them against us that he speaks of them and not of us when he saith There is no Tongue or Language wherein their voyce is not heard and this cannot be taken of our Hebrew Language For what Gentiles are there which obey the precepts of Moses and Aaron seeing they slew the Gentiles put them to flight and drove them from them But these Gentiles at this day are acquainted with Moses and the Prophets they know God they keep their new Law after the prescript form of the Apostles teaching Notwithstanding all this yet we belong to God CHAP. XIX Of choosing the Apostles in place of the Prophets MY soul converseth in the region of fear and I am troubled about that place of Zacharie I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered I fear that was fulfilled when wee smote the Shepherd of those holy Children the Apostles for ever since that time we like miserable sheep run dispersed and stragling thorow the whole world and the Apostles which were our children are risen up in stead of our Prophets This appears as a Noon-tide truth seeing from that time God hath not sent us one Prophet nor given us any Divine notice or heavenly provision by the way of Vision O Master I fear that the Apostles are those Children Ioel meaneth of Your old men shall dreame dreams and your young men shall see visions For a certaintie O Master our Prophets are the Old men that dreamed of the faith of the Gentiles which these young men the Apostles have attained unto and seen it more clearly even in plain Visions Of these Children spoke David the Prophet Come ye Children hearken unto me I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Besides this when God speaks of us â—e doth not name us commonly Children in â—he Plurall number but he stayes in the Singular naming us Israel his first born In another Psalm these young men are called Children Thy Children shall be like Olive Plants â—ound about thy Table Of Israel O Master God spoke by the mouth of Esay The Vineâ—ard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel I â—ooked it should bring forth Grapes and it â—rought forth wilde Grapes therefore I will break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down Of these aforesaid Children of God by Esay he further saith Iacob shall not now be â—shamed neither shall his face waxe pale But it shall be then when he shall see his children the â—ork of mine hands sanctified before his eyes Now if those Children O Master were sanctified in our sight according to the way of our Law it could not be said of us that we were â—shamed and our Faces Vermilion'd with â—lushes and for that cause we should hide â—hem but rather would it shape for us glory â—nd resplendency of face But hence comes â—his confusion of the faces of Iacobs children â—nd this is the desolation that those Children the work of Gods own hand were sanctified in our sight and yet they have this honour another way than we it comes not as our sanctification by the Law Thus God would give us to understand that our Law is not their Law So much imports he by the mouth of Ieremie In that day they shall not say Our fathers have eaten sowre Grapes and their Childrens teeth are set on edge as if he meant thus The infidelitie of the Jews doth no way hurt the faith of the Apostles nor shall it hurt For this is added for that cause As I live saith the Lord this shall be no more a proverb in Israel And this is observable never any of the Apostles after they had received the faith of Christ did returne backe to imbrace our faith Thus are they free from tasting the bitternesse of our infidelity notwithstanding our teeth are set on edge with the sinnes of our Fathers Further O Master God by Esay delivers more concerning these children the Apostles From whom shall I passe away but from my people the children that are unfaithfull but God shall be their Saviour in all their afflictions his face and countenance shall keep them in his love in his pitie he hath redeemed them and shall be mercifull unto them for length of dayes This hath all truth in it O Master that these Children of whom we speak doth alwayes abide firm and stedfast neither hath God at any time left them and passed away from them since that Righteous one their King and Master hath redeemed them but he hath gone away from us though he abide with them alwayes Of these children the Apostles that wise Jesus the sonne of Sirach hath spoken in his book Hear me your Father O dear children and do thereafter that ye may be safe for the Lord hath given the father honour over the Children After what manner this honour is understood God declareth by the mouth of the Prophet Malachie God shall send Elias who shall turn the hearts of our Fathers to the Children O Master seeing this turning is to be understood of beleeving and turning to the faith if God would have turned the hearts of the Children viz. the Apostles to the Fathers that is to us then the Apostles had moved with us in the same fearfull orbe of miserie and should have been companions with us in this Captivitie that knows no end as we and our Fathers are involved in it But now seeing Gods Ordinance turnes the wheele another way that the hearts of the Fathers shall be turned to the Children what good is there O good Master for us to expect or what glasse of hope can we look in to see a face of comfort If wee shall go about to affirm that these must bee other Children not the Apostles of whom these aforesaid things are meant then must they be in Captivitie as well as we because they did not follow the way of that Righteous One whom the Apostles not onely have stedfastly followed but have also earnestly taught this way should be followed herein attaining to the honour to be named and accounted Fathers in that it is said The fathers should be turned to them Wherefore O Master seeing our Children attained to faith in God before us if our hearts were turned to the Children then the hearts of the children should be turned to us also as the most high God saith They shall be one people and one heart in the glorious and powerfull God For this is to be confessed that we are not to understand it of any other conversion then of turning from infidelitie to the faith and doctrine of that Just One who is the Teacher of salvation to all that beleeve in him As David hath said of him that his Priesthood is an everlasting Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedech who offered a Sacrifice of bread and Wine and this Melchisedech was the Priest of the most High God before Aaron Now here O
Master I would have you perpend and consider what a main difference there is betwixt the sacrifice of Aaron and the sacrifice of this righteous Lord. 1. The Lord said unto my Lord thou art a Priest for ever not for a small time as was Aaron who dyed at an hundred and twenty years of age 2. Aarons Sacrifice was but flesh the Sacrifice of the Just and Righteous Lord was bread and Wine according to the Order of Melchisedech By these words the Lord manifestly shews in his Prophet that Aarons Sacrifice should be at an end when this Sacrifice of Bread and Wine would begin which should know no end but last for ever an eternall or unpassable Priesthood not being given to Aaron as is given to Christ the Priest Of these Children God speakes by his Prophet Moses He will avenge the blood of his children or servants and will be mercifull to his land We O Master are the murtherers of the Prophets and for that he took vengeance of us but with a 70 years Captivitie but besides we have murdered the Apostles and that Just Master of theirs and now God has avenged that blood of his Children more severely bringing a Captivitie upon us that hath lasted a thousand years and beyond By their death God hath washed the Land of his People he doth not say it is the Land of the children of Israel no he doth not so name them Of these Children speaks David As Arrows in the hand of a mightie man so are his faithfull Children Where the Prophet compares these faithfull Children to Arrows shot forth by the hand of a mightie man for the Almightie God hath sent them forth being 12 Apostles into twelve parts of the World through all the four Climates thereof with the doctrine of the Law the Psalter and the Prophets Moses and Aaron he never sent forth to teach any beyond the bounds of his own holy House from him they had neither Mission nor Commission to travell to India oâ— trudge to Rome nor to any other place without the precincts of the Holy Land to declare and preach to others the Doctrine Legall and Propheticall Onely these faithfull Children have such a Calling being sent forth through the whole earth and are risen up before God in our place since God slew Israel and tooke away our name which David punctually denotes in the Psalme saying In stead of fathers thou shalt have Children whom thou maist make Princes in all lands By them is that first Law after the Order of Melchisedech renewed and brought in again who instituted the Sacrifice of God in Bread and wine of which he communicated to Abraham the friend of God Thus hath God by their Ministerie changed 1. our Sacrifice as he hath also 2. changed our name yea more he hath 3. changed our carnall Law into a spirituall Had God said so much to our Moses as he spoke by David to the Messias or Christ Thou shalt be a Priest for ever after the law of Moses Aaron then had our law got a ground for a firm standing thereof But now he saith far otherwise thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech And for Abraham the friend of God he communicated of the Sacrifice of Bread and Wine not of the Sacrifice of Flesh The word of Moses is hereto consonant which saith Ye shall eat of the old fruit or of the old store By this old fruit he understands the Sacrifice of Melchisedech Again They shall eat of the old till the new fruits come in meaning when the sacrifice of the new Law is published your old things that is your old Sacrifices shall you cast away Howsoever we look up to God as ours in every event CHAP. XX. Of the casting off the sacrifice of the Iews and choosing the Sacrament of the Christians THe Sting of Fear is fastned in me O Master and here it pricks me I am afraid lest God hath sealed up us and our Sacrifice under a Writ of rejection and hath accepted the Sacrifice of the Gentiles as he spake by Malachie I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of Hosts neither will I accept an Offering at your hands For from the rising of the Sunne to the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and there shall be offered in my Name a pure Sacrifice Therefore in Gods account the summe is cast up thus the sacrifice of the Gentiles is more clean and pure than ours Further God hath not onely taken from us our pure Offerings and depriv'd us of all other Sacrifices but withall he teaches the Christians to flie from us and to avoid us lest they should receive some soyle and defilement from us Thus are we scourged with a rod made of the Twiggs that grew on our own tree for when we had a Sacrifice which God received as pure and acceptable then did we shun and detest the Gentiles as some matter of abomination yea yea Master you know well enough what God speaks by the mouth of David concerning our Sacrifice Think you that I will eat the flesh of Bulls and drink the blood of Goats In which how can any thing be more manifest than this that God condemns and disallows our fleshly Sacrifice Gladly do I covet to know O Master with what reason we are harnessed for our detestation of the Gentiles Sacrifice of Bread and Wine which God himself hath instituted hath not disallowed it as he hath disallowed our Sacrifice Salomon speaks of the Aaronicall Sacrifice He stretched but his hands over the Altar and offered the Blood of the Grape and incense to the living God and offered up our Sacrifice of the Corne of the earth as Melchisedech offered for Abraham God declares what the Gentiles Sacrifice is by Moses Ye shall offer to God a Sacrifice of that is heaved from the Barn floore and of the pressed Grapes that God may blesse you and all the works of your hands We well know O Master that God at the beginning commanded Loaves to be set before the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord not flesh We know there was something concerning Shew-Bread but nothing of Shew-Flesh and Gods command O Master in Leviticus by Moses and Aaron was That a man of the Seed of Aaron the Priest that had any blemish should not offer the sacrifice of Bread nor any other sacrifice In divers other places of Scripture God hath placed his Command that they should offer to him bread and a Sacrifice of fine Flowre and that he will accept it and such at this day is the Gentiles Sacrifice even bread made of fine Flowre Of this Sacrifice of bread mention is made in the Booke of Kings when David came to Abimelech the High Priest in Silo or rather Nob he desired some Loaves of him who answered Here is none but shew bread which it is not fit
of the Resurrection cryed down by divers Nay things strangled and blood for abstinence from them begin to have a resurrection with some as if Christ were not come to confirme their everlasting Funeralls never to peep out of the grave again Out of the Jews and taking part of Judaisme sprung up divers of the worst sort of damnable Heresies and sundry Sects as the Samaritans Sadduces Gorthenians Jebusaeans Essenes Dositheans Scribes Pharisees Hemerobaptists Hossinians Nazaraeans Herodians Simonians Ebionites Valentinians Cerinthians Sethians Melchisedechians Arians Hypsistarians and Mahometans which last religion was compiled and abundance of Jewish matters thrust into it by some Jews that helped Mahomet to make up that confused Chaos of a strange Religion and Sect so that Judaisme hath been the fruitfull Mother and Nurse to give both Wombe and Pap to many monstrous Children There is mention also of a strange Sect of the Athingani with whom Michael Balbus the Emperour communicated who withall kept firme with the Jews in many of their errours ready to maintain great hopes of the salvation of Iudas It will be behoofefull to shew the cursednesse of that Doctrine and people of the Jewes that every one may keepe off from the Tents and Tenents of the Jews which maintain a Diametricall opposition to the Gospel of Christ for of all sinners and Sects the portion of an Antichristian Jew will bee the most hard and heavy Yet oh the foeces temporis istius we have an Heresie of all the dangerousest and subtillest that ever molested the Church of GOD which now holds fast and cries up much of the Jewes vanitie and unbeliefe and in that cries downe Jesus in the truth of his Godhead and much of the truth of his Gospell If I should say that Socinianisme that black Crow which hath so great a Nest in all Europe and withall in England doth in many things walke hand in hand with Iudaism I should not need fear that question of the Atheist to be put unto mee Quae machinae quae ferramenta where are your Hammer and Tooles to finish this Worke and fasten these Nails Who will but cast his eye into Socinus and Socinians writings shall finde too great a conspiracy with the Jew and so may well enter those Doctors and Teachers into their table of suspicions as being no friends to Christ I shall give a touch of their wretched harmony in some few things 1. For the Deitie of Christ the Jew and Socinian speake both with one tongue negatively and blasphemously which is to us Christians as the Article of the existence of God and giving existence to every thing Fundamentum fundamentorum columna sapientiae If our Messias be not God then is our faith vain we are yet in our sins the foundation of Christianity is taken away and what can we do we know the Jew is the old cursed Archer that shoots blasphemies against Christs Godhead our subtill Heretick and his followers are not much behinde denying Christ to be Consubstantiall with his Father this is so known as needs not much be insisted on their books in the very title some of them will trumpet out their infidelitie de uno Deo Patre denying the Godhead of the Son and the Spirit 2. They are both Anti-Trinitarians going about to weaken and nullifie the Doctrine of the Divine Trinitie of Persons charging it with the introduction of multiplicity of Gods or Tritheisme 3. The Office of the Messias they both confine to the Humane Nature and must needs because both deny the Divine Nature 4. The Jew will make Christs Propheticall Office to consist in his new promulgation of the Law of Moses to beleevers nor fail the Socinians to tread in those steps making the Messias to be Mosissimum Mosen 5. Against Christs Priestly Office by his blood expiating and satisfying for our sinns both of them are knowne to Saile strongly with their best Furniture and Tacklings 6. Both do say that justitia imputata is putida and that our righteousnesse is our obedience to the Law and our performing of it but who will may seek and easily find farr more agreement 'twixt these two and much disagreement with the Gospel In sixteen points one has made the Collation and findes the Jew a Socinian and the Socinian too much a Jew in them all Have we not need in these dayes wherein Satan seems to keep a perpetuall Mart to vent his Hellish inventions take notice of those things which may carry us too near the Jew and too far from Jesus and beware we meddle not with such dangerous folly And should we use our best eyes to look at that Hellish callum and unconquered Brawn upon the Jews heart and see what vollies of miserie have waited upon their cursed infidelitie and opposition of the Sonn of God wee shall finde this the best Bellows in ordinary meanes to blow up our hearts into holy feare pitie faith Feare to stand out in defiance against Christ lest the Lord sentence us as the Jews to be a land of execrations and Anathema's Pitie towards that wretched generation that neither Heaven nor Earth looks after And it would waken us unto Faith to cleave to and make much of the Gospel of Jesus Christ lest we fall as low being not warned by the exâ—â—ple of their unbelief and the executions of the wrath of heaven gone our against them for it Of all the writings that decipher their faith and their fall none do it so punctually plenarily and particularly as those that were Jews but are converted to Christ they writing things with knowledge and experience as having long eaten of their Salt and drunk of their Cup. None have done it with so much affection as pitying their own kindred and Countrey and so are the more to be heeded by them and by us Of whom in all Ages God hath given us some learned Jews to be converted earnestly to write to and calâ— upon their wretched brethren to row to landâ— and to harbour in the Kingdom of Christ thaâ— they perish not in the great Ocean of Divine rejection Besides some Bishops of Ierusalem after Christ of which divers of them from Iudaisme were brought to Christianitie we finde Hegesippus the Iosephus junior to be one of later years many and of great learning have excellently writ against the Iews as Nâ—â—las de Lyra about the year 1310. from being a Iew turned Fryar among the Minors and hath left an excellent confutation of the Iews about the proving this that Christ is come and none other Messias to be expected In his time Paulus Burgensis turned Christian also and writt against Iudaisme Elias Levita commonly called the Grammarian left his Rabbinisme and entred the Church of Christ by Baptism bringing some thirty more Iews with him to be Baptized about the year 1517. One Hieronymus de sancta fide a Iew converted
in that holy Volume notwithstanding as is already said the punishment of so great sinnes laid upon them no longer then seventy years But now O Master that wrath which at this present punishes us is a sentence without a period neither in all the Prophets is there any end of it promised If we would thus shift it off and say That the wrath in which we are now deep plunged is a continuance of that wrath which brought the seventy years misery upon us seeing that served to satisfie for the forementioned sins of our Fathers in so doing we should go about to charge God with a Ive which be farre from us to attempt knowing that the true and glorious God did by his prophets stint that Captivitie within that number of years Whereupon such an answer would prove a nullitie a meer evasion and excuse not fit to be propounded before those who have any intellectuals Further if we shall go on to say That God in that transmigration made a division of mercy and justice had pitie on one part of our Jewish generation shewed no pitie to the other part and those on whom he had mercy he brought backe to re-edifie the Temple as saith the Prophet Jeremie and if we shall say that we are that unhappy remnant to which he shewed no mercy then will the Christians say to us That because God shewed mercy to them that worshipt Idols and slew the Prophets therefore he should have mercy on us also that have not so sinned Besides when our Fathers sinned the punishment of Divine Revenge kept within the bounds of certain years wherefore then is it that we who have not so sinned have a punishment without bounds and limits It is a long and undated punishment in which we lie fast bound it is now a thousand years old and yet neither in the Law or Prophets can we finde an end of it or spie any grave wherein it shall be buried Wherefore O Master laying these grounds that God hath punished our Fathers for Idolatry and Prophet-killing and in the Scripture their sinne and punishment are both recorded seeing God uses not to punish the same sin twice then the seventy years captivity must be the punishment of the foregoing sins Again it not being usuall with God to lay on an universall Rod but where there hath been an universall sin it must needs follow that after that captivity we have generally committed some greater sin before God than either their Idolatry or Prophet-slaughter weighing and proportioning their 70 years punishment and no more with our thousand years captivity and more who are still a wretched dispersion thorow the the four quarters of the world Yet what ever falls out we are Gods people and belong to him Now because no excuse can evade what I have said answer me directly to it CHAP. II. He proves they are thus dispersed for some grievous sin in which they are and argues against observation of their Law SUppose O Master that wee are in some great sinn yet now I request thou wouldest certifie me in this if after God scattered us out of Jerusalem and sent us into this long and lasting captivity for that sin why do we of our own authority and proper motion of our own will without any speciall mandate from God observe some Legall Rites and do not keep Circumcision the Sabbath and other Ceremonies that we hold according to the Law of Moses We know that from the time in which Titus destroyed the holy Citie and by combustions turned our Temple and Libraries into ashes dispersing us in that Captivitie that ever since Sacrifices Oblations and whole burnt-Offerings have quite ceased God not making promise to us by any Prophet in any Prophecie or by any certain revelation that we should any more return to our forsaken Ierusalem to be in our former state nor giving us any precept â—o keep and hold our former Observances Hence it seems by due consequence to follow â—hat these foresaid observances which we keep we received them not of God but of them that were under the wrath of God Yea thus â—ur Adversaries the Christians shall justly â—ay unto us Like as you observe Circumcisiâ—n and the Sabbath and do read in your Syâ—agogues the Books of Moses without any â—ommand from God why do you not as well in like manner take up again your sacrificing and make to your selves a Priest a King a Prince why use you not holy Unctions and Incense why build you not Altars and keep your Ceremonies and many other things contained in the Law as well as Sabbath and Circumcision and many other things which by your own Traditions and Will-worship not commanded of God you do retain Thus both wayes is the Lord offended by you These aforesaid Rites if you observe them contrary to the Will of God or if you say it is Gods Will and his good pleasure that you should do them which is more than you can manifest why omit you those aforesaid Rites which you may use as well as these Let it be granted that the Kings of the people to whom you are subject do not permit you yet seeing they permit you to retain Circumcision your Books Synagogues and other things they would suffer you in many other things as well as these To these Arguments O my Master a sufficient answer is farre to seek amongst us yet in all events we belong to God CHAP. III. All the Iews observance of the Law is unacceptable to God for the sinne in which they are WEE have found O Master what the Lord speaks by the mouth of his Prophet Zacharie concerning that first short captivitie These things saith the Lord God to the Priests and people of the Land when you fasted and mourned in the sixt and seventh moneth the whole time of your seventy yeers you understood that you fasted and mourned to me but I would not have any such fast from you Our Translation hath it otherwise but I purpose to set out in writing the authorities which Rabbi Samuel brings as they are in the Arabick not as we finde them in our Bibles In the forementioned words O Master the Lord intimates that while we Jews were in that seventy years Captivitie we were without his Law because in the Law we neither had nor have any Fast as we have other observances yea in like manner we were without Circumcision and Sabbath and doubtlesse all these things are nothing worth whiles Gods wrath abides upon his people That first wrath of God was short extending to 70 years onely but this in which we now are is a thousand years long and upward and none of the Prophets let us see and end of it This causes my fear O Master that as the Lord cast our Fathers into that short Bondage and Captivity without any Legall Observances their Fastings and all other Rites being abhorred of the Lord till the set time of their punishment was expired so in
these sonnes of strangers which came to the house of God but the Gentiles who serving Idols were meer strangers to God they their Princes and their Kings of whom God said They shall walk in the light of his holy house and we thrust out shall remain in darknesse and we indeed are in darknesse and have beene fearfully benighted a thousand years and upward Still that Prophet of that people Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowest not and Nations that knew not thee shall runne unto thee Now our eyes de facto do testifie it a thousand years and more have worne out themselves since the Christ came that was sent according to the Law given to us And the Gentiles which knew not the Law they came to him and he has given them a new a pure an holy law Besides this in the five and fortieth Chapter They agreed together and their Kings were gathered together in the beliefe of God I much fear O Master that is meant of them Assemble your selves come and draw near ye that are escaped of the Nations and I am found of them that sought me not Jeremie speaks of them The Nations shall be gathered to the Name of the Lord in his holy House nor shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evill heart The same Prophet To thee shall all the Gentiles come from the utmost ends of the earth saying Our fathers have inherited iniquitie and lies Zephanie the Prophet follows this stream The Gentiles shall all call on the name of the Lord and shall serve him with one shoulder every man from his place and all the Isles of the Nations Zacharie brings his part to this truth Sing and rejoyce O daughter of Zion lo I come and will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord and many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord. Again in the 8. Chapter Thus saith the Lord of Hosts many nations shall come from many places and every man shall say to his neighbour Let us go and seek the Lord our God for good All these things O Master are now fulfilled and the effects of them abide plainly before our eyes you see people and languages brought home to God and studying the Law all the Prophets and Book of Psalmes to which they were strangers and have left their Idols to imbrace the Truth None of them are brought to this belief by the hand of Moses or Aaron or any of our Prophets And since their hearts were turned to beleeve in that Righteous One of whom Habackuk saith Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people with thine Anointed they have utterly abdicted and abandoned all their Idols no Idolatry since that has remained amongst them CHAP. XVII Of the quickning and giving life to Gentiles and slaying the Jews MY fears O Master beat as continually as my Pulse and in this I tremble to think that the powerfull and glorious God as with one hand hee gives life to the Gentiles by faith so with the other hand he slayes us in our incredultie Doth not Esay indigitate and point out this Because when I called ye did not answer when I spake ye did not hear therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall crie for sorrow of heart and howle for vexation of spirit and God shall slay thee O Israel and shall call his servants by another name in which he shall blesse them who is blessed upon the earth Amen for in truth And alas we see how exceedingly they are blessed upon the earth by God who have received this new name but for us we flie like dispersed dust before the winde of Gods wrath scattered through the four quarters of the world in a sad Captivitie To this day a thousand years have â—unne over us and trod with heavy feet upon our heads In us expressely appears the deep impressions of the footsteps of Gods wrath not for chastisement onely and instruction â—ut to our destruction This is that slaying which the Lord threatned that he would slay Israel and the nations which he would keepe â—live whom he calls his servants shall receive that good name he hath promised but yet â—he order is thus wee must first lose our â—ame and then they shall receive their new â—ame The funerals of our name must make 〈◊〉 way for the resurrection of theirs as the veâ—y order of Esay's words declare And as for â—â—e hunger and thirst the Lord threatens wee shall be vexed withall it is not that common â—amine of bread and thirst of water but that â—orse sterility and spirituall barrennesse which torments the souls and hearts of us a â—amine of the Word of God as Amos makes appear in his eight Chapter But you my Master Plough with a more skilfull Heifer in these mysteries than I and better understand these things However in all these storms of wrath and what ever falls on us we belong unto God CHAP. XVIII How the Gentiles quickned by faith have purâ— observances in their new Law I Cannot but fear O Master that the Gentiles are quickned and brought to life The Annuall circlings of the Sunne have made up a thousand years from the time that Jesus dyed at Jerusalem and we know there was noâ— good thing at all to be found among the Gentiles before they came to beleeve in God iâ— Christ and the Apostles so as they seemed to be the Prophet Habackuks fishes and creeping things that had no Ruler But now these Gentiles being purified by faith are ruled by fastings and other observances of their new Law yea they want nothing pertaining to cleannesse and purity so much spoken of in the old Law You see how in every language and place whether you look to the Orientall or Occidentall utmost Fringes of the world wide garment that the Gentiles confesse the Name of the Lord. Neither do they beleeve in him through Moses or any of the Prophets although they bee studious in the Law and the Propheticall Writings but God hath called them to himself another way even by the Disciples of that Righteous One who went forth with God for the salvation of his people as the blessed and glorious God hath foretold by the mouth of the Prophet Habackuk yea those very Disciples of his who by another name are known among them being called Apostles they were Children that sprung out of the same Root with us and were the sons of the sons of Israel Ah how my poor heart is Palsied through fear when it judges that these same Apostles are they of whom God means in Davids Psalm when he saith Their sound is gone out into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world The Prophets words carry an expresse demonstration in
the Musicians shall learn the Laws We see it with mid-dayes clearnesse O Master that now for a thousand years the ignorant Musicians are become Doctors and Teachers of our Law Who are the ignorant ones but the Gentiles Who are these Musicians but the Christians who chant and sing our Book of Psalmes and the Prophets in their Churches Of the Musicians and singers we have God speaking by David Sing unto the Lord a new song for he hath done marvellous things What I beseech you O Master is this new song but the new Testament and what is the old song but our old Law Of these Musicians God speaks more by the Prophet David Sing unto the Lord all the whole earth sing a Psalm of praise to his Name Againe All the families of the earth shall sing and praise thy Name or All the families of the Nations Where this carries a marke of speciall note that it is not singularly said All the families of Israel but the phrase universally spreads it self to all the families of the Gentiles Of this musicall and Psalm-singing people are Davids words in another place Blessed are the people that knows the song ours â—ath it That knows the joyfull sound they shall walk in the light of thy countenance That also is to the same purpose The Gentiles or Nations shall sing a song to thee in the house of â—y God In this place he names a Song by way of Antonomasia naming a Song in generall â—ut intending their particular kinde of singing As for us we have lost our musick it is now 〈◊〉 thousand years since we Jews sung a Song 〈◊〉 our holy House Of these singers speaks David They shall sing praises in the house of God for ever The 137 Psalm questioned our singing How shall they sing the Lords song in a strange Land Alas O Master for the vacuity and emptinesse of our vain hopes who think of a name and a Countrey when we have lost both God himself tels us this by the Prophet Amos Israel is falne she shall rise nâ— more the virgin Israel is forsaken upon heâ— Land there is none to raise her up The same Prophet in the ninth Chapter saith There shaâ— come such tribulation that he who escapeth shaâ— not be delivered though they hide themselves iâ— the top of Carmel I will search and take theâ— out thence though they be hid from my sight iâ— the bottome of the sea thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them Though they go intâ— captivity before their enemies thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them And 〈◊〉 will set mine eyes upon them for evill and noâ— for good This has the Lord said and done to us and now for a thousand years of miserieâ— we have hung by our Harpes and left all ouâ— singing of Psalms mourning befitting us more then musick Notwithstanding though weâ— cannot sing yet this we can say God is our God and we are his people CHAP. XXV The Jews unjustly finde fault with the Christians practise of singing GOD hath spoken O Master of the Christians singing by the mouth of David the sweet singer of Israel saying Clap your hands all ye people sing unto God in the voyce of melody In another place Make a joyfull noise unto the Lord all ye lands serve the Lord with gladnesse and come before his presence with a song In another place Sing unto the Lord all the whole earth declare his salvation from day to day I am under great feare O Master by that which God speaks in the mouth of Ieremie Teach your daughters wailing and every one her neighbour lamentation for death is come up into our windows Together with this of our learning that sad lesson of mourning he speaks of those Musicall children by the Prophet David Kings of the earth and all people princes and all judges of the earth young men and maidens old men and Children let them praise the name of the Lord. And who so offereth praise he glorifieth me As if he plainly said The sacrifice of the flesh of Goats such was our sacrifice doth not honour me but in the sacrifice of praise such as is the Gentiles am I glorified The Prophet Esay agrees with it when he saith The musicians shall learn the Scriptures and all the Psalmes of David shall they sing in a metricall way as it is varied by musicall Tones some Acute and Sharp some Grave About all which whiles I labour with the strength of my best consideration me thinks I judge with the least errour when I conclude we are in a great errour about their Sacrifice of praise which they offer up by singing in the Church of God Especially when I further discern that there are precepts of and examples for this singing in the Law of Moses and in the Prophet David who hath called for the praising God with Organs and Harp and with loud Cymbals and Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord Jesus Christ That for Precept Example is not awanting for David danced before the Ark with his Harpe having his head uncovered for which his rash-tongued wife Michol was bold to reprove him but she got this sharp and tart reply from him O foolish woman doth not the Lord see thee despising me whiles I sing praises to him The Children of Israel also sounded a Trumpet whiles they bore the Arke Now tell me O Master what parts act we Are not we the foolish Michol that mock and jeet at the Christians singing solemnities And do not the Christians act Davids part dancing and rejoycing before the Lord in their Humiditie Especially considering how God propounds it Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. If it had been precisely thus written let every Israelite praise the Lord then our insultation over others might have had some better ground Neither is that of Esay any disadvantage to them that he saith The Nations or Gentiles are before God as nothing For this is to be applyed to the Gentiles in their first estate as they once were drowned in darknesse and ignorance of God before the comming of the Just One. Then indeed they were Pagans and Idolatrous people and none of those Nations that have found the Lord which offer unto him every day a pure offering in the East and West as above out of the Prophet Malachie hath been alledged And certainly O Master we are heirs of a great errour about this thing Notwithstanding all this we belong unto God CHAP. XXVI He proves the Apostasie of the Jews from God UNder an oppression of no small fear I fall prostrate O Master and this troubles me that like wicked Apostates we fell off from God at the first comming of that Just One according to all those Authorities hitherto alledged to which expressely do consent all that we finde written in the Books of the Law and the Prophets From this
beleeve all those Miracles to be done by him which the Gospell records of him This the Alcoran in the forenamed Chapter expressely testifies That the Messias knew doth know all things yea the very sectets of hearts The words of Mahomet are just to this purpose who saith Eise that is Jesus knew every Book and all wisedome and the whole Law of Moses he knew what men did eate and drink in their houses and what they laid up in their Treasuries Besides they say of Christ or the Messias that whiles he was in the world he despised riches and abandoned all carnall delights neither had he any Concubines which are the occasions of sinne and a cause of disobedience Withall their Alcoran has adopted and taken into it that speech of the Gospell The Foxes have holes and the birds of the aire have nests These things thought I confesse they carry no authoritie for their sakes who say them being Saracens yet are they consonant as may appear by our former discourse to those things the Prophets foretold of the first Comming of the Messias They say in their Alcoran That Eise that is Jesus is the Word of God and this to be called the Word of God is accounted the proper name of Jesus Christ among the Saracens in so much as no other man is thus named but Jesus onely whom in the Arabick tongue they call Eise This we further finde in their Alcoran God said to Eise I am thy sufficiency I will lift thee up unto my self and I will purifie thee from the unbeleevers Consider now O Master how the Jewish Nation are redacted and brought to such a paucitie and smalnesse of number by their thousand years Captivitie that they are become the fewest of any Nation on the earth The Saracens are exceedingly multiplyed and daily increase The Faith of Christ hath filled the whole world onely we are bandied and dispersed all over the earth by our angry God we remaine the fewest of any people Reubens curse being fallen on us which his father pronounced against him Thou shalt not excell or increase We increase not at all but the Christians whom we hate above all Nations they increase above all others and all our hatred of them is in vaine A conjoyned testimony of many witnesses stand up against us The Christians witnesse against us so do the Saracens also the Alcoran and the Gospell of Christ which we will not beleeve Which Alcoran in my judgement has no validitie or strength in it seeing it contains manifest contradictions as thou well knowest and as it clearly is evident the Composers of it were very ignoramusses in the matter both of the old and new Testament But letting that passe what shall wee say to the Gospell of the Christians how shall we escape that laying this down as a presupposed truth that Christ or the Messias is already come The beliefe of this principle contains nothing in it that it is contrary to Prophets or to our Law yea of it we may affirme that it is the Lamp that gives light to all the Prophets manifesting them and fulfilling the promises contained in the Law if we understand those promises aright to be meant of spirituall blessings as the doctrine of the Christians conceives of them spiritually Nevertherlesse O Master in all these my doubts my anxious soul hath recourse to thee especially that thou wouldest assist me with thy skill about those knots which before have been excerpt and alledged by me out of the Prophets forasmuch as I know thou who art skilled in the Arabick wilt account the testimony out of the Alcoran no stronger than a lye and esteem it as a Rush Thou perfectly knowest the vanitie of Mahomet who called himself a Prophet but he did not Prophesie or foretell any things to come he called himselfe a Messenger sent from God a good one surely he was who being a corrupt and ignorant fellow much unlike a Messenger of God taught things contrary both to God and his Scriptures The end of the Epistle of Rabbi Samuel which be writ to Rabbi Isaac Master of the Synagogue CHAP. I. Annotations upon the Epistolarie discourse of Rabbi Samuel the Israelite born in a Citie of the Kingdome of Marocco IN the first Chapter and in many other he mentions the continuance of their Captivitie from the vastation of Ierusalem to be in length a thousand years and upwards so that it seems the Booke being Translated about the year 1239 had been hid and kept secret by the Jews from comming into publique light some 230 years and above It may appear more then by conjecture that it was first writ about the thousand years after the entrance into their Captivitie and the Jews seeing it like a lightsome house and full of Candles clearly shewing Christ to be the Messias and that he was already come and by them had been Crucified they fearing if it came into open view it might pluck away the Jewish vail of opposition to Christ from many hearts as plainly demonstrating their sinne and the hidden veritie of Christ the Saviour they put this Candle or Torch under a Bushell and kept it close many years till this Translator lighting upon it did publish and set it on a Candlestick that it might give light to the whole house both of Jews and Gentiles in the Roman language which is become almost oecumenicall understood of all sorts For they thought of this Book as their wicked forefathers thought of Lazarus It were good to put him to death because by reason of him being raised from the dead by Christ many of the Iewes would go away from them and beleeve on Iesus The Hebrew Doctors inquire earnestly what this sinne should be few of them have so much flesh and softnesse in their heart as to yeeld with our Samuel that it was the sinne of slaying Christ for they invent vaine effugia's and wayes of avoidance of the thought of this sinne R. Salomon runnes back to the Wildernesse and sayes The molten Calfe is still punisht God is yet scourging them for that Idolatry Hereupon one teaches the Jews in every misery of theirs to think of it No punishment lights on thee O Israel in which there is not put an Ounce of the molten Calf But this sin God had pardoned long before Christs time Others of them do name some great sinnes of some Particular men but looke not at the great sinne of the whole Nation Some conclude it to be a secret and hidden sin which is not known that brings all these knowne punishments upon them at this day The great Rambam the Oracle of Jewish Learning the excellent second Moses speaks his minde as he is quoted by Ficinus out of of his Book of the Ordinary Judges Iesus of Nazareth seemed to be the Messias and being put to death by the sentence of the Judges was the cause why Israel was destroyed by the sword But Ficinus is mistaken for
calls it the Well of salvation spoken of by Esay the Prophet Nay further behold this Jew turned perfect Christian for he confesses the summary of the Gospell the chief sentence of it to be very true which is this This without all doubt saith he is to be held that none are saved but those that beleeve Christs first comming and those that beleeve not there is no ground for them to hope for salvation at his second comming This is the maine matter of faith in the New Testament so that this Jew confesses like Peter Thou art Christ the Son of the living God And I see no reason but it may bee said to him as to Peter Blessed art thou Samuel the Israelite for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven He affirms the very same that is affirmed in the Gospell He that beleeveth on the Sonne hath everlasting life and he that beleeveth not the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him In the tenth Chapter we have some places brought in to prove the second comming of Christ which will not bear it and yet divers of our Christian Expositours have taken leave to be mistaken as well as this Jew or rather worse and so much the worse because they crie out of all which will not sing to their Violl when they themselves are out of tune Cramer undertaking the clearing of Prophecies concerning Christ finding fault with those that do not make Zach. 14. 3 4 5 c. to be meant of Christs Ascension and the cleaving of the Mount of Olives c. to be meant of the Apostles sending out to the Gentiles he names among the rest our Marochian in this place applying Zachary to the second comming of Christ Surely it is not meant of Christs second comming but as Calvin hath it of an illustrious presence and manifestation of God in his power and might evident to all that Jerusalem shall not be in a shady Valley but shall be conspicuous and open to a glorious view for all Nations to see it and admire it It is true Samuel is mistaken and so is Cramer too for because there is mention of the Mount of Olives it doth not follow that therefore Christs Ascension must be pointed at But the Lutherans Cramer Hunnius and others plow deep furrows upon Calvins backe because he will not swear to their Interpretations Our Christian Moore makes use of the third of Malachie too to prove Christs second comming But who may abide the day of his comming Divers of ours are also to be blamed for this that wheresoever in Scripture they meet with a terrible day of the Lord they presently apply it to the day of Judgement yet he sees little that sees not this to be meant of Christs first comming whose preaching and pure doctrine of Gospell was terrible to prophane ones and Hypocrites Scribes and Pharisees Besides it signifies the misery sorrow and captivitie which should befall the Jews in and after the comming of Christ not by Christs fault but by their impietie and infidelitie rejecting Christ so as his comming proves terrible to them In the end of the 11 chapter he hath two excellent things concerning Christ wherein he speaks Christianisme most Christianly and brushes himself clean of the least Jewish moat 1. He concludes it from Scripture that Christ and Christ alone is the True and Righteous One All men best of men were sinners but Christ was sinnlesse And in this he preferrs him before Moses and all other holy Ones which no Jew will do just as Christ is preferred in Hebr. 3. 2. He makes disobedience and infidelitie in Christ the damning sin This he proves as the Authour to the Hebrews proves it compare his words and those of Hebr. 10. 28 29. and you shall see such an agreement as if he had proposed those words and that Text to be followed He that despised Moses Law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses He has it like to that If they were worthy of death who beleeved not Moses who was two degrees behinde Christ he was but a temporary Saviour and hee was a sinner Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy c. how much more saith our Samuel are they worthy of this Iudicatorie of fire who beleeve not nay who blaspheme this Christ who is a Righteous One and who saves eternally O that this lightsom beam of truth had pierced the hearts and breasts of all the dark-spirited Jews O that all of them saw with Samuels eyes The Lord perswade these Israelites to dwell in the Tents of Samuel and to come and see CHAP. XII THe Ascension of Christ he proves and beleeves which no stone-hearted Jew will by any means admit into thoughts of probability for they are so farre from beleeving his glorious Ascent into Heaven that they make his Descent into Hell their chief and unquestioned Article with the most horrible blasphemy affirming that our Christ is tormented in Hell in boyling and scalding Zoah Dung because he rejected and despised the Traditions and Doctrines of their holy Elders and Chachamims Yea they make him a false Prophet and to be a prophane wretch as Esau And in the most secret Books and Papers kept among the Jews which they will not let every eye see but such as are rightly Jewish that is stiffe enemies of Jesus this they teach and write That the soul of Esau entred into the body of Christ and so he was just such a wretch as Esau or Edom. And this may perhaps be one main reason why they call all Christians Edomites as thinking wee follow and put our trust in Christ who is as Edom with them He applyes the 24 Psalm to the Ascension of Christ which divers Christian Expositours by Prophesie will have pointed at and by allegory allude to This Author makes some ask the question Who is this King of glory And he sets the Angels to answer the question The Lord of Hosts he is the King of glory This way Ierome goes making a Dialogue betwixt Angels and Devils Who is the King of glory say the Devils The good Angels answer The Lord of Hosts mighty in Battell he is the King of glory This Jew it seems had studyed not onely the Christians Gospell but Christian Interpretours and Expositours of the Bible And though this be no strong proof of Christs Ascension but rather Davids Song about the building and setting up the Temple and the glorious gates thereof for the Lord of Hosts to come enter and dwell in it yet the Jew shews us how willing he is to admit the doctrine of Christs Ascension and to follow Christian Doctors This Jew though he sometimes uses the Scriptures with meanings and applications scarce genuine yet in his application of the 63 chapter of Esay vers 1. to the exaltation and