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as well as many of the Christian fathers, have supposed all philosophy to be derived from Divine revelation, and who, despairing of being able to arrive at any true knowledge of nature by the light of reason, have had recourse to the sacred oracles, and particularly to the Mosaic history of the creation, and endeavoured upon this foundation to raise a new structure of philosophy. From a great multitude of writers who have pursued this track, many of them "with little reputation to themselves or benefit to science,lit may suffice to select a few, who have been more distinguished than the rest for their learning or ability.ng 6 207

The first writer of this class who deservés distinct mention, is Otto Casman, president of the college of Stade, who flourished about the close of the sixteenth century. He was dissatisfied with the unprofitable subtleties of the Aristotelian philosophy, and determined, in the study of nature, rather to rely upon the decision of the sacred writings, than upon the doctrine of the ancient Heathen philosophers. Even in his explanation of Scripture he refused to call in the assistance of philosophical rules of interpretation. In a work entitled Cosmopœia, & On the Formation of the World," he derives his physical doctrine from the Scriptures; and in his Modesta Assertio Philosophic et Christianæ et Vera, Modest Assertion of true and Christian Philosophy," he professes to write Christian Institutes of grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, &c. With Casman may be joined Henry Alsted, professor of divinity at Alba-Julia till 1638, when he died, in his fiftieth year. In his Encyclopedia Biblica,5 he undertakes to deduce the elements of philosophy, jurisprudence, and medicine from the sacred Scriptures; a work which shews more good inItention than sound judgment. These writers have treated the books of the sacred Scriptures as some ancient critics treated Homer, who, whilst they pretended to find in him cevery kind of science and wisdom, suffered the true meaning and spirit of his poems to escape, their attention! The Philosophia Mosaica, Mosaic Philosophy," of Pfeiffer is liable to the same censureil 92161 16 2murtqzɔ ɔli

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bo What these writers attempted with respect to philosophy fin general, others undertook, but with no better success, in -particular branches of science & Conrad Aslach, of Bergen, sin Norway, dafter having been instructed in the family of -the celebrated astronomer Tycho Brahe, and visited many of the principal schools of Europe, was, at the beginning -bf the seventeenth century, made professor of philosophy and theology in the University of Copenhagen, and was the author of " A System of Christian Ethics and Physics.” Lambertus Danteus, a celebrated Protestant divine, who was a professor of theology at Geneva, wrote a treatise of the same kind, entitled Physica Christiana, “Christian Physics." A Scriptural System of Politics was also written by Scribánus and of Natural Law, by Valentine Albert: swriters, whose works are more calculated to confound than to discover truthaoiroh bas and da geiletotriz A -JiAmong the Scriptural Philosophers must also be reckon-ed those who have written Mosaic Cosmogonies, or attemptbed to give a philosophical explanation of the origin of the -worlds on the ground of the Mosaic history of the creation. Of these the two principal are Dickinson and Burnetsoitet 180 Edmund Dickinson, an English physician, born in 1624, wrote a treatise De Physica veteri et vera, "On true and Lancient Physics," in which he attempts, from the scrip-tural account of the creation, to explain the manner în which the world was formed. Assuming, as the ground of his theory, the Atomic doctrine, and the existence of an Immaterial Cause of the concourse of indivisible atoms, the supposes the particles of matter agitated by a double (motions one gentle and transverse, of the particles among -themselves, whence elementary corpuscles are formed; the bother circular, by which the whole mass is revolved, and athe regions of heaven and earth are produced. By thế mostion of the elementary corpuscles of different magnitude -and form, she supposes the different bodies of nature to shave been produced, and attempts, upon this plan, to deescribe the process of creation through each of the six days. He explains at large the formation of human nature, showing in what manner, by means of a plastic seminal virtue, man became an animated being. The theory,

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produced. This theory is well imagined, supported with much erudition, and described with great elegance of diction: but it can only be considered as an ingenious fiction, which rests upon no other foundation than mere conjecWhiston, Cluverius, and others, have also, upon the ground of the Mosaic cosmogony, formed theories of the earth: but these philosophical romances have contributed little towards the improvement of knowledge.

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Another writer who claims a place among the Scriptural Philosophers is Joannes Amos Comenius, a native of Moravia, born in the year 1592, the author of a celebrated and useful grammatical work, entitled Janua Linguarum, “The Porch of Languages." His Protestant principles (for he was a minister of the reformed church, first in his native country, and afterwards in Poland), led him to inquire freely into the grounds of opinions both philosophical and theological; and he soon discovered the futility of the Pee ripatetic philosophy, and resolved, if possible, to substi tute something better in its stead. Taking sense, reason, and Scripture for his guides, he framed a system of physics, which he entitled, Synopsis Physica ad Lumen divinum reformata, "A Synopsis of Physics reformed according to Divine Light." Comenius supposes three principles of nature-matter, spirit, and light; the first a dark, inactive, corporeal substance, which receives forms; the second, the subtle, living, invisible substance, which animates ma terial bodies; the third, a middle substance between the two former, lucid, visible, moveable, capable of penetrat ing matter, which is the instrument by which spirit acts upon matter, and which performs its office by means of motion, agitation, or vibration. Of these three principles he conceived all created beings to be composed. This doctrine he attempts to derive from the Mosaic history of the creation; but the Scholastic fictions which men of this cast ascribe to Moses, Moses himself would probably never have owned.

The track was pursued by Joannes Bayer," a Hungarian divine, who flourished about the middle of the last century.

• A new Theory of the Earth, Lond. 1698.

• Geologia. Hamb. 1700. 4to. In [<<_{10) Bayle: ^› Præf. Op. Didact. Morhoff, Polyh. t. ii. l. iî. p. i. c. 3. § 5. Li