Page images
PDF
EPUB

rance. We now cheerfully confront them with witnesses of its high antiquity, and general prevalence among the nations, not only from the snowy mountains of Tibet, the dreary forests of Siberia, the Yncas of America, and the amiable islanders of the Pacific Ocean; but from the ancient seats of science on the banks of the Nile, from the temples of India, the literati of Greece and China, and the holy books of the Hebrews. Though Unitarians "are the men, and wisdom may die with them," we also presume "to show our opinion."

The extent and uniformity of the doctrines mentioned, furnish conclusive evidence, that they must have been revealed. They must have been revealed to Adam or his immediate posterity. How else should doctrines become so extensively known, which are not discoverable by any process of human reasoning? By what mode of argumentation could Cain and Abel have been persuaded to kindle the fire of their altars?

How

should savage tribes be satisfied respecting the immortality of the soul, while the greatest philosophers of Athens and Rome* were skeptics respecting this infinitely important doctrine? What is there in nature, that suggests an idea of the Trinity? Why should a Triad be common all over the world, rather than a Decade, or any other number, had not the doctrine of the Trinity been revealed? Does not the existence, especially the extensive prevalence of these opinions

Socrates and Tully.

prove them revelations from heaven ?

Our object is to show, that the belief of a divine Trinity has been general among the nations. We do not contend that pagan Gentiles had uniform or scriptural ideas of the Trinity; but we expect to show, they in general had some obscure information, some faint impressions of a Trinity in the divine Being.

Plato, and more explicitly his followers, exhibit a supposition of a Trinity. Cyril says, that Porphyry, expounding the senti ments of Plato, saith, "that the essence of God proceeds to three Hypostases, or persons; that the supreme God is the supreme Good; that the second is the Creator; that the third is the mundane soul, or universal Spirit." In Plato, Epist. 6, page 323, is the following sentence: "Let this law be constituted by you, and confirmed by an oath, not without obtesting both God, the Imperator of all things, both which are and shall be; and the Father of that Imperator and cause." Clemens Alexandrinus, and others interpret this of God, the Father, and God the Son. Plotinus wrote a book of the three Persons, or Subsistences. The first he makes the supreme, eternal being, who generated the second. Cyril says, "he contemplated not the whole right, but in the same manner as they, who follow Arius; he divides and supposes subjects, inducing Hypostases [or persons] subordinate among themselves, and conceits the holy and con

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

substantial Trinity to be three distinct Gods." We find frequent mention of a Trinity among the later Platonists of the Alexandrian school.* The learned Cudworth says, we may reasonably conclude, that what Proclus asserts of the Trinity was true, as it was contained in the Chaldaic oracles. It was at first a theology of divine tradition or revelation, or a divine Cabala ; among the Hebrews first, and from them communicated to the Egyptians and other nations.

Diodorus Siculus bestows the highest encomiums on Hermes Trismegistus, as the founder of the Egyptian learning, and it is said he received his name "from his teaching the doctrine of the Trinity." The Chronicum Alexandrinum relates, that there lived among the Egyptians the first of the family of Chaan Sesostris, who held that there were three principal powers, virtues, or forms in God, for which reason he was called Hermes Trismegistus. Suidas says that Hermes Trismegistus was SO named, because he asserted that there was a Trinity, and that in the Trinity was but one Deity. The learned Morneus observes, that Hermes Trismegistus used the same words re specting the Trinity, which were afterwards used by the apostle John. The Greeks called Christ Logos. Zeno and John called the Creator of the world Logos. Lactantius and Tertullian say, that Trismegistus, and the Sybils obtained a tradition, that God created all things by his coomnipotent Son. Many authors Suppose Trismegistus was Mo

• Gale,

[blocks in formation]

Hermes Paemander calls the Word, the Son of God, co-essential and co-eternal with the Fa ther, the Creator of the world. He speaks of the divine Spirit, as the nourisher and imparter of life, the supporter and ruler of all other spirits, and concludes an address to the three persons thus, "O Lord, thou art one God."

Sanchoniathon, who flourished about thirteen centuries before Christ, confirms the truth, that the neighbouring nations belieyed the doctrine of a Trinity. In explaining the hieroglyphics of the Phenician worship, he says, "Jove is a winged sphere out of which proceeds a serpent." The sphere or circle represents the divine nature without beginning or end. The serpent is his Word, which animates and enriches the world; the wings are emblems of the Spirit of God! Dr. Stuckely, who wrote in the early part of the last century, confirms and illustrates this opinion. He says, "this symbol," the snake and circle, "is grav en on the ancient temple at Aubury [in England,] on innume rable Egyptian monuments; always holds the uppermost, the first, and chief place, which shows its high dignity." He denies that this was an Egyptian invention, "The Egyptians took this, and hieroglyphic writ ing in general, from the com mon ancestors of mankind. This is proved from the universality

it

of the thing, reaching from China in the east, to Britain and America, in the west." Aris totle says that he and others of fered a threefold sacrifice in acknowledgment of the threefold perfections in the Gods.

Calcidius, a disciple of Plato, distinguished the divine nature into the Father, and the Son, who created the world, and the Spirit, who enlivens. The first arranging, the second commanding, and the third actuating all things. Plotinus, another ancient philosopher, asserts, that the doctrine of the Trinity was an ancient opinion before the time of Plato, and delivered down from the Pythagoreans to the Platonists,

Mr. Maurice, in his Indian An tiquities, assures us, that one of the most prominent features in the Indian theology, is the doctrine of a Trinity. Brakma, Veeshnu, and Seeva constitute the grand Hindoo triad of Deity, He says this doctrine is found in nearly all the systems of oriental theology. In the Geeta of India the doctrine of a Trinity was written fifteen hundred years before the birth of Plato.

In the oracles of Zoroaster, who by some is considered the grandson of Ham, and by others the son or grandson of Noah, are the following remarkable expressions; "Where the pater, nal monad is, that paternal monad amplifies itself, and generates a duality for a triad of Deity shines forth through the whole world, of which a monad is the head." In a succeeding passage, the three persons of the Trinity are named. "And there appeared in this triad, virtue, wisdom, and truth, that know all

things. This answers to the Kather, (virtue) the Cochma, (wisdom) and Binah, (intelligence) of the Hebrews. Plutarch, though he himself rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, informs us, that Zoroaster is said to have made a threefold distribution of things. He assigned the highest rank to Oromasdes, who is called the Father, the middle to Mithras, who is called the second mind, and the lowest to Ahrimenes.

That the doctrine of the Trinity is of the highest antiquity, has been inferred from the carvings in the temple of Elephanta, an island five miles from Bombay. These carvings have been reck, oned among the most inexplica ble wonders of the world. So many ages have they defied the mouldering hand of time, so remote is their antiquity, that no history records their design; no annals of other times relate the era in which they were formed; no tradition tells the names of the artists by whom they were executed. The doctrine of the Trinity explains the mystery, In the most conspicuous part of the oldest temple, perhaps, in the world, the traveller beholds with surprise and amazement a bust of the presiding God. The bust formed from the solid rock is twenty feet in breadth, and eighteen in height, having three heads, and adorned with all the symbols of the most ancient theology of India. This is a sacred and venerable witness, giving his testimony to the solemn fact, that in the remotest ages of the world the inhabitants of India adored a triune God. Though it be not attempted to explain, nor fully to illustrate the modal existence of

Deity, yet perhaps no conception of man could be more happy, or more satisfy the inquisitive mind, than this image in the island of Elephanta. There we see a representation of three intelligences, and one being.

The very names of the ancient heathen gods, as well as their triple form, often expressed a trinity of persons. Mercury was called Triceps; Bacchus, Triambus; and Hecate, Tergimini. In Europe, Diana was called Triformis, triple, or threefold, and was represented with three heads, Proserpine, another Roman deity, according to Porphyry and Eusebius, gives this account of herself: "I am called," says she, "of a threefold nature, and also three headed. Three are my symbols; I bear three similitudes or images."

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

ferent sources these waters of strife flow; but they are all bitter to the taste. The uneasiness occasioned by rivals is one trouble common to the aspiring of every class. And it seems peculiarly unfortunate, that this trouble increases in direct proportion, as the man advances in the path of renown. The very thing aimed at, is superiority to others; or the possession of uncommon, or singular qualities. The more competitors, therefore, the ambitious man leaves behind him, the more will he be exasperated that any should remain. But rivals will always exist, even in the opinion of the blindest self-conceit.

Persons eminent in any walk of life cannot but know, that others have riches, beauty, wit, learning, eloquence, honour, or whatever they may make their boast, as well as themselves. Ahithophel and Haman are not the only statesmen, who have exhibited extreme mortification at the influence of others. In evefy community there are many instances of the same principle causing the same unhappiness in kind, if not in degree. But if rivals are not at hand, they will be sought after till they are found. What does it avail a man to be the first in this or that little territory, while he has many equals or superiors within his knowledge? If not to be found. in the same nation or age, the annals of history will be searched, and foreign countries traversed, to find a person, with whom disadvantageous comparisons can be made. The victo-, rious Corsican, though his eye should meet no object now in being, which he would dignify with

the name of a rival, may yet find another tomb of Achilles, at which to express his discontent and vexation.

Another prominent evil attending every kind of ambition, is the probability, which borders on certainty, that the pursuer will never obtain even the external object, in the pursuit of which he is so earnestly engaged. Few, very few of those, who desire it, can be poets, orators, ministers of state, Presidents, Consuls, or Emperors. Many of those, who set out in the career of glory, scarcely leave the goal, before they perceive the utter hopelessness of maintaining the struggle; and small indeed is the number of those, whose courage, or perseverance, or ability does not fail them, long before they approach the end of the race. Among the highest, few are as high as they could wish, and thousands are totally disappointed, to one, who in any measure succeeds. Of all dreams, none are so easily en couraged, as those of fame while none are more vain and shadowy. It is easy to imagine one's self a poet, surpassing Homer, Shakespeare, and Milton; and crowned with chaplets of flowers, by wondering cotemporaries, as well as read and admired by succeeding ages. But, alas! this makes not a poet. It is easy in imagination to place one's self at the head of eloquence; heard at the bar, or on the bench as an oracle; reverenced and followed by the senate; adored by the people, as the defender of their rights, and the bulwark of their liberties; ruling every audience with absolute sway, the hearts of the hearers

vibrating to every modulation of the voice, and prepared to exe cute every mandate of the eye. But to be an orator is a far different thing. It is easy for fancy to personate the leader of a great and victorious army, a leader, by whose wisdom in council, and whose prowess in the field, the interests of a mighty kingdom have been favourably decided; with enemies humbled, and sueing for peace, with rivals compelled to lay aside their jealousy, and unitedly presenting the meed of superior merit; emulated by officers, as the model of military greatness, venerated by soldiers, as a delivering angel. It is easy to pursue the illusion farther, and see himself enter the capital cities of a nation sav ed from danger by his arm, drawn in a triumphal car by an enraptured populace, hearing the revival of commerce, the renew, al of industry, the return of peace, ascribed to his achieve. ments, and hailed as the saviour of his country. dreams have young men, but they do not all make a general. To be a poet, the possession of such mental powers, as fall scarcely to one in ten thousand, and the blessings of friends, edu cation, health, and industry, which meet almost as rarely, must be enjoyed; to be an orator, the labour of profound inves tigation and wearisome study, the noise and exercise of the fo rum, and the heat of earnest debate, must be added to many other things of difficult attainment; to be a general, the fatigue of many campaigns must be endur ed; and knowledge must be ob tained, not in the morning walk or the evening shade, but amid

Many such

« PreviousContinue »