[Joseph] Moses fuit, quem præter paternæ scientiæ hæreditatem, &c. lib. xxxvi. cap. 2. Those learned men therefore are mistaken, who, for this reason, would have it that Chæremon, by Joseph, meant Joshua. Besides, the superior title here given to Joseph shews plainly we are to understand the patriarch, and not the companion of Moses: for though it appears from Scripture that Joseph and Moses were related to, and educated by the Egyptian Priesthood, yet we have not the least reason to think that Joshua had ever any concern with them; being held with the rest of his brethren in a state of servitude, remote from the benefit of that education, which a singular accident had bestowed upon Moses. P. 93. [I] Hence we may collect, how ill-grounded that opinion is of Eupolemus and other authors, ancient Gand modern, who imagine, that Abraham first taught the Egyptians astrology. And indeed the contending for this original of the sciences seems to contradict another Largument much in use amongst Divines, and deservedly so; which answers the objection of infidels against the authority of the Bible, from several inaccuracies in science to be met with in sacred history, by observing it was not God's purpose, in revealing himself to mankind, to instruct them in the sciences. 11 P. 94. [Κ] Εὔδοξον μὲν ἐν Χονέφεώς φησι Μεμφίτε διακέσαι Σόλωνα δὲ Σίχις Σαΐτε· ΠΥΘΑΓΟΡΑΝ δὲ, Οἰνέφεως HAIOTПOAITOY. Plut. de Is. & Osir. p. 632. Steph, ed. Here we see, each sage went for that science he was disposed to cultivate, to its proper mart: for not only Pythagoras studied astronomy at Heliopolis, where it was professed with the greatest celebrity; but Eudoxus learnt his geometry at Memphis, whose priests were the most profound mathematicians; and Solon was instructed at in civil wisdom at Sais, whose patron deity being Minerva (as we are told by Herodotus and Strabo) shews that politicks was there in most request; and this doubtless was the reason why Pythagoras, who, during his long abode in Egypt, went through all their schools, chose Minerva for the patroness of his legislation. See Div. Leg. Vol. I. book ii. sect. 2, 3. P. 96. [L] I cannot forbear on this occasion to commend the ingenuous temper of another learned writer, far gone in the same system: who, having said all he could think of to discredit the antiquity and wisdom of Egypt, concludes in this manner:-"Tandem quæres, "in qua doctrina Egyptiorum propter quam tantopere celebrati erant in ipsis Scripturis, viz. 1 Reg. "ch. iv. com. 30. et vii. actorum, com. 22. Respondeo, non nego magnos Philosophos, Geometras, & MEDIcos, et aliarum artium peritos fuisse in Egypto, tempore Mosis, et postea quoque. Scd sensim et gradatim "illa doctrina exolevit, ut omnino nihil aut parum ejus "permanserit."-G. Jameson, Spicilegia Antiq. Egypt. p. 400, r-You will ask now, What is become of his system No matter. He is true to a better thing, the sacred Text: for the sake of which he took up the system; and for the sake of which, upon better information, he lays it down again: and, like an honest man, sticks to his Bible at all hazards. P. 105. [M] Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. says, that Melampus was in the number of those civilizers of Greece, who went, to fit themselves for that employment, into Egypt: and, as Orpheus proceeded thence a legislator and philosopher; so Melampus, whose bent lay another way, commenced physician and diviner; those two arts being, as we have said, professed together in Egypt. Apollodorus says, he was the first who cured diseases by medicinal potions. τὴν διὰ φαρμακῶν καὶ καθαρ μῶν θεραπείαν πρῶτος εὑρηκώς-meaning the first among the Greeks. As this Greek went to Egpyt to be instructed in his craft, so we meet with an Egyptian who went to practise the very same trade in Greece: *Απις γὰρ ἐλθὼν ἐκ πέρας Ναυπακλείας, ΙΑΤΡΟΜΑΝΤΙΣ ΠΑΙΣ, ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΟΣ, χθόνα κα Esch. IxET. p. 316. Stanl. ed.) As As to what is said of his being the son of Apollo, we must understand it in the sense of Homer, where he speaks of the Egyptian physicians in general: ΙΗΤΡΟΣ δὲ ἕκας ἐπιςάμενος περὶ πάντων Ανθρώπων· ἦ γὰρ ΠΑΙΗΟΝΟΣ ΕΙΣΙ ΓΕΝΕΘΛΗΣ. P. 115. [N] Nothing can be more unjust or absurd than the accusation of Joseph's making the free monarchy of Egypt despotic: for allowing it did indeed at this time suffer such a revolution, who is to be esteemed the author of it but Pharaoh himself? Joseph indeed was prime. minister; but it does not appear that his master was of that tribe of lazy monarchs, who intrust their sceptre to the hands of their servants. Moses describes him as active, vigilant, jealous of his authority, anxious for his country, and little indulgent to his officers of state. But the terms in which he invests Joseph in his office, shew that office to be purely ministerial; Thou shalt be over my house, and according to thy word shall all my people be ruled, ONLY IN THE THRONE WILL I BE GREATER THAN THOU. [Gen. xli. 40.] i. e. thou shalt administer justice, but I will reserve to myself the prerogative of giving law. It is highly reasonable therefore, when we find, in so concise a history as the Mosaic, Joseph bidding the people give their money, their cattle, and their lands for bread, to suppose that he only delivered to them the words of Pharaoh, who would supply their wants on no other conditions. P. 116. [O] This is the general sentiment of Antiquity and as generally embraced by modern writers. Kircher makes it the foundation of his Theatrum Hieroglyphicum, and so consequently hath written a large volume full of the most visionary interpretations. The. great principle, he goes upon, as he himself tells us, is this: Hieroglyphica Egyptiorum doctrina nihil aliud. est, quàm Arcana de Deo, divinisque Ideis, Angelis, Dæmonibus, cæterisque mundanarum potestatum classibus ordinibusque scientia, SAXIS potissimùm insculpta. Edipus Egyptiacus, tom. iii. p. 4. Dr. Wilkins follows. the received opinion in the general division of his subject, in his Essay towards a real Character: For speaking of notes for secrecy, such (says he) were the Egyptian hieroglyphics.-Yet he adds, with his usual penetration, -it seems to me questionable whether the Egyptians did not at first use their hieroglyphics as a mere shift for the want of letters, as was done by the Mexicans: p. 12.And this was all his subject led him to say of the Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Servius had gone further, and asserted the priority of hieroglyphics without a doubt. Annus enim secundum Ægyptios indicabatur, ante inventas literas, picto dracone caudam suam mordente. Apud Virg. Æn. I. v. ver. 85. P. 120. [P] The ship and pilot, bearing this signification, would, of course, be much used in the descriptions of their mysteries, in which, as we have shewn, the knowledge of the Governor of the universe was part of the apple and so we find it more than once delineated in the Bembine Table. Kircher, according to custom, makes it full of sublime knowledge; but the plain truth is no more than this above.-Tacitus, speaking of the religion of the Suevians, says they worshipped Isis; he could not conceive how this came about, only the figure of a galley, under which image she was represented, shewed that the worship was imported from abroad. "Pars Suevorum & Isini sacrificat: unde causa & origo peregrino sacro, parum comperi, misi quod signum ipsum, in modum LIBURNA figuratum, docet advectam religionem." De Morib. Gerin. c. ix. The latter part of which period Mr. Gordon has thus translated, unless the figure of her image formed like a galley shewed, &c. But nisi quod does not signify unless, as implying any doubt, but saving only. So the same author, De Mor. Ger. c. xxv. Occidere solent non "disciplina et severitate, sed impetu et ira, ut inimicum, "nisi quod impune." Tacitus could tell no more of the original than this, that the worship of Isis was imported, because her image was made in the figure of a galley. In this he was positive: but for all this, not the less mistaken. It was indeed imported; but the galley was no mark of that original. Strabo tells us, in his fourth book, that, in an island near Britain they performed the same mysterious rites.to Ceres and Proserpine as were used in 66 Samo Samothrace. Ceres and Isis were the same. The Phenician seamen, without doubt, brought them thither, as likewise to the Suevians inhabiting the coasts of the German ocean. The Governor of the universe was taught in these mysteries. Isis was represented by the later Egyptians to be the Governor of the universe, as we have seen before, in a discourse on the Metamorphosis of Apuleius. But the governor of the universe was delineated, in their hieroglyphics, by a ship and pilot. Hence, amongst the Suevians, Isis was worshipped under the form of a galley, and not because her religion was of foreign growth: And so amongst the Romans, which Tacitus did not advert to. For in the calendarium rusticum amongst the inscriptions of Gruter, in the month of March, an Egyptian holyday is marked under the title of ISIDIS NAVIGIUM. The ceremonies on this holyday are described in Apuleius Met. 1. ii.—It was a festival of very high antiquity amongst the Egyptians:* and seems to be alluded to in these words of the Prophet Isaiah: Wo to the land shadowing with wings- -that sendeth ambassadors by the sea even in VESSELS OF BULRUSHES upon the waters, saying, Go ye swift messengers, &c. chap. xviii. ver. 1, 2. P. 122. [@] The original is, καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν διεξύπωσεν τὰς ἱερὲς τῶν σοιχείων χαρακτήρας. There is a small fault in this reading; it should be T TE iepes, with the conjunction: The corruption helped to mislead Cumberland, who translates, and formed the sacred characters of the other elements [p. 38. of his Sanchoniatho's Phenician history]; which looks as if the learned prelate understood by soxir, the elements of nature; Calum or Ouranos having (as he supposed) been mentioned before, as delineated or engraved by Taautus: but ETOIXEION signifies the elements of hieroglyphic writing, and o refers not to that, but to Jew just above; which further appears from what follows—τοῖς δὲ λοιποῖς θεοῖς; other wise, only Dagon is left, for these words, ros λOTTONS Os to be applied to.-Sanchoniatho had said that Taautus represented the gods in a new invented hieroglyphic character; and then goes on to tell us that he invented other hieroglyphic characters, whether by figures BB 4 λοιπῶν or |