THE

NAMES and the ATTRIBUTES

OF THE

TRINITY

OF THE

GENTILES.

SI have given an Explanation of the Names, and fome of the the Attributes of the Objects which the Heathens worshipp'd, in the Second Part of M. P. which concern'd the Subjects there treated of, which as God tells us, Deut. iv. 19. xvii. 3. 2 Kings, xxiii. 5. were, The Light of the Sun, the Light of the Moon, the Light of the Stars, and all

the

and all the Hoft of Heaven. Ifa. xli. 29,

Spirit and in, the loofe Parts in Fire and Light, On their Princes, of which their molten Images were Reprefentatives, and most so, as they thought them melted and form'd by thefe Gods. Epift. of Jer. i. 9, They make Crowns for the Heads of their Gods. V, 60, Sun, Moon, &c. V. 63, But thefe are like unto them neither in Shew nor Power. The Author of Wisdom, chap. xiii. tells us what it was they took for Gods; and next Chapter tells us an idle Story, how Idols came into the World, by making Figures of dead Children, and Images of Tyrants, and other filly Reasons about worshipping of Beasts and other Creatures. Marinus of the Primitive Tongue, p. 133. "Even the Cariba, the moft Savage of all People who have neither Letters nor Writing- call God Chemim, or Shemim, that is the HeavensHierocles on the Golden Verfes of Pythagoras, p. 275. One ought to fearch out the true Meaning of Names in eternal Concerns, efpecially in thofe of a divine Nature; the moft Excellent of all. Hence, it is that the Name Jupiter expreffes the Nature, and is the Symbol and Image of the Architect of all Things Since those who first impofed Names on Things, thro' their great

:

Wisdom,

Wisdom, like Statuaries impreffed on the Names themselves, as Reprefentatives, the Image and Power of the Things reprefented By which means the Sounds of the Names raised in the Mind correfpondent or fimular Ideas; and the Ideas fo raised were true and proper ones, &c." J. Leo's Defcription of Africa, P. 135. "There was a famous Doctor among them, called El Boni, who compofed their Canon, Prayers and Square Tables; which Work, I thought, had more Affinity with Magic than the Cabala -They call the third Part Sirru Lafmei Elchufne; this enumerated the Powers that the ninety-nine Names of God contained in them, which I remember to have seen at a certain Venetian Jew's at Rome." Buxhorn, Quest.p. 7. "So that the whole Polytheism of the Heathens arofe from the Diverfity of natural and vifible Things." Witfius's Egypt, p. 89.-Plutarch. "The great Gods or Demons are those Powers, by whose Operations the Mechanism of Nature is carried on."

The Names, and fome of the Attributes of the Aleim in the Effence exifting, are taken from the Names and Attributes which the Heathens gave to the material VOL. IV.

Rc

Representatives and Agents of the Aleim, for their Operations in Matter, and are claim'd or reclaim'd by the Aleim, or facred Penmen. First, by fhewing that those Agents are his. And, Secondly, by the fame Words which they used for Attributes to thofe Agents, or Words of nearly the fame Signification, which expreffed those Attributes more perfectly; and by fhewing that they had Right to the fame Attributes in the fpiritual Empire, or over the Souls of Men, as thofe material Agents had over the Bodies of Men or Matter, in fuch Points as there can be any Similitude or Comparifon made between Soul and Body: And as Believers had named fome Cities in Memorials of Attributes; as Gen. xiv. 7. fo the Heathens call'd their Cities after the Names of their Gods. Numb. xxxii. 38. Jer. xi. 13, &c. And as the Believers had named Cities, &c. in Memorial of Events paft or to come, by the extraordinary Goodness or Power of their Aleim; as Gen. xix. 22, yy. xxii.

.xxvi .באר לחי ראי,XXV. II .יהיה יראה 14

.יחוה נסי,15 .Exod. xvii .אלון בכות,8 .XXXV

20, pwy. ver. 33, nya. xxxii. 30,

5.

So the Heathens had pretended to do on their Side; fo were the Names of Men on each Side.

And

And as thofe inferted in the faid M. P. and the reft, though many of them be but occafionally named in Scripture, and not feemingly with any Defign to inftruct us, will give not only a clearer Light into that Affair than all that has been writ defignedly, and is preferved in all other Languages: Nay, as that Matter was wholly in the Dark, I may say the first and only Light. And as that will fhew the Difference between the Hebrew Tongue, writ by a divine Hand, and all other Writings writ by human Hands, not only the Certainty in the Hebrew Names of the Attributes of the Deities in Oppofition to those in other Tongues; but the Certainty and Beauty of the Descriptions in Oppofition to those in the Poets, &c. I think proper to infert those, and all others I meet with, in fuch Order as the Substance, and the Distinctions, and Attributes may be viewed and confidered in one Series of Succeffion. And as the true Aleim, in their great Mercy to Believers, were, as Men would exprefs their Actions, forced to alter the Courses or Series of thefe Agents and Powers, to prove that he formed, directed, and controlled them I fhall refer to what I have hinted upon thefe Points, and infert a few of the Claims they have ordered the divine Writers

Q 2