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.

    122/226 (page 110)
    Eft Dens in nobis, agitante calefcimus illoy Impetus hie Sacra Semina Mentis hahet. God reigns in us, bfs Attings we take fire. Such Sallies, Seeds of Sacred Mind infpire. 'And Arifiotle owned in Man a nobler Principle of his profperous Fortune than Reafon, faying, It is not Nature, nor Reafon, but a good Genius guiding him, Eth. Eudem. I 7. c. 17. And again, ib.c.iS. the Queftion being propofed, What is the Principle of Motion in the Soul ? This Anfwer follows, It’s manifeft therefore that it is as God is in the Uni- verfe, and all things are again in him ; for the fame Deity that is in us, after fome manner, moves.all things ; and the Principle of Reafon is not Reafon, but fomewhat more excellent; and what is more ex¬ cellent than Science but God ? Which Place of Ari- ftotle, Scaliger confidering, L. de Subtil. Exercit. 307. Sett. 25. he ftarts this Queftion, What doft thou fay. Divine Man ! Is there fomewhat better in us than Reafon itfelf ? Were the Rays of the Holy Ghoft known to thee ? The Genius of Socrates is well known. Indeed they made Philofophy the Inftrument of interior Purgation, to which the wifeft of the Gentiles aferibed a purging Force, for introducing Vertues, and bringing the Mind to a Likenefs with the Deity. Hence Cicero, Tufc.*;. fpeaking of Phi¬ lofophy, fays. One day well paft, according to thy Precepts, is to be preferred before a finning Immor¬ tality. Whofe Aid then fhall we ufe before thine, who haft given us a Tranquillity of Life, and taken away the Terror of Death ? Plato, in his Phadrus, fays. The Soul having fal¬ len to inferiour Things, has broken its Wings, and is raifed again by Contemplation ; fo that a Philofo- phical Meditation recovers thofe Wings. This is that contem-