sake of their blood, nor to strangle them; but in killing them for food, to let out their blood and spill it upon the ground, Gen. ix. 4, and Levit. xvii. 12, 13.  This law was ancienter than the days of Moses, being given to Noah and his sons long before the days of Abraham:  and therefore when the Apostles and Elders in the Council at Jerusalem declared that the Gentiles were not obliged to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, they excepted this law of abstaining from blood, and things strangled as being an earlier law of God, imposed not on the sons of Abraham only, but on all nations, while they lived together in Shinar under the dominion of Noah:  and of the same kind is the law of abstaining from meats offered to Idols or false Gods, and from fornication.  So then, the believing that the world was framed by one supreme God, and is governed by him; and the loving and worshipping him, and honouring our parents, and loving our neighbour as our selves, and being merciful even to brute beasts, is the oldest of all religions:  and the Original of letters, agriculture, navigation, music, arts and sciences, metals, smiths and carpenters, towns and houses, was not older in Europe than the days of Eli, Samuel and David; and before those days the earth was so thinly peopled, and so overgrown with woods, that mankind could not be much older than is represented in Scripture.

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CHAP.  II

Of the Empire of Egypt_._

The Egyptians anciently boasted of a very great and lasting Empire under their Kings Ammon, Osiris, Bacchus, Sesostris, Hercules, Memnon, &c. reaching eastward to the Indies, and westward to the Atlantic Ocean; and out of vanity have made this monarchy some thousands of years older than the world:  let us now try to rectify the Chronology of Egypt; by comparing the affairs of Egypt with the synchronizing affairs of the Greeks and Hebrews.

Bacchus the conqueror loved two women, Venus and Ariadne:  Venus was the mistress of Anchises and Cinyras, and mother of AEneas, who all lived ’till the destruction of Troy; and the sons of Bacchus and Ariadne were Argonauts; as above:  and therefore the great Bacchus flourished but one Generation before the Argonautic expedition.  This Bacchus [235] was potent at sea, conquered eastward as far as India returned in triumph, brought his army over the Hellespont; conquered Thrace, left music, dancing and poetry there; killed Lycurgus King of Thrace, and Pentheus the grandson of Cadmus; gave the Kingdom of Lycurgus to Tharops;