52 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



the philofophy of it can be well explained, or even comprehended, 

 without the affiftance of antient philofophy. To a man who has 

 not ftudlcd the fvftem of the univerfe, as it is delivered to us in the 

 antient books of philofophy, the dodrine of the Trinity muft be a 

 mod incomprehenfible myftery; for he never can comprehend how 

 the out ihould be three^ and the three one : Whereas, from thefe 

 antient books of philofophy, he may learn that the whole fyftem of 

 nature is compofed of one in the many, and inany in the one *. So 

 that, as I have obferved, the Trinity, if it had not been compofed 

 in that way, would have been difconform to the reft of the fyftem 

 of the univerfe. Now, if a man cannot comprehend the do(fLrine 

 of the Trinity, he cannot believe in it, nor confequently can he be- 

 lieve that fundamental principle of the Chriftian religion, that Jefus 

 Chrift is the Son of God, and the Second Pcrfon of the Trinity ; 

 and his eternal generation will be equally incomprehenfible by him, 

 unlefs he has learned that the produdion of an eternal being is eter- 

 nal as well as the being who is the author of the produdion. The 

 ftudy, therefore, of antient philofophy ought to be very much en- 

 couraged by the church, as without it a man can only underftand 

 the popular part of the Chriftian religion, but not the philofophical : 

 So that he cannot be faid to be admitted into the Sandlum San&oru7n, 

 nor to know fo much as Plato learned in Egypt of the philofophy 

 of Chriftianity; I mean the doctrine of the Trinity. 



There are, I know, who think that we do not treat the myfterics 

 of our religion with fufhcient reverence, when we examine them fo 

 curioufly; but that we ought to receive and believe them as reveal- 

 ed to us by God, without any fuch examination. To this I have 

 already given an anfwer, that we cannot truly believe what we do 

 not comprehend or underftand, though we may profefs to believe 

 it. Now, there is the myftery of the Trinity; — of the eternal gener- 

 ation 



* See this enlarged upon in p. 45. of vhis volume. 



