ness, or rays, of the sun; and 'Ra,' the power supposed to reside in the sun. We find the names of their God enclosed in two royal rings, shewing that they ascribed to him a regal character. The names thus enclosed read 'Ra' of the two solar abodes, who rejoices in the solar abode in his name Muce-ra, who is in Aten-ra."

Zoroaster and his followers (I do not mean those holding the opinions of the Zend-Avesta,) generally speak of but one deity, though it is evident that they worshipped a triad or triads, just as the sculptures of the sun-worshippers in Egypt uniformly represented but one object of adoration, although that people, also, evidently worshipped a kind of triad. It appears to me from the dif ferent names given to the god of the sun-worshippers that they adored one god whom they supposed to be resident in the sun, and operating through its rays, and yet that they worshipped this god through the medium of the sun and its rays. These evidently correspond to the fire, the sun, or light, and the Ether of the Zoroastrian triad originating from a monad. The only one of these correspondences that appears at first sight strained, is that of Ether in the Zoroastrian triad, with the god supposed to reside in the sun by the sun-worshippers in Egypt; but the objection is removed when we remember that the Ether of Zoroaster corresponds to the soul or spirit of the universe of some of the ancient theologists and some of the philosophers. How interesting is it to see in the earliest monuments of Asiatic nations of which the date is proved, the first records of that religion, which so widely prevailed in Asia, for so many ages, and which is not yet extinct.*

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Nothing, perhaps," says Mr. Cory, in his very learned work, (Ancient Fragments, page 354,) "is more uniformly insisted on among the heathens, than that their Trinity was a Triad Subordinate to a Monad; which Monad was clearly one of those two independent principles, which were conceived to have existed before the forma tion of the world, and was the Etherial Intellectual principle of the Universe, which was in a manner superse

*See Voltaire's Analysis of the Platonic Trinity in Hey's Lectures on Divinity, vol. i., pp. 488, 2 vol., ed. W.

ded by the Triad. The Triad is likewise maintained to be Phanes or Eros, the Sun, the Soul and Ruler of the World.

To ascertain the person of this triad, then, I shall merely place the most ancient speculations upon the subject under one another; but at the same time I would observe, that it is one of those questions, which, for want of sufficient evidence, is incapable of being brought to the test of absolute demonstration.

From the different Orphic fragments we find that the Orphic Trinity consisted of

Metis,

Which are interpreted,

Phanes, or Eros,

Ericaprus.

Power,

Intellect,

Intellect,

Ether.

Ether.

Father.

Soul or Spirit.

By the ancient Theologists, according to Macrobius,

the Sun was invoked in the Mysteries as

Power of

the world,

Light of

the world,

Spirit of the world.

To which may, perhaps, be added from Sanchoniatho

the three sons of Genus,

Fire,

Light,

Flame.

By omitting the earth, water, and other materials, which in the formation of the world, are elsewhere disposed of, and passing over the refinements of the Pythagoreans, who sometimes even deviated so far as to place the (rayasov) first cause, as the Monad, and the three concauses as the Triad, I think we may find in the above enumeration sufficient ground for maintaining the opinion that the persons of the Trinity of the Gentiles, viewed under a physical aspect, were regarded as the Fire, the Light, and the Spirit or Air, of the Etherial fluid substance of the heavens, which in a Metaphysical aspect were held to be no other than the Power or Will, the Intellect or Reason, and the Spirit or Affections of the Soul of the World; accordingly, as the prior Monad was contemplated in its Etherial or Intellectual substance. *******

***** The numerous passages in the Scriptures in which the Persons of the Christian Trinity are shadowed forth by the same natural and mental powers which I suppose to constitute the original triad of the Gentiles, are too numerous to require to be specifically referred to. The Father is continually typified as a Fire accepting the sacrifices, consuming and punishing the guilty, as the Lord of all power and might, to whom all prayers are commonly addressed; the Son, as Light, as a Mediator, and a Teacher, enlightening the understanding, addressing himself more particularly to the Intellect, pointing out the distinctions between good and evil; the Spirit, as Spirit or Air, a mighty rushing wind, opening upon the Affections, Feelings, or Emotions. We are commanded by the Christian faith to look to the Son for knowledge, to obey his instructions, and to accept the conditions of salvation he has offered, to the Spirit, for grace to influence us in all our feelings, wishes and intentions ;-and to the Father, our prayers are to be directed for the power to act.

ARTICLE VII.

AMBITION REBUKED,

Or Self-abasement and Self-denial the necessary condi tions of Greatness in Christ's Kingdom:

This was the third time, within the space of a few months, that the Saviour found it necessary to reprove the ambition of his disciples. Journeying in Galilee, "they had by the way disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest." As they were sitting in the house, after they had reached Capernaum, the Master asked them "what was it that ye disputed among your selves by the way?" and when ashamed to tell," they held their peace;" he endeavoured to eradicate the evil feeling which had prompted their discussion, by showing them the nature of preeminence in his kingdom,"if any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all." This was not the preëmi nence that could excite or gratify the feeling of ambition. Then, to illustrate the spirit which they ought to cultivate, "he called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of Heaven."

Some months after this occurrence, as they were on their way to Jerusalem, when the two sons of Zebedee had, through their mother, asked for the chief places in his kingdom, and the rest had been moved to indignation at this attempt to gain what they conceived to be an advantage over them, Jesus called them unto him and said, "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles ex

* A Sermon, preached at the opening of the General Assembly in Buf falo, May 18th, 1854, from Luke xxii: 26: "But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth rule." Written out from short notes, for the Review, by request. Various accidental causes have combined to delay its transmission hitherto.-[EDB. S. P. R.

be

ercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them; but it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him your minister, and whosever will be chief among you, let him be the servant of all." On this occasion he taught them still more clearly and fully, that preëminence in his kingdom could be won only by foregoing all the advantages which rank and power are supposed to confer on their possessors in the kingdoms of this world, and that the greatest in that kingdom was to be he of whom was to be required the most absolute and unqualified resignation of all that made distinction and authority the objects of men's desires. This view of their duty, and of the principle on which it rested, he enforced and illustrated by an appeal to his own example,-"for even the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

And now, even on the very night before his crucifixion, we find this same spirit of ambition again kindling a flame in the hearts of his disciples, and our Saviour again directing his efforts to extinguish it. As they sat down to the last meal which they were to take with him on earth, something seems to have occurred which gave rise to the question of superiority. The order in which they attempted to take their places may have occasioned, at that particular time, this unbecoming strife for rank and precedency. After the various admonitions. previously administered to them in consequence of their discussion of this subject, one of them, too, so recently, it seems scarcely credible that their jealousy and rivalry could have broken forth in words upon this solemn occasion, and it seems most probable that they had only indulged in feelings which they had not dared to utter. Be this as it may-whether this spirit was unuttered or expressed, the Saviour had marked its re-appearance; and earnestly desiring to repress it, as one destructive alike to the personal happiness of his followers and to the interests of his kingdom, he repeated his former instructions with some variety of form, and then proceeded to enforce them, not merely as before, by an appeal to his general course of life as furnishing a model