chronology for some myriads of years, and the Chaldeans or* Assyrians far outreckon them, in which they delivered not only a catalogue of their kings, but also a table of the teclipses of the sun and moon. But for their number of years nothing is more certain than their forgery; for the Egyptians did preserve the antiquities. of other nations as well as their own, and by the evident fallacy in others have betrayed their own vanity. When Alexander entered Egypt with his victorious army, the priests could shew him out of their sacred histories an account of the Persian empire, which he gained by conquest, and the Macedonian, which he received by birth, of each for eight thousand years; whereas nothing can be more certain, out of the best historical account, than that the Persian empire, whether begun in Cyrus or in Medus, was not then three hundred years old, and the Macedonian, begun in Caranus, not five hundred. They then who made so large additions to advance the antiquity of other nations, and were so bold as to present them to those who so easily might refute them (had they not delighted to be deceived to their own advantage, and taken much pleasure in an honourable cheat), may without any breach of charity be suspected to have extended the account much higher for the honour of their own country. Beside, their catalogues must needs be ridiculously incredible, when the Egyptians make the first kings' reigns above twelve hundred years a-piece,§ and the 4 τὴν δὲ ὑστέραν· τῆς δὲ ἐνθάδε διακοσμήσεως παρ' ἡμῖν ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς γράμμασιν ὀκτακισχιλίων ἐτῶν ἀριθμὸς γέγραπται. In Times, p. 293. Pomponius Mela makes a larger account out of Herodotus, 1. i. c. 5. Ipsi vetustissimi (ut prædicant) hominum trecentos et triginta reges ante Amasim, et supra tredecim millium annorum ætates certis Annalibus: where, as the Egyptians much stretch the truth, so doth Mela stretch the relation of Herodotus, who makes it not thirteen thousand, but eleven thousand three hundred and forty years. Diodorus Siculus tells us of twenty-three thousand years from the reign of the first king of Egypt to the expedition of Alexander; and Diogenes Laertius out of other authors more than doubles that account: Αἰγύπτιοι μὲν γὰρ Νείλου γενέσθαι παῖδα Ηφαι στον, ὃν ἄρξαι φιλοσοφίας, ἧς τοὺς προεστώτας ἱερέας εἶναι καὶ προφήτας, ἀπὸ δὲ τούτου εἰς ̓Αλέξανδρον τὸν Μακέδονα ἐτῶν εἶναι μυριάδας τέσσαρας, καὶ ὀκτακισχίλια οκτακόσια έτη ithnevra reia: forty-eight thousand eight hundred and sixty-three. Proxm. p. 1. • Ασσύριοι δὲ, φησὶν Ιάμβλιχος, οὐχ ἑπτὰ καὶ εἴκοσι μυριάδας ἐτῶν μόνας ἐτήρησαν, ὥς φησιν Ιππαρχος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅλας ἀποκατα στάσεις καὶ περιόδους τῶν ἑπτὰ κοσμοκρατόρων ανήμη παρέδοσαν. Proclus in Timaeum. † ἐν οἷς ἡλίου μὲν έκλεψεις γενέσθαι τρια κοσίας ἑβδομήκοντα τρεῖς, σελήνης δὲ ὀκτακοσίους Tplánovтa dio. Diog. Laert. Proam. p. 1. This fallacy appeareth by an epistle which Alexander wrote to his mother Olympias, mentioned by Athenagoras, Minutius Felix, St. Cyprian, and St. Augustin. Persarum autem et Macedonum imperium usque ad ipsum Alexandrum, cui loquebatur, plus quam octo millium annorum ille constituit; cum apud Græcos Macedonum usque ad mortem Alexandri quadringenti octoginta quinque reperiantur anni, Persarum vero, donec ipsius Alexandri victoria finiretur. ducenti et triginta tres computentur. S. August. de Civ. Dei, I. xii. c. 10. As Diodorus Siculus, l. i. p. 22. ed. Rhod. p. 15. Steph. takes notice of the Egyptians, and Abydenus of the Chaldeans, whose ten first kings reigned one hundred and twenty Sari. 2 TOùG Távτας εἶναι βασιλεῖς δέκα· ὧν ὁ χρόνος τῆς βασι λείας συνῆξει σάρους ἑκατὸν εἴκοσι. Now this word ago, was proper to the Babylonian or Chaldean account. Hesych. Σάρος ἀξι θμός τις παρὰ Βαβυλωνίοις, but what this number was he tells us not. In the fragment of Abydenus preserved by Eusebius, Σάρος δὲ ἐστιν ἑξακόσια καὶ τρισχίλια έτη, every Zápoc is three thousand six hundred years, and consequently the one hundred Assyrians theirs about forty thousand except we take the Egyptian years for months, the Assyrian for days; and tnen the account will not seem so formidable. Again, for the calculation of eclipses, as it may be made for many thousand years to come, and be exactly true, and yet the World may end to-morrow; because the calculation must be made with this tacit condition, if the bodies of the earth, and sun, and moon, do continue in their substance and constant motion so long so may it also be made for many millions of years past, and all be true, if the World have been so old; which the calculation doth not prove, but suppose. He then who should in the Egyptian temples see the description of so many eclipses of the sun and moon, could not be assured that they were all taken from real observation, when they might be as well described out of proleptical supposition. Besides, the motions of the sun, which they mention toge ther and with authority equal to that of their other observations, are so incredible and palpably fabulous, that they take off all credit and esteem from the rest of their narrations. For with this wild account of years, and seemingly accurate observations of the heavens, they left it written to posterity, that the whole course of the celestial motions was four times changed; so that the sun hath twice risen in the east and set in the and twenty áp belonging to the reign of the ten kings four hundred and thirtytwo thousand years. Neither was this the account only of Abydenus, but also of Berosus; neither was it the interpretation only of Eusebius, but also of Alexander Polyhistor, who likewise expresseth : τὸν χρόνον τῆς βασιλείας αὐτῶν σάρους ἑκατὸν εἴκοσι, ἤτοι ἐτῶν μυριάδας τεσσαράκον τα τρεῖς καὶ δύο χιλιάδας. This seemed so highly incredible, that two ancient monks, Anianus and Panodorus, interpreted those Chaldean years to be but days, so that every capoc should consist of three thousand six hundred days, that is, nine years, ten months and a half, and the whole one hundred and twenty cap for the ten kings eleven hundred and eighty-three years, six months, and odd days. This is all which Jos. Scaliger, or Jacobus Goar of late, could find concerning this Chaldean computation: and the first of these complains that none but Hesychius makes mention of this account. I shall therefore supply them not only with another author, but also with a diverse and distinet interpretation. Σάβοι μέτρον καὶ ἀρι θμὸς παρὰ Χαλδαίοις· οἱ γὰρ ἐκ' σάροι ποιοῦσιν ἐνιαυτοὺς βσκβ' οἳ γίνονται τὴ ἐνιαυτοὶ καὶ μῆ. that is, according to the translation of Portus: Sari apud Chaldæos est mensura et numerus: nam 120 Sari faciunt annos 2222, qui sunt anni 18 et sex menses. Well might he fix his N. L. or, non liquet, to these words; for, as they are in the printed books, there is no sense to be made of them; but by the help of the MS. in the Vatican library we shall both supply the defect in Suidas, and find a third valuation of the capo. Thus then that MS. represents the words: Oi yag pa σάροι ποιοῦσιν ἐνιαυτοὺς βακβ' κατὰ τὴν Χαλδαίων ψῆφον, εἴπερ ὁ σάρες ποιεῖ μῆνας σεληνιας κῶν σκβ', οἳ γίνονται τὴ ἐνιαυτοὶ καὶ μῆνες ἔξ. And so the sense is clear. Σάξος, according to the Chaldee account, comprehends two hundred and twenty-two months, which come to eighteen years and six months; therefore one hundred and twenty can make two thousand two hundred and twenty years; and therefore for BB, I read, leaving out the last 8, Box', that is, two thousand two hundred and twenty. * Εἰ δὲ καὶ ὅ φησιν Εὔδοξος ἀληθὲς. ὅτι Αἰγύπ τιοι τὸν μῆνα ἐνιαυτὸν ἐκάλουν, οὐκ ἂν ἡ τῶν πολλῶν τούτων ἐνιαυτῶν ἀπαρίθμησις ἔχοι τι θαυparty. Proctus in Timæum, l. i. p. 31. 50. † Ἐν τοίνυν τούτῳ τῷ χρόνῳ τετράκις ἔλεγον ἐξ ἠθέων τὸν ἥλιον ἀνατεῖλαι· ἔνθα τε νῦν καταδύεται, ἐνθεῦτεν δὶς ἐπανατεῖλαι' καὶ ἔνθεν νῦν ἀνατέλλει, ἐνθαῦτα δὶς καταδύναι. Herod. Euterp. c. 142. Mandatumque literis servant, dum Egyptii sunt, quater cursus suos vertisse sidera, ac Solem bis jam oc cidisse ubi nunc oritur.' Pompon. Meta, 1. i. c. 10. Whereas Aristotle more sober ly: Εν ἅπαντι γὰρ παρεληλυθότι χρόνῳ κατὰ west, as it now does; and, on the contrary, twice risen in the west and set in the east. And thus these prodigious antiquaries confute themselves.* What then are these feigned observations and fabulous descriptions for the World's antiquity, in respect not only of the infallible annals of the Spirit of God, but even of the constant testimonies of more sober men, and the real appearances and face of things, which speak them of a far shorter date? If we look into the historians which give account of ancient times, nay, if we peruse the fictions of the poets, we shall find the first to have no footsteps, the last to feign no actions of so great antiquity. + If the race of men had been eternal, or as old as the Egyptians and Chaldees fancy it, how should it come to pass that the poetical inventions should find no actions worthy their heroic verse before the Trojan or the Theban war, or that great adventure of the Argonauts? For whatsoever all the Muses, the daughters of Memory, could rehearse before those times, is nothing but the creation of the World, and the nativity of their gods. If we consider the necessaries of life, the ways of freedom τὴν παραδεδομένην ἀλλήλοις μνήμην οὐδὲν φαίνεται μεταβεβληκός, οὔτε καθ ̓ ὅλον τὸν ἔσχατον οὐρανὸν οὔτε κατά μόριον αὐτοῦ τῶν οἰκείων codev. De Calo, 1. i. c. 3. t. 22. Vide Simplic. ad loc. As the Chaldees did affirm that they had taken observations of the celestial motions for four hundred and seventy thousand years; and withal they also affirmed, that for the same space of time they had calculated the nativity of all the children who were born. Which last is certainly false. Nam quod aiunt quadringenta et septuaginta millia annorum in periclitandis experiundisque pueris, quicunque nati essent, Babylonios posuisse, fallunt: si enim esset factum, non esset desitum. Neminem autem habemus auctorem qui aut fieri dicat, aut factum sciat. Cicero, 1. ii. de Divinat. c. 97. And if the last be false, we have no rea son to believe the first is true; but rather to deny their astronomical observations by their vain ambition in astrological predictions. And indeed those observations of the Chaldees being curiously searched into by Callisthenes, appointed by Aristotle for that purpose, were found really to go no farther than one thousand nine hundred and three years before Alexander, as Porphyrius hath declared, who was no friend to the account of Moses. Διὰ τὸ μήπω τὰς ὑπὸ Καλλισθένους ἐκ Βαβυλῶνος πεμφθείσας παρατηρήσεις ἀφικές σθος εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα τοῦ ̓Αριστοτελους τοῦτο ἐπισκήψαντος αὐτῷ· ἃς τινας διηγεῖται ὁ Ποςφύριος χιλίων ἐτῶν εἶναι καὶ ἐννεακοσίων τριῶν μέχρι τῶν χρόνων ̓Αλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος outoμivas. Simplic. ad 2. Aristot. de Calo, p. 123. + This argument is therefore to me the stronger, because made by him who cannot be thought a favourer of our religion, because he was a countenancer of none, Epicurus, whose mind is thus delivered by Lucretius, 1. v. 325. 'Præterea, si nulla fuit genitalis origo Quo tot facta virum toties cecidere? neque usquam Eternis famæ monumentis insita florent?' Pliny gives a large account of these, 1. vii. c. 56. and Lucretius makes use of this argument, l. v. 333. 'Quare etiam quædam nunc artes expoliuntur, Nunc etiam augescunt, nunc addita navigiis sunt and commerce amongst men, and the inventions of all arts and sciences, the letters which we use, and languages which we speak, they have all known originals, and may be traced to their first authors. The first beginnings were then so known and acknowledged by all, that the inventors and authors of them were reckoned amongst their gods, and worshipped by those to whom they had been so highly beneficial: which honour and adoration they could not have obtained, but from such as were really sensible of their former want, and had experience of a present advantage by their means. If we search into the nations themselves, we shall see none without some original: and were those authors extant who have written of the first plantations and migrations of people, the foundations and inhabiting of cities and countries, the first rudiments would appear as evident as their later growth and present condition. We know what ways within two thousand years people have made through vast and thick woods for their habitations, now as fertile, as populous, as any. The Hercynian trees, in the time of the Cæsars, occupying so great a space as to take up a journey of sixty days, were thought even then coeval with the World. We read without any show of contradiction, how this western part of the World hath been peopled from the east and all the pretence of the Babylonian antiquity is nothing else, but that we all came from thence. Those eight persons saved in the Ark, descending from the Gordiæan mountains and multiplying to a large collection in the plain of Sinaar, made their first division at that place; and that dispersion, or rather dissemination, hath peopled all other parts of the World, either never before inhabited, or dispeopled by the flood. These arguments have always seemed so clear and undeniable, that they have put not only those who make the World eternal, but those also who confess it made (but far more ancient than we believe it), to a strange answer, to themselves uncertain, to us irrational. For to this they replied, that this World § hath suffered many alterations, by the utter destructions of nations and depopulations of countries, by which all monuments of antiquity were defaced, all arts and sciences utterly lost, all fair and stately fabrics ruined, and so mankind reduced into paucity, and the World often again returned into its infancy. This they conceived to have been done oftentimes in several ages, sometimes by a deluge of water, sometimes by a torrent of fire; and, lest any of the elements might be thought not to conspire to the destruction of mankind, the air must sweep away whole empires at once with infectious plagues, and earthquakes swallow up all ancient cities, and bury even the very ruins of them. By which answer of theirs they plainly afford two great advantages to the Christian faith. First, Because they manifestly shew that they had a universal tradition of Noah's flood, and the overthrow of the whole World: Secondly, Because it was evident to them, that there was no way to salve the eternity of antiquity of the World, or to answer this argument drawn from history and the appearances of things themselves, but by supposing innumerable deluges and deflagrations. Which being merely feigned in themselves, not proved (and that first* by them who, say they, are not subject themselves unto them, as the Egyptians did, who by the advantage of their peculiar the last great alteration made in Greece; and then he concludes that Greece hath often been, and will often be, barbarous, and lose the memory of all their actions: Πολλάκι, γὰρ καὶ γέγονε καὶ ἔσται βάρβαρος ἡ Ἑλλὰς, εὐχ ὑπ ̓ ἀνθρώπων μόνον γινομένη μετ τάστατος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπ' αὐτῆς τῆς φύσεως οὐ μείζονος οὐδὲ μείονος αὐτῆς γινομένης, ἀλλὰ γὰρ νεωτέρας ἀεὶ καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀρχὴν λαμβανούσης. Ocellus de Universo, ibid. Thus Plato, who asserted the creation of the World, but either from eternity, or such antiquity as does not much differ from it, brings in Solon inquiring the age of the Greek histories, as of Phoroneus, and Niobe, Deucalion and Pyrrha; and an Egyptian priest answering, that all the Greeks were boys, and not an old man amongst them, that is, they had no ancient monuments, or history of any antiquity, but rested contented with the knowledge of the time, since the last great mutation of their own country: Πολλαὶ γὰρ κατὰ πολλὰ φθοραὶ γεγόνασιν ἀνα θρώπων καὶ ἔσονται, πυρὶ μὲν καὶ ὕδατι μέσ γισται, μυρίοις δὲ ἄλλοις ἕτεραι βραχύτεραι. In Timao, p. 291. Origen of Celsus: To πολλὰς ἐκ παντὸς αἰῶνος πυρώσεις γεγονέναι, πολλὰς δ ̓ ἐπικλύσεις, καὶ νεώτερον εἶναι τὸν ἐπὶ Δευκαλίωνος κατακλυσμὸν ἔναγχος γεγενημένον, σαφῶς τοῖς ἀκούειν αὐτοῦ δυναμένοις παρίστησι τὸ κατ' αὐτὸν τοῦ κόσμου ἀγέννητον. 1. 1. §. 19. And Lucretius the Epicurean, who thought the World but few thousand years old, as we believe, and that it should at last be consumed, as we also are persuaded, thinks this answer of theirs so far from being a refutation of the former, that he admits it as a confirmation of the latter part of his opinion. De Rerum Natura, l. v. 339. 'Quod si forte fuisse antebac eadem omnia credis, Sed periisse hominum torrenti sæcla vapore, Aut cecidisse urbes magno vexamine mundi, Aut ex imbribus assiduis exisse rapaces Per terras amnes atque oppida cooperuisse : Tanto quippe magis victus fateare necesse est, Exitium quoque terraï cœlique futurum.' Εστωσαν δὲ τῷ Κέλσῳ τοῦ περὶ τῶν ἐκπυρώσεων καὶ ἐξυδατώσεων μύθου διδάσκαλοι οἱ κατ' αὐτὸν σοφώτατοι Αἰγύπτιοι. Orig adv. Celsum, 1. i. §. 20. + So that Egyptian priest in Plato's Timæus tells Solon that the fable of Phaethon did signify a real conflagration of the World; but so as all they which lived in mountains or dry parts of the earth were scorched and consumed, but of those who lived near the seas or rivers in the valleys, some were preserved : |
