tion of all the neighbouring nations, he did not defign this alone for the Jews, but also to be the means of spreading abroad the knowledge of the true God: How then could this be effected without expounding the law? but let Soloman speak for himself: In that folemn addrefs which he makes to God, relative to the temple, he says-“ Moreover concerning a stranger that is not of thy people Ifrael, but cometh out of a far country, for thy name fake, for they fhall hear of thy great name, and of thy ftrong hand, and of thy ftretched out arm, when he shall come and pray toward this houfe, hear thou in heaven, and do thou according to all that the ftranger calleth to thee for, that all the people of the earth may know thy nâme to fear thee, as thy people Ifrael." This very paffage is fully fufficient to shew that philofophers, as well as others, might have in this manner received that information, which their own pride would not fuffer them to acknowledge, with respect to the fource whence they derived it; altho' an inward conviction of the divine truths they had learned, made them ambitious of being teachers of them; cloathed, however, in a drefs not totally divested of their natural prejudice. Prejudice. That Solomon was very communicative of instruction is evident; for when the Queen of Sheba came to hear his wif dom, "and communed with him all that was in her heart," we are informed, Solomon told her all her questions-there was not any thing hid from the King, which he told her not, of consequence he explained to her the laws and history of Mofes, which (there is no doubt) she had carefully penned down by her secretary or interpreter. For it is not likely that he would have made fuch a journey for information, and neglect to make a proper use of it; and it is also very probable, that many ftrangers vifited Jerufalem for the very fame purpose, whofe names are not mentioned in hiftory. Who therefore can think the following words of R. SEHEM JOBB, BEN JOSEPH, BEN PHALKIRA, improbable ; which are thus expreffed by Buxtorf: Omnino exiftimo, ipfaque eft veritas philofophos antiquos accepiffe philofophiam a SCHEMO, HEBERO, ABRAHAMO, & reliquis patribus noftris, imprimis autem a Salomone, ad cujus fapientiam audiendum, confluxerunt ex omnibus quatuor mundi plagis, tunc fcilicet quifque quod vel ex ipfo vel fub ejus nomine audivit in lingua fua confingavit, ficut ho die moris eft inter omnes populos, ut artes ac difciplinas ex aliis linguis in fuam transferant. Sic fecerunt olim Græci, qui omnes libros philofophia in linguam fuam tranftulerunt. Buxtorf. Cofri. p. 29. "I am intirely of the opinion, and it is very true, that the ancient philofophers received their philofophy from Shem, Heber, Abraham, and the reft of our fathers, but chiefly from Solomon, to hear whose wisdom people crowded from all quarters of the globe; then it was that whatsoever any perfon heard, either perfonally or otherwife, he committed to writing in his own language, as is this day the cuftom of all who tranflate the improvements in arts and literature from other languages into their own." Notwithstanding Sir John Marsham seems to triumph in the words of Juvenal: : Judicium edifcunt, & fervant & metuunt jus, Yet it is easy to prove, that Mofes wished to communicate a knowledge of the divine laws to the world, or otherwise he would not have given peremptory orders, that "On the day when ye fhall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that that thou shalt fet great ftones, and plaifter them with plaifter, and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law." "and thou fhalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly." Here then the law was written for the inspection of all the world. Sir John Marsham, after fhewing a poffibility of philofophers having received those opinions, which are fo ftrongly like the Mofaic doctrines, from the Egyptians, among whom Mofes was inftructed, and from whom he is fuppofed to have formed his opinions, yet makes this conceffion :-Certe nulla eft controverfia quin praxias de unius regimine, five de Deo unico, reverens fuerit & rectiffima Æbræorum, non item recta Ægyptiorum, existimatio:-that the opinion of the Ægyptians relative to one God, was not so just as that of the Hebrews. Therefore, it is a flander upon revelation to say, that Mofes borrowed his fentiments from the Egyptians. But whatever right notions were found among them, were either the remains of that information, which defcended from the pa-, triarchs by tradition, or were afterwards borrowed from Mofes; and the little light they had was fo buried in the groffeft fuperftition, that 藝術 that it had but a very weak influence upon them, which will appear very fully in our next enquiry. With respect to the objection, that there was no translation of the bible before that of the Septuagint, I say this cannot be proved; but on the contrary, if there had been in the Alexandrian library another copy, which has been attested, previous to that of the Septuagint, even acknowledging it to have been fuch a one as could not be fufficiently depended on, yet it would have ferved the purpose of giving much information to the curious. Sanchoniathon is faid to have derived his knowledge from the books of Mercury; but ftill it is demanded, who this Mercury was, which is difficult, from the difcordant accounts of the most ancient historians. Auguf tinus makes him much later than Mofes ; for he says, that when Mofes was born, the grandfather of Mercury was living. Artapanus, the fragments of whose work have been preserved by Eufebius, fays, that Mofes, the adopted fon of the daughter of Palmanothes, king of Egypt, had communicated many useful things to his people; and that he was called Epun, Mercury-which if true, Mofes must have been the much celebrated Thoth ,、,, |