A new and complete illustration of the occult sciences / [E. Sibly].

  • Ebenezer Sibly
Date:
1807
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new and complete illustration of the occult sciences / [E. Sibly]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    from the general body.-f- It is impoftible to affign any caufe for this emigration, but it doubtlefsly proceeds from the fame inftinftive iro- pull'e with which all orders of animate nature are more or lei's endued. Seeing then that the fupreme Being, in his paternal regard for the mi- ll uteft parts of his works, has endued the lowed: clafs of animals with a gift of foreknowledge in what immediately concerns their fafety and welfare; would it not be derogatory to the equal providence of God, to fuppofe he had not ordained, in an infinitely fuperior degree, a means of communicating foreknowledge to man, whom he hath gracioufly formed in his own exprefs image and likenefs, and appointed lord over his vaft creation?—A creature whom he hath endowed with a rational foul, ca- pable of paying him adoration and worfhip; and with an underftanding qualified to decypher the golden characters he hath placed in the firma- ment of heaaven, for figns of thofe hidden events of futurity which are yet to come? If we give the fcriptures an attentive perufal, we (hall find a variety of pafiages to confirm this opinion, both in the old and new Teftament. And we may gather additional evidence, that the Almighty intended we fhould ftudy futurity, from the communications given to Adam in Paradife by the angel Gabriel; as well as from the commiffion Mi- chael the archangel received from God, to (hew him in a vifion, the principal events of futurity, from his fall, to the birth, refurredlion, and afcenfion, of Chrift.* And I thank I am warranted to fay, from the authority of our Saviour’s own words, that there appears only one event- concerning the human race, which the Deity ever propofed to withhold from their knowledge, and that is, the time of the laft and terrible day of judgment. But even of this awful and fecret event, we are promifed fome previous intimations, by figns in the fun, moon, and ftars; ^ which are the common fignificators of all inferior tranfaftions of futurity. For this reafon we are told to watch, for no man knoweth the hour when thefe things Jhall come; therefore, thofe who ftudy the fiderial fcience, by their watchfulnefs of the heavenly bodies, and their capability of difco- vering fuch figns in the fun, moon, and ftars, whenever the tremendous fiat fhall be pafted, will be the firft to know that the vifitation of God is at hand; whilft thofe who condemn both the fcience and its profeflbrs, unprepared by any previous intimation, and folded in the arms of incautious repofe, will find the fatal hour approach like a thief in the f See Brookes’s Nat. Hift. 2d. edit. i2mo. vol. i. p. 25. Introd. vol. ii. p. 168. vol. iii. p. 2, 4, vol. vi. p. 9, 20. For more opinions upon the fubjedt, fee my Nat. Hift. vol. xi. p. 65, &c. * See Milton’s Paradife Loft, Books v. vi. vii. viii. xi. and xii. Adam for this purpofe, is faid to be taken up to the top of an high hill, by Michael, who addrefles him in thefe lines: Adam, afcend This hill; let Eve, (for I have drench’d her eyes) Here fleep below, while thou to forefigbt wak’ftj As once thou fleptft, while (he to life was form’d* X Matt, xxiv. 29, 36. Mark xiii. 24, 25, 32. Luke xxi. 25. night;
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