Licenses to eat flesh is a scruple grounded on that Government which is agreeable to the present state of things rather than want of power in the Church to grant Dispensations for it CHAP. VI. Of Feasts observed in the Greek Church THE Greeks begin their Year in September observing the first day thereof with jollity and feasting esteeming a chearful spirit to be a good Omen that the succeeding year shall be prosperous though not being dedicated to the memory and honour of any Saint it is no point of Religion to abstain from labour yet it is esteemed undecent arguing either covetousness or a necessitous poverty The grand Feast of the Year as amongst all other Christians is Easter or the Festival of the Resurrection at which time the Greeks have this ancient and laudable Custom When they meet their acquaintance in the Morning or at any time within the three days of Easter they salute with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is risen and then the other answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is risen indeed and so they kiss three times once on each Cheek and on the Mouth and so depart The second day of September is the Feast of S. John the abstemious not of Precept but of Devotion and therefore is only celebrated by Kaloires and other Religious in honour of the holy S. John Baptist who by his severe and abstemious life in the Wilderness set the first Example of holy Fasts to such as would be Disciples of the holy Jesus The twenty sixth is dedicated with great honour and devotion to the Translation of the Body of S. John the Evangelist into Heaven for they maintain that this S. John being banished by Trajan the Emperour into the Isle of Patmos and there having wrote the Apocalypse he passed over unto Ephesus where ending his glorious life he was interred but after some days burial his Disciples searching for his Body in the Grave found it not from whence immediately arose a belief that his Body was assumed into Heaven and placed in the Mansion of Enoch and Elias who in company together shall again return to converse on Earth before Antichrist is perfectly revealed and made known unto the World And this they partly ground on the words of our Saviour to S. Peter If I will that he stay till I come what is that to thee The Greeks as they delight in the Histories of their Saints and recount them with as much variety and fancy as the Latines do their Legends so I might in this place recite long and tedious Histories of them but because the lives of most of them are recorded in Holy Scripture and of the later of them in the Synaxarion of which Book we shall hereafter speak we shall only here mention Cosma and Damianus and St. George the Cappadocian which are persons who after the Apostles and immediate Disciples of Jesus with some Fathers of the Church such as St. Basil St. Chrysostom c. take up a principal place in the Greek Kalendar The first two are called the Holy Anargiri to whom I found a poor Oratory erected at Ephesus which was thrown up of late with a few loose stones encircling a little Altar without Roof in the place of a more ancient Church whither the Greeks resort on the first of November to say Mass and sing Hymns in praise and commemoration of these Saints whom they report to have been born in Asia their father a Gentile and their mother a Christian called Thedosa who educated these her two Sons in Religious Piety and laudable Sciences but they principally addicting themselves to the studies of Physick did by the Divine assistance cooperating with the means of Herbs and Medicines become such perfect Practitioners that they cured all Diseases incident to Man and Beast without Money or other consideration of Interest for which cause they were called the Anargiri or those that took no Money They farther report That Damianus was so strict in this point that he dissented greatly from his Brother Cosma for having only accepted of two Eggs from a poor Widow though employed on her self for an Unguent or Cataplasm for the Sciatica that he ever after avoided all society and converse with him and at his death gave order that his Brother should not be interred in the same Vault or Grave with him the which resolution of Damianus the Friends of both designed to perform but that carrying the Corps of Cosma to burial they were met by a Camel which opening his mouth as miraculously as Balaam's Ass admonished the Bearers to lay the Brothers in the same Tomb together for that neither the Crime of Cosma was so great nor the difference so lasting but that both their Bodies might be contained in the same Sepulchre whose Souls were already united in the same heavenly Mansion The Kaloires also farther boasting of the Miracles of these Saints tell us that at Athens there is a Well adjoining to the Porch of that Church which is dedicated to them which is dry the whole year excepting only on that day when their Festival is celebrated and begins to flow at the first words of the Mass which seem to have the same Efficacy on this Spring as Moses's Rod had upon the Rock to produce a Flood of sweet and delicious water not only pleasant to the taste but wholesom for the Body but dries up and fails with the Evening of the Festival St. George the Capadocian is in like manner highly reverenced by this People there being scarce a Town where are two Churches but one of them is dedicated to this Saint of whom they recount many and various stories and what is most strange they believe them all They say that he was born of noble Blood and lived in the time of Dioclesian the Emperour under whom arising a bloody persecution this Saint as a Champion of undaunted Courage publickly presented himself owning and avouching the Gospel to be the only true and saving Faith inveighing against Idolatry and superstitious Customs and belief of Gentilism This Christian boldness sharpened the Arms of persecution against the Saint so that the Executioner struck him into the Belly with a Lance which though a great effusion of Blood followed yet the Wound closed and immediately became whole They tell us of his being thrown into a Pit of Lime and his walking bare-foot on Planks studded with sharp Nails of his remaining unconsumed and untouched amidst the flames of his raising the dead of his slaying a Dragon on the Banks of Euphrates near a place now called by the Turks Barut which the Greeks and Christians of those parts show unto Travellers to this day by which variety of Miracles many were converted unto the Christian Faith amongst which was the Queen Alexandra Wife of Dioclesian At length the time being come that this Saint was to dye the power of his persecutors prevailed against him by whom his head being struck off his soul ascended into
with this Prayer O Lord who with the Oyl of thy Mercies hast healed the Wounds of our Souls and of our Bodies do thou sanctifie this Oyl in that manner that those who are anointed therewith may be freed from their Infirmities and from all Corporal and Spiritual Evils that the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost may be glorifyed therein This Sacrament as they call it of the Holy Oyl is by some said to be different from that which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is administred unto healthful persons who are fallen into mortal sins which pollute the Body as well as the Soul and takes its Original from the parable of the good Samaritan in the Gospel who poured Oyl into the Wounds of him who fell amongst Thieves But this Unction is not applicable to those who are guilty of Rapine and Violence whose sins are only purged and expiated by Restitution and Satisfaction This Oyl of Prayer is pure and unmixed Oyl without any other composition a quantity whereof sufficient to serve for the whole year is consecrated on Wednesday in the holy Week by the Arch-Bishop or Bishop though it may be administred or application made thereof by three Priests This is the same with that which in the Roman Church is called Extreme Unction grounded on the words of St. James Cap. 5. 14. Is any sick amongst you let him call for the Elders the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with Oyl in the name of the Lord. In the administration of this Oyl of Prayer the Priest dips some Cotton at the end of a stick into the Oyl and therewith anoints the Penitent in the form of a Cross on the Fore-head on the Chin on each Cheek on the backs and palms of the Hands and then recites this Prayer Holy Father Physitian of Souls and Bodies who hast sent thine only Son Jesus Christ healing infirmities and sins to free us from death heal this thy Servant of corporal and spiritual infirmities and give him salvation and the grace of thy Christ through the Prayers of our more than holy Lady the Mother of God the Eternal Virgin through the assistance of the glorious celestial and incorporeal Powers through the Vertue of the life-giving Cross of the holy and glorious Prophet the fore-runner John the Baptist and of the holy and glorious Apostles and triumphant Martyrs of the holy and just Fathers and of the holy and life-giving Anargiri Amen Confession of Sins verbally and particularly to a Priest is esteemed a necessary duty for constituting a perfect Contrition though they do not deny but a person dying in a state of Regeneration that is to say with a Repentance proceeding from the love of God and having not opportunity by the suddenness of death or some other accident to confess and receive Absolution may yet through the mercies of God and bounty of the Saints have these necessary Sacraments conferred and mysteriously supplyed and the contrite Soul saved But yet that the omission thereof in a place where it may be obtained is a sin which as they say can no otherwise be pardoned in the next World than by the Prayers Intercessions of the Saints in Heaven and by the Alms and Oblations of good men on Earth of which Opinion of theirs we shall have occasion to speak more particularly hereafter CHAP. XIII Of the Power of Excommunication and upon what frivolous occasions it is made use of THE Third Command of the Church is Obedience towards their Spiritual Pastors and Teachers 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God which is a Text that they often repeat in their Churches and raise consequences from thence of the sublimity of their Office and of the reverence and honour due from the people toward their Clergy so that though they want the advantages of Riches and Ornament to render them respected in the Eyes of the Vulgar yet their People being affected with their divine and separated Qualifications do not submit only in Spiritual matters but even in Temporals refer themselves to the determination of their Bishop or Metropolite according to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 1. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to Law before the unjust and not before the Saints But that which most enforces this Duty of Obedience is a sense of the Power of Excommunication which rests in the Church of which they so generally stand in fear that the most profligate and obdurate conscience in other matters startles at this sentence to which whilst any is subjected he is not only expelled the limits of the Church but his conversation is scandalous and his person denied the common benefits of Charity and assistance to which Christian or Humane duty doth oblige us In the Exercise of this censure of Excommunication the Greek Church is so ready and frequent that the common use of it might seem to render it the more contemptible but that the Sentence is pronounced with so much horrour and the sad effects which have ensued thereupon not only to the living but also to the Corps and Carcasses of such who have dyed under Excommunication are related with that evidence and certainty as still confirms in the people the efficacy of that Authority which the Church exercises therein The form of Excommunication is either expressive of the party with his name and condition secluding him from the use of Divine Ordinances or otherwise indefinite of any person who is guilty of such or such a Crime or Misdemeanour As for Example If any person is guilty of Theft which is not discovered an Excommunication is taken out against him whosoever he be that hath committed the Theft which is not to be remitted until Restitution is made and so the fault is published and repeated at a full Congregation and then follows the Sentence of Excommunication in this form If they restore not to him that which is his own and possess him peaceably of it but suffer him to remain injured and damnifyed let him be separated from the Lord God Creatour and be accursed and unpardoned and undissolvable after death in this World and in the other which is to come Let Wood Stones and Iron be dissolved but not they May they inherit the Leprosie of Gehazi and the Confusion of Judas may the Earth be divided and devour them like Dathan and Abiram may they sigh and tremble on earth like Cain and the wrath of God be upon their heads and Countenances may they see nothing of that for which they labour and beg their Bread all the days of their lives may their Works Possessions Labours and Services be accursed always without effect or success and blown away like dust may they have the Curses of the holy and righteous Patriarchs Abram Isaac and Jacob of the 318 Saints who were the Divine Fathers of
mournings for the dead retain not only Ceremonies by us accounted superstitious but also savouring somewhat of ancient Gentilism If the headache or be ill-affected the Priest binds it with the Vail of the Sacramental Chalice and administers to the sick a draught of consecrated Water in which is Basil or Dittamon or some other odoriferous Herb blessed with the touch of a Crucifix or the Picture of our Lady and administred as a spiritual Medicine as well operative for the benefit of the Soul as conducing to the health of the Body But in case the indisposition increase the holy Oyl or extream Unction is applyed called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mixed with some of that Water which was consecrated at the Sacrament of the Communion and some Prayers proper for that occasion are rehearsed together with such Chapters and Verses out of the new Testament which relate to the resurrection of the dead It is likewise usual amongst them as in the Roman Church to make Vows upon recovery and on the Altar to tender the form of a Leg Arm or Eyes or some other Member ill-affected in Silver or Gold in remembrance and gratitude for the late mercy of Almighty God But when the party dyes the lamentations which they make are most barbarous For after his eyes are shut his Corps are clothed in its best Apparel and being stretched on the Floor with a Taper at the head and another at the feet then begins the Scene of sorrow the Wife the Children and the rest of the Family and Friends entring with their Hair dishevelled their Garments loose and torn pulling their Locks and beating their Breasts and scratching their Faces with their Nails Faedantes unguibus ora make such deep sighs and sad cryes as might justly incur the reprehension of the Apostle who gave them that reasonable Counsel of Mourn not like those without hope 1 Thes. 4. v. 13. The Body thus dressed up with a Crucifix on the Breast attended by the Priests and Deacons is carried to burial and the Prayers solemnized with Incense that God would receive his Soul into the Region of the blessed the Wife follows her departed Husband with such passion to perform the last office of kindness as if she intended with violence of her shreeks to force out her own Soul and to bear company with the Corps of her Husband in his Cave of darkness And where passion is not found so vigorous and violent in its representation of sorrow by reason of the gentle and more even temper of some Wives there want not Women who are perfect Tragedians that are hired to follow the Corps of the dead and to act in behalf of the Relations all the distracted postures and motions of real grief and confused sorrow The Corps being placed in the Church and the Office for the dead being ended the Friends which accompany it first kiss the Crucifix on the Breast and then the Mouth and Forehead of the deceased and afterwards every one eats a piece of Bread and drinks a glass of Wine in the Church wishing rest to the Soul departed and consolation to the afflicted Relations which done they attend them home and so end the Ceremonies of Burial At the end of eight days after the Burial the friends of the deceased make their charitable Visits to condole with and comfort the nearer Relations and accompany them to the Church to joyn with them in the Prayers offered for the quiet and rest of the departed Soul at which time the men eat and drink again in the Church whilst the Women renew their barbarous lamentations with shreeks and cryes and with all other evidences of distraction and sorrow but such as can pay others to act this part of passion force not themselves with that violence but send them to lament and mourn over the Sepulcher for the space of eight days the third day after which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on which Prayers are said for the Soul departed In like manner at the end of nine days of forty days and at the end of six months and at the conclusion of the year Prayers and Masses are said for repose of the Soul which being ended those then present are entertained with boiled Wheat and Rice Wine and dryed fruits and this is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a custom esteemed by the Greeks of great Antiquity which they more devoutly solemnize on the Fryday before their entrance into the Lent of Advent Good-Fryday and the Fryday before the Feast of Pentecost which are special days observed for Commemoration of the dead as well such as dyed of violent as of natural deaths Now as to the Opinion which the Greek Church holds concerning the condition of Souls departed this life there is some diversity being a matter not clearly determined by Councils Howsoever the Anatolian Confession which is generally accepted and approved by the Greek Divines doth clearly and expresly maintain this Doctrine That the Souls so soon as they are cleared and loosed from the Fetters of the Body go either to Heaven or to Hell the first hath the name of Paradise Abraham's Bosom the Kingdom of Heaven where the Saints sit and intercede for those who are on Earth in honour of whom are daily sung Hymns of praise and glory Such as go to Hell called the Grave the eternal Fire the Bottomless Pit and the like are of two sorts The first are such who dye in the state of Divine anger on whom are immediately imposed Chains and Fetters which can never be taken off nor loosed to all Eternity The second are such who enter or are introduced into the Mansions of Hell without those Bonds Fetters Pains and Torments which for ever enslave and afflict the damned but departing this life with dispositions to Justice Repentance and a new life with the advantagious assistances of Confession and Absolution of the Priest though the work of Grace be not thoroughly perfected in them nor their resolution of godliness proceeded to action have yet their resolutions dispositions beginnings of Pietymade acceptable and brought to maturity esteem in the sight of God not by any works performed in the next World according to that of the Psalmist who shall praise thee in the Grave or shall the dead give thanks unto thee in the Pit but by the Offertories Oblations and Almes and Prayers of the Church made in behalf of the dead by the living on Earth and this is the meaning of those Prayers Tu autem Domine repone animam ejus in loco lucenti in loco quietis consolationis ex quo longe est omnis maestitia dolor suspirium condonans ei omne peccatum Do thou Lord repose his Soul in the Mansions of light of quietness and consolation from whence are banished all sadness grief and sighs But this place it seems they account no different Limbo from Hell and is no Purgatory whose flames purge and cleanse or whose
posterity For I perswade my self that had it not been for the extream Ambition of the Roman Jesuitical Clergy on the one side and the too hot and blind Zeal of some Pharisaical Professors on the other Truth might have been established with moderation and all Churches reconciled without railing Accusations or personal Reproaches It is easie to pacifie when both Parties are willing to condescend unto Expedients of Concord and Peace which is then only effected when the Spirits of men are become quiet and sedate by the vertues of Meekness and Charity which are the only rare dispositions unto knowledge and a godly life but when men will soare in their fancies as high as Heaven and there penetrate into the Decrees of Predestination dispute the manner of the Holy Ghost's procession and dive into the Mysteries of the Holy Trinity and Secrets of the Eucharist matters so hidden and abstruse that Angels look into them with wonder and admiration and Humane Reason becomes giddy and blind by too rash an approach to those astonishing lights and loses it's way in that immense cavity and vastness of distance which is between Heaven and Earth And when men do only esteem and indulge their Party and damn all other Societies what can be more destructive to humane Politie How can we expect or hope for the conversion of Turks or Heathens when they shall be affrighted at the Church Gate by some Opposites to one another of their own divided perswasions with the threats of Hell and Damnation and meet almost as many Anathemas as when they remained Infidels How can we expect a Reconciliation and Concord whilst the Papists are so inveterate against the Protestants and all other Christian Churches that those who are most indiscreetly zealous amongst them believe the Foundation of their Faith ought justly to be subverted not only by menacing Bulls and Excommunications but by Fire and Sword by Massacres of the People deposing of Kings by the Papal Authority and by the murder of their true and natural King and of such a King as hath been indulgent to all his Subjects and to them in particular that if Religion had not struck them with an awe and dreadful affrightment of shedding the Blood of God's Anointed yet at least common gratitude and the Bowels of Humanity should have deterred them from a Design so full of horrour and amazement But if the Head be of these Principles what else can we expect from the Members of it If these be the Foundations of their Religion can the super-structure be other than false and wicked for I am confident that that Religion is Unchristian whose Conclusions are Blood and Destruction Whilest the Papists confined their Disputes within those Questions which were controverted Problems such as the Infallibility of the Church Transubstantiation Prayers to Saints and the like on which Volumes have been wrote the Victory seemed doubtful for both sides as in drawn Battels boasted of advantage But when they began to discover the rottenness of their Principles in Morality which is naturally impressed on the Consciences of men and is properly the Light and Lamp of the Soul such Morality I mean as allows mental Reservations Officiosum mendacium or officious Lies and a thousand other Corruptions whereby Equivocations Falsehoods and Lies are not only excused and made lawful but the greatest impurities hallowed and made good then I say their Adversaries took just advantage to render their Principles not only destructive to a Church but inconsistent with the first Elements and Foundations of Government In short therefore there is no way to Concord and Peace but by Charity to Theological knowledge but by Faith and Humility which are Divine Gifts which we must desire and pray for When God shall have conferred these upon us we may lay aside all Disputations and enter into the plain Path nothing is then more easie to be believed than the Symbols of the Apostolical and other Creeds received by the Church Universally nothing more easily practised than the Commands of the Decalogue Fear and love God above all and Love your Neighbour as your self and those especially of the Houshold of Faith this is that which cuts short all Arguments for herein is comprised the Law and the Prophets Considering the Premises I shall not enter the Lists of Disputation against any point maintained by the Greek Church but however shall boldly reprove it in the generality of the people of coldness and want of Devotion seeming only to maintain a meer out-side and shell of Religion laying more stress and efficacy on the observation of their Fasts performed with rigour and severity and their Feasts celebrated with mirth and jollity than on the force of Prayer and energy of a spiritual life And yet I am so far from condemning their Lents and Fasts which are so ancient as may well be believed to have been Apostolical that I have entertained frequent imaginations in my mind that in so great looseness of life and decay of Discipline it was an especial Grace and Favour of God that the severity of Lents should still be maintained and observed in those parts whereby the People are restrained from Luxury curbed from Prophaness and Wantonness and affected with some impressions of Religion for whilest they fear to eat any thing though in secret which is a breach of Lent they seem sensible of the danger of what they apprehend evil and capable of more lively and more substantial impressions But the truth is they are ill instructed or rather not taught at all Sermons and Catechising are rare amongst them Masses and Divine Service hudled and run over in a cursory and negligent manner and all Offices performed so perfunctorily and with so little Devotion that if any people content themselves with the Opus Operatum it may be said to be these or that have a form of Godliness but in many of them too little of the power thereof Yet I cannot but almost retract what I have said when I consider how they are startled and affrighted at the Sentence of Excommunication how strict and frequent some are in their Confessions how obedient and submissive to the censure and injunction of the Priest which certainly do evidence some inward tenderness of Conscience and dispositions towards being edifyed and built up in a more perfect frame and structure of Religion But here I lose my self and am amazed when I contemplate the light of the Gospel which shines in our Islands what daily Lectures we hear from the Pulpits the knowledge we have from the Scriptures expanded and laid open to us in our own Tongue the Divine Mysteries expounded by learned Commentaries and most Mechanicks amongst us more learned and knowing than the Doctors and Clergy of Greece And yet good God! That all this should serve to render us more blind or more perverse for who is it that values the Excommunication of a Bishop or other Ecclesiastical Censures who accounts of Vigils and Fasts according to the
hence was shewn us the Cave of the seven Sleepers the Story of which whether true or false is yet current through the World and believed so far by the Christians that anciently inhabited Ephesus that they have erected a Chappel in memory of them part of which remains unto this day and the Painting as yet not wholy defaced The Theater is almost wholy destroyed few Seats being there remaining and of other Ruines no certain knowledge can be had the Inscriptions which I found I shall here insert though they be for the most part so disfigured and broken off from the Portals of Gates and Triumphal Arches as can little satisfy any mans Curiosity as namely this which I took from a Wall which seemed to have been some publick Structure M. P. VED INICE PP VEDIAE PT Paulli M. Filiae Uxoris Etul N. On an Arch is written Accenso Rensi Asiae In a Wall of the Castle is a Head cut in Stone having a Face like the Moon on the right side a Snake on the left a Bow we may fansie it to mean Proserpina Luna Diana Near the Gate of the Castle there is a Stone with this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On a Marble Chest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Near the Temple of Diana is this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this Publius Vedius Abascantus mention is made in other places as PVED CANTVS IVNIOR that is A bascantus Ibidem M P. VEDI NICEPH ... VEDIAF P.F. PAVLLINAE ... In another place there is a Stone reversed within a Wall part of which is covered with Earth with this broken Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Over a Gate which appears to have been in the middle of the City are divers Figures engraven still plain and not much defaced which seem to represent the Story of Hector's Body drawn about the City of Troy by Achilles and without Reason fancied by some to be a description of the first Christian Persecutions for I having no such strength of Imagination to represent it to me in that Form and observing likewise that the Stones do not exactly square each with the other I am induced to believe that they were fetched from some other place and fixed there for Ornament in more modern times The Aquaeduct on the East-side agreeable to the antient Magnificence and Honour of so Renowned a City appears not very Antique at least to have been repaired in latter times in regard that some stones which are found there are reversed in the Walls with Inscriptions denoting Marcus Aurelius and therefore seem to have been placed by the Turks as casually they came to hand at the time that they first took possession of that City when for some years it flourished even in their days before the Ottoman Family became Master of Constantinople or those parts of the lesser Asia But now the Relicks of the Gentiles the Christians and the Turks are subverted and lye unknown and heaped promiscuously together for the whole Town is nothing but a Habitation of Heardsmen and Farmers living in low and humble Cottages of dirt covered on the top with Earth Sheltered from the extremity of weather by mighty Masses of ruinous Walls the pride and ostentation of former days and the Embleme in these of the frailty of the World and the transient Vanity of humane Glory For I cannot but with many reflections on the Wisdom and Providence of Almighty God who casts down one and raises another and on the strange alterations and Metamorphosis of worldly things take a prospect of this City of Ephesus being as well changed in the Variety of Names as of Conditions For as Pliny saith during the Trojan Warr it was called Alopes then Ortygia then Morgas then Ephesus and now by the Turks Ayasaluck seeming to derive this Name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek luck being a termination in Turkish of the abstract as ness is in English as holy holiness and the like This place where once Christianity so flourished as to be a Mother-Church and the See of a Metropolitan Bishop cannot now shew one Family of Christians so hath the secret Providence of God disposed Affairs too deep and mysterious for us to search into About 10 Miles distant from Ephesus to the South-west lies the Town anciently called Phygela by the Turks Koush Adasee or the Islandland of Birds by the Italians Scala Nova but falsly esteemed Miletum where Saint Paul landed when he sent to the Elders at Ephesus Acts 20. 17. From hence we passed on to Tyria so called by the Turks which by proximity of the name is by the Christians supposed to be Thyatira but certainly not without great Errour For Tyria is a City about 25 Miles distant from Ephesus pleasantly situated on the rising of a Hill well watered and planted with Trees that at a distance it seems to be seated in a Grove lying open on the North to a fruitful and pleasant Plain Observing here no Ruines or marks of Antiquity nor amongst the Greeks themselves born in this City any Tradition of the pristine state thereof which often gives light to probable Conjectures I confidently concluded that this place was not the ancient Thyatira but rather a modern City erected by the Turks and the more satisfied I am in this perswasion when I consider what Livy writes concerning the situation of Thyatira before he describes the Fight between the Romans and Antiochus for he saith that Antiochus had pitched his Camp about Thyatira and from thence passing the Phrygian River which is the Hermus he retreated and again encamped about Magnesia ad Sipulum from whence it is evident that Thyatira must have been somewhere between Pergamus and Magnesia and not another way where it is now vulgarly imagined which I shall make more clearly apparent in its due place when Providence in the Circle of my Travels shall bring me to the City which the Turks call Akhisar Laodicea is another of those Cities which is also forgotten in its Name and overwhelmed in its Ruines and yet we certainly discovered it about four days journey South-East from Tyria In our way to which we happily crossed the true Meander called by the Turks Boiuch Mendres or the great Meander as they call the Cayster the little Mendres The first sight we had of it was from the top of a Mountain being part of the Tmolus from whence in the Plain beneath we discovered innumerable turnings and windings of the River with such variety as might entertain the Eyes of a Stranger for some hours
Christian Faith for it being inhabited by many Greeks is adorned with no less than Twelve Churches of which S. Mary's and S. George's are the chief which we visited there the Chief Papa's presented before us some Manuscripts of the Gospel pretending them to be very ancient but we could hardly be perswaded to believe them so because the Gospel of S. John as the prime Apostle of Asia was prefixed in the first place and because the Chapters were not disposed in their due form and order but according only to the method observed in their Missals The situation of Philadelphia is on the rising of the Mountain Tmolus having a pleasant prospect on the plains beneath well furnished with divers Villages and watered as I take it by the Pactolus The only raritie which the Turks show in that place to Travellers is a wall of Mens bones which they report to have been erected by the Prince which first took that City who having slaughtered many of the besieged in a sally for the terrour of those which survived raised a wall of their bones which is so well cemented and the bones so entire that I brought a piece thereof with me from thence About 27 miles to the Northwest from Philadelphia lye the ruines of the Anciently famous City of Sardis one likewise of the seven Churches of which Strabo gives this account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The City of Sardis is great and ancient and yet of later days than the State of the Trojans It hath a Castle well fortified and is the Capital City of the Lydians called by Homer Maeone the Mountain Tmolus hangs over this City on the top of which is erected a high Tower of white Stone built after the Persian manner from whence is a pleasing prospect overall the adjacent plains and thence also you may take a view of the Cayister Out of the Tmolus flows the Pactolus whose streams of ancient times carried great Flakes of Gold with its current from whence Craesus and his Ancestors amassed their Riches But now the springs of Gold are failed The Rivers Pactolus and Hyllas fall into the Hermus and afterwards those three joyned with more ignoble streams empty themselves into the Phocean Sea now called Fogia or rather Fochia But whatsoever this City was in former days it is now only a poor Habitation of Shepherds living in low and humble Cottages howsoever the ancient Pillars and Ruines list up their heads as unwilling to lose the memory of their ancient Glory once the Seat of the rich Craesus This City is also seated at the foot of the Tmolus as Strabo before-mentioned hath well described it the which also Pliny confirms in these words Celebratur maxime Sardis in latere Montis Tmoli c. The Castle which is erected on a high and steep Mountain is very difficult to ascend and almost inaccessible by force of Arms but being on the top there appears the most pleasant prospect that ever my eyes beheld to which the Pactolus gives a wonderful embellishment which turns and winds so delightfully through all the Plains watering all parts about in that manner as to make that Country exceeding fertile and rich and from thence might give occasion of that saying that the Pactolus ran with golden streams Over the Gate I read this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pergamus another of those seven Churches of Asia called by the Turks Bergam which was amongst the rest so highly honoured with the aforesaid Divine Epistle lyes about Sixty Miles North-ward from Smyrna once the Regal City over the Provinces of Mysia AEolis Jonia Lydia and Caria and afterwards bequeathed to the Roman Empire by the Will and Testament of Attalus the last King thereof whose Antiquity and Fame is celebrated and recorded in Strabo in this manner Lysimachus the Son of Agathocles one of the successours of Alexander kept his Treasure at Pergamus the situation whereof is on the side of a small Hill or Mount which near the top ends in a Conical Form The charge and defence of this City was committed to Philetaetus an Eunuch who amidst many Treasons and Revolutions remained faithful to his Prince concerning the Government of the Castle for the space of 20 years during which time Lysimachus being slain by Seleucus Nicator the eldest Son of Philetaetus called Eumenes obtained the Government of the City and Country of Pergamus whose Son Eumenes overthrew Antiochus the Son of Seleucus in the plains of Sardis him Attaâ—us succeeded who was the first that was honoured with the Title of King After he overcame the Galatae or Gallo-Grecians in a bloody Battel and was he who joyning confederacy with the Romans against King Philip was their true and faithful Ally to whose Son Eumenes after the victory over Antiochus in the plains of Magneâ—â—â— at Sipylum was committed the Government of all that Country which extends it self to the Mountain Taâ—reo But that which I observed of the City Pergamus as it now stands at present is this that its situation is on the side of a Hill which Strabo saith is in a Conical Form having a prospect into a most pleasant and fruitful Plain watered by the River Caicus and abounding with all sorts of Fruits the Earth also yielding with little pains or industry causes the people to become lazy and negligent which manured with the same care as is practised in the like naturally happy Countries would prove one of the most fertile Gardens and Paradises of the World for from the top of that small hill which over-shadows the City small I say in respect of the adjacent Mountains on which stands an ancient Castle or rather the Walls thereof ill repaired so pleasant a prospect discovers it self on all sides of the Plain as for some hours may well entertain the Eyes of a Stranger with great delight The Inhabitants being slothful and abhorring labour addict themselves principally to Thefts and Robberies being more pleased to seize a Booty in their Plains with rapine and violence than with honest and religious labour to purchase their Bread by turning up the rich Clods of their Native Soyl by which means this City goes more and more to decay and ruine meerly for want of Industry So that whereas about 10 years past there were 53 Streets of this Town inhabited there are now only 22 frequented the others are deserted and their Buildings go to ruine Here are still many remains and appearances of antique Buildings such as vast Pillars of Marble subverted One place seems to have been the Palace of the Prince still conserved by Columns of polished Marble which like Buttresses support the Wall for at least 50 paces in length There are also the Ruines of several Churches one of which more spacious and magnificent than the rest is by Tradition of the Greeks of that Country reported to have been dedicated to Saint