cealed all that was difgraceful, and told him nothing, but that which was for the Glory of their own Nation. And this Observation may well be applyed to other Inftances, befides that, which gave Scaliger the occafion to make it; and to other Hiftorians, befides Herodotus. * Strabo mentions Mofes and the ancient Jews with commendation: He fays, that many in Honour to the Divine Majefty went out of Egypt with Mofes, rejecting the Worship of the Egyptians and other Nations, inafmuch as Mofes inftructed them, that God was not to be worshipped by any Image, and that he would reveal himself only to the Pure and Vertuous. He obferves, that Mofes had great fuccefs in the Establishment of his Government and the Reception of his Laws among the neighbouring Nations, and that his Succeffors for fome Ages purfued the fame Methods, being juft and truly Religious. Which words Ifaac Cafaubon remarks, deferve to be written in Letters of Gold. Diodorus Siculus names Mofes among the chief Law-givers of ancient Times. "Cadmus Milefius and Acufilaus Argivus, the Two ancienteft Greek Hiftorians, lived but a while before the Perfian Expedition into Greece. And we have but four Greek Hiftorians remaining, who wrote before the Reign of Julius Cafar; and in the firft of them, Herodotus, we find Paffages relating to the Jews; but Thucydides and Xenophon confining themselves to particular Hiftories, could have no occafion to take notice of them; and Polybius's History is most of it loft, who, in his Sixteenth Book, not only mentioned, the Jews, but faid.of Jerufalem, that much was to be spoken of it, especially by reafon of the Fame of the Temple, which he deferred to another opportunity. But we fee, the next general Historians, Diodorus Siculus, k Strab. l. 16. 1 Comment. in Strab. ib. n Jofeph. contr. App. 1. 1. fub. inic. Jofeph. Antiq. l. 12. c. 3. Dicdor. Sic. 1. 1. and and Strabo the Geographer, mention them with Ho nour. Trogus Pompeius feems to have been one of the first Learned Romans that ever undertook to write a Latin History; for the P Ancient Hiftories written by Romans even of confular Dignity, concerning Roman Affairs, were in the Greek Tongue; Trogus was the firft, at least, that attempted an Universal History in the Roman Language, and he lived but in Auguftus's Time. He fays fo much Truth of the Jews, that his Mistakes are the more excufable, fince from an Epitome only, of fo great a Work, it cannot be known from whence they might proceed. He attributes their profperous and flourishing State to a mixture of Juftice with Religion in their Government. He gives a very high Character of Jofeph, faying, that being thro' Envy fold by his Brethren to foreign Merchants, who carried him into Ægypt, he foon became very dear to the King; that he was the first that understood the Interpretation of Dreams, that he foretold a Famine many Years before it happened, and preferved Ægypt by advising the King to provide Stores of Corn against the Time of Famine, and that there had been so much experience of the Truth of his Anfwers, that they feemed to be given rather by a God than by a Man. Pliny fays, Jerufalem was the most famous City, not only of Judea, but of the whole Eaft. *Tacitus himfelf gives this Teftimony of the Jews, That they worshipped the Supreme, Eternal, Immutable Being. Dion Caffius fpeaking to the fame purpose, fays, that many had written of the God of the Jews, and of the Worship which they paid him. But above all, Varro, 'the learnedeft of the Romans, much approved their way of Worship, as being free from that Idolatry r which he could not but diflike in the Heathen Religion. And it is generally agreed by all, that the Religion of the Jews was received all over the World; and, as Seneca exprefs'd it, Vieti victoribus leges dederunt. II. There have been always remaining divers Memorials and Remembrances of the True Religon amongst the Heathen. The Flood of Noah and the Ark * were generally taken notice of by Heathen Hiftorians; and the Account of the Flood of Deucalion was plainly transcribed from that of Noah. Fove is a plain depravation of the word Fehovah; and Diodorus Siculus faid, that Mofes profefs'd that he received his Laws from the God 'Iaw, which is another variation from it,, or from Jah, which is a word often used in the Old Teftament. But both the Fathers and the Modern Criticks generally derive Jao from the Tetragramma b a And this proves the Antiquity of the Heathen Tradition concerning the True God; fince the Jews of latter times would not fpeak the name themfelves, much less communicate it to others. Apollo Clarins being confulted to know who the God Jao was; answered, That he is the Supreme God of all, (as Macrobius informs us, from Cornelius Labeo :) which both fhews, that the Heathen had knowledge of the God Jehovah, and that the Oracles them felves were fometimes forced to confefs Him to be the Supreme God, though obfcurely, and under fome difguife, to amufe thofe to whom their Anfwers were returned; as here Apollo would have him believed to be Bacchus. The Tetragrammaton, or Jehovah, is likewife fuppofed to be meant by the Terractys of Pythagoras; and 'EXλeu, a word ufed in Songs and Acclamations, has a plain allufion to Alleluia, especially with the addi "Ibid. 1. 6. c. II. Præp. 1. 9. c. 12. Solert. Animal. y Lucian. Jofeph. Antiq. I. 1. C. 4. a Vid. Voff. de Idolatr. 1. 1. c. 18. Walton Prolegom. 8. c. 32. §. 19. Bochart. Hieroz. Part 1. 1. 2. b Macrob. Saturn. 1. 1. c. 18. tion of is, as he is. The Septuagint retain the Hebrew word λship, Songs or Hymns, Judg. ix. 27. с d From a learned and large Account of Mr. Selden's ' upon that Subject, it appears, that there was a general Obfervation amongst the Heathen, of one Day in Seven; though length of Time and corruption of Manners had greatly obfcured or quite blotted out the remembrance of the Original Inftitution; or Superftition had by degrees affigned other Reafons for it and this is fufficient to reconcile Jofephus and other Authors with what he brings, which feems to imply the contrary. He likewife holds it probable, that the ancient and most known Example of Abraham gave occafion to the Payment of Tithes by the Greeks, and Romans, and Carthaginians, as well as by the Phenicians and Arabians. And as to the last, he produces an Inftance, which fhews, that they must have had this custom from the Hebrews. For in Arabia Felix all Merchants were obliged to carry their Frankincenfe to Sabota the Capitol City, and there to offer the Tithe of it to their God Sabas, and they were permitted to fell none till this was done. Sabis, as he obferves, was a corruption from Zaboth, an usual Attribute of the true God. It has been proved by several, and is generally agreed by learned Men, that many of the Rites among the Egyptians and other Nations were the fame with thofe appointed by the Law of Mofes, or very like them. But fome would have it, that Mofes took thefe Rites from thofe Nations, without any Proof, or poflibility of Proof, that I can perceive. For how fhould it be proved, when we have no Writings or Memorials of thefe Nations fo ancient as thofe of Mofes by many Ages? And we read in the Scriptures, that feveral Laws were enjoin'd the Jews, because they were contrary to the Idolatrous Seld. de Jur. Nat. & Gent. l. 3. c. 15. a Seld. of Tithes, c. 3. Plin. Hift. 1. 12. C. 14. Practices Practices of the Heathen, but never find the least intimation that any were given them in imitation of the Gentile Worship: and it is unreasonable to imagine that they should have Laws appointed in contradiction to the Idolatrous Worshippers, and others at the fame time in compliance with them, when they were by a miraculous Providence feparated and diftinguished from the Idolatrous Nations, and kept forty Years in the Wilderness, to hinder them from all communication with them, and to cure them of the proneness which they had to imitate them. If it be fuppofed, that the Jews, who were hated and defpifed by other Nations, would be very unlikely to be imitated by them: it may be observed, that they were not always thus defpifed, nor among all Nations, but they were better esteemed till the latter Ages of their Government, and then the reason of their being ill thought of, was, because they were fingular in the principal Points of Worship, and refolute and zealous in the obfervation of it, and would make no compliances with the Heathen World; for they preferved themfelves free from all Idolatry after their Captivity in Babylon. But however hated and contemned they might be; yet the fame Authors who acquaint us with it, exprefs their own fence, rather than the fence of the rest of Mankind for at the fame time they tell us, that they gained every where Profelytes. The Greeks were likewife ever defpifed by the Romans, but ever imitated; and we have now an Example of a neighbour Nation, which is generally both imitated and spoken against. And there can be no other reasonable account given of the Agreement of fo many other Nations with the Jews, in their Rights and Customs, but that thefe Nations, in the times of Solomon, or fome time after, during the flourishing eftate of the Kingdoms of Judah and Ifrael, or perhaps after the Captivity, and fince the Difperfion of the Hebrews, had conformed themselves to them. * Numenius H 2 f |