gos, his first begotten Son." The duration of created things he ascribes to this cause; that they were framed by Him, who remains; and who is never in any respect changed; the Divine Logos." Finally; he calls the Logos an Angel; the Name of God; a Man; the Beginning; the Eternal Image; the most ancient Angel; the Archangel, of many names; and the High Priest of this world; and says, "His head is anointed with oil."

The Chaldee Paraphrasts, and other Jewish commentators, speak of this subject in a similar manner.

They speak of the Mimra, the Hebrew term, rendered in the Greek Aoyos, and in the English Word, as "the Word from before the Lord," or which is before the Lord; as a Redeemer; as only begotten; as the Creator. They say, "the Word of the Lord said, "Behold Adam, whom I have created, is the only begotten in the world; as I am the only begotten in the highest heavens." They paraphrased the text, Genesis iii. 8, And they heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in the garden, thus: "They heard the Word of the Lord God," &c.

Several Jewish commentators say, that "it was the Voice which was walking."

One of them says, that "Our first parents, before their sin, saw the Glory of God speaking to them; but after their sin, they only heard the Voice walking."

Philo and Jonathan both say, that "it was the Word of God, which appeared unto Hagar."

Jonathan says, "God will receive the prayer of Israel by his Word." Paraphrasing Jer. xxix. 14, he says, "I will be sought by you in my Word."

The Jerusalem Targum, or Paraphrase, says, " Abraham prayed in the name of the Word of the Lord, the God of the world."

Jonathan says also, "God will atone by his Word for his land, and for his people; even a people saved by the Word of the

Lord.”

Psalm cx. 1. They paraphrase, "The Lord said unto his Word," instead of My Lord, as in the original.

The Jewish commentators say, "there are three Degrees in the Mystery of Aleim, or Elohim; and these degrees they call Persons. They say, "They are all one, and cannot be separated."

Deut. vi. 4. Hear, O Israel! JEHOVAH, our Aleim, is one JEHOVAH, is thus rendered by the Author of the Jewish Book Zohar; "The Lord, and our God, and the Lord, are One." In his comment on this passage the Author says, "the LORD, or JEHOVAH, is the beginning of all things, and the perfection of all things; and he is called the Father. The other, or our God, is the depth or the fountain of sciences; and is called the Son. The other, or Lord, he is the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from them both, &c. Therefore he says, Hear, O Israel! that is, join together this Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and make him One Essence;

One Substance; for whatever is in the One is in the other. He hath been the whole; he is the whole; and he will be the whole."

Again; "What is the name of King Messiah? Rabbi Akiba hath said, JEHOVAH is his name. As it is declared, Jer. xxiii. 6, And this is his name, by which they shall call him, Jehovah, our Right

eousness.

These Commentators, also, call him the Branch; the Comforter; Gracious; Luminous; &c.

And again; "The Holy God calls the King Messiah by his name: JEHOVAH is his name: for it is said, Exodus vii. 1, The Lord is a man of war; Jehovah is his name."

To these explicit, and unquestionable testimonies I shall now add a collection of others, of a different nature, but scarcely less decisive.

In the concise history of the Creation Moses says, more than thirty times, Aleim, that is, Gods, created: the noun being plural, and the verb singular, in every instance. These the Jewish Paraphrasts explain by JEHOVAH; his WORD, that is, his Son; and his WISDOM, or Holy Spirit; which they call three Degrees. These three, they assert, are One; and declare them to be One, inseparable JEHOVAH. This doctrine the Jews have exhibited in a variety of methods; clear, convincing, and impressive. These I shall now proceed to exhibit, after having premised a remarkable sentence from Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh, or Judah the Holy, in which the doctrine of the Jewish Church is declared in the most explicit manner. "God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Three in Unity, One in Trinity." This Rabbi flourished in the second century.

With this preface I observe,

1st. That the Form of blessing, used by the Jewish Priests, and the mode of administering it, when they blessed the congregation, strongly exhibited the doctrine of the Trinity.

This form of blessing is prescribed in Numbers vi. 24-26, JEHOVAH bless thee, and keep thee. JEHOVAH make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious to thee. JEHOVAH lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

This blessing, according to Rabbi Menachen, was pronounced in a different accent, during the utterance of each part; and, according to an account given by two other Rabbis, with the hand lifted up, and the three first fingers of the hand extended; the little finger being at the same time closed. This, they say, was done to express a Triad, or Trinity, in the Godhead.

2dly. The Jews anciently used a solemn symbol of the Deity, which they called Sephiroth; a word commonly signifying Enumerations, but used by their learned men to denote Splendours. These are sometimes exhibited in the form of a tree, with its branches extended; and sometimes by ten concentric circles: that figure being the symbol of perfection. All these splendours

A

L

are represented as issuing from the supreme and infinite Source, as light from the Sun.

Of this tree Rabbi Schabte says, "There are three degrees; the root, the stem, and the branches; and these three are one." By this he intends, that the infinite Source, and the other two Degrees, are one, and inseparable.

In the symbol of the circles, the three superior circles are called the Crown, Wisdom, and Understanding. "These," Rabbi Isaac, a famous and learned Jew, says, "are the highest Numerations, which possess one throne, on which sits the holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts." Two other celebrated Jewish Doctors say, "These are the Voice, the Spirit, and the Word; and these are One." And Rambam, the most celebrated of them all, says, "The Crown is the primordial Spirit of the living Aleim; and his Wisdom is a Spirit from the Spirit; and the Understanding, Waters from the Spirit; and between these, though thus distinguished, there is no distinction in essence; because the end is annexed to the beginning, and the beginning to the end, and the middle is comprehended by them."

The remaining Sephiroth denoted the attributes of God.

The ancient Jews applied the three first letters of the incommunicable name, JEHOVAH, to denote the three superior Splendours, viz. Jod, He, Vau; and the second He, or the last letter, denoted, according to them, the two natures of the second Splendour, or person.

3dly. The ancient Jews wrote the name of God symbolically, by including three Jods within a circle, and subscribing under the Jods, and within the circle, the vowel Kametz.

The circle was the figure denoting perfection. The three Jods were the beginning letter of the word JEHOVAH, thrice repeated, to denote the three persons in the Godhead. The Kametz was the point of perfection, and denoted the same thing with the circle, and the Unity, of the Divine Essence.

4thly. Another method, used by the Jews to denote God, was to include in a square three radii, or points, disposed in the form of a crown. The crown seems to have denoted the dignity and supremacy of the object designed, and the number three, the three Persons of the Godhead.

5thly. The letter Schin was another emblem of the Most High, in use among the Jews.

This letter, which is the first in the word Shaddai, the Almighty; one of the Scriptural names of God; is formed of three branches, alike in size and figure, especially as written in the ancient or Samaritan character, and united in one stem. This letter was distinctly written on those phylacteries, which the Jews wore upon their heads.

6thly. The Equilateral triangle, with three small circles at the angles, and the letter Jod inscribed over against the upper angle, was

another Jewish symbol of the Deity. The three sides indicated the three persons of the Godhead; and the equal length of the sides their equality; while the Jod was a direct proof that Jehovah was intended by the emblem. The three circles probably denoted the perfection of the three Persons.

7thly. The Jews also delineated the sphere, or representation of the Universe, as holden by three hands; two at the sides, and one at the bottom. Near the hands were inscribed the three Hebrew letters, Aleph, Daleth, and Schin; the initials of the three Hebrew words for truth, judgment, and peace. The same letters were also inscribed immediately above the sphere.

Such is the testimony of the Jewish Church concerning this subject, composed on the one hand of direct declarations, and on the other of symbols equally definite and certain; especially as explained by their own commentators. These prove, beyond a reasonable debate, that the ancient Jewish Church held, uniformly, the doctrine of the Trinity. The later Jews have, indeed, denied it; but to this denial they have been led, merely by their hatred to Christianity.

I shall now proceed to mention the opinion of the Heathen nations concerning this subject.

1st. The Hindoos have, from the most remote antiquity, holden a Triad in the Divine nature.

The name of the Godhead among these people is Brahme. The names of the three persons in the Godhead are Brahma, Veeshnu, and Seeva. Brahma they considered as the Father, or supreme Source; Veeshnu as the Mediator, whom they assert to have been incarnate; and Sceva as the Destroyer, and Regenerator: destruction being in their view nothing but the dissolution of preceding forms, for the purpose of reviving the same being in new ones.

The three faces of Brahma, Veeshnu, and Seeva, they always formed on one body, having six hands; or two to each person. This method of delineating the Godhead is ancient beyond tradition, universal, uncontroverted, and carved every where in their places of worship; particularly in the celebrated cavern in the Island of Elephanta.

2dly. Equally well known is the Persian Triad; the names of which were ORMUSD, MITHR, AND AHRIMAN; called by the Greeks OROMASDES, MITHRAS, and ARIMANIUS. Mithras was commonly styled Tradios. Among them, as well as among the Hindoos, the second person in the Triad was called the Mediator, and regarded as the great Agent in the present world.

In the Oracles ascribed to Zerdusht, or Zoroaster, the famous Persian Philosopher, are the following declarations.

"Where the Eternal Monad is, it amplifies itself, and generates a Duality."

"A Triad of Deity shines forth throughout the whole world, of which a Monad is the head."

"For the mind of the Father said, that all things should be divided into Three; whose will assented, and all things were divided."

"And there appeared in this Triad, Virtue, Wisdom, and Truth, who knew all things."

"The Father performed all things, and delivered them over to the Second mind, whom the nations of men commonly suppose to be the First."

The third Person, speaking of himself, says, "I Psyche, or Soul, dwell next to the Paternal mind, animating all things."

3dly. The Egyptians, also, acknowledged a Triad, from the earliest antiquity, whom they named originally OSIRIS, CNEPH, and PHTHA; and afterwards Osiris, Isis, and Typhon. These Persons they denoted by the symbols Light, Fire, and Spirit. They represented them, also, on the doors, and other parts of their sacred buildings, in the three figures of a Globe, a Wing, and a Serpent. Abenephius, an Arabian Writer, says, that "by these the Egyptians shadowed Θεον τρίμορφον ; or God in three forms.

One of the Egyptian fundamental axioms of Theology, as given by Damascius, and cited by Cudworth, is, "There is one Principle of all things, praised under the name of the Unknown Darkness, and this thrice repeated."

In the Books, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus is the following passage.

"There hath ever been one great, intelligent Light, which has always illumined the Mind; and their union is nothing else but the Spirit, which is the Bond of all things."

Here light and mind are spoken of as two Persons, and the Spirit as the third; all declared to be eternal.

Jamblichus, a Platonic Philosopher, styled by Proclus the Divine, declares, that "Hermes speaks of Eicton as the first of intelligences, and the first intelligible; and of Cneph, or Emeph, as the Prince of the Celestial Gods; and of the Demiurgic, or creating, Mind, as a third to these. Jamblichus calls these the Demiurgic Mind, the Guardian of Truth, and Wisdom.

4thly. The Orphic Theology, the most ancient recorded in Grecian history, taught the same doctrine.

In the abridgment of this Theology by Timotheus, the Chronographer, are found its most important and characteristical doctrines. Of these the fundamental one is, that an Eternal, Incomprehensible Being exists, who is the Creator of all things. This supreme and eternal Being is styled in this Theology, ws,B8λn, Zwn; Light, Counsel, Life.

Suidas, speaking of these three, says, "they express only one and the same power." Timotheus says further, that Orpheus declared "All things to have been made by One Godhead in three names; or rather by these names of One Godhead; and that this Godhead is all things."