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
because without these there is no pleasure and also by reason of the command which saith Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God thou and thy son and thy daughter For a conclusion le ts see what the Prophets say concerning these Jewes who have taken the Law to wife The sentence of Isaiah is The earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Lawes changed the Ordinance and broken the everlasting Covenant And the Lord by the mouth of Ezâ—kiel saith The Priests have out of malice perverted my law and profaned my sanctuary Stephen cries out against them Ye stifnecked and uncircumcised in heart and eares you doe alwaies resist the holy ghost as your fathers did so do yee Who have received the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it CHAP. XVI Of their Feast of Tabernacles THE third great Festivall of the Jewes which they are to celebrate every yeare once appearing before the Lord in Jerusalem is the Feast of Tabernacles concerning which as also the two former it is writ in the fifth book of Moses Three times a yeare shall all thy males appeare before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall chuse in the Feast of unleavened bread in the Feast of weeks and in the Feast of Tabernacles and they shall not appeare before the Lord empty The time of the celebration of this Feast was according to Gods owne commandement to bee the fifteenth day of the seventh month according to the vulgar account beginning to reckon from the first day of the new yeare of Festivals of which we have spoken formerly that it begins in March and so consequently inferre that this seventh month must be our September The etymologie whereof as also the reason why this month in their common annuall account is called the first shall hereafter be more at large declared The end of their keeping of this Feast was as a signe or token whereby the Israelites might recall to mind the fatherly providence of Almighty God by which hee had sustained the children of Israel after a wonderfull manner for the space of forty yeares in the desert having neither house nor harbor The manner of celebration is thus prescribed by Moses You shall dwell in boothes seven daies all that are Israelites born shall dwell in boothes that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in boothes when I brought them out of the land of Egypt These boothes were wont to be made of the boughes of goodly trees as the mirtle olive firre which by reason of their fatnesse would for a long time retaine their green attire branches of palm trees boughes of thicke trees willowes of the brook as it is in the same place This they put in practise in the daies of Nehemiah after their returne from Babylon for it is recorded that then they published and proclaimed in all their Cities and in Jerusalem saying Goe forth unto the mount and fetch olive branches pine branches myrtle branches and palme branches and branches of thicke trees to make boothes And they did so From that which hath been said we may gather 1. That the Jewes in ancient times made Tabercles of these kinds of boughes in which they dwelt for the space of eight daies 2. That there were in use for the fabrick more then foure severall kinds of boughes or branches yea the willowes of the brook are not mentioned in the forecited place of Nehemiah which were used for the knitting together of the other branches being plyable and fit for that purpose Therefore the Jewes of these present times commit a grosse error that they in a most superstitious manner in the celebration of this Festivall tie and confine themselves to those foure kinds of branches only mentioned by Moses and not building them Tabernacles therewithall but transferring them to another use of which more hereafter Concerning this Feast there is extant a large tract in the Talmud wherein the genuine observation and celebration thereof is set downe the platâ€forme of the boothes or Tabernacles exquisitely drawne the use of the foure severall sorts of branches described with much disputation and great subtilty as their manner is not omitting to handle all the ceremonies belonging there unto yet never seeking after the true way and meanes whereby they may rightly lift up their hearts unto the God of their fathers For though in the time of this Feast they say many prayers yet they offer them up unto the Lord only upon the censure of their tongue not upon the altar of their hearts for in these they are far from him an evident demonstration hereof is the winged hudling over of these their petitions using such a precipitancy of speech as though they were able to pronounce a thousand words with one breath and accounting it a work of art and skill so to do This Feast endures for the space of eight daies the two first and the two last whereof are to be kept holy altogether those which are of the middle rank only for halfe the day Upon the fourteenth day of the month about eventide they meet in the Synagogue according to their ecclesiastical Ordinances and institutions where they sing and pray untill it bee night At which time they returne to their houses and retire themselves into their Tabernacles where the Master of the family saith a certaine prayer which serves for the initiation of the Feast and consecration of the Tabernacles giving thanks unto God that he hath chosen them before all other people exalted sanctified and commanded them to dwell in Tabernacles The thanks giving being ended they fall to supper where they are very jocund and merry In ancient daies they were wont also to lodge in their boothes which the Jewes at this day use not the coldnesse moistnesse and other maladies and incumbrances which might accrew unto them thereby being as so many potent arguments to disswade from this and to invite them to their owne bedâ€chambers which experience hath taught them to be the sweeter resting place Upon the morrow of the fifteenth day they returne into the Synagogue singing and praying and honouring the Lord with a little lip-service their hearts roving quite another way When the Chanter hath proceeded so farte in his prayers that he is come at last to those words Give peace in these our daâ—es O Lord then every one taking a little bundle of palm oliâ—e and willow branches in his right hand and an orenge in his lest saith Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast sanctifyed us by thy commandments and commanded us to carry a bundle of branches Which while he is in repeating he shakes the bundle that it may make a noise the words of the Prophet moving him thereunto who saith The trees of the wood shall clap their hands Then he shakes the bundle three times towards the East three times towards the West
fills their hearts with sorrow being a very probable token of an unfruitful and dangerous season When the trumpeter hath done his office the whole Synagogue trumptes out those words of David Blessed is the people O Lord that can rejoyce in thee they shall walk in the light of thy countenance Morning prayer ended they return again to their houses where they eat and drink and sound upon their Rams-horns For it is a position of the Rabbines that at this time every one ought to be merry and jocund being assured that God hath been gracious unto him in pardoning his sins and offences and not because he hath fill'd his panch and liquored his throat for this would God rather impute unto them as a sin then recompense as a good work After this their repast every one man woman and child hasten to the water or to some Bridge thereupon to make Taschlich that is to say to cast their sins into the water and the ground of the practise is that of the Prophet He will turn again and have mercy upon us be will subdue our iniquities and cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea The Jews thus gathered together upon the Bridge so soon as they behold the fishes accounting the sight as a prosperous signe and token they caper alost and shake their garments over the â—ishes dreaming and vainly conceiting that by this their foolery they have shaked off all their sinnes upon the fishes backs which swim away with them even as the scape-Goat which carried away the sinnes of their ancestors into the wilderness Others write that they do it in remembrance of Abraham who travelling to sacrifice his son Isaac upon Mount Meriah which was upon the first day of September Satan met him and turned himself into a great River which at the first took him only to the knees but by and by it reacht his neck Abraham perceiving himself to be in such a distresse and that he was in danger of drowning cried mightily unto God who heard his prayer and turned the water into dry ground as it is recorded in the tract Medrasch rotosoha Evening being come they fall again to eat and drink and make merry as they were wont and in this manner they celebrate the feast of the New-year in great security with much mirth and jollity for the space of two dayes together I conclude with that of the Prophet If a man walk in the spirit and would lie falsly saying I will prophesie unto thee of wine and of strong drink he shall even be the prophet of this people To which alludes that of Sophonie Her Prophets are light and wicked persons her Priests have polluted the Sanctuary they have polluted the Law CHAP. XX. How they prepare themselves to the Feast of Reconciliation and the celebration thereof THe time between New-years-day and the tenth of the same moneth upon which they keep the feast of Reconciliation is called by Jews the ten penitential dayes for which space they fast and pray very much and are wonderful desirous to become holy and religious that if God should have written any of their names in the book of death and determined to afflict their souls with an unfortunate year he might at the contemplation and sight of their penitent life and practise of good works repent him of the evil and have mercy upon them transcribing their names in the book of life and sealing the judgement Every morning so long as these dayes endure while it is as yet very early they confesse their sins three several times do not proceed to the excommunication of any one neither do they call any man into judgement or force any one to take an Oath Upon the ninth day they forsake their beds betimes in the morning frequent the Synagogue sing and pray So soon as they return home every male old and young takes a Cock and every woman a Hen into their hands the master of the family doing likewise and saying these words Foolish men are plagued for their offence and because of theâ—r wickednesse Their soul abhorred all manner of meat and they were even at deaths door So when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble he delivered them out of their distresse He sent forth his word and healed them and they were saved from their destruction O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men that they would offer unto him the sacrifice of thanksgiving and tell out his works with gladnesse And again If there be a messenger with him or an interpreter one of a thousand to declare unto man his righteousnesse then will he have mercy upon him and will say Deliver him that he go not down into the pit for I have received a reconciliation that is a Cock which shall be a reconciliation unto me When he hath ended this his repetition he finisheth the reconciliation waving the Cock three times about his head and saying at every time This Cock shall serve instead of me he shall succeed in my stead who deserve death he shall be my reconciliation he shall die for me but I shall enter into life and blisse with them that are righteous in Israel Amen This he doth three times as was said before once for himself once for his children and once for strangers which sojourn with him according to the custome of the high Priest in ancient dayes as it is recorded in the third book of Moses In the next place he takes the Cock and kills him and drawing and gathering the skin together about his neck first meditates with himself that he is worthy to have his own throat cut for his sinnes and offences and then cutting the Cocks throat thinks himself worthy to be punished with the sword After this he takes the cock and with all his might throws him upon the ground thereby signifying that he deserves to be stoned to death for his sins and wickedness lastly he puts him upon the spit and roasts him thereby giving others to understand that to be burnt in a fiery furnace doth not equalize his desert These four kindes of death the poor Cock undergoes for his Master The intrals out of commiseration they commonly cast upon the house top that it may also be partaker of such a sacrifice Others say that they do it because sin is rather an internal then an external thing and that it cleaves fast to the bowels of the Cock some Crows coming by may claw them up and flee away with them into the wildernesse even as the scape-Goat in the Old Testament ran away with the sins of the people into the Desert They take all possible pains and care to procure a white Cock for the sacrifice They will by no means admit of a red one because such an one is full of sins seeing sin it self is red also as it is written Come now
hands under which they were to receive the blessing that the Angels became the Minstrels playing divers tunes upon Trumpets Pipes and other instruments that Adam Eve and God himself might dance In this balsphemous manner writes he that is the Author of that book called Bricum Spigelium printed some few years ago at Cracovia in Poland the German tongue and Hebrew letter which book contains many reprehensoâ—y and moral precepts and is of great esteem among the Iews at this day I finde it registred in the Talmud that God only made tresses for Eve which they prove out of those words and God built which the Rabbines read plaited and hence the Iews at this day call the plaits of a womans hair Biniasâ— which in English signifies a building from the Hebrew word Banah which signifies to build which signification Moses also gives unto it when he saith The Rib which the Lord God had taken from man thereof he built a womâ—n and brought her to Adam Which the Rabbines being Commentators must carry this sense that God plaâ—ted Eves hair and brought her unto Adam leaping and dancing as he came along Surely if there were but the least sparke of true knowledge they would blush and be ashamed to utter these blasphemous sayings before the world but God in his just judgment hath smitten them with blindness that seeing they will not see and hearing they will not understand We leave them therefore an return to our matter The time being come when the blessing due unto the married couple is to be given unto them foure boyes take the Canopie which is fastened to foure posts and wooden pillars and carry it into the street or garden where the solemnity is to be kept whither the bridegroom comes being attended with many men following him at his heels After him followes the bride and her damsels with sackbuts timbrels and other musical instruments seating her self by her spouse under the Canopie This Canopie they call by the name of Chuppah which signifies a cover or shelter When every man and woman there present have taken their places then every one begins to cry out Baruch habba Blessed is he that cometh Which said the Bride being led by others is to compass and circle about her bridegroom three several times as a Cock doth when he is about to tread a hen because it is said A woman shall compass a man Then the bridegroom takes his bride and leads her once about the floore in a circle the people in the mean time casting wheat or other grain upon the bride and saying encrease and multiply hereby signifying that peace and abundance of riches in housekeeping shall befall them according to that of the Psalmist He maketh peace in thy borders an filleth thee with the flower of wheat In some places they mingle mony among their wheat which the poorer sort gather for their own relief The Bride is to stand upon the right hand of the Bridegroom because it is written Kings daughters were among thy honourable women at thy right hand did stand the Bride in a vâ—sture of golde She must turn her face towards the South because it is a tradition of the Rabbines that whosoever placeth his bed in that manner that he lying there in his face shall be towards the South not towards the North shall be the father of many children The Rabbine who marries and joynes them together in the bond of matrimony takes the skirt of the hair-cloth or garment by them called Tallith a which the Bridegroom wears about his neck and puts it upon the head of the Bride which is occasioned by that saying of Ruth to Boaz Spread the wing of thy garment over thy â—andmaid for thou art the kinsman and that of Ezekiel I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy time was as the time of love and I spread my skirts over thee and covered thy filthiness yea I sware unto thee and entred into a Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine In the next place he takes a glass of wine which they call the bride-boule blesseth it giving thanks unto God that the Bride and the Bridegroom by his instinct have given their consent to be joyned together in the bond of matrimony and reaching out the cup unto them commands them to drink thereof If the Bride be a virgin then the cup must have a narrow mouth if a widow a large one at Wormes they use an earthen cup as also at other places After that they have both tasted of the cup The Rabbine takes the wedding-ring from the Bridegroom which is made of pure gold yet having no jewel in it and calling some witnesses shews them the ring and asketh whether it be a good one and worth the mony that was given for it and then puts it upon the Brides finger repeating the letters of contract with a loud voice Which being ended he takes another glass of wine blessing and praying over it giving thanks unto God that the Bride and Bridgroom had mutually accepted one of another Then reaching them the Cup and bidding them drink thereof which when they have done accordingly the Bridegroom takes the Cup and throws it against the wall in remembrance of the ruinated temple of Jerusalem In some places they are wont to throw ashes upon the Bridegrooms head for the same end and purpose And hence also it comes to pass that the Bridegroom wears upon his head a hood of a black colour such an one as mourners use and the Bride a cloak all rough and hairy able to fright a childe out of its wits to shew unto us that in their greatest jollity they ought to afflict and humble themselves for the desâ—lations of their City and Temple Thus they walk in garments which may shaddow out much sadness but in their hearts they have not sance not feeling thereof Proving the necessity of this trifling outside sorrow from the words of the Psalmist Serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce unto him with reverence That this their marriage or coupling together is celebrated abroad in open aire without covert the reason is because they ought to multiply even as the stars of heaven for multitude When the marriage is ended they sit down to dinner the Bridgroom must say grace and is bound to sing a long prayer and thanksgiving and the sweeter he sings the better he pleaseth his bride and indeed he doth it rather out of pride and to please her then for any glory to God While he is singing others are calling for the hens to be brought and set upon the table The Brides mess consists of an henn and egge served in together in one dish the Bridegroom carves a little of the hen and gives it to his bride which so soon as he hath laid upon her trencher the rest of the guests behaving themselves more like hungry dogs then men catching at and with both hands pulling in pieces the
can fasten upon nothing else but ignorance and grosse simplicity especially in the knowledge of God and in the interpretation of his Word In the whole Nation of the Jews nothing worth thy observation except a horrid hardnesse of heart and perversnesse in their conversation and every particular action neverthelesse they blush not a jot to grace themselves with the title of Gods chosen people Such also they are who would seem to burn with zeal that the Word of God might be purely propagated because they believe in God with an accomplished faith and cleave unto him with a sincere and righty settled confidence above all the Nations of the earth as Paul bears witnesse That they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge Hence is it that the Jews even unto this day firmly contend for their superstitious Worship professing themselves to have a well grounded and assured faith towards God who created heaven and earth who is one in essence and will not suffer any other gods before him The Jews Creed contains in it thirteen Articles which as they are briefly delivered in their Tephillos or books of Common Prayer we have here set down 1. I believe with a true and perfect faith that God is the Creatour Governour and preserver of all Creatures that he did work all things works as yet and shall work for ever 2. I believe with a perfect saith that God the Creatour is one and that the unity which is in him is such as can be found in no other who onely was is and shall be our God for everlasting 3. I believe with a perfect faith that God the Creatour is incorporeall not endowed with any bodily properties finally that no corporeal essence can be compared unto him 4. I believe with a perfect faith that God the Creatour is the first and the last that there was nothing before him that he shall remain for everlasting 5. I believe with a perfect faith that he alone is to be worshipped and that Worship is due to none besides him 6. I believe with a perfect faith that whatsoever the Prophets have spoke and taught is the sincere truth 7. I believe with a perfect faith that the Doctrine and Prophesie of Moses is orthodox that he was the Father and chief of the learned that either were of the same standing with him lived before him or shall be extant in future ages 8. I believe with a perfect faith that the whole Law was so delivered by God himself to Moses as it is now extant with us 9. I believe with a perfect faith that this Law shall never admit of a change and that God shall give unto us no other 10. I believe with a perfect faith that God knows and understands all the works and thoughts of men as it is written by the Prophet He fashioneth all the hearts of them and understandeth all their works 11. I believe with a perfect faith that God will reward every mans works that keeps his Commandements and on the contrary will punish all those that have transgressed his Statutes 12. I believe with a perfect faith that the Messias is yet to come and that though he daily defers his coming neverthelesse I will hope for his coming every day till he come waiting for him 13. I believe with a perfect faith that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead even in that time when it shall seem correspondent to the will of the Creator whose name be blessed and celebrated both now and for ever in the highest strains of humane expression Amen This is Summe of the thirteen Articles of the Jewish Creed as they are summarily and briefly comprehended and set down in their Books of Common Prayer in which belief the poore blinded souls of the Jews after a lamentable manner with incessant groans much anxiety inexpressible doubting and outcries sighing out their last farewell to the beloved prison of their bodies are utterly lost and undone Now that every one may with greater facility comprehend the very glosse and meaning which the Jews themselves annex to this their Creed I have thought it meet to illustrate the Articles thereof by the lamp of a small Comment And first of all we are to know that the faith of the Jews and Mosaicall Religion according to their own writings was built upon these Articles as upon the foundation and first of all delivered to the publike view and reduced into this order by that Casket of Learning Rabbi Mosche Bar Maimon who in the year of the World 4964 according to the vulgar account now used among the Jews but in the year of our Redemption 1104. changed this life for a better and that then it was strictly commanded that from thenceforth throughout all succeeding ages that every Jew confessing this faith should resolve to live and die in the profession of it Hereupon it came to passe that these Articles were graced with large Expositions and thence a great Volume was written out of which the forementioned Articles were more fully drawn than formerly set down and annexed to the end of that Voluminous Book Esrim vearba or the Hebrew Bible printed at Venice by Daniel Bombergus by the study of Foelix Pratensis in the year of Christ 1517. where they are found expressed in the same manner in which they are subsequently delivered The first Article is concerning God who is the Creatour of all Creatures illah haillos the cause of causes entity of entities that every thing whether extant in heaven above or earth below was created of and hath its subsistence in him that he made every thing according to his absolute will and that every thing shall again be reduced into its prime nothing according to his good will and pleasure and although that every thing made by him shall again be annihilated yet his essence is immortall not subject to the least shadow of change or diminution because his essence Mezius Gemurah is perfect and of it self subsistent not needing the prop or help of any other to sustain it That the same God is that everlasting light strength and life that his is the Kingdome Dominion over all creatures That he is truly one and the most renowned Monarch This Article is grounded upon those words Exod. 20. 2. I am the Lord thy God c. The second Article is concerning the individuall unity of the Essence and Nature of God to wit that he is echad umeinchad of one Essence and that there is nothing either within or without the World that can any way enter the lists of a comparison in respect of this unity and identity he is not in the same series or order with any thing universall or singular which comprehends more of the same stamp under it neither is he Keechad Hammurcabh any compounded thing which for this reason admits of a Division into parts neither Guph Paschut d a simple body which is one
ever compared unto him The eighth Article is concerning the Law that it was so delivered to Moses by Gods owne mouth as it is now extant amongst them The manner how it was given whether by writing or dictated of God to Moses by word of mouth it is not needful to inquire If it proceeded from the mouth of God then is it necessary that every parcel thereof should be truth and in this respect no difference to be made amongst the particular clauses of holy Writ as these I am the Lord thy God c. and Thumia was the Concubine of Eliphaz who came of Esau as also The Sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim phut and Canaan and this Heare O Israel the Lord thy God is one God and others of the same sort seeing they are all Gods true and holy Word After the like manner the Exposition of the divine Law Mippi haggeburah came from Gods owne mouth as also all the things observable in the celebration of their bulabh or feast of Tabernacles as the blowing of Trumpets Zizim Tephillim concerning which things notwithstanding there is not one expresse word found in the Law of Moses yet are they kept no otherwise then God hath with open mouth delivered them to Moses and Moses unto us and Moses God himselfe bearing him witnesse Numb 12. 7. was faithfull in all his house And they are his own words Numb 16. 28. Hereby you shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these Works for I have not done them of mine own mind The ninth Article concerning the change of the Law that the Law of Moses shall never be abrogated or any other succeed in the place thereof and that nothing need to be added unto it or taken away from it that not one jot or title shall be annexed or perish from the holy Scripture neither that any Exposition shall make it subject to augmentation or diminution whereupon it shal come to passe that Gods holy Temple and the City Jerusalem shall again be re-edified the sacrifices and Mosaical ceremonies restored and the Jewes themselves at length to be brought back again into their own Land that they may for ever observe and keep the Law of Moses The tenth Article needs no other explication then the Scripture comments The eleventh Article is concerning the reward due to good and evil works the reward of good deeds is the world to come and life eternal the punishment of evil the souls eternal destruction and damnation whereupon it is written Exod. 32. 32 33. Yet now if thou wilt for give their sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of the booke which thou hast written And the Lord said unto Moses he who hath sinned against me him will I blot out of my booke The twelfth Article is concerning the comming of the Messias whose comming is to be expected as certaine though he long delay it yea none ought or dare to prescribe unto him certain time any determinate time for his advent neither wil they suffer the holy Scriptures to be searched into that this sulness of time in which he should come may be made manifest Hereupon their Chachamim and Rabbins deeply grounded in the Jewes Religion were wont to say tippach ruchan schel mechaschebbe Kitzim I wish they may breath out their own souls who go about to set down the time of his approach They teach that our trust and confidence is to be settled on the Messias that he is to be loved praised and petitioned that he will come quickly even as all the Prophets from Moses to Malachi were wont to do when on the contrary whosoever doubts of his comming gives the whole Law the lie yea but the whole Law doth make the miserable poor and blinde Jew a Liar who doubting that he is not come believes he shall come when he is already come in which a plain and clear promise concerning this matter is enrolled especially in parascha The 13. Article is concerning the Resurrection of the dead of which there is nothing now to be spoken whosoever therefore faithfully believes these 13. Articles is accounted one of the number of the Israelites yea such an one who is to be loved whom every one ought to commiserate and unto whom he ought to perform whâ—â—soever God the Creator hath commanded to be done to a neighbour or brother out of Sincere love unfeigned affection and brotherly kindness yea they esteem him a man of that constitution that though he commit all the offences which in the world become the fewell to set a fire the whole course of Nature with burning lusts and consume it with inbred malice and therefore suffer punishment in this World according to the nature and measure of his sin yet shall he inherit eternal life being placed in the Kalender of the sinners of Israel Whosoever destroyes the foundation on which these Articles are built or commits a trespass against any one of them by his infidelity they affirm that he hath neither part nor portion in Israel that he hath denied his God is to be abhorred like a swinish Epicure because he hath rooted up that which was once implanted in him according to the most exquisite skill of the Artificer and therefore he deserves no other then to be rejected abandoned and perish utterly of such an one speaks the Prophet Psal 139. 21. Do I not hate them O Lord that hate thee and am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee Thus hitherto I have more at large expounded the genuine sense of the Jewish Creed out of Rabbi Moses the Son of Maimon more birefly written and nominated by the Jewish Synagogue Rambam with this intent that every one might more clearly perceive and know to what end this beliefe of the Jews was directed whose Articles if any with a more serious scrutiny into their own writings search and examine he may with great facility conclude that when Rambam had brought these Articles into order and with severe threanings of extirpation of the Jewish name and the losse of their souls enjoyning every one unto the confession of them to have had no other aimâ— then the overthrow of Christian Religion among the Jewes intending to put upon it the badge of falshood for making it hatefull unto them he might for ever terrifie them from the imbracing of it Hence the Articles concerning God the Creator that he is one alone incorporeal and eternal hitherto muster up their forces that they condemning the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and Christs person might make it liable to contempt as though that we Christians by maintaining a Trinity did also infer a plurality of Gods or that Christ should not be God nor partake in his Fathers essence because it was his pleasure to assume our flesh in time not from eternity whereupon when hence it follows that he is no God it may serve for a necessary
consequence that he is not to be worshipped for this is due to God alone as the fifth Article affirmeth and God is only a Searcher of the hearts and so was not Christ as in the 11. Article In the same manner the 6 7 8 9. Articles are placed in a diametrical opposition to the Doctrine of Christ and the whole Gospel intimating that Christ was no true Prophet nor Teacher sent from Heaven because his Doctrine was not delivered unto him out of Gods own mouth as it was to Moses and that therefore our Saviour spake many things against the Law in his sayings to the People yea was not afraid to alter many parcels thereof which ought to have remained unchangeable Furthermore if it be true that man for the integrity of his life and tracing the way of Gods Commandements as also for his owne good deeds can merit life eternal and on the contrary for his evil works and ungodliness becOms the Heir of everlasting torments in what respect I pray thee doth the passion and death of Christ any whit availe us The wheele of time hath not travised many minutes since a certaine Jew did not blush to affirm to my face that he needed not any to satisfie for his sin that it is meet every Fox should give his own skin to the Currier to be pulled off and to suffer his own hairs to be plucked out at his pleasure The tenth Article therefore whereby we professe Christ to be our Redeemer is contrary to this assertion Besides this Rambam the rest of the Jewish Nation who had any knowledge of letters in all their Books and Writings have no other scope but to make the faith of a Christian the object of suspicion and contempt Amongst whom Rabbi Joseph Alba a Spaniard challengeth the first place who writ a little Book in the yeare of Christ 1425. entituled Sepher ikkarim in which he stoutly maintains the Jewish Creed for Orthodox and sends out at randome the fiery darts of a fiery disputation against that of the Christians His Arguments are grounded upon the main Principles of the Jewish belief First upon the unity of God Essence and hence he denies the Trinity as also the Godhead of Christ Secondly upon the Law of Moses which was delivered from heaven unto him by God himself with his own mouth whence he rejects the Doctrine of Christ and the New Testament consequently intimating that Christ was a false Prophet and not the Messias hence the main of the strife and Controversies between us and the lews lieth in these two points to wit that of the Trinity and this concerning Christs person Thirdly he establisheth his Positions upon the eternal reward of good works and the endlesse punishment of evil hence despising the death and passion of our Saviour which he underwent for the sins of mankind Of the same grain is that obscene and abominable Book entituled Nitzachon written by Rabbi Sipman whose lines are such that without all doubt he committed this Book to writing in the year of Christ 1459. as it was delivered unto him from the Devils own mouth This piece he composed to falsifie the four Evangelists out of which Sebastian Munster my Predecessour and Professour of the holy tongue in this University transcribed many parcels and confuted them in his Commentary upon Saint Matthews Gospel When therefore the hard hearted and hoodwinckt Jews did with might and main indeavour to denie the faith of Christians and to brand it with falshood they shipwrackt upon the Rocks of Superstition and that in such a measure that they utterly did disanull their faith in God neither have they any knowledge to believe aright although they proudly boast of a firm and perfect faith towards God the Creatour of heaven and earth who is one in Essence from Eternity and without end yet such a faith can never be gâ—aced with the Title of the true belief when as they know not God in whom so audaciously they pretend a confidence after that manner as he hath manifested himself in his word Now the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets declare unto us the same God that the New Testament propounds though more darkly shewing that there is a Trinity in uniTy And an unity in Trinity to wit God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost yet the Jews hot without great scandal denying this Attribute to the Creatâ—ur of heaven and earth it necessarily follows that they place no belief in the true God but rather by a stupid ignorance of him and his Essence become the very emblemes of Idolatry In that they affirm that whatsoever Moses or any other of the Prophets commit to writing was altogether orthodox and that their Text is neither to be augmented or diminished that Moses was a great and famous Prophet is an established truth yet we doubt not but their understanding was subject to a monstrous depravation in this their assertion For first of all they do not onely not believe what is written in Moses and the Prophets to be true but also do prefer the Expositions of their wise men and Rabbines upon the Law and other parcels of holy Writ before Moses and the Prophets yea they esteem more of the word of a Rabbine than of Moses furthermore they account the Traditions Statues and Ordinances not as additions to the Law but for the very Law it self which Moses received from the mouth of God and taught unto others yet did not put it in writing lest the Gentiles learning it also might put it in execution for without this Declaration Moses his Law can neither be understood nor performed as we shall more at large hereafter manifest That they perswade themselves that the Law was given with this condition that nothing of it should at any time be changed they grossely mistake the Ceremoniall Law signified Christ to come which whenby his incarnation he had fulfilled shortly after the holy Temple must kisse the ground and embrace the dust the City Jerusalem and the holy things are utterly destroyed the Jews banished their own Land and dispersed among the Gentiles that at last they might understand the time already come wherein there should be but one Shepherd and one Sheepfold and that seeing the Gentiles were entered into Communion with them in belief in God the Omnipotent Creatour of heaven and earth that they were also made partakers of the treasures of the Divine word and first delivered to the Jews Likewise their error is inexcusable in making Moses the greatest Prophet thence striving to annihilate the worth of our Saviour as one who is not worthy to loose the latchet of his Shooe but blasphemously terming him a lying Doctor Experience doth convince that in this thing many of the Jewes have the lie cast in their teeth by their own convicting conscience They believe aright that in Moses and other Prophets the Messias was promised but herein their understanding is miserably perverted that they yielding to
them speaks the Scriptue As the dayes of a Tree so shall be the dayes of my people that is as the Tree of life as the Chaldee renders it or as a Tree which indures for some hundreds of yeares doth not perish so my people shall remain for they who shall have a part in the resurrection at the comming of the Messias shall be so long lived as the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah So much Aben Ezra upon the place At that time they shall cherish and make themselves merry feasting their carkasses with that great fish Leviathan that huge bird Ziz and that monstrous Oxe Behemoth of which more particularly hereafter After this their jollity death the second time arrests them furnishing them with beds to sleep in till the last resurrection when they shall have an entrance into life eternal where they shall neither hunger nor thirst but be ever satiated with the beatifical vision of Gods glory and brightnesse In the first Book of Moses the 47. Chap. it is recorded of Jacob that when the time of his departure out of this Vale of tears approached he called his Sonne Joseph and entreated him not to bury him in Egypt but with his Fathers in the Land of Canaan Rabbi Salomon Jarchi upon these words saith that Jacob for three reasons would not be buried in the Land of Egypt The first was because he foresaw by the Spirit of Prophesie that in time to come store of lice should molest the Land of Egypt The second because the Israelites who died without the bounds of Canan could not rise again without a great deal of trouble being to be hurried into the â—andâ— of Promise by the hidden and deep vauâ—ts of the earth The third lest the Egyptians very prone unto Idolatry might make him the Idol which they would adore For the better understanding of this I mean here to insert what ever is written concerning it in the book called Tanchum which is an Exposition of the Law of Moles Rabbi Chelbo makes it a main question why the Patriarchs had so great a desire to be buried in the Land of Canan he gives himself a solution saying that they who shall dye in the â—andâ— of Promise shall riâ—s e first at the coming of the Messias Rabbi Hananiah confirms it and saith that whosoever dying is intombed in a strange Land shall dye a twofold death which is manifest out of the 26. chapter of Jeremy and the 6. verse where it is registred Thou Pashur and all thy family shall go into captivity thou shalt go to Babel there shalt thou dye and there be buried Hereupon Rabbi Simeon objects that that granted it must necessarily follow that all the Tzaddikim or just men should perish who were not interred in the Land of Canaan The answer is that God shall make certain caves and profound vaults in the earth by which they shall Be brought into the land of promise at their arâ—â—vall there God shall breath into them the breath of life and give them a share in the Resurrection as it is written I Will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the Land of Israel Rabbi Simeon Ben Levi saith that the Scripture speaketh expresly that God shall restore the Jews to Life upon the very instant of their return into their own Land the place he quoteth is Isa 12. v. 5. Thus saith the Lord God he that created the heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein This is to be understood of them that shall be carried to Sion through the caves of the earth That also which is read in the Chaldee Targum upon the Canticles ought to be referred to this voâ—ntation the words are these Salomon the Prophet saith that when the dead shall arise the Mount Olivet shall cleave in the middle and all the Israelites who formerly departed this life shall issue out of it the just also who died in banishment prison or a strange Land being conveyed hither by hidden passages in the earth shall also apPear From hence we may easily conclude how beliooveful the Jews think it to return into their own Land and there be buried and so escape the turmoyle and trouble of so long a journey under so many deep rivers and rugged mountains and for this very end as I have heard out of the Jews own mouth many of their rich ones return into the Land of Canaan at this day This is that perfect firm and well grounded faith of the Jews in which they obstinately persevering make it the rock of their salvation though with great anxiety and despair Here we may see what they give to Moses and the rest of the Prophets and also what use these miserable men make of the holy Scriptures Such as their faith is such are also their works which they would seem to shape according to the strict rule of Gods commandements There profound Rabbins perswade this simple people the Jews that they of the Circumcision are Gods own chosen people who may easily fulfill not onely the morall Law comprehended in the Decalogue but the whole Law of Moses They divide the Law of Moses into six hundred and thirteen Precepts and again subdivide these into commanding and prohibiting Precepts the former according to their computation are two hundred to eight which number is according to the Rabbins anatomy equal to that of the members in mans body the prohibiting Precepts are three hundred sixty five just so many as there are dayes in the year or as it is registred in a book entituled Brand spiegel and printed at Cracovia in the Germane tongue and Hebrew character some fifteen years ago as there are veinâ— in mans body hence it shall come to passe that if a man in one of his members every day perform one of the Mandatory Precepts and omit that which the prohibiting Precept enjoyns him to avoid he shall with great facility every year and so to his dying day fulfill not onely the Decalogue but the whole Law of Moses this is that right ordering and keeping of their Laws here I may counsel Isaiah to make his complaint That the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Laws changed the Ordinance broken the everlasting covenant for Saint Stephen should be stoned the second time if he were now alive and should reprove the Jews for this their adulterate worship saying You stiffenecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears you do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye who have recived the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it c. The Rabbins hold on and say that men are onely bound to keep those six hundred and thirteen Precepts but the women are freed from the observation
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
they did acknowledge even then when the whole World drencht in the Sea of Idolatry was ignorant of the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth then began they to wax proud haughty and puâ—t up counting the Nations as dung and with a supercilious sore-front boasting themselves to be the hâ—â—ly and elect people of God the Law of God and Circumcision being the main pillars of this their ostentation And seeing they at that time actually possessed the Land of Promise offered their Sacrifices the sum of their wants must be a glorying in their City Temple Sacrifice and other kinds of worshâ—p for which if any one dare manage a reproof objecting that they are not the children of Abraham because God shall prosligate and destroy them because their hearts and ears are uncircumcised and God shall again scatter them among the Gentiles he shall upon the very instant be cauterized for a false Prohet and a Liar and destinated to the stake for bearing witnesse unto the truth Neither did they here put a period to their madness they stand firm in their foolish opinions imbracing the Covenant according to its outside the Law according to the letter the ceremonies oblations and sacrifices in their naked representation provoking not only the Prophets but God himself never regarding whether or no any true knowledge fear or reverence of his Majesty was implanted in their hearts For the attempting of these enormities the Lord conceives heavy displeasure against Israel terms them a sinfull Nation laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters which had forsaken the Lord and provoked the holy one in Israel and gone away backward whose hearts were obstinate their neck an iron sinew and their brow brasse Transgressors from their Mothers womb whose birth and nativity is the Land of Canaan their Father an Amorite and their Mother a Hittite a people rejected and accursed as Moses witnesseth He threatens them to baniâ—h them out of their own Land and to carry them into a Land which neither they nor their Fathers had known there also that they shall tast of his fury be slaves to their enemies and to make their City and Temple in which they so much rejoyced like unto Shiloe Lastly speaking to Esay the Prophet he saith Make the heart of this peole fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyespuch and heare with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed After the same manner God denounceth against them by Moses saying it shall come to passe that if thou wilt not hearken unto the voyce of the lord thy God to observe to do all his Commandements and his Statutes which l command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee The Lord shall sinite thee with madness and blindnesse of heart Thou shalt grope at noon day as the blind gropeth in darkness and thou shalt not prosPer in thy wayes thou shalt be only oppressed and spoyled evermore and none shall save thee The fundamental then and prime cause of the blindness and obstinacy of the Jews is the just judgement of God upon them for their sins and the punishment due unto the same which came upon them because they heaRkened not unto his voice worshipping him with their mouth and with their lips drawing near unto him but in their hearts being far from him their service towards him consisting only in the commandements of of men as the Prophet Esay complains By which we may perceive that they soon left off to trace the way of Gods Commandements setling themselves upon their own carnal wisdome upon the sublime perspicuity of their Doctors who after Ezra were called Scribes as upon a new foundation accounting Their Expositions Ordinances Laws and Institutions to be of far more worth then the Doctrine of the Prophets against which the Prophets oftentimes declaimed but to little purpose What these Commandements are which they esteem more then the word of God our Saviour Christ teacheth us in the new Testament when the Jewes reprehend him that his Disciples walked not according to the tradition of the Elders which were of washing hands cups pots brazen vessels and tables and innumerable fopperies of the same sort by which they make the word of God of none effect but only strive to fulfill the inventions of their Ancestors Now in the last place seeing these their Traditions which Christ pointed out unto us are at this day accurately kept and observed of the Jews seriously also described in their Cannon La. and celesiastical and moral constitutions part of which I have decreed to lay open in the following discourse I think it here convenient to search out the grounds and reasons which might thâ—n and at this day doth induce them to prefer the Ordinances of men before Gods Commondements casting them headlong into the darkness of Superstitlon so blinding their understanding that they cannot possibly find out the trUe meaning of the holy Scripture We read in the Preface of that learned man Rabbi Mosche Mikkotzi called Hakdamah who writ a Book and Exposition upon three hundred and thirteen of Gods Commandements which he entituled Sepher mitzuos gadol that is the great Book of the Commandements in the year of Christ 1236. and published it at Toledo in Spain where the Jewes then had a most flourishing Schoole the Students therein being in number twelve thousands as he witnesseth in his hundred and twelfth Prohibitory precept that the written Law which God delivered unto Moses in Mount Sinai is obscure and difficult first because it contradicts is selfe Secondly because it is imperfect and therefore all things necessary to be known are not there set down wherupon it is needful some certain Exposition should be framed by whose pluÌ„met every one might dive into the genuine sence of the written Law grouÌ„ d theron as a firm foundation That the Law of Moses contradicts it selfe there are many instances We read Exod. 12. 15. For sevean dayes thou shalt eat unleavened bread but Deut. 16. 8. Six dayes thou shalt eat unleavened bread againe vers 9. Seven weeks thou shalt number unto thee which make only forty nine days but in the 23. of Leviticus and the 16. it is read Vnto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty dayes In the 16. of Deuteronomy vers 2. it is said Thou shalt sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord of the Flock and of the Heard contrary to this â—xod 12. 5. Your Lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year you shall take out from the sheep or from the Goats Again Deut. 15. 19. All the firstling males that come of thy Heard and of thy Flock thou shalt sanctifie unto the Lord thy God but in the 27. of Leviticus vers 26. The firstling of the Beasts which should be the Lords firstling no man shall
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
favour of children in the Cradle and so the Jewes in my judgment understand it of some diabol cal Ghost appearing in the shape of a woman which was accustomed either to kill or carry away young Infants after their Circumcision on the eighth day This Ghost or Spirit was named Lilis from Lel which in the Hebrew tongue signifies night Concerning this matter we read a story in a Book called Bâ—n Sira not after the Edition of the learned Paulus Fagius but after the Jews own impression The copy that I have Printed at Constantinople is the same with that which Sebastian Munster makes mention of in the end of his Cosmography and out of which he transcribed the Hebrew History of the Kingdome of Prester John which is also printed in the end of that Copy which I bought of a Jew inhabiting those parts who had got it out of Munsters Library for Munster was professor of the holy tongue in this City of Basile where also he was buried In this Book I say it is recorded that when God had created Adam alone and placed him in Paradise he said it was not good for Man to be alone therefore out of the Earth he formed a Woman like unto him and called her Lilis They presenly fell at odds began to brawl and chide the Woman saying to the Man I will not be subject unto thee and the Man replying neither will I be a Vassal to thee â—ut exercise dominion over thee for thou ought to obey She presently makes answer we are both equall thou art not better then I am nor I better then thou we were both fashioned out of the earth and thus shall they continue in strife and variance At last when Lilis perceivs that there is no hopes of agreement she pronounceth the name Schem hamphorasch which is the holy name Jehovah together with its secret and Cabalisticall interpretation against which Luther writ a Book and instantly upon the pronunciation flies into the air then Adam said unto God O Lord of the whole world the woman which thou gavest me is flown away from me Upon the hearing hereof God sent three Angels after the woman Senoi Sansengi and Sanmangeloph bidding them tell the woman that if she would return and be obedient unto her Husband all should be well if not that every day an hundred of her children should give up the Ghost These Angels having received this their commission presently were upon the wing and made after her and overtook her upon a most tempestuous place of the Sea even there where the Egyptians were afterwards drowned proclaiming unto her the will of the Almighty she refusing to return the Angels threatned to stifle and drowne her in the waters unless she would obey and go back unto her Husband Then began Lilis to pray and beseech them that they would let her passe because she was created to this end that she might torment and put to death little Infants the eight day after their nativity if they were males but upon the 20. if they were females Which so soon as the Angels perceived they attempt to force her to return to her Husband which Lilis fearing swore unto them that whensoever she should find the names or shape of these three Angels either written or painted upon any scrowl parchment or any such like matter that then she had no power over Infants and that she would not hurt them furthermore she refused not to embrace â—he condit on that every day one hundred of her children should die the death and so accordingly it fell out for upon one day a whole Centenary of her off-spring or so many yong Divels went unto their long home And this is the cause that we imprint the names of these Angels upon certain sorowls of parâ—hment use to hang â—hem about the necks of our Infants that Lilis beholding that which is written may remember her oath not hurt them Thus much we have transcribed out of Ben Sira It may very well go for a truth that they hang such scrolls about their childrens necks seeing they daily perform many a strange cure by the help of them In what place soever any woman is brougbt to bed we may find the forementioned picture as also the names of those Angels who are appointed for the safeguard of us mortalls written above the doore of the same But from whence had the learned Rabbines this their pleasant History this quaere is answered in the book called Brand spigelium in these words The rib which the Lord had taken from man he made it a woman that she as a rib taken from his side should be liable to his service hence the Rabbines comparing them words God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female with those It is not good that man should be alone I will make him an help meet for himself make a grand question what became of that first woman who was created at the same time that Adam was and they salve it thus the first woman of all whose name was Lilis being too highly conceited of her own worth would not be obedient to her husbands command because the earth was a common mother to them both the Lord therefore divorced her from Adam and gave unto him another who was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone who might follow obey and serve him as a member of his own body So from Brand spigelium So soon as this Witch or night hagge is by these their exorcismes banished and expelled the room and the pangs of child birth begin to seâ—se upon the woman and the little infant ready to weep out a salutation to his fellow mâ—rtalls it is first of all provided that a Christian midwife be not sent for for this is most severely proâ—ibited in their Law unlesse in case of necessity when the absence of a Jewish midwife must force a dispensation of the Statute neither is this licenced unlesse the woman to be delivered be guarded about with a whole Troup of her own nation for they greatly suspect the Chriâ—s tian women that they should either neglect their office or else kill their children while they are a coming out of the womb If the birth be fortunatâ— so that a man child be born into the world then nothing but the mounting echoes of joyfull acclamations are heard in their habitations the father of the child makes speed into the Market there to buy fat Geese crammed Capons flesh and fish of all sorts not omitting a cup of good liquor against the feast of the Circumcision which is to be celebrated the eighth day accordingly as God By Moses enjoyned them In the mean time the ten are called for They must be neither more nor fewer to the Circumcision of the Infant who ought all to be above the age of thirteen years and this number in their own language they term Minian a The night following
may see and witnesse that she washeth her self according as she ought It is dangerous in their account to send for a Christian woman for in such an one they dare not put confidence Though it be winter time yet ought these washings to be performed in cold water yea though it be hard frost yet if in any place they can claim custome it may be lawfull for them to intermingle cold water and hot or if there be any hot baths as there is in many Countries into these the women may lawfully enter and wash themselves Who desires to know any more concerning this matter let him peruse a certain little book written in the Germane tongue and Hebrew Character called Franwen Buchlein or the book of women which because it contains a brief description of their conditions his palate may there find wished content and a plenary satisfaction In the next place we are opportunely invited to look into the manner how the first born is redeemed out of the hand of the Priest That son which the mother in time past brought forth according to Moses Law was holy unto the Lord and ought to be redeemed from the hand of the Priest as it is written Whatsoever openeth the Matrix is mine all the first born of thy sons thou shalt redeem and in imitation of their ancestors the Jews do redeem their first born the manner of the redemption followeth The one and thirtieth day following the Nativity of the child his father sends for the Cohen or Priest as also many other good friends to accompany him before whom he sets the Infant upon a Table and layes down beside him a certain sum of mony or so much goods as can equalise it in value which is the quantity of two Florens of Gold then he saith unto the Priest my wife hath brought forth her first begotten son and the Law requires that I should present him unto thee then the Cohen or Priest answering saith Dost thou give this thy son and leave him unto me To whom the Father shall reply yes upon this the Priest asks his Mother whether she ever had a child before that time or if at any time she proved abortive if the mother say no then the Priest questions the Father which of the two be dearer unto him his first born or his mony then the Father answers that he esteems his first-born babe above all riches in the world then the Priest taking the money and laying it upon the Infants head saith this is thy first begotten son whom the Lord would have redeemed as it is written And those that are to be redeemed from a moneth old thou shalt redeem according to thy estimation for the money of five shekels after the shekel of the Sanctuary which is twenty gerahs Then turning himself unto the child he saith when thou wast in the womb of thy mother thou wast then in the power of thy heavenly Father and they earthly Parents but now thou art in my hand and power who am the Priest thy father and mother desire to redeem thee because thou art the first begotten and holy unto the Lord as it is written Sanctifie unto me all the first-born among the children of Israel that first openeth the womb as well of man as of beast for it is mine Now this mony shall serve in thy stead and be thy redemption seeing thou art the first-born and this shall be given unto the Priest If I have redeemed thee as I ought then shalt thou ' be redeemed if I have failed in the peâ—formance of my office notwithstanding thou being redeemed according to the Law and after the manner of the Jews shalt grow up in the fear of God to Matrimony and the practise of good works Amen If the father chance to die before the one and thirtieth day after the childs Nativity be fully come then the mother is not bound to redeem her child and therefore she puts a scroll or plaâ—e of gold about his neck in which it is written This is the first-born son but not redeemed the son himself being bound to redeem himself out of the hands of the Priest when he shall come to full age Before I conclude this Chapter I will relate a certain History which is recorded in the Gemurah or Talmud concerning a certain stranger or proselyte who by a miraculous kind of Circumcision obtained an inheritance in the other World and departed this a good Jew A certain King of Rome as we read in tract de idolatria c. 1. was sometimes an heavy friend unto the Jews and desiring utterly to put out their name from under heaven and to banish them his Kingdome he calls his counsell and thus bespeaks them suppose a man â—aith he hath an old ulcer in his body in which the â—lesh doth putriâ—ie whether will he chuse to cut away the rotten flesh to regain his health or suffer it to remain there still to his perpetuall grief and torment These thingâ— spoke the King against the jews who had for long time sojouâ—ned in his Kingdome and grievously molested his Subjects One of the Councel by name Ketijah hearing the Kings words and perceiving whether they tended made answer Adoni which is to say my Lord thou art not able to destroy or banish the Jews for of them it is written Ho ho come forth and flie from the Land of the North saith the Lord for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven saith the Lord that is the world may even as possibly subsist and be without winds as without the Jews wherefore thou canst not banish the Jews out of thy Realm and if thou couldest prevail so much as to bring it to passe the common voice of the whole world would proclaim thee being brought to extreme poverty for a tyrannicall King Upon these words the King answered thou hast said that which is right and now seeing it is enacted that whosoever overcomes the King in his answer shall be buried quick in a heap of sand that there he may be choakeda and perish thou who hast put me to a non plus which is a scandall to my person and set at naught and vilified my Kingdome shall taste of the appointed punishment When he was carried away to the place of execution there was a certain Matron seen in Rome of an excellent portraiture crying out Wo unto that ship which is about to strike sail the Custome unpayed by which words the Matron intimated thus much that Ketijah who was ready to suffer death in the Jews cause and so consequently to obtain eternall life in another world had not as yet payed his toll money that is was not made a Jew by Circumcision Upon the instant of this vociferation some say that he snatched a knife and cut off his own foreskin others that he burning with too ardent zeal catched hold of his foreskin bit it off with his teeth and then with
same cause departed this life five years sooner than the course of nature exacted that is lest his eyes should behold his degenerate nephew Esau leading his life in a wicked ungodly manner Ten years being expired and the youngling Jew being indifferent well versed in the Books of Moses it is necessary he apply himself to the study of the Talmud and of duty to cleave unto the text thereof in which the very foundation of Iewish Traditions and Ordinances as also of the Divine and Humane Law is comprehended At thirteen years of age he is called Bar Mizvah the son of the Commandements when he is bound to keep and observe all the Commandements in number six hundred and thirteen containing the sum and argument of the Law of Moses and of the whose body of Iewish Superstition If from that time forward he sin and do not execute that is commanded then is he liable to be punished both by the Law of God and man What sin soever he committed before the thirteenth year of his age his Father must suffer for it Which is the reason that the child comming to these years his father cals ten Jews unto him and in their presence witnesseth that this his Son is come to full age and being instructed in the Commandements hath learned the manner and custome of the Zizim and Tephillim of which more anon as also the form of blessing and his daily prayers for which reason he would be freed from him that he might not from henceforth smart for his offences he being such an one who is to become Bar mitzuah the Son of the Commandements and ought to suffer for his sins in his own proper person This being confirmed by the ten Jews there present the Father saith a certain short prayer in which chiefly he gives God thanks that he hath delivered and unburdened him of the punishment due unto his son for his sin further intreating him that his son by the help of the Divine grace may for many daies remain safe and without danger and be industrious in good works In the fifteenth year of their age all the children of the Jews are forced to learn the Gemara which is the perfection of the Talmud written for the better comprehending and understanding of the acute and subtil dispute and decisions about the doubtful things in the text thereof and in these they spend the greater part of their life very seldom or never bestowing one minutes study in the books of the Prophets but utterly neglecting them Whence it comes to pass that many Jews there are ready to drop into their graves who to my knowledge have not read any one of the Prophets from beginning to end And this is the cause that they know so little concerning the Messias that the promises concerning him are become not only obscure unto them but also altogether unknown In the eighteenth year of their age the males enter into the bond of wedlock according to an ancient Order in the Talmud which they not seldome transgressing oftentimes marry before the time injoyned to avoyd fornication the females may marry when they are twelve years and one day old In the twentieth year they are licensed to traffick buy and sell play the Chapmen cozen and circumvent any whom they can possibly of which the Christians to their grief have had too much experience of which in another place Because our yong Jew hath now taken his degree of Bar mitzuah or Son of the Commandements and is entred into the order of the Jews our endeavour shall now be to express the manner how both their yong and old men behave themselves in this order CHAP. IV. How the Jews rising betimes out of their beds prepare themselves for Morning Prayer IT is writtten in that Tract of the Gemara called Bava basra that it was the assertion of Rabbi Eliezar haggadol that every Jew from the fifteenth of July until the feast of Penticost ought to forsake his bed before day because in this time the nights are long but from that time till July he may sleep untill perfect lay because the nights are very short And the truth of this position the wise men and Rabbines endeavour to prove out of many places of the Lamentations of Jeremy and out of the History of Ruth which are so full of subtilty that they cannot in this place be honoured with an explanation The good Wife of the house is bound to wake her Husband and the Parents are joyntly obliged to rouse up their children when they have once passed the thirteenth yeare of their age and are subject to Jewish Ordinances as wee have declared in the former chapter Furthermore the Chachamim have registred that every man is bound in his own proper person to be a Cock unto the twilight and not to foster such a delay that the bright ey'd morning may take advantage to call him ls luggard to which King David condiscends when he saith I will awake right early Surely this is very necessary and that for the performance of our morning Prayers which are to be poured out at the rising of the Sun aud that without delay as David testifies in his Psalms saying They shall honour thee with the Sun as though he had sayd so soone as the Sunne visits our Horizon they shall honour and sing praise unto thee in their early Devotions The Cabbalists write that at the dawning of the day the prayers of every particular enter into the ears of the Almighty and they have some certain grounds out of holy Writ for this their assertion Jeremy in his Lamentations saith Arise cry out in the night in the beginning of the watches that is when it beginneth to dawn David also in a certain Psalm The Lord bath granted me his loving kindness in the day time and in the night season also did I sing of him and made my prayer unto the God of my life The most profound Chachamim say they who are stout and industrious advance themselves to well doing and the observation of Gods Commandements wherefore it shall carry the repute of a good work indeed to rise before the morning watch and to conjoyn day and night by a continued singing of the choisest Psalms and Prayer Wherefore a Jew should not be slack in such a performance but with great alacrity take an early leave of his lovely couch breakfasting his soule with this meditation If any Gentile or Christian should now come unto me who is my debtor or should bring some gorgeous vestments to pledge out of his Wardrobe or any other thing by the mediation of which I might inrich my selfe If I should be now called to some great Prince or Potentate from whom I might obtain a gift cully favour or who in his own Person should intreat my service how readily would my feâ—t be plumed with swistness and spend their forces not to be conscious of the least delay with how much more alacrity ought I to speed
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
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
help them to judge deStroy and utterly to extirpate from the face of the earth the Mountain of Esau that is to say the Christians together with their Kingdome they stiling the Christians Edomites and the Roman Monarchy the Kingdome of Edom and so shall bring them back into their own Land flowing with milk and honey what the reason is that they call uâ— Christians Esauites or Edomites I will at large inform the Reader in another place I will only insert thus much in this present Chipter which they write and teach in their secret and hidden books which they will not suffer to come into the hands of Christians that the soul of Esau passed from his body into that of Christs and that Christ was no lesse wicked then Esau was and that we are no better whence ever we are not without great cause called Edomites who put our trust and confidence in him Then they begin to sing God shall be King over the whole earth In that day there shall be one God and his Name shall be one as it is written in thy Law O God Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one God This they â—abble out as a thing clear contrary to our Christian profession as though we worshipped more Gods then one and were wont to give him more names then one as the namâ— of Christ Next in order follows a short Prayer calâ—ed Krias schmah taken out of the fift Book of Moses and when they read that verse in the Hebrew language Hear O Israol the Lord our God is one God and come unto the last word thereof which is Echad signifying One they toss up and down and bandied from mouth to mouth with eyes cast up to Heaven for the space of halfe an hour yea sometimes for an whole hour together and comming to the last letter thereof which is Daleth the whole Congregation doth bend and turn their heads successively towards the four corners and winds of the earth hereby signifying that God is King in every place yea throughout the whole world for the letter Daleth by reason of its place in the Hebrew Alphabet stands for the number of four Furthermore the word Ecthad comprehends in it two hundred forty five other words to which they superadding these three Hael elohechem Emeth your God is truth the number amounts to two hundred forty eight the very number of the members in mans body so that if these several Prayers be said for every member in particular then the whole man is strongly guarded against all manner of evil Whosoever repeats the foresaid verse three times shall be safe from the Divel for that verse begins with the Letter Schin and ends in Daleth in this manner Schema Israel Adonai Eloheim Adonai Echad which two letters conjoyned make up the word Sched which signifies a Divel They repute also this Prayer as a Prayer of singular worth and sanctity by which may be wrought many miracles whence it comes to pass that they are extreamly superstitious in a repetition of the same every morning and evening It is registred in the Talmud that upon a certain time when it was commanded by open Proclamation that the Jews any where having a Synagogue should not publickly teach and make profession of their faith Rabbi Akibha not regarding the command ceased not to read and preach it openly in the Synagogue upon which he was apprehended and for the fact cast into Prison When the Tormentors were about to bring him to the stake to be burnt they first of all curried his corps with an iron horsecombe wounding and tormenting him after a lamentable manner Yet notwithstanding Rabbi Akibha remained constant praying without intermission And when the time of the day came wherein he was to say that Prayer Krias Schema he begun it with great boldness At the last his Scholers bespoke him and said Most dearly beloved Master thou hast prayed sufficiently now yield thy selfe and take thy death patiently To whom he made this answer I have had this saying in great esteem all my life long Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy body and thus I have understood it that though any one should pluck out my heart and rent my body in pieces yet I ought ever to determine this with my selfe never to cease to love him Therefore when God hath confirmed this in me should I cease to worship him and to bring this Prayer to an end which is directed unto him Therefore holding on in this his prayer he never left repeating the word Echad until his soul forsook his body Then was there a voice heard in the air saying Blessed art thou O Rabbi Akibhah because thy soul departed breathing the word Echad now shalt thou have an entrance into life eternal and shalt come into that light of the Garden of Paradise Amen Selah They have also another prayer like unto the former which they call Schemon Esre i. e. eighteen because it contains so many particular thanksgivings and prayers of praise therein Concerning the sanctity and holinesse of this and the former prayer the Jews have written many a large Tract which I leaving to bespeak their own worth will neither praise nor any ways disgrace The last of these every one repeats twice a day and he that is their Chaplain or Reader in the Synogogue doth publickly sing it by himselfe two or three several times The Jews esteem highly of it hoping that hereby they shall obtain remission of all their sins When it is their will and pleasure to poure out unto God they are bound to do it standing and with such a posture that one foot may not insist more upon the ground then the other in imitation of the Angels of whom it is written And their feet were streight feet This is handled more at large in Rabbi Alphes in his first Chapter and in their Minhagim and in many other books When they say those words holy holy holy Lord God of hosts the earth is full of his glory being a parcel of the Prayer Schemon Esre by them named Keduscha a then they caper three times together leaping up as though by this their gesture they did indeavour to become like unto the Angels who were the first Choristers that sung this Song of praise Others say that because these words in the Prophecy of Esay immediatly follow And the posts of the doors were shaken at the voice of him that spake it is both meet and convenient that a man should touching move himself in the quavering of such an Angelical Anthem The Hebrew Doctors write that whosoever dare to mutter the least syllable while the Prayer Schemon Esre is a saying shall after his death have coals of fire given him to eat as it is written in the fourth verse of the thirtieth chapteâ— of Job for so Rabbi Salomon expounds the words Rabbi Tanchum saith in the name of Rabbi
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
which they attribute great vertue and strange operations hidden ones surely for they have not made their appearance for one thousand six hundred and odd yeares This they use to say standing and that with great devotion There is a certaine story very pat to this purpose When the Jewes were banished out of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian the Roman Emperour The Emperour commanded that three ships filled with Jewes should be set to float upon the sea having neither mast nor sailes This his command being put in execution the ships being tost with a most violent tempest were parted asunder and cast upon the shore of three divers countries the names whereof were Lovanda Arlado and Burdeli which are now worne out of remembrance All the Jewes in one of those ships were very courteously entertained by the Lord of that country in which they landed who in a most bountifull manner gave them land to till and Vineyards After his death there arose another King who handled and vexed the Jewes most inhumanely even as Pharaoh did their Ancestours saying unto them that he would try whether they were true Jewes or not after the same manner that Nebuchadnezzar tryed Hananias Misael and Azarias and if you can walke without hurt in the middle of the fiery furnace as they did then will I confesse that you are true Jewes indeed To whom the Jewes made answer entreating him that he would doe unto them as Nebuchadnezzar did to the three former which was to grant them three dayes respite that they might pray unto God to deliver them Which when he had granted two brothers called Joseph and Benjamin and their Couzen Samuel came together to consult what was best to be done who determined neither to eat or drinke for three dayes together Which while they put in practise every one having a severall prayer which they joined in one and repeated it without intermission night and day untill their allotted time was ended In the morning of the third day one of them said he had dreamed that he heard one read a verse out of the Bible in which Kt was twice and Lo three times reiterated but what it meant or where it was he was altogether ignorant Then answered one of the other two and said this verse will be a helpe and comfort unto thee for hereby is signified that God will send thee help from heaven and it is written in the forty third chapter of Isaiah and the second verse the words wherof are these Kâ— when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall Lo not overflow thee Ki when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt Lo not bee burnt Lo neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Upon the third day a huge fire was provided earely in the morning an immense number of people flocking to the execution who were very desirous to be present at the burning The congregation being compleate these three men did commend their bodies to the mercy of the fire singing and praying untill all the wood being consumed they came out of the fire without the least touch thereof This miracle the foresaid men divulged in what place soever they came whereupon it was ordained and commanded that this prayer should bee said every Munday and Thursday morning in every Synagogue and place of publike prayer which the Jewes observe and keepe unto this very day hoping that by the power of this prayer they shall be delivered from their long continued captivity and tedious exile But alas their hopes will be frustrate so long as they despise and set at nought the Saviour of their soules Christ Jesus and persevere in their horrible superstition This Fable is here related more at large then it is by Antonius Margarita out of the booke Colbo The prayer beginning Vehu racham so much esteemed of them is written in the forme following He is mercifull forgiving iniquity and not destroying the sinner He oftentimes turns his anger from us and suffers not his fury to arise O God I beseech thee take not thy mercy from me let thy meeknesse and truth alwaies preserve me Help us O God our God and gather us from among the Gentiles c. In briefe the sum of this prayer is this They beg of God that hee would vouchsafe to pardon their sinnes take pity upon the desolations of their City and Temple to gather them from the foure corners of the earth and never suffer his inheritance to bee ashamed In this prayer they are also mindefull of us Christians against whom they thus petition O God how long shall thy strength remaine in captivity and thy beauty in thy enemies hand O Lord God stirre up thy strength and revenge us upon all our enemies so shall their might be turned into weaknesse and they shall be ashamed and perish These last words are in many Copies left out by reason of an injunction laide upon the Printers by the Christian Magistrate an empty space being left that they may either write them or eâ—se inquire what is wanting These things thus finished they fall the second time upon their faces and saying many other prayers as was declared in the former Chapter they beseech God that hee would remove his anger farre from them and not deliver them into the hands of their enemies but being mindefull of the Covenant that hee made with their fathers would make their seed like unto the starres of Heaven for multitude After that they have for such a space either kneeling or standing poured out their souls in prayer unto God then followes the narration of that pompe and state which they exhibite to the booke of the Law they reade weekly Lectures out of it according as they were enjoyned by Ezra the scribe The manner followeth In every Synagogue they have the booke of the Law to wit the Pentateuch written in long schroles of parchment sewed together at the ends thereof are fastned certaine pieces of wood for the safer keeping and more easie carriage of the booke of the Law This book is kept in a certaine Arke or Chest standing continually against some wall of the Synagogue Before the Ark is a little doore and before it a hanging made by the Art of the embroiderer This is of divers sorts and the more solemnn the festivall is the richer are the hangings Those are had in greatest esteeme with them whose outside is adorned and wrought with the shapes of divers birds for such were alwaies an ornament upon the old Arke of the Covenant The booke is alwaies wrapt up in a linnen cloth in which are characterised some Hebrew words and divers names That which is the most outward of all is oftentimes a linnen cloth much like unto a little coat or cloake made of silke but sometimes of puregold upon which they hang some silver plates fastned to a golden chaine in which is written Kether thorah that is to say the crowne of the Law or Kodesch adonai
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
the Jewes write that the trees first become sappy upon the fifteenth of January and that the pippins in peares or apples then doe turne themselves therein which experience teacheth for a truth In the Germane Minhagin it is recorded that none ought to kill a Goose in January because there is one fatall houre in this moneth in which if any man chance to kill this kind of creature hee shall surely dye a sudden death Yet if any doe it out of ignorance let him take the liver of the Goose and eat it and no danger wil ensue upon the act which Rabbi Juda Chasid confirms for a truth So much by way of digression shal suffice to be spoken of the yeares in use among the Jewes Wee now return to treat of that which was first proposed How the Jews prepare themselves to the celebration of the passeover They of the riâ—her sort among the Jewes sitting themselves for the celebration of this Feast by a thirty dayes preparation buy wheat to make unleavened bread whereof they may eat in the time of the Festivall They bestow also somewhat upon the poorer sort who cannot buy where withall to make unleavened cakes The Sabbath immediately foregoing the Feast of the passeover is among the Jewes an high and great day In this the Rabbines make an Oration to the people in which they give a tedious instruction unto the people concerning the paschall lamb and the use thereof This Sabbath they call the great Sabbath a great miracle hapning upon the same being godfather thereunto It is written in the second book of Moses the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lambe according to the house of their fathers a lambe for an house And yee shall keep it up untill the fourteenth day of the same month and the whole congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening Upon which words the Rabbines write as followeth Our fathers say they taking up their lambes upon the tenth day bound them in their foulds that they might keepe them unto the foureteenth Which the Egyptians seeing made enquiry what they meant to doe with them to whom the Israelites answered that they would kill them against the Feast of the passeover The Egyptians perceiving that they were about to slaughter and sacrifice that creature which they worshipped as a creating god for the Ram is a signe of the Zodiacke were greatly perplexed and began to imagine evill against Israel Then God wrought a miracle smiting the minds of the Egyptians with feare and amazement yea with such an agony that they were not able to wag their tongue against the children of Israel nor to afflict them with the smallest annoyance of a mischiefe Hence was say they that answer of Moses to Pharaoh It is not meet to doe so for then wee should offer unto the Lord our God that which is an abomination unto the Egyptians Loe can we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes and they not stone us Abomination that is that Lambe the killing whereof will be in the eies of the Egyptians an abominable and hainous offence seeing they adore him as a God Insomuch also as it pleased the Lord so to worke with the Egyptians that they had neither strength nor power to doe any harme unto the children of Israel and that in such a miraculous manner therefore they stile this Sabbath which is the harbinger to the passeover and ushereth in the celebration by the name of the great Sabbath Againe it is written Unleavened bread shall bee eaten seven daies and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee nor yet leaven be seen with thee in all thy quarters Out of which words they gather thus much that when the time of the Feast approacheth they ought with all diligence to seek out all the leavened bread in their houses and every parcell of leaven that may be found to wash with water all their kneading troughes and other vessels and in the second place to have in a readinesse new dough for to make unleavened bread against the Passeover Therefore two or three daies at least before the Feast they begin to brush up and make handsome all their houshold stuffe in that forme and manner which decency perswades and necessity requires In the first place they take a great Caldron used for the celebration of Festivals which they fill full of water and hanging it over the fire cause it to boile Into this they cast all their woodden and pewter vessels and after the scalding water hath sufficiently loosed the adherent filth they take them out and wash them in cold water which done every vessell is held for pure and undefiled If any thing or other by reason of the bignesse thereof cannot be put into the foresaid Caldron as a chaire stoole table or such like then they take a red hot iron or stone holding it in a paire of tongs over the table pouring water in great abundance thereupon whereby the table chaire or stoole may be washed They make no spare of water for if any part of the foresaid things be untouched therewith they remaine undefiled They daube with clay the kneading trough after it bee throughly washed and set it aside in some corner of the house They fill their great Caldrons being formerly cleansed with hot water which done they cast three live coales thereinto so fierce that they make the water to hisse againe and then wash them in cold water For the more easie cleansing of pewter and leaden vessels they use two paire of tongs with the one putting them into the Caldron and with the other taking them out to this end that by this mutuall change the vessels may bee made cleane They cast their vessels of iron as little pots dripping pans broiling irons and such like into the fire where they let them remaine untill they sparkle with heat and then they are clean in estimation They fill their brasse and iron mortars with coales binding a thread about them which by the vehemency of the heat being burnt asunder showes the purification to be perfect A mortar of stone ought to be new cut or engraven Briefly it is necessarily required that all vessels of what sort soever be in every part so exactly cleansed and purified that not the smallest signe or token of that unâ—leannesse signified by the leaven may be really extant or obvious to the sense for whosoever eates meat out of any dish or platter in the time of the passeover that dish or platter being unclean he commits as hainous a sin as if hee had slept with a menstruous woman Just then was that reprehension given by our Saviour unto the Pharisees Ye lay the commandement of God apart and observe the traditions of men as the washing of pots and of cups and many other such like things you doe And he said unto them well you reject the commandements of God that you may
ought to drinke off in lieu of a thanksgiving as Rabbi Bechai writes for the foure great deliverances mentioned by Moses in those words I will bring you forth from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will rid you out of their bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched out arme and with great judgement And I will take you to me for a people and I will be your God which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians I will bring you out from under the hands of the Egyptians there is the first I will redeem you with a stretched outarme that 's the second I will take you to me for a people there 's the third I will be your God c. there 's the fourth In remembrance of which foure deliverances they take off foure whole cups of wine in the time of the celebration of the passeover lest they should seem forgetfull of Gods benefits The reason why after these their cups they curse the Christians in a praier called Schepoch is according to Rabbi Bechai in the foresaid place because God shall poure upon the enemies of the Jewes the Christians and all others foure cups of his wrath and vengeance and make them drinke the dregs thereof as it is written Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drinke it And againe Babylon hath beene a golden cup in the Lords hand that hath made all the earth drunken The nations have drunke of her wine therefore the nations are mad Againe He shall raine upon the wicked snares fire and brimstone and vapours of smoake this shall be their portion to drinke Againe There is a cup in the hand of the Lord and the wine thereof is red as for the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall drinke them and suck them out If the Jewes could rightly weigh and ponder the scope of these words and parallell them with other places of holy writ they might easily finde that this cup is in the first place filled for them according to that which is written by the Prophet saying I took the cup at the Lords hand and made all the nations to drinke to whom the Lord had sent me To wit Jerusalem and the Cities of Judah and the Kings thereof to make them a desolation and an astonishment an hissing and a curse as it is this day Pharaoh King of Egypt and his servants his Princes and his people When therefore the Jewes have drunk off and digested this fearfull cup they will have but a slender stomack to reach it out unto the Christians From all that hath been said we may conclude that the Jewes keep not the passeover according to Moses his institution and Gods command but according to the traditions of the Rabbines which with them are in farre greater account then the commanements of God as is apparent in the Talmud Wherein is extant a huge tract concerning the celebration of this Feast upon which the Rabbines have written whole Books and Commentaries To leave them to their vanities let it bee our consolation That Christ our passeover is sacrificed for us and therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malicioâ— snesse but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth saying with John Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and with St Peter knowing that we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from our vaine conversation received by tradition of the fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as a lambe undefiled and without spot which was ordained bâ—fore the foundation of the world but declared in the last times for our sakes let us learn not to be ashamed CHAP. XIV Of the manner how the Jewes celebrate the seven daies of the passover and put a conclusion to the Festivall VVHile the Feast of the Passover lasts every morning betimes they repaire to the Synagogue they sing Psalms as they are wont to doe upon the Sabbath say many prayers make sale diversly of the book of the law they take two several bookes of the Law out of the Arke calling forth five men to reade some sections out of the same If the passeover fall upon the Sabbath then they call out seven men When the Priest blesseth the people the prayers being ended then he spreads abroad his hand because it is the assertion of their Doctors that the majesty of the Lord rests upon them who hereupon have given a strict inhibition that none in the meane while should presume to looke upon his own hands unlesse he will incurre the danger of blindnesse Praiers being ended every man returns unto his own house where he fals to his dinner with a merry heaâ—t When a speciall caution is to be had that he eate no more then necessity requires that they may the night following with greater alacrity satiate their stomacks with those three cakes mentioned in the former Chapter Great diâ—putes arise what labors it is lawfull to undertake what meats may be boiled and eaten upon this day for it is not lawfull to boile more then they can eate yet notwithstanding it is allowed to set on the great pot and to fill it with flesh For by this action no danger can accrew unto them though the whole be not that day consumed Much flesh is the cause of much good and the more is put in the pot it will tast the better in it selfe and make the fatter pottage yet though this be tollerated yet it is not permitted to roste more then they may with ease devoure for one joint upon the spit is never the better tasted for the neighbourhood of his fellow And againe meate is farre more delightsome to the palate when it is piping hot then when it is cold That which may be boiled upon the eve of the Sabbath or any Festivall and not lose its taste before the nextday they may then boile it if not it is lawfull sor them to boil it upon the Sabbath day or Festival the great Sabbath only accepted as also the beating of pepper and other spiâ—es which once beaten do quickly lose their proper reâ—ish yet a ceremony is to be used for they must bray with the smal end of the pestle and also make the mortar to leane more to the one side then the other that a certain differeâ—e may be observed between the labors of the week and those of the holy day It is no offence for the mother to wash her infant with hot water in the time of this Festivall although a Christian did make it hot It is not lawfull to take the match out of one lampe and put it unto her If any desire that a wax light should not be altogether consumed he may set it in the water that when the flame comes to the water it may be
three times towards the North three times towards the South heaving it also in the last place over his head then suffering it to becke unto the ground In all these severall postures carrying himselfe much like unto a fencer in the tossing advancing and shouldering of his pike Then they pray againe and againe begin to shake their bundle of boughes thereby giving to understand that they are triumphant conquerours of all sinne and inquity having a conceit that by the noise of their branches they have so lashed whipped away and terrifyed the devill that hee dare never any more presume to accuse them before God for their sinnes and offences The next thing they put in practice is concerning the Book of the Law which some or other goes and takes out of the Arke and laies it upona Deske and instantly thereupon every one in the Synagogue circles about the pew or desk with the bundle of branches and orenges in his hand This they dâ—efor seven daies together in remembranâ—e that the wals of Jericho being by their fathers compâ—ssed about sseven daies fell flat unto the ground and the men thereof subdued unto Israel hoping withall that the wals of the Roman Empire shall likewise be demolished and the Jewes become the conquerours Lords and Masters of the Christians which Rabbi Bechai affirms in expresse words saying This our enâ—ircling or compassing used by us at this day upon this Festivall is a certaine sign unto us of the state of the time to come wherein the wall of Edom that of the Romane Monarchy shall be throwne downe and all the Edomites shall bee destroied and rooted out according to that of Daniel which he delivers concerning the fourth beast which shaddowes out unto us the Roman Monarchy in these words I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horne spake I beheld even till the beast was slaine and his body destroied and given to the burning flame In that day shall the mount Sion and Jerusalem rejoice which were formerly called Midbar or a desart as it is written Thy holy Cities are a wildernesse Sion is a wildernesse Jerusalem a desolation The same Prophet saying also in another place That Sion ought to rejoice and Jerusalem to be glad and clap her haâ—ds because the Lord will take vengeance upon Edom that is upon the Roman Empire as it it written The desart and wildernesse shall rejoice So much Rabbi Bechai out of which we may easily gather how much good the Jewes wish unto us Christians in the time of this their Festivall Yet in their books of Common Prayers it appeares that in former times they have been more invective against us then they are at this day for there they pray that God would smite us after the manner that hee smote the first born in the land of Egypt And that in a prayer which begins Ana hoschiana where the expresse words are Smite our enemies as thou smotest the first born in Egypt and make them subject unto us c. Where by their enemies they understand us Christians to whom they are now in bondage The first shaking of these Festivall branches being ended they shake them very often in the processe of their prayers taking two bookes of the Law out of the Arke out of which they read certaine sections with a bawâ—ing ostentation but very little attention and lesse devotion The second day they hallow equally as the first not that they are enjoined thereunto by the command and law of God but by reason they are not assured what day of September may precisely be accounted for the fifteenth and hence it is that they make two holidaies when one onely is required Eâ—ery evening so long as the Feast endures the Master of the family repeats a certaine prayer whereby hee makes the daies of the Feast to be discerned and differenced from those which are appointed for labour and travell in our ordinary vocation giving thanks unto God that the Feast hath been celebrated in such a good manner The foure daies following are onely esteemed holy in part but upon these also they sing and pray very much shaking their palm branches If any one of these foure daies chance to be the day of the Sabbath then among other things they read a certaine Chapter out of the Prophesie of Ezekiel concerning the dreadfull war of Gog and Magog beleeving and writing that Gog shall be slaine in this month and they delivered out of bondage shall be brought back into their owne land there for ever to have a peaceable habitation The seventh day is likewise by them kept holy whereon they say the prayer called Hosanna Rabba Helpe O Lord our strength because therein they intreat the Lord for to help them against all their enemies and to send them a good and fruitfull yeare For the first day of this month is the first day of the new yeare of yeares properly so called according to which they frame the computation of their yeares In the morning of every one of these daies they early wash themselves in hot or cold water goe into the School or Synagogue light many candles sing and pray â—ervently and with a great deale of ostentation take seven books of the Law out of the Arke and lay them upon the pew or deske which as was formerly related they compasse about seven times having their bundles of palme branches in their hands which are knit together with willow After every severall encompassing putting one of the seven books of the Law into the Arke againe Rambam Rakanat and Bechai with many other of the Rabbines Commenting upon the 14 Chapter of the 4 book of Moses blush not to affirm that God upon the seventh day at night reveales unto them by the moone what thing soever shall befall them the yeare following and that in this manner Upon this night they goe out into the fields by moone-shine some with their heads uncovered other having onely a linnen cloth tied about them or a vaile upon them which they suffering to fall upon the earth stretch out their armes and hands If any mans shadow in the moon-shine seem to want an head it is a certaine signe and token that such a one shall that yeare either lose his head or dye some other death If any seem to want a singer it presages the death of some of his friends if his right hand of his son if his left of his daughter But if no shadow at all appeare then that man shall undoubtedly dye and therefore if he have appointed a journey hee should hereby bee warned to let it alone lest he should not returne in safety This the Rabbines prove from those words of Moses Their shadow is departed from them Num. 14. 9. The Rabbines interpreting that a shadow which properly signifies a defence Yet they say that though a man cannot behold his shadow as upon this night that for this reason he should not
and herein with great joy and gladness fulfil the will of thee their God and Creator who art the true worker and whose works are truth Thou hast spoken to the Moon to renew her self by her often change which renewing is as a beautiful Crown and a great ornament unto the head of every one that is in his mothers womb even to all the Israelites as saith the Prophet Esay who ought to renew themselves even as the Moon doth that they may praise and honour their Creator for the name of his Kingdom a name highly to be reverenced Blessed be thou O Creator Blessed be thou O Moon Blessed be he who made thee Blessed be thy Lord blessed be thy Maker At these words they leap three times upwards towards heaven the higher the Caper is the better it is in esteem Then they go on saying Even as we O God leaping towards thee cannot come near unto thee even so all our enemies bending their forces against us cannot approach to hurt us Here again they make a stay saying that of Moses three times Fear and dread shall fall upon them by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as 〈◊〉 stone till thy people passe over O Lord till thy people passe over which thou hast purchased hereby praying against us Christians For a conclusion of this prayer one par saith peace be unto you and the other answer Peace be unto you peace be unto you and to the Israel of God This benediction or blessing they for the most part bestow upon the new Moon upon the Sabbath thereof which Sabbath they sanctifie with a due solemnity putting on their new apparel in honour to the new Moon which they blesse and give it a court-like welcome with great joy and rejoycing I cannot but here insert a certain Dialogue set down in the Talmud between God and the Moon which Rabbi Simâ—on the son of Pazzai thus relates It is written God made two great lights the greater to rule the day the lesse to rule the night Then said the Moon unto God O Lord of the whole world tell me I pray thee Can two Kings reign together and wear one and the same Crown To whom God made answer and said Go hence and lessen thy self She replies O my Creator shall I therefore be lessened because I have spoken before thee that which is true and right Then said God Go and bear rule and dominion both by day and night But quoth the Moon What great honour shall I reap from hence or what dignity shall accrew thereby A burning Candle at noontide what doth it profit Then the Lord bids her be gone saying that the people of Israel should number their dayes times and seasons according to her course and motion which she denies as impossible for to this end they ought to have an exact knowledge of the two Tekuphoth or Tropicks as also of the two Solstices as it is written They shall be for signes and times and dayes and years Then God makes her this answer Go thy way for many great and learned men shall take unto them this thy title as James the less Samuel the less David the less But all this cannot appease her which when he perceived he said offer a propitiatory sacrifice for me because that I have lessened the Moon And hereupon Rabbi Simeon the son of Sakis saith How much doth that Goat differ from others which is offered in the time of the new Moon of which the Lord said this shall be a propitiatory sacrifice for me who have offended in lessening the Moon So far the Talmudist The Rabbines diversly dispute what is the true sence and meaning hereof They who are of ancient dayes are of opinion that at the beginning the Sun and Moon were equal in light which they prove out of the words of Moses saying God made two great lights But so soon as the Moon murmured against God and would sit as Queen and suffer none to share in dominion with her but be sole Monarch in the celestial Orbs God debased her for her pride takes away her own light and caâ—sed her to borrow of the Sun and hence are say they those immediately following words of Moses The greater light for the government of the day and the lesser light for the government of the night whereas he formerly made no such difference but simply caâ—ling them two great lights And furthermore that God hearing the Moon complain of this her hard usage and mis-hap repented of that he had done and caused a propitiatory sacrifice to be offered for this his offence at every new Moon This opinion the modern Rabbines reject as a blasphemy against God considering that he is just and cannot commit iniquity neither is any wickedness found with him Wherefore they have very much tortured and rackt their inventions to finde out the true sence of these words diversly interpreting the word Alai written with Gnayn as Rabbi Bechai testifieth CHAP. XVIII Of the Feast of the new year how the Jews prepare themselves to the celebration thereof and how God at the time of this Celebration judges the Israelites for their sins and offences IT is written in the tract Medrasch Socher Tobh that at the same time when the Sanhedrin or that great Councel of the Jews is gathered together to set down and determine a certain day for the Celebration of the feast of the new year which begins the first day of the moneth Tesri or September and hath also agreed thereupon then God calls a Senate of Angels whom he sends into the earth to enquire see and know whether the time of the Celebration of this feast be determinately appointed which they presently put in execution and returning unto God declare unto him the day whereon the feast will be kept which when God by their relation understands he also decrees to fit in judgment and to judge the world upon the very same day as it is written God is gone up with a merry noise the Lord is gone up with the sound of a trumpet Then the two judgement seats are set the cushions laid the books opened and that great Senate of Angels sits down before him As it is written And I beheld till the thrones were set up and the Ancient of daies did sit whose garment was white as snow and the haire of his head like the pure wooll his throne was like the fiery flâ—me and his wheels as burning fire Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousand thousands stood before him the judgment seat was set and the book opened In the Talmud we have an excellent story to this purpose Rabbi Iochamen saith that at new-years-tide three books are opened one for them who are extreamly wicked and ungodly as Atheists and lnfidels another for them who are just in a most perfect manner the third and last for them who are betwixt both in an indifferent manner godly
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
it not Behold in the day of your fast you will seek your will and require all your debts Behold youâ— fast to strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickednesse ye shall not fast as you do to day to make your voice to be heard above Is it such a fast that I have chosen that a man should afflict his soul for a day and to bow down his head as a bulrush and to lie down in sackcloth and ashes wilt thou call this a fasting or an acceptable day unto the Lord CHAP. XXII Of the Feast of joy and gladnesse for that they have read over the book of the Law And of the manner how they distribute their Ecclesiastical Offices THere is no mention made of this Feast in holy writ The Rabbines instituted it as a day of rejoycing in that God had given them so much as to spend a whole year in the reading of his Law and exercise thereof in that upon this day they have finished accomplished and brought to an end the lecture and exposition of the of the text thereof in their Church or Synagogue in that he hath in great clemency granted them power and faculty to perform the same They distribute and part the five books of Moses into fifty two Chapters of Sections whereof they read one every Sabbath day so that the last Section is read upon the first day after the Feast of tabernacles which commonly falls upon the twenty third day of September It is recorded in the Talmud that the Priests were wont to skip caper and dance using all kinde of musical instruments upon this day practising among the vulgar many incredâ—ble and skittish fooleries which here to set down would be rather a wearinesse then either pleasure or profit to the reader Upon this day they repair to the Synagogue and in a solemn procession take all the books of the Law out of the Ark reading the first and last Section leaping about the Ark with the books in their hands and when they are weary in great pomp putting them into the Ark again So long as the books are out of the Ark a burning Lamp shines therein for the Ark must not at any time be found empty whereupon it necessarily follows that the Lamp supplying the place of the books avails as much as the books themselves for the Law is called a Lamp or light as it is written The Command is a Lantern and instruction a light Furthermore they scatter Apples Plums and Pears among the younger sort that they also may take occasion to expresse the utmost of their mirth and jollity Yet it often falls out that that hereby is occasioned a greater deal of grief and melancholy in the hearts of these nonaged striplings in that they often in scambling for these fruits fall into strife contention and brawling and at last make trial which among them have the most patient stretching ears Now because upon this day the reading of the Law is finished in a second place they go Ã¥bout the distribution of Ecclesiastical functions and offices and in â—he first place them that belong to the Lecturers of the Law These their offices or functions are sold by open sale in their Synagogue and he that at the third asking offers the most money for them hath them assured unto him and is bound to keep them And in the first place the Clerk or Sexton of the Synagogue proclaims the office of them who are to light candles all the year following as also that of the Cup-bearers who carry the wine wherewith they begin and end their Sabbaths and other Festivals For though the Master of every family be bound to give a beginning to the Sabbath by the consecration of a cup of wine yet that this ceremony is also performed in the Synagogue and that publickly before the whole Congregation by reason of the poorer sort who for want of means cannot procure wine at home for the initiation of the Sabbath And moreover it is not to be neglected because the Boyes and children that drink thereof become religious and godly Jews Thirdly the Clerk proclaims that if any man will buy Gelilah let him come forth which is an office of unfolding and folding up again the book of the Law Fourthly it is demanded if any one will buy Hagbohah He that hath this office is busied in a speedy lifting up of the book of the Law carrying it about the Pew or Desk that any one may read thereupon It is necessarily required that he that carries it be strong and of an able body that he may without stumbling carry the book unfolded with stretched out arms for if he chance to faulter and slip but with one foot not bearing it in that manner which is required the whole Congregation is enjoyned to fast which is reputed as a very bad signe of some ensuing misfortune Fifthly it is demanded who purchase Etz Chajim for money He that hath this office is allowed to touch the two pieces of wood to which the Law is fastened by long skins or Parchments as also to carry and administer the little Bag Coat or Sachel in which the book of the Law after the ending of the Lecture is with all speed to be wrapt up Young men and striplings commonly buy this office perswading themselves that by touching those forementioned pieces of wood their honesty shall be improved and their understanding bettered hoping that thereby their life shall be prolonged seeing these pieces of wood are called Etz Chajim which by interpretation signifieth the trees of life as it is written She is a tree of life meaning the Law to them that lay hold on her and blessed is he that retaineth her These are touched and handled when the book of the Law is wrapped up where a special heed must be taken and care had that they touch not the Parchments with their naked hands for this is a hainous offence Sixthly it is demanded who will buy Acheron which is an office that whosoever in the whole congregation is the last called out upon any Festival he must read somewhat out of the book of the Law Seventhly it is demanded who will buy Shehia He that hath this office is a kinde of overseer who looks unto the rest that they be not negligent in their charge and place and if he finde them so he may put them out and himself in All the money which they get for these places and offices they bestow in the reparation of the Synagogue and maintenance of the poor From this open sale of Ecclesiastical functions often proceed as from a Fountain envies brawlings contentions and evil surmisings Yea God himself is often blasphemed because the favour and countenance and respect of persons bears a greater sway in sharing then Justice while the rich is preferred before the poor a stripling sooner admitted into holy Orders then one of riper years an illiterate Asse sooner then a learned Doctor and an
hair of their head be seen without the water and in the mean time it is not permitted that they should altogether close either their eyes or their mouth that the water may enter into both They ought also to stretch out their fingers bend their body that their Paps do not touch it to â—ishevel their hair by combing of it to have no rings upon their fingers lest there should be any place in the body which might not be drencht in the water Some of them upon the washing day eat not until they have bathed themselves others will not eat any flesh lest any thing should stick within their teeth and hinder the water to come in betwixt them If any of them have a playster upon a wound they ought to remove it as also to cut their nailes None must preâ—ume to touch the woman while she is in the water yea though she fall into a swoon unâ—esse with hands first washed If after her washing any thing stick between her teeth she must into the water again Many things more might be spoken concerning this matter if it were lawful to discover the secrets of women The Jews themselves have written a certain little book in the German tongue and Hebrew character touching the manners of women and they call it the book of women He that can get it let him read it without all doubt it may be had among the Jews dwelling at Frankford upon the Maene CHAP. XXXII Of the poverty of the Jews and their manner of begging IT is a common report that the Jews will not suffer that any of their nation should beg their bread which experience proclaims fabulous for the poor are often times relieved by the rich Upon the Friday at Eve as also upon the Eves of every Festival the poor go unto the houses of the richer sort to beg an almes that upon the Sabbath or Festival which by an especial command they are duly to sanctifie they may cease from begging If there be any one among them who in particular is vexed with some extream want the Rabbines having knowledge of it grant him a license for begging In which they declare his necessity his honesty and witnesse him to be a stout professor of the Jewish faith and other such circumstances This Letter or testimonial they call Ribbutz an Epistle or Letter of collection and the begger himself they call Rabzan which signifies a gatherer This Letter being granted and given unto him he travels through the whole Region visiting all the Jews he can light upon and requesting some gift of them If he come into any place where there are many Jews inhabiting he delivers this his Petition to the chief Rabbine or to him who beates the posts of the houses with an hammer and warns them to the Synagogue or to the Senators or the chief among them or to the Ruler of the SynaSynagogue not unlike a Consul or to the overseers of the poor or to the distributers of alms or to the Collectors for the poor mans Box such are they who gather money among the Christians going hither and thither through the Temple having a certain bag with a Cymbal hanging at the end of a staff he delivering it unto them he intreats them that by their leave it may be lawful for him to beg in their quarters This being granted he together with two more stands at the gate of the Synagogue and desires that some money may be given him or otherwise the foreâ€mentioned couple take his Letter and gather for him from house to house so much as they can get When one of the poorer sort hath a daughter mariageable and cannot give her any dowry then the Father thus miserable wanders up and down with a Letter of the same sort until he gather so much as will be the means to bestow her otherwise he shall hardly procure her a husband When the poor Jewes go thus on pilgrimage and turn aside unto other Jewes they aae by them for a day or two so freely made welcome that they pay nothing for their entertainment But the second day being past they begin to be weary of their presence Hereupon this sentence is proposed to the publick view of travellers in some place of their house The first day he is a guest the second day a burden the third day a Fugitive and stinketh CHAP. XXXIII Of the diseases incident to the Jews MAny are of opinion that the Jews are more lively then the Christians and not obnoxious to so many diseases But experience speaks the contrary and their often funerals even incident unto them in their younger years confirmes it for a tale Yea every man daily sees how they are lyable to the Mezels Botches to the frail disease Plague and other Maladies no less then other people The frail disease they name Choli nophel which disease as it is very common among them so are they wont to wish it to another saying God give thee Choli nophel or Tippul They call the Plague Hilluch hence in their execrations they say Corripiat te hilluch the Plague take thee In the time of any spreading Pestilence they writing certain unusual Characters and wonderful names upon the doors of their Houses Chambers Bedâ€chambers Stoves affirm them to be the names of those holy Angels which are set over the Pestilence I have seen written upon their doors Adiridon Bediridon and so forth annexing diridon to every Letter in the Alphabet which they think to be a present remedy against the Plague The Leprosie is not so frequent among them as among the Christians both because they are fewer in number then the Christians and also because they are more temperate in meats and drinks and other kinde of things which cause this disease For in their meats as much as in them lies they endeavour to fulfil the law of Moses They are not so obstinately abstinent from any kinde of meat as Swines flesh they cannot endure to hear of it Yea they will rather suffer death then eat it Yet some of them have been troubled with this disease as Antonius Margarita witnesseth who in his time saw some leprous Jews at Prague The Old Testament also hath recorded this malady to have been very frequent among them They call it Nega and in their cursings say I wish Nega may fall upon thee CHAP. XXXIV Of the punishments for offences among the Jews SEeing the Jews have for a long time been without a King and Scepter and have lost all power and authority of passing sentence of life and death they enjoyn at this day a certain kinde of penance to him that offendeth which he must of duty undergo and perform The adulterer is bound to divers sorts of penance according to the nature of the fact committed In the Winter time he is compelled to stand for certain dayes in the water of some River or running Brook If there be Ice upon the water then they cut and hew
to return to the place where he gave up the ghost and dolefully to lament over his dear consort the body So soon as the man is dead they cast all the water in the house out of doors that they who pass by may be warned of the decease of some person there Others have recorded that they do this thing in memory of the Prophetess Miriam of whom it is written All the Congregation of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin in the first moneth and the people remainâ—d in Cades where Miriam died and was buried there And when there was no water for the Congregation they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron The Talmudists say that the occasion hereof is this the Angel of death who hath deprived the man of life washing his knife or sword in the water poisons it for they write that Satan or the messenger of death standing at the beds-head with a drawen sword in his hand upon which sword hang three drops of gall which as soon as the sick man beholds being terrified at the sight he opens his mouth whereupon these three drops fall into it By reason of the first he gives up the ghost the second makes him become yellow and pale the last causeth him to putrifie So soon as the sick man dieth the Angel runs to the waters washeth his sword in them by which means they being infected with poison are to be powred out Again this is one of the best grounds of the Jewish faith Antonius Margarita in his tract of Tabernacles or Booths writes that the Jews in ancient times were accustomed to pray unto God that he would not suffer the Angel of death any longer to appear in such a fearful shape at their bedsheads and that also they had their request granted and that they their ancestors put out his left eye conjuring and binding him by the holy names of God It is also recorded in the Talmud that great honour ought to be given unto them who have departed this life because they in the other world have perfect knowledge of all occurrences in this They write also that the soule doth not presently upon the dissolution return into heaven from whence it came but that for twelve moneths space it becomes a vagabond through the earth returns into the Sepulchre suffers many torments in purgatory and then twelve moneths fully expired it ascends up into heaven there taking its rest The question being proposed in the book called Schebhet Jehudah in a certain disputation betwixt a Jew and a Christian How it came to pass that the dead should know all things that are done here upon earth It is answered that the soule doth not gain an entrance into heaven untill the body that was buried be turned into dust and therefore it remaining so long a time upon the earth may without contradiction know the things which are done here below That the soule doth not presently goe into heaven is manifest out of the words of Solomon The dust shall return unto the earth from whence it was and the spirit to God that gave it In this place they say that by the dust is meant our bodie which of necessity returns unto the earth out of which it was taken and by the Spirit our soule which returns to God that gave it now then to conclude the body must first be made dust and ashes and then the Spirit shall return unto the Creator which if it were otherwise certainly Solomon had inverted his words and propounded them thus The Spirit shall return unto God that gave it and the body to the earth Elias the famous Grammarian in his dictionary called Tisbi expounding the word Chabat hath left it in record that it was the opinion of their Rabbines that so soon as any of the Jews do take their farewell of this tâ—r restrial paradise and the chamberlain death hath furnished him with a lodging in the lower parts of the earth that the Angel of death comes and sits upon his sepulchre and that at the same time the soule returns into the body reanimates and erects it Whereupon the Angel takes an iron chain the one part of which is hot the other cold with which he smites the dead corpes two times or more At the first stroke all the members of the body are torn one from another At the second all the bones are dispersed abroad at the third flesh and bones yea the whole carcass is turned into dust and ashes Then come the good Angels and gather the bones together honouring them with a second burial This punishment the Rabbines call Chibbut hakkeber which they do not only write of but also most absurdly believe in their common prayer petitioning that God would preserve them against this punishment and divert it from them as we may see in that petition which they call Benschen being in the number of those which they use upon the day of reconciliation It is written in the book Chasidim that who is much given to almsdeeds is a lover of reproof and honesty who entertains strangers willingly and from his very heart who prayes with an attent minde although he die without the land of Canaan he shall neither tast nor trie the violence of the grave but shall be certainly preserved against the Chibbut hackkeber Hence it is most evident that they who die in the land of Canaan are free from this torture but they who die in a strange land are subject thereunto Hither it is also to be referred that they who die in other lands are wont to wander through secret caves and holes of the earth untill they come to the land of promise otherwise they are not made partakers of the general resurrection which thing we have formerly made mention of in the first Chapter and other places of this book CHAP. XXXVI Touching the Jews Messias who is yet for to come THat a Messias was promised unto the Jews they all with one mouth acknowledge hereupon petitioning in their daily prayers that he would come quickly before the houreglass of their life be run out The only scruple is of the time when and the state in which he shall appear They generally beleeve that this their future Messias shall be a simple man yet nevertheless far exceeding the whole generation of mortals in all kinde of vertues who shall marry a wife and beget children to sit upon the throne of his kingdom after him When therefore the Scripture mentioneth a twofold Messias the one plain poor and meek subject to the stroke of death the other illustrious powerful highly advanced and exalted the Jews forge unto themselves two of the same sort one which they call by the name of Messias the son of Joseph that poor and simple one yet an experienced and valiant leader for the warrs Another whom they entitle Messias the son of David that true Messias who is to be king of Israel and to rule over them in
long as the oake or other of that kinde for saith the lord as the dayes of a tree are the dayes of my people and my elect shall long enioy the works of their hands and againe there shall be no more thence an infant of dayes nor an old man that hath not filled his dayes for the child shall die an hundred yeares old bnt the Sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed which is as much as to say if any die at an hundred years of age it shall be said of him that he died as a little infant or in his infancy for at that time the years of life of the Israelites shall be equal to them of the fathers from Adam to Noah as Abenezra comments upon the place The ninth is that God shall so clearly manifest himself to the Israelites that they shall see him face to face As it is recorded The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see together because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Yea all the Lords people shall be Prophets as it is written It shall come to pass afterward that I will powr out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams your yong men shall see visions The last degree of comfort is that God shall quite root out of them all imbred lusts and inclinations unto evil as it is written A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh Hitherto we have delivered what we promised out of the book called Abhkas râ—chel in which though it be summarily set down what the Jews beleeve concerning their Messias as also the manner how he is to bring them back to Jerusalem yet I think not impertinent in this place a litle more largely to declare with what solemnities their Messias shal give them intertainement in their own land and with what happiness and felicitie they shall lead their lives under him When then the Messias hath gathered all the Jews together out of all the nations under heaven and from the foure winds of the earth and hath brought them unto the land of Canaan flowing with milk and hony then shall he cause to be prepared a sumptuous and delicate banquet inviting and friendly welcoming unto it all the Jews with great pomp and joy inexpressible At this banquet shall be dished up and served in the greatest beastes fishes and fouls that ever God created The worst wine that they shall drink shall be that whose grape had its growth in paradise and hath been barrel'd up and reserved in Adams Cellar unto that time The first dish in this feast shall be that huge oxe described in the book of Job to be of such great strength and magnitude named Behemoth This the Rabbines affirme to be the same oxe whereof David makes mention in his 50 Psalm and 10 verse All the beasts of the forrest are mine and the cattel Behemoth feeding on a thousand hills that is to say which every day eateth up the grass of a thousand hils But a man will aske what at length would have become of this oxe if he had lived so long seeing he had long since eaten up all his fodder The Rabbines learnedly answer that this oxe is stall-fed and remains always in the same place and that whatsoever he eateth on the day grows again upon the night in the same length and forme The second dish adorning the table shall be that vast whale Leviathan according to the Jewish tone Pronounced Lipiasan who is also described in the book of Job and mentioned in other places of holy writ Concerning these two beasts there hath bin handsomly compiled this tradition by the wit and ingenuity of the solid pated Rabbins in their Talmud it runs thus Rabbi Jehudah saith that what thing soever God created in the world he created it male and female and that without all doubt for he created the Leviathan yet least the he and she Leviathan by engendring should augment the number and at length by there monstrous magnitude and multitude destroy the whole world God gelded the male and killed the female reserving her in pickle to be meat for them that are just in Judah and feared him in the dayes of the Messias as it is written In that day will the lord with a sore and great and strong sword punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan that crooked serpent and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea In the same manner he created that great ox called Behemoth feeding on a thousand hils male and female yet lest by multiplying they might fill and destroy the earth he gelded the male and killed the female reserving it for the Jewes diet in time to come as it is written Loe now his strength is in his loynes and his force in the navell of his belly he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him The third dish in this banquet as Elias Levita in his dictionarie named Tesbi out of the Rabbins reports shall be that horrible huge bird called Barinchue which killed and unboweld shall then be rosted Concerning this bird it is written in the Talmud she cast an Egge out of her nest by whose fall three hundred tall Cedars were broken down and the Egge breaking in the full drowned three score villages By this relation it is easie to conceive this bird to have been little inferiour in greatnes to the forementioned oxe and fish whence we may also collect how glorious a dish the Messias is to make of it for his guests and when there are many such birds Guls I think found in the land of Judah none ought to think that which is reported of this to be fabulous In the forementioned book of the Talmud we read of a certain great crow which was seen of a Rabbine worthy to be credited The relation runs thus Rabbi barchannah saith At a certain time I saw a frog which is as great as the village Akra in Hagronia well how big was the village It consisted of no fewer then threescore houses Then came a mighty serpent and swallowed up this frog Instantly upon this a great crow flying that way picked up as a small morsel both the frog and the serpent and taking him to flight sat upon a Tree now think with your selves how great and strong this tree must be To which Rabbi papa the son of Samuel making answer unless I had been in the place and with these mine eyes seen the very tree I would not have beleeved it Thus much the Talmudist Who dare give the lie to this Rabbine When that good man Kimchi commenting on the fifty Psalm and explaining the word Ziz hath there witnessed that Rabbi
Deut. 11. 15. Pro. 12. 10. Pro 11. 28. Lev. 26. 10. Oruch thaym num 1571. Tract Sâ—tah cap 1. Ezek 4. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tract Sotah cap. 1. Prov. 26. Tract Egub. hin cap. 2. Tract Iom de festis cap. 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 32. 20 Mat. 15. 1 2 3. Mark 1. 2 3 4. a Pharisaeus â— Pharisee from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 parasch expandere for enlarging and laying open their Phylacteries or from parasch exponere explanare because they were expounders of the Iaw or from the same verbe in Pihel signifying to separate either that they separated themselves to the study of the law or from commerce with other people in habit and manner What their opinions were the New Testament declares to the full There were â—even sorts of them as the Talmud witnesseth Tract Sota cap. 3. 1. Pharisaeus Sichemita who turned Pharisee for gaine as the Siâ—hemites embraced circumcision 2. Truncatus so called because he walked as though he wanted feet to cause the greater opinion of his meditation 3. â—mpâ—â—gens who winked when hee went abroad to avoid the temptation of beauty which often made his wit jump with a post 4. Pharisaeus quid debeo facere faciam illud the questionary such was he Luke 18. 5. Morturius because he wore a hat in form of a deep mortar 6. Pharisaeus ex amore who obeyed God out of meere love 7. Pharisaeus ex timore who obeyed the Law onely for feare of punishment See Pirke Aboth Rabbi Moses Gerundensis Mr Godwin Psal. 134. 2. Orach chajim num 167. 82. 201. Lev. 2. 13. Psal. 10. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 104.14 Psal. 145.15 Deut. 8. 7 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 33. 23. Psal 134. 2. Deut. 14. 23. Ezek. 41. 22. Tract Berachos de benedict Tract Berachos de ben Iob 15. 23. Tract Cholin cap. 8. Tract Taanis de jejunio Orach chajim num 170. Prov. 13. 25. Tract de benedict c. 1. p. 18 Psal. 32. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Berachos c. 7. p. 50. Orach chajim num 116. Tract Sanhedrin c. 11. lob 20. 21. Isaiah 65. 11. Minhagin p. 6. Grace aâ—ter meate Psal 34. 9 10. Psal 71. 7. Orach chajim num 184. lib. â—eschis chochma c. 5. p. 6â— Minhag p. 6. Orach chajim num 232. a so called because by knocking at their doores he warns them to come to prayers b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rectum esse for only the righteous man is blessed Psal. 145. 15. 1 45. 1. c Selah This word according to Schendler hath neither any regular forme of a Noun nor signification but onely serves for musick and melody and as an encâ—â—uicke makes up the harmony A word without sence but the root of it according to Rabbi David is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to exalt or elevate so that Selah must be as much as a note of elevation and listing up of the voice in such or such a place Of this opinion is Mercerus and therefore it is not found in any place but in the Psalms and Song of Habbakkuk Kimchi saith it lifts us to a consideration of things written Psal 6. Ios 7. 6. Canâ— 2. 6. Tal. R. Alphes Tract Berachos c. 1. Orach chajim num 235. Psal 4. 4. Tract Taaâ—is de jejunio Tract Berachos c. 1. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tzaphon from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abscondere to hide because the northern pole is his hid from them that dwel in Iudea b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English renders thou fillest their bellies with thy hid treasure Yet however the word primarily signifies the north winde num â—40 〈◊〉 cap. 38. Tract Rabhae Kama cap. 7. Exod. 15. 22. Isaiah 55. 1. Pro. 3. 18. Orach chajim num 135. Num. 10. â—5 Isaiah 2. 3. Psal 34. 3. Psal 99. 5,9 Tract Sucha de Sab. constru cap. ult Zach. 12. 12 13 Exod. 16. 22. Verse 23. Exod. 16. 26. Iob 5 24 25. Orach chajim num 262. Orach chajim num 256. Gen. 3. 12. Exod. 27. 20. Brand â—spieg cap. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this word more hereafter Prov. 20. 27. a This lump in old time was made with oile concerning which you may read Exod 29. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 14. Gen. 2. Isaiah 6. 7. Exod. 20. 8. Minhag p. 9. Orach chajim num 269. â—rach chajim num 273. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 1. 2 3. Orach chajim num 274. Tract de Sab. c. 15. p 113. Deut. 8. 8. Exod. 16. 22. Min. page 11. Isaiah 59. 13. Deut. 16. 14. Cap. 16. p. 119. The rich Butcher Tract Taanis cap. 30. Cap. 16. p. 118. Psal 37.4 Orach chajim num 280. Orach chajim num 281. nov addit num 28. Minhag p. 12. Orach chajim num 288. Min. page 13. Caphtor Uperach p 43. Tâ—act de Sab. c. 16 p. 118. â—O ach chajim num 291â— A dolores Messiae Minhag p. 3. Orach chajim num 295. Blessed are they Num. 20. Minhag p. 4. Orach chajim num 299 in fine Colbo c. 41. Lev. 10. 10. Gen. 1. 4. Tract Betzah cap. 2. p. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tract Taanis de je junio cap. 4. p. 7. Schabbat raiin aphesch Tract Talm. psachin c. 4. p. 54. Tract Sanâ—edrin cap. 7. Tract de Sab. cap. 5. p 52. Orach chajim num 305. Maâ— 12. 11. Tract de Sab. c. 18. p. 128. Orach chajim num 301. Orach chajim num 308. 312. Orach chajim num 338. Mar. 13. a Todeloth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Generations The singular number is not found in all the Scripture the word is deâ—ived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to procâ—eate or beger It is onely twice found written fully that iâ— with all the letters in the whole Scripture 〈◊〉 In the second Chapter of Genesis and the fourth verse Whâ—n God had finished the generations of heaven and earth And in the last Chapter of the booke of Ruth and the eighteenth verse where are reckoned up the 〈◊〉 of which Christ came who is the fulnesse of all things Rabbi Isaac gives the reason why it is dâ—â—ective 〈◊〉 other places At the creation death was not in the world after the fall it came and cut short the generations but when Phares came his generation was made compleat because Christ came of his â—eed Exod. 16. 27. Exod. 17. 8. Isa. 56 4,7 Ezek. 22. 26. Verse 31. Isa. 〈◊〉 13. Deut. 16. 16. Exod. 23. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The three times or three courses a Pesach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pasach transâ—t to goe over or passe over a Feast of the Iewes in remembrance that God did passe over the houses of the Israelites and smote not their first born when he smote the Egyptians b The Hebrews at first measured their moneths by the course
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