rsoI üs * the Philofopher we learn, that Zoroafter, like other Gentiles, reprefenting the firt Perlon in the Trinity as chief Agent, inculcated, that HE made all Things by his WISDOM and LOVE ; which Names are fo exaétly correfpondent to the Charaéters of thefecond and third Perfons, exhibited in the Bible, that it cannot be an hafty Conclufion to fay, that Zoroafter muff neceffarily have received this Knowledge from a Tradition of that divine Revelation, which was afforded to the Patriarchs from the Beginning. The Magi (from whofe Progeni- tor Magus, or Chus, or Nimrod, or Zoroafter, the ge- nuine Scythæ, (tiled Magog, as well as the Canaanites and many other Orientals, are believed to have been defcended -H, who were of a different Profeffion from thofe ufually called Chaldæans, whofe Attention was turned principally to Aftronorny and Science; followed the Opinions of their Anceftor, and, while they fol- lowed, corrupted them. Thefe Magi, whofe Bufinefs chiefly related to Religion, maintained concerning the Deity, that HE exited in a firft, a fecond, and a third Mind. Of thefe the firt was, according to Damafcius who treated of their Theology, the PATERNAL MIND, " ° fupereflential in itfelf and the Principle of all Ef- fence ;" the fecond was the FILIAL MIND, generated by the firt, the Creator of the material World ; and the third was the EFFICIENT WISDOM AND POWER of the other two, to which they gave various Denominations. t They alfo held, that there were three Trinities of Noes, Minds or Spirits, which at length were eteemed Oeoe or Gods; and that the two latt of thefe Trinities pro- ceeded from the firft; the Perfons in which they ftyled IIErnp, Auvatmç and Naç,§the FATHER,POWER, and MIND or, according to others, Ormafs, Mitris, and Ariminis, which they interpret, GOD, MIND, and Sow.. From a farther Perverfion of this already perverted Dogma, * Obel. Pamph. L iii. c. 9. 'i BRYANT'9 /lnal. Vol. i. p. ó. JAMHL. §. 8. C. 2. in T. GALE "On § Ibid. § z. c. 3. in na, all
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=