66 scription on the temple of NHIO (Neith*), or WISDOM," at Sais, in Egypt; (whence was derived the name of the tutelar goddess of Athens, A-OHNA, by inverting, or reading backwards, the Egyptian title ;) preserved by Plutarch and others: Cudworth, p. 341.. Εγω ειμι παν το γεγονος και ον και εσομενον· Και τον εμον πεπλον, εδεις πω θνητος απεκάλυψεν. "I am all that hath been, and is, and will be; "And my veil no mortal yet uncovered." I am strongly of opinion, that this valuable fragment of primitive Egyptian theology was long anterior to the foregoing mysterious title of the GoD OF ISRAEL, recorded by Moses; and that it subsisted even before the regency of the patriarch Joseph, which (I compute) began about B. C. 1872: for, in the seven years of famine," when all coun"tries came to Egypt to buy corn from Jo 66 SEPH, because the famine was sore in all "lands," Gen. xli. 57, we learn that Erec * In the primitive Irish language, Dia Naith, signifies Minerva, or "the goddess of Wisdom." See that learned antiquary General Vallancey's Prospectus of a Dictionary of the Irish Language, Preface, p. lxxiv. 1802. Dublin. theus, theus, the founder of the kingdom and religion of Athens, came also to buy corn on that occasion, from the following curious testimony of Diodorus Siculus, b. i. 66 66 66 66 66 "Whereas a great drought (as all confess) prevailed over almost the whole world, except in Egypt, (on account of the pecu liarity of the country,) which destroyed "both men and the fruits of the earth; "Erectheus transported a great quantity of corn out of Egypt to Athens, because they "and the Egyptians were of the same kin"dred: for which kindness the citizens were "so grateful, that they advanced him to the sovereignty. After which he instituted "the festivals, and taught the Egyptian "rites and mysteries of Ceres, in Eleusis.” And Herodotus informs us, b. viii. 55, that "annual sacrifices were offered at Athens to "Erectheus and Athene," (the goddess of wisdom,) and the tutelar goddess of Athens, which was a colony from Sais in Egypt. But Joseph, we learn from Scripture, Gen. xli. 45, married the daughter of the priest of (18) Aon, or On; who probably, at that time, was a priest of the MOST HIGH GOD, 66 like Melchizedek, in Abraham's days. And though, (or as more fully written, jis, Ezek. xxx. 17) was afterwards degraded into a title of the Sun; and the Septuagint version, in this place, has rendered it 'HATONIS, “The City of the Sun," (whose ruins stand about two leagues north-north-east of Cairo, according to Niebuhr), where Herodotus informs us, b. ii. 59, 73, was a temple dedicated to the Sun, and an annual festival held; like ', (written By Avv, by the Alexandrine Septuagint,)" The house (or 66 temple) of Aun, or Aon," among the Canaanites, Josh. vii. 2, yet it probably was originally a title of THE SUPREME Being, the most ancient and universal; the traces of which we find in the Greek Q, and in the neuter, Ov; in the Chinese, Yn, or Un; in the second, Oμ, of the mysterious terms, used in the Eleusinian mysteries, Koy, Oμ, Пa, (so well explained by Wilford from the Sanscrit language, Asiat. Research. vol. v. p.300,) in the most sacred term, Aum, or Om, among the Hindoos at present, and in the Irish, Omh; all expressive (like the Hebrew, or Chaldee 1) of being, or substance, and appropriated, in all these countries, countries, from the rising to the setting sun, to THE DEITY. $6 2. It is truly remarkable, that whereas the terms are all neuter, in the Egyptian inscription,-Пav, &c. (" and among the Egyptians," Pan, as we learn from Herodotus, b. ii. " was esteemed the most an"cient, even of their eight primary divini"ties,") in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, they are all masculine: as if (with all due humility be it conjectured) THE GOD OF THE HEBREWS and of CHRISTIANS meant to rectify the mischievous degradation of his essence by the foolishness and impiety of Egyptian philosophy; and to ascribe unto himself the honour due unto his name: which Moses, who was "skilled in all the Learning "of the Egyptians," has tacitly contrasted with their revolting and dishonourable conceptions of the Divine Nature. One of which (intimately connected with the foregoing inscription) was, that his Essence was, ΣΚΟΤΟΣ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΟΝ· “ Darkness unknow "able." Which the Apostles John and Paul have tacitly controverted; maintaining, that "THE GOD IS LIGHT"-" INHABITING "LIGHT UNAPPROACHABLE;"—" AND "WITH HIM IS NO DARKNESS AT ALL!" Like the Egyptians, the Magi or Brahmens, gradually corrupted the purity and simplicity of patriarchal Theology: for though they acknowledge only one Supreme Being, whom they call BRAHME, (evidently from the Hebrew 72, Brah," Creavit,") yet they style him "the great One," in the neuter gender. As we learn from the curious observations on their Mythology, by Sir William Jones. Asiat. Res. i. p. 242. But that they once entertained juster notions, is evident from the following sublime paraphrase of the foregoing Scriptural title, almost in the language of the Revelation: Asiat. Res. i. p. 33, 245. "I WAS, even AT FIRST, not any other thing; Afterwards, I AM THAT WHICH IS : "And HE WHO MUST REMAIN AM I." Were I at liberty to alter any part of Sir William Jones's "scrupulously literal ver sion," of a passage in one of the most ancient sacred poems of the Hindoos, entitled Sri Bhagavat; containing the life of their 7 |