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I should have thought that Suidas had borrowed all this of Cedrenus, had I not found somewhat more in Suidas, than Cedrenus hath hereof; as the form of invocation which Thulis used, and that clause of his giving name to the island; though in this last point I hold Suidas to be deceived; as also Cedrenus is, or at least seems to me, in giving to this king such profound antiquity of reign. Indeed the very name of that book, cited often by Cedrenus, which he calls Little Genesis, is alone enough to breed suspicion of some imposture; but the friarly stuff that he allegeth out of it, is such as would serve to discredit himself, were it not otherwise apparent, that he was a man both devout, and of good judgment, in matters that fell within his compass. I will here set down the list of old Egyptian kings delivered by him, and leave the censure to others.

The first king of Egypt that he sets down is Mizraim, the son of Cham. After him he finds many of a new race, deriving their pedigree thus: Nimrod, the son of Chus, was also called Orion, and further took upon him the name of the planet Saturn; had to wife Semiramis, who was of his own lineage, and by her three sons; Picus, surnamed Jupiter, Belus, and Ninus. Picus, chasing his father out of Assyria into Italy, reigned in his stead thirty years, and then gave up that kingdom to Juno, his sister and wife, and to Belus his son; after which Belus, who reigned only two years, Ninus had the kingdom, and married his own mother Semiramis. But Picus went into Italy, to visit his old father Saturn; Saturn forthwith resigned the kingdom to him. Picus Jupiter reigned in Italy threescore and two years, had threescore and ten wives or concubines, and about as many children; finally died, and lies buried in the isle of Crete. The principal of Jupiter's sons were Faunus, Perseus, and Apollo. Faunus was called by the name of the planet Mercury; he reigned in Italy after his father five and thirty years; and then, (finding that all his brethren con

spired against him,) he went into Egypt with abundance of treasure, where, after the death of Mizraim, he got the kingdom, and held it nine and thirty years. After Mercury, Vulcan reigned in Egypt four years and a half. Then Sol, the son of Vulcan, reigned twenty years and a half. There followed in order Sosis, Osiris, Orus, and Thules, of whom we spake before the length of their several reigns is not set down. After Thules was the great Sesostris king twenty years. His successor was Pharaoh, cal led Narecho, that held the crown fifty years, with which there passed from him the surname of Pharaoh to a very long posterity. These reports of Cedrenus I hold it enough to set down as I find them; let their credit rest upon the author.

Others yet we find, that are said to have reigned in Egypt, without any certain note, when, or how long; about whom I will not labour, as fearing more to be reprehended of vain curiosity, in the search made after these already rehearsed, than of negli gence, in omitting such as might have been added.

Vaphres, the father-in-law to Solomon, and Sesac, the afflicter of Rehoboam, lead us again into fair way, but not far. The name of Vaphres is not found in the scriptures; but we are beholden to Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius for it'. These give us not the length of his reign, but we know that he liv ed in the times of David and of Solomon. He came into Palæstina with an army, took Gezar from the Canaanites, and gave it to his daughter, Solomon's wife; though for her sake perhaps it was, that in time following either he, or, (as I rather take it,) Sesac, his son did favour the enemies of Solomon, who kept so many wives and concubines, besides this Egyptian princess. In the life of Rehoboam all hath been written that I find of Sesac, excepting the length of his reign, which must have been six and twenty

1 Clem. Strom. 1. 1. Euseb. de præp. evang. 1. 9, c. 4. 21 Kings ix. 16. and 11. c. ix, 15, 19, &c.

years, if he were that Smendis with whom Eusebius begins the one and twentieth dynasty.

Now forasmuch as it would serve to no great purpose that we knew the length of Sesac's reign, and of theirs that followed him, unless therewithal we knew the beginning of Sesac, upon which the rest have dependance,-this course I take. From the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, in which Pharaoh Necho was slain, I reckon upwards the years of the same Necho, and of his predecessors, unto the beginning of Sesac; by which account the first year of Sesac is found concurrent with the twentieth of Solomon's reign, and the twenty-sixth of Sesac with the fifth of Rehoboam; wherein Sesac spoiled the temple, and died, enjoying the fruits of his sacrilege no longer than Joash the Israelite and Crassus the Roman did, who, after him, spoiled the temple of Jerusalem.

To fill up the time between Sesac and Necho, I have rather taken those kings that I find in the Greek historians, than them which are in Eusebius's catalogue; for of those that are delivered by Eusebius, we find no name nor act recorded elsewhere, save only of Bocchoris, who is remembered by Diodorus, Plutarch, and others; much being spoken of himthat makes him appear to have been a king. Here, unto I may add, that the succession is often interrupted in Eusebius by Ethiopians, which got the kingdom often, and held it long; whereas, contrariwise, it appears by the prophet Isaiah, that the counsellors of Pharaoh did vaunt of the long and flourishing continuance of that house, insomuch that they said of Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, I

am the son of the ancient king". But that which overthrows the reckoning of Eusebius, is the good agreement of it with his mistaken times of the kings of Judah; for though it please him well to see how the reigns of Josiah and Necho meet by his compu

3 Isa. xix. 11.

tation, yet this indeed mars all, the reign of Josiah being misplaced. This error grows from his omitting to compare the reigns of the kings of Judah with theirs of Israel; by which occasion, Joram, king of Israel, is made to reign three years after Ahaziah of Judah; Samaria is taken by Salmanassar before Hezekiah was king; and, in a word, all or most of the kings have their beginnings placed in some other year of their collaterals than the scriptures have determined.

SECT. VI.

Of Chemmis, Cheops, Cephrenes, and other kings, recit ed by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, which reign ed between the times of Rehoboam and Hezekiah.

FOLLOWING, therefore, the Greek historians, I place Chemmis, or, (according to Diodorus,) Chembis, first in the rank of those that were kings after Sesac. He reigned fifty years, and built the greatest of the three pyramids, which was accounted one of this world's wonders. The pyramid hath its name from the shape, in that it resembleth a flame of fire, growing, from the bottom upwards, narrower and narrower to the top. This of Chemmis being four-square, had a base of seven acres every way, and was about six acres high. It was of a very hard and durable stone, which had lasted, when Diodorus saw it, about a thousand years, without complaining of any injury that it had suffered by weather in so long a space. From the reign of Chemmis, unto the age of Augustus Cæsar, wherein Diodorus' lived, are indeed a thousand years, which gives the better likelihood unto this time wherein Chemmis is placed. As for this and other pyramids, late writers testify that they have seen them yet standing.

After Chemmis, Diodorus' placeth Cephrenes, his brother, but doubtfully, and inclining rather to the

1 Diodor. 1. 1. Herod. 1. 2.

opinion that his son Chabreus succeeded. Herodotus hath Cheops, (who might be Chabreus,) and Cephrenes after him. These are said to have been brethren; but the length of their reigns may argue the latter to have been son to the former; for Cheops reigned fifty years, Cephrenes fifty-six. These were, as Chemmis had been, builders of pyramids, whereby they purchased great hatred of their people, who had already over-laboured themselves in erecting the first. These pyramids were ordained to be tombs for those that had raised them; but the malice of the Egyptians is said to have cast out their bodies, and to have called their monuments by the name of an herdsman, that kept his beasts thereabouts. It may be, that the robbing them of their honour, and entitling a poor fellow to their works, was held to be the casting out of their bodies; otherwise it is hard to conceive how it might be, that they, who had not power to avoid the like slavery laid upon them by the younger brother or son, should have power or leisure to take such revenge upon his predecessor. To the like malice may be ascribed the tale devised against Cheops's daughter, that her father, wanting money, did prostitute her; and that she, getting of every man that accompanied her one stone, did build with them a fourth pyramid, that stood in the midst of the other three. Belike she was an insolent lady, and made them follow their drudgery for her sake longer a while than they thought to have done, in raising a monument with the superfluity of her father's provisions.

Mycerinus, the son of Cephrenes, reigned after his father six years. He would have built, as his foregoers did, but, prevented by death, finished not what he had begun. The people thought him a good king, for that he did set open the temples which Cheops and Cephrenes had kept shut. But an oracle threatened him with a short life of six years only, because of this his devotion: For, (said the oracle,) Egypt

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2 Diod, Herod,

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