2. Again, as the myfterious rites of Egypt are faid, agreeably to their ufage, to be held in fecret, by their ELDERS AND RULERS only: fo the Phenician rites, for the fame reason, are shewn as they were celebrated by the PEOPLE, in open day. And the Perfian worship of the fun, which was performed by the Magi, is here faid to be observed by the PRIESTS alone, five and twenty men with their faces towards the east.

These three capital Superftitions, the Prophet, again, diftinctly objects to them, in a following chapter. Thou hast alfo committed fornication with the EGYPTIANS thy neighbours, great of flesh; and baft increafed thy whoredoms to provoke me to anger. Thou haft played the whore alfo with the ASSYRIANS, because thou waft unfatiable: yea thou haft played the harlot with them, and yet couldft not be fatisfied. Thou haft moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of CANAAN unto Chaldea, and yet thou waft not fatisfied herewith.

And when that miferable Remnant, who, on the taking of Jerufalem by Nebuchadnezzar, had efcaped the fate of their enflaved countrymen, were promised safety and fecurity, if they would stay in Judea, they faid, No, but we will go into the land

:

Fornication, adultery, whoredom, are the conftant figures under which the Holy Spirit reprefents the idolatries of the Ifraelites confequently, by this character of the Egyptians being great of flesh, and in another place, that their flesh was as the flesh of affes, and their iffue like the iffue of borfes, EZEK. xxiii. 20. we are given to understand that Egypt was the grand origin and incentive of idolatry, and the propagator of it amongst the reft of mankind: which greatly confirms our general pofition concerning the antiquity of this Empire.

of EGYPT, where we shall fee no war, nor hear the found of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread, and there will we dwell.

Thus we fee what a furprizing fondness this infatuated people had for Egypt, and how entirely they were feized and poffeffed with its fuperftitions. Which the more I confider, the more I am confirmed in the truth of Scripture-history, (fo oppofite to Sir Ifaac Newton's Egyptian Chronology) that Egypt was, at the egreffion of the Ifraelites, a great and powerful empire. For nothing fo much. attaches a people to any particular Conftitution, or mode of Government, as the high opinion of its power, wealth, and felicity; thefe being ever fuppofed the joint product of its RELIGION and CIVIL POLICY.

II. Having thus proved the first part of the Propofition, That the Jewish people were extremely fond of Egyptian manners, and did frequently fall into Egyptian fuperftitions, I come now to the fecond That many of the Laws given to them by the ministry of Mofes were inftituted partly in compliance to their prejudices, and partly in oppofition to thofe and to the like fuperftitions. But to fet what I have to fay in fupport of this fecond part of the Propofition in a fair light, it may be proper juft to state and explain the ENDS of the Ritual Law. Its firft and principal, was to guard the chofen people from the contagion of IDOLATRY: a fecond, and very important end, was to prepare them for the recep tion of the MESSIAH. The firft required that the Ritual Law should be OBJECTIVE to the Pagan fuperftitions; and the fecond, that it fhould be

TYPICAL of their great Deliverer. Now the coincidencies of these two ends, not being fufficiently adverted to, hath been the principal occafion of that obftinate averfion to the truth here advanced,. That much of the Ritual was given, PARTLY in compliance to the People's prejudices, and PARTLY in op-. pofition to Egyptian fuperftitions: These men thinking the falfhood of the Propofition fufficiently proved in fhewing the Ritual to be typical; as if the one end excluded the other: whereas we fee they were very confiftent; and hereafter fhall fee, that their concurrency affords. one of the noblest proofs of the divinity of its original.

And now, to go on with our fubject: The intelligent reader cannot but perceive, that the giving a RITUAL in oppofition to Egyptian fuperftition, was a neceffary confequence of the People's propensity towards it. For a people fo prejudiced, and who were to be dealt with as free and accountable Agents, could not poffibly be kept feparate from other nations, and pure from foreign idolatries, any otherwise than by giving them laws IN OPPOSITION to thofe fuperftitions. But fuch being the corrupt state of man's Will as ever to revolt against what directly oppofeth its prejudices, wife Governors, when under the neceffity of giving fuch Laws, have, in order to break and evade the force of human perversity, always intermixed them with others which eluded the perverfity, by flattering the prejudice; where the indulgence could not be fo abused as to occafion the evil which the laws of oppofition were defigned to prevent. And in this manner it was that our infpired Lawgiver acted with

f See this reafoning inforced, and explained more at large in the proof of the next propofition.

his people, if we will believe Jesus himself, where fpeaking of a certain pofitive institution, he says, Mofes for the HARDNESS OF YOUR HEARTS wrote you this precept. Plainly intimating their manners to be fuch, that, had not Mofes indulged them in fome things, they would have revolted against all". It follows therefore, that Mofes's giving Laws to the Ifraelites, in compliance to these their prejudices, was a natural and neceffary confequence of Laws given in oppofition to them. Thus far from the nature of the thing.

Matter of fact confirms this reafoning. We find in the Law a furprizing relation and refemblance between Jewish and Egyptian rites, in circumstances both oppofite and fimilar. But the learned SPENCER hath fully exhausted this subject, in his excellent work, De legibus Hebræorum. ritualibus & earum rationibus; and thereby done great fervice to divine revelation: For the RITUAL LAW, when thus explained, is feen to be an Inftitution of the most beautiful and fublime contrivance. Which, without its CAUSES, (no whereto be found but in the road of this theory) must lie for ever open to the fcorn and contempt of Libertines and Unbelievers. This noble work is no other, than a paraphrase and comment on the third part of a famous treatife called More Nevochim, of the Rabbi MOSES MAIMONIDES: of whom only to fay (as is his common Encomium) that he was the first of the Rabbins who left off trifling, is a poor

* MARK X. 5. and MAT. xix. 8.

h This is ftill farther feen from God's being pleased to be confidered by them as a local tutelary Deity: which, when we come to that point, we fhall fhew, was the prevailing fupersti. tion of those times.

and

and invidious commendation. Thither I refer the impartial reader; relying on his juftice to believe that I mean to charge myfelf with no more of Spencer's opinions than what directly tend to the proof of this part of my Propofition, by fhewing That there is a great and furprizing relation and resemblance between the Jewish and Egyptian rites, in circumstances both oppofite and fimilar.

I afk nothing unreasonable of the reader, when I defire him to admit of this as proved; fince the learned HERMAN WITSIUS in a book profeffedly written to confute the hypothefis of Maimonides and Spencer, confeffes the fact in the fulleft and ampleft manner.

What is it then (a ftranger to Controverfy would be apt to inquire) which this learned man addreffes himself, in a large quarto volume, to confute? It is the plain and natural confequence of this refemblance, namely, That the Jewish Ritual was given partly in compliance to the People's prejudices, and

i Ita autem commodiffime me proceffurum exiftimo, fi primo longa exemplorum inductione ex doctiffimorum virorum mente, et corum plerumque vérbis, demonftravero, MAGNAM ATQUE MI

RANDAM PLANE CONVENIENTIAM IN RELIGIONIS NEGOTIO VETERES INTER EGYPTIOS ATQUE HEBRÆOS ESSE.

Que cum fortuita effe non poffit, neceffe eft ut vel Ægyptii Sua ab Hebræis, vel ex adverfo Hebræi fua ab Egyptiis habeant, And again, Porro, fi, levato antiquitatis obfcurioris velo, gentium omnium ritus oculis vigilantibus intueamur, Egyptios & Hebræos, PRÆ OMNIBUS ALIIS moribus SIMILLIMOS fuiffe comperiemus. Neque boc Kircherum fefellit, cujus hæc funt verba: Hebræi tantam habent ad ritus, facrificia, cærimonias, facras difciplinas Ægyptiorum affinitatem, ut vel Ægyptios hebraizantes, vel Hebræos ægyptizantes fuifle, plane mihi perfuadeam.-Sed quid verbis opus eft? in rem præfentem veniamus, [Egyptiaca, p. 4.] And fo he goes on to tranfcribe, from Spencer and Marsham, all the eminent particulars of that resemblance,

Partly