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CHAP. II.

Moses's certain Knowledge of what he writ.

that was.

I. The third Hypothesis concerns the Certainty of the Matter of Moses's History; that gradually proved: First, Moses's Knowledge cleared, by his Education, and Experience, and certain Information. II. His Education in the Wisdom of Egypt; what III. The old Egyptian Learning enquired into; IV. The Conveniences for it. V. Of the Egyptian Priests. Moses reckoned among them for his Knowledge. VI. The mathematical, natural, divine, and moral learning of Egypt. VII. Their political Wisdom most considerable. VIII. The Advantage of Moses above the Greek Philosophers, as to Wisdom and Reason. Moses himself an Eye-witness of most of his History: IX. The certain uninterrupted Tradition of the other Part among the Jews, manifested by rational Evidence.

II.

I.

HAVING thus far cleared our way, we come to the CHAP. third hypothesis, which is, There are as manifest proofs of the undoubted truth and certainty of the history recorded by Moses, as any can be given concerning any thing which we Hypoth. 3. yield the firmest assent unto. Here it must be considered that we proceed in a way of rational evidence to prove the truth of the thing in hand; as to which, if in the judgment of impartial persons the arguments produced be strong enough to convince an unbiassed mind, it is not material whether every wrangling atheist will sit down contented with them: for usually persons of that inclination, rather than judgment, are more resolved against light, than inquisitive after it, and rather seek to stop the chinks at which any light might come in, than open the windows for the free and cheerful entertainment of it. It will certainly be sufficient to make it appear that no man can deny the truth of that part of Scripture which we are now speaking of, without offering manifest violence to his own faculties, and making it appear to the world that he is one wholly forsaken of his own reason; which will be satisfactorily done, if we can clear these things: First, that it was morally impossible Moses should be ignorant of the things he undertook to write of, and so be deceived himself. Secondly, that it was utterly impossible he should have any design in deceiving others in reporting it. Thirdly, that it is certain from

BOOK all rational evidence that he hath not deceived the world, II. but that his history is undoubtedly true. First, that it was morally impossible Moses should be deceived himself, or be ignorant of the things which he writ of. Two things are requisite to prevent a man's being deceived himself. First, that he be a person of more than ordinary judgment, wisdom, and knowledge. Secondly, that he have sufficient information concerning the things he undertakes to write of. If either of these two be wanting, it is possible for a man of integrity to be deceived; for an honest heart hath not always an Urim and Thummim upon it; nor is fidelity always furnished with the acutest intellectuals. The simplicity of the dove is as liable to be deceived itself, as the subtlety of the serpent is to deceive others; but where the wisdom of the serpent is to prevent being deceived, and the dove's innocency in not deceiving others, there are all the qualifications can be desired in any one who undertakes only to tell the truth. First, then, that Moses was a person of a great understanding, and sufficiently qualified to put a difference between truth and falsehood, will appear, first, from the ingenuity of his education; secondly, from the ripeness of his judgment, and greatness of his experience when he penned these things.

First, we begin with his education. And here we require at present no further assent to be given to what is reported concerning Moses in Scripture, than what we give to Plutarch's Lives, or any other relations concerning the actions of persons who lived in former ages. Two things then we find recorded in Scripture concerning Heb. xi. 25. Moses's education; That he was brought up in the court of A&s vii. 22. Egypt, and that he was skilled in all the learning of the

II.

Egyptians; and these two will abundantly prove the ingenuity of his education, viz. that he was a person both conversant in civil affairs, and acquainted with the abstruser parts of all the Egyptian wisdom.

And I confess there is nothing to me which doth advance so much the repute of the ancient Egyptian learning, as that the Spirit of God in Scripture should take so much notice of it, as to set forth a person (otherwise renowned for greater accomplishments) by his skill in this. For if it be below the wisdom of any ordinary person to set forth a person by that which in itself is no matter of commendation, how much less can we imagine it of that infinite wisdom which inspired Stephen, in that apology which he makes for himself against the Libertines, who

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charged him with contempt of Moses and the law? And CHAP. therefore certainly this was some very observable thing, which was brought in as a singular commendation of Moses, by that person whose design was to make it appear how high an esteem he had of him. And hence it appears that learning is not only in itself a great accomplishment of human nature, but that it ought to be looked upon with veneration, even in those who have excellencies of a higher nature to commend them. If a pearl retains its excellency when it lies upon a dunghill, it can certainly lose nothing of its lustre by being set in a crown of gold. If learning be commendable in an Egyptian, it is no less in Moses, where it is enamelled with more noble perfections than of itself it can reach unto. All the question is, whether the ancient learning of the Egyptians was such as might be supposed to improve the reason and understanding of men to such an height, as thereby to make them more capable of putting a difference between truth and falsehood? Whether it were such an overflowing Nilus as would enrich the understandings of all those who were in a capacity to receive its streams? The truth is, there want not grounds of suspicion that the old Egyptian learning was not of that elevation which the present distance of our age makes us apt to think it was. And a Conring, de learned man hath in a set discourse endeavoured to shew Hermet. the great defects that there were in it. Neither can it, I think, be denied, but, according to the reports we have now concerning it, some parts of their learning were frivolous, others obscure, a great deal magical, and the rest short of that improvement which the accession of the parts, and industry of after-ages, gave unto it. But yet it is again as evident, that some parts of learning were invented by the Egyptians, others much improved, and that the Greeks did at first set up with the stock they borrowed out of Egypt; and that learning chiefly flourished there, when there was (I had almost said) an Egyptian darkness of ignorance overspreading the face of Greece, as well as other nations.

Which will appear by these considerations: The great antiquity of their repute for learning; the great advantages they had for promoting it; and the parts of learning most in use among them. This, though it may seem a digression here, will yet tend to promote our design, by shewing thereby how qualified and accomplished Moses was to deliver to the world an history of ancient times. If we believe Macrobius, there was no people in the

Medic. c.

10, 11, 12.

III.

II.

c. 15. in

BOOK world could vie for learning with the Egyptians; who makes Egypt in one place the mother of all arts, and in Macrob. another, the Egyptians, omnium philosophiae disciplinarum Saturn. 1. i. parentes, the fathers of all the philosophic sciences. He derives elsewhere the original of all astronomy from them, Somn.Scip. 1. i. c. 19. quos constat primos omnium cœlum metiri, et scrutari ausos; though it be more probable that the nativity even of astronomy itself was first calculated by the Chaldæans, from whom it was conveyed to the Egyptians. He likewise appropriates all divine knowledge to them, where Id. Saturn, he saith they were soli rerum divinarum conscii; and after 1. i. c. 14. calls Egypt divinarum omnium disciplinarum compotem. 1. vii. c. 13. It is sufficiently notorious what great repute the Egyp

Ibid. c. 21.

tian learning hath been in with some in our latter times; in that our chymists look upon it as the greatest honour to their profession, that they think they can claim kindred of the old Egyptian learning, and derive the pedigree of their chymistry from the old Egyptian Hermes. But that vain pretence is sufficiently refuted by the fore-mentioned learned man Conringius, in his tract on this subject, de Hermetica Medicina. Franciscus Patricius professeth himself so great an admirer of the old Egyptian learning, that he thought it would be no bad exchange, if the Peripatetic philosophy were extruded, and the old Egyptian received instead of it. But the world is now grown wiser than to receive his Hermes Trismegistus for the author of the old Egyptian philosophy, the credit of his author being for ever blasted, and the doctrine contained in the books under his name manifested to be a mere cento; a confused mixture of the Christian, Platonic, and Egyptian doctrine together: so that we could hardly maintain the justness of the repute of the ancient Egyptian learning from any thing now extant of it; but yet we see no reason to question it, especially since it is so honourably spoken of in sacred writ, and seems in it to have been made the standard and measure of human wisdom. For which we have this observable testimony, that when the wisdom of Solomon is spoken of with the greatest advantage and commendation, it is set forth with this 1 Kings iv. character, that it exceeded the wisdom of all the children of 29, 30, 31. the East country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. Whence

it is most natural and easy to argue, that certainly their learning must be accounted the greatest at that time in the world, or else it could not have been inferred that Solomon was wiser than all men, because his wisdom excelled theirs, unless we suppose their wisdom to have

11.

been the greatest in that age of the world, when the wis- CHAP. dom of the Grecians (although in that time Homer is supposed to flourish) was not thought worthy the taking notice of. We see from hence then, as from an irrefragable testimony, that the wisdom of the Egyptians anciently was no trivial pedantry, nor mere superstitious and magical rites, but that there was something in it solid and substantial, or it had not been worth triumphing over by the wisdom of Solomon: it being true of that, what Lipsius saith of the Roman empire, quicquid dignum vinci vi- Lipsius de debatur, vicit; cætera non tam non potuit quam contempsit; Magnitud. it was an argument of some great worth, that it was overtopped and conquered by it.

Rom. 1. i.

c. 3.

IV.

1. c. 1.

Thus we see how just the repute of the ancient Egyptian learning is from testimony; and we shall find as great reason for it, when we consider the great advantages the Egyptians had for promoting of learning among them. Two ways men come to knowledge; either by tradition from others, or by observation of their own: what the Egyptians had the first way, will be spoken to afterwards: we now consider the latter of these. All knowledge arising from observation, must be either of those sciences which immediately conduce to the benefit of men's lives, or such whose end is to improve men's rational faculties in the knowledge of things. The for- Vid. Arist. mer necessity will put men upon the finding out; the Metaph. 1. latter require secessum et otia, freedom from other employments, a mind addicted to them, and industry in the study of them, and a care to preserve their inventions in them. The study of geometry, among the Egyptians, owed its original to necessity; for the river Nile being swelled with the showers falling in Ethiopia, and thence annually overflowing the country of Egypt, and by its violence overturning all the marks they had to distinguish their lands, made it necessary for them, upon every abatement of the flood, to survey their lands, to find out every one his own by the quantity of the ground upon the survey; the necessity of which put them upon a more diligent enquiry into that study, that thereby they might attain to some exactness in that, which was to be of such necessary, constant, and perpetual use. Thence we find the invention of geometry particularly attributed by He- Herodot. rodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, and others, to the Egyptians. 109. This skill of theirs they after improved into a greater Diod. 1. i. benefit, viz. the conveying the water of Nile into those Strab. 1. 17. places where it had not overflown to so great a height, as 1. xviii.

lib. ii. c.

Col. Rhod.

C. 34.

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