A full and just account of the present state of the Ottoman empire in all its branches: with the government, and policy, religion, customs, and way of living of the Turks, in general. ... By Aaron Hill, ...

CHAP. XLIII. Of the Present State of the Christian Religion in Palestine.

* 1.1TWOU'D be perhaps impossible, in Travelling about the spacious Ʋniverse, to find a Scene, more strangely shocking to a Christian Zeal, than what the Holy Land affords at present: For it cannot surely be a welcome Contemplation to a Man, who owns the Faith of Christ, to see that Place have least of his Religion, which had most of his Good Wishes.

THE vilest Soil, the Earth possesses, yields Encrease, when it is Sow'd with Liberality; But this ungrateful Clime, this miserable Country, enrich'd by the inestimable Blood of Christ himself, is yet so far from an Improvement of her not alone Prodigious, but Peculiar Blessings, that the disencourag'd Practice of Repuls'd Christianity is disregarded more in Palestine, than even the most Remote and Barbarous Corners of the Turkish Territories.

* 1.2THE scatter'd Christians, who Inhabit with the Turks, in any of those Towns, I mention'd in the former Chapter, commonly are such, as are at∣tracted by the Summons of a Profitable Way of Living, and forgetting every Call of their Humanity, but that of Interest, give their Minds entirely up to a continued Practice of such advantageous Courses, as, engaging totally the Bent of their Desires, prevent their Souls from the neglected Execution of those Holy Duties, which wou'd better far become their Applicati∣on.

* 1.3HOWEVER, there are many different Sects of Christians here, who led by Piety, and the prevailing Love of their Religion and its Practices, a∣bandon all the gayest Follies of the gilded World, and spend their Days within Jerusalem, nay commonly within the very Temple of our Saviour's Sepulchre, with all the Marks of a sincere Repentance, and ingenious Re∣signation to the Smarts of Poverty, and unalluring Rules of an un∣seign'd Austerity.

* 1.4SOME Hundreds of these zealous Families, perpetually reside with∣in the Temple, so as never to Eat, Drink, or Sleep, in any other Place, nor find a possibility of Conversation with the People of the Town, at any other time, than when they bring Provisions thither, and by ringing one, of a great number of small Bells, by different Cords made fast within the seve∣ral Apartments of the Christians there, give notice to the Persons, they de∣sire to speak with, who immediately come out, to be acquainted with the reason of their Summons.

BUT since it may not be an unacceptable Amusement for the Reader, to be made acquainted with the different Tenets of the different Sects, residing at Jerusalem, I will enumerate the several Doctrines of such Christian Zealots, as are comprehended in the following Denominations.

* 1.5ARMENIANS, Coptees, Abyssens and Graecians, Jacobins, Nestorians Georgians, and a kind of People, who have many Monasteries on Mount Lebanon, and are distinguish'd amongst Christians, by the Name of Ma∣ronites.

* 1.6THE Faith of the Armenians, who are, next the Graecians, here most numerous, has been already told you in the three and twentieth Chapter; largely treating of those Peoples Customs, and their Tenets of Reli∣gion.

* 1.7I likewise, have inform'd you, that the Coptees are the Remnant of the Old Egyptians, and at large describ'd their Doctrine and Condition, in the four and twentieth Chapter of this Treatise, nor can I enlarge, without a flat Pro∣lixity, on what I have already said concerning Greece, and the Religion of her Natives.

* 1.8LET it then suffice to say, that all the three abovenam'd Sects, admini∣ster in the respective Offices of their Religion, at Jerusalem, with as un∣bounded a Permission, and the same degrees of Ceremony, as they are allow'd to use, when in their several distant Countries.

THE rest I will proceed to treat of, as distinctly as I can, and first the Abyssens, more ancient than their Fellows in Conversion to the Faith and Wor∣ship of our Saviour Christ, require the Preference.

* 1.9THEY are no other than the Aethiopian Race, whose Ancestors em∣brac'd the Christian Doctrine, from the Preaching of their Queen Candace's Eunuch, Philip's Convert, much about the Year of Christ, Four Hundred and Seventy.

* 1.10THEY Circumcise their Children, Authoriz'd, as they imagine, by our Saviour's own Example, and extend the Duty of that manual Operation to both Sexes equally.

THE Man at forty Days Old, and the Woman at threescore they con∣stantly Baptize, repeating every Year that Sacramental Ceremony, on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, in Commemoration only of the Condescention of our Lord, who stoop'd that Day to be Baptiz'd in Jordan by St. John the Baptist.

CONFESSION, Keeping Lent, and Praying for the Dead, are Points, wherein they join exactly with the Roman Catholicks, as they oppose them rigidly, in not admitting Images in Churches, or the Ʋse of Crucifixes, and permitting Priests to Marry freely.

* 1.11IN one odd Point they seem to favour the Opinion of the Jews, with whom they side in Abstinence from certain Meats, and keeping Saturday as Holy, as they do the Christian Sahaoth.

I need not tell the Learned Reader, that the Jacobins are call'd so from the Founder of their Heresy, a Syrian of mean Parentage and Fortune, nam'd Jacobus.

* 1.12HIS Dictates taught his Followers, and their Posterity, to make the Godhead of our Saviour Passive, and Subservient to his Manhood. They be∣lieve the Soul of Man Immortal, but with this Reserve, that it continues Slumb'ring with tho Body, till the Day of Judgment.

CONFESSION, Purgatory, and the Prayers of Roman Catholicks for the Deceas'd, they disregard, as needless Innovations. Their Priests may Marry, and Administer the Sacrament in both kinds, and unanimously join to disbelieve the Truth, and disobey the Orders of the ancient Fathers, and their Synods, for the most part.

* 1.13NESTORIƲS in the Reign of Theodosius, was Bishop of Constantino∣ple, and a Native of the Ʋpper Germany; he introduc'd an Heresy, which has prevail'd extreamly in the East, and gives the Denomination of Nestorians to its Professors.

IN the Administration of the Eucharist, this Sect deny the Real Presence, nor permit the Virgin Mary to be call'd, The Mother of God. They read the Scriptures, and pretend to practise a reserv'd Humility, but make a strange Division in our Saviour Christ, between his Divine and Humane Na∣ture.

* 1.14THE Georgians, call'd so from the Country of that Name, (in ancient Days, Albania, or Iberia) are in many Ceremonies and Opinions, Imitators of the Greeks, and most distinguish'd by the following Principles, to which they long have been most strict Adherers.

THEY take a Liberty from their Religion, to indulge their Senses al∣most to the highest Pitch of Incest, by permitting Marriages within the Rules of Christian Prohibition. They are great Admirers of loud Instruments of Musick, in their Churches, and have seldom deviated from an honesty of Mind, which speaks 'em justly Qualified for the Respect and Care of Euro∣paean Governments, who might with little Charge or Labour, bring them o∣ver from their in-offensive Ignorance, to a more lively and illuminated Know∣ledge of the Christ, they Worship.

* 1.15THE Maronites took Name, from Maro an Old Abbot, who won 'em o∣ver from the Jacobin Opinion to a new one of his own; or, as some say, from a large Village, call'd Marona, situated near their famous Monastery on Mount Lebanus or Lebanon.

THERE have been frequent Conferences set on Foot, between the Roman Catholicks and the abovenam'd Maronites, wherein the former have so well succeeded, that they are come wholly over to the Church of Rome, some few Reserves excepted, two of which are these: They hold it as a Su∣perstitious Ceremony, to make use of Extreme Ʋnction, one of the Seven Ro∣mish Sacraments, and look upon all Prayers for the Deceas'd, as helpless Of∣fices of a mistaken Zeal, or ineffectual Bigottry.

* 1.16THESE then are all the noted Christians, now Inhabiting Jerusalem, or any other Part of Palestine, each several Order subject to the Govern∣ment of their respective Bishop, Abbot, or Elected Guardian, but so much more subject to the Turkish Power, that they must miserably stand, de∣press'd by want of Riches or Authority, and see the Ground, which once the Good, the Holy Jesus honour'd with his Habitation, made the Property, and ruin'd by the Insolence of those audacious Infidels, who dare, upon the very Scene of his prodigious Agonies, Blaspheme his Person, and Deride his Crucifixion.

* 1.17IN this Condition, Reader, lies the Holy-Land at present, scarce e∣nough esteem'd by the few Turks, who live therein, to make 'em guess their Profits worth their Pains, and yet in vain desir'd with longing Wishes, by many Christian Princes, who for want of a suffi∣cient Power, by single Efforts, to expel the Conquerors, are forc'd to see that Land more wretched now than any other, which was once declar'd by God himself, the Happiest of the Ʋniverse.

Notes

• * 1.1

  A shocking Contemplati∣on.
• * 1.2

  The common Christian Inha∣bitants of Pa∣lestine.
• * 1.3

  Many Sects, who live in the Temple of Christ's Sepul∣chre.
• * 1.4

  How Con∣verse with Strangers.
• * 1.5

  The Names of Christian Sects, residing in Jerusalem.
• * 1.6

  The Armeni∣ans.
• * 1.7

  The Coptees and Graecians.
• * 1.8

  The Tolerati∣on given them.
• * 1.9

  The Abyssens.
• * 1.10

  The Tenets of their Religi∣on.
• * 1.11

  A Jewish Incli∣nation.
• * 1.12

  The Religion of the Jaco∣bius.
• * 1.13

  The Nestorians.
• * 1.14

  The Georgians.
• * 1.15

  The Maronites.
• * 1.16

  The Govern∣ment, these Sects are sub∣ject to.
• * 1.17

  The Conclu∣sion of the Chapter.