48 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



alfo to be known in Mexico * : And it is to be found even in the de- 

 farts of Siberia, where a medal was difcovered in the ruins of an an- 

 tient temple, with a figure, which is a type of the Trinity, upon it, 

 and with an infcription in the Celtic language, and in the charaders 

 of that language ufed at prefent in Ireland; which fhows that it was 

 part of the religion of the Celts as well as of other antient nations f . 

 The Grand Lama or Delay Lama^ as they call him, has many of 

 thefe medals which he gives to the people as a holy thing to hang 

 to their necks %. In fhort it appears to have been fo generally be- 

 lieved by all nations having an eftablifhed religion, that it may be 

 faid to be the religion of nature. 



I will here add nothing more upon the doftrinc of the Trinity, 

 having faid fo much upon it in the preceding volume; where I 

 have alfo faid a great deal upon the fubjedt of the ideas of Plato, 

 which I have fhown to have a necefTary connexion with the Tri- 

 nity ; fo that, altogether, they exhibit a wonderful fyftem of the 

 univerfe, all proceeding, by proper fteps and regular degrees, from 

 the firft caufe. 



There is another myftery in the Chriftian Religion v^^hich is as 

 Incomprehenfible, by thofe who are not philofophers, as the doc- 

 trine of the Trinity is; but, for the comprehenfion of which, I hope 

 I have prepared the reader, by what I have faid of the eternity of 

 the univerfe, though it be the produdlion of the Deity. The myf- 

 tery I mean, is the eternal generation of the Son of God. The Son, 

 or Second Perfon of the Trinity, is, according to the dodtrine of the 

 Chriftian Church, eternal as well as the Father, from whom he is 

 produced : And this is what is meant by the eternal generation of 

 the Son. Now to a man, who is not a philofopher, it mull appear in- 

 conceivable 



* Parfon's Remains of Japhet, p 22 1. 

 |Ibid. p. 184. Jlbid. p. 185. 



