[ 47 7 Plato, whether he obtained his Notion of the Trinity from Egypt, as is probable, or from Chaldæa, as Grotius fuppofes, certainly did not improve the Principle, not- withftanding all the Gloffes of his later School. The Platonic Notion of a Trinity, under the Species of Form, Matter, and "Compoftion, was but a perverted Copy, with new Names, of the late-mentioned Egyp- tian Opinion. The following. reftangular Triangle, applied to the Univerf of Things, the Platonic Deity, Thews what was underflood by it a. The Proportions of this celebrated Diagram were difcovered, according to Tome Geometricians, by Pythagoras : But the philofo- phical Application of it, both he and Plato borrowed from the Banks of the Nile. t o G s o ® fj 5 mil® 11"-I MATTER: S I S, or pafsive Principle. Nor did thefe repeated Corruptions end here. The DoCtrine of a Trinity was not only abufed, as we have feen ; but every thing, which related to Religion and the Knowledge of a divine Creator, was wretchedly Otri. Pamph. 1. r. c. 6. j- See the Comment ofMarfiles Ficinus upon the Banquet ofPlato, p. 775. Edit. Ludg. 159o. And allo the Book ofTimms Locrus, the Pythagorean, de animd mundi, at p. 553. of the fame Edition ofPlato. Eufebino likewife quotes from Plotinus, that Plato had a Knowledge of the Three Hypojiafes, and the divine Word; and that Plato, in particular, delivered this Knowledge in an mnigmatical Manner. De præp. evang. 1. xi. c. 1o. Cre, Acad. Quæft.1. I. fed 24. See allo Bp. BERKELEY in his Sirio. p. 171, et fey, diftorted 1
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