’Tis not to be wonder’d at, that the ancients wrap’d up this doctrine in an abstruse and symbolic way of speaking, of writing, and in hieroglyphic characters and works, as we have seen. It was communicated to them in the same manner; they did not, could not comprehend it any more than we, but they held it as a precious depositum of sacred wisdom. We may therefore make this deduction from what has been said, that the christian doctrine of distinct personalities in the deity, is so far from being contrary to reason, as some would have it, or above human reason as others, that ’tis evidently deducible therefrom, at least highly agreeable thereto, when seriously propos’d to our reason. And when most undoubtedly the ancients had such a notion, even from the creation, those minds that were of a contemplative turn, would embrace it and cultivate it, as being the most exalted knowledge we are capable of. Of such a turn were our Druids, as all accounts agree. CHAP. XVI. _Of the third species of patriarchal temples, form’d in the resemblance of a circle and wings. A description of one of this sort on the banks of the_ Humber _in_ Lincolnshire. _A very remarkable sort of barrows there, like to beds. This figure of the alate circle, the_ Egyptians _call’d by the name of_ CNEPH; _authors mistake in telling us it was the name of God. ’Tis indeed the symbol of the third divine emanation from the supreme, call’d the_ anima mundi. CNEPH _is an oriental word, from_ canaph, _to_ fly, עוף. _The entire symbol, circle, snake and wings, was call’d_ CNEPHPTHA. Ptha _more particularly meant the serpent, or symbol of the second divine person. The supreme, they held to be ineffable, as well as invisible, therefore symboliz’d him by the circle. The Neptune of the_ Greeks _deriv’d from_ CNEPH, דניא dunia, _a circle added to_ Cneph, _is_ circulus alatus. _He was president of the waters, from_ Gen. i. 2. and the divine spirit moved upon the face of the waters. _Hence this temple set on the edge of the_ Humber. _Of the_ Egyptian Canopus. _Another of these alate temples on_ Navestock-common _in_ Essex. _The word_ ganaph _preserv’d in the name of the town._ Knave, gnavus _and_ knap, _a teutonic word, all from the_ hebrew. _Mr._ Toland _mentions an alate temple of the Druids in the_ hebrid _islands, but does not altogether understand it. Of_ Abaris _the hyperborean Druid, a friend of_ Pythagoras’_s. That the directive virtue of the magnetic needle was known anciently. The bed barrows on the_ Humber _banks explain’d. A metaphysical disquisition concerning the Druids’ knowledge of a third emanation or divine person, from the supreme; a truth agreeable to reason. This was the_ Mercury _of the ancients, as well as_ Neptune. _The names which the Druids gave to the three divine persons. Conclusion. They were in effect Christians._