Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	church_n	creed_n	2,605	5	10.2206	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49450	A new history of Ethiopia being a full and accurate description of the kingdom of Abessinia, vulgarly, though erroneously called the empire of Prester John : in four books ... : illustrated with copper plates / by ... Job Ludolphus ... ; made English, by J.P., Gent.; Historia Aethiopica. English	Ludolf, Hiob, 1624-1704.; J. P., Gent.	1682 (1682)	Wing L3468; ESTC R9778	257,513	339

of the Jews Error who were learned in the Books of the Mosaic Law Most Nations have a particular Dyet some by custome some through superstition Not to speak of the Mahumetans who abstain not only from Swines flesh but from Wine is not the custom of the Bannians not much different from the ancient Pythagoreans to be strangely admir'd who onely feed upon Herbs and Meats made of Milk which we hardly believe sufficient to sustain Nature Others there are that devour all sorts of Creatures which the flesh consuming Beasts themselves refuse and otherwise nauseous to the most part of Men. The Oriental Tartars feed upon Camels Foxes and all sorts of wild Beasts Some of our Europeans indulging their appetites please their palats with a sort of Dyet abominated by all other People as Frogs Cockles and I know not what sort of Insects Gregory had an utter aversion to Lobsters Crabbs Crayfish and Oysters which we accompt our chiefest Delicacies and it turn'd his stomach to see Turkies Hares and several other Dishes to which he was unaccustom'd brought to our Tables Being ask'd why he abstain'd from Swines flesh he retorted still and why we from Horse-flesh And most certainly were we to banquet with the Tartars there are but very few of us that would easily be induc'd to eat Horse-flesh with an Appetite tho it be one of their principal junkets Nay their Embassadors to our Princes desire fat Horses for their Kitchins However they abstain from blood and things strangl'd not out of any observance of the Mosaic Law but an Apostolic Decree always in force in the Eastern Church which was also for many Ages observ'd in the Western Church and reviv'd in some Councils They also rebuke us for that we suffer'd that Decree to be laid aside Nor do they allow the Jews Sabboth out of a respect to Judaism or that they learnt it from some certain Nations that kept the Seventh day holy But because the ancient Custom of the Primitive Church who observ'd that day perhaps out of complacency to the Jews being long retain'd in the East was at length carry'd into Ethiopia For thus we find it written in some ancient Constitutions which they call the Constitutions of the Apostles Let the Servants labour five days but let them keep the Holydays the Sabboth and the Lords Day in the Church for the sake of Pious Instruction The Council of Laodicea decreed that the Gospels with other parts of Scripture should be read upon the Sabboth when before the Paragraphs of the Law of Moses were onely read upon the Sabboth and the Gospels upon the Sunday the Texts of the old Law being thought most agreeable to the Old Sabboth and the Texts of the New Testament to the New Sabboth Socrates also farther testifies that the People us'd to assemble at Church upon the Sabboth and Lords Day And Gregory Nyssen whose Writings the Ethiopians have among them saith With what Eyes dost thou behold the Lords Day who hast defil'd the Sabboth Know'st thou not that these two days are Twins and that if thou injur'st the one thou dost injury to the other But Claudius makes so much difference between both days that he prefers the Lords day before the Sabaoth But as to what pertains to our Celebration of the ancient Sabaoth we do not celebrate it as the Jews did who Crucify'd Christ saying Let his blood be upon Us and our Children For those Jews neither draw water nor kindle fires nor dress meat nor bake bread neither do they go from house to house But we so celebrate it that we administer the Sacrament and relieve the Poor and the Widow as our Fathers the Apostles commanded Us. We Celebrate it as the Sabaoth of the first Holiday which is a new day of which David saith This is the day which the Lord made let us rejoyce and exult therein For upon that day our Lord Jesus Christ rose and upon that day the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in the Oratory of Sion And in that day Christ was incarnated in the Womb of the Perpetual Virgin St. Mary and upon that day he shall come again to reward the Just and punish the Evil. Gregory also testify'd That the Habessines abstain from no sort of Labour upon the Sabaoth but from the most servile sorts of Labour This Custom continu'd long in the Church till it was abrogated by degrees for by the 22d Canon of the said Council of Laodicea the Christians are forbid to work upon the Sabaoth Nevertheless the Sacred Lectures were continu'd for a time as appears by the Canon above mention'd till at length those were also left off perhaps because that the People having a licence to work there were but few that repair'd to Church Moreover according to the Custom of the Jews it is lawful in Abessinia to marry the Widow of the Brother deceas'd as Alvarez testifies Adding That the Habessinian defend their so doing by the Laws of the Old Testament But Gregory positively deny'd that it was lawful but onely conniv'd at by the Magistrate However that such Wives are also prohibited from coming to the Holy Communion wherein Alvarez agrees with him However it does not therefore follow that this Custom was translated from the Jews to the Habessines no more then if any one should assert that the Laws of Polygamie and Divorce were deriv'd from the Jews And yet this is somewhat strange I must confess that they abstain from that Muscle which the Hebrews call Ghid Hannesheh or the Sinew mutilated the Ethiopians Sereje Berum the forbidden Nerve the Amharies Shalada Which very probably they might learn from the Jews in their own Country of which Nation there are several Colonies in Ethiopia But as to what is reported concerning Queen Candaces Eunuch we have already shew'd that she was not Queen of Habessinia but of the Ethiopians that inhabited the Iland of Meroe and if the Eunuch were a Jew it does not follow that his Lady the Queen shall be so too Others there are who tell us That Menilehec's Successors in a short time return'd to the worship of Idols Which if it be true the assertion of the Continuation of the Jewish Religion till the time of the Apostles will prove altogether vain tho in Europe most certainly the Habessines were long suspected of Judaisme and so are many to this day Which King Claudius observing by his Disputations with Gonsalo Rodriguez and the Writings which he compos'd to refute the Errors of the Habessines set forth a Confession of which we have already cited several parcels as they related to our business The chief Scope of which was to remove that Suspition of Judaism from himself and his Subjects which in my opinion he very effectually did CHAP. II. Of the Conversion of the Habessines to the Christian Faith The Conversion of the Habessines attributed to Queen Candace's Eunuch but contrary to authentic Histories Candace no Habessinian Other Traditions nothing better Demonstrated when and by

as Adnael Adotavi Adotael Tilelmejus Cuercuerjam Flastaslaque With many others more horrid to Pronunciation But from hence it is apparent how much the Habassines resemble the Jews as affecting words of uncouth and unheard of insignificancy by which they thought to command both Heaven and Hell which carrying a kind of a dreadful sound the Habessines also use them in their forms of Anathematizing they cry And let him be accurs'd by Addirion and Actariel by Sandalphon and Hadarmel by Ansiciel and Patchiel by Seraphiel and Zeganzael by Michael and Gabriel and by Raphael and Meschartiel and let him be interdicted by Tzautzeviv and Haueheviv He is the great God and by the Seventy Names of that great King and on the behalf of Tzortak the great Ensign-Bearer CHAP. V. Of the Religion of the Habassines at this Day The Reports of Matthew the Armenian and Tzagazaab false or uncertain The Fathers have omitted their soundest Opinions And fix'd their several Errors upon them The Confession of Claudius Genuine The great Authority of the Synodal Writers They admit the Nicene and other Councils till that of Chalcedon They acknowledge the Trinity one Person of Christ and his sufficient Merit The Proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son they deny Gregorie's Dispute and Opinion The Ethiopian interpretation of the word Proceed The Sacraments Baptism Communion under both Kinds The real Presence The words they use in Reference to it Gregorie's Opinion of Transubstantiation Of the Soul after Death They pray for the Dead Deny Purgatory Gregorie's Opinion concerning it The Original of Prayer for the Dead They pray to Saints and Angels Their Catechism for Children and Neophytes WEre the Symbolical Book of the Habessines which they call Hajmanot-Abau to be found in Europe we might easily Collect from thence the true and genuine Sence and Doctrine of the Ethiopic Church concerning the Heads and Articles of the Christian Faith for hitherto we find the most of them uncertainly deliver'd and for the Confession of Faith set down by Matthew the Armenian and Tzagazaab we have already taken notice of the failings in it The Fathers of the Society that have been conversant among the Habessines both in this and the former Century and frequently discours'd with their Learned Men passing by their sound and serious Opinions tax them of many Errors which they have receiv'd from the Greeks and Jews As for Example That the Spirit proceeds only from the Father That the Human Nature of Christ is equal to his Divinity They acknowledge but one Will and one Operation in Christ for which reason they believe that we affirm Four Persons in the Godhead seeing that we confess two Wills and two Natures in Christ. They repeat the Ceremony of Baptism every year upon the Feast of the Epiphany They believe that the Souls of the Just shall not be receiv'd into Heaven before the end of the World nor do they think them to be Created but produc'd out of Matter They neither confess the Number nor the particular Species of their Sins but cry in general I have sin'd I have sin'd They use not the Sacrament of Chrism nor Extream Unction upon the approach of Death nor do they mind the Consolation of the bread of life Insomuch that many of them stick not to say That they who follow the Roman Religion are not only Heretics but worse than the Mahumetans They reject the Council of Chalcedon casting many reproaches upon Leo the Great but highly applauding Dioscurus They deny Purgatory These things I chose to deliver almost in the very words of Godignus who Collected them out of the Relations and Letters of Gonzalez Rodoric Alphonsus de Franca Emanuel Fernandez and others of the Society Neither do they seem to be improbable but how they evade or excuse them we shall shortly declare As to what is said that some of them believe the Followers of the Romish Religion to be worse than Mahumetans I could not hear any such thing from Gregory neither did he think it was to be understood in reference to their Doctrine but their Tyranny over their Subjects it being the Custom of the Mahumetans only to vex and oppress all those who are under their Power professing a Religion contrary to theirs but never to rage against them with Fire and Sword In the mean time we have a Confession set forth by King Claudius but the scope of that Confession was only to clear himself and his Subjects from the Imputation of Judaism which he found to be the only reason that impeded the Amity between him and the Portugals Therefore leaving this Confession by what we can gather from their Publick Liturgies and the Writings and Sayings of Persons both Publick and Private the sum of the Habessinian Doctrine seems to consist of the following Heads First They acknowledge the Holy Scripture to be the sole and only Rule of what they are to believe and what they are to do insomuch that King David said to Alvarez That if the Pope should impose upon Him or His Subjects any thing what the Apostles had not written or permitted he would not obey him nor his own Metropolitan if he should attempt to do the like But with the Scripture they are so much in love that there is nothing more delightful to their Ears than the repetition of it Therefore saith Tellez Nothing more pleas'd the Habessines than to hear the Scripture often quoted in Sermons and the more Citations a man brings out of Scripture the more learned be is accompted Nor do they give much less Credit to the Three Oecumenical Councils as appears by the Confession of Claudius They generally make use of the Nicene Creed which they call Tzalot Hajmanot the Prayer of the Faith That which we use they have not no more than all the rest of the Eastern Churches a strong Argument that it was not compil'd by the Apostles tho' in regard of the Doctrine which it contains it may be truly call'd Apostolic For certainly the Nicene Fathers would not have stifl'd such a Creed or set forth another of their own had the Apostles left such an Epitome of their Doctrine behind them The Ancient Greek Councils then are the Councils which the Habessines have in reverence together with the Eighty four ancient Canons added to those of the Nicene Council till they come to that of Chalcedon which they do not only utterly reject but also Criminally reproach Whatever therefore the Catholic Church admitted and believ'd before that Council concerning God Three in one the Three distinct Persons in one Essence the Eternity of the Son of God the Existence of the Holy Ghost and other Articles of Faith all those things the Habessines willingly consent to and allow condemning those that Dispute against them By the way we are here to observe that the Ethiopic words Sabsatu Gaz Gaz Egza Bahr Three Persons and one God are vulgarly ill Translated being to have bin render'd Three Faces One Lord for the

has written a certain Ethiopic Martyrologie who asserts That Frumentius otherwise Abba-Salama was the Author of the first Translation but before I see it I will not undertake to affirm it converted or a very short time after and not in the time of the Apostles as some have reported and brought to perfection by several because the more rare and difficult words such as are the names of Gemms are not all alike in all the Books For example the Topaz in the 118 Psalm 127 Verse is call'd Pazjon in Job 28.19 Tankar in Revelations the 21.20 Warauri and so in many other words the same difference is observ'd But for the New Testament they have it Translated from the Authentic Greek Text tho as yet it has not bin brought into Europe pure and intire For the Roman Edition is printed from a lame imperfect Copy so that I was forc'd to fill up the Gapps which Tesfa-Tzejon had left from the Greek and Latin Exemplars This was observ'd by some Learned Men but not understanding the Cause it made them think that the Ethiopic Version had bin drawn from the Vulgar Latin Perhaps they did not understand these following Ethiopic Lines These Acts of the Apostles for the most part were translated at Rome out of the Latin and Greek for want of the Ethiopic Origiginal For what we have added or omitted we begg your pardon and request of You to mend what is amiss More then this the Publisher of the Book beggs pardon and excuses the defect of the Edition in regard of the ignorant Assistants which he had to help him Fathers and Brethren be pleas'd not to interpret amiss the faults of this Edition for they who Compos'd it could not read and for our selves we know not how to compose So then we help'd them and they assisted us as the blind leads the blind and therefore we desire you to pardon us and them This Excuse he also repeats in other places as being conscious of its being defective in several other places Nevertheless the same Edition was afterwards printed in England as an addition to that famous Poly Glotton of which there is no other reason to be given but that there was no other to be procur'd However they enjoy the holy Scripture entire and reck'n as many Books as we do tho they divide them after another manner For they distinguish the Old Testament which contains 46 Books into four Principal parts to which they joyn certain other Books of a different Argument consulting more perhaps the Convenience of the Volumes then the Dignity of the Matter They also mix the Apocryphal with the Canonical whether out of Carelesness or Ignorance is uncertain And as for Gregory he plainly confess'd he had never heard of any such word as Apocrypha The first Tome is call'd Oreth or the Law and the Octateuch for it contains Eight Books which are call'd 1. Zasteret or the Creation call'd also by another name Kadami Aret or the First Book of the Law or Zaledate or the Generation or Genesis 2. Zatzat Exodus 3 Zalewawejan of the Levites 4. Zahuelekue or Numbers 5. Zadabetra of the Tabernacle 6. Ejashu Joshua 7. Masafenet of the Dukes 8. Rute Ruth The Other Tome is call'd Nagaste or Kings and is divided into Thirteen Books 9 10. 1 Samuel or Samuel 2. Which nevertheless they call after the manner of the Greeks the 1.2.3.4 of Kings 11 12. Ebrewejen of the Hebrews II. Which nevertheless they call after the manner of the Greeks the 1.2.3.4 of Kings 13 14. Hatzutzan Of the Lesser or Inferior II. Thus they seem to understand the Greek word Paralipopomena 15 16. Ezra or Ezra II. 17. Tobed Tobia 18. Judic Judith 19. Ester Ester 20. Jjob Job 21. Masmare Of the Psalmes The Third Tome is call'd Salomon and contains Five Books 22. Maste the Proverbs 23. Maqebeb The Sermon Properly a Circle or an Assembly of Men Assembled together in a Ring 24. Mahaleja Mahuleje the Song of Songs 25. Tobeb the Book of Wisdom 26. Sirach Sirach The Fourth Tome is call'd Nabijat or the Prophets and contains Eighteen Books 27. Esjajas Isaiah 28 29. Eremjas Tanbitu Wakkakibu The Prophesie of Jeremie and his Lamentations 30. Baruch 31. Ezechiel 32. Daniel The next that follow as among us are Nesan Nabjat or the Minor Prophets 33. Hoseas 34. Joel 35. Amos. 36. Obadijah 37. Jonas 38. Michejas or Micah 39. Nahum 40. Habacuc 41. Sophonijas 42. Hag. or Hagjah 43. Zacharias 44. Malaqijas To these they add 45. Maqabejan the two Books of Maccabees Of all which there are at Rome in Manuscript the 1. Pentateuch 2. Joshuah 3. Judges 4. Ruth 5. Four Books of Kings 6. Isaiah In Print are Extant 1. The four first Chapters of Genesis 2. The Book of Ruth 3. The Psalter 4. The Song of Songs 5. Joel 6. Jonas 7. Sophoniah 8. Malachi With the Hymns of the Old Testament The New Testament contains Four and twenty Books and is also divided into Four parts of which the first is call'd Wenghel or the Evangel comprehending the Four Evangelists 1. Matthew 2. Mark 3. Luke and 4. John The second the Gober or the Acts viz. of the Apostles The third call'd Paulus comprehends the 14 Epistles of St. Paul 6. To the Romans 7. To the Corinthians II. 8. To the Galathians 10. To the Ephesians 11. To the Philippians 12. To the Colossians 13 14. To the Thessalonians 15 16. To Timothy II. 17. To Titus 18. To Philemon 19. To the Hebrews The fourth Hakreja or the Apostle containing the Seven Books of 20. St. James 21 22. St. Peter II. 23 24 25. St. John III. 26. St. Jude To which they add as a Supplement the Vision of John sirnam'd Abukalamsis A word corrupted out of the Greek Apocalypsis which they ignorantly took for the Sirname of St. John as compounded of the Arabic word Abu Kalamsis Here we are to observe that in the written Eastern Copies the Epistles of St. Paul are found single by themselves and this is the reason that in the Roman Copy of the Ethiopic New Testament they were Printed apart and not in the Order by us observ'd To the New Testament they generally annex a Volume which they call according to the Greek word Synodum or the Book of Synods It contains those most ancient Constitutions which are call'd the Constitutions of the Apostles in their Language Tazazate Precepts or Canons being an Explanation of the Primitive Rites and Ceremonies written by the Industry of St. Clement but they are very much different from those that are dispers'd among Us under the name of the Apostles These the Habessines divide into eight parts adding withall to the Canonical Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles as it were certain Novels as if they were of the same Authority and the most absolute Pandects of Christianity Hence it was that King David said to Alvaresius That he had Fourscore and one Books of Sacred Scripture that is to say Six and forty of