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The history of the supernatural in all ages and nations
The history of the supernatural in all ages and nations Author:William Howitt Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE GREEK AND OTHER EASTERN CHURCHES. Perhaps, with the exception of Protestantism, there is not a faith recorded in the w... more »orld's history, which has leant not upon supernatural revelations, and these the most bright and frequent in proportion as we approach the primitive ages—Dr. J. J. Gahth Wilkinson. There is a great difference betwixt philosophy and other arts ; and a greater yet betwixt that philosophy itself which is of divine contemplation, and that which has a regard to things here below. Divine philosophy is much higher and braver; it seeks a larger scope, and being unsatisfied with what it sees, it aspires to the knowledge of something greater and fairer, and which nature has placed out of our view. The one only teaches us what is done upon the earth ; the other reveals to us that which is actually done in heaven. Seneca's Morals. IT is scarcely necessary to produce evidence of the spiritualism of the Greek Church; for it was for six centuries identical with the Roman Church, and on separating, did so politically and not polemically. The tenets of the Greek Church continued, and still continue, the same in all essentials except with regard to the procedure of the Holy Ghost, and in rejecting purgatory—without, however, expressly rejecting the intermediate state. All the historians of the first six centuries are the historians of the Church at large, up to that time including both Rome, Greece, and Syria; all were Syrians or Greeks. Eusebius was the Bishop of Caesarea in Syria. Socrates was a native of Constantinople; he was educated at Constantinople; commenced his career there as a special pleader, and, on retiring from practice, employed himself in writing his history. Sozomen was a Syrian,born in Palestine, educated at Ber...« less