PART I.

ed; and that their greater gods were the sun, moon, and five primary planets, in conjunction with the four elements, under the government of an all-ruling and all-pervading SPIRIT, I have already proved.

These gods were represented by allegorical symbols, expressive of their supposed qualities. And as the meaning of those symbols was only known to the learned, the ignorant multitude, we may believe, often worshipped the mere symbol of each God, as the ultimate object of their adoration. Here we discover the true origin of what has been called brute-worship.

Dr. Warburton was, therefore, wise in rejecting all former theories of brute-worship378; and in ascribing it to allegorical symbols 379. But I can by no means agree with him in thinking, that the symbols, which led to this worship, among the Egyptian vulgar were merely those employed in hieroglyphic writing-380;

Cudworth, "That all that multiplicity of pagan gods, which makes so "great a shew and noise, was really nothing but several names and no"tions of ONE supreme Deity, according to its different manifestations, "gifts, and effects in the world: so that ONE unmade, self-existent "DEITY, and no more was acknowledged by the more intelligent of the "ancient pagans; for of the opinions of the sottish vulgar no man can "pretend to give an account, in any religion" (Intellectual System, chap. iv. sect. xiii.). That the Egyptian vulgar were truly sottish I shall afterward have occasion to shew.

378. Three of these deserve particular regard: 1. That the Egyptian invention of distinguishing the constellations, and marking cach of them with the name of some animal gave rise to brute-worship (Lucian de Astrologia); 2. That it had its origin in the doctrine of God's pervading all things (Porphyr. de Abstinentia, lib. iv.); 3. That brutes were made the objects of worship only as the symbols of the FIRST CAUSE, considered in his various attributes and relations (Jamblic. de Myst. Egypt.). But these three supposed causes of brute-worship, if combined, account rather for the use of brutal forms in allegorical symbols, than for the worship of brutes; whether in the image or living animal. 379. Divine Legation, book iv. sect. iv. 380. Id. ibid.

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though I can readily admit, that it had its rise in the LETTER symbolical figures sculptured on the porticoes of the Egyptian temples.

For we know that those symbolical figures were more striking than hieroglyphical inscriptions381: they consequently would make a greater impression upon the minds of the superstitious Egyptians. And when explained, they probably contained more meaning. Nor have we any reason to believe, that the body of the people in Egypt ever paid much regard to hieroglyphic writing, or revered its feigned divine origin32. Though chiefly, if not solely confined to the two higher orders in the kingdom, it was sufficiently familiar to prevent adoration.

Yet if the profound doctor had liberally interpreted the allegorical symbols employed in hieroglyphic writing, great merit must have been ascribed to him. But he had no such liberal views. The champion of a paradoxical system, in the prosecution of which the whole vigour of his genius was exerted, he pushed aside every authority, and trampled upon every opi381. Herodot. lib. ii. passim.

382. See the Divine Legation of Moses, book iv. sect. iv. where this position is maintained. I have already had occasion to make some remarks on the nature of hieroglyphic writing, in order to rectify a general mistake;" that it was invented for secrecy, not for public use." And I shall here hazard an opinion, accompanied with a corroborating testimony, that symbolic writing, which arose out of picture-writing, common to all rude nations, in a certain stage of their progress (to the Mexicans and Japanese, as well as the Ethiopians and Egyptians), is no proof of the antiquity of a nation; though its early or happy invention, may be considered as a mark of the ingenuity of a people. "The Egyptians," says Tacitus (Annal. lib. xi.), in tracing the rise of alphabetic writing, originally expressed the conceptions of their minds by "the figures of animals." This respectable authority seems to have escaped the notice of Warburton; or perhaps it did not, in all respects suit his purpose; though a strong testimony in support of his theory (which I have adopted), that hieroglyphic writing was not invented for secrecy.

PART I. nion, that stood in the way of his favourite hypothesis. Instead of explaining the Egyptian symbols with the liberality of a philosopher, a character which he sometimes affects, we discover only in his inquiries the narrow mind of a candidate for a bishopric. "The "brute-worship of the Egyptians," says he, "was at "first altogether objective of their hero-gods383."

But the venerable father of history affirms, on his own knowledge and observation, that the Egyptians, worshipped no heroes 384. And he supports his asser

tion by the testimony of the Egyptian priests; who, after having given him, in a chronological series, an account of the long succession of their kings, declared that none of those kings had been either reputed a god, or deified as a hero385. They also declared, that, in Egypt, no god had taken the form of a man; nor had they ever heard of such a thing, either during the reigns of their more ancient or later monarchs386.

383. Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, book iv. sect. iv. Yet he had before told us, that the first gods of the Egyptians, after the establishment of polytheism, were the sun and moon. Must not their allegorical symbols, therefore, have been at first objective of those gods? as we find such symbols were among the ancient Chaldeans, and all oriental worshippers of the celestial bodies. And the "first natural "gods of the Egyptians," Dr. Warburton afterward allows to have "been the host of heaven." See Divine Legation, book iv. sect. iv. 384. Herodotus, lib. ii. cap. 1. 385. Id. lib. ii. cap. cxlii. cxliii. 386. Herodotus, lib. ii. cap. cxliii. The Egyptians, therefore, could not, in the most early times, worship their gods in the human form: nor could the allegorical symbols, engraved on the porticoes of their temples, or otherwise employed for religious purposes, be objective of their dead kings or heroes; for they did not deify them. Yet Dr. Warburton had the boldness to maintain both these positions, and arrogantly asks, when asserting, that the symbolic worship of brutes brought human images into disrepute, whether any one can believe, that the bero-god OSIRIS was not worshipped in his own figure, before that of an ox ?—(Divine Legation of Moses, book iv. sect. iv.) But that Osiris was no mortal king, I have already endeavoured to prove; and shall now call in aid of my opinion, the suffrage of the Egyptian priests.

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The sacred sages added, however, that before the LETTER time of those mortal kings, the gods had been sovereigns of Egypt, but had no intercourse with men ; and that the last of their celestial monarchs was Orus, the son of Osiris, who dethroned Typhon387. Here we have a new proof, that Osiris was a mythical personage, and the reputed history of the reign of the gods in Egypt, a mythical legend; for Herodotus tells us, that Orus, the last celestial sovereign, was the same with the Grecian Heliot or Apollo388

Nor does it require much learned sapience to discover, that by the dethroning of TYPHON by ORUS, is mythically to be understood, the expulsion of the principle of natural evil, by the emanation of LIGHT, or the benignant influence of the sun upon our world, Hence Orus is called the son of Osiris ; one of the names or titles of the sun, as well as of the Creator and Governor of the universe 389.

The manner in which these names or titles were originally confounded, and the literal meaning of the reign of the gods in Egypt, may thus perhaps be accounted for, and explained. While the Egyptians remained in a state of barbarism, they, like many other barbarians, considered the sun and moon as the gods, who jointly governed the world39°; and when, become civilized and enlightened, they obtained the knowledge of a SUPREME BEING, the same names, which had

387. Id. ibid.

388. Historiar. lib. ii. cap. cxlii.

389. This I have already had occasion to prove.

390. Diod. Sicul. lib. i. p. 10, 11. edit. sup. cit. His words are to the following purport. "The most ancient Egyptians, looking up to "the world above them, and filled with astonishment and admira“tion at the structure of the universe, concluded there were two chief gods; namely, the sun and moor. And to the sun they gave the appellation of Osiris, or many-eyed; and to the MOON that of Isis, or "ancient."

Id. ibid.

VOL. I.

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formerly

PART I. formerly been applied to the two most glorious visible orbs, were also applied by them indifferently to the DEITY, or FIRST CAUSE of all things.

This moral revolution, and the introduction of physiological or mythical theology, may be conjectured to have taken place about the time that Menes founded the Egyptian monarchy; promulgated written laws, and gave a regular form to religious ceremonies. But before the introduction of physiological theology, the Egyptians seem not only to have worshipped the sun and moon, but the whole host of heaven, or all the planets in the solar system; as appears by the number of their greater gods391. And as monarchy had not been regularly constituted, if it had ever been instituted in Egypt, before the reign of Menes, the Egyptians, in after times, looked back to that period of ignorance and barbarous freedom, when they knew no kings, but the heavenly bodies, as the reign of the gods.

They did not, however, describe it as the Greeks did their golden age, or the Romans their Saturnian reign; but represented it as a period during which they were emerging from barbarity, and gradually acquiring, under their celestial sovereigns, the use of the more necessary arts392; surely great cause of con

391. The greater gods of the Egyptians, originally two, as I have just had occasion to notice, were afterward multiplied to eight (Herodot. lib. ii. cap. xlvi.), when they became better acquainted with astronomy; and were at last increased to twelve (Id. ibid.) on the introduction of physiological theology; which, together with the worship of the celestial bodies, under the direction of a divine intellect, added the adoration of the four elements.

The number of the greater gods among the Greeks and Romans was also twelve, as I shall have occasion to shew; and even among the more northern nations of Europe. EDDA, Mythol. xix,

392. Diod. Sicul. Biblioth. lib. i. p. 13-19.

solation