Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	act_n	perform_v	prayer_n	1,291	5	7.6185	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49450	A new history of Ethiopia being a full and accurate description of the kingdom of Abessinia, vulgarly, though erroneously called the empire of Prester John : in four books ... : illustrated with copper plates / by ... Job Ludolphus ... ; made English, by J.P., Gent.; Historia Aethiopica. English	Ludolf, Hiob, 1624-1704.; J. P., Gent.	1682 (1682)	Wing L3468; ESTC R9778	257,513	339

only Vice prevail'd in Church and State At that time there was a certain Priest who neither like a Latinist nor a Christian had Baptiz'd several Infants in Nomine Patria Filia Spiritual Sancta which Baptism was however confirm'd by Zacharias the Pope by reason of the good intention of the Baptizer That Sinners after Baptism are reconcil'd to God and the Church they make no Question However they teach that there must be a Repentance for these Sins and that Repentance to be made known by Confession But to enumerate all and singular their particular Sins with all their circumstances they think it neither commanded of God nor at all necessary And therefore they only say in general words to the Priest Absan Absan we have Sinn'd we have Sinn'd So that when the Roman Priests press'd them to particular Confession they never acknowledg'd any more than three if they had been guilty Homicide Adultery and Theft To confess any more they could not be induc'd without great difficulty The Offender is Absolv'd in very few words together with some gentle stripes upon the Side with an Olive twigg which is thought sufficient to deliver him from the Power of Satan But as for them that have committed any of those great Crimes before-named they are not only chastiz'd with severe Reprehension and bitter Language but many times also severely Scourg'd to the end they may not only hear but be sensible of their Absolution Tellez reports That the Metropolitan sometimes hears Confessions himself and that when he understands the heinousness of the Crime he rises up and after a sharp rebuke of the Penitent he cryes out Hast thou done this Dost thou not fear God Go too let him be Scourg'd thirty or forty times Presently the Executioners are ready who streight prepare their Scourges and give the miserable Sinner six or seven cutting lashes the rest being remitted at the Intercession of the Standers by There was one who to avoid so sharp an Absolution of his Crime requested of the Metropolitan sitting in his Seat of Judicature that he might make his Confession in Private to whom the Metropolitan How Shall not thy Sin be made manifest at the last day before all the World Tell therefore what it is The unfortunate Offender believing it his duty to obey openly confess'd it was the stealing of Oxen. By chance the Owner of the Oxen was there who being glad that he had apprehended the Thief presently accus'd him so that the poor Fellow being Convicted of the Fact by his own Confession before so many Witnesses was constrain'd to restore the Oxen and undergo a severe Punishment beside But as the Habessines are generally of a soft and mild Disposition for the most part so soon as they have committed any notable Offence they presently run to their Confessors and confessing they have sinn'd desire to receive the Communion for the quiet of their Consciences But this they do not do till they come to be at least Five and twenty years of Age. For till then they prolong their years of Indiscretion pretending Childish Innocence So that if a Young man die before he be Twenty years old they bewail him in these words Oh! let my Soul be like the Soul of this Innocent So great a Confidence they have in the honest Inclinations of their Youth The whole Divine Service of the Ethiopians is compleated by the sole Administration of the Sacrament and reading some few broken parcels of Chapters out of the New Testament for they neither make use of Sacred Hymns nor of Preaching Which when we seem'd to wonder at Gregory ask'd me Whether we thought our Preachers could speak any thing better then what was written in the Sacred Scripture or the Homilies of the Fathers of the Primitive Church Whether we thought their Sayings more efficacious than the Word of God Whether we did not fear lest those Preachers should utter something which might be repugnant to our Faith and Salvation which might prove of dangerous Consequence especially among the Plebeian and rustic sort of People We answer'd That the Worship of God requir'd it and that the use and end of Preaching was at large set forth in Scripture to the end we might understand the benefit of them But the Ethiopians to supply this defect have Compos'd several Liturgies and Homilies of which mention has been already made To these they add several Portions of Scripture usually appointed to be read which are fourfold out of the Evangelists the Acts the Epistles of St. Paul and the rest of the Canonical Epistles to which they give the Titles of Wengel the Evangils Gheber the Acts Paulus and Hawarja the Apostle But in the general Liturgy which they call Canon Kedasi the Canon of the Mass there are all their Ceremonies to be found with all their Prayers accustom'd to be apply'd to the several Varieties of Duties to be perform'd all their Instruments and Vessels being sanctify'd by certain Prayers and Ejaculations For in the Sanctuary stands the Holy Table which they call Kedesat Terphez vulgarly Manbar It differs from their Common Tables for that you may go round about it and place what you please upon it Only it is cover'd with a Canopy sustain'd with four Pillars at each Corner Upon this they place the Sacred Vessels First the Tabot or Chest A little Table so call'd but the reason why I never yet could find for that it has no resemblance of a Chest it being an Oblong Quadrangular Table upon which the Dish and the Cup are set and therefore I must repair to conjecture which I shall willingly submit to the Judgment of the Learned The most ancient Christians when for almost three Ages together they could not have the Opportunity of Administring or receiving the Communion in Public were constrain'd to take their Opportunities in Dens and Caves but for the most part in the Church-yards in the silence of the Night To which purpose they either carry'd the Bread Wine Cup and other Utensils wrapp'd up in Linnen or otherwise conceal'd to the place where the Congregation met Whence it seems very probable to me that they might make use of the Coffins themselves or some Chest in the fashion of a Bier to conveigh their Sacred Utensils under the pretence of carrying forth their Dead Which Chest being thus conveigh'd into the Church-yard or Cave where they met serv'd also instead of a Table about which the Communicants sate and receiv'd in their Order If they found any Bones of the Holy Martyrs scatter'd about they gather'd them up and put them up in this Chest which Custom in after Ages became a Law If they were driven from their Habitations or constrain'd for fear of Tyrannical fury to seek new abodes this Chest was still carry'd from place to place where the Bishop or Presbyter resided who was to perform the Sacred Duty And thus they came to be call'd either Chests by their proper Names or Tables in reference to their Use

this Encomium Peace be to Michael Aragawi nam'd Wisdom his Life his Death true Prudence fam'd With him was God the Holy Three in One. To all those Saints an everlasting Crown Who by their Prayers true Concord did enjoy That they might Arwe's Kingdom quite destroy By Arwè which signifies a Serpent he either means in general the Kingdom of Satan which was destroy'd by the propagation of Christianity or in particular the Ethiopic Gentilism For as we have already said the most ancient Ethiopians worship'd a Serpent as their supream Deitie to which the Poet seems to allude There are to be seen to this day the Cells wherein those holy Men sequester'd themselves by the names of Beta Pantaleon the Domicil of St. Pantaleon in Tigra where his Sepulcher also remains Of whom the Poet thus Peace to Pantaleon's Bones who study'd here In th'inner Cell next to his Sepulcher Who by the aid of Heavens most pretious Word Speech to the dead miraculously restor'd Who by his Prayers and his Soul-saving Voice Made the afflicted Widow soon rejoyce Her Sins were dead but he unlock'd the grave And freed those Souls which Death did late enslave He also makes mention of the Nine Saints in his Hymn to Likanos Peace be to Likanos who of the Nine Makes one who did their Lives to God resign With lasting wreaths would they my Temples crown How should I then set forth their high renown Like lighted Lamps his fingers burn'd in prayer His Hand was pierc'd when he the Staff did bear Besides these there are several other great Doctors among them who have highly merited for propagating the Christian Religion as also many Martyrs frequently celebrated by the Ethiopians and Coptices in their Religious Panegyricks But as to their Saints they relate of them several Miracles more than Extraordinary as the removing Mountains appeasing the rage of most Tempestuous Seas raising the Dead causing Water to spring from smitten Rocks and walking over Rivers which are reported for common Miracles among them so that if the Truth of the Ethiopic Church were to be grounded upon such Wonders there could be no purer Religion in the World For tho we have a St. Martin that gave a piece of his Cloak to one in necessity they have among 'em a Saint that parted with his whole Garment to relieve the distressed There are among them not onely several Stories of persons that have walk'd upon the Asp and the Basilisk and trampled upon the Dragon and the Lyon but also those who have rode upon those Beasts as upon Horses and Mules Never were the Ascetae more austere There are some who have liv'd for whole days together upon three little Dates others upon no more than one poor little dry Bisket But there is not one more renowned for Sanctity among them then Gabra-Menfes-Keddus or the Servant of the Holy Ghost in honour of whom they keep a Holyday every month Next to him is Tecla-Haimanot or the Plant of Faith who restor'd the Monastical way of Living in Ethiopia about the Year of Christ 600. Whom the Ethiopic Poet extolls in a most singular manner All hail to thy Navity great Saint It was at first thy Mothers great Complaint That she should barren dye till th' Angels Voice Declar'd thy Birth and made her Son rejoyce Then Tecla-Haimanot Thou didst appear Like to the Sun that rules the Day and Year Thy Glory fill'd the Earth from end to end And to the Heavens thy Luster did ascend This Austere way of Living was first practiz'd in Thebais a Desert of Egypt whither many Pious men had retir'd themselves from the Persecution of the Heathen that through abstinence and temperance they might be more intent upon the Duty of Prayer Among the rest St. Antonie as it were the Captain of the Hermites prescrib'd certain Lawes to be observ'd by the Professors of this sort of severity for which reason next to Paul he was look'd upon as its first Institutor The Affairs of the Church being settl'd many Anchorites in imitation of him voluntarily chose a solitary way of Living for that reason call'd Monachi Monks or People that liv'd alone by themselves Some meerly out of a Pious and godly end some out of an opinion of merit some out of vain-glory and a desire of worldly fame because they found that austerity of life as being a thing hard to be undergone was vulgarly much admir'd and highly applauded Many also did not think it sufficient to abstain from lawful enjoyments or to bridle and restrain the ordinary desires of Nature but voluntarily tormented themselves with new invented Tortures or macerated themselves with hunger and famine This Custome spread it self also into Ethiopia where some without any advantage to themselves or others invented several ways of afflicting their own Carcasses as for example To stand whole days together in cold water to gird their Loyns with a heavy Chain to feed onely upon Pot-herbs and Roots and that very sparingly too Nay which is hardly to be credited some there were who would thrust themselves into the clefts of Trees and so as those clos'd together again suffer'd themselves to be bury'd alive To Antonie succeeded Macarius after whom liv'd St. Pachom to whom in Ethiopia succeeded Aragawi the first Abbot or Ruler over Monks among the Abessinians His Successors were Abba Christos Bezana Abba Mesket Moa Abba Johanni Who left bequeath'd his Asqema that is the Badge of his Abbotship or his Monastical Habit to Tecla-Haimanot For the Tradition is among them That the Arch-Angel St. Michael brought that Habit to St. Antonie for which reason it was afterwards deliver'd from Successor to Successor as it were from one hand to another The Greek word it self is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schema Alphonsus the Patriarch compares it to a Scapulary The Life of this Saint is extant in Ethiopia written at large and stufft with several Miracles and render'd famous for several Apparitions and Pilgrimages Mention is also made of him in the Ethiopic Church Registers after this manner Remember Lord the Soul of thy Servant our Father Tecla-Haimanot and all his Companions This Tecla-Haimanot gave new Rules and Precepts to his Monks and order'd them to submit themselves to a Governour who is call'd Icegue and is always of highest authority and dignity next to the Abuna He either Visits his fellow Monks himself or sends some one in his stead to reform Errors and punish transgressions Before the Kingdom of Shewa was won by the Gallans he had his habitation in a place call'd Debra Libanos or the Mountain of Libanus which was afterwards translated into Bagemdra And hence it is that Tesfa-tzejon who set forth the Ethiopic New Testament in the Epilogue to St. Matthew thus speaks of himself and his fellow Monks We are all the Sons of our Father Tecla Haimanot of the Monastery of Mount Libanus The other Abbot or Governour of the Monks call'd Eustathius is no less famous than he nor is his Memory

Necessity he permits the cluster it self to be squeez'd into the Cup and the Liquor to be mix'd with water The time of receiving the Sacrament is left to every man's liberty some receive every Week some every Month but always within the Church For they hold it a great Sin to carry the Holy Mysteries out of the Church into private Houses Neither does the King nor the Metropolitan assume to themselves that Priviledge They never spit that day they have receiv'd They also receive Fasting and toward the Evening too if it be a fasting day But now to Administer the Sacrament in large and crowded Churches and upon Solemn days it requires four or five Men at least Bahen the Priest or Kasis the Presbyter Nefek Kasis the Sub-Presbyter Daj-kan the Deacon and Nefeh Dajkan the Sub-Deacon There are also present other Assistants to hold the Candles and to attend upon the Priests These every one taking his particular part perform the whole Duty reading of several Prayers as the variety of Action and the use of distinct Vessels require Lastly they recommend both the Living and the Dead to God which they call receiving the Dapdukon the Diptych or Church Register which among the Ancient Greeks consisted of two Tables wherein the Name of those were written who were to be Pray'd for in the Register There are some that bring their Offerings to the Holy Table as Bread Oyl Tithes first Fruits and the like which at the Conclusion of the Sacrament are distributed to the Poor Which I take to be understood of that ancient Custom mention'd by Claudius in his Confession of Faith Vangaber Bat Mesah that day meaning the Sabbath we make a Charitable Feast These Holydaies they keep two days every Week that is to say upon the Sabaoth and the Lord's-Day That they call Sanbat Ejehude which they say they celebrate in commemoration of the professed Creation and therefore they do not keep it so solemnly as the Lord's-Day But upon the Lord's-Day which they call Sanbat Ehad or the Sabbath of the first Holyday or Ehude the first Holyday singly or Sanbat Christejan the Christians Sabbath they keep after the custom of the Catholic Church and read over all the Offices and Services requir'd They have no Bells of Brass or mix'd Metal like ours instead of which they only use a kind of hollow Vessels resembling Bells made of Iron Stone or Wood more for Noise than delightful to the Ear. Neither is their Church Music any thing more pleasing For besides that the Voices of their Singing Priests whom they call Dabetra are very harsh and ungrateful the Instruments they make use of after the Egyptian manner such as Cimbals Morrice Bells and Kettle Drums which the Grandees themselves think no dishonour to rattle upon those Solemnities are no way agreeable to the Harmony of Europe With their Music they use Skipping and Dancing in imitation of David Dancing before the Ark of the Covenant At what time they make the Floor ring again after such a rude manner that you would believe them rather at a Wedding than at a Christian Solemnity This they call exulting rejoycing and clapping hands to the God of Jacob as they are commanded in the Psalms and this they call Praising God upon the Harp and Organ and with Cymbals tho it cannot be said they are so sweet sounding as those in David's Time may be imagin'd to be Which things tho they seem to us not to correspond with the gravity of Christian Worship yet will not they much admire who well know that in some places among the Latins the Feast of the Body of God was solemniz'd with Dancing which as it could not be done without Music there were others that play'd in disguise before the Dancers upon Harps Fasting days are no where more exactly observ'd Not that they abstain from some Meats and gluttonize upon others For that they look upon as a mockery of Fasting For they keep themselves whole dayes without either Food or Drink even till Sunset of the third Evening Others there are that abstain the two Holydaies of the Passion Week The Monks put themselves upon greater Extremities than all this by which means they not only mortifie but destroy Besides all which they fast twice in seven days upon the Fourth and Sixth Holyday like the rest of the Eastern Churches The reason of which was by Tzagazaab said to be for that the Fourth day the Murther of Christ was concluded upon and the Sixth it was executed according to what many of the Ancients taught But we believe that these two Fasting-days as many other things were admitted and observ'd in imitation of the Jews by the Primitive Christians who were either Jews or else had learn't from the Jews that this Custom was introduc'd and us'd as a Duty both Pious and Necessary for these times For the Jews fasted twice in a Week which is that which the Pharisee boasted I fast twice upon the Sabbath that is within the two days in seven viz. upon the Second and Fifth Holyday which the Christians because they would not fast upon the same day with the Jews alter'd for the Fourth and Sixth Afterwards Innocent and Gregory the Seventh abrogating the Fast of the Fourth Holyday impos'd Abstinence from Flesh upon Sunday not minding the ancient Canon If any Clergy-man shall be known to Fast upon any Sabbath or Lord's-Day one excepted let him be suspended from his Office That one Sabbath is Easter Eve Otherwise to fast upon the Lord's-Day the Ethiopians account it Criminal like the ancient Christians as Tertullian witnesses Besides these and other Fasts of the Eastern Church they observe in the first place the Forty days Lent which they make up Fifty For it begins Ten days before the Roman Lent That is upon the second Holyday after Sexagesima Sunday And this as a Command of God they observe both healthy and sick People most exactly and religiously only as we said before upon Sundays they eat Flesh After Easter they supply the pinching hardship and sobriety of the past Weeks with the Jollity and Mirth of those that succeed For during all the time of Pentecost so formerly was the interval of the Fifty days call'd from the Feast of the Resurrection till the Feast of tending the Holy Gost they spend their time in all manner of Feasting and Jocundry suitable to the Country All that time as of old with the Latins so among the Ethiopians being still observ'd as one continu'd Festival Gregory considering these things and admiring that the Protestants in Germany observ'd no other Fasts but what were commanded by their Princes in case of Public Calamity was answer'd out of St. Ambrose we do not Fast because the Lord abideth with us not only those Fifty days but all the year long nay as long as we live Thus Christ answer'd them who objected to his Disciples Can the Sons of the Bridegroom mourn while the Bridegroom is among them But the time shall come