and one to whom the world is bound for his many notable works; yet my assent herein is withheld from him, by these reasons. First, I see all other writers agree, that Chencres was the king who was drowned in the Red sea. Secondly, The place, Exod. iv. all are dead, &c. may better be understood of Busiris and all his children, than of one king alone. Thirdly, St. Cyril, in his first book against Julian the apostate saith, that Dardanus built Dardania, when Moses was 120 years old, Ramesses, which was this Armesesmiamum, being then king of Egypt. After Ramesses, Amenophis reigned nineteen years, who is thought by Mercator, and peremptorily by Bunting pronounced, to be the king that perished in the Red sea; of which our opinion being already laid open, I think it most expedient to refer the kings ensuing to their own times, (which a chronological table shall lay open,) and here to speak of that great deliverance of Israel out of Egypt; which, for many great considerations depending thereupon, we may not lightly overpass.

CHAP. III.

Of the delivery of Israel out of Egypt.

SECT. I.

Of the time of Moses's birth, and how long the Israelites were oppressed in Egypt.

TRUE it is that the history itself is generally and well known; yet concerning the time of Moses's birth, who was the excellent and famous instrument of this and other great works of the Highest, the different opinions are very near as many as the men that have written of that argument.

Lud. Vives, in his Annotations upon St. Augustine, citeth many of their conjectures; as that of Porphyry out of Sanchoniato, that Moses lived in the time of Semiramis; but if he meant the first Semiramis, it was but a fond conceit; for besides that the same is contrary to all stories divine and human; while that Semiramis lived, she com

manded Syria, and all the parts thereof absolutely; neither were the Ammonites, or Moabites, or Edomites, while she ruled, in rerum natura.

A second opinion he remembereth of Appion, taken from Ptolemy, a priest of Mendes, who saith, that Moses was born while Inachus ruled the Argives, and Amesis in Egypt.

The third opinion is taken out of Polemon, in his Greek history, the first book; that Moses was born while Apis the third king ruled Argos.

A fourth is borrowed from Tatianus Assyrius, who, though he cites some authorities that Moses lived after the Trojan war, is himself of opinion, that Moses was far more ancient, proving it by many arguments.

Fifthly, he setteth down the testimony of Numenius the philosopher, who took Musæus and Moses to be one; confirming the same out of Artapanus, who confesseth that Moses was called Musæus by the Grecians; and who further delivereth, that he was adopted by Chenephis, or Thermutis, the daughter of Egypt; the same which Eupolemus calleth Meris, others (as Rabanus Maurus) Thermothes. y Eusebius also affirmeth, that Eupolemus, in his first book De bono, Moses vir Deo conjunctissimus, is called Musæus Judæorum. Eusebius, in his Chronology, finds that Moses was born while Amenophis ruled Egypt. The ancient Manethon calls that Pharaoh, which lived at Moses's birth, Thumosis, or Thmosis; the same perchance which Appion the grammarian will have to be Amosis, and elsewhere. Amenophis, the father of Sethosis; to whom Lysimachus and Cornelius Tacitus give the name of Bocchoris. To me it seems most probable, that while Saphrus, called also Spherus, or Ipherius, governed Assyria, Orthopolis Sicyonia, and Criasus the Argives, that then (Sesostris the second ruling in Egypt) Moses was born. For if we believe St. Augustine, it was about the end of Cecrops's time that Moses led Israel out of Egypt: Eduxit Moses ex Egypto populum Dei novissimo tempore Cecropis Atheniy Euseb. de Præp. Evang. 1. 3. c. 3. z Aug. 1. 18. c. 11. de Civit. Dei.

ensium regis; "Moses,” saith he, " led the people of God "out of Egypt about the end of Cecrops's time, king of "the Athenians." In this sort therefore is the time of Moses's birth, and of his departure out of Egypt, best proved. St. Augustine affirms, (as before remembered,) that Moses was born, Saphrus governing Assyria; and that he left Egypt about the end of Cecrops's time. Now Saphrus ruled twenty years, his successor Mamelus thirty years, Sparetus after him forty years; in whose fourth year Cecrops began to govern in Attica; Ascatades followed Sparetus, and held the empire forty-one; so as Moses being born while Saphrus ruled Assyria, Orthopolis Sicyonia, and Criasus Argos, (for these three kings lived at once at his birth, saith St. Augustine, as Cecrops did when he departed Egypt,) it will follow that the birth of Moses was in the nineteenth year of the Assyrian Saphrus; for take one year remaining of twenty, (for so long Saphrus reigned,) to which add the thirty years of Mamelus, and the forty years of Sparetus, these make seventy-one, with which there were wasted three years of Cecrops's fifty years; then take nine years out of the reign of Ascatades, who was Sparetus's successor, those nine years added to seventy-one make eighty, at which age Moses left Egypt; and add these nine years to the three years of Cecrops formerly spent, there will remain but four years of Cecrops's fifty; and so it falleth right with St. Augustine's words, affirming that towards the end of Cecrops's time, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Now the time in which the Hebrews were oppressed in Egypt, seemeth to have had beginning some eight or nine before the birth of Moses, and fifty-four years, or years rather more, after Joseph; between whose death and the birth of Moses there were consumed sixty-four years; some of which time, and eighty years after, they lived in great servitude and misery. For as it is written in Exodus i. They set taskmasters over them, to keep them under with burdens; and they built the cities, Pithom and Raamses, &c. And by cruelty they caused the children of Israel to serve;

and made them weary of their lives, by sore labour in clay and brick, and in all work of the field, with all manner of bondage. All which, laid upon them by a mastering power and a strong hand, they endured to the time by the wisdom of God appointed; even from fifty-four years, or not much more, after the death of Joseph, who left the world when it had lasted 2370 years, to the eightieth year of Moses, and until he wrought his miracles in the field of Zoan, which he performed in the world's age 2514 towards the end thereof, according to Codoman, or after our account 2513. And because those things which we deliver of Egypt may the better be understood, I think it necessary to speak a few words of the principal places therein named in this dis

course.

SECT. II.

Of divers cities and places in Egypt mentioned in this story, or elsewhere in the scripture.

THIS city, which the Hebrews call a Zoan, was built seven years after Hebron. Ezekiel calleth it Taphnes, and so doth Jeremy; the Septuagint, Tanis; Josephus, Protaidis, after the name of an Egyptian queen; Antonius gives it the name of Thanis; Hegesippus, Thamna; and William Tyrius, Tapius. It adjoineth to the land of Gosen, and is the same wherein Jeremy the prophet was stoned to death for preaching against the Egyptian and Jewish idolatry.

Zoan, or Taphnes, was in Moses's time the metropolis of the lower Egypt, in which their Pharaohs then commonly resided; and not unlikely to be the same city where Abraham in his time found him. But Eusebius out of Artapanus affirmeth, that Abraham read astronomy in Heliopolis, or On, to Pharetates king of Egypt. Alexander Polyhistor out of Eupolemus hath it otherwise, saying, that Abraham instructed the Egyptian priests, and not the king; both which authorities Eusebius citeth. The Septuagint b Euseb. de Præp. Evang. 1. 9. c. 4. Gen. xii. 15. Isa. xix. 11.

a Numb. xxxiii. Ezekiel xxx. Jer. ii. 43, 44, 46. Joseph. 1. 1. c. 9. Tyr. de Bel. sac. 1. 19. c. 23.

and the Vulgar edition, for Zoan write Heliopolis; Pagninus, Vatablus, Junius, and our English, call it On; and Ptolemy, Onium. There are two cities of that name, the one on the frontier of the lower Egypt, towards the south; the other somewhat lower, on the easternmost branch of Nilus, falling into the sea at Pelusium. And it may be, that Heliopolis to the south of the river Trajan, was the same which Vatablus and our English call Aven. Of the latter it is that the scriptures take certain knowledge; the same which Pomponius Mela and Pliny call Solis oppidum ; Tyrius, in the Holy War, Malbec; the Arabians, Bahalbeth; and Simeon Sethi, Fons Solis. Of this Heliopolis, or On, was Putiphar, priest or prince, whose daughter Joseph married. In the territory adjoining, Jacob inhabited while he lived in Egypt. In the confines of this city, Onias, the high priest of the Jews, built a temple, dedicated to the eternal God; not much inferior to that of Jerusalem, (Ptolemy Philopater then governing in Egypt,) which stood to the time of Vespasian, 333 years after the foundation by Onias, whom Josephus falsely reporteth herein to have fulfilled a prophecy of Isaiah, cap. 19. In die illa erit altare Domini in medio terræ Ægypti; " In that day shall the altar "of the Lord be in the midst of the land of Egypt." Antiochus Epiphanes at that time of the building tyrannizing over the Jews, gave the occasion for the erecting of this temple in Egypt. Lastly, there it was that our Saviour Christ Jesus remained, while Joseph and the Virgin Mary feared the violence of Herod; near which, saith Brochard, the fountain is still found, called Jesus well, whose streams do afterward water the gardens of Balsamum, no where else found in Egypt. And hereof see more in Brochard, in his description of Egypt.

There is also the city of Noph, remembered by Isaiah and Ezekiel, the same which Hosea the prophet calleth Moph; which latter name it took from a mountain adjoining so called, which mountain & Herodotus remembereth. And this is that great city which was called Mem

e Isa. xix. 33. Ezek. xxxiv. Hosea ix. 6.

d Lib. 2.