Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	old_a	prophet_n	testament_n	5,085	5	8.1969	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51894	The fourth volume of letters writ by a Turkish spy who lived five and forty years undiscover'd at Paris : giving an impartial account to the Divan at Constantinople of the most remarkable transactions of Europe, and discovering several intrigues and secrets of the Christian courts (especially of that of France) continued from the year 1642 to the year 1682 / written originally in Arabick, translated into Italian, and from thence into English, by the translator of the first volume.	Marana, Giovanni Paolo, 1642-1693.; Bradshaw, William, fl. 1700.; Midgley, Robert, 1655?-1723.	1692 (1692)	Wing M565CH; ESTC R35021	169,206	386

Manuscripts which the Jews esteem'd the Oracles of God without conversing with or seeing each other 't is said their Versions all agree'd to a Syllable This is the Story of the Jews and seems to be Credited by the Christians Yet some have found many Errors and Incongruities in that Celebrated Copy And 't is easy for an Impartial Eye especially in the Head of an Oriental to spy many more But the Latin which they call the Vulgar Translation is full of Mistakes And the Pretended Saint who made it should have gone farther than Palestine for his Intelligence in Ancient Hebrew His Name if I mistake not was Hieronymus He pass'd many Years in a Cell near the suppos'd Tomb of the Christians Messiah in the Holy Land Where they say he was Inspir'd with the Knowledge of Hebrew and from thence ventur'd upon a Translation of the Old Testament Thou wilt not expect a Certificate of these Things from Mahmut who only tells thee what he has read in Christian Authors whom they call the Historians of their Church But I can assure thee 't was no Spirit of the East assisted this Ecclesiastick in his Version For he comes far short of rightly rendring the Lofty Hyperboles Apposite Similitudes Elegant Figures and other Ornaments of Speech peculiar to the Writings of those who first see the Rising Sun Such are all those penn'd in the East From which we must not exclude the Manuscripts of Moses and the Rest of the Hebrew Prophets Poets Historians and Philosophers Of these does the Old Testament consist except one Book writ by my Coutryman Jub who Five Times foil'd the Devil in so many set Combats before God What shall I say then of the Translations that have been made of their Bible in other Languages not so Copious and Significant as the Latin Since the Division arose between the Roman-Catholicks and Protestants their Bible has been taught to speak the Dialect of all or most Nations in Europe Yet such is the Unhappiness of the Franks that the more they tamper with the Language of Great Purity the worse they succeed Which has occasion'd some Learned Men as I am inforrn'd to mark above a Thousand Faults in the Last French Version of that Mysterious Book What Room will they leave for the Censures of the Mussulmans if the Christians themselves are thus Critical upon the Grand Patent of their Salvation It would be an endless Task to recount all the Errors that may be discern'd in the Various Traducts of the Bible by any Man that has Convers'd in the East Neither will I entrench on thy Patience to gain the Character of a Critick Permit me to glance only on the Psalter or the Odes of Sultan David How flat and dull are the Measures of the Christian Translators How low have they sunk the Sence of that Royal Poet He never begun to warble forth any of those Divine Songs till first Inspired by a Seraph whom he had lur'd down from Paradise by the Melody of his Harp That Seraph was Master of the Musick Above as the Hebrew Doctors teach Every Time David play'd on his Instrument Ariel for so was the Spirit call'd made his Descent and sung with a Grace which cannot be express'd The Docile Poet soon learn'd both his Notes and Words Seven Hundred Times David touch'd his Harmonious Strings and so often the Angel stood by him with the Book of the Quire He taught him Seven Hundred Sonnets that are Chanted by the Lovers in Paradise But the Devil stole 'em from the King whilst he was gazing on another Man's Wife bathing her self in an adjoining Garden Yet there are above a Hundred Hymns remaining which David compos'd by Memory out of the Former But some Sects among the Christians have turn'd 'em to the Ballads of the Vulgar So have they dealt by that surpassing Poem of Solyman taught him by the Etherial Tutor of his Father For Ariel was enamour'd of One of the Virgins of Paradise at the same Time that Solyman enjoy'd Pharaoh's Daughter and had newly built for her a Seraglio of Cedar The Heavenly Lover therefore to accommodate himself to the Passion of the Mortal taught him One of the Pastorals of Eden a Song peculiar to his Own Amour But the Nazarenes have turn'd it to a dry and Insignificant Allegory by their Glosses Putting an Affront also upon Rhetorick and Poetry in Wording their Translation If I should go on and number the Mistakes they have made in the Writings of the Prophets and other Books of the Old Testament though it were but in this General Manner I should tire thee out But to recount the Particulars would be a Thirteenth Task for Hercules Yet after all these Defaults of the Learned neither they nor the Ignorant can be excus'd from Wilful Blindness in shutting their Eyes against the Twilight which appears in the Worst Translation and is sufficient to direct any Man to the East where Wisdom shines in her Perfect Splendor There are Expressions all over the Scriptures which point to the Laws Customs Habits Diet and Manner of Life us'd in the Regions First Visited by the Morning-Sun These are the same Now as they were of Old And the Mussulmans of this Age observe no other Rule of Life but what was practis'd by the Patriarch Ibrahim above Three Thousand Years ago and by all the Faithful of those Times Our Marriages Circumcisions Funerals Prayers Washings and all other Ceremonies of Religion or Civility are the same Now as Then There is Nothing added or diminished save the Faith and Obedience we owe to Mahomet the Ambassador of God and to the Volume put into his Hands by Gabriel Prince of the Divine Messengers Our very Habits and the Manner of our Building our Salutations and whole Address are the same at this Day as the Scripture tells us were in Use in those Ages next after the Flood among the Patriarchs and Prophets and among all the True Believers the Posterity of Ibrahim Especially the Descendants by the Right Line the Stem of Ismael the Eldest Son of him who entertain'd Three Angels at Once in his Tent. Yet the Infidels will not consider it But perswade themselves they are the Only Children of the Faithful Ibrahim pretending to practise in I know not what Figurative Sense the Life we lead in Truth Cheating themselves with Empty Symbols while we enjoy the Substance But thou Great Successor of Ibrahim and the Prophets vouchsafe to pray for Mahmut That whilst his Duty to the Grand Signior obliges him to dwell here in the West and to converse with none but Infidels he may still retain the Faith of the East the Devotion of an Ismaelite and the Purity of a True Believer Still crying in his Heart even in the Temples of the Infidels There is but One God and Mahomet his Messenger Paris 5th of the 9th Moon of the Year 1649. LETTER XVII To the Chiaus Bassa THE Peace agreed on last Year between the Germans and Suedes is

us of a Mighty Army of Moscovites which are enter'd into Poland destroying and laying desolate where-ever they come The pretended Cause of this Invasion is said to be a Disgust the Czar has taken at a certain Historian and Poet of Poland Who in reciting the Wars between those Nations had made a Mistake in the Genealogy of the Moscovite Emperours naming the Father for the Son The Czar being inform'd of this demanded the Head of the Writer as an Atonement Which being deny'd he rush'd into the Territories of Poland to revenge himself by Fire and Sword These are the Actions of such as pretend to follow the Example of Jesus the Messias Who commanded Men To forgive Injuries even as did our Holy Prophet Yet they scruple not to accuse us of what they themselves are onely Guilty Thus whilst they are Christians in Name we shew by our Practice that we are True Disciples of the Venerable Jesus Doubtless all Men are Just or Wicked by Nature Every Mans Fate is Engraven in his Forehead And neither the Precepts or Examples of Jesus or Mahomet can alter the Inclinations of those whose Stars have Sign'd 'em in their Nativity with the Indelible Characters of Vice Paris 30th of the 6th Moon of the Year 1654. LETTER XIV To Dgnet Oglou HItherto I have been in a Wilderness or at least I 'll suppose it wandring up and down lost and confounded in the Dark without Sun Star Land-Mark or any Faithful Guide to direct me What shall I do in this Case I am tyr'd with Perpetual Rambling and rest I dare not neither can I such is my Uneasiness even in the only Circumstance which gives to other Men Repose Thus I discourse with my self when I am alone and consider my Prefent State as a Mortal The Miseries of this Life are the Themes of my First Contemplation And 't is but Reason it should be so because we feel 'em every Moment They touch our Sence nearly and afflict us with sharp Pains Yet they are but like the Sting of a Wasp Violent for a Time but last not long This Thought carries me farther and puts me upon an Endless Meditation what will befall me after I 'm Dead When I have contemplated all that I can run over a Thousand Paths of Phaney and track'd all the Footsteps of the Wise or of such as were esteem'd so still I find my self in a Desert more entangl'd than a Traveller lost in the Forest of Hercynia which extends from the most Northerly Part of Moscovy to some Provinces in the German Empire and is reputed Five Hundred Leagues in Length In this bewilder'd Condition I meet with many pretending Guides One telling me this is the Way Another that But because they do not agree in their Advice I know not which to trust And am inclin'd to suspect some for Cheats and the Rest for Fools as much at a Loss if not more than my self Permit me to discourse with Freedom my Dear Gnet and let us unmask like Friends What signifies all that the Imaum's and Mollahs can say of Paradise and Hell since none of 'em have been there to make an Experiment Why should we suffer our selves to be amus'd with Notions of Things which for ought we know have no other Existence but in the Harangues of the Preachers and the Phansies of the Credulous Think not that I am going to perswade thee to the Heresy of the Muserin who deny the Being of a God I tell thee I am no Atheist From Every Thing I behold my Thought soon flies up to a First Cause And there 't is dash'd into a Thousand Queries This I lay as a Solid Foundation All Things were not Always in the same State as they are Now. My Experience demonstrates to the Contrary But how much longer they have been otherwise than my own Remembrance I cannot be assur'd but by the Confidence which I repose in People that are Older than my self and the Faith I give to Books Both which agree in this That they are Guilty of Contradictions without Number Those that were born before me and Liv'd in the Days of Sultan Mahomet III tell me many Passages of his Reign quite different from the Relations of others who also Liv'd in those Times and remark'd the Transactions of their Age. A like Disagreement I find among Authors who have committed to Writing the Histories of Former Times 'T is difficult to encounter with Two Men of the same Opinion even as to Matters of Fact Some take a Pride in disguizing the Truth Whilst others have not Skill to take off the Mask There are a Sort of Persons in the World Men of Supine and Easie Judgments Credulous and not daring to call in Question what has been transmitted to them from the Authority of Such and Such a Writer They Superstitiously revere as an Oracle the Manuscripts of a Mortal Man like themselves and Subject to as many Frailties and Mistakes And all this only because they have been taught to do so from their Infancy So Forcible is the Influence of Education Thus the Hebrews believe the Records of their Nation to be of Divine Original though they want not Verbal Contradictions and abound with Logical and Philosophical Inconsistencies But that which is of Greatest Moment is that neither they nor any other Nation no not even the Assyrian or Egyptian Records come near the Immense Chronologies of the Chinese and Indians So that amidst such a Variety of Accounts a Man knows not where to fix his Belief But Whether the World be only Five or Six Thousand Years Old or of a more Indefinite Antiquity this is a sure Maxim That Something is Eternal Even the Jews and Christians who deny the Eternity of Matter and assert the Creation of the World out of NOTHING in a Determin'd Period of Time must of Necessity own There was an Eternal and Infinite Emptyness or Vacuity which is the same as Moses calls by the Name of NOTHING Which will sound as harsh in Philosophy as the Eternity of Matter does in their Divinity Nay if I mistake not 't is of a worse Consequence even in the Doctrines of Religion to assert an Infinite Privation or Want of Existence to be Coeternal with the Substantial God who is Omnipotent Living and Strong than to affirm Matter it self to be Coeternal with Him Since This is an Actual Substance and may with Reason be suppos'd as a Necessary Emanation of his Power and Goodness Whereas the Other is a mere Naked Potentiality a Non-Entity as the Western Philosophers call it and therefore cannot be conceived to flow from the Divine Nature which is Essential Life and Being Yet in these Nice and Remote Speculations I am Timorous and dare not be Positive lest I should prophane the Honour of that Sovereignly Good who is the Breath of our Nostrils To speak the Truth I am Wavering in All Things but this That there is an Eternal Mind Every-where Present the Root and Basis of All Things Visible and Invisible whom we call Alla the Support of Infinite Ages the Rook and Stay of the Vniverse Let thou and I Dear Friend persevere in Adoring that Superlative Essence of Essences with Internal and Profound Devotion Let our Thoughts be Pure our Words Few and those full of Innocent and Grateful Flames For assuredly God delights not in the Babling of the Tongue As for the Rest let us live according to our Nature and Reason as we are Men. For we may believe that the Indulgent Father of All Things will accept us if we square our Actions according to this Rule without aiming at the Perfection of Angels In a Word let us love all of Human Race and shew Justice and Mercy to the Brutes For in so doing we shall not be Unkind to our selves Paris 13th of the 7th Moon of the Year 1654. according to the Christian Style The End of the Fourth Volume ADVERTISEMENT PROPOSALS having been lately made for Printing The Great Historical Geographical and Poetical Dictionary Being a Curious Miscellany of Sacred and Prophane History c. Collected from the best Historians Chronologers and Dictionaries more especially out of Lewis Morery D. D. The Sixth Edition Corrected and Enlarged by Monsieur Le Clerk Done into English by several Learned Men. With Large Additions by way of Suppliment Intermix'd throughout the Alphabet Relating to England c. Wherein great Encouragement has already been given by several Noblemen Gentlemen c. It is desired that those who will promote so useful a Work will send in their First Payment with what speed they can To the Vndertakers Henry Rhodes Luke Meredith John Harris and Thomas Newborough Where are to be had Proposals and Specimens at Large and of most Booksellers in London and the Country