Serle - BT590 N2 S47 1776

53 Word Ta,,, Matter; we are told, had an immenfe and comprehenfive Import in the Days of the antient Phi- lpfophy *. Thus Timotbeus acquaints us, that Orpheus wrote, that all things were made by ONE Godhead of THREE Names ; but he alfo wrote, that this GOD is ALL. THINGS, plainly implying, that he was (partly at leaft) material. So likewife the Platonic Opinion refpecting the firft Principle, that it was Form, Matter, and Corn- pillion, or (as Cedrenus has it) -j- God,. Matter, and Pattern ; appears very remote (as we have already ob- ferved) from a purely intellectual Idea of the God- head. We muff not pafs on without remarking, that moff of the Greek Philofophers did indeed maintain the Unity of the divine Nature : This they were able to do from the Deductions of Reafon, which forcibly con- cludes, that but one Mind and one Power could poli'i- bly devife and conftitute all things, and be fupreme in all. But it is far otherwife with refpect to the Dottrine of a Trinity, which was at firft a Subject of Revelation to others, and then of Tradition to them. Yet even their Notion of the divine Unity (as well as their Opi- nion of the Trinity) was by no means intelletual, or truly incorporeal. They imagined the Deity to be á fort of immortal Animal, whofe component Parts were the vifible World, endued with Reafon and Knowledge; who was the Crearor of the Univerfe, and the Father of all things $. Even Anaxagoras, who came neareft * The IATE arew-royeens, or primigenial Slime, of the Egyptians was the fame in import with the TAR xrpeln of the Greeks. BothTerms fignified the aniverfalgenerating Subfance, of which the material Sun was the Symbol. The mn `lohu of the ,Hebrews (Gen. t, 2.) is thought to be the primitive Matter, correfponding, partly, to the ¡Tvt and áT11 of the Egyptians and Greeks, and to the Sylva of the Latins. See a philofophical Definition of this Word Len in Mr. HARRIS'SHermes, p. 308. ad Edit. and Philas. Jrrangem. p. 247. i CEDREñ. Syn. H(fl. p. 131. See a learned Account of the Platonic Trinity by `Ïheoph. Gale in his Court of the Gentiles, Vol. iv. 1. I i. p. 382, &c. Lusts. deprop. euapeg. I. iii. c. 1. SUE). io Cátns. LACT . de trig. error. 1, ii. §. §. E 3 of

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