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
ever compared unto him The eighth Article is concerning the Law that it was so delivered to Moses by Gods owne mouth as it is now extant amongst them The manner how it was given whether by writing or dictated of God to Moses by word of mouth it is not needful to inquire If it proceeded from the mouth of God then is it necessary that every parcel thereof should be truth and in this respect no difference to be made amongst the particular clauses of holy Writ as these I am the Lord thy God c. and Thumia was the Concubine of Eliphaz who came of Esau as also The Sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim phut and Canaan and this Heare O Israel the Lord thy God is one God and others of the same sort seeing they are all Gods true and holy Word After the like manner the Exposition of the divine Law Mippi haggeburah came from Gods owne mouth as also all the things observable in the celebration of their bulabh or feast of Tabernacles as the blowing of Trumpets Zizim Tephillim concerning which things notwithstanding there is not one expresse word found in the Law of Moses yet are they kept no otherwise then God hath with open mouth delivered them to Moses and Moses unto us and Moses God himselfe bearing him witnesse Numb 12. 7. was faithfull in all his house And they are his own words Numb 16. 28. Hereby you shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these Works for I have not done them of mine own mind The ninth Article concerning the change of the Law that the Law of Moses shall never be abrogated or any other succeed in the place thereof and that nothing need to be added unto it or taken away from it that not one jot or title shall be annexed or perish from the holy Scripture neither that any Exposition shall make it subject to augmentation or diminution whereupon it shal come to passe that Gods holy Temple and the City Jerusalem shall again be re-edified the sacrifices and Mosaical ceremonies restored and the Jewes themselves at length to be brought back again into their own Land that they may for ever observe and keep the Law of Moses The tenth Article needs no other explication then the Scripture comments The eleventh Article is concerning the reward due to good and evil works the reward of good deeds is the world to come and life eternal the punishment of evil the souls eternal destruction and damnation whereupon it is written Exod. 32. 32 33. Yet now if thou wilt for give their sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of the booke which thou hast written And the Lord said unto Moses he who hath sinned against me him will I blot out of my booke The twelfth Article is concerning the comming of the Messias whose comming is to be expected as certaine though he long delay it yea none ought or dare to prescribe unto him certain time any determinate time for his advent neither wil they suffer the holy Scriptures to be searched into that this sulness of time in which he should come may be made manifest Hereupon their Chachamim and Rabbins deeply grounded in the Jewes Religion were wont to say tippach ruchan schel mechaschebbe Kitzim I wish they may breath out their own souls who go about to set down the time of his approach They teach that our trust and confidence is to be settled on the Messias that he is to be loved praised and petitioned that he will come quickly even as all the Prophets from Moses to Malachi were wont to do when on the contrary whosoever doubts of his comming gives the whole Law the lie yea but the whole Law doth make the miserable poor and blinde Jew a Liar who doubting that he is not come believes he shall come when he is already come in which a plain and clear promise concerning this matter is enrolled especially in parascha The 13. Article is concerning the Resurrection of the dead of which there is nothing now to be spoken whosoever therefore faithfully believes these 13. Articles is accounted one of the number of the Israelites yea such an one who is to be loved whom every one ought to commiserate and unto whom he ought to perform whâ—â—soever God the Creator hath commanded to be done to a neighbour or brother out of Sincere love unfeigned affection and brotherly kindness yea they esteem him a man of that constitution that though he commit all the offences which in the world become the fewell to set a fire the whole course of Nature with burning lusts and consume it with inbred malice and therefore suffer punishment in this World according to the nature and measure of his sin yet shall he inherit eternal life being placed in the Kalender of the sinners of Israel Whosoever destroyes the foundation on which these Articles are built or commits a trespass against any one of them by his infidelity they affirm that he hath neither part nor portion in Israel that he hath denied his God is to be abhorred like a swinish Epicure because he hath rooted up that which was once implanted in him according to the most exquisite skill of the Artificer and therefore he deserves no other then to be rejected abandoned and perish utterly of such an one speaks the Prophet Psal 139. 21. Do I not hate them O Lord that hate thee and am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee Thus hitherto I have more at large expounded the genuine sense of the Jewish Creed out of Rabbi Moses the Son of Maimon more birefly written and nominated by the Jewish Synagogue Rambam with this intent that every one might more clearly perceive and know to what end this beliefe of the Jews was directed whose Articles if any with a more serious scrutiny into their own writings search and examine he may with great facility conclude that when Rambam had brought these Articles into order and with severe threanings of extirpation of the Jewish name and the losse of their souls enjoyning every one unto the confession of them to have had no other aimâ— then the overthrow of Christian Religion among the Jewes intending to put upon it the badge of falshood for making it hatefull unto them he might for ever terrifie them from the imbracing of it Hence the Articles concerning God the Creator that he is one alone incorporeal and eternal hitherto muster up their forces that they condemning the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and Christs person might make it liable to contempt as though that we Christians by maintaining a Trinity did also infer a plurality of Gods or that Christ should not be God nor partake in his Fathers essence because it was his pleasure to assume our flesh in time not from eternity whereupon when hence it follows that he is no God it may serve for a necessary
hath a most accurate dispute in his Madrasch or Exposition upon the Pentateuch which book is called Zeror hammor in English a bundle of Myrrhe Other interpreters in this place say thinking their opinion to be more plausible that the Jewes use to smell to the perfumes because the fire of hell the Sabbath yet lasting doth not stinke but so soon as the Sabbath is ended and the doores of hell set open that the soules of the wicked departed this life may enter againe into the place of torment then it begins to send out an ill savour against which the nosing of those odors are a present remedy as it is recorded in their Germane Minhagin They looke upon their nailes also because of their fruitfull growth which aâ—though they be alwaies cut upon the Friday yet notwithstanding they alwaies grow againe Others say that this is done in remembrance of that garment which God at the first made for Adam in paradise for it was of the colour of the nailes of a mans hand Others that all this is done to distinguish the nailes from the flesh which wonderfull consideration had its first originall from Adam Who when he saw the whole world wrapt up in darknesse weeping said Woe unto me for whose sinne alone the whole earth is darkned Then God suggested this into his mind that he should take two stones and strike the one against the otherpunc which he doing the fire sparkled out whereat he lighted a candle Then Adam marking that he was every whit naked the utmost parts of his fingers onely excepted he praised God with a greater admiration as we may read in the book called Colbâ— They poure some part of the conseâ—rated wine upon the ground for lucks sake because such an effusion prognosticates that house to become plentifully stored with all things necessary for the sustenanâ—e of life and that in such a manner that they shame not to write that in what house soever this wine is not poured out as water there is no blessing at all resident Some are of opinion that this pouring out of the wine to be done for the refreshing of Corah and his rebellious companions for the Jewes doe foolishly perswade themselves that these being swallowed up of the earth doe as yet remaine alive therein and are comforted by this consecrated wine A little before somewhat was delivered concerning the stinke of hell fire for the confirmation of which we have this story in the Talmud That wicked man Turnus Rophus upon a certaine time demanded of Rabbi Akibha in what respect the Sabbath did excell other daies of the weeke that they should prosecute it with so great honour The Rabbine replyed why doe mortals more honour thee then other men of the same mould because said the King my liege will have it so To whom Rabbi Akibha answered againe The King of Kings even our God himselfe wils us to give more honour and reverence unto the Sabbath then to any day in the weeke besides Turnus replies who can certainly assure thee that your Sabbath day is the seventh day and so the true Sabbath indeed perhaps you may celebrate it upon some other The Rabbine answers this may be proved 1. By a water-course of the River Sambation who estreame is so headstrong for the space of six daies that it roles huge great stones along with it by reason whereof it denies any one passage for the whole weeke but upon the Sabbath day it stands unmoveable not running at all in honour to the Sabbath 2. I can draw an evident argument for the demonstration hereof from thy fathers Sepulchre For all the weeke long the smoake and stench of hell fire iss ues out of it because for that space he is tormented therein but upon the Sabbath day the Sepulchre sends out no ill savour the reason is thy father at that time is come out of hell and takes his rest so that the fire thereof hath no power over him and for this very cause smoaks not upon that day When Turnus heard these words of the Rabbine he said unto him peradventure the time of his adjudgement to hell torments is now expired The Rabbine bids him goe unto thy fathers tombe the Sabbath now ended and see if it doe not smoake as yet Which Turnus hearing went and found it to be as the Rabbine had spoken This moved Turnus to a hainous enterprize for by enchantments he cals his father from hell and thus bespeaks him How comes it to passe said hee who diddest not sanctifie the Sabbath all thy life long shouldest now being dead observe and keep it How farre is the time spent since thou becamest so godly a Jew He answered My sonne whosoever living among you will not keep the Sabbath willingly in this place after death must be forced thereunto The sonne replies how are you occupied I pray you upon the worke dayes Upon them saith he some burns us with fire but upon the Sabbath day we enjoy our rest For upon Friday at evening a Proclamation goes forth declaring that the time of ceslation is now present and that the wicked should depart to celebrate the Sabbath which we hearing betake our selves to rest and in resting sanctifie the Sabbath Then in the end of the Sabbath when the Jewes have ended all their prayers then comes an evill Angell called Dumah who is our Master and commands us to returne into hell because the people of Israel have now put an end to their Sabbath Then wee recoiling into hell are scorched by the flames thereof untill the next Sabbath These are our infernall imployments If any have an itching desire to read any more concerning these horrible trifling fopperies let him reade Rabbi Bechai in parscha vaiischma Jethro that is in his exposition upon the eighteenth Chapter of Exodus where hee writes many things about the Sabbath Now seeing God in the Law of Moses and the Prophets oftentimes commanded the Jewes that upon the seventh day they should doe no manner of work and so abstaine from the prophanation thereof Hence ariseth a grand controversie among the Rabbines what may be done what left und one thereupon Concerning which matter there is a large tract in the Talmud upon which the chiefe and most learned Rabbines have written a Commentary so that whosoever could broach the most subtle and acute meditations concerning the genuine manner of sanctifying the Sabbath he was or certainly would have been accounted a teacher unto others I will onely repeat some few things conducible to the matter in hand First then whereas God in his Law commands that not only man but also the beast shall rest upon the Sabbath day The Rabbines with a curious kind of augmentation eâ—quire how far any beast as horse asse or others of the same kinde may lawfully goe upon the Sabbath day Whether also any of these creatures may be allowed to carry any burden thereupon This question is fully stated and that doctorâ€like
and religious who have done as much good as evil Those who are perfectly just have their names presently registred in the book of life but they who are extremely wicked have their names written in the book of death Those of the middle sort are deferred and put off untill the day of reconciliation which is the tenth day after the celebration of the feast of the new year If they truly and sincerely repent them of their sins in the mean time so that their good deeds exceed their bad ones then it goes well with them but if on the contrary their evil deeds be more in number then they are presently put in the catalogue of the reprobate and damned As it is written Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written among the just By the blotting out of the book understanding the book of the wicked and by the word life or living the book of the just and by the words Let them not be written among the just the book of those who are indifferently honest Hence is also that of Ralig bbi Nalig chman the son of Isaac upon these words of Moses Now if thou wilt palig rdon their sin thy mercy shall appear But if thou wilt not blot me out of the book which thou hast written In which words Blot out fingers out the book of the wicked Out of thy book the book of the just Which thou hast written the book of them which are indifferently just and godly So far the Talmud 1. Now that God should at this time sit in judgment rather then at any other the reason is grounded upon a certain tradition of the Antients that God created the whole world Adam and placed him in Paradise in the moneth of September therefore it was thought very meet and just that God at the years end should require of man an account of his life and see how he hath carried himself for the space of the year past and so reward every one according to his works Which he paies unto every one in the year following in this manner Sins are of divers sorts some God punishes in this world some also in the life to come so also good works some whereof are recompenced here some hereafter Now if a man for the most part doe nothing els but sin all the year long polluting his soul with the horrid filth of wickedness yet doing some few good deeds the sum of all is presented before Gods tribunal upon new-years day 1. Then God takes the scales and puts his good deeds in one end and his bad deeds in another If it seem good then to the Judge of all men to reward the foresaid man for the good he hath found in him in this present world it cometh to pass that he is called a just man and hath this happy sentence pronounced upon him in this vale of misery that he shall have a name in the book of life live for the next year become rich and shall be advanced to great honours 1. In like manner if an honest and just man who every day makes a conscience of his wayes and lives according to the law all the year through offend and commit some gross enormities for which God is pleased to punish him in this world then God calls him a wicked and unjust liver and pronounceth sentence against him for evil and not for good puts his name into the book of the dead thereby giving him notice that he shall either die or become poor or be troubled with some dangerous disease the year following and therefore although a man may enjoy the happiness of Saints in the world to come yet may he be called with injustice in this seeing he is here punished for his offences even as the reprobate And on the contrary one here accounted just and holy may be ordained to damnation because God gives him the reward of his workes in this present world And therefore no man ought to wonder or account it a strange thing that the godly suffer affliction and all manner of distress in this present life when on the contrary the wicked lives as he list gives rest unto his soule enjoyes pleasure and is without the gunshot of sorrow and vexation yet at the day of death the case is altered for he that was here so gay and gallant must goe into everlasting fire and the other so miserable into enternal bliss God then paying unto them the due reward of their labours And this is the very reason why the Germara affirms that the three foresaid books are opened upon new-new-years day Furthermore it often falls out that one good work blots out a number of transgressions and one sin abolisheth many good works both which are in the power of God If the sinner whose name is put into the book of death repent him of his wayes from the bottom of his heart and continue in this course unto the day of reconciliation being the tenth of the new-year he may happily moue God to reverse the sentence pronounced against him and to transferr him into the book of life Even as the godly in the same space angering his Maker by the commission of some hainous offence may move him to blot his name out of the book of life and to write it among the dead Thus the blindfolded Jews write speak and are conceited of the Almighties rule and government making him a Judge of that stampe and quality which they desire him to be of far contrary to the description of the Prophet David who in heavie cheer praying unto God for the forgiveness of his sins cries out Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord for no man living shall be justified in thy sight And again If thou O Lord marke whalig t is done amiss who is able to abide it Seeing therefore God sits in judgment upon every new-years-day and so severely punisheth the transgressors of his commandements the Rabbines have made it an Ordinance and Statute in Israel that every one should for a moneth before repent of his sins and the evil he hath committed turn from his wicked wayes and begin to lead a new life This therefore the Jews put in execution and upon the first day of Elul or August they fall to a serious account calling all their sins to remembrance and weighing them according to every several circumstance in which they have wickedly transgressed through the whole circuit of the year Whosoever then every day before he eat or drink questions his soule what it hath done and with a diligent scrutinie searches every corner of his heart for some formerly practised wickedness grieving very much and being very heartily sorry for the same he shall upon New-years-day when others are to give an account for their offences receive a plenary absolution And hence it is that the Jews dwelling among the Walloones at this day have a custome to rise every morning of this moneth
no rivers they dig a well in their cellar or garden concerning the breadth and depth whereof they are diverse in opinion as also how much water may be contrived in the same At eventide they likewise repair unto the Synagogue where they continue praying untill it be night at what time the feast begins welcoming it with great joy and many acclamations So much for the preparation now for the feast it self but before we give you any tast thereof hearken what the Prophet saith concerning these men of Juda Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear No man calleth for justice no man contendeth for truth they trust in vanity and speak vain things they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity They hatch Cockatrice eggs and weave the spiders web He that eateth of their eggs dieth and that which is trodden upon breaketh out into a Serpent CHAP. XIX Of the Feast of the New-Year NEw-years-day according to the Jewish Almanack falls continually upon the first day of September which is the beginning of their civil year according to which account they date all their bils contracts and bargains This computation they ground upon the time of the creation of the world which was as they affirm upon the first of September Soe that they now reckon the years from the creation to be five thousand three hundred eighty foure or thereabouts Whence we may see how far they vary in their number from the Christians even by the space of two hundred twenty three years This first day of September is to be sanctified and kept holy by the Jews being a thing commanded by God himself saying Speak unto the children of Israel and say In the seventh moneth in the first day of the moneth shall you have a Sabbath for the remembrance of blowing the trumpets an holy convocation Ye shall do no servile work therein but offer sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord. Though Moses make no mention of the new-new-year in these words yet following an ancient tradition of their ancestors they begin their civil year as upon this day being the first of September which is the seventh moneth accounting from March in which begins the new-year of their festivals The chief reason why it is called the feast of trumpets is because the Priests in old time were wont as this day to repair to the Temple and blow upon trumpets that hereby the people might be warned and pricked forward to render thanks unto God with a chearful and merry heart for the blessings and favours plentifully powred upon them in the year last past that he hath preserved them in safety and redeemed their souls from death and that with fear and trembling truly repenting them of their misled life they may appear before God upon the day of reconciliation upon which an attonement is to be made between God and his people The Jews at this day instead of a trumpet use a Rams horn the reason whereof shall hereafter be related The manner of the Celebration followeth After evening prayer they begin the feast by the consecration of a bowl of wine and a certain prayer appointed for the day they account it as a signe of good luck if their wine be new and sweet Every one salutes his fellow with God send you a good new-year or pointing to the books of which we made mention in the former chapter they say Thou art registred for one who shall be partaker of a prosperous year to whom the other makes answer and you also that is as much as if he had said The Greator of heaven and earth hath ordained thee for a good new-year The little children run unto the chief Rabbine and aske him blessing upon whom he laies his hands and prayes unto God to send them an happy year From the Synagouge to their own houses where they finde the table neatly spread and sumptuously furnished and that with no small deal of provision They presently fall aboard the first dish whereupon they make an assault is a Platter full of dainty Apples steeped in Honey of which every one tasting a bit saith God send us a merry New-year then proceeding with great jollity and mirth to the stuffing of their empty guts Amongst other things the fore-mentioned Rams-horn is laid upon the table in remembrance of the Ram which being catched in the thickets was sacrificed by Abraham in the place of Isaac Others write that they lay it upon the table to signifie that they shall become the head and not the tail according to that promise of the Lord by Moses The Lord shall make thee head and not the tail and thou shalt be above onely and not beneath Which promise is made indeed unto the Jews but with that condition to keep all his Commandments to observe and do them But they understood a mastery and dominion over the Christians to be the tenor thereof which that it may come to pass they daily pray to God above They eat fish for the most part of the best sort they can procure upon this night to shew that their good works merits shall multiply and increase even as the fishes in the sea Fruits of all kinds are no novelty unto them as Almonds Cucumbers Grapes Gourds Leeks Lupines sweet yet grosse pulse and such like The Leeks represent their enemies because they shall be rooted out of the earth and perish utterly for the Leek in the Chaldee tongue is called Crate which is derived from a Verb signifying to Cut and hereupon when they have eaten their Leeks they say Let all our enemies all them that hate us be uttterly cut off When they eat the sweet Pulse which they call Silka they say Let our enemies perish from among the midst of us When they eat the Almonds which they call Timarim they say Let our enemies be consumed and blotted out When they eat the Gourds called Kara they say Let every evil thing which is definitely determined against us be abolished and come to nothing and let our good works and deservings be read and published before the God of heaven The morning come they repair to the Synagogue more early then at other times singing many Psalms and saying many Prayers They take the book of the Law twice out of the Ark reading some sections out of it as in imitation of Ezra who did the like Nehemiah 8. but God knows in a far different manner After their Haphtarah or Lecture out of the Prophets is ended one goes up into the Pulpit and sounding the Rams horns at several times distinctly bellows out thereupon thirty words some with an equal others with an interrupted tone If the trumpet give a shrill and pleasant sound they take as a certain signe that a good and a happy year will then befal them but if on the contrary the sound be dull and hollow or perhaps none at all it