make up Ten thousand four hundred seventy three years. See the Boafting of the Egyptians, Ezek. 29. 3. and our Annotations upon Numbers 13.23. But Mofes fhews, Gen. 10. 6. that after the Flood, Egypt was Peopled by the Pofterity of Cham, who came thither out of Babylon. The Egyptians too Romanced very much concerning the Generation of Men in their Country, and about the Flood, which may be found in Diodorus, L. 1. They boafted that they were the (1) Inventors of all things, as the fame Authors tell us, most of which Mofes confutes by the bye, giving a quite different Account of things, and plainly fhews that others were the Inventors of them. For Example, The Egypti ans afcrib'd Agriculture, and the Invention of Squeezing Wine from the Grape to their Oftris, which belongs to Noah, as we are inform'd by Mofes, Chap. 9. 20. The Phenicians too had publish'd several Fictions, if Philo Byblius's Sanchoniathon has given us a true account of their Theology, a Fragment of which is to be seen in Eufebius's Præparatie Evangelica, l.1. cap.10. which Mofes contradicts, as will soon appear by comparing the two Histories.

5. He feems likewise, by not only Writing his Law,but Publishing it, and commanding it to be

(1) So they afcribed the Invention of Mufick to one Thouth a Friend of Ofiris, who, as Diodorus tells us, 1, 1. invented the Harp with three ftrings,but Mofes gives it to Jabal. They likewife pretended, that under the Reign of Ofiris, the Art of working in Bras and Iron was found out in Thebais. See the fame Hiftorian, lib.

read

read every Seventh Year, Deut. 31. 10. tacitly to reprehend the Conduct of the Egyptian Priests, who had several secret Rites, and hidden DoЯrines, which it was not lawful to discover to the People. (m) See our Notes upon Gen. 41. 8.

6. Most of the Oriental Nations not only boafted of their Antiquity, as Diodorus Siculus has obferv'd in his first Book, but likewife extravagantly praised their Founders, and reckon'd them among their Gods, as after Diodorus, Herodotus in the place above-mention'd,and Manetbo in Eufebius's Præp. Evang. 1.2. c. I. and several others have remarked. Now Mofes fhews them to be descended of Cham, Noah's third Son, who was fo far from Meriting a place among the Divinities, that he could not be esteem'd a Good Man. He likewife obferves all under one, Chap. 9.22. that the Canaanites were defcended from that Race which God had curs'd. Nor did he forget, Chap.19. 37,38. to take notice that the Ammonites and the Moabites came from Inceftuous Parents. And as the Edomites might perhaps boaft that they proceeded from the eldest Son, he exposes his Scandalous Selling of his Birth-right, Chap.25. Nay, perhaps he had this in his Head, when he obferves that the younger Children were often prefer'd to the elder, as we

(m) The Egyptian Priefts had not only their Myfteries and Sacred Do&rines, which they did not hold it Lawful to reveal to the People, but peculiar Letters or Characters which none but themselves could read. Vid. Herod. L.a. Diod. Biblioth. L. 3.

have obferv❜d upon (n) Gen. 48. 19. therefore it is highly Credible,that Mofes had a mind to mortifie the Pride of the neighbouring Nations, and furnish the Ifraelites with fome Topicks to upbraid them with.

7. Laftly, While he writes the Hiftory of the Hebrews, although 'tis true he enlarges more copiously upon their Affairs, yet we must not believe (and the Brevity of it is a convincing Argument of what I here maintain,) that he never defign'd to write full Annals. It appears from the Sacred History it felf, that feveral things are omitted by him, which however are told in another place, though they had no relation to it. He fays nothing of the Idolatry of the Ancestors of the Ifraelites, when they were beyond the Eu

(*) 'Tis remarkable enough (fays M. le Clerk upon this place) that Mofes takes care all along in his Hiftory, wherein he omits innumerable Particulars of the greatest Confequence, to observe that feveral Firft-begotten Sons either forfeited their Birth-right, or were inferior to their younger Brothers in all good Qualities. Thus Cain,the Firft-born, was not fo acceptable to God,as his Brother Abel, and at laft loft the Privileges of Primogeniture, Gen. 4. Shem feems to be preferr'd to Japhet,Gen.5.& 9.Abraham to Haran, Gen. 11. Ifaac to Ishmael, Gen. 19. and Jacob is fet before Isaiah. Amongft the Sons of Jacob,Reuben lofes his Birth-right, which was partly conferred upon Judah, and partly upon Jofeph, and Jofeph's younger Son is preferred to the Elder. If it were lawful for us to interpose our own Conjectures, continues he, we might with probability enough,fuppofe that the Moabites, the Ammonites, Ihmaelites and Edomites, who were all defcended from the eldest Sons, did, upon that Score, claim a Right over the Ifraelites, where they hap pened to be more Powerful than them: For which reafon Mofes, who writ chiefly for the fake of the Jews, often took notice, that the elder Brothers were, not without good caufe, Poftpon'd to the younger: Nay, Mofes himself, who was the younger of the two, was preferr'd to his Brother Aaron, Non fine aliquâ fratris invidia, Numb. 13.

phrates,

phrates, of which Joshua 24. 2. makes mention, unless perhaps it is obfcurely hinted at in Gen. 31. 53. He is utterly filent of the Idolatry of the Ifraelites in Egypt,which nevertheless Ezekiel the Prophet lays to their Charge, Chap. 20.7,8. He has likewife omitted a particular fort of Superftition, into which they fell when they were in the Wilderness, of which Amos 5.25,26. gives us an account. But for what reafons, we are wholly in the dark.

But fince by thefe Examples, and indeed by the Work it felf, 'tis evident that Mofes did not write Annals, we must less admire to see him neglect the order of Time, which ought to be obferv'd in a larger Hiftory.For 'tis well known, that in fuch forts of Hiftories, as Lives are, the true Series of things is never accurately kept,as we find in the most celebrated Biographers of the Greeks and Latins, Plutarch, Diogenes, Laertius, Corn. Nepos and Suetonius.

These feem to be the particular Defigns of Mofes,these his more fecret Ends of Writing, befides that universal and manifeft End, which the Reader finds at first fight, namely, of bringing the Ifraelites to the Worship of the only true God. They that remember these Hints,as they are reading of Mofes, will discover several more things than we have here mention'd, as we have likewife taken notice of many things in our Commentary, which we did not think convenient to repeat here.

Differta

Differtation IV.

Concerning the Temptation of Eve by the Serpent.

I. How differently Interpreters have explained' this Hiftory: Some affirm that it was a real Serpent. II. Others look upon the whole to be Allegorical; or, III. Pretend that the Devil was fignified by that Name: Or, IV. That he informed the body of a Serpent. V. That the manner how Sin entered into the World cannot certainly be known. VI. Another Explication of this Paffage. VII. Why the Serpent is called Subtle. VIII. The meaning of the word Naked. IX. Why a Punishment was inflicted upon the Serpent.

1. SOME

I. OME of the Ancient Jews are of Opinion, that the whole paffage in Mofes is to be un derstood of a real Serpent, which Creature they imagine to have formerly had the Gift of Speech, fo that Eve might very well understand him. Jofephus in the first Book of his Antiquities, c. 1. pretends,that at that time Opopovávlov fd Zacov ámávæv, all Creatures using the fame Language, and confequently being indued with Reafon and Under