CHAPTER VII.

τι γαρ έςι Πλατων,

Η Μωσης Ατζικίζων;

The Chaldæan and Egyptian, being the Source of the GREEK, Theology; the Doctrines relative to a Trinity taught by PYTHAGORAS, PARMENIDES, and PLATO, ought not to be wondered at, nor their true Allufion denied. The extenfive Travels of Pythagoras and Plato into the Higher Afia and Egypt detailed. Their respective TRINITIES, and that of PARMENIDES, NUMENIUS, and the later Greek Philofophers, confidered. A retrospective Summary of the Whole of the Argument on the Chriftian and Pagan Trinities in the preceding Chapters.

A

FTER the numerous quotations, in the preceding pages, from the Grecian philofophers, most eminent in the Pagan world, quotations which demonftrate they were by no means unimpreffed with notions on this point, fimilar to those entertained by the

more ancient fages of Afia; I fhall, perhaps, be excufed from fwelling these pages with an infinite number of paffages that might be selected from the works of Pythagoras, Plato, Parmenides, and others, in additional proof of what has been already advanced on this fubject. I must again repeat, that it was from the fountains of Chaldæan, Perfian, Indian, and Egyptian, learning, that those Grecian fages, as well by the channel of Orpheus as by their own perfonal travels in thofe countries, derived that copious ftream of theological knowledge, which was afterwards, by their difciples, fo widely diffused through Greece and Italy; having, therefore, fuccessfully explored the fource, there is lefs occafion for us to waste our time in minutely tracing the defcending current.

It may, with truth, be affirmed, that, there was scarcely one of all the celebrated philofophers, who established the feveral schools of Greece, diftinguished by their names, who had not refided, for a confiderable period, either in one or the other of the countries juft mentioned. A production of the evidence, on which this affertion is founded, will probably be confidered of no small weight in this difcuffion.

Let

Let us commence our retrofpect with the travels of Pythagoras, who flourished in the fixth century, before the birth of Chrift. According to the account of his difciple Jamblichus, the first voyage of Pythagoras, in purfuit of knowledge, after the completion of his academical exercifes at Samos, was to Sidon, his native place, where he was early initiated into all the myfterious rites and fciences of Phoenicia, a country whence, I have before obferved, the elder Taut emigrated to Egypt, and where the profound Samothracian orgia and the Cabiric rites were first instituted. From Phoenicia, our philofopher travelled into Egypt, and there, with an unabated avidity after fcience, as well as with unexampled perfeverance, continued, under the fevereft poffible difcipline, purpofely impofed upon him by the jealous priests of that country, during two-and-twenty years, fucceffively to imbibe the stream of knowledge at Heliopolis, at Memphis, and at Diofpolis, or Thebes. Aftonished at his exemplary patience and abftinence, the haughty Egyptian priesthood relaxed from their eftablished rule of never divulging the arcana of their theology to a stranger; for, according to another

E e 2

Jamblichus, in Vita Pythag. cap. 13.

more ancient fages of Afia; I fhall, perhaps, be excufed from fwelling these pages with an infinite number of paffages that might be selected from the works of Pythagoras, Plato, Parmenides, and others, in additional proof of what has been already advanced on this fubject. I must again repeat, that it was from the fountains of Chaldæan, Perfian, Indian, and Egyptian, learning, that those Grecian fages, as well by the channel of Orpheus as by their own perfonal travels in thofe countries, derived that copious stream of theological knowledge, which was afterwards, by their difciples, fo widely diffused through Greece and Italy; having, therefore, fuccessfully explored the fource, there is lefs occafion for us to waste our time in minutely tracing the defcending current.

It may, with truth, be affirmed, that, there was scarcely one of all the celebrated philofophers, who established the feveral schools of Greece, diftinguished by their names, who had not refided, for a confiderable period, either in one or the other of the countries just mentioned. A production of the evidence, on which this affertion is founded, will probably be confidered of no small weight in this difcuffion.

Let

Let us commence our retrofpect with the travels of Pythagoras, who flourished in the fixth century, before the birth of Chrift. According to the account of his disciple Jamblichus, the first voyage of Pythagoras, in purfuit of knowledge, after the completion: of his academical exercifes at Samos, was to Sidon, his native place, where he was early initiated into all the myfterious rites and fciences of Phoenicia, a country whence, I have before obferved, the elder Taut emigrated to Egypt, and where the profound Samothracian orgia and the Cabiric rites were first instituted. From Phoenicia, our philofopher travelled into Egypt, and there, with an unabated avidity after fcience, as well as with unexampled perfeverance, continued, under the fevereft poffible difcipline, purposely imposed upon him by the jealous priests of that country, during two-and-twenty years, fucceffively to imbibe the ftream of knowledge at Heliopolis, at Memphis, and at Diofpolis, or Thebes. Astonished at his exemplary patience and abftinence, the haughty Egyptian priesthood relaxed from their eftablished rule of never divulging the arcana of their theology to a stranger; for, according to another

Ee 2

* Jamblichus, in Vita Pythag, cap. 13.