he was very strong and lusty he fled to the East of Eden where he associated himself with a pack of Lewd Fellows he set up for the Trade of Padding then married a Wife begot a Son and built a City Likewise the most excellent Poet falls out with his Gods for that his Mistress Eugenia being perjured kept the same Face which she had before or rather became fairer and fairer The same is also the constant complaint of the Elect in Scripture That the Wicked prosper so much in this World Wherefore to me it seems certain that the Imputation of Adam's Sin is no ways an occasion of our Sufferings I know there are some affirm That if Adam had not sinn'd Men should never have died as if Immortality and Eternal Life which nothing but a New Creation could beget should have been bestow'd on Men by Vertue of the First Creation which by its own Nature is subject to Death and Corruption And that those Men should not have died who as the Schools say are naturally Corruptible and were created Mortal Some will here object and say God told Adam That on the Day he eat that Fruit he should die the Death from whence they gather That if Death was given as a Punishment to Adam on that Day wherein he trangress'd the Law of God then surely Adam would never have died if he had never sinn'd But that Consequence I deny for although they die which kill yet they who do not kill are not Immortal Besides to conclude this point 't is altogether inconsistent with God's Attributes of Mercy and Justice to punish all Mankind for one single Persons sin which we could no ways prevent or hinder nor any but God himself who permitted that Evil Spirit to Reign in him The Roman Schools affirm the first Motions of Concupiscence to be no sin because they are involuntary and come upon us whether we will or no then why should they think Original Sin to be really and truly a Sin in us which is altogether as involuntary and unchosen by us as Concupiscence For how can anothers sin wherein we have no hand be imputed to us Eternal Death was not threatned to Adam for his sin and therefore could not from him descend upon us for that which was none of ours The Death that Adam's Sin introduced is such as could have a Remedy or Recompence by Christ but eternal Death hath no Recompence nor can ever be destroy'd whereas temporal Death shall If God should impute Adam's Sin so as to damn us for it then all our Good we receive from God is much less than the Evil saith Dr. Taylor If God will not give Men Heaven by Christ he will not throw them into Hell by Adam if his Goodness will not do the First his Mercy and Justice will not suffer him to do the Last Nor did any Church ever enjoyn Pennance or Repentance for Original Sin wherefore it seems preposterous and unreasonable that any Man should be damn'd for that which no Man is bound to Repent However I do no way find that Dr. Burnet does absolutely declare against Original Sin but rather the contrary acknowledging the Degeneracy of Mankind from its primitive State which must be redeem'd by the Seed of a Woman All Extreams are dangerous as walking upon the Brink of a Precipice or the like and if he be not so violent in this Point what others may only think he wants in Piety may perhaps be really supplied in Charity And what they only fancy they have in Piety may be truly defective in Charity An honest Augure is ever in most danger of his own Fraternity But to proceed it hath been a point very much disputed among several Politicians in the Commonwealth of Learning who was the real and true Author of the Pentateuch A late and great Modern Philosopher of this Nation declares It is not an Argument sufficient to prove those Books were written by Moses because they are call'd the Five Books of Moses for as much as Books often take their Titles from their Subject as well as from their Authors It 's true the History of Livy denotes the Writer but the History of Tamberlain is denominated from the Subject We read in the last Chapter of Deuteronomy v. 6 th concerning the Sepulcher of Moses that no Man knoweth his Sepulcher to this Day that is to say to the Day wherein those Words were written wherefore it is manifest that those Words were written after his Interment But it may perhaps be alledged That the last Chapter only and not the whole Pentateuch was written by some other hand and the rest by Moses Let us therefore consider that which we find in the Book of Genesis cap. 12. v. 6. and Abraham passed through the Land to the place of Sichem unto the Plain of Moreh and the Canaanite was then in the Land which must be the Words of one that wrote when the Canaanite was not in the Land and consequently not of Moses who died before he came into it Likewise Numb 21. v. 14. the Writer citeth another more ancient Book entituled the Book of the Wars of the Lord wherein were Registred the Acts of Moses at the Red-Sea and at the Brook of Amon which he would never have mention'd of himself but could as well have given us an account himself of what he did in those places Wherefore it is evident That the Five Books of Moses were written by another Hand after his Decease But yet it is rational to believe that Moses wrote the Volume of the Law contain'd in the 11 th of Deuteronomy and the following Chapters to the 27 th which he commanded to be written on Stones in Entry into the Land of Canaan Also Moses himself deliver'd it to the Priests and Elders of Israel to be read every seventh Year to all Israel at their Assembly in the Feast of Tabernacles as we may find in the 31 st Chapter of Deuteronomy v. 9 th Nay it may be also question'd whether the aforesaid was that very Law which Moses delivered since having been a long time lost Helkiah pretended to find it again and so sent it to King Iosias 2 Kings 22.8 and the 23.1 2 3. so that we have only Helkiah's Word for it The Book of Ioshua was also written long after Ioshua's time which may be gather'd out of many places of the Book it self Ioshua had set up twelve Stones in the midst of Iordan for a Monument of their Passage of which the Writer saith Ioshua 4.9 They are there unto this day which Expression Vnto this day is a Phrase that signifieth a Time past And the same is manifest by like Arguments of the Books of Iudges and Ruth that they were written long after the Captivity Iudges chap. 1.21 26. chap. 6.24 chap. 10.4 chap. 15.19 chap. 17.6 and Ruth chap. 1.1 but especially Iudges 18.30 Now the Reason why I make mention of these things is only to shew That our most Reverend
were diffused as also that the brightest and most resplendent Stars were composed of this chaotic Matter neither that there were any before the Birth and Creation of this our Earth Which is what the very Letter of the Hexaemeron seems to import and absolutely contradictory to the Nature of Things as well as to all Philosophical Reasons 'T is most certain that the fixed Stars are fiery Bodies that they do not all rest upon the same Superficies being some more remote from the Earth and more profoundly immers'd in the Heavens than others and that upon this score there can be no common Center assigned to all of them at least to believe our modern Earth a blind and sordid particle of the Universe inferiour to each of the fixed Stars as well in bulk as in dignity to be the Heart the most noble and most vital Part of so vast a Body is altogether irrational and repugnant to the Nature of Things I speak it again with Indignation that to say or almost to think that this Earth the Dregs the meer Scum of Nature is the Supream Head of all Things and as it were the first born Product of the whole Creation cannot be without an Abuse and Scandal as well to the Operator as to the Work Besides if that earthyly Chaos had been extended throughout the vast Face of the Universe and that this Earth were the only Center in which all the grosser parts convened the same Earth or middle Body being the common Recepticle of all the grosser Parts would have grown up to a bulk infinitely bigger than this little Earth of ours For that the sublunary Chaos or which reaches to the Moon is of it self sufficient to make up this Earth and if to this you add the whole visible Heaven and those spaces above the Heavens which are not obvious to our Senses but surpass all our imagination Neither the Sun nor any visible Body is of so great a magnitude as would be that Body composed in the midst of the Chaos Moreover that as well the corporeal as the incorporeal World is more ancient than this inhabitable Earth may in some measure be proved out of Ecclesiastical Authors if we strictly examin the thing Many Fathers of the Christian Church were of Opinion that before the Earth or Mosaic World there had been Angels for many Ages unknown to us and some also mention the same of the highest Heaven or Firmament But this Opinion of the Angels is a thing more positively asserted and by a greater number Not to speak of Origen St. Basilius says this in his Hexaemeron Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Gregorius Nazianzenus Orat. 38. and in other Places Iohannes Damascenus l. 2. Orth. Fid. cap. 3. Ioh. Philoponus de Creatione mundi lib. 1. cap. 10. ult Olympiodorus upon Iob. 38. and others of the Greeks have taught the same not a few also of the Latins have been of this Opinion Hilarius l. 12. de Trin. St. Ierom Ambrosius in Hexam l. 1. c. 5. Isidorus Hispalensis Beda and others Accordingly these are St. Ierom's own words upon the subject Our World has not yet seen Six Thousand Years and what Eternities what vast Tracts of Time what inexhaustible Fountains of Ages ought we to suppose have been before it in which the Angels Thrones Powers and other Vertues have served God In the Book de Trinitate whether it was written by Novatian or Tertullian as well the Angelical World as the spaces above the Firmament are said to have been made before the Mosaical World in these words Although in the higher Regions viz. those above the Firmament it self he did before institute Angels spiritual Vertues Thrones and Powers as also create many other vast Tracts of the Heavens c. Insomuch that this World appears rather to be the last Work of God than his sole and only one To which Passage adds Damelius Novatian was not only of this Opinion but also St. Jerom together with all the Greeks that the Angels were sooner instituted viz. before any part of the Creation of our present World Lastly Cassian tells us That this was the common Opinion of the Catholics in his time which was at the beginning of the fifth Age Whereof says he none of the Faithful doubt And having more fully explained this generally received Opinion he afterwards adds 'T is most certain and undoubted that God created all those Celestial Powers before that Temporal beginning of the Creation But to remove all doubt concerning the preexistence of Angels we have the very words which the Lord himself spake to Iob chap. 38.4 c. Where were thou when I said the Foundations of the Earth when the morning Stars sang my praises and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Whereupon says Olympiodorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is plain from this Passage that in the Creation of the World the Angels were first made Forasmuch as these words certainly imploy that before the Foundations of the Earth were laid there were Angels and that they sang praises to God at the first Building of our World Likewise if you take the Morning Stars according to the very Letter it is most certain that the Stars and Heavens also preceded the Foundation of our Earth Besides St. Ierom makes intellectual Beings pre-existent to the World by those Passages of Scripture where something is said to have been done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.9 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 2.7 before the World began Nor is there less included in this Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.20 Ephes. 1.4 Iohn 17.5 and 24. Before the Foundations of the World were laid Which does not denote a bare Eternity but the Periods and Foundation of this World Before both which did exist the Soul of the Mâ—ssias and the Mystery of the Christian Oeconomy But to return again to the Angels Lastly We can evince the same by the Sacred Oracles and Authority of the Fathers as well as by Reason and Arguments The Fall of the Angels was before the Creation of the World therefore they were before creatâ—d and that for some Ages For really 't is not at all probable that the most excellent Creatures were made of so frail a nature as that on the very day of their birth they should fall into evil and misery neither is it consistent with the Deus Opt. Max. the kind Father of all Intelligent Beings to place the most noble part of his work in so slippery a station that no sooner had their Maker taken his hand from off them but they immediately fell head-long into destruction damned to the utmost of torments and a most dismal Hell Which being thus stated let us pass on from the Angels to the Corporeal World wherein we are first to observe That if the Angels had not any ways been united with matter nor had from it received any pleasure or any sort of
and Ingenious Author is not the first that has had scruples in this kind and that he may well make an Enquiry into the Truth of some Passages of the History when the very Historians themselves are so much doubted of by others not but that we may pay a just deference to the Church and yet at the same time raise scruples for information sake the better to arm our selves against our Antagonists The next little Part or Epilogue of Dr. Burnet's Book which we here present you with in English is his Appendix concerning the Brachmin's Religion and has reference to one of his former Chapters on the same Subject I must confess his Notion of their Omnipotent Spider though what I have read many Years since was no less grateful to me than the return of a Friend after a long Voyage That thought of Resolving all things into himself an Estate for Life that falls into the Landlords hands Sure no good Tenant needs fear a good new Lease the State of Man if rightly well consider'd is only wearing out our Threads of Life in order to our Deaths And he that weighs our Progress here the great Vicissitudes without decay since things may change but ne'er annihilate will find Penelope Telam Texere is our case Dress and undress the Emblem of our Lives till shrowded in our mortal Dishabillie we wait the Morning for a different Dress when the Celestial Drop as now enclos'd may to a different Viol be exposed But I shall trouble you no more upon this subject least you should mistake it for the foolish Funeral Sermon of SIR Your ever Faithful Friend and Real Servant BLOUNT March 23. 1693. The 7 th and 8 th Chapters of Dr. Burnet's Archiologiae Philosophicae together with his Appendix to the same concerning the Brachmin's Religion all Written Originally in Latin and now rendred into English by Mr. H. B. CHAP. VII Concerning Moses's Description of Paradice as well as the Original State of Nature and Mankind in the beginning of the World WE have hitherto made our Enquiry after the Originals of things as well as after a true knowledg of Paradise among the Ancients yet still with reference to Sacred Writ where it gave us any manner of light into the Subject but think it altogether unnecessary to define the place or scituation of Paradice since in respect to the Theory of the Earth 't is much the same thing where you place it provided it be not on our modern Earth Now if you enquire among the ancient Fathers where the scituation of it was either they will have it to be none at all or else obscure and remote from our understanding some of them indeed term it an Intelligible Paradice but confin'd to no one particular place whilst others at the same time make it a sensible one and here it is they first divided about it Moreover such as believe it to be a Sensible and Corporeal Paradice place it either on this Earth or out of it viz. in the Air or in the Lunary Orb when they who believe those happy Mansions to have been upon the Earth place them either on this side the Aequator under the Aequator or beyond the Aequator or Torrid Zone finally all that are of our opinion believe the true Paradice which is now passed away did in reality formerly flourish upon the Earth but nevertheless on such an Earth as was quite different from what we now inhabit However these different opinions we have else-where more at large explained especially that which carries Paradice beyond the Aequator Torrid Zone the Ocean and our Northern World Not that this opinion pleases me above the rest but because it is demonstrated by the Calculations of the Ancients and plainly evinces the Paradice we now pretend to place in Mesopotamia to be only a Modern fiction Besides as to the Theory of the Earth it does not in the least obviate a Local Paradice in any part of the Earth since it supposes that in the Infant world even the whole inhabitable Globe was like a Paradice Yet notwithstanding consequentially and agreeably to the Mosaic Hypothesis which make◠Mankind how numerous soever to have first receiv'd its birth only from one Man and one Woman you may therefore if you please appropriate the name of Paradice to the original native soil and first habitation of these two a place most wonderfully beautified as well with Trees as Waters provided at the same time you grant to the other parts of the same Earth a Perpetual Spring and those advantages which necessarily flow from it viz. spontaneous fertility together with long life to its inhabitants for that the World did in its first beginning enjoy all these blessings we have sufficiently demonstrated as well from the nature of the thing it self as from the testimonies of the Ancients Ay but say you Moses mentions only one Garden which he calls Gan Eden or the Garden of Deliciousness and seems to suppose that all the other Regions of that Earth enjoyed but one and the same common Lot with little variation from our modern Earth Now to this I answer That among the Ancients but more especially the Orientals there were two different ways of delivering their Divinity and Philosophy viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Popular and a hidden one of which dubious sort of style the Holy Scripture seems to make use in the explaining natural things sometimes accommodating it self to the capacities of the people and sometimes to the real but more clouded truth However being resolv'd not in the least to deviate from the very literal sense without an absolute necessity that is to say unless the Nature of the thing does unavoidably oblige or enforce me to it we must first enquire what is in this case the literal sense and how much it will bear as also on the other side what the Subject-matter will bear and what not to the end that having thus fairly stated the case on both sides we may be the better enabled to give a certain determination according to the merits of the cause as well as to disclose where the real truth lies hid Now the History of Paradice from whence we 'll begin according to Moses is thus When God had in six days finished the Creation of the World the seventh day he rested from all manner of work And here Moses relates particularly each days Operation but for the story of Mankind as well Male as Female of that he makes a peculiar Treatise by it self Wherefore omitting the rest at present let us if you please consider the Mosaic Doctrin upon these three subjects viz. Adam Eve and the Garden of Eden together with those things which are interwoven or adherent to them As to the first man Adam Moses says he was formed not out of Stones or Dragons Teeth as others have feigned concerning their men but out of the dust or clay of the Earth and when his Body was formed God blew into his
created from Eternity but to prescribe the divine Creation so short an Epocha as the limits of Six Thousand Years 't is what I never durst I had rather leave that together with several other Things amongst the hidden secrets of God Now these short Annotations upon the Account Moses gives us of the first Creation of Things seems to imply that it was not this Sacred Author's design to represent the beginning of the World exactly according to the Physical Truth which would have been of no use to the common People who were uncapable of being made Philosophers but to expound the first Originals of Things after such a method as might breed in the Minds of Men Piety and a worshipping of the true God And forasmuch as all the ancient Nations viz. the Chaldaeans Phaenicians Aegyptians c. had each of them their several Accounts of the Creation of the World placed as an introduction before their Histories or Systems of Divinity so Moses in like manner being to write Laws and Institutions for the Israelites thought it convenient also to prefix as an introductory Preface an Account not only of the Original of his own Nation but even of the whole World However whereas the Heathens Accounts of the Creation were frequently stuffed with Fables and I know not how many Gods and Goddesses to the very great Corruption of Religion he laying aside all those Fooleries has handled this Subject with a great deal of Purity and Innocence When that he might tear up the very Roots of Idolatry he represented the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars which were the chief Deities of other Nations not as eternal or created on their own account but as subservient to this sublunary World as well as to the use of Mankind This to me seems the Scope of our Holy Writer but if we seek only after pure naked Truth and a physical Theory we must go quite upon another Foundation that is we must if I am not mistaken suppose the World which began near upon six Thousand Years ago to have been no other than the sublunary Orb or our Earth together with its Sky and that Chaos from whence it arose not to have been universal or diffused over the vast spaces of the Heavens but contained within the aforesaid bounds which are whatever is below the Moon Likewise the Primitive Earth did not arise out of that Chaos in the same Form as Mâ—ses had represented it For his Description of it was just according to what the People had before their Eyes which was the Post diluvian and modern one nor could he without a great many far fetched obscure terms and a long Chain of Arguments have ascended to its first Form and have brought the Thread of both down to his own Times In short neither the Sun nor Stars were composed out of this terrestrial Chaos but Moses having made Man to be the Head and under God the supream Lord of all things he represented the whole Universe as it were created and compiled purely for his sake This to me seems the Reason of both the physical and ethical Account of the Creation for so I call the Mosaical Relation since it seems not to have been Instituted so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the mean time if to other Peoples Optics this appears in a different view I do not desire to trouble or disturb any one in their Opinion Let every one please and hug himself in his own But we are all bound to make use of that Portion of Reason God Almighty has distributed to each of us till we have some more clear Light to illuminate us from Above AN APPENDIX Concerning the Modern BRACHMINS IN THE INDIES Together with their generally received Opinions HAving already spoken of the Modern Brachmins in the Indies whom besides the near resemblance of their Studies and Customs we have several other Arguments to show they are descended from the ancient Race I think it may be neither impertinent nor unpleasant to add some few Words here by way of Appendix about their Opinions concerning the Originals and Revolutions of Things which Opinions are 't is true neglected by most People because they are delivered in a mythological way and that Truth is very much clouded with Fables Under the name of Indies we here comprehend besides the Chineze Empire and Kingdom of Indostan or Dominion of the Great Mogul the Kingdoms of Siam of the Malabars of Cochinchina of Coromandel and whatever others are known to us in the East that have in some measure shaken off their Barbarity Now in each of these are a certain sort of Philosophers or Divines and in the Kingdoms of Indostan Siam and the other adjacent Parts there are some who seem to be the Progeny of the ancient Brachmins being different and distinguished from the rest of the People by their Manner and Way of Living as well as by a Doctrin and Language wholly peculiar to themselves They have a certain Cabala or Body of Learning which they receive by Tradition from one to the other Now this Body of Learning does not treat of each little Point or Nicety in Philosophy as our modern Philosophers used to do but like the natural Theology of the Ancients it treats of God of the World of the Beginning and Ending of Things of the Periods of the World of the Primitive State of Nature together with its repeated Renovations All which Opinions are by some more plainly by others more obscurely and fabulously delivered but that they were of old spread amongst these Nations is plain from several Footsteps of them at this day remaining For a Specimen whereof we will give you some short Remarks out of our late Voyages upon several Heads of this now barbarous Theology or Philosophy Nor is it of Moment with what Kingdom or Country we begin The Mogul's Kingdom call'd Indâ—stan is extreamly large and has been visited by several Europeans whose Credit and Authority are sufficient to make them be believed There are in this Kingdom besides Mahometans those they call Gentiles or Pagans among which Gentiles is a certain Tribe or Order of Men who bear the Title and perform the Offices of Sâ—ges Priests or Philosophers They have a Language peculiar to themselves which they call Hanscrit or the pure Tongue in this Language they have some very ancient Books which they call Sacred and say were given by God to the Great Prophet Brahma as formerly the Law of the Israelites was to Moses Athan Kircher gives you an Alphabet of this Brachmin's Language written by the Hand of Father Henry Roth who for several Years in the Indies apply'd himself to the Learning of Brachmins And in this they not only write and conceal their Divinity but also their Opinions in Philosophy of all Kinds besides the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are Opinions of a very ancient Date They likewise Philosophize after the manner of
especially the Eastern Part of it that the Followers of the Nicene Council were not equal to them either in Number Splendor Interest or Riches If you will believe the learned Petavius and others they did offer to be try'd by the Fathers that preceded the Nicene Council For at that Council they were rather condemn'd by a Party than by the general Consent of the Christian Church because Constantine out of above Two thousand Bishops then assembled excluded all but Three hundred and eighteen nor were those perhaps for Accounts vary all Bishops that made up this great Council They were all of a Judgment at first and so rather Parties than Judges the Arrians had not the Freedom to dispute their Cause And the Emperor Constantine was afterwards so ill satisfied with their proscription that he soon recalled Arrius and a little before his Death was baptized by an Arrian Bishop Constantius and Valens were professed Arrians and not to mention the Gots Valentinian Theodosius and other Emperors protected and honoured them both with civil and military Commands The Arrian Doctrin was not only confirmed by Eight Councils several times assembled at Tyre Sardis Syrmium Milain Selucia Nice Tarsis and particularly at Ariminum where six hundred Bishops were of their Opinion with only three which held the contrary but they also punished others their Adversaries who were of a contrary Opinion to them with Confiscations Banishments and other grievous Punishments Now whether the Power of their Party the Riches of their Churches the Magnificence of their Worship as the first that brought Music into the Church or the same of their Learning and pretensions to Reason which is always an inviduous Plea did raise Jealousie and Hatred in the Emperors against them as also rendred them odious to the Trinitarians or what most contributed to their first Depression and Persecution I know not Since to persecute for Religion was by the Trinitarians Athanasiâ—s Hillary and others then accounted an Arrian and unchristian Tenet It is not to be doubted but that after the days of Theodosius Reason of State did most prevail towards their Subversion left they should joyn with the Goths who at that time possessed of Italy Spain Afric and other Provinces were formidable to the Bizantine Empire Notwithstanding whatsoever it was 't is easie to comprehend that the Depression of them did facilitate the Conquest of the Goths and if you will credit Salvian the Goths were very pious in their Way mild to the Conquer'd just in their Dealings so that the Wickedness of the Christian Rulers of Provinces their Exactions upon the People and Insolence of the Foreign Souldiers whereby they ruled made even the Trinitarians themselves willingly submit to their Dominion and prefer it before that of the Eastern Emperors As for the Trinitarians of those Times I must confess I cannot but esteem them as Enemies to all human Learning for they had Cannons forbidding them to read any Ethic Books and a Zeal which disposed them to destroy all they met with of that kind Thus we may well suppose them universally ignorant except some few and as the Pastors so were the People Their Religion also consisted rather in an out-side Service than inward Piety and Knowledge their Faith was in a manner implicit the Mysteries of Religion for such I call the Doctrin of the Trinity and its Dependencies were scarce ever mentioned to them in Sermons much less explicated Hence the Vulgar became prone to Embrace Superstition and credit Miracles how ridiculous and fabulous soever Visions Allegories and Allusions to Texts were convincing Arguments and no Demonstration like to a feigned Story and Legend or what might be Interpreted a Judgment upon an Heretic Amongst the Trinitarians were a sort of People who followed the Court Religion and believed as their Prince ordained living then unconfined by the Dictates of the then declining Church And though the Trinitarians had resolv'd upon and subscrib'd to the Nicene Council and embraced those Forms of Speech which are now in use yet did they not understand what was meant by them The Latin Church allow'd of Three Persons and not of three Hypostases the Greek Church allow'd of three Hypostases and not of three Persons As difficult was it for them to Explicate Vsia or Essence which hard words produc'd a subdivision amongst them consisting of Nestorians and Eutychians The Nestorians believing the Deity of Christ held that he was made up of two distinct Persons and so perfect God and perfect Man The Eutychians averr'd that Christ had but one Nature and that upon the Hypostatical Union the Deity and Humanity were so blended together by Confusion of Properties and Substances that one Person endued with one Will did emerge thence Now these two Sects were of great Power in the Eastern Church and though they were both condemn'd in the third and fourth General Councils yet did they spread far and near through Palestine Aegypt the Kingdom of Abyssines and all Persia over Each of them had their Patriarchs Bishops and Churches contradistinct from the Melchites who adhering and subscribing to the Council of Chalcedon which all the Imperial Clergy did were called Melchites that is to say Men of the King's Religion The Authors of the Nestorian and Eutychian Sects were Learned and Potent Bishops Eutychius was Patriarch of Constantinople and with him joyn'd Dioscorius Patriarch of Alexandria Severus Patriarch of Antioch and Iacobus Baradaeus from whom the Iacobites are at this day denominated Nestorius was also Patriarch of Constantinople and his Sect very much diffused The Truth is such were the Ignorance of the People and Debaucheries of the Ages at this time that if a Man did but live a pious strict Life with great Mortification or outward Devotion and were but an Eloquent Preacher he might in any place of the Eastern Empire have made a Potent Sect instantly And to shew how ignorant the Clergy were at the General Council of Chalcedon in the time of Marcianus the Emperor we find that the Greek Tongue was then so little understood at Rome and the Latin in Greece that the Bishops of both Countries in all 630. were glad to speak by Interpreters Nay in this very Council of Chalcedon the Emperor was fain to deliver the same Speech in Greek to one Party and in Latin to the other that so both might understand him The Council of Ierusalem for the same Reason made certain Creeds both in Greek and Latin At the Council of Ephesus the Pope's Legates had their Interpreter to Expound the Words and when Caelestine's Letters were there read the Acts tell us how the Bishops desired to have them Translated into Greek and read over again insomuch that the Romish Legates had almost made a Controversie of it fearing least the Papal Authority should have been prejudiced by such an Act alledging therefore how it was the ancient Custom to propose the Bulls of the Sea Apostolic in Latin only and that that might now suffice
solum experientia effectu agnoscitur est Deus in rebus est que omnia omnia agit illius namque infiniti corpus est omne spiritus ex eorum Vnione oritur creatura quae etiam disperditur dissolutione istius Vnionis cum autem omnia perpetuo sunt in motu de una conjectura in aliam Mundi autem corpus Spiritus aeterna sed noâ—as continuo conjuncturas ineunt ideoqaâ— nos creaturae sumus aeterni Dei apparitiones momentaneae quas tantum terris ostendunt fata nec ultra esse sinunt veluti effigies in Auleis Dei opus sumus nos parentibus instrumentis actionesque nostrae Dei sunt opera instrumentis nobis sed per electionem nostram agentibus ist a verò electio per aptas conjuncturas Ideas adeo immissas invitatur regitur Per Condensationem Rarefactionem partes Mundi corporeae fiunt Spiritus spirituales siunt corpora sicque aeternè retro aguntur omnia Lumen Jovi tenebrae Plutoni Lumen Plutoni tenebrae Jovi ut Hippocrates habet cum Microcosmus à Mundo trahit vivit Microcâ—smus cum Mundus à Microcosmo trahit deficit Microcosmus These my Lord are only such twilight Conjectures as our human Reason whereof we yet so vainly boast can furnish us with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Divinum Aliquid as Hippocrates terms it is that which does all things but our Capacity not being able to discern it makes us fasten either upon elementary Qualities as Hippocrates and Galen do or upon Geometrical Proportions as our modern Descartes doth so that indeed all Philosophy excepting Sceptism is little more than Dotage Pardon I beseech you this Boldness from My LORD Your Lordship 's most faithful humble Servant BLOUNT To the Right Honourable and most ingenious Strephon giving a Political human account of the Subversion of Judaism Foundation of Christianity and Origination of the Millenaries Ludgate-Hill Decemb. 1678. My Lord I humbly ask your Lordships pardon for this presumption but when I had last the honour of waiting upon you your Lordships candour gave me the freedom of Venting my own Thoughts and then as the subject of our discourse was about the great Changes and Revolutions that from time to time had happen'd in the Vniverse so I made bold to assert that in all Mutations as well Ecclesiastical as Civil I would engage to make appear to your Lordship that a Temporal Interest was the great Machine upon which all human Actions moved and that the common and general pretence of Piety and Religion was but like Grace before a Meal accordingly I have presumed to trouble your Lordship with these ensuing Remarques to justifie the same Assertion THere was never any Republick which dwindled into a Monarchy or Kingdom altered into an Aristoracy or Common-wealth without a Series of preceding Causes that principally contributed thereunto had not other Circumstances concurr'd never had Caesar establish'd himself nor Brutus erected a Senate And if you enquire why the first Brutus expell'd Tarquin and the second could not overthrow Augustus and Anthony Or why Lycurgus Solon and Numa could establish those Governments which others have since in vain attempted to settle in Genoa Florence and other places you will find it to arise from hence that some considering those antecedent Causes which secretly and securely encline to a Change took advantage thereof whilst others did only regard the Speciousness or Justice of their Pretensions without any mature examination of what was principally to be observed for nothing is more certain than that in these Cases when the previous dispositions all intervene but a very slight occasion nay oftentimes a meer Casualty opportunely taken hold on and wisely pursued will produce those Revolutions which otherwise no humane Sagacity or Courage could have accomplished I cannot find any authentic Ground to believe that the Sects among the Iews were more ancient than the days of the Maccabees but arose after that Antiochus had subdued Ierusalem and reduced the generality of the Iews to Paganism when the better to confirm his Conquests he erected therein an Academy for the Pythagorean Platonic and Epicurean Philosophers This I conceive and so do others was the Original of the Pharisees Sadduces and Essenes tho' afterwards when the Macchabees had anathematized all that taught their Children the Greek Philosophy one Party did justify their Tenets by entituling them to Sadoc and Baithos and the other to a Cabala derived successively from Ezra and Moses The Introduction of those Sects and of that Cabala occasion'd that Exposition of the Prophecy of Iacob viz. The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his Feet until Shilo come and unto him shall the gathering of the People be From whence they did according to that fantastic Cabala imagine That whensoever the Scepter should depart from Iudah and the Dominion thereof cease that then there should arrive a Messiah But as for his being of the Line of David this was no general Opinion for how then could any have imagined Herod the Great to have been the Messias Or how could Iosephus fix that Character upon Vespasian as him who should restore the Empire and Glory of Israel to whom all Nations should how and â—ubmit unto his Scepter I do not read that the Iews harbor'd any such Exposition during their Captivity under Nebuchadnezar albeit that the Scepter was at that time so departed from the Tribe of Iudah and house of David that it never was resetled in it more After their return to Ierusalem no such thing is spoken of when Antiochus Epiphanes subdued them prophaned their Temple destroyed their Laws and left them nothing of a Scepter or Lawgiver during all which time notwithstanding they had the same Prophecies and Scriptures among them there is no News of any expected Messiah But after the Curiosity of the Rabbins had involved them in the pursuance of mystical Numbers and pythagorically or cabalistically to explain them according to the Gematria then was it first discover'd that Shiloh and Messiah consisted of Letters which make up the same Numerals and therefore that a mysterious promise of a Redeemer was insinuated therebyâ— as also that the Prophecy of Balaam concerning a Star out of Iacob and a Scepter rising out of Israel with a multitude of other Predictions which the condition of their Nation made them otherwise to despair of should be accomplished under this Messiah I name no other Prophecies because they are either general and indefinitely exprest as to the time of their Accomplishment or inexplicable from their obscurity or uncertain as to their Authority such as are the Weeks of Daniel which Book the Iews reckon among their Hagiographa or Sacred but not Canonical Books This Prophecy likewise had a contradictory one where 't is said of Coniah That no man of his seed shall prosper sitting upon the Throne of David and ruling any more in Judah Ier. 22.30 Also