“We are onely that amphibious piece between a corporal and spiritual Essence, that middle form that links those two together, and makes good the Method of God and Nature, that jumps not from extreams, but unites the incompatible distances by some middle and participating natures. That we are the breath and similitude of God, it is indisputable, and upon record of Holy Scripture; but to call ourselves a Microcosm, or little World, I thought it only a pleasant trope of Rhetorick, till my neer judgement and second thoughts told me there was a real truth therein. Continue reading “Sir Thomas Browne on Man’s Place in Nature”
Plato on Man’s Place in Nature
“But with respect to the most principal and excellent species of the soul, we should conceive as follows: that divinity assigned this to each of us as a daemon; and that it resides in the very summit of the body, elevating us from earth to an alliance with the heavens ; as we are not terrestial plants, but blossoms of heaven. And this indeed is most truly asserted. For from whence the first generation of the soul arose, from thence a divine nature being suspended from our head and root, directs and governs the whole of our corporeal frame. Continue reading “Plato on Man’s Place in Nature”
The History of the Watchmen
The History of the Watchmen (Or the Angels),
WRITTEN BY ENOCH THE PATRIARCH.
“And it came to pass, when the Sons of Men were increas’d, that very Beautiful Daughters were born to them: With these the Watchmen were in Love, and burnt with Desire toward them, which drew them into many Sins and Follies. They communed with themselves: ‘Let us, say they, choose us Wives out of the Daughters of Men upon the Earth. Semiazas, their Prince, made Answer: ‘I fear, says he, you will not execute your Resolution ; and so I shall derive upon myself alone the Guilt of this Impiety.’ They all reply’d and said; ‘We will bind ourselves with an Oath to perform our Purpose, and invoke dreadful Imprecations upon our Heads, if we depart from our Enterprize before it be accomplished.’ So they oblig’d themselves with an Oath; and implored an Arrest of Vengeance upon one another. Continue reading “The History of the Watchmen”
Enoch
“Enoch the great grandfather of Noah, who had that surname (Edris) from his great knowledge, for he was favoured with no less than thirty books of divine revelations, and was the first who wrote with a pen, and studied the sciences of astronomy and arithmetic.” This quotation is an approved Muhammedan commentary upon the following reference to Enoch in the Koran: ”And remember Edris in the same book; for he was a just person and a prophet, and we exalted him to a high place.” Sura XIX, Mary.