was as big as a Popish St. Christopher These Idols they feed every day with the smoak of hot Meats set before them but the Meat they eat themselves At Quinsay a Chineze conveyed him into a certain Monastery where he called to a Religious Person and said this Raban Francus that is this Religious French-man cometh from the Sun-setting and is now going to Cambaleth to pray for the Life of the Great Chan and therefore you must shew him some strange sight then the said Religious Person took great Baskets full of broken Reliques and led me into a little walled Park and unlocked the door we entered into a fair Green wherein was a Mount in form of a Steeple replenished with Herbs and Trees then did he ring with a Bell at the sound whereof many Creatures like Apes Cats and Monkeys came down the Mount and some had Faces like Men to the number of four thousand and two hundred putting themselves in good order before whom he set a Platter and gave them those Fragments which when they had eaten he rung the second time and they all returned to their former places I wondered at the sight and demanded what Creatures they were they are said he the Souls of Noble-men which we here feed for the love of God who governeth the World And as a man was honourable in his Life so his Soul entreth after Death into the Body of some excellent Beast but the Souls of simple and rustical People possess the Bodies of more vile and bruitish Creatures Neither could I disswade him from the Opinion or perswade him that any Soul might remain without a Body IX Gasper de la Crux being in Canton a City of China entred a certain Religious House where he saw a Chappel having therein besides many of her things of great Curiosity the Image of a Woman with a Child hanging about her Neck and a Lamp burning before her The Mystery hereof none of the Chinezes could declare The Sun Moon Stars and especially Heaven it self are Gods of the first form in their Idol School They acknowledge Laocon Tzanter the Governour of the Great God so it signifieth to be eternal and a Spirit Of like Nature they esteem Causay unto whom they ascribe the lower Heaven and power of Life and Death they subject unto him three other Spirits Tauquam Teyquam Tzuiquam the first supposed to be Author of Rain the second of Humane Nativity Husbandry and Wars the third is their Sea Neptune to these they offer Victuals Odours and Altar Cloaths presenting them also with Plays and Comedies They have Images of the Devil with Serpentine Locks and as deformed Looks as here he is painted whom they worship not to obtain any good at his hand but to detain and hold his hand from doing them evil They have many he and she Saints in great Veneration with long Legends of their Lives Amongst the chief of them are Sichia the first Inventer of their Religious Votaries of both Sects Quannia an Anchoress and Neoma a great Sorceress Fryer Martin in one Temple in Vchco told a hundred and twelve Idols They tell of one Hujansin in the Province of Cechiam which did much good to the People both by Alchimy making true Silver of Quicksilver and by freeing the Metropolitan City from a huge Dragon which he fastened to an Iron Pillar still shewed and then flew into Heaven with all his House Mice and all Lye and all and there they have built him a Temple the Ministers whereof are of that Sect. Thausu and Trigautius writes of certain Gods called Foe which they say go a visiting Cities and Provinces and the Jesuits in one City were taken for these Idols Foe At Sciauchim they in time of Drought proclaimed a Fast every Idol was sollicited with Tapers and Odours for Rain a peculiar Officer with the Elders of the People observed peculiar Rites to this purpose the Priests went on Procession all in vain When the City-Gods could do nothing they fetched a Country Idol called Locu which they carry about worship and offer to but Locu is now grown old thus they said of his Deafness at last they go to a Witch who told them Quonim a Goddess was angry that her Back was burned meaning the Converts which burn'd their Idols which incensed them against the Christians Hoaquim is the name of an Idol which hath rule over the Eyes which they carry about in Procession and beg in his name In time of Trouble they have Familiarity with the Devil Pedro de Alfero observed being in a Ship with a Chineze in this sort They cause a man to lye on the Ground groveling and then one readeth on a Book the rest answering and some make a sound with Bells and Tabors The man in short space beginneth to make Visages and Gestures whereby they know the Devil is entred and then do they propound their Requests to which he answereth by a Word or Letters And when they cannot extort an answer by Word they spread a red Mantle on the Ground equally dispersing all over the same a certain quantity of Rice then do they cause a man that cannot write to stand there themselves renewing their former Invocation and the Devil entring into this man causeth him to write upon the Rice but his Answers are often full of Lies In the Entries of their Houses they have an Idol Room where they incense their Deities Morning and Evening they offer to them the sweetest Odours Hens Geese Ducks Rice Wine a Hogs-head boyled is the chief Offering but little hereof falleth to the God's share which is set in a Dish apart as the tips of the Hogs Ears the Bylls and Feet of the Hens a few Corns of Rice three or four drops of Wine their Books tell much of Hell their Devotions little Their Temples are homely and filthy no Oracle is in any of them they have Fables of men turned into Dogs or Snakes and again metamorphosed into men and they which believe the Pains of Hell yet believe after a certain space that those damned Souls shall pass thence into the Bodies of Beasts But their Idolatries and religious Rites will better appear if we take a view of their different Religions and Sects X. The Chinezes do conceive thus of the Creation That there was one Taine who created Panzon and Paullina whose Posterity remained ninety thousand Years but they for their Wickedness being destroyed Taine created Luitzam who had two Horns from the right came men from the left came Women They are very much afraid when there is any Eclipse of the Sun or Moon which they hold to be man or Wife for then they think that these two Gods are angry with them In Canada the Natives worship the Devil who when he is offended with them flings Dust in their Eyes The men marry two or three Wives who after the Death of their Husbands never marry again but go still in black and besinear their Faces with Coal-Dust and
Greese they do first expose their Daughters to any that will lye with them and then give them in Marriage They believe that after Death their Souls ascend unto the Stars and go down with them under the Horrison into a Paradise of Pleasure They believe also that God stuck a multitude of Arrows in the Beginning into the Ground and of these sprung up Men and Women They have divers ridiculous Opinions of God as That he once drank much Tobacco and then gave the Pipe to their Governour with a Command that he should keep it carefully and so doing he should want nothing but he lost the Pipe and so fell into Want and Misery They use to sing to the Devils Praises to dance about Fires which they make to his Honour and leap over them They bemoan the Dead a great while and bring Presents to their Graves In Florida the Chief Deities are the Sun and Moon which they honour with Dances and Songs Once a Year they offer to the Sun a Harts-hide stuffed with Herbs hanging Garlands of Fruits about his Horns so presenting this Gift toward the East they pray the Sun to make the Land produce the same Fruits again but to their Kings they use to sacrifice their first-born Males much of their Devotion like the rest of barbarous Savages consisting in singing dancing howling feasting and cutting off their own Skins Adultery in the Woman is punished with whipping In some parts of this Country the next of Kin is permitted to cut the Adulteresses Throat and the Woman to cut the Adulterers Throat In some parts also of the Country they worship the Devil who when he complains of Thirst humane Blood is shed to quench his Thirst When a King is buryed the Cup wherein he used to drink is still 〈◊〉 upon his Grave and round about the same are stuck many Arrows the People weep and fast three days together the neighbour Kings his Friends cut off half their Hair Women are hired who for six Months howl for him three times a day This honour the King and Priest have that they are buried in their Houses and burned with their Houses and Goods XII In Mexico besides their inferiour Priests they had one Chief whose Habit was a Crown of rich Feathers on his Head Pendants of Gold with green Stones at his Ears and under his Lips an azure Stone His Office was to receive the Body of the Dead King at the Temple door with a mournful Song to open the Breast of the sacrificed Man to pull out his Heart to offer it to the Sun and then to fling that to the Idol to which the man was sanctified The inferiour Priests in the interim holding the Legs Arms and Head of the sacrificed Wretch whilst his Heart was taking out They used also to flay off the Skins of men and cloath some therewith who went about dancing and forcing People to offer them Presents or else they would strike them over the face with the bloody Corner of the Skin The Priests Office also was to burn Incense before their Idols every Morning Noon-tide Evening and at Mid-night for then with Trumpets and Coronets they sounded a long time which done they burned the Incense in Censures with much Reverence and then they beat themselves and draw Blood with sharp Bodkins they preach also on some Festival days to the People The Revenues of the Priests were great the Temples in State Magnificence and Wealth exceed ours The Priests were all anointed and wear their Hair long for they never cut it They did sometimes anoint themselves with an Unguent made of venomous Beasts which made them without fear and armed them with Cruelty They painted their Skins black they washed their new born Children and let them Blood in their Ears they performed Marriages by asking the Parties mutual Consent and tying together a Corner of the Womans Vail with the Corner of the Man's Gown and so brought them to the Bridegroom's groom's House causing the Bride to go seven times about the Hearth They buried the dead either in their Gardens or on Mountains sometimes they burned the Body and if he was a great man they killed his Chaplain and his Officers to attend him burying also Wealth with him that he might not want in the other World The Priest used to attire himself in these great Funerals like a Devil with many Mouths and glass Eyes and with his Staff stirred and mingled the Ashes When the King dyed the Priests were to sing his Elogies and to sacrifice two hundred Persons to serve him Adultery was punished with Death and so was Dishonesty in their Nuns and Monks of which there were two great Cloysters at Mexico XIII The Indians of Peru believed commonly That the Souls lived after this Life and that the Good were in Glory and the Bad in Pain so as there is little difficulty to perswade them to these Articles But they are not yet come to the Knowledge of that point that the Bodies should rise with the Souls and therefore they did use a wonderful Care to preserve the Bodies which they honoured after Death To this end their Successors gave them Garments and made Sacrifices unto them especially the King 's Inguas being accompanied at their Funerals with a great number of Servants and Women for their Service in the other Life and therefore on the day of his decease they did put to death the Woman he had loved best his Servants and Officers that they might serve him in the other Life When as Guanacapa died who was Father to Ataguâ—lpa at what time the Spaniards entred Peru they put to death a thousand Persons of all Ages and Conditions for his Service to accompany him in the other Life after many Songs and Drunkenness they slew them and these that were appointed to death held themselves happy They did sacrifice many things unto them especially young Children and with the Blood they made a stroak on the dead man's Face from one Ear to the other This Superstition and Inhumanity to kill both Men and Women to accompany and serve the Dead in the other Life hath been followed by others and is at this day used amongst some other barbarous Nations And as Apollo writes it hath been in a manner general throughout all the Indies The Reverend Beda reports That before the English-men were converted to the Gospel they had the same Custom to kill men to accompany and serve the dead It is written of a Portugal who being Captive among the Barbarians had been hurt with a Dart so as he lost one Eye and as they would have sacrificed him to accompany a Noble-man that was dead he said unto them That those that were in the other Life would make small account of the dead if they gave him a blind man for a Companion and that it were better to give him an Attendant that had both his Eyes this Reason being found good by the Barbarians they let him go Besides this
innocent insinuations and pretences of Sanctity and contempt of the things of this World These are they that make a laughing-stock of Christianity by their bitter invectives and derision of the Ordinances and Ceremonies of the Christian Religion these are they that make no distinction between Forms and Order for having cryed down the former their Dispensations will not bear with the latter it being their main design to bring the business of Religion to that condition wherein Man was before he had assum'd thoughts of Government that is to say into Anarchy and confusion As for their Blasphemies and horrid expressions of Christian things Mahumetans Jews and Pagans own more Modesty and less Profaneness But to retail their Opinions or to anatomize this Monster we must come to particulars 1. They hold that God Devils Angels Heaven Hell c. are Fictions and Fables 2. That Moses the Baptist and Christ are Impostors and what Christ and his Apostles acquainted the World with as to matter of Religion perished with them and nothing transmitted to us 3. That preaching and praying is useless and that it is but publick lying 4. That there is an end of all Ministry and Administrations and People are to be taught immediately from God 5. They hold Baptism a pure legal Administration nor proceeding from Christ but from John 6. They jest the Scriptures that Divine Legacy of our Salvation out of all Life Reverence and Authority quoting it in driblets and shreds to make it the more ridiculous In their Letters they endeavour to be strangely prophane and blasphemous uttering Atheistical Curses and imprecations which is a kind of canting amongst them as among Gipsies as for example in one you have this style My own hearts-blood from whom I daily receive Life and Being to whom is ascribed all Honour c. Thou art my Garment of Needle-work my Garment of Salvation Eternal Plagues consume you all not sink and damn your Bodies and Souls into devouring fire where none but those who walk uprightly can enter The Lord grant that we may know the worth of Hell that we may scorn Heaven 7. Sin is onely what a man imagines and conceives to be so within himself 8. Ordinances they account poor low things nay the perfections of the Scriptures are so inconsiderable in their apprehensions that they pretend to live above them Their Lives witness without them 9. If you ask them what Christian Liberty is they will tell you that it consists in a Community of all things and among the rest of Women which they paint over with an expression called The enjoyment of the Fellow Creature 10. The enjoyment of the Fellow-Creature cannot but be seconded with lascivious Songs drinking of Healths Musick Dancing and Bawdry Lastly They are those who most of all kick against the Pricks of Authority for Magistracy cannot have any thing more sacred than the Ministry so that they wish as much Policy in the State as Government in the Church which is none at all so to bring an Aegyptian Darkness upon both that the Word might be the less scandalized at their Madnesses and Extravagancies But this Age which is much more faithful in Religions than good Works of Scripture Phrases than of Scripture Practices of Opinions than of Piety has spawned more Religions than that Lady of Holland did Infants to mention all which were to tire my self and Reader therefore I shall quit so nauseous a Subject and look back and give a short account of the several Sects amongst the Jews it not being at all necessary to speak of it in it's Purity that matter having been canvassed by so many others Two Sons Carying their Parents through The flames of Mount Aetna Page 119 LXII The Nazarites were Votaries Numb 6. so called from Nazar to separate for they separated themselves from Wine and strong Drink from coming near the Dead and from the Razor Some were Nazarites for their Life as Sampson John Baptist c. others only for a time to wit thirty days as Absalom who cut his Hair the thirtieth day of his Vow such a Nazarite was Paul Act 21.24 Nazareth was a Village in Galilee where Christ was conceived and bred and therefore was called a Nazarite Mat. 2.23 and his Disciples Nazarites Acts 24.5 but indeed he was the only true Nazarite because he was pure holy and separate from Sinners but he was no legal Nazarite for he drunk Wine and went near the Dead These Hereticks were also called Nazarites who taught that with the Gospel should be joyned the Law of Moses Act. 15.2 Of the Rechabites so called from Rechab their Father we read Jer. 35.2 3 4 c. These neither drunk Wine nor sowed Seed nor built Houses nor planted Vine-yards but like Strangers lived all their days in Tents The Sampsorans acknowledged one God and worshipped him using certain Washings Some of them abstained from living Creatures and would dye for Elxai his Posterity which they had in such Honour that if they went abroad the People would gather up the dust of their feet for Cures and their Spittle and used them for Amulets and Preservatives They admit neither the Apostles nor Prophets they worship Water esteeming it as a God believing that Life is from thence The. Essenes so called from their skill in curing Diseases for they were much given to the Study of Physick in their Opinions were Pythagoreans ascribing all things to Fate offering no Sacrifices but of inanimate things shunning Oaths Pleasures and Wine contenting themselves with Water only and mean Apparel their Garments were white and they had all things in common amongst them They worshipped towards the East observed the Sabbath more strictly than others kept seven Pentecosts every Year to wit every seventh Week one and generally they abstained from Marriage yet some did marry for Procreation They were superstitious in preserving the Names of Angels they were much given to Silence with the Pythagoreans chiefly at Table none were admitted into their Society without four Years Probation There were some of these Essenes contemplative only and lived in Gardens or remote Villages who contented themselves with Bread and Salt others were active and gave themselves to manual Labours these lived in Cities and fared better and eat twice a day LXIII The Sadduces were so called either from Tzedek Justice because they would be accounted the only just men in the World or from Sadok the Author of their Sect who was the Scholar of Antigonus Socheus These rejected all Traditions and Scriptures except the five Books of Moses denyed the Resurrection Pains or Rewards after this Life Angels and Spirits Fate likewise or Destiny ascribing all to man's free will they held also that the Soul dyed and perished with the Body The Samaritans held with the Sadduces that there was no Scripture but the Pentateuch that there was no Resurrection nor Life eternal nor any Traditions to be admitted yet they dissented from the Sadduces in acknowledging Angels in worshipping
Superstition of sacrificing Men to the Dead being used but to great Personages there is another far more general and common in all the Indies which is to set Meat and Drink upon the Grave of the dead imagining they did feed thereon the which hath been an Error amongst the Ancients as St. Augustine writes and therefore they gave them Meat and Drink At this day many Indian Infidels do secretly draw their dead out of the Church-yard and bury them on Hills or upon Passages of Mountains or else in their own Houses They have also used to put Gold and Silver in their Mouth Hands and Bosom and to apparel them with new Garments durable and well lined under the Herse They believe that the Souls of the dead wandred up and down and endured Cold Thirst Hunger and Travel and for this Cause they make their Anniversaries carrying them Cloaths Meat and Drink XIV The Kings Inguas of Peru caused Images to be made to their Likeness which they called Guacos or Brothers causing them for to be honoured like themselves which was in this sort They took a Captive such as they thought good and before they did sacrifice unto him their Idols they gave him the Name of the Idol to whom he should be sacrificed and appareled with the same Ornaments like their Idol saying that he did represent the same Idol and during the time that this Representation lasted which was for a Year in some Feasts in others six months and in others less they reverenced and worshipped him in the same manner as the proper Idol and in the mean time he did eat drink and was merry When he went through the Streets the People came forth to worship him and every one brought him an Alms with Children and sick Folks that he might cure them and bless them suffering him to do all things at his Pleasure only he was accompanyed with ten or twelve Men lest he should fly And he to the end he might be reverenced as he passed sometimes sounded upon a small Flute that the People might prepare to worship him The Feast being come and he grown fat they killed him opened him and eat him making a solemn Sacrifice of him XV. The chief Idol of Mexico was Vitziliputzli It was an Image of Wood like to a Mars set upon a Stool of the Colour of Azure in a Brankard or Litter at every Corner was a piece of Wood in form of a Serpents head The Stool fignified that he was set in Heaven this Idol had all the Fore-head azure and had a Band of azure under the Nose from one Ear to the other upon his Head he had a rich Plume of Feathers like to the Beak of a small Bird the which was covered on the top with Gold burnished very brown he had in his Left hand a white Target with the Figure of five Pine-apples made of white Feathers set in a Cross and from above issued forth a Crest of Gold and at his Sides he had four Darts which the Magicians say had been sent from Heaven for the doing mighty Acts and Prowesses in his Right hand he had an azured Staff cut in fashion of a waving Snake XVI The People of Peru's chief God was Wirachocha by whom they understood the Maker of all things next to him they worshipped the Sun and the Thunder after him the Images of those three they never touched with their bare hands they worshipped all the Stars Earth Sea Rain-bow Rivers Fountains and Trees They adored also wild Beasts that they might not hurt them and in sign of their Devotion when they travelled they left in the Cross-way and dangerous Places old Shoes Feathers and if they had nothing else Stones They worshipped the Sun by pulling off the Hairs from their Eye-brows When they fear they touch the Earth and look up to the Sun they worship also the dead Bodies of their Emperours and indeed every thing they either affected or feared They have some glimmering Knowledge of the beginning of the World of Noah's Flood and they believe the end of the World which they still fear when the Sun is eclipsed which they think to be the Moon 's Husband they held their Priests in such esteem that no great matter was undertaken by Prince or People without their Advice None had Access to their Idols but they and then only when they are cloathed in white and prostrate on the Ground In sacrificing they abstain from Women and some out of Zeal would put out their own Eyes They used to consult with the Devil to whom they sacrificed men and dedicated Boys in their Temples for Sodomy They had also their Temples richly adorned with Gold and Silver and their Monasteries for Priests and Sorcerers Their Nuns were so strictly kept that it was Death to be deflowred after fourteen years of age they were taken out of the Monastery either to serve their Idols and such must be Virgins still or else to serve as Wives and Concubines to the Ingua or Emperour They are very frequent and strict in their Confessions and chearfully undertake what Penance is enjoyned them but the Ingua confesseth only to the Sun After Confession they all wash in Baths leaving their Sins in the Water they used to sacrifice Vegitables Animals and Men chiefly Children for the Health or Prosperity of their Ingua and for Victory in War In some places they eat their man Sacrifices in others they only dryed and preserved them in Silver Coffins they anoint with Blood the Faces of their Idols and Doors of their Temples or rather Slaughter-houses XVII Before the English planted Christianity in Virginia the Natives worshipped the Devil and many Idols as yet they do in many places there They believe many Gods but one principally who made the rest and that all Creatures were made of Water and the Woman before the Man who by help of one of the Gods conceived and bore Children They are all Anthropomorphites giving to their Gods the form of Men whom they worship with praising singing and Offerings They hold the Souls Immortality Rewards and Punishments after this Life the one in Heaven the other in a burning Pit towards the West The Priests are distinguished from other People by Garments of Skin and their Hair cut like a Comb on their Crowns They carry their Gods about with them and ask Counsel of them Much of their Devotions consisted in howling and dancing about Fires with Rattles or Gourd or Pompian Rinds in their hands beating the ground with Stones and offering Tobacco Deers Suet and Blood on the Stone Altars They undertake no matters of Consequence without advice of their Priests the chief whereof is adorned with Feathers and Weasels Tails and his Face painted as ugly as the Devils They bury their Kings after their Bodies are burned and dryed in white Skins within Arches and Mats with their Wealth at their Feet and by the Body is placed the Devils Image the Women express their Sorrow with black
with Cerdon maintained his Heresie and became his Successor in the time of Marcus Antoninus Philosophus one hundred thirty three years after Christ He held three Gods a visible invisible and a middle one that the Body of Christ was only a Phantasm that Christ by his Descent into Hell delivered thence Cain and the Sodomites and other Reprobates He condemned the eating of Flesh and the married Life he held that Souls only were saved permitted Women to baptize and condemned all War as unlawful Polycarpus called him the first begotten of the Devil Justin Martyr wrote a Book against him XXXIII 7. Tutianus whence came the Tutiani was a Syrian by Birth an Orator and familiar with Justin Martyr under whom he wrote a profitable Book against the Gentiles He flourished one hundred forty two Years after Christ his Disciples were also called Eneratita from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperance or Continence for they abstain from Wine Flesh or Marriage When Justin Martyr was dead he composed his Tenents out of divers others He held that Adam after his Fall was never restored to Mercy that all Men are damned besides his Disciples that Women are made by the Devil He condemned the Law of Moses made use of Water instead of Wine in the Sacrament and denied that Christ was the Seed of David he wrote a Gospel of his own which he called Diatesseron and spread his Heresie through Pisidia and Cilicia XXXIV 8. Montanus Father of the Montanists His Heresie began about one hundred forty five Years after Christ by Nation he was a Phrygian and carried about with him two Strumpets Prisca and Maximilla who fled from their Husbands to follow him these took upon them to prophesie and their Dictates were held by Montanus for Oracles but at last he and they for Company hanged themselves his Disciples ashamed either of his Life or ignominious Death called themselves Cataphrygians He confounded the Persons in the Trinity saying That the Father suffered he held Christ to be mere Man and gave out that he himself was the Holy Ghost his Disciples baptized the dead denied Repentance and Marriage yet allowed of Incest They trusted to Revelations and Enthusiasms and not to the Scripture In the Eucharist they mingled the Bread with the Blood of an Infant not a Year old In Phrygia this Heresie began and spread it self over all Cappadocia XXXV 9. Origen gave Name to the Origanists whose Errors began to spread Anno Dom. 247. under Aurelian the Emperour and continued about three hundred thirty four years They were condemned first in the Council of Alexandria two hundred years after his death and again in the fifth General Council of Constantinople under Justinian the first They held a Revolution of Souls from their estate and condition after death into their Bodies again They held the Devils and Reprobates after one thousand years should be saved That Christ and the holy Church do no more see the Father than we see the Angels That the Son is co-essential with the Father but not co-eternal because say they the Father created both him and the Spirit That Souls were created long before this World and for sinning in Heaven were sent down into their Bodies as into Prisons They did also overthrow the whole Historical truth of Scriptures by their Allegories XXXVI 10. Paulus Samosatenus so called from Samosata near Euphrates where he was born a man of infinite pride commanding himself to be received as an Angel His Heresie broke out two hundred thirty two years after Christ and hath continued in the Eastern Parts ever since He held that Christ was merely Man and had no Being till his Incarnation That the Godhead dwelt not in Christ bodily but as in the Prophets of old by Grace and Efficacy and that he was only the external not the internal Word of God therefore they did not baptise in his Name for which the Council of Nice rejected their Baptism as none and ordered they should be re-baptized who were baptized by them He denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost allowed Circumcision took away such Psalms as were sung in honour of Christ and instead thereof ordered some in honour of himself to be sung in Churches by Women In the Synod of Antioch he was convicted by Malchion a Presbyter and condemned Anno 273. This Heresie was also embraced by Photinus Gelatian Bishop of Sirmium and propagated by him Anno 323. and thence they took the name of Photinians XXXVII 11. Manis a Persian by Birth and a Servant by Condition was Father of the Manichoran Seat he was flead alive for poysoning the King of Persia's Son yet his wicked Opinions raged in the World for three hundred and forty Years after his Death He held two Principals or Gods one good one bad condemned eating of Flesh Eggs and Milk held that God had Members and was substantially in every thing how base soever but was separate from them by Christ's coming and the Elect Manichorans He rejected the Old Testament and curtailed the New by excluding Christ's Genealogy he held Christ was the Serpent which deceived our first Parents saying that he feigned to dye and rose again and that it was really the Devil who truly was crucified He denyed the Resurrection and held Transmigration he affirmed that he was the Comforter whom Christ promised to send They worshipped the Sun and Moon and other Idols they condemned Marriages and permitted promiscuous Copulation they rejected Baptism as needless and all works of Charity they taught that our Will to Sin is natural and not acquired by the Fall that Sin is a Substance and not a Quality communicated from Parents to their Children they say they cannot sin deny the last Judgment and affirm that their Souls shall be taken up to the Globe of the Moon XXXVIII 12. Arrius whence sprung the Arrians was a Lybian by Birth by Profession a Presbyter of Alexandria His Heresie brake out two hundred and ninety Years before Christ and over-ran a great part of the Christian World They held Christ to be a Creature that he had a Man's Body but no humane Soul the Divinity supplying the room thereof they also held the Holy Ghost a Creature proceeding from a Creature that is Christ their Doxology was Glory be to the Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost they re-baptize the Orthodox Christians This Heresie was condemned by the Council of Nice under Constantine and Arrius himself in the midst of his Pomp seized with a Disentery voided his Guts in the Draught and so dyed XXXIX 13. Macedonius Bishop of Constantinople gave Name to the Macedonians They held that the Holy Ghost was a Creature and the Servant of God and that by the Holy Spirit was meant only a Power created by God and communicated to the Creatures This Heresie sprung up or rather was stifly maintained under Constantius the Son of Constantine three hundred and twelve Years after Christ and was condemned in the second Occumenical Council at
Constantinople under Theodosius the Great Macedonius himself being deprived by the Arrian Bishops died private at Pylas XL. 14. The Aerians so called from Aerius the Presbyter who lived under Valentinian the first three hundred and forty Years after Christ he held that there was no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter that Bishops could not ordain that there should be no set or anniversary Feasts and they admitted none to their Communion but such as were continent and had renounced the World they were also called Sillabici as standing captiously upon Words and Syllables The occasion of his maintaining his Heresie was his Resentment that Eustathius was preferred before him to a Bishoprick XLI 15. Florinus or Florianus a Roman Presbyter lived under Commodus the Roman Emperour one hundred fifty three Years after Christ hence came the Floriani They held that God made Evil and was the Author of Sin whereas Moses tells us that all things which he made were very good They retained also the Jewish manner of keeping Easter and their other Ceremonies XLII 16. Lucifer Bishop of Caralitanum in Sardinia gave Name to the Luciferians He lived under Julian the Apostate three hundred thirty three Years after Christ. He taught that this World was made by the Devil that Mens Souls are corporal and have their Being by Propagation or Tradition they denied to the Clergy that fell any place for Repentance neither did they restore Bishops or inferiour Clerks to their Dignities if they fell into Heresie tho they afterwards repented XLIII 17. Tertullian that famous Lawyer and Divine was the Leader of the Tertullianists He lived under Severus the Emperour about one hundred and seventy Years after Christ Being excommunicated by the Roman Clergy as a Montanist he fell into these Heretical Tenets That God was corporal but without declination of Members that Mens Souls were not only corporal but also distinguished into Members and have corporal Dimensions and increase and decrease with the Body that the original of Souls is by Traduction that Souls of wicked Men after Death are converted into Devils That the Virgin Mary after Christ's Birth did marry once They bragged much of the Paraclete or Spirit which they said was poured on them in greater measure than on the Apostles they condemned War amongst Christians and rejected second Marriages as no better than Adultery XLIV 18. Nestorius born in Germany and by fraud made Patriarch of Constantinople was the Head of the Nestorians He broached his Heresie under Theodosius the Younger four hundred Years after Christ He taught that in Christ were two distinct Persons the Son of God and the Son of Mary that is the Son of God in Christ's Baptism descended into the Son of Mary and dwelt there as a Lodger in a House he made the Humanity of Christ equal with his Divinity and so confounded their Properties and Operations A great part of the Eastern Bishops were of his Perswasion His Heresie was condemned in the Council of Ephesus under Theodosius the Younger in which Cyril Bishop of Alexandria was President and the Author Nestorius deposed and banished into the Thebean Desarts where his blasphemous Tongue was eaten out with Worms Zeno the Emperour razed to the Ground the School in Edessa called Persica where the Nestorian Heresie was taught XLV 19. Eutyches Abbot of Constantinople from whence came the Eutychians in the Year after Christ 413. set forth his Heresie holding Opinions quite contrary to Nestorius to wit That Christ before the Union had two distinct Natures but after the Union only one to wit the Divinity which swallowed up the Humanity so confounding the Properties of the two Natures affirming that the Divine Nature suffered and died and that God the Word did not take from the Virgin Humane Nature This Heresie condemned first in a Provincial Synod at Constantinople was set up again by Dioscarus Bishop of Alexandria at last condemned in the General Council of Chalcedon under Marcian the Emperour XLVI 20. Eunonius Bishop of Cyzicum embraced the Heresie of Arrius he said blasphemously God of his Essence understandeth no more than we do whatsoever we know of it the same knoweth he and look what his Capacity reacheth to the same thou shalt find in us his Followers re-baptized Orthodox Professors and baptized in the Name of the Father uncreated the Son created and the Holy Ghost created by the Son They affirmed the Trinity to be three different Substances as Gold Silver and Brass He was a Cappadocian by Birth and lived under Valens the Emperour XLVII 21. Novatus Father of the Novatians was an African born he lived under Decius the Emperour after Christ two hundred and twenty Years his Heresie lasted one hundred forty eight Years They denied Repentance to those who fell after Baptism they bragged much of their Sanctity and good Works they condemned second Marriages as adulterous and used Rebaptization as the Donatists He was a Priest of Carthage and Father of the Cathari or Puritans XLVIII 22. Donatus whence arose the Donatists was a Numidian who because Cicilianus was preferred before him to the Bishoprick of Carthage accused him and all the Bishops that ordained him to be Traditores that is such as had delivered their Bibles to be burnt by Idolaters under the Persecution of Maximinus Though this Accusation was found faulty yet Donatus continued obstinate and separated himself and Congregation from all others accounting that no Church where any spot of Infirmity was to be found that such a pure Church was only amongst them yet they would have no man forced to a godly Life they slighted the Magistracy and would not suffer them to punish Hereticks they held the Efficacy of the Sacraments too upon the dignity of the Minister they rebaptized all that were admitted to their Communion they held it no Sin to kill themselves rather than to fall into the hands of the Magistrate and scrupled not to kill such as were not of their Faith they used certain magical Purifications and bragged of Enthusiasms and Revelations With the Arrians they made the Son less than the Father and the Holy Ghost than the Son The Circumcâ—lliones were part of these who lived in Cells and Caves and murdered all they met that were not of their Religion XLIX 23. Pelagius a Britain by Birth and a Monk at Rome was the Ring-leader of the Pelagians he was afterwards a Presbyter under Theodosius the Younger three hundred eighty two Years after Christ thence he went into England and poysoned the whole Island with his Opinions which were such as these That Death was not the Wages of Sin but that Adam should have dyed though he had not sinned that Adam's Sin was hurtful only to himself and not to his Posterity that Concupiscence was no sin that Infants did not draw original Sins from their Parents that Infants might be saved without Baptism that they should have eternal Life but out of the Kingdom of God that Man after the Fall had free
Will to do good and ascribed no more to Grace but that by it we had our Nature and that by our good Works we obtain Grace they also rejected the Doctrine of Predestination they say the number of the Elect may be increased or diminished that Faith is by Nature but the increase of it from God and that Charity is from Men. They hold that their elect ones have no Sin nor can sin if they would that the Concupiscence of the Flesh is from God and that rich Men that are baptized cannot be saved unless they give away all that they have Celestinus and Julianus were his chief Followers in these Errors St. Augustine and Alypyus his Friend wrote against them They were condemned by five African Councils and also by a sixth Synod at Carthage Anno Christi 419. in the tenth Year of Honorius L. 24. Priscillianus a Spaniard some say a Galatian Father of the Priscillianists under Gratian the Emperour spread his Heresie first in Spain three hundred forty Years after Christ from thence like a Canker it ran through all the West This Heresie was made up of former Heresie for with the Manichees he held the World was made by an evil God with the Sabellians he confounded the Persons of the Trinity with the Origanists he held the Pre-existence of Souls with Astrologers that all humane Events depended upon the Stars with the Stoicks that we sin necessarily and coactively with the Enaratites they abstained from Flesh and with the Gnosticks they rejected the ancient Prophets as ignorant of the Will of God He was condemned in his Absence by the Synod of Aquitane but at his Return into Spain he troubled all things At last he was put to death with Felicissimus Armenius Latronianus and Euchocia his Companions Priscillianus himself confessed unto Euclius the Prafect That he kept Conventicles in the Night with filthy Women and that he used to pray amongst them He was condemned of Heresie at Rome by Damasus from whom he appealed to the Emperour Maximus who put him to Death His Body was carried into Spain by his Party by whom he was esteemed first as a Saint then as a Martyr insomuch that at last in matters of Religion they used to swear by his Name LI. Apollinaris Presbyter in Loadicea was the Author of the Apollinarists he divided Christ's Humanity affirming That he assumed Man's Body and a sensitive Soul but not the reasonable or intellective Soul of Man because that was supplied by the Divinity Instead of the Trinity they acknowledge only three distinct degrees of Power in God the greatest is the Father the lesser is the Son and the least of all the Holy Ghost They held that Christ's Soul was consubstantial with his Divinity and that he took not his Flesh from the Virgin but brought it from Heaven that Christ had but one Will that Souls did propagate others and that after the Resurrection the Ceremonial-Law should be kept as before This Heresie brake out three hundred and fifty Years after Christ under Valens the Emperour It was confuted in the Roman Synod by Damasus Bishop of Rome and Petrus Bishop of Alexandria and in the Synod at Constantinople utterly condemned and exploded LII The Adamians or Adamites so called either from one Adam their Author or from Adam the first Man whose Nakedness they imitate sprung up shortly after the Gnosticks and were called Prodiciani from one Prodicus whom they followed of this Sect there be many extant at this day They held it unlawful for Men or Women to wear Cloaths in their Congregation and Assemblies seeing their Meetings were the only Paradise on Earth where they were to have Life Eternal and not in Heaven as Adam then in his Paradise so Christians in theirs should be naked and not cloathed with the Badges of their Sin and Shame They rejected Marriages as diabolical therefore they used promiscuous Copulation in the dark they rejected also all Prayers to God seeing he knew without us what we wanted LIII The Elcesei so called from Elcesa an Impostor and Sampsei from a spotted kind of Serpent which they represented in their changeable Dispositions were much addicted to Judicial Astrology and Sooth-saying They held two Priests one below made of the Virgin a mere man and one above they confound Christ with the Holy Ghost and sometimes they call him Christ's Sister but in a masculine Name to both which Persons they give Longitude Latitude and Locality To Water they ascribe a Divinity and so they did to two Whores Marthus and Marthana the Dust of whose Feet and Spittle they worshipped as holy Relicks they had a certain Apocrypha Book the reading whereof procured Remission of Sins and they held it no Sin to deny Christ in time of Persecution This Heresie began to spread about two hundred and ten Years after Christ under Gordian the Emperour LIV. The Valesians so called from one Valens an Arabian who out of the Doctrine of the Gnosticks or Tatians condemned Marriage and Procreation Therefore his Scholars after the Example of Origen gelded themselves thinking none can enter into Heaven but Eunuchs whereas the Eunuchs Christ speaks of be such as by Continence subdue the Lusts of the Flesh This Heresie springing under Julianus Philippus Emperour about the Year of Christ two hundred and sixteen LV. The Heicitae professed a Monastical Life but withal taught that the Service of God consisted in holy Dances and singing with the Nuns after the Example of Moses and Miriam Exod. 15. upon the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea Gnosimachi were Haters and Despisers of all Learning or Book-Knowledge teaching that God required nothing from us but a good Life Of these we have too many in this Age. But Christ tells us that Life Eternal consists in Knowledge and God complaineth by the Prophet that his People perish for want of Knowledge So Christ sheweth that Destruction fell on Jerusalem because she knew not her day and the Lord complained that his People had less Knowledge than the Oxe or the Ass therefore God hath given Lips to the Priest to preserve Knowledge and Christ by his own Knowledge hath justified many saith the Prophet The Armenii taught that the Holy Ghost proceeded only from the Father and not from the Son that Christ rose from the dead on the Sabbath day whereas the Scripture tells us plainly that he arose the third day They observed also the Jewish Sacrifices they used first to baptize the Cross then to worship it they taught it was not Man that sinned but Satan by tempting him and that Man had not propagated by carual Copulation if he had not sinned They denyed Original Sin and held that all who dyed before Christ were damned for Adam's Sin they ascribed no Efficacy to the Sacraments and yet held Baptism absolutely necessary they placed the Children of unbaptized Infants if they were of faithful Parents in earthly Paradise if of unfaithful in Hell they never baptized without administring the
Eucharist they held Baptism without Crism ineffectual they used Rebaptization they permitted the Husband to dissolve Matrimony when he pleased and denyed Prayers for the Dead and the Eternity of Hell Fire and that the Souls were not in Bliss till the Resurrection and taught that then there should be no Women at all but that they should be converted into Men. Chazinzarii were so called from Chazus which in their Language signifieth the Cross for they taught that the Cross was only to be worshipped therefore they were named Cross-Worshippers they professed all Nestorianism The Thnetopsychitae held that the Souls dyed with the Bodies Theocatus Nostor were such as reprehended some of God's Actions and Words Ethnophrones were Paganising Christians who with Christianity taught Gentile Superstition But passing over the rest let us pass on to Mahomet the greatest of all Impostors The Life of Mahomet SOME Men have brave Names but mean Actions some brave Actions and mean Names and some both brave Names and Actions In the first number Mahomet may not be unfitly reckoned who in excellency of Name was second to none and yet in depravity of Manners had few Equals for we are assured by the learned in the Arabian Language that Mahomet comes of a Word signifying Praise and Honour and that this Notation of his Name was but a Presage of his future Actions whereby he merited and purchased both Others say Mahomet imports Thanksgiving which is to be understood with respect to their Duty of Gratitude who believe he procured great Benefits for them And that there might want nothing of lucky Abodement in the Name of this great Impostor some of his flattering Doctors paraphrase it by a Man of Desires But be his name what it will we shall proceed to give an account of the Life of this Impostor according as we find it written by the Saracens themselves The Book of the Generation of Mahomet the Messenger of God the Prayer and Salvation of God be upon him from Adam and Eve to the time when God brought him forth gracious perfect and fit for himself When as Rabachbar had learned out of the Scriptures and by Astrology that this Prophet should be born to the World he heard that there was a Man born in Jeseras a City of Arabia having all such Marks and Tokens as he had fore-seen by the Prophesies and his Arts viz. a spot on his Fore-head a print between his Shoulders c. and to satisfie his desire he went thither to see where finding those Tokens fulfilled in young Mahomet he thereupon expounded the dark Mystery of his far-fetch'd Light learned of his Master Kabelmedi in this manner When Adam was newly created as he stood up his Brain shaked and made a Noise as the Leaves do which are shaken with the Wind whereat Adam wondring God said unto him The sound which thou hast heard is the sign of the Prophets and Messengers of my Commandments take heed therefore that thou commit this Seed of Light only to worthy Loyns and to a clean Womb and this Light of Mahomet that should be born shined from the face of Adam as the Sun or Moon at the full And when he had begotten Seth that Light passed instantly from the Face of Adam into the Face of Eve insomuch that the Birds of the Air and Beasts of the Earth wondred at her Beauty yea the Angels every day saluted her and brought her Odours out of Paradise till she brought forth Seth alone having before at every Burthen brought forth a Brother and a Sister Seth inherited this Light which remained between Heaven and Earth the Angels thereby ascending and descending upon Seth and crying always Rejoyce thou Earth worthy of the Light of Mahomet on him be Prayer and Salvation of God Adam drawing near to his end declared unto him by his Testament the Mysteries of that Light and the Genealogy of the Prophets Then descended Gabriel accompanied with threescore and ten thousand Angels bearing every one of them a white Leaf and a Pen which signed the Writing for the Continuance of the Order of the prophetical Generation Seth received this Writing and was cloathed with a double red Garment shining as the Sun as soft as the Violet Flower From him it passed by Succession to Noah and Sem then to Abraham at whose Birth two Lights from the East and West meeting in the midst lightned the whole World and the Angels were heard singing that it was the light of the Prophet Mahomet who should be born of his Seed whose Words should be the virtue of God This Light passed from Abraham to the face of Hagar being with Child and after to Ishmael and God told him that the Soul of Mahomet in the beginning of the Creation was mingled with his and that his name in Heaven should be Asmet in Earth Mahomet and in Paradise Abvaltrazim At this Sarah grieved untill three Angels comforted her with the Promise of Isaac From Ishmael it removed to Keydar his Son who being endued with seven Gifts marryed Nulta of the Land of Isaac but being warned by an Oracle he took to Wife Algadira an Arabian and after by divine warning carried the Chest of this Light unto Jacob. Then was Hamel born to him and received the same Light in which succeeded Thebickt Hamiessa Adoth Adure Adne Machat Nizar Musar Aliez Madraca Hoocima Knieva Anofro Melic Falhrem Luic Galiben Kab Murran Cudai Abdamenef Hesim a man by divine Testimony free of all uncleanness To him did all Kings offer their Daughters in Marriage and amongst the rest Constantine which he refused and married Selina the Daughter of Geit and had by her Abdalmutalib whose Light caused Rain in the Drought To him an Elephant prostrated himself and said with Man's Voice Selvation be on you and on the Light that shineth out of your Reins Divinity Fame Honour and Victory be on you and that there should proceed from him a King greater than all the Kings of the Earth Another time as he slept on the Stone which was placed by Abraham in his Oratory at Mecca he dreamed of a Chain reaching East and West and to Heaven and to the Depth which was presently converted into a flourishing Herb. Noe and Abraham presented themselves Interpreters of this dream Abdalla's Son the Father of Mahomet had a Tutor given unto him to defend him from his Enemies who seemed a Man but was none He was preserved from the lying in wait of the Jews by threescore and ten Angels which seemed men He wedded Hermina and therefore two hundred Women perished for his love some hanging some burning themselves When the prescribed time was come in the Month Dulheia on a Friday night God bad Ariduran to open the Gates of Paradice that the innermost of his Secrets might be manifested for it pleaseth me said he this night to transport the Light of my Prophet from the Reins of Abdalla into the Womb of Hermina and that it come into the World This
Egypt the Captain presenteth the Alcoran to the Bassa to kiss and then it is laid up again the Captain is feasted and presented with a Garment of Cloth of Gold They used to cut in pieces the Camel whith his Furniture which carried the Alcoran and reserve these pieces for holy Relicks The Alcoran also is elevated that all might see and adore it which done every one with Joy returns to his own home Now as to the Ceremonies they use in their Circumsicion they are circumcised about eight years of Age the Child is carried on Horse-back with a Tullipant on his Head to the Temple with a Torch before him on a spear deckt with Flowers which is left with the Priest as his Fee who first nipped the end of the Skin of the Child's yard with Pincers to mortifie it then with his Sissers he nimbly cuts it off presently a powder is laid to ease the Pain and afterwards Salt The Child's hands being loosed looketh as he is taught â—y the Priest towards Heaven and lifting up the first Finger of his right hand saith these Words God is one God and Mahomet is his Prophet Then he is carried â—ome in haste after some Prayers and Offerings of the Church sometimes the Child is circumcised at home â—nd receiveth his name not then but when he is Born They Feast then commonly three days which ended â—â—e Child is carried with Pomp to the Bath and from thence home where he is presented with divers gifts from his Parent 's Friends Women are not circumcised but are tyed to make the Profession of their Mahumetan Faith They believe the forbidden Tree was Wheat which had seven Ears whereof Adam plucked one wherein were five Grains of which two he eat two he gave to Eve and one he carried away This Grain was bigger than any Egg and being bruised brought forth all kinds of Seed They believe that Adam was received after the expulsion from Paradise into India and Eve into Nubia that Adam was covered with three Leaves of Taradice Eve with her Hair they met together in Araffe Further as concerning Eve she was made of a Rib of the left side for otherwise she had been as strong as the Man They believe the Devils first dwelt in the Earth seven thousand years after them Angels They say the Ground of Paradice is of Gold enammelled with Emeralds and Hyacinths planted with every fruitful Tree watered with streams of Milk and Hony and wine the Day is of a thousand years Continuance The People shall have whatsoever can be desired they shall be cloathed in all Colours except black which is the proper Colour of Mahomet They shall all be of the Stature of Adam in Resemblance like Christ never encreasing or diminishing As soon as they are entred shall be set before them the Liver of the Fish Albehbut and whatsoever Dainties they can desire they shall not need going to Stool any more than the Child in the Womb but they shall sweat out all Superfluities of Scent like Musk they shall eat but for Desight not for Hunger unlawful Meats as Swines Flesh they shall refrain And if you list to know why this Beast is unclean understand That Jesus on a time called forth Japhet to tell his Disciples the History of the Ark Who told them That by the weight of the Ordure the Ark leaned on one side whereupon Noe consulting with God was bidden to bring in the Elephant thither out of whose Dung mixed with Mans came forth a Hog which rooted in that Mire with his Snout and by the stink thereof was produced out of his Nose a Mouse which knawed the Bords of the Ark Noe fearing this danger was bidden to strike the Lyon on the Fore-head and by the Lyon's Breath was a Cat engendred mortal Enemy to the Mouse But to return from this stinking Tale to refresh our selves with the like Sweets of this Paradise They believe that there they have the Wives that there they had and other Concubines whom how when wheresoever they will That Wine shall be lawful there though here unlawful the reason whereof Mahomet said was That the Angels Arots and Merot were sometime sent to instruct and govern the World forbidding Men Wine Injustice and Murder But a Woman having whereof to accuse her Husband invited them to Dinner and made them drunk They inflamed with a double heat of Wine and Lust could not obtain that their desire of their fair Hostess except one would teach her the Word of ascending to Heaven and the other of descending Thus she mounted up to Heaven and upon enquiry of the matter she was made the Morning Star and they put to their choice whether they would be punished in this World or the World to come they accepting their Punishment in this are hanged by Chains with their Head in a Pit of Babel till the day of Judgment Hell saith Mahomet hath a Floor of Brimstone smoaky pitchy with stinking Flames with deep Pits of scalding Pitch and sulpherous Flames wherein the damned are punished daily the Trees bear most loathsome Fruits which they eat The day of Judgment shall be in this sort In that day God will command the Angel of Death to kill every Creature which being done he shall ask him if nothing be alive Adriel the Angel of Death shall answer nothing but my self then go thy ways betwixt Paradise and Hell and last of all kill thy self Thus he folded in his Wings prostrate on the Earth shall strangle himself with such a bellowing noise as would terrifie the very Angels if they were alive Thus the World shall be empty forty Years Then shall God hold the Heaven and Earth in his Fist and say Where are now the mighty Men the Kings and Princes of the World Tell me if you be true whose is the Kingdom and Empire and Powers Repeating these Words three times he shall raise up Seraphiel and say Take this Trumpet and go to Jerusalem and sound This Trumpet is of five hundred years Journey At that Sound all Souls shall come forth and disperse themselves unto their own Bodies and their Bones shall be gathered together Forty years after he shall sound again and then the Bones shall resume Flesh and Sinews After forty Years the third Sound shall warn the Souls to re-possess their Bodies and a Fire from the West shall drive every Creature into Jerusalem When they have here swam forty Years in their own Sweat they shall with much vexation come to Adam and say Father Adam Father Adam Why hast thou begotten us to these Miseries and Torments Why sufferest thou us to hang between Hope and Fear Pray to God that he will finish his Determination of us between Paradise and Hell Adam shall excuse his unworthiness for his Disobedience and send them to Noe Noe will post them to Abraham Abraham to Moses he shall send them to Jesus Christ to him they shall come and say The Spirit Word and Power of God let
going up into the upper Chambers she finds this deplorable representation of immodesty and impudence but the power and influence of Prophetical integrity brought the Woman to that pass that she was drawn in to wallow in the same mire of unshamefacedness whom therefore he advised to continue always a constant adherer to the unblameable Truth Going out of the House in this posture about three of the clock the other men and Women marched barefoot after him crying out with a horrid Voice Woe woe woe the heavy wrath of God the heavy wrath of God c. In this fanatick Errour did this Hypocondriack Rabble run about the Streets making such horrid noise that all Amsterdam seem'd to shake and tremble at it as if it had been assaulted by a publick Enemy The Burghers not having the lest hint of such a strange and unlook'd for accident for this furious action happen'd in the dead of the night took up Arms and getting these People lost to all shame and Modesty up to the Palace clapt them into Prison Being so disposed of they would own no thoughts of shame or Chastity but would justifie their most white and naked truth In the mean time the Fire being smelt they brake into the House where it was and wondring at their casting of their Clothes into the Fire which had since reached the Bed they made a shift to quench it But the other distracted and mad People such as deserved to be sent to their Kindred the Savages and Heathens inconvincibly persisted in their pestiferous Opinion and so upon the fifth of May the same year they expiated their wicked Impieties with their Death Ones farewel Saying was Praise the Lord incessantly Anothers was O God revenge thou our Sufferings Others cryed out Woe woe shut thine eyes LVIII The next we will bring upon the Stage are John Reeves and Lodowick Muggleton who would perswade us that they are the two last Witnesses and Prophets of Christ sent by his Spirit to seal the fore-heads of the Elect and Reprobate that one John Robins is the last great Antichrist and Son of Perdition spoken of by the Apostle in the Thessalonians because he sheweth lying signs and wonders and assumes to himself the Titles of the only God in that he calls himself Adam and Melchisedeck and Father of Jesus Christ in saying the three Persons in Trinity are Adam that is Himself Abel that is the Son Jesus and Cain that is the Holy Ghost many such Blasphemies they ascribe to him They affirm also that Christians using the Sword of Steel are ignorant of Jesus and Enemies to his Gospel and they teach that the two uncreated Substances of Earth and Water were eternally resident in the Presence of God the Creator that Death was from Eternity that the Person of the reprobate Angel or Serpent entred into the Womb of Eve and there died but quickened in her all manner of uncleanness that there is no Devil at all without the Body of Man or Woman but what dwells within them so that the Devil spoken of so often in the Scripture is man's Spirit of unclean Reason and cursed imagination that God the Father was a Spiritual man from Eternity and that in time his Spiritual Body brought a Natural Body that if the very God-head had not died that is say they the Soul of Christ which is the Eternal Father had not died all men had perished eternally that Moses and Eliah are Angels and did represent the Person of the Father in Heaven as they did the Person of the Son on Earth that Eliah was made Protector of God when God became a Child and that he filled the Lord Jesus with those great Revelations of his former Glory which he possessed in Heaven when he was the immortal Father and that it was Eliah who spake these words This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased they say also that all the Ministry in this World whether Prophetical or Ministerial with all the Worship taught by them is a Lye and abomination to the Lord. Again they declare that whereas there are three Witnesses on Earth Water Blood and Spirit that by Water is meant the Commission given to Moses and the Prophets under the Law by Blood the Commission given to the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel and by the Spirit is meant the Commission of the two Witnesses that were to come in this last age whose Ministry is invisible and Spiritual cutting off all formal worshipping of an invisible spiritual personal God they say there is hardly a Minister in the World that confesseth an invisible God but they preach a God of three Persons that is a Monster instead of one true Personal God they say that the true God is a distinct Body or Person as a Man is a distinct Body or Person Again they say that there is no Christian Magistrate in the World that hath any Authority from Christ to set up any invisible Form of Worship and that the Spirits and Bodies of men are both mortal both begot together and both of one nature that the Spirit is nothing without the Body and that is the Spirit alone that walks and works eats and drinks and dyes for the Spirit is a natural fire of Reason they say also that the Bodies or Persons of holy men wherein they lived and died shall not appear again any more but when the Saints are glorified they are absolutely of the very same glorious nature both in Spirit and Body as God is and that Believers Spirits are of the very same Divine nature of God This is the Sum of their Divinity and Philosophy as may be seen in their transcendent Spiritual Treatise as they call it which is sull of transcendent nonsence and blasphemies for here they lay the axe to the very root of Christianity in giving a new Father to our Saviour Jesus Christ in calling the Blessed Trinity a Monster in denying the Creation whilst they make Earth and Water eternal in making Angels and mens Souls mortal in making weak man Gods Protector and Author of that Divine knowledge which was in Christ in denying the Ministry of the Gospel and the Power of the Magistrates and the outward Worship of God and making the Souls of men corporeal in denying also the Resurrection of the Flesh and transforming men into the Divine nature By these and other wicked Tenets permitted and countenanced among us at this time we see what Christian Religion is come to in this Land LIX But before I quit this Theme it will not be altogether unseasonable that I give an account of the Ranters who are a sort of Beasts who neither divide the hoof nor chew the cud that is to say unclean ones such as hold no small correspondence with the Quakers their Lives and demeanours are much alike only what the Ranters act upon the Stage by an open profession of lewdness and irreligion the other do it within the Curtain by crafty and seemingly
a fourth to make it sleep a fifth against wild Beasts and so in the rest giving to each fetisso a several name They quickly learn them to eat and then leave them about the House like Dogs they soon learn to go to speak to swim when they are first born they are not black but reddish as the Brasilians Each Woman brings up her own they teach them no Civility and beat them sometimes cruelly with staves when they are eight or ten or twelve years old they learn them to spin Bark-thread and make Nets After that they go with their Fathers to fish at eighteen Years old they begin to set up for themselves two or three of them together hiring a House and Canoe and then they cover their Privities grow amorous and their Fathers look out Wives for them They have little Hair on their face at thirty they wear Nails as long as the Joynt of a Man's Finger as a token of Gentility which is also observed by Merchants they keep them very clean and as white as Ivory they are great in Flesh beyond Men of these Parts at threescore and ten or fourscore their blackness decays and they grow yellow they have small Bellies long Legs broad Feet long Toes sharp Sight quick Wit Estridge maws are spiteful curiously neat Drunkards Thieves leacherous and subject to the Pox whereof they are not ashamed as neither of shewing their Nakedness LXXI If a Man amongst the Turks liketh a young Woman he buyeth her of her Father and then enrolleth her in the Cadies Book the Marriage following with all Bacchanal Solemnities Many Women are invited by the Brides Mother the Night before when after the feasting they bathe her and the next Morning trick her in her richest Ornaments tying on her silken Buskins with Knots not easily unknit which the Bridegroom must untie though with his Teeth after that with much Solemnity his Companions on horseback riding two in a Rank and conducted by the Sacdish who is nearest of his Kindred have fetched her home the Bride being delivered with her Face close covered set a stride on Horse-back with a Canopy over her head and received of him at his door thence led if she be of Quality by an Eunuch to the Bride-Chamber The Guests honour him with Presents yet go not in The Father also giveth only some pieces of Houshold stuff carried openly by Particulars through the Streets Now he is to entertain the VVives with an equal Respect Alike is their Diet Apparel yea and Benevolence unless they consent to change and give turns or else they may complain to the Cady and procure a Divorce but the Husband may put away his VVives at pleasure who may marry unto another within five Months after except she prove with Child and then she must stay so long after her delivery but if he will have her again he must buy her and if after the third Divorce another is first to lye with her as a Punishment of his Levity They will sell some of them or give them to their Slaves the VVives give him the reverence of a Master They are at no time to deny him their Embracements whom he toucheth not again untill he hath been at the Bath They hold their Chastisement which they receive from him as an Argument of Affection They intermeddle not with Houshold Affairs only it is required of them to content their Husbands to nurse their own Children and to live peaceably together which also they do without Jealousie or Envy They are exceeding beautiful for the most part ruddy clear and smooth as the polished Ivory tender and soft as frequenting the Baths daily and never open to the Weather but wither quickly Great and black Eyes are the greatest Beauty to the Eyes of a Turk They sit not at Table with their Husband but wait and serve them and then they dine by themselves admitting no Mankind with them above twelve Years old and they never go abroad without leave except to the Bath and on Thursday to weep at the Graves of the dead they rise to their Husbands and stand while they are in Presence and besides them come in no Company of men nor do they speak with a Man or in any other part of their Body are seen of any Man because they think sight especially where Beauty and Comliness is cannot be without sin only the Brother may be permitted to see the Sister but not the Husband's Brother yea their Sons when they come to growth are separated from them For this cause that Sex is not suffered to buy and sell but is closely mewed save that their Law alloweth them to frequent the publick Baths The Wife and Concubine differ in the right to a Dowry which the latter wanteth but the Wife must cause the other to be her Husband's Bed-fellow when he commandeth without gain-saying except on their Sabbath or Friday nights which is the Wives peculiar Yet are the Turks given in both Sexes to unnatural Lusts even the Women in publick Baths sometimes are so inflamed in that Filthiness as is intollerable Busbequius tells of one Woman who falling in love with a young Maid and no way else prevailing cloathed her self in Man's Apparel and hiring a House near procured the Fathers good Will to have that his Daughter in Marriage which being solemnized between them and the truth discovered which black Mantle of Night could not cover them from Hymen's Torch Complaint was made and the Governour quenched the hot flames of this new Bridegroom causing her to be drowned for that offence If the Man abuse the Wife to unnatural Lust she may have her Remedy by Divorce if she accuse her Husband which Modesty forbiddeth to be done in Words and therefore she puts off her Shoe and by inverting the same accuseth her Husband's Perverseness There are some Turks who keep Boys gallantly arrayed to serve for the worse than beastly Lust of such as will hire them They have this loathsome Punishment for that loathsome Sin of Whoredom to take the Paunch of a Beast new killed and cutting a Hole thorough to thrust the Adulterers Head in this Dung-Wallet and so carry him in Pomp thorough the Streets It is Death either to the Body by Judicial Sentence or the Soul by turning Turk for a Christian to have carnal Dealing with any of their Women A Jew who had dealing with a Turk's Wife with her Husband's Consent could not escape hanging therefore this indeed was a favour for he should have been burned notwithstanding his rich Countrey-men offered two thousand Duckats to save him her Husband was hanged for his wittally Perswasion and she her self drowned It is certain that they buy Boys of an hundred or two hundred Duckets and mew them up for their filthy Lust till they prove bearded they will also steal Boys for that Villany LXXII In Negapatan upon the River Ganges in the East-Indies the manner of their Marriages is extraordinary for many times the Priest with
Personage evil-favoured and of a low stature perceiving he came forth again and challenged any man of the Romans to fight him saying he was only one of the meanest and out-casts of the Jews though the Romans despised him yet they durst not fight with him for that they considered they should get no honour though they should kill him and yet they ran a hazard of being killed themselves But at length being provoked by the insulting Language of the Jew one Pornus one of the most valiant Souldiers of the Romans came no sooner to the Jew than that he was by him killed streightway to the shame and reproach of the Romans Now the Jews seeing the Walls of the Temple and three Walls that compassed the Town to be razed and pulled down they consulted what was best to be done There was a great house joyned upon the side of the Temple that King Solomon had builded of a great height whose Walls also the Kings of the second Temple had raised on high and decked it with Timber of Firr and Cedar Trees the Jews went and anointed every where the Cedar Timber of the house with Brimstone abundantly so when the Romans came to assault the Temple again the Jews retired into that Palace and went out another way But the Romans not dreaming of this Stratagem some climbed up to the Battlements of the house others set up Ladders to scale it and with shouts thought that the Palace was now taken and that the Jews had no place left to flee unto for refuge Thus when the Palace was full of the Romans a certain Jew a young man vowing himself desperately to die went and shut up the Palace and set fire on the Gates anointed before with Brimstone and Pitch and straightway the side Wall of the House and the whole building began to be on a light fire and of the Romans most were burnt some killed themselves and the rest we killed by the Jews as they would have made their escapes There was a great Roman Commander in this fire whose name was Artorius who looking forth from the top of the house saw one of his dear Friends called Lucius standing by Titus to whom Artorius called saying My dear friend Lucius get on thy Armour and come hither that I may leap down upon thee and thou may receive me If I die I make thee my Heir if thou die thy Children shall inherit my Goods Wherefore Lucius ran and held up his lap open at the house side and Artorius leapt down and light upon him with such weight that they both died therewith Titus commanded the Covenant they made before their death to be written on a Sword with blood and their Friendship to be noted in the Chronicles of the Romans that it might be an example to all men to learn true Friendship by There was a certain rich Woman in Ierusalem of a Noble House also whose name was Miriam Her dwelling was beyond Jordan but when she perceived the Wars to grow more and more in the time of Vespasian she came up with her Neighbours to Ierusalem bringing with her not only her Man-servants and Women-servants and all her Family but also her Goods and Riches which were very great When the hunger was grievous at Ierusalem and the Seditious went from House to House to seek meat they came also to this Womans House and took away from her by force all that ever she had and left her nothing remaining By this means she was opprest with very great hunger so that she wished her self out of the world but her time was not yet come to dye wherefore that she might slack her hunger and sustain her self she began to scrape in the Chaff and dust for Beasts dung but could find none She had one Son and when she saw the Famine was greater and greater upon her she laid aside all Womanhood and mercy and took upon her an horrible Cruelty for when she heard her Boy weep and ask for meat which she had not to give him she said unto him what shall I do my Son for the wrath of God hath environed the whole City in every corner thereof the Famine reigneth without the City the sword killeth up all within we stand in fear of the Seditious our enemies prevail without in the Town are fires burning and ruines of Houses Famines Pestilence spoiling and destroying so that I cannot feed thee my Son Now therefore my Son if I should dye for hunger to whom should I leave thee being yet a Child I hoped once that when thou shouldest come to mans estate thou shouldest have sustained my age with meat drink and cloth and after when I should dye to bury me honourably like as I was minded to bury thee if thou shouldest have dyed before me But now my son thou art as good as dead already for I have no meat to bring thee up withall because of this great Famine and Cruelty of the Enemies both within and without If thou shouldest dye now among others thou shouldest have no good nor honourable Tomb as I would wish thee wherefore I have thought good to chuse thee a Sepulchre even my own body lest thou shouldst dye and Dogs eat thee in the Streets I will therefore be thy Grave and thou shalt be my food and for that if thou hadst lived and grown to mans estate thou oughtest by right to have nourished me and fed me with thy flesh and with it sustain my age before that Famine devour thee and thy Body be consumed render unto thy Mother that which she gave unto thee for thou comest of her and thou shalt return into her For I will bring thee unto the self same shop in the which the breath of life was breathed into thy Nostrils forasmuch as thou art my well-beloved Son whom I have loved always with all my strength Be therefore meat for thy mother and ignominy and reproach to the Seditious that by violence have taken away our food Wherefore my Son hear my voice and sustain my Soul and my Life and go to the end that is determined for thee by my hands thy lot be in the Garden of Eden and Paradice Be thou meat for me and rebuke and shame for the Seditious that they may be compelled to say Lo a Woman hath killed her Son and eaten him So when she had thus spoken to her Son she took the Child and turning her face away lest she should see him dye she killed him with a Sword and after cut his Body into certain pieces whereof some she roasted some she sod and when she had eaten of them she laid up the rest to keep The savour of the Flesh roasted when it came into the Streets to the People they said one to another See here is the smell of roast-meat Which thing came to the knowledge of the Seditious at length who went into the House of the Woman and spake roughly unto her why should'st thou have meat to live with
routed all his Forces had not the Armies been separated by a Storm So that the old General was constrained to return back to Constantinople with the remainder of his Army and was well derided by his Master for having promised so much and performed so little After this a Peace was again concluded upon expiration whereof Scanderbeg entred with an Army into Macedonia made much Spoyl and returned with great Booty Hereupon Mahomet sent a new Army to defend the Borders but this was likewise routed by Scanderbeg ten thousand of the Turks slain twelve of their principal Officers taken Prisoners for whom he had forty thousand Duckats in Ransom Then was another Bassa called Bartabanus sent with a new Army who had several Skirmishes with Scanderbeg but had still the worst But at length some of the principal Officers in the heat of the Fight ingaging too far quite contrary to his orders were taken Prisoners and Mahomet refused to suffer them to be ransomed and knowing them to be Scanderbeg's best Captains he flayed them alive by degrees so that they were fifteen days a dying Nevertheless though the Turks had corrupted Scanderbeg's Scouts yet he was so well upon his Guard that when they came upon him above two to one he put them to the worst and slew them almost all But as he was fighting in the midst of his Enemies his Horse was slain under him and in the fall sorely bruised one of his Arms the Turks pressed on vehemently to have slain him but God delivered him his Souldiers rescuing and re-mounting him and he forthwith incountring one of the Turks great Commanders slew him hand to hand which so terrified the Turks that they fled and such slaughter was made of them that few returned with Bartabanus who advised the Sultan to invade Epyrus with two Armies at a time which advice being liked off one Bassa Jacup invaded it on one side with sixteen thousand brave men and Burtabanus on another with four and twenty thousand good Souldiers Scanderbeg having got together twelve thousand choice Souldiers challenged Bartabanus who had fortified his Camp to the Combat which he refusing the Turks were so derided and provoked by Scanderbeg's men that the Turks inraged at the affront forced their General to hazard the Battel which proved dangerous and doubtful yet Scanderbeg and his men so pressed upon them on all sides that at last they were broken in pieces most of them slain only Bartabanus with some few escaped Scanderbeg had scarce divided the Spoyl when a Post brought him News that Jacup was burning all in another part of the Country whereupon he presently marched thitherward and his men went as to an assured Victory Jacup hearing of his coming retired into a corner of the Plain Scanderbeg coming near him rested one whole day and then brought forth some of his Prisoners before his Enemies Camp who before knew nothing of Bartabanus's overthrow Then the Battel beginning it was fiercely fought on both sides the Turks were beaten and most of them slain In all there were slain in the two Battels four and twenty thousand men and six thousand Prisoners Jacup escaped with a few after which Scanderbeg entered into the Turks Territories made havock of all and so returned with his Victorious Army to Croia where he dismissed them every man to his own home Then Mahomet imployed two Assassianates to murder him but being discovered they were upon their own confession justly executed according to their Merit Then Mahomet failing too that way raised an Army of two hundred thousand men with which he likewise invaded Epirus whereof Scanderbeg having intelligence he put his Town in the best posture of defence that was possible by which time Mahomet with those vast Forces sat down before Croia but Scanderbeg did so ply him with continual allarums and was so perpetually beating up his Quarters that he grew weary of the Expedition and returned to Constantinople leaving his Bassa still to maintain the Siege of the Town In his way home he corrupted the Governour of a Fort called Chidna in which were eight thousand of Scanderbeg's Souldiers promising them liberty and safety to depart but when he had prevailed and had them in his power the Tyrant caused them cruelly to be cut in pieces sparing neither Souldiers nor Inhabitants Man Woman nor Child Scanderbeg disdaining to have his Capital City besieged by Bartabanus with fourteen thousand choice Souldiers he marched to indeavour its relief but by the way hearing that Janima was coming with a fresh supply to the Turks he detached a party of his men and routed this new Army and took Janima and his Sons Prisoners whom the next day he shewed to Bartabanus and then with plain force drave the Turks from a Mountain near the City The Turks discouraged with these and other such like things rose in the silence of the Night and retreated eight miles from the City Scanderbeg the next morning found in their Tents great store of Corn and other Provision which he conveyed into Croya in great Triumph The Spring following Mahomet with a mighty Army again entred Epyrus and having besieged several places did at length again lay Siege to Croia but with the same fortune as formerly for many of his men being day by day out off by Scanderbeg being in want of provisions he was forced to return to Constantinople covered with shame and rage But as Scanderbeg was now busie in putting his Kingdom into good order he fell sick of a Feaver and perceiving his end to draw nigh he sent for his Wise his Son and the confederate Princes and discoursed to them of his troublesome Life forewarned them of the dangers were like to ensue to persevere in Unity made the Venetians Protectors of his Son and Kingdom and so after he had with most fervent Prayer commended his Soul into the hands of the Almighty God he quietly left this Life Jan. 17. Anno Christi 1466. and of his age sixty three and of his Reign twenty four He was royally buried in the Cathedral in Lyssa yet nine years after the Turks having taken the City with great Devotion digged up his Bones reckoning it some part of their heppiness if they might see or touch the same such as could get any part thereof set it on Silver or Gold and hung it about their Necks perswading themselves that it would make them Valiant and prosperous He was a man of rare Parts and of an indefatigable Spirit during all the time of his Wars he never slept above two houres a Night he ever Fought against the Turks with his Arm bare and that with such fierceness that the Blood did oft'times burst out of his Lips He with his own hands slew at least three thousand of the Turks What his strength was may appear by these Examples There was in a part of Epyrus a mighty wild Bull that had murdered many and committed a thousand outrages him Scanderbeg incountred with on Horse-back and with