t 37 J long after Hermes, placed in the fydyta of their Tern: pies, weré conftituted Symbols of the Unity of that Ef_ fence whièh the Hieropbant.e underftood themfelves, but thought it their Intereft to conceal from the Pee pie.* By. the Serpent was meant the fubtle Power and all-wife Energy of the Deity in the Creation and Di- rection of all Things. It alto well reprefented the Di- vine Word, becaufe the Serpent bears no other Member than a Mouth, the Organ of Speech. And by the Wings was denoted the omniprefent Efficacy of GOD, in pervading and vivifying the material World. t To this agree the Words of S'anchoniathon, (the Etymology of whole Name Theodoret and Bochart have given us from the Phanician, viz. " The Friend of Truth") the . molt antient of the profane I-Iiftorians, who lived near 1300 Years before Chrill t (though Suidas makes it later, near 1200, about the Time of the Trojan War), in the Fragments which are,preferved of his Pha'nician Hiftory.' s Joys (lays he) is a winged Sphere, out of which a Serpent is brought forth : The Circle implies the divine Nature without Beginning or End; the Serpenti thews his Word, which animates and frufl ies theWorld ; and the Wings refer to the Spirit' of GOD, which vivi- fies the World by his Motion." , Thus the higher we can trace up the Matter, the more uncorrupted, and nearer the Truth, it feems to appear. And from this it is plainly feen, if the learned Author, from whom this Article is taken, may be depended upon (though Lac- tantius sS long before, had madenearly the fame Remark), that Mercury (or Hermes) Trifinegiflus, the Founder of hieroglyphical Literature, appofitely fhadowed forth the SELD. Prolog. de Diis Syris. c. 3. SYNESIUS apud Gale in'amb. 7. C. 2. t AEENEPH. apud KIRCH. Od. Pam. 1. v. c. 3. $ PORPHYE. apud EUSEE. depræp. evang. 1. i. C. 6. STI .LINCP, Orig. Sacr. 1. i. c. 2. § De ver& Sapient. 1. iv. § 9. D 3. . IIoly
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