To their
faithful votaries and followers, they promised abundance of celestial
wisdom, unspeakable riches, exemption from disease, an immortal state of
man of ever blooming youth, and above all the _philosopher's stone_.
Learning and improvement of the mind were, by this order, considered as
superfluous and despised. They found all knowledge in the Bible; this,
however, has been supposed rather a pretext to obviate a charge, which
was brought against them, of not believing in the Christian religion.
The truth is, they imagined themselves superior to divine revelation,
and supposed every useful acquisition, every virtue to be derived from
the influence of the Deity on the soul of man. In this, as well as in
many other respects, they appear to be followers of Paracelsus, whom
they profess to revere as a Messenger of the divinity. Like him, they
pretend to cure all diseases; through _faith_ and the power of the
imagination, to heal the most mortal disorders by a touch, or even by
simply looking at the patient. The universal remedy was likewise a grand
secret of the order, the discovery of which was promised to all its
faithful members.
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