Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A95921
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The Count of Gabalis, or, Conferences about secret sciences rendered out of French into English by A.L. ...; Comte de Gabalis. English
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Villars, abbé de (Nicolas-Pierre-Henri), 1635-1673.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing V386B; ESTC R226487
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50,429
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145
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so great a stock of Satisfaction in any Man as appeared in all his Carriage he had a more sedate and composed mind than a Sorcerer I thought could have He had the aspect of a Man whose Conscience upbraided him with nothing that was foul and I was very impatient to hear him enter upon the matter not being able to conceive how a Man who in all things else appeared to me so judicious and accomplished could be deluded by the Visions with which I perceived him infâ—â—ted the day before He talked Divinely of Policy and was ravished to hear that I had read Plato on that Subject You 'll need all that one day said he more than now you are aware of and if we fadge to day it is not impossible but that in process of time you may have occasion to put in practice those Sageâ—-Maximes With that we entered into Ruel and went into the Garden but the Count disdaining to admire the Beauties of the place marched straight towards the Labyrinth Perceiving that we were in as solitary a place as he could desire I praise cried he lifting up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven I praiâ—e the Eternal Wisdom that he hath put it into my mind to conceal nothing from you of his ineffable Truth How happy will you be my Son if he have the goodness to endue your Soul with the Dispositions that so high Mysteries require You are now to learn how to command all Nature God alone shall be your Master and the Sages onely your Peers The supream Intelligences shall think it their honour to obey your desires the Devils shall not dare to appear where you are your voice shall make them tremble in the pottomless Pit and all the invisible People who inhabit the four Elements will reckon themselves happy to be the Ministers of your Pleasures I adore thee O great God! in that thou hast crowned Man with so much Glory and made him Monarch over all the Works of thine Hands Do you feel my Son said he turning to me do you feel that Heroick Ambition which is a sure Character of the Children of Wisdom Dare you desire to serve none but God alone and to bear rule over every thing which is not God Have you learnt yet what it is to be Man And is it not tedious to you to be a Slave seeing you are born to be Soveraign And if you entertain those noble thoughts as the Figure of your Nativity suffers me not to doubt Consider deliberately with your self if you have the Courage and Resolution to renounce all things that may be a hinderance to you in attaining to that pitch of Elevation for which you are born He stopt there and fixed his Eyes upon me as if he expected my Answer or endeavoured to read it in my heart How much the beginning of his Discourse made me hope that we should quickly come to the point so much did his last words make me despair of it The word Renounce starttled me and I made no doubt but that he was going to propose to me the renouncing of my Baptism or Paradise So not knowing which way to come off Renounce Sir said I how must I renounce any thing then Without doubt you must replied he and that is so absolutely necessary that it is the first thing you must do I cannot tell if you can resolve to do it But I know very well that Wisdom dwells not in a body subject to sin as it enters not into a Soul prepossessed with error or malice The Sages will never admit of you into their Society if you renounce not one thing which is inconsistent with wisdom You must added he very softly laying his Mouth to my Ear renounce all Carnal dealing with Women At that odd Proposition I burst forth in Laughter You have let me go upon very easie terms Sir said I I expected you should have proposed to me some strange Renunciation but since all your Quarrel is with Women the thing is done long ago I am chaste enough I thank God for it Nevertheless Sir since Solomon was a wiser Man than ever I shall be perhaps and that all his Wisdom could not hinder him from being corrupted Tell me if you please what Expedient do ye Gentlemen of the Cabal take to forgo that Sex and what inconvenience would it be if in the Paradise of Philosophers every Adam should have his Eve You ask great Matters replied he consulting with himself if he should Answer my Question Nevertheless since I perceive that you will without difficulty renounce Women I will tell you one of the Reasons which hath obliged the Sages to exact this condition from their Disciples and by that you 'll know in what Ignorance live all those who are not of our number When you shall be listed among the Children of the Philosophers and your Eyes fortified by the use of the most Sacred Medicine you 'll at first discover that the Elements are inhabited by most perfect Creatures whom the sin of wretched Adam hath deprived his too wretched Posterity of the Knowledge of This immense space which is betwixt the Earth and the Heavens has far more noble Inhabitants than Birds and Gnats those vast Seas have many other Guests besides Whales and Dolphins the depth of the Earth is not made onely for Moles and the more noble Element of Fire was not created to remain void and useless The Air is full of an innumerable multitude of People of Humane Shape in appearance somewhat fierce but in reality tractable great lovers of Sciences Subtle Officious to the Sages and the Enemies of the Foolish and Ignorant Their Wives and Daughters are Masculine Beauties such as they paint the Amazones How Sir cried I would you make me believe that those Goblins are married Startle not my Son at so small a matter replied he believe that what I tell you is a solid truth these are but the Elements of the Ancient Cabal and it shall be no Mans fault but your own if your own Eyes convince you not but receive with a docile mind the Knowledge which God sends to you by my Ministery Forget all that you may have learnt of those things in the Schools of the Ignorant for it will vex you when you are convinced by experience to be forced to confess that you have been wilful out of purpose Hear me out then and know that the Seas and Rivers are inhabited as well as the Air the Ancâ—ent Sages named that kind of People Vndians or Nymphs They begat few Males and Women abound amongst them they are exceedingly Beautiful and the Daughters of Men are not to be compared to them The Earth is filled almost to the Center with Gnomes a People of a low Stature the Guardians of Treasures Mines and precious Stones They are Ingenious Friends to Man and easie to be commanded They supply the Children of the Sages with what Money they need and desire no other Wages for their Service but the
delights naturally in the most fiery hot places and is attracted by ...... I understand I understand said I interrupting him you need not take the pains to explain your self more fully As to the Obscurities of some Oracles continued he seriously which you call Juggling and Cheating is not Darkness the usual Mantle of Truth Does not God take pleasure to hide himself under that Dusky Veil and the Everlasting Oracle which he hath left to his Children I mean the Holy Scriptures is it not wrapt up in an adorable Obscurity which confounds and misleads the proud as its light guids the humble If that be all the scruple you have my Son I would not advise you to delay your entering into Commerce with the Elementary People You will find them very honest folks knowing benificent and Fearers of God It iâ—e my Opinion that you should begiâ— with the Salamanders for in your Figure you have Mars in the Mid-heaven which imports that there is a great deal of Fire in all your actions And as to Marriage I would advise you to take a Sylphide you 'll live happier with her than with any of the others for you have Jupiter on the Cusp of your Ascendant within a Sextile of Venus Now Jupiter rules over the Air and the People of the Air. However you must consult your own heart about the matter for as you shall one day know a Sage is governed by the internal Planets and the Planets of the external Heavens serve only to make known to him more certainly the Aspects of the Internal Heaven which is in every Creature So thar it lies at your Door now to tell me what your inclination is to the end we may proceed to your match with those of the Elementary People whom you like best Sir answered I that is an Affair which in my opinion requires some little deliberation I like you for that Answer â— said he clapping his hand upon my â— shoulder Consult deliberately about that great matter especially with him who by Excellence is called The Angel of the Great Council Go betake your self to Prayer and to morrow about Two of the Clock after Noon I will come and wait on â—ou We returned towards Paris and upon the Road I put him again upon the Discourse against Atheists and Libertines I never heard more solid Reasoning nor better and more sublime things said for the Existence of a God and against the blindness of those who spend their lives without applying themselves wholly to a serious and continual worship of him from whom we have our being and who does preserve it I wondred at the Character of the Man and could not conceive how at the same time he could be strong and so weak so admirable and so ridiculous The Fourth Conference about Secret Sciences I Stayed at home expecting the Count of Gabalis as we had agreed at our parting He came at the appointed hour and accosting me with a smiling air Well my Son said he for which kind of the Invisible People hath God given you the greatest Inclination and what Alliance will please you best whether of the Salamanders Gnomides Nymphs or Sylphides I am not as yet fully resolved about that match Sir answered I. Who is in the fault then replied he To be free with you Sir said I I cannot cure my imagination it still represents to me those pretended Guests of the Elements as the Tassels of Devils O Lord cried he O God of Light disperse the darkness which ignorance and perverse Education hath spread over the soul of this Elect who as you have made known to me is destined by you to so great matters And you my Son shut not the Door against the Truth which would come and lodge with you be teachable But it is all one I care not whether you be or not for indeed it is injurious to Truth to prepare its wayes It can break thorow Doors of Iron and enter where it pleases in spight of all the resistance of Falshood What can you have to object against it Hath not God d' ye think created in the Elements such Substances as I have described I have not examined said I if there be any possibility in the matter it self If one single Element can furnish Blood Flesh and Bones If there can be a Temperature without Mixture and Actions without Contrariety But granting that God could do it what solid Argument is there that he hath done it Will you be convinced of it presently replied he without so much a-do I 'll go call the Sylphs of Cardan you shall hear from their own mouths what they are and what I have told you of them No not so Sir if you please cried I briskly Wave I adjure you that kind of proof until I be perswaded that those Blades are no Enemies to God for till then I 'll die sooner than wrong my Conscience by ..... This this is the ignorant and false piety of these unhappy Times said the Count in Choller interrupting me Why then is not the greatest of Anchorites blotted out of the Calendar of Saints And why are not his Statues burnt It is a wrong that his venerable Ashes are not raked up And that they are not scattered in the Air as the Ashes of those who are accused of having had Commerce with Devils Did he attempt to exorcise the Sylphs And hath he not treated them as Men What can you say to that now Seigneur Scrupuloso you and all your silly Doctors Was the Sylph who discoursed to that Patriarch of his Nature in your opinion the Tassel of a Devil Did that incomparable Man consult with a Goblin about the Gospel And will you accuse him of having profaned the adorable Mysteries by discoursing of them with a Spright the Enemy of God Athanasius and St. Jerome then very ill deserve the great name that is given them by the Learned having wrote with so much eloquence the Elogy of a Man who was so courteous to Devils If they took the Sylph for a Devil they ought either to have stifled the Adventure or interpreted in a spiritual Sense that Sermon or that so pathetick Apostrophie which the Anchorite more credulous and zealous than you are makes to the City of Alexandria And if they thought that Sylph a Creature participant as he assures us as well as we of Redemption and if in their Opinion that Apparition was an extraordinary grace of God shew'd to the Saint whose Life they wrote are you reasonable to pretend to more knowledge than Athanasius and Jerome and greater holiness than Divine Anthony What would you have said to that admirable man had you been one of those Ten thousand Hermites to whom he related the Conversation that he had with the Sylph You without doubt wiser and more inlightened than all those Terrestrial Angels would have told the Saint That his whole Adventure was a meer Illusion and you would have disswaded his Disciple Athanasius from publishing to all the