Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	circumcision_n	covenant_n	seal_n	7,337	5	9.8059	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60582	Remarks upon the manners, religion and government of the Turks together with a survey of the seven churches of Asia, as they now lye in their ruines, and a brief description of Constantinople / by Tho. Smith ...; Epistolae duae. English	Smith, Thomas, 1638-1710.	1678 (1678)	Wing S4246; ESTC R4103	118,462	352

Christian again went boldly to the Cadi and persisting in his new resolution received the sentence of death with great comfort and satisfaction This shadow of an argument added to the force of education has such a mighty influence upon their minds that it stifles all the exertions of reason and natural conscience and makes them perverse and obstinate and so secure withall that 't is a sin to doubt of the happiness of their condition as to the other world as well as to this in justification of which confidence it is most severely forbid by the Government to go about to convert a Musulman and the doing of it is adjudged a capital crime without the least hope of favour and mercy The Turks indeed knowing how generous the Franks are in order to the sfying of their curiosity as if Money sprang up in their pockets ready coined make their superstition and their hatred vail to their covetousness and will admit them into their very Churches though sometimes I have met with a repulse at Sancta Sophia where I used to go often to please my self with the sight of that glorious Structure they telling us the Caymacam who had taken frequent notice of the resort of Christians had sent orders to keep them out which they durst not but comply with for a time at least Being at Prusia in Bithynia the Imperial City before they crost the Hellespont and took Adrianople we procured a Priest to let us into a Mosch which had been formerly a Christian Church hard by which is the Tomb of the Emperor Vrchanes who took the City After we had viewed it we presented the old man who was waiting at the door with about half a Dollar who perchance exspecting but a few Aspers was so surprized with it that to shew his sense of the unexspected civility with great earnestness and devotion lifting up his eyes to Heaven he prayed God in his good time to make us Musulmans This is the only way of taming their fierceness by presenting them money and bribing them with gifts to be civil and so long as this pleasant force is upon them they will pretend great kindness but if they do not depend upon you or if you withdraw your hand they return to their natural rudeness and hatred with greater violence which hope of gain and some present advantage had restrained for to be kind to Christians is against the very principles of their Religion Here and there may be a few whom a sense of gratitude for received kindnesses and a freer conversation with Christians by reason of commerce have soft'ned out into better manners As I and my Companion were walking in the Streets of Bursia as they now call it to see what remains of Antiquity we could meet with a Gentleman-Turk for so he shewed himself guessing by our complexions that there was something of Christian under our Turkish Clothes asked our Janizaries if we were not Franks They readily confessed it and upon further demand of what Country of Phrenkistan or Christendom knowing that we were English he invites us to his House which civility as we were unwilling to accept so did we not know how to refuse but after a little consultation with our two Janizaries who were very forward for it we went with him Upon our first coming in he bids us heartily welcome and exprest such respect and kindness as fear of being taken notice of did not permit him to shew in the publick Streets He entertained us with Coffee and Sherbet and Sweet-meats according to the custom of the Country our wonder at this unusual and extraordinary treatment was the more heightned when we understood that he had been a Haggi or Pilgrim and had visited Mahomets Birth-place at Medinat Alnabi the City of the Prophet and Sepulcher at Mecca from which places they use to bring back greater measures of zeal and fury against the Christians But to satisfie us he told us that he had formerly received very great kindnesses from an English Merchant at Smyrna and that he was resohttp www thecatseyes.com show asp show_id = 2460ved for his sake to be civil to his Countrymen where-ever he met them Not content with this he would scarce give us leave to depart proffered us the use of his House while we stayed in 〈◊〉 and upon our refusal took a solemn farewell of us and sent one of his Slaves to attend upon us to the Seraglio which we had a great mind to look into One may travel from the Danube to Euphrates and perchance not meet with the like instance of generous civility They observe most strictly the Rite of Circumcision as the Seal of the Covenant which God made with Abraham and Ismael which gives them a right and title to all the priviledges of the Musulman Faith This Sacrament the Impostor Mahomet thought fit to receive as well in compliance with the Jews as with the custom of his Country and many other Nations in the East who were punctual in the observation of it out of a strict adherence to the traditions of their Fathers and the usage of ancient times without any remembrance of the true ground of its orignal institution They do not circumcise Children in their infancy much less think themselves obliged to the eighth day no Canon tyes them to a set time but they are left wholly to their liberty and to consult their convenience so it be not defer'd beyond the thirteenth year which is the utmost limit that is if they be not deprived of an opportunity of doing it for want of a skilful hand in memory of the Circumcision of Ismael which as they alledg agreeably to the holy Scriptures was done when he was at that age Till which time the Boys wear their Hair long but made up into curled knots hanging over their Shoulders The Ceremony is perform'd with great noise and tumult which with them are the only expressions of their festival joy and mirth all their solemnities being disorderly and rude and without any decorum or discretion to manage them The whole day is spent in entertaining their Relations and Neighbours who are to be witnesses of the operation for at this time they think they may fairly and lawfully lay aside their gravity and wholly give themselves up to merriment But as soon as Evening-prayers are over they prepare sor the business which is committed to the care of a Chirurgeon or Barber or any other who has an easie and dextrous hand In the mean while the Boy is brought in by his Father and Kinred in his new Vest and Turbant whom they flatter and caress to divert him from melancholy and fear and to prevent him from fainting before he feels the sharpness of the Rasor telling him that in a few minutes he will be enrolled among the followers of Mahomet and be made capable of the favour of God and the joys of Paradise Sometimes they cast the Boy into a sleep with an Opiat potion