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
hens before them devour them in a moment He that can get most being accounted the worthiest man at the table Every one eats what he catches without help of either knife or trencher he that hath first done begins to snatch what he can from his fellow yea somtimes out of his very mouth causing thereby a great deal of foolish stirr and much laughter and all this they doe to make the new-married couple marry and jocund The egge which we said is used to be served in together with the hen is alwayes raw which they are wont to cast one at anothers face not sparing a stranger of Christian if he be invited and there present The foresaid egge is set before the Bride to comfort her and let her know that she shall bring forth her children easily without pain and grief even as a hen bringeth forth an egge with that ease that she expresseth it by her cockling voice of joy and gladneffe After these sports and childish fooleries they fall to feast their bellies in good earnest after dinner they dance many Giggs and Capering Currantos an when they are about to depart and to put a period to these nuptial sports dance a dance called Mitzuah The commandment or marriage pavin because it was commanded by God himself This they dance in this manner the chief man at the table takes the Bridegroom by the hand he another and so every one his fellow even so many as have any skill in dancing takes one another by the hand So likewise the chief mation and most honourable woman in the company joynes hands with the Bride and all the rest one with another Dancing hand in hand and making a great noise with their feet and in this manner put an end to their marriage rites and sports which commonly endure for the space of eight dayes together If the marriage day chance upon the Sabbath then their dancing measures are quite out of measure thinking that thereby they honour the Sabbath in an extraordinary kinde because the Sabbath is called a spouse as we formerly declared A great care must be had that no uncircumcised Christian be invited to the marriage for Solomon saith The heart knowes the bitterness of his soule and a stranger that is a Christian shall not be made partaker of his joy thus wresting the Scripture to a sense clean contrary Moreover they write that the Angels seeing the Christians at their marriages do presently depart and devils enter the place doing much dammage in stirring up strife brawlings jarrings slips and falls breaking armes and shins murther and what not Hence we may see how willingly they suffer Christians to be present at their marriages When they pledge a health they say Lochajim tobhim God grant it may be for your health but if they like not the man who drinks to them as a Christian by the foresaid words they understand an imprecation or curse Relalah for this one word in their Cabbalistical computation comprehends the two former willing hereby to shew that they wish he may drink his last many such machinations and imprecations they plot and powre out against the Christians of which in another place I will only here adde a Copy of the marriage bill or letter of contract which I finde drawen in manner and form following Upon the sixth day of the week the fourth of the moneth Sivan in the year five thousand two hundred fifty and fourth year of the Creation of the world according to the computation which we use here at Massilia a city which is situate near the sea shore the Bridegroom Rabbi Moses the son of Rabbi Jehudah said unto the Bride Clavona the daughter of Rabbi david the son of Rabbi Moses and citizen of Lizbon Be unto me a wife according to the law of Moses and Israell and I according to the word of God will worship honour maintain and govern thee according to the manner of the husbands among the Jews which do worship honour maintain and govern their wives faithfully I also do bestow upon thee the dowry of thy virginity two hundred deniers in silver which belong unto thee by the Law and morâ—over thy food thy apparrel and sufficient necessaries as likewise the knowledg of thee according to the custome of all the earth CHAP. XXIX Touching the bill of divorce used among the Jews Iâ— is an established truth that the Jews had a certain indulgence granted by Moses for their divorcements for from the begining it was not so neither was it Gods ordinance but Moses did it foâ— the hardness of their heart and to avoid some greater inconvenience as Christ hath clearly shewed unto uâ— in the new testament There is extant in the Talmud a voluminous tract concerning the divorce now in use among them upon which many other of the Rabbines have written many subtle and divers Commentaries and in them have laid down many causes for which the strongest bond of Matrimony may be broke in pieces The causes pretended by the Jews at this time were the same that were urged when our Saviour Christ was here on earth so that the husband can quickly take occasion of seperation from his wife and easily finde a stafâ—e to beat the dog withall The bill of divorce ought to be written in a peculiar forme the lines whereof must not exceed or be fewer then the number of twelve This ought also to be delivered unto the woman in the presence of three faithful witnesses being signed and sealed in the presence of them When the husband gives this letter unto his wife he must say in express terms behold O woman the bill of divorce for by this thou being divorced from me art permitted to marry to any other man the form of this bill followeth Vpon such a day of the week and such and such of the moneth N. Such or such a year of the creation of the world according to the computation which we use here in this City N. Situate neer the River N. I of the Country N. the son of Rabbi N. now dwelling in such or such a place neer such or such a river have desired of miâ—e free will without any coaction and have divorced dismissed and cast out thee my wife N. of the Country N. the daughter of Rabbi N. dwelling in such or such a Country and dwelling now in such or such a place situate neer such or such a River which hast been my wife heretofore but now I doe divorce thee dismiss thee and cast thee out that thou mayest be free and have the rule of thy self to depart and to marry with any other man whom thou wilt and let no man be refused by thee for me from this forward for ever Thus be thou lawful for any man and this shall be to thee from me a bill of separation a bill of divorce and a letter of dismission According to the law of Moses And Israel N. the son of N. witness N. the son of
our bounden duty to believe what ever is extant in their name for it is the truth neither let any deride them not in his heart for so doing he shall not escape unpunished let every one then take warning that he speak not any thing scandalous either to the person or attempts of these men but rather to endeavour to learn so much as he can possible out of their writings To the same purpose it is recorded in a book printed in the Germane tongue and Hebrew Letter at Cracovia in Poland Anno Dom. 1597. called Brand spiegelium in the hinder end of the 48. Chapter that the Jews are bound to say Amen not only at the end of their prayers but to every Sermon and Exposition upon the word of God in which lie hidden and profound mysteries shaped to the vulgar apprehension that by this they might signifie and acknowledge that they believe whatsoever their Rabbines or wise men have spoken as it is written in the Prophet Isa Open your selves O ye gates for the people cometh who keepeth Justice that is a people who saying Amen believes all things that the wise men and Rabbines have written but if any mans understanding be encompassed with such Egyptian darknesse that he cannot comprehend the aggados or expositions yet he ought to believe them for the words of our Doctours are not wind but truth it self Aggadah is a mysticall or hidden speech by which hidden matters and things of great moment are signified the word it self by a certain Metathesis is the same with Deagah which signifies poverty and grief because a man macerates and tortures himself after an uncouth manner before he can rightly understand the forementioned Aggadah Hitherto pertains that which is every where extant in the Talmnd to wit that when two Rabbines are at contention the one affirming the other denying none ought to contradict them because both their Positious are grounded upon the Kabala which Moses brought with him from Mount Sinai and although the one could not rightly understandd it yet it is not to be imputed unto him for both of them know the reason why they thus speak seeing the words of the one as well as the other are the words of the living God It is also a Catholick rule in the book of the Rabbines Rather keep in mind the sayings of the Scribes than them of the Law of Moses concluding from hence that the writings and instructions of the Rabbines are of greater authority than Moses and the Prophets Luther in his book which he writ upon Shem hamphorasch comments in this manner concerning the authority and credit given to the Rabbines and their writings The Jews say that they ought to believe that Rabbines though they should affirm thè left hand to be the right and the light hand to be the left as Purchetus testifies After the same manner three Jews who kept me company dealt with me when I urged any thing out of the Bible then would they object that they were bound to believe their Rabbines and were not tied to the Scripture whence I perswade my self Purchetus said nothing but truth seeing mine own experience taught me the same Luther was not too blame being guided by his own experience to believe Purchetus to make it more manifest I will produce their own words Raschi or Rabbi Salomon Jarchi upon those words Deut 17. and 11 According to the Sentence of the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the Iudgements which they shall tell thee thou shalt do thou shalt not decline from the Sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor nor to the left hath this glosse when he saith unto thee of thy right hand that it is the left and of the left hand that it is the right thou must believe it as a truth how much more if he say thy right hand is thy right and thy left hand thy left The like we find in Rabbi Bechai his Commentary upon the foresaid words who brings in Ramban or R. Mosche Ben Nachman telling his tale in these terms Upon a time there came a certain Gentile unto that mirrour of Learning Don Shammai and asked him how many Laws or Commandements have you â—ews among you to whom Shammai made answer our Laws are onely two the one written the other delivered by mouth Then the Gentile replyed I believe as fully as thou dost that written Law to be true and whatsoever is contained therein to be nothing but the truth but as for thy Law of Tradition I cannot embrace it neither account it for a Law but go to make me a Jew be my Shoolmaster teach me in this Law which words possessed Schammai with such a fury that he thrust him from him and commanded him to depart the place then the Gentile came to Hillel the elder Schammai's copartner in office for they two were joynt Rectors and lived but a small time before Christs incarnation whom he questions in the same manner entreating him withall that he would vouchsafe to make him a Jew which Hillel did and instructed him in the Jewish Religion The day following Hillel saith unto him pronounce Aleph Beth Gimel Daleth which he did according as Hillel mouthed them unto him the day following Hillel inverting the Alphabet saith unto him pronounce Daleth Gimel Beth Aleph then the Gentile replyed Rabbi this is not the Lesson thou taughtst me yesterday then answered Hillel thou dost not onely reject me thy instructor but also fearest not to yield no credit unto my words therefore thou oughtest to rest thy self contented in the unwritten word and to believe all those things which are taught therein This Story is registred in the Talmud Tract de Sabbatho Hence may we conclude that every one simply without consideration or contradiction should believe not onely the Jewish Law of Tradition but whatsoever the RabbiNes according to the prescript of the same Law write and teach and that whosoever doth this is to be esteemed a Jew indeed whosoever is refractory and disobedient the most grievous torments in hell shall be his portion concerning which thing we read this Decree and Sentence of the Senate in the Tract entituled de libello repudii or Letter of Divorce in these words Mar. saith Whosoever shall deride or contemne what our wismen and Rabbines have spoken he shall be punished in hot boyling pitch and that in hell as they blasphemously affirm Christ our Saviour and Redeemer to be tormented because he walked not according to the traditions ordinances and Doctrines of their ancestours but rejected them as a thing despifed This punishment is also registred in another Tract of the Talmud and more at large expounded in a book called Menneras Hammaor and expresly set down in the book Beth Iaacob but in the Talmud printed at Basile it is left out and not without good reason as also many other blasphemous passages written against Christ and Christian
let us reason together faith the Lord though your sins were as crimson yet shall they be as white as snow though they were red like scarlet they shall be as wooll Now if the Cock be white he is not polluted with sin and so is able to bear the sins of others which being red he could not possibly do being stufft with his own sins already Antonius Margarita in his book of the faith of the Jews registers it as the affirmation of some of the Hebrew Doctors that an Ape is a more fitting beast for this dayes sacrifice then the Cock because in his face he more represents a Man Yet they chuse a Cock rather then any other creature because a Man in Hebrew is called Gebher Now if Gebher offend Gebber must also in justice suffer for his offence And therefore the Jews considering the burden of death too grievous to be born and the punishment too heavie spare themselves and kill the Cock which the Babylonian Talmudists call Gebher to satisfie the judge of all flesh and by this shift Gebher offends and Gebher suffers for it Blinde and beastly Jews how do they trisle and think to puzzle God in that manner that he cannot know a Cock from a Man Wo wo unto them for this their horrible blindnesse above example without pattern Such another exposition relishing of the same pate we finde in the book called Schebet Jehudah written first in Hebrew then translated into the Teutonick tongue by the Jews and printed at Cracovia in Poland some twenty two years ago It is a certain disputation between a Jew and a Christian before Alphonsus King of Portugal wherein when the Christian urged divers places of Scripture proving Christ to be the true Messias and amongst others that of the Psalmist My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Jew made answer that it was a certain property belonging to the holy Scripture to be capable of divers interpretations amongst which that is the best which may be confirmed and declared by other places of holy writ But as for the forecited place there were many other Scriptures which did evidently prove that it cannot be understood of Christ And first of all saith the Jew I will rell thee what answer a learned Rabbine did upon a certain time make unto the King of Spain Yesterday said he unto the King I being very wroth with my houshold Cock because he had troubled me in my studies with his crowing musick I smote him with my staff put him into a dark room where he ceased his crowing yet withal this my anger being never a jot abated I did beat him till I had rent his skin and disjoynted his bones then I put him into a Pot and covered it according as I thought meet and convenient which served him for a Coffin for there he died After his death there happened out a miracle for his life returned unto him again and he began to sing and crow as at former times and this is the true meaning and exposition of these words urged by the Christian out of the 22 Psalm Which appears so to be if we parallel the place with that of Jeremiah in the third of his Lamentations and the first verse I am the man that have seen affliction in the rod of his indignation He hath led me brought me into darknesse but not light Surely he is turned against me be turneth his hand against me all the day My flesh and my skin hath he caused to wax old and he hath broken my bones He bath builded against me and compassed me with gali and labour He hath heaged about me that I cannot get out he bath made my chains heavy And when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayers I am the man Am Gebher that is to say I am the Cock for the word among the Talmudists â—ignifieth so much Who bath see naffliction In the rod of his indignation There is the rod with which the Cock was beaten He bath led me there is his flight into darkness and not into light there is the place of obscurity into which he was put He turns his hand against me there is the second beating after that he was put up in his close prison or the motion whereby he thought himself to move in the pot My flesh and my skin hath he caused to wax old that is to say he hath torn and rent it He hath broken my bones or cut me in pieces He hath builded against me He hath shut me up in the pot He hath set me in dark places that is he hath put me in the pot and covered it And when I cry and shout which words signifie unto us that the Cock sung and crowed after he was dead So much foppery out of the book called Schebet Jehudah out of which we may plainly see after what a ridiculous manner the Jews interpret and make a mock of the holy Scripture and prove themselves to be really possessed with that phrensie blindness and hardness of heart wherewith Moses threatned them We may see also with what art these jugling mountebanks and quacksalvering impostros can metamorphose a man into a Cock and again turn a Cock into a man Truly I am forced to believe that if the Prophet Esay had used the word Gebher in his fifty third chapter the man that is there made mention of should of necessity the Jews being translators have been a very Cock Seeing the Prophet calls him Isch machobheth a man full of sorrows despised and not esteemed One that hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows even Christ who was beaten for our sins and wounded for our transgressions The chastisement of our peace was upon him by whose stripes we are healed Yet the Jews will not acknowledge receive and confess such a man but chuse one whom they can kill put upon the broach rost at the fire and fill their filthy paunches withall But woe and alass they may long look for health from the wounds of an household Cock The Greek Calends will first have place in the annual computation before they receive from hence any setled peace of conscience which evidently appears to be true at the houre of their death when destitute of all comfort ready to despair they câ—y out my death is my reconciliation and satisfaction for my sins A miserable poor and cold comfort indeed when not only death temporal but eternal both of soule and body must be the wages for their sin This the Jews cannot comprehend seeing God in his just judgment hath shut their eyes that they cannot see nor understand Pitifull and lamentable is their case in which with an unwilling heart I leave them and descend to a further declaration of their preparation to this festival After that they have made an attonement for their sins by the sacrificing of the Cock they repair to the place where the dead are buried where they say many prayers as they did
the eighth day they feed only upon lentiles in signe of sorrow and heaviness but they will neither eat beans nor pease because they have a certain black stroke in their upper parts much like unto a mouth but they eat lentiles and egges also such have no such linâ— upon them neither any representation of a mouth and therefore do best decipher and figure out a man ful of grief and sorrow who sits still and sayes nothing as though he had no mouth at all A most Rabbinical allusion At night they eat but little continually sitting upon the ground if any thing then it must be an egge rosted which they do likewise in signe of sorrow for as an egge is round and in figure circular so is sorrow also running after the manner of a round body now to this man now to that Bed-time being come they lay themselves to rest upon a harder couch then at other times He that formerly used two pillows is now content with one He that formerly used one only casts it away and will not admit of any for soft feather and down-bed they embrace some bone pinching mattress and for sheets of the choisest lawne those which are hurden The fourth fast which is the fast of the seventh moneth is kept upon the third day of September because that good and excellent man Gedaliah which was by Nebuchadnezar set over the remnant of the Jews that were left of the captivity of Babylon was in a miserable and fraudulent manner slain as upon this day as Jeremy the Prophet beareth witness These are the foure general feasts usually kept by the Jews in the dayes of Zachary and also by the dispâ—rsed remnant yearly in these our times Besides these general fasts they have some more particular not kept by the whole Congregation of Israel in general but by every one apart at certain times according as they desire to become holy and religious Thus some of them fast every munday and thursday through the year as that proud Pharisee whereof our Saviour makes mention in the new Testament who bragged and boasted that he fasted twice every week Secondly some use to fast upon the tenth of March for Miriam the Prophetess who died upon this day upon whose departure the fountains in the wilderness did dry up so that the children of Israel wanted water and sinned in murmuring against the Lord yet many of the Rabbines are against this fast that every one ought to abstain from fasting in the moneth of March because therein God wrought their deliverance out of Egypt the remembrance whereof ought to cheer them up to joy and gladness Thirdly they fast for the most part upon the tenth of April because Eli and his sons died upon this day the Arke of the Covenant was taken by the hands of the Philistines and the glory departed from Israel Fourthly many of them fast upon the twenty eighth day of April because Samuel died thereupon They have also diverse other fasts which they keep by reason such wise men and Prophets changed this life for a better upon those dayes whereon they observe and keep them Some fast also upon every evening of the new moone Others so often as they have any fearful and unfortunate dreams He whose father is dead fasts yearly upon the day whereon he departed this life And many such like causes there are for which they abstain from meat at several times When they fast they abstain from all kinds of meat and drink from morning untill the stâ—s appear which were a true and laudable fast indeed if it were performed with a devout heat and minde in the fear of God and refeâ—red to that end which the Scripture prescribes But this kinde of fasting noâ— of the Prophets could never by the hammer of perswasion beat into their hearts and heads It is written in Medrasch rabba in the Chapter vezos habbetachah that ever and anon so soon as Moses saw that God would inflict some punishment upon him he appointed himself a fast making himself a cheese-cake as big as his own body put on sackloth sprinkled ashes on his head and going into the foresaid pie or cheese-cake fasting and praying without intermission did determine not to depart thence untill God had reversed and made void the sentence pronounced against him This fable smels of the Talmud in which it is written that a certain godly and religious Jew called Chon Hammagal did fast after the manner of Moses so often as he desired some great and weighty matter at the hands of God When upon a certain time it had not rained at any time throughout the whole moneth of February and rain was necessary that men might receive the fruits of the earth in due season the foresaid Chon fasted and prayed shutting himself up in such a pie or cake as in close prison and saying O Lord of the world thy childrens eyes are all upon me knowing that I am as dear unto thee as any son can be to a father I swear therefore by thy holy name that I will not goe out hence untill thou have mercy upon thy people Then the Lord sent a gracious rain upon his inheritance Habbacuck the Prophet also practised the like and hereupon he saith I will stand upon my watch tower and set me upon the tower and will look and see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer to him that rebuketh me that is to say I stand in my pie or chees-cake expecting untill thou make me answer how it comes to pass that the wicked do so prolong their life as Rabbi Kimchi comments upon the place So miserable are these poor seduced Jews in this manner deluded and given over to a reprobate sence so that they cannot blush at any thing neither are sensible of any gripes of conscience while they speak so grosly and vainly of God and his word interpret the Scripture according to the fancies of their brain and their own good pleasure This superstition and abuse in fasting had a strong head even in the dayes of the Prophets Whereupon Zachary reproves their false fast and prescribes the true for to the priests and people asking him Shall I weep in the fift moneth and separate my self as I have done these many years He answers in Gods name and saith when you fasted and mourned in the seventh moneth and in the fift even these seventy years did ye fast unto me and do I approve it And when you did eat and when you did drink did you not eat for your selves and drink for your selves should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the ministry of the former Prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity and the cities thereof round about her when the south and the plain was inhabited Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying execute true judgment and shew mercy and compassion every man upon his brother and oppress not
out a place for his ingresse with an Hatchet he is forced to stand up to the chin in the water so long as an Egge may be made hard rosted In Summer time he is compelled to sit naked in an heap of Pismires where although he be so naked that he hath not the least rag upon him yet are his ears and nostrils stopped his penance ended he washeth himself with cold water If the season be neither hot nor cold in which he is to suffer punishment then they appoint him a certain time of fasting for the space whereof he must not eat unlesse it be very late at night at what time they give him some small portion of bread and water and this they practise until the time come when he may either stand in cold water or sit amongst an heap of Pismires It is written in Medrasch that the first man Adam stood in the water up to the nostrils an hundred and thirty years before he begot Seth for eating of the forbidden fruit If the punishment seem to be lesse then the offence requires then they compel him in the Summer time to run through the middle of a thick swarm of Bees which may lance and sting his body until the bulk thereof by reason of the anguish swell again And so soon as he is cured of the said malady he must again run through the foresaid swarm of Bees and that more then once according to his desert If he have often committed fornication and adultery then for many years he must continually suffer the said punishment Such a Fast is sometimes enjoyned such an offender that for the space of three years he must fast night and day not eating any thing unless it be at supper when his daintiest fare must be bread and water onely this qualification is annexed that he may chuse whether he will perform the forementioned injunction or otherwise fast three whole dayes in every one of the three years not tasting the least morsel of bread or drop of water As Queen Esther did in her great and extream necessity and commanded the Jews to practise the same If any go in unto a woman at unfitting time he is enjoyned to fast forty dayes and every day to have his back twice or thrice soundly lashed with a lethern whip and thirty nine stripes to be given him He must not eat any flesh or hot meats drink no wine unlesse it be upon the Sabbath day If any kiss or embrace a woman being in her monethly flowers he must undergo the same punishment A Robber is adjudged to a three years exile as also that wandering through every City where any Jews do sojourn he should with a loud voice proclaim Rotzeach Ani I am a Robber and expose himself to the lash He must not eat flesh nor drink wine He must not cut his hair or beard nor put on any clean lineâ— or change of garments It is not lawful for him to wash his hands every moneth once he is bound to cover his head and to binde the arm wherewith he acted the murther thereunto with an Iron Chain and so to deplore the offence committed in the sight of the Iews Some have this punishment inflicted upon them that if they sleep one night they should watch the next and so become vagabonds upon the face of the earth as Cain was Others are compelled to wear plaits of Iron upon their naked skin Others forced to prostrate themselves before the door of the Synagogue that every incommer may tread upon If any Jew accuse another and bring him before a Christian Magistrate or divulge his wickednesse and evil actions then is he called a traytor Others inflict some grievous punishment upon him and from thenceforth esteem him as a man of no account and reckoning CHAP. XXXV Touching the burial of the Jews and how they are bewailed and lamented of their living Friends and Kinsfolks WHen any Jew is visited with sickness then the learned Rabbines come diligently to visit and comfort him which they esteem as a good and precious work If any be sick unto death he sends for his nearest Kinsfolks and other of the learned crew If the sick person be rich then in the first place they barter with him about his temporal estate if poor they spare their labour They seriously exhort him to a constant perseverance in their faith First of all catechising him whether he believes the Messias is yet for to come He is also bound to make a confession of his sins upon his death-bed the form whereof is this I confesse before thee my Lord and God the God of my fathers the Lord of all creatures that health and sicknesse are in thy hand I pray and beseech thee to restore me to my former health and being mindful of me to hear my prayer as thou heardest the prayer of King Hezekiah when he was sick But if my appointed time be come then let this my death be the remission of all my sins which I have committed either out of ignorance or wantonness since the day that I was born Grant that I may have a part in paradise and in that world to come that is reserved for the just Grant that I may know the way of life everlasting Satisfie me with the joy of the excelling countenance by thy right hand for ever more Blessed be thou O God who hearest my prayer Their final comfort is that temporal death a debt to corrupt nature may be a reconciliation for all their sins and that God is bound to remit their sins because they undergoe this death Alass who can but perceive what peace such poor comfort can afford to a loaden conscience When he is giving up the Ghost then all the by-standers whether kinsfolke or strangers rent their garments yet this they doe in the skirts thereof where the rent being but a hands breadth can doe no great hurt they deplore and lament the man departed seven dayes after the example of Joseph who mourned for his father for the same space and for the renting of their garments they produce that Scripture Jacob rent his garmants and put sackcloth upon his loines and lamented his son many dayes As soon as he is dead they cast forth all the water in the house into the streets cover his face that from thenceforth none may behold it Then they take his thumbe and by wresting of it into the palme of his hand make it to represent the name Schaddai which is so great a terrour to the devil that he dare not approach the dead corps They binde his thumb with the threads and stringes of his own coat which otherwise would not remain crooked For it is ordinary for a dead man alwayes to stretch out his hands and fingers thereby signifying that he hath left the world and that there is nothing in it which he can now lay challenge unto as on the contrary the little infants at their birth have their hands