the Musicians shall learn the Laws We see it with mid-dayes clearnesse O Master that now for a thousand years the ignorant Musicians are become Doctors and Teachers of our Law Who are the ignorant ones but the Gentiles Who are these Musicians but the Christians who chant and sing our Book of Psalmes and the Prophets in their Churches Of the Musicians and singers we have God speaking by David Sing unto the Lord a new song for he hath done marvellous things What I beseech you O Master is this new song but the new Testament and what is the old song but our old Law Of these Musicians God speaks more by the Prophet David Sing unto the Lord all the whole earth sing a Psalm of praise to his Name Againe All the families of the earth shall sing and praise thy Name or All the families of the Nations Where this carries a marke of speciall note that it is not singularly said All the families of Israel but the phrase universally spreads it self to all the families of the Gentiles Of this musicall and Psalm-singing people are Davids words in another place Blessed are the people that knows the song ours â—ath it That knows the joyfull sound they shall walk in the light of thy countenance That also is to the same purpose The Gentiles or Nations shall sing a song to thee in the house of â—y God In this place he names a Song by way of Antonomasia naming a Song in generall â—ut intending their particular kinde of singing As for us we have lost our musick it is now 〈◊〉 thousand years since we Jews sung a Song 〈◊〉 our holy House Of these singers speaks David They shall sing praises in the house of God for ever The 137 Psalm questioned our singing How shall they sing the Lords song in a strange Land Alas O Master for the vacuity and emptinesse of our vain hopes who think of a name and a Countrey when we have lost both God himself tels us this by the Prophet Amos Israel is falne she shall rise nâ— more the virgin Israel is forsaken upon heâ— Land there is none to raise her up The same Prophet in the ninth Chapter saith There shaâ— come such tribulation that he who escapeth shaâ— not be delivered though they hide themselves iâ— the top of Carmel I will search and take theâ— out thence though they be hid from my sight iâ— the bottome of the sea thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them Though they go intâ— captivity before their enemies thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them And 〈◊〉 will set mine eyes upon them for evill and noâ— for good This has the Lord said and done to us and now for a thousand years of miserieâ— we have hung by our Harpes and left all ouâ— singing of Psalms mourning befitting us more then musick Notwithstanding though weâ— cannot sing yet this we can say God is our God and we are his people CHAP. XXV The Jews unjustly finde fault with the Christians practise of singing GOD hath spoken O Master of the Christians singing by the mouth of David the sweet singer of Israel saying Clap your hands all ye people sing unto God in the voyce of melody In another place Make a joyfull noise unto the Lord all ye lands serve the Lord with gladnesse and come before his presence with a song In another place Sing unto the Lord all the whole earth declare his salvation from day to day I am under great feare O Master by that which God speaks in the mouth of Ieremie Teach your daughters wailing and every one her neighbour lamentation for death is come up into our windows Together with this of our learning that sad lesson of mourning he speaks of those Musicall children by the Prophet David Kings of the earth and all people princes and all judges of the earth young men and maidens old men and Children let them praise the name of the Lord. And who so offereth praise he glorifieth me As if he plainly said The sacrifice of the flesh of Goats such was our sacrifice doth not honour me but in the sacrifice of praise such as is the Gentiles am I glorified The Prophet Esay agrees with it when he saith The musicians shall learn the Scriptures and all the Psalmes of David shall they sing in a metricall way as it is varied by musicall Tones some Acute and Sharp some Grave About all which whiles I labour with the strength of my best consideration me thinks I judge with the least errour when I conclude we are in a great errour about their Sacrifice of praise which they offer up by singing in the Church of God Especially when I further discern that there are precepts of and examples for this singing in the Law of Moses and in the Prophet David who hath called for the praising God with Organs and Harp and with loud Cymbals and Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord Jesus Christ That for Precept Example is not awanting for David danced before the Ark with his Harpe having his head uncovered for which his rash-tongued wife Michol was bold to reprove him but she got this sharp and tart reply from him O foolish woman doth not the Lord see thee despising me whiles I sing praises to him The Children of Israel also sounded a Trumpet whiles they bore the Arke Now tell me O Master what parts act we Are not we the foolish Michol that mock and jeet at the Christians singing solemnities And do not the Christians act Davids part dancing and rejoycing before the Lord in their Humiditie Especially considering how God propounds it Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. If it had been precisely thus written let every Israelite praise the Lord then our insultation over others might have had some better ground Neither is that of Esay any disadvantage to them that he saith The Nations or Gentiles are before God as nothing For this is to be applyed to the Gentiles in their first estate as they once were drowned in darknesse and ignorance of God before the comming of the Just One. Then indeed they were Pagans and Idolatrous people and none of those Nations that have found the Lord which offer unto him every day a pure offering in the East and West as above out of the Prophet Malachie hath been alledged And certainly O Master we are heirs of a great errour about this thing Notwithstanding all this we belong unto God CHAP. XXVI He proves the Apostasie of the Jews from God UNder an oppression of no small fear I fall prostrate O Master and this troubles me that like wicked Apostates we fell off from God at the first comming of that Just One according to all those Authorities hitherto alledged to which expressely do consent all that we finde written in the Books of the Law and the Prophets From this
of the Resurrection cryed down by divers Nay things strangled and blood for abstinence from them begin to have a resurrection with some as if Christ were not come to confirme their everlasting Funeralls never to peep out of the grave again Out of the Jews and taking part of Judaisme sprung up divers of the worst sort of damnable Heresies and sundry Sects as the Samaritans Sadduces Gorthenians Jebusaeans Essenes Dositheans Scribes Pharisees Hemerobaptists Hossinians Nazaraeans Herodians Simonians Ebionites Valentinians Cerinthians Sethians Melchisedechians Arians Hypsistarians and Mahometans which last religion was compiled and abundance of Jewish matters thrust into it by some Jews that helped Mahomet to make up that confused Chaos of a strange Religion and Sect so that Judaisme hath been the fruitfull Mother and Nurse to give both Wombe and Pap to many monstrous Children There is mention also of a strange Sect of the Athingani with whom Michael Balbus the Emperour communicated who withall kept firme with the Jews in many of their errours ready to maintain great hopes of the salvation of Iudas It will be behoofefull to shew the cursednesse of that Doctrine and people of the Jewes that every one may keepe off from the Tents and Tenents of the Jews which maintain a Diametricall opposition to the Gospel of Christ for of all sinners and Sects the portion of an Antichristian Jew will bee the most hard and heavy Yet oh the foeces temporis istius we have an Heresie of all the dangerousest and subtillest that ever molested the Church of GOD which now holds fast and cries up much of the Jewes vanitie and unbeliefe and in that cries downe Jesus in the truth of his Godhead and much of the truth of his Gospell If I should say that Socinianisme that black Crow which hath so great a Nest in all Europe and withall in England doth in many things walke hand in hand with Iudaism I should not need fear that question of the Atheist to be put unto mee Quae machinae quae ferramenta where are your Hammer and Tooles to finish this Worke and fasten these Nails Who will but cast his eye into Socinus and Socinians writings shall finde too great a conspiracy with the Jew and so may well enter those Doctors and Teachers into their table of suspicions as being no friends to Christ I shall give a touch of their wretched harmony in some few things 1. For the Deitie of Christ the Jew and Socinian speake both with one tongue negatively and blasphemously which is to us Christians as the Article of the existence of God and giving existence to every thing Fundamentum fundamentorum columna sapientiae If our Messias be not God then is our faith vain we are yet in our sins the foundation of Christianity is taken away and what can we do we know the Jew is the old cursed Archer that shoots blasphemies against Christs Godhead our subtill Heretick and his followers are not much behinde denying Christ to be Consubstantiall with his Father this is so known as needs not much be insisted on their books in the very title some of them will trumpet out their infidelitie de uno Deo Patre denying the Godhead of the Son and the Spirit 2. They are both Anti-Trinitarians going about to weaken and nullifie the Doctrine of the Divine Trinitie of Persons charging it with the introduction of multiplicity of Gods or Tritheisme 3. The Office of the Messias they both confine to the Humane Nature and must needs because both deny the Divine Nature 4. The Jew will make Christs Propheticall Office to consist in his new promulgation of the Law of Moses to beleevers nor fail the Socinians to tread in those steps making the Messias to be Mosissimum Mosen 5. Against Christs Priestly Office by his blood expiating and satisfying for our sinns both of them are knowne to Saile strongly with their best Furniture and Tacklings 6. Both do say that justitia imputata is putida and that our righteousnesse is our obedience to the Law and our performing of it but who will may seek and easily find farr more agreement 'twixt these two and much disagreement with the Gospel In sixteen points one has made the Collation and findes the Jew a Socinian and the Socinian too much a Jew in them all Have we not need in these dayes wherein Satan seems to keep a perpetuall Mart to vent his Hellish inventions take notice of those things which may carry us too near the Jew and too far from Jesus and beware we meddle not with such dangerous folly And should we use our best eyes to look at that Hellish callum and unconquered Brawn upon the Jews heart and see what vollies of miserie have waited upon their cursed infidelitie and opposition of the Sonn of God wee shall finde this the best Bellows in ordinary meanes to blow up our hearts into holy feare pitie faith Feare to stand out in defiance against Christ lest the Lord sentence us as the Jews to be a land of execrations and Anathema's Pitie towards that wretched generation that neither Heaven nor Earth looks after And it would waken us unto Faith to cleave to and make much of the Gospel of Jesus Christ lest we fall as low being not warned by the exâ—â—ple of their unbelief and the executions of the wrath of heaven gone our against them for it Of all the writings that decipher their faith and their fall none do it so punctually plenarily and particularly as those that were Jews but are converted to Christ they writing things with knowledge and experience as having long eaten of their Salt and drunk of their Cup. None have done it with so much affection as pitying their own kindred and Countrey and so are the more to be heeded by them and by us Of whom in all Ages God hath given us some learned Jews to be converted earnestly to write to and calâ— upon their wretched brethren to row to landâ— and to harbour in the Kingdom of Christ thaâ— they perish not in the great Ocean of Divine rejection Besides some Bishops of Ierusalem after Christ of which divers of them from Iudaisme were brought to Christianitie we finde Hegesippus the Iosephus junior to be one of later years many and of great learning have excellently writ against the Iews as Nâ—â—las de Lyra about the year 1310. from being a Iew turned Fryar among the Minors and hath left an excellent confutation of the Iews about the proving this that Christ is come and none other Messias to be expected In his time Paulus Burgensis turned Christian also and writt against Iudaisme Elias Levita commonly called the Grammarian left his Rabbinisme and entred the Church of Christ by Baptism bringing some thirty more Iews with him to be Baptized about the year 1517. One Hieronymus de sancta fide a Iew converted
the Son of Man came in the Clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of dayes and they offered him before him And he gave him Dominion Glory and a Kingdome and all people Nations and Languages shall worship and serve him The Hebrew hath it Tribes and Languages shall honour him his dominion shall be everlasting and not passe away his Kingdome shall not be destroyed Our Translation hath it Tribes and Languages shall serve him his Power shall be an everlasting Power which shall not be taken away and his Kingdome shall not be corruptible otherwise his Power shall not fail otherwise his Power shall be for ever and his Kingdom remain for ever Out of all which these things appear with evidence O Master that Christ in his second comming shall sit before the Ancient of dayes as a God come to judgement contrary to that of his first comming where he stood before our forefathers the Jews and received their judgement against him To these two commings of the Messias that is Christ the Prophet David hath respect in that Psalm where he saith For he commeth for he commeth to judge the world His first comming was but simple and mean to which purpose those words are barely set down for he commeth without any addition But as the first was poor so the second will be powerfull and therefore is added this clause to the second for he commeth to judge the world His second comming is mentioned by the Prophet Zacharie His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives c. You know well enough O Master none of us are so grosse-witted as to hold that God considered in his divine Essence and Nature hath either flesh or feet or any corporeall Members for to have feet is proper to corporietie David alledged in the place before saith of his second comming A fire shall burn before him and round about him For all this O Master we do not say God is circumscriptible for place that any thing may be said to stand about him as he is God but therefore it is thus written because these authorities have a literall veritie in that Righteous One described by the Prophets when one while they speak of his Humilitie another while of his Majestie The Prophet Malachie saith Behold the Lord commeth and who may abide the day of his comming For he shall sit as a refining fire and shall melt the silver and gold Here behold how that Just One once judged shall appear at his second comming Attend O Master and marke how in the same chapter the Prophet further expresses the glorie of his person I will come near to you in judgement and be a true witnesse against adulterers c. In the same sort doth Ezechiel describe him speaking of the Shepherds and Sheep I will separate between them that is I will separate the transgressors from the Righteous and the unbeleevers It is not thus in our Translation but the Arabick reads it so Lo here how in his second comming he will separate the unrighteous from the righteous as Malachie and Ezekiel are both clear in this point At his first comming none of us knew him for hee went beyond the limits of humane nature as God by Esay saith He was reckoned with transgressors and we therefore esteemed him not And Jeremie saith This is the man and who knows him Wherefore O Master this fear dwels upon my soul that our Fathers in the first comming of the Messias fell off and rann into errours and because of this we groan under our endlesse Captivitie Yet what ever fall out we belong unto God and in him we hope CHAP. XI Of the second comming of Christ that he then will judge with Power THese two things O Master I am in no small fear do agree to him 1. That he was manifested as a Saviour to all them that beleeved in him at his first comming 2. That he shall be a just Judge to judge all with power at his second comming David the Prophet speaks of him The Lord hath made known his salvation he hath openly declared his righteousnesse in the sight of the heathen Esay doth not dissent Ye shall draw water out of the wells of salvation or of the Saviour which so far as my eyes serve I can interpret those Wells of salvation to bee meant of nothing else but Baptisme Thus his double Advent hath a double Element his first comming in water to save by Baptisme his second comming in fire to trie all by judgement a Saviour by water a Judge by fire Of this Saviour do those words mean I know that my Redeemer liveth and that in the last day I shall rise from the earth and my eyes in my flesh shall see my God Observe here O Master how he calls this Just One both Saviour and God It is confest and manifest that God being a Spirit cannot be seen with any eye of flesh Scripture gives it out that the Saviour is the Righteous God and he alone challenges the name of that True Iust One of whom that saying is He did no sinne neither was guile found in his mouth Esay the Prophet testifies this of him This cannot be said of Moses or any of the Prophets that he is a Righteous Saviour and without sinne you Master know well enough that both Moses and the Prophets were sinners which the Scripture makes plain in that none is called the Righteous One but Christ and that name is reserved as onely proper to him And this without all doubt is to bee held that none are saved but those that beleeve his first comming and those that beleeve not there is no ground for them to hope for salvation at his second comming This argument has a marble reason to lay the foundation strong for it for I reason thus If they were worthy of death that beleeved not Moses who was two great degrees below Christ for Moses was but a temporary Saviour and a sinner how much more are they worthy of this judicatory fire that beleeve not nay and worse that blaspheme this Righteous One the Lord that never knew any sin Yet nothing can so fall out as to take this from us our relation and belonging to God CHAP. XII Of the Ascension of Christ DIgging into the precious earth of the Scriptures we have found O Master that Christ shall be exalted from earth to Heaven and hence arises my fear that this was fulfilled in him whom our Fathers Butchered and that the Prophet Davids acclamation is of his exaltation Open the gates of your Principality O ye Princes and be you lift up O ye everlasting doors and the Prince of glory shall enter in To which words I intreat your attention O Master that you mark how the Angels in Heaven make answer Who is the Prince of Glory and he will answer again to them The
and for the veritie of Scripture testifying it why do wee doubt of the ascent of this Righteous One both in his Body and Soul the witnesse of Scripture confirming this more than the testimony of holinesse confirms it for the other And may not this be one reason because the Prophets set him out strugling and fighting in a harder Warre of miseries than others and acquainted with an harder bondage and soret service of the World than others Furthermore this without any exemplification thou knowest well enough that Methusalem and Henoch those righteous men and Elias the Prophet were assumed by God in their bodies to Heaven and translated out of this World As for Moses it is a thing out of the reach of all question and doubt that he now is in Heaven both in body and soul as is said in Deuteronomie Go up into the Mount this night and he went up into the Mount and died there and no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day What doth this signifie that his Sepulchre is unknowne upon earth seeing he was a Prophet in greatnesse and holinesse surpassing others but that thereby we should understand that God hath raised him up and assumed him in bodie and soul as he did other righteous men and elevated him to that place where they are now Neither need we puzzle our Brains with marvelling how it can stand with reason that grosse and ponderous bodies should ride and be born upward on the light and subtill Element of Aire this we need not question if we do but call to minde how it pleased the Almightie Power to work the like in the Israelites egresse out of Aegypt where the Water an Element in â—aritie and thinnesse like unto the Aire did bear their heavy bodies without sinking And when the Lord gave a sign of an accepting welcome to a Sacrifice the Fire though an Element lighter then the rest descended from heaven and returning up again to heaven carryed with it aloft the bodies of the sacrificed Beasts and Bullocks offered to God As for this Righteous One Moses Elias and other Prophets prophesied of his elevation From the premisses I collect that we â—eing credulous and ready to beleeve the corporall ascent of the aforenamed Saints there is no reason remains why we should let incredulitie lurk in us and suspend our beliefe about the elevation of this Righteous One into Heaven when Scripture and Prophets do testifie it And that of the foresaid Saints is â—ade so manifest to exclude all doubts for â—ood purpose First that the hearts of men 〈◊〉 the end of the world might be turned to God Secondly that other righteous men â—ight have good hope of their own ascent being incouraged by these examples But our Nation are lockt up under many doubts concerning Christ by the Key of his secret and occult comming at first into the world it being an unusuall and unwonted way Of this the Prophet saith He is a man and who shall know him Esay saith A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son Where it is to be noted that there is no mention but deep silence of any Father of his according to the Flesh Elsewhere he saith VVe esteemed him not And Jeremie hath The Lord shall create a new thing upon earth a woman shall compasse a man Micah also saith Therefore the Lord will give them up till the time that shee which travelleth hath brought forth In these words is to be observed the Prophet has not a syllables mention of 〈◊〉 the Husband of her that brings forth it being the Nativitie of that Righteous One who onely was born out of the wonted path and common carnall course of men who come by man as the active and woman as the passive principle of Generation But this knows no carnall Father as Esay's mouth foretold it Give ear O ye house of Iacob the Lord shall give you a signe A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son All these other holy men spoken of were born of man and woman carnally conceived in sinne yea and they themselveâ— were sinners Moses himself though holier than the Prophets his Parents yet he sinned and his own mouth publishes his own sinne but of this Just One it is said in Esay he never sinned nor was there a lie found in his mouth God by the mouth of Iob hath proclaimed there are blemishes in all the Saints Behold he putteth no trust in his saints And Ieremie joyns with that judgement The hearts of men are wicked CHAP. XIV Of the Iews blindnesse who neither beleeve nor understand that Christ is come WHat Esay from the Lord hath said O Master I shake with fear lest it be our lot to have it fulfilled in us Blindnesse is fallen upon Israel till the fulnesse of the Gentiles become in And again he saith Hearing they shall hear and shall not understand seeing they shall see and not perceive because the heart of this people is waxen fat And in the same Chapter Make the heart of this people blinde and stop their ears least they should learn and be converted to me and I should heal them Esay then said How long O Lord and he answered Vntill the Cities be wasted and the house bee left without an inhabitant You have Daniel also saying Shut up and seal up or wrap up the Prophecie Jeremie follows with his testimonie The sinne of Judah is written with a Pen of Iron and the Point of a Diamond it is graven on the table of their heart Esay likewise in his first Chapter saith The Oxe knowes his owner and the Asse his Masters Cribb but my people doth not understand Jeremie to that purpose The Stork the Crane and the Swallow know the time of their comming but my people know not me All these speeches O Master are Gods Arrows shot at us and do shew our condiâ—ion because we had eyes lockt and bolted up that we could not discern the first comming of that righteous Lord. Of us do the Lords words in Esay mean when he saith Bring forth or cast far off the blinde people that have eyes and the deaf people that have ears Behold they are all gathered together or rather Let all the Nations be gathered together These words carry no other meaning but this that the Prophet saith The Lord hath rejected us because we knew not soon enough the time of that Righteous Ones comming and in stead of uâ— he hath gathered the Gentiles to him by faith This is it which made that admiration break out of Davids lips The right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to passe Yet for all this we belong to the Lord though thus sore in an haplesse estate and deepe depressing Captivitie wherein as in a labyrinth we are and can finde no end or out-gate though a thousand years we have runne with wearied foot-steps in this amazing Maze of miserie neither did ever our Fathers smart
thus though they did fully transgresse the Law worshipt Idols and slew the Prophets yet drunk they not of such a Cup of Indignation and Judgement as we their Children CHAP. XV. The Jews blindnesse and incredulity about Christ was foretold by the Prophets THis O Master dives me deep under the waters of fear that our not beleeving in that Righteous One hath caused that to be fulfilled and to fall upon us which the Lord spoke by the mouth of Esay The vision shall bee as the words of a Booke that is sealed which shall be given to one that is learned to a Reader saying read this I pray thee and hee saith I cannot for it is sealed And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned What greater and closer sealing up of the Book can there be found O Master than this wherewith the Lord hath sealed and fast closed up our blinde hearts and we have now been a thousand years and more as miserable Truants in learning this one lesson of the comming of this Righteous One propounded to us in the Prophets and yet we know it not nor have taken it out This is it which blows the Prophets Trumpet with that threatning blast Ierusalem shall be desolate and their holy house shall fall down He further said Our Countrey is desolate and their holy house shall fall down He further said Our Countrey is desolate our Cities burnt with fire and Zion is left as a Cottage in a vineyard This this is the evill O Master which has now the age of a thousand years and more on the back of it According to this Esay further saith O Lord God I will exalt thee for thou hast made a Citie an heap an house to be confusion a defenced Citie to be a ruine for ever He shall break the people in pieces like the breaking of the Potters Vessell which shall be broken so as there shall not be found a sheard to take fire from the hearth or to take water withall out of the pit Daniels words are also fulfilled that after the Messias is cut off there shall follow a perpetuall desolation in which desolation we now are and have been cast deep into this flood of miseries a thousand years and more Esay goes on to spinne the thred of our wo Solitarinesse shall be left in the midst of the City or desolation and their Land shall hisse with a perpetuall hissing After him Jeremie saith Call ye them reprobate silver for the Lord hath rejected them Esay again Walk you in the light of your own fire and in the flames sparks which you have kindled In these flames we as miserable Salamanders have now lain a thousand years more Amos comes with like threats The house of Israel shall fall and none shall raise her up To me verily O Master it seems we are falne indeed and ruine is come on us since the comming of that Righteous One yea God hath brought it on us seeing since that time no Prophet has risen amongst us neither shall there be any as is foretold and prophesied of us for we remain still in our incredulitie we maintain an obstinate negative of that Righteous One and do not beleeve in him Hosea therefore saith When the woman conceived and bare a daughter God said call her name Loruhamah without mercy for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel And if thus it be that the Lord hath quite cast us off and will have no mercy on us as we have felt by the miserable experience of a thousand years and upward to what end or what profit is it for us to retain our old Ordinances the Law Sabbath and Circumcision Esay saith Bring forth the blinde people as the true glorious God hath now brought us forth of our Land and made us strangers to it more than a thousand years Besides all this he saith The old errour is gone away what can we pick out of this O Master what is the old thing but our Law which is gone away from us yea we have lost King Sacrifice Incense Altars Was there any worse thing in the whole predicament of calamity that could have befaln us What prey or bootie of hope have we for our winged expectations to flie after Do we not see wo unto us that wee see it that the Lord hath scattered and disperst us thorow the four quarters of the world as Moses Jeremie and other Prophets foretold us Yet for all God we are thine and to this God we have our recourse in every event CHAP. XVI He shews the Jews reprobation for perfidiousnesse and the Gentiles election by faith MY soul is not free from this fretting fear O Master that whereas you and I betwixt our selves can boldly say and affirme that we are the sons of Jacob and Israel that for all this God may have fulfill'd that which he spoke by Esay God shall slay thee O Israel and call his servants by another name I quake to think that we should be of those servants on whom that name shall be imposed as Moses writes in Deuteronomie The Nations shall be the Head and the unbeleeving people the Tail as we now are and have been the hindmost the very Tail of all the World for 1000 years and more Of these Nations Jeremie speaks The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters that cover the Seas Salomon hath of them this O Lord God when a stranger which is not of thy people Israel shall come to thy holy house and call upon thy blessed Name then hear thou O Lord my God that all the earth may learn to fear thy Name as doth thy people Israel What have wee O Master wee proud beggars of the Jews that we can boast in Why should we contemne and hold the Gentiles in scorn seeing Salomon the Prophet hath joyned them as partners with us in the fear of God and in his holy House And peradventure God hath shut us out of his House as unworthy ones and hath given our room to them as more worthy as Moses hath spoken of them Thus saith the Lord God the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. After him David All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nation or a thousand generations shall worship before thee Of them spoke Esay O holy house of David thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee The Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightnesse of thy rising Lift up thine eyes round about thee and see all they gather themselves together they come to thee thy sons shall come from frare The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee And who I pray O Master are
these sonnes of strangers which came to the house of God but the Gentiles who serving Idols were meer strangers to God they their Princes and their Kings of whom God said They shall walk in the light of his holy house and we thrust out shall remain in darknesse and we indeed are in darknesse and have beene fearfully benighted a thousand years and upward Still that Prophet of that people Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowest not and Nations that knew not thee shall runne unto thee Now our eyes de facto do testifie it a thousand years and more have worne out themselves since the Christ came that was sent according to the Law given to us And the Gentiles which knew not the Law they came to him and he has given them a new a pure an holy law Besides this in the five and fortieth Chapter They agreed together and their Kings were gathered together in the beliefe of God I much fear O Master that is meant of them Assemble your selves come and draw near ye that are escaped of the Nations and I am found of them that sought me not Jeremie speaks of them The Nations shall be gathered to the Name of the Lord in his holy House nor shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evill heart The same Prophet To thee shall all the Gentiles come from the utmost ends of the earth saying Our fathers have inherited iniquitie and lies Zephanie the Prophet follows this stream The Gentiles shall all call on the name of the Lord and shall serve him with one shoulder every man from his place and all the Isles of the Nations Zacharie brings his part to this truth Sing and rejoyce O daughter of Zion lo I come and will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord and many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord. Again in the 8. Chapter Thus saith the Lord of Hosts many nations shall come from many places and every man shall say to his neighbour Let us go and seek the Lord our God for good All these things O Master are now fulfilled and the effects of them abide plainly before our eyes you see people and languages brought home to God and studying the Law all the Prophets and Book of Psalmes to which they were strangers and have left their Idols to imbrace the Truth None of them are brought to this belief by the hand of Moses or Aaron or any of our Prophets And since their hearts were turned to beleeve in that Righteous One of whom Habackuk saith Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people with thine Anointed they have utterly abdicted and abandoned all their Idols no Idolatry since that has remained amongst them CHAP. XVII Of the quickning and giving life to Gentiles and slaying the Jews MY fears O Master beat as continually as my Pulse and in this I tremble to think that the powerfull and glorious God as with one hand hee gives life to the Gentiles by faith so with the other hand he slayes us in our incredultie Doth not Esay indigitate and point out this Because when I called ye did not answer when I spake ye did not hear therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall crie for sorrow of heart and howle for vexation of spirit and God shall slay thee O Israel and shall call his servants by another name in which he shall blesse them who is blessed upon the earth Amen for in truth And alas we see how exceedingly they are blessed upon the earth by God who have received this new name but for us we flie like dispersed dust before the winde of Gods wrath scattered through the four quarters of the world in a sad Captivitie To this day a thousand years have â—unne over us and trod with heavy feet upon our heads In us expressely appears the deep impressions of the footsteps of Gods wrath not for chastisement onely and instruction â—ut to our destruction This is that slaying which the Lord threatned that he would slay Israel and the nations which he would keepe â—live whom he calls his servants shall receive that good name he hath promised but yet â—he order is thus wee must first lose our â—ame and then they shall receive their new â—ame The funerals of our name must make 〈◊〉 way for the resurrection of theirs as the veâ—y order of Esay's words declare And as for â—â—e hunger and thirst the Lord threatens wee shall be vexed withall it is not that common â—amine of bread and thirst of water but that â—orse sterility and spirituall barrennesse which torments the souls and hearts of us a â—amine of the Word of God as Amos makes appear in his eight Chapter But you my Master Plough with a more skilfull Heifer in these mysteries than I and better understand these things However in all these storms of wrath and what ever falls on us we belong unto God CHAP. XVIII How the Gentiles quickned by faith have purâ— observances in their new Law I Cannot but fear O Master that the Gentiles are quickned and brought to life The Annuall circlings of the Sunne have made up a thousand years from the time that Jesus dyed at Jerusalem and we know there was noâ— good thing at all to be found among the Gentiles before they came to beleeve in God iâ— Christ and the Apostles so as they seemed to be the Prophet Habackuks fishes and creeping things that had no Ruler But now these Gentiles being purified by faith are ruled by fastings and other observances of their new Law yea they want nothing pertaining to cleannesse and purity so much spoken of in the old Law You see how in every language and place whether you look to the Orientall or Occidentall utmost Fringes of the world wide garment that the Gentiles confesse the Name of the Lord. Neither do they beleeve in him through Moses or any of the Prophets although they bee studious in the Law and the Propheticall Writings but God hath called them to himself another way even by the Disciples of that Righteous One who went forth with God for the salvation of his people as the blessed and glorious God hath foretold by the mouth of the Prophet Habackuk yea those very Disciples of his who by another name are known among them being called Apostles they were Children that sprung out of the same Root with us and were the sons of the sons of Israel Ah how my poor heart is Palsied through fear when it judges that these same Apostles are they of whom God means in Davids Psalm when he saith Their sound is gone out into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world The Prophets words carry an expresse demonstration in
why they used not Altars and Incense because they were strangers and under the Government of Kingdomes and States that would not suffer them to have that libertie But this he answers to that it is no good reason for Kings and States that suffer them to have Synagogues and meetings and communion in a Jewish manner would permit them this also as well as the former they who grant a greater thing in all likelihood will not deny them a lesser matter So that the conclusion he would make is this God in his anger hath bereft us of King Priest Temple Altars Sacrifice the great things of our Law therefore he would have us leave all other our Iewish Rites also because it is manifest for our sinnes he would have us deprived of all and besides turn us to Christ who hath put an end to all Iudaicall observances Many of the Jews acknowledge that Sacrifices and Ceremonies were not to be perpetuall but to continue for a time onely and by the Messias to be abrogated In their Talmud they have this to that purpose In the world to come all sacrifices shall be annihilated except the sacrifice of Confession i. e. of praise So the Aegyptian Moses writes that in the time of the Messias all things shall be licensed which were prohibited According to that saying The Lord looseth them that are bound up and there cannot be a greater proof than this that even mulier menstruata shall be licensed by God at that time In the Talmud speaking of unclean things as the Sow it is questioned Why is a Sow called Hazer It is answered Because God will return it once to Israel that is give them libertie to eat of it Hazire signifying reversion or returning Wherefore by the judgement of divers of their Doctors they doe at this day unlawfully in counting any meats unclean by the old Rule of their Law seeing the Messias was beleeved should set these very Creatures at libertie that they should not be bound up from free use by any Bond of Ceremoniall uncleannesse as they were heretofore When the Vail of the Temple was rent all Legall Ceremonies were to be rent also The Jews acknowledge they have nothing to do now with Sacrifices as their Ancestors had because they are scattered from their own land and their Temple is destroyed which was the place destined for Sacrifices to be offered up to God yet instead of Sacrifices they will do something they redeem their Sacrifices with words and comfort themselves with this as if God did accept it as well as any Sacrifice that they read over Gods precepts in the Law about the kindes and manner of Sacrificing and so they make use of or rather abuse those words of the Prophet We will offer up to God the calves of our lips Which were a good Sacrifice if they were good lips confessing Christ and guided by holy hearts onely relying and trusting in the all-meriting Sacrifice of Christs blood Their R. Simeon saith they despised three things and cast them off in that speech We have no part in David nor have we inheritance in the sonne of Iesse 1. The Kingdome of Heaven 2. The house of David 3. The Temple of the Lord. But the later Jews have cast off these three things farre more despitefully in casting off Christ And having thrown off God and his Temple why may he not throw away them and their sacrifices The conclusion is against the Jews that they do against ground and reason retain some part of their Jewish service and let other parts be lost as that of Altars oyntment and sacrifice If one be good all is good because all is of the same root If God have abolished some he would have them abolish all and he grants the Jews are non-plust and have nothing to say in this argument when it is urged by the Christians CHAP. III. IN this Chapter the Translator tells us he findes much diversity in the Phrases of the Scripture as they are in the Originall Hebrew and as he findes them quoted by his Rabbi Samuel who being among the Turks follows the Arabicke Bible and therefore he would have the Reader note that he quotes the Scriptures according to R. Samuels Book that he may prove himself a faithfull interpretour It is a pretie note of R. Samuel that the first Captivitie is called but a Transmigration or a passing over into another Land which seems to be a word of hope that promised them they should come back again But this last is named by a hopelesse name a desolation to let them see it is a perpetuall Captivity That of transmigration or removing may bee seene 2 King 17. 23. 2 King 24. 3. But this is a desolation Dan. 9. 27. and the abomination of desolation A twofold misery he findes to pursue this Captivitie more than the other 1. In the other they had Prophets in Babylon to comfort them Ezekiel Haggai Zacharie but in this Captivity no true Prophets preach deliverance Prophecie and Vision ceaseth 2. Again in that other Captivity they were all together in one Kingdome and company of known friends Countrey-men breaks the strong waves of an evill but here they are dispersed into all Countries and can converse with few of their own but meer strangers both by Countrey and Religion And this is a sad thing that they sit solitary like a Sparrow upon the house top This the Lord threatned to make their Chaine heavy The Lord shall scatter thee among all the people from one end of the earth even to the other c. This Samuel acknowledges and calls Daniel a Prophet of God which divers of the great and learned Jews will not admit yet he all over honours him and quotes his Prophecie in this matter of the Messia It seems this man had rather cleave to Christ who calls him a prophet Matth. 24. 15. then to his great Talmudists and Rabbies who will needs be great by lessening some of Gods greatest Prophets Porchetus a great and deep inquirer into Hebrew Learning proves by Jewish Tradition that Daniel was held by them a Prophet and be further faith that among the Jews none could be found so strangely foolish to deny the Spirit of Prophesie to Daniel but onely one wicked Sadduce called Porphyrius who being convict with the clearnesse of his Prophecie concerning Christ he falls like a bitter Dogge a barking against the truth and sanctitie of Daniels Propheticall testimony Of this Porphyrie Hierome speaks in his Epistle proaemiall to the Comment on Daniel to Pammachius and Marcella where he saith this Porphyrie writt his twelfth Book against Daniel whom Eusehius confuted in three Volumes But besides Porphyrie Porchetus might have seen some more denying Daniel properly to be called a Prophet of God as the great Moses Ben Maimon who saith our Nation with an unanimous consent hath placed the book of Daniel in Kethubhim among the holy Writers but not among
from corruption and losse even in corrupting and losing times and are as woodden Candlesticks to the Gentiles holding out the light of the Law He quotes the 49 Chapter of Genesis which he calls the Booke of the Generation of the Creatures of Iudah that is Of the Children and Off-spring of Iudah Well may I here take occasion to give a reason why men onely sometimes are called the Creation and the Creatures and whence it arises To which purpose our understandings may well and soundly take hold on this that the word which signifies creatures properly in common use among the Hebrews signifies onely men sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being the excellentest of subsolar Creatures The same Phrase and manner of speaking is much taken up in the Orientall Languages I shall call in my Witnesse and he may stand for two or three he is of such standing and perfection in the Academie of most exquisite learning it is Hortibonus or Casaubon In the Arabick Geographie saith he in abundance of places we finde the frequencie and fulnesse of Cities thus described the Author saith that in them there are many Creatures that is to say Men. This may well agree with our Samuel who writ in Arabick and this may be a good note affixed to the latter end of the 16 Chapter of Marks Gospell to the illustration of it Go into the whole World and preach the Gospell to every Creature CHAP. XIII THe corporall Ascension of Christ he goes about to prove by those Scriptures that speaks of the exaltation and elevation of God which he saith must properly be meant of Christ according to his humane nature because the meer Deitie is subject to none of these Sites or Postures That of Psalm 68 is applyed to the Ascension of Christ by S. Paul so that R. Samuel the Jew is not ashamed to follow S. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles in beleeving and asserting the same truth He quotes something out of the Prophet Aser in his second Chapter but he forbears the prosecution of it upon this reason because that Prophesie is lost and is not to be found The Translatour he brings his judgement about the Prophet Aser and reproves the ignorance of R. Samuel that he should think the Prophet Aser to be lost when he is not And his reason is that the Prophet Aser and Haggai are all one onely Haggai is the Hebrew Name and Aser the Arabicke name of the same Prophet which R. Samuel did not know or at least did not call to minde when he writ so Now it were good to unpire the matter betwixt Alphonsus the Spanyard and Samuel the Jew and upon looking into it the Translator will be found in some fault Suppose there be some agreement betwixt Haggai and Aser in their signification Haggai signifying one that solemnizes and keeps a holy and joyfull day of solemnities that rejoyces festivally and Aser comming of a Verbe that signifies to make blessed and happy which may accord in this that the dayes of re-edifying the Temple and Jerusalem in which times Haggai prophecied were holy festivall and blessed dayes Though there be some similitude must there be Identitie How doth Alphonsus know that Aser and Haggai in the Arabick Tongue are the same Prophet This may be disproved two wayes 1. Because R. Samuel writ in Arabick lived among the Arabians and being both a Jewish and an Arabick Doctor he was likely to know as well as Alphonsus the names of Prophets in the Old Testament both in Hebrew and Arabick 2. If Aser and Haggai be all one then let the Spanyard shew us this that he quotes in the Prophecie of Haggai of a man ascending from the midst of the Sea and comming up to Heaven He must coyn a new Prophecie of Haggai if he will finde this in it for our Old Prophet neither in first or second 〈…〉 Chapter has any such thing However we speake of this obscure Prophet Aser which cannot be found what he was yet we may well conclude for the Authour against the Translatour that these words are not to be found in the Prophet Haggai Since these Notes I have found something that is like this which is quoted but neither in R. Samuels obscure Aser nor Alphonsus the Translators Haggai chap. 2. but in the Apocryphals of Esdras Lo there arose a winde out of the sea and lo that man waxed strong with the thousands of heaven Iunius reads it Quidam ut ventus A certain man as the winde came from the sea It should be translated a Man not a winde that did rise out of the Sea so the third Verse intimates that man waxed strong not that winde For rising of the winde is not the thing but the comparison accompanying and illustrating the appearance of the man I think pardoning the errour of the Authors and Translators Quotation both of the Name and the Book and Chapter I am the Oedipus of this Riddle And it may well be his meaning was of this place for in this book he doth besides this make use of the Apocrypha as Chap. 19. he quotes a place out of Jesus the sonne of Syrach and in chap. 20. he has out of the same Book Besides he is subject to some mistakes for in that 20 chapter he cals it Salomons writing when it is the Sonn of Syrachs and in this 13 chapter he quotes a place in Esay when it is in Ieremie Aliquando bonus dormitat Hebraeus calling Esdras Aser Among those were assumed into heaven he names Methusalem and takes it for a thing granted and known among the Jews But we must beleeve Moses who saith that Methusalem when he had lived nine hundred sixty nine years dyed he doth not say he was translated which he had newly said of Enoch his Father The Greeks errour is that he lived 14 years after the floud and was with Noah in the Ark which errour comes out of the Septuagints false computation And some of the Jews it seems are in this errour that because his Father was taken into heaven in his body and soul so was Methusalem too But they that compute and reckon according to the Hebrew numbring of the years do agree that Methusalem dyed that very year the flood came Others think he dyed six years before the floud He concludes the Chapter with asserting the wonderfull birth of Christ born of a Virgin without a man to be a very truth and plainly foretold by the Prophets of God Wherin he grants for a truth one of those six things which are the main Controversies betwixt the Jews and Christians He takes indeed one place to prove the birth of Christ by a Virgin which I dare not say flatly that the Prophet did speak it with any relation to the birth of Christ It is that of Ieremies The Lord shall create a new thing upon the earth a woman shall compasse a man I know the stream of Expositours
runn that way to make it point at Christs Incarnation both ancient and modern which made that Lutheran Beadle provide so terrible a whip for Calvin and lasht him with Calvinus Iudaizans Calvin turn'd Iew because he knew no reason why these words and other places of Scripture should be thought a plaine Prophecie of Christ Neither the consequents or the Antecedents do give any great light to that sense And let a man perpend and consider it well whether the interpretation of Calvin be so strange a thing to the meaning of the Prophets discourse and Sermon He is speaking of Gods delivering his people from the power of Chaldeans and it shall be so wonderfull that he saith A woman shall compasse a man that is the weak and low-brought Israelites that may seem to be compared to women being furnished with new strength from God shall prevail against the Chaldeans their potent enemies that are strong men and thus women may be said to bring men into straits Others besides Calvin have thought this sence to be more litterall and proper to that place then to expound it of Christs Birth The L. shall create a new th up e. a wâ—m shall comp a man that is This wonderfull and new thing will the Lord bring to passe the Church of the Jews that like a wandring and strange woman is departed from the Lord by rebellion and Idolatry to whom she was betrothed once she shall come with bitter repentance returning to her first Husband embracing him again gratiously whom she had vilely forsaken This is that new and wonderfull thing that the Lord should create in this impenitent and wicked people a new heart to return unto him This is commonly called A new Creation And if in this Calvin play the Jew then Luther was a Jew and divers others who could not with their best eye sight spie the Incarnation of Christ plainly and clearly in that Text of the Prophet And if we do not take that peece to confirme Christs spotlesse birth yet do we not want clear proofs and Prophecies against the gainsaying Jews to make it appear as noon-day Against the applying of the Scriptures unduly and unproperly to Christ the words of the ancient Pelusiot are ponderous and precious This course saith he puts harnesse upon the Gentiles and Heretiques in their contentions with us for when we torture and wrest the Scriptures which are not meant of Christ to bring them to point at him we bring suspicion upon those other Scriptures which without any wresting or wringing do lay plainly their meaning in Christs bosome And the great Schoolmaster Aquinas writes with a Quill of the same Wing When a man saith he going about to make proof of the Christian faith shall bring reasons whose clearnesse is not convictive and in a sort coactive that they cannot be denyed he layes himself open to the scorn and derision of Infidels and unbeleevers for they will presently conclude that we lean upon these Reeds and that these weak reasons are the inducements to our faith and the grounds our belief lies upon Whence we draw a Theologicall Canon That Divine truths must be urged and confirmed by indubitate and clear Testimonies else it turns to the detriment of the sayers and it will not convince the gainsayers CHAP. XVI SPeaking of Jews reprobation and Gentiles election he tels of the Jews proud boasting that they are the sonnes of Iacob and Israel pride and contempt of all people in the world besides themselves is the proper fault of the Jews He reasons the case here well Why should they thus contemn and scorn the Gentiles They say they onely are Gods portion and onely fall under the care of his Providence and the Gentiles run at large without the guidance of Gods Providence yea their Land of Canaan is the onely fit and apt place in the world to be the subject of Gods providence With them onely the Jews shall rise again and the Gentiles shall have no resurrection David shall confirm this their opinion in his first Psalm In their Talmud they say It is not murther if a Jew kill a Gentile nor is it perjury if he falsifie his promise to him confirmed by oath Yea their Talmud commands them to hold the Christians in esteem as bruit beasts and no otherwayes to use them then as they use beasts These and many such like le ts us see how the Jews pride themselves and cast the Christians Gentiles low enough in the Court of honour A learned Jew of these times treating of the Resurrection has a Chapter on this Head An etiam Gentes resurgent Whether the Gentiles shall rise again or no he indeed concludes they shall What is the reason that the Jews every year on the eight day of the moneth Tebeth which answers to our December do keep a solemn Fast sorrowing and humbling themselves in the remembrance of the Scripture translated by them into the Greek at the instance of Ptolomaeus Philadelphus Do they execrate and abhort the memory of that act It seems it is out of meer hatred and envy that any good or any knowledge of God should be scattered among the Gentiles We hear of old they could not endure to hear Paul to speak one word more when they heard this from him that the Lord said to him Depart for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles so soon as this is mentioned then they crie out Away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not fit that he should live In their Stories as that of R. Iosue Ben Levi that was up and down heaven and Hell he findes Christians and abundance of all Nations in Hell but we hear tell of no Jews there It is well that God follows not the Jews rule that scorn all but their own people But in every Nation he that fears God and works righteousnesse and Gentile as well as Jew is accepted with him CHAP. XVIII HE admirably agrees with S. Paul in the Application of the nineteenth Psalm to the preaching of the Gosspell by the Apostles Their sound is gone out into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world CHAP. XIX HE applies the Prophecie of Ioel about the Old men dreaming dreams and the young men seeing Visions to the Apostles and the abundant knowledge of God they had above former times just as S. Peter applyes it Acts 2. so that he is an Asserter of the truth with Paul he applyes the predictions of the Prophets Evangelically with S. Peter and will needs discover himselfe a Christian every way He makes one notable observation concerning the faith of Christ That of the Apostles of Christ that embraced the Faith not one of them did ever recant and return to embrace the Jews faith any more Iosephus the Jew does highly applaud the followers of Christ for their constancy Writing of Christ he saith There was at that