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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28444	The oracles of reason ... in several letters to Mr. Hobbs and other persons of eminent quality and learning / by Char. Blount, Esq., Mr. Gildon and others.	Blount, Charles, 1654-1693.; Burnet, Thomas, 1635?-1715. Archaeology philosophicae.; Gildon, Charles, 1665-1724.; H. B.	1693 (1693)	Wing B3312; ESTC R15706	107,891	254

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 Athanasi●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

the Ancients upon the Creation of the Universe together with its End and Destruction for they explain these Things by the Efflux or Emanation of all things from God and by their Reflux or Restoration into him again But this they propound in a Cabalistical Mythological way For they ●eign a certain immense Spider to be the first Cause of all Things and that she with the Matter she exhausted out of her own Bowels spun the Web of this whole Universe and then disposed of it with a most wonderful Art whilst she her self in the mean time sitting on the Top of her Work feels rules and governs the Motion of each part At last when she has sufficiently pleas'd and diverted her self in adorning and contemplating her own Web she retracts the Threads she had unfolded and swallows them up again into her self whereby the whole Nature of Things created vanishes into nothing After this manner our modern Brachmins represent the Birth Order and Perishing of the World Nor does this much differ from the Opinions of the Ancients we have above mentioned lib. I. cap. 7. page 63 64 c. provided that taking off the fabulous Shell we go to the Kernel If you have leisure to read a larger Account of the Indostan Gentiles 't is what you may find in Henry Lord F. Bernier and other Travellers who have more diligently enquired into their Literature In the Kingdom of Siam which Borders upon the Empire of the Mogul there is the same Progeny of the Brachmins Guido Tachard one of the Jesuits Society who waited upon the French Ambassador to the King of Siam has given us this Account of their Philosophy or Theology They say That the first Men were of greater Stature and longer Liv'd than we now adays are as also that they lived many Ages free from Distempers That this Modern Earth pa●ched with a long Heat will at length be consumed by Fire the Ocean being dried up the Mountains melted and the whole Surface of the Earth being made level This I find in our aforesaid Author with more of the same in others all which a late Poet has compiled and facetiously explained in these Versicles Stolidus Regni Mysta Siami Octoginta dat perituro Saecula mundo Tunc qui tantum Iam fuerit uno fervidus Oculo Septem pandet lumina Phoebus Qu●is aequor●as ebibet undas Qu●is immensum vindice flammâ 〈◊〉 O bem● Sed duo calidis Q●● 〈…〉 favil●is Einos homines ova creabunt Qui foecunda semine cultum Iterum poterunt reddere mundum Quem non salsis Neptunus aquis Alluet unquàm tantum rigui Undique fontes Dulcesque lacus Irrorabunt molliter herbas Et perpetuo verè Beatos Spargent variis floribus agros The Siamese Brachmins not only say that this modern Earth must perish and that by Fire but even that out of its ashes a new Earth must arise and without a Sea that is to say such a one as St. Iohn the Prophet saw Apoc. 21.1 and without the yearly Vicissitudes of the Seasons being blest with a perpetual Spring such another Earth as we have described in the Fourth Book of our Theory Cap. 2. T is really a most wonderful thing that a Nation half barbarous should have retained these Opinions from the very times of Noah for they could not have arrived to a Knowledge of these things any ●ther way than by Tradition nor could this Tradition flow from any other Spring than Noah and the Antediluvian Sages But out of what Author or Siames's Traveller the Poet has taken these Things I have not yet been able to learn Moreover the Kingdom of Choromandel on the Southren Coast of the Indies has its Brachmins whose Manners and Doctrine have been with no small Diligence enquired into by Abraham Rogers who wrote the Book called Ianua aperta ad Arcana Gentilsimi Having Himself lived many years there Now they affirm that there are several Worlds which do at one and the same time exist in divers Regions of the Universe and that there are several successive ones for that the same World is destroyed and renewed again according to certain Periods of Time They say also that our Terrestrial World began by a certain Golden Age and will perish by Fire Lastly they retain the Doctrin of the Ovum Mundanum comparing the World to an Egg as did the ancients both Greeks and Barbarians Finally to the Kingdom of Choromandel is Contiguous that of the Malabers where Father Robert Nobilius Founder as t is said of the Maudarian Mission has spent no small part of his life learned as well in the vulgar Indian Language as in that of the Branchmins then he is said to have written a great deal concerning the Theory of the Brachmin but I know not to what language for I have not yet happened to light upon any of his writings neither have I any Accounts of this or the rest of the Countrys of the Indies to be depended upon to furnish me with their Opinions either from eye or ear witnesses We have likewise before mentioned the Chinese a People of great Antiquity but among the Ancients unknown as to matter of Learning they have this in Common with the rest of the Orientals that they compare the World to an Egg and will have it to be born of one In like manner they say their first Man whom they call Puoncuus was born of an Egg whether you will suppose that by it they mean the Chaos or the Primitive Earth and altho they do not seem to have derived their Philosophy or History from the Brachmins yet they set so great a value on their Letters and secret Alphabet that as things sacred and of a very great Antiquity they use to inscribe them on their Idols As for the Mahometans who are spread at large over the East under several different Dominions I pass by them as men of an upstart ignorant kind what an Egyptian Priest formerly told Solon You Greeks always Boys not one of the Greeks ever comes to be Old May changing names be much more properly said to them Nor does the Egyptian give an ill reason for what he says Your are young in your Minds for in them is no tenent of the Ancients that comes by ancient Tradition you retain no Learning that is grey with old Age. These things exactly square with the Mehometans wheresoever they are dispersed they retain nothing of Ancient Wisdom for the Ambition of extending their D●minions has taken from them all manner of Love or Desire of Learning Even in Persia it self where formerly flourished the Mystical Philosophy of the great Zoroaster and the Magi at this day remains nothing worth taking notice of The aforementioned Henry Lord relates that when the Saracens overran all Persia having beaten and slain the King Iezdegird about the Year of our Lord 628. Some of the Persians who could not bear● the yoak of a new Slavery and new Religion transported

Whereupon these poor Greek Bishops were in danger not to have understood the Pope's Latin till at length the Legates were content with Reason when it was evidenced to them that the major part could not understand one word of Latin But the pleasantest of all is Pope Caelestine's Excuse to Nestorius for his so long delay in answering his Letters because he could not by any means get his Greek construed sooner Also Pope Gregory the First ingeniously confesseth to the Bishop of Thessaly that he understood not a jot of his Greek wherefore 't is probable the Proverb of honest Accursius was even then in use Graecum est non Legitur and this was the Condition of Christianity in which Iustinian the Emperor found it A. C. 540. So that as Monsieur Daill●● has demonstrated with how little certainty we can depend upon the Fathers I think I may safely averr there is as little Trust to be reposed in General Councils who have been Guilty of so much Ignorance and Interest as well as so frequently contradicting one another And to say that Councils may not Err though private Persons may is as Mr. Hales well observes all one as to say that every single Souldier indeed may run away but the whole Army cannot Sir Your Treatise having reviv'd these Meditations in me I hope you 'll pardon me if I have been too prolix and though I am not so vain to pretend to offer these Collections or indeed any thing for Mr. Hobb's Instruction who is of himself the great Instructor of the most sensible Part of Mankind in the noble Science of Philosophy yet I may hope for the Honour of your Correction wherein I am Erroneous the which will for ever oblige SIR Your most unfeigned Humble Servant C. BLOUNT Pardon Sir I beseech you my sending this trifle called Anima Mundi being commanded to do it by one whom 't is my duty as well as my happiness to obey To my Dear Friend Mr. Harvey Wilwood That felicity consists generally in Pleasure YOU often profess your self an Epicurean but sacrifice your health in pursuit of a mistaken happiness the pleasure the wise Epicurus plac'd happiness in was of another kind 't was more temper'd with Reason but hear what he says and then judg how far you are his Disciple Felicity seems plainly to consist in Pleasure this is first to be prov'd in general then we must shew in what Pleasure particularly it consists In general Pleasure seems to be as the beginning so the end also of a happy life since we find it be the first Good and convenient to our and to all animal Nature and is that from which we begin all Election and Avoidance and in which at last we terminate them using this affection as a rule to judg every good That Pleasure is the first and connatural good or as they term it the first thing suitable and convenient to Nature appeareth from that every animal assoon as born desires Pleasure and rejoyces in it as the chief good shunneth pain as the greatest ill and to its utmost ability repels it We see that ev'n Hercules himself tormented by a Poysonous Shirt could not with-hold from tears Thus does every undepraved Animal in its own nature judging incorruptly and intirely There needs not therefore any reasoning to prove that Pleasure is to be desired Pain to to be shunn'd for this is manifest to ones sense Fire is hot Snow white Honey sweet we need no arguments to prove this it is enough that we give notice of it for since that if we take away from man all his senses there is nothing remaining it is necessary that what is convenient or contrary to nature be judged by nature her self and that Pleasure is expetible in it self and Pain in its self to be avoided for what perceives or what judges either● to pursue or avoid any thing except Pleasure and Pain That Pleasure as being the first thing convenient to Nature is also the last of Expetibles or the end of good things may be understood even from this because 't is Pleasure only for whose sake we so desire the rest that it self is not desired for the sake of any other but only for its self for we may desire other things to delight or please our selves but no man ever demanded a reason why we should be delighted certainly no more than for what cause we desire to be happy since Pleasure and Felicity ought to be reputed not only in the same degree but to be the very same thing and consequently the end or ultimate and greatest good on which the rest depend but it self depends on time This is farther prov'd for that Felicity is no otherwise than because it is that state in which we may live most sweetly and most pleasantly that is with the greatest pleasure that may be for take from life this sweetness jucundity pleasure and where I pray will be your notion of Felicity Not of that Felicity only which I term'd Divine but even the other esteem'd human which is no otherwise capable to receive degrees of more or less or intension and remission than because addition or detraction of Pleasure may befal it To understand this better by comparing Pleasure with Pain let us suppose a man enjoying many great incessant Pleasures both in Mind and Body no pain hindring them nor likely to disturb them what state can we say is more excellent or more desirable than this For in him who is thus affected there must necessarily be a constancy of mind fearing neither death nor pain because death is void of sense pain if long uses to be light if great short so as shortness makes amends for its greatness lightness for its length When he arrives at such a condition as he trembles not at the horror of the Deity nor suffers the present pleasures to pass away whilst his mind is busi'd with remembrance of past or expectation of future good things but is daily joy'd with the reflecting upon them what can be added to better the condition of this person Suppose on the other side a man afflicted with as great pains of Body and Griefs of Mind as mans nature is capable of no hope that they shall ever be eas'd no pleasure past present or expected What can be said or imagin'd more miserable than he If therefore a life full of pains be of all things most to be avoided doubtless the greatest ill is to live in pain whence it follows that the greatest good is to live in pleasure Neither indeed hath our Mind any thing else wherein as its center it may rest all Sicknesses and troubles are reduced to pain nor is there any thing else which can remove Nature out of her place or dissolve her That Pleasure wherein consists Felicity is Indolence of Body and tranquility of Mind There being two kinds of Pleasure one in station or rest which is a placability calmness and vanity or immunity from trouble and grief The