382 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



There was one myftery, however, known to the Egyptians, though 

 not communicated to the Greeks in their initiations, but which Plato 

 learned in Egypt, though he did not publifh it in his writings, keeping 

 it as a myftery which he revealed to a very few of his followers. The 

 doSrine, I mean, is, that of the Trinity. But, though kept as a fecret 

 by Plato while he lived, it has been publifhed fince his death, and is 

 to be found in fome of the writings of the philofophers of the Alex- 

 andrian fchool, who, I believe, had a traditional knowledge of the 

 philofophy both of Plato and Ariftotle ; and, befides, ^ve are fure 

 that they had the ufe of books, upon the fubjeft of philofophy, 

 which are now loft. The firft perfon of Plato's Trinity, he calls 

 the r^coroq &io<;, and who, he fays, is ^vTr-.^ovanog^ that is, above, or 

 fiiptrior, to all being. And, however extraordinary this appellation 

 may appear, I think it is perfedlyjuft; for, as all being has pro- 

 ceeded from him, he muft be fuperior to all being, and fomething 

 different from being, as the caufe muft be different from the effedl. 

 The fecond perfon of llato's Trinity is, the Not;;, or, as it is called 

 in the New Teftament, Aoy.c, a word which, in claffical Greek, ex- 

 preffes what is different from no-js : For it denotes the operation of 

 the Noyc, either internally in thinking or reaioning, or externally 

 in fpeech; fo that it is either the Aoyoj gc^/a^eroj, or A570J it^jipo^tKoz. 

 But if the ufe of the word A05/0?, in our New Teftament, be not claf- 

 fical, the tranflalion we have given of it, by the term word, is ftill 

 much further removed from the word Nou^, which ought to be tranf- 

 lated by the Englifli word intelled ; whereas we have tranflated it 

 by the term word, that is, an articulate found, uttered by the human 

 mouth, fignificant of any of our ideas. This is a tranflation moft 

 abfiird, and which makes the dodtrine of the Trinity quite unintel- 

 ligible. But to return to Plato.— This fecond perfon of the Trinity 

 he calls the hog htjui'^v^yoi, and this appellation is perfedly agreeable 

 to our Scripture ; for it fays, that by the Son, which is the name 

 it gives to the fecond perfon of the Trinity, all things were made, 



and 



