yea in Hispaniola alone scarce one hundred and fifty of two millions were left alive In another place hee professeth their tyranny was so cruell and detestable that in fourty six yeeres space they caused he verily believed more than fifty millions of them to pay their last debt to nature for I speak saith hee the truth and what I saw they dealt with the poore Indians not as with beasts hoc enim peroptarem but as if they had bin the most abject dung of the earth and is this the way saith Benzo to convert Infidels Such kindnesse they shewed to other places also Cuba Iamaica Portu ricco c. It was said against Israell Cursed shall thy basket be and thy store ver 17. the fruit of thy land the encrease of thy cattle ver 18. all shall be devoured by enemies and other Nations c. ver 30 c. For very much is said of their suffering in riches and honour c. And the Spanish Christians that brake into America shewed themselves so covetous of their treasure that the Natives with wonder said surely gold is the Spaniards God they broiled noble Indians on gridirons to extort from them their hidden wealth giving no respect at all to their Caciques or Kings Memorable in many respects is the History of Attabaliba the great King of Peru who being conquered and captivated by Francis Pizarro redeemed his liberty by the promise of so many golden and silver vessels as should fill the roome where they were so high as one could reach with his hand and they were to take none away till he had brought in the whole summe expecting thereupon according to covenant his freedome and honour he dispatched his officers and servants with great care and diligence and did faithfully performe his bargaine in bringing that vast heape of treasure together but they resolve neverthelesse most impiously to murder him though with many arguments and tears he pleaded for his life desiring sometime to be sent unto Caesar then expostulating with them for their perfidiousnesse and falsehood but neither words nor weeping nor their owne inward guilt could mollifie those hard hearts they sentence him to death by a rope and the cruell execution followed but Benzo observed a miraculous hand of vengeance from heaven upon all that gave consent thereto so that as Suetonius records of Caesars stobbers Nullus corum sua morte defunctus est every one of them found that consultation and contrivance fatall Almager is hanged Didacus his sonne is slaine by Vacca de Castro the Indians kill Iohn Pizarro at Cusco who fell upon Fryar Vincent also of the green valley and slew him with clubs in the Isle Puna Ferdinandus Pizarro was sent into Spain where he consumed his daies in a prison Gonsallus Pizarro was taken by Gasca and hewen in pieces and Francis Pizarro that was the President and gave judgement died an evill death also being slaine by his owne Countrey men in that strange land so just was God in avenging so perfidious a regicide and King-murder so ominous was their presumption against the honourable vile swine-herds sentencing so great a King to so foule a death those are his words in whom and his interpreter he that please may read further those murderers were base in birth and life and they instance in despicable particulars It were endlesse to mention all the parallels that the Spaniards have drawne upon the poore Indians according to the threats of God upon the sinning Jewes Deut. 28. 43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high and thox shalt come downe very low 48. Thou shalt serve thine enemy in hunger and thirst and nakednesse and in want of all things and he shall put a yoake of iron upon thy necke till he have destroyed thee 59. The Lord will make thy plagues wonderfull c. 61. And every plague which is not written in this Law will the Lord bring upon thee untill thou be destroyed Their Kings and Caciques were no more regarded by them than the meanest they enthralled all the Natives in most woefull servitude and captivity their sufferings have bin most wonderfull such as the Book of the Law hath not registred nor any other record they spared no age nor sex not women with childe they laid wagers who could digge deepest into the bodies of men at one blow or with most dexterity cut off their heads they tooke infants from their mothers breasts and dash'd their innocent heads against the rockes they cast others into the rivers with scorne making themselves merry at the manner of their falling into the water they set up severall gallowses and hung upon them thirteen Indians in honour they said of Christ and his twelve Apostles And yet further the same Bishop mervailes at the abominable blindnesse and blasphemy of his Countrymen impropriating their bloudy crimes unto God himselfe giving him thanks in their prosperous tyrannies like those thieves and Tyrants he sayth spoken of by the Prophet Zachary 11. 5. They kill and hold themselves not guilty and they that sell them say Blessed be the Lord for I am rich And now if all these parallels will not amount to a probability one thing more shall be added which is the dispersion of the Jewes t is said The Lord shall scatter thee among all people from one end of the earth even to the other c. Deut. 28. 64. The whole remnant of thee I will scatter into all winds Ezek. 5. 10 12 14. Zach. 2. 6. I have spread you as the foure winds of heaven Now if it be considered how punctuall and faithfull God is in performing his promises and threats mentioned in the Scripture of truth wee shall have cause to looke for the Jewes in America one great very great part of the earth Esay had said 1. 8. The daughter of Syon shall be left as a lodge in a garden of Cucumbers and as Helena found it in her time pomorum custodium an Apple-yard so Cyrill affirmeth in his daies it was a place full of Cucumbers Ieremies prophecies of Babylons destruction even in the circumstances thereof are particularly acknowledged and related by Xenophon The Lord had threatned to bring a Nation upon Israell swift as the Eagle flieth Deut. 28. 49. Iosephus saith this was verified in Vespatians Ensigne and the banner of Cyrus was an Eagle also as the same Xenophon relateth and if the Jewes bee not now never were in America how have they been dispersed into all parts of the earth this being indeed so large a portion of it how have they bin scattered into all the four windes if one of the foure did never blow upon them Much more might be said of their sufferings from the Spaniards whom the barbarous Indians thereupon counted so barbarous and inhumane that they supposed them not to come into the world like other people as if it were impossible that
Constantinople Letters bringing to them glad tidings of two speciall matters fallen out there the one was that the Grand Seignior had remitted the great taxes which formerly had been laid upon the Jewes of those parts so that now they were in a manner free from all burthens paying but a small and inconsiderable matter to that Empire the other was that a messenger was come unto the Jewes who reside neere about the Holy Land from the ten Tribes to make enquiry concerning the state of the Land and what was become of the two Tribes and the half which was left in it when they were transported from thence by Salmanasser This Messenger was described to be a grave man having some attendance in good equipage about him He told them that the people from which hee was sent were the Tribes of Israel which in the daies of Hosea the King were carried captives out of their owne Land by the King of Assyria who transported them from Samaria into Assyria and the Cities of the Medes but they being grieved for the tronsgressions which caused God to be angry with them they tooke a resolution to separate themselves from all Idolaters and so went from the Heathen where they were placed by Salmanassar with a resolution to live by themselves and observe the Commandements of God which in their owne Land they had not observed in prosecuting this resolution after a long journey of a yeere and six moneths they came to a countrey wholly destitute of inhabitants where now they have increased into a great Nation and are to come from thence into their owne Land by the direction of God and to shew them that hee was a true Israelite hee had brought with him a Scroule of the Law of Moses written according to their custome The Gentleman who told me this story as from the mouth of the Jew said that it brought to his mind fully by reason of the agreement of circumstances almost in all things the story which is recorded in the Second Booke of Esdras which is called Apocrypha Chap. 13. ver 40. till 50. which will be found a truth if that Messenger came and made this Narrative This was the first story and not long after viz. Within the space of five or six moneths a little before I came from the Low Countries I was told of a Jew who came from America to Amsterdam and brought to the Jewes residing there newes concerning the ten Tribes that hee had been with them upon the border of their Land and had conversed with some of them for a short space and seen and heard remarkable things whiles he stayed with them whereof then I could not learn the true particulars but I heard that a Narrative was made in writing of that which he had related which before I went from Holland last I had no time to seeke after but since the reading of your Booke and some discourse I have had with you about these matters I have procured it from the Low Countries and received a Copie thereof in French attested under Manasseh Ben Israel his hand that it doth exactly agree with the originall as it was sent me the translation thereof I have truly made without adding or taking away any thing and because I was not satisfied in some things and desired to know how farre the whole matter was believed among the Jewes at Amsterdam I wrote to Manasseh Ben Israel their chiefe Rabbi about it and his answer I have gotten in two Letters telling me that by the occasion of the Questions which I proposed unto him concerning this adjoyned Narrative of Mr. Antonie Monterinos hee to give me satisfaction had written insteed of a Letter a Treatise which hee shortly would publish and whereof I should receive so many Copies as I should desire In his first Letter dated Novem. last 25. he saies that in his treatise he handles of the first inhabitants of America which he believes were of the ten Tribes moreover that they are scattered also in other Countries which he names and that they keepe their true Religion as hoping to returne againe into the Holy land in due time In his second Letter dated the twenty three of December he saies more distinctly thus I declare how that our Israelites were the first finders out of America not regarding the opinions of other men which I thought good to refute in few words onely and I thinke that the ten Tribes live not onely there but also in other lands scattered every where these never did come backe to the second Temple and they keep till this day still the Jewish Religion seeing all the Prophecies which speake of their bringing backe unto their native Soile must be fulfilled So then at their appointed time all the Tribes shall meet from all the parts of the world into two provinces namely Assyria and Egypt nor shall their Kingdome be any more divided but they shall have one Prince the Messiah the Sonne of David I do also set forth the Inquisition of Spaine and rehearse divers of our Nation and also of Christians Martyrs who in our times have suffered severall sorts of torments and then having shewed with what great honours our Jewes have been graced also by severall Princes who professe Christianity I prove at large that the day of the promised Messiah unto us doth draw neer upon which occasion I explaine many Prophecies c. By all which you see his full agreement with your conjecture concerning the Americans that they are descended of the Hebrewes when his booke comes to my hand you shall have it God willing In the meane time I shall adde some of my conjectures concerning the Jewes which live on this side of the world with us in Europe and Asia these are of two sorts or Sects the one is of Pharisees the other of Caraits the Pharisees in Europe and Asia are in number farre beyond the Caraits they differ from one another wheresoever they are as Protestants doe from Papists for the Pharisees as the Papists attribute more to the Authoritie and traditions of their Rabbies and Fathers then to the word of God but the Caraits will receive nothing for a rule of faith and obedience but what is delivered from the word of God immediately and their name imports their profession that they are readers of the Text or Textuaries for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you know when it relates to bookes and writings is to be rendred These two Sects are irreconcilably opposite to each other and as the Papists deale with Protestants so do the Pharisees with the Caraits they persecute and suppres them and their profession by all the meanes they can possibly make use of Nay as Mr Ritangle of whom I have all the informations which I know concerning the Caraits tels me the hatred of the Pharisees is so fierce against their opposites the Caraits that they have Anathematized them so as never to be reconciled unto them insomuch that
Manasseh Ben Israel saith to make their Rendezvous in Assyria and on the other side the Jewes that are Pharisees may make their Rendezvous from Arabia and other neighbouring places and out of all Europe into Egypt that so when the Shunamite shall returne as it is said in the Canticles chap. 6. ver 13. the world may looke upon her and may see in her the company of two Armies which both shall look towards Jerusalem Then will the great battaile of Harmageddon be fought whereunto all these troubles and changes are but preparatives then shall the sword of the Spirit the word of God prevaile mightily over the spirits of all men the two edges thereof on the right hand and on the left will cut sharpe and pierce to the dividing asunder of soule and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and to the discerning of the thoughts and intentions of the heart and when this sword shall be thus powerfull in the hands of his Saints the true Protestants with the one troope and the true Caraits with the other then shall be fulfilled the Prophecie of the Psalmist that vengeance shall be executed upon the Heathen and punishments upon the people that their Kings shall be bound with chaines and their Nobles with fetters of iron and that the honour due to all Saints shall be given them to be made executioners of the judgement written in the word of God against them We know not how neare these things are at hand let us therefore be watchfull and put on the armour of light to be ready when the Bridegroome comes to goe with him in our wedding garment having our lamps burning and provision of oile into the wedding chamber And to this effect the Lord teach us to be diligent to be found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse that in the midst of these fightings and confusions we may not be found as many are smiting their fellow servants eating and drinking largely of the spoile of those that are spoiled and being drunken with the passions of malice entertained for the revenge of injuries or of covetousnesse and ambition prosecuted for self-interests and with this prayer I shall commend you to the grace of God and rest Your faithfull friend and fellow labourer in the Gospel of Christ J. DURY St Iames this 27 Ian. 1649 50. Iewes in America OR Probabilities that the Americans are Jewes CHAP. I. IT hath been much and many times in severall mens thoughts what Genius devoted our Countrey-men so willingly to forsake their Friends and Nation exposing themselves by voyages long and perillous to so many inconveniences as are to be encountred with by Strangers in a forraigne and unchristian land some were hastened by their dislike of Church Government other perhaps were in hope to enrich themselves by such Adventures and 't is like divers of them did foresee those Epidemicall Calamities now for so many years oppressing this forlorne Nation following thereupon Solomons Counsell A prudent man foreseeth the evill and hideth himselfe c. Prov. 22. 5. Or else those pious soules by a divine instinct might happily bee stirred up to despise all hazards that the Natives for their temporall accommodations might bee spiritually enriched by the English and though this was little seen at first in the endeavours at least the successe of many gone thither yet who can tell but supreme Providence might then dispose mens hearts that way themselves not discerning that influence even as Cyrus promoted the cause of the Jewes he knew not why nor whence Esa 45. 4 5. Upon confidence that the Gospell of Christ shall be revealed in the midst of that yet most Barbarous Nation the next desire was if possible to learne the Originall of the Americans and by observations from Printed Books and written Letters and by Discourse with some that had travelled to and abode in those parts severall years the probability of that opinion as yet praeponderates that the Westerne Indians be of Jewish race R. Verstegan proves the Saxons to be Germans because their speech is alike the names of persons and things sometimes agree and the Idols of them both are not different Bodine mentioneth 3 Arguments b by which the beginnings of People are discoverable the faire and true dealing of Historians the comparing of Language with the description of the Countrey such helps have assisted also in this enquiry Grotius conceiveth these Americans to have come out of Europe passing from Norway into Iseland thence by Friesland into Greenland and so into Estotiland which is part of that Western Continent hee is induced to that opinion from the names and words of places and things in both sounding alike but Io. de Laet abundantly disproves this Conjecture which yet the Governor of the Dutch Plantation there told Mr. Williams was his judgement Some others take them to be a remnant of those Canaanites that fled out of that Land when the feare of Israel approaching thither fell upon them Iosh 2. 9. Others thinke it most probable that they are Tartars passing out of Asia into America by the straights of Anian Emanuel de Moraes willingly believes them to be derived from the Carthaginians and Jewes from which latter that they be descended these following Conjectures are propounded to Consideration CHAP. II. The first Conjecture that the Americans are Jewes THE Indians doe themselves relate things of their Ancestors suteable to what we read of the Jewes in the Bible and elsewhere which they also mentioned to the Spaniards at their first accesse thither and here the Speech of Myrsilus occurred as observable if we would know saith hee the Antiquity and Originall of a Nation there is more credit to be given to the Natives and their Neighbors than to strangers and Caesar concluded the Britons to be Gaules because that was the affirmation of them both P. Martyr tells at large how Muteczuma the great King of Mexico in an Oration made to his Nobles and People perswading subjection to the King of Spaine minds his Countrey men that they heard from their fore-fathers how they were strangers in that land and by a great Prince very long agoe brought thither in a Fleet They boast their Pedigree from men preserved in the Sea by God himselfe that God made one man and one woman bidding them live together and multiply and how in a Famine hee rained bread for them from Heaven whō in a time of drought also gave them Water out of a Rock many other things themselves say were done for them such as the Scriptures relate concerning the Israelites at their comming out of Aegypt as their Peregrination many yeares the Oracles they received their Arke of Bulrush wherein Vitzi-Liputzli was included of the Tabernacle the Ark carried by foure Priests and how they pitched their Tents according to its direction and who seeth not saith Malvenda much probability that the Mexicans are Iewes how
any borne of man and woman should be so monstruously savage and cruell they derived therefore their pedigree from the wide and wild Ocean and call'd them Viracocheie i. e. the foame of the Sea as beeng borne of the one and nourished by the other and poured upon the earth for its destruction Acosta indeed gives another interpretation of that word in honour of his Nation but other writers unanimously accord in this and Benzo confidently averreth that the conceit and judgement of the Indians touching the originall of the Spaniards is so setled in them that none but God himselfe can alter their minds herein for thus saith hee they reason among themselves the winds tumble downe houses and teare trees in peeces the fire burnes both trees and houses but these same Viracocheies devoure all they turn over the earth offer violence to the rivers are perpetually unquiet wandering every way to finde gold and when they have found it they throw it away at dice they steale and sweare and kill yea and kill one another and deny God yea these Indians in detestation of the Spaniards he saith doe execrate and curse the sea it selfe for sending such an intractable fierce and cruell a generation into the earth But thus have wicked sinnes drawne woefull punishments threatned to the Jewes and suffered also by these Americans wherein the more hath bin spoken not onely to deter all Christians from such inhumane barbarities but to provoke the readers every way to compassionate such transcendent sufferers the rather because as Canaan of old was Emanuels land Hos 9. 3. the holy land Zach. 2. 12. and the Jewes were Gods peculiar people so these surely are either a remnant of Israell after the flesh or else God will in his good time incorporate them into that common-wealth and then they also shall become the Israel of God Part Second Some contrary reasonings removed and first in the generall CHAP. I. THere be some that by irrefragable arguments they suppose evince and overthrow all conjectures that the Americans be Jewes Apocryphall Esdras in Historicalls may be of some credit and that sentence of his by many is applyed to this very purpose and these very people the ten tribes led away captive by Salmanasar tooke this counsell among themselves that they would leave the multitude of the Heathen and goe forth into a farther Countrey where never man dwelt that they might there keepe their statutes which they never kept in their owne land and they entred into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river for through that Countrey there was a great way to goe namely of a yeere and an halfe and the same Region is called Arsareth c. 2 Esdr 13. 40. c. Acosta is of opinion that these words thus produced by many make in truth against this conjecture and that for two reasons 1. The ten Tribes went so farre to keepe their statutes and ceremonies but these Indians observe none of them being given up to all Idolatries And is this at all consequent such was their purpose therefore the successe must be answerable is it likely they should be so tenacious in a farre and forraigne land that never kept them in their owne as the next words expresse His second Argument is of like force for t is not said that Euphrates and America be contiguous or places so neere one the other muchlesse that the entries of that River should stretch to the Indies but hee tells of a very long journey taken by them suitable to the places of their removall and approach which was to a Countrey where never man dwelt and what Countrey could this be but America all other parts of the world being then knowne and inhabited Besides there hath bin a common tradition among the Jews and in the world that those ten tribes are utterly lost in what place are they then like to be found if not in America for they shall be found againe Some conjectures that they came from Norway and be of that nation have bin mentioned with the improbability also thereof and now lately T. Gage sets forth his new survey of the West Indies his long abode there and diligent observation of many very many remarkable passages in his travells there I hoped to read somewhat of their originalls and finde him affirming that the Indians seeme to be of the Tartars progeny his reasons are 1. Quivira and all the West side of the Countrey towards Asia is farre more populous than the East next Europe which sheweth these parts to be first inhabited but if the meaning be the nearer Tartary the more populous therefore they came from thence its falls in with the third reason 2. Their barbarous properties are most like the Tartats of any this argument militates with more force for their Judaisme to which many of their rites be so consonant both sacred and common as hath been said And thirdly the West side of America if it be not continent with Tartary is yet disjoyned by a small straite but the like may be said of some other parts that they be or may have been neer some other maine lands and so by that reason of some other race and extract 4. The people of Quivira neerest to Tartary are said to follow the seasons and pasturing of their cattell like the Tartarians this particular a species of the generall delivered in the second reason is there glanced upon but all he saith of this nature and others with him are so farre from weakening our conjecture that they may be embraced rather as friendly supports thereunto if others have guessed right that conceive the Tartars also themselves to be Jowes Mathew Paris no meane man in his time was of that opinion in his famous history he mentions it as the judgement of learned men in that age it is thought the Tartars quorum memoriaest detestabilis are of the ten Tribes c. Yea and of latter times Dr Fletcher a neere neighbour to them while he lived among the Russes as Agent for Queen Elizabeth supposeth the same and giveth divers probable arguments inducing him thereto the names of many Townes in Tartary the same with those in Israell Tabor Ierico Chorasin c. They are circumcised distinguished into Tribes and have many Hebrew words among them c. for hee addeth other probabilities yea and the same M. Paris shewes that the Jewes themselves were of that mind and called them their brethren of the seed of Abraham c. There was another transmigration of them when Vespatian destroyed Ierusalem their owne and other Histories speake little thereof it might be well worthy the endeavours of some serious houres to enquire after the condition of that Nation since our most deare Saviours Ascension a strange thing is reported by themselves and of themselves and with such confidence that t is in their devotion It saith when Vespatian wan Ierusalem he gave order that three ships laden
with that people might be put to Sea but without Pilot oares or tackling these by windes and tempests were woefully shattered and so dispersed that they were cast upon severall coasts one of them in a Countrey called Lovanda the second in another region named Arlado the third at a place called Bardeli all unknown in these time the last courteously entertained these strangers freely giving them grounds and vineyards to dresse but that Lord being dead another arose that was to them as Pharaoh to old Israell and he said to them he would try by Nabuchodonosors experiment upon the three young men if these also came from the fire unscorch'd he would believe them to be Jewes they say Adoni-Melech most noble Emperour let us have also three daies to invoke the Majesty of our God for our deliverance which being granted Ioseph and Benjamin two brothers and their cosin Samuell consider what is meet to be done and agree to fast and pray three daies together and meditate every one of them a prayer which they did and out of them all they compiled one which they used all those three daies and three nights on the morning of the third day one of them had a vision upon Esa 43. 2. which marvelously encouraged them all soone after a very great fire was kindled and an ininnumerable company of people came to see the burning into which they cast themselves unbidden without feare singing and praying till all the combustible matter was consumed and the fire went out the Jewes every where published this miracle and commanded that this prayer should be said every Monday and Thursday morning in their Synagogues which is observed by them to this day saith Buxtorsius In this narration if there be any truth wee may looke for some confirmation thereof from America But that there be no Jewes in those parts Io. de Laet endeavours otherwise to evince as 1. They are not circumcised therefore not Jewes but their circumcision hath been made so manifest that this reason may well be retorted they are circumcised therefore they be Jewes Againe the Indians are not covetous nor learned nor carefull of their Antiquities therefore they are not Judaicall in which allegations if there be any strength it will be answered in the examination of those three following scrupulous and difficult questions 1. Whence and how the Iewes should get into America 2. How multiply and enpeople so great a Continent so vast a land 3. How grow so prodigiously rude and barbarous CHAP II. Answer to the first Quere How the Jewes should get into America THE Jewes did not come into America as is feigned of Ganimed riding on Eagles wings neither was there another Arke made to convey them thither the Angels did not carry them by the haires of the heads as Apocryphall Habakuk was conducted into Babylon these were not caught by the Spirit of the Lord and setled there as Saint Philip was from Ierusalem to Asotus Act. 8. 5. They were not guided by an Hart as t is written of the Hunns when they brake in upon the nearer parts of Europe Procopius reports of the Maurisii an African Nation that they were of those Gergesites or Jebusites spoken of in the Scriptures for he had read a very ancient writing in Phaenician Characters thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. We are they that fled from the face of the destroyer Iesus the sonne of Nave and so the Septuagint names him whom wee call the sonne of Nun and as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 formerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not in those daies of such odious signification It may be said these might passe from the parts of Asia into Lybia by land but the Jewes could not so get into America which is thought by some to be very farre distant on every side from the Continent Acosta therefore supposeth the Natives might come at first by sea into that maine land alledging some experiments to that purpose but in the next Chapter he judgeth it more probable whosoever the inhabitants be that they travelled thither by land for though some few men happily by tempests might be cast on those shores yet it is unlike so large a part of the earth by such mishaps should be replenished F. Cotton f it seemes was puzled with this scruple therefore in his memorialls he propounded to the Daemoniaque that Interrogatory Quomodo animalia in insulas c. Quomodo homines how got men and other creatures into those Islands and Countries Acosta subscribes at length to the sentence of St. Austin for the entrance of Beares Lions and Wolves that they arrived thither either by their owne swimming or by the importation of curious men or by the miraculous command of God and ministration of the Angels yet his finall determination is and he lived seventeen yeeres in that Countrey America joyneth somewhere with some other part of the world or else is but by a very little distance separated from it And it may yet be further considered the scituation of Countries is much altered by tract of time many places that were formerly sea are now dry land saith Strabo a great part af Asia and Africa hath bin gained from the Atlantique Ocean the sea of Corinth was drunk up by an earthquake Lucania by the force of the water was broken off from Italy and got a new name Sicily saith Tertullian the sea gave unto the earth the Island Rhodes Pliny mentions divers places Islands long since but in his time adjoyned to the Continent and the sea hath devoured many Townes and Cities that were anciently inhabited that Vallis Silvestris as the Latin translation renders Gen. 14. 3. or of Siddim i. e. Laboured fields as t is in Hebrew was certainely a vaile of slime-pits in the daies of Abraham and Lot ver 10. which very place about foure hundred yeeres after was a sea the salt sea ver 3. Between Thera and Therasia an Island suddenly appeared saith Eusebius and the sea perhaps hath broken into some places and of one made a double Island all Ages and Nations tell of the water and the Earth how they gain one from the other and thus some have conjectured that our Brittaine since the floud was one Continent with France for the distance between them at Callis and Dover is but small about twenty foure miles and the cliffes on both sides are like each other for length and matter equally chalk and flinty as if art or suddaine violence had made an even separation Thence Hollinshead writes confidently because Lions and wild Bulls were formerly in this Island that it was not cut from the maine by the great deluge of Noah but long after for none would replenish a Countrey with such creatures for pastime and delight And if these be no more but conjectures that America was once united to the other world or but a little divided from it
Moses to his Israell Onely take heed to your selves and keepe your soules diligently Deut. 4. 9. make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. and because you are the children of faithfull Abraham command your children and families that they walke in the waies of the Lord Gen. 18. 9. and let who will serve themselves follow lying vanities and set up their owne lusts let every one of us say and do as Ioshua I and my house will serve the Lord Josh 24. 15. And not onely serve the Lord with and in our housholds but in furthering the common good of others and t is considerable God is pleased to owne publique interests though in civill things with the name of his owne inheritance But this is the sinne this is the misery of these times All seek their owne not the things of Iesus Christ Even regulated charity may beginne at home it may not it must not end there it is the onely grace that is sowne on earth it growes up to heaven and continues there it goes with us thither and there abides to all eternity and t is therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greater then faith and hope not from continuance onely but its extensivenesse it delights to be communicative it reacheth an hand of helpe one way or other to every one that needs though at never so great a distance after the cloven tongues as of fire had warmed the affections of the holy Apostles they had so much love to soules that they forgat their fathers house discipled all Nations and preached the Gospel to every creature Their line went through all the earth and their words to the ends of the world that former known world the same spirit hath warmed the hearts of our Countreymen and they are busie at the same worke in the other the new-found world For behold a white horse and he that sate on him had a bow and a Crown was given unto him and hee went forth conquering and to conquer so the Lord Christ shall be light to that world also and Gods salvation to the ends of the earth Britain hath woon the Gospel-glory from all other Countries not onely imbracing it with the formost as old Gildas testifieth but it was the first of all the Provinces that established Christianity by a law saith Sabellicus our Lucius was the first Christian King that Annales make mention of and venerable Bede out of Eutropius declareth that Constantine the first Christian Emperour was created to that dignity in this Island Sozom. l. 9. c. 11. saith that so were Marcus Gratian also But Constantine brought further honour to the Nation Religion For the Saxon Bede and Ponticus Virunnius affirme expresly that Constantine was born in Britaine after this ingemuit orbis videns se totum Romanum All the world wondred after the Beast groaned under the Papall servitude and our K. Henry the eight was the first of all the Princes who brake that yoke of Antichrist but neerer yet to our purpose The Inhabitants of the first England so Verstegan calls that part of Germany whence our Ancestors came hither with the Saxons and Iutes derive their Christianity from Iewry Ad nos doctrina de terra Iudaeorum per sanctos Apostolos qui docebant gentes pervenit as that great linguist learned and laborious Mr Wheelocke hath observed and translated out of the old Saxon Homilies t is but just therefore lege talionis that we repay what we borrowed and endeavour their conversion who first acquainted us with the eternall Gospell and if it be probable that providence honoured this Nation with the prime discovery of that New World as is intimated hereafter it is true without all controversie that from this second England God hath so disposed the hearts of many in the third New England that they have done more in these last few yeares towards their conversion then hath been effected by all other Nations and people that have planted there since they were first known to the habitable world as if that Prophesie were now in its fulfilling Behold I will doe a new thing now it shall spring forth shall ye not know it I will even make a way in the Wildernes and rivers in the desart c. When our Ancestors lay also in darkenesse and the shadow of death Gregory wrote divers Epistles to severall Noblemen and Bishops yea and to some Kings and Queenes of France and England these Sir H. Spelman that famous Antiquary your noble Countreyman and of alliance to divers of you calls epistolas Britannicas which are also mentioned afterwards in these he gives God thankes for their forwardnesse to further the worke of grace and desires earnestly the continuance of their bountifull and exemplary encouragement of such as were zealously employed in that Soule-worke and that is one of the two businesses entended in the following discourse which begs your assistance in your Spheres and cordiall concurrence to promote a designe of so much glory to the Lord of glory This is no new notion or motion all the royall Charters required the Gospellizing of the Natives and in the beginning of this Parliament there was an Ordinance of Lords and Commons appointing a Committee of both and their worke was among other things to advance the true Protestant Religion in America and to spread the Gospell among the Natives there and since very lately there is an Act for the promoting and propagating the Gospell of Iesus Christ in New-England I wish prosperity to all the Plantations but those of New-England deserve from hence more then ordinary favour because as by an Edict at Winchester about eighth hundred yeeres since King Ecbert commanded this Country should be called angles-Angles-land so these your Countreymen of their owne accord and alone were and are ambitious to retain the name of their owne Nation besides this England had once an Heptarchate and then your Countrey was the chiefe of that Kingdome called Anglia Orientalis and these are the neerest of all the seven to you in name Nov-angles East-angles I pray that you would be nearest and most helpefull to them in this most Christian and Gospel-like designe which I leave with you and two or three Petitions at the throne of grace for you one is that of Moses Yee shall not doe after all the things that wee do heare this day every man whatsoever is right in his owne eyes but that ye walk by rule and not by example this is an age much enclining to Enthousiasmes and Revelations men pretend to externall and inward impulses but wee must remember though wee had a voice from heaven yet having the Scriptures wee have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more sure Propheticall word whereunto yee doe well that yee take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place untill the day dawne and the day starre arise in your hearts
disquisition they cannot affoord one another almost any light or help no wonder therefore that the Originall of the Americans is in such uncertaine obscurity for their very name hath not been heard of much more than one hundred and fifty yeares t is a wonder rather that so great a part of the world should be till then Terra incognita notwithstanding the ambition curiosity and avarice of mankind carried him into a greedy inquisition after all places and corners where men and beasts abode or any commodity was to be found Hieronimus Benzo in his Nova novi orbis Historia so often hereafter mentioned professeth that above all things concerning the Americans his great designe was to finde out what thoughts they had of Christians touching the Countrey it selfe in the Topography and other particulars besides divers mentioned in the following discourse some have of late done excellently that way that t is no part of my businesse which next to the desire of their conversion to Christ was and is to aske whence they came and that they be Judaicall I have laid together severall conjectures as they occuâ—â—… in reading and observing to stirre up and awaken more able inquisitors to looke after the beginning nature civilizing and Gospellizing those people and to cast in my poore mite towards the encouragement of our Countreymen in such their pious undertaking and though some men have spoken meane things of them in reference to their labours that way as if they had been negligent therein such men consider not I feare how long their Countreymen have been wrastling with divers difficulties and busily employing their minds and time in providing outward accommodations for themselves in a strange land they remember not the naturall perversenesse of all mankind to spirituall things nor with what counterworkes Satan doth oppose the underminers of his Principalities nor how he hath broken the language of the Natives into severall tongues and dialects to impede their conversion nor how the Novangles have themselves been broken into divers ruptures lest they should be at leasure to further the enlargement of Christs Kingdome upon the spoiles and diminution of his this was in the purpose of their hearts at first and now to their comfort they do abundantly see that the Natives are a docible people who for their contempt of gold silver and for some other reasons have been deemed bruitish and almost irrationall but to what is after written it may be mentioned in this place that in Mexico they were observed to be wise and politique in government to the admiration of Christians yea they were not ignorant in those parts of letters and writing though in a different fashion from others Acosta did observe the Jewes write from the right hand to the left others from the left to the right the Chinois or East-Indians write from the top to the bottom the Mexicans from the bottome to the top the Reformed Dominican in his new survey of the West-Indies tells of a Town as he travelled called Amat Titlan a Towne of Letters and of very curious Artifices of their Citizens of Goldsmiths worke and otherwise their ingenuity cunning and courage is marvelously manifest in their leading a Whale as big as a mountaine with a cord and vanquishing him in this manner by the helpe of their Canoes or little Boats they come neare to the broad side of that huge creature oand with great dexterity leape upon his necke there they ride as on horsebacke and thrust a sharpe stake into his nosthrill so they call the hole or vent by which they breathe he beats it in with another stake as forcibly as hee can the furious Whale in the meane time raiseth Mountaines of waters and runnes into the deep with great violence and paine the Indian still sits firme driving in another stake in o that other passage so stopping his breath then hee goes againe to his Canoe which with a cord hee had tied to the Whales side and so he paesseth to land the Whale running away with the cord leaps from place to place in much pame till hee gets to shoare and being on ground hee cannot move his huge body then a great number of Indians come to the conquerer they kill the Whale cut his flesh in pieces they dry it and make use of it for food which lasts them long thus plainely verifying that expression Psal 74. 14. Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the Wildernesse When or where or by whom is this thus done but by these who will not now desire and willingly lend his helpe to cover their naked bodies and cloath their more naked soules with the Gospel who and who alone have so litterally fulfilled that Scripture of our God But let me commend three other things to thy consideration that thy affections may bee warmed towards thy Countreymen and they receive encouragement in the planting of themselves and the Gospel among the Natives First they may be preparing an hiding place for thy selfe whoever whatever now thou art thou mayst be overtaken by a tempest and stand in need of a shelter and where canst thou be better for sweetnesse of aire and water with the fertility of the soile giving two wheate harvests in one yeare in severall places yea in some three saith P. Martyr and Books generally speake of that Land as of a second Canaan and for New-England you may believe the relation of a very friend there to his like here who mutually agreed upon a private character that the truth might be discovered without deceit or glozing and thus he wrote to him whom he entirely loved The aire of this Countrey is very sweet and healthfull the daies two houres shorter in Summer and two houres longer in Winter then they be with you the Summer is a little hotter and the Winter a little colder our grounds are very good and fruitfull for all kind of corne both English and Indian our cattell thrive much better here then in Old England Fowle encrease with us exceedingly wee have many sweet and excellent springs and fresh Rivers with abundance of good Fish in them of a very truth I believe verily it will be within a few yeares the plentifullest place in the whole world c. I might proclaime saith Lerius the Inhabitants of that Land happy meaning the Natives if they had knowledge of the Creator so that as parents intending to marry their Daughters well extend themselves in what they may to encrease their portion and make way for their preferment our heavenly Father hath dealt thus with these Americans enriching them with Gold Silver good aire good water and all other accommodations for use and delight that they might be the more earnestly wooed and sought after And yet further as he commended his house offered to sale that it had good neighbours if thou beest driven thither goe chearefully
for thou goest to thine owne Countreymen from one England to another New England indeed witnesse that experimented asseveration of him worthy of credit who having lived in a Colony there of many thousand English almost twelve yeares and was held a very sociable man speaketh considerately I never heard but one oath sworne never saw one man drunke nor ever heard of three women adulteresses if these sinnes be among us privily the Lord heale us I would not be understood to boast of our innocency there is no cause I should our hearts may be bad enough and our lives much better And yet they have more abundantly testified their pious integrity in serious endeavours to propogate Gospel-holinesse even to those that be without their godly labours Christianizing the Natives must be remembred to their praise they have had long and longing preparative thoughts and purposes that way and as Saint Paul once to his Corinthians 2. 6. 11. they have seemed to say O Americans our mouth is opened unto you our heart is enlarged you are not straightned in us be not straightned in your owne bowels and now for a recompence of all our endeavours to preach Christ unto you we aske no more but be ye also enlarged with gladnesse to receive the Lord Jesus Christ their active industry in this kind with the successe is now famously visible in severall discourses which whosoever shall read will be sufficiently contented in his spirituall and outward well-wishings to his friends both of this Nation and the Natives for the Gospel runs there and is glorified and here I crave leave to speake a word or two to the Military Reader the late English American traveller dedicating his observations upon his journeys of three thousand three hundred miles within the maine Land of America to the Lord Fairefax speakes knowingly to his Excellency that with the same paines and charge that the English have been at in planting one of the petty Islands they might have conquered so many great Cities and large territories on the Continent as might very well merit the title of a Kingdom he shewes further that the Natives have not onely just right to the Land and may transferre it to whom they please but that it may easily be wonne from the Spaniards and that for these three reasons among the rest 1. The Spaniards themselves are but few and thinne 2. The Indians and Blackamoores will turne against them and so will 3. The Criolians that is the Spaniards borne in America whom they will not suffer to beare office in Church or state Looke Westward then yee men of Warre thence you may behold a rising Sunne of glory with riches and much honour and not onely for your selves but for Christ whom you say you desire above all and are delighted to honour In yonder Countries that the following leaves speake of non cedunt arma togae the pen yeelds to the pike the first place of honour is given to the profession of armes and therefore in Mexico the Noblemen were the chiefe souldiers thus you may enlarge not onely your owne renowne but the borders of the Nation yea the Kingdome of the King of Saints We have all made covenants and professions of reformation at home with promises to propagate the Gospell of our deare Lord among those that remaine in great and miserable blindnesse how happy were it for them and us if this England were in such a posture of holinesse and tranquility that all opportunities might be imbraced to advance its territories abroad In the interim I could wish with the most passionate and compassionate of all the holy Prophets Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weep day and night for the sinnes and for the slaine of the daughter of my people Oh that I had in the wildernesse c. Ier. 9. 1. 2. Our Countrey is justly called our mother whose heavy groanes under multiplied miseries be heard from all places whose bowels doe not sympathize with her and yerne over her who is not unwilling or ashamed to gather riches or honour from her rents and ruine the Heathen Orator spake affectionately our parents are dear to us and so be our children alliances and familiars but the love of our countrey comprehends in it and with it all other dearnesses whatsoever and in another place Omnes qui patriam conserverunt adjuverunt auxerunt certum est esse in caelo t is certaine they are all in heaven that have been lovers and conservators of their Countrey and when heathenish Babylon was the place of Israels exile they are commanded by God himselfe to seeke the peace of the City whether they were carried and pray unto the Lord for it Jer. 29. 7. It is recorded to the honour of Mordecai that he sought the wealth of his people Esth 10. 3. the contrary to this entailes ignominy to men and their posterity by the book of Gods own heral dry Esa 14. 20. Thou shalt not be joyned with them in buriall because thou hast destroyed thy land and slaine thy people the seed of evill doers shall never be renowned for that Judge judged righteously In a civill warre there is no true victory in asmuch as he that prevaileth is also a loser But I returne and reinvite to peruse these probabilities and if they like not because they are no more but guesses and conjectures yet the requests I hope shall be listened unto for they aime at Gods glory and mans salvation and nothing else and surely the poore Natives will not be a little encouraged to looke after the glorious Gospel of Christ when they shall understand that not onely the English among them but wee all here are daily sutors for them at the throne of grace so that we may say as Paul to the Romans 1. 9. God is our witnesse whom wee serve with our spirit in the Gospel of his Sonne that without ceasing wee make mention of them alwaies in our prayers Mr. Elliot whose praise is now through all our Churches 2 Cor. 8. 18. deserves publique encouragement from hence besides those sprinklings of an Apostolicall spirit received from heaven by which in an high and holy ambition he preacheth the Gospell where Christ had not been named Rom. 15. 20. such another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like-minded soule-lover is not readily to be found that naturally careth for their matters Phil. 2. 20. regarding the Indians as if they were his owne charge and children and as God hath furnished him with ministeriall and spirituall abilities for the worke I wish that he and his com-Presbyters and companions in that labour might be supplyed with all externall accommodations to further the civilizing and Gospellizing of the Americans And now me thinks I heare thee say also Oh that the day breaking of the Gospel there might be the way of Saints even the path of the just as the shining light that shineth more and
time and the sea two insatiable devourers have made the gap wider But the question is not in what age before or since the Incarnation of our Lord the Jewes tooke their long journey and planted there but how the way was passable for them Malvenda speakes confidently that they might come into Tartary and by the deserts into Grotland on which side America is open and Mr Brerewood assures us that the North part of Asia is possessed by Tartars and if it be not one Continent with America as some suppose yet doubtlesse they are divided by a very narrow channell because there be abundance of Beares Lions Tigers and Wolves in the Land which surely men would not transport to their owne danger and detriment those greater beasts indeed are of strength to swimme over Sea many miles and this is generally observed of Beares and Herrera saith the inhabitants of the West Indies came thither by land for those Provinces touch upon the Continent of Asia Africa and Europe though it be not yet fully discovered how and where the two worlds be conjoyned or if any sea doe passe between them they are straites so narrow that beasts might easily swimme and men get over even with small vessells Our Countrey man Nich. Fuller gives in his suitable verdit for the facile passing into Columbina so he calls it from the famous first discoverer saying from other places they might find severall Islands not farre distant each from other and a narrow cut at last through which passengers might easily be conveyed and Acosta tells that about Florida the land runs out very large towards the North and as they say joynes with the Scythique or German Sea and after some other such mentionings he concludes confidently there is no reason or experience that doth contradict my conceit that all the parts of the Earth be united and joyned in some place or other or at least approach very neere together and that is his conclusive sentence It is an indubitable thing that the one world is continued and joyned with the other CHAP. III. Answer to Question 2. How such a remnant should enpeople so great a part of the world THE whole Countrey of Jewry whence wee would have it probable that the Americans came is not above one hundred and sixty miles long from Dan to Beersheba and the breadth is but sixty miles from Ioppa to Iordan in St. Ieromes account who knew it so well and how some few Colonies as it were removing from thence should multiply into such numbers that so large a Countrey should be filled by them is a scruple that hath troubled some considering men America in the latitude of it is is foure thousand miles and Bishop Casa's hath said already that the Spaniards in his time had forraged and spoyled Countries longer then all Europe and a great part of Asia it seemes incredible therefore that the Incommers who were but few in comparison as a little flocke of Kids should so marvelously spread into all the Westerne World for the Americans before that Spanish devastation filled all the Countrey But this will not seeme so difficult if former examples be taken into consideration some have made speciall observation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as had many children t is much that Acosta writes of one of the Inguas or Kings of Peru that hee had above three hundred sonnes and grandchildren t is more that Philo Iudeus tells of Noah the Patriarke who lived hee saith to see twenty foure thousand proceeding from him all males for women were not numbred We use to say Rome was not built in one day and indeed Eutropius speaking of the Empire of that City saith at first none was lesse but in its increment it exceeded all others by many degrees so that he who reades the story thereof reads not the acts of one people but of all Nations saith Florus yea and Seneca looking on Rome in its minority and her immense magnitude afterward is amazed thereat this one people saith he how many Colonies did it send into all Provinces he writes of numerous encreases from other Cities also as Athens and Miletus but it will be nearer to our purpose to observe how small the number of Israell was at his first discent into Egypt how short a time they tarried there what cruell waies were taken to stop their encrease and yet how much and how marvelously they multiplied and then it will not be strange that a farre greater number in a longer time should or might grow into such vast multitudes And for the first t is most certaine all the soules of the house of Iacob which came into Egypt were seventy Gen. 46. 27. T is true also though not to all so manifest that the time of their abode in Egypt was about two hundred and fifteen yeers and not more at first appearance indeed it seems to be otherwise because wee read Exod. 12. 40. The sojourning of the children of Israell who dwelt in Egypt was foure hundred and thirty yeeres but the Septuagints addition is here remarkable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They dwelt in Egypt and in the Land of Canaan they and their Fathers foure hundred and thirty yeeres and this is one of those thirteen mutations that the seventy Interpreters made when at King Ptolomes appointment they translated the Scripture into Greeke which they said was done rightly by them for Israell was indeed in Egypt but two hundred and ten yeeres which collection they make from the numerall letters of that speech of Iacob Gen. 42. 2. ו 6 ד 4 ר 200 and there be many impressions in the Scripture evidencing that their abode in Egypt was according to this computation Saint Paul first taught this high point of Chronology where and how the account must begin namely at the time when the promise was made to Abraham for the Law was foure hundred and thirty yeeres after Gal. 3. 16 17. God bidding Abraham get out of his owne countrey c. Gen. 12. 1. makes a Covenant with him ver 2. 3. and Abraham was then seventy five yeeres old ver 4. Isaac is borne twenty five yeeres after Gen. 21. 5. Iacobs birth is sixty yeeres after that Gen. 25. 26. Iacob was one hundred and thirty yeeres old when hee went downe into Egypt Gen. 47. 28. which together make two hundred and fifteen yeeres and two hundred and fifteen yeeres after they came all out of Egypt for when the foure hundred and thirty yeeres were expired even the selfe same day departed all the Hosts of the Lord out of the land of Egypt Exod. 12. 41. The computation of Suidas in the margent is consonant hereunto and how these seventy in the space of two hundred fifteen yeers did encrease is next to be declared which is also plainly expressed ver 37. They tooke their journey from Rameses to Succoth about six hundred thousand men
on foot beside children so great a multiplication of so few in so short a time may easily convince the possibility of a far greater augmentation from a beginning so vastly different and the continuance so much surmounting The Spaniards first comming into America was about the yeere one thousand foure hundred and ninety the great dispersion of the Jewes immediately after our Saviours death at the destruction of Ierusalem was more then fourteen hundred yeeres before and their former importation into the City of the Medes was seven hundred and fourty yeeres before that if therefore upon either of the scatterings of that Nation two thousand or fourteen hundred yeeres or lesse then either number be allowed for the encrease of those that were very many before such multitudes will not be miraculous besides in all that time no forraign power did breake in among them there were thence no transplantations of Colonies no warres did eate up the inhabitants but such light battailes as they were able to manage among themselves in all that long time they did encrease and multiply without any extraordinary diminution till that incredible havocke which was made by the Spanish invasions and cruelties CHAP. IV. Answer to the third Quaere about their becomming so barbarous IF such a passage through Tartary or some other Countrey for them were granted and the probability of so numerous multiplication acknowledged the perswasion will not yet be easie that Jewes should ever become so barbarous horrid and inhumane as bookes generally relate of these Americans Villagagno writing of the Brasilians to Master Calvin speakes as if he had bin uncertaine at first whether he were come among beasts in an humane shape so stupid he found them and sottish beyond imagination But here every reader may take occasion to bemoane the woefull condition of mankinde and into what rude grosse and unmanlike barbarities we runne headlong if the goodnesse of God prevent us not Wee marvaile at the Americans for their nakednesse and man-devouring we cannot believe the Jewes should be given over to such barbarity But in our own Nation the Inhabitants were anciently as rude and horrid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Herodian the Britons knew not the use of apparell lest their cloathing should hide the severall formes and figures of beasts and other creatures which they paint and imprint upon their bodies and Hierome saith when he was a young man he saw the Scots Gentem Britannicam humanis vesci carnibus and that even here of old were Anthropophagi is averred by Diodorus Siculus and Strabo And to what hath bin said of the Jewes formerly shall here be added It seemes strange to us if they be Jewes they should forget their religion and be so odiously idolatrous although after so many yeeres but if the Scripture had not spoken it could it have bin believed of this very people that they should fall so often into such foule offences as if circumstances be considered have no parallell Israel when but newly delivered out of Egypt by many signes and wonders with severall evident and miraculous impressions of Gods Majesty and power yet in six moneths space all is forgotten they make unto themselves a God of their owne attributing unto it all their deliverance and say These be thy Gods O Israrael which brought thee out of the land of Egypt Exod. 32. 4. which base Idoll of theirs had not it s nothing till they were all come out safe thence who can sufficiently wonder that those very people who saw and heard those terrible things mentioned Exod. 19 20. which forced them to say but a while before to Moses Talke thou with us and wee will heare but let not God talke with us least wee die Exod. 20. 19. Yea God himselfe seems to admire at this and for this to disowne them telling Moses Thy people which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt they are soon turned out of the way c. Exod. 32. 8. It may seeme past beliefe any of Iacobs race should be so unnaturall as to devoure one another as is frequent among these Indians and would it not bee as much beyond credit if the Scripture of truth Dan. 10. 21. had not asserted it that these sonnes of Iacob in former times when they had Priests and Prophets among them and the remembrance of Gods justice and mercy was fresh in their minds That they should then offer their sonnes and daughters unto devills Psal 106. 36. as they did in the valley of Hinnom 2 King 23. 10. smiting on the Tabrets while their children were burning that their cry could not be heard t is not impossible therefore that the Jews should be againe overwhelmed with such savagenesses and inhumanity nor improbable neither if to what hath bin said three other things be added 1. The threats of God against them upon their disobedience Deut. 28. where be words and curses sufficient to portend the greatest calamity that can be conceived to fall upon the nature of man as hath already bin in severall things declared and M. Paris so answers the objection that the Tartars are not Jewish because they know nothing of Moses Law nor righteousnesse c. If when Moses was alive saith he they were so stubborne and rebellious and went after other Gods they may be now much more prodigiously wicked even as these Americans being unknowne to other people confounded also in their language and life and God so revenging their abominations 2. The ten Tribes in their owne land were become extreamely barbarous renouncing all almost they had received from Moses Ezek. 36. 17. 2 King 17. their captivity is mentioned and the sinfull cause thereof more then abominable Idolatries and they were not onely guilty of wicked but even of witlesse impieties God forbad them to walke after the customes of the Nations Deut. 4. 8. and yet as the Heathen in all their Cities they built high places making Images and groves upon every high hill and under every green tree and made their sonnes and daughters to passe through the fire using witchcraft and enchantment c. 2 King 17. 8 9. This was their religion and wisdome while they were in their own Countrey and they were no better in the land of their captivity for it may be they had not there the books of the Law nor any Prophets among them because t is said againe and againe They left the commandments of their God And if it seeme unlikely that the Jewes being in America should lose the Bible the Law and ceremonies then let the Prophesie of Hosea be remembred where t is foretold that the children of Israel shall remaine many daies without a King and without a Prince and without a Sacrifice and without an Ephod and without a Teraphim Hose 3. 4. Yea and before that time there was a lamentable defection of religion in Israell While they were in their owne land for a long season they were
without the true God and without a reading Priest and without Law 2 Chron. 15. 3. yea and as Chrysostome affirmes that the Book of Deuteronomy had been lost along time among Christians and was lately recovered from dust and rubbish a little before his daies so t is most certaine that in Iosiahs reigne Hilkiah the Priest found the Booke of the Law in the House of the Lord which when the King heard read unto him hee was astonisht as at a new and strange thing and rent his clothes 2 King 22. 8. c. and this was the Booke of the law of the Lord given by Moses 2 Chro. 34. 14. which was then little knowne or regarded among them ver 24 25. c. But thirdly the stupor and dulnesse of Israell was even admirable when our Saviour came into the world for they give no credit to their owne Prophets read in their Synagogues every Sabbath the Shepherds publish what they received from the Angells concerning Christ Luk. 2. 17. Simeon proclaimes glorious things of Jesus and they will not heare ver 25. Wise men came from the East to Ierusalem enquiring and discoursing but still they apprehend not yea they shut their eyes against all the marvailes that Christ performed among them such as would have convinced not onely Tyre and Sidon but even Sodome and Gomorrha the heavenly Sermons of the Sonne of God wrought upon stones harlots publicans and sinners but those Jewes remaine inflexible against all and at his death they still continue seared and stupified the veile of the Temple is rent the earth did quake the stones were cloven asunder and the graves did open but their hearts are shut up still yea and at his resurrection there was a great earthquake the Angel of the Lord comes downe from heaven his countenance is like lightning for fear of him the keepers become as dead men Christ riseth againe in glory and the watch shew the High Priests all these things they are hereupon convinced but they will not b◠convinced for they take counsell together and with mony hire the souldiers to say the disciples stole away his body while they slept if it be therefore well considered of what dark darkned condition the Israelites were in these times how many yeeres have passed since what meanes they have had to increase their rudenesse and incivility and irreligion no way commerce or means left to reclaime them it will not seem so strange if they be wholly barbarous seeing also the vengeance of God lies hard and heavy upon them for their injustice done to his Sonne nam crucifixerunt salvatorem suum fecerunt damnatorem suum saith St. Austin they crucified their Saviour and made him their enemy and avenger It is no marvaile then supposing the Americans to be Jewes that there be so few mentionings of Judaicall rites and righteousnesse among them it may be and is a wonderfull thing rather that any footstep or similitude of Judaisme should remaine after so many ages of great iniquity with most just divine displeasure therupon and no possibility yet discerned how they should recover but manifest necessities almost of praecipitation into further ignorance grossenesse and impiety the losse of which their customes and ceremonies in so great a measure in time may prove advantagious towards their conversion seeing they cannot be obstinate maintainers of Mosaicall Ordinances the love and liking whereof and adhesion to them was ever a prevailing obstacle to the knowing Jewes and that is a consideration tending directly to the last part and particular and will helpe I trust to encourage us who are already desirous not to civilize onely the Americanes 〈◊〉 even to Gospellize and make them Christian Part Third Humble desires to all for hearty endeavours in all to acquaint the Natives with Christianity CHAP. I. To the Planters and touching the cause of their removall hence THis discourse will be directed to the English planted there and our selves at home concerning the former three or foure things may be minded 1. Cause of their removall 2. Hope of the Natives conversion 3. Directions to it 4. Cautions and some other additions Deep considerations without doubt and mature were in those that hence transplanted themselves into that other part of the world but quo jure by what right and title they could settle in a forraigne land was surely none of their last enquiries Io. Bodin reckons five reasons why Colonies may be planted in other Regions 1. Expulsion from their own native Countrey 2. Increase of inhabitants upon a land 3. Want of necessaries at home and unseasonable times 4. Desire to preserve and enlarge their owne territories 5. Favour to prisoners and captives The ampliation of the Kingdome of Christ was expected here as a motive in vaine but I finde it elsewhere among our Novangles and it shall be mentioned in due place for those are causes why men goe out of their owne land but for the jus and right of setling in another they say nothing When the Bishop De las Casas had set forth his tract of the Spanish cruelties committed in the Indies some guilty persons he supposeth suborned Doctor Sepulveda the Emperours Historian to undertake their patronage which he did in an elegant and rhetoricall discourse endeavouring to prove that the Spanish wars against the Indians were just and lawfull and that they were bound to submit unto the Spaniards as Ideots to the more prudent but he could not obtaine leave to print a booke so irrationall and unchristian Their more plausible plea is that Columbus was first employed by them to discover some of those parts but the same offer was before tendred to this our Nation and the King thereof yea and the English were as early in that very designe as the Portingales for our Chronicles shew that Sebastian Gabat or Cabot borne at Bristol was employed by King Henry the seventh and he with some London Merchants adventured three or foure ships into those New-found lands Anno one thousand foure hundred ninety eight and it cannot be doubted but they had made some former sufficient experiments before that their so confident engagement Thence t is affirmed by others that the English were there before Columbus and about the yeere one thousand five hundred and two three of those Natives were brought unto the King they were cloathed in beasts skinnes did eate raw flesh spake a language none could understand two of those men were seen at the Court at Westminster two yeeres after cloathed like Englishmen But wee of this Nation have yet a more ancient claime three hundred yeeres before Columbus in the time of Henry the second Anno Dom. one thousand one hundred and seventy when Madoc ap Owen Gwineth did not onely discover the Countrey but planted in some part of Mexico and left Monuments of the Brittish language and other usages taken notice of by the Spaniands since their arrivall thither Mr. Herbert in his