c. John 4.23 24. And adds that now in these times of Grace we are brought to the same manner of Worship which was among the Patriarchs before Moses which he calls eadem benedictio like that of Gal. 3.14 And p. 23. introduceth the Lord Christ speaking The Law of Moses commanded men to go out of all other places to a certain definite place of the World there to worship God But I command you not to seek God out in any certain corner of the World nor in Hills nor in Temples made with hands but giving all men liberty from such restraint I command every one to worship and adore God at his own house and home Not that he held it unlawful to worship God in material Temples but only to shew that now there is no such necessity as ties men to the Service of God in Temples as if he were better served there than in other places Like as Austin Tom. 6. contra Serm. Arrian cui Templum non facimus sed nos ipsi sumus not as if no Temples were made by them or ought to be but in effect That we not only make a Temple but are his Temples As Xixtus Bishop of Rome and Martyr said Templum sanctum est Deo mens pura a pure Mind is a Temple holy unto God This sanctifies all places and the Prayers sent up unto him in such a Temple is always accepted of him And how little Consecrated places were insisted on in Constantine's time when Christianity was set up and countenanced by Authority may be seen in Athanasius's Apology for his preaching in such at Alexandria as was neither finished nor consecrated alledging Alexander his Predecessor for doing the like and others at Tryers and Aquilea We shall now proceed to enquire further into The Antiquity of Temples Whether there were any before the Sanctuary made by Moses WE read in the Old Testament of Altars very â—arly and frequently without any Temples Implyed in Cain and Abel's Offerings unto the Lord Gen. 4. exprest of Noah's building an Altar unto the Lord Gen. 8.20 so Abraham Gen. 12.7 Isaac Gen. 26.25 and Jacob at Bethel Gen. 35.7 Elias likewise in his Contention with the Priests of Baal 1 Kings 18.32 And in the New Testament of the Heathens Altar at Athens Acts 17.23 the Story whereof is related by Diog. Laertius in the Life of Epimenides and L. Vives on Austin de C. D. l. 7. c. 17. and others And Walafridus Strabo Writes That at first both the Worshippers of God and of the Devil performed their Service in the open Air but when they began to make Idols then and not till then and upon that occasion they began to build Temples I shall not trouble the Reader with a multitude of Authours that have written of the Original and Progress of Idolatry I think Mercerus judgeth right that there was none before the Flood And though some Rabbins I know and also Tertullian thought there were Idols and Idolatry in the old World yet Cyril l. 3. against Julian and Epiphanius in 's Panarium with many others the contrary And that the Sin of those days which provoked God to drown the World was Irreligiousness and Prophaneness rather than Superstition and Idolatry For the cause of the Flood is mentioned in general that all Flesh had corrupted their ways It was very general and therefore the Lord resolved to corrupt the Earth In Enoch's days it seems by his Prophesie mentioned by Jude that prophane Persons did spitefully speak and practise against God's Servants with which reproachful carriage carnal Men being overcome became prophane also and the good being taken away by death there was a general defection In special we read that the earth was full of violence and this increased upon the degenerate condition of God's People For the sons of God saw the daughters of Men that they were fair and they took them Wives of all that they liked Gen. 6.2 which provoked the Lord in an high degree vers 3. And hereupon there were Children born unto them which were mighty men and men of râ—… Then Carnal Security was very great as our 〈◊〉 signifieth Luke 17.26 27. which proceeded from 〈…〉 contempt of God's Word and also of his Patience and long suffering in his Works For he bare with them an 120 years and 〈◊〉 Noah a Preacher of Righteousness unto them thus the Goodness of God led them to Repentance both ways but they were disobedient 1 Pet. 3. and thereby treasured up wrath against the day of wrath and the Flood came and swept them all away save eight Persons In all this we have no Evidence of any Sin of Idolatry committed by them and had that been their sin it is unlikely the Holy Ghost would have pretermitted the mention thereof 2. After this the experience of God's wrath breaking forth into so sore a Judgment and causing so great a Devastation as to lay a whole World wast this I say might justly work in them the fear of God and make them generally become the more devout while the remembrance of so general a Deluge remained and this might well be continued for so many years as they survived who had seen the Flood Now we read that Noah lived 350 years after the Flood and Sem his Son 498 years How long Ham and Japhet survived after the Flood is not expressed This Devotion proceeding only from a natural cause as in all Persons unregenerate could prove but natural and therefore the more apt to be corrupted with Idolatry as indeed it was very timely even in the days of Terah Abraham's Father as we read Josh 24. though Noah himself the Father of them all survived a 128 years in the very days of Terah Abraham the Father of the Faithful being born but the third year after Noah's death Sem yet living 152 years after this as who died but ten years before Jacob and Esau the twin Sons of Isaac and Rebeckah were born This Jacob with all his Children went down into Egypt whither Joseph was gone many years before and in all the Sacred History concerning Egypt and the Children of Israel's dwelling there and the Egyptians vexing and oppressing of them until the Lord's wonderful Deliverance of them though we read of the Gods of Egypt Exod. 12.12 Numb 33.4 as also how the Children of Israel were corrupted with their Idols Ezech. 20.7 yet we read of no Temples they had And Pharaoh though he would have had them Sacrifice to their God in the Land of Egypt yet he knew full well they had no Temple for this and when he promised to give them leave to go into the Wilderness to Sacrifice there provided they went not far he knew there was no Temple for them But the third month after their coming out of Egypt at Mount Sinai the Lord took order for the building of a Sanctuary saying unto Moses Let them make me a Sanctuary that I may dwell among them Exod. 25.8 9. And I am
Greek Nation being loth that the World should take notice that they were beholden to the Phoenicians for this 13. Before I have shewed out of Clemens Alexandrinus that such Structures as were first the Sepulchres of the Dead afterwards being enlarged to a greater Magnificence came to be called the Temples of gods And Arnobius lib. 6. Quid quod multa ex his templa quae Tholis sunt aureis sublimibus elata fastigiis auctorum conscriptionibus comprobatur contegere cineres atque ossa defunctorum esse corporum sepulchra Nonne patet in promtu est aut pro Diis immortalibus mortuos vos colere aut inexpiabilem fieri numinibus contumeliam quorum delubra templa mortuorum superlata sunt bustis What shall we say to this that many Temples which are built with golden Arches and lofty Roofs do cover Ashes and Bones and that they are the Sepulchres of Men deceased as it appears by the Writings of divers Authors Is it not manifest and prone to conclude hereby that either you worship dead Men instead of gods or that you do the gods an Injury that cannot be expiated in that you build their Temples upon the Sepulchres of the dead Now the first Instance given in this kind by Clemens Alexandrinus in his Admonition to the Gentiles I find to be of the Temple of Minerva which was the Sepulchre of Acrisius Now this Acrisius was the 14th King of Argos by the Account of Appion the Grammarian alledged by Tatianus and represented by Ensebius in the â—â—th Book of his Evangelical Preparation p. 493. Graecolat And in the Fourth Generation after Danaus who came out of Egypt unto Argos in Grece upon the Confusion caused in Egypt partly by the Slaughter of the First Born and partly by the Destruction of Pharaoh and his Egyptians in the Red Sea when Moses led the Children of Israel through it towards the Land of Canaan by the Account of Mr. Lydiat in his Emendation of Times And that which Appion writeth hereof was out of Piolimaeus Mendesius Pausanias in his Boeotica speaks of a Temple dedicated to Hercules but whereas some imagine or might imagine that it was a Temple dedicated to Hercules the Son of Amphytrion he professeth that it was multo vetustius much more ancient than so and therefore he conceives rather the Dedication of it ought to be ascribed to a more ancient Hercules who was one of the Idaei Dactyli commonly called Hercules Idaeus Now these Idaei Dactyli were those Curetes to whose Care the Education of Jupiter was committed to wit Jupiter Cretensis the Son of Saturn who flying out of Crete and coming into Italy was there entertained by Janus which Janus reigned in Italy long after Moses as formerly hath been shewed The same Pausanias in the first of his Eliacks affirms Pelops was the first that erected a Temple to Mercury in Peloponnesus and in his Boeoticis reports that one Myron Byzantius a Writer of Heroick Verses and Elegies had delivered that Amphyon was the first of all Men that dedicated an Altar to Mercury Now Pelops is accounted but of the same time with Acrisius King of Argos the Fourth King after Danaus by Eusebius in his Evangelical Preparation lib. 10. p. 493. Graecolar And the same Tatianus in the same place of Eusebius maintains Moses to have been before Amphyon But of all the Temples known to Pausanias the most Ancient he professeth to have been the Temple of Apollo Thearius which was the Troezenians For albeit he takes notice of two other Temples which were very ancient yet this he saith was much more ancient than they and was reported to have been built by Pythius and as it was built by him so it was adorned by him also Now what time Pythius lived he sheweth forthwith when he saith that Bellerophon coming to Troezene where Pithias reigned he required of him Aethra to be given him to Wife but Aegeus married her King of Athens and she became the Mother of Thesous as Robert Stephanus writes and Pellerophon was deprived of his Kingdom of Ephyra by Praetos King of Argos as the same Author writeth Now this Praetus was the third King of Argos after Danaus by Tatianus his account related by Eusebius Praeparat Evangel lib. 10. and Danaus is by Lidiat's Account somewhat after Moses 14. But we proceed from the Grecians to the Egyptians because they are supposed by some to have found out and communicated to others the Names of Heathenish Gods and first erected Temples and Altars to them for so writes Caelius Rodiginus l. 18. c. 37. Traditur porro Aegyptios primos Deorum excitasse aras conflasse simulacra Templa construxisse But this learned Antiquary which is his usual fault tells us not his Authors Probably Herodotus lib. 2. Aegiptii primi Deorum cognomina in usu habuere ab illis Graeci fuerunt mutuati Item primi Diis aras simulachra delubra statuere And Pausanias in his Atticis testifies that amongst the Grecians the Athenians went beyond all others in Devotion towards the Gods Athenienses Deorum cultu studioque Religionis longè caeteras omnes civitates anteire And the Athenians had this from their King Cerops major as Lidiat writes Emend temp p. 18. Erat vero etiam Cecrops Magnus auctor superstitionis ac Idololatriae This Cecrops was called Diphyes because he was genere partim Aegyptius by Parentage an Egyptian and Coquaeus out of Eusebius relates this of Cecrops That primus Jovem appellavit simulacra reperiit aram statuit victimas immolavit nequaquam istiusmodi rebus in Graecia visis Coqu in Augustin de Civit. Dei l. 18. c. 8. Porphyry that enemy of the Gospel was wont much to magnify a certain Historian named Sanconiatho His History was much commended by one Philo Biblius who added a Preface thereunto wherein he writes Barbarorum Antiquissimi Phoenices imprimis Aegyptii a quibus caeteri deinceps populi morem illum accepere in maximorum Deorum loco eos omnes habuere qui res ad vit am agendam necessarias invenissent quique beneficium aliquod in genus humanum contulissent Eos nimirum quod sibi plurimorum bonorum autores esse persuaderent Divinis honoribus coluere ac templorum usu quae jam ante constructa fuerant hoc ad munus officiumque traducto columnas insuper statuasque ligne as ipsorum nomine consecrarunt eoque precipue religionis cultu prosecuti festos illis quoque dies longè celeberrimos dedicarunt In quo eximium illud fuit Regum suorum nomina universi hujus elementis ac quibusdam corum quibus divinitatem ipsi tribuebant imponerent Naturales vero Deos Solem Lumam reliquasque Stellase errantes cum Elementis caeteris cum eiâ—sdem affinitate conjunctis solos ex omnibus agnoscebant ut mortales quidem alios alios autem immortales cos haberent Where observe four things 1. That the first Founders of
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
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
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