pains taken in this holy pilgrimage, all their sins are forgiven, and they reputed for so many saints.  And diverse of them with hot bricks, when they return, will put out their eyes, [6559]"that they never after see any profane thing, bite out their tongues,” &c.  They look for their prophet Mahomet as Jews do for their Messiah.  Read more of their customs, rites, ceremonies, in Lonicerus Turcic. hist. tom. 1. from the tenth to the twenty-fourth chapter.  Bredenbachius, cap. 4, 5, 6. Leo Afer, lib. 1. Busbequius Sabellicus, Purchas, lib. 3. cap. 3, et 4, 5. Theodorus Bibliander, &c.  Many foolish ceremonies you shall find in them; and which is most to be lamented, the people are generally so curious in observing of them, that if the least circumstance be omitted, they think they shall be damned, ’tis an irremissible offence, and can hardly be forgiven.  I kept in my house amongst my followers (saith Busbequius, sometime the Turk’s orator in Constantinople) a Turkey boy, that by chance did eat shellfish, a meat forbidden by their law, but the next day when he knew what he had done, he was not only sick to cast and vomit, but very much troubled in mind, would weep and [6560]grieve many days after, torment himself for his foul offence.  Another Turk being to drink a cup of wine in his cellar, first made a huge noise and filthy faces, [6561]"to warn his soul, as he said, that it should not be guilty of that foul fact which he was to commit.”  With such toys as these are men kept in awe, and so cowed, that they dare not resist, or offend the least circumstance of their law, for conscience’ sake misled by superstition, which no human edict otherwise, no force of arms, could have enforced.

In the last place are pseudo-Christians, in describing of whose superstitious symptoms, as a mixture of the rest, I may say that which St. Benedict once saw in a vision, one devil in the marketplace, but ten in a monastery, because there was more work; in populous cities they would swear and forswear, lie, falsify, deceive fast enough of themselves, one devil could circumvent a thousand; but in their religious houses a thousand devils could scarce tempt one silly monk.  All the principal devils, I think, busy themselves in subverting Christians; Jews, Gentiles, and Mahometans, are extra caulem, out of the fold, and need no such attendance, they make no resistance, [6562]_eos enim pulsare negligit, quos quieto jure possidere se sentit_, they are his own already:  but Christians have that shield of faith, sword of the Spirit to resist, and must have a great deal of battery before they can be overcome.  That the devil is most busy amongst us that are of the true church, appears by those several oppositions, heresies, schisms, which in all ages he hath raised to subvert it, and in that of Rome especially, wherein Antichrist himself now sits and plays his prize.  This mystery of iniquity began to work even in the Apostles’ time, many