Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	book_n	receive_v	scripture_n	2,071	5	6.0510	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27207	Considerations on a book, entituled The theory of the earth, publisht some years since by the Dr. Burnet	Beaumont, John, d. 1731.	1693 (1693)	Wing B1620; ESTC R170484	132,774	195

Ancients and yet in the present form of the Earth we find no such thing nor any foundation for it I cannot believe that this was so universally receiv'd upon a slight presumption only because it lay under the Course of the Sun if the Sun had the same Latitude from the Equator in his Course and Motion that he has now c. he instances several of the Ancient Philosophers Astronomers and Geographers who held that Zone uninhabitable and adds that some of the Ancient Philosophers whom he also names held that the Poles of the World did once change their Situation and were at first in another posture from what they are now till that Inclination happen'd c. and concludes that these Opinions of the Ancients must refer to that State of things which he has represented in his Antediluvian World To this I answer that it seems no wonder it should be the common receiv'd Opinion among the Ancients that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable for navigation being not come to its perfection America undiscover'd and no trading establish'd by Land to those parts of Africa that lye under the Torrid Zone and the great heats found in the neighbouring Climates to it might naturally induce such a belief in them so that we may allow it to have past as a negative Tradition among them for that no Man had attempted a discovery but to conclude that this was a positive Tradition among them deriv'd from Antediluvian times on a suppos'd differing position which the Heavens or Earth then had it 's more than the thing will bear neither was that Opinion of the uninhabitableness of the Torrid Zone so general in Ancient times but some Patrons of the Earth merely upon a stress of reasoning always said nay to it Thus Plutarch tells us that Pythagoras as great a Man as any among the Greeks and more ancient than any the Author has nam'd for the contrary Opinion held the Torrid Zone habitable and a temperate Region as being in the midst betwixt that of the Summer and that of the Winter and certainly Pythagoras was as likely a Man as any among the Ancients to have known such a Tradition and to have faithfully convey'd it to posterity if there had been any ground for it himself and Orpheus being judg'd by many to have been knowing in the Mosaick Cabala concerning the true System of the World Ptolomy also says many contend that the parts near the Equinoctial are inhabited as being the most temperate Region because the Sun neither stays in the vertical points but makes swift recesses according to Latitude from the Equinoctial points whence the Summer is rendred temperate neither in the Solstices is it far from the Vertex wherefore the Winters must be very mild Bede quotes this passage and adds but what those habitations are we cannot say with any likely ground for Men have not pass'd thither even to this day wherefore what is said of it may be lookt upon rather as a conjecture than a true History Tertullian also held the Torrid Zone a temperate Region and plac'd Paradise in it and so did Nicephoras according to the Opinion of Theophilus the like did Bonaventure and Durandus of later years and Avicenna among the Arabians held that Region temperate Here also it may be noted that generally those that held the uninhabitableness of the Torrid Zone held likewise the two Polar Zones uninhabitable through continual frosts there so that the Tradition of the one ought to be held as well as that of the other which would destroy the Authors Hypothesis for the source of his Waters as I have intimated before As to those Philosophers mention'd by the Author to have held that the Poles of the World once chang'd their Situation I know no reason we have to follow them in it more than a multitude of other erroneous Opinions which we find amongst the ancient Philosophers Ignonorance in Cosmography being an Epidemical distemper amongst them so that Plutarch tells us Pythagoras was said to be the first who bethought him of the Obliqueness of the Zodiack which Invention some ascribe to Oenopides of Chius The same tells us Parmenides was the first who limited the places inhabited on the Earth to wit those that are in the two habitable Zones to the Tropick Circles What wonder then that the Ancients should lie under great mistakes in things relating to that Knowledge But the Author urges in his Answer to Mr. Warren that Diogenes Anaxagoras Empedocles Leucippus and Democritus say there was once a Change of the Poles therefore it must be lookt upon as a Tradition amongst the Ancients for which they are good Testimonies But I would ask the Author whether either of those Philosophers deliver their Opinion as a Tradition among the Ancients Plutarch whence he quotes their Opinions entitles his Book The Opinions of the Philosophers and delivers this as their particular Opinion and not as a Tradition and assigns the several Reasons they went upon which are all found to be erroneous and to expect that we should receive their Opinion as a Tradition and acquiesce in it without any farther Ground seems to me altogether as unreasonable as to say that because Diagoras Theodorus Cyreneus Evemeras Euripides mentioned also by Plutarch and others of the ancient Philosophers held there was no Deity therefore this must be lookt upon as a well-grounded Tradition and fit for us to receive that there is no Deity This is too hard putting upon our Reason Well but the Author grants their Reasons are false but says it would be as injudicious to exclude them from being Witnesses or fair Testimonies of such a thing because they do not Philosophise well about that Change as if we should deny that there was such a War as the Peloponesian War because the Historian has not assign'd the true Causes and Reasons of it or to deny that a Comet appear'd in such a Year because a Person that makes mention of it has not given a good account of the generation of it nor of the Causes of its form and motion I answer That I do not exclude them from being Witnesses meerly because of the false Reasons they give for what they say but because that they neither own themselves as Witnesses neither does it any way appear that what they deliver is as they are VVitnesses but meerly from their own fancy as it may be said of Diagoras and the rest that held a non-existence of a Deity And as to the Instances of the Peloponesian War and the Comet there is a vast disparity betwixt these and the other for the Peloponesian War and the Comet are notorious Facts convey'd down to us by every Historian and Astronomer nemine contradicente as they receiv'd it from time to time from unquestionable Hands But what are those five Philosophers to the whole Body of the Philosophers both before and after them who mention no such thing Nor do those five affirm

never attain'd unless they had liv'd at least six hundred years the great Year being accomplisht by that Revolution As for Coelestial Causes the boldest Assertor I find is Petrus Apponensis who says we must by no means envy those of the first Age for having liv'd a longer Series of years than us the disposition of the Heav'ns being by Nature more benign and propitious to them for then there were two Animal Circles together co-operating one in the ninth Sphere and the other in the eighth where the Firmament is being so dispos'd that Aries answered diametrically to Aries Taurus to Taurus Gemini to Gemini c. They so fortifying the Celestial Influences that Herbs Roots standing Corn and Fruits grew then much more wholesom than since that Society through a long motion being dissolv'd whence the whole Inferiour World began to grow diseas'd and decay For Sublunary Causes first we may allow as the Author does that the Stamina or Principles of Life of the Antediluvians were much stronger than Men have at present by which they had a more vigorous natural Constitution Secondly we may allow them to have been better circumstantiated and regulated as to the Six Non-Natural things as first that their Atmosphere being throwly impregnated with balsamick Particles arising from that pure primigenial Soil the Celestial Influences had a more kindly Co-operation with them forming an Air far transcending ours now in the healthiest part of the Earth for prolonging Life and in this the Author is free to expatiate as he pleases Secondly as to their Dyet it 's conceiv'd that the Antediluvian Soil being excellently temper'd brought forth better and more wholsome Fruits than are since the Deluge that it has been tainted with the Saltness of the Sea and that the Fountain Waters were also then more wholsom and that those Fathers were endued with a greater Knowledg to discern what was good and bad for them and observ'd a greater Temperance than is now us'd Thirdly it 's conceiv'd that if Man had not so many extrinsical Causes as Pleasures domestick and publick Cares and other Troubles to discompose him he might live a much longer Age in which it 's thought the Antients were not so much concern'd leading a more sedate and calm Life And so as to the other Non-Natural things they may be conceiv'd to have govern'd themselves better in them than Men do now And upon the whole it may be said that tho we may not ascribe the Antediluvian Longaevity to any one of these sublunary Causes singly yet taken altogether they may be lookt upon as competent Causes for it But to go about to alter the Sun's Course or the Earth's Posture to it to make it out I believe it 's what will never pass among learned Men. Having assign'd such Causes as perhaps by some may be thought tolerably plausible for the Antediluvian Longaevity in the last place I shall give my opinion of the matter which is that I look upon the long Lives of the Patriarchs to have been from a particular Providence I cannot say it was for the reason assign'd by Austin that the first World by a few might be peopl'd in a short time for on that account long Life seems as necessary to others as to the Patriarchs besides that each of the Patriarchs as far as we find by Scripture spent many Years as Adam above an Hundred others above an Hundred and Eighty before they got Children whereas before that time they might have got Children enough to have peopled many Countries tho as Rabbi Gedalia says according to the opinion of many Jewish Doctors the Patriarchs did not live so long before they had Children as the Scripture speaks of but that it makes mention of those only from whom they receiv'd the Tradition not taking notice of many others whom there was no necessity of medling withal But I am of the opinion of that Adept Philosopher who in his late Answer to the learned Dr. Dickinson affirms long Life to have been granted the Patriarchs from a particular Providence that they might the better learn and propagate Arts and Sciences and convey down with more Certainty the Tradition of the Creation the Fall of Man God's Judgment upon him and the Hope of his Redemption c. and I know not why we should make a Difficulty of admitting a particular Providence when such particular Designs of Providence are to be carried on by it I reject therefore Lunar Years with the Author tho as to the Testimony he quotes from Josephus saying that the Historians of all Nations both Greeks and Barbarians ascribe Longaevity to the first Inhabitants of the Earth many of the Authors whom he names averring them to have liv'd a Thousand Years I value it not and much doubt whether the Author himself gives credit to those Histories For either they relate to Antediluvian or Postdiluvian Times if to the former I know no colour of Reason we have for relying on any thing as Authentick deliver'd by Greeks or Barbarians concerning those times If to the latter I cannot think the Author believes any Man to have liv'd a Thousand Years since the Deluge So we find that Pliny considering what many of the Greeks and others had writ concerning the length of some Mens Lives plainly says they have writ Fables instead of true Histories through their Ignorance of the various acceptation of Years and Ages an Age signifying with some Thirty Years with others only One Year and with others an Hundred Years And the space of a Year being determin'd by some by one Revolution of the Moon by others it 's made Trimestrial and by others to consist of Six Months And Father Simon tells us It 's certain that even the antient Jews not finding in their Histories Genealogies enough to fill up the time made one single Person to live many Ages whence there is nothing more common in their Histories than these long liv'd Men so that we ought not over easily to give belief to Jewish Histories which make their Doctors survive till such a time as they can find another to joyn him Nay a great many of the Jewish Doctors who have so great a Veneration for the Scriptures are so far from acquiescing in what Josephus urges from the Greek and Barbarian Tradition that they have affirm'd as Father Simon tells us the Patriarchs to have liv'd no longer than other Men and that the Holy Scripture makes only mention of the Head of a Family to whom it immediately joyns the last of the same Family without taking notice of those who have been betwixt both those Doctors believing that when any Head of a Family had ordain'd certain Laws and Methods of living to the Family he was made to live till the last of the Family who had observ'd those Laws were dead so that he is suppos'd to have liv'd all this while in his Family And I doubt that all Men who are not content to have recourse to