Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	holy_a	know_v	scripture_n	1,758	5	5.8907	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48403	A new historical relation of the kingdom of Siam by Monsieur De La Loubere ... ; done out of French, by A.P. Gen. R.S.S.; Du royaume de Siam. English	La Loubère, Simon de, 1642-1729.; A. P.	1693 (1693)	Wing L201; ESTC R5525	377,346	277

of which were legal Impurities among the Jews They wash themselves amongst certain People after having seen their Wives as after some other sort of Pollution Mahomet thought Women unworthy of Paradice and without declaring what they shall become he promises some fairer and more beautiful to his Elect. The Chinese Philosophers esteem Divorce a Virtuous Action The Chinese Philosophers do say that a Wife is a thing evil in itself and that one must neither keep his own nor take another when he has Children that may render unto their Parents from whom they are born and to their Ancestors the Duties which the Christian Religion thinks necessary to the repose of the dead Without this pretended necessity they would believe Marriage unlawful and so soon as they have Children they think it a Vertue to make a Divorce They cite the example of Confucius who quitted his Wife when he had a Son they alledge the example of this Son who likewise quitted his and the example and opinion of several other Chinese Philosophers who have made a Divorce with their Wives and who have esteemed the Divorce amongst the virtuous Actions They condemn as a Corruption of the ancient manners of China the Opinion of the modern Chinese People who as well as the Siameses guided by the sentiments of Nature look upon Divorce if not as an Evil at least as a Misfortune I know nothing concerning the fourth Precept which deserves to be explained Every Liquor which intoxicates is prohibited The fifth not only prohibits intoxicating but the drinking of any Liquor which may intoxicate though one makes not himself drunk therewith They esteem a thing evil in itself which may hurt by the quantity 'T is thus that they understand their Precepts neither do they believe that real Vertue is made for every one but only for the Talapoins They think that what is Sin in itself is Sin for all and the Talapoins make neither Vow nor any thing whatever which is a Sin in them which is not a Sin to all the World but according to them the Trade of Seculars is to sin and that of the Talapoins not to sin and to exercise Repentance for those that sin They comprehend like us that those who are designed to expiate the Sins of others by Repentance ought to be more pure than others and that the Punishment due and necessarily annext to Sin may yet pass from the guilty to the innocent if the innocent will willingly submit himself to deliver the guilty Moreover they conceive the Nature of Sin very grosly and very materially for the Talapoins content themselves with abstaining from Actions which they think wicked but they scruple not to make the Seculars commit them to get Advantage thereby Thus when they would eat Rice Rice being a Seed they cannot boil it without Sin because it is to kill it But they make their Tapacaou which are their Domestic Seculars or rather they cause the Talapoin-Children which they educate to commit this pretended Sin and when the Rice is boiled then they eat it They are also prohibited to piss on the Fire or in the Water or on the Earth because that this would be to extinguish the Fire or to corrupt those two other Elements they piss in some Vessel and a Secular Servant pours it where he pleases and it matters not whether he sins The Seculars do therefore observe or elude the Precepts only through the fear of the publick Chastisements or through the natural strangeness which they might have to what they shall think Sin but they ransom their Sins by their good Works which principally consist in bestowing Alms on the Temples and Talapoins according to the ancient Tradition known perhaps throughout the Earth and so frequently repeated in the Holy Scripture that Alms deeds ransom Sins It is easie also to observe in them a very natural and very just sentiment which is that they much more condemn the Sins which may be easily avoided than those which are inevitable though they think that all are Sins But to the end that the Morality of the Talapoins may be better understood I will insert at the end of this Work most of their Maxims verbatim as they were given me I will add only some Remarks to make them better understood The Spirit of the Maxims of the Talapoins There will be seen the respect which they have for the Elements and for all Nature They are prohibited to speak injuriously of any thing natural to dig any hole in the Earth and not to fill it up again after they have done it to boil the Earth as to boil Rice to kindle the Fire because it is to destroy that with which it is kindled and to extinguish it when it is once kindled There we shall see that they take care of Purity and Decency as much as of real Virtue that they have some Idea's of almost all the Virtues and that they have hardly any that is exact because they carry some to superstitious scruples and that they live short of others Vertue according to them is impossible Moreover these Maxims are only for the Talapoins not that they think that any person can violate them without Sin but it is that they see it is impossible for any one not to infringe them as for example it is very necessary that some person make the Fire They are surprized at the Beauty of our Morality when it is told them that it equally invites all men to Vertue because they comprehend not that this can be a thing practicable but when they are made to understand it and are informed that Vertue consists not in those impossible things wherein they place it they contemn what is told them and do believe themselves more pure and virtuous than the Christians or rather they return again to believe that they alone are Creeng that is to say pure and that the Christians are Cahat or designed to sin like the rest of Mankind A prevention which must quite confound us and which proves the extream necessity which humane reason has of a superior Light not to err in the knowledge of good and evil the Idea's of which do nevertheless appear unto us so easie and so natural If therefore the Talapoins do think themselves only vertuous The Vanity of the Talapoins it is no wonder if they likewise allow themselves all the Pride imaginable in regard of the Seculars This Pride appears in all things as in that they affect to seat themselves higher than the Seculars never to salute any Secular and never to bewail the death of any person not even that of their Parents They have a Practice which resembles Confession for from time to time they seem secretly to render an account of their Deportments to their Superior but are so far from confessing themselves Sinners that they only run over the Precepts to say they have not violated them I have not stolen say they I have not lied