entred the Synagogue and sung that prayer beginning Berachu in a soule ravishing delightfull and harmonicall note then hell breaks loose and the gates of purgatory flie open the soules in both leape out into the earth and run into every river fountaine or any other water they can come by desiring for a time to coole their scorched substance and this is the cause why the Rabbines most severely commanded that none should dare to draw any well dry upon the Sabbath day lest these poore and miserable soules should be utterly destitute of such a refreshing as we may read in their Minhagin In the meane time that they are a praying in the Synagogue there come two Angels the one good the other evill who standing before the door of the Synagogue and hearing any pray diligently and also reade attentively that Scripture Thus were the heavens and earth finished and all the hoste of them and what followes concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath They bring him to his owne home and putting their hands upon his head say Loe this coale hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Rabbi Jose saith in the name of Rabbi Juda that these two Angels bring every man to his home when hee returnes from the Synagogue And if these Angels entering the house of any Jew finde the Sabbath lampes burne cleare the table covered and furnished with all necessaries the bed neatly made then saies the good Angell It is the pleasure of God Almighty that these things should be in the same state the next Sabbath day that I have now found them in To which the evill Angell is forced to say Amen But if they finde all things out of order then the evill Angell saith these things shall be in the same manner the next Sabbath to which the good Angell sore against his will must say Amen likewise When they are departed the Synagogue and every man returned to his owne house then one saying unto another God send you an happy Sabbath they instantly fal aboard for it is written Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it which last word is in the Hebrew lekadescho by reason of which they give this glosse upon the Text. So soon as the Sabbath is begun remember that thou also have thy Kaddasch in readinesse that is to say remember solemnly to imitate the same with a cupfull of wine Hence it comes to passe that in many Synagogues presently after the ending of evening prayer a bowle of wine is ready prepared because some strangers or poor people which have no wine at home may bee there present This being consecrated is reached forth unto them unto the end that may celebrate the beginning of the Sabbath in that very place Whosoever hee be in the Synagogue that blesseth the wine he tastes it not but gives it to some young boy to drinke thereof for he is not accustomed to drinke of the same unlesse it be at home at his own table where also he usually consecrates the same Instantly then upon their returne they sit downe to table upon which ought to be salt a bowle of wine and two loaves covered with a diapernapkin Then the master of the family takes a bowle full of wine and beginning the Sabbath with blessing it saith I am Haschischi vaie cuâ—â—a haschamaijm The foure first letters of these words note unto us that ever blessed name of God JeHoVaH the name expressing his eternall essence And by reason of this mystery the Rabbines have added the two former words being the last of the first Chapter of Genesis unto the two latter being the first of the second and by reason hereof they rise up at the repetition of them giving a due reverence to the name of God The words interpreted run thus The sixth day the heaven and earth were finished and all the host of them And on the seventh day God ended his worke which he had made And he rested on the seventh day from all his worke which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he had rested from all his worke which he had made Here in the mean time he inserts an admonition saying O my Lords you Rabbines have regard unto the prayer that every one in particular may in the same manner bee excused thereby as if he had said it himselfe and so he holds on to pray and say Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast created the fruit of the vine Blessed be thou O Lòrd our God King of the world who hast sactified us by thy commandements and given us thine holy Sabbath and out of thy love and good will towards us hast left it as hereditary unto us in memory of thy workes in the creation For it is the beginning of the gathering together of thy Saints and the memoriall of our departure out of Egypt Thou hast chosen and sanctifyed us out of all other people and hast left us the Sabbath of thy holinesse as a legacy of thy love and good will towards us Blessled be thou O God who sanctifyest the Sabbath In the next place he drinks some of the wine and reacheth it to the the rest that they may doe as he hath done Then he takes the napkin from over the bread and taking the two loaves unto him cuts them not before he hath said grace contrary to that which he doth upon the daies of the weeke but presently saith By your leave my Masters and Rabbines blessing the bread in this forme Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world which brings bread out of the earth After this he breaks a piece of bread and eates imparting also to every one at the table a morsell which is of greater size then ordinary in honour of the Sabbath upon it is not lawfull for any to be niggardly then they eat whatsoever God hath sent While that the cup is in blessing every one casts a delightfull eye upon the Sabbath-lamps because that the Rabbines write that when any one travels upon the daies of the weeke the five hundred part of his sight departs from him for the regaining of which the beholding of these lamps in that time while the wine is consecrated is a soveraign medicine For the Hebrew word Ner signifying a light being doubled make in number fifty They cover the bread that it may not behold its owne shame the wine being present which is in the first place sanctified for the use of the Sabbath notwithstanding that the Scripture gives the bread the place when it saith I will bring thee into a land of wheate and barley of vines and figge-trees For here wheat is first named which is the materiall of bread yet neverthelesse it is the last of all to be consecrated for the use of the Sabbath which would be a great shame unto it if it should stand bare Others affirm
for the Rabbines in their Masseches Berachos upon those words When all the people saw the thunders and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain burning the people saw and were afraid and stood afar off dispute and say that the people through great fear and amazement was in a moment of time three miles backward from the mountain Sinai The chief Glosse-monger Rabbi Salomon Jarchi writes in his glosse upon this Text that the people kept back twelve miLes of which David spoke saying The Kings of the Armies did flie and sheâ— that tarried at home divided the spoil and then came the good Angels and ministring Spirits and brought the people back unto the Mountain When they are about to depart the Temple or Synagogue then they speaking within themselves quietly and without the least noise they say a certain Prayer beginning Alenulesh abeach It is meet that we should praise the Lord who is above all and in an excellent degree to celebrate him because he hath created all things and not made us like unto the rest of the Nations likewise that he hath not made us as other generations of the World and hath not appointed us an inheritance like unto theirs neither is our lot as their lot neither as the lot of their whole multititude Here are some words omitted in their Books of Common-prayer and that by the Commandement of the Magistrates of Italy where their Books are wont to be and for the most part are at this day imprinted The things omitted were some blasphemous sayings against our Saviour which are found expressed in the ancient copies of which I have one which was imprinted at Augusta by a Jewish Printer called Chajim in the year of Christ 1534. In other copies instead of the words omitted there is left an empty space about the length of one line to this end that the children of the Jews and others who are ignorant may be warned to enquire what saying it is that is there omitted which when they do some relate the words unto them or otherwise write them in the margent of the Book as I have observed them to have practised in many of their Prayer books the words left out are these Who bend their knee and crouch to that which is vanity and foolishness and adore another God who cannot help these words they utter against Christ wherefore they spit upon the earth in the mouthing of them But we bend and bow our knees yea our whole man to that King who is King of Kings to God holy and blessed for ever who stretcheth out the heavens establisheth the earth whose glory and chair of estate is in heaven and the seat of whose power is in the highest heavens he only is our God and there is no other besides him These things thus finished the Jew now going out Of the Synagogue saith O Lord God lead me by thy justice by reason of those that lay wait for me in secret make plain thy way before my face Preserve me in my going out and my comming in from this time forth for evermore They must go out of the Synagogue in the posture of a Crab sish creeping backward through the Gate thereof and that their back part should not be towards the holy Ark in which the book of the Law is laid up to which they ought to exhibit a certain kind of reverence by turning their face thereunto The Rabbines upon those words of the Prophet Ezekiel Who have turned their back unto the Temple of the Lord have delivered thus much in the Talmud that a grievous and heavy punishment was inflcted upon the Priests because in going out of the Temple of the Lord they turned their back parts towards the ark of the Covenant wherefore the case standing thus we ought to depart out of the Temple with all fear and reverence even as a servant being about to take his leave of his Maister doth it with a retrograde crowching submission and submiss lowliness They must not run out of the Synagogue lest some might think him that runneth to be weary with praying and to rejoyce that it is now lawfull for him to depart They must go out with decurtate steps for if any one doth this God numbreth his steps and gives him a great reward as it is written Thou hast numbred my steps c. If any in his going forth chance to meet a woman or a damsel whether she be one of the Jews or Christians he ought to shut his eyeâ— and turn away his face from beholding her he must not afford her the common curtesie of a Complement lest thereby taking occasion of longer discourse he should be woed to the entertainment of lustfull notions and evil cogitations Concerning the serious manner of praying they write that whosoever wil pray attentively ought to have his head and heart covered to incompass his body with a girdle in the middle lest his heart by the sight of the secret part should be inveigled with wicked thoughts He must turn his face towards Canaan and the City Jerusalem his feet equally placed upon the Earth as abovesaid He ought to put his hand upon his heart in that manner that his right hand may rest upon his left withall bowing his head with great humility as it is written Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto the Lord in the heavens and again My life is alwayes in my hand yet do I not forget thy Law In time of prayer none must yawn belch or spit yet if he must spit on necessity then ought he privately to receive it in his Handkerchiff and modestly to cast it behind him or upon his left hand but not before him or upon his right for there stand the Angels invisible whom if any should beray with this excrement he should be guilty of an heynous offence It is not lawfull for any to let a scape in time of Prayer if he do it against his will then ought he to suspend the act of praying until the ill savour thereof be gone If the wind urge him so much and so vehemently that he must of necessity let fly then shall he go some four paces aside set a packing and instantly thereupon saying O Lord of all the earth thou hast created me full of holes Whiâ—h I cannot shut up all our modesty is open and known unto thee our life is full of shame we are nothing but worms and Maggots Sneesing in time of Prayer if it come from the parts below is an ill sign if from above a good one He that beginneth once to pray must not break off in the middle of his Prayer yea although the King of Israel should come and salute him yet he may not answer him though a Serpent took him by the heel and bit him yet ought he to continue in his devotions yet there is a certain dispensation which licenseth a man to give way unto a
many touch their naked body with their hands that hereby they may take occasion to wash them They use Claret wine for the most part in this Feast because there is the greatest plenty of it to be had if such cannot be had then they use some other for the initiation hereof alwaies provided it be intermixed with certaine spices Immediately after they have washed their throats they fall sourely upon the sallets every one taking a little thereof and dipping it in vinegar the Master of the house also saying Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast created the fâ—uites of the earth They eat these herbes thus drencht in vinegar to make their stomach give a more plausible entertainment to the succeeding dishes it being very soveraign for the invitation of an appetite To proceed The Master of the houshold taking that cake of the three which lyeth in the middle out of the platter breaks it in twaine and putting the greater part there of under his pillow or napkin signifying thereby that their fathers flying out of Egypt took their dough before it was leavened their kneading troughes being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders hee puts the other halfe into its former place between the two whole cakes throwing the lambes legg rosted and the egg out of the other platter Then every one laying hands on the dish wherein is the halfe cake saith with a loud voice such was the bread of affliction wherewith our fathers were fed in the land of Egypt Every one that is hungry let him come and eat his fill whosoever hath need let him come and eat of the paschall lambe This yeare we are in this place the next yeare we shall be in the land of Canaan This yeare we are servants and bond-men the next yeare God saying Amen we shall be redeemed become Lords and Masters In this place the halfe cake is an emblem of poverty and exile The reason is a poor man or a beggar hath not a whole loase in all his house but only scraps and fragments This their practise they ground upon those words of Moses Seven daies thou shalt eate unleavened bread therewith even the bread of affliction This descant ended they set the lambes legg and the rosted egg upon the table againe and the second time present every person in particular with a bowle of wine and take the platter wherein the cakes are from the table that the children may move a question according to the custome of ancient daies which is recorded in these words It shall come to passe that when your children shall say unto you what meane you by this service That yee shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lords passeover who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses So the children of the Jewes at this day ought to aske their fathers why they remove the cakes from the table before they have tasted of them and they are to answer them according to the tenor of these words Instantly upon the solution of the objection the cakes are the second time set upon the table and then the whole company sings a tedious song concerning their deliverance out of the land of Egypt When they come to that division wherein mention is made of the ten plagues of Egypt they slacke their voice and with their fingers cast some drops of wine out of the cup thereby intimating that these ten plagues being banished out of their doors ought to fall upon their enemies the Christians The song being ended every one taking his cup into his hand and in a high note singing or saying It is meet and our bounden duty that we should confesse praise glorify extoll honour and blesse him who hath not done not only for our Ancestors but for us also all these signes and wonders who hath vouchsafed to bring us out of darknesse into light out of bondage into liberty out of the dungeon of sorrow into the faire fields of joy and gladnesse and hath changed our daies of mourning and lamentation into holy Festivals representing a delightfull Jubilee for this cause will we come before him and sing many hallelujahs to his holy name sitting in his chair like a spanish Don newly transformed by a new fashion he carouses the second bowle Then the Master of the house washing his hands takes the uppermost cake out of the dish and saith Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who bringest bread out of the earth yet not eating thereof he takes againe the middle cake and saith Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast sanctifyed us by thy commandements and hast enjoined us to eat unleavened bread Immediately upon the pronuntiation of these words he breaks a morsell of both cakes and eates it commanding the rest to doe likewise who all leane upon their left side Then they take one whole cake together with the halfe notwithstanding that upon the Sabbath they are accustomed onely to the use of whole loaves and the reason because Moses cals it the bread of poverty or affliction for a poore man is Lord of no other save some basket-pieces In the next place the Master of the family takes some of the bitter herbes and puts them into the foresaid pottage saying Blessed be thou O Lord God King of the world who hast commanded us to feed upon bitter herbes and then hee invites every one to eat thereof They doe not now as formerly leane upon their pillowes in remembrance that their forefathers were as yet servants compelled by Pharaoh togather straw and labour in the bricke kilne Lastly he takes the third cake out of the platter and breaks a piece out of the same and fals againe to feed upon his bitter sallet but dips not the herbs into the pottage because Rabbi Hillel who liâ—ed before the destruction of the second Temple was accustomed so to do and they prove it also out of the words of Moses who saith you shall eat unleavened cakes with bitter herbes shall you eat them so they read it But the words of Moses are according to the truth of the originall these which follow In that night they shall eate the flesh roste with firâ— and unleavened bread and with bitter herbs shall they eate it So much concerning the prologue or preparatory acts to the Supper of the Paschall lambe now begins the supper it selfe They eate whatsoever God hath provided making very merry quaffing off and carousing whole bowles of wine and beer untill the middle of the night which approaching the Masser of the Feast takes the halfe cake which he had hid under his pillow eates a little thereof and reacheth unto every man present a morsell of the same which done they leane very demurely upon their left sides wash their hands take a cup of wine and drinke it off which is the third cup
of God and a good work to fill their Panches and cram their Guts this night with the Cocks and Capons and soundly to liquor their throats then to fast the day following Alwayes provided that supper be ended before sun-set for then the feast of reconciliation begins and they are to dress themselves in neat and fine cloathing upon which they weare a surplice or garment of choise linnen coming down unto their feet hereby shewing unto other that the next day they shall be pure and clean from their sins and offences and like unto the Angels These garments they put on in honour to the festival the celebration of which consists not in eating and drinking being sottishly ignorant that the worship of God is of more worth then either Hence it is that the Lord complains by the mouth of his Prophet Hear O heavens and harken O earth for the Lord hath said I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his masters crib but Israel hâ—th not known my people have not understood Ah sinful nation ab people laden with iniquity a seed of the wicked corrupt children they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the holy one of Israel to anger they are gone backward What have I to doe with the multitude of your Sacrifices saith the Lord Hosea also saith O I srael return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take unto you words and turn unto the Lord and say unto him Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously and so will we render unto thee the calves of our lips So much of the preparation to the feast of reconciliation CHAP. XXI Of the Feast of Reconciliation COncerning the institution of this feast we may finde it recorded in the third book of Moses that the tenth day of the siventh moneth shall be a day of reconciliation it shall be an holy convocation unto you speaking to the Israelites you shall humble your soules and offer sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord And ye shall do no work that same day for it is a day of Reconciliation to make an attonement for you before the Lord your God For every person that humbleth not himself the same day shall even be cut off from his people And every person that shall doe any worke that same day the same person also will I destroy from among his people Ye shall do no manner of work therefore this shall be a law for ever in your generations throughout your dwellings By reason of this injunction and command the Jews at this day are wont to meet in their Synagogue about sunset before it be night carying with them their wax lights and placing them in their Candlesticks singing and praying with a beastly roaring and bellowing outcries The women which stay at home to keep the house light many candles in the bed chambers and other places blessing them and stretching out both their hands towards them as they do also upon the sabbath hereby making a difference between the festival dayes and others appointed for ordinary employments and manual labours If these lights burn clear they take it as a very good signe of some consequent hap believing that their sins are remitted that they shall see many happy dayes and not come as yet into the prison of the grave If they give not a clear light but that which is only glimmering dark and obscure if they melt away the tallow or wax distilling drop by drop then they begin to be sorrowful conjecturing this to be a signe of some evill ready to befall them They spread their floores pavements and hearths with Coverlets in some places as in Wormes they straw their hearths with rushes only lest they upon the day following by often stooping to the fire to chafe and rub themselves might defile and spot their holiday attire or otherwise lest they should seem to commit Idolatry which is altogether unlawful the reason hereof is that which is written You shall not pave your pavement with stone to bow and prostrate your selves thereupon That it is said in the forecited text of Moses that they ought to humble themselves before the Lord they understand to be meant of a five-fold kinde of pleasure from which they are to abstain And first of all from meat and drink even from sunset to ssnset from the beginning to the ending of the solemnity Boyes above twelve and wenches above eleven years of age women also who have been above three dayes in child-bed are not exempted from this fast A sick man may eat lawfully if he desire it If not the Physitian thinking it meet and convenient for the regaining of his health meat is to be administred unto him Secondly every one is bound to goe without shoes barefoot only it is permitted unto old decrepit and sickly persons to whose health the coldness of the season may bring hurt and dammage Thirdly no man ought at this time to annoint himself with oyle or wash his body with water for pleasures sake Fourthly no man must enter into a bath to wash himself no he may not be allowed to dip his finger in the water much less to wash his hands or face Yet if any have occasion to ease himself after the deed done he may dip his fingers into the water so that he goe no farther then the formost joynt Some take a wet linen cloth and make clean their hands therewith yet it is accounted as a thing very dangerous and neerly coming within the confines of an offence for if the cloth should chance to be so wet as the drops of water might be pressed out of it it were enough to prophanâ— the festival Fiftly the men must not come at their wives no not so much as touch them and keep themselves out of their company as though they were in their monethly flowers Before they begin their solemn prayers usually made by them after sunset at the begining of this festival three of the chief Rabbines walking through the Synagogue saying with a loud voice Bischibhah schel mahelah ubischibhah schel mattah etc. the meaning of which words is that they give power and license to the whole congregation as well to the bad as the good among them to pray unto God To this end also the Chaunter goes unto the Ark where the book of the law is kept opens it and saies a long prayer which begins Col nidere Vaâ—ssare uschehue that is to say All Vowes Covenants and Oaths c. the first part whereof he repeats three times every time with a more lofty and joy resounding voice then other The sum whereof is that all the vows oaths promises covenants asseverations and protestations which any one of the Jewish nation hath not kept the year past to be void remitted disanulled the breach thereof not to be acknowledged for an offence to be utterly taken away and pardoned
That by this mean Covenant-breakers may as well as the keepers the bad and the villanous as well as the good and just may sing praise and pray unto God Whence every Christian may see how little they esteem of an oath especially made unto one of us Then they hold on to sing and pray untill the night be far spent Some all the night over others returning to their houses betake them to their rest other sleep in some corner of the Synagogue or other or in the Synagogue of the women in some place farthest remote from the Arke They among the Jews who have an earnest desire truly to repent them of their sins and to lead a holy life stand all the time that the feast endures singing and praying without intermission as I have seen some who have stood immoveable in the same place for twenty seven hours together When the morning begins to approach they all repair to the Synagogue before the dawning of the day making there their agode untill night boasting very much of the book of the Law reading many Sections therein Falling often to the earth with their face uncovered and then chiefly when they make confession of their sins smiting their brests at every word to shew the devout attention of their mindes and the lifting up of their hearts unto their God and maker When it begins again to be night then the Priest wrapping a great hair-cloth ahout his neck and drawing it over his head so far untill it come to the threshold of his eyes he blesseth the people according to the ordinary forme prescribed by Moses Numbers the 6. the 24 25 26 and 27. verses When he pronounceth the blessing he stretcheth out his hands towards the people they covering their faces with their own for it is lawful for no man to look upon the hands of the Priests because the spirit of the Lord rests upon them while he blesseth the Congregation As it is written He standeth behinde our wall looking forth at the windows shewing himself through the grates that is to say God stands at the Priests back and looks through the windows and grates that is to say through his hands being being stretched out and his fingers being spread abroad severed one from another Then he siâ—gs another prayer repeating it seven times sometimes with a submisse and low sometimes with a loâ—d voice and the reason of this reiteration is because God at this time departs from them and goes into heaven not coming again untill the priest be the seventh time in repeating of this prayer The seventh time therefore they sing it in a melodious tune with a sense bereaving harmony having very good skill and sweet voices as they can witness who have heard them Before they depart the Synagogue they blow upon the Rams horne before mentioned a sound both long and loud in remembrance of the year of Jubile which in ancient times was wont to begin as upon this day Others write that they do it in memory of the seven heavens which the Lord opened when he descended upon Mount Sinai and gave the law to the people of Israel and declare unto them that in heaven there was no other God besides him When they have put an end to this their festival and a period to these their trifles then as they blush not to affirm there comes a voice from heaven saying goe and eat thy bread with joy and gladness of heart for God accepts all thy good works at the best Instantly upon the hearing of the voice they return to their own houses some carrying the reliques of their wax lights along with them because they commonly use them in making the separation between the festival and other dayes of the week But others on the contrary leave them in the Synagogue in the Candlesticks for a year together lighting them at some certain times They who are very holy and religious among them have a wax light burning in the Synagogue night and day never going out throughought the whole year this they call Ner Tamid an everlasting light When they are returning home one sayes unto another God the Creator seal unto a happy year for the three books of which we formerly made mention are now sealed up and Gods sentence pronounced upon every one is ratified and stands immutable Being come home they finde their guts to make a grievous complaint and themselves exceeding hungry having eaten nothing for twenty eight hours together they make haste therefore to satisfie their greedy appetite and to replenish their belly with store of victuals The next morning after they rise betimes out of their beds and return to the Synagogue lest Satan should take an occasion to complain of them saying unto God yesterday they rose early because it was the day of reconciliation but this day their devotion grows cold loving their pillow better then the Synagogue What should I say more this day they are so holy and religious so honest and devout that even the Devil is forced whether he will or not to commend their carriage concerning which we have his following conference in Pirk Rabbi Eleazar Upon that day in which God gave the Law to the Children of Israel the evil spirit Samael came unto him and said O Lord of the whole world thou hast given unto me power and dominion over all the people of the earth only the children of Israel excepted To whom the Lord made answer On the day of reconciliation and thence-forward thou shalt have power over them if thou canst finde any sin fault or offence in them of which if they be found in no manner guilty then shalt thou not approach so much as to touch them Which when Samael understood he said unto God thou hast a people upon earth like unto the Angels in heaven For as the Angels in heaven standing immoveable neither eat nor drink and being free from all sin live in peace among themselves even so do thy people Israel upon the day of Reconciliation which God hearing out of the mouth of the Devil presently without delay forgives them all their sins and opens his ear unto their prayers It is read in another place that they give gifts unto Satan that they may blinde and shut up his eyes lest he should see their doings and accuse them unto the Lord of hosts as it is written A gift blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous I conclude with the words of God to Esay Cry aloud and spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions and to the house of Jacob their sins Yet they seek me daily and will know my wayes even as a nation that did righteously and had not forsaken the statutes of their God They will ask of me the ordinances of justice they will draw neer unto God saying Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest it not We have punished our selves and thou regardest
Judah the son of Simeon did avouch Ziz to be a bird of that bigness that when he spreads abroad his wings he hides the body of the sun and wraps the world in darkness Furthermore on a certain time a certain Rabbine was upon the sea in a little ship in the middle of which he saw a bird standing of such an height that water came only to her knees which the Rabbine observing bespeaks his companions that there they might wash themselves seeing the water was not deep But a voice from heaven hindred the attempt saying unto the Rahbine see that thou do it not for now seven whole years are gone and past since a certain man let a hatchet fall in this very place which hath been ever since a falling and is not as yet come to the bottome By which a man may easily gather how long legs this bird had and how great her body ought to be in proportion to her feet Without doubt these birds keep their residence in the wood Ela in which a Lion is reported to live of such an unheard of portraicture that only to relate would strike a man with astonishment Of this Lion the Talmud thus fables When upon on a certain time the Emperor of Rome asked Rabbi Josuah the son of Hananiah what the reason was why their God compared himself unto a Lion and whether he was of so great strength that he could kill a Lion the Rabbine made answer that God did not compare himself unto an ordinary Lion but unto such an one as lived in the wood Fla to whom the Prince replied shew me that Lion Then the Rabbine by prayer obtained of God that the lion should leave the wood and come when hs was yet foure hundred miles distant from the Emperour he roared so terribly that all the women with child in Rome became abortive and the walls of the City fell flat unto the ground When he had come an hundred miles nearer he the second time roared so fearefully that all the teeth of the Romanes fell out of their heads the Emperour falling from his throne lay prostrate upon the earth half dead who with vehement entreaties begs of the Rabbin to send back the Lion which was likewise put in execution But these fables draw us too far from the smell of that fast which the Messias hath provided for the Jews in the land of promise The flesh of the foresaid Behemoth and Leviathan will not digest well without a Cup of older wine therefore the Messias shall broach that wine and give it unto his guests which was made in Paradise and was kept from the begining of the world to that time in Adams Cellar as it is written In that day sing you unto her a vineyard of red wins I the Lord do keep it I do water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day again There is a cup in the hand of the Lord and the wine thereof is red it is full mixt he shall poure it out and the dregs therof all the ungodly of the earth shall drink and suck them up Before the supper be served in the Messias after the manner of Kings and Princes and others celebrating Festivals and Marriages shall present the Jews with pleasant sports and plaies to make them merry He will cause Behemoth and Leviathan to meet in some spacious place and there they shall play before the Messias to pass away the time and for his minds refreshing as it is written Surely the Mountains bring him forth food where all the beasts of the field play And again There go the ships there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein Then the oxe running hither and thither shall bend his hornes against the Leviathan which will greatly affect the Messias according to that It will be more grateful to the Lord then a bullock that hath borns and hoofs The Leviathan also shall come to encounter the oxe armed with his fins as an helmet not easie to be seen as it is written Who can open the doors of his face his teeth are terrible round about His scales are his pride shut up together as with a close seale Here shall be the summons to the battle and the first encounter begin most hot and furious but to small purpose for they being of equall strength neither can overcome the other but at last wearied out both shall fell upon the ground Then the Messias drawing out his sword shall slay them both as it is written At that day will the Lord with a sore great and strong sword punish Leviathan Now comes the Cooks part nothing but boyling and roasting and great provision for this sumptuous supper as it is recorded The Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in this mountain a feast of fat things of fat things full of marrow The fish shall be served up in parcels to the guests which done every one shall greatly rejoyee as it is written shall thy companions make a banquet of him shall they part him among the merchants This donative supper being ended the messias shall marry a wife the scripture being witness Kings daughters were among thy honourable women upon thy right hand stood the Queen in a vesture of gold So the Jews themselves interpret and the meaning is this as Kimchi professeth in his great gloss Among the honourable women which the Mossias shall have shall be the daughters of Kings For every King of the earth shall esteem himself highly graced so that he may give his daughter in marriage unto the Messias But the genuine and rightly so named wise of the Messias properly signified by the word Schegal shall be one of the most eminent beauties among the daughters of Israel she shall sit at his right hand without intermission abide in the Kings closet whereas the other shall stay in the supping room or house of the women not approaching the King unless it be his pleasure to send for them In this bond of Wedlock the Messias shall beget children after he shall die as other mortals and his children shall sit upon his throne after him as it is written He shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hands that is as a Rabbine expounds it The Messias shall live to a good old age and last shall be brought to his grave with great solemnity and his son shall reign after him and after his death his posterity shall possess his seat For the manner of life which the Jews shall have under their Messias First of all the remnant of the Christians and other people which fell not by the hand of the Jews shall make hast and build the Jews houses and Cities not for hire but of free accord till their ground plant them vineyards yea bestow their very goods upon them moreover
THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE OR AN HISTORICALL NARRATION OF THE STATE OF THE JEWES At this day dispersed over the face of the whole Earth In which their Religion Education Manners Sects Death and Buriall are fully delivered and that out of their own Writers Translated out of the Learned BVXTORFIVS Professor of the Hebrew in Basil and diligently compared with the Talmud and other Writers out of which it had its Originall Also furnished with divers Marginal Notes very profitable and necessary By A B Mr. A. of Q. Col in Oxford LONDON Printed by T. Roycroft for H. R. and Thomas Young at the three Pidgeons in Pauls Church-Yard 1657. THE AUTHORS PREFACE To the Christian Reader Christian Reader WHen once we exactly ponder in the Scales of our understanding that thrice pressing load of Jewish ingratitude disobedience and obstinacy for which they were dayly branded by Moses and the rest of the Prophets with a foul guilt to which was annexed a vehement reprehension When we seriously consider those horrid threats and execrations wherewith God in his justice would depress them unless they framed their lives according to the strict rule of his Commandements this ought to be a warning-piece unto us to entertain such blessings with a more gratefull acceptance and hitherto to bend all our studies that by our unthankfulness we should not make our selves unworthy of them and so be dis-inherited of such a possession Moses in this manner prophecies of the Jews ingratitude Jesurun maxed fat and kicked thou art waxen fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the worke of his salvation This issued from a prophetical spirit declaring that as already present which after the revolution of many a year was to be fulfilled and accomplished This ingratitude was in its swadling clouts when Joshua led Israel into the land of promise which is ratified by the unanimous suffrage of the whole Colledge of Prophets and almost in the very same terms by Hosea in chap. 13. Jeremy arraigns them as guilty of the same crime the bill of inditement runs thus They are turned back to the iniquities of their fore-fathers which refused to hear mywords and they went after other gods to serve them the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the Covenant which I made with their Fathers And God himselfe by the mouth of his Prophet thus proclaims their obstinacy Since the day that your Fathers came out of the Land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the Prophets dayly rising up early and sending them yet they hearkened not unto me nor inclined their eare but heardened their neck they did worse then their Fathers The obstinacy of this People at last grew to so high a pitch that they stopt their ears at the admonition of the Prophets who cried aloud unto them to amend their waies and curbed their offences with tart reprehensions killing stoning rewarding every one with some bitter death which act of theirs is faithfully registred by the holy Spirit Ezra â— They tooke strong Cities and a fat Land and possessed houses full of all goods wels digged Vineyards and Oliveyards and fruit trees in abundance so they did eat and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in thygreat goodness nevertheless they mere disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy Law behind their backs and slew thy Prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee and wrought great provocations And Jeremy also may be cited for a witness for his words are these Wherefore will ye plead with me ye all have transgressed against me saith the Lord. In vain have I smitten your children they have received no corrections your own sword hath devoured your Prophets like a destroying Lion When the Lord sees this his people thus altogether incapable of corection he afflicts them with all the punishments which Moses by the spirit of God had denounced against them neither their bodies nor goods can now escape the lash of his fury he sends among them the sword famine and pestilence tempests diseases imbred dissention and discord and to make their misery compleat casts them out of that Land flowing with milk and hony and causes them to trace the captives steps into another which they knew not The ten tribes together with their King Hoshea is carried by Salmanasser into Assyria Kin. and when the two remaining Tribes Juda and Benjamin were not hurried to repentance by the present view of their brethrens afflictions God sends Nebuchadnezzer King of Babel against them who leads them captive into the Land of Chaldea makes Jerusalem a desolate heap and turns their Temple their chief beauty into ashes Nevertheless the space of 70 years fully expired these 2 tribes were again brought out of the house of bondage because it was the Almighties pleasure to preserve the tribe of Judah even unto that time when according to his promise out of that tribe and in the promised land the Messias should be incarnate But for all this these 2 tribes did not much outstrip the other 10 in the practise of holiness for they always following their own devices seriously traced the forbidden by-paths of their forfathers for which the later Prophets Haggai Zachary and Malachi were earnest declamitants against them the last of which being a Priest proclaiming them guilty of a wicked life threatens them with a final rejection out in obscurity that so we might again be cast headlong into that darknesse in which we sate before it was the Lords pleasure by his mercy to impart unto us the saving knowledge of his heavenly word My second Motive was this that the hardened in heart and blindfolded Jews at last descending into the Chambers of their strict cogitations might have some glimpse of the greatness of their infidelity and so convicted before the face of the whole world of that more than brutish folly in the expounding of the holy Scriptures and of their old wives tales whereby God for the most part is blasphemed and his saving word against all humane reason after an execrable manner perverted they might begin to be ashamed who with such a whorish forehead and want of wit did not fear to speak or write in this manner of God Almighty and his holy word and that at length they might think that they had stumbled at that stone of stumbling and rock of offence laid in Sion and thereupon that they shall fall prostrate upon the ground be broken to Gods Law ensnared and captivated and finally that God poured upon them the spirit of deep sleep and so closed their eyes that every prophesie and the whole Scripture was to them as the words of a book that is sealed that the wisdome of their wise men is now altogether perished and the understanding of their prudent men hid as the Prophet Isaiah foretold them The
can fasten upon nothing else but ignorance and grosse simplicity especially in the knowledge of God and in the interpretation of his Word In the whole Nation of the Jews nothing worth thy observation except a horrid hardnesse of heart and perversnesse in their conversation and every particular action neverthelesse they blush not a jot to grace themselves with the title of Gods chosen people Such also they are who would seem to burn with zeal that the Word of God might be purely propagated because they believe in God with an accomplished faith and cleave unto him with a sincere and righty settled confidence above all the Nations of the earth as Paul bears witnesse That they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge Hence is it that the Jews even unto this day firmly contend for their superstitious Worship professing themselves to have a well grounded and assured faith towards God who created heaven and earth who is one in essence and will not suffer any other gods before him The Jews Creed contains in it thirteen Articles which as they are briefly delivered in their Tephillos or books of Common Prayer we have here set down 1. I believe with a true and perfect faith that God is the Creatour Governour and preserver of all Creatures that he did work all things works as yet and shall work for ever 2. I believe with a perfect saith that God the Creatour is one and that the unity which is in him is such as can be found in no other who onely was is and shall be our God for everlasting 3. I believe with a perfect faith that God the Creatour is incorporeall not endowed with any bodily properties finally that no corporeal essence can be compared unto him 4. I believe with a perfect faith that God the Creatour is the first and the last that there was nothing before him that he shall remain for everlasting 5. I believe with a perfect faith that he alone is to be worshipped and that Worship is due to none besides him 6. I believe with a perfect faith that whatsoever the Prophets have spoke and taught is the sincere truth 7. I believe with a perfect faith that the Doctrine and Prophesie of Moses is orthodox that he was the Father and chief of the learned that either were of the same standing with him lived before him or shall be extant in future ages 8. I believe with a perfect faith that the whole Law was so delivered by God himself to Moses as it is now extant with us 9. I believe with a perfect faith that this Law shall never admit of a change and that God shall give unto us no other 10. I believe with a perfect faith that God knows and understands all the works and thoughts of men as it is written by the Prophet He fashioneth all the hearts of them and understandeth all their works 11. I believe with a perfect faith that God will reward every mans works that keeps his Commandements and on the contrary will punish all those that have transgressed his Statutes 12. I believe with a perfect faith that the Messias is yet to come and that though he daily defers his coming neverthelesse I will hope for his coming every day till he come waiting for him 13. I believe with a perfect faith that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead even in that time when it shall seem correspondent to the will of the Creator whose name be blessed and celebrated both now and for ever in the highest strains of humane expression Amen This is Summe of the thirteen Articles of the Jewish Creed as they are summarily and briefly comprehended and set down in their Books of Common Prayer in which belief the poore blinded souls of the Jews after a lamentable manner with incessant groans much anxiety inexpressible doubting and outcries sighing out their last farewell to the beloved prison of their bodies are utterly lost and undone Now that every one may with greater facility comprehend the very glosse and meaning which the Jews themselves annex to this their Creed I have thought it meet to illustrate the Articles thereof by the lamp of a small Comment And first of all we are to know that the faith of the Jews and Mosaicall Religion according to their own writings was built upon these Articles as upon the foundation and first of all delivered to the publike view and reduced into this order by that Casket of Learning Rabbi Mosche Bar Maimon who in the year of the World 4964 according to the vulgar account now used among the Jews but in the year of our Redemption 1104. changed this life for a better and that then it was strictly commanded that from thenceforth throughout all succeeding ages that every Jew confessing this faith should resolve to live and die in the profession of it Hereupon it came to passe that these Articles were graced with large Expositions and thence a great Volume was written out of which the forementioned Articles were more fully drawn than formerly set down and annexed to the end of that Voluminous Book Esrim vearba or the Hebrew Bible printed at Venice by Daniel Bombergus by the study of Foelix Pratensis in the year of Christ 1517. where they are found expressed in the same manner in which they are subsequently delivered The first Article is concerning God who is the Creatour of all Creatures illah haillos the cause of causes entity of entities that every thing whether extant in heaven above or earth below was created of and hath its subsistence in him that he made every thing according to his absolute will and that every thing shall again be reduced into its prime nothing according to his good will and pleasure and although that every thing made by him shall again be annihilated yet his essence is immortall not subject to the least shadow of change or diminution because his essence Mezius Gemurah is perfect and of it self subsistent not needing the prop or help of any other to sustain it That the same God is that everlasting light strength and life that his is the Kingdome Dominion over all creatures That he is truly one and the most renowned Monarch This Article is grounded upon those words Exod. 20. 2. I am the Lord thy God c. The second Article is concerning the individuall unity of the Essence and Nature of God to wit that he is echad umeinchad of one Essence and that there is nothing either within or without the World that can any way enter the lists of a comparison in respect of this unity and identity he is not in the same series or order with any thing universall or singular which comprehends more of the same stamp under it neither is he Keechad Hammurcabh any compounded thing which for this reason admits of a Division into parts neither Guph Paschut d a simple body which is one
them speaks the Scriptue As the dayes of a Tree so shall be the dayes of my people that is as the Tree of life as the Chaldee renders it or as a Tree which indures for some hundreds of yeares doth not perish so my people shall remain for they who shall have a part in the resurrection at the comming of the Messias shall be so long lived as the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah So much Aben Ezra upon the place At that time they shall cherish and make themselves merry feasting their carkasses with that great fish Leviathan that huge bird Ziz and that monstrous Oxe Behemoth of which more particularly hereafter After this their jollity death the second time arrests them furnishing them with beds to sleep in till the last resurrection when they shall have an entrance into life eternal where they shall neither hunger nor thirst but be ever satiated with the beatifical vision of Gods glory and brightnesse In the first Book of Moses the 47. Chap. it is recorded of Jacob that when the time of his departure out of this Vale of tears approached he called his Sonne Joseph and entreated him not to bury him in Egypt but with his Fathers in the Land of Canaan Rabbi Salomon Jarchi upon these words saith that Jacob for three reasons would not be buried in the Land of Egypt The first was because he foresaw by the Spirit of Prophesie that in time to come store of lice should molest the Land of Egypt The second because the Israelites who died without the bounds of Canan could not rise again without a great deal of trouble being to be hurried into the â—andâ— of Promise by the hidden and deep vauâ—ts of the earth The third lest the Egyptians very prone unto Idolatry might make him the Idol which they would adore For the better understanding of this I mean here to insert what ever is written concerning it in the book called Tanchum which is an Exposition of the Law of Moles Rabbi Chelbo makes it a main question why the Patriarchs had so great a desire to be buried in the Land of Canan he gives himself a solution saying that they who shall dye in the â—andâ— of Promise shall riâ—s e first at the coming of the Messias Rabbi Hananiah confirms it and saith that whosoever dying is intombed in a strange Land shall dye a twofold death which is manifest out of the 26. chapter of Jeremy and the 6. verse where it is registred Thou Pashur and all thy family shall go into captivity thou shalt go to Babel there shalt thou dye and there be buried Hereupon Rabbi Simeon objects that that granted it must necessarily follow that all the Tzaddikim or just men should perish who were not interred in the Land of Canaan The answer is that God shall make certain caves and profound vaults in the earth by which they shall Be brought into the land of promise at their arâ—â—vall there God shall breath into them the breath of life and give them a share in the Resurrection as it is written I Will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the Land of Israel Rabbi Simeon Ben Levi saith that the Scripture speaketh expresly that God shall restore the Jews to Life upon the very instant of their return into their own Land the place he quoteth is Isa 12. v. 5. Thus saith the Lord God he that created the heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein This is to be understood of them that shall be carried to Sion through the caves of the earth That also which is read in the Chaldee Targum upon the Canticles ought to be referred to this voâ—ntation the words are these Salomon the Prophet saith that when the dead shall arise the Mount Olivet shall cleave in the middle and all the Israelites who formerly departed this life shall issue out of it the just also who died in banishment prison or a strange Land being conveyed hither by hidden passages in the earth shall also apPear From hence we may easily conclude how beliooveful the Jews think it to return into their own Land and there be buried and so escape the turmoyle and trouble of so long a journey under so many deep rivers and rugged mountains and for this very end as I have heard out of the Jews own mouth many of their rich ones return into the Land of Canaan at this day This is that perfect firm and well grounded faith of the Jews in which they obstinately persevering make it the rock of their salvation though with great anxiety and despair Here we may see what they give to Moses and the rest of the Prophets and also what use these miserable men make of the holy Scriptures Such as their faith is such are also their works which they would seem to shape according to the strict rule of Gods commandements There profound Rabbins perswade this simple people the Jews that they of the Circumcision are Gods own chosen people who may easily fulfill not onely the morall Law comprehended in the Decalogue but the whole Law of Moses They divide the Law of Moses into six hundred and thirteen Precepts and again subdivide these into commanding and prohibiting Precepts the former according to their computation are two hundred to eight which number is according to the Rabbins anatomy equal to that of the members in mans body the prohibiting Precepts are three hundred sixty five just so many as there are dayes in the year or as it is registred in a book entituled Brand spiegel and printed at Cracovia in the Germane tongue and Hebrew character some fifteen years ago as there are veinâ— in mans body hence it shall come to passe that if a man in one of his members every day perform one of the Mandatory Precepts and omit that which the prohibiting Precept enjoyns him to avoid he shall with great facility every year and so to his dying day fulfill not onely the Decalogue but the whole Law of Moses this is that right ordering and keeping of their Laws here I may counsel Isaiah to make his complaint That the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the Laws changed the Ordinance broken the everlasting covenant for Saint Stephen should be stoned the second time if he were now alive and should reprove the Jews for this their adulterate worship saying You stiffenecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears you do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye who have recived the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it c. The Rabbins hold on and say that men are onely bound to keep those six hundred and thirteen Precepts but the women are freed from the observation
of any of the first sort being onely tied to the observation of them which forbid something to be done They say also that there are some Preceps which are onely to be executed by them at certain times when their pleasure is and also others to which they are no way subject as Circumcision the office of the Priests and Levites and such like Sometimes they may not observe the Commandements because of their husbands to whom they acknowledge themselves to ow dutifull obedience who have power over them and oftentimes call them to the performance of other things than Gods Law yet never by compulsion If any one make a question to what the women are more particularly obliged the answer is that they are bound to the performance of sixty four of the prohibiting and thirty six of the Commanding precepts Thus do the Rabbins appoint their women their Task which they have not alwayes leasure to mannage because they are to keep the house play the Cook Laundresse and Nurse and are also forced to do what ever their husbands enjoin them yet for all this the number of the Precepts was not thought sufficient for the Rabbines have added seven more that the summe ariseth to six hundred and twenty according to the number of the Letters in the Hebrew Decalogue which number the Hebrew word Keter signifying a Crown comprehends for the three radicall Letters Caph Thau and Resch make up the number and certainty if there were any who could fulfill the whole Law of God he were worthy to wear the Crown of the whole world and needfull it is that the Law should be fulfilled for otherwise the world cannot subsist as their wise men would perswade us out of the words of Jeremy If my covenant had not been with day and night I had not made the earth for so is this place perverted after a swinish manner in the forenamed book Brand spigelium A Jew is as fit an Interpreter of the Scripture as a Sow to be an Husbandman as in rendring these words that unlesse the Law which they call Berith that is to say a covenant had been given I had not created the heaven and the earth and whatsoever now hath any existence it hath it from the observation of the Divine Law moreover say they whosoever keeps all these Commandements sets a Crown upon Gods own head and in lieu thereof God shall invest their forefronts with seven Crowns who doe celebrate his Coronation and shall make them heirs of the seven bed-chamber which are in the Garden of Para dise and he shall defend them from the seven infernall Mansions and they shall obtain seven heaven's and so many earths Hereupon it is recorded in that Tract of the Talmud entituled Joma that it was the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer that the world was created for the sake of one just man for it is written in the first book of Moses the first chap. v. 31. That God shallman that it was good and by this good thing is meant that good and just one as it is written Praise the just one because he is good and it necessarily follows out of the words of Moses above mentioned And God saw c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or one just man which was Adam for at that instant there were no more in the earth Rabbi Chaia Bar Abha is of the same mind and Rabbi Jochanan confirms it out of the 25. verse of the 10. Chapter of Solomons Proverbs where it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The righpeous is an everlasting foundation Moreover the wisest of their Doctors write that every vein in mans body is the souls pedagogue to instruct it what to avoid whereupon it shall be found that if any proves disobedient to such an admonition he shall be branded with this mark that he hath not one good vein in him Again all the members prick a man forward to the execution of that which is commanded him and in this manner the three hundred sixty five prohibitory precepts are observed and fulfilled Oâ—â—serable Jew what Chirurgion can prick that vein in thee whren hath any goodâ—nesse in it or extract from thee the smallest dram of blood which is not corrupt King Salomon in his Proverbs saith Keep my Commandements that thou mayest live that is thy veins and members shall become thy provocative unto goodnesse thou shalt live for ever and David the King in the 34. Psalm and the 21. verse promiseth He shall keep all thy bones so that not one of them shall be broken which is as if had said who keeps the commandements of the Lord his bones shall not be broken Thus the poore blind doting Jews are fallen into such a reprobate sense that they neither will nor can understand the essence of faith and good works but running headlong into their obstinate errours persist in their folly so that the words of Sophonie are now verified Her Prophets are light and treachchrous persons her Priests have polluted the Sanctuary they have done violence to the Law Truly any one would think that they ought to be ashamed of so gross ignorance by which they dilacerate the word of God in that manner as though they had not the least relish or spark of understanding in them for in the confirmation and declaration of their faith settled upon no foundation in the Exposition of the holy Scripture they seema as strangers and aliens to the word of God who had dreamed of it about some thousand years ago and now grope after it as the blind man gropeth the for wall in darkness I will not in this place add one word more concerning the Jewish beliefe and superstition considering that I shall speak more largely of it in the following Chapters yea more then they could wish should be revealed It is now seasonable and expedient to speak something of the cause of their blindness and obstinacy with which they are plagued especially in the reading of the Word of God It is apparent out the History of the Old Testament The Jews always have been so stiff necked that if once they fixed upon any opinion that no force of Argument could inforce them to relinquish it whereupon Moses and the rest of the Prophets so often reprehend them for which many of them were persecuted and put to death by the obstinate Jews who for this very cause are often in the new Testament termed the Murtherers and Butchers of the men of God When God had once chosen them for a peculiar people made a Covenant with them and for the confirmation of it had annexed unto it the seal of Circumcision as an external sign had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies brought them into a Land surpassing a others with great strength and a stretched out arme and also had given unto them by the hand of Moses a Law according to whose prescript they ought to frame their lives acknowledge God praise and exalt him
thing as it came to passe in the dayes of Josiah the King in which the Book of the Law was for a long time lost and being found again by Hilkiah the High Priest was accounted a rare and strange novelty as it is registred in the second Book of Kings It must also follow say they that the words of Moses above mentioned according to the tenor of these words must the jews being commentators be thus understood according to the words which were heard and received out of the mouth of God the sense must be that God made a Covenant with Israel not according to the written but unwritten Law which interpretation we find in the Talmud for in the Book Tauchum in the Section Elle Toledos Noach which begins at the 9. verse of the 6. Chapter of Genesis we find it thus written Our Wise-men say that God did not write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horum verborum gratia for these words but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secundum os horum verborum according to these words which were delivered by mouth only not in writing have I made a Covenant with Israel And such are the words of the Talmud which is harsh and difficult to them that would learn it and therefore likened to darkness Esay the ninth and second where the words are The people that sate in darkness have seen a great light that is they who are much conversant in the study of the Talmud see great light for God inlightens their eyes to see how to behave themselves in respect of things permitted and not permitted clean and unclean which are not expressed to the full in the written Law A little after we read that by reason of this Covenant the World subsists because God created the day and night unto this end that the Israelites might learn the Law of Tradition or the Talmud by the benefit of them and so soon as they cease to study their Talmud day and night shall be no more Hereupon saith Jeremy If my Covenant be not with day and night and if I have not appointed the Ordinances of Heaven and Earth And what is this Covenant The Talmud saith the Jew and for this reason Jeremy a little before saith Thus saith the Lord if you can break my Covenant of the day and my covenant of the night that is when you will no longer learn and observe the Talmud then may also my Covenant be broken with David my servant Hereupon David saith in the Law of the Lord is his delight in his Law that is the Talmud will he meditate day and night Yea God himselfe hath also made a Covenant with Israel that this unwritten Law should never be subject to oblivion as it is written I saith tho Lord will make with them this Covenant my Spirit which shal come upon thee and the words that I have put into thy mouth shall never depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy children from this time for ever Here it is not written saith the Jew from thee but out of thy mouth that we might understand the unwritten Law here to be meant for the learning of which God hath placed the day and the night as two common Schools Hitherto Tanchum Moreover we read in the Sermons of Rabbi Bechai which booke he intitles Cad hakkemach a Barrel of Meale in that the six parts of the Talmud make up the Law of Tradition which is the proper foundation of the written Word considering that this without that can neither be profitably expounded nor understood Hereupon in that Tract of the Talmud called Bava meziah it is read that to study and read the Scriptures is profit and no profit to wit a small profit and not to be regarded But to learn the Talmud is an exercise worthy of a Salary and the workman shall surely receive it To commit unto memory the Gemarah which is the upshot of the Talmud is such a surpassing vertue that it admits not of an equal And this is the cause that the Jewish Rabbines and Doctors are better versed in the Talmud then the Bible I am now perswaded that I have given a full demonstration of the ground of the Jewish faith that it is not Moses but the Talmud that joy of their hearts and marrow of their bones which may put a period to the admiration of any who wonders at their blindness and superstition and they have forsaken the way of divine truth with a light heeled wantonness following the footsteps of their Ancestors in the way of lying When therfore the Divel that Father of lies for his recreation would play a game at Tick Tack with the Jews the Law of Moses being their stake he by cogging got the dice of them and would not give over till he had got the double point when he inspired into them this heart pleasing consequence Seeing the Talmud is the master point the true ground the right line according to which the written Word ought to be measured cut out squared and divided it must of necessity follow that the Doctrine of all the Rabbins should be conformable unto it as the Talmud is so true that it cannot be blemished with the least falshood so is every thing that the Rabbines do either write or teach Now that this after game or consequence did above all measure possesse the Rabbines who are such greedy hunters after glory that God and all the Prophets shall be tainted with a lie before they miss this their prey is apparent out of their following proud Luciferous speeches Rabbi Isaac who died in Portugal in the year of Christ 1493. in his Book Menoras hammaor a hath these words all that our Rabbines have taught or spoken either in their Sermons or in their mystical and allegorical Explications we believe as firmly as the Law of Moses In which if any thing be found smelling of an hyperbole or seeming clean contrary to nature and too high for the sensible faculty of any mortal we ought to ascribe it not to their words but to the defect of our understanding and although their strains be high and lofty and they seem to present unto our view things incredible yet if we rightly ballance them the truth will cast the Scales As for example we read in the Talmud that a Rabbine upon a certain time preached that the dayes shall come in which a Woman should every day bring forth grounding upon that Text she conceived and presently brought forth by presently understanding dayly which when some understood not they flouted the Rabbine and exposed him to contempt The Rabbine perceiving it answered that he spoke not after the vulgar fashion of a naturall woman but of an Hen that dayly layd an Egge an handsom put off indeed In the same place it is written all their words are the words of the living God neither shall any of them fall in vain unto the earth whereupon it is
from my bed to rest that I may tender my service and do homage to the King of Kings who hath given me life and nourishment and doth defend me against all mine enemies of what quality soever Whosoever hath in him any relish of godliness ought every morning to entertain the pangs of grief and sorrow for the Temple of Jerusalem praying that that Temple and City may with speed be re-edified And who before the Day star appear or the clouds of night he dispeld by the Suns approach ere that he forsake his pillow shall wash his couch with tears for the desolations of the Temple of Jerusalem and the long captivity shall gain this much that God being mercifull unto him shall not suffer his prayer to be deprived of audience In Maseches Sanedrin the Rabbines upon those words in the Lamentations of Jeremy She weeps in the night without any intermission of weeping dispute and say that if any hear the voice of one weeping upon the night it is so intermixt with the Gall of bitternessi that he must of necessity second the mourner in his dolesull notes The very same which happened to Rabbi Gamaliel who upon the night time hearing the mournfull out cries of a certain woman for the death of her son counted his life bitter unto him and bare a part with her weeping most bitterly Rabbi Jochanan saith that when any one doth lament upon the night time the fixed stars and Planets condole with him Their Chachamim write that he who weepeth ought to let his tears find a current through the narrow â—hâ—ud gates of his eyes because then God will arise and gather them into his bottle And then if there chaâ—ce to be a promulgation of any decree by the enemies of Israel to destroy them God shall remember these godly men who shed â—ears in abundance shall take these boâ—tles full of them pouring them upon and blotting out the hand-writing that was against them that no evil may befall the Jews Hereupon the Prophet David Thou tellest my flittings and putst my tears into thy bottle are not these things written in thy booke By these words David would specifie thus much that God pours out the Vâ—ols of tears upon the writings or books put out against the Jews and so defaceth them that they become canceâ—'d and of no force To the same purpose he speaks in another place He that soweth in tears shall reap in joy The Author of the Book Reschith Chochmah in the 111 pag. saith that he received it by tradition from his Elders that it is very soveraign for a man to sprinkle tears upon his brow and to rub them in because there are some sins written in his brow which by this means may be blotted out according to the words of the Prophet saying Thou shalt set the letter Thau upon the foreheads of the men c. The Cabbalists write that if any have a desire to list up his prayer unto that holy and blessed God that he would vouchsafe to deliver the Jews out of their long continued bondage he ought to do it when it begins to dawn that he ought to weep heartily and send forth strong cries so shall his words enter into the ears of the Lord of Hosts and then chiefly because there is nothing which may disturb him in his prayers none also found who shall move his tongue against the children of Israel We find it recorded by Jeremy The Lord shall roar from on high and utter his voice from his holy habitation The Lord roars in the morning upon his beauty The beauty of the Lord is the Temple of Jerusalem and that is holy which as he hath permitted to be destroyed so is it his pleasure that it shall be built again and that he may be warned unto the enterprise he will be early intreated Hence David saith My voice thou shalt hear betimes O Lord early in the morning I wil direct my prayer unto thee and will look up In the morning that is when it begins to be day I will go into thy house he will not do the same upon the night because in the beginning of the night God causeth all the Gates of Heaven to be shut up and the Angels sit as Porters and are silent God sends away the evil spirits into the world who hurt every one they meet The middle of the night being past a great cry is heard in Heaven and it is commanded that they should set open the Gates the day now approaching to this end that none might wait too long This cry is heard by the houshold Cocks here upon earth who clapping their wings with a shril voice awake us mortals Then these evil spirits lose all their power so that they cannot do any more annoyance for which cause the Rabbines have ordained a certain thanksgiving which they whould have repeated in them morning by them that hear the Cock crow saying Blessed be thou O God who art Lord of the whole world that thou hast given understanding to the Cock To be briefe whosoever fears the Lord wheresoever he live needs not the Cock to awake him He that alwayes in aw the Lord doth keep Needs not to be awaked of his sleep Moreover it is the will of the Chachamim that non presume to raise himself up in his bed or sitting up therin to put on his shirt being naked but lying still should strive to wind himselfe into it with his hands and head lest the wals and beams of the house might behold the secret parts of his naked body Rabbi Jose boasts in Masseches Schabbas Thus long have I lived and yet the beams of the house did never see the hem of my shirt thereby signifying that he never invested himselfe therewith being naked but lying hid in his bed Hereupon it is a position of their grand Sophies that none ought to put on his coat being naked much less is it permitted that he should walk or stand naked in his bedchamber For suppose any sudden fire or some great tumult might arise whose rarity might so affright him that he should run naked out of his bed-chamber with what a countenance can such a one shew himself It is not also lawfull for any one being naked to make water by his bed side for of such men the Prophet Amos speaketh saying They sleep in beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their Couches The Hebrew word Seruchim which signifies to stretch out the Rabbines translate to be resolved into stinking matter as they expound the same Jer. 49. 7. upon which place R. Jose the son of Chaninâ— saith these are they who stand naked before their beds No man ought thus to think with himselfe It is dark I am in my Closet no eye sees me I say every one ought with all diligence to abstain from such cogitations for Gods holy Majesty is above all and present in every place The whole earth is full of
name grounding his thoughts upon those words ki dor tahphuroth Hemmah They are a perverse generation Which although the event proved to be true yet Rabbi Jose and Rabbi Juda so lightly regarded the nomenclation that they gave him their cloak-bags to lay up untill the Sabbath was past Rabbi Meir would not doe the same but went and hid his in the Sepulchre of the mans father that kept the Inne The dead time of the night being come the Oste was warned in a dreame to go and dig in his fathers grave where he should find a bag full of money When he was up in the morning he told the dreame to Rabbi Meir who said unto him that those dreames which were dreamed on the night going before the Sabbath were nothing to be esteemed And then departing with great heed and care watched the Sepulchre all the Sabbath day lest the dreamer should come and take away his money which the Sabbath once ended he took out of the earth againe Upon the first day of the week the other two did also require mine Oste to deliver their cloak-bags who constantly affirmed that he had them not and sloutly denyed that they left any with him They invite him to the wine Tavern hoping that by his friendly usage to regaine their goods While they were a drinking they espye some pease and lentiles sticking in his beard from whence they collected that without all doubt he had eaten such kinde of pulse that morning to breakfast Whereupon they returning to his wife required their cloake-bags of her telling her that her husband commanded them to bee restored by the same token hee had eaten lentiles in the morning The woman knowing it even to bee as they had spoken presently made delivery and they held on their journey The good man returning to his house hearing how matters were carried beat his wife so cruelly that shee shortly after departed this life This story yields us an evident demonstration that every one ought to wash after meare for if the Oâ—te had washed his hands and wiped his mouth and beard these travellers had not spied the signe in his beard by occasion whereof they recovered their goods without which they had not had their cloak-bags restored and their Oastesse had not come to this untimely death There is another story in the Talmud concerning a Jew who eate swines flesh because he did not wash his hands before he sate downe to table It runs thus There was a certaine Jewish In-keeper who received into his house as well Christians as Jewes Whensoever any Jewes did turn aside to lodge with him he knew them by the washing of their hands before meales and therefore he alwaies set the flesh of clean and choice fatlings before them even such as in the Law was commanded and appointed to be eaten But whensoever any Christians came he set swines flesh before them It fortuned that upon a time a certaine Jew having more stomach then devotion came unto his house who setting down at the table forgot to wash his hands whence the Oaste drawing a profitable argument that hee was a Gentile set swines flesh before him The Jewes stomack being to far removed from his braine as to enter into consideration of what he eate carried headlong with a hunger starved appetite lustily invaded with teeth and knife what was set before him never questioning what he crammed his guts withall Well dinner being ended and the reckoning arising to a round summe the guest questions his Host how Beefe came to be at so high a rate To whom hee answered my friend you have hitherto fed upon swines flesh and have eaten not a little which now is very deare The poore Jew hearing this became very sore afraid for the commission of so hainous an offence and was forced over and above to pay an heavy mulct and undergoe much hard pennance for this his delinquency All this happened unto him for the neglect of washing his hands which may serve as a sufficient warning to every one to have an especiall care to wash before they sit downe to meate This outward curiosity is reprehended by Isâ—â—ah the Prophet Their feet run unto evill and are sâ—â—ft to shed innocent blood destruction and unhappinesse are in their waies and the way of peace they have not known neither is there any judgements in their waies â—hey have perverted their owne pathes whosoever goes through them knowes not peace This is that which St Matthew brands them with saying Then câ—me to Jesus the Scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusâ—lem saying why do thy disciples transgresse the tradition of the Elders for they wash not their hands when they eat bread But he answered and said unto them why do you also transgresse the commandement of God by your traditions St Marke also saith Then gathered together unto him the Pharisees and certaine of the Scribes which came from Jerusalem And when they sâ—w some of his disciples eat with common hands that is to say unwashen they complained For the Pharisees and all the Jewes except they wash their hands oft eate not holding the tradition of the Elders And when they come from the market except they wash they eate not And many other things there be which they have taken upon them to observe as the washing of cups and pots of brazen vessels and of beds CHAP. VII How the Jewes behave themselves in time of eating IN the former Chapter it is recorded that the Master of the family useth commonly to wash the last of all and that for this reason that he presently may sit downe at the table and say grace in so doing neither speaking word nor doing any other action between the washing of his hands and blessing of his meate This they practise not only that no evill may befall them in time of their repast but also because their Doctors prove it out of those words of David Lift up your hands unto the Sanctuary and praise the Lord. For from hence these profound Artists have learned two things the first whereof is this That the hands in time of washing are to be lifted up on high lest the water which is first poured upon then and thence becomming unclean sliding downward should pollute the fingers The second is that so soon as the hands are washed and sanctified grace ought presently to be said and thanks to be given When they are once seated at the table it is required that some fine bread in whole loaves and salt also be set thereupon Then the Master of the family takes a loafe in his hand and cuts it not in the middle but in some other part in which it is purest and best baked then instantly setting it aside laies both his hands upon it and blesseth it in manner and form following Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the whole world who bringeth bread out of the earth Then he breaks a bit of it and
the Sabbath From thence came this my Mammon and great riches which God vouchsafed unto me as a reward for my diligent observance of Sabbaths Then said I Blessed be God who hath given thee this abundance and hath made thee worthy to bea possessour of so great wealth This befell the Butcher In the same page it is registred that there was sometimes one Joseph surnamed Mokir Schabbas that is to say an honourer of the Sabbath This man of all those victuals that the Shambles could afford thought nothing too deare for the celebration of the Sabbath yea he would spare neither cost nor charges in the procurement of the most rare fishes the waters could furnish him withall This Joseph had a certaine neighbour who was very rich By him he was continually flouted with a goe to what doth it profit thee that thou celebratest the Sabbath in such a religious manner Certainly thou art never the richer then if thou studied the contrary I do not reverence the Sabbath in that degree that thou doest and yet I am richer then thou art Good Joseph little regarding his mocks put his trust in God hoping that hee would give him a large harvest of rewards for these his weekly expences At that time there were certaine Astrologers in that City who said unto the rich man Friend what availeth it thee to bee so rich when thy heart will not suffer thee to buy one good fish with all thy bags We by the observation of the stars have gathered thus much that thy goods and riches which are so infinite shall all come iuto the hands of Joseph Mokir Scabbas that reverent observer of the Sabbath who upon the Sabbath day is wont to have some morsell for his money The rich man hearing the words of these star-gazers and meditating upon them went and sold all that he had and with the money purchased many Margarites and other precious stones all which he pursed up in a girdle of haire and presently takes shipping for another country that the good man Joseph might not inherit his goods When he was about the middle of the Sea behold a great tempest arose and did â—o split the ship that it was beyond expectation if he did not take up his lodging in the chambers of the deep The wind blowing most vehemently snatcht his hat from off his head tossing it into a remote place of this vast Ocean where a fish at that time there swimming swallowed up the hat together with the girdle wherein were the Margarites and other precious stones A little after this this huge fish was taken and carried to the City upon Friday to be sold in the Market Every Caterer prized the fish but for a great price set upon it none could buy it at last comes Joseph Mokir Schabbas who was alwaies accustomed to buy great fishes of what price soever who never sâ—uck to buy this also for the celebration of the Sabbath which he did with a great alacrity of mind and joy of heart of no vulgar extent Which when he had carried home and cut up he found in the leaunch thereof the aforesaid girdle stuft with precious stones which the rich Euclio had lost And so the prediction of the Astrologers came to passe Then became Josâ—ph a man of exceeding great wealth greatly rejoicing because these jewels were valued to be worth a whole Kingdome Then came a certaine old man unto Joseph and said unto him Whosoever borroweth much for the Sabbath day the Sabbath wiâ—l likewise repay him much againe and who honours it but in part the Lord will restore it unto him foure-fold It is also recorded in the Talmud in the Tract concerning the fasting of one Rabbi Chonech He was wont every Fryday to send his servants into the Market and cause them to buy up all the pot-herbes which the Gardiners could not put off their hands and then commanded them to throw them into the rivers The Rabbines in Gemarah which is an appendix to the Talmud aske the question why he did not rather give their herbes unto the poor The answer is that if he had given them to the poor then they would have bought none for the celebration of the Sabbath and if it should have come so to passe that the Gardiners should have withdrawne all their pot-herbs so that the poor people could not have had them then should not the Sabbath have been celebrated by them Againe the Rabbines ask why he did not give them unto the beasts to eat which had been far better then thus to throw them into the water where they are utterly void of profit The answer is that hee would not have that to bee devoured by the irreasonable creature which may serve for the proper food of man And that although he cast them into the waters yet men might take them from thence and transfer them to their own use But why did he buy up all the pot-herbes This he did for the encouragement of the Gardiners that they might the more willingly and with a better accord bring them into the Market every Friday For if they could not have sold this their garbish for one day or two together then had they staied at home ever after and so the poor people should have wanted food upon the Sabbath day and by this means the Sabbath it selfe should have been dishonoured And therefore Rabbi Chonech tooke this course that the Sabbath might bee honoured by voluptous living and that by the poor man too though a green sallet were his chiefe delicate It is written in the tract concerning the Sabbath that whosoever upon the Sabbath lifts us his head that is to say who celebrates the Sabbath with joy and rejoicing God shall give him a large inheritance subdue unto him many nations people infinite and innumerable as it is written Then that is when thou shalt keep the Sabbath with joy and rejoycing and call it thy delight thou shalt delight thy self in the Lord and I will set thee upon the high places of the earth and feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father of whom it is written Thou shalt spreadforth east and west north and south even into the foure corners of the earth Rabbi Nachman averres that whosoever exhibites himselfe as a pattern of merriment upon the Sabbath day shall be free from the bondage of the nations as it is written I will set thee upon the high places of the earth and thou shalt tread upon the necks of thine enemies Rabbi Juda saith that whosoever keepes the Sabbath with a joifull heart God shall give him whatsoever his heart can wish as it is written Delight in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire And now seeing the Jewes doe not as yet tread upon the necks of their enemies nor are really possest of the highest places of the earth neither have gained their hearts desire to wit that they may bee Lords and Masters over the Christians that
a certaine shadow upon the palme after this he stretcheth forth his hand the second time so that he may know by the candle light that his nailes are whiter then his fingers which he perceiving saith Blessed be thou O God our God King of the world who hast created such a resplendent candle Then he takes the cup againe into his left hand looking in the like manner upon the nailes thereof Then by and by he transfers the cup into the right hand and saith Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who hast put a difference between the holy and unholy between light and darknesse between Israel and the Gentiles between the seventh day and the other six dayes of the weeke destinated for labour While hee is a repeating this prayer he poures a little of the wine out of the cup upon the earth Then he drinks a little of it himselfe reaching it unto others that they may sup of the same Amongst these nocturnall petitions there is one which begins Vaiehi Noam in which the letter zaijn is not found which signifies weapons whosoever therefore shall say this prayer with a devoâ—t minde hee shall bee safe and secure that whole night following from any kinde of weapon so that he shall neither be killed nor have the least scratch given him In the the like manner he shall besafe from the devill when he devoutly faith that prayer beginning Schema Israel Heare O Israel c. For the first verse begins with the letter Schin and ends with the letter Daleth which two joined together make Scheds which word signifies a Devill This distinction of the Sabbath they prove from those words that you may discern between the holy and profane and those Godseparated the light from the darknesse Some take of the consecrated wine and anoint their eies therewithall others wash their face in it thinking it a wholsome medicine against the fluxes of the eye others bath their arteries therewith because it is a meanes to length 〈◊〉 their dayes others sprinkle it in every corner of the hoâ—â—ri about the beds and cradles of infants dreaming that it is soveraign against enchantments and witchcraft The truth is this wine is of so high esteeme amongst them as that other also wherewith they initiate the Sabbath They smell the perfumes lest they should fall into a swoon while one of their soules departs out of the body For upon the Sabbathday they have another soule besides that which they live by at other times Concerning this matter Antonius Margarita in his booke of the faith of the Jewes writes in this manner It is written in the Jewish Talmud saith he that every man hath three soules and it is proved out of these following words of the Prophet Isaiah Thus saith the Lord who created the heaven and stretched it out who made the earth and whatsoever groweth thereon who giveth life and breath unto the inhabitants of it According to the letter of this text they find two soules in man to which if we add the naturall soule there ariseth three Whereupon they also write that two soules depart out of a man sleeping the one of which goes upward unto God to learne things to come the other goes downward into the earth and running to and fro contemplates nothing else but injustice sinne foolishnesse or vanity The third they call Ruach Behemoth the irreasonable soule which being the first of all received by man is seated neare unto his heart and sees all things whatsoever the other two soules in their absence from the body have heard seen or done and hence proceed and issue all our dreames which therefore are not alwaies to be contemned They say moreover that upon the Sabbath a man hath another soule besides these which enlarges his heart that he may keep the Sabbath more honourably and exhilarate himselfe in a higher straine of mirth then it were possible for him to doe if hee were destitute of the same But the Sabbath once being ended this soule departs and the man becomes weake thereupon against which his faintnesse hee may prosperously use these sweet smelling odours that the body may have wherewith to recover its former strength Hitherto Margarita but whence he had these words I cannot as yet finde Concerning this superfluous soule 〈◊〉 remember I have read this in the Talmud Rabbi Jose said 〈◊〉 the name of Rabbi Simeon who was the sonne of Jochai that all the commandements that God gave unto the Israelites he gave them in publike except the Sabbath which he gave in private as it is recorded The Sabbath shall be an everlasting signe between me and the children of Israel Where the Jewes by an everlasting signe would understand a secret token willing that the Sabbath should be hid from all other nations and onely manifested to the Jewes Therefore marke diligently Christian Reader how the Hebrew word leolam signifying everlasting any reasonable soule being judge must according to the Jewish interpretation signifie hidden and concealed Hence the Rabbines in their Gemarah ask the question that if the Christians and other people do not know that we have a Sabbath how comes it to passe that they in time to come shall be punished for the contempt of the Sabbath and for the not keeping thereof They make answer to themselves saying they know well enough that wee keep the Sabbath this is not hidden from their eyes and therefore they are to be punished because they will not keepe it But the reward due unto the observance thereof is hidden from them and this they know not yet if they would rightlly celebrate the Sabbath they should also know thereward But this is a thing impossible for them to put in execution seeing they are destitute of the superfluous soule because it being given to men rather upon that day then others and that more abundantly doth enlarge their hearts that in the time of the Sabbath they may take their rest with ease eat and drinke well and merrily and set all care and sorrow a packing from their breasts Hereupon Rabbi Simeon the sonne of Lakis affirmed that God gave this soule to man upon the Sabbath about eventide and tooke it from him again at the end of the Sabbath as it is written When he had taken rest evâ—n to satiety the Sabâ—ath remaining then was he deprived of his soule to wit the superfluous one Where againe note how neatly the Jewes interpret the holy Scriptures for the verbe jinnâ—phsch in that place is rendred by the Rabbines to want or bee deprived of a soule whereas it hath a clean contrary signification to cherish recollect recreate stirre up the spirits and most properly to breath which after the manner of men we ascribe unto God concerning whom it cannot be said nor understood that he hath lost a soule In this their blindnesse the Jewes blush not to place their chiefe wisdome and knowledge Concerning this superfluous soule Rabbi Abraham also
Hakkemach or a Barrell of Meale saith that these foure things shaddow out unto us foure Kingdomes to wit That of the Assyrians that of the Persians that of the Grecians and the now extant Monarchy of the Romans which last is typified unto us by the willowes To put a period to these subtiâ—ties I will relate a story out of the Talmud concerning the adorning of these their Tabernacles and it is a certain conference or dialogue which God shal have with al people at the day of doom It is found in the Tract entituled Abhodahzarah or of Idolatry In these words At the last day God shall say that onely the Jewes are just and holy as they who have fulfilled the Law of God in every part and degree but all other people of the earth are ungodly and unjust as neither having the Law nor doing the workes presribed to bee done in the same Then shall the people of the earth answer and say O Lord God of the whole world give unto us that law and wee will in every point and parcell observe and keep it Then God will reply O foolish Christians doe you not know the old Proverbe that hee who labours upon the eve of the Sabbath shall have whereon to feed upon the Sabbath but hee that is idle and sits still shall want Goe yee therefore and first of all fulfill that little commandement of mine called Sukkah concerning the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles Then every one of them shall run in all hast and make unto himselfe a booth or Tabernacle some upon their house tops as the Jewes were wont to doe in ancient daies in their owne land where the roofe was flat and plaine others in their gardens and they shall dwell in them Then shall God so mightily encrease the heat of the Sun at Midsomer and so forward that they shall be scorâ—hed and burnt and being not able to endure the heat shall trample these their booths under their feete and being mightily enflamed with anger shall cry out Let us break their bonds in sunder and csast away their cords from us Then God shall flout jeer and deride them as it is written in the same place Hee that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorne the most high shall have them in derision And hence Rabbi Isaac affirmes that it is never found that God is said to laugh but upon that day onely So farre the Talmud By which relation we may plainly perceive how these apish Jewes hug and please themselves in their own folly and how they would even in a manner force God to beleeve that they onely are his chosen and elect people who keep the whole law observing and fulfilling all his commandements when on the contrary the Christians and other people are men appointed to destruction and damnation reputed as a laughing stocke and abomination in the eyes of the Lord. But O silly Jew what saith Ezekiel of thee and thy observance of the Law hearken what the Lord saith by the mouth of his Prophet I caused them saith he to go forth out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wildernesse and I gave them my statutes and shewed them my judgements which if a man doe hee shall live in them Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths to bee a a signe between mee and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them But the house of Israel rebelled against mee in the wildernesse they walked not in my judgements which if a man doe he shall even live in them and my Sabbaths they greatly polluted Then I said I would poure out my fury upon them in the wildernesse CHAP. XVII Of the Feast of the New Moone HItherto we have treated of the chiefe Festivals usualâ—y solemnized by the Jewes at Jerusalem in ancient daies and of the manner of their celebration by the Jewes of these our times We come now to speake of those Feasts which their Ancestors were wont to keep in the Cities and places where they had their dwelling and setled habitation We will begin with the Feast of the New Moon which they solemnize once every month The first day of every New Moon was in old time accounted holy because God commanded that in the beginning of their months they should offer unto him a burnt offering as we may reade in the fourth book of Moses Yet is this day to the Jewes now living onely halfe holiday so that they may worke or not worke at their owne pleasure It is also recorded that the command for the celebration of this Feast is rather given to the women then men so that they ought upon this day to abstaine from all manner of labour because in times past they would not give their golden earâ€rings and other ornaments to the making of the molten calfe when on the contrary they offered them with a willing and ready minde yea also their rings and bracelets towards the building of the Temple whose first stone was laid the first of March Upon the eâ—e of this Festivall all they that are of a pious and honest carriage among the Jewes fast untill eâ—enâ€tide praying unto God that hee would vouchsafe to send them a joifull and happy New Moon The next morning being that of the Festivall they goe into the Synagogue where they make many prayers yea more then they are wont to do upon other Festivals At midâ€day they goe to dinner at which they become very jocund cocking their beavers and sitting very long for which they urge Moses saying In the day of your gladnesse and in your solemn dayes and in the beginning of your months yee shall blow with the trumpets over the burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peaceâ€offerings that they may bee to you a memoriall before your G O D. And to the end that they may sit the longer at the Table they play at Cards almost all the day long passe away the time in jesting and merry-making the eclipse of the Moon they hold as a signe very ominous to them that trouble them Wherefore they commonly fast upon the day of the eclipse entreating God to save and defend them from all their enemies and them that hate them When the Moon is three dayes old or more they gather themselves together upon the night into some one of their Gardens or else into their street where they may clearly see the Moon lifting up their eyes to Heaven the posture of their body being exactly upright they blesse the Moon one of their chief Rabbines repeating a certain prayer and the rest saying after him as followeth Blessed be thou O Lord God our God King of the World who hast sanctified us by thy word and by the spirit of thy mouth who hast created the heaven and all the host thereof given laws thereunto and prescribed certain seasons in which they obey thy commandments measuring out aright the times and seasons
and herein with great joy and gladness fulfil the will of thee their God and Creator who art the true worker and whose works are truth Thou hast spoken to the Moon to renew her self by her often change which renewing is as a beautiful Crown and a great ornament unto the head of every one that is in his mothers womb even to all the Israelites as saith the Prophet Esay who ought to renew themselves even as the Moon doth that they may praise and honour their Creator for the name of his Kingdom a name highly to be reverenced Blessed be thou O Creator Blessed be thou O Moon Blessed be he who made thee Blessed be thy Lord blessed be thy Maker At these words they leap three times upwards towards heaven the higher the Caper is the better it is in esteem Then they go on saying Even as we O God leaping towards thee cannot come near unto thee even so all our enemies bending their forces against us cannot approach to hurt us Here again they make a stay saying that of Moses three times Fear and dread shall fall upon them by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as 〈◊〉 stone till thy people passe over O Lord till thy people passe over which thou hast purchased hereby praying against us Christians For a conclusion of this prayer one par saith peace be unto you and the other answer Peace be unto you peace be unto you and to the Israel of God This benediction or blessing they for the most part bestow upon the new Moon upon the Sabbath thereof which Sabbath they sanctifie with a due solemnity putting on their new apparel in honour to the new Moon which they blesse and give it a court-like welcome with great joy and rejoycing I cannot but here insert a certain Dialogue set down in the Talmud between God and the Moon which Rabbi Simâ—on the son of Pazzai thus relates It is written God made two great lights the greater to rule the day the lesse to rule the night Then said the Moon unto God O Lord of the whole world tell me I pray thee Can two Kings reign together and wear one and the same Crown To whom God made answer and said Go hence and lessen thy self She replies O my Creator shall I therefore be lessened because I have spoken before thee that which is true and right Then said God Go and bear rule and dominion both by day and night But quoth the Moon What great honour shall I reap from hence or what dignity shall accrew thereby A burning Candle at noontide what doth it profit Then the Lord bids her be gone saying that the people of Israel should number their dayes times and seasons according to her course and motion which she denies as impossible for to this end they ought to have an exact knowledge of the two Tekuphoth or Tropicks as also of the two Solstices as it is written They shall be for signes and times and dayes and years Then God makes her this answer Go thy way for many great and learned men shall take unto them this thy title as James the less Samuel the less David the less But all this cannot appease her which when he perceived he said offer a propitiatory sacrifice for me because that I have lessened the Moon And hereupon Rabbi Simeon the son of Sakis saith How much doth that Goat differ from others which is offered in the time of the new Moon of which the Lord said this shall be a propitiatory sacrifice for me who have offended in lessening the Moon So far the Talmudist The Rabbines diversly dispute what is the true sence and meaning hereof They who are of ancient dayes are of opinion that at the beginning the Sun and Moon were equal in light which they prove out of the words of Moses saying God made two great lights But so soon as the Moon murmured against God and would sit as Queen and suffer none to share in dominion with her but be sole Monarch in the celestial Orbs God debased her for her pride takes away her own light and caâ—sed her to borrow of the Sun and hence are say they those immediately following words of Moses The greater light for the government of the day and the lesser light for the government of the night whereas he formerly made no such difference but simply caâ—ling them two great lights And furthermore that God hearing the Moon complain of this her hard usage and mis-hap repented of that he had done and caused a propitiatory sacrifice to be offered for this his offence at every new Moon This opinion the modern Rabbines reject as a blasphemy against God considering that he is just and cannot commit iniquity neither is any wickedness found with him Wherefore they have very much tortured and rackt their inventions to finde out the true sence of these words diversly interpreting the word Alai written with Gnayn as Rabbi Bechai testifieth CHAP. XVIII Of the Feast of the new year how the Jews prepare themselves to the celebration thereof and how God at the time of this Celebration judges the Israelites for their sins and offences IT is written in the tract Medrasch Socher Tobh that at the same time when the Sanhedrin or that great Councel of the Jews is gathered together to set down and determine a certain day for the Celebration of the feast of the new year which begins the first day of the moneth Tesri or September and hath also agreed thereupon then God calls a Senate of Angels whom he sends into the earth to enquire see and know whether the time of the Celebration of this feast be determinately appointed which they presently put in execution and returning unto God declare unto him the day whereon the feast will be kept which when God by their relation understands he also decrees to fit in judgment and to judge the world upon the very same day as it is written God is gone up with a merry noise the Lord is gone up with the sound of a trumpet Then the two judgement seats are set the cushions laid the books opened and that great Senate of Angels sits down before him As it is written And I beheld till the thrones were set up and the Ancient of daies did sit whose garment was white as snow and the haire of his head like the pure wooll his throne was like the fiery flâ—me and his wheels as burning fire Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousand thousands stood before him the judgment seat was set and the book opened In the Talmud we have an excellent story to this purpose Rabbi Iochamen saith that at new-years-tide three books are opened one for them who are extreamly wicked and ungodly as Atheists and lnfidels another for them who are just in a most perfect manner the third and last for them who are betwixt both in an indifferent manner godly
the Chasan or the Minister expounding the book of Esther reads it from end to end whereat the women and children ought to be present and give diligent attention and they have a custome that the little ones so often as Haman is named keep a vile stir and a tumultuous noise in the terrible and forcible explosion thereof In former times they were wont to provide themselves two stones upon one of which the name of Hamâ—â— was written These they did beat one against the other until the name was quite demolished and worn out which when they perceved they presently cried aloud Let his name be blotted out The name of the wicked shall rot Accursed be Haman Blessed be M â—rdecai Cursed be Zeresh the wife of Haman Blessed be Esther the wife Ahâ—suerus Cursed be all they that worship idols or the host of heaven Blessed be all the people of Isnael When the Lecturer comes to that place where mention is made of the ten sons of Hamau he is bound to read it with one breath for they write that all these sons of Haman perished in the twinkling of an eye and their souls in a very moment took their farewel of their beloved lodging the body They celebrate this Feast in a very voluptuous manner sousing their guts in wine and beer because Esther the Queen found favour and grace in the eyes of King Abasuerus when he sate at her banquet and obtained pardon for the Jews and a grant that they might stand for their lives And hence it comes to pass that for the space of these two dayes they busie themselves with no other things then eating and drinking smelling and bibbing dancing and piping singing and roaring ieasting and sporting riming and scoffing the women putting on mens apparrell and the men clothing themselves in womens attire which although it be expresly forbid in the law of Moses yet they make there one exception saying that it is lawful and no offence to practise it upon this day and this occasion seeing it is done by them only for worldly joy and recreation Rabbi Isaac â—irna in this Minhagim hath left in record to posterity that it is commanded as a work of great excellency to make merry as upon these dayes to goe a whoring to drink and be drunke yea in that measure that he cannot make any difference between Mordecai the blessed and Haman the accursed that is to say untill he be so besotted with the ale tappe that he cannot for his heart declare how many letters be contained in any of these words yea moreover any one is permitted at this time to poure in strong drink until he knowes not how many fingers he hath on either hand Which precept indeed is most diligently observed and kept according to the very rigour thereof by the Jews at this day and that chiefly by the beggerly crew to whom the richer sort send gifts and presents in a far greater measure then they do at other times to the end that one may not mock another for being drunk bein commanded and strictly prohibited to send away their meat and drink to any other end and purpose With these Bacchanal rites drunken fits and besotting beastliness they put an end to their annual feasts For this of Purim is the last festival in the year having no more until the feast of the passover If the Prophet Isaiah were alive at this day or should rise from the dead truly and really might he take occasion and that both forcible and urgent to cry out Woe and class unto them that rise up early to follow drunkenness and to them that continue until the night till the wine do inflame them CHAP. XXV Of the feasting dayes in use among the Jews HItherto we have treated of feasting fasting succeeds In the law of Moses there is only one fast commanded to be kept by the Jews which is upon the tenth of September upon which the feast of reconciliation is annually kept and celebrated as was formerly declared Besides this it is registred in ancient records that many other fasting dayes were instituted and ordained by the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets according as the time required And Zachary the Prophet who lived after the building of the second Temple makes mention of foure general fasts in these words Thus saith the Lord of hosts the fast of the fourth moneth the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall â—e to the house of Judah joy and gladness The fast of the tenth moneth was usually and is to this day kept by the Jews upon the tenth day of the same to wit December because upon this Neâ—uchaddnezar began to besiege Jerusalem with armies and to afflict the Jews with great trouble and calamities The fast of the fourth moneth was and is kept to this day upon the seventeenth day thereof because upon this they endured many great afflictions which are not yet disgested For as upon this day the tables of the law were broken the daily sacrifice ceased the book of the law was burnt an Idol the abomination of desolation was set up in the holy place the temple of Jerusalem The city it self besieged the second time overthrown and taken For these causes the Jews in these our dayes fast very devoutly begin seriously and earnestly to repent them of their former life if a man may believe the external gesture from which it is no doubt but their heart is too too much a roving The dayes following this fast even unto the ninth day of the next moneth are accounted ominous and unfortunate upon these no school-master must dare to whip his boyes If any Jew also have a case to be tried by the law between him and a Christian at this time he seeks all manner of evasion and excuse that he may not appear before the Judg untill these dayes be expired fearing lest his cause should fail and not prove good and he be overthrown therein The fast of the fift moneth is kept upon the ninth day of July because upon this very day the temple was burnt and turned into ashes In the time here of they goe barefoot sitting upon the earth reading doleful stories and the lamentations of Jeremy They goe into the place of burial where they sob out their doleful accents of grief and sorrow amidst the sorrowful consort of departed souls bewailing the desolations of their beautiful temple with sighs and grones for a moneth together From the first day until the tenth they neither eat flesh nor drink wine they enter not the bath wash their face or hands or suffer any rasor to come upon their head They do not make any marriages appear not in judgment but sore against their wills complaining and crying out that they had never any good hap or fortune in this moneth which they prove out of the Prophet Hosea saying A moneth shall devoure them with their portions Upon
kings who proving traitors to their own faith shall also turn Apostates so living before men as though they served the true God yet in very deed practising nothing less seducing silly souls and after such a manner tormenting their consciences that they may abjure God and their own faith even so that many of the sinners of Israel shall utterly despair of redemption being ready to deny God and forsake his fear Concerning these things Isaiah speaketh c. 59. 14 15. Judgment is turned away backward and justice standeth afar off for truth is fllen in the street and equity cannot enter yea truth faileth What All they why shall love the truth shall flee in troops and flying hide themselves in the caves and holes of the earth and shall be massacred by the great and mighty and tyrannical persecutors At that time shall be no king in Israel as it is written The children of Israel shall abide many dayes without a King and without a Prince and without a sacrifice and without an Image and without an Ephod and without a Teraphin There shall not be any more Rosch Ieschibhah b that is head of the Synagogue no faithful teachers who may feed the people with the word of God no merciful and holy no famous and eminent persons shall remain The heaven shall be shut up and food shall fail these three kings shall enact laws so many so burdensome and so tyrannical pronounce such heavie judgments upon men that but a very few shall be left because they had rather die then living deny their maker Yet these three kings by Gods ordinance and disposition shall only reign three moneths In the time of their reign they shall double the ordinary tribute so that who formerly paied only eight pieces shall then pay eighty he who formerly paied ten shall then be forced to give an hundred He that hath nothing at all to give shall be punished with the loss of his head yea also the longer they shall reign the greater and heavier will the burdens be which they shall impose upon the children of Israel There shall also come certain men from the ends of the earth so black and abominable that if any man look upon them he will die through fear Every one of them shall have two heads and eight eyes shining like a flame of fire They shall run as nimbly and swiftly as an hart Then shall Israel cry out woe unto us woe unto us the frighted little ones cry alass alass dear father what shall we doe then shall the father answer the deliverance of Israel is now at hand and even at the door The second miracle God shall make the sun to exceed in heat that many burning feavers plagues and other diseases shall be scattered abroad upon the earth by reason of which a thousand thousand of the Gentiles and people of the world shall die daily Hereupon the Gentiles at length weeping shall bitterly cry out woe and alass whither shall we turn our selves where shall we hide us Thus with expedition they shall goe and dig their own graves wish for death and oppressed with thirst and grief hide themselves in the Caves and Dens of the Earth But this great heat shall be as physick and a refreshing to them that are just and good in Israel as it is written unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall by this sun of righteousness understanding that in the heavens Balaam say they also prophesied of this saying alass who shall live when the Lord hath brought it to pass The third miracle God shall make a dew of blood to fall upon the earth which all Christians and people of the earth thinking to be watery and most delightful shall take and drink and drinking die The Reprobate also in Israel who despaired of redemption shall also die by drinking of it but it shall not be hurtful to them who are just among the Iews who in a true faith firmly cleaving unto God do persevere in the same as it is written They that be just shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turne many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever again the whole world for three dayes space shall be full of blood according to that which is written I will give signes in heaven and in earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke The fourth miracle God shall send a wholsome dew upon the earth They shall drink of this who are indifferent honest It shall serve as a salve to them who were made sick by drinking of the former as it is written I will be as dew to Israel he shall grow as the lillie and cast forth his root as Lebanon The fifth miracle God shall turn the sune into so thick a darkenss that it shall not shine for the space of thirty dayes as it is written The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come At the end of thirty dayes God shall restore its light as it is written They shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit and shall be shut up in prison and after many dayes they shall be visited The Christians being sore affraid to see these things they shall be confounded with shame and acknowledg that all these things come to pass for Israels sake yea many of them shall embrace the Jewish religion as it is written They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy The sixth miracle God shall permit the kingdom of Edom to wit that of the Romans to bear rule over the whole world One of whose Emperours shall reign over the whole earth nine moneths who shall bring many great kingdoms to desolation whose anger shall flame towards the people of Israel exacting a great tribute from them and so bringing them into much misery and calamity Then shall Israel after a strange manner be brought low and perish neither shall they have any helper of this time Esay prophesied And he saw that there was no man and wondred that there was no intercessor therefore his arm brought salvation unto him After the expiration of these nine moneths God shall send the Messias son of Joseph who shall come of the stock of Joseph whose name shall be Nehemiah the son of Husiel He shall come with the stem of Ephraim Benjamin and Manasses and with one part of the sons of Gad. As soon as the Israelites shall hear of it they shall gather unto him out of every City and nation as it is written Turn ye back sliding children saith the Lord for I will reign over you I will take you one of a City and two of a tribe and bring you to Sion Then shall Messias the son of Joseph make great war against
Kings and Princes shall be their servants whom they have subdued They themselves shall be cloathed in costly aray all their Priests anointed shall be holiness to the Lord as it is written The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee for in my wrath I smote thee but in mercy have I had favour on thee therefore thy gates shall be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and that their Kings may be brought for the nations and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish yea those nations shall be utterly wasted and again strangers shall stand and feed your flocks and all the sons of the alien shall be your plow-men and your vine-dressers But you shall be named the Priests of the Lord men shall call you the Minister of our God you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles and in their glory stall you boast your selves Oh here with hunger and thirst how are the Jews opprest Although some of them satisfie and appease both without the sweat of their own brows gaining many a million for which many a poor Christian suffers toile and vexation 2. They shall have a new and wholsome aire as it is written Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth the former shall not be thought upon by the benefit of this aire they shall enjoy their health and prolong their life even as the men before the flood In their hoary old age their strength and agility shall not forsake them but remain in the same temper as in their youth as it is writen They who are planted in the house of our God shall flosrish in the courts of the Lord they shall bring forth more fruit in their age they shall be fat and well liking 3. The seed once sown shall for ever grow up increase and ripen of its own accord after the manner of Vines which require but one plantation as it is written They shall revive as wheat flourish like a vine his smell is like Lebanon Whensoever any one shall desire rain for the watering of any particular Field Garden or the smallest herb therein the Lord will pour out upon that place and on that onely without delay for saith the Prophet Ask you rain of the Lord and he shall create lightnings and give you showres of rain Then shall they gather their fruits and wine with great quietnesse and security and shall not be molested by any enemy as it is written The Lord hath sworn by his right hand and by the arm of his strength I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies and the sons of strangers shall not drink thy wine for the which thou hast laboured but they that have gathered it shall eat it 4. No war nor rumour of war shall any more be heard in the land and there shall be a firm and secure peace established not only between man and man but also between man and beast as it is written I will make a covenant for them in that day with the beasts of the field with the fowls of heaven and creeping things of the earth I will put away the bow and the sword and war from the earth and make them to sleep secure And I will espouse thee unto me for ever and ever I will marry thee in justice and judgement in mercy and commiseration Again The Cow and the Bear shall feed their young ones shall lie down together and the Lion shall eat straw with the Ox. The Wolf shall lie down with the Lamb and the Leopard with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the faâ—ling together and a little childe shall lead them 5. When any war or discord ariseth among the Gentiles then the Messias shall reconcile them and renew the league amongst them so that there shall be no more mutiny as it is written He shall judge among the nations and rebuke many people he shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation nor learn war any more Then shall the Iews live in everlasting joyes make new marriages sing praise and glory to God without ceasing shall be full of the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord as it is written In this place of which you say that it is forsaken shall again be heard the voice of joy the voice of exultation the voice of the Bride and the Bridegroom the voice of them that say Give thanks to the Lord of hosts And again the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is full of water Briefly the happiness of this holy people shall at that time be so immeasurable that neither can the heart of man conceive it or the tongue yeeld the least expression thereof Which things thus ordered and declared leaving the Iewes in this their prosperous estate I will put a period to my labours and hide the secret of their faith from the Christians seeing I have attempted more then they themselves if they could have ruled the matter would have permitted What I have done already will not be pleasing unto them in which I have exposed to every mans eye the full anatomy of their life and belief The Christian Reader may easily perceive by that which hath been said that the faith of the Jews and their whole religion is not grounded upon Moses but upon meer lies false and forged constitutions fables of the Rabbines and inventions of seduced Pharisees And that therefore it ought no more to issue out of the mouth of a Christian that the Jewes stand for the Law of Moses but rather with Jeremy that they are strong defendants of the false worship of the true God not suffering themselves any way to be drawn from it And with our Saviour to affirm that they make the Commandments of God of none effect by their traditions in vain they worship him when they teach nothing but the mandates of men honouring him with their lips but in their hearts are far from him In their words they professe to know God but in their works they deny him these are the men whom the Lord abhors who being disobedient unto his word are unto every good work reprobate as the Apostle Paul hath recorded By which it is more manifest then the light of the Sun at noon-tide that the punishment is now fallen heavie upon them wherewith Moses threatned them that the Lord should smite them with madnesse blindnesse and astonishment of heart that they should grope at noon day as the blinde gropeth in darknesse And this appears most clearly and is more then evident from this that they miserably pervert and contrary to all reason with an impudent front invested with a dull ignorance expound and interpret the word of God O merciful