SECT. III. PART II. Fire Philo sophers. CENT. with a certain appearance of success; but their XVI. hopes were transitory; for after various struggles they were obliged to yield, and were, at length, entirely banished from the schools [r]. The Para- XII. Such also was the fate of the disciples of celsists, or Paracelsus, who, from the grand principle of their physical system, were called Fire philosophers [s], and who aimed at nothing less than the total subversion of the peripatetic philosophy and the introduction of their own reveries into the public schools. Towards the conclusion of this century the Paracelsists really made a figure in almost all the countries of Europe, as their sect was patronized and supported by the genius and eloquence of several great men, who exerted themselves, with the utmost zeal and assiduity, in its cause, and endeavoured, both by their writings and their transactions, to augment its credit. In England it found an eminent defender in M. Robert Flood, or Fludd, a man of a very singular genius [t], who illustrated, or at least attempted [r] Jo. Herm. ab. Elswhich, De fatis Aristot. in Scholis Protest. sect. xxi. p. 54.-Jo. George Walchius, Historia Logices, lib. ii. cap. i. sect. iii. v. in Parergis Academicis, p. 613, 617. -Otto. Frid. Schutzius, Devita Chytræi, lib. iv. sect. iv. p. 19. [] This fanatical sect of philosophers had several denominations. They were called Theosophists, from their declaiming against human reason as a dangerous and deceitful guide, and their representing a divine and supernatural illumination as the only means of arriving at truth. They were called Philosophiper ignem, i. e. Fire-philosophers, from their maintaining that the intimate essences of natural things were only to be known by the trying efforts of fire, directed in a chymical process. They were, lastly denominated Paracelsists, from the eminent physician and chymist of that name, who was the chief ornament, and leader of that extraordinary sect. [t] The person here mentioned by Dr. Mosheim is not the famous Dominican monk of that name, who, from his ardent pursuit of mathematical knowledge, was called the Seeker, and who, from his passion for chemistry, was suspected of 1 XVI. SECT. III. PART II. attempted to illustrate, the philosophy of Para- CENT. celsus, in a great number of treatises, which, even in our times, are not entirely destitute of readers and admirers. The same philosophy got a certain footing in France, had several votaries in that kingdom, and was propagated with zeal at Paris, by a person whose name was Rivier, in opposition to the sentiments and efforts of the university of that city [u]. Its cause was industriously promoted in Denmark by Severinus [w]; in Germany, by Kunrath, an eminent physician at Dresden, who died in the year 1605 [x]; and in other countries by a considerable number of warm votaries, who were by no means unsuccessful in augmenting its reputation, and multiplying its followers. As all these heralds of the new philosophy accompanied their instructions with a striking air of piety and devotion, and seemed, in propagating their strange system, to propose to themselves no other end than the advancement of the divine glory, and the restoration of peace and concord in a divided church; a motive, in appearance, so generous and noble could not fail to procure them friends and protectors. Accordingly, we find, that towards the conclusion of this century, several persons, eminent for their piety, and distinguished by their zeal for the advancement of true religion, joined themselves to this sect. Of this number were the Lutheran doctors Wigelius, Arndius, and others, who of magic, but a famous physician born in the year 1574, at SECT. III. PART II. CENT. who were led into the snare by their ill-grounded XVI. notions of human reason, and who apprehended that controversy and argumentation might lead men to substitute anew the pompous and intricate jargon of the schools in the place of solid and sincere piety. The con troversy between and his col XIII. Among those that discovered a propensity towards the system of the Paracelsists, or Hofmann Theosophists, was the celebrated Daniel Hofmann, Professor of Divinity in the university of leagues. Helmstadt, who, from the year 1598, had declared open war against philosophy, and who continued to oppose it with the greatest obstinacy and violence. Laying hold of some particular opinions of Luther, and certain passages in the writings of that great man, he extravagantly maintained, that philosophy was the mortal enemy of religion; that truth was divisible into two branches, the one philosophical and the other theological; and that what was true in philosophy, was false in theology. These absurd and pernicious tenets naturally alarmed the judicious doctors of the university, and excited a warm controversy between Hofmann and his colleagues Owen Guntherus, Cornelius Martin, John Caselius, and Duncan Liddel; a controversy also of too much consequence to be confined within such narrow bounds, and which accordingly, was carried on in other countries with the same fervour. The tumults it excited in Germany were appeased by the interposition of Henry Julius, duke of Brunswick, who, having made a careful inquiry into the nature of this debate, and consulted the professors of the academy of Rostoc on that subject, commanded Hofmann to retract publicly the invectives he had thrown out against philosophy in his writings and in his academical lectures, and to acknowledge, in the most open manner, the harmony and union of sound philosophy with true and genuine CENT. theology [y]. XVI. SECT. III. corrected XIV. The theological system that now pre- PART II. vails in the Lutheran academies, is not of the same tenor or spirit with that which was adopted The science in the infancy of the Reformation. As time and of theology experience are necessary to bring all things to and imperfection, so the doctrine of the Lutheran church proved. changed, imperceptibly and by degrees, its original form, and was improved and perfected in many respects. This will appear both evident and striking to those who are acquainted with the history of the doctrines relating to the interpretation of scripture, free-will, predestination, and other points, and who compare the Lutheran systems of divinity of an earlier date, with those that have been composed in modern times. The case could not well be otherwise. The glorious defenders of religious liberty, to whom we owe the various blessings of the Reformation, as they were conducted only by the suggestions of their natural sagacity, whose advances in the pursuit of knowledge are gradual and progressive, could not at once behold the truth in all its lustre, and in all its extent, but, as usually happens to persons that have been long accustomed to the darkness of ignorance, their approaches towards knowledge were but slow, and their views of things but imperfect. The Lutherans were greatly assisted both in correcting and illustrating the articles of their faith, partly by the controversies they were obliged to carry on with the Roman catholic doctors, [y] There is an accurate account of this controversy, with an enumeration of the writings published on both sides of the question, in the life of Owen Guntherus, which is inserted by Mollerus, in his Cimbria Literata, tom. i. p. 225.-See also Jo. Herm. ab Elswich, De fatis Aristotelis in Scholia Protestant. sect. xxvii. p. 76; and a German work, entitled, Gotter. Arnold, Kirchen and Kitzer-Historie, p. 947. CENT. doctors, and the disciples of Zuingle and Calvin, XVI. and partly by the intestine divisions that reigned PART II. among themselves, of which an account shall be SECT. III. The state theology. given in this chapter. They have been absurdly reproached, on account of this variation in their doctrine, by Bossuet, and other papal writers, who did not consider that the founders of the Lutheran church never pretended to divine inspiration; and that it is by discovering first the errors of others, that the wise generally prepare themselves for the investigation of truth. XV. The first and principal object that drew of exegetic the attention and employed the industry of the reformers, was the exposition and illustration of the sacred writings, which, according to the doctrine of the Lutheran church, contain all the treasures of celestial wisdom; all things that relate to faith and practice. Hence it happened, that the number of commentators and expositors among the Lutherans was equal to that of the eminent and learned doctors that adorned that communion, At the head of them all, Luther and Melancthon are undoubtedly to be placed; the former, on account of the sagacity and learning, discovered in his explications of several portions of scripture, and particularly of the books of Moses, and the latter, in consequence of his commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul, and other learned labours of that kind which are abundantly known. A second class of expositors, of the same communion, obtained also great applause in the learned world, by their successful application to the study of the Holy Scriptures, in which we may rank Matthias Flacius, whose Glossary and key to the sacred writings [x] is extremely useful in unfolding the meaning of the inspired penmen; John Bugenhagius, Justus Jonas, Andrew Osiander, [] The Latin titles are Glossa Scripturæ Sacræ, and Clavis Scripturæ Sacræ. |