the Musicians shall learn the Laws We see it with mid-dayes clearnesse O Master that now for a thousand years the ignorant Musicians are become Doctors and Teachers of our Law Who are the ignorant ones but the Gentiles Who are these Musicians but the Christians who chant and sing our Book of Psalmes and the Prophets in their Churches Of the Musicians and singers we have God speaking by David Sing unto the Lord a new song for he hath done marvellous things What I beseech you O Master is this new song but the new Testament and what is the old song but our old Law Of these Musicians God speaks more by the Prophet David Sing unto the Lord all the whole earth sing a Psalm of praise to his Name Againe All the families of the earth shall sing and praise thy Name or All the families of the Nations Where this carries a marke of speciall note that it is not singularly said All the families of Israel but the phrase universally spreads it self to all the families of the Gentiles Of this musicall and Psalm-singing people are Davids words in another place Blessed are the people that knows the song ours â—ath it That knows the joyfull sound they shall walk in the light of thy countenance That also is to the same purpose The Gentiles or Nations shall sing a song to thee in the house of â—y God In this place he names a Song by way of Antonomasia naming a Song in generall â—ut intending their particular kinde of singing As for us we have lost our musick it is now 〈◊〉 thousand years since we Jews sung a Song 〈◊〉 our holy House Of these singers speaks David They shall sing praises in the house of God for ever The 137 Psalm questioned our singing How shall they sing the Lords song in a strange Land Alas O Master for the vacuity and emptinesse of our vain hopes who think of a name and a Countrey when we have lost both God himself tels us this by the Prophet Amos Israel is falne she shall rise nâ— more the virgin Israel is forsaken upon heâ— Land there is none to raise her up The same Prophet in the ninth Chapter saith There shaâ— come such tribulation that he who escapeth shaâ— not be delivered though they hide themselves iâ— the top of Carmel I will search and take theâ— out thence though they be hid from my sight iâ— the bottome of the sea thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them Though they go intâ— captivity before their enemies thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them And 〈◊〉 will set mine eyes upon them for evill and noâ— for good This has the Lord said and done to us and now for a thousand years of miserieâ— we have hung by our Harpes and left all ouâ— singing of Psalms mourning befitting us more then musick Notwithstanding though weâ— cannot sing yet this we can say God is our God and we are his people CHAP. XXV The Jews unjustly finde fault with the Christians practise of singing GOD hath spoken O Master of the Christians singing by the mouth of David the sweet singer of Israel saying Clap your hands all ye people sing unto God in the voyce of melody In another place Make a joyfull noise unto the Lord all ye lands serve the Lord with gladnesse and come before his presence with a song In another place Sing unto the Lord all the whole earth declare his salvation from day to day I am under great feare O Master by that which God speaks in the mouth of Ieremie Teach your daughters wailing and every one her neighbour lamentation for death is come up into our windows Together with this of our learning that sad lesson of mourning he speaks of those Musicall children by the Prophet David Kings of the earth and all people princes and all judges of the earth young men and maidens old men and Children let them praise the name of the Lord. And who so offereth praise he glorifieth me As if he plainly said The sacrifice of the flesh of Goats such was our sacrifice doth not honour me but in the sacrifice of praise such as is the Gentiles am I glorified The Prophet Esay agrees with it when he saith The musicians shall learn the Scriptures and all the Psalmes of David shall they sing in a metricall way as it is varied by musicall Tones some Acute and Sharp some Grave About all which whiles I labour with the strength of my best consideration me thinks I judge with the least errour when I conclude we are in a great errour about their Sacrifice of praise which they offer up by singing in the Church of God Especially when I further discern that there are precepts of and examples for this singing in the Law of Moses and in the Prophet David who hath called for the praising God with Organs and Harp and with loud Cymbals and Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord Jesus Christ That for Precept Example is not awanting for David danced before the Ark with his Harpe having his head uncovered for which his rash-tongued wife Michol was bold to reprove him but she got this sharp and tart reply from him O foolish woman doth not the Lord see thee despising me whiles I sing praises to him The Children of Israel also sounded a Trumpet whiles they bore the Arke Now tell me O Master what parts act we Are not we the foolish Michol that mock and jeet at the Christians singing solemnities And do not the Christians act Davids part dancing and rejoycing before the Lord in their Humiditie Especially considering how God propounds it Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. If it had been precisely thus written let every Israelite praise the Lord then our insultation over others might have had some better ground Neither is that of Esay any disadvantage to them that he saith The Nations or Gentiles are before God as nothing For this is to be applyed to the Gentiles in their first estate as they once were drowned in darknesse and ignorance of God before the comming of the Just One. Then indeed they were Pagans and Idolatrous people and none of those Nations that have found the Lord which offer unto him every day a pure offering in the East and West as above out of the Prophet Malachie hath been alledged And certainly O Master we are heirs of a great errour about this thing Notwithstanding all this we belong unto God CHAP. XXVI He proves the Apostasie of the Jews from God UNder an oppression of no small fear I fall prostrate O Master and this troubles me that like wicked Apostates we fell off from God at the first comming of that Just One according to all those Authorities hitherto alledged to which expressely do consent all that we finde written in the Books of the Law and the Prophets From this
interpretation that if they finde not great things yet they wil accept good indeavors of him that would gladly teach himself if he by these cannot teach others these being the rapt houres or the harmlesse Scholler-rapines from his preaching Studies in which I hope to finde some that will give mee the Eloquent and holy Pelusiots censure He that knows not how to teach but is very willing to learn he is worthy to be accepted And however some doe like that of the Preaching King the best that of making and so of reading many books there is no end and much study is a wearinesse of the flesh yet we may with as good reason hearken to Paul as wise as Salomon to give all attendance to reading neither doth the one crosse the other for Salomon 't is thought did not intend a non-tearm about the reading of Divine things of which his Father had said the blessed man should meditate day and night but the Books that hee draws from his Son or his Student are Gentile Volumes and Heathenish writings on which he should not be too eagerly bent for therein would be more wearinesse to the body than profit to the soule and yet even they are to be used so as they may be Giâ—eonites help to cleave wood or draw water for the Sanctuarie Next to Scripture Jewish state and Jewish â—earning is to be sought into as an help to us as a weapon against them after both which wee doe but grope with a great deal of purblindnes in this Tract yet I furnish my self with some considerations of their condition and call upon others to see how the judgements of God are a great deepe The work in the Originall is none of mineâ— Alieno thuribulo rem sacram facio I doe but with the Tailor translate the old garment and make it new yet that has some labour because it is an old peece and is brought out of rudenesse being from good Arabick translated into mean Latin whence I have it The Annotations have the more labour calling me to peruse divers Authors to explaine and fullier to declare Jewish matters and to shew how admirably this converted Jew kisses Jesus What ever wee desire bee accomplished upon earth this I am sure would make wonderfully for our comfort and Christs glory that all Jews were converted and spoke with one Lip as our Rabbi Samuel of Marocco that the great sin of sins is the rejecting of Jesus Christ that all are and shall be cursed as the Jews that will not beleeve in him and that this is life eternall to know God and whom he hath sent Iesus Christ O the blessedness of those times of the Church of the Jews and Gentiles sweetly commixt in one when they shall all speake the same Language Hosanna's to the Son of David this will be as the Resurrection from the dead O Jesus the fulnesse of Grace and Truth bring in the fulnesse both of Jews and Gentiles I make sometimes a digression in the Notes but I dare say who duely weighs it will not say it is a transgression for it is to good purpose to bring in something which may allure and benefit the Reader both with variety and with utilitie And surely I never look into these records of Jewish misery and Divine Justice but I seeme to be amazed with the Justice of God and the hard-heartednesse of that people that now seem as if they had never known God nor any of their Seed were ever known of him O that they would read these Books of their owne converted Brethren who deale with them by the old Testament with weapons out of their own Armorie which they honour and almost adore How cursed are they that must either pull out their own eyes or pull in peeces the Scriptures or they can no way maintain that Jesus is not the Christ the promised Messias He mentions very little of the new Testament for that is Apocryphall to the Jew We must deal with Heathens that are rude by reason libro creaturae we must deal with Philosophers and learned Atheists by reason and arguments spunn upon the best Wheele of Wit and approved Authors and witnesses ex libro literaturae but with Jews ex libro Scripturae the Book of Scripture of Moses and Prophets is our onely Shield Sword Spear and Bow which never return in vain from the Battell These our Authour uses abundantly and never strikes but speeds leaving the Jewes dead upon the place and slaine with their own weapons I request the readers eyes but his heart and judgement also to goe along with them he shall finde some addition to his knowledge or some exuscitation to his affections he may in the end conclude there is some profit by the translation notes as well as by the Authors first draught and it may be he never had heard of the autographon but by the Translator I conclude with that Jewish Apologue The Clusters of Grapes sent out of Babylon to implore favour for the Leaves of the Vine for if there were no Leaves you haâ— lost the Grapes Let Rabbi Samuels be the Clusters and the Translatours the Leaves yet remember you had not most of readers met with his grapes but for the Translators Leaves The Lord perswade Christians to open their eyes and earnestly to lay to heart the Jewish blindnesse and as earnestly to pray that the Lord would perswade Shem to come and dwell in the Tents of Japhet and take away the Hebrew Vail from the heart that they may be turned to the Lord that there may be one Fold and one Shepherd But who shall live when God doth this The Preface to the Booke together with a large Diatriba or Discourse concerning the estate of the Jews and and their miserie all over the World By the English Translatour NO way out of the way will it be in a prefatory Discourse to render the Reasons of putting out a Treatise concerning the State Condition and Doctrine of the Jewes in these times in which the Hearts of men are much erected to looke after and beleeve a Chiliasme and the Reigne of a thousand years in glorious posture upon earth which is much applauded and expected and that upon too many Jewish Grounds and Arguments I would wish none of these times begin to imbrace divers things in consonancy with them and some as madd as Iulian bend their faith or fancie rather to thinke of a re-edification of the long-ruined Jerusalem and judge it were none of the worst enterprizes to go to that unholy Land and be taken up into Heaven there of which imaginations I cannot thinke but that of the judicious Philosopher must needs be given in advice unto such Keep at a good distance these waxen opinions from the hot beams of the Sun of Truth lest they become liquid and you lose them running away in the melting How is the Creation Sabbath taken up and that
of the Resurrection cryed down by divers Nay things strangled and blood for abstinence from them begin to have a resurrection with some as if Christ were not come to confirme their everlasting Funeralls never to peep out of the grave again Out of the Jews and taking part of Judaisme sprung up divers of the worst sort of damnable Heresies and sundry Sects as the Samaritans Sadduces Gorthenians Jebusaeans Essenes Dositheans Scribes Pharisees Hemerobaptists Hossinians Nazaraeans Herodians Simonians Ebionites Valentinians Cerinthians Sethians Melchisedechians Arians Hypsistarians and Mahometans which last religion was compiled and abundance of Jewish matters thrust into it by some Jews that helped Mahomet to make up that confused Chaos of a strange Religion and Sect so that Judaisme hath been the fruitfull Mother and Nurse to give both Wombe and Pap to many monstrous Children There is mention also of a strange Sect of the Athingani with whom Michael Balbus the Emperour communicated who withall kept firme with the Jews in many of their errours ready to maintain great hopes of the salvation of Iudas It will be behoofefull to shew the cursednesse of that Doctrine and people of the Jewes that every one may keepe off from the Tents and Tenents of the Jews which maintain a Diametricall opposition to the Gospel of Christ for of all sinners and Sects the portion of an Antichristian Jew will bee the most hard and heavy Yet oh the foeces temporis istius we have an Heresie of all the dangerousest and subtillest that ever molested the Church of GOD which now holds fast and cries up much of the Jewes vanitie and unbeliefe and in that cries downe Jesus in the truth of his Godhead and much of the truth of his Gospell If I should say that Socinianisme that black Crow which hath so great a Nest in all Europe and withall in England doth in many things walke hand in hand with Iudaism I should not need fear that question of the Atheist to be put unto mee Quae machinae quae ferramenta where are your Hammer and Tooles to finish this Worke and fasten these Nails Who will but cast his eye into Socinus and Socinians writings shall finde too great a conspiracy with the Jew and so may well enter those Doctors and Teachers into their table of suspicions as being no friends to Christ I shall give a touch of their wretched harmony in some few things 1. For the Deitie of Christ the Jew and Socinian speake both with one tongue negatively and blasphemously which is to us Christians as the Article of the existence of God and giving existence to every thing Fundamentum fundamentorum columna sapientiae If our Messias be not God then is our faith vain we are yet in our sins the foundation of Christianity is taken away and what can we do we know the Jew is the old cursed Archer that shoots blasphemies against Christs Godhead our subtill Heretick and his followers are not much behinde denying Christ to be Consubstantiall with his Father this is so known as needs not much be insisted on their books in the very title some of them will trumpet out their infidelitie de uno Deo Patre denying the Godhead of the Son and the Spirit 2. They are both Anti-Trinitarians going about to weaken and nullifie the Doctrine of the Divine Trinitie of Persons charging it with the introduction of multiplicity of Gods or Tritheisme 3. The Office of the Messias they both confine to the Humane Nature and must needs because both deny the Divine Nature 4. The Jew will make Christs Propheticall Office to consist in his new promulgation of the Law of Moses to beleevers nor fail the Socinians to tread in those steps making the Messias to be Mosissimum Mosen 5. Against Christs Priestly Office by his blood expiating and satisfying for our sinns both of them are knowne to Saile strongly with their best Furniture and Tacklings 6. Both do say that justitia imputata is putida and that our righteousnesse is our obedience to the Law and our performing of it but who will may seek and easily find farr more agreement 'twixt these two and much disagreement with the Gospel In sixteen points one has made the Collation and findes the Jew a Socinian and the Socinian too much a Jew in them all Have we not need in these dayes wherein Satan seems to keep a perpetuall Mart to vent his Hellish inventions take notice of those things which may carry us too near the Jew and too far from Jesus and beware we meddle not with such dangerous folly And should we use our best eyes to look at that Hellish callum and unconquered Brawn upon the Jews heart and see what vollies of miserie have waited upon their cursed infidelitie and opposition of the Sonn of God wee shall finde this the best Bellows in ordinary meanes to blow up our hearts into holy feare pitie faith Feare to stand out in defiance against Christ lest the Lord sentence us as the Jews to be a land of execrations and Anathema's Pitie towards that wretched generation that neither Heaven nor Earth looks after And it would waken us unto Faith to cleave to and make much of the Gospel of Jesus Christ lest we fall as low being not warned by the exâ—â—ple of their unbelief and the executions of the wrath of heaven gone our against them for it Of all the writings that decipher their faith and their fall none do it so punctually plenarily and particularly as those that were Jews but are converted to Christ they writing things with knowledge and experience as having long eaten of their Salt and drunk of their Cup. None have done it with so much affection as pitying their own kindred and Countrey and so are the more to be heeded by them and by us Of whom in all Ages God hath given us some learned Jews to be converted earnestly to write to and calâ— upon their wretched brethren to row to landâ— and to harbour in the Kingdom of Christ thaâ— they perish not in the great Ocean of Divine rejection Besides some Bishops of Ierusalem after Christ of which divers of them from Iudaisme were brought to Christianitie we finde Hegesippus the Iosephus junior to be one of later years many and of great learning have excellently writ against the Iews as Nâ—â—las de Lyra about the year 1310. from being a Iew turned Fryar among the Minors and hath left an excellent confutation of the Iews about the proving this that Christ is come and none other Messias to be expected In his time Paulus Burgensis turned Christian also and writt against Iudaisme Elias Levita commonly called the Grammarian left his Rabbinisme and entred the Church of Christ by Baptism bringing some thirty more Iews with him to be Baptized about the year 1517. One Hieronymus de sancta fide a Iew converted
to Christianitie and became Physitian to Pope Benedict 13. at the instigation of the Pope he writ a book to confute the Iews which he called Hebraeomastix The Iews Whip or Hebrews scourge in which he acutely and substantially sets upon them whipping them with their own Talmud and best Rabbins making their own Authors prove Iesus Christ to be the onely Messias and that he is already come When he publish'd the book in Spain it is said by the clearnesse of his conviction above five thousand Iewes were turned to the Faith as is mentioned in the Frontispice of the Booke This last we have from Gerhards testimonie for though the Booke is among us yet that I have seen wants the Title and the Epistle or Preface if it had any With his own Writing he hath joyned that which Lyra also writt against the Iews One Paulus Ricius in the Court of the Emperour Maximilian of a Iew converted to Christianitie writ many things against his old misbelief Antonius Margarita converted in heart and Baptized converts his Hand and Pen against the Iews Ernestus Ferdinandus of a Iew became a Beleevet in Christ writes a Flagellum Iudaeorum A Whipp for the Iewes There is Christianus Gerson Ioannes Isaac and our excellent Emanuel Tremelius born at Ferraria in Italie that sacrificed his holy knowledge so well to the Translation of the Bible and one Paulus Weidnerus hath by Writings called upon his Backsliding Brethren the Iews having found Iesus himselfe to bid them come and see besides there are Christians that never were Iews that have sufficiently discovered and refuted the vanitieâ— of this Apostate Seed of Israel who have iâ— their Writings upon and against their Books at large proved the truth of the Gospell and Christian verities as Porchetus de Salvaticis in his incomparable Writings de victoria contra Hebraeos out of whom Galatinus and others seem to have borrowed the most they have as also Rajmundus Martinus who writ Pugionem a Book so named against the Hebrews Such a path hath Munster walked in in his Annotations on the Hebrew Gospell of Matthew Buxtorfius the father and sonne to whose Iewish Synagogue is added a Treatise of Ludovious Carretus a converted Jew whose calling to Christ was begun and occasioned by a Vision which gives his Book the name of Visorum Divinorum Our Rabbi Samuel of Marocco is not altogether to be neglected who hath brought better stuffe than Yarn or Badgers Skins towards the Furniture of the Christian Tabernacle Such an one doubtlesse there was though in the naming of the Rabbins and those of that name Samuel we cannot finde him mentioned though many Samuels be found as Rabbi Samuel Alkali Arcuvolto Aben Tybbon Vzeda Iom Toff c. however and upon what envious grounds soever the Jews conceale his name and a long â—ime kept hid his Writing yet our Christian Writers make mention of him as doth Gesâ—er Gerhard Glassius and Alsted who ranks him among Christian Divines about the year 1090. The Book was first Writ in Arabick as an Epistle of Samuel to Rabbi Isaac intreating him to answer his much troubled heart about his fear that the Jews are accursed for Crucifying Christ and that he and no other is to be expected for the Messias It was Translated out of Arabicke into Latine by one Alphonsus Boni hominis a Spanyard and Friar Predicant out of which Latine our English Translation is derived Three Copies have I seen of it one a very old one as I remember Printed at Paris in which there are but 25 Chapters the Book being lesse by two Chapters than the other Editions which have 27 Chapters In that ancient one there is an Epistle of Alphonsus to Friar Hugo Master of the Order of the Preaching Friars which we shall give Translated after this Preface The other two Copies came out at Basil both put forth by Henric. Petri one of them is the Book called Micropresbeuticon a collection of the Witings of above 30 ancient Fathers and Christian Doctors some Greek some Latine all little or short Works among which R. Samuel is one this came forth Anno 1550. Another Book that hath of ancient little Fathers more than the other came out at Basil some five years after 1555. has this Samuel joyned with them also the old Translation calls him Samuel the Israelite born at Fer a Citie of the King of Marocco and R. Isaac to whom he writes it is said to be Master of the Synagogue that is in Subinlincia in the same Kingdome the Copie in Micropresbeuticon calls it Subiulmenta now in the Kingdome of Marocco we can finde no such City as Fer there may be mistake it may bee it should be Fez which is the principall City of all Barbarie the Metropolis of Mauritania and has the Kingdome of Fez belonging to it and named from it There may be some mistake also for Fez and Marocco are two distinct Kingdoms and are both in Numidia All the places almost that the Turk hath conquered have either lost their names or changed their names as Damascus is now called Sham Constantinople Stambolda Sychar Napolis Ierusalem is called Cuts or Kuds Beersheba is now named Beer Engannim Jenine Argier by the Turks is called Jezaier and Hyppo in Africa where Austin lived is at this day called Cape Bonne that which was heretofore Hierapolis is now Aleppo nay very rivers have changed their names for Tygris is now called Tygil and Euphrates Frat and the Countrey Babylonia goes under the name of Caldar wherefore it is no marvell if in these dayes we cannot finde the old names of places seeing either the places are quite destroyed or their names are changed For Subinlincia or Subjulmenta wee finde no such names in the most exact describer of those Kingdomes Iohn Leo the African yet we finde there is a river called Subu that runs but six miles from Fez there is a Castle called Subeica with a Town and another called Subeita whether it be Printers mistake or some Cities and Towns may be destroyed and their names lost in ashes that then were known by these names or how it is we cannot divine we therefore leave this Geographicall scruple seeing the most exact Africanus doth not help us in it nor Ptolomie in his Tables of Africa It is well known there are and since Jewish dispersions there have ben great store of them among the Moors in Africa there is an exceeding great number in the Citie of Fez the most of their Goldsmiths are Jewes there and in the whole Countrey the number is very great When Ferdinand drove the Jews out of Spaine a world of them came into Africa being born Moors though by religion Jews We trouble not our selves to finde out who this R. Isaac was seeing he is not set out with any word of distinction from other Isaacs of
the faith of Christ and betake themselves to some honest Calling and work with their hands which was so acceptable an Act to the people that they gave the fifteenth part of their goods to the King and they were all thrust out of the Kingdom to the number of some seventeen thousand or as some say â—0000 and 500. And thus was this wretched Chaffe swept out of England and the Kingdom hath since been ridd of them that openly professe that un-Israelitish way In the reign of Henry the third a Iew fell into a Jakes at Tewkesbury in England to whom it being offered to draw him out it being Saturday the Iews Sabbath he refused lest he should pollute the holinesse of the day The thing comming to the chiefe Lord of the Countrey he commanded they should let him lie the next day too for the honour of the Lords Day the Christians Sabbath lest he should prophane it so by abiding in it that day also he perished I have heard or read these Verses on it but I remember not well where because I finde them not in the Historians relating it The Iews Verse bringing him in speaking is thus Sabbata sancta colo de Stercore surgere nolo I honour holy Sabbaths rest I will not rise from my foul nest The Christian Magistrates Verse answers him thus Sabbata nostra quidem Salomon celebrabit ibidem O Salomon because you are wise And for the Sabbath so precise Lest from your holy Rule you swerve You shall our Sabbath too observe The like was the lot of a Iew at Meidenburg in Germany that sat two dayes together in so uncomfortable a place the one day for the honour of their Sabbath the other for the Christians pleasure to give honour to ours And now Reader behold and see if under the whole Heaven has been done to any people like as to this people If it be not as the Lord said All people are made the Head and they are the Tail where ever they come scorned pressed oppressed punished murdered Iudge whether it were not a happinesse to our blessed Iew to have his lot fall among the Christians and to be baptized in Christs Blood rather than to be baptized as the Iews in their own cursed Blood By this traversing of Histories and Times I have laboured to confirm the truth of his demonstrations that their sin is the highest because the wrath of God presses them the hardest that this sinne is the slaying of Christ that there will be no end of their misery till they take hold of the skirt of a Christian and look upon Christ whom they have pierced This will helpe to illucidate his complaints in his Book and give us some knowledge of the Iews state without God without Christ without peace without honour in the world The Book is all Scriptures almost that they cannot deny but incur the guilt of Blasphemers resisting the Old Testament which they make the ground of their Faith If they will stand out still and maintain the proverb there are five things exceed in stubbornnesse and pertinaciousnesse the Dogge among beasts the Cock among birds the Goat among Cattle the Prickthorn among Plants and the Jew among men as one of their own Doctors sets them forth not onely R. Samuel but their own Prophets shall rise in judgment against them and say We would have healed them but they would not be healed they were convinced yet they shut their eyes and made grosse their hearts and would not be converted If by these Relations and Collections I shall not satisfie all yet it will please and profit some at least the lesse learned Reader may meet with something he knew not before and for the Scholler I know he that knows the least will despise it the most I have pleased and profited my self and have endeavoured to profit others by seeking up these things if I can but fetch up a Christian sigh for the Iews sorrow and bring men to pray Thou O Lord remainest for ever thy throne from generation to generation wherefore dost thou forget the Jew for ever and forsake them so long time Turn thou unto them O Lord and they shall be turned renew their dayes as of old I have attained to what I aimed at The Lord soften our hearts to pitie them his own heart to have mercy on them and their hearts that they may plough with R. Samuels Heifer and be inlightned with the saving light of Christ Jesus our common Saviour I know there is a time appointed by God for their return to him and kissing the onely begotten Sonn of the Father and yet we may be guilty of not doing all we may to bring them in or of doing something which helps more and more to harden them and keep them out They should not want our pity they should not want our prayers For our unmercifulnesse to them helps more to harden them and our prayers for them would minde the Lord of his Covenant and us of our dutie Some things there are among Christians which we should amend lest by maintaining such things we make the Jew more and more to abhorre the Christians way as the painting of God and setting him out in Pictures and Sculptures by some image do's exceedingly alienate both Jews and Turks from us as they have sometimes confessed and the Idolatry of some corrupt Christians as they of the Romish faith doth much keep them back who hate all kinds of Idolatry though they themselves do in some sort adore and worship the Book of the Law Especially take we heed of calling into question the Godhead of Jesus Christ that is to be blasphemously Jewish and to harden them in their desperate blindenesse By Arrianism and the licentiousnesse is taken among us that way we do worse than Crucifie the manhood of Christ in Crucifying the Godhead of Christ and thereby may sooner perswade the Jews we are comming to them then to induce them to come unto us For the Godhead of Christ we must hold it firme and maintain it or else we are a laughing stock to the Jews and the greatest Soul-fools that are in the world As he flatteringly called Lewis the thirteenth of France Dexrum Messiae Brachium so we may more truly call the faith of Christs Godhead Dextrum Evangelii Brachium The right Arm of the Gospell They may alledge other false causes and take scandals that were never given them as the Doctrine of Trinity c. But let us beware lest a wo be to us because of offences in unholy wayes and works given to them by us by which the name and truth of the Gospell of Christ shall be blasphemed Let our conversation within winne them that are without that they may come to thinke there are divine and rare examples of vertues in the followers of the Christian Faith as sometimes that cursed root Iulian Parabates was forced to commend the Iews and
them with Stories for this as that R. Eleeser being sick his Disciples visiting him said to him O master teach us the wayes of life that we may obtain the life of the world to come The sick Doctor answered thus Be admonished to honour your fellow-schollers and draw back your children from the studie of the Bible and place them betwixt the Knees of the wise masters Aegroti somnia We leave these dotages and pray they may recover their right senses which will lead them to these three Rules 1. To the Law and to the Testimonie c. 2. In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Traditions of men 3. Search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternall life Yet would I not have any build upon this those bold and blinde out-cries Away with the Rabbins and all Hebrew writings it is lost labour and learning to studie them there is nothing sound all is fabulous and vain in them of no use for a Divine Give that Head some Hellebore to purge folly It is as if one should say What should a man do sowing Seed for there are much Straw Chaffe and Weeds that grow up with it But a wise Husbandman will say I get much good Corne and therefore I will bestow some labour for the Cornes sake to thresh and winnow it and rid â—it of straw chaffe and Weeds Though there be much Chaffe in the Hebrew Doctors yet there is much good grain and fruit of profitable use and why may we not as husbandmen learn to thresh and winnow them and read them with a fanne For that kinde of learning the lesse I know â—it the more I admire it and wish time and leasure to recover what former years have lost â—icking the glasse without when I cannot come to the precious liquor within I judge in the want of it one piece of a compleate Divine is awanting Now we are subject to despise it because Hebrew and Jewish learning requires more studie and judgement then looking upon some common Latine and English Authors an easie kinde of studie and almost vulgarly attainable Good account may be given of this by some reasons that will make it appear to be that which should bee above the contempt of ignorance 1. In other Authors Schoolmen Commentators Jesuites we use to read and studie in which there is Chaffe enough yet there we use to separate the precious from the vile with an hic magister non tenetur 2. Of all tongues and learning it will challenge superiority as being more near neighbour to the Divinitie of the Old Testament therefore it is called lingua sancta the sacred and holy Language as being used by God He was no Pamphlet nor triviall Doctor that said A Divine was nothing else but a Gramarian of the Word of God the Bible being the Grammer of Divinity 3. There are many sound and rare Writings of great use among the Rabbins among which especially the great Moses Maimonides carries the palme having freed himself from many Jewish dotages fables and Traditions The Heroes of learning Scaliger Casauben and others will tell us his Booke of More Nevochim or Doctor perplexorum is as good as the weight in Gold and is exceeding necessary for Christian Divines 4. There are divers places both in Old and New Testament cannot bee well understood unlesse wee borrow Candle-light from the Hebrew Doctors as Exod. 6. 3. Ruth 4. 7. Esay 1. 29. Esay 12. 13. Ier. 16. 7. Ezek. 8. 14. Ezek. 9. 4. Matth. 5. 22. Matth. 21. 9. Matth. 23. 7 8. Matth 26. 23. Mark 7. 11. Rom. 5. 7. Iohn 7. 37. Iohn 3. 29. 2 Tim. 3. 8. Revel 3. 4. and an hundred more in which a man shall stray stumble unlesse he use their help Ask Ainsworth Selden Weemse whether they borrow not much light from them 5. It is confessed in Jewish matters Rites Customes Sacrifices Syrian gods we get best helps from them and why may we not rather chuse to have them at first hand then to take them at a second or rather a tenth hand Water in the very Spring is better had then to bee glad of it after it runne thorow ten Chanels It is better to see with our owne eyes then to have our Spectacles hang at other mens Girdles We may to good purpose make use of that Jewish saying Let my soule be among the Collectors of Almes rather than among the Distributors of them Or as Valla I had rather be a Bee that flies farre to gather matter for Honey then a Pismire that gathers but from the next Corn field 6. Were it not a rare thing lastly to be so skilled in the Jews Tongue and Writings that one might be able to lay before them their owne vainest Fables and confute them out of their own Books and Doctors as many have done This would put the Jew to a stand and admiration and to crie out with a friend of theirs Proprijs calamis configimur What a glory was it to those two Christian Divines Mercer and Vatablus that when they were Professors at Paris the very Jews did admire them for their great skill in the Hebrew and being so perfectly ready and read in all their Writings Thus I have endeavoured to shew that Jewish questions and vanities being avoided their learning is of much use in Divinitie whatsoever is said by some The Crow cries one thing and the Owl another Every Chapter also ends with this Attamen Dei sumus Yet we belong to God in all estates we Jews are Gods peculiar people There is a truth in it they were Gods people by Covenant at first and they shall bee called home to the Covenant of Grace at last when they shall looke upon Christ whom they have pierced but for the present state of them standing out against God and hating Jesus Christ God calls them Loammi Not my people As concerning the Gospell they are enemies but as concerning Election they are beloved for the Fathers sake CHAP. II. IN the second Chapter the Jew reasons the case inquiring why they observe some Legalities as Circumcision Sabbath and others but omit Sacrificing Altars Unction and Incense He happily guesses that they retain these Legall Rites now as received not from God but from their Fathers that were under Gods wrath 2. That God has given them no precept now to use them for indeed the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple the place of their worship the taking away of their Kingdome and Priesthood is argument enough to tell them God hath abolished their Legall observances and delights no more in them nor in that kinde of Government By this he rightly acknowledges all their Jewish service is against the heart of God and his command and is will worship not Gods will-worship but mans will-worship 3. He takes away a reason that might be given by some
triumph of Christ over his enemies he hath done more rightly than many of our writers and Christian Preachers who commonly do apply this place by a vulgar and received errour to the Passion of Christ How often have we heard these words quoted thus He trodd the Wine-Presse of his Fathers wrath alone that is He alone suffered and underwent his Fathers wrath for us If it had been meant of Christs Passion it would have been passively I was trodden in the Winepresse alone and not Actively I have trodd it It is the Grapes that suffer treading and pressing not he that treads 2. Again he is said to be glorious in his apparell when he comes from treading the Wine-Presse Now Christ in his Passion was either quite naked as many think or else but in one part very slenderly covered Now if his Body or that mean Cloth were sprinkled with his own Blood this was no very glorious apparell for one to appear thus miserably But for Christ in his Ascension to appear and in his Triumph to shew himselfe with garments all stained with the Blood of his Enemies this is glorious raiment indeed The triumph of the righteous is they shall wash their feet in the blood of the wicked 3. Observe the phrases in this Prophecie which shew not Christs Passion but his enemies Passion travelling in greatnesse of his strength that is strongly conquering and destroying his adversaries Mighty to save that is to preserve his he doth not say Mighty to suffer Garments like him that treadeth the Wine-Fatt the blood of enemies like the juyce of Grapes pressed are sprinkled on him that presses them I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury If it were of Christs Passion it should be I am trodden in Gods anger and trampled in his fury The day of vengeance is in my heart that is Like a Conquerour I will now take vengeance of mine enemies 4. This phrase of treading as in a Winepresse is used in Scripture elswhere to shew what they suffer that are trodden as Lament 1. 15. Now Christ saith He trod and was not trodden 5. He is said to come from Edom and Bozra by Edomites conquered and destroyed he sets out under that particular name Christs universall conquest and triumph over all the enemies of the Church And in this Exposition this Jew applies the Prophesie better then many among us It is true divers of the Ancients have swallowed this without chewing to be meant of Christs Passion but whosoever looks into the Text and the Phrases of it will see it rather points at Christs Resurrection and Triumph then his Passion We are too prone to take these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon trust without examination The Fathers were more excellent and so the Ancients for sound pietie then for sound Exposition and dextrous Application of Scriptures Why may not David sometimes lay by the Spectacles of his ancient Fathers and say I have more understanding than my Teachers The learned and judicious Mercer confesses that our Divines are asleep when they expound this of the Passion of Christ Daniel Cramerus quotes the very place of R. Samuel to maintain this Prophesie as appertaining to Christs against the Jews He handles the controversie of the Blood here whether is meant the Blood of Christ Passions or of his Enemies Passion and would reconcile both as making Christs victory to begin with his own Blood and end with his enemies blood and referres to the disputes of Lyra and Burgensis about it Onely in an heat he falls foul upon Calvin as did Hunnius and must needs be very angry with him because he will not altogether expound Scriptures as they do Praestat saith he ut Calvinum qui solus sapere vult solum relinquamus ut solus sapiat But his passion clouds his eyes for others beside Calvin have seen that common way to have but poor grounds as Junius and Tremelius Mercer Tarnovius Musculus This I say not to disallow and throw by the Ancients in all things but onely to stirre up Divines that have eyes to use their eyes Pelargus and others have cited divers of the Ancients applying this to the Crosse and make it Torcular passionis Christi but their meaning is no way literally or directly to be found here Observe how fitly this Jew applies it to their Captivitie Whom hath he trod in his wrath but us Jews We are they that have been in the Winepresse this thousand years Yet O the fearfull wish of this Jew that though he be convinced to be a Christian yet he wishes the Candles of conviction were blown out here he speaks like a Jew indeed that hates the clear prophesies of Christ Would to God saith he when we slew the Prophet Esay we had blotted out this testimonie of his so manifestly pointing at Christ that it might not be read and seen against us Here he writes out of an exceeding naturall love to his countrey-men and kinred the Jews in an extasie of Passion The Apostle Paul has an extraordinary vote and desire another way and beyond rule when he thinks of the miserie of his countrymen and kinred the Jews This is to be beleeved the Jewes will not lose nor blot out any part of the Old Testament no not that which seems most against them though this man in a passion write thus for they most charily preserve it as their lives and will not suffer it to be corrupted or mutilated in a word syllable or letter Yea so religiously do they devote themselves to the letter and writing of the Bible that they say if a man through ignorance malice or impietie should change one word in the Bible there is great danger the Lord for that inexpiable offence should throw the world back againe into its ancient indigested Chaos of confusion because God created this world onely for the Scriptures sake So exact are they that no part of the Bible be either lost or corrupted that they have noted down in their Masora which they call The Hedge or Fence of the Law not onely every word how oft it is used but how oft it is in the whole Old Testament to be found with such a Pricke or with such an Accent Nay further and which is a miracle of diligence and faithfulnesse they have set downe how many Verses there are in every Book and have numbred how often every letter is used in the Bible As the letter Aleph or A is found by number to bee 42377 times Beth or B 38218 times and so have they taken notice of the rest to remember how often each letter is used This doing quickly would be discovered their unfaithfulnesse in leaving out or corrupting the Scriptures and that by the Candlelight of their own industrie Hereupon Austi calls the Jews Capsarios nostros The Christians Library or Bible-keepers because they with marvellous diligence have preserved the Old Testament
from corruption and losse even in corrupting and losing times and are as woodden Candlesticks to the Gentiles holding out the light of the Law He quotes the 49 Chapter of Genesis which he calls the Booke of the Generation of the Creatures of Iudah that is Of the Children and Off-spring of Iudah Well may I here take occasion to give a reason why men onely sometimes are called the Creation and the Creatures and whence it arises To which purpose our understandings may well and soundly take hold on this that the word which signifies creatures properly in common use among the Hebrews signifies onely men sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being the excellentest of subsolar Creatures The same Phrase and manner of speaking is much taken up in the Orientall Languages I shall call in my Witnesse and he may stand for two or three he is of such standing and perfection in the Academie of most exquisite learning it is Hortibonus or Casaubon In the Arabick Geographie saith he in abundance of places we finde the frequencie and fulnesse of Cities thus described the Author saith that in them there are many Creatures that is to say Men. This may well agree with our Samuel who writ in Arabick and this may be a good note affixed to the latter end of the 16 Chapter of Marks Gospell to the illustration of it Go into the whole World and preach the Gospell to every Creature CHAP. XIII THe corporall Ascension of Christ he goes about to prove by those Scriptures that speaks of the exaltation and elevation of God which he saith must properly be meant of Christ according to his humane nature because the meer Deitie is subject to none of these Sites or Postures That of Psalm 68 is applyed to the Ascension of Christ by S. Paul so that R. Samuel the Jew is not ashamed to follow S. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles in beleeving and asserting the same truth He quotes something out of the Prophet Aser in his second Chapter but he forbears the prosecution of it upon this reason because that Prophesie is lost and is not to be found The Translatour he brings his judgement about the Prophet Aser and reproves the ignorance of R. Samuel that he should think the Prophet Aser to be lost when he is not And his reason is that the Prophet Aser and Haggai are all one onely Haggai is the Hebrew Name and Aser the Arabicke name of the same Prophet which R. Samuel did not know or at least did not call to minde when he writ so Now it were good to unpire the matter betwixt Alphonsus the Spanyard and Samuel the Jew and upon looking into it the Translator will be found in some fault Suppose there be some agreement betwixt Haggai and Aser in their signification Haggai signifying one that solemnizes and keeps a holy and joyfull day of solemnities that rejoyces festivally and Aser comming of a Verbe that signifies to make blessed and happy which may accord in this that the dayes of re-edifying the Temple and Jerusalem in which times Haggai prophecied were holy festivall and blessed dayes Though there be some similitude must there be Identitie How doth Alphonsus know that Aser and Haggai in the Arabick Tongue are the same Prophet This may be disproved two wayes 1. Because R. Samuel writ in Arabick lived among the Arabians and being both a Jewish and an Arabick Doctor he was likely to know as well as Alphonsus the names of Prophets in the Old Testament both in Hebrew and Arabick 2. If Aser and Haggai be all one then let the Spanyard shew us this that he quotes in the Prophecie of Haggai of a man ascending from the midst of the Sea and comming up to Heaven He must coyn a new Prophecie of Haggai if he will finde this in it for our Old Prophet neither in first or second 〈…〉 Chapter has any such thing However we speake of this obscure Prophet Aser which cannot be found what he was yet we may well conclude for the Authour against the Translatour that these words are not to be found in the Prophet Haggai Since these Notes I have found something that is like this which is quoted but neither in R. Samuels obscure Aser nor Alphonsus the Translators Haggai chap. 2. but in the Apocryphals of Esdras Lo there arose a winde out of the sea and lo that man waxed strong with the thousands of heaven Iunius reads it Quidam ut ventus A certain man as the winde came from the sea It should be translated a Man not a winde that did rise out of the Sea so the third Verse intimates that man waxed strong not that winde For rising of the winde is not the thing but the comparison accompanying and illustrating the appearance of the man I think pardoning the errour of the Authors and Translators Quotation both of the Name and the Book and Chapter I am the Oedipus of this Riddle And it may well be his meaning was of this place for in this book he doth besides this make use of the Apocrypha as Chap. 19. he quotes a place out of Jesus the sonne of Syrach and in chap. 20. he has out of the same Book Besides he is subject to some mistakes for in that 20 chapter he cals it Salomons writing when it is the Sonn of Syrachs and in this 13 chapter he quotes a place in Esay when it is in Ieremie Aliquando bonus dormitat Hebraeus calling Esdras Aser Among those were assumed into heaven he names Methusalem and takes it for a thing granted and known among the Jews But we must beleeve Moses who saith that Methusalem when he had lived nine hundred sixty nine years dyed he doth not say he was translated which he had newly said of Enoch his Father The Greeks errour is that he lived 14 years after the floud and was with Noah in the Ark which errour comes out of the Septuagints false computation And some of the Jews it seems are in this errour that because his Father was taken into heaven in his body and soul so was Methusalem too But they that compute and reckon according to the Hebrew numbring of the years do agree that Methusalem dyed that very year the flood came Others think he dyed six years before the floud He concludes the Chapter with asserting the wonderfull birth of Christ born of a Virgin without a man to be a very truth and plainly foretold by the Prophets of God Wherin he grants for a truth one of those six things which are the main Controversies betwixt the Jews and Christians He takes indeed one place to prove the birth of Christ by a Virgin which I dare not say flatly that the Prophet did speak it with any relation to the birth of Christ It is that of Ieremies The Lord shall create a new thing upon the earth a woman shall compasse a man I know the stream of Expositours