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
consequence that he is not to be worshipped for this is due to God alone as the fifth Article affirmeth and God is only a Searcher of the hearts and so was not Christ as in the 11. Article In the same manner the 6 7 8 9. Articles are placed in a diametrical opposition to the Doctrine of Christ and the whole Gospel intimating that Christ was no true Prophet nor Teacher sent from Heaven because his Doctrine was not delivered unto him out of Gods own mouth as it was to Moses and that therefore our Saviour spake many things against the Law in his sayings to the People yea was not afraid to alter many parcels thereof which ought to have remained unchangeable Furthermore if it be true that man for the integrity of his life and tracing the way of Gods Commandements as also for his owne good deeds can merit life eternal and on the contrary for his evil works and ungodliness becOms the Heir of everlasting torments in what respect I pray thee doth the passion and death of Christ any whit availe us The wheele of time hath not travised many minutes since a certaine Jew did not blush to affirm to my face that he needed not any to satisfie for his sin that it is meet every Fox should give his own skin to the Currier to be pulled off and to suffer his own hairs to be plucked out at his pleasure The tenth Article therefore whereby we professe Christ to be our Redeemer is contrary to this assertion Besides this Rambam the rest of the Jewish Nation who had any knowledge of letters in all their Books and Writings have no other scope but to make the faith of a Christian the object of suspicion and contempt Amongst whom Rabbi Joseph Alba a Spaniard challengeth the first place who writ a little Book in the yeare of Christ 1425. entituled Sepher ikkarim in which he stoutly maintains the Jewish Creed for Orthodox and sends out at randome the fiery darts of a fiery disputation against that of the Christians His Arguments are grounded upon the main Principles of the Jewish belief First upon the unity of God Essence and hence he denies the Trinity as also the Godhead of Christ Secondly upon the Law of Moses which was delivered from heaven unto him by God himself with his own mouth whence he rejects the Doctrine of Christ and the New Testament consequently intimating that Christ was a false Prophet and not the Messias hence the main of the strife and Controversies between us and the lews lieth in these two points to wit that of the Trinity and this concerning Christs person Thirdly he establisheth his Positions upon the eternal reward of good works and the endlesse punishment of evil hence despising the death and passion of our Saviour which he underwent for the sins of mankind Of the same grain is that obscene and abominable Book entituled Nitzachon written by Rabbi Sipman whose lines are such that without all doubt he committed this Book to writing in the year of Christ 1459. as it was delivered unto him from the Devils own mouth This piece he composed to falsifie the four Evangelists out of which Sebastian Munster my Predecessour and Professour of the holy tongue in this University transcribed many parcels and confuted them in his Commentary upon Saint Matthews Gospel When therefore the hard hearted and hoodwinckt Jews did with might and main indeavour to denie the faith of Christians and to brand it with falshood they shipwrackt upon the Rocks of Superstition and that in such a measure that they utterly did disanull their faith in God neither have they any knowledge to believe aright although they proudly boast of a firm and perfect faith towards God the Creatour of heaven and earth who is one in Essence from Eternity and without end yet such a faith can never be gâ—aced with the Title of the true belief when as they know not God in whom so audaciously they pretend a confidence after that manner as he hath manifested himself in his word Now the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets declare unto us the same God that the New Testament propounds though more darkly shewing that there is a Trinity in uniTy And an unity in Trinity to wit God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost yet the Jews hot without great scandal denying this Attribute to the Creatâ—ur of heaven and earth it necessarily follows that they place no belief in the true God but rather by a stupid ignorance of him and his Essence become the very emblemes of Idolatry In that they affirm that whatsoever Moses or any other of the Prophets commit to writing was altogether orthodox and that their Text is neither to be augmented or diminished that Moses was a great and famous Prophet is an established truth yet we doubt not but their understanding was subject to a monstrous depravation in this their assertion For first of all they do not onely not believe what is written in Moses and the Prophets to be true but also do prefer the Expositions of their wise men and Rabbines upon the Law and other parcels of holy Writ before Moses and the Prophets yea they esteem more of the word of a Rabbine than of Moses furthermore they account the Traditions Statues and Ordinances not as additions to the Law but for the very Law it self which Moses received from the mouth of God and taught unto others yet did not put it in writing lest the Gentiles learning it also might put it in execution for without this Declaration Moses his Law can neither be understood nor performed as we shall more at large hereafter manifest That they perswade themselves that the Law was given with this condition that nothing of it should at any time be changed they grossely mistake the Ceremoniall Law signified Christ to come which whenby his incarnation he had fulfilled shortly after the holy Temple must kisse the ground and embrace the dust the City Jerusalem and the holy things are utterly destroyed the Jews banished their own Land and dispersed among the Gentiles that at last they might understand the time already come wherein there should be but one Shepherd and one Sheepfold and that seeing the Gentiles were entered into Communion with them in belief in God the Omnipotent Creatour of heaven and earth that they were also made partakers of the treasures of the Divine word and first delivered to the Jews Likewise their error is inexcusable in making Moses the greatest Prophet thence striving to annihilate the worth of our Saviour as one who is not worthy to loose the latchet of his Shooe but blasphemously terming him a lying Doctor Experience doth convince that in this thing many of the Jewes have the lie cast in their teeth by their own convicting conscience They believe aright that in Moses and other Prophets the Messias was promised but herein their understanding is miserably perverted that they yielding to
that he would not defile himself with the portion of the Kings meat nor the wine which he drank Secondly when the City Jerusalem was taken the Temple laid wast the Jews overcome led captive and no end of their misery and bondage could be expected behold God was so bountifull to Rabbi Juda Hannafi who was the very pattern of humility piety and sanctity that thence he was called Rabbenu hakkadosch our great Master that he found so much grace and favour in the eyes of Antoninus the Emperour whose favourite he was that by his permission he called a Councel of the most learned of the Iews out of every quarter of the Empire who might consult and find out the means how that their Law might be kept safe and not perish utterly while the misforTune of the Jews might daily encrease their Learned Doctours be either killed or sent into exile The consultation came to this issue that a consideration had of the great calamity the Jews were in being dispersed over the face of the earth and again seeing it was not unlawfull to commend their Kabala unto writing that this same Rabbine should gather together in one book what ever parcell of this Law delivered by mouth remained in memory either before or after Christs time This book he entituled Mischna that is a second Law in Greek called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it contains six Principal Chapters which are again subdivided into sixty peculiar Sections or Tracts Thus much Rabbi Mikkotzi In these Sections are contained in short injunctions conclusions positions and aphorismes the Traditions and Ordinances of their Elders according to whose Rule the Jewish Synagogue was then and now ought to square their lives against which Christ the Evangelists and Apostles preached and taught yea Isa also when he calls their Doctrine the Commandements of men This book in the year of Christ 219. being confirmed as absolute and Orthodox was received and approved by the whole Synagogue of the Iews who also enacted that the Jews then living and all their posterity should live according to the tenour of it which they do even to this day as it is clearly manifest by the Hebrew Chronicle called Tzemach David Some few years after arose Rabbi Iochanan who was Rector of the University of Ierusalem for the space of fourscore years he enlarged the foresaid book and called it Talmud Hierosolymitanum or the Talmud of Ierusalem which book seemed so obscure difficult and hard to be understood that few cared for the reading of it neither was it in so great esteem as the former neither is unto this day and because this book Mischuaios was written in a decurtate and different dialect Rabbi Asse Rector of the same University after him began to explain it for his School lectures and every year ranne over two Tracts thereof in this whole time of his profession which was threescore years two times finishing his exposition In writing he onely finished thirty five Tracts as Rambam witnesseth in his Preface to the book called Zeraim he began to professe in the year of Christ 3670 Next after him in the year 427. succeeded Maremar in the Rectorship to whom Rab. Asse son to the former joyned himself they two finished that which Rabbi Asse the father had left imperfect so that the book Mischuaios was now altogether compleat that which was added they called Gemarah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a complement or perfection which together with Mischuaios made up the whole Talmud these two spent seventy three years in the consummation of their labours so that the body of the Talmud was perfected received and acknowledged for authentick in the year of Christ 500. being called the Babylonian Talmud which to this day is a rule and square unto the Jews both in their Ecclesiasticall and civil affairs This is that glorious vestment of Jacobs posterity that precious treasure of which they are the keepers delivered unto them by hearâ— say this is their genuine Perasch or Expósition yea rather as Malachi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dying upon your faces out of which the doubtfull places above mentioned may fully be resolved this is that Thorah begnal peh the Law of words of greater esteem with them then that which was written seeing this without that can by no means be understood Now because the main of their folly is not known to many of the Christian World I wil here adde what I have transcribed out of their own books Aben Ezra in his Proem upon the Pentateuch hath these words This is most infallible sign unto us that Moses grounded upon the Law delivered only by word unto him and expressed in the Talmud which Talmud is the joy and consolation of our hearts There is also no difference betwixt Law and Law being both delivered unto us by our Ancestors And in another place he writes many things to the same purpose affirming it to be impossible to come by any exposition agreeable to the nature and proprietie of the Commandements of the Law unlesse we lay for our foundation those things which our Wise-men and Rabbines have spoke and written Hence we may conclude that the faith of the Jews is not grounded upon Moses but upon the Expositions of their owne Doctors which must interpret the former as a sure foundation of it as it is further confirmed in the Book Ammude Golah called also Semak or Sepher mitzvos katon that is the little book of the Commandements printed at Cremona in Italy in the year of Christ 1556. The words are these Thou shalt not think that the written word is the Groundwork for much rather the Law delivered by mouth only which is the Talmud is the true foundation And according to this Law God made a Covenant with Israel as it is written Exod. 34. 27. and these words are Gods Treasure for God fore-saw that the Israelites in time to come should be cast out into exile and because the people of the Land in which they were strangers would copy out interpret their Books as they did the written Word God would not have this to fall under the Pen of the Scribe and although in processe of time it came to passe that this was also written yet the Christians could not comprehend the true sence thereof by reason of its difficulty and because the interpretation thereof requires an acute and sublime understanding as it is written I have written unto him the great things of my Law but they were accounted as a strange thing yet if Rabbi Isaac Ben Joseph had not been hood-winkt in superstition he might have had the eyes of his understanding so much illuminated as to have perceived that place of Hosea to point at the written word and that this Law was not as he complains vilified and had in contempt by the Gentiles but even by the Jewes themselves who had so debased it that it seemed â—nto them as an ucouth and unknown
thing as it came to passe in the dayes of Josiah the King in which the Book of the Law was for a long time lost and being found again by Hilkiah the High Priest was accounted a rare and strange novelty as it is registred in the second Book of Kings It must also follow say they that the words of Moses above mentioned according to the tenor of these words must the jews being commentators be thus understood according to the words which were heard and received out of the mouth of God the sense must be that God made a Covenant with Israel not according to the written but unwritten Law which interpretation we find in the Talmud for in the Book Tauchum in the Section Elle Toledos Noach which begins at the 9. verse of the 6. Chapter of Genesis we find it thus written Our Wise-men say that God did not write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horum verborum gratia for these words but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secundum os horum verborum according to these words which were delivered by mouth only not in writing have I made a Covenant with Israel And such are the words of the Talmud which is harsh and difficult to them that would learn it and therefore likened to darkness Esay the ninth and second where the words are The people that sate in darkness have seen a great light that is they who are much conversant in the study of the Talmud see great light for God inlightens their eyes to see how to behave themselves in respect of things permitted and not permitted clean and unclean which are not expressed to the full in the written Law A little after we read that by reason of this Covenant the World subsists because God created the day and night unto this end that the Israelites might learn the Law of Tradition or the Talmud by the benefit of them and so soon as they cease to study their Talmud day and night shall be no more Hereupon saith Jeremy If my Covenant be not with day and night and if I have not appointed the Ordinances of Heaven and Earth And what is this Covenant The Talmud saith the Jew and for this reason Jeremy a little before saith Thus saith the Lord if you can break my Covenant of the day and my covenant of the night that is when you will no longer learn and observe the Talmud then may also my Covenant be broken with David my servant Hereupon David saith in the Law of the Lord is his delight in his Law that is the Talmud will he meditate day and night Yea God himselfe hath also made a Covenant with Israel that this unwritten Law should never be subject to oblivion as it is written I saith tho Lord will make with them this Covenant my Spirit which shal come upon thee and the words that I have put into thy mouth shall never depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy children from this time for ever Here it is not written saith the Jew from thee but out of thy mouth that we might understand the unwritten Law here to be meant for the learning of which God hath placed the day and the night as two common Schools Hitherto Tanchum Moreover we read in the Sermons of Rabbi Bechai which booke he intitles Cad hakkemach a Barrel of Meale in that the six parts of the Talmud make up the Law of Tradition which is the proper foundation of the written Word considering that this without that can neither be profitably expounded nor understood Hereupon in that Tract of the Talmud called Bava meziah it is read that to study and read the Scriptures is profit and no profit to wit a small profit and not to be regarded But to learn the Talmud is an exercise worthy of a Salary and the workman shall surely receive it To commit unto memory the Gemarah which is the upshot of the Talmud is such a surpassing vertue that it admits not of an equal And this is the cause that the Jewish Rabbines and Doctors are better versed in the Talmud then the Bible I am now perswaded that I have given a full demonstration of the ground of the Jewish faith that it is not Moses but the Talmud that joy of their hearts and marrow of their bones which may put a period to the admiration of any who wonders at their blindness and superstition and they have forsaken the way of divine truth with a light heeled wantonness following the footsteps of their Ancestors in the way of lying When therfore the Divel that Father of lies for his recreation would play a game at Tick Tack with the Jews the Law of Moses being their stake he by cogging got the dice of them and would not give over till he had got the double point when he inspired into them this heart pleasing consequence Seeing the Talmud is the master point the true ground the right line according to which the written Word ought to be measured cut out squared and divided it must of necessity follow that the Doctrine of all the Rabbins should be conformable unto it as the Talmud is so true that it cannot be blemished with the least falshood so is every thing that the Rabbines do either write or teach Now that this after game or consequence did above all measure possesse the Rabbines who are such greedy hunters after glory that God and all the Prophets shall be tainted with a lie before they miss this their prey is apparent out of their following proud Luciferous speeches Rabbi Isaac who died in Portugal in the year of Christ 1493. in his Book Menoras hammaor a hath these words all that our Rabbines have taught or spoken either in their Sermons or in their mystical and allegorical Explications we believe as firmly as the Law of Moses In which if any thing be found smelling of an hyperbole or seeming clean contrary to nature and too high for the sensible faculty of any mortal we ought to ascribe it not to their words but to the defect of our understanding and although their strains be high and lofty and they seem to present unto our view things incredible yet if we rightly ballance them the truth will cast the Scales As for example we read in the Talmud that a Rabbine upon a certain time preached that the dayes shall come in which a Woman should every day bring forth grounding upon that Text she conceived and presently brought forth by presently understanding dayly which when some understood not they flouted the Rabbine and exposed him to contempt The Rabbine perceiving it answered that he spoke not after the vulgar fashion of a naturall woman but of an Hen that dayly layd an Egge an handsom put off indeed In the same place it is written all their words are the words of the living God neither shall any of them fall in vain unto the earth whereupon it is
Jehoschua that the Doctours made these eighteen short petitions having respect unto so many little bones which are in the back bone of a man which bones they ought to bend while they repeat the prayer whereupon the Prophet David saith All my bones shall say c. After these two prayers follows an evil prayer full of accusations against those Iews which have turned Christians and received baptisme as also against all other Christians and their Magistrates which I have written out word for word as it is set down in ancient Manuscripts and in them of Polonia where they dare imprint what they please and that with great audacity all fear of the Christians set aside it was thus They who are blotted out that is to say the Jews who have embraced Baptisme and turned Christians shall never more have any hope left them and all the unbelievers as well as those which have turned Apostates and fallen from the Jewish belief as in generall all other people who adhere not to the faith of the Iews shall perish in the twinckling of an eye and all thine enemies O Lord our God which bear a tyrannous hate against thee shall be suddenly coufounded and the proud and presumptuous Kingdome shall speedily be rooted out break it in pieces that it may become level with the ground and at last be utterly destroyed This particle whether through feaâ—â— or the strict injunction of the Magistracy against whom it was directed in which it was stiled the Kingdome of pride or simply Reschak that is to say impious is omitted in their Common prayer books of the last edition as also in that Copy of mine printed at Venice in the year 1564 and make them without delay obedient unto us in these our dayes Blessed be thou O God which breakest in pieees and subduest those that are rebellious This particle they entitle a prayer against all hereticks because in it is contained a curse against hereticks as Rabbi Alphes recordeth By these hereticks they first and principally understand the baptised Jews for every one that is such they call Meschumad a reprobate and in the plural number Meschumadim are these lost and consumed persons who leaving Iewish superstition have given their names unto Christ and so the Prayer begins Velamâ—eschumadim that is to say to the lost condemned apostate Iews instead of which word they have now inserted Velamaschinin that is to say to these traytors by them also understanding the baptised Iews for these they call traytors because they betray and lay open their wickednesse and treachery to the Christians In very deed a man may easily conjecture by the words of Rabbi Bechai what thing they wish unto the Christians who writes in this manner concerning this prayer This prayer saith he was made against the hereticks against that wicked Kingdome the Romane Empire against all Christian Magistrates that all they might be rooted out which obtain any rnle and authority over the Iews The Kingdome of the Turks they alwayes call the Kingdome of Ismael because they draw their originall from the loins of Ismael They call the Romane Empire The King dome of Edom the Kingdome of Rome the Kingdome of Esau the Kingdome of iniquity the Kingdome of pride a presumptuous also and reproachfull Kingdome yea this is every where imprinted as manifestly in fair Characters in their books as the bright lamp of heaven sends out his light upon the earth concerning which with Gods help more shall be spoken hereafter and to say the very truth this is the more likely because that this prayer was made a long time after Schemane Esre their prayer containing eighteen thanksgivings placed in this order and foisted into their book of Common prayer by Rabbi Samuel hakkaton Rabbi Samuel the little or Sâ—ort who died before the destruction of the second Temple This was done with a singular sleight of hand a little after Christs time the impulsive cause being very base the Doctrine of Christ and his followers the Christians being more hated of the Iewes then they in words were abâ—e To expresse but if I be not deceived this diminutive Samuel composed this prayer in the City Jasna against all the Iews that should cleave unto Christ and against the Romanes who then had Dominion over the Iews some forty years after the destruction of the second Temple at that time when the great Court of the Sanhedrim was removed and banished to Jasna If any reader be skilfull in the holy tongue let him read that book called Sepher Juchasin which is a certain Iewish Chronicle pag. 21. the Talmud printed at Venice in the Tract de benedictionibus the fourth chapter and in the Tract Sanhedrim the first chapter where sufficient is spoken concerning this matter After this execratory prayer followes a benediction and a very seâ—ious prayer in the behalf of all godly and honest livers among the people and all them who out of other Nations have turned to the Jewish Religion as also that God would vouchsafe with all speed to build again the City and Temple in their dayes to make the branch of the root of David to flourish to exalt his horn that is to send the Messias without delay and to restore the Kingdome unto Israel In the conclusion of these their morning prayers they beseech God to keep them in peace and when they pronounce these words He that maketh peace in high places make also peace among all the people of Israel Amen then they go three steps backward and if any sitting upon an horse or an asse be travelling upon the way it is necessary also that his horse or asse should likewise go backward so many paces If it chanee they cannot retire backward by reason of the thronging mul. titude of people in the place then skipping up they leap three times into the air bowing themselves and bending their heads now to the right hand then to the left signifying thereby that they beseech God to give them peace in what place soever they are resident if a Christian chance to be in their presence with a Crucifix or any other image representative of a Deity then ought not the Jew to bow himself but to lift his heart unto the Lord. The three steps which they go backward are done in honour to God himself for when any one departs from some great Potentate he commonly for some space goes backward in his congees blessing his worship honours him by kissing his hand and the complementall bowing of his whole body after the same manner when the Jews depart the presence of the Almighty they go backward and salute him face to face lest he should say My people who have made long prayers unto me are so wearied with the practice that they shew me their back parts The learned Rabbines say that this retrogradation or going back is used in remembrance of a certain miracle which happened in Mount Sinai at that time when God gave them the Law
the bread to be covered in remembrance of the Manna For first of all a certaine dew fell in the desart after that the Manna and then another dew between which two it lay hid as between two napkins And so the bread upon the Jewes table lyes between two linnen clothes Hence it is that the women make minced pies or boile some other thing like unto it which they eat instead of Manna for their minced pye hath a certaine lumpe for its bottom and in the middle it is stuft with flesh above also it hath a certain cover made like unto Manna The reason why they take two loaves is in remembrance of the Manna whereof they gathered in times past two measures full upon every Friday according to that which is written And it came to passe that on the sixt day they gathered twice as much bread Briefly of all things to be done by us in this world an especiall care is to bee had of our bodies upon the Sabbath day which thing the holy Scripture so often commands us saying Thou shalt call the Sabbath Oneg a delight because wee ought to restrhaine our selves from no sort of pleasure upon the Sabbath day In the same manner speaks the holy Scrpture concerning festivals Thou shalt rejoice in thy feasts thou and thy sonne c. that all our actions may tend to Gods glory Eat and drinke therefore and be good unto thy selfe and remember to doe it in honour to the Sabbath Yet not thinking that hee may eat many delicates upon the Friday for the filling of his paunch especially if he be poor and cannot away with the cost for this should rather have a place in the Catalogue of sinnes then good workes seeing he should also thinke upon the Sabbath day that he should have no such cheare upon Sunday and so become sorrowfull at that time when he ought the most of all to be merry Al this also is summarily comprehended in a little book called Sepher hajirah teaching us how a Jew ought to lead his life in the feare of the Lord and is delivered by the Jewes themselves in the following verses Against the Sabbath ready thou shalt be To leave all worke that doth belong to thee Thy selfe for Sabbath do prepare its gaine Though many maids and servants thou maintaine The Sabbath equally in all precepts availeth Be of good cheare thinke as thee nought aileth Use neat apparell costly raiments weare For Sabbath of a bride the name doth beare Buy that is daintiest ' gainst the Sabbath's day Strictly observe its precepts every way Keep in good appetite the stomack thine Feed upon fish and flesh and healthy wine Dresse up thy bed in handsome fashion good Order thy table well set on thy food Bath wash and cleanse thy head trim up thy haire About thee never any thing do beare Sharpen thy knife fall stoutly to thy meate Cut off thy nailes fling them in fiery heate Speake blessing to thy wine cleanse hand and foot By this precept thou shalt doe good I wot Be of good mood of comfortable ease Refraine not from thy selfe wherein canst please Merry and withall joyfull shalt thou be As if thy workes all finish'd were by thee Remove thee fro all dumpes and pensivenesse Table and stools have in a readinesse Lay on cleane table cloth and napkins as 't is fit Hasten away your rost-meat from the spit Swill handsomely your cups and drinking glasses Put out of mind your once endured losses Buy the best bit thou find'st upon the Mart With wife and children make a merry heart One table once thus dressed gives thee three meales Talke nothing but of merry making tales c. There is also extant a certaine booke of theirs wherein are contained many graces used by them before and after meat as also upon the chiefe festivals throughout the whole yeare written in Hebrew and Teutonicke verse Amongst others there is one prayer which begins How lovely is thy rest O Lord c. Where it followeth In gallant suit thyselfe aray Blesse candle light so 't will in burning mend From all manner of working flye away On Fryday all thy works bring to an end Eat savoury fâ—shes goodly capons quailes Live delicately see that nothing failes Then against Even thy selfe thus recreate All manner of good things for thee provide Well-fatted beeves and such as likes thy pate From a good cup of spice'd wine doe not slide c. Item In all meeknesse thou shalt walke For of that the Law doth talke With meeknesse all thy lifetime shall be led When Sunne doth rise at leisure keep thy bed c. Item Linnen and silken rayment much is made of Honour'd they be that doe make their clothes thereof An holy day the Sabbath is Happy that keeps it not amisse Bring not your hearts to heavy mournfull courses Although much leannesse lodge within your purses Cheerfull you ought to be and without sorrow Although elsewhere your mony you do borrow Furnish your selves with wine with flesh and fishes Upon your table set three sorts of dishes A good reward for thee will then be hasting Here and in time to come for everlasting c Item Women your candles remember for to light With carefull heed observe this time aright Here of great profit you will make full quickly When great with child you shall come to be fickly If then fine cakes to bake you shall be skilfull At child birth you may play and laugh your wil-full And now lest any should account of these as poeticall figments and fables I will relate some pleasant histories out of the Talmud whereby you may have a plaine evident yea even miraculous demonstration that the pleasure and jocund life upon the Sabbath day is the chiefest honour In that tract of the Talmud entituled de Sabbatho These e words are registred as they came from the mouth of Rabbi Chaia I saith he was upon a time in Cyprus others say in Ladkia where I lodged with a certaine Katzubh or Butcher At the time of supper a table all of gold was brought in which sixteen men were scarce able to carry all the furniture and other necessaries upon the table were of gold the platters candlestickes salts cups and trenchers all of gold with a snmptuous variety of delicates an most excellent apples When the table was set before him he beginning to praise God said The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof When the table was removed he againe singing praises unto God said The heaven is the Lords and the earth hath he given unto the children of men Then I spoke unto him and said Good Sir how came you to be so rich and what good thing have you done in all your life The Master of the houshold the Butcher I meane replyed I have been a Butcher all my life long and whensoever it was my chance to happen upon some choise fatling I alwaies reserved it for the celebration of
determined of in the Talmud 1. No beast must be suffered to go out of doores upon the Sabbath carrying more upon them then that wherewith hee may be led curbed and kept under So a horse or an asse going out of his Masters stable must have nothing upon him but a bridle or halter 2. An ape monkey beagle huntingâ€dog must not go out of doores without a coller to which a leash must be tyed that they may not slie away and escape Yet also they use these creatures thus upon other dayes then the Sabbath It is also prohibited to saddle an horse much more that any man should ride or lay any burden upon him lest hee should bee overâ€loaden to his hurt If any upon the Sabbath day returne home or goe to some Inne upon the backe of an horse or asse it is lawfull for him to loose his saddle but not to take it off but if the horse or asse chance to shake it off then is the horseâ€man faultlesse and to bee excused If any lead his horse by the bridle he must have a serious care that he suffer not the bridle to hang an hands breadth from his off his hand and thus he must doe lest some should thinke that he carries it in that fashion for his owne pleasure Hee must furthermore take heed that the bridle hang not too loosely betwixt him and the horse for in so doing hee shal seeme not to lead the horse but to carry the rainges for the nonce and it is not lawfull to carry the least thing upon the Sabbath It is contrary to their religion to suffer a hen to have a clout or rag about her foot or wing as a marke whereby shee may be known of the owner upon the Sabbath day Wherefore the clout ought to bee taken away upon the Friday that shee may rest upon the seventh day without molestation If any beast chance to fall into a ditch and cannot recover it selfe then they give it meate untill the Sabbath bee fully ended at what time they draw it out If the ditch be full of water so that the beast cannot conveniently eat its fodder then they cast in lopps of straw to underprop it that it may not bee drowned in the water if it can by this meanes escape it If by its own help it can lift it selfe out of the ditch then the Jew is blamelesse and not guilty of the profanation of the Sabbath Note that that seemes contrary to this which Christ objected to the Jewes for accusing him for healing upon the Sabbath saying who is there amongst you who having a sheep fallen into a pit upon the Sabbath day will not straight goe and draw him out As though he had said If you think it lawfull for you upon the Sabbath day to draw a beast out of a pit that the life thereof may be preserved how much more is a man to be helped upon that day who is of farre more worth then a beast Out of these words I say it seemes to follow that in Christs time it was permitted unto the Jewes to draw a beast out of a pit upon the Sabbath day Whereas the canon Law of the Jewes which is their spirituall and Talmudicall Law is diametrically opposite hereunto And henâ—e truly it was that that wicked Jew Rabbi Lipman in his booke called The triumph over the foure Evangelists written in the yeare of Christ 1459 accuseth our Saviour to have taught falsely and against their statutes and ordinances that the Jewes were then wâ—nt immediately to draw out an oxe or any other beast fallen into a pit upon the Sabbath day as Sebastiâ—n Muâ—ster hath registred the inditement in his Commentary upon St Matthews Gospell in Hebrew To which I answer that Christ the truth it selfe never could speak any thing but truth for there was never any falshood or guile found in his mouth yea sooner then the Jewes together with their father the father of lies the devill can evidence the contrary these superstitious brats shall suffer eternall shame It is true indeed that the law contained at this present in the Talmud is of that stampe that out of it Christ may be proved a lyar as amongst others an instance urged by Munster out of a Saxon History concerning a certaine Jew who upon the Sabbath day sir reverence fell into a Jakes makes manifest For he being left there was sustained with food and not presently drawne out The Bishop of the place also strictly charging and commanding the Jewes that they should not draw him out upon the Lords day holy in the sacred solemnization thereof to the Christians Whereupon it came to passe that for two daies space he was forced to remaine in this house of office that he might the better learn his duty I confesse therefore that their Talmudicall decrees which are in force with them at this day are contrary to Christs sayings but that it was so from the beginning it is a manifest untruth For 1. The traditions and constitutions of the Jewes themselves according to which they lived in Christs time brand it with no lesse And againe how came it to passe that if Christ had lied or spoken false the Pharisees did not presently hit him in the teeth there with Certainly the Pharisees would have contradicted the words of our Savior if he had spoken any thing oppugning their common traditions and ordinances Now if any ask how it came to pass that this was inserted into the Law which they at this day embrace I answer that it is a new constitution foisted by the Rabbines and Writers of the Talmud into their Gemara or their Appendix of ancient traditions in hatred to the New Testament and Christian Religion some hundred of yeares after Christs nativity as appeares most manifestly out of the Talmud For into this they thrust in such a tradition that they might perswade the ignorant that Christ spoke false But to returne to the matter in hand It is permitted unto a Jew to speake unto a Christian to milke his cow or goate lest the milke through its abundance straining the beast should put it to miserable torture not that the Jew hath any desire to bee fed with the milke for so it were all one as if he should have milked her himselfe This being granted that whatsoever aman doth by another it is all one as if he did it himselfe Whereupon it hath seemed good to some of their Doctors that a Jew may buy milke for his money of the Christians that hee may lawfully upon the Sabbath day feed thereupon seeing the Christian milkes the cow for his owne gaine and not in any love to the Jew But seeing these things are to full of quirkes and cannot bee sufficiently described wee will let them passe and descend to others Something therefore is now to bee spoken of the rest and sanctifying of the Sabbath concerning every one In the first place it is prohibited both to men and women
and religious who have done as much good as evil Those who are perfectly just have their names presently registred in the book of life but they who are extremely wicked have their names written in the book of death Those of the middle sort are deferred and put off untill the day of reconciliation which is the tenth day after the celebration of the feast of the new year If they truly and sincerely repent them of their sins in the mean time so that their good deeds exceed their bad ones then it goes well with them but if on the contrary their evil deeds be more in number then they are presently put in the catalogue of the reprobate and damned As it is written Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written among the just By the blotting out of the book understanding the book of the wicked and by the word life or living the book of the just and by the words Let them not be written among the just the book of those who are indifferently honest Hence is also that of Ralig bbi Nalig chman the son of Isaac upon these words of Moses Now if thou wilt palig rdon their sin thy mercy shall appear But if thou wilt not blot me out of the book which thou hast written In which words Blot out fingers out the book of the wicked Out of thy book the book of the just Which thou hast written the book of them which are indifferently just and godly So far the Talmud 1. Now that God should at this time sit in judgment rather then at any other the reason is grounded upon a certain tradition of the Antients that God created the whole world Adam and placed him in Paradise in the moneth of September therefore it was thought very meet and just that God at the years end should require of man an account of his life and see how he hath carried himself for the space of the year past and so reward every one according to his works Which he paies unto every one in the year following in this manner Sins are of divers sorts some God punishes in this world some also in the life to come so also good works some whereof are recompenced here some hereafter Now if a man for the most part doe nothing els but sin all the year long polluting his soul with the horrid filth of wickedness yet doing some few good deeds the sum of all is presented before Gods tribunal upon new-years day 1. Then God takes the scales and puts his good deeds in one end and his bad deeds in another If it seem good then to the Judge of all men to reward the foresaid man for the good he hath found in him in this present world it cometh to pass that he is called a just man and hath this happy sentence pronounced upon him in this vale of misery that he shall have a name in the book of life live for the next year become rich and shall be advanced to great honours 1. In like manner if an honest and just man who every day makes a conscience of his wayes and lives according to the law all the year through offend and commit some gross enormities for which God is pleased to punish him in this world then God calls him a wicked and unjust liver and pronounceth sentence against him for evil and not for good puts his name into the book of the dead thereby giving him notice that he shall either die or become poor or be troubled with some dangerous disease the year following and therefore although a man may enjoy the happiness of Saints in the world to come yet may he be called with injustice in this seeing he is here punished for his offences even as the reprobate And on the contrary one here accounted just and holy may be ordained to damnation because God gives him the reward of his workes in this present world And therefore no man ought to wonder or account it a strange thing that the godly suffer affliction and all manner of distress in this present life when on the contrary the wicked lives as he list gives rest unto his soule enjoyes pleasure and is without the gunshot of sorrow and vexation yet at the day of death the case is altered for he that was here so gay and gallant must goe into everlasting fire and the other so miserable into enternal bliss God then paying unto them the due reward of their labours And this is the very reason why the Germara affirms that the three foresaid books are opened upon new-new-years day Furthermore it often falls out that one good work blots out a number of transgressions and one sin abolisheth many good works both which are in the power of God If the sinner whose name is put into the book of death repent him of his wayes from the bottom of his heart and continue in this course unto the day of reconciliation being the tenth of the new-new-year he may happily moue God to reverse the sentence pronounced against him and to transferr him into the book of life Even as the godly in the same space angering his Maker by the commission of some hainous offence may move him to blot his name out of the book of life and to write it among the dead Thus the blindfolded Jews write speak and are conceited of the Almighties rule and government making him a Judge of that stampe and quality which they desire him to be of far contrary to the description of the Prophet David who in heavie cheer praying unto God for the forgiveness of his sins cries out Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord for no man living shall be justified in thy sight And again If thou O Lord marke whalig t is done amiss who is able to abide it Seeing therefore God sits in judgment upon every new-years-day and so severely punisheth the transgressors of his commandements the Rabbines have made it an Ordinance and Statute in Israel that every one should for a moneth before repent of his sins and the evil he hath committed turn from his wicked wayes and begin to lead a new life This therefore the Jews put in execution and upon the first day of Elul or August they fall to a serious account calling all their sins to remembrance and weighing them according to every several circumstance in which they have wickedly transgressed through the whole circuit of the year Whosoever then every day before he eat or drink questions his soule what it hath done and with a diligent scrutinie searches every corner of his heart for some formerly practised wickedness grieving very much and being very heartily sorry for the same he shall upon New-years-day when others are to give an account for their offences receive a plenary absolution And hence it is that the Jews dwelling among the Walloones at this day have a custome to rise every morning of this moneth
can fasten upon nothing else but ignorance and grosse simplicity especially in the knowledge of God and in the interpretation of his Word In the whole Nation of the Jews nothing worth thy observation except a horrid hardnesse of heart and perversnesse in their conversation and every particular action neverthelesse they blush not a jot to grace themselves with the title of Gods chosen people Such also they are who would seem to burn with zeal that the Word of God might be purely propagated because they believe in God with an accomplished faith and cleave unto him with a sincere and righty settled confidence above all the Nations of the earth as Paul bears witnesse That they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge Hence is it that the Jews even unto this day firmly contend for their superstitious Worship professing themselves to have a well grounded and assured faith towards God who created heaven and earth who is one in essence and will not suffer any other gods before him The Jews Creed contains in it thirteen Articles which as they are briefly delivered in their Tephillos or books of Common Prayer we have here set down 1. I believe with a true and perfect faith that God is the Creatour Governour and preserver of all Creatures that he did work all things works as yet and shall work for ever 2. I believe with a perfect saith that God the Creatour is one and that the unity which is in him is such as can be found in no other who onely was is and shall be our God for everlasting 3. I believe with a perfect faith that God the Creatour is incorporeall not endowed with any bodily properties finally that no corporeal essence can be compared unto him 4. I believe with a perfect faith that God the Creatour is the first and the last that there was nothing before him that he shall remain for everlasting 5. I believe with a perfect faith that he alone is to be worshipped and that Worship is due to none besides him 6. I believe with a perfect faith that whatsoever the Prophets have spoke and taught is the sincere truth 7. I believe with a perfect faith that the Doctrine and Prophesie of Moses is orthodox that he was the Father and chief of the learned that either were of the same standing with him lived before him or shall be extant in future ages 8. I believe with a perfect faith that the whole Law was so delivered by God himself to Moses as it is now extant with us 9. I believe with a perfect faith that this Law shall never admit of a change and that God shall give unto us no other 10. I believe with a perfect faith that God knows and understands all the works and thoughts of men as it is written by the Prophet He fashioneth all the hearts of them and understandeth all their works 11. I believe with a perfect faith that God will reward every mans works that keeps his Commandements and on the contrary will punish all those that have transgressed his Statutes 12. I believe with a perfect faith that the Messias is yet to come and that though he daily defers his coming neverthelesse I will hope for his coming every day till he come waiting for him 13. I believe with a perfect faith that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead even in that time when it shall seem correspondent to the will of the Creator whose name be blessed and celebrated both now and for ever in the highest strains of humane expression Amen This is Summe of the thirteen Articles of the Jewish Creed as they are summarily and briefly comprehended and set down in their Books of Common Prayer in which belief the poore blinded souls of the Jews after a lamentable manner with incessant groans much anxiety inexpressible doubting and outcries sighing out their last farewell to the beloved prison of their bodies are utterly lost and undone Now that every one may with greater facility comprehend the very glosse and meaning which the Jews themselves annex to this their Creed I have thought it meet to illustrate the Articles thereof by the lamp of a small Comment And first of all we are to know that the faith of the Jews and Mosaicall Religion according to their own writings was built upon these Articles as upon the foundation and first of all delivered to the publike view and reduced into this order by that Casket of Learning Rabbi Mosche Bar Maimon who in the year of the World 4964 according to the vulgar account now used among the Jews but in the year of our Redemption 1104. changed this life for a better and that then it was strictly commanded that from thenceforth throughout all succeeding ages that every Jew confessing this faith should resolve to live and die in the profession of it Hereupon it came to passe that these Articles were graced with large Expositions and thence a great Volume was written out of which the forementioned Articles were more fully drawn than formerly set down and annexed to the end of that Voluminous Book Esrim vearba or the Hebrew Bible printed at Venice by Daniel Bombergus by the study of Foelix Pratensis in the year of Christ 1517. where they are found expressed in the same manner in which they are subsequently delivered The first Article is concerning God who is the Creatour of all Creatures illah haillos the cause of causes entity of entities that every thing whether extant in heaven above or earth below was created of and hath its subsistence in him that he made every thing according to his absolute will and that every thing shall again be reduced into its prime nothing according to his good will and pleasure and although that every thing made by him shall again be annihilated yet his essence is immortall not subject to the least shadow of change or diminution because his essence Mezius Gemurah is perfect and of it self subsistent not needing the prop or help of any other to sustain it That the same God is that everlasting light strength and life that his is the Kingdome Dominion over all creatures That he is truly one and the most renowned Monarch This Article is grounded upon those words Exod. 20. 2. I am the Lord thy God c. The second Article is concerning the individuall unity of the Essence and Nature of God to wit that he is echad umeinchad of one Essence and that there is nothing either within or without the World that can any way enter the lists of a comparison in respect of this unity and identity he is not in the same series or order with any thing universall or singular which comprehends more of the same stamp under it neither is he Keechad Hammurcabh any compounded thing which for this reason admits of a Division into parts neither Guph Paschut d a simple body which is one
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
they did acknowledge even then when the whole World drencht in the Sea of Idolatry was ignorant of the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth then began they to wax proud haughty and puâ—t up counting the Nations as dung and with a supercilious sore-front boasting themselves to be the hâ—â—ly and elect people of God the Law of God and Circumcision being the main pillars of this their ostentation And seeing they at that time actually possessed the Land of Promise offered their Sacrifices the sum of their wants must be a glorying in their City Temple Sacrifice and other kinds of worshâ—p for which if any one dare manage a reproof objecting that they are not the children of Abraham because God shall prosligate and destroy them because their hearts and ears are uncircumcised and God shall again scatter them among the Gentiles he shall upon the very instant be cauterized for a false Prohet and a Liar and destinated to the stake for bearing witnesse unto the truth Neither did they here put a period to their madness they stand firm in their foolish opinions imbracing the Covenant according to its outside the Law according to the letter the ceremonies oblations and sacrifices in their naked representation provoking not only the Prophets but God himself never regarding whether or no any true knowledge fear or reverence of his Majesty was implanted in their hearts For the attempting of these enormities the Lord conceives heavy displeasure against Israel terms them a sinfull Nation laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters which had forsaken the Lord and provoked the holy one in Israel and gone away backward whose hearts were obstinate their neck an iron sinew and their brow brasse Transgressors from their Mothers womb whose birth and nativity is the Land of Canaan their Father an Amorite and their Mother a Hittite a people rejected and accursed as Moses witnesseth He threatens them to baniâ—h them out of their own Land and to carry them into a Land which neither they nor their Fathers had known there also that they shall tast of his fury be slaves to their enemies and to make their City and Temple in which they so much rejoyced like unto Shiloe Lastly speaking to Esay the Prophet he saith Make the heart of this peole fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyespuch and heare with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed After the same manner God denounceth against them by Moses saying it shall come to passe that if thou wilt not hearken unto the voyce of the lord thy God to observe to do all his Commandements and his Statutes which l command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee The Lord shall sinite thee with madness and blindnesse of heart Thou shalt grope at noon day as the blind gropeth in darkness and thou shalt not prosPer in thy wayes thou shalt be only oppressed and spoyled evermore and none shall save thee The fundamental then and prime cause of the blindness and obstinacy of the Jews is the just judgement of God upon them for their sins and the punishment due unto the same which came upon them because they heaRkened not unto his voice worshipping him with their mouth and with their lips drawing near unto him but in their hearts being far from him their service towards him consisting only in the commandements of of men as the Prophet Esay complains By which we may perceive that they soon left off to trace the way of Gods Commandements setling themselves upon their own carnal wisdome upon the sublime perspicuity of their Doctors who after Ezra were called Scribes as upon a new foundation accounting Their Expositions Ordinances Laws and Institutions to be of far more worth then the Doctrine of the Prophets against which the Prophets oftentimes declaimed but to little purpose What these Commandements are which they esteem more then the word of God our Saviour Christ teacheth us in the new Testament when the Jewes reprehend him that his Disciples walked not according to the tradition of the Elders which were of washing hands cups pots brazen vessels and tables and innumerable fopperies of the same sort by which they make the word of God of none effect but only strive to fulfill the inventions of their Ancestors Now in the last place seeing these their Traditions which Christ pointed out unto us are at this day accurately kept and observed of the Jews seriously also described in their Cannon La. and celesiastical and moral constitutions part of which I have decreed to lay open in the following discourse I think it here convenient to search out the grounds and reasons which might thâ—n and at this day doth induce them to prefer the Ordinances of men before Gods Commondements casting them headlong into the darkness of Superstitlon so blinding their understanding that they cannot possibly find out the trUe meaning of the holy Scripture We read in the Preface of that learned man Rabbi Mosche Mikkotzi called Hakdamah who writ a Book and Exposition upon three hundred and thirteen of Gods Commandements which he entituled Sepher mitzuos gadol that is the great Book of the Commandements in the year of Christ 1236. and published it at Toledo in Spain where the Jewes then had a most flourishing Schoole the Students therein being in number twelve thousands as he witnesseth in his hundred and twelfth Prohibitory precept that the written Law which God delivered unto Moses in Mount Sinai is obscure and difficult first because it contradicts is selfe Secondly because it is imperfect and therefore all things necessary to be known are not there set down wherupon it is needful some certain Exposition should be framed by whose pluÌ„met every one might dive into the genuine sence of the written Law grouÌ„ d theron as a firm foundation That the Law of Moses contradicts it selfe there are many instances We read Exod. 12. 15. For sevean dayes thou shalt eat unleavened bread but Deut. 16. 8. Six dayes thou shalt eat unleavened bread againe vers 9. Seven weeks thou shalt number unto thee which make only forty nine days but in the 23. of Leviticus and the 16. it is read Vnto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty dayes In the 16. of Deuteronomy vers 2. it is said Thou shalt sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord of the Flock and of the Heard contrary to this â—xod 12. 5. Your Lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year you shall take out from the sheep or from the Goats Again Deut. 15. 19. All the firstling males that come of thy Heard and of thy Flock thou shalt sanctifie unto the Lord thy God but in the 27. of Leviticus vers 26. The firstling of the Beasts which should be the Lords firstling no man shall
a sumptuouâ— and costly banquet they prove out of the Hebrew word Milah which signifying circumcision the leâ—ters thereof according to the Kabala note ouâ— unto us these four ensuing words Mischteh laasch lâ—col hakkervim which are by interpretation Let him provide a banquet for all them that are invited hence they conclude the the preparation of this Feast to be legitimate That it is to be celebrated the eight day they prove with greater subtilty and art of the history of Abraham and Isaac which is registred Gen. 21. 8. in these words And when the child grew and was weaned Abraham made a great feast in that day in which Isaac was weaned Bejom higgamiel eth litzchak in the day wherein Isaac was weaned Upon which words they have this Cabalistical interpretation saying thou dost not rend Higgamel whose Letters are He Gimel Mem Lamed but Bejom hagmal where He and Gimel note not any word but are onely Letters of numeration making eight the word Mal is rendered in the Teutonick Er hat besch nitten he circumcised therefore according to the Exposition rather indeed the perversion of the Rabbines the sense must be this Abraham made a great feast upon the eighth day in which his son Isaac was circumcised and the child did grow and was weaned this custome then that a good banquet should be prepared and the learned Rabbines and other upright men among the Jews should sit as guests is very commendable for David makes mention of it in his fiftieth Psalm and fifth verse saying Gather my Saints together unto me those that have made a Covenant with me with sacrifice that is the Covenant of Circumcision Instead of a sacrifice then they make this feast seeing they may not sacrifice in the Land of their Captivity for which they often breath out the dolefull accents of grief and sorrow The Mahel or he that did circumcise the child is tied to abide some certain dayes with the mother thereof and to take care that the bloud do not burst out the second time the mother remains in child-bed for the space of seven whole weeks whether the bring forth a male or a female her husband throughout all that time must abstain and not approach so near as to touch her but it is a point of Religion to eat with her which he also doth when she is in her monthly flowers of which more hereafter After this manner the children of Israel are made Jews by fulfilling the Covenant of Circumcision If the woman bring-forth a daughter her nativity is nothing at all set by yea so little indeed that I could not find any thing concerning this matter recorded in their books except that which Ferdinandus Hessus who a few years ago turned to the Christian faith in which God long preserve him revealed unto me to wit that when the new born female babe is six dayes old some certain number of young girls seat themselves round about the Cradle in which the infant lies wrapp'd in fine linnen swadling clouts embroidered with silver who heave the Infant together with the cradle many times aloft into the aire and at length name the child she that stands at the head of the Cradle being the Godmother which things thus finished they sit them down with other Damsels to a banquet prepared for them passing away the time in eating and drinking and other merriments Although it is commanded in the Law of Moses that if a woman have brought forth a man-child she should for the first seven dayes be accounted polluted and unclean and after that should keep at home for thirty three dayes which added to the former make forty or seven weeks to fulfill the dayes of her Purification and also when she hath brought out a woman-child then shall she be unclean two weeks and she shall continue in the blood of her Purification threescore and six dayes yet notwithstanding it is a custome among the Jews now living that the woman hides her self for the space of seven weeks whether she bring forth a man or woman-child opposing a certain Sect which at this day flourisheth in Turky Poland and Russia this Sect is stiled by the name of Koraim they keep the Law according to the Letter rejecting the institutions and expositions of the Rabbines of which we shall speak more hereafter and therefore lest the Jews here amongst us should be thought to think the same things they allot onely forty dayes residence at home for a woman that hath brought forth whether it be male or â—emale When the forty dayes appointed for the Purification are fully gone and past then they are compelled to purge and wash themselves with cold water before that they can sleep with their husbands or have any communion with them which done they put on white and pure garments and there associate themselves unto their husbands they wash themselves in common water exposed to the publick view of their whole Nation or if they cannot come by any such then they wash themselves in certain cisterns or wells which they have in their houses Courts or Orchards made for the sameâ—purpose these oughâ— to be of such a depth that they may take the women descending into them up unto the neck if the clay in the bottome offend them then they put a broad stone under the soles of their feet or some such thing that their feet may stand in clean water and that the same water flowing and running betwixt toe and toe may come unto every part of the same for if never so little remain untouched by the water or that the water cannot come to it then the whole washing stands in no stead for this very cause before they enter the Bath they dishevel their hair lay aside their head bands chains and bracelets and all the ornaments of the neck they draw off their rings pick their teeth and that with so great art that they leave nothing which may yield the least suspition of uncleannesse What more not an hair breadth of their body but must be unmasked sometimes they are compelled to dive so deep that not so much as one hair doth appear above the water to this end they stretch out their arms and fingers They are also bound to open their eye lids and mouth for some small space and so to bend themselves that their paps hanging down in a perpendicular manner may not touch their body that by this means the water may come unto every part and so enrich the whole body with an exact cleanesse if in the mean time she fall into a swound it is not lawfull to touch her with unwashed hands for this would make her bathing void and of no effect Furthermore it is required that some man or women should alwayes be present while she washeth her self but a woman especially or a girl which hath outstript the age of twelve years by one day but if such cannot be at hand the Goodman may serve the turn
same cause departed this life five years sooner than the course of nature exacted that is lest his eyes should behold his degenerate nephew Esau leading his life in a wicked ungodly manner Ten years being expired and the youngling Jew being indifferent well versed in the Books of Moses it is necessary he apply himself to the study of the Talmud and of duty to cleave unto the text thereof in which the very foundation of Iewish Traditions and Ordinances as also of the Divine and Humane Law is comprehended At thirteen years of age he is called Bar Mizvah the son of the Commandements when he is bound to keep and observe all the Commandements in number six hundred and thirteen containing the sum and argument of the Law of Moses and of the whose body of Iewish Superstition If from that time forward he sin and do not execute that is commanded then is he liable to be punished both by the Law of God and man What sin soever he committed before the thirteenth year of his age his Father must suffer for it Which is the reason that the child comming to these years his father cals ten Jews unto him and in their presence witnesseth that this his Son is come to full age and being instructed in the Commandements hath learned the manner and custome of the Zizim and Tephillim of which more anon as also the form of blessing and his daily prayers for which reason he would be freed from him that he might not from henceforth smart for his offences he being such an one who is to become Bar mitzuah the Son of the Commandements and ought to suffer for his sins in his own proper person This being confirmed by the ten Jews there present the Father saith a certain short prayer in which chiefly he gives God thanks that he hath delivered and unburdened him of the punishment due unto his son for his sin further intreating him that his son by the help of the Divine grace may for many daies remain safe and without danger and be industrious in good works In the fifteenth year of their age all the children of the Jews are forced to learn the Gemara which is the perfection of the Talmud written for the better comprehending and understanding of the acute and subtil dispute and decisions about the doubtful things in the text thereof and in these they spend the greater part of their life very seldom or never bestowing one minutes study in the books of the Prophets but utterly neglecting them Whence it comes to pass that many Jews there are ready to drop into their graves who to my knowledge have not read any one of the Prophets from beginning to end And this is the cause that they know so little concerning the Messias that the promises concerning him are become not only obscure unto them but also altogether unknown In the eighteenth year of their age the males enter into the bond of wedlock according to an ancient Order in the Talmud which they not seldome transgressing oftentimes marry before the time injoyned to avoyd fornication the females may marry when they are twelve years and one day old In the twentieth year they are licensed to traffick buy and sell play the Chapmen cozen and circumvent any whom they can possibly of which the Christians to their grief have had too much experience of which in another place Because our yong Jew hath now taken his degree of Bar mitzuah or Son of the Commandements and is entred into the order of the Jews our endeavour shall now be to express the manner how both their yong and old men behave themselves in this order CHAP. IV. How the Jews rising betimes out of their beds prepare themselves for Morning Prayer IT is writtten in that Tract of the Gemara called Bava basra that it was the assertion of Rabbi Eliezar haggadol that every Jew from the fifteenth of July until the feast of Penticost ought to forsake his bed before day because in this time the nights are long but from that time till July he may sleep untill perfect lay because the nights are very short And the truth of this position the wise men and Rabbines endeavour to prove out of many places of the Lamentations of Jeremy and out of the History of Ruth which are so full of subtilty that they cannot in this place be honoured with an explanation The good Wife of the house is bound to wake her Husband and the Parents are joyntly obliged to rouse up their children when they have once passed the thirteenth yeare of their age and are subject to Jewish Ordinances as wee have declared in the former chapter Furthermore the Chachamim have registred that every man is bound in his own proper person to be a Cock unto the twilight and not to foster such a delay that the bright ey'd morning may take advantage to call him ls luggard to which King David condiscends when he saith I will awake right early Surely this is very necessary and that for the performance of our morning Prayers which are to be poured out at the rising of the Sun aud that without delay as David testifies in his Psalms saying They shall honour thee with the Sun as though he had sayd so soone as the Sunne visits our Horizon they shall honour and sing praise unto thee in their early Devotions The Cabbalists write that at the dawning of the day the prayers of every particular enter into the ears of the Almighty and they have some certain grounds out of holy Writ for this their assertion Jeremy in his Lamentations saith Arise cry out in the night in the beginning of the watches that is when it beginneth to dawn David also in a certain Psalm The Lord bath granted me his loving kindness in the day time and in the night season also did I sing of him and made my prayer unto the God of my life The most profound Chachamim say they who are stout and industrious advance themselves to well doing and the observation of Gods Commandements wherefore it shall carry the repute of a good work indeed to rise before the morning watch and to conjoyn day and night by a continued singing of the choisest Psalms and Prayer Wherefore a Jew should not be slack in such a performance but with great alacrity take an early leave of his lovely couch breakfasting his soule with this meditation If any Gentile or Christian should now come unto me who is my debtor or should bring some gorgeous vestments to pledge out of his Wardrobe or any other thing by the mediation of which I might inrich my selfe If I should be now called to some great Prince or Potentate from whom I might obtain a gift cully favour or who in his own Person should intreat my service how readily would my feâ—t be plumed with swistness and spend their forces not to be conscious of the least delay with how much more alacrity ought I to speed
for the Rabbines in their Masseches Berachos upon those words When all the people saw the thunders and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain burning the people saw and were afraid and stood afar off dispute and say that the people through great fear and amazement was in a moment of time three miles backward from the mountain Sinai The chief Glosse-monger Rabbi Salomon Jarchi writes in his glosse upon this Text that the people kept back twelve miLes of which David spoke saying The Kings of the Armies did flie and sheâ— that tarried at home divided the spoil and then came the good Angels and ministring Spirits and brought the people back unto the Mountain When they are about to depart the Temple or Synagogue then they speaking within themselves quietly and without the least noise they say a certain Prayer beginning Alenulesh abeach It is meet that we should praise the Lord who is above all and in an excellent degree to celebrate him because he hath created all things and not made us like unto the rest of the Nations likewise that he hath not made us as other generations of the World and hath not appointed us an inheritance like unto theirs neither is our lot as their lot neither as the lot of their whole multititude Here are some words omitted in their Books of Common-prayer and that by the Commandement of the Magistrates of Italy where their Books are wont to be and for the most part are at this day imprinted The things omitted were some blasphemous sayings against our Saviour which are found expressed in the ancient copies of which I have one which was imprinted at Augusta by a Jewish Printer called Chajim in the year of Christ 1534. In other copies instead of the words omitted there is left an empty space about the length of one line to this end that the children of the Jews and others who are ignorant may be warned to enquire what saying it is that is there omitted which when they do some relate the words unto them or otherwise write them in the margent of the Book as I have observed them to have practised in many of their Prayer books the words left out are these Who bend their knee and crouch to that which is vanity and foolishness and adore another God who cannot help these words they utter against Christ wherefore they spit upon the earth in the mouthing of them But we bend and bow our knees yea our whole man to that King who is King of Kings to God holy and blessed for ever who stretcheth out the heavens establisheth the earth whose glory and chair of estate is in heaven and the seat of whose power is in the highest heavens he only is our God and there is no other besides him These things thus finished the Jew now going out Of the Synagogue saith O Lord God lead me by thy justice by reason of those that lay wait for me in secret make plain thy way before my face Preserve me in my going out and my comming in from this time forth for evermore They must go out of the Synagogue in the posture of a Crab sish creeping backward through the Gate thereof and that their back part should not be towards the holy Ark in which the book of the Law is laid up to which they ought to exhibit a certain kind of reverence by turning their face thereunto The Rabbines upon those words of the Prophet Ezekiel Who have turned their back unto the Temple of the Lord have delivered thus much in the Talmud that a grievous and heavy punishment was inflcted upon the Priests because in going out of the Temple of the Lord they turned their back parts towards the ark of the Covenant wherefore the case standing thus we ought to depart out of the Temple with all fear and reverence even as a servant being about to take his leave of his Maister doth it with a retrograde crowching submission and submiss lowliness They must not run out of the Synagogue lest some might think him that runneth to be weary with praying and to rejoyce that it is now lawfull for him to depart They must go out with decurtate steps for if any one doth this God numbreth his steps and gives him a great reward as it is written Thou hast numbred my steps c. If any in his going forth chance to meet a woman or a damsel whether she be one of the Jews or Christians he ought to shut his eyeâ— and turn away his face from beholding her he must not afford her the common curtesie of a Complement lest thereby taking occasion of longer discourse he should be woed to the entertainment of lustfull notions and evil cogitations Concerning the serious manner of praying they write that whosoever wil pray attentively ought to have his head and heart covered to incompass his body with a girdle in the middle lest his heart by the sight of the secret part should be inveigled with wicked thoughts He must turn his face towards Canaan and the City Jerusalem his feet equally placed upon the Earth as abovesaid He ought to put his hand upon his heart in that manner that his right hand may rest upon his left withall bowing his head with great humility as it is written Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto the Lord in the heavens and again My life is alwayes in my hand yet do I not forget thy Law In time of prayer none must yawn belch or spit yet if he must spit on necessity then ought he privately to receive it in his Handkerchiff and modestly to cast it behind him or upon his left hand but not before him or upon his right for there stand the Angels invisible whom if any should beray with this excrement he should be guilty of an heynous offence It is not lawfull for any to let a scape in time of Prayer if he do it against his will then ought he to suspend the act of praying until the ill savour thereof be gone If the wind urge him so much and so vehemently that he must of necessity let fly then shall he go some four paces aside set a packing and instantly thereupon saying O Lord of all the earth thou hast created me full of holes Whiâ—h I cannot shut up all our modesty is open and known unto thee our life is full of shame we are nothing but worms and Maggots Sneesing in time of Prayer if it come from the parts below is an ill sign if from above a good one He that beginneth once to pray must not break off in the middle of his Prayer yea although the King of Israel should come and salute him yet he may not answer him though a Serpent took him by the heel and bit him yet ought he to continue in his devotions yet there is a certain dispensation which licenseth a man to give way unto a
churlish Oxe and for fear of him to cease praying til he be gone and past It is not lawfull for him that prayeth to touch his naked body with his hands yet may be touch his hands and neck If in this time he be so necessitated as to scratch his body he must do it upon the garments He that prays must move his whole body hither and thither as it is written All my bones shall say O Lord who is like unto thee The Chanter also of the Synagogue in the time of divine Service ought to pray standing in some hollow low deep place and to read the Prayer distinctly and with as loud a voice as he can possible I have seen with mine eys the Reader fall down upon his knees before the Pulpit because in that place the earth was level and not one place lower then another and to have said Prayers with as shill a voice as he could have done from an higher seat These Prayers they pour out of a collected narrow heart chiefly to this end that they may obtain the remission of their sins and that according to the example of David saying Out of the depth have I called unto thee O Lord and finally which is the perfection of all every one ought to labour with all his strength to answer Amen at the end of every prayer Hence it is written in the Booke Tanchuma that it was the saying of Rabbi Jehuda that whosoever saith Amen in this world shall bee accounted worthy to say Amen in the world to come hence is that of King David Blessed be the Lord God of Israel Amen Amen By which double Amen he notes unto us that one Amen is to be said in this world another in that which is to come The wisest among the Jews say that whosoever shall say Amen with great attention shall bring to pass that thereby their redemption shall appoach with all speed and suddenly be accomplished How I pray you when Amen is pronounced after the manner that it ought to be then God shakes his head and saith Wo unto those children who are banised from their Fathers Table And how much comfort is it to a Father thus to be praised of his children thereupon God begins to think of the deliverance of his people out of their captivity and that he ought not to do otherwise for though he hath put and exiled them out of his sight for their sins yet he suffers with them and the grief of his children vexeth him at the heart Upon which Rabbi Juda hath this simily Even as a Mother having a Daughter who is immodest and disobedient who also hath been got with child by some or other casts her out of her doors for her unchast life and useth much unmerciful carriage towards her yet in the hour of child-birth she suffers and laments with her after a wonderful manner even so God hath sent us into banishment for our sins yet having compassion he will redeem us when we seriously pray unto him It was formerly noted that they ought every day to run over a whole century of prayers and thanksgivings and this they very magisterially demonstrate and that with great subtilty and after the Cabalistical manner and first of all out of those words of Moses Now therefore O Israel hear what the Lord God requireth of thee Here the Rabbines read not the words according to the original Maâ— schoel which is what the Lord requires but Meah schoel that is to say The Lord requires an hundred so that Moses intent in this place was no other then if he had said God every day requires of thee an hundred Prayers But out of what puddle did these skilfull Fishers the Cabalists angle out this exposition the answer is First Moses insinuated so much unto us by putting an hundred letters in this very verse Secondly it is demonstrate by a secret of the Kabala by which is made a certain transposition of the Letters to wit when the first letter of the Alphabet is put in the place of the last and that which is immediatly before the last is put in the place of the second which kind of change the Cabalists cal Athbasch that is when Thau Aleph Beth and Schin are mutually changed one for another So by the benefit of this secret there comeâ— two letters in the place of Mem and He which make the word Mah above mentioned which are Tzadâ— and Jod which in computation make an hundred Thirdly it is read in the Talmud that David appointed these hundred prayers at that time when there dayly died in Israel an hundred men for which cause these hundred petitions are dayly to be repeated This is also evidently proved out of those words which we find thus written in the second Book of Samuel David the son of Ishai saith even the man who was sâ—t up on high the annointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet singer of Israel The man Hukam al der hocherhoben ist for so the Vulgar German â—enders it for Hukam properly signifies one that is exalted Al hight according then to the Cabalistical mysterious Art the letters of the word Al being Lamed and Ajin make in number an hundred and the meaning must be this the man saith by whom these hundred laudatory Petitions were erected and instituted This Interpretation was taken out of the artificial archives of the Jewish Theology into which no Christian may enter Many more such shal hereafter be produced which is the reason that I will trouble the Reader with no more in this place but proceed to declare the carriage of the Jews at home after their return from the Synagogue I will conclude all with the saying of the Prophet Esay When you shall stretch out your hands I will hide mine eyes from you and though you make many Prayers I will not hear for your hands are full of blood Again in another place Your iniquities havâ— seperated betwixt you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he wil not hear for your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity your liâ—â— have spoken lies and your tongue hath murmured iniquity CHAP. VI. How the Jewes after morning prayer behave themselves and prepare themselves to dinner BEfore the men returne home from the Synagogue their wives have swept and made the house very neat and cleanly lest their husbands eies should fasten upon any object which might molest and disturbe them in their pious meditations because these are as yet erected to God who keeps his residence in the highest Heavens Now if every man returning to his own house findes every thing in a decent order then his understanding remains pure and his mind untroubled but if he finde the contrary his understanding becomes muddy and perplext A wife that is honest indeed laies her husband a book upon the table which is either the Pentateâ—ch or some reprehensory
the least finger in any thing which may carry any shew of labour with it or which may administer any occasion which may become a provocation to some worke or other So often as they are necessitated as in the winter time to the making of fires at sundry times to the snuffing of candles putting out of their lampes laying their meate to the fire milking their kine and such like they hire some poore serving man who is a Christian to do the same Hence they are wont to glory that they are the sole Lords Masters and Free-men of the Christians vassals and bond-slaves and they who sitting behind a hot furnace shall doe all their workes for them It were therefore in my opinion very meet and convenient that the Christian Magistrates should interdict all those that are their subjects to do any such servile workes for the Jewes either upon the Sabbath or at any other time I should have brought some certaine of their prayers for a conclusion of this Chapter in the most of which they re-member to pray against the Christians Wherein they beseech God that hee would vouchsafe to give unto the Jewes the riches of the Gentiles that he would utterly confound the Ammonites Moabites and Edomites for by this meanes they Christen us at this day that he would smite all people with great feare and vexation and stirre up great warres and tumults among the nations even from the East unto the west But because I have decreed to reserve these and many others for another tract I here omit them and conclude with the saying of the Prophet Isaiah Bring no more vain oblations CHAP. XII How the Jewes prepare themselves to celebrate the Passeover and of the celebration of it HOW the Jewes carry themselves all the weeke long daily practising the duties of modesty and godlinesse hath been hitherto declared Now it followes that wee should speake some things of those solemnities and rites wherewith they are wont to celebrate their Festivals Their feasts are of two sorts some great and famous such as those were which their Ancestours kept and held once every year comming from all quarters to the celebration of it even to Jerusalem and their appearing before the Lord Of this sort was the Feast of the Passeover the Feast of weekes or Pentecost the Feast of Tabernacles which three were commonly called Schelasch Regalim out of the booke of Exodus Other Feasts they use which they keep in those Cities wherein they dwell and inhabite which they call Jomim toâ—im that is to say good dayes The chiefe Feast among them of the first sort is the Passeover which they call by the name of Pesach and is also the first in order for from the moneth in which it is celebrated they begin to reckon their annuall Festivals and that according to the commandement of God in the Law of Moses saying This month shall bee unto you the beginning of months it shall be the first month in the yeare to you Lo the first day of the month Nisan is wherein the New Moone begins her course is the beginning of the yeare from which they begin to reckon and order aright their solemnities Their common yeare takes its beginning from the first of September by them called Tisri in the time of the new moon Hence we read of a foure-fold new yeare in the Talmud The first begins upon the first day of Nisan or March it is the new yeare wherein begins the computation of the reigns of their Kings and celebration of their Feasts The second begins upon the first day of the month Elul or August and is called the new yeare of the bringing up of cattell The third takes its beginning from the first day of Schebeth or January and it is called the new yeare for trees Rabbi Hillel saith that this year begins on the fifteenth day of the foresaid moneth The last is called the New yeare of yeares to wit of the yeare of remission of Jubilee of the planting of trees and herbes and it begin upon the first of Tisri or September So much the Talmud Which is thus to bee understood The yeare of Kings is that yeare according to which they reckon the yeares of their reigne in all Contracts Indentures Bils and Bonds made in the yeare of such or such a King so that though any King do begin his reigne a month onely or a weeke yea but a day before the first of March yet is time reckoned unto him for a whole yeare and the first of March next ensuing they begin to write the second year of his reign In the same manner the first day of March is the time from whence they begin to number their annuall Feasts and holidaies So the Feast of the Passeover is kept in the first moneth the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh moneth and so forth 2. The beginning of August begins the yeare of the bringing up of their cattell from whence they begin to reckon the yeare and moneth in which such and such a beast was brought forth so that by this meanes they more easily pay tithe unto the Lord. 3. The first day of the new Moon in September is the beginning of yeares because from this day they have alwaies begun the computation of years from the Creation of the world to this present time The yeare of rest or remission which was the seventh yeare or Sabbaticall yeare when their fields and vines were suffered to keepe holiday took its beginning from the first day of this month as also the yeare of Jubilee which was every fiftieth yeare celebrated of which you may read in the twenty fifth Chapter of the third book of Moses From this also they began to account the times wherein they planted or grafted trees or herbes So when any tree was planted in the moneth of June then the first yeare of its planting ended in August and the second began in September c. the tree being accounted as uncleane and uncirâ—umâ—ised untill three yeares were past and gone Lastly The first day or according to Rabbi Hillel the fifteenth of January did begin the new yeare of trees and fruits for according to the time that the trees before or after this day did bring forth their fruits so were they permitted or not permitted to be eaten and according to this supputation they payed their tiâ—hes also The fruits ripening before the beginning of this month are dates and orenges and such like which were lawfull to bee eaten the yeare not run out But they which brought forth fruit which was not come to its full growth the yeare not yet ended it was not permitted unto any to eat thereof before the fifteenth day of January They payed tithes in like manner of the former sort but not of these This is at large handled in the fore-cited place of the Talmud Antonius Margarita in his booke of the faith of the Jewes saith that
by them blessed and consecrated At length thanks being given the cups are filled the fourth time and the good man of the house taking his cup into his hands saith poure out thy wrath upon the Gentiles and upon the Kingdomes that have not knowne thy name poure out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathfull displeasure take hold on them In the mean time one running to the doore unlocks it and sets it open thereby willing to shew their great security In this saying they curse all people which are not of Israel more especially the Christians hoping that Elias will come that very night and declare unto them the comming of their Saviour and deliverer the Messias as they also brag and boast in that prayer called Azrob nissim their reason is because all those famous deliverances so full of wonder which God wrought for the Patriarches Prophets and people of Israel hapned as upon this night They pray therefore that God would come againe and deliver them out of this their calamity and punish the Christians in the same manner that he did the Egyptians Hence it comes to pâ—sse that so soone as the gates are opened and the execeration is pronounced one of the houshold invested with a white linnen garment runs into the nurâ—ery that the infants may thinke that Elias is come indeed and is about to take vengean e on the Christians For a conclusion of all the Master of the family saies certaine table-prayers at the period of the supper which he closeth up in this manner Almighty God build againe thy Temple and that shortly very quickly in these our daies very quickly now build againe and that shortly thy holy Temple Omercifull God O great God O bountifull God O thou God that art highly exalted O beautifull God O sweet God O vertuous God O God of the Jewes now build up thy Temple very quickly and with great expedition in these our dayes very quickly very quickly now build up now build up now build up now build now build up thy Temple quickly O strong and powerfull God living God mighty God O God worthy of all honour O God of meeknesse O eternall God a God that art to be feared O God of comelinesse God of majesty God of infinite riches God of surpassing beauty O faithfull God now build up thy Temple shortly very quickly very quickly in these our daies shortly very quickly now build up now build up now build up now build up now build up thy Temple speedily The Orizons ended they betake themselves to rest and sleep in great security for they perswade themselves that this night neither man nor devil can approach to doe them any hurt This night is called in the second book of Moses and the 12 Chapter Lel Schemarim the night of observation or preservation Hereup on their minds being fraughted with such a conceit they abandon feare leave open their gates and doors all the night over to give an entrance to Elias the Prophet who as they assure themselves will come and deliver them out of this their misery Thus the poor blirdfolded Jewes trouble and vex themselves with this their vaine pompe and pompous vanity for two nights together instead of that paschall lambe which they ought to have eaten using no other ceremonies then Moses in the institution thereof hath described It being the position of their Rabbines that it was not required at their hands after the destruction of their City and Temple to Kill and eat the paschall lambe according to the ceremonial prescription of Meses and that they are not tyed to observe these or any others by him enjoined unlesse they were in the promised land of Canaan which land alone is to be accounted pure and holy all others defiled and profane Now from these premises every one may infer thus much that seeing the Jewes have not srom that time wherein the true paschall lambe Christ Jesus was offered eaten the posseover in any place according to the right prescription and also seeing the Jewes at this day so journing in Jerusalem and the land of Canaan do not eat the paschall lamb in the manner that they ought neither doe they offer any sacrifice it must necessarily follow that there is some other cause why their sacrifices are ceased and all other their Mosaicall Rites and Ceremonies are abrogated which certainly they might have found out in the space of 1631 yeares had they not been smitten with blindnesse from above So that now we may say with the Prophet David This their may uttereth foolishnesse yet their posterity delight in their talke But my people would not hear my voice and Israel would have none of me so I gave them up to their owne hearts lusts and they have walked in their counsels The Rabbines establish this their opinion out of the words following Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passeover unto the Lord thy God of the flocke and the herd in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there Now seeing God enjoins them according to their ordinary glosse that they should not celebrate this Feast in any other place but in the promised land they doe inferre that now being dispersed among the Nations they are not lyable to the observation of the same But the true sence of the words is this That when God had put a period to Israels captivity and brought them into the land of promise the land of Canaan and having given unto them a setled kind of regiment a City and a Temple in which it pleased him to place his name then they should repaire to Jerusalem to eate the pasâ—hall lambe for the better preservation of the unity of faith among them as to the Metropolis and chiefe City of Israel But when the scepter was in a manner taken â—rom them by reason of inâ—essâ—nt wâ—â—rs and tumults so that they could not come unto Jerusalem then did every family kill and eate the passeover in their owne gates as it is recorded in the second book of Kings And so soon as they were delivered out of these their troubles they celebrated the said Feast againe in the place appointed with great solemnity and rejoicing as good Josial is recorded to have done in the sore-cited place Now that for the space of 1631 yeares they could not kill nor eat the paschall lambeâ— right none must seeke for another cause then that of the departure of the Scepter from Juda the desolation of Jerusalem and their long continued exile For why did not Jerusalem remain unto this day why is not the Temple built againe The sacrifices and ceremonies delivered by Moses why are they not re-established The Jewes cannot see the reason hereof because Moses his vaile is as yet before their eies It was formerly mentioned that the Jewes at the supper of the paschall Lambe use to carouse foure cups of wine two before supper two after which foure consecrated cups every one
because without these there is no pleasure and also by reason of the command which saith Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God thou and thy son and thy daughter For a conclusion le ts see what the Prophets say concerning these Jewes who have taken the Law to wife The sentence of Isaiah is The earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Lawes changed the Ordinance and broken the everlasting Covenant And the Lord by the mouth of Ezâ—kiel saith The Priests have out of malice perverted my law and profaned my sanctuary Stephen cries out against them Ye stifnecked and uncircumcised in heart and eares you doe alwaies resist the holy ghost as your fathers did so do yee Who have received the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it CHAP. XVI Of their Feast of Tabernacles THE third great Festivall of the Jewes which they are to celebrate every yeare once appearing before the Lord in Jerusalem is the Feast of Tabernacles concerning which as also the two former it is writ in the fifth book of Moses Three times a yeare shall all thy males appeare before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse in the Feast of unleavened bread in the Feast of weeks and in the Feast of Tabernacles and they shall not appeare before the Lord empty The time of the celebration of this Feast was according to Gods owne commandement to bee the fifteenth day of the seventh month according to the vulgar account beginning to reckon from the first day of the new yeare of Festivals of which we have spoken formerly that it begins in March and so consequently inferre that this seventh month must be our September The etymologie whereof as also the reason why this month in their common annuall account is called the first shall hereafter be more at large declared The end of their keeping of this Feast was as a signe or token whereby the Israelites might recall to mind the fatherly providence of Almighty God by which hee had sustained the children of Israel after a wonderfull manner for the space of forty yeares in the desert having neither house nor harbor The manner of celebration is thus prescribed by Moses You shall dwell in boothes seven daies all that are Israelites born shall dwell in boothes that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in boothes when I brought them out of the land of Egypt These boothes were wont to be made of the boughes of goodly trees as the mirtle olive firre which by reason of their fatnesse would for a long time retaine their green attire branches of palm trees boughes of thicke trees willowes of the brook as it is in the same place This they put in practise in the daies of Nehemiah after their returne from Babylon for it is recorded that then they published and proclaimed in all their Cities and in Jerusalem saying Goe forth unto the mount and fetch olive branches pine branches myrtle branches and palme branches and branches of thicke trees to make boothes And they did so From that which hath been said we may gather 1. That the Jewes in ancient times made Tabercles of these kinds of boughes in which they dwelt for the space of eight daies 2. That there were in use for the fabrick more then foure severall kinds of boughes or branches yea the willowes of the brook are not mentioned in the forecited place of Nehemiah which were used for the knitting together of the other branches being plyable and fit for that purpose Therefore the Jewes of these present times commit a grosse error that they in a most superstitious manner in the celebration of this Festivall tie and confine themselves to those foure kinds of branches only mentioned by Moses and not building them Tabernacles therewithall but transferring them to another use of which more hereafter Concerning this Feast there is extant a large tract in the Talmud wherein the genuine observation and celebration thereof is set downe the platâ€forme of the boothes or Tabernacles exquisitely drawne the use of the foure severall sorts of branches described with much disputation and great subtilty as their manner is not omitting to handle all the ceremonies belonging there unto yet never seeking after the true way and meanes whereby they may rightly lift up their hearts unto the God of their fathers For though in the time of this Feast they say many prayers yet they offer them up unto the Lord only upon the censure of their tongue not upon the altar of their hearts for in these they are far from him an evident demonstration hereof is the winged hudling over of these their petitions using such a precipitancy of speech as though they were able to pronounce a thousand words with one breath and accounting it a work of art and skill so to do This Feast endures for the space of eight daies the two first and the two last whereof are to be kept holy altogether those which are of the middle rank only for halfe the day Upon the fourteenth day of the month about eventide they meet in the Synagogue according to their ecclesiastical Ordinances and institutions where they sing and pray untill it bee night At which time they returne to their houses and retire themselves into their Tabernacles where the Master of the family saith a certaine prayer which serves for the initiation of the Feast and consecration of the Tabernacles giving thanks unto God that he hath chosen them before all other people exalted sanctified and commanded them to dwell in Tabernacles The thanks giving being ended they fall to supper where they are very jocund and merry In ancient daies they were wont also to lodge in their boothes which the Jewes at this day use not the coldnesse moistnesse and other maladies and incumbrances which might accrew unto them thereby being as so many potent arguments to disswade from this and to invite them to their owne bedâ€chambers which experience hath taught them to be the sweeter resting place Upon the morrow of the fifteenth day they returne into the Synagogue singing and praying and honouring the Lord with a little lip-service their hearts roving quite another way When the Chanter hath proceeded so farte in his prayers that he is come at last to those words Give peace in these our daâ—es O Lord then every one taking a little bundle of palm oliâ—e and willow branches in his right hand and an orenge in his lest saith Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast sanctifyed us by thy commandments and commanded us to carry a bundle of branches Which while he is in repeating he shakes the bundle that it may make a noise the words of the Prophet moving him thereunto who saith The trees of the wood shall clap their hands Then he shakes the bundle three times towards the East three times towards the West
three times towards the North three times towards the South heaving it also in the last place over his head then suffering it to becke unto the ground In all these severall postures carrying himselfe much like unto a fencer in the tossing advancing and shouldering of his pike Then they pray againe and againe begin to shake their bundle of boughes thereby giving to understand that they are triumphant conquerours of all sinne and inquity having a conceit that by the noise of their branches they have so lashed whipped away and terrifyed the devill that hee dare never any more presume to accuse them before God for their sinnes and offences The next thing they put in practice is concerning the Book of the Law which some or other goes and takes out of the Arke and laies it upona Deske and instantly thereupon every one in the Synagogue circles about the pew or desk with the bundle of branches and orenges in his hand This they dâ—efor seven daies together in remembranâ—e that the wals of Jericho being by their fathers compâ—ssed about sseven daies fell flat unto the ground and the men thereof subdued unto Israel hoping withall that the wals of the Roman Empire shall likewise be demolished and the Jewes become the conquerours Lords and Masters of the Christians which Rabbi Bechai affirms in expresse words saying This our enâ—ircling or compassing used by us at this day upon this Festivall is a certaine sign unto us of the state of the time to come wherein the wall of Edom that of the Romane Monarchy shall be throwne downe and all the Edomites shall bee destroied and rooted out according to that of Daniel which he delivers concerning the fourth beast which shaddowes out unto us the Roman Monarchy in these words I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horne spake I beheld even till the beast was slaine and his body destroied and given to the burning flame In that day shall the mount Sion and Jerusalem rejoice which were formerly called Midbar or a desart as it is written Thy holy Cities are a wildernesse Sion is a wildernesse Jerusalem a desolation The same Prophet saying also in another place That Sion ought to rejoice and Jerusalem to be glad and clap her haâ—ds because the Lord will take vengeance upon Edom that is upon the Roman Empire as it it written The desart and wildernesse shall rejoice So much Rabbi Bechai out of which we may easily gather how much good the Jewes wish unto us Christians in the time of this their Festivall Yet in their books of Common Prayers it appeares that in former times they have been more invective against us then they are at this day for there they pray that God would smite us after the manner that hee smote the first born in the land of Egypt And that in a prayer which begins Ana hoschiana where the expresse words are Smite our enemies as thou smotest the first born in Egypt and make them subject unto us c. Where by their enemies they understand us Christians to whom they are now in bondage The first shaking of these Festivall branches being ended they shake them very often in the processe of their prayers taking two bookes of the Law out of the Arke out of which they read certaine sections with a bawâ—ing ostentation but very little attention and lesse devotion The second day they hallow equally as the first not that they are enjoined thereunto by the command and law of God but by reason they are not assured what day of September may precisely be accounted for the fifteenth and hence it is that they make two holidaies when one onely is required Eâ—ery evening so long as the Feast endures the Master of the family repeats a certaine prayer whereby hee makes the daies of the Feast to be discerned and differenced from those which are appointed for labour and travell in our ordinary vocation giving thanks unto God that the Feast hath been celebrated in such a good manner The foure daies following are onely esteemed holy in part but upon these also they sing and pray very much shaking their palm branches If any one of these foure daies chance to be the day of the Sabbath then among other things they read a certaine Chapter out of the Prophesie of Ezekiel concerning the dreadfull war of Gog and Magog beleeving and writing that Gog shall be slaine in this month and they delivered out of bondage shall be brought back into their owne land there for ever to have a peaceable habitation The seventh day is likewise by them kept holy whereon they say the prayer called Hosanna Rabba Helpe O Lord our strength because therein they intreat the Lord for to help them against all their enemies and to send them a good and fruitfull yeare For the first day of this month is the first day of the new yeare of yeares properly so called according to which they frame the computation of their yeares In the morning of every one of these daies they early wash themselves in hot or cold water goe into the School or Synagogue light many candles sing and pray â—ervently and with a great deale of ostentation take seven books of the Law out of the Arke and lay them upon the pew or deske which as was formerly related they compasse about seven times having their bundles of palme branches in their hands which are knit together with willow After every severall encompassing putting one of the seven books of the Law into the Arke againe Rambam Rakanat and Bechai with many other of the Rabbines Commenting upon the 14 Chapter of the 4 book of Moses blush not to affirm that God upon the seventh day at night reveales unto them by the moone what thing soever shall befall them the yeare following and that in this manner Upon this night they goe out into the fields by moone-shine some with their heads uncovered other having onely a linnen cloth tied about them or a vaile upon them which they suffering to fall upon the earth stretch out their armes and hands If any mans shadow in the moon-shine seem to want an head it is a certaine signe and token that such a one shall that yeare either lose his head or dye some other death If any seem to want a singer it presages the death of some of his friends if his right hand of his son if his left of his daughter But if no shadow at all appeare then that man shall undoubtedly dye and therefore if he have appointed a journey hee should hereby bee warned to let it alone lest he should not returne in safety This the Rabbines prove from those words of Moses Their shadow is departed from them Num. 14. 9. The Rabbines interpreting that a shadow which properly signifies a defence Yet they say that though a man cannot behold his shadow as upon this night that for this reason he should not
no rivers they dig a well in their cellar or garden concerning the breadth and depth whereof they are diverse in opinion as also how much water may be contrived in the same At eventide they likewise repair unto the Synagogue where they continue praying untill it be night at what time the feast begins welcoming it with great joy and many acclamations So much for the preparation now for the feast it self but before we give you any tast thereof hearken what the Prophet saith concerning these men of Juda Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear No man calleth for justice no man contendeth for truth they trust in vanity and speak vain things they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity They hatch Cockatrice eggs and weave the spiders web He that eateth of their eggs dieth and that which is trodden upon breaketh out into a Serpent CHAP. XIX Of the Feast of the New-Year NEw-years-day according to the Jewish Almanack falls continually upon the first day of September which is the beginning of their civil year according to which account they date all their bils contracts and bargains This computation they ground upon the time of the creation of the world which was as they affirm upon the first of September Soe that they now reckon the years from the creation to be five thousand three hundred eighty foure or thereabouts Whence we may see how far they vary in their number from the Christians even by the space of two hundred twenty three years This first day of September is to be sanctified and kept holy by the Jews being a thing commanded by God himself saying Speak unto the children of Israel and say In the seventh moneth in the first day of the moneth shall you have a Sabbath for the remembrance of blowing the trumpets an holy convocation Ye shall do no servile work therein but offer sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord. Though Moses make no mention of the new-year in these words yet following an ancient tradition of their ancestors they begin their civil year as upon this day being the first of September which is the seventh moneth accounting from March in which begins the new-year of their festivals The chief reason why it is called the feast of trumpets is because the Priests in old time were wont as this day to repair to the Temple and blow upon trumpets that hereby the people might be warned and pricked forward to render thanks unto God with a chearful and merry heart for the blessings and favours plentifully powred upon them in the year last past that he hath preserved them in safety and redeemed their souls from death and that with fear and trembling truly repenting them of their misled life they may appear before God upon the day of reconciliation upon which an attonement is to be made between God and his people The Jews at this day instead of a trumpet use a Rams horn the reason whereof shall hereafter be related The manner of the Celebration followeth After evening prayer they begin the feast by the consecration of a bowl of wine and a certain prayer appointed for the day they account it as a signe of good luck if their wine be new and sweet Every one salutes his fellow with God send you a good new-year or pointing to the books of which we made mention in the former chapter they say Thou art registred for one who shall be partaker of a prosperous year to whom the other makes answer and you also that is as much as if he had said The Greator of heaven and earth hath ordained thee for a good new-year The little children run unto the chief Rabbine and aske him blessing upon whom he laies his hands and prayes unto God to send them an happy year From the Synagouge to their own houses where they finde the table neatly spread and sumptuously furnished and that with no small deal of provision They presently fall aboard the first dish whereupon they make an assault is a Platter full of dainty Apples steeped in Honey of which every one tasting a bit saith God send us a merry New-year then proceeding with great jollity and mirth to the stuffing of their empty guts Amongst other things the fore-mentioned Rams-horn is laid upon the table in remembrance of the Ram which being catched in the thickets was sacrificed by Abraham in the place of Isaac Others write that they lay it upon the table to signifie that they shall become the head and not the tail according to that promise of the Lord by Moses The Lord shall make thee head and not the tail and thou shalt be above onely and not beneath Which promise is made indeed unto the Jews but with that condition to keep all his Commandments to observe and do them But they understood a mastery and dominion over the Christians to be the tenor thereof which that it may come to pass they daily pray to God above They eat fish for the most part of the best sort they can procure upon this night to shew that their good works merits shall multiply and increase even as the fishes in the sea Fruits of all kinds are no novelty unto them as Almonds Cucumbers Grapes Gourds Leeks Lupines sweet yet grosse pulse and such like The Leeks represent their enemies because they shall be rooted out of the earth and perish utterly for the Leek in the Chaldee tongue is called Crate which is derived from a Verb signifying to Cut and hereupon when they have eaten their Leeks they say Let all our enemies all them that hate us be uttterly cut off When they eat the sweet Pulse which they call Silka they say Let our enemies perish from among the midst of us When they eat the Almonds which they call Timarim they say Let our enemies be consumed and blotted out When they eat the Gourds called Kara they say Let every evil thing which is definitely determined against us be abolished and come to nothing and let our good works and deservings be read and published before the God of heaven The morning come they repair to the Synagogue more early then at other times singing many Psalms and saying many Prayers They take the book of the Law twice out of the Ark reading some sections out of it as in imitation of Ezra who did the like Nehemiah 8. but God knows in a far different manner After their Haphtarah or Lecture out of the Prophets is ended one goes up into the Pulpit and sounding the Rams horns at several times distinctly bellows out thereupon thirty words some with an equal others with an interrupted tone If the trumpet give a shrill and pleasant sound they take as a certain signe that a good and a happy year will then befal them but if on the contrary the sound be dull and hollow or perhaps none at all it
fills their hearts with sorrow being a very probable token of an unfruitful and dangerous season When the trumpeter hath done his office the whole Synagogue trumptes out those words of David Blessed is the people O Lord that can rejoyce in thee they shall walk in the light of thy countenance Morning prayer ended they return again to their houses where they eat and drink and sound upon their Rams-horns For it is a position of the Rabbines that at this time every one ought to be merry and jocund being assured that God hath been gracious unto him in pardoning his sins and offences and not because he hath fill'd his panch and liquored his throat for this would God rather impute unto them as a sin then recompense as a good work After this their repast every one man woman and child hasten to the water or to some Bridge thereupon to make Taschlich that is to say to cast their sins into the water and the ground of the practise is that of the Prophet He will turn again and have mercy upon us be will subdue our iniquities and cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea The Jews thus gathered together upon the Bridge so soon as they behold the fishes accounting the sight as a prosperous signe and token they caper alost and shake their garments over the â—ishes dreaming and vainly conceiting that by this their foolery they have shaked off all their sinnes upon the fishes backs which swim away with them even as the scape-Goat which carried away the sinnes of their ancestors into the wilderness Others write that they do it in remembrance of Abraham who travelling to sacrifice his son Isaac upon Mount Meriah which was upon the first day of September Satan met him and turned himself into a great River which at the first took him only to the knees but by and by it reacht his neck Abraham perceiving himself to be in such a distresse and that he was in danger of drowning cried mightily unto God who heard his prayer and turned the water into dry ground as it is recorded in the tract Medrasch rotosoha Evening being come they fall again to eat and drink and make merry as they were wont and in this manner they celebrate the feast of the New-year in great security with much mirth and jollity for the space of two dayes together I conclude with that of the Prophet If a man walk in the spirit and would lie falsly saying I will prophesie unto thee of wine and of strong drink he shall even be the prophet of this people To which alludes that of Sophonie Her Prophets are light and wicked persons her Priests have polluted the Sanctuary they have polluted the Law CHAP. XX. How they prepare themselves to the Feast of Reconciliation and the celebration thereof THe time between New-years-day and the tenth of the same moneth upon which they keep the feast of Reconciliation is called by Jews the ten penitential dayes for which space they fast and pray very much and are wonderful desirous to become holy and religious that if God should have written any of their names in the book of death and determined to afflict their souls with an unfortunate year he might at the contemplation and sight of their penitent life and practise of good works repent him of the evil and have mercy upon them transcribing their names in the book of life and sealing the judgement Every morning so long as these dayes endure while it is as yet very early they confesse their sins three several times do not proceed to the excommunication of any one neither do they call any man into judgement or force any one to take an Oath Upon the ninth day they forsake their beds betimes in the morning frequent the Synagogue sing and pray So soon as they return home every male old and young takes a Cock and every woman a Hen into their hands the master of the family doing likewise and saying these words Foolish men are plagued for their offence and because of theâ—r wickednesse Their soul abhorred all manner of meat and they were even at deaths door So when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble he delivered them out of their distresse He sent forth his word and healed them and they were saved from their destruction O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men that they would offer unto him the sacrifice of thanksgiving and tell out his works with gladnesse And again If there be a messenger with him or an interpreter one of a thousand to declare unto man his righteousnesse then will he have mercy upon him and will say Deliver him that he go not down into the pit for I have received a reconciliation that is a Cock which shall be a reconciliation unto me When he hath ended this his repetition he finisheth the reconciliation waving the Cock three times about his head and saying at every time This Cock shall serve instead of me he shall succeed in my stead who deserve death he shall be my reconciliation he shall die for me but I shall enter into life and blisse with them that are righteous in Israel Amen This he doth three times as was said before once for himself once for his children and once for strangers which sojourn with him according to the custome of the high Priest in ancient dayes as it is recorded in the third book of Moses In the next place he takes the Cock and kills him and drawing and gathering the skin together about his neck first meditates with himself that he is worthy to have his own throat cut for his sinnes and offences and then cutting the Cocks throat thinks himself worthy to be punished with the sword After this he takes the cock and with all his might throws him upon the ground thereby signifying that he deserves to be stoned to death for his sins and wickedness lastly he puts him upon the spit and roasts him thereby giving others to understand that to be burnt in a fiery furnace doth not equalize his desert These four kindes of death the poor Cock undergoes for his Master The intrals out of commiseration they commonly cast upon the house top that it may also be partaker of such a sacrifice Others say that they do it because sin is rather an internal then an external thing and that it cleaves fast to the bowels of the Cock some Crows coming by may claw them up and flee away with them into the wildernesse even as the scape-Goat in the Old Testament ran away with the sins of the people into the Desert They take all possible pains and care to procure a white Cock for the sacrifice They will by no means admit of a red one because such an one is full of sins seeing sin it self is red also as it is written Come now
it not Behold in the day of your fast you will seek your will and require all your debts Behold youâ— fast to strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickednesse ye shall not fast as you do to day to make your voice to be heard above Is it such a fast that I have chosen that a man should afflict his soul for a day and to bow down his head as a bulrush and to lie down in sackcloth and ashes wilt thou call this a fasting or an acceptable day unto the Lord CHAP. XXII Of the Feast of joy and gladnesse for that they have read over the book of the Law And of the manner how they distribute their Ecclesiastical Offices THere is no mention made of this Feast in holy writ The Rabbines instituted it as a day of rejoycing in that God had given them so much as to spend a whole year in the reading of his Law and exercise thereof in that upon this day they have finished accomplished and brought to an end the lecture and exposition of the of the text thereof in their Church or Synagogue in that he hath in great clemency granted them power and faculty to perform the same They distribute and part the five books of Moses into fifty two Chapters of Sections whereof they read one every Sabbath day so that the last Section is read upon the first day after the Feast of tabernacles which commonly falls upon the twenty third day of September It is recorded in the Talmud that the Priests were wont to skip caper and dance using all kinde of musical instruments upon this day practising among the vulgar many incredâ—ble and skittish fooleries which here to set down would be rather a wearinesse then either pleasure or profit to the reader Upon this day they repair to the Synagogue and in a solemn procession take all the books of the Law out of the Ark reading the first and last Section leaping about the Ark with the books in their hands and when they are weary in great pomp putting them into the Ark again So long as the books are out of the Ark a burning Lamp shines therein for the Ark must not at any time be found empty whereupon it necessarily follows that the Lamp supplying the place of the books avails as much as the books themselves for the Law is called a Lamp or light as it is written The Command is a Lantern and instruction a light Furthermore they scatter Apples Plums and Pears among the younger sort that they also may take occasion to expresse the utmost of their mirth and jollity Yet it often falls out that that hereby is occasioned a greater deal of grief and melancholy in the hearts of these nonaged striplings in that they often in scambling for these fruits fall into strife contention and brawling and at last make trial which among them have the most patient stretching ears Now because upon this day the reading of the Law is finished in a second place they go Ã¥bout the distribution of Ecclesiastical functions and offices and in â—he first place them that belong to the Lecturers of the Law These their offices or functions are sold by open sale in their Synagogue and he that at the third asking offers the most money for them hath them assured unto him and is bound to keep them And in the first place the Clerk or Sexton of the Synagogue proclaims the office of them who are to light candles all the year following as also that of the Cup-bearers who carry the wine wherewith they begin and end their Sabbaths and other Festivals For though the Master of every family be bound to give a beginning to the Sabbath by the consecration of a cup of wine yet that this ceremony is also performed in the Synagogue and that publickly before the whole Congregation by reason of the poorer sort who for want of means cannot procure wine at home for the initiation of the Sabbath And moreover it is not to be neglected because the Boyes and children that drink thereof become religious and godly Jews Thirdly the Clerk proclaims that if any man will buy Gelilah let him come forth which is an office of unfolding and folding up again the book of the Law Fourthly it is demanded if any one will buy Hagbohah He that hath this office is busied in a speedy lifting up of the book of the Law carrying it about the Pew or Desk that any one may read thereupon It is necessarily required that he that carries it be strong and of an able body that he may without stumbling carry the book unfolded with stretched out arms for if he chance to faulter and slip but with one foot not bearing it in that manner which is required the whole Congregation is enjoyned to fast which is reputed as a very bad signe of some ensuing misfortune Fifthly it is demanded who purchase Etz Chajim for money He that hath this office is allowed to touch the two pieces of wood to which the Law is fastened by long skins or Parchments as also to carry and administer the little Bag Coat or Sachel in which the book of the Law after the ending of the Lecture is with all speed to be wrapt up Young men and striplings commonly buy this office perswading themselves that by touching those forementioned pieces of wood their honesty shall be improved and their understanding bettered hoping that thereby their life shall be prolonged seeing these pieces of wood are called Etz Chajim which by interpretation signifieth the trees of life as it is written She is a tree of life meaning the Law to them that lay hold on her and blessed is he that retaineth her These are touched and handled when the book of the Law is wrapped up where a special heed must be taken and care had that they touch not the Parchments with their naked hands for this is a hainous offence Sixthly it is demanded who will buy Acheron which is an office that whosoever in the whole congregation is the last called out upon any Festival he must read somewhat out of the book of the Law Seventhly it is demanded who will buy Shehia He that hath this office is a kinde of overseer who looks unto the rest that they be not negligent in their charge and place and if he finde them so he may put them out and himself in All the money which they get for these places and offices they bestow in the reparation of the Synagogue and maintenance of the poor From this open sale of Ecclesiastical functions often proceed as from a Fountain envies brawlings contentions and evil surmisings Yea God himself is often blasphemed because the favour and countenance and respect of persons bears a greater sway in sharing then Justice while the rich is preferred before the poor a stripling sooner admitted into holy Orders then one of riper years an illiterate Asse sooner then a learned Doctor and an
ill liver commonly before an honest man Hence it is that these things considered such a flood of contention often ariseth that a Christian Magistrate is often sent for to stop stay it forunder the Sun there is not a more testy envious jarring and more implacable people then the Jews And this is the fruit which they reap from the reading of the Law with so great attention as they bring and boast of and to say the very truth no better can be expected seeing their outside makes a beautiful and glorious shew but within they are full of malice and hypocrisie Now whereas there is no perfect joy where slesh and wine or as they say Basâ—r re iâ—jin are wanting therefore they conclude and end this Feast of joy and rejoycing with a sumptuous and great Supper CHAP. XXIII Of the Feast of Dedication THis Feast is wont to be celebrated upon the twenty first day of November by them called Kisleu in memory of Judas Hasmonita or Machabaeus that excellent warriour who after the death of his Father Mattathias overcame and vanquished the Grecians who had formerly subdued Jerusalem profaned the holy Temple poured out the oil of the Sanctuary and done very much evil unto the Jews He also won the City cleansed the Sanctuary upon the twenty first day of this moneth as we may read in the first book of Mâ—chabees and the fourth Chapter Wherefore Judas and his brethren with the whole Congregation of Israel concluded that the dayes of dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight dayes from the five and twentieth day of the moneth Casleu with mirth and gladnesse This Feast the Jews at this day do also keep and celebrate but in a far different manner then those ancient Machabites For here now is nothing to be seen but feasting and gormandising quaffing and drinking piping and dancing revelling and roaring all to passe away the time but little or no thanksgiving unto the Lord of hosts for the victory and conquest over their enemies as upon this day At that time when Judas had dedicated the Temple none of the holy oil could be found so that the Lamps could not be lighted according to the ordinance of Moses Judas therefore made diligent search in the Temple where he found a small horn of oil sealed with the Ring of one of the Priests which was onely sufficient to feed the Lamps for one nights space yet preserved in that happy manner that it was not polluted by the enemies Hereupon the heart of Judas and the whole congregation was filled with sorrow because they could have no more oil till these eight dayes were expired because the City Tehoa from whence it was to be fetched was four dayes journey distant from Jerusalem In this their perplexity the favà our and mercy of God appeared to them by this miracle for the horn of oil sailed not for eight dayes together In the remembrance of this favour and blessing so miraculously conferred upon them the Jews at this day use a great deal of superstitious pomp in tinding of the Lamps appointed for the Synagogue in the time of this Feast They provide a Candlestick with seven branches capable of seven lights or Lamps which burn every night though not until the morrow from the beginning of this Feast unto the end thereof and wheresoever any of these Lamps are found whether in their Houses Stoves or Bedchambers there it is not lawful to move the finger to any kinde of work A Lamp must also be hung as well upon the right side of the gate of every mans house as of the Synagogue the distance whereof from the ground ought to be ten spans no lower twenty but no higher It is a great question among them how long these Lamps may burn and by whom they may be tinded whether one may be lighted at another and such like Thus are they very solicitous and careful about these external lights never considering that there is nothing but darknesse in their own hearts neither striving that they may be illuminated by the light of Gods holy Spirit CHAP. XXIV Of their Feast of Purim THe word Purim is a Persian word and is rendred by the Hebrews Goral which signifies a lot This Feast therefore took its name from that plot and wicked device of Haman the Agagite who in the moneth Nisan in the twelfth year of Ahasuerus cast Pur that is a lot whereby all the Jews both young and old children and women in all the Kings Provinces should be destroyed and rooted out in one day even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth moneth which is the moneth Adar or February which decree was written in the name of the King and sealed with his Ring The end of this conspiracy fell far contrary to Hamans intent For Haman was hanged upon a pair of Gallows fifty foot high and the King granted the Jews in what Cities soever they were to gather themselves together and to stand for their life to root out slay and destroy all them that vexed them So that strengthened by the Kings Letter Patents they put their adversaries to death In Shushan the Palace they slew five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman and the Jews that were in the Provinces of King Ahasucrus slew of them that hated them seventy five thousand men upon the thirteenth day of the moneth Adar and rested upon the fourteenth and fifteenth thereof Wherefore it is instituted and ordained that upon the fourteenth and the fifteenth day of the said moneth every yeer should a Feast be kept by the Jews in all quarters in remembrance of this great deliverance throughout their generations by an ordinance for ever Wherein they rested from their enemies in the moneth which turned unto them from sorrow to joy from mourning to a joyful day as we may read in the ninth Chapter of the book of Esther These two dayes are celebrated at this day by the Jews imitation of their ancestors but in that manner that they rather deserve the name of the dayes of profanation and drunkennesse then of joy and gladnesse Although upon these dayes working is not prohibited by the text of Scripture yet the Jewes at this day rest from all manner of labour writing and affirming in the Talmud that he will never thrive or prosper that does any work upon them For there it is recorded that upon a certain time that a man being sowing line-seed upon one of these dayes a certain Rabbine coming by and seeing him began to reprove and curse him Whereupon it came to passe that the seed never came to growth nor did ever peep out of the ground In the first place therefore the women are enjoyned in a more peculiar manner to sanctifie and celebrate this Festival because this deliverance was wrought by the hands of Queen Esther The night being come they light the Lamps of joy in the Synagogue and
hands under which they were to receive the blessing that the Angels became the Minstrels playing divers tunes upon Trumpets Pipes and other instruments that Adam Eve and God himself might dance In this balsphemous manner writes he that is the Author of that book called Bricum Spigelium printed some few years ago at Cracovia in Poland the German tongue and Hebrew letter which book contains many reprehensoâ—y and moral precepts and is of great esteem among the Iews at this day I finde it registred in the Talmud that God only made tresses for Eve which they prove out of those words and God built which the Rabbines read plaited and hence the Iews at this day call the plaits of a womans hair Biniasâ— which in English signifies a building from the Hebrew word Banah which signifies to build which signification Moses also gives unto it when he saith The Rib which the Lord God had taken from man thereof he built a womâ—n and brought her to Adam Which the Rabbines being Commentators must carry this sense that God plaâ—ted Eves hair and brought her unto Adam leaping and dancing as he came along Surely if there were but the least sparke of true knowledge they would blush and be ashamed to utter these blasphemous sayings before the world but God in his just judgment hath smitten them with blindness that seeing they will not see and hearing they will not understand We leave them therefore an return to our matter The time being come when the blessing due unto the married couple is to be given unto them foure boyes take the Canopie which is fastened to foure posts and wooden pillars and carry it into the street or garden where the solemnity is to be kept whither the bridegroom comes being attended with many men following him at his heels After him followes the bride and her damsels with sackbuts timbrels and other musical instruments seating her self by her spouse under the Canopie This Canopie they call by the name of Chuppah which signifies a cover or shelter When every man and woman there present have taken their places then every one begins to cry out Baruch habba Blessed is he that cometh Which said the Bride being led by others is to compass and circle about her bridegroom three several times as a Cock doth when he is about to tread a hen because it is said A woman shall compass a man Then the bridegroom takes his bride and leads her once about the floore in a circle the people in the mean time casting wheat or other grain upon the bride and saying encrease and multiply hereby signifying that peace and abundance of riches in housekeeping shall befall them according to that of the Psalmist He maketh peace in thy borders an filleth thee with the flower of wheat In some places they mingle mony among their wheat which the poorer sort gather for their own relief The Bride is to stand upon the right hand of the Bridegroom because it is written Kings daughters were among thy honourable women at thy right hand did stand the Bride in a vâ—sture of golde She must turn her face towards the South because it is a tradition of the Rabbines that whosoever placeth his bed in that manner that he lying there in his face shall be towards the South not towards the North shall be the father of many children The Rabbine who marries and joynes them together in the bond of matrimony takes the skirt of the hair-cloth or garment by them called Tallith a which the Bridegroom wears about his neck and puts it upon the head of the Bride which is occasioned by that saying of Ruth to Boaz Spread the wing of thy garment over thy â—andmaid for thou art the kinsman and that of Ezekiel I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was as the time of love and I spread my skirts over thee and covered thy filthiness yea I sware unto thee and entred into a Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine In the next place he takes a glass of wine which they call the bride-boule blesseth it giving thanks unto God that the Bride and the Bridegroom by his instinct have given their consent to be joyned together in the bond of matrimony and reaching out the cup unto them commands them to drink thereof If the Bride be a virgin then the cup must have a narrow mouth if a widow a large one at Wormes they use an earthen cup as also at other places After that they have both tasted of the cup The Rabbine takes the wedding-ring from the Bridegroom which is made of pure gold yet having no jewel in it and calling some witnesses shews them the ring and asketh whether it be a good one and worth the mony that was given for it and then puts it upon the Brides finger repeating the letters of contract with a loud voice Which being ended he takes another glass of wine blessing and praying over it giving thanks unto God that the Bride and Bridgroom had mutually accepted one of another Then reaching them the Cup and bidding them drink thereof which when they have done accordingly the Bridegroom takes the Cup and throws it against the wall in remembrance of the ruinated temple of Jerusalem In some places they are wont to throw ashes upon the Bridegrooms head for the same end and purpose And hence also it comes to pass that the Bridegroom wears upon his head a hood of a black colour such an one as mourners use and the Bride a cloak all rough and hairy able to fright a childe out of its wits to shew unto us that in their greatest jollity they ought to afflict and humble themselves for the desâ—lations of their City and Temple Thus they walk in garments which may shaddow out much sadness but in their hearts they have not sance not feeling thereof Proving the necessity of this trifling outside sorrow from the words of the Psalmist Serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce unto him with reverence That this their marriage or coupling together is celebrated abroad in open aire without covert the reason is because they ought to multiply even as the stars of heaven for multitude When the marriage is ended they sit down to dinner the Bridgroom must say grace and is bound to sing a long prayer and thanksgiving and the sweeter he sings the better he pleaseth his bride and indeed he doth it rather out of pride and to please her then for any glory to God While he is singing others are calling for the hens to be brought and set upon the table The Brides mess consists of an henn and egge served in together in one dish the Bridegroom carves a little of the hen and gives it to his bride which so soon as he hath laid upon her trencher the rest of the guests behaving themselves more like hungry dogs then men catching at and with both hands pulling in pieces the
signifies breath of spirit wind c. d Parascha The Rabbines in their bâ—okes cite not the places according to the chapters but according to sections for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a section or a distinct part of any thing fâ—om 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to divide separate or distinguish The two first words of the Section usually stand for the name thereof there Parascha or Section is either noted with three great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phe or with three great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Samech The letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an open and plain Section The letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a closed or Section shut up not in the resPect Of the things themselves but manner of writing For if the Section begin at the beginning of the line it is called an open Section because a greater space is list A close Section is when 〈◊〉 he Section begins in the middle of the line and the space of three letters is only vacant Of this sort there is one which is noted by a little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sarech which is the last Section on of the Book of Genesis beginning chap. 47. veis 2â— The reason according to the Rabbines is because it is the seale and closre of this booâ— the Law and the Prophets till the comming of the Messias The whole Law is divided into 54. Sections Vide Buxtorf de Parasch Artic 3. a Rambam the 4 capitall laters of the former name briefly neting R Moses Bar Mâ—â—mon which kind of 〈◊〉 the Râ—â—bines were câ—monly graceâ— with 〈◊〉 begun to 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liber fundamenti contning the grounds of the Jews Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sigâ—â—fies a foundation with the Rabbanes It was fiâ—t prined at Venice An. D. 1425. and then at Lublin iâ— Poland 1567. a Nitzachon signisies as much as victory from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 natzach to overcome as though Sipman in this book bad triumphed over the four Evangelists The cause of Jewish superstition a This is the thorah begnal peh above mentioned Tract Saned cap. 11. Isa. 60. 21. Surely the Papists had their puâ—gatory from hence a that is to say holy b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cadus farinae that is a barrel of meale the title taken 1. Kin 17. 14 a booke containing the common places of Divinity in folio Printed at Venice The Jewes Beliefe concerning the resurrection Isa. 26. 14. Ib. v. 19. Tract Tosch hallchanah or of the new year c. 1. Da◠〈…〉 Iesa 65. â—â— Gen. 47. 29. The cause why Jacob would not be buried in Egypt a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tzaddikim The Jews were dissinguished into three ranks 1. Chasidim called the Assidins 2. The Tzaddikim just men 3. The Relchagnim ungodly mentafter the captivity the Chasidim began to be distinguished from the Tzaddikim these gave themselves to the study of the Scripture thus to adde to the Scripture these conformed themselves to the Law they would be holy above the Law and were termed by the name of good men these of all others had the best repute and love among the people hence the Apostle illâ— istratâ—th the love of Christ by alluion to this distinction Rom. 5. 6 7. Some peradventure would die for one of the Chasidim a good man scarcely any for any of the Tzaddikim a just man for the Reschagnim or uâ—godly none would die yet Christ died for us sinners Mr. Goodwin out of David Kinchi upon Ps. 103. 17. Pirk aboth cap. 13. * Ezak 37. 12. The Jewish division of Moses his Law Isa 24. 5. Brand spiegelium cap. 13. 15. a Keter a Crown or a King Cap from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Pihel to encompasse because it encompasseth the head Jer. 3325. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Berith a covenant from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cligere to chuse because the covenant was made with Gods elect or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is clearnisse because it clears the conscience of good men R. Haradosch affirms the same number to be contained in the word breath which in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesu Mariae This among the Kabalists is no vulgar number intimating Jesus the Son of Mâ—ry to be the authour of the Covenant Isa. 3. 10. Prov. 7. 2. Soph. 3. 4. The causes of Jewish obstinacie Esa. 1. 4. Esa. 48. 4. Ezek. 2. 4. Ezek. 16. Esa 6. 10. Deur 28. 15. 28 29. The cause of Jewish obtinacy Esay 29 18. Mark 7. Mat. 5. a See the Exposition of this word in the Chapter of circum ision b The Exposition also of this word shall follow in its due place c Masorah is that critical doctrine invented of the ancient Hebrews for the clearing of the Hebr. text whereby they summed up the verses words and letters in it to this end that every one might learne to read it aright it also might for over be preserved from corruption Elias Levita Prefat 3. lib. sui masoreth The word is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tradere which is to deliver so that Masorah signifies as much as a doctrine delivered by hand or mouth unto another Buxtorf Com. Masor cap. 1. Rabbi Eliezer cap. 40. Deut. 4 14. Rabbi Aben Ezra R Salomon Jarchi R. Bechai and others on this place * That is the Christians * They mean 〈◊〉 the Jews Dansi 1.8 â—â— a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kabalah from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo receive the mysticall Dvinity of the Jews a Doctâ—ine delivered by word of mouth and so received concerning the hidden mysteries of the Law of God There are two parts of it the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speculative the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 practick which hath also three parts Gematria Notarikon Temurah Gematria is a word corrupted from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called because it considers a word according to the number which the Letters thereof contain and is that part of the Kabala whereby divers words containing the same number may one be explained by another for example it is written Abac. he 3. 2. In anger remember 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in numbers makes 248 so much also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as though he bad said in mercy remember Abraham and the Covenant made with him Notarikon a word corrupted from the Latines notatioâ— is that part of the Kabala which considers the Letters of every significative word as they note out others in particular so the name ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Machabeus notes out the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is like unto thee among the gods O Lord Exod. 15. 11. the name Adam notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dust bloâ—d and gall dust in respect of corruptibility blood in respect of his vitality gall in respect of bis calamity or as Saint Cyprian the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes out the four parts of
year untill the thirteenth they have a serious and impulsive admonition given time not to go uncovered after which time they are commanded to use the gesture The children of the Jews from their very infancy are accustomed to wear a girdle and truly their honest Matrons fasten it to the hinder part of their coats that by this means they may always be mindfull of it for the girdle severs their heart from the secret parts lest the heart in time of prayer might be hindred in its devotion by beholding the privities So soon as this infant Jew hath learnned his morning prayers he intermixeth this Petition Blessed be thou O God who girds Israel with the girdle of strength having respect unto the girdle he is girded withall for if he have none about him then is this his prayer of no moment but in vain and imputed to him for a sinne Moreover the children are not permitted to go barefoot for fear of a multiplicity of dangers which might happen unto them and that especially in the Moneths of December and January when the Cats dance their Corantoes for at that time they may chance to tread upon venemous stuffe cast out by the Cats in this their wantonnesse by which their feet may be annoyed with such a swelling that for a long time after they can have no remedy When they cannot as yet speak plainly or readily they are caught to pronounce some good Sentences out of the Bible they accustome them also upon the morning and Evening of Evening of every Sabbaoth and great feast decently to salute their father and mother and to bid them good morrow good even to wish them a happy Sabbaoth c. Seven years past and the children coming to more maturity they are commanded that every morning adjoyning the name of God they should remember to say God give yon a good day c. for so spoke Boaz to his reapers Hael immachem the Lord be with you and also this Jebarecha hael God blesse you or as we use to speak God thank you It is not lawfull for them to use the name of God unlesse it be in some pure place concerning which more shall be spoken in another place They are also taught all manner of utensils necessary for their life and daily conversation They practise Nomenclation that by this means they may fooner learn to speak Hebrew and hence it is that they intermingle many Hebrew words with the Germane language or any other which they use as their mother tongue Moreover these infants altogether shun the company of Christians will neither eat nor drink nor enter into any other kind of commerce with them this being the study of their Parents to make every action of the Christians for to seem odious and such as are abomination to the Jews hence it comes to passe that they indesinently hold on to nourish that hatred which they conceived against the Christians in their infancy even untill the end of their dayes When the children are seven years old then by their Parents command they learn to read and write If any one be of so great an estate that he can bestow the charges he keeps a Rabbi or Schoolmaster in his own house to instruct his children So soon as any one hath made so much progresse in this kind that he can read then first of all he is taught to construe the Books of Moses in that language with which he was brought up In a certain book called Schebkile emunah it is recorded that when the mother brings her son the first time unto School to the Rabbine that she ought to give unto him some delicious wafers made with Sugar and hony and to say these words Even as this wafer is sweet so let the Law be sweet unto thy heart let it be like sugar upon thy tongue and hony upon thy lips see that thou trifle not away thy time at School with babbling unprofitable speeches but learn to speak the words of the Law alone let them only proceed out of thy mouth for hereby it shall comete pass that the glory of Gods Majesty shall rest upon thy head and for evermore shall there keep his residence for God loves all those that are intent unto goodnesse and speak of his Word Hereupon the most learned Doctours among the Jews have left it written that Jerusalem being wasted and all the Priests and Levites exiled by the Enemy God did in such a manner for sake them that his Majesty would not vouchsafe to bear them company The Sanedrim also or the chief Consistory among the Jews being likewise by the Conquerours overthrown without Jerusalem had not the Majesty of the most high gone along with them yet the children at length being banished out of their School the glorious Majesty of God omnipotent was their Companion into the Land of their captivity concerning which the Prophet Jer. prophesied in these words Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy and from the daughter of Zâ—on all her beauty is departed where beauty notes out the presence of Gods Majesty in the presence of which the beauty of the City Jerusalem consisted therefore when the boyes sitting at the feet of the Rabbine learn the words of the Law and nothing but the Law issues out of his mouth then the glorious Majesty of the Creator dwells in them and delights himself with the breath coming out of the mouth of these punies for a breath of this nature is pure and holy considering the child hath not as yet committed sin In the thirteenth year of his age his title is Bar Mitzvah the son of the Commandements because he is now tied to keep the Law and will of God as also then he begins first of all to fin if he do not perform the said Commandements Rabbi Simeon Bar Nachmam in the name of Rabbi Jochanan uttered these words That if any one teach his son the word of God he is worthy to sit before the Lord in that University which is opened in the heavens as Jeremy saith If thou wilt return then will I bring thee again and thou shalt stand before me that is to say if thy son hear the Law I will make him fellow of the same Colledge that the Saints and Angels inhabit and make him partaker of life eternal and whosoever is not carefull that his son should learn the Law and so consequently becomes the occasion of his corrupt education it were better for him that he were blind so that he might not behold his reproachfull acts as it is written of the Patâ—iarch Isaac When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see he called Esau his eldest son c. On these words Rabbi Eliezer of the stock of Azariah saith That Isaac his eyes were therefore dimme that he might not see the immodesty and wantonnesse of his unnurtured son Esau and it is recorded in the book Medrasch that Abraham for the very