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nothing can be discovered of Partiality in their Writings, but they tell the most disgraceful Truths of their Ancestors, and of themselves; and the History it self has so many publick Circumstances, that they clear it beyond all fufpicion of Deceit. If the Names of some Men be omitted, upon particular occasions, in the Scriptures, we find them mentioned there upon others. And there is evident Reason, that the Names of infamous Men should in fome Cases be omitted, and should not be inserted in Genealogies, and enrolled in the Registers of Honour. But when the Memory of Perfons and Actions is totally suppress'd, this must extremely abate the Credit of any History. The Jems are the only People in the World, that have had their Antiquities by an uninterrupted Tradition delivered down and preserved in an Authentick Book, unanimously afferted by the whole Nation, in all Ages, which they have never changed nor altered, but have in great numbers sacrificed their Lives in Testimony of it. If the Heathens in divers things contradict the History of the Jews, they contradict one another as much in the Accounts of their own Antiquities; and what they relate of the Jews, is upon uncertain and contrary Reports. If they conceal what concerns the Jews, it was their Custom to stifle that which did not please them. In the Translation made by the Jews, at the command of a King of Egypt, or however, well known, and in constant use in Ægypt, nothing relating to the Egyptians is omitted;

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and Jofephus has shewn, how little the Egyp-
tians were able to disprove any particular,
wherein they found their Nation concerned.
The Histories, as well as the Religion of most
other Nations, were kept secret, and not com-
municated to the People; no Book of History
among them was ever put into the hands of a
whole Nation, with a strict Charge to every
one to read and study it, as the Books of Mo
fes were, when the principal and most memo-
rable Things related, were within the know-
ledge and memory of all that read them. The
Jems were under a necessity of preserving their
Genealogies, with all imaginable Care and Ex-
actness, if they would make good the Claim
and Title to their Inheritances, fo that the
meanest among them could with the greatest
certainty derive his Line from Adam; whereas
the Persian Kings, as we learn from m Herodo-
tus, could boast but of a short Defcent; and the
Kings and Emperors of the Romans, and of
other Nations, to advance their Pedigrees,
were forced to have recourse to fabulous Re-
ports. And the Heathen Accounts of the Ori-
ginal, not only of particular Families, but of
the several Nations of the World, are acknow-
ledged to be Fabulous, or, at the best, but very
uncertain, by the most accurate Historians.

The Account of the Prophecies and Miracles
contained in the Scriptures, was impossible to
be mistaken at first, and it has been transmitted

Herod. lib. vii. c. II.

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with all the certainty that any History is capable of, to Posterity. And the Writers of the Old and New Testament all agree in the Account of the Creation, of the Deluge, of Abraham and the other Patriarchs, of the Bondage of the Ifraelites in Egypt, their Miraculous Deliverance from thence, and their Journying into the Land of Canaan; they all frequently affert, suppose or imply the Truth of these things; there is a continued Series and Line of Truth observable throughout the whole Scriptures. But among Heathen Writers it is otherwise; they contradict one another in Matters of any considerable Antiquity; if they agree in some material Passages, it is commonly with much variation in the Circumstances, and with great Uncertainty and Doubtfulness; and the things in which they most agree, are such as have been taken from the Scriptures, which compose a Book, that if it were but for the Antiquity and Learning of it, is the most valuable of any Book in the World, and nothing but Vice and Ignorance, and that which is the worst fort of Ignorance, a Pretence to Learning, could make it so much despised.

II. If the Histories of Heathen Nations be so little to be rely'd upon, their Philosophy will appear to be worthy of no more Regard, which, for any thing of Truth and Usefulness there is to be found in it, depends so much upon Historical Traditions. That Poetry is the most antient way of Writing, is not only afferted by

Heathen Authors, but may with great probabi

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lity lity be made out from the Scripture it self. Poets were the chief Upholders of the Religion and the Philofophy in use among the Heathens; both these were at the first taught in short Maxims, which, that they might be the better receiv'd, and the more easily retain'd in Memory, were put into Verse, without any farther Ornament than just what was necessary to give a clear and full Expreffion to their Notions and Precepts. n Socrates and the Philofophers of his time had a value for the Verses of Theognis, and those which go under the Name of Pythagoras, are at least as antient as & Chryfippus, who alledg'd their Authority. Solon himself wrote Elegies, whereof some Remains are still preserv'd. This gave the Poets a mighty Reputation, and we find not only Solon, but others of them quoted and appeal'd to by Demosthenes and Æschines in the Courts of Judicature, as well as by Philosophers in their Difcourses. But the Poets for the more delightful Entertainment of the People, not only indulg'd themselves in that antient and useful way of Instruction by Fables (for he P was hardly esteem'd a Poet, who had been the Author of none) but they became the Promoters of all manner of superstitious and idolatrous Worship; the Oracles were deliver'd in Verse, every Poet wrote something in honour of the false Gods, and 1 Socrates himself, during his Imprisonment,

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Xenoph. Conviv. & Memorab. 1. i. • Apud A. Gell. 1. vi. c. 2, • Ἐννοήσας ὅτι ἢ ποιηλιὼ δεοί, εἴπερ μέλλοι ποιητής, ποι εῖν μύθος, γ' ο λόγος, Plat. Phad,

Plat. ib.

made made a Hymn in praise of Apollo. By which means the Original Notions of Religion and Vertue were so obfcured and corrupted, that it was impoffible in any humane way to provide a fufficient Remedy. Plato complain'd of the Fictions of Poets; but when he fet himself to recover Men to a true Sense and Notion of things by the help of some antient Traditions, which he had met withal, he fell into very abfurd and finful Errors, and both he and Socrates practis'd the Idolatries of their Country. They afferted many excellent Truths, which they had receiv'd, as they profess'd, from Antiquity; but whenever they argu'd any Point, they commonly fell into Mistakes, which oftentimes were of very ill Consequence. So weak a thing is Humane Wisdom without the Guidance of Divine Revelation! And of this the Philosophers were so sensible, that divers of them would have it thought, that they had some supernatural Assistance, tho' they were able to bring no fufficient Proof of it.

The Pretences of others deserve no Regard, their Impostures were too notorious to admit of any Denial or Excuse. The Genius of Socrates inay be suppos'd Worthy of more Confideration: yet it amounts to no more than this, that Socrates declared, that a certain Genius had accompany'd him from his Childhood, which often forbad hint to do what he had design'd, but never put him upon doing of any thing; and by the Information of this Genius, he often forewarn'd his Friends of the ill Succefs of what

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