Place of Purgatory and a Fire which torments Souls But the Greeks deny both though they acknowledge a certain State of Purgatory and therefore they pray to God for the Dead It is certain that Prayers for the Dead have been appointed in the Church in the very first ages as appears by Tertullian and the Ancientest of the Fathers aswell as by the most Ancient Liturgies Perhaps the Church took that Ceremony from the Jews who likewise pray to God for the Dead which was a Custome practised in the Synagogues long before the Birth of Christianity and is to be found practised at that time when the Jews were under the Dominion of the Grecians There is this difference nevertheless betwixt the Greeks and the Latins as to their praying for the Dead that the latter have explained themselves more fully whereas the former and all the other Orientals have continued in more General Terms The Latins however in their Prayers for the Dead at Mass retain the Ancient form which agrees pretty well with what the Greeks believe of Hell Purgatory and Paradise This is the manner of praying for the Dead in the Mass of the Latins Domine Jesu Christe libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni de profundo lacu libera eas de ore I eonis ne absorbeat eas Tartarus ne cadant in obscurum c. These words seem to confirm the Opinion of the Greeks and other Christians of the East for they suppose but one Place which is Hell where the Souls are detained as in a dark Prison and they pray that the Souls may pass from that obscure Place to a Place of Light and Rest which is Paradise and this exactly agrees with the Prayer that the Priest says at the Mass which is called in die obitus As to what concerns Hell we shall not speak here of the Opinion of Origen who hath nevertheless been followed by some Greek Doctours we shall onely mention what is most generally approved by them When they pray that God would deliver Souls out of Hell that is to be understood of the State of Purgatory I mean that in that obscure Prison which they call Hell there are two sorts of Souls one sort whose Sins are not so enormous as to be condemned for them to Eternal Punishment there and another who are really condemned to Hell there to abide for ever Of these last it may be said that in inferno nulla est redemptio whereas in respect of the first sort of Souls it may be said that in inferno est redemptio This may serve to explain the Liturgies and Books of the New Greeks which seem to suppose that the Souls shall not remain in Hell for ever and that so the Punishment of the damned is not Eternal If we take this Rule along with us we may have an easie explication of all the Prayers that are said for the Dead in the Greek Church As to Paradise the Greeks and other Orientals are in this perswasion that Souls enjoy not Eternal Bliss and that they are not punished with the Pains of Hell before they receive Sentence from God at the last day of Universal Judgment And therefore according to the Sentiment of the Greeks we must distinguish two Paradises The first is that Place of Light and Rest mentioned in their Prayers and Liturgy where the Souls of the Blessed repose expecting the last Judgment That Place is called in the publick Office that is said for the Dead Paradise Light Life Blessedness Abraham's Bosome the Land of the Living c. The second Paradise is that Eternal Bliss which they shall enjoy in heaven after the Universal Judgment and they think that Opinion to be more agreeable to the Texts of Holy Scripture than that of the Latins for it shall not be say they but at that day that Jesus Christ who will come in quality of Judge shall say to the Elect (1) Matth. 25. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World c. They pretend that the Opinion of the Latins concerning Paradise and Hell before the last day of Judgment is not founded on Antiquity Besides we may observe that the Greeks have not subtilized so much upon the Light of the Glory of the Blessed as most of the Latine Divines have done who have spoken of it with extraordinary nicety Nay there are some who affirm that the Greeks Fathers deny that the Angels and Blessed see the Essence of God in Heaven relying upon these words of Theodoret (2) Theod. Dial. immut The Angels see not the Divine Essence which comprehends all things and cannot be comprehended nor known but they see a certain species which is proportionate to their Nature And this they confirm also by the Testimony of many Fathers There remains somewhat to be said of the Morals Discipline and Ceremonies of the Greeks As to their Morality seeing they have the same Principles as the Latius have it cannot be much different from theirs unless it be that wanting the use of School Divinity they are not so great Metaphysicians as the Latins wherein they are not to be blamed when they mingle no Logick nor Metaphysicks in their Books of Morality if you except some Greeks who have studied in the Schools of Italy or have read the Books of the Latins It may be notwithstanding that the Greeks and other Christians of the East do not walk up to the strictness of the Rules of Morality because of the sad condition to which they are at present reduced Their Church-men are accused of Simony because the Bishops sell Orders and the Priests the Administration of Sacraments but if matters be throughly examined perhaps they are not so blameable as people think There is a necessity that they live by their Calling and seeing they have no Benefices as they are at present established in the Church of Rome why are they not to be allowed to take money for the Administration of Sacraments There is no fault found with the Custome that is introduced into the West of taking money for Masses Confessions and many other things and shall a poor Papas be accused of Simony for being paid for an Absolution that he giveth and for having rated it according to the nature of the Sin Nor do we think it strange neither that certain Sins are rated at Rome because we are accustomed to the practice Will the new distinction of Divine Right and Ecclesiastical Right that some Divines and Canonists have invented in these last Ages put the Pope without the reach of Simony and shall not that extreme necessity to which the Patriarch and Greeks Bishops are reduced render them at all excusable before God and Man in that they take money for Ordinations It is not that I would excuse the Greeks in all things for it is certain they many times take too much Liberty to themselves and that they are not carefull
shall raise them again for fresh Sufferings and that so their Torments shall never have an end They commonly believe Predestination and say that good and evil onely happen because God hath so ordained He hath say they from all Eternity written on a Table the things that are and are to be and it is impossible that they can be otherwise The unbelief and wickedness of the Infidel are asmuch according to his Knowledge and Desire as the Obedience and Faith of the Believer They farther say that if it be asked why God hath created the wicked and unbelievers we are to answer that it does not become us to inquire too curiously into the Secrets of God that he does what he pleases and no man ought to ask the reason of what he does And therefore a true follower of Mahomet ought to say I believe in God in his Angels in his Books and in the Day of Judgment I farther believe that good and evil happen according as he hath ordained and that in fine it is he that hath created both As to Believers who dye without repentance they maintain that they continue in suspence after their death and that God disposes of them according to his good Will and Pleasure that some he pardons and condemns others to suffer the Punishment which they deserve because of their Sins being still assured to goe into Paradise after the Expiation of their Crimes They are in fine perswaded that God pardons all sorts of Sins except Atheism and Idolatry and that is the reason why in the Prayers they make for the dead they pray for the wicked aswell as for the good They have a great esteem for Prayers Charity and other pious Actions that are performed for the dead because that contributes to the Comfort and repose of Souls They have a kind of Office appointed for that purpose where are set down the Prayers to be said at Buryings and the Surrates of Chapters of the Alcoran that are to be read at the Grave of the deceased which reading being done they who have been employed in that Office say with a loud voice With all our heart we give to this Person deceased the Merit of all our reading It is not out of Vanity that they erect Tomb-stones over their Graves but that Passengers may remember to pray to God for the rest of their Souls The Mahometans not onely perform the internal Acts of Faith but also accuse themselves of all their Sins which they confess in the Presence of God and to him alone Penance say they is but Repentance for the Sins which we have committed with a firm resolution not to fall into the like again Their Morality consists in doing good and eschewing Evil which is the reason why they examine very carefully the Nature of Virtues and Vices and their Casuists are no less subtile than ours are I shall here mention some of their Principles whence we may the more easily judge of their Morality They are so perswaded that all Actions which are not accompanied with Faith are Sins that they maintain that he who denies it loses the Merit of all his good Works that as often as he lies with his Wife he commits so many Adulteries in a word that all he does during that time cannot be acceptable to God untill he hath repented of his Sin and that then he becometh a Mussulman or Believer anew and must marry again a second time and if he hath made the Journey to Mecha he must make it over again because all his good Actions have been blotted out by that denial and Repentance cannot again revive them When they demand any thing of God in Prayer they are to resign themselves wholly to his Will and say to him O my God I beg of thee not to grant what I ask if it be not for my good And when they have obtained of God the favour they desired they ought to thank him confessing themselves unworthy of the Mercies they have received and that of themselves they are able to doe nothing They recommend nothing so much as trust and confidence in God whom they acknowledge to be their onely support and they particularly praise Humility which according to them consists in esteeming others more than themselves They give excellent Precepts for bridling the Passions and shunning vice If thou wouldest say they have Hell shut its seven Gates take heed thou sin not with thy seven Members which are they Eyes the Ears the Tongue the Hand the Foot the Belly and the Privities which they dare not name and they reckon up all the particulars from which every one of these Parts ought to abstain Slander and Backbiting is one of the Vices against which they most declame and there is nothing they so much condemn as the Censurings of other People even when they are true Upon that Principle they ground this Maxime that we ought not to speak of things that are hidden from us For instance they forbid to say such a Man is dead or shall dye in the Faith because it belongs not to us to judge of things which God hath concealed that say they can be done onely when the Prophet hath spoken of them and so it may be affirmed that Abubekir Homer Osman and Haly deserve Paradise For the same reason also they say that it is not lawfull to say that such a Person is dead in Unbelief or that he deserves Hell unless they speak of those who are expresly mentioned by the Prophet as the Devil Abusaheb and Abugehel I wave the rest of their Morals in respect that what I have alledged is sufficient to shew the Nature of it and I dare affirm it is not so remiss as that of some Casuists of our Age. Onely let me add that they have a great many good Precepts concerning the Duties of Private Persons towards their Neighbour wherein they also prescribe Rules of Civility They have also written of the Duty of Subjects towards their Prince and one of their Maximes is that it is never lawfull to kill him nay nor to speak ill of him under Pretext that he is a Tyrant The Devotion of the Mahometans extends even to Holy Names as when they pronounce the Name of God they must bow and add thereunto most High most Blessed most Mighty most Excellent or the like If one has pronounced the Name of Mahomet he must add may God augment his Graces to the Names of other Messengers they add that God is satisfied with them And lastly to the Names of other Doctours they add may the Mercy of God rest upon them There are no Monachal Constitutions that so much oblige Monks to obey their Superiour as the Precepts of the Mahometan Doctours oblige Disciples to respect their Masters whom they ought to obey in all things without gain-saying and in whose Presence they are not to speak too loud As they distinguish that which is of Divine obligation from what is onely of Humane Constitution and that
for Fornication and shall marry another committeth Adultery It is manifest then say they that the Gospel permits the dissolving of Marriage in the Case alledged and declining the Authority of St. Augustine and some other Latin Fathers as to that Point they affirm that the Greek Fathers never explained that Passage otherways and that besides the whole Eastern Church therein agree with the Greeks Nay it is easie to prove by the Histories of the Councils of Florence and (1) F. paolo nella sua Istoria del Concil Card. Palavic nella sua Istor del Concil di Trent of Trent that it is the Practice of all the Greek Church And therefore it was that the Ambassadours of Venice addressed themselves to the Council of Trent for obtaining some qualification to be made in the Canon which was ready to be published against those who said that Adultery dissolved Marriage And the thing that set the Republick of Venice upon this was that the Greeks of Candia Cyprus Corfou Zante and some other Places Subjects of the State practised that which the Council was about to condemn In effect the Ambassadours had satisfaction because their reasons were thought good as Cardinal Palavicini acknowledges in his History of the Council It is nevertheless true that the Greeks dissolve their Marriages too easily and not in the Case of Adultery alone But they still pretend that therein they Conform to the Canon and Civil Laws which ought to be moderated because of the too great Liberty they have taken to themselves However Caucus having onely mentioned the Case of Adultery seems to have been too reserved inasmuch as he might have told a great many other Cases of less importance wherein the Greeks make no scruple to divorce Seventhly it is not to be thought strange that the Greeks eat no flesh that hath been stifled or strangled bloud nor other meats that are not onely forbidden in the Old Testament but also in the New as appears in the Acts of the Apostles a thing not singular to the Greeks of Corfou onely but which is generally practised by all the Christians of the East and not very long since it was wholly abolished in the West In the Eighth place as to the Article which concerns the Supremacy of the Pope it may be thought strange that Leo Allatius should fall so foul on Caucus in that Point as if he were one of the greatest Impostours in the World It is but too true that the Greeks who are not Latinised nay and all the rest of the Eastern Churches do not at present own that Primacy of Rome over the other patriarchs in the manner that it is acknowledged in the Western Church (1) Metroph Critop in Epit. Doctr. Eccl. Orient Metrophanes Critopulus assures us that the Eastern Church acknowledges no other Head but Jesus Christ who hath the Qualities of Head of the Church that amongst the Patriarchs there is no difference unless it be of the See 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he speaks The Patriarch of Constantinople takes the first place He of Alexandria the Second the Patriarch of Antioch the Third and he of Jerusalem the Fourth Every one is Supreme within his own Jurisdiction and if they all meet together in one place they mutually kiss one anothers hands So that none of them takes the Title of Head of the Catholick Church as the same Critopulus observes who would thereby condemn the Pope who assumes these Titles As to what Leo Allatius adds (2) Leo Allat de Consens Eccl Occid Orient that Caucus imposes upon the Greeks when he saith that they excommunicate the Pope and Latin Bishops on Holy Thursday that is a thing which hath not onely been observed by Caucus in Corfou but by many other Travellers also in several places The Jesuit Dandini who travelled to Mount Libanus in Quality of Nuncio under Clement VIII in the description that he makes of the Isle of Candy speaks of the Greeks in these terms (1) Girolamo Dandini in Miss Apost cap. 5. I should have a great many things to say if I would relate all the impurities of the Prelates Priests and other Churchmen of that Nation their separation from the Latin Church the Maledictions and Excommunications which they thunder against her on the most Holy Days and at the same time when we pray to God for their Conversion Ninthly we may easily believe that the Greeks reckon Sub-Deaconship amongst the inferiour Orders which are not Sacred to speak in the Terms of the Latins since it is not very long since the Latins themselves have made it a sacred Order In the tenth Place it may be seen in the Books of Greek Writers that to own but seven General Councils is not a thing peculiar to the Greeks of Corfou Nay one would think it a little too much to oblige them to receive the Latin Councils wherein they have had no share or those others wherein they say they were forced to be present more for the Interests of State than the Concerns of Religion They are permitted to live in this Belief in the States of the Republick of Venice Lastly as to what concerns Festival Days Fasts and many other Matters of Discipline it is certain the Greek Church does not agree therein with the Latin and Caucus had reason to say that the Greeks admitted them not nor yet part of the Saints of the Roman Church which they laugh at when they see them in Churches as may be seen in the History of the Council of Florence written by Syropulus where he saith (1) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When I enter into any Church of the Latins I salute none of the Saints whom I see because I know none of them Nay I have much adoe to know Jesus Christ there whom I do not adore neither because I know not in what manner they represent him I think this may be enough to justifie Caucus in what he attributes to the Greeks and if that Authour hath been pleased sometimes to exaggerate their Errours and to impose upon them it may also be said that Leo Allatius hath not always kept within bounds in making their Defence I confess the way that he hath taken to reunite the two Churches would be more effectual for reconciling the Greeks to the Roman Communion than the Course that hath been followed by the Emissaries who have encreased their Errours and continue to doe so daily instead of lessening them but for all that we may know the true Sentiments of the Greeks if we can but lay aside our ordinary Prejudices and distinguish those who are Latinised from those that are not We forgot to observe their Belief as to Purgatory Hell and Paradise (2) Caucus ib. ac supra Caucus with many other Writers does affirm that the Greeks deny Purgatory and that notwithstanding they pray for the Dead which is to be understood with relation to the Opinion of the Latins who commonly establish a