Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • John Beaumont
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    211/226 page 197
    and operates in a Body, and Experience muft not be deny’d for an Opinion. In the Article itfelf he freely owns, that thefe things cannot be underftood, nor does he find them well explained by any Divines; yet he fays they ought to be believed, tho5 the Way is unknown to us : for the Art of the Superior Intel¬ ligences is not perceived by the Inferiors; as the A- mericans thought it impoffible that a Paper fhould convey Thoughts, and that Clocks fhould tell the Hours of the Day, by a fpontaneous Sound, which things are obvious to us. Mr. Saurin, in his Defence of the Do&rine of the Reformed Church, concerning the Principle of Faith, has a material Paffage relating to the foregoing Sub¬ ject, c. 27.f. 329. where he writes thus : Mr. fVitfius proves by many Examples, that the inward In ft ruc¬ tions of God’s Spirit go in fome Subjects to a Re¬ velation of particular Events ; which is contradicted by fome Divines : and tho* I make not myfelf a Par¬ ty for Mr. IVitfius, or thofe Divines, I think Mr. Wit- pus’s Opinion the more probable ; and it’s certain, that thofe who are for the Negative, cannot main- tain it but two Ways : Firft, in fhewing the Cha¬ racters of Falfhood, in fome of the particular Relations, on which the Affirmative is eftablifiled. Secondly, in faying that if a Man be not fure, that thefe Relations are falfe, he is no more fure that they are true. It is not neceffarv, he fays, to advertife, that he does not fpeak here of the Examples given in the Old and New Teftaments : The fame Re¬ flections are made in the famous Controverfy be¬ twixt the Effrits Forts and Foibles concerning Appa¬ ritions, the Operations of the Devil, and the Enter- prizes of Witches and Magicians. Wife and pious Men, who are neither of the Efprits Forts nor Foibles, in that evil Senfe which is commonly given to this Title, believe, by a divine Faith, the Truth of the Hiftories contain’d in the Word of God; but they judge
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