f 15 An antient Rabbi, in defcanting uponDeut. vi. . Hear,' Ò Ifrael, the LORD our GOD is one LORD [`1ít2á r-n o1]'rt5N rnn 5At111" ÿí tU] urges that C6 The firft JEHOVAx is GOD the Father ; the fecond Name 1,17152í (our ALEKIMI is GOD the Son; for fo he is called by the Prophet, IMMANUEL, GODwith us; the third Word JEHOVAH IS GOD the Holy GhoJt: And the fourth Word'irná is e. ONE, is to thew the Unity of Effence in this Plurality of Perfons*. Many of the Cabalifts ufed the fame Names of Father, Son, and Spirit, for the three Hypoftafes, declaring at the fame Time, that the Doc- trine of the Fn-no, or Perfons in Trinity, by no Means oppofed thatof the-Efience in Unity. t Now, if this Doctrine of the Trinity was anArticle of Faith with the antient Believers (as perhaps may be fairly concluded from thefe Premifes); it mutt have been through a direct Revelation at firft, and afterwards (before the Ufe ofWriting) through a continuedTradi- tion to their Defcendants, by the Channel of the primitive and once univerfal Language. $ And if that Language alone expreffed, not by Words of human Invention but of divine Intuition, the Nature and Exiftence of the Deity it may naturally follow, that, when Men for their Profanenefs were judicially deprived of it, they could not pronounce their right Apprehenfions of the Godhead (even fuppofing, they poffefï'ed any) but by wrong Terms of theirown Invention, and fo led their-Succeffors into wide Miftakes concerning it. But, however, the very Corruption of this Doctrine, among the molt antient Heathens, proves, as forcibly as the Corruption of a Truth can prove the prior Exift- ence of it, that it is fo far from being a Novelty, or the Illufion of fome fuperftitious Brains in recent Ages, that it prevailed even in the antediluvian World.For, if the Doctrine was unknown before the Flood, it could s Ross's IlavvEßE,a. p. 168. Edit. 3. Gaor. de ver. Rel. Chr. 1. v. C. 21. t SELDEN. Prolegom. de Diis Syrir. C. 2.. not
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