had rendered as it were sacred, being now historically exposed, numerous
errors which before had occupied and enslaved men s minds, of course lost
their authority, and light and peace arose upon many minds, and the lives
of many were rendered more blameless and happy. This better knowl.
edge of history likewise restored very many persons to a fair reputation,
whom the ignorance or the malice of former ages had branded with the
name of heretics ; and this served to protect many pious and good men
from being misled by the malignant and the ill-informed. History also
showed, that various religious disputes which formerly embroiled nations,
and involved them in bloodshed, rebellion, and crimes, arose from very
trivial causes ; from the ambiguity of terms, from ignorance, superstition..
envy and emulation, or from the love of pre-eminence. It traced back
many rites and ceremonies, which were once regarded as of divine origin,
to polluted sources ; to the customs of barbarous nations, to a disposition
to practise imposition, to the irrational fancies of half-educated men, and
(58) A History of the Royal Society of retary." Mad.] A History of the Parisian
London, was published by Thomas Spratt, Academy of Sciences, has been published
London, 1722, 4to. See Bibliotheque An- by Fontcnelle. A comparison between the
gloise, torn, xi., pt. i., p. 1, &c. [" A much two academies, is made by Voltaire, Melange
more interesting and ample history of this de litterature et de Philosophic, cap
respectable society has lately been composed in Opp., tome iv., p. 317.
and published bv Dr. Birch, its learned sec-
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 273
to a foolish desire of imitating others. It taught, that the rulers of the
church by base arts had possessed themselves of no small share of the
civil power ; and by binding kings with religious terrors, had divested them
of their wealth. It evinced, that the ecclesiastical councils, whose decrees
were once regarded as divine oracles, were often conventions of quite ig
norant men, nay sometimes of arrant knaves. Several other things of the
like nature might be mentioned. How salutary all this must have been to
the cause of Christianity ; how much gentleness towards those of different
sentiments, how much caution and prudence in deciding upon the opinions
of others, how much relief to the innocent and the good against the ill-
disposed, grew out of it, and how many pernicious artifices, frauds, and
errors, it has banished from human society, we may learn from our own
daily experience of our happy condition.
28. Those Christians, who gave attention to Hebrew and Greek lit
erature, and to the languages and antiquities of the eastern nations, (and
very many prosecuted these studies with great success), threw much light
on numerous passages of the holy scriptures, which were before either dark
and obscure, or misunderstood and erroneously adduced in support of opin
ions rashly taken up, nay made to teach error and false doctrine. And
the consequence was, that the patrons of many vulgar errors and ground
less opinions, were deprived of the best part of their armour. Nor will
the wise and the good maintain, that there was no advantage to religion
from the labours of such as either kept Latin eloquence from becoming ex.
tinct, or in imitation of the French, laboured to polish and improve the
vernacular languages of their respective nations. For it is of great im
portance to the welfare and progress of the Christian community, that it
should not lack men, who are able to write and to speak, properly, fluently,
and elegantly, on all religious subjects ; so that they may bring the igno
rant, and those opposed to religion, to listen with pleasure to what they
ought to learn, and readily to comprehend what they ought to know.
29. The moral doctrines inculcated by Christ and his apostles, receiv
ed a better form and more support against various abuses and perversions,
after the law of nature or of right reason had been more critically inves
tigated aricl better explained. The incomparable Hugo Grotius, stood forth
a guide to others in this department, by his work on the Rights of War
and Peace (de Jure Belli et Pads) : and the excellence and importance of
the subject, induced a number of the best geniuses to follow him with alac-
rity.(59) How much aid the labours of these men afforded to all those
who afterwards treated of the life and duties of a Christian, will be man
ifest to any one, that shall take the trouble to compare the treatises on this
subject composed after their times, with those which were previously IK
estimation. It is certain, that the boundaries of Christian and natural mo*
rality were more accurately determined ; some Christian duties, the nature
of which was not well understood by the ancients, were more clearly de
fined ; the great superiority of the divine laws, to the dictates of mere rea.
eon, was more lucidly shown ; those general principles arid solid grounds,
by which all the Christian s doubts and conflicts respecting right and wrong
in action may be easily settled, were established ; and finally, the folly of
those who audaciously maintained, that the precepts of Christianity were
(59) See Adam Fred, Glafafs History prefixed to a Bibliotheca of the law of nature
jf the law of nature, written in German, and Rnd nations ; Lips., 1739, 4to.
VOL. III. M M
274
BOOK IV. CENTURY XVII. SECTION I.
at variance with the dictates of sound reason, that they subverted nature,
were calculated to undermine the prosperity of nations, rendered men ef
feminate, diverted them from the proper business of life, and the like, was
vigorously chastised and refuted.
30. But it is proper to make some particular remarks on the state of
philosophy among Christians. At the commencement of this century,
nearly all the philosophers were distributed into two sects ; namely, that
of the Peripatetics, and that of the Fire-Philosophers or the Chymists. And
during many years, these two sects contended warmly for pre-eminence,
and in a great number of publications. The Peripatetics held nearly all
the professorial chairs both in the universities and the inferior schools, and
they were furious against all that thought Aristotle should either be cor
rected or abandoned ; as if all such had been traitors to their country, and
public enemies of mankind. Most of this class however, if we except the
professors at Tubingen, Helmstadt, Altorf, and Leipsic, did not follow Ar
istotle, himself, but rather his modern expositors. The Chymical or Fire
Philosophers roamed over nearly every country of Europe ; assumed the
obscure and deceptive title of Rosecrucian Brethren, (Roscecrudani Fra-
tres),(QQ) which had some apparent respectability, as it seemed to be de-
(60) It is abundantly attested, that the title
of Rosccrucians was given to the Chymists,
who united the study of religion with the
search after chymical secrets. The term it
self is chymical ; nor can its import be un
derstood, without a knowledge of the style
used by the chymists. It is compounded, not
as many think, of rosa and crux (a rose and
the cross}, but of ros (dcit:) and crux. Dew is
the most powerful of all natural substances
to dissolve gold. And a cross, in the lan
guage of the fire-philosophers, is the same as
Lux (light) ; because the figure of a cross
-f- exhibits all the three letters of the word
iux at one view. Moreover, this sect ap
plied the term Lux to the seed or Menstru
um of the Red Dragon, or to that crude and
corporeal light, which being properly con
cocted and digested, produces gold. A
Rosecrucian therefore, is a philosopher, who
by means of dew, seeks for light, that is, for
the substance of the philosopher s stone.
The other interpretations of this name, are
false and deceptive ; and were invented and
given out by the chymists themselves, who
were exceedingly fond of concealment, for
she 3aks of imposing on others that were hos
tile to their religious views. The true im
port of this title was perceived by the sa
gacity of Peter Gassendi, Examen philoso
phise Fluddanse, 15, in his Opp., torn, iii.,
p. 261. But it was more lucidly explained
by the celebrated French physician, Eusebi-
us Renaudof, Conferences publiques, tome
V., p. 87. Very much, though ill arranged,
respecting these Rosecrucian brethren who
made so much noise in this century, their
society, institutes, and writi ags ; ma; be
found in Godfr. Arnold s Kirchen-und Ket-
zerhistorie, part ii., book xvii., ch. xviii., p.
1114, &c. [According to most of the wri
ters on the subject, the name Ros ecru dans
was not assumed by all the Fire-Philoso
phers ; nor was it rirst applied to men of
that description ; but it was the appropriate
name of an imaginary association, first an
nounced about the year 1610, into which a
multitude of Fire-Philosophers or alchyrnists,
eagerly sought admission. The earliest wri
ting professedly from them, was either pub
lished or republishcd at Frankfort, A.D.
1615, in German ; and afterwards in Danish,
Dutch, and Latin ; and bore the title of
" Fama Fratcrnitatis, or Discovery of the
Brotherhood of the praiseworthy order of
the Rosy-cross ; together with the Confes
sion of the same Fraternity : addressed to
all the learned heads in Europe : also some
answers, by Mr. Haselmeyer and other learn
ed persons, to the Fama ; together with a
Discourse concerning a general reformation
of the whole world." The next year, 1616,
David Mcderus wrote, " that, the Fama Fra~
ternitatis and the Confession had then been,
for six years, printed and dispersed in five
languages." In the Fama, p. 15, &c., the
founder and head of the fraternity, is said
to have been one Christopher Rosen- Crcutz,
a German, born in the year 1388 ; who be
came a pilgrim, visited the holy sepulchre^
and Damascus, where he was instructed by
the wise men, and afterwards learned magic
and the Cabala at Fez, and in Egypt ; on
his return to Germany, he undertook to im
prove human knowledge, and received sev
eral into his fraternity in order to commence
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
275
rh ed from the arms of Luther, which were a cross upon a rose ; and in
numberless publications, some of them more and some of them less able
and severe, they charged the Peripatetics with corrupting and perverting
both reason and religion. The leaders of the band were Robert Fludd,(61)
an Englishman, of a singular genius ; Jacob Bcehtnen, a shoemaker of Gor-
litz ; and Michael Mayer.(62) These were afterwards succeeded by Jo.
Bapt. Helmont, and his son, Francis Mercurius ;(68) Christian Knorr, of
R,osenroth ;(64) Quirin Kuhlmann ;(65) Henry Noll ;(66) Julius Sper-
ler ;(67) and numerous others, but of unequal rank and fame. Harmony
of opinion among this sort of people, no one would expect. For as a great
part of their system of doctrine depends on a kind of internal sense, on
the imagination, and on the testimony of the eyes and the ears,- than which
the business ; and lived to the age of 100
years, a sage far in advance of the men of
his age. This fraternity it was said, con
tinued down to the time of these publications.
A vast excitement was produced by this pub
lication in 1615. Some declared in favour of
the fabled Rosecrucian society, as a body of
orthodox and learned reformers of the world ;
arid others charged them with errors and mis
chievous designs. But in the year 1619, Dr.
Jo. Valentine Andrccc, a famous Lutheran
divine, published his " Tower of Babel, or
chaos of opinions respecting the Fraternity
of the Rosy-cross ;" in which he represents
the whole history as a farce ; and gave in
timations that Ac was himself concerned in
getting it up. But many enthusiastic per
sons, especially among the Fire-Philosophers,
continued to believe the fable ; and professed
to know many of the secrets of the society.
Much continued to be written about them,
for a long time : and indeed the whole sub
ject is involved in great obscurity. See
Godfr. Arnold, loc. cit., vol. ii., p. 244-258,
ed. Sehaffhausen, 1741. //. P. A". Hcnke s
Gesch. der christl. Kirche, vol. iii., p. 509-
511 ; and the authors there. cited. For the
origin and character of the Thcosophists or
Fire-Philosophers, see above, on the prece
ding century, p. 135, &c. TV.]
(61) For an account of this singular man,
to whom our Bcchmcn owed all his wisdom,
see Anth. Wood s Athens Oxoniens., vol.
i.. D. 610, and Historia et Antiq. Acad. Ox-
oniensis, lib. ii., p. 390, &c. Concerning
Helmont the father, see Henn. Wide, Me
moriae Philosophorum ; and others. Re
specting Helmont the son, see Joach. Fred.
Feller, Miscellanea Leibnitianea, p. 220, and
Leibnitz s Epistles, vol. iii., p. 353, 354.
Concerning Bazhmen, see Godfr. Arnold, and
various others. Respecting the rest, various
writers must re consulted.
(62) See Jo. Mailer s Cimbria Litterata,
torn, i., p. 376, & c . [He was a learned
physician and chymisfc, wrote much, and
ranked high as a physician and a good man.
He died at Magdeburg, A.D. 1622, aged 54.
-7V.]
(63) [Concerning him, see Brucker s Hist,
critica Philosophise, torn, iv., pt. i., p. 709,
&c. Sckl.]
(64) [As Bruckcr, who gives account of
the preceding Fire-Philosophers, is in every
body s hands ; while the history of Knorr of
Rosenroth, must be derived from the more
rare Nova Litteraria of Krause, Lips., 1718,
p. 191, we shall here offer the reader a brief
notice of him. Christian Knorr of Rosen-
roth was a Silesian nobleman ; who, together
with no ordinary knowledge of medicine,
philology, and theology, possessed a particu
lar acquaintance with chyrnistry and the Kab-
bala ; and was privy counsellor and chancel
lor to Christian Augustus, the palsgrave of
Sulzbach. He was born in 1636, and died
in 1689. His most important work was his
Kabbala denudata, in 2 vols. 4to, printed, voL
i., Sulzb., 1678, and vol. ii., Frankf. on Mayn,
1684. He also aided the publication of many
Rabbinical works ; and particularly of the
book Sohar, at the Hebrew press in Sulzbach,
1684, fol.Schl.]
(65) [See, concerning him, Bruckcr, loc.
cit., p. 706. Arnold s Kirchen-und Ketzer-
hist, part iii., ch. xix., p. 197, &c. ; and
Bayle s Dictionnaire, article Kuhlmann.
Schl.]
(66) [He belonged to the gymnasium of
Steinfurt in Westphalia, was afterwards pro
fessor of philosophy at Giessen, and at last,
preacher at Darmstadt. He applied himseif
also to chymistry and medicine, and was a
follower of Paracelsus. He wrote, among
other things, Systema hermetica? medicine,
and Physica hermetica; in which there arft
very many paradoxical propositions. S cA/.]
(37) [This man also belonged among the
Rosecrucians. He was a counsellor at An-
halt-Dessau ; and composed many Theo-
sophic tracts, which were published at Am
sterdam, in 1660 and 1662, Svo. Hs died
A.D. 1616. SchL]
27C BOOK IV. CENTURY XVII. SECTION ..
nothing can be more fluctuating and fallacious ; this sect of course, ha<3
almost as many disagreeing teachers, as it had writers of much note.
There were however certain general principles, in which they all agreed.
They all held, that the only way to arrive at true wisdom and a knowledge
of the first principles of all things, was by analyzing bodies by the agency
of fire. They all imagined, there was a sort of coincidence and agree-
ment of religion with nature ; and held, that God operates by the sanio
laws in the kingdom of grace, as in the kingdom of nature ; and hence the>
expressed their religious doctrines in chymical terms, as being appropriate
to their philosophy. They all held, that there is a sort of divine energy ot
soul diffused through the frame of the universe ; which some called Arch-
ceus, others the universal spirit, and others by various appellations. They
all talked much and superstitiously, about (what they called) the signature*
of things, about the power and dominion of the stars over all corporeal be
ings and even over men, and about magic and demons of various kinds.
And finally, they all expressed their very obscure and inexplicable idea:*,
in unusual and most obscure phraseology.
31. This contest between the chymical and the Peripatetic philoscy
phers was moderated, and a new method of philosophizing was introduced,
by two great men of France ; namely, Peter Gassendi, professor of math-
ematics at Paris and canon of the church at Digne, a man of erudition,
well acquainted with the belles lettres, eloquent also, and deeply versed in
all branches of mathematics, astronomy, and other sciences ; and Rene de<*
Cartes, (Renatus Cartesius), a French chevalier and soldier, a man of an
acute and subtle genius, but much inferior to Gassendi in literary and soi.
entific acquirements. Gassendi, in the year 1624, forcibly and ingeniously
attacked Aristotle and the Aristotelians, by publishing some Exercitationa
against Aristotle ; but the work excited so much resentment and was pro.
curing him so many enemies, that from his strong love of peace and tran
quillity, he desisted from continuing the publication. Hence only two books
of the work which he projected against Aristotle, were published ; *he other
five, (for he intended to embrace the whole subject in seven books), were
suppressed in their birth. (68) He likewise, in an appropriate work, attack-
ed FIudd,&iid through him the Rosecrwian Brethren :(69) which was not
unacceptable to the Aristotelians. At length he pointed out to others,
though cautiously and discreetly, and himself entered upon, that mode of
philosophizing, which ascends by slow and timid steps from who.t strikes
the senses to what lies beyond their reach, and prosecutes the knowledge
of truth by observation, attention, experiment, and reflection on the move
ments and the laws of nature , that is, from the contemplation o/ pailiculai
events and changes in nature, endeavours gradually to elicit some genera]
ideas. In these inquiries, he called in the aid especially of the mathe
matics, as being the most certain of all sciences ; and neglected metaphys
ics, the precepts of which he regarded as so dubious, that a man desirous
to know truth, cannot safely confide in but very few of them. (70)
(68) See Bougcrell, Vie de Gassendi, p. Gasseidi) scriptos respondetur, cum aliquot
17, 23. observationibus ccelestibus, Paris, 1630, 8vo
(69) [The title of his book was : Examen Schl.}
philosophic Fluddanrc, sive Exercitatio opts- (70) Those who wish farther information
tolica, in qua principia philosophise Roberti on this subject, may consult his Institutionct
Fluddi reteguntur, et ad recentes illius libros Philosophies ; a diffuse performance, whicfc
tdversus Marinum Mersennum (a friend of fills the two first volumes of his- works, [pxib
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 277
^ 1)2. Des Cartes philosophized in a very different manner. For he
abandoned the mathematics, which he at first had made his chief depend
ance, and betook himself to general ideas or to metaphysics, in order to
come at that truth which was the object of his pursuit. Calling in the aid
therefore of a few very simple positions, which the very nature of man
seems aimost to dictate to him spontaneously, he first endeavoured to form
in his own mind distinct ideas of souls, bodies, God, matter, the universe,
space, and of the principal objects of which the universe is composed.
Combining these ideas together, and reducing them to a scientific form or
system, he applied them to the correction, improvement, and solid estab
lishment of the other parts of philosophy ; always taking care, that what
followed or was brought out last, should coincide with what went before
and appear to arise spontaneously from it. Scarcely had he brought his
reflections before the public, when a considerable number of discerning
men in most countries of Europe, who had been long dissatisfied with the
dust and darkness of the schools, approved and embraced his views, and
wished to see Des Cartes recommended to the studious youth, and the Per
ipatetics set aside. On the other hand, the whole tribe of Peripatetics,
aided by the clergy who feared that religion was in danger from some se
cret plot, raised a prodigious dust to prevent the new philosophy from sup.
planting the old ; and to carry on the war with better success, they bitter.
ly taxed the author of it, not only with the grossest errors, but also with
downright Atheism. This will appear the less surprising, if we consider
that the Aristotelians fought, not so much for their system of philosophy
as for their personal interests, their honours and emoluments. The Theo-
sophists, Rosecrucians, and Chymists seemed to enter into the contest with
more calmness: and yet there was not one of them, who did not regard
the doctrines of the Peripatetics, vain and injurious to piety as they were,
as far more tolerable than the Cartesian discoveries. (71) The result of
this long contest finally was, that the wiser part of Europe would not in
deed give themselves up entirely to the philosophy of Des Cartes alone, yet
in conformity with his example, they resolved to philosophize more freely
than before, and to renounce their servitude to Aristotle.
33. The great men contemporary with Des Cartes, very generally ap
plauded his plan and purpose of philosophizing without subjecting himself
to a guide or master, of proceeding circumspectly and slowly from the first
dictates of nature and reason to things more complex and difficult, and of
admitting nothing till it was well examined and understood. Nor was
there an individual who did not acknowledge, that he was the author of
many brilliant and very useful discoveries and demonstrations. But some
of them looked upon his positions respecting the causes and principles of
natural things, as resting for the most part on mere conjectures ; and con
sidered the groundwork of his whole system, namely, his definitions or
ideas of God, the first cause, of matter and spirit, of the essential nature
of things, of motion and its laws, and of other similar subjects, as either
lis.ied by Sorbierre, in 6 vols. fol., A.D. (71) Here should be read, besides the oth-
1653]. Throughout these Institutes, itseeros ers who have written the history of DCS Car
lo be his main object to show, that the opin- tes and his philosophy, Hadrian BailleCs
ions of the philosophers, both ancient and Life of Des Cartes, in French, printed at
modern, on most subjects, derived by them Paris, 1691, 2 vols. 4to. Add the Nouveau
from the precepts of metaphysics, have little Dictionnaire Histor. et Crit.,tome n., p. 39
of certainty and solid itv
78 BOOK IV. CENTURY XVII. SECTION I
uncertain, or leading to dangerous errors, or contrary to expeiience. At
the head of these, was his countryman, Peter Gassendi ; who had attempt
ed to lower the credit of the Aristotelians and the Chymists, before Des
Cartes ; and who was his equal in genius, much his superior in learning,
and most expert in all the branches of mathematics. He endeavoured to
overthrow those metaphysical principles, which Des Caries had made the
foundation of his whole system ; and in opposition to his natural philoso
phy, he set up another which was not unlike the old Epicurean, but far
more perfect, better, and more solid, and founded not on mental concep
tions, but on experience and the testimony of the senses. (72) The follow
ers of this new and very sagacious teacher were not numerous, and were
far outnumbered by the Cartesian host ; yet it was a select band, and pre
eminent for attainments and ardour in mathematical and physical knowl
edge. Among his countrymen Gassendi had few admirers ; but among
their neighbours, the English, who at that time were much devoted to phys
ical and mathematical studies, he had a larger number of adherents. Even
those English philosophers and theologians who combated Thomas Holies,
(whose doctrines more resembled those of Gassendi, than they did those of
Des Cartes], and who in order to confute Hobbes revived the Platonic phi
losophy, such as William [Benjamin] Whichcot, Theophilus Gale, Ralph
Cudworih, Henry Moore, and others, did not hesitate to associate Plato with
Gassendi, and to put such a construction upon the latter as would make
him appear the friend of the former. (73)
34. From this time onward, Christendom w r as divided by two distin
guished sects of philosophers ; who, though they had little dispute about
things of most practical utility in human life, were much at variance re
specting the starting points in all philosophical reasoning, or the foundations