the Godhead. David represents the Lord thus addressing the Son, "This day have I

86

begotten thee* ;" and as saying unto him, "sit thou on my right hand until I "make thine enemies thy footstool." Zechariah, referring it should seem to the death of Christ, calls upon the sword in the name of the Lord of Hosts, saying, "Awake "O sword against my Shepherd, and against "the Man that is my Fellow, saith the "Lord of Hosts, smite the Shepherd and "the sheep shall be scattered, and I will "turn mine hand upon my little ones §;" and this text was directly applied by our Saviour to himself when he was about to be betrayed ||.

With respect to the Holy Ghost, from the creation, when the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters ¶, till the period when he descended upon Christ, he is described as having inspired the Prophets and holy men,

* Psal. ii. 7.

+ Ibid. cx. 1.

עמיתי +

See also Isai. xliv. xlviii. 16. Hag. ii. 4, 5.

§ Zech. xiii. 7. See also Job xix. 25. Isai. xlviii. 16. lix. 19.

Matt. xxvi. 31.

¶ Gen. i. 2. Psal. li. 11.

who delivered the communications of God, and he is spoken of by the Evangelists as a being known to the Jews, and without any intimation that they bring forward any new doctrine.

Many proofs that the Rabbins had a notion of the existence of a Trinity might be produced, and learned writers have abundantly shown, that the ancient Jewish theology concurs with the orthodox Christian faith upon these points. The Jewish writers discovered a mystery in the word Elohim, they considered the person spoken of as the Son, to be God, and that he had a twofold nature §. The Targumists and Cabbalists make distinctions between Jehovah, the Word, and the habitation of Jehovah, ascribing to each, personal actions and divine properties . They confess also a

Col. i.

Carpzov. Introduct. Theolog. Judaic. c. ii. P. 6. + Rabbi Bechai in Seg. Job iv. Bereschit Rabba, cap. v. lib. 2.

Part II. Dissertatio i. cap. 119.

Raymondi Pugio Fidei,

Midrasch Tillim on Psal. ii. 7. See also Veelleh Shemoth Rabba sive Glossa super Exod. xv. and Psal. lxxxix. 27, 28. See also Observat. Joseph. de Voisin in proœm. Pugion Fidei.

I See Oxlee on the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity.

mystery in the blessing expressed in the book of Numbers*.

Philo regards the Logos + and the Holy Spirit, as having each a divine nature.

Indications of a similar persuasion appeared among the Heathens in very early times. The persuasion originated, probably, in some traditionary knowledge of the particulars which have been mentioned. The Heathen Trinity has sometimes indeed no farther conformity to the revealed doctrine than what may be found in a numerical correspondence of persons, but it often also seems to imply a Trinity in the Godhead, a Trinity of causes, of beings eternal and uncreated, though occasionally described under representations which are confused and contradictory. The doctrine of a Trinity, then, was not deemed by the ancients incompatible with the principles of reason, and it has been well observed, that he who would examine an article of faith by a proposition in philosophy, should be well assured that his philosophy is correct.

* Numb. vi. 26, and Hales.

† Πρὸς τὸν δεύτερον Θεὸν ὅς ἐσιν ἐκεῖνου (Θεὖ πρώτε) Λόγος. Frag. Vol. ii. p. 625. lib. vii. c. 13. Edit. Mangey.

↑ Cudworth Intell. Sys.

Traces of the doctrine are said to be uscovered among the Persians. In the magical oracles of Zoroastres, a Trinity is asserted, and a line is cited by Patritios from Damascius, which expresses, that a triad shines in all the world of which unity governs*. These oracles are, however, probably spurious.

The same notion prevailed among the Samothracians. The Chaldæans and Egyptians reduced the divine attributes to three. which may be considered as expresive of the Almighty Father, of the Holy Spirit, and of Him who was the great prototype of love.

Allusions to the second person of the Trinity are to be found in other writings of great antiquity. Aristobulus, tutor to Prolemy Philadelphus, about 250 years before Christ, spoke of a second cause, designated as "the wisdom of God," the Father of lights;" and by other titles; Epictarmus, before this time, had covertly desenied the divine Word as the author of all ceful instruction, and as teaching men what they ought to be +.

66

Olai yag és moms tárra, Trag i Mirky Plato de Legibus, lib. x. tom. ii. p. 595

lor's Duct. Dub. B. i. ch.. p. 45.

+ Clemens Strem. Lv. §.25% p 7:9 See at Epin að Dionys, and Whitaker on Aradiva.

Chalcidius named the first person of the Triad, the High God; the second, mind or Providence; the third, the Soul of the world; He describes the three as "Ordinans," "Jubans," and "Insinuans *. Insinuans*." He, however, probably lived long after the promulgation of Christianity.

Striking representations of wisdom personified, and expressive, as some conceive, of the second person of the Trinity, are displayed in the Apochryphal books. The notion of a Trinity appears under diversified modifications in the writings of Pythagoras, Parmenides and Plato + That the triad of the divine Hypostases which they mention, differed in many respects from the Trinity of persons described in the Gospel, is readily admitted. The representations the subject, which were framed by the later Platonists, being composed after the promulgation of the Gospel, were probably modified in adaptation to its doctrines.