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
in that holy Volume notwithstanding as is already said the punishment of so great sinnes laid upon them no longer then seventy years But now O Master that wrath which at this present punishes us is a sentence without a period neither in all the Prophets is there any end of it promised If we would thus shift it off and say That the wrath in which we are now deep plunged is a continuance of that wrath which brought the seventy years misery upon us seeing that served to satisfie for the forementioned sins of our Fathers in so doing we should go about to charge God with a Ive which be farre from us to attempt knowing that the true and glorious God did by his prophets stint that Captivitie within that number of years Whereupon such an answer would prove a nullitie a meer evasion and excuse not fit to be propounded before those who have any intellectuals Further if we shall go on to say That God in that transmigration made a division of mercy and justice had pitie on one part of our Jewish generation shewed no pitie to the other part and those on whom he had mercy he brought backe to re-edifie the Temple as saith the Prophet Jeremie and if we shall say that we are that unhappy remnant to which he shewed no mercy then will the Christians say to us That because God shewed mercy to them that worshipt Idols and slew the Prophets therefore he should have mercy on us also that have not so sinned Besides when our Fathers sinned the punishment of Divine Revenge kept within the bounds of certain years wherefore then is it that we who have not so sinned have a punishment without bounds and limits It is a long and undated punishment in which we lie fast bound it is now a thousand years old and yet neither in the Law or Prophets can we finde an end of it or spie any grave wherein it shall be buried Wherefore O Master laying these grounds that God hath punished our Fathers for Idolatry and Prophet-killing and in the Scripture their sinne and punishment are both recorded seeing God uses not to punish the same sin twice then the seventy years captivity must be the punishment of the foregoing sins Again it not being usuall with God to lay on an universall Rod but where there hath been an universall sin it must needs follow that after that captivity we have generally committed some greater sin before God than either their Idolatry or Prophet-slaughter weighing and proportioning their 70 years punishment and no more with our thousand years captivity and more who are still a wretched dispersion thorow the the four quarters of the world Yet what ever falls out we are Gods people and belong to him Now because no excuse can evade what I have said answer me directly to it CHAP. II. He proves they are thus dispersed for some grievous sin in which they are and argues against observation of their Law SUppose O Master that wee are in some great sinn yet now I request thou wouldest certifie me in this if after God scattered us out of Jerusalem and sent us into this long and lasting captivity for that sin why do we of our own authority and proper motion of our own will without any speciall mandate from God observe some Legall Rites and do not keep Circumcision the Sabbath and other Ceremonies that we hold according to the Law of Moses We know that from the time in which Titus destroyed the holy Citie and by combustions turned our Temple and Libraries into ashes dispersing us in that Captivitie that ever since Sacrifices Oblations and whole burnt-Offerings have quite ceased God not making promise to us by any Prophet in any Prophecie or by any certain revelation that we should any more return to our forsaken Ierusalem to be in our former state nor giving us any precept â—o keep and hold our former Observances Hence it seems by due consequence to follow â—hat these foresaid observances which we keep we received them not of God but of them that were under the wrath of God Yea thus â—ur Adversaries the Christians shall justly â—ay unto us Like as you observe Circumcisiâ—n and the Sabbath and do read in your Syâ—agogues the Books of Moses without any â—ommand from God why do you not as well in like manner take up again your sacrificing and make to your selves a Priest a King a Prince why use you not holy Unctions and Incense why build you not Altars and keep your Ceremonies and many other things contained in the Law as well as Sabbath and Circumcision and many other things which by your own Traditions and Will-worship not commanded of God you do retain Thus both wayes is the Lord offended by you These aforesaid Rites if you observe them contrary to the Will of God or if you say it is Gods Will and his good pleasure that you should do them which is more than you can manifest why omit you those aforesaid Rites which you may use as well as these Let it be granted that the Kings of the people to whom you are subject do not permit you yet seeing they permit you to retain Circumcision your Books Synagogues and other things they would suffer you in many other things as well as these To these Arguments O my Master a sufficient answer is farre to seek amongst us yet in all events we belong to God CHAP. III. All the Iews observance of the Law is unacceptable to God for the sinne in which they are WEE have found O Master what the Lord speaks by the mouth of his Prophet Zacharie concerning that first short captivitie These things saith the Lord God to the Priests and people of the Land when you fasted and mourned in the sixt and seventh moneth the whole time of your seventy yeers you understood that you fasted and mourned to me but I would not have any such fast from you Our Translation hath it otherwise but I purpose to set out in writing the authorities which Rabbi Samuel brings as they are in the Arabick not as we finde them in our Bibles In the forementioned words O Master the Lord intimates that while we Jews were in that seventy years Captivitie we were without his Law because in the Law we neither had nor have any Fast as we have other observances yea in like manner we were without Circumcision and Sabbath and doubtlesse all these things are nothing worth whiles Gods wrath abides upon his people That first wrath of God was short extending to 70 years onely but this in which we now are is a thousand years long and upward and none of the Prophets let us see and end of it This causes my fear O Master that as the Lord cast our Fathers into that short Bondage and Captivity without any Legall Observances their Fastings and all other Rites being abhorred of the Lord till the set time of their punishment was expired so in
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
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
why they used not Altars and Incense because they were strangers and under the Government of Kingdomes and States that would not suffer them to have that libertie But this he answers to that it is no good reason for Kings and States that suffer them to have Synagogues and meetings and communion in a Jewish manner would permit them this also as well as the former they who grant a greater thing in all likelihood will not deny them a lesser matter So that the conclusion he would make is this God in his anger hath bereft us of King Priest Temple Altars Sacrifice the great things of our Law therefore he would have us leave all other our Iewish Rites also because it is manifest for our sinnes he would have us deprived of all and besides turn us to Christ who hath put an end to all Iudaicall observances Many of the Jews acknowledge that Sacrifices and Ceremonies were not to be perpetuall but to continue for a time onely and by the Messias to be abrogated In their Talmud they have this to that purpose In the world to come all sacrifices shall be annihilated except the sacrifice of Confession i. e. of praise So the Aegyptian Moses writes that in the time of the Messias all things shall be licensed which were prohibited According to that saying The Lord looseth them that are bound up and there cannot be a greater proof than this that even mulier menstruata shall be licensed by God at that time In the Talmud speaking of unclean things as the Sow it is questioned Why is a Sow called Hazer It is answered Because God will return it once to Israel that is give them libertie to eat of it Hazire signifying reversion or returning Wherefore by the judgement of divers of their Doctors they doe at this day unlawfully in counting any meats unclean by the old Rule of their Law seeing the Messias was beleeved should set these very Creatures at libertie that they should not be bound up from free use by any Bond of Ceremoniall uncleannesse as they were heretofore When the Vail of the Temple was rent all Legall Ceremonies were to be rent also The Jews acknowledge they have nothing to do now with Sacrifices as their Ancestors had because they are scattered from their own land and their Temple is destroyed which was the place destined for Sacrifices to be offered up to God yet instead of Sacrifices they will do something they redeem their Sacrifices with words and comfort themselves with this as if God did accept it as well as any Sacrifice that they read over Gods precepts in the Law about the kindes and manner of Sacrificing and so they make use of or rather abuse those words of the Prophet We will offer up to God the calves of our lips Which were a good Sacrifice if they were good lips confessing Christ and guided by holy hearts onely relying and trusting in the all-meriting Sacrifice of Christs blood Their R. Simeon saith they despised three things and cast them off in that speech We have no part in David nor have we inheritance in the sonne of Iesse 1. The Kingdome of Heaven 2. The house of David 3. The Temple of the Lord. But the later Jews have cast off these three things farre more despitefully in casting off Christ And having thrown off God and his Temple why may he not throw away them and their sacrifices The conclusion is against the Jews that they do against ground and reason retain some part of their Jewish service and let other parts be lost as that of Altars oyntment and sacrifice If one be good all is good because all is of the same root If God have abolished some he would have them abolish all and he grants the Jews are non-plust and have nothing to say in this argument when it is urged by the Christians CHAP. III. IN this Chapter the Translator tells us he findes much diversity in the Phrases of the Scripture as they are in the Originall Hebrew and as he findes them quoted by his Rabbi Samuel who being among the Turks follows the Arabicke Bible and therefore he would have the Reader note that he quotes the Scriptures according to R. Samuels Book that he may prove himself a faithfull interpretour It is a pretie note of R. Samuel that the first Captivitie is called but a Transmigration or a passing over into another Land which seems to be a word of hope that promised them they should come back again But this last is named by a hopelesse name a desolation to let them see it is a perpetuall Captivity That of transmigration or removing may bee seene 2 King 17. 23. 2 King 24. 3. But this is a desolation Dan. 9. 27. and the abomination of desolation A twofold misery he findes to pursue this Captivitie more than the other 1. In the other they had Prophets in Babylon to comfort them Ezekiel Haggai Zacharie but in this Captivity no true Prophets preach deliverance Prophecie and Vision ceaseth 2. Again in that other Captivity they were all together in one Kingdome and company of known friends Countrey-men breaks the strong waves of an evill but here they are dispersed into all Countries and can converse with few of their own but meer strangers both by Countrey and Religion And this is a sad thing that they sit solitary like a Sparrow upon the house top This the Lord threatned to make their Chaine heavy The Lord shall scatter thee among all the people from one end of the earth even to the other c. This Samuel acknowledges and calls Daniel a Prophet of God which divers of the great and learned Jews will not admit yet he all over honours him and quotes his Prophecie in this matter of the Messia It seems this man had rather cleave to Christ who calls him a prophet Matth. 24. 15. then to his great Talmudists and Rabbies who will needs be great by lessening some of Gods greatest Prophets Porchetus a great and deep inquirer into Hebrew Learning proves by Jewish Tradition that Daniel was held by them a Prophet and be further faith that among the Jews none could be found so strangely foolish to deny the Spirit of Prophesie to Daniel but onely one wicked Sadduce called Porphyrius who being convict with the clearnesse of his Prophecie concerning Christ he falls like a bitter Dogge a barking against the truth and sanctitie of Daniels Propheticall testimony Of this Porphyrie Hierome speaks in his Epistle proaemiall to the Comment on Daniel to Pammachius and Marcella where he saith this Porphyrie writt his twelfth Book against Daniel whom Eusehius confuted in three Volumes But besides Porphyrie Porchetus might have seen some more denying Daniel properly to be called a Prophet of God as the great Moses Ben Maimon who saith our Nation with an unanimous consent hath placed the book of Daniel in Kethubhim among the holy Writers but not among
the Prophets And the same account and reckoning they make of Davids Psalms Salomons Books Esther Iob and the Books of Chronicles They say these were writt as they were moved by the holy Spirit but it was not vera pura Prophetia But who will may see against this Daniel proved to be a Prophet of God out of Moses Ben Maimons own Characters of a Prophet by Constantine L' Emperour Against this opinion which makes Daniel a Prophet but metaphorically or by way of Translation Guil. Vorstius may be lookt after also in his Annotations on Maimonides de fundam Legis ad cap. 7. Cunaeus de Repub. Hebr lib. 3. cap. 7. CHAP. IV. HE rightly speaks of the blindnesse of the Jews so their estate in the new Testament is called For judgment am I come into this world saith our Saviour that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blinde God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see c. Blindnesse in part is hapned unto Israel untill c. That which is here said that it is perpetuall Paul saith better for them then R. Samuel It shall not be alwayes but till the fulnesse of the Gentiles be come in and then all Israel shall be saved CHAP. VI. IN this Chapter he is very earnest to apply that prophecie of Amos the selling of the Righteous for Silver to be Israels sinne in selling Jesus the Righteous Sonne of God for thirty pieces of Silver Our Christian interpretors and Expositors do not go that way to apply it onely to Christ but make it to be the sin of injustice cruell oppression against the poor and needy selling away their person and Cause for Bribes Some have a glance at this Jewish exposition yet cannot fully like it though this Jew found the Christians in his dayes much bent to expound it as he does and let him be wittie this way to apply all to the Jews sinne if so be it may heal their sore CHAP. VII THe seventh Chapter arises out of his former discourse and he layes it downe that the Prophet Amos his Just man sold for silver is Jesus the Just the Saviour of the Christians he beleeves it is meant of no other This indeed is true 1. That Jesus the Just was sold for silver 2. That this was the Jews sinne 3. That this sinne of selling and murdering Jesus is the Gate that lets in all their miserie Onely here the Jew in a fourth thing has us not so fully agreeing that the Prophet Amos doth directly and especially point at this sin in this place Here the Jew is more against his own Jews than the Christians are and it shews his pious intention to finde out the grievousnesse of their sinne that takes up any Scripture that may seem to indigitate it to bring his people to repentance In this Chapter he admirably and with a Beam of Christian light applies the 53 of Esay to Jesus Christ as a Christian Expositor opens divers things in it As likewise that excellent and Torchlike place of Zacharie which gives clear light in this truth undenyably looking at Christ For other Scriptures look at his good meaning and pardon his Application That 53. of Esay exceedingly straitens the learned Jews and puzzles them in their Expositions to make it fit for some other rather than Christ Jesus but divers of them are enforced to apply it to Christ Of the Application of the 53 of Esay to Christ the Messias Hieronymus de sancta fide a converted Iew gives us his sure word that divers of their Rabbins go that way as R. Osua in Sanhedrin and R. Jose Galiaeus in a Book called Zifrat Lord Morney brings in others of their Doctors fitting this Chapter to him as R. Vla veniat sed absit ut videam Let him come but farre be it from me that I should see him meaning his wounds and sufferings will be so grievous as men will hide their faces from him And upon Ruth on these words Dip thy morsell in the Vinegar their Midrasch or Commentary hath it The morsell is the bread of the King Messias who shall be broken for our sinnes and shall indure great torments as was foreteld by Esay To stop the mouthes of all Iewes R. Simeon the sonne of Johni a chiefe one of them writes as if he were cloathed with the Sunne Wo saith he to the men of Israel for they shall slay the Christ And God shall send unto them his sonne cloathed with mans flesh that he may wash and cleanse them and they shall slay him R. Iohanan pitches truly upon the very time of Iesus Christs exercising his Ministery upon earth agreeable to the Historie Evangelicall of his life Three years and a half saith he the presence of God did crie upon Mount Olivet Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near Which is â—ust the common computation of the time of Iesus Christs preaching from his Baptisme to his Passion Here let it be noted once for all that this Doctour doth altogether call Christ the Iust or Righteous One an excellent name agreeing with the Scripture that calls him so proving in him there was no sinne no unrighteousnesse â—o guile and therefore he was fit to be Jehovah Tsidkenu The Lord our Righteousnesse Peter preaching to the Iews concerning Christ saith They denyed the holy One and the Iust and Stephen in his Sermon calls him the Iust One. So Ananias called Christ that Iust One. Among the Iewish Doctours it is ordinary to call Christ by this name by way of excellency The earth saith one of them standeth but upon one Pillar and the Iust One is his Name as it is in the Book of Proverbs Chap. 10. In the end of the Chapter the Iew alledges the agreement of the Gospels relation to the Prophets prediction concerning Christs death wherein like a Christian he flies from the Iews and cloaths himself with the Christians Armour of light beleeving the Gospell which professed Iews hate with an indeleble hatred CHAP. IX X XI IN these Chapters he proves that Christ shall have a double comming First in basenes and humility then secondly in Majesty and glory Sometimes onely he teaches Scripture to speak more then is intended as in that place of Esay because it is said Awake Awake twice he will have it to mean Christs double Comming And that of David For he commeth for he commeth is twice repeated because Christ shall twice appear saith R. Samuel But the truth is clearer then that he need these witty though sometimes weak allegations That Christs second comming shall be to judgement and with Fire and glorious Majestie he rightly and Orthodoxly holds and proves It is a rare Testimony to the credit of our Christian Baptism that he
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