglyphics of HorapoUo ; who tells us, that the ancient Egyptians painted a man's two feet in water to signify a fuller,* and smoke ascending upwards to denote fire.f But to render this rude invention less incommodious, they soon devised the more artful way of putting one single figure for the mark or repre sentative of several things ; and thus made their picture an hiero glyphic. This was the first improvement of that rude and barbarous way of recording men's ideas ; and was practised in a twofold manner ; the * HoRAP. lib. i. cap. 65. t Lib. ii. cap. 16. VOL. II. O 194 THE DIVINE LEGATION book iv. one more simple, by putting the principal part for the whole ; the other more artificial, by putting one thing, of resembling qualities, for another. The first species was the curiologic hieroglyphic ; the second, the tropical hieroglyphic ; the latter of which was a gradual improvement on the former ; as appears both from the nature of the thing, and from the records of antiquity. Thus the moon was sometimes represented by a half circle, sometimes by a cynocephalus : * The overflowings of the Nile, sometimes by a spread ing water in heaven and earth, sometimes by a lion ,-f (a hieroglyphic, we may suppose, invented after they had learnt a Uttle astronomy) : a judge, sometimes by a man without hands, holding down his eyes,X to denote the duty of being unmoved by interest or pity : sometimes by a dog near a royal robe ; § for they had a superstition that a dog, of aU animals, was only pririleged to see the gods ; and it was an old custom for their judges to behold and examine their kings naked : Now in all these instances we see the first hieroglyphic is curiological ; the second, tropical. The Egyptians therefore, employed, as we say, the proper hiero glyphics to record, openly and plainly, , their laws, policies, pubUc morals, and history ; and in a word, aU kinds of civU matters. 1 . This is seen from those remaining monuments of old Egyptian wisdom, the obelisks. || That very ancient one of Ramesses, now standing before the pontific palace in Rome, and first erected to adorn the city of HeliopoUs, is fuU of hieroglyphic characters ; these Hermapion translated into Greek ; and part of his translation is pre served in Ammianus Marcellinus. By which it appears, ^that the writings on this obelisk contained only a panegyric on Ramesses, and a history of his conquests. But this was not the subject of one only, but of all the obelisks in general.^ We have seen already, and shaU see further, what Clemens Alexandrinus hath observed to this purpose. Diodorus saith, that Sesostris erected two obelisks of very durable stone, each twenty cubits high ; on which he engraved the number of his forces, the particulars of his revenue, and a catalogue of the nations he had conquered.** At Thebes, Strabo telleth us, there were certain obelisks with inscriptions recording the riches and power of their kings, and the extensiveness of ^ their dominion, stretching into Scythia, Bactria, India, and the country now called Ionia ; together with the multitude of their tributes, and the number of the soldiery, ' HoHAP. Ub. i. cap'. 14. t Lib. i. cap. 21. X Plutakch. Is ei Osir. — DiOD. Sic. lib. i. § Horap. lib. i. cap. 40. \\ See note LL, at the end of this book. IT " O jEgypte, Mgfpte, ReUgionum tuarum solae supererunt fabulae, et aeque incredibiles Posteris suis ; solaque supererunt verba lapidibus incisa, tua facta NARRANTiBus." — ApuLEiHS, Elmeuh. ed. p. 90. **Ai;o Se XiBlyovs 'OSeXtaKovs iK rov aKX7]pov Xi6ov, "arTixav rh Si^os eXKOffi -v^phs to7s eKarhy, itp^ Siy iireypa^e rdr^ peyedos TTJi Svydpeas Kal rh •orAijflos Twi' lupoffdSay, KaX rhy dpiQphy ray KaravoXe- pvOeyray edyay. — Lib. i. p. 37, Stephani ed. SECT. IV. OF MOSES DEMONSTRATED. igg which consisted of a million of men : * And Proclus assureth us. That the Egyptians recorded all singular events, memorable actions and new inventions on columns, or stone pillars.f Tacitus is more particular than the rest : for speaking of Germanicus's voyage into Egypt, and his curiosity in examining its antiquities, he saith : Mox visit veterum Thebarum magna vestigia ; et manebant structis molibus littera .Mgyptice, priorum opulentiam complexce : jussusque ei senioribus sacerdotum patrium sermonem interpretari, referebat habitasse quon dam septingenta millia cetate militari : atque eo cum exercitu regem Rhamsen Libya, .Ethiopia, Medisque et Persis, et Bactriano, ac Scythia potitum ; quasque terras Syri Armeniique et contigui Cap- padoces colunt, inde Bythynum, hinc Lycium ad mare imperio tenuisse. Legebantur et indicia gentibus tributa, pondus argenti et auri, numerus armorum equorumque, et dona templis, ebur atque odores, quasque copias frumenti et omnium utensilium quceque natio penderet, haud minus magnifica, quam nunc, vi Parthorum, aut potentia Romana, jubentur-X But to obviate at once all the cavUs of Kircher against this concurrent testimony, I observe, in the last place, that it receives the fuUest confirmation from that exceUent treatise of HorapoUo, which consists chiefly of the ancient and proper hieroglyphics ; aU of them relating to ciril life, and altogether unfit for the abstnise specu lations of philosophy and theology. 2. This is further seen from that celebrated inscription on the temple of Minerva at Sais, so much spoken of by the Ancients ; where an infant, an old man, a hawk, a fish, and a river-horse, ex pressed this moral sentence. All you who come into the world, and go out of it, know this, that the Gods hate impudence. The exceUent StilUngfleet, who was in the common opinion that the Egyptians invented hieroglyphics to secrete their profound wisdom, and that this inscription at Sais was part of that wisdom, pronounces sentence from hence, on all their mystic learning in general : — " Certainly " (says he) " this kind of learning deserves the highest form amongst the difficiles nugee ; and all these hieroglyphics put together will make but one good one, and shoiUd be for — labour lost." § But there might be much knowledge in their mystic learning, whatever becomes of the hieroglyphical inscription at Sais ; which was indeed no part of that learning, but a plain and public admonition in the proper hieroglyphic ; so far from being a difficult trifle, to be secreted, • ^'E.y Se reus bi^Kais iiri rivay d6e\l