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perfect mysteries , may not readily utter those divine secrets , but using them cautiously , and preserving' silence upon them , may keep them sacred /'—( Philo Jud . de Sacrificiis Abeli * et Caini , p . 139 , ed . Turn , et Hoesch . )
It seems justly to be inferred from this strange passage , in which Sarah is made to represent the state of the wise man , virtue , and her action of mixing the meal into cakes what is done by the philosophic mind , that Philo considered the different personations of the Deity , as distinct in the eyes of the ignorant and vulgar , but as perceived by true wisdom , to be none of them any other than God himself , and to have no real separate existence . We suppose he here understands the appearance to Abraham , as we have in a preceding part of this article explained it , not of any three beings , human or angelic , but of a triple manifestation of the one only God , which he
therefore fancifully represents as himself , and two of his attributes or powers ; but his whole object is to establish' that these powers , though seeming distinct from him , and apparently endowed with a separate personality , are perceived by the reflecting and contemplative mind to be really but one and the same being , and to be only the exhibitions or effects of his attributes . In farther illustration of this subject , we must lay before our readers another extract relating to the same portion of sacred history , though taken from a different work of Philo , which seems fitted to remove every doubt respecting his notion of persons or distinctions in the Divine Nature :
* When , therefore , the mind is enlightened by God as if it were noon-day , " ( shining upon it , as it were , with a noon-day brightness , ) " and , being altogether filled with a light of intelligence , is freed from shadows by the splendour diffused through it , it comprehends the three images of the one subject , one being the reality , ( the real existence , ) the other two , shadows which it throve , something like which happens also to objects in the light which is perceived by the senses , for things standing or moving * in it often give two shadows . Let not , indeed , any one think that in speaking of God , the word shadows is
employed literally ; it is but a figurative use of the word for the clearer expression of the thing to be explained , since the truth is not thus . Bat any one approaching the nearest possible to the truth might say , that the middle one was the Father of al . l , who in the sacred Scriptures is called by the peculiar name , He who is ; ( the self-existent , an interpretation of Jehovah ;) but the powers on each side are the most ancient , and the most closely united to * Him who is , ' of which one is called the creative , the other the royal * And the creative power is God , for it established and arranged the whole ;
( deriving 0 £ o $ from @e « , to place or dispose 0 but the royal power is the Lord , for it is right that the Creator should rule over and govern that which is created . ( This remark shews the essential identity , according to Philo , of the creative and governing powers . ) He then that is in the middle , attended on each aide by his powers , ( or attributes , ) affords to the acute understanding an image sometimes of one , sometimes of three . Of one , when the soul , being completely purified , having risen above not only the multitude of inferior ,
( powers , ) but also that pair which is near to the one , ( the Monad , ) hastens to attain to thej > ure , simple , and in itseff complete , idea . Of three , when not yet initiated in \\ ig \\ mysteries , it is still occupied with inferior matters , and is not able to comprehend him who exists without any other , by himself alone , otherwise thau by means of his acts , creation antfgovernment . "—( Philo de Abra-Uamo , pp . 366 , 367 , ed . Turnebi et Hoesch . )
It is very observable tbat the Divine word or logos is not at all mentioned in either of the two passages last quoted , although it is not easy to conceive how it could have been omitted , had Philo considered it as having a real and distinct existence as a part of the Divine Nature . We have now seea
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& * : * 7 . P . Smith ' s Scripture Testimony to the Messhih . 4 C 5
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VOL . V . 2 L
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 465, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/33/
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