what end was he first circumcised If it shall be said it was out of hatred to the Christians it appears rather to the contrary that it proceeded from detestation of the Iewes or of them who had newly become proselytes to embrace the Iewes religion Surely this supposed pranck storied to be done in popish times looks more like a piece of the reall scene of the Popish Spaniards piety who first baptiz'd the poor Indians and afterwards out of cruel pity to their souls inhumanely butchered them then of strict-law-observing Iewes who dare not make a sport of one of the seales of their covenant 11. Our captivity under the Mahumetans is farre more burdensome and grievous then under the Christians and so our ancients have said it is better to inhabit under Edom then Ismael for they are a people more civill and rationall and of a better policie as our nation have found experimentally For excepting the nobler and better sort of Iewes such as live in the Court of Constantinople the vulgar people of the Iewes that are dispersed in other countries of the Mahumetan Empire in Asia and Africa are treated with abundance of contempt and scorn It would therefore follow that if this sacrificing of children be the product and result of hatred that they should execute and disgorge it much more upon the Mahumetans who have reduced them to so great calamity and misery So that if it be necessary to the celebration of the Passeover why do they not as well kill a Mahumetan But although the Iewes are scattered and dispersed throughout all those vast territories notwithstanding all their despite against us they never yet to this day forged such a calumnious accusation Wherefore it appeares plainly that it is nothing else but a slander and such a one that considering how the scene is laid I cannot easily determine whether it speak more of malice or of folly certainly Sultan Selim made himself very merry with it when the story was related him by Moses Amon his chief Physicyan 12. If all that which hath been said is not of sufficient force to wipe off this accusation because the matter on our part is purely negative and so cannot be cleared by evidence of witnesses I am constrained to use another way of argument which the Lord blessed for ever hath prescribed Exod. 22. which is an oath wherefore I swear without any deceit or fraud by the most high God the creatour of heaven and earth who promulged his law to the people of Israel upon mount Sinai that I never yet to this day saw any such custome among the people of Israel and that they doe not hold any such thing by divine precept of the law or any ordinance or institution of their wise men and that they never committed or endeavoured such wickednesse that I know or have credibly heard or read in any Jewish Authours and if I lie in this matter then let all the curses mentioned in Leviticus and Deuteronomy come upon me let me never see the blessings and consolations of Zion nor attain to the resurrection of the dead By this I hope I may have proved what I did intend and certainly this may suffice all the friends of truth and all faithfull Christians to give credit to what I have here averred And indeed our adversaries who have been a little more learned and consequently a little more civill then the vulgar have made a halt at this imputation Iohn Hoornbeek in that book which he lately writ against our nation wherein he hath objected against us right or wrong all that he could any wayes scrape together was notwithstanding ashamed to lay this at our door in his Prolegomena pag. 26. where he sayes An autem verum sit quod vulg ò in historiis legatur c. i.e. whether that be true which is commonly read in histories to aggravate the Iewes hatred against the Christians or rather the Christians against the Iewes that they should annually upon the preparation of the Passeover after a cruell manner sacrifice a Christian child privily stollen in disgrace and contempt of Christ whose passion and crucifixion the Christians celebrate I will not assert for truth as well knowing how easy it was for those times wherein these things are mentioned to have happen'd especially after the Inquisition was set up in the Popedome to forge and fain and how the histories of those ages according to the affection of the writers were too too much addicted and given unto fables and figments Indeed I have never yet seen any of all those relations that hath by any certain experiment proved this fact for they are all founded either upon the uncertain report of the vulgar or else upon the secret accusation of the Monks belonging to the inquisition not to mention the avarice of the informers wickedly hanquering after the Iewes wealth and so with ease forging any wickednesse For in the first book of the Sicilian constitutions tit 7. we see the Emperour Frederick saying Si vero Iudaeus vel Saracenus sit in quibus prout certò perpendimus Christiano cum persecutio minus abundat ad praesens but if he be a Iew or a Saracen against whom as we have weighed the persecution of the Christians do much abound c. thus taxing the violence of certain Christians against the Iewes Or if perhaps it hath sometimes happened that a Christian was kill'd by a Iew we must not therefore say that in all places where they inhabit they annually kill a Christian Child And for that which Thomas Cantipratensis lib. 2. cap. 23. affirms viz. that it is certainly known that the Iewes every year in every province cast lots what city or town shall afford Christian bloud to the other cities I can give it no more credit then his other fictions and lies wherewith he hath stuffed his book Thus farre Iohn Hoornbeek 13. Notwithstanding all this there are not wanting some histories that relate these and the like calumnies against an afflicted people For which cause the Lord saith He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of my eye Zach. 2.6 I shall cursolarily mention some passages that have occurred in my time whereof I say not that I was an eye witnesse but onely that they were of generall report and credence without the least contradiction I have faithfully noted both the names of the persons the places where and the time when they happened in my continuation of Flavius Josephus I shall be the lesse curious therefore in reciting them here In Vienna the Metropolis of Austria Frederick being Emperour there was a pond frozen according to the cold of those parts wherein three boyes as it too frequently happens were drowned when they were missed the imputation is cast upon the Jewes and they are incontinently indicted for murthering of them to celebrate their Passeover And being imprisoned after infinite prayers and supplications made to no effect three hundred of them were burnt when the pond thawd these
great probability of obtaining what I now request whilst they affirmed that at this time the minds of men stood very well affected towards us and that our entrance into this Island would be very acceptable and well-pleasing unto them And from this beginning sprang up in me a semblable affection and desire of obtaining this purpose For for seven yeares on this behalf I have endeavoured and sollicited it by letters and other means without any intervall For I conceived that our universall dispersion was a necessary circumstance to be fulfilled before all that shall be accomplished which the Lord hath promised to the people of the Iewes concerning their restauration and their returning again into their own land according to those words Dan. 12.7 When he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people all these things shall be finished As also that this our scattering by little and little should be amongst all people from the one end of the earth even unto the other as it is written Deut. 28.64 I conceived that by the end of the earth might be understood this Island And I knew not but that the Lord who often works by naturall meanes might have design'd and made choice of me for the brsnging about this work With these proposalls therefore I applyed my self in all zealous affection to the English Nation congratulating their glorious liberty which at this day they enjoy together with their prosperous peace And I entituled my book named The hope of Israel to the first Parliament and the Council of State And withall declared my intentions In order to which they sent me a very favourable passe-port Afterwards I directed my self to the second and they also sent me another But at that juncture of time my coming was not presently performed for that my kindred and friends considering the checquered and interwoven vicissitudes and turns of things here below embracing me with pressing importunity earnestly requested me not to part from them and would not give over till their love constrained me to promise that I would yet a while stay with them But notwithstanding all this I could not be at quiet in my mind I know not but that it might be through some particular divine providence till I had anew made my humble addresses to his Highnesse the Lord Protector whom God preserve And finding that my coming over would not be altogether unwelcome to him with those great hopes which I conceived I joyfully took my leave of my house my friends my kindred all my advantages there and the country wherein I have lived all my life time under the benign protection and favour of the Lords the States Generall and Magistrates of Amsterdam in fine I say I parted with them all and took my voyage for England Where after my arrivall being very courteously received and treated with much respect I presented to his most Serene Highnesse a petition and some desires which for the most part were written to me by my brethren the Iewes from severall parts of Europe as your worship may better understand by former relations Whereupon it pleased his Highnesse to convene an Assembly at White hall of Divines Lawyers and Merchants of different perswasions and opinions Whereby mens judgements and sentences were different Insomuch that as yet we have had no finall determination from his most Serene Highnesse Wherefore those few Iewes that were here despairing of our expected successe departed hence And others who desired to come hither have quitted their hopes and betaken themselves some to Italy some to Geneva where that Commonwealth hath at this time most freely granted them many and great priviledges Now O most high God to thee I make my prayer even to thee the God of our Fathers Thou who hast been pleased to stile thy self the keeper of Israel Thou who hast graciously promised by thy holy Prophet Ieremiah cap. 31. that thou wilt not cast off all the seed of Israel for all the evill that they have done thou who by so many stupendious miracles didst bring thy people out of Egypt the land of bondage and didst lead them into the holy land graciously cause thy holy influence to descend down into the mind of the Prince who for no private interest or respect at all but onely out of commiseration to our affliction hath inclined himself to protect and shelter us for which extraordinary humanity neither I my self nor my nation can ever expect to be able to render him answerable and sufficient thanks and also into the minds of his most illustrious and prudent Council that they may determine that which according to thine infinite wisdome may be best and most expedient for us For men O Lord see that which is present but thou in thy omnisciencie seest that which is afarre off And to the highly honoured nation of England I make my most humble request that they would read over my arguments impartially without prejudice and devoid of all passion effectually recommending me to their grace and favour and earnestly beseeching God that he would be pleased to hasten the time promised by Zephaniah wherein we shall all serve him with one consent after the same manner and shall be all of the same judgement that as his name is one so his fear may be also one and that we may all see the goodnesse of the Lord blessed forever and the consolations of Zion Amen and Amen From my study in London April the 10. in the year from the creation 5416. and in the year according to the vulgar account 1656. As to give satisfaction to your worship being desirous to know what books have been written and printed by me or else are almost ready for the presse may you please to take the names of them in this Catalogue A Catalogue of such books as have been published by Menasseh Ben Israel in Hebrew NIsmachaim four Books concerning the Immortality of the soul wherein many notable and pleasant Questions are discussed and handled as may be seen by the Arguments of the particular Chapters prefixed to the book in Latine dedidicated to the then Emperour Ferdinand the third Pene Rabba upon Rabot of the Ancient Rabbins in Latine and Spanish Conciliatoris pars prima in Pentateuchum De Resurrectione mortuorum libri tres Problemata de creatione De termino vitae De fragilitate humana ex-lapsu Adami deque divino in bonâ— opere auxilio Spes Israelis This is also in English Orationes panegyricae quarum una ad Illustrissimum principem Aurantium altera ad serenissimam reginam Sueciorum in Spanish onely Conciliator the second part upon the first Prophets the third part upon the later Prophets the fourth part upon the Hagiographa Humas or the Pentateuch with the severall precepts in the margin Thesoro de los dirim five books of the rites and ceremonies of the Iewes in two Volumes Humas the Pentateuch with a commentarie Piedra pretiosa of Nebuchadnezzar's image or the fifth Monarchy Laus or ationes del anno the Iewes prayers for the whole year translated out of the originall Books ready for the Presse De cultu Imaginum contra Pontificios Latine Sermois Sermons in the Portugal tongue Loci communes Omnium Midrasim which contains the divinity of the ancient Rabbins in Hebrew Bibliotheca Rabbinica together with the arguments of their books and my judgement upon their severall editions Phocylides in Spanish verse cum Notis Hippocratis Aphorismi in Hebrew Flavius Iosephus adversus Apionem in Hebrew ejusdem Monarchia rationis in Hebrew Refutatio libri cui titulus Praeadamitae Historia sive continuatio Flavii Josephi ad haec usque tempora De divinitate legis Mosaicae De scientia Talmudistarum in singulis facultatibus Philosophia Rabbinica De disciplinis Rabbinorum Nomenclator Hebraius Arabicus I have also published and printed with my own presse above 60 other books amongst which are many bibles in Hebrew and Spanish with all our Hebrew prayers corrected and disposed in good order FINIS
such a thing as I believe never any Iew did so yet this were great cruelty to punish a whole nation for one mans wickednesse 21. But why should I use more words about this matter seeing all that is come upon us was foretold by all the prophets Moses Deut. 28.61 Moreover every sicknesse and every plague which is not written in the book of this law them will the Lord bring upon thee c. because thou hast not hearkned to the voice of the Lord thy God David in the 44. Psalm makes a dolefull complaint of those evils and ignominious reproaches wherewith we are invironed round about in this captivity as if we were the proper center of misery saying For thy sake are we killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter The same he speaks Psalm 74. and in other Psalms Ezekiel more particularly mentions this calumnie God bles-for ever promising Chap. 36.13 that in time to come the devouring of men or the eating of mans bloud shall be no more imputed to them according to the true and proper exposition of the learned Don Isaac Abarbanel The blessed God according to the multitude of his mercies will have compassion upon his people and will take away the reproach of Israel from off the earth that it may be no more heard as is prophesied by Isaiah and let this suffice to have spoken as to this point THE SECOND SECTION YOur worship desired joyntly to know what ceremony or humiliation the Iewes use in their Synagogues toward the book of the Law for which they are by some ignorantly reputed to be idolaters I shall answer it in Order First the Iewes hold themselves bound to stand up when the book of the Law written upon parchment is taken out of the desk utill it is opened on the pulpit to shew it to the people and afterwards to be read We see that observed in Nehemias cap. 8.6 where it is said And when he had opened it all the people stood up and this they do in reverence to the word of God and that sacred Book For the same cause when it passeth from the desk toward the pulpit all that it passeth by bow down their heads a little with reverence which can be no idolatry for these following reasons First it is one thing adorare viz. to adore and another venerari viz. to worship For Adoration is forbidden to any creature whether Angelicall or Earthly but Worship may be given to either of them as to men of a higher rank commonly stiled worshipfull And so Abraham who in his time rooted out vain idolatry humbled himself and also prostrated himself before those three guests which then he entertained for Men. As also Iosuah the holy Captain of the people did prostrate himself to another Angel which with a sword in his hand made him afraid at the gates of Iericho Wherefore if those were just men and if we are obliged to follow their example and they were not reprehended for it it is clear that to worship the Law in this manner as we do can be no idolatry Secondly The Iewes are very scrupulous in such things and and fear in the least to appear to give any honour or reverence to images And so it is to be seen in the Talmud and in R. Moses of Egypt in his Treatise of idolatry That if by chance any Israelite should passe by a Church that had images on the out side and at that time a thorn should run into his foot he may not stoop to pull it out because he that should see him might suspect he bowed to such an image Therefore according to this strictnesse if that were any appearance of idolatry to bow to the Law the Iewes would utterly abhorre it and since they do it it is an evident sign that it is none Thirdly to kisse images is the principall worship of idolatry as God saith in the 1 of Kings 19.19 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth that hath not kissed him But if that were so it would follow that all men who kisse the Testament after they are sworn should be idolaters But because that is not so since that act is but a simple worship by the same reason it will follow that to bow the head cannot be reputed for idolatry Fourthly Experience sheweth that in all Nations the ceremonies that men use mutually one towards another is to bow the head And also there are degrees thereof according to the quality of the person with whom they speak which shew that in the opinion of all nations it is no idolatry and therefore much lesse to reverence the Law with bowing of the body Fifthly In Asia and it is the same almost in all the world the people receiving a decree or order of the king they take it and kisse it and set it upon the head We owe much more to Gods word and to his divine Commandments Sixthly Ptolomeus Philadelphus receiving the 72 Interpreters with the book of the Law into his presence he rose from his seat and prostrating himself seven times worshipped it as Aristaeus assures us If a Gentile did this to a law which he thought did not oblige him much more do we owe reverence to that Law which was particularly given unto us Seventhly The Israelites hold for the Articles of their Faith that there is a God who is one in most simple unity eternall incorporeall who gave the written Law unto his people Israel by the hand of Moses the Prince and chief of all the Prophets whose Providence takes care for the world which he created who takes notice of all mens works and rewardeth or punisheth them Lastly that one day Messias shall come to gather together the scattered Israelites and shortly after shall be the resurrection of the dead These are their Doctrines which I believe contain not any idolatry nor yet in the opinion of those that are of other judgements For as a most learned Christian of our time hath written in a French book which he calleth the Rappel of the Iewes in which he makes the King of France to be their leader when they shall return to their country the Iewes saith he shall be saved for yet we expect a second coming of the same Messias and the Iewes believe that that coming is the first and not the second and by that faith they shall be saved for the difference consists onely in the circumstance of the time THE THIRD SECTION SIr I hope I have given satisfaction to your worship touching those points I shall yet further inform you with the same sincerity concerning the rest Sixtus Senensis in his Bibliothaeca lib. 2. Titulo contra Talmud and others as Biatensis Ordine 1. Tract 1. Titulo Perachot averre out of the Talmud cap. 4. that every Iew thrice a day curseth all Christians and prayeth to God to confound and root them out with their
manner of bloud and that to kill a man is directly prohibited by our law and the reasons before given are consentaneous and agreeable to every ones understanding I know it will be inquired by many but especially by those who are more pious and the friends of truth how this calumnie did arise and from whence it derived its first originall I may answer that this wickednesse is laid to their charge for divers reasons First Ruffinus the familiar friend of S. Hierome in his version of Iosephus his second book that he writ against Apion the Grammarian for the Greek text is there wanting tells us how Apion invented this slander to gratifie Antiochus to excuse his sacriledge and justifie his perfidious dealing with the Iewes making their estates supply his wants Prophet a vero aliorum est Apion c. Apion is become a Prophet and said that Antiochus found in the temple a bed with a man lying upon it and a table set before him furnished with all dainties both of sea and land and fowles and that this man was astonished at them and presently adores the entrance of the King as coming to succour and relieve him and prostrating himself at his knees stretching out his right hand he implores liberty whreat the King commanding him to sit down and declare who he was why he dwelt there and what was the cause of this his plentifull provision the man with sighs and tears lamentably weeps out his necessity and tells him that he is a Grecian and whilst he travelled about the province to get food he was suddenly apprehended and caught up by some strange men and brought to the temple and there shut up that he might be seen by no man but be there fatted with all manner of dainties and that these unexpected benefits wrought in him at the first joy then suspicion after that astonishment and last of all advising with the Minister that came unto him he understood that the Iewes every year at a certain time appointed according to their secret and ineffable law take up some Greek stranger and after he hath been fed delicately for the space of a whole year they bring him into a certain wood and kill him Then according to their solem rites and ceremonies they sacrifice his body and every one tasting of his intrails in the offering up of this Greek they enter into a solemn oath that they will bear an immortall feude and hatred to the Greeks And then they cast the reliques of this perishing man into a certain pit After this Apion makes him to say that onely some few dayes remained to him before his execution to desire the King that he fearing and worshipping the Grecian gods would revenge the bloud of his subjects upon the Iewes and deliver him from his approaching death This fable saith Iosephus as it is most full of all tragedy so it abounds with cruell impudence I had rather you should read the confutation of this slander there then I to write it in this place you will find it in the Geneva edition of Iosephus pag. 1066. Secondly The very same accusation and horrid wickednesse of killing children and eating their bloud was of old by the ancient heathens charg'd upon the Christians that thereby they might make them odious and incense the common people against them as appeares by Tertullian in his Apologia contra gentes Iustin Martyr in apologia 2. ad Anton. Eusebius Caesareensis l. 5. cap. 1. 4. Pineda in his Monarchia Ecclesiastica l. 11. c. 52 and many others as is known sufficiently So that the imputation of this cruelty which as to them continues onely in memory is to the very same purpose at this day charged upon the Iewes And as they deny this fact as being falsly charged upon them so in like manner do we deny it and I may say perhaps with a little more reason forasmuch as we eat not any manner of bloud wherein they do not think themselves obliged Now the reason of this slander was alwayes the covetous ambition of some who desiring to gain their wealth and possesse themselves of their estates have forg'd and introduc'd this enormous accusation to colour their wickednesse under a specious pretence of revenging their own bloud And to this purpose I remember that when I reproved a Rabbi who came out of Poland to Amsterdam for the excesse of usurie in Germany and Poland which they exacted of the Christians and told him how moderate they in Holland and in Italy were he replyed we are of necessity constrained to do so because they so often raise up false witnesses against us and levie more from us at once then we are able to get again by them in many yeares And so as experience shews it usually succeeds with our poor people under this pretext and colour 19. And so it hath been divers times men mischieving the Iewes to excuse their own wickednesse as to instance one precedent in the time of a certain King of Portugal The Lord blessed for ever took away his sleep one night as he did from King Ahashuer us and he went up into a belcony in the palace from whence he could discover the whole city and from thence the moon shining clear he espyed two men carrying a dead corps which they cast into a Iew 's yard He presently dispatches a couple of servants and commands them yet with a seeming carelesnesse they should trace and follow those men and take notice of their house which they accordingly did The next day there is a hurly burly and a tumult in the city accusing the Iewes of murder Thereupon the King apprehends these rogues and they confesse the truth and considering that this businesse was guided by a particular divine providence calls some of the wise men of the Iewes and asks them how they translate the 4. verse of the 121 Psalm and they answered Behold he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep The King replied if he will not slumber then much lesse will he sleep you do not say well for the true translation is Behold the Lord doth not slumber neither will he suffer him that keepeth Israel to sleep God who hath yet a care over you hath taken away my sleep that I might be an eye witnesse of that wickednesse which is this day laid to your charge This with many such like relations we may read in the book called Scebet Iehuda how sundry times when our nation was at the very brink of destruction for such forged slanders the truth hath discovered it self for their deliverance 20. This matter of bloud hath been heretofore discussed and disputed before one of the Popes at a full councell where it was determined to be nothing else but a mere calumnie and hereupon gave liberty to the Iewes to dwell in his countryes and gave the princes of Italy to understand the same as also Alfonso the wise King of Spain And suppose any one man had done
sacrifices and incense offered for them in Gods name 9. And let the reader be pleased further to observe that the Iewes were accustomed not onely to offer up sacrifices and prayers to God for the Emperours their friends confederates and allyes but also generally for the whole world It is the custome saith Agrippa to Caius according to Philo p. 1035. for the High-priest at the day of attonement to make a prayer unto God for all mankind beseeching him to adde unto them another year with blessing and peace The same Philo Iudaeus in his second book of Monarchy saith The priests of other nations pray unto God onely for the welfare of their own particular nations but our High-priest prayes for the happinesse and prosperity of the whole world And in his book of sacrifices p. 836. he saith Some sacrifices are offered up for our nation and some for all mankind For the daily sacrifices twice a day viz. at morning and evening are for the obtaining of those good things which God the chief good grants unto them at those two times of the day And in like manner Iosephus in his second book against Apion saith We sacrifice and pray unto the Lord in the first place for the whole world for their prosperity and peace and afterwards more particularly for our selves forasmuch as we conceive that prayer which is first extended universally and is afterwards put up more particularly is very much acceptable unto God Which words are also related by Eusebius Caesareensis in his Praeparatio Evangelica lib. 8. cap. 2. 10. 'T is true that no outward materiall glories are perpetuall and so the temple had its period and with the paschall lamb all other sacrifices ceased But in their stead we have at this day prayer and as Hoseah speaks Cap. 14.2 For bullocks we render the calves of our lips And three times every day this is our humble supplication and request to God Fill the whole world O Lord with thy blessings for all creatures are the works of thy hands as it is written the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are ever all his works Psal 145.9 11. Yea further we pray for the conversion of the nations and so we say in these most excellent prayers upon Ros a sana and the day of attonement Our God and the God of our Fathers reign thou over the whole world in thy glory and be thou exalted over all the earth in thine excellency cause thy influence to descend upon all the inhabitants of the world in the glorious majesty of thy strength and let every creature know that thou hast created him and let every thing that is formed understand that thou hast formed it and let all that have breath in their nostrills say the Lord God of Israel reighneth and his kingdome is over all dominions And again Let all the inhabitants of the earth know and see that unto thee every knee shall bow and every tongue swear before thee O Lord our God let them bow and prostrate themselves let them give honour to the honour of thy name and let them aell take upon them the yoak of thy kingdome c. And again Put thy fear O Lord our God upon all thy works and thy dread upon all that thou hast created let all thy works fear thee and let all creatures bow down before thee and let them all make themselves one handfull that is with joynt consent to do thy will with a perfect heart c. A most worthy imitation of the wise King Solomon who after he had finished the building of the Temple in that long prayer King 1.8 was not unmindfull of the Gentiles but v. 41. he saith Moreover concerning a stranger that is not of thy people of Israel but cometh out of a farre country for thy names sake for they shall hear of thy great name and of thy strong hand and of thy stretched-out arm when he shall come and pray towards this house hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for that all people of the earth may know thy name to fear thee as do the people of Israel and that they may know that thy name is called upon this house which I have builded Where it may be observed that when the Israelite comes to pray he saith 29. and give every man hccsrding to his wayes but upon the prayer of a stranger he saith and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for And this distinction is made to this end that by the evident and apparent return and answer of their prayers all Gentiles might effectually be brought in to the truth and knowledge and fear of God as well as the Israelites 12. Moreover since the holy prophets made prayers and supplications for all men as well for the nations as the Israelites how should not we do the same for the nations among whom we inhabit as ingaged by a more especiall obligation for that we live under their favour and protection In Deuteronomy 23.7 God commands Thou shalt not abhorre an Egyptian notwithstanding the heavy burthens they afflicted us with onely because thou wast a stranger in his land because that at the first they entertained and received us into their country As on the other side Ezek. 23.11 he saith As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live We ought therefore to imitate his actions and not to hate any man upon the mere account of religion but onely to pray to the Lord for his conversion and this also without giving offence or any kind of molestation To detest or abhorre those to whom we owe that prosperity which we enjoy or who endeavour their own salvation is a thing very unworthy and ill becoming but to abhorre their vices and sins is not so It was a very excellent observation of a most wise and vertuous Lady Beruria who as it is recorded in the Talmud Berachot cap. 1. when her husband R. Meir was about to pray to God to destroy some of his perverse and froward neighbours that had no lesse grievously then maliciously vexed and molested him gave him this seasonable admonition that such a thing ought not to be done in Israel but that he should rather make his prayer that they might return and break off their sinnes by repentance ' alledging that text Psal 104.35 Let ssn be consumed out of the earth it is not said sinners but sinnes and then the wicked shall be no more 13. We have now in this Section shewn that it is a mere calumnie to imagine that we Iewes should pray to God so as to give an offence to the Christians or cause scandall by any thing in our prayers unlesse it be that we are not Christians we have declared to the contrary how we daily pray for them As also that during the temple we offered up
sacrifices for nations confedederate with us and how all Emperours desired this Yea and we offered sacrifices not onely for particular princes but for all mankind in generall How since sacrifices ceased with the temple we at this day do the same in our prayers and how we beseech God for their salvation without giving any scandall or offence in respect of religion and how we think our selves obliged to perform all this by the sacred Scripture By all which layed together I hope I have sufficiently evidenced the truth of that I have asserted THE FOURTH SECTION BY consequence the accusation of Buxtorphius in his Bibliotheca Rabbinorum can have no appearance of truth concerning that which he puts upon us viz. that we are blasphemers I will set down the Prayer it self We are bound to praise the Lord of all things to magnifie him who made the world for that he hath not made us as the Nations of the earth nor hath he placed us as the families of the earth nor hath he made our condition like unto theirs nor our lot according to all their multitude For they humble themselves to things of no worth and vanity and make their prayers to gods that cannot save them but we worship before the King of kings that is holy and blessed that stretched forth the Heavens and framed the Earth the seat of his glory is in heaven above and his divine strength in the highest of the Heavens He is our God and there is no other He is truly our King and besides him there is no other as it is writen in the Law And know this day and return into thine own heart because the Lord is God in Heaven above and upon the Earth beneath there is no other Truly in my opinion it is a very short and most excellent prayer and worthy of commendation The Sultan Selim that famous conquerour and Emperour of the Mahumetans made so much account of it that he commanded his Doctor Moses Amon who translated the Pentateuch into the Arabian and Persian languages that he should translate our prayers And when he had delivered them to him in the Turkish Tongue he said to him what need is there of so long prayers truly this one might suffice he did so highly esteem and value it This is like an other prayer which was made at that time viz. Blessed be our God who created us for his honour and separated us from those that are in errours and gave unto us a Law of truth and planted amongst us eternall life Let him open our hearts in his law and put his love in our hearts and his fear to do his will and to serve him with a perfect heart that we may not labour in vain nor beget children of perdition Let it be thy will O Lord our God and God of our Fathers that we may keep thy statutes and thy laws in this world and may deserve and live and inherit well and that we may attain the blessing of the world to come that so we may sing to thy honour without ceasing O Lord my God I will praise thee for ever But neither the one nor the other is a blasphemy or malediction against any other Gods for these reasons following 1. It is not the manner of the Iewes by their law to curse other gods by name though they be of the Gentiles So in Exod. cap. 22.27 Thou shalt not revile the Gods Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Gods or God as Philo Iudaeus in libro de Monarchiâ doth interpret and not Judges as Onkelus and Ionathan translate in their Chald. Paraphr Where Philo addes this reason which is lest they hearing their own Gods blasphemed should in a revengefull way of retaliation blaspheme the true God of Israel And we have examples enough how the idolatrous heathen used to revile and defame each others Gods both in Cicero and Iuvenal And in that sense Flavius Josephus in his book written against Apion saith these words As it is our practise to observe our own and not to accuse or revile others so neither may we deride or blaspeeme those which others account to be Gods Our Law-giver plainly forbad us that by reason of that compellation Gods According to this by our own religion we dare not do that which Buxtorfius chargeth us with And upon this account the Talmudists tell us that we ought to honour and reverence not onely the Kings of Israel but all kings princes and governours in generall forasmuch as the holy Scripture gives them the stile of gods in respect of the dignity of their office 2. The time wherein these as also the other prayers were composed and ordered was in the dayes of Ezras who with 120 men amongst whom were three Prophets Haggai Zechary Malachy composed them as we have it in the Talmud Wherefore he cannot say that there is any thing intended against honour or reverence of Christ who was not born till many yeares after Moreover the Iewes since that calumny was first raised thouh that was spoken of the Gentiles and their vain gods humbling themselves to things of no worth and vanity because they desire to decline and avoid the least occasion of scandall and offence have left off to print that line and do not in some books print any part thereof As John Hoornbeek also witnesses in his fore-mentioned Prolegomena and William Dorstius in his observations upon R. David Gawz p. 269. and Buxtorf in his book of Abbreviatures And perhaps it will be worthy our observation that all these three witnesses say that it was first made known to them by one Antonius Margarita who was a Iew converted to the Christian saith That this part of the prayer was intended Contra idola Papatus against the Popish idols which they therefore as by a necessary consequence interpret as against Christ but how justly let the unprejudiced and unbiased reader judge 3. If this be so how can it be thought that in their Synagogues they name him with scornfull spitting farre be it from us The Nation of the Iewes is wise and ingenius So said the Lord Deut. cap. 4.6 The Nations shall say surely this is a wise and an understanding people Therefore how can it be supposed that they should be so bruitish in a strange land when their Religion dependeth not upon it Certainly it is much contrary to the precept we spake of to shew any resemblance of scorn There was never any such thing done as it is well known in Italy and Holland where ordinarily the Synagogues are full of Christians which with great attention stand considering and weighing all their actions and motions And truly they should have found great occasion to find fault withall if that were so But never was any man heard thus to calumniate us where ever we dwell and inhabite which is a reason sufficiently valid to clear us Wherefore I suppose that I have sufficiently informed you concerning our prayers in which we purpose