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
from my bed to rest that I may tender my service and do homage to the King of Kings who hath given me life and nourishment and doth defend me against all mine enemies of what quality soever Whosoever hath in him any relish of godliness ought every morning to entertain the pangs of grief and sorrow for the Temple of Jerusalem praying that that Temple and City may with speed be re-edified And who before the Day star appear or the clouds of night he dispeld by the Suns approach ere that he forsake his pillow shall wash his couch with tears for the desolations of the Temple of Jerusalem and the long captivity shall gain this much that God being mercifull unto him shall not suffer his prayer to be deprived of audience In Maseches Sanedrin the Rabbines upon those words in the Lamentations of Jeremy She weeps in the night without any intermission of weeping dispute and say that if any hear the voice of one weeping upon the night it is so intermixt with the Gall of bitternessi that he must of necessity second the mourner in his dolesull notes The very same which happened to Rabbi Gamaliel who upon the night time hearing the mournfull out cries of a certain woman for the death of her son counted his life bitter unto him and bare a part with her weeping most bitterly Rabbi Jochanan saith that when any one doth lament upon the night time the fixed stars and Planets condole with him Their Chachamim write that he who weepeth ought to let his tears find a current through the narrow â—hâ—ud gates of his eyes because then God will arise and gather them into his bottle And then if there chaâ—ce to be a promulgation of any decree by the enemies of Israel to destroy them God shall remember these godly men who shed â—ears in abundance shall take these boâ—tles full of them pouring them upon and blotting out the hand-writing that was against them that no evil may befall the Jews Hereupon the Prophet David Thou tellest my flittings and putst my tears into thy bottle are not these things written in thy booke By these words David would specifie thus much that God pours out the Vâ—ols of tears upon the writings or books put out against the Jews and so defaceth them that they become canceâ—'d and of no force To the same purpose he speaks in another place He that soweth in tears shall reap in joy The Author of the Book Reschith Chochmah in the 111 pag. saith that he received it by tradition from his Elders that it is very soveraign for a man to sprinkle tears upon his brow and to rub them in because there are some sins written in his brow which by this means may be blotted out according to the words of the Prophet saying Thou shalt set the letter Thau upon the foreheads of the men c. The Cabbalists write that if any have a desire to list up his prayer unto that holy and blessed God that he would vouchsafe to deliver the Jews out of their long continued bondage he ought to do it when it begins to dawn that he ought to weep heartily and send forth strong cries so shall his words enter into the ears of the Lord of Hosts and then chiefly because there is nothing which may disturb him in his prayers none also found who shall move his tongue against the children of Israel We find it recorded by Jeremy The Lord shall roar from on high and utter his voice from his holy habitation The Lord roars in the morning upon his beauty The beauty of the Lord is the Temple of Jerusalem and that is holy which as he hath permitted to be destroyed so is it his pleasure that it shall be built again and that he may be warned unto the enterprise he will be early intreated Hence David saith My voice thou shalt hear betimes O Lord early in the morning I wil direct my prayer unto thee and will look up In the morning that is when it begins to be day I will go into thy house he will not do the same upon the night because in the beginning of the night God causeth all the Gates of Heaven to be shut up and the Angels sit as Porters and are silent God sends away the evil spirits into the world who hurt every one they meet The middle of the night being past a great cry is heard in Heaven and it is commanded that they should set open the Gates the day now approaching to this end that none might wait too long This cry is heard by the houshold Cocks here upon earth who clapping their wings with a shril voice awake us mortals Then these evil spirits lose all their power so that they cannot do any more annoyance for which cause the Rabbines have ordained a certain thanksgiving which they whould have repeated in them morning by them that hear the Cock crow saying Blessed be thou O God who art Lord of the whole world that thou hast given understanding to the Cock To be briefe whosoever fears the Lord wheresoever he live needs not the Cock to awake him He that alwayes in aw the Lord doth keep Needs not to be awaked of his sleep Moreover it is the will of the Chachamim that non presume to raise himself up in his bed or sitting up therin to put on his shirt being naked but lying still should strive to wind himselfe into it with his hands and head lest the wals and beams of the house might behold the secret parts of his naked body Rabbi Jose boasts in Masseches Schabbas Thus long have I lived and yet the beams of the house did never see the hem of my shirt thereby signifying that he never invested himselfe therewith being naked but lying hid in his bed Hereupon it is a position of their grand Sophies that none ought to put on his coat being naked much less is it permitted that he should walk or stand naked in his bedchamber For suppose any sudden fire or some great tumult might arise whose rarity might so affright him that he should run naked out of his bed-chamber with what a countenance can such a one shew himself It is not also lawfull for any one being naked to make water by his bed side for of such men the Prophet Amos speaketh saying They sleep in beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their Couches The Hebrew word Seruchim which signifies to stretch out the Rabbines translate to be resolved into stinking matter as they expound the same Jer. 49. 7. upon which place R. Jose the son of Chaninâ— saith these are they who stand naked before their beds No man ought thus to think with himselfe It is dark I am in my Closet no eye sees me I say every one ought with all diligence to abstain from such cogitations for Gods holy Majesty is above all and present in every place The whole earth is full of
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
booke directing aright our life and conversation to the end that thence he may learn the feare of God and civility of behaviour and therefore he reads in the same an houre at least before he goes out of doors to performe any other businesse This the Cachamim and wise men among the Jewes conclude from the words of Solomon in his Proverbs saying The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome Hence teaching us that in all our actions we undertake we ought to feare God and learn his word After the same manner might the Rabbines have expounded those words Vehaiah Gnekebh Tismegnun That the Jewes being interpreters they must be rendred thus There shall be a heale or foot you shall beare it and that which followes is this Before you set your heele or foot out of doors you shall learn the law by reading something therein and hearing what God wils and commands to be done It is a good work indeed to learn the law and on the contrary a great sinne for any to be negligent in the reading of the same In the time of the first Temple the peopl of Jerusalem committed many hainous offences as Incest and Idolatry yet the Lord did only in a manner know these and took notice of them untill they despised the law and would take no more paines to learn it Then the Lord banished them out of his sight destroied a great number of them and utterly laid waste their holy Temple Hereupon the Lord cried out by Jeremie the Prophet Who is wise to understand this and to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken he shall declare it Why doth the Land perish and is burnt up like a wildernesse and none passeth thorow And the Lord saith because they have for saken the law which I set before them and have not obeied my word neither walked there after Againe it is written in the first booke of Moses Then shall all nations say wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land how fierce is his great wrath And they shall answer because they have for saken the Covenant of the Lord God of their fathers which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt Wherefore a religious Jew must not presently after his comming from morning praier fall to his daily labour and servile emploiments but either retire himselfe to his owne house or in Beth Hammedrasch or the Schoole dedicated to study and there to read and learne somewhat out of the Law which may presse him forward to the feare of God and an honest life and godly conversation with men that by this meanes that may come to passe which the Prophet David makes mention of saying They will goe from strength to strength and unto the God of Gods appeareth every one of them in Sion Which is also very well expounded according to the sagacity of the Jewes in a little book written concerning the feare of God in these words They did goe from one study to another that they might by learning understand the Law When they are returned unto their owne house then laying aside their phylacteries and precatory fardles they put them into a chest First unloosing them of the head then those of the hand to the end they may at any time first take and bind on these of the hand Some also are accustomed to put off their garment of remembrance or their fringed Coat to which the Ribbands are annexed yet in my judgement it were more fitting they should weare it continually that they might not forget the commandements of the Lord but alwaies fulfill his Law They who are godly carry it all the day long under a corselet or cloake but so that the ribbonds may be seen of them that they may bee terrified from committing sin I once saw a crabbed Rabbine of a waiward holinesse who was Master of the Synagogue whose ribbands hanging at his fringes hung so low downe that they did even touch his feet For as some desiring not to be forgetfull of any thing committed to his memory knits a knot in his girdle to the end that he looking thereupon may call to his remembrance what he ought to put in execution So these five knotted fringes in use with the Jewes are as so many memorandums to warne them to avoid the by-paths of sin and iniquity And hence it comes to passe that all the Jewes are of such a sanctified conversation that they fulfill keep and observe every one of Gods commandements They also accounted it very good for the wholsome to eate something before a man in the morning undertake any businesse For there are sixty three diseases of the Gall which may all be cured by the eating of crust and a mornings draught of the blood of the grape Who wants wine he may drink Ale or a cup of cold water as Raschi is of an opinion and so shall he be fitted to undergo any labour They which are honest wives indeed will in the meane time make ready for dinner some boiled meate that their husbands bellies at their return home finding such cleanly provision may not by a long tarrying be occasioned to a thought that their throats are cut In that tract of the Talmud about the Sabbath it is ordained that the Jewes should goe to dinner some five houres after day-break which is about eleven a clock if any over-stay any longer hee may fall into some disease by the vehemence where of he may bee brought upon his knees for at that time the body expects and requires its naturall nourishment which if it have not then it seeds upon its owne members As a Bore in the time of winter is wont to doe for then if it be not possible for him to come by any sustenance hee by sucking his owne feete relieves himselfe The wives also must have an especiall care that they serve in the meate thus cleanly drest in a cleanly manner as it is written You shall not make your soules abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth neither shall you make your selves unclean with them that you should be defiled thereby for I am the Lord your God you shall therefore sanctifie your selves and you shall be holy for I am holy neither shall you defile your selves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth This place the profound Rabbines construe in this manner unto us That they being commanded by God ought to eate meates artificially cooked as men not beasts are accustomed to doe and that if any one do not eate such viandes he polluting himselfe without fall becomes unsanctified in the eies of the Lord. The table is to be spread with clean linnen bread in whole loaves pure well baked and not burn'd is to be set thereupon then Grate must be said and â—a blessing conserred upon the meat to be received If the good wives of the house have any pullen or other cattell which are to be fed
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-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-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
THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE OR AN HISTORICALL NARRATION OF THE STATE OF THE JEWES At this day dispersed over the face of the whole Earth In which their Religion Education Manners Sects Death and Buriall are fully delivered and that out of their own Writers Translated out of the Learned BVXTORFIVS Professor of the Hebrew in Basil and diligently compared with the Talmud and other Writers out of which it had its Originall Also furnished with divers Marginal Notes very profitable and necessary By A B Mr. A. of Q. Col in Oxford LONDON Printed by T. Roycroft for H. R. and Thomas Young at the three Pidgeons in Pauls Church-Yard 1657. THE AUTHORS PREFACE To the Christian Reader Christian Reader WHen once we exactly ponder in the Scales of our understanding that thrice pressing load of Jewish ingratitude disobedience and obstinacy for which they were dayly branded by Moses and the rest of the Prophets with a foul guilt to which was annexed a vehement reprehension When we seriously consider those horrid threats and execrations wherewith God in his justice would depress them unless they framed their lives according to the strict rule of his Commandements this ought to be a warning-piece unto us to entertain such blessings with a more gratefull acceptance and hitherto to bend all our studies that by our unthankfulness we should not make our selves unworthy of them and so be dis-inherited of such a possession Moses in this manner prophecies of the Jews ingratitude Jesurun maxed fat and kicked thou art waxen fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the worke of his salvation This issued from a prophetical spirit declaring that as already present which after the revolution of many a year was to be fulfilled and accomplished This ingratitude was in its swadling clouts when Joshua led Israel into the land of promise which is ratified by the unanimous suffrage of the whole Colledge of Prophets and almost in the very same terms by Hosea in chap. 13. Jeremy arraigns them as guilty of the same crime the bill of inditement runs thus They are turned back to the iniquities of their fore-fathers which refused to hear mywords and they went after other gods to serve them the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the Covenant which I made with their Fathers And God himselfe by the mouth of his Prophet thus proclaims their obstinacy Since the day that your Fathers came out of the Land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the Prophets dayly rising up early and sending them yet they hearkened not unto me nor inclined their eare but heardened their neck they did worse then their Fathers The obstinacy of this People at last grew to so high a pitch that they stopt their ears at the admonition of the Prophets who cried aloud unto them to amend their waies and curbed their offences with tart reprehensions killing stoning rewarding every one with some bitter death which act of theirs is faithfully registred by the holy Spirit Ezra â— They tooke strong Cities and a fat Land and possessed houses full of all goods wels digged Vineyards and Oliveyards and fruit trees in abundance so they did eat and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in thygreat goodness nevertheless they mere disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy Law behind their backs and slew thy Prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee and wrought great provocations And Jeremy also may be cited for a witness for his words are these Wherefore will ye plead with me ye all have transgressed against me saith the Lord. In vain have I smitten your children they have received no corrections your own sword hath devoured your Prophets like a destroying Lion When the Lord sees this his people thus altogether incapable of corection he afflicts them with all the punishments which Moses by the spirit of God had denounced against them neither their bodies nor goods can now escape the lash of his fury he sends among them the sword famine and pestilence tempests diseases imbred dissention and discord and to make their misery compleat casts them out of that Land flowing with milk and hony and causes them to trace the captives steps into another which they knew not The ten tribes together with their King Hoshea is carried by Salmanasser into Assyria Kin. and when the two remaining Tribes Juda and Benjamin were not hurried to repentance by the present view of their brethrens afflictions God sends Nebuchadnezzer King of Babel against them who leads them captive into the Land of Chaldea makes Jerusalem a desolate heap and turns their Temple their chief beauty into ashes Nevertheless the space of 70 years fully expired these 2 tribes were again brought out of the house of bondage because it was the Almighties pleasure to preserve the tribe of Judah even unto that time when according to his promise out of that tribe and in the promised land the Messias should be incarnate But for all this these 2 tribes did not much outstrip the other 10 in the practise of holiness for they always following their own devices seriously traced the forbidden by-paths of their forfathers for which the later Prophets Haggai Zachary and Malachi were earnest declamitants against them the last of which being a Priest proclaiming them guilty of a wicked life threatens them with a final rejection out in obscurity that so we might again be cast headlong into that darknesse in which we sate before it was the Lords pleasure by his mercy to impart unto us the saving knowledge of his heavenly word My second Motive was this that the hardened in heart and blindfolded Jews at last descending into the Chambers of their strict cogitations might have some glimpse of the greatness of their infidelity and so convicted before the face of the whole world of that more than brutish folly in the expounding of the holy Scriptures and of their old wives tales whereby God for the most part is blasphemed and his saving word against all humane reason after an execrable manner perverted they might begin to be ashamed who with such a whorish forehead and want of wit did not fear to speak or write in this manner of God Almighty and his holy word and that at length they might think that they had stumbled at that stone of stumbling and rock of offence laid in Sion and thereupon that they shall fall prostrate upon the ground be broken to Gods Law ensnared and captivated and finally that God poured upon them the spirit of deep sleep and so closed their eyes that every prophesie and the whole Scripture was to them as the words of a book that is sealed that the wisdome of their wise men is now altogether perished and the understanding of their prudent men hid as the Prophet Isaiah foretold them The
of any of the first sort being onely tied to the observation of them which forbid something to be done They say also that there are some Preceps which are onely to be executed by them at certain times when their pleasure is and also others to which they are no way subject as Circumcision the office of the Priests and Levites and such like Sometimes they may not observe the Commandements because of their husbands to whom they acknowledge themselves to ow dutifull obedience who have power over them and oftentimes call them to the performance of other things than Gods Law yet never by compulsion If any one make a question to what the women are more particularly obliged the answer is that they are bound to the performance of sixty four of the prohibiting and thirty six of the Commanding precepts Thus do the Rabbins appoint their women their Task which they have not alwayes leasure to mannage because they are to keep the house play the Cook Laundresse and Nurse and are also forced to do what ever their husbands enjoin them yet for all this the number of the Precepts was not thought sufficient for the Rabbines have added seven more that the summe ariseth to six hundred and twenty according to the number of the Letters in the Hebrew Decalogue which number the Hebrew word Keter signifying a Crown comprehends for the three radicall Letters Caph Thau and Resch make up the number and certainty if there were any who could fulfill the whole Law of God he were worthy to wear the Crown of the whole world and needfull it is that the Law should be fulfilled for otherwise the world cannot subsist as their wise men would perswade us out of the words of Jeremy If my covenant had not been with day and night I had not made the earth for so is this place perverted after a swinish manner in the forenamed book Brand spigelium A Jew is as fit an Interpreter of the Scripture as a Sow to be an Husbandman as in rendring these words that unlesse the Law which they call Berith that is to say a covenant had been given I had not created the heaven and the earth and whatsoever now hath any existence it hath it from the observation of the Divine Law moreover say they whosoever keeps all these Commandements sets a Crown upon Gods own head and in lieu thereof God shall invest their forefronts with seven Crowns who doe celebrate his Coronation and shall make them heirs of the seven bed-chamber which are in the Garden of Para dise and he shall defend them from the seven infernall Mansions and they shall obtain seven heaven's and so many earths Hereupon it is recorded in that Tract of the Talmud entituled Joma that it was the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer that the world was created for the sake of one just man for it is written in the first book of Moses the first chap. v. 31. That God shallman that it was good and by this good thing is meant that good and just one as it is written Praise the just one because he is good and it necessarily follows out of the words of Moses above mentioned And God saw c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or one just man which was Adam for at that instant there were no more in the earth Rabbi Chaia Bar Abha is of the same mind and Rabbi Jochanan confirms it out of the 25. verse of the 10. Chapter of Solomons Proverbs where it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The righpeous is an everlasting foundation Moreover the wisest of their Doctors write that every vein in mans body is the souls pedagogue to instruct it what to avoid whereupon it shall be found that if any proves disobedient to such an admonition he shall be branded with this mark that he hath not one good vein in him Again all the members prick a man forward to the execution of that which is commanded him and in this manner the three hundred sixty five prohibitory precepts are observed and fulfilled Oâ—â—serable Jew what Chirurgion can prick that vein in thee whren hath any goodâ—nesse in it or extract from thee the smallest dram of blood which is not corrupt King Salomon in his Proverbs saith Keep my Commandements that thou mayest live that is thy veins and members shall become thy provocative unto goodnesse thou shalt live for ever and David the King in the 34. Psalm and the 21. verse promiseth He shall keep all thy bones so that not one of them shall be broken which is as if had said who keeps the commandements of the Lord his bones shall not be broken Thus the poore blind doting Jews are fallen into such a reprobate sense that they neither will nor can understand the essence of faith and good works but running headlong into their obstinate errours persist in their folly so that the words of Sophonie are now verified Her Prophets are light and treachchrous persons her Priests have polluted the Sanctuary they have done violence to the Law Truly any one would think that they ought to be ashamed of so gross ignorance by which they dilacerate the word of God in that manner as though they had not the least relish or spark of understanding in them for in the confirmation and declaration of their faith settled upon no foundation in the Exposition of the holy Scripture they seema as strangers and aliens to the word of God who had dreamed of it about some thousand years ago and now grope after it as the blind man gropeth the for wall in darkness I will not in this place add one word more concerning the Jewish beliefe and superstition considering that I shall speak more largely of it in the following Chapters yea more then they could wish should be revealed It is now seasonable and expedient to speak something of the cause of their blindness and obstinacy with which they are plagued especially in the reading of the Word of God It is apparent out the History of the Old Testament The Jews always have been so stiff necked that if once they fixed upon any opinion that no force of Argument could inforce them to relinquish it whereupon Moses and the rest of the Prophets so often reprehend them for which many of them were persecuted and put to death by the obstinate Jews who for this very cause are often in the new Testament termed the Murtherers and Butchers of the men of God When God had once chosen them for a peculiar people made a Covenant with them and for the confirmation of it had annexed unto it the seal of Circumcision as an external sign had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies brought them into a Land surpassing a others with great strength and a stretched out arme and also had given unto them by the hand of Moses a Law according to whose prescript they ought to frame their lives acknowledge God praise and exalt him
sanctifie it whether it be Oxe or Sheep it is the Lords Lastly Exod. 19. it is written The third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the People upon Mount Sinai But Exod. 20. 22. it is said You have seen that I have talked with you from Heaven These and such like contradictions are every where obvious in the Law of Moses and cannot out of it be reconciled In the second place we may with great facility prove the imperfection of this Law for who shall teach unto us the Notes of birds and other creatures who shall instruct us what fat is permitted unto us what prohibited to what height the Tabernacle is to be reared up after what figure to be built whether circumcision is barely to be administred or priah some other thing to be added or how the writing called Mezuzah which is to be fastened to the door posts and of which mention is made Deut. 6. is to be indited as also whether it should be placed upon the right hand or the left upon the top or Threshould of the Gate Furthermore who can reckon up all the kindes of licensed and prohihited meats who can shew unto us the difference to be had in boyling milk and flesh how the dead and Leapers are to be handled as also dead Beasts that we may not be polluted by touching of them who can teach us the nature and property of the Masorah of Points or Accents as also of the Letters of which some are lifted up above the words some inverted who can give us a true exposition of all these things It must then irrefragably follow that a Commentary on the written word is necessary out of which we may learn and be instructed in all these points So much the fore-named Rabbine This is the very means and plot wherby the Divel first of all seduced the Jews to forsake the Word of God and after his magisteriall manner compelled them to imbrace the Traditions of men and that with such a tenacious grasp that neither Esay Christ nor any other to this very day could by any means unclasp their arms Go to then my prudent and skilfull Rabbine where shall we find a true Exposition of the written Word In Weckers Books of Secrets no verily In Reuchlines Caballistical Art no such matter or lastly in Marcolfus much less but read the holy Talmud and there you may find it But from whence I pray thee was this Talmud sent unto us that I should give so much credit unto it as to make it the Interpreter and Expounder of Moses his Law Thou wilt answer that Moses our Master and Prophet brought it together with the written Word from mount Sinai for thinkest thou thou doting Gentile that when Moses stayd forty days forty nights upon Mount Sinai he was set to keep Geese Could not God in the space of one houre have given him the two Tables in which he had written his Law and so sent him a Packing to have prevented the Israelites in making of their Golden Calfe There was some thing more in the wind for God brought Moses into his own School and there first gave him the written Law then expounded the same unto him in that time which he spent in the mountain expressing to the life the cause measure foundation and meaning of every Commandement which Declaration finished he bids him depart the Mountain and relate all that he had heard to the children of Israel as it is written At the same time the Lord commanded me that I should teach you Statutes and Judgements These Statutes and Judgements were that Thorah begnal peh that Law delivered by Mouth to Moses which he taught Joshuah and Joshuah the seventy two Elders and by them was derived to Zachary and Malachy the last of the Prophets from whom that great Councel the Sanhedrim received it and from that time forward it was deliver'd from one unto another in the same manner that every one had learned it from his Grandfather or Grandmother But how could Moses know when either it was day or night Rabbi Bechai Exod 34. makes answer that upon the day time Moses received the written Law upon the night that which was delivered by mouth unto him a Doctourlike answer for if it had been night he could not have writ and because there was never a Chandler in the Mountain Sinai to furnish him with Candles he could not have had the use of them if he had desired it But what should be the cause that this Exposition was onely delivered by mouth and not in writing Rabbi Mosche Mikkotzi makes answer that God did it to this end that the Gentiles should not corrupt this Exposition as they had corrupted the written word therefore in the day of Judgement when both Jews and Gentiles shall stand before Gods Tribunall they shall both bring with them and present the written Law hence calling themselves the Sons of God then shall the Lord make a further enquiry and say which of you hath the Declaration of the Law given by mouth in Mount Sinai which none but the Israelites shall know of or can produce To the purpose then when there was no more any vision and prophecies had ceased in Israel God stirred up the wisest among the people who had been the Schollers of the Prophets for this end that they might institute good Ordinances among the Israelites rightly teach and propagate the Law which they did as also their successours to this very day These men made it a Statute in Israel that the name of God most worthy of praise should be blessed every day at the rising and setting of the Sunne They ordained also eighteen laudatory petitions in which every Morning and Evening we praise God and beg of him that he would bestow upon us all things necessary for us that we might rightly fear him as grace wisdome and understanding that he would vouchsafe to heal all our infirmities gather us together again thus dispersed to punish the wicked to break their horn and power in pieces but to exalt the horns of the godly and righteous to buâ—ld up Jerusalem and to restore again the Kingdome and house of David Moreover they ordained Grace before and after meat to welcome the New Moon with joy and gladnesse to pray at the sight of the Rainbow and noise of Thunder Again that in every City some certain Schools should be opened and furnished with sufficient and able men for Masters and instructors who might bring up the children of the Jews 〈◊〉 the Law of Moses That the Law of Moses should be weekly read in these their Schools lest the children of Israel should forget it That the Israelites should not eat nor drink with any people of the earth except the Christians but to flie their meat as a dog or a snake in imitation of Daniel the Prophet of whom it is recorded that he pur posed in his heart
our bounden duty to believe what ever is extant in their name for it is the truth neither let any deride them not in his heart for so doing he shall not escape unpunished let every one then take warning that he speak not any thing scandalous either to the person or attempts of these men but rather to endeavour to learn so much as he can possible out of their writings To the same purpose it is recorded in a book printed in the Germane tongue and Hebrew Letter at Cracovia in Poland Anno Dom. 1597. called Brand spiegelium in the hinder end of the 48. Chapter that the Jews are bound to say Amen not only at the end of their prayers but to every Sermon and Exposition upon the word of God in which lie hidden and profound mysteries shaped to the vulgar apprehension that by this they might signifie and acknowledge that they believe whatsoever their Rabbines or wise men have spoken as it is written in the Prophet Isa Open your selves O ye gates for the people cometh who keepeth Justice that is a people who saying Amen believes all things that the wise men and Rabbines have written but if any mans understanding be encompassed with such Egyptian darknesse that he cannot comprehend the aggados or expositions yet he ought to believe them for the words of our Doctours are not wind but truth it self Aggadah is a mysticall or hidden speech by which hidden matters and things of great moment are signified the word it self by a certain Metathesis is the same with Deagah which signifies poverty and grief because a man macerates and tortures himself after an uncouth manner before he can rightly understand the forementioned Aggadah Hitherto pertains that which is every where extant in the Talmnd to wit that when two Rabbines are at contention the one affirming the other denying none ought to contradict them because both their Positious are grounded upon the Kabala which Moses brought with him from Mount Sinai and although the one could not rightly understandd it yet it is not to be imputed unto him for both of them know the reason why they thus speak seeing the words of the one as well as the other are the words of the living God It is also a Catholick rule in the book of the Rabbines Rather keep in mind the sayings of the Scribes than them of the Law of Moses concluding from hence that the writings and instructions of the Rabbines are of greater authority than Moses and the Prophets Luther in his book which he writ upon Shem hamphorasch comments in this manner concerning the authority and credit given to the Rabbines and their writings The Jews say that they ought to believe that Rabbines though they should affirm thè left hand to be the right and the light hand to be the left as Purchetus testifies After the same manner three Jews who kept me company dealt with me when I urged any thing out of the Bible then would they object that they were bound to believe their Rabbines and were not tied to the Scripture whence I perswade my self Purchetus said nothing but truth seeing mine own experience taught me the same Luther was not too blame being guided by his own experience to believe Purchetus to make it more manifest I will produce their own words Raschi or Rabbi Salomon Jarchi upon those words Deut 17. and 11 According to the Sentence of the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the Iudgements which they shall tell thee thou shalt do thou shalt not decline from the Sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor nor to the left hath this glosse when he saith unto thee of thy right hand that it is the left and of the left hand that it is the right thou must believe it as a truth how much more if he say thy right hand is thy right and thy left hand thy left The like we find in Rabbi Bechai his Commentary upon the foresaid words who brings in Ramban or R. Mosche Ben Nachman telling his tale in these terms Upon a time there came a certain Gentile unto that mirrour of Learning Don Shammai and asked him how many Laws or Commandements have you â—ews among you to whom Shammai made answer our Laws are onely two the one written the other delivered by mouth Then the Gentile replyed I believe as fully as thou dost that written Law to be true and whatsoever is contained therein to be nothing but the truth but as for thy Law of Tradition I cannot embrace it neither account it for a Law but go to make me a Jew be my Shoolmaster teach me in this Law which words possessed Schammai with such a fury that he thrust him from him and commanded him to depart the place then the Gentile came to Hillel the elder Schammai's copartner in office for they two were joynt Rectors and lived but a small time before Christs incarnation whom he questions in the same manner entreating him withall that he would vouchsafe to make him a Jew which Hillel did and instructed him in the Jewish Religion The day following Hillel saith unto him pronounce Aleph Beth Gimel Daleth which he did according as Hillel mouthed them unto him the day following Hillel inverting the Alphabet saith unto him pronounce Daleth Gimel Beth Aleph then the Gentile replyed Rabbi this is not the Lesson thou taughtst me yesterday then answered Hillel thou dost not onely reject me thy instructor but also fearest not to yield no credit unto my words therefore thou oughtest to rest thy self contented in the unwritten word and to believe all those things which are taught therein This Story is registred in the Talmud Tract de Sabbatho Hence may we conclude that every one simply without consideration or contradiction should believe not onely the Jewish Law of Tradition but whatsoever the RabbiNes according to the prescript of the same Law write and teach and that whosoever doth this is to be esteemed a Jew indeed whosoever is refractory and disobedient the most grievous torments in hell shall be his portion concerning which thing we read this Decree and Sentence of the Senate in the Tract entituled de libello repudii or Letter of Divorce in these words Mar. saith Whosoever shall deride or contemne what our wismen and Rabbines have spoken he shall be punished in hot boyling pitch and that in hell as they blasphemously affirm Christ our Saviour and Redeemer to be tormented because he walked not according to the traditions ordinances and Doctrines of their ancestours but rejected them as a thing despifed This punishment is also registred in another Tract of the Talmud and more at large expounded in a book called Menneras Hammaor and expresly set down in the book Beth Iaacob but in the Talmud printed at Basile it is left out and not without good reason as also many other blasphemous passages written against Christ and Christian
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
face being washed great curiosity must be used in the drying of it for he who does not take care thereof shall have his face so blossomed with budding Ale pocks so imbroidered with wrinkles that the deformity thereof will become loathsome to the eye of every beholder the face must be wipâ—d with a clean towell not with a woollen cloath which some slothfull persons blush not a whit to do for according to their Doctors this destroys the memory and annihilates the understanding After washing every one ought to give thanks saying Blessed art thou O God our God King of the whole world who hast commanded us to wash our hands In generall they ought continually to wash their hands after these things following In the morning so soon as they are up after their return from the house of office after they come out of the Bath when they pair their nails after that they have drawn their shoes from their feet the hands being ministers when any hath scratched himself upon his naked skin when he hath touched a dead Corps or gone through the middle of dead folks when he hath had carnall copulation with his wife or lastly after the killing of alouse whosoever he be that doth any of the aforesaid things and doth not wash his hands thereupon if he be a learned man he shall forget his learning and turn blockhead if he be not learned he shall lose the use of every one of his senses Now the Jew is sufficiently cleansed and mundified for his morning devotions if two things were not yet wanting which make him and his prayers far more holy concerning which we will adde some few words for the better understanding of what was formerly delivered The Jews have a certain instrument of a foursquare fashion which for the most part they put on together with their other garments at their uprising but some when they are about to pray The parts of this quadrangular garment are two being for the most part made of linnen but often of silk bound and fastened together in the highest part thereof with two little bands yet of a great heighth so that they may put their head in betwixt them so that the one of these foursquare parts may hang upon the breast the other upon the back The Jews in respect of the four angles call this garment Arba Cauphos in every one of these four angles hang certain Ribbands woven of white woollen threads coupled by a certain knot and hanging towards the ground which are four eight or twelve fingers broad these they call Zizim of which they write wonderful and strange matters whereof I will relate a parcel They who would be accounted very sincere and holy are wont dayly to put on this their cloak or garment wearing in it under their long coat but after such a manner that the ends of the forementioned stringes or hangbies may be always in their sight some wear them upon their breasts others not at all but in time of Prayer It is hehoofull that the two foresaid parts together with their appurtenances should hang towards the ground both at the fore and hinder part of their body that they may always be full of the Commandements of the Lord. When they put these on then they say some certain Prayers giving thanks unto God that he hath commanded them to invest themselves with these garments These ought to admonish them always to have before their eyes Gods Commandements that hereby being scared from sin they might be prickt forward to a due performance of them as it is written Speak unto the children of Israel and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations and that they put upon the fringe of their borders a ribband of blew And it shall be unto you for a fringe that you may look upon it and remember all the commandements of the Lord and do them and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes after which you are wont to go a whoring that you may remember and do all my Commandements and be holy unto the Lord your God But out of these words their Wise men conclude that the eyes and heart are the mediators for sin In the Tract called Masseches Schabbas we read that Rabh asked Rabbi Joseph what was the first thing his Father admonished him of who answered the Commandement given by God concerning the fringes for upon a time my Father saith he going down a pair of stairs and by chance treading upon his fringes and breaking one of the threads or Ribbands would not move a foot till it was made whole again In a word their great Doctors comparing this commandement with others prefer it before them all and have left in writing that whosoever diligently observes and keeps it keeps and observes the whole Law which thing they thus make manifest In every one of the fringes there are five knots representing the five books of Moses to which if we add 8 Ribbands together with the number contained in the letters of the word tzitzith which signifies fringes and in numeration makes six hundred there ariseth the number of six hundred and thirteen the direct number of the Commandements into which the whole Law is divided and therefore according to this Cabbalistically concluding Arithmetick he that rightly observes and keeps this Commandement concerning the fringes perfectly fulfils the whole Law In the fore mentioned Tract we read of a certain man hindred from commiting sin and a strange woman converted unto Judaism by this Commandement Upon a time a yong man among the Jews very learned and studious but much given to Venery hearing of a famous and beautiful Whore who living in a neighboring City had much trading and yet sold sin at so dear a rate that for one single lascivious abuse of her body she required no less then four hundred pounds sent her the money appointed the time at which she was to expect his lustfull imbracements The day come the yong man according to their Covenant repaired unto her house where he found her in a closet sitting in a chair all imbroydred with gold near unto which stood a bed furnished in the most exact and exquisite fashion that Art could invent which served as fewel to inflame his lust and hastened him to this unlawful act but behold as he went up into the bed his fringes smote him on the face whereat forthwith astonished and put in mind of the Commandement he fell upon the ground represt his fleshy desires and utterly refusing any more to touch or imbrace his formerly admired Mistriss whereupon she demanding of him what defect he had espied in her that he thus refused his purchased pleasure he replies that the Lord God commanded the Jews to do him service and for a more easie performance of the same gave them a sign which when they beheld they might remember his Commandements which sign put me
they ought to leave their beds and go to prayers Blessed â—e God c. That he created me an Israelite or a Jew or as others render it that he did not make me one of the Gentiles By Gentile they understand Christian which they esteem as Infidels Idolaters and a cursed Nation The woman saith blessed be God c. that he created me a Jewess Blessed be God c. that he hath not created me a servant this also thwarts the profession of Christians whom they account their vassalls who shall sow and plow their ground and shall do all manner of servile imployments for them while in the mean time they shall sit behind a hot fornace rosting apples tossing up whole bowls of wine What kind of Captivity is this They answer if any man rest himself in any place having a huge Bowl of rich wine in his hand then he is free from bondage when on the contrary the Christians are forced to labour and till the Earth in the sweat of their browes and nostrils Blessed c. That he hath not made me a woman the women instead thereof say Blessed c. that he hath created me according to his own good will and pleasure This is done in contempt of the womans sex because they are not comprehended in the Covenant of Circumcision by which God â—eals unto himself his own peculiar people and therefore this Scripture must perforce be hatched in the womans brains that is to say whether they be in the Catalogue of Israelites as their husbands are Blessed c. who exaltest the humble Blessed c. who gives sight unto the blind This Thanksgiving is usuall when they first wake out of their sleep and unshut their eye-lids Blessed c. who makes the crooked straight this they say when lifting themselves up in their bed they go about to attire themselves Blessed c. who clothes the naked this they say when they put on their cloaths Blessed c. who raiseth them that fall Blessed c. who bringeth the prisoners out of Captivity These two severall Thanksgivings are assigned for this reason because God in the time of sleep doth in that manner sustaine and multiply mans spirits that they may again exercise their proper functions the time of their being asleep being like unto prisoners in the pit Blessed c. who stretcheth out the earth above the waters this they say when rising out of their beds they begin to tread upon the ground Blessed c. who directs prepares and governs the wayes of man this he saith so soon as he comes out of his bed-chamber Blessed c. who hath created all things necessary for this life this he utters when he ties his shooes Blessed c. who girdest Israel with the girdle of strength this he saith when he puts on his girdle which every Jew is bound to do as hath been formerly declared Blessed c. who crowns Israel with comelinesse this he saith when he puts his hat upon his head for it is an hainous offence to go out of his Chamber uncovered Blessed c. who refresheth the weary Blessed be thou O God our Lord King of the whole world who removest sleep from mine eyes and slumber from mine eye-lids These prayers ended being so many in number they adde two more wherein they petition God that he would vouchsafe to keep and defend them against sin reprobate angels wicked men and all kind of evil Then humbling themselves before God they confess themselves guilty and relying only upon the mercy of God they comfort themselves again with a certain Prayer beginning Ribbon Col haolamim and with much boasting and many brags in that oath which the Lord sware unto Abraham being about to sacrifice his Son Isaac say yet we are thy people and the children of thy Covenant and O blessed men that we are how goodly is our portion how pleasant our lot how beautifull our Inheritance O blessed men that we are who every morning pronounce this sentence Heare O Israel the Lord our God is one God! Gather us that trust in thee from the four corners of the earth by which action all the Inhabitants of the world shal know that thou art God alone O our Father which art in heaven run after us with thy mercy even for thy names sake because thy name is named upon us and confirm and establish in us that which is written At that time will I bring you back at that time will I gather you and give you a name and renown amongst all the people of the earth when I have turned againyour captivity saith the Lord God After these be ended there follow 2 other short Prayers in which they give thanks for the Law delivered to them from heaven From the Law they proceed to their sacrifices which because they may not offer in these dayes they are banisht out of their own Land their Temple is laid desolate as their Ancestors were accustomed the sacrifice of the lip succeeds in the place thereof and reading only the precepts coÌ„cerning sacrifices as they ought in their appointed times to have been offered they solace themselvs with that saying of the Prophet though in a sense perverted We will sacrifice the calves of our lips After this they ruminate the historical narration about sacrifices as also a certain prayer beginning Rabbi Ismahel concerning the use of the Law and the manifold exposition thereof which being grounded upon the Talmud is so barbarous and difficult that not one Jew amongst an hundred is able to understand it This they read in such a manner as the Vestal Virgins do the Psalter This done they say a Prayer in which they Petition for the re-edification of Jerusalem and the Temple which they daily even unto this day expect and hope for yet this they say with such a fainting voice that none can hear it The words are these Let it be thy good pleasure before thy face O Lord and God the God of our Fathers that the holy house thy Temple may be built again in these our dayes and give unto us a will to abide in thy Law Hereupon rising up with great joy and shouting they chant out another laudatory Prayer or thanksgiving hoping that God will shortly begin to lay the foundation of their new Temple and bring them back again into their own Land Then sitting down they repeat a long Prayer collected out of the Psalms of David reading withall some whole Psalmes and a part of the thirtieth Chapter of the first book of Chronicles and lastly singing the last words of the Prophet Obadiah which are these Saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau and the Kingdome shall be the Lords With attent minds and much rejoycing their hope is that these Saviours of whom the Prophet makes mention shall come quickly and shall go up to Mount Sion that is they shall undertake the quarrel for the Jews and
putting it into the salt or into some sort of sauce if there bee any upon the table presently eates it speaking not a word for if he doe he is bound to say grace the second time The piece which he breaks off is of a good quantity lest he should be accounted for a miserable niggard who desires to be sparing where spending is ranked in the place of a good worke and laudable It is also required that two or three should sit together at the same table for otherwise every one must say grace for himselfe This finished he takes the bread into his hands the second time and cuts every one there present a shive of the same laying it on their trencher that every one may feed thereupon In the same manner also he blesseth the wine especially in those regions where they commonly use to drinke it and were not only the whole number of ten` but three or foure are in company It is performed in this manner A cup brim full of wine being presented he takes it first into both his hands then holds it in the right hand alone yet if it bee big and weighty hee may also imploy his left so that hee place it below the right This done he lists it up above the table a hands breadth and fastning his eyes upon it raising himselfe a little in way of honour saith Blessed bee thou O Lordour God King of the world who hast created the fruit of the vine Here it is also provided that when many sit not at the same table every one in particular ought to blesse his owne cup where Ale or water and honey mixed together are wont to be drunk they use the same kind of grace The richest sort of the Jewes drinkes up the sanctifyed cup of wine though they carouse their cups of Ale after it They use not at any time to give ablessing being about to drinke water Grace being ended the Master of the family useth to repeat the twenty third Psalme after which they fall to lustily and feed deliciously if they have wherewithall He that gives not thankes himselfe must say Amen to him that supplies the place Hereupon it is read in the Talmud that whosoever saith Amen with an attentive and zealous minde he is farre more worthy and of greater esteem then hee that saith grace before or after meat The Rabbines illustrate this by a simile taken from one that writes a letter in another mans name For as the letter is then confirmed and ratified when it is sealed and signed by the hand of another so they make good and establish the blessing given upon the meate who say Amen at the ending thereof Salt is set upon the table in remembrance of their sacrifices which were wont to be offered in the daies of old for the table represents the Altar and the meat thereon is compared to the sacrifice yea it is also written And every oblation of thy meate-offering shalt thou season with salt neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the Covenant of thy GOD to be lacking from thy meate-offering with all thine offerings thoushalt offer salt and therefore it is lawfull to want salt at the table The reason why they doe not cut and divide their bread into parcels before they blesse it is because it is the position of their Doctors that hereby they should offend God seeing it is written Ubozeah berech nietz adonai which the Jews very handsomely translate whosoever cuts and gives a blessing offends the Lord. The Hebrew word Bozeah never signifying to cut neither admits it of any such signification in this place neither is it so translated in the Germane Psalter but only is so rendered at the pleasure of the Rabbines as wee may read in Orach chajim a little booke translated into the Germane tongue for the use of women and children in which is briefly set down the plat-forme after which their life ought to bee framed untill the end of their daies They lay both their hands upon the bread their fingers being stretched out in remembrance of the ten commandements which God gave concerning the graine whereof the bread is made These commandements cannot bee conveniently inserted into this place being set downe in a place a little before cited Secondly they do it moved thereunto by some sayings of holy writ one whereof is this He bringeth forth grasse for the cattell and green herbes for the service of men that he may bring bread out of the earth Another is this The eies of all wait upon the Lord and thou gavest them their meat in due season the third The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land a land of brookes and waters of fount aines and deeps that spring out of the vallies and hils A land of wheat and harly of vines aâ—d fig-trees and pomegranates a land of oile olive and honey And many other sayings of the same sort which in the originall consist onely of ten words and so the usuallgrace also consists of ten words onely In blessing the wine foure things are especially to be taken notice of and had respect unto all which are briefly comprehended in the word Chamischah which is as a note of remembrance for the more easie retaining of them The first of the word is Cheth which notes unto us Chai signifying new intimating that the wine ought both to be new and also to be poured out into the bowle from a full tankard The second letter Mem signifies Male which is as much as full for the cup ought to be full of wine as it is written O Naphtali satisfied with favour and full with the blessing of the Lord possesse thou the west and the south Hence concluding that their cup which they blesse in this manner ought to bee full of wine If any drinke out of the foresaid cup before grace be said it is to be filled againe out of a fresh and full tankard if there remaine no wine at all in the tankard then must that which is in the cup bee poured out into a cleane tankard and from thence into the cup againe and so it passeth for currant The third letter Schin notes the word Schetiphah which is ablution intimating that the out-side of the cup ought to bee washed with cold water The last letter He notes out the word Haddacha which signifies a washing intimating that the inside of the cup ought also to bee washed with cold water That they ought to lift up the cup with both hands from the table they prove from the words of David Lift up your hands unto the Sanctuary and bless the Lord a very doctor-like proofe indeed While they are at their repast every one using a modest carriage must think with himselfe that he is in the presence of the Lord. As it is said conâ—erning the tithes of the field that thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God Againe This is the table that is before the Lord.
holinesse to the Lord. Then the sexton goes about and cries who will buy Gelilah etz chajim which is a certaine kinde of office which any supplying is licenced to tosse over the booke of the Law by a serious revisall Which office is granted unto him who will give the most money for it which is put into the poore mans box and chested up for their reliefe Those pieces of wood by the helpe whereof the booke of the Law is carryed up and downe are called by them etz chaijm the wood of life to which that sentence of Solomon was Godfather Wisdome is the tree of life to them thâ—t lay hold on it Gelilah signifies a folding intimating what things may be observed in the folding and unfolding of the book When the Chanter takes this holy booke out of the Arke then he goes into the pulpit where he reads out of the same these words following It came to passe when the Aâ—ke was set forth that Moses said Rise up O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee Againe Many people shall goe and say come yee and let us goe up to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his waies and we will walke in his pathes for out of Sion shall goe forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem The Chanter when he begins to sing laying the book upon his arme saith O praise the Lord with me and let us magnifie his name together To which the whole congregation makes this answer O magnifie the Lord our God and fall down before his foot stool for he is holy O magnifie the Lord our God and worship him upon his holy hil for the Lord our God is holy Directly above that four square structure is placed a certain table covered with a silken Carpet upon which the Chasan or Chanter laies down the book of the Law Then comes he who is to purchase the Office of Gelilah with his money taking away and devesting the booke of its formerly in wrapping garments which finished the Chasan and the other who was to buy his place calling one out of the whole congregation and commanding his personall appearance in his fathers name and his own he approaching the presence seats himselfe in the middle kisses the book not upon the bare leaves of the same for this were an hainous offence but through the swadling cloutes thereof and grasping the cover thereof saies with a loud voice praise the Lord c. Blessed be thou O God who hast chosen us unto thy selfe before all other nations of the earth and hast given us thy Law Blessed be thou O God the Law giver Now the Jew perswades himselfe that his lot is fallen unto him in a fair ground seeing he hath seen and handled the tree of life and therefore becomes blessed above all other people In the next place the minister reades a chapter or section out of the Bible which ended he who was formerly summoned to appeare takes the book the second time and kisseth it saying Blessed be thou O God who hast given us the very law and implanted unto us eternall life Blessed be thou the Law-giver After this two more are successively called whose behaviour is squared according to the platforme of the formers carriage He that came first in goes out by another doore then that which afforded him entrance After these another is cited who ought to have a well brawned arme for hee must lift up the book at armes end and turning round must expose it to the view of every spectator the whole congregation in the mean season bellowing ouâ— This is the law which Moses gave to the Israelites This Office is named Hagbahah and is sold to him for money who bids most While the match is in making those brawling scolds the women presse into the Synagogue with a great deale of quarrelling and much opposition every one striving to gain a place in some window or other where they may be blessed with the sight of such an holy booke thinking to reape some pleasure by the sole beholding of it seeing their lips cannot bee allowed to second their husbands in billing of it The women have a peculiar Synagogue of their owne differenced from that of their husbands with latticed and cross-barred windowes Concerning which much is spoken in the Talmud and an evident demonstration there of is given by the Prophet Zachary in these words The land shall mourne every family apart the family of the house of David apart and their wives apart the family of the house of Nathan apart and their wives apart The family of the house of Levi apart and their wives apart The family of Shimei apart and their wives apart All the families that remaine every family apart and their wives apart Whence they conclude that the men and women are not to come into the same Sinagogue in the time of divine service and that for modesty and honesties sake seeing not only women but men likewise are apt and inclineable to fall into divers lustfull cogitations when they are in the same place together If the Jew who reades the Law chance to stumble and let the booke fall out of his hand he is bound to fast and all the rest also for a long time together seeing this accident presageth some great calamity to come upon them At length come they who have purchased the Gelilah and etz chajim the one of them touching the wooden cover of the booke folding it up great experience is required in this case the other administers the linnen clothes in which it ought to be inwrapped and its silver-twisted coat involving all the rest Then comes every one in the Synagogue both young and old and kisses the booke touching it only with two fingers with which they afterwards handle their face which action relishing of a supreme sanctity is held for a soveraigne medicine against blindnesse and all diseases incident to the eie While the booke is carryed to the Arke the Chanter sings praise the name of the Lord for the name of this our God is of great power and strength The congregation answereth and saith His praise is above heaven and earth he hath exalted the horne of his peculiar people to the praise of all his saints Yea the Israelites being a folke most neare unto him praise yee the Lord. When the book is laid in the Arke the people say or sing those words of Moses used by him when the Arke rested Returne O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel Then they conclude all saying as was formerly noted at their going out of the Synagogue O Lord lead me in thy justice because of mine enemies make my way plaine before thy face The Lord shall keep my going out and comming in from this time forth for evermore These words they repeate also when they goe out
of doores either to take a journey or to doe any other businesse CHAP. X. The preparation of the Jewes to the Sabbath and how they begin the same IT is written in the second booke of Moses That upon the sixt day they gathered twice as much bread and a little after this is that which the Lord hath said To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which you will bake to day and seeth that yee will seeth and that which remaineth over lay up for you to bee kept untill the morning These words force the Jewes to this conclusion that it is their duty and Gods command too that they should provide all things necessary pertaining to the honourable celebration of the Sabbath especially dainty and delicate meates which they ought to boile or bake betimes upon the Friday morning whereon they may feed upon the Sabbath and with more facility rest from their labours The women are in a more particular manner enjoined to prepare great store of palate pleasing wafers who while they are kneading and making ready the dough they are very ceremoniall therein leaving the lump whole If the bignesel cause a necessity of division which is often seen in great families then the one part thereof is covered with a cloth that it may not be ashamed and put an open scandall by the other part in that it is provided in the last place for the Sabbaths repast They honour the Sabbath with three banquets all served in much pompe The first whereof they celebrate upon Friday at night when the Sabbath begins The second upon the day it selse about twelve of the clock The third and last upon the evening of the same These to be the due times they prove out of those words of Moses Eat that to day for to day it is a Sabbath unto the Lord to day yee shall not find it in the field From the word to day thrice repeated the Rabbines conclude that Moses in this place doth signifâ—e that manna ought to be eaten at three severall times upon the Sabbath orderly succeeding one another This institution according to the same Doctors in their Dutch Minhagin is profitable in another respect That is if only one banquet should be provided every one would with such gredinesse feed thereupon that his guts should be sufficiently stuft for the rest of the ensuing time even untill the end of the Sabbath But now seeing that every man knowes that one banquet being ended two more are to succeed his stomack hath no such edge to the first as otherwise it had but living in a very temperate manner he eats his meat with pleasure conscious of a second and third returne to the table What other Rites they practise shall hereafter be manifested In the time of preparation no man must thinke it a thing unseemly or derogating from his birth or riches to worke with his owne hands that the preparation to the Sabbath may be compleat And although some one man there were who had an hundred thousand men and maides yet ought not to be a meere overseer of their labours but a partaker and that in honour of the Sabbath According to that which is recorded in the Talmud that the good and honest man Rabbe Chasda would fall a chopping pot-herbes Those learned men Rabba and Rabbi Joseph would cleave wood Rabbi Ezra would make the fire Rabbi Nachman would sweep the house and would moreover provide all manner of instruments necessary for the table Meates either boiled or roasted are kept hot in an oven because they are better hot then cold The tablestands covered all the day and night long which hath a mysticall signification as hereafter shall bee declared Furthermore they wash their heads and use the help of a barber if need require The women ought to attire their heads and plate their haire to goe into some hot bath or else to wash their hands in hot water Upon every Friday they pare their nailes and in a very superstitious fashion beginning at the fourth finger of the left hand and so holding on to the second then to the fift then to the third and last of all to the thumbe whence it comes to passe that they cut not their nailes in order but still over-skip some finger or other In cutting those of the right hand they begin with the second finger and so hold on to the fourth He that throwes his nailes being cut off upon the ground that they may bee trodden under foot of men is a wicked man and a great sinner For Satan hath power over the nailes and wizards by the help of them exercise their inchantments and if any chance to tread upon them some great danger or other hangs over his head On the contrary whosoever digs and buries them in the earth he is accounted for an honest righteous man If he cast them into the fire then is hee a holy and honourable man in esteeme And the truth of every particular they evidently demonstrate in their owne opinion out of the words formerly alledged the summe of which were that upon the sixt day they should prepare themselves Moreover it is necessarily required that every one should sharp his knife use the whetstone and edge him acutely which they prove by those words Thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace thou shalt visit thy habitation and shalt not sinne Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great and thy off-spring as the grasse of the earth Out of which saying the Jewish Doctors have drawne this conclusion that wheresoever is a blunt knife and nothing cunning in cutting there is no peace at the table and the whole house is out of square In the next place they put on their holiday clothes every one dressing himselfe in the most minicall fashion his plodding curiosity can invent They of the richer sort have garments onely appropriated to the day not kissing their corpes upon any other and their reason for the same is very plausible for the Rabbines call the Sabbath a Queen Now if any being to make his appearance before this Queene should not put on some princely garments such as in other place they use to weare in the presence of a King then this Queen should bee much scandalized thereby They cover the table with fine and cleane linnen not neglecting the provision of napkins trenchers cups cushions stooles and other appurtenances that all things may bee in a readinesse to entertaine this renowned Queen the Sabbath in a fit and decent manner In the daies of old warning to a due preparation was wont to be given by the sound of an horne or trumpet But at this day the Sexton or keeper of the Synagogue goes about to every house making proclamation that every man should cease from labour and prepare himselfe to a comely and honourable welcomming of the holy Sabbath which comes to his house much like to
it is written early in the morning But when he speakes of the oblation for the seventh day it is written in the day of the Sabbath The meaning of which words is this The daily sacrifices were wont to be offered early in the morning before it was light instead of which they repaire at this day earely unto their Synagogue to say their morning prayers as was formerly declared But upon the Sabbath a longer stay was made and the sacrifice was not wont to be offered before perfect day Wherefore the Jewes ought to sleep larger upon this day then another and to goe later to morning prayer then at other times to recreate themselves for a longer space upon their couches for the joy and delight accrewing by the Sabbaths reproach When they are once come into the Synagogue they pray as at other times yet saying and singing more prayers and anthemes then ordinary in honour of the Sabbath Upon this day they doe not put on their phylacteries of which we spoke in the fourth Chapter and that because the Sabbath it selfe is a sign of the Jewish faith and that this was given to the Jewes onely and commanded by them to bee sanctified and therefore they have no need of other signes as the phylacteries and circumcision whereby a Jew may bee knowne from other men They bring the booke of the Law out of the Arke in that pompe which we specified in the ninth Chapter They read out of it seven sections of the Law for the performing whereof seven particular persons are called out Whosoever is called comes up by the doore next unto him and goes downe by the other because it is recorded of the people of Israel to have done the like For saith the Scripture the gate of the inner Temple which lookes unto the north shall be shut for the space of six daies wherein you may worke but upon the Sabbath day and upon the day of the Calends it shall be opened And the Prince shall enter by the way of that gate and shall stand at the posts thereof and the Priests shall offer his burnt offering c. Hence it appeares that when they come into the holy Temple upon the Sabbath day they came in at one doore and went out at another They are also accustomed to read some certaine sections out of the Prophets in which the same subject is handled that is treated of in the bookes of Moses This custome then had its originall when they were interdicted to reade the bookes of Moses in their Synagogues For at that time they began to read in the plaâ—e thereof a Lecture out of the Prophets which they named Hapharah which was as a certain exposition upon the Law of Moses This custome was in force in the daies of the Apostles for thus it is recorded For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him Again Moses of old time had them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day And although at this day they are not prohibited to read and teach Moses in their Synagogues yet they keepe the custome of reading the Prophets for they cannot be too conversant in well doing They pray also for the soules of them who in their life time did not rightly sanctify the Sabbath For the Rabbines perswade themselves that these are tossed in hell from side to side both after and before the Sabbath and therefore they pray for them thereupon Their prayers in the Synagogue must not continue any longer then six a clock in the morning For it is forbidden either to fast or pray any longer according as their Doctors have collected out of that saying Thou shalt call the Sabbath Oneg For the word Oneg signifying delight or pleasure is written without the letter Vau which in numeration maketh six By which the Prophet would secretly insinuate that we ought not to fast after the sixt hour or the middle of the day because otherwise it would come to passe that the Sabbath should not be a pleasure but rather a vexation unto us Therefore morning prayer being ended they eate their second Sabbaticall meale making themselves merry in honour of the Sabbath If any have dreamed some ominous dream as the book of the Law to be burnt the beams of his own house to fall down his teeth to fall out of his head or such like he must fast untill it be late at night and that not without cause seeing such phantasticall meteors portend no faire weather If the jaw bones of any one in the time of sleep seem unto him in the time of sleep to fall out of their place such a dream is a good dreame because it betokens the teeth of all his enemies that intended evill against him If to eate be burdensome unto any and to fast a pleasure he may fast by statute If any cannot abstaine from teares he may weep by authority because such a ones lamentation is his owne delight his adversaries recreation both which are conducible to a sanctifyed celebration of the Sabbath Yetnot withstanding whosoever fasts upon the seventh day he must fast also upon the day following because he feared not to substract the pleasure due unto the Sabbath day Moreover it seemeth good unto the wise men among the Jewes that dinner being ended that somewhat should bee learned by study and some Chapters read oâ—t of the holy Bible For upon a certaine time the Sabbath complained unto God that every thing in this universe had a like unto it selfe of which it was onely destitute Then God instantly replyed and said The people of Israel shall from henceforth be thy mate for they upon the Sabbath day bend their study to the learning of the Law which if they did not they would at that time be altogether idle Then the Law posting unto Gods tribunall poured out its complaints and said When Israel shall returne into his owne land and one shall goe unto his farme another to his vineyard who shall then learn or study me God answered the Israelites shall doe it who resting upon the Sabbath shall practise nothing else By reason of these complaints it was concluded and thought meet that upon the Sabbath day after dinner every one should busie himselfe either in reading of the word of God or in collecting something out of their bookes of morality whereby they might be incited unto the feare of the Lord and so the Law and Sabbath might not have any more just occasion of complaint But alas how rare readers they are in these good books experience gives an evident demonstration for the whole weeks space time enough a man would think They speake not so much of their bargaines usury buying and selling as they do upon the Sabbath day At even-tide they returne againe into the Synagogue and prayer ended they fall to their supper
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
of God and a good work to fill their Panches and cram their Guts this night with the Cocks and Capons and soundly to liquor their throats then to fast the day following Alwayes provided that supper be ended before sun-set for then the feast of reconciliation begins and they are to dress themselves in neat and fine cloathing upon which they weare a surplice or garment of choise linnen coming down unto their feet hereby shewing unto other that the next day they shall be pure and clean from their sins and offences and like unto the Angels These garments they put on in honour to the festival the celebration of which consists not in eating and drinking being sottishly ignorant that the worship of God is of more worth then either Hence it is that the Lord complains by the mouth of his Prophet Hear O heavens and harken O earth for the Lord hath said I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his masters crib but Israel hâ—th not known my people have not understood Ah sinful nation ab people laden with iniquity a seed of the wicked corrupt children they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the holy one of Israel to anger they are gone backward What have I to doe with the multitude of your Sacrifices saith the Lord Hosea also saith O I srael return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take unto you words and turn unto the Lord and say unto him Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously and so will we render unto thee the calves of our lips So much of the preparation to the feast of reconciliation CHAP. XXI Of the Feast of Reconciliation COncerning the institution of this feast we may finde it recorded in the third book of Moses that the tenth day of the siventh moneth shall be a day of reconciliation it shall be an holy convocation unto you speaking to the Israelites you shall humble your soules and offer sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord And ye shall do no work that same day for it is a day of Reconciliation to make an attonement for you before the Lord your God For every person that humbleth not himself the same day shall even be cut off from his people And every person that shall doe any worke that same day the same person also will I destroy from among his people Ye shall do no manner of work therefore this shall be a law for ever in your generations throughout your dwellings By reason of this injunction and command the Jews at this day are wont to meet in their Synagogue about sunset before it be night carying with them their wax lights and placing them in their Candlesticks singing and praying with a beastly roaring and bellowing outcries The women which stay at home to keep the house light many candles in the bed chambers and other places blessing them and stretching out both their hands towards them as they do also upon the sabbath hereby making a difference between the festival dayes and others appointed for ordinary employments and manual labours If these lights burn clear they take it as a very good signe of some consequent hap believing that their sins are remitted that they shall see many happy dayes and not come as yet into the prison of the grave If they give not a clear light but that which is only glimmering dark and obscure if they melt away the tallow or wax distilling drop by drop then they begin to be sorrowful conjecturing this to be a signe of some evill ready to befall them They spread their floores pavements and hearths with Coverlets in some places as in Wormes they straw their hearths with rushes only lest they upon the day following by often stooping to the fire to chafe and rub themselves might defile and spot their holiday attire or otherwise lest they should seem to commit Idolatry which is altogether unlawful the reason hereof is that which is written You shall not pave your pavement with stone to bow and prostrate your selves thereupon That it is said in the forecited text of Moses that they ought to humble themselves before the Lord they understand to be meant of a five-fold kinde of pleasure from which they are to abstain And first of all from meat and drink even from sunset to ssnset from the beginning to the ending of the solemnity Boyes above twelve and wenches above eleven years of age women also who have been above three dayes in child-bed are not exempted from this fast A sick man may eat lawfully if he desire it If not the Physitian thinking it meet and convenient for the regaining of his health meat is to be administred unto him Secondly every one is bound to goe without shoes barefoot only it is permitted unto old decrepit and sickly persons to whose health the coldness of the season may bring hurt and dammage Thirdly no man ought at this time to annoint himself with oyle or wash his body with water for pleasures sake Fourthly no man must enter into a bath to wash himself no he may not be allowed to dip his finger in the water much less to wash his hands or face Yet if any have occasion to ease himself after the deed done he may dip his fingers into the water so that he goe no farther then the formost joynt Some take a wet linen cloth and make clean their hands therewith yet it is accounted as a thing very dangerous and neerly coming within the confines of an offence for if the cloth should chance to be so wet as the drops of water might be pressed out of it it were enough to prophanâ— the festival Fiftly the men must not come at their wives no not so much as touch them and keep themselves out of their company as though they were in their monethly flowers Before they begin their solemn prayers usually made by them after sunset at the begining of this festival three of the chief Rabbines walking through the Synagogue saying with a loud voice Bischibhah schel mahelah ubischibhah schel mattah etc. the meaning of which words is that they give power and license to the whole congregation as well to the bad as the good among them to pray unto God To this end also the Chaunter goes unto the Ark where the book of the law is kept opens it and saies a long prayer which begins Col nidere Vaâ—ssare uschehue that is to say All Vowes Covenants and Oaths c. the first part whereof he repeats three times every time with a more lofty and joy resounding voice then other The sum whereof is that all the vows oaths promises covenants asseverations and protestations which any one of the Jewish nation hath not kept the year past to be void remitted disanulled the breach thereof not to be acknowledged for an offence to be utterly taken away and pardoned
MAny among the Jews are forced to learn the Butchers trade which they call Scachten He that learns it is bound Apprentice to some skilful Butcher for term of yeers and those not a few for there are so many precepts constitutions caveats axiomeâ— belonging thereunto that it is very difficult for any man in a short time to be cunning and expert therein he must therefore bestow great paines and study in seeking the rules appertaning thereunto out of the books of the Rabbines that thereby he may gain a perfect and sound knowledge therein There is extant a certain smal Pamphlet which is called Schochitos and Bed kos the Butchers book in which are contained the principal Rules and Canons belonging to this Art according to the tenor whereof the Jews at this day kill and slaughter their beasts and other cattel If they meet with any difficult place whose true meaning cannot be comprehended by the brains of a Butcher they repair to some Rabbine for the exposition thereof He therefore who hath diligently perused this little book and hath been long time a spectator of another mans labours in this kinde and can rightly judge of them is made by some of the Rabbines Freeman of the Company who also makes him a testimonial Letter under hand and seal of his skil and ability Wherein he certifies that he is expert and skilful in the Butchers trade and therefore gives him full power and license to kill and slay any Ox Sheep or such like kinde of Beast when and wheresoever it pleaseth him Not long since it was my chance to see one of these testimonials which was writ in manner and form following This day being such a day of the moneth in such and such a yeer I have examined and in examining found N. the son of N. to be skilful and expert in the Butchers trade and that as well to teach by mouth as to practise with hand Which things weighed and rightly by me considered I have granted him a license to kill and slaughter and being killed and slaughtered to search all kinde of cattel And furthermore it shall be lawful for him to eat whatsoever shall be by him in this case searched and slaughtered Alwayes provided for a space of a whole year ensuing the date hereof once a week the next year every moneth once and after that every quarter of a year for the space of his whole life he do diligeâ—tly peruse all the Rules and Canons belonging to the Butchers trade Witness Rabbi N. Butcher A Butcher is called in the Hebrew tongue Schochet the Butchers trade Schacten The searcher or overseer who looks whether they be sound or not Bodek and the action of searching Badken In the exercise of this their trade they use knives of divers sorts proportioning them according to the quantity and bigness of the beast that is to be slaughtered Their knives of a greater size have commonly broad and blunt edges yet apt enough to cut if they have any gap in them if it be never so little it is not lawful to use them The greater sort of beasts being ready to undergo the knife have their feet tied by the Butcher in imitation of Abraham who bound his son hand and foot when he was about to sacrifice him Afterwards he cuts the weesil of the beast at one cut Then he looks upon his knife to see whether there be any flaws or gaps therein which action of his is very necessary seeing a gap in the edge of the knife doth in such manner terrifie the poor beast that the blood runs unto the heart to comfort it so that the knife cannot make a passage for it by which means the beast becomes unfit to be eaten When he hath cut deep enough he hangs the beast upon the Cammerel unbowels it and making a couple of holes one upon the right another upon the left side of the heart he or any other who is skilful in searching thrusts his hand through these holes into the body of the beast with an intent to know certainly whether any blood or little Bladders full of blood clag or cleave unto the heart or liver Which if he perceive any other fault be it never so little then it is not lawful for any Jew to eat thereof as it is written Ye shall be an holy people unto me neither shall you eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field ye shall cast it to the Dog And again Of a beast defiled or rent with beasts whereby he may be defiled ye shall not eat I am the Lord. Out of these words the lews draw this conclusion That it is not lawful to eat the flesh of any beast which is not without taint spot or blemish when the Text it self speaks not of the living creature but of a dead carkase a beast that hath died of it self or hath been torn in pieces by another Birds and all kindes of fowl the Jews do kill and slaughter in the same manner that they do their beasts cutting their throats and letting the blood drop down into a heap of ashes covering it therewith This their practise they ground upon that action of Rebecca who when she saw Isâ—â—c ligâ—hted down from the Camel Upon which words the Rabbines in the Schechitos or Butchers book have left in writing that at that time it was with Rebecca after the manner of women whose virgin or menstruous blood the Birds came and covered after that she had risen from the carth and therefore they say that God commanded them in lieu of this to cover and hide the blood of Birds when they slaughter them They cover also the blood of other Beasts with earth because the earth opened and swallowed up the blood of righteous Abel when Cain slew him I also saith the Author of the Butchers book have seen it recorded in the book Chasidâ—m that the blood is therefore to be hid in the earth lest Satan coming and finding it uncovered should accuse us before God of great injustice because it would seem a very unjust and cruel act miserably to kill and slaughter a poor innocent and unreasonable creature in such a tyrannical manner which hath committed no sin or offence against us and therefore is not lyable to punishment Surely the Iews would make the Devil a very sottish Fool and shallow brain'd Asse who cannot know thus much and themselves very cunning and crafty in such a circumvention of him After that they have killed a great beast they take all the veins and nerves out of his body picking away the fat which cleaves unto them then putting them in water to mollifie and soften them after a certain space taking them out again and washing them in clear water so that no drop of blood remain in them then they lay them upon a shingle or cloven that the water may drop from them then they put them into a vessel and salt them which vessel is full of holes to this
their own land About whose coming they are among themselves altogether disagreeing Those ancient Jews who lived before Christs incarnation did not much miss the marke when Elias said that the world should continue six thousand years whereof two thousand were to be void and without force that is without the law of God the other two thousand under the law and the last under the Messias Their hope was therefore this that foure thousand years after the worlds creation fully expired their Messias should come in the flesh in which their errour was small or none at all for according to the vulgar account of us Christians Christ the true Messias was borne in the 3963. year of the world but according to the Jews computation in the year 3761 we and they differing 202 years And now because Christ came not unto them in great power a king of glorious state such as were David and Solomon to deliver them from the tyranny of that usurping Herod and Roman cruelty neither with a rod of iron to break in pieces and destroy their enemies but only began his kingdom over them with the spiritual scepter of his doctrine even for this very cause they would not receive him for the true Messias though some few did acknowledge and embrace him and at that time the most ancient and approved men amongst them did expect his coming thus we finde a Simeon waiting for the consolation of Israel and Anna that old Prophetess speaking of him to all that hoped for deliverance in Jerusalem The very same that the Apostle Paul witnesseth in his Epistle to the Romans that though the Jews were most ingrateful yet is there a remnant of them according to the election of grace Yea when all kingly power sacerdotal honour and dignity was taken from them the city Jerusalem made a ruinous heap and their beauty the temple turned into ashes every one now begins to suspect the time of the coming of the Messias to be past Hence it was that in the 52. years ufter the destruction of the Temple a certain proud and haughty Jew boasting that he was the true Messias feared not to affirme himself the same of whom Balaam prophesied in these words I shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh there shall come a star out of Jacob and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel and he shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth And Edom shall be a possession Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies and Israel shall do valiantly Others understood this prophesie of the then newly begun kingdom of the Christians But the Jews even at this day determine their Messias as yet to come and to fulfil those things which Balaam foretold according to their substance That the said Jew should proclaim himself the Messias was most grateful unto them who presently in their own conceits can nourish hopes that they should become the conquerours of the Romans who a little before had destroyed their City and Temple This Seducer following the letter of the prophesie names himself Ben Chocab which is by interpretation the son of a Star His chief follower who at the very first clave unto him was Rabbi Akibha a man of great learning who had under his tuition twenty four thousand Scholars proclaiming him to be Malka Meschiccha Christ the King By this means much people went after him insomuch that he chused unto himself the City Bittera for the seat of his kingdom But when that Adrian the Roman Emperour had after a siege of three years and an half taken and killed this their Messias and together with this beautiful Star had miserably slaughtered more then four hundred thousand Jews then the remnant of so great a massacre perceiving themselves led astray by this their Star turn Anabaptists and call him from that day to this Barcozabh that is the son of a lye a lying and bastardly Messias Yet neverthelesse many since have lived who would be reputed for the Messias as you may read in a book called Schebhet Jehudah * The issue of all is this that the Jews convicted in their own consciences will they nill they are forced to confesse that the time in which the Messias was to come is already past When therefore they had despised and rejected Christ the true Messias and no other appeared they falsified the above mentioned tradition of Elias which was that the Messias should come about the four thousandth year of the world by annexing unto it this Comment that the time was prolonged for their offences But when at length no reason could be pretended of this long delay neither could they desine the time of his coming their onely evasion is to smite with this curse the head of him that should determine a certain season for his coming Tippach ruchan atzman schel mechasschebhe Kitzin * Which is Let their soul and body burst with a swâ—lling Rupture who peremptorily set down the time that time I say in which the Messias is expresly for to come Yet this not at all pondered and nothing set by many of them moved by the prophesies of the men of God concerning the coming of the Messias have in their souls and consciences confessed that the time of his coming was already past and therefore in their writings they acknowledge that he is born indeed but for their sins and impenitent life not as yet revealed And at this instant all the Jews dwelling amongst us are of the same opinion Hereupon Rabbi Solomon Jarchi saith that according to their ancestors the Messias was born in that day in which â—erusalem was last of all destroyed but where he hath so long been hid to be uncertain Some of them think that he lies in Paradise bound to the womans hair grounding upon these words in the Song of Solomon Thy head upon thee is like Carmel and the hair of thy head like purple the King is bound in the Galleries By King understaning the Messias and by Galleries Paradise Rabbi Solomon follows this exposition of these ancient Rabbines The Talmudists write that he lies in Rome under a gate among sick folks and Lepers perswaded by the words of Esay who saith that he is one despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Others forge other lies and tales Well let all these things fall out according to their own desire yet they still believe he is to come First then before his coming shall happen ten notable miracles by which every one shall be admonished and incited to an accurate preparation for his coming and also be warned to conceive that he shall not come so poor and privately as Christ came These ten miracles I mean here to present in the same words that the Rabbines have commended them to posterity in a little book called Abkas Rochel The first miracle God shall stirr up and produce three
God who hast vouchsafed to impart this gracious favour unto us Christians that we being warned by such an horrible example of the divine wrath should with awe and reverence embrace his holy word lest the same things should befal us and so our Candlestick should be removed for our ingratitude God of his mercy grant that the Sun of his justice may alwayes shine in our hearts until perfect day and by the illumination of his good Spirit conduct us unto all truth Amen The End Soli Deo Gloria Deut. 32. 15 Jer. 11. 10. Jer. 7. 25. 26. Nehem. 9. 25. 26. Ier. 2 29 30 2 Reg. 17. Isa 29 10 11. Iohn 17. 3. Chjim Isa 29. 13 14. a The Rabbins were the chief Schollers and Doctors amongst the Jews Hence the word Rabbi Rab Rabbi and Rabban signifieth as much as Master These titles sprung up about the time of or presently after Christs incarnation for formerly the Prophets were called by their bare names Rabbi and Ribbi are more excellent titles than Rab and Rabban the most honored of all given only to Princes versed in the law of Moses these have for their root the hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to multiply for so were the Rabbines in the knowledge of the Law they had another name which was Geon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in computation makes 60. because a Rabbine ought to read the 60 Tracts of the Talmud b The Scribes were the expounders of the Law ministers of the Text in Hebrew Sopherim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to number because they spent their time in numbering not onely the verses but the words and letters of each book in the Bible c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signisies a prayer derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hiphil signifying to pray humbly with the Confession of our sinne and miserie hence their prayer-books are named Tephillos The Articles of the Jews creed Psal 33. 14. a Bar Maimon the son of Maimon for Bar signifies a son from the Hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 barar to make clean or purge either that children of all others are the neatest in body and comeliest or else that their mind ought to be purged and elcansed from vices The name Ben 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is given in respect of generation from hanah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to build up because they build up the house of their Fathers but Bar is a name given them in respect of their education Rab. David b Esrim vearba c Illah haillos the cause of causes a term used by the Hebrew Rabbins and Philosophers as all the other following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cause from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to cause or give occasion a Mezius Gemrah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gemurah signifies perfection from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gamar to finish or to be defective for the best perfection among mortals hath its defect b Echad umeinchad of one essence both the words are derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 echad unus one c Keechad hamurcabh secundum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unum hamurcabh compositorium for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 marcebah signisies a composit or conjunction from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to compose or cojoyn and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a composed thing from the same 〈…〉 e Deut 6. 4. f Meddah hagguph bodily attributes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a property or affection from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to measure because our attributes affections measure out unto us our bodily perfections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guph signifies a body derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guph to enclose for it is the casket of the soul g Al derech haabharah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an hyperbole or ad modum transitionis for gnal signifies according derec signifies a way from darac to walk and aberah a transition from gnabar to passe over h Kischon bene handam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to mans coming laschan signifies a coming from lashan to speak Bene sons from banah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to build up Adam man from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to he of a red colour a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kadmon Eternity from Kadam to prevent and so Kedem Elohe God from alah vide poster b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Mediatours and Interpreters for a Mediatour doth as it were interpret the will of one unto another The root is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Malatz signifying to sweeten for a Mediatour doth sweeten and make us acceptable to him we have offended c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thorah the Law the word is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jarah Which signifies to lay a groundwork intimating that the Law should be firrmely rooted in the hearts of men the Letters of this word thorah make in computation 613. and so many Precepts the Rabbines veckon in the Law of Moses whereof the Mandatory are 248. according to the members in a mans body insinualing that we are bound to fulfil the law in every member the prohibitory are 363 according to the number of dayes in the year to note out unto us that every day there is something to be avoided which violates the Law or thus the number of the prohibitory Commandements is equall to that of the veins in mans body to warn us that as there are many veines in every Member to there are many affirmative Precepts which teach us to do well and that we may better effect more negative whereby we avoid the contrary The Jews say the Law was two fold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the written Law delivered to Moses in Sinai to two Tables 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex oralis thorah begnal peh delivered by mouth unto him out of which the Pharisees establish their Traditions The comparison of Moses with other Prophets Numb 12 6. 7 8. Exod 25. 22. Dan. 10. 7 8 9. Exod. 33. 10. 2 Kings 2. 15. Lev. 16. 2. Artic. 8. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e◠ore Dei. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pe signifies a mouth and Gebarah is one of the Cabalissical predicaments and among the Rabbines one of the names of God from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gabar to prevail or be powerfull b Lulabh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ramus spatula palma a bough or brāct for in the feast of Tabernacles the Jews were to dwel in Booths made of Myrtle and Palm branches as it is recorded Nehem. 8. 15. c Zizim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their fringes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zuz to move up and downe d Tephillim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Phylacteries used in this feast Artic. 12. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chachamim there wisemen from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be wise or understand b Tippach from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to breath c Ruach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruach