188 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



marked an allusion to what a people, surrounded 

 by idolatrous polytheists, might readily construe 

 into the existence of a plurality of Gods : the 

 knowledge, therefore, of this mystery was confined 

 to such as were thought fit to receive so im- 

 portant a secret ; and thus dangerous speculations 

 and perversions were obviated, of which the fancies 

 of an ignorant people, predisposed to idolatry, 

 would not have failed to take advantage. 



It is unnecessary to enter into the question re- 

 specting the connection between the name of Ihoah 

 and the nature of man, as represented in the second 

 chapter of Genesis ; but 1 have considered it proper, 

 in noticing the adoption of the two, Elohim and 

 Ihoah, to show the possibility of the Egyptian no- 

 tions of a Trinity having been derived from early 

 revelation, handed down through the posterity of 

 Noah ; and I now proceed to mention some other 

 remarkable coincidences with scriptural data. 



Of these, the most singular are the character 

 of Osiris, and the connection between ti'uth and 

 the creative power. In the latter, we trace the 

 notion, which occurs in the Christian belief, that 

 the Deity " of his own will begat us with the word 

 of truth* ;'' and not only do the sculptures of the 

 earliest periods express the same, and connect the 

 Goddess of Truth with Pthah the creative power, 

 but lamblichus also, in treating of the ancient 

 mysteries, asserts it in these words : *' Whereas he 



* Epistle Gen. of James, i. 18. Orpheus says, " I call to witness 

 the word of the fatiier, which he first spoke, when he established the 

 universe by his will." — Justin Martyr, Orat. ad Gentes, 



