44 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



l)aptifed, that is initiated into the Chriftian Religion. And, as no 

 man can believe what he does not comprehend, I think it will not 

 be improper to add this chapter upon the fubjedl ; in which I will 

 explain another myftery of the Chriftian Religion, — the eternal ge- 

 neration of the Son of God. 



But befides the reverence that every Chriftian ought to havs for his 

 religion, I hold that no man can be truly a Theift who docs not 

 know the dodrine of the Trinity; for, without that knowledge, he 

 cannot perfedly know the nature of God, in what manner he ex- 

 ifts, nor how, or in what order, all things in the univerfe proceed 

 from him. 



What appears to be moft uncomprehenfible, in the dodlrine of 

 the Trinity, is, that there are three perjuns in it, or fubjlances as 

 they ought to be called*, and yet thefe three make but one Being; 

 fo that the Trinity is both three and at the fame time one. 



And here, I think, I hav£ ufed a very proper illuftration of the 

 dodrine of the Trinity in the great world, from the Trinity in our 

 little world; For that there is there a Trinity cannot be doubted; 

 as, befides our intelledual mind, which may be called the F'trjl Per- 

 fon of our Trinity, there are two other minds in it, the animal and 

 the vegetable, and thefe three make but one Being. And here it 

 may not be improper to obferve the wonderful connexion and re- 

 lation betwixt our little world and the great world ; fo great, that 

 the compofition of man is very properly called a microcofm or little 

 world. 



But though the Trinity in our little world agrees fo perfectly 



with 



* The word in Greek is 'wtrrxrify which is the very fame with the Latin word 

 fiibftantia, and with our -word fi/b/}a/ia. 



