in aliud opus destinato Hence their Encaenia solemn Feasts at their Devoting of their Temples to the Worship of some Idol God Modern Heathen I confess I have not yet met with any thing in my reading to fill up this Section but am willing to leave a void space for the Reader to fill up at his leisure for his own Use for I cannot be induced to think but they generally use some Ceremony for this purpose tho perhaps our Travellers finding the Structures erected and peradventure long before their Arrival into the Countries might see nothing of it nor make enquiry about it Diabolical Delrius tells us out of a French Book of Florimund Raimunds a Senator of the King 's in the Court of Burdeaux that an old Woman Tried in that Court A. 1594. for Witch-craft confessed of her own accord That being a Girl she was enticed by an Italian Man on the Eve of S. John Baptist at Midnight to go with him into a certain Feild where the Italian mark'd out a Circle on the ground with a Beech Wand and muttered certain words over which he read out of a black Book and presently upon it a great black Goat stood by them with great Horns attended with two Females and by and by a Man came in Priests Habit c. Mag. Disq l. 6. 5. Priests and Church Officers their Distinction and Office Jewish 1. The High Priest whose Office was 1. Peculiar to himself as to enter into the Holy of Holies once a year upon the Propitiation day 2. Common with other Priests He had his Suffragan or Sagan 2. Inferior Priests whose Office was 1. To burn Incense and Offer Sacrifice 2. To sound the Trumpets for War and Assemblies 3. To slay the Sacrifices 4. To instruct the People 5. To Judg of the Leprosy David divided the Company of Priests into 24 Orders who were to serve in their turns by lot 1 Chro. 24. the chief of every Rank was called Summus Sacerdos 3. Levites in David's time divided 1. Into Treasurers some Gershonites 2. Judges and Overseers some Cohathites 3. Porters some Merarites 4. Singers In Moses time they bore the Tabernacle and Vessels c. 4. Prophets 1. Extraordinary Seers 2. Ordinary Expositors of the Law which no later times were 1. Wise men Pharisees wise above the Text of the Law taught Traditions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Scribes not the Writing-Masters but Doctors of the Law who were to Write Read and Expound the Law of Moses 3. Disputers who taught Allegories and the Mystical Senses of the Text call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Darshanim and their Homily Midrasch Note the First-born of all the Tribes were to manage Religious Affairs 'till the Levites were chosen in their room Exod. 13.2.15 Christian I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consecrated to the more proper and immediate acts of Worship These were I. Bishops usually chosen out of the Presbyters distinct from and Superiour to Presbyters as Blondid and Salmasius confess about the latter end of the Second Century Consider 1. Their Office viz. To Teach and Instruct the People to administer the Sacraments Excommunicate Absolve to preside in the Assemblies of the Clergy to ordain inferiour Officers to call them to Account to Suspend c. to urge the observance of Ecclesiastical Laws to appoint indifferent Rites to inspect and provide for those of their Charge 2. Order 1. Chorepiscopi Suffragan or County Bishops Vicarii Episcopi where the Diocess was large in imitation of the Seventy Disciples for so many they were at first 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visitors Rural Presbyters who were to go up and down the Countrey to correct what was amiss 3. Arch-Bishops Metropolitans in every great City who were to Ordain or to Ratifie Elections of Bishops once a Year to Summon the Bishops under them to a Synod to enquire direct admonish suspend determine c. 4. Metropolitans Honorary or Titular without any real power yet taking place of other Bishops 5. Patriarchs Primates 2. Presbyters who were to Preach Baptize Consecrate the Eucharist assist the Bishop in publick Administrations These were 1. Clerici Superioris loci Antistites in ordine secunde Presbytens of every great City who were a kind of Ecclesiastical Senate Counsellors and Assistants to the Bishops in their Government and had Seats of Eminency in the Churches next the Bishop's Throne 2. Ordinary Presbyters N. B. They did not usually exercise the Power conferred by Ordination upon them in any Diocess without leave from the Bishop 3. Deacons who were to attend at the Lord's Table where the People met every Lord's Day to offer for the Poor Hence they have used to deliver the Sacramental Elements to the People also to Preach and Baptize Assistants to the Priest as he to the Bishop the number in any one place not above Seven 1. Arch-Deacon the Eye of the Bishop chosen out of the Deacons to inspect all parts of the Diocess 2. Sub-Deacon who assisted the Deacons waited at the Church Doors usher'd in and brought out the several Orders Catechumens c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Pag. 25. Mahometan 1. Musti i. e. Interpreter of the Alcoran who is as High-Priest attending only Matters of Faith and Religion He is Head of the Church and decides all Questions in their Law 2. Cadilesquiri Talismani i. e. Doctors of the Law resident at C. P. or where the Prince pleaseth These are as it were Patriarchs They examine the Cadis of divers Provinces These also call the People to Prayers among the Turks 3. Mulli qu. Bishops who place and displace Church-men at pleasure 4. Nuderisi qu. Suffragans who are to inspect the Cadis 5. Cadis Judges to punish Offenders there is one in every City 6. Naipi Young Judges or Candidates for the Office 7. Hogi who write Books and teach Sciences 8. Calfi who read unto them that Write 9. Sosti Young Students or Novices in the Law Some add Sophi Singers of Psalms c. Ancient Heathen 1. Pontifex Maximus the highest of the Chief Priests who was to appoint the Ceremonies belonging to the Worship of the Gods 2. Flamen or High Priest who was named according to the Gods whom they served as Hamen Martialis Hamen Dialis Humen Quirinalis c. 3. Priests 1. Of Cybele Curetes Corybantes Galli 2. Of Ceres and Bacchus Fratres Arvales who offered Sacrifices Ambarvales Hostias and Judged about the bounds of Fields 3. Of Mars Salii who were to keep the Ancile 4. Of Pan Lupercales c. 5. Of Jupiter Druids in use amongst the Gauls Curiones were Parish-Priests or Curates Two for a Curia Fifty Curiae in Rome over these was Curio Maximus 4. Priestesses of Vesta Vestal Virgins Six or Four in number who were to attend the Sacrifices of Ops or Bona Dea and to keep a Fire continually burning for the safety of the Empire as God hath set Stars in the Firmament for the good of the World Modern Heathen 1. The
are Tombs for his Wives and Children In another Chappel at C. P. lies buried Sultan Selim with his 37 Children about him his Grandfather In another Amaruth his Father with 45 Children only Emperors and Bassaes Thus others are buried in Fields with Marble Stones at the Head another at the Feet Ancient Heathen The Romans burned the Bodies of the Dead that the Soul might be purged in Fire before it ascended to the Stars Quintil. Declam 10. Yet they excepted from this burning the Bodies of Traitors Tyrants Killers of their Masters Feloes de se Young Infants The four first as profane the Infants as needing no purgation The Grave of an Infant was called Suggrundium of others Bustum The Egyptians and Persians used not burning At Funerals were used Orations Sword-plays and Feasts and a Doal among the Romans The Romans first buried in their private Houses To bury in the City was forbidden by a Law Hominem mortuum endo Vrbe nei sepelito neive urito in a Roman Edict it was prohibited to burn the Dead within two miles of the City The Rich were buried in their own Suburbane Fields where stately Monuments were erected on the sides of the publick ways as of the Via Flaminia the ground for so many Feet consecrated The Poor at Puticulae so called from the little Pits or Graves Among the Lacedemonians and in some parts of Greece and at last in Rome it self Burial was admitted within the City Lastly it was admitted in the Temples Amongst the Druids whatever was dear to Great Persons whilst living was sent to the Fire after them when dead viz. Living Creatures Servants or Clients Caes de Bell. Gall. Vide plura in Parte Secunda Modern Heathen In the East-Indies the Ceremony of Burying differs according to Places In some places they carry the Body cloathed in goodly Apparel sitting in a Chair with the beat of a Drum with the attendance of Friends and Relations and after the usual ablution the Body is surrounded with wood and the Wife who hath followed in Triumph hath her Seat prepared there where she places her self singing and seeming very desirous to die a Bramen ties her to a Stake in the middle of the Funeral Pile and sets fire to it the Friends pour Odoriferous Oyls into it In other places the Bodies are carried to the River-side put in the water and washed and then the Wife holding her Husband on her Knees and recommending her self to the prayers of the Bramen she desires him to set fire to the Pile In some places they fill deep Pits with combustible matter and throw the Body in and the Wife after she hath sung and danced to shew the firmness of their resolution and sometimes the Maid-slaves throw themselves after their Mistresses to shew their Love In other places the Husband is interred with his Legs a-cross and the Wife put into the same Grave alive and when the Earth is filled up to their Neck they are strangled by the Bramens The Woman being burnt with all their Ornaments of Gold Silver c. the Bramens pick up all that is precious out of the Ashes none else being suffered to touch them But the Mahometan Governours endeavour to suppress this Barbarous Custom M. de Theven They believe that when People die they go into another World and will have occasion for many of the same things they use here Courts Jewish 1. ECclesiastical the Synagogues Mat. 10.17 the end of them was to put a difference between things Holy and Unholy Clean and Unclean and to determine Controversies It was a Representative Church Mat. 18.16 Tell the Church They had Power of Excommunication which was of three Degrees 1. Niddui putting out of the Synagogue Joh. 9.22 It prohibited the Person for 30 days more or less 1. Society with any within four Cubits 2. Eating and Drinking with any 3. Use of the Marriage-Bed 4. Shaving Washing It allowed him To be at Divine Service To teach and be taught To hire Servants or be hir'd 2. Cherem Anathema done in publick with Curses and Candles 3. Schamatha Maranatha Excommunicatio in Secreto Nominis Tetragrammati an Excommunication to Death 1 Joh. 5.16 The President herein was the High-Priest next his Sagan 2. Civil 1. The Sanhedrim from whence was no Appeal The Place the Paved Chamber of the Court of the Temple Joh. 19.13 The Judges 71 in number out of every Tribe six except Levi and out of that but four Junius 2. The Lesser Consistory Two-fold 1. Consisting of 23 Aldermen two at Jerusalem one at the Door of the Court before the Temple the other at the Door of the Mount of the Temple and in most Cities one kept in the Gates 2. Of 3 Aldermen erected in lesser Cities in the Gates These sate not on Lise and Death Ancient Christian It is not to be expected that the Primitive Christians could have any Civil or Political Courts having as yet got no Civil Power or Government into their hands till the time of Constantine the Great And as for the Ecclesiastical neither could that be so regular and compleat as might be desired For though we read of the Synod of the Apostles Acts 15. Roman Caesarian Gallick Pontick Ostroenick Asiatick Arabick c. before the Reign of Constantine the Great yet no General Council till then viz. A. Chr. 325 kept at Nice called Oecumenick or General as afterwards at Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon and two more at Constantinople all which are universally acknowledged and these were 1. Called by the then present Emperor 2. They were free for all Bishops Priests and Deacons I think I am in the right for at Nice there was an infinite number of all Degrees of Ecclesiasticks Bishops Priests and Deacons 3. They took upon them the Censure of Doctrines and Practices 4. They had power of inflicting Penalties of Suspension Deposition Excommunication The Civil Government was various according to the Places and Countries But whatever it was the Ecclesiastical Persons bore a part of the burden in many places the Common People often making application to them in cases of difference as St. Augustine frequently complains that he was over-charged with the trouble of Arbitrations between his Neighbours c. It being expected that they who were the Messengers of Grace and Peace should be both skilful and willing to promote Peace among their Neighbours Mahometan They who have place in the Divan are 1. Visiers 2. Cadilesquers 3. Beglerbegs 4. Nischangi viz. the Keeper of the Seals 5. Defterdais or Treasurers 6. Many Secretaries or Clerks 7. Capigi Basha and Chiaux Basha keep the Door All Persons of any Quality Country Religion may be heard here The Grand Visier sits as Judge A Tryal shall not last above four or five Hours at most here M. de Thev The Musti sits with the King every Day in Judgment except Friday when the King sits alone Rosse Persons here plead their own Causes Tavern Divano a Court near the Emperor's or Grand
Body Let them who have a mind to 't glory in the Flesh we are under the profession of Humility all Glory is vain and swelling especially from the Flesh A Christian may glory in the Flesh but when 't is torn in pieces for the sake of Christ that the Spirit may be crowned not that it may prove a Snare to attract the Eyes and Sights of Young-Men's ungovernable Passions after it c. Cyprian Obj. 'T is acceptable to our Husbands Answ 1. Every wise and good Man cannot but like his Wife better without them Every Husband is a rigid Exactor of his Wife's Chastity If he be a Christian he will not require any such feigned Beauty if a Gentile let her do what she can he will suspect her to be naught Tertull. 2. The loose delicate Arts come too near the Practice of lewd wanton Prostitutes Birds and Beasts are content with their own natural Beauty and Colours Woman only as if inferiour to them thinks her self so deformed as that there is need to repair the defect by external bought and borrowed Beauty Children-like they admire every thing that is strange and gawdy they shew themselves to be Women that have put off shame and modesty and whosoever calls them so shall do them no wrong as carrying the very signs and representations of it in their Faces Clem. Alex. 3. These additional Arts are a bold and sacrilegious Attempt and an high contempt of God that is to reform what God hath formed That such a one hath cause to fear least when the Day of Resurrection comes He that made them should not know them c. And then he brings in the Densor of the World thus speaking This is none of my Workmanship nor this my Imdge and Likeness Cyprian Theodoret tells of his own Mother That when young having a Distemper in one of her Eye s which had baffled the Physicians she went to one Peter near Antioch famous for Miracles of a very Severe and Ascetic Life she to render her self the more considerable in his Eye put on her richest Robes Pendants Chains of Pearl c. The uncomplemental Man severely check'd her with a comparison drawn from an unskilful Bungler going about to correct a Picture made by an excellent Artist and not without much importunity would grant her Errand In fine she went away with a double Cure of Body and Mind Hist Relig. c. 9. in vit Petri. Clemens Alex. compares such Women to the Egyptian Temples without Splendor and magnificent Groves rows of Pillars Walls set off with Stones of several Countries Carved c. The Temples garnished with Gold Silver Amber c. within behind the Curtain a Cat a Crocodile So Women trimming themselves with Gold Curling their Hair Painting their Faces blacking their Eyes colouring their Locks c. within a lustful Ape a crafty Serpent c. Nazianzen saith his Sister Gorgonia used no Gold to make her Fine no yellow Hair ordered into Locks and Curles No loose transparent Garments no Lustre of Stones and Jewels no Arts of Painting c. Clothe your selves with the Silks of Honesty the fine Vertues of Piety the Purple of Modesty and being thus beautified and adorned God himself will be your Lover Tertull. Mahometans and Hindoes They never Pride it in any New Fashion The Habits of highest and lowest are the same which they never alter pure white fine Callico-Lawn is the bravery of the highest which they wash every day The Women are Habited somewhat like Men they of the greatest Quality are Adorned with many rich Jewels Temperance in Meats Jews THe Pharisees Fasted on Mondays and Thursdays as hath been noted before in remembrance of Moses going up and returning from Mount Sinai c. Concerning which we have spoken already in the first part of this Book in the Chapter of Fasting Christians Our Food and Diet should minister to Health and repair the Weakness of Nature Basil Our Nourishment ought to be simple and easy subservient to the two main ends of Life Health and Strength Clem. Alex. Nor are we less to take heed of Gluttony contenting our selves with a spare Diet and such only as is necessary not giving way to the Infinite and unsatiable cravings of a nice and intemperate Appetite which will have a thousand pretences to defend it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Mart. Clemens Alex. reckons up the Inconvenience of Excess viz. wasting the Estate ruining the Body impairing the Health Debauching the Stomach deflouring the taste begetting an ill habitude and temper sowing it with the Seeds of all diseases dulling the mind preparing it for the entertainment of any Vice c. S. Cyprian in an Epistle to the Priests and Deacons Ep. 7. adviseth them to eat and drink sparingly that they might be watchful unto Prayer S. Hierom adviseth Leta to give her Daughter such a thin and mean Diet that after Meals she might be presently fit either to read or sing Psalms Ad Let. Tom. 1. The Council of Laodicea Can. 53. forbade them light and ludicrous Actions as leaping and Dancing enjoyning them to Dine and Sup gravely and modestly as Christians Julian Emperor being about to raise War and squeeze the Christians sent to S. Basil his fellow-student formerly at Athens for 1000 l. he return'd Answer That it was not to be expected there where he had not Provision before hand for one day That his greatest Dainties were a few Pot-herbs a piece of Bread and a little sowre Vapid Wine Basil Ep. 208. Tom. 3. Chrysostom commends Olympias that she had taught her Stomach to receive only so much Meat and Drink as was enough to keep her alive and in Health Alcibiades afterward Martyr had accustomed himself to a very rigid and sordid Course rejecting all sorts of Food but Bread and Water this before and after he was in Prison which had an ill influence upon others whereupon Attalus one of the most Eminent of those famous Martyrs the day after his being exposed the first time in the Amphitheatre had it Reveal'd to him That Alcibiades did amiss in refusing the good Creatures of God and giving scandal c. upon which he laid aside his singularity Eusebius out of the Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vien in France to those in Asia Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 3. Luther saith of himself I lose too much time by invitations to Feasts here in this City I know Satan hath such a hand in it that I may not deny it and yet it doth me harm to accept the Courtesy And again My Converse with my Friends which I use to call a Feeding of my Corps doth very badly steal away a great part of my time Fuller's Lives Muscovites Those who take Tobacco in Muscovy by reason of their Excess in it and doing hurt by it c. Burning their Houses and Infecting their Images with a stinking Breath are by order of the great Duke to have their Nostrils slit or be whipt as we have often
Bishop who together with the Congregation falling down and making Confession on their behalf raised them up and laid his hands upon them and they departed with the Catechumens 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such as stayed with the Congregation and joined in Prayer and Singing but not in the Sacrament Yet they were afterward Advanced to be 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faithful Communicants who had been Baptized Confirmed and admitted to the Lord's Supper having approved themselves by the long train of a stricct and pious Life Mahometan Only Men for they permit not Women to enter the Mosques lest they should distract Men from their Devotion And besides They do not believe that Women go to Heaven and hardly account them rational Creatures Yet in some Mosques they have Apartments by themselves with a kind of Pannels of Plaister as high as the Cieling with holes through M. de Thevenot Every Busurman is bound to resort to Prayers five times daily except he have some lawful impediment and if not yet at one to be well washed to which purpose they have innumerable Bathes in Turkey Purchas Only the chief sort on the Week-days the Poor being excused not so on Fridays Id. The Women enter not the Mosques but on Fridays at Nine a Clock or at Easter and then in a Terass apart where they may see and not be seen except the Wives and Mothers of the Chief of the place They abide there 'till Mid-night continually Praying with strange Motions and strong Cries Idem Ancient Heathen Let not a Woman enter into the publick Temples who hath been caught with an Adulterer Demosth Orat. contra Neeram Hither likewise may be referred the Remark made before viz. That all Irreligious and Prophane Persons were driven away with a Procul este profani c. Modern Heathen Among the Modern Heathens though it be difficult to give a particular Account because of their multitude and variety yet it is easie to conclude That their Assemblies are made up of their respective Priests and Officers and People In Mexico and Peru are Priests Officers Boys and Virgins trained up for the Service of the Temple and living upon the Revenues of the Temple and these in some places many in number together with the common People Purchas out of Acosta c. Amongst these some are under Instruction some Penitents some Confessors Men and Women Confessors c. Idem Diabolical The Witches Tried at Salem in New-England 1692. affirmed That they form themselves into Assemblies much after the manner of the Congregational Churches consisting of Officers and People c. Cotton Mather 12. Times of Worship 1. Weekly or Monthly Jewish 1. THE Sabbath or Seventh-Day It began at Six a Clock the Night before Observe 1. The Preparation which began at Three a Clock in the Afternoon called the Sabbath-Eve by the Evangelists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Ancient Fathers Coena pura It was proclaimed formerly by Trumpets of late by Sextons On this Day it was unlawful 1. To go above a quarter of a Days Journey three Parsath whereof Ten make a Days Journey 2. For Judges to sit on Causes upon Life and Death 3. For Tradesmen to work Except Shoomaker Except Taylers Except Scribes And they only half the Day The Wealthiest did help to forward Business 2. The Sanctification Herein they were so Superstitious that 1. Some Jews at Tiberias began the Sabbath sooner because dwelling in a Valley the Sun appeared not so soon to them as to others Others at Tsepphore a City upon a Mount kept the Sabbath longer because the Sun continued longer 2. They would dress no Meat on this Day 3. Nor Kindle any Fire 4. Nor roast an Apple chop an Herb climbe a Tree resist an Enemy and on this account became a Prey to their Enemies in the times of Antiochus and Pompey 2. Mondays in remembrance of Moses's returning from Mount Sinai Thursdays in remembrance of his going up to the Mount for the Law 3. New Moons the first Day of every Month commonly On this Day they 1. Heard the Word 2 Kings 4 23. 2. Abstained from Merchandise 3. Offered Sacrifices Numb 28.11 Christian 1. Saturday the Jewish Sabbath was in great Veneration especially in the Eastern parts honoured with all the publick Solemnity of Religion out of compliance with the Jews who were loath to part with it On this Day were publick Prayers reading the Scriptures celebration of the Sacraments Vid. Athan Hom. de Sement Idem Hist. Eccle. l. 6. c. 8. Fasts were prohibited on this Day Ordinary Works allowed yet so as might consist with their publick Worship for the Lord's Day was still preferred before it V. Athan. Hom. de Sem. Synod Laod. can 29. But in the West it was kept as a Fast yet at Milan as a Festival for St. Ambrose dined on no other Days in the Week but Saturday and Sunday Yet at Rome out of compliance with the Custom there Fasted as they did Aug. ad Janu. Ep. 118. Probably the reason of keeping this Day East was the Opinion which the Ancients had viz. That the Apostles Fasted on Friday and Saturday The Council of Illiberis Ordained That the Saturday-Festival was an Error Can. 39. which ought to be corrected and kept as a Fast 2. Sunday so called by Justin Martyr and Tertullian and in the Imperial Edicts of the first Christian Emperors Afterwards the LORD's Day 1. On this Day they stood at Prayers to put them in mind of Christ's Resurrection from the Grave and their own from Sin V. Justin M. Tertul. ex Ireneo The Council of Nice required a constant Uniformity in it 2. They deposited somewhat for the use of the Poor 3. All of us that live in City or Country meet together in one place Just M. Three Days absence from Church was punished with Suspension from Communion Con. Ill. Separate Assemblies Anathematized V. Conc. Gang. can 4.5 Conc. Antioch c. 5. 4. In times of Persecution they met before Day Plin. Ep. ad Traj They had Nocturnal Convocations Tertul. ad Vx Christians therefore called in scorn a Skulking Generation Min. F. 5. Kept in with great Expressions of Joy Fasting accounted unlawful Tertul. de Coron Constantine and Theodosius M. Jun. c. Forbad Courts of Judicature Suits at Law demanding Debts all publick Shews pleasures of all Sights opening of the Theatres his own Birth-Day or Inauguration on the Lord's Day 2. Wednesday and Friday Vid. postea Mahometan Friday the Mahometan-Sabbath because on that Day Mahomet was Proclaimed King or Emperor and solemnly so Created and withal to distinguish his Fellowers from the Jews and Christians They call this Sabbath of theirs Glumaagun Others say Mahomet was born on this Day Ancient Heathen The Ancient Heathens Greeks and Romans had no Weeks but divided their Months into 3 parts the Greeks into so many Decads the Romans into Kalends Nones and Ides The Kalends of every Month were dedicated to Juno On the Kalends of every
Book of the Law put his Statue in the Temple Cessat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scaliger This Fast of Moses's breaking the two Tables the loss of their daily Sacrifice Setting up Idolatry in the Temple The second Siege of the City on the 17th of Thamuz our June lasts till the 10th of Ab and is kept with a strict Idleness Dr. Addison See more on the fifth day of Ab. They avoid all great Business on these days and School-masters will not beat their Scholars Rosse Ancient Christian Because the Ancient Christians observed so few Holy-days rather than leave this Section quite vacant I shall set down some Remarks and Censures of Eminent Persons made upon the Abuses of Festivals in these latter Ages The Sixth General Council of Constantinople ordained That the whole Week after the Day of our Saviour's Resurrection should be thus Celebrated Christians must go constantly to Church rejoycing in CHRIST with Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs and give their minds to the reading of Divine Scriptures and chearfully enjoy the Holy Mysteries For so saith the Canon we shall rejoyce and rise together with CHRIST But by no means let there be any Horse-Races or Publick Shews on the aforesaid days Conc. Con. 6. Gen. Can. 66. Card. Bellarmine in one of his Sermons delivers himself to this purpose I cannot verily good Hearers explain by Words with how great grief of mind I behold in how perverse and diabolical manner Holy-days are celebrated in this our Age how far perverse Men have obscured and defiled their Picus Institution with their corrupt manners may be understood by this That to Strangers and those who are ignorant what manner of Festivals these are from those things which they may see every where done they may seem to be not the Feasts of God but of the Devil and even the Bacchenalian Revels themselves Yea verily when I Pray are more Sins committed than on Holy-days When are there more Sumptuous Feasts kept When more Lascivious Songs heard When Bowling-Allies and Taverns more frequented When are there more execrable kinds of Plays Scurrilities and Fooleries When are there more Dances in most places to the Sound of the Harp and Lute than on these Days Mahometan Persian-Harizon 30 Days On the Feast of St. John Baptist in Fez they make Bone-fires Rosse July 16. A. C. 622. was the time of Mahomet's Flight and the Hagyra or Epoche of the Mahometans Ancient Heathen Jun. 20. Summani Sact. ad Circ max. 25. Crowned Ships carried Banquets over Tyber Jul. 1. Migrationes ex adibus in alienns aedes Jul. 9. Ancillarum festum Jul. 11. Ludi Apollinares 5. In Ali July and August Jewish 1. A Fast Aaron the High-Priest died Scaliger 5. On the fifth of Ab the Jews sit on the ground read Jeremiah's Lamentations bewail the loss of Jerusalem and for ten days live severely abstaining from all Delights Dr. Addison Ninth day of the fifth Month was a Fast held in respect of the City and Temple burnt first by Nebuchadnezzar secondly by Titus on the same day which the Jews do yet observe with a strict Penance going bare-foot sitting naked on the ground reading some sad History of the Bible and the Lamentations of Jeremiah three times over Sam. Purchas Also it was decreed That the Fathers should not enter into the Land of Judea The same Author out of Scaliger From the first to the tenth Day they abstain from Flesh Wine Shaving Bathing Marrying Pleading and all Delights Ross 18. A Fast The Evening Light was put out in the Days of Ahaz Scal. Ancient Christian The same Cardinal in the procedure of his Discourse goes on Who knows not that Holy-days are after the same manner as Churches Chalices and Priest's Garments Consecrated and Dedicated to GOD and to be spent in no other than Holy Works Which of you if you should see any one enter into the Church with incredible boldness and use the Consecrated Garments instead of Prophane the Temple for a Tavern the Altar for a Table the Corporals or Altar-Clothes for a Table-Cloth or Napkins eating in the Sacred Patines and drinking in the Chailces which of us would not tremble Who would not cry out And now we behold the most Solemn the most Famous the most Sacred Holy-days which should be spent in Prayers Meditations reading holy Things in Hymns and Psalms c. to be prophaned with Sacrilegious Dances Morises Caperings Feastings Drinking Matches Uncleanness Scurrilities and yet no Body trembles no Man is moved no Man wonders O Immortal GOD What part hath Righteousness with Unrighteousness What Fellowship hath Light with Darkness GOD with Belial What hath the merriment of the Flesh to do with the gladness of the Spirit What the Solemnities of GOD with the Feasts of Bacchus and his Crew What! Those Days wherein we ought to please GOD most shall we on them more provoke Him to anger with our wickedness On those days in which the Spirit is to be fed and recreated shall we in them more overwhelm him with Wine and Uncleanness c. What a madness is this What infernal Furies affright us out of our wits Bellarm. Conc. 6.3.19 Mahometan Persian Temouze Thirty one Days Zoulidge 10. Bairam Adgi or little Easter for the Pilgrims of Mecha Ancient Heathen Jul. 25. In this Month red Dogs were Sacrificed to the Canicula Jul. 28. Neptunalia Aug. 1. Boedromia Aug. 13. Dianae Sacr. The Servants Men and Maids Holiday In Elul August September Jewish 17. A Fast The Spies that brought an ill Report upon the Land died 22. Xylophoria On this Day it was the custom for every one to carry Wood to the Temple to maintain the Fire at the Altar Purchas out of Josephus de Bell. Jud. l. 2. c. 17. Ancient Christian Sept. 1. The Muscovites celebrate the first Day of their New-Year deriving their Epoche from the Creation of the World which they believe to be in Autumn accounting it to the Year 1692. of CHRIST 7200. Years from the Creation according to the Opinion of the Greek and Eastern Church Voyages and Trav. of the D. of Holst Amb. p. 14. Their Procession on this Day consisted of above 20000 Persons viz. the Patriarch 400 Priests all in pontifical Habit carrying many Banners Images and old Books open coming out of one Church and the Great Duke his Chancellors Knez and Bojares out of another place The Patriarch with a Mitre on his head and a golden Cross in his hand beset with Diamonds gives it the Great Duke to kiss which done the Patriarch Blesses him and all the People wishing them all Prosperity in the New Year Idem Sep. 8. The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Mother of GOD kept by the Muscovites Sept. 6. The Manifestation of CHRIST on the Mount Sept. 13. The Assumption of the Mother of GOD. Both Feasts of the Muscovites Mahometan Persian Ab. Thirty One Days Maharrim the first day which my Author makes to answer to July 15th is Aaschoor or the Feast
destroy him i. e. a Giant killed by Crutchman God M. de Thev Meduserum A feast of the Persees kept the 15 of Fez'e or February in memory of some monthly benefit Jewish 1. The Sabbatical year every Seventh year To signify that they and theirs were the Lord 's 1. On this year they did not till the ground 2. They discharged their Debtors and released the Debts And this to teach them 1. To depend on Providence 2. To mind them of Adam's fruitful Paradise 3. To mind them of the Everlasting Sabbath peradventure to commence from the 7000th Year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eliae dict ex Talm. 2. Jubilee from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ram's Horn or Trumpet Josh 6.4 or Jubal Gen. 4.21 Every Forty Ninth Year On this Feast They 1. Restored Lands to the first owners 2. Released Servants 3. Preserved the Tribes distinct 4. It served for computation 5. They were put in mind of our Spiritual Jubilee under Christ by whom we are restored to our Land of Canaan and released of our Servitude and this signified too by the sound of the Gospel Zach. 9.14 As in the Babylonish Captivity so in the Dispersion since Christ they keep no Jubilee Rosse 3. Liver without ceasing denoted by the Fire continually burning upon the Altar Lev. 6.12 And again Holiness becomes thine House for ever And again Pray without ceasing Ancient Christian In imitation of the Jewish Pope Bonifiace 8th instituted A. C. 1300. the Popish Jubilee to be observed every 100dth year which Clement 6th abridged to every 50th year Ancient Heathen Amongst the Greeks 1. Olympia Games instituted by Hercules in Honour of Jupiter celebrated every Fifth year or 50th Month by 1. Running Five Exercises 2. Leaping Five Exercises 3. Quoiting Five Exercises 4. Wrestling Five Exercises 5. Hurling Five Exercises The Conquerors reward was a Crown with the Branch of an Olive Tree Amongst the Romans 2. Lustrum The Purgation of the City by Sacrifice every fifth year at which time the Censors went out of their Office and the Fee-Farm Rents were paid and then they Sacrificed a Sow a Sheep and a Bull in the Field of Mars to attone the Gods and purge the City 3. Ludi Seculares called also Tarentini from a place in Rome Celebrated every 100th year lasting three days in honour of Diana and Apollo The Young Virgins and Men were wont at this time to sing Hymns Poeanas to Apollo D' Assigny The Fire of the Vestal Nuns among the Greeks first and afterward the Romans seems derived from the Mosaic Institution The old Africans also whose chief Gods were the Sun and Fire kept Fire continually burning on their Altars Rosse Modern Heathen Tozcolt a kind of Jubilee in Mexico in Honour of Tezcalipuca kept in Mexico when there was given full Indulgence and Pardon of Sins In this day they did Sacrifice a Captive which resembled the Idol Purchas Every Twelfth Year in the City of Quilecare in Malabar is a Jubilee kept to the Honour of their Idol in which the King of that place on a Scaffold covered with Silk before the People washes himself Prayeth and having cut off his Nose Ears Lips c. at last cuts his own Throat as a Sacrifice to his Idol His Successor is bound to be present and to act the same Tragedy on himself next Jubilee Rosse The Pyree of the Persees in the E. Indies In Persia they had many Pyree or God-Fires not made of common Combustibles as Wood Straw Coals c. nor blown by any Bellows c. but kindled with Lightning or a Burning-glass c. Some to this day remaining above 1000 years as some say unextinguish'd Sir T. Herb. 15. The Peoples Reverence in Divine Worship Jewish WIth what Reverence the Jews were required to perform their Prayers and Publick Service antiently may be collected out of Sacred Scripture Now they Pray Girt standing upright Face Jerusalem-wards with Hand on the Heart and Head stooping abstaining strictly from Belching Yawning Spitting Breaking Wind c. Before their Synagogue they have an Iron fastened to make clean their shoes according to Solomon's counsel keep thy foot when thou goest into the House of God When they enter they put off their pantastoes Exod. 3.5 at entrance they pronounce some part of David's Psalms and must enter with fear and trembling Purchas See more in the chapter of Respect to places of Worship Ancient Christian They were required 1. To come to Church 1. In comely apparel with a grave pace silence chast body and mind Clem. Alex. pad 2. To use a modest voice order reverence in prayer Not to throw about their prayers with a wild and confused voice or disorderly prattling Gypr 3. Men with their heads bare as asham'd to look up to Heaven 4. Women covered Tertull. de Virg. veland 5. Hands lift up to Heaven a posture common to both Jews and Gentiles c. and expanded in form of a Cross Tertul. de Orat. c. 11. Apol. c. 39. 6. Kneeling most usually 7. Standing on Lord's days sitting ever held rude c. Tertullian falls heavy on some that clap'd themselves down upon their seats as soon as ever prayer was done and down-right charges it as against Script 8. Praying towards the East Either because that 1. Was the most excellent part of the Creation 2. Paradise was in the East Basil Const App. l. 2. 3. Or in resp of Christ the Son of Righteousness Clem. Alex. strom l. 7. Athan. c. 9. Standing usually at Sermon-time None sitting but the Bishop and Prsbyters Optat. de schism Donat. l. 4. Except In some Transmarine Churches perhaps Western the people had seats Aug. de Catech. ruaib It was part of the Deacons office to call on the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of body and mind Chrys de incomp dei nat Hom. 4. et Liturg Gr. 10. Especially at the Gospel A general custom Sozomen wonders at the Bishop of Alexand that he did not rise up at the Gospel a thing saith he which I never saw or heard in any other place Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 19. Philostorgius saith of Theophilus the Indian Bishop that amongst other irregularities he corrected in those Churches this was one sitting at the lessons out of the Gospels Hist Eccl. l. 3. n. 5. Constantine M. which Eusebius was making a Panegyrick before him in his Palace concerning our Saviour's Sepulcher would not sit down and when Eusebius besought him to sit upon his Throne yet would not and when Eusebius in compliance would have broken off and done he call'd on him to go on and when besought again he would still stand 11. People were forbid to depart till after the blessing Conc. Aurel. c. 22. Mahometan 1. The Mahometans after coming into Church say softly or aloud if they please I will imitate that Imam in what he doth 2. Next they put their hands upon their shoulders and say Allah ekber i. e. God is great 3. Then lay their hands one
Sacrifices c. with some Expositions thereof out of the Talmud 7. They pray in particular for the re-building of Jerusalem and their return thither with great vociferation and rejoycing 8. They read a long Prayer collected out of the Psalms and 1 Chron. 30. 9. They conclude with singing those words of Obadiah v. 17 18 c. Other Songs also they sing much to this purpose When they say Hearken O Israel the LORD our GOD is One LORD they turn their heads to the four Corners of the World When they say Isa 6.3 Holy Holy Holy c. they leap three times 10. They utter an execrable Prayer against the Christians 11. They pray for Peace bowing to the Right and Left and depart backward out of the Synagogue looking to the Ark. Ancient Christian The Order of Divine Service out of Ignatius 1. On Sunday is a publick meeting out of both City and Countrey where are read as time will permit the Prophets and Apostles The Reader having ended 2. The Pastor or President makes an Exhortation 3. Afterwards we all rise up and offer Prayers 4. Then is brought Bread Wine and Water 5. Then the Pastor according to his Abilities offers up Prayers and Thanks-givings the People saying Amen 6. Then Distribution is made and 7. By the Deacon sent to such as are absent 8. The Wealthier-contribute if they will which deposited with the Pastor is to be given to the Poor The Order of Divine Service out of Tertullian We come together into the Congregatign that we may as it were with an Army besiege God with our Prayers 1. We Pray for the Emperors and their Ministers 2. We are Assembled for the reading of the Divine Scriptures 3. There are also Exhortations 4. Castigations and the Divine Censure And Judgment is passed with a great deal of weight and authority as among those who are certain of the presence and inspection of God c. 5. Every one brings some small piece of mony to the Chest if he can one day in a Month or when he will for no man is compelled but gives freely 6. This is as it were a pious Depositum for the feeding and interring of the Poor for boys and Girls destitute of Estate and Parents also for such as are aged such as have suffered Shipwrack The Order of Divine Service in Muscovy out of the D. of Holstein's Embassad 1. The whole service consists of certain Chapters out of the Bible Psalms and the Athanasian Creed 2. Whereto they add a Homily out of S. Chrysostome 3. And certain Prayers which they sing much in like manner as Antiphonaes are Sung saying ever and anon Gospodi Pommilui Lord have mercy upon me which the People repeat three times making the sign of the Cross 4. The Priest goes up to the Altar reads S. Basil's Liturgy and takes the Sacrament himself but gives it to none else Modern Heathen The Bannyans in Devotion to their Pagods under their Trees 1. Receive an Unction and Sprinklings of sundry coloured Powders c. 2. Pay their Tithes and Offerings 3. Repeat their Orisons 4. Make Processions 5. Sing and perform may Mysteries c. Sir Tho. Herb. The Siamites use abundance of Lights before their Pagods in time of Service They likewise Incense them and adorn them with Flowers and precious Stones Mandelslo At Banerous in India when the Pagod was opened 1. Four Bramins came with a Censer each of them followed by a rabble of other Bramins that made a hideous noise with Drums and Trumpets c. 2. The two eldest sang a Song the People singing in a Tune and playing with every one a Peacock's Tail or such like Flabel to keep the Flies off from the Idol 3. Half an hour after the beginning of this Musick two principal Bramins made a great noise three times with two little Bells and a kind of Mallet knockt at the Pagod-door 4. This done the Pagod was open'd and the Idol Ram to be seen the People falling upon the ground with their hands on their heads prostrating three times 5. Then rising up they threw great quantities of Nosegays and Garlands to the Priests with which the Priest touch'd the Idol and restored them again 6. Before the Altar stood a Bramin holding a Lamp of nine Wicks lighted in his hand on which he cast Incense Then the Pagod was shut and the People departed Tavernier 1. Particular Parts of Divine Worship and 1. of Prayer Jewish Observe 1. THE Orators or Persons praying The Priest as Speaker for the People the People by way of consent and communion with the Priest 2. The Times or Seasons There were 4 hours of Prayer daily observed in the Temple There are now but three in the Synagogues Dr. Addison 3. The Place 1. The Temple 2. The Synagogues 3. Private Places 4. The Form All in Form of which there were 18 in number belonging to their Liturgy in our Saviour's time Dr. Lightfoot Their Prayers now are very many and therefore they run them over in Hebrew Rhimes c. Purchas 5. The Gesture They pray standing with their Loins girt and their Bodies bowed a little and their Faces toward Jerusalem at Confession of Sins using prostration and at Praises extraordinary jumping up as at those words Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth as is said before Dr. Addison Rosse adds Laying their hand on their heart They hold it a great sin in praying to belch yatch spit or break wind because they hold the Angels to be there present Rosse They believe That whosoever saith heartily Amen hastens their Redemption Idem Ancient Christian The Method and Order of Divine Service among the Indian Christians out of Sir Tho. Herbert 1. They Assemble chearfully 2. Shut their Eyes at Entrance 3. Salute the Priest with humble Reverence who resalutes them by lifting up his hands and eyes 4. The Priest at a set Hour begins Prayers seldom exceeding two Hours in the whole Exercise 1. Making a brief Confession 2. The People assenting in an Unanimous Amen 3. Expounding some part of Scripture during which their Attention Looks and Silence is commendable 4. Singing an Hymn 5. At parting out of the Church re-saluting the Priest who ceases not to elevate his hands 'till all the People are departed N. Every first Sunday in the Month the Priest reads a Homily writ as they say by the Apostle or some of his Disciples The Order of the Armenian-Service out of M. Tavernier l. 1. c. 3. 1. They put off their Shoes and enter into Church 2. When they hear Mass they sit with their heads covered all the Service-time except at the Elevation of the Host for then they take off their Bonnets and kiss the Earth three times 3. There was viz. at the Church in Egmiasin upon the Altar a Cross with Six Candlesticks of Gold and upon the Steps to the Altar four Candlesticks of Silver five foot high 4. After they had sung several Hymns the Patriarch seated himself in a Chair
in their Lusts sparing neither Women nor Boys Rosse Calender The Calenders profess porpetual Virginity and have their own peculiar Temples or Chappels They wear a short Coat of Wooll and Horse-hair without Sleeves Their Hair is short Felt-hats on their Heads from which hang Tufts of Horse-hair about a hand-breadth They wear Rings in their Ears and about their Necks and Arms and in their Yard an Iron or Silver Ring whereby they are forced to live chastly They go about reading certain Rhimes or Ballads Rosse Torlaques The Torlaques are cloathed as the Dervises but wear also a Bears-skin instead of a Cloak They go bare-headed and shave anointing their Heads with Oil against the Cold and burn their Temples against Defluxions Their Life is Beastly and Beggarly begging in every corner Robbing and Plundering in desart places by a Pretence to Palmestry picking silly Womens Pockets whilst they are looking in their Hands c. Given to Sodomy and all Uncleanness They have commonly an old Man with them whom they worship as their Prophet who where they cannot get Money prophesieth Destruction against the House on purpose to terrifie c. Other Promiscuous Sects There are many other Sects among the Mahometans concerning which I can meet with no distinct and sufficient Information Nor is it a matter of any great Moment if I give but a defective account of them being as Inconsiderable for their Worth as our Highway-men or Gypsies amongst us excepting that some of them are more Innocent and Charitable However it be they are by Profession Religious Some going naked except their Privities Summer and Winter cutting and slashing their Bodies to shew their Patience Some professing Poverty enjoying nothing Some professing Abstinence Eating and Drinking little Some professing Perpetual Silence c. Some professing Solitude avoiding all Society Some professing Revelations Visions c. Some professing Contemplation with Feathers on their Heads Some professing Obedience with Rings in their Ears Some professing Voluntary Servitude with Chains on their Necks and Arms. Some professing Hospitality giving Pitchers of Water to the thirsty Traveller Some dwell at the Graves of the Dead living on what People will give them Some are Antinomians affirming that there is no use of the Law but that Men are Saved by Grace Some are for Traditions and Merits addicting themselves wholly to Meditation Prayer Fasting c. Some affirm a Man may be Saved in any Religion and therefore make no scruple to go into Christian Churches to sign themselves with the Cross and besprinkle themselves with Holy Water Rosse Ancient Heathens Pythagoreans 1. THeir Author was Pythagoras who set up a new Philosophy in Italy about A. M. 3513. V. C. 213. 2. Their Dogmata or Religious Sentiments 1. They held that Souls were Immortal 2. They asserted a Metempsychosis or Transmigration of Souls 3. They maintained a strict Conjunction amongst themselves and a Community of Goods Vossius 4. They abstained from eating of Flesh and Beans See Hierocles 5. Their first Lesson was to learn to be silent Platonicks 1. Their Author was Plato Suavissimis ille Socratis Cygnâ—s saith the Learned Vossius who was born A. M. 3623. V. C. 322. who set out his Philosophical Studies with an admirable Eloquence and excelled in all kind of Learning 2. Their Dogmata 1. That there was one Supreme God but besides him two sorts of Gods to whom they ought to do Sacrifice Demons and Heroes 2. That there was an Idea which he made to be a fifth cause 3. That the World had a Beginning 4. That the end of Philosophy was to be made like unto God 5. That there was a Pre-existence of Souls Max. Tyr. 6. That Knowledge is only Remembrance viz. of what our Souls knew in their State of Pre-existence 7. That an Injury is not to be returned 8. That God is not to be prayed unto 9. That Images are to be dedicated to the Gods Peripateticks 1. Their Author was Aristotle that Prodigy of Wit who if ever any Man had Nature at his beck Plato's Scholar and Adversary and Alexander's Tutor born as Stagyra A. M. 3670. 2. Their Dogmata Here I confess I have little to say Aristotle being a great Philosopher but little Divine having an Eagle's Eye in the Disquisation of Nature but a very Buzzard in Spirituals insomuch that it would tempt one to Father Religio Medico upon him 1. He held that the World had no beginning Cicero 1. Tusc 2. Yet that the Gods were the Governours of it Cicer. de Nat. De. 3. That the Soul was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a continual and everlasting Motion 4. Sometimes he makes 1. The Mind God c. 2. The World God c. 3. The Heat of Heaven God c. 5. That all things which are according to Nature are Good those which are contrary are Evil that Riches were Good 6. That Vertue is to be desired and valued above all other things Philosophers Epicureans 1. THeir Author was Epicurus born at Athens A. M. 3711. 2. Their Dogmata or Sentiments were 1. That all things had their beginning from Atoms by a Fortuitous concourse of them 2. That all things were govern'd by Fate and Fortune 3. That God neither troubled himself nor others with any business 4. Yet that the Nature of the Gods was so excellent that it should of it self allure a Wise man to a Religious Veneration Cicero 5. That Souls perished with their Bodies Vossius 6. That Sense was the Rule by which we ought to make a Judgment of things 7. That our Felicity consists in Pleasure Cynicks 1. Their Author was Antisthenes who was Master also to Diogenes 2. Their Sentiments 1. That there were many Popular Gods yet but one Natural the maker of all things 2. That the end of Cynicism was Vivere ex Virtute 3. That Impiety was to be avoided Frugality to be embraced 4. That men were to be bluntly rebuked 3. That Filthy things were to be expressed in their own Names without regard to modesty Cicero Offic. Stoicks 1. Their Author was Zeno Citticus born A. M. 3790. 2. Their Sentiments These differed not much from the Cynicks and had some Communion with the Academicks 1. They placed Happiness in Vertue alone 2. They commended Aâ—stâ—mium much Zeâ—â— himself being a Pattern of that Vertue by which he is said to have lived without Sickness to the ninetieth year of his Age Vossius 3. They wore long hair from whence that Phrase in Juvenal Crine Stoicus Some of the Stoicks thought all should be burnt to Ashes and then would follow an immediate Restoration of all things AN APPENDIX Concerning the Vaudois 1. THeir History A considerable part of Italy especially the Seven Provinces of Liguria Aemilia Flaminia Venctia The Alpes Cottian and Greek and Rhetia whereof Milan was the Capital City were govern'd by a Lieutenant of their own Here the Gospel being planted flourished in S. Ambrose's time and so continued down to the Reformation save only that sometimes by the
there are above 2000 for no Lord but hath his private Chappel nor any Street but hath many of them though most of Wood and very small ones but fifteen foot square D. of Holstein 's Embass Indian Christians The Indian Christians though heir Churches are low and ill furnished yet they are neat and sweetly kept matted and without painted which the Greek Churches abound with They assemble chearfully and at their entring shut their Eyes the better to contemplate the Exercise they come about with their own Unworthiness Kneeling they look towards the Altar near which the Priest is seated him they salute with humble Reverence who returns his Blessing with the uplifting of his Hands and Eyes Sir Thomas Herbert Mexicans In Mexico were thirteen Temples Purchas Mahometans In Fez are 700 Mosquits some garnished with many Pillars and Fountains of Marble each Temple hath a Priest to say Service and look to the Churches Revenue Rosse Tunquinese In Tunquin the great Cities have several Pagods and hardly a Town or Village but hath one and for every Pagod at least two Bonzes and two Says but some Pagods maintain forty Bonzes and as many Says Tavernier's Collect. Pegu. In Pegu they are magnificent in their Pagods having some of beaten Gold in the Varella or Temple of their King there are three of Silver and one of Massy Gold in the shape and proportion of a Man c. Pacquet broke open Vol. 2. Circassia They have one thing remarkable that they never enter their Churches till they resolve to have off Vice that is till after forty years of Age after which time they rob no more Ibid. German Protestants Those of the Palsgrave's Country had each Sunday two Sermons the absent first admonished by the Clergy the next time the Civil Magistrate was called to help Those of Geneva in the Churches of their Cities every Sunday four Sermons Those of Breme three of which one was Catechetical Mr. Hale 's Letter from the Synod of Dort to Sir D. Carleton L. Embass Papists What meant sundry Ancient Councils as the Eleventh of Tolet in Spain yea even of Trent it self to enjoyn frequent Preaching calling for more than any Man almost is able to perform Anonym Catechising Jews COncerning the care which the Jews now take in Catechising their Children see afterwards under the Title of Good Children Christians 8. Clemens praiseth the Corinthians that they took care to admonish their young Men to follow things modest and comely and exhorts them to instruct the Younger to make their Children Partakers of the Discipline of Christ Dr. Cave Constantine's first and greatest care towards his Sons was to secure the Happiness of their Souls by sowing the Seeds of Piety in their Minds which he did partly himself by appointing Religious Tutors for them and when he had taken them into a Partnership of the Government by private Admonitions or by Letters giving them Counsel c. This was always the first and chief Point That they should prefer the Knowledge and Worship of GOD the Great King of the World before all other advantages yea the Empire it self Idem Nazianzen commends his Mother that not only she her self was brought up under a Pious Education but conveyed it down as a necessary Inheritance to her Children Gorgonia being well seasoned with her Instructions and Example for she reclaimed her Husband educated her Children and Nephews in the ways of Religion while she lived and left this as her last Charge and Request when she died Idem The Order of Catechising in the Primitive Times is thus delivered by Mr. Gabriel Towerson c. 1. When any desired to become a Proselyte inquiry was made not only into the Life of the Catechumen but of those who brought him 2. Upon Admonition and a promise of Reformation he was admitted into the Rank of Catechumens by Prayer and Imposition of Hands and so passed over to his Instructor in a private School or Auditory 3. The Catechist entertain'd him with a long Narration of the Story of the Bible from the Creation to the Birth Life Death and Resurrection of our Saviour c. closing with the last Jugment and an Admonition to beware of False Teachers and of being scandalized at the ill Lives of some Christians The Catechist all this while standing though S. Austin would have had it changed into a sitting Posture to prevent weariness 4. After this they were taught particular Points as of Faith c. Then admitted to the Lessons and the Expositions of them in publick and lastly to the Prayers of the Catechumens 5. After two or more Years they gave up their Names and Petitions to be Baptized usually before Easter and then plied with earnest Exhortations to Repentance Fasting and Prayer 6. The Apostles and next the Bishops were Catechists afterwards the Office was devolved on others as Cyprian appointed one Optatus one not of the Clergy Augustine one Deo-gratias a Deacon Demetrius Bishop of Alexandria made Origen at eighteen Years a Catechist of that Famous School In a Synod held at Clovershow or Clyff under Cuthbert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury A. C. 〈◊〉 it was ordained That those Priests who did not as yet understand the Creed and the Lords Prayer should both learn themselves and teach them to others in the English-Tongue Speâ—m Concil p. 242. Can. 10. By Canons given under King Edgar A. C. 967. care was taken That Children should be taught their Pater-noster and Credo by their Parents else when dead not to be buried in Consecrated Ground or thought worthy to receive the Eucharist Ibid. p. 447. Can. 17.22 Much the same thing and in the same words is enjoyned amongst the Ecclesiastick Laws of K. Knute a. 1032. A. C. 1548. Arch-Bishop Cranmer compiled a Catechism dedicates it to the King and in his Epistle complains of the great neglect that had been in former times of Catechising Dr. Burnet's Hist of the Reformation It was the Observation of the Learned'st King that ever sate on the English Throne That the Cause of the Miscarriage of our People into Popery and other Errors was their ungroundedness in the Points of Catechism Therefore his said Late Majesty gave publick Order for bestowing the latter part of the LORD's Day in Familiar Catechism For my part I have spent the greater half of my Life in this station of Holy Service I thank GOD not unpainfully not unprofitably But there is no one thing whereof I repent so much as not to have bestowed more Hours in this Publick Exercise of Catechism in regard whereof I could quarrel with my very Sermons c. Bp. Jos Hall Ep. Ded. to the Old Relig. Geldria One of the Deputies of Geldria to shew the Force of Catechising told That amongst them a Minister who at his first coming to his Living found all his Parishioners Papists so that he must Preach to the Walls c. But by going to their Houses and expounding the Grounds of Religion within a Year he gained them all
Shirt hangs a Cross about his Neck to be kept 'till Death D. of Holst Emb. Trav. Modern Heathens The Baptism of the Persees in East-India is thus So soon as one is born the Daroo is called upon who delays not but being instructed in the precise time of his Nativity calculates his Fortune the Daroo gives the Name the Mother assenting to it This done they haste together to the Eggaree where the Priest puts a little Water into the Bark of a Tree the Name of which is Holme the place it grows in Yezd not far from Spahawn a Tree that Zertoost blessed a Tree which they say yields no shadow The Water out of this hallowed Rind being pured upon the Infant a Prayer is then made that it may be cleansed from all impurity At 7 years of Age the Child is Confirmed by the Daroo and taught to say his Prayers over the Fire but with his Mouth and Nostrils cover'd lest his sinful Breath offend the Deity after which he drinks a little cold Water chaws a Pomegranate-Leaf washes in a Tank cloaths his Body with a fine Shuddero reaching to his Waste ties a Zone of Cushee about his Loins woven with Inkle of the Herboods making which he wears ever after and after a short Prayer that he may never prove an Apostate but continue a Fire-Worshipper that he may eat no Man's Meat nor drink any Man's Drink but his own he is ever after reputed a Believer Sir Tho. Herb. Trav. into Persia Concerning the Bannyans see in the First Book Ch. Sacram. Amboyna In Amboyna though Worshippers of the Devil they Circumcise at Twelve or Thirteen Years of Age c. Mandelslo Sachion In Sachion the Tartars dedicate their Children to their Idols and on Festival-Days Sacrifice Rams for their Childrens Preservation Rosse Guinea In Guinea the Priests besprinkle their Infants after Sermon with Water wherein a Newt doth swim Rosse Loango In Loango Circumcision is used Idem And in Madagascar also and Jucatan Armenians The Armenians thus Consecrate and Administer the Sacrament 1. They set the Consecrated Bread on the Altar 2. The Arch-Bishop reads the Mass for the Ceremony 3. At reading the Gospel they light abundance of Wax-tapers 4. After the Gospel several of the Noviciates take Sticks in their hands about 5 Foot long at the end whereof are Latten Plates with little Bells hanging about them which when they are shaked sound like Cymbals 5. Other Noviciates hold a Copper Plate in their hands hung about with Bells which they strike one against another and at the same time the Ecclesiasticks and Laity sing together indifferent harmoniously 6. All this while the Arch-bishop hath two Bishops on each side of him who are in the room of a Dean and a Sub-dean 7. By and by he goes and unlocks a Window in the Wall on the Gospel side and takes out the Chalice where the Wine is 8. Then with all his Musick he takes a turn about the Altar on which he at length sets down the Chalice saying certain Prayers 9. With the Chalice in his hand and the Bread upon the Chalice he turns towards the People who presently Prostrate themselves upon the ground beat their Breasts and kiss the Earth while the Arch-bishop pronounces This is the Lord who gave his Body and Blood for you 10. Then he turns towards the Altar and eats the Bread dipt in the Wine For they never drink the Wine 11. He turns towards the People with the Bread and Chalice in his hand and they that will receive come one after another to the bottom of the Choir to whom he gives the Bread dipt as before The bread is without Leaven flat and round about as thick as a Crown and as big as the Host of the Mass being Consecrated the day before by the Priest whose Office it is M. Tavernier l. 4. c. 9. They never put Water in their Wine When they come to the Communion the Arch-bishop or Priest says these words I confess and believe that this is the Body and Blood of the Son of God who takes away the sins of the World who is not only ours but the Salvation of all mankind He repeats these words three times the people saying after him word for word ibid. They give the Communion to Children of two or three Months old which the Mothers bring in their Arms tho many times the Children put it out of their Mouths again ibid. They never administer in Lent for then they never say Mass but on Sunday noon which they call Low Mass at which time they never see the Priest who hath a Curtain drawn before the Altar and only reads the Gospel and Creed aloud The Armenians Baptize infants on Sunday except in danger of Life the Midwife carrying the Infant to Church where the Bishop or Priest plunges it naked in the water and returns it to the Godfather going on with his Prayers and twists a double string one of white Cotton another of red silk signifying the Blood and Water which flowed from the Body of Christ about the Child's neck then he anoints the Child and crosseth it in the several places where the Oyl dropped saying I Baptize thee in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost The Forehead Chin Stomach Arm-holes Hands and Feet are anointed The Patriarch makes this Oyl every year on the Eve of our Lady in September after a small Lent of eight days of several fragrant Flowers and Aromatical Drugs but the principal is called Balassau-Jague or flower of paradise When 't is made two bottles are sent to all the Convents of Asia Europe and Africa When the Ceremony of baptism is over the Godfather returns home with the Infant in his arms and a Taper of white wax in each hand attended with trumpets drums haut-boys which go before to the parents house where the Godfather delivers the child to the mother she prostrating her self before the Godfather and kissing his feet he her head the minister names the child according to the Name of the Saint of that day in their Almanack Afterwards they Feast The poorer sort carry the Child to Church on the Week-days without any Ceremony with Tears in their Eyes pretending it to be sickly and like to die and so make no Feasts at all If Women lye in 15 or 20 days before Christmas they often defer till the Festival then in all the Cities and Villages where the Armenians live if there be any river or pond they spread 2 or 3 Flat-bottom'd Boats with carpets to walk upon and in one of them set up an Altar and in the Morning by Sun-rising all the Armenian Clergy of that Town or City and Parts adjoyning get into the Boats in their Habits with the Cross and Banner dip the Cross in the Water 3 times and every time drop the Holy Oyl upon it then plunge the Infant and anoint him 3 times saying I Baptize c. The King of Persia is many times present at the Ceremony when
Cantons have made Laws that it shall be Capital to any to change their Religion and on a set day every year they go all to Mass and the Masters of Families Swear to continue true to the State and firm in their Religion to their Lives end And so they pretend to punish their falling into Heresie with Death and Confiscation of Goods because 't is a Violation of the Faith which is so solemnly Sworn But on the other hand in the Protestant Cantons such as turn are only obliged to go and live out of the Canton but for their Estates they still preserve them and are permitted to sell them One cannot but observe more of the merciful Spirit of the Gospel in the one than in the other Idem Letter from Zurick Mahometans They give excellent Rules for bridling the Passions and shunning of Vice e. g. If thou wouldest have Hell shut its seven Gates take heed thou Sin not with thy seven Members viz. Eyes Ears Tongue Hand Foot Belly Privities which last they dare not name F. Simon They believe a good Life in all Religions will bring a Man to Paradise which would seem to destroy their Principle of forcing all to their Religion did they not affirm the Musselmen are all in a higher and more excellent Paradise than the best of the rest of the World Anonym Ancient Heathens Socrates at a Pompous Solemnity when a great deal of Gold and Silver was carried along cried out How many things are there which I do not Covet He went commonly bare-footed and his Feet were much hardened His Wife used to observe of him that he commonly went out and returned home with the same Countenance he made no boast of his Learning but nather Ignorance professing himself to know nothing And when injuriously he was cast into Prison he made no Supplication to his Judges and the last day of his Life discoursed much of the Immortality of Souls and with the Poisonous Cup in his hands with which he ended his days spake thus That he was not haled to Death but was ascending up to Heaven The same Socrates to a Man crying out that he should dye if he were not revenged upon him made answer Let me dye if I make not thee my Friend Hierocl Frag. Pegu. The Talapoi in Pegu are not angry at those who change their Opinions to Christianity if their Lives be afterwards Pious and Regular Pacquet broke open Vol. 2. Cathay The Tartars in Cathay oblige none by force to be of their Religion Ibid. Purity Sincerity Jews THe Examples of true Israelites in Sacred Scripture are so obvious to every Christian Reader as well as others that there is no need of Repetition here I shall therefore only tell you what remark is made upon them at this day Tho some idle Jews have used a scandalous compliance with the Rites of other Nations with the Papists turning Papists and joyning themselves to a Crucifix and Rosary as well as to the Zizith and Tephillim yea some have entered with Holy Orders Yet the Barbary Jews will not so much as eat of Meat dressed by one of a different perswasion nor drink in the same Cup after a Christian or Moor till it be washed Dr. Addison And this they do notwithstanding they hold That the Law of Nature is only Obligatory to all mankind and to those who observe this Law they promise the World to come Eternal Life tho reserving to themselves a greater Glory than others Idem Christians It were needless to make instances of Sincerity or Purity in Christians their Holy Lives their resplendent Graces their great and extraordinary Sufferings being an abundant proof thereof even in the Judgments sometimes of their Enemies who by this means have been Converted and brought over not only to a good Opinion of the Persons but the Religion too And tho it must be confessed that all which hath glistered amongst them was not pure Gold yet neither was all paint and dissimulation The Letters in some are too plain and Capital to be misconstrued to Hypocrisy And tho the Infirmities of Nature have sometimes shaded the brightness of their Vertues yet I doubt not but in many the Heart as in the Case of Arch-Bishop Cranmer hath been preserved intire and inviolate Zurick The publick Justice of the City is quick and good and is more commended then the private Justice of those that deal in Trade a want of sincerity is much lamented by those that know the Town Zurick well Dr. Burnet's Letters Rome For one that studies antiquities pictures statues or musick there is more entertainment for him at Rome then in all the rest of Europe but if he hath not a taste of these things he will soon be weary of a place where the Conversation is always general and where there is little sincerity or openness practised and by Consequence where Friendship is little understood Idem Heathens Socrates would say That it was the most compendious way to Glory if every one would take care to Be what they would be thought to Be Cic. Offic. 2. The Bramins hate to touch a Pot or Cup with their Mouth but rather pour their Liquor in at a distance eat nor drink with Men of other Religions use washings much touch no unclean thing Sir Tho. Herb. Trav. into Persia The Persees seldom feed together lest they participate one anothers impurity each hath his own Cup so as if any of his own Caste chance to use it the other washes it three times and forbears it a while after Idem In Mexico and other parts of America they Sacrificed Men sometimes to the Sun and used to open the Breast and pull out the Heart and offer that Principally and then to throw it to the Idol The Inferior Priests in the interim holding the Legs Arms and Head of the Sacrificed wretch whilst his Heart was taking out Idem The Merchants who had a peculiar God and Festival day when they Sacrificed a Man they gave him first for nine days Divine Honour and offered his Heart about Midnight to the Moon as Mistress of the Waters or by way of gratitude for her light Idem The Gaurs drink Wine and eat Swine's Flesh if of their own breeding and feeding but are very careful lest their Hogs eat any Ordure for if they have devour'd any nastiness they are strictly forbid to eat them They never pare their Nails so that if by way of disgrace or any misfortune they are constrained to cut their Nails or Hair they carry that which they cut off to some place appointed without the City for that purpose M. Tavernier l. 4. c. 8. If at any time a Hair fall on their Cloths those Cloths must be washed in Cows-piss Perseverance Jews IT is observed of the Jews That they adhere obstinately to their Religion and very rarely have we any instances of Converts to Christianity which is imputed chiefly to the care they take in the timely Education of their Children When
our Saviour's and the Apostles times 48 years after the Destruction of Jerualem they made the City Bethoron to be their chief City and rebelled by the Perswasion of Ben-chocab Son of the Star Numb 23. 200000 in number but received such a Slaughter as themselves tell the Story that the Blood reached to the Horses Mouths c. In the time of Trajan they rebelled again in Egypt and Cyrene under Luke their Captain and many thousands of them were destroyed Dion saith 220000. Afterwards under a Pseudo-Moses in Arabia rebelling again they were again destroyed Purchas Alsted c. Christians The Christians obey the Laws that are made and by the Exactness of their Lives go beyond that Accuracy which the Law requires of them Just Mart. Ep. ad Diogn Are there any more devoted to you than we who Pray for the Happiness of your Government that according to Right and Equity the Son may succeed his Father in the Empire c. Athenag leg pro Christian Tertullian saith Though they refused to pay the Taxes rated upon them for Maintenance of the Heathen Temples yet for all other Tributes they obeyed Dr. Cave Prim. Christ. Muscovites No People in the World have a greater Veneration for their Prince than the Muscovites who from their Infancy are taught to speak of the Czar as of God himself witness their submissive Forms of Speaking the Honour to see the Brightness of the Eyes of his Czarick Majesty only God and the Czar knows it All they have belongs to God and the Czar D. of Holstein's Emb. Trav. Inhamban The King of Inhamban is much reverenced by his Subject by whom he is served upon the Knee and when he Coughs or Drinks all those that are about him make such a Shout that the Town rings of it In one particular they differ from most Nations else which is That such as are admitted into his Presence are bound to sit down it being the greatest Favour to stand Dr. Heylin Japanners In Japan if any Prince or Great Lord makes a Feast for his Friends at the end of the Feast he calls his principal Officers and asks them if there be any that hath so much Love for him as to kill himself before the Guests for his sake Presently there arises a Dispute among them who shall have the Honour and whoever the Prince is pleased to name rips up his Belly with a Crik which is a kind of Dagger the point whereof is poysoned Tavernier's Relation of Japon The Mogul's Subjects if sent unto any place of Employment shave not their Heads nor cut their Hair till they return to shew their Discontent while out of his sight When the Mogul sends his commands by Papers to any of his Governours they well accompanied go out to meet the Messenger as soon as they see the Letters they alight from their Horses fall down on the Earth and take them from the Messenger and lay them on their Heads and carry them to the place of publick Assembly to be read They that are near the Mogul attend constantly to see him when he exposes himself for that purpose in a Balcony as usually he doth three times a day When they see him they cry out Live O Great King or O Great King Health and Life And his Subjects will do any thing he bids them as for a Father to kill the Son c. The meaner sort to their Superiors use these abject and lowly ceremonies of Reverence by putting their right Hand to the Earth The Turks are Loyal to the Prince whom they highly reverence and blindly obey M. de Thev They are not seen to betray their Prince nor turn to the side of the Christians They give good Precepts of Subjection and Loyalty for instance That it is never lawful to kill their Prince nay nor to speak ill under pretence that he is a Tyrant F. Simon The Bannyans in East-India are content to submit rather than govern and wish all People were of their Mind Sir Tho. Herb. The Chinese Honour their Mandarins Reverence their Chiams little less than adore their King Idem No Subject hath recourse save by Petition Idem Scholars and Merchants are more honoured than Men of War No People in the World more honour their King than they for they suppose him too Glorious to look upon they obey his Will in every thing fill his Exchequer yearly with above 1000000 Crowns call him Lord of the whole World Son of the Sun Beauty of the whole Earth Nor do any express more filial Respect to Parents than they Marry not without their Consent c. Idem Good Parents Jews RAbbi Jose a Wise Man and Mechanick viz. a Skinner had eight Sons to all which the Jews attribute the Praise of Wisdom Hottinger A great reason of the Jews unshaken Adherence to their Faith is That they are timely and deeply grounded They make use of that Rule of Solomon frequently Catechise a Child in the way he should go c. The Parents strictly forbid their Children all Conversation with Mahometan Children suffer them not to use the Name of God till seven years of Age teach them to read by casting two or three Letters on a smooth Stone or Board at first to write by giving them a Draught of very large Letters on a fair Paper with a thin Paper The Mothers Break-fast their Children with somewhat Sugar'd or HOney'd saying As this is sweet to thy Palate so let Learning be to thy Mind bidding the Child use no filthy words at School because God loves clean Lips not spend his time idly c. Dr. Addison of the Jews in Barbary Christians Luther was very lovingly affected toward his Children and gave them liberal Education he kept in his House a School-master to train them up in good Arts and a Godly Life When he saw Magdalen his Daughter ready to die he read to her Isaiah 26.19 concluding thus My Daughter enter thou into thy Chamber with Peace until the Indignation be over-past I shall e're long be with thee for God will not permit me to see the Punishments hanging over the head of Germany and upon this wept plentifully but in publick attended the Hearse without a Tear Fuller's Lives In Holland at Amsterdam the Parents that are able and rich enough contrive it so that when their Sons are Extravagant and Masterless the Officers seize upon them and carry them into the Tuchthuis where they are not forced to any hard Labour but kept in till they see sufficient signs of their Amendment Dr. Edw. Brown's Travels Mr. Julines Herring's Wife having thirteen Children caused them to learn the Proverbs of Solomon by heart and ever before the Father corrected them he endeavoured to convince them of their Sin against God and sought by Tears and Prayers for God's Blessing upon that means for their good Clark's Lives It is a surprizing thing to see so much Learning as one finds in Geneva not only among those whose Profession obliges them to
the New-Testament I first met with St. John's First Chapter In the beginning was the word c. I read part of it and was presently convinced that the Divinity and Authority of the Author did excel all humane Writings my Body trembled my Mind was astonished and I was so affected all that day that I knew not what I was Thou wast mindful of me O my God according to the multitude of thy Mercies and calledst home thy lost Sheep into thy Fold and from that day he wholly beat himself to pious Practices Anonym Bishop Vergerius was converted by occasion of seeing Fr. Spira in his misery or as some say by reading a Protestant Book with an intention to confute it S. Augustine gives us the Story at large of his own Conversion in his Book of Confessions and imputes it partly to the reading of Cicero's Hortensius to the Prayers of his Mother Monica and her continal Admonitions the Preaching of S. Ambrose but especially to the Discourse of Pontilian and his relation of the Life of S. Anthony which so stirr'd up his Passions that immediately he burst out into Tears retired into the Garden open'd his Testament at the direction of an Angel as he thought crying Take up and read and hit presently upon that Text Rom. 13.12 13 14. Aug. Conf. l. 8. c. 7 8. Justin Martyr was converted by seeing of the Martyrs Maronites Sometimes before was arrived there at Suratte a Merchant of Aleppo who had run himself out at heels and of a Maronite Christian was become a Roman Catholick in hopes to patch up his fortune being in truth a meer Counterfeit and Hypocrite for these Levantine Christians seldom change their Religion but upon some Motive of Interest and when they have got a good Sum together they presently whip back again into their own Country and for a small piece of Money obtain Absolution of their Patriarch among many others I will only mention one Franciscan called Paulus Stella coming with 400 Crowns or thereabouts in his Pocket for his Subsistance a Maronite smelt him out and under the pretence of giving him the honour of his Conversion to the Catholick Religion never left him till he had suckt him dry and turn'd the Chanel of his Money This Maronite Merchant whose Name was Chelebi shewed himself very zealous for the Capuchins and he had reason enough for the Capuchins of Aleppo had been very serviceable to him and had helped him in his Affairs when they were at the lowest ebb They were overjoyed at his Arrival at Suratte and gave out immediately that it was he that had given them Money for the building their House and Church but when I came to look over my Accompts I found that the Money that had paid for the Ground and a good share of the building came out of my Purse Father Ambrose having promised that I should be reimbursed at my Return to Paris but I never heard more of my Money nor indeed did I ever look after it Tavernier's Collect. of several Relations c. p. 37. Papists Bruno Born in Collen and Professor of Philosophy in Paris about the year of Christ 1080 being present at the Singing of the Office for his Fellow-Professor now Dead a man highly reputed for his Holy Life the Dead Corps suddainly sits up in the Bier and cries out I am in God's just Judgments eondemned These words were uttered three several days at which Bruno was so affrighted that a man held so pious was Damned began to think what would become of himself and many more Therefore concluding there was no safety for him but by forsaking the World betook himself with six of his Scholars to a hideous place for dark Woods high Hills Rocks and wild Beasts in the Province of Dauphiny near Grenoble and there built a Monastery having obtained the ground of Hugo Bishop of Grenoble the place called Carthusia whence his Monks took their Name Rosse's view of all Relig. Jews R. Hakkunas Ben Nehunia was converted by occasion of the Miracles which he saw I am Hakkunas one of them that believe and have washed my self with the Holy Waters and walk in those right ways being induced thereunto by Miracles Hortinger out of Suidas c. Elias Levita before his Death became a Christian and with thirty more Jews received Baptism but upon what occasions or inducements I cannot learn A.C. 1547. Alsted Diverse kinds of Testimonies Miraculous to Christianity Jews 1. PRomises and Prophecies and Types in Sacred Scripture 2. Satan in Possess'd Persons and Daemoniacks What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God c. The Devil answering the Sons of Scevi in the Acts Acts 19. c. 3. The Jewish Nation as it is at this day dispersed through all the World and dissolved in all the most material parts of its Oeconomy without a Legal Succession of Priesthood without Genealogies without Temple without Sacrifices Holy Land Holy City Holy Altar Holy Oyl and in a word without any Government in Church or State 4. All their Attempts to regain their own Land and rebuild their own City wonderfully frustrated especially in the times of Julian the Emperor Ammian Marcell l. 23. 5. All their pretended Prophets and Saviours discovered in a most shameful manner and convicted of Imposture and Deceit especially the ignominious Delusion of Barcocab which the Jews lament to this day 6. To which may be added the Abstinence and Preaching of John Baptist and the Miracles of our Blessed Saviour As also those mentioned by Josephus relating to the Destruction of Jerusalem e.g. in the Feast of Weeks before Vespasian came against Jerusalem the Priests heard a Man walking in the Temple and saying with a wonderful Terrible Voice Come let us go away out of this Temple let us make haste away from hence c. Josephus Roman The Image of a Virgin with a Child in her Arms about the Sun seen at Rome Three Suns seen Augustus forbidding himself to be called Lord his releasing 30000 fugitive Slaves a Comet a Fountain of Oyl running all day Oracles silenced Alsted Christian 1. The Miracles done by the Apostles and Primitive Christians c. which continued in the Church for two or three hundred years after our Saviour amongst the last Recorded this is one mentioned by S. Augustine at the Aque Tibilitanae Projectus the Bishop bringing the Remains of the Martyr Stephen in a vast Multitude of People a Blind Woman desiring to be brought to the Bishop and some Flowers which she brought being laid on those Relicks and after applied to her Eyes to the wonder of all she received Sight As also when the Bodies of S. Gervasius and Protasius were dug up and Translated to Ambrose's Church at Milan not only such as were vexed with unclean Spirits were healed but also a certain noted Citizen that had been blind many years enquiring into the Reason of so much Tumult and Rejoycing among the People and being told the Cause leaped for joy
Confessions and Exploits of Wizards and Witches do by Natural Argumentation prove the Existence of Angels If these be Tales then the Faith of almost all mankind is called in question the manifest proofs at publick and solemn Trials in Lancashire c. with which our undoubted Records abound are despised These Stories have been believed by Socrates plotinus Synesius Dion Josephus Pomponatius Cardan c. Not Idiots in Philosophy Dr. Tenison against Hobbs p. 62. Mahometans The Mahometans tell many and strange Stories of Angels as that Gabriel made the Spots in the Moon with his Wing by flying by it that Michael shall weigh Men's Souls in a Pair of Scales at the Second Sound of the Trumpet that at Israphel's first sounding of the Trumpet all Men and Women shall Dye and Revive again c. F. Simon c. Ancient Heathens The Pythagoreans and Platonists called the Middle Kind between the Immortal Gods and Men Daemons or Angels Who were a kind of Aetherial or Aerial Heroes but sometimes they distinguish'd them into those that were nearest to the Immortal Gods and those that were furthest off The former they called Heroes and the last good Daemons Marcil in Pythag. Carm. Hesiod calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cloathed with Air. Hierocles calls the Heroes Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl in Pyth. Carm. If once thou thinkest saith Maximus Tyrius speaking of Socrates's Daemon there are no such Beings thou must Proclaim War against Homer and Renounce Oracles and Prophecies and disbelieve Credible Reports and declare against Dreams with their Interpretations and at last bid adieu to Socrates Max. Tyr. Disser 26. Siam They holy that each Man hath two Spirits waiting on him a good and bad Rosse Tartars They feed Spirits by casting Mare's-milk into the Air or pouring it on the ground Paquet broke open vol. 1. Christians of St. John They believe that Angels and Devils are Male and Female and beget Children That the Angel Gabriel is the Son of God Engendred upon Light That he had a Daughter called Souret who hath two Sons That he hath several Legions of Daemons under him who are instead of Soldiers and others that are his Officers of Justice whom he sends from Town to Town and from City to City to Punish the Wicked Taver l. 2. c. 8. p. 92. Atheism Irreligion Soldania If that Maxim universum genus humanum colit Deum vel falsum fail any where here in Souldania it may for during the time I staid amongst them I saw no signs of any knowledge of God the Law of Nature scarce being observed no Spark of Devotion no Symptom of Heaven or Hell no place set apart for Worship no Sabbath for Rest Sir Tho. Herbert Trav. into Persia Indian Theers There are a Sect of Indians called Theers who are neither Pagans nor Mahometans for they have no Religion at all Their whole Employment is Scouring of Wells Sinks Common-Shoars and Privies Fleaing dead Beasts and Executioners They are an Abomination to the rest of the Indians who are to wash and purify after touching them Mandelslo's Travels p. 61. Fermosa The Inhabitants of Fermosa have very little if any Religion yet they have Pagods and Priestesses and believe the Immortality of the Soul Idem and Prayers and Sacrifices Cape of Good Hope Of all the People that ever I saw in all my Travels I never saw any so hideous nor so brutish as the Comaukes and those of the Cape of Good Hope whom they call Cafres or Hosentoles when they speak they make a noise with their Tongues like the breaking of wind backward hardly speaking articulately cover'd the Rich with Skins the Poor with nothing but a nasty Rag about their Privities when they bring forth a Male-Child the Mothers cut out his right Stone and presently give him Water to drink and Tobacco to eat this is to make them swifter to run for they will catch a Roe-Buck running They neither know what belongs to Gold nor Silver and for Religion they have none among them Tavernier Part 2. l. 3. c. 26. Neither Men nor Women are asham'd to shew their Nakedness for indeed they are but a sort of Human Beasts Idem This place the Cape of Good Hope furnishes me with an Observation that I have not before met with i. e. that there are Nations which have no Notions of a Deity nor any footsteps of Worship and Adoration Anonym Pegu and Siam The common People in Pegu and Siam offer Sacrifices to the Devil Papists John King of England having received an Overthrow in France said in great Anger Nothing hath ever prospered with me since I was reconciled to God and the Pope Baker 's Chron. The same King being on a time a Hunting and afterwards opening a fat Buck said See how fat he is and yet I dare say he never heard Mass Idem Julius Caesar Vanin Suffered as an Atheist Dr. Tenison Superstition Jews THE Jews are very Superstitious and much addicted to little Observations Gaurs The Gaurs eat no Hares because they have their Monthly Purgations like Women For the same reason they never eat Mulberries believing that they partake of the Nature of Women and Hares If when they Comb their Hair or Beards any one Hair happens to fall upon their Clothes those Clothes must be washed in the Stale of a Cow or Ox to purifie them again If they touch any Ordure or Nastiness they must wash in the same Urine If a Priest meets a Dead Corps on the High-way and chances to see it he is obliged to wash in Cows-piss M. Tavernier l. 4. c. 8. Indians One Tribe of the Idolatrous Indians are so superstitious that they carry their Oval Flints representations of their God about their Necks and thump them against their Breasts when they are at their Devotions Idem Part. 2. l. 2. c. 5. Japonese The Great Dairy of Japon so soon as he is Crowned by the Bonzes who are the Priests and Lawyers is then no more to expose himself to the light of the Moon nor to shave his Head or cut his Nails Tavernier's Collect. p. 2. There is no Nation under Heaven more fearless of Death or more inclined to Cruelty If any Prince or great Lord makes a Feast for his Friends at the end of the Feast he calls his principal Officers and asks them If there be any that hath so much love for him as to kill himself before the Guests for his sake presently there arises a dispute among them who shall have the Honour and whoever the Prince is pleased to Name rips up his Belly with a Cric which is a kind of Dagger the point whereof is poison'd This Custom is also practis'd upon the Death of their Masters or when they lay the Foundation of any Palace for they are so superstitious as to believe that these Victims are necessary to render both the Owners of the Buildings and the Habitation fortunate Idem Relat. of Japon p. 4. Papists It may seem superfluous
Colleges Schools c. Jews THE Jews have had many Colleges not go speak of those mentioned in Scripture Naioth and Gibeah Bethel and Jericho since the destruction of Jerusalem their most famous have been Jabne or Jafne three Miles from Joppa Tiberias or Tzephorias Soran and Pumbedith Hottinger Persians There are many Mandresaes Colleges all over Persia D. of Holstein's Embass Trav. into Musc Tartary c. p. 159. The Persians in their Colleges observe this way the Student Reads two or three lines and the Doctor Expounds them then another Reads two or three more and rises up till the Doctor hath expounded them and bids him sit down again Their Books are mostly the Works of Kadgia Nesir some of Aristotle the Almagestes of Ptolomy which they call Magesti some of Euclide some of Archimedes the Opticks of Ebne Heister Galen Galenous they call him Averroes Abonalt or great Father Hermes Trismegistus Ormous Their chief Historian is Ronze el Zapha who wrote a Chronology from the Creation very Fabulously saying the World was Inhabited by Devils before the Creation c. Taver l. 5. c. 11. The Persians call their Colleges Medrese where there are a great number of Schollars bred up at little Charge out of the Legacies left to the Foundations They allow them a Chamber without Furniture themselves providing a Coverlet and Mattress for themselves They have no certain Masters but sometimes learn of one sometime of another seldom of the Monderes Principal who is generally the greatest Block-head of them all But there are several others in every good Town that Teach the Sciences to purchase Honour to themselves who are therefore liberal to get many Schollars to publish the Wisdom of their Akroom or Doctor Tavern l. 5. Mahometans There are two stately Colleges in Fez for Professors in Diverse Sciences Rosse Also 200 Grammar Schools About the Walls of their Mosquits are diverse Pulpits for their Readers who begin their Lectures shortly after break of day in the Summer They read after Sun-set Mahomet's Law and Moral Philosophy are read To the winter Lectures large Revenues are allowed Books and Candles Rosse Heathens In New Spain they had Schools and Seminaries Idem and Purchas c. Mahometans Near Belgrade the Grand Visier hath Built a Metreseck or College for Students I saw a Student Habited in Green and wearing a Turbant with four Corners which is a peculiar distinction Dr. Brown's Travels Idolatrous Indians The Bramins have a kind of University in a City which is called Benarez where they make all their Exercises in Astrology and where they have Doctors that Expound their Law which they very strictly observe But in regard they are so great a Number and cannot all come to Study at that University they are all very ignorant and consequently very Superstitious Those that go for the most refined Wits being the greatest Sorcerers Tavernier l. 3. c. 3. Tunquin The Tunquinese have a very great inclination for Learning and apply themselves to their Studies with diligence and success for that they cannot be advanced without it to the Offices and Dignities in the Kingdom by Learning I mean the Knowledg of the Laws of their Countrey Mathematicks Astronomy to which all the Orientials have a great Inclination Musick and Poetry Comedy and Tragedy To obtain Nobility in your Youth by Learning you must pass through three degrees of the Syude by close studying eight years and a rigorous Examination and this qualifies for the Office of a Notary Proctor c. The Doucan by studying Musick Astrology and Poesy five years The Tansi by spending four years more in Learning the Chinese Character to such a number of Words The last Examination is made in the great place within the enclosure of the Palace of Tunquin which is a stately Marble structure There the King is present Princes and great Lords of the Court the Manderim for Learning and all the Tansies and many also from distant Provinces come to the Solemnity Some have asserted extravagantly that sometimes there are 30 or 40000 Students present at this Examination but I cannot learn that the number ever exceeds 3000. Eight days are spent in Examination which is performed upon nine Scaffolds built like an Amphitheatre The eight days being passed they all appear again upon the same Scaffolds where in the View of all the World they who faultered in their Examinations are dismissed as unworthy of any Employment the rest are honoured with a Vest of Violet Satin which they presently put on and then take upon them the name of Tansies Then they have given them a list of the Towns and Villages where they are to receive the Rents which the King allows them some more some less To which places when they come the Inhabitants meet them with all sorts of Musick and a guilded Branquar carried by eight men where they divert themselves for three Months and then return to Court to Instruct themselves in the Affairs of the Kingdom and King's House and fit themselves for the Dâ—â—â—nity of a Mandarin Tavernier 's Collect of several Relat. Saracens About the year 1000 the Saracens had a famous Academy at Babylon wherein the Sorences especially Astrology and Physick were I aught Hotting Christians Under Valentinian the Emperor Students were not permitted to stay after 20 years of age lest the Splendor and Vanities of the City should tempt them to forsake the Service of their Countrey Five or six years time was allowed them there and no more Antiq. of the Brittish Churches Cardinal Pool Arch bishop Granmer and since them Dr. Marshal of Lincoln College in Oxon. were of Opinion that they who are designed for the Clergy should be Educated from their Infancy in the Cathedrals or with some Pious and Learned Divines and so inured to a good Life I wish our Universities were not detective in that point of Education which Ladies call Breeding and Accomplishment a Fault incident to all Schools of I earning yea Athens it self Plutarcho Taste the longer they stayed there the greater Clowns they proved Auth. of the Educ of Young Gentlemen Halor and Schalholt Bishops Sees with Petty Schools in Iseland Dr. Heylin Premonitions of Death Jews THE most remarkable Instances of this kind among the Jews we find in sacred Scripture first in the case of Aaron's Death which is foretold to Moses Numb 20.24 Next in the case of Moses which was revealed by God to himself Num. 27.12 13. and thirdly of Elijah's discovered before-hand to the Prophets both of Bethel and Jericho 2 Kin. 3.3 5. c. I say nothing of the Communication of God made of his recret Purposes concerning the Judgments he had decreed against Offenders as the drowning of the old World the Destruction of Sodom c. the drownning of the Egyptians the punishment of the Israelites by War Plague Famine the Earth swallowing up Corah Dathan and Abiram c. nor lastly the Death of our blessed Saviour presignified by Types Prophecy and Christ's own