Errors may proceed and multiply from the corruption of any Truth, but Truth is always the oldest. The First writings of the Old Testament, may be proved, beyond difpute, to be older than any other books now extant in the world. And in those writings we have an account of very remarkable Revelations made to the ancient Patriarchs, who were very confiderable men in their feveral generations long before; fome of which, no doubt, were remember'd long after. The wonderful prediction which Jofeph made, concerning seven years of great plenty, fucceeded by feven cthers of great famine, which had fo great an influence over the whole government of Egypt, and caused fo great a change of property among them, could not eafily be forgotten in fome ages. And the whole History of the life and actions of Mofes the great Hebrew Lawgiver, the Miracles which he wrought, and the Revelations which he received from God, and the Government which he established upon them, over his own people, whom he delivered fafe out of Egypt, in spite of the ftrongest and most powerful oppofition of their oppreffors, were things fo remarkable, that the Egyptians, and other neighbouring nations, had great reafon to be well acquainted with

them:

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them: And from them these notions might be very eafily propagated by degrees into other parts of the world. And other founders of Commonwealths might take hints from thence, to pretend to fuch extraordinary ways of receiving their laws and inftitutions from heayen, as long as any tradition of the first Truth remain'd. And I am the rather induced to obferve this, from the account which Strabo himself, in the fore-mentioned place1, gives of this Matter. For first, he gives a much more ingenuous Character, than Tacitus does, both of Mofes and the ancient Jewish people: And being an Afiatic, he had opportunity of being better informed of their Original: And with a great deal of candour, he relates the occafion of Mofes's conducting them out of Egypts, upon a great diflike of the Egyptian Idolatry, and of his fettling a good form of Political government, and an excellent scheme of Religious worship', upon the belief of one God among

* Lib. xvi. pag. 761.

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s ̓Απῇρεν ἐκεῖσε ἐνθένδε δυχερώνας τὰ καθετῶτα· καὶ συνεξῆραν αὐτῷ πολλοὶ τιμῶντες τὸ Θεῖον. Εφη γδ ἐκεῖνον καὶ ἐδίδαξεν, ὡς στα ὀρθῶς φρονῶσιν οι Αιγύπτιοι θηρίοις εικάζοντες καὶ βοσκήμασι τὸ Ocov, &c.

2 Τότε 3 τίς ἂν εἰκόνα πλάττειν θαῤῥήσεις τῶν ἔχων ὁμοίαν των * παρ' ἡμῖν· ἀλλ ̓ ἐὰν δὲν πᾶσαν ξοανοποιία ----

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among them, free from image worship and fuperstition; and of his promifing to those who continued virtuous and religious obfervers of justice, all future good, and extraordinary or miraculous affiftance from God, but no fuch thing to those who were not fuch. He takes notice also, that Religion and the Divine providence, were the defence that Mofes took for his armour, when he was in queft of a place of fettlement for this excellent form of religious worship. And he adds, x that those who fucceeded Mofes for fome time, while they kept to this first inftitution, were very just, and truly religious men. And, which is very remarkable, after the giving this account of Mofes, and his Divine polity, he takes occafion to mention Minos and Lycurgus, and others, who pretended to a divine direction for their Inftitutions alfo, as if he intended thereby to lead us into an opinion, that they did but copy after this older and more excellent Legiflator.

And

* Καὶ προσδοκῶν δεῖν τὰ Θεὸ καὶ δῶρον αεί τι καὶ σημεῖον της σωφρόνως ζώντας και με δικαιοσύνης, τις δ' ἄλλες μὴ προ δοκάν

* "Αμα δ ̓ ἀντὶ ἢ ὅπλων τὰ ἱερὰ προβάλλετο καὶ τὸ Θεῖον, ἵδρυ σιν τότε ζητῶν ἀξιῶν, στ.

* Οι 5 διαδεξάμενοι χρόνες μού τινας ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς διέμεναν δικαιοπραγέντες καὶ θεοσεβεῖς ὡς ἀληθῶς ὄντες.

And befides all this, if we confider the fcattered remains of antient Tradition, which are to be found difperfed among the old accounts of Heathen nations, though greatly corrupted by paffing through fo many hands, and ftrip them of that fabulous drefs, into which poets and other writers have put them, we may see manifeft footsteps of many ancient Truths of Religion, whereof we have a more plain and fimple, as well as more confiftent narration, in the books of Mofes and other facred writings. I fhall not mention particulars; because many Christian writers, both ancient and modern, in their defences of the Divine authority of the Chriftian Religion, are very copious upon this fubject. And all the modefteft of the Heathen writers themselves confess, that their first Learning and Philofophy, and many of their Religious Doctrines, were originally derived from the Egyptians, or other more eaftern Barbarous nations, that is, from those who were more ancient than the Greeks. And if they had borrowed less from the Egyptians, who had been longer corrupting Original Truth; and more from others, who had less fuperftition among them, we might have had a clearer account of the most primitive perfuafions of men, in matters of Religion.

Now the Ufe which I would make of all this is, to fhew, that mankind have generally been perfuaded, that God did really, upon great occafions, reveal his will to men, in some particular manner or other (which they fuppofed there were feveral ways of doing) for their better inftruction in matters of Virtue and Religion. And fince they have ever, from the very infancy of the world, as far as we can judge, been poffefs'd of this opinion, it feems most agreeable to our notions of the Divine Goodness, that such an opinion should not always have been mere delufion; but that there fhould both be fome real foundation for it, and fome excellent ufe to be, fome time or other, made of it.

But because there are fome who pretend, that the natural light of our own Reason is entirely fufficient to direct us, in our moral and religious conduct, without any other affistance, fo that any other Revelation or direction from God feems to them altogether needlefs; I fhall therefore now proceed to fhew,

III. That confidering the general condition of mankind, fuch Revelation is by no means unneceffary. Indeed if the generality of mankind had always lived up exactly to the principles of reafon, and had all of them both leifure