by Words and Writing He had made Commentaries upon Scripture whereof we have only remaining a few words which are found in the Extracts of the Oriental Doctrin of Theodotus where Clement of Alexandria speaketh thus Our Pantenus saith that the Prophets express themselves ordinarily by the Aoristus and make use of the time present for the Future and Past. There is a likelihood that Pantenus officiated as a Cathechist when Clement arrived in Egypt and that he studied some time under him before he succeeded him He applied himself there as elsewhere to the study of Philosophy though he was far from taking all those who bore the name of Philosopher for such We do not simply receive saith he every sort of Philosophy but that only whereof Socrates speaks in Plato Socrates observed That there are a great many called but few chosen For he adds in the Sequel that the latter according to his Opinion are those who have applied themselves as a thing very requisite to Philosophy That People should not be taken for Philosophers who perhaps had but a shew Clement would not apply himself to any Sect absolutely but followed this manner of Philosophising which was then Eclectick to wit that of those who chose out of all Tenets what appeared most reasonable unto them and formed a System thereof for their particular Use. Potamon of Alexandria who lived in the time of Augustus was the first who had put in Use this manner of Philosophising Clement could not choose a more commodious Method for a Christian Philosopher because there is no Philosopher whose Tenets are all conformable to those of the Gospel though there may be made a System drawing very near that of the Christian Doctrin in gathering in all the Philosophers what they have said conformably to the Light of Nature or to some ancient Traditions spread almost over the whole Universe It is Clement himself who speaks it and who assures us that he applied himself to the Eclectick Philosophy for the Reason we have alledged After having said that God sent Philosophers to Men he adds That he understands not neither that of the Stoicks nor that of the Platonicks nor that of the Aristoteleans But I give this Name continueth he to the Truths which these Sects have held and which may incline Men to Iustice and Piety I in no wise call Divine the false Thoughts of Men. He saith elsewhere that the barbarous Philosophy and that of the Greeks hath included some Fragments of Eternal Truths in them not from Mythology of Bacchus but of Reason which has always existed He that should rejoin continues he that which hath been divided and which would compose a perfect System could assure himself of acknowledging the Truth A like Thought is in Lactantius which affirms that it is easie to shew that Truth altogether hath been divided amongst the different Sects of the Philosophers and that if there was any who would gather the Truths scattered amongst all Sects and make but one Body of Doctrin certainly it would not be far from the Sentiments of Christians Quodsi extitisset aliquis qui veritatem sparsam per singulos per Sectasque diffusam colligeret in unum ac redigeret in corpus is profecto non dissentiret à nobis He saith afterwards that none could do it but by Divine Revelation but that if it happened as by hazard that some body should do it without this Succour there would be nothing more assured than this Philosophy and that though he could not defend himself by the authority of Revelation Truth wou'd be maintained of it self by its own Light He afterwards blames those who apply themselves to a Sect so that they would embrace all its Sentiments and condemn all others ready to dispute against all the Doctrins which they have not learned of their Masters This design of gathering all which Philosophers have said conformable to the Gospel is undoubtedly very fine and can much conduce to convine the Truth of Christian Religion But for to succeed therein the Christian Philosophy and Religion should be equally understood to comprehend the clear and undoubted Articles which regard Practice and Speculation The Heterodox of those Times for want of taking heed had introduced into Christian Religion an infinity of Philosophical Tenets which have no Relation with those of the Gospel Thus the Carpocratians believed according to the Relation of Clement that it was permitted to meddle confusedly with any Woman whatever and did it actually after having Supped in a great Company and extinguished the Candles they entertain'd this Thought because Plato would have Women to be common in his Republick and that they had wrested divers Passages of Scripture to accommodate them to this Sentiment Clement believeth that they ill understood not only Scripture but also Plato who according to him meaned nothing else but that there should be no Girl in the Commonwealth to which all the Citizens indifferently might not pretend though after she being Married to one Man others could no more hope to Espouse her It might be well shewn that Clement expounded not well the Thought of Plato if this was a Place for it The Marcionites who said that the Matter and Nature are bad and who condemned Weddings fell into this Opinion so opposite to that of Carpocrates because they expounded some Passages of Scripture by the Principles of the Platonicks Because the Scripture often describes the Miseries of this Life and praiseth Continence they imagined that the Sacred Authors had had the same Ideas of this Life and Generation or Birth that Heraclitus and Plato had These Philosophers believed as it hath been remarked that Souls existed before the Body where they are only sent to be punished for the Sins which they had committed in another Life and that thus to speak correctly Birth should be called a Death rather than a beginning of Life and Death a Life because when we are born our Souls are cast into the Prison of the Body from whence they are delivered when we dye that 's the reason that these Philosophers and several Poets after them said it was better not to be born than to come into the World and to dye in Childhood than to live several Years which is the Cause also that they speak sometimes in very harsh Terms against Matrimony because it served according to them only to build a Prison to some unhappy Soul which was precipitated into the Body that they produced The Valentinians had also taken what they said of the Generation of their Eones from Hesiod as will appear by comparing the beginning of his Theognia with the Doctrin of the Valentinians related by St. Irenaeus and St. Epiphanius who fail not to reproach them that they had their Doctrin from this Poet. There is some appearance that they confounded the Doctrin of Hesiod with that of the Scripture because of some light resemblance which is found betwixt them It would be easie to shew that Hesiod by the
convincing if it is by the Light of Nature 't would be as extravagant to deny it as that the most evident principles of all Siences are false if 't is said that 't is by a natural disposition that men believe there is a God why should we resist the Instinct of Nature since the notions thereof never deceive us If you agree that there is a powerful reason which persuades all men 't is renouncing a Common sence to refuse to yield thereunto But if they agree that man received this knowledge from an ancient tradition as appears more likely we must seek from whence this tradition is come to us and who was the Common Master of all mankind The Names of those who were the first founders of a sect are sufficiently known as are they also who have engaged the World in certain opinions but of him that invented this there 's neither name nor place to be found nor time in which he lived nor the manner whereby it was introduced and spread amongst Men 't is this that makes one believe that the Authors of this tradition were our first Parents who as they could not be Ignorant of their Original were obliged without doubt to teach this truth to their children It is easily conceived that from thence all the World have learnt it This thought conducts us to another which is of the greatest Importance to the subject we are speaking of viz that all mankind is descended from one man only or at least a very little number of People that assembled together from whence appears first that the Generations of men had a beginning and secondly that we cannot resist the doctrine of the existence of a Deity as an apolitical fiction for suppose that mankind hath a beginning upon the earth from whence could he draw his Original but from a Divinity as we have conceived what other being could form bodies so admirably as ours and to have joyn'd to 'em an Intelligence like that of our soul let us consider also who hath taught the first man there was a God and how it entred into his mind that he drew his existence from him if he that formed him had not discovered it to him in a sensible manner and taught him 't was to him he owed his being only in a word since they have taught to their posterity we have no reason to refuse 'em our belief and we can't Imagin their testimonies less worthy of faith nor find men who can be instructed in their Original than themselves nor can we reasonably reject a Tradition which is transmitted from 'em to us This reason we find entire in Plato We must believe those who told us they were of the race of the Gods since they say they know perfectly from whom they were descended 't is impossible to distrust the Children of the Gods altho they should bring no evident demonstration of what they declared and since they advance things only that belong to themselves 't is Iust to believe ' em Thus one sees these two truths the universal Tradition of a Divinity and the Supposition that all men are come from the same Original maintain both As to the last there are divers Histories and opinions that confirm it altho' it cannot be better upheld than by the universal belief I just spoke of Nevertheless 't is not unuseful to give you some examples 'T is without doubt by an antient Tradition which relates no more than to the first men as the greatest part of the Heathens have believed that all mankind drew their Original from the same Parents who received their being from that divinity in resemblance of which they were form'd Finxit ad effigiem Moderantûm cuncta Deorum That the Soul is immortal that there are rewards and punishments after this Life according as men live well or ill That there are places where good men are happy and others where the wicked receive their punishment after death It cannot be said that Philosophers have discovered these truths and perswaded all the World of 'em for they are too subtle and fine upon this subject to perswade all men It must necessarily be from Tradition that all men have learn'd this Truth One ought to believe with Plato Relations touching these sort of things which are so great in number permanere animos saith Cicero arbitramur consensu Nationum omnium Cum de animarum aternitate disserimus saith Seneca after him Non leve momentum apud nos habet consensus hominum aut Timentium inferos aut Colentium 'T is also from the same source that this Opinion is spread amongst the Heathens as thus that in the beginning men enjoy'd a Felicity which they lost by their own fault and that this fault is the Original of all evils to which their Posterity have been exposed 'T is well known what the Poets have said of the Golden Age and of Pandora's Box. From this also comes the Opinion of the prae-existence of the Soul whereof these words are to be found in the fragments of Cicero When one considers the errours and miseries to which men are exposed in this life It doth not seem unreasonable that these Antient Prophets and Interpreters of the will of the Gods who have instructed us in the mysteries of Religion say that we are born to be punished for Crimes which we have committed in a prae-existent state I know if Antient Traditions be not corrupted by length of time that Plato believ'd that the first man was man and woman and divided into two and this disagrees not with holy Writ which informs us that the first woman was formed from the body of the first man There are also some Histories which agree with the Sacred Writ as what the Poets say of the long life of the first men of the general Corruption of all Mankind and of the Deluge sent to punish them several things have been also said of the Divinity of Hero's which seems to come from the same source To which may be added divers Customs formerly spread almost thro' the World as that of counting by Tens dividing the Time by Weeks beginning to reckon from the Night as being made before the Day Besides that men almost always and throughout the whole Earth agree upon the principal Heads of Morality It 's true that reason might teach such as consulted it but the greatest part of the World was not well enough disposed to hearken quietly to the voice of Reason only and to silence those passions which hinder'd us from understanding it if this Voice had not been maintain'd by another more clear and powerful to wit that of Tradition It may also be said there were Barbarous Nations among which the belief of a Divinity had been stifled by Ignorance and Stupidity and among more learned Nations as the Greeks some have been doubtful and rejected it as a Lie but it must also be granted that it has been commonly receiv'd in the East amongst the most
which they quote the Arch-bishop Laud Iackson Feilding Hâ—ylin Hammond and M. Thorndike There is not one but has writ the contrary These are the Points whereon the Enemies of Protestants would make the Church of England pass for half Papists tho there is not one but was taught by other Reformed excepting Episcopacy And this Government is so ancient that even those who think Presbytery better ought not to condemn for some little difference in Discipline a Church that is otherwise very pure unless they are minded to anathematize St. Ignatius St. Clement St. Polycarp St. Irenaeus St. Cyprian and the whole Church of the second and third Age and a great part of the first Without question the Episcopal Clergy of England have the like Charity for Presbyterians I will not alledge the Testimonies of Modern Doctors nor of such as were accused of having favoured the pretended Puritans we see the Marks of its mildness and moderation towards all excepâ—ing some turbulent Spirits amongst 'em which indeed are too common in all Societies If there ever was a time wherein the Church of England differed from Presbytery and had reason so to do it was in the middle of the Reign of K. Iamss the First and notwithstanding you may see how the Bishop of Eli speaks writing for the King and by his Order against Cardinal Bellarmin One may see how much the Protestants of this Country agree by Harmony of their Confessions where each Church acknowledges wherein she agrees with the rest Then lay aside those odious Names seek our Professions of Faith in our Confessions The Reproach you make us concerning the Puritans is altogether absurd because their number is but small and the most moderate among them agree with us in the chief Articles of Religion The Scotch Puritans Confession has no Error in Fundamental Points so that the King might say with reason That the Establish'd Religion of Scotland was certainly true And as for the rest there 's no reason to suspect Dr. Wakes Testimony for the Bishop of London and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury have approved his Books None of the other Doctors contradicted him and some sided with him against Roman Catholicks And these last have not accused him of swerving from the common Doctrine of the Church of England only in the Article of the necessity of Baptism and he proves by several Authorities in his Defence of his Exposition what he therein advanced At the end of this Defence are several curious Pieces 1. A Comparison betwixt the Ancient and Modern Popery 2. An Extract of the Sentiments of Father Cresset and Cardinal Bona concerning the Devotion to the Blessed Virgin 3. The Letter of Mr. Imbert to Mr. de Meaux 4. The Epistle of St. Chrysostom to Caesarius with the Preface of Mr. Bigot which was suppressed at Paris in 1680. and a Dissertation of Dr. Wake upon Apollinarius's Sentiments and Disciples A DISCOURSE of the Holy EUCHARIST wherein the Real Presence and Adoration of the Host is treated on to serve for an Answer to two Discourses printed at Oxford upon this Subject With a Historical Preface upon the same Matter At London 1687. p. 127. in 4to DR Wake Minister of the Holy Gospel at London who is said to be the Author of this Book gives First In few words the History and Origine of Transubstantiation as it hath been ordinarily done amongst Protestants Secondly He names several Illustrious Persons of the Romish Church who have been accused of not believing the Real Presence or Transubstantiation to wit Peter Picherel Cardinal du Perron Barnes an English Benedictine and Mr. de Marca Arch-Bishop of Paris who gave his absolute Sentiment hereon in one of his Posthume Dissertations tho' in the Edition of Paris the places wherein he said it have been changed or blotted out But it could not be hindered but that this Work having appeared before Persons took notice of these Sentiments some entire Copies thereof have fallen into the hands of Protestants who got it printed in Holland in 1669. without cutting off any thing To these Authors are joined F. Sirmond the Iesuite who believed the Impanation and who had made a Treatise upon it which hath never been printed and whereof some persons have yet Copies M. de Marolles who got a Declaration printed in form in 1681. by which he declared that he believed not the Real Presence and which was inserted here in English And in short the Author of the Book Entituled Sure and honest means of Converting Hereticks whom we dare not affirm to be the same who published a Treatise of Transubstantiation which the Fifth Tome of the French Bibliotheque speaks of p. 455. The Cartesians and several others are suspected of not believing the same no more than the Protestants So that if the Catholicks cite some Reformed for them Protestants also want not Catholick Authors who have been of their Opinion Thirdly The Author sheweth the dangerous Consequences which arise according to the Principles of the Romish Church from the incredulity of so many Men of Knowledge be it in respect to Mass or in respect of the Infallibility and Authority of the Church The Treatise it self is divided into two parts The first contains two Chapters and an Introduction wherein is expounded the Nature and Original of the Eucharist much after the Ideas of Lightfoot In the first Chapter Transubstantiation is at large refuted by Scripture by Reason and the Fathers We shall make no stay at it because this Matter is so well known The Second Chapter is imployed to refute what Mr. Walker said concerning the Opinions of several Doctors of the Church of England upon the Real Presence Dr. Wake at first complains That his Adversary in that only repeats Objections which his Friend T. G. had before proposed in his Dialogues and which a Learned Man had refuted in an Answer to these Dialogues printed at London in 1679. As to what concerns the Faith of the Church of England which he maintains to have been always the same since the Reign of Edward He reduces it to this according to the Author who refuted T. G. viz. That she believes only a Real Presence of the invisible Power and grace of Iesus Christ which is in and with the Elements so that in receiving them with Faith it produces Spiritual and real Effects upon the Souls of Men. As Bodies taken by Angels continueth he may be called their Bodies whilst they keep them and as the Church is the Body of Iesus Christ because his Spirit animates and liveneth the Souls of the Believing so the Bread and Wine after the Consecration are the Real Body of Iesus Christ but spiritually and mystically He gives not himself the trouble to prove the solidity of this comparison by Scripture and when he comes to the Examination of the Authors that Mr. Walker hath quoted he contents himself to produce other Passages where they do not speak so vigorously of the participation of the substance of Iesus
innate or natural Idea to suppose the Mind occupied by Ideas before it hath received them from without is to suppose a thing contradictory For the better understanding of what I would say when I affirm that we have not nor can have any Idea but from the Sensations or from the Operations of the Mind upon its Ideas we must consider that they are of two kinds Simple and Complex It is of the Simple that I now speak such as are the whiteness of this Paper the sweetness of this Sugar c. where the Mind perceiveth no variety nor any composition but a perception only or a uniform Idea I say that we have none of these Ideas but by Sensation or by Reflection The Mind in this regard is absolutely passive and cannot produce to it self any new Idea though of those that it already hath it may compose others and so make thereof Complex Ideas with a very great variety as shall be seen in the following Discourse Therefore though we cannot deny but it was as possible to God to give us a sixth Sense as it was to give us the five we have nevertheless we cannot form to our selves any Idea that might come to us by the sixth Sense and that for the same Reason that one born Blind hath no Idea of Colours because it cannot be had but by means of one of those five Senses whereof he hath always been destitute I do not see that it is necessary to make here an Enumeration of all the Ideas that are the particular Objects of each of the Senses because it would not be of any great use for my Design to give a list of Ideas whereof the most part present themselves of their own accord and because the greatest part have no Names for Colours excepted and some few Qualities that are perceived by the Touch to which Men have given particular Names although a great deal less than their great variety would require Taste Odours and Sounds whereof the diversity is not less have but seldom Names except in general Terms Though the taste of Milk and the taste of Cherries are as far distant as white is from red notwithstanding we do not see that they have particular Names Sweet Sour Salt Rough and Bitter are almost all the Names we have for an infinite number of different Sapors that are found in Nature Therefore without applying my self to make an Enumeration of the simple Ideas that belong to each Sense I shall only mark that some of these Ideas are carried to the Mind by one only Sense as the Colours by that of the Sight the Sounds by the Ear the Hot and the Cold by the Touch. Besides these are others that come to the Mind by more than one Sense as Motion Rest Space and Figures which are apprehended by the Sight and the Touch. There are also Ideas of Reflection alone as those of Thinking of Willing and of all their different manners In fine There are others that we receive by all the Methods of Sensation and Reflection as Numbers Existence Power Pleasure c. These in general are all the simple Ideas or at least the most part whereof we are capable and which are the Subject of all our Notions of which all the other Ideas are composed and beyond which we have neither Thought nor Knowledge Chapters 3 4 5 and 6. 7. I shall yet remark something about simple Ideas after which I shall shew how the Complex ones are composed viz. That herein we are easily mistaken and that we often judge that they are Resemblances of some things which is in those Objects that perform them in us but for the most part they are nothing like although they lead us to the consideration of the manner whereby Bodies operate upon us by means of the Senses I only pretend to expound Historically the Nature of the Understanding and to mark the way and manner by which our Mind receiveth the subject of its Notions and by what degrees it comes at them I should be unwilling to engage my self here into a Physical Speculation It 's notwithstanding necessary to expound briefly this subject to avoid Confusion and Obscurity For the better discovering the Nature of sensible Ideas and making 'em more intelligible 't is necessary to distinguish 'em as they are Perceptions and Ideas of our Mind and as they form in Bodies the Causes of those Perceptions that are in us I call an Idea every immediate Object every Perception that is in our Mind when it thinketh I call quality of the Subject the power or the faculty it hath of producing a certain Idea in the Mind Thus I call Ideas Whiteness Coldness Roundness c. as they are Perceptions or Sensations in the Soul and when they are in a Ball of Snow that can produce these Ideas in us I call them qualities The original qualities that may be remarked in Bodies are Solidity Extent Figure Number Motion or Rest. In whatever quality the Bodies may be these qualities cannot be separated from them and therefore I call them original or first qualities What we ought to consider after that is the manner whereby Bodies act upon one another For my part I conceive nothing in it but an Impulse When therefore they produce in us the Ideas of some of their original qualities which are really in them as those of the Extension and the Figure that Senses perceive when the Object we look upon is at a certain distance they must needs press our Organs by means of some insensible Particles which come from the Object to our Eyes and which by a continuation of Motion that they have caused therein shake our Brains and produce in us these Ideas Thus we cannot find any thing but the Impulse and the Motion of some insensible Bodies which produce in our Mind the Ideas of these original qualities Thus we may conceive after what manner the Idea of the Colour and Odour of a Violet can be produced in us as well as that of the Figure 'T is by a particular Motion produced in the Organ by the Impulse of Particles of a certain bigness Figure Number and Motion and continued even unto the Brain For it is not more difficult to conceive that God can stick the Idea of a Colour or of an Odour to Motions to which they have no resemblance than it is to conceive that he hath applied the Idea of pains to the Motion of a bit of Iron which divideth our Flesh to which Motion the pain bears no resemblance What I have said of Colours and Odours may be applied to the Sounds and Tastes and to some tangible qualities as the Heat and Cold for the Ideas of these qualities and some others like them being perfectly distinguished from every perception of Bigness Figure Motion c. cannot be resemblances of any thing that may be really in the Object which produces in us these Ideas Therefore I call second qualities the power that Bodies have of producing
scarcely admired seriously The common Abode he made in a Tub and the Lanthorn he carried at Noon-day to look for a Man of Worth have something so conceited that a very high Idea cannot be conceived of his Sentiments Riches and Grandeurs are often despised by Vain Glory for the consolation of not possessing them So they relate that Diogenes going to dine at Plato's said in treading upon his Tapestries I trample upon the Pride of Plato To which Plato answered Yes with a greater He had a pleasant Maxim That every thing that is good is necessary to Man and may be done every where Upon this Account a Woman instructed at his School regaled a crowd of Spectatours with an Adventure like unto that of Dido and Aeneas in the Grott whereinto Virgil had care to conduct them and where it 's said was a kind of Hymeneus VII Zeno was the head of the Stoicks and taught in the Porch of Athens This Philosophy hath formed great Men and hath charmed many by the Haughtiness and Pride of its Sentences It pretended to render its Proselytes happy in the midst of Torments and unshaken against all the Darts of Fortune Zeno did establish a God whose Vertues are all expressed differently according to the different Idea of People He was Neptune at Sea Mars in Battles and Vulcan in the Fire In his Opinion Vertue was the Supream Good because it hath goods more lasting and that 't is it only that renders Men Immortal He held that the Machin of the World will be one day destroyed and that it will perish by Flames The proud Empire he gave Man over himself and Reason was the Source of this dangerous Maxim that Men may kill themselves We must notwithstanding confess that in this was some I know not what grandeur of the Soul capable of dazling those who seek but the brightness of Pagan Vertues Must not one have an undaunted Courage to insult Death this frightfull image that terrifieth the most resolute After what way did Zeno instruct his followers for Glory and Vertue He would have 'em wrestle against Evils and to harden themselves under Stripes to become Invincible As Prosperities were only proper for low Souls so it belongs only to great Souls to trample under Foot all Calamities and Disgraces He dyed in the 129. Olympiad about the Year of the World 3690. VIII Phythagoras was the head of the Pythagoreans or the Stalian Sect. It 's believed he was of Samos and a Jew by birth He lived a long time with the Egyptians to be instructed in their Mysteries Mr. Stanley relates that he was made Prisoner there by Cambyses who sent him into Babylon where he had a great commerce with the Magi and Chaldeans and even with the Prophet Ezekiel He was of all Men the best shaped and drew the Veneration of all People by his fair appearance He of all Philosophers had the greatest number of Disciples His Principal Opinion was the Metempsychosis or Transmigration of Souls As he believed the Soul Immortal he could not conceive it could subsist separate from the Body Therefore he thought expedient to make the Souls of Men to return into Beasts and them of Beasts into Men tho these Revolutions had no certain order We know the Ridiculous History that he told of himself that he had been Euphorbes at the War of Troy He particularly applyed himself to the study of Mathematicks as a Science sit to give extent to the Mind He tryed his Disciples by a Rigorous Silence of two years to make 'em more grave and retentive Temperance was the Vertue he recommended with most care because it is necessary to tame the Body Therefore he used to get a Table full of Dainties for his Disciples and making them to sit down they should rise from it without touching any thing to exercise their Vertue by so strong a temptation He lived in the time that Brutus delivered Rome from the Tyranny of it's Kings in the Year of the World 3440. IX Heraclitus had so fine Temper that he had all his Learning of himself without the help of any Instruction But he conceived so high an Opinion of himself that he had nothing but contempt for the rest of Men. His Humour being accompanied with Pride and Distast gave him so much hatred for all Mankind that he retired all alone unto a Mountain to be free from the commerce of any Therefore he was called the Dark Philosopher Darius Hydaspis writ to him to come to Court but he answered him after an abrupt and saucy manner Such a Temper as is troublesome to other Men must be afflicting to it self a sad Delicatness suffers every where It is better to have a tractable Vertue and let things go as they will than on purpose to quarrel with all Mankind X. Democritus was the Head of the Eleatick Sect. He had a Countenance always smiling and made the Sovereign Good consist in a Position of Mind that was always at rest It hath been said that he looked on the World with a Jearing Laughter which made his Wisdom to be doubted of and caused his Fellow-Citizens the Abderites to send for Hypocrates to cure him But having shewn his Diacosmus the finest of his Works the Opinion that they had of his Folly was turned into Admiration The cause of his immoderat Laughters was the vanity of this World and the pains that Men take to run after perishable things It was he that invented Atoms adding that they wandred in a Vacuum and were afterwards entangled with one another whence the Universe was composed So that Atoms and a Vacuum were the beginning of all things XI Pyrrhon chief of the Pyrrhonians or Scepticks pretended that Man only judged of all things by the appearance of Truth and Falshood Upon that he established a suspension of Mind that hindred himself from determining It seems that all his Subtilty consisted in finding out pretty Reasons of doubting But there was danger that this incertainty should extend it self to things which are not permitted to be Questioned as the Power of the Laws He lived in the time of Epicurus in the 120. Olympiad to wit the year of the World 3650. XII Epicurus an Athenian head of the Sect which bore his name hath composed more Books than the other Philosophers He made the supream Good to consist in the Pleasure accompanied with Vertue His Opinion is ill interpreted and his Disciples have abused it which hath made this Philosophy to be discried as a Source of Debauch and Impurities But saith Mr. Stanley the weakness of his Complexion and his extream Sobriety drive away altogether such unjust Suspicions The Altars that were builded to him after his Death do not agree with the Repute of Voluptuous It 's true he attributed much to the Empire of Sense and maintained that when the Sense judged of simple Objects we ought not to doubt of their fidelity But he would not have Reason to be subject to their Will He
Goodness and Truth as is plain by many places of Scripture It seems its for that Reason the Ancient Persians ador'd him under the form of a Fire without erecting any Statue to him as will evidently appear by what follows Besides the Unity of the first Fire they acknowledg'd a kind of Trinity and were us'd to say that there was a Triple Trinity each whereof had a Father a Power and a Spirit They call'd the first kind of Beings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligibles They said we must not strive to apprehend this Chief Intelligible But yet we may entertain the desire of so vast a Spirit as would measure every thing besides it The second Order of things which have no end was the Beings which were called Intelligibles and Intelligents which were yet subdivided into three Species I. the Iyngues II. The Synoques III. The Teletarques The Oracles which remain amongst us call these Iyngues Ideas and say that they were the Intelligible Models upon which the World was made by other Idea's which were call'd the second Ideas as also the first Original Ideas The Synoques which the Oracles called Anoques are also of three orders according to the three Worlds which they Govern the Empirean which Govern the Empirean World the Ethereal which Rule the Ethereal World and the Material which animate the Material World A little after we shall explain the Nature of these Worlds 3. The third Degree contains intelligent things which were also call'd Cosmogogues Governors of the World There were divers Ranks of 'em according to the Chaldeans The first Supreme Hecate the second supreme The three Amilictes that is to say which cannot be softned and the last called Hypezoces that is to say Girt underneath which the Oracles call'd Flower of Fire These are in the Material World to preserve it and give it those regular Motions which it hath Under these Cosmogogues are other Intelligent Beings which the Chaldees call Fountains or Sources In the Number of which they agree not Under these Fountains are the Hyperarques or Principalities They call some of these Spiritual Beings the Fountains or Architypes of Souls and Vertues After the Hyperarques are the Gods without Zone and the Gods ty'd to a Zone both of 'em are in the Material World but the first have an equal Power above all Zones whereas the last are confin'd in a certain Extension in which they Circulate with Matter The Chaldees place next the Angels and immaterial Demons They believe that of these there are both good and bad they say that the good are Light and the bad Darkness In fine this last Range of Beings contains Souls There are of three sorts in this Divinity the Celestial Intelligences which are never united to Matter others which are united to Matter and which are independent being Indivisible and Immortal capable to will and determine of themselves And lastly others which depend upon Matter and which may be destroyed with it There are two Causes or Origines of Humane Souls the Paternal Spirit and the Fountain of Souls which produces them by order of the Spirit As they believ'd that there were places in the World distinct for the habitation of Intelligences which we have spoken of so they say that Souls come from Spaces which are above the Moon and which are wholly replete with Light whereas the Region of this Planet is partly Light and party Dark as an Extent which is always covered with Clouds and Night 'T is from these places of Darkness that Humane Souls descend because their Wings have lost their force that is to say because these Souls have not kept their Primitive Perfection and obey'd the Will of the Father they never leave an Ethereal Body in which they are invested and which is as their Vehicle This Body is yet animated by another Species of Soul which is without Reason and which contains the Sense the Imagination and all the Faculties which do not necessarily belong to Reason the Sages call'd this Soul an Idol or Image of the Rational Soul 'T is by this that the reasonable Soul is untied to the Body which we take from our Mother's Breasts this unites the Ethereal Body to that of the Foetus to which it stays conjoyn'd until the grosser Body be destroy'd Thus if the Souls thrown Headlong down from the Spaces which are above the Moon into the Places which we inhabit do well acquit the Duty they owe to the Sovereign Divinity then they are restor'd unto the same place from whence they came On the contrary if they corrupt themselves more they are sent into yet darker Aboads We have said That these Intelligences had Places destin'd for their Habitation And thus 't was the Chaldeans divided the World and the Limits where they plac'd those Eternal Spirits They believ'd That above the Corporal World was in Infinite extended Light which they call'd The Light above the World that was properly the residence of Spirits This Light they call'd an Image of the Paternal Profundity that is the Immensity of the first Being Temporal or Corporal Things held the third and last Rank in the general division of Beings All included in seven corporal Worlds situate under that Light just before-mentioned according to this Order 1. The Empyrean or World of Fire Three Etherial Worlds 2. The Supream Aether 3. The Sphere of the fixt Stars 4. The Orbs or Planets Three Sublunary Worlds 5. The Air. 6. The Earth And 7. the Waters Some Christian Divines have confounded the Empyreal Heaven which they make the Abode of God and of the Blessed with that Light above the World but the Chaldeans distinguish them very carefully According to their Opinion the Empyreal World is very different from the Ethereal altho' this last is less pure and subtle than the Precedent As for the Sublunary Worlds Psellus tells us That the Chaldeans sometimes gave them a Name which the Greeks translated by the word Hades or Hell The Chaldeans acknowledg'd two sorts of Demons one Good the other Bad Hostanus a Persian Magi call'd the first The Ministers and Messengers of God who continued in his Presence But the second Terrestrial Demons who incessantly committed Error in this Sublunary World and which are Enemies to Mankind They call'd their Head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ariman which signifies The Enemy of Men for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies a Vessel may Metaphorically signifie a Man There are six sorts of 'em 1. Those which they call Fiery inhabiting the upper Region of the Air above which they cannot ascend altho' they are chas'd by the Intelligences which reside about the Moon 2. Those that are in the Inferior Air in which we live and which is call'd Aereal The Terrestrial 4. Those of the Sea which abide in the Water 5. The Subterraneous 6. Those that sly the Light and such as are very seldom visible Altho' they are all Enemies to God and Man some are much more Wicked than the rest
Tenets of the Gospel or what had been reprehended by Jesus Christ and his Apostles Thus all the Greek Philosophers until those who maintain'd Fatality believed that Men were Free by Nature and might abstain from doing evil as likewise that they could apply themselves to Virtue without having any knowledge of the way by which Jesus Christ and his Apostles undertook to rectifie their Opinions by any express Discourse Clement openly maintains that Man hath the liberty of doing Evil or abstaining from it Neither Praises saith he nor Censures nor Recompences nor Punishments are Iust if the Soul hath not power to be vitious or to refrain from Vice and if Vice is involuntary It was not known amongst the Heathens what is since called Original Sin and Clement not observing that the Sacred Writers Reproach the Pagans with this Ignorance and teach them that even Children newly born deserve the Flames of Hell denies that Children are corrupted in any manner whatsoever The Hereticks whom we have spoken of that condemned Marriage amongst others gave this Reason against it that thereby nothing has been acted but the bringing polluted Children into the World seeing David said himself That he was conceived in Sin and brought forth in Iniquity Psal. 51. and that Iob maintains That there is no body free from Pollution though he had lived but one day ch 14.4 5. Clement opposes them and says Let them tell us how a Child newly born hath Sinned or how he who hath yet done nothing as fallen under the Curse of Adam Afterwards he Expounds the passage of David as if the Prophet meant only that he was descended from Eve who was a Sinner It must also be observed that a Man whose Judgment was thus disposed wanted but little of believing that the Philosophers were of the same Sentiments with the Apostles as soon as he could find any relation in their terms So Plato having spoken of three Supream Divinities whom he acknowledged as appears elsewhere in terms like to those which the Primitive Christians made use of in speaking of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Clement believed that of this Philosopher's was the same as that of the Christians I conceive saith he that Plato understood nothing thereby but the blessed Trinity and that the third Being whereof he speaks is the Holy-Ghost as the second is the Son by whom all things were made according to the Will of the Father And speaking of the Divinity of Iesus Christ he described it no otherwise than the Platonicks did Reason The Nature of the Son saith he is the most Perfect and Holy that which hath the greatest share in Empire and Government and the most like unto him who only is Almighty It is this excellent Nature which presides over all things according to the Will of the Father who best governs the Universe who by an unexhaustible Power and without Wariness effects all that he makes use of to act in Nature and who seeth the most Secret Thoughts The Son of God never leaveth the Place whence he sees all he is neither Divided nor Shared nor does he Transport himself from one Place to another but is every where and is Incircumscriptible All Paternal Light aâ— Eye he seeth all things he hears every thing he knoweth every thing and penetrates by his might into all Powers To this natural Reason which hath received this holy Administration is subjected the whole Army of Angels and of Gods because of him who hath subjected them to it Clement had another Opinion concerning the Human Nature of Iesus Christ into which perhaps he fell for fear of rendring the Body of Iesus Christ inferior to that of the Gods of Homer The Gods of this Poet eat no Bread nor drank Wine And our Saviour according to Clement needed no Milk in coming into the World and was not nourished by the Meats which he took only through condescention and which passed not into his Body by the same Organs as they pass into our Bodies It is also what made Origen his Disciple to believe that Iesus Christ had no Blood But a Liquor like that which Homer attributed to his Gods which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato said in divers Places that God Inâ—licts Pains upon Men only for their good And Clement observes it after such a manner to make us believe that he approves on 't Plato also said that Souls are Purged in the other World by Fire and that after their Purgation they return to their first State Clement believed that the Apostles thought the same thing when they spoke to us of a Fire which is to Consume the World and his Disciple Origen hath concluded from these Principles that the Devils and the Damned will be one day delivered from their Sufferings The Apostles describe the Place where the Wicked shall he Tormented under the Idea of a Lake of burning Brimstone They made use of the same word that the Heathens did to denote the State of Souls after Death to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They say that Men descend thereinto and that Iesus Christ descended there also This was sufficient to draw this Exclamation from Clement What did not Plato know the floods of Fire and the profundity of the Earth which the Barbarians called Gehenna and which he Prophetically named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tartarus He has made mention of Cocytus of Acheron of Pyriphlegeton and such like Places where the Wicked are punished for their amendment Clement also believed with most of the Ancients that Iesus Christ really descended into Hell and Preached there to the Damned Souls of which he saved those who were willing to believe in him We might also bring many other Examples by which it would be plain that Clement expounded the Doctrins of the Christians by opinion the most resembling 'em which he found amongst Philosophers But the Examples we have shewed may suffice for those who have neither time nor opportunity to read this Author as well as for those who will consult the Original because they will find enough of themselves One thing may be apprehended by it which most of those who apply themselves to the reading of the Fathers do not much observe and without which it is almost impossible to understand them well in abundance of Places Which is that before we begin this Study seriously we must read with care the Heathen Philosophers and particularly Plato without which we could not well apprehend upon what grounds they reason or examin with success the force of their Arguments nor devise how they fell into so many Opinions so distant from those which are this day received in our Schools But now to return to the Life of St. Clement the Ancients with a general consent say he was Successor to Pantenus in the Office of Catechist He acquitted himself of this Employment with Success and several great Men came out of his School as Origen and Alexander Bishop of Ierusalem His method of instructing the
v. 3. n. 12. q. 9. Banter how far inconsistent with Wisdom v. 3. n. 12. q. 9. Buggs why bite one more than another v. 5. n. 13. q. 6. Battles why so few kill'd in ' em v. n. 1. q. 2. Brother how far oblig'd to conceal his brothers Mony v. 35. n. 16. q. 3. Body what matter will it be made of in the other world v. 3. n. 17. q. 3. Body what physical alteration made in it by the Fall v. 3 n. 17. q. 5. Brown in his Religio Medici v. 3. n. 20. q. 6. Bezoar what account can you give v 3. n. 21. q. 7. Birds Tom. T it the least v. 3. n. 23. q. 10. Beard why the hair grows gray v. 3. n. 24. q. 10. Born with Cawls what signifies it v. 3 n. 25 q. 10. Bodies what befel those that perish'd in the Deluge v. 3. n. 30. q. 10. Balaam's Ass what sex was it v. 3. n. 30. q. 12 Bees how they make that hum v. 4. n. 2. q. 12. Baptism of Infants a whole Mercury about it v. 4. n. 14. Baptism whether in the room of Circumcision v. 4. n. 14. q. 1. Baptism of Infants what Practice and Grounds for it v. 4. n. 14. q. 2. Baptism of infants is it found in Scripture v. 4. n. 14. q. 3. Books order'd to be given at Fun. v. 4. n. 15. q. 1. Body drown'd why not found in fourteen days after v. 4. n. 15. q. 2. Baptism of Infants further ass v. 4. n. 18. through Brothers born two in one had they two Souls v. 4 n. 28. q. 2. Body while Tenantable the Soul may separate without Death v. 4. n. 30. q. 6. Brimmer is there any deceit in 't v. 5. n. 1. q 4. Branches and Heads to instruct Children v. 5. n. 3. q. 2. Balaam a Moabite how cou'd he understand his Ass v. 5. n. 5. q. 3. Blood how circulates â—'th ' Body v. 5. n. 7. q. 5. Bodies of living Creatures why without putrefaction v. 5. n. 10. q. 4. Brother may he marry his Sisters Daughter v. 5. n. 13. q. 3. Bowing at the Name of Iesus whether sinful v. 5. n. 16. q. 4. Bowing towards the Altar its Original v. 5. n. 16. q. 5. Baptism of Infants proved in several Mercuries v. 5. n. 19. Arg. 1. Baptism from the Greek Word Baptizo v. 5. n. 23. q. 27. Baptism of Infants proved in answer to twenty three Questions v. 5. n. 25. q. 1. Baptize thee in the Name c. v. 5. n. 26. q. 8. Baptis of Inf. no prom nor threats v. 5. n. 26. q. 9. Bap. of Inf. no where in Scripture v. 5. n. 26. q. 10. Baptism we ought to keep to the reveal'd Law v. 5. n. 26. q. 13. Bapt of Inf. if a dangerous Error v. 5. n. 26. q. 14. Baptism and the Lords Supper alike to be given v. 5. n. 26. q. 15. Baptism or Baptisma why not translated right v. 5. n. 26 q 18. Baptisma what does the word m. v. 5. n. 26. q. 19. Baptizing or Rantizing v. 5. n. 26. q. 22. Baptizing of Inf. why deserr'd v. 5. n. 27. q. 1. Bap. was not the Fathers mistaken v. 5. n. 27. q. 2. Baptism of Infants is it good Divinity v. 5. n. 27. q. 4. Bap. of Infants Postcript to it v. 5. n. 27. postc ‖ BLount's Iudgment of the most Celebrated Authors 1. sup p. 20. Beauty several questions about it 1. sup p. 25. Bynaeus of the Birth of Jesus 3. sup p. 8 Beughem's Essay towards a litterary History 3. sup p. 24. Blount's Essays on several Subjects 3. sup p. 34. Becker's Enchanted World or Treatise of Spirits 4. sup p. 17. Body or matter at the Resurrection 5. sup p. 5. q. 5. †BArrow's Works p. 13. Body of the Canon Law p. 79. Dr. Burnet's Letters p. 117. Boil's disquisition into the received notions of Nature p. 161. His Discourse of specifick Remedies and Dissertation about the usefulness of simple Medicaments p. 184. His disquisition of final Causes p. 202. Bergerac's Eloquent Speech p. 121. C. * CHeating ones self or another v. 1. n. 2. q. 4. Confessor whether he may discover Secrets v. 1. n. 4. q 13. Cambridge or Oxford which the antientest Vniversity v. 1. n. 8. q. 6. Clouds what they are c. v. 1. n. 8. q 8. Converse with Angels Reasons for and against it v. 1. n. 10. q. 8. Child whether troubled for Damnation of Parents v. 1. n. 10 q. 9. Circle whether it may be squar'd that is c. v. 1. n. 15. q. 7. Churches of Asia what is become of them v. 1. n. 15. q. 9. Chyrurgion being taken into your Society I desire c. v. 1. n. 16. q. 4. Consonant double Ch. doth not always c. v. 1. n. 16. q. 13. Children oftener like the Fath. v. 1. n. 18. q. 5. Clouds composed of Rain v. 1. n. 20. q. 1. Conflagration of the World v. 1. n. 20. q. 2. Copper why dearer than Brass v. 1. n. 20. q. 4. Cuckoldry the word and infamy v. 1. n. 20. q. 8. Cain's Wife v. 1. n. 20. q. 17. Castle which best fortif in Europ v. 1. n. 20. q. 18. Clergy suspended for refusing Oaths c. v. 1. n. 22. q. 3. Children by a first wife whether they ought c. v. 1. n. 23. q. 1. Coffee and Tobacco whether prejud v. 1. n. 23 q. 1. Chickens when hatch'd in Ovens v. 1. n. 23. q. 7. Covenant how may a man know when in 't v. 1. n. 25. q. 2. Cain what Mark set on him v. 1. n. 26 q. 8. Cock crowing thrice reconciled v. 1. n. 29. q. 5. Christ's disputing in the Temple v. 1. n. 30. q. 4. Child father'd on a friend of mine v. 1. n. 30. q. 10. Corps why bleed when toucht by its Murtherers v. 2. n. 1. q. 2. Corns and Warts how to be destr v. 2. n. 1. q. 6. Cannibals whether any such people v. 2. n. 1. q. 10. Cain what Weapon slew he his Brother with v. 2. n. 1. q. 19. Calf with Flesh like a Commode v. 2. n. 2. q. 1. Caesar or Alex. which preferable v. 2. n. 2. q. 8. Coffee-houses whether take the twelve numbers v. 2. n. 4. q. 1. Clouds the difference of sight about 'em v. 2. n. 4. q. 3. Chamelion its properties and living on Air whether true v. 2. n. 14. q. 7. Cricket whether lucky v. 2. n. 18 q. 8. Confident why some more so than others v. 2. n. 18. q. 11. Circulation of the Blood v. 2. n. 19. q. 2. Child growing out betwixt a Man's Breasts v. 2. n. 19. q. 4. Cain who he fear'd should slay him v. 2. n. 23 q. 8. Cains Wife who was she v. 2. n. 23. q. 9. Cain whether any helpt him to build the City v. 2. n. 23. q. 10. Cowleys negative defin of wit v. 2. n. 24 q. 14. Child whether possible to be born without a Navel and live v. 2. n. 24 q. 18. Christianity whether invented at the
doth it dance on Easter-day v. 1. n. 16. q. 2. Superstition the meaning of the Word v. 1. n. 16. q. 8. Sound no Substance v. 1. n. 20. q. 15. Straight Stick in Water appears crooked v. 1. n. 20. q. 19. Storks never found but in Common-wealths v. 1. n. 21. q. 2. Small-pox why so many marked with 'em v. 1. n. 21. q. 3. Solomons Temple why not reckon'd among the wonders of the World v. 1. n. 21. q. 5. Satyrs or Sermons most successful v. 1. n. 22. q. 12. Sexes whether ever chang'd v. 1. n. 23. q. 2. Sherlock whether Dean of St. Pauls v. 1. n. 24. q. 2. Saints Bodies which arose with our Saviour v. 1. n. 25. q. 4. Salvation of Cain Eli and Sampson v. 1. n. 25. q. 5. Sin of felo de se it 's Nature v. 1. n. 25. q. 6. Snail the cause of it's Shell v. 1. n. 25. q. 9. Salamander whether it lives in the Fire v. 1. n. 26. q. 1. Soul whether knows all things v. 1. n. 26. q. 11. Samuel whether he or the Devil c. v. 1. n. 27. q. 1. Sabbath how chang'd v. 1. n. 27. q. 2. Souls of good Men where immediately after death v. 1. n. 28. q. 3. Souls when separate can they assume a Body v. 1. n. 28. q. 4. Shuterkin whence it proceeds v. 1. n. 29. q. 2. Scriptures how know we'em to be the Word of God v. 1. n. 30. q. 7. Sence of the Words when we differ v. 1. n. 30. q. 8. Serpents whether they were real c. v. 2. n. 1. q. 9. Soul in what part of the Body it is v. 2. n. 1. q. 13. Sight from whence proceeds v. 2. n. 1. q. 17. Sun how it comes to shine on the Wall v. 2. n. 2. q. 5. Substance Corporeal and spiritual how act v. 2. n. 2. q. 9. Spirits by what means do they speak v. 2. n. 2. q. 9. Saul went into the Cave c. the meaning v. 2. n. 5. q. 7. Scripture why it forbids Linsy Woolsey v. 2. n. 5. q. 12. Senses which of 'em can we best spare v. 2. n. 5. q. 16. Soul immortal whether breath'd into Adam c. v. 2. n. 5. q. 17. Small Pox the Cause of ' em v. 2. n. 5. q. 18. Spell what is it and whether Lawful v. 2 n. 6. q. 2. Sleep how to make one Wakeful v. 2. n. 6. q. 4. Soul how is it in the Body v. 2. n. 7 q. 2. Souls going out of our Bodies whether c. v. 2. n. 7. q. 3. Soul seeing 't is immaterial whether c. v. 2. n. 7. q. 4. Souls when separation do they knows the affairs of earth v. 2. n. 7. q. 5. Souls separate how do they know one another v. 2. n. 7. q. 6. Souls departed have they present Ioy or Torment v. 2. n. 7. q. 7. Souls departed where go they v. 2. n. 7. q. 8. Souls has a man three viz. the Supream c. v. 2. n. 7. q. 9. Souls where remain till the last day v. 2. n. 7. q. 10. Souls what have the Philosophers said of ' em v. 2. n. 7. q 11. Soul how it's Vnion with the Body v. 2. n. 7. q. 12. Stone in a Toads-head Swan sings at Death v. 2. n. 7. q. 13. Snow whether white or black v. 2. n. 8. q. 3. Sun why looking on it causes sneezing v. 2. n. 8. q. 6. Skeleton a strange Relation of it v. 2. n. 9. q. 1. Sin whether it might be ordain'd v. 2. n. 10. q. 1. Sin whether not ordain'd v. 2. n. 10. q 2. Saviour how did he eat the Passover v. 2. n 11. q. 3. Spirits Astral what is it v. 2. n. 12. q. 3. Sensitive Plants why emit their Operations v. 2. n. 15. q. 5. Salamander whether any such Creature v. 2. n. 15. q. 9. Soul of Man whether by Tradâ—ction or Infusion v. 2. n. 16. q. 5. Smoke what becomes of it v. 2. n. 17. q. 6. Sounds why ascend v. 2. n. 17. q. 8. Sun what matter is it made of v. 2. n. 18. q. 3. Speech and Voice from whence proceeds v. 2. n. 18. q 10. Saturn whether he be Noah v. 2. n. 18. q. 12. Step if Persons can walk far in it v. 2. n. 20. q. 2. Sure to one three years and now sure to v. 2. n. 20. q. 9. Several Questions about the Soul all answer'd in one v. 2. n. 22. q. 1. Sciences whether the Practick or Theory preferable v. 2. n. 22. q. 3. Smoke and Fire a Wager Lâ—id about it v. 2. n. 23. q. 1. Solomons Bounty to the Queen of Sheba v. 2. n. 23. q. 12. Stone cast into the Waters its figures why such v. 2. n. 24. q. 8. Scripture whether retrieved by Esdras v. 2 n. 25. q. 2. Synod of Dort had they Truth on their side v. 2. n. 26. q. 2. Sermon any reason for the clamour against it v. 2. n. 26. q. 6. Soul when it leaves the Body where goes it v. 2. n. 26. q. 7. Saviour and the Thief on the Cross v. 2. n. 27. q. 5. Sodom's overthrow v. 2. n. 27. q. 6. Saviour his Humane and Divine Nature v. 2. n. 27. q. 9. Snake when cut into Pieces v. 2. n. 27. q. 16. State of the Sun Moon c. at the last day v. 2. n. 28. q. 1. Sea how comes it not to overflow the World v. 2. n. 28. q. 6. Silk-worm how it lives v. 2. n. 28. q. 7. Spiritual Substance whether distinct parts v. 2. n. 29. q. 4. Soul it 's seat v. 2. n 29. q. 5. Souldiers who has most v. 2. n. 29. q. 12. Serpent how could he speak with mans Voice v. 2. n. 29. q. 15. Scripture and prophane History why they differ v. 2. n. 30. q. 7. Superstition of abstaining from Flesh v. 2. n. 30. q. 12. Sun where does it set v. 3. n. 1. q. 4. Spider how does it Poison a fly v. 3. n. 1. q. 5. Singing Psalms why not used v. 3. n. 6. q. 4. Sea Water why Salt v. 3. n. 6. q. 7. Souls whether all equally happy v. 3. n. 8. q. 5. Soul of a Child quick in the Womb v. 3 n. 8. q. 6. Shooting at Sea why heard at a distance v. 3. n. 9. q. 6. Soul after what manner it enters into the Body v. 3. n. 9. q. 7. Shell fish why the shell apply'd to the Ear v. 3. n. 9. q. 11. Sermon of one hour why seems longer than two v. 3. n. 11. q. 8. Shoot right why they wink with one Eye v. 3. n. 12. q. 5. Self-dislike whether Wisdom v. 3. n. 12. q. 7. Sences which can we best spare v. 3. n. 14. q. 1. Self-Murther for a Mistress whether Lawful v. 3. n. 16. q. 2. Socinian Heresie when broach't v. 3. n. 18. q. 4. Spring how visible v. 3. n. 19. q 5. Stones on Salisbury Plain v. 3. n. 19. q. 6. Sky is it of any Colour v. 3. n. 22. q. 5. Sacrament
whether a Person may receive with 2 Ch. v. 3. n. 22. q. 7. Snakes when kept tame v. 3. n. 23. q. 2. Snakes Water-snake and Land-snake how different v. 3. n. 23. q. 3. Solidity what is it v. 3. n. 24. q. 16. Substance and Body the difference v. 3. n. 25. q. 2. Soul whether it presently enjoys God after Death v. 3. n. 25. q. 7. Souls of learn'd men ignorant whether alike next v. 3. n. 25. q. 8. Saviours Birth why in Bethlehem v. 3. n. 26. q. 6. Scepter why not to depart from Judah Gen. 49. v. 3. n. 26. q. 7. Sins which most destructive v. 3. n. 28. q. 6. Swoon where is the Soul then v. 3. n. 29. q. 3. Saviour and his Miracles how prov'd by History v. 4. n. 1. q. 1. Species in Nature whether any v. 4. n. 1. q. 4. Sleep-walkers a strange Relation of one v. 4. n. 5. q. 2. Such a Serpent as an Amphisbaena or double-headed v. 4. n. 5. q. 6. Seduced into a great Sin Oaths Promises v. 4. n. 7. q. 8. Sweating sickness mentiond Present-state of London v. 4. n. 8. q. 7. Sprinkling Infants why not Dipping in Baptism v. 4. n. 14. q. 5. Secret Sinner whether oblig'd to confess all to a Minister v. 4. n. 16. q. 2. Sympathy and Antipathy how is it v. 4. n. 19. q. 2. Surgeon whether sins in curing the French disease v. 4. n. 23. q. 9. Shipping and Navigation whether improv'd v. 4. n. 27. q. 3. Soul when out of the Body is it active or inactive v. 4. n. 28. q. 5. Soul how long may it be absent from the Body v. 4. n. 28. q. 6. Soul into what place does it go after Death v. 4. n. 29. q. 1. Songs on Moral or Divine Subjects impress virtue v. 5. n. 1. q. 5. Spirits how big are they v. 5. n. 2. q 3. Soul of Woman is it inferiour to Mans v. 5. n. 3. q. 2. Sun is it a Mass of Liquid Gold v. 5. n. 4. q. 5. Sun whether ever totally eclips'd v. 5. n. 4. q 6. Sun what supplies it with heat and motion v. 5. n. 5. q. 1. Suns three appearing at once whether true v. 5. n. 6. q. 8. Specifick cure for the biting of a Viper or Mad Dog v. 5. n. 7. q. 4. Satyrs c. or other discoursing Creatures c. v. 5. n. 7. q. 7. Sons and Daughters of God mentioned Geo. 6.4 v. 5. n. 7. q. 9. Stroke on a Mules back the reason of 't v. 5. n. 10. q. 3. Sun why the spring of Light a Poem v. 5. n. 11. q. 6. Sappho or Mrs. Behn the best Poetess v. 5. n. 13. q. 8. Samaritan Character or Vulgar Heb. the ancientest v. 5. n. 14. q. 2. Solomons meaning in Prov. 30.19 what was it v. 5. n. 16. q. 2. Saints why Pictur'd with Circles v. 5. n. 16. q. 5. Souls are they all equal v. 5. n. 29. q 3. ‖ SVm of the Bible 1. suppl p. 15. Speaking or Writing whether is better 1. suppl p. 25. Speaking or keeping silent which is better 1. suppl p. 27. Sum of the Bible Tome 1. 2. suppl p. 4. Siam the Revolution of that State suppl 2. p. 8. Spain a Relation of a Iurney thither 4 suppl p. 1. Sherlock on Iudgment 4. suppl p. 26. Swifts Letter to the Ahenian Society 5. suppl p. 1. Swifts Ode to the Athnian Society 5. suppl p 2. Selah what is the signification of it 5. suppl q. 4. p. 9. Syllogism about Infan Baptism answered 5. suppl p. 11. Son that has wrong his Father desires to communicate at Easter 5. suppl q. 6. p. 12. Soul of an Emoryo how shall it rise at last 5. suppl p. 14. q. 11. Sun and Clouds when look'd on 5. suppl p. 16. q. 18. Sin whether migt not be ordain'd for Gods Glory 5. suppl p. 16. q. 20. Sin were it ordai'd or all possibilities of Adams standing 5. sup p. 16. q. 21. Souls of Brutes heir Natures 5. suppl p. 25. q. 26. †SYnopsis of tâ— New Polyglot Bible p. 292. Selden othe use and abuse of Books p. 80. Bishop Stillingleets Antiquities of the British Churches p. 135. Stanly's Histry of Philosophy containing the Lives Opinions Actions an Discourses of the Philosophers of every Sect p. 190. Sylloge varirum opusculorum p. 467. Seldens Cricks in Divinity p 311. Sprats History of the Royal Society p. 315. T * TOrmâ—â—s of the Torments visible to the Saints v. 1. n. 1. q. 2. Titillation that is the cause of it v. 1. n. 4. q. 9. Transmigâ—tion of Souls v. 1. n. 7. q 6. Thunder it cause and what it is v. 1. n. 8. q. 7. Ten Tribe where they went v. 1. n. 10. q. 2. Time an Eternity their difference v. 1. n. 14. q. 3. Tree whyoes its fruit in grafting c. v. 1. n. 16. q. 12. Toads ar Serpents production in Rocks v. 1. n. 17. q. 8. Tarantiâ— whether such a Spider v. 1. n. 27. q. 4. Truth is to be spoke at all times v. 2. n. 1. q. 14. Time wether any Crisis wherein persons v. 2. n. 9. q. 4. Trade â—nds v. 2. n. 11. q. 5. Tobacc whether good or hurtful v. 2. n. 14. q. 2. Taraâ—la c. real or a Fable v. 2. n. 14. q. 8. Turkâ— Spy his Books whether a Fiction v. 2. n. 17. q. 4. Toad and Spider the Antipathy betwixt 'em v. 2. n. 20. q. 5. Temporals whether they can be made sure v 2 n 28 q 10 Thoughts uneasie and painful in Devotion v. 2. n. 21. q. 2. Trembling at the sight of a Mistress v. 3. n. 4. q. 6. Thunder why more terrible by Night than Day v. 3. n. 8. q. 1. Thunder Lightning and Earthquakes their force v. 3. n. 8. q. 2. Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledg how differ v. 3. n. 17. q 4. Turks and Pagans why so little care of their Conver. v. 3. n. 23. q. 1. Trade which is the best v. 3. n 24. q. 6. Thieves the best way of punishing 'em v. 3. n. 25. q. 3. Thoughts when wicked how know 'em c. v. 3. n. 29. q. 2. Tyburn an account of the antiquity of it v. 4. n. 2. q. 4. Tears sighs c. of greater force to obtain a Lady v. 4. n. 3. q. 4. Thunder what causes the noise v. 4. n. 8. q 9. Trees does the sap descend v. 4. n. 9. q. 2. Trees have they Male and Females v 4 n 9 q 3 Trees whether cutting off the bottom Root v. 4. n. 9. q. 4. Toad in a solid Rock v. 4. n. 9. q 8. Triumphal Arch in Cheapside your thoughts on 't v. 4. n. 12. q. 1. Torments and happiness is there a cessation of 'em during Iudgment v. 4 n. 29. q. 2. Text extant of the old Testament the Hebrew or Septuagint v. 5. n. 7. q. 3. Tears of a Maid red as blood v. 5. n. 9 q. 6. ‖ THomassins method to study Grammar and the Tongues 1 Suppl p. 1.
PAste a small piece of paper over those three lines beginning with a Hand at the end of page 240 and place all the seven Alphabets as they lie in order beginning with A in the first Alphabet and next place A in the second Alphabet and all the rest in the same order for the placing A in the fourth Alphabet first of all tho' the Subject Matter of that part would more properly come there will make some persons apprehend the Book Imperfect AN ESSAY Upon all sorts of LEARNING Written by the Athenian Society Of Learning in General HAppiness is the end of every Intelligent Being for this we Court whatever appears agreeable to us some seek it in Riches and Preferments some in Gratifying their senses but the Wise Man pursues it in such refin'd speculations as are most becoming the Dignity of his Nature He that knows most comes nearest to the perfection of his Maker and who can transcribe a fairer Copy than he that imitates the Eternal Wisdom 'T is the first question in Philosophy whether a thing be or exist because ' twoud be a fruitless Labour to search into the Nature of that which has no Being but the Universal consent of Humanity about the Inquiries after Wisdom resolves this first Question And it won't be altogether impertinent to examine here the reasons of these Inquiries That which puts in for preheminence amongst the rest is the Analogy betwixt the Power and Subject the proportion between the Mind and Science The spirit of man is continually upon the Wing Visiting every Element and examining more or less the Treasuries of Nature Storing up from thence what his inclination dictates and if he fails in his Expectation he makes a second Choice and so on Nor does this different Genius of Persons lessen the truth of our Maxim as to the Analogy betwixt the Mind and Science but rather confirm it for tho' some chuse Evil or Ignorance 't is under the notion of Good or Science for to pursue Evil as Evil is impossible 't is a rape upon the very Will and to Chuse Ignâ—rance as Ignorance is a Contradiction for when a Man chuses to be ignorant of such a Science 't is because he wou'd discover some other good in the absence of it Nay even in self destruction where the Wretched promise themselves an Ignorance of all their Evils 't is not so much to avoid their Evils as to discover some unknown rest in their Non-being So unaccountably desirous is Mankind of new discoveries as Seneca observes the happy are weary of pleasure and even seek out misery for a Change and we must believe him a Schismatic from Humane Nature that disclaims a Propriety in some sort of Knowledge and Learning Twou'd be a tedious and unprofitable task to make a particular Survey of the infinite variety and different application of Humane Studies and 't is an unhappy truth that for the most part the Body comes in for a larger share than the Mind the accomplishments of this are postpon'd to the gratification of that because appearances have brib'd so many Judgments from making a strict examination and amongst those few that pretend to enquiries how small a number can perfect the attempt without prejudices Hence it is that true Honour is baffled and outrival'd by dress challenges Pageantry and Gay Retinues True nobility is the effect of a Pious and Learned Education A noble Custom of the Mind promises an happy Harvest of a flourishing Republick it fixes Crowns by Counsel prevents and resolves the Riddles of Plots and Insurrections it procures the Love of wise Men and the reverence of Fools settles a reputation that outbraves the ruines of Age the Revolutions of Empires in short it teaches us to be Happy since it 's a friend to both the Mind and Body and secures an interest in both Worlds A Doctor of the Civil Law who had more Estate than Reason had the honour of Knighthood confer'd upon him by Sigismund the Emperor whereupon he began to value himself more and his old acquaintance less the Emperor hearing of it and meeting him at the Council of Constance he publickly accosted him in these words Fool who preferrest Knighthood before Learning the gingles of fame before the true worth of the Mind I can coin a thousand Knights in one Day but not one Doctor in a thousand years Who can be proud of his debts or any advantages which are not the effects of his own Merit but of Nature or Providence without being ridiculous and attracting a greater blemish than an Hereditary Estate can compensate Wou'd a Gentleman deserve his Name and the gifts of Nature his Study must be the Laws of Nations the foundations of Common-Wealths the Examples of such as by their own virtue have ennobled mean Families and other such tasks as Learning and Knowledge may suggest to him How many feeble Families are degenerated into contempt and baseness for want of such a Study and how many now are and have been always mean and contemptible for being haters of thinking and eternal Truants from the School of Learning and Vertue My Lord Verulam whose observations have deservedly Characteriz'd him a wise Man tells us That Learning is the perfection of Reason the only Note of distinction between Men and Beasts delivering the Mind from Wilderness and Barbarism It is Religions Handmaid the great Honour and Accomplishment of a Person or Nation the most Vniversal and useful Interest that God vouchsafeth to the Sons of Men. Cato's distich deserves the Study of more than School-boys Instrue praeceptis animum nec discere cesses Nam sine Doctrina vita est quasi mortis Imago Which may be thus Englished In Learnings precepts spend thy utmost breath Life without Learning bears the stamp of Death Learning is of Universal extension like the Sun it denys not its Rays and benign influence to any one that will but open their eyes other Treasures may be Monopoliz'd and engrost but this is encreas'd by Communication and diffusion and the more a Man imparts the more he retains and encreases his first store Thus far of Science or Learning in general which rather than a Wise man wou'd be depriv'd of he wou'd even steal it from the Minutes of a necessary rest or recreation we shall now descend to particulars but our short limits will rather confine us to shew the use and method of obtaining them than a full and distinct Treatise of every head and first of Divinity Divinity That there is a God no person can doubt that will open his eyes if we look upon the Heavens the regular motions of those vast Bodies that determine times and Seasons every object about us whether Brutes Fishes Fouls Trees or Minerals each one indued with a Soul or Nature not to be dissected by the greatest Philosophers but above all when we look upon our selves and consider the wonderfulness of our Structure the curiosity of our Frame the Ideas reasonings conclusions on
rational Person amongst 'em give in their answers to this question suppose this Sacred Wriâ— should be the Word of God What Testimonies Authorities Qualifications c. would be sufficient to fix an undoubted perswasion in you that it is the Word of God Certain we are that the answer would not come up to half the demonstration that we now have since we have the utmost Authority that Nature is capable to give nay the ordinary course of Nature very often inverted to confound the infidelity of such persons as question'd their own natural conclusions and the Author of Nature at once as if 't were his business to condescend and make new terms with his Creatures to keep his credit amongst ' em We cou'd if the shortness we have design'd this Discourse wou'd permit enlarge upon this Subject but 't is so well done to our hands by several late learned Divines that our Deists have nothing to object but a little Buffoonery Banter and Ridicule and 't is pitty to deny 'em the happiness they take in it or any other short liv'd Pleasure which must necessarily arise from their Principles which if it be not exactly the same with Post mortem nihil est ipsaque mors nihil Death it self is nothing and after death there 's nothing Yet 't is near akin to it for tho' they have not that Stoical Bravery to defie Death I wou'd say to dare to think of it like Men yet most of them have imbib'd Descartes's Principles unwillingly assur'd of the Existence of their Soul or some unknown Agent which works upon their Animal Spirits after some unintelligible dark manner and that it does not come under the common Notion of other Material Substances they are also certain that the Body rather depends upon it than it upon the Body to a demonstration and what is yet more disagreeable to 'em when they dare be guilty of thinking is that as an after State of the Soul has been the Universally receiv'd Opinion even amongst such as were unacquainted with no better Demonstration than the Dictates of their natural Light So they can't find out any Reasons against it so plausible as to escape their own Ridicule if offer'd by any body else and if there be any thing of an after-State to make an Eternal unknown Plunge into it must certainly be surprizing to such Persons as have no hope beyond this Life no proper claim to another but what their own Doubts and Fears may give 'em a Title to Mens habet attonitus furdo verbere caedit Fears not to be stifled since they arise from a Principle that depends not upon the Will no more than a Man's Shape or Species does But to leave this unhappy Subject and if possible to perswade a Retreat to some of that numerous Crowd that are about to list themselves into this unthinking Fraternity I wou'd propose Learning and Study to 'em and amongst all others that of the BIBLE Since it shews the most certain and secure way for such as expect a greater Happiness than is in sensible Objects A Happiness worthy the Dignity and Nature of Mankind in short such a Happiness as Man was Created for unless he himself frustrate his own End I have already made a short Comparison of the Sacred Writ with other moral Writings which appear but mean in respect of it Not that I wou'd deny a due value to others especially Divinity Books as Comments upon the Bible and distinct Treatises whose Subject in general is to remove all Obstructions of human Happiness as Prejudices Error c. and to prepare the Mind for a search after Truth In order to this great End it will not be amiss to subjoyn this following Catalogue which will be of great use to such as love this Study DIVINITY POol's Synopsis Criticorum and his other Works Dr. Hammond on the New Testament with all his other Works H. Grotius 's Commentary on the Old and New Testament and the rest of his Works Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History T. vet Biblia Sacra sive lib. Canonici priscae Judaeorum Ecclesiae a Deo traditi Latini recens ex Hebraeo facti brevibusque Scholiis illustrati ab Im. Tremelio Fr. Iunio Accesserunt libri qui vulgo dicuntur Apocr lat reddâ—ti notis quibusdam aucti a Fr. Iunio multi omnes quam ante emendata Ed. aucti locis innumeris quibus etiam Adjunximus N. T. lib. ex Sermone Syro ab eodem Trimel ex Graeco a T. Beza in lat vers notisque itidem illustratus Bp. Andrews Sermons c. The Works of the whole Duty of Man Dr. Hookers Ecclesiastical Policy Dr. Comber upon Liturgies Bishop Burnets Works Bish. Stillingfleets Works All the Fathers as St. Ambrose c. Mr. Leigh's Critica Sacra Dr. Lightfoots works Dr. Preston's works Riveti Controversia de Religione contra Papistas The History of the General Councils Dr. Sherlocks works Dr. Jeremy Taylors works Bishop Ushers works Jurieu's Accomplishment of Prophesies Dr. Barrows works Dupins Bibliotheque Altings works Episcopius his works Bishop Bramhalls works in four Tomes fol. Hales Remains in fol. Bishop Halls Contemplations upon the Remarkable Passages in the Life of the Holy Iesus fol. Latin Books in Divinity Bail summa Conciliorum omnium ordinata aucta illustrata ex Merlini Joveri Baronii Binnii Coriolani Sirmondi aliorumque Collectionibus ac Manuscriptis aliquot seu Collegium Synodicum in sex Classes distributum c. in fol. Beveregius Guil. Synodicon sive Pandectae Canonum S. S. Apostolorum Conciliorum ab Ecclesia Greca receptorum necnon Canonicarum S. S. Patrum Epistolarum una cum Scholiis antiquorum singulis eorum annexis scriptis aliis huc spectantibus c. Oxonii in fol. Bonacinae Martini Opera omnia in tres Tomos distributa c. fol. Lugd. Coccei Johannis Opera omnia octo voluminibus comprehensa c. Amstelodami in fol. Cassidori magni Aurelii Opera omnia in duos Tomos distributa c. Rothomagi fol. Grotii Hugonis Opera omnia Theologica in tres Tomos sed quatuor Volumina divisa c. Amstel fol. Haunaldi Christop Theologiae speculativae scholasticis Praelectionibus Exercitiis accommodatae Libri quatuor partibus summae divi Thomae respondentes c. Ingolst adii fol. Vossii Ger. Ioh. de Theologia Gentili Phisiologiâ Christianâ sive de Origine progressu Idololatriae deque naturae mirandis quibus homo adducitur ad Deum in fol. Bocharti Sam. Geographica Sacra c. in quart Cotelerius Ecclesiae Grecae monumenta c. in quart Kabbala denudata seu Doctrinae Hebraeorum transcendentalis c. 410. Sulsbach History HISTORY has been call'd by a great Man Speculum Mundi The Looking-Glass of the World It gives the best prospect into Humane Affairs and makes us familiar with the remotest Regions by this we safely sit in our Closets and view the horrid Devastations of Countreys Tumults Changes and Ruptures of
the Witnesses from the Revocation of the Edict of Nants To return to our Author he remarks that the same prodigies have been related of the year MXXXIII and the same evils as of the year M. There was also towards that time a Mortality and Famine and Signs from Heaven appeared to wit Eclipses and Comets besides Earthquakes that were in divers places And that there should nothing be wanting of what had appeared at the beginning of this Age one Arnulph a Monk of Ratisbone testified he had seen in Hungary a Dragon suspended in the air and altogether like the Leviathan whereof mention is made in Iob. It came also out of the North and after having appeared sometime as unmoveable he began to fly with an extraordinary swiftness and went amongst the Clouds whisling horribly where he raised Lightnings and Thunders for more than 24 hours Notwithstanding ignorance and superstition encreased from day to day A Bishop of France at the relation of Sigebert would fain make people believe that he had received Letters from the third Heaven wherein all men were ordered on Friday to live upon Bread and Water to bear no Arms to recall nothing by way of Justice what had been taken away by violence and not to pursue the Murderers Heaven promised Salvation to those who should live thus not having need of any other penitence but to abstain from flesh on Fridays There were Bishops so simple or superstitious as to believe and impose those new Laws upon many under pain of Excommunication and of being deprived of Burial if they died in the refusal thereof In this time likewise were discovered many Relicks of Martyrs which had been unknown in former Ages Glaber relates that an Impostor sold in divers places of France Bones of dead Folks which he had gathered in some Church yards for Relicks of Saints that afterwards did an infinite number of Miracles and which much benefited the Churches in which they were placed Fearing he should be suspected and that men would desire to know whence this inexhaustible fund of Relicks came he stay'd not in one place and changed his name when he changed his Habitation He gave amongst others to the Inhabitants of the Alps and Tarantoise a Martyr to whom he gave the name of Iust and who did as 't is said so great a number of Miracles that the sick were carried from all parts to be cured and that the Saints were sorry if they had not some disease whereby they might have an opportunity to be cured by him Poenitet insuper si non est sibi morbus quo curari se poscat Glaber attributes these Miracles to the Devil and mightily censures the Bishops of that Country for not having put a stop to such extravagances of the People The Pope who ascended the Apostolick See in the year MXXXIII was Bennet IX whom Glaber accuseth of all manner of impurities and Cardinal Baino of Idolatry and Magick This Pope coming to the Chair at the age of XII years lived eleven years only but he committed so many crimes that he was driven from Rome and was forced to sell his dignity whereof notwithstanding he would not be deprived afterwards so that there were at Rome three Popes at once Bennet Sylvester and Gregory The disorders of that time are too known to make any stop at them it will suffice to say that the memory of this Benet was in so great a detestation that there ran a report that his Soul had been sent after his death into the body of a Monster which was shap'd like a Bear and which had the Ears and Tail of an Ass where he was to stay till the day of Judgment that he would be sent without remission into Hell It was at the beginning of this Age as our Author sheweth that the dignity of Cardinals begun to be considerable but it came not to the height till they only had the priviledge of choosing Popes since they have been equalled to Kings and have carried their Pride so far that Nicholas de Clemangis Arch-Deacon of Bajeux who lived in the year MCCCCXVI describes them in these terms The Pride of Cardinals who sit at the side of the Pope is so excessive their words are so fierce and their ways so insolent that if a Painter would make a Picture of Pride he could not better do it than in Painting a Cardinal Cardinalium qui Papae assident spiritus verba tumulentia gestus taminsolentes ut si artifex quisque vellet superbiae simulaâ—hrum effingere nullâ congruentius ratione id facere posset quaà m Cardinalis effigiem oculis intuentium objectando c. It hath been seen that according to our Author the term at which the Devil was let loose expired a thousand years after the Birth or after the passion of our Lord. He afterwards says that if men will take the beginning of these thousand years from the destruction of Ierusalem it may be said with as much likelihood that they are in effect expired in MLXXIII that the Monk Hildebrand ascended the Apostolical See and Governed the Church with the utmost Tyranny under the name of Gregory VII The unheard excesses which this Pope committed made the honest men of that time to say according to the relation of Sigebert in his Chronicle upon the year MLXXXVIII that the Reign of Antichrist then begun according to the Prophecies of the Apostles Waltram Bishop of Naumbourg or the Author of the Apology for the Vnity of the Church saith in these terms That is seemed then that the Devil was come out of Prison whereas it is written in the Apocalypse he went forth to seduce the Nations and to engage 'em to War c. The Church of Liege in its answer to Paschal II. saith as much as well as divers other Authors cited by Vsher who describe Hildebrand as the most wicked of all men He was accused of Witchcraft in a Synod held in MLXXX and several Catholick Writers have sufficiently declared the same thing which gives occasion to our Archbishop of applying unto him what St. Paul saith of the man of sin that he was to come accompanied with the work of Satan and with deceiving Miracles And also what St. Paul saith elsewhere of some Impostors who were to come in the latter times and which he describes by two remarkable characters which is that they would interdict Marriage and order the abstaining from Meats which God hath created to be eaten with thanksgiving In effect Gregory VII did 'em both in two Synods assembled the sixth year of his Popedom wherein he prohibited the Marriage of Priests and the use of Flesh on Saturdays Sigebert de Gemblou and Lambert de Schafnabourg have written at large the murmurs and disorders which these prohibitions caused Priests said particularly that it was unjust to constrain men to live like Angels and that in stopping the ordinary course of Nature the bridle was let loose to Fornication and Impurity They added that if
amputare non posset They were called the Brothers of the War of St. Dominick At that time Innocent established an Inquisition at Thoulouse and in other suspicious places because the Bishops being employed about their temporal Affairs took noâ— care enough to extirpate Heresie St. Dominick was Commissary over Gasconny and established his Order there that they might assist him in the Work there never was before regular and perpetual Inquisitions Another Order of begging Monks was established besides that of the Dominicans to wit the Minor Brothers founded by St. Francis and that of the Augustines as an assistance to the Bishops and Pastors But it soon appeared that instead of helping them they pretended to take the care upon themselves alone which the Pastors were invested with this necessarily caused a great many complaints as our Author sufficiently shews There was particularly a great quarrel in MCCLIII betwixt the University of Paris and the Preaching Brothers which was hard to be appeased because the King favoured the University and the Pope upheld the Monks who pretended to a Right of Teaching Divinity without having any regard to the Laws of the University During this quarrel Iohn of Parma an Italian Monk and General of the Minors published a Book intituled the Eternal Gospel This Book was full of Impieties and of as strange absurdities as those of the Alcoran The Author amongst other things maintained that the Gospel should be abrogated as not being capable of conducting to perfection and that this was reserved to the Order of the begging Monks who in the latter end of the World should teach a Doctrine much more perfect than that of Jesus Christ. This Book was condemned at Rome and the Author was obliged voluntarily to quit his Charge with the least noise that could be not to irritate an Order then powerful enough and which was of great use to the Court of Rome A Book was also condemned which four Doctors of the University of Paris had read against the former intituled De periculis novissimorum temporum It was burned at Anagnia where the Court of Rome then was and at Paris likewise not for any Heresie which it contained saith William de Nangis a Monk of St. Denis who lived in MCCC but because it might give scandal and cause a Sedition among the Monks Since the time of Peter Abailard to wit from the year MCXL the Philosâ—phy of the Age as Trithemus says begun by its vain curiosity to corrupt Divinity The new Order of the begging Monks furnished Doctors which accomplisht its Destruction by the Philosophy of Aristotle and a thousand ridiculous subtilties There was amongst the Franciscans in MCCXL Alexander de Hales who was callâ—d the Doctor of Doctors the source of Life and the irrefragable Doctor He commented on the first four Books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard and summed up all the heads of Divinity by order of Innocent IV. About the same time Gaultier Bishop of Poitiers made the first work de Quodlibetariis which gave birth to the custom of disputing for and against all sorts of Propositions Bonaventure Sirnamed the Seraphick Doctor was their Contemporary and so much esteemed by Alexander de Hales that he was accustomed to say it seemed to him that Adam had not sinned in Bonaventure Iohn Duns a Scotchman who flourished at the beginning of the IV. Age and who was a Disciple of the same Alexander acquired to himself the glorious Sirname of Subtil Doctor Thomas Bradwardin had towards the middle of the same Age that of Profound Doctor The Dominicans also have not fail'd of having Divines also in their party whereof these are the two chief Albert Bishop of Ratisbone who died in MCCLXXX Sirnamed The Great even during his Life and Thomas Aquinas the Angelical Doctor who was his Disciple There hath besides been in this Order the famous Durand de S. Porcien Sirnamed the most Resolute Doctor resolutissimus There was at the same time a Carmelite named Gilles Romanus who was called the most Profound Doctor Doctorem fundatissimum and a little time after in the Order of Cisteaux Alain des Iles who was named the Vniversal Doctor Vsher hath also collected without much Order divers things concerning the Original and Sentiments of the Vaudois and Albigese and there begins to make the History how they were persecuted from the beginning of the third Age until the year MCCXL As these events are found in divers French and Latin Histories we shall not relate them Here is only an Example of the barbarity of that Age. William le Brebon contemporary Poet saith in his Philippide LXVIII with an Ingenuity particular to himself speaking of the taking and sacking of Beziers 60000 Souls had their throats cut which the inordinate fury of the Vulgar and the indiscretion of the Ribaldorum kill'd without the consent of the Governours making the faithful die with the incredulous and not much mattering which deserved Death or ought to have his Life saved Yet what he saith of the Consent of the Heads of the party is not altogether True Arnold Abbot of Cisteaux since Archbishop of Narbone and Legate of the Pope in this occasion was so much afraid that some Heretick should escape that he ordered the Soldiers to cut off indifferently all those they met He is a witness not to be suspected who tells us it to wit Cesaire de Heisterbach Monk of the same Order in the Diocess of Cologne and who lived in the time this Massacre was Knowing saith he by their Confessions that there were Catholicks amongst the Hereticks they said to the Abbot what shall we do Sir we cannot distinguish the good from the bad But the Abbot and the rest fearing that the Hereticks would counterfeit themselves to be Catholicks only for fear of Death and should return to their old Heresie when the Army withdrew the Abbot I say answered as they tell us kill them for God knoweth those who are his Caedite eos novit enim Dominus qui sunt ejus If Vsher could have continued he might perhaps have recovered Authentick pieces to end his History There was one seen a little while since which could have served his purpose and would be of great use to those who would be willing to prosecute his design It is an Original Register of the Inquisition of Thoulouse written and collated by two Notaries of the same Inquisition which contains what it hath done against the Albigeses for sixteen years from the year Mcccvii to the year Mcccxxiii The forms of the Oath are therein which Civil Judges tendred to the Inquisition to defend it and not to protect Heresie directly or indirectly and the Excommunication which was design'd against those who favoured it amongst whom were reckoned even those who accused those Hereticks which were of their acquaintance There is the process of a great number of Persons condemned for Heresie to divers punishments according to the exigency of the case Some of those were condemned
tibi solus Sed ubi tres Ecclesia est licet Laici c. Grotius took the part of Mr. Rigaut his Friend and then printed a small Dissertation de Coenae administratione ubi Pastores non sunt It is in the third Tome of his Theological Works We may also see an Abridgment thereof in a Letter to Salmatius which is 260. of the 1. p. where our Author testifies he was of Erasmus's opinion to wit that in the Primitive times the Faithful consecrated the Bread and Wine and communicated together there being often no Priest in the Company See the Letter of Erasmus to Cuthbert Tonstar l. xxvi Epist. Grotius seems to have much respect for Christian Antiquity as may be seen by all his works and by this place of the Letter 191. of the 2. p. Perhaps those who are of Voetius 's opinion will think it will be a Socinianism to make the principal part of Religion consist in the observation of the precepts of Iesus Christ. But I see that the Christians of the first Ages the Assemblies the Doctors Martyrs have been of this Iudgment that there are few things which we ought necessarily to know and that as to the rest God Iudgeth us according to the obedience we have rendered to him The same also appears by a Conversation that Grotius had with the Prince of Condé in 1639. and whereof he gives an account to Chancellor Oxenstiern in Letter 1108. of the 1. p. He relates to this Suedish Lord that the Prince had given him a visit that they had discoursed of several things and that this Prince had approved his Opinions that in this Age one may attribute to himself the Name of a Christian and the Surname of Catholick the Scripture must be believed interpreted not according to the particular Judgment of each one which hath caused Seditions Schisms and often Wars but according to the universal and perpetual consent of the Ancient Churches which we find in the Writings of several excellent men and chiefly in the Symbols and Acts of the true Ecumenick Councils which were held before the Schism of the Eastern and the Western Churches and which the Emperors and all the Churches have approved of That moreover we must abstain from calumniating any one to leave off the Spirit of Parties to endeavour the Unity of the Church such as Jesus Christ hath ordained and the Apostles have founded and to hold for our Brothers to wit for Christians and Catholicks all those who are in these opinions although those who rule over the Churches have separated themselves from the External Communion Haec omnia Princeps sibi dicebat probari sapientissimis quos cognosset hominibus Not that Grotius was very much conceited with the antiquity he believed as some are that the Ceremonies which it hath constantly kept to are all of Divine Right Thus he speaks to Mr. des Condés about Confirmation and Imposition of hands Let. 329. 1. p. I have found by reading that the imposition of hands was a Jewish Ceremony which was introduced not by any Divine Law but by Custom every time that any Body prayed God for another For the Jews prayed God that his Power should accompany that Man as the hands which were put upon his Head and which were the Symbol of the Divine Power were united to him Jesus Christ followed this Custom as several others of the Synagogue whether Children were to be Blessed or the sick were to be Cured in joining Prayer to this Ceremony It is according to this Custom and not consequent to any Precept that the Apostles laid their hands on those to whom they conferred the Gift of the Holy Ghost by Prayer Thus it was that not only Priests used the same when they received any into their Body as it appears by the Example of Timothy 1 Tim. iv 15. But the Apostles themselves received anew the imposition of Hands when they engaged into any new design Acts xiii 2 So if at every time that hands were imposed a Sacrament was conferred we shall find Sacraments in all the Prayers which have been made for any one which is contrary to the true Signification of the word and to the use of the Ancients It 's from this Ceremony continueth our Author which was not ordained by God but which hath of it self been introduced amongst the Jews and Christians that sprung the Sacraments of Confirmation of Ordination and Penitence of Extream Unction and even of Marriage for the Ancient Churches laid their hands on those who were Married as the Abyssins this day do The Baptism of Christians adds he consisted in times past in immersion only as that of the Jews who baptized all those who embraced their Religion It appears not that any laid hands on those who were baptized but those who had the Gift of conferring the Holy Ghost This hath been introduced rather in honour of Bishops to persuade the People that they had succeeded to the Rights of the Apostles In the second Age and the following divers Ceremonies were added to Baptism by allusion to some passages in Scripture according to the Custom of the Ancients who expressed themselves not only by Words but also by Signs and Symbols It is for that that they made those who were baptized to tast of Hony and Milk But it was thought fit to represent particularly by these Symbols that those who believe in Jesus Christ receive in their Soul the same Graces which Jesus Christ made the sick feel which he cured in their Body or that those who make profession of believing in him feel the Eyes of their Soul to open as well as the Ears of their Heart that they are cured of all their spiritual maladies and that the Devil hath no further Power over them Therefore Exorcisms were made use of and the term of Epphata be opened also of Spittle of Oyl whereof Jesus Christ and the Apostles made use of in curing corporal maladies Posterity was not content with this 'T was thought it ought to be made apparent that Christians are Kings and Priests in anointing with a more odoriferous oyl This Unction was joined to Baptism as it is yet with the Greeks and as it hath been a long time in the Latin Church The Priests who baptized administred it as well as the Bishops the Bishop according to the Testimony of St. Ierome and St. Augustine differing from the Priest only in this that the Bishop had the sole right of Ordaining Priests Our Author after having made these Remarks gives his Sentiment concerning a Canon of a 1. Council of Orange which caused then great disputes betwixt Mr. de S. Cyran and F. Sirmond and maintains that the latter had well cited and understood it tho' his Adversary accused him of falshood Grotius believes that this Canon gives the Power to Priests to administer the Chrisme and orders that it should be administred but once Nullus Ministrorum qui baptizandi recepit officium sine Chrismate
fit an infinite number of places of the Antient Councils without having respect to the MSS. which makes Vsher to give him the Title of Contaminator Conciliorum As Hilary and Leontius Archbishops of Arles had favoured Semi-Pelagianism Cesario who succeeded Leontius inclin'd to what the Divines of Marseille called Praedestianism to wit the Sentiments of St. Augustine It was by his direction that the second Council of Orange was held in the year DXXXIX which approved the opinions of St. Augustin and our Author gives us an account of all their entire acts A little while after another Council was held at Valence upon the same matters and which also condemned Semi-Pelagianism Boniface II. approved the acts of this Council by a Letter that he writ to Cesario in the year DXXXI and which Vsher hath inserted in his Works Here it is that endeth the History of Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism which was not nevertheless extinguished among the Gauls nor in England by so many Efforts and Decrees of the defenders of Grace as may be seen by the History of Godescalch written by the same Vsher. What can there be concluded from thence according to the Principles of St. Augustin but that God would not apply his Grace to Anathemas to Confiscations to Depositions and to Banishments whereof the Pious Emperors and Holy Councils made use of against the unfortunate Pelagians We may relate the beginning of the third part of the British Antiquities in p. 268. where the Author begins to speak of King Arthur and of the priviledges pretended to be given by him to the University of Cambridge The rest of the Chapter excepting what there is in it concerning Gildas of whose works Vsher makes long Extracts is but a collection of Fables and Citations of Monks The 15 th Chapter treateth of the Colonies that the Facts a People of Scythia and the Scâ—â—ch that inhabited Ireland sent into England and of the manner how these Barbarous People were converted to Christianity There are also in this place more Fables than Truths seeing if we except some general acts the remainder contains only impertinent fictions in this Chapter are also new Fables concerning St. Ursula which some Monks report to have been Daughter to a King of Scotland The 16 and 17 th Chapters which contain the Ecclesiastick Antiquities of Ireland are of the same stamp as the preceding ones and we may wonder how the Archbishop of Armagh hath had the patience to make such a great collection of Fables and to read such a great number of Works of Monks both Manuscript and Printed Those that are minded to know a great part of their fictions concerning the British Isles from the year DXXX unto the end of the fourteenth Age may have recourse to the Original In the same nevertheless may be found some more certain antiquities touching their firâ—â— Inhabitants and the names of these Islands and some considerable changes that happened in them The Author hath also added at the end a Chronological Index where one may see in what time each thing ought to be related It 's a thing much to be wish'd in other Works which contain such disquisitions of Antiquities where commonly there is a strange Confusion Those that desire to be throughly instructed in the Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England ought to add to Vsher's Work whereof we have given now the extract a Book in Folio of Doctor Stillingfleets Intituled Origines Britannicae or the Antiquities of the British Churches with a Preâ—aâ—e concerning some pretended Antiquities relating to Britain in vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph Printed at London 1685. The true System of the Church or Analysis of Faith c. by Sieur Jurieu Doctor and Professor of Divinity At Dordrecht Sold by the Widdow Caspar and Theodore Goris 1686 in 8vo THIS piece is chiefly designed to answer Mr. Nicoli but the difficulties that Mr. Arnauld Father Maimbourg and the Bishop of Meaux have propos'd in the chapter of the Church are herein examined with the utmost exactness the whole is reduced to these five general questions 1. What are the essential parts of the Church 2. What is the invisibility and maâ—ks thereof 3. What is its extent 4. What is its Vnity and Schism 5. What is its authority and judgments the exact and profound discussion of these matters take up three Books The first is begun by the comparison of the Church with a Human Body animated and it 's pretended that as the essential parts of man are a reasonable Soul and an Organised Body and the Union of this Body and Soul likewise the essential parts of the Church are Faith and Charity the Profession of Faith the outward practice of Charity and the Union of these four Faith and Charity are the Soul of the Church the outward Profession and Practice the Body and according to this Idea neither the Saints in Paradise nor the Predestinated that are not yet born are any part of the Church which is proved by Scripture after that is examined if false Christians and Heretical Societies make part of the Church and having shewn the prodigious incumbrances whereunto the R. C. cast themselves in maintaining that an ill man may be a true member of the Church and even of those Members on whom God confers the Spirit of infallibility We are taught after what manner the men of the World are in the Church and may be lawful Pastors in it Mr. Nicoli stands here a rude brunt for he pretends that his efforts do make St. Augustin agree with the Scholastick Divines upon the question whether the wicked are true Members of the Church which is full of obvious contradictions As to Heretical or Schismatical Societies it 's needless to prove to the R. C. that they do not belong to the Church for they say it often enough yet without giving good reasons why crimes are more priviledged therein than errors but the incumbrance which may be in this respect hindreth not Mr. Iuricu from fully examining this matter he enters therefore into the discussion of the Unity of the Church He maintains always leaning upon his comparison of human bodies that all the Sects of Christianity belong really to the body of the Church and that in this there is no more absurdity than to maintain that a distemper'd Member is a true part of Mans Body he asks whence comes the Idea of the Unity which excludes from the Church all the Christian Societies but one and he persuades himself that the monstrous errors which are raised in the first Ages have been the true Origin of this Idea in accustoming the Orthodox to think that Hereticks are Members wholly separate from the Body He adds that St. Cyp finding this Idea ready at hand applyed the same to the Novations grounded thereon such strong reasons against the validity of the Baptism of Hereticks that nothing of weight was answered him this occasions the Author to criticise on the Hypotheses of St. Cyprians
Union of the Spirit of God with Nature and this belongs to the sensible World considered as united with the intellectual World and the last in the World purely intelligible or in the Union of Jesus Christ with the Church ascending higher even to the infinitely perfect Spirit we shall find not only the Impression but the Seal it self not a Copy or Image but the Original We shall find the Father united with the Eternal Wisdom upon which there are several remarks This is the first of the three Mysteries The second which is the Trinity of Persons was not imprinted in fewer Subjects and has not made fewer Copies of the Archetype and Original Seal We are shewn here the Impressions 1. In Spirits which are thinking and understanding Substances that is these Qualities are Essential to them and they have a Will which is their active principle 2. In the Light for we observe three things in it viz. a luminous Body Brightness and Heat 3. In Bodies for they have three Dimensions length depth and breadth all this is still clearer by three great parallels whereof the last is what was published in the Novels of Iuly 1685. the others may be judged of by this so we will not give an account which could not be well done without transcribing the whole As for the Mystery of the Incarnation Mr. Iurieu does not meet with many Impressions in the Creature he finds but one and that so strong that it is equivalent to many it is the union of the humane Soul with an organized Body the parallel he gives between the Incorporation of this Soul and the Incarnation of the Word is a very Collection of the resemblances that a great Wit can imagine between these two things A curious reflection upon the Reason Why God said let us make a man after our own likeness worthily shuts up these parallels When the Author published in the Journal of the Novels that of the Trinity and of the three Dimensions of Bodies he desired the learned to send in their Objections and that they might do it the more freely he does not name himself he thought he should receive many but whether it was that the Orthodox had rather acquiesce to the Reasons that favoured them than by examining them to expose their own opinion to doubt or whether they found the thoughts convincing or whether it was that the Hereticks had not wit enough to oppose these difficulties or did not understand the strength of this proof and therefore despised it or whether other reasons work't upon them both there was but one man that sent in Objections First He sent those that are in the Nouvelles of August 1685. and a little afterwards he sent some that were never printed M. Iurieu examines them here after one another and refutes them with his usual acuteness the Author of these Objections having understood by the Journal of September that no more wou'd be publisht upon this Subject but what was sent shou'd only be communicated to the Author of the Parallelle he writ again in Anonymy as before that tho' he saw nothing easier than to reply upon what was objected yet he would do nothing because of the Intentions which were published Now he will find the lists open and if the Glory of disputing against a famous Antagonist that has at last named himself does not tempt him there will be reason to believe that he has but little to reply against his strong Answers Ioh. Raius his second Tome of the History of Plants with a double Index the one of the Names and chief Synonyma's the other of the Qualities and Remedies To which is added a Botanick Nomenclatura English and Latin at London 1688. in Fol. p. 951. THE first Volume of this History of Plants may be seen at the beginning of the third Tome of this Bibliotheck It is needless to say more but that it is believed it may be profitable to the publick to communicate the Judgment of a Botanist upon this work who liveth above two hundred Leagues off London If they that write the History of Beasts meet with difficulties in reducing them to certain species or to different kinds The Botanists are as much troubled to put in order and to find common Characters to divers kinds of plants by which they may be placed under one kind At first there occur very general differences as when plants are divided into Trees Shrubs and Herbs as Animals are distinguished into four-footed Beasts Birds Fishes and Insects c. But each one of these kinds is too general because it comprehends under it an almost infinite number of Species altogether different Notwithstanding it 's impossible that they which will know in particular all Animals or Plants shou'd burden their memory with so great a number of Specieses There must be found a mean between these Extreams We must shun on one side Divisions too general and not multiply too much we must reduce several particular Specieses under subaltern kinds 'T is this that Mr. Raius undertakes in his new method of Plants and in his History Cesalpine who was Professour at Pisa in the last Age was of opinion that one may distinguish the subaltern kinds of plants by the differences that are between their Seeds their Husks or the little Shells that contain them Mr. Raius acknowledges that the different dispositions of the parts furnish these principal differences and maintains that the flowers and what environs them below which he calls Perianthium also furnish very essential differences upon divers occasions as well as the order of the leaves which are along the stalk and a figure of the root The Pease have a flower like a Butter-fly Florem papilionaceum tho' their Seeds and Covers differ very much The Order of the Leafs along the stalk essentially distinguish Plants which are called Verticillatae as Hore Hound and Penny-Royal c. These plants have betwixt distances a round button that encompasses the stalk and is composed of small flowers of little leaves This button is called Verticillum because it resembles the small buttons that are put at the bottom of Spindles to make them turn and which the Latins call Verticilla After the same manner are distinguished Plants that are called Asperifoliae or rough Leaves that differ from the Verticillatae in this that the Leaves which are along the Stalk do not altogether encompass it nor are all disposed in the same order The Roots differ amongst themselves in this that some are Fibrous and Thready the other are like buttons that is to say round and solid as Radishes The others are composed of divers Tunicles or Skins one over the other as Onions or disposed after the manner of Flower de luce We must then examine all these Plants that we may not confound them in the establishment of their kinds Those that have never applyed themselves to Botanicks cannot presently see what the use of this method is and may judge to be only a dalliance
prejudicing in the least the Superiority of a Wife Mahomet had been but a little Politick if in lieu of permitting them to have four he had commanded them to have so many and if the contrary were desired of him as a favour it would be as Phaeton did Poenam Phaeton pro munere poscis They are marry'd there without seeing each other and a Man does not see his Wife until after the Consummation of Matrimony and often he does not consummate it for some days after she is brought to him because she hides her self among the Women and will not let the Husband enjoy her These Forms are more frequent among People of Quality because in their Opinion it is like a debauched Person to yield the Last Favour so soon especially the Women of the Royal Family there must be sometimes whole Months to prevail with them It is very probable says Mr. Chardin That this way of Marrying without seeing each other should produce very unhappy Effects but happens perfectly contrary for it may be said That there are more lucky Marriages in those Countries where they do not see the Women at all than in them where they are seen and frequented The reason is evident when we do not see another Mans Wife we do not so soon lose the Love we may have for our own And the Reflection is very good I shall say nothing of several other particularities which the Author mentions here in this great Chapter He reports of the Governour of Irivan which is a little better than the Answer of this which the Ambassador of Viâ—qufort speaks of that upon the demand made him what he would have the Present consist of that was intended him he Answered in Bills of Exchange This Governour understanding That the Box which M. Chardin presented him with was worth 10 Pistols he desired him to take it again and to give him the value of it in Keys Springs and Strings of Watches this and several other things to be seen in that Journal shews that Covetousness is so predominant with the Eastern People that it puts them on a thousand base little Actions If this Article had not been a little too long already I would have related many other things out of this Volume The Author shews much skill in Geography and gives us the Description of some considerable Towns with the Plans of them and an Abridgment of their Histories which may satisfie well enough the desire of any curious Reader He represents us the City of Tauris as very beautiful there are 250 Mosques in it and a place where the Turks may put â—0000 Men in Battalia He prefers their Opinion before any others that will have it to be the Antient Town of Echatane The Letters of Recommendation given him and his Notes on them are not the least curious part of this Book For they help to teach us the Genius of the Persians There we learn that they call their Kings the Vicars of God because they pretend That the Race that Reigned these 250 Years sprung from Ali Son-in-Law and Successor of Mahomet Casbin the Country of the famous Locman the Eastern Aesope appears with great Pomp but it would be nothing in comparison of another Town called Rey if it were true that Rey was what the Persian Geographers maintain it to be upon the credit of all the Eastern Authors who say That in the Sixth Age of Christianity the Town of Rey was divided into 96 Parts whereof each had 46 Streets every Street 400 Houses and 10 Mosques and that the Town had 6400 Colledges 16600 Baths 15000 lesser Mosques 12000 Mills 17000 Channels and 13000 Caravanserais The Magies Chronicles affirm That Chus Grand-Son of Noah was the Founder of Rey and lay'd the first Stone under the Ascendant of Scorpion This is no small comfort to our Northern and Southern Fablers for if on one part they are concerned to be called Dreamers they will have on the other side the satisfaction of having Companions all over the World For what concerns the Magnificence of the Mosques and Mausolees of Com They are not Dreams but Realities since the Author professes himself an eye-witness thereof The Tomb of Fathme Daughter of Mouza-Cazem one of the 12 Califes which the Persians believe were the lawful Successors of Mahomet after Ali is in the chiefest of these Mosques with those of King Abas and Sefi There is but very little wanting in the Worship of Fathme among the Persians to equal it to what most of the Christians pay to the Mother of the Son of God This appears by the Prayers that Pilgrims of Com rehearse and the People are persuaded that the Virgin Fathme was transported to Heaven both Body and Soul yet they do not celebrate the Feast of her Assumption Mr. Chardin gives us in French some of these Prayers as also the famous Elegy of Haly made by the Learned Haran Cary This Panegyrick is writ in great Letters of Gold in the Gallery of the Tomb of Abas and is a piece of Eloquence wherein may be seen not only the Genius of the Persian Poetry but also Transports of the Mahometan Devotion 'T is in Songs divided by disticks the first is all upon Mahomet the six other upon Ali. If I were minded to make a more ample Addition of the Spanish Rotomandos many places of this Poem should be copied out To speak seriously there are some turns of Expressions that have much Force in them as when to express the Beauty of Ali the Poet assures us That God has assigned his Love us a Ioynture to the Ladies of Paradice Naturalists will not find what they look for here but they may examine the White Pot Work of Com and they will find enough to busy themselves in it refreshes Water in Summer very well by the means of a continual Transpiration The first time that this Pot is used a Quart transpires in 6 hours and then less and less afterwards until at last the Pores are closed by gross Matter that is in the Water that stops its passage through the Pores and then a new Pot must be us'd or else the Water would stink in the other The Author set forth from Com the 16th of Iune 1672. and arrived at Ispahan the 23 d. And here the First Volume ends it is to be sold at Amsterdam Reprinted in Twelves at Wolfgang's Reflections on the cruel PERSECUTIONS that the Reformed Church suffer'd in FRANCE through the Conduct and Acts of the last Assembly of the Clergy of that Kingdom with an Examination of the pretended Calumnies whereof the Clergy complains to the King in the Profession of Faith PErhaps there never was seen so strange a difference as is found now between the Catholicks and the Reformed who write upon the Conversions in France The first maintain that they do all mildly and with Christian Charity and upon this make continual Exclamations and Panegyricks The last affirm That they force them by threatning or corrupt them by
by a very plain way Why was not Iesus pleased to render the way more easy and did not tell us where we should find such a Judge We are therefore obliged to look for him saith Episcopious and this Disquisition must necessarily aim at either of these two things Either that each particular Society of Christians and even each Member of this Society attribute to it self the Power of Soveraign judging of Controversies or that the Universal Church to wit the Body of all those who profess the Gospel hath at all times right to chuse such a Judge The first cannot be granted because every one looking upon himself as Infallible no body would submit himself to the Decisions of his Neighbour The second is naturally unpracticable for before the Universal Church can choose a Supream Judge of Controversies it must needs have cast it's Eyes upon divers Subjects capable of fulfilling this Charge and examined carefully their capacity And how shall it make this Examination All the Christian Societies must concur in this Election But how should they agree thereupon and whom could they choose who should not be suspitious or uncapable of this Employment Seeing all Christians have already taken Parties and those who are not Christians understand not our Disputes Add to this that tho Men would be decided by the ordinary Judges of the Roman Church there would still a Party of Male-Contents remain If the Pope was chosen France would appeal to the General Council if a Council was assembled Italy would not accept on 't until it had been confirmed by the Pope and this Bishop would only do it upon condition that this Ecumenick Council would acknowledge it self beneath him which is contrary to the pretensions of France The impossibility of this Design is an evident proof according to our Author that God will not have his Church to be governed after the manner of the Kingdoms of the Earth where one is obliged to submit without knowing for what because there is but the Body and some transitory Goods in question But the Kingdom of God extending it self over the Soul and Conscience Men must be instructed convinced and persuaded Men must read pray meditate and live Christianly to obtain the Grace of distinguishing Truth from Falshood In vain would Scripture teach us these Truths and exhort us to these practices if there were an infallible Judge All this would be useless neither is it of great me amongst those who believe they have one All the World knoweth the ridiculous explications the Roman Doctors gave to Scripture before Protestants had put it into the hands of the People and no body is ignorant of the many Truths which have been discovered since it hath been believed that every one should instruct himself in the Will of God by his Word It is true that there have arisen Disputes which are the unavoidable consequences of Examination But if Christians applyed themselves only to Scripture and that instead of deciding of their Differences when Scripture is not clear thereupon they supported each other with a mutual Charity we should soon see them become both more wholsome in their Opinions and more reformed in their Manners It is a consequence very clear and very easie to comprehend but such as apparently will never be justified by Experience V. The last writing of Bom is a small Treatise to prove that St. Peter hath been established Head of the Catholick Church where this Priest relates the common Passage of Controvertists Thou art Peter c. Feed my Sheep c. The Answer of Episcopius is not complete but that which there is on 't appears more than sufficient to refute all the Objections of the Missionaries The first Reason would be even enough which is that although his Adversary had clearly proved his Thesis he would do nothing for all that if he did not shew that the promises made to St. Peter regard also his Successors whereas most of the Fathers have taken them for personal Priviledges as Tertullian in his Book of Chastity c. 21. who speaks thus to Pope Zephirin If because the Lord hath said to Peter Vpon this Rock I will build my Church I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and all that thou shalt bind or unbind upon Earth shall be bound or unbound in Heaven If I say for that cause you imagine that the power of unbinding or binding is passed unto you to wit to all the Churches founded by Peter Who are you that overturn and change the clear intention of the Lord who hath conferred this personally on Peter Vpon thee saith he I will build my Church and I will give thee the Keys and not to the Church and all that thou shalt unbind and not that they shall unbind 2. After having shewed that these Priviledges are not personal it should be proved that they regard only the Bishops of Rome excluding those of Antioch 3. That they regard them all without exception and without condition to wit That all and every one of the Popes are infallible as well in Fact as Right against the Experience and the Sentiment of most of the Doctors of the Roman Communion 4. It should be defined what the Catholick Church is and shewed by formal passages that these Terms denominate the Body of Pastours which is called the Representative Church which is impossible Whereas it is very easy to shew that the Church signifieth in Scripture only the People in opposition to Pastours And in this sense there is nothing more absurd than all that is said of the Power of the Church and it's Priviledges seeing it is but the Body of the Pope's Subjects and Roman Clergy and that Subjects who are far from making Decisions must submit and obey their Lot 5. After all this it should be still proved that the Priviledges given to St. Peter and the Bishops of Rome his Successors import not simply a Primacy of Order and some Authority in things which regard the Discipline and Government of the Church which Protestants could grant without doing a prejudice to their Cause but they do moreover mark a Primacy of Jurisdiction of Sovereignty and Infallibility in matters of Faith which is impossible to be proved by Scripture and all the Monuments we have of Antiquity and which is even contradictory seeing the belief of a Fact or Truth is persuaded and forceth not it self Have not Roman Catholicks much Grace to accuse Protestants of Obstinacy because they refuse to embrace a Hypothesis which supposeth so many dubious Principles whereof most are contested even amongst the Divines of Rome and to ask them to obey the Church without distinctly telling them what this Church is or in what consists the Submission which is required of them or how far it ought to be extended An Abridgment of Universal History The First Part containing the Ecclesiastical History in Two Books by Henry le Bret Provost of the Cathedral Church of Montauban in 125. 3 Volumes At
rest of the People till they were visited by the Priests and declared Lepers And this Inspection was neither made upon the Sabbath nor Holy-day that Devotion and Publick Rejoycings might not be hindered It is not likely that People should tarry so long a time to separate the Pestiferous 4. The Gentiles who were not Proselytes and who lived in Canaan were not obliged to shew themselves to the Priests though they were Leprous and yet they were not hindered to converse with all the World 5. Those who were suspected to be Lepers were shut up in the Field or even in the Town and there were only those who were judged Lepers that were obliged to go out which if they recovered were not suffered to enter till after many washings and other Ceremonies which they were to observe 6. According to the Judgment which the Priest pronounced a Man was looked upon to be clean or unclean and so he was conversed with or his company shunned But it is not likely that this Sentence rendered a Man more or less Contagious 7. The general Leprosie which covered the whole Body did not render a Man unclean because they were declared clean who had all their Body covered with White Leprosie and in whom there was not a bit of Live flesh to be seen Naaman the Leper had several to serve him and he himself was Minister to the King of Assyria which could not be if his Distemper was Contagious Also the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tame which is spoken of polluted and unclean People marks only a legal impurity and is not applyed to them who are Infected with a Contagion The Heptades are followed by a small Treatise entituled Sciagraphia Biblica seu specimen Oeconomiae Patriarcharum It is as it were a Historical Abridgment of Divinity disposed according to the order that is contained in Holy Writ This Treatise is not ended because it begins at the Creation and ends at the Punishment of Sodom The Letters of Mr. Alting are one of the most considerable Pieces of this Volume being all full of Moderation and Learning In the Second he proposes some difficulties to Mr. Wetstein Professor at Basil who said in one of his Dissertations that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were Synonyms in St. Iohn The Author on the contrary will have the terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew not only That the Word was in the beginning of all things but supposeth also that he was in being before whereas the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew that this word is destined to the Office of Mediator which was done since or at the beginning God having Promised the Messia who was to bring Life to Men and that immediately after the first Sin In the Third Letter which is Written to Buxtorf the Son Mr. Alting to shew that the Sabbath was a Ceremonial Institution which Figured Iesus Christ and the Gospel thus Translates a passage in Isaiah 58.13 If thou call the Sabbath a delight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Likdosâ—h Iehova mecubbad the Holy of the Lord. He pretends that this Holy of the Lord is the Messia who is called the Holy One of God Mark 1.24 Luke 4.34 And that the Father hath sanctified and sent him into the World John 10.36 The Author Answers in the 4 5 and 6th Letters some difficulties which were made upon the Explication of this passage and upon Iob 11.7 In the Ninth is sought the Origine of this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basar vedam Flesh and Blood which is common in the Rabbins and Writings of the new Testament The Author believes that the Iews did not begin to make use of it until after the Prophets times when Philosophy began to be brought in amongst them They saw some Pagan Philosophers define a man a compound of Body and Soul and searching in their own Tongue for familiar Terms which would answer this Definition they added to the word Basar Flesh by which the Scripture commonly marks Man that of Dam Blood Besides the passages of Genesis 9. and Levit 17. where it is said That the Blood is the Soul of Beasts there are many others by which it appears that the Soul and Blood are Synonymous with the sacred Writers so they say in some places the Messia has given his Blood and in other places he has given his Soul to ransom many There is in the 16.50 a Judgment which deserves our observation but to know the importance of it we must know the dispute upon which it was delivered about the end of the Year 1655. There arose a dispute amongst the Mennonite Ministers of Amsterdam about the external State of the present Christian Church from Conferences they came to Writings whereof there were several Copies soon made and as soon printed The first which appeared upon this Subject was signed by Gallenus and David Spruit who put it into the hands of their Brethren The 11 th of Ianuary 1657. it was digested in Nineteen Articles wherein these two Ministers expounded their Opinion touching the Church which is to this purpose 1. That there is but one Church which is called the Spouse and Body of Iesus Christ and that it was to that alone that the promises of Iesus Christ were made 2. That Iesus Christ has established in this Church Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Doctors and hath given them the Gifts of the Holy Ghost which guide them infallibly so that they and their Hearers might be assured they did not err 3. That not only the Apostles but even the inferiour Ministers of the Apostolical Church and even the Deans and Antients after receiving the imposition of hands were endowed with miraculous Gifts which were necessary for the Exercise of their Charge 4. That so the first Ministers had a Right to call themselves Embassadors of Iesus Christ and that the People were obliged to receive them in that Quality 5. That the Church should fall into an entire Apostacy that this Prediction should be accomplished soon after the Death of the Apostles seeing that from the time of St. Paul and St. Iohn the mystery of Iniquity began to increase since there were already several Antichrists One must have but a small insight of Ecclesiastical History to know that the Zeal of Christians cooled a little after and that they fell from a Remissness into a corruption of Manners from a corruption of Manners into that of Doctrine and that instead of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost there was nothing seen to Reign in the Church but the Spirit of Superstition of Tyranny over Consciences of Schism and Excommunication 6. That those who undertook in these late Ages to reform the Church had neither miraculous Gifts nor an Express not extraordinary Vocation from Iesus Christ. 7. That to prove that the Assemblies which were held are the true Church they have only some Arguments drawn from passages of Scripture explained according to the weak Lights of their own reason or
certain to us A time will come perhaps that those who will maintain them shall see themselves more incumbred than the Peripateticks at this day are to defend the Soul of Beasts The Cartesians I am here but a simple Historian of their Thoughts say that it will appear that they use no exaggeration if the Preface be read which hath been put by Mr. Schuyl before his Latin Translation of Monsieur Descartes the Treatise of F. Pardies of the Knowledg of Beasts another Treatise of Mr. le Grand de carentia Sensus cognitionis in Brutis and a Book of the Soul of Beasts which was Printed at Lyons in 1676. approved by two Doctors of Divinity and composed by a Priest of Ambrum named d' Illy who died a little while after All the World suspected F. Pardies of designing to establish the Opinion of Descartes in only pretending to refute it And in effect he answers so well himself to his Objections and those which he leaveth without Answer are so weak that it is not hard to guess what he intended And Mr. d' Illy having answered the Reasons which this Jesuit had not refuted it followeth that nothing hath been left undone that could destroy the Opinion of Mr. Descartes But those who maintain that Beasts have Senses cannot boast of it for they do not solidly answer the Objections of the Cartesians if we belive the latter It is a wonderful thing that the Tenet of the Automata should so speedily come to perfection It must needs have fallen into good Hands and that 3 or 4 good Wits make more progress in 10 years than others have done in divers Ages Religion was immediately interested in this cause by the hopes that the Anti-Cartesians conceived of ruining thereby the Machins of Mr. Descartes but the advantage cannot be related which hath accrewed from thence to the Sect of this Philosopher For they think they have shewen that in giving Beasts a Soul capable of knowledg all the natural proofs of the Immortality of the Soul are ruined They have shewen that their opinion had no other obstinate Enemies than the Impious and Epicureans and that no greater diskindness could be done to those Philosophers than to disarm them of all the false reasons which they borrow from the Soul of Beasts to conclude that there is betwixt them and us the difference only of the greatest to the least It is a certain thing that there are no People who affect more than the Impious do to make Beasts approach near to the perfection of Man Thus Mr. Descartes hath cunningly Engaged Religion in his interest But they are not satisfied with this reason They have exalted their Search unto the nature of God for invincible arguments against the knowledg of Beasts and it must be confessed that they have found pretty good ones The Author of the Disquisition of Truth hath spread the Draught thereof in some places of his Works F. Poisson of the Oratory hath throughly treated of that which is founded upon the Principle of St. Augustin that God being just misery in a necessary proof of Sin whence it followeth that Beast having not Sinned are not subject to misery but they would be subject thereunto if they had a Feeling therefore they have no Sense The Book of Darmanson which occasioned our making these general Remarks chiefly endeavours to destroy the knowledg of Beasts by Reasons borrowed from Divinity For this effect he sheweth in his first discourse that if Beasts are not Automata it followeth first that God is not God secondly that our Soul is not Immortal He hath the equity of remarking that these Consequences ought not to be imputed to those who hold the Doctrin from whence they arose It is another thing to make a certain Judgment and to admit of all the Consequences which may be thence deduced in good Philosophy For to prove the First of these observe that if Beasts have such a Soul as is imagined it followeth First that God loveth not himself Secondly that he is neither constant nor wise Thirdly he is cruel and unjust He proves the first of these three things by some Principles which F. Malebranch hath exposed in his Treatise of Nature and Grace and elsewhere for Example that God would have never Determined to produce any thing without himself if his Eternal Wisdom and his Word had not rendered Creatures by his Oblation worthy of the Infinite Action of God whence it results that God refers to his Glory all that he doth But he would not do it if he created Souls capable of knowledg and love without obliging them to love him and to know him therefore c. This Reason will appear stronger if we consider that in the common Opinion the capacity which Beasts have of knowing Things and to Love them is terminated solely in the Body whence it followeth that God hath created them but to enjoy the Bodies yet according to the Principles of St. Augustin Sin is nothing else but aversio a Deo Conversio ad Creaturam or else uti fruendis frui utendis to wit to swerve from God to turn towards Creatures to stop at the Creature as our utmost end and to make use of God himself as a means whereby we may enjoy Creatures when as all thing ought to serve us only as a help to our enjoyment of God therefore Beasts have been created in the State of Sin and Consequently God would have dispensed with the Law of order which is notwithstanding the Soverain and Indispensable Law of God The Author sheweth how dangerous it is to let the Impious believe that God can Create Souls in disorder to wit without any Obligation of loving him because if that was once supposed it would be no more possible to prove unto them that our Soul is in a disorder It is certain that the Principles of St. Augustin are incompatible with the ordinary Doctrin concerning the Soul of Beasts as Ambros Victor hath fully proved As to the two other things the Author proves 'em in shewing that the Soul of Beasts perishing when they dye God destroys his proper work which is a mark of inconstancy according to this Author Moreover as the Soul of the Beasts is more perfect than the Body and that the Body never ceaseth to exist tho the Soul is destroyed it followeth that God preserves the Substances less perfect whilst he Annihilates the most perfect which is not like a wife Agent no more than to unite two Substances to produce but the same effects which one of them could do without the help of the other But he pretends that the Machin of the Animals alone sufficient to produce what is necessary to their beings therefore it would be a Superfluity unworthy a wise Agent to joyn a Soul to this Machin It will easily be guessed in what manner he proves that God would be cruel and unjust if Beasts had a Soul for we may perceive that it can be only
by the Reason which we have heretofore mentioned to wit that this Soul never having offended God would notwithstanding be subject to all manner of miseries and that without ever expecting a recompence for the Evils which they should have suffered For again could one conceive that God imprints sentiments of grief in an innocent Creature provided it was with a design to make it deserve Eternal Felicity by it's acquiescing in the pain To this the Author adds this consideration that the Soul of Beasts being innocent would nevertheless be submitted to all the unmeasured desires of Man which is a disorder contrary to natural Light Which will be easily comprehended if we imagine two different Kinds of Men whereof the one to wit the Posterity of Adam should have reserved his Innocence and the other become criminal If the Posterity of Adam being innocent was submitted to the desires of these Criminal Men so that they should treat us as we treat Beasts that they should make us tear one another for their pleasure that they should kill us to feed their Bodies that they should seek into our Entrails during our Life to satisfie their curiosity and all this in Vertue of the Empire which they should receive from God over us who is it that does not herein easily perceive a disorder which offends all the Principles of sound Sense We must then conclude say the Cartesians that if Beasts had a Soul God would not have given to sinful Man the Empire which he hath over them Let it be denied as much as they will with a Physician of Paris named Lami a provoked Epicurean That Man hath over Beasts any other Empire but that which Industry or strength procures unto him it will be still true and this Physician hath not the considence to deny it that God hath suffered Man after the Flood to kill Beasts to feed upon them Which is to grant him an Empire great enough to preserve all the force of the Objection of the Cartesians As to what concerns the second Consequence to wit that if Beasts have a Soul the Immortality of ours can no more be proved the Author clears it very pertinently He expounds the Equivocation of the Word Immortality and sheweth that in a certain Sense Bodies partake thereof but that there is another signification according to which Immortality belongs but to the Soul It were to be wished that this Author should refute those who give an Immortal Soul to Animals for it is unto this that some of those are now reduced who embrace not the Hypothesis of Mr. Des-Cartes being Combated by the purest Ideas of Divinity and forced in their Retrenchments they say that the Souls of Beasts perish not As that enervates the greatest part of the Reasons of this Author his interest is to refute this new Hypothesis The Cartesians would willingly have Men to examin if it be just to make so much ado against their Doctrin concerning the Soul of Beasts seeing they maintain it by Reasons which reduce their Adversaries to the greatest Extremities the Publick may judge whether they have Reason or not This is what concerns the first Conference The second contains the Mechanick Explication of several actions of Animals Descartes de la Forge de Cordemoy d' Illy and Rohault in their Discourses have spoken of the same thing much finer therefore I shall omit it If there is a second Edition made of these Conferences it will be a great deal better to correct the Trials 'T is advice which the Dutch Stationers have great need of A Collection of some curious Pieces concerning the Philosophy of Mr. Descartes in 12. At Amsterdam Sold by Henry Desbordes 1684. THis Collection contains six Pieces The first is an Extract of the Acts of an Assembly of the Fathers of the Oratory which was held at Paris in the Month of September 1680. This Assembly willing to give us an undoubted proof of their Submission to the King caused a Writing to be presented unto him by which they engaged to Teach nothing which should smell of Iansenism or Cartesianism They observe in this Writing after what manner they think Grace should be taught in Seminaries Colledges and in other Houses of the Congregation And as they would have it on the one Hand permitted to every one to Teach Predestination and Efficacious Grace by it self they desire on the other that Men have a particular care to shew that the Efficacy of Grace leaves Man in his Power of Acting or not Acting and that in every state there are Graces truly sufficient As for the Professors of Philosophy the same Writing dictates unto them certain things which they ought or ought not to teach They require that in Phisick Men take great heed not to swerve from the Principles of Aristotle commonly received in Colleges and that they teach that the Essence of the Matter consists not in the extent That there is a substantial Form really distinct from the Matter in each natural Body That there are absolute Accidents That a Vacuum is not impossible c. This is what was understood by this Concordat of the Jesuits and the Fathers of the Oratory of which there hath been so much talk and whereof there were no more Printed Copies in France The second Piece contains remarks upon this Concordat The Author pretends that the Fathers of the Oratory have done great wrong to the Doctrin of St. Augustin in that which they had given for a Model to their Professors in the preceeding Assemblies He maintains that they have been taken for Fools and that they have not seen the Artifice of some Clauses inserted in their Writings He sheweth also it is dangerous to Captivate the Mind of Man in regard to natural Truths and to give an occasion to think that the Catholick Church and Aristotle are really tied together that the one cannot be overthrown without shaking the other The third Piece is Entituled An Explanation of the Book of Mr. de la Ville Mr. Bernieris the Author thereof Mr. de la Ville pretends that all new Philosophers whether Cartesians or Gassendists ruin the Mystery of Transubstantiation by maintaining that the Essence of Matter consists in the Extent As his Book dedicated to the Clergy of France made a noise and injured the Cartesians Mr. Bernier who is known to be a great follower of Gassendus was afraid himself and Composed the Explanation whereof we speak in which he endeavours to reconcile the Principles of his Philosophy with the Decisions of the Church He pretends that Real-presence may be more commodiously expounded by the Hypothesis of the new Philosophers than by the Principles of Schools and assures us that he hath made the experience thereof in the Indies For saith he when I saw some of those new Christians in trouble about the mystery of the Eucharist as not being able to conceive that upon the Altar where there seemed to be Bread with all its Extent and being no
their Sentiments but there are very few whose Writings are come to our Hands besides the Titles of Works which have been published upon this Subject by Aetius Anaxilides Antigonus Antisthens Aristocles Aristoxenes Callimachus Clitomachus Diocles Heraclides Hermippus Idomeneus Nicandre Panaetius Paphiras Sotion and Theodorus There remains only three entire Works on the History of Philosophy viz. Diogenes Laertes upon the Old Eunapius upon the New and an alphabetical Abridgment of Hesychius de Milet upon both together 'T is an hard Task to form a compleat History out of these three Authors who have not spoken of all the Celebrated Philosophers of Greece and who have not mentioned every thing that might be said even of those Lives which themselves have chosen to write upon nor have they once mentioned the Eastern Philosophy to which the Greeks have according to their own Confession been indebted for all their Knowledg Mr. Stanley Nephew of the famous Marsham Author of the Aegyptiac Canon has undertaken to supply the defect as far as is possible by collecting out of ancient Writtings all that he cou'd find touching the Lives and Opinions of the ancient Philosophers and joyning 'em to the Collections of those three Authors we have already mentioned Our Author treats of the Philosophy of the Caldeans Persians and Sabeans the History of Egypt is only wanting to compleat the Eastern Philosophy but he wou'd not meddle with that since his Uncle whom we have spoke of has largly handled it in his Aegyptiac Canon This Work is divided into 14 Parts in every one of which our Author treats of some Sect whereof he makes an History and explains their Opinions The 1. treats of the Seven Sags of Sosiades who collected their Precepts and of Anacharsis The 2. treats of the Ionick Sect whereof Anaximandre was the Chief The 3. of Socrates and his Followers The 4. of the Cyreneick Megarick Elian and Eretrian Sects which had but few Followers The 5. of the Ancient and New Academy The 6. of the Peripateticks The 7. of the Cinics of which he relates Nine whereof Antisthenes was the first The 8. of Zenon and other Stoics The 9. of the Italic Sect to which Pythagoras gave place The 10. of Heraclitus the Ephesian Philosopher whose Writings were so obscure that he had no Followers The 11. of Zenophares Parmenides Melisses Zenon of Elea Democrites Putagores and of Anarchus The 12. of Sceptic Philosophers The 13. of the Epicureans The 14. and 15. following of the Caldean Persian and Sabean Philosophy which we shall be more large on but to be more particular in these we have named especially the 12 Sects of which we shall begin with the Ionic whereof Thales his Scholar Anaximenos was the Chief Therefore we shall speak in the first place of Thales who first deserved the Name of Wise in Greece Cities had as honourable a Quarrel for him as that which fell out about Homer for they disputed of the Honour of having given birth to him Herodotus saith that he was a Phoenician but Plutarch wou'd have it that not one of the seven Wise Men should be born in Greece and the most common Opinion is that he was of Milot He would never Marry because without it Life is divided by a sufficient number of Cares without entring into a Bond which draweth so many Sorrows after it His Principle was That Water is a Matter whose first Cause formed all Things and he figured to himself this great Universe as a floating Vessel upon the Extent of Waters He believed there was a God who had given Motion to every thing in Nature and who animated the whole Machine According to him there were two sorts of Souls and his Sentiments thereupon were so obscure that he gave a Soul to Amber and the Loadstone To him it is that the Glory of the first Elements of Geometry is due and the Invention of measuring the Pyramides of Egypt by their Shadow He it was that made the division of the five Zones and that first gave natural Reasons for the Eclypses which so lone a time passed for fatal Signs of the Anger of Heaven They also add That he foretold that which ended the War betwixt the Lydians and Medians For these People frighted at this Accident believed that the Sun would no more give Light to their Battles and lay'd down their Arms. He found out very fine Sciences for the Phoenicians and among others the Art of Writing which is pretended to be an Invention of this People as Mr. Brebaeuf hath so pompously expressed in his Translation of Lucan He was one day asked What Recompense he would have for his rare Discoveries And he declared with the Gravity of Wise Men That he expected but that of taking share of it with the Publick Another asked him What was most strong in Nature He answered Necessity 'T is a hard Law more powerful than Reason which draggeth with Violence and Rapidity He lived in the 35 Olympiad which answers as I take it to the year of the World 3310. I. Anaxander who began the Stoic Sect was Disciple to Thales tho' he admitted not of the Principles of his Master he never cleared well his Sentiments They pretend that he discovered the obliquity of the Zodiack Mr. De Saumaise contests with him about Clocks and maintains that Hours were not in use till a long time after II. Socrates was the Head of the second Sect and the first that cultivated Morality that part of Philosophy so necessary for the ruling our Manners He was the Son of a Statuary of Athens but he raised himself above his Birth by the Beauty of his Genius He had an Opinion of God very pure and withstood with all his Might the Plurality of Gods It was in effect the principal Accusation that his Enemies formed against him and we may say that he was one of the first Martyrs for the Vnity of God Wherefore some Fathers of the Church have believed that he is saved And learned Erasmus saith very pleasantly That at every time he read the fine end of this Philosopher he was ready to cry out St. Socrates pray to God for us So he dyed with a Tranquility which marked the Calmness of his Soul and the Empire of his Reason over his Passions Notwithstanding some have said That he being by Honour engaged not to fear Death he out-braved it valiantly that the Emotion he inwardly feit might not outwardly appear He was very much laughed at by Aristophanes upon the Theatre of Athens and he dyed in the 88 Olympiad to wit in the year of the World 3522. III. Aristippus was the Head of that which is called Cyrenaick and Disciple to Socrates He would have the Soveraign Good to consist in Pleasure and he led his Life upon these Sentiments for he passed it in Delights and Pastimes He fell in Love with that famous Lais who would sell so dear one Nights Lodging to Demosthenes So being one day Imbarqued to go to
see her and seeing the Ship terribly tossed by foul Weather he gave up himself to Lamentations and Complaints As an Amorous Design conducted him perhaps he would have greived less to dye at his Return Howbeit the Pilot less frighted began to make him Remonstrances and to propose himself as an Example of Firmness which made this Philosopher ashamed But Aristippus scornfully answered him Thou hazardest but a vile and mercenary Soul but I hazard a Soul of the first Degree and a Life accompanied with Prosperities He acknowledged but two Passions as two great Springs which give Motion to all the rest Grief and Pleasure and these two Passions are diversified in all Men according to their Temperaments He would reject the Tranquility of the Soul so much boasted of by other Philosophers as an Imaginary good 'T was according to him a tedious Indolence Doth it not seem that he had Reason For what is there more Languishing than to wish for nothing and even to fear nothing The Passions do spread a certain Fire over all the Actions which render them more lively and more acceptable In a word nothing was so offensive to the Gust of this Philosopher than that austere Vertue which makes the Soveraign Good to consist in the privation of Evil and in a certain Firmness which deserveth but the Name of Insensibility IV. Plato was the Head of the Academists who have drawn their Name from the place he first established his School Some relate That his Mother conceived him by strength of Imagination because she had looked on a Statue of Apollo with too much Curiosity Others have said That as Women often had the Art to make their Husbands believe that Gods were willing to accompany with Mortals the Mother of Plato failed not to make her self Honour by a Visit from Apollo in her Husbands Mind That is to say he was a Young Man as handsom as Apollo Howbeâ—t it 's most certain he was of a most Illustrious Birth and as he had not much hardship of Fortune his Heart was thereby the more peaceable and his Conduct the more vertuous After having sometime heard Socrates he travailed every where to hear the most famous Orators It 's presum'd that he had much Light out of the Books of Moses therefore he was named the Athenian Moses and that he was the Inventer of the Dialogue But Mr. Stanley maintains that he only refined it because it was then very dry and insipid he conceived the Earth to be of a round Figure he found out that it was necessary there should be Antipodes and invented the Name of it He distinguished the Elements which Thales had confounded and was the first that made use of the Term Providence He said that God was an Eternal Principle ineffable and the immoveable source of Truth And that which caused this great Veneration which Men had for him in the first Ages of Christianity is That he attributed to God a Son whose Power reached over all Creatures He added That God had formed the World of a Matter before confused but Eternal and setled this fine order in the Elements Yet he gave the World a Soul which from the Centre reaches unto Extremities Finally he held That as Man was the Master-piece of the Works of God so he had taken a particular care to form him He furnished him with the five Senses to procure him Pleasures and to defend him from exteriour Bodies and hath placed the Soul in the Brains as upon the Throne to rule over the Senses and Passions He was persuaded that the Soul was Immortal Free Independent and yet submitted to the necessity of Fatâ— which the Pagans would not exempt Iupiter himself from He is upbraided with his Amours and an Epigram so much talked of for a young Man he loved It was Homicide in his Opinion to embrace an old Woman because she was but as a Ground that was barren and cou'd make no Return Yet they say that he becoming amorous of an old Woman pushed Gallantry so far as to tell her That Love as in an Ambuscade had hid it self under her Wrinkles Mr. Sarazin said more justly That old Women were the Graves of Love The Genius of Plato was clear and polite He surpriseth the Mind by an Eloquent Stile and â—n Abounding Imagination to which he gave himself sometimes too much V. Neither the Birth nor the Education of Aristotle the Head of the Peripaticks were altogether so happy as those of Plato his Master Mr. Stanley notwithstanding justifies his Memory from the Reproaches that were cast on him of having been reduced to sell Medicines and of following the Trade of an Empyrick in the City of Athens He is also charged with having a Hand in the Conspiration of Antipater against Alexander the Great and of having so much Love for Pythias his Wife that he made Sacrifices to her as to the Goddess Ceres If our Author may be believed they are all Calumnies wherewith any great Man might be blackned He denies not but that he was eager and enterprizing so as to raise a great Party against Plato and he relates as a piece of History very suspicious that he cryed out dying Cause of Causes have pity on me He it was that perfected Logick and formed Syllogisms in including an Argument in proper Terms But Modern Philosophy is so like it that 't is not necessary to expound his Tenets and Opinions All the World knoweth how different the Fortune of this Philosopher was His Adventures have been so various that it 's a hard thing to comprehend that so different Judgments have been given on the same Men. He saw himself in a manner raised unto the Clouds and afterwards precipitated into the lowest Stations According to the Relation of Baronius the Aetians were excommunicated for having made their Disciples to read him Yet he is come into so high a degree of respect with Men that Doctor Ramus was banish'd by the King's Declaration for having written against him Boileau jeers at the Understanding of our Age in which a thousand People think that without Aristotle Reason can do nothing and good Sense is Madness VI. Aristhenes was another of Socrates's Branches and one of his most able Disciples he was the Head of the Sect of the Cynicks which Diogenes his Disciple hath rendred so famous The Origin of the Name of Cynick does not a little perplex Men Mr. Stanley thinks it comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the place where Antisthenes held his School and where a Dog had brought a piece of Victim â—hat was Sacrificed Others have believed That it came from the hot and biting Humour of these Philosophers because commonly Satyricks are compared to Dogs that bark at all the World Diogenes was named the Prince of this Sect and made so much noise by the sigularity of his Maxims that Alexander had the curiosity of seeing him Yet how great Glory soever Antiquity would have for this Philosopher he can be
used to moderate the severity of Wisdom by honest Recreations to render it amiable and would not have Vertue to be painted with an Austere Face and with a Forehead always wrinkled In short the Soul is so engaged in Sense and Matter that this Philosophy is too fine which in a manner unmans a Man and deprives him of all his Senses This hath made his followers nothing but Idea for they often perceive that they have a Body as other Men have which troubleth and hindreth them so much the more as they have a desire of giving all to the Mind It must therefore be allowed that Wisdom it self may sometimes Laugh without offence Every one knoweth that he admitted for Principle a Vacuum and Atoms The Vacuum because if all was full there would have been no Motion The Atoms because according to him nothing is made of nothing He maintained that the World cannot be eternal because it bears sensible Marks of Novelty We know for Example the birth and progress of Arts and Sciences He pretended that Providence medled with nothing but leaves all things to Chance The Ancients agreed not amongst themselves about the time in which Zoroaster lived and our Author relates all along and at the same time resutes their Sentiments After all he subscribes to the Opinion of those which place it 600. Years before the Expedition of Zerxes against the Greeks which goes back to the Year 3634 from the Iulian Period that is to say about the times of Samuel Very little as yet is known concerning the Life of Zoroaster Plato calls him the Son of Oromazes but this is the Name which Zoroaster of Persia gave to the Divinity whose Son t is said he was for the Veneration he had for him Plin. lib. 36. c. 1. says that he laughed the same day he was born and that his Brain beat with such Violence that it lift up the Hands of such as toucht it a presage of Learning which one day he was to be Master of He liv'd 20 Years in a Desart without growing aged for having wish't to dye by Thunder Heaven heard his Prayer But before that he advertiz'd the Syrians to keep his Ashes very carefully assuring them that their Empire should continue so long as they regarded that Injunction Suidas attributes this Advertisment to Zoroaster of the Chaldeans and Cedrenus to him of the Persians He composed two Millions of Verses which were delivered in Greek and upon which Hermippus made a Commentary But some say that the Oracles upon which Syrianus wrote 12 Books made some of these Verses There are some other Books attributed to him which are evidently supposititious Africanus says that 't was Belus who invented Astronomy and that this Prince lived in the times of Deborah according to this Author Belus began his Raign Anno Mundi 2682. There were yet some other Magi of the Chaldeans who were sufficiently celebrated amongst the Greeks but the Names of 'em are only remaining He who first brought the Sciences of the Chaldees into Greece was Berose a Priest of Belus he taught 'em Astronomy and Philosophy in the Isle of Co and composed three Books in which he finisht the History of the Medes Iosephus preserved some of his Fragments in his Books against Appion they were dedicated to Antiochus under the name of GOD KING OF ASSYRIA under whom he liv'd as Mr. Vossius believes tho other Authors say that he lived under Antiochus Soter We ought yet to take care that we confound not this Berose with that of Annius of Viterbe which every Body knows to be fictitious and full of ridiculous Fables Iustin Martyr assures us that the Babylonian Sybil who gave her Oracles at Cames was his Daughter if it is true then there was another Sybil besides that which lived in the times of Tarquin the Old who lived two hundred and fifty Years before Berose Onuphrius proves that there had been many Sybils Altho the name of Chaldeans properly belonged to a whole Nation yet it was given in particular to certain Philosophers who liv'd retir'd in separate places and were exempt from Imposts and publick Charges They were particular Families which communicated their Knowledg to their Children after such a manner that it spread not to other Families but only passed from Father to Son They might thus perfect their Sciences better than by admitting Strangers in their Schools and 't is said that this practice is now used amongst the Chinese in respect of their Trades The Greeks who have spoken thereof as Strabo distinguish the different Sects of the Chaldeans according to the places where they lived There was of 'em at Hipparena Orchoe Babylon and Borsippa Cities of Mesopotamia and Chaldea They were not all of the same Opinion if we may believe Strabo and Lucretius who says lib. 5. that in case there was no fault of the Copiest in this Work the Babylonians refuted the Doctrin of the Chaldeans touching Astrology Vt Babylonica Caldaeam Doctrina refutans Astrologorum Artem contra convincere tendit The Babylonians gave diverse Names to these Sects and some of 'em may be seen in the Prophet Daniel but the signification thereof is very uncertain Our Author tells us the Conjectures of the Rabbins upon teefe Names 2. He divides their whole Doctrin into four parts The first thereof contains their Speculative Divinity and their Phisicks There was a study as Mr. Stanley believes appropriated to those which were called Chartummim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second includes their Astrology and art of Divination in which those were employed who were called Chasdim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Mechasephim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third treats of Theurgie or Natural Magic And the fourth of Divine Worship which was the study of the Asaphim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psellu◠tells us that Zoroaster divided all Beings into three Orders There is one saith he which is Eternal without beginning or end Some have had a beginning which will never end But others shall have an end as they have a beginning Divinity hath for its object the two first Orders And Natural Philosophy the last The Chaldeans affirm'd but one only Principle of all things full of Goodness and Wisdom To represent its perfections they gave it the Name of Fire and of Light which is the Reason that in those Oracles that yet remain amongst us we often find God spoken of in these Synonimous terms The Light the Rays the Brightness of the Father Paternal Fire the only Fire the first and supream of all Fires When any one demanded of 'em after what manner they apprehended the Divinity He Answered that his Body resembled Fire and his Soul the Truth From whence it may be they understood that God was Goodness it self or the Chaldean word which they Translate for Truth signifies Goodness and that it appeared adorned with Fire The Hebrews speak after the same manner when they say God is a Consuming Fire that he is full of
that there being a great many Things made for our use and which notwithstanding we do not know and that the Things whereof we actually make use may have other uses which are besides unknown to us Libertines have long since objected That if other Animals had been made for Man they would not come into the World in a better State than he Whereas there are several produced in a condition of defending themselves from the Injury of the Air and of seeking their livelihood without the help of another To these slight Advantages is opposed that of Reason which hath enabled Men to form Societies and to become Masters of all other Animals by their Policy This Reason evinces That Man is more excellent than the whole Globe of the World or an Extent of much greater Matter without Intelligence So that do but look upon the outside of Things with regard only to the littleness of the Body of Man deny that the Earth and some of the Coelestial Bodies were made for him because they are infinitely greater and because an Intelligence such as the Soul of Man is much more excellent than all these Bodies Mr. Boyle moreover draweth from this Consideration an important Consequence which is That tho' Man receives no use from some distant parts of his Body he can nevertheless receive a very great one in regard of the Intelligence which animates it which raiseth it self by the consideration of the more distant Objects to the knowledg of their Author and acknowledgeth in a thousand ways his Power and his Wisdom and also renders him the Homage that is due unto him Why should we not believe that among the ends of God in producing these vast Bodies which their excessive distance hath not robbed from our Sight he hath proposed to make himself known to the innumerable Intelligences which he hath covered with Human Bodies This is the most probable Inference that Men have ever made thereof as Mr. Boyle sheweth But if we will yet consider Man as covered with a Body we must take heed of committing a gross Fault whereinto we fall by Imagining That nothing can go under the notion of having been made for Man but that which all Men have always made use of we ought to look upon Man from his Origin upon this Earth until his Dissolution he changes Habitation as does a Family which in divers times makes use of divers things altho' none of his Members do immediately participate of these Uses Thus an Infinity of Things whence much Profit is drawn of late have notwithstanding been made for Man tho' he made no use of them some Ages before us We may see particularly Examples thereof in the Original IV. The fourth Question is to know With what Precaution Physicians ought to make use of the Supposition of Final Causes Thence two sorts of Consequences may be drawn the one relates to the Author of Nature as when from the constant use of a thing it is concluded that it was made for that So after having acknowledg'd the use of Eyes we ascend to the Creator by saying that in creating the Eyes he had a Design to make a Machine as proper to produce that which we call Vision The other Consequences conclude from the Supposition of certain ends That Bodies ought to be disposed after a certain manner because otherwise they would not be proper to produce the Effect for which they are created Mr. Boyle reduces what he has to say upon this Question to five Propositions upon which he makes divers Remarks which are briefly there as also some of the most considerable Reflections which are made upon them 1. As for Coelestial Bodies in general it is Folly to conclude any thing about their Nature from the Supposition that God hath produced them for the use of Man Those who say That the Earth being the Place which Man Inhabits and the Sun having been created to light this Earth it follows from thence That the Sun turns round the Earth and not the Earth about the Sun against the Rules we have related They suppose that the only end which God proposed to himself in creating the Sun is to light the Earth and tho' that was so their Consequence may be denyed As to what regards the fixt Stars whereof some are so distant that there is no use of the Telescope to discern them it is yet more rash to suppose that they were only produced for our Earth tho' we do not deny but that we may draw from them both Moral and and Physical Uses It would be also a meer Presumption to conclude from thence that they are disposed after such a certain manner because that would seem more commodious for the use of the pretended King of the Universe It is much more reasonable to think that God might have proposed Ends which we see not in the Symmetry of the World Can it be said that the Angels which are more excellent Beings than we are take no share therein and that God in creating it had no regard to them On the contrary it 's well known that several Divines have conjectured with Mr. Boyle That the Angels were created before the Material World that they might render God the Praises due to him for the Creation of the Universe It may be these Intelligences perceive at first sight in this part of the Heaven what we discover only with difficulty by the Telescope and in other Bodies which we know not a profound Wisdom and as admirable Ends as those which we observe in Bodies which are nearest and most known to us To descend from Heaven upon Earth tho' it is very rationally believed that God made for the use of Man Metals and Minerals being such Things as he can procure there would be no Reason to believe that that which is round the Center of the Earth more than fifteen hundred Leagues below our Feet is made for us and even only for that end There could never yet a thousand Steps be dugg into a strait Line nor is there any appearance that the Industry of Men shou'd ever find the means to peirce the Earth Diametrically for a Mile and without that they can neither see nor apply to their use what it hides in its Centre We may notwithstanding judge by the knowledg we have of some other parts of the World that what the Earth includeth in its Bulk may contribute something to the Order and Symmetry of its Vortex wherein it is placed It might also be said that there are divers Things in the World which were produced not for themselves or upon a Design of immediately receiving some Benefit but because they were necessary Subjects of what God had directly designed to create So God it may be is the remote cause of Eclypses but yet they are a necessary Series of the Motion of the Planets and he did not think but that this Motion should be changed to avoid Eclypses 2. It is permitted to a
Masorites by Elias himself First As to the Name of the Masora that is not only mentioned by both the Talmuds but spoken of as being as ancient as Ezra's time in the Ierusalem Talmud in Megilla cap. 4. And in the Babylon Talmud in Masecat Nedarim cap. 4. fol. 37. In explaining Neh. 8.8 And caused them to understand the reading that is the Masora say both the Talmuds That is saith Elias By Oral Tradition the Masora was then used Not so saith R. Azarias they speak of what was written and not of Tradition Again The common Saying of the Talmuds shew the Name of the Masora was then known viz. There is a Mother to the Scripture and there is a Mother to the Masora And as to the Work of the Masorites Elias supposeth cap. 2. that they made the Verses And yet the Mishna it self not long after the Destruction of Ierusalem mentions the Verses as in Masecat Megilla cap. 3. it saith He that reads in the Law must not read less than three Verses and in the Paraphrase not more than one And as the Talmud on Megilla cap. 3. fol. 32. saith What Verse Moses did not make a Verse we must not make a Verse Secondly Again As to the Parts of the Masora their readings Ittur Sopherim Keri u lo Ketib thus saith the Talmud in Masecat Nedarim fol. 37. Rabbi Isaac saith the reading of the Scribes and Ittur Sopherim and the Keri u lo Ketib and the Ketib u lo Keri is a Constitution of Moses from Sinai Thirdly But the main Work that Elias ascribes to the Masorites was the numbring the Verses Words and Letters of Scripture and telling which is the middle Verse Word and Letter of the Law and the like Now of these the Talmud maketh mention most plainly in Masecat Kedushin cap. 1. fol. 30. it is thus written Therefore Roshonim the Ancients were called Sopherim Numberers because they numbred all the Letters which were in the Law and these said that Vau in the word Gihon is the middlemost Letter of the Law Lev. 11.42 That Darash Lev. 10.16 is the middlemost word of the Law And Hitgalach Lev. 13.35 is the middlemost Verse in the Law c. The Ancients they say knew well the Letters full and defective and that the Verses of the Law were 5888. The Talmud indeed oft refuteth the Masora as Elias confesseth in Table 1. Speech 5. but then the Masora must needs be in being The Talmud takes notice of the Great and Small Letters which is also a Part of the Masora as on Sopherim cap. 9. it saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Great Deut. 29.28 What Argument saith Buxtorf can be plainer than this the Name and Work and Parts of the Masora were long before A. D. 500. Therefore they were not first made A. D. 500. as Elias thinketh Indeed he allows them to be by Tradition before a thing most absurd and impossible but not written until after the Talmuds A. D. 500. Now we say if the Masorites Pointed the Text they were these Masorites who wrote the Notes about the number of the Letters Words and Verses of the Bible of the Ittur Sopherim the Keri u lo Ketib the Reading of the Scribes the Letters Greater or Lesser than ordinary the Letters and Words Full and Defective and the like all which the Talmuds plainly say were made by the Ancients their Ancestors long before their time or else the Punctation was made by other Masorites than these the Talmud speaks of if the Punctation was made by these Men then it was made long before A. D. 500. even as ancient as Ezra for so ancient is this Masora esteemed by the Jews to be Elias his Fancy That this Masora was Orally preserved from Ezra 's time till A. D. 500. is refuted by R. Azarias and R. S. Arcuvolti But if the Masorites who Pointed the Text were not these ancient Masorites the Talmuds speak of then they were either those that made the Notes on the Anomalous Punctation and upon the rest of the things that are the Subject of the Masoretick Observations which compose the present Masora or else they were some others But they were not these Masorites neither for we have at large proved that those who made the Notes on the Punctation were long after the Punctation was made And that those who made the other Notes on the other Parts of the Masora did only observe what they found the Text to be but placed nothing to the Text their only design being to prevent any from so doing in time to come If therefore the Masorites Pointed the Text they were other Masorites than either of these before mentioned But other than the one or the other sort of Masorits already mentioned we neither read nor hear of and till some other can be found out we conclude the Masorites A. D. 500. or since that time did not Point the Text. And so much for the discovery of the Improbability of those Persons Pointing the Text to whom the Invention of the Punctation is ascribed CPAP. XV. The Absurdity of the Opinion That the Text was first Pointed A D. 500 further discovered from the Evidences of the Points Vowels Accents and Verses being long before that time and the Instance of a Pointed Copy of R. Hillel A. D. 340. and from the Account we have of these things in the Zoar Bahir Mishna and Talmuds WE shall conclude this FIRST PART with the Evidences of the mention that is made of all the Parts of the Punctation in the ancient Writings of the Jews that were before A. D. 500. and the Instance of a Pointed Copy of R. Hillel of great Antiquity We shall begin with the Book entitled Habahir made by R. Nechoniah fifty years before Christ. Vid. Buxtorf Thesaurus A. D. 1609. pag. 66 67. Iuchasin pag. 20. Tsemach David part 1. pag. 35. R. Azarias Meor Enaim cap. 59. The words of Bahir are these The Points in the Letters of the Law of Moses are like unto the Breath of Life in the Body of a Man And in the Book called Zohar made by R. Simeon ben Iochai a hundred years after Christ. Vid. Buxtorf ibid. and Bibliothaeca Rabbinica on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iuchasin pag. 42. R. Azarias Meor Enaim in imre bina cap. 59. The words of Zohar are these Not one Letter is able to signifie one thing or another without the Points All the Letters without the Points are like the Body without the Soul when the Points come then the Body stands in its Station And so in the Tikkunim or Explications of the Zohar saith R. Azarias ibid. And in the Preface of Tikkunïm 't is said The Accents are as the Breath and the Points as the Spirit and the Letters as the Soul the one come after the other And this as R. Azarias ibid. observes is not meant of the Sounds only but of the Shapes of the Points Vowels and Accents as he there gives Instances See more of the ancient
attributed to him Mr. Rivet perhaps might be deceived by a popular Prejudice that 's received in favour of these Martyrs who have always been lookt upon as Men of great Understandings Supposing he could not Praise their Piety without having a good Opinion of their Learning 'T was this made Photius guilty of the same who is else a very Judicious Critic and say that Iustin was come to the highest Perfection of the Heathen and particularly of the Christian Philosophy that he had a very great knowledge in all Learning especially in History Whereas we are assur'd on the contrary that he was no good Historian as appears by many gross Faults that he hath committed 1. In his Exhortation to the People he makes Herod contemporary with Ptolomy Philadelphia in speaking of the Seventy two Interpreters which he had seen in some of the Monks Apartments at Alexandria 2. He Cites Hystaspes and the Oracles of the Sybils against the Heathens which made them ridicule him as Blondal shews in his first Book of the Sybils c. 2. where he hath Collected divers Contempts of this Holy Man 3. Such another he made at Rome taking an Inscription writ in honour to an old Deity of the Sabins call'd Semo Sangus to have been done in favour of Simon the Magician The Inscription is now at Rome being dug up the beginning of this last Age in the very same place that Iustin said it was Nella isola del Terere 'T is true St. Irenaeus and Tertullian have committed the same mistake as many Learned Men have observed and amongst the rest Didier Herault in his Commentary on the Apologetic of Tertullian But 't is never the more excusable for that as the Author proves which we have just cited and who judiciously observes that the Christians in those Times drew all Advantages possible from the Actions Words and Writings of the Heathens which they often in favour of themselves interpreted contrary to the Opinion of the Author Omnia Gentium facta dicta scripta ita interpretabantur tunc temporis Christiani ut ea omnia proposito suo accommodarent aliquando contra Gentium mentem But to return to our Author although he hath very much praised Iustin Martyr he Remarks some Doctrins that he found in his Writings which are not Conformable to those commonly received and especially at this time 1. He believed that Socrates Heraclitus and other Virtuous Heathens may have been Saved and to maintain this Opinion says they were in some manner Christians because they have in part known the Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and have exhorted Men to live conformably to this Reason Which Sentiment was founded upon one of the Platonics that says the Supreme God had before the Creation produced a Being they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who stood between God and the Creatures by whom he Created the World and all rational Beings which are such no farther than they participate of this Reason Some of the first Fathers who were Platonics as Iustin Origen and many others have believed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which Plato speaks was nothing else but the Reason or the Word for it signifies both that is mentioned in the first Chapter of St. Iohn so that Iustin had reason to say the Ancients who spoke of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knew Jesus Christ in part and by Consequence might be Saved St. Origen in a place that Dr. Cave hath cited speaks after this manner As he that is God over all things is call'd The God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not simply God So even the Source of Reason that resides in each rational Being is call'd The Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas that cannot properly be called so tha◠is in every rational Being this Name belonging only to the first Reason There is the same Relation between Reason which is in each rational Being and the Reason that was in the beginning from the Supreme God as there is between the Reason and the Supreme God For the same Agreement that is between God the Father God himself the true God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and between his Image and the Images of this Image between the Reason it self and that which is in every one of us Both is as the Sourse the Father of the Divinity the Son of the Reason Hence 't is not said that Man is the Image of God but that he is made after his Image If these words were taken to the utmost Rigour it would be very difficult to distinguish this Opinion of St. Origen and that of many other Ancients from the Arians whom they have been accused of favouring For it may plainly be proved that the Logos of the Platonics according to these Philosophers is of a different kind from that of the Supreme God 2. The second Error in his Writings is the Reign of a thousand Years He believed that after the Resurrection Jesus Christ should come again in a visible manner with the Patriarchs and Prophets into Ierusalem which should be then rebuilt much more magnificent than before Many of the Primitive Fathers were of this Opinion also as Papias Bishop of Hierapolis St. Iraeneus Bishop of Lyons Nepos Apollinarus Tertullian Victorinus Lactantius and many others 3. He believed the Souls of the Fathers of the Old Testament were before the coming of Jesus Christ in some manner under the Power of the Devil and that since Jesus Christ the Souls of the Righteous ascended not to Heaven immediately after their Death nor were received there till the Resurrection Nevertheless they continu'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an agreeable Place even so the Souls of the Wicked are where they are as much displeased with their Habitation still expecting the day of Jugdment Iustin repeats the same to confute some Hereticks who denied the Resurrection in supposing the Soul was received into Heaven immediately after Death 'T is not his Opinion alone almost all the Ancient Fathers have said as much among which St. Irenaeus Tertullian Origen St. Hilary Prudence St. Ambrose and St. Augustine c. They have very agreeably described this Place which received the Souls of Good Men under the Names of Paradice and the Bosom of Abraham which some of them have supposed in the midst of the Earth St. Iustin had not a less number of Fathers on his side in another point as visibly absurd That the Angels to whom before the Deluge God had given dominion over the Earth becoming enamoul'd with the Daughters of Men marry'd with them and so fell from the Excellency of their Nature 4. I could also says Dr. Cave insist upon what some have so often repeated in our Martyr which is that he hath very much exalted the Free Will of Man an Opinion that was generally received by the Fathers of the first Ages before the Pelagian Controversies entred into the World though the necessity of Grace has been acknowledged by many as our Author
very People who make use of it are ashamed thereof when Superstition and Cruelty leave them any interval to think with a little more calmness on what they do This is so true that most of those which have abondoned themselves to the blind Zeal of Superstition have made use of the same artifices Our Age hath seen an illustrious Example of it and if we compare what Gregory saith hereof and the evil Crafts of Iulian with what hath been done not long since in a great Kingdom there will be a great Similitude found betwixt them We shall pass it by here fearing lest it should be thought that we have a mind to stop at a Parallel so Odious as this 6. Amongst the Reasons whereof Gregory makes use to shew that Iulian could not succeed in his Design he thus describes the power of the Saints which Christians honoured Have you not feared those to whom so great Honor is done and for whom solemn Feasts have been established by which Devils have been driven away and Diseases cured whose Apparitions and Predictions are known whose very Bodies have as much Virtue as their holy Souls whether they are touched or honoured of whom some drops of Blood only have the same Virtue as their Bodie We see by these Words and divers places of Gregory and other Fathers of his time that there was then a great deal of Respect had to the Relicks of Saints and that a great many Miracles were said to be done at their Graves It is astonishing that Gregory who loved inlarging hath not said even that the Bodies of Saints had more Virtue after their Death than during their Life for there is no comparison between the multitude of Miracles which were said to be done at the Graves of Martyrs and those which they did whilst alive Many People believe that the Falshood of some Christians and the Credulity of some others contributed much to hold up Paganism 7. Our Author makes a Panegyrick upon the Monks in the sequel after having despised Socrates and Plato and all the Pagan Philosophers Gregory reproacheth Iulian that he did not love Virtue in his Enemies but certainly Zeal made him commit here some such thing and it is very certain that he had infinitely learned more out of Plato and the Discourses of Socrates than in the Conversation of all the Monks that he had seen As to their Lives the endless Seditions of those Pious Hermits and their implacable Humor shew sufficiently that they were infinitely beneath these great Models of Pagan Antiquity 8. He remarketh very well that to be desirous to ruin the Christian Religion in a time wherein the Roman Empire was full of Christians was to undertake to ruin the very Empire When they were in a small number they could not be ill treated without Prejudice to the State but when they were numerous they could not be engaged without causing great Convulsions and too much disorder It were to be desired that the Imitators of Iulian had well weighed this Advertisement of Gregory who despiseth most justly all the good that could accrew from the Government of Iulian in comparison with the evil that so detestable a Design would have caused if he had been able to put it in Execution It were yet to be wished that our Age had been well instructed in the Horror which the Snares that Iulian by his Officers and Soldiers laid for Christians Gregory saith that some Christian Soldiers having one day when Iulian gave some Liberality to his Army cast Incense in his Presence into the fire according to an ancient Custom usually interpreted as if they had burned Incense to the Idols Nevertheless many others had done it without any Reflection and being admonished of their Fault as they invocated Iesus Christ making the sign of the Cross after their Meal by some one that told them they had renounced him they went immediately crying out in the Market-place and in the Ears of the Emperor that they had been surprized and that they were Christians Iulian provoked at the mistake banished them 9. Gregory describes some horrid Cruelties against the Christians which Iulian had authoris'd in Egypt and Syria He saith that the Inhabitants of Arethusa a City of Syria after having made Young-Women consecrated to God suffer a thousand Indignities killed them eat their Livers all raw and gave their Flesh to Swine to feed on covering it with Barly These People treated with an abominable Barbarity the Bishop of this City who notwithstanding appeared almost insensible in his Torments and Gregory marks that this Bishop in the time of Constantius exercis'd having liberty from the Emperor an Habitation of Devils to wit a Pagan Church This Action of Mark of Arethusa had drawn upon him the Hatred of the People as a Pagan would have been detested by the Christians if he had destroyed one of their Churches Notwithstanding Gregory a little lower saith not only that the Christians did not Treat the Pagans as they had been Treated by them But he asketh of them What Liberty Christians had taken from them As if it were nothing to pull down their Temples as was done since the Reign of Constantine They continued with the same Rigor under the following Emperors and that they might be Reproacht with nothing of Paganism it was Prohibited on pain of Death to Sacrifice to Idols with the Applause of all the Christians if St. Augustin can be believed We must not forget to Remark here another effect of the Rhetorick of Gregory It is that in speaking of the Christian Young Women of Aretâ—usa who had been so Abused he Accuses not only the Pagans but also makes an Apostrophe to our Lord thus O Iesus Christ how shall I suffer the pain which you had then 10. Iulian added Insults also to his ill Treatments and in taking away the Christians Goods he said he only assisted them to observe the Gospel which commanded 'em to despise the things of this Life This Railery is in the forty third Letter of Iulian where he saith that the Church of the Arians at Edessa having done some Violence to the Valentinians he had Confiscated all their Mony to distribute it to the Soldiers and kept their Goods to himself fearing lest the Arians being too Rich could not get into the Kingdom of Heaven Gregory Answers to this amongst other things that Iulian acting thus made as if he imagin'd that the Gods of the Heathens thought it necessary that People should be deprived of their Goods without deserving it and that they approved of Injustice He might have been satisfied with this Answer but he adds that there are things which Iesus Christ hath commanded as necessary and others which he hath simply proposed for those that would observe them without indispensibly obliging any one to do it Such is according to Gregory the Commandment of abandoning the Wealth of this World 11. One thing for which they abused
Cesairia died This was a little after the Earth-quake which happened in Bithynia in the Month October the Year CCCLXVIII He was then at Nice where he exercised the Employment of Treasurer to the Emperor This City was almost totally ruined and he was the only Officer of Valens that escaped this Danger Gregory made a Funeral Oration in his Honor which is the Tenth of those which are in being He makes there an Abridgment of his Life whose principal Circumstances have been related and describeth the Vanity of all we enjoy here below and makes divers Reflections upon Death and of the manner of comforting ones self for that of Relations He wisheth that his Brother may be in the Bosom of Abraham where-ever it may be and towards the end describing the Happiness of good Men after Death he saith that according to wise Men their Souls are full of Joy in the Contemplation of the Happiness that attends them till after their Resurrection they are received into Celestial Glory Cesairia dying left his Goods to the Poor and yet there was much Difficulty in getting them those that were at his Death having seiz'd on the greatest part as Gregory complains in his eighteenth Letter where he prayeth Sophronius Governor of Bithynia to order that Business Basil Friend to Gregory being made Bishop of Cesarea in the Year CCCLXX had some Disputes with Valens of which we shall not speak here because it signifieth nothing to the Life of his Friend It was perhaps for that reason that this Emperor divided Cappadocia into two Provinces and made Tyanus Metropolis in the second Cappadocia As the Jurisdiction of Metropolitans was regulated upon the Extent of the Province divers Bishops who were before Suffragans of Cesarea became so to Tyanus so that Basil found himself the Head of a fewer Number of Bishops than before The new Metropolitan drew to him the Provincial Assemblies seized of the Revenues of his Diocess and omitted nothing to diminish the Authority and Revenues of Basil. Anthimus for that was the Name of the Bishop of Tyane who was an Arian concealed it under the pretence of Piety and said he would not abandon the Flocks to the Instruction of Basil whose Sentiments concerning the Son of God were not upright nor suffer that any Tribute should be paid to Hereticks Gregory assures us that he would send Soldiers to stop the Mules of Basil to hinder him from getting his Rents Basil found no other Remedy to that than the creating new Bishops which would have more care of the Flocks than he could have and by means of whom each City should bring him in what was his due Sasime being one of these Cities in which he had resolved to send Bishops he cast his Eyes upon his Friend Gregory to send him there 3 without considering that this place was altogether unworthy of a Man of his desert It was a Village without Water and Greens and full of Dust a passage for Soldiers and inhabited only by a few Ignorant People The Revenues that could be drawn from this Bishoprick were very small and besides all that he must be resolved to defend them by force against Anthime or to be subject to this new Metropolitan Gregory refused this Employ but at length the Importunities and Addresses of Basil which gained Gregory the Father obliged him to accept thereof It seemeth he composed at that time his seventh Speech wherein he speaks to his Father and Basil and desire their help and Instructions for the Conduct of his new Church of Sasime He saith notwithstanding to Basil that the Episcopal Throne had extreamly changed him and that he had much more mildness whilst he was amongst the Sheep than since he was become Pastor The next day he made another Speech upon the arrival of Gregory of Nysse Brother to Basil to whom he complains of the Violence that had been done him by his Brother and as it was the Feast of some Martyr he adds divers things on that occasion upon the manner of celebrating Feasts not by profane Rejoycings but by exercises of Piety He saith amongst other things That then was the time to raise one's self and to become God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it be admitted to speak thus and that in that Martyrs do the Office of Mediators 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Expression to become God that is to say to become a good Man and to despise earthly things is frequent enough in the Writings of Gregory He saith elsewhere that Priests are Gods and deifie others that Solitude deifieth Introducing Basil who refused to embrace Arianism he makes him say that he could not adore a Creature he who also was a Creature of God and had received Commandment to be God We must remark that this Expression was us'd amongst the Pythagorists as may be seen by the last of the golden Verses of Pythagoras upon which we may consult Hyerocles When Gregory was at Sasime he thought he perceived by the misery of this Place that Basil did despise him and abused his Friendship Though he kept the Government thereof for a little while he made no other Episcopal in it he prayed not there in publick with the People not imposed his hands on any As he went to it against his will and without obliging himself to tarry there he thought he might leave this Church and return into the Solitude from whence they had drawn him when he returned to Nazianze He complained very much of the Pride of Basil whom the Episcopal Throne of Cesarea had so blinded that he had no longer any Consideration for his Friends These Complaints as Just as they were yet passed for Attempts in the Mind of the Metropolitan who seemed to have forgotten the Esteem he had for Gregory and the Services which the latter had rendred him in his Promotion to the See of Cesarea Yet Gregory discovered not the unworthy manner wherewith his Friend had treated him neither then nor since Gregory having abandoned Sasime retired into a Hospital of the Sick whom he took care to comfort and in vain his Father entreated him to return to Sasime he would never be resolved to do it nor digest the hard usage of Basil who of fifty Bishopricks which were in his Diocess had given him the least All that Gregery the Father could obtain of his Son was that he would take the Care of the Bishoprick of Nazianze during his Life without engaging himself to succeed him In that time it seems that a Commissary of the Emperor's to Tax the Inhabitants of Nazianze and who had been a particular Friend to Gregory gave some suspicion to his Flock that he would not Tax them very lightly they thereupon forc'd Gregory to make that Discourse which is the Ninth of his Speeches where he exhorts all Conditions to Piety and speaks to Iulian who was the Commissioner of the Emperor to induce him to settle this Tax
like an Honest Man Notwithstanding there happened some Disturbances at Nazianze which irritated the Imperial Commissary and gave occasion to Gregory to rehearse the Seventeenth of his Speeches which is upon the same subject and wherein he exhorts the People to Patience and the Commissary to Moderation It 's also believed that it was about the same time that his Sister Gorgonia who had been Married to a Person of Quality named Vitalian died Gregory made her Funeral Oration which is the Eleventh in order We shall not stay to relate the Praises he gives her for her Piety and Wise Conduct but only Remark two things 1. That Gorgonia had not been Baptized with her Husband but a little before her Death according to the Custom of that time her Brother had such an Esteem of her Piâ—ty that he dares say there is scarcely any one but herself to whom Baptism hath been rather a Seal than a Grace that is to say rather a Confirmation of the Virtue she before had than the Infusion of a new Sanctity 2. At the end of his Speech after having said in addressing himself to her by a Figure of Rhetorick common in our Author that she enjoyeth the Contemplation of Celestial Glory he continues thus If you have any regard to us and if God hath given this Privilege to Holy Souls to perceive things of this nature receive our Speech rather than Funeral Gifts By this we see be doubted whether the Souls of the Dead knew what was done here on Earth We may besides Remark the Word hath been translated Privilege which is the same that Hesiod makes use of when he saith that Iupiter hath given this advantage to Kings to be after their Death the Guardians of Men. In the Year CCCLXXI Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria being dead Gregory composed his Funeral Speech some Years after being at Constantinople whereof we shall say something when we shall come to the part of the Life of Gregory Gregory made in the Year CCCLXXIV another Funeral Oration in the Honour of his Father which is the Nineteenth in order He testifieth that he died almost at a hundred Years of Age after being Bishop forty five Years His Son makes at length his Panegyrick in giving an Abridgment of his Life and endeavours to comfort his Mother Nonna whom he also praiseth much for the Loss she had sustained He directs himself to his Father whom he prayeth to let him know what Glory he was in and to conduct both the Flock and Pastors of whom he had had the name of Father and principally his Son He puts not a Word which may excuse so violent a Figure as this Prosopaeia and if elsewhere he had not used some mollifying Expression on such occasions we should with much ado have distinguish'd this Apostrophe from a true Invocation His Mother Nonna who was almost of the Age of her Husband died soon after and it was not requisite that Gregory should make any Discourse in her Praise because he had already made her Panegyrick in the Funeral Discourse of his Father After the Death of the latter some would have had him to have taken upon him the Bishoprick of Nazianze and it was pretended he had engaged to stay in it when he begun to take care of it But he excused himself on the account of his Age the Bishops of the Province named Eulalius to succeed his Father on which the report rising that this Election was done in spight of Gregory he writ to Gregory of Nyssa to shew him that nothing was done herein but at his request As the Business did not immediately come to that push and that Gregory had feared he should be forced to stay at Nazianze he retired to Seleucia into a Monastery where he remained a sufficient time staying to see the Church of Nazianze provided Yet he returned into this City afore the Election was ended and was urged anew to take his ancient Post but he never would The Author of his Life assures us it was at this time that Basil built an Hospital for the Leprous and that on this occasion Gregory made his Discourse of Charity towards the Poor and particularly towards those that were sick of a Leprosie In this Speech are divers Reflections upon Piety in general and touching the Use of good and bad Fortune in this Life It is very seldom that Gregory applies himself to one matter only and to an Order that is clear and void of Digressions During the Empire of Valens who favoured the Arians this Sect and that which sprung from it had gained a great many People on their side Constantinople was chiefly full of Arians and Apollinarists who believed that the Divinity of Jesus Christ served for a Soul to his Body That occasioned several Bishops and many of the People which followed the Council of Nice to desire Gregory to go to Constantinople to strengthen the Orthodox and to oppose the Hereticks He declares he undertook this Voyage purely against his will particularly because the Report run that a Synod of Apollinarists was going to be held there to establish their Opinions Being arrived at Constantinople towards the end of the Year CCCLXVIII he lodged at one of his Kinsmens whom some Authors conjecture to be Nicobulus who had espoused Alypiana Daughter to Gorgonia Sister to Gregory Valens had given the Arians all the Churches of Constantinople so that Gregory was forced to preach in the House of his Kinsman There was in a short time such a great Crowd of People that this House having no Chamber which could contain them he to whom it belonged pulled it down to make it a Church It was called the Anastasia to wit the Church of Resurrection because the Belief of the Orthodox was as if it had been risen again in that place The Arians then raised almost all the City against him accusing him of believing several Gods He attributes the Zeal of the People against him to their Ignorance of the manner whereby the Trinity ought to be reconciled with the Unity of God It was not altogether the Fault of the People because Gregory himself speaks thereof in such a manner as seem'd as if he introduced that in common Discourse which would be call'd Three Gods although according to the manner he defines Unity it must be confessed he believed but one He complains that Stones were cast at him upon that account and that he was cited before the Judge as a Seditious Man All this made him but the more Famous and augmented the number of his Auditors Then it was that St. Ierom heard him as he witnesseth in divers places We have elsewhere a passage of this Father where he speaks but very indifferently of the Eloquence of Gregory whom he describeth as a Declaimer that the People applauded without understanding what he said The number of the Orthodox increasing every day they desired to have a Bishop of
a Successor to Melece would not hearken to this Proposition A Crowd of young Persons begun to cry out like Magpies and made so much noise that they even forc'd the old Bishops who should have resisted them and brought in question again the Affair of Gregory which had been decided Gregory perfectly describes their Ambition Ignorance and Defects in the Poem he hath made of his Life It is better to read it in the very Author than here Yet the People hearing that the Council gave Gregory a Distast and that the latter spoke of retiring cried out That they should not take away their Pastor and intreated him not to abandon his Flock About that time Timothy Bishop of Alexandria who succeeded Peter and who was of a Violent and Contentious Spirit arrived there with divers Egyptian Bishops The old Malice they had against Gregory upon the account of Maximus the Cynick had so much inflamed them against our Bishop that they began by complaining that the Canons had been violated in transporting Gregory from one Bishoprick to another This excited a great Noise in the Council and it was upon this occasion that Gregory made his Speech of Peace which is the Fourteenth wherein he at length presents the Advantages of Agreement and the evil Consequences of Divisions He highly Censures therein the lightness of the Bishops who had without reason changed their Opinion in his behalf and suffered themselves to be deceived by the Calmness of his Enemies He saith That Back-bitings ought to be slighted which are commonly spread of Moderate Persons and in fine we may easily see by what he hath said that it is not in our Age alone that Men do cover their Passions most unworthily under the fair name of Zeal for the Purity of Faith Gregory testifieth also that he told them For what concerned himself they should not put themselves to so much trouble but that they should endeavour to be reunited That it was time to make People cease laughing at them as wild Men who had learned nothing else but to fight That provided they would agree he consented to be Jonas who should make the Tempest cease That he had taken against his Will the Episcopal Seeâ— and that he quitted it freely and that his Body being weakened with old Age obliged him thereunto Notwithstanding all this they accused him of Ambition he therefore made a Speech which is the Twenty seventh wherein he protests he had accepted of the Bishoprick of Constantinople but by force and brings the People to witness it He saith That he cannot tell whether he ought to call the Seat of Constantinople The Throne of a Tyrant or the See of a Bishop he complains of the Distractions of his Enemies and the Envy they bore him because of his Eloquence and his Learning in the Sciences of the Heathens It may be that made some People envy him but the Post which he was in made a great many more envy him He would have suffered him to have made use of his Rhetorick at Sasine without giving him the least trouble for it After having declared in full Council that he desired to quit the place which was envied him he went to the Emperor's Palace to entreat him to suffer him to withdraw He obtain'd it with some difficulty and afterwards he only thought upon taking leave publickly which he did in the Cathedral in the presence of one hundred and fifty Bishops and all the People We have the Discourse he then made and 't is the Two and Thirtieth in order he there represents the Ill Condition wherein he found the Orthodox Church of Constantinople and the Change he had accomplish'd he makes a Confession of his Faith touching the Blessed Trinity and shews he had done nothing which was worthy of Censure he exhorts the Fathers of the Council to choose a Person worthy of the See of Constantinople to succeed him and afterwards took his leave of all that heard him In this Speech he complains of his Old Age and in the Poem of his Life he saith he was then but a dead Man animated which he could not say if he was according to the common Supposition but Fifty six Years Old As soon as he took his Leave the People and in general all those who had heard him at Constantinople testified a great deal of Grief The Conduct of the Council appears very unequal and Violent since after they Confirmed Gregory in the See of Constantinople they oblig'd him to quit it at the Age of about 80 Years This manner of acting so Unwise and Un-christian like gave pleasure enough to the Enemies of the Council and much diminished the Authority of their Decisions For in fine how can we think that Bishops so Factious so Unjust and so Ignorant as Gregory describes them in divers places were nor capable of Examining maturely the Doctrins in question If their Authority did not make them incline to the Orthodox â—ide it must needs be Chance only that led them into the right way The love of Truth is seldom found with so much Vanity and Ignorance Thus Gregory Abandoned the Bishoprick of Constantinople some few Weeks after he had been established by that Council that Banished him He withdrew into Cappadocia according to Gregory the Priest Author of his Life and went to live at Arianze where he was Born Amongst those that were presented to the Emperor some Bishops put up Nectairus Senator of Constantinople a Man of regulate Manners and comely Countenance but who was not as yet Baptized and who had scarcely any Learning It is not known whether Gregory parted for Cappadocia before this Election was made or staid at Constantinople until he had a Successor named to him Howbeit Gregory writ an Instruction to Nectairus where he begins thus That it seemed as if the Providence of God who before kept the Churches had altogether abandoned the Affairs of this Life That which made him speak thus he says was not his particular Evils tho so great that they would have seemed insupportable to any body else He assures us that the State of the Church only forc'd those words from his Mouth He afterwards describes to Nectaire the boldness of the Arians and Macedonians who were in as great a number at least as the Orthodox and who durst Assemble and form Churches a horrid Attempt after the Decisions of a Council so well Regulated as that which had been newly held Gregory comprehended not how his Holiness and his Gravity it was thus that Bishops were stiled permitted the Apollinists to Assemble He advertised him that Apollinarus said that the Body of the Son of God Existed before the World that the Divinity served him as a Soul and that his Body descended from Heaven and was essential to the Son yet nevertheless Died. Gregory thought tho I know not why that to permit these Men to Assemble was to grant that their Doctrine was truer than that
Clement 2. If Clement had said that Sovereign Reason had been Created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we ought to observe that to create to produce to beget signifie the same thing in Plato and that it followeth not that he believed that Reason was begotten or produced from nothing 3. It is one of the Opinions of Plato that in a certain number of Years the Form of the World would intirely change and that several of these changes have happen'd afore the Revolution begun which now comprehends us One may see in his Politicks that he maintains the Revolution of all the Stars will cause an universal Change in the World Thus in his Opinion what was said of Mens deriving their Original from the Earth happened in the beginning of a Revolution That is it adds he which our Predecessors have said who have lived at the latter end of the first Revolution and who drew near the second as well as those who were born at the beginning of this It is they who have assured us thereof and several are to blame for not believing it now The Stoicks also believed the same thing according to the Relation of Clement who seems not to disprove their thought and who faileth not to confirm it by the Authority of Plato This Philosopher believed that the first Men were Androgynes and that they had four Feet two Heads and so of the other Members but that God afterwards divided them into two as may be seen in his Banquet Some Rabbins have advanced some such thing and grounded their Sentiment upon this that it 's said God created Man Male and Female This seems to be but a Diversion of the Mind and not an Opinion which these Authors seriously embraced Parhaps Clement sported himself to make some Reflections on the thought of Plato with so much the more liberty that perhaps he believed as his Disciple Origen that there were many Allegories in the beginning of Genesis 4. As to what concerns Angels falling in love with Women Clement testifies in more than one place that he hath been of this thought and most of the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers have thus expounded the beginning of the 6 th Chap. of Genesis Photius cannot reprehend this Opinion without censuring at the same time all Antiquity but it 's his Custom to abuse the most ancient Authors when he finds Sentiments in them which were not received in his time or ways of speaking which are not strong enough to express those Thoughts which he believed Antiquity should have had because it would have been a Heresie in his Age not to have them 5. Incarnation being a Mystery which we comprehend not and Clement's Stile being not commonly very clear it might happen that he expresses himself after a manner which Photius did not well understand and this is the more probable because this Patriarch ordinarily Expounds the Thoughts of the Ancients in reference to the Opinions and Manners of speaking of his time The Writings of the Ancients are full of Equivocate Terms which they use in such Senses as the following Ages were ignorant of Terms which express Spiritual obscure things and the most composed Ideas are necessarily hard to be understood because they took no care of defining them or making an exact Enumeration of the Ideas which they applied thereto Perhaps it came not once into their Mind that this would have been very necessary to be well understood At least we see that when they strive to Expound themselves upon these obscure Subjects they use as obscure Terms 6. An Example may be remarked thereon in regard to two Reasons whereof Photius speaketh Those who shall carefully Read the Second Tome of Origen upon St. Iohn may observe that he establishes a first or supreme Reason which is the Divinity of Jesus Christ and several inferiour Reasons which are made after the Image of the precedent It might be said in this sense that there are only Second Reasons which are become Flesh because there are only they which animate Human Bodies for though the first was united to the Humanity of Jesus Christ it was not in stead of a Soul to him Thus though Clement had said what Photius makes him say he could not be accused of Heresie for that but he did not say so as it appears by the Passage which Photius himself cites The Son is called Reason as well as the Paternal Reason but it was not that which was made Flesh and yet it is not Paternal Reason neither but Divine Power which is as an Emanation of this same Reason which is become Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which is come into the Hearts of Men. By these Terms the Son we must not understand the only Son of God but Man as is clearly seen by the Sequel Perhaps Clement had called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply because he might have sufficiently intimated before whom he understood by this word Photius who has not well apprehended the end of this Passage might easily have equivocated concerning the Sequel of the Discourse as the Jesuit Schotus otherwise a Learned Man was altogether mistaken in the Latin Version of these words as we shall soon observe by comparing it with that which we have already made thereof But we have another Latin Work which is attributed to Clement and which is Entituled Commentariolam primam Canonicam S. Patri in Epistolam Iudae tres Epistolas S. Ioannis Apostoli There are indeed divers things in these Notes which are not far from the Doctrin of Clement but it cannot be known whether it be a whole Version of a part of the Hypotyposes or only Extracts corrected according to the Pleasure of the Interpreter It is known that when the Latins translated something of the Greeks they were very subject to make Changes therein as they thought fit as has been objected to Ruffinus It is even needless to seek so far for Examples of this Ill Custom seeing we have one concerning a part of the Hypotyposes of Clement whereof Cassiodorus speaks thus Clement of Alexandria hath expounded in Greek the Canonick Epistles that is to say the First Epistle of St. Peter the First and Second of St. John and that of St. James where there are not only many subtil things but also some things which he hath advanced without well taking heed of them We have translated him into Latin so that having taken away what would Scandalize his Doctrin thus purified may with more safety be Read Ubi multa quidem subtiliter sed aliqua incaute loquutus est quae nos ita transferri fecimus in Latinam ut exclusis quibusdam offendiculis purificata Doctrina ejus securior posset hauriri Besides this Clement composed five Treatises which are lost 1. The Rule or the Canon of the Church against the Iudaizers 2. Of the Passover 3. Of Backbiting 4. Disputes concerning Fasting 5. An Exhortation to Patience directed to the Neophytes After the particular Remarks which are made
retake that Shield which by their Apostacy they lost that so they may be armed not against the Church which grieves at their Misery but against their Adversary the Devil a modest Petition a bashful Supplication a necessary Humility and an Industrious Patience will be advantageous to them let them express their Grief by their Tears and their Sorrow and Shame for their Crimes by their Groans Ep. 31. ap Cypr. Tertullian in a like manner describes one in this State by lying in Sackcloth and Ashes by having a squalid Body and a dejected Soul by Fasting Praying Weeping Groaning and roaring night and day by throwing himself at the Clergies feet and kneeling before the Faithful begging and desiring their Prayers and Pardon If the Criminals Repentance was thought real he was admitted to part of the Service but not to all for a long time some two three five ten Years and some even to their Lives end On the day appointed for Absolution â—he came cover'd with Sackcloth and Ashes throwing himself at the Feet of the Clergy and Laity and with Tears in his Eyes begging their Pardon and Forgiveness confest his Fault and received Absolution by the Bishops putting his hand upon his Head and blessing him and then he was looked upon as a true Church-Member again 8. In the Eighth Chap. he comes to shew the Independency that Churches had one of another as to Superiority or Preheminence which concludes very strongly against the Usurpations of the See of Rome he Cites the Decree of the African Synod Apud Cyp. Ep. 55. § 16. Pag. 142. That every ones Cause should be heard where the Crime was committed because that to every Pastor was committed a particular Portion of Christ's Flock which he was particularly to rule and govern and to render an Account thereof unto the Lord. Yet he shews there was such a Dependence and Correspondence betwixt one another Cypr. Ep. 67. § 6. Pag. 199. Although they were many Pastors yet they were but one Flock and they ought to congregate and cherish all the Sheep which Christ redeemed by his own Blood and Passion And a little after We ought all of us to take care of the Body of the whole Church whose Members are distended through various Provinces Apud Cypr. Ep. 30. § 4. Pag. 67. Our Auâ—hor treats next of Provincial Synods which he proves were a Convocation of Bishops Presbyters Deacons and deputed Laimen who often met to advise about Eccâ—esiastical Affairs and reguâ—ate what should appear amiss He shews that this Convocation was usually every Year Per singulos annos in unum Conveniamus Apud Cyprian Ep. 75. § 3. Pag. 23â— In these Assemblies they chose out of the gravest and most renowned Bishops two to be Arbitrators and Moderators Apud Euseb Lib 5. Cap. 23. Pag. â—90 The Decrees that they made were binding and who ever broke them came under the Ecclesiastick Censure 9. In the Ninth Chap. our Author treats of the Unity of the Church Here he shews that the Unity of the Church consisted not in an Uniformity of Rites and Usages but every Church was at its own liberty to follow its own particular Customs Iren. apud Euseb. Lib. 5. Cap. 24. P. 193. In some Churches they fasted one day in others two in some more and in others forty hours but yet they still retained Peace and Concord the diversity of their commending the Unity of their Faith And a little after the same Father They retained Peace and Love and for the diversity of such Customs none were ever cast out of the Communion of the Church Also Firmilius apud Cyprian Ep. 75. § 5. Pag. 237. That in most Provinces their Rites were varied according to the Diversities of Names and Places and that for this no one ever departed from the Peace and Unity of the Catholick Church 'T would be well if this Primitive Union was well considered on by such as keep up the Dissentions amongst us at this day they will certainly have a severe Account to make one day to the Prince of Peace nor will their Ignorance excuse them in not making a due distinction betwixt the Fundamentals of Religion and mere Circumstances Our Author proceeds to shew what condescentions there were amongst them from Iustin Martyr who speaking of those Jewish Converts who adhered to the Mosaical Rites says That if they did this only through their Weakness and Imbecillity and did not perswade other Christians to the observance of the same Iudaical Customs that he would receive them into Church-fellowship and Communion Dialog cum Tryphon Pag. 266. After this our Author shews how the whole Churches censur'd such as were Authors of Divisions about the different Observation of Easter Baptizing Hereticks c. and afterwards he brings in Irenaeus saying That at the last day Christ shall judge those who cause Schisms who are inhuman not having the fear of God but preferring their own advantage before the Unity of the Church who for trivial and slight Causes rend and divide the great and glorious Body of Christ and as much as in them lies destroy it who speak Peace but make War truly straining at a Gnat but swallowing a Camel Lib. 4. Cap. 62. Pag. 292. Here our Authors defines Schism according to the Primitive Fathers to be an unnecessary causeless Separation from their lawful Pastor or Parish Church So that who ever separates upon such a Ground is a Schismatick then he comes to lay down such measures as the Primitive Christians did make use of for Separation from their Bishop 1 Apostacy from the Faith 2 Or when a Bishop renounc'd the Christian Faith and through fear of Persecution embrac'd the Heathenish Idolatries as was done in the Case of Martialis and Basilides two Spanish Bishops 3 ly When the Bishops Life was scandalous and wicked he gives Instances of all of them yet he brings in Origen against this last Opinion his words are these Origen Hom. 7. in Ezek. He that hath a care of his Soul will not be scandaliz'd at my Faults who am his Bishop but considering my Doctrin and finding it agreeable to the Churches Faith from me indeed he will be averse but he will receive my Doctrin according to the Precept of the Lord which saith The Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses his Chair whatever therefore they say unto you hear and do but according to their Work do not for they say and do not The Scripture is of me who teach what is good and do the contrary and sit upon the Chair of Moses as a Scribe or Pharisee the Precept is to thee O People if thou canst not accuse me of false Doctrin or Heretical Opinions but only beholdest my wicked and sinful Life but do those things which I speak After having mentioned this Father's Opinion he adds that whether Irenaeus or an African Synod or Origen deserves most Credit he leaves it to the Learned to judge but however our Author gives his own Opinion that they
made for Women against the Calumnies of Men By James Chausse Master of the Court-Rolls Printed at Paris sold by Samuel Parrier in the Pallace 1685. in Twelves and at Amsterdam by Peter Morteri I Have in the first Article of the last Month said that 100 Officious Writers might please themselves infinitely in imploying their Pens to the Glory of the Fair Sex He needs be no great Divine that says so and he must have but a little Memory and a very mean Knowledg of Books who without this Treatise is afraid of being deceived in judging as we do since so many have Written in favour of Women in all Countries and all Ages of the World We shall always find some who exercise themselves with pleasure upon this repeated Subject How many Books have we seen in favour of Women Those Written by Monks wou'd stock a Library even the Chief Magicians according to the Common Opinion have Written upon this Inviting Subject as appears by the Discourse of Agrippa De nobilitate praecellentia foeminei Sexus I know some have Writ against them but their number is inferiour to those who spoke in their Praise There are too many as well on the one side as the other but those who know how to Write being sensible of the trouble there is to keep the Mean more easily pardon the Extreams these Authors fall into 'T is very difficult to maintain Marriage without decrying Celebacy and speak for a single Life without bringing Marriage into Disgrace Therefore we ought to excuse those who cannot shun this Rock St. Ierom had so little power in this Affair that his Friends were forc'd to suppress some of his Books where under pretext of establishing Continency he entirely ruin'd the Doctrin of the Church concerning Marriage Some say that Mr. Chausse runs upon the different Rock when he says That Marriage is the only way to Paradise and 't is to rob himself of the greatest happiness and the most solid Blessings of this Life to forbear entring into the Matrimonial State But certainly when they only imputed these thoughts to him they forgot the Declaration which he made in these decisive Terms Nothing is better nor more excellent than Marriage except an absolute Continency There are some who indifferently regard the Disputes of these Authors and only divert themselves as if they saw different Persons acting a Comedy Yet there cannot be seen without some agreeable Sentiments two Books publish'd at Paris both at the same time each well arm'd with Approbation and Priviledge which maintains absolute Contraries upon the great Theme of Matrimony One of these Books is an Answer of Mr. Ferrand to his Apology for the Reformation the other is that of which we are going to speak Marriage is in it every where almost elevated to the highest point of perfection where Fidelity continues during this Life but in the other Book 't is to Virginity that this advantage is attributed and that in so violent a manner that if we follow'd the Maxims of the Author cited step by step we shou'd look upon Married Persons but as Vultures and Swine We ought certainly to remit something of each side and say that Celebacy and Marriage are speaking Morally in themselves neither good nor bad Those who remit nothing on the part of Marriage will immediately shew us how to prove the Excellency thereof by these three Reasons First Because it was God that Instituted Marriage in the Earthly Paradice during the State of Innocency Secondly There is nothing agrees better with Man than Marriage nor is more adapted to his Necessities Thirdly That Marriage is the most necessary thing in the World to maintain Society Wisdom and Chastity These three Proofs are clearly amplified these two Considerations annext First That Marriage is the most perfect Bond the sweetest and most beneficial of all humane Unions The Second That 't is the most legitimate and agreeable exercise and of the most absolute Authority in the World This he proves by most lively Descriptions and observes that this Union includes both Body and Souls that it represents the greatest Mysteries of Religion that 't is a Source of sweetness and infinite Consolations and which furnishes us with excellent Vertues as Patience Charity and a desire to improve our selves amongst the number of the Elect and Fellow-Citizens He adds that the Father of a Family is Master of a little State where he exercises the Function of a King Priest and Prophet It allows him a very lawful and priviledg'd satisfaction of that desire which rules in a Man He ends with this Consideration That in one sense nothing can be more excellent than Marriage since 't is an Universal Custom and the most general of all Societies in all times all places and all sorts of persons how different soever This seems to me a just Abridgment of the first part of the Work In the second is represented the Infamy of Incontinency considering three sorts of people that plunge themselves therein one by Inclination another by Habit and the last by both but with this difference that the first look upon Lasciviousness as their Sovereign good whereas the second continues there in spight of themselves being subjected to the force of Custom and Temper but the last look upon these Irregularities as an Innocent Gallantry The Author considers besides that four sorts of Importunities that of the Heart of the Eyes of the Mouth and that of the Hand he shews wherein they consist he proves 'em Criminal and gives the Reason why God hath so severely prohibited such things to Man as he was Naturally inclined to and why he tolerated Poligamy in the Ancient Patriarchs The Third Part contains the full End and chief Design of the Author for he writ this Book only to perswade the necessity of Marriage to a considerable Person whom he extreamly Honoured for his Merit and Family where in this place he displays all his force to represent to the life those Motives that ought to perswade People to Marry he immediately proposes this Principle there is nothing but Marriage that can naturally preserve Man from the guilt of unchastity and by consequence that 't is necessary for Salvation After that other Reasons seem Superfluouse Nevertheless the Author sticks not to this great Principle which he ought to make appear since he believes it is true but he brings many other Advantages with abundance of Truth he urges the unusefulness of Continency he says that the most Favourable Iudgments of the Wisest about a single life is that 't is a vertue neither good nor bad and that being without Action it is a kind of Vice He maintains that God made Two Sexes in Nature to shew they cannot subsist without being joyn'd together he sends us to learn of the Animals amongst which the Mutual love of Males for Females and Females for Males is common to every Individual after this he considers Men as Men in a State in a Family and in
inspiration of God A Treatise upon Nature and Grace against the Two Hypotheses of Mr Pajon and his Disciples by Mr. Jurieu Doctor and Professor in Divinity Rotterdam Sold by Abraham Acher 1687 in Twelves Page 419. THIS Treatise upon Nature and Grace was made in answer to Mr. Pajons Sentiments but supposing they might with their Author Mr. Iurieu be thought to have past it over in Silence till he found that Mr. Pajon was not withou Proselytes to his Opinions and therefore thought fit to Root out such Doctrins as he had planted before they were fixt too deep To the end says he that if God raises our Churches from the dead they may come out of their Tombs purified from the Corruption which began to prey upon them Indeed Mr. Papin is disposing himself to defend the Quarrel of his Uncle but if Mr. Iurieu shou'd turn his Arms towards him he cou'd expect no other fate than that of Patroclus who having put on the Armour of Achilles wou'd therefore contend with Hector and was soon foil'd by that Hero Our Author thinks him not worthy of a Refutation and contents himself only to say in an Advertisement That it is a very rare thing to find one in an Age that will go about to refute a Man who has not Commenc'd for some Yâ—ars and he was much deceived when he cou'd not prevail upon him to answer him The publick says Mr. Iurieu must pardon me it has more need of my leisure for something else If he meaning Mr. Papin had proposed his Quâ—stions with Submission he might have had some Lessons read to him but since he Interrogates in quality of a Master he is far from acknowledging his own Weakness and Ignorance After this severe Reprimand our Author passes on to the body of his Work which is divided into Two Parts In the First he treats of the Superintendence of Providence and in the Second of the Operations of Grace for to comprehend well the difficulty of the Superintendence of Providence it is necessary to explain the Followers of Mr. Pajon They say God before any thing had a being did thro' his vast Intelligence Conceive the System of the World the Concurrence of its divers Springs and the manner whereby it was to be linkt together in all its parts In fine that he created the Universe upon the project which he had formed in his Mind that is to say after having Chained and Tyed all parts of the World together he put the whole Machine in motion after such a manner that the indissolvable Connexion which is betwixt 'em produces all the Events we have known to happen and which shall hereafter happen to the end of Time In a word this Connexion of Causes and Events and the force of this first Impression which every part of Nature has received suffices to give motion to all things without any new Action or Concurrence of GOD. Thus we see the World is like a Machine whose Springs turn regularly and God after having created Second Causes hath left themselves to Act according to their Nature and First Motion which he gave to the whole Universe from whence it follows according to these Divines That the Concurrences of God is nothing else but his Decrees by which from all Eternity he wills that Second Causes shou'd Act after a certain manner and they pretend that they never interrupt the General Order which he hath establisht So that 't is but a necessary consequence to do which Men call a Miracle In fine he meddles not with the Will in particular Events This System hath much relation to that of Father Malebranch Mr. Iurieu maintains on the contrary that God immediately concurs himself in all our Actions and besides this first Impression and General Motion which he has given to Nature he lends his immediate concurrence to all Events Upon this foundation he vigorously attacks the System which we have spoken of He pretends first that without an immediate concurrence he destroys the Infinite dependance of Creatures in relation to their Creator in giving 'em says he the power to Act for themselves without a new Action of God this is to draw 'em after a certain manner out of their Nothingness and to raise them up into the Quality of little Divinities which can dispose of Events One may even assert says he that there is no Independence at all in the Creature because God is alwas the first Mover by vertue of his first Impression which he has made upon every part of Matter whereas that is always to weaken this Truth of Nothingness which is of so great importance in Divinity that without it 't is impossible to get out of the incomprehensible Abysses which the mind of Man finds in the Conduct of Providence On the contrary this is to extol the Majesty of God when we ascribe all the Operations of the Creatures to a perpetual dependence upon his immediate Concurrence which seems if we may so say to add something to the Soveraignty of God over the Creature 'T is impossible without his immediate Operation continues Mr. Iurieu to explain how objects strike the Organs of the Body how they affect the Soul and how the Emotions of the Blood follows that of the Mind for 't is certain that the Soul which is Spiritual cannot be struck by sensible objects nor excite the motions of the Body Indeed if on one side the Mind cou'd be touched it might be extended and if on the other the Spirit has no material parts it cann't move the Body Now all the difficulty is easily resolv'd by a continual Concurrence of Providence to maintain and form the Comerce which is betwixt the Body and the Mind because according to our Author at the presentation of every object God does by an immediate Operation produce the Idea which Men conceive in their mind about such Objects The finest Objection against this System and which appears to be most to the purpose is that in denying an immediate Concurrence he ruins the use of Prayer You demand of God perhaps that he wou'd bless such a Marriage with a happy fruitfulness but if God intermeddles with nothing and if there be a Chain of Causes whose effect is inevitable then nothing is more useless than this Prayer for things wou'd happen-necessarily as they must happen if it be not so then God intervenes and breaks this Chain to stay the course of the first Impression and to punish Crimes or reward Vertue he inverts the General Order and this is that which our Author calls doing a Miracle Thus adds Mr. Iurieu nothing can be more insipid than to tell a man that he must thank God because by vertue and in consequence of the first chaining together of Second Causes there 's a Temperament of Courage in himself and that by the same means his Enemies are disposed to fearfulness whereas by means of an immediate Operation God without inverting the Order of Nature gives Victory to his People
q. 4. Aged man whether possible to recover his vigor v. 2. n. 16 q 4. Athenians will they maintain what they assert v. 2 n. 17. q. 12. Athenian Project how long will it continue v. 2. n. 17. q. 13. Acquaint with the Athen how to v. 2 n. 18. q. 4. Accident following the finding of Money v. 2. n. 20. q. 6. Acumen Ingenium Sal which signifies wit v. 2. n. 14 q. 13. Animals whether their blood c. v. 2. n. 24. q. 19. Apostles did they know Salv. v 2 n. 26. q. 10. Adam had he stood wou'd c. v. 2. n. 26. q. 12. Abraham the Hist. of the Ang. v. 2. n. 27. q. 7. Adam did he lose the Image of G. v. 2. n. 29. q. 16. Adam was he a Giant v. 2. n. 30. q. 4. Aaron did he make the Calf v. 2. n. 30. q 6. Amazonâ—s whether there be any v 3. n 2. q. 7. Astronomers can they know the bigness of the Sun v. 3. n. 2. q. 8. Armies when engaged does God fight for one v. 3. n. 6. q. 1. Armies seen in the Air v. 3. n. 6. q. 6. Arts and Sciences how many may be attain'd v. 3. n. 9. q. 1. Atheism who its first founder v. 3. n. 9. q 4. Ark what became of it after the fl v. 3. n. 9. q. 10. Adam whether he wou'd have multiply'd Children v. 3. n. 10 q. 4. Antipathies in nature v. 3. n. 11. q. 2. Angel whether one makes a Species v. 3. n. 11. q. 3. Alderm in the City 7 Quest. in one v. 3. n. 12. q. 1. Athenian whether their credit v. 3. n. 13. q. 4. Adul whether the Laws against it v. 3. n. 13. q. 5. Adam and Eve why they sew'd Fig-leaves together v. 3. n. 17. q. 6. Atheist and Iew how will you prove the Scripture to 'em v. 3. n 18. q. 2. Angels whether they move v. 3. n. 20. q. 1. Ambergr and Musk how produced v. 3. n. 21. q. 8. Animal which is the happiest v. 3. n. 25. q. 1. Adam's Fall was it on the day of his Creation v. 3. n. 26. q 4. Adam did he sin more than once v. 3. n. 30. q. 5. Adam if he had not sinn'd had he been Immortal v. 3 n. 30. q. 8. Angels how many fell at first v. 3. n. 30. q. 9. Adam was he a perfect Man and Eve taken out of his side v. 4. n. 5. q. 5. Apparitions to warn a Man to repent of a crime v. 4. n. 7 q. 1. Apparition in Scotland v. 4 n. 7. q. 7. Apparitions 4 Rel. concerning 'em v. 4. n. 10. q. 1. Apparitions instanc'd in several throughout v. 4. n. 10. Adam had he stood wou'd the World increase as now v. 4. n. 15. q. 4. Athenians would they not oblige the World by Artificial Rarities v. 4. n. 7. q. 7. Abraham's Age how reconcil'd v. 4. n. 11. q. 9. Affronts offer'd me how shall I â—â—venge ' em v. 4. n 19. q. 6. Apparitions a large relation v. 4 n. 20. q. 1. Affidavits of several about Appar v. 4. n. 20 q. 21. Apparition to a Person of Quality v. 4. n. 22. q. 2. Apparition of a Grandmother by the Church door v. 4. n. 22. q. 3. Apoplexy which caused Dumbness v. 4. n. 22. q. 4. Afflicted in Body Medic. in vain v. 4. n. 24. q. 3. Atheism exposed v 4. n. 24. q. 7. Angels how can they be said to eat as in Lot's case v. 4. n. 28 q. 4. Athenian Society have they ever a Poet among 'em v. 5. n. 1. q. 1. Anabaptist a word to 'em v. 5. n. 5. q. at the end Apprentice at Cripplegate a strange Relation v. 5. n. 6. q. 1. Apostles Creed when Compil'd v. 5. n. 7. q. 10. Athenian Mercury whether Writ by one Man v. 5. n. 7. q. 12. Antients whether they knew the Mariners Compass v. 5. n. 7. q. 13. Angel that appear'd to Balaam v. 5. n. 10. q. 2. Anabaptist why are they vilified v. 5. n. 26. q. 17. Angels are there a perfect equality between 'em v. 5. n. 28. q. 2. Anabaptists last Book remarks upon it v. 5. n. 30. q. 1. Anabaptists Postscript remarks on 't v. 5. n. 30. ‖ ANimals whether any have Reason 1 Suppl p. 26. Art which is the most necessary of 'em 2 Suppl p. 27. Art of Divining 2 Suppl p. 28. Abortion to procure it is it Murther 5 Suppl p. 15. q. 12. Arminianism or Antinomianism 5 Suppl p. 24. q. 23. Athenian Project a full account of it 5 Suppl p. 27. †ANtiquity and Original of the Points Vowels and Accents that are placed to the Hebrew Bible in 2 Parts p. 241. Advice to Young Students in Divinity p. 241. Animadversions on the various Editions of the Bible by the Athenian Society p. 291. An Abridgment of Vniversal History p. 105. Altings Works p. 145. Art of Navigation demonstrated by Principles and confirmed by many Observations drawn from Experience p. 233. Anatomical Bibliotheque p. 414 Art of Preaching the Word of God containing the Rules of Christian Eloquence p. 430 B. * BEardless Men the cause on 't v. 1. n. 3 q 3. Beasts how they came into the Islands v. 1. n 4. q. 1. Babel Tower what was the height c. of it v. n. 14. q 4. Beauty real or imaginary v. 1. n. 18. q 1. Babels builders Languages confounded v. 1. n. 19. q. 3. Beasts in the Ark v. 1. n. 20. q. 11. Bodies what Matter shall they have in the other World v. 1. n 23. q. 10. Bottle let into the Sea v. 1. n. 26. q. 7. Brothers two born together v. 1. n. 29. q. 4. Burnet's Theory of the Earth about Peter v. 1. n. 29. q. 9. Buggs their Cause and Cure v. 2. n. 1. q. 2. Balaam's Ass what Language it spake v. 2. n. 1. q. 8. Bleeding an Experiment about it v. 2. n. 4. q. 2. Bodies deform'd what remedy v. 2. n. 5. q. 1. Baths why is the Water more Hot v. 2. n. 5. q. 10. Breath why does it blow cold v. 2. n. 12. q 4. Bullet-falling from the Ship v. 2. n. 12. q. 11. Bees a Swarm of 'em in Cheapside v. 2. n. 15. q. 4. Basilisk is there any such Creat v. 2. n. 15. q. 10 ' Bashfulness the cause of it v. 2. n. 16. q. 3. Burning-glass why it contracts the Sun-beams v. 2. n. 17. q. 5. Bodies when taken out of their graves has the Soul c. v. 2. n. 23. q. 7. Barrenness why counted a Curse v. 2. n. 27. q. 1. Being of God v. 2. n. 27. q. 12. Born Poor or Rich which best v. 2. n. 28. q. 9. Blockhead Why have one of ten v. 2. n. 29. q. 6. Birds have they any government v. 2. n. 29. q. 10. Bible how an ordinary capacity may know it v. 2. n. 30. q. 9. Bully o' th' Town drew in a young Lady v. 3. n. 10. q. 3. Brutus and the rest whether they did ill in killing Caesar
watch what is the cause of it v. 2. n. 16 q. 2 Dying persons why they fold the Sheets v. 2. n. 16 q 8 Debauchery and ruine of youth how prevented v. 2. n. 16. q 19 Dream why of things we never thought of v. 2. n. 17. q. 3 Delightful what is most so to any Man v. 2. n. 17. q. 4. Debt whether a Man may Marry then v. 2. n. 20. q. 3. Deceive the Deceiver is it a sin v. 2. n. 20. q. 10 Die of Conceit whether possible v. 2. n. 21. q. 1 Dancing-master or School-master which preferable v. 2. n. 24. q. 13. Divine Idea's the Notion of Omniformity c. v. 2. n. 26. q. 1 Devil of Mascon v. 2. n. 26. q. 3 Deity acknowledg'd and prov'd v. 2. n. 26. q. 9 Devil does he know our thoughts v. 2. n. 26. q. 11 Democritus or Heraclitus which in the right v. 2. n. 27. q. 13 Die why must in the Night your reason v. 2. n. 29. q. 1 Duelling how far lawful v. 3 n. 2. q. 1 Dream whether obliging to Marry v. 3. n. 4. q. 17 Drunken Man whether capable of Marriage v. 3. n. 5. q. 2 Discourses vain and absurd v. 3 n. 12. q. 8 Drunken man how far obnoxious to the Law v. 3. n. 14. q. 2 Despair caused by unkindress of Relations v. 3. n. 14. q. 9 Drunken man how brought to his Senses v. 3. n. 15. q. 9 Divines whether Preaching against all vice v. 3. n. 18 q. 3 Dew of Hermon how it descends on Mount Sion v. 3. n. 18. q. 6 Die than live is it not better v. 3. n. 19. q. 2 Dreams of commit a grievous sin v. 3. n 20. q. 7 Dreams do we think then v. 3. n. 21. q. 3 Devotion how hinder'd by Ignor. v. 3 n. 21. q 10 Drown'd Bodies why they float v. 3. n. 22. q. Devils can they generate v. 3. n. 24. q. 12 Defrauding whether pardon'd without restitution v 3. n. 24 q 14 Devotion what Book you advise me to v. 3. n. 25 q 4 Dan. 5.23 Why Daniel leaves out a word v. 3. n. 25. q. 9 David's heart why it smote him for Saul's garment v. 3. n. 26. q. 1. David's Sin in numbring the People where consists v. 3. n. 27. q. 6 David's speaking in Scripture is it the word of God v. 3. n. 30. q. 4 Debtor and Creditors what a brother must do v. 4. n. 1. q. 3 Dissenters are they Schismaticks v. 4. n. 2. q. 2 Discourse to cry out O God is it sins v. 4. n. 2. q. 9. Dragon is there any such creature v 4. n. 6. q. 5 Dissenters that freely communicate with the Ch. of England v. 4. n. 7. q 4 Delivery of a Gate c. Town of Lymerick c. v. 4. n. 8. q. 1 Dizziness in the Head v. 4. n. 8 q. 8 Dreaming of a Text Preach't on v. 4. n. 16. q 3. Dealing with a secret reserve whether sinful v. 4. n. 16. q. 5 Divines why they begin their Prayers so low v 4. n 19 q. 11 Death if the cause be in the Body onely v. 4. n. 25. q. 2 Death is the cause of it in the Soul or in the Body v. 4. n. 28. q. 7 Dramatique Writers who the best v. 5. n 1 q. 3 Dramatique Professor who the best v 5. n. 2 q. 1 Disciples how come they to know Moses and Elias v. 5. n 4. q. 3 Devils generating a relation of one v. 5. n. 9. q. 3. Defrauding and over-reaching our Brother v. 5. n. 10 q. 1. Different Colours in Clouds the reason for it v. 5. n. 11 q 5 ‖ DIssertation on a State of Virginity 1 Suppl p. 18 Dispute about the Grandeur of Great Britain 1 Suppl p. 21. Description of the City of Rome 2 Suppl p. 3 Dine or to sup whether better 2 Suppl p. 30 †DIssertations of Mr. Burman p. 107 Darmonseus Philosophical Conferences p. 179 Dodwell's Dissertations on St. Irenaeus p. 356 Du Pin's new Bibliotheque of Ecclesiastical Authors containing the History of their Lives the Catalogue Crisis and Chronology of their Works the sum of what they contain a Iudgment upon their Stile and Doctrine with an Enumeration of the different Editions of their Works Tom. 1. of the Authors of the 3 First Ages p. 445. Tom. 2. Of the Authors of the Fourth Age of the Church p. 391. Dury's Treatise of Church Discipline p. 454 Discourses upon the Sciences in which beside the Method of Studying it is taught how we ought to make use of Sciences for the good of the Church with Advice to such as live in Holy Orders p. 411 Discourse of the French Academy p. 420 E. * EArth its Circumference and Thickness v. 1. n. 2. q. 10 Earth whether destroy'd or refin'd v. 1. n. 3. q 4 Earthquakes their causes v. 1. n. 10. q. 5 Experiment about perpetual motion v. 1. n. 10. q. 7 Eels how produced v. 1. n. 17. q. 9 England be happy v. 1. n. 22. q. 9 Essence be really distinguish'd from Existence v. 1. n. 22. q. 13 Estates whether an ensuring office for 'em v. 1. n. 26. q. 4 Exodus 7.33 comp with Ver. 20 v. 1. n. 29. q. 7 Egyptian Magicians Miracles whether real v. 2. n. 1. q. 16 Earth or Sun which moves v. 2. n. 6. q. 9 Eye-sight how best preserved v. 2. n. 14. q. 1 Eunuchs why never troubled with the Gout v. 2. n. 20. q. 7. East-India and African Company one who has a stock v. 2. n. 24. q. 3 Eve did she lose her Beauty by the Fall v. 2. n. 26. q. 13 Eyes shut under water v. 3. n. 9. q. 8 English Nation why the Finest People and yet Ill Singers v. 3. n. 13. q. 12 Earth are its Foundations to continue for ever v. 3. n. 18. q. 5 Experiment about finding out a Thief whether lawful v. 3. n. 22. q. 1 Errors whether they will be tolerated at Iudgment v. 3. n. 24. q. 13 England the most devout why delight no more in singing Psalms v. 3. n. 29 q. 5 English what Language is it v. 3. n. 30 q 3 Empyreal Heaven had it no Begin v. 3. n. 30. q. 11 Eccho its nature v. 4. n. 17. q. 5 Experiment about artificial wind v. 4. n. 22. q. 7 English Satyrist who is the best v. 5. n. 1. q. 2 Eve what she spun v. 5. n. 5. q. 4 Egyptian Talisman their Force and Vertue v. 5. n. 7. q. 1 Epithalamium on a Wedding v. 5. n. 11. q. 7 Eyes of Beans in the Kid why grow downward some years v. 5. n. 14. q. 6 Ephes. 6.12.5 Whether these words are referr'd to all Christians v. 5. n. 17. q. 1 Evil Spirits in what sence do we wrestle with 'em v. 5. n. 17. q. 2. Evil Spirits in what sence the Rulers of darkness v. 5. n. 17. q. 3 Evil Spirits in what sence they are in High Places v. 5. n. 17. q. 4 Evil Spirits how reconcile some Phrases about ' em v.