Master I would have you perpend and consider what a main difference there is betwixt the sacrifice of Aaron and the sacrifice of this righteous Lord. 1. The Lord said unto my Lord thou art a Priest for ever not for a small time as was Aaron who dyed at an hundred and twenty years of age 2. Aarons Sacrifice was but flesh the Sacrifice of the Just and Righteous Lord was bread and Wine according to the Order of Melchisedech By these words the Lord manifestly shews in his Prophet that Aarons Sacrifice should be at an end when this Sacrifice of Bread and Wine would begin which should know no end but last for ever an eternall or unpassable Priesthood not being given to Aaron as is given to Christ the Priest Of these Children God speakes by his Prophet Moses He will avenge the blood of his children or servants and will be mercifull to his land We O Master are the murtherers of the Prophets and for that he took vengeance of us but with a 70 years Captivitie but besides we have murdered the Apostles and that Just Master of theirs and now God has avenged that blood of his Children more severely bringing a Captivitie upon us that hath lasted a thousand years and beyond By their death God hath washed the Land of his People he doth not say it is the Land of the children of Israel no he doth not so name them Of these Children speaks David As Arrows in the hand of a mightie man so are his faithfull Children Where the Prophet compares these faithfull Children to Arrows shot forth by the hand of a mightie man for the Almightie God hath sent them forth being 12 Apostles into twelve parts of the World through all the four Climates thereof with the doctrine of the Law the Psalter and the Prophets Moses and Aaron he never sent forth to teach any beyond the bounds of his own holy House from him they had neither Mission nor Commission to travell to India oâ— trudge to Rome nor to any other place without the precincts of the Holy Land to declare and preach to others the Doctrine Legall and Propheticall Onely these faithfull Children have such a Calling being sent forth through the whole earth and are risen up before God in our place since God slew Israel and tooke away our name which David punctually denotes in the Psalme saying In stead of fathers thou shalt have Children whom thou maist make Princes in all lands By them is that first Law after the Order of Melchisedech renewed and brought in again who instituted the Sacrifice of God in Bread and wine of which he communicated to Abraham the friend of God Thus hath God by their Ministerie changed 1. our Sacrifice as he hath also 2. changed our name yea more he hath 3. changed our carnall Law into a spirituall Had God said so much to our Moses as he spoke by David to the Messias or Christ Thou shalt be a Priest for ever after the law of Moses Aaron then had our law got a ground for a firm standing thereof But now he saith far otherwise thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech And for Abraham the friend of God he communicated of the Sacrifice of Bread and Wine not of the Sacrifice of Flesh The word of Moses is hereto consonant which saith Ye shall eat of the old fruit or of the old store By this old fruit he understands the Sacrifice of Melchisedech Again They shall eat of the old till the new fruits come in meaning when the sacrifice of the new Law is published your old things that is your old Sacrifices shall you cast away Howsoever we look up to God as ours in every event CHAP. XX. Of the casting off the sacrifice of the Iews and choosing the Sacrament of the Christians THe Sting of Fear is fastned in me O Master and here it pricks me I am afraid lest God hath sealed up us and our Sacrifice under a Writ of rejection and hath accepted the Sacrifice of the Gentiles as he spake by Malachie I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of Hosts neither will I accept an Offering at your hands For from the rising of the Sunne to the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and there shall be offered in my Name a pure Sacrifice Therefore in Gods account the summe is cast up thus the sacrifice of the Gentiles is more clean and pure than ours Further God hath not onely taken from us our pure Offerings and depriv'd us of all other Sacrifices but withall he teaches the Christians to flie from us and to avoid us lest they should receive some soyle and defilement from us Thus are we scourged with a rod made of the Twiggs that grew on our own tree for when we had a Sacrifice which God received as pure and acceptable then did we shun and detest the Gentiles as some matter of abomination yea yea Master you know well enough what God speaks by the mouth of David concerning our Sacrifice Think you that I will eat the flesh of Bulls and drink the blood of Goats In which how can any thing be more manifest than this that God condemns and disallows our fleshly Sacrifice Gladly do I covet to know O Master with what reason we are harnessed for our detestation of the Gentiles Sacrifice of Bread and Wine which God himself hath instituted hath not disallowed it as he hath disallowed our Sacrifice Salomon speaks of the Aaronicall Sacrifice He stretched but his hands over the Altar and offered the Blood of the Grape and incense to the living God and offered up our Sacrifice of the Corne of the earth as Melchisedech offered for Abraham God declares what the Gentiles Sacrifice is by Moses Ye shall offer to God a Sacrifice of that is heaved from the Barn floore and of the pressed Grapes that God may blesse you and all the works of your hands We well know O Master that God at the beginning commanded Loaves to be set before the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord not flesh We know there was something concerning Shew-Bread but nothing of Shew-Flesh and Gods command O Master in Leviticus by Moses and Aaron was That a man of the Seed of Aaron the Priest that had any blemish should not offer the sacrifice of Bread nor any other sacrifice In divers other places of Scripture God hath placed his Command that they should offer to him bread and a Sacrifice of fine Flowre and that he will accept it and such at this day is the Gentiles Sacrifice even bread made of fine Flowre Of this Sacrifice of bread mention is made in the Booke of Kings when David came to Abimelech the High Priest in Silo or rather Nob he desired some Loaves of him who answered Here is none but shew bread which it is not fit
the faith of Christ and betake themselves to some honest Calling and work with their hands which was so acceptable an Act to the people that they gave the fifteenth part of their goods to the King and they were all thrust out of the Kingdom to the number of some seventeen thousand or as some say â—0000 and 500. And thus was this wretched Chaffe swept out of England and the Kingdom hath since been ridd of them that openly professe that un-Israelitish way In the reign of Henry the third a Iew fell into a Jakes at Tewkesbury in England to whom it being offered to draw him out it being Saturday the Iews Sabbath he refused lest he should pollute the holinesse of the day The thing comming to the chiefe Lord of the Countrey he commanded they should let him lie the next day too for the honour of the Lords Day the Christians Sabbath lest he should prophane it so by abiding in it that day also he perished I have heard or read these Verses on it but I remember not well where because I finde them not in the Historians relating it The Iews Verse bringing him in speaking is thus Sabbata sancta colo de Stercore surgere nolo I honour holy Sabbaths rest I will not rise from my foul nest The Christian Magistrates Verse answers him thus Sabbata nostra quidem Salomon celebrabit ibidem O Salomon because you are wise And for the Sabbath so precise Lest from your holy Rule you swerve You shall our Sabbath too observe The like was the lot of a Iew at Meidenburg in Germany that sat two dayes together in so uncomfortable a place the one day for the honour of their Sabbath the other for the Christians pleasure to give honour to ours And now Reader behold and see if under the whole Heaven has been done to any people like as to this people If it be not as the Lord said All people are made the Head and they are the Tail where ever they come scorned pressed oppressed punished murdered Iudge whether it were not a happinesse to our blessed Iew to have his lot fall among the Christians and to be baptized in Christs Blood rather than to be baptized as the Iews in their own cursed Blood By this traversing of Histories and Times I have laboured to confirm the truth of his demonstrations that their sin is the highest because the wrath of God presses them the hardest that this sinne is the slaying of Christ that there will be no end of their misery till they take hold of the skirt of a Christian and look upon Christ whom they have pierced This will helpe to illucidate his complaints in his Book and give us some knowledge of the Iews state without God without Christ without peace without honour in the world The Book is all Scriptures almost that they cannot deny but incur the guilt of Blasphemers resisting the Old Testament which they make the ground of their Faith If they will stand out still and maintain the proverb there are five things exceed in stubbornnesse and pertinaciousnesse the Dogge among beasts the Cock among birds the Goat among Cattle the Prickthorn among Plants and the Jew among men as one of their own Doctors sets them forth not onely R. Samuel but their own Prophets shall rise in judgment against them and say We would have healed them but they would not be healed they were convinced yet they shut their eyes and made grosse their hearts and would not be converted If by these Relations and Collections I shall not satisfie all yet it will please and profit some at least the lesse learned Reader may meet with something he knew not before and for the Scholler I know he that knows the least will despise it the most I have pleased and profited my self and have endeavoured to profit others by seeking up these things if I can but fetch up a Christian sigh for the Iews sorrow and bring men to pray Thou O Lord remainest for ever thy throne from generation to generation wherefore dost thou forget the Jew for ever and forsake them so long time Turn thou unto them O Lord and they shall be turned renew their dayes as of old I have attained to what I aimed at The Lord soften our hearts to pitie them his own heart to have mercy on them and their hearts that they may plough with R. Samuels Heifer and be inlightned with the saving light of Christ Jesus our common Saviour I know there is a time appointed by God for their return to him and kissing the onely begotten Sonn of the Father and yet we may be guilty of not doing all we may to bring them in or of doing something which helps more and more to harden them and keep them out They should not want our pity they should not want our prayers For our unmercifulnesse to them helps more to harden them and our prayers for them would minde the Lord of his Covenant and us of our dutie Some things there are among Christians which we should amend lest by maintaining such things we make the Jew more and more to abhorre the Christians way as the painting of God and setting him out in Pictures and Sculptures by some image do's exceedingly alienate both Jews and Turks from us as they have sometimes confessed and the Idolatry of some corrupt Christians as they of the Romish faith doth much keep them back who hate all kinds of Idolatry though they themselves do in some sort adore and worship the Book of the Law Especially take we heed of calling into question the Godhead of Jesus Christ that is to be blasphemously Jewish and to harden them in their desperate blindenesse By Arrianism and the licentiousnesse is taken among us that way we do worse than Crucifie the manhood of Christ in Crucifying the Godhead of Christ and thereby may sooner perswade the Jews we are comming to them then to induce them to come unto us For the Godhead of Christ we must hold it firme and maintain it or else we are a laughing stock to the Jews and the greatest Soul-fools that are in the world As he flatteringly called Lewis the thirteenth of France Dexrum Messiae Brachium so we may more truly call the faith of Christs Godhead Dextrum Evangelii Brachium The right Arm of the Gospell They may alledge other false causes and take scandals that were never given them as the Doctrine of Trinity c. But let us beware lest a wo be to us because of offences in unholy wayes and works given to them by us by which the name and truth of the Gospell of Christ shall be blasphemed Let our conversation within winne them that are without that they may come to thinke there are divine and rare examples of vertues in the followers of the Christian Faith as sometimes that cursed root Iulian Parabates was forced to commend the Iews and
Christ keepe you many yeers in our Order in his grace and love Written at Paris by the hand of your humble servant Fryar Alphonsus The Preface of Rabbi Samuel to his Book of the comming of the MESSIAS as already past Samuel the Christian to Isaac the Israelite health THe Lord preserve thee O Brother and keep thee alive till this our captivitie come to an end our dispersion be gathered together and our hopes draw near and God set the Seale of his good pleasure upon our life Amen I know and that upon experience that the fulnesse of the knowledge of our time is in thee and thou art the hope of our satisfaction in the clearing of the doubts about the Law and Prophets by thy glorious expositions Wherefore I much desiring to be made partaker of thy Doctrine do now open unto thee the very secrets of my heart in those things I finde in the Law and the Prophets about which my soul lies under great anxietie and fear Hence it is I make my recourse to they abundant knowledge and wisdome and send to thee this little Book hoping through the will of God to be confirmed in the truth by thee and to have my judgement cleared in the things are doubtfull The Argument of every Chapter in the Book Chapter I. 1. WHy the Jews are under the wrath of God Chap. II. 2. He proves they are dispersed for some grievous sinn in which they are and argues against observation of their Law Chap. III. 3. All the Jews observance of the Law is unacceptable to God for the sin in which they are Chap. IV. 4. He shewes they are in blindnesse Chap. V. 5. The Jews deceive themselves and others Chap. VI. 6. What the sin is for which the Jews are in Captivity Chap. VII 7. That the Just JESVS the God of the Christians was unjustly sold Chap. VIII 8. How the dispersion of the Jews according to Daniel came to passe after the death of JESVS Chap. IX 9. That there are two advents or commings of CHRIST Chap. X. 10. Of the first comming of CHRIST Chap. XI 11. Of the second comming of CHRIST that he will then judge with power Chap. XII 12. Of the Ascension of CHRIST Chap. XIII 13. He more strongly proves the corporall Ascension of CHRIST Chap. XIV 14. Of the Jews blindnesse who neither understand nor beleeve that CHRIST is come Chap. XV. 15. The Jews blindnesse and incredulitie about CHRIST was foretold by the Prophets Chap. XVI 16. He shews the Jews reprobation for perfidiousnesse and the Gentiles election by faith Chap. XVII 17. Of the quickning and giving life to the Gentiles and slaying of the Jews Chap. XVIII 18. How the Gentiles quickned by faith have pure observances in their New law Chap. XIX 19. Of the choosing of the Apostles in place of the Prophets Chap. XX. 20. Of the casting off the Sacrifice of the Jews and choosing the Sacrament of the Christians Chap. XXI 21. God hath refused the Fasts Sabbaths and Sacrifices of the Jews and chosen them of the Christians Chap. XXII 22. He proves the abjection of the Synagogue and the election of the Church by the Lords word to Rebecca Chap. XXIII 23. He proveth the same thing by the Word of the Lord to the Prophet Malachie Chap. XXIV 24. He sheweth the Christians manner of singing is acceptable to God Chap. XXV 25. The Jews unjustly finde fault with the Christians practise of singing Chap. XXVI 26. He proves the Apostasie of the Jews from God Chap. XXVII 27. Testimonies of the Saraceus concerning JESVS and Mary his Mother A Table of the Digressions in the Annotations to every Chapter wherein divers things of consequence are insisted upon Historicall and Theologicall Chap. 1 1. A Digression about the inquiry of that great and particular sin of the Jews for which they have been and are in this long captivitie 2. A second Digression handles the Titles and Elogies of Christian and Iewish Doctors 3. The studying of Rabbins and Jewish learning is asserted and vindicated as needfull and profitable for Divines Chap. 2 4. Of Iews Sacrifices and Services Legall not intended to be perpetuall but to be abrogated Chap. 3 5. That Daniel was not onely an Hagiographer but a compleat and true Prophet Chap. 7 6. Of the 53. Chapter of Esay fitting none but CHRIST confessed by Iews themselves 7. The Epithite Iust and righteous One ordinarily given to JESUS CHRIST Chap. 10 8. Mis-interpretation of Zach. 14. Malac. 3. corrected Chap. 12 9. The Application of Psalm 24. corrected 10. The 63 of Esay vindicated at large 〈◊〉 the mis-application of it and the vulgar mistakes of our common Divines 11. Of the Iews care to preserve the Writings of the Old Testament from losing or corrupting Chap. 13 12. A discovery of what is meant by the Prophet Aser that it is not 〈…〉 but 〈◊〉 13 Reasons for that Scripture A woman shall compasse a man Jerem. 31. to be understood of something else than CHRISTS Incarnation Chap. 16 14. Of the Iews proud and horrible contempt of Gentiles and Christians Chap. 20 15. Of the Sacramentall Crama or mixture of Wine and Water Chap. 23 16. Iewish blasphemies and foul speeches against CHRIST Gospell Christians Chap. 26 17. A large Historicall digression reckoning up the chief fals Christs the Iews have since CHRISTS time been deluded with 18. A large discovery of Iewish follies about the time of CHRISTS comming when it should be and whether he be yet come or no and what kinde of one their Messias should be Chap. 27 19. The strange stubbornnesse and cursed obstinacy of the Iews is discoursed on and laid out 20. A censure on the Alcaron the Mahometans Gospell 21. The Creed of this converted Iew made out of the Chapters of this 〈◊〉 or demonstration of the Messias A DEMONSTRATION OF The true Messias CHAP. I. Why the Iews are under the wrath of God I Desire O Master my conscience may receive some satisfaction by thee out of the Testimonies of the Law the Prophets and other Scriptures about this point namely How it comes to passe that we Jews our whole Nation have a generall great stroke of God upon us in this Captivity which now holds us and which we may well call Gods perpetuall wrath because it findes no end The Wheel of time hath now spun a thousand years and more compleatly since that Titus first led us Captives We are not ignorant that our Fathers worshipt Idols and slew the Prophets and cast away the Law of God yet for all these transgressions the smart of Gods smiting hand did vexe them but with a seventy years Captivity in Babylon and when that set term of time was runne out he was appeased with them and brought them back into their own Land again And at that time according to the suffrage of the Scripture the anger of God had then the bitterest and strongest Ingredients of his wrath mixt with it above any precedent times reckoned
this our last Captivity we may be devout in observing all our Legalities and yet the Lord will not accept any of our Works Greater therefore for certain is our sinne than that which carryed our Fathers into Babylon and thence it is that the wrath of God is greater which is upon us and consequently our works are lesse acceptable and we in the eyes of the Lord more abhominable The slaughter of Prophets the worship of Idols procured them their seventy years captivity and no more but we are captives for a great sinne yea surely ours is the greatest sin which is thus punished with a chiliad of years and makes us miserable millenaries and more Without doubt O Master the Prophet Daniel speaking from the Lord means of our Captivity when he calls it the Desolation He shall make it desolate even till the Consummation and that determined shall bee powred upon the desolate The first Captivity is called but a transmigration because after a short time they were brought back with honour to Ierusalem but this is called a perpeâ—uall Desolation in which for certain God will â—ot have mercy on us as he had on our Fathers in Babylon And this is two wayes evident 1. The Prophets ceased not to comfort â—hem and give them promises of deliverance 2. Though they were in captivitie yet were â—hey all together and company alleviates an â—vill Now for the first we finde not a sylâ—able of any Propheticall promise for us And for the second our case is aggravated to make â—s higher graduates in misery we are not â—ondslaves in company of one another but â—e are a dispersion thorow all the Kingdoms of the World Notwithstanding we are in â—ll events the Lords CHAP. IV. He sheweth the Jews are blinde A Marvellous thing to me is this O Master that all of us are brimm full with continuall hopes of our freedome from our captivitie our Lipps doe alwayes mention it our Tongues know no vacation but are ever talking of our return to Ierusalem wherein we are â—o other than blinde men or meer deceivers of â—he simple For look to the time since our dispersion by Titus and where did any Prophet appear with any prediction or promise of our return nay did any Prophet since that seventy years hard apprentiship name any other end of our Captivity than the Worlds end The consummation of the World must onely consummate our Captivity and Daniel to that purpose names it an endlesse desolation This this o Master is still my fear our sinâ— is the greatest because our smart is the sorest a sin which farre exceeds Idol-worship and Butchering of Prophets for which our Fathers before were punished And if God will shew no mercy to us living we persevering in the same sin so will his mercy be farre from us dying also Yet this nothing can prevent that we belong to the Lord in every event CHAP. V. The Iews deceive themselves and others ME thinks O Master we notably gull both our selves and others because in the Books of the Law and the Prophets we have the Lords promise frequently of freeing our Nation and of gathering us together again from all our scatterings Now these promises lookt into with a well advised minde it will appear they were all 1 Either compleat before and in the seventy years or 2 that these promises were totally hindred from fulfilling the sins of them to whom they were made being an impediment to their impletion An instance O Master I give in those few words spoken by Ezechiel If ye will do my judgements and keep my Commandements then Will I gather you from the foure corners of the earth I will lift you up and bring you thorow the Sea yea I will make you return unto your holy House Behold that which the Lord promiseth us by Ezechiel in these words and other places of his Prophecie it was many times fulfilled before the seventy years captivitie as all such promises of the Lords whether greater or lesser contained in divers places of the sacred Volume were compleat and fulfilled before we fell into this last captivity which has no bottome though we have been more than a thousand years in it yet in none of the Prophets can wee finde it has a bottome And where any promise of God treats of freeing and gathering together it is not to be understood of this perpetuall bondage but of those tribulations and dispersions before the seventy years but after them there is not the least inkling of a promise to gather us from our scattered estate Of necessity therefore we must take it to us that we have committed that great sinne since the forementioned years in which sin we now are and obstinately persist for which the Lord so endlesly punisheth us else the Lords wrath could not so long time have held in his mercy from us Through the course of Scriptures we may perceive our forefathers punisht for their sins before seventy years out of many I select these few examples Our Elders sinned before that time who came out of Aegypt the Promise therefore made to them had no place in them for they perisht in their sins in the wildernesse Moses sinned at the Waters of strife and that sinne bolted him out from entring the promised Land Aaron sinned and he bore his punishment Eli the Priest sinned and he broke his Neck for breaking Gods Command and his Posterity lost the Priesthood though God had promised it them for ever Such promises as these are to be understood with this caution alwayes they shall be fulfilled unlesse for their sins they promerit another reward as is plaine in the Kingdome of David when his Posterity after the flesh fell short of the Scepter even as the true and glorious God promised Abraham and his Seed they should possesse the Land for ever yet they often were at a losse of it for their sins and the Lord often restored it to them again untill this last great losse of it Now a thousand years and above are gone over our heads and our hopes of recovery are vanisht with them because we still abide in that sinn by which our Land is lost and forfeited This is among wonderfull things a grand one O Master that all of us with one Lip consent to this that since the sore Servitude in Babylon it must needs be that we have sinned against God some great sinne and yet none can pick out what this great sinn is for which we have been laden with such a masse of misery Or if any of us have knowledge of the cause and our sin which hath thus engulphed us in these deep evils yet what are we the better The secret sticks in his owne breast he doth not declare it to his neighbour Or what is himself the better for knowing it whiles he turns it not to his own profit for we all do still lie flat upon the ground Clearly we do all see that in
the foresaid Captivity God remained with our Fathers in his Prophets Ieremie and others he gave them Salathiel for a Leader or Captain they had both Princes and Priests which went with them out of Babylon after the time of their repentance or doing Penance was finisht and having got their God appeased they built Ierusalem the Temple and other Cities and the Lord powred upon them his mercie◠plenteously In this our Captivitie all appears with a stranger face it is manifest that both God and Prophet hath forsaken us neither of these are with us Wherefore O Master this will I make my task I will exactly enquire and uncessantly search out what that great sin is which hath cast us into this thousand years slavery and more in which we are cloathed with desolation being without Prophet without King without Priest without Altar without Sacrifice without Oyntment without Incense without our Purifications yea in one word we have ingrossed to our selves the abhorring of God in heaven and the contempt and abomination of us with the whole world and all men on earth Yet for all this misery that reignes in our estate pride reignes in our heart in our own conceits we preferre our selves before all the world besides Concerning which thing what my judgement is O Master I will make known to thee Neverthelesse what ever fall out from God we cannot finally fall off CHAP. VI. What that sin is for which the Iews are in Captivitie NOw O my Master I am in great fear that that sin for which we are in this desolating Captivitie is that of which God speaks by his Prophet Amos saying For three transgressions of Iudah I will turn or translate Israel note that our Bibles have it I will turn away here he hath it I will transfer or translate and it is better so for his purpose and for the fourth I will not translate them because they sold the righteous for silver We indeed O Master according to our Doctrine make this righteous One to be Ioseph the son of Iacob who was sold by his Brethren into Aegypt and this would I hold for true also but that the Sacred Writ makes this sin of selling the fourth for number among the sins or transgressiōs of Israel The Christians themselves to whom the studie of Sacred Volumes seems to be delivered committed of God do answer to our foresaid interpretation that the selling of Ioseph by his Brethren is the first and not the fourth of Israels sins or transgressions The second sin they make the worshipping of the Calf in Horeb The third transgression is the slaughter of the Prophets for which we served as slaves seventy years in Babylon But the fourth transgression of Israel the selling of the Righteous this they say is plainly meant of JESUS who was according to the very letter sold after that aforesaid transmigration And we O Master if we mean to maintain as Authenticall our own Doctrine and stop the Christians mouthes with a sufficient answer this of us must be undertaken and made good that divers transgressions of Israels did precede this of Josephs selling so as to make it fall in the fourth number Which thing we cannot uphold the testimony of the Book of Genesis making sore against us which sets the selling of Joseph as the first transgression of the Children of Israel The Prophet Amos also expressely makes appear that the fourth sinne was the selling of the righteous One for which we have been Captives and of which the Lord with a fearfull Commination speaks that he will never bring us backe again into the Land of Promise saying And for the fourth I will not translate them because they sold the righteous for silver To me it is more then manifest that for the selling the Righteous the fourth sin we are righteously punisht and now more than a thousand years are past and gone in all which time we do no good nor prosper at all among the Gentiles nor remains there any hope that we shall do any good at all CHAP. VII That the Just Jesus the God of the Christians was unjustly sold A Marvellous horrour O Master hath surprized me and I quake to think that this Righteous one sold for silver according to the Prophet Amos is JESUS whom the Christians worship And further I fear that the testimonies which I meet withall in the Prophets are concerning him and the Christians in their Doctrine do very apertly and aptly apply them to him Esay the Prophet saith Ah sinfull nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evill doers they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the holy One of Israel to anger they are gone away backward The same Prophet saith As a sheep led to the slaughter is dumb so he opened not his mouth He saith hee was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief he was despised of men and for this we esteemed him not he was offered up because so his will was He was taken from prison and judgement and who shall declare his generation For the transgression of my people have I smitten him and he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death and he shall give those that injured him for his burying and the rich for his death I fear O Master that these injurious doers were our Fathers and these rich ones were Pilate and Herod Annas and Caiaphas according to that the Prophet David saith The Kings of the earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsell together against the Lord and against his Anointed By the Kings we understand the aforenamed by the Rulers our Fathers and Ancestors I fear O Master this JESUS is he who was sold and chopt and changed for Silver of whom Zacharie Amos and other Prophets write Of him Esay the Prophet speaks He bare the sinns of many and made intercession for the transgressours I fear O Master that this JESUS is that righteous One of whom David speaks They gather themselves together against the soule of the righteous and condemn the innocent blood and for this God shall cut them off yea the Lord our God shall cut them off Again I fear O Master JESUS is that Just One of whom Jeremie speaks saying He is the man and who is there that understands him or knows what he is In his Lamentations also The beautie of our countenance Christ our God was taken for our sins otherwise with us The breath of our nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said Vnder his shadow we shall live among the heathen I fear this is that Just One of which Zacharie speaks It shall be said in that day VVhat are these wounds in thy hands And he shall answer Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends and my shepherd lift up his sword upon me With us it is Awake O sword against
the Son of Man came in the Clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of dayes and they offered him before him And he gave him Dominion Glory and a Kingdome and all people Nations and Languages shall worship and serve him The Hebrew hath it Tribes and Languages shall honour him his dominion shall be everlasting and not passe away his Kingdome shall not be destroyed Our Translation hath it Tribes and Languages shall serve him his Power shall be an everlasting Power which shall not be taken away and his Kingdome shall not be corruptible otherwise his Power shall not fail otherwise his Power shall be for ever and his Kingdom remain for ever Out of all which these things appear with evidence O Master that Christ in his second comming shall sit before the Ancient of dayes as a God come to judgement contrary to that of his first comming where he stood before our forefathers the Jews and received their judgement against him To these two commings of the Messias that is Christ the Prophet David hath respect in that Psalm where he saith For he commeth for he commeth to judge the world His first comming was but simple and mean to which purpose those words are barely set down for he commeth without any addition But as the first was poor so the second will be powerfull and therefore is added this clause to the second for he commeth to judge the world His second comming is mentioned by the Prophet Zacharie His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives c. You know well enough O Master none of us are so grosse-witted as to hold that God considered in his divine Essence and Nature hath either flesh or feet or any corporeall Members for to have feet is proper to corporietie David alledged in the place before saith of his second comming A fire shall burn before him and round about him For all this O Master we do not say God is circumscriptible for place that any thing may be said to stand about him as he is God but therefore it is thus written because these authorities have a literall veritie in that Righteous One described by the Prophets when one while they speak of his Humilitie another while of his Majestie The Prophet Malachie saith Behold the Lord commeth and who may abide the day of his comming For he shall sit as a refining fire and shall melt the silver and gold Here behold how that Just One once judged shall appear at his second comming Attend O Master and marke how in the same chapter the Prophet further expresses the glorie of his person I will come near to you in judgement and be a true witnesse against adulterers c. In the same sort doth Ezechiel describe him speaking of the Shepherds and Sheep I will separate between them that is I will separate the transgressors from the Righteous and the unbeleevers It is not thus in our Translation but the Arabick reads it so Lo here how in his second comming he will separate the unrighteous from the righteous as Malachie and Ezekiel are both clear in this point At his first comming none of us knew him for hee went beyond the limits of humane nature as God by Esay saith He was reckoned with transgressors and we therefore esteemed him not And Jeremie saith This is the man and who knows him Wherefore O Master this fear dwels upon my soul that our Fathers in the first comming of the Messias fell off and rann into errours and because of this we groan under our endlesse Captivitie Yet what ever fall out we belong unto God and in him we hope CHAP. XI Of the second comming of Christ that he then will judge with Power THese two things O Master I am in no small fear do agree to him 1. That he was manifested as a Saviour to all them that beleeved in him at his first comming 2. That he shall be a just Judge to judge all with power at his second comming David the Prophet speaks of him The Lord hath made known his salvation he hath openly declared his righteousnesse in the sight of the heathen Esay doth not dissent Ye shall draw water out of the wells of salvation or of the Saviour which so far as my eyes serve I can interpret those Wells of salvation to bee meant of nothing else but Baptisme Thus his double Advent hath a double Element his first comming in water to save by Baptisme his second comming in fire to trie all by judgement a Saviour by water a Judge by fire Of this Saviour do those words mean I know that my Redeemer liveth and that in the last day I shall rise from the earth and my eyes in my flesh shall see my God Observe here O Master how he calls this Just One both Saviour and God It is confest and manifest that God being a Spirit cannot be seen with any eye of flesh Scripture gives it out that the Saviour is the Righteous God and he alone challenges the name of that True Iust One of whom that saying is He did no sinne neither was guile found in his mouth Esay the Prophet testifies this of him This cannot be said of Moses or any of the Prophets that he is a Righteous Saviour and without sinne you Master know well enough that both Moses and the Prophets were sinners which the Scripture makes plain in that none is called the Righteous One but Christ and that name is reserved as onely proper to him And this without all doubt is to bee held that none are saved but those that beleeve his first comming and those that beleeve not there is no ground for them to hope for salvation at his second comming This argument has a marble reason to lay the foundation strong for it for I reason thus If they were worthy of death that beleeved not Moses who was two great degrees below Christ for Moses was but a temporary Saviour and a sinner how much more are they worthy of this judicatory fire that beleeve not nay and worse that blaspheme this Righteous One the Lord that never knew any sin Yet nothing can so fall out as to take this from us our relation and belonging to God CHAP. XII Of the Ascension of Christ DIgging into the precious earth of the Scriptures we have found O Master that Christ shall be exalted from earth to Heaven and hence arises my fear that this was fulfilled in him whom our Fathers Butchered and that the Prophet Davids acclamation is of his exaltation Open the gates of your Principality O ye Princes and be you lift up O ye everlasting doors and the Prince of glory shall enter in To which words I intreat your attention O Master that you mark how the Angels in Heaven make answer Who is the Prince of Glory and he will answer again to them The
Lord of Hosts mighty in battell is the Prince of Glory Certain and plain it is O Master that this righteous Lord of Hosts had no battell but in his first comming for in his last comming who shall dare fight with him for when he shall sit on his Seat of judgement and a fire round about him shall flame and burn up his enemies and shall purifie the righteous by fire as it were silver and all this in his last comming then none shall fight against him no place shall there be for any to resist him by battell Of the exaltation of this Righteous One the Prophet Esay speaks Who is that that commeth from Edom with garments dyed red from Bozrah this that is glorious in his apparell And the righteous One thus makes answer I that speak righteousnesse a Defender to salvation mighty to save The Angels then say unto him Why are thy garments red like him that treadeth the Wine-fat He answers them again I have trodden the Winepresse alone and there was not a man with me See here O Master how properly Esay speaks yea I fear the answer of this righteous one much toucheth us and none but us when he saith I have trod them in mine anger and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments and I have stained all my raiment For the day of vengeance is in my heart and the yeer of retribution is come O where have we any hopes in that Righteous One when we see that he complaines of us to the Angels in Heaven and makes knowne to them that he trod the Winepresse alone Whom as it that he trod in his wrath but us who after the Battell in his first comming hath thrown us down and we lie prostrate and trampled under foot now a thousand yeers and still there is a black day of vengeance waits for us in his last comming and a year of retribution is in his heart I would to God O Master when we with murderous hands slew the Prophet Esay wee had laid hands upon this Prophecie also and quite blotted out this fair authoritie out of his Booke that no eye might ever have beheld or read it against us And you may observe that which David cals a Battell The Lord of Hosts mighty in Battell Esay calls a Wineptesse Alas for us O Master we drink that new sweet Wine of which Iacob the Patriarch and Prophet speaks in the Book of the Generation of the Creatures that is Children of Judah He washed his cloathes in the blood of the Grape as it is falne out in us at the first comming of the Messiah that is We washed our garments in his Blood But what shall we wretches do in his last comming when all men shall stand before this man comming to judgement and a furious fire shall be ready to devour them round about him against whom he shall pronounce sentence Then is the time of Battell ceast he shall be no more then trod in the Winepresse then shall there be neither place nor time for repentance all refuge shall then fail onely Justice shall remain that as he was unjustly judged when they found no sinn in him so he shall justly judge all sinners For God saith in the Prophesie of Salomon If the righteous receive judgement where shall be the wicked and the sinner If the righteous scarcely be saved what shall then become of the ungodly CHAP. XIII He more strongly proves the corporall Ascension of Christ FEar as a Furie haunts me O Master and possesses me with this that those Testimonies recited by me out of the Prophets are all as points drawn from the Circumference and meeting all in that Just One as their Center viz. That he was sold for silver as the Prophet Amos avouches That he trod the Winepresse as Esay averrs That he was in battell with our Fathers as David affirms That he was caught as in a Net by our sins as Jeremie alledges That he was wounded in his hands as Zacharie asserts That upon his Vesture they cast Lotts as David assents That he ascended into Heaven as the same Prophet and others with an unanimous testimonie give up Which is not compatible nor can it stand with meer God considered in his Divine Essence and nature for the Deitie has neither Resurrection Exaltation Descension or Session properly Out of what hath been said this must issue with a necessary consequence That this Righteous one is already come to whom all the foresaid things very aptly agree and are fitly accommodated to his corporeall and humane nature which he assumed Now because O Master I know how hardly this enters into thy beliefe as a most improbable paradox that a man should bodily ascend into Heaven ponder these authorities and examples which we meet with in Scripture which underprop and confirm this truth In the first place I rank the Prophet David who saith God hath ascended on high he hath led captivitie captive and given gifts to men Again he speaketh of his Ascension Sing unto God and glorifie his name make way for him that ascendeth from the Western parts the Lord is his name Again David speaks of him in that Psalm which thou hast in thine heart Sing praises to God that ascends above the heaven of heavens to the East After him the Prophet Amos in like manner saith It is the Lord that hath built his Seat on high Of him again the Prophet David God is gone up with a shout the Lord with the sound of a Trumpet Likewise the Prophet Aser in his second Chapter saith I saw a man descending from the midst or heart of the Sea and he came up to heaven But because we want that Prophecie I omit to write many other things which that Prophet hath concerning this And yet wee have that Prophet but he knew not then that he who is Aggaeus in Latine is the same with Aser in the Arabick tongue Moses in his Song saith I lift up my hand to Heaven So Esay Awake or Arise arise O Arm of the Lord. Hannah the Mother of Samuel sings The Lord shall give strength unto his King and exalt the Horn of his Anointed David again The Lord ascended upon the wings of the winde These authorities have I met with in Scripture serving to prove the corporeall Ascension of Christ into heaven Many more there are to this purpose as thou O Master very well knowest Now will I annex some examples out of our Law to follow these Authorities being a thing so convenient for the establishing our belief in the point of Christs bodily ascent into Heaven This in the first place must be taken into consideration that the true and glorious God hath assumed and translated to himself out of the earth many holy men among our forefathers as the Law and Prophets will witnesse and if we doubt not of the ascent of these induced to beleeve it for the sanctitie of the men
and for the veritie of Scripture testifying it why do wee doubt of the ascent of this Righteous One both in his Body and Soul the witnesse of Scripture confirming this more than the testimony of holinesse confirms it for the other And may not this be one reason because the Prophets set him out strugling and fighting in a harder Warre of miseries than others and acquainted with an harder bondage and soret service of the World than others Furthermore this without any exemplification thou knowest well enough that Methusalem and Henoch those righteous men and Elias the Prophet were assumed by God in their bodies to Heaven and translated out of this World As for Moses it is a thing out of the reach of all question and doubt that he now is in Heaven both in body and soul as is said in Deuteronomie Go up into the Mount this night and he went up into the Mount and died there and no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day What doth this signifie that his Sepulchre is unknowne upon earth seeing he was a Prophet in greatnesse and holinesse surpassing others but that thereby we should understand that God hath raised him up and assumed him in bodie and soul as he did other righteous men and elevated him to that place where they are now Neither need we puzzle our Brains with marvelling how it can stand with reason that grosse and ponderous bodies should ride and be born upward on the light and subtill Element of Aire this we need not question if we do but call to minde how it pleased the Almightie Power to work the like in the Israelites egresse out of Aegypt where the Water an Element in â—aritie and thinnesse like unto the Aire did bear their heavy bodies without sinking And when the Lord gave a sign of an accepting welcome to a Sacrifice the Fire though an Element lighter then the rest descended from heaven and returning up again to heaven carryed with it aloft the bodies of the sacrificed Beasts and Bullocks offered to God As for this Righteous One Moses Elias and other Prophets prophesied of his elevation From the premisses I collect that we â—eing credulous and ready to beleeve the corporall ascent of the aforenamed Saints there is no reason remains why we should let incredulitie lurk in us and suspend our beliefe about the elevation of this Righteous One into Heaven when Scripture and Prophets do testifie it And that of the foresaid Saints is â—ade so manifest to exclude all doubts for â—ood purpose First that the hearts of men 〈◊〉 the end of the world might be turned to God Secondly that other righteous men â—ight have good hope of their own ascent being incouraged by these examples But our Nation are lockt up under many doubts concerning Christ by the Key of his secret and occult comming at first into the world it being an unusuall and unwonted way Of this the Prophet saith He is a man and who shall know him Esay saith A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son Where it is to be noted that there is no mention but deep silence of any Father of his according to the Flesh Elsewhere he saith VVe esteemed him not And Jeremie hath The Lord shall create a new thing upon earth a woman shall compasse a man Micah also saith Therefore the Lord will give them up till the time that shee which travelleth hath brought forth In these words is to be observed the Prophet has not a syllables mention of 〈◊〉 the Husband of her that brings forth it being the Nativitie of that Righteous One who onely was born out of the wonted path and common carnall course of men who come by man as the active and woman as the passive principle of Generation But this knows no carnall Father as Esay's mouth foretold it Give ear O ye house of Iacob the Lord shall give you a signe A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son All these other holy men spoken of were born of man and woman carnally conceived in sinne yea and they themselveâ— were sinners Moses himself though holier than the Prophets his Parents yet he sinned and his own mouth publishes his own sinne but of this Just One it is said in Esay he never sinned nor was there a lie found in his mouth God by the mouth of Iob hath proclaimed there are blemishes in all the Saints Behold he putteth no trust in his saints And Ieremie joyns with that judgement The hearts of men are wicked CHAP. XIV Of the Iews blindnesse who neither beleeve nor understand that Christ is come WHat Esay from the Lord hath said O Master I shake with fear lest it be our lot to have it fulfilled in us Blindnesse is fallen upon Israel till the fulnesse of the Gentiles become in And again he saith Hearing they shall hear and shall not understand seeing they shall see and not perceive because the heart of this people is waxen fat And in the same Chapter Make the heart of this people blinde and stop their ears least they should learn and be converted to me and I should heal them Esay then said How long O Lord and he answered Vntill the Cities be wasted and the house bee left without an inhabitant You have Daniel also saying Shut up and seal up or wrap up the Prophecie Jeremie follows with his testimonie The sinne of Judah is written with a Pen of Iron and the Point of a Diamond it is graven on the table of their heart Esay likewise in his first Chapter saith The Oxe knowes his owner and the Asse his Masters Cribb but my people doth not understand Jeremie to that purpose The Stork the Crane and the Swallow know the time of their comming but my people know not me All these speeches O Master are Gods Arrows shot at us and do shew our condiâ—ion because we had eyes lockt and bolted up that we could not discern the first comming of that righteous Lord. Of us do the Lords words in Esay mean when he saith Bring forth or cast far off the blinde people that have eyes and the deaf people that have ears Behold they are all gathered together or rather Let all the Nations be gathered together These words carry no other meaning but this that the Prophet saith The Lord hath rejected us because we knew not soon enough the time of that Righteous Ones comming and in stead of uâ— he hath gathered the Gentiles to him by faith This is it which made that admiration break out of Davids lips The right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to passe Yet for all this we belong to the Lord though thus sore in an haplesse estate and deepe depressing Captivitie wherein as in a labyrinth we are and can finde no end or out-gate though a thousand years we have runne with wearied foot-steps in this amazing Maze of miserie neither did ever our Fathers smart
thus though they did fully transgresse the Law worshipt Idols and slew the Prophets yet drunk they not of such a Cup of Indignation and Judgement as we their Children CHAP. XV. The Jews blindnesse and incredulity about Christ was foretold by the Prophets THis O Master dives me deep under the waters of fear that our not beleeving in that Righteous One hath caused that to be fulfilled and to fall upon us which the Lord spoke by the mouth of Esay The vision shall bee as the words of a Booke that is sealed which shall be given to one that is learned to a Reader saying read this I pray thee and hee saith I cannot for it is sealed And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned What greater and closer sealing up of the Book can there be found O Master than this wherewith the Lord hath sealed and fast closed up our blinde hearts and we have now been a thousand years and more as miserable Truants in learning this one lesson of the comming of this Righteous One propounded to us in the Prophets and yet we know it not nor have taken it out This is it which blows the Prophets Trumpet with that threatning blast Ierusalem shall be desolate and their holy house shall fall down He further said Our Countrey is desolate and their holy house shall fall down He further said Our Countrey is desolate our Cities burnt with fire and Zion is left as a Cottage in a vineyard This this is the evill O Master which has now the age of a thousand years and more on the back of it According to this Esay further saith O Lord God I will exalt thee for thou hast made a Citie an heap an house to be confusion a defenced Citie to be a ruine for ever He shall break the people in pieces like the breaking of the Potters Vessell which shall be broken so as there shall not be found a sheard to take fire from the hearth or to take water withall out of the pit Daniels words are also fulfilled that after the Messias is cut off there shall follow a perpetuall desolation in which desolation we now are and have been cast deep into this flood of miseries a thousand years and more Esay goes on to spinne the thred of our wo Solitarinesse shall be left in the midst of the City or desolation and their Land shall hisse with a perpetuall hissing After him Jeremie saith Call ye them reprobate silver for the Lord hath rejected them Esay again Walk you in the light of your own fire and in the flames sparks which you have kindled In these flames we as miserable Salamanders have now lain a thousand years more Amos comes with like threats The house of Israel shall fall and none shall raise her up To me verily O Master it seems we are falne indeed and ruine is come on us since the comming of that Righteous One yea God hath brought it on us seeing since that time no Prophet has risen amongst us neither shall there be any as is foretold and prophesied of us for we remain still in our incredulitie we maintain an obstinate negative of that Righteous One and do not beleeve in him Hosea therefore saith When the woman conceived and bare a daughter God said call her name Loruhamah without mercy for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel And if thus it be that the Lord hath quite cast us off and will have no mercy on us as we have felt by the miserable experience of a thousand years and upward to what end or what profit is it for us to retain our old Ordinances the Law Sabbath and Circumcision Esay saith Bring forth the blinde people as the true glorious God hath now brought us forth of our Land and made us strangers to it more than a thousand years Besides all this he saith The old errour is gone away what can we pick out of this O Master what is the old thing but our Law which is gone away from us yea we have lost King Sacrifice Incense Altars Was there any worse thing in the whole predicament of calamity that could have befaln us What prey or bootie of hope have we for our winged expectations to flie after Do we not see wo unto us that wee see it that the Lord hath scattered and disperst us thorow the four quarters of the world as Moses Jeremie and other Prophets foretold us Yet for all God we are thine and to this God we have our recourse in every event CHAP. XVI He shews the Jews reprobation for perfidiousnesse and the Gentiles election by faith MY soul is not free from this fretting fear O Master that whereas you and I betwixt our selves can boldly say and affirme that we are the sons of Jacob and Israel that for all this God may have fulfill'd that which he spoke by Esay God shall slay thee O Israel and call his servants by another name I quake to think that we should be of those servants on whom that name shall be imposed as Moses writes in Deuteronomie The Nations shall be the Head and the unbeleeving people the Tail as we now are and have been the hindmost the very Tail of all the World for 1000 years and more Of these Nations Jeremie speaks The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters that cover the Seas Salomon hath of them this O Lord God when a stranger which is not of thy people Israel shall come to thy holy house and call upon thy blessed Name then hear thou O Lord my God that all the earth may learn to fear thy Name as doth thy people Israel What have wee O Master wee proud beggars of the Jews that we can boast in Why should we contemne and hold the Gentiles in scorn seeing Salomon the Prophet hath joyned them as partners with us in the fear of God and in his holy House And peradventure God hath shut us out of his House as unworthy ones and hath given our room to them as more worthy as Moses hath spoken of them Thus saith the Lord God the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. After him David All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nation or a thousand generations shall worship before thee Of them spoke Esay O holy house of David thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee The Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightnesse of thy rising Lift up thine eyes round about thee and see all they gather themselves together they come to thee thy sons shall come from frare The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee And who I pray O Master are
out Apostasie is it that God stretches out our miserie to such a length of dayes and hath brought upon us this Captivitie whiles wee in vaine expect another Saviour besides that Just One which nothing avails nor is any thing to the purpose Herein we have a signe with plenary evidence that this generall captivity is laid upon us for some generall sinne which all of us have had our hands in which sinne while it abides and sticks with us unrepented of fierce wrath must needs abide upon our Nation and we remain hopelesse Yet we look for some other Saviour But oh the idlenesse and inanitie of our expectations how little do they profit us Suppose we go about to affirm that ours is not a generall Captivitie and that in some part of the world we have a King and Prince over us we shall quickly be proved worthy to be reproved for lyars convict by our owne Law for if we Jewes should have a King and Prince over us in any part of the world go to then let us see what he is he must be descended of some one Tribe if of any it should be of the Tribe of Judah Of Judahs Tribe it cannot be God having definitively determined against it that there should be no King of Judah out of that Tribe for ever Whence Jeremie the Prophet saith The sinne of Judah is writ with a Penne of Iron and the Point of a Diamond it is graven upon the Table of their heart That which is written with such a Pen as Iron in such a Book as an Adamantine stone how can we look that it should ever be expunged It shall never bee blotted out seeing the strong and glorious God hath thus spoken by the mouth of the Prophet Esay The Lord the Lord of Hosts taketh away from Jerusalem and Judah the Judge and the Prophet and the Prince Likewise the Prophet Hosea saith of us The Children of Israel shall abide without a King without a Prince without a sacrifice without an Image without an Ephod without Teraphim We know well O Master that from the beginning of the world God had alwayes some Saints of great account and holy before him Towards the beginning of the world the lives of men are reckoned up with many figures and extended to many yeers as Mâ—thusalem Enoch and the rest yet none of these ever came to be Millenaries either reaching to or above a thousand years Yet we have large reckoning amongst our selves finding our Messias or Christ promised to us to out-strip that unattained number We please our selves with saying that our Messias was born in Babylon in the seventie yeers Captivitie which by computation will arise to an higher number of years for by this at this day he must be a thousand and fiftie yeares old This Fable and Fallacie for it is no Prophecie though we know not how with any weapons of reason to defend yet with bold assertions we averre it for a truth in our Synagogues when we are none but Jews together and not a stranger among us But you may hear the publique doctrine of the Christians saying otherwise Of Zion it shall be said this and that Man was born in her and the most High shall establish her In these words he names Mary the Ladie under the name of the Citie and saith a man was born in her He saith that man emphatically was born in her he doth not say this or that Israelite Whereby he gives light to us to understand that the Son of Marie never was in the Loyns of any man In the second Book of Samuel and the seventh Chapter God manifestly declares this when he saith to David When thy dayes be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy Fathers I will set up thy Seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy Bowels and I will be his Father and he shall be my Sonne It was never among possibilities O Master that â—ny should come out of the Bowels of his Father therefore to this end is it here set down â—o expresly to shew that Christ was not to â—e conceived in woman after the ordinary â—ay of other men by any Seed which should â—roceed from the Loyns of man as the rest â—f men do descending from David or others â—o the same effect God speaks by David â—rom the Womb before the morning have I beâ—otten thee As if the great and glorious God â—â—ould say From the wombe that is of his â—wn will he begot his Christ the operation â—f the Holy Ghost effecting it without the â—eed of man not after the common regular â—urse of humane generations This is that doctrine of veritie of the Christians faith â—hich is hid as a mysterie from us and our â—ow apprehensions will not give it entrance â—â—d beliefe For our infidelitie in this point 〈◊〉 all this falne on us that we groan under â—his is the gate that lets in our miserie Afâ—â—r the same manner doth David set forth Christ to be borne The Lord hath sworne in â—uth unto David Of the fruit of thy Body will â—set upon thy Throne Notwithstanding all â—is we belong to God CHAP. XXVII He concludes with alledging some sayings of the Saracens touching Iesus and Marie his Mother VErily O Master though the Christian do not fight against us with swords taken out of the Saracens Scaberds and whaâ— the Alcoran and the expositions thereof havâ— for their defence which they neglect to doe knowing our faith feeds not upon Saracen Chaffe neither do they themselves give any credit to it yet they might finde something which might much weary and weaken us anâ— fortifie themselves by the allegation of the Sarazens Doctrine concerning Jesus and Marâ—â— his blessed Mother It is the generall voice 〈◊〉 all the Saracens that Jesus was the Messiaâ— whom the foregoing Prophet foretold should come and as touching his Genealogie and 〈◊〉 degree they preferre him before their own God Mahomet They stick not to confesseâ— that the Parents of Mahomet were Idolaters anâ— wicked ones and at the best blazon theâ— Arms but among the Children of Hagar thâ—â— Bond-maid from whom they sprung Yet willingly they grant that the Messias by a direâ—â— Line draws his Pedegree from Isaac whoâ—â— Sonne he was to the Prophets and just men and so he descends to the blessed Marie his Virgin mother In the Alcoran this testimonie of the Family of Adamar is found touching Marie The Angel Gabriel said to Marie O Marie God hath chosen thee and taught thee grace and hath in his choice preferred thee before all other women of all ages and hath placed thee as a new medium or meane dividing betwixt earthly men and the Angels of God in the Paradise of delights Moreover all the Saracens speak-it for a truth That Christ or the Messias had power from God to work Miracles to heale every disease and infirmitie to cast out Devils raise the dead to know the secrets of all hearts yea they
from corruption and losse even in corrupting and losing times and are as woodden Candlesticks to the Gentiles holding out the light of the Law He quotes the 49 Chapter of Genesis which he calls the Booke of the Generation of the Creatures of Iudah that is Of the Children and Off-spring of Iudah Well may I here take occasion to give a reason why men onely sometimes are called the Creation and the Creatures and whence it arises To which purpose our understandings may well and soundly take hold on this that the word which signifies creatures properly in common use among the Hebrews signifies onely men sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being the excellentest of subsolar Creatures The same Phrase and manner of speaking is much taken up in the Orientall Languages I shall call in my Witnesse and he may stand for two or three he is of such standing and perfection in the Academie of most exquisite learning it is Hortibonus or Casaubon In the Arabick Geographie saith he in abundance of places we finde the frequencie and fulnesse of Cities thus described the Author saith that in them there are many Creatures that is to say Men. This may well agree with our Samuel who writ in Arabick and this may be a good note affixed to the latter end of the 16 Chapter of Marks Gospell to the illustration of it Go into the whole World and preach the Gospell to every Creature CHAP. XIII THe corporall Ascension of Christ he goes about to prove by those Scriptures that speaks of the exaltation and elevation of God which he saith must properly be meant of Christ according to his humane nature because the meer Deitie is subject to none of these Sites or Postures That of Psalm 68 is applyed to the Ascension of Christ by S. Paul so that R. Samuel the Jew is not ashamed to follow S. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles in beleeving and asserting the same truth He quotes something out of the Prophet Aser in his second Chapter but he forbears the prosecution of it upon this reason because that Prophesie is lost and is not to be found The Translatour he brings his judgement about the Prophet Aser and reproves the ignorance of R. Samuel that he should think the Prophet Aser to be lost when he is not And his reason is that the Prophet Aser and Haggai are all one onely Haggai is the Hebrew Name and Aser the Arabicke name of the same Prophet which R. Samuel did not know or at least did not call to minde when he writ so Now it were good to unpire the matter betwixt Alphonsus the Spanyard and Samuel the Jew and upon looking into it the Translator will be found in some fault Suppose there be some agreement betwixt Haggai and Aser in their signification Haggai signifying one that solemnizes and keeps a holy and joyfull day of solemnities that rejoyces festivally and Aser comming of a Verbe that signifies to make blessed and happy which may accord in this that the dayes of re-edifying the Temple and Jerusalem in which times Haggai prophecied were holy festivall and blessed dayes Though there be some similitude must there be Identitie How doth Alphonsus know that Aser and Haggai in the Arabick Tongue are the same Prophet This may be disproved two wayes 1. Because R. Samuel writ in Arabick lived among the Arabians and being both a Jewish and an Arabick Doctor he was likely to know as well as Alphonsus the names of Prophets in the Old Testament both in Hebrew and Arabick 2. If Aser and Haggai be all one then let the Spanyard shew us this that he quotes in the Prophecie of Haggai of a man ascending from the midst of the Sea and comming up to Heaven He must coyn a new Prophecie of Haggai if he will finde this in it for our Old Prophet neither in first or second 〈…〉 Chapter has any such thing However we speake of this obscure Prophet Aser which cannot be found what he was yet we may well conclude for the Authour against the Translatour that these words are not to be found in the Prophet Haggai Since these Notes I have found something that is like this which is quoted but neither in R. Samuels obscure Aser nor Alphonsus the Translators Haggai chap. 2. but in the Apocryphals of Esdras Lo there arose a winde out of the sea and lo that man waxed strong with the thousands of heaven Iunius reads it Quidam ut ventus A certain man as the winde came from the sea It should be translated a Man not a winde that did rise out of the Sea so the third Verse intimates that man waxed strong not that winde For rising of the winde is not the thing but the comparison accompanying and illustrating the appearance of the man I think pardoning the errour of the Authors and Translators Quotation both of the Name and the Book and Chapter I am the Oedipus of this Riddle And it may well be his meaning was of this place for in this book he doth besides this make use of the Apocrypha as Chap. 19. he quotes a place out of Jesus the sonne of Syrach and in chap. 20. he has out of the same Book Besides he is subject to some mistakes for in that 20 chapter he cals it Salomons writing when it is the Sonn of Syrachs and in this 13 chapter he quotes a place in Esay when it is in Ieremie Aliquando bonus dormitat Hebraeus calling Esdras Aser Among those were assumed into heaven he names Methusalem and takes it for a thing granted and known among the Jews But we must beleeve Moses who saith that Methusalem when he had lived nine hundred sixty nine years dyed he doth not say he was translated which he had newly said of Enoch his Father The Greeks errour is that he lived 14 years after the floud and was with Noah in the Ark which errour comes out of the Septuagints false computation And some of the Jews it seems are in this errour that because his Father was taken into heaven in his body and soul so was Methusalem too But they that compute and reckon according to the Hebrew numbring of the years do agree that Methusalem dyed that very year the flood came Others think he dyed six years before the floud He concludes the Chapter with asserting the wonderfull birth of Christ born of a Virgin without a man to be a very truth and plainly foretold by the Prophets of God Wherin he grants for a truth one of those six things which are the main Controversies betwixt the Jews and Christians He takes indeed one place to prove the birth of Christ by a Virgin which I dare not say flatly that the Prophet did speak it with any relation to the birth of Christ It is that of Ieremies The Lord shall create a new thing upon the earth a woman shall compasse a man I know the stream of Expositours
them against us that he speaks of them and not of us when he saith There is no Tongue or Language wherein their voyce is not heard and this cannot be taken of our Hebrew Language For what Gentiles are there which obey the precepts of Moses and Aaron seeing they slew the Gentiles put them to flight and drove them from them But these Gentiles at this day are acquainted with Moses and the Prophets they know God they keep their new Law after the prescript form of the Apostles teaching Notwithstanding all this yet we belong to God CHAP. XIX Of choosing the Apostles in place of the Prophets MY soul converseth in the region of fear and I am troubled about that place of Zacharie I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered I fear that was fulfilled when wee smote the Shepherd of those holy Children the Apostles for ever since that time we like miserable sheep run dispersed and stragling thorow the whole world and the Apostles which were our children are risen up in stead of our Prophets This appears as a Noon-tide truth seeing from that time God hath not sent us one Prophet nor given us any Divine notice or heavenly provision by the way of Vision O Master I fear that the Apostles are those Children Ioel meaneth of Your old men shall dreame dreams and your young men shall see visions For a certaintie O Master our Prophets are the Old men that dreamed of the faith of the Gentiles which these young men the Apostles have attained unto and seen it more clearly even in plain Visions Of these Children spoke David the Prophet Come ye Children hearken unto me I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Besides this when God speaks of us â—e doth not name us commonly Children in â—he Plurall number but he stayes in the Singular naming us Israel his first born In another Psalm these young men are called Children Thy Children shall be like Olive Plants â—ound about thy Table Of Israel O Master God spoke by the mouth of Esay The Vineâ—ard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel I â—ooked it should bring forth Grapes and it â—rought forth wilde Grapes therefore I will break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down Of these aforesaid Children of God by Esay he further saith Iacob shall not now be â—shamed neither shall his face waxe pale But it shall be then when he shall see his children the â—ork of mine hands sanctified before his eyes Now if those Children O Master were sanctified in our sight according to the way of our Law it could not be said of us that we were â—shamed and our Faces Vermilion'd with â—lushes and for that cause we should hide â—hem but rather would it shape for us glory â—nd resplendency of face But hence comes â—his confusion of the faces of Iacobs children â—nd this is the desolation that those Children the work of Gods own hand were sanctified in our sight and yet they have this honour another way than we it comes not as our sanctification by the Law Thus God would give us to understand that our Law is not their Law So much imports he by the mouth of Ieremie In that day they shall not say Our fathers have eaten sowre Grapes and their Childrens teeth are set on edge as if he meant thus The infidelitie of the Jews doth no way hurt the faith of the Apostles nor shall it hurt For this is added for that cause As I live saith the Lord this shall be no more a proverb in Israel And this is observable never any of the Apostles after they had received the faith of Christ did returne backe to imbrace our faith Thus are they free from tasting the bitternesse of our infidelity notwithstanding our teeth are set on edge with the sinnes of our Fathers Further O Master God by Esay delivers more concerning these children the Apostles From whom shall I passe away but from my people the children that are unfaithfull but God shall be their Saviour in all their afflictions his face and countenance shall keep them in his love in his pitie he hath redeemed them and shall be mercifull unto them for length of dayes This hath all truth in it O Master that these Children of whom we speak doth alwayes abide firm and stedfast neither hath God at any time left them and passed away from them since that Righteous one their King and Master hath redeemed them but he hath gone away from us though he abide with them alwayes Of these children the Apostles that wise Jesus the sonne of Sirach hath spoken in his book Hear me your Father O dear children and do thereafter that ye may be safe for the Lord hath given the father honour over the Children After what manner this honour is understood God declareth by the mouth of the Prophet Malachie God shall send Elias who shall turn the hearts of our Fathers to the Children O Master seeing this turning is to be understood of beleeving and turning to the faith if God would have turned the hearts of the Children viz. the Apostles to the Fathers that is to us then the Apostles had moved with us in the same fearfull orbe of miserie and should have been companions with us in this Captivitie that knows no end as we and our Fathers are involved in it But now seeing Gods Ordinance turnes the wheele another way that the hearts of the Fathers shall be turned to the Children what good is there O good Master for us to expect or what glasse of hope can we look in to see a face of comfort If wee shall go about to affirm that these must bee other Children not the Apostles of whom these aforesaid things are meant then must they be in Captivitie as well as we because they did not follow the way of that Righteous One whom the Apostles not onely have stedfastly followed but have also earnestly taught this way should be followed herein attaining to the honour to be named and accounted Fathers in that it is said The fathers should be turned to them Wherefore O Master seeing our Children attained to faith in God before us if our hearts were turned to the Children then the hearts of the children should be turned to us also as the most high God saith They shall be one people and one heart in the glorious and powerfull God For this is to be confessed that we are not to understand it of any other conversion then of turning from infidelitie to the faith and doctrine of that Just One who is the Teacher of salvation to all that beleeve in him As David hath said of him that his Priesthood is an everlasting Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedech who offered a Sacrifice of bread and Wine and this Melchisedech was the Priest of the most High God before Aaron Now here O