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
shall be blessed in Abraham and in his seed not onely spiritually and in the knowledge of the one first cause but also that at this time they shall enjoy temporall and earthly blessings by vertue of that promise And so in the time of the second temple they offered up sacrifice for their confederate nations as may appear by these ensuing instances In Megilat Tahanit cap. 9. it is reported that when Alexander the great at the instigation of the Samaritans that inhabited mount Gerizim went with a resolution to destroy the temple Simeon the just met him in the way and amongst divers reasons that he urged to divert him from his purpose told him this is the place where we pray unto God for the welfare of your self and of your kingdome that it may not be destroyed and shall these men perswade you to destroy this place The like we find in the first book of the Maccabees cap. 7.33 and in Iosephus his Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 17. when Demetrius had sent Nicanor the Generall of his army against Jerusalem the Priests with the Elders of the people went forth to salute him and to shew him the sacrifice which they offered up to God for the welfare of the King In the same history lib. 2.3 and in Josephus Gorionides lib. 3. cap. 16. we may read that Heliodorus Generall to Selencus came to Jerusalem with the same intent Onias the High-priest besought him not to destroy that place where they prayed to God for the prosperity of the King and his issue and for the conservation of his kingdome In the first Chapter of Baruch the disciple of Jeremiah we find that the Iewes who were first carried captive into Babylon with Iechonias made a collection of money according to every ones power and sent it to Jerusalem saying Behold we have sent you money wherewith ye shall buy offerings and pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar and for the life of Baltasar his sonne that their dayes may be upon earth as the dayes of heaven and that God would give us strength and lighten our eyes that we may live under their shadow that we may long do them service and find favour in their sight The Iewes in Asia did the same as is reported by Josephus Gorionides lib. 3. cap. 4. they sent letters with a present to Hircanus the High-priest desiring that prayers might be made for the life of Augustus Caesar and his companion Marcus Antonius Philo Judaeus in the book of his Embassage to Caius making mention of a letter which Caius sent requiring his statue to be set up in the sacred temple and Agrippa's answer thereupon unto the said Emperour reports that there were these words in it viz. The Iewes sacrifice for the prosperity of your Empire and that not onely upon their solemn feasts but also every day The like is recorded by Josephus lib. 2. cap. 9. De bello Judaico the Iewes said to Petronius Generall to the Emperour Caius we daily offer up burnt offerings unto God for the peace of the Emperour and the whole people of Rome And in his second book against Apion he sayes we Hebrews have allwayes accustomed to honour Emperours with particular sacrifices Neither was this service ever entertained unthankfully as appears by the decree of Cyrus Ezra 6.3 where also Darius commands that of the Kings goods even of the tribute expences should be â—orth-with given unto the Elders of the Iewes c. and that which they had need of both young bullocks and rammes and lambs for the burnt-offerings of the Lord of heaven and wheat salt wine and oyl c. that they might offer sacrifices of a sweet savour unto the God of heaven and pray for the life of the King and of his sonnes The same also was commanded afterwards by Artaxerxes who also conferred liberally many large gifts as well towards the building of the temple as the maintaining of the sacrifices As for Alexander the great he lighted down out of his chariot and bowed himself at the feet of the High-priest desiring him to offer up sacrifice to God on his behalf And who can be ignorant of Ptolomy Philadelphus how richly he endowed the temple as is recorded by Aristeas Nor did Antiochus king of the Greeks unlike this when by a publick edict he forbid that any stranger should enter the temple to prophane that place which the Hebrews had consecrated to religion and divine worship Josephus lib. 12. cap. 3. Demetrius did the like Josephus lib. 13. cap. 5.6 To which may be added that when they of Ierusalem contended with them of Samaria about the honour and dignity of the temple before Alexander the great the Ierusalem Priest in his plea urged that this temple was ever had in great reverenee by all the Kings of Asia and by them enricht with sundry splendid and magnificent gifts In the second book of Iosephus against Apion we read that Ptolomy Euergetes when he had conquered Syria offered up Eucharisticall sacrififices not to idols and false Gods but to the true God at Ierusalem according to the manner of the Iewes Pompey the great as is mentioned by Iosephus de bello Iudaico lib. 1. cap. 5. durst not spoyl no nor so much as touch the treasures of the temple not because as Tully in his Oration for Plancius supposeth to whom Augustine in his book de civitate Dei assentos he feared lest he might be thought too avaritious for this seems in comparison very ridiculous and childish for military law would soon have acquitted him for this but because of the reverence to the place with which his mind was so affected Philo Iudaeus p. 102. 6. relates a letter of Agrippa's where he writes that Augustus Caesar had the temple in so great reverence that he commanded a sacrifice of one bullock and two lambs to be offered up every day out of his own revenues And his wife Iulia Augusta adorn'd it with golden cups and basons and many other costly gifts Neither did Cleopatra Queen of Egypt fall short of her liberallity Tiberius throughout the 22 years of his Empire commanded sacrifices to be offered up unto God out of his own tribute The like did Nero till the unadvised rashnesse of Eleazar in refusing his sacrifice alienated the mind of the Emperour that he became the cause of a bloudy persecution And by all this we may the better interpret that 11 verse of the 1. chap. of Malachy who flourisht in the second temple The words are From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen saith the Lord of hosts For besides that the heathens termed the the temple the house of the great God Ezra 5.8 they and their Monarchs and Emperours both of Persia Grece and Rome desired as we have heard to have
Kings and Princes And this is especially done in the Synagogue by the Iewes Priests thrice a day I pray let such as love the truth see the Talmud in the quoted place and they shall find nothing of that which is objected onely there is recited in the said fourth Chapter the daily prayer which speaks of Minim that is Hereticks ordained in Tabne that is a town not farre from Ierusalem between Gath and Gazim c. the Talmud hath no more Hence Sixtus Senensis by distillation draws forth the foresaid calumnie when as what the Talmud rehearseth briefly to be made onely by the wise men in the said Town he saith was a constitution in the Talmud long after Now let us see what was done by those wise men in the said Town and let us examine whether that may justly offend the Christians There is in the daily prayers a certain Chapter where it is thus written la-Mumarim c. that is For Apostates let there be no hope let all Hereticks be destroyed and all thine enemies and all that hate thee let them perish And thou shalt root out the kingdome of pride forthwith weaken and put it out and in our dayes This whole Chapter speaketh nothing of Christians originally but of the Iewes who fell in those times to the Zaduces and Epicureans and to the Gentiles as Moses of Egypt saith Tract Tephila cap. 2. For by Apostates and Hereticks are not to be understood all men that are of a diverse religion or heathens or Gentiles but those renegado Iewes who did abrogate the whole Law of Moses or any Articles received thence and such are properly by us called Hereticks For according to the Law of Christians he is not properly an Apostate or Heritick who is originally bred a scholler and a candid follower from his youth of a diverse law and so continueth otherwise native Iewes and Hagarens and other Nations that are no Christians nor ever were should be be properly called Apostates and Hereticks in respect of Christians which is absurd as it is absurd for the Iewes to call the Christians Apostates or Hereticks Wherefore it speaketh nothing of Christians but of the fugitive Iewes that is such as have deserted the standard or the sacred Law 2. Lastly neither the kingdomes nor kings that are Christians or Hagarens or followers of other Sects are cursed here but namely the kingdome of Pride Certain it is that in that time wherein our wise men added to the daily Prayers the foresaid Chapter there was no kingdome of Christians what therefore that kingdome of pride was should any man ask who can plainly shew it So much as we can conjecture by it it is the kingdome of the Romans which then flourished which did rule over all Nations tyrannically and proudly especially over the Iewes For after that Vespasian with his son Titus had dissipated all Iudea And though som Roman Emperours after that became Christians or had a good opinion of Christianity yet the kingdome of the Romans was heathenish and without distinction was proud and tyrannicall And however the Iewes repeated the same words of the prayer when the Prince was very good and they lived under a just government that they did onely of an ancient custome without any malice to the present government And now truly in all their books printed again the foresaid words are wanting lest they should now be unjustly objected against the Iewes and so for Apostates and Hereticks they say secret accusers or betrayers of the Iewes And for the kingdome of pride they substitute all Zedim that is proud men 3. After this manner to avoid scandall did the 72 Interpreters who coming in Leviticus to unclean beasts in the place of Arnebeth which signifies the Hare they put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is rough foot leaving the Name and keeping the sense They would not retein the Hebrew word Arnebeth as they have done in some other appellatives lest the wife of Ptolomy whose name was Arnebet should think that the Iewes had mocked her if they should have placed her name amongst the unclean beasts Neither would they render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lagoon or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lagon which in the Greek language signifies a Hare lest Ptolomy himself who was the son and nephew of the Lagi should be offended to see the name of his family registred among the creatures that were unclean Besides Plutarch records how that it was deeply resented as a very high affront and contempt when one asked Ptolomy who was Lagus his father as if it scoffingly reflected upon his obscure extraction and descent 4. The very like calumnie fell out concerning the very same Chapter of our Prayer when Mulet Zidan reigned in Morocco A certain fugive Iew to shew himself constant in the Mahumetan Religion and an enemy to his own Nation accused the Iewes before this king saying that they prayed to God for his destruction when they mention in their prayers all Zedim as though they would have all the Family of Zidan destroyed They excused themselves with the truth and affirmed in praying against Zedim that they prayed onely against proud men as that word in their Hebrew language properly signifieth and not against his Majesty The King admitted of their excuse but said unto them that because of the equivocation of the word they should change it for another 5. For certain the Iewes give no occasion that any Prince or Magistrate should be offended with them but contrariwise as it seems to me they are bound to love them to defend and protect them For by their Law and Talmud and the inviolable custome of the dispersed Iewes every where upon every Sabbath day and in all yearly solemnities they have prayers for Kings and Princes under whose Government the Iewes live be they Christians or of other Religions I say by their Law as Ieremiah ch 29. commandeth viz. Seek ye the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives and pray for them unto the Lord c. By the Talmud ord 4. Tract 4. Abodazara cap. 1. there is a prayer for the peace of the Kingdome from custome never intermitted of the Iewes Wheresoever they are on the Sabbath day and their annuall solemnities the Minister of the Synagogue before he blesseth the people of the Iewes doth with a loud voice blesse the Prince of the country under whom they live that all the Iewes may hear it and they say Amen You have seen the Form of the prayer in the book entitled The humble Addresses 6. In like manner the ancients observe that whereas God commands in Numbers 29.13 that seventy bullocks should be sacrificed upon the seven dayes of the feast of tabernacles that this was in respect of the seventy nations who shall one day come up to Ierusalem year after year to keep this feast of tabernacles Zechar. 14.16 for whose conservation they also sacrificed For they say that all the nations of the earth
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