It is true, there is another grand point in which they dissent both from the Roman Catholics and the Protestants; I mean the article of the Holy Ghost, which they say can proceed from the Father only. There are some less essential differences, such as their using leavened bread in the consecration of the Sacrament, and mixing the bread and wine together. And they also differ in the ceremonies of baptism, marriage, and burial. In the first they give three complete immersions. The second is performed by the priest's changing the ring from the bride's to the bridegroom's finger, saying a few words, and then from the bridegroom's to the bride's. He repeats this ceremony about thirty times, without any alteration, and when he desists, it is again as often performed by each of the godfathers and godmothers. Their funerals are like those of the savages--howling and making hideous cries till the corpse is interred, and then feasting over the grave.
The Patriarch of Constantinople is the head of the Greek Church, and has under him the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, Damascus, and Alexandria. St. Polycarp is their favorite Saint. He was one of St. John's disciples, and suffered martyrdom at Smyrna, of which he was the first Archbishop.
From the religion of the Greeks, I naturally turn to that of the Turks. To have a just idea of this, it is necessary that we should divest ourselves of every prejudice; and in arraigning the character of a man whom death has prevented from appearing in his own defence, Justice ever requires, that if we do not put the most favorable construction on his actions, we should, at least, treat them with impartiality.
To speak candidly then, Mahomet might be a religious and a moral man. His father left him in rather penurious circumstances, but profiting to the utmost by the education his friends could afford him, and always preserving a most unexceptionable character, he rose to be factor of a rich widow, whom he afterwards married; and becoming, by this connection, a person of some consequence in his country, he felt it his duty to devote himself to its welfare.
He saw, with the utmost concern, that the Jews and the Christians were constantly at variance, and that Idolatry was daily gaining ground. To check the progress of a practice so unworthy the human mind, and so degrading to our Divine Maker, appeared to him an object worthy his whole attention. Filled with this idea, it became the constant subject of his thoughts, and after long revolving it in his mind, he, at length, conceived it impossible to attain his end by any other method, but by that of uniting the Jews and the Christians in one religion. And this he knew could only be effected by admitting part of the tenets of both.