Mind, as the radius of a circle to its centre. The souls of good men ascend above the mansion of the angels, and are delighted with the vision of the first light, which illuminates all the worlds.

The universe continues to exist by the Divine energy of emanation. Whilst this energy is exerted, different forms and orders of beings remain: when it is withheld, all the streams of existence return into their fountain. The Ensoph, or Deity, contains all things within himself; and there is always the same quantity of existence, either in a created or an uncreated state. When it is in an uncreated state, God is all; when worlds are created, the Deity is unfolded, or evolved, by various degrees of emanation, which constitute the several forms and orders of created nature.1

16.

Such is the general outline of the Cabbalistic philosophy, as far as we are able to discover it through the thick cloud of words by which it is concealed; and we shall be readily excused from entering into any further detail of so fanciful and mystical a system.

It is impossible to review the mass of conjectures and fictions, called the Jewish Cabbala, without perceiving that it could not be derived from the pure source of Divine revelation; or to compare the Cabbalistic doctrine with the Oriental and Egyptian philosophy, without discovering that they are the same system. The Cabbalistic notion of Deity as a pure intellectual fire, and of the production of nature as an emanation from this fountain, was taught, as we have already seen, in all the Eastern nations, particularly the Chaldean and Persian. Change the names, and for Mithras substitute Ensoph; for Oromasdes, Adam Kadman; and for Arimanius, Klippoth: and then compare the dogmas advanced concerning each, and it will be sufficiently evident from what source the Jews derived their Cabbala. The Gnostic doctrine of ons subsisting in the Plenitude of the Divine Nature, which sprang from the same stock, is perfectly similar to that of the Cabbalistic Sephira: both appear to have been known to Philo. The Alexandrian philosophers of the Eclectic sect adopt

16 Lorriiæ lib. Druschim. et Iriræ Porta Coelor. ed. a Knorrio in Cabb. Denud. Menassch B. Isracl de Creat. p. 27. Moses Corduer. Pard. Rimmonim. tr. iv. p. 23.

ed the same notions, and pursued them into a variety of extravagant and absurd fancies, in many particulars nearly resembling those of the Jewish school. The common tenets, in which the Oriental, the Alexandrian, and the Cabbalistic philosophers were agreed, may be thus briefly stated. All things are derived, by emanation, from one principle. This principle is God. From him a substantial power immediately proceeds, which is the image of God, and the source of all subsequent emanations. This second principle sends forth, by the energy of emanation, other natures, which are more or less perfect, according to their different degrees of distance, in the scale of emanation, from the first source of existence, and which constitute different worlds, or orders of being, all united to the eternal power from which they proceed. Matter is nothing more than the most remote effect of the emanative energy of the Deity. The material world receives its form from the immediate agency of powers far beneath the First Source of Being. Evil is the necessary effect of the imperfection of matter. Human souls are distant emanations from the Deity; and, after they are liberated from their material vehicles, will return, through various stages of purification, to the fountain whence they first proceeded. On the whole, the similarity, or rather the coincidence, of the Cabbalistic, Alexandrian, and Oriental philosophy, leaves us little room to hesitate in pronouncing the latter the parent of the two former. With respect to the Cabbalistic system in particular, it cannot be difficult, after the survey we have taken of its leading tenets, to form a judgment of its merit. It is unquestionably a fanatical kind of philosophy, which originates in defect of judgment, and eccentricity of imagination, and which tends to produce a wild and pernicious enthusiasm. The Cabbalistic system can by no means be reconciled with just ideas of the Divine Nature; since, in supposing all things to flow from God, it makes all beings not only dependent upon him, but a part of his essence. In this system, all spiritual and even material substances are so intimately united with their origin, that they do not differ from it in their nature, but merely in their mode of existence; the universe is an evolution of the Divine essence, and is, in fact, God. To this we must add, that the idea, which this

system affords, of the mode of Divine operation, by an expansion or retraction of his essence, is too gross to be applied to the first intelligent cause of all things. Nothing can be more visionary, than the fundamental hypothesis, that God is an infinite light, which has withdrawn itself from a portion of infinite space, in order to unfold itself in sundry emanations, which constitute the universe; nor can any thing be more fanciful than the numerous fictions which fill up the system. Its tendency to encourage fanaticism cannot be doubted. The first principle of this philosophy is the ground upon which the whole structure of enthusiasm is erected. From the notion that all things emanate from God, and will flow back to him, it naturally follows, that it is the great end of philosophy to prepare the human mind for its return to its source, when it will be absorbed in the Divine Plenitude from which it flowed; a doctrine which is the very soul of enthusiasm, both theological and philosophical.

But it is high time that we retreat out of this fairy land, where we should not have remained so long, had it not been necessary to ascertain distinctly the place of the Jewish Cabbala in the history of philosophy, in order to discover its connexion with preceding, and its influence upon contemporary or subsequent, systems: for it must be confessed, that the history of this system is chiefly valuable, as it furnishes an example of the folly of permitting reason, in its search after truth, to follow the wild reveries of an unbridled imagination."7

17 Vidend. Jo. A. Lent. Theol. Jud. Reimann. Hist. Theol. Jud. Budd. Int. Ph. Heb. Menasse ben Israel ap. Cromayer. Scrutin. Relig. Diss. Leo Mutin. de Cærem. et Consuetud. Jud. R. Jos. Albo, Fundam. Fid. R. Moses ad Jezirah. Lib. Cosri. Menasse ben Israel de Term. Vitæ, de Creat. &c. Abarbanel de Cap. Fid. Saubert. Palestra Theol. Diss. 1. Windet de Vit. Funct. Statu. Bartolocc. Bibl. Rabb. Hartman. loc. paral. Talm. Cressæ. 1708. Otton. Hist. Doct. Mishn Reuchlin. de Art. Cabb. Schiammii Intr. in Dialect. Cabb. Hackspan. de Cabbala. Carpzov. Intr. in Theol. Jud. Pici Apol. Op. Præf. Basil. 1601. Compend. ap. Budd. Intr. § 34. Pestorii Ars Cabb. Bas. 1581. Rittengel de Lib. Jezirah. Amstel. 1675. Knorrii a Rosenroth Cabbala denudata. Solisbaci, 1677. Contin, lib. Sohar. Jezirah, &c. Hen. More ad lib. Druschim. Wachter. Spinozizm. in Jud. Ejusd. Elucidarium Cabb. Rom. 1706. Mayer. de Trinit. Harder. 1712. Burgonovo select. Cabb. Dogm. Basnage. Eispumenger, Wolf. Burnet. Arch, c. 7.

BOOK V.

OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SARACENS.

CHAP. I.

OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PHILOSOPHY AMONG

THE SARACENS, OR ARABIANS.

AT the period when ignorance and barbarism prevailed through every part of the Roman empire, philosophy found an asylum among the Saracens, or Arabians; a people who, for several centuries after the appearance of Mahomet, were scarcely less celebrated in their literary and philosophical, than in their civil and military character. Before we proceed to describe the state of philosophy in the Christian world, from the birth of Christ to the revival of letters, we must, therefore, briefly relate the history, and delineate the features, of the Arabian or Saracenic philosophy.

Concerning the ancient state of philosophy in Arabia, we have already seen, that little is known. The Arabian writers, as far as we are acquainted with them, leave the philosophical and literary history of their country, prior to the time of Mahomet, in almost total obscurity. Abulfarius, one of the principal Arabian annalists, confesses,1 that there are no certain records of the ancient Arabian nations, nor any means of investigating their history. Of this deficiency it is wholly unnecessary to search for any other cause, than the barbarism which at that time prevailed almost universally through this country. The Arabian writers themselves oppose the state of Islamism to the state of ignorance which preceded. Ebn Chalican,3 an

Dynast. ix. p. 100.

3

2 Ib. p. 101.

Ap. Pococke Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 153.

Arabian historian, mentions it as an acknowledged fact, that the first inventor of Arabic writing was Moramer, an Arabian, who lived not long before the time of Mahomet; and relates, that at the time when the Koran was published, there was not a single person to be found in the whole district of Yamen, who could write or read Arabic. The Jews and Christians who resided in Medina were, for their learning, distinguished by the appellation of "The People of the Book," whilst the Arabians were almost universally illiterate. Mahomet himself was wholly destitute of learning. The Arabians themselves call him, "The illiterate Prophet;" and boast, that God chose out of the unlearned the messenger whom he sent to the unlearned. It is no wonder, therefore, that this prophet, in framing his new religion, found it necessary to call in assistance from the Jews and Christians. He could not have accomplished his great design without the help of Warakan, the kinsman of his wife Chadijia, who had been conversant with the Jews and Christians, and could write Hebrew as well as Arabic.6

The appearance of Mahomet, and the promulgation of his religion, in themselves contributed nothing towards the progress of knowledge and philosophy. This impostor thought it necessary to keep his followers as ignorant as himself. That he might, at one stroke, cut off impertinent contradiction, he issued an edict, which made the study of the liberal sciences and arts a capital offence. At the same time, to captivate the imaginations of his ignorant followers, and hereby establish his authority, he sent forth in separate portions, a sacred book, to which he gave the name of the Koran, containing the doctrines and precepts of his religion. This book, which was chiefly a compilation, sufficiently injudicious and incoherent, from the books of the Nestorian Christians and of the Jews then resident in Arabia, and from the ancient superstitions of the Arabians, long continued the only object of study among the Mahometans. Their reverence for this holy book, the leaves of which, they were taught to believe,

Ap. Pococke Specimen Hist. Arab. 1. c. * Pococke, ib. p. 156.

Elmacini Hist. Saracen. l. i. c. 1. p. 10.