Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • Beaumont, John, -1731.
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    137/226 (page 125)
    Human Knowledge, and was always had in the high- eft Veneration among the antient Priefts and Sages, became afterward fufpedied, and always hated, by the holy Fathers, from the beginning of Chriftianity ; and, at length, was exploded by Divines, condemned by the Canons, and profcribed by the Confent of all Law's : and he intimates feveral Ways of the Corrup¬ tion of that Science, on which account it was fup- prefs’d. But, in my Opinion, he does not affign the main Caufe for it: For as Actions are fpecifted from their End, fo the great Caufe of its Suppreffion, wras, that many apply’d it, or might have apply’d it, to a wrong End, that Science not being Diabolical in its Nature, as fome may imagine : But, as Pfellus fays, L. de Damon, c. ult. it's a certain Faculty judged by the Greeks to be of an eminent Virtue, and the high- eft Portion of the Priefthood. And Ariflotle, Met. L. 14. C. 6. places the Magi among the Wifemen. As in what I have here writ, I have often inferted Things relating to the Theology of the Gentiles, which is much ridicul’d by the Chriftian Fathers; perhaps it may not be an ungrateful Office, if I lay before the World, what, according to my Reading, feems the Truth of the Matter. Galeottus Martins, in his Book entitled, DoBrina Promifcua, c. 17. writes thus : All the Elements have the Names of Gods, and were ac¬ counted Gods among the Antients; for Antiquity called the Fire, Vulcan; the Air, Juno; the Water, Neptune, or Ocearns; the Earth fellas, or Pluto : but Men of Senfe might fay, whence did this Madnefs feize thofe wife Men, that they fhould believe the Elements Gods, fo that they offer’d Sacrifices to cer¬ tain Effects of them ? Nigram Hyemt pecudem, Zephyris falicihus album. For Oblations occur every where. Now it is to be obferved3 that according to the Opinion of Plato, the