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A35867
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A dialogue between an East-Indian brackmanny or heathen-philosopher, and a French gentleman concerning the present affairs of Europe
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Tryon, Thomas, 1634-1703.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing D1301; ESTC R32400
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10,968
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26
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Brachmans for directing their Esteem to these glorious Master-pieces of the Creation If you count such lifeless pittiful things as Wood and Stone or things painted and fashioned by Man fit to be Representations of your Godds and means whereby to enliven your Phantasies and Minds to an higher degree of Devotion which was the sole intent of the first Inventers of those things what regard then ought we not to have of those living Powers of God the Coelestial Bodies by whose sweet and friendly Influences all created Beeings are preserved and nourished What is more exciting to a well-disposed Mind than to behold that glorious Body the Sun with the innumerable Train of Stars and the various Species in the four Worlds or what doth more ravishingly declare the Greatness Goodness and eternal Wisdom of the immense Creator This is a Book we study in which the grand Charter of Nature and the holy Mysteries of God are recorded and we think we do not Err in preferring it before the endless and contentious thwarting Volumns of the Talkative Philosophers and Wrangling School-men French-man I have been told and you seem to own it That you will not Kill any of the inferior Creatures nor eat their Flesh but I pray hath not Man power to do as he pleaseth with those Creatures and were not the made for that very purpose Heathen God hath made all Creatures inferior to Man who hath freedom to use and do unto them all as he pleaseth having free will to chuse either Good or Evil but he that follows the better and leaveth the worse chuseth the better part and is made God's Friend and in Amity with all the Creation for man is a likeness of all things and contains their true Natures and Properties and therefore whatever he giveth himself unto the same becomes strong in him be it Virtue or Vice For which cause our well-advised Fathers commanded us our Wives and Children to abstain from all kinds of Violence and Oppression especially to those of our own Species that thereby our Souls might be preserved from being precipitated into Wrath and so retain Humanity and the more noble Faculties of our Souls unspotted as well as our Bodies rendred wholsom clean and fit to be Temples for the divine Spirit esteeming Abstinence Cleanness and Separation to be the true Paths that lead to all external and eternal Bliss it being in our Opinion an unfit and altogether unworthy thing that the great noble and immortal Soul of Man should so much degenerate from its high and illustrious Birth as to joyn or suffer it self to be incorporated with the low and savage Nature of Beasts Nor do we think it lawful for us to heat our Veins and distemper our Blood with Wine since Water more kindly quencheth our Thirst the innocent and fragrant Herbs and Fruits of our Gardens afford us ample Satisfaction and we should be ashamed to make our Bodies the Graves of the inferior Creatures And though our Princes are sometimes harsh and severe to us yet we pacifie them with meek submissive and humble Behaviour And since as little as possible we can we hurt not any thing therefore nothing hurts us but live in perfect Unity and Amity with all the numberless Inhabitants of the four Worlds doing by them as we would be done unto whereby we dis-arm their Rage and their Fury finds no place against us French-man But pray tell me how long you have led this kind of Life and whether your Sons and Daughters do follow your Religion and Examples for amongst the Europians nothing is more common than for Youth to degenerate and wander after the Multitude and abandon their Fathers Rules especially if they should be but half so singular as you are Heathen As for the Antiquity of our Course of Life I think for the greater part I may date it from the Worlds Original Your own Doctors teach that Adam the first man was placed in a Garden and that the green Herb and Tree bearing Fruit was to be to him for Meat and do generally agree that afterwards at least during the old World viz. to the time of the Flood which was in the Year of the World 1616. eating of Flesh was not allowed or practised and though afterwards it was practised yet 't is probable it did not obtain with all But there is reason to believe that still the better and more reserved sort did abstain For about the Year of the World 3300. near the time that your holy Records mention Ierusalem to be besieged by Nebuchadnezzar we find the famous Philosopher Pythagoras flourishing who expresly taught his Followers which by reason of his Parts and Virtues were not a few not to eat any Flesh but content themselves altogether with Vegetables and this great man travelling for the acquest and diffusion of Knowledge into divers parts left not our India unvisited and there planted this wholsom Doctrine which ever since hath not wanted Observers derived down by a continual Succession to our Times 'T is true our Ancestors have obliged us to some things which may seem frivolous and vain as not to kill any kind of Vermin which are very offensive to the Life of Man But indeed these Prohibitions well regarded shew their more deep Wisdom and Fore-sight for they did consider that their Philosophy would not only be embraced by Wise Men but also by a great number of Fools as the most part of all men are in one thing or another and if they should have permitted them to have killed any kind of Creatures the Foolish would have concluded they might by the same Rule as well kill others and so by degrees come to kill men as most other Nations do Besides not only our cleanly regular temperate Lives free us from many of those Vermin wherewith others are troubled but we take it for a Rule that such as would live an abstemious separated Life from Evil and Violence must refrain from some things that are lawful as well as from those that are unlawful as one of your Prophets says excellently All things are lawful but not expedient Touching our Sons and Daughters they all constantly follow our Foot-steps and it hath very rarely been known that any of them have forsaken the Precepts of their Fathers being descended from a Root of Temperance and Equality they are naturally Sober and Temperate for they use not Tippling-Houses nor spend their Patrimony in drinking Wine Gaming Debauchery and Gluttony so that the more Children we have the Richer we esteem our selves they proving no more chargeable to us than Lambs do to Sheep They all marry Wives of our own Tribe and Religion and there is no dispute about either Portion or Joynture Their greatest Pleasure and chief Recreation is to contemplate the Heavens and their glorious furniture the Sun Moon and Stars in their various Motions and Configurations as also the pleasant Gardens Groves and Fountains and to free the Inhabitants thereof from the Tyranny and Bondage
all that will not be of the Religion they pretend to We have in our Country a parcel of People called Hereticks and Hugenotes their Conversation is generally Iust and Honest and they are Peaceable and Obedient to their King and as ready to serve him and do good to their Neighbours as any But they will not joyn with us in our Religions Opinions and Ceremonies Heathen As how I pray French-man Why they will not acknowledge our supream Caliph at Rome to be Infallible They will not say their Prayers to a Statue an Image or a Picture because they fancy those fine things can neither hear them nor help themselves They will not own that the Bone or a piece of the Garment of a man who is himself many Years agone dead and rotten can Cure them of Diseases or preserve them from Dangers But especially when we give them a piece of Bread and tell them 't is Flesh Blood and Bones they think 't is Bread still and are so impudent as to believe their own Eyes before the dictates of our Priests Heathen Why Do you your selves believe and practise these Absurdities French-man Ye marry and would Burn you too if you were in some parts of Christendom and durst say you did not believe them as well as we Heathen Then I bless the good and infinite Beeing that I have no business in such a Christendom But pray proceed with the Story of your Hugenotes French-man We endeavoured to suppress and root them out by severe Laws and open Wars but finding that Course ineffectual we resolved upon a Stratagem to cut them off pretended to be very kind to them and that we desired a perfect Reconciliation and to that purpose made a Match between one of the chief of that Party and a great Lady of ours to solemnize this Wedding the principal Hugenotes repaired from all parts of the Kingdom and had the greatest Assurances given them of Friendship But one Night whilst they suspected nothing Souldiers being drawn together at a certain Hour fell upon them in all parts of the City destroying Men Women and Children so that in two or three Hours time there were above ten Thousand of their dead Bodies flung naked into the Streets and the Channels flowed with their Heretical Blood And at that time Messengers were sent to other Cities and Towns to do the like so that in a few dayes there were above forty Thousand of them slain Was not this a noble expression of Zeal for Religion Heathen God keep such bloody Zeal still from our Indian Territories Do your Priests allow of such doings French-man Allow Yes and applaud them too they are the Men that excite us to these gallant Exploits and for a Reward for these Services do forgive us all our Sins and assure us of Heaven Heathen I know not what they may pretend but this I know that God is Love and that such barbarous Cruelties are to him an Abomination And to speak truth so long as men continue Obstinate Revengeful and Contentious and suffer the wild savage Nature and bitter Spirit to reign in their Hearts neither Men nor God can forgive them for Inequality and Discord cannot move Equality such a Spirit is contrary to the divine Nature and therefore cannot expect Forgiveness till 't is changed and transformed For men cannot draw nigh to the Fountain of Benignity nor be heard of the Soveraign Beeing but as they become like unto him for every like is moulded by its likeness Blood requires Blood but the Merciful shall find Mercy from the God of Peace and Compassion whose Mercies never fail For this cause we have for many Generations totally abstained from all Violence Oppression and Killing either of Man or Beast for the Groanings and Miseries of those Creatures that suffer Wrong are the beginnings of Trouble and Sorrow to those that do it and do certainly stir up and awaken the fierce Wrath in Nature as the Loadstone attracts Iron French-man These are pretty Notions but methinks impracticable For if we Europeans should live the Life you talk of and lay aside Arms and not vindicate our Religion and Liberties by the Sword we should be over-run and be made the greatest of Slaves Have not you heard of the Inroad made at this Instant by the Turks into Germany Now would you have us stand with our Arms a cross and suffer them to over-ran all Christendom Heathen I pray what do you account the occasion that moved the Turk to this Expedition French-man Why the Emperor of Germany in certain of his Territories had some of those Hereticks that I described to you but now and he would force them to be of his Religion and to compell them thereunto seized on their Priests and clapt them into Dungeons and Prisons where they were starved and pined away in Want and Misery and others he sold for Slaves and sent Souldiers amongst them to kill and destroy all that would not Conform to his Ceremonies Hereupon they took Arms in their own defence and observing their Brethren to live free from such Violences and enjoy their Religion under the Turks paying only such Tribute they desire the Turk to protect them which offends the Emperor and so the Quarrel encreasing the Turk sends an Army against him Heathen This confirms and illustrates what I assert for here you see this Deluge of Calamity had not happened to Germany had they not first stirred up the Wrath and caussesly vexed their Neighbours It appears plainly these Flames arise from Sparks of their own kindling besides Experience shews that none are such Vassals and subject to so many Miseries as those that give themselves to the use of Arms viz. to Guns Swords and the like Weapons of wrath and most of them perish by the use of them For our own parts 't is true we do live in subjection and under the burthen of many great Taxes which are levied on us at the pleasure of the Princes we live under but then they protect us from the Injuries of the Multitude allowing us our free Egress and Regress through their Dominions and unquestioned Liberty for the Exercise of our Religion and manner of living They do not endeavour to peep into our Breasts and examine our Opinions or punish us for not thinking as they do We go freely about our occasions nor do they permit every Idle Fellow to take away our Goods nor give us abusive Words or hurry us to loathsom Prisons nor are our Sons forced into the Wars They threaten no Punishment to us provided we do not offend the civil Laws for they matter not what gods we worship nor after what fashion so we are just to men and live peaceably and pay our Tribute If they have our Money they know they cannot want Men that will Fight for two Pence a day But we value our Health our Lives Liberties and Religion more than Money We all drink Water and the fragrant Herbs wholsom Seeds Fruits and Grains suffice