with Child and after to Ismael and God told him That the Soul of Mahomet in the beginning of the Creation was mingled with his and that his Name in Heaven though he were never like to come there should be Asmet in Earth Mahomet in Paradise Abualtrazim At this Sarah grieved until three Angels comforted her with the Promise of Isaac From Ismael it removed to Keidar his Son who was endued with seven gifts viz. Sound Couragious Fair Swift Just a Hunter and an Archer This Keidar married Nulia of the Land of Isaac but being warned by an Oracle he took to wife Algadira an Arabian and after by Divine warning carried the chest of this Light to Jacob. Then was Hamel born to him and received the same Light in which succeeded Thebicht Hamiessa Adeth Adnue Adue Machat Nizar Musar Aliez Madraca Horeima Knieua Anofra Melic Falhrem Luie Galiben Rab Murran Cudai Abdamenef Hesim a man by Divine testimony free of all uncleanness and that was more than Mahomet was himself To him did all Kings offer their Daughters in marriage and among the rest Constantine which he refused and married Seline the Daughter of Zeit and had by her Abdulmatalib whose Light caused Rain in drought To him an Elephant prostrated himself and said with man's voice thou canst not O Reader but believe it Salvation be on you and on the Light that shineth out of your Reins Dignity Fame Honour and Victory be on you and that there should proceed from him a King greater than all the Kings of the Earth Another time as he slept on the stone which was placed by Abraham in his Oratory at Mecca he dreamed of a Chain reaching East and West and to Heaven and to the Depth which was presently converted into a flourishing Herb. Noah and Abraham presented themselves Interpreters of this Dream Abdalla his Son the Father of Mahomet had a Tutor given unto him to defend him from his Enemies who seemed a man but was none He was preserved from the lying in wait of the Jews by threescore and ten Angels which seemed men He wedded Ermina and therefore two hundred Women perished for his Love some hanging some burning themselves But if this be the effects of Love Heavens send that I may dote on nothing but upon Canary powder'd Beef and Mustard When the prescribed time was come in the Month Dulheia on a Fryday night God bad Aridunan to open the Gates of Paradise that the innermost of his Secrets might be manifested for it pleaseth me saith he this Night to transport the Light of my Prophet from the reins of Abdalla into the Womb of Ermina and that it come into the World This being done as Abdalla the Judge and Lord of the Arabians went into the House of Prayer he perceived a great Light to lighten from his House up toward Heaven and presently died On the twelfth day of Rab on a Tuesday Mahomet was born circumcised and all Frolick And then all Idols fell and became Black All Kingdoms were destroyed and not one stood upright Lucifer was cast into the bottom of the Sea and in forty days could not get out 't was wonder he was not drowned in all that while but then he called to his Fellows and told them that Mahomet was born with the Power of the Sword who would take away all their Power The same also God caused to be proclaimed in Heaven and Earth His Mother said that she was delivered of him without pain and Angelical Birds came to nourish the Child and a man clothed in white presented him with three Keys like to Pearls which he took and these forsooth were the Key of Victory the Key of the Law and the Key of Prophecy and with these Keys he did pick-lock the Hearts of all his Followers After came three Persons with shining Faces presenting him a Cauldron of Emeralds with four handles which Mahomet accepted can you blame him as a sign of his Rule over all the World The Birds Clouds Winds Angels contended for the Nourishment of the Child there was old striving for a thing of nothing but the cause was determined by Heavenly Voice affirming that he should not be taken from the hands of men An Ass also almost famished worshipped him and since many more Asses have done the like and receiving him on her back became Herald to this new Prophet with mans voice proclaiming the worthiness of her carriage Three men carried him up into a Mountain of which one opened him from the Breast unto the Navel and washed his Entrails with Snow the second cleaved his heart in the midst and took out of it a black grain saying that it was the Portion of the Devil The third made him whole again Seraphin nourished him three years and Gabriel nine and twenty who gave unto him in the fortieth year of his Age the Law and carried him to Heaven you cannot chuse but believe it for this his Journey is related by Fryar Richard sometimes a Student in the University of Baldach Chap. 14. and is as true a story as that of the Fryar and the Boy Now as concerning his going up to Heaven there is several relations of it and all alike true In La vita Mahometi it is said that Mahomet went up to Heaven with the Angel Gabriel in a shining ladder where the Stairs hung by Chains of Gold as big as Mount Notho by Medina Another saith that Gabriel with threescore and ten pair of Wings came to Mahomet in the Chamber of Aissa his best beloved Wife and said that God would have him to visit him where he is and brought with him the Beast Elmparac or Alborach of nature between a Mule and an Ass This Beast told Mahomet for Asses then could speak as well as those that believed in Mahomet that he would not take him on his back till he had prayed to God for him His steps were so far as one could see for he was swister by half then Paccolet or Pegasus so that in the twinkling of an eye he had brought Mahomet to Jerusalem Then Gabriel with his Girdle tyed the Beast to a Rock and carried Mahomet on his shoulders into Heaven where he knocked and the Porter opened Others say that it was not Gabriel but another Angel that carried him up to Heaven and that Gabriel being Porter there let him in so that varying so much in their reports you may well conclude he never came thither But as their story lyes we will go on with it In the first Heaven say they he saw Angels of the shape of all Creatures praying for the Creatures of their shapes and a Cock so great that standing upon the Moon his Coxcomb reach'd into the Imperial Heaven many millions of miles Altitude and when this mighty Chanticleer crowed all the Cocks upon earth re-ecchoed him Then he brought him to the second Heaven which was a Journey of five hundred years wherein was Noah and this Heaven was of Gold The
insnared Damsel that she suffer'd him for many Nights together to enjoy his beastly Pleasures with her without being taken notice of by any but no Eye-sight so sharp and piercing as that of Jealousie some of her former Sweet-hearts observing her kind Looks in the day-time to this Stranger and finding themselves wholly out of Favour conclude he was the man that supplanted them in their Affection for which they vow Revenge and four of them joyn'd together arm'd with trusty Back-Swords way-lay him one Evening in the Fields who no sooner comes up to them but these valiant Heroes fell all four upon him at once with their dead-doing Bilboes but they do but Duel a Shadow though they see him plainly they cannot reach him and their mighty Stroaks are lost in insignificant cleaving down the empty Air on the other side tho' they behold him only single yet they feel more than a hundred Flails belabouring them so severely till their Backs seem Brawn and their Heads Jelly which obliged them to cry out for Quarter which he very generously to shew that he was a Devil of Honour grants but withal tells them they must undergo a further small Penance for their Presumption saying this he tyes their Hands behind them and letting down their Breeches whips them with Rods of Holly and Nettles intermix'd till the Crimson Gore in Streams flow'd down their Posteriors then having fast pin'd the hinder lap of their Shirts to their Shoulders with their Hands bound and Breeches about their Heels as aforesaid he dismiss'd them who rambling all Night they knew not whither found themselves in the morning hard by the Village where they meâ— two Wenches going a milking amaz'd and ready to run away seeing them in that ridiculous Posture these with much Rhetorick and some Tears they intreat to loose them which the hard-hearted Sluts ready to be-piss themselves with laughing refusing they are forced to march on into the middle of the Village and there too they could not get unbound till they had made an ingenious Confession how they came thus pickled At another time a Miller living in that Village took some occasion to fall out with our Stranger upbraiding him as an idle Fellow and one that having no Employment was very fit to serve in the Wars the Stranger replyed little but told him he should be even with him for his Sawsiness before he slept accordingly the Miller and his Family werâ— no sooner got to Bed but he heard his Mill set going very furiously whereupon getting up to seâ— what the matter was he found a whole Cart-load of Office-Marmalade brought to be ground and thrown into his Hopper and Bynns At this unexpected Sight poor Dusty-Pell began to swear anâ— wish'd a thousand Tun of Devils damn the Authoâ— of this Roguery when lo on a sudden as a Punishment for his Prophaneness as he went to shut down the Mill he is taken up and duck'd above forty times over head and Ears in the Stream and then his Toll-dish full of the before mentioned Frankincense clap'd so fast on his Head that it could not be got off for above two days For these and some other extravagant Pranks that he plaid he was at last carried before a Justice in whose Presence he was no sooner come but there was heard all about the House a hideous Noise as of hissing of Serpents whilst he fell into such a loud excessive Laughter that he made the whole House to shake which fit of Mirth being over the Magistrate demanded of him what Country-man he was to which he replyed that he was an Inhabitant of another World and only a Sojourner in this as he spake which words the Room seemed full for almost half an hour of fiery Flashes accompanied with a most dreadful Clap of Thunder in which he vanished away and was never seen after The Birth Life and Actions of the Impostor Mahomet according to their Saracenical Story of him THEY have written a Book of the Generation of Mahomet to this effect The Book of the Generation of Mahomet you see they would Ape the Genealogy of our Saviour the Messenger of God from Adam and Eve to the time when God brought him forth permitted him for the Sins of his People gracious perfect and fit for himself When as Rabachbar had learned out of the Scriptures and by Astrology together with a little Witch-craft that this Prophet should be born to the World he heard That there was a man born in Jeseras a City of Arabia having all such Marks and Tokens as he had sore-seen by the Prophecies and his Witchcraft viz. A spot on his Fore-head a print between his Shoulders and the Brand of Lucifer to satisfie his Desire he went thither to see where finding those Tokens fulfilled in young Mahomet he thereupon expounded the dark mystery of his far-fetched Light learned of his Master Rabelnedi and his Master the Devil in this manner When Adam was newly created as he stood up his Brain shaked and made a noise as the Leaves do which are shaken with the Wind whereat Adam wondring how could he do otherwise God said unto him The Sound which thou hast heard it is the sign of the Prophets and Messengers of my Commandments take heed therefore that thou commit the Seed of Light only to worthy Loyns and to a clean Womb. And this light of Mahomet put into a dark Lanthorn that should be born shined from the face of Adam as the Sun or Moon at the Full. And when he had begotten Seth that Light passed instantly from the face of Adam into the face of Eve insomuch that the Birds of the Air and Beasts of the Earth wondered at her Beauty yea the Angels every day saluted her and brought her Odours out of Paradise till she brought forth Seth alone having before at every burthen brought forth a Brother and a Sister Seth inherited this Light which remained between Heaven and Earth the Angels thereby ascending and descending upon Seth and crying always Rejoyce thou Earth worthy of the Light of Mahomet on him be Prayer and Salvation of God Adam drawing near to his end declared unto him by his Testament the mystery of that Light and the Genealogy of the Prophets Then descended Gabriel attended with threescore and ten thousand Angels bearing every one of them a white Leaf and a Pen which signed the writing for the continuance of the Order of the Prophetical generation Seth received this writing and was cloathed with a double red Garment shining as the Sun and as soft as the Violet-flower From him it passed by succession to Noah and Sem then to Abraham at whose Birth two Lights from the East and West meeting in the midst lightned the whole World and the Angels were heard singing That it was the Light of the Prophet Mahomet who should be born of his Seed whose Word should be in the Vertue of God This Light say they passed from Abraham to the Face of Hagar being
walls and writeth on the Door and within and without on every wall and about the Bed in Hebrew Letters Adam Chama Chuts Lilich or after the Jewish pronuntiation Lilis Hereby they signifie their desire that if a woman shall be delivered of a Son God may one Day give him a Wife like to Eve and not a shrew like Lilis This Word Lilis is read in the Prophet Isaiah 34. 14. interpreted a Scritch-Owl but the Jews seem to mean by it a devillish Spectrum in Womans shape that useth to slay or carry away Children which are on the eighth Day to be circumcifed Elias Levita writeth that he hath read that a hundred and twenty years Adam contained himself from his wife Eve and in that space there came to him Devils which conceived of him whence were ingendred Devils and Spirits Faries and Goblins and there were four Devils Mothers or Dams of them Lilith Nuemah Ogereth and Machalath Thus is it read in Ben Sira When God had made Adam and saw it was not good for him to be alone he made him a Woman of the Earth like unto him and called her Lilis These disagree for Superiority not suffering Caesarve priorem Pompeiusve Parem Lilis made of the same mould would not be underling and Adam would not endure her his equal Lilis seeing no hope of agreement uttered that sacred word Jehovah with the Cabalistical interpretation thereof and presently did flye into the Air. Adam plaining his case God sent three Angels after her viz. Senot Sensenoi Saumangeleph either to bring her back or to denounce unto her that a hundred of her Children should dye in a day These overtook her over the troublesome Sea where one day the Egyptians should be drowned and did their message to her she refusing to obey they threatned her drowning but she besought them to let her alone because she was created to vex and kill Children on the eighth day if they were men if women Children on the twentieth day They nevertheless forcing her to go Lilis sware to them that whensoever she should find the name or figure of those Angels written or painted on Schedule Parchment or any thing she would do Infants no harm and that she would not refuse that punishment to lose an hundred Children in a day And for this cause do they write these names on a Scroll of Parchment and hang them on their Infants necks Thus far Ben Sira In their Chambers always is found such a scroll or painting and the names of the Angels of Health this office they ascribe to them are written over the Chamber-door In their Book Brandspiegel Printed at Cracovia 1597. is shewed the authority of this History collected by their wise men out of those words Gen. 1. 27. Male and female created he them compared with the forming of Eve of a Rib in the next Chapter saying That Lilis the former was divorced from Adam for her pride which she conceived because she was not made of Earth as well as he and God gave him another flesh of his flesh and concerning her R. Moses tells that Samael the Devil came riding upon a Serpent which was as big as a Camel and cast water upon her and deceived her When any Jewish Woman is in travel she must not send for a Christian Midwife except no Jewish can be gotten and then the Jewish Women must be very thick about her for fear of negligence or injury And if she be happily delivered of a Son there is exceeding joy through all the house and the Father presently makes festival provision against the Circumcision on the eighth day In the mean time ten Persons are invited neither more nor fewer which are all past thirteen Years of Age The night after her delivery seven of the invited Parties and some others sometimes meet at the Child's house and make there great cheer and sport all Night Diceing Drinking Fabling so to solace the Mother that she should not grieve too much for the Childs Circumcision Of the Opinion of the Chinesses concerning the peopling of the World after the Flood THAT after the waters of Heaven had overflowed the Earth so that all mankind was drowned by an universal Deluge God seeing that the World would be desolate and no body to inhabit it he sent the Goddess Amida the chief Lady of Honour to his Wife Nacapiran from the Heaven of the Moon that she might repair the loss of drowned mankind and that when the Goddess having set her feet upon a Land whence the waters were withdrawn called Calemphuy she was changed all into Gold and in that manner standing upright with her face looking up unto Heaven she sweat out at her arm-pits a great number of Children namely Males out of the right and Females out of the left having no other place about her body whence she might bring them forth as other Women of the World have who have sinned and that for a chastisement of their sin God by the order of Nature hath subjected them to a misery full of corruption and filthiness for to shew how odious unto him the sin was that had been committed against him The Goddess Amida having thus brought forth these Creatures which they affirm were thirty three thousand three hundred thirty and three two parts of them Females and the other Males for so say they the World was to be repaired she remained so feeble and faint with this delivery how could she do otherwise having no body to assist her at her need that she fell down dead in the place for which cause the Moon at that time in memory of this death of hers whereat she was infinitely grieved put her self into mourning which mourning they affirm to be those black spots we ordinarily behold in her face occasioned indeed by the shadow of the Earth and that when there shall be so many Years run out as the Goddess Amida brought forth Children which were as I have delivered thirty three thousand three hundred thirty and three then the Moon will put off her mourning and afterwards be as clear as the Day A strange and wonderful Relation of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto a Portugal which he saw in his Journey in China AFTER the Relation of many and divers things we came saith he to a Town anciently called Cohilonza that is the flower of the field and had in former times been in very great prosperity but about a hundred forty and two years before a certain stranger chanced to come thither being as it seems an holy man although the Bonzes which are their Priests said he was a Sorcerer by reason of the wonders he did having raised up five dead men and wrought many other miracles whereat all men were exceedingly astonished and that having divers times disputed with the Priests he had so shamed and confounded them as fearing to deal any more with him they incensed the Inhabitants against him and perswaded them to put him to death affirming that otherwise God would consume
third was of Pearls wherein was Abraham and the huge huge Angel of Death with his Book and Pen in Hand writing the Times and mens Lives which fatal opinions make them hardy In the fourth he beheld an infinite company of Angels whereof every one was a thousand times bigger then the Globe of the earth exactly to an inch each of them had ten thousand Heads every head threescore and ten thousand tongues and every tongue praised God in seven hundred thousand several Languages Amongst other of these Angels saith he was one named Phatyr or the Angel of mercy who was of that immense greatness that every step he trod was twelve times more than the distance betwixt the Poles This Angel said he had a Quill or Pen of orient Pearl of such a length never a Scrivener in London hath the like that an excellent Arabian Courser could hardly reach to the end of it in five hundred years continual galloping with this Pen saith he doth God record all things past present and to come in such a mysterious Character that none but He and Seraphael can understand it with this Quill were written all the hundred and four Holy Books viz. the ten which Adam received Seth fifty Enoch thirty and Abraham the Remainder this Pen forsooth also writ Moses Law David's Psalms Christ's Gospel and Mahomet's Alcoran The fifth Heaven of Diamond and in it Moses the sixth of Ruby and in it John Baptist in the seventh Heaven he saw the Throne of God supported by seven Angels each of them so great that a Faulcon with incessant flying could scarce in a thousand Years reach the distance of one Eye from another fourteen everlasting burning Candles hung about the Throne whose length according to Mahomet's measure was as much as a Horse could run in five hundred Years There saith this Blasphemer did he see the Almighty who bid him welcome and stroked him on the Face with his hand which was a thousand times colder than Ice Here Mahomet for shame of his own Baseness blush'd a thing he never did for lying and sweat six drops which he wiped from his Brow and threw into Paradise where one became a Rose another a Grain of Rice and the other four became four Learned Men viz. Armet Sembelin Almamed Moler-zed and Seh-nassin Then returning to his Elmparac or Mule he rode back to his house at Mecha all this was done in the tenth part of the Night but when he was requested to do thus much in the Peoples sight he answered Praised be God I am a man and an Apostle The Book Asear saith Bellonius telleth further That in his Journey Mahomet heard a Womans Voice crying Mahomet Mahomet but he held his Peace afterwards another called him but he gave no Answer Mahomet asked the Angel who they were He answered That the one was she which published the Jews Law and if he had answered her all his Disciples should have been Jews the other was she which delivered the Gospel whom if he had answered all his Followers had been Christians Now who would think People should be so credulous to believe such antick Stories but his other Opinions were full as ridiculous as concerning the Day of Judgment that he should paint it out by a great and fearful Duel betwixt him and Death who being overcome shall be so enraged that he shall destroy all the World presently and being armed in flaming Brass shall sound his Trumpet to each Quarter of the World whose affrighting Noise shall make all Creatures to give up the Ghost yea the very Angels also shall die as also Adriel who wrapping his iron Wings about him shall strangle himself with such a hideous Noise as is not to be imagined Then shall ensue a terrible Earth-quake and a violent shower of parching Brimstone which shall turn the World into a disordered Chaos in which Condition it shall remain the space of forty days when God shall take it in his Fist and say Where are now the Haughty Princes the Cruel Tyrants Lascivious Wantons and Covetous Muck-worms of the Earth Then will he rain down Mercy for forty Days and Nights together incessantly which shall reduce the World again into a flourishing Condition Then shall the Angel Seraphiel take a Golden Trumpet in his hand of length five hundred Years Travel from one end to another with which he shall give such a Sound as shall revive again both Angels and Men who shall re-assume their former Estate after this Michael the Arch-Angel comes with a mighty Ballance and poises every man's Actions in either Scale those whose good Deeds out-weigh their evil are put on the right hand the other on the left then is every man loaden with his Sins in a Satchel and hung about his Neck with which they pass on a narrow weak Bridge over the Mouth of Hell now those that be heavy laden break the Bridge and fall therein but such as have but few Sins pass over securely On the other side of the Bridge stands Mahomet who shall be transformed into the shape of a mighty Ram full of Locks and long Fleeces of Wool in which all his Sectaries like Fleas shall shroud themselves then will he jump into Paradise and so convey them all thither Paradise he described to be as many miles about as there be Attomes in the Sun and that it is enclosed with a Wall of ninety times refined Gold ten thousand miles high and three thousand thick having seven Gates to enter in at and is divided into seven spacious Gardens and those sub-divided into seventy times seven several places of Delight In this place he promises to his Mussel-men or true Believers all sensual Pleasures and Delights imaginable namely That they should have Garments of Silk with all sorts of Colours Bracelets of Gold and Amber Parlours and Banquetting-houses upon Floods and Rivers Vessels of Gold and Silver Angels serving them bringing in Gold and Silver Flaggons Milk and Wine curious Lodgings rarely furnished Cushions Pillows and Down-beds most beautiful Women to accompany them Maidens and Virgins with twinkling Eyes Gardens and Orchards with Arbors Fountains Springs and all manner of pleasant Fruit Rivers of Milk Honey and spiced Wine all manner of sweet Odours Perfumes and fragrant Scents yea whatsoever the Flesh shall desire to have In this Paradise saith Mahomet there is a Table of Diamond seven hundred thousand days Journey long does not he think you deserve the Whetstone this is for men to feast upon sitting on Chairs of Gold and Pearl Gabriel the Porter of Paradise hath seventy thousand Keys which belong to his Office and every Key is seven thousand miles long questionless he must be very strong or else those Keys must needs tire him Here saith the Alcoran men shall tumble in all manner of Pleasure reposing upon fair Beds lined with Crimson there shall they gather the Fruits of the Garden to their Contentment there shall they enjoy the Company of fair and beautiful Damsels