ed to first prejudices; as it is well known, that in some places in this kingdom, the lower orders of the Roman Catholics have been fo accustomed to worship in the fields, that when the building of chapels had been proposed they could scarcely give into the idea. We may also conceive how difficult it was for the Druids to give up their facred woods and groves for temples.

Thus with the gradual improvement and increasing wealth of the Egyptians, the exterior ceremonies and religious rites to which they were accustomed, must have advanced from decency to elegance. The priesthood, independent and rich, would never have consented, whilft Pharaoh lived in a palace, and enjoyed himself in royal luxury and splendor, that their gods alone should be neglected, without an edifice of some magnificence being erected to their service. That the priests of Egypt were sufficiently powerful to effect this, is most certain; for when Jofeph, notwithstanding his piety and chastity, had taken advantage, during the famine, to make this a favourable opportunity of encroaching on the liberties of the people, and encreasing the royal authority, by obliging them to fell their lands in order to buy food; yet, he was too politic politic to intermeddle with the poffeffions of the priests: Whether this partiality was owing to his marriage with the daughter of Potiphorah, or that he dreaded their power, is not evident; but certain it is, that he first made a tyrant in Egypt, and his pofterity and connections first felt the fatal effects.

SKETCH

SKETCH VÍ.

WHETHER HEATHEN PHILOSOPHERS BORROWED FROM MOSES.

THE OPINION OF SIR JOHN MARSHAM

REFUTED.

WITH what gratitude should we acknowledge the divine benefits accruing from revelation, which at all times, from the very beginning, was the means of conveying down to us the knowledge of one fupreme omnipotent Being? but especially when the written law by Mofes, communicated a clear and unequivocal doctrine of the divine will, as a standing testimony and criterion of truth; from which, it is certain, all the rest of mankind derived information. St. Augustine, Ambrose, and others say, that Pythagoras, Plato,

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Plato, and many other philosophers, borrowed instruction from the writings of Mofes; which point is contested by Sir John Mar

sham,

* Bafil says that Numenius, the difciple of Pythagoras, afferts that Plato was strongly characteristic of Moses: Clemens Alexandrinus, and Eufebius say, that the Gentiles received their greatest mysteries from the Jews, enfolding them in fables.-Homer, in his description of Oetus and Ephialtes, seems to have derived it from the building of Babel -Homer, Hefiod, and Linus, borrowed their ideas of the fabbath from no other fountain but that of the Mosaic History.-Orpheus Kems to have taken many hints from Mofes, as appears by this translation of Francis George :

Unus perfectus deus est, qui cuncta creavit
Cuncta fovens, atq: ipfe fovens fuper omnia in se
Qui capitur mente tantum, qui mente videtur :
Qui nullumque malum mortalibus invehit unquam,
Quem præter non eft alius: tu cuncta videto:
Hic ipfum in terris melius quo cernere poffis.
Hic etenim video verum ipsum cernere, quis fit,
Nequaquam valeo, nam nubibus insidet altis.
Nemo illum nifi Chaldæo de sanguine quidam
Progenitus vidit: quem cælorum aurea fedes
Sublimisque tenet: cujus se dextera tendit
Oceani ad fines; quem de radicibus imis
Concufsique tremunt montes, nec pondere quamvis
Immenso fint ferre queunt, qui culmina celi
Alta colens: terris nunquam tamen ille fit absens.
Ipse est principium, medium quoque, et exitus idem,
Prifcorum nos hæc docuerunt omnia voces:
Quæ binis tabulis Deus olim tradidit illis.

Some imagine that Orpheus meant by this Chaldean, Noah, the Platonists took him for Zoroafter; but to none were the tables given but Mofes.

sham, notwithstanding a number of respecta ble teftimonies which he quotes, who all agree, that the Gentile philosophers borrowed from scripture. His argtiment entirely depends upon these points :-That the writings of Mofes were always kept a secret among the Jews, inasmuch as they held all other hations in such contempt, as to exclude all focíal intercourse: to prove which he quotes the words of Jofephus :-" Nos neque terram habitamus maritimam neque negotionibus gaudemus," &c. Secondly, that there was no tranflation of the books of Moses previous to that of the Septuagint.

As to the first objection:-Altho' on account of the idolatry of the Gentiles, and that propensity which the Jews at all times had to idolatry, it was but wife and proper to exclude any intercourse which might be a means of corrupting their manners : Yet it is very certain, and easily proved from scripture, that it was the wish of all good and wise Ifraelites, to communicate the knowledge of God, and his laws, to all who were defirous to be acquainted with them. When Solomon built the temple, a work of such magnificence as to exceed all others in the world, which had attracted the notice and admiration

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