190 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IIL 



popular religion that ever was in the world, but alfo the mofi: phi- 

 lofophical. The eternal generation of the Son of God and his incar- 

 nation, are both truths of philofophy ; but the dodrine of the 

 Trinity is more philofophical ftill than either of the other two ; for 

 it gives us what may be called a fyftem of the whole univerfe, and 

 of the regular and orderly produdion of it from the firft caufe. 



This flrfl: caufe is called by Plato the H^wro? ©gc?, orfirjl God ; 

 and, in the language of the Chriftian church, he is called God the 

 Father ; and he was fo called in the books of Hermes, as is obferv- 

 ^d by St. Cyrillus in what he has written againft Julian the empe- 

 ror *. The firft emanation or proceffion from him, not in order of 

 time, (for all things belonging to the Godhead are from all eternity) 

 but in dignity and pre-eminence, is what we call the itzond-perfon of 

 the Trinity, or, as it is more properly exprefled in the language of the 

 Greek church, 'yToarao-/?, oxfuhjiance^ not per/on. This Second Per- 

 ibn of the Trinity is the Sofiy and, as our Scripture tells us, the only 

 ■begotte?i of the Father^ that is to fay, the only Being which proceeds 

 immediately from him : And, therefore, the Greek church is cer- 

 tainly in the right, when they do not derive the Third Perfon, or 

 the Holy Spirit^ from the Father, or from the Father and Son toge- 

 ther, which is a geneology to me quite unintelligible. This Second 

 Perfon is the principle of Intelligence, by whom^ as we are told, 

 every thing was made^ and nothing made ivithont him : And, 

 indeed, wherever there is a fyftem, which every Theift muft 

 fuppofe the univerfe to be, and the moft perfed of all fyftems, 



it 



• In this work St. Cyrillus has fliown evidently, that the dotSlrine of the Trinity was 

 contained in the writings of the Egyptian philofopher Hermes Tri/megiJ}i4s : So that 

 there can be no doubt that this doclrine was known in Egypt ; and that, though it 

 >vas kept by Plato, ev x5ro^»Ta<;, that is, as a fecrety it was known to the philofophers 

 of the Alexandrian fchool, particivlarly to Porpl^yry, from whofe writings Cyrillus has 

 given us a quotation, which contains the whole docb-ine of the Three Perfons of the 

 Trinity. 



