the Law Sacred or Introduced The Form of Cherem or Anathema BY the Decree of Cities Command of the Holy we Anathematize Adjure Exterminate Excommunicate Curse and Execrate God being willing his Church by the Book of this Law by the 600 Precepts therein written by the Anathema with which Josua Anathematized Hiericho by the Curse wherewith Elisha cursed the young men by the Curse wherewith Gehezi cursed his Boy and by the Excommunication with which Barach Excommunicated Meroz and by the Excommunication which Rab. Jehuda Son of Rabbi Jehezkiel used in this matter and by all the Anathemata Imprecations Curses Excommunications and Exterminations which have been made from the time of our Master Moses and since by the name of Acetheriel Jah the Lord of Hosts by the name of Michael the Great Prince by the name of Mittatron whose name is as the name of his Master by the name of Sandalipon who tieth the hands of his Lord by the name of forty two Letters by his name who appeared to Moses in the Bush by the name with which Moses divided the Sea by the name I am what I am by the Mystery of the name Tetragrammaton by the Scripture that was written upon the Tables by the name of the Lord of Armies the God of Israel sitting upon the Cherubin by the name of the Sphears and Circles and living Creatures Saints and ministring Angels by the name of all the Angels which wait upon the most High God every Israelite and every Israelitess who willingly and knowingly violates any of those which are now denounced to be observed let him be Cursed of the God of Israel who sitteth upon the Cherubin Let him be cursed by the bright and glorious name which the High-Priest in the day of Expiations expresseth with his mouth Let him be cursed by Heaven and Earth Let him be cursed from God Almighty Let him be cursed of Michael that Great Prince Let him be cursed of Mittatron whose name is as the name of his Master Let him be cursed of Acetheriel Jah the Lord of Hosts Cursed be he of the Seraphin and the Orbs of the holy Animals and Angels who wait before the most High God of Israel in holiness and purity If he was born in the month Nisan which the Angel Vriel as the Prince of the Classes under which it is governeth Let him be cursed of him and of all his Order And if he was born in the month Ijar which the Angel Tzephaniel governeth Let him be cursed of him and his whole Order And if he was born in the month Sivan c. The like imprecation is made in the same words by the Angel of this month and so forward by the Angel of every month Let him be cursed of the seven Angels set over the seven Weeks and of all their Order and helping Power Let him be cursed of the four Angels which govern the four Seasons of the Year and of their Order and helping Power Let him be cursed of the seven Palaces Let him be cursed of the Princes of the Law by the Name of the Crown and the Name of the Seal Let him be cursed of the Great God Strong and Bright Let him receive confusion from his Embraces Let him fall with swift Ruine Let the God the God of Spirits destroy him to all Flesh Let the God the God of Spirits put him under all Flesh Let God the God of Spirits lay him prostrate to all Flesh Let God the God of Spirits cut him off from all Flesh Let the Wrath of the Lord and violent Whirlwinde fall upon the Head of the Wicked Let the destroying Angels run upon him Let him be cursed in every thing he puts his Hand unto Let his Soul depart in terrour Let him die of the Quinsie Let not his Breath come or go Let him be smitten with a Feaver Driness the Sword Rottenness the Jaundise Neither let him be delivered from them before Destruction Let his Sword enter his own heart and let his Bows be broken Let him be as the dust before the wind and let the Angel of the Lord drive him away Let his ways be darknesses and slipperiness and let the Angel of the Lord persecute him Let sudden desolation come upon him and his net which he hath laid let it catch himself They shall drive him from light to darkness and exterminate him from the habitable World Tribulation and anguish shall make him afraid and his eyes shall see his destruction and he shall drink the fury of the Lord. He shall cloth himself with cursing as with a garment Let him eat the strength of his skin God shall scatter him for ever and pull him out of his Tabernacle The Lord will not rest that he may be propitious to him but the Wrath of the Lord and his Zeal shall smoak against him and upon him shall rest all the Maledictions written in the Book of this Law and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven Also the Lord shall separate him to mischief out of all the tribes of Israel according to all the Curses of the Covenant which are written in the Book of this Law But you who adhere to the Lord your God are all alive this day He that blessed Abraham Isaac Jacob and Moses and Aaron David and Solomon and the Prophets of Israel and those who were pious among the Nations let him bless all this Holy Congregation with all Holy Congregations except the man onely who hath violated this Anathema God of his mercie keep them make them safe and deliver them from all evil misery and affliction and prolong their daies and years and send his blessing and happie success to every work of their hands and avenge them quickly with all other Israelites And so let it be his will and decree Amen CHAP. XXIV Concerning the present Judicature among the Jews COncerning the Ecclesiastical and Civil Consistories among the present Jews little of moment is now observable And though the Synedrion of old related to Civil Matters as the Synagogue to Ecclesiastical Yet the affairs of Religion and the World now do both fall under the cognizance of one and the same Court But that which is the subject of the present remark is the manner of legal proceeding in the case of Meum and Tuum which is plainly and compendiously thus When any contest ariseth among them concerning Debts Bargains Contracts c. a Juncto of Sabios Chachams or Masters are appointed to hear and determine in the Cause This Court of Chachams consists of 11 9 7 5. and can never be of fewer than three To these the party promovent makes his address in a short and plain Allegation of the Case which the Judges examine by Witnesses who must be persons well reported of and very sober For so much is required by their 212 Precept In case of want of Witnesses the bare Oath of the party producent is sufficient if he be a man of
dinner and supper Which if they reckon right make up the sum At the saying of the Benediction for Gods giving them the Law they stand up with their heels joyn'd together and their toes opened bowing their heads toward Hierusalem They have also a Prayer which is said by the Priest alone wherein he desires God that he would be pleased to pardon all those who have been negligent and unattentive at the time of Prayer But I could not finde this Prayer in their Breviary though with some curiosity I perused it to that purpose Besides the Sabbath they keep Monday and Thursday as weekly Holy days On each of which they read three Sections of the Law the first by a Koên whom they suppose to be descended of Aaron the second by a Reputed Levite and the third Section by a Common Jew As concerning the keeping of Monday and Thursday Holy and reading the Law thereon as well as on the Sabbath after a more Solemn manner the Vulgar Jews give no other account thereof but Custom and the Pleasure of the Masters But those who pretend to give a Rationale of their Rites refer it to an Institution of Ezdras grounded upon the peoples wandring three dayes without water in the Desart of Sur in memory whereof he appointed the Law to be thrice solemnly read every week Now to be without water say they is to be without the Law for which interpretation they bring Esay 55.1 Others think that Thursday and Monday are set apart for the solemn Lesson of the Law in memory of Moses's going the second time into the Mountain to renew the Tables of the Law which hapned say the favourers of this Opinion upon a Thursday and to have returned thence upon a Monday Upon which dayes some of the preciser sort keep a strict Fast like those in St. Luke 18. and in all probability for the same end On these two dayes they have besides the usual Office a proper Prayer which from the first words thereof bears the title of Vehu-rachum which is said with singular attention Of old this Prayer used to work Miracles but by reason of some great delinquency in the present Jews it has lost this Efficacy CHAP. XV. Their Ceremonies about the Book of the Law Their Manner of Celebrating the Sabbath The Offices which thereon are Solemniz'd c. IT is a Canon strictly observed by the Jews That a Book of the Law is necessary to the Constitution of a Synagogue And therefore the first thing they provide in order to set up a Synagogue is a Copy of the Law and a Chest or Ark wherein to lay it up Now that which is called the Book of the Law is The Pentateuch written in a large Character on Parchment which is dressed according to the manner of the Phylacteries The Parchment is rolled up upon two staves to make it the more convenient to be carried in Procession It is also usually wrapt up in a covering of Linnen Silk Tissue c. As for the piece of Tapistry pictured with divers Birds which was the old-fashion'd Covering of the Ark the Jews in Barbary use no such thing for they abhor all manner of Imagery in their Service as minding them of the Idolatry of their Fathers for which they conceive themselves to be still punished and also out of an averseness to be thought to imitate those Christians who have offensively introduced Pictures into their Oratories not only for Ornament but Veneration But to return to the Law The Jews pay the five Books of Moses so great a Reverence that they never suffer them to be taken out of the Chest or looked upon but on three dayes namely Monday Thursday and Sunday when they are read and this too in the Morning because it is esteemed the purest part of the day 'T is true they use also to show the Law to the people on the Sabbath-night but it is because the whole day is hallowed The taking out of the Law belongs to a Noted Rabbi or in his absence to one of the more ancient and Devouter Jews But to carry it in Procession within the Synagogue is sold to him who is able to give most for the Place As we have observed in the Officers of the Synagogue At the taking out of the Law the Officer turns himself to the people and repeats this Versicle Come and extol God with me and let us praise his Name together And at the Elevation of the Law the people bow their Faces toward it and make a long Respond wherein they declare their own vileness and magnifie the Majesty of God And when the Rabbi holds up the Law and opens it he speaks these words This is the Law which Moses laid before the Children of Israel and which proceeded from God whose ways are all just The word of the Lord is pure and a defence to all those who believe it When the Law is carried from the Ark to the place where it is appointed to be read all the people there present sing the Hymn of Moses Numb 10.35 Rise up Lord and let thine Enemies be scatter'd and let them that hate thee flee before thee By which they wish and pray for the Destruction of all those who are not of their Religion When they carry the Law either to the Reading-place or in Procession there is always one who steps up to him that carries it and kisseth the Covering thereof for it were to defile the Law to kiss either the Letters thereof or the Parchment whereon they are written And he who doth this with a Voice moderately elevated blesseth God for having made the Jews his peculiar people and that he hath given them his Law When the Book returns from Procession and has put on its Coverings all the Males in the Synagogue kiss it in Order as the Papists do their Pax and when they have done the Officer gives the Book an Elevation and so lays it up in the Chest And as it returns thither they say the words of Moses at the resting of the Ark Numb 10.36 Return O Lord unto the ten thousand thousands of Israel The Pentateuch is divided into fifty two Sections to the end that it may be read over upon the fifty two Sundaies in the Year And in reading it they are bound to be very plain audible and articulate Because every tittle thereof is of singular weight and moment The last Lesson constantly falls upon September the twenty fifth which immediately follows the Feast of Tabernacles And when this Section is read over the Chasans or those who read the Law declare a great joy and satisfaction that they lived to make an end of the Annual Lesson They also praise God that notwithstanding the many Miserie 's befaln them they are still in possession of the Law in which all other Blessings are abridg'd On the day when this last Section is read all the Copies of the Law are brought forth of the Ark about which the people dance in
Country not out of any dislike of a rural Conversation but because it doth not yield sufficient opportunities and safety for Traffique For this being their general Profession they can with more convenience and advantage manage it as we say in good Towns And in these they live in a heap seldom or not at all if it be in their power to avoid it mingling with the Moors And the Apartment of the Town where they have permission to inhabit is from them Called the Juderia or Jury which in some places in Barbary is so contrived that the Moors can lock it up at night Merchandize is their common Profession wherein they are notoriously dextrous and thriving And as their Dexterity may be imputed to their continual practice in Trade so their Thriving therein to their Frugality in living For both in Diet and Clothes they seem to design nothing but Sustenance and Covering And in this plain and frugal way of living they greatly symbolize with the Moors who as I have observed in another Discourse take no care for sumptuousness or delicacy When 't is said that Merchandize is the Jews general Profession in Barbary it is not to exclude their darling Brokage and Vsury in which they are very serviceable both to Christians and Moors And indeed the latter do seldome use them for any other purposes unless in sending them upon hazardous Messages or to Collect their Maritime Imposts in which they know them to be more exacting than any else they can imploy 'T is true the Moors entertain but a very mean esteem of this people being taught by Tradition which age hath made Authentique that they are an anomalous issue and not like other men descended from Adam and that the end of their Being was to serve the Musulmin which Opinion the Jews sufficiently deride and give it no other confutation but the citing of Obadiah which Prophesie they wholly apply to their Condition upon the coming of their Messiah when all Edom that is all Mankind who are not of their Religion shall become their Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water The next thing which I promised to remark concerning the Jews is their Apparel in which those who have been born and bred up in Barbary differ little from the Moors For first they wear little black brimless Caps as the Moors red which they seldom move in greeting one another They likewise as the Moors go slipshod and wear linnen Drawers and Vest over which they put a loose Garment called a Ganephe which differs only in colour from the Mandilion or Albornoz which the Moors bestow upon the Christians when they are redeemed from slavery This Ganephe is a black square piece of course Hair-stuff closed at the cross corners and all round it is a large Thrum which at first sight looks like their Religious Fringes whereof we shall have occasion in due time and place to discourse The Jews in this Continent much resemble the Spaniard and Portuguez in their Stature and Complexion but are much different in their nature and disposition as being more flexible and sequacious especially in things whereby they may reap advantage In point of Civil Government they indifferently submit to any that is able to secure their Interest and boggle at no servile obeysance that may be conducive to their worldly ends They are not peremptory in intitling themselves to any peculiar Tribes yet they generally believe that they are the remains of Judah and Benjamin together with a few among them of the Family of Levi whom they conceive to be wonderfully preserved that they might not be destitute of competent persons to officiate in the Synagogues There are not any to be found among them who publickly own the Samaritan Schism in rejecting all books of Scripture but the Pentateuch of Moses Of which Sect there were some not long since saith a great Traveller who worshipt a Calf at Sichem or Neapolis Nor are there any to be met with who adhere to the Old Bible without Talmud-Traditions There are likewise none among them who are known by the peculiar Denomination of any Sect such as were the Assideans Pharisees Sadduces Essenes or Gaulonitae of old For however their private judgments may dispose them yet they are careful to preserve an outward Unanimity in their Religion and are signally vigilant to avoid Divisions as looking upon those among Christian Professors to be an Argument against the truth of the things they profess And that the differences in matters of Religion which are so offensively visible among Christians may be reckon'd for one impediment of the Jews Conversion we may in another place have occasion to demonstrate CHAP. II. The Moral Conversation of the Barbary-Jews the ingredients of their Religion their backwardness to Disputes their Creed occasion Author with a short Paraphrase thereof c. REsearching in the Conversation of the Jews here treated of it seem'd to be very regular and agreeable to the Laws of a well-civilized conduct For setting aside the Artifices of Commerce and Collusions of Trade they cannot be charged with any of those Debauches which are grown into reputation with whole Nations of Christians to the scandal and contradiction of their Name and Profession Fornication Adultry Drunkenness Gluttony Pride of Apparel c. are so far from being in request with them that they are scandalized at their frequent practice in Christians And out of a malitious insinuation are sorry to hear that any of their Nation should give a Name to and die for a people of such Vices But how commendable soever they may be for their Sobriety and Temperance and other domestique observances yet that wherein they ought to be chiefly Orthodox they are the most erroneous namely their Religion For however they may pretend the present Judaism or that sort of Religion and Worship which they now profess to be contain'd in the Law and Prophets Yet to those who duely consider the ingredients thereof it will appear to be patcht up of the Traditions of the Masters and the Opinions of old Philosophers which are indeed so artificially interwoven with Scripture that this last to an unwary Surveyor may still seem to be predominant The truth of which assertion will be manifested when we report the particulars of their Religion But whatever it be composed of there is but small hope as things now stand to have it Reformed for the Bible the Rule of all Reformation though it be not denyed the Peoples Reading yet the giving the sense thereof belongs only to the Masters in whose interpretation of the Text the Vulgar upon pain of Excommunication are bound to acquiesce And this was told me as an Arcanum Judaismi by Rabbi Aaron Ben-Netas a person not unlearned in their Law and one who wanted nothing but Christianity to render him acceptable to equal Esteemers to whose free Communication I owe many of these Remarks Though these Jews are sufficiently taught to Evade all those Scriptures which relate to the Truth
they ought to make the contrary for while they place so much confidence in Deut. 18.15 it is wonder to see them believing so contrary to their hope ARTICLE VIII I believe with a perfect faith that all the Law which at this day is found in our hands was delivered by God himself to our Master Moses Gods peace be with him On this Article they build the Divine Authority of the Law But much dispute about the manner of its delivery whether God gave it Moses in writing or he writ it from Gods mouth ARTICLE IX I believe with a perfect faith that the same Law is never to be changed nor any other to be given us of God whose Name be blessed And it is upon the supposed immutability of the Law that they hope for the rebuilding of the Temple and Hierusalem their return to Canaan and the restauration of all the Mosaical Ritual which is the chief Pillar of Judaism The latter part of this Article is wholly to decry the Gospel or the Law of Christ ARTICLE X. I believe with a perfect heart that God whose Name be blessed understandeth all the works and thoughts of Men As it is written in the Prophets He fashioneth their hearts alike he understandeth all their works ARTICLE XI I believe with a perfect faith that God will recempence good to those who keep his Commandments and will punish those who transgress them In this they believe a final retribution of good and evil works That every one shall have as he deserves ARTICLE XII I believe with a perfect faith that Messiah is yet to come and although he retard his coming yet I will wait for him till he come In this Article the Jews declare their assurance of the coming of the Messiah That there is no set time for his coming And upon this account they forbid all curious inquiring concerning the hour of his Appearance And they still use that old Rabbinical Execration Let their Spirit burst who count the times ARTICLE XIII I believe with a perfect faith that the dead shall be restored to life when it shall seem fit unto God the Creator whose Name be blessed and Memory celebrated world without end Amen I do not find that they strive much to crook this Article to any evil purpose against Christianity but that it is a bare affirmation of the Resurrection Of which the Jews retain very extravagant Opinions as will shortly be discoursed In these thirteen Articles are comprised the Jews Credenda wherein they exhort and oblige all of their Communion to live and die as they hope for any comfort in the future State And notwithstanding that many of these Articles may be capable of a good construction yet according to the present received interpretation thereof among the Jews they are not so much a system of Judaism as a cuning and malitious contradiction of Christianity And the suttle Rambam who is said to have first committed them to writing seems rather to have designed the Jews confirmation in an ill opinion of the Christian than any instruction in their own Religion And that they might imbibe a more implacable hatred against the Christian Faith the crafty Rabbi so composed for he is thought to have been the Author thereof the Jews Creed that it might one way or other wholly confront the Christians Not doubting but that they would hardly be induced to embrace a Religion which they saw was so greatly opposite to that of their first Catechism and wherein from their infancy they had been taught to expect an happy immortality Now this which we may suppose was but the Design of Maimonides is become the general practice of the Jews in Barbary For I have heard from one whose understanding in their Religion had got him the Title of a Master That there was not an Article of their Faith which they did not understand in a sense wholly opposite to Christianity And taking a freedom to rail at our Religion in which they are all well gifted he instanced in the Eleventh Article as seeming to bear the least ill-will to Christianity and from thence warmly beat down all thoughts of Redemption with great assurance protesting That he would have none to pay his debts nor any but himself to satisfy divine justice for his sins That he did not expect the felicity of the next world upon the account of any Merits but his own That he was certain whosoever lived piously and kept the Law could not miss of being happy or arriving the bliss to come upon his own leggs With a deal more of the like stuff even too hainous to be inserted But wishing this poor obstinate people an happy rescue from such impious thoughts I shall close up this Chapter with observing that the Jews give their Creed a double note of Respect above any other part of their Religion For though I do not find this Creed set down in their Common Service-book yet in honour thereof they begin their Mattins with it and utter it in a hollow tone differing from that wherein the rest of the Office is chanted CHAP. III. The Barbary-Jews Opinion of the Trinity Angels several States of the Soul the Law Merit Purgatory Resurrection last Judgment end of the World c. NOtwithstanding that the Jews are very unanimous in the literal Profession of the same Fundamentals yet they are not so well agreed in any Exposition thereof as that which most opposeth Christianity That the Jews in Barbary are in many things differing from the sentiments of the Jews in other parts of the world and that too in points of no inferiour concernment may be seen in the following particulars And in the first place both the Jews and Moors accord in exploding the Trinity which they look upon as an Hypochondriacal imagination of the Christians whom they accuse of Polytheism out of an ignorant conceit that we make every Person of the blessed Trinity a distinct Deity Nor are they more malitious and blind in the utter denyal of the blessed Trinity than extravagant in their opinions concerning the Angels 'T is true they all accord in dividing them according to their Natures and Imployments into good and bad The good Angels they say are imployed in Messages of Comfort as were those who brought Abraham the glad Tydings of his Wives Conception and time of Childbirth Other Angels they hold are sent upon Errands of Destruction and they commonly place the instance in those who came to Sodom They likewise opine that there is another rank of Angels to whom is committed the protection and safeguard of particular persons and they give an example in the Angel which appeared with the three Children in the Babylonian Furnace But beside these more general Objects of the Angels Imployment the Jews allot two of them to every individual person of their own Nation Whereof one is a good Angel and stands at the right hand of every Jew to register his good Actions and to set down the
that God would be mindful of it in the day of the Resurrection and to give it life among those who are Circumcised Now they Circumcise the child to make it capable of Jewish Sepulchre and to prevent all mischief that might otherwise befal the uncircumcised in the future State For they are not yet argeed whether or no Circumcision be of absolute necessity to the life to come Those who adhere to the very letter of its Institution make Circumcision so requisite to the obtaining of future happiness that they deny those who want it any portion in the Resurrection misunderstanding Ezek. 28.10 But others think there is nothing dangerous in the want thereof but its contempt And in the Christian Church the Council of Braccara ordain'd that those who despised their Baptism and died in that opinion should as guilty of their own eternal death be buried with Self-Murtherers But all we have hitherto mentioned concerning Circumcision is to be restrained to those who are born in the Jews Religion For as to the admission of Proselytes unto Judaism Circumcision Baptism and Sacrafice were in ordinary course required But these old Articles of Proselytism are not exacted by the mordern Jews For Sacrifice has been utterly out of use ever since the Destruction of the Temple And lest the shame or pain of Circumcision might deter any from proselytizing they are taught not rigorously to exact it And there Moses Egyptius tells them that many Proselytes were admitted into the Jewish Communion without Circumcision Moses's Father in Law they hold to have been the first Proselyte of Justice who upon his turning Jew had his Name Jether changed to Jethro But after him there were many made Proselytes of the Gate without Circumcision of which Mr. Selden gives several instances But however they dispense with Sacrifice and speak warily of Circumcision yet Baptism is a constant initiatory of the Proselyte which has nothing common but the water with those dayly Baptisms of the Jews reflected upon by Tertullian lib. 6. de Baptismo cap. 15. I confess Barbary affords but few of these Proselytes for though there are frequent examples both of Jews and Christians turning Moors yet very seldom are any met with who turn Jews which made me less inquisitive after the present manner of receiving Proselytes And as to what relates to the antient Form of Proselytism enough is to be seen in Mr. Selden lib. 2. cap. 2 3 4 c. de jure Naturali Gentium juxta Disciplinam Hebraeorum If any Proselytes happen among them we may presume they conform to the Rites herein used by the Jews of other Nations Of which we have this summary Account in Leo. Modena a Venetian Rabbi Historia de gli riti Hebraici Part 5. lib. 2. Si alcune volesse farsi Hebraeo primo sono tenuti tre Rabbini o persone di Autoritá interrogarto settilmente che cosa lo move a far questa Rissotione c. that is If there be any that hath a mind to turn Jew there are three Masters or persons of Authority appointed warily to examine him what cause moved him to this resolution and whether any worldly interest had a hand therein to the end they may admit him as they ought Next they denounce and make known unto him the great strictness of the Law of Moses and that the Jews are at present an abject vile and despicable people and that upon this account it is better for him to continue as he is And if after all this he continues his purpose then he is to Circumcise himself and as soon as he is whole he bathes himself all over in water in the presence of the three foresaid Masters and after this he is accounted as good an Hebrew as the rest At the Circumcision of the Proselyte they use this Form of Prayer Blessed be thou O God and King of the World who hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and commanded us to Circumcise Proselytes and to take from them the Blood of the Covenant Because according to thy Prophet Jer. 33.25 unless by the Blood of the Covenant neither Heaven nor Earth should remain Then the by-standers say As thou hast brought him into thy Covenant so guide us in thy Law and good Works and bless us with protection and safety Now because some other Nations have gotten a Traditionary Custom of Circumcising without turning Jews or undertaking any degree of Proselytism as all the Mahumedans It is therefore resolved among the Jews that if any such become a Proselyte though he cannot be Circumcised again yet on the eighth of his Proselytism some blood must be fetcht of that part which they call the Breaking of the Skin But they are so ingenuous as to confess that this is none of the Laws of Moses but an Institution of their own And having thus briefly viewed the Ritual of Circumcision that which remains of this Chapter shall be filled up with this short Account of their Purification after Child-birth And the Law of this Ceremony is Levit. 12. from which they in no wise decline unless in the number of dayes for notwithstanding that but sixty six dayes are appointed by the Law for the Purification after the birth of a Daughter yet in Barbary the Jews observe seventy six but for a Son they keep close to what the Law has herein appointed During the time appointed for Purification the Child-bed woman abstains from all intimate communion with her Husband who is not permitted so much as to touch her finger or clothes or to eat and drink with her out of the same dish or cup. And at the end of these dayes allotted to her Purification she returns not to the free conversation of her Husband till she has been wholly washt and put on all such accoutrements as are used in token of purity And that there might be no collusion herein she must prove by the Testimony of two credible Matrons that all things concerning her Purification were duly observed In the Bibliotheca Rabbinica there is Mentioned the Sepher Naschim where the whole Ceremony of Purification is set down The reasons why a different number of dayes are observed herein for a Boy and a Girl are to be seen in Estius's Notes upon Levit. 12. whither I refer the Reader CHAP. VIII Of the Jews Polygamy Divorce A Copy of their Bill of Dismission c. POlygamy respects both Sexes and is of two sorts whereof the one is a having of many Wives or Husbands at once the other an having many successively Concerning which the Jews at no time have raised any considerable controversie saving that they have always refused the woman to have a plurality of husbands at once Though they denyed her not a liberty of a second Marriage when by Death or Divorce they were freed from the first Among Christian Authors this Point has been deeply controverted and Tertullian was equally against both these sorts of Polygamy putting but little difference between having many
with those who profess them When the Jews have taught their Children some decent Modes of Salutation and imprinted them with an awful Reverence of Gods Name and the Essays of hating all Religions but their own Their next endeavour is to instruct them in the Elements of Book-learning Where the first Lessons are about the Name and Figure of the Hebrew Letters in which they use this Method First upon a smooth stone or board they cast two or more Letters of the Alphabet and acquaint the Child with the Name and Figure thereof And when the Child is able to pronounce these Letters they proceed to more according to the capacity and towardliness of the Scholar And so forward till the whole Alphabet be run over When this task is finished the children are taught to joyn the Letters into short and easie Sillables and having attained to read a little they are put into the first Book of Moses and so pass through the whole Pentateuch In teaching their Children to write they use as the Spaniards a Plana which is a draught of very large Letters upon a fair Paper which they imitate upon a thin Paper laid thereon When the Parents have at home pretty-well grounded their Children in these prelusory Rudiments they send them to School and every Morning before they go thither it is the Mothers Office to provide them something to eat which is sweetned with Sugar or Honey which serves them both for Beakfast and an Instruction For at giving the Child the sweet Morsel she useth these words As this is sweet to thy Palate so let Learning be sweet to thy mind And she gives directions how to behave himself at School as that he is to use no filthy words but such as he reads in the Law because God loves clean Lips pure wholsom discourse and that all communication ought to be agreeable to the Divine Word Next that the Child must not spend his time in idle talk to his own hindrance or his fellows With other such directions as a Mothers Care and Affection shall suggest They have a saying very common among them That there is no fruit at Autumn where there is no budding in the Spring which they apply to the Education of their Children whose riper years they hope to have pious and well-governed when their tender minds are duly instructed in Religion and Vertue And much to this purpose may be met with in their Homilies At five year old the Children go to School where they spend five years in Learning the Pentateuch and at ten year old they are put if they prove towardly to read the Mischua and some choice parcels of the Talmud which contain the Body of their Institutes During the time that boy is learning the five books of Moses he is called Ben Mickra the Son of the Law and when he is thirteen year old he is Ben Mitzva the Son of the Precept for now the youth receives the Passover and is purified For until he comes to be a Son of the Commandment the Father stands charged with his Miscarriages But at thirteen year old the Lad being supposed to be able to discern Vertue from Vice and Good from Evil he is bound to answer for his faults Therefore the Father having before a Synagogue of ten antient Jews declared that his Son whom he there produces has been well Catechized in the Law and understands the general Decisions of the Mischua and Talmud and that he can repeat the dayly Prayers he lets them know that he no longer chargeth himself with his Crimes but that he leaves him to answer therein for himself and to be punished if he shall be delinquent against the Commandments Where note by the way that by Commandments here must not be understood either the Decalogue or the Ritual of Moses but those 313 Precepts into which they have resolved their Religion and the Bible Drusius in Exod. 26. observes that the Jews old manner of Instructing was by Interrogations and Questions or Catechism By which present Method there is no youth under Heaven can at thirteen years old give so exact account of the Rites of their Religion as the Jewish I meddle not here with the special places which were of old appointed for the Education of youth because those ancient Gebaoth or Colledges Houses of Doctrine and Hills of the Teachers which the Divine writings often mention are now faln under a fatal Devastation Neither doth it concern the present Subject to reflect upon the Mishne or Colledge in Hierusalem where the Repeating of the Law was Studied this being also extinct Only I observe at this day the Jews in Barbary like their neighbour Moors are wholly destitute of Places for liberal Education and therefore when any of them intend to Studie Physick or the like they repair incognito to the European Universities and more especially to those of Portugal and Spain But to return The Jewish Fathers are not more careful in the Catechism of their Children than the Mothers in their Nurserie In which they do not follow their own delicacie but the prescriptions of their Masters who appoint that the Nurse who is always the Mother unless some unavoidable necessity interpose eat such Viands as yield good nutriment to the end that the child may the sooner grow up and come to the publick Worship and take the impressions of their Religion And the Mother who is diligent herein is said To walk in the wayes of the Lord for so they are taught to understand Deut. 28.9 who feeds his Creatures with a â—â—asonable and liberal hand They have very odd conceits about the Situation of the Mothers Breasts which they use as natural motives of affection and tenderness toward their Infants And to imprint in the woman a greater averseness to nurse their children at anothers Bosome their Masters tell them strange Stories of several men who have been miraculously enabled to give their children suck upon the death of their wives During the time of Nursing the women are not permitted to go with open Brests nor to keep Fasts nor to expose their tender Sucklings to the Sun or Moon Neither when the Child is able do they permit it to go bare-headed out of doors because on a time one of their Masters seeing a child in this posture pronounced it unlawfully begotten and that his Mother was either menstruous or unchaste in her Embraces The Jews usually Girdle their children as soon as their bodies will endure it and when they are grown up none of them go ungirt to the Synagogues for if they should do so they think that not only thereby the benefit of the Prayers is forfeited but also the Divine displeasure is provoked Hence is that saying Vngirt unbless'd Albeit I know the Jews use to Girdle their children lest from the intuition of their own nakedness they should imbibe an immodest Confidence CHAP. XI Of their Synagogues the Officers thereof time of their Election Hours of Prayer THe Synagogue in
the N. T. is often taken for any place of publick concourse But its usual acception is either Civil or Ecclesiastick In the former acception it denotes the place of their Consistories and Judicatures in the later the House or Room where the Law and Prophets are read and expounded and the whole System of publick worship performed The Rulers or Chief of the Synagogue or such as negotiated their Mysteries were different from the Rulers of the Consistory or Judicature But we are here to speak of the Synagogue as a place wherein they tolerated the publick Exercise of Religious Solemnities Which Toleration the Jews in Barbary purchase with their Coin For it is usual with the Moresco Governours when faln into any Exigence of Moneys to shut up the Jews Synagogue out of certain experience that its Redemption is the readiest Subsidie In this part of the World the sense of their Ambulatory condition will not permit the Jews to be at the pains and charges of Erecting new Synagogues But they hire Houses or single Apartments proportionable to their Number to assemble in In whose Furniture they seem to neglect all other Ornament and Sumptuousness but cleanliness and decency But as if they vyed the store of Moresco Moschs they strive much to have their Synagogues numerous And in this they do not recede from the practice of their Ancestors who had four hundred and eighty Synagogues at once in Hierusalem So Sigonius de Rep. Hebr. lib. 2. c. 8. And in other Provinces and Cities as we read in the Acts there was the like plenty And the numerousness of these Holy Houses may easily be granted seeing that a very few make up a Jewish Congregation For they have a Tradition that wheresoever ten men of Israel are there ought to be a Synagogue Of old the Jews wrote the Entrances of their Synagogues with devout and cautionary Sentences as Buxtorf hath observed in several Pages of his Abbreviatures which Custom is wholly out of fashion with the Jews here discoursed of which seems chiefly to be imputed to the uncertain tenure of the Houses which they hire for Synagogues and not to any dislike of the practice For doubtless the Inscriptions now spoken of were very laudable as directing those who enter'd in their deportment in the Divine Worship Of old the Walls within as well as Entrances of the Synagogues were written with Sentences tending to the same purpose As Enter the House of the Lord thy God with humility Be attentive in time of Prayer Think upon thy Creator c. To every Synagogue there belongs six Officers first the Summas or Sacristan answerable to our Sexton whose Office is to sweep keep clean the Synagogue and to trim the Lamps The Second is the Pernas to whom belongs the care of providing the Holy Wine which is given to the Youth at the entrance and end of their Sabbaths and Festivals The Third Officer is the Mari-Acatab who folds up and unfolds the Law and shows it to the people The fourth whose title I remember not is he to whom belongs the Elevation of the Law and the bearing it in procession through the Synagogue which is an honourable Imployment and his who gives most The fifth Office belongs to the Elhaim or those who touch the two staves which they call the trees of life whereon the Law is rolled up when it is carryed in procession The sixth is the Chesau or Praecentor All these Offices are bought and sold upon the day when the last Section of the Law is read and without a new Election are not held above a year by the same persons To express their Zeal to the Service of God they canvas for these Offices and give Monies to obtain them which goes to the Poor-stock The folding up and unfolding of the Law being an Office of the greatest esteem none carry it but he who is able to give liberally to the Corban by which they raise a comfortable subsistance for those are grown indigent as in another Chapter we shall have occasion to discourse Their times of repairing to the Synagogue or hours of Prayer are next to be considered To the Holy Exercise of Prayer the Jews thrice every day assemble at their Oratories first at Sun-rising which they call Tephilla Sabarit or Morning-Prayer Their second time of going to the Synagogue is about three in the Afternoon which is their Tephilla Mincha or Evening-Prayer The last is after Sun-set and this they call the Tephilla Arvit or Night-Prayer To every one of which times there are proper Offices appointed as is to be seen in the Sepher Tephilot But the Office for the Morning far exceeds the other two in length For they are above two hours in the Synagogue at Morning-Prayer and not above half so much at both the other They have no perfect difference between Proseuchae Synagogues Schools and Houses of Prayer as was of old For if there be or ever was herein â—ny distinction it is swallowed up into the one Title of Synagogue by which is barely to be understood the place where the Jews gather together for Religious purposes and may well be called an Oratory or House of Prayer because that is the main Duty for which they repair thither CHAP. XII Of the Jews Preparation to the Synagogue THe apprehension of the Divine Greatness and Majesty of God which by all Civilized Religions is acknowledged for the sole and proper object of their Worship hath moved men of all Faiths to ordain some Rites of preparation to so solemn an Address This I have already observed in Mahumedism the most considerable Religion for secular Grandeur in the World And the present Judaism is no way thereunto inferiour in this particular For before the Jews go to the Synagogue to celebrate the Publick Service of God they carefully observe all such preparations as they have learned from Custom Superstition or their Masters In whose observation they are rather too punctual and precise than any way negligent or remiss And first of all the Jews are vigilant to Pray betimes in the morning out of an Opinion that the more early the Oraison the more acceptable it is to God And this they found on the third Verse of the fifth Psalm My voice shalt thou hear betimes O Lord early in the Morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee and will look up When at any time they find themselves backward to these Morning-Devotions they upbraid it with their forwardness to pursue their Secular interest and shew how far the concerns of Religion doth exceed all worldly business and that their care to seek God ought at least to equal that in seeking Mammon There is a saying common to all Jews That in Winter they raise the day and in Summer the day them The meaning whereof depends upon their rising before day to Prayers from the fifteenth of June till Pentecost and after from Pentecost till the fifteenth of June Let the Reader understand it
they understand Esay 50.10 11. At the Entrance of the Synagogue they either make clean or put off their shooes in obedience to Eccles 4.17 and Exod. 3.5 Put off thy shooes c. And this saves them the uncovering of their Heads for their little black brimless Caps are never moved all the time they stay in the Synagogue At their stepping into the Synagogue they first spend a few minutes in the meditation of his Attributes whom they come to invoke which is to beget in them a Deportment humble and reverend And when they have duly possessed their minds with an awful reverence of Gods Majesty they repeat to themselves Numb 24.5 How goodly are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel And Psalm 26.8 O Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth And the 6 th Verse of Psalm 95. O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker This Meditation being ended they lay the right hand upon the heart and bowing their bodies toward the Chest where the Law is laid up they begin the publick Service with the 7 th of the fifth Psalm I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies and humble my self with fear in the Temple of thy Holiness So it is Verbatim in an old Spanish Translation of the Jewish Lyturgie They Pray standing girt with their faces toward Canaan their heads moderately bowed down and hands upon their heart They utter their Prayers in a sort of Plain-Song sometimes straining their Voices to a very harsh and unpleasant Note and then on a sudden letting it fall into a kind of whisper Their bodies are always in a wagging unsteddy posture which they say expresses joy and satisfaction in Devotion But to him that knows not the intent hereof this wavering and sometime exulting of the body will seem very careless and negligent and that they Pray with none or very little intention and devotion of mind Those which cannot read the Service in Hebrew who are but few are bound to learn when to say Amen A thing the more easily attain'd unto because they have a prescript Form And how heedless soever they may appear in other parts of Prayer yet they use a signal diligence in the right timing and pronouncing of the Amen Because whosoever saith it with all his might the Gate of the Garden of Eden is open'd to him In time of Prayers none are permitted openly to spit belch yawn or blow the Nose All which they do with great Secrecy in the Synagogue when they have occasion Neither may they spit or any such thing to the right hand or before them because of the Angels which have made those places their Situation in the Synagogue And from this short Account of the Jews entering and behaviour in the Synagogue we come to take a general view of the Prayers made therein And here we shall follow the Breviary in present use with the Jews in Barbary which was Printed at Venice in the 1622 Year of Grace And first of all they begin the Morning-Service with the eighteen Benedictions of which saith Moses Maimon Ezra was the Author For when the Israelites returned from the Captivity their Native Language was so corrupted with that of their Bondage that they were not able to praise or serve God in a continued Speech And upon this occasion Ezra is thought to have composed eighteen short Benedictions wherein they might praise God and beg at his hands the supply of his dayly blessings But others are of opinion that these eighteen Benedictions were composed as a Directory whereby they might guide themselves both in the private and publick Service of God to which purpose they are imployed at this day After the Benedictions follows a large Office for Sacrifice and Oblations which begins with the History of Abraham's going to Offer up his Son To this succeeds a long course of Psalms then a tedious Thanksgiving Then a Confession of Sins at the saying whereof they throw themselves prostrate and express a great sense of their own vileness and misery and that they have no strength but in the Almighty Then all on the sudden they start up and comfort themselves with the Oath God made unto Ahraham when he went to Sacrifice his only Son And now with great chearfulness they bless their Lot that God has chosen them for his Heritage and the people of his Covenant But besides all this they have in this Office a peculiar Thanksgiving for the Delivery of the Law and a Prayer which they say with a low voice for the restauration of the Temple That in their dayes God would rebuild the House of his Sanctuary which they hourly hope for And they shut all with praying that God would lead them in his righteousness and make plain his way before them And this is the sum of their dayly Morning-Service for whose more regular Celebration there are Rubricks intermingled with it directing them to the Responses Praises and how every part must come in course This Morning-Office as was said is very long for which they make sufficient amends in the brevity of the other two In some places they have a Custom for those to shut the Prayer-Book who are at Variance with their Neighbours thereby signifying that they will not Pray at all because they cannot pray aright till the difference be reconciled At the saying of Give Ear O Israel the Lord our God is one God they turn themselves East and North at the pronouncing of Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath they jump up three times They dare not turn their Backs on the Chest where the Law is deposit and lest they should do otherwise they go backward out of the Synagogue having their eyes always fixed thereon They are very careful that nothing may interrupt them in their Devotions at which if they sneeze they account it a lucky token of being therein accepted but to break wind preposterously is a very unhappy abodement I have omitted in the former Paragraph to observe that after the appointed course of Psalms they have two Lessons the first out of the Law which is always read by the Chasán or some eminent Jew The second Lesson is taken out of the Prophets and is read by any ordinary Jew who is able to read distinctly And in the difference of the persons imployed in these Lessons they show the great value and esteem which they have for the Law above the Prophets There is an universal Agreement among the Jews of all Countries that they ought every day to repeat a hundred Benedictions which they thus compute At wâ—shing in the Morning twenty three At their Entrance into the Synagogue six At putting on of the Zizith or Fringes one At putting on the Tephillim one At every one of the three Offices in the Synagogue eighteen Three after dinner and two before night At going to sleep two and as many at
imitation and remembrance of David 2 Sam. 6.16 During the time that the Law is out of the Ark they place burning Torches therein in token that the Law performs all the duties of a light to those that obey it On this day also the Elder Jews make themselves merry in seeing the Youth scramble for the fruits they cast among them On this day also are sold the Offices of the Synagogue to them that will give most And all being orderly consummate every one leaves the Synagogue with this Prayer The Lord preserve my going out and my coming in from henceforth and for ever The next thing that we are to account for in this Chapter is the Manner of their keeping the Sabbath and the Offices thereon celebrated A Theme large enough for a whole Volume if we were to give an exact description of all Rites and Cases thereunto belonging But I shall confine the discourse at present to the Customs of the Jews in Barbary among whom and the rest of the Jewish Nation there is but small disagreement in the Sabbatarian Ritual Though it must be confessed that the Barbary-Jews are neither so strict nor Ceremonious in this matter as the Jews of other Countries if we may believe the account which good Authours have given of the later The whole Nation of the Jews sufficiently accord in the notice of the word Sabbath and grant that it barely signifies no more than Rest and that sometimes too it is used both for working-dayes and Festivals and that it puts on a more peculiar and restrained sense when it is concisely taken for that seventh day which God set apart for his Worship And in the Observation of this Sabbath or Rest the Jews practice numerous Ceremonies some antecedent and relating to their preparation and others concomitant or waiting upon the day Their antecedent Ceremonies are seen in dressing and preparing on the Eve of the Sabbath the Victuals that are thereon to be eaten According to the Commandment Exod. 16.23 To Morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which ye will bake to day and seeth that ye will seeth c. From which they conclude That all things necessary to the Sabbath and for the Honor thereof ought to be provided over night that there may be nothing to interrupt this Rest If it falls out that the Servants are not able to make all things ready the Masters assist them to the end that the Sabbath by no bodily labour may be transgressed And they are able to cite many great Rabbins who have help'd their Servants in preparing for this Rest But this strict Custom of dressing no Victuals upon the Sabbath is not universal with the Jews we now speak off With whom I have been entertain'd with good cheer on the Sabbath that was thereon prepared And asking them how they durst or would act so contrary to their own pretences the Reply was That they thought the Crime of a low nature if it was done without giving scandal to others that is secretly Which was then the Case Every Sabbath is observed with three Feasts and four Offices The first Feast is upon the Friday-night or rather at the very entrance and begining of the Sabbath The second is their Sabbath-dinner and the third Feast concludes the Sabbath Now the Custom of this triple Feast they deduce from the triple repetition which Moses used of the word To day when he gave out Orders concerning gathering of the Manna Exod. 16.25 Some of the more hospitable and wealthier Jews keep their Tables spread during the whole time of the Sabbath And in this as other things they generally tread in their Fore-fathers steps who were excellent at turning the power and intention of the Law into Carnal Form and Superstition But besides their greater apparatus in Diet for the Sabbath they use other preparative Rites in order to the Solemnity of This Great Day All which are bodily and external and not worth our recital if it were not to let us see into what follies a people may fall in Religion when they have once renounced the Truth All the Friday-afternoon is usually taken up in Sabbatical preparations as washing of the head and hands the trimming of their beards whose corners the Graver sort suffer not to be cut according to Law and in a peculiar Superstition of paring their nails on which parings they are forbid to tread in prevention whereof they usually burn or bury them In like manner they spend no small time in whetting the Knives and preparing other Utensils of the Table The women on the Friday comb and dress their heads and make ready all accoutrements of the body For they esteem a neglect in any of these particulars a down-right violation of the Rest And because their Masters use a word for Sabbath signifying Queen they think it reasonable that they as duly prepare themselves thereunto as they would for the reception of so great a Personage And he saith the Jewish Canon is greatly to be praised who honoureth the Sabbath with his Body Clothes and Dyet with his body by duely dressing it with his clothes by having a Sabbath-days Suit and with his dyet which on the Sabbath should be both more and better than on other dayes In Barbary they have their Sabbath-Lamps which are lighted by the women to which being lighted they hold up their hands and say this Benediction Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the World who hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and commanded us to light the Sabbatine-Lamps If any mans curiosity lead him to enquire into the reason why the Office of lighting these Lamps belongs to the women I shall only tell him that among many other reasons pretended to be given hereof the chief is the keeping the women in minde of the transgression of Eve who seducing Adam to disobedience thereby put out say they and extinguished his Light and Glory But the women do it upon the account of a received Opinion among them that thereby they facilitate their Child-birth There being these three Precepts recommended to them for that end viz. To keep the Sabbath-bread light the Lamps and carefully to attend their Months The Sabbath-lights we now speak of are so contrived that they may last the whole Sabbath on which they are not allowed so much as to snuff them for fear of transgressing the fourth Precept But notwithstanding that the Jews in this part of the World are sufficiently rigorous in the observation of the Sabbath yet I neither could finde nor hear of any of them who would if surprised with the Sabbath expose themselves to the danger of abiding in Woods and Desarts rather than on the Sabbath to travel a few furlongs to gain a safer residence For they are willing to let things necessary to save mans life thereon to be provided for And some will not doubt to say that if ever they be Masters again of Hierusalem they will not loose it for
of the deceased hasten from Purgatory and rush into the water they first meet with to wash off the stink of the smoak and cool their flames and therefore the Rabbies have strictly charged that no water should be drawn at that time lest those sad Souls should be disturbed as we read in Ritualibus eorum Whilst they are intent on their Devotion two Angels approach one good another evil and place themselves one against another in the Synagogue if they hear any one praying or repeating his Lecture with a godly intention him the two Angels lead forth with their hands on his head saying Thy iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged And if at their entrance into the Synagogue they find the Candles well kindled the Table well furnished the Bed covered with clean Linnen then the good Angel saith I wish I may see all things in this posture the next Sabbath and the bad Angel is forced to say Amen But if things are not well order'd then the bad Angel sayes as the good before I wish I may find all things thus the next Sabbath to which the good Spirit though unwilling sayes Amen When they come home they sit down at the chief place of the Table where the Salt is placed with a Cup of Wine and two Loaves covered with a Napkin Then the Master of the Family taking the Cup of Wine consecrates the Sabbath saying The sixth day the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of them and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and rested the seventh day from all his work which he had made and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God had created and made Gen. 2.1 c. Then adds Blessed art thou O Lord our God Creator of the Vniverse who hast created the fruit of the Vine Blessed art thou O Lord God Creator of the Vniverse who hast devoted us to thy Praecepts and hast given us a holy Sabbath and in thy good pleasure hast left us an heritage as a remembrance of the Creation it is a token of the Communion of Saints and a remembrance of the departure out of Egypt for thou hast chosen and sanctified us among all Nations thou out of thine abundant goodness hast left to us thy holy Sabbath Blessed art thou O Lord who hast hallowed the Sabbath When he hath said this he tasts the Wine and delivers it to all present to taste then he removes the Napkin and takes the two Loaves but cuts them not before Prayers as they do on week-dayes but forthwith sayes Blessed art thou O Lord our God Lord of the World who hast caused the Earth to bring forth bread After this he cuts and eats a piece of bread and gives to all that are present in larger shares than on week-dayes and all to honour the Sabbath wherein all niggardliness is contemned Whil'st the Wine is consecrating every one looks diligently on the Candle because the wise Rabbies write that if they travel hard on week-dayes they loose much of the strength of their eyes and looking on the Candles at the Consecration of the Wine is an effectual remedy The Bread is covered on the Table that its vileness in respect of the Wine may not be seen for in the Law it is mentioned before the Wine though consecrated after it as it is written Deut. 8.8 A Land of Wheat and Barley and Vines Where the Wheat and Barley of which the Bread is made are first named yet consecrated last on the Sabbath and if it were not covered it would be much despised The Rabbies say that it is covered in remembrance of the Manna For in the Wilderness the Dew fell then the Manna after that the Dew so that the Manna lay betwixt the Dew after the same manner as the Bread is laid on a Table-cloth and covered with a Napkin and for this reason the holy women bake a sort of Wafers which they eat instead of Manna Their Flesh-pyes are made like ours the Meat is laid on a thin cake and covered with another of the same sort so that it lyes as the Manna did betwixt the Dew And they take two loaves because on Fridays in the Wilderness they gathered a double quantity of Manna as it is written Exod. 16.22 But on the sixth day they gathered twice as much Bread What we shall chiefly Note is that on the Sabbath they much indulge their Genius as is observable in the Law Esay 58.13 where the Sabbath is called a delight that is that we may enjoy all delights that day and so ought all our Feasts to be according to that Thou shalt rejoyce in thy Feasts that all may be done to the honour of God wherefore thou may'st eat and drink and cloath thee decently that so thou may'st truly honour the Sabbath but don 't be excessive in thy charge All this is contained in Libello Timoris where the Reader may see with what Charms they excite their Devotion by repeating such short Sentences as these following Prepare to keep the Sabbath and Rest from all thy work If all things necessary are provided thou art praise-worthy Yea if thou have a great retinue of Servants and Maids The Day requireth strict observance Be content and thou hast plenty enough Wear good Habit for the Sabbath is called a Bride Provide the choicest diet for the Day And observe all Ceremonies carefully Come with a good Appetite Prepare good Wine Flesh and Fish Cover the Bed decently Let the Table be furnished splendidly Anoint thy Head but be not proud Sharpen thy Knife and cut thy Meat modestly Cast the parings of thy Nails into the fire Do not grudge Wine at the Consecration Wash thy hands and feet for this is no trivial Injunction Have a good courage Wash all thy Cups Be not mindful of any injuries Rejoyce with thy Wife and Children Banquet thrice in the day Speak nothing but what may cause mirth Besides these they have a Book of all the Blessings for the Feasts of the whole year amongst other these are observable Wear such Habit as may donote mirth Consecrate the Candle that it may burn well Finish all thy work on Friday and rest Eat all dainties Fish Capons and Quails Walk softly for the Law commands meekness and morning-rest Silk Garments are of much account and they who wear them also The Sabbath is holy and he who rightly observes it Let no care trouble you though Spiders be in your houses Be merry and jolly though at other mens charge Get the best Wine Fish and Flesh and Banquet thrice that day If thou observe all this thy reward is great And Ye women see that the Candles be lighted and be attentive Your convenience will be much when you are with Child And if you provide plenty of Wafers you shall easier conceive and bring forth with joy But lest the curious Reader may think
and sing an Hymn wherein they commemorate their deliverance And having past the afternoon and part of the night in liberal refreshment they eat the third Cake and drink a glass of Wine Then the Father of the Family saith Grace and with the fourth cup of Wine in his hand repeats the 6 verse of the 79 Psalm and the last verse of Lamentations the 3. and utters most direful Execrations against all that are not of their Religion And immediately upon this they go to sleep On the night of the Passover they think themselves so safe from danger that they let the doors stand open which at other times are bolted and locked with all imaginable security But some tell us that they leave their doors open upon the night of the Passover that there may be nothing to hinder the entrance of Elias whose coming on that night is expected As for the rationale of the four Cups of Wine the number of the Cakes time of Execration and other mysterious Rites of this Festival it is to be learned out of their Masters whither the Curious are remitted All that I have here to take notice of is their Custom of showing the Paschal Cakes to their Children and instructing them in the Institution and Ceremonies of the Passover Wherein they pretend to be very faithful observers of Exod. 12.26 27. As for the other daies of this Feast there is little to be observed concerning them except that thereon the Jews eat better and go finer than at other times CHAP. XIX Of their Pentecost or Feast of weeks THe meaning and institution of this Festival may partly be learned from its name For Pentecost denotes the time of its observation which was the fiftieth day reckoning from the second of the Passover It was also called the Feast of Harvest and of First-fruits because the Jews then began their Harvest and offered the first Fruits of the Earth Exod. 23.16 And seeing they cannot keep this Feast according to its first Institution they spend the time allotted thereunto in praying for their Restauration that God would hasten their return to Canaan and the rebuilding of the Temple For which they use this form Let it be thy good pleasure O Lord our God and the God of our Fathers that the house of thy Sanctuary may speedily be rebuilt in our daies and give us our portion in thy Law And indeed this Feast may well bear the Title of the Feast of Harvest because it contain'd the weeks usual for that season which were bounded with two remarkable daies whereof the one began and the other ended the Harvest The former was called the second of the Passover and the later the Pentecost And from this second day of the Passover they number their Sabbaths which Custom explains the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Sabbatum used in the Gospel At this Festival the present Ceremonies are but few only they carry the Law twice in Procession and read out of it such portions as concern the Oblations which were of old accustomed to be offered And these parcels of the Law are after a most solemn manner read by five select Jews Their entertainments likewise are at this time very plain and frugal using little flesh-diet though they are bound to use some that they may not contradict their own rule A Feast without flesh is without joy But still white meats and confection of milks are their prime Delicacies And this sort of Viand is at this time made use of out of no less mystery than that by its colour and dulcour they might be remember'd of the purity and delightfulness of the Law To which they allude the 10 verse of the 19 Psalm They have a Custom at this Feast to strow the Synagogues their dwelling Houses and the Streets if they have leave with Greens and to wear some upon their heads out of no deeper mystery than to commemorate that pleasant Verdure which was upon Mount Sinai when the Law was there given unto their great Master Moses A Custom they have likewise to bake a Cake of seven folds to signifie say they the seven Heavens into which God ascended when he went up from the Mount At the beginning of this Feast the Jews with great Devotion make this Prayer Blessed art thou O Lord our God the King of the World who hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and hast inabled us rightly to number the days as thou hast commanded us this being the first day Thus they proceed to number until the whole fifty daies be expired every day using the same Benediction CHAP. XX. Of the Feast of Tabernacles THis is the third Capital Feast of Divine appointment among the Jews which those of Barbary keep at present as their Fathers did antiently in Booths which being made of green Canes it is now generally known among them by the Spanish name of Fiesta de las writing as it is pronounced Caunias or the Feast of Reeds And the end of this Feast is to preserve the memory of their Ancestors long Pilgrimage in the Wilderness and it lasts eight daies The Institution hereof is to be met with Deut. 16. and Exod. 23 and 34. Now as of old the chief Solemnity and observation of this Festival is confined to the first and second day thereof In that Liturgie of the Jews which I have so often named there is no proper Office for this Feast so that thereon they do no more but go to the Synagogue and there solemnize the Vsual Service and thence hasten home to their Booths Bowers Tents or Tabernacles which they finde furnished as richly as their Estate and Fortunes will make them During the whole eight daies of this Festival they live in their Booths and adorn them with the Furniture of their houses and constantly lodge therein unless it fall out that the rains which in Barbary often begin in September the time of this Feast force them into more comfortable lodgings Paulus Fagius on Levit. 23. reports out of the Rabbins that every man was bound every morning to bring a burden of Cittern Palm Mirtle or Willow-boughs toward the making of these Booths And this burden was called Hosanna And the cutting down of the Boughs and strowing them in the way and crying Hosanna to Christ as he rode to Hierusalem is thought to have been in allusion to this Custom And the Jews in Barbary are wont at this Festival to take any sort of boughs in their hands and to shake them toward the four Cardinal Points of Heaven beginning at the East And by this action they foretel and threaten destruction to all the ends of the Earth that oppose them With these Boughs also they make a great noise in allusion to the 12 verse of the 69 Psalm and also to terrifie the Devil and triumph over sin At the shaking of these Boughs they use these words Blessed art thou O Lord our God King of the World who hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and commanded
us to carry a bundle of Palm At this time also the Law is brought to the Reading-place about which they walk with great state and nothing but threatning and victory appear in their looks This they do seven times in memory of their Fathers compassing the walls of Hiericho But others say That this compassing of the Reading-place seven times is in prediction of the certain ruine of their Enemies And this notice of the Ceremonie is very agreeable to the Execratory which is now used by them Wherein they profoundly curse the Christians desiring that God would smite them as he did the First-born of Egypt And though this Direful Prayer is not found in that Liturgie printed at Venice as I above-mentioned yet I am assured by a good Author that it is extant in the Machsor of the Cracovian Impression Upon the last day of this Festival the last Section of the Law is constantly read and the first Section begun For they begin and end the Lesson of the Law on the same day to declare their joy therein This last day of the Feast of Tents is called the Great day of the Feast S. John 7.37 where Tremelius observes that on the last of Tabernacles the antient Jews used to incompass the Altar as the modern Jews now the Reading-place with Palms in their hands crying Hosanna that is Preserve us we beseech thee Whence it was called Hasanna Rabba or the Great Hosanna or the Chief of the Feast And that on the same day they drew water from the Well of Shiloah at the foot of Mount Sion and brought it to the Temple where the Priests mingled it with the best Wine and poured it on the Altar and that the people sang these words of Esay With joy shall they draw water out of the Wells of Salvation To which our Saviour is thought to have alluded in that speech which on this day he made use of S. John 7.38 Every one that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow living waters When they have built their Tabernacles they may not use them till the Father of the Family hath consecrated both them and all the Utensils of the Feast wherein he gives God thanks that he hath chosen and sanctified the Jews above all other Nations and that to them only belongs the habitation in Tents At the expiration of the Feast when they come out of their Tabernacles the Chief of the Family saith these words God grant that the following year we may dwell in the Tent of the Leviathan The mystery of which Prayer depends upon the Opinion that the Jews have of eating with their Messias of the great Fish called a Leviathan which they imagine to be of a Poetical Magnitude and preserved on purpose for that great Entertainment to which they shall all be invited by Messias at his coming And the Prayer above-named has respect to this Opinion and designes no more than their desires that their King may have a speedy advent And having now taken this short view of the present Rites wherewith the Jews celebrate their three Cardinal Feasts their Minor Festivals come next to be considered Among which their Purim or Feast of Lots merits the first remembrance For to it is allotted a proper Office which honour is not granted to any of the rest CHAP. XXI Of the Jews Purim or Feast of Lots THe word Purim is Persick and signifies Lots and the Feast bears this name from the occasion of its Institution which without the trouble of transcribing is to be seen at large in the Book of Esther The Mischiefs plotted against the Jews falling upon their Enemies and those being killed by them who designed their destruction and all this happening upon the 13 of the Month Adar answering to our February and ending upon the 14 of the same Month in memory of their own deliverance and the destruction of their Enemies the Jews keep those two daies Festival whereon they both happened In the Celebration of this Feast they at present use these Ceremonies First they light up great store of Lamps that thereby they may testifie their joy and read over the Book of Esther At which both the women and children are bound to be present Who at the naming of Haman make an hideous noise beating with their hands and stamping with their feet and at the same time pronounce these words Let his name be blotted out Let the name of the ungodly come to naught Cursed be Haman blessed be Mordachee Cursed be Zeresch but blessed be Esther Cursed be all Idolaters and blessed be all Israelites Which Maledictions are now applied to the Christians And when they come to that passage concerning the death of Haman's Sons they huddle it over without pause or distinction intimating that they were all killed in a moment and that they hate to be long mentioning them When they come out of the Synagogue they fall to eating and drinking and are therein much more liberal at this than any other time And they have a Rule that at the Feast of Purim they should drink till they cannot distinguish between Cursed be Haman and blessed be Mordachee At this Feast the Rich supply the Poor with Wine and Viands and for two daies none undertake any Servile work The women especially are to keep Holy-day in honour of her who was the occasion of their Deliverance At this Feast also they salute one another with presents and bestow large Alms upon the Needy in compliance with what their Great Patriot commanded Esther 9 20 21 22. Where he established the Institution of the Feast of Lots The Mattins of this Feast begin with extolling Gods mercie and power in their Deliverance After which follow the Proper Lessons out of Esther When those are finished the Chasan leaves the Pulpit and saith part of the Dayly Service Their Vespers they begin with this Psalm My God my God why hast thou forsaken me c. and then again a Lesson is read out of Esther and after that the ordinary Evening-Service Then follow four Benedictions and all is concluded with select Psalms Purim is the last of their Anniversary Festivals for happening in Adar there is none between it and Easter which alwaies falls in Nisan the Month that began the Year when the Hebrews came out of Egypt and which still keeps that place in the Computation of their Greater Feasts Besides their Purim and the three Capital Feasts which we have already considered the Jews have other Minor Festivals as that of Reconciliation Dedication Church-Officers New year and Lunar Mutations of which take this short account in their Order And beginning with their Feast of Reconcilement or Expiation we finde the ground thereof in Lev. 16. and an express Statute for its Celebration v. 29. In the seventh month on the tenth day of the month ye shall afflict your souls and do no work at all whether he be one of your own Country or a stranger ihat sojourneth among you v. 30.
For on that day shall the Priest make an Atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. In obedience unto which Law the Jews upon the 10 of Tizri repair to their Synagogues and in places of open Toleration carry wax-lights in their hands which when they have lighted they begin in a very dismal note to lament their sins and continue fasting and praying for ten daies which are called the daies of Contrition for which their Liturgy has a proper Office Every morning during this Feast of Expiation they thrice repeat this Confession O Lord thy people the house of Israel they have sin'd they have done wickedly they have transgressed before thee I beseech thee now O Lord pardon the sins iniquities and transgressions with which the people the house of Israel have sin'd done wickedly and transgressed before thee as it is written in the Law of thy Servant Moses That in that day he shall make an Atonement for you that he might cleanse you and that you might be clean from all your iniquities before the Lord. This Confession saith P. Fagius is of very great Antiquity and was made by the High-Priest when he disburden'd the sins of the whole Congregation upon the Head of the Scape-goat Since the destruction of their City the Jews have no place for a proper Sacrifice and therefore instead thereof when they come from the Synagogue every Father of a Family takes a Cock a white one if possible upon the 9th day of the Feast and calling his Household about him repeats several Sentences of Scripture among which the principal are the 17 vers of Psalm 107. Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted And 23 vers of Job 13. How many are mine iniquities and sins Make me to know my transgression and my sin After the repetition of these Scriptures he waves the Cock three times about his head at each of which he useth these or the like words Let this Cock be a Commutation for me Let it be my substitute Let it be an Expiation for me Let the Bird die but let life and happiness be to me and to all Israel Amen Then he again swings the Cock thrice about his head once for himself once for his Sons and once for the Strangers that are with him Then he kills the Cock and saith I have deserved thus to die The Woman takes a Hen and doth the like for those of her Sex In Barbary where the Houses are flat-roofed they cast the Garbage thereon to be devoured by some ravenous Birds in token that their sins are removed as the Entrails they cast out Now the reason why they chuse a Cock for the Expiatory is drawn from the ambiguous word in the Talmud which may signifie either Man or Cock So that they repute the death of a Cock as much as that of a Man and to this Domestick bird the 53 of Esay with many other Passages of Holy Writ are prophanely and ridiculously applied But however they may at this Feast greatly extol the Merits of the Cock and imagine all their sins to be atoned by his death yet when themselves come to die they acknowledge no Commutation but skin for skin according to this saying of one of their Masters when he was a dying Let my own death be the Expiation and Satisfaction for all my sins When they have done with the Cock they repair to the Sepulchres where they repeat enlarge and enforce their Prayers and Confessions They bestow the value of their Cocks upon the Poor to whom formerly they gave their Carkasses which they now keep to furnish out their own Tables Besides that form of publick Confession which we mentioned before they use private Confession one to another which they thus perform About the middle of the Service they make an interruption and two by two step aside in the Synagogue and confess their sins to each other During the time of Confession he that confesseth turns his face Northward and with great seeming Contrition bows his body beats his brest and readily submits his back to such stripes as his friend will inflict who yet never exceeds the number of 39. And the first having thus made Confession the second goes upon the same duty This Feast as it has the name of Expiation because according to its first Institution the High-Priest did then confess his own sins and the sins of the people and by certain Rites did expiate and make atonement to God for them so is it likewise called the Feast of Reconciliation because at this time they endeavour a general Amnesty and Pardon For they labour that no quarrel among them remain unreconciled He that seeks to be at peace with his Neighbour though he be refused is looked upon as innocent They hold this Reconciliation so necessary that if the offended die without it the offender must go to his Grâ—â—e and in the presence and hearing of ten Witnesses confess his trespass Upon the Even of the 9th of this Feast they repair to the Synagogue where they trim and encrease the number of their Lamps The women do the like at home If the Lamps burn cleer it is a good signe that their sins are pardoned and that they shall live chearful and happy But if the Lamps burn dim it is a sad abodement their trespasses are not expiated Whereupon some of them renew their penances and use several abstinences and remain restless till the Omen alter Some are reported at this time to bribe the Devil that he may not accuse them and some again are so confident of their Expiation that they bid the Devil do his worst That the Expiation Reconcilement might be extended unto all upon the Eve of the 9th of this Feast they absolve all Offenders restore the Excommunicate and admit to the Prayers and Communion of the Synagogue even the stubborn and refractary At last the Chasan blesseth the people stretching out his hands toward them which hands the people dare not stedfastly look upon while they are elevate because they suppose them for that time to be full of the Holy Ghost After the Expiation is thus ended they continue a space fasting at the Synagogue and then return home to feast and to testifie their mutual Peace and Reconcilement Their next Feast is that of Dedication whose Institution we meet with in 1 Maccab. 4.59 Moreover Judas and his brethren c. And this our Saviour honour'd with his presence S. John 10.22 not to countenance the abuses but to own its appointment and to approve the Consecration and Dedication of times and places to Gods service This Feast in the N. T. is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Renovations or a Feast wherein something is renewed and is in memory of second Dedications It continues 8 daies during which time the Synagogues are full of Candles which may be the reason that the Spanish Jews call it Fiesta de
las Candelas and some call it the Feast of Oyl and both give this reason of the name In the Dedication of the Temple and Restauration of the Divine Worship there wanted Oyl for the Holy Lamps whereupon Judas Maccabaeus diligently seeking every corner of the Temple for Oyl at length found a Jar full which was sealed with the High-Priests Seal and had never fallen into the desecrating hands of the Enemy But the Oyl was of so small a quantity that it was but enough for one night Whereupon he and the people became very sorrowful not being able to procure Oyl for the present necessity For the place where it was to be bought stood three daies journey from Hierusalem But God saith the story by a bountiful Miracle made the small Jar of Oyl to last the whole eight daies of the Feast In memory of which miraculous supply some as I said have called it the Feast of Candles and others the Feast of Oyl They spend the eight daies in junketing and Games little of Religion appearing through the whole Solemnity They have another Feast in remembrance of giving the Law at which time they sell those Ecclesiastick Offices we spoke of before and which always falls out upon the same day that the last Section of the Law is finished and the first begun And they begin the Law the same day they end it that the Devil may not tell God that Israel is weary of his Law On this Feast all the Copies of Law are taken out of the Ark and in very solemn Procession is carri'd through the Synagogue with all manner of Exultation and rejoycing And after this they make the best provision they can possible which they call the Supper upon the finishing the Law And it is founded upon the Act of Solomon who coming to Hierusalem and there offering Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings before the Ark of the Covenant of the Law made a Feast to all his Servants 1 Kings 3.15 The next Feast is that of the New year which is kept in Tizri for that is the first Month according to their Secular though but the seventh according to their Ecclesiastical Computation On the day of this Festival they repair to the Synagogue and the Usual Service being ended with a short Prayer they consecrate the Feast and drink if they can possible procure it some Mustum because it is Wine of a good abodement of an happy Year which they then wish one to another The Younger sort do now receive the Chief Priests Benediction which he gives them by laying his hands upon their heads and praying they may have a Good Year In some places Rams horns are sounded at this Feast in memory think some of the Ram which was sacrificed in stead of Isaac some in memory of the giving of the Law with sound of Cornets and some to minde them of the day of Judgement to which they shall be summoned by the sound of Trumpets Now the deliverance of Isaac and the giving of the Law did and the last Judgement say they shall happen upon the first day of Tizri answering to our September The Jews have had a Custome on this day to run into the Rivers and there to shake off their Sins that according to Micah 7.19 they may be carried into the depths of the Sea If at this Lustration they have the good Fortune to see a Fish they shake themselves lustily on purpose to load it with their Sins that it may swim away with them and be as the Scape-goat of old which carried the peoples Sins into the Desart Some among them would have this repairing to the running-Water to be in memory of Abraham's being led by an Evil Spirit into a River when he went to Sacrifice his Son where being in great danger of Drowning he prai'd unto God and the River upon the sudden became dry Land But he that shall converse with the Jews shall be furnished with plenty of Stories of this nature and if upon every occasion I should have set down the Miracles wherewith their most ridiculous and improbable Rites are attested I might have made this Discourse Voluminous to no purpose Their last Feast I shall take notice of is that of their New-Moons which are a sort of Half Holy-days the Morning as on other daies being spent in the Synagogues and the Afternoon in Good Company At the first sight of the New-moon they have a Benediction wherein they bless God that with the breath of his Mouth he hath created the Heavens and all the Host thereof and appointed them Laws which they observe That he reneweth the Moon and makes it assist the pregnant Hebrews And then they leap as 't were to catch her and wish their Enemies may come no nearer them than they to the Moon Then they extol her good qualities for which they have but little reason seeing that they are told how in the beginning God deprived the Moon of Light for Murmuring against Him to expiate which Crime of the Moon the Jews were appointed to keep this Feast At the Feast of Tabernacles they Divine from the rays of the Moon of the accidents of the whole Year If the Shadows of their Bodies appear defective they accordingly foretel their own or Friends Deaths As if a man see his Shadow without a Head then he is to fall into danger of Death or die the following year If it wants a Finger he shall loose a good Friend If the Right hand a Son If the Left a Daughter If no Shadow at all appear then the man's death is unavoidable CHAP. XXII Of the Jewish Fasts THe Jewish Fasts except that upon the Expiation are esteem'd to be all of Humane Institution Their first Fast is in memory of Nebuchadnezzar's Siege of Hierusalem which happened upon the tenth of Tebeth answering to our December for which their Liturgy hath a small Office Their second is in memory of Moses's breaking the two Tables of the Law for the loss of their daily Sacrifice for setting Idolatry in the Temple for the second Siege of the City and breaking down the Walls thereof And this constantly falls upon the 17th of Thamuz corresponding to our June and lasts till the ninth of Ab. All the daies of this Fast are accounted ominous and unlucky so that thereon they avoid all business of moment and if possible to begin Journeys or attempt ought that is considerable And so careful are they hereon to be idle that School-boys are not thereon to be Corrected Upon the fifth of Ab or July they sit on the Ground read Jeremiah's Lamentations bewail the Dead and the loss of Hierusalem and for ten daies live so severely that they abstain from every thing wherein is supposed to be delight Their third Fast is for the death of Gedaliah whom we read was Treacherously Murthered Jer. 41.2 and it falls out in Tizri or September Besides these Fasts which are of publick Institution they have several that are private as those of
it to Embrace and Kiss it to Weep over it and after all perhaps to cast it to the Ground to let the people see they meant not there to terminate their Worship the very sight hereof doth as much induce the Jews to hate Christianity as any reason can be alledged to perswade them to love and Embrace it These are the Terms in which the Jews with whom I have conversed do stand who above all that has been said derive the greatest obstruction of their Conversion from their own obstinacy being not more scandalized than stifneckt nor less untractable within than offended without And as proud of their opinions as they are despised for them Glorying in their Ancestors and Founders in Gods Temple and Oracles peculiar promises and Prerogatives long continuance in Honour and Prosperity and indefatigable in their Expectation of being Triumphantly recollected and Victoriously to Reign over the Edomites when the promise of their Messias shall be perform'd which has as they say so long beyond the appointed time been protracted by reason of their own Vnworthiness A SUMMARY DISCOURSE Concerning the Jewish TALMUD MISNA GEMARA HAving in the former part of the Antecedent Discourse observed That there are no Jews to be met with who adhere to the Old Bible without Talmud-Traditions I thought it would be disagreeable neither to the Reader nor the Subject to give a succinct account of the Talmud Misna and Gemara in order to facilitate the meaning of the Traditions above-mentioned And waving all Critical reserches into the word Talmud which makes so great a Noise in the World it may suffice to observe that by a sort of Metonymy it signifies the Book containing the main Doctrines of the Jews which by way of Eminence is called the Talmud or Doctrinal So that the word Talmud may as well be used for a System of Christian as Jewish Doctrines for any thing therein to the contrary The two Talmuds of which hereafter are according to Mr. Selden the Pandects of the Jews Sacred and Civil Laws and they are generally received of the present Hebrews for the Great Body of their Learning and Standard by which the whole Israelitick Nation is to regulate both their Conversation and Doctrine And there needs no other Testimonie of their great esteem hereof than the RR's frequent using it in the proof and Confirmation of their Tenets For it is very observable that the Talmud is oftener brought in Vindication of their Religion than Moses the Prophets and Holy Writings Insomuch that they make it and not the Old Bible the Touchstone of their Doctrine and that into which they resolve the Decision of all their Cases Nor are they herein greatly blameable seeing they esteem the Talmud of equal Authority with the Canonical Scriptures and no more inferiour thereunto than a Law given by word of mouth is to one in Writing For the Jews hold there is a twofold Law which they are bound to observe the one written which is contained in the five Books of Moses the other Oral which they call the Misna or Traditional Law which God gave to Moses at the same time he did the other but did not commit it to Writing but left it to be preserved and propagated Orally Some of the Masters gifted with a wonderful Sagacity with great assurance maintain that Moses during his abode in the Mount could not discern the time of Night from the Day but by the delivery of these two Laws That when God gave the Written Law he knew it was Day and that it was Night when he gave the Oral And R. Eliesar as a late Author writes affirms that Moses read the Scripture by Day and the Misna by Night But this will scarce sound congruously if it be considered that the Misna was not written and therefore could not be Read till some thousand years after Moses received it in the Mount And as to the reason why God would not suffer it to be written it was the profound Mysteriousness of its Nature say the Masters which to have communicated by writing to the Vulgar People would have been no better than to give Holy things unto Dogs and to cast Pearls before Swine Others are of opinion that God foreseeing how the Nations would Transcribe the Books of the Law Prophets and Holy Writings and pervert them to Heretical and Impious Doctrines lest they should to the like to the Misna or the Second Law for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies he would not suffer it to be committed to Letters And here it may be pardonable to take notice of two things first that by the Holy Writings which the Jews call Cetaphim they understand the Books of Daniel Psalms Proverbs Job Canticles Ruth Lamentations Ecclesiastes Ezra Nehemiah Chronicles and that they were Compiled or Collected by Esdras and the Seniors of the Synagogue after the Jews returned from Babylon Next that the Jews were of old so cautious of preserving their Law secret to themselves that they would not suffer it to be Translated into any other Language out of their own Insomuch that in the daies of Ptolemy when the Penteteuch was put in Greek by the Jews of Alexandria they say that as if God had been therewith displeased there happened three daies of darkness over the whole Earth And to testifie their own abhorrence of so execrable a fact the Jews appointed a solemn Fast to be kept upon the eighth of Tebeth as the immortal Joseph Scaliger hath observed But to return That Moses in the Mount did receive from God not onely the Written Law but also a secret Explanation thereof seems to have been the opinion of Origen of the third and Hillary of the fourth Age. And this Explanation is supposed to have been none other but the Misna or the Oral and Second Law we now speak of which was preserved as the Cabala of the Creation and of the things happening before the Flood by Tradition from minde to minde to use Mirandula without Letters by word of mouth For Moses thus delivered it to Aaron and he to his Sons they to Joshua Joshua to the Elders the Elders to the Prophets the Prophets to the Great Synagogue and so it was drawn down by the Rabbins of successive Ages of whom the Famous Ramban has given an account And in this state the Misna continued till many years after the Nativity of our Blessed Saviour even till Rabbi Jehuda who for his Piety was called the Saint and for his singular love to his Nation and knowledge in their Law the Prince perceiving that this Oral Tradition grew difficult and that thereby the Misna was in no small hazard to be utterly lost or grievously corrupted by reason of the extreme dispersion of his Nation collected all the Notes taken by the Jews to assist their Memories which contain'd any thing of the Misna and digested them into one Volume which he called the Sepher Misnaioth or the Book of Traditions And this was no sooner compiled than