thought he had the ass's head in his hand. Whether, therefore, he returned it to us again, or whether Apion took it and brought it into the temple again, that Antiochus might find it, and afford an handle for a fecond fable of Apion's, is uncertain. 11. Apion alfo tells a falfe ftory, when he mentions an oath of ours, as if we fwore by God, the maker of the heaven, and earth, and fea, to bear no good-will to any foreigner, and particularly to none of the Greeks." Now this liar ought to have laid directly, That "we would bear no good-will to any foreigner, and particularly to none of the Egyptians." For then his story about the oath would have (quared with the reft of his original forgeries, in cafe our forefathers had been driven away by their kinfmen, the Egyptians, not on account of any wickedness they had been guilty of, but on account of the calamities they were under; for as to the Grecians, we are rather remote from them in place, than different from them in our inftitutions, infomuch that we have no enmity with them, nor any jealoufy of them. On the contrary, it hath fo happened, that many of them have come over to our laws, and Tome of them have continued in their obfervation, although others of them had not courage enough to perfevere and fo departed from them again; nor did any body ever hear this oath fworn by us; Apion, it feems, was the only person that heard it, for he indeed was the first compofer of it. 12. However, Apion deferves to be admired for his great prudence, as to what I am going to fay, which is this, That "there is a plain mark among us, that we neither have just laws, nor worship God as we ought to do, because we are not governors, but are rather in subjection to Gentiles, fometimes to one nation, and fometimes to another; and that our city hath been liable to feveral calamities, while their city | Alexandria] hath been of old time an imperial city, and not uied to be in fubjection to the Romans." But now this man had better leave off his bragging, for every body but himfelt would think, that Apion faid what he bath faid against himfelt; for there are very few nations that have had the good fortune to continue many generations in the principality, but ftill the mutations in hu man affairs have put them into iubjection under others; and moft nations have been often fubdued, and brought into fubjection by others. Now for the Egyptians, perhaps they are the only nation that have had this extraordinary privilege, to have never ferved any of thofe monarchs who fubdued Afia and Europe, and this on account as they pretend, that the gods fled into their country, and faved themselves by being changed into the fhapes of wild beafts! Whereas thefe Egyptians* This notorious disgrace belonging peculiarly to the people of Egypt, ever fince the times of the old prophets of the jews, noted both lec 4 already, and here, may be confirmed by the teltimony of Indorus, an Egyptian or Pelufim, Epift. lib. I. Ep. 489. And this is a remarkable completion of the ancient prediction of God, by Ezek. XXIX 14. 15. "That the Egyptians fhould be a bate kingdom, the bafcit of the kingdoms," and that it "should not exalt itle.f any more above are the very people that appear to have never, in all the pak ages, had one day of freedom, no not fo much as from their own lords. For I will not reproach them with relating the manner how the Perfians ufed them, and this not once only, but many times, when they laid their cities wafte, de:nolifhed their temples, and cut the throats of thofe animals whom they efteemed to be gods; for it is not reafonable to imitate the clownish ignorance of Apion, who hath no regard to the mis fortunes of the Athenians, or of the Lacedemonians, the latter of which were ftyled by all men the most courageous, and the former the most religious of the Grecians. I fay nothing of fuch kings as have been famous for piety particularly of one of them whole name was Crefus, nor what calamities he met with in his life; I fay nothing of the citadel of Athens, of the temple at Ephefus, of that at Delphi, nor of ten thousand o thers which have been burnt down while nobody calt reproaches on those that were the lufferers, but on thofe that were the actors therein. But now we have met with Apion, an accufer of our nation, though one that ftill forgets the miteries of his own people, the Egyptians; but it is that Sefoftris, who was once fo celebrated a king of Egypt, that hath blinded him: Now we will not brag of our kings David and Solomon, though they conquered many nations; accordingly we will let them alone. However, Apion is ignorant of what every body knows, that the Egyptians were fervants to the Peruans, and afterward to the Macedonians when they were lords of Ana, and were no better than flaves, while we have enjoyed liberty formerly; nay, more than that, have had the dominion of the cities that lie round about us, and this nearly for an hundred and twenty years together, until Pompeius Magnus. And when all the kings every where were conquered by the Ronans, our ancestors were the only people who continued to be efteemed their confederates and friends, on account of their fidelity to them. 13. But, fays Apion, we Jews have not had any wonderful men amongst us, not any inventors of arts, nor any eminent for wisdom." He then enumerates Socrates, and Zeno, and Cleanthes, and fome others of the fame fort; and, atter all, he adds himself to them, which is the most wonderful thing of all that he fays, and pronounces Alexandria to be happy, because it hath fuch a citizen as he is in it: For he was the fittest man to be a witnefs to his own deferts, although he hath appeared to all others no better than a wicked mountebank, of a corrupt life and ill difcourfes; on which account one the nations." The truth of which ftill farther appears by the prefent obfervation of Jofephus, that thele Egyptians had never, in all the paft ages fince Sefoftris, had one day of liberty, no not fo much as to have been free from defpetic power under any of the monarchs to that day. And all this has been found equally true in the latter ages, under the Romans, Saracens, Mammalukes and Turks, from the days of Jolephus till the prefent age alfo. may juftly pity Alexandria, if it fhould value itself upon fuch a citizen as he is. But as to our own men, we have had those who have been as deferving of commendation as any other whofoever, and fuch as have perused our antiquities cannot be ignorant of them. 14. As to the other things which he fets down as blameworthy, it may perhaps be the best way to let them pafs without apology, that he may be allowed to be his own accufer, and the accufer of the reft of the Egyptians. However, he accufes us for facrificing animals, and for abftaining from fwine's flesh, and laughs at us for the circumcifion of our privy members. Now, as for our flaughter of tame animals for facrifices, it is common to us and to all other men: But this Apion, by making it a crime to facrifice them, demonftrates himself to be an Egyptian; for had he been either a Grecian, or a Macedonian as he pretends to be] he had not fhewed any uneafinefs at it; for thofe people glory in facrificing whole hecatombs to the gods, and make ufe of thofe facrifices for feafting; and yet is not the world thereby rendered deftitute of cattle, as Apion was afraid would come to pafs. Yet if all men had followed the manners of the Egyptians, the world had certainly been made defolate as to mankind, but had been filled full of the wildest fort of brute-beafts, which, because they fuppofe them to be gods, they carefully nourish. However, if any one (hould afk Apion, which of the Egyptians he thinks to be the most wife, and moft pious of them all, he would certainly acknowledge the priests to be fo; for the hif tories fay, that two things were originally committed to their eare by their king's injunctions the worthip of the gods, and the fupport of wifdom and philofophy. Accordingly thefe priefts are all circumcifed, and abftain from fwine's flesh: Nor does any one of the other Egyptians affift them in flaying thofe facrifices they offer to the gods. Apion was therefore quite blinded in his mind, when, for the fake of the Egyptians, he contrived to reproach us, and to accufe fuch others as not only make ufe of that conduct of life which he fo much abuses, but have alfo taught other men to be cireumcised, as fays Herodotus, which makes me think that Apion is hereby justly punished for his cafting fuch reproaches on the laws of his own country; for he was circumcifed himself of neceffity on account of an ulcer in his privy member; and when he received no benefit by fuch circumcifion, but his member be came putrid, he died in great torment. Now men of good tempers ought to obferve their own laws concerning religion accurately and to perfevere therein, but not prefently to abuse the laws of other nations, while this Apion deferted his own laws, and told lies about ours. And this was the end of Apion's life, and this fhall be the conclufion of our difcourfe about him. 15. But now, fince Appollonius Molo, and Lyfimachus, and fome others write treatifes about our law-giver Mofes, and about our laws, which are neither juft nor true, and this partly out of ignorance, but chiefly out of ill-will to us, while they calumniate Mofes as an impoftor and deceiver, and pretend that our laws teach us wickedness, but nothing that is virtuous; I have a mind to difcourfe briefly, according to my ability, about our whole conftitution of government, and about the particular branches of it. For I fuppofe it will thence become evident, that the laws we have given us are difpofed after the best manner for the advancement of piety, for mutual communion with one another, for a general love of mankind, as alfo for justice, and for fuftaining labours with fortitude, and for a contempt of death. And I beg of thofe that will perufe this writing of mine, to read it without partiality; for it is not my purpose to write an encomium upon ourselves, but I fhall efteem this as a moft juft apology for us, and taken from thofe our laws, according to which we lead our lives, against the many and the lying objections that have been made against us. Moreover, fince this Appollonius does not do like Apion, and lay a continued accufation against us, but does it only by ftarts,andup and down his difcourfe, while hefometimesreproach es us as atheists, and man-haters, and fometime hits us in the teeth with our want of courage, and yet fometimes, on the contrary, accules us of too great boldnefs, and madness in our condu&: Nay, he fays, that we are the weakest of all the barbarians, and that this is the reason why we are the only people which have made no improvements in human life. Now I think I fhall have then fufficiently disproved all thefe his allegations, when it fhall appear that our laws enjoin the very reverfe of what he fays, and that we very carefully obferve thofe laws ourfelves. And if I be compelled to make mention of the laws of other nations, that are contrary to ours, those ought defervedly to thank themselves for it, who have pretended to depreciate our laws in comparifon of their own; nor will there, 1 think, be any room after that for them to pretend, either that we have no fuch laws ourselves, an epitome of which I will prefent to the reader, or that we do not, above all men, continue in the obfervation of them. 16. To begin then a good way backward; I would advance this in the first place, that thofe who have been admirers of good order, and of living under common laws, and who be gan to introduce them, may well have this teftimony that they are better than other men, both for moderation, and fuch virtue as is agreeable to nature. Indeed their endeavour was to have every thing they ordained believed to be very ancient, that they might not be thought to imitate others, but might appear to have delivered a regular way of living to others after them. Since then, this is the cafe, the excellency of a legiflator is feen in providing for the people's living after the best manner, and in prevailing with those that are to use the laws he ordains for them, to have a good opinion of them, and in obliging the multitude to perfevere in them, and to make no changes in them, neither in profperity nor adverfity. Now I venture to fay, that our legiflator is the most ancient of all the legiflators whom we have any where heard of; for as for the Lycurgufes, and Solons and Zaleucus Locrenfis, and all thofe legiflators which are fo admired by the Greeks, they feem to be of yesterday, if compared with our legiflator, infomuch as the very name of a law was not fo much as known in old times among the Grecians. Homer is a witness to the truth of this obfervation, who never ufes that term in all his poems; for indeed there was then no fuch thing among them, but the multitude was governed by wife maxims, and by the injunctions of their king. It was alfo a long time that they continued in the use of thefe unwritten cultoms, although they were always changing them upon feveral occafions. But for our legiflator, who was of fo much greater antiquity than the reft, (as even those that fpeak againft us upon all occafions do always confefs) he exhibited himself to the people as their best governor and counsellor, and included in his legislation the entire conduct of their lives, and prevailed with them to receive it, and brought it fo to pals, that thofe that were made acquainted with his laws, did moft carefully obferve them. 17 But let us confider his first and greatest work: For when it was refolved on by our forefathers to leave Egypt, and return to their own country, this Mofes took the many ten thousands that were of the people, and faved them out of many defperate diftreffes, and brought them home in fatety. And certainly it was here neceffary to travel over a country without water, and full of fand, to overcome their enemies, and, during thefe battles, to preferve their children and their wives, and their prey; on all which occafions he became an excellent general of an army, and a most prudent counsellor, and one that took the truelt care of them all; he alfo fo brought it about, that the whole multitude depended upon him. And while he had them always obedient to what he enjoined, he made no manner of ufe of his authority, for his own private advantage, which is the ufual time when governors gain great powers to themselves, and pave the way for tyranny, and accuftom the multitude to live very diffolutely: Whereas, when our legiflator was in fo great authority, he, on the contrary, thought he ought to have regard to piety, and to fhew his great good will to the people; and by this means he thought he might fhew the great degree of virtue that was in him, and might procure the moft lafting fecurity to those who had made him their governor. When he had therefore come to fuch a good refolution, and had performed fuch wonderful Viz. After the greatest part of the world had left off their obedience to God their original legiflator. See Scripture Politics, page 6, 7. VOL. III. Q3 |