of Italy, and out of all the Roman Provinces to the Temple at Jerufalem, Flaccus had forbidden any to be exported from Afia. Here it concern'd Tully to expose the Worship of the Jews, and to vindicate the Prohibition relating to it; but he, who never spoke little upon any Subject, that could afford a Scope for his Eloquence, fays fo little here to the dispraise of the Jews and their Religion, that the Commendation of another had been lefs to their Honour. It is obfervable, that Tully mentions nothing of their Worshipping an Afs, which was fo groundless and foolish a Slander, that it is hard to imagine what could give occasion to it; and perhaps no better Account of it can be af figned, than that the Enemies of their Religion were refolved to fasten the worst and most ridiculous Falfhood they could upon it. But if it may be permitted me to add a Conjecture to those which have been made by others, it feems probable, that the highest degree of Excommunication among the Jews being styled Shammatha, which is the fame with MaranAtha, Sham fignifying Lord, as i Maran alfo doth in the Syriac and other Languages, and Atha fignifying cometh; Atha might either ignorantly or maliciously be mistaken for Athen, which fignifies an Afs. And it is likely, that this Calumny might be first raised by some body, who had been Excommunicated, and turned Apoftate, in Heliopolis, or fome other part of

Egypt; for Apion was the first that vented it : and the Jewish Temple, in Heliopolis, being * denominated from its Founder, Onias the High Priest; that might give some countenance to this pretence, as if it had taken its Name from "O, an Ass, and had been from thence called 'Oveov, as the Temple of Aftaroth is in the Version of the LXXII. 'Asuglov, 1 Sam. xxxi. 10. and by 1 Jofephus; denoting the Images of Sheep, which were worshipped by the Sidonians and Philistines, as Buxtorf observes from Kimchi.

But I must here observe, that Fabricius, in his Codex Apochryphus, imagines me to suppose, that Shammatha, or Maran Atha, was changed into Athon: which indeed is very unlikely, but that Atha fhould, by mistake, or by defign, be changed into Athon, and Shammatha, or Maran Atha, into Maran Athon, or Shammathon, is not improbable for the Reasons alledged.

It would be a very wrong Inference from what has been faid, to conclude, that there is no certainty in the Greek and Latin, and other Heathen Hiftorians: For the Circumstances of the Relation, and the Confent of divers Authors, may put most parts of History past doubt. But it ought to be confidered, that those which have been mentioned, are Exceptions, to which the Sacred Historians are by no means liable ; they do not charge one another with Falfhood,

k

* Προσέταξε των Λόπῳ ἢ ἐν τη Ονίκ κδέμνον νεων καθε indoiwv. Jofeph. de Bell. Jud. L. vii. c. 3.

Antiq. lib. vi. fin.

nothing

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 felf has fo many publick Circumstances, that they clear it beyond all fufpicion of Deceit. If the Names of fome 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 fhould in some Cafes 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 fupprefs'd, this must extremely abate the Credit of any History. The Jews 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 facrificed 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 conftant use in Ægypt, nothing relating to the Egyptians is omitted;

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and Jofephus has fhewn, how little the Ægyp tians were able to difprove any particular, wherein they found their Nation concerned. The Hiftories, as well as the Religion of moft other Nations, were kept fecret, and not communicated to the People; no Book of History among them was ever put into the hands of a whole Nation, with a ftrict Charge to every one to read and ftudy it, as the Books of Mo fes were, when the principal and most memorable Things related, were within the knowledge and memory of all that read them. The Jews were under a neceffity of preserving their Genealogies, with all imaginable Care and Exactnefs, 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 Perfian 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 recourfe to fabulous Reports. And the Heathen Accounts of the Original, not only of particular. Families, but of the feveral Nations of the World, are acknowledged 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 impoffible to be mistaken at first, and it has been transmitted

Herod. lib. vii. C. II.

with all the certainty that any History is capable of, to Posterity. And the Writers of the Old and New Teftament 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, fuppofe or imply the Truth of thefe things; there is a continued Series and Line of Truth obfervable throughout the whole Scriptures. But among Heathen Writers it is otherwife; they contradict one another in Matters of any confiderable Antiquity; if they agree in fome material Paffages, it is commonly with much variation in the Circumftances, and with great Uncertainty and Doubtfulness; and the things in which they most agree, are fuch as have been taken from the Scriptures, which compofe 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 fo much defpifed.

II. If the Hiftories of Heathen Nations be fo 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 Histo rical 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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