corpus, per quos rationem animi possidemus.* Dii qui funt intrinfecus, atque in intimis penetralibus cæli."+ The worship of a triple power under the former name, Dr. Horsley is of opinion, was carried from Samothrace into Phrygia by Dardanus, fo early as in the ninth century after the flood. The Trojans imported it from Phrygia into Italy; and he afferts, that veftiges of this acknowledgement and adoration of a Trinity are visible in the joint worship of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, the TRIAD of the Roman capitol. "This worship, therefore," observes the Bishop," is plainly traced back to that of the THREE MIGHTY ONES in Samothrace, which was established in that island, at what precise time it is impoffible to determine, but earlier, if Eufebius may be credited, than the days of Abraham."‡ In teftimony of what the learned Bishop has afferted in regard to the introduction of the Trojan gods by Eneas, though it be scarcely Y 3 * Macrobii Saturnalia, lib. iii. cap. 4. Varro apud Arnob. lib. iii. p. 123. See Bishop Horsley's Trats, p. 44, edit. oct. 1789. fcarcely neceffary to cite that well-known pas fage in Virgil, Sum pius Æneas, raptos qui ex hofte PENATES yet it will be highly corroborative of his fue ceeding affertion, that the Cabiri and Dii Penates were of kindred origin, to bring before the view of the reader another paffage in the Æneid, where Auguftus, under the joint protection of the Penates and Dii Magni, is represented as leading his troops to battle against those of Anthony and Cleopatra : Hinc Auguftus, agens Italos in prælia, Cæfar, Eneid, lib. viii. 678, But this was not the first period of the introduction of this notion at Rome: the famous triple figures of fylvan deities dug up in Italy, and called by antiquaries HETRUSCAN, are proofs of this affertion. In most of those countries, where the Romans extended their arms and propagated their theology, the number three was confidered as facred, and a divine Triad was worshipped. In the 54th plate of Montfaucon's Supplement, in his account of Gaulic Antiquities, may be feen affemblages of deities in triple groups. In one of these groups it is not a little remarkable that the centre figure hath fhoes on his feet, as if of fuperior dignity; the other two figures, as if fubordinate, are bare-footed. In Gruter, too, may be feen deities in triple groups, worshipped by the ancient Germans, which they called MAIRE; and one is thus infcribed: In bonorem Domûs divinæ diis Mairabus; in honour of the DIVINE HOUSE to the goddeffes Maire. These goddeffes were, indeed, rural deities, as were the triple SULEVÆ and VACALLINEHÆ, alluded to before, of the Hetrufci; but this notion is eafily to be accounted for in the debafed theology of those who made the Earth the grand primæval deity, and adored it under the female form of Cybele, the mother of gods and men. From these additional instances we fee how remarkably, throughout all the periods of antiquity, this humour of dividing every thing into THREE displayed itself; and whence, except from the fource from which I have derived it, could this general, but mutilated, tradition of a triune God have originated? The FATES, those relentless fifters who weave the web of human life, and fix the inevitable doom of mortals, Y 4 were were three; the FURIES, the dire dispensers of the vengeance of heaven for crimes committed upon earth, were three; the GRACES, who were honoured as divinities, and had a thoufand altars and temples erected to them in Greece, were three; and the celeftial MUSES, according to Varro, were originally included in the fame folemn and mysterious number. CHAPTER CHAPTER IV. The PERSIAN Trinity inveftigated. It confifted of three allegorical Perfonages, denominated OROMASDES, MITHRAS, and AHRIMAN. Their respective Office and Attributes described. - MITHRAS himself often denominated TRIPLASIOS, or Threefold; fometimes the MEDIATOR. The Doctrine patriarchal, originating from the Conviction that Man is a FALLEN CREATURE, wanting a Mediator.Hence the STARS and PLANETS, or, at least, the Genii that guided their Orbs, confidered as Mediatorial alfo, and on this Bafis the SABIAN Superftition erected itself. The DAPHNIC Festival of Greece. Remarkable Refemblance between the Perfian AHRIMAN, the Indian SEEVA, and the Egyptian TYPHON. Battle of the Gods an aftronomical Allegory of the ancient Perfians. The Affertion, that the Idea of a Trinity in the Divine Effence was firft introduced into the Church by Platonizing Chriftians, falfe, fince this patriarchal Diftinc The tion |