The Book of Religions Part 31

The morality of this philosopher and his disciples is not unlike that of the Epicureans, consisting in a tranquillity of mind, free from all vehement desires and pa.s.sions. But as this tranquillity would be disturbed by thoughts of death, they boast of a liquor that has the power of rendering them immortal. They are addicted to chemistry, alchemy, and magic, and are persuaded that, by the a.s.sistance of demons, whom they invoke, they can obtain all that they desire. The hope of avoiding death prevailed upon a great number of mandarins to study this diabolical art, and certain credulous and superst.i.tious emperors brought it greatly into vogue.

The doctrine of this sect, concerning the formation of the world, according to Dr. Milne, much resembles that of the Epicureans. If they do not maintain the eternity of matter, on the other hand, they do not deny it; but, in a.n.a.logy with the favorite science of alchemy, they represent the first pair as drawn out of the boiling mouth of an "immense crucible,"

by a celestial being. The Platonic notion of an _anima mundi_, or soul of the world, is very common; and hence it is that the heavens are considered the body of this imaginary being, the wind its breath, the lights of heaven as proceeding from its eyes, the watery fluids as its spittle and tears.

QUIETISTS.

The disciples of Michael de Molinos, a Spanish priest, who flourished in the seventeenth century, and wrote a book called "The Spiritual Guide."

They argue thus:-"The apostle tells us, that 'the Spirit makes intercession for,' or _in_ 'us.' Now, if the Spirit pray in us, we must resign ourselves to his impulses, by remaining in a state of absolute rest, or quietude, till we attain the perfection of the unitive life"-a life of union with, and, as it should seem, of absorption in, the Deity.

KNIPPERDOLINGS.

A denomination in the sixteenth century, so called from Bertrand Knipperdoling, who taught that the righteous, before the day of judgment, shall have a monarchy on earth, and the wicked be destroyed; that men are not justified by their faith in Christ Jesus; that there is no original sin; that infants ought not to be baptized, and immersion is the only mode of baptism; that every one has authority to preach, and administer the sacraments; that men are not obliged to pay respect to magistrates; that all things ought to be in common; and that it is lawful to marry many wives.

MENDaeANS, MENDAITES, MENDAI IJAHI, OR DISCIPLES OF ST. JOHN, THAT IS, THE BAPTIST.

From twenty to twenty-five thousand families of this sect still remain, chiefly in the neighborhood of Ba.s.sora, a city between Arabia and Persia, on the extremity of the desert of Irac. They are sometimes called _Christians of St. John_-a name which they probably received from the Turks, and to which they contentedly submit for the sake of the toleration it affords them; but they are better known in ecclesiastical history as _Hemero_ (or every day) _Baptists_, from their frequent washings.

MUGGLETONIANS.

The followers of Ludovic Muggleton, a journeyman tailor, who, with his companion Reeves, set up for great prophets, in the time of Cromwell. They pretended to absolve or condemn whom they pleased, and gave out that they were the two last witnesses spoken of in the Revelation, who were to appear previous to the final destruction of the world. They affirmed that there was no devil at all without the body of man or woman; that the devil is man's spirit of unclean reason and cursed imagination; that the ministry in this world, whether prophetical or ministerial, is all a lie, and abomination to the Lord; with a variety of other vain and inconsistent tenets.

Muggleton died in 1697, and on his gravestone is this inscription:-

"Whilst mausoleums and large inscriptions give Might, splendor, and, past death, make potents live, It is enough briefly to write thy name: Succeeding times by that will read thy fame; Thy deeds, thy acts, around the world resound; No foreign soil where Muggleton's not found."

The raven plume of oblivion hath long ago waved over this prophet's grave.

YEZIDEES, OR WORSHIPPERS OF THE DEVIL.

From a very interesting work recently published by Asahel Grant, M. D., a medical missionary to the Nestorians, we copy the following account:-

"The pa.s.sage of the Tigris transferred me from Mesopotamia into a.s.syria, and I stood upon the ruins of Nineveh, 'that great city,' where the prophet Jonah proclaimed the dread message of Jehovah to so many repenting thousands whose deep humiliation averted for a time the impending ruin.

But when her proud monarchs had scourged idolatrous Israel and carried the ten tribes into captivity, and raised their hands against Judah and the holy city, the inspired strains of the eloquent Nahum, clothed in terrible sublimity as they were, met their full accomplishment in the utter desolation of one of the largest cities on which the sun ever shone.

'Nineveh is laid waste! who will bemoan her? She is empty, and void, and waste; her n.o.bles dwell in the dust; her people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.'

"Where her gorgeous palaces once resounded to the strains of music and the shouts of revelry, a few black tents of the wandering Arab and Turkoman are now scattered among the shapeless mounds of earth and rubbish,-the ruins of the city,-as if in mockery of her departed glory; while their tenants were engaged in the fitting employment of weaving 'sackcloth of hair,' as if for the mourning attire of the world's great emporium, whose 'merchants' were multiplied above the stars of heaven. The largest mound, from which very ancient relics and inscriptions are dug, is now crowned with the Moslem village of Neby Yunas, or the prophet Jonah, where his remains are said to be interred, and over which has been reared, as his mausoleum, a temple of Islam.

"Soon after leaving the ruins of Nineveh, we came in sight of two villages of the Yezidees, the reputed worshippers of the devil. Large and luxuriant olive-groves, with their rich green foliage, and fruit just ripening in the autumnal sun, imparted such a cheerful aspect to the scene as soon dispelled whatever of pensive melancholy had gathered around me, while treading upon the dust of departed greatness. Several white sepulchres of Yezidee sheiks attracted attention as I approached the villages. They were in the form of fluted cones or pyramids, standing upon quadrangular bases, and rising to the height of some twenty feet or more. We became the guests of one of the chief Yezidees of Baa-sheka, whose dwelling, like others in the place, was a rude stone structure, with a flat terrace roof. Coa.r.s.e felt carpets were spread for our seats in the open court, and a formal welcome was given us; but it was evidently not a very cordial one. My Turkish cava.s.s understood the reason, and at once removed it. Our host had mistaken me for a Mahometan towards whom the Yezidees cherish a settled aversion. As soon as I was introduced to him as a Christian, and he had satisfied himself that this was my true character, his whole deportment was changed. He at once gave me a new and cordial welcome, and set about supplying our wants with new alacrity. He seemed to feel that he had exchanged a Moslem foe for a Christian friend, and I became quite satisfied of the truth of what I had often heard,-that the Yezidees are friendly towards the professors of Christianity.

"They are said to cherish a high regard for the Christian religion, of which clearly they have some corrupt remains. They practise the rite of baptism, make the sign of the cross, so emblematical of Christianity in the East, put off their shoes, and kiss the threshold when they enter a Christian church; and it is said that they often speak of wine as the blood of Christ, hold the cup with both hands, after the sacramental manner of the East, when drinking it, and, if a drop chance to fall on the ground, they gather it up with religious care.

"They believe in one supreme G.o.d, and, in some sense at least, in Christ as a Savior. They have also a remnant of Sabianism, or the religion of the ancient fire-worshippers. They bow in adoration before the rising sun, and kiss his first rays when they strike on a wall or other object near them; and they will not blow out a candle with their breath, or spit in the fire, lest they should defile that sacred element.

"Circ.u.mcision and the pa.s.sover, or a sacrificial festival allied to the pa.s.sover in time and circ.u.mstance, seem also to identify them with the Jews; and, altogether, they certainly present a most singular chapter in the history of man.

"That they are really the worshippers of the devil can only be true, if at all, in a modified sense, though it is true that they pay him so much deference as to refuse to speak of him disrespectfully, (perhaps for fear of his vengeance;) and, instead of p.r.o.nouncing his name, they call him the 'lord of the evening,' or 'prince of darkness;' also, Sheik Maazen, or Exalted Chief. Some of them say that Satan was a fallen angel, with whom G.o.d was angry; but he will at some future day be restored to favor, and there is no reason why they should treat him with disrespect.

"The Christians of Mesopotamia report that the Yezidees make votive offerings to the devil, by throwing money and jewels into a certain deep pit in the mountains of Sinjar, where a large portion of them reside; and it is said that when that district, which has long been independent, was subjugated by the Turks, the pacha compelled the Yezidee priest to disclose the place, and then plundered it of a large treasure, the offerings of centuries. The Yezidees here call themselves Daseni, probably from the ancient name of the district, Dasen, which was a Christian bishopric in early times. Their chief place of concourse, the religious temple of the Yezidees, is said to have once been a Christian church or convent. The late Mr. Rich speaks of the Yezidees as 'lively, brave, hospitable, and good-humored,' and adds that, 'under the British government, much might be made of them.'

"The precise number of the Yezidees it is difficult to estimate, so little is known of them; but it is probable that we must reckon them by tens of thousands, instead of the larger computations which have been made by some travellers, who have received their information merely from report. Still they are sufficiently numerous to form an important object of attention to the Christian church; and I trust, as we learn more about them, sympathy, prayer, and effort, will be enlisted in their behalf. It will be a scene of no ordinary interest when the voice of prayer and praise to G.o.d shall ascend from hearts now devoted to the service of the prince of darkness, 'the worshippers of the devil'! May that day be hastened on!"

GREEK OR RUSSIAN CHURCH.

The Greek church separated from the Latin or Romish church about A. D.

1054. It is under the jurisdiction of the patriarchs or bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The Greek or Russian church is very extensive. Its jurisdiction embraces more territory than that of the Roman see. The population of this church is estimated at about forty millions.

The following are some of the chief tenets held by the Greek or Russian church:-They disown the authority of the pope, and deny that the church of Rome is the true catholic church. They do not baptize their children till they are three, four, five, six, ten, nay, sometimes eighteen years of age: baptism is performed by trine immersion. They insist that the sacrament of the Lord's supper ought to be administered in both kinds, and they give the sacrament to children immediately after baptism. They grant no indulgences, nor do they lay any claim to the character of infallibility, like the church of Rome. They deny that there is any such place as purgatory; notwithstanding, they pray for the dead, that G.o.d would have mercy on them at the general judgment. They practise the invocation of saints; though, they say, they do not invoke them as deities, but as intercessors with G.o.d. They exclude confirmation, extreme unction, and matrimony out of the seven sacraments. They deny auricular confession to be a divine precept, and say it is only a positive injunction of the church. They pay no religious homage to the eucharist.

They administer the communion in both kinds to the laity, both in sickness and in health, though they have never applied themselves to their confessors, because they are persuaded that a lively faith is all which is requisite for the worthy receiving of the Lord's supper. They maintain that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father, and not from the Son.

They believe in predestination. They admit of no images in relief or embossed work, but use paintings and sculptures in copper or silver. They approve of the marriage of priests, provided they enter into that state before their admission into holy orders. They condemn all fourth marriages. They observe a number of holy days, and keep four fasts in the year more solemn than the rest, of which the fast in Lent, before Easter, is the chief. They believe the doctrine of consubstantiation, or the union of the body of Christ with the sacramental bread.

The Russians adhere to the doctrine and ceremonies of the Greek church, though they are now independent of the patriarch of Constantinople. The church service is contained in twenty-four volumes, folio, in the Sclavonian language, which is not well understood by the common people.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS.