Egypt was the Parent of almost all the Superftitions that overflowed the World, and it is particularly remarked, that the Priests in the moft ancient Times were more numerous here, and far more magnificently provided for, than in other Nations. They had Lands fettled upon them in the Time of Jofeph (d), and according to Diodorus Siculus, a third Part of the whole Land of Egypt was theirs (): And Lord Shaftsbury's Triumphs here run very high against the Church-Lands, and the Landed Clergy, as he is pleafed to call the Egyptian Priests of thefe Times: This Right Honourable Writer afferts, "That the Magistrate, according to the Egyptian Regulation, had refigned his Title or Share of Right in Sacred

Things, and could not govern as he pleased, "nor check the growing Number of these "Profeffors (f). And that in this Mother "Land of Superftition the Sons of thefe Ar"tifts were by Law obliged always to follow "the fame Calling with their Fathers. Thus "the Son of a Prieft was always a Prieft by "Birth, as was the whole Lineage after him "without Interruption. There are a great many other Particulars enlarged upon by this Author, which I choose to pafs over. If I give an Account of the Egyptian Priesthood from what the ancient Writers hint about it, that alone will fhew, how widely fome Writers err in their Accounts of ancient Facts, out of Hu

(d) Gen. xlvii. (e) Diodor. Sic, 1. 1. (f) Miscellaneous Reflect. Charactereftics, Vol. III.

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mour

mour and Inclination to reflect upon the Church and Clergy. Religion was in the early Times look'd upon by all the Nations in the World as a pofitive Inftitution of God, and it was as firmly believed, that none could be the Minifters of it, but thofe Perfons whom God himfelf had appointed to perform the Offices of it. Ariftotle indeed, who threw off Tradition, and founded his Opinions upon what he thought to be the Dictates of right Reason, feems to give every State or Community a Power of appointing their Minifters of Religion, hinting at the fame time, that the Citizens of an advanced Age, who were paft engaging in laborious Employments for the Service of the Public, were the proper Perfons to be appointed to the Sacred Offices (g); but Plato, who had a greater Regard to the ancient Customs and Traditions, makes a Divine Defignation abfolutely neceffary for the rightly authorizing any Perfon to perform the Offices of Religion: He advifes the Founders of Cities, if they could find any Priefts, who had received their Office from their Fathers, in a long Succeffion backward, to make ufe of them; but that if fuch could not be had, but that fome must be created, that they would leave the Choice to the Gods, appointing proper Candidates, and choofing out of them by Lot, fuch as the Deity fhould cause the Lot to fall to; and that they should fend to the Oracle at Delphos to be directed what Rites, Ceremonies and Laws of

(8) Ariftot. de Repub. Lib. 7. cap. 9.

Religion

Religion they should establish (b): This was the ancient univerfal Senfe of all Nations; and we may obferve that both Romulus and Numa took care at leaft to feem to act according to thefe Maxims. Romulus built his City by Consultation with the Etrufcan Harufpices (i), and upon his appointing new Orders of Pricfts, he made a Law to devolve the confirming them to the Vates or Augurs, who were to declare to the People the Will of the Gods about them (k): And Numa was thought to do nothing but by Inspiration, pretending the Directions. of the Goddess Egeria for all his Inftitutions. (1). The most ancient Priesthood was that which Fathers or Heads of Families exercised in and for their own Families and Kindred : And the Divine Inftitution of this was what all Nations were fo fully convinced of, that the public and established Religions did not fuperfede it, but left it as they found it; fo that tho' private Perfons, who were not publickly called to that Office, might not offer Sacrifices on the public Altars, yet each Head of a Family was Priest for his own Family at his private Focus, or domeftic Altar; and thefe Private or Family-Priefts, I imagine, were the Perfons whom Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus speaks of, as having τας συγγενικὰς ἱερωσύνας, or a Priesthood over thofe of the fame Lineage

(i) Plutarch. in Vitâ

(b) Platon. de Legibus. 1. 6. p. 860. Romuli. (k) Dionyf. Halicar. Antiq. Rom. Lib. 2. c. 12. (7) Id. ib. c. 6o. Plutarch. in Vit. Numæ. Florus, l. 1. c. 3.

with themselves (m); and what Reverence and Regard was paid them, may be gueffed by the Obfervation of Athenæus, who remarks, that of all Sacrifices thofe were efteemed the most Sacred, which a Man offered for his own Domeftics (n); and indeed they might well be fo accounted, the Perfons that offered them being perhaps the only Perfons in the Heathen Nations, who had a juft Right to offer any Sa

crifices.

As this Senfe of Things appears not to have been extinguished even in the Times of Romulus, nay even Ages after him; fo it is most probable, that Men kept very ftrict to it in the firft Times: And we must not suppose, that at the first crecting Kingdoms and Civil Societies, the feveral Bodies of Men appointed whom they would to be their Priests: It is more likely, that they thought, as Plato the great Mafter of the ancient Customs and Traditions of all Nations did, that the Priesthood which had defcended from Father to Son, was fill to be retained (c); and accordingly, where Kingdoms were originally planted by but one fingle Family, the King or Head of that one Family might be the fole public Minister of Religion to all his People; but where Kingdoms were originally peopled by many Fami

2

(m) Dionyf. Antiq. Rom. L. 2. c. 21. (π) Οσιωτάτη 2 ἡ θυσία θεοῖς καὶ προσφιλέστερα ἡ διὰ 7 οικείων· Athenæus Deipnofoph. 1. 1. c. 8. (ο) Ἱερῶν ἢ ἱερέας οἷς μὴ εἰσι area ispaonice più ver. Plat. de Legibus, lib. 6. p. 860.

lies independent of each other, they might agree to institute, that the Perfons who in private Life had been Priefts of the feveral Families of which the Body politic was conftituted, fhould become jointly the national Priests to all the Land: And thus the Egyptian Priests might be originally the Heads of the feveral Families that conftituted the Kingdom. That this Conjecture does not err much, if any thing, from the Truth, will appear to any one that confiders duly the ancient Egyptian Polity: For, 1. They thought their Priests almost equal in Dignity to their Kings; and the Priests had a great Share in the Administration of Affairs; for they continually attended to advise, direct and affift in the weighty Affairs of the Kingdom (p). 2. They thought it an Irregularity to have any one made their King, who was not one of their Priefts; but if it did fo happen, as in Length of Time it sometimes did, the Perfon who was to (g) be King was obliged to be first received into the Order of Priests, and then was capable of the Crown. 3. Whenever a Prieft died, his Son was made Priest in his Room (r.) I am fenfible, that the very Particulars I have produced, are frequently made ufe of to hint the great Afcendant, which Prieftcraft and Religion gained over King and People in the Land of Egypt; but

(β) Καθόλα γ πεὶ ἢ μεγίσων ὗτοι προβολβόμβυοι σκυ διατείβεσι των βασιλε, τμ συνεργοί, 7 ἢ εἰσηγηταί και Sidásnano vivoor. Diodor. Sic. Lib. 1. p. 66.

(9) Plato in Politico, p. 550. Plutarch. Lib. de Ifide & Ofiride, P. 354. (r) Herodot. lib. 2. c. 37.

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