he was very strong and lusty he fled to the East of Eden where he associated himself with a pack of Lewd Fellows he set up for the Trade of Padding then married a Wife begot a Son and built a City Likewise the most excellent Poet falls out with his Gods for that his Mistress Eugenia being perjured kept the same Face which she had before or rather became fairer and fairer The same is also the constant complaint of the Elect in Scripture That the Wicked prosper so much in this World Wherefore to me it seems certain that the Imputation of Adam's Sin is no ways an occasion of our Sufferings I know there are some affirm That if Adam had not sinn'd Men should never have died as if Immortality and Eternal Life which nothing but a New Creation could beget should have been bestow'd on Men by Vertue of the First Creation which by its own Nature is subject to Death and Corruption And that those Men should not have died who as the Schools say are naturally Corruptible and were created Mortal Some will here object and say God told Adam That on the Day he eat that Fruit he should die the Death from whence they gather That if Death was given as a Punishment to Adam on that Day wherein he trangress'd the Law of God then surely Adam would never have died if he had never sinn'd But that Consequence I deny for although they die which kill yet they who do not kill are not Immortal Besides to conclude this point 't is altogether inconsistent with God's Attributes of Mercy and Justice to punish all Mankind for one single Persons sin which we could no ways prevent or hinder nor any but God himself who permitted that Evil Spirit to Reign in him The Roman Schools affirm the first Motions of Concupiscence to be no sin because they are involuntary and come upon us whether we will or no then why should they think Original Sin to be really and truly a Sin in us which is altogether as involuntary and unchosen by us as Concupiscence For how can anothers sin wherein we have no hand be imputed to us Eternal Death was not threatned to Adam for his sin and therefore could not from him descend upon us for that which was none of ours The Death that Adam's Sin introduced is such as could have a Remedy or Recompence by Christ but eternal Death hath no Recompence nor can ever be destroy'd whereas temporal Death shall If God should impute Adam's Sin so as to damn us for it then all our Good we receive from God is much less than the Evil saith Dr. Taylor If God will not give Men Heaven by Christ he will not throw them into Hell by Adam if his Goodness will not do the First his Mercy and Justice will not suffer him to do the Last Nor did any Church ever enjoyn Pennance or Repentance for Original Sin wherefore it seems preposterous and unreasonable that any Man should be damn'd for that which no Man is bound to Repent However I do no way find that Dr. Burnet does absolutely declare against Original Sin but rather the contrary acknowledging the Degeneracy of Mankind from its primitive State which must be redeem'd by the Seed of a Woman All Extreams are dangerous as walking upon the Brink of a Precipice or the like and if he be not so violent in this Point what others may only think he wants in Piety may perhaps be really supplied in Charity And what they only fancy they have in Piety may be truly defective in Charity An honest Augure is ever in most danger of his own Fraternity But to proceed it hath been a point very much disputed among several Politicians in the Commonwealth of Learning who was the real and true Author of the Pentateuch A late and great Modern Philosopher of this Nation declares It is not an Argument sufficient to prove those Books were written by Moses because they are call'd the Five Books of Moses for as much as Books often take their Titles from their Subject as well as from their Authors It 's true the History of Livy denotes the Writer but the History of Tamberlain is denominated from the Subject We read in the last Chapter of Deuteronomy v. 6 th concerning the Sepulcher of Moses that no Man knoweth his Sepulcher to this Day that is to say to the Day wherein those Words were written wherefore it is manifest that those Words were written after his Interment But it may perhaps be alledged That the last Chapter only and not the whole Pentateuch was written by some other hand and the rest by Moses Let us therefore consider that which we find in the Book of Genesis cap. 12. v. 6. and Abraham passed through the Land to the place of Sichem unto the Plain of Moreh and the Canaanite was then in the Land which must be the Words of one that wrote when the Canaanite was not in the Land and consequently not of Moses who died before he came into it Likewise Numb 21. v. 14. the Writer citeth another more ancient Book entituled the Book of the Wars of the Lord wherein were Registred the Acts of Moses at the Red-Sea and at the Brook of Amon which he would never have mention'd of himself but could as well have given us an account himself of what he did in those places Wherefore it is evident That the Five Books of Moses were written by another Hand after his Decease But yet it is rational to believe that Moses wrote the Volume of the Law contain'd in the 11 th of Deuteronomy and the following Chapters to the 27 th which he commanded to be written on Stones in Entry into the Land of Canaan Also Moses himself deliver'd it to the Priests and Elders of Israel to be read every seventh Year to all Israel at their Assembly in the Feast of Tabernacles as we may find in the 31 st Chapter of Deuteronomy v. 9 th Nay it may be also question'd whether the aforesaid was that very Law which Moses delivered since having been a long time lost Helkiah pretended to find it again and so sent it to King Iosias 2 Kings 22.8 and the 23.1 2 3. so that we have only Helkiah's Word for it The Book of Ioshua was also written long after Ioshua's time which may be gather'd out of many places of the Book it self Ioshua had set up twelve Stones in the midst of Iordan for a Monument of their Passage of which the Writer saith Ioshua 4.9 They are there unto this day which Expression Vnto this day is a Phrase that signifieth a Time past And the same is manifest by like Arguments of the Books of Iudges and Ruth that they were written long after the Captivity Iudges chap. 1.21 26. chap. 6.24 chap. 10.4 chap. 15.19 chap. 17.6 and Ruth chap. 1.1 but especially Iudges 18.30 Now the Reason why I make mention of these things is only to shew That our most Reverend
created from Eternity but to prescribe the divine Creation so short an Epocha as the limits of Six Thousand Years 't is what I never durst I had rather leave that together with several other Things amongst the hidden secrets of God Now these short Annotations upon the Account Moses gives us of the first Creation of Things seems to imply that it was not this Sacred Author's design to represent the beginning of the World exactly according to the Physical Truth which would have been of no use to the common People who were uncapable of being made Philosophers but to expound the first Originals of Things after such a method as might breed in the Minds of Men Piety and a worshipping of the true God And forasmuch as all the ancient Nations viz. the Chaldaeans Phaenicians Aegyptians c. had each of them their several Accounts of the Creation of the World placed as an introduction before their Histories or Systems of Divinity so Moses in like manner being to write Laws and Institutions for the Israelites thought it convenient also to prefix as an introductory Preface an Account not only of the Original of his own Nation but even of the whole World However whereas the Heathens Accounts of the Creation were frequently stuffed with Fables and I know not how many Gods and Goddesses to the very great Corruption of Religion he laying aside all those Fooleries has handled this Subject with a great deal of Purity and Innocence When that he might tear up the very Roots of Idolatry he represented the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars which were the chief Deities of other Nations not as eternal or created on their own account but as subservient to this sublunary World as well as to the use of Mankind This to me seems the Scope of our Holy Writer but if we seek only after pure naked Truth and a physical Theory we must go quite upon another Foundation that is we must if I am not mistaken suppose the World which began near upon six Thousand Years ago to have been no other than the sublunary Orb or our Earth together with its Sky and that Chaos from whence it arose not to have been universal or diffused over the vast spaces of the Heavens but contained within the aforesaid bounds which are whatever is below the Moon Likewise the Primitive Earth did not arise out of that Chaos in the same Form as Mâ—ses had represented it For his Description of it was just according to what the People had before their Eyes which was the Post diluvian and modern one nor could he without a great many far fetched obscure terms and a long Chain of Arguments have ascended to its first Form and have brought the Thread of both down to his own Times In short neither the Sun nor Stars were composed out of this terrestrial Chaos but Moses having made Man to be the Head and under God the supream Lord of all things he represented the whole Universe as it were created and compiled purely for his sake This to me seems the Reason of both the physical and ethical Account of the Creation for so I call the Mosaical Relation since it seems not to have been Instituted so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the mean time if to other Peoples Optics this appears in a different view I do not desire to trouble or disturb any one in their Opinion Let every one please and hug himself in his own But we are all bound to make use of that Portion of Reason God Almighty has distributed to each of us till we have some more clear Light to illuminate us from Above AN APPENDIX Concerning the Modern BRACHMINS IN THE INDIES Together with their generally received Opinions HAving already spoken of the Modern Brachmins in the Indies whom besides the near resemblance of their Studies and Customs we have several other Arguments to show they are descended from the ancient Race I think it may be neither impertinent nor unpleasant to add some few Words here by way of Appendix about their Opinions concerning the Originals and Revolutions of Things which Opinions are 't is true neglected by most People because they are delivered in a mythological way and that Truth is very much clouded with Fables Under the name of Indies we here comprehend besides the Chineze Empire and Kingdom of Indostan or Dominion of the Great Mogul the Kingdoms of Siam of the Malabars of Cochinchina of Coromandel and whatever others are known to us in the East that have in some measure shaken off their Barbarity Now in each of these are a certain sort of Philosophers or Divines and in the Kingdoms of Indostan Siam and the other adjacent Parts there are some who seem to be the Progeny of the ancient Brachmins being different and distinguished from the rest of the People by their Manner and Way of Living as well as by a Doctrin and Language wholly peculiar to themselves They have a certain Cabala or Body of Learning which they receive by Tradition from one to the other Now this Body of Learning does not treat of each little Point or Nicety in Philosophy as our modern Philosophers used to do but like the natural Theology of the Ancients it treats of God of the World of the Beginning and Ending of Things of the Periods of the World of the Primitive State of Nature together with its repeated Renovations All which Opinions are by some more plainly by others more obscurely and fabulously delivered but that they were of old spread amongst these Nations is plain from several Footsteps of them at this day remaining For a Specimen whereof we will give you some short Remarks out of our late Voyages upon several Heads of this now barbarous Theology or Philosophy Nor is it of Moment with what Kingdom or Country we begin The Mogul's Kingdom call'd Indâ—stan is extreamly large and has been visited by several Europeans whose Credit and Authority are sufficient to make them be believed There are in this Kingdom besides Mahometans those they call Gentiles or Pagans among which Gentiles is a certain Tribe or Order of Men who bear the Title and perform the Offices of Sâ—ges Priests or Philosophers They have a Language peculiar to themselves which they call Hanscrit or the pure Tongue in this Language they have some very ancient Books which they call Sacred and say were given by God to the Great Prophet Brahma as formerly the Law of the Israelites was to Moses Athan Kircher gives you an Alphabet of this Brachmin's Language written by the Hand of Father Henry Roth who for several Years in the Indies apply'd himself to the Learning of Brachmins And in this they not only write and conceal their Divinity but also their Opinions in Philosophy of all Kinds besides the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are Opinions of a very ancient Date They likewise Philosophize after the manner of
and Ingenious Author is not the first that has had scruples in this kind and that he may well make an Enquiry into the Truth of some Passages of the History when the very Historians themselves are so much doubted of by others not but that we may pay a just deference to the Church and yet at the same time raise scruples for information sake the better to arm our selves against our Antagonists The next little Part or Epilogue of Dr. Burnet's Book which we here present you with in English is his Appendix concerning the Brachmin's Religion and has reference to one of his former Chapters on the same Subject I must confess his Notion of their Omnipotent Spider though what I have read many Years since was no less grateful to me than the return of a Friend after a long Voyage That thought of Resolving all things into himself an Estate for Life that falls into the Landlords hands Sure no good Tenant needs fear a good new Lease the State of Man if rightly well consider'd is only wearing out our Threads of Life in order to our Deaths And he that weighs our Progress here the great Vicissitudes without decay since things may change but ne'er annihilate will find Penelope Telam Texere is our case Dress and undress the Emblem of our Lives till shrowded in our mortal Dishabillie we wait the Morning for a different Dress when the Celestial Drop as now enclos'd may to a different Viol be exposed But I shall trouble you no more upon this subject least you should mistake it for the foolish Funeral Sermon of SIR Your ever Faithful Friend and Real Servant BLOUNT March 23. 1693. The 7 th and 8 th Chapters of Dr. Burnet's Archiologiae Philosophicae together with his Appendix to the same concerning the Brachmin's Religion all Written Originally in Latin and now rendred into English by Mr. H. B. CHAP. VII Concerning Moses's Description of Paradice as well as the Original State of Nature and Mankind in the beginning of the World WE have hitherto made our Enquiry after the Originals of things as well as after a true knowledg of Paradise among the Ancients yet still with reference to Sacred Writ where it gave us any manner of light into the Subject but think it altogether unnecessary to define the place or scituation of Paradice since in respect to the Theory of the Earth 't is much the same thing where you place it provided it be not on our modern Earth Now if you enquire among the ancient Fathers where the scituation of it was either they will have it to be none at all or else obscure and remote from our understanding some of them indeed term it an Intelligible Paradice but confin'd to no one particular place whilst others at the same time make it a sensible one and here it is they first divided about it Moreover such as believe it to be a Sensible and Corporeal Paradice place it either on this Earth or out of it viz. in the Air or in the Lunary Orb when they who believe those happy Mansions to have been upon the Earth place them either on this side the Aequator under the Aequator or beyond the Aequator or Torrid Zone finally all that are of our opinion believe the true Paradice which is now passed away did in reality formerly flourish upon the Earth but nevertheless on such an Earth as was quite different from what we now inhabit However these different opinions we have else-where more at large explained especially that which carries Paradice beyond the Aequator Torrid Zone the Ocean and our Northern World Not that this opinion pleases me above the rest but because it is demonstrated by the Calculations of the Ancients and plainly evinces the Paradice we now pretend to place in Mesopotamia to be only a Modern fiction Besides as to the Theory of the Earth it does not in the least obviate a Local Paradice in any part of the Earth since it supposes that in the Infant world even the whole inhabitable Globe was like a Paradice Yet notwithstanding consequentially and agreeably to the Mosaic Hypothesis which make◠Mankind how numerous soever to have first receiv'd its birth only from one Man and one Woman you may therefore if you please appropriate the name of Paradice to the original native soil and first habitation of these two a place most wonderfully beautified as well with Trees as Waters provided at the same time you grant to the other parts of the same Earth a Perpetual Spring and those advantages which necessarily flow from it viz. spontaneous fertility together with long life to its inhabitants for that the World did in its first beginning enjoy all these blessings we have sufficiently demonstrated as well from the nature of the thing it self as from the testimonies of the Ancients Ay but say you Moses mentions only one Garden which he calls Gan Eden or the Garden of Deliciousness and seems to suppose that all the other Regions of that Earth enjoyed but one and the same common Lot with little variation from our modern Earth Now to this I answer That among the Ancients but more especially the Orientals there were two different ways of delivering their Divinity and Philosophy viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Popular and a hidden one of which dubious sort of style the Holy Scripture seems to make use in the explaining natural things sometimes accommodating it self to the capacities of the people and sometimes to the real but more clouded truth However being resolv'd not in the least to deviate from the very literal sense without an absolute necessity that is to say unless the Nature of the thing does unavoidably oblige or enforce me to it we must first enquire what is in this case the literal sense and how much it will bear as also on the other side what the Subject-matter will bear and what not to the end that having thus fairly stated the case on both sides we may be the better enabled to give a certain determination according to the merits of the cause as well as to disclose where the real truth lies hid Now the History of Paradice from whence we 'll begin according to Moses is thus When God had in six days finished the Creation of the World the seventh day he rested from all manner of work And here Moses relates particularly each days Operation but for the story of Mankind as well Male as Female of that he makes a peculiar Treatise by it self Wherefore omitting the rest at present let us if you please consider the Mosaic Doctrin upon these three subjects viz. Adam Eve and the Garden of Eden together with those things which are interwoven or adherent to them As to the first man Adam Moses says he was formed not out of Stones or Dragons Teeth as others have feigned concerning their men but out of the dust or clay of the Earth and when his Body was formed God blew into his
the Ancients upon the Creation of the Universe together with its End and Destruction for they explain these Things by the Efflux or Emanation of all things from God and by their Reflux or Restoration into him again But this they propound in a Cabalistical Mythological way For they â—eign a certain immense Spider to be the first Cause of all Things and that she with the Matter she exhausted out of her own Bowels spun the Web of this whole Universe and then disposed of it with a most wonderful Art whilst she her self in the mean time sitting on the Top of her Work feels rules and governs the Motion of each part At last when she has sufficiently pleas'd and diverted her self in adorning and contemplating her own Web she retracts the Threads she had unfolded and swallows them up again into her self whereby the whole Nature of Things created vanishes into nothing After this manner our modern Brachmins represent the Birth Order and Perishing of the World Nor does this much differ from the Opinions of the Ancients we have above mentioned lib. I. cap. 7. page 63 64 c. provided that taking off the fabulous Shell we go to the Kernel If you have leisure to read a larger Account of the Indostan Gentiles 't is what you may find in Henry Lord F. Bernier and other Travellers who have more diligently enquired into their Literature In the Kingdom of Siam which Borders upon the Empire of the Mogul there is the same Progeny of the Brachmins Guido Tachard one of the Jesuits Society who waited upon the French Ambassador to the King of Siam has given us this Account of their Philosophy or Theology They say That the first Men were of greater Stature and longer Liv'd than we now adays are as also that they lived many Ages free from Distempers That this Modern Earth paâ—ched with a long Heat will at length be consumed by Fire the Ocean being dried up the Mountains melted and the whole Surface of the Earth being made level This I find in our aforesaid Author with more of the same in others all which a late Poet has compiled and facetiously explained in these Versicles Stolidus Regni Mysta Siami Octoginta dat perituro Saecula mundo Tunc qui tantum Iam fuerit uno fervidus Oculo Septem pandet lumina Phoebus Quâ—is aequorâ—as ebibet undas Quâ—is immensum vindice flammâ 〈◊〉 O bemâ— Sed duo calidis Qâ—◠〈…〉 favilâ—is Einos homines ova creabunt Qui foecunda semine cultum Iterum poterunt reddere mundum Quem non salsis Neptunus aquis Alluet unquà m tantum rigui Undique fontes Dulcesque lacus Irrorabunt molliter herbas Et perpetuo verè Beatos Spargent variis floribus agros The Siamese Brachmins not only say that this modern Earth must perish and that by Fire but even that out of its ashes a new Earth must arise and without a Sea that is to say such a one as St. Iohn the Prophet saw Apoc. 21.1 and without the yearly Vicissitudes of the Seasons being blest with a perpetual Spring such another Earth as we have described in the Fourth Book of our Theory Cap. 2. T is really a most wonderful thing that a Nation half barbarous should have retained these Opinions from the very times of Noah for they could not have arrived to a Knowledge of these things any â—ther way than by Tradition nor could this Tradition flow from any other Spring than Noah and the Antediluvian Sages But out of what Author or Siames's Traveller the Poet has taken these Things I have not yet been able to learn Moreover the Kingdom of Choromandel on the Southren Coast of the Indies has its Brachmins whose Manners and Doctrine have been with no small Diligence enquired into by Abraham Rogers who wrote the Book called Ianua aperta ad Arcana Gentilsimi Having Himself lived many years there Now they affirm that there are several Worlds which do at one and the same time exist in divers Regions of the Universe and that there are several successive ones for that the same World is destroyed and renewed again according to certain Periods of Time They say also that our Terrestrial World began by a certain Golden Age and will perish by Fire Lastly they retain the Doctrin of the Ovum Mundanum comparing the World to an Egg as did the ancients both Greeks and Barbarians Finally to the Kingdom of Choromandel is Contiguous that of the Malabers where Father Robert Nobilius Founder as t is said of the Maudarian Mission has spent no small part of his life learned as well in the vulgar Indian Language as in that of the Branchmins then he is said to have written a great deal concerning the Theory of the Brachmin but I know not to what language for I have not yet happened to light upon any of his writings neither have I any Accounts of this or the rest of the Countrys of the Indies to be depended upon to furnish me with their Opinions either from eye or ear witnesses We have likewise before mentioned the Chinese a People of great Antiquity but among the Ancients unknown as to matter of Learning they have this in Common with the rest of the Orientals that they compare the World to an Egg and will have it to be born of one In like manner they say their first Man whom they call Puoncuus was born of an Egg whether you will suppose that by it they mean the Chaos or the Primitive Earth and altho they do not seem to have derived their Philosophy or History from the Brachmins yet they set so great a value on their Letters and secret Alphabet that as things sacred and of a very great Antiquity they use to inscribe them on their Idols As for the Mahometans who are spread at large over the East under several different Dominions I pass by them as men of an upstart ignorant kind what an Egyptian Priest formerly told Solon You Greeks always Boys not one of the Greeks ever comes to be Old May changing names be much more properly said to them Nor does the Egyptian give an ill reason for what he says Your are young in your Minds for in them is no tenent of the Ancients that comes by ancient Tradition you retain no Learning that is grey with old Age. These things exactly square with the Mehometans wheresoever they are dispersed they retain nothing of Ancient Wisdom for the Ambition of extending their Dâ—minions has taken from them all manner of Love or Desire of Learning Even in Persia it self where formerly flourished the Mystical Philosophy of the great Zoroaster and the Magi at this day remains nothing worth taking notice of The aforementioned Henry Lord relates that when the Saracens overran all Persia having beaten and slain the King Iezdegird about the Year of our Lord 628. Some of the Persians who could not bearâ— the yoak of a new Slavery and new Religion transported
are not subject to the Corruption of Air and have carefully provided that whatsoever has been done by them should not sleep in obscurity but be kept in memory in the publick Writings of the most learned Men. Contra Appionem lib. 1. Which is as if he had said Forasmuch as no other Nations but the Aegyptians Phaenicians and Chaldees have certain Records of their Original therefore will I pretend my own Nation of the Iews to be ancienter than them who cannot disprove me but beâ—ause the Egyptians Phaenicians and Chaldees have more ancient Records of their Country in being to disprove me therefore to prevent being confuted I think it more convenient to yield to them in Antiquity And this is the secret meaning of what Iosephus says I have observ'd that no Prophets ever â—oretold the End of the World should happen till many years after their own deaths being thereby sure not to live to see themselves proved Lyars Cur mundi finem propriorem non facis ut ne Ante Obitum mendax arguerere sapis Owen upon Napier For they who prophesie of the World's destruction are upon sure grounds viz. that till it comes to pass it may be expected As Nature cannot create by making something out of Nothing so neither can it Annihilate by turning Something into Nâ—thing whence it consequently follows As there is No Access so there is no Diminâ—tion in the Universe no more than in the Alphabet by the infinite Combination and Transposition of Letters or in the Wax by the alteration of the Seal stamp'd upon it Now as for the Forms of natural Bodies no sooner doth any one abandon the Matter it inform'd but another steps instantly into the place thereof no sooner hath one acted his part and is retired but another comes presently forth upon the Stage tho' it may be in a different shape and so act a different part So that no Portion of the Matter is or at any Time can be altogether void and empty but like Vertumnus or Proteus it turns it self into a thousand shapes and is always supply'd and furnish'd with one Form or another there being in Nature Nothing but Circulation Ne Res ad Nihilum redigantur protinus omnes Lucret. lib. 2. And to this purpose divers of the Poets speak Nec sic interimit mors res ut materia Corpora conâ—iciat sed caetum dissipat ollis Indè aliis aliud conjugit efficit omnès Res ut convertant formas mutentque colores Et capiant Sensus puncto Tempore reddant Vt noscas referre eadem primordia rerum Lucret. lib. 2. Mutantur in aevum Singula inceptum alternat natura tenorem Quodque dies antiqua tulit post auferet ipsa Pontan Metamorph. cap. 48. Nec species sua cuique manet rerumque Novatrix Ex aliis alias reparat Natura figuras Nec perit in tanto quidquam mihi credite mundâ— Sed variat faciemque novat Nascique vocatur Incipere esse aliud quà m quod fuit anté morique Desinere illud idem cum sint huc forsitan illa Haec Translata illuc summâ tamen omnia constant Ovid. Metam 15. Also Philo in his Book of the World 's Incorruptibility alledgeth to this purpose the Verses of a Greek Tragick Poet and I think of Euripïdes which the Translator renders thus Genitum Nihil emoritur Sed Transpositum ultro Citroque For mam priorem alterat Casaubon likewise in his first Exercitation against Baronius sheweth from the testimony of Hippocrates Appolonius Seneca Antoninue the Emperor and others Nihil in rebus Creatis perire sed mutari duntaxat But to confirm what Ocellus saith we find something like it in the Scriptures for Solomon speaks much to the same purpose Eccles. 1.4 One Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh but the Earth abideth for ever Now as Geographers use to place Seas upon that part of the Globe which they know not so Chronologers who are much of the same humour do generally blot out out past Ages which are unknown to them as the one drown those Countries they cannot describe so do the other with their cruel Pens destroy those times whereof they have no account The Grecians made three Divisions of Time the unknown times the Heroick or fabulous Times and the Historical times or such as they knew to have been true The unknown Times were those with them which past from the Beginning of things to the Flood which Time whether it had a Beginning by Computation can never certainly be comprehended as Censorinus from Varro affirms The fabulous and Heroick times were those that intervened betwixt the Flood and the first Olympiad buried likewise in obscurity nor is it certainly known how long Inachus was from Ogyges or Codrus from Inachus Lastly the Historical and known part of Time is computed from the first Olympiad and treasur'd up by the Greek Historians That the Aegyptians and Phenecians had a constant Record of things past is confess'd by the very Greeks themselves who but lately learn'd the use of Letters from Cadmus the Phaenician for which reason it has been doubted whether the Greeks had any use of Letters in time of the Trojan Expedition as we may find in Iosephus against Appion That the Phaenicians had the use of Letters long before Moses and spake the same Language as the the Hebrews did is clearly proved by Samuel Petit in his Mescellanea as well as by the Learned Bochart in his Phaleg For although we know of no Writer at this time extant more ancient than Moses unless it be Ocellus yet few will deny but that there were Writers before him out of whom he collected much of his own History wherefore says Dr. Brown I believe besides Zoroaster there were divers others that wrote before Moses Upon which his Annotator quotes a passage out of Apuleius in Apol. in these words Si quod libet modicum emolumentum probaveritis ego ille sim Carinondas vel Damigeron vel is Moses vel Iannes vel Appollonius vel ipse Dardanus vel quicunque alius post Zoroastrem Hostanem inter Magos celebratus est Diodorus Sciculus was not only famed for his great Learning but by reading enquiring and travelling throughout Europe Asia and Africa for the space of forty years had furnish'd his Library with many ancient and exquisite Volumes Now he speaking of the Chaldeans relates that they thought very long ago that the World according to its own Nature was eternal having no beginning nor that it should have any Corruption in order to an end and that mankind was from Eternity without any beginning of their Geâ—eration that the Stars were eternal and by long observation of those eternal Stars as also an acute knowledge of each of their particular motions they foretold many future Events You will hardly says he believe the Number of years that the Colledge of Chaldeans affirm'd they had spent in Contemplation of the Vniverse for before the Expedition of Alexander into Asia they reckon'd four hundred and seventy thousand years from the time they began to observe the Stars Likewise Cicero who was cotemporary with Diodorus mentions the very same account of Time and Number of years Critias in Plato's Dialogue call'd Timaeus tells us how an ancient Egyptian Priest laugh'd at old Solon for boasting of the Primitive acts of the Athenians as of Phoroneus and Niobe before the Flood as also of Deucalion and Pyrrha after the Flood whereas the Priest told Solon there had formerly been many more Floods that he was ignorant even of the most famous of his Ancestors that he had no knowledge of another Athens the first and most ancient which stood before the Flood and was destroyed by it that he never heard of the glorious Enterprizes which those first Athenians had perform'd ten thousand years before the Flood at which time an innumerable Company of fierce Warriors had invaded Egypt and Greece and all that was against Hercules Pillars against whom the only Valor of the Citizens of old Athens was then shewn above all other Nations Now whether the Priest did this to banter poor Solon I shall not determine but the same History is cited likewise in Arnobius's Treatise against the Gentiles where he uses these words We were the Cause says he that Ten thousand Years ago a great Army of Men came from the Atlantick Islands as Plato relates and destroy'd a great many Cities Scaliger in his Book de Emâ—nd Temp. says That the Chineses reckon'd the World to have been Eight hundred eightscore thousand and seventy three Years old Anno Domini 1594. But I shall tire you no more with this Subject which as it does to me so undoubtedly it will to you and ought to do the same to every good Christian appear a meer Paradox tho' of as great Antiquity as any thing I ever yet met with in prophane Story However notwithstanding it does not edifie yet if it may in any kind serve to entertain and divert you 't is all that is aim'd at by SIR Your most faithful Friend and Servant BLOUNT FINIS Not to pass as Pyrrho is reported along without any regard to the mischance of his Friend Anaxarchus that was faln into a Ditch tho he that cou'd defend such sordid incompassion deserv'd to be so left A foolish man behind a friends back shall side with his enemy not remembring that of Horace Absentem qui rodit amicum qui non defendit c. * As Xenophon to Xantippe and the Children of Socrates who receiv'd no other benefit than his Learning from Socrates and yet expresses himself in his Epistle to Xantippe that he takes care only to thrive in the world for the sake of maintaining her and the Sons of his old Master Socrates