philosophy of Greece and Rome, and with its mythological clothing is the universal language of their poetry. Among the well-known and positive evidences of such an existing belief is the Platonic Dialogue between Socrates and Alcibiades; wherein not only the necessity of a particular relation is set forth, but the expectation also of a particular person who was to come and teach it. Nay, when the question is asked, who the person is that will do it, even the present and superintending care of an Almighty Being is marked and defined:-" He is one "(says Socrates) who is now caring for you."-Oos 2519 ω μελε περί σου. The same may be said of the famous Pollio of Virgil, wherein the poet, appearing to be copying almost the prophecy of Daniel-He that was to come was to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity-(Dan. ix. 24) thus addresses the expected offspring,

"Te Duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri

Irrita, perpetuâ solvent formidine terras."

"Under thy conduct, whatever marks of our sin remain shall be blotted out, and free the earth from perpetual fear." To see this, with various other testimonies, placed in the strongest points of view, the reader has only to consult that invaluable work, "Letters on the Septuagint." In short, the original revelation of the desire of all nations is every where legible; and the subsisting traces of it, wherever they can be distinguished, confirm the universal tradition of the advent of the great Emanuel.

It would, however, be doing an injustice not only to this subject, but to the Christian cause in general, were I to pass by unnoticed the work of Mr. Whitaker on "The Origin of Arianism;"-a work so replete with erudition and deep research, and establishing upon such a solid foundation the antiquity of the faith in Christ Jesus, that (to express myself in his own language, and applying it, as I sincerely do, to this master-piece of critical enquiry)" whilst he is seeking for his Redeemer amidst the "clouds of heathenism, he never loses him again in the "gathering thickness of the atmosphere;" but through the pages of the historian, the poet, and the philosopher, has followed the evangelical Restorer of Man from age to age till He appears himself to preach the glad tidings of his salvation.

Supported by such opinions, I shall not be thought singular for totally differing from a writer of much eminence in the literary world; and who, in a late treatise* of elaborate discussion, endeavours to prove, that a Trinity of persons in the Divine nature was the genuine and peculiar doctrine of the primitive Christian church, that the Platonic writings never so much as glimpsed at the mysterious doctrine, and that the whole of Plato's philosophy may be resolved into his own sublime conceptions and abstract reasonings on the beauty and har

* An Investigation of the Trinity of Plato, and of Philo Judeus, &c. by Cæsar Morgan, D.D. chaplain to the Bishop of Ely.

mony of the universe, and the order and proportion of its component parts.

I have no inclination to enter into a critical examination of the learned author's reasoning, but if Plato himself acknowledgeth, that he, together with the rest of the Grecians, received their choicest traditions and learning from certain barbarians, more ancient than themselves, but that they put them into a better mode, that is, dressed them up in the Grecian fashion to disguise them; if we know, that both he and his great masters in philosophy sought for instruction among these very barbarians, and were even ridiculed by them for the little they knew of what was most valuable in life, the perfection and nature of the Deity; then the question will be, what was this oriental theology? And this is so satisfactorily answered by the late and much-lamented Sir W. Jones, and the no less ingenious than laborious Mr. Maurice, that if they do not furnish cause to Dr. Morgan for altering his opinion, they will at least prevent those who read them from adopting it, and teach them rather to side with that of the good Clemens-Τι γαρ εςι Πλαίων η Μωσης Ατζικίζων-What is Plato, but Moses conversing in the language of Athens, This may be paying too great a compliment to the Pagan theology, but it is a proof of the source from whence it was thought to spring. Furnished with materials of faith, which they knew not how to explain, the philosophers of Greece endeavoured to work them up into a systematic science; and wise in their own conceits, surrounded with

the fictitious lustre of allegory the traditional records of the Mosaic cosmogony, and the wisdom derived from Divine revelation. Some of the Platonizing fathers fell into the same errors, and wishing to explain what was only given them to believe, consulted philosophical learning, which they considered as a comment on and interpretation of the Trinity, only to bewilder themselves in the labyrinth of mode and essence. But a threefold distinction in the Deity, however distorted by interpretation, or disfigured by emblem, never lost its original stamp; and it is the faith of ancient times we contend for, not the explanation of the doctrines it inculcates. If the faith were not the same, how are we to interpret the 7th Article of our own church? We may safely, therefore, affirm with Plotinus, that the doctrine of a Trinity was mahaia doğa. The Grecian philosophers receiving the doctrine, as it was corrupted, from Egypt or Chaldea, instead of amending it by their ingenuity, did but make it worse. And to sum up all in the words of one of the most able and zealous defenders of its faith the Christian world can boast:-" It is granted," says the late Mr. Jones, "that upon the rise and progress of ido

latry, the most ancient heathens carried off many sub"lime mysteries of the true religion, and purloined more "in after ages from the people of GOD. Yet when they "were in possession of them, they mixed them up with "their own atheistical principles, then strained away the purer part of the mixture, and let it run to waste; so

"that, if we now seek it again from them, there is little "to be found, but their own filthy sediments instead of "it. And if in scattered fragments, borrowed from the "Hebrews, there should be found some dark notices of "the true GOD, yet after all, we are not to form our senti"ments from the heathen theology, but to reform and "correct that by the Christian."*

This appears to me to be a solution to every difficulty. It at once assimilates and separates the Pagan and Christian doctrines; it shews an intellectual Trinity debased into a physical one, and again restored to its purity by Him who came to claim and to shew his participation in the divine essence. For a full elucidation of this subject, we would refer the reader to "Letters on the Septuagint," "Origin of Arianism,' ، Discourses of Sir W. Jones, "

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and the fifth volume of Mr. Maurice's "Indian Antiquities." And among these it would be unpardonable to omit one of the most satisfactory and comprehensive little trads that ever was written, I mean an Essay on the Doctrine of the Trinity, at the conclusion of Mr. Serle's truly Christian book, "Hora Solitariæ."

PAGE 10, LINE 5.

Their unbelief drew down a penalty con

nected with their offence.

THERE will be few readers who will want to be reminded of the truly ingenious work of Mr. Bryant, upon

* Answer to an Essay on Spirit, by the Rev. W. Jones.