in general and that the Elements by their being blest and separated from common use are already sanctified and dedicated to God and so are in a readiness and disposition to be consecrated and made the Body and Bloud of Christ and that they are fit matter prepared and determined to this Sacramental end and purpose Therefore say they this Adoration is justly due to them Whereas after the Consecration when the Symbols are exposed and shewn to the people the Reverence is not half so great onely a little bowing of the body which is soon over But the miscarriage seem'd to me when I was present so gross and scandalous as that it needs no other confutation then the bare relating When the Priest consecrates the Door of the Bema or Chancell is shut up or at least the Veil or Curtain drawn before it the people being wholly debarred from the sight of the Priest's consecrating the holy Elements and no person of what quality soever suffered to be present but such as belong to and attend upon the holy service After the recital of several Prayers and Antiphons and the Constantinopolitan Creed the same with that which is commonly through a mistake called the Nicene Creed unless in the Article of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son which is inserted by the Latine Church the Priest proceeds to the consecration of the Elements the Deacon having fanned with a little Fan called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying softly to himself after the Quire has sung the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant Song Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory Hosanna in the highest Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest With these blessed Powers O mercifull Lord we cry aloud and say Thou art holy altogether holy and great is thy glory so is thy onely-begotten Son and thy Spirit Thou art holy altogether holy and great is thy glory who so lovest the world that thou gavest thy onely-begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life who when He had come and fulfilled the Dispensation which He undertook for us in the night in which He was betrayed or rather in which He delivered up himself for the life of the World took Bread into his holy pure and spotless hands and when He had given thanks and blessed it and sanctified it and brake it He gave it to his holy Disciples and Apostles saying here he inclines his head and laying his hand upon the Bread says with a loud voice Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you for the remission of sins likewise also after supper He took the Cup which taking up in his hand he says aloud Drink you all of this this is my Bloud of the New Testament which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins Afterwards he says secretly Mindfull therefore of thy saving command and of all things done for us of thy Cross Resurrection the third day Ascension into Heaven Session at the right hand of God and of thy second and glorious Coming again then with a loud voice we offer to thee thine of thine own in all things and through all things the Quire singing We praise thee we bless thee we give thanks to thee O Lord and we make our supplications to thee O God Then the Priest prays again We also offer to thee this rational and unbloudy worship and service and we beseech thee and pray thee and make our supplications to thee send forth thy Holy Spirit upon us and upon these Gifts that lie before us After some Adorations and short private Prayers as O Lord who sentest thy most Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at the third hour do not O mercifull God take this thy Spirit from us and Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me which he repeats thrice to himself the Priest standing upright signing the holy Elements with the sign of the Cross three times says privately Make this Bread the precious Body of thy Christ and then Make that which is in this Cup the precious Bloud of thy Christ laying both his hands upon them changing them by thy Holy Spirit and soon after that this Sacrament may be to those who partake of them for the health and sobriety of the Soul the remission of Sins the fulness of the Kingdom of heaven and assurance in thee and not for our sin and condemnation Then it follows We offer also this rational service for those who rest in Faith for our Ancestours Forefathers Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Preachers Evangelists Martyrs Confessours Virgins and for every Soul made perfect by Faith and especially for the glorious and spotless ever-Virgin Mary S. John Baptist all the holy Apostles the Saint whose memory we now celebrate and all thy Saints c. Here he names several of the living and dead For the dead he says for the rest and ease of the Soul of thy Servant in the bright place whence all grief and sighing are banish'd and make it to rest where the light of thy Countenance shines Then he prays God to remember all the Orthodox Clergy and then We offer also this rational service for the whole world for the holy Catholick and Apostolick Church for all Christian Princes their Courts and Armies that God would grant them a peaceable reign that we may live a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty c. Several other Prayers and Responses follow together with the Lord's Prayer The Priest comes to the middle door of the Chancell and elevates the Bread which he afterwards breaks and divides into four parts and lays them down in the figure of a Cross one of which he puts into the Chalice wherein is poured again some warm water after which he himself communicates At the reception of the Cup he drinks thrice saying at the first sip In the name of the Father at the second and of the Son at the third and of the Holy Ghost The Priests and Deacons receive the Elements apart and distinctly in this form At the delivery of the Bread The precious holy and undefiled Body of the Lord God our Saviour Jesus Christ is given to thee for the remission of sins and everlasting life and at the delivery of the Cup The precious and holy Bloud of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is given to thee for the remission of sins and everlasting life This tenour of words is not always retained but admits of a variation the Priest saying sometimes I give unto thee the precious and holy Body of our Lord c. sometimes Thou receivest the precious and holy Body of our Lord c. After they within the Sanctuary or Holy place have been partakers of the Divine and tremendous Mysteries the Deacon standing at the
and Blasphemies of the Turks who being stupid and dull are guided wholly in their judgments of things by a gross fancy and reject with a brutish kind of pride and scorn whatever is raised though never so little above the reach of Sense it is no slight argument of the truth of the great Articles of the Christian Religion against the subtle contrivances of a party of men in Christendome who under a pretence of sober reason undermine the foundations of it that the Christians of the East do still retain with all imaginable constancy and firmness of assent the entire profession of the Mysteries of Faith as they were believed and acknowledged in the first Ages They retain exactly the Catholick Doctrine concerning the most Holy and undivided Trinity and the Incarnation of the eternal Son of God according to the Constantinopolitan Creed which they onely retain in their Liturgies and Catechisms this being but an Exposition of the Apostles Creed more at large which is the true reason why the Apostolicall form came anciently to be omitted among them As to that of S. Athanasius they are wholly strangers to it They are content with the profession of Faith as it is laid down there without troubling themselves with curious and nice distinctions which oftentimes in stead of explaining confound and obscure the Mystery Yet with a becoming zeal they condemn the madness and impiety of Arius Nestorius Paulus Samosatenus and the other Haeresiarchs whose Opinions if any one be known to favour in the least they presently excommunicate him and do not restore him to the Communion of the Church till he has renounced his Heresy with tears and given other ample satisfaction Indeed as to the manner of the subsistence of the Holy Spirit the Greeks vary from the Latines and from the Churches of the Reformation and by what we may judge from the reluctancy and unwillingness of the Bishops after all attempts of Reconciliation the difference herein is like to be perpetual They object with a great deal of bitter passion that the Bishops of the Roman Church have not dealt honestly in this matter for that without consulting them and without regard to the Canon of the Council of Ephesus which forbad such Additions under the penalty of an Anathema they have inserted the words Filióque into the Constantinopolitan Creed For the justification and proof of this Charge they appeal to the Writings of the ancient Fathers to Acts of Councils to Ecclesiasticall History to the faith of the best and most authentick Manuscript Copies nay to Rome it self where that Creed was engraven on two silver Tables hung up in S. Peter's Church by the command of Pope Leo the Third where this Addition is wanting This was hotly disputed by the Greeks in the Council held at Florence and no one argument or point of controversy have they maintained or do still maintain with greater variety of learning or subtilty At present I shall content my self with one or two irrefragable testimonies Cyrillus Lucaris who afterwards fell a sacrifice to the malice and revenge of the Jesuits in the Epistle he wrote to Vytenbogaert out of Walachia when he was Patriarch of Alexandria saith Ipsa i.e. Ecclesia Graeca Spiritum Sanctum à Filio essentialiter internè quoad esse procedere negat The Greek Church denies that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son essentially and internally and as to his subsistence And so afterward when he was advanced to the Patriarchall throne of Constantinople in his Confession of Faith which brought upon him all that envy and mischief which afterwards befell him chap. 1. The Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father by the Son Which form of words he very wisely and warily thought fit to use in compliance with the ancient Writers of his Church as it was proved in the Council of Florence by Isidorus Bishop of Russia and Bessarion of Nice and Marcus Eugenicus of Ephesus from the authorities of S. Maximus and S. John Damascen and several others This being so expresly asserted by Cyrillus I cannot sufficiently wonder at the rashness and disingenuity of the Assessors of the second Synod held against this good man at Constantinople under Parthenius who most unjustly censure and condemn him for maintaining against the Sentiments of the Catholick Church the eternal and substantial procession of the Holy Spirit as well from the Son as the Father Lastly they declare in their Confession that the Holy Spirit proceedeth eternally from the Father as the fountain and principle of the Deity according to what our Saviour teaches us saying When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testify of me S. John 15. 26. The great argument made use of by Phatius and other Writers both ancient and modern is briefly summ'd up by Cyrillus The Greek Church does therefore deny the procession of the Spirit from the Son quòd veretur nè dicendo à Filio ut à Patre duo asserat in Divinis principia existentiae Spiritûs Sancti quod esset impiissimum fearing lest they should assert and introduce two distinct Principles of the existence of the Spirit of God in the Deity which they look upon as an horrid impiety But to prevent all unjust suspicions as if they entertain'd any evil or heterodox Opinions about the Third Person of the glorious Trinity they declare fully against the Heresy of Macedonius and the rest of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and most readily acknowledge the Holy Spirit to be of the same substance with the Father and the Son to be God from eternity proceeding from the essence and nature of the Father without beginning and to be equally adored Likewise they acknowledge that He is the Spirit of the Son and that He is sent poured out and given by the Son But this they refer to the temporary mission of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and upon all the Faithfull So that they neither confound the Persons of the Holy Trinity nor take away the Personal Relations and Proprieties of the Son and Spirit forasmuch as the manner of Generation whereby the Son subsists is distinct from the manner of the Procession of the Holy Spirit From these premisses it will fully appear that the Greeks are most unjustly accused by some of the Roman Church in the height of their intemperate zeal as deserters of the Catholick Faith and as guilty of Heresy in a necessary Article of Faith for that the difference herein is rather verbal then real and lies not so much in the substance of the Article as in the way and manner of expressing themselves To justify this their imputation they with an equal rashness are not afraid to assert and that as boldly as if they had been admitted into the Secrets of God that the Holy Spirit has sufficiently shewed his anger from Heaven
bread in the Sacrament a Vid. Allat de Libris Ecclesiasticis Graecor pag. â—20 The Sacramental bread pure and by whom made The Sacrament celebrated but once the same day upon the same Altar and anciently but one Altar in a Church a See S. Ignat. epist ad Philadelph pag. 40. edit Voss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Et in epist ad Magnesianos pag. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sacrament celebrated often and when and in ruined places where formerly Churches were seated a sive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De horum consecratione vide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euchologio People obliged to receive the Sacrament four times a year The Priest does not consecrate till after day-light a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Lent the Sacrament is not celebrated till the afternoon The Greeks communicate fasting Their Posture at receiving a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The People obliged to Confession before they communicate The Priest himself obliged also They communicate Children in both kinds They reserve the Sacrament for the use of sick persons a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A digression about the original of this custom a Acts 2. v. 42 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apostles Creed perchance ought thus to be understood for the participation of the Sacraments and other holy things of God as they lie in common to all Saints in the language of the New Testament that is Christians who have herein a Communion one with another a Vid. Eusebii Histor Eccles lib. 6. cap. 44. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a S. Basil in his Liturgy calls the Sacramentall bread distributed to the Communicants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A just Censure on a little posthumous Piece of Mr. J. H. About the ten Particles a in tractatulo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Among these Arcudius lib. 3. cap. 10. c. and Câ—â—d Bona de rebus Liturg. l. 1. c. 1. p. 311. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 About the Colyba or boiled Wheat a The original of boiled Wheat they derive from the times of the Apostate Emperour Julian who had caused the bread flesh and fruit exposed to sale in the market to be polluted with the bloud and steams of the Idoll-sacrifices The Bishop being warned of this from God by the appearing of S. Theodore who had been martyred under Maximine commanded the people lest they should be polluted by this unlawfull food to satisfy their hunger this way Thus the story is related by Nicephorus Callistus in his Church-history l. 10. c. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Vid. peculiare opusculum Gabrielis Archiepiscopi Philadelphiensis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The pretended reason of it a In the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euchol p. 658. No consecration in Lent but on Saturdays Sundays and the Feast of the Annunciation Holy Order a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sexton b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Balsamonem in quartum canonem Synodi Trullanae Reader c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quire-man a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sub-deacon Deacon Priest and Bishop Office of a Priest in what it consists b See the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 129. Imposition of hands always used in the conferring these three last Orders c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 130. Penance a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 132. Confession a Vid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 109. Absolution a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Cap. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The good effect of Church-censures among them a which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à fâ—etore qualis è limo putrescente in fossa oriri solet sic dictas a Thus Metrophanes Patriarch of Constantinople menaces the Christians of Candia unless they ceased from molesting the Jews of that Island that they should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Turco-Graecia pag. 281. b See an instance of this at large in the History of the Patriarchs of Constantinople since the taking of that City by the Turks written in vulgar Greek by Manuel Malaxus in the Life of Maximus in Turco-Graec p. 133 c. also the Historia Politica of Constantinople in the same Volume p. 27 28. Vide etiam Christophor Angelum in Enchiridio a Vid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Euchologio pag. 684 c. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Our Interpreters at Constantinople fansied this word to be corrupted from the Turkish Kara Congia which signifie a black old man in which shape they pretend this Daemon often to appear a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Espousals a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Marriage a Vid. Harmenopulum apud Gabrielem Philadelph pag. 55. a. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Second and third Marriages how esteemed a Epist 1. ad Michaelem Principem Bulgar p. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consent of Parents and Friends necessary Spiritual Affinity an hindrance of Marriage a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 28. tit 5. cap. 17. Determinationem Joasaphi Metropolitae Corinthii apud Crus in Turco-Graec lib. 4. pag. 324. Vide etiam p. 330. 339. Divorces frequent among them Oyl with Prayer a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 137. b S. Mark 6. 13. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Vid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 110. This Oyl sometimes used upon persons in perfect health or but lightly indisposed The Greeks orthodox in the great Articles of Faith Constantinopolitan Creed They believe the procession of the Holy Spirit to be onely from the Father a Vide Epistolam Photii ad Archiepiscopum Aquilâ—iae Respons 2. Patriarchae Jeremiae p. 222. Et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. pag. 90. The chief Argument made use of by the Greeks They believe the Holy Spirit to be God and coessential 〈◊〉 the Father and the Son and to be the Spirit of the Son a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apology for the Greeks Their opinion about the state of the Dead a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 8. They do not believe a Purgatory by fire but they are otherwise heterodox as appears from their Prayers and Suffrages and from b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 86. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a V. Gabrielem Philadelph pag. 20 21. the offering up of several Particles of Bread at the Prothesis b pag. 19. The custom of the Greeks a perverse imitation of the Ancients They visit the Graves
were anciently deposited being before of Wood was pulled down and rebuilt of Marble by the Empress Theodora the Wife of Justinian incited by his example to doe something worthy of her to make her name known to and admired by posterity This Church according to the tradition of the Greeks was first granted by the Emperour Mahomet upon his taking the City to the Patriarch Gennadius Scholarius but he soon revoked his Grant and turned it into the Mosch which now bears his name The Patrïarchal Church formerly belonged to a Convent of Nuns where the Patriarch has a convenient dwelling It is situated upon the rising of a hill near the Lantern-Gate toward the Haven of an ordinary bigness and without any great Ornament for the reason above mentioned The Emperour Alexius Comnenus here lies interred They shewed me here also the Reliques of S. Euphemia and of some other Martyrs lockt up in Chests which they open with great solemnity to gratify the curiosity of Strangers who reward the civility sufficiently But that which they most esteem is a piece of black Marble as they pretend part of that Pillar which formerly stood in the Praetorium or Hall of Pontius Pilate to which our Blessed Saviour was tied when he was whipped about two foot long and three or four inches over if my memory serves me right for I did not think it worth my pains though never so small to take the exact dimensions of it inclosed in brass lattice Grates that it may not receive prejudice either from devout or sacrilegious persons For they have a strong imagination that the dust rased from it and put into wine or any way conveyed into the stomach cures Agues and Fevers almost infallibly In a brass Plate under it I found these six Verses engraven alluding to the tradition I just now mentioned which they believe as undoubtedly as if it were Gospell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Near hereunto the Emperour Selim emulous of the glory of his Ancestours once intended to have built a Mosch for the advantage of the situation The Greeks fearing lest their Church should be demolisht for the enlargement of the Area of it play'd a master-game of cunning by bribing the Vizir and the other Bassa's who had a mighty Ascendent over him They accordingly diverted him from his purpose and perswaded him to build it at Adrianople to the great joy of the poor Christians who were thus happily delivered from their fears The Churches are of different figures some rising up with Cuppola's in the midst as Sancta Sophia others are built Cross-wise like our Cathedralls others square and oblong That the Rites and Ceremonies which I shall have occasion to mention hereafter may be the better understood I will briefly describe the make and fashion of one of their Churches with the several parts of it for where any of them is wanting it is wholly for want of room or some other convenience referring the curious Reader to the Latine Copy In the first fabrick and constitution they had regard to the threefold condition and order of persons admitted within the Church-doors which are Ecclesiastical persons or Priests and other inferiour Ministers belonging to them Lay-persons which lie under no Church-censure but enjoy the privileges of their Baptism and have the liberty of serving God in the publick Congregation or the Faithfull Penitents and Excommunicated persons deprived of the use of the holy Sacrament in the way of a spiritual Punishment among whom anciently the Catechumeni and persons possessed with Evil Spirits were placed Accordingly every compleat Church consists of an Entrance Nave and Chancell distinguisht by the several uses to which they peculiarly belong and appropriated to particular persons Before you enter the Church is a covered Porch usually arch'd running out at each side the Portall with Seats against the wall upon which are painted several Images as of our Blessed Saviour the Virgin Mary S. John S. George and the like these two last being the great Saints of the East and of that Saint particularly to whose memory the Church is consecrated but very wretchedly and without beauty or proportion Painting as well as the other ingenious and polite Arts having been long since banisht Greece and the Lesser Asia The outward Gate which they call the great or Silver Gate opens into a long narrow space which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distinct from the Body of the Church and separated by a half partition In the innermost part stood the Penitents to hear the holy Scriptures read next to the Gate were the Candidates of Baptism and between both those who were possessed this being their proper place beyond which it was not lawfull to advance one step forward But these uses long since ceasing the rooms are taken up by the Women who never sit promiscuously with Men there being Lattices at the farther end through which they look into the Church without being seen themselves Here they leave the Coffin of the person who is to be interred unless he be a Church-man and then they carry it in farther while they perform some Funeral offices in the Church which ended they carry it into the Church-yard In this place the Font is placed of which I shall speak more distinctly when I come to shew the Ceremonies which they use in Baptism The middle Gate which they call the Beautifull Gate opens into the Nave or Body of the Church which lies open unless almost toward the upper part where there are some few Stalls as in the Patriarchal Church where is one higher then the rest for the Patriarch and others for the Princes of Walachia and Moldavia or for the Metropolitans and Bishops when any happen to be present Above which but more toward the Wall in little oblong Squares those who belong to the Quire have their station and a little higher in the middle is the Desk where they reade the Holy Scripture to the People In the great Churches a Pulpit is usually placed in the middle but which they very seldome make use of You advance onely from a single step to the wooden Partition Which intervall I suppose to be the Soleas about the meaning and right placing of which several learned men have contested at large This reaches almost from the roof to the pavement and takes up the breadth of the Church It is full of Pictures done at large especially those lately mentioned sometime daubed over with Gilt as I have observed in their Monasteries which being either in the Islands or in the Country in by-places out of the sight of the Turks are better and more richly adorned Three Doors open out of it whereof the middlemost called the
the Greeks universally hold them so necessary and essential to the Sacrament that unless they are entirely and distinctly pronounced they think that it is not so much the Sacrament of Baptism which is celebrated as a ludicrous imitation or heretical and profane abuse of it They never use the same water a second time but if two or three Infants are to be baptized at the same time so often they empty and fill the Laver. But the water which has been made use of for this or the like sacred purpose is not thrown away into the street like other common water but poured into a hollow place which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the Altar where it is soaked into the earth or finds a passage Soon after a Prayer or two being interposed the Priest proceeds to anoint the newly-baptized Infant lately covered with its Mantle and Swaddling-cloaths for in the Greek Church Chrismation is inseparable from Baptism and though reckoned as a distinct Mystery as indeed it is is in a manner a necessary appendage and complement of it according to the 48. Canon of the Council of Laodicea which orders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the baptized persons to be anointed with the heavenly Chrism Which Chrism as Matthaeus Blastares explains it out of Zonaras and Balsamon whose words for the most part he retains being sanctified by Prayer and the invocation of the Holy Spirit sanctifies the persons anointed with it and makes them partakers of the heavenly Kingdom of Christ unless impenitence and impiety of life afterwards alienate and render them unworthy of it Confirmation among the Greeks consists of this one single Rite and is therefore called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnguent or Chrism or joyntly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the unguent of Chrism and peculiarly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Seal or Obsignation This being practised onely upon Infants newly baptized and that without Imposition of hands this material part of the Rite having been for several Ages neglected by the Greeks and not reiterated and repeated when they are adult and grown up some Zelots of the Roman Communion making no distinction between the mysticall Rites of the Christian Religion neither making allowances for different customs and usages which seldom keep at the same stay but alter and vary in the whole or in part at least as if every punctilio and circumstance in the Ceremonial part were essential hereupon have objected the want of it to the Greeks and maintain with great zeal and fury that they have no such thing as Confirmation among them These differences have been carried on with great animosities on both sides and have helped to make the Schism irreconcileable the Greeks upon the reproaches made them by the Latines that the Chrismation used by their Priests is unlawfull and a meer usurpation of Episcopal right and power growing more and more obstinate as may be seen from the Encyclicall Epistle of the Patriarch Photius who does as sharply reflect upon the Roman practice fomenting and keeping up the controversy which had been started long before with great heat For that he was not the first who by his wit and power introduced the present custom among his Greeks as some have imagined I could demonstrate by undeniable testimonies if it were agreeable and proper to mix controversies in this present Compendium and Narrative This Anointing and Obsignation is made upon the forehead eyes nostrills mouth ears breast hands and feet the Priest repeating these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit Amen Which form they derive from the Assessors of the Council of Constantinople held in Trullo and thus explain as if the Priest had said at large With the anointing of this holy Ointment thou art sealed and confirmed in the graces of the Holy Spirit which thou receivest for confirmation of thee in the Christian Faith The reason of which form is assigned in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Confession As the Holy Spirit formerly descended upon the Apostles in the shape of fire and poured upon them his Gifts in like manner when the Presbyter anoints the baptized person with holy Oyl the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are poured out upon him from above And to this they apply the words of S. Paul 2 Cor. 1. 21 22. Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us in God who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts But as for the anointing part they quote no higher authority then the writings which bear the name of Dionysius Areopagita Though this Oyl be used by Presbyters in the performance of this Rite yet it is onely blest and sanctified and made fit for use by the Patriarch or Bishops as is expresly asserted by Gabriel Philadelphiensis and in the Catecheticall Confession and in the Bethleemitick Synod This is done on Thursday in the Holy week They are wonderfull curious in the composition of it it being made up of Storax Balsam Cassia Myrrh and the decoction of twenty several Drugs Seeds and Plants added to and mixed with Wine and Oyl a Catalogue of all which Ingredients you may find in the Euchologion This is afterward distributed and put into round bottles or vialls either glass or glazed over called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Alabasters in allusion to the Alabaster box of ointment which S. Mary Magdalen brake and poured upon our Saviour's head When they deny the reiteration of this Rite it is with an exception of one particular case for when Hereticks or Apostates sensible of their errours and impieties are re-admitted after just proofs of a hearty and sincere repentance into the bosome of the Church they are confirmed again after the same manner as when they were first Christned by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the holy Faith which they now profess And herein they follow the 7. Canon of the Council above-mentioned But this is scarce ever practised of late it being death for a Renegado to renounce Turcism and embrace Christianity Before I mention the Rites and Ceremonies used at the celebration of the holy and august Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Lord it will be necessary to premise somewhat concerning their Liturgick Books The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though in the general it is used of Prayer or any part or office of the sacred ministery of Religion is restrained to this great and tremendous Mystery called sometime for distinction-sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the holy sacred and divine Liturgy or Ministration and the Priest from this principal and eminent prerogative of his Function being set apart to offer up this commemorative Sacrifice is peculiarly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Liturgist as well as
on the right side of the Holy Bread Then he takes another piece and so to the ninth which are placed on the left side all which he offers up in honour of S. John Baptist the Apostles S. Basil Gregory the Divine Chrysostome Athanastus Cyrillus Nicolas and all holy Bishops S. Stephen George Demetrius Theodorus and all holy Martyrs S. Antony Euthymius Saba Onuphrius Athanasius of Mount Athos and all holy Monks holy Physicians who cured gratis Cosmus and Damianus Cyrus John Panteleemenon Hermolaus Sampson Diomedes Thallaleus Tryphon and the rest S. Joachim and Anna and of the Saint of the day and all Saints for the sake of whose prayers and supplications O God protect us and in behalf of the Bishop of the place and of the whole Hierarchy of Benefactors and Friends and Relations living and dead here he names the persons whom he is desired particularly to commemorate that the mercifull God would indulge them pardon Then he puts a little silver instrument upon them that the Coverings may not touch the Particles which are put in three rows and so disorder them it being made of two short arches crossing each other in the figure of a star hence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repeating these words And the star came and stood over where the young child was And then they cover the Patin and the Chalice distinctly with linen or silk saying at the first The Lord is King and hath put on glorious apparel c. and at the second Thy power O Christ hath obscured the heavens and the earth is full of thy glory now and for ever and afterward both together with a larger covering or veil which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying O our God hide us under the shadow of thy wings now and for ever Amen All which that is both Bread and Wine making the Oblation are blessed soon after by this solemn Prayer which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O God our God who hast sent our Lord and God Jesus Christ our Saviour and Redeemer who does bless us and sanctifie us to be the heavenly Bread and nourishment of all the world do thou bless this Oblation and receive it upon thy supercelestial Altar Remember O gracious and mercifull God those who offer it and those for whom it is offered and preserve us blameless in the celebration of thy Divine Mysteries this being said by the Priest in a soft and still voice as it were to himself he afterwards says aloud For thy most venerable and glorious Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost is sanctified and glorified now and for ever Amen This Prayer of Benediction being pronounced the Elements though barely blest and yet unconsecrated become venerable and divine Gifts or Oblations as they speak The Deacon having received the book of the Gospell from the hands of the Priest holding it on high that the people may the better see it goes out at the North-door of the Chancell the inferiour Officers carrying Tapers before him and is followed by the Priest and so having made a short Procession in the Body of the Church they enter into the Chancell at the middle door and deposit the Gospell upon the middle Altar where the Consecration is always made This they call the first and lesser Introitus or Entrance Then the Priest says this Prayer secretly O Omnipotent Lord God who onely art holy who receivest the sacrifice of praise from those who call upon thee with their whole heart receive our Prayer who are Sinners and bring us to thy holy Altar and make us fit to offer up to thee Gifts and spiritual Sacrifices for our Sins and the Trespasses of the people and grant that we may find favour before thee and that our Sacrifice may be acceptable unto thee and that the good Spirit of thy grace may dwell in us and in these Gifts thus offered and in all thy People Next the Quire sings the Hymn which begins Come let us adore and fall down before Christ save us thou Son of God c. and the other short Hymn which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy God holy and powerfull holy and immortall have mercy upon us Glory be to the Father and to the Son and c. Which being ended the Deacons reade the Epistle and Gospell appointed for the day So far in ancient times when the Discipline of the Church flourished and was kept up in its perfection and vigour the Catechumeni were admitted to be present in their proper place this being the Missa Catechumenorum and then were dismissed with a peculiar Prayer the Deacon crying aloud and making proclamation Whosoever of you are Catechumeni depart and this was repeated thrice let none of the Catechumeni stay you who are of the number of the faithfull or compleat Christians stay Let us more and more call upon God in peace Then the Priest says several private Prayers to himself after which he advancing towards the Altar of Prothesis takes off the Chalice which he holds in his hand covered and is attended by the Deacon carrying the Patin in which is the holy Bread that is to be consecrated upon his head and that covered too with a piece of silk that it may not be seen and by the other inferiour Ministers going before in order with the Launce the Sponge wherewith they wipe the Dish and the Chalice gilt Crosses Incense Pots Tapers and little Bells and the like They all pass out at the little North-door and proceed slowly into the Nave or Area of the Church about which they take a compass the Quire in the mean while singing the Hymn which they call Cherubicus The people during this Procession shew all imaginable reverence bowing their heads bending their knees and sometimes prostrating themselves upon the pavement and kissing the hem of the Priest's Stole as he passes by besides crossing themselves continually during this pomp and repeating these words Remember me O Lord in thy Kingdome the Priests and Deacons interceding for themselves and the people in this form The Lord God be mindfull of us all in his Kingdom now and for ever Then they enter in at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or middle Door and place the Elements upon the Altar directly opposite to it in order to their consecration This Procession they call the second or great Introitus or Entrance or access to the Altar This seems to be and really is as they order the matter the most solemn part of the Grecian Worship and at which they express the greatest devotion if we may judge of it by these outward and visible signs A practice that really gives great offence and is wholly unjustifiable notwithstanding all the little and trifling excuses and pretensions made by Symeon Thessalonicensis and Gabriel Severus in favour of it as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies any Adoration and Respect
except that from Christmas to the 15. of January they recite in the evening the 135. Psalm which is called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the frequent repetition of the Hemistichium for his mercy endureth for ever So that the whole is finisht in the space of seven days except in strict and high Lent when it is repeated every week twice as is above declared The 118. Psalm which makes up the seventeenth Section is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the first verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 103. Psalm is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called because with it they begin their evening service and their prayers at other solemn times There are six Psalms the whole therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they usually recite betimes in the morning and especially if it be preceded by a Vigil these are the 3. 37. 62. 87. 102. and 142. Otherwise if there be no Vigil and it happen to be Sunday they sing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hymn in praise of the most B. Trinity That excellent Hymn which our Church retains in her Communion-Service which is said or sung after we have been made partakers of the holy Mysteries of Christ's blessed Body and Bloud Glory be to God on high and in earth peace good will towards men We praise thee we c. makes up a necessary part of their morning-devotion upon Sundays and the other more solemn Festivals and indeed as it appears by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Office used every morning on all other days onely with this difference that it is then barely read and not sung which is their present practice as I found particularly upon enquiry as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in their solemn Prayers after supper before they go to their rest This is called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the great Doxology to distinguish it from the other which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the lesser that is the Gloria Patri which they repeat at the end of every Station of the Psalms and at other times prescribed in the Liturgick and other Offices this latter being a more contracted glorification of the Holy Trinity which they thus express somewhat different from the Latine form Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost both now and always and for ever or to eternal ages Amen This greater Doxology from the constant usage of it called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the morning Prayer or Hymn it being made up both of Supplications and Lauds though the latter be the more common appellation and by some the Angelical Hymn from the Preface to it sung by the Angels at the Birth of our B. Saviour S. Luke ch 2. is of great antiquity being mentioned by S. Athanasius as universally known and used by the generality of Christians of both sexes in those Eastern and Southern Countries of the world in their private Devotions and is to be found after the Psalms and Hymns in the third Volume of that most venerable monument of Piety and Antiquity the Greek translation of the Bible in His Majestie 's Library at Saint James's sent to King Charles the First Martyr of blessed and glorious memory by that great man Cyrillus Lucaris Patriarch of Constantinople who was also murthered which he brought with him out of Aegypt upon his leaving the Patriarchate of Alexandria written in capital letters and as he guesses in a paper placed by him in the beginning of the first Volume giving an account of it above thirteen hundred years since This I conjecture to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by Lucian in his Philopatris in these words of Triephon to Critias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I understand thus that the Christians of that time whom the wicked Infidel sports with and abuses in that Dialogue used to begin their Devotion with the Lord's Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and conclude it with this divine Hymn or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ode full of the appellations of God the Father and Christ This I think to be no way unlikely as judging the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be distinct and different forms But because it is possible that it might be but one composition or Prayer concluding with an Hymn I am more inclined to believe notwithstanding that it ought to be meant of this rather then of the Lord's Prayer and however that it more then seems though the most learned Archbishop Vsher will have it onely to seem so to be one of those Psalms and Hymns mentioned by an ancient Authour who confuted the Heresy of Artemon to have been composed and sung by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Christians in honour of our Blessed Saviour's Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Pliny testifies of them also in a Letter to Trajan to which that part of this divine Hymn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does very fitly and properly answer There immediately follows in the same Manuscript this Hymn collected for the most part out of the Psalms which is still retained by the Greeks in their Morning-service and repeated after it as a part of it Every day will I bless Thee and praise thy Name for ever Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without sin Blessed art Thou O Lord God of our Fathers and blessed and praised be thy Name for ever Amen Blessed art Thou O Lord O teach me thy Statutes This Versicle is repeated thrice O Lord Thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another I said O Lord be mercifull to me heal my soul for I have sinned against Thee Lord I fly unto Thee teach me to doe thy will for Thou art my God For with Thee is the fountain of life in thy light we shall see light Extend thy mercy to such as know Thee The following Hymn is always recited in that part of the Evening-service just upon Sun-set which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines Lucernarium which I onely here put down for the antiquity of it it not being my business to transcribe their Offices which the learned and pious Reader may consult at large to his great satisfaction and advantage Pleasant brightness of the holy glory of the immortal heavenly holy blessed Father Jesu Christ we having arrived to Sun-set and seeing the evening light praise the Father Son and Holy Spirit of God Thou O Son of God giver of life art worthy to be praised always with holy voices Wherefore the world glorifies Thee This seems to be the very form of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which S. Basil refers to in his Book de Spiritu Sancto ad Amphilochium cap. 29. as having been established by the Fathers long before his time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
of those Countries where the doctrine and rites of it are profest and maintain'd is a very considerable part of the Catholick Church All the Christians of the vast dominions of the Emperour of Moscovy the Cossacks the Inhabitants of Podolia and of the black Russia who are Subjects of Poland the people of Aethiopia in the inner part of Africk lying South of Aegypt of Circassia of Georgia formerly Iberia and of Mengrelia the Colchis of the Ancients and of the Islands of the Mediterranean under the Venetians being of its Communion In all which places it may be justly said to flourish being the establisht Religion and where the Christians are either absolute Lords and Masters or else onely make some acknowledgment to the Grand Signior or Sophy of Persia for their peace and quiet as do those Asiatick Princes who live beyond the Euxine Sea and whose Country reaches towards Mount Caucasus and so are as it were miserably harassed and ground between the two mighty Empires of the East But I am to consider the Greek Church chiefly as it is contain'd in the dominions of the Turks where it is most sadly afflicted For though the Greeks have the free use and exercise of the Christian Religion and are allowed their Churches for the publick Worship of Christ and in Moldavia and Walachia especially which the Turks leave wholly to be inhabited by them under the Government of the respective Princes who indeed are in effect but their Tax-gatherers and who swear Allegeance to the Port and whom they prefer and degrade as their interest or covetousness incline them yet in all other respects they are no other than as Slaves 'T is meerly out of interest and a sense they have of the benefit of their service and not any regard to the last Testament of Mahomet which commands all his followers to shew kindness to the Christians for to That they are strangers it being most probably the invention of some good meaning persons of our Religion who hoped by this pious kind of fraud to take off the Conquerours from that fury and barbarity wherewith their own â—ough temper and the Chapter of the Sword in the Alcoran might inspire them that they admit the Greeks to the favour of enjoying their lives and their Religion together Which they dearly pay for being subject to innumerable arbitrary taxes upon all occasions besides their head mony which is severely exacted every year even of boys if above 14 years of age not to mention either the extortions of the Cadies who suck their very bloud upon every slight miscarriage when they fall into their clutches and oftentimes upon unjust and frivolous avanias or pretensions when they are wholly innocent or the insolencies of the Souldiers who enter their houses in the Country especially and rob and spoil and tyrannize over the poor people these injustices though too much connived at being besides the intent of the Government They are forced sometimes into the wars to doe all the drudgery of the Camp or to serve as Pioneers in working their Mines or to look to their Carriages and the like exposed daily to horrid indignities and injuries against which they have no remedy every rascally Turk making use of his Privilege to triumph over them oftentimes out of zeal to his false Religion but oftener out of wantonness and a proud insolent humour This wretched state and condition of life though it cannot but strike a horrour into the minds of all who enjoy the happiness of freedom and a mild government might be digested well enough and born with some kind of patience if they suffer'd onely in their bodies or in their purses if they were not upbraided with their being Christians if they could be free from either their menaces or invitations of renouncing their Faith and their Saviour if their Children were not ravaged and torn from their arms and bred up in the false and bruitish Religion of Mahomet to be afterwards their plagues and tormentors For to supply their Seminaries formerly as often as the necessity of affairs required though of late years they have forborn to practise it they send forth Officers into the several Provinces of Europe they yielding generally the most hardy and best Souldiers who coming to any Town command the poor Christians to bring their male-children from seven or eight years old and upwards before them If any should dare to conceal them at home or send them away into the woods or upon the mountains they are punished But of these they chuse the best complexion'd and strongest and the most likely to answer the ends of their Collection Some of their Parents indeed out of natural pity and out of a true sense of Religion that they may not be thus robbed of their children who hereby ly under a necessity of renouncing their Christianity compound for them at the rate of fifty or a hundred Dollars as they are able or as they can work upon the covetousness of the Turks more or less Though others to the great shame and dishonour of their Religion Christians onely in name part with them freely and readily enough not onely because they are rid of the trouble and charge of them but in hopes they may when they are grown up get some considerable command in the government After some trial some of the most hardy are taught the use of arms in order to their being Janizaries others that are of a softer but more docile temper are bred up in the studies of the Persian language and fitted for civil affairs and advanced to some place and office about the Emperour's Person the more stupid are sent into the Seraglio to be Cooks Bakers Gardiners Confectioners and such like inferiour servants or else are cut that they may be the better qualified to attend at the women's apartments What a Glorious design would it be and how much for the honour of our Religion if the Christian Princes would unite and enter upon a Holy War and redeem the Oriental Christians from the burthen of this intolerable tyranny and slavery But alas there is little hope of such an Union in this great declension of Christianity when the life and spirit of it seem to be lost and swallowed up in those horrid feuds and factions that disturb the peace of Christendom and expose it to the assaults of the common enemy whenever he shall be at leisure to attaque it and when interest seems wholly to govern and influence all Publick Councils However the Bishops of Rome who then exercised an entire and absolute dominion over the consciences of all of their Communion might have private designs of their own in Publishing their Crusades and putting the several Princes of the West upon the recovering the Holy Sepulchre out of the hands of the Sarazens yet this ought not to diminish from the glory of their piety and generous Courage who undertook those long painfull and hazardous Voyages This we may
repeat twelve times together This Hymn is sung every day from Easter-day to the Feast of the Holy Ascension The second solemn Fast is of forty days beginning on the fifteenth day of November and serves to usher in the Solemnity of Christmas The reason that some give for the determinate number of days appropriated to this Fast is no better then this That as Moses remained forty days upon mount Sinai fasting in the way of an holy initiation before he received the two Tables of the Law so it becomes Christians by the like Abstinence as much as humane infirmity will permit to prepare themselves to receive Christ the true and great Law-giver This Fast is very mild and easy in comparison of the great Lenten Fast before Easter for though they are obliged to abstain from Flesh Butter Eggs c. yet there is a free use of Oyl Wine and all sorts of Fish as at other times The third solemn Fast is in honour of the B. Virgin and called by her name It lasts fourteen days that is from the first of August to the fifteenth day of that month the Festival of her Obit or Dormition or as they sometimes explain it more largely of her Translation from Earth to Heaven which the Roman Church chuses rather to call the Assumption of the Virgin Onely there is some little relaxation indulged upon the Festival of our B. Saviour's Transfiguration that falls within this time The fourth solemn Fast is the Fast of the holy Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul The duration of this Fast is not fixed and certain as the rest are for it is longer or shorter as Easter falls higher or lower in the year It begins on the Monday after All Saints day which is with them the Sunday after Whitsunday and is continued to the Festival day of those two great Saints which is on the 29. day of June They find out the length of this Fast by this easy Method and Rule Look how many days there are from Easter to the second of May so many make up the intervall or number of days allotted to this Fast As for instance when this Canon or Rule was first told me at Constantinople in the year 1669 by a Greek Priest Papas Jeremias Germanus who had travelled into England where he met with considerable relief and particularly here at Oxon being a man of more refined parts and learning then the Kaloirs usually are Easter happened to fall on the 11. of April from which day to the second of May inclusively are two and twenty days which was the number of the days they fasted that year in memory and honour of the Apostles For All Saints day falling consequently on the sixth of June if we reckon from the day following to the Festival in reference to which the Fast is instituted we shall find the same number But whether this Rule holds in all other cases and is infallible as he pretended I am not at leisure to examine or enquire nor is it worth my study or time if I were Thus much for the Annual Fasts The Weekly Fasting-days are Wednesday and Friday which are strictly still retained in compliance with the ancient Custome and Practice of the Catholick Churches in the first Ages of Christianity The reason and original of which may be ascribed to the Zeal and Piety of the Christians of those times either that they might not be behind-hand with the more religious sort of Jews who according to the prescription and tradition of their Elders fasted twice a week S. Luke chap. 18. vers 12. or that they might with a due and becoming sorrow reflect and meditate upon our Blessed Saviour's being betrayed and crucified as upon these days and afflict and humble themselves under a sense of their guilt the meritorious cause of his Sufferings and Death Out of this number they exempt the Wednesdays and Fridays of the three great and famous Festivals that is of Christmas comprehending the whole twelve days of Easter and Pentecost that there be no interruption of that innocent and sober Joy which deservedly attends these Solemnities by the interposition of Fasts usual at other times as also of Septuagesima and Sexagesima that they may not seem to agree in the least with the Armenian Christians fasting most rigorously at these times whom they look upon as Hereticks and hate mortally The reason of which possibly I may account for hereafter at large They are obliged also to fast on the Vigils of some peculiar Festivals such as are the Vigil Of the Epiphany that being purged and cleansed from sin by fasting they may drink with greater success and benefit of the Waters which upon the following Festival are blessed and consecrated and this they doe very heartily attributing great virtue to them The antiquity of this custom of Blessing the waters upon this day may appear from the Homily of S. John Chrysostome Patriarch of Constantinople upon this very argument Of Pentecost and the Monday following to prepare them the better to receive the influences of the Holy Spirit Of the Transfiguration Of the Exaltation of the Cross the figure of which they kiss fasting Of the Beheading of S. John the Baptist They hold it utterly unlawfull to fast on any Saturday throughout the year excepting that of the Holy week following herein the ancient custome it being prohibited under the grievous penalty of Deposition to an Ecclesiastical person and of Excommunication to a Lay-man by the 66. Apostolical Canon which was renewed and confirmed by the sixth general Council as they reckon held in Trullo Canon the 55. By which says Zonaras they endeavoured to correct the Errour of the Latines The alteration of one of the days of the weekly Fasts being among others a great occasion of the breach and disunion of the Eastern from the Western Church But to put an end to this discourse about their Fasts reserving the consideration of the severities and restraints inflicted and imposed by the Kaloirs upon themselves to a fitter place I shall onely adde thus much that whatever the present opinion or abuse be about these Fasts the design of the Catholick Church in the institution of them and especially of the Lenten Fast before Easter was truly pious and Christian that a publick check being thus given to the corrupt inclinations of nature and the Body kept under by mortification and abstinence the Mind might be more at liberty to reflect upon it self and be taken up with thoughts of God and Religion and that all after such exercises of Penitence may be the better prepared to partake of the great Mysteries of the Body and Bloud of our Lord especially at Easter In so great Confusion which has long since overwhelmed the outward glory and splendour of the Greek Empire 't is not to be expected that their Churches should be rich and stately The Churches
middle door with the Chalice lifted up in his hands invites the Communicants to approach Come hither in the fear of God with Faith and Charity He then dips a spoon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Chalice and taking out a bit or bits which are usually very small of the consecrated Bread called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pearls soaked in and floating upon the Wine he puts it to their mouths saying to each The precious and holy Body and Bloud of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ are given to thee for the remission of thy sins and eternal life or with a little alteration Thou receivest the precious and holy Body and Bloud of c. Thus the people communicate in both kinds which is the express doctrine and constant practice of the Greek Church which they ground on the words of our B. Saviour S. John chap. 6. v. 53. Verily verily I say unto you Except you that is all of you for no particular order of men being mentioned they understand this declaration universally eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud you have no life in you and on the example of the Apostles and on the history of the Institution explained by S. Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians 11. Chapter It is an usual custom with them and certainly in it self highly commendable and which argues a great sense of the dignity of these Holy Mysteries that before they receive the Sacrament they ask Forgiveness one of another The Deacon begs it of the consecrating Priest who always takes care to be reconciled to any one who has a matter against him before he approaches the Altar The Priests who assist turn their heads to the right hand and to the left signifying by this gesture their desire of Forgiveness if they have offended any there present And the people who communicate every one for himself says aloud in the hearing of all before the act of receiving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forgive O Christians which the rest with one voice answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forgive you When the Communion is over the Priest distributes promiscuously to such as are present the blessed Bread unconsecrated For onely the upper part of the Loaf circumscribed within the Seal hence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for the Sacrament This is called by several names as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or divine bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from its being sanctified and blessed and most commonly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being given in stead of the consecrated holy Gifts or Elements to those who do not communicate to which the people ascribe great efficacy and virtue and which they oftentimes carry home and bestow upon their sick Friends thinking it as effectual if not more effectual then any Physick The sacred Solemnity is soon after concluded the Priest dismissing the people with a Blessing Thus much in the general I shall now proceed to mention several things relating to this Argument which if I had inserted in the precedent Paragraphs might have interrupted the series and order of this most solemn Administration which now lies close as to all the material parts of it and falls under one easy view As to the moment of Consecration in which the Symbols become and are made the Body and Bloud of Christ 't is certain that the Greeks herein following the authority of several ancient Writers of their Church do not hold this Divine Mystery to be perfected and consummated by or after the pronunciation of those words Take eat this is my Body the Change what-ever it be not being made according to S. John Damascen but by the descent and illapse of the Holy Spirit upon the Gifts or Elements placed upon the Altar Therefore in order to the completion of this Sacrament they adde Benediction and Prayers in which they do explicitely implore the Divine grace of the Holy Spirit of God the Priest after he has recited the words of our B. Saviour in the Institution invoking God in these words Send thy Holy Spirit upon us and upon these holy Gifts lying before us and after a little pause having three times made the sign of the Cross adding which I purposely repeat Make this Bread the precious Body of thy Christ and that which is in this Cup the precious Bloud of thy Christ then with his hand lift up and held over them changing them by the Holy Spirit These are the formall words of the Liturgies of S. Chrysostome and S. Basil now in use It is of no great moment what some object that the last words of all changing them by thy Holy Spirit are omitted in several ancient Manuscript Exemplars for the same thing that is that the Elements become sacramental by the intervention and descent of the Holy Spirit is said expresly in the short prayers which precede which are confessedly ancient and free from any interpolation Thus in their Confession of Faith 't is positively asserted that the Change is made by the operation of the Holy Spirit of God whom the Priest invokes at that time consummating this Mystery and praying Send thy Holy Spirit upon us and c. For after these words there presently follows a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this change I am next to speak 'T is most certain that the doctrine of Transubstantiation by virtue of which according to the fancies of the Romanists the natural substance of the Elements is supposed to be annihilated and wholly destroyed the Species or Accidents onely remaining was not admitted in the Greek Church till of late years there being nothing in their Liturgies tending that way onely that a Change is made and that the Elements after consecration become the Body and Bloud of Christ which no Christian of what Communion soever does doubt of in the least And this they thought fit to express by the names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without determining the manner of the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament For that these words do not infer such a substantial Change that is that the Elements notwithstanding their Consecration retain their essence and nature though they are as they are justly said to be the Body and Bloud of Christ is clear not onely because at the same time they are acknowledged in the Liturgy of S. Basil to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 antitypes and representations of his holy Body and Bloud but because the person baptized is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to be changed and so of the Water which cannot be understood of a natural change and in the Office of Baptism they pray that the water may be sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the power and operation and access of the Holy Spirit And so the like they say of the Oyl used at that time Which very manner and form of words being used of the
Elements of Bread and Wine that they are sanctified and consecrated and become the Body and Bloud of our Saviour by the power and operation and descent of the Holy Spirit upon them can no more infer a substantial change in the one then in the other There is no mention made of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any Liturgy Creed or Prayer the word being wholly new and altogether unknown till the latter end of the last Century when it was first used as I hope I may pardonably conjecture by Gabriel Archbishop of Philadelphia in his Treatise of the Seven mysteries who though otherwise a zealous defender of the Rites of the Greek Church yet living at Venice and not unacquainted with the niceties and subtilties of the Latine School-men might easily be wrought upon to bring in this new word in a way of compliance with the Doctrine of Rome of which Jeremias Patriarch of Constantinople who made him Archbishop seems to be utterly ignorant For he far more agreeably to the rules of modesty and truth in his Declaration of the Faith of the Greek Church in the matter of the Sacrament in his Answer to the German Divines says onely thus much that the Catholick Church believes that after the Consecration the Bread is changed into the very Body of Christ and the Wine into his very Bloud by the Holy Spirit without defining more particularly the nature and manner of the Change Nor do I find that this word began to be of common use at least in the publick and authentick Writings of the Church for several years after For the two Synods that were held at Constantinople on purpose to condemn and anathematize the Confession of Faith published by that great man Cyrillus Lucaris Patriarch of that See the one under his immediate Successour Cyrillus of Berrhoea in the year 1638. the other under Parthenius in the year 1642. seemed to abstain religiously from the use of it each of them onely declaring that the Elements by the blessing of the Priest and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them became the true Body and Bloud of Christ Afterward indeed in the year 1643. there was a Confession of Faith made in the name of the Eastern Church in the way of Question and Answer in the lesser Russia approved of by Parthenius and the three other Patriarchs and several Metropolitans though not published till the year 1662. wherein together with this new word they establisht the doctrine of Transubstantiation After these words the Prayers above mentioned there presently follows a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transubstantiation and the Bread is changed into the true Body of Christ and the Wine into his true Bloud the Species which appear onely remain and this according to the Divine dispensation But if we reflect upon the state and condition of the Greek Church at that time and consider by what arts and by whose assistence Cyrillus Lucaris was first deposed by the Turks and afterwards strangled and his ingratefull Successour advanced into his throne it will cease to be a matter of wonder to us that this man who had studied Philosophy in his younger days under the Jesuits at Galata and was wholly governed by them whose end too was as dismall as his Predecessour's he being banisht to Tunis and there by order of the Port strangled and the rest of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Latinizing Bishops should renounce the Faith of their Ancestours and determine thus boldly And how they have been wrought upon since in the Synodus Bethleemitica to come up more fully to this and several other Tenents of the Roman Church shall appear hereafter The Romanists are now aware that there is no hope and likelihood of reconciling Greece by blustring and force and therefore they betake themselves to closer arts and methods of subtlety the Greeks bred up in the College of that Nation at Rome especially after they have finished a course of study being sent into Turkie upon a design of working an Union and of reducing their Countrymen from the scandal and guilt of Schism and Heresy who are permitted to dissemble their Communion and oftentimes are advanced to great Dignities in the Church to whom being men of great eloquence and wit and learning and policy I believe these Alterations are chiefly to be ascribed In the mean time let the Zelots of the Roman Church triumph that the present Greeks declare absolutely for them we need not envy them a victory which they have gained by such base and treacherous Arts not to say Bribery But however this is one great argument that the opinion of Transubstantiation is wholly new among them that they have not much studied the point but heedlesly take it upon trust with an implicite faith For when their Bishops and Priests are urged with the horrid and monstrous consequences of it fully made out from Scripture and Philosophy they stand amazed and return no other answer but this that it is a great Mystery and not to be disputed 'T is certainly a great an holy a venerable Mystery this we most readily and heartily acknowledge but how much better had they consulted the honour of the Christian Religion and the peace of the Church had they not proceeded so boldly and blindly to such a peremptory definition The Greeks use Leavened bread in the Sacrament which practice of their Church they defend with great fierceness as if our B. Saviour had clearly and in express terms forbad the use of Azymes For so they interpret the words of the Institution that Christ said of Bread not of Azyme that it was his Body as if there could be no Bread truly and properly so called without a mixture of Leaven in it But that which they most rely upon is an imagination that our Saviour in the celebration of the Passeover anticipated the usual time of the Festival and kept it a day before which they think may be proved from S. John 18. chap. v. 28. and chap. 19. 14. that is Lunâ decimâ tertiâ or the thirteenth day of Nisan at the evening and consequently that he used leavened bread And some of the Greek Writers who managed this controversy formerly were so ridiculously impudent as to assert that there was a piece of that very leavened bread which our Saviour at his last Supper consecrated reserved among other Reliques in the Chappell belonging to the Emperour's palace in Constantinople at what time that City was taken by the Latines While they urge the necessity of using Leavened bread in the Sacrament with an intemperate not to say an unreasonable zeal against the Latines whom they therefore reproach with the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Azymites and aggravate as a horrid and grievous defect and fault the quality of the Bread whether leavened or unleavened being in it self a matter of small moment and meer indifference and no way essential to the Sacrament the Schism upon the
heat and contest arising hence several Centuries of years before the overthrow of the Greek Empire grew wider and wider and at last became irreconcilable being fomented in the following Ages by the ambition of the great Ecclesiasticks of both parties who upbraided each other with prevaricating and departing from the mind and will of Christ herein The Sacramental Bread is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clean or pure which purity does not so much refer to the fineness of the corn as to the manner of its being kneaded and baked either by Men legally pure or else by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Old women professed or the Wives of married Priests not otherwise unqualified the former being supposed upon the account of their Vow the other of their relation to be of more then ordinary Sanctity They celebrate the Holy Sacrament on the same day but once upon the same Altar which is always the middlemost of the three or where there are onely two on that which is opposite to the middle Door and never upon the Prothesis Anciently there was onely a single Altar in each Church as one High Priest and Mediatour the Lord Jesus Christ who by his own bloud entered in once into the Holy place as appears not onely from the order and disposition of their Fabrick Antiquity being wholly unacquainted with Side-Altars wherewith the Churches under the Papacy are crowded for the sake of that great number of Masses daily sung as they pretend for the relief of poor Souls in Purgatory but from the sacred use to which it was appropriated for for some hundreds of years the Sacrament was not celebrated twice the same day as is evident from the eloquent Panegyrick of Paulinus Bishop of Tyre concerning the structure of Churches preserved by Eusebius in the tenth book and fourth chapter of his Ecclesiasticall History In the great Churches the Priest celebrates the Sacrament upon the solemn Festivals and upon Sundays and at other times upon occasion when he is hired either to pray for the Soul of any dead person or for success in a journey or the like Sometimes they go to ruined places without their Towns or in the Fields where formerly were Churches or near a holy Fountain A Table there placed in stead of an Altar is covered with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or consecrated cloaths without which they cannot consecrate in unhallowed places At these times I have observed persons troubled with Agues and other feverish distempers laid at some distance from the Altar with their faces toward it hoping by the merit of the Blessed Sacrament and the prayers of the Priest officiating to be restored to their health The Laicks are obliged to receive the Blessed Sacrament four times a year With which law of their Church they most readily comply none omitting it especially at Christmas or Easter unless hindred by a real and urgent necessity In order to their better Preparation the preceding Fasts are appointed and observed It is not allowed that the Priest begin the service of Consecration till after morning the usual time being about the third hour of the day which is not without a design the Priest using this short form of Prayer O Lord who sentest thy most Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at the third hour O mercifull God take not thy Holy Spirit from us But at the Festival of Easter their piety is early this Service being usually performed before the Sun-rise after the example of S. Mary Magdalen and the other devout women who came with their ointment to the Sepulchre where Christ had been entombed as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week S. Matth. chap. 28. v. 1. or as S. Luke expresses it chap. 24. v. 1. on the first day of the week very early in the morning In the time of the Great Lent except on Saturdays Sundays and the Feast of the Annunciation the Sacrament is not celebrated till in the middle of the afternoon But of this more at large hereafter The Greeks communicate fasting looking upon it as a thing very unlawfull and scandalous to tast a drop of wine or eat the least bit of bread for several hours before they receive so that 't is oftentimes to be admired with what great courage and obstinacy they doe as it were violence to themselves and get the mastery over their natural passions and inclinations When they receive the Sacrament they do not kneel but onely incline their body at which moment they are taught to exercise an act of Faith after this manner I confess and acknowledge that thou art Jesus Christ the Son of the living God who camest into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief Which form were it as ancient as the times of S. Chrysostome which will never be proved cannot justly be urged by the Patrons and Asserters of Transubstantiation in favour of their opinion because the words are most probably referred not to the Elements which they are just about to receive but to our B. Saviour God and Man in Heaven whom the sacred Elements not onely truly and really represent but also exhibit The People are obliged by the law of the Church to confess to a Priest rightfully and lawfully constituted before they communicate But the Confessours whom they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or spiritual men do not require and exact of their Penitents a rigid anxious or particular confession of their Sins but have regard to modesty and an ill memory that may not retain every circumstance of fact and are not over-difficult in granting their Absolutions What remains to be farther said about Confession may be seen in its proper place The Priest too is obliged by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Order prefixed to the Liturgy which bears the name of S. Chrysostome to confess before he goes to consecrate But I am apt to fear that this piece of Church-discipline is not kept up among them and that Priests and people notwithstanding the obligation are not very strict and zealous in the practice of it unless in the case of hainous Crimes which wast the Conscience it being oftentimes intermitted This is the fault of the Persons and as to the practice it self the Church of England does no way disallow it but rather recommend it to those of her Communion in the Office of the Holy Sacrament provided it be done after a due manner and that the Consciences of the people be not burthened with unjust scruples as if the whole benefit of the Sacrament would be lost and the Confession it self rendred ineffectual except they disburthen and lay open the secretest thoughts of their heart and reveal the minutest punctilio and circumstance of their guilt They give the Eucharist in both kinds to little Children of one or two years of age sometimes to new-born Infants that is after they have been Christened in case
equal right and share of her Husband's goods and possessions which upon a consummation of this Matrimonial contract are to become common to both Their Marriages are always performed publickly this being an express Law of their Church Let none presume to marry but before Witnesses If the Priest should transgress herein he is liable to Ecclesiasticall Censures provided in such like cases Be the persons of what quality or condition soever Crowns or Garlands made for the most part of Olive-branches stitcht over with white silk and interwoven with purple are a necessary and essential part of the Nuptial Solemnity hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is oftentimes used for Marriage and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify the same thing they being the Symbols not to say the complement of this mysticall Rite The Priest covering the head of the Bridegroom with one of these Garlands says The Servant of God such a one is crowned for that is marries the Servant of God such a one in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Then he crowns the head of the Bride with the other Garland repeating the same words with their due alterations and then putting their hands across he blesses them in this form thrice O Lord God crown them with glory and honour After the Epistle and Gospell and several Prayers are read the new-married couple drink out of the same Cup which the Priest had blest in sign and token of Love Agreement and Joy and as a pledge of their mutual Conversation and of their right to one another's estates and fortunes After two or three short Hymns the Priest takes the Garlands from off their heads and they saluting each other are dismist with his Blessing They are not over-favourable to second Marriges following the rigour of the ancient times But as for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or third Marriages they look upon them as forbidden by the Canons of the Church and arraign such persons as guilty of Incontinence and severely condemn the fourth as altogether unlawfull and sinfull making no allowances for temper or accidentall deaths This variety or change of Wives they most invidiously call by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Polygamy contrary to the primary signification of the word against which they so fiercely declaim as a thing hatefull to God to whose providence in taking away their first or second Wife by death they say every one should submit and curb his natural desires and inclinations and as unworthy of men governed by reason In this sense I find the word used by Photius who opposes it to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and passes this severe Censure upon the thing that it is very base and detestable and onely proper to impure and lustfull irrational creatures To make the Marriage-vow the more binding and solemn the Bridegroom and Bride receive the Holy Sacrament He must be always above fourteen years of age and she above thirteen and the consent of their Parents Guardians or Tutors is esteemed so necessary that without it is accounted unlawfull and no other then Fornication Among other impediments of Marriage they reckon spiritual Affinity that is such as arises at the Font as for instance he who is a Godfather to any one and his Son cannot lawfully marry either the Mother or the Daughter Such two as have had the same Godfather are incapable of marrying each the other and if they do they are accounted incestuous The practice of the Greeks does horribly contradict their establisht doctrine of the Indissolubility of the bond of Matrimony for Divorces are easily and frequently obtained and granted upon several light and frivolous accounts besides that of Adultery as if it were left wholly to the idle and extravagant fancy of every lustfull and discontented person who is weary of his Wife to retain her or divorce himself from her as he pleases This evil seems past all remedy there being no other way left at present to satisfy a people who are so prone to revenge where they have conceived a grudge or to make new love after a dislike of the former match then by this most unjust and horriblyabused indulgence It is the proper work of the Priest who has a power to make and consecrate the Holy Oyl to anoint dying persons with it all other persons whatsoever being excluded Which practice they found upon the example of the Apostles who were sent out by Christ and anointed with oyl many that were sick and healed them and upon the Advice or Order of S. James chap. 5. v. 14. Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders or Presbyters of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oyl in the name of the Lord. And from this Text they pretend to conclude most strongly that several are necessary in order to the right performing of this last office The Office requires that they be no less then seven and assigns to every one of them their particular employment at that time But this number is not rigidly exacted and three oftentimes serve They onely anoint the forehead ears and hands of sick persons Severall Prayers are used at the time of Unction and this particularly among the rest O Holy Father Physician of Soul and body who hast sent thy onely-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to cure all diseases and to redeem from death heal thy Servant of his infirmity both of body and Soul and quicken him by the grace of thy Christ for the intercession of our Lady the Mother of God the ever-Virgin Mary c. and here they recite the names of several Saints for Thou O Christ our God art the Fountain of all healing and we give the glory of it to Thee and to the Father and to the Holy Spirit now and for ever After this they give the sick person the Holy Sacrament as the last Viaticum The Houses of the sick persons are also anointed with the same Oyl the figure of a Cross being made with it upon the walls and posts at which Ceremony the Priest sings the 91. Psalm He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty c. This Oyl is not onely used upon persons lying in extremis for the people believing that there is great virtue in it to heal the Distempers of the Body in case of any Sickness or Indisposition that does not bring in danger of Death use it almost in the nature of a remedy or medicine and think themselves also by it better enabled to resist the Assaults and Temptations of the great Enemy of their Souls the Devil But of the Seven Mysteries of the Greek Church hitherto In the midst of the sad Pressures which daily afflict the poor Greeks and the continual Scoffs
proper Vestments in which they are as fancifull as the Romanists and particularly the Priest when he consecrates always wears 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Stole To give a particular account of their Habits when they officiate would be too nice and perplext and of little use To advance the dignity of the Patriarchal Throne several both Churches and Monasteries were anciently exempt from the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Diocese in the nature of Peculiars and immediately subjected to the Patriarch of Constantinople This prerogative was taken away from Joannes Veccus Patriarch for his siding too much with the Bishop and Church of Rome by a Decree of Michael Palaeologus about the year 1279 recorded by Pachymeres who observes that it did intrench upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or power belonging to him as Oecumenicall Bishop But this held onely for a time and was made use of to serve a present turn the Privilege being afterward restored and still remaining The Monasteries which enjoy these Immunities are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the fixing of a Cross behind the Altar there by the Patriarch in person or by his Deputy at the request of the several Founders who by this Ceremony appropriated the whole power of it to himself An Account of the state of the Greek Church under the Government of Cyrillus Lucaris Patriarch of Constantinople with a relation of his Sufferings and Death CYrillus Lucaris was born in Candia the chief City of the Island to which it has given its name which when the neighbouring places became a Prey to the Ottoman arms for several years before and since kept up and maintained a well-establisht peace and quiet under the mild Government of the Venetians The Greeks there sensible of the great blessing and benefit of Liberty and of the full exercise of their Religion according to the Rites of their Church without the least disturbance or controll endeavoured to render themselves worthy of it They were stout and couragious and very faithfull to the State whose Subjects they were which gave them protection They cherished all inclinations to ingenuity in their Youth and sent them as their Nation did formerly to Athens to Venice and Padua to be educated and trained up in the exercises of Wit and Philosophy and in the Studies of all polite and solid Learning This happiness befell Cyrillus who at Venice was committed to the Care of Maximus Margunius afterwards Bishop of Cerigo an Island in the entrance into the Archipelago still in the possession of the Venetians who among other wrote a learned Discourse about the Procession of the Holy Spirit in the old Greek After he had finished his Studies here and had acquired a perfect knowledge of the Latine and Italian Tongues he travelled out of Italy into other parts of Christendome the better to fit himself for the service of his Country where he learned enough by discourse and conversation added to his own inquisitive genius and wise Observations of things to make him more and more disrelish the Tenents of the Roman Church and the Fopperies and Superstitions of their Worship and to pity the defects and miscarriages which his distressed Countrymen lay under by reason of their Ignorance and Oppression and to be more and more in love with the Reformation These Accomplishments and Qualifications gained him the favour of Meletius Pegus Patriarch of Alexandria a Candiot too by birth who had also studied in Italy whence he carried away with him a settled dislike of Rome which he afterwards in the whole course of his life declared with great zeal and fierceness By him he was made a Priest and afterwards Archimandrite or Prior of a Convent That this Meletius was a man of excellent Learning and Judgment those Books which he published sufficiently shew Such as his Book against the Jews written both in Greek and Latine and afterwards published in the year 1593. at Leopolis in the Greek and Ruthenick or Slavonian languages his Dialogue called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Orthodox Christian printed at Vilna 1596 and several Letters written in Greek printed at London about the year 1624 and others in Latine as that for instance which he wrote from Constantinople to Janus Douza in the year 1597 and that which he directed out of Aegypt in the year 1600 to Sigismund the third King of Poland and Sweden wherein he disputes very solidly and judiciously against the Supremacy and universal Headship of the Popes The occasion of this Letter which our Cyril carried and wherein he is so highly commended was this Several Bishops of Lithuania and Russia nigra who had hitherto continued in the Communion of the Greek Church wrought upon by several temporal advantages and honours which they proposed to gain in the Diet and Government of Poland sent two of their number to Rome in the year 1595. in order to their being reconciled to that Church and to offer their Submission and Obedience to Clement the eighth the Pope then reigning But their going thither and doing this in the name of all the Ruthenick Churches was protested against and a publick Act made of it by Constantine Duke of Ostorovia and Palatine of Kiovia at whose expense the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were translated into the language of those Countreys and published 1581. and several others who utterly disliked this intended Union Upon the return of the two Messengers from Rome where they had been entertained with all sorts of caresses a Synod of the Bishops was summoned to meet at Bresta in October new style 1596. by the authority of King Sigismund who constituted three persons of the highest quality for title and office in Lithuania as Duke Radzivil the Chancellor and the Treasurer of that Dutchy his Ambassadours to fix and establish this affair which he desired with great earnestness to effect At this Synod the Duke of Ostorovia with the rest of his Party who were resolved to continue in the same Obedience which their Ancestours had profest and shewn to the Patriarchal Throne of Constantinople were commanded to appear which they did accordingly but thought fit to hold their meeting apart and after several contests and strugglings refused to submit to the Union proposed which several who had before retained the Rites and Doctrin of the Greek Church now so greedily embraced Our Cyril was of the number of the Non-uniti or Dissenters being sent thither by Meletius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Caryophilus speaks to break off and disturb the Vnion of the Russians with the Church of Rome whence he hardly escaped with his life whereas Nicephorus sent thither by the Patriarch of Constantinople for the same purpose was taken and strangled Afterwards those of the Greek Communion in order to their securing their civil interests and privileges the better against any attaque which might be made upon them had a meeting with several Protestant Nobles and Divines