*As Hiero

cles, Kai ti καταλέξω (οι

Ts,

κῶν τινὲς ἐκ

σιν ἔννοιαν;

νας κόσμον

*
aidis cvsey8-

the Almighty before maker of heaven and earth, if out of a necessity of material concurrence, the making of them left a mark of impotency rather than omnipotency.

The fuppofition then of an eternal Matter, is so unnecessary where God works, and fo derogatory to the infinity of his power, and all-fufficiency of himself, that the later * Philofophers, fomething acquainted with the truth which we profess, though rejecting Chriftianity, have reproved those of the School of Plato, who delivered, as the Doctrine of their Master. an eternal Companion, fo injurious to the Father and Maker of all things.

Wherefore to give an answer to that general pofition, That out of no98 al thing nothing can be produced, which Ariftotle pretends to be the opi25 invoy Toy nion of all natural Philofophers, I must first obferve, that this Univerfal Prova nav, pofition was first framed out of particular confiderations of the works of αὐτολελῶς art and nature. For if we look upon all kinds of ‡ Artificers we find they cannot give any specimen of their art without materials.. Being then the oix dunán beauty and uniformity of the world fhews it to be a piece of Art most exquiCopies fite, hence they concluded that the maker of it was the most exact * Artificer, Tad and confequently had his matter from all eternity prepared for him. Again, νήτες ύλης στο confidering the works of nature and all parts of the world fubject to generanation and corruption, they alfo † observed that nothing is ever generated but s out of fomething pre-exiftent, nor is there any mutation wrought but in a VAY, Mevas dy- fubject, and with a prefuppofed capability of alteration. From hence they gye du prefently collected, that if the whole world were ever generated, it must a. De Pro-have been produced out of fome fubject, and confequently there must be a † Hay To Yó- matter eternally pre-existing.

૪૦ કે તે

καταχρώμε

vid. & Fato.

μόμον ανάγκη

γίνεις ἢ ἐξ ὅντων ἢ ἐκ μὴ ὄντων· τέτων ἢ τὸ μὲ ἐκ μὴ ὄντων γίνεας αδώύατον· τεὶ δὲ ταύτης ομοίνωμονᾶσι τὰ δόξης ἅπανίες οἱ dei Qurews. Phyfic. 1.4. c. 1. Ut igitur Faber cùm quid ædificaturus eft, non ipfe facit materiam, fed ea utitur quæ fit parata, fictorque item cerà: fic ifti providentiæ divinæ materiam præftò effe oportuit, non quam ipse faceret, fed quam haberet paratam. Cicero de Nat. Deorum, 'Arenastov TWS HE DEW & TEXVITlu, I ÿávdesávla ris nóoM. Methodius ei & shuun? wv. * So Hierocles calls him notμotoid dessÓTEXOV Fedv, in Aur. Carm. Or as ετίας, καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα ἁπλῶς ὄντα ἐξ ὑποκειμθρες τινός, γίνει, ἐπισκοπέντι μείον ἂν φανερόν· ἀεὶ γδ ἐπί τι ὃ ἐπέκει), ἐξ & γίνε) το γινόρθρον, οἷον τὰ φυτὰ καὶ τὰ ζῶα ἐκ σπέρματα. Arift. Phyf. l. 1. c. 7.

Now what can be more irrational, than from the weakness of fome creature to infer the fame imbecillity in the Creator, and to measure the arm of God by the finger of man? Whatfoever fpeaketh any kind of excellency or perfection in the Artificer may be attributed unto God: whatsoever fignifieth any infirmity, or involveth any imperfection, must be excluded from the notion of him. That wisdom, prefcience, and preconception, that order and beauty of operation which is required in an Artist, is most eminently conWifd. 11.20. tained in him, who hath ordered all things in meafure, and number, and weight: but if the most abfolute Idea in the Artificer's understanding be not fufficient to produce his defign without hands to work, and materials to make ufe of, it will follow no more that God is neceffarily tied unto pre-existing Matter, than that he is really compounded of corporeal parts.

Again, 'tis as incongruous to judge of the production of the world by those parts thereof which we fee fubject to generation and corruption: and thence to conclude, that if it ever had a caufe of the Being which it hath, it must have been generated in the fame manner which they are; and if that cannot be, it must never have been made at all. For nothing is more certain than that this manner of generation cannot poffibly have been the first production even of thofe things which are now generated. We fee the Plants grow from a feed; that is their ordinary way of generation: but the first Plant could not be fo generated, because all feed in the fame courfe of nature is from the pre-exifting plant. We fee from spawn the fishes, and from eggs the fowls receive now the

original

original of their being: but this could not at first be fo, because both spawn and egg are as naturally from precedent fish and fowl. Indeed becaufe the feed is feparable from the body of the plant, and in that separation may long contain within it felf a power of germination; because the spawn and egg are fejungeable from the fish and fowl, and yet still retain the prolifick power of generation; therefore fome might poffibly conceive that these feminal bodies might be originally scattered on the earth, out of which the first of all thofe Creatures fhould arife. But in viviparous Animals, whose off-fpring is generated within themselves, whofe feed by feparation from them lofeth all its feminal or prolifick power, this is not only improbable, * These words but inconceivable. And therefore being the * Philofophers themselves con- of Ariftotle fefs, that whereas now all animals are generated by the means of feed, and are very obthat the animals themfelves must be at firft before the feed proceeding from which he difervable, in them; it followeth that there was fome way of production antecedent to sputes against and differing from the common way of generation, and, confequently, what Speufippus and the Pythawe fee done in this generation can be no certain rule to understand the firft production. Being then that univerfal Maxim, that nothing can be made of thought nothing, is merely calculated for the meridian of natural causes, raised fole- of things firft ly out of obfervation of continuing creatures by fucceffive generation, which made, out of could not have been fo continued without a Being antecedent to all fuch which they fucceffion; it is most evident, it can have no place in the production of that perfection: antecedent or first Being, which we call Creation.

то

goreans, who

the rudiments

grew unto

Όσοι η ύπου λαμβάνεσιν,

ὥστες, οι Πυθαγόρειοι καὶ Σπούσιππο, τὸ ἄρισον καὶ κάλλισον μὴ ἐν ἀρχῇ εἶναι, νὰ τὸ ἐκ τ' φυτῶν καὶ ' ζώων τὰς ἀρχὰς αἰτία μ εἶναι, τὸ 5 καλὸν καὶ τὸ τέλειον ἐν τοῖς ἐκ τέτων, ἐκ ὀρθῶς οἴον. τὸ γδ σπέρμα ἐξ ἑτέρων ἐπὶ προγέρων τελείων· καὶ τὸ πρῶτον 8 σπέρμα ἐσιν, ἀλλὰ τὸ τέλειον. οἷον πρότερον ἄνθρωπον αν φαίη τις εἶναι τὸ σπέρματα, ν τ κ τότε δυνώμθρον, ἀλλ ̓ iTengy it & to avigua. By which words Ariftotle bath fufficiently deftroyed his own Argument, which we produced before out of the first of the Phyficks, and is excellently urged in that Philofophical Piece attributed unto Juftin Martyr: Εἰ πρῶτον ἔτι τὸ απειραν ασέρμα, καὶ ἕτερον τὸ ἐκ ασέρματα γιδιόρθρον, και λυνητά αμφότερα, τῇ μὲ χρέσει το κειμέρας ἐκ σπέρματος γινομθώς υπόκει) το σπέρμα· τη ἢ γυέσει το σπείραν τα υποκειας το ασέρμα & δικαὸν. ἐκ ἄρχ. ἀεὶ τὰ ζῶα καὶ τὰ Qulá in avigual. Ariftot. Dog. Everf. Plut. Sympof. 1. 2. Probl. 3. "Obey &teis déyes to wigual Évas & ävegañoDS δὲ τὸ ὡς εἶναι τ' αλεκτορίδα ε 3 αλεκτορίδου τὸ τὸν εἶναι, καὶ τὸ ασέρμα τα ανθρώπε λέγομάριο

a

b

2.

Now when we thus defcribe the nature of Creation, and under the name of Heaven and Earth comprehend all things contained in them, we must distinguish between things created. For fome were made immediately out of nothing, by a proper, fome only mediately, as out of fomething formerly made out of nothing, by an improper kind of Creation. By the first were made all immaterial substances, all the orders of Angels, and the Souls of men, the Heavens and the fimple or elemental bodies, as the Earth, the Water, and the Air. a In the beginning God created the hea- Gen. 1. 1. ven and the earth; fo in the beginning, as without any pre-existing or antecedent matter: this earth, when fo in the beginning made, was with- ↳ verse out form and void, covered with waters likewife made, not out of it but with it, the fame which, when the waters were gathered together unto c Verse 9. one place, appeared as dry Land. By the fecond, all the hofts of the earth, Hic vifibilis the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the fea, Let the earth, faid God, mundus ex bring forth grass, the herb yielding feed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit Deo facta fueafter his kind. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving crea- rat, factus eft ture that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth; and more ex- & ornatus. preffly yet, Out of the ground God formed every beaft of the field, and Gennad. c. every foul of the air. And well And well may we grant thefe plants and animals to d Gen. I. II. have their origination from fuch principles, when we read, & God formed Gen. 2. 19. man out of the duft of the ground; and said unto him whom he created in 8 Gen. 2. 7. his own image, hDuft thou art.

d

Having thus declared the notion of Creation in refpect of those things which were created, the next confideration is of that action in reference to the Agent who created all things. Him therefore we may look upon first

as

*

materia quæ à

IO.

eVerse 20.

h Gen. 3. 19.

as moved; fecondly, as free under that motion; thirdly, as determining under that freedom, and fo performing of that action. In the firft we may fee his Goodness, in the fecond his Will, in the third his Power.

a

I do not here introduce any external impulfive caufe, as moving God unto the Creation of the World; for I have prefuppofed all things distinct from him to have been produced out of nothing by him, and confequently to be pofterior not only to the motion but the actuation of his will. Being then nothing can be antecedent to the Creature befide God himself, neither can any thing be a caufe of any of his actions but what is in him; we must not look for any thing extrinfecal unto him, but wholly acquiefce in his infinite GoodMat. 19. 17. nefs, as the only moving and impelling caufe, There is none good but one, "Aλo go to that is God, faith our Saviour; none originally, effentially, infinitely, inde,pendently good, but he. Whatfoever goodness is found in any Creature is xa fa- but by way of emanation from that Fountain, whofe very Being is diffufive, θὸν, ἄλλο τὸ whofe Nature confifts in the communication of it felf. In the end of the πρώτως άδαGov. Proclus in fixth day God faw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good: which fhews the end of creating all things thus good was the communication of that by which they were, and appeared fo.

ἐπίκλητον άδα

Tim&um.

Τὸ ἢ αὐτοα

γαθὸν πρώτως afatov. Ibid.

31

b Gen. I.
* As Plato,

A

airias

σιν κὶ τὸ πᾶν

τόδε ὁ ξειςὰς

The ancient Heathens have acknowledged this * truth, but with fuch difadvantage, that from thence they gathered an undoubted Error. For from the Goodness of God, which they did not unfitly conceive neceffary, infinite, and eternal, † they collected that whatfoever dependeth of it must. be as neceffary and eternal, even as light must be as ancient as the Sun, and a fhadow as an opacous body in that light. If then there be no inftant imaginable before which God was not infinitely good, then can there likewife be none conceivable before which the World was not made. And thus déole yli- they thought the Goodness of the Creator must stand or fall with the EterT&T dixos nity of the Creature.

જલ્દી′′ ” સંમેલડ

wei sideros 8

VE

φθόν α

ὤν, πάντα ὅτι μάλισα ἐξελήθη έως το δαπλήσια αὐτῷ· ταύτην 3 γυέσεως κόσμος μάλις ̓ ἄν τὶς ἀρχι κυριω]άτην παρ' αν ὁρῶν φρονίμων επιδεχόμμα, ὀρθότατα επιδέχοιτ' ἄν. In Timao. Αιτία γδ ε τ πάντων ποιήσεως εδεμία άλλη πρόσεσιν εὔλο go, wile & nal solar alaton. Hieroc. in Aur. Carm. Ai z = átadónα degóμwas airían ♪ önmixgrías rõδὲ τὸ παντὸς, ανθρωπίναις μᾶλλον ειςάσεσιν ἢ τῷ θεῷ πρέπεσιν. Ιbid. 'Ανάγκη 2 * τοῦ θεοῦ ἀγαθότητα ὄντα του κοσ μα, αείτε τ' θεὸν ἀγαθὸν εἶναι, καὶ τὰ κόσμον ὑπάρχειν· ὥστες ἡλίῳ μ καὶ περὶ (μυφίςα) φῶς, σώματι 3 (κιά. Salluftius, de Dits & mundo, c. 7. Εἰ γδ' ἄμεινον μὴ ποιεῖν πῶς εἰς τὸ ποιεῖν μεταβέβηκε; εἰ ἢ τὸ ποιεῖν, τι μὴ ἐξ ἀἰδία ἔπρατ]εν; Hierocles de Fato & Provid. Neither doth he mean any lefs, when in his fenfe he thus defcribes the firft Caufe of all things; Εσ ̓ ἂν (fo Iread it, not ἐς', ἂν, as the printed Copies, or ἕως ἂν, as Curterius) ἦ τὸ πρῶτον αὐτῶν αἴτιον αμετάβλητον πάντη καὶ άτρεπτον, καὶ τ' οὐσίαν τῇ ἐνεργεία τ' αὐτῶν κεκλημρον, καὶ ἀ[αθότητα οὐκ ἐπίκλητον ἔχον, ἀλλ' οὐσιομθύτω καθ' αὐτό, καὶ δὲ AUThe To Wogs To Give To so I read it, not warwy wegs To ev eivo, as the printed. Hierock. in Aur. Carm. Ev νήςτης άρχ τῇ μὲ ἀγαθότητι τοῦ πατρὸς ή σε προνοίας ἐκθένεια· ταύτῃ ἢ ἡ τοῦ διμιεργοῦ Δαιώνια ποίησις· ταύτῃ ἢ ἡ τοῦ παντὸς καὶ τ' άπειρον αἰδιότης. καὶ ὁ αὐτὸς λόγω ταύτην τε ἀναιξε, καὶ ἢ ἀγαθότη]α τοῦ πεποιηκότα, Proclus in Timaum. Now although this be the conftant Argumentation of the later Platonifts, yet they found no fuch deduction or confequence in their Master Plato, and I fomething incline to think, though it may seem very strange, that they received it from the Chriftians, I mean out of the School of Ammonius at Alexandria; whom though Porphyrius would make an Apoftate, for the credit of his Heathen Gods, yet S. Jerom bath fufficiently affured us that he lived and died in the Chriftian Faith. The reason of my conjecture is no more than this: Proclus acknowledgeth that Plutarch and others, though with Plato they maintained the goodness of God to be the cause of the World, yet withal they denied the eternity of it: and when he quotes other Expofitors for his own opinion, he produceth none but Porphyrius and Jamblichus, the eldest of which was the Scholar of Plotinus the difciple of Ammonius. And that he was of the opinion, I collect from him who was his Scholar both in Philofophy and Divinity, that is, Origen, whofe judgment, if it were not elsewhere apparent, is fufficiently known by the Fragment of Methodius wei untav. preferved in Photius. "Ordering, öv xérταυρὸν καλεῖ, ἔλεξε (ευαίδιον εἶναι τῷ μόνῳ σοφῷ καὶ ἀπροσδεες θεῷ τὸ πᾶν. Being then Porphyrius and Jamblichus cited by Proclus, being Hierocles, Proclus and Salluftius were all either ix is eas, as they called it, that is, defcended fucceffively from the School of Ammonius (the great Conciliator of Plato and Ariftotle, and Reformer of the ancient Philofophy) or at least contemporary to them that were fo; it is most probable that they might receive it from his mouth, efpecially confidering that even Origen a Chriftian confirmed the fame.

For the clearing of which ancient mistake, we must observe, that as God is effentially and infinitely good without any mixture of deficiency, so is he in refpect of all external actions or emanations abfolutely free without the leaft neceffity. Those bodies which do act without understanding or preconception of what they do, as the Sun and Fire give light and heat, work always to the utmost of their power, nor are they able at any time to fufpend

their

:

:.

.

Pfal.94.9; 10:

their action. To conceive any fuch neceffity in the divine operations, were to deny all knowledge in God, to reduce him into a condition inferiour to fome of the works of his own hands, and to fall under the cenfure contained in the Pfalmift's question, He that planted the ear, shall be not hear? he that formed the eye, Jhall he not fee? he that teacheth man knowledge, Shall be not know? Those creatures which are endued with understanding, and confequently with a will, may not only be neceffitated in their actions by a greater power, but also as neceffarily be determined by the proposal of an infinite good whereas neither of these neceffities can be acknowledged in God's actions, without fuppofing a power befide and above Omnipotency, or a real happiness befide and above All-fufficiency. Indeed if God were a neceffary Agent in the works of Creation, the Creatures would be of as neceffary a Being as he is; whereas the neceffity of being is the undoubted prerogative of the firft caufe. He worketh all things after the coun- Ephef. 1. 11: fel of his own will, faith the Apoftle: and wherefoever counsel is, there is election, or else 'tis vain; where a will, there must be freedom, or else 'tis weak. We cannot imagine that the all-wife God fhould act or produce any thing but what he determineth to produce; and all his determinations must flow from the immediate principle of his will. If then his determinations be free, as they must be coming from that principle, then must the Actions which follow them be alfo free. Being then the goodness of God is abfolutely perfect of it felf, being he is in himself infinitely, and eternally happy, and this happiness as little capable of augmentation as of diminution; he cannot be thought to look upon any thing without himself as determining his will to the defire, and neceffitating to the production of it. If then we confider God's goodness, he was moved; if his All-fufficiency, he was not neceffitated: if we look upon his will, he freely determined; if on his power, by that determination he created the World.

* So Clemens

δημιες

Wherefore that ancient conceit of a neceffary emanation of God's goodness in the eternal Creation of the World will now eafily be refuted, if we make a distinction in the equivocal notion of Goodness. For if we take it as it fignifi- Rev. 4. 11. eth a rectitude and excellency of all virtue and holiness, with a negation of Alexandrinus all things morally evil, vicious or unholy; fo God is abfolutely and neceffa-peaks of God, rily good: but if we take it in another sense, as indeed they did which made this Argument, that is, rather for beneficence, or communicativeness of fomey, good to others; then God is not neceffarily, but freely, good, that is to say, νον ἐθελῆσαι profitable and beneficial. For he had not been in the least degree evil or un- TO Yεzfuñas. juft, if he had never made the World or any part thereof, if he had never Protrept. communicated any of his perfections by framing any thing befide himself.revent Every proprietary therefore being accounted mafter of his own, and thought freely to beftow whate'er he gives; much more must that one eternal and independent Being be wholly free in the communicating his own. perfections without any neceffity or obligation. We must then look no farther than

a

αὐτὸν ἕπε

or lefor . S. Bafil. Orav 3 Parkes sμ

φῶς, καὶ τὸ πρό σαἷμα ἔργον

Ὅταν Φωνί θεῖς καὶ ῥῆμα καὶ

Swμsu, I CU TUS θελήματι ρο

the determination of God's will in the Creation of the World. For this is the admirable Power of God, that with him to will is to effect, to determine is to perform. So the Elders fpeak before him that fitteth upon the idegsThrone; Thou haft created all things, and for thy pleasure (that is, by thy & xnμawill) they are and were created. Where there is no refiftance in the object, H. Tigeat. Id. in where no need of preparation, application, or inftrumental advantage in the A- Tés gyigent, there the actual determination of the Will is a fufficient production. Thus as die 91God did make the Heavens and the Earth by * willing them to be. This g was his first command unto the creatures, and their existence was their firft Baire obedience. † Let there be light, this is the injunction; and there was light, &xlis, Id. σκων φις αργίας t that's the creation. Which two are fo intimately and immediately the fame, 1. 2. adv. Eu

I

λήμαζι μόνον

that nom.

pas. Fiat lux,

ivévelo, as

* Asyevent that though in our and other Translations those words, let there be, which pas, * ivivile express the command of God, differ from the other there was, which denote & facta eft the prefent existence of the Creature; yet in the Original there is no diffelux, or as A-rence at all, neither in point nor letter. And yet even in the diversity of the quila,γενέσθω, Tranflation the phrase seems so expreffive of God's infinite power, and imSymmachus, mediate efficacy of his will, that it hath raised fome admiration of Mofes in swivel the enemies of the Religion both of the Jews and Chriftians. God is in ference: the heavens, he hath done what foever he pleafed, faith David; yea in the whereas in making of the Heavens, he therefore. created them, because he pleased; it is a mot nay more, he thereby created them, even by willing their creation.

all with a dif

the Hebrew

יהי אור ויהי אור .exprefive and fignificant tantology

As Dionyfius Longinus, we 485, Sect. 7. Taúry of Ιαδαίων θεσμοθέτης, ἐκ ὁ τυχῶν ἀνήρ, ἐπειδὴ ἢ τὸ θεία διώαμιν και τ' αξίαν ἐγνώρισε καξέφυεν, εὐθὺς ἐν τῇ εἰσβολή γρα ψας ὃ νόμων. Εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς, φησὶ· τι; γενέπω φῶς, καὶ ἐγένετοι γενέσθω γῆ, καὶ ἐγενέτο. Where obferve, Longinus made ufe of the Tranpation of Aquila. + Πάντα ὅσα ἠθέλησεν ἐποίησεν ἐν τῷ ἐρανῷ καὶ ἐν τῇ γῇ· ὁρᾶς ὅτι εχὶ πρὸς ἢ δημιεργίας ἢ ἐν τῇ γῇ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τ' κλίσιν ἢ ἄνω δυοάμεων ἤρκεσιν ἡ θέλησις αὐτὸς μόνη. S. Chryfoft. 1. περὶ τὸ ἀκα αλήπια.

23.

a

Now although fome may conceive the Creature might have been produced from all eternity by the free determination of God's will, and it is fo far certainly true, that there is no inftant affignable before which God could not have made the World; yet as this is an Article of our Faith, we a Heb. 11. 3. are bound to believe the heavens and earth are not eternal. Through faith we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God. And by that faith we are affured, that whatsoever poffibility of an eternal existence of the creature may be imagined, actually it had a temporal beginning; and therefore all the arguments for this World's eternity are nothing b Prov. 8. 22, but fo many erroneous mifconceptions. The Lord poffeffed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old, faith Wisdom. I was fet up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth sas. And the fame Wisdom of God being made man reflecteth upon the lame priority, faying, © John 17. 5. Now, O Father, glorifie thou me with thine own felf, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Yea, in the fame Christ are we blessed with all spiritual bleffings, according as he bath chofen us in him before the foundation of the world. The impoffibility of the origination of a circular motion, which we are fure is either in the heaven or earth, and the impropriety of the beginning of Time, are fo poor exceptions, that they deferve not the leaft labour of refutation. The actual eternity of this World is fo far from being neceffary, that it is of it felf most improbable; and without the infallible certainty of Faith, there is no fingle perfon carAs even Lucretius confefries more evidences of his youth, than the World of its* novelty. feth, and that out of the principles of Epicurus.

Verum, ut opinor, habet novitatem fumma, recenfque.
Natura eft mundi, neque pridem exordia cepit.

'Tis true indeed, fome ancient accounts there are which would perfuade *Plato fells us to imagine a strange antiquity of the World, far beyond the Annals of us of an ac- Mofes, and account of the fame Spirit which made it. The * Egyptian count which Priests pretended an exact Chronology for fome myriads of years, and the an gyptian Chaldeans or † Affyrians far out-reckon them, in which they delivered not which the A- and Moon. only a Catalogue of their Kings, but also a Table of the + Eclipfes of the Sun

Priest gave to

Solon, in

thenians were

2000 years old, and thole of Sais 8000. Προτέρων με το παρ' ὑμῖν ἔτεσι χιλίοις ἐκ γῆς τε καὶ Ηφαίσει το ασέρμα προλα βᾶσαν ὑμῶν. * ἢ ὑσέραν ο δε ἐνθάδι Διακοσμήσεως παρ' ἡμῖν ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς γράμμασιν ἐκ]ακιχιλίων ἐτῶν ἀριθμὸς γέγραπ). In Timao. Pomponius Mela makes a larger account out of Herodotus: Ipfi vetuftiffimi (ut prædicant) hominum trecentos & triginta reges ante Amafim, & fupra tredecim millium annorum ætates certis Annalibus; where, as the Egyptians much. ftretch the truth, fo doth Mela ftretch the relation of Herodotus, who makes it, not 13000, but 11340 years. Diodorus Siculus tells us of 23000 years from the reign of the firft King of Egypt to the Expedition of Alexander; and Diogenes Laertius out of other Authors more than doubles that account. Aiyúzlo μ jo Neías yeνέας παῖδα Ηφαισον, ὃν ἄρξαι φιλοσοφίας, ἧς τὰς προετῶτας ἱερέας εἶναι καὶ προφήτας, ἀπὸ ἢ τότε εἰς Αλέξανδρον - Μα κέδονα ἐτῶν εἶναι μυρίαδας τέσσαρας, καὶ ἐκλακιχίλια οκλακόσια έτη εξήκοντα τρία, 48863. † Ασύριοι ή, φησὶν ἸάμβλιχΘ, εχ ἑπτὰ καὶ εἴκοσι μυριάδας ἐτῶν μόνας ἐτήρησαν, ὡς φησὶν Ιππαρχον· ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅλας αποκαλατάσεις και περίοδος πλα κοσμοκρατόρων μνήμῃ παρέδοσαν. Proclus in Timaum, † Εν οἷς ἡλίες ᾧ ἐκλείψεις γενέας τριακοσία, ἑβδομέκοντα τρεις, Γελάνης 5 οκτακοσίας τριάκοντα δύο. Diog. Laert.

But