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
A44716	Epistolæ Ho-elianæ familiar letters domestic and forren divided into sundry sections, partly historicall, politicall, philosophicall, vpon emergent occasions / by James Howell.; Correspondence	Howell, James, 1594?-1666.	1650 (1650)	Wing H3072; ESTC R711	386,609	560

knowledg it self and from the rotten kernells of that fatall Apple This besides the infirmities that attend the body hath brought in perversity of will depravation of mind and hath cast a kind of cloud upon our intellectualls that they cannot discern the true essence of things with that clearnes as the protoplast our first Parent could but we are involved in a mist and grope as it were ever since in the dark as if truth wer got into som dungeon or as the old wisard said into som deep pit which the shallow apprehension of men could not fathom Hence comes it that the earth is rent into so many religions and those religions torn into so many schismes and various forms of devotion as if the heavenly Majesty were delighted as much in diversities of worship as in diversities of works The first Religion that ever was reduced to exact rules and ●…iruall observances was that of the Hebrews the ancient peeple of God called afterwards Iudaisme the second Christianity the third Mahometisme which is the youngest of all religions Touching Paganisme and heathenish Idolatrie they scarce deserve the name of Religion but for the former three ther is this analogy between them that they all agree in the first person of the Trinity and all his attributes What kind of Religion ther was before the Floud it is in vain to make any researches ther having bin no monuments at all left besides that little we find in Moses and the Phaenician story but Seths pillars and those so defac'd that nothing was legible upon them though Iosephus saith that one was extant in his daies as also the oke under which Abraham feasted God Almighty which was 2000 yeers after The religion or Cab●…l of the Hebrews was transferred from the Patriarchs to Moses and from him to the Prophets It was honoured with the apearance and promulgations of God himself specially the better part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I mean the decalogue containing the ten Commandements 〈◊〉 being most of them morall and agreeing with the common notions of man are in force all the world over The Jews at this day are divided to three Sects the first which is the greatest are call'd the Talmudists in regard that besides the Holy Scriptures they embrace the Talmud which is stuff'd with the traditions of their Rabbins and Ca●…ams The second receive the Scripture alone The third the Pentateuch only viz. the five Books of Moses which are called Samaritanes Now touching what part of the earth is possessed by Jews I cannot find they have any at all peculiar to themselves but in regard of their murmurings their frequent Idolatries defections and that they crucified the Lord of life this once select Nation of God and the Inhabitants of the Land flowing with milk and hony is becom now a scorned squandered peeple all the earth over being ever since incapable of any coalition or reducement into one body politic There where they are most without mixture is Tiberias in Palestine which Amurath gave Mendez the Jew whither and to Ierusalem upon any conveniency they convey the bones of their dead friends from all places to be reinterred They are to be found in all Mercantile Towns and great Marts both in Africk Asia and Europe the dominions of England of the Spaniard and French excepted and as their persons so their profession is despicable being for the most part but Brokers every where Among other places they are allowed to be in Rome her self near St. Peters chair for they advance trade whersoever they com with the banks of mony and so are permitted as necessary evills but put case the whol Nation of the Jews now living were united into one collective body yet according to the best conjecture and exactest computation that I could hear made by the knowingst men they would not be able to peeple a countrey bigger then the seventeen Provinces Those that are dispersed now in Christendom and Turky are the remnants only of the Tribes of Iuda and Benjamin with som Levites which returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel The common opinion is that the other ten are utterly lost but they themselves fancy that they are in India a mighty nation environed with stony rivers which alwaies cease to run their course on their Sabbath from whence they expect their Messias who shall in the fulnes of time ore run the world with fire and sword and reestablish them in a temporall glorious state But this opinion swayes most among the Orientall Jews wheras they of the West attend the coming of their Messias from Portugall which language is more common among them then any other and thus much in brief of the Jews as much as I could digest and comprehend within the compas of this paper-sheet and let it serve for the accomplishment of the first part of your desire In my next I shall give you the best satisfaction I can concerning the extent of Christianity up and down the globe of the earth which I shall speedily send for now that I have undertaken such a task my pen shall not rest till I have finished it so I am Westmin 1 Aug. 1635. Your most affectionat ready Servant J. H. IX To Doctor B. SIR HAving in my last sent you somthing touching the state of Iudaisin up and down the world in this you shall receive what extent Christianity hath which is the second Religion in succession of time and truth A Religion that makes not sense so much subject to reason as reason succumbent to Faith Ther is no Religion so harsh and difficult to flesh and bloud in regard of divers mysterious positions it consists of as the Incarnation Resurrection the ●…nity c. which as one sayd are bones to Philosophy but milk to Faith Ther is no Religion so purely spirituall and abstracted from common naturall idea's and sensuall happines as the Christian No Religion that excites man more to the love and practise of vertue and hatred of vice or that prescribes greater rewards for the one and punishments for the other A Religion that in a most miraculous manner did expand her self and propagat by simplicity humblenes and by a meer passive way of fortitude growing up like the palm tree under the heavy weight of persecution for never any Religion had more powerfull opposition by various kinds of punishments oppressions and tortures which may be said to haue deckd her with rubies in her very cradle In so much that it is granted by her very enemies that the Christian in point of passive valour hath exceeded all other nations upon earth And t is a thing of wonderment how at her very first growth she flew over the heads of so many interjacent vast Regions into this remote Isle so soon that her rays should shine upon the Crown of a British King first of any I mean King Lucius the true Proto Christian King in the daies of Eleutherius at which time she receiv'd her propagation but for her plantation she had it long