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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B04456	Vindiciæ Judæorum, or A letter in answer to certain questions propounded by a noble and learned gentleman, touching the reproaches cast on the nation of the Jevves; wherein all objections are candidly, and yet fully cleared. By Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel a divine and a physician.	Manasseh ben Israel, 1604-1657.	1656 (1656)	Wing M381; Thomason E.880[1]; Interim Tract Supplement Guide 482.b.3[7]	31,719	45

sacrifices and incense offered for them in Gods name 9. And let the reader be pleased further to observe that the Iewes were accustomed not onely to offer up sacrifices and prayers to God for the Emperours their friends confederates and allyes but also generally for the whole world It is the custome saith Agrippa to Caius according to Philo p. 1035. for the High-priest at the day of attonement to make a prayer unto God for all mankind beseeching him to adde unto them another year with blessing and peace The same Philo Iudaeus in his second book of Monarchy saith The priests of other nations pray unto God onely for the welfare of their own particular nations but our High-priest prayes for the happinesse and prosperity of the whole world And in his book of sacrifices p. 836. he saith Some sacrifices are offered up for our nation and some for all mankind For the daily sacrifices twice a day viz. at morning and evening are for the obtaining of those good things which God the chief good grants unto them at those two times of the day And in like manner Iosephus in his second book against Apion saith We sacrifice and pray unto the Lord in the first place for the whole world for their prosperity and peace and afterwards more particularly for our selves forasmuch as we conceive that prayer which is first extended universally and is afterwards put up more particularly is very much acceptable unto God Which words are also related by Eusebius Caesareensis in his Praeparatio Evangelica lib. 8. cap. 2. 10. 'T is true that no outward materiall glories are perpetuall and so the temple had its period and with the paschall lamb all other sacrifices ceased But in their stead we have at this day prayer and as Hoseah speaks Cap. 14.2 For bullocks we render the calves of our lips And three times every day this is our humble supplication and request to God Fill the whole world O Lord with thy blessings for all creatures are the works of thy hands as it is written the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are ever all his works Psal 145.9 11. Yea further we pray for the conversion of the nations and so we say in these most excellent prayers upon Ros a sana and the day of attonement Our God and the God of our Fathers reign thou over the whole world in thy glory and be thou exalted over all the earth in thine excellency cause thy influence to descend upon all the inhabitants of the world in the glorious majesty of thy strength and let every creature know that thou hast created him and let every thing that is formed understand that thou hast formed it and let all that have breath in their nostrills say the Lord God of Israel reighneth and his kingdome is over all dominions And again Let all the inhabitants of the earth know and see that unto thee every knee shall bow and every tongue swear before thee O Lord our God let them bow and prostrate themselves let them give honour to the honour of thy name and let them aell take upon them the yoak of thy kingdome c. And again Put thy fear O Lord our God upon all thy works and thy dread upon all that thou hast created let all thy works fear thee and let all creatures bow down before thee and let them all make themselves one handfull that is with joynt consent to do thy will with a perfect heart c. A most worthy imitation of the wise King Solomon who after he had finished the building of the Temple in that long prayer King 1.8 was not unmindfull of the Gentiles but v. 41. he saith Moreover concerning a stranger that is not of thy people of Israel but cometh out of a farre country for thy names sake for they shall hear of thy great name and of thy strong hand and of thy stretched-out arm when he shall come and pray towards this house hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for that all people of the earth may know thy name to fear thee as do the people of Israel and that they may know that thy name is called upon this house which I have builded Where it may be observed that when the Israelite comes to pray he saith 29. and give every man hccsrding to his wayes but upon the prayer of a stranger he saith and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for And this distinction is made to this end that by the evident and apparent return and answer of their prayers all Gentiles might effectually be brought in to the truth and knowledge and fear of God as well as the Israelites 12. Moreover since the holy prophets made prayers and supplications for all men as well for the nations as the Israelites how should not we do the same for the nations among whom we inhabit as ingaged by a more especiall obligation for that we live under their favour and protection In Deuteronomy 23.7 God commands Thou shalt not abhorre an Egyptian notwithstanding the heavy burthens they afflicted us with onely because thou wast a stranger in his land because that at the first they entertained and received us into their country As on the other side Ezek. 23.11 he saith As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live We ought therefore to imitate his actions and not to hate any man upon the mere account of religion but onely to pray to the Lord for his conversion and this also without giving offence or any kind of molestation To detest or abhorre those to whom we owe that prosperity which we enjoy or who endeavour their own salvation is a thing very unworthy and ill becoming but to abhorre their vices and sins is not so It was a very excellent observation of a most wise and vertuous Lady Beruria who as it is recorded in the Talmud Berachot cap. 1. when her husband R. Meir was about to pray to God to destroy some of his perverse and froward neighbours that had no lesse grievously then maliciously vexed and molested him gave him this seasonable admonition that such a thing ought not to be done in Israel but that he should rather make his prayer that they might return and break off their sinnes by repentance ' alledging that text Psal 104.35 Let ssn be consumed out of the earth it is not said sinners but sinnes and then the wicked shall be no more 13. We have now in this Section shewn that it is a mere calumnie to imagine that we Iewes should pray to God so as to give an offence to the Christians or cause scandall by any thing in our prayers unlesse it be that we are not Christians we have declared to the contrary how we daily pray for them As also that during the temple we offered up

what end was he first circumcised If it shall be said it was out of hatred to the Christians it appears rather to the contrary that it proceeded from detestation of the Iewes or of them who had newly become proselytes to embrace the Iewes religion Surely this supposed pranck storied to be done in popish times looks more like a piece of the reall scene of the Popish Spaniards piety who first baptiz'd the poor Indians and afterwards out of cruel pity to their souls inhumanely butchered them then of strict-law-observing Iewes who dare not make a sport of one of the seales of their covenant 11. Our captivity under the Mahumetans is farre more burdensome and grievous then under the Christians and so our ancients have said it is better to inhabit under Edom then Ismael for they are a people more civill and rationall and of a better policie as our nation have found experimentally For excepting the nobler and better sort of Iewes such as live in the Court of Constantinople the vulgar people of the Iewes that are dispersed in other countries of the Mahumetan Empire in Asia and Africa are treated with abundance of contempt and scorn It would therefore follow that if this sacrificing of children be the product and result of hatred that they should execute and disgorge it much more upon the Mahumetans who have reduced them to so great calamity and misery So that if it be necessary to the celebration of the Passeover why do they not as well kill a Mahumetan But although the Iewes are scattered and dispersed throughout all those vast territories notwithstanding all their despite against us they never yet to this day forged such a calumnious accusation Wherefore it appeares plainly that it is nothing else but a slander and such a one that considering how the scene is laid I cannot easily determine whether it speak more of malice or of folly certainly Sultan Selim made himself very merry with it when the story was related him by Moses Amon his chief Physicyan 12. If all that which hath been said is not of sufficient force to wipe off this accusation because the matter on our part is purely negative and so cannot be cleared by evidence of witnesses I am constrained to use another way of argument which the Lord blessed for ever hath prescribed Exod. 22. which is an oath wherefore I swear without any deceit or fraud by the most high God the creatour of heaven and earth who promulged his law to the people of Israel upon mount Sinai that I never yet to this day saw any such custome among the people of Israel and that they doe not hold any such thing by divine precept of the law or any ordinance or institution of their wise men and that they never committed or endeavoured such wickednesse that I know or have credibly heard or read in any Jewish Authours and if I lie in this matter then let all the curses mentioned in Leviticus and Deuteronomy come upon me let me never see the blessings and consolations of Zion nor attain to the resurrection of the dead By this I hope I may have proved what I did intend and certainly this may suffice all the friends of truth and all faithfull Christians to give credit to what I have here averred And indeed our adversaries who have been a little more learned and consequently a little more civill then the vulgar have made a halt at this imputation Iohn Hoornbeek in that book which he lately writ against our nation wherein he hath objected against us right or wrong all that he could any wayes scrape together was notwithstanding ashamed to lay this at our door in his Prolegomena pag. 26. where he sayes An autem verum sit quod vulg ò in historiis legatur c. i.e. whether that be true which is commonly read in histories to aggravate the Iewes hatred against the Christians or rather the Christians against the Iewes that they should annually upon the preparation of the Passeover after a cruell manner sacrifice a Christian child privily stollen in disgrace and contempt of Christ whose passion and crucifixion the Christians celebrate I will not assert for truth as well knowing how easy it was for those times wherein these things are mentioned to have happen'd especially after the Inquisition was set up in the Popedome to forge and fain and how the histories of those ages according to the affection of the writers were too too much addicted and given unto fables and figments Indeed I have never yet seen any of all those relations that hath by any certain experiment proved this fact for they are all founded either upon the uncertain report of the vulgar or else upon the secret accusation of the Monks belonging to the inquisition not to mention the avarice of the informers wickedly hanquering after the Iewes wealth and so with ease forging any wickednesse For in the first book of the Sicilian constitutions tit 7. we see the Emperour Frederick saying Si vero Iudaeus vel Saracenus sit in quibus prout certò perpendimus Christiano cum persecutio minus abundat ad praesens but if he be a Iew or a Saracen against whom as we have weighed the persecution of the Christians do much abound c. thus taxing the violence of certain Christians against the Iewes Or if perhaps it hath sometimes happened that a Christian was kill'd by a Iew we must not therefore say that in all places where they inhabit they annually kill a Christian Child And for that which Thomas Cantipratensis lib. 2. cap. 23. affirms viz. that it is certainly known that the Iewes every year in every province cast lots what city or town shall afford Christian bloud to the other cities I can give it no more credit then his other fictions and lies wherewith he hath stuffed his book Thus farre Iohn Hoornbeek 13. Notwithstanding all this there are not wanting some histories that relate these and the like calumnies against an afflicted people For which cause the Lord saith He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of my eye Zach. 2.6 I shall cursolarily mention some passages that have occurred in my time whereof I say not that I was an eye witnesse but onely that they were of generall report and credence without the least contradiction I have faithfully noted both the names of the persons the places where and the time when they happened in my continuation of Flavius Josephus I shall be the lesse curious therefore in reciting them here In Vienna the Metropolis of Austria Frederick being Emperour there was a pond frozen according to the cold of those parts wherein three boyes as it too frequently happens were drowned when they were missed the imputation is cast upon the Jewes and they are incontinently indicted for murthering of them to celebrate their Passeover And being imprisoned after infinite prayers and supplications made to no effect three hundred of them were burnt when the pond thawd these

nothing but to praise God and to ask spirituall and temporall blessings and by our service and worship implore the divine benevolence protection and defence THE FIFTH SECTION BUt forrasmuch as it is reported that we draw and seduce others to our religion c. 1. Never unto this day in any part hath this been suspected where the Iewes are dispersëd nor can it find place here Truly I have held friendship with many great men and the wisest and most eminent of all Europe and also they came to see me from many places at my house and I had many friendly discourses with them yet did not this give occasion to make us suspected of any such things Yea Gaspar Barleus the Virgill of our time and many others have written many verses in my commendations which I mention not for vain glory farre be it but for vindication of my innocent repute 2. By our rituall books we are clear of this seducing For if any man offer to become a Iew of what Nation soever he be before we receive him and admit him as a member of our Synagogue we are bound to consider whether he be moved by necessity to do it or if it be not for that he is in love with some of our nation or for any other worldly respect And when we find no reason to suspect him we have yet another obligation upon us which is to let him know the penalties he subjects himself unto if he breaketh the Sabbath or eateth bloud or fat which is forbidden Levit. 3.17 or disannulleth any precept of the Law as may be seen in the Targum upon Ruth And if he shew himself constant and zealous then is he admitted and protected Wherefore we do not seduce any one but contrarily avoid disputing with men concerning religion not for want of charity but that we may as farre as it is possible avoid scandall and hate and for this cause we refuse to circumcise them that come to us because we will give no offence Yea I have known some that for this cause have circumcised themselves And if Ferdinand and Isabella King and Queen of Castile did make an order to expell the Iewes because they seduced many Christians and some of the Nobility to become Iewes this was but a pretence and colour for their tyranny and onely as it is well known having no other thing to object against us Truly I do much commend that opinion not onely of Osorius de rebus Immanuelis but of our Flavius Iosephus the most famous of all Historians which he relates in his history of his own Life At that time saith he there came unto me two Noble men of the Trachomites subjects of the king bringing with them horsemen with arms and money These when the Iewes would compell to be circumcised if they would live amongst them I would not suffer them to trouble them maintaining that every man ought to serve God of his own free will and not be forced thereto by others For should we do this thing saith he it might make them repent that ever they fled unto us And so perswading the multitude I did abundantly afford unto these men their food according to their diet Truly this was an action worthy or a noble and wise man and worthy of imitation for defending common liberty leaving the judgement and determination to God alone The Spanish Inquisitions with all their torments and cruelties cannot make any Iew that falls into their power become a Christian For unreasonable beasts are taught by blowes but men are taught by reason Nor are men perswaded to other opinions by torments but rather on the contrary they become more firm and constant in their Tenet THE SIXTH SECTION HAving thus discussed the main exceptions I will now proceed to smaller matters though lesse pertaining to my faculty that is to businesse of Merchandise Some say that if the Iewes come to dwell here they will draw unto themselves the whole Negotiation to the great damage of the naturall Inhabitants I answer that it hath been my opinion alwayes with submission to better judgements that it can be no prejudice at all to the English Nation because principally in transporting their goods they would gain much by reason of the publick payments of customes excise c. Moreover they would alwayes bring profit to the people of the land as well in buying of commodities which they would transport to other places as in those they would trade in here And if by accident any particular person should lose by it by bringing down the price of such a commodity being dispersed into many hands yet by that means the Commonwealth would gain in buying cheaper and procuring it at a lesser rate Yea great emolument would grow to the naturall Inhabitants as well in the sale of all provision as in all things else that concern the ornaments of the body Yea and the native Mechanicks also would gain by it there being rarely found among us any man that useth any such art 2. Adde to this that as our nation hath sailed into almost all parts of the world so they are alwayes herein profitable to a nation in a readinesse to give their opinions in favour of the people amongst whom they live Beside that all strangers do bring in new merchandises together with the knowledge of those forreign Countries wherein they were born And this is so farre from damnifying the natives that it conduces much to their advantage because they bring from their countryes new commodities with new knowledge For the great Work-Master and Creatour of all things to the end to make commerce in the earth gave not to every place all things but hath parted his benefits amongst them by which way he hath made them all wanting the help of others This may be seen in England which being one of the most plentifull countries that are in the world yet wanteth divers things for shipping as also wine oyl figs almonds raisins and and all the drougs of India things so necessary for the life of man And besides they want many other commodities which are abundant in other countries with more knowledge of them though it be true that in my opinion there is not in the world a more understanding people for most Navigations and more capable of all Negotiation then the English Nation are 3. Farther there may be companies made of the natives and strangers where they are more acquainted or else Factors All which if I be not deceived will amount to the profit of the natives For which many reasons may be brought though I cannot comprehend them having alwayes lived a sedentary life applying my self to my studies which are farre remote from things of that nature 4. Nor can it be justly objected against our Nation that they are deceivers because the generality cannot in any rationall way be condemned for some particulars I cannot excuse them all nor do I think but there may be some deceivers amongst them as well