be found this forlorne people Only as in relation to the aforenamed land of Shinaar and other adjacent places I do thus seemingly versifie Jaroun a Town well known in Chusistan But better known of old in Susian By the name of Halath when the Assyrian King The Israelites his captives there did bring And there he made a general Rendevouze Consulting policie the way to use His armless helpless slaves where to bestow Most for his profit least his overthrow At last resolves a remnant here should lye Of Zebulon Dan Ashur Nepthaly And notwithstanding many conquests made Of this great Monarch every where decay'd Though Rachel of her children was bereft Yet so far as there is a remnant left And such a remant as may now be told A thousand housholds well I may be bold Having so many vertuous witnesses And more to me my Authors presence is Who is an Armenee of the same land Nigh Ararat where Noahs Ark did stand Who is a Christian of the Eastern Church And doth the Nicene Council Creed avouch Against all Popish cousenage wit and art Who to that Church in no ways will convert Who once a man of worth and dignity But now made subject unto misery Who sees in this the providence of God For whom he loves on them he lays his rod. Who speaks of Damoan on the great hill side Tais rus Where many hundred Hebrews now reside Which town of old the writers deem to be That same call'd Habor nigh Arax saith he Once named Gozan River by whose stream The Lord of Hosts will many captives glean For that the rest of Israels ten Tribes Near this place are in Cities of the Medes They now are there I speak in Scripture-sense The words are written in the present tense These are the people that were so admired Whose strength and wisdom was by all desired Who yet do grope as in the darkest night Vntil the sun arise and give them light For all the candles of the world are vain When he begins all glory for to stain These are the branâ—hes of that Olive tree Which broken were and scattered as you see Whose antient splendor in Religion stood But now obscuâ—ed by that infectious flood Of Mahometry which surely will asswage Before the birth of our long-look'd for Age In which the sound of war shall not be heard When bloody spears are broken into sheards In which the Jews obey their holy King And all their brethren for an offering bring In which the Iews and Gentiles shall agree Between the wolf and lamb no enmity In which the most ingenious Annotation Must be revised by the Hebrew nation In which their glory will so bright appear As to astonish many hearts with fear In which the Christians like esteem will have Of Iews Conversion as the life from grave And doubtless this time which I here speak of cannot be many ages hence otherwise I dare not yet as an honored Gentleman of this nation did advise herein I do respect him what I might more say I will not say lest some seeking pates might find an occasion But we read that in the Apostles time the Lord was at hand and their times were the last of times surely then these must be those novissimorum novissima in which the Lord will be a swift witness against all those that oppress And did we but duly consider that place in Hos 3.4 we might clearly behold the truth of God in his promises which should be a special help to our faith concerning future times For the children of Israel should abide many days without a King and without a Prince and without a sacrifice c. Which truth is at this day confirmed by the language of the whole earth in that upbraiding sarcasm Beloved or protected as a Jew intimating thus much that when abused wronged or prosecuted they have no King nor Governor to relieve them no nor so much as an unjust Judge who for importunities sake will lend an ear to their complaint And thus according to the Scripture it hath been many dayes with them that is many yeares or dayes without number Yet because Gods faithfulness is great and his mercies sure â—â—â—cies therefore he would not leave Israel in â—â—â—pair as that the house of Jacob should expect in vain But in the verse following after they are prepared by affliction and humiliation there Elohim promiseth them a gracious return after such a term of days is expired best known to the Lord only the Text saith it will be in the latter days when they shall seek the Lord and David their king which doubtless cannot be now far off So that if we do believe the words of our Saviour that not one tittle of the word of God shall fall to the ground we ought as stedfastly to believe their future estate promised in the 5. verse as we now do in a perspicuous manner behold their present doleful condition predicted in the 4. verse or else our faith appears to be very weak if a true faith because for the most part a Christians faith should be the evidence of that which may in some sense be invisible So that they are blessed which have seen and then believe but the Lord speaks in a superlative degree when he saith Blessed are they which see not and yet do believe And that we may not content our selves with a bare belief of this truth which I am perswaded many that are gon down to the pit did believe let us take notice of the begining of their conversion so as to help them how and where to seek their King who is not far from every one though a blind Jew that seeks him which makes us believe that he cannot be far from Israel because since the crucifixion of their Lord and our Lord it was scarce known untill of lace year that any of the Rabbins would desire the least conference in matter of religion with a Christian but some small time since they have to my knowledg sent some letters to some of our Nation wherein they have intreated and implored the assistance of our Teachers on this behalf But chiefly as I suppose from the counsel of a dying Rabbin whose eyes the Lord had opened to disclose unto his brethren the hardness of their hearts which as I hear the Lord did set home upon the hearts of four or five of them whereof one hath since made a book and it is the Vindication of our Christian religion And I hope there are some now living that do behold that great Champion of Israel already to have taken in hand their noble and excellently transcendent deliverance and his breaking forth through the clouds as a most mighty man of war to break open the iron-gates and to knock in pieces the strong fetters of slavery and to let the oppressed Israelites go free Which their Sun and Shield we may be confident will not stay his course in one or two victories but as our natural
and by which powerful name the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia to release the Jewes from their Babylonish captivity from which to the Captivity under Vespasian Titus is supposed neer 600 years And lastly by which powerful Name the Lord will set his hand again the second time So that you see when the Lord and by what instrument he was pleased to cause the Captivity of his people to return once before who were then but a remnant of the house of Judah And though I am perswaded that this second return mentioned in this place shall be beneficial to both houses yet I shall endeavour to make clear that it doth chiefly and primarily relate to the ten Tribes and that from the vast incongruity that there is between the places where this remnant of Israel shall be found and the Countries where these two Tribes are dispersed at this day To recover the remnant So that this word remnant doth presuppose that there were of them once a far greater number as also that there hath been since a grievous devastation and spoil amongst them the certain effects of war which is the unwelcom fruit of mens pride and lust and which in our age hath almost filled the whole earth with those Ilias malorum and which hath so lighted on the head of Israel and there remained for above two thousand years being before the Jewish captivity 133 years So that we may well say of him as the Orator said of Nero Nominis postremus habetur For the Hebrews who are least in sight according to that prophesie in Hos 8. Israel shall be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure are also at this day by most of us Gentiles looked upon and accounted of as the vilest and lowest people of the world and therefore scarce worth the discussion of our times nor the preheminence of Musselmen or rather Dooz oglanraz-Kerry Sodomitical Catamites Yet however the world esteems of multitudes and with the mighty say a confederacie the great God as it doth evidently appear hath from age to age and at this day doth respect the most despicable and low estate of men though but a remnant agreeing with the Text that are the remnant of his people Unto which truth I believe all men will assent because the Lord is said in one place onely to have known the Israelites among all the families of the earth that is with such a peculiar love or with such a measure of benediction And from this we may clearly demonstrate That in the most horrid wars and most slavish bondage which are both called by the Schoolmen mortiferum stagnans sanguine God will have his remnant whereon to bestow his mercy and whereby though a remnant to magnifie his almighty power As may be well noted out of that Excidio horribili the last siege of Jerusalem that notwithstanding the destruction of so many 100000 of Jews and yet mote that there might remain but so small a handful it is reported that after this grievous destruction to make quick dispatch the Roman souldiers sold unto the Greeks twenty Jews for a penny But the time will shortly come when this penny-worth of Iews and this other handfull of Israelites to whom I will bend my discourse shall sprout up into a great tree yea so great as all the Nations of the world will flie to it for shelter and advice But again The remnant which shall be left Which being in the future tense learns us thus much That for all those annual homicides and slaughters that have been made of the miscarrying Israelites since their captivity and their present sufferings in the aforementioned places the Israelites being at this day in Persia as usual an object for the bastinadoes of the Cowelhasha's as the Jews are in Turky amongst the Ianizaries yet these words shall be left do imply that there is yet a succession of them and that in the same place Alike nature with the Phaenix of whom the Writers say that out of its ashes in the same place ariseth another So when the Lord doth but breathe upon bones wherein is no marrow there will not only be added sinewes and flesh but to the admiration of the Nations from these helpless remnant there shall arise an exceeding great Army Which shall be left from Assyria At this day called Arzyrum into which Empire the ten Tribes were brought some by Tiglithpelezer and the rest by his son Shalmanaasser But since which time Rabbi Benjamin Ben-Jonas in his discourse of this Captivity saith that some of these Israelites did after time associate with some of their neighbours of Turquestan and with them went into Egypt where to this day many of their succeeding generation may be found as in Pathros in the upper Thebais and in many other places Which cannot be truly said to be a remainder of any of those Jews which Johanan against the command of God carried with him into Egypt because it is in Jer. 44.7 expresly said it being such a peremptory transgression that every man woman child and suckling should be cut off except those which did escape which could not be but by flying the kingdom of Egypt wheras also these here spoken of were led into Egypt out of this Province of Persia many years since that time by them whose brood we Christians call Turks From Cush and Elam Which Cush some hold to be meant of a City on the Gulf of Arabia now by the Turks called Zeman but of old Cush from Cush the son of Cham. But I do rather suppose it to be that in Persia which to day is called Chusistan as yet so from Cush who was the father of Nimrod of whom it is said in Gen. 10.10 that he made the beginning of his kingdom in the land of Shinaar wherein are seated these two Provinces of Cush and Elam And from the land of Shinaar whence we must expect good store of our Hebrew captives return And from Hamath which Hamath though it be often taken for Antioch in Syria once belonging to Israel until Rezin the King of Syria not Assyria took it from them yet I believe it may be that Town in Persia which to day is called Hamadan famous for the sepulchre of Queen Esther and that from these two reasons First because of its imediate coherence with the precedent places where I shall produce many hundreds of Israelites For how can it be probable that Shalmanaasser should place any of his Captives in such a City the inhabitants of which were all his life time implacable enemies to him And secondly because I understand that until the year of the world 5245. the Princes of this Town were stiled by the names of Hameth-Cawn or Prince and Lord of Hameth But from the Islands of the Sea Of which intended Islands I dare no otherwise speak then before for except the Cannibal islands I think there are few or none in the Indies but there are to
eorum gemitum audiebat Vos verò eorum filii servitutem passi fuere spiritualem ter quadringentis annis insuper necdum liberati eritis tamdiu negligitis Dominum vehementer supplicare qui ne procul sit ab unoquoque invocante Nonne ista optatio maledicta vestra satisque satis descendit in gentem Hebraeorum Sanguis ejus super nos super filios nostros Apud nos hodie restat quiequam vestrae gentis honoratissimus propter fidem ejus qui assidue pro vobis orat ut Dominus Deus ipse jam loqueretur sat est ut vos adhuc credatis in illo qui non vidit corruptionem Jesus de Nazareth quem patres vestri inique tanquam ignare occiderunt qui cum incarnatus fuit secundum illam praedictionem Moysis Deut. 18.15 multis modis tanquam Moysen vestrum optimum Prophetam per cujus legem non potestis justificari â caecitate cordum vestrorum Iterum patres vestri resistiterunt illum sicut olim Moysen ipsi atque vos miseri aestimantes ejus Impostorem Nonne nunc impleta fuit isthaec prophetia Isa 53. v. 12. Et cum sceleratis reputatus est Paupertas ejus parentum scandalum fuit vestris patribus Vid. idem caput Non est species ei nec decor Et paulo post Nec reputavimus eum Eam humilitatem in ejus conversatione ne omnino patres vestri afficiebant Vid unum exemplum Zach. 9.9 Jesus Rex vester qui potens fuit in opere sermone coram Deo omni populo magnus in benefactis multos curavit à languoribus spiritibus malis caecis multis dâ—navit visum mortuos resurgit Vid. Isa 42. v. 7. Qui cum moriturus fuit quasi agnus coram Todentese obtumescet non aperiet os suum Circa quod tempus omnia oracula Ethnicorum cessabant responsum dare velum Templi scissum est in duo à summo usque deorsum tunc illum invenerunt crederunt qui non quaesierunt Omnia haec è contra patres vestri O Judaei viderunt at non corda habuerunt in illo credere necdum vos miseri sed in revera erant isti contemptores Vid. Habac. 1. v. 5. Atque vos similiter usque in praesentem diem Nos Christiani credimus auroram vestram evangelicam appropinquare sin diligenter Scripturas scrutamini perspicuè videbitis vestram miserrimamque conditionem tenebrosam tanto prope tempus sit vestrae redemptionis quanto alterutroque conversatis de fide Christiana Denique vehementer desidero ut hoc libellum maxime de decem Tribubus significans publicatur legatur in omnibus vestris Synagogis atque nos interdum orabimus nostrum vestrum Elohim corda vestra obdurata aperire oculos vestros illuminare ut aspicietis in illum quem confixistis plangatis eum quasi planctum super unigenitum Atque it a precatur humilis Autor J. J. Philo-Judaeus On the Author ADamion medany bray Jehuds doozey audack kabilai Na choggea ke Paderan Gusta lubim colloomes baddas San gouste bin Jausep nike haran san shoocorey cohoddaw Wise men do marvel why thou lov'st the Jews Invalid Nation sick through th'worlds abuse Whose fathers deem'd th' Egyptian bondage sore But thou believ'st their present bondage more And when thou read'st of Joseph's diligence Thou didst affect such glorious providence R. B. In Authorem Hic juvenis bene scit quae sunt mihi dicere nova Quod petit ex Domino plura futura sciet Syrii nec Graeci Perses nec Tartari gentes Quos loquitur verò sunt Hebraei digni pati Qui Lebanon steteraÌ„t habitaÌ„t nunc vallibus imis Heu nunc impleÌ„tum est O scelerate nefas Haebrei tum vellint Christo dare cuspide vulnus Mox hunc spectabunt magno dolore Regem Israel optatus periturus propè juvandus Dixit interea O! cum precibusque rogo Guil. Wadring ' St. Ph. The lost Sheep return'd EXOD. 4.31 And the people believed and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked upon their afflictions then they bowed their heads and worshipped JERVSALEM once the Metropolis of Judaea where that famous warrior King David and after him his most prudent son King Solomon did reside called the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth and unto which did resort the most noble families of all the then known world And above all she did chiefly excell in her pure worship without the which there was no soul under heaven accounted happy Which said City is now after many overturnings according unto that place the chief residence of a Turkish Infidel called the languishing Zion and the by-word of Nations and to the heart-breaking of the Israelites hath for its religion erected in it the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet Now although I do conceive this to be no news to any one that can but well read English yet I was willing in the beginning of my Discourse to insert it because that notwithstanding we have in this latter age seen so many and so great examples of the almighty power of God in the change of our Government and such unlooked for alterations yet there are some men amongst us that notwithstanding the testimony of holy Writ do believe that the present sad estate of Judah will never change for better and that our faith concerning the return of supposed lost Israel is grounded upon an uncertain and sandy foundation I shall therefore by that help which by almighty God to me is given and to the furthest extent of my own ability First lay down their two grand objections against them Secondly I shall lay down these two Propositions 1. That the Jewes shall be called and converted to the Christian religion 2. That not only the two Tribes but in the same manner those remaining in the world that are of the other ten Tribes and whose present being I doubt not but to make known to all that read this And in the next place as indeed is the most sure testimony I will make this good and infallible 1. By the Divine oracles 2. By the consent of some antient Fathers and modern late writers 3. I shall to make sure work bring several strong confirmations from the present faith and hope of Israel as their Gemara doth at this day hold it forth as also from the good and hopeful expressions that I my self have by way of converse received from some able native Hebrews here in London And then by way of humble submission to more ripe and knowing wits I shall lay down my weak opinion how this Jewish conversion must be accomplished And lastly I shall use all the strong motives that my weak capacity will afford me by the which I would excite all my native Country-men to use much study in the safe-guarding and bringing home this poor straid sheep of
from this I gather that the Lords suppliants dispersed ones here spoken of are all those Jewes which the Lord shall at this day find in all the parts of Europe and also in that part of Asia which is on this side the Rivers aforementioned Then what must all these people do Why now the words do plainly shew it they shall bring mine offering Now here for the verity of this matter we have a sure and stedfast foundation whereon to build our faith even upon the promise of an Almighty God who speaketh not here indifferently of in a permissive manner as in another place he bids the Prophet preach to them whether or no they will hear or whether they will forbear But the Lord as he is the absolute Soveraign over all the world so he doth here determine and decree with himself that they shall do his will though he use much power with them and that is to bring his offering He doth not here mean one of their antient Levitical offerings neither must it be understood of that kind of offering which they do use at this present day but it shall be that same which the Apostle St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rational or living sacrifice acceptable unto God which the Text saith must be such broken and contrite spirits as their poor brethren then will be And now shall that Scripture be fulfilled in Mal. 3.4 And then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant to the Lord as in the dayes of old such as was the sacrifice of Abel which was offered up in right cousness and therefore it was so well pleasing unto God as that the Lord is said to take great pleasure in the scent thereof They shall now be convinced that God abominates and detests all others though it were whole rivers of oil or the fruit of the body no all must be now acted by a principle of faith in Christ all self-righteousness shall now be done away But where this holy and evangelical offering at this day is I must strive to shew you and that is from this following Scripture in the last of Isaiah and the last ver The Lord saith that those which escaped of them which I do aver to be the last captivity and bondage under the Romans will I send to Tarshis to Pull and Lud that draw the bow to Tubal and Jaran and to the Isles afar off and they shall bring all their Brethren for an offering unto the Lord. Now here is a plain contradiction to that Non est inventus which is brought into the Court of worldly Sophists by the multitude That Israel are all lost which were of those ten Tribes For first I shall prove my affirmation that in these places do as yet remain some of Israel or such as I am sure are truly descended from the very same Hebrews by that proximity or as I may say in some sense that identity of places that is given by various denominations As before you read they were planted by the river of Gozan and the cities of the Medes which doubtless are of so near affinity as that Halath lies but on one side the River and Lud then so called on the other bending more towards that which our Geographers do now call the Mare Caspium And if Alexander did transport so great an Army over this river in two or three dayes time then no man surely will question whether they may not be carried over in so great a space of time being then at the Chaldean Monarchs pleasure and ever since under one or other unto whom they have for ought I can understand yielded themselves though perhaps against their wills in the self-same subjection as the Moors do in Barbados unto their fearless Masters But secondly and that more clearly the precedent Countries are now made known unto us by our best and experienced Orthographers in history thus Iberia Sheirvan part of Armenia major and Natolia But we who doe much honour that language doe speak thus Tarsistan Zubbaw Mozendram Bagdatan c. in which latter place save one there ever were the best and as we do still believe are the most curious handlers of the Bow by some called Hircania who did if you read in that famous Antiquary of the war between the Persians and the Greeks so bravely behave themselves that they caused the old souldiers of Alexander Magnus to fear the happy event of that war so that for some time the fight was dubious And hence it is that Gods offering must be brought Which places the Holy Ghost was pleased by the Prophet in those dayes to stile Tubal and Jaran But then it is said and from the Isles afar off Now whether or no there may not be some of them scattered amongst those several Islands with the which neither our Nation nor others for the present have any commerce I shall not meddle But this I am assured of that all along the Coast from the other side of the Cape De bone Esperance as in St. Laurence Joanna John de novo Mohelia Cumro Islands c. here you shall find Hebrews enough by the vulgar termed Jews although the most of them are of the other Tribes Now that any man may having occasion thitherward learn of them the verity of my sayings let him get the Persian tongue which by the Hebrews as well as by others is the most fluent tongue on that side the Cape so that in the maritime towns of the forementioned main land and islands you shall meet with such of that Nation as live in a more civilized fashion and do still uphold part of the Jewish customs and in the villages and inland Country those more barbarous which I conceive by a long unaccustomed slavery among these people are become heathenized and almost meer strangers to the Covenant of their fathers So that we Christians may see how the Lord is pleased to give them a slumbring potion for their sins and almost hath cast them into a total lethargie only because he is a jealous God and will not have his honour given to any other nor his name blasphemed any longer as also having respect unto the Covenant which he made with Abraham his friend his bowels do now yearn towards them as you shall plainly see in the 33 of Jeremiah I will cause saith the Lord the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return and build them as at the first Here is aurea sententia plena charitatis This is as cleer as the sun that although God suffered them both to be carried away captive the one long before the other which first we do all grant did never as yet return and he did suffer them to be driven many degrees distant one from the other yea so far as the Writers do affirm the ten Tribes to have no share in that return of the Captivity from Babylon And above all notwithstanding they are for the present at great variance
the Jews in respect of their cruelty unto Christ and only in an affectionate way about pa. 73. That notwithstanding all those curses with which he had already out of the word of God threatned them yet saith he Tanquam talis est calamitosa desolatio in domo Judaica Dei nos Christiani expectamus eorum conversionem certam acceptionem For the present saith he there is great desolation made amongst Gods antient holy people so that most men do for their blind and ignorant but horrid offence committed against the Son of the everliving God despitefully handle them yet saith he we Christians do believe that they shall be converted and received again into the favor of God in Christ and therefore do we longingly expect and wait for it I might here shew the great difference between the Christ-like and heavenly affections of the Primitive Fathers and the cold world-like affections of the men of our dayes But that shall be brought in its proper place 3. Effrem Syrus whom Jerom doth so much extoll in his Catalogue of the Fathers for so merciful a man to all such as he did not see in as prosperous a condition as himself so that Jerom terms him in one place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man full of Divine actions Effrem the Divine writing on the small continuance of the persecution in comparison of that everlasting crown of joy which all Gods Saints and servants should possess after this miserable and frail life did in one of his Epistles to the Christians in Phaenicia entreat them not like others of the world but according to their profession to use all possible means to relieve and succour the outcasts of Israel saying that notwithstanding their hardness of heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have the same hope as we have although for the present they possess not the same Christian faith for how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard with such opened ears and hearts as the Lord ere it be long will give unto them Ambrose saith Quid pet is O Judaee Deus tribuet tibi panem aeternam qui dat omnibus illum rogantibus quotidie dat semper dat O Jew saith he what is it thou wouldst beg of God do but ask him and he will give thee bread everlasting who giveth daily and always giveth Observe now when this Father had reckoned up those Nations which had the least hope in or knowledge of God then he bringeth in the Jews at the latter end of the barbarous Nations and they lived not neither do live without God yet he thought and that judiciously how that they were furthest off Christ because of the full calling of the Gentiles to be first accomplished and therefore saith Would the forsaken Jew but beg of God and the Lord would give unto him of that bread of life which whosoever eats of shall never hunger more Indeed this Father comes far short of Effrem in his charity towards Israel and writes as if so be the Jews had the least reason of all Nations to expect any favor from the hands of the merciful God Jerom saith in his book de Temp. Quod nec Judaei nec Christiani repentè benefaciunt nec convertuntur ideo Judaei nondum Christiani sunt in nomine vero in re ipsa erunt That is how neither Jew nor Christian onely by his profession are suddenly for the most made new creaturesi and therefore because the Jews as yet have not attained the names of Christians yet let no man doubt but that they will be converted and brought back into that true and good old way in the which Enoch Shem Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses and Job with the rest of the Patriarchs walked even according to the mind of God who though they lived so long before Christ came in the flesh yet by Faith they saw his day and were glad even so although Israel will not see Christ in the flesh being he hath already offered up himself upon Cross one Sacrifice to serve for ever yet as sure as the Lord liveth who did once in their fathers remembrance cause the Sun to stand still over Gibeon and the Moon over Aialon which unto this day is a matter of great experience amongst the Jews I say so sure will the Lord perswade them nay he will constrain them to believe that he which for the present they call Ben-Ioseph was that true Emmanuel Ben-David who came and went up and down in the world doing good being meek and lowly riding on an Asse through the streets of their old City Ierusalem These things they do now deny but ere long they shall believe with joy unexpressible and cry Hosanna to the Son of David as if he now were riding before them bearing palms in their hands or rather grace in their hearts saying with the Samaritans We have not only heard by the report and sound of the Gentile Christians but now our own eyes have beheld the salvation of our God And as we may find at this day written in great letters at Rome one of the notable statutes of Lu. Aemilius how that Omnes Dii peregrini è civitate ejiciantur so at this great restauration they will throw away and detest not only out of their present habitations but also out of their hearts all strange and contrary opinions which for the present they do after various manners possess As in Persia they rely for the most part upon the belief and religion of the Bramin Merchants and so in the East-Indies but here in Europe they do give far more earnest heed unto their present book which they call the Gemara in which are written those secreta ac fines temporum spoken of in the book of Esdras whom they now have in special request above others of the Prophets A name and matter as they believe which doth surpass their old Talmud and yet they say at the presence of their King it shall vanish and decay expecting a third edition which will be delivered unto them by the hands of Elias Alluding as I suppose unto that third part which the Lord saith he will bring through the fire pure and burnisht without the least dross amongst them So that in our dayes to shew and testifie how that they are of those true Jews indeed and not of the sect spoken of in the Revelations as we read in the holy oracles viz. in Haggai that when such as had formerly seen the glory of the first Temple did now behold the glory of the second they wept and was it not because God had ecclipsed their old splendor seeing they would not hearken unto the word of his power they would none of his counsel but despised all his reproof by striving to put the evll day far from them I would that English-men had but such Jewish eyes to perceive and hearts to understand how far short we come of our former nick-named Puritanical glory notwithstanding all our talk of so
suffer much for the sin of their fathers here is blood toucheth blood and the more they suffer the more refined they believe they shall come out of the fire And now I cannot chuse but think of Father Ambrose's expression because I have heard it from the mouth of an unconverted Jew here in London born in Padua a City of Italy whose father once a merchant as he reports having most of his estate coming in a vessel from Rhodes was taken by an Argiers-Pyrate and therefore being five brothers of them he having three or four languages came over into England in a Plymouth-ship having his passage freely given him and here he hoped to get a service under some Noble-man but waiting long first is now gone into Scotland which a Nobleman of this land saith are in some sense allied one Nation to another But this was his expression when I his interpreter a French-man and one more were with him Speaking of their grievous estate he made answer Qui vult vincere primo discat pati Now I say that although it be a common thing in Turky for one drunken deboist Janizare or other to set the Jews houses on fire in the night-time yet in the morning they have no change of colour in their looks alluding to their Countryman Daniels putting into the Lions den and therefore without complaining to the Bashaw or Beglerbeg as indeed sometimes if they should it would be but in vain they go but to others of their Country-men and find sudden relief using the expressions of the Patriarch Job Shall we receive good and not evil from the hands of the Lord It is now come to the same pass as formerly when the Egyptians did bear such malice to the Christians as Christians in many places do now bear to the Jews who when Nilus overflowed not or any other evil disaster happened the Devil who is the father of a lye and the grand enemy of mans salvation would presently oraculize and tell the superstitious inhabitants that it was ob istam Tolerationem Christinam and therfore no sooner way to have Nilus fill their trenches then by throwing Christianes ad Leones Even so to the shame and stain of Christian religion not of Turks and other Musselmen in many places of Italy and Germany if any thing go amiss or any fiâ—e happen it is common with many nominal Christians to exclaim of the Jews and say it came by means of them like that lately in Venice where it is reported of a rich Jew a Merchant to suffer extremely by reason the Turks prevented the going of some provisions to Canea Some men are for their own ends wilfully blind and so will take no notice of the finger of God in any cross not like Job who when the Chaldeans and the Sabeans took away his cattel cryed out The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be his name But as the Devil had his end in the primitive times yet as by Divine permission in procuring some innocent blood so many men do make prize of the Jews by these calumnies Like the Mallabar Junks who will not assault a Vessel in her going to those rich Ports of the Chinoise extra Ganges but will snap her in the return So these will suffer the Iews gladly until they have by their industry and labor gotten some wealth wherewith to maintain their children but then how many Knights of the Post not of Malta what horrid accusations will be brought and what impudent pleading as in Vckrain will there be by such as do not fear the alknowing God so much as the Egyptians did nor as the Indians doe at this day obey the Devil until such a Jew's estate be adjudged confiscated I confess it is a piece of worldly but cowardly policie to do thus by the Hebrews because I look on them as for the present sine viribus being there is few or none that will take their part So that the saying of that evil servant is now verified by such austere and hard masters that reap where they did not straw As also to the servile Jews may the Poets fiction be applied of one in hell That as he makes ropes there standeth an Ass and bites them asunder They work for that which others contra normam naturae and by most unworthy overcoming do enjoy And thus far have I shewed the Reader what are the hopes of Israel In the next place I shall lay down my weak opinion how and after what manner the Jews may be converted to the Christian faith so as to believe on him whom they call the Christians Messiah And first Negatively Not as the Scholars use in Hungaria and those parts to beat Christianity into them by buffeting them in their own shops and houses and out of one City into another Now Reader here is the manner of dispensation of those gifts and parts which God hath given these men Here is ne amplius but a word and a blow as if so be because God hath forsaken them for a while therefore Hebrews were no better then dogs Here is the everlasting credit or high discredit of self-conceited Hungarians I here are your ignoramus Scholars which make as if they were only able to unfold the truths of God Nay I am certified that about a year ago they fell upon the Jews unawares and as they were quietly following their calling and killed some of them and would have done greater mischief had not the goodness of the Emperor extended presently to them by sending a band of souldiers to rescue them This moreover makes me think that God hath reservd greater mercies in store for them for he doth often suffer his own Saints and servants to be tossed with tempest and afflicted for many years together I am ashamed that knowing men such as daily read the Scripture should conjecture so foolishly as if so be they were able to beat Christ into them Now I say except a man were utterly given over to brutishness and to have a seared conscience so as he is for any religion like those people that before they will endure the least hardship will turn Turks denying the Lord that hath bought them I say else the most barbarous Idolaters will not forsake the religion of their ancestors by this foolish way of administration and do these mad men think to force a Jew from his religion Are those stupid dunces no better read in the stratagem of the Jews where Antiochus Epiphanes that Tyrant did force the Jews with fire and sword strangling men hanging some women with their children about their necks others with their poor sucklings about their breast he threw headlong over the walls of Jerusalem profaned the Temple forced the Iews to eat Swines flesh to forsake their Circumcision and to adore his Gods yet all this and more could not move the rest one step from their religion Sure these men do little regard how the Apostles mild way of exhortation and perswasion to believe