Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n
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A58002
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The present state of the Greek and Armenian churches, anno Christi 1678 written at the command of His Majesty by Paul Ricaut.
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Rycaut, Paul, Sir, 1628-1700.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing R2411; ESTC R25531
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138,138
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503
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not to be conferred as a spiritual happiness But if one desires a Faculty in singing dancing or agility of body if he desires beauty and modesty in a Wife wisdom sincerity of Friends or any thing else that is vertuous or commendable he shall be endued with a voice like a Seraphim be active as an Olympick Gamester have a Wife as chaste as Penelope be wife as Solomon and in fine obtain any one thing which he can desire being of good report But in case any one miss of these blessings as many do who go on these Errands as one may well believe and return as little improved as some of those do whom we send to Paris there is something in the way which interrupted this blessing and no doubt but the man was either not fitly prepared or had not Faith enough to receive the blessing They say farther that some of those Pythonick Spirits which formerly inhabited under the cavities of these three Rocks were permitted by Christ to keep their Stations with intention to make them slaves and drudges to the Monastery where now invisibly they wash the Dishes sweep the House and do all the Offices of good Servants so that the good Fathers take no care of those homely services for what is in the day fouled and disordered is by next morning found cleansed and well disposed by the ministry and diligence of those careful and officious Spirits All these things and much more is believed by the Armenians of Etchmeasin so easie it is to obtrude vain and superstitious fancies on ignorant and illiterate people In their Monasteries the whole Psalter of David is read over every 24 hours but in the Cities and Parochial Churches it is otherwise observed For the Psalter is divided into eight divisions and every division into eight parts at the end of every one of which is said the Gloria Patri Filio c. Their manner of Worship is performed after the Eastern fashion by prostrating their bodies and kissing the ground three times which the Turks likewise practise in their Prayers At their first entrance into the Church they uncover their heads and corss themselves three times but afterwards cover their heads and sit cross-leg'd on Carpets after the manner of the Turks The most part of their publick Divine Service they perform in the morning before day which is very commendable and I have been greatly pleased to meet hundreds of Armenians in a Summer morning about Sun-rising returning from their Devotions at the Church wherein perhaps they had spent two hours before not only on Festival but on ordinary days of work in like manner they are very devout on Vigils to Feasts and Saturday Evenings when they all go to Church and returning home perfume their Houses with Incense and adorn their little Pictures with Lamps CHAP. IV. The Confession of Faith in the Armenian Church THEY allow and accept the Articles of Faith according to the Council of Nice and are also acquainted with that which we call the Apostles Creed which likewise they have in use As to the Doctrine concerning the Trinity they accord with the Greeks acknowledging three Persons in one Divine Nature and that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father I have read in many Books which treat of this Church an accusation against it that it admits but of one Person and one Nature in Christ according to the Doctrine of Eutyches of which I my self was once of opinion until I read and well considered of the Articles of their Faith They believe that Christ descended into Hell and that he freed the Souls of all the damned from thence by the grace and favour of his glorious presence but not for ever or by a plenary pardon or remission but only as reprieved until the end of the World at which time they shall again be returned unto Eternal Flames But that we may take a more clear view of their Faith I have thought fit to represent that which they call their Tavananck or Symbolum different from the Apostles and Nicene Creed which for those words follwing viz. where the Deity was mixed with the Humanity without spot seems to be calculated for maintenance of the Herisie of Eutyches and in opposition to the Catholick Doctrine as that of Athanasius is to the Heresie of Arrius But these words though they look ill at first yet if well considered and compared with the same expression which the Greeks use on the same subject it will amount unto no more than what the Greeks declare in the Anatolian Confession That the Body of Christ was a true not a fantastick Body that it was formed in the Womb of the blessed Virgin and was made a perfect man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. his rational Soul mixed with the Divinity Now the words of their Creed are Verbatim as followeth I Consess that I believe with all my heart in God the Father uncreated and not begotten and that God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost were from all Eternity the Son begotten of the Father and the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father I believe in God the Son increated and begotten from Eternity The Father is Eternal the Son is Eternal and equal to the Father whatsoever the Father contains the Son contains I believe in the Holy Ghost which was from Eternity not begotten of the Father but proceeding three Persons but one God Such as the Son as to the Deity such is the Holy Ghost I believe in the Holy Trinity not three Gods but one God one in Will in Government and in Judgment Creator both of visible and invisible I believe in the Holy Church in the remission of sins and the Communion of Saints I believe that of those three persons one was begotten of the Father before all eternity but descended in time from Heaven unto Mary of whom he took blood and was formed in her Womb where the Deity was mixed with the Humanity without spot or blemish He patiently remained in the Womb of Mary nine Months and was afterwards born as man with soul intellect judgment and body Having but one body and one countenance And of this mixture or union resulted one composition of Person God was made man without any change in himself born without Humane Generation his Mother remaining still a Virgin And as none knows his eternity so none can conceive his being or essence for as he was Jesus Christ from all eternity so he is to day and shall be for ever I believe in Jesus Christ who conversed in this world and after thirty years was baptized according to his own good will and pleasure his Father bearing witness of him and said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove descended upon him he was tempted of the Devil and overcame was preached to the Gentiles was troubled in his body being wearied enduring hunger and thirst was crucified with
supposed than real presumed gratis and not granted that Universal Jurisdiction becomes as empty and airy as those Titles which Popes give to those Patriarchs and Bishops whom they constitute over the several Diocesses of the Eastern Churches though they neither have a Revenue from thence nor Command over any of the Greek perswasion To evince which with more Evidence it will be pertinent to understand what Confession herein the Oriental Church makes and layes down for Orthodox viz. That as there is one Faith one Baptism one God and one Father of all so the Church of God is one Holy Catholick and Apostolick which denomination of Catholick they are the very words of the Confession the Church doth not take from one particular place or See predominant over all others as from Ephesus Philadelphia Laodicea Antioch Rome Jerusalem or the like but from an aggregation of all the Christian Churches in the World collected into one Body and united under one head Christ Jesus It is true saith this Confession that Jerusalem may properly be called the Mother Church of the World it having been the Stage whereon the Mystery of man's Redemption was represented and the place where the Gospel was first preached and the Fountain from whence were derived through the World the Streams of that Holy Doctrine which published the Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour and made known unto the World the glad Tidings of Repentance and remission of Sins but can betermed the Universal Mother with no more right than any other though if any particular Church can pretend thereunto that of Jerusalem might challenge an Authority and Priviledge above others having in the Infancy of Religion Acts II. v. 22. sent forth her Teachers and Pastors into all places and was famed for the glorious Blood of the Primitive Martyrs Whereby it is evident that the Greek Faith acknowledges no other Universal Head or Foundation than Jesus Christ himself under whom the Patriarchs Arch-bishops and Bishops of particular Churches subjected to different Powers of secular Government exercise their sway and jurisdiction over Human Souls Acts 20. v. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed unto your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops By which it appears That the Greek Church doth not only not esteem the Church of Rome for the sole Catholick but also how absurd it is in reason to exclude the Greek the Armenian and many other Christan Churches from the pale of the Universal and consequently from the Benefits and Promises purchased by Christ for his Church And strange it is that none besides the Roman which is not of that extent as the vast Circumference of the other Christian Churches should yet have the sole Power of the Keys of the Divine Ordination and dispensing the Mysteries of the Holy Sacraments and that such who are excluded or are without her pale should be strangers to the Church of God and Aliens from his People Whilst in this manner the Oriental Churches believe no particular Church to have any other Universal Head than Jesus Christ they bear all obedience and respect to that Church of which they are members submitting to all its Orders and Censures Ecclesiastical for they believe that those words of our Saviour Matth. 18. 27. carry with them some force and authority and if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen man or a Publican On this ground the Interpretation of Scripture made by the holy Synods and Councils and the judgments given by Patriarchs Bishops and other Priests according to Canonical Rites are established and esteemed of Divine Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Priests with them are the mouth of their Spiritual Law and the Guides of their Souls on their Doctrine they entrust and adventure their safe Pilotage to the everlasting Haven of happiness And believing that no Scripture is of private Interpretation they judge it rational to resign themselves intirely to the belief of those to whose conduct they are committed having that high esteem of obedience as that which contains an admirable Vertue and Efficacy to atone for the sins not only of a misled understanding but for Actions of irregular practices And that the people may better understand the Precepts and Rules of the Church the Oriental Confession hath reduced all the commands thereof unto these nine following The first is Prayer to God attending at the times of the Liturgy Morning and Evening on the Lords Day and holy Festivals of the Church The second is the observation of the Fasts and Feasts of the Church The third is Obedience and Honour towards their Spiritual Pastors and Teachers The fourth is Confession of sins four times a year to a Priest lawfully constituted and ordained The fifth forbids the Laity to read the Books of Hereticks or any other which may divert them from the Profession of the Christian Faith The sixth enjoyns them to pray for all Kings and Princes for their Patriarchs Metropolites Bishops and all the Clergy and for all Souls departed in the Catholick Faith and for all Hereticks and Schismaticks that they may return to the true Faith before their passage from this present life The seventh enjoins an Obedience to all extraordinary occasional Fasts besides the Common or General namely such as are appointed and ordained by the Bishops in their respective Diocesses on occasional Calamities such as Famine War Pestilence or the like The eighth forbids the Laity to invade the Rights or Spiritual Livings or Benefices of the Clergy or convert the Ornaments of the Priest or Altar to private and profane uses or sacrilegiously to rob the Poor's Box and abuse the charitable Contributions of well-disposed Christians by employing them contrary to the intention of the Donor The ninth forbids the celebration of Marriages in Lent or during the time of their other Fasts or to frequent Theaters or imitate the Customs of the Barbarians or Infidels that so those who profess the Gospel may be charged with nothing that is over-sensual undecent or of ill report CHAP. V. Of the Fasts of the Greek Church THE Principal Fasts or Lents are four The first begins the 15th day of November being forty days before Christmas The second is the great Lent before Easter beginning with ours according to the Old stile the which stile they observe through the whole year The third begins the Week after Pentecost or Whitsontide called The Fast of the Holy Apostles being the time in which they judge that the Apostles prayed and fasted when they prepared themselves to preach the Gospel Acts 13. v. 3. which ends the 29th of June being the Festival of St. Peter and the other Apostles so that of this Fast there is no fixed number of days but is some years more some less according as the Pentecost falls