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piety or righteousness, (which is described to be the knowledge of God) is the only protection, and that neither the evil spirit, or fate, have power over the righteous man, for that God defends him from every evil, and that righteousness is the only good thing in man. A sentence also is cited from the Asclepian Dialogue, in which the author speaks of a time, when the Lord, the Father and God, beholding all things, and balancing good with evil, and purifying all things by water, and sharp fire should at length renovate the world*.

A passage likewise might be mentioned, which contains a mixture of true and false doctrine, and which was probably attributed to Hermes, by some later writer, since it describes "the Lord, the creator of all things, "to have made the second God, visible and "sensible, whom he formed the first, (be

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gotten) and alone and one; that he ap"peared to him good and most full of all "good things; and that God sanctified and "entirely loved him as his only begotten."

* De Vit. Beat. lib. vii. c. 18.

De Vera Sapient. lib. iv. § 6. p. 364-5.

CHAP. VII.

On Hecatæus, Manetho, Artapanus,
and others.

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HECATEUS, of Abdera, having been trained with Alexander the Great, appears to have lived with Ptolemy, king of Egypt, the son of Lagus; he gave an account of Abraham, and wrote a work upon the Jews, in which he speaks of the great veneration which they entertained for their laws, so as to endure every torture, and death itself, rather than violate them; and he particularly mentions the patience with which they sustained persecution from the Persian kings and their officers, alluding possibly to accounts related in the book of Daniel. He observes, that Alexander being inclined to rebuild the temple of Bel at Babylon, was opposed by the Jews when he commanded all to co-operate, and being struck with their constancy dismissed them.

He dilates upon the steadiness of the Jews, their great population, and the extent, beauty, and fruitfulness of their country, which he represents to contain about three million of acres, of excellent soil.

He speaks of Jerusalem and of its altars, made of unwrought stones, which no tool had touched; of the golden altar and candlestick, and of the priests who abstained from wine*.

Manetho was an Egyptian writer, a priest of Sebenua, who professed to have translated the history of his own country into the Greek language from sacred writings, by which some understand the writings of the Egyptian priests, others the Hebrew Scriptures, which he expressly mentions in the same book as the sacred writings of the Israelites, described under the title of Shepherds. His history is carried on to the sixteenth year of Artaxerxes Ochus. It was composed by the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, in whose reign the Sep

* Euseb. Præp. Evan. lib, ix. c. 4. Huet. Dem. Evan. Prop. 4. c. 2. Joseph. cont. Apion, lib. i. § 14.

+ Εκ τε των ἱερῶν, cont. Apion, lib. i. § 14. εκ τω ἱερῶν γραμ pára, cont. Apion, lib. i. 26.

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† « Τέτο φυσὶν ἔθνες τις καλεμένες, ποιμένας, αἰχμαλώτες ἐν · ταῖς ἱερᾶις αὐτῶν βίβλοις γεγράφθαι," cont. Apion, lib. i. § 14.

tuagint version was made. Whatever information Manetho borrowed from the Scriptures, is mixed with erroneous accounts, drawn from corrupt sources, and it has been imagined, that he occasionally transcribed from inscriptions on the pillars of Hercules.

He mentions Moses as a priest, first named Osarsyph, and he represents the people whom he calls Shepherds, to have taken possession of Egypt, and after retaining the power in it for upwards of five hundred years, to have been driven out, by way of the wilderness, into Syria, and for fear of the Assyrians to have retired into Judæa, and there to have built a capacious city, called Jerusalem. Josephus observes, that it may be collected from this statement, that the shepherds left Egypt three hundred and ninety-three years before Danaus went to Argos, and almost a thousand years before the siege of Troy. It appears from the account, that the shepherds are supposed to have been Israelites, an opinion open to many objections. Sir Isaac Newton imagines them to have been the Canaanites, who flying from Joshua took possession of Lower Egypt. There seems, however, to be much probability in the opinion, that the

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shepherds had been in Egypt before Jacob removed thither*. Josephus further informs us, that though Manetho professes to have drawn his history from sacred records, he blends some fabulous and unauthorized accounts with it, the falsehood of which is pointed out by Josephus †.

Polemon is supposed to have lived in the time of Ptolemy Epiphanes . Africanus says, that he wrote Grecian histories, alluding probably to a work which Athenæus calls Exλaxov. In this it was related, that in the reign of Apis, the son of Pharneus, a part of the Egyptian army went out of Egypt and took possession of that part of Syria which is called Palestine not far from Arabia §. Josephus and Eusebius have preserved also remnants of the works of other writers, which confirm the general report of history, that the Jews taking their origin in Assyria settled in Egypt, and afterwards being harrassed with servitude came out under the

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* Genesis xlvi. 34.

† Joseph. cont. Apion, lib. i. 16. Stillingfleet's Origin. Sacr. Book i. c. 2. 2.

1 See Vossius de Hist. Græc.

Euseb. Chron. and Grotius. Huet. De

c. 2. 26. p. 50.

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