Io Argiva the Story of whom the Poet calls Argumentum ingens in Virgil wherewith drawn to the Life he feigns Turnus his Buckler was flourished when he came into the Field against AEneas and that because he was the Progeny of Acrisius and Inachus Kings of Argos At laevem clypeum sublatis cornibus Io Auro insignibat jam set is obsita jam Bos Argumentum ingens custos Virginis Argos Caelataque amnem fundens Pater Inachus urna For whereas Poets feign that Io was turned into an Oxe by Jupiter being found by Juno the truth seems to be no other than this Osiris was that Jupiter and being represented by Bos mas no marvel if hereupon she becoming his Wife they feigned her to be turned into Bos foemina And whereas it is further feigned that Argos was set by Juno to watch her this Argos fairly represents Osiris also her Husband under another Notion namely as in an Hieroglyphical Interpretation he is taken for the Sun For such was the Oxe representing Osiris full of white Spots and whose Hair was towards the Head to signifie the Sun 's proper Motion from West to East contrary to the general Motion of the Heavens from East to West though Astronomers think otherwise in these days And the Stars of Heaven by Aristotles Doctrine receive their Light from the Sun Afterwards Poets feign that by Juno's means she was Oestro percita plagued with an Hornet and driven to fly into Egypt the Truth whereof was no other than Ostris his marrying of her and carrying her over with him into Egypt and there saith Servius she was turned into Isis Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 18. c. 3. Jo filia Inachi this is that Argumentum ingens Virgil speaks of in reference to the true Story obscurely carried and drest by the Wits of Poets But some rubs I find lying in the way to hinder us in the Acknowledgment of so great Antiquity of Isis and Osiris For whereas Danaus that fled from his Brother Egyptus out of Egypt unto Argos in Grece is stiled by Mr. Lydiat à Belo Egyptio oriundus by this Belus meaning Osiris as from whom Danaus was derived but afar off as who is accompted but the 10th King of Argos beginning from Inachus Egyptus the Brother of Danaus I find stiled Beli filius the Son of Belus in a Monument of him erected in a Temple of Serapis the City of Patrae or Aroe a City of Achaia as Pausanias relates in his Achaicis Yet this is not of force to take me off from following Mr. Lydiate in this I understand filius here in a larger sense than to take it for a Son begotten of Belus and that it is no more than à Belo oriundus one that was derived from Belus For it is not credible that Pharaoh whom the Lord drowned in the Red-Sea or any of his Posterity or his Father was Osiris the great God of the Egyptians as before hath been argued As also that the Gods of Egypt in Moses his days were not the same with the Gods of Egypt in the days of Joseph Another rub is cast in the way by Ludovicus Vives upon Austin de Civit Dei lib. 18. c. 3. Pausanias affirmeth saith he that she was the Daughter of Jasius the sixth King of Argos Yet he confesseth that Valerius Flaccus in his Argonautes lib. 4. calls Jovem Inachidem but withal he takes notice that he calls her Jastam virginem as much as to say the Daughter of Jesius yet she might be called Inachides nevertheless because she descended from Inachus who was the first Founder of that Kingdom and Author of their Nobility He gives also another Reason drawn from the Testimony of Eusebius both in his Chronicles and in his tenth Book of Evangelical Preparation testifying that this Jo lived in the days of Triapas the seventh King of Argos 400 years after Inachus And indeed thus I find it in Pausanias in his Corinthiacks 58. that Triapas had two Sons Jasus and Agenow and that Jo was the Daughter of Jasus and so two Ages after Triapas and but one before Danaus who was after the time of Moses his leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt which I willingly confess is nothing probable and though this be to my greater advantage in this present Argument yet I choose rather to hold with Mr. Lydiate still so utterly improbable and unlikely it is tâ—aâ— Pharoah who was drowned in the Red-Sea or his Father either was Osiris the times of Moses and of Joseph are so congenerous as touching the same Saperstitions in course among the Egyptians And as touching Pansanias this I find that howsoever he writes thus in his Corinthiacks yet in his first Book called Attica reckoning up the Statues which were found in the Town of the Athenians two were of Women Jo the Daughter of Inachus and Calisto the Daughter of Lycaon whose Fortunes he saith were represented to be much the same both as touching Jupiter's Love and Juno's Wrath and the Metamorphosis of each the one into a Cow the other into a Bear But then you will say the more antient Osiris was the more evident it is that Temples were in use long before Moses yea divers hundred years Whereto I answer though I grant the greatest Antiquity ascribed to them and do not help my self with Testimonies out of the antient Fathers as Clemens Alexandrinus lib. 1. Stromat Tertullian in his Apology cap. 9. Justinus in his Oration against the Gentiles and Tatianus in his Oration against the Greeks and Epiphanius in his first Book against Heresies yea and of divers prophane Authors alledged by Eusebius in his tenth Book of Evangelical Preparation and third Chapter all testifying that Inachus King of Argos reigned in the days of Moses because Inachus by the computation of times was much elder for which v. Usher A.M. 2174. Yet Diodorus his Testimony of a Temple built by Osiris himself deserves no credit for he doth but relate what he heard from the Priests of Egypt who told Herodotus that between Orus his Reign and that ancient Amosis we speak of Contemporary to Inachus there were no less than 15000 years And as for Jupiter and Juno we know such Deities received by the Egyptians were no other than Osiris and Isis themselves which all the Egyptians worshipt as Herodotus testifies so did they not any other God And if there were any such building of Temples in Egypt in those ancient times when the Israelites were so much imployed in making of such store of Brick in all likely hood these Bricks would have been imployed about such sacred uses but the Scripture testifies that they were imployed about the building of certain Cities to be made Store houses for the King It is true Clemens Alexandrinus was to seek whether Phoroneus or Merops was the first Founder of Temples Phoroneus we know was the Son of Inachus and second King of Argos and Brother to Jo or Isis but who Merops was
Posterity of Japhet of whose Children the Isles of the Gentiles were divided in their Lands every one after his tongue Gen. 10.5 and after their Families in their Nations And all the three Sons of Noah it 's likely were imployed by their Father in building the Ark and by them their Posterity might easily be instructed in that Art the Lord himself first instructing Noah Especially considering how long both Noah and Sem lived after the Flood Noah 350 years that is not only after the Babylonian and Assyrian Kingdoms erected by Nimrod and Assur 235 years but after the Posterity of Misraim began to reign in Egypt in several Principalities 89 years and after Ogyges built Thebes in Grece 41 years and after Aegialeus the first King of Sicyonians in Peloponnesus his beginning to reign 23 years and died but two or three years before Abraham was born And Sem lived 150 years after his Father Noah and Sem died but 10 years before Esau and Jacob were born according to Lydiat's Chronicle which I take to be most accurate And for ought I know to the contrary both Ham and Japhet might live as long as Sem and the Grecians and Isles of the Gentiles might be well known to be Japeti genus Though I deny not but others of his Posterity might be called by his name like as we read of two Kings of Athens each called by the name of Cecrops the one of Cecrops major and the other of Cecrops minor and the younger of them divers Ages after the elder And the name of Iphitus who was but one Age before the Wars of Troy doth plainly carry the same Radical Letters that Japetus doth But to proceed 11. The Pelasgians are accounted by Strabo in his fifth Book Populi Graeciae vetustissimi the most ancient People of Greece And these He and Hesiod and Pausanias in his Arcadicis testifie to have proceeded from Pelasgus Ac primum omnium Pelasgum memorant Arcadi in illa terra extitisse The Arcadians report that Pelasgus was the first of Men in that Country which relation Pausanias modifies thus That he was the first King there to wit in Arcadiae and who first brought the rude People there to build Cottages to defend themselves from the Injuries of the Weather Lycaon was his Son and him Pausanias makes coetaneous to Cecrops meaning Cecrops major which Cecrops is commonly accounted coetaneous with Moses especially Eusebius in his Tenth Book of his Evangelical Preparation Chap. 19. and he adds this as a thing confessed by all Nemo non fatetur Lycanon's youngest Son was Oenotrius who went with a Colony into Italy and from him that Country of Italy was called Oenotria Yet there were no Temples till the days of Janus by the Testimony of Xenon formerly mentioned out of Macrobius his Saturnals lib. 1. cap. 9. And this was the first of all the Grecian Colonies in the opinion of Pausanias and he adds also That neither had he found any Transmigration made by the Barbarians before this But therein we know Pausanias mistakes and that Grece and all Europe after the Universal Deluge was first inhabited by those of the Posterity of Noah and specially of Japhet who came into the Western Parts from the East And the Iones a People so well known both in Asia the less and in Grece do fairly manifest by their very Name that they were descended from Javan one of the Sons of Japhet Now Janus the first erector of Temples in Italy was near about 200 years after Cecrops began first to reign in the Region of Attica Yet I confess that Jupiter is said to have gotten Lycaon's Daughter Calisto with Child and besides Jupiter of Grece Cicero makes mention of two Jupiters born in Arcadia I doubt one of them might be Lycaon's Brother for such incestuous Generations were too too frequent amongst those Heathen called Gods 12. But consider we what Pausanias writes in his Eliacis prioribus of Saturn Saturnum primum omnium Coeli Regnum obtinuisse That Saturn first of all obtained the Kingdom of Coelum which we commonly render Heaven but it might be the name of a Country in Crete like as Olympia was a Country in Grece where the hill Olympus was which word Olympus is commonly used by Poets to signifie Heaven Ei in Olympia homines eos quod aureum genus nuncupatum est Templum dedicasse To him the Men of the golden Age dedicated a Temple in Olympia After this Jupiter being born his Mother committed him to the Dactyles of Ida to be kept these were four Brethren of whom Hercules called Idaeus was one long before Hercules the Son of Amphytruo This Hercules as the same Pausanias writes was great Grandfather to Clymenus who coming out of Crete first instituted the Olympian Games 50 years after Deucalion's Flood Now if we accompt 30 years to an Age as Lydiat doth and that according to Clemens Alexandrinus if I mistake not and that Clymenus was 30 years old at the institution of these Olympian Games from thence to the Birth of Hercules the sum of years ariseth but to 120. Now by Lydiat's accompt Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt but 30 years after Deucalion's Flood that is 30 years before Clymenus his institution at what time Moses was 80 years old Hence it follows that Hercules was not born above 20 years before Moses nor this Saturn neither For that Hercules to whom the tutalidge of Jupiter was committed might well be as old as Saturn himself yet this Hercules Idaeus had his name from the Hill Ida in Crete and therefore in all likelyhood Saturn his Father was the same that fled into Italy and there was entertained by Janus many years after Moses And whereas Pausanias gives much credit to Homer concerning Matters of Grece why should we not give as much credit to Virgil concerning the Story of Italy Yet that of Saturn's Entertainment by Janus is a Story very commonly received Yet I confess Diodorus Siculus makes mention of a Saturn and a Jupiter and an Hercules and Curetes Dactyli in Phrygia but upon what ground I know not for Pausanias doth not and it seems from Curetes by Contraction came Cretes and thence that Island of Crete might have his Name but I stand not upon this Nay I yield rather that it had its Name from one Cres who reigned there at the same time that Inachus reigned at Argos in Grece It may be then the Curetes were the same with Cretes But it is nothing strange the Grecians should be found to run wild sometimes in their Accounts of times considering that Cadmus was the first who coming out of Phoenicia to Thebes taught Greeks the use of Letters as Eusebius writes in his Evangelical Preparation lib. 10. cap. 5. and Clemens Alexandrinus in the first Book of his Stromata p. 306. Graeco-lat Though I know Diodorus Siculus minceth the matter saying that he brought amongst them only a new Character belike for the Honour of the
know full well that when such Ceremonies and Place for the performance performance of them were appointed by God they were appointed in all the parts of them for mysterious Prefigurations and therefore are called shadows of good things to come Col. 2.17 Heb. 10.1 Yea and some of them tending to the extream confusion of Satan and his Kingdom yet such as should be brought to pass by Satan's own Counsel and Practises as namely the betraying and crucifying of the Son of God and therefore the Lord saw it sit that the preaching and practising of such Mysteries which in due time should be revealed should be carried in the mean time in the Clouds of Types and Figures so that Satan himself should not be able to discover the depth of them until the time came wherein they were accomplished And indeed there is no greater glory of God that manifests it self in the course of his Providence than the glory of his Wisdom 1 Cor. 1.10 20. and this is most seen in taking the Wise in their craftiness and going beyond them throughout and making their Devices vain that it may appear the wisest of them are but fools in comparison of him not only amongst Men but among the Angels also For the holy Angels are taken with a great desire to peer into these Mysteries and hereby is made known unto them the manifold wisdom of God 1 Pet. 1.12 Eph. 3.10 Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the riches both of the knowledge and wisdom of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counsellor 5. Therefore it stood Satan upon it to observe what course the Lord would be pleased to take for his outward Service that so he might use his best endeavour to oppose it either by alienating the minds of men from that kind of Service or by corrupting it drawing their hearts from God and working them to bestow that Service upon the Creature An instance of the first kind we may observe in the Egyptians in whom he wrought an extream alienation from the Hebrews for such was their Superstition that they might not eat with the Hebrews Gen. 43.32 for that was an abomination to the Egyptians These Hebrews were the People of God so called from the Patriarch Heber who was great Grandfather to Abraham's great Grandfather Serug This Heber lived Nineteen years in the days of Jacob who came down into Egypt It seems he had a numerous Posterity and that might make him and his the more known in the World even to Pharaoh and the Egyptians in Jacob's days For one of his Sons Joktan by name had Thirteen Sons as the Scripture doth express And Sem that holy Patriarch is peculiarly noted in Scripture to be the Father of the Sons of Heber though he were Heber's great Grandfather And this notion had a mystery in the signification of it as Moulin conceives For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith he is as much as Passengers 1 Pet. 2.11 And such is the condition of God's Children here they are but Strangers and Pilgrims It is afterwards said Gen. 46 34. that every Shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians * Vid. Cunaeus de rep Hebr. l. 1. c. 5. This we must understand aright namely of such Shepherds only as the Hebrews were who did kill and eat Sheep or kill and sacrifice them For it is apparent that the Egyptians themselves kept Sheep and therefore when Joseph bought their Cattel of them for Bread-corn these are reckoned up to have been not their Horses and their Asses only but their Flocks and Herds also And Exod. 9.3 God threatens to lay his hand upon their Sheep to destroy them but the sacrificing of them this was it which the Egyptians accounted abomination And therefore when Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron and said Exod. 8.25 16. Go ye and sacrifice to your God in the Land Moses forthwith answered and said It is not meet so to do For we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God Lo shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us Nor the sacrificing of them only but to kill them for Food was an abomination to the Egyptians And therefore whereas we read Gen. 39.6 that Potiphar left all that he had in Joseph ' s hands save the bread which he did eat this both Junius and Schindler render thus save the meat that he did eat and Shindler gives the reason why he would not have Joseph meddle with that to wit because he was Carnis Esor an Eater of Flesh Quia eo tempore Egyptij non comedebant carnem nec lac Schindler on the Root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec mactabant oves borum pastores comestores abominabantur The Egyptians in those days did not eat Flesh nor Milk nor killed Sheep and the Keepers and Eaters of Sheep were an abomination unto them And Eusebius in the Second Book of his Evangelical Preparation p. 49. Graeco-Lat makes an enumeration of the Creatures which are Sacred amongst the Egyptians amongst which are Sheep and adds That if any man do purposely kill any one of them morte damnatur he is put to death These Superstitions were very ancient among the Egyptians even in the days of Moses and in the days of Joseph before Jacob's coming down thither and how long before I know not 6. Nevertheless the Devil being not able to expectorate out of the hearts of all men that Opinion which had taken deep root namely That as there was a God one or more which governed the World and who brought sore Judgments upon them for their sins so this God or Gods were to be appeased by some course or other and no such course for this as Sacrifices a course whereof was derived from Noah to all his Posterity Therefore the Devil had another way to dishonour God by drawing them to Sacrifice to Idols and to Creatures instead of the Creator yea and to the Devil himself being deluded by his Oracles and that in most barbarous manner for at length he brought them to Sacrifice Men Women and Children unto him and that under great shew of Devotion whereof we read largely in very many Authors both Ancient and Modern I will only mention one notable Story in Pansanias How when a Temple became polluted by the impure courses of a young Man and Maid the Devil gave forth by his Oracle that this Prophanation was to be expiated by Sacrifice and no Sacrifice would serve the turn but this Every year a young Man and Maid must be sacrificed to that God whose Temple had thus been defiled And this barbarous course continued for certain years only they bestowed a denomination upon this God of theirs calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rigid or cruel God And accordingly I am of opinion that like
fit God his meaning was to the God that plagued them but who it was they knew not And therefore Laertius addeth That even in his days there were to be seen in the Streets of Athens Altars without a Name as a memorial of that expiation and hereupon he saith that the Plague ceased And in all likelyhood the Altar that St. Paul observed as he went in one of the Streets of Athens with this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the unknown God was one of those Altars Laertius writes of though the Inscription might be defaced in his days for in Causabon's judgment Laertius lived not until the year 200. after Christ that is about the time of Tertullian yet Altars with such Inscriptions were nothing strange such a one being mentioned by Pausanias in his Eliacks p. 162. Adjacet ei ignotorum Deorum ara Now this Epimenides came to Athens about this business by Laertius's accompt in the 47th Olympiad and others reckon him to be coaetaneus to Pythagoras who lived in the time of Servius Tullus the fifth King of Rome from Romulus Now Rome it self had its Foundation laid but in the days of Jotham King of Judab by Lydiat and Usher 's accompt and the very year after Nabuchodonosor had inchoated his Kingdom of Babylon which was a Type of Romish Babylon 10. Janus was a King in Italy long before Romulus and unto him a certain Writer Xenon by name in the first Book of his Italica ascribes the first building of Temples as Macrobius testifies in the first Book of his Saturnals Chap. 9. Now the beginning of Janus his Latin Kingdom Lydiat reckons to be 150 years before Aeneas his coming into Italy in the days of Latinus the fifth King after Janus Aeneas his arriving there being the third year after the taking of Troy which yet by Lydiat's accompt was 60 years after the death of Othniel the first Judge of Israel after the death of Joshua and 120 years after the Children of Israel's coming out of Egypt Now this Janus was the Man that entertained old Saturn when he fled from his Son Jupiter into Italy and admitted him in Societatem Regni to reign with him Thence Italy came to be called Latium as Ovid Writes saying Et dicta est Latium terra latente Deo And Virgil in his Aeneids 8. Primus ab aethereo veniens Saturnus Olympo Arma Jovis fugiens Regnis exul adentis Is genus indocile ac dispersum montibus altis Composuit legesque dedit Latiumque vocari Maluit his quoniam latuisset tutus in Oris where I observe the Poet's wisdom affecting to grace his Country for he feigns Saturn not to come thither flying from the Isle of Crete but from Heaven forsooth to salve the Reputation of his Deity and the Honour of his own Country and adds that his days were the time of that golden Age of the World as Ovid and other Poets feign His words are these Aureaque ut perhibent illo sub Rege fuere In the days of Saturn was the golden Age of the World Now this fairly may revive the remembrance of a Note made by Servius upon a Passage in Virgil describing the goodly Temple that Queen Dido was building when Aeneas after the taking of Troy came thither being cast by a Tempest upon those Parts Hic Templum Junoni ingens Sidonia Dido Condebat donis opulentum numine Divae Aerea cui gradibus surgebant limina nexaeque Aerc trabes foribus cardo stridebat ahenis Now whereas Virgil hath aerea limina brazen Thresholds Servius maketh a question of the reason why he calls the Threshold brazen it seeming unlikly that they should be made of or covered with Brass his answer is That Virgil delivers it allusione facta ad Saecula tunc temporis aerea in allusion to the condition of those times the brazen Age being then on foot Though for ought I see it might go for an Iron Age well enough when such ado was made in the World such Wars raised for 10 years continuance at Troy and all for the Recovery of a Whore if it be a true History and not a Poetical Fiction as some conceive In those days there were Temples I nothing doubt and before for the Trojans had theirs as the same Virgil mentions in the person of Aeneas Nos delubra Deum miseri quibus ultimus esset Ille dies festa velamus fronde per urbem we poor Creatures made that day a Festival day in our Temples which alas was to be our last day their Funeral following immediately after And not in the brazen Age only can we well admit that Temples have been but in the golden Age also as namely in the days of Saturn which yet will be found 160 years after the Children of Israel's coming out of Egypt And if Saturn were the chief of Heathen Deities surely Moses is much more ancient than they all how much more ancient than Temples made to them It is true Cicero makes mention of three Jupiters one the Son of Saturn and Ops King of Crete whose Sepulchre is there found which Callimachus is impatient to hear and therefore brands them for lyars saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cretians are always lyars for they have built a Sepulchre to thee O King whereas thou diest not but livest for ever-The other two Cicero saith were born in Areadia the Father of the one Aether of whom came Proserpina and Liber or Bacchus the Father of the other Coelum and he begat Minerva In like sort Japetus is said by Hesiod to be the Son of Coelum Terrae of Heaven and Earth as much as to say they could not tell who was the Father of them and therefore they feigned them to have been brought forth by the Heaven and Earth and Sea and Rivers But Virgil confounds these Jupiters which Cicero distinguisheth and feigns Saturn the Father of Jupiter Cretensis to have come ab Aethereo Olympo that is from from Aether and Heaven And Japetus we see how plainly it sounds Japhet one of the Sons of Noah as Mercer upon Genesis and many others observe And as Hesiod relates very strange things of Saturns dealing with his Father Coelum so the Jewish Rabbins relate as strange things yea the very same of Ham's dealing with his Father supposing they have some ground for it in the Scripture And sure we are that Noah himself had no Children after the Flood and this Ham was Japhet's Brother and both better known to the World than their Father Noah who with his Son Sem as it seems lived a private life whilst his Children and Childrens children divided the World among them calling the several Regions of it after their own Names and erecting Monarchies Nimrod in Babylon and Assur at Niniveh Horace makes mention of Aâ—dax Japeti genus his Posterity were bold Creatures that dâ—â—st venture in a Ship to make a way through the Sea which fairly refers to the
Greek Nation being loth that the World should take notice that they were beholden to the Phoenicians for this 13. Before I have shewed out of Clemens Alexandrinus that such Structures as were first the Sepulchres of the Dead afterwards being enlarged to a greater Magnificence came to be called the Temples of gods And Arnobius lib. 6. Quid quod multa ex his templa quae Tholis sunt aureis sublimibus elata fastigiis auctorum conscriptionibus comprobatur contegere cineres atque ossa defunctorum esse corporum sepulchra Nonne patet in promtu est aut pro Diis immortalibus mortuos vos colere aut inexpiabilem fieri numinibus contumeliam quorum delubra templa mortuorum superlata sunt bustis What shall we say to this that many Temples which are built with golden Arches and lofty Roofs do cover Ashes and Bones and that they are the Sepulchres of Men deceased as it appears by the Writings of divers Authors Is it not manifest and prone to conclude hereby that either you worship dead Men instead of gods or that you do the gods an Injury that cannot be expiated in that you build their Temples upon the Sepulchres of the dead Now the first Instance given in this kind by Clemens Alexandrinus in his Admonition to the Gentiles I find to be of the Temple of Minerva which was the Sepulchre of Acrisius Now this Acrisius was the 14th King of Argos by the Account of Appion the Grammarian alledged by Tatianus and represented by Ensebius in the â—â—th Book of his Evangelical Preparation p. 493. Graecolat And in the Fourth Generation after Danaus who came out of Egypt unto Argos in Grece upon the Confusion caused in Egypt partly by the Slaughter of the First Born and partly by the Destruction of Pharaoh and his Egyptians in the Red Sea when Moses led the Children of Israel through it towards the Land of Canaan by the Account of Mr. Lydiat in his Emendation of Times And that which Appion writeth hereof was out of Piolimaeus Mendesius Pausanias in his Boeotica speaks of a Temple dedicated to Hercules but whereas some imagine or might imagine that it was a Temple dedicated to Hercules the Son of Amphytrion he professeth that it was multo vetustius much more ancient than so and therefore he conceives rather the Dedication of it ought to be ascribed to a more ancient Hercules who was one of the Idaei Dactyli commonly called Hercules Idaeus Now these Idaei Dactyli were those Curetes to whose Care the Education of Jupiter was committed to wit Jupiter Cretensis the Son of Saturn who flying out of Crete and coming into Italy was there entertained by Janus which Janus reigned in Italy long after Moses as formerly hath been shewed The same Pausanias in the first of his Eliacks affirms Pelops was the first that erected a Temple to Mercury in Peloponnesus and in his Boeoticis reports that one Myron Byzantius a Writer of Heroick Verses and Elegies had delivered that Amphyon was the first of all Men that dedicated an Altar to Mercury Now Pelops is accounted but of the same time with Acrisius King of Argos the Fourth King after Danaus by Eusebius in his Evangelical Preparation lib. 10. p. 493. Graecolar And the same Tatianus in the same place of Eusebius maintains Moses to have been before Amphyon But of all the Temples known to Pausanias the most Ancient he professeth to have been the Temple of Apollo Thearius which was the Troezenians For albeit he takes notice of two other Temples which were very ancient yet this he saith was much more ancient than they and was reported to have been built by Pythius and as it was built by him so it was adorned by him also Now what time Pythius lived he sheweth forthwith when he saith that Bellerophon coming to Troezene where Pithias reigned he required of him Aethra to be given him to Wife but Aegeus married her King of Athens and she became the Mother of Thesous as Robert Stephanus writes and Pellerophon was deprived of his Kingdom of Ephyra by Praetos King of Argos as the same Author writeth Now this Praetus was the third King of Argos after Danaus by Tatianus his account related by Eusebius Praeparat Evangel lib. 10. and Danaus is by Lidiat's Account somewhat after Moses 14. But we proceed from the Grecians to the Egyptians because they are supposed by some to have found out and communicated to others the Names of Heathenish Gods and first erected Temples and Altars to them for so writes Caelius Rodiginus l. 18. c. 37. Traditur porro Aegyptios primos Deorum excitasse aras conflasse simulacra Templa construxisse But this learned Antiquary which is his usual fault tells us not his Authors Probably Herodotus lib. 2. Aegiptii primi Deorum cognomina in usu habuere ab illis Graeci fuerunt mutuati Item primi Diis aras simulachra delubra statuere And Pausanias in his Atticis testifies that amongst the Grecians the Athenians went beyond all others in Devotion towards the Gods Athenienses Deorum cultu studioque Religionis longè caeteras omnes civitates anteire And the Athenians had this from their King Cerops major as Lidiat writes Emend temp p. 18. Erat vero etiam Cecrops Magnus auctor superstitionis ac Idololatriae This Cecrops was called Diphyes because he was genere partim Aegyptius by Parentage an Egyptian and Coquaeus out of Eusebius relates this of Cecrops That primus Jovem appellavit simulacra reperiit aram statuit victimas immolavit nequaquam istiusmodi rebus in Graecia visis Coqu in Augustin de Civit. Dei l. 18. c. 8. Porphyry that enemy of the Gospel was wont much to magnify a certain Historian named Sanconiatho His History was much commended by one Philo Biblius who added a Preface thereunto wherein he writes Barbarorum Antiquissimi Phoenices imprimis Aegyptii a quibus caeteri deinceps populi morem illum accepere in maximorum Deorum loco eos omnes habuere qui res ad vit am agendam necessarias invenissent quique beneficium aliquod in genus humanum contulissent Eos nimirum quod sibi plurimorum bonorum autores esse persuaderent Divinis honoribus coluere ac templorum usu quae jam ante constructa fuerant hoc ad munus officiumque traducto columnas insuper statuasque ligne as ipsorum nomine consecrarunt eoque precipue religionis cultu prosecuti festos illis quoque dies longè celeberrimos dedicarunt In quo eximium illud fuit Regum suorum nomina universi hujus elementis ac quibusdam corum quibus divinitatem ipsi tribuebant imponerent Naturales vero Deos Solem Lumam reliquasque Stellase errantes cum Elementis caeteris cum eiâ—sdem affinitate conjunctis solos ex omnibus agnoscebant ut mortales quidem alios alios autem immortales cos haberent Where observe four things 1. That the first Founders of