wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted, and

Chap. IV. y^Jferters of the Cofmogonia. 313it, and the firmed of all other nations : they (as Kircher telJs iis'j thereforepidluring Horns, or the world, as a young man beardlefs, not only to fignifyitsconftant youthful and flourifliing vigour, but alfo the youngnefs and newnefsof its duration. Neither ought it to be fufpefted, that though theEgyptians held the world to have had a beginning, yet they conceived it tobe made by chance without a God, as AnaxitTiander, Detnoaitus, and Epicurusafterwards did ; the contrary thereunto being fo confefled a thing, thatSimpliciiis, a zealous contender for the world's eternity, affirms the Mofaick.hiftory of its creation by God to have been nothing elfe but y.vBoi A'-y-j-n-ltoi,Egyptian fables. The place is fo confiderable, that I Ihall here fet it down inthe author's own language; E* J'e rn twv 'Ik^;ciwvvo,uo3-£tw ivSiMvSla.i^iyo'fla.^h "^fX? 'f'^p/'/-ETroi'jjtTfj/ S-Jo; TOvioMO]) xj Try yvwi' r, Si yr, ?i) dioo^l^ ^ X'ko^Ixitv.vjx^o;' }^ ""'"'''''' fi A/ »68.'tTravi) mf aS'J^ffK, xzi mvjy.a. ^i\s iTri(pip-1o iirxjui tk SSxl^. arx 7roi»ii7«vlof «.'Jra "ro col. I.(pwf, Kai Sixyjjis'iTcx.'Pio^ avx fAicroj tk (P'Jlo; kx\ x\iX y.tirov t» (txot)!;, nrriyxyi^ xxtixdXvjcrej a 5io; to (pMj v^ipAv, xat to (tkoto; vCxlx' xxt iysislo iQaipx v.xi lyivelo vpiaiVijiiox jU.i'a* £1 8V rayrtiu tk J(;fovK noy.i'^n yiveTiv rri-j xno X,^o)i>!, evvoei-u oti ^i/9iX5i rijirtv V TTxcxScQi;, xx) xtto fAuj-uv Ai^-wTiui/ clx-K'jQiJ.hri. If Grammaticus heremean tkc laxt-giver of the Jews, writing thus, [In the beginning God madeheaven and earth, and the earth was invifible and unadorned, and darknefswas upon the deep, and the fpirit of God moved upon the water; ] a7idthen afterward when he bad made light,and feparated the light from the darknefsyadding, [And God called the light day, and the darknefs night, and theevening and the morning were the firft day :] I fay, if Grammaticus thinkthis to have been the firfl generation and beginning of time ; / would have himto know, that all this is but a fabulous tradition^ and wholly drawn fromEgyptian fables.As for the philofophy of the Egyptians, that befides their phyfiology,and the pure and mixed mathematicks, (arithmetick, geometry, and aftronomy)they had another higher kind of philofophy alfo concerning incorporealfubftances, appears from hence, becaufe they were the firfl; alTerters ofthe immortality of fouls, their pre-exillence and tranfmigration, from whencetheir incorporeity is neceflfarily inferred. Thus Herodotus ; 7rp-o» rivSi rovEuterp. iz'j.Xoyo'j Ai'j'UTrlioi ElVl rvo'vlsf, wV xvieonrs Yv^vi x9x'jx~o; i~i' t» crdij-xlo; it kxtx^P^^vo-jIo;^t: xKXo i^Ko-j xi\ yniuvjo-j i'ktSCiIxi, &c. The Egyptians were the firfi affertcrs ofthe foul's immortality, and of its tranfmigration, after the death and corruptionof this body, into the bodies of other animals fuccejfively, viz. until it haverun round through the whole circuit of terrefirial, marine tvtd volatile animals^after which (they fay) it is to return again into a humane body ; they fuppofingthis revolution or apocataflafis of fouls to be made in no lefs fpace thanthat of three thoufand years. But whether Herodotus were rightly catechizedand infliruL^ted in the Egyptian do