and at those that had treated them so coarsely, and this
according to the prediction of the prophet; yet certainly, when
they were come out of the mines, and had received of the king a
city, and a country, they would have grown milder towards him.
However, had they ever so much hated him in particular, they
might have laid a private plot against himself, but would hardly
have made war against all the Egyptians; I mean this on the
account of the great kindred they who were so numerous must have
had among them. Nay still, if they had resolved to fight with the
men, they would not have had impudence enough to fight with their
gods; nor would they have ordained laws quite contrary to those
of their own country, and to those in which they had been bred up
themselves. Yet are we beholden to Manethe, that he does not lay
the principal charge of this horrid transgression upon those that
came from Jerusalem, but says that the Egyptians themselves were
the most guilty, and that they were their priests that contrived
these things, and made the multitude take their oaths for doing
so. But still how absurd is it to suppose that none of these
people's own relations or friends should be prevailed with to
revolt, nor to undergo the hazards of war with them, while these
polluted people were forced to send to Jerusalem, and bring their
auxiliaries from thence! What friendship, I pray, or what
relation was there formerly between them that required this
assistance? On the contrary, these people were enemies, and
greatly differed from them in their customs. He says, indeed,
that they complied immediately, upon their praising them that
they should conquer Egypt; as if they did not themselves very
well know that country out of which they had been driven by
force. Now had these men been in want, or lived miserably,
perhaps they might have undertaken so hazardous an enterprise;