they did acknowledge even then when the whole World drencht in the Sea of Idolatry was ignorant of the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth then began they to wax proud haughty and puâ—t up counting the Nations as dung and with a supercilious sore-front boasting themselves to be the hâ—â—ly and elect people of God the Law of God and Circumcision being the main pillars of this their ostentation And seeing they at that time actually possessed the Land of Promise offered their Sacrifices the sum of their wants must be a glorying in their City Temple Sacrifice and other kinds of worshâ—p for which if any one dare manage a reproof objecting that they are not the children of Abraham because God shall prosligate and destroy them because their hearts and ears are uncircumcised and God shall again scatter them among the Gentiles he shall upon the very instant be cauterized for a false Prohet and a Liar and destinated to the stake for bearing witnesse unto the truth Neither did they here put a period to their madness they stand firm in their foolish opinions imbracing the Covenant according to its outside the Law according to the letter the ceremonies oblations and sacrifices in their naked representation provoking not only the Prophets but God himself never regarding whether or no any true knowledge fear or reverence of his Majesty was implanted in their hearts For the attempting of these enormities the Lord conceives heavy displeasure against Israel terms them a sinfull Nation laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters which had forsaken the Lord and provoked the holy one in Israel and gone away backward whose hearts were obstinate their neck an iron sinew and their brow brasse Transgressors from their Mothers womb whose birth and nativity is the Land of Canaan their Father an Amorite and their Mother a Hittite a people rejected and accursed as Moses witnesseth He threatens them to baniâ—h them out of their own Land and to carry them into a Land which neither they nor their Fathers had known there also that they shall tast of his fury be slaves to their enemies and to make their City and Temple in which they so much rejoyced like unto Shiloe Lastly speaking to Esay the Prophet he saith Make the heart of this peole fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyespuch and heare with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed After the same manner God denounceth against them by Moses saying it shall come to passe that if thou wilt not hearken unto the voyce of the lord thy God to observe to do all his Commandements and his Statutes which l command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee The Lord shall sinite thee with madness and blindnesse of heart Thou shalt grope at noon day as the blind gropeth in darkness and thou shalt not prosPer in thy wayes thou shalt be only oppressed and spoyled evermore and none shall save thee The fundamental then and prime cause of the blindness and obstinacy of the Jews is the just judgement of God upon them for their sins and the punishment due unto the same which came upon them because they heaRkened not unto his voice worshipping him with their mouth and with their lips drawing near unto him but in their hearts being far from him their service towards him consisting only in the commandements of of men as the Prophet Esay complains By which we may perceive that they soon left off to trace the way of Gods Commandements setling themselves upon their own carnal wisdome upon the sublime perspicuity of their Doctors who after Ezra were called Scribes as upon a new foundation accounting Their Expositions Ordinances Laws and Institutions to be of far more worth then the Doctrine of the Prophets against which the Prophets oftentimes declaimed but to little purpose What these Commandements are which they esteem more then the word of God our Saviour Christ teacheth us in the new Testament when the Jewes reprehend him that his Disciples walked not according to the tradition of the Elders which were of washing hands cups pots brazen vessels and tables and innumerable fopperies of the same sort by which they make the word of God of none effect but only strive to fulfill the inventions of their Ancestors Now in the last place seeing these their Traditions which Christ pointed out unto us are at this day accurately kept and observed of the Jews seriously also described in their Cannon La. and celesiastical and moral constitutions part of which I have decreed to lay open in the following discourse I think it here convenient to search out the grounds and reasons which might thâ—n and at this day doth induce them to prefer the Ordinances of men before Gods Commondements casting them headlong into the darkness of Superstitlon so blinding their understanding that they cannot possibly find out the trUe meaning of the holy Scripture We read in the Preface of that learned man Rabbi Mosche Mikkotzi called Hakdamah who writ a Book and Exposition upon three hundred and thirteen of Gods Commandements which he entituled Sepher mitzuos gadol that is the great Book of the Commandements in the year of Christ 1236. and published it at Toledo in Spain where the Jewes then had a most flourishing Schoole the Students therein being in number twelve thousands as he witnesseth in his hundred and twelfth Prohibitory precept that the written Law which God delivered unto Moses in Mount Sinai is obscure and difficult first because it contradicts is selfe Secondly because it is imperfect and therefore all things necessary to be known are not there set down wherupon it is needful some certain Exposition should be framed by whose pluÌ„met every one might dive into the genuine sence of the written Law grouÌ„ d theron as a firm foundation That the Law of Moses contradicts it selfe there are many instances We read Exod. 12. 15. For sevean dayes thou shalt eat unleavened bread but Deut. 16. 8. Six dayes thou shalt eat unleavened bread againe vers 9. Seven weeks thou shalt number unto thee which make only forty nine days but in the 23. of Leviticus and the 16. it is read Vnto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty dayes In the 16. of Deuteronomy vers 2. it is said Thou shalt sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord of the Flock and of the Heard contrary to this â—xod 12. 5. Your Lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year you shall take out from the sheep or from the Goats Again Deut. 15. 19. All the firstling males that come of thy Heard and of thy Flock thou shalt sanctifie unto the Lord thy God but in the 27. of Leviticus vers 26. The firstling of the Beasts which should be the Lords firstling no man shall
by them blessed and consecrated At length thanks being given the cups are filled the fourth time and the good man of the house taking his cup into his hands saith poure out thy wrath upon the Gentiles and upon the Kingdomes that have not knowne thy name poure out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathfull displeasure take hold on them In the mean time one running to the doore unlocks it and sets it open thereby willing to shew their great security In this saying they curse all people which are not of Israel more especially the Christians hoping that Elias will come that very night and declare unto them the comming of their Saviour and deliverer the Messias as they also brag and boast in that prayer called Azrob nissim their reason is because all those famous deliverances so full of wonder which God wrought for the Patriarches Prophets and people of Israel hapned as upon this night They pray therefore that God would come againe and deliver them out of this their calamity and punish the Christians in the same manner that he did the Egyptians Hence it comes to pâ—sse that so soone as the gates are opened and the execeration is pronounced one of the houshold invested with a white linnen garment runs into the nurâ—ery that the infants may thinke that Elias is come indeed and is about to take vengean e on the Christians For a conclusion of all the Master of the family saies certaine table-prayers at the period of the supper which he closeth up in this manner Almighty God build againe thy Temple and that shortly very quickly in these our daies very quickly now build againe and that shortly thy holy Temple Omercifull God O great God O bountifull God O thou God that art highly exalted O beautifull God O sweet God O vertuous God O God of the Jewes now build up thy Temple very quickly and with great expedition in these our dayes very quickly very quickly now build up now build up now build up now build now build up thy Temple quickly O strong and powerfull God living God mighty God O God worthy of all honour O God of meeknesse O eternall God a God that art to be feared O God of comelinesse God of majesty God of infinite riches God of surpassing beauty O faithfull God now build up thy Temple shortly very quickly very quickly in these our daies shortly very quickly now build up now build up now build up now build up now build up thy Temple speedily The Orizons ended they betake themselves to rest and sleep in great security for they perswade themselves that this night neither man nor devil can approach to doe them any hurt This night is called in the second book of Moses and the 12 Chapter Lel Schemarim the night of observation or preservation Hereup on their minds being fraughted with such a conceit they abandon feare leave open their gates and doors all the night over to give an entrance to Elias the Prophet who as they assure themselves will come and deliver them out of this their misery Thus the poor blirdfolded Jewes trouble and vex themselves with this their vaine pompe and pompous vanity for two nights together instead of that paschall lambe which they ought to have eaten using no other ceremonies then Moses in the institution thereof hath described It being the position of their Rabbines that it was not required at their hands after the destruction of their City and Temple to Kill and eat the paschall lambe according to the ceremonial prescription of Meses and that they are not tyed to observe these or any others by him enjoined unlesse they were in the promised land of Canaan which land alone is to be accounted pure and holy all others defiled and profane Now from these premises every one may infer thus much that seeing the Jewes have not srom that time wherein the true paschall lambe Christ Jesus was offered eaten the posseover in any place according to the right prescription and also seeing the Jewes at this day so journing in Jerusalem and the land of Canaan do not eat the paschall lamb in the manner that they ought neither doe they offer any sacrifice it must necessarily follow that there is some other cause why their sacrifices are ceased and all other their Mosaicall Rites and Ceremonies are abrogated which certainly they might have found out in the space of 1631 yeares had they not been smitten with blindnesse from above So that now we may say with the Prophet David This their may uttereth foolishnesse yet their posterity delight in their talke But my people would not hear my voice and Israel would have none of me so I gave them up to their owne hearts lusts and they have walked in their counsels The Rabbines establish this their opinion out of the words following Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passeover unto the Lord thy God of the flocke and the herd in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there Now seeing God enjoins them according to their ordinary glosse that they should not celebrate this Feast in any other place but in the promised land they doe inferre that now being dispersed among the Nations they are not lyable to the observation of the same But the true sence of the words is this That when God had put a period to Israels captivity and brought them into the land of promise the land of Canaan and having given unto them a setled kind of regiment a City and a Temple in which it pleased him to place his name then they should repaire to Jerusalem to eate the pasâ—hall lambe for the better preservation of the unity of faith among them as to the Metropolis and chiefe City of Israel But when the scepter was in a manner taken â—rom them by reason of inâ—essâ—nt wâ—â—rs and tumults so that they could not come unto Jerusalem then did every family kill and eate the passeover in their owne gates as it is recorded in the second book of Kings And so soon as they were delivered out of these their troubles they celebrated the said Feast againe in the place appointed with great solemnity and rejoicing as good Josial is recorded to have done in the sore-cited place Now that for the space of 1631 yeares they could not kill nor eat the paschall lambeâ— right none must seeke for another cause then that of the departure of the Scepter from Juda the desolation of Jerusalem and their long continued exile For why did not Jerusalem remain unto this day why is not the Temple built againe The sacrifices and ceremonies delivered by Moses why are they not re-established The Jewes cannot see the reason hereof because Moses his vaile is as yet before their eies It was formerly mentioned that the Jewes at the supper of the paschall Lambe use to carouse foure cups of wine two before supper two after which foure consecrated cups every one
long as the oake or other of that kinde for saith the lord as the dayes of a tree are the dayes of my people and my elect shall long enioy the works of their hands and againe there shall be no more thence an infant of dayes nor an old man that hath not filled his dayes for the child shall die an hundred yeares old bnt the Sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed which is as much as to say if any die at an hundred years of age it shall be said of him that he died as a little infant or in his infancy for at that time the years of life of the Israelites shall be equal to them of the fathers from Adam to Noah as Abenezra comments upon the place The ninth is that God shall so clearly manifest himself to the Israelites that they shall see him face to face As it is recorded The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see together because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Yea all the Lords people shall be Prophets as it is written It shall come to pass afterward that I will powr out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams your yong men shall see visions The last degree of comfort is that God shall quite root out of them all imbred lusts and inclinations unto evil as it is written A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh Hitherto we have delivered what we promised out of the book called Abhkas râ—chel in which though it be summarily set down what the Jews beleeve concerning their Messias as also the manner how he is to bring them back to Jerusalem yet I think not impertinent in this place a litle more largely to declare with what solemnities their Messias shal give them intertainement in their own land and with what happiness and felicitie they shall lead their lives under him When then the Messias hath gathered all the Jews together out of all the nations under heaven and from the foure winds of the earth and hath brought them unto the land of Canaan flowing with milk and hony then shall he cause to be prepared a sumptuous and delicate banquet inviting and friendly welcoming unto it all the Jews with great pomp and joy inexpressible At this banquet shall be dished up and served in the greatest beastes fishes and fouls that ever God created The worst wine that they shall drink shall be that whose grape had its growth in paradise and hath been barrel'd up and reserved in Adams Cellar unto that time The first dish in this feast shall be that huge oxe described in the book of Job to be of such great strength and magnitude named Behemoth This the Rabbines affirme to be the same oxe whereof David makes mention in his 50 Psalm and 10 verse All the beasts of the forrest are mine and the cattel Behemoth feeding on a thousand hills that is to say which every day eateth up the grass of a thousand hils But a man will aske what at length would have become of this oxe if he had lived so long seeing he had long since eaten up all his fodder The Rabbines learnedly answer that this oxe is stall-fed and remains always in the same place and that whatsoever he eateth on the day grows again upon the night in the same length and forme The second dish adorning the table shall be that vast whale Leviathan according to the Jewish tone Pronounced Lipiasan who is also described in the book of Job and mentioned in other places of holy writ Concerning these two beasts there hath bin handsomly compiled this tradition by the wit and ingenuity of the solid pated Rabbins in their Talmud it runs thus Rabbi Jehudah saith that what thing soever God created in the world he created it male and female and that without all doubt for he created the Leviathan yet least the he and she Leviathan by engendring should augment the number and at length by there monstrous magnitude and multitude destroy the whole world God gelded the male and killed the female reserving her in pickle to be meat for them that are just in Judah and feared him in the dayes of the Messias as it is written In that day will the lord with a sore and great and strong sword punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan that crooked serpent and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea In the same manner he created that great ox called Behemoth feeding on a thousand hils male and female yet lest by multiplying they might fill and destroy the earth he gelded the male and killed the female reserving it for the Jewes diet in time to come as it is written Loe now his strength is in his loynes and his force in the navell of his belly he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him The third dish in this banquet as Elias Levita in his dictionarie named Tesbi out of the Rabbins reports shall be that horrible huge bird called Barinchue which killed and unboweld shall then be rosted Concerning this bird it is written in the Talmud she cast an Egge out of her nest by whose fall three hundred tall Cedars were broken down and the Egge breaking in the full drowned three score villages By this relation it is easie to conceive this bird to have been little inferiour in greatnes to the forementioned oxe and fish whence we may also collect how glorious a dish the Messias is to make of it for his guests and when there are many such birds Guls I think found in the land of Judah none ought to think that which is reported of this to be fabulous In the forementioned book of the Talmud we read of a certain great crow which was seen of a Rabbine worthy to be credited The relation runs thus Rabbi barchannah saith At a certain time I saw a frog which is as great as the village Akra in Hagronia well how big was the village It consisted of no fewer then threescore houses Then came a mighty serpent and swallowed up this frog Instantly upon this a great crow flying that way picked up as a small morsel both the frog and the serpent and taking him to flight sat upon a Tree now think with your selves how great and strong this tree must be To which Rabbi papa the son of Samuel making answer unless I had been in the place and with these mine eyes seen the very tree I would not have beleeved it Thus much the Talmudist Who dare give the lie to this Rabbine When that good man Kimchi commenting on the fifty Psalm and explaining the word Ziz hath there witnessed that Rabbi
consequence that he is not to be worshipped for this is due to God alone as the fifth Article affirmeth and God is only a Searcher of the hearts and so was not Christ as in the 11. Article In the same manner the 6 7 8 9. Articles are placed in a diametrical opposition to the Doctrine of Christ and the whole Gospel intimating that Christ was no true Prophet nor Teacher sent from Heaven because his Doctrine was not delivered unto him out of Gods own mouth as it was to Moses and that therefore our Saviour spake many things against the Law in his sayings to the People yea was not afraid to alter many parcels thereof which ought to have remained unchangeable Furthermore if it be true that man for the integrity of his life and tracing the way of Gods Commandements as also for his owne good deeds can merit life eternal and on the contrary for his evil works and ungodliness becOms the Heir of everlasting torments in what respect I pray thee doth the passion and death of Christ any whit availe us The wheele of time hath not travised many minutes since a certaine Jew did not blush to affirm to my face that he needed not any to satisfie for his sin that it is meet every Fox should give his own skin to the Currier to be pulled off and to suffer his own hairs to be plucked out at his pleasure The tenth Article therefore whereby we professe Christ to be our Redeemer is contrary to this assertion Besides this Rambam the rest of the Jewish Nation who had any knowledge of letters in all their Books and Writings have no other scope but to make the faith of a Christian the object of suspicion and contempt Amongst whom Rabbi Joseph Alba a Spaniard challengeth the first place who writ a little Book in the yeare of Christ 1425. entituled Sepher ikkarim in which he stoutly maintains the Jewish Creed for Orthodox and sends out at randome the fiery darts of a fiery disputation against that of the Christians His Arguments are grounded upon the main Principles of the Jewish belief First upon the unity of God Essence and hence he denies the Trinity as also the Godhead of Christ Secondly upon the Law of Moses which was delivered from heaven unto him by God himself with his own mouth whence he rejects the Doctrine of Christ and the New Testament consequently intimating that Christ was a false Prophet and not the Messias hence the main of the strife and Controversies between us and the lews lieth in these two points to wit that of the Trinity and this concerning Christs person Thirdly he establisheth his Positions upon the eternal reward of good works and the endlesse punishment of evil hence despising the death and passion of our Saviour which he underwent for the sins of mankind Of the same grain is that obscene and abominable Book entituled Nitzachon written by Rabbi Sipman whose lines are such that without all doubt he committed this Book to writing in the year of Christ 1459. as it was delivered unto him from the Devils own mouth This piece he composed to falsifie the four Evangelists out of which Sebastian Munster my Predecessour and Professour of the holy tongue in this University transcribed many parcels and confuted them in his Commentary upon Saint Matthews Gospel When therefore the hard hearted and hoodwinckt Jews did with might and main indeavour to denie the faith of Christians and to brand it with falshood they shipwrackt upon the Rocks of Superstition and that in such a measure that they utterly did disanull their faith in God neither have they any knowledge to believe aright although they proudly boast of a firm and perfect faith towards God the Creatour of heaven and earth who is one in Essence from Eternity and without end yet such a faith can never be gâ—aced with the Title of the true belief when as they know not God in whom so audaciously they pretend a confidence after that manner as he hath manifested himself in his word Now the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets declare unto us the same God that the New Testament propounds though more darkly shewing that there is a Trinity in uniTy And an unity in Trinity to wit God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost yet the Jews hot without great scandal denying this Attribute to the Creatâ—ur of heaven and earth it necessarily follows that they place no belief in the true God but rather by a stupid ignorance of him and his Essence become the very emblemes of Idolatry In that they affirm that whatsoever Moses or any other of the Prophets commit to writing was altogether orthodox and that their Text is neither to be augmented or diminished that Moses was a great and famous Prophet is an established truth yet we doubt not but their understanding was subject to a monstrous depravation in this their assertion For first of all they do not onely not believe what is written in Moses and the Prophets to be true but also do prefer the Expositions of their wise men and Rabbines upon the Law and other parcels of holy Writ before Moses and the Prophets yea they esteem more of the word of a Rabbine than of Moses furthermore they account the Traditions Statues and Ordinances not as additions to the Law but for the very Law it self which Moses received from the mouth of God and taught unto others yet did not put it in writing lest the Gentiles learning it also might put it in execution for without this Declaration Moses his Law can neither be understood nor performed as we shall more at large hereafter manifest That they perswade themselves that the Law was given with this condition that nothing of it should at any time be changed they grossely mistake the Ceremoniall Law signified Christ to come which whenby his incarnation he had fulfilled shortly after the holy Temple must kisse the ground and embrace the dust the City Jerusalem and the holy things are utterly destroyed the Jews banished their own Land and dispersed among the Gentiles that at last they might understand the time already come wherein there should be but one Shepherd and one Sheepfold and that seeing the Gentiles were entered into Communion with them in belief in God the Omnipotent Creatour of heaven and earth that they were also made partakers of the treasures of the Divine word and first delivered to the Jews Likewise their error is inexcusable in making Moses the greatest Prophet thence striving to annihilate the worth of our Saviour as one who is not worthy to loose the latchet of his Shooe but blasphemously terming him a lying Doctor Experience doth convince that in this thing many of the Jewes have the lie cast in their teeth by their own convicting conscience They believe aright that in Moses and other Prophets the Messias was promised but herein their understanding is miserably perverted that they yielding to
credit that he is come so many years agoe are altogether ignorant for what end and purpose and in what degree his â—comming should be beneficial unto them for all that they expect is only this that he like another Moses and Aaron should deliver them from a terrestrial and corporal bondage and again bring them into their own land and to this end only that they might no longer drink the Wine of bitternesse among the Gentiles but be fed with milk and honey in the Land of Canaan They never dream of a deliverance from the spiritual captivity of sin for they perswade themselves that by pennance done in their own flesh they can satisfie for their own sin and by keeping of Gods Comâ—andements and their own good works merit eternal life In the 11. Article of their Belief they believe that whosoever doth many good works shall obtain a great reward in the world to come It is read in their Talmud All Israel shall have part in the world to come as it is written All thy People shall be righteous they shall receive the earth for an inheritance for ever the branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified Yet neverthelesse they shall not all share a like He that hath done many good deeds shall have a greater portion The wicked which never repented them of their sins shal be tormented in Hell or purgatory for the space of twelve months and after that shall have a portion in life everlasting but not so excellent as that of the just They who utterly deny God and profane his holy Name of which number are all those that turn to Christianity their foreskin shall grow again which done they shall the second time be circumcised as though they never had beene Jewes and shall remaine in Hell for ever The Son superviving his deceased Father is bound for a whole year to say a little Prayer called kaddisch for by the repetition of this Prayer he shall deliver his dead Father out of Purgatory such an one gives up the Ghost with great joy and incouragement knowing that he shall be delivered out of Hell by the Prayers of his Son left behind him After the same manner a honest woman may redeem her Husband But sometimes it so falleth out that the Husband â—and Wife are not equal in honesty and therefore it should seem that in the world to come the one should attain to a greater degree of happiness then the other here the Lord out of his mercy gives them both entrance together Briefly the whole nation of the Jews shal be partakers of life eternal and shal all ascend into Heaven but one shal be more glorious then another Even as a King or Duke coming into some great City he all his followers have entertainmet but in a different fashion so shall it be with the Jews in the world to come In the Article of the Resurrection of the Dead they themselves are dead for first they say it shall come to passe that only the Israelites shal be raised to life but the Christian and all other prople shall perpetually sleep in the dust Hence Rabbi ` Bechai in his Book intituâ—ed Kadhakkemach saith The Jewes have a four-fold honour and priviledge above other Nations which are these the Land of Canaan the Law the Prophets and the resurrection from the dead All these he repeats and proves in particular in hisâ— Exposition of the 18. and 33. chapters of the fiâ—t Book of Moses For the confirmation of the last priviledge he brin'gs amongst other the testimony of Isay prophecying of the Christians and other people They are dead they shall not live They are dead they shall not rise And of the Israelites Thy dead men shall live with my dead body they shall arise awake and sing you that dwell in the dust because your dew is as the dew of herbs and the Earth shal castâ— out her dead The same Rabbine out of the Talmud delivers thus much that at the great day of judgement three kinds of dead men are to arise the first of the most righteous Israelites the second of the most unrighteous and ungodly the third of a middle sort who did as much good as evil The good shall go into life everlasting the wicked into Hell and fire eternal as it is written Many of them that lie and sleep in the Dust shall arise same to everlasting life some to shame and everlasting contempt From hence sAith the Rabbine we may infer that even the wicked ones in Israel shall be co-partners in the resurrection yet shall this redound to their disadvantage seeing both body and soule shall together in Hell suffer never ceasing torments They of the middle sort shall be tortured for theirs in s in purgatory only the space of twelve months which time expired their bodies shall be consumed and a blustering wind shall scatter their ashes under the feet of the just The Talmudist proves this out of the 13. Chapter of Zachary the 8. and 9. verses for there is written It shall come to passethat in all the land saith the Lord two parts therein shal be cut off and die but the third part shall be left therein And I will bring the third part through the fire and refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold it tried and they shall call upon my Name and I will hear them I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God And to the same purpose it is spoken 1. Sam. 2. 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth downe to the grave and bringeth up R. David Kimchi upon the first Psalm saith that the wicked shall not rise again but their souls shall perish together with their bodies in the day of death and in the same sence that a Resurrection only belongs to the just and godly in his Commentary upon the 26 chapter of the Prophecy of Esay Rabbi Saadiah upon the former words of the Prophet Daniel saith that the term many designs a certain number and there fore to be restringed to the godly in Israel who alone have a portion in life eternal Them that do not watch he ranks in their number who have forsaken the Lord and tâ—rned Apostates who for this very thing must be thrust into the lowest Chambers of the infernal pit there for ever to be the Emblems of ignominy To him assent Rabbi Higgaon and Aben Ezra in his Book Perusch or Exposition upon the fore-cited place of Daniel commenting that as many are to watch so many shall not watch the watchâ—men shall have life eternal they that do not watch never dying reproach The sense of the words in my judgement saith Aben Ezra is this that so many upright Jewes that pay their debts to nature in the Land of their captivity shall rise again and live when the Messias or Deliverer shall come for of
them speaks the Scriptue As the dayes of a Tree so shall be the dayes of my people that is as the Tree of life as the Chaldee renders it or as a Tree which indures for some hundreds of yeares doth not perish so my people shall remain for they who shall have a part in the resurrection at the comming of the Messias shall be so long lived as the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah So much Aben Ezra upon the place At that time they shall cherish and make themselves merry feasting their carkasses with that great fish Leviathan that huge bird Ziz and that monstrous Oxe Behemoth of which more particularly hereafter After this their jollity death the second time arrests them furnishing them with beds to sleep in till the last resurrection when they shall have an entrance into life eternal where they shall neither hunger nor thirst but be ever satiated with the beatifical vision of Gods glory and brightnesse In the first Book of Moses the 47. Chap. it is recorded of Jacob that when the time of his departure out of this Vale of tears approached he called his Sonne Joseph and entreated him not to bury him in Egypt but with his Fathers in the Land of Canaan Rabbi Salomon Jarchi upon these words saith that Jacob for three reasons would not be buried in the Land of Egypt The first was because he foresaw by the Spirit of Prophesie that in time to come store of lice should molest the Land of Egypt The second because the Israelites who died without the bounds of Canan could not rise again without a great deal of trouble being to be hurried into the â—andâ— of Promise by the hidden and deep vauâ—ts of the earth The third lest the Egyptians very prone unto Idolatry might make him the Idol which they would adore For the better understanding of this I mean here to insert what ever is written concerning it in the book called Tanchum which is an Exposition of the Law of Moles Rabbi Chelbo makes it a main question why the Patriarchs had so great a desire to be buried in the Land of Canan he gives himself a solution saying that they who shall dye in the â—andâ— of Promise shall riâ—s e first at the coming of the Messias Rabbi Hananiah confirms it and saith that whosoever dying is intombed in a strange Land shall dye a twofold death which is manifest out of the 26. chapter of Jeremy and the 6. verse where it is registred Thou Pashur and all thy family shall go into captivity thou shalt go to Babel there shalt thou dye and there be buried Hereupon Rabbi Simeon objects that that granted it must necessarily follow that all the Tzaddikim or just men should perish who were not interred in the Land of Canaan The answer is that God shall make certain caves and profound vaults in the earth by which they shall Be brought into the land of promise at their arâ—â—vall there God shall breath into them the breath of life and give them a share in the Resurrection as it is written I Will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the Land of Israel Rabbi Simeon Ben Levi saith that the Scripture speaketh expresly that God shall restore the Jews to Life upon the very instant of their return into their own Land the place he quoteth is Isa 12. v. 5. Thus saith the Lord God he that created the heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein This is to be understood of them that shall be carried to Sion through the caves of the earth That also which is read in the Chaldee Targum upon the Canticles ought to be referred to this voâ—ntation the words are these Salomon the Prophet saith that when the dead shall arise the Mount Olivet shall cleave in the middle and all the Israelites who formerly departed this life shall issue out of it the just also who died in banishment prison or a strange Land being conveyed hither by hidden passages in the earth shall also apPear From hence we may easily conclude how beliooveful the Jews think it to return into their own Land and there be buried and so escape the turmoyle and trouble of so long a journey under so many deep rivers and rugged mountains and for this very end as I have heard out of the Jews own mouth many of their rich ones return into the Land of Canaan at this day This is that perfect firm and well grounded faith of the Jews in which they obstinately persevering make it the rock of their salvation though with great anxiety and despair Here we may see what they give to Moses and the rest of the Prophets and also what use these miserable men make of the holy Scriptures Such as their faith is such are also their works which they would seem to shape according to the strict rule of Gods commandements There profound Rabbins perswade this simple people the Jews that they of the Circumcision are Gods own chosen people who may easily fulfill not onely the morall Law comprehended in the Decalogue but the whole Law of Moses They divide the Law of Moses into six hundred and thirteen Precepts and again subdivide these into commanding and prohibiting Precepts the former according to their computation are two hundred to eight which number is according to the Rabbins anatomy equal to that of the members in mans body the prohibiting Precepts are three hundred sixty five just so many as there are dayes in the year or as it is registred in a book entituled Brand spiegel and printed at Cracovia in the Germane tongue and Hebrew character some fifteen years ago as there are veinâ— in mans body hence it shall come to passe that if a man in one of his members every day perform one of the Mandatory Precepts and omit that which the prohibiting Precept enjoyns him to avoid he shall with great facility every year and so to his dying day fulfill not onely the Decalogue but the whole Law of Moses this is that right ordering and keeping of their Laws here I may counsel Isaiah to make his complaint That the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Laws changed the Ordinance broken the everlasting covenant for Saint Stephen should be stoned the second time if he were now alive and should reprove the Jews for this their adulterate worship saying You stiffenecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears you do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye who have recived the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it c. The Rabbins hold on and say that men are onely bound to keep those six hundred and thirteen Precepts but the women are freed from the observation
booke directing aright our life and conversation to the end that thence he may learn the feare of God and civility of behaviour and therefore he reads in the same an houre at least before he goes out of doors to performe any other businesse This the Cachamim and wise men among the Jewes conclude from the words of Solomon in his Proverbs saying The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome Hence teaching us that in all our actions we undertake we ought to feare God and learn his word After the same manner might the Rabbines have expounded those words Vehaiah Gnekebh Tismegnun That the Jewes being interpreters they must be rendred thus There shall be a heale or foot you shall beare it and that which followes is this Before you set your heele or foot out of doors you shall learn the law by reading something therein and hearing what God wils and commands to be done It is a good work indeed to learn the law and on the contrary a great sinne for any to be negligent in the reading of the same In the time of the first Temple the peopl of Jerusalem committed many hainous offences as Incest and Idolatry yet the Lord did only in a manner know these and took notice of them untill they despised the law and would take no more paines to learn it Then the Lord banished them out of his sight destroied a great number of them and utterly laid waste their holy Temple Hereupon the Lord cried out by Jeremie the Prophet Who is wise to understand this and to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken he shall declare it Why doth the Land perish and is burnt up like a wildernesse and none passeth thorow And the Lord saith because they have for saken the law which I set before them and have not obeied my word neither walked there after Againe it is written in the first booke of Moses Then shall all nations say wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land how fierce is his great wrath And they shall answer because they have for saken the Covenant of the Lord God of their fathers which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt Wherefore a religious Jew must not presently after his comming from morning praier fall to his daily labour and servile emploiments but either retire himselfe to his owne house or in Beth Hammedrasch or the Schoole dedicated to study and there to read and learne somewhat out of the Law which may presse him forward to the feare of God and an honest life and godly conversation with men that by this meanes that may come to passe which the Prophet David makes mention of saying They will goe from strength to strength and unto the God of Gods appeareth every one of them in Sion Which is also very well expounded according to the sagacity of the Jewes in a little book written concerning the feare of God in these words They did goe from one study to another that they might by learning understand the Law When they are returned unto their owne house then laying aside their phylacteries and precatory fardles they put them into a chest First unloosing them of the head then those of the hand to the end they may at any time first take and bind on these of the hand Some also are accustomed to put off their garment of remembrance or their fringed Coat to which the Ribbands are annexed yet in my judgement it were more fitting they should weare it continually that they might not forget the commandements of the Lord but alwaies fulfill his Law They who are godly carry it all the day long under a corselet or cloake but so that the ribbonds may be seen of them that they may bee terrified from committing sin I once saw a crabbed Rabbine of a waiward holinesse who was Master of the Synagogue whose ribbands hanging at his fringes hung so low downe that they did even touch his feet For as some desiring not to be forgetfull of any thing committed to his memory knits a knot in his girdle to the end that he looking thereupon may call to his remembrance what he ought to put in execution So these five knotted fringes in use with the Jewes are as so many memorandums to warne them to avoid the by-paths of sin and iniquity And hence it comes to passe that all the Jewes are of such a sanctified conversation that they fulfill keep and observe every one of Gods commandements They also accounted it very good for the wholsome to eate something before a man in the morning undertake any businesse For there are sixty three diseases of the Gall which may all be cured by the eating of crust and a mornings draught of the blood of the grape Who wants wine he may drink Ale or a cup of cold water as Raschi is of an opinion and so shall he be fitted to undergo any labour They which are honest wives indeed will in the meane time make ready for dinner some boiled meate that their husbands bellies at their return home finding such cleanly provision may not by a long tarrying be occasioned to a thought that their throats are cut In that tract of the Talmud about the Sabbath it is ordained that the Jewes should goe to dinner some five houres after day-break which is about eleven a clock if any over-stay any longer hee may fall into some disease by the vehemence where of he may bee brought upon his knees for at that time the body expects and requires its naturall nourishment which if it have not then it seeds upon its owne members As a Bore in the time of winter is wont to doe for then if it be not possible for him to come by any sustenance hee by sucking his owne feete relieves himselfe The wives also must have an especiall care that they serve in the meate thus cleanly drest in a cleanly manner as it is written You shall not make your soules abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth neither shall you make your selves unclean with them that you should be defiled thereby for I am the Lord your God you shall therefore sanctifie your selves and you shall be holy for I am holy neither shall you defile your selves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth This place the profound Rabbines construe in this manner unto us That they being commanded by God ought to eate meates artificially cooked as men not beasts are accustomed to doe and that if any one do not eate such viandes he polluting himselfe without fall becomes unsanctified in the eies of the Lord. The table is to be spread with clean linnen bread in whole loaves pure well baked and not burn'd is to be set thereupon then Grate must be said and â—a blessing conserred upon the meat to be received If the good wives of the house have any pullen or other cattell which are to be fed
sloth and idlenesse they use not to practise the foresaid things before they arise from the table When the Jewes have eaten their fils then the good man of the house some one of the Rabbines or some guest or stranger if any such bee present saies grace after meat Their thanksgiving is very prolixe and tedious in which praising God they thank him that he gives meate and drinke to them and all other his creatures that hee sustaines them through his goodnesse that he brought their fathers out of the land of of Egypt and gave them the land of Canaan for and inheritanâ—e made a covenant with them and in giving them the law made a promise unto them that he would for ever keep and defend them They pray and beseech him that he would have mercy upon Sion build againe their holy Temple and restore the Kingdome of David in these their daies send them the Messias and Eliah the Prophet to deliver them out of the house of bondage to preserve them against poverty that they may not bee forced to beg or borrow of the Christians who in their repute are men meerely flesh and blood poore miserable mortals and cast-awaies who entertaine no commerce with their Maker who are subject to the curse and utterly rejected who shall dye and perish like unto beasts when on the contrary they are a holy nation the â—lock and inheritance of God himselfe They further pray that God would vouchsafe to fill their hands with all good things and noâ— suffer them to bee ashamed but to breake the yoake of the Christians from off their necks and to bring them backe into their own land to bestow a blessing upon the house where in they have feasted and to enrich the master and mistrisse thereof with their children and all their posterity c. To which things every one saying Amen with attentive mindes repeating the words of David O feare the Lord all yee his saints for they that feare him lacke nothing The lyons do lack and suffer hunger but they that secke the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good This they say with their mouthes so empty of meate that not one crum of bread or piece of flesh stickes between their teeth and those words bind them thereunto Let my mouth bee filled with thy praise and glory all the day long Prayers are alwaies to bee said in that place where dinner or supper is eaten Hence the Cabbalists write that whosoever praies not in that place where any banquet is celebrated shall never come unto the grave because they shall dye such a death which is never accompanied with any buriall as hanging drowning or such like There was once a time when a certaine godly and religious Jew being in the field refreshed and filled with wholsome meates forgot to give thankes When hee had been long absent from the foresaid place and at length remembring he had offended in not saying grace having another in his company he said unto him that hee must of necessity returne to that place where hee had formerly taken meate because hee had left a precious toole there Which when he had done and praied and given thanks God shewed this miracle He created a golden dove which the Jew had bestowed on him as a reward of his honesty and piety in observing the precepts of the Talmud with so great diligence This was a miracle indeed in that place but it had been none at all in Paphlagonia although the dove being throughly rosted had sâ—own into his mouth Without all doubt this miracle was done neare unto the Indian mines For who will be so stupid as not to believe that this dove flying from thence and being wearied in slight alighted here to rest her selfe The Chachamim and Doctors command that a man should not make many banquets in one week lest he should so carry himselfe that every day thereof might bee accounted for an holy day as some doe who mutually inviting one another say to day you shall feast with me so will I to morrow with you c. for the whole weeke Of such men the Cabbalists writing say that at such banquets an evill spirit called Samaâ—l feasts himselfe together with others of his society inciting the guests to many grand offences Rabbi Levi in the behalfe of Rabbi Abhen in the name of Rabbi Joshua saith that the bellies of all those that keep such revellings eating and drinking sporting and feasting every week do burst asunder the third after they are dead and laid in their graves and the dung of their intrals is poured upon their faces as it is written I will sprinkle the dung of your feasts upon your faces Which once come to passe the Devils come and jeare them saying now devour that which even now thou gormandisedst And here I will leave them and proceed to a further declaration of their carriage after they rise from the table CHAP. VIII Of their evening prayer and their manner of going to bed IN great Cities where the Jewes have Schools or Synagogues the beater of the Schoole who is the same with a Sexton in other places going about unto their houses about five a clock in the afternoon knocks at their doores with an hammer thereby giving them notice that they ought to make hast to evening prayer So soon as they come into the Synagogue they set them down and huddle up a certaine praier by reason of the first word therein called Aschre which in English signifies Blessednesse which is taken out of the eighty fourth Psalme and the first verse which begins with this fore-mentioned word The prayer runs thus Blessed are they that dwell in thine house for they will alwaies be praising thee Selah In these words boasting of their diligence in frequenting the house of the Lord Happy are the people that be in such a case yea blessed are the people that have the Lord for their God I will magnifie thee O Lord my King I wil praise thy name for ever and ever c. unto the end of the Psalme This prayer is in so great esteem among them that they write that whosoever saith it three times a day shall have his portion in eternall life Then the Chanter rising up sings halfe of that holy prayer which they call Kaddisch after that the whole Synagogue joines in the repetition of the eighteen laudatory petitions of which we made mention in their morning prayer Which done and finished the Chanter comming for his chaire or pulpit so called by the Christians fals downe upon his knees before the Arke and leanes his head upon his left hand which all the people doe likewise and bowing their head towards the left side and covering theirface with their whole heart for the heart lies upon the left side and so the head and heart are joined in such a position they in a most devout manner pronounce the words following O mercifull and