Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Account Of The Cabalistical Philosophy Of The Jews.
ACCOUNT OF THE CABALISTICAL PHILOSOPHY OF THE JEWS .
* T"HE word CABALA ( according to its genuine import ) signifies A nothing- else but tradition , and comes from the verb cabal , denoting , with the Hebrews , to give or receive . It is a mystical doctrine , concerning God and the creatures , which the Jews received by tradition from father to son . If we may give credit to them , it began with Adam , who had a perfefl : knowledge , not onl y of the whole nature and property of things corporealbut also of the-Divine Nature
, , of the mysteries ; of religion , and of the redemption of mankind , which his angel , Raziel , assured him , was to come to pass by means of a just man , whose name should consist of four letters £ which is the cause , say they , that most part of the Hebrew names are of four letters in their language , wherein the vowels are no letters . ] Adam taught the ' se mysteries to his childrenand they to their'still
Abra-, , ham and the Patriarchs . But , they say , Moses learnt it anew from the mouth of God , during the forty days that he was in the mount , where he received two laws ; one written with the hand of God , comprized in the two tables of stone ; the other not written , and more mysterious : the former for all in general , the latter for the learned in religious mysteries ; which is that taught b y Moses to the seventy
elders of the people , chosen by himself according to the counsel of jetbro ; and they transferred the same to the Prophets , Doctors , Scribes , Pharisees , Rabbins , and Cabalists . In order to judge of the CABALA , it is expedient for us to know what was the philosophy of the Jews . As the Stoics , Peripatetics , Pyrrhonians , and other philosophers , had their peculiar sects , the Cabala is divided commonly into that of Thingsand of Wordsor
, , Names . The first is called by the Rabbins Bereschit , the second Mercana . That which treats of Things , by the Cabalists called SEPHIROTH , that is , Numbers or Knowledges ( for , with them , to number and to know are nearly synonymous ) is either philosophical or theological . The philosophical comprehends their logic , physics , metaphysicsand astronomy . In logic they treat of the ten lesser
, Sephiroth ; which are so many steps or degrees for attaining the knowledge of all things , by means of sense , knowledge , or faith ; and they are divided into three-regions . In the lowest , which is made by the Sense , are—I . The Objeft . 2 . The Medium or Deaphanum . 3 . The External Sense . In the second and middle region are—4 . The Internal or Common Sense . 5 . The Imagination or Fancy . 6 . The
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Account Of The Cabalistical Philosophy Of The Jews.
ACCOUNT OF THE CABALISTICAL PHILOSOPHY OF THE JEWS .
* T"HE word CABALA ( according to its genuine import ) signifies A nothing- else but tradition , and comes from the verb cabal , denoting , with the Hebrews , to give or receive . It is a mystical doctrine , concerning God and the creatures , which the Jews received by tradition from father to son . If we may give credit to them , it began with Adam , who had a perfefl : knowledge , not onl y of the whole nature and property of things corporealbut also of the-Divine Nature
, , of the mysteries ; of religion , and of the redemption of mankind , which his angel , Raziel , assured him , was to come to pass by means of a just man , whose name should consist of four letters £ which is the cause , say they , that most part of the Hebrew names are of four letters in their language , wherein the vowels are no letters . ] Adam taught the ' se mysteries to his childrenand they to their'still
Abra-, , ham and the Patriarchs . But , they say , Moses learnt it anew from the mouth of God , during the forty days that he was in the mount , where he received two laws ; one written with the hand of God , comprized in the two tables of stone ; the other not written , and more mysterious : the former for all in general , the latter for the learned in religious mysteries ; which is that taught b y Moses to the seventy
elders of the people , chosen by himself according to the counsel of jetbro ; and they transferred the same to the Prophets , Doctors , Scribes , Pharisees , Rabbins , and Cabalists . In order to judge of the CABALA , it is expedient for us to know what was the philosophy of the Jews . As the Stoics , Peripatetics , Pyrrhonians , and other philosophers , had their peculiar sects , the Cabala is divided commonly into that of Thingsand of Wordsor
, , Names . The first is called by the Rabbins Bereschit , the second Mercana . That which treats of Things , by the Cabalists called SEPHIROTH , that is , Numbers or Knowledges ( for , with them , to number and to know are nearly synonymous ) is either philosophical or theological . The philosophical comprehends their logic , physics , metaphysicsand astronomy . In logic they treat of the ten lesser
, Sephiroth ; which are so many steps or degrees for attaining the knowledge of all things , by means of sense , knowledge , or faith ; and they are divided into three-regions . In the lowest , which is made by the Sense , are—I . The Objeft . 2 . The Medium or Deaphanum . 3 . The External Sense . In the second and middle region are—4 . The Internal or Common Sense . 5 . The Imagination or Fancy . 6 . The