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appears by the history of these two brethren, Danaus and Ægyptus; of whom the former had fifty daughters, the latter fifty sons; perhaps, or rather questionless, by divers women; yet surely they began to beget children in their first youth howsoever it were, the general consent of writers is, that Armeus, or Danaus, did succeed Cherres; and according to Eusebius, and good authors approving him, reigned five years. Ramesses followed, who reigned sixty-eight years. This Ramesses, or Ægyptus, is that Armesesmiamum, or Armesesmiamus, under whom, in the opinion of Mercator, and of Bunting that follows Mercator, Moses was born; and the cruel edict made of drowning the Hebrew children. The length of his reign seems to me the chief, if not the only ground of Mercator's opinion. For whereas the Lord said to Moses, Go, return to Egypt: for they are all dead which went about to kill thee, Exod. iv. 19. Mercator hereupon conceives, that it was one and the same king under whom Moses was born, and under whom he slew the Egyptian at the fortieth year of his age, and fled into the wilderness, and there abode for fear; all which circumstances could agree with none but this Ramesses, who reigned so long; wherefore, desirous rather to hold a true paradox than a common error, he placeth one Alisfragmuthosis (whose name is found in the list of Egyptian kings, but the time uncertain wherein he reigned) in an age 112 or 113 years more ancient than others left him in; and so continuing the catalogue of his successors from Themosis (whom Eusebius calls Amasis) downwards, with no other variation of the length of each man's reign, than is the difference between Manetho and Eusebius, he finds Moses born under Armesesmiamum, and Israel delivered in the days of his son Amenophis. The very name of Alisfragmuthosis seems to him, with little alteration, to sound like Pharatates, of which name one was thought to have flourished either as a king or a wise man about the time of Isaac. For, saith he, from Alisfragmuthosis to Phragmuthosis, Pharmuthosis, Pharetasis, or Pharatates, the change is not great. Mercator was a man of excellent learning and industry,

and one to whom the world is bound for his many notable works; yet my assent herein is withheld from him, by these reasons. First, I see all other writers agree, that Chencres was the king who was drowned in the Red sea. Secondly, The place, Exod. iv. all are dead, &c. may better be understood of Busiris and all his children, than of one king alone. Thirdly, St. Cyril, in his first book against Julian the apostate saith, that Dardanus built Dardania, when Moses was 120 years old, Ramesses, which was this Armesesmiamum, being then king of Egypt. After Ramesses, Amenophis reigned nineteen years, who is thought by Mercator, and peremptorily by Bunting pronounced, to be the king that perished in the Red sea; of which our opinion being already laid open, I think it most expedient to refer the kings ensuing to their own times, (which a chronological table shall lay open,) and here to speak of that great deliverance of Israel out of Egypt; which, for many great considerations depending thereupon, we may not lightly overpass.

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CHAP. III.

Of the delivery of Israel out of Egypt.

SECT. I.

Of the time of Moses's birth, and how long the Israelites were oppressed in Egypt.

TRUE it is that the history itself is generally and well known; yet concerning the time of Moses's birth, who was the excellent and famous instrument of this and other great works of the Highest, the different opinions are very near as many as the men that have written of that argument.

Lud. Vives, in his Annotations upon St. Augustine, citeth many of their conjectures; as that of Porphyry out of Sanchoniato, that Moses lived in the time of Semiramis; but if he meant the first Semiramis, it was but a fond conceit; for besides that the same is contrary to all stories divine and human; while that Semiramis lived, she com

manded Syria, and all the parts thereof absolutely; neither were the Ammonites, or Moabites, or Edomites, while she ruled, in rerum natura.

A second opinion he remembereth of Appion, taken from Ptolemy, a priest of Mendes, who saith, that Moses was born while Inachus ruled the Argives, and Amesis in Egypt.

The third opinion is taken out of Polemon, in his Greek history, the first book; that Moses was born while Apis the third king ruled Argos.

A fourth is borrowed from Tatianus Assyrius, who, though he cites some authorities that Moses lived after the Trojan war, is himself of opinion, that Moses was far more ancient, proving it by many arguments.

Fifthly, he setteth down the testimony of Numenius the philosopher, who took Musæus and Moses to be one; confirming the same out of Artapanus, who confesseth that Moses was called Musæus by the Grecians; and who further delivereth, that he was adopted by Chenephis, or Thermutis, the daughter of Egypt; the same which Eupolemus calleth Meris, others (as Rabanus Maurus) Thermothes. y Eusebius also affirmeth, that Eupolemus, in his first book De bono, Moses vir Deo conjunctissimus, is called Musaus Judæorum. Eusebius, in his Chronology, finds that Moses was born while Amenophis ruled Egypt. The ancient Manethon calls that Pharaoh, which lived at Moses's birth, Thumosis, or Thmosis; the same perchance which Appion the grammarian will have to be Amosis, and elsewhere Amenophis, the father of Sethosis; to whom Lysimachus and Cornelius Tacitus give the name of Bocchoris. To me it seems most probable, that while Saphrus, called also Spherus, or Ipherius, governed Assyria, Orthopolis Sicyonia, and Criasus the Argives, that then (Sesostris the second ruling in Egypt) Moses was born. For if we believe St. Augustine, it was about the end of Cecrops's time that Moses led Israel out of Egypt: Eduxit Moses ex Egypto populum Dei novissimo tempore Cecropis Atheniy Euseb. de Præp. Evang. 1. 3. c. 3.

Aug. 1. 18. c. 11. de Civit. Dei,

ensium regis; " Moses," saith he, " led the people of God "out of Egypt about the end of Cecrops's time, king of "the Athenians." In this sort therefore is the time of Moses's birth, and of his departure out of Egypt, best proved. St. Augustine affirms, (as before remembered,) that Moses was born, Saphrus governing Assyria; and that he left Egypt about the end of Cecrops's time. Now Saphrus ruled twenty years, his successor Mamelus thirty years, Sparetus after him forty years; in whose fourth year Cecrops began to govern in Attica; Ascatades followed Sparetus, and held the empire forty-one; so as Moses being born while Saphrus ruled Assyria, Orthopolis Sicyonia, and Criasus Argos, (for these three kings lived at once at his birth, saith St. Augustine, as Cecrops did when he departed Egypt,) it will follow that the birth of Moses was in the nineteenth year of the Assyrian Saphrus; for take one year remaining of twenty, (for so long Saphrus reigned,) to which add the thirty years of Mamelus, and the forty years of Sparetus, these make seventy-one, with which there were wasted three years of Cecrops's fifty years; then take nine years out of the reign of Ascatades, who was Sparetus's successor, those nine years added to seventy-one make eighty, at which age Moses left Egypt; and add these nine years to the three years of Cecrops formerly spent, there will remain but four years of Cecrops's fifty; and so it falleth right with St. Augustine's words, affirming that towards the end of Cecrops's time, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Now the time in which the Hebrews were oppressed in Egypt, seemeth to have had beginning some eight or nine years before the birth of Moses, and fifty-four years, or rather more, after Joseph; between whose death and the birth of Moses there were consumed sixty-four years; some of which time, and eighty years after, they lived in great servitude and misery. For as it is written in Exodus i. They set taskmasters over them, to keep them under with burdens; and they built the cities, Pithom and Raamses, &c. And by cruelty they caused the children of Israel to serve;

and made them weary of their lives, by sore labour in clay and brick, and in all work of the field, with all manner of bondage. All which, laid upon them by a mastering power and a strong hand, they endured to the time by the wisdom of God appointed; even from fifty-four years, or not much more, after the death of Joseph, who left the world when it had lasted 2370 years, to the eightieth year of Moses, and until he wrought his miracles in the field of Zoan, which he performed in the world's age 2514 towards the end thereof, according to Codoman, or after our account 2513. And because those things which we deliver of Egypt may the better be understood, I think it necessary to speak a few words of the principal places therein named in this dis

course.

SECT. II.

Of divers cities and places in Egypt mentioned in this story, or elsewhere in the scripture.

THIS city, which the Hebrews call a Zoan, was built seven years after Hebron. Ezekiel calleth it Taphnes, and so doth Jeremy; the Septuagint, Tanis; Josephus, Protaidis, after the name of an Egyptian queen; Antonius gives it the name of Thanis; Hegesippus, Thamna; and William Tyrius, Tapius. It adjoineth to the land of Gosen, and is the same wherein Jeremy the prophet was stoned to death for preaching against the Egyptian and Jewish idolatry.

Zoan, or Taphnes, was in Moses's time the metropolis of the lower Egypt, in which their Pharaohs then commonly resided; and not unlikely to be the same city where Abraham in his time found him. But Eusebius out of Artapanus affirmeth, that Abraham read astronomy in Heliopolis, or On, to Pharetates king of Egypt. Alexander Polyhistor out of Eupolemus hath it otherwise, saying, that Abraham instructed the Egyptian priests, and not the king; both which authorities Eusebius citeth. The Septuagint b Euseb. de Præp. Evang. 1. 9. c. 4. Gen. xii. 15. Isa. xix. 11.

a Numb. xxxiii. Ezekiel xxx. Jer. ii. 43, 44, 46. Joseph. 1. 1. c. 9. Tyr. de Bel. sac. 1. 19. c. 23.

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