212 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



That in this way there was one people inftruded from Heaven, 

 our facred records aflure us ; I mean the Jews, who, after they came 

 out of Egypt, were guided and direded in every thing by minifters 

 feni from Heaven. Thefe appeared to Mofes in the human form, 

 and even to the whole people, from the top of mount Sinai, in fire 

 and fmoke ; and a voice was alfo heard from that mountain, pro- 

 claiming the law of the ten commandments. And they received 

 alfo from Heaven a religion, and a form of polity, which was com- 

 municated to them by the fame Mofes. The neceflary arts of life 

 they had learned in Egypt. But fome of the fine arts, by which 

 the tabernacle was adorned, we are told that they learned from 

 Heaven ; for it is faid, that God inftrudled the artificers of that 

 tabernacle. Now, I believe, what St Paul tells us, that God is not 

 the God of the Jeivs onlj, but alfo of the Gentiles : And, there- 

 fore, I think it is reafonable to fuppofe, that he would fend his mi- 

 nifters to inftrudt the Egyptians as well as the Jews, efpecially if it 

 be true, as I think it is, that from Egypt arts and fciences were to 

 be propagated all over the earth. And we are told that even Mofes 

 brought with him from Egypt the iviflom^ or, as it (hould be called, 

 the philofophy of the Egyptians *. To fuppofe, therefore, that the 

 Egyptians were inftruded in the fupernatural way I have mention- 

 ed, is not only agreeable to what philofophy teaches us to believe 

 was the fyftem of Providence for the reftoration of man, but to our 

 facred writings, which give us an example of a people being in- 

 ftru£led in the fame way, and by a more prefent deity than that 

 which inftruQed the Egyptians. Nor is it to be wondered, that God 

 fhould interpofe in a more confpicuous manner in behalf of his 

 chofen people the Jews, from whom was to come the Meffiah, the 

 Saviour of the world, by fending his Angels to inftruct them, not 

 employing Demons as he did among the Egyptians. But thefe 

 were fufficient to give the Egyptians an admirable form of govern- 

 ment, 



• See p. 204. of this volume. 



