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grand principle of both the Trismegistic and Orphic religion is thus recorded by Proclus:

Ζευς κεφαλη, Ζευς μεσσα· Διο δ' εκ παντα τετευκται.

"Jove is the head and middle of all things: all things were made out of Jove.”—And this is perfectly consistent with the Indian doctrine upon the same important topic.

The great difference between the Brahminical system of theology and that of the Grecian philosophers, consists in this, that the former were too much inclined to spiritualize, the latter to materialize, every thing: with the former, all is ATMA, spirit, and MAIA, illusion; in the mind of the latter, for the most part, sensible objects predominate, and the universal phoenomena were resolved into matter and motion. By Timotheus, Suidas, Cedrenus, and Eusebius, the whole mythological doctrines of Orpheus have been preserved; and, according to Cedrenus, Orpheus believed and taught the unity of God. Apopγον απαντων, και αυτού του αιθερος, και παντων των επ' αυτόν τον αιθέρα, "the Creator of all things, even of æther itself, and of all things below that æther." And this account goes farther, and states that this supreme Δημιουργ@ is called ΦΩΣ, ΒΟΥΛΗ, ZON, light, counsel, and life. And Suidas, confirming or supporting the whole of this, adds, ταύτα τα τρία ονοματα μιαν δυναμιν απεφήνατο, these three names express only one and the same power.

-And Timotheus concludes his account, by affirming that Orpheus, in his book, declared, δια τριων αυτών ονομάτων μιας θεοτητα τα παια εγενετο, και αυτό εστι τα παντα,—that all things were made by ONE GODHEAD, in THREE NAMES, and that this God is ALL THINGS.-Now, the three distinctions of light, counsel, and life, evidently refer to a triad in the Divine Essence, according to the knowledge of these Christian philosophers. But let us hear the same doctrine coming through the medium of a heathen philosopher. Proclus, upon the Timæus of Plato, presents us, among others, with the following verses, as the genuine production of Orpheus, which are as express upon the unity, as another passage is upon the trinity, or a triad of hypostases in that unity.

Τους βασιλευς Ζευς αυτον απαντων αρχιγενέθλα,
Ἐν κρατών, εις δαιμων γενετο, μέγας αρχάς απαντων.

Jupiter is the king; Jupiter himself is the original source of all things: there is ONE power, one God, and one great ruler over all.

The other passage is from the same author, who, in the course of his commentary upon the Timæus, having noticed the divine triad of Amelius, a Platonic philosopher, cotemporary with Plotinus, as consisting of a threefold Demiurgus and Opifex of the world, or, to use his own words, Νους τρεις Βασιλεις τρεις, τον οντα, τον Εχοντα, τον ορώντα, that is, three minds, three kings, him that is, him

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that hath, and him that beholds; most remarkable expressions, surely, to fall from the pen of a heathen writer. Immediately after, in terms as remarkable, he subjoins, Τουτους εν τρεις νες και διμιεργές υποτίθεται, και τες τω Πλαζωνι τρεις βασιλέας και τις παρ' Ορφει τρεις ΦΑΝΗΤΑ, και ΟΥΡΑΝΟΝ, και ΚΡΟΝΟΝ, και ο μαλιτα παρ' αύλω Δημιεργο ο Φανής €59.-(AMELIUS.)-Therefore, supposes these three minds, and these three Demiurgic principles to be the same, both with Plato's three kings, and Orpheus's Trinity of () PHANES, (N) URANUS, and (P) CHRONUS; but it is PHANES who is by him supposed to be principally the Demiurgus.And Cudworth, speaking of an unpublished treatise of Damasius, entitled π av, says,—that philosopher, giving an account of the Orphic philosophy, among other things informs us, that Orpheus introduced Teμogov sov, a triform deity. All these views of Orpheus are as direct toward the truth as could be expected from knowledge handed down by tradition. It will readily occur to every reader, that there was a very great distinction between the truly philosophic and the popular views of this grand doctrine, known by tradition in Greece in early times.

PROPOSITION XXXIV.

PROVING THE DOCTRINE FROM THE SENTIMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE GREEK PHILOSOPHERS WHO HAD VISITED CHALDEA, PERSIA, INDIA, AND EGYPT, AND WHO TAUGHT THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY AFTER THEIR RETURN TO GREECE.

AFTER the numerous proofs in the preceding pages from philosophers, legislators, and priests, the most eminent in the Pagan world; proofs which demonstrate that these teachers of religious tenets were strongly impressed with notions of the important doctrine of the Trinity, similar, though greatly darkened, to those taught by divine inspiration; we shall, perhaps, be excused from swelling these pages with an infinite number of other proofs that might be selected from the works of Pythagoras, Plato, Parmenides, and others. And we may be permitted to assert, that it was from the fountains of India, Chaldea, Persia, and Egypt, that those Grecian sages, as well by the channel of Orpheus, as by their own personal travels in those countries, derived that copious stream of theological knowledge which was afterwards, both by themselves and their disciples, so widely diffused through Greece and Italy. It may, with truth, be affirmed, that there was scarcely one of all the celebrated philosophers who established the several schools of Greece,

distinguished by their names, who had not resided, for a considerable period, either in one or other of the countries just mentioned. The evidence of this will, perhaps, be satisfactory.

We shall commence with the travels of Pythagoras, who flourished in the sixth century before the birth of Christ. According to the account of his disciple Jamblichus, the first voyage of Pythagoras in pursuit of knowledge, after the completion of his academical exercise at Samos, was to Zidon, his native place, where he was early initiated into all the mysterious rites and sciences of Phoenicia, the country whence the elder Taut emigrated into Egypt, and where the profound Samothracian orgia, and the Cabiric rites, were first instituted. From Phoenicia our philosopher travelled into Egypt, and there, with unabated avidity after science, as well as with unexampled perseverance, continued under the severest possible discipline, purposely imposed upon him by the jealous priests of that country, during two and twenty years successively, to imbibe the stream of knowledge at Heliopolis, at Memphis, and Diospolis, or Thebes.

Astonished at his exemplary patience and abstinence, the haughty Egyptian priesthood relaxed from their established rule of never divulg ing the arcana of their theology to a stranger; for, according to another writer of his life, Diogenes Laertius, he was admitted into the inmost

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