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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	law_n	time_n	write_v	3,058	5	5.6338	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52613	A letter of resolution concerning the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation	Nye, Stephen, 1648?-1719.	1691 (1691)	Wing N1507B; ESTC R217844	25,852	20

whom they are derived or by whom they were invented He that is generally and indeed deservedly confess'd to have written the most learnedly on this Subject is D. Cudworth in the Intellectual System The Sum of what he saith up and down in that large Book in behalf of the Trinity is this The Christian Trinity is the very same with the Trinity of the Platonick Philosophers Yet we are not to think that the Platonists were the first Authors or Devisers of the Trinity Plato learned it of Parmenides Parmenides of the Pythagoreans Pythagoras from Orpheus and the Books of Egyptian Hermes and other Hermaic Books which Books contained the Arcane Theology of the Egyptians The Magisk or Chalday Oracles and the Mithraick Mysteries both of them derived from Zoroaster a most ancient and sage King of the Bactrians and Persians express also the Mystery of the Trinity The Romans had their Capitoline Trinity which they derived from the Phrygians they from the Samothracians This Consent of Philosophers and Nations makes it more than probable and no less than certain that the Trinity was no humane Invention for how should so many jump in the same groundless Conceit but a Theology of Divine Original even a Part of the Cabala Tradition or oral Law of the Jews which they had from Moses and he from GOD which also is the Opinion of Eusebius and Theodoret the ablest Historians and Antiquaries of the Primitive Church To make up weight I will fling into the Scale three Authorities altogether as considerable and authentick as any of these alledged by Dr. Cudworth Let them take the Grecian Trinity which is much older than the Roman Phrygian or Samothracian Let them take the Books of Hystaspes another most ancient and sage King of the Medes which Books are celebrated by Lactantius and other Fathers We will also give them the Sybillin Oracles or Verses which speak so expresly of the Father Son and Spirit and even of the Incarnation that no Trinitarian or Arian can deliver himself more explicitly or evidently He saith How should so many Philosophers and Nations jump in the same groundless Conceit Therefore the Trinity is a part of the Jewish Cabala or Oral Law and was from them borrowed by other Nations and by the Philosophers I omit that the Nations and Philosophers by him mentioned are but few But all Men know there was an incomparably greater Consent of Nations and Philosophers in Polytheism or the Acknowledgment and Worship of many distinct Gods And that Consideration should have made this learned Author aware that a surprizing Consent of many is not always the Effect of a divine Tradition but too often of a diabolical Suggestion or other Causes Again supposing the aforesaid Consent of Philosophers and Nations yet 't is very odly father'd by a Protestant Divine on a Cabala Tradition or Oral Law of the Jews 'T is one of the Principles of us Protestants to disclaim all pretended Cabala's and Traditions whether of Jews or Christians and to believe there never was any other Divine Tradition but only the Books of the Old and New Testaments I am ready to dispute this Point at large with any of our Opposers whenever they shall think fit again to insist on it In the mean time I take notice that indeed the Pharisees having devised of their own Heads divers Doctrines and Rites to give them the greater Authority they called them Traditions and pretended they were a Cabala or Oral Law delivered originally by Moses But the sounder part of the Jews themselves even all the Karaits disown any such Tradition or Law And our Saviour whose Authority I hope may be equivalent to Eusebius or Theodorets calls these Traditions and this pretended Law not a Theology of divine Original but Doctrines and Commandments of Men Matth. 15.6 9. Nor is there any mention or least Intimation of such a Cabala or Law in any of the Books of the Old Testament And it seems incredible that among so many of the Holy Writers there should be no where found so much as any Allusion to their Cabala if indeed they had acknowledged or known of any such thing Why did not Esdras when he collected into one the scattered and dispersed Canon of Scripture without omitting the Proverbs of Solomon and others or his Book of Love why did he not at the same time commit to Writing and publish the Divine Cabala of so much more Authority and Concernment than divers Pieces by him published and added to the Law Furthermore admitting the pretended aforesaid Consent of some Philosophers and Nations and also a Tradition Cabala or oral Law of the Jews yet 't is certain the Trinity is no part of that Cabala For all the World knows that the Jews though they strictly adhere to their Cabala yet are so far from acknowledging a Trinity that this Doctrine is the very Stumbling-block which hinders their entring into the Church That whole Nation and all the Sects of them hold the Christians to be Polytheists and Idolaters on the Account of the Doctrine of the Trinity They pronounce Christianity to be a much worse Idolatry than Jeroboam's Calves Which were not two fictitious Gods added to the true one but only Images of the Cherubims as the Cherubims were Hieroglyfick Resemblances of the one true GOD. So that though the ten Tribes were guilty of a kind of Idolatry by their worshipping the true GOD under forbidden Resemblances for though the Cherubims themselves were set up by GOD's Order yet not for Worship or to common Sight they were not Polytheists they owned with all the rest of the Jews but one Divine Person I doubt not Sir but that you perceive that the whole Force of Dr. Cudworth's Argument from the supposed Consent of some Nations and Philosophers is enervated and that such pretended Consent notwithstanding the Trinity is not as he says a Theology of Divine Tradition but merely and solely of Paganick and Heathen Extraction and brought into the Christian Church by the Platonick Philosophers when they came over to Christianity I could now tell you Sir that whereas Dr. Cudworth brings in his Philosophers Oracles Kings and Nations as believing and asserting the Trinity even in the dark times of Heathenism this is all mere Flourish and Rhodomontade For first as to the Books of Hermes Zoroaster and Hystaspes as also the Sybillin and Chalday or Magick Oracles they are all of them Forgeries partly of the Jews a little before the Nativity of our Saviour partly of the Christians of the second and third Centuries And this is so generally agreed and so clearly demonstrated by the Criticks that I was extreamly surprized to see such Authorities alledged in a Book written by Dr. Cudworth a Man if any other of true and real Learning But so it is that in the Defect of genuine and solid Proofs the most Learned must have recourse to such as their Cause will afford Next as to the Nations and Philosophers by him mentioned the