ed to first prejudices; as it is well known, that in fome places in this kingdom, the lower orders of the Roman Catholics have been fo accustomed to worship in the fields, that when the building of chapels had been propofed they could fcarcely give into the idea. We may also conceive how difficult it was for the Druids to give up their facred woods and groves for temples.

Thus with the gradual improvement and increasing wealth of the Egyptians, the exterior ceremonies and religious rites to which they were accustomed, muft have advanced from decency to elegance. The priesthood, independent and rich, would never have confented, whilst Pharaoh lived in a palace, and enjoyed himself in royal luxury and fplendor, that their gods alone fhould be neglected, without an edifice of fome magnificence being erected to their service. That the priests of Egypt were fufficiently powerful to effect this, is most certain; for when Jofeph, notwithstanding his piety and chastity, had taken advantage, during the famine, to make this a favourable opportunity of encroaching on the liberties of the people, and encreasing the royal authority, by obliging them to fell their lands in order to buy food; yet, he was too

politic

politic to intermeddle with the poffeffions of the priests Whether this partiality was owing to his marriage with the daughter of Potiphorah, or that he dreaded their power, is not evident; but certain it is, that he first made a tyrant in Egypt, and his posterity and connections firft felt the fatal effects.

SKETCH

4

SKETCH VÍ.

WHETHER HEATHEN PHILOSOPHERS BORROWED FROM MOSES.

THE OPINION OF SIR JOHN MARSHAM

REFUTED.

WITH

ITH what gratitude fhould we ac knowledge the divine benefits accruing from revelation, which at all times, from the very beginning, was the means of conveying down to us the knowledge of one fupreme omnipotent Being? but especially when the written law by Mofes, communicated a clear and unequivocal doctrine of the divine will, as a ftanding teftimony and criterion of truth; from which, it is certain, all the rest of mankind derived information. St. Auguftine, Ambrofe, and others fay, that Pythagoras, H Plato,

Plato,* and many other philofophers, borrowed inftruction from the writings of Mofes ; which point is contested by Sir John Marfham,

Bafil fays that Numenius, the difciple of Pythagoras, afferts that Plato was strongly characteristic of Moses: Clemens Alexandrinus, and Eufebius fay, that the Gentiles received their greatest myfteries from the Jews, enfolding them in fables. Homer, in his defcription of Oetus and Ephialtes, feems to have derived it from the building of Babel Homer, Hefiod, and Linus, borrowed their ideas of the fabbath from no other fountain but that of the Mofaic History.Orpheus ems to have taken many hints from Mofes, as appears by this tranflation of Francis George:

Unus perfectus deus eft, qui cuncta creavit

Cuneta fovens, atq: ipfe fovens fuper omnia in se
Qui capitur mente tantum, qui mente videtur :
Qui nullumque malum mortalibus invehit unquam ;
Quem præter non eft alius: tu cuncta videto:
Hic ipfum in terris melius quo cernere poffis.
Hic etenim video verum ipfum cernere, quis fit,
Nequaquam valeo, nam nubibus infidet altis.
Nemo illum nifi Chaldæo de fanguine quidam
Progenitus vidit: quem cœlorum aurea fedes
Sublimifque tenet: cujus fe dextera tendit
Oceani ad fines; quem de radicibus imis
Concuffique tremunt montes, nec pondere quamvis
Immenfa fint ferre queunt, qui culmina celi
Alta colens terris nunquam tamen ille fit abfens.
Ipfe eft principium, medium quoque, et exitus idem,
Prifcorum nos hæc docuerunt omnia voces:

Quæ binis tabulis Deus olim tradidit illis.

Some imagine that Orpheus meant by this Chaldean, Noah; the Platonists took him for Zoroafter; but to none were the tables given but Mofes,

fham, notwithstanding a number of respecta ble teftimonies which he quotes, who all agree, that the Gentile philofophers borrowed from fcripture. His argument entirely depends upon these points :-That the writings of Mofes were always kept a fecret among the Jews, inafmuch as they held all other hations in fuch contempt, as to exclude all focíal intercourfe: to prove which he quotes the words of Jofephus :-" Nos “Nos neque terram habitamus maritimam neque negotionibus gaudemus," &c. Secondly, that there was no translation of the books of Mofes previous to that of the Septuagint.

As to the first objection-Altho' on account of the idolatry of the Gentiles, and that propensity which the Jews at all times had to idolatry, it was but wife and proper to exclude any intercourfe which might be a means of corrupting their manners: Yet it is very certain, and easily proved from fcriptüre, that it was the wifh of all good and wife Ifraelites, to communicate the knowledge of God, and his laws, to all who were defirous to be acquainted with them. When Solomon built the temple, a work of fuch magnificence as to exceed all others in the world, which had attracted the notice and admira