Chap. XI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 1S9 



but having all its parts proceeding from that firft caufe in regular 

 order, and all conneded together. Now, the dodirine of a fyftem 

 in the univerfe, I hold to be an eflential part of theology, in which all 

 philofophy ought to end: For philofophy is truly what it was defined 

 to be by the ancients, The kno'wkdge of things divine and human. 

 Now Plato's dodrine of ideas prefents to us a fyftem of things in 

 the univerfe, in which there is an uninterrupted progrefs of beings^ 

 from the higheft to the loweft, that is from God to corporeal be- 

 ings : And it is a fyftem moft perfedly agreeable, not only to his 

 theology, but to the Chriftian theology, in what I hold to be the 

 foundation of the Chriftian religion ; 1 mean the dodrine of the 

 Trinity, which, I am perfuaded, Plato learned in Egypt, where 

 it appears to have been known in the earlieft times. 



This dodrine of the Trinity is commonly held to be a myftery 

 inconceivable. But no man can believe what he cannot conceive : 

 And, as it is a fundamental dodrine of the Chriftian religion, no 

 man, who does not believe the Trinity, can be faid to be a Chriftian; 

 for he cannot believe that Jefus Chrift was the Son of God, that is 

 the fecond perfon of the Trinity, who affumed the human nature 

 and human form, in order to fave mankind, and to enable them to 

 make fome progrefs, in this life, in regaining their former ftate, from 

 which they had fallen. But the Trinity I hold to be fo far from 

 an inconceivable myftery, that, by a philolopher, it is not only per- 

 fediy conceived, but underftood to be a moft perfect fyftem of Cof- 

 mogofiy^ and I may add Theogo?iy; — more perfcd than any fyftem 

 that has been invented by any antient philofopher, or that could 

 have been invented by any philofopher ; fo that if it was difcovered 

 by the Egyptians, as I am perfuaded it was, they muft have had fu- 

 pernatural afliftance to enable them to mcike the difcovery. I have 

 elfewhere obferved *, that the Chriftian religion is not only the beft 



popular- 



• Vol. 4. of this -work, p. 386. 



