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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	call_v	natural_a	3,680	5	6.6307	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39821	The manners of the Israelites in three parts. I Of the patriarchs. 2. Of the Israelites after their coming out of Egypt until the captivity of Babylon. 3 Of the Jews after their return from the captivity until the preaching of the Gospel. Shewing their customs secular and religious, their generous contempt of earthly grandeur. And the great benefit and advantage of a plain laborious, frugal, and contented life.; Moeurs des Israélites. English	Fleury, Claude, 1640-1723.	1683 (1683)	Wing F1364A; ESTC R218945	81,805	250

from certain living Creatures out of a Principle of Religion The people round about 'em did the same The Syrians did eat no flesh and some have been of Opinion that it was likewise out of Superstition that the Greeks did abstain from it The Egyptians of Thebes ate no mutton because they adored Amnon under the ●igure of a Ram. Besides they abstained from Goats and Sacrificed sheep The Egyptian Priests abstained from all meats and drinks that were fetch'd from abroad And as to what the Country produc'd they abstain'd from Creatures whose Feet were round or divided into several toes or claws or which had no horns as also from Birds of Prey Several ate nothing that had life And in their times of Purification they abstained likewise from Eggs. In Egypt Swine's flesh was held for unclean Whosoever had toucht an Hog but as he past by went presently to wash himself and his cloaths Socrates forbad the breeding of them in his Republick as creatures rendring no Service and of no farther use than for the Table All the World knows that still at this Day the Indian Bramins neither eat nor kill any kind of Living thing And 't is certain they have continued this Humour for above two thousand years Therefore the Law of Moses had nothing new or extraordinary in this point But it was necessary to restrain the people within reasonable bounds to hinder them from imitating the Superstitions of their neighbours without giving them on the other side an entire Liberty which they might have abused For this abstinence from certain meats was useful both for Health and for Manners It serv'd not only to quell their unruly Spirits that God had impos'd upon 'em that Yoke but likewise to divert them from things hurtful They were forbidden to eat of blood or of Fat both being difficult to digest Swines flesh is also very heavy upon the Stomach The same holds good with those Fish that have no scales whose Flesh is oily and fat whether it be delicate as that of Eeles or it be hard as that of Tunnies Whales and other Fishes of that kind Thus we might render natural reasons for the greatest part of these Prohibitions as Clemens Alexandrinus has well observed As to the moral reasons the Ingenious have ever counted Gluttony for a Vice that was first to be subdued as being the source of most others The Socratick Philosophers preached up Sobriety so very much that Plato did not believe that any thing was to be done in Sicily towards the correction of manners as long as people ate there two great Meals aday And it is observed that the aim of Pythagoras his abstinence was to render men Just and Disinteressed by accustoming them to live on a little Now one of the chief branches of Gluttony is the desire of Variety of Meats A too great quantity does very soon disgust But as the diversity is Infinite the desire of 'em is Insatiable CAP. XII Purifications THe Purifications commanded by the Law had the same grounds with the Distinction of Meats Neighbouring Nations practis'd them or such like others and they were useful for Health and for Manners The cleanness and neatness of the Body is a Symbol of the purity of the Soul and is a pretty natural consequence of it since that nastiness does commonly proceed from Sloth from a contempt of others and a lowness of Heart The external purification is in Scripture called Sanctification because it makes men sensible of the Interiour purity wherewith we ought to approach holy things Neatness is otherwise necessary to maintain Health and prevent Diseases especially in hot Countries And indeed men naturally are there more cleanly The heat inviting them to strip themselves to bath and change their cloaths often Whereas in cold Climates People dread the Water and Air and prove more dull and Lazy Certain it is that the Sluttishness wherein most of our common people live especially the poorer sort and those within Cities does cause and keep on foot many and many Diseases What would it be in hot Countries where the air is more easily corrupted and where water is more scarce Moreover the Ancients made little use of Linnen and Woollen is not so easily to be cleansed Let us admire herein the Wisdom and goodness of God who had given his People Laws so many ways profitable Since they served at once to accustome them to Obedience to restrain them from Superstition to regulate their manners and to preserve their Health It is thus that in the Structure of Animals and Plants we see so many parts which serve for several uses Now it was important that the precepts of neatness should make a part of Religion For that considering the inner Corners of Houses and the most secret actions of life there was nothing but the fear of God could cause them to be observed However by these sensible things God formed their Conscience and wonted them to acknowledge that nothing was concealed from him and that it was not sufficient to be pure only in the eyes of men This is the foundation of those Laws which commanded bathing and washing of cloaths after the having toucht a dead body or an unclean Creature and in several the like encounters Hence proceeds the Purifications of Vessels by Water or by Fire of Houses where there appeared any corruption of Women after their lyings in and the Separation of Lepers Tho the white Leper which the Scripture only mentions is rather a Deformity than a Disease The Separation from Strangers was a necessary consequence of these Laws For altho most of the adjoyning People had likewise their Rules for the choice of Meats and for their Purifyings they were not the same So that an Israelite had always a right to presume that the Stranger he met withal had eaten of Swines flesh or of meats offer'd to Idols or had toucht some unclean Beast And therefore he was not permitted to eat with Aliens nor to enter into their houses And this separation was likewise useful for manners serving as a Barrier against their being too much with strangers which is ever pernicious to the Commonalty and which was much more so in those conjunctures of time by reason of Idolatry The Egyptians were extremely addicted to this Maxime the Scripture shewing that they would not eat with the Hebrews and Herodotus testifying that they would neither Kiss a Greek nor make use of his Knife or his Vessel Several such like practices the Mahometans have still at this day But those who have most of 'em and are tyed to them with the greatest Superstition are the Indians Yet the Israelites did not equally shun all manner of Strangers tho they comprehended them all alike under the name of Gojim or Gentiles All Idolaters they abhorred particularly the Uncircumcised For they were not the only people who practis'd Circumcision it was in use among the Egyptians and

during all the time we speak of CAP. XXI Idolatry THis Crooked inclination to Idolatry appears to us very strange and very absurd in the Manners of the Israelites and it is that which does most of all perswade us they were a gross and brutish People We scarcely see now any Idolaters We only hear say that there remain some in the Indies and other far distant Countries But all the People who surround us Jews Mahometans Hereticks and Papists profess the Unity of an Almighty God The meanest sort of Women the most ignorant and heavy Louts know distinctly this truth so that we conclude those who believed several Gods and worshipped Stocks and Stones ought to be placed in the lowest form of the most ignorant dunsical and barbarous men Nevertheless Barbarous we cannot term the Romans Greeks Egyptians Syrians and the other people of Antiquity all whose Arts Sciences and Politeness are derived down to us and for which we are much beholden to them And we cannot deny but that Idolatry domineer'd among them with an absolute Empire at a time when as to other things they were most ingenious and polite Wherefore we must pawse a little here and dive into the Source and Fond of this Evil. The Wit of man is so much darkned since the Fall that he remains in the state of corrupted nature He does not apply himself to any Spiritual Idea He only thinks of Body and Matter and reckons all that does not fall under his senses for nothing Nought appears solid to him but what strikes his grossest Senses the Tast and Feeling We see it but too plainly in Children and men who follow their Passions They have no value but for what is Visible and Sensible All other things seem to 'em meer Castles in the Air. And yet these men are brought up in the true Religion in the knowledge of one God of the Souls Immortality and of a Future life What then could those Ancient Gentiles think who had never heard a Syllable of these things and to whom their great Sages only presented sensible and material Objects Read Homer as long as you please that great Divine and great Prophet of the Grecians and you will not find the least tittle therein to conjecture that he thought of any thing Spiritual or Incorporeal And truly all their Wisdom applyed it self to what concerns the body and the senses The Gymnastick exercises of the body which they made so much their business did only aim at preserving and augmenting Health Strength Dexterity and Beauty and they brought that Art to the highest pitch of Accomplishment Sculpture Painting and Architecture regard the pleasure of the Eye and such great Masters were they in those Arts that their Houses their Cities and all their Countries were full of agreeable Objects as we may see by the Descriptions of Pausanias They also excelled in Musick and tho Poetry seems to reach further than the Sences it is stinted to the Imagination which has the same Objects and produces the same Effects Their most Ancient Laws and their Rules of Morality do all likewise refer to bodily things that each particular Person should have wherewith to live handsomely that men should marry sound and fruitfull Women that the Children should be brought up to have stout Bodies and that chiefly for War that every one might be in security in respect of Strangers or Ill-Citizens They thought so little of the Soul and ' its Spiritual Goods that they did it a great deal of harm for the prefectionating of the Body It is evidently against modesty that the Young-men should appear all naked in publick to exercise themselves in the Eyes of all the World This was reputed nothing and the Women too in Lacedemon exercised themselves in that manner Very dangerous also it was to expose Statues and Pictures every where of all kind of Nudities even the most infamous and the danger was very great especially for Painters and Carvers who work to the Life However they were oblig'd to content the pleasure of the Sight Thus we know to what point of Dissoluteness and Lubricity the Greeks attained by those means Among them the most abominable Wantonness was not only in use but in Honour Musick and Poetry besides their fomenting of those Vices did likewise excite and maintain Jealousies and mortal hatred among the Poets the Actors and the Spectators And particular persons were often branded Lampoon'd and exposed by Forgeries and cruel Raileries But they were not much netled or scandaliz'd provided they had fine Songs and agreeable Sights It was the same as to their Religion It only consisted in sensible Ceremonies and was injurious instead of being advantageous to good manners And the source of all these mischiefs was that man had forgot himself and his immaterial substance There was kept up among all people a constant Tradition that there was a more excellent Being than man capable of doing him good or evil Knowing nothing but Body they would needs have that Being h. e. the Deity to be also Corporeal and by consequence that there were several Gods to the intent there might be some of them in each part of nature that each Nation each Town each Family might have their peculiar Deities They imagin'd them like immortal men and to make 'em happy they attributed to them all the pleasures without which they fancy'd no happiness and that even to the most shameful Debaucheries Which afterwards served to authorize their Passions by the example of their Gods It was not enough to imagine them either in Heaven or upon Earth they would see and touch them Wherefore they honour'd their Idols as the Gods themselves being perswaded they were thereto fixed and therein incorporated And they reverenc'd those Statues so much the more as they were more sine or more Ancient or had some other Singularity which made them the more Recommendable Their Worship was conformable to their Belief It wholly turned upon two Passions the Love of Pleasure and the fear of sensible Ill. Their Sacrifices were evermore followed by Feasts and accompanied with Musick and Dances Comedy and Tragedy began at their Rejoycings in the time of Vintage sacred to the honou● of Bacchus The Olympick Games and those other so much celebrated Combates were made in honour of the Gods in short all the Shews of Greece were Acts of Religion and according to them it was an high piece of Devotion to assist at the most Lewd Plays of Aristophanes And indeed their greatest business in time of Peace was to take care of sacred Combates and Stage-plays and frequently in time of War they applyed themselves more and were in greater expence for those things than for the War it self Thus their Religion was not a Doctrine of Morality as the true Religion was In case some Justice was observed Oaths Hospitality and Asyles were not violated In case men acquitted themselves faithfully of their vows and they were at expence for Sights and Sacrifices