I have had much ado to find from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a voice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we read in Homer as an attribute of Men who alone of all bodily Creatures distinguish the Voice into Words Syllables and single Letters whence it is called articulate consisting as it were of several joints as Coelius Rodiginus writeth who by the way tells of a Cardinal Ascainus by name who had a Parrot which cost him 100 Crowns that could repeat the Apostles Creed distinctly and accurately I wonder of what Spirit he was that took such pains to teach a Parrot such a lesson I presume he was none of St. Francis his Auditors a part of whose Legend it is that he would preach the Gospel even to bruit Creatures so great was his desire of the Salvation of all The other Interpretation Rodiginus gives of the former Etymology is in reference to the Division of Languages upon the Building of Babel for years after the Flood and both of them are very ingenious in my judgment But concerning any Person whose proper name was Merops I find nothing in Coelius nor in divers others But in Stephanus Bizantinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I find Merops himself said to be the Son of Triopas and from him the People of Coos called Meropes and that Island Meropis and so much about the time of Jo the second whom Eusebius observes to have lived in the days of Triopas as Ludovicus Vives relates upon the 18th Book of Austin de Civitate Dei and the third Chapter Antoninus Liberalis in his Metamorphoses makes this Merops to be cooetaneous to Jupiter for thus he writes Num. 36. as it is translated for he is a Greek Author Jupiter postquam Titanibus pulsis Saturno regnum ademit Aegem quae mammam ei praebuit immortalitate donavit ejus imago extat in astris aureum autem canem Templi Cretensis custodiae praefecit Hunc suffuratus Pandareus Meropis filius in Sipylum adduxit Custodiendumque dedit Tantalo Jovis Plutus filio cum autem aliquanto post tempore Pandareus in Sipylum venisset canemque reposceret Tantalus depositum ejuravit So that the Son of Merops by this Author's accompt was but cooetaneous to Tantalus who was the Father of Pelops Grandfather to Agamemnon chief of the Grecians at the Trojan War Now touching Clemens Alexandrinus he was to seek whether it were Phoroneus or Merops or some other qui eis posuerunt templa who erected Temples Belike he had some evidence that made him incline to think that Phoroneus was the first other evidence that swayed him another way and made him think Merops was the first and thirdly he had some ground to conceive that neither of these but some other after both these was the first Now of these Evidences we can say nothing by way of examining them because we do not know them Arnobius in his sixth Book specifies three by name in question about the primacy of building Temples and they are Phoroneus not Argivus of whom I understand Clemens Alexandrinus to have delivered his mind in this Argument but Phoroneus Egyptius the other two mentioned by him are Merops mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus and the third and last Aeacus who as he is placed after the former two ordered according to their Age so it seems he was later than both the former And for the last of the three to be the first in this kind of Devotion he alledgeth no meaner Author than Varro who was commonly accounted the most learned of all the Latins Now AEacus was but the Grandfather of Achilles and so but two Generations before the Wars of Troy which in common accompt is not above 66 or 67 years whereas Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt above 300 years before the Wars of Troy Therefore when Varro writes as Austin reports him de Civit. Dei lib. 18. cap. 3. that the Sicyonians did sacrifice at the Sepulchre of Thurimachus the 7th King of the Sicyonians surely at that time there was no Temple built at that Sepulchre for ought Varro found in all his reading And again when Austin saith in the same place that when Phegous the Brother of Phoroneus was dead there was a Temple built at his Sepulchre by reason as he guesseth that Phegous was a devout Prince and had in his time erected Chappels for Divine Service he had not this from Varro nay Varro acknowledgeth no Temples until many years after Not to mention that both Clemens and Arnobius thought it more likely that Phoroneus rather than his Brother was the first Erector of Temples yet neither of them had any sure and certain grounds for their Opinions 20. Thus much concerning the Graecians and Egyptians something remains to be added concerning the Assyrians and Babylonians and the Original of Temples amongst them also Diodorus Siculus lib. 2. cap. 4. writing of Semiramis and her building of Babylon adds that In vrbis medio templum Jovi erexit quem vocant Babylonii Belum In the midst of the City she built a Temple to Jupiter whom the Babylonians call Belus But withal he saith that of this Temple Nihil certi pronuntiari potest cam Scriptores discordent opus ipsum vetustate collapsum sit Nothing can certainly be affirmed considering that Writers differ and the Work it self is fallen to decay through Age. Herodotus also makes mention of the Temple of Belus but he makes no mention of him that built it and as for Semiramis Herodotus makes her to precede Nitocris but five Ages which is short of 200 years for three Ages makes an 100 years by his Accompt And Nitocris he writes to have been the Mother of Labynitus against whom Cyrus waged War No Cyrus we know took Babylon whilst Belshazzar reigned who also was slain that night wherein Babylon was entred into by the Persians through the Channel of the River Euphrates whose stream was turned another way by the Army of Cyrus yet we confess the Babylonian Monarchy was far more ancient than this Simiramis Herodotus writes of and that by Scripture evidence having been founded by Nimrod that mighty hunter before the Lord whom some conceive to be Belus Babylonius and I nothing doubt but the remembrance of so great a Man and the first Monarch might be preserved by figures made of him and these figures become Idols like as in the days of Sem yea and Noah also Idols were among the Posterity of Sem in the Family of Terah The beginning of Nimrod's Monarchy is placed by Lydiat and Usher the 14th year after the Dispersion of the People through the confusion of Tongues that is 115 years after the Flood 185 before the Death of Noah and 335 before the Death of Sem which they ground on the Babylonian Antiquities searcht into by Callisthenes the Philosopher and Follower of Alexander in his Persian War for he found by his Calculation of those Antiquities
Temples among the Egyptians Diogenes Laertius in the Life of Cleobulus writes that he was of Lindus or as some said of Carea and that he restored the Temple of Minerva built by Danars the Passage is somewhat imperfect but made compleat by Causabon with refeence to that which Diodorus Siculur writes lib. 5. cap. 13. where he writes Danaus ex Aegypto cum filiabus aufugiens in Lindiam Cypri appulit susceptusque ab incolis erecto Minervae Templo statuam ingentem dedicavit He adds that Cadmus about the same time being sent to Sea to seek Europa did perform his Vows at the same Temple Now Lidiat accounts Cadmus his leaving Phaenicia and sailing into Grece to have been at the same time that Joshua entered the Land of Canaan with his Ifraclites and on the same occasion affrighted with the Invasion made by Joshua and that Danaus his Expulsion out of Egypt by his Brother Aegyptus was originally derived from the Confusion that was brought upon the Land by reason of the slaughter of the First Born among them and the Destruction of Pharaoh and his Hoste in the Red Sea And in all likelihood this brought great Consusion in Egypt and amongst the Seed Royal whereupon fore Contentions might arise the issue whereof was as some prevailed so the expulsion of the Opposites Aegyptus himself being driven out afterwards as he had been a means of driving out Danaus before For so Pausanias writes in Achiacis Patrae and Aroe are all one Aegyptum Aroenvenisse tradunt Patrenses filiorum luctu confectum cum ipsum Argorum nomen exhorresceret imprimis à Danao sibi plurimum metneret And after this there were two Temples of Serapis built and in one of them was erected a Monument of Aegyptus the Son of Belut Herodotus ascribes the building of this Temple at Lindus to Danaus his Daughters about the end of his Second Book And whereas Diodorus Siculus reports the Temple to have been built in the Island of Cyprus Stephanus Bizantinus acknowledgeth no other City of Lindins or Lindia but that at Rhodes 16. Eusebius in his 9th Book of his Prepar Evangel and cb 23. Writes that two Temples one at Athens another at Heliopolis in Egypt were built by the Children of Israel in the time of their Bondage there But this he writes not according to his own Judgment only sets down the narration hereof out of one Artapanus an Heathen Author Now we have no Reason to give Credit to his Relation in this particular for albeit the Children of Israel were oppressed with sore Bondage and had Cruel Task-masters set over them who urged them to the making of Brick in abundance Yet the Scripture expresly tells us to what use these Bricks were employed Exod. 1.11 They did set Task-masters over them and they built the City Pithom and Raaemses for the Treasures of Pharaoh Thus they made them weary of their Lives by sore Labour in Clay and in Brick and in all Work in the Field with all manner of Bondage which they laid upon them most cruelly as v. 14. Herodotus makes relation of one Menon the first King of Egypt who built Memphis and therein Templum Vulcani a Temple to Vulcan great and memorable And this I confess was most Acient and long before the days of Moses if it be true which there is reported to him from the Priests of Egypt namely how they rehearsed to him out of a Book the names of three hundred and thirty Kings beginning from this Menon and ending with Mevis the Father of Sesostris who is supposed to be Shishak King of Egypt mentioned in Scripture who came to Jerusalem with a great Army and took it and carried away all the golden Shields that King Solomon had made The Providence of God being very remarkable herein as it is commended unto us 2 Chron. 12.5 6 7 8 Now Shishak's Depopulation of Judea came to pass in the fifth year of Rehoboam and Jeroboam the year of the World 3029. by Lydiat and 3033 in Usher Yet this Shishak was the Successor of Mevis the last of those three hundred and thirty Kings in Egypt whose names were related to Herodotus by the Priests of Egypt And this Menon King of Egypt in Herodotus is made all one with Amosis by Lydiat Euseb Prep Evangel l. 10. c. 9. I do not here mention how Porphyry makes Moses more ancient than Inachus who is more ancient then this Amosis nor how Africanus placeth him as Coaetaneous to Ogyges Nor how Appion the Grammarian makes him of the same time with Amosis Ibid. c. 10. as in whose days he led the Children of Israel out of Egypt Though in truth the Pastoral Nation which Manetho that Egyptian Historian mentioneth to have gone out of Egypt and planred themselves in the Neighbour-Country of Syria about Jerusalem were rather the Philistines who came of the Caslucheans and Caphtoreans who were of the Egyptian Nation and seized upon Palestine and Maritime Coast of Judea whose Trade also was the keeping of Sheep And to these refers that of Herodotus in the beginning of his History namely that the Phoenicians came from the Red-Sea by Phoenicians understanding Strians dwelling by the Sea Coast from Cassiolis the border of Egypt But these things are more clearly and truly shewn by Usher in his Annals from A.M. 2114. seq And how this was done in the days of Abraham many hundred years before Moses But if any Man shall hence conclude that therefore Temples were in Egypt many hundred years before Moses by the Testimony of Herodotus I answer That Herodotus's Testimony proceeded upon the Faith of the Egyptian Priests and their Registers which deserve no Credit with us Christians they making the King Menon to be many years more ancient than the World Yet Lydiat shews how to salve their Credit in a tolerable way namely by supposing that the first reigning in Egypt which he takes to have been sixty years after the Dispersion of the Gentiles which is a hundred sixty one years after Noah's Flood by the Computation made by George and Constantine Manasses out of the Fragments of ancient Historians and set down in their Chronicles all were not governed under one King but look how many Cities so many Kings like as Joshua found it in the Land of Canaan when he entred among them with the Israelites And the Years of the Reigns of each King might be reckoned as succeeding one another whereas indeed they reigned together in several Dynasties at the same time As that which followeth in the Relation of those Priests made to Herodotus namely That in that vast space of time the Sun changed his Course four times as having twice risen where now he sets and twice set where now he rises to astonish their Hearers with legends of great Admiration They had an addition also which was That before all these Kings their Gods reigned conversing familiarly with Men and the last of them was Orus the Son of Osiris
that the Babylonian Monarchy began 1903 years before Babylon was taken by Alexander A little after the Assyrian Monarchy began as Scripture testifies Gen. 10. for Moses having mention'd the beginning of Nimrod's Kingdom to have been Babel and Erech and Accad and Calne in the Land of Shinar vor 10. he forthwith adds that out of that Land to wit the Land of Shinar went Ashur and built Nineveh and the City Rehoboth and Calab This Ashur was the Second Son of Sem ver 22. It is thought his Eldest Son was Ninus the First from whose Name was the Name Ninive given to the City built by him and Ninive I find is all one with Ninus in Herodotus whose Kingdom began 1360 years before Lycurgus gave Laws to the Spartans according to the Computation of George the Monk mention'd by Scaliger with one years only difference provided we understand Ashur to have reigned 60 before his Son Ninus and from the first of Ninus to Lycurgus his giving Laws are 1300 years And which Act of Lycurgus was 97 years before the Account of Iphitus his Olympiads began Now this was 1485 years before the Reign of the latter Belus Babylonius Beladan or Nabonazar by Name who in all likely hood was that Belus which Herodotus speaks of and Diodorus Siculus For this Baladan or Nabonazar the second Babylonian Belus began his Reign but the twelfth year of Iotham King of Iudah a little before the Foundation of the Walls of Rome was laid by Romulus But whereas Scaliger conceives there were two Dinasties in Babylonia one succeeding the other 368 years before the most ancient Belus whom yet he accounts more ancient by 125 years than the Computation of Calysthenes doth reach unto This Lydiat conceives to have no colour of Truth And thus I have dispatched this Enquiry about the Antiquity of Temples according to my Power and present Leisure Yet I deny not but that as Men before there were any Temples did worship their deceased Ancestors and offer Sacrifices at their Sepulchres as Augustine testifies they did according unto Varro his Observations de Civit. Dei lib. 18. c. 3. Apud sepulchrum septimi sui Regis Thurimachi sacrificare Sicionois solere The Scythians were wont to sacrifice at the Sepulchre of their Seventh King Thurimachus which Thurimachus is said to have reigned amongst the Sicyonians before Inachus reigned amongst the Argives thô others make Inachus the First King of Argos to be more ancient than AEgialcus First King of the Sicyonians as Ludovious Vives relates upon the 18th Book of Austin de Civit. Dei chap. 3. And Pausanias in his Corinthiacks pag. 54. shews where was the Sepulchre of Phoroneus and adds Phoroneo quoque nostra etiamnum aetate parentant to this day they do offer Sacrifice to Phoroneus to wit at his Sepulchre And no marvel if they were of their Opinion who knew no other Gods than the Ghosts of Dead Men from whom they received Answers lying over their Graves as Melo and others write of certain People of Afriea call'd Augitae Likewise I deny not but that in process of time the Sepulchres of great Men were fair Houses or Structures built to no other end but that the Bodies of great Personages might lie therein as it were in State Such were the Mausolaea Regum Sepulchra faith Caelius Rodigimus l. 9. c. 10. the Sepulchres of Kings the first of them Mausolaeum having its Name from Mausolus as the same Author writeth l. 23. c. 6. King of Halicarnassus as Pausanias relates in his Arcadia and he adds that it was built ea operis magnitudine atque omni ornamentorum magnificentia ut Romani rei miraculo adducti magnificentissima quaeque apud se monumenta Mausolea appellarint So great and so adorned that the Romans admiring it afterwards called all such magnificent Monuments by the Name of Mausolaea And he writes strange things of the Sepulcher of one Helena an Hebrew Woman in Ierusalem before it was destroyed by Adrian And Lilius Giraldus in his Book de Vario Sepeliendi ritu writes that Temples and Churches had their Original from hence his words are these Fuit verò usque adeò antiquis sepulchrorum cura ut non aliundè templorum sacrarum aedium originem deductam diligentissimi scriptores tradant Eusebius Lactantius Qua de re Clemens Alexandraeus in adbortatione ad Graecos si ita rectè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interpretamur sic scriptum reliquit Superstitio inquit Templa condere persuasit quae enim prius hominum sepulchra fuerunt magnificentius condita Templorum appellatione vocata sunt Nam apud Larissaeam civitatem in arce in Templo Palladis Achrisii sepulchrum fuit quod nune sacrarii loco calebratur In arce queque Atheniensi ut est ab Anticcho in nono Historiarum scriptum Cecropis sepulchrum fuit In Templo verò Palladis jacet Erichthonius Ismarus autem Eumolpi atque Dairae filius in Eleusine una cum Celei natabus sepultus reliqua quae multa Clemens collegit ab eo Eusebius quae in Latinis codicthus non babentur He adds That as Temples so Images and Idols as touching the publick use of them took their Originals from Sepulchres also and he alledgeth Diophantes the Là cedemonian in his Books of Antiquities for the Proof of this But whether there were such in Egypt in the days of Ioseph or Moses I am very uncertain Suppose they had their Bull Apis severed and kept in a Placè by himself this required only Septum a Place compassed about with a Wall where might be asso some Place of Succour with a Covering to resort unto in time of Rain Hail Storm or Tempest though we read not so much as this of those ancient Times Only we read of those Times that some Creatures were accounted Sacred by the Egyptians and it was not lawful to kill such nay it was Abomination to sacrifice any such Or suppose they had Images of those Gods whom they worshipped yet Temples were not necessary for this for as I have shewed before many such together with Altars also were erected sub Divo in the open Air. I will conclude all with that which Alexander ab Alexandro writes in his genial days lib. 4. cap. 7. Persae nec Deorum imagines habent nec Templa erigunt crant enim aedium sacrarum simulacrorum eversores sed in loco mundo excelsorum praecatione Diis victimas immolant quod à plerisque usitatum invenimus Nam Carmeli Deus colebatur cui nec Templum erat nec simulachrum sed ara tantum divinus cultus Iudaei mente sola unum numen colunt ideo nulla apud eos simulachra non modo Templis sed nec urbibus insunt Germani queque nullam humani oris speciem Diis prae eorum magnitudinè dederunt nec Templa dicarunt sed lucos nemora Deorum nominibus appellant illa velut sacra templa venerantur And in his 2