Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	faith_n	reason_n	7,423	5	5.8303	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51890	The third 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 1645 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.	1691 (1691)	Wing M565CD; ESTC R33498	164,529	390

should be written on any Schedule that she should have no Power to hurt the Infants they dismiss'd her After this God compassionating Adam's Solitude gave him another Wife call'd Eve This Tradition confirms the Vision of the Prophet and we need not doubt That the Earth was Inhabited before Adam's Time And if that be granted why might it not be Peopled for Millions of Ages as well as for the smallest Term that Ignorance or Error may assign to its Duration I have discoursed with several of the Jewish Rabbi's and Christian Doctors on this Subject Men of abstruse Learning and sublime Thoughts Yet I can find but a few who are emancipated from the Prejudices of a Superstitious Education They have been from their Infancy prepossess'd with a false Notion of the Works of God believing them to be Finite both in Extent of Space and Time They circumscribe this Visible World within I know not what Flaming Circle and believe the First Matter it self to be but Five Days Older than Adam taking each of those Days for the Space of Four and Twenty Hours wherein the Sun finishes his Diurnal Circuit through the Heavens They consider not That according to their own Bible there was Light and Darkness and consequently Day and Night before the Sun was Created But how long those Days and Nights were is not determin'd by Moses Yet in another Part of their Bible it is said That a Day with God is a Thousand Years and a Thousand Years is a Day So that according to this Interpretation Adam was not Created till above Five Thousand Years after the Beginning of the World Yet when I bring this Positive Place of their Own Scripture against the Nazarene Sages they shuffle it off with empty Evasions and rather than believe the Indesinite Antiquity of the World they contradict their own Sence and Reason invalidate the Testimony of a Prophet deny their Faith and appear Unmask'd Insidels Both they and the Jews have corrupted the Truth with many Errors and we must seek farther for the Original Science of Nature The Illuminated of God have always taught That the Earth was Inhabited long before the Appearance of Adam And all the Eastern Sages believe a Series of Generations to have dwelt on this Globe for Indeterminate Ages I have a Brother lately come from the Indies He relates strange Things of certain Books which are onely in the Hands of the Brachmans They are written in a Language which none understand but these Priests yet a Language as Copious as any other and taught in their Colleges by Rule These Books contain a History of the World which they say is above Thirty Millions of Years Old They divide the Term of its Duration into Four Ages Three of which they say are already past and a good Part of the Fourth Now I would fain know who wrote these Books and at what Time and where this Language was spoken They call it the Holy Language saying that it was the First spoken on Earth It is strange That no History should mention so Divine a Speech We have the Chronology of the Latin and Greek and can give an Account when and where they were spoken though they are now grown Obsolete and no otherways to be learn'd but in the Schools and Academies This argues the Antiquity of the Bramins Language and Books in Regard they fall not within any other Record save their own which says they are as Old as the World For if this Assertion were false the Imposture would have been discover'd as soon as broach'd and the Learned Sages of the East would quickly have disprov'd so manifest a Lye There seems to me something Extraordinary in this Pretension of these Indian Philosophers and I would gladly be convinc'd of the Truth Methinks it is an Illustrious Idea of the Divine Perfections when one conceives all this Vast and Endless Concatenation of Beings to flow from the Eternal Nature as Rays from the Sun And that they can no more be separated from it than those Beams can from that Visible Fountain of Light It will not be difficult then to Interpret the History of Moses by this Register of the Bramins and reconcile the Six Days of the one with the Four Ages of the other since a Day in the Divine Sence may amount to Millions of Years as well as to a Thousand And it will be more congruous and agreeable to believe that after the Birth of the First Matter there elaps'd Many Ages before it was wrought into such an Infinite Variety of Appearances as we now behold and that the Five Days which Moses computes before the Production of Adam might be some Millions of Years In which Time the Divine Architect gradually drew from the Abyss of Matter the Sun Moon Stars Plants and Animals which may serve also to Illustrate the Vision of thy Holy Ancestor with which I begun this Discourse Adieu Sublime Intelligence of the Torrid Zone and favour Mahmut with a Transcript of thy Thoughts concerning these Things But if thy Silence shall condemn my Presumption and Importunity I will wait for thy Answer till the Platonick Year when according to the Doctrine of that Philosopher we shall all be alive again Paris 19th of the 4th Moon of the Year 1648. LETTER XIV To the Mufti IN a former Dispatch to thy Sanctity I have acquainted thee with the Insurrections in Palermo mentioning the Fear of the Viceroy lest the French in that Island should then take their Opportunity to revenge the Proverbial Cruelty of the Sicilian Vespers If thou art unacquainted with that Tragedy I will inform thee in Brief About Three Hundred and Threescore Years ago there Reign'd in Sicily one of the Royal Blood of France they call him Charles of Anjou He had French Garrisons in all the Cities of that Kingdom But these Soldiers committed so many Insolencies as rendred 'em Odious and Insupportable to the Natives who therefore resolved to exterminate them The French are very Licentious in their Conquests neither sparing Men in their Anger nor Women in their Lust They make no Difference between the Noble and the Vulgar but sacrifice all the Regards of Honour and Civility to their Impetuous Appetites They were guilty of innumerable Rapes and Violences in Sicily among the Meaner People and sometimes extended their Rudeness to Persons of the Best Quality It was common for them to affront both Virgins and Matrons as they went along the Streets by thrusting their Hands under their Garments on Pretence of searching for hidden Arms. Among the Rest the Wife of a certain Lord in Palermo going to pay her Devotions at the Temple was seiz'd by the Command of the Captain of the Guards and strip'd Naked before all the Soldiers in Order to discover certain Treasonable Papers which they suspected she carried about her But finding none she upbraided the Captain with Inhumanity in offering so gross an Affront to a Lady of her Rank He seeming to be sorry for

themselves This is a Vegetable of which the Italian Proverb says Mushromes well pickl'd with Spices may do no Harm but can do no Good God who has commanded us to separate the Clean from the Impure and has taught us what we may eat without Pollution grant That we may not either through Necessity or to indulge our Appetites taste of any Thing which has in it the least of the Seven Maledictions Paris 14th of the 9th Moon of the Year 1646. LETTER XIII To Abubechir Hali Merchant in Aleppo THOU tellest me a Tragical Story of One of thy Wives That she is become a Fugitive and gone away with thy Slave Lorenzo whom I remember to have seen at thy House at Constantinople Either thou wert too Unkind to them both or gavest 'em both too much Liberty Whichsoever of these Ways thou hast exceeded thou art in the Fault Too great an Indulgence either to a Wife or a Servant makes them presumptuous And too great Severity hardens them to Despair However since it is so I advise thee to comfort thy self with this Thought That thou art rid of Two Evils Had they prov'd Faithful they would not have merited that Title but now they are neither worthy of thy Grief nor of thy Revenge But if thou art resolv'd to pursue them ask not my Counsel or Assistance in this Place where I should have as much Reason to apprehend Danger as they 'T is true I know thy Slave but were I to meet him in the Streets of this City I should be very unwilling by discovering him to be made known my self Besides thy Passion has made thee forget That the Nazarenes would commend his Wit and rejoice in his Fortune who being a Slave to one whom they esteem an Infidel has now by his Wise Conduct purchas'd both his Liberty and a Beautiful Mate with no small Treasure I rather advise thee to apply thy self to Jasmir Sgire Rugial the Little Astrologer in Aleppo who perhaps may tell thee some News of ' em There is not a Star in the Eighth Sphere can stir without his being privy to it And he pretends to behold in their Motions whatever is done on Earth But to be serious thy Slave was an ungrateful Fellow thus to abuse all thy Favours Thou hadst made him in a Manner Master of all thy Riches only reserving thy Wives to thy self And if the Desire of Liberty tempted him to escape he ought in Justice to have sacrific'd his Lust to the Regards he ow'd thee But every Slave is not a Joseph Lorenzo's Villainy puts me in Mind of the Continence of an Italian Marquis This Young Lord fell in Love with a Dutchess of singular Beauty but knew not how to make her sensible of it At length Fortune favour'd him with an Opportunity beyond his Expectation One Evening as he return'd from Hawking he pass'd through the Fields of that Dutchess bordering on the Palace The Duke her Husband and she were walking together as the Young Lord came by The Duke seeing his Train and what Game they had been at ask'd him some Questions concerning their Sport and being of an Hospitable Disposition invited him into his Palace to take a Collation Nothing could be more agreeable to the Young Lover He accepted the Offer and here commenc'd an Acquaintance which made Way in Time for an Assignation between the Dutchess and Him He was let into the Gardens one Night and so conducted privately to her Chamber where she lay ready in Bed to receive Him After some Compliments the Dutchess said My Lord You are obliged to my Husband for this Favour who as soon as you were gone from our House the first Time we saw you gave you such Commendations as made me conceive an immediate Passion for you Is it true Madam replied the Young Lover already half undress'd Then far be it from me to be so ungrateful to my Friend With that he put on his Garments again and took his Leave But it cannot be expected that so much Vertue should be found in a Slave I would not have thee vex thy self for what cannot be recover'd Adieu Paris 14th of the 9th Moon of the Year 1646. LETTER XIV To Solyman his Cousin I Cannot approve thy Singularity in prescribing to thy self a Rule of Life different from that wherein thou wert Educated and from the Laudable Manners of all True Believers Thou hast not done well in deserting the Publick Congregations of the Faithful to follow the Superstitions of New Upstart Sects Who whilst they profess greater Purity than others do secretly undermine the Credit of our Holy Law-giver reproach all the Mussulmans throughout the World and introduce Libertinism and a Contempt of the Majesty which cannot behold Vncleanness Are they Wiser than their Fathers who for so many Ages have obey'd the Sacred Traditions Or will they pretend to correct the Messenger of God He commanded us to observe the Purifications taught by the Angel Whence do these Innovators derive their new-founded Authority of Dispensing with the Positive Injunctions of Heaven Will they enter into the Blasphemy of 〈◊〉 Infidels and say the Prophet was a Seducer and that the Alcoran is but a Collection of Fables If they believe the Pages replenish'd with Truth and Reason why do they seek to retrench the Divine Commandments and traverse the Law transported from Heaven Is it an Argument of their Piety that they carve out to themselves such a Religion as suits with their Licentious Spirits And that they pick and chuse such Precepts as indulge them most in a Careless Life Is this to be Mussulmans that is Resign'd when they will not obey the Sovereign Lawgiver of Heaven and Earth but upon their own Conditions Cousin I counsel thee to beware of these Schismaticks who by breaking the Vnion of the True Believers secretly oppose the Eternal Vnity it self on which our Mighty Empire is founded and rests I am obliged to the Post who waits at my Door till I have finish'd my Dispatches Therefore I cannot now answer thy Letter at Large Another Time expect a more ample Expostulation Mean while I advise thee to return to the Practice from which thou art fall'n Go to the Assemblies of those who pour out Devout Oraisons Keep a Clean Skin and a Pure Heart And make not thy self a Companion of Swine Paris 24th of the 10th Moon of the Year 1646. LETTER XV. To Hasnadar-Bassy Chief Treasurer to the Grand Signior THIS Day Paris makes a Figure like Ancient Rome when that Mistress of the World honour'd her Generals with Publick Triumphs at their Return from the Conquer'd Nations The Streets are hung with Tapestry and strew'd with Lawrels The Shops are shut up The Young Men and Virgins are cloathed in their best Array They walk up and down in Consorts singing the Duke of Enguien's Praise Whilst the Old and Decrepid sit at their Doors to see the Hero make his Entry and rehearse the Memoirs of their former Years With Tears of

than the Oracles of Delphos As if they thought not only to circumvent Men by their Equivocations but also to deceive Him who formed the Tongue and the Ear even God who is Perfect in Knowledge Such a Story I have read of one Hatto a German Bishop whose Perjury is recorded This Prelate had a Cousin who was accused of Treason against the Emperor On which Account he was closely besieged by the Imperial Forces in a Castle seated on the Top of an Impregnable Rock So that the Emperor despairing to take him by Force had withdrawn his Army when this Bishop came to him and for a Sum of Money promised to betray his Kinsman into the Emperor's Hands The Bargain being concluded the Bishop went to visit his Cousin at the Castle perswading him to go and Humble himself to the Emperor and he would engage to procure his Pardon Binding himself with a Solemn Oath That if he would rely on him as he carried him safe out of the Castle so he would bring him back alive and safe again His Kinsman deluded with these fair Pretences and secured by the Sanction of an Oath trusts himself to the Conduct and Fidelity of the Prelate When they had rode about Half a League from the Castle the Bishop pretending he had forgot some Papers of Moment which he had left behind him in his Chamber they return'd back to the Castle And when they had found the Papers they set forward again toward the Emperor's Camp Being arrived there the Impious Wretch deliver'd his Kinsman to the Emperor who Condemn'd him to Die He sending for the Bishop reproaches him with the Violation of his Oath But the Perfidious Bishop sought to acquit himself by saying He had perform'd his Promise in carrying him back safe to the Castle when he returned to seek his Papers Thus was his Kinsman betray'd by a Quibble and lost his Head The Bishop acquiring for that Impious Deed the Odious Title of Hatto the Traytor And the Germans report That he was afterwards carried away by Devils and thrown alive into the Hollow of Mount Aetna A Voice being heard at the same Instant in the Air saying This is the Reward of Perjury The Nazarenes believe this Flaming Mountain to be One of the Mouths of Hell The same Opinion they have of Strombolo and Vesuvius I am not curious to pry into the Truth of so Costly a Secret but leave the Experiment to the Forsworn Treacherous Scots who by this Barbarous Action deserve to follow the Fate of Hatto Much greater was the Integrity and Vertue of the Ancient Romans whom these Infidels Number among the Damn'd They esteem'd Nothing more Sacred than the Publick Faith building Temples to its Honour and stamping their Money with the Figure of Two Hands joined together having this Motto THE FAITH OF THE ROMANS But the Scots shew themselves to be of Lysander's Mind who us'd to say Children must be circumvented with Good Words and Men with Oaths This Monarch is now led in Triumph like a Captive by his Rebellious Subjects who have confin'd him to one of his Country Palaces Suffering none of his Friends or Faithful Servants to come near him but in all Things endeavouring to render his Restraint Insupportable Thou who art accurate in Interpreting the Laws of Justice wilt condemn these Infidels of Horrid Treason yet canst not acquit the Mussulmans who have often Deposed our most August Emperors I divide my Intelligence among the Ministers of the Sublime Port and the other Grandees of the State praying God to guard the Sultan from Secret Machinations and open Enemies and to grant That an Excess of Good Nature may not betray him to such Misfortunes as have befallen this Imprison'd Monarch Paris 21st of the 3d. Moon of the Year 1647. LETTER XXV To Ragel Hamet Antiquary to the Sultan THIS City is pestered with an Innumerable Multitude of Bats and a Kind of Serpents which they call Lizards or Newts They breed in the Walls of their Houses and molest the Inhabitants Night and Day swarming more than ordinary every Ninth Year The Parisians give an odd Reason for this Plague They say That in former Ages a certain Magician had undertaken to free this City from all Venemous Creatures and that accordingly he had made several Images of those Animals annexing to them Enchantments and hiding them in obscure Places under the Earth promising also that so long as those Images remain'd untouch'd Paris should not be molested with any Hurtful Thing This succeeded according to his Words till at a certain time as they were digging up the Foundations of an Old Temple the Work-Men found several Brazen Images some representing a Bat some a Lizard They making small Account of these Magical Reliques sold them to the next Brazier for a piece of Money Who being ignorant also of the hidden Force of these Images melted them down for his own Use And ever since that time the City has been over-run with Bats and Lizards I relate this to thee in regard I have often heard thee speak of the Ancient Statues that were in the Atmidan at Constantinople and in other Parts of the City particularly of that Pillar which had Three Brazen Serpents winding about it which when Mahomet the Great beheld the Conqueror struck One of them with a Battle-Axe and smote off the Lower Jaw Upon which a Multitude of Serpents infested the City but were soon exterminated in Regard the Sultan being warned by the Citizens forbore to do any farther Injury to those Images which were the Guardians of the City The Annals of the Mussulman Empire make Mention of these Statues as also of a Horse of Brass and a Bull of the same Metal The One erected as a Charm against the Pestilence the Other as an Oraculous Sign that the Enemies of the Grecian Monarchy should in that Place be repulsed and driven out of the City Yet it proved otherwise For the Victorious Mussulmans against whom the Enchantments of the Infidels could not prevail entred the Market-Place where this Image stood and drove from thence the timorous Grecians cutting in Pieces all that made Resistance and rendring themselves Lords of Constantinople at that Time the Richest City in the World The Romans were extremely addicted to these Superstitious Vanities Believing the Safety of their City and Empire consisted in the Preservation of the Palladium and Image which they thought fell down from Jupiter and was transported from Troy to Italy by Aeneas being afterwards reposited in the Temple of Vesta but burnt in that dreadful Conflagration which happen'd in the Reign of Nero. They had in no less Veneration the Buckler which they were taught drop'd down from Heaven into the Hands of Numa Pompilius whereon the Fate of Rome was engraven in Characters which none could read Fearing lest this Sacred Shield might be stoln they caus'd Eleven others of the same Figure to be made and all to be hung up together in the Temple of Mars And to

Lance and his Body was dragged through the Kennels Yet the very next Day the Multitude to shew their own Fickleness took the Dead Body out of a Ditch where they had laid it all Night They Washed and Embalmed it and having join'd the Head to it carried it with great Pomp and Solemnity to the Principal Temple of Naples attended with Drums and Trumpets and above a Thousand Priests with Torches in their Hands A Crown of Gold was put on his Head and a Scepter in his Hand Thus the Neapolitans honoured that Beardless Youth who in ' Ten Days time had caused such a Revolution as is scarce to be paralell'd For he was an Absolute Monarch in Effect during that time And of him it may be said as it was once of an Emperor That during his whole Reign there was neither Spring nor Autumn nor Winter For his Royalty begun and ended in the Seventh Moon By Letters from Nathan Ben Saddi at Vienna I perceive he is molested with Scruples about his Religion being desirous to build upon the surest Foundation I sent him the best Advice I could without making my self a Hypocrite which thou knowest is more offensive to God than an Open Sinner I drew up an Abstract of the Mussulman Records and presented him with the Faithful Genealogy from Ismael the Son of the Patriaroh Ibrahim down to our Holy Prophet This I did to rectifie an Old Inherent Errour of the Jews who boast That only the Sons of Isaac were True Believers I endeavoured not to proselyte him by Sophistry and Artifice but referred him for better Satisfaction to the Writings of the Ancients I promised to furnish him with Books of our Law and the Comments of our Holy Doctors This is impossible for me to perform whilst I am in this Place unless thou who art a Guide of those who seek the Truth vouchsafest to second my Zeal I address to thee Sovereign Prelate of the Faithful in Behalf of a Descendent from the Younger Brother of Ismael in Behalf of one Circumcised but not in the Right Way Favour him with thy Divine Instructions and supply him with Treatises of Light and Reason A seasonable Application may bring this Hebrew into the Number of the Mussulmans for he is already disgusted at the Synagogue But if I have presumed too far in endeavouring to snatch a Soul from the Paws of Tagot correct me in thy Wisdom for I am but as an Infant before thee Paris 15th of the 1st Moon of the Year 1648. LETTER XI The Beginning of this Letter is wanting in the Italian Translation the Original Paper being torn All Mens Hearts are filled with Joy for this prosperous News whilst I mourn for the Dishonour of Our Arms. Nothing but sad Tydings grate my Ears from those Parts and more melancholy Presages possess my Soul Methinks I see thick Clouds gathering o'er the Imperial City My Sleep is disturb'd with fearful Visions I start in my Bed and waking lay my Hand on my Sword as if some Danger were at Hand I dream of Tumults and Disorders neighing of Horses and clashing of Arms in the Streets of Constantinople I pray God avert the Omen It is reported here That Ali the Sangiac-Bey of Lippa is taken Prisoner and that his Son was tormented to Death before his Face in a Manner peculiar to the Invention of the most Barbarous Tyrants For they caused sharp Thorns to be thrust between his Nails and his Flesh which creates an intolerable Anguish They laid him on a Bed of Iron-Spikes and poured Melted Lead Drop by Drop on all Parts of his Flesh Then they made a small Fire and roasted him slowly to Death If he chanced to groan or make the least Complaint in the Midst of those grievous Tortures they bid him remember the Good Priest Sorich who set him an Example of Constancy and Courage in that he never shed a Tear or so much as sigh'd when he was Flea'd alive Thou seest that Revenge is sweet even to those who having receiv'd no Injury in their own Persons yet are touched to the Quick with the Violence that is done to another This will appear in the Humour of the Italians who prosecute their Enemies with irreconcilable Hatred and Malice whole Families being often engag'd in executing the Resentments of Two single Persons who first began the Quarrel But much more forcible is this Passion in those who have been notoriously hurt themselves And the Revenge of a certain Captain was Extravagant who being informed that his General had Debauch'd his Wife took an Opportunity to single him out from all other Company pretending to walk in the Fields When he had him there alone he clapt a Pistol to his Breast threatning to kill him forthwith if he moved Hand or Foot Then he upbraided him with what he had done in such Language as convinced the General his Life was in extreme Danger Wherefore he humbled himself and confessed his Crime begging of the Captain to spare his Life and he would preferr him forthwith to the best Office in the Army next his own But the furious Italian would not sell his Honour so Cheap He forced him to deny God and utter many Blasphemies in Hopes of Saving his Life And when he had thus done the Captain said Now my Revenge is complete since I shall send thee Body and Soul to the Devil With that he pistoll'd him But leaving these Infidels to their Diabolical Passions I am concern'd at the Captivity of thy Brother if it be true which is related here That he was taken in his Return from Canea to Constantinople It will cost the Bassa of Algiers a Thousand Crowns to ransom him Adieu Renarba And if thou art desirous to raise thy Self take that Method which I have now proposed to thee God be propitious to thy Endeavours Paris 4th of the 2d Moon of the Year 1648. LETTER XII To the Venerable Mufti THou wilt say the Neapolitans are a restless People when thou shalt know That there have been no less than Forty General Insurrections in this Kingdom since its first Separation from the Grecian Empire whereof it was formerly a Member and that in the Space of Two Years they have had Five Kings all of different Nations One would have thought That after the Death of Masanello the Ringleader of the late Innovation the Popular Heats would have slacken'd and the People returned to their Duty but the passionate Desire of Liberty caus'd them to continue in Arms till the Confirmation of their Privileges should come from the King of Spain In the mean Time Don John of Austria who lay before the City with a Fleet of Fifty Gallions play'd upon them incessantly with his Cannon by Sea and the Castles batter'd them by Land Cardinal Mazarini who has the earliest Intelligence of Foreign Transactions has had a Principal Hand in fomenting this Flame For as soon as the News of Masanello's Death arriv'd here he dispatch'd away Couriers to Rome with