39 1 vens, and the Notion; which the wifeft Sages of that Seat of Science had imbibed, refpeeting the perpetual Motion and Operations of the divine Mind ? " The antient Philofophy, as fome have held (fays a cele- brated Author), may be traced up from Plato and So- crates to Parmenides, Pythagoras and Orpheus himfeif."* Certainly, fuch Men as Orpheus, Linus, Mufeus and "Imphion, about the Time of Sanchoniathon; and fuch as Homer and Pythagoras, at a later Time; or as Plato, at a later Rill; did not leave Greece, and travel into Egypt, for nothing. t Thé Do&rine of the Trinity (depraved as it already was by the famous Defcendant of Ham, Hermes 7rif snegifius) doth not feem to have long retained even that Form, in which it was reprefented by him. If the Phrafe may be allowed, his Succeffors improved upon the Principle, and carried the Notion.into almoft every thing. At Aril, it nearly correfponded with the Idea, which, we before obferved, the antient Jews and Caba- lifts retained colacerning it. The following Diagram, taken from the Idea of Plato (whom Numenius the Pythagorean furnamed the Grecian Mofes, on account of his adopting the Sentiments of Mofes the Jew),$ thews plainly what they conceived, or rather what they had perverted, refpec`ting this Dodrine. 'And, proba- bly, from this Defcription, which does not feem very .. was a principal Branch] we will decide the Matter by thefe ancient f' Columns of Hermes, upon which Plato and before him Pythagoras formed the Principles of their Philofophy." § i. c. z. yamblichars d Syrian by Nation, the Difciple of Porphyry and Preceptor of jig- Ems, was himfeif a great Enemy to Chriftianity, and could not pof- fibly intend, more thanSanchoniathon before him, to confirm the Au- thenticityof any Memorial which might countenance it. And, as Bp. Stillingfleet juffly obferves, if thefe Memorials had been fpurl. ous, certainly fuch Men as Porphyry, Methodius and Eufebius, fo well verfed in Antiquities, would have found out the Cheat, Orig. Sacr. 1. i. c. z. § 7;. * HARRIS'S Hermes, p. 439. ad. Edit. t Dion. Src. 1. i. Jus-r. MART. Pareen. ad Grucos. $ EUSEB. de prep. evang. 1. ix. C. 3. Maas. Fi.CIN. Corr. 24. in rim, -um. JAMBL. not. T. Gale. 5 8. c. 3. D 4 allowable,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=