jores), and 3×4 labors of Hercules," etc.-Larwood and Hotten's History of Sign Boards, p. 269. According to the theology of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and ancient Greeks, in every order of things [or degrees], a triad is the immediate progeny of a monad. . . . . And hence it is said in one of the Chaldean oracles, In every world a triad shines forth, of which a monad is the ruling principle.”—See Taylor's Iamblicus, pref., p. viii. The Assyrians had their triads. In ancient Egypt every town and district had its own triad, which it worshipped, and which was a union of certain attributes, the third member proceeding from the other two. Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, in his Ancient Egyptians, vol. iv., ch. xii., p. 230, mentions a stone, with the words, 'one Bail, one Athor; one Akovi; hail Father of the World! hail triformous God!' Thoms, in his Dissertation on Ancient Chinese Vases, says, 'The Chinese have a remarkable "Parmenides, in Plato, distinguishes preference for the number three; they three divine unities subordinate; the say, One produced two, two produced first, of that which is perfectly and three, and three produced all things.' most properly one [perfect love or goodThe Buddhists, who are of Modern date ness]; the second, of that which is called in China, use the term 'The threefold by him one-many (a perfect intellect), precious One.' The Taow sect have [perfect wisdom or all truths]; the third, also their 'three pure ones.' In the of that which is thus expressed one and Hindoo religion combinations of three many [or love and wisdom in union, are equally frequent. They have sev- operating all divine uses].”—See Cuderal Trimasties or Tremastis, three worth's Intel. Sys., vol. ii., p. 40. principal deities, Brahma, Vishnu, Origen observes that the Holy Scrip- . and Mahadera; another triad is Brah-tures contain a triple sense, analogous to ma, Vishnu, and Siva, including a mys- the triple constitution of man. The tical union of three principal rivers, the Ganges, Yamuna, and Sarawati. Siva has three eyes; the sun is called three-bodied; the triangle with the Hindoos is a favorite type for the triune-coequality, hence the pentagram (a figure composed of two equilateral triangles, placed with the apex of one towards the base of the other, and so forming six triangles by the intersections of their sides), is in great favor with them; further, they use three mystic letters, to denote their deity (seven is also a mystic number with them and other ancient races), and many other combinations of three. The same preference for this number is observable in the Greek and Roman mythology, which mentions three theocracies, three graces, three fates, three harpies, three syrens, three heads of Cerberus, etc. And, taking three as a unit, 3X3 muses, 34 principal gods (Dii ma sentiments of the Holy Scriptures are to be impressed upon our minds in a threefold manner, in order that whosoever belongs to the simpler sort of persons, may receive edification from the flesh of the Scripture (this we call their obvious or literal meaning), but he who is somewhat more advanced, from its soul; but whosoever is perfect, and similar to those to whom the apostle alludes, where he says, 'we speak wisdom'. . . . from the spiritual law which contains a shadow of good things to come; for as man consists of spirit, body, and soul, so also the Holy Writ which God has planned to be granted for the salvation of mankind." - De Princip., iv., 108; the passage is translated by Dr. Credner, article INTERPRETATION, Kitto's Bib. Cyc. A faint and imperfect idea of this sublime doctrine is found in Dr. H. More's Threefold Cabala. 1 JOHN V. 7, 8. ter, a distinguished Unitarian: "There are three who utter testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and in CHRIST JESUS they are one." See also Biblioth. Sussex; Bishops Marsh and Horsley; Travis's Letter to Gibbon; Porson's Letters, 1. iv., and Dr. H. Ware's Works, p. 243; where the principal arguments and opinions in favor of, and against, the authenticity of these verses, etc., may be seen. XVI. DRUIDISM. The long, learned, and frequent disputations respecting the authenticity and genuineness of the seventh verse, in no way affect the present argument. I may here observe, that it is now generally allowed to have been spuriously introduced into an ancient copy of the 1st Ep. of John. It exists, however, with some verbal differences, in the Greek MS. known by the title of the "Codex Montfortianus," in Trinity College, Dublin-supposed to be the Codex Druidism was the religion of the Britannicus, of Erasmus, which Martin Ancient Britons, and was considered by of Utrecht considered to be as old as the Gauls as having originated with the eleventh century, and Dr. A. Clarke them. Julius Cæsar gives some account regarded as a production of about the of the Druids in his De Bell. Gall: lib. thirteenth, but which Porson, Gries-vi., c. 1; but as his information was only, bach, and Bishop Marsh considered as or chiefly, derived from hearsay eviwritten so late as the fifteenth or six-dence, it cannot be altogether implicitly teenth; it is also found in the Greek received. MS. entitled "Codex Ottobonianus," in the Vatican Library, a MS. of the fifteenth century (collated by Scholz; see also Dr. Wiseman). The first Greek writer who cited the passage, appears to have been the translator of the Latin acts of the Council of Lateran, which was held A. D. 1215. It is also quoted in the fourteenth century by Manuel Calecas, a Dominican monk. It is inserted in several of the MSS. of the Latin Vulgate, but not in the most ancient. It is cited by Vigilius, Bishop of Thrapsus, in Africa, and also by a contemporary African writer, Victor Vitensis, in his History of the Vandal Persecution, A. D. 484, when four hundred bishops of Africa were called upon to give an account of the Christian faith to an Arian king and persecutor. Some of the Latin writers, as Virgilius, Ambrose, etc., according to Dr. A. Clarke, insert the passage thus: "There are three that bare record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one in CHRIST JESUS;" or as translated by Scott Por-philosophy; and the third was clad in Druidism appears to have existed prior to the patriarchal history. In one form or other, it was the prevailing religion and philosophy of Europe, and possessed many close affinities with the religion which was, at the same period, common to Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria, Persia, Babylonia, Nineveh, and all the East. The term Druid is considered to be a compound of Deru, an oak, and Gwyddon, wise men. The worship was conducted in circular temples, often comprising a trine of circles, and at altars in the open air, under trees, in groves, or on mountains, or hills, and in these respects it appears to have resembled the representative worship of the Ancient Church. They had three orders of priests or bards, who were also physicians. The chief ruling priest, or presiding bard, was clothed in a robe of cerulean blue, wore a garland of oak leaves, and a tiara of gold; the second, or oviate bard class, was clad in light green,-a color which appears to have designated science and white linen, or with a purple border, fastened by a girdle in which appeared the crystal stone set in gold, in reference to religion and morality, or the union of truth and charity, and their purifying results in the mind and life. They regarded the oak, from which the garlands of the chief priests were gathered, with peculiar veneration. The mistletoe, a parasite of the oak, was estimated, for its medicinal virtues, at the highest value, and designated "Healer of all." The three joys of the bards of the Isle of Britain, are declared to have been: "the increase of knowledges; the reformation of manners; and the triumph of peace." The original British harp was strung with hair, and consisted of twelve strings. From ancient MSS. relating to British Druidism, and recently brought to light.*-Much of their ancient learning, hitherto deemed unintelligible, like much of the mythology of the Greeks and Romans, may be reduced to some degree of order and sense; and it then shows its original connection with the science of correspondences. Though the worship of the Ancient Church had become idolatrous so early as the Patriarchal age (Josh. xxiv. 2; Ex. xxxiv. 13), yet it retained, for many generations, more or less of its original representative character. Druidism has been often misrepresented and misunderstood, in consequence of confounding its pure with its corrupt era. They worshipped the Sun, as the most glorious representative image of God, and a remnant of these observances is still extant in Ireland, in the Beltein * These MSS. have been printed under the title of Myfyrian Archaiology; they were carefully transcribed by the late Owen Jones, of London, a native of Denbighshire, and eventually published, in three volumes, at his sole expense. These volumes were published in London, in the year 1801, under the supervision of three editors, Owen Jones, Edward Williams, and William Owen. bonfires and fairs of the 1st of May. In the idolatrous observances of Moloch, another name for the sun, the priests and people leaped from the flames. In later and more degraded times, human sacrifices were doubtless offered, and children were cast into the fire, as propitiations for sin, as is evident from the frequent testimony of the Old Testament, and from ancient history. The Hebrew and oriental nations called the name of the supreme God, Baal (lord, in the sense of master, or he that rules and subdues),- -a name afterwards superstitiously and blasphemously attributed, in every variety of form, to the idols of those countries. The Druids denominated him Bel (Celtic). The Hebrew word Shaddai, or Saddai, denoting the Almighty, succoring, aiding, and assisting, had also its counterpart in the West; for the word Seadah was one of the characteristic names of Bel. The Druids also addressed God, and spoke of Him under the expressive epithet of Hu, signifying the self-existent Being; he that is, and the near relation between this word and "I am that I am," must strike the most careless. The British Druids, among a multitude of heterogeneous notions, superstitions, dogmas, absurd customs, and inhuman ceremonies, introduced in the lapse of ages, and which ultimately degenerated into a system of abominable cruelty and licentiousness, appear, notwithstanding, to have retained from ancient times, and preserved even to a late age, some ideas derived through the commercial intercourse of the Phoenicians. From these ancient sources their philosophy, which combine a system of ethics and theology, under the cover of symbolic types, the human mind had to pass through three degrees, circles, regions, or spheres; viz., 1. Inchoation; 2. Progression; and 3. Consummation. In the 1st degree man collects knowledge, in order to be acquainted with his duty; in the 2d he acquires moral strength, to enable him to discharge it; and in the 3d he attains a state of perfection. They further taught that in passing through the prior degree, man, by negligence and misconduct, might retrograde, and fall into the lowest states of existence. The stages of degradation were described as threefold. The mediums of man's progress in states of exaltation were likewise described as threefold, viz., 1. Humility [or obedience of life]; 2. Truth [or illumination of the intellect]; and, 3. Mercy [or love influencing all the affections of the will]. If man fell into states of degradation, it was taught that he could only be renewed again by passing through principles; and mediating changes and gradations, and knowledge, benevolence, and power, were represented as the trinal weapons with which he was to obtain the victory in his conflict with his passions and propensities. Man's future state of existence was taught to be an eternal progression towards the perfections of Deity. With them, the animal life was wholly evil; the human life, a mixed condition of being, and the future life, a state of unmingled and ever-increasing happiness. The changes from one state to another they denominated "transmigration." representing them under the forms of men, beasts, birds, trees, etc. They taught that knowledge and virtue are the only qualifications which can dignify and ennoble man, and that ignorance and vice inevitably overwhelm him with degradation and contempt, that right or wrong conduct depended on the influence of these principles in the mind, and prepared them, on the one hand, for eternal felicity; or, on the other, for never-ending misery. They described man's life in the world to come, as exactly corresponding with his state. Their ancient and uncorrupted Triads are most remarkable, and are often as true, and as philosophically just, as they are beautiful and interesting. Among many others are the following: "The three consummate perfections of God are:-The one infinite life; infinite knowledge; and infinite plenitude of power. "Three things [or principles], which are the causes productive of living beings:-The divine love, of which is the all-perfect wisdom: the divine wisdom, in the perception of all possible means; and the divine power, which is by the joint will [or union] of the divine love and wisdom. "There are three things of which God necessarily consists:-The greatest life; the greatest knowledge; and the greatest power: and of what is greatest there can be no more than one of anything. "The three grand powers of the soul [are]:-Affection; understanding; and will [or determination], or the conjunction of the understanding and the affection. The ancient Druids appear to have believed originally in one supreme, invisible, omnipotent, and omnipresent Deity, whose body or form, as defined by Pythagoras, was as the glorious light, but whose soul or essence was the eternal truth. They held the doctrine of the true nature of the soul, and the metempsychosis as indicating changes of mental condition; thus it was sym bolically and not literally understood, "The three branches of wisdom [are]: till their worship became idolatrous. The wisdom which relates to God; the They described principles "in the wisdom which relates to mankind; and mind," according to correspondence, the wisdom which relates to oneself: the "The three grand operations of the mind or man [are]:-To think; to choose; and to perform. three knowledges which appertain to wisdom [are]: The knowledge of God; the knowledge of mankind; and the knowledge of one's own heart." In the patriarchal history, we read that Jacob tarried all night at a place called Luz, which means in English a bending, and also a separation or departure. And he took the stone he had used as a pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and consecrated it by pouring oil upon the top of it; and called it Bethel, which means the house of God, and he took it as the witness of a solemn vow. (Gen. xxviii. 11-22.) The pillar and the heap were constituted witnesses of a covenant, and of a boundary, or separation and the place is called Mizpeh, or Mizpah, a watch-tower, sentinel, etc.—See Dr. A. Clarke; Cassel's Lexicon. all nations, particularly the British Isles, where those monuments abound, were originally of a similar class. These became abused to idolatrous purposes; thence, they were strongly prohibited. See Lev. xxv. 1; Amos iii. 14. When consecrated they were supposed to be instinct with the power and energy of some divinity. "The practice," says Bishop Lowth, "was very common in different ages and places. Arnobius, lib. i., gives an account of his own practice in this respect: 'Si quando conspexiam lubricatum lapidem, et ex olivi unguine, sorditatum; tanquam inessit vis præsens, adulabar, affabar, et beneficia poscebam nihil sentiente de trumes' (Isa. lvii. 6). Which may be translated as follows: 'If at any time I beheld an anointed stone, as if there had been a power inherent in it, I made my obeisance to it. I addressed myself unto it, and requested benefits from it, not at all considering it a stock.' Such were the Baetylia, or living stones of the ancient Phoenicians. Hence the use of the image of the apostle Peter." From Bethel is derived Barthulia, Bethyllia, Baithylia, or living stones of the Phoenicians, which, consecrated by being anointed with oil, were the representative images of living truth, or truth alive in the natural degree. From this signification the apostle Peter calls the Lord Jesus Christ, who was THE In accommodation to the prejudices ANOINTED, a living stone." And as of the mass of the people who idolathe patriarch called the stone he set up trously worshipped stone pillars, or and consecrated "God's house," so the obelisks, the earlier Christians substiapostle exhorts those that "have puri- tuted crosses of various kinds, or cut fied their souls in obeying the truth, them upon the upper stones, or placed through the Spirit, and unfeigned love them upon the pillars or their bases, of the brethren (1 Pet. i. 22), to lay as the symbols of redemption, and to aside all malice, and all guile, and hy-enforce the self-denying doctrine of the pocrisy, and envies and all evil speak- Christian religion. Hence the origin ings," and as new-born babes, "to desire of boundary crosses, market crosses, sethe sincere milk of the Word, that they pulchral crosses, way-side crosses, and might grow thereby ;" and "that com- those erected as memorials of battles, ing unto the Lord Jesus Christ as unto murders, or fatal events, and in rea living stone, they also, as lively stones, membrance of the dead. They appear to are built up a spiritual house." (1 Pet. have been first cut on the top of single ii. 2-5.) upright stones (Britton), and afterwards ornamented by degrees, until finally they were most elaborately finished. "That, however, which began in pious consideration to the weakness of man, ended in confirming that weakness, The Baetylia, Bethyllia, or living or anointed stones, so celebrated in antiquity, and to which divine honors were paid, especially by the Phoenicians, who had commercial intercourse with |