to his Friends and so a child easily forgets both Christ his Parents and his Kindred that after if he chance in company with them he shall not know them No man can express by Words the Lamentations Cries Tears and grievous sighs at this distraction of Children The Father to see his Son educated in the fear of Christ torn from him and made an instrument of Satan to oppose Christ hurried from his Mother to live perpetually with strangers leaving whatsoever is dear in blood pleasing in society or loving infamiliarity with an everlasting dereliction after listed in the ranks of those the Greeks call Fatherless and Motherless yet many of these although they have denied Christ carry about them the Gospel of St. John In the beginning was the word c. in Greek or the Arabick tongue as an Amulet or preservative in their Arm-pits and with great desire they expect the Christian Sword according to some Turkish Prophecies should revenge and free them from those great afflictions and persecutions and that if Christians do it not whatever is the cause or with what mind soever hindred all very ill deserve of Christian Religion CHAP. X. A Narration of a Papists dispute with a Turk AFter I had travelled with much labour and many dangers the better parts of the world and seen many pleasant Towns and Countries as Socrates Plato and other Philosophers had diligently done at length I arrived at the famous City of Hungary Varadinum where by chance I met one Dervis Gsielebi a skilful man in the Laws of Mahomet who having dispatched his business with the Governour he very much desired conference with some Christian about Religion on either side This motion of his being published by an Interpreter and none for divers dayes appearing to encounter him in defence of the Christian cause though many Religious persons were in that Town struck mute and speechless at the courage of one Ethnick Infidel who seemed to me like Israelites that durst not adventure on one uncircumcised Goliah provoking them This I perceiving and grieving in my spirit that in such plenty of Clerks and learned men none was so well armed with Truth as durst though by Interpreters reprove the insolence of such an Heathen and fearing that so wicked and detestable a silence in so good a cause with so bad a man would betray the truth and render our Saviour Jesus Christs Opinion with him more ignominious I my self though never called to Ecclesiastical Function undertook the charge of arguing this point of Piety with him and so a prefixed day was agreed between us when multitudes of people of each Religion came as Spectators of the event The place was in a Monastery of Franciscans the day Whitson-Sunday day of Pentecost where he moved to me first this Question Where God had his being before the Heavens and Earth and therein all things else were created Which question though it seemed to me not much pertinent to our purpose yet lest he should imagine us ignorant of our great Gods universal presence I said He then was in his own being But when that seemed to him somewhat obscure and that he did not sufficiently understand it I then told him He was where he now is Which he understanding denied in the general and said Not so but that be then was in a bright Cloud Which when he earnestly affirmed I quoted Genesis for they also read the book of Moses and the Prophets and said If God were in a cloud before the Foundation of Heaven and earth then that Cloud must be created before them both and upon further argument on this point being at last convicted he would dispute no further in it but gave me leave to propound some Question to him and for solemnity of that days sake I thought fit to say something thereof and finding these words In the name of God his mercies and the Spirit of them in their Alcoran in the Arabian Tongue and Character I desired him to read them The mystery of the Holy Trinity Which when he had considered and wondred at he said Christian from whence had you this for in the beginning of all our actions we Musselmen use these three words and prefix them to every Chapter of our Alcoran when we sit down to eat when we go to prayers when we wash our hands or other parts of our bodies these words we first pronounce and these actions finished we sprinkle our heads with water and repeat these words In the Name of God his Mercies and the Spirit of them When thus he had confessed the Truth I desired to understand from him what he meant by the word Mercies who Replied He understood it literally without other signification Then I applied my self to the mystical interpretation and divided it according to Truth into three persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and shewed them written in the Arabick tongue And when he saw I had mentioned the Son of God he questioned How God could have a Son since according to their Law and Doctrine of Mahomet God had neither Wife nor Child To whom I answered according to my weak understanding and capacity We Christians call God the Father for his Creatures sake being the first creating Cause and sole preserver of all created who was for ever in the same Essence he now is in and will be for eternity and is the first Person in the Trinity We believe the Son who by Mahomet in the Arabick phrase is called Rahman and signifieth Mercies so changed by him to be likewise God not according to flesh for God is a spirit born of a Woman but of the Essence and substance of God omnipotent begotten by God the Father and so took humane flesh by the Holy Virgin Mary suffered for us died and was buried and according to the saying of the Prophets arose again the third day and ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the Right Hand of God the Father there to judge the quick and the dead to render immortal happiness to those that have faith in him and to the unfaithful everlasting punishment I then presented him a Crucifix and said Behold this now and see if Mahomet did unworthily call the Son of the Eternal God by the Name of Mercies when with Armes thus stretched forth he calls poor sinners to his embraces saying Come unto me all ye that labour and are burthened with sins and I will refresh you And to render him more capable of the Trinity I pointed to the Sun saying You have a fair similitude here As there is but one Sun that hath Form Heat and Light So there is but one God and Father who hath â—the Son and the Holy Spirt which you call Rucahim consisting of three Person equally of one substance and from eternity coexisting This comparison wrought in him a belief in God the Father his onely begotten Son and the Holy Ghost a Trinity in Unity And when he had heard my weak discourses of
and gold to hang about their necks or wear upon their bodies perswading themselves that by wearing of them they should be partakers of such good fortune as had attended Scanderbeg whilst he lived MAHOMETS TOMBE A the Grand Signior B the Crim Tartar C the Emperour of Ger D the Pope I Chantry scuâ— CHAP. XII The Modern History of the Turkish Empire THis Puissant and almost numberlesse people in their Armies and Hosts which like Xerxes his Forces drink whole Rivers dry as they march came from most contemptible and petty Originals and like the Roman Empire which began from a collected rabble of loose and outlawed persons was founded in a company of thieving shepheards who wandring up and down like a running disease infested and disquieted all places they came to and at last grew to such considerable strength like a Snow-ball that they became suspect to the Monarchs of the East both Pagan and Christian The rise of the Turkish power The first appearance which rendred them Famous and Notable to the world was under the conduct and leading of their Captain Tangrolipix who was called in by the King of Persia to ayd him against the potent and prevailing Armies of the Saracens which having readily undertaken and strenuously and successfully atchieved this Auxiliary took occasion to crave for himself and erect a new principallity and Empire as well upon his friends whom he pretended to rescue as upon their common enemies territory making both of them the equal prey of his ambition of soveraignty and Dominion This new Family continued in this Usurpation and Intrusion with various success one hundred and seventy years to the yeare of our Lord 1300. But standing solely upon its own legs neither strengthned nor secuted by any alliances and wasted with a continual Warre with the former just Proprietors of the Land they had treacherously and forcibly wrested it expired its dying gasping breath into a younger slip of the same house for now the Zelzuccian Name and Fortune was transmitted to the Oguzian Tribe which were the two and onely Descendants of this people whom Fate had adopted to the reserve and residue of her greatest and benignest Favours which she decreed to double upon it for having made an essay of the formers aptnesse to glory and laid the dead colours in it of a Majestical and August Form and Feature drew it perfect afterwards in this beautifull and fair proportion in which we now see the Turkish Empire The rise of the Ottoman Family The Infant Darling of this rising greatnesse was the famous Ottoman to whom the grand Seignors refer â—nd ambitiously intitled their Sirname who having prevariously obtained a small quantity of ground from his Neighbours upon protestation of his quiet and peaceable demeanour partly by courage and partly by treachery over-ran the whole Country of Bythinia in the Lesser Asia and dying left the design of enlarging and extending his Dominions to his Son and Successor Orchanes whose Sons immense Fortune like the Collossus bestrid the Hellespont and conveyed the Turkish Ensigns into Europe whose delicious and useful soil so pleased and enticed those Conquerours that the Imperial Seat was first fixed here at Adrianople to which most of the vicine Princes were forced to come and pay tribute and homage such was the slavish condition of Servia and Bulgaria and most part of Scalavonia afterwards swallowed up in absolute Mahumetanism and made Provinces of this monstrous Seignory But that which constituted and was as the formal being thereof was the Conquest and possession of Constantinople now called Stamboll the Magnificent Throne of the Eastern Empire which resigned its glories to victorious Mahomet May 29. Anno Dom. 1450. and transferred its imperial Title to that Regal claim his Ancestors had enjoyed This irrecoverable losse and lop of one of the greatest and chiefest members of Christianity so stund the Greeks and other petty Princes who yet maintained their Dominions that most of them were either suddenly reduced or tamely yielded themselves which was the fate of the Epirots though they held out for a while by the unexampled conduct and felicity of Scanderbeg the Rhodians the Cypriots and Isles of the Mediteranian Sea and lastly in aâ—e Reign of Solyman of Moldavia Valachia part of Transilvania and Hungaria whither he pierced and passed as far as Vienna and beyond it in other parts of Austria which by the fear of his approach saw her Suburbs and Houses and Gardens of pleasure fired and ruined that he might have no shelter for his men when he should attempt the siege which he in vain offered but such was his importunate ambition of effecting a totall conquest of that Country in which he had been partly succesfull to the gaining of the better half of that Kingdom of Hungaria and seizing Buda the Capital City thereof that he made several expeditions in person even in his old age and dyed at his return from taking Zigeth though gallantly defended to the last man by Count Serinus great Ancestor to the Emperors Generalissimo now in that Kingdom Not to mention the augmentation of his Empire by the triumphal accessions of Egypt and remoter parts of Asia the Great both Nations of the same Religion From the time of this Solymans Decease the death of Solyman about 1566. till now little or no attempts were made this way by his Successors for Amurah his son who threatned more then he dared Mahomet and Achmat were Princes given to quiet and Home-Delights so that most men conjectured this Empire was at its Zenith and Solstice and full stop and would decline as fast as it rose and that glory wearied with such a train of greatness would flag at last if not be pulled back again with the weight of them the death of Achmat the first and crush it to nothing And this was concluded after the Achmat when immediately followed such Convulsions in that State and recedings from those observed rules of policy which were the security of its establishment viz. the saving the lives of the younger brethren of the Emperour as Achmat did by Mustaphas and he by Achmats three Sons Osman who at twelve years of age had the Government transfered to him from his Uncle Mustapha who from a bookish and contemplative stoick was become an active and busie Tyrant and for that reason deposed again and was afterward strangled by the tumultuary Janizaries Amurath or Morat and Ibrahim the Father of the present Emperonr who all reigned successively of which three Morat proved a most Heroique Prince and of as great if not greater spirit then any of his Progenitors He dyed in 1640. at the siege of Bagdate alias Babilon whether he had designed the Janizaries for slaughter and excerpation as being the causes and Agents of all those troubles and disloyalties which had happened to his Brother and Uncle intended in their room to erect a new kind of standing Militia which should be more absolutely at his command Being
fruit of your body and in the fruit of the ground in your bushel and your store when you come in and when you go out where the Lord shall command the blessings upon you and whatsoever you set your hands unto V. But more particularly is Religion become the Interest of every Kingdom 1. Of Spaine whose zeal for the Catholique Religion is the best prop of that Monarchy it s that which obligeth the Pope and Papists in all Kingdoms to promote his greatness against the Protestants and the Princes of Italy to serve his design against France 2. Of the Popa and the Princes that hold of him in Italy in the right of the Church whose patrimony lieth in the same bottom with their Religion and whose estates are entailed upon them by the holding of their Christianity 3. Of France whose power is impowred by indulging Protestants and assisting them against the encroachments of Spaine 4. Of the Low-countries the Hans-towns of Germany and the Princes with Denmark and Swethland whose religion hath propagated the liberty of the four first of these and upheld the Kingdoms of the two last all which had been swallowed up of the Austrian power had not their Religion knit their interest together and they who were otherwise at a great distance in situation and civil concernes become so united in their faith in a word the Lawes the priviledges the constitutions and policies of Europe are so enterwoven with Christian religion that if it be pulled down the government of Europe falleth down with it VI But Religion is not all though it be enough to engage the states and lives of all that professe it for the Christians have many more engagements upon them 1. Namely the Emperour hath his borders to secure and his rebellious people who have taken sanctuary under the Turk to subdue every yeare untill this ill neighbour be removed as hath Poland Sweden and Museovy 2. The English and the Dutch have the Levant and other places to be setled which cannot be expected as long as this absolute Tyrant gives Laws to sea and land 3. The French the Spaniards and other Popish Princes have the yoake the Pope hath set upon their necks to enslave them to him more unworthily then they do the people to themselves to remove which they could never yet attempt but their Ghostly father chastized them with an Invasion of Turks or Moors or deluded them into an holy warre where he had his privy projects beyond the publique designe that aâ— the Sea loseth in one place it gaineth in another the Emperour and the other Princes lost more to his Holinesse in the West then they were like to gain of the Turk in the East Lord Baâ—ons advertisment touching an holy War 4. Besides there is no such undertaking at this day for earthly honour with secular advantage and greatness as a war upon Infidels No fancy this the Spaniards invaded Mexico Peru and other parts of the West Indies and what floods of treasure have flowed into Europe upon that action so that the Rates of Christendom are improved fifteen times more then formerly by a growing treasure of Gold and Silver besides the accesse of Empire and new Territories not to mention the rich Trade of Spices Stones Musk and Drugges opened by our honourable atchievements in Affrica Asia and other parts of the world would it be nothing to make all the kingdoms of the earth become kingdoms of Christ and yours under him And the Sunne would never set in the Christian Kingdome but ever shine upon one part or other of them as the Sun of Righteousnesse ever shines upon the whole 5. How many thousand persons might bâ— employed in a War against the Infidels who do worse at home forreign warres are the breathing of a Kingdoms veine to let out 〈…〉 blood the idleness of Christendom might 〈◊〉 its very sin and shame might cure it 6. The idle being diâ—patched to engage the Infidel abroad the divided would in expâ—â—â—tion of the event of that engagement be uâ—â—â—ed at home A warre with the Turk is the grâ—nd means of the peace of Christendome The war with Carthage was the peace of Rome 7. Besides Palestine was a parcell of the Roman Empire Cyprus a piece of England some parts of Aegypt belong to France not to speake of the Churches right it is not fit for Christian Princes to let goe what is their own to an Infidel and fight among themselves for what is not their own and doth not piety and compassion move you to consider the distressed Christians in Syria were it not worth the time if you neglect your own to maintain Gods title to the holy Land to make Jerusalem once again the joy of the whole earth to restore the chappel of Christs conception at Nazareth his birth at Bethlem his burial on Mount Calvary ascention on Mount Olivet to their primitive piety and devotion what pleasure were it but to see those Theaters of Mysteries of Wonders and Miracles It were pity but the blasphemies of the Turks against Christ and their cruelty against Christians were punished and a way opened by the Sword for Instruction and Catechizing and such other succesfulâ— motives to Christianity in order to that universall profession of Religion which is to blesse the world with happy times the last thousand years of duration 8 Though umbrages and fond jelousies the fume of love and weak fancies are not competent foundations to build a warre upon yet to prevent a mischief whereof we have but too just a fear is the result of right reason and the constant practice of all wise men and Nations its folly like a clown to ward a blow onely when it is past to play an aftergame is rather a shift then a policy especially considering that warre is a Tragedy that ever destroyes the Stage whereon it is acted now that the Turks are now justly to be feared cannot be denied Asia is over-run Greece is subdued Transilvania is made tributary the Hereditary countries of Austria are made desolate Hungary is revolted some Islands in the Mediteranian sea are lost there is but the Alps between them and France and Italy but a River between them and Poland but the Pyrenean mountains between them and Spaine they give Law to the Midland sea Let us make therefore the warre with the Turk the sewer of Christendome and drive all discords out of it Europe now is surfeited with people and many of them active spirits and stirring natures employing themselves in mutual jars and dissentions which this warre will close up uniting all the malice and power of Europe against the common foe of Christianity Object But is it Lawful to make a War for Religion to inforce that which should be perswaded to make our Christian Saviour an Heathen Idol in sacrificing the blood of men to him and whilst we would let the world see we are Christians to forget the rest of the world are men Answ We allow not War