lately brought a bed to enter their Temples till they are purified The Inhabitants of Hispaniola think those do sin who lye with a woman a little after her child-birth And the Indians of new Spain do severely punish Sodomie Many of the Indians do bury their dead on the Mountains which also is the Jewish custome and Garcias saith the name Chanan to found in those countries You may wonder at this that the Indians doe every 50. yeares celebrate a Jubily with great pomp in Mexico the Metropolis of the whole Province Also that on the Sabbath-day all are bound to be present in the Temple to perform their Sacrifices and Ceremonies They also were divorced from their wives if they were not honest The Indians of Pern New-Spain and Guatemala did marry the widdowes of their dead brethren May not you judge from these things that the Jewes lived in those places and that the Gentiles learned such things of them Add also to what hath been said that the knowledge which the Indians had of the creation of the world and of the universall Flood they borrowed from the Israelites SECT 7. THe 4th ground of this opinion is that the Indians are of a brown colour and without beards but in the new world white and bearded men were found who had never commerce with the Spaniards and whom you cannot affirme to be any other than Israelites because also as they could never be overcome so they shall never be fully known as appears by what followes Petrus Simon a Franciscan in his History of finding out the firme land saith that in the raigne of Charles the 5. he commanded one called Philippus de Vire thither to discover and plant those countries that he found them unknown toward the north of America about 5. degrees in the Province of Omeguas which is neare the Province of Venezuela and now is called Garracas And he having learned of their neighbours the greatnesse of that people both in wealth and in war he determined to war upon them Who when they had marched a good way at last found a rich city full of people and faire buildings and not farre off 2 husbandmen tilling the ground whom they would have made prisoners that they might be their interpreters But when they saw themselves set on they fled apace towards the city but Philippus d' Vire and his Soldiers followed them hard on horseback and had almost taken them whereupon the husbandmen stood still and with their Speares wounded Philip in the breast piercing through his Brest-plate made of wooll to keepe off arrowes He wondering at the dexterity of that people judged it a wiser course not to make war upon that Province and people so expert in war and who dared to resist armed men Therefore he retreated with his Company And to this day none goe to that people neither is it known which way to go to them It is probable that they are Israelites whom God preserves in that place against the day of redemption Alonsus de Erzilla testifies the same thing in 2. part sua Araucaniae Cant. 27. where describing those places he thus speakes in Spanish Some Countries there so populous are seen As one continued City which have been Never as yet discoved but unknown To other Nations have lyen hid alone Not found by forraine sword nor forrain trade Doe either seeke nor suffer to be made But unacquainted live till God shall please To manifest his secrets shew us these SECT 8. IOanues Castilianus Vicarius living in the City Pampelona of Nova Granada in Peru saith that when Gonzalus Pisarrus had revolted from his people he sent some to search out new countries of the Indians who lived eastward whose number could never be knowne because that as some say their country is above 2000 miles in length if you compute from the head of the river Maragnon which runnes neare Andes of Gusco unto the place where it runs into the Sea where therefore the River began to be navigable Petrus d' Orsua being a Captaine went by water and hâ—s Soldiers with him in Vessels called Canows which when they were too small for the sorce of the streame he built Brigandines on the bank of the River Guariaga which washing the Province Chachapoyas runs into Maragnon He was scarce gone aboord his Brigandines when one of his owne Soldiers named Aquirre a stout man killed him who by common consent succeeded the slaine When they had gone a little way they found a plain without a mountaine where many houses stood on each side of the bank of Maragnon being built by the Indians They still went on for 48 houres together and saw nothing but tall and white houses which they feared to goe into because the Inhabitants were numerous and because they heard the noise of Hammers for which cause they thought the Inhabitants to be Goldsmiths They went on still and now sailed in the north Sea but alwayes neere to the shoar of the Province of Margarita where Aquirre was catcht by the Inhabitants and hanged for they heard that he had killed his Captain Petrus de Orsua SECT 9. CAspar Bergarensis whom I have oft spoke with went from the City Loxa which is in the Province of Quiti in Peru and accompanied the Colonell Don Diego Vaca dela Vega going to seek a new Country In the yeare 1622 they came to the Province Jarguasongo which had been discovered by Captain Salines and they passed the Mountaines Cordillerae where the River Maragnon is not above a stones cast over In the Province of the Iude Mainenses they built a City whose name was S. Franciscus de Borja at Esquilache In his company were an 100 Spaniards in Canows Having conquered those Indians and compelling them to sweare fealty to the King of Spaine the Collonel being instructed by the Mainenses went to other places after he had put a Garrison into his new City Having sayled fifty leagues in the River he found some Cottages of the Indians which there hid themselves by favour of many Rivers which there run into Maragnon When they had sailed into the River Guariaga where Petrus de Orsua had built his Brigaudines and was killed by Aquerra they asked the Indians whom they had taken who were called Guariaga from the Rivers name what people doe live on the Rivers side they told the Colonell that 5 dayes journey off there live men of tall stature comely in presence and have as great beards as the Spanyards have valiant and warlick who are not skilled in Canowes though the rest of the Indians use no other he presently returned the same way he came SECT 10. IN Fardambuc about 40 years since 8 Tabaiares had a mind to look out new Countries and to see whether the Land that was beyond and unknown were inhabited They having spent 4 moneths in travelling Westward they came to mountains to whose top they got with difficulty and found a plain which a pleasant river did compass by whose bank side
he did not truly perform that first agreement though confirmed by Letters Patents who because he could not digest the disgrace of bowing to his Enemy he prepared a new Army and went against them but a second time he being entrapped by the badnesse of the countrey he lost his life and many with him in a gulf which the Nephthalites had prepared for him having dressed it over with reeds and some earth thrown a top they having left in the middle some high grounds and trees where their Souts were that their stratageme might not be found and that the Persians might more confidently attempt the ditch Thus a rash King paid for his perfidy he excelling more in daring then in counsell as Agathias saith The Patent by which peace had been agreed was hung upon a spear and might be seen of him at distance that he might remember his oath repent and disist from his enterprise but he cared little for that But when by his unexpected fall he saw he should die it is said that he pulled off from his right ear a pearl of huge bignesse and whitenesse and lest any after him should finde it more likely that his carps should not be known he threw it a great way off The same Author asks who those Nephthalites were and by many arguments he proves that they are the relicks of the Jews saith he I do wholly think that they are the relicks of the Jews of the tribe of Nephtali whom Triglath Pilesser the Assirian carried into those places in 2 King 15.29 For 1. The name in the best copies of Agathias which Lewenclavius hath mended is the same fully in other books it wants nothing but an b now it is searce possible that in a word of many syllables that should fall out by chance 2. Their countenance discovers it for as Procopious J C saith they are not black or foule in their countenance as the Huns are among whom they live but the onely white men of that countrey that it may evidently appear that they came from some other place thither 3. Their manners agree for the same Author saith that they are not Nomades as the Huns who are unconstant in their dwelling and eat up one place after another but they inhabit one certain place Beside they observe Law and equity as the Romanes and have pollicy being well governed by their Prince both which is rare among their neighbour Nations Also they do not lay abroad their dead as the Barbarians do but they desently cover them with earth Lastly their jornals do testifie that many Jews live there especially in the mountains who have searched to the mid-land countreys of East-Asia R. Benjamin f. 23. From thence the coast of Persia is 28 daies journey to the mountains Nisebor which are neer the river Gozan The Isralites which come from thence into Persia say that there in the Cities of Nisebor are 4. Tribes so Dan Zabulon Aser Naphtali of the first captivity which Shalmaneser the Assyrian carried thither as in 2 King 17.6 he brought them to Habor and Halab the river Gozan and the mountains of Media The compasse of that countrey is 20. daies jâ—urney and they possesse Cities and Castles upon the mountains by one side of which runs the river Gozan neither are they subject to the Nations but have a Governor over them by name R. Joseph Amarkela a Levite and there are among them some who study wisdom They sowe and reap yea they â—rage war to the Countrey of Cuth In the same place Oâ—telius addes in the countrey Tabor or Tibur which Solinus commends in c. 49. they dwell a people who though they have lost the holy writings they obey one King who came into France in Ann. 1530. and spoke with Francis the first was burnt at Mantua by the command of the Emperour Charles the fifth because that he did privately reach Judaism to Christian Princes and to the Emperour himself Boterus saith the same in his relations of the farthest part of Tartary But both these were deceived for Rabbinus Jesephus Cohon a man worthy to be believed relates this more truly in his Chronology saying that the Jew who came out of that countrey was the brother of the King of the Israelites was called David the Reubenite and having seen India in his passage he came to Portugal where he converted the Kings Secretary to Judaism who fled from thence with him taking the name of Selomoh Molho he in short time was so well versed in the Law yea in the Cabala it self that he made all Italy admire him The Secretary together with the Rendenite endevoured to draw the Pope Charles the fifth and Francis the first to Judaism Selomoh Molho was taken at Mantua and burnt alive in the year 1540. He yet was offered his life if he would turn Christian The Reubenite was by Charles the fifth carried prisoner into Spain where he shortly after died Abraham Frisol Orhotolam remembers the Reubenite saying 45. years agone David Reubenita a Prince of the Israelites came from Tabor a Province of Tartary into Europe who said that two Tribes are there and other Tribes a little farther under their Kings and Princes and also an unspeakable number of people Perhaps the Province Tabor is the same that Habor which is mentioned in â— King 17.6 that the ten Tribes were broughâ—â— by Salmaneser to Habor and Halah now the Hebrew letters h and t are neer in fashion Eldad Danita of the Tribe of Dan came out of those Countreys 500. years agon a letter from whom which we call Sephar Eldod a-Dani is kept to this day and being examined by the Rabbins was found an approved man The learned Rabbi David Kimhi who lived 450. years since in etymol. suo in the word Segiah he saith Rabbi Jonah writes of the name of Rabbi Juda Aben Karis that he heard Eldad Danita say c. And so what I said is true as appears by the testimonies produced SECT XVIII PArt of the ten Tribes also live in Ethiopia in the Habyssin Kingdom as divers Habissins reported at Rome Boterus in his relations speaks the same thing that two potent Nations do live neer Nilus and that one of them is that of the Israelites who are governed by a mighty King A Cosmographer who hath added notes to Ptolomyes tables saith thus in his table of New Africa that part of new Africk was unknown of old the head of Nilus not being known which is in the mountains of the Moon as the Ancients call them where there dwels a great number of Israelites paying tribute to Prester John Rabbi Abraham Frisol in the book already quoted saith that in his time some who had been in those Countreys reported the same to Hercules the Duke of Ferraria And without question from hence the Habyssins learned circumcision the observation of the Sabbath and many more Jewish rites Of these Isaiah seems to speak in Isa 18.1 2. Wo to the land which under the shadow of
THE HOPE of ISRAEL Written By MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL an Hebrew Divine and Philosopher Newly extant and Printed in Amsterdam and Dedicated by the Author to the High Court the Parliament of England and to the Councell of State Translated into English and published by Authority In this Treatise is shewed the place wherein the ten Tribes at this present are proved partly by the strange relation of one Antony Montezinus a Jew of what befell him as he travelled over the Mountaines Cordillaere with divers other particulars about the restoratiòn of the Jewes and the time when Printed at London by R. I. for Hannah Allen at the Crown in Popes-head Alley 1650. To the Parliament the Supream Court of England and to the right Honourable the Councell of State Menasseh Ben Israell prayes God to give health and all Happinesse IT is not one cause alone most renowned Fathers which useth to move those who desire by their Meditations to benefit Mankind and to make them come forth in publique to dedicate their Books to great Men for some and those the most are incited by Covetousnesse that they may get money by so doing or some peice of plate of Gold or Silver sometimes also that they may obtaine their votes and suffrages to get some place for themselves or their friends But some are moved thereto by meere and pure friendship that so they may publickly testifie that love and affection which they beare them whose names they prefixe to their Books let the one and the other please themselves according as they delight in the reason of the Dedication whether it be good or bad for my part I best like them who doe it upon this ground that they may not commend themselves or theirs but what is for publick good As for me most renowned Fathers in my dedicating this Discourse to you I can truly affirme that I am induced to it upon no other ground then this that I may gaine your favour and good will to our Nation now scattered almost all over the earth neither thinke that I doe this as if I were ignorant how much you have hitherto favoured our Nation for it is made knowne to me and to others of our Nation by them who are so happy as neare at hand to observe your apprehensions that ye doe vouchsafe to help us not only by your prayers yea this hath compelled me to speak to ye publickly and to give ye thanks for that your charitable affection towards us and not such thankes which come only from the tongue but as are conceived by a gratefull minde Give me leave therefore most renowned Fathers to supplicate ye that ye would still favour our good and farther love us Truly we men doe draw so much the nearer to Divine nature when by how much we increase by so much we cherish and defend the small and weake ones and with how much diligence doe you performe this most renowned Fathers who though ye seeme to be arrived to the highest top of felicity yet ye doe not only not despise inferiour men but ye so wish well to them that ye seeme sensible of their calamity ye knowing how acceptable to God ye are by so doing who loves to doe good to them who doe good And truly it is from hence that of late ye have done so great things valiantly and by an unusuall attempt and things much to be observed among the Nations The whole world stands amazed at these things and the eyes of all are turned upon ye that they may see whither all these things do tend which the great Governour of all things seems to bring upon the world by so great changes so famously remarkable of so many Nations and so all those things which God is pleased to have fore-told by the Prophets doe and shall obtaine their accomplishment All which things of necessity must be fulfilled that so Israel at last being brought back to his owne place peace which is promised under the Messiah may be restored to the world concord which is the only Mother of all good things These things I handle more largely in this Treatise which I dedicate to ye most renowned Fathers ye cannot be ignorant that it is not only not unprofitable but very usefull for States and States-men to fore-see the issue which yet is ever in Gods hand of humane Counsels that so they may observe and understand from Divine truth the events of things to come which God hath determined by his Spirit in his holy Prophets I know that this my labour will not be unacceptable to ye how meane soever it be which I trust ye will cheerfully receive because that ye love our Nation and as part of it the Author of this Discourse But I entreat you be certain that I pour out continuall prayers to God for your happinesse Farewell most renowned Fathers and flourish most prosperously Menasseh Ben Israel MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL to the courteous Reader THere are as many mindes as men about the originall of the people of America and of the first inhabitants of the new World and of the West-Indies for how many men soever they were or are they came of those two Adam and Eve and consequently of Noah after the Floud But that new World doth seeme wholly separated from the old therefore it must be that some did passe thither out of one at least of the three parts of the World sc Europe Asia and Africa but the doubt is what people were those and out of what place they went Truly the truth of that must be gathered partly out of the ancient Histories and partly from conjectures as their Habit their Language their Manners which yet doe vary according to mens dispositions so that it is hard to finde out the certainty Almost all who have viewed those Countries with great diligence have been of different judgements Some would have the praise of finding out America to be due to the Carthaginians others to the Phenicians or the Canaanites others to the Indians or people of China others to them of Norway others to the inhabitants of the Atlantick Islands others to the Tartarians others to the ten Tribes Indeed every one grounds his opinion not upon probable arguments but high conjectures as will appeare farther by this Booke But I having curiously examined what ever hath hitherto been writ upon this Subject doe finde no opinion more probable nor agreeable to reason than that of our Montezinus who saith that the first inhabitants of America were the ten Tribes of the Israelites whom the Tartarians conquered and drove away who after that as God would have it hid themselves behind the Mountaines Cordillerae I also shew that as they were not driven out at once from their Country so also they were scattered into divers Provinces sc into America into Tartary into China into Media to the Sabbaticall River and into Aethiopia I prove that the ten Tribes never returned to the second Temple that they yet keep the
him farewell saying farewell my Brother I have other things to doe and I goe to visite thy Brethren with other Hebrew Cazici As for the Country be secure for we rule all the Indians after we have finished a businesse which we have with the wicked Spaniards we will bring you out of your bondage by Gods help not doubting but he who cannot lye will help us according to his Word endeavour you in the meane while that those men may come The HOPE of ISRAEL SECT 1. IT is hard to say what is certaine among the so many so uncertain opinions concerning the originall of the Indians of the new world If you aske what is my opinion upon the relation of Montezinus I must say it is scarce possible to know it by any Art since there is no demonstration which can manifest the truth of it much lesse can you gather it from Divine or humane Writings for the Scriptures doe not tell what people first inhabited those Countries neither was there mention of them by any til Christop Columbus Americus Vespucius Ferdinandus Cortez the Marquesse Del Valle and Franciscus Pizarrus went thither and though hitherto I have been of this minde that I would speake only of solid and infallible things as those things are which concerne our Law and the obscurity of the matter making me doubt whether it would be worth a while for me to attempt it yet at last I was content to be perswaded to it not that I look to get credit by it but that my friends and all who seeke for truth that have put me upon this work may see how very desirous I am to please them I shall speak somewhat in this Discourse of the divers opinions which have been and shall declare in what Countries it is thought the ten Tribes are and I shall close after that I have brought them into their owne Country which I shall prove by good reasons following the Revelations of the holy Prophets who I beleeve cannot be expounded otherwise whatever some thinke yet I intend not to dispute these things but according to my custom shall lay downe fairly and faithfully the opinions of the Iewes only SECT 2. YOu must know therefore that Alexis Vanegas saith that the first Colonies of the West-Indies were of the Carthaginians who first of all inhabited New-Spaine and as they encreased spread to the Iland Cuba from thence to the continent of America and after that towards Panama New-Spaine and the Isle of Peru. And he grounds himselfe on that reason that as the Carthaginians who of old did most use the Seas so those of Peru and the Inhabitants of New-Spaine did make use of pictures instead of letters But this opinion doth not satisfie because they anciently were white men bearded and civill in converse but contrarily those of Parama St. Martha and of the isles of Cuba and Barlovent went naked Farthermore who can thinke that the language which he saith they first spoke should be so soone changed that it should be wholly another and there is no agreement between the one and the other The learned Arias Montanus thinkes that the Indians of New Spaine and Peru are the off-spring of Ophir the sonne of Jokton the nephew of Heber And he backs his opinion by the name Ophir which by transposition of letters is the same with Peru and he adds that the name Parvaim in the duall number doth signifie the Istimus between New-Spaine and Peru which first was called Ophir then Peru and that these countries are that Peru from whence King Solomon brought gold precious stones c. as in 1 Kin. chap. 9.6.10 2 Chron. 9.21 This opinion seemes more probable than the other and may be backed by another name of the River Liru which according to Gomoras lies in the 2d degree from the Equinoctiall line from Panama 222. miles as also by the name of the Province Jucatan which may be derived from Joktan the father of Ophir But besides that this notation is somewhat farre fetcht it crosses what Josephus Acosta affirmes in 1. Histor of Jud. c. 13. who sayth that the name Peru was unknown to the Indians themselves before those Spaniards gave that name Add to this what Garcillasso de la Vega in the first part of his Commentary on Peru c. 4 saith that when a certaine Spanyard Basco Nunnez de Balboa lived in that country and asked a Fisherman what was the name of that Province he answered Beru which was the Fishermans owne name he thinking that was the question and he farther said that the name of the River where he fished was called Pelu Hence you may see that Peru is made of both those words which also many Spanyards besides him we have mentioned doe testifie Besides who can thinke that Solomon neglecting the East-Indies a place so rich and abounding with all things should send a Fleet so farre off as to the West-Indies Also we read in 1 King 9. that Solomon made ships in Ezion-Geber on the shoare of the red Sea which also Jehosophat did with Ahaziah as Ezra saith in 2. Chron. 20. and it is certaine that those of those countries went that ordinary way to India And it will not follow that because the holy Scripture sometimes saith that they went to Tarsis and sometimes that they went to Ophir that therefore both those places are the same since that Tarsis is not as some thinke Carthage or Tunes in Africa for that the navy of Solomon did not set sayle from Joppa a Port of the mediterranean but from Ezion-Geber a Port of the red Sea from whence they could not saile to Carthage but to the East-Indies The answer of Isaac Abarbanel to that argument cannot be admitted who saith that an arme of Nilus did run into the red Sea and another arme ran into the Mediterranean by Alexandria in Aegypt since it was never heard that ships of great burden did swim in those rivers and would not he then have built his Navy in the Port of Alexandria It is more true that Tarsis is the Ocean or Indian Sea and because they came into the Ocean after that they had sailed over the red Sea which is but narrow therefore the Scripture saith They Sailed to Tarsis Rabbi Jonathan ben Vziel followes this opinion who in his Paraphrase for Tarsis puts the Sea The same saith Franciscus de Ribera in his Comment on Jonah and also Rabbinus Josephus Coen in his Chronology who ascribe the word Tarsis to the Indian Sea because that Ophir is the same country which of old is called The Golden Chersonesus and by Josephus The golden Land and at this day Malacca from whence they brought Ivory for the great number of Elephants which are there none of which are in the West-Indies And Solomons Navy stayd in those Ports of India 3. yeares because they traded with the Inhabitants I know that learned Grotius and famous de Lact thinke differently as also those quoted by them but
dwelt a people who loved commerce they were white and bearded and this 5 of the Tabaires for 3 perished by the way and only 5 returned told to the Brasilians after 9 moneths SECT 11. IN our time under King Philip the Third Captain Ferdinandes de Queiros being returned out of India where he had spent most of his life to Rome he shewed a Table of Lands yet undiscovered From thence he went to Madrid and 5 ships were given him by che Governour of Panama to whom he was sent to perfect his designe He began his journey and was scarcely entred the South Sea but he found land which he called The Isle of Solomon and Hierusalem for reasons which he told me He in his course of sayling alwayes kept close to the shoare of those Islands he saw those Islanders of a browne colour and took many others dwelt in greater Islands and more fruitful these were white and wore long garments of silk and the Pilot being bid to bring his Ship neere the shoare he split his Ship upon a Rock and the Islanders running greedily to the sight which being sunke the Captaine went thence looking for the firme land which he found to be forty degrees beyond and he went 300 miles neere the shoare And when he perceived the Countrey to be inhabited by the smoak which he saw and would put into a Port on the side of the River there ran to him many white men of yellow haire tall like Giants richly cloathed and of long beards But one of the Vessels being wracked in the Havens mouth he was forced to put out to Sea whereupon the Islanders sent 2 Chaloffi of a brown colour as the inhabitants were of the first Island with sheep and other provisions and fruits but desiring and threatning them if they did not depart The Captaine brought those Coloffi into Spaine from whom the Spaniards could learne nothing but by signes and in stead of answers when they were asked would shew their beards as if such those were who were their Lords and had sent them and if they were asked about Religion they would hold up their fingers to heaven implying that they worshipped but one God A little while after they died in Spain The Captaine returned to Panama having left his 2 Ships which were wracked and when the Governour sued him by meanes of the Senators who are over the Indian affaires he was dismissed and returned with his Ships into Spaine where he abode 2 years before his matters were dispatched But the King created him Marquesse of the Countries found out by him and commanded to give him a good Army wherewith to compasse his designes But he scarce got to Panama when he died not without suspition of being poisoned by the Governour SECT XII THat which I am about to tell shall serve for a proof of that which I said of the West-Indians A Dutch mariner told me that not long since he was with his ship in America seven degrees towards the North between Maragnon and great Para and he put into an harbor in a pleasant river where he found some Indians who understood Spanish of whom he bought Meats and Dy-wood after he had stayed there six months he understood that that River extended eighteen leagues towards the Carybes Indians as far as the ship could go and that the River is divided there into three branches and they sayling two months on the left hand there met them white men and bearded well bred well clothed and abounding with gold and silver they dwelt in Cities enclosed with wals and full of people and that some Indians of Oronoch went thither and brought home much gold silver and many precious stones Which he having understood sent thither some Sea-men but the Indian died by the way who was their guide and so they did not proceed but stayed there two months and trucked with the Indians who were sixty leagues from Sea That Province is called Jisbia and is subject to Zealand they have no commerce with the Spaniards and the Inhabitants travell securely every way I heard that story by accident from that Dutch master of the ship whence some of us guessing them to be Israelites had purposed to send him again to enquire more fully But he dyed suddenly the last yeer whence it seems that God doth not permit that those purposes should take any effect till the end of days SECT XIII YEt I give more credit to our Monterinus being a Portingal and a Jew of our order born in a City of Portingal called Villefleur of honest and known parents a man about fourty yeers old honest and not ambicious He went to the Indies where he was put into the Inquisition as the successor of many who were born in Portingal and descended from them whom the King of Portugal Don Manuel forced to turn Christians O wicked and unjust action saith Osorius and a little after This was done neither according to Law nor Religion and yet to this day they privately keep their Religion which they had changed being forced thereto He being freed from the Inquisition very diligently ought out these things and oft spoke with those men and then was not quiet till he came hither and had told us that good news He endured much in that journey and was driven to great want so that no house would give him food or give him money for his work I my self was well acquainted with him for six months together that he lived here and sometimes I made him take an oath in the presence of honest men that what he had told was true Then he went to Farnambuc where two yeers after he died taking the same oath at his death Which if it be so why should not I beleeve a man that was vertuous and having all that which men call gain And who knows but that shortly the truth of that prognostick may appear which our Monterinus learned from the Mohanes answerable to that which Jacobus Verus an Astrologer of Prague writ after the apparition of the Comet in Ann. 1618. and dedicated to his Highness the Prince Palatine where he thus discourseth The Comet going towards the South doth intimate that the Cities and Provinces which God doth threaten are those of the West-Indies which shall revolt from the King of Spaine who will finde that loss greater then he imagined not that the Indians rebell against him of themselves but that they are provoked to it being stirred up by others Neither did the Comet only foretell that but the eclipse of the Sun which was in that Countrey the yeer before Thus far the Astrologer Our ancient Rabbins say though we do not beleeve the Astrologers in all things yet we do not wholly reject them who sometimes tell truth SECT XIIII THus far of the West-Indies of which Isaiah may be understood because it lyes in the midst of the Sea and also hath many Islands in Isa 60.9 The isles shall wait for me and the ships of Tarshish
sails doth sail beyond the rivers of Ethiopia by whom the Prophet saith are sent ambassadors in ships of bulrushes such as the Ethiopians use commonly called Almadiae Bring back a people driven out of their countrey and torn and more miserable then any among us Gifts shall be brought to the Lord of Sebaoth in the place where the name of the Lord of Sebaoth is worshipped in the mount Sion The Prophet Zephany saith the same in Zeph. 3.9 10. Then will I give to the people that they speaking a pure language may all call upon the name of God whom they shall serve with reverence from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they shall bring to me for a gist Hatray the daughter of my dispersed ones that is the Nations of Ethiopia Which agrees with that of Isa And your brethren which are the 10. Tribes shall bring gifts to the Lord. SECT XIX ANd without doubt they also dwell in Media from thence they passed Enphrates whither they were first brought as in 2 King 17.24 and in the book of Tobit Josephus also speaks of them in the Preface of his book of the War of the Jews that the Jews did think that their brethren who dwelt beyond Euphrates and farther would rebell against the Romanes Agrippa in his oration to the people of Jerusalem that they would not rebell against the Romanes speaks thus What associates do ye expect to joyn with you in your rebellion and war doth not all the known world pay tribute to the Romans Perhaps some of ye hope to have help from them beyond Euphrates And in lib. 2. Antiquit c. 5. speaking of those who in the time of Ezra returned from Babylon to Jerusalem he saith All Israel dwelt in Media for two Tribes only dwelt in Asia and Europe and lived subject to the Romans as the other ten on the other side Enphrates where they are so many that they cannot be counted It is not therfore to be doubted the people encreasing after their first transportation they sought out new places which we have formerly mentioned SECT XX. LAstly all think that part of the ten Tribes dwell beyond the river Sabbathion or sabbaticall Rabbi Johanan the Author of the Jerusalem Talmud who lived 160 years after the destruction of the 2d Temple saith in his treatise of the Sanhedrim ca. 17. That the 10. Tribes were carried into 3. places sc to the Sabbaticall river to Daphne the suburbs of Antioch and thither where a cloud comes down and covers them and that they shall be redeemed from those three places for so he opens that place of Isa Chap. 49.9 That they may say to the captives go forth sc to them who were at the Sabbaticall river to them that are in darknesse shew your selves sc to them who are compassed with the cloud and to all they shall be refreshed in the wayes sc to them who live in Daphne of Antioch which is in Syria Whence you may observe that the learned man l'Emperiur translated it ill at the sides of Antioch whereas Daphne is the proper name of a pleasant grove near Antioch Sedar olam makes mention of that cloud and cals them mountains of obscurity And in Talmud tractat Sanhedr c. 11. R. Jonathan ben Vziel who lived an hundred yeers before the destruction of the 2d Temple in Exod. 34.10 where the Lord saith I will do wonders before all thy people such as were never done in the whole earth or in any Nation c. and he refers all those things to the transportation of the people He shall draw them to the rivers of Babylon and shall carry them to the sabbaticall river and shall teach them that those miracles were never performed to any Nation of the known world Our ancient Rabbins in Beresit Rabba no mean book in Perasach do say that Tornunfus asking how it should appear that the day which we keep is the 7th day on which God rested after the Creation of the world Rabbi Aquebah who lived 52. yeers after the destruction of the 2d Temple answered by an argument taken from the stones of the Sabbaticall river which in the six dayes are tossed up and down with a continuall motion but do rest on the Sabbath day and move not The same is said in the Babylonian Talmud tractat Sanhed c. 7. in Tanuah Perasach c. 9. In eodem Beresit Raba in Perasach 37. Rabbi Simon saith The ten Tribes were carried to the Sabbaticall river but Juda and Benjamin are dispersed into all Countreys In Asirim Raba the last verse of the Song it s said Our bed is flourishing that it is meant the ten Tribes which were carried to the Sabbaticall river and that river running all the week doth cause the ten Tribes there remaining to be shut up for though on the 7th day the river doth rest yet it is forbidden by our Law to take a journey then and for that reason they remained there miraculously as lost and concealed from us So that of Isa 49. That they say to the prisoners go forth is interpreted of them in Jalcut R. Aquebah after the same manner explains that of Levit. 36.38 And ye shall perish among the heathen And that of Isa 27. ult and they shall come who were ready to perish in Assyria Because they are remote from the rest therefore another Rabbi in Bamibar Raba Parasa 16. applyes to them that of Isa 49.12 Behold them who come from far that so all those Authors mention that River The testimony of Josephus is famous lib. 7. de Bel. Jud. ca. 24. saying The Emperour Titus passing between Arca and Raphanea Cities of King Agrippa he saw the wonderfull River which though it be swift yet it is dry on every seventh day and that day being past it resumes its ordinary course as if it had no change and it always observes this order It is called Sabbaticall from the solemn feast of the Jews because it imitates their rest every seventh day I know some do otherwise expound those words of Josephus but they hit not his meaning as appears by this that he cals the River Sabbathio or sabbaticall which word cannot be derived but from Sabbath and who doth not see that it ceaseth to flow or move on the Sabbath day and so Josephus must be understood according to my sense Pliny also confirms this opinion lib. 1. Nat hist c. 2. he saith In Judea a river lyes dry every Sabbath yet I think Pliny is deceived and ill informed when he saith it is a river in Judea neither is it to be found in Judea but in another place where many Jews live R. Selomoh Jarchi who lived 540. yeers since mentions that River in Comment Talm. saying The stones and sand of that River do continually move all the six dayes of the week untill the seventh R. Mardochus Japhe in his learned book Jephe Thoar saith The Arabians derive Sabbathion from the Sabbath who use to adde the particle ion to adjectives The
same saith that it was told him of an hour-glasse filled with the sand of Sabbathion which ran all the week till the Sabbath And I heard the same from my father which testimony I account as good as if I saw it my self for fathers do not use to impose upon their sons He told me that there was an Arabian at Lisborn who had such an hour-glasse and that every Friday at evening he would walk in the street called the new street and shew this glasse to Jews who counterfeited Christianity and say Ye Jews shut up your shops for now the Sabbath comes Another worthy of credit told me of another hour-glasse which he had some years before before the port Mysketa He saw him by chance or the Judge of the place passing that way from Cadez and being asked what he was he commanded him to be taken away rebuking the Mahometans that by this mean they did confirm the Jewish Sabbath I should not speak of these glasses if the authority of such a man whom I have alledged did not move me though I beleeve that God did not onely work that miracle that he might keep part of the 10. Tribes there but other also as you may see in Esdras R. Moses Gerundensis a learned Cabalist and Interpreter of the Law in Parasa Aazinu thinks the river Sabbathion to be the same with Gozan of Guz which signifies to snatch away because except the 7th day on all the other it carries with it by its swiftnesse the very stones Of this there is mention in 2 King whither the King of Assyria led his captives and so relates Benjamin Tudelensis in his journall that part of the 10 Tribes dwelt at the bank of that River But I know not where the river Gâ—zan is In the yeer 5394. that is 15 years agon in the City Lubin two Polonians after they had travelled long they wrot in Ducht a book of the originall of the Sabbaticall river but the Senate commanded it to be burnt at the Mart of Breslaw by the perswasion of the Jesuites Abraham Frisal in his Orchot Olam c. 26. will have this river to be in India he saith The head of the Sabbaticall river is in the countrey of Vpper India among the rivers of Ganges And a little after The sabbaticall river hath its originall from the other side of Kalikout which lies far above the bound of Lamik which he placeth beyond the sinus Barbaricus and it parts the Indians from the kingdom of the Jews which river you may certainly finde there Though he takes Gozan for Ganges for some nearnesse of writing yet it s not to be doubted that in that place there are many Jews witnesse Joannes de Bairos in his Decads Eldad Danita speaking of the 4. Tribes which he placeth at Gozan saith The Sabbaticall river is among them Josephus saith that Titus saw the sabbathion between Arca and Raphanea Which testimony seems the truer because it s not to be thought that Josephus would tella lie of him by whom be might be rebuked I think that ye must look for it not far from the Caspian Sea I am not alone in this opinion What ever it be it appears that this river is somewhere and that part of the 10. Tribes are hid there and I may say with Moses in Deut. 29.28 29. And the Lord cast them out of their land in anger and in wrath Secret things belong to the Lord our God For it is not known when they shall return to their Countrey neither can it perfectly be shewed where they are God suffering it as it s said in Deut. 32.26 I determined to cast them forth unto the ends of the earth and to make their remembrance cease from among men As if he should say I will cast them unto the farthest places of the world that none may remember them and therfore they are truly in Scripture called imprisoned and lost SECT XXI NEither is there weight in the argument which some have brought to me if they be in the world why do we not know them better There are many things which we know and yet know not their originall are we not to this day ignorant of the heads of the foure Rivers Nilus Ganges Euphrates and Tigris also there are many unknown Countreys Beside though some live in known and neighbour Countreys yet they are unknown by being behinde mountains so it happened under the reign of Ferdinand and Isabel that some Spaniards were found out by accident at Batueca belonging to the Duke of Alva which place is distant but 10. miles from Salamanca and neer to Placentia whither some Spaniards fled when the Moores possessed Spaine and dwelt there 800. years If therefore a people could lye hid so long in the middle of Spaine why may we not say that those are hid whom God will not have any perfectly to know before the end of daies And these things we have gathered concerning the habitations of the ten Tribes who we beleeve do still keep the Jewish rites as in 2 King 17.26 when the Israelites were carried captive by Salmaneser and those of Cuthah came in their stead an Israelitish Priest was sent by the King to teach them because Lions infested them for that they were ignorant that there was another worship used in the land but when the Priest saw that it was impossible to take that people wholly off from idolatry he permitted them to worship divers gods so that they would acknowledge one to be the mover of all things The same is also sufficiently proved out of all the Histories which we have alleaged And our brethren do keep the Law more zealously out of their land than in it as being neither ambitious nor contentious which hath sometimes hapned with the family of David by which means they might easily erre in the true Religion not acknowledge Jerusalem and withdraw that obedience which is due to the Lord and to his Temple SECT XXII VVE learn out of the first of Ezra that none of the 10. Tribes entred the second Temple for it is said that only some of the Tribe of Judah and some of Benjamin did return Ezra also saith the same in the 1 of Chronicles that Salmaneser carried the 10. Tribes to Hala Habor and Hara and to the river Gozan to this day so that you may gather that at that time they were there So likewise Josephus in Antiq. Jud. lib. 11. c. 5. Perhaps some will say since Media and Persia are near to Bahylon why did they not return to Jerusalem with the two Tribes I answer because so few of the 2. neighbouring Tribes did return from thence to Ierusalem for that they were well seated in Babylon or else because they heard the Prophets say that they must not look for any redemption but that which was to be at the end of daies How then can we think that they who were more remote and also had learnt the same things of the Prophets should leave
their place perhaps to suffer new miseries and calamities Beside we do not read that Cyrus gave leave to any to return but onely to the two Tribes of Juda and Benjamin And also it is probable as some Authors affirm that they could not go up from thence because they had continually wars with the neighbour people SECT XXIII HItherto we have ihewed that the ten Tribes are in divers places as in the West-Indies in Sina in the confines of Tartary beyond the river Sabbathion and Euphrates in Media in the kingdom of the Habyssins of all which the Prophet Isaiah is to be understood in Isa 11.11 It shall come to passe in that day that the Lord shall set his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria from Egypt from Pathros from Ethiopia from Elam from Sinear from Hamath and from the Islands of the Sea From whence you may gather that it is meant of those places where the ten Tribes dwell Syria and Egypt shall be the two places of their generall meeting as more fully hereafter Pathros is not Pelusium nor Petra but Parthia neer to the Caspian Sea where I think with many others the Sabbaticall river is Although there is a Pathros in Egypt as the learned Samuel Bochardus saith in his holy Geography Chus according to common opinion is Ethiopia as is proved out of Ier. 13.23 and in this place of Ieremy are meant the Israelites who live in the Countrey of the Abyssins Elam is a Province in Persia as it appears in Dan. 8.2 where are desert places in which perhaps the remnant of the ten Tribes is Shinar is a Province about Babylon as in Gen. 10.10 where Babel is said to be in Shinar and Dan. 1.2 it is said that Nebuchadnezzar carried the holy vessels to the land of Shinar Hamath there are many Hamaths mentioned in the Scripture many understand it of Antioch but because Geographers reckon up 12. places named Antioch therefore we can affirm nothing for certain but I think that that is meant which is placed in Scythia The seventy Interpreters by Hamath understand the Sun from Hamath the Sun and they translate it From the rising of the Sun and I think it is no ill translation for hereby all the Israelites who are in greater Asia India and Sina may be understood The Islands of the Sea so almost all translate it but I think it is to be rendred The Islands of the West for I am in holy Scripture signifies The West as in Gen. 28.14 and in many other places and upon this account those Israelites are implyed who are Westward from the Holy Land among whom the Americans are SECT XXIIII THe Prophet adds in Isa 11.12 And he shall set up a sign for the Nations and he shall assemble the out-casts-of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the foure quarters of the earth Where he notes two things 1. that he cals the Israelites out-casts but the Jews scattered and the reason is because the ten Tribes are not onely far off from the Holy Land but also they live in the extremities and ends of Countreys from whence the Prophet cals them cast out But he doth not say that the Israelites are to be gathered from the foure quarters of the earth because they are not so dispersed through the world as the Tribe of Judah is which now hath synagogues not onely in three parts of the world but also in America The Prophet adds in v. 13. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off For then there shall be no contention between Judah and the 10. Tribes which are comprehended under the name Ephraim because their first King Jeroboam was of that Tribe And then as it is in Ezek. 37.22 One King shall be King over them all and they shall be no more two Nations neither shall they be divided any more into two kingdoms There shall be one King to them both of the family of David Also the Lord at the redemption will drie up Nilus and Euphrates and will divide it into seven streames answerable to his drying up the red Sea when they came out of Egypt perhaps that the seven Tribes which are in those parts may go over it as they passe into their Countrey as Isaiah saith in ch 27.12 13. And it shall be in that day and he shall shake off from the bank of the river some understand Euphrates unto the river of Egypt Nilus and ye O children of Israel shall be gothered one by one Which was never done in the captivity of Babylon The Prophet Isaiah saith in chap. 11.11 that he will return them the second time c. Now the redemption from Babylon cannot be called such an one because all of them were not brought back to their Countey But the redemption shall be universal to all the tribes as it was when they went out of Egypt which redemption shall be like the first in many things as I shew in the third part of my Reconciler and so it may be called the second in reference to that first from Aegypt Whence Ieremiah saith Chap. 23.7 8. That then it shall not be said He that brought Israel out of Egypt but from the North and from all countreys whither he had driven them That they shall not mention their departure from Aegypt for the cause fore-mentioned SECT XXV THe same Prophet sc Isa 43.5 6. saith I will bring thy seed from the East and will gather thee from the West I will say to the North Give up and to the South Keep not back bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth For Media Persia and China lye on the East Tartary and Scythia on the North the kingdom of the Abyssins on the South Europe on the West from the Holy Land But when he saith Bring ye my sons from far he understands America so that in those verses he understands all those places in which the Tribes are detained Also in Chap. 49. from ver 7. to the end of the Chapter he saith that that return shall be most happy And in ch 56. ver 8. God saith He that gathers the out-casts of Israel And the Prophet Ieremiah in ch 33. ver 16. In those days shall Iudah be saved and Ierusalem shall dwell safely It is certain and Ierom assents to all our Authors that when Iudah is joyned with Israel by Israel the ten Tribes are meant The same addes in ch 31. ver 15. in the comforting of Rahel who wept for the carrying away her sons Ioseph and Benjamin the first by Salmaneser into Assyria the last by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon he saith in ver 16. Refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears for thy work shall be rewarded And it follows in Cha. 33. ver 7. And I will cause the captivity of Iudah and the captivity of Israel to return and I