the second King of the Babylonians the Son of Nimrod caused his Fathers image to be made in the midst of Babylon and a Temple also and Divine Honours to be done unto his Father Both which are fabulous and all of this kind in Pliny and Victor Massiliensis As also in the Apocryphal Berosus that Ninus adorned Nineveh and was the first who built a Temple and erected Statues to his Father Belus and his Mother Juno and his Grandmother Rhea For we have no certainty of those early times but from Scripture which acquaints us that Nimrod was the Son of Gush and Grandchild of Ham and Founder of the Babylonian Monarchy as Ashur was the Son of blessed Shem and built Nineveh the Metropolis of the Assyrian Monarchy Which though considerably later yet soon overtopt the Babylonian and continued its Primacy for the greatest part of many Ages and in the time of Esarchaddon after Babylon had revolted reduced it again and carried Manasses thither 2 Chron. 33.11 Though shortly after about ten or eleven years Nabopollasar or Nebuchadonasor having taken Nineveh and assuming his Son Nebuchadnessar to reign with him the Babylonian Monarchy started up again and overtopt the Assyrian through the effeminateness of their Princes as is plain in History and the manner thereof in Aristotle's Politicks which Revolution was the immediate cause under God of Manasses Restoration But leaving these Relations mentioned by the by Gen. 47.28 let 's proceed in the infallible History of Truth From the time of Joseph's going down into Egypt at Seventeen years of Age to the time of his first standing before Pharaoh the year before the Seven plentiful years began at what time he is said to be Thirty years old and after Jacob's coming down into Egypt with his whole Family until his death who dwelt in Egypt Seventeen years and hence until Joseph's death who dwelt in Egypt an Hundred years wanting seven in the Story hereof I find no evidence of Temples among the Egyptians Nor from the birth of Moses who was born about Forty six years after the death of Levi who was his Grandfather by the Mother and great Grandfather by his Father until his leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt the space of Fourscore years we find no mention of any Temple or Temples there You will say they had Gods for the Lord said Exod. 12.12 He would execute judgment upon all the gods of Egypt and so it came to pass Numb 33.4 But I answer So Laban had his gods which Rachel stole away from her Father and sate upon them to hide them from him Gen. 31.30 34. and in the days of Terah Abraham's Father they served other gods this we read but of any Temples they had we read not If you say these gods that Terah and Laban had were Houshold gods and some room in their private Houses might serve for them and for the Devotions performed unto them but the gods of Egypt spoken of were for Publick Use and Publick Service and therefore they had their Priests also To this I answer Pausanius in Corinthiacis p. 54. That we read often in Pausanius of Arae Jovis pluvij which I understand of Images of Jupiter standing open without any covering And p. 58. he writes that in the Court of Priamus the Son of Laomedon there stood the Image of Jupiter Paleus sub Divo under the open Heaven and that to his Altar Priamus sled when Troy was taken And Alexander ab Alexandro writes that the House of Jupiter Pulverinus in the Country of Attica had no Roof but was open above this he hath in his second Book of Genial Days and Chap. 22. So the Image of Minerva Pavia was sab Divo in the open Air as Pausanius testifies in his Laconica p. 90. 95. The same Author tells us that in a small Island were the brazen Figures of Castor and Pollux sub Divo in the open Air nibilo pedalibus majora of a foots length and no more such belike were the Puppets Rachel sate upon called Laban's gods and a number of such he mentioneth standing in the open Air and sometimes he makes relation of certain Delubra Temples which had no Roof but were open above towards the Heavens as in his Boeoticis p. 260. And p. 264. He makes mention of a Chappel of Ceres sirnamed Europa where there is sub Divo Jupiter pluvius rainy Jupiter standing in the open Air. Coelius Rodigimus l. 10. p. 355. Jovi Fulguri Soli Lunae Coelo Hypaethra id est subdialia constitui debere Templa proponimus Add unto this subdiales statuas Levit. 26.30 as Junius renders it And having Altars at such Images where they offered Sacrifices no marvel if they had Priests also Melchisedeck we know is called the Priest of the most High God and King of Salem but I do not think any Man will avouch that he had a Temple there Abraham was a Prophet Gen. 20. and was he not a Priest also it is clear he offered Sacrifice to the Lord Gen. 12. and Isaac Gen. 26. so Jacob and that by God's commandment Gen. 35. And whereas some are of opinion that when Jacob vowed unto God the Tenth of all that God should give him in Mesopotamia Gen. 28. and hereupon a question is moved To whom he should pay the Tenth of all that is to what Priest knowing no better Answer are of opinion that he paid it to himself supposing him to be a Priest and capable of receiving Tythes I willingly confess such a Devotion is very profitable as to Temporals but I see no necessity that casts us upon such conceits For he might well Sacrifice unto God the Tenth or the worth of the Tenth and all that he possessed As yet the Priesthood was not confined to one Family and till then Moses himself was a Priest as well as a Prophet even to the erecting of the Tabernacle which by Archb. Ushers computation was in the year of the World 1514. But let us proceed further and take into consideration what we find in profare Histories concerning Temples 8. Diodorus Siculus l. 1. c. 1. reports that in the opinion of some the Ethiopians were the first of Men and he gives reasons for it but in a most atheistical and unreasonable way feigning Men to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 born of the Earth and Air in a natural manner as Mice and other things of equivocal Generation And how this came to pass he prosecutes in a most absurd and brain-sick Discourse without taking notice of any Creator who of one blood made all mankind to dwell upon the face of the earth And adds that the worship of God was first found out by them Sacraque insuper pompas celebritates aliaque quibus diis honores impenduntur ab iis fuisse reperta And what manner of Gods must they needs be who are worshipped by those who acknowledge no Creator St. Paul tells us that the eternal power and Godhead is known
The same Herodotus writes That the Egyptians much differed from the Grecians in the Estimation of their Gods For whereas among the Grecians the last of their Gods were Hercules and Dionysius and Pan Contrariwise among the Egyptians Pan was Vetustissimus the most Ancient even of the number of the first Rank which were but eight and Latona was another of them as elsewhere he tells us Hercules was one of the second Rank which were twelve in number and Dionysius of the third Rank which contained such as were begotten of the former twelve This Dionysius is Osiris as he saith whose Son Orus was the last of the Deities regnant among the Egyptians 17. Of this Osiris Diodorus Siculus writes which is also related by Eusebius in his Preparat Evangel l. 2. c. 1. That babuit Jovi Junonique parentibus sacram aedem item Diis caeteris aurea Templa which carry a very ill Accent that to Jupiter and Juno his Parents he should dedicate a Holy House only and to other Gods golden Temples And withal he adds That whatsoever was indeed verified of Osiris the Egyptian that Orpheus the Poet transferred unto Bacchus for the Honour of the Grecians even to that Bacchus whom Jupiter begat of Semele Cadmus his Daughter as if Osiris were no ancienter than so but that Cadmus might have been his Grandfather Whereas we have very good Ground and Testimony concerning the Antiquity of Cadmus as a Man unknown to the Grecians till he left Phoenicia which was at the time that Joshua entered the Land of Canaan with his great Host of Israclites And I do not think the Gods of the Egyptians were a making in those days He was a great and a proud King that oppressed Israel and we know what Mischief befel him and his People Manetho makes mention of one Amenophis King of Egypt whose Fortunes were to be devoured of a Sea-Horse Probably this was that Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red-Sea Great Benefactors while they lived were honoured by Heathens with Divine Honour after their Death but this Pharaoh was a Plague to the whole Land and People and nothing likely that any of his Posterity came to be deified by the Egyptians and a long time after great Confusion seized upon that Nation witness Danaus flying out of Egypt into Thebes in Greece from the Fury of his Brother Aegyptus and after that Egyptus himself leaving Egypt and coming into Patre in Greece mourning for the loss of his Children And we read in Scripture of the Gods of Egypt while Israel lived under them yea and how they were corrupted by them Osiris was a great Euergetes or Benefactor chiefly for the Invention of Tilling of the Ground and Planting of Grapes that of Virgil Georgic 1. Uncique puer monstrator aratri touching the first Inventer of the Plow It was well saith Servius that he mentioned not his name but in general saith The Boy that found it out For it was not one Body that acquainted all the World with the Plow but divers Persons in divers Places And if you ask who is chiefly meant here His answer is That some say Triptolemus others Osiris Which is the truer of the two in the Judgment of Servius So Sabinus Pliny relates That Bizeser the Athenian some that Triptolemus did this But the Tradition is That Osiris was the first of all Mortals who Plowed with Oxen in memorial whereof two Oxen are honoured of the Egyptians Apis in the City Memphis and Meuris in Heliopolis and in the Offices of Isis Ears of Corn are carried before and in the time of Harvest Ears of Corn are consecrated unto her Now Isis was the Sister of Osiris saith Pomponius though that by the way is but a Figment and Probus confirms the same Nevertheless some have seemed to smell a Mystery in this And Coelius Rodiginus lib. 5. c. 12. observes That before the Temples of the Egyptians was wont to be placed the Figure of Sphinx to signifie thereby that the Wisdom of their Theology was obscure and vested in Fables and that in the City Sais there is a Temple of Palles which some think to be Pallas that hath this Inscription in the Face of it I am that which was and is and shall be my Veil no Mortal Man hath ever unfolded Yet I conceive these to be but Illusions of Satan to blanch and set a fair Face upon foul things under the Pretence of Mysterious Significations Coelius adds the Opinion of some to have been That by Osiris is meant no other thing than the River Nilus the overflowing whereof and the Mud which it brings soiling it is a great means for the enriching of that Land The same Interpretation is made by Eusebius Preparat Evangel l. 3. c. 10. p. 115. And Suidas on the word Serapis writes Hunc Deum alii Jovem esse dixerunt alii Nilum propter modium quod in capite habet cubilum mensuram aquae scilicet alii verò Joseph And in Forsterus there is a fair Derivation of Osiris from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bos ille for under such a shape he was worshipped and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Hebrew the usual name of the River Nilus by reason of the blackness of the Mud which it brings with it Others conceive Osiris and Isis to signifie the Sun and Moon and first these natural things being glorious to behold were adored and invoked by them according to that in Virgil Vos clarissima mundi Lumina labencem Coelo quae dueit is annum Liber alma Ceres vestro si munere tellus Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista Poculaque invent is Acheloia miscuit uvis Here Liber and alma Ceres are no other than the Sun and Moon and Isis and Ceres are all one Euseb Preparat Evangel l. 2. c. 1. and the same things are attributed to them in their kind by the * Martianus in Nuptiis ad Solem Te Serapim Nilus Memphis veneratur Osirim Poet which are usually attributed to Osiris and Isis in their kind by Historians Namely the Prospering and Maturating of Corn and Wine according to their several proper Seasons wherein they are to be Sown or Planted and the Fruit thereof to be expected But leave we the Mysterious Signification and come to the Historical Truth Lydiat thinks that Menon the first King reigning over all Egypt by what variety of names soever called wherein there is found very great Variety as he shews was the Man that married Isis and commonly received to be Osiris or Serapis for these two are both one But others conjecture that Serapis being represented bearing a Bushel upon his Head doth fairly signifie Joseph who was so great a Benefactor to the whole Land of Egypt and to King Pharaoh himself and that especially in providing Corn for them against the seven sore years of Famine and that by a wise managing of the abundance of the seven plentiful years And this hath peculiar reference to that
as Satan had never brought any to serve him by Sacrifices the ancient Heathens by Light of Nature discoursing against the unreasonableness of such a Service as we read in Diodorus Siculus if God had not gone before them in this instructing Adam and the Patriarchs even till the days of Noah after this manner to serve him and Noah leaving this course by tradition to his Posterity as Augustine writes to the like purpose Ep. 49. ad Deo gratias Hoc sanè praetereundum non est this is not to be omitted Had not the Devils those rebellious Angels conceived that Temple Priesthood Sacrifices and all other things pertaining thereunto were due to one that one true God they would never have urged their Worshippers to ordain any of these things to them In like sort the Devil had never brought them to build Temples for this use and service if God had not taken order with his People to build a Sanctuary unto him that he might dwell amongst them And accordingly though Heathens had Temples before Solomon built that Temple at Jerusalem for this appears both by the high places which King Solomon built for his outlandish Wives 1 Kings 11.7 8. and by the Philistims who had an House for Dagon 1 Sam. 5.2 and Judges 16.27 and 9.27 we read how the People went into the House of their God and did eat and drink and cursed Abimelech and vers 46. of the house of the god Berith and Judg. 8.33 yet I do not find sufficient evidence of any Temples in use with any before the Sanctuary was made and that to this end that God might dwell among them Exod. 25.8 And as Schindler writeth on the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was aedificium instar templi ex lignis confectum atque it a constitutum ut dissolvi in partes ac rursus compingi ac quocunque liberet deferri posset a structure Temple-like made of Timber in such sort as it might be taken asunder in all the parts thereof and again compacted together that so it might be removed from place to place whithersoever it pleased God to have it carried A notable instruction that God would be a Sanctuary unto them and dwell among them in all places whithersoever they should come Ezek. 11.16 And among other Temples of the Gentiles whereof we read in History one was portatile a portable Temple and removed from place to place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Temple borne or drawn by certain Yoke of Oxen and that in Phoenicia which is the Country of Palestine This Eusebius testifies in the first Book of his Evangelical Preparation and Chap. 10. And such a Tabernacle the Scriptures often call by such a word as is usually rendred by Temple as 1 Sam. 1.9 and 3.3 and 2 Sam. 6.17 and in the Psalms of David's enditing it is found very frequently For we know that in his days there was no other Temple than the Tabernacle For though it was sometimes in the heart of David to build a House to the Name of the Lord God of Israel 1 Kings 8.17 18 19.2 Sam. 7.2 when as yet the Ark of the Lord remained amongst the Curtains yet we know that the Lord answered him He took it well that he was so minded yet he had consulted with the Prophet Nathan first about the matter before he grew to a Resolution thereupon Nevertheless thou shalt not build me an House saith the Lord but thy son that shall come out of thy Loyns he shall build the House to my Name So that till Solomon's reign there was only a Tabernacle for the Ark of God wherein was the Mercy Seat and there the Lord is said to have dwelt and that in a Cloud Lev. 16.2 Between the Cherubims Neither have I yet found any evidence to the contrary either in Scripture or elsewhere Before the Flood no evidence of any though Mercer observes they had a place of Meeting for the Service of God as upon Gen. 4. where we read of Cain and Abel's Offering and God's acceptance of the one and disregarding of the other and that as it seems in a visible and sensible manner For hereupon Cain was provoked against Abel Likewise upon the birth of Enosh when it is said That men began to call upon the Name of the Lord Mercer makes the same observation Neither can we promise less unto our selves of Adam's care for the disciplining and instituting of his Family and Seth's after him and the like may be said of all the holy Patriarchs Gen. 6. This also is manifest by the distinction made between the Sons of God and Daughters of Men until the degenerate condition came on and the partition Wall was broken down by promiscuous Marriages But in all this not any evidence of Temples separate and set apart for this 7. After the Flood when Noah came out of the Ark there he built an Altar unto the Lord and offered a Burnt-offering of every clean Fowl and Beast After this in the Story of Genesis the Genealogies being dispatched and the dispersion of the People by the occasion of Confusion of Tongues we have the erecting of the two first Monarchies the Babylonian by Nimrod and after the same time the Assyrian by Assur who built Niniveh so called as it is thought by very probable conjecture from the name of his Son Ninus For it is apparent in Scripture that Places had their names from the names of some chief Persons that dwelt there Thus Egypt is called Misraim from Misraim the Son of Ham and the Land Canaan from Canaan and so Jonia from Javan and Assyria from Assur After these particulars dispatched in brief we have the Story of Abraham his Peregrination who built Altars where the Lord appeared unto him and so did Isaac and Jacob but we find no Monument of any Temple or separate House they had for God's Service Gen. 24.63 but we read of Isaac's going abroad into the Field to pray Likewise when Abraham went down into Egypt we find not the least indication of any such thing there nor among the Philistims whilst Abraham sojourned a good while with them and Isaac after him No nor among the Canaanites though we read of Melchisedek the Priest of the most High God and good Correspondency between Abraham and him yet no mention of any Temple or House of God wherein he performed any Religious Duties to that great God possessor of Heaven and Earth whose Priest he was Indeed if we should credit some uncertain Relations of fabulous Writers we may find Temples much earlier mentioned Albertus Cognatus in the fourth Book of Narrations cited by Hospinian Tr. of Images ascribes the beginning of Idolatry to Nimrod who as he pretends upon the loss of his first-born Belus to asswage his grief caused his Image to be made of Gold which he set up in a Temple built by him and worshipped it and ossered Sacrifices unto it Aventinus writes that Ninus the Son of Belus Jupiter