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 towards Heaven and presently died On the twelfth day of Rab on a Tuesday Mahomet was 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 and then called his Fellows and told them that Mahomet was born with the power of the Sword who should 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 the Key of Victory they Key of the Laws and the Key of Prophecy And after came three Persons with shining Faces presenting him with a Caldron of Emeralds with four handles which Mahomet accepted as a sign of his Rule over all the World The Birds Clouds Winds Angels contended for the nourishment of the Child But the case was determined by Heavenly Voice affirming that he should not be taken from the hands of men An Ass almost famished worshipped him and receiving him on her back became Herald to this new Prophet with man's 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 Navil and washed his Entrails with Snow the second cleared 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 Afterwards 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 Albarach of nature between a Mule and an Ass This Beast told Mahomet that he would not take him on his back until he had prayed God for him His steps were as far as one could see so that in the twinkling of an Eye he had brought Mahomet to Jerusalem Then Gabriel with his Girdle tied the Beast to a Rock and carried Mahomet on his shoulders into Heaven where he knocked and the Porter opened Here Mahomet saw footsteps of Angels and prayed twice on his knees for them and amongst the rest old Father Adam rejoycing for such a Son and commending him to his Prayers Then he brought him to the second Heaven which was a Journey of five hundred years and so forth on to the seventh Heaven Here he saw the Angelical People every one of which was a thousand times greater than the World and every of them had threescore and ten thousand Heads and every Head threescore and ten thousand Mouthes and every Mouth seventeen hundred Tongues praying to God in seven hundred thousand Languages And he saw one Angel weeping and he asked the cause who answered that he was Sin and Mahomet prayed for him Then Gabriel commended him to another Angel and he to another and so forth in order till he came before God and his Throne Then God whose Face was covered with threescore and ten thousand Cloaths of Light and from whom Mahomet stood two stones cast below touched him with his Hand the Coldness whereof pierced to the Marrow of of his Back-bone and God said I have imposed on thee and on thy People Prayers When he was returned as far as the fourth Heaven Moses counselled him to return back to obtain ease unto the People which could not bear so many Prayers which he did oftentimes till there remained but few Thus returning to his Elmparac he rode back to his House at Mecca 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 Ascar telleth further that in this 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 Mahomet Comunicating his Doctrin to the People w th their Pilgramage to Mecca Pag. 50 One of their Chronicles telleth of his Martial Affairs This Chronicle from Adam to Noe one thousand two hundred two and forty years from thence to Abraham one thousand and fourscore thence to Moses five hundred and fifteen after him to David five hundred threescore and nine and from this time to Christ one thousand three hundred and fifty from whence to Mahomet is numbred six hundred and twenty in all five thousand three hundred threescore and sixteen from Adam to Mahomet All the Prophets were in number an hundred and twenty thousand and the Messengers of God three hundred and fifteen whereas Adam Seth Esdrik Noe Abraham were Hebrews Huth Scale Ishmael Schaib Mahomet were Arabians But to leave these fabulous nay blasphemous Relations it is convenient to entertain the Reader with a true account of the Life of this infamous Impostor The Life of MAHOMET according to the truth BY Birth he was of Jathrip an obscure Village then not far from Medina his Father called Abdalla an Idolatrous Pagan his Mother named Hemina as perverse a Jewess Deprived of both his Parents when but two years old he was left unto the care of an Unkle who not able to give him Education nor willing to be at the charge to keep him any longer sold him at sixteen years of age to the Ismaelites by whom exposed to sale in the open Markets he was bought by one Abdalmutalif a Wealthy Merchant By him employ'd at first in Drudgery and servile Offices till noting his great Wit and fitness for better Services he at last used him as his Factor sending him with his Camels and loads of Merchandise into Syria Persia Egypt and other Places wherein he did behave himself with such dexterity that he much increased his Master's Wealth and his own Estimation Of Person he is said to be low and withall scald-headed but otherwise comely to the Eye and of good aspect Much troubled with the Falling-sickness which Infirmity he made good use of afterwards affirming that those Fits were nothing but Heavenly Raptures in which he did converse with the Angel Gabriel He is said to have been also well skill'd in Magick by which he taught a white Pidgeon to feed
to others as they met them did but cry Jews and they were presently beaten down without having any liberty or leisure to answer for themselves The Magistrates were not so hardy as to oppose themselves against the fury of the People so that in three days the Cut-throats killed above two thousand Jewish Persons The King understanding the News of this horrible hurley-burley was extreamly wrath and suddenly dispatched away Jaques Almida and Jaques Lopez with full power to punish so great Offences who caused a great number of the Seditious to be executed The Fryars that had lift up the Cross and animated the People to Murder were degraded and afterwards hanged and burn'd The Magistrates that had been slack to repress this Riot were some put out of Office and others fined The City was also disfranchised of many Priviledges and Honours CXXXVIII In the Year 1572. was the bloody Parisian Matins wherein was spilt so much Christian Blood that it flowed through the Streets like Rain-water in great abundance and this Butchery of Men Women and Children continued so long that the principal Rivers of the Kingdom were seen covered with murdered Bodies and their streams so dried and stain'd with humane Blood that they who dwelt far from the place where this Barbarons Act was committed abhorred the Waters of those Rivers and refused to use either it or to eat of the Fish taken therein for a long time after This tragedy was thus cunningly plotted A Peace was made with the Protestants for assurance whereof a Marriage was solemnized between Henry of Navarr chief of the Protestant party and Margaret the King's Sister At this wedding there assembled the Prince of Conde the Admiral Coligne and divers others of chief note but there was not so much Wine drank as Blood shed at it At midnight the Watch-bell rung the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde are taken Prisoners the Admiral murdered in his Bed and thirty thousand at the least of the most potent men of the Religion sent by the way of the red Sea to find the nearest passage to the land of Canaan CXXXIX In the year 1311. and in the time of Pope Clement the fifth all the order of the Knights Templers being condemned at the Council of Vienna and adjudged to die Philip the Fair King of France urged by the Pope and out of a covetuous desire of store of Confiscations gave way for men to charge them with Crimes and so these innocents were put to death The great master of the order together with two other of the principal Persons one whereof was Brother to the Dolphin of Viennais were publickly burnt together CXL The Massacre of French Protestants at Merandol and Chabriers happened in the year 1544. the instrument of it being Minier the President of Aix for having condemned this poor People of Heresy he mustered up a small Army and set fire on the Villages they of Merandol seeing the flame with their Wives and Children flew into the Woods but were there butchered or sent to the Galleys One Boy they took placed him against a Tree and shot him to death with Calivers Twenty five which had hid themselves in a Cave were in part stifled in part burnt In Chabriers they so inhumanely dealt with the young Wives and Maids that most of them died immediately after the men and Women were put to the Sword the Children were re-baptized eight hundred men were murdered in a Cave and forty men put together in an old Barn and burnt yea such was the cruelty of these Souldiers to these poor Women that when some of them had clambered to the top of the Barn with an intent to leap down the Souldiers beat them back again with their Pikes CXLI King Ethelred the younger Son of Edgar and half Brother of Edward the second injoyed the Crown unquietly which he got unjustly Oppressed and broken by the Danes he was fain to buy his peace of them of the yearly Tribute of ten thousand pounds inhaunced to forty thousand pounds within a short time after Which Monies were raised upon the Subjects by the name of Danegelt Weary of this Exaction he plotted warily with his Subjects to kill all the Danes as they slept in their Beds which accordingly was put in execution on St. Brices night November 13. Anno 1012. CXLII But to divert the reader after so sad an entertainment as is this mournful subject it will not be improper to give him a prospect of the divers Customs of several Nations in the Universe The Custom of the Ethiopians is not to punish any Subject with death though he is condemned but one of the Lictors is sent to the Malefactor with the sign of Death carried before him which received the Criminal goes home and puts himself to death To change death into banishment is held unlawful and it is said that when one had received the sign of death and had intentions to fly out of Ethiopia his Mother being apprehensive of it fastened her Girdle about his Neek and he not offering to resist her with his hands lest he should thereby fasten a reproach upon his Family was strangled by her CXLIII In the greater India in the Kingdom of Var in which St. Thomas is said to be slain and buried he amongst them who is to undergo a Capital Punishment begs of the King that he may rather dye in honour of some God than an inglorious death by the hands of the Hang-man If the King in mercy grant him it by his Kindred with great Joy he is led through the City with mighty Pomp he is placed in a Chair with sharp Knives all hung about his Neck When he comes to the place of Execution with a loud voice he affirms he will dye in honour of this or that God then taking one of the Knives he wounds himself where he pleases then a second then a third till his strength fail and so he is honourably burn'd by his Friends CXLIV The Spartans when they brought home with them any Friends or Guests shewing them the Doors they used to say Not a Word that is spoken passes out here Plutarch also tells us that by the Institution of Lycurgus when they invited any to feast with them he who was the elder stood at the door of the dining Room and pointing to it said to all that entred Nothing that is spoken passes these doors to be told abroad expressing thereby that all the Guests had a full freedom and liberty to speak without any constraint upon them The same Spartans in those Feasts of theirs that are called Phiditiae have their Prefects or Stewards who bring in two or three of the Helotes that is their Slaves drunk and intoxicate with Wine and expose them publickly in that posture to their Youth that they may see what it is to be drunk and that by their unseemly and uncomely Behaviour they might be brought into a detestation of that Vice and to a love of Temperance
sight of this Ark of the new Covenant the Dagon of Idolatry fell to the ground When this Lyon of the Tribe of Judah did roar all the Beasts of the Forrest that is the Pagan Idols or Devil rather hid themselves in their Dens Apollo complained that his Oracles failed him and that the Hebrew Child had stopped his Mouth When it was proclaimed at Palotci by Thanas the Egyptian Ship-Master that the great God Pan was dead all the Evil Spirits were heard to howl and bewail the Overthrow of their Kingdom Porphyri complained that the Preaching of Christ had weakned the Power of their Gods and hindred the Gain of their Priests The Bones of Babylas so hindred Apollo that he could deliver no Oracle while they were there The Delphick Temple fell down with Earth-quake and Thunder when Julian sent to consult with the Oracle Such was the irresistable Power of the two-edged Sword which came out of Christ's Mouth that nothing was able to withstand it The little Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands smote the great Image of Nebuchadnezzar and brake it in pieces To the Doctrine of twelve poor Fisher-men did the great Potentates of the World submit their Scepters Thus the Stone which the Builders refused became the head of the Corner The terrible Beast which with his iron Teeth destroyed all the other Beasts is destroyed by the weakness of preaching against which the more the Roman Empire strugled the more it was foiled and found by Experience that the blood of Martyrs was the Seed of the Church which conquered the great Conquerours not with acting but with suffering not by the Sword but by the Word and more by their Death than by their Life like so many Sampsons triumphing over these Philistines in their Death and Torments But long did it not continue in it's Splendour and Purity Heresie and Persecution did quickly break in upon it Persecution first beginning under Nero and continued with all the Barbarity imaginable under his Successors but Heresie broke forth much sooner and made way for Mahumetanism XXVII The first Heretick was Simon called Magus because he was a Witch a Samaritan by Birth and a Christian by Profession he would have bought the Gifts of the Holy Ghost for Money Act. 8.13 He deny'd the Trinity and affirmed himself to be the true God he taught that the World was made by the Angels not by God and that Christ came not into the World nor did he truly suffer he deny'd also the Resurrection of the Flesh and permitted promiscuous Marriages he likewise affirmed that the true God was never known to the Patriarchs and Prophets Besides these impious Opinions he held Magick and Idolatry lawful he gave to the Angels barbarous Names he slighted the Law of Moses as being not from God and blasphemously denied the Holy Ghost to be a Substance but a bare Vertue or Operation and caused his Disciples to worship his Whore Helena or Selena for a Goddess XXVIII 2. Nicholas of whom are the Nicholaitans was a Proselite of Antioch and one of the seven Deacons mentioned Acts 6. He had a most beautiful Wife and being upbraided by the Apostles that he was jealous of her he brought her out before them and to clear himself gave her Liberty to marry to whom she pleased neither did he afterwards marry any other but taught his Sons and his Daughters to follow Chastity But certain perverse men who boasted that they were his Followers gave themselves to all Uncleanness teaching that Men ought to have their Wives in common they scrupled not to eat of things offered to Idols at their Love-Feasts they used to put out their Lights and commit promiscuous Adulteries with each others Wives They said that not God but Angels created the World Not long did they retain this Name but were called Gnosticks from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowledge as if therein they excelled other Men. They taught also that in faithful Men were two Souls one holy of the Divine Substance the other adventitious by Divine Insufflation common to Man and Beasts Their Doctrine began to spread about the beginning of Domitian's Reign after Christ fifty two Years XXIX 3. Corinthus was a Jew by Birth and circumcised taught that all Christians ought to be so also he taught that it was Jesus that dyed and rose again but not Christ he denyed the Article of Eternal Life and taught that the Saints should enjoy in Jerusalem carnal Delights for one thousand Years he denyed the Divinity of Christ he owned no other Gospel but that of St. Matthew rejected Paul as an Apostate from the Law of Moses and worshipped Judas the Traytor in most things they agreed with the Ebionites so called from Ebion a Samaritan St. John would not enter the same Bath with the pernicious Heretick Corinthus but against his and the Heresie of Ebion he wrote his Gospel He spread his Heresie in Domitian's time about sixty two Years after Christ XXXI 4. Carpocrates of whom came the Carpocratians was born at Alexandria in Egypt he flourished about the Year of Christ 109. in the time of Antoninus Pius Eusebius accounts him the Father of the Gnosticks and saith That his Followers gloried of charmed love Drinks of devilish and drunken Dreams of ossistane and associate Spirits and taught That he who would attain to Perfection in their Mysteries must commit the most filthy Acts nor could they but by doing evil avoid the Rage of Evil Spirits They said that Christ was but a mere Man and that only his Soul ascended into Heaven They hold Pythagorean Transmigration but denyed the Resurrection They said not God but Satan made this World and that their Disciples should not publish their abominable Mystery they bored their right Ear with a Bodkin XXXI 5. Valentinus an Egyptian lived in the time of Antoninus Pius When Hyginus was Bishop of Rome he began to spread his Heresie He held that there were many Gods and that he that made the World was the Author of Death that Christ took Flesh from Heaven and passed through the Virgin as Water through a Pipe or Conduit He said there were thirty Ages or Worlds the last of which produced the Heaven Earth and Sea out of the Imperfections of this Creator were procreated divers Evils as Darkness from his Fear evil Spirits out of his Ignorance out of his Tears Springs and Rivers and out of his Laughter Light They have Wives in common and say that both Christ and the Angels have Wives They celebrated the Heathenish Festivals were addicted to Magick and what not This Heretick was of great Reputation in Rome from whence he went to Cyprus and thence into Egypt XXXII 6. Marcion of whom came the Marcionites was of Senope a City of Pontus or Paphlagonia being driven from Ephesus by St. John he went to Rome he was the Son of a Bishop in Pontus and by his Father exiled for Fornication being not received by the Brethren in Rome he fell in
not only preserved alive but also treated by Alexander with the highest honour he then prayed to God to render Alexander fortunate in all things though he was his Enemy XCVII 2. Titus Gracchus loved his Wife Cornelia with such fervency that when two Snakes were by chance found in his House and that the Augurs had pronounced that they should not suffer them both to escape but that one of them should be killed affirming also that if the male was let go Cornelia should dye first on the other side that Gracchus should first expire if the Female was dismissed Dismiss then the Female said he that so Cornelia may survive me who am at this time the Elder It so fell out that he dyed soon after leaving behind him many Sons so entirely loved by the Mother and the memory of her husband so dear to her that she refused the proffered Marriage with Ptolomais King of Aegypt The buried Ashes of her Husband it seem'd lay so cold at her Heart that splendor of a Diadem and all the Pomp of a Rich and profered Kingdom were not able so to warm it as to make it capable of receiving the impression of a new Love XCVIII 3. M. Plautius by the command of the Senate was to bring back a Navy of sixty Ships of the Confederates into Asia he put ashore at Tarentum thither had Oristilla his Wife followed him and there overcome with a disease she departed this Life Plautius having ordered all things for the celebration of the Funeral she was laid upon the Pile to be burnt as the Roman manner was the last offices to be performed were to anoint the dead Body and to give it a valedictory kiss but betwixt these the grieved Husband fell upon his own Sword and died His Friends took him up in his Gown and Shoos as he was and laying his Body by that of his Wives burnt them both together The Sepulchre of these two is yet to be seen at Tarentum and is called the Tomb of the two Lovers XCIX 4. One of the Neapolitans pity his Name as well as his Countrey is not remembred being buisily imployed in a Field near the Sea and his Wife at some distance from him the Woman was seized upon by some Moorish Pyrates who came on shoar to prey upon all they could find Upon his return not finding his Wife and perceiving a Ship that lay at Anchor not far off conjecturing the matter as it was he threw himself into the Sea and swam up to the Ship when calling to the Captain he told him that he was therefore come because he must needs follow his Wife He feared not the Barbarism of the Enemies of the Christian Faith nor the miseries those Slaves endure that are thrust into places where they must tug at the Oar his Love overcame all these The Moors were full of admiration at the carriage of the Man for they had seen some of his Countreymen rather chuse Death than indure so hard a loss as that of their Liberty and at their return they told the whole of this story to the King of Tunis who moved with the Relation of so great a Love gave him and his wife their freedom and the man was made by his command one of the Souldiers of his Life-guard C. 5. Ferdinand King of Spain married Elizabeth the Sister of Ferdinand Son of John King of Arragon Great were the Vertues of this admirable Princess whereby she gained so much upon the heart of her Husband a valiant and fortunate Prince that he admitted her to an equal share in the Government of the Kingdom with himself wherein they lived with such mutual agreement as the like hath not been known amongst any of the Kings and Queens of that Country There was nothing done in the Affairs of State but what was debated ordained and subscribed by both the Kingdom of Spain was a name common to them both Ambassadours were sent abroad in both their names Armies and Soudliers were levied and formed in both their names and so was the whole Wars and all civil affairs that King Ferdinand did not challenge to himself an Authority in any thing or in any respect greater than that whereunto he had admitted this his beloved Wife CI. 6. Meleager challenged to himself the chief Glory and Honour of slaying the Calidontan Boar but this being denied him he sat in his Chamber so angry and discontented that when the Curetes were assaulting the City where he lived he would not stir out to lend the Citizens the least of his assistance The Elders Magistrates the Chief of the City and the Priests came to him with their humble supplications but he would not move they propounded a great reward he despised at once both it and them His Father Oenaeus came to him and imbraceing his Knees sought to make him relent but all in vain His Mother came and tryed allways but was refused his Sisters and his most familiar friends were sent to him and beg'd he would not forsake them in their last extremity but neither this way was his fierce mind to be wrought upon In the mean time the Enemy had broken into the City and then came his Wife Cleopatra trembling O my dearest Love said she help us or we are lost the Enemy is already entred The Hero was moved with this voice alone and rous'd himself at the apprehension of the danger of his beloved Wife he Arm'd himself went forth and left not till he had repulsed the Enemy and put the City in its wonted safety vnd security But no less extraordinary has the Love of some Wives been to their Husbands as of the Husbands to their Wives CII 1. The Prince of the Province of Fingo in the Empire of Japan hearing that a Gentleman of the Country had a very beautiful Women to his Wife got him dispatch'd and having sent for the Widdow some days after her Husband's Death acquainted her with his Desires She told him she had much reason to think her self happy in being honour'd with the friendship of so great a Prince yet she was resolved to bite off her Tongue and murther her self if he proffer'd her any violence but if he would grant her the favour to spend one Month in bewailing her Husband and then give her the liberty to make an Entertainment for the Relations of the deceased to take her leave of them he should find how much she was his Servant and how far she would comply with his Affections It was easily granted a very great Dinner was provided whither came all the Kindred of the deceased the Gentlewoman perceiving the Prince began to be warm with his Wine in hopes of enjoying her promise she desired liberty to withdraw into an adjoyning Gallery to take the Air but as soon as she was come into it she cast her self head-long down in the Presence of the Prince and all her dead Husbands Relations CIII 2. Constantine the Ninth exercising Tyranny as well in
Brook Cedron saith he is between our Camp and the Israelites With these words they were incouraged and determined to incounter with the Iews under the Walls hard by the Gates of the City trusting to the safeguard and defence of the Brook Cedron The Captains of the Seditious likewise used Policy for they dividing their men sent one Company to pass suddenly the Brook Cedron to invade and spoyle the Roman Camp that was left in the Mount These therefore went and fought with the Romans upon the Mount and drove them out of ther Camp Titus looking behind him and perceiving that the Iews had gotten over the Brook and were ingaged with his Men he was in some kind of Consternation seeing himself invironed with Battels on every side They within the Town when they saw their Fellows once at the Mount Olivet they opened their Gates issued out with all their Power that was left in the Town and encountred with Titus where he had set his men in array over against the Gate where they made a great slaughter of the Romans so that at length they betook them to flight over against Mount Olivet and in their flight many of them were slain by the Iews that pursued the Chace Upon this divers of Titus's Souldiers seeing themselves beset both before and behind counselled Titus to flee with them to the Mountains to save his Life lest he should be slain by the Jews and they altogether with him for thou say they art a great Lord of many Kingdoms and God shall one day bring thee to the Imperial Crown of our Lord thy father Now therefore if thou should'st be slain by the Jews we are all but dead and what good should thy Death do either to thy self or to others to be slain like one of us Titus would not be ruled by them nor receive their Counsel but kept his Ground boldly without once turning his Face saying I will choose rather to dye with Honour than to live with Shame And with that he rushed upon the Jews that were nigh him and compelled them to recoil When the Jews that had environed the Roman Camp saw that they left the Romans and came flocking about Titus by Routs assailing him on every side endeavouring also with all their Might to over-charge him where in that place was a sore and vehement Fight and much People slain on both sides Titus escaped narrowly from being slain in that Fight and had died indeed if certain of his valiant Souldiers had not rallied and returned unto him and rescued him out of the Jews hands That day were the chief of Titus his Souldiers slain then the Jews retired to their place at the Walls side They also who went to the Mount Olivet returned homeward by the Brook Cedron the Romans seeing that pursued them whereupon the Jews returned again upon the Romans who fled by and by Thus the Jews put the Romans to flight thrice upon one day It came to pass then that the external Wars ceased and intestine Civil Wars returned most terribly amongst the Seditious at Ierusalem for upon the first day of the high solemn Feast of Passeover Captain Jehochanan and his Men came into the Temple of the Lord where he was honourably received of the Priests and Elders with the rest of the Commonalty And when they were within they cast off their upper Garments under which they were armed with Coats of Mail and Swords tied to their Thighs After that they beset the doors and laid hold of the Priests slew them and the People also their Hearts were so cruelly bent against their Brethren neither regarding the reverent Countenances of the Men nor inclining to the Prayers of them that besought them without sparing Women or Children no not the sucking Babes This done Jehochanan stood up and openly protested That neither Schimeon nor Eleazer nor any of the rest of the Captains of the Seditious nor any Man else should have Sovereignty in that City but he The other hearing that Jehochanan had wrought such Displeasure to the People of God in the Temple rose together and slew very many of Jehochanan's Party but in the mean season what of the one part and what of the other the Israelites went to wrack and were slain in great Numbers Strang Apperitions that appeared in the Clouds at the Siege of Ierusalem Page 133. Then the Iews mock'd and flouted the Romans calling them fresh-Water Souldiers Men of no Experience and innocent Fools that never saw the Trains of War before clapping also their Targets and shaking their Swords against them in Mockage The Roman Captains seeing these things they took great Disdain and in great Anger would have turned back upon the Iews again had not Titus commanded the Retreat to be sounded After that Titus had given Caution to his Officers for the preventing being any more deceived by the Wiles and Stratagems of their Enemies considering how earnestly the Ierusalemites were bent against one another how they were become such cruel Enemies that each of them conspired the other's Death he caused the Pits Cisterns and Trenches that were about Ierusalem to be dam'd up and stop'd with Earth that the Ways might be levelled for his Army This done he encamp'd himself nearer the Walls against which Attempt the Iews issued not out of the City after their accustomed Manner to put them back from the Walls For Schimeon was otherwise busied he had entertain'd ten thousand Men of the Seditious Iews and joyned himself to Iacob the Edomite Captain of nine thousand Edomites with whom he had made a Conspiracy utterly to destroy Captain Jehochanan and setting upon him they compelled him to flee into the Court of the Temple where he remained in the Gate of the entrance of the Temple with eight thousand and four hundred good Men of War all well appointed in Armour Eleazer also was against him and joyned with Schimeon becoming an Enemy to him that before had saved his Life and so they both together assail Jehochanan neglecting the defence of the Town By this means the Romans encamped themselves about the Walls at their Pleasure raising Towers and casting Trenches to plant their battering Rams to beat down the Walls The common People of the Iews that were under the Rule and Government of the three Seditious Captains namely Schimeon Eleazer and Jehochanan far passed Schimeon and Schimeon was far worse than Eleazer tho Eleazer was the head Author and first Beginner of Sedition in all Israel were amongst them as a Sheep ready to be killed for the foresaid Seditious Captains slew the People at their Pleasure and divided them into Bands casting Lots upon them who should have which so that one had another's Men and another his Men and thus did they not only with their own Men but also with all the rest of the People in such wise that when the Romans made any Assault then joyned they together as one Man to resist the Romans to whom when they had given a