I. SECT. in one point they, generally speaking, unanimoufly agreed; its divine origin, and the refemblance of its nature to that of the Deity. 3. Thales and ras. 3. Several of the ancient fages, without Anaxago entering into any special account of the procefs of the creation, more or lefs agree with Mofes in what they do maintain. Among thefe, may be reckoned Thales the Milefian, and Anaxagoras. Thales maintained, that water was the origin of all things, and that God was that fupreme intelligence, who formed all things out of water". Anaxagoras taught, that the uni pedocles animum effe cenfet cordi fuffufum fanguinem." TULL. Tufc. Difp. lib. i. fect. 9, 10. 66 g" Ergo animus (qui, ut ego dico, divinus) est, ut Euripides audet dicere, deus. Et quidem, fi deus aut anima "aut ignis eft, idem eft animus hominis-Sin autem eft quinta quædam natura ab Ariftotele inducta primum; "hæc et deorum eft et animorum. Hanc nos fententiam se"cuti, his ipfis verbis in confolatione hoc expreffimus: ani“morum nulla in terris origo inveniri poteft-Quicquid eft "illud, quod fentit, quod fapit, quod vivit, quod viget, cœ"lefte et divinum, ob eamque rem æternum fit neceffe eft." TULL. Tufc. Difp. lib. i. fect. 26, 27. h "Thales enim Milefius, qui primus de talibus rebus quæfivit, aquam dixit initium effe rerum. Deum autem cam mentem, quæ ex aqua cuncta fingeret." CICERO de Nat. verfe remained in a ftate of chaotic confu- CHAP. fion, till arranged in order by the wisdom II. of the Deityi. 4. In a fimilar manner, one of the moft ancient of the Greek poets describes "Chaos, as firft exifting. Next was pro"duced the spacious earth, the seat of the immortals, Tartarus hid within the re"ceffes of the ample globe, and divine "Love, the most beautiful of the deities. "From Chaos fprung Erebus, and black 66 Night; and from the union of Night and "Erebus were born Ether and the Dayk." In the midft of this mythological defcription, we may ftill discover evident traces of the primeval tradition. Out of Chaos is produced the globe of the earth and divine Love, personified in the character of a beautiful fylph, bears a confpicuous part in the cofmogony. Evening' and ; Nat. Deor. lib. i. cap. Io. Αρχην μεν παντων ὕδωρ ὑπερησατο. i Παντα χρηματα ην ὁμε· ειτα νες ελθων αυτα διεκόσμησε. DIOG. LAERT. in Vit. Anax. * Ητοι μεν πρωτιςα Χαος γενετ' αυταρ επειτα 4. Hefiod. SECT. night are next introduced; and laftly day and the ethereal light are generated. I. 5. Ariftopha nes. X. Jehovah's 5. There is a curious paffage in the works of Ariftophanes, which nearly coincides with the fentiments of Hefiod. 66 Chaos, and Night, and black Erebus, and wide Tartarus, firft exifted; at that time, there was neither earth, air, nor ❝ heaven. But in the bofom of Erebus, black-winged Night produced an aërial 66 66 egg; from which, in due season, beau"tiful Love, decked with golden wings, "was born. Out of dark Chaos, in the "midst of wide-fpreading Tartarus, he be got our race, and called us forth into the light"." X. Befides the traditional accounts, which the heathen nations poffeffed, of the crethe Pagans. ation of the world, to many of them the name known to L peculiar name of God was not unknown. Philo Byblius, by whom the works of Sanchoniatho were tranflated into the Greek language, informs us, that that ancient Author wrote a faithful narrative of Jewish m Χαος ην, και Νυξ, Έρεβος τε μέλαν πρώτον, και Ταρταρος ευα gus' x. 7. λ. ARISTOPH. Aves, 694. affairs, II. affairs, having received his principal in- CHAP. formation on that head from Jerombaal, the Prieft of the God Jeuo". It is not improbable, if we may argue from fimilitude of names, and from the remoteness of the period in which Sanchoniatho flourished, that this Jerombaal was the Gideon of Scripture, ftyled in the Book of Judges, from his contention with the worshippers of Baal, Jerubbaal". Diodorus Siculus, after enumerating several Pagan legiflators, who claimed for their laws the fanction of different deities, concludes with mentioning the name of Mofes, who, he says, prescribed his ordinances to the Jews, under the authority of the God Jao1. The name of Jupiter Sabazius, as Selden justly remarks, is clearly derived from Jehovah Sabaoth, a term perpetually ap Ισορει δε τα περι Ιεδαίων αληθέςατα, ότι και τοις τρόποις και τοῖς ονομασιν αυτών τα συμφωνότατα, Σαγχουνιαθων ὁ Βηρύτιος, εισ ληφως τα ὑπομνηματα παρα Ιερομβαλε τε ίερεως Θεου του Ιρνω. EUSEB. Præp. Evan, lib. i. cap. ix. • Judg. vi. 32. P -Παρα δε τοις Ιουδαίοις Μωσην τον Ιαω επικαλεμενον θεον. DIOD. SIC. Bib. Hift, lib. i. p. 84. edit. Rhodomanni. SECT. plied to the Most High, in the page of Rea I. velation; and that the celebrated Tetragrammaton, the incommunicable name ', was well known to the Greeks, appears abundantly from the writings of Clemens Alexandrinus, and Diodorus Siculus'. Even the immediate inftruments of idolatry, were fometimes forced to bear their testimony to the fupremacy of the God of Ifrael; and IAO was pronounced by the oracle of Apollo to be the first and the "Undenam Jupiter Sabazius? nonne a Jehovah Sa"baoth, quod inculcante fæpius Jeremia proprium Dei Opt. "Max. nomen ?" SELD. Proleg. in Dis Syr. cap. iii. Cited by Selden, de Dis Syr. Synt. ii. cap. 1. Refpecting the manner in which the peculiar name of God became known to the Heathens, it is well obferved by Lord Prefident Forbes, that, "though the Roman people and religion 66 were but modern, compared with that of fome other na"tions, yet is their Jovis Pater, which took much time to "be corrupted into Jupiter, very ancient; and, if they had "their theology from the Hetrufcans, or the Phenicians, the "term Jehovah must have been very pure and diftinct, "when it came first into Italy, to have remained so long fo uncorrupted, as we fee it did. No man, in his fenfes, "will think the ancient Greeks and Italians borrowed from "the detefted Jews the name of their God; and therefore "it may be fafely concluded, that the name, which tra"velled thus into Greece and Italy, in the earliest times, was the name of the God of the whole earth, ufed and "honoured by all flesh." Thoughts concern. Relig. p. 178. 66 greatest |