is King of the whole world hauing in the word Echad many superstitious subtilties that the letter Daleth in regard of his place in the Alphabet signifieth foure and the word Echad contayneth in numerall letters two hundred fortie and fiue whereunto adding three hael elohechem emes God our Lord is true they make vp the number of two hundred fortie and eight and so many members there are in mans bodie for euerie member a prayer secures them all And this verse thrice recited secureth against the ill spirit They esteeme it a holy prayer by which miracles may bee wrought and therefore vse it morning and euening They haue another prayer called Schone esre that is eighteene because it contayneth so many thankesgiuing which they say twice a day and the chiefe chanter of the Synagogue singeth it twice by himselfe They thinke by this prayer to obtaine remission of their sinnes They must pray it standing so that one foot must not stand more on the ground then the other like the Angels And their foote was a right foote When they come to those words in it Holy holy holy Lord God of hosts they leape vp three times aloft And hee say their Chachamim which speaketh a word during this prayer shall haue burning coales giuen him to eate after his death These eighteene thanksgiuings are for the eighteene bones in the chine or back-bone which must in saying hereof be bended After this followeth a prayer against the Iewes reuolted to Christianitie and against all Christians saying These which are blotted out that is reuolters shall haue no more hope and all vnbeleeuers shall perish in the twinkling of an eye and all thine enemies which hate thee O GOD shall be destroyed and the proud and presumptuous Kingdome shall quickly be rooted out broken layd euen with the ground and at last shall vtterly perish and thou shalt make them presently in our dayes obedient to vs Blessed art thou God which breakest and subduest them which are rebellious They call the Turkish Empire the Kingdome of Ismael the Roman Edomiticall proud c. They are themselues indeed exceeding proud impatient and desirous of reuenge The Talmud sayth That the lying spirit in the mouth of Achabs Prophets which perswaded him to goe and fall at Ramoth Gilead was none other but the spirit of Naboth whom hee had before flaine And Victor Carbensis a Christian Iew testifieth That there are not vnder heauen a more quarrelsome people themselues acknowledging the Christians farre meeker then themselues when they haue this Prouerb that the modestie of the Christians the wisedome and industrie of the Heathens and faith of the Iewes are the three pillers which sustaine the world But to returne to their deuotions After those other before mentioned followeth a prayer for the good sort for Proselytes reedifying of the Temple for sending the Messias and restauration of their Kingdome In the end they pray GOD to keepe them in peace and when they come to these words Hee that makes peace aboue shall make peace ouer all Israel Amen they goe backe three paces bow themselues downewards bend their head on the right hand then on the left if some Christian bee there with an Image they must not bow but lift vp their heart This they doe for honours sake not to turne their hinder parts on the Arke and thus they goe like Crabbes out of the Synagogue vsing certaine prayers not running but with a slow pace lest they should seeme glad that their Mattins were done Other their niceties in praying as laying the right hand on the left ouer the heart not spetting nor breaking winde vp or downe not interrupted by a King to cease prayer to shake his bodie this way and that way not to touch his naked bodie and to say Amen with all his heart for they that say Amen are worthie to say it in the world to come And therefore Dauid endeth a Psalme with Amen Amen signifying that one is to bee said heere and the other in the other world also in a plaine eminent place purged from all filth freed from the sight of women his face to the East standing his feet close together fixing his eyes on the ground eleuating the heart to heauen c. I hold it enough thus to mention Their praying to the East must be vnderstood from our Westerne parts because Ierusalem standeth that way for otherwise Rambam sheweth that Abraham prayed in Mount Moriah toward the West and the Sanctum Sanctorum was in the West which place also Abraham set forth and determined And because the Gentiles worshipped the Sunne toward the rising therefore Abraham worshipped Westward and appointed the Sanctuarie so to stand The Talmud saith Praying to the South bringeth wisdome toward the North riches I might heere also adde their Letanie and Commemoration of their Saints almost after the Popish fashion As thus for a taste Wee haue sinned before thee haue mercie on vs O Lord doe it for thy names sake and spare Israel thy people Lord doe it for Abraham thy perfect one and spare Israel thy people Lord doe it for him which was bound in thy porches to wit in Mount Moriah where the Temple was afterward builded and spare Israel thy people Lord doe it for him which was heard in the ladder Iacob from thy high place and spare Israel thy people Lord doe it for the merit of Ioseph thy holy one c. Lord doe it for him which was drawne out of the waters Moses and spare c. Lord doe it for Aaron the Priest with Vrim and Thummim Lord grant it for him that was zealous for thy name Phineas Lord doe it for the sweet Singer Dauid Lord doe it for him which built thine house They name not any but expresse him after this sort And then proceed in like manner with the titles attributes and workes of GOD. Doe it for thy Name Doe it for thy Goodnesse for thy Couenant thy Law thy Glorie c. in seuerall versicles And then to their Saints in a new passage Doe it for Abraham Isaac and Iacob Doe it for Moses and Aaron for Dauid and Salomon as if their combined forces should effect more then single Doe it for Ierusalem the holy Citie for Sion for the destruction of thy house for the poore Israelites for the bare Israelites for the miserable Israelites for the Widdowes and Orphans for the sucking and wained and if not for our sake yet for thine owne sake Then in another forme Thou which hearest the poore heare vs thou which hearest the oppressed heare vs Thou which heardest Abraham c. With renuing a commemoration of their Saints larger then before and after some repeating the diuine titles in another tune they oppose their Saint and wicked ones together as Remember not the lye of Achan but remember Iosua forgiuing him and remember Heli and Samuel and so on in a tedious length CHAP. XVI Of their Ceremonies at home after
on three hills to wit Sion on which the Iebusites built their Tower and which in Dauids time was further builded on and called the Citie of Dauid The second hill was Mount Moriah which Dauid bought of Arauna to erect thereon the Temple The third was the higher Acra called the Suburbe These were compassed with one wall without and within diuided with three walls by which the Citie of Dauid and Moriah and the higher Acra were seuered In the circuit of the walls were nine gates Hee that desireth further to reade or rather to see the old Ierusalem with her holy Fabriques let him resort to Arias Montanus his Antiquitates Iudaicae where he both relateth and in figures presenteth these things It is supposed that Melchisedech built it about the yeere of the World 2023. and called it Salem Hierome in his 129. Epistle hath these words Ipsa Metropolis tua prius Iebus postea Salem tertio Hierosolyma nunc Aelia As if it were called Iebus before it had the name of Salem which is not so probable Yea Ierome himselfe in his 126. Epistle confutes Iosephus and the vulgar opinion that Salem was Ierusalem and sayth that Salem was a Towne neere to Scythopolis which remayned to his time where also were still shewed the ruines of Melchisedeks Palace the monument of her ancient and antiquate splendor The like Saint Ambrose in his Commentarie on Hebr. 7. The Kings thereof were anciently called Melchi-zedek or Adoni-zedek that is Kings or Lords of Iustice or of Zedek which some will haue the first name thereof and Salem the second this signifieth Peace Righteousnesse indeed and peace did here kisse each other when the Lord our righteousnesse here preached peace and was made our peace and righteousnesse the true Melchizedek whose Kingdome is righteousnesse peace and ioy in the holy Ghost It was after called Ierusalem by addition of the word Iereth as some thinke to the former name Salem For so it is said of Abraham when GOD tried his obedience in here offering his sonne hee called the place Iehoua iereh the Lord will prouide from which and Salem by composition ariseth this name so fitting both the Citie and mysterie Iosephus sayth it was first called Solyma and by Melchisedech named Hierosolyma of a Temple by him there built as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had beene the language of Ierusalem elsewhere he attributeth it to Dauid from an Hebrew deriuation which and other like Etimologies haue caused Masius to pronounce him ignorant of the Hebrew and educated onely in the Greeke as Scaliger somewhere affirmeth of Philo his companion in Nation learning and in that Grecian eloquence wherein they neuer had companions neither of their owne nor scarse of any other Nation The Iebusites after possessed and of them some deriue the name Ierusalem quasi Iebussalem till Dauid expelled them who had before raigned in Hebron called Cariatharbe the Citie of foure men say some because of Adam Abraham Isaac and Iacob their both dwelling and buriall there yet Adam others say was buried in mount Caluarie with other speculations curious and vncertaine Hee translated the highest seat both of spirituall and temporall Regiment to Ierusalem where he raigned after three and thirtie yeeres to whom succeeded Salomon and the rest in order It then contayned in circuit fiftie furlongs compassed with a great ditch threescore foot deepe and two hundred and fiftie broad Nabuchodonosor destroyed it Nehemias re-edified it three and thirtie furlongs in circuit The Machabees Herod and others added to her excellence till Titus befieged and tooke it in which siege are said to haue perished eleuen hundred thousand people and being now a Sepulchre of dead carkasses was made a spectacle of diuine vengeance for murthering the Lord of Life But those struggling spirits and small remnants of life which remayned in this forlorne carkasse of the sometime Ierusalem breathed a new rebellion in the time of Adrian and thereby breathed her last as before is said Bernard de Breidenbach sayth he neuer saw any place which had a fairer prospect then Ierusalem presenting to the eye Arabia the Plaine of Iericho and the dead Sea But what doe wee now in Aelia or the now Ierusalem whose rarities the iournals of many testifie Concerning the former The Historie of this Citie the Scripture hath recorded and where Diuine Historie endeth Iosephus and Hegesippus that I speake not of late Writers haue largely supplied especially concerning her latest fates and as I may terme it in her funerall Sermon Strabo Iustine and others haue written of this people but not sincerely But the fountaines are cleere enough to acquaint vs with their true originall which commeth next to bee considered CHAP. II. Of the Hebrew Patriarchs and their Religion before the Law also of their Law and Politie §. I. Of the Patriarchs and Religion before the Law THe name of Hebrewes some deriue from Abraham as if they were called Hebraei quasi Abrahai Arias Montanus telleth vs that this name of Hebrewes was not appropriate to any familie but common to all such as hauing passed ouer the Riuer Euphrates fixed their Tents and abode betweene that Riuer and the great Sea Hee gathereth this from the Hebrew word which signifieth to passe ouer Such an one first of all was Heber seeking a life answerable to his name whose example sayth hee Thare imitated and after Abram for his twofold transmigration from Chaldaea and from Haran deserued that name and left it to his posteritie But Iosephus Augustine and others more fitly in my mind of Heber the fourth from Shem the sonne of Noah with whose familie as wee haue sayd continued the ancient Language of the world called of his name Hebrew his sonne Peleg or Phaleg bearing the name of that diuision which at the time of his birth the rest of the world in their Languages sustained This Peleg was grand-father to Serug whom some affirme to haue beene the first maker of Idols which were afterwards worshipped by Nahor his sonne and Thare his Nephew the father of Abram who preached openly that there was but one God Creator and Gouernour of all things and by this doctrine prouoking the Chaldaeans against him warned by Oracle departed towards Canaan Bellarmine so eagerly swalloweth this opinion that he taxeth Caluine of heresie for attributing to Abraham the contrarie namely that Abraham before GOD called him out of Vr was an Idolater an opinion so much more probable then the other as hauing better authoritie For Ioshua obiecteth to the Israelites their fore-fathers Idolatrie and nameth Abraham amongst them And Genebrard doth so interprete it Masius in his Commentaries on that place both zealous and learned Papists yea Lindanus specifieth the Idolatrie and calleth him a worshipper of Vesta Suidas sayth that Abraham by the obseruation of the Creatures in his studie of Astronomie lifted vp his mind aboue the starres
side as many on the South and one on the East in euery of the corners were Oratories or Chappels erected In the middle hereof was the Temple raised of eight-square forme crusted within and without with Marble and Musaike worke hauing a sphericall roofe artificially couered with Lead Both the inner and outward square was paued with white stone whereby the raine water descended into many cisternes for that cause prouided In the midst of this Temple within the inner row of pillars there was a Rocke of prettie height with a Caue vnder it of the same stone vpon which they say Dauid saw the Angell standing which smote the people with pestilence after he had numbred them where also he then built an Altar This remained open to the view till the Westerne Christians winning the place couered it with Marble and erected thereon an Altar and Quire Baumgarten who was at Ierusalem a hundred and nine yeeres since and was thrust downe the staires by the Saracens saith this Temple is not now very large and that it is twelue-cornered with a round steeple in the midst thereon as on their steeple vsually a halfe Moone within were reported to burne continually two thousand Lampes The floore of the Church-yard being white Marble occupying a bow-shot about the Temple maketh such a reflexion of the Sun-beames that a man is not able to endure it This Temple the Saracens haue in such reuerence that the Soldan did then entitle himselfe the high Priest and defender of it They call it the Holy Rocke If any Iew or Christian enter therein they compell him to deny his Religion and turne Turke or else they cut him asunder in the middle which hapned to a Christian Maronite about sixe moneths before who in a Turkish habite had entred but being knowne for feare denied his Faith but with reluctation of his conscience reuoked this act soone after and liued after such a dismembring three houres Neere this Temple is another sometimes called Salomons porch by the Christians dedicate to our Ladie larger then is now that of Salomons in which eight hundred Lampes were said to burne continually Vnder both these wee are told that there is a large Vault with admirable rowes of pillars able to receiue many thousands Breidenbachius Chancellor and Deane of Mentz who visited those places aboue twentie yeeres before him writes almost the same things saue that hee placeth but seuen hundred Lampes in this Temple of Salomon or as the Saracens called it the Holy Rocke The Soldan then liuing had built another neere it with eightie eight Lampes continually burning Hee with his companions had like to haue beene slaine by the Saracens for offering to enter another Temple in Mount Sion wherein was said to bee the sepulchers of the Kings of Iuda The Saracens come farre in pilgrimage to the Holy Rocke so they call it of the Rocke aforesaid which is grated about with iron which they dare not touch for the reputed sanctitie and reported rarities thereof Melchisedechs offering Iacobs dreame of the Ladder which yet some haue ascribed to the stone now at Westminster Ieremies enclosing the Arke by some supposed to be still therein and a world of wonders told thereof Ludolphus Suthenensis relateth of that bloudie dissection of such as entred therein But it is high time for vs to bee gone out of it lest some wish vs cut asunder in the midst and this prolixe Historie made shorter by the halfe Thus Palestina continued wholly subiect to the Saracens who after being diuided into sects the Egyptian called Siha preuailed against the Persian or Easterne called Sunni and obtained all as farre as Antioch and the Christians of those parts were in some tolerable condition till the dayes of Hequen the Calipha who rased to the ground the Temple of the Resurrection built in the time of Constantine and repaired by Heraclius hee forbade them the keeping of holy solemnities and afflicted them with manifold other oppressions forcing many to Apostacie In the time of Daher sonne of Hequen the Church was re-builded Ann. Dom. 1048. But the greedie gouernours cruelly exacted on the Christians still threatning if their purposes were not effected to demolish their Temple Yet these full flies were farre more gentle then those their meagre and hungry successours the Turkes which hauing conquered these parts tyrannized most cruelly both here and in the parts of the lesser Asia Belpheth the Turke hauing ouerthrowne taken Diogenes the Christian Emperour in battell whom hee vsed at a Settle ascending or descending his Throne Thus Tyrius Raimond de Agiles testifieth that the Surians or Christians of those parts of whom remained about Libanus sixtie thousand at that time of the Franks inuasion so called as hee supposeth of Sur the name of Tyrus till this day endured such miserie both in this Turkish and that former Saracenicall slauerie that many were compelled to forsake their Religion and be circumcised some others for feare deliuered their young children to Circumcision and some were violently taken to this purpose out of their mothers bosomes the father being slaine and the mother violated Churches were subuerted Altars ouerthrowne and superstitious Images by a contrary superstition were done away and if any mans deuotion desired them in priuate they were forced by a monethly or yeerely price to redeeme them They prostituted in Stewes their sonnes and daughters and yet the mother durst not weepe at the sight §. III. Of the exploits of the Frankes and other Westerne Christians in Palestina THirtie eight yeeres they groaned vnder this Turkish yoke from which they were freed by the Franks and other Westerne Nations vnder the conduct of Godfrey of Buillon Robert of Normandie sonne to the Conquerour and other who by the instigation of Peter the Eremite first whom they so admired that his words and deeds were acounted diuine and the very hayre plucked off his Mule for Reliques and after of Pope Vrban calling a Councell at Claremont to this purpose crossed themselues to warre in and for the Holy land against the Infidels GOD blessed their designes and gaue into their hands all the three Palestina's for so they were diuided according to the three chiefe Cities Ierusalem the first the second vnder Caesarea the third adiacent to Scythopolis and subiected by the Christians to Nazareth From Antiochia to Aegypt and as farre as Edessa was subdued to the Christian Faith and Scepter farre more then Dauid or Salomon possessed They had saith Vitriaco foure principalities that of Edessa chiefe Citie after his account of Media the second of Antiochia the third of Tripoli the fourth of Ierusalem But of their happie atchieuements another place is fitter They which list to be acquainted with these warres besides Tyrensis Vitriacus Sanutus and others of later times may out of the writings of diuers eye-witnesses which were in that first expedition satisfie themselues as Robertus Monachus Raimundus de Agiles Fulcherius Carnotensis and diuers others
was called the Land of Israel after the diuision of the ten Tribes from the house of Dauid by Ieroboam in the time of Rehoboam the sonne of Salomon the name of Israel was more particularly appropriated to those ten rebellious Tribes and the other two were knowne by the name of the Kingdome of Iuda Yet Israel remayned in a generall sense the name of them all especially in the new Testament Paul of the Tribe of Beniamin calleth himselfe an Israelite and all Israel saith he in that Chapter shall be saued After the Babylonian captiuitie they were called Iewes of the chiefe and royall Tribe and their Countrey Iudaea It was also called Palaestina of the Philistims which inhabited the Sea-coast And after in the times of the Christians it was generally called the Holy Land Phoenicia also being vnder that name comprehended It is situated betweene the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Mountaynes Ptolemey calleth it Palaestina Syriae and Iudaea abutting it on the North with Syria on the East and South with Arabia Petraea on the West with part of Egypt and the Sea Adrichomius who hath bestowed a large Volume on this subiect which he calleth the Theater of the holy Land on the East confineth it with Syria and Arabia on the South the Desart Pharan and Egypt on the North Mount Libanus on the West the Sea Maginus placeth a part of Phoenicia on the North on the North-east Libanus on the South and part of the East Arabia on the West part of the Mediterranean Sea It is extended from the South to the North from the one and thirtieth degree to the three and thirtieth and somewhat more Others set it downe in other words but these and they agree for the most part in substance It is commonly holden to bee an hundred and sixtie Italian miles in length from Dan to Bersebee and sixtie in bredth An exact diuision thereof into twelue shires or shares Ioshua setteth downe at large with their Bounds and Cities from the thirteenth Chapter of that Booke to the one and twentieth as they were by lot and diuine dispensation allotted to the twelue Tribes the posteritie of Iacobs twelue sonnes onely Ephraim and Manasses the sonnes of Ioseph constituted two Tribes and therefore had the double portion descending of Iacobs eldest sonne by Rachel his first intended wife and Leui had no portion but was scattered in Israel to keepe Israel from scattering and to vnite them in one Religion to one GOD who disposed that curse into a blessing Reuben Gad and halfe the Tribe of Manasses had their portion on the East side of Iordan the other halfe of Manasses with Simeon Iuda Beniamin Ephraim Naphthali Aser Dan Izachar Zabulon had their portions assigned betwixt Iordan and the westerne Sea They which would be fully acquainted with their seuerall diuisions may finde in Ioshua himselfe to satisfie them and in the Commentaries which Andraeas Masius and others haue written on that Scripture Laicstaine More Stella Adrichomius and Arias Montanus haue in Maps presented them to the eye HONDIVS his Map of Terra Sancta TABULA CANANAEAE protit tempore Christi et Apostolorum divisa fuit Neither in the whole World beside is there I thinke found any Region hauing more Cities in so small a space then this sometime had except we beleeue that which is told of the thousands of Egypt Some reckon in each Tribe these as royall Cities in Aser Achsaph besides Sidon and Tyrus in Beniamin Bethel Gabaa Ierusalem Iericho in Dan Lachis besides Acaron and Gath in Ephraim Gazer Samaria Saron Taphua in Gad Rabba in Isachar Aphece in Iuda Arad Bezec Eglon Hebron Lebna Maceda Odolla Taphua in Manasse 1. Dor Galgal Iezrael Mageddo Tanac Thersa in Manasse 2. Astaroth Edrai Gessur Machati Soba Theman and Damascus in Nepthalim Asor Cedes Emath in Reuben Heshbon Madian Petra in Simeon Dabir Gerara in Zabulon Ieconan Semeron The like Catalogue hee maketh of Episcopall Cities in this Land while it was Christian My purpose is not to write of all but especially of such as are in some respect eminent And first let me dip my Pen in Iordan This saith Plinie is a pleasant Riuer and as far as the situation of places will permit ambitious prodigally imparting it selfe to the Inhabitants and as it were vnwilling passeth to that cursed Lake Asphaltites of which at last it is drunke vp losing his laudable waters mixed with those pestilent As soone therefore as the Valleyes giue opportunitie it spreadeth it selfe into a Lake called Genesara sixteene miles long and sixe broad enuironed with pleasant Townes Iulias and Hippo on the East on the South Tarichea and Tiberias on the West made wholesome with his hot waters The Fountaynes of this Riuer are two called Ior and Dan which compounding their Streames doe also compound their Names as Tame and Isis with vs bring forth happy Parents our Tames or Thamisis Here was the Citie Dan so called of the Danites before Laish Iud. 18.29 and Leshem Ios. 19.47 But before this time both the Riuer had the same name Iordan and the place it selfe at the foote of Libanus whence the Fountayne springeth was called Dan Gen. 14.14 when Moses wrote except wee beleeue Masius that the Pentateuch and other Scriptures were by Ezra after the captiuitie digested into that forme with those names which we now haue Here was after built Caesarea Paneadis called afterward of Philip the Tetrach Caesarea Philippi and after that by Agrippa Neronia This ioyning of Ior and Dan is the beginning of the apparant streame but the true and first conception of it is in Phiale one hundred and twentie furlongs from Caesarea a Fountayne of vnsearchable depth which yet like some miserable Churle alwayes contayneth the waters in it selfe till sinking and as it were buried in the earth those treasures being by Natures stealth conueyed vnder ground vnto Dan or Paneas who is liberall of that Vsurers wealth for into that Phiale powre as much as you will it neuer increaseth or decreaseth and thence it becommeth a Riuer Philip the Tetrach of Trachonitis by casting chaffe therein which was paid him againe at Dan first found out this vnder-earth passage The Saracens call that Phiale in this respect Medan that is the waters of Dan. Before it maketh the Lake of Genezareth it maketh another called Samachonitis This is especially filled when the snowes on Libanus are melted which causeth Iordan then to swell and ouer-flow his bankes in the first moneth yeerly and made the miracle in Ioshua's passage thorow it the more miraculous but in Summer it is almost dried vp and by reason of that matter which therein groweth is a harbor for wild beasts It is called the waters of Meron halfe way betweene Caesarea Philippi where the marriage betweene Ior and Dan is solemnized and the Lake of Genezareth Elias and after his assumption his cloke diuided these streames Naamans leprosie was here
and by the glorie and order of them learned the knowledge of GOD neuer ceasing that diuine search till GOD appeared to him Which opinion may reconcile both the former that first he was and after ceased to be an Idolater before God appeared in vision to him He alledgeth Philo for his Author that at fourteene yeeres Abraham reproued Thara for seducing men vnto Idolatrie moued by his priuate lucre with Images and seeing the Heauen sometime cleare sometime cloudie he gathered that that could not bee GOD. The like hee concluded of the Sunne and Moone by their Eclipses for his father had taught him Astronomie At last GOD appeared and bade him leaue his Countrey Whereupon hee tooke his Fathers Images who as before is said was an Image-maker and partly broke partly burnt them and then departed Suidas further thinketh him the first inuenter of Letters of the Hebrew tongue and of the interpretation of dreames which I leaue to the Authors credit But for the fault of Abraham before his calling and other blemishes after in him and the rest of the Patriarchs what doe they else but in abounding of mans sinne set out the superabounding grace of GOD and are profitable as learned Morton in his answere of this cauill hath out of one of their owne obserued against them what he had obserued out of Augustine to these foure purposes Faith Instruction Feare and Hope the Faith of the Historie which flattereth or concealeth the faults of none Instruction to vertue by seeing others faults taxed Feare for what shall Shrubs doe if Cedars fall and Hope that wee imitate their repentance by seeing their pardon But to returne to our Historie Many of the Ethnike histories mention him Berosus commendeth him for his iustice and skill in Astronomie Nic. Damascenus sayth that hee raigned at Damascus and that in his time his house continued in Damascus and was still called by his name Hecataeus wrote a booke of him and Alexander Polyhistor telleth that hee was borne in the tenth generation after the floud in Camarine or Vrien a Citie of Babylon Iosephus addeth that when famine draue him into Aegypt hee disputed with the Priests and most learned Aegyptians in questions of Diuinitie and in their diuided Sects hauing confuted one by another he communicated to them the truth both in this and in Arithmeticke and Astronomie whereof before the Aegyptians were ignorant Abram sayth Master Broughton in his Consent was borne sixtie yeeres later then the common account as appeareth by computation of Terahs age who died at two hundred and fiue yeeres and after his death Abram went from Charan into Canaan the threescore and fifteenth yeere of his owne life and therefore was borne in the hundred and thirtieth and not in the seuentieth yeere of his father in the three hundred fiftie and two yeere after the Floud whereas the common opinion reckoneth the two hundred ninetie and two To Abram GOD had giuen commandement saying Goe from thy Countrey and from thy Kindred and from thy Fathers house into the Land which I shall shew thee and I will make of thee a great Nation c. His Historie is fully related by Moses and his progenie also whereof Ismael his Sonne by Agar and other his sonnes which he had by Ketura his second wife he sent to inhabite the East Countrey Arabia in his life time but Isaac was made his Heire both temporall and spirituall to whom Iacob succeeded in the promised blessing who with his sonnes and familie went downe into Aegypt where his posteritie multiplied exceedingly and were called sometimes Ebrewes of their ancient pedegree sometime Israelites of the name Israel giuen to Iacob by the Angell Gen. 32.28 Their whole Historie so largely and plainely in holy Writ recorded I feare to make Mine by euill reciting Those Fountaines are more open to all then that any should neede ours or others Brookes mixed with some myrie earth at least in the passage and my intent is to bee largest in relation of those things which are not in the Scriptures onely touching those things briefly for order sake Their Religion meane while was the best amongst the best though stayned in some as Rachel which stale her father Labans Idols and Iacob was forced to reforme his Familie in this respect and after in Aegypt they were corrupted with the Aegyptian superstition as Ezechiel protests against them The manner of Diuine worship was not so straitly limited as afterwards to persons and places By Reuelation and Tradition they receiued the religious worship wherein they instructed their posteritie vntill that in their extremest thraldome GOD sent Moses and Aaron to deliuer them vnder whose conduct they passed through the Sea and Wildernesse to the brinkes of Iordan receiuing in the way that Law which as a Tutor or Schoole-master was in that their nonage to traine them vp vntill that full and ripe age when GOD sent his Sonne made of a woman made vnder the Law that hee might redeeme them that were vnder the Law that wee might receiue the adoption of Sonnes §. II. Of the Law of MOSES the twelue Tribes and of Proselytes OF this Law although Moses hath giuen vs an absolute relation in Scripture whereof he was the first Pen-man of that at least which remayneth vnto vs yet if wee shall out of him bring them into their order and ranke them vnder their seuerall heads as Sigonius and others haue done it shall not be I thinke ouer-tedious to the Reader The Law is diuided vsually into the Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall as parts of the same the first deliuered on the Mount Sinai by the dreadfull voice of the Almightie God and by the finger of God written after in Tables of stone called Ten words summarily abridged into two Commandements by the Law-giuer himselfe The first and great Commandement enioyning the loue of GOD the second of our NEIGHBOVRS that God who himselfe is Charitie imposing nothing but the louely yoke of Loue and Charitie vnto his seruants This Law is eternall written first in the hearts of our first Parents which being defaced it was written againe in the stonie Tables of the Law where it was but a killing letter till Grace and Truth by IESVS CHRIST indited and indented it in the fleshy Tables of the Gospell as Christs new Commandement written it renewed hearts and shall for euer be then grauen in those spirituall Tables when wee that here are Naturall men shall rise againe Spirituall men and shall be the Law of that holy Citie the new Ierusalem this being then perfected when Faith and Hope and this World shall bee finished The other parts Ceremoniall and Iudiciall were for the particulars proper vnto that Nation the one respecting the manner of Diuine seruice the other of ciuill Gouernment not giuen as the other immediatly to the Israelites by GOD himselfe but communicated in the Mount to Moses that hee might acquaint the
Messias is come represented that Scepter by the holy Ghost in Iacob promised to Iuda and therefore not only vnder the Kings and Iudges did exercise iudgement but also when there was no King or Iudge in Israel Of their qualitie it is thus written They appointed none said R. Iohanan but men of wisedome stature and of goodly presence and of old age and cunning in exorcismes and vnderstanding the seuenty Tongues that they might not need interpreters Their Stature and comlinesse Rabbi Selomoh saith was required to acquire them reuerence and skill in enchantment to conuince such Wizards There were required the whole number of seuenty and one in determining the going to Warre in adding to a Citie or the reuenues of the Temple or in conuenting the ordinarie Iudges of the Tribes To constitute one of this number they vsed imposition of hands R. Iudas saith of fiue A Wolfe Lyon Beare Leopard and Serpent were to be slaine by the three and twent e. The great Colledge called Sanhedre ghedola consisted of seuenty and one the lesse of three and twenty That odde number aboue seuenty was to supply the roome of Moses which was ouer those first seuenty Hereby Galatinus gathereth that in the Councell that condemned Christ there was the whole number of seuenty and one which is true if Herod had not before disanulled that society The greater Sanhedrin ordained the lesse for those seuenty ordained all the Sessions of Judges which in other Cities and Places ruled the people and to this Court of the seuenty in Ierusalem they were all subiect The place where they sate was called Gazith that is Carued whereof this Court had the name as the Starre-chamber with vs Other Courts or houses of Iudgement they had diuers of the three and twenty One of them sate in the Gate of the Mountaine of the Temple another in the Gate of the Court others in euery Citie And when there was a controuersie it was first brought to that Citie or Towne and so to the rest if occasion required in order to that in the Gate of the Mount after to that in the Court-gate and last to the Gazith Consistory in which they sate from Morning till Night On Sabbaths and solemne dayes they sate on the Wall But when Herod obtained the Scepter he slew Hercanus and his sonne Antigonus which had beene King and Priest and also all of the seede Royall and burnt the Genealogies of their Kings And further to establish his Throne in blood hee killed the Scribes and Doctors of the Law and caused all the Sanhedrin to be done to death Because the Rabbanan they are the words of the Talmud had said according to Deut. 17. From among thy brethren thou shalt set a King ouer thee He slew the Rabbanan or Masters reseruing only Baba the sonne of Bota whose eyes hee after put out And therefore the Sanhedrin perished for as is said fiue or at least after R. Ismal three were necessary to the ordination by the imposition of hands But there were by Herods permission other Iudges instituted to be vnder the King like the former Colledge but had no authority of sentence in waighty and criminall causes and therefore they said to Pilate It is not lawfull for vs to put any man to death as some thinke But others maintaine the contrary Betramus taketh a middle course that the Iewes might examine and condemne but then were to present the condemned party to the Roman Magistrate for execution except in the cause of stoning wherein they tooke more libertie as in the Acts of the Apostles by Stephen and Paules example appeareth After their false sentence pronounced against Christ they were expelled from the Consistory Gazith fortie yeeres before the destruction of the Temple and afterwards by the commaundement of the Romanes were all slaine They being expelled Gazith held their Consistory at Hamith another place in Ierusalem but saith R. Abdimi with the place they lost their power in criminall Iudgements which might not bee giuen but in Gazith So do the Rabbines interpret the words Deut. 17.10 According to the words which they of that place shew thee thou shalt doe They had inferior punishments with the whippe for smaller offences In which the Law had stinted them at forty stripes and they abated one of that number for feare of exceeding as Paul saith Hee had fiue times receiued forty stripes saue one The whippe was of Calues leather as Drusius affirmeth Betramus saith that they had in each City seuen Iudges in money matters whereof three were principall two Leuites and one of the rest from whence the number is said to be but three They had also ten Aediles Taskers or Iudges of the Market one of which was of the Priestly Stocke They had in Ierusalem an vnder-Prouost or Captaine of the Temple In other Cities of their dispersion they had Synagogues and Magistrates as at Alexandria Antiochia Sardis and other Cities where they had obtained priuiledges and immunities That which is spoken of their threefold Consistory consisting eyther of 3. or 23. or 71. Buxtorfius thus relateth that that of 3. was appointed in such habitations which had vnder the number of 120. House-holders and that it behooued alwaies two of the three to agree in their sentence The other of twenty three was in greater Townes or Cities and dealt in greater matters the former in money matters this in criminall and in the Gates of the City and was called the lesse Synedrium The greater was at Ierusalem where the wisest was chosen to bee President of the Councell as successour to Moses Caput Curiae so they called him and Nasi the wisest of the other 70. was adioyned as his Colleague called Ab-beth-din The Father of the Consistory These two sate alone somewhat separate from the rest which made a halfe circle so that these two might see them all The manifold mutations of their State by the Babylonians Persians Macedonians Egyptians Sytians Romans and ciuil wars amongst themselues did both then change the face of Gouernement and haue made it now to vs obscure and vncertaine §. IIII. Of the Iewish Excommunications NOW concerning the Iewish Excommunications Drusius hath obserued that the Iewes had three kinds and degrees of Excommunications Niddui Herem Samatha the first signifieth a Remouing the second Anathema the third the same which the Apostle calleth Maran-atha by the first they are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which is an example Gen. 4.4 excommunicated from the Ecclesiasticall Assemblies Hee which was thus Excommunicated was called Menudde and the denouncers Menuddim There were foure and twenty causes for the which it was inflicted If any died therein without repentance they iudged him worthy of stoning and therfore stoned his coffin whereof they giue example in one Eleazer the sonne of Henoch They might enter the Temple when they were excommunicated but that they might enter the Synagogue is vnlikely Thus they write
Reliques thereof that a stone was not left vpon a stone and there in the same place dedicated another Temple to Iupiter that former being ouer-whelmed with earth Iulian gaue leaue to the Iewes to re-edifie the Temple in despight of Christian Religion and contributed frankly thereto but Ammianus Marcell a Heathen Writer witnesseth That fire issued out of the Earth and burned both worke and worke-men when as an Earth-quake which had before saith Zozomen killed a great many in the very attempting of this Worke could not deterre them from proceeding in their purpose And Crosses miraculously fallen on the garments of many did both teach them to forsake their Iudaisme and to become Christians Chrysostome mentioneth this and saith That vnder Adrian the Iewes sought to recouer their liberty and lost their Countrey Vnder Constantine they attempted the like who therefore cut off their eares and branded their bodies for Rebels as the elder of you saith hee to his Auditors doe know And in our daies about twenty yeeres since Iulian the Emperour was at great expences appointed Officers sent for worke-men from all places thinking to frustrate Christs Prophecie concerning the Temple and to bring the Iewes to Idolatrie But so soone as they had attempted this businesse and bared the foundation had drawne foorth the Earth and were now ready to beginne their building a fire burst forth from the foundations and burned many which caused them to cease And if you now goe to Ierusalem you may see the foundations naked hereof we all are witnesses Neither did this happen vnder Christian Emperours lest any should impute it to the Christians but vnder an Ethnick when Christianitie was persecuted Thus much in effect Chrysostome Gregorie Nazianzen also testifieth the same affirming that the Earth as it were taking a vomit from the Diuine hand spued out the stones which yet till this day had continued therein and dispersed them to the great damage of the neighbour-buildings Other holy places they had which the Scripture mentioneth as high places which were high hills or other open and lofty places shaded for the most part with Trees The Prophets enuey against them and they were commanded to be destroyed together with the Groues some yet were permitted either by extraordinary command for a time as to Gedeon and to Manoah or because of the Tabernacle at Gibeon or of the Arke at Ierusalem The not reforming this toleration of high places is reckoned as an eclipse of Iehosaphats and Asas glory which Ezekiah and Iosiah quite remoued and polluted These high and open places it seemeth were consecrated as fitting to the celestiall bodies to which and to Baal who is interpreted the Sunne they vsed for the most part on them to Sacrifice They had also their Houses and Temples for Baal in Israel and Iuda and Dan and Bethel were by Ieroboam dedicated to his Aegyptian Idolatrie and Gilgal was a place of request in this kinde Salomon also built Temples or houses for his Idolatrous wiues And to reckon euery particular in this kind were a worke endlesse in the 2. Reg. 17. 23. and other places enough is of them recorded Two other Temples were erected of some reputation one by Sanballat at Samaria on Mount Garizin by licence obtained of Alexander the Great whose part he followed rebelling against Darius his true Lord The occasion was because Manasses brother of Iaddi the High Priest had married contrary to Gods law Nicaso daughter of Sanballat and was forced either to leaue his Priestly function or Heathenish bed Whereupon Sanballat hauing obtained licence to build that Temple aforesaid constituted him the High Priest thereof many other Priests for the like fault resorting thither to him But of these Samaritanes wee shall haue fitter occasion to say more when wee come to handle their Sects Ptolemaeus Philometor granted licence to Onias the sonne of the high-Priest Onias whom Antiochus had slaine who for the same cause had here shrowded himselfe to build a Temple indueed hereunto by a false interpretation of the Prophecy of Esay at Leontopolis in the shire as I may tearme it or Nomus of Heliopolis hauing Priests and Leuites ministring therein and other things answering in some sort to that of Ierusalem When the Temple of Ierusalem was burnt by Titus this Temple was shut vp also by Lupus the Deputie three hundred and thirty yeeres after it had beene builded and after by his successor Paulinus vtterly despoyled both of the wealth and the Religion The Citie was called of Onias Onion It had a Tower and an Altar like that of Ierusalem but in steade of a Candlesticke a Lampe of gold hanging on a chaine of gold enriched by the Kings with large reuenues Synagogues the Iewes had many both in Ierusalem where are said to haue beene foure hundred and fourescore and all Cities of Iudea and among the Gentiles where the Iewes were dispersed When they first began to be builded is vncertaine Cornelius Betramus thinketh That the eight and forty Cities of the Leuites had their fit places for Assemblies whence Synagogues had beginning In these Synagogues the Archisynagogi were in place of Leuites and Prophets sometimes diuers in the same Synagogue as Sosthenes and Crispus in that of Corinth which on festiual daies did performe the publique pryers and read the Law and the Prophets expounding the same themselues or authorising others hereunto so that they which first were called Prophets were afterward Scribes and Lawyers and in the Synagogues Archisynagogi They had authority also as it seemeth of Iurisdiction in punishing offenders The Cities of the Leuites were as Nurseries of learning and Vniuersities for the studies of Diuinitie And in the reformation of Religion by Elias and Elisha the Schooles of the Prophets were as Colledges and the sonnes of the Prophets students of Diuinitie which had a Rector ouer them as may seeme by 2. King 6. and other places where also their gesture in hearing their Lectures appeareth to be sitting and therefore their Schooles or Academies were called Sessions In their Synagogues also they kept both their Ciuill and Ecclesiasticall Courts The Synagogues of Forreiners at Ierusalem were also Colledges of Students Sigonius coniectureth That their Babylonian exile ministred occasion to them to helpe themselues with these Houses of Prayer and instruction The word Synagogue is taken both for the Assemblies whether in this place or out of it and for the place it selfe hauing a Ciuill as well as a Religious vse And these Synagogues they haue in the place of their dispersion vnto this day The order they obserued in their Synagogues was this They disputed and preached sitting the Elders sate in Chaires which were set in order of which Christ saith They loue the chiefe seates in Synagogues those of meaner sort sate in seates and the meanest of all on the floore vpon Mats and not onely one did dispute or
thirtie peeces of siluer were sold thirtie of them for one peece Thus were these men forsaken of GOD that had forsaken GOD made man who for man had vouchsafed to crie to GOD Why hast thou forsaken mee Their owne Talmud relates how GOD had before forsaken their holies in these words Fortie yeeres before the desolation of the Temple the lot no more ascended on the right hand nor did the peece of scarlet grow white nor the euening Lampe burne and the doores of the Temple opened of themselues The time is the passion of Christ when the vaile of the Temple was rent which is here called a selfe-opening of the doores The Lot is that Leuit. 16.8 which was cast for the two Goates that on the right hand was sacrificed the other was sent into the Wildernesse and a peece of scarlet put betweene his Hornes at the doore of the Temple which if it looked white they reioyced as hauing their sinnes pardoned according to that Es 1.18 their scarlet sins should be as white as snow These signes ceasing argued a ceasing of that Ceremoniall Religion which then died when Christ died although for the more honorable funerall they were not quite buried so soone till the Apostles had preached and by miracles confirmed the Gospell and GODS Iustice had made the Temple it selfe sometimes the throne now the Sepulchre of those ceremonies buried in the ruines of that holy Citte and Temple not thence to be raked or reuiued by any without Antichristian Sacriledge But let vs see what followed amongst the Iewes which reiected Christ the Truth body and substance of their typicall Ceremonies §. II. Of the Destruction of the Iewes vnder ADRIAN GAlatinus tels vs of two false Prophets whom comming in their owne name they receiued for their Messias hauing before refused IESVS that came in his Fathers name both these were called Ben or Barchosba that is the sonne of lying The one not long after the Passion of CHRIST if the Iewes bee not the sonnes of lying which write it the other in the time of Adrian Rabbi Akiba famous for his wisedome for his twentie foure thousand Disciples and for his long life receiued both in their succeeding ages and interpreted to the first that place of Haggai I will shake the heauens c. But afterward the slew him as the Salmud witnesseth which also affirmeth that Titus enioyned the Iewes which he suffered to remaine that from thence they should no more obserue Sabbaths nor abstaine from menstruous women Fortie eight yeeres after the destruction of Ierusalem the Iewes made the Citie Bitter to be their chiefe Citie and rebelled by the perswasion of Benecochab so he called himselfe that is the sonne of the Starre Of him Hierome testifieth that he had a iuggling tricke to kindle straw in his mouth breath it forth as if he had spit fire Of him did R. Akiba which had beene Armour-bearer to the former interpret that Prophecie of Balaam Num. 23. There shall arise a starre of Iacob Adrian then Emperor besieged them in Bitter where if you beleeue the Iewish fables were 80000. which sounded Trumpets euery one of them captaines of many Bands which helped Barchosba so they called him after that is the sonne of lying who had two hundred thousand Souldiers which to testifie their loue and valour had cut off euery man a finger from his hand After three yeeres and six moneths the Citie was taken and this their Messias slaine together with such multitudes that the blood reached to the horses mouthes and carried downe great streames with the streame thereof running to the Sea foure miles from Bitter And Adrian had a Vine-yard eighteene miles square which he hedged with those slaine carkasses as high as a man can reach a reacher I thinke There were two Riuers in the Region of Ierico and the third part of them by estimation of the Wise-men was the blood of the slaine and seuen yeeres together did the people of the Gentiles fatten and hearten their Vines only with the blood of the Iewes Adrian slue also at Alexandria in Egypt seuen hundred thousand Iewes Dion Niceus a more credible Author affirmeth that Adrian sent Seuerus against the Iewes who in regard of their multitudes would not trie it with their ioynt forces in set battell but taking his occasions and best oportunitie proceeded more slowly and more surely tooke fiftie of their fortified Castles rased nine hundred and fourescore of their best Townes slue at sundry times fiue hundred and eightie thousand of their men besides innumerable multitudes which perished of famine sicknesse and fire these gleanings being greater then the other Haruest Salomons Sepulchre by falling downe had fore-signified this their downe-fall And Hyaena's and Wolues prodigiously entring their Cities seemed to howle their Funerall obsequies All Iudaea was left almost desolate Eusebius out of Ariston Pellaeus addeth that Adrian prohibited the Iewes by an Edict to come neere to Ierusalem or once from any high place to looke towards the same or the Region adioyning Neuer did Nabuchodonosor or Titus so afflict the Iewes as Adrian did Salmanticensit saith there was a Decree made at Rome that no Iewe should euer enter Cyprus where the Rebellion beganne and that Adrian destroyed twice as many Iewes as had come out of Egypt with Moses Wee haue alreadie shewed how hee destroyed this Citie and built a new the present Ierusalem called of his owne name Aelia Hee made Swine ouer the Gates of this new Citie which Images were most faithfull Porters to prohibite the Iewes faithfully superstitious in their faithlesse superstitions to enter And as hee had erected a Temple to Iupiter in or neere the place where the Temple had stood so to afflict the Christians also hee built another Temple of Iupiter in Golgatha and of Venus at Bethleem which continued till the time of Constantine The Christian Iewes gayned by this losse For when as they might not come to Ierusalem they afterwards relinquished their wonted Iewish Ceremonies This was the end of Barchosba And such is the end of all which fight against GOD and their Soueraigne their Arrowes which they shoote against the Cloudes fall downe vpon themselues Hee proues a falling Star which being but a grosser elementarie exhalation is eleuated by his owne aspiring course not to the firmament but to some higher Region of the ayre where it shineth with the fire which burnes it and moueth with some short glance till with selfe-ruine it returneth whence it had beginning to the Earth Thus haue we seene the Iewes banished their countrie about the yeere 135. agreeing to which their miserable estate was that order of Men mentioned by Scaliger called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mourners Heraclitus his Heires which spent their time in weeping and intended nothing but Lamentation for the Desolation of their Sanctuarie These haue beene among the Iewes saith he euer since this destruction and
themselues and theirs to the Bishop Rothard who bestowed them with their infinite masse of treasure in his owne house which yet could not protect them from the murthering and spoyling Souldier who entring by force slew seuen hundred of them adding also the like butcherie on their wiues and children The Iewes hereat Iewishly moued pardon the want of a fitter word layd violent hands on each other and slew their owne children wiues and brethren the tender mother eschewing the souldiers cruelty by a greater in cutting the throate of her owne childe and with obdurate concision preuenting the sword of the vncircumcised Laden with these spoyles they passed by the way of Hungary where for some outrages GOD punished both those and these with the Hungarian forces Their miseries here in our Land endured are by our Authors mentioned and you shall anon heare a particular discourse thereof by it selfe Out of France they were thrice banished by three Philips although in Auinion there still remayne some of them Being expelled France they sought habitation in Germany where Conradus the Emperor admitted them into the countrey of Sueuia and thence they flowed into other parts into Bohemia in the City of Prage are about fifteene thousand of them and into Austria and into Hungaria whence for the crucifying of a child they were banished by king Mathias as at Trent for the like fact and poysoning of Welles they sustained much trouble in Germany and many passed to Venice many also went from thence into Russia where the people cannot abide to here them named and Poland where Cassimere he Great for loue of an Hebrew Lasse gaue them many priuiledges They liue dispersed in the townes and Villages occupied in handi-crafts and husbandry They haue great Synagogues in Craconia Leopolis and at Trochi a towne of Lituania and Master Barkeley a Marchant of London who hath spent many yeeres in Liuonia Polonia and other of those cold countries told me That the Iewes farme the Custome of the Kings and at Samaiden in Cur-land one of these Iewish Customers beat out the braines of a Polonish Marchant for deferring to open his packe but in regard of the peoples hatred prouision is made vnder great penalties for their securitie and yet many Iewes were there executed by occasion of a murren procured as was suspected by Iewish exorcismes intending a plague to the men and not a murren to the beasts if their working had sorted but the Iewes said it was but a pretence to depriue them of their riches They were cast out of Spaine by Ferdinand and Isabella in the yeere 1492. It is thought that there went out of Spaine a hundred and twentie thousand families of them besides Moores and out of their kingdomes of Naples and Sicill Hence they passed Anno Domini 1539. into Tuscane and the Popes Dominions whence they were banished by Paul the fourth and Pius the fifth and receiued againe by Pius the fourth and Sistus the fifth Rome and Venice hauing great store of them This is the Popes holinesse he that would not willingly endure a Protestant in the World besides the Stewes vnder his Holinesse Nose can endure the Graecians yea and these Iewes Rome it selfe hauing ten thousand or after others reckoning twentie thousand of them priuiledged with heir fiue Synagogues Liturgies and publike Sermons and to straine vp their vsurie to eighteene in the hundred hauing also in some places it may be in all a peculiar Magistrate to decide controuersies betweene Christians and them with particular direction to fauour them in their trade Dulcis odor lucri ex re qualibet The beastly trade of Curtizans and cruell trade of Iewes is suffered for gaine these paying a yeerely rent for the heads they weare besides other meanes to racke and wracke them in their purses at pleasure they being vsed as the spunge-like Friers to suck from the meanest to be squeezed of the greatest insomuch that the Pope besides their certaine tribute doth sometimes as is said impose on them a Subsidie for ten thousand crownes extraordinarie for some seruice of State So well is the rule of Paul obserued by this Bishop not to be a louer of filthy lucre from filthie Stewes from filthie Iewes Out of Spaine they went into Barbarie and diuers other countries and some into Portugall where Iohn the second made them pay eight crownes for a poll and yet limited them short time of departure Emanuel his successor did the like 1497. except they would become Christians for which he assayed diuers meanes But not preuayling he caused their children vnder the age of foure and twentie yeers to be baptized some rather hurling their children into pits some killing themselues many for feare were baptized some went into Italie and abode in Ferrara Mantua Venetia in the name of Maranes and haue a Synagogue at Pisa But the greatest part of them went into the East to Constantinople and Salonichi in which two Cities there are about an hundred and sixtie thousand of them There are of them in all the chiefe Cities of traffike in the Turkish Empire Tyberias is wholly inhabited with Iewes which Citie Zelim gaue to Gratiola a Iewish Matron In Ierusalem there are about an hundred houses of them There abide not many because of a superstitious opinion That before the Messias shall come a great fire from heauen will consume that Citie and Countrie to purge it of the abomination committed there by prophane Nations At Zante they are so hated that from Maundie Thursday vntill Saturday noone they dare not come abroad for the people in a foolish zeale would stone them and some refuse to eate of their meate or bread The Turkes in their reproach vse such a kinde of imprecation If this be not true would God I might die a Iew. The old Testament is read of them in these parts in the Hebrew but their Kakamin and Cohens that is their wise-men and Priests preach in Spanish Onely at Salonichi anciently Thessalonica in Macedonia and at Safetta in the Holy Land two Vniuersities they speake Hebrew They will rather in blasphemie testifie their hatred of Christ then any abilitie to dispute §. V. Of the Estate of the Iewes and their dispersed Habitations in the time of Beniamin Tudelensis BENIAMIN TVDELENSIS a Iew of Nauarre who hauing trauelled Spaine France Italy Greece Natolia Syria and many other Countries of Asia Africke and Europe worthily reckoned one of the greatest Trauellers that euer liued at his returne into Spaine aboue foure hundred and fortie yeeres since related what Iewish Synagogues he had seene in the world one chiefe end as it seemeth of his trauels And because it appertayneth to this matter we haue in hand and the booke translated out of Hebrew by Arias Montanus is very rare I thought meete to adde here a briefe of those things which concerne the Iewes out of the same At Barchinon they found a populous Synagogue another but smaller at Gerunda
fire where were twentie three thousand Iewes Fortie dayes sayling from thence was the Kingdome of Sinne from which to Gingalan was fifteene dayes there were ten thousand Israelites Thence I went to Ethiopian India which they call Baghdaan in which were high mountaynes and in them many Israelites subiect to none which warred on the Hamaghtani that is the Libyans From thence to Azzan was twentie daies iourney through the wildernesse Sebor the King whereof was Sultan Alhabas an Ismaelite Twelue dayes thence is Hhalauan where were three hundred Iewes from which they passe in troupes through the desartal-Tsahaca into Zeuila in the tract of Geena or Ginaea where they encounter showres of sands This Region is in the land of Chus and is called Alhhabas towards the West Thirteene dayes iourney from Hhaluan is Kits the beginning of Egypt And fiue from thence Pium once Pithon where were twentie Iewes and many monuments of our fathers to be seene Thence to Misraim is foure iourneyes where were two thousand Iewes in two Synagogues which differed in their distribution of the Lectures of their Law the Babylonians finishing it in a yeere as in Spaine the Israelites in three But twice a yeere they assembled together in Prayers on the feast Laetitia Legis and on the feast Latae Legis Nathaneel was chiefe ouer all the Vniuersities or Synagogues of Egypt and appointed Masters and Aeditui He was familiar with the King Amir Almumanin Eli sonne of Abitalib At Alexandria were three thousand Israelites But for his trauels in Egypt and the Synagogues which there he found as also backe againe into Sicilia Germany Boheme Prussia c. because there are yet knowne Synagogues of them I surcease relation And much may I feare I haue too much wearied the Reader in so long a Iewish Pilgrimage but seeing Authors of best note Scaliger Drusius Lipsius c. cite him and Arias Mont. hath taken the paines to translate him and his trauels are such ample testimonies of this our present subiect of Iewish dispersions I haue beene bold to annex these things If any list not to beleeue such multitudes of Iewes I will not vrge him howsoeuer that deluge of Tartars in all those Asian Regions soone after Beniamins dayes brought a new face of all things in these Easterly parts as a Iew and relating these things to Iewes and by Iewes passing to vs it is like he reported and we haue receiued with the most For his Geographie some of his names are easily reconciled to the present some hardly which I leaue to the Readers industrie §. VI. Of some Iewes lately found in China and of their late Accidents in Germany AFter these relations of Beniamin I thought it not vnfit to insert out of Ricci Trigautius Iesuites lately residing in China somewhat appertaining to these Iewish affaires It is but few yeeres since the Iesuites could settle themselues at Paquin the Royall Citie of China Thither did a certaine Iew moued with report of these strangers hauing an imagination that they were Iewes resort vnto them This Iew was borne at Chaifamfu the mother-Citie of the Prouince Honan his name was Ngai his countenance not resembling the Chinois he neglecting Iudaisme had addicted himselfe to the China studies and now came to Paquin to the Examination in hope of proceeding Doctor There did he enter the Iesuites house professing that he was of their Law and Religion Ricci leades him into the Chappell where on the Altar stood the Image of the Virgin Iesus and Iohn Baptist kneeling which hee taking to be the Image of Rebecca and her twinnes did worship vnto them contrarie he said vnto their custome The Images of the Euangelists he supposed to be so many of Iacobs sonnes But vpon further questioning the Iesuite perceiued that he was a professor of the Law of Moses he confessed himselfe an Israelite and knew not the name of Iew so that it seemed the dispersion of the ten Tribes had pierced thus farre Seeing the Hebrew Bible hee knew the Letters but could not reade them He told them that in Caifamfu were ten or twelue Families of Israelites and a faire Synagogue which had lately cost them ten thousand Crownes therein the Pentateuch in rolles which had beene with great veneration preserued fiue or six hundred yeeres In Hamcheu the chiefe Citie of Chequian he affirmed were many more Families with their Synagogue many also in other places but without Synagogues and by degrees wearing out His pronunciation of Hebrew names differed from ours as Herusoloim Moscia for Messia Ierusalem His brother he said was skilfull in the Hebrew which hee in affection to the China preferment had neglected and therefore was hardly censured by the Ruler of the Synagogue To this Citie did Ricci send one of his to enquire who found these reports true which also copied the beginnings and endings of their bookes which they compared and found to agree with their owne Pentateuch sauing that they wanted pricks or points He writ also in China Characters to the Ruler of their Synagogue that he had the rest of the bookes of the old Testament and other bookes of the New which contained the acts of the Messias being already come The Ruler doubted saying that he would not come till ten thousand yeeres were expired He also promised that because he had heard much good of him if he would come thither and abstaine from Swines-flesh they would make him Ruler of their Synagogue After this three Iewes came from thence to Paquin and were almost perswaded to become Christians These complained that through ignorance of the Hebrew their Religion decayed and that they were likely all of them in a short time to become Saracens or Ethnikes The old Archisynagogue was now dead his sonne a young man succeeded in place but ignorant of their Law And that their Iewish Religion was indeede languishing appeared by this that they both worshipped the Popish Images and complained that in their Synagogue and priuate houses they had none They were offended that they were forbidden the eating of any creature which themselues had not killed which had they obserued in this iourney had cost them their liues Their wiues and neighbours esteemed Circumcision of their infants on the eight day a cruell thing which they could be willing to altar with acceptation of the Christian Law nor would much stand about Swines-flesh They told them of certaine Christians also or worshippers of the Crosse in China which with the Iewes and Saracens were all called by the Chinois Hoei adding some distinction from their differing Rites calling the Saracens Hoei which refused Swines flesh The Iewes Hoei which abstaine from the sinew the Crosse-worshippers Hoei which abstaine from round-footed beasts whereas the Iewes Saracens and Chinois eate the flesh of horses asses and the like This Historie I haue added to shew how the Iewes haue bin dispersed into the furthest parts and how time the deuourer of all things hath almost eaten them out
the writing being cancelled should bee neglected and perhaps the Name of God cast with it on the dung-hil the wise-men abolished that order on the third of Tisri which they instituted a holy-day As for the name of Maccabees Iunius saith it came from the inscription of those foure letters M. C. B. I. in the banners of those Princes which deliuered the Iewes from the Macedonian thraldome Scaliger saith that Iudas onely and properly was so called but by abuse of speech was not onely giuen to all of that kindred but to all which suffered in those times persecution for Religion as the seuen brethren and others The name Hasmonaei began with that Hircanus Scaliger thinketh because in the sixty eight Psalme it is by the Iewes interpreted Prince Aristobulus sonne of Hircanus first after the captiuitie called himselfe king and raigned one yeere Ioannes Alexander his brother twentie seuen after him his wife Alexandra nine Hircanus her sonne three moneths Aristobulus his brother three yeeres Ierusalem was taken of Pompey and Hircanus recouered the Priest-hood which he held two and twentie yeeres Antigonus by aide of the Parthians possessed Iudae a fiue yeeres and in his second yeere Herod was proclaimed King by the Romans who tooke the Citie the fift yeere of Antigonus and raigned foure and thirtie Scaliger ascribeth to Herods kingdome the number after Eusebius account reckoning from the birth of Abram 1977. he died 2016. Archelaus his son was made by Augustus Tetrarch of Ierusalem 2016. was banished 2025. Agricola was made king by Caligula 2053. Agrippa his son by Claudius 2060. and died 2116. thirtie yeeres after the destruction of the Temple The Dynastie of the Herodians lasted 139. yeeres Thus Scaliger He attributeth the Natiuitie of Christ to the 3948. yeere of the world Here we must leaue the Chronologers contending of the yeere of the world in which this blessed Natiuitie happened some adding many more yeeres some not allowing so many It is certaine by the Scripture that he was borne in the one and fortieth or two and fortieth of Augustus baptized in the fifteenth of Tiberius then beginning to be about thirtie yeeres of age in the thirtie three yeere he was crucified In the seuentie two as Baronius and seuentie one yeere of Christ as Buntingus and Liuely account Ierusalem was destroyed by Titus in the second of Vespasian Arias Montanus reckoneth this the yeere of the World 3989. and saith that the Hebrewes reckon it the 3841. which must needes be false The fault ariseth from the false computation of the Persian and Graecian Monarchies Iosephus counteth from the time of Herod to the destruction of the Temple twentie eight high Priests and a hundred and seuen yeeres After Scaliger in his Can. Isag. l. 3. this yeere 1612. is the 1614. of Christ of the World 5461. after the Iewish account of Hillel 5372. of the Armenians 1061. of the Iulian Period 6325. of the Hegira 1021. Anno 4. Olymp. 597. The Dionysian account which wee vsually follow was not generally receiued till after the time of Charles the Great CHAP. XII Of the Iewish Talmud and the Composition and estimation thereof also of the Iewish Learned men their succession their Cabbalists Masorites their Rabbines Vniuersities Students Rabbinicall creations their Scriptures and the translations of them §. I. Of the Talmud RAbbi Mosche Mikkotzi in a worke of his set forth Anno 1236. as Buxdorfius citeth him saith that the Written Law which GOD gaue to Moses and Moses to the Israelites is obscure and hard because it speaketh some things contradictorie which hee seeketh to proue by some places mis-interpreted and because it is imperfect and contayneth not all things meete to be knowne For who shall teach vs saith he the notes of Birds and Beasts a Franciscan might answere him out of the Legend of Saint Francis the Patron of his Order who shall teach them the proprietie and nature of points accents of Letters Also what fatte might be eaten what not c. Many such things are defectiue in the Law and therefore there is neede of some other Exposition of the written Law whence these things might be learned This Exposition for-sooth must be their Talmud the generation of which Viper touched before we will here more fully declare They say that Moses on Mount Sinai was not with GOD fortie daies and fortie nights to keepe Geese And GOD could haue written those Tables of the Law in an houre and sent him away with them so to haue preuented that Idolatrie with the Golden Calfe But GOD brought Moses into a Schoole and there gaue him the Law in writing first and then in all that long time expounded the same shewing the cause manner measure foundation and intention thereof in the true sense This vnwritten and Verball Law did Moses teach Ioshua be the Elders from these it was deriued to the Prophets After Zacharie and Malachie the last of these it came to the great Sanhedrib and after them by Tradion from father to sonne And Rabbi Bechai saith That Moses learned the Law written in the day time and this Traditionall Law by night for then he could not see to write Rabbi Mosche Mikkotzi sheweth the cause why God would deliuer the same by mouth onely and not in writing lest I wisse the Gentiles should peruert this as they did the other which was written And in the day of Iudgement when GOD shall demand who are the Israelites the Gentiles shall make challenge because of the Law written but the Iewes onely shall be acceped as hauing this Simani this verball exposition GOD also say they gaue them Chachamim Wise-men authors of diuers ordinances amongst them as to blesse GOD at the Sunne-rising and Sunne-setting And of Schooles where children should be taught the Law of Moses in euery Citie and where the Law of Moses should be read weekely and that the Israelites should not eate or drinke with the Gentiles nor what they had dressed after the example of Daniel c. But when the Temple was destroyed and the Iewes carried away captiues then arose vp Rabbi Iuda Hannasi who is called for his humilitie and godlinesse our Great Master to whom GOD procured such fauour in the eyes of Antoninus the Emperour that hee had authoritie to assemble out of all places of the Empire the most learned Iewes to consult in this their almost desperate Estate what course to take for the preseruation of the Law amongst the people And although this Kabala or Law giuen by word of mouth might not bee committed to writing yet in consideration and commiseration of their miserie whatsoeuer thereof was remayning in memorie hee writ in a booke which hee called Mischna that is a Deutronomie or Law reiterated contayning sixe summes diuided into sixtie lesse parts or tractates and these into fiue hundred thirtie two Chapters Thus farre R. Mikkotzi The contents of the sixe summes and their seuerall Tractates
sometimes so many of those Iewish Masters exercised some Handicraft to sustayne themselues without trouble of others So was R. Iose a Dresser of Leather Nahum and Meir Scriueners Iochanan a Shoomaker and R. Iuda a Baker Next vnto the Masters it is meet to say somewhat of the Schollers Thalmidim If hee were a Boy he was called Ianik and Katon rather for his little Learning then age or stature a forward Scholler was named Bechir and Bachur in which time Scaliger affirmes Serarius denies that he was called by his Fathers name his owne not added as Ben Bethira before after Imposition R. Iosua ben Bethira Thalmid chabar is spoken of Beniamin often mentions in his Iournall the Disciples of the wise Thalmidim charam which some thinke to be a name attributed to themselues in modestie as the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke turned to Philosophi but generally all Students are called the Sonnes of the Wise as sometimes the Sonnes of the Prophets In Pirke Auoth is this speech of Bagbag a Boy of fiue yeeres to Mikra or the Text of Scripture at ten yeeres to Misna at thirteene yeeres to the Precepts at fifteene to the Thalmud or Gemara As Paul sayth He was brought vp at the feet of Gamaliel so it was a Rule in their Pirke Auoth Teipsum puluerisa in pedum illorum puluere that the Student should all to bedust himselfe in the dust of his Masters feete and with assidious diligence attend his Sayings drinking his words with thirst That person of whom hee hath learned but one Chapter or Lesson or Verse or word is to be had in honour The Student is to be obsequious and seruiceable to his Master They heard with great silence sitting or else prostrate on the floore or pauement at the feete of the Doctor and if at any time they stood it was a good distance from him for reuerence sake yea the Chaber durst scarce if scarce sit while the Rabbine sate The Disciple say they must arise to his Master as farre as he can see him and if hee doe not stand vp to him hee is wicked shortens his life and forgetteth the Thalmud They might not reprehend their Masters nor depart from their Assertions and when they recited any thing which they had learned of them they did it in their Masters name euery way seeking to winne them credit yea they called him an Epicure which did sit before his Master or citing him did it by his bare name without some honourable Title annexed as my Lord or Masters c. excluding such out of the World to come To conclude this sentence of R. Eleazar ben Shamua in their Pirke Auoth briefly expresseth these mutuall duties Let the credit of thy Disciple bee as deare vnto thee as thine owne and let the honour of thy companion Chaber bee as the feare of thy Master and the feare of thy Master or Rabbin as the feare of God As for the Iewish Academies they call them Mekom thorah the place of the Law and the holy Congregation of them which are occupied in the Law and vsually Ieschibah and Methibata of sitting for there was the Rabbinicall Chaire It seemes all the fortie eight Cities of the Leuites were such and all the Schooles of the Prophets where the Sonnes or Scholers of the Prophets abode as in the dayes of Samuel Elias c. is mentioned Ierusalem could not but be most eminent And after the Babylonian Captiuitie they had two Vniuersities famous one Nehardea in Babylonia vpon Euphrates by Iosephus called Nearda the other Ierusalem which beeing destroyed with the Citie it was called the Vniuersitie of Israel of which the first Rector was R. Iochanan the second Rabban Gamaliel the third R. Akiba and when Adrian had forbidden all Iewes to enter the Land it is like it was subuerted yet after renewed and the Rector thereof R. Iochanan the Authour of the Ierosolymitan Thalmud who dyed Anno Dom. 279. In meane while two other Vniuersities were famous in Babylonia one at Sura and the other at Pombaditha Betwixt which in processe of time grew great contentions factions and remouings to Kamisin fiue dayes Iourney Eastward and to Neres That of Sura somewhat eclipsed that of Nehardeha because there for the most part resided the Chiefe of the Iewish Captiues These decayed and almost vanished about Anno Dom. 668. which it seemes happened by the fatall alteration of the World in that new Saracenicall Deluge although many Ages after the Iewes held vp their head highest in these parts as appeares by Beniamins Head of the Captiuitie resident in Bagdat before mentioned But the Iewes now dispersed haue through the World erected in places of their abode such Academies as they could as ye haue seene in Beniamins Relations alreadie and Rabad mentions some in Spaine and Afrike and some yet remayne at Constantinople Cairo Cracouia in Poland Prage in Bohemia and lately the Synagogue of Frankford which cals it selfe the Mother of Israel in Germany constituted fiue viz. Frankfort Wormes Fridberg Fulda Kinsbirg Yet these three are accounted the ancientest Synagogues in Germany Spire Wormes Mentz and therefore their Matrimoniall Contracts are signed with these three Letters S. W. M. if they write short to shew that it is according to the ancient custome and constitution of Spire Wormes and Mentz The Iewes had Schooles wheresoeuer were any store of them but ten saith Rambam was a number fit to haue a Synagogue They call their Schoole beth Midrasch the house of exercise Gymnasium the Synagogue Beth ceneseth the Congregation house Sometimes these are distinguished for in the Synagogue they must pray for him that neeseth in the Schoole they might not sometimes the same and their Synagogues in Germany are now called Schooles Of these are reported foure hundred eightie one in Ierusalem before the destruction The Ruler thereof was called Archisynagogus As they vse to giue glorious Titles one to another according to their supercilious Conceits of themselues as the glorie of thy Excellence for the second person Thou or the glorie of their Excellence for they so especially their RR. Names are not mentioned without smokie fumes of arrogance as the glorie of our Master Doctor c. For an instance take these Titles giuen to the Author of the Talmudicall Lexicon Aruch in the Title thereof Illustris Dominus R. Nathan Iustus benedictae memoriae filius honorificentissimi sanctissimi Doctoris Rabbini nostri Iechielis faustae memoriae filij honorificētissimi magnificentissimi sanctissimi Doctoris Rabbini nostri Abrahami faustae memoriae So vastly ambitious are their hearts so wide gaping mouths in their sesquipedalia decempedalia verba haue these Thrasonical Pyrgopolyniceticall Braggadochio's after so long captiuitie and so extreme seruitude and basenesse that it may appeare how farre God hath forsaken them so farre from humilitie in this humiliation that they swell euery day into greater vanitie as the Sunne then greatest when lowest and bladders
of the Sabbath and in the land of Israel of which you haue heard their rolling opinion before neither will wee roll this stone to our Reader againe CHAP. XX. The Jewes faith and hope touching their Messias §. I. Of the Signes of the comming of their Messias THe Iewes generally beleeue hope and pray for a Messias but such a one whose Kingdome shall bee of this world and who shall to vse the Apostles phrase who were also euen after Christs death and resurrection partakers of this dreame Restore the Kingdome to Israel And because the Scripture speaketh sometimes of the poore contemptible and deiected state of the promised Messias sometimes of the puissance renowne and glory of his Kingdome they therefore frame to their conceits two Messiahs one poore and simple but a mightie warriour whom they call Messias Ben-Ioseph the other Messias Ben-Dauid after the other in time but before him in glory and the true Messias howsoeuer euen this also bee in their opinions but a meere man and one which shall marry and leaue behind him a remayning and raigning posterity The Cabalists according to their transcendent mysteries out of the name Adam which the Hebrewes write without points Adm gather that the soule of Adam by a Metempsychosis passed into Dauid and that of Dauid into Messias which yet lyes hid for the sinnes of the Iewes The ancient Iewes looked for this Messias to bee sent them about that time when Iesus came in the Flesh as that Prophesie which is fathered on Elias testifyeth to wit that the world should bee two thousand yeeres Tohu empty and without law two thousand vnder the Law two thousand vnder the Messias and accordingly Christ Iesus came into the world about the yeere after the Creation 3963. The Iewes reckon 202. yeeres fewer in all their computations then the Christians Vpon this occasion and in regard of the generall expectation of the Messias about that time rose so many Sects and especially that rebellion of Ben-Cochab before spoken of to whom R. Akibha famous for his foure and twenty thousand Disciples gaue testimony and called him Messias the King But this Ben-Cochab the sonne of the Starre Numb 23. was by Adrian as you haue seene besieged taken and executed and was called after Ben-Cozobh the sonne of lying They therefore when as they found no Messias said that the time was deferred because of their sinnes and after denounced Anathema to him that should set downe the time of his comming And being conuinced in their consciences that the Prophesies of this time were already past and accomplished they affirmed in their writings that hee was then borne but did not yet reueale himselfe because of their sinnes R. Salomon Iarchi writeteh that the ancient Iewes thought he was borne on that day in which Ierusalem was last destroyed but vncertaine where he hath lyen hid Some say that he abideth in Paradise tyed by the haire of a womans head so interpreting that of the Canticles The hayre of thy head is as purple The King is tyed in the rafters by rafters meaning Paradise The Talmudists write that hee lay at the gates of Rome among the Lazars and Leapers according to Esay 53. Before he commeth they write that ten notable miracles shall happen to warne them thereof First GOD shall raise vp three Kings which shall make profession of the true Faith but shall indeed betray it and seduce men and cause them to deny GOD. The louers of the Truth shall flee and hide themselues in caues and holes of the earth and these Tyrants shall pursue and slay them Then shall there be no King in Israel as it is written no Pastor no holy men The heauens shall bee shut vp the people shall be made few for these Tyrants which yet by diuine dispensation shall raigne but three months shall impose ten times as much as was before exacted and they which haue not to pay shall lose their heads And from the ends of the earth shall come men blacke and loathsome the dread of whose countenance shall kill men for they haue two heads and seuen eyes sparkling like fire The second Miracle shall bee a great heate of the Sunne causing Feauers Pestilences and other diseases so that the Gentles shall digge themselues graues and there lye and wish for death But the Israelites shall haue this heat to be as wholesome medicine to them so interpreting the Prophet GOD shall make a bloudy dew fall on the earth of which the people and the wicked of the Israelites shall drinke thinking it to be good water and shall die it shall not hurt the iust who shall shine c. Fourthly GOD shall make a wholsome dew to fall whereof the indifferent meaner sinners sicke of the former dew shall drinke and liue Hos 14.6 Fifthly The Sunne shall be darkened thirty dayes and then receiue againe his light whereby many shall embrace Iudaisme Sixthly GOD shall permit the Edomites or Romans to rule ouer all the world but one especially at Rome shall raigne nine moneths ouer all the world wasting large countries laying heauy tributes vpon the Israelites Then shall the Israelites haue no helper as sayth Esai 49.16 But after nine moneths GOD shall send Messias Ben-Ioseph of the children of Ioseph whose name shall be Nehemias the sonne of Husiel Hee shall come with the race of Ephraim Manasse Beniamin and Gad and the Israelites hearing of it shall flocke to him as Ieremie sheweth Conuert yee to the Lord yee rebellious children I will take yee one of a City and two of a Tribe c. This Messias shall ouerthrow the Edomites and slay their King and destroying the Empire shall carrie to Ierusalem holy vessels reserued in the house of Aelian for a treasure The King of Egypt also shall make peace with the Israelite and shall kill the men about Ierusalem Damascus and Ascalon the fame whereof shall affright all the inhabitants of the earth Seuenthly There is at Rome a marble Image of a Virgin not made by mans hand to which shall resort all the wicked of the world and shall incestuously conuerse therewith Hence shall GOD frame an Infant in the same which shall with breach of the marble come foorth This shall bee named Armillus the wicked the same which the Christians call Antichrist of ten elles quantitie of bredth and length a spanne bredth betweene his eyes which shall bee red and deepe in his head his hayre yellow the soles of his feet-greene deformed with two heads Hee shall professe himselfe the Romane Messias and GOD and shall bee accepted of them He shall bid them bring him the Law which hee hath giuen them which they shall bring with their Prayer-booke hee shall cause them to beleeue in him and shall send Ambassadours to Nehemias the sonne of Husiel and to the people of Israel commanding them also to bring him their Law and to acknowledge him for GOD. Then shall Nehemias
Brittish Athens or rather an Attike Britaine where whilome our Ancestors euen after Learning and Religion had here now flourished found through the Danish pestilence a brutish barbarisme Alfred the sonne of a King and after King himselfe could not finde a Master in all his Dominions to teach him the Latin tongue and procuring with care and cost forreiners to teach him first learned that language at sixe and thirtie yeeres of his age hauing begun to reade the vulgar at twelue yeeres which his elder and lesse studious brethren could not then doe And himselfe in the Preface of Gregories Pastoralls to vse his owne words in our later English saith That learning was so fallen in the English Nation that very few were on this side Humber which their seruice could vnderstand in English or an Epistle from Latin into English declare and I weene that not many beyond Humber were not So few of them were that I also one onely may not remember by South Thamise when as I to raigne vndertooke I could shew the like in Italie also by testimony of Pope Agatho in the sixth Synode at Constantinople vpon like cause But I forget my Greekes as they haue done their Greeke I feare rather I seeme to remember them too much and that seuere Censors will iudge this an abortiue issue borne before the time I will therefore stay my willing pen till fitter time referring the more studious to those which haue written of this subiect especially to Martin Crusius his Turcograecia where out of the Letters of Gerlach and others as also of the Greekes themselues Iohn and Theodosius Zygomale and of the Patriarchs Metrophanes Ioasaphus Ieremias betweene this last Patriarch and D. Andreas Crusius there passed some writings of Religion they may haue further satisfaction Their stile is Ieremies by the mercie of God Archb. of Const. New Rome Oecumenicall Patriarch Michael by the mercie of God Patriarch of great Theopolis Antiochia and of all the East Sophronius by the mercie of God Patriarch of the holy Citie Ierusalem and of all Palestina In a Testimoniall to D. Albert Lewenstein the Patriarch of Alexandria stileth himselfe I Ioachim Pope and Patriarch of the great Citie Alexandria Iudge of the World c. Others Humilis Metropolita Rhodi Callistus Gabriel Archb. of Philadelphia And if to the Patriarch Archb. of P. Seruant to your Holinesse Gabriel A Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or humilis Episcopus N. Gerasimus They make publike mention of the foure Patriarchs in their Church Lyturgies The Venetians allow the Greekes free vse of their religion through all their Dominion and Crete is a chiefe place for their learned men The greatest misery which accompanieth the Turkish thraldome is their zeale of making Proselytes with manifold and strong inducements to such as haue bin more nuzzled in superstitions then trained vp in knowledge and see such contempt of Christians and honours which befall to many Renegadoes and very many are peruerted and bewitched therewith Yea many voluntarily offer themselues to Apostasie and others by hopes feares griefes despaires importunities distracted by that vizor of vertue in the Turkish grauity sobriety bodily purity and spirituall zeale after their sect with whole rabbles of Satanicall miracles deluded wanting all intercourse of Sacraments preaching reading and all Christian holies and full of wants in necessaries for this life forget a better and turne Turke Thus do they sell to the Deuil their soules bought by the bloud of Christ Iesus We may well despaire of words to vtter this misery and to describe this Mart of Hell seeing it exceedeth all words to see the Markets made of Christian bodies the remainders of cruell and bloudy warres chained together in more then beastly bondage so brought to the markets if any bee sicke by the way driuen on as long as they can goe and when their feet faile laid ouer a horse like as butchers deale with small cattle and if thy die left for a prey to the fowles and beasts the places of their abode by the way filled with cryes of younglings of both sexes abused to vnnaturall lust In the markets they are stripped viewed and modestie forbids to speake O Image of God thus abased openly in the secretest parts handled bee they male or female forced to goe runne leape and if shame or disdaine make them vnwilling by whips and stripes compelled the infant plucked from the mothers breast and sold from euer againe seeing her or libertie the wife thus openly deluded and dealt with before the husbands face and for a base price giuen by some baser Turke euerlastingly diuorced from his face his daughters virginitie openly secretly my words are swallowed vp with horrour of the fact himselfe at home reuerend for his yeeres now in that respect contemned and hanging long on hand as vnprofitable ware before hee finde a buyer Priest Souldier Merchant Artificer Husbandman all equally subiect to this iniquity saue that Gentlemen and those of most liberall education are least esteemed and most abused because they can bring least profit to their Masters Where besides filthy lusts they suffer hunger thirst cold and stripes and which redoubleth those blowes euen there is the passion of Christ in this passion of their owne vpbraided to them Some in impatience reuolt some runne away and are brought backe to a worse estate if possible some kill themselues and some But I can say no more Let vs pray for them and let vs at last leaue this Tragedie and take view of former Antiquities CHAP. XV. Of the Regions and Religions of ASIA MINOR since called Natolia and Turkie NExt after the Turkish Religion thus related it seemeth fittest to discourse of the ancient names and limits of Regions and of the former Heathenish Religions of that part of the Turkish Dominion which among Authors hath since in a singular eminencie obtained the name of Turkie And if it seeme strange that the Turkish Religion a new vpstart be declared before those former of the Pagans the matter wee had in hand hath thus altered our methode that after wee had described the deformed disioynted lineaments of the Mother an Arabian Saracen her more mis-shapen Daughter this Turkish Mopsa might attend her hard at her heeles As for the Region we haue followed the Turkish forces hither and now that we haue glutted our selues with the view of their later affaires of State and Religion let vs cast our eyes about vs and obserue the Countrey it selfe which because of her long and entire subiection to this Nation is styled by their name The Greekes called it Natolia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was the Easterne part of that Empire as they called Thracia the Countrey about Constantinople which was named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romania This Natolia or Anatolia is of others called Asia Minor and yet Asia in most proper and strict account is peculiarly applied to one Region in this great
Maotis but whether in deuouring the people with their swords as they did the pastures with their cattel they came from hence or these from thence or that Pliny might easily wander in so wandering a subiect all auer that from hence they went first into Persia and in succeeding ages haue made many fertile Countries like their Turcomania where Master Ienkinson saith groweth no grasse but heath whereon the cattell feed The Ottoman-horse blasting with his breath the ground he treads on according to their owne Prouerbe there neuer groweth grasse more The Turkeman Nation is saith Haithon for the most part Mahumetan and many of them without Law at all They vse the Arabike Letters §. III. Of the Zagathayan Tartars THese Desarts and Theeues haue almost made vs forget our diuision according to which wee should haue told you that from the Caspian Sea hither you must according to Maginus call the Tartars generally Zagathayans so called of Zagathay the Great Cans brother sometime their Prince Which name comprehendeth also diuers other Nations more ciuill then the former possessing the Countries sometime knowne by the names of Bactriana Sogdiana Margiana now Ieselbas that is Greene heads of the colour of their Turbants differing from the Persians whom they call for like cause Red-heads These haue cruell warres continually with the Persians whom they call Caphars as they doe the Christians for their supposed heresie of which in the Persian relation hath beene shewed and for that they will not cut the haire of their vpper lips for which they are accounted of the Tartars great sinners In Boghar is the seat of their Metropolitane who is there more obeyed then the King and hath sometime deposed the King and placed another at his pleasure There is a little Riuer running through the Citie whose water breedeth in them that drinke thereof especially strangers a worme of an ell long which lieth in the leg betwixt the flesh and the skin and is plucked out about the anckle with great Art of Surgeons well practised herein And if it breake in plucking out the partie dieth They plucke out an inch in a day which is rolled vp and so proceed till she be all out And yet will not the Metropolitane suffer any drinke but water or Mares milke hauing Officers to make search and punish such as transgresse with great seueritie Zagatai liued the space of one hundred twentie and one yeeres before Marcus Paulus and was as hee saith a Christian but his sonne followed him in his Kingdome not in his Religion Here in this Countrey is Samarcand the Citie of Great Tamerlaine of some called Temir Cuthlu that is as Mathias a Michou interpreteth it Happy Sword whose Armie contained twelue hundred thousand whose Conquests exceed if Histories exceed not all the Great Alexanders Pompeys Caesars or any other Worthies of the World And one of the greatest Monarch now of the Earth The Great Mogore is said to descend of him Of him are many Histories written by some that haue liued since his time and could not well know his proceedings it being generally deplored that this Achilles wanted a Homer which Alexander applauded in him but wanted for himselfe onely one Alhacen an Arabian which then liued hath written largely thereof and that as he saith by Tamerlans command which Iean du Bec Abbot of Mortimer in his voyage into the East Countrie met with and had it interpreted to him by an Arabian and wee vpon his credit which if any thinke to be insufficient I leaue it to his choice and censure That Author saith that Tamerlan descended of the Tartarian Emperours and Og his father was Lord of Sachetay who gaue to his sonne Tamerlan which name signifieth Heauenly grace in their Tongue his Kingdome while hee yet liued appointing two wise Counsellours Odmar and Aly to assist him Hee was well instructed in the Arabian learning and a louer of Learned men Nature had set in his eyes such rayes of Maiestie and beautie that men could scarce endure to looke on them He wore long haire contrary to the Tartarian Custome pretending that his mother came of the race of Sampson He was strong and had a faire leg whereas Leunclauius saith he was called Tamurleng of his lamenesse His first Warre was against the Muscouite whom he ouercame The second against the King of China with like successe I mention not his battailes in ciuill warres The third against Baiazet the Turke whom he captiued passing thither by the way of Persia where Guines Author of the Sophian Sect a great Astrologer and accounted a holy man encouraged him with prophesies of his good successe This Warre he made against Baiazet in behalfe of the Greeke Emperour and others whom the Turke oppressed He went priuately to Constantinople and had sight of the Citie with all kindnesse from the Emperour He inuaded Syria and Aegypt ouerthrew the Soldan and won Cairo destroyed Damascus visited and honoured Ierusalem and the holy Sepulchre and granted great Priuiledges thereunto The Princes of Lybia and barbarie by their Embassages in Aegypt acknowledged his Soueraigntie In his returne by Persia he was encountred by Guines who brought with him an infinite number of sundry kindes of beasts which he made tame and by which he taught men As soone as he saw Tamerlan he made his Praiers towards the Heauens for his health and for the Religion of the Prophet excommunicating the Ottomans as enemies to the faithfull beleeuers Tamerlan gaue him fifteene or sixteen thousand of his prisoners which he instructed in his opinion and after conquered Persia and so returned to Samarcand where he had vowed to erect a Church and Hospitall with all sumptuous Magnificence thence he went to Mount Althay to burie his vncle and father in law the Great Chan in whose State he succeeded He enriched Samarcand with the spoiles gotten in his warres and called the Temple which he there built the Temple of Salomon wherein he hanged vp Trophees and Monuments of his victories and caused all his battailes there to be ingrauen thereby said he to acknowledge the Goodnesse of GOD. His Religion was not pure Mahumetisme for he thought GOD was delighted with varietie of worships yet he hated Polytheisme and Idols onely one GOD he acknowledged and that with much deuotion after this manner Thus he beat downe all the Idols in China but honoured the Christians with great admiration at the strict life of some Votaries When Aly his Counsellour was dead he built a stately Tombe for him at Samarcand and caused prayers to be said three dayes for his soule Being neere his end hee blessed his two sonnes laying his hand on the head of Sautochio the elder and pressing it downe but lifting vp the chinne of Letrochio the younger as it were presaging vnto him the Empire although the elder were proclaimed But this Empire was too great and too suddenly erected to continue Of his successe and successors in Persia you
flesh neither of their owne young nor of men as on the contrarie they worship the Storke for her pietie in nourishing her aged parents that I speake not of their wed-locke chastitie for breach whereof Crollius tells from the relation of an eye-witnesse That in a wood neere to Spire in Germanie the Male complayning to a congregation of Storkes caused them to teare his Mate in pieces The Egyptians also had a conceit That Swines milke would breede the leprosie and that Swine were beasts odious to the Sunne and Moone He citeth out of Endoxus That they spared them for treading their Seede into the ground which was their Harrowing and Tillage when Nilus had newly left the softned Earth to send these Labourers their Kine and Swine to tread in the myrie Earth the Corne which they sowed therein The Egyptians sware by the head of their King which oath whosoeuer violated lost his life for the same without any redemption The Priests in old time renowmed for their learning in Straboes time were ignorant and vnlearned No woman might beare Priestly function These Priests might not eate Egs Milke or Oile except with Sallads they might not salute Mariners nor looke vpon their children or kinsfolks They washed themselues in the day-time thrice and in the night twice they were shauen wore linnen garments alwayes new washed were daily allowed sacred meates Of their ancient Priests thus Du Bartas singeth in Syluesters tune The Memphian Priests were deepe Philosophers And curious gazers on the sacred Starres Searchers of Nature and great Mathematickes Ere any letter knew the ancient'st Attickes Tertullian speakes of the continence of Apis his Priests and addes That certayne women consecrated to the African Ceres voluntarily relinquished marriage and from thenceforth might not touch a Male no not so much as k sse their owne sonnes Their magicke skill appeared in Iannes and Iambres which withstood Moses and in Hermes testimonie of himselfe R. Salomon on Exod. 8. writeth That Pharao said to Moses and Aaron Doe you bring straw into Ophraim a Citie full of straw And doe yee bring inchantments into Egypt which aboundeth therewith Postellus deriueth the Egyptian and Orientall sciences from Abraham to whom he dareth to attribute their diuinations by the Aire Water Fire Earth Birds and alleageth Rambams authoritie That the greatest part of the Alcoran is taken out of the Egyptian learning and saith That Moses and Salomon studied the same and expounded in Scripture what Abraham had taught them to which also hee ascribeth the Iewish Exorcismes in casting out Deuils But some Deuill I thinke hath taught him so to commend these deuillish Arts as he doth no lesse the Alcoran and the Iewes Cabala calling them an excellent Appendix to Moses and both of I know not what magicall facultie first infused into Adam in the puritie of his creation and taught by the Angell Raziel by him deliuered in verball tradition written first by the Henoch the bookes whereof Nimrod stole from Noah which Abraham might learne either in that Chaldean Nation or from Melchisedech But let vs obserue these Priests further When they sacrificed they made choice of their beasts by certaine religious markes a Cow they might not sacrifice as consecrated vnto Isis They kindled a fire and sprinkling water ouer the Sacrifice with inuocation of their God killed it cut off the head which either they sold to the Grecians if they would buy it or cast it into the Riuer with imprecation That whatsoeuer euill was imminent to them or their Countrey might be turned vpon that head This ceremonie seemes to haue come to them from the Iewes And they haue beene as liberall of their Rites since to the Catholikes for so they will be called as appeareth both by this Relation and by the testimonie not onely of Moresinus a Protestant but Maginus Polidorus Boemus and Beroaldus Popish writers although dawbed ouer with new mysticall significations as in Bellarmine and other the purest Catholikes is seene Their Priests were their Iudges the eldest of which was chiefe in pronouncing sentence He wore about his necke a Saphire Iewell with the Image of Truth therein engrauen The Priests of Isis besides their shauings and linnen garments had paper-shooes on their heads Anubis in their hands a Timbrell or a branch of Sea-wormewood or a Pine-apple They had one chiefe Priest or Primate of Egypt as appeareth by Iosephus and Heliodorus who maketh Thyamis to succeede his father Calasyris in this high Priesthood at Memphis Manetho also enioyed this Pontificall Hierarchie as appeareth by his Epistle to Ptolemeus which after shall follow Philostratus speaketh of Gymnosophists which some ascribe to India Heliodorus to Ethiopia he to Ethiopia and Egypt These saith hee dwelt abroad without house on a Hill a little off the bankes of Nilus where grew a Groue in which they held their generall Assemblies to consult of publike affaires hauing otherwise their studies and sacrifices apart each by himselfe Thespesion was the chiefe of this Monkish Colledge when Apollonius after his visitation of the Babylonian Magi and Indian Brachmanes came thither These held the immortalitie of the soule and accounted Nilus for a god If a man at Memphis had by chance-medley killed a man hee was exiled till those Gymnosophists absolued him Hercules Temple at Canopus was priuiledged with Sanctuarie to giue immunitie to Fugitiues and Malefactors Thus elsewhere Osiris Apollo in Syria Diana at Ephesus euery Cardinals house saith a Pope in Rome Saint Peter at Westminster and other Popish Oratories priuiledged Dennes of Theeues §. III. Of their Feasts and Oracles THeir Feasts were many of which Herodotus reckoneth one at Bubastis in honour of Diana To this place the Men and Women at this festiuall solemnitie sayled in great multitudes with minstrelsie and showtings and as they came to any Citie on the waters side they went on shore and the women some danced some played some made a brawle with the women of the place and thus resorting to Bubastis they there offered great Sacrifices spending in this feast more Wine then in all the yeere besides Hither resorted of Men and Women besides Children seuen hundred thousand In Busiris was solemnized the feast of Isis in which after the sacrifice many thousands beat themselues but with what they did beate themselues was not lawfull to relate The Carians that inhabited Egypt did also cut their foreheads with swords signifying thereby that they were forreiners This Citie was in the midst of the Egyptian Delta and in it a very great Temple of Isis A third feast was at Sai in honour of Minerua where assembling by night they lighted candles full of Salt and Oile and therewith went about the walls of the Citie This solemnitie was called Light-burning or if you will Candle-masse This night they which came not hither yet obserued the setting vp of Lights throughout Egypt A fourth
their Hegira f Called of Leo Qualid and of Scaliger Walid 110 Tarik Mirkond Oelid Scal. E.T. lib. 6. pag. 584. Turquet Span. Hist lib. 5. g M. Bedwel in hi Arab. Trudg saith it was of the situation Tarifa signifies the end or outmost bound of any thing h Tarik Mirkond hist Persic a Anno. 717. Suleiman b Curio lib. 2. c Wolfgang Droschter Chro. Omar d Iezid e P. Diac. Leo. f Paul Aemil. lib. 2. g Toures h Scal E.T. l. 6. pag. 584. saith that the countrie people keepe fresh memorie thereof as if it were lately done It was A. D 725. Hegire 106. sixteene yeere after they had inuaded Spaine i Annis 735. 737. 738. k Iezid l Hisan Mirkon calls him Ebrahem m Ios. Scal. Can. Is lib. 2. lib. 3 g Anno Dom. 753. Heg. 836. h As dec. 1. lib. 1 i Animad in Euseb Chron. Lydyat em tem * Lamberti Peramb Kent Mamuds exploites in India Persia c. * This was Tangrolipix Sec. c. 8. * In his time the Abasian Chalifes were receiued in Aegypt which the Phetimaeans of Ali had seperated Zacuth a Iacob de Vitriaco Hist Ieros. l. 1. c. 9. Amir Amira Amiras Admirans à themate AMARA praecepit Bedwel Hence is our title Admirall compounded and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sea b Such were the Gouernors of Chorasan Irak Siras Damasco Iaman Mutzul Halep Gunia Mahaan The Arabian calleth them Kings and their heyres succeeded them c Can. Isag. l. 3. d The great Turke obserueth some shadow of this custome in vsing one or other handicraft e Lud. Reg. l 8. f Plat. in vita Pont. g Cairaoan became a Papacie absolute though schismaticall as they called it so did Marocco the Persians were alway prone to such Schismes and other as it serued for their aduantage h Ber. Aldrete var. Antiq. l. 3. c. 33. i Scal. Epist. Step. Vberio Hee saith that the figures which we vse in Arithmetike came froÌ„ the Arabians or Moores to the Spaniards and thence to vs about three hundred yeers since and then much differing from those chaacters which now wee vse k De Trad. Discip lib. 4. Ludouicus Viu de caus corrupt art l. 4. Omnia illa Arabica videntur mihi resipere delira nenta Alcorani blasphemas Mab insanias nihil fieri illis potest indoctius infulsius frigidius l Scal. Epist. ad Casaub m Lud Reg. 7. 14. n Whereof Taurus is chiefe Citie M. Polo lib 1. cap. 9. calleth it Hierach Magin Med a maior Baghdad or Bagdat * The Deuils Ierusalem The Tartarian conquest is here omitted Aristotles books of Physicks admired * This number seemeth false Bochara the Citie of Auicenna some say in Bocara neere Samercand o This seemed to arise of their opinion of Fate Auicenna His dissimulation Damascus Comparison of Mahomet Almotannabbi M. Abi Abdillah Aleppo Sciarfeddin a Turkish Historian Muske how made a Fortalicium fidei reckoneth another genealogie and the Saracen Chronicle continueth this euen from Adam not agreeing with themselues or any truth b I. Bo. Ben. Volater c. c Christ Richer d Arabs Nobilis in Alcor refut Cedrenus calls her Chadicha e This mutiny according to others hapned many yeeres after that Mahumet had vnder the cloake of Religion furthered his ambition and rebellion f He neither was circumcised himselfe saith an Arabian nobleman in confutation of the Alcoran nor did command any thing thereof in his law but the Arabians vsed Circumcision before his time g Sansouino calleth him Bacira and addeth also Nicholas a Priest of Rome h Mahomet a Theefe and Murtherer i An Adulterer k A Wittall l Pet. Alf. apud Breidenbach m Mahomets miracles n For the vnderstanding of this reade Scal. E.T. lib. 2. 5. o Legend of Mahomet Hermano Dalmata interprete p These prophets were Abnabdalla Abnalmutaira Abuzaid Abamacumet Alabez Alfad Abulambez Ezerigi Abnamare Kabalchabar scholler of Kabalmedi or Kabalachbar q A mahumetan Chronicle saith That this Light claue to the hands of God two thousand yeeres before Adam worshipping him as the Angels after inclosed in the Rib of Adam c. r Sound couragious faire swift iust a Hunter and Archer Å¿ Or H mina Daughter of Abdemenes t See also Bellon Obseruat llb. 3. cap. 7. u La vita Mahometi saith In a shining ladder they went vp to heauen where the stars hung by golden chaines as big as mount Notho by Medina x There were in the first heauen Angels of the shapes of all creatures praying for the creatures of their shapes and a Cock whose feete touched one Heauen and head the other whose crowing moued the Cocks of the earth to doe so In the second was Noe. This heauen was of gold the third of Pearles wherein was Abraham and the huge huge Angell of Death with his booke pen in hand writing the times and mens liues which fatall opinions maketh them hardie The fourth was of Emerald here was Ioseph and the Angell of Compassion weeping for the sinnes of men The fifth of Diamond and in it Moses The sixth of Rubie and in it Iohn Baptist The seuenth of fire and in it Iesus Christ All these recommended themselues to his Prayers a Nobi a Prophet The Booke of the Policie of the Turkish Empire Scal. E.T. p. 741. Computation of their Hegera Note for reconciliation thereof with Christian account Mahomets filthinesse His foure wiues and his children Mo her of the Moslemans His foure associates or counsellors Abi-Bacr Homar Othman Aali Mohameds death and Sepulchre a Robertus Retinensis b Harman Dal. interprete c The stile of it d In annotationibus in Euseb Chron. Solum Canticum Mosis extremo Deuteronomio Prouerbia Salomonis totus fâ—rè liber lob quadaÌ„ rythmi necessitate cohibentur qui rythmus est instar duarum dimetriarum Iambicarum Sed aliquando pauciorum sunt syllabarum aliquando plurium c. Nam vt in Hebraico Syriaco Arabico Abyssino idiomate vlla metri species concipi possit nemo efficere possit quia id natura sermonis non patitur e The Phrase f The method e Hierom. SauaÌ„ f The subtilty Ric. Florentinus d The agreement of Copies e The truth of the matter in it f Io. Ludouic. Viu g The Translaters h Anno 1143. Moued by Pet. Cluniacensis whose Epistle thereof to S. Bern. is extant i In the Italian are 124. chapt besides this first and the Easterne Saracens reckon it but one Azoara to the fifth Bellon l. 3. diuided it into foure bookes and 201. chap. k Postel de orbis concordiae l. 1. c. 13. * Of God and Christ a Azo 122. b Azo 20. Of Christ e Of his law and the followers therof d Azoara 47. e Mahomet disclaimeth diuine miracles and humane Disputations prouing with the sword f Not to dispute nor seeke a signe in proofe of the Law g The Fox wil eate no grapes because