manner they fell from one thing to another, after they ceased to retain God in their Knowledge, according to what God had been pleased to reveal to them concerning himself and his Worship; becoming every Day more and more vain in their Imaginations, they wandered farther and farther from the true Religion, into all manner of Fooleries and Abominations.

At what particular Times the Egyptians took the several Steps that led them into their groffer Idolatries, we cannot fay, but we find they were got into them very early. They worshipped Images, even the Images of Beafts, before the Ifraelites left them, as appears from the Ifraelites fetting up the Calf at Horeb (a), in imitation of the Gods which they had feen in Egypt; and it is remarkable that they were by this time fuch Proficients in the Art of making these Gods, as to caft them in Metal, for such an Image was that which the Ifraelites fet up; and this makes the Obfervation of Paufanias appear very probable, who remarks (b), that the Egyptians had wooden or carved Images at the time that Danaus came into Greece; for fuppofing Danaus's coming into Greece to be about the time where (c) the Arundelian

(a) Exod. xxxii. (b) In Corinthiacis. (c) Archbishop Ufher fuppofes the Parian Chronicon to have been compofed Anno Mundi 3741; and the Marble tells us that Danaus's VOL. I.

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lian Marble fixes it, i. e. a little before the time when Mofes vifited the Children of Ifrael, namely, A. M. 2494, it looks very probable that they had this fort of Images thus early, becaufe it appears from what I before obferved, that before twenty Years after this Time they were fo improved as to make them of better Materials, and in a more curious and artful manner; for Archbishop Ufher places the Exit of the Children of Ifrael out of Egypt but nineteen Years after this Year, in which Danaus is fuppofed to have come into Greece. The Obfervation of Paufanias was [oara τὰ πάλα, μάλισα τα Αἰγύπτια] that the Egyptian Images were all wooden (a) or carved ones at that Time, i, e. at the time that Danaus left Egypt, which being, as will appear hereafter, feveral Years before he came to Greece, it is very probable that

coming into Greece was 1247 Years earlier, fo that according to this Account it was Anno Mundi 2494, as I have placed it, which is about 20 Years before the Ifraelites going out of Egypt. (a) The Tranflator of Paufanias renders the Word Ebava, è ligno, and fo I find many Authors agree to take it. Clemens Alexandrinus [in Cohortat. ad Gentes] thinks oavov to be a carved Image of either Wood or Stone; and Hefychius fays ξόανα αγάλματα κυείως τὰ ἐξ ξύλων αξεσμένα ή λίθων the best Explanation of the true meaning of the Word feems to have been defign'd by Eufebius [Præp. Evang. 1.3. C. 8.] ubere he oppofes it to @ σκέλμιον έργον, meaning perhaps a molten Image; but the Paffage is fo corrupted, that there is no gueffing at the true meaning of it. I have been in fome Doubts whether bava in Paufanias, might not be a miftake for ξώικα, οι ξώινα.

the Ufe of Images in Egypt was then in its firft Rife and Infancy, and that the Makers of them were not got further than to try their Art upon fuch common and easy Materials as young Beginners would choofe to make their firft Attempts on. The Religion of Egypt was fo entirely corrupted in Mofes's time, that he could not venture upon fuffering the Ifraelites to facrifice unto the Lord their God in the Land, for he told Pharaoh that it would be in no wife proper for them to attempt it (a), becaufe they would be obliged to facrifice the Abomination of the Egyptians before their Eyes, i. e. fome of those living Creatures which the Egyptians had confecrated, and that they should hereby fo enrage them, that they would ftone them for fo doing; but they do not feem to have deviated thus far in the Days of Jofeph; Joseph appears by all the Actions of his Life to have been a Man of Virtue, his Heart was full of the Hope and Expectation of the Promife which God had made to Abraham, to Ifaac, and to Jacob (b), and therefore he took an Oath of the Children of Ifrael, that when God fhould vifit them, and bring them out of Egypt, they would carry away his Bones with them, and yet he married in Egypt the Priest of On's Daughter (c); and afterwards, when the Land

(a) Exod. viii. 26. (6) Gen. 1. 24, 25. (c) Chap. xli. 45Z 2

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was famished, he took the Priefts under his Protection, fo as not to have them fuffer in a Calamity which was fo fevere and heavy upon all the other Inhabitants of the Land (a). If the Religion of Egypt had at this time been fo intirely corrupted, as it was in Mofes's time, Jofeph, who had the fame Faith as Mofes had, would furely no more than Mofes did, have fat down in the Enjoyment of the Pleafures and Honours and Riches of Egypt, but at least, when Pharaoh had put him in full Power, fo that without him no Man lifted up his Hand or Foot in all the Land of Egypt (b), he would have used his Credit with the King, and his Authority both with the Priefts and the People, to have in fome measure corrected their Religion, if there had been any of these groffer Abominations at that time in it; and he might furely have as eafily effected fomething in this Matter, as he brought about a total Change of the Property of all the Subjects of the Land: But the Truth of the Matter was moft probably this; The Egyptians and the Ifraelites were indeed at this Time in fome refpects of a different Religion, and not being able to join Worship at the fame Altar, they might not (according to their Notions of Things) eat with one another; but their Differences were not as

yet fo wide, but that they could bear with Jofeph, and Jofeph with them: And therefore all their groffer Corruptions, which led them to worship the Images of Beafts and of Men, must be fuppofed to have arisen later than thefe Days; and the time between Jofeph's Death, and the Children of Ifrael's going out of Egypt, being about a Century and half, they may very well be supposed to have been begun in the firft Part of this Time, and the Egyptians to have had only carved or wooden Images, according to Paufanias, until after Danaus left them, and to have fo improved as to make molten Images before the Iraelites Departure from them.

There is indeed one Paffage in Genefis, which feems to intimate that there was that religious Regard, which the Egyptians were afterwards charged with, paid to Creatures even in the Days of Joseph; for we are informed, that he put his Brethren upon telling Pharaoh their Profeffion, in order to have them placed in the Land of Gofben, for or becaufe (a) every Shepherd is an Abomination to the Egyptians. I muft freely acknowledge, that I cannot fatisfy my self about the Meaning of this Paffage; I cannot fee that Shepherds were really at this Time an Abomination to the Egyptians; for Pharaoh himself had his Shep

(a) Gen. xlvi. 34.

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