Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	age_n	great_a	year_n	1,540	5	4.8299	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39866	The history of oracles, and the cheats of the pagan priests in two parts / made English.; Histoire des oracles. English	Fontenelle, M. de (Bernard Le Bovier), 1657-1757.; Dale, Antonius van, 1638-1708. De oraculis ethnicorum dissertationes duae.; Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689.	1688 (1688)	Wing F1413; ESTC R13813	80,690	254

believe that they were immediately made by his Hands and therefore he put between them and him this Word as a degree by which the Actions of God might pass down to them The Christians had the like Idea of Iesus Christ And this may perhaps be the Reason why no Heresie has been more generally received and maintained with greater heat than Arrianism This Platonism then which seems to Honour the Christian Religion by countenancing it was very full of Notions about Daemons And thence they easily pass'd into that Opinion which the old Christians had of Oracles Plato said that Daemons were of a middle Nature between God and Man that they were the aerial Genii appointed to hold a Commerce between God and us that altho they were near us yet we could not see them that they penetrated into all our Thoughts that they had a Love for the Good and a Hatred for the Bad and that it was for their Honour that such variety of Sacrifices and so many different Ceremonies were appointed But it does not at all appear that Plato acknowledged any evil Daemons to which might be attributed the management of the illusions of Oracles Plutarch notwithstanding assures us that Plato was not ignorant of them and amongst the Platonical Philosophers the thing is out of doubt Eusebius in his Evangelical Preparations recites a great Number of Passages out of Porphyrius where that Pagan Philosopher assures us that evil Daemons are the Authors of Enchantments Philtres and Witch-Crafts that they cheat our Eyes with Spectres Fantoms and Apparitions that lying is Essential to their Nature that they raise in us the greatest part of our Passions and that they have an Ambition to pass with us for Gods that their aerial and spiritual Bodies are nourished with Suffumigations and with the Blood and Fat of Sacrifices and that 't is only these that imploy themselves in giving Oracles and to whom this Task so full of Fraud is assign'd in short at the Head of this Troop of evil Daemons he places Hecate and Serapis Iamblichus another Platonist has said as much And the greatest part of these things being true the Christians received them all with Joy and have added to them besides a little of their own As for Example that the Daemons stole from the Writings of the Prophets some Knowledge of things to come and so got Honour by it in their Oracles This System of the ancient Christians had this Advantage that it discovered to the Pagans by their own Principles the Original of their false Worship and the Source of those Errors which they always embraced They were perswaded that there was something supernatural in their Oracles and the Christians who were always disputing against them did not desire to confute this Opinion Thus by Daemons which both Parties believed to be concerned in the Oracles they explicated all that was supernatural in them They acknowledged indeed that this sort of ordinary Miracles were wrought in the Pagan Religion but then they ruined this Advantage again by imputing them to such Authors as evil Spirits and this way of convincing was more short and easie than to contradict the Miracle is self by a long train of Enquiries and Arguments Thus I have given you the manner how that Opinion which the first A●es of the Church had of the Pagan Oracles was grounded I might to the three Reasons which I have already brought add a fourth of no less Authority perhaps than those That is That in the Supposition of Oracles being given by Daemons there is something miraculous And if we consider the humor of Mankind a little we shall find how much we are taken with any thing that is Miraculous But I do not intend to enlarge my self on this Reflection for those that think upon it will easily believe me and those that do not will perhaps give it no credit notwithstanding all my Arguments Let us now examine the several Reasons which Men have had to believe Oracles to be Supernatural CHAP. IV. That the surprizing Histories of Oracles ought to be suspected IT is very difficult to give an Account of those Stories and Oracles which we have mentioned without having Recourse to Daemons But the Question is Whether they be true Let us be assured of the Matter of Fact before we trouble our selves with enquiring into the Cause It is true that this Method is too slow and dull for the greatest part of Mankind who run naturally to the Cause and pass over the truth of the matter of Fact but for my part I will not be so ridiculous as to find out a Cause for what is not This kind of Misfortune happened so pleasantly at the end of the last Age to some Learned Germans that cannot forbear speaking of it In the Year 1593 there was a Report that the Teeth of a Child of Silesia of seven Years old dropp'd out and that one of Gold came in the Place of one of his great Teeth Horstius a Physician in the University of Helmstad wrote in the Year 1595 the History of this Tooth and pretends that it was partly natural and partly miraculous and that it was sent from God to this Infant to comfort the Christians who were then afflicted by the Turks Now fansie to your self what a Consolation this was and what this Tooth could signifie either to the Christians or the Turks In the same Year that this Tooth might not want for Historians one Rolandus wrote a Book of it Two Years after Ingolsteterus another Learned Man wrote against the Opinion of Rolandus concerning this golden Tooth and Rolandus presently makes a Learned Reply Another Great Man named Libavius collected all that had been said of this Tooth to which he added his own Opinion In fine there wanted nothing to so many famous Works but only the truth of its being a golden Tooth For when a Gold-Smith had examined it he found that it was only a thin Plate of Gold fixed to the Tooth with a great deal of Art. Thus they first went about to compile Books and afterwards they consulted the Gold-Smith Nothing is more natural than to do the same thing in all other cases And I am not so convinc'd of our Ignorance by the things that are and of which the Reasons are unknown as by those which are not and for which we yet find out Reasons That is to say as we want those Principles that lead us to truth so we have those which agree exceeding well with error and falsehood Some Learned Physicians have found out the reason why Places under Ground are hot in the Winter and cool in the Summer and greater Physicians have since discover'd that they are not so Historical Enquiries are much more liable to this error For when we argue from what is said in History what assurances have we that these Historians have never been byassed nor credulous nor misinform'd nor negligent 'T is necessary therefore that we should look out for