that from the remotest eras, the Indian nations have adored a tri-une Deity. There the travellers, with awe and astonishment, behold, carved out of the solid rock, in the most conspicuous part of the most ancient and venerable temple in the world, a bust expanding in breadth near twenty feet, and no less than eighteen feet in attitude, by which amazing propor tions, as well as by its gorgeous decorations, it is known to be the image of the grand presiding deity of that hallowed retreat: he beholds, I say, a bust composed of three heads, united to one body, adorned with the oldest symbols of the Indian theology, and thus expressly fabricated, according to the unanimous confession of the sacred sacerdotal tribe of India, to indicate the Creator, the Preserver and the Regenerator of mankind. I consider the superior antiquity of the Elephanta temple to that of Salsette, as established by the circumstance of the flat roof, prov ing it to have been excavated before mankind had dis covered the art of turning the majestic arch, and giving the lofty roof that concave form, which adds so greatly to the grandeur of the Salsette temple-and as Salsette is supposed to be three thousand years old, the Elephanta must have been as near the flood, as the progress of science will allow us with propriety to fix it.*

In the Bhagvat-Geeta, the most ancient and authentic book of the Indian divinity, the supreme Veeshnu thus speaks concerning himself, "I am the Holy One, worthy to be known. I am the mystic (triliteral) figure a um; the Reig, the Tajush, and the Saman Vedas."

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The Hindoos, says Mr. Sonnerat, adore three principal deities, Brouma, Chiven and Vichenou, who are still but one. He gives a literal translation from the Sanscreet, of a Pouran, thus, "It is God alone who created the universe by his productive power; who maintains it by his all preserving power, and who will destroy (or regenerate) it by his destructive (or regenerative) power; so that it is this God who is represented under the name of three Gods, who are called Trimourtin.*

Mr. Foster, in his Sketches of Hindoo Mythology, says, " One circumstance which forcibly struck my attention, was the Hindoo belief of a Trinity--These persons, are by the Hindoos supposed to be wholly indivisible, the one is three, and the Three are One.t

From the previous extensive survey of the various systems of Eastern theology, it is evident, that the notion of a Divine Triad governing the Universe, however darkened and degraded through the prevalence of a long series of gross superstitions, was a doctrine that immemorially prevailed in the schools of Asia. From whatever distant source derived, through successive generations, and amidst a thousand perversions, the great truth contended for beams forth, with more or less splendour, in every country of the ancient world, and darts conviction upon the mind not prejudiced against the reception of it, by the suggestions of human pride, and the dogmas of false philosophy.

To try the merits of this great cause in the court of human reason, is evidently to bring it before a tri

* 1bid. 747, 749, and cites Sonnerat's Voy. 1 vol. 259.

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bunal incompetent to decide upon so important a question; and is, in fact, to exalt a terrestrial judge, before the eternal judge of all things-yet we are justified in asserting, that this doctrine, though not founded upon reason as a basis, is by no means destitute of its decided support and concurrence. basis upon which it rests, is far more noble as well as durable; Divine revelation, strengthened by the most ancient traditions, and the consenting creed of nearly all the kingdoms of the greater Asia.*

The

In fact, the name and history of Noah and his three sons, are precisely the same in the Sanscreet language, as in the Hebrew bible. In the ancient geographical records of India, we find the whole country denominated after Cush, or Cuth, the eldest son of Ham, its domestic appellation being CushaDweepa; and we know that the inhabitants of the northern district were anciently called Cuthai. We find again Raamah, the fourth son of that Cush, in the Indian Rama, renowned first as a conqueror, and afterwards as a God, throughout the whole extent of that vast region; and we discover his last son, Nimrod or Belus, in their Bali, the Baal and Bel of their neighbours.t

There was another very remarkable symbol of Taut or Mercury, prevalent in Egypt, as well as in India. It was the letter T, or in other words, the Cross or Crux-Hermios; in which form we find many of the more ancient pagoda's of India, as Benares and Mattra, erected; and many of the old Egyptian statues, as is well known to antiquaries, are represented bearing this symbol in their hands, or on

their breasts. I have elsewhere observed the very singular manner, after which the Latin Vulgate, and according to Lowth, probably the ancient copies of the Septuagint, have rendered the original of that passage in Ezekiel, the 9th chap. and 4th ver.-"Set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof;" rendering it in their version, " I will mark them on the forehead with the letter T," which affords room to suppose it was a symbol of a more sacred import than is generally imagined, in the early patriarchal ages.

Now it is a fact not less remarkable, than well attested, that the druids (in Great-Britain) in their groves, were accustomed to select the most stately and beautiful tree, as an emblem of the Deity they adored; and having cut off the side branches, they affixed two of the largest of them to the highest part of the trunk, in such a manner, as that those branches, extending on each side like the arms of a man, presented to the spectators the appearance of a huge cross, and on the bark in various places was actually inscribed the letter T.*

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