CAB 



occur in the vvrilingsof the Jews. The probable veafon is, 

 that thefe mylleries, which dilTor materially from the ancient 

 doarine of llie Jcwi(h church, w.re entrullcd only to the 

 initiated, under a folemn oath of fecrecy ; and therefore lew 

 pcrfons would venture to commit ilicm to wntmg. Books 

 that were written would be lludiouny concealed from piib- 

 lic infpeaion, and their enigmatical language would be a feal 

 upon their meaning, which could not be broken by the vul- 

 var hand of an uninitiated Jew. Befidcs, the Jews were for 

 many centuries deeply involved in conlroverfies concerning 

 their traditionary laws, and if llicy were polTeffcd of Tal- 

 mudical erudition, they thought ihcmfclvos fufTiciently learn- 

 ed : not to add, that the whole nation was oppreffed and 

 haraffed bv perfeculion. 



That this fyllem of the cabbaliftic pliilofophy, which we 

 may confider as the acroamatic, efotcric, or concealed doc- 

 trine of the Jews, by way of contradillinftion from the ex- 

 oteric or popular doClrine, was not of Hebrew origm, we 

 may conclude with a very great degree of probability, from 

 the total diflimilaritv of its abdrufe and myfteiious doarines, 

 to the fimple principles of religion taught in the Mofaic law ; 

 and that it was borrowed from the Egyptian fchools will 

 fufficienlly appear from a compaiifon of its tenets with thofe 

 of the oriental and Alexandrian pliilofophy. (See Alex- 

 andrian.) Many writers have, indeed, imagined that they 

 have found in the cabbahilic dogmas, a near refcmblance of 

 the doarines of Chriftianity, and they have thought, that 

 the fundamental principles of this myftical fyftcm were de- 

 rived from divine revelation. This opinion, however, may 

 be traced up to a prejudice which originated with the Jews, 

 and palTed from them to the Chriftian fathers, by which they 

 were led to afcribe all Pagan wifdom to an Hebrew origin; 

 a notion which very probably took its rife in Egypt, when 

 Pagan tenets firft crept in aminig the Jews. Philo, Jofephus, 

 and other learned Jews, in order to flatter their own vanity, 

 and that of their countrymen, induftrioufly propagated this 

 opinion ; and the more learned fathers of the Chrillian church 

 who entertained a high opinion of the Platonic philofophy, 

 haftily adopted it, from an imagination that if they comld 

 trace back the moll valuable doarines of Paganifm to a 

 4^ebrew origin, this could not fail to recommend the Jewifh 

 and Chriftian religions to the attention of the Gentile philo- 

 fophers. Many learned moderns, relying implicitly upon 

 thefe authorities, have maintained the fame opinion, and have 

 thence been inclined to credit the report of the divine origi- 

 nal of the Jevv-ilh cabbala. But the opinion is unfounded ; 

 and the cabbaii'.lic fyllem is cITentially inconfiftent with the 

 pure doarine of divine revehition. The true ftate of the 

 cafe feems to be, that the Jews, like otlitr oriental nations, 

 from the mod remote period, had fecret doarines or mylle- 

 ries. During the prophetic ages, thefe, probably, confided 

 in a fimple explination of thofe divine truths, which the pro- 

 phets delivered under the veil of emblems. After this period, 

 when the feas of the EITencs and Therapeutx were formed 

 in E^ypt, foreign tenets and inditutions were borrowed from 

 the Egyptians and Greeks, and, in the form of allegorical 

 interpretations of the law, were admitted into the Jewilh 

 mylleries. Tliefe innovations chiefly confided in certain 

 dogmas concerning God and divine things, at this time re- 

 ceived in the Egyptian fchools, particularly at Alexandria, 

 where the Platonic and Pythagorean doariiits on thefe fub- 

 jeas had been blended with the oriental philofophy. The 

 Jewifh myfteries thus enlarged by the acceffion of Pagan 

 dogmas, were conveyed from Egypt to Palelline, at the time 

 when the Pharifees, who had been driven into Egypt under 

 Hyrcanus, returned, with many other Jews, into their own 

 country. From this time the cabbalillic mylleries continued 



CAB 



to be taught in the Jcwifli fchools ; but, at length, they were 

 adulterated by a mixture of Peripatetic doarines, and other 

 tenets, which fprang up in the middle age. Thefe myfte- 

 ries were not, probably, reduced to any fyllematlc forms in 

 writing, till after the difperfion of the Jews, when, in con- 

 fequence of their national calamities, they became apprchen- 

 five that thofe facred treafures would-be corrupted, or loft. 

 In preceding periods, the cabbalidic doarines underwent 

 various corruptions, particularly from the prevalence of the 

 Arillotelian philofophy. The fimilarity or rather the coin- 

 cidence, of tlie cabbalidic, Alexandrian, and oriental philo- 

 fophy, will be fufficiently evinced by briefly dating the com- 

 mon tenets in which thefe different fyftems agreed; they areas 

 follow : " All things are derived by emanation from one 

 principle : and this principle is God. From him a fubftaii- 

 tial power immediately proceeds, which is the image of God, 

 and the fource of all fubfequent emanations. This fccond 

 principle fends forth, by the energy of emanation, other na- 

 tures, which are more or lefs perfecl, according to their dif- 

 ferent degrees of dldance, in the fcale of emanation, from the 

 firll fourcr of exidence, and which conftitute different worlds 

 or orders of being, all united to the eternal power from 

 which they proceed. Matter is nothing more than the mod 

 remote effea of the emanative energy of the Deity. The 

 material world receives its form from the immediate agency 

 of powers far beneath the firft fource of being. Evil is the 

 neceflary effea of the imperfection of matter. Human fouls 

 arc diftant emanations from Deity, and after they are libe- 

 rated from their material vehicles, will return, through va- 

 rious ftages of purification, to the fountain whence they firll 

 proceeded." From this brief view it appears, that the cab- 

 balidic fyllem, which is the offspring of the other two, is a 

 fanatical kind of philofophy, originating in defea of judg- 

 ment and eccentricity of imagination, and tending to pro- 

 duce a wild and pernicious enthufiafm. For a fuller account 

 of the tenets of the Jewifti cabbala, we refer to Brucker's 

 Hid. of Phllof. by Enfield, vol. ii. chap. ill. 



Dr. Burnet examines into the merits of the feveral parts 

 of the cabbala, which he finds to be without rational foun- 

 dation, and not conducing to any real knowledge. But he 

 conjeaures, that the moll ancient cabbala, before it was 

 confounded and defiled with fables, might contain fome- 

 thing of the original of things, and their gradations ; par- 

 ticnlarly, that, before the creation, all things had their 

 being in God ; that from him they flowed as emanations ; 

 that they will all flow back again into him, when they are 

 dedroyed ; and that there will fucceed other emanations and 

 regenerations, and other dedruaions and abforptions to all 

 eternity, as they had been from all eternity ; that nothing is 

 produced out of nothing ; and that the things produced ne- 

 ver return to nothing, but always have their fubfidence in 

 God. Burn. Archasol. lib. i. cap. 7. Phil. Tranf. N" 

 201. p. 800. 



Among the explications of the law, which, are furnidied 

 by the cabbala, and which, in reality, are little elfe but the 

 feveral interpretations and decifions of the Rabbins on the 

 laws of Mofes, fome are mydical ; confiding of odd abdrufe 

 fignifications given to a word, or even to the letters whereof 

 it is compofed : whence, by diflerent combinations, they 

 draw meanings from Scripture, very different from thofe it 

 feems naturally to import. The art of interpreting Scrip- 

 ture after this manner is called more particularly cabbala : 

 and it is in this lad fcnfe the word is more ordinarily ufed 

 among us. This cabbala, called alfo artificial cabbala (to 

 didinguifli it from the firtl kind, or fimple tradition), is di- 

 vided into three forts. The fird, called ganatrla, confids 

 in taking letters as figures, or arithmetical numbers, and 



explaining 



