the (a) ancient Phænician Histories, which are translated by Philo Biblius from Sanchuniathon's Collection;

(a) Ancient Phoenician Histories, &c.] Eusebius has preserved them for us, in his First Book, Chap. 10. of his Preparation. "The Theology of the Phænicians supposes the Foundation "of the Universe to have been a dark and windy Air, or the "Breath of a dark Air, and a dismal Chaos, covered with " thick Darkness; that these were infinite, and had no Bounds "for many Ages. But when this Spirit or Breath placed its "Desire or Love on these first Principles, and a Mixture was "produced thereby, this Conjunction was called Love: This was the Beginning of the Creation of all Things; but the "Breath, or Spirit, was not created; and from its Embraces proceeded Már Mot, which some call Mud, others the Cor"ruption of a watery Mixture. This was the Seminary, and "from hence were all Things produced." In Moses's History we find the Spirit or Breath, and the Darkness; and the Hebrew Word nan Merachepheth, signifies Love. Plutarch, Symposiack VIH. Prob. 1. explaining of Pluto, says that God is the Father of the World, not by the Emission of Seed, but by a certain generative Power infused into Matter; which he illustrates by this Similitude:

The female Bird is oft impregnated
By the quick Motion of the Wind.

And Mar, Mot, Din whence the Greeks derive their Mal, Mothos, signifies in Hebrew On Tehom, in Greek "Alvoo, an Abyss already in Motion. For "Aburr, Abyssos, is in Ennius nothing else but Mud, if I understand him right.

From muddy Tartarus a Birth Gigantick sprung. This mud separated into Earth and Sea. Apolonius in the IVth of his Argonauticks,

The Earth's produced from Mud.

Upon which Place the Scholiast says: Zeno affirms, That the "Chaos in Hesiod is Water, of which all Things were made; "the Water subsiding made Mud, and the Mud congealing "made solid Earth." Now this Zeno was a Phænician, a Colony of whom were planted in Cittium, whence the Hebrews call all beyond the Seas 'n Chittim. Not much different from which is that of Virgil, Eclogue VI.

Then Earth began to harden, and include

The Seas within its Bounds, and Things to take
Their proper Forms.

Numenius,

Numenius, cited by Porphyry, about the Nymph's Den, affirms, That it was said by the Prophet (meaning Moses) that the Spirit of God was moved upon the Waters; the same Expression which Tertullian uses concerning Baptism. Now because the Hebrew Word лon Merachepheth, signifies properly the Brooding of a Dove upon her Eggs, therefore it follows in Sanchuniathon, that the living Creatures, that is, the Constellations, were in that Mud, as in an Egg; and hence that Spirit is called by the Name of the Dove: Under the Similitude of which Dove, Rabbi Solomon explains the Word noпë Merachepheth. Nigidus, in the Scholiast of Germanicus, says, “That "there was found an Egg of a huge Bigness, which being rol"led about was cast upon the Earth, and after a few Days Venus, the Goddess of Syria, was hatched thereby." Lucius Ampelius, in his Book to Matrinus, says, "It is reported, that " in the River Euphrates, a Dove sat many Days upon a Fish's Egg, and hatched a Goddess, very kind and merciful to the "Life of Man." Macrobius resembles the Word to an Egg, in the VIIth Book and 16th Chap. of his Saturnalia. It is said to be the Beginning of Generation in the Orphick Verses mentioned by Plutarch, Symposiack XI. Chap. 3. and Athenagoras. And hence the Syrian Gods are called by Anobius, the Offspring of Eggs; by which Gods he means the Stars. For it follows in the Phanician Theology, that The Mud was illuminated with 'Light, whence came the Sun and Moon, and great and little Stars. You see here, as in Moses, that Light was before the Sun. The Word that Moses uses immediately after, I mean † Eretes; where evidently that which was dryed from the Water is called nw' Jabashah; the same Pherecydes, from the Authority of the Syrians, expresses himself thus (as we are informed by others, but particularly by Josephus, in his first book against Appion ;) Chthonia, was the name given to the Earth after that Jupiter had honoured it. This Place we find in Diogenes Laërtius, and others; and Anaximander calls the Sea, that which remained of the first Moisture of Things. That Things were confused before the Separation (concerning which you have the very Words of Moses in Chaleidius's Explication of Timæus) Linus informs us, as he was himself taught, That

In the Beginning all Things were confused.

So Anaxagoras, All Things were blended together, till the Divine Mind separated them, and adorned, and regulated that which was confused. And for this Reason was the Name Mind given by Anaxagoras, as Philiasius assures us in his Timom;

For Anaxagoras that Hero fam'd

Was term'd a Mind, 'cause that was thought by him
A Mind which from Confusion Order brought.

All

Collection; and a good Part of it is to be found (a) among the Indians (b) and Egyptians; whence it

is

All this came from the Phænicians, who held a very ancient Correspondence with the Greeks. The Ancients say that Linus was descended from Phenix: So Orpheus had his opinions from the Phenicians, one of which was this in Athenagoras, That Mud proceeded from Water. After which he mentions a great Egg split in two Parts, Heaven and Earth. From the same Orpheus, Timotheus, the Chronographer, cites this Passage: "The Chaos was dark as night, in which Darkness all Things "under the Sky were involved: The Earth could not be seen "by reason of the Darkness, till Light breaking from the

Sky, illuminated every Creature." See the Place in Scaliger, in the Beginning of the first Book of the Greek Chronicle of Eusebius. In that which follows of Sanchuniathon, it is called Búau, which is certainly the nɔ bohu of Moses: And the Winds, which are there called κολπια, Kolpia, are the same with D-p Kalphijah, the Voice of the Mouth of God.

(a) Among the Indians, &c.] Megasthenes, in the Fifteenth Book of Strabo, expresses their opinion thus: "That in many Things they agree with the Greeks; as that the World had a "Beginning, and will have an End; that it is of a spherical

Figure; that God, the Creator and Governor of it, pene"trates all Things: that Things had different Beginnings; and "that the World was made of Water." Clement has preserved the Words of Megasthenes himself out of his Third Book of the Indian History, Strom. I. "All that was of old said concerning "the Nature of Things, we find also said by the Philosophers "who lived out of Greece, the Brachmans among the Indians, " and they that are called Jews in Syria.”

(b) And Egyptians, &c.] Concerning whom, see Laërtius in his Promium, "The Foundation was a confused Chaos, "from whence the Four Elements were separated, and Living "Creatures made." And a little after, "That as the World "had a Beginning, so it will have an End." Diodorus Siculus explains their Opinion thus: "In the Beginning of the Creation "of all Things, the Heavens and the Earth had the same Form "and Appearance, their natures being mixed together; but "afterwards the Parts separating from one another, the World "received that Form in which we now behold it, and the "Air a continual Motion. The fiery Part ascended highest, "because the Lightness of its Nature caused it to tend up"wards; for which Reason the Sun and Multitude of Stars go "in a continual Round: the muddy and grosser Part, together

"with the Fluid, sunk down, by reason of its Heaviness. "And this rolling and turning itself continually round, from

its Moisture produced the Sea, and from the more solid Parts "proceeded the Earth, as yet very soft and miry; but when "the Sun began to shine upon it, it grew firm and hard; and "the Warmth causing the Superficies of it to ferment, the "Moisture in many Places swelling, put forth certain putrid "Substances, covered with Skins, such as we now see in fenny "moorish Grounds, when the Earth being cool, the Air happens to grow warm, not by a gradual Change, but on a sud"den. Afterwards the forementioned Substances, in the moist "Places, having received Life from the Heat in that Manner, "were nourished in the Night, by what fell from the Cloud "surrounding them, and in the Day they were strengthened by "the Heat. Lastly, when these Fatus's were come to their "full Growth, and the Membranes by which they were in"closed broke by the Heat, all Sorts of Creatures immedi"ately appeared; those that were of a hotter Nature, became "Birds and mounted up high; those that were of a grosser and earthy Nature, became Creeping Things, and such like "Creatures which are confined to the Earth; and those which were of a watry Nature, immediately betook themselves to a Place of the like Quality, and were called Fish. Now "the Earth being very much dried and hardened, by the Heat "of the Sun, and by the Wind, was no longer able to bring "forth Living Creatures, but they were afterwards begotten 66 by mixing with each other. Euripides seems not to contradict "this Account, who was the Scholar of Anaxagoras the Phi"losopher: For he says thus in his Menalippe,

cr

Heaven and Earth at first were of one Form,
But when their different Parts were separate,

Thence sprung Beasts, Fowls, and all the Shoals of Fish,
Nay, even Men themselves.

"This therefore is the Account we have received of the Original of Things. And if it should seem strange to any one, that the Earth should in the Beginning have a Power "to bring forth Living Creatures, it may be further con"firmed by what we see come to pass even now. For at "Thebais in Egypt, upon the River Nile's very much over"flowing its Banks, and thereby moistening the Ground, "immediately by the Heat of the Sun is caused a Putrefac"tion, out of which arises an incredible Number of Mice. "Now, if after the Earth has been, thus hardened, and the Air "does not preserve its original Temperature, yet some Ani"mals are notwithstanding produced; from hence, they say, "it is manifest, that in the Beginning all Sorts of Living "Creatures

Hinod

is that (a) in Linus (b) Hesiod, and many other Greek Writers, Mention is made of a Chaos (sig- omen

nified

Visjelde "Creatures were produced out of the Earth in this Manner." all menter If we add to this, that God is the Creator, who is called by

Anaxagoras a Mind, you will find many Things agreeing with Be Proud

Moses, and the Tradition of the Phænicians: As the Heavens and Earth mixed together, the Motion of the Air, the Mud or Abyss, the Light, the Stars, the Separation of Heaven and Earth, and Sea, the Birds, the Creeping Things, Fishes, and other Animals; and last of all, Mankind. Macrobius in his Seventh of his Saturnalia, Chap. 16, transcribed the following Words from the Egyptians: "If we allow, what our Adver"saries affirm, that the Things, which now are, had a Beginning; Nature first formed all Sorts of Animals perfect ; " and then ordained, by a perpetual Law, that their Succes"sion should be continued by Procreation. Now that they "might be made perfect in the Beginning, we have the Evi"dence of very many Creatures produced perfect, from the "Earth and the Water, as in Egypt Mice, and in other "Places, Frogs, Serpents, and the like." And it is with just Reason that Aristotle prefers Anaxagoras before any of the ancient Greek Philosophers, Metaphys. Book I. Chap. 3, as a sober Man, when the rest were drunken; because they referred every Thing to Matter, whereas this Man added also a Cause, which acts with Design; which Cause Aristotle calls Nature, and Anaxagoras Mind, which is better; and Moses God; and so does Plato. See Laërtius, where he treats concerning the first Principles of Things, according to the Opinion of Plato; and Appuleius concerning the Opinions of Plato. Thalis, who was before Anaxagoras, taught the same; as Velleius in Cicero tells us, in his First Book of the Nature of the Gods: "For Thalis Milesius, who was the first that inquired into such Things as these, says, that Water was the Beginning of all Things; and that God was that Mind which formed all Things out of Water." Where, by Water, he means the Chaos, which Xenophon and others call Earth; and all of them well enough, if we rightly apprehend them.

(a) In Linus, &c.] In the Verse quoted above.

(b) Hesiod, &c.] In his Theogonia:

The Rise of all Things was a Chaos rude,

Whence sprang the spacious Earth, a Seat for Gods,
Who dwell on high Olympus' snowy Top,
Nor are excluded from the dark Abyss

Beneath the Earth; from whence the God of Love,