IT is the opinion of some Henr. Sponda­nus de coemete­riis sacris, lib. 1. par. 1. cap. 6. [...] Brodaeus epigr. Graec. [...]. mo­derne Writers, that the Aegyp­tian Pyramids were erected by the Israelites, during their hea­vie pressure under the tyrannie of the Pharaohs. And this seems to be confirmed by Ioseph. lib. 2. Antiq. cap. 5. [...], &c▪ Iose­phus; who relates, that when as time had extingui­shed the memorie of the benefits of Joseph, the King­dome of Aegypt being transplanted into another Family, they used the Israelites with much severitie, wasting them with severall labours; for they were commanded to cut divers Channels for the River (Nilus) to raise walls, and cast up bankes, whereby to hinder the inundation of the streame: they oppressed also our Nation with those fabrickes of the Pyra­mids, compelling them to learne many (mechanicall) Arts, and inured them to the supporting of labours. But the sacred Scriptures clearely expressing the slaverie of the Iewes, to have consisted in making and burning of Brick (for the originall is [...] Lebénim, which the Exod. cap. 5▪ saepè. Septuagint renders by [...] and [...]) whereas all these Pyramids consist of Stone, I cannot be induced to subscribe to their assertion.

[Page 2]Much lesse can I assent to that opinion of [...], Steph. [...]. Stephanus, [...]] Id est aedificia quaedam à Io­seph, ut nonnulli opinan [...]ur, ad condenda fru­menta sci [...]è ad­modum elaborata, [...], id est à frumento nomen consecuta. Nicetas in XX Ora [...]. Naz [...]anzeni. Nicetas, Non à vero, ut inquit Nonnus, a [...]horret, quin has Pyramides post Ioseph▪ tempora▪ exces­sú [...]que Iudaeo­rum ex Aegyp [...]o in Regum sep [...]l­chra conve [...]e­rint. B [...]l [...]s ex Nonno monacho ibidem. Nonnus, and the Author of the Greeke [...]. [...], with some others, who derive the name of the Pyramids [...], that is from Corne, and not [...], from the figure of a flame of fire, which they resem­ble; because, say most of them, these were built by the Patriarch Ioseph, as [...], Receptacles, and Granaries of the seven plentifull yeares. For, be­sides that this figure is most improper for such a purpose, a Pyramid being the least capacious of any regular Mathematicall body, the straightnesse, and fewnesse of the roomes within (the rest of the building being one solid, and intire fabrick of stone) doe utterly overthrow this conjecture. Wherefore the relations of Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and of some others, but especially of these two, both of them having travailed into Aegypt, and conversed with the Priests (besides that the later made use of their Commentaries) will give us the best and clea­rest light, in matters of so great antiquitie.

For Herodotus writes thus concerning the first of these Pyramids that He [...]od. lib. 2 [...], &c. untill King Rhampsi­nitus time the Aegyptians report the Lawes to have flourished in Aegypt: after whom, Cheops suc­ceeding in the Kingdome, fell into all manner of vice; for, shutting up the Temples, he forbad the Aegypti­ans to sacrifice: besides, he commanded that they should be imployed in his workes (hee meanes this Pyramid of which hee discour [...]eth) that some of them should receive the stones dug out of the Quar­ries of the Arabian mountaine, and that from thence they should carry them to the Nilus; these being waf [...]ed over the River, others were to receive them, and to draw them to the mountaine, which is called [Page 3] Libycus. There were imployed in the worke ten Myriads of men, every three moneths a Myriad: the people spent ten yeares in the way, in which they drew the stones, which seemes to me no lesse a worke then the building of the Pyramid it selfe. Diod. Sic. l. 13 Diodorus Siculus discoursing of the same argu­ment, gives the erector of this another name, different from that of Herodotus, stiling him Chemmis; but in the time and person they both agree, each of them affirming him to have suc­ceeded Rhampsinitus, and to have beene the fa­ther of Mycerinus, and to have reigned over the Aegyptians fiftie yeares. This difference of names betweene Herodotus and Diodorus, concerning the same King, may probably be thus reconciled; that Diodorus expresses the genuine denomina­tion in the Aegyptian Language, and that Hero­dotus renders the signification in the Greeke: a practice not unusuall with him, and with other approved Authors. Thus the Patriarke Isaac in the Scriptures, being denominated from [...], that is laughter, is by Alexander Polyhistor, as E [...]seb. lib. [...]. Evangel. p [...]ae­p [...]r. cap. 19. Eu­sebius testifies, named [...]. Wherefore [...] Cham in Hebrew (or in the Greeke flection Chemmis) signifying adustion, which anciently might be the same in Aegyptian, and [...], or [...], signifying swarthie visage, or adult, Herodotus might call him Cheops in Greeke, whom in the Aegyptian Language Diodorus stiles Chemmis. But I goe on with Diodorus. This Chemmis, Diod. Sic. l [...]b▪ 1. [...]. saith he, erected the greatest of these three Pyramids, which are reputed amongst the seven wonderfull fabricks of the world: where hee also enlarges the number of the workemen imployed by him, [Page 4] to three hundred and sixtie thousand, which He­rodotus mentions onely to have beene an hundred thousand; though both of them concurre, and Pyramis am­plissima ex Ara­bicis lapidicinis constat. Trecenta LX hominum millia annis XX cam construxisse produ [...]tur, Plin. lib. 36. cap. 12. Pliny with them both, that twentie yeares were spent in the building of this Pyramid.

Concerning the second Pyramid, Herodotus and Diodorus assigne the author of it to have beene Cephren, brother to the former King. Dio­dorus addes, that by some he is also called Cha­bryis, and was the sonne of Chemmis; a diffe­rence which I imagine to have beene occasioned out of the diversitie of pronuntiation, of Chabryis for Cephren; there being an easie transmutation in letters of the same Organ, as Grammarians use to speake. Cheops, as Herod. lib. 2. [...], &c. Herodotus informes us, being deceased, his brother Cephren reigned after him; who imitated him, as in other things, so in the making of a Pyramid, the magnitude of which is lesse then that of his brothers. And Diodor. lib. 1. [...], &c. Diodorus relates, that Chemmis being dead, his brother Cephren succeeded him in the King­dome, and reigned fiftie six yeares: Some say, that not his brother, but his sonne, which was na­med Chabryis, reigned after him. This is affirmed by the consent of all, that the successor of the for­mer King, in imitation of him, built the second Pyramid, like to the first in respect of the art and workmanship, but farre inferiour to it in respect of magnitude.

The third Pyramid was erected by [...], Herodot. lib. [...]. Myceri­nus, some call him Mycherinus, as it is observed by Diodorus, who makes him the sonne of Chem­mis, as Herodotus doth of Cheops; the difference betweene them being, as we noted before, rather [Page 5] nominall then reall. The same Herodot. lib. 2. [...], &c. Herodotus also writes, that some of the Graecians make the third Pyramid the worke of Rhodopis a Curti­zan; an errour in opinion of those, who seeme not to know who this Rhodopis might be, of which they speake: for neither could she have undertaken such a Pyramid, on which so many thousand talents were to be spent; neither lived shee in this mans time, but in the time of King Amasis. Now this Amasis, as he elsewhere shewes lived long after these Pyramids were in being. The same storie is recited by [...] [...] Strabo and Pliny, both of them omitting the names of the Founders of the former two: Strabo gives her a double name; The third Pyramid is the Sepulcher of a Curtizan, made by her lovers, whom Sappho the Poetresse calls Dori­cha, Mistresse to her brother Charaxus; others name her Rhodope. But whether wee name her Doricha, or Rhodope, the relation is altogether improbable, if we consider either her condition or the infinite vastnesse of the expense. For Diod. Sic Diodo­rus, though he rightly acknowledges this Pyramid to be much lesse then either of the former two, yet in respect of the exquisite workmanship, and rich­nesse of the materials, he judges it not inferiour to either of them. A structure certainly too great and sumptuous, to have beene the designe, and under­taking of a Curtizan, which could hardly have been performed by a rich, and potent Monarch. And yet Diodorus hath almost the same relation, onely a little altered in the circumstances: Diod. Sic. lib [...] [...] ▪ Some say, that this is the Sepulcher of the strumpet Rho­dope; of whom, some of the Nomarchae (or Pre­fects of the Provinces) being inamoured, by a com­mon [Page 6] expense to win her favour, they built this Mo­nument. But to passe by this Fable (for it is no better) and to returne to our inquirie. The same Author immediately before ingenuously confesses, that concerning them all three, there is little a­greement either amongst the Natives, or amongst Writers: Idem ibid. [...] For they say, Armaeus made the greatest of these; the second, Amasis; the third, Inaron. And Tres verò factae annis LXXVIII & mensibu. IV. Plin. lib. 36. cap. 12 Pliny informing us, that these three were made in seventie eight yeares, and foure moneths, leaves the Founders of them very ambiguous: For reciting the names of many Authors that had described them, hee concludes; Plin. ibid. Inter omnes eos non constat à qui­bus factae sint, justissimo casu obliteratis tantae vanitatis authoribus.

The Arabians, whose excellencies I judge to have been in the speculative sciences, and not in the Histories, and Occurrences of ancient times, assigne other Founders of these three, different from those mentioned by the Greeks. The Author of the Book intitled, Morat Alzeman, writes, they differ concerning him that built the Pyramids; Some say Joseph, some say Nimrod, some Dalukah the Queene, and some that the Aegyptians built them before the floud: For they foresaw that it would be, and they carried thither their treasures, but it profited them nothing. In another place he tels us that the Coptites (or Aegyptians) report that these two greater Pyramids, and the lesser, which is coloured, are Sepulchers. In the East Pyramid is King Saurid, in the West Pyramid his brother Hougib▪ and in the coloured Pyramid Fazfarinoun, th [...] sonne of Hougib: The Sabeans relate, that one [Page 7] of them is the Sepulcher of Shiit (that is Seth) and the second the Sepulcher of Hermes, and the colou­red one the Sepulcher of Sab, the sonne of Hermes, from whom they are called Sabaeans. They goe in pilgrimage thither, and sacrifice at them a Cocke, and a blacke Calfe, and offer up incense. Ibn Abd Alhokm: another Arabian discoursing of this Argument, confesses, that he could not find a­mongst the learned men in Aegypt, any certaine relation concerning them (wherefore) what is more reasonable (saith he) then that the Pyramids were built before the Floud? For if they had been built after, there would have been some memory of them amongst men; at last he concludes. The grea­test part of Chronologers affirme, that he which built the Pyramids, was Saurid ibn Salhouk the King of Aegypt, who was before the Floud 300 yeares. And this opinion he confirmes out of the Books of the Aegyptians: To which he addes, The Coptites mention [...]n their Books, that upon them there is an inscription ingraven; the exposi­tion of it in Arabicke is this: I Saurid the King, built the Pyramids in such and such a time, and fi­nished them in six yeares; he that comes after me, and sayes he is equall to me, let him destroy them in six hundred yeares; and yet it is knowne, that it is easier to plucke downe, then to build; and when I had finished them, I covered them with Sattin, and let him cover them with Mats. The same relation I find in severall others of them, that this Saurid was the Founder of these three Pyramids, which the admiration of after times inrolled amongst the miracles of the world. And these are those three, which are still faire, and intire, and standing neare [Page 8] to one another, formerly not far distant from the great and ancient City Memphis, built by [...], Diodor. lib. 1. Uchoreus, (of which there is now not so much as the ruines left) and lesse distant from the River Nilus; as Diodorus, Strabo, and Pliny, rightly describe.

Besides these three, we find mentioned in He­rodotus, and Diodorus, the names and Authors of some others, not much inferiour to these in magni­tude, long since ruined, and defaced by time. On the contrary, there are many now standing in the Libyan desert, whose names, and Authours, neither Herodotus, nor Diodorus, nor yet any of the Ancients have expressed.

After Mycerinus, according to Herod. lib. 2. Herodotus, (for Diodorus is here silent,) Asychis succeeded in the Kingdome, [...]. who being desirous to excell his Predecessors, left for a monument a Pyramid made of Brickes, with these words ingraven in stone: Com­pare not me with the Pyramids built of stone, which I as farre excell, as Jupiter doth the other gods. For striking of the bottome of the Lake with long poles, and gathering the dirt which stucke to them, they made thence Brickes, and formed me in this man­ner.

The same Author relates, that many Ages after this Asychis, Sanacharib King of the Arabians, and Assyrians, who certainly is the same, which is mentioned in the Scriptures, having expelled Se­thon the King of the Aegyptians, and the Priest of Vulcane, Herod. lib. 2. the Aegyptians recovering their liber­ty, made choice of twelve Kings, (which is also con­firmed by Diodorus) dividing Aegypt into so many parts: For they could at no time live without a [Page 9] King, these by a common consent built a Labyrinth, above the Lake of Moeris: At the angle where the Labyrinth ends, there is a Pyramid of XL Orgyiae, (that is, of CCXL feet) in which are ingraven huge resemblances of Beasts, the passage to it is under ground. And this is that Pyramid, as may evi­dently be collected out of Strab. lib. 17. Strabo, in which Imandes lyes buried, whom we may probably sup­pose to have been the builder of it: his words are these; At the end of this building (that is, of this Labyrinth) which containes a furlong in length, there is a certaine Diodorus re­lates, that over the Sep [...]lcher there was [...] Circle of Gold of 365 Cubits co [...]passe, and a Cubit in thicknesse▪ in which the dayes of the yeare were inscribed, and di­vided into a Cubit a piece, with a description ac­cording to their nature, of the set­ting and rising of the St [...]rs, and also their operations, [...]f [...]er the Aegy [...] ­tian Astrologers. They say, th [...] Circle was car­ried aw [...]y by C [...]m­byses, and the Per­sians, at what time they conquered Aegypt (Diodor. Sicul. lib. 1.) He wh [...]ch shall s [...]rio [...]sly co [...]sider this, and severall other passages▪ in Herodotus and Diodorus, of the stupendi [...]us workes of the Aegyptians, [...]u [...]t needes acknowledge, that for magn [...]ficence, i [...] not for Art, they farre exceed [...]d [...]he Gracian [...] and Romanes, eve [...] when t [...]eir E [...]pires were [...]t the highest, and most flourishing. And theref [...]re, th [...]se Admiranda Romae, collected by Lipsius, are scarce to be admired, if c [...]mpared with s [...]me of these. At this day there is hardly a [...]y vast Columne, or O [...]e [...]iske, remaining in Rome, w [...]rthy of no [...]e, which hath not a [...]c [...]ently [...]eene brought thither out of Aegypt. Sepulcher, being a quadrila­terall Pyramid, each side of which is CCCC feet, and the altitude is the same; the name of him that lyes buried there is Imandes, whom the Author of the Epitome cals Maïndes, and Strabo himselfe not long after, Ismandes; Diodorus names him Osymanduas. Which of these two, whether Hero­dotus, or Strabo, hath given the truest measure of it, unlesse the Pyramid were now extant, cannot be decided by us. Though Pliny adheres to the dimensions of Herodotus: but whereas Herodotus and Strabo mention there but one Pyramid, he makes mention of many: And wh [...]eas Strabo makes this to be quadrilaterall, he desc [...]bes these (if I mistake not his words) to be sexangular. Pl [...]n. lib. 36. cap. 13. Super (que) Nemeses XV aediculis incluserit Pyra­mides [Page 10] complures (that is above this Labyrinth, which he places in Heracleopolite Nomo) qua­dragenarum Ulnarum VI radice muros obtinen­tes.

Long before these foure Pyramids of Cheops, Cephren, Mycerinus, and Asachis, who immedi­ately succeeded one another in the Kingdome, but after this of Ismandes, Myris as he is called by Di­odorus; but Herodotus, Strabo, and Pl [...]ny, name him Maeris. Another Aeg [...]ptian King built two admi­rable Pyramid [...]; the description of which though in Herodotus it immediately followes that of the twelve Kings; yet as it may evidently be col­lected out of him and Diodorus, these two of Moeris must many ages have preceded: Herod. lib. 2. [...]. For Herodotus tels us, that from Menes (the first King of the Aegyptians, whom Diodorus names Me­nas) the Priests recited out of their Bookes, CCCXXX Kings, the last of which was Moeris; long after whom reigned Sesostris, who is called by Manethos, Sethosis; and by Diodorus, Sesostris, and Sesoosis; where he more particularly, then Herodotus, expresses this Sesostris to have been Diod. Sic. lib. 1. seven ages after Moeris, and to have reigned long before these twelve Kings. The which Se­sostris, or Sethosis, immediately succeeding Ame­nophis, (according to Manethos in Iosephus, as we shall shew in the ensuing discourse) must have been before Cheops, Cephren, Mycerinus, and Asychis; and therefore consequently, that Moeris must long have preceded these twelve Kings. This Moeris undertooke, and finished that most admirable Lake, denominated after his name, as it is testified by Herodotus, Diodorus, [Page 11] Strabo, and Pliny. A work the most usefull, and wonderfull, if it be rightly considered, that I thinke was ever by any man attempted: in the midst of which, he erected two Pyramids; the one in memory of himselfe, the other of his wife, each of them being DC feet in height; the des­cription of both which, and of his Lake, we have in Herodotus, the latter we find in Strabo, but in none so fully as in Diod. Sic. lib. 1. [...], &c. Diodorus, and therefore I shall relate his words. Ten Schoenes, (that is, DC furlongs; though Strabo and Artemidorus before him, observe a difference of Schoenes in Aegypt) above the City (Memphis) Myris dug, [...] Lake of admirable use, the greatnesse of which worke is incredible: For they relate, that the circumference of it conteines M.MM.DC. furlongs, the depth of it in many places is fifty fadome (that is, two hundred cubites, or three hundred feet) who therefore may not deservedly aske, that shall consider the greatnesse of the worke, how many myriads of men, and in how many yeares they made it. The common benefit of it to those that inhabit Aegypt, and the wisedome of the King, no man can sufficiently commend. For since the rising of Nilus is not alwayes alike, and the Coun­trey is the more fruitfull by the moderatenesse of this; He dug a Lake to receive the superfluitie of the water, that neither by the greatnesse of the in­undation unseasonably drowning the Countrey, it should occasion Marshes, or Lakes; or flowing lesse then it should doe, for want of water it should cor­rupt the fruits, he therefore cut a ditch, from the River to the Lake, eighty furlongs long, and three hundred feet in breadth. By which sometimes re­ceiving [Page 12] in, and sometimes diverting the River, he exhibited a seasonable quantity of water to the husbandmen, the mouth of it sometimes being ope­ned, and sometimes shut, not without much art, and great expences. For he that would open the bars (or sluces) or shut them, it was necessary that he spent at the least fifty Talents. The Lake in this manner benefitting the Aegyptians, hath continued to our times, and from the Author of it, at this day is called the Lake of Myris. The King that dug it, left a place in the midst, in which he built a Se­pulcher, and two Pyramids, each a furlong in height; the one for himself the other for his wife, placing upon them two Marble-Statues, sitting on a Throne, imagining by these workes he should pro­pagate to posterity an immortall memory of his worth. The Revenue of the Fish of this Lake he gave to his Wife, for her Unguents, and other Or­naments; the fishing being worth to her a Talent a day: For they report, there are two and twenty sorts of Fishes in it, and that such a multitude is taken, that those who are perpetually imployed in salting them, of which there is a very great num­ber, can hardly dispatch the worke. Thus farre Diodorus: Which description, as it is much more full then that of Herodotus, so Herodotus hath this memorable observation omitted by Diodorus. Herodot. lib. 2. That this Lake was made by hand, and hollowed, it is apparent, because almost in the midst of it there stands two Pyramids, fif­tie fadomes above the water, and as many fadomes of the building under wa [...]er: upon the top of each of which there is a Colossus of Stone, sitting upon a Throne; so that the Pyramids are an hundred [Page 13] fadomes high. Strabo I know not by what over­sight omits these two Pyramids, whereas he ac­knowledges the Lake of Moeris, in which they stood, [...]· Strab. lib. 17. to be admirable, being like a Sea for greatnesse, and for colour.

Besides these which we have handled, and whose Founders are upon record in the writings of the Ancients, there are many others in the Li­byan Desart, where it bounds Aegypt, of which there is no particular mention extant, either in the Greeks, Latines, or Arabians. Unlesse we shall apply these words of Diodor. Sic. l. [...]. [...]. Diodorus to some of them. There are three other Pyramids, each side of which conteine two hundred feet, the structure of them, excepting the magnitude, is like to the for­mer (that is, as he there specifies, to those three Pyramids of Chemmis, Cephren, and Mycerinus) these three Kings before mentioned are reported to have erected them for their Wives. The bignesse of some of these now extant, doth well answer the measure assigned by Diodorus: But if these three Kings built them for their Queenes, it may be wondred why they should have placed them so remote from their owne Sepulchers: or why they should stand at such large, and inequall diffe­rences, of severall miles from one another. I find as little satisfaction in Plin lib. 36. cap. 12. Pliny, where he writes, Multa circa hoc vanitas illorum hominum fuit, vestigia (que) complurium inchoatarum extant, una est in Arsinoite nomo, duae in Memphi, non procul La­byrintho, de quo & ipsi dicemus. For not telling us the Founders of these, he leaves us still in the same darknesse, only we may in generall collect [Page 14] out of him, and likewise out of that Ode in Ho­race:

That they were the works of Aegyptian Kings; but of which of them, and at what time, we are altogether uncertaine. Regum pecuniae, Plin. lib. 36. cap. 12. saith Pliny, otiosa, ac stulta ostentatio. Of the same opi­nion is Leo Africanus, in his accurate description of Africa ▪ after many yeares travell in those parts. Hac per desertum arenaceum, itur ad Pyramides, nempe ad priscorum Aegypti Regum Sepulchra, Leo Afric. lib. 8. quo in loco Memphin olim extitisse asserunt. It may be it was the Royall Prerogative, and that it was prohibited to private men, how wealthy, and potent soever, to be thus intombed; but with­out some farther light▪ from the Ancients, it would be too great a presumption to determine any thing.

Lucan. lib. 8. Lucan, I know not upon what ground, makes as if the Ptolemies had imitated the Ae­gyptian Kings in this particular: ‘Cùm Ptolemaeorum manes seriem (que) pudendam Pyramides claudant.’ Surely if they did, these are none of those: For they would have built them at Alexandria, which was then the Regall Seat▪ and not at Memphis, the which as Diodor. lib. 1. Diodorus assures us, began to decay after the building o [...] Alexandria, like as the ancient Thebes (as the Plato, & alij. Grecians sti­led it; or the City of the Sunne, as the Aegyptians, [Page 15] according to Diodor. lib. 1. Diodorus called it; or Diospolis, as Diodorus and Strabo Strab. lib. 17. also name it,) did after the building of Memphis. Those which imagine the Monument, or Sepulcher, mentioned by Plutarch. in Antonio. Plutarch at Alexandria, into which Cle­opatra fled for feare of Augustus, to have been a Pyramid, are much deceived. For in the life of Marke Antony, where he informes us, that there were Sepulchers near the Temple of Isis, of ex­quisite workmanship, and very high; into which she conveighed the richest of her treasures, he de­scribes one of them, wherein she hid her selfe, to have had a window above the entrance, by which she drew up with cords the body of An­tony, and by which afterwards Proculeius entred, and surprized her. This window is not in any of those Pyramids I have seene; neither can I ap­prehend, if these were of as solid, and massie stones, and of the same shape, as those at Mem­phis, and the chambers within as remote from the outward superficies, of what use it could be, either in respect of light, or ornament; and therefore I conjecture these monuments of the Ptolemies, to have beene of a different structure from those of the Pyramids.

In all other Classicall Authors, I finde no men­tion of the Founders of the rest in the Libyan Desert: and after such a distance of time, wee must be content to be silent with them.

TO define the precise Time in which these Pyramids were erected, as it is an inquirie of much difficultie, so of much importance, in regulating the various and uncertaine traditions of the Ancients, con­cerning the Aegyptian Chronologie. For if wee shall peruse those fragments of Manethos, an Ae­gyptian Priest, preserved by Ioseph. lib. 1. contra Apionem. Iosephus; or those relations of Herodot. lib. 2. Herodotus, of CCCXXX Kings to Moeris, from Menes the first that reig­ned in Aegypt (who probably is Gen. 10.6. Mizraim, the second sonne of Cham, and Ioseph. lib. 1. Antiq. cap. 7. Father of the Aegyptians;) or that computation of Diodor. lib. 1. Dio­dorus, borrowed from their sacred Commenta­ries, That to the CLXXX Olympiad, or to the time in which he travailed thither, there had beene a Succession in the Royall Throne for XV M yeares; or that calculation of Trecento [...] & triginta Reges ante Amasim, & supra tredecim millium annorum aetates, certis an­nalibu [...] referunt, Pomp. Mela, lib. 1. cap. 9. Pompo­nius Mela▪ of CCCXXX Kings to the time of Amasis, continuing above XIII M yeares; or lastly, those Dynasties mentioned by Africanus and Eusebius, but pretermitted by Herodotus and Diodorus, the first of which Scal. in Eusebii Chronic. Ioseph Scaliger places in the VII M and IX yeare of that [Page 17] Iulian period, which by him is called Periodus Iuliana postulatitia, and the time tempus prolep­ticum, preceding the Creation by MCCCXXXVI yeares, we shall finde our selves intan­gled in a Labyrinth, and Maze of Times, out of which we cannot, without much perplexitie, un­winde our selves. And if we farther consider, that amongst those many names delivered by Manethos, and preserved by Iosephus, Africa­nus, Eusebius, and Syncellus, how few there are that concurre with those of Herodotus, and Dio­dorus, or with those in Plato, Strabo, Pliny▪ Plu­tarch, Censorinus, and some others: and that which is of greater consequence, how difficult it is to reconcile these Names, and Times, to the Aegyptian Kings recorded in the Scriptures, we shall finde our selves beset, and as it were invi­roned on every side, with great and inextricable doubts. What therefore, in inquiries of this na­ture, is approved as the most solid, and rationall fo [...]dation, that is, to finde out some common, and received Epocha, in which either all, or most agree, that shall be our guide in matters of so great antiquitie. Now, of all the ancient Epo­cha's, which may conduce to our purpose, there is none that we may safelier rely upon, then that of the migration of the Israelites out of Aegypt; which had the same hand faithfully to pen it, that was the most active, and miraculous instru­ment of their departure. And though prophane Historians differ much in the manner of this action, either as they were tainted with malice against the Hebrewes, or mis-led with the ca­lumnies, and false reports of their enemies, [Page 18] the Aegyptians; of whom, [...]. Io [...] lib. 1. contra Apionem. Iosephus may seeme to have given a true censure, That all the Aegyptians in generall are ill affected to the Iewes; yet all agree in this, that Moses was the chiefe author, and conductor of this expedition. If therefore wee shall discover the time in which Moses flourished, and in which this great enter­prize was performed by him, it will follow by way of consequence, that knowing what Pha­raoh, or King in Aegypt was coetaneous, and con­current with him, we may by Synchronisme, com­paring sacred, and prophane Authors, and follow­ing the Line of their Successions, as it is delivered by good authoritie, at length fall upon the age in which Cheops, and those other Kings reigned in Aegypt, whom we assigned out of Herodotus, and Diodorus, to have beene the founders of these Pyramids.

And here, for our i [...]quirie what Aegyptian King was concurrent with Moses, we must have recourse to the relations, not onely of the Scrip­tures, but also of other approved Authors, a­mongst the Iewes and Gentiles: in which last, though we often finde more then an Aegyptian darknesse, yet sometimes thorough this we may discover some glimmerings of light. By the Scriptures alone, it is impossible to inferre, what King of Aegypt was coetaneous with Moses: seeing the name, which is there given him, of Pharaoh, is a common denomination applyable to all of them; much like Caesar, or Augustus, with the Roman Emperours, or sometime Cosroe with the Persians, and no distinctive appellation. Yet in Herodotus we finde one King, the suc­cessor [Page 19] of Sesostris, to have beene called [...]. Herodot. lib. 2. Pheron; which I suppose is Pharaoh, and his proper, and peculiar name. But who this Pharaoh should be, whose heart God hardened, and upon whom Moses wrought so many wonders, is worth our disquisition. Iosephus in his first booke contra A­pionem, out of Manethos contends, that Tethmo­sis (who is tearmed also Amosis by Africanus, and Eusebius) reigned then in Aegypt. The whole force of his argument lyes in this, that Manethos mentions the expulsion of the Nation of Shepheards to have beene by Tethmosis: But the Hebrewes were a Nation of Sheepheards, ther­fore the Hebrewes were expelled out of Aegypt, or in the Scripture phrase, departed out of Aegypt, under Tethmosis; and consequently, that Moses, who was their Conductor, was coetaneous with him. That the Hebrewes were a Nation of Sheep­heards, and so [...]ccounted of themselves, and were esteemed by others, is very perspicuous. Gen. 46 31, 32. And Ioseph said unto his brethren, and unto his fa­thers house, I will goe up and shew Pharaoh, and say unto him, my brethren, and my fathers house, which were in the land of Canaan. are come unto me. And the men are Sheepheards, for their trade hath beene to feed cattell, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have. And it shall come to passe, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, what is your occupa­tion? That ye shall say, thy servants trade hath beene about cattell, from our youth even untill now, both we, and also our Fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen. For every Sheep­heard is an abomination to the Aegyptians. But [Page 20] before we shall disprove this assertion of Iose­phus, which carries much speciousnesse with it, and therefore is approved, and followed, by In oratione con­tra Graeco [...]. Tatianus, by In paraenetico ad eosdem. Iustine Martyr, and by Lib. 7. Stroma­tum. Cle­mens Alexandrinus we shall put down the words of Manethos himselfe, as they are reported by Ioseph. lib. 1. contra Apionem. [...], &c. Iosephus in his first booke contra Apionem. T [...]maus by name being our King, under him I know not how God was displeased, and beyond expe­ctation, out of the Easterne countries, men of ob­scure birth incamped themselves in the country, and easily, and without battaile tooke it by force, binding the Princes, and besides cruelly burning the Cities, and overthrowing the Temples of the Gods. Last of all they made one of themselves a King, who was named Salatis, hee reigning nineteen [...] yeares dyed. After him another named Baeon reigned fortie foure yeares: next to him Apachnas; another, thirtie six yeares seven months: then A­pophis sixtie one, Janias fiftie, and one month, af­ter all Assis fortie nine yeares and two months. And these were the first six Kings of them alwayes con­quering, and desiring to extirpate Aegypt. There nation was called Hycsos, that is kingly Sheep­heards. For Hyc in the sacred tongue signifies a King; and Sos a Sheepheard, or Sheepheards in the common dialect, and thence Hycsos is com­pounded. But some say that these were Arabians. [In other Copies I have found that by the denomi­nation Hyc,[These are the word [...] of Iosephus, and not of Ma­ne [...]bos.] Kings are not signified, but on the contrary captive Sheepheards▪ For Hyc in the Ae­gyptian language, when it is pronounced with a broad sound, plainely signifies [...]aptives; and this seemes more probable to me, and better agreeing to [Page 21] the ancient history.] Those Kings therefore which we before mentioned, and those which were called Pastores, and those which descended of them ruled Aegypt five hundred and eleven yeares. After this he mentions that by the Kings of Thebes, and of the rest of Aegypt, there was an invasion made upon these Sheepheards, and a very great and la­sting warre. The which he saies were conquered by a King, whose name was Alisfragmuthosis, whereby they lost all Aegypt, being shut up into a place c [...]ntaining in circuit ten thousand acres. This space Manethos saies, the Sheepheards incompassed with a great and strong wall, that they might se­cure all their substance, and their spoiles in a de­fensible place. But Themosis the sonne of Alis­fragmuthosis indeavoring to take them, with four hundred thousand armed men, beleagred the wals. who despairing to take them by Seige, made conditions with them, that they should leave Ae­gypt, and go without any dammage whither they would: They upon this agreement, no lesse then two hundred and forty thousand, with all their sub­stance went out of Aegypt, by the desert into Sy­ria, and fearing the power of the Assyrians (who then ruled Asia) in that Country, which is now called Judaea, they built a Citie capable to receive so many myriads of men, naming it Hierusalem. § By way of answer to Iosephus, we say that though the Israelites might properly be called Sheepheards,§. yet it cannot hence be inferred out of Manethos that these Sheepheards were Is­raelites. Nay if we compare this relation of Ma­nethos with that in Exodus, Exod. 1. which Iosephus being a Iew, cannot but approve of, we shall finde the [Page 22] contrary. For there they live under a heavy sla­very, and persecution, whereas here they are the persecutors, and afflictors: there they groane under their taskemasters the Aegyptians, here they make all Aegypt to groane under them: lastly wheras there they are imployed in the lowest of­fices, Exod. 1.14. in Morter, and in Brick, and in all manner of service in the field: here, after the destruction of many Citties, and men, and infinite outrages committed upon the Aegyptians, they make one of themselves a King, and for six descents keepe themselves in possession of the royall Throne, of which after a long, and bloody war they are depri­ved. Their building likewise of a Cittie in Iudaea and naming it Ierusalem, according to Manethos, is a strong argument against Iosephus, that these Sheepheards could not have beene the Israelites. For before the entrance of the Israelites into Ca­naan, we finde that Ierusalem was a fort of the Iebusites upon mount Sion, unconquered by Ioshu­a. Iosh. 15.63. As for the Iebusites the inhabitants of Ieru­salem, the children of Israel could not drive them out. But they were long after subdued by David. And 1 Chron. 11.4, 5. David and all Israel went to Ierusalem, which is Jebus, where the Iebusites were the Inhabitants of the Land. And the Inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shalt not come hither, Neverthelesse David tooke the castle of Zion, which is the Cittie of David. Besides all this, the History, and Chronology of those an­cient times, if we compare Sacred, and pro­phane Authors, will in no sort admit that these Sheepheards must have beene the Israelites. For if these that departed out of Aegypt in the [Page 23] reigne of Tethmosis King of Thebais, or of the upper part of Aegypt, were the children of Israel, then must Moses their Conductor have been as ancient as Tethmosis, or Amosis, that is as ancient as Inachus, the first King of the Argiues. For Api­on in his fourth Book of the Histories of Aegypt, shewes out of Ptolemaeus Mendesius an Aegypti­an Priest, that this Amosis lived in the time of Inachus, as it is recorded by In Oratio [...]e contra Graecos. Tatianus, In paraenetico ad G [...]aecos. Iustine M [...]rtyr, Lib. 1. Stroma- Clemens Alexandrinus, and others. Eusebius though he doth not approve of it, for he places Moses in the time of And so do [...]h Saint Augustine, Ed [...]xit Moses ex Ae [...]y [...]t [...] populum [...] no­vissimo tempore C [...]opis [...] l. 18. c. 1 [...]. de [...] Dei. Cecrops, yet he assures us that it was a received opinion among many Learned men. Euseb. Ch [...]on. Moysen Inachi fuisse tem­poribus eruditissimi viri tradideruntex nostris Cle­mens, & Africanus; ex Iudaeis, Iosephus, & Iustus, veteris historiae monimenta replicantes. Now Ina­chus according to Euseb. Chron. Castor an ancient Chrono­grapher ▪ with whom Eusebius also concurres, be­gan to reign a thousand & eighty years before the first Olympiad, that is MCCLXVIII before the destruction of the Temple under Zedekiah, and before Christs nativity, after the Dionysian, or common account, MDCCCLVI. That of the Olympiads is so assured an Epocha, and so strong­ly, and clearly proved by Eclipses of the Sun, and Moone, which are the best demonstrations in Chronology these being expressed by some of the Ancients to have hapned in such a yeare, of such an Olympiad as by Ptolemae [...]s [...]. Ptolemy others in such a yeare of the epocha of Nabonassar, that we can­not erre in our Calculations an houre, much lesse an intire day. By this therefore we shall fixe the time of Zedekiah, and the destruction of the Tem­ple: [Page 24] and consequently, if, by our continuation of the yeares mentioned in the Sacred story, it shall appeare, that from the time of Moses, either to the first Olympiad, or to Zedekiah, and the de­struction of the Temple, there cannot be so great a distance as these suppose, we may safely then conclude that Moses lived not in the time of this Tethmosis, and is not so ancient, as Iosephus makes him, and that these Sheepheards were not the Israelites, but very probably Arabians, as Ma­nethos here also reports, some say that these were Arabians: who to this day for the greatest part, like the Nomades wander up and down, feeding their cattle, and often make incursions upon the Aegyptians, and Syrians. Which occasioned Se­sostris the great (as we find it in Diod. Sic. lib. 1. Diodorus) to make a wall on the East side of Aegypt a Thou­sand and Fifty furlongs in length, from Pelusium by the Desert to Heliopolis, against the inrodes of the Syrians, and Arabians. As at this day the Chinese have done, against the irruptions of the Tartars on the North, and West parts of China, for many hundred miles: The which appeares by a large Mappe of mine of that Countrey, made, and printed in China. On the contrary, if the suc­cession of times, from Moses, recorded in the ho­ly Writ, better agrees, with the age of Amenophis, the Father of Ramesses, whose Story Ioseph. lib. 1. contra Apionem. Iosephus hath preserved out of Manethos, and whose time and ranke in the Dynasties, Africanus, and Eu­sebius deliver out of the same Manethos, we may with more probability affirme, that the migration of the Israelites, and time of Moses was, when Amenophis, was Pharaoh, or King of Aegypt, then [Page 25] that it was when Tethmosis reigned, as Iosephus, and others contend, out of a desire to make Moses ancienter, then in truth he is.

And though this argument from the Series and successions of time is so demonstrative, and conclusive, that nothing can be opposed against it, and therefore might be sufficient to evince our purpose: yet if we considerately examine ano­ther relation of Manethos (which is sleighted, and depressed by Iosephus, because it made not for his purpose) it must necessarily be that by those Sheepheards he meant not the Israelites, but rather, by the Israelites, the leprous people, which in his computation are three hundred thirty years, and sixe months, after the Dynastie of the Sheep­heards. And therefore we may oppose the au­thority of Manethos apud Ioseph. lib. 1. con­tra Apionem. Manethos against himselfe, or ra­ther against Iosephus. The summe of whose dis­course is this: That Amenophis, who was a great worshipper of the Gods, as Orus one of the for­mer Kings had been, being desirous to see the Gods, one of the Priests of the same name with him, told him he might, if he clensed the Country of leprous, and polluted people. This leprous people chose for their Captaine, one of the Priests of Heliopolis, named Osarsiphus, who changing his name, was called Moses, He causing Ameno­phis for feare to f [...]y into Aethiopia, was afterward by him, and by his Son Sethon, who was also cal­led Ramesses, by the name of his father, overthrown in battell, and the leprous people were pursued by them unto the confines of Syria. Thus far out of Manethos. Here, which is very remarkable, we have expressely the name of Moses, whereas [Page 26] in the former relation of Manethos, there is no mention of him, but of sixe other Kings, with their peculiar names. Whereas it is not proba­ble he would have omitted the name of Moses, if he had lived in that age, being a name so fa­mous, and so well known to them: and by [...] ▪ [...] ▪ 1. con­tra Apionem. Io­sephus acknowledged, that the Aegyptians accoun­ted h [...]m to be an admirable, and divine man. The pursuing of them unto the confines of Syria doth very well intimate the following of the Israelites by Pharaoh, and his Host. For his terming them a leprous, and polluted people, we must consider him to haue been an Aegyptian, and therefore not unlikely to throw as many aspersions as he could upon the Israelites: whom they deadly hated, it may be out of memory of their former plagues. How ever it were, Chaeremon hath almost the same History, as Lib. 1. contra Apionem [...], &c. Iosephus confesses. Chaeremon professing to write the History of Aegypt, saies that under Amenophis, and his son Ramesses two hundred and fifty thousand Leprous, and polluted men were cast out of Aegypt. Their leaders were Moses the Scribe, and Josephus who was also a Sacred Scribe. The Aegyptian name of Moses was Tisithen, of Joseph Peteseph. These comming to Pelusium, and finding there three hundred and eighty thousand men left by Amenophis, which he would not admit into Aegypt, making a league with them, they undertook an expedition against Aegypt. Vpon this Amenophis flies into Aethio­pia, and his Son Messenes drives out the Iewes into Syria, in number about two hundred thousand, and receives his Father Amenophis out of Aethio­pia. I know Lysimachus apud Ioseph. lib. 1. con­tra Apionem. [...], & [...]. Lysimachus assignes another [Page 27] King, and another time, in which Moses lead the Israelites out of Aegypt, and that was when Bocchoris reigned in Aegypt, the nation of the Iewes being infected with leaprosies, and scabs, and other diseases, betooke themselves to the Tem­ples to beg their living, many being tainted with the disease, there happened a dearth in Aegypt, Whereupon Bocchoris consulting with the Ora­cle of Ammon, received answer, that the leprous people were to be drowned in the Sea, in Sheets of lead, the scabbed were to be carried into the wil: dernesse, who choosing Moses for their leader conquered that country, which is now called Iudaea. Out of which relation of Lysimachus, and some others of like credit, Tacit. l. 5. Hist. Plurimi auctores consent [...]únt, [...] per Aegyptum ta­be▪ quae corpora faedaret: Regem Bocc [...]o [...]m, ad [...]o Hammonis ora­culo, remediū pe­ten [...]em, purgare regnū, & id genus hominum [...]t invi­sum deis alias in terras avehere jussum. Sic con­quisi [...]um collectū ­que vulgus, post­q [...]am vasti [...] locis relictum si [...], caete­ris per lachryma [...] torpentibus, Mo­sen unum exulum monuisse▪ ne quā deorum hominū ­ve opem expecta­rent ab utrisque de [...]erti, sed sibi­met ut duci c [...]le­sti, crederent, pri­mò cujus auxilio credente [...] p [...]aesen­tes miserias pe­pulissent. Assensere atque omnium ig [...]a [...]i for [...]u tum [...] i [...] ­cip [...]un [...]. Tacitus may have borrowed his in the fifth booke of his Histories. Most authors agree that there arising a contagion in Aegypt, which defiled their bodies, King Boc­choris consulting the Oracle of [...]ammon, where­by to finde some remedy, was bid to purge his Kingdome, and to carry that sort of men, as hated of the gods, into other countries, Thence the vul­gar sort being inquired after, and collected toge­ther, after they had beene left in the deserts, the rest being heavy with teares, Moses one of the banished men admonished them, not to expect the helpe, either of Gods, or men, being deserted by both, but that they should trust to him as their Captaine, sent from Heaven, to whose assistance by their giving credit at the first, they had overcome their present calamities. They assented unto him, and being ignorant of all, they begin their journy, as fortune should lead them. Thus much and a great deale more hath Tacitus [Page 28] of Moses, and the Jewes. But to passe by his, and Lysimachus calumnies, we can no more as­sent to these testimonies of theirs, that Moses should have lived in the time of Bocchori [...], then we did to Iosephus that he was coetaneous with Tet [...]mosis. For we finde Bocchoris to be placed by Africanus, and Ex Edit. Ios. esaligere. Eusebius ▪ in the twenty fou [...]th dynasty, and by Diod. lib. 1. Diodorus long after Sesostris the great, or Ramesses: which Ramesses, or Sethosis, or Sethon (that is Sesostris, and Se­soosis in Diodorus) both in Manethos, and Chae­remon, is the sonne of Amenophis, who is the last King of the eighteenth dynasty, according to Africanus, and Eusebius. I purposely omit the opinion of Apud Ios. lib 2. contra Apionem. Apion, that Moses (whome he makes to be of Heliopolis) departed with these lepers, and blinde, and lame, in the first yeare of the seventh Olympiad, in which yeare, saith he, the Phoenicians built Carthage; and that other of Ex Ethnicis ve­rò impius ille Porphyrius in 4 to operis sui libro, quod adversum nos Casso labore contexuit, post Moysen Semira­ [...]um fuisse affir­ma [...]. [...]use. Ch [...]on. Porphyrius in his fourth booke against the Christians, that Moses was before Semiramis. Where he places him as much too high, as Apion doth too low.

Laying therefore aside these vaine, and uncer­taine traditions, we have no more assured way exactly to fix the time of Moses, then to have recourse to the sacred Scriptures, and some­times to compare such authors of the Gentiles with these, against whom we have no just ex­ceptions. For by those, and these conjointly, we may continue his time to the first Olympiad, and thence to the destruction of the Temple, by N [...] ­buchadnezzar King of Babylon: That of the O­lympiads being a most certaine, and known epo­cha [Page 29] with the Greekes, as that of the destruction of the Temple with the Jewes. From Moses then, or the migration of the Israelites out of Aegypt, to the building of Solomons Temple, are CCCCLXXX yeares currant, or foure hundred seventie nine complete: and so also Euseb. Chron. Eusebi­us computes them. The words of the Text plain­ly conclude this Summe. 1 Kings 6.1. And it came to passe in the foure hundred and fourth score yeare, after the Children of Israel were come out of the land of Aegypt, in the fourth yeare of Solomons reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. From the building of the Temple, to the destruction of it in the reigne of Zedekias, by the calculation, and confession of the best chronolo­gers, are betwixt foure hundred and twenty, and foure hundred and thirty yeares. Which is thus deduced: After the first foundation of the Tem­ple, Solomon reigned For 1 King. 6.1. in the fourth year of his Reign, and the second month he began to build the house of the Lord: And in 1 King. 11.41. The time that Solomon reigned in Ierusa­lem over all Israel was forty years. Out of which, if we subduct 3 com­plete years that preceded the foundation of the Temple, there remaine 37 years. thirtie seven yeares, 1 King. 14.2 [...]. He reigned 17 years in Ierusalem. Rehoboam with 1 King. 15.2. Three yeares reigned he in Ierusalem. Abia twenty; in whose time we are to place Shishak or Sesochosis, the King of Aegypt. 1 King. 14.25, 26. And it came to passe in the fifth yeare of King Rehoboam, that Shishak King of Aegypt came up against Ierusalem, And he tooke away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the Kings house, he e­ven tooke away all: and he tooke away all the shields of gold, which Solomon had made, This Shishak is named by the Septuagint [...], by Saint Hierome, Sesac, and is the same whom Ioseph. Antiq. lib. 8. cap. 4. Iosephus cals [...], which he imagines to have beene Ses [...]stris the great whose victories, and conquests are described at large by Herod. lib. 2. Herodotus. [Page 30] But this Sesostris, or Diodorus in the printed Copies alwayes names him Sesoosis, but in one of the MSS as [...]. Stephanus observe [...], he is sometimes called S [...]sostris ▪ and som­times Sesoosi [...], vid. edit. Diod, ab Henr. Stephan. Sesoosis as Diodorus also termes him, must long have preceded Rehoboam's time, as in the sequell of this discourse it will appeare. Therefore the more probable opinion is that of Scaliger, that by Shishak is meant Seso­chosis, whom Manethos cals [...], and the Scho­liast of Apollonius [...], the time of the XXIIth. dynasty, in which we find him placed by Africanus, and Eusebius, doth well agree with it, and the radicall letters in Shishak, and Sesac, being the same, do very much strengthen our assertion. After Rehoboam and Abiah's reigne, 1 Kings 15 10. 41 years reigned he in Ierusalem. Asah and 1 Kings 22.42. He reigned 25 years in Ierusalem. Iehosaphat reigned LXVI. years, 2 King. 8.17. He re [...]gned 8 yeares in Ierusalem. Ioram and 2 Kings 8.26. He reigned one year in Ierusalem. Ahazia IX. 2 Kings 11.3. And he was with her hid in the h [...]use of the Lord 6 years: And Athaliah did reigne over the Land. Athalia and 2 Kings 12.1. 40 years reigned [...]e in Ierusalem. Ioas XLVI. 2 Kings 14.2. He reig [...]d 29 years in Ierusalem. Amasias XXIX 2 Kings 15.2. He re [...]gned 52 years in Ierusalem. Uz­ziah LII. 2 Kings 15.33. He reigned 16 years in Ierusalem. Iotham XVI. 2 Kings 16.2. He reigned 16 years in Ierusalem. Achaz XVI. 2 Kings 18.2. He reigned 29 years in Ierusalem. Hezekiah XXIX.

Now 2 King. 18.13, [...]6 in the fourteenth yeare of King Heze­kiah, did Sennacharib King of Assyria come up against all the fenced Cities of Judah, and tooke them. But afterwards when he came to besiege Ierusalem—2 King. 19.35, 36. It came to passe that night, that the Angell of the Lord went out, and smote in the Campe of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand, and when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses. So Sen­nacharib King of Assyria departed, and went, and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. In the time of this Sennacharib, Sethon succeeding Anysis reig­ned in Aegypt, according to Herod. lib. 2. [...]. Herodotus, who in his Euterpe hath plainly the name Sanacharib, stiling him King of the Arabians, and Assyrians, and making him to have received a miraculous defeate, which it may be was that of Hezekiah, [Page 31] though hee applies it to Sethon King of the Aegyptians. His Story is well worth our obser­vation, which runnes thus. Herod. lib. 2. [...], &c. After this (Anysis) the Priest of Vulcane, by name Sethon, reigned, who abusing the men of war of the Aegyp­tians, and contemning them, as not usefull to him, besides other ignominies he deprived them of their Lands, which had been given to every company of twelve by the former Kings. Whence it hapned▪ that when afterwards Sanacharib the King of the Arabians, and Assyrians invaded Aegypt, the Aegyptian Souldiers refused to assist him. Then the Priest destitute of counsell, shut himselfe up, lamenting before the Image how much he was in danger to suffer; in the midst of his mourning fal­ling asleep, a God appeared to him, incouraging him that he should suffer no distresse, if he would march against the Armies of the Arabians. For he would send him succour. He therefore giving credit to this dreame, taking with him such volun­teers of the Aegyptians, as followed him, pitched his Army at Pelusium. For there Aegypt is ea­siest invaded, neither did any of the Souldiers fol­low him, but Tradesmen, and Artificers, and Mer­chants. Comming thither, by night an infinite num­ber of Mice, entring upon his enemies, knawed their Quivers, and Bowes, and the leathers of their Shields, so that the next day the enemies destitute of Arms fled, many of them being slaine. And therefore now this King stands in the Temple of Vulcane, in a statue of Marble, holding in his hand a Mouse with this inscription. He that looks upon me let him be religious. After Hezekiah 2 King. 21.1. He reigned 55 years in Ierusalem. Manasses reigned LV yeares. 2 King. 22 19. He reigned two years in Ierusalem. Amon II. [Page 32] 2 King. 22▪ He reigned 31 years in Ierusalem. Iosiah XXXI. 2 K [...]ngs 13.29. & 2 Chro. 35.20. Necho [...] K [...]g of Ae­gypt came up to fig [...] against Car­chemish by Eu­phrates and Iosiah went out against him. In his dayes Pharaoh Nechon King of Aegypt went up against the King of As­syria to the river Euphrates, and King Josiah we [...] against him, and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seene him. The same relation we read in Herodotus, if we pardon him the mistake of Magaolo for Megiddo, who writes that [...]. Herodot. lib. 2. Necus (the King of Aegypt) fighting a bat­taile on land with the Syrians in Magdolo, obteined the victory, and after the fight he tooke Cadytus a great City in Syria.

Next to Iosiah succeeded 1 Kings 23.31. He reigned three months in Ieru­salem. Ioachaz, 2 Kings 23.36. He r [...]igned eleven years in Ieru­salem. Ie­hotakim, and 2 Kings 24 8. He reigned in Ie­rusalem [...]hree months. Iechoniah or Iehoiakin, reigning XI yeares and six months. And in the eleventh yeare of And the City was besieged unto the eleventh yeare of King Zedekiah. And on the ninth day of the fourth Moneth the Fa [...]ine preva [...]led in the City, and there was no bread for the people of the Land: And the City was broken up▪ and all the men of warre fled by night. Zedekiah the next King after Ie­choniah was the Temple burnt by Nebuzaradan, in the And in the fifth moneth o [...] the seventh day of the moneth (which is the nineteenth yeare of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon) cam [...] Nebuzaradan, Captaine of the Guard, a servant of the King of Babylon unto Ie [...]usalem. And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the Kings house, and all the houses of Ierusalem, and every great mans house burnt [...]e with fire ▪ 2 Kings 25.2▪ 3, 4, 8, 9. The same Relation wee finde in Ieremiah Chap. 52. vers. 5, 6, 7, 12.13. almost word for word, which is remarkable nineteenth yeare of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon. This Zedekiah, saith I s [...]h Antiquit. lib. 10. cap. 10. [...]. Jose­phus, having beene a confederate of the Babyloni­ans for eight yeares, broke his faith with them, and joyning league with the Aegyptians hoped to over­throw the Babylonians. This league we finde in­timated in Ezek. 17.15. Ezekiel; and we read in Ieremiah 37.5. Ie­remiah [Page 33] and Ios Ant. l. 10. c. 10 [...] Iosephus of succours, and assi­stance, sent by the King of Aegypt, when Zede­kiah and Jerusalem were first distressed by the Chaldeans, or forces of the King of Babylon, Ier. 37.6, 8. Then Pharaohs army was come forth out of Aegypt, and when the Chaldeans, that besieg [...]d Ierusalem, heard tidings of them they departed from Ierusalem. The same is re [...]terated by him: Behold Pharaohs army which is come forth to helpe you, shall returne to Aegypt to th [...]ir owne land. And the Chaldeans shall come againe, and fight against this City, and take it, and burne it with fire. All which we see was performed by Nebuchadnezzar in the eleventh yeare of Zede­kiah: and a judgement also denounced against the King of Aegypt. Ier. 44.30▪ Thus sa [...]th the Lord behold I will give Pharaoh Hophra King of Aegypt, in­to the hands of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seeke his life: as I gave Zedekiah King of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon his enemy, and that sought his life. The same is often threatned by the Prophet Ezek. 30.22, [...]3. E­zekiel, who lived in the time of Hezekiah, as Iere­miah did. I am against Pharaoh King of Aegypt, and I will scatter the Aegyptians among the nati­ons, and will disperse them throughout the coun­tries. And I will strengthen the armes of the King of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will breake Pharaohs armes. Which prophecies we may discover most manifestly to have beene fulfilled in the reigne of Apries, as Herod. lib. 2. Herodo­tus names him, or Apryes as Diodor. lib. [...] Diodorus cals him, or Vaphres, as the Septuagint, and Eusebius, render the name of that King, which here in Ie­remiah, [Page 34] is called Pharaoh Hophra. Who, saith [...]. Herod. l. 2. Herodotus, next to Psammitichus his Grand­father was the most fortunate of all the former Kings, for twenty five yeares of his reigne, Which might occasion Zedekiah to fly to him for suc­cour: But the Aegyptians rebelling against him, he was overthrowne in battaile, taken priso­ner, and afterward strangled by his owne ser­vant Amasis, whom they had made their King. The whole story, and manner, is at large in Herodot. lib. 2. He­rodotus, neither did divine vengeance long for­beare to pursue the traitour. For Cambyses the King of the Persians, and of Babylon, comming with an army against him, possest himself of Ae­gypt, as the Prophets had foretold. Nor could the Aegyptians ever to this day recover the Monar­chy. For after the Persians succeeded the Mace­donians, after them the Romanes, then the Ara­bians, next the Mamalukes, or Circassians, and last of all the Turkes, or Scythians. So that we may conclude from the occurrences then happening (the relations of Herodotus exactly agreeing with the threatnings of the Prophets) as also from the computation of times, and from the affinity, and analogy of names, that Hophra, and Apries, or Vaphres, must have been the very same Aegyptian King coetaneous, and concur­rent with Zedekiah.

To reassume then what hath been demonstra­ted by us. From the migration of the Israelites out of Aegypt, u [...]der the conduct of Moses, to the building of Solomons Temple, are foure hundred seventie nine yeares complete, and from the building of the Temple to the destruction of it, [Page 35] are foure hundred and thirty yeares, and six months. But because it is not probable, that, a­mongst so many Kings, all of them should have reigned completely so many yeares, as are expres­sed in the Text: it being the usuall stile of Kings to reckon the yeares current of their reigne, as complete, I shall limit this uncertainty betweene CCCCXX, and CCCCXXX yeares, which is a sufficient latitude. If any one shall desire a more exact calculation, he may compute them, by com­paring other places of the Scriptures with these, to be but CCCCXXV. yeares current, accor­ding to the opinion of the most Reverend, and ju­dicious Primate of Ireland, to which I willingly subscribe; though either computation be suffici­ent for my purpose.

This destruction of the Temple, by our best Chronographers is placed in the first yeare of the forty eighth Olympiad, and in the hundred and six­tieth of the Epocha of Nabonassar, and in the nineteenth (as the Scripture often makes mention) of Nabuchodonosor, the sonne of Nabolassar, (as [...]. Be­ros. apud Ioseph. l. 1. contra Api­onem▪ Berosus in Iosephus names him) which Na­bolassar must necessarily be the same with him that is called Nabopolassar in Ptolemy, and is the XIV King of the Assyrians and Medes after Na­bonassar, whom Nabocolassar (or So Iosephus, and the Vetus Vin­ga [...]a alwaies name him. Nabuchodo­ [...]ozor, or Ier. 52.12. [...]8▪ 29. Nebuchadrezzar, or 2 Kings 25.8. Ezra 1.7. Ez [...]a 2.1. Nebuchad­ [...]ezzar, for so the Scripture also termes him) in [...]is Canon Regnorum succeeds. The neernesse of [...]he names, and agreement of the times, in the [...]acred Scriptures, and prophane Authors, doe [...]trongly prove them to be the same. Wherefore we may conclude, that from the time of Moses, [Page 36] or the migration of the Israelites out of Aegypt ▪ or from the end of Amenophis (coetaneous with Moses) the last King of the eighteenth dynasty (as Eusebius out of Manethos rankes him) to the reigne of Apries, or Vaphres, or Hophra; the eighth King of the twenty sixth dynasty (accor­ding to the same Eusebius out of Manethos) be­ing coetaneous with Zedekiah King of Iudah, and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, are DCCCCIV yeares, and from Moses to the first Olympiad DCCXV and not MLXXX as they who make Moses as ancient as Inachus affirme. In which space we may with much cer­tainty, If we give credit to Herodotus, and Di­odorus place the Kings, the Founders of the three greatest, and fairest Pyramids; which is the principall intention of this discourse▪ For H [...]rodot. lib. 2. Diodo [...]. Sic. l. 1. both of them describe these to have reigned many ages before Apries, and long after Sesostris the great. Which Sesostris, or Sesoosis, as Diodorus also stiles him, must have been the same King, whom Ma­nethos in Iosephus cals Sethosis, and Ramesses, and [...]. Manethos apud Ios. lib. 1. contra Apionem. Where in the same place Mane [...]hos cals thi [...] [...], also [...] and son of Amenophis; And therefore Scaliger [...] h [...]ly obser [...]es that Ra­messes with Ma­nethos is [...] Seal in Eu­seb. Chron. Aegyptus son to Amenophis before mentio­ned, and brother to Armais, or Danaus; and Euse­bius of Scaligers edition in Greek names Sethos ▪ the latine translations of Saint Hierome both MSS. and printed copies Sethus, and by all of them is the first King of the XIX dynasty. The great acts, and conquests, assigned by Herodotu [...] to Sesostris, and as great attributed by Manethos to Sethosis, or Ramesses, which cannot well be ap­plied to any other precedent, or subsequent Kings together with the relation of them both, tha [...] while he was in pursuit of his victories abroad [Page 37] his brother, whom Manethos names Armais, and This Danaus (for his rebellion be­ing expelled by his brother out of Aegyp [...]) sailed in­to Greece, & pos­sessed himselfe of Argos, as it is te­stified by Iosephus, (l [...]b. 1. contra A [...]nem) by [...]fri­c [...]nus & Eus [...]ius, (vid. Eus. Ch [...]o.) [...]y Pausamas, & seve­rall others. From whom desc [...]nded the Danaidae, one of the races of the K [...]ngs at Argos [...]f all wh [...]ch there is frequent ment on in the G [...]e [...]ke Hi­storians & Chro­nogra [...]hers: wherfore we cannot be ignorant, ei­ther of Dan [...]us, or of hi [...] bro­ [...]hers time. I shall only adde, for further illu­stration what I finde in Africanus [...]. Afr. apud Euseb C [...]r. Danaus (in Herodotus his name is omitted) rebelled against him at home, and the neernsse of the time, which may be collected out of both, do very much confirme the probability of this as­sertion. Sesostris then, and Sethosis being one, and the same, is by Manethos in Iosephus ranked immediately after Amenophis, (coetaneous with Moses as we have proved) and in the same Ma­nethos in the tradition of Eusebius after Meno­phis, that is Amenophis, both in the Greeke and Latine Copies. Wherefore the Founders of these Pyramids, having lived after Sesostris, must like­wise have beene after Amenophis. If we will come to a greater precisenesse yet of time (for this latitude of nine hundred, and foure yeares, which we assigned from Moses to the destruction of the first Temple, in the time of Zedekiah King of Iudah, and Apries King of Aegypt, is so great, that we may lose our selves in it) we have no other possible meanes left, after the revolution of so many ages, and the losse of so many of the com­mentaries, and monuments of the Aegyptians, but by having recourse to those dynasties of Ma­nethos, as they are preserved by Africanus, and Eusebius. And yet in neither of these shall we finde the names of Cheops, or Chemmis; of Ce­phren, or Chabryis; or of Mycerinus, the Au­thors of the three greater Pyramids, mentioned by Herodotus, and Diodorus; or of Asychis the builder of a fourth, according to Herodotus. Wherefore what their writings have not supplied us with, that reason must. For since these Ae­gyptian [Page 38] Kings, as we have proved, lived between Amenophis, and Apries, and by Euseb. Chron. Eusebius ou [...] of Africanus, Amenophis is the last of the XVIII dynasty, and Apries or Vaphres, the VIII of the XXVI dynasty, we must necessarily place them in one of the intermediate dynasties. But seeing all the intermediate dynasties have their peculiar Kings, unlesse it be the XX, we have no reason to exclude them, and to bring these in their places as usurpers: But rather, with great probability (for I must say here with Liv. lib. 1. Livy, Quis rem tam veterem pro certo affirmet?) we may assigne to them the XX dynasty. In which we finde not the name of any one King, but yet the space left vacant of CLXXVIII yeares, according to Eusebius.

Here therefore we shall place.

First, Cheops, or Chemmis, the Founder of the first Pyramid, who began his reigne in the MMM CCCC XLVIII yeare of the Julian Period, that is CCCCLXXXX years before the first Olympiad, and DCLXXVIII before the first destruction of the Temple, and MCCLXVI▪ before the beginning of the yeares of our Lord. He reigned L yeares, saith Herodotus, and built this Pyramid, as Diodorus observes, a thousand yeares before his time, or the CLXXX Olympiad, whereas he might have said a thousand two hundred and ten.

Secondly, Cephren or Chabryis the builder of the second, who reigned fifty Herod. lib. 2. Diodor. lib. 1. six yeares.

Thirdly, Mycerinus the erector of the third, se­ven yeares.

[Page 39]Fourthly, Asychis the Author of the fourth.

Fiftly, Anysis the blind.

How long these two reigned is no where expressed.

Sixtly, Sabachus the Aethiopian. He conque­red Aegypt, and reigned He [...]od. lib. 2. Diodor. lib. 1. fifty yeares,

The summe is CLXIII years, this being sub­ducted out of CLXXVIII yeares (the whole time allowed by Eusebius to this dynasty) the remainder is XV yeares; which space we may without any inconvenience divide between A­sychis, and Anysis.

If any shall question why the names of these Kings are omitted by Manethos, an Aegyptian Priest, in the XX dynasty, I can give no other reason, then what we read in Herodotus. [...]. Herodot. lib. 2. These Kings (speaking of Cheops and Cephren) the Aegyptians out of hatred will not so much as name, but they call them the Pyramids of Philition a Sheepheard, who in those times, at that place, fed his cattell. The which hatred, occasioned by their oppressions, as Diodor lib. 1. Diodorus also mentions, might cause him to omit the rest, especially Saba­ [...]hus, an Aethiopian, and an Usurper.

Following this computation of Eusebius of CLXXVIII yeares for the XX dynasty, and not that of Africanus, who assignes onely an CXXV of whom Scalig in Euseb. Chron. Ioseph Scaliger hath this censure, in istis dynastiis, aliquid turbasse videtur Africanus, ut consuleret rationibus suis; it will follow by way of consequence, as the most Re­verend, and learned Primate of Ireland in his Chronologiâ Sacrâ hath singularly well observed.

First, that the XVIII dynasty ends with the migration of the Israelites out of Aegypt, and [Page 40] with the death of Amenophis: which is cleer­ly signified by Manethos, and the times of Belus, and Danaus noted by the Greek Chronographers do evidently confirme it. I mean the Aegyptian Belus, or Amenophis, the Father of Aegyptus, or Sethosis and Danaus, not the Babylonian Belus the father of Ninus, whom Mythologists confound with this; feigning him to have transported co­lonies out of Aegypt to Babylon. The time allot­ted by Thallus apud Euseb. Thallus, an ancient Chronographer, to Belus of CCCXX yeares, before the Trojan war, doth exactly agree with this Aegyptian Belus, or Amenophis.

Secondly, that the XX dynasty will receive those six Kings, which out of Herodotus we have placed there: the number of whose years exceed the time limited by Africanus.

Thirdly, that the XXII dynasty will fall up­on the latter time of King Solomon, whereby Sesonchis the first King of it, may be the same with Sesac, or Shishac, who in the 1 King. 14.25, 26. fifth yeare of Rehoboam, the sonne of Solomon, invaded Iu­daea Which was the onely reason that moved Scalig in Eu­seb. Chron. Scaliger to suspect, that something had beene altered by Africanus in these dynasties.

By the same series, and deduction of times, we may conclude, that the Labyrinth adjoyning to the Pyramid of Osymanduas raised by a com­mon expense of the XII Kings, who Herodot. lib. 2. suc­ceeded Sethon to have beene MMCCC XXIV yeares since, or DCLXXX before Christ. For Sethon living in the time of Senna­charib, and these immediately following Sethon in the government of the Kingdome, they must [Page 41] have reigned, either in the same age the Scrip­ture assignes to Sennacharib, or not long after.

Those other Pyramids, the one of Osymanduas in Diodor. lib. 1. Diodorus, or Ismandes, in Strabo lib. 17. Strabo; and those two of Moeris, or Myris, in Herodot. lib. 2. Herodo­tus, and Diodor. lib. 1. Diodorus, it is evident they preceded Sesostris the great, and must therefore have been above three thousand yeares since, but by how many Kings, or how many ages, is hard to be defined.

That these Pyramids were intended for Sepul­chers, and monuments of the dead, is the con­stant opinion of most Authors, which have writ of this argument. [...]. Diod. Sic. l [...]b. 1. Diodorus expressely tels us that Chemmis and Cephren, although they designed (these two greater) for their Sepulchers, yet it happened that neither of them, were buried in them. [...]. Strab. l. 17. Strabo judges all those neer Memphis to have beene the Sepulchers of Kings. Forty stadia from the Citie (Memphis) there is a certain brow of an hill in which are many Pyramids the Sepulchers of Kings. And in particular he cals an other neer the lake of Moeris, the [...]. Ibid. Sepulcher of Imandes. To which also the writings of the Arabians are consonant, who make the three greater the monuments of Saurid, Hougib, and Fazfarinoun. And the Sabaeans the first of them, the Sepulcher of Seth, the second of Hermes, the third of Sab, the sonne of Hermes, from whom they suppose themselves denominated Sa­baeans, as we formerly mentioned. And if none of these authorities were extant, yet the tombe [Page 44] found in the greatest Pyramid to this day of Che­ops, as Herodotus names him, or Chemmis, accor­ding to Diodorus, puts it out of controversie. Which may farther be confirmed by the testimo­ny of [...] Ibn Abd Alhokm an Arabian, where he discourses of the wonders of Aegypt, who relates that after Almamon the Calife of Babylon, had caused this Pyramid to be opened [about eight hundred years since,]G. Almec. Hist. Arab. ex edit. Erp. [...] Ibn Abd Alhokm [...] they found in it towards the top a chamber, with an hollow stone, in which there was a statue like a man, and within it a man, upon whom was a breast plate of gold, set with Iewels, upon this breast-plate was a sword, of inestimable price, and at his head a carbuncle of the bignesse of an egge, shining like the light of the day, and upon him were characters writ with a pen, which no man understood.

[Page 45]But why the Aegyptian Kings should have been at so vast an expense in the building of these Pyramids, is an inqui [...]y of an higher nature. Arist. l. 3. Polit. Aristotle makes them to have been the workes of tyranny: and Pliny conjectures, that they built them, partly out of ostentation, and partly out of state policy, by keeping the people in imployment, to divert them from mutinies, and rebellions. Plin. lib. 26, c. 12. Regum pecuniae otiosa, ac stul­ta ostentatio. Quippe cum faciendi eas causa à ple­ris (que) tradatur, ne pecuniam successoribus, aut ae­mulis insidiantibus proeberent, aut ne plebs esset otiosa.

But the true reason depends upon higher, and more waighty considerations; though I acknow­ledge these alleaged by Pliny might be secondary motives. And this sprang from the theology, of the Aegyptians, who as Servius shewes in his comment, upon these words of Aeneid. lib. 3. Virgil de­scribing the funerall of Polydorus,

beleeved that as long as the body endured so long the soule continued with it, which also was the opinion of the Stoici medium sequentes, cam di [...] animam durare dicunt, quam diu durat & corpus. Serv. Com. in l. 3. Aeneid. Stoickes. Vnde Aegyptii periti s [...]pientiae condîta diutius reservant cada­vera, scilicet ut a­nima multo tem­pore perduret, & corp [...]ri sit ob­noxi [...], ne citò ad aliud transeat▪ Romani contra faciebant combu­rentes cadavera, ut statim anima in generalitatem, id est, in suam na­turam rediret. Serv Com. in l. 3. Aeneid. Hence the AEgyp­tians skilfull in wisedome do keepe their dead im­balmed so much the longer, to the end that the soule may for a long while continue, and be obxox­ious to the body, least it should quickly passe to a­nother. The Romanes did the contrary, burning their dead, that the soule might suddenly returne into the generality, that is, into its owne nature. Wherefore that the body might not, either by putrefaction, be reduced to dust, out of which it [Page 46] was first formed; or by fire be converted into ashes (as the manner of the Graecians, and Ro­manes was) they invented curious compositions, besides the intombing them in stately recondito­ries, Whereby to preserve them from rottennesse, and to make them eternall, Pompon. Mel. lib. 1. cap. 9. Nec eremare, aut fodere fas putant, verùm arte medicatos intrape­netralia collocant, saith Pomponius Mela; And Herodotus gives the reason why they did neither burne, nor bury. For discoursing, in his third booke, of the cruelty of Cambyses, and of his commanding that the body of Amasis, an Ae­gyptian King, should be taken out of his Sepul­cher, whipt, and used with all contumely, he re­ports that after all he bid it to be burnt, Herodot. lib. 3. [...], &c. com­manding that which was not holy. For the Persi­ans imagine the fire to be a God, and neither of them are accustomed to burne the dead body. The Persians for the reason before alleaged, because they conceive it unfitting for a god to devour the car­caise of a man; and the Aegyptians because they are perswaded the fire is a living creature, devour­ing all things that it receives, and after it is satis­fyed with food, dyes with that which it hath de­voured. Nor is it their custome of giving the dead body This barbarous custome is still practised in the East-Indies, as Teixeira (who frō his owne travels, and the writings of Emir Cond, a Persian, hath givē us the best light of those Coun­tries) truly in­formes us. Where­fore, we may give credit to that of Tully: Magorum mo [...] est no [...] humar [...] corp [...]ra suorum, nisi a feris si [...]t antea la­n [...]ata. In Hy [...]chan [...]a Pl [...]bs publicos alit canes, optima [...]es do­mesticos (Nobile au­tem genus canum il­lud sci [...]us esse) sed pro sua quis (que) fa­cultate parat, a qui­hus lanietur, eam (que) optimam illi esse cens [...]nt sepulturam. (Tusc. q. l. 1.) to beasts, but of imbalming (or salting) it, not only for this reason but that it may not be con­sumed with wormes. Baruch 6▪71. The terme used by Herodo­tus) [...], of salting, or imbalming the dead, is also used by Baruch and by Plat. Phaedon. Plato, and by Lucian de Luct. [...]. Lucian in his discourse de Luctu, treating of the severall sorts of buriall practiced by seve­rall nations. (c) The Grecian doth burne [the dead] the Persian bury, the Indian doth anoint [Page 47] with the fat of swine, the Scythian eates, and the Aegyptian [...] imbalmes, (or pouders,) Which manner also is alluded to by Antoninus under the word [...] M. Aurel. Anto. lib. 4▪ [...]. that which the other day was excrementitious matter, within few dayes shall either be [...], an imbalmed body, or meer ashes: in the one expressing the custome of the Aegyptians, in the other of the Romanes, Where Doctor Casub. ann. in l. 4. M. Aurel. Anton. Casaubone, the learned son of a learned Father, hath rightly corrected the errors of those who render [...] to be a certaine sort of fish. By this meanes then salting the body, and imbalming it (the manner of both we shall describe out of Herodotus, and Diodorus) the soule was obliged (according to the beliefe of the Aegyptians) to abide with the body, and the body came to be as durable as marble. In so much as Plato, who lived in Aegypt, with Eudoxus no lesse then XIII yeares, as Strabo lib. 17. Strabo witnesseth, brings it for an argument in his Phoedon to prove the im­mortality of the soule, by the long duration of these bodyes. Which surely would have beene more conclusive with him, could he have imagi­ned that to these times, that is till MM yeares after him, they should have continued so solid, and intire, as to this day we finde many of them. Wherefore Aegyptij verò soli credunt Re­surrectionē, quia diligenter curant cadavera mortu­orum, morē enim habent siccare corpora, & quasi aenea reddere, Gabb [...]r [...]s ea vo­cant. Aug. serm. 120. De Diversis. Saint Augustine truly af­firmes, that the Aegyptians alone beleeve the re­surrection, because they carefully preserve their dead corpses. For they have a custome of drying up the bodyes, and rendring them as durable as brasse, these [in their language] they call Gabbares. Whence the Glosse of Isidore, Gabares mortuo­rum, in Vulcanius, his edition: or as Spondanus de Caemet sacris, lib. 1. par. [...]. c. 5. Spondanus [Page 48] reads, Gabares mortuorum condita corpora.

The manner how the Aegyptians prepared and imbalmed these bodies, is very copiously, and by what I observed at my being there, very faithful­ly described by Herodotus, and Diodorus, and therefore I shal put down their own words. Their mourning saith Herodotus, lib. 2. [...], &c Herodotus, and manner of buriall are in this kind. When any man of quality of the family is dead, all the women besmeare their heads and faces with dirt, then leaving the body with their kindred, they goe lamenting up and down the city, with their kinsfolks, their apparrell being girt about them, and their breasts naked. On the other side, the men having likewise their clothes guirt about them beate themselves. These things being done, they carry it to be Amongst these imbal­med bodies are found Aegyptian Idols. Omni-genumque Deum monstra, & latrator Anubis. To use Virgils ex­pression. Aen. 8. Some of these are in great, some in little portraictures, formed either of potters earth baked, or else of stone, or mettall, or wood, or the like; in all which kindes I have bought some. One of them for the rarity of the matter, and for the illustration of the Scriptures deserves to be here mentioned: being cut out of a Magnes in the form, and bignesse, of the [...], or Scarabaeus, which as De Is. & Osir. [...]. Plutarch testifies was wor­shipped by the Aegyptians, and was by military men ingra­ven, as an Emblem, on their seales. To which sort of Idols, it may be Moses alluded, when speaking of the Gods of Ae­gypt he termes them [...] Gillulim, Stercoreos Deos ▪ Deut. 29.17. Vidistis abomi­nandos & ster­coreos Deos il­lorum. as the Originall is rendred by Iunius, and Tremellius: for such places are the unsavory dwellings of the Scarabaeus. That which is remarkable of it in nature is this, that the stone, though probably two thousand yeares since, taken out of its naturall bed, the Rock, yet still retaines its attractive, and magneticall virtue. imbal­med. For this there are some appointed, that pro­fesse the art, these, when the body is brought to [Page 49] them shew to the bringers of it certain patterns of dead bodies in wood, l [...]ke it in painting. One of these they say is accurately made (which I think [...]t not lawfull to name) they shew a second inferiour to it, and of an easier price, and a third cheaper then the former. Which being seen they aske of them according to what pattern they will have the dead body prepared? When thay have agreed upon the price, they depart thence, Those that remain, care­fully imbalme the body in this manner. First of all they draw out the brain with a crooked iron by the nostrills, which when they have drawn out they infuse Having caused the head [...] [...]ne of the richer sort of these imbalmed bo­dies to be o­pened, in the hollow of the skull I found the quantity of two pounds of these medica­ments: which had the consistence, blacknesse, and smell of a kind of Bitumen, or pitch, and by the heat of the Sunne wax [...]d soft. This in­fusion could not well have been made any other way, the [...] as Herodotus here intimates, by the nostrils. The tongue of this imb [...]lmed body be­ing waighed by me was lesse then seven gr [...]ines English So light was that member which Saint James cals a world of m [...]sch [...]fe. James 3 6. medicaments. Then with a sharp Aethi­opicke stone they cut it about the bowels, and take out all the guts: which purged, and washed with wine made of palmes, they againe wash with sweet odours beaten, then filling up the Plutarch writes that they first exp [...]sed the belly being opened, to the Sunne, casting the bowels into the river ( [...]) tanquam inqu n [...]min­tum corporis: this being done, they filled up the belly and the hollow of the breast with unguents and odours, as it is manifest by those which I have seen. belly, with pure Mirrhe beaten, and Cassia, and other odours, except frankincense, they sow it up againe, having done this they salt it with nitre, hiding it seventy dayes (For longer it is not lawfull to salt it) seven­ty dayes being ended, after they have washed the [Page 50] body binding it with fillets (or These Rib­bands by what I observed were of lin­nen which was the habit also of the Ae­gyptian Priests for Herodotus (li. 2.) writes that it was prophane for the Aegyptians either to be buried in wo [...]len garments, or to use them in their temples: And Pluta [...]ke in his book de Iside & Osi [...]ide, expressely tels us that the Pr [...]ests of Isis used linnen ve [...]tments and were shaved; and therefore the Goddesse Isis is called in Ovid. 1. amor. Ele. 2. Linigera Nee tu linigeram fieri quid possit ad Isim Quaesieris. O [...] the [...]e Ribbands I have seen some so strong, and perfect, as i [...] they had been made but yesterday. With these they bound, and swathed the dead body, beginning with the head, and ending with the feet: over these again they wound others, so often one upon another, that there could not be lesse then a thousand els upon one body ribbands) and wrapping it in a shrowd of silke linnen, they smeare it with gumme, which the Aeg [...]ptians often use in­stead of glue. The kindred receiving it thence make Of these coffines I have seen many fashioned in the similitude of a man, or rather resembling one of those imbalmed bodies, which as we described before, are bound with Ribbands, and wrapped in a shrowd of linnen. For as in those there is the shape of a head, with a kind of painted vizard or fa [...]e fastned to it, but no appearance without of the Arms and Legs: so is it with these Coffines, the top of them hath the shape of the head of a man, with a face painted on it resembling a woman, the residue being one continued trunk: at the end of this trunk is a Pedestall, somewhat broad; up [...]n which it stood upright in the reconditory, as Hero­dotus here mentions. Some of these Coffines are handsomely painted with­out, with severall H [...]eroglyphicks. Opening two of them I found within, over the body, divers scroles fastned to the linnen shrowd. These were painted with sacred Characters, for the colours very lively, and fresh; amongst which were in a larger size the pictures of men, or women, some headed like Hawkes, some like Dogs, and sometimes Dogs in chards stan­ding alone. These scroles either ran down the belly and sides, or else were placed upon the knees, and legs. On the feet was a linnen cover (and so were all the scroles before mentioned of linnen) painted with Hierogly­phicks, and fashioned like to a high slipp [...]r Upon the breast was a kind of breast-plate made with folds of linnen cut scolop-wise, richly painted, and guilt. In the midst of the bend at the top of it, was the face of a woman with her arms expanded: on each side of the [...], at the two outmost ends was the head of an Hawke fairely guilt, by which they represented the Divine nature, according to Plutarch (in his book de Iside & Osiride) as by a Ser­pent with the taile in his mouth, the revolution of the yeare, was resem­bled: in which kind also I have seen faire sculptures in gemmes, found at Alexandria: and as by the signe of the crosse they did denote spem venturae salutis, or vitam aete [...]nam, in Ruffi [...]us expression. Of these crosses I have seen severall amongst their Hieroglyphicks; some painted, and some ingraven in this manner ✚ and some others amongst their mummies formed of stone (or baked earth) in this figure At Rome on the statue of Osiris it is ingraven thus. T. a coffine of wood, in the similitude of a man, in which they put the dead body; and being [Page 51] thus inlosed they place it in a reconditorie in the house, setting it upright against the wall. In this manner with great expenses they prepare (the fu­neralls) [...]f their dead. But those who avoiding too great expenses desire a mediocrity, prepare them in this manner. They take a clyster with the juice of Cedar, with which they fill the belly by the fun­dament, neither cutting it, nor taking it out, and salt it so many dayes, as we mentioned before. In the last of which they take out that (clyster) of Cedar out of the belly, which before they injected. This hath such efficacy, that it carries out with it the whole panch, and entrailes corrupted. The Nitre consumes the flesh, and there is onely left, the skin, and bones, of the dead body. When they have done this, they restore the body to the kindred, do­ing nothing more. The third manner of preparing the dead is of them which are of meaner fortune: with lotions they wash the belly, and dry it with salt seventy dayes, then they deliver it to be carri­ed away.

Diodorus Siculus as his manner is, more distinctly, and cleerly,Diod. Sic. lib. 1. with some remarka­ble circumstances expresseth the same thing. If any one dye amongst the Aegyptians, all his kin­dr [...]d and friends, casting du [...]t upon their heads, goe lamenting about the City, till such time as the [Page 52] body is buried. In the mean time they abstain from baths, and wine, a [...]d all delicate meat; neither doe t [...]ey w [...]are costly apparell The manner of their bu­riall is three-fold. The one is very costly, the secondlesse, the third very meane. In the first they say there is spent a talent of silver, in the second twenty minae, in the last there is very li [...]le ex­pense. Those who take care to dresse the body are artizans receiving this skill from their Ance­stors. These shewing a b [...]ll, to the kindred of the dead▪ of the expenses upon each kind of buriall, ask them in what manner they will have the body to be prepared When they have agreed upon it, they deli­ver the body to such as are usually appointed to this offce. First he which is called the Scribe, lay­ing it upon the ground describes about the bowels on the left side, how much is to be cut away. Then he which is called the Cutter, taking an Aethio­pick stone, and cutt [...]ng away as much of the flesh, as the law commands, presently flye [...] away, as fast as he can; they which are present running [...]f [...]er him, and cast [...]ng st [...]nes at him, and cursing him (hereby) turn [...]ng all the execration upon him. For who­soever doth offer violence, or wound, or do any kind of in [...]ury to a body of the same nature with himselfe, they thinke him worthy of hatred. But those which are called the [...]mbalmers, they esteem them worthy of [...]onour, and respect. For they are familiar with their Priests, and they goe into the Temples, as holy men, without any proh [...]bi [...]ion. As s [...]on as they meet about the dressing of the d [...]ssected b [...]dy▪ one thrusting his hand by the wound of the dead body into [...]is entra [...]les, takes [...]ut all the bow­els w [...]thin, besides the heart, and kidneyes; another [Page 53] clenses all the entrailes, washing them with wine made of palmes, and with od [...]urs. Lastly the whole body being carefully anointed with the [...]uice of ce­dar, and other things for above thirty dayes, and afterward with Mirrhe, and Cinamon, and such other things, which have power not onely to keep it for a long time, but also to give a sweet smell, they deliver it to the kindred. [...]his being thus fin [...]shed, every member of the body is kept so entire, that up­on the browes, and I find [...]n the [...]ra­vail [...] of Monsieur de Br [...]ve [...], [...] at Constan­ [...]ople ▪ that at his b [...]ing in E [...]ypt, about forty yeares sinc [...], they s [...]w so [...]e [...]f the [...]e imbalmed bod [...]e [...], with h [...]res re­ma [...]ni [...]g on th [...]r [...]eads, and [...] [...]ea [...]ds wh [...]ch [...]. N [...]us [...] & [...]esp [...]d, des [...]verts [...]a ca [...]se qu [...] les [...] b [...]ndes [...]) qui [...] veux, la [...]a [...]e &, les e [...]g [...]es. [...]es voy [...]ges de M. de Bre [...]es. eye-lids, the haires remain, and the whole shape of the body (continues) un­changed, and the image of the countenance may be known. Hence many of the Aegyptians keeping the bodies of their Ancestors in magnificent houses, d [...]e see so expressely the faces of them [...]ead, many ages before they were born, that beholding the b [...]gnesse of each of them, and the dimensions of their bod [...]es▪ and the lineaments of their faces, it affords them wonderfull content of mind, no otherw [...]se then as if they were now living with them. Thus farre Diodorus. By which description of his, and that of Herodotus, we see the truth of what Co [...]d [...]un [...] Ae­gyp [...] mo [...]t [...]o [...], & cosdom [...] [...]. Tuscul. qu. lib. 1. Tully writes. The Aegyptians imbalme their dead, and keep them at home: Amongst themselves above ground, Saith Sex [...]us Empiricus: and Lib. 1. cap. 9. intra penetralia in Pomponius Mel's expression: and in lectulis, according to Athanasius in the life of Antony. Lucian addes farther in his tract de luctu. [...] Luc [...]an. They bring the dried body (I speak [...] what I have seen) as a guest to their feasts, and invitations, and oftentimes ore necessit [...]us of m [...]ny is supplyed, by giving his brother, or his father in pledge. The former custome is intimated by Si­lius [Page 54] Lib. 3 Punico­um. Italicus. speaking of the severall manners of buriall of divers nations.

The latter is confirmed by Diodor Sic l. 1. Diodorus Sicu­lus. They have a custome of depositing for a pledge the bodies of their dead parents. It is the greatest ignominy that may be not to redeem them; and if they do it not they themselves are deprived of bu­riall. And therefore sayes he immediately before, Such as for any crime, or debt, are hindred from being buried, are kept at home without a coffine: whom afterwards their posterity growing rich, dis­charging their debts, and paying mony in compen­sation of their crimes honourably bury. For the Aegyptians glory that their Parents, and Ance­stors, were buried with honour.

This manner of the Aegyptians imbalming, we find also practised by Ioseph upon his Father Ia­cob in Aegypt: and if we will beleeve Tacitus, Iud [...]os ab Ae­gyptiis didic sle, condere cadavera potius quam cre­ma [...]e Ta [...]it. histor li [...]. 5. The Hebrewes (in generall) learned from the Aegyptians rather to bury their dead, then to burn them. Where [...]pondan. lib. 1▪ part. [...]. cap. 5. de coe [...]et [...]r [...]i [...] sacris. Spondanus insteed of condere cadavera ▪ reades condire, as if it had been their custome of poudring, or imbalming the dead. Wash them, and anoint them we know they did, by what was done to our Saviour, and to the wid­dow Dorcas: and long before it was in use a­mongst the Gentiles, as well as Jews, as appears by the funerall of Patroclus in [...] Iliad lib. 19. Homer, and of Missenus the Trojane in Act. eid. lib. 6. Virgil. ‘[Page 55]Corpus (que) lavant frigentis, & ungunt,’ And of Tarquinius the Romane in Ennius. ‘Tarquinii corpus bona foemina lavit, & unxit.’

But certainly the Aegyptian manner of imbal­ming, which wee have described out of He­rodotus, and Diodorus, was not received by them;Iohn 11.39. or if it were Martha the sister of La­zarus needed not to have feared, that after foure dayes the body should have stunk. Transtulerunt Israelitae hunc ri­ [...]um ex Egypto secum in Cana­naeam, quo dein­ce [...]s [...]n sepul [...]u­ris Principum, & Regum usi dicuntu [...] in historia Asae. 2 Paral. 6. & alibi. D. Parae [...] omin in Gen. 50.2. They which infer out of the Funerall of Asa King of Iudah, that it was the custome of the Jewes, as well as Aegyptians, have very little probability for their assertion. Chron. 16.14. We read that they buried him in his own Sepulcher, which he had made for himselfe in the City of David, and laid him in the bed, which was filled with sweet odours, and di­vers kinds of spices prepared by the Apothecaries art: and they made a very great burning for him. This very great burning is so contrary to the pra­ctise of [...]he Aegyptians, to whom it was an abo­mination, as appeares by the authorities before cited of Herodotus, and Mela, besides the litle affinity of filling the bed with sweet odours, and the Aegyptians filling the body, and the place of the entrailes with sweet odours, according both to Herodotus, and Diodorus, that we shall not need to inla [...]g our selves in any other confutation. But as for that of Iacob, and Ioseph, the Father, and the Sonne▪ both living, and dying in Aegypt, the text is cleare they were imbalmed after the fashion of the Aegyptians. Gen. 50.2, 3. And Ioseph com­manded his servants the Physicians to imbalm his father, and the Physicians imbalmed Israel, and [Page 56] forty dayes were fulfilled for him (for so are ful­filled the dayes of those which are imbalmed) And the Aegyptians mourned for him threescore and ten day [...]s. In the same Chapter we read Gen. 50.26. So Ioseph dyed be [...]ng an hundred and ten yeares old, and they imb [...]lmed him, and he was put in a coffine in Aegypt. Both which places are very conso­nant to the traditions of Herodotus, and Diodorus, and may s [...]rve to shew what necessity there is of ha­ving oft times recourse to the learning of the hea­then, for the illustration of the Scriptures. Forty dayes were fulfilled for the imbalming of Iacob, This D [...]od Sic lib 1. [...], &c Diodorus tells us was their custome, they anointed the dea [...] body with the juice of Cedar, and other things for above [...]hirty dayes, and afterward with myrrhe, and Cinamon, and the like; which might make up the residue of the forty dayes. And the Aegyptians mourned for him threescore and ten dayes. This time out of Herodotus may be collected to have been from the first day of the death of the person, till the body was returned by the Physicians after seventy dayes perfectly imbalmed. The Text sayes, and Ioseph was put in a coffine: which is very lively represented by D [...]od Sic lib 1. [...], &c Herod. lib. 2. Herodotus. The kindred rec [...]iving the dead body from the imb [...]lmers make a coffine of wood in the simil [...]u [...]e of a man, in which they put it. This coffine then as it is probable, of Ioseph was of wood, and not ma [...] morea theca, as (s) [...]aje­tane imagines, the former being the custome of the Aegyptians. Besides that this was much easier, and fitter to be carried by the Israelites into Canaan, marching on foot, and for ought we read destitute of wagons, and other carriages.

[Page 57] Veteres Hebraei co [...]me [...]tati sun [...] dua [...] fu [...]sse areas una incedentes in deserto, a [...]teram Div [...]nita [...]s, alterā Iosephi. [...]lam sci­licet arcam aede­ris, hanc ve [...]ò lo­culos quibus Io­sephi ossa ex Ae­gypto a [...]porta­b [...]ntur in Regio­nem Chanaan. The tradition of the ancient Hebrewes in their commentaries is very probable, and conso­nant to it. They carried in the desert two arckes, the one of God, the other of Joseph, that the arcke of the Covenant, this the arcke (or coffine) in which they carried Josephs bones out of Aegypt. This coffine (if it be lawfull for me to conjecture after the revolution of three thousand yeares) I conceive to have been of sycomore (a great tree very plentifully growing in AEgypt) of which sort there are many found in the Mummies, very faire, intire, and free from corruption to this day. Though I know the Arabians, and Persians have a different tradition that his coffine was of glasse. erer. comm [...]n 50 cap. Genes. They put his blessed bo­dy, [...]after they had washed it, into a coffine of glasse, and buried it in the channell of the river Nilus, saith Emir Cond a Persian.

That phrase of Ioseph where hee takes an oath of the children of Israel, Gen. 50 25. yee shall carry up my bones from hence, surely is a synecdoche, or figura­tive speech: And so is that in Exodus. And Exod. 1 [...].19. Moses tooke the bones of Joseph with him: for he had staightly sworne the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and yee shall carry up my bones away hence with you: For his body being boweled, and then imbalmed, after the manner of the Aegyptians, not onely the bones, but the skin, the flesh, and all besides the entrailes [Page 58] (which according to Plutar 7 Sapi­ent. convivio. Plutarch were thrown into the river) would have continued perfect, and intire, a much longer space, then from his death to their migration out of Aegypt.

Having thus by art found out wayes to make the body durable, whereby the soule might conti­nue with it, as we shewed before, which els would have been at liberty to have passed into some other body, [...]. Herod. lib. 2. this also being the opinion of the Aegyptians, from whom Pythagoras borrowed his [...], or transanimation (the which made him to forbid his Disciples the eating of flesh, Ne forte bubulam quis de aliquo proavo suo obsonaret, as Tertullian wittily speakes) the next care of the Aegyptians was to provide condito­ries, which might be as lasting as the body, and in which it might continue safe from the injury of time, and men. That occasioned the ancient Kings of Thebes in Aegypt to build those, which Diod. Sic. lib. 1. [...], &c. Diodorus thus describes. There are they say the wonderfull Sepulchers of the ancient Kings, which in magnificence excede the imitation of po­sterity. Of these in the sacred commentaries forty seven are mentioned, but in the time of Ptolemae­us Lagi there remained but XVII. Many of them at our being in Aegypt, in the hundred and eigh­tieth Olympiad were decayed, neither are these things alone reported by the Aegyptians, out of the sacred bookes, but by many a [...]so of the Graecians▪ who in the time of Ptolemaeus Lagi went to The­bes, and having compiled histories (amongst whom is Hecataeus) agree with our relations. And thi [...] might occasion also those others recorded by Strabo, which he cals [...], or Mercuriale [...] [Page 59] tumulos, seen by him neer Siene, in the upper parts of Aegypt, very strange, and memorable Strabo lib. 17. [...], &c. Pas­sing in a chariot from Siene to Philae, over a very even plaine, about an hundred stadia, all the way almost, of both sides, we saw in many places Mer­curial tombes: a great stone, smooth, and almost Spherical, of that blacke, and hard marble, out of which morters are made, placed upon a greater stone, and on the top of this another, some of them lying by themselves: the greatest of them was no lesse then twelve feet diameter, all of them greater then the halfe of this. Many ages after, when the regal throne was removed from Thebes to Me [...] ­phis, the same religion, and opinion continuing amongst the Aegyptians, that so long as the body indured, so long the soule continued with it, not as quickning, and animating it, but as an attendant, or guardian, and as it were unwilling to leave her former habitation: it is not to be doubted this in­cited the Kings there, together with their private ambition, and thirst after glory, to be at so vast ex­penses in the the building of these Pyramids; and the Aegyptians of lower quality, to spare for no cost, in cutting those hypogaea, those caves, or dor­mitories, in the Libyan deserts, which by the Christians now adayes are called the mummies. Diodorus Siculus excellently expresses their opi­nion, and beleefe, in this particular, together with their extreme cost of building Sepulchers, in these words. Diod. Sic▪ l [...]b. [...]. [...], &c. The Aegyptians make small account of the time of this life being l [...]mited but that which after death is joyned with a glorious memory of virtue they highly value: They call the houses of the living innes, because for a [Page 60] short space we inhabit these: But the Sepulchers, of the dead they name eternall mansions, because they continue with the Gods for an infinite space. Wherefore in the structures of their houses they are litle solicitous but in exquisitely adorning their Sepulchers they thinke no cost sufficient

Now why the Aegyptians did build their Se­pulchers often in the forme of Pyramids (for they were not alwayes of this figure, as appeares by those [...] or Mercuriales tumult, before ci­ted out of Strabo, which were sphericall; and by those hypogaea, or caves still extant in the rocks of the de [...]ert) Pierius in his hieroglyphickes, or ra­ther the Anonymus author at the end of him, gives severall philosophicall reasons. Ex Eruditi cu­ju [...]d. l [...]. sub finem Hierogl. P [...]erii▪ Per Pyramidem veteres (Aegyptii) rerum naturam, & substantiam illam informem formas recipientem significare voluerūt: quòd ut Pyramis à puncto, & s [...]m­mo fastigio [...]nci­pien [...], paulatim in omnes pa [...]es d [...] ­latatur, sic rerum omnium natura ab unico princi­pio & fonte, qui divi [...]i non potest, némpe à D [...]o summo opifice profecta, varias deinde formas suscipit, & in va­ria genera atque speci [...]s diffúditur, omnia (que) a [...]ici [...] & pun [...]to conjun­git à quo omnia manam & flu [...]nt Ve [...]ùm & alia hu­jus rei ratio naem­pà Astronomia reddi potest, &c. By a Py­ramid, saith he, the Ancient Aegyptians expressed the nature of things, and that informed substance receiving all formes. Because as a Pyramid hav [...]ng its beginning from a point at the top▪ is by degrees dilated on all parts, So the nature of all things pro­ceeding from one fountaine, and beginning, which is indivisible, namely from God, the chiefe worke­master, afterwards receives severall formes, and is diffused into various kindes, and species, all which it conjoynes to that beginning, and point, from whence every thing issues, and flowes. There may also be given an other reason for this taken from Astronomy. For the Aegyptians were excellent Aronomers, yea, the first inventors of it, these [dividing the zodiaque, and all things under it in to twelve signes] will have each signe to be a kind of Pyramid, the basis of which shall be in the hea­ven (For the heaven is the foundation of Astro­nomy) and the point of it shall be in the center of [Page 61] [...] earth, Seeing therefore in these Pyramids all [...]hings are made, and that the comming of the sun, which is as it were a point in respect of those signes, is the cause of the production of naturall things, [...]nd its departure the cause of their corruption▪ it seems very fitly that by a Pyramid, nature the pa­rent of all things, may be expressed. Also the same Aegyptians under the forme of a Pyramid shadow­ed out the soule of man, making under huge Pyra­mids the magnificent Sepulchers of their Kings, and Heroes, to testify that the soule was still exi­ [...]tent, notwithstanding the body were dissolved, and corrupted, the which should generate, and produce another body for it selfe, when it should seem good [...]o the first Agent, (that is the circle of thirty six thousand yeares being transacted.) Like as a Py­ramid (as it is knowne to Geometricians) the top of it standing fixt, and the base being moved a­ [...]out, describes a circle, and the whole body of it a [...]ne, So that the circle expresses that space of years, [...]nd the cone that body which in that space is pro­duced. For it was the opinion of the Aegyp [...]ians, that in the rev [...]lution of thirty six thousand years, all things should be restored to their former state, Plato witnesseth that he received it from them; who seems als [...] to me in his Timaeus to attest this thing, that is, that our soule hath the forme of a Pyra­mid, which (soule) according to the same Plato, i [...] of a fiery nature, and adhereth to the body as a Pyramid doth to the basis, or as fire doth to the [...] well. Thus far the Anonymus author in Pierius; most of which reasons of his are but pretty fan­cies, without any solid proofe from good Authors. For he might as well say that the Aegyptians [Page 62] were excellent Geometricians, as well as Astro­no [...]ers (as they were very skilfull in both) and that they made these Pyramids, to expresse the first, a [...]d most simple of Mathematicall bodyes: or else being excellent Arithmeticians, to repre­sent the mysteries of pyramidall numbers; or else being well [...]een in the optickes, to shadow out the manner of vision, and the emission of rayes from luminous bodyes, as also the effluvium of the spe­cies intentionales from the object, all which are supposed to be pyramidall. But this were to play with truth, and to indulge too much to fancy. Wherefore I conceive the reason why they made these Sepulchers in the figure of a Pyramid, was; either as apprehending this to be the most perma­ment form of structure, as in truth it is (For by reason of the contracting, and lessening of it at the top, it is neither overpressed with its owne waight; nor is so subject to the sinking in of raine, as other buildings:) or else hereby they intended to represent some of their Gods. For anciently both they, and some others of the Gentiles, by Columnes and obeliskes, did so: Whereas a Py­ramid is but a greater kinde of obeliske, as an o­beliske is but a lesser sort of Pyramid. Thus we finde in Clem. Alex. l. 1. St [...]omatum ex Phoron [...]dis au [...]tore. Clemens Alexandrinus that Calli­thoe, the Priestesie of Iuno, decked the Column of the Goddesse▪ with [...]ow [...]es and Garlands: that is, saith [...]cal. in Euseb. Chron. Joseph Scaliger, the image of the Goddesse Fo [...] at tha [...] time the statues of the Gods were [...]. Pyramidal columnes, or obe­liskes. And [...] was nothing else but [...] a column en [...]ing in a point (that is a Pyramid) as [...]. Su [...]da [...]. Su [...]das relates. Which kinde [Page 63] of Columnes, (saith the same Author) some make proper to Apollo, others to Bacchus, and o­thers to them both. Lib. 18. cap. 31. Diod. lib. 1. Obeliscum Mes­phres Rex Aegyp­ti primus fecisse fertur—qui post caecitatem visu re­cepto duos obe­liscos so [...]i conse­cravit. Isid. li. 18. cap. 31. Isidore writes that they were dedicated to the sunne, whom Diodorus de­scribes the Aegyptians to have worshipped un­der the name of Osiris, as they did the moone by [...]he Goddesse Isis; and therefore as Isis cornigera represented the hornes of the moone, or Luna [...]alcata: so these Pyramids, & obelisci acuminati, might not unfitly resemble the raies of the Sunne, or their God Osiris. In [...]. Pau [...]aniae Corinthi [...]ea. Pausanias also we read [...]hat in the City Corinth [...]punc; Iupiter Melichius, and Diana surnamed Patrôa were made with litle, or [...]o Art: Melichius being represented by a Pyra­mid, and Diana by a Columne. Whence Clemens Alexandrinus imagines this to have been the first [...]inde of Idolat [...]y in the world (and therefore well agreeing with the antiquity of the Aegyp­ [...]ians) Before the exact art of making statues was [...]ound out, the Ancients erecting Columnes, [...]. Alex. lib. Stro­matum. wor­ [...]ipped these as the images of God.

This practise of the Aegyptians was but rare­ [...]y imitated by other nations, I mean of erecting Pyramids for Sepulchers; though Servius seems [...]o make it frequent in his comment upon these [...]erses of Virgil.

Apud maiores▪ Nob [...]les aut sub montibu [...], aut in montibu [...] sepelie­bantur▪ unde na­túm est, ut supra c [...]davera, aut Py­ramide, fie [...]ent, a [...]tingen [...]es col­l [...] caten [...]r [...]. Se. v. in Virgil. With the Ancients (saith Servius) Noble [...]en were buried, either under mountaines, or in [...] un [...]aines, wh [...]nce the custome came, that over [...]he dead▪ either Pyramids were made or huge co­ [...]umnes erected. In imitation of the later custome [Page 64] it may be 2 Sam. c. 18. v. 18. Absalom erected his pillar: and Pausa­nias describing the manner of burial amongst the ancient nation of the Sicyonians tels us Pausaniae Co­rinth, [...]ive lib. 2. [...] ▪ that they covered the body with earth, and raised pillars over it. But for the former of Pyramids, I finde none out of Aegypt accounted miraculous, un­lesse it be the Sepulcher of Porsena King of He­truria (with which I shall conclude) described by Pliny out of Varro: being more to be admi­red for the number, and contrivance of the Pyra­mids, then for any excessive magnitude. Plin. l. 36 c. 13. Vtemus ipsius M▪ Varronis [...]u expo­sitione ejus▪ ver­bis. Sepultus est, inquir, sub Vrbe Clusio, in quo l [...] ­co m [...]numentum reliquit lapide quadrato, singula latera pedum l [...]t [...] tricenû [...]n, alta quinquagerû [...]: inquè basi qua­dratâ in [...]u [...] laby­rinthum inextri­cabilé [...] quo siquis improperet sine glomereli [...]i, ex­tum inven [...]re ne­queat. Supra id quadratum Pyra­mides stant quin­que, qua [...]uor in angul [...]s, & in me [...]dio una▪ in imola­ [...]ae pedum septua­ge ûm [...] ▪ al [...]ae ce [...]tum qu [...] ­quagensi [...]ita fa­stig [...]atae, u [...] in summo orbis aeneu [...], & pe [...]asus un [...]s omnibus si [...] imposi [...]us, ex quo [...]endeant excep­ta catenist [...]nti [...] [...]bula, quae [...] agitat [...]lo [...]gè [...] itus [...]efer [...]n [...] ▪ ut D [...]do [...]ae olim factum. Supra quem [...]rbem q [...]a [...]or Py [...]a [...]e, insuper si [...]gu [...]ae ex [...]nt altae pedu [...] c [...]nte [...] Supra quas uno solo qui [...] (que) Py [...]mides quar [...]m [...] Varronem pudu [...]t adijcere. [...]a [...]ule H [...]ruscae tradunt eandem [...]u [...]ss [...] quam to [...]ius [...] ve [...]ana d [...]entia quae­sisse gloriam▪ i [...]pen [...]io nu [...]li profuturo. Praeterea fatig [...]sse reg ni vires, ut tamen laus ma­ior arti [...]icis esset. Plin l. 36. c. 13. We shall use M. Varro's owne words, in the description of it. He was buried, saith he, without the Citie Clusium, in which place he left a monument of square stone. Each side of it is three hundred feet broad, and fif [...]y feet high. Within the square basis there is an inextricable labyrinth, [...]hither who so adventures without a clue can finde no passage out. Upon this square there stand five Pyramids, foure in the angles, and one in the middle, in the bottome they are broad seventy five feet, and high an hun­dred and fifty. They are pointed in such a manner, that at the top there is one brasse circle, and cove­ring for them all, from which there hang bells fa­stned to chaines: these being moved by the Winde, give a sound a far off as at Dodona it hath for­merly beene▪ Upon this circle the [...]e are f [...]ure other Pyramids each of them an hundred feet high. A­bove

[Page] [Page 65] which upon one plain there are five Pyramids, the altitude of which Varro was ashamed to adde. The Hetruscan fables report that it was as much, as that of the whole worke. With so vaine a mad­nes he sought glory by an expense usefull to no man: wasting besides the wealth of his Kingdome, that in the end the commendation of the Artificer should be the greatest.

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HAving discovered the Founders of these Pyramids, and the time in which they were erected, and last­ly the end, for which these monu­ments were built: next in the me­thod we proposed, the sciography, of them is to be set downe: Where we shall be­gin with the dimensions of their figure without, and then we shall examine their severall spaces, and partitions within.

FRom this Pyramid we went to the second, be­ing scarce distant the flight of an arrow from it: where by the way I observed, on the West side of the [...]ir [...]t, the ruines of a pile of building, all of square, and polished stone: such as Pliny calls Basaltes, and describes to be ferrei coloris, Plin. l. 35. cap 7. & du­ritiae, of an iron colour, and hardnesse: Formerly it may be some habitation of the Priests, or some monument of the dead. To the right hand of this, tending to the South, stands this second Pyra­mid, of which besides the miracle, the Ancient, and Modern writers, have delivered litle.Herod [...]t. lib. 2. Hero­dotus relates, that Cephren, in imitation of his brother Cheops, built this, but that he fell short in respect of the magnitude. For (saith he) wee have measured them. It were to be wished for fuller satisfaction of the Reader, he had expres­sed the quantity, and also the manner how hee took his measure. He addes, it hath no subterra­neous structures, Diodor. Sic. lib. 1. [...]. neither is the Nilus by a chan­nell derived into it, as in the former. Diodorus somewhat more particularly describes it thus: that for the architecture it is like unto the former, but much inferiour to it in respect of magnitude: Each side of the Basis conteins a stadium in length. That is, to comment on his words, of Grecian [Page 104] feet sixe hundred, of Romane sixe hundred twenty five. So that by this computation, each side should want an hundred Grecian feet of the former Pyramid. Pliny makes the diffe­rence to be greater,Plin. l. 36. cap. 12. Alterius inter­valla singula per quatuor angulos pare [...] DCC XXXVII [pedes] comprehendunt. for assigning eight hundred eighty three feet to the former, he allowes to the side of the Basis of this, but seven hundred thirty seven. By my observation, the stones are of co­lour white, nothing so great, and vast, as those of the first, and fairest Pyramid; the sides rise not with degrees like that, but are smooth, and equall, the whole fabrick (except where it is opposed to the South) seeming very entire, free from any deformed ruptures, or breaches. The height of it, taken by as deliberate a conjecture as I could make (which it was easie to do by reason of the nearnesse of this, and the former, being both up­on the same plain) is not inferiour to it; and there­fore Strabo hath rightly judged them to be equall. The sides also of the Basis of both are alike, as, besides the authority of Strabo ▪ the Venetian Doctor assured me,Strabo lib. 17. who measured it with a line. There is no entry leading into it, and therefore what may be within, whither such spaces, and compartiments, as I observed in the former, or whither different, or none, I must leave to every mans private conjecture, and to the discovery of after times.

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[Page 106]This is bounded on the North, and West sides, with two very stately, and elaborate peeces; which I doe not so much admire, as that by all writers, they have been pretermitted. About thirty feet in depth, and more then a thousand and foure hundred in length, out of the hard rocke these buildings have been cut in a perpendicular, and squared by the chessell, as I suppose, for lodgings of the Priests. They run along at a con­venient distance, parallel to the two sides, we mentioned of this Pyramid, meeting in a right angle, and making a very faire, and gracefull prospect. The entrance into them is by square openings, hewen out of the rocke, much of the same bignes, with those I described in the first Pyramid. Whither these were symbolicall (as the Theology of the Aegyptians consisted much in mysterious figures) and the depressure, and lownes of these, were to teach the Priests humi­lity: and the squarenes, and eevenes of them, an uniforme, and regular deportment in their actions, I leave to such as have written of their hieroglyphickes to determine. The hollow space within, of them all, is somewhat like to a square, and well proportioned chamber, covered, and arched above with the naturall rocke: in most of which (as I remember) there was a passage ope­ning into some other compartiment, which the rubbage, and darknes, hindered me from view­ing. On the North side without, I observed a line, and only one, ingraven with sacred and Aegyptian characters, such as are mentioned by Herodot. lib. 2. Herodotus, and [...]. Diod. l. 1. Diodorus, to have been used by the Priests, and were different from the [Page 107] vulgar characters in civill affaires: in which for­mer kinde [...], &c. Iust. Martyr. quaest. & resp. ad Orthodoxos. Iustine Martyr makes Moses to have been skilfull: as the Scripture makes him to have been learned in all the wisedome of the Aegyptians. These ranne not downwards, as the Chinese in our times write, but were continued in a streight line, as we use to write: and are to be read (if any understand those mysterious sculp­tures) by proceeding from the right hand to the left, and as it were imitating the motion, and course of the Planets. For so [...]. Herodot. lib. 2. Herodotus ex­presly informes us, that the Grecians write, and cast account, going from the left hand to the right, the Aegyptians from the right hand to the left. And this is that which in an obscure expression is also intimated by Pompon. Mel l. 1. c. 9. Pomponius Mela: Aegyp­tii] suis literis perversè utuntur. A manner pra­ctised by the Hebrewes, Chaldaeans, and Syrians to this day: and not unlikely to have been bor­rowed by them from the Aegyptians: to whom the Chaldaeans also allowed their first skill in A­strology, as the Graecians did their knowledge in Geometry; the former being attested by Diodor. Sic. l. 1. Dio­dorus, and the later confessed by [...] lib. Commen. Procli. in 1 lib. Eucl. Proclus, and other Grecians. And surely in imitation of these, or of the Jewes, the Arabians neighbouring upon both, have taken up this manner of writing, and continued it to our times: communicating it also by their conquests, to the Persians, and Turkes.

FRom this Pyramid we went unto the third, standing distant from the second about a fur­long, upon an advantageous height, and rising of the rocke, whereby at a good distance it seemes equall to the former; though the whole pile is much lesse, and lower. The time was so far spent with my other observations, that I could not take so exact a view, as I desired, and the worke de­served; yet I tooke so much of both, as to be able to confute the errors of others. But before I per­forme this, I shall relate what the Ancients, and some one or two of our best writers, which have travelled thither, have delivered concerning this. Herodotus discoursing of it,Herodot. lib. 2. [...]. Diodor. Sic. l 1. tels us, that (Myce­rinus) left a Pyramid much lesse then that of his father, wanting of all sides (for it is quadrangular) twenty feet: it is three hundred feet on every side, being to the midle of it built with Aethi­opicke marble. Diodorus Siculus is somewhat larger, and cleerer. Every side of the basis (My­cerinus) caused to be made three hundred feet in length, he raised the walls fifteene Stories, with black stone, like Thebaicke marble, the rest of it he finished, with such materials as the other Pyramids are built. This worke although it is exceeded by the rest in magnitude, yet for the [Page 109] structure, art, and magnificence of the marble, it very farre excels them. In the side towards the North, Mycerinus the name of the Founder, is in­graven. Thus far Diodorus. To whom I shall adjoine the testimony of Strabo: Farther, Strabo l. 17. Geog. upon a higher rise of the hill is the third (Pyramid) much lesse then the two former, but built with a greater expense: For almost from the Foundation of it to the midle, it consists of blacke stone, with which they make mortars, brought from the remo­test mountaines of Aethiopia, which being hard, and not easie to be wrought, hath made the worke the more costly. Pliny also, not as a spectator,Plin. l. 36. c, 12. Tertia minor praedictis, sed multò spectatior. Ae [...]hiopicis lapi­dibus assurgit CCCLXIII pedi­bus inter a [...]gulos and eye-witnesse, as the former, but as an Historian writes thus. The third (Pyramid) is lesse then the former we mentioned, but much more beautifull: it is erected with Aethiopicke marble, and is three hundred sixty three feet between the angles. And this is all that hath been preserved of the Ancients concerning this Pyramid. A­mongst moderne writers, none deserves to be pla­ced before Bellonius, or rather before P. Gillius. For Thua. hist. l. 16. Thuanus makes the other to have been a plagiarius, and to have published in his owne name the observations of P. Gillius: a man very curious, and inquisitive after truth, as appeares by his topography of Constantinople, and his Bosphorus Thracius, to whom Bellonius served as an amanu­ensis. The third Bellon. observ. l 2. c. 44. Tertia Pyramis duabus superiori­bus longè minor. tertia [...]st autem parte major èá quae apud [...]esta­ceum montem est Romae, qua ad D. Pauli eundum est. itinere Ostiensi. Adhuc integra est, nec magis [...]a­mis corrupta, quàm si jam [...]e­cens [...]xstr [...]cta es­set. Mar [...]oris enim gene [...]e [...], quò: Basal­tes nuncu [...]a u [...], vel lapi Aethio­picus, ipso fe [...]ro dorio c. Pyramid is much lesse then the former two, but is a third part greater then that which is at Rome, neere the mons testaceus, as you passe to Saint Pauls in the Ostian way. It is still perfect, and no more corrupted, then as if it had been newly built, For it is made of a kinde of marble, [Page 110] called basaltes, or Aethiopicke marble, harder then iron it selfe.

It will be in vaine to repeate the traditions, and descriptions of severall others: all which by a kinde of confederacie, agree in the same tale for the substance, only differing in some circumstan­ces: So that I shrewdly suspect, that Diodorus hath borrowed most of his relation from Hero­dotus: and Strabo, and Pliny, from Diodorus, or [Page 111] from them both: and the more learned neote­rickes from them all. For else how can it be ima­gined, they should so constantly agree in that, which if my eyes, and I have since cō ­ferred with an English Captain, who having been foure times at A­lexandria, and as of [...]en at the py­ramids, assures me that I am not mistaken. memory extreamly faile me not, is most evidently false? And therefore I have a strong jealousie, that they never came neere this third Pyramid; but that they did, as I have observed all travailers in my time in Aegypt to doe, fill themselves so full, and as it were so surfeit with the sight of the greater, and fairer Py­ramid, that they had no appetite to be spectators of the rest: where they should only see the same miracle (for the Pyramids are all of the same figure) the farther they went, decreasing, and pre­sented as it were in a lesse Volumne: Or if they did view this, it was quasi per transennam, very perfunctorily, and sleightly; and that through a false, and coloured glasse. For they have mista­ken both in the quality of the stone, and colour of the Pyramid. I begin with Herodotus, Herodot lib. [...]. who by a notable peece of forgetfulnes, if it be not a [...] in the copies, makes the dimensions of each of the sides, in the basis of this, to be three hundred feet, and yet to want but twenty of the first Pyramid, to which he assigned before eight hundred feet▪ an impossibility in arithmeticke. And therefore it will be no presumption to cor­rect the place, and in stead of [...], to write [...]. I know not how to palliate, or excuse his other errour, where he makes this Pyramid to be built as far as to the midle of it, with Aethiopicke marble. If this sort of marble be ferrei coloris, Plin. l 36. c, 7. Diodor. l. 1. Strab. l. 7. Geog. as it is described by Pliny, and granted by Diodorus, and Strabo, [Page 112] both of them expressing the colour to be blacke, and the latter bringing it from the remotest mountaines of Aethiopia, where the marble hath the same tincture and colour, with the Inhabi­tants, then can this relation of Herodotus no way be admitted. For the whole Pyramid seemes to be of cleere, and white stone, somewhat choicer, and brighter, then that in either of the two other Pyramids. And therefore I wonder that Dio­dorus, Strabo, and Pliny, and amongst latter Au­thors, Bellonius, Gillius, and severall others, should have all followed Herodotus: when with a litle paines, and circumspection, they might have reformed his, and their owne errour. It may perhaps be alleaged in their defence, that they meane the buildings within are erected with blacke, and Aethiopicke marble: and yet if this be granted, since there is no entrance leading into this, no more then is into the second Pyramid, what may be within depends upon the incer­tainty of tradition, or conjecture, both which are very fallible, Though it cannot be denied, but that close by this, on the East side of it, there are the ruines of a pile of building, with a sad, and dusky colour, much like that we described in pas­sing to the second Pyramid, which might be the ground, and occasion of this errour. I cannot excuse the Ancients, but Bellonius, or Gillius (For it is no matter which of them ownes the rela­tion, when both of them have erred) are farre more inexcusable, Because it might have been expected from them,T. Liv. lib. 1. what Livy supposes, Novi semper scriptores, aut inrebus certius aliquid alla­turos se, aut scribendi arte rudem vetustatem supe­raturos [Page 113] credunt. Whereas these on the contrary, have depraved, what hath been, in this particular, with truth delivered by the Ancients. For where­as Herodotus, and Diodorus, equal the side of the basis to three hundred feet, and Pliny extends it to three hundred sixty three, these make it only a third part greater then the Pyramid at Rome of C. Caestius, neere the mons testaceus. So that either they have much enlarged that at Rome, or shruncke, and contracted this. For the Pyramid at Rome, exactly measured on that side, which stands within the City, is completely seventy eight feet English in breadth: to which if we adde a third part of it, the result will be an hundred and foure: which should be equal to this Aegyptian Pyramid, in the notion, and acception of Bellonius. An unpar­donable oversight, no lesse then two hundred feet, in a very litle more then three hundred. For so much, besides the authority of Herodotus, and Diodorus, before cited, I take the side of this Py­ramid to be, and the altitude to have much the same proportion.

I would gladly have seen in this, the name of Mycerinus the Founder of it ingraven, as Diodor. l. 1. Di­odorus mentions: or that other inscription in the first, whereof Herodotus procured the interpre­tation: but both have been defaced by time. His words are these: Herodot· l. 2. [...], &c. In the Pyramid there are Aegyptian characters inscribed, which shew how much was expended upon the workemen, in radishes, onions, and garlicke, which an interpreter (as I well remember) said was the summe of a thousand and six hundred talents of silver, which [Page 114] if it be so, how much is it credible was spent in iron, and in meat, and in clothes for the labourers? Here­by I might have knowne what to determine of the ancient Aegyptian letters: I meane not the sacred ones (for those were all Symbolical, ex­pressing the abstractest notions of the minde, by visible similitudes of Phoenices pri­mi, famae si credi­tur, a [...]si, Mansuram rudi­bus vocem signa, re figuris. Nondum flumi­neas Memphis contexere biblos N [...] verat, & saxis tantùm volu­cres (que) ferae (que) Sculpta (que) serva­bant magicas animalia linguas Lucan. lib. 3. birds, and beasts, or by re­presentations of some other familiar objects) but those used in civill affaires. By such sculp­tures, which I have seene in gemmes found at Alexandria, and amongst the Mummies, I can no way subscribe to the assertion of Kircherus, though an able man, who, in his Prodromus Cop­tus, contends that the present Aegyptian, or Cop­tite character (which certainly is nothing but a corruption, and distortion of the Greeke) is the same with that of the ancient Aegyptians.