Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	canonical_a	old_a	testament_n	7,030	5	8.4269	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11406	Babilon, a part of the Seconde vveeke of Guillaume de Saluste seigneur du Bartas, with the commentarie, and marginall notes of S.G.S. Englished by William L'Isle; Seconde sepmaine. Day 2. Part 2. English	Du Bartas, Guillaume de Salluste, seigneur, 1544-1590.; Lisle, William, 1579?-1637.; Goulart, Simon, 1543-1628.	1595 (1595)	STC 21662; ESTC S110840	52,878	76

and after vntill the building of Babel The Poet answereth it was the language of God himselfe Héereupon ariseth two opinions The first is of those that to honour their countrey after the example of some ancient Heathens would make vs beléeue they are sprung of the earth or fallen from the Moone and thinke their spéech the most excellent of all other The Egyptians and Phrygians haue long sithence debated this matter as shall be said more at large in the next Section A fewe yéeres ago a Phisition of Brabant named I. Goropius set foorth a great booke entituled Origines Antuerpianae wherin he aymeth especially at this marke to prooue the Cymbrike toong which in his opinion is the base Almaine to be the first spéech of the world Since his death a certaine writer of Liege hath set out many other bookes of his about the same matter and in one of them that is called Hermathena this Cymbrike toong or lowe Dutch is preferred farre aboue the Romaine Gréeke and Hebrue It asketh a long discourse to answere his reasons for this time I will answere but in a worde Namely that all that which he alledgeth for the preheminence of his owne toong is a méere cauill that is called in the Schooles Petitio principij when a Sophyster taketh for granted that which is expresly denied him and he knowes not how to proue Goropius groundeth al his discourse on this that the Cymbrike toong hath borrowed nothing of any other and that the Hebrue is comen of it and euen borroweth of the Cymbrike This a man will denie Goropius and his disciples and whereas they shewe some Hebrue words or Phrases that resemble the words and termes of the base Almaine and so conclude that Adam spake low Dutch and that the language of Moses and the Prophets is hard ambiguous poore and borrowed of the Cymbrike which they were not well able to follow I answere that they are deceiued and that on the contrarie they ought to saie the Hebrue was afore all other toongs who were begun in Babel and haue sithence brought foorth infinite others as the high and low Dutch and other like now vsed in the world I woulde the learned professours of principall toongs woulde finde some time to refute th'allegations of Goropius Especially those that make against the Hebrue which he hath too saucily disgraced in the second booke of his Hermath Pag. 25. 26. c. The second opinion which I hold with the Poet is that the Hebrue toong inclosed chiefly in the Canonicall bookes of the old Testament which haue béene woonderfully preserued vntill our time is the first spéech of the world and the same that Moses meant when he said the whole earth had one mouth or language before the building of Babel The reasons thereof are touched in a worde by the Poet who doth hereafter treat of them more at large as we haue also noted in the margent meane to speake somewhat thereof in the 12. Annotation Now whereas this first language hath at this day no letter nor worde but is full of maimes and myseries it may be saide of euery toong since the confusion that it is nothing but corrupt iangling weake vncertaine and changing euer from time to time as many haue already shewed heretofore The Gréeke and Latine toongs haue changed fiue or sixe times and the learned know what wrangling there hath béene about the writing pronouncing and disposing of their termes phrases Then what is to be said of the Gréekish and Latinish toongs those that are but apes of the other What of the barbarous strange and new toongs or of those whose foolish pronunciation onely no man can abide or of others that by vse time and force of people are waxen currant but this I leaue to such as list to comment héereupon at large 10. Long since the Phrygians The Egyptians being euer great braggers vaunted long ago that they were the most ancient people of the world a certaine king of theirs named Psammetichus attempted to search out the truth and for that end thought méete by some meanes to discouer what was the first language of the world Thus he tooke two new-borne babes and deliuered them vnto shepheards to be noursed commanding they should be brought vp in a secret staule there to sucke the milke of goates and straitly forbidding that none should come there to pronounce any word before them then after a certaine time when they were of age they should be left alone and made to fast a while Now so soone as they were past two yéeres olde their gouernour hauing in all points accomplished the kings commandement came to open the staule and then the two children began to crie Bec bec the shepheard said not a word they repeat still the words and he let his master vnderstand therof who caused the children to be brought secretly vnto him and heard them speake So when the meaning of the word was asked and th' Egyptians vnderstood it signified bread in the Phrygian toong they graunted the preheminence of antiquitie vnto the Phrygians Herodotus writeth that the priests of Vulcan in the citie of Memphis told him the same tale There are some others that thinke these babes were brought vp of dombe nourses howsoeuer it be sure it is that the pride of the Egyptians was by some such deuise daunted Suidas touching the very point saith that babes nourished of a goate must néedes crie somthing like a goate and such was the sound of the word Bec a méete reward for his wisedome that made such a triall The Grecians in old time were woont to call an old dotard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word composed of Bec and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the moone the same is turned into a prouerbe which Erasmus expoundeth But Goropius in the 5. and 9. booke of his Origines plaieth the subtill Sophister as his maner is and vseth his beake vpon the word Bec concluding since bec in low Dutch signifies bread and Psammetichus his babes called for bec that so long ago they spoke lowe Dutch whereupon it followeth that his toong is the most ancient of the world He calleth also his discourses vpon the same Becceselanea offering the subiect of a comedie to some new Aristophanes But let vs consider the answers of the Poet to the Phrygians and to Goropius 11. O fooles that little thought The first answere is that this word Bec that the children spoke was a cōfused sound comming néere the crie of goates And how could they aske bread séeing that they vnderstood it not neuer heard it spoken by any bodie neuer heard the meaning of it The second is that words are not borne with vs but that we learne them by haunt long vsage If they were borne with vs doubtles these infants would haue spoken as well other words for the vnderstanding being mooued the belly pinched with hunger would not content it selfe to expresse his passion in one syllable The third is

and alter-placing the letters of Hebrue words and that which the Gréekes others haue after their example inuented is nothing in comparison For there is scarce any word in the Hebrue but being inuerted as may easily be done and somtimes two thrée or fower waies as the number of the letters are offereth to our consideration another word either of like sense or contrarie or making relation to the first giueth thereto such light beautie and liuelihood that it is woonderfull to behold Againe oftentimes a Nowne or other word yea a letter importeth a whole sentence like vnto the Egyptians Hieroglyphikes inuented of them to the imitation of the Hebrue letters and words yet nothing in comparison of them This matter would require a whole volume to be written according to Art by the hand of some one that were wel seene in the toongs and I could name thrée paire yet liuing that are well able to do it In the meane season whosoeuer is desirous to search further herein let him read the Harmonie of the World written by Franciscus Georgius and Guido Faber the Heptap of Ioannes Picus Earle of Mirandula the Hieroglyphickes of I. Goropius from the beginning of the seuenth booke to the end of the sixtéenth thrée bookes of I. Reuclinus De arte Cabaiistica and other thrée bookes of his De Verbo mirabili the Cabala of Picus with the interpretations of Angelus Burgoneuensis thereupon Further much good matter to this purpose a man may finde in Thesauro linguae sanctae set out by S. Pagninus and after augmented by many other learned professors of this toong Sée further the Syriac Institut c. of Caninius the Mithridates of C. Gesnerus the Alphabet in 12. toongs of Postella and his booke De antiquitate linguae Hebraica there are many such Treatises set foorth by diuers learned men whereout and of the bookes aforenamed may be gathered infinite proofes of that which the Poet hath touched in this second reason The thirde is that there liues no nation vnder the cope of heauen but kéepeth still some words of Hebrue in their spéech First the Caldean Syrian Arabian Egyptian Persian Ethiopian and many other as the Gotthicke Troglodytick Punick are so deriued thence that they come as néere it as Italian to Latine some more some lesse Secondly the Gréeke Latine and those others that are farther off haue yet here and there some words that we must néedes grant are sprong from the same fountaine a man may set downe a many of them but it were too long here to coate the examples Thirdly the rootes of many words that are taken to be Gréeke or some other toong are founde to be Hebrue as Franciscus Iunius hath plainly shewed in his learned oration De linguae Hebraeae antiquitate praestantia The fourth reason is that the doctrine of the old Testament which is the doctrine of the first and most ancient people of the world was not written but in Hebrue No man denieth that the people that came of Sem the sonne of Noe is the most ancient among these remained the Church of God and the Hebrue toong God spake not but in the Hebrue toong by the high priest that wore the sacred Ephod and the breast-plate of iudgement whereon was set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vrim Thummim words signifying lights perfectiōs which some thinke was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or four-letered name Iehoua contained within the brest-plate others say it was the ranks of those twelue precious stones there enchased that on them had ingrauen the names of the twelue tribes of Israel as if it were a repetition of that which Moses saith in the 17.18.19 and 20. verses of the 28. chapter of Exodus where he speaketh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vrim Thummim in the 30. verse others hold they were certaine names others are of diuers other opinions Some late writers thinke those words were ingrauen in the breast-plate This is a secret the search whereof whether one dispute of the words or what they meant or what 's become of them c. is very painfull and néedlesse for that now sithence the comming of Christ we ought to follow the truth it selfe and not stay vpon shadowes These words doubtles gaue to vnderstand that all light and perfection commeth of our Sauiour in whom all the fulnes of the Godhead bodily dwelleth in whom are hid all the treasures of vnderstanding and knowledge who is the light of his Church that is made vnto vs of God his father wisedome iustice redemption and holines In all iudgements demaunds oracles and reuelations that were made by Vrim and Thummim as may be gathered out of the 27. chapter of Numbers the first booke of Samuel the 13. and 30. chapters and other places where aduise and counsell was asked of God and answere was made by the mouth of the high priest there appéered a cléere light a sure truth and perfection all which in Christ is accomplished Now these demaunds answers were propounded rendred in the Hebrue toong long time before any other language was vsed in the world For so soone after their scattering at Babel they could not well be incorporated into a common-wealth and as for religion that was not kept but in the race of Sem as Moses plainly declareth all through the historie of Abrahā Concerning the Prophets their dreames visions God spake not they vnderstood not neither answered or taught they the Church but in the Hebrue that significant vnmingled holy chaste heauenly toong wheras others lispe and stammer out vncertaine sounds and are infinite waies defiled through the dishonest foolish erronious and vngodly discourses of their inuentours I except the bookes of the new Testament and all writings drawen from the cléere fountaines of holy Scripture besides the which there is nothing but vanitie filth wickednes and vngodlines in the world Moreouer the Lord himselfe setting downe his law to his people and writing it twise with his owne finger and speaking with his owne mouth to Moses and his other seruants in the Mount vsed the Hebrue toong So did the Angels and Prophets and Iesus Christ spake the Syriacke a toong so deriued of the Hebrue that they are very like as their Grammars declare The Apostles spake diuers toongs and wrote also according to the people and persons with whom they had to doe yet for all that in their bookes may be noted an infinite many of phrases borrowed of the Hebrue as the learned interpreters of the new Testament haue exactly shewed The fift and last reason set downe by the Poet is that the Hebrue words especially the proper names some are alledged for example and many other may be added are of great waight and importance for somtimes they lay open vnto vs the chiefe things that doe befall the person so named Nay further if a man would take the paines to change the order of letters he may finde in them many goodly mysteries