C 52 fented by Orpheus in the hieroglyphical Form of a Dragon with three Heads; namely, of a Bull, a Lion,. and a Dog, with golden Wings upon his Shoulders*. Surely, neither Chriftian nor Jew can be fuppofécl guilty of fuch an Invention as this. " Pythagoras and his Scholars were not (entirely) ig- norant of this Myftery, when they placed all Perfeétion in the Number THREE, and made Love the Original of all things Numenius the Pythagorean, Plotinus, yam- blichus t, and others, write very plainly of the three Hypoftafes or Perfons in the Trinity, fo that no Chrif- tian can write more fully." $ The laft of thefe was yu- lian's Præceptor, and lived fo late as the 36oth Year of the Chriftian ¡Era. There is no Wonder that Pythago- ras fhould teach fuch a Doarine, if the Teftimony of Jofephus be true, that " he was well acquainted with the 7eifh Rites, and introduced many of them into his Philofophy." § Chalcidius, the Difciple of Plato, diftinguithed the divine Nature into the Father, the Son and Maker of the World, and the Spirit which enlivens : The firft arranging, the fecond commanding, and the third acîuating, all things. It mull however be confefred, that they had almoft, if not quite, loft the Idea of an intelletlual Trinity. They received the Doarine as it was corrupted from Egypt, or Chaldea ; and their own Ingenuity, inftead of amending, did but make it worfe. For they ultimately referred it, and at length the whole Group of their Gods II, to the Sun, whom (as Macrobius informs us) they ftyled ó Tns i s1c xupo,, the Lord of Mat- ter, or of all material Beings and Subftances ¶. The PARxe. Heb. Lex. p. 413. fi Jamul.. SeEt. 8. c. 2. $ Ross's IImvoeße&a. p. 185. Cont. Apion. 1. i. SEav1US ad Eclag. 7. apud GROT.-de ver. Rel. Chr. I. iv. c. 12. Hofmann reckons up near fifty Names, under which the Sun was worlhipped for God by various Nations. Lexie. Univ. ad verb. Soc. SIT MARCROD. Sat. 1. i. C. 22. Word
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