with this Prayer O Lord who with the Oyl of thy Mercies hast healed the Wounds of our Souls and of our Bodies do thou sanctifie this Oyl in that manner that those who are anointed therewith may be freed from their Infirmities and from all Corporal and Spiritual Evils that the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost may be glorifyed therein This Sacrament as they call it of the Holy Oyl is by some said to be different from that which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is administred unto healthful persons who are fallen into mortal sins which pollute the Body as well as the Soul and takes its Original from the parable of the good Samaritan in the Gospel who poured Oyl into the Wounds of him who fell amongst Thieves But this Unction is not applicable to those who are guilty of Rapine and Violence whose sins are only purged and expiated by Restitution and Satisfaction This Oyl of Prayer is pure and unmixed Oyl without any other composition a quantity whereof sufficient to serve for the whole year is consecrated on Wednesday in the holy Week by the Arch-Bishop or Bishop though it may be administred or application made thereof by three Priests This is the same with that which in the Roman Church is called Extreme Unction grounded on the words of St. James Cap. 5. 14. Is any sick amongst you let him call for the Elders the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with Oyl in the name of the Lord. In the administration of this Oyl of Prayer the Priest dips some Cotton at the end of a stick into the Oyl and therewith anoints the Penitent in the form of a Cross on the Fore-head on the Chin on each Cheek on the backs and palms of the Hands and then recites this Prayer Holy Father Physitian of Souls and Bodies who hast sent thine only Son Jesus Christ healing infirmities and sins to free us from death heal this thy Servant of corporal and spiritual infirmities and give him salvation and the grace of thy Christ through the Prayers of our more than holy Lady the Mother of God the Eternal Virgin through the assistance of the glorious celestial and incorporeal Powers through the Vertue of the life-giving Cross of the holy and glorious Prophet the fore-runner John the Baptist and of the holy and glorious Apostles and triumphant Martyrs of the holy and just Fathers and of the holy and life-giving Anargiri Amen Confession of Sins verbally and particularly to a Priest is esteemed a necessary duty for constituting a perfect Contrition though they do not deny but a person dying in a state of Regeneration that is to say with a Repentance proceeding from the love of God and having not opportunity by the suddenness of death or some other accident to confess and receive Absolution may yet through the mercies of God and bounty of the Saints have these necessary Sacraments conferred and mysteriously supplyed and the contrite Soul saved But yet that the omission thereof in a place where it may be obtained is a sin which as they say can no otherwise be pardoned in the next World than by the Prayers Intercessions of the Saints in Heaven and by the Alms and Oblations of good men on Earth of which Opinion of theirs we shall have occasion to speak more particularly hereafter CHAP. XIII Of the Power of Excommunication and upon what frivolous occasions it is made use of THE Third Command of the Church is Obedience towards their Spiritual Pastors and Teachers 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God which is a Text that they often repeat in their Churches and raise consequences from thence of the sublimity of their Office and of the reverence and honour due from the people toward their Clergy so that though they want the advantages of Riches and Ornament to render them respected in the Eyes of the Vulgar yet their People being affected with their divine and separated Qualifications do not submit only in Spiritual matters but even in Temporals refer themselves to the determination of their Bishop or Metropolite according to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 1. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to Law before the unjust and not before the Saints But that which most enforces this Duty of Obedience is a sense of the Power of Excommunication which rests in the Church of which they so generally stand in fear that the most profligate and obdurate conscience in other matters startles at this sentence to which whilst any is subjected he is not only expelled the limits of the Church but his conversation is scandalous and his person denied the common benefits of Charity and assistance to which Christian or Humane duty doth oblige us In the Exercise of this censure of Excommunication the Greek Church is so ready and frequent that the common use of it might seem to render it the more contemptible but that the Sentence is pronounced with so much horrour and the sad effects which have ensued thereupon not only to the living but also to the Corps and Carcasses of such who have dyed under Excommunication are related with that evidence and certainty as still confirms in the people the efficacy of that Authority which the Church exercises therein The form of Excommunication is either expressive of the party with his name and condition secluding him from the use of Divine Ordinances or otherwise indefinite of any person who is guilty of such or such a Crime or Misdemeanour As for Example If any person is guilty of Theft which is not discovered an Excommunication is taken out against him whosoever he be that hath committed the Theft which is not to be remitted until Restitution is made and so the fault is published and repeated at a full Congregation and then follows the Sentence of Excommunication in this form If they restore not to him that which is his own and possess him peaceably of it but suffer him to remain injured and damnifyed let him be separated from the Lord God Creatour and be accursed and unpardoned and undissolvable after death in this World and in the other which is to come Let Wood Stones and Iron be dissolved but not they May they inherit the Leprosie of Gehazi and the Confusion of Judas may the Earth be divided and devour them like Dathan and Abiram may they sigh and tremble on earth like Cain and the wrath of God be upon their heads and Countenances may they see nothing of that for which they labour and beg their Bread all the days of their lives may their Works Possessions Labours and Services be accursed always without effect or success and blown away like dust may they have the Curses of the holy and righteous Patriarchs Abram Isaac and Jacob of the 318 Saints who were the Divine Fathers of
who are most signal for their Piety and Learning The Patriarch of Constantinople besides the extent of his Jurisdiction is of greater power by reason of his Vicinity to the Court but the Alexandrian is of greater Authority in his Ecclesiastical Censures and Civil Regimen stiling himself with the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Judge of the world And the Patriarchs of Antiochia and Jerusalem by reason of their poverty not having sufficient to subsist are little reverenced by the Turks or their own People The Patriarch of Constantinople who was so great and opulent under the Christian Emperours is now reduced to a narrow Fortune being deprived of his certain and setled Revenue by the violence and sacriledge of the common Enemy to the Church of Christ so that the chief income is accidental arising from the death of Bishops Arch-Bishops and ordinary Priests and from such as are consecrated and admitted into their Diocesses and Parishes What a deceased Priest leaves not having Children accrues to the Patriarch as to the common Father and Heir of them all from which arises a considerable Revenue every year The other Patriarchal Sees by reason of the paucity and poverty of the Christians are worse provided but yet being far from the Court have not so many nccessities to satisfie The chief subsistence of the secular Priests is from the charity of the People but they being cold in that Vertue as well as in their Devotion contribute faintly on the days of Offering so that the Clergy who are the Guardians of the Holy Mysteries are forced to sell the Ordinances of the Church for their own subsistence none being able to receive Absolution or be admitted to Confession or procure Baptism for their Children or enter into a state of Matrimony or divorce his Wife or obtain Excommunication against another or Communion for the sick without an agreement first for the price which the Priests hold up as they discover the Zeal and Abilities of the party who cheapens them When the Holy Church triumphed in the days of Constantine the Great the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople were independent each of other and afterwards they were also made of equal honour and power but in regard that for better order and distinction it was necessary they two being to meet and concur in the same Council that the precedency of place should first be determined The priority of Order not of Authority was adjudged to the Pope lest old Rome which was the ancient Mistress of the World should lose her honour in yielding to the new which was Constantinople and had no greater Dignity or Fame than that which she challenged and borrowed from the presence and brightness of the others Emperours and so much Socrates Scholasticus affirms in these words In the Council of Constantinople Anno 385. in the Reign of Theodosius the Emperour when Nectanius was chosen Bishop it was decreed That the Bishop of Constantinople should possess the next place and prerogative after the Bishop of Rome And likewise it was determined in the Council of Chalcedon Can. 28. That the Bishops Seat of new Rome that is Constantinople should enjoy equal priviledges with old Rome and in all Ecclesiastical matters to be extolled and magnified as that of Rome being the second in order after her the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor did the Bishop of Rome ever preside in the first six General Councils which only are received by the whole Church either by himself or his Legates This and such-like honour of precedency the Church of Greece may yield unto the Church of Rome and perhaps now rather in these times of Oppression wherein being humbled by the hand of God they seek not worldly Honours nor swelling Titles nor Dominions but are desirous only to govern in the Hearts and Affections of their people Ambitio cupido gloriae faelicium hominum sunt affectus saith Tacitus However the Oriental Confession doth not seem to condescend so far in that it declares That notwithstanding the priority of Honour and Antiquity which was formerly given to Jerusalem and other Churches before that of Constantinople yet afterwards the Council of Constantinople and Chalcedon did give the primacy of honour unto new Rome and to the Clergy thereof by reason of the Imperial Power whose Seat was there But let us not only hear what the Greeks themselves do utter in this point but observe the words of that famous Venetian Father Paul Sarpus who in the 25th Chapter of his History of the Inquisition hath these pertinent and impartial words The Eastern and Western Churches continued both in Communion and Christian Charity for the space of nine hundred years and more in which time the Pope of Rome was reverenced and esteemed no less by the Greeks than by the Latines He was acknowledged for the Successor of St. Peter and chief of all the Eastern Catholick Bishops In the Persecutions raised by Hereticks they implored his Aid and of other Bishops of Italy and this Peace was easily kept because the Supreme Power was in the Canons to which both parts acknowledged themselves subject Ecclesiastical Discipline was severely maintained in each Country by the Prelates of it not arbitrarily but absolutely according to Order and Canonical Rigour none putting his hand into the Government of another but advised one the other to the observance of the Canons In those days never any Pope of Rome did pretend to confer Benefices in the Diocesses of other Bishops neither was the custome yet introduced of getting mony out of others by way of Dispensations or Bulls But as soon as the Court of Rome began to pretend that it was not subject to Canons and that she might according to her own discretion alter any Order of the Fathers Councils and of the Apostles themselves and that she attempted instead of the ancient Primacy of the Apostolical See to bring in an absolute Dominion not ruled by any Law or Canon then the division grew And as this division grew between the Eastern and Western Churches for the causes aforesaid so the same Reasons were the causes of division and separation in the Western Church it self for as to considering men nothing seemed more absurd than the Usurpation of Rome over other Churches independent thereon in secular Government so to the people who lived under its Dominion nothing could be more Tyrannical and oppressive CHAP. IV. The Opinion of the Greek Church concerning that Article in the Nicene Creed I believe one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church and what Authority and Power is given by them thereunto THE See of Rome taking it for granted that she is the head of the Catholick Church would seem to deduce from that Principle undeniable consequences of Infallibility of Priviledges Power and Jurisdiction as ample and as extensive as the absolute and supreme Authority of our Lord and Master Jesus But this being a Foundation rather
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin 26. The Arch-Angel Gabriel APRIL 23. Saint George 25. Saint Mark the Evangelist MAY. 8. S. John the Evangelist which we keep the 26. of December 20. Constantine and S. Helena JUNE 19. S. Jude Alpheus with us observed the 28. of October 24. The Nativity of S. John Baptist. 29. The Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul JULY 20. Elias the Prophet 25. S. Anne 26. S. Parascheve and Panteleemon who were Martyrs in the time of Dioclesian AUGUST 6. The Transfiguration of Christ. 15. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin 29. The Martyrdom of S. John Baptist. But because that the observation of so many Holy-days would be grievous to the poor who live by their day-labour many of them are retrenched and are made obligatory only to the Religious such as Priests and others in holy Orders the which I have marked thus * for the better distinction of them from those which are kept by all sorts of people but hereof I have set down very few the foregoing being almost all to be observed and every day in the year hath some relation to a Saint which the Kaloires who have nothing else to do keep with a particular devotion The Rule for canonizing Saints is still observed in the Patriarchal See at Constantinople for though as we have said their Menology is already so filled that one day is assigned to two or three Saints yet not to suffer good men and Saints now so rare in the world to lose their esteem amongst men who have their reward with God they sometimes even unto our days enter such into the Canon whose Miracles and sanctity of life have raised into the seraphical Order of holy men which after their death are to be testified by a 1000 Witnesses◠who have either seen them or heard their actions recounted by the undoubted Testimonies of credible persons of which a diligent Examination being made by the Patriarch and Archbishops in a full Synod they admit him or them into the Kalendar and say his Mass on the day appointed for his Festival adjoining thereunto Hymns in honour of that Saint reading a Relation of his Miracles and Good Works entering the History of his life into their Synaxarion or Book of Saints but this Canonization is now seldom practised because it cannot be purchased without much Money and the Greeks being wicked and poor in these days few or none are either so good or have Friends so piously rich as to procure their Enrolment into the Golden List of Saints and Martyrs After the Commands of the Church we are next in order to treat of the Mysteries which are seven and answer to those which the Roman Church calls Sacramenta First Baptism second Chrism third the Holy Eucharist fourth Priesthood fifth Matrimony sixth Repentance seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Oyl of Prayer CHAP. VII Of Baptism and the sealing of Infants called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 IN imitation of Christ's Presentation in the Temple and the blessing of old Simeon when he sang his Nunc dimittis the Greek Church hath from long Antiquity practised on the eighth day to present their Children at the Church-Porch to receive the blessing of the Priest who signs them on the Forehead Mouth and Breast with the sign of the Cross as a Seal of the Divine Grace and a disposition to receive the Holy Baptism which they call The sealing of infants and afterwards says this Prayer O our God we beseech thee to infuse the light of thy person on this thy Servant and seal the Cross of thy only begotten Son in his heart and in his thoughts that he may fly the vanities of this World and the snares of the Enemy and follow thy Commands Confirm him O Lord in thy name unite him in thy good time to thy Holy Church and perfect him by thy stupendious mysteries that so living according to thy commands he may obtain the Kingdom of Beatitude with thine Elect through the Grace and Mercy of thy only Son to whom with the Life-giving Spirit be Glory now and for ever Amen Afterwards the Priest taking the Child into his Arms before the Gate of the Church elevates it and waves it in the form of a Cross and so ends this Ceremony which is the introduction and preparation to Baptism Baptism as the Greek Church defines it is a cleansing or taking away of Original Sin by thrice dipping or plunging into the Water the Priest saying at every dipping In the name of the Father Amen and of the Son Amen and of the Holy Ghost Amen This thrice dipping or plunging into the Water this Church holds to be as necessary to the form of Baptism as Water to the matter for proof whereof is brought the 50th Canon called Apostolical which says Si quis Episcopus aut Presbyter non trinam dimersionem unius mysterii celebret sed semel mergat in Baptismate quod dari videtur in domini morte damnetur Non enim dixit vobis Dominus In morte mea baptizate sed Euntes docete omnes gentes in nomine Patris Filii Spiritus sancti In like manner they produce the 42 Chapter of the Apostles Constitutions wherein they have these words Ter mergite vos Episcopi in unum Patrem Filium Spiritum sanctum If any Bishop or Presbyter shall not use a three-fold dipping in this one mystery but only dips once in Baptism let him be condemned c. In farther favour hereof are quoted the Homilies of St. Chrysostom who rhetorically discoursing of the Vertues and Efficacy of Baptism he symbolizeth it with the Life Death and Resurrection of a Christian for the first plunging into Water as he saith buries the old man of sin the second regenerates and revives him to a new Creature and the third raises him to the perfection of life Eternal according to that of S. Paul We are buried with Christ through Baptism that we might rise with him so that the Greek Church which receives the whole number of the 85 Canons which for their Antiquity are called Apostolical as made by the Apostles themselves or the next succeeding Apostolical men doth believe them to carry very great force with them and therefore the Ter mergite is as constantly practised as if it had been the interpretation of Ite Baptizate The which Canon being very ancient was first ordained against certain Hereticks who denyed the Holy Trinity Baptizing only in the name of Jesus on those words of the Apostle before quoted We are buried with Christ by Baptism c. in opposition to whom these three Immersions were used for they cannot deny the Trinity who in Baptism distinguish three persons in the Divine Nature Wherefore though nothing is essential to Baptism nor other Precept than to be dipped or sprinkled in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost yet to make a more exact Test to say who were Hereticks and who were not