Philosophy of the Jews_, vol. ii.

'Two methods of instruction were in use among the Jews; the one public,
or _exoteric_; the other secret, or esoteric. The exoteric doctrine was
that which was openly taught the people from the law of Moses and the
traditions of the fathers. The esoteric was that which treated of the
mysteries of the Divine nature, and other sublime subjects, and was
known by the name of the Cabala. The latter was, after the manner of the
Pythagorean and Egyptian mysteries, taught only to certain persons,
who were bound, under the most solemn anathema, not to divulge it.
Concerning the miraculous origin and preservation of the Cabala, the
Jews relate many marvellous tales. They derive these mysteries from
Adam, and assert that, while the first man was in Paradise, the angel
Rasiel brought him a book from heaven, which contained the doctrines
of heavenly wisdom, and that, when Adam received this book, angels came
down to him to learn its contents, but that he refused to admit them to
the knowledge of sacred things entrusted to him alone; that, after the
Fall, this book was taken back into heaven; that, after many prayers
and tears, God restored it to Adam, from whom it passed to Seth. In the
degenerate age before the flood this book was lost, and the mysteries it
contained almost forgotten; but they were restored by special revelation
to Abraham, who committed them to writing in the book _Jezirah.'--Vide
Enfield, vol. ii. p. 219_.

'The Hebrew word _Cabala,'_ says Dom Calmet, 'signifies tradition, and
the Rabbins, who are named Cabalists, apply themselves principally to
the combination of certain words, numbers, and letters, by the means of
which they boasted they could reveal the future, and penetrate the
sense of the most difficult passages of Scripture. This science does not
appear to have any fixed principles, but depends upon certain ancient
traditions, whence its name Cabala. The Cabalists have a great number of
names which they style sacred, by means of which they raise spirits, and
affect to obtain supernatural intelligence.'--See Calmet, Art. _Cabala_.

'We spake before,' says Lightfoot, 'of the commonness of Magick among
them, one singular means whereby they kept their own in delusion, and
whereby they affronted ours. The general expectation of the nation of
Messias coming when he did had this double and contrary effect, that it
forwarded those that belonged to God to believe and receive the G