wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted, and

Chap. IV.veneratur orbis,Cneph (^r Emeph) andViha.the tvhole world ii'orjhippeth one only ftipreme Numen'/« a multiformmanner, under different names, and with different rites. Which differentnames for one and the fame fupreme God might therefore be miftakenby fonie of the fottifli vulgar amongft the Pagans, as weJl as they havebeen by learned men of thefe later times,-for fo many diftindt, unmade and fclfexiftentdeities.25 JNeverthelefs, here may well be a queftion ftarted, whether amongll thofefeveral Egyptian names of God, fome might not fignify diftindl divine hypoftafesfubordinate ; and particularly, whether there were not fome footftepsof a trinity to be found in the old Egyptian theology ? For fince Orpheus,Pythagoras and Plato, who all of them aflerted a trinity of divine hypoftafes,unqueftionably derived much of their doiftrine from the Egyptians, it mayreafonably be fiifpedled, that thefe Egyptians did the like before them.And indeed Athanafius Kircherus makes no doubt at all hereof, but tells usthat, in the Pamphylian obelifk, that firft hieroglyphick of a winged globe,with a ferpent coming out of it, was the Egyptian hieroglyphick of a triformDeity, or trinity of divine hypoftafes ; he confirming the fame, fromthe teftimony oi Abenephius an Arabian writer, and a Chaldaick fragment imputedto Sanchoniathon ; the globe being laid to fignify the firft incomprehenfibleDeity, without beginning or end, fclf-exiftent -, the ferpent thedivine wifdom and creative virtue ; and laftly, the wings that adive fpirit,that cheriflieth, quickneth, and enlivenech all things. How far credit is tobe given to this, we leave others to judge ; but the clearell footfteps thatwe can find any where of an Egyptian trinity is in Jamblichus his book,written concerning their myfteries ; which whole place therefore is worth thefetting down : Kxt oIaXw oi ra^iv Trpo-rTarlfi [Ef y.iif] S-Eov tov ''H,u)i!p, run iTT^rfocviav Bcuv JiJ'H^tKJv, hv Cpri(riu vtsv tivai ocutov ix-jrov voisvTX, x^ raj voricriii; £if lauTOviwtj-pfipovTa;. T»t» ^£ 'iv ufj-tftc, x, o (pn