Cliap. VIT. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S r G S. 167 



fes, than any people we read of. Even after their miraculous deli- 

 verance from Egypt, by the plagues fent by God among the Egyp- 

 tians, and the dividing the Red Sea to give them a paflage through 

 it, I doubt whether they would have believed in God, if he had not 

 condudcd them through the Wildernels by a cloud in the day and 

 a fire in the night; and if they had nor, from the top of mount Si- 

 nai, not only feen him but heard him : So that he was perceived 

 by two of their fenfes. And when this intercourfe with divinity had 

 ceafed for a few days, (not more than 40), they defired to have a cor- 

 poreal God, whom they might worlhip : And this was the figure of 

 Apis, whom they had feen fo much adored in Egypt*. And it would 

 feem that God thought it neceflary, in order to confirm the faith of 

 even Mofes, to fhow himfelf to him under a bodily form "f. — Even 

 after they were fettled in the land of Cannan, they had fo many 

 facrifices, religious rites, and ceremonies, that they ftill kept up a 

 communication with the divinity by their fenfes. And as to the 

 Egyptians, befides facrifices and proceflions, they had fo many liv- 

 ing fymbols of divinity, with which they were daily converfant, 

 and of which I fhall prefcntly fpeak, that they might be faid to live 

 with their Gods. And they were fo fond of that life, and fo much 

 occupied by it, that when they were debarred it, and their temples 

 fhut up and facrifices forbid, which was the cafe under Cheops, the 

 King who built the pyramid, they reckoned themfelves miferablej. 

 It is true that they were employed by Cheops in building his pyramid, 

 which to be fure was a great labour. But they would have been 

 flill more miferable if they had had nothing to do; for they would 

 not have known how to have fperit the time, which they were in 

 ufe to fpend in their devotion. 



Mufic was an efl"ent;al part of the religion of the antient world: 

 Nor indeed is there any thing perceived by our fenfes, thatafFeds the 



fcntiments 



* Exodus, chap, 32. 



t Ibid. chap. 33. 



J Herodotus, lib. 2. chap. 124 



