Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A27207
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Considerations on a book, entituled The theory of the earth, publisht some years since by the Dr. Burnet
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Beaumont, John, d. 1731.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing B1620; ESTC R170484
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132,774
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195
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by Providence after the rest of Beings were completed But as what Moses has said of the Creation by most Christian Writers is understood of the whole System of Beings as well coelestial as terrestrial so we find when the antient Gentils speak of the Rise of things from a Chaos they mean the same Hesiod and Ovid and others that write of the Chaos are plain that the Heavens rose from it as well as the Earth And we know the Hermetick Philosophers who are lookt upon by some to be much more antient than Moses but certainly of great Antiquity tell us of a Cohabitation there was of Superiors and Inferiors in the Chaos and that upon the Separation of it the Superiors retir'd to their coelestial Abode Aristophanes also whom the Author admires above the rest plainly says in his Cosmogonia that the Chaos was before the Earth the Air and the Heavens Moreover when the Author says the Theogonia of the Antients was the same with their Cosmogonia and their Cosmogonia the same with their Geogonia it would be absurd to understand those Genealogies of the terrestrial Bodies exclusively to the coelestial For those Gentils being infected with Polytheism and making the chief Parts and Portions of the World Gods it 's manifest that they did not only make the chief parts of the Earth so they being known to have ador'd the whole Host of Heaven So again as to the Dissolution of the World by Fire we find the Antients generally understood it of the Heavens as well as of the Earth Hierom in his Comment on the 15th of Isaiah says Quae quidem Philosophorum mundi opinio est omnia quae cernimus igni peritura Seneca delivering the Opinion of the Stoicks says Sydera syderibus incurrent omni flagrante materiâ uno igne quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet ardebit Lucan says Communis mundo superest rogus ossibus astra Misturus and he expresses himself to the same purpose elsewhere Ovid from the Oracles of the Sibyls says Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus Quo mare quo tellus correptáque regia coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laboret The Sybils Verses are as follows Tunc ardens fluvius coelo manabit ab alto Igneus atque locos consumet funditus omnes Terrámque oceanúmque ingentem caerula ponti Stagnáque tum fluvios fontes Ditémque severum Caelestémque Polum caeli quoque lumina in unum Fluxa ruent formâ deletâ prorsus eorum Then from high Heaven vast streams of Fire shall flow Those Flames consuming all things here below The Earth the mighty Ocean the blue Main Lakes Rivers Fountains and what Dis does claim And Heaven it self whose Lights shall flow in one And Stars shall fall their Form destroy'd and gone So again it 's a common Opinion amongst Christian Divines that the Heavens will be destroy'd by Fire as well as the Earth Dr. Hakewill in his Apology says it seems to him the most likely opinion and most agreeable to Scripture and Reason that the whole World with all the parts thereof only Men Angels and Devils and the third Heavens the Mansion House of the Saints and Angels and the Place and Instruments appointed for the tormenting of the Damn'd excepted shall be totally and finally dissolv'd and annihilated which he proves by many forcible Arguments refuting the contrary Opinion and mentioning many learned Men of his thinking he has so far evinc'd it that it is not solidly answerable to whose Book for brevity sake I must remit the Reader So Salmeron on that passage of S. Peter 2.3 says Loquitur ergo hoc in loco de veris coelis de quibus David dixit Initio tu Domine terram fundasti Opera manuum tuarum sunt coeli ipsi peribunt nimirum per ignem ubi ostendit veros coelos veram terram verè peritura And beneath Quòd autem quidam ex patribus interpretabantur non de supremis veris coelis sed de aereis aqueis esse intelligendum ratione ipsius Textus revincuntur nam imprimis ostendimus nunquam coelorum nomine in plurali numero aereos elementares coelos accipi deinde post coelos nominatos subdit elementa verò calore solventur infra elementa ignis ardore tabescent quod aerem aquam sphaeram ignis spectare videtur Non possunt ergo per coelos accipi illa tria elementa cum bis coelos ab elementis contra distinguat Again Esay 34.4 it 's said All the Host of Heaven shall be dissolv'd and the Heavens shall be roul'd together as a scrole and all their Host shall fall down as the Leaf falls from the Vine and as a falling Fig from a Fig-tree Which words S. John Apoc. 6.13 seems to have borrowed from the Prophet And so I look upon the following Verses of Juvencus to be writ according to a Prophetick Truth Immortale nihil mundi compage tenetur Non orbis non regna hominum non aurea Roma Non mare non tellus non ignea sydera Coeli Nam statuit Genitor rerum irrevocabile tempus Quo cunctum torrens rapiet flamma ultima mundum I shall only add that those who by their insight in Symbolical Learning reach the mystical sense of the Prophets well know that what is symboliz'd by the Heavens will pass away in the day of the mystical Conflagration as well as what is symboliz'd by the Earth whence unless the whole shall be symbolically evacuated so that the Conflagration shall not concern external nature I shall ever believe that the one will be concern'd in it as well as the other homo cum dormierit non resurget dum non erunt Coeli And not to rest in mystery where I may be plain the mystical Conflagration is known to be the Baptism by Fire and the Spirit whence I conceive some Sects of Christians almost from the first times of Christianity as the Jacobites Aethiopians Copts Isini c. instead of baptizing with Water were wont to have their Children burnt by their Priests in the Cheeks or Foreheads with an Iron according to that Matth. 3. He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and Fire Now when God is pleas'd to send that Baptism not only Sense symboliz'd by the Earth but Reason also symboliz'd by the Heavens passes away and is absorp'd in the Spirit and carryed above itself the Spirit being as much exalted above Reason as Reason is above Sense and this is a truth own'd by all Divines though none I conceive can apprehend how the thing is transacted but those to whom God has vouchsafed that Baptism they being brought into that State of mind which made S. Paul say Omnia mihi in Aenigmate facta sunt Nothing being able to perceive the ways of the Spirit but the Spirit and hence we find after the Apostles receiv'd it they were censur'd by the People of being intoxicated with
face of the Earth in the second Figure till he comes to the third State when the Passions growing strong Nature is overflown with Vice represented by the Deluge in the third Figure upon which the troubles of Life coming on it causes unevenness in it and a Sea subject to Tempests as Typified in the fourth Figure At length a Conflagration happens a Baptism by Fire and the Spirit symboliz'd in the fifth Figure after which things go on smoothly again for a time as is denoted by the smooth face of the Earth in the sixth Figure and which may aptly make the symbolical Millennium Till at last the mind of Man comes to its seventh Sabbatical Astral and glorious State as Typified in the seventh Figure on on which the divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sets his right Foot and fixes his Banner of Triumph for Eternity having this divine Inscription over his Head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the intellectual World of Intelligences on either hand to attend him I know not how these Guesses or what else I have set forth in this Work may be receiv'd The Author observes in his Preface to the Conflagration that there are few that apply themselves to a Contemplative Life and I think there are fewer by many who succeed in it as perhaps these undigested thoughts I have here heapt together may be one Testimony of it a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haply or other defects having incapacitated me for reaching the depths of the things here treated but however they are receiv'd Contemplations on God and Nature in this kind carry in them their own reward as Cicero has long since set forth whose oraculous Expression I shall not go about to alter Haec tractanti animo noctes dies cogitanti existit illa à Deo Delphis praecepta cognitio ut ipsa se mens vitiis exutam cognoscat conjunctámque cum mente divina se sentiat ex quo insatiabili gaudio compleatur ipsa enim cogitatio de vi naturâ Deorum studium incendit illius aeternitatis imitandae neque se in brevitate vitae collocata putat cum rerum causas alias ex aliis aptas necessitate nexas videt quibus ab aeterno tempore fluentibus in aeternum ratio tamen ménsque moderatur Haec ille intuens utque suspiciens vel potius omnes partes orásque circumspiciens quantâ rursus animi tranquillitate humana citeriora considerat hinc illa cognitio virtutis existit efflorescunt genera partésque virtutum invenitur quid sit quod natura spectat extremum in bonis quid in malis ultimum quo referenda sint officia quae degendae aetatis ratio deligenda Before I make an end I think it may be proper for me to consider the Motive which induc'd the Author to write his Theory and in his Preface and second Chapter of his first Book he tells us his intent was to justifie the Doctrines of the Universal Deluge and of Paradise and to confirm them by a new Light of Nature and Philosophy and free them from those misconceptions or misrepresentations which made them sit uneasie on the Spirits even of the best Men that took time to think And he conceives as Men cannot do a greater injury or injustice to sacred History than to give such Representations of things there as to make them unintelligible and incredible so we cannot deserve better of Religion and Providence than by giving such fair accounts of all things propos'd by them or belonging to them as may silence the Cavils of Atheists satisfie the Inquisitive and recommend them to the belief and acceptance of all Persons Now I confess this to be a good and plausible way of proceeding with what we find generally recorded in Sacred Writ but the Question will still lie how far we may comply with an Atheist or any Man else by endeavouring to make things recorded in the Scriptures easie to their apprehensions for when we come to a particular hand of Providence there set forth whether it be as a judgment upon or an act in favour of Mankind as I take the Deluge to be a particular Judgment than which nothing in the Scriptures seems to me to carry more the face of a Miracle I am so far from thinking that we ought to endeavour to smooth things to their Reasons who will not receive the Miracle that I look upon it as a breach of Decorum towards our Divine Law to attempt it And herein I cannot excuse Josephus who as the Learned Mr. Gregory observs in his Discourse of the Seventy Interpreters in compliance with the Gentils in that kind often in his History destroys the Miracle by lessening it and makes it cease to be a Wonder while he strives to make it fit to be believ'd by representing it equal to that which no body doubts of and I find many other Writers guilty in the same kind And we may consider the unreasonableness of any Man that would expect it from us for I would ask what pretended divine Law there is but has as strange things contain'd in it as our Scriptures Are there not as strange things in the Mahometan Alcoran in the Jewish Talmud and in the fabulous Divinity of the Gentils Or can there be any divine Law but must set forth God as a most free Agent no way tied to the Creatures or second Causes but may act at Pleasure contrary to their tendency or Change what he lists in the order of them as when he is said to have commanded the Sun to stand still and go back and to have rendred a superannuated Woman fruitful Nay and the Author owns that those of the Gentils who held Deluges and Conflagrations were not able to account for them by any natural Causes and therefore he looks upon them meerly as Traditional Truths which they had receiv'd from others why then shall any Man expect it from us Again The Author by his attempt for making the Deluge conceivable according to humane Reason seems to me to have rendred the conception of it more intricate than perhaps it might have been thought by many before for if he has validly refuted what others have propos'd for that end as I cannot say but he has And if I have refuted what himself has propos'd as though I lay not an equal stress on all I have deliver'd I truly believe upon the whole I have then those who will be leaning on the weak Reed of Reason for solving the Deluge are like for ought I can see to fall to the ground for any support they can thence have in it And so concerning the place of Paradise methinks the Author hath left us in as forlorn a Condition as he found us after all his Pains And again after his great Attempt for solving the Deluge according to natural Principles I believe whoever peruses this Book will find that he has been forc'd to introduce the hand of Omnipotence to help him out in