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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94301	Ievves in America, or, Probabilities that the Americans are of that race. With the removall of some contrary reasonings, and earnest desires for effectuall endeavours to make them Christian. / Proposed by Tho: Thorovvgood, B.D. one of the Assembly of Divines.	Thorowgood, Thomas, d. ca. 1669.	1650 (1650)	Wing T1067; Thomason E600_1; ESTC R206387	111,535	185

Ievves in America OR PROBABILITIES That the AMERICANS are of that Race With the removall of some contrary reasonings and earnest desires for effectuall endeavours to make them Christian Proposed by THO THOROVVGOOD B. D. one of the Assembly of Divines CANT 8. 8. We have a little sister and she hath no breasts what shall we doe for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for MAT. 8. 11. Many shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit downe with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of Heaven Aethiopes vertuntur in filios Dei si egerint paenitentiam filii Dei transeunt in Aethiopes si in profundum venerint peccatorum Hieronym in Esai London Printed by W. H. for Tho. Slater and are be to sold at his shop at the signe of the Angel in Duck lane 1650. TO THE HONOVRABLE Knights and Gentlemen that have residence in and relation to the County of Norfolk Peace from the God of Peace WHen the glad tidings of the Gospels sounding in America by the preaching of the English arrived hither my soule also rejoyced within me and I remembred certaine papers that had been laid aside a long time upon review of them and some additions to them they were privately communicated unto such as perswaded earnestly they might behold further light being thus finished and licenced also to walke abroad as they were stepping forth that incivility charged upon Chrysippus occurred that he dedicated not his writings to any King or Patron which custome presently seemed not onely lawfull but as ancient as those Scriptures where Saint Luke in the history of the Acts of the Apostles applies himselfe to Theophilus Act. 1. 1. And Saint Iohn to the Elect Lady so named some thinke or for her graces so entituled I was easily induced to follow this fashion and my thoughts soone reflected upon you Who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovers of God and choice men of your Countrey I may be censured for this high generall and ambitious dedication but I doe freely publish my own utter unworthinesse t is true my respects and love be very much to you all and my native soile yet in this I doe not drive any private designe I looke beyond my selfe at your honour the honour of the Nation yea the glory of God and the soule-good of many millions that are yet in darkenesse and out of Christ By you is the following tract communicated to the world I wish and pray that the designe bespoken in it may be cordially furthered by you and all that read or heare thereof t is like you will finde in the probabilities so many Iudaicall resemblances in America that as it was said of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either Plato writes like Philo the Iew or Philo is become Platonicke so the Jewes did Indianize or the Indians doe Judaize for surely they are alike in many very many remarkable particulars and if they bee Iewes they must not for that be neglected visible comments indeed they are of that dismall Text Thou shalt become an astonishment a proverbe and a by-word to all Nations c. Deut. 20. 37. and so they are every where to this day what more reproachfull obloquy is there among men then this Thou art a Jew Oh the bitter fruits of disobedience and t is high time for us Gentiles to lay up that example in the midst of our hearts Pro. 4. 21. remembring alwaies because of unbeliefe they were broken off and if God spared not the naturall branches take heed lest hee spare not thee Rom. 11. 21. It was a suddaine sentence Tam viles inter Christianos Iudaei ut inter mundum triticum mures Jewes are as bad and vile among Christians as Mice in cleane wheate for glorious were their privileges and we have a share in some of them that last especially of whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is God over all blessed for ever Rom. 9. 4 5. and for another thing they have highly merited our regard To them were commited the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 9. The holy Scriptures were concredited to them and they have faithfully preserved them for us and conveyed them to us Former times indeed found cause to exterminate them these dominions I say nothing for such their reintroduction which must be with sacred and civill cautions that the svveet name of our dearest Lord be not blasphemed nor the Natives robbed of their rights but when will Christians in earnest endeavour their conversion if the name of Jevv must be odious everlastingly I speak for their Gospelizing though some suspect they are never likely to come again under that covenant as if the Liber repudii the bill of divorce mentioned by the Prophet did put them away from God for ever Esa 50. 1. as if they should return to their Spouse no more but that there is for them a time of love and that they shall be grafted in Rom. 11. 23. is manifested afterwards upon Scripture grounds and if the period of their wandering be upon its determination and their recovery approching how may wee rejoyce in the returne of that Prodigall It is meet that wee should make merry and be glad for our brother that was dead is reviving againe Luk. 15. 32. How should wee beg for them that God would poure upon them the spirit of grace and supplication that they may looke upon him whom they have pierced and mourne for him as one mourneth for his onely sonne Zach. 12. 10. Or if the lost Tribes are not to be found in America of whatsoever descent and origination the poore Natives be if they finde the Lord Christ and the Nov-angles be the Wisemen guiding them unto their peace great cause shall wee have to lift up the high praises of our God in spirituall exultation how should wee cast our mite into this treasury yea our Talent our Talents if wee have them for certainely the time is comming That as there is one Shepherd there shall be one Sheepfold Io. 10. 16. It is true our owne Countrey in many respects stands in need of helpe wee are fallen into the last and worst times the old age of the world full of dangerous and sinnefull diseases Iniquity is encreased and if ever if to any people the saying of that Torrent of Tullian eloquence so Ierome calls Lactantius be applicable it is to poore England that is not onely in the gall of bitternesse but in the very dregs of error and ungodlinesse Ideo mala omnia rebus humanis ingravescunt quia Deus hujus mundi effector ac gubernator derelictus est quia susceptaesunt contra quam fas est impiae religiones postremo quia ne coli quidem vel à paucis Deus sinitur But O my soule if thou be wise be wise for thy selfe Pro. 9. 12. and give mee leave to say to you as

our owne ignorance by the cunning craftinesse of men who lie in waite to deceive for the unstable are either wickedly set to worke changes upon those that are setled for ends of their owne or weakely carried up and downe through the uncertaine apprehensions of things differently represented unto them sometimes one way and sometimes another so that between the motions of mens spirits subtilly unstable tending to unsettle others and weakely stable susceptible of any unsettlement from others all our changes and disorderly carriages both in divine and humane affaires doe arise when either those that have no principles of truth to walke by study lies to puzzle those that pretend to walke by rules or those that have true principles vary from one another in their degrees of understanding and in their manner of applying the same to advance knowledge and to make discoveries of Gods manifestation of himselfe for as these motions meet with one another in opposite courses and men led thereby stand by one another in disproportionat frames or justle one another out of their places for contrary ends so all our confusions and revolutions of Churches and States and therein of scientificall straines and of practicall undertakings arise differently in the world here then is a threefold diversity in acting the changeable and moveable disposition of the one sort is made to try the stability of the other two and those that are setled in an ordinary way are tryers to those that are led forth to something that is extraordinary and those that upon allowed principles do rationally bring forth something more then ordinary try the ingenuity of the other two how farre they love truth for it selfe So that each of these puts his neighbour to the triall of his property and constraines him to manifest the nature of his way how farre it is or is not from God And although every thing which is beyond the ordinary straine is liable to be censured and contradicted by men of ordinary apprehensions who condemne for the most part as extravagant and ridiculous whatsoever is not levell with their capacities yet I am inclined to believe that there is alwaies something of God in all men that are led forth by extraordinary motions namely when their spirits doe not reject the common true principles and yet are raised above them to apprehend conclusions and inferences which are not common and when their affections are regularly constant to their workes and their undertakings pursued with sobriety in the feare of God then I conceive that God hath put upon them a speciall stampe and character of his vertue by which he doth fit them for some designe and service whereunto he hath raised them I have observed this in very many men of publike spirits most commonly they have bin laught at by others for going out of the common road-way of acting whether to make good some opinions which others never dreamt of or to doe some businesse which others have thought impossibilities to be effected I say I have observed that when they have been led forth with modesty without selfe conceitednesse and vanity and when they have prosecuted their enterprises with remarkable perseverance that God hath made them one way or other remarkably instrumentall and usefull towards their generation for the advancement of his worke which is the reformation of this world and the restauration of all things by the kingdom of Iesus Christ whereunto all extraordinary gifts and the unusuall leadings forth of mens spirits are preparatives I could instance in severall men which I have known and doe know abroad and at home of severall professions whose studies and endeavours have been lookt upon as whimsies and extravagancies by the road-way-men of that profession and yet I am perswaded that they are led and acted by that Spirit which leadeth the children of God in all truth and because other men otherwise rationall and observant who though not altogether destitute of the spirit yet are not raised above the ordinary pitch do not know the drift of the spirit of these therefore these are lookt upon by them as men of odde conceits I have seen some of the great Rabbies of our times heretofore much scandalized at the proposals and undertakings of Mr Comenius but it hath pleased God to assist him so with grace and support him with constancy in his way notwithstanding many trialls and temptations that he hath been able during his ownelife to see the usefulnesse of some of his endeavours whereof a more full account will be given to the world very shortly I could speake of others whose attempts though not so apparantly successefull during their life yet no lesse usefull in their kind and which in due time will prove the grounds of great advantages and discoveries unto posterity although in the generation where their lot is fallen to live they have not been believed nor received Gods way to dispence grace is not according to outward appearances and for this cause the multitude doth not entertaine the instruments thereof with due esteem nor the meanes by which it is offered to the world with respect because they come in a homely dresse and without the affectation of any shew neverthelesse wisdom at all times is justified by her children and there take notice of her paths and trace the counsell of God therein for they can see that Gods waies and counsels reach from end to end and that he comprehends in his aime both that which is past and that which is present and that which is to come in future ages so that in the conclusion of all he will make it appeare that the unusuall motions of his servants which the world have disesteemed and counted foolishnesse have been the extraordinary worke of his Spirit in them whereby he doth convince the world of sinne of righteousnesse of judgement of sinne because the testimony which they bore to the truth was not received of righteousnesse because they who served their generation faithfully with the righteous use of their talent in the midst of scorners are justly taken away from an unthankfull generation and the evill day to rest from their labours that their workes may follow them and of judgement because the selfe conceited pride and partiality of the wise and prudent of this world shall be judged and condemned by the worke of his spirit when he shall bring all the effects thereof together to make out his compleate designe against the world and by the conjunction of the seemingly scattered parts which his servants have acted upon their stages produce the new frame of a perfect Scene the catastrophe whereof shall make up a building fit for the kingdom of his Son I am fallen upon these thoughts and acquaint you thus with them partly to support mine owne spirit against the contradictions which I meet withall in the way wherein God hath set me for the constant prosecution of peace and truth without partiality amongst my brethren partly to apologize for the

21. If a Brasilian wound another he must be punisht in the same part of his body and with death if the other die for they also answer an eye for an eye c. as the law was Deut. 24. 19. 22. When the master of the family dieth he is buried in the middle of the house with his jewells and other things he delighted in the Spaniards were often made rich by such sepulchars and Iosephus tells of much treasure laid up even in Davids grave 23. The Indians are given much to weeping their women especially and at burialls this was in fashion among the Jewes Ier. 19. 17. Famous for this they were among the old heathen 24. Balsamum was peculiar to the Jewish Countrey and thought to be lost long agoe saith Pliny if it were t is now found againe in America 25. Their Princes and Governours whom they generally call Sachims Sachmos Sagamos are no other but heads of families as it was of old in Israel Num. 7. 2. 26. The Indians have their Posts and Messengers that were swift of foot whom they dispatcht upon their affaires and they ran with speed and such were among the Jewes 2 Sam. 18. 24 26 27. CHAP. IV. Sacred and solemne rites and customes alike A Costa affirmes the Americans to have ceremonies and customes resembling the Mosaicall 1. Circumcision is frequent among the Indians which some not observing have thereupon denyed them to be Judaicall and Io. de Laet is forced to acknowledge such venereous people have somewhat like to circumcision occasioned by their lasciviousnesse but daily experience declareth that they have indeed upon them this Judaicall badge Herodotus averreth the Colchi for this to be of the Aegyptian race and that the Phenicians and Syrians of Palaestina learned from them that rite and though some have judged the Tartars to be Jewes because circumcised others yeeld not to this because they were Mahometans by Religion and from them received that custome but these people have cut off their foreskinne time out of minde and it cannot be conceived whence they had this ceremony but that it is nationall And though the fore mentioned writer endeavours much to prove that there is no circumcision among them and that some other people be so handled whom none yet ever imagined to be Judaicall but that of Ier. 9. 26. is not so fitly I thinke cited for his purpose and Grotius tells him confidently we have so many witnesses that the Americans be circumcised as it becomes not a modest man to deny it and among the rarities brought from those quarters Pancirollus speakes of stony knives very sharpe and cutting and his Illustrator H. Salmuth shewes that the Jewes of old did use such in their circumcisings knifes of stone which Sacrament omitted fourty yeeres in their travell is revived by Gods command to Ioshua 5. 2. Make thee sharp knives cultros petrinos Arias Montanus reads cultros lapideos in the vulgar Latine but the Septuagint doth not only mention those rocky knives but adds taken from a sharpe rocke as if the allusion also were to Christ the Rocke that doth circumcise our hearts Lerius affirmes he saw some of those cutting stones or knives at Brasil 2. The Indians worship that God they say who created the Sun Moon and all invisible things who gives them also all that is good 3. They knew of that floud which drowned the world and that it was sent for the sin of man especially for unlawfull lust and that there shall never be such a deluge againe 4. It is affirmed by them neverthelesse that after many yeers fire shall come down from above and consume all 5. They beleeve the immortality of the soule and that there is a place of joy another of torment after death whither they shall goe that kill lie or steale which place they call Popogusso a great pit like the expression Num. 16. 33. and Rev. 19. 1 c. but they which do no harme shall be received into a good place and enjoy all manner of pleasure 6. The Americans have in some parts an exact form of King Priest and Prophet as was aforetime in Conaan 7. Priests are in some things among them as with the Hebrewes Physitians and not habited as other men and in Tamazulapa there be vestments kept like those Aaroniticall robes of the High-priest 8. The Temples wherein they worship sing pray and make their Offerings are fashioned and used as with the Jewes at Mexico they were built foure square and sumptuous as Ezek. 40. 47. 9. The Priests have their Chambers in the Temple as the manner was in Israel 1 Reg. 6 7. 10. They had places also therein which none might enter into but their Priests Heb. 9. 6 7. 11. In their worship of Viracoche and the Sun c. they open their hands and make a kissing sound with their mouthes as Iob 31. 27. 12. They had almost continuall fire before their Idols and took great care lest the fire before the Altar should dye they call that the Divine Harth where there is fire continually like that in Leviticus 6. 9. 13. None may intermeddle with their Sacrifices but the Priests who were also in high estimation among them as they were among the Jewes 14. Every Noble-man in Mexico had his Priest as Israel had the Levites within their gates 15. In their necessities they always sacrificed which done they grew hopefull and confident 16. They burnt Incense had their Censars and cake Oblations as Ier. 7. 18. 17. The first fruits of their Corne they offered and what they gat by Hunting and Fishing 18. At Mexico and some other places they immolate the bodies of men and as the Jewes of old saith P. Martyr did eate of their Beasts so sacrificed they feed on mans flesh so offered 19. In all Peru they had but one Temple which was most sumptuous Consecrated to the Maker of the world yet they had foure other places also for Devotion as the Jews had severall Synagogues beside that their glorious Temple 20. The Idols of America were Mitred in a manner much as Aaron was 21. A yeare of Jubile did they observe as did Israel also 22. Lerius tells a story of them much like that of Apocryphall Bel and the Dragon and his Priests 23. In their Idoll services they dance and sing men and women almost as Miriam with Timbrells Exod. 15. 20. and then they offer bread as it is in Malac. 1. 7. 24. They have hope of their bodies resurrection and for that cause are carefull in burying their dead and when they saw the Spaniards digging into Sepulchers for gold and silver the Natives entreated them not to scatter the bones that so they might with more ease be raised againe 25. The Indians make account the world shall