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
Io Argiva the Story of whom the Poet calls Argumentum ingens in Virgil wherewith drawn to the Life he feigns Turnus his Buckler was flourished when he came into the Field against AEneas and that because he was the Progeny of Acrisius and Inachus Kings of Argos At laevem clypeum sublatis cornibus Io Auro insignibat jam set is obsita jam Bos Argumentum ingens custos Virginis Argos Caelataque amnem fundens Pater Inachus urna For whereas Poets feign that Io was turned into an Oxe by Jupiter being found by Juno the truth seems to be no other than this Osiris was that Jupiter and being represented by Bos mas no marvel if hereupon she becoming his Wife they feigned her to be turned into Bos foemina And whereas it is further feigned that Argos was set by Juno to watch her this Argos fairly represents Osiris also her Husband under another Notion namely as in an Hieroglyphical Interpretation he is taken for the Sun For such was the Oxe representing Osiris full of white Spots and whose Hair was towards the Head to signifie the Sun 's proper Motion from West to East contrary to the general Motion of the Heavens from East to West though Astronomers think otherwise in these days And the Stars of Heaven by Aristotles Doctrine receive their Light from the Sun Afterwards Poets feign that by Juno's means she was Oestro percita plagued with an Hornet and driven to fly into Egypt the Truth whereof was no other than Ostris his marrying of her and carrying her over with him into Egypt and there saith Servius she was turned into Isis Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 18. c. 3. Jo filia Inachi this is that Argumentum ingens Virgil speaks of in reference to the true Story obscurely carried and drest by the Wits of Poets But some rubs I find lying in the way to hinder us in the Acknowledgment of so great Antiquity of Isis and Osiris For whereas Danaus that fled from his Brother Egyptus out of Egypt unto Argos in Grece is stiled by Mr. Lydiat à Belo Egyptio oriundus by this Belus meaning Osiris as from whom Danaus was derived but afar off as who is accompted but the 10th King of Argos beginning from Inachus Egyptus the Brother of Danaus I find stiled Beli filius the Son of Belus in a Monument of him erected in a Temple of Serapis the City of Patrae or Aroe a City of Achaia as Pausanias relates in his Achaicis Yet this is not of force to take me off from following Mr. Lydiate in this I understand filius here in a larger sense than to take it for a Son begotten of Belus and that it is no more than à Belo oriundus one that was derived from Belus For it is not credible that Pharaoh whom the Lord drowned in the Red-Sea or any of his Posterity or his Father was Osiris the great God of the Egyptians as before hath been argued As also that the Gods of Egypt in Moses his days were not the same with the Gods of Egypt in the days of Joseph Another rub is cast in the way by Ludovicus Vives upon Austin de Civit Dei lib. 18. c. 3. Pausanias affirmeth saith he that she was the Daughter of Jasius the sixth King of Argos Yet he confesseth that Valerius Flaccus in his Argonautes lib. 4. calls Jovem Inachidem but withal he takes notice that he calls her Jastam virginem as much as to say the Daughter of Jesius yet she might be called Inachides nevertheless because she descended from Inachus who was the first Founder of that Kingdom and Author of their Nobility He gives also another Reason drawn from the Testimony of Eusebius both in his Chronicles and in his tenth Book of Evangelical Preparation testifying that this Jo lived in the days of Triapas the seventh King of Argos 400 years after Inachus And indeed thus I find it in Pausanias in his Corinthiacks 58. that Triapas had two Sons Jasus and Agenow and that Jo was the Daughter of Jasus and so two Ages after Triapas and but one before Danaus who was after the time of Moses his leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt which I willingly confess is nothing probable and though this be to my greater advantage in this present Argument yet I choose rather to hold with Mr. Lydiate still so utterly improbable and unlikely it is tâ—aâ— Pharoah who was drowned in the Red-Sea or his Father either was Osiris the times of Moses and of Joseph are so congenerous as touching the same Saperstitions in course among the Egyptians And as touching Pansanias this I find that howsoever he writes thus in his Corinthiacks yet in his first Book called Attica reckoning up the Statues which were found in the Town of the Athenians two were of Women Jo the Daughter of Inachus and Calisto the Daughter of Lycaon whose Fortunes he saith were represented to be much the same both as touching Jupiter's Love and Juno's Wrath and the Metamorphosis of each the one into a Cow the other into a Bear But then you will say the more antient Osiris was the more evident it is that Temples were in use long before Moses yea divers hundred years Whereto I answer though I grant the greatest Antiquity ascribed to them and do not help my self with Testimonies out of the antient Fathers as Clemens Alexandrinus lib. 1. Stromat Tertullian in his Apology cap. 9. Justinus in his Oration against the Gentiles and Tatianus in his Oration against the Greeks and Epiphanius in his first Book against Heresies yea and of divers prophane Authors alledged by Eusebius in his tenth Book of Evangelical Preparation and third Chapter all testifying that Inachus King of Argos reigned in the days of Moses because Inachus by the computation of times was much elder for which v. Usher A.M. 2174. Yet Diodorus his Testimony of a Temple built by Osiris himself deserves no credit for he doth but relate what he heard from the Priests of Egypt who told Herodotus that between Orus his Reign and that ancient Amosis we speak of Contemporary to Inachus there were no less than 15000 years And as for Jupiter and Juno we know such Deities received by the Egyptians were no other than Osiris and Isis themselves which all the Egyptians worshipt as Herodotus testifies so did they not any other God And if there were any such building of Temples in Egypt in those ancient times when the Israelites were so much imployed in making of such store of Brick in all likely hood these Bricks would have been imployed about such sacred uses but the Scripture testifies that they were imployed about the building of certain Cities to be made Store houses for the King It is true Clemens Alexandrinus was to seek whether Phoroneus or Merops was the first Founder of Temples Phoroneus we know was the Son of Inachus and second King of Argos and Brother to Jo or Isis but who Merops was
Superstition persuaded to build Temples For those Structures which were before Sepulchres being after magnificently built were called Temples But approves the Abbot of Cluny's opinion who writing against the Petrobusions whom Morney accounts good Christians even the same with the Woldensians imputes it is an errour in them quod dicunt Basilicas vel Altaria fieri non debere c. to affirm that Temples and Altars should not be made But the Mass being the chief use of their Temples in those times as Bellarm. de cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 4. in this regard they might well be opposed for that they denied the lawfulness of Edifices for the solemn Worship of God is no way credible The first Founder of Temples Clem. Alexandr in 's Admonition to the Gentiles p. 28. Gr. Lat. conceives to have been Phoroneus or Merops And so also Arnobius l. 6. Varro in 's Admiranda Aeacus the Son of Jupiter And Lactantius Divin Instit l. 2. c. 10. faith the first Temple was erected in the days of Jupiter Joh. Leo Baptista in 's Book of Architecture thinks Janus's Temple the first But the same Clemens Strom l. 5. writing of Moses faith He suffered not Altars and Temples to be erected in many places having built one Temple he means the Sanctuary did hereby declare unto all that there was but one World and one God alledging Isaiah 66.1 and Acts 17.48 and commending Zeno for saying in 's Book of the Common-wealth non oportere Templa faccre nec simulacra that Temples and Images ought not to be made For a Temple is not of any great price nor an holy thing being it is the Work of Artificers And in his Seventh Book distinguisheth of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly rendred a Temple which he takes for that which is truly holy and this he saith is twofold God himself and that which is built in honour of him and this with him is the Church which he calls the Church of God not made with hands but made the Temple of God by the will of God Non enim nunc locum sed electorum congregationem appello Ecclesiam For I do not now call the place but the Congregation of God's chosen ones the Church Origen also against Celsus l. 8. p. 390 391. professeth Christians beware of building liveless and dead Temples to the giver of all Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which he speaks to depreciate those Works of men that men might not think God is honoured by such things which for the matter of them are common and for the figure and shape the works of mens hands As also to refute the Heathens who thought God was more honoured and better served in such Temples than in the poor Conventicles and Oratories of Christians and was in a more especial manner present in such Temples then in other places For we know that now under the Gospel God hath determined his Worship to no place any more than before the Flood or the days of the Patriarchs before Moses Who by God's appointment made the Sanctuary which yet was not confined to any place but portable and moveable to and fro for 400 years till the Temple was built in a place appointed by God to which all Sacrifices acceptable were to be brought and there offered upon his Altar And this was done as Athanasius Epist. ad Adelph contra Arrianos and Austin in Psal 64. for a figure of Christ's Body which was to come and when that Truth signified began evidently to be preached the Shadow was destroyed So Arnobius l. 6. saith We must not think that God is delighted in Temples because built of Marble and gloriously set forth with Gold to overthrow the opinion of the Heathens who professed that if their Gods were prayed unto sub axe nudo sub aethereo regimine nihil audiunt under the cope of Heaven and in the open Air they would not hear And Lactantius Div. Inst. l. 6. c. 25. Non Templa illi congestis in altitudinem saxis extruenda sunt in suo cuique consecrandus est pectore Temples are not to be built unto him of Stones laid one upon another to a great height every one ought to consecrate him in his own heart Not that these Ancients thought it unlawful for Christians to have Temples but in opposition to the Heathens opinion That God accepted of no Worship but that performed in Temples made with hands and that the more costly they were the better he was pleased as Lactant. l. 2. c. 6. Nec ullam religionem putant ubi illa non fulserint They think there 's no Religion where these are not shining i. e. with Gold precious Stones Ivory c. Itaque sub obtentu Deorum avaritia cupiditas colitur credunt cnim Deos amare quicquid ipsi concupiscunt Under colour of Divine Worship covetousness is worshipped For they think the Gods love whatsoever they are in love withal Eusebius in like manner in 's Evangelical Preparation l. 1. c. 9. shews That men in most ancient times took no care or pains about building Temples And that the first builders of them were Heathens with the occasion thereof And in very truth we have not the least colour of Evidence for any built before the Flood tho' we read how God was served from the first by Sacrifice in the story of Cain and Abel and was worshipped no doubt by the holy Patriarchs For tho' a degenerate condition increased amongst the Posterity of Cain yet Adam and Eve after the promise of Grace continued in the same gracious course with others of their Off spring who followed their Institution and Religion especially in the race of Seth. And in his days especially about the birth of his Son Enoch for the Scripture testifies that then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. And near unto the Flood we read of a distinction between the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men tho' afterwards this came to be exceedingly confounded which ended in a natural Confusion of them all through God's just judgment After the Flood 400 years Abram by Divine admonition left his own Country and came into Canan where he and his Posterity liv'd long in Tents like Strangers and erected Altars where God appeared to them and worshipped him in the open Air. And Lib. 3. c. 13. the same Eusebius faith That it becomes wise men with open face to preach unto all that they do not reverence those things which are seen with bodily eyes but him alone whom no man seeth even the Architect and Maker of all with much more to that purpose and that we should not think to worship the Divine Power with building of Temples And accordingly in his first Book of Evangelical Demonstration p. 18. Graeco Lat. To them who thought that God ought to be worshipped only at Hierusalem or on certain Hills and in definite places our Saviour for good cause answered The hour cometh and now is
Posterity of Japhet of whose Children the Isles of the Gentiles were divided in their Lands every one after his tongue Gen. 10.5 and after their Families in their Nations And all the three Sons of Noah it 's likely were imployed by their Father in building the Ark and by them their Posterity might easily be instructed in that Art the Lord himself first instructing Noah Especially considering how long both Noah and Sem lived after the Flood Noah 350 years that is not only after the Babylonian and Assyrian Kingdoms erected by Nimrod and Assur 235 years but after the Posterity of Misraim began to reign in Egypt in several Principalities 89 years and after Ogyges built Thebes in Grece 41 years and after Aegialeus the first King of Sicyonians in Peloponnesus his beginning to reign 23 years and died but two or three years before Abraham was born And Sem lived 150 years after his Father Noah and Sem died but 10 years before Esau and Jacob were born according to Lydiat's Chronicle which I take to be most accurate And for ought I know to the contrary both Ham and Japhet might live as long as Sem and the Grecians and Isles of the Gentiles might be well known to be Japeti genus Though I deny not but others of his Posterity might be called by his name like as we read of two Kings of Athens each called by the name of Cecrops the one of Cecrops major and the other of Cecrops minor and the younger of them divers Ages after the elder And the name of Iphitus who was but one Age before the Wars of Troy doth plainly carry the same Radical Letters that Japetus doth But to proceed 11. The Pelasgians are accounted by Strabo in his fifth Book Populi Graeciae vetustissimi the most ancient People of Greece And these He and Hesiod and Pausanias in his Arcadicis testifie to have proceeded from Pelasgus Ac primum omnium Pelasgum memorant Arcadi in illa terra extitisse The Arcadians report that Pelasgus was the first of Men in that Country which relation Pausanias modifies thus That he was the first King there to wit in Arcadiae and who first brought the rude People there to build Cottages to defend themselves from the Injuries of the Weather Lycaon was his Son and him Pausanias makes coetaneous to Cecrops meaning Cecrops major which Cecrops is commonly accounted coetaneous with Moses especially Eusebius in his Tenth Book of his Evangelical Preparation Chap. 19. and he adds this as a thing confessed by all Nemo non fatetur Lycanon's youngest Son was Oenotrius who went with a Colony into Italy and from him that Country of Italy was called Oenotria Yet there were no Temples till the days of Janus by the Testimony of Xenon formerly mentioned out of Macrobius his Saturnals lib. 1. cap. 9. And this was the first of all the Grecian Colonies in the opinion of Pausanias and he adds also That neither had he found any Transmigration made by the Barbarians before this But therein we know Pausanias mistakes and that Grece and all Europe after the Universal Deluge was first inhabited by those of the Posterity of Noah and specially of Japhet who came into the Western Parts from the East And the Iones a People so well known both in Asia the less and in Grece do fairly manifest by their very Name that they were descended from Javan one of the Sons of Japhet Now Janus the first erector of Temples in Italy was near about 200 years after Cecrops began first to reign in the Region of Attica Yet I confess that Jupiter is said to have gotten Lycaon's Daughter Calisto with Child and besides Jupiter of Grece Cicero makes mention of two Jupiters born in Arcadia I doubt one of them might be Lycaon's Brother for such incestuous Generations were too too frequent amongst those Heathen called Gods 12. But consider we what Pausanias writes in his Eliacis prioribus of Saturn Saturnum primum omnium Coeli Regnum obtinuisse That Saturn first of all obtained the Kingdom of Coelum which we commonly render Heaven but it might be the name of a Country in Crete like as Olympia was a Country in Grece where the hill Olympus was which word Olympus is commonly used by Poets to signifie Heaven Ei in Olympia homines eos quod aureum genus nuncupatum est Templum dedicasse To him the Men of the golden Age dedicated a Temple in Olympia After this Jupiter being born his Mother committed him to the Dactyles of Ida to be kept these were four Brethren of whom Hercules called Idaeus was one long before Hercules the Son of Amphytruo This Hercules as the same Pausanias writes was great Grandfather to Clymenus who coming out of Crete first instituted the Olympian Games 50 years after Deucalion's Flood Now if we accompt 30 years to an Age as Lydiat doth and that according to Clemens Alexandrinus if I mistake not and that Clymenus was 30 years old at the institution of these Olympian Games from thence to the Birth of Hercules the sum of years ariseth but to 120. Now by Lydiat's accompt Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt but 30 years after Deucalion's Flood that is 30 years before Clymenus his institution at what time Moses was 80 years old Hence it follows that Hercules was not born above 20 years before Moses nor this Saturn neither For that Hercules to whom the tutalidge of Jupiter was committed might well be as old as Saturn himself yet this Hercules Idaeus had his name from the Hill Ida in Crete and therefore in all likelyhood Saturn his Father was the same that fled into Italy and there was entertained by Janus many years after Moses And whereas Pausanias gives much credit to Homer concerning Matters of Grece why should we not give as much credit to Virgil concerning the Story of Italy Yet that of Saturn's Entertainment by Janus is a Story very commonly received Yet I confess Diodorus Siculus makes mention of a Saturn and a Jupiter and an Hercules and Curetes Dactyli in Phrygia but upon what ground I know not for Pausanias doth not and it seems from Curetes by Contraction came Cretes and thence that Island of Crete might have his Name but I stand not upon this Nay I yield rather that it had its Name from one Cres who reigned there at the same time that Inachus reigned at Argos in Grece It may be then the Curetes were the same with Cretes But it is nothing strange the Grecians should be found to run wild sometimes in their Accounts of times considering that Cadmus was the first who coming out of Phoenicia to Thebes taught Greeks the use of Letters as Eusebius writes in his Evangelical Preparation lib. 10. cap. 5. and Clemens Alexandrinus in the first Book of his Stromata p. 306. Graeco-lat Though I know Diodorus Siculus minceth the matter saying that he brought amongst them only a new Character belike for the Honour of the
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
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