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Moses, there can be no doubt. And Scaliger, Vossius, and Bochart have proved beyond contradiction, that the Assyrian, Syrian, Canaanitish, Phoenician, and Hebrew letters were all nearly the same. But,

It is here objected, that the Egyptian Hieroglyphics are the most antique letters extant. To this, however, it is replied, 1st., that the Menes of Diodorus, and other heathen writers, and the Mestraim of Syncellus, who with Herodotus,' Eratosthenes, Africanus, and Eusebius, acknowledge to have been the first king of Egypt, is. the same with the Mizraim of Moses, as the coincidence of the sacred and profane narratives as shown by Sir John Marsham fully demonstrates. 2 Whether he was present at the building of Hebron, situated between Shinaar and Egypt, seems uncertain; but that city was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. Canaan, therefore, was settled even before. Egypt. The Timaus also of Plato, who is the same with the Mizraim of Moses, that writer says reigned over all Egypt; and, after leaving Zoan at the entrance of Egypt where he first settled, he penetrated farther into the interior, and built Thebes and Memphis. To this we add, 2nd., that though the Egyptians at an early period fell into Idolatry, yet it appears that in the time of Abraham, they were worshippers of the true God, he having been received and entertained in Egypt the same as at Gerar.

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1. Lib. ii., § 4:

3. Num. xiii. 22.

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5. Herod. lib. ii., § 99.

2. Canon Chronicon. p. 22

4. In Phædro. p. 1240.

This.

6. Gen. xii. 14, and xx. 1, 2, &c.

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fact is also confirmed by the testimony of Plutarch, 1 Philo Biblius, 2 and Porphyry. It is evident, therefore, 3rd., that hieroglyphics were not in use in the days of Abraham; and to this we may add another fact, viz., that the pillars upon which Hermes or Taautus "left his memoirs, were inscribed, not in hieroglyphics, but ιερογραφικοις γράμμασι, in the sacred letters, in letters which were capable of being made use of by a translator, who turned what was written in these letters out of one language into another." These sacred letters, however, fell into entire desuetude before the time of Diodorus; but Dr. Burnet and bishop Stillingfleet both contend, that the sacred letters of the Egyptians were different from their hieroglyphics; and also that, unlike the Chinese letters, which express no words, or particular sounds whatever, they were capable of expressing words of different languages.

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It is, however, further urged, that the rudeness of Egyptian sculpture is an evidence of their great antiquity; while, on the other hand it is contended, that, for the most part, these figures were evidently made after the Greeks and Romans broke in upon the Egyptians; and further, that, whereas their ancient images represented animals of various sorts, e. g., a hawk for Osiris, a sea-horse for Typho, a dog for

1. Plut. de Iside et Osi. p. 359.

2. Euseb. Præp. Evang. lib. i., c. 10.

3. Ibid. lib. iii., c. 11.

4. Shuck. Con. vol. ii., p. 200. Euseb. in chron, p. 6.

5. Archaolog..

6. Shuck. Con. vol. i., p. 147.

Mercury, a cat for the moon, &c., their modern relics are mostly of the human shape. True, judging from the figures in F. Montfaucon's collection, the rudeness of their shape indicates great antiquity. But " Plato expressly tells us, that it was a rule among their statuaries, to imitate the antique shapes of the ancient patterns, and that the carvers were by law, restrained from all attempts which looked like innovation." 1

However much of incertitude, therefore, may accompany all our researches into remote antiquity in these premises, we think that we are warranted in deciding against the high claims thereto, on the part of ancient Egypt. The invention of letters is of Assyrian, not Egyptian origin. Menes, Mestraim, or Timaus, the first king of Egypt, is the Mizraim of Old Testament History. The origin of Egyptian hieroglyphics is evidently posterior to the time of Abraham, letters having been introduced anterior both to Abraham and Moses. And if it be true, as Scaliger, Casaubon, Grotius, Vossius, Bochart, Father Morin, Brerewood, Capellus, and Bishop Walton, contend, that the old Hebrew characters were the same, or nearly the same as the Phoenician, Syrian, Assyrian, and Canaanitish; and also that the Egyptian were totally

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1. Plato de Legibus. Lib. ii., p. 789.

2. These, "the Rabbins, Talmudists, Christian Fathers, Origen and St. Jerome, all believed have undergone a change, supposed to have been made by Ezra, after the rebuilding of the temple, when he wrote out a new copy of the law." (Shuck.)

3. See specimens of them in Shuckford's Con. vol. i., pp. 151-164.

separate and distinct from the Chinese, it is natural to conclude that they must have been similar to the above. This would also seem subversive of the theory, that the Hebrew characters were first inscribed by the finger of God upon the two tables of stone on the holy mount, as predicated of the supposition, that, if written in the characters then known in Egypt, they must have tended to encourage that very idolatry prohibited in the second commandement ; inasmuch as the mythology of that nation at that time pervaded the entire body of their hieroglyphics. Incorporated, however, with these very hieroglyphics, ' were letters (which could have been none other than their sacred letters 2) explanatory of them; their extremely rude and uncouth forms rendering them for the most part otherwise unintelligible. This we say was indispensable, in order "to fill up and connect sentences, and to express actions." Hence, "the first man must have had letters as well as pictures, or their pictures could have hinted only the ideas of visible objects; but there would have been much wanting in all inscriptions to give their full and true meaning. Even admitting, then, as history indicates, that Egyptian learning in the time of Moses was at an exceeding low ebb, and that their astron

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1. These hieroglyphics were something like Pythagoras's precepts, they expressed one thing, but meant another." Plut. lib. et Iside et Osiride., p. 354.

2. See p. 32.

3. Shuck. Con. vol. ii., p. 201.

4. Marsham Con. Chron. p. 137.

omy, even before his day had led them into idolatry; it no more follows that Moses was ignorant of the Hebraic Egyptian sacred letters, than that himself had become an idolator. Nor can it seem less than extraordinary, that scripture no where intimates such a miraculous origin of the Hebrew characters as above intimated; since, in the erection of the Jewish tabernacle and temple, and every thing connected with the whole pariphernalia of their priesthood, sacrifices, and ritual service, God said to Moses, "see thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount."1 As will hereafter be seen, we are no advocates for superfluous miracles.

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As it regards the invention of letters, therefore, as already intimated, with whom originate more probably than with NOAH, if indeed they were not, as the learned Shuckford thinks, of ante-diluvian origin. The Chinese ascribe the invention of their letters to their first emperor Fohi. Now, that this Fohi and Noah was one and the same person, we think will appear evident from the following. The Chinese say of their Fohi, that he had no father, which, in respect to them, was the case with Noah, their tradi-tional records containing no acccounts of his ancestry. They have a tradition of the rainbow, which they say surrounded the mother of Fohi at his conception. This answers to the "rainbow" of the Noahic covenant.3 Fohi, they say, sacrificed seven sorts of creatures to the supreme spirit of heaven and earth.

1. Exod. xxv. 9, 40. 2. See P. 30. 3. Gen. ix, 11-15.

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