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.

    187/226 (page 173)
    Origen. Now, when Celfus fays, the Gods commonly appear’d in a Human Shape, and freely converfed with any that defired it, did he lye in it ? If fo, certainly it was the higheft Impudence or Folly in him, to offer this before fo learned a Man as Origen ^ who, he mu ft imagine, would well inform himfeif from many others of the learned Gentiles, concerning the Truth of this Fa<5t. There is one Crime that Father Baltus charges the Oracles of, belide thofe mentioned already, which alfo makes out, that Damons were concerned in the Oracles; viz,. That Magical Practices appear in the way the Oracles were given, and in their Eftablifit¬ ment * In his firft Volume, Part I. c. 15. he fays, the ancient Chriftians did not doubt of this ; they were perfuaded it was as much by Magical Inchantments, as thro5 their own Malice, that the Damons poffefs’d themfelves of certain Places, and Perfons, by which means they gave Anfwers. And if you confider what Porphyrins, ‘Jamblicus, and Eunapius relate of thefe fame Oracles, and what they teach concerning their deteftable ‘Theurgia, which was nothing but the Art of calling forth of Damons, and making them give Oracles; you will underftand with the ancient Chriftians, that the Oracles were always accom¬ pany’d with Magick : and if the Damons were the Authors of Magick, they were the true Authors of the Oracles. Again, Father Baltus, Chap. 20. writes thus : Eufe- bius (hews that the Oracles taught Magick ,* and he proves it at large, by the Teftimony of Porphyrins, and of the Oracles which he has produced to au¬ thorize his T'heiirgiek Philofophy, to w hich the greateft Part of the Philosophers, of his time, were extreamly given, with himfeif. And here father Baltus quotes a Paffage from Eufelius, Prap, Evang. L. 5. C. io. tho’ in the Edition I have of his Works, which is that