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

Chap. IV. a Firjl^ aitd Supreme God. 335not in need of fpeecb, and going on through afilent path of juftice in the 'j:;or/d,does without noife righteoiijly govern and difpenfe all human affairs. In likemanner Hortis Jpollo in hisHieroglyphicks ' tells us, that the Egyptians acknowledginga 37^'.T!;;£faTup and xoT,ao)cp«TWf, an omnipotent being that wasthe govcrnour of the whole world, did fymbolically reprefent him by a ferpcnt,£v jwsVw x'o-tt oUov [j-syocv Semmovri;, o yx,^ jSacriAfiof c'x-y^ aJra h ry yJjiji,03^they pi£}:iring alfo a great houfe or palace within its circumference, becaufethe world is the royal palace of the deity. Which writer alfo gives us anotherreafon, why the ferpcnt was made to be the hieroglyphick of the Deity ^tJb. i.e. z.iv Tu y.oa-jj.u yivjxrat, rx\)ra tsoi-Mv kxi ttiv (j-zmdv Ei'f aJrsv Kxtj-^xvuv. Becaufethe ferpent feeding as it were upon its own body, doth aptly fignify, that allthings generated in the world by divine providence are again refolvcd into him.And Philo Byblius % from Sanchoniathon, gives the fame reafon why the ferpentwas deified by Taut or the Egyptian Hennes, on x^xvxto-j y.xl ek lav-Tov xvx?.verxi, bccaufe it is immortal, and refolved into itfelf. Though fometiaiesthe Egyptians added to the ferpent alfo a hawk, thus complicating thehieroglyphick of the Deity -, according to that of a famous Egyptian prieil inILufebhlS ', to Ts^unov ov ^noTXTov, o^if :{-i lipxHo; i^uv ij.o^(pr,v, that the firjl anddivinefi being of all is fymbolically reprcfented by a ferpent having the head ofan hawk. And that a hawk was alio fometimcs ufed alone for a hieroglyphickof the Deity, appeareth from that of Plutarch *, that in the porch ofan Egyptian temple at Sais, were ingravcn thefe three hieroglyphicks, ayoung man, an old man, and an hawk ; to make up this fcntence, that both- the beginning and end of human life dependetb upon God, or Providence. Butwe have two more remarkable paflTages in the forementioned Horus Apollo %concerning the Egyptian theology, which muft not be pretermitted -, thefirft this, TJip' aJToTf Ta zsxvjiq y.6(Tfji.>s to iTiwou £"( t3-i.eu.u«, that according tothem, there is a fpirif paffing through the whole world, to wit, God. And a-gain, ooY.H x\>t:o7^ iiy^x Bii fxrjiv oAi'f rjverxvxi, it feemeth to tie Egyptians, thatnothing at all confifis without God. In the next place, Janiblichus was a perfon,who had made it his bufinefs to intorm himlelf thoroughly concerningthe theology of the Egyptians, and who undertakes to give an accountthereof, in his anfv/er to Pcrphyrius his epiftle to /^nebo an Egyptian prieil jwhole teftimony therefore may well feem to dcferve credit. And he firftgives us a fummary account of their theology after this manner * ; -xoi^iror,j^vip'djOcEvoj, [j^Ttajo;, y.xi xa9 sojutou •jTr£tiriTrXu[Aiio; rav iv tu KOi xai k' Eoturw ava^avE;?, zirpovynTXi zyxvrav rts-TMV, xai h ixuTji Tx oKx uTff tE;;^£i, -KXt SioTi fjt-iv (niMtiXri(pi sxjrx, xai i^erxSiiatriv'That God, who is the caufe of generation and the whole nature, and of all the'powers in the elements themfelves, is feparaie, exempt, eUvated above, and ex-X XpandedILib I. cap LXI. p. -V * Lib. I. cap. LXIV. p. 7 7.& Lib. Leap.» .'\pud Eukb. Pi-aepar. Lvangel. Lib. I. XIIL p. 27.cap X. p. 41. * Janiblicli. de Myfler. ^gyprior. Seift.3 Pr.cp.ir. Evan. Lib. I. cap. X. p. 41, Yll, cap. II p. 151.- Dv- Ifide £c Ofiride, p. 51^;.