God hath said it that he will not lose one of them though a small grain a microcosm indeed so little that proud looks take no notice of him Like unto some expressions of a Blade in the late wars that when he hath been shewn a poor Highlander to run towards a dike to save his life from out of the battel he would say that he was such a poor rogue not worth murdering that he would forbear to run him through Even so are the Jews become despicable in the eyes of many prophane Christians but the living God hath sworn by himself that he will renew his covenant with them and give them a heart of flesh ready to receive any impression that may please him the Searcher of all hearts to put upon it although for the present ignorance and blindness hath so overshadowed their understanding as that they are insensible of their condition and of their unbelief This is that time which all good Christians should long to behold for then when God shal1 change their vile spirits though for the most part ignorantly vile then and not till then it will be that Israel will loath himself for all his abominations so that God will accept them for a sweet smelling savor and give such pleasant rest in their borders so that they shall be afraid of the nations no longer but God will be a wall of fire round about them a God that never sleeps nor slumbers but is the living God and now because he lives he is able to know and to hear the groanings of his people and because he is the Lord he changeth not and therefore both they and we are not consumed nor cut off from the earth for as Zanchy saith In Deo nihil est quod non sit ipse Deus Now the Lord doth and hath promised speaking of the idle Shepherds of his flock which did lead his people astray both before in and after the captivity under the Chaldeans that in that day meaning their day of restauration he would set over them but one Shepherd even my servant David This is that much desired time for here by David we do understand Christ as it is often in Scripture-sense rehearsed So that now when they shall accept their Saviour for their King God promiseth that they shall never more be a prey to the heathen Indeed to day not only Turks and Infidels but also many hypocritical Christians do serve themselves of them and prey upon them But because of these things let not men affirm them to be utterly rejected untill they have well and cautiously understood that blessed Apostle of our Lord S. Paul who cries out in Rom. 11. after a strange manner What then hath God cast away his people As if he should have said taking the Context immediately preceding What because my Country-men were a rebellious and stiffnecked people and did withstand and turn the deaf ear unto the former Prophets hath God therefore utterly forsaken them is there no more sacrifice for sin belonging to Israel He doth thus answer himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had said No it is impossible or it cannot be For he shews the reason of it because their stumbling was not such as could cause a total falling away There are indeed some men though but few here amongst us in England who by pinning their unusual charity upon old Father Origen's authority do believe that the redemption purchased by our Saviour will at the last extend it self even unto the damned but the truth of this I will not dispute But however if the Origenists do account of it as a sin to leave the Devils without hope I am sure it is a far greater sin for any to leave the Jewes in a state of despairing No they have indeed fallen with a great discent from their original condition but yet do but see in the second chap. of Luke and there old Simeon prophesieth that Behold this Child is set for the fall and rising up of many in Israel Here the just man foresaw that Jesus Christ would be a stone of stumbling unto many of them but yet he should be laid a chief corner-stone tryed and precious for the rising of many again in Israel and though they fall they shall arise And doubtless Jesus Christ is a stumbling block not only to many Jewes but also to the curious sophisters of the world whose wisdom the Apostle S. Paul writing to the Grecians and not to the Jewes at that time said God would confound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore asks them by way of exprobration What does become of you smooth-tongued Corinthians is not your wisdom meer foolishness with God So that for all their present reproaches God will at the last exalt his people Israel above other Nations He will the Text saith yet chuse the foolish and despicable things of Jacob and have mercy on the things that are not which are such as mortal men just wordlings and no more dare not say that they have a being And of this sort are the ten Tribes who in some sense nay carnal reason affirmeth not to be Yet these nothings as you say God will prefer before the worldly-wise before the mighty and noble things of this sinful age and then will that promise be fulfilled in Jer. 19.22 how that from that time forward they shall know and that of a truth that the Lord their God is with them and so to abide for ever It may be now they know that God is with them although it be but darkly or behind the vail For though they did in the wilderness perceive only in the daytime a thick cloud yet they did believe that their God was there as well as in the pillar of fire by night Israel hath yet a little faith though I fear England hath less and they have so great assurance by what former mercies they have received from the Lord that shortly they shall not see as through a lattice but as Job sayes cum his meis oculis so with their very eyes they shall see the desires of their souls accomplished So in Jer. 30.11 For I am with thee saith the Lord to save thee yea though I make a full end of all nations yet will I not make a full end of thee Now here is a gracious promise that God will be unto them as the saving Angel that did hasten and pull Gods people out of the midst of fire and brimstone which fell upon that wicked City This is a faithful saying That although the Lord should scatter us with the rest of the Nations and should give us the fruits of our doings in fury yet he will not destroy them alluding to the plagues of Egypt that although they conversed one amongst another yet not one plague would seize upon them It will be the same case once more and then what a terror will it be for all Jew contemners to behold Israel in such felicity and themselves in so
Sun that great luminary of heaven is never at rest untill it hath refreshed all the dark corners of the earth it must run over Europe and America as well as Africa and Asia so this glorious Son of God will never cease nor slack his arm untill he hath effected that Christian freedom spoken of in the 8. of John not only for Judah and Benjamin not only for the Jews in Europe but also for all the families or tribes of Israel when this proverb shall be out of date The Lord liveth which brought the Israelites out of Egypt But now The Lord liveth which brought the children of Israel from the land of the North c. But when the Lord comes to be the God of all the families that is all the Tribes of Israel he faith he will be their God and they shall be his people Here is Gods omnipotencie seen in taming the proudest hearts on earth This will break a way in the desart not only of sandy Persia but of the ston̄y and solitary place of unbelief for in Ezek. 37. saith the Lord I will make the house of Judah and the children of Israel his fellows one nation and they shall no more be divided Now here is a double promise first a return of their captivity and then of their scepter they shal now be a nation which lately were not a nation and shall no more hear the voice of a stranger the time is at hand when neither the might of the Chaldeans nor wisdom of the Grecians their mortal enemies nor fox-like policie of the Romans nor cruelty of the English shal terrifie them but they shall have one King to rule over them all even Jesus Christ and then Ephraim will say what have I to do anymore with idols though as yet they do much defile themselves therewith in Persia and in the Indies Now I say we may shrewdly conjecture of American Israelites but of a certain for Merchants in the former Countries there are none more numerous then Hebrew merchants residing and trading continually in divers Port-towns in Asia as also in divers other Countries in the South by Lybia and other remote parts of Africk And in the 39 of Ezekiel the Lord saith I will bring back again the captivity of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel Take notice I will do it but when why even then when they have born their shame Ah Lord when will it once be shall shame take hold on them for ever They have been many generations without a King true Priest or Prophet surely Shiloh shal come and rejoice in their hearts as wel as he doth already in ours that in the administration of all his 3 offices 1. as a King when the Lord shal reign over them in mount Zion henceforth and for evermore Then David my servant shall rule over them Here is the Kings certain government I will rule in righteousness and in truth And here is the peoples willing and delectable subjection and obedience not like the Grecians who at this day when need requireth serve the Grand Signior more out of slavish fear then with any love they bear to him or his people But thus the Iewes say we will call on the name of the Lord our God is it not the day of Gods power wherein they shall be a willing people like soft wax or like the servants of the Centurion ready to obey the Lord and receive any impressions which God shal put on the souls of his people 2. As a Priest he will shew them after what manner he did offer up himself once upon the Cross for all men and he will intercede with the Lord for them and so by his own merits he will blot out all their offences and remember their sins no more but will make them a sweet smelling favour in the presence of the Lord by sprinkling their hearts with his own most precious blood and in stead of punishing them for their fathers cruelty towards him he will save them for his names sake 3. As a Prophet he will cause the law to go out of Zion and his statutes out of Iudah he will preach to them the glad tidings of repentance He will instruct them in all manner of Gospel and Christian not Pharisaical righteousness and point unto them saying This my people is the way that leadeth unto life walk in it He will by this means convince them though dead in unbelief when he shall make them to hear the voice of the Son of God that so by awaking from that deadly sleep of incredulity they may having eares hearken unto that powerful call of Jesus Christ by which he raised Lazarus from the grave that so by their hearing and doing of that whch they hear they may attain unto eternal life and therefore doubtless God will have mercy on the whole house of Israel But I do desire that I may not be mistaken for I dare not affirm that meaning of the Apostles in the Romans how that all Israel shall be saved nor this president to be of so large extent as that the whole twelve Tribes shall be saved no nor yet one whole Tribe but thus I do believe that all Israel the true Israel according to the spirit shall be saved eternally And thus far confident I am the whole house of Israel that is all the twelve Tribes as many as are then in the world remaining shall see the salvation of the Lord and have the Christian faith amongst them as plentiful as we have it So that as amongst our selves we are none of us able to distingnish who is a true child of God who an hypocrite even so God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy over all For as Chrysostome faith of understanding of the Word of God Nil opus est syllogismis so the Apostle James if he had thought that only two Tribes would be called to the faith why then did he write unto the other ten in this manner James to the twelve Tribes scattered abroad greeting Certainly no man dares deny but they are of Adam as well awe and therefore they may safely expect to have as much benefit for ought I know by the death of Christ who is the true second Adam as we for we know and that by woful experience how that many times the name of a Christian profits a man nothing So that if you ask any man here in England as he passeth by Are you a Christian do you believe on the name of Jesus Christ his answer will be immediately Why do you take me to be a Jew Though it may be he is one of the prophanest wretches living But let me tell such a man that he comes far short of a Jew although he makes him far inferior to himself No the Jewes do abhominate to do wickedly and to commit his crimes Their chiefest sins are either of ignorance or of omission but he is a meer Atheist in his
suffer much for the sin of their fathers here is blood toucheth blood and the more they suffer the more refined they believe they shall come out of the fire And now I cannot chuse but think of Father Ambrose's expression because I have heard it from the mouth of an unconverted Jew here in London born in Padua a City of Italy whose father once a merchant as he reports having most of his estate coming in a vessel from Rhodes was taken by an Argiers-Pyrate and therefore being five brothers of them he having three or four languages came over into England in a Plymouth-ship having his passage freely given him and here he hoped to get a service under some Noble-man but waiting long first is now gone into Scotland which a Nobleman of this land saith are in some sense allied one Nation to another But this was his expression when I his interpreter a French-man and one more were with him Speaking of their grievous estate he made answer Qui vult vincere primo discat pati Now I say that although it be a common thing in Turky for one drunken deboist Janizare or other to set the Jews houses on fire in the night-time yet in the morning they have no change of colour in their looks alluding to their Countryman Daniels putting into the Lions den and therefore without complaining to the Bashaw or Beglerbeg as indeed sometimes if they should it would be but in vain they go but to others of their Country-men and find sudden relief using the expressions of the Patriarch Job Shall we receive good and not evil from the hands of the Lord It is now come to the same pass as formerly when the Egyptians did bear such malice to the Christians as Christians in many places do now bear to the Jews who when Nilus overflowed not or any other evil disaster happened the Devil who is the father of a lye and the grand enemy of mans salvation would presently oraculize and tell the superstitious inhabitants that it was ob istam Tolerationem Christinam and therfore no sooner way to have Nilus fill their trenches then by throwing Christianes ad Leones Even so to the shame and stain of Christian religion not of Turks and other Musselmen in many places of Italy and Germany if any thing go amiss or any fiâ—e happen it is common with many nominal Christians to exclaim of the Jews and say it came by means of them like that lately in Venice where it is reported of a rich Jew a Merchant to suffer extremely by reason the Turks prevented the going of some provisions to Canea Some men are for their own ends wilfully blind and so will take no notice of the finger of God in any cross not like Job who when the Chaldeans and the Sabeans took away his cattel cryed out The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be his name But as the Devil had his end in the primitive times yet as by Divine permission in procuring some innocent blood so many men do make prize of the Jews by these calumnies Like the Mallabar Junks who will not assault a Vessel in her going to those rich Ports of the Chinoise extra Ganges but will snap her in the return So these will suffer the Iews gladly until they have by their industry and labor gotten some wealth wherewith to maintain their children but then how many Knights of the Post not of Malta what horrid accusations will be brought and what impudent pleading as in Vckrain will there be by such as do not fear the alknowing God so much as the Egyptians did nor as the Indians doe at this day obey the Devil until such a Jew's estate be adjudged confiscated I confess it is a piece of worldly but cowardly policie to do thus by the Hebrews because I look on them as for the present sine viribus being there is few or none that will take their part So that the saying of that evil servant is now verified by such austere and hard masters that reap where they did not straw As also to the servile Jews may the Poets fiction be applied of one in hell That as he makes ropes there standeth an Ass and bites them asunder They work for that which others contra normam naturae and by most unworthy overcoming do enjoy And thus far have I shewed the Reader what are the hopes of Israel In the next place I shall lay down my weak opinion how and after what manner the Jews may be converted to the Christian faith so as to believe on him whom they call the Christians Messiah And first Negatively Not as the Scholars use in Hungaria and those parts to beat Christianity into them by buffeting them in their own shops and houses and out of one City into another Now Reader here is the manner of dispensation of those gifts and parts which God hath given these men Here is ne amplius but a word and a blow as if so be because God hath forsaken them for a while therefore Hebrews were no better then dogs Here is the everlasting credit or high discredit of self-conceited Hungarians I here are your ignoramus Scholars which make as if they were only able to unfold the truths of God Nay I am certified that about a year ago they fell upon the Jews unawares and as they were quietly following their calling and killed some of them and would have done greater mischief had not the goodness of the Emperor extended presently to them by sending a band of souldiers to rescue them This moreover makes me think that God hath reservd greater mercies in store for them for he doth often suffer his own Saints and servants to be tossed with tempest and afflicted for many years together I am ashamed that knowing men such as daily read the Scripture should conjecture so foolishly as if so be they were able to beat Christ into them Now I say except a man were utterly given over to brutishness and to have a seared conscience so as he is for any religion like those people that before they will endure the least hardship will turn Turks denying the Lord that hath bought them I say else the most barbarous Idolaters will not forsake the religion of their ancestors by this foolish way of administration and do these mad men think to force a Jew from his religion Are those stupid dunces no better read in the stratagem of the Jews where Antiochus Epiphanes that Tyrant did force the Jews with fire and sword strangling men hanging some women with their children about their necks others with their poor sucklings about their breast he threw headlong over the walls of Jerusalem profaned the Temple forced the Iews to eat Swines flesh to forsake their Circumcision and to adore his Gods yet all this and more could not move the rest one step from their religion Sure these men do little regard how the Apostles mild way of exhortation and perswasion to believe
word of God which I mentioned in the Revelations where the Angel preacheth unto every kindred and tongue I dare not exempt the very Cannibal-Indians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or man-devourers Yea surely before these mens day of judgment cometh the Gospel will be made known by one means or other although for the present the most part as is supposed of this new American world remaineth in total obscurity It may be that the instruments that the Lord will make use of for their conversion are some of them yet unborn And therefore the Prophet Isaiah saith And the Isles shall wait for thy Law They doe grope in the dark as yet and God knows when their time is covenient the Lords wayes are unsearchable And therefore an old Portuguise could take notice of the great wisdom of God that even against wind and stream the Lord did carry one of their Carracks being bound for Carthagena to load with bars of silver unto a Barbarian Island to which they never deemed to have arrived who by this means are now become joyful hearers and doers of the world of God So that the Isles must wait Gods time and he will teach them his statutes Now some perhaps will say But does not the Apostle write that the Gospel hath already been preached unto all the world It is true that so far as men were to be found I do believe the preaching of the Gospel did then extend it self But further to clear this we doe find this recorded That although Thomas the Apostle chose Parthia Matthew Ethiopia Bartholomew India wherein to preach glad tidings yet the middle India being inhabited of many rude and barbarous nations did not receive the least knowledge of the Christian faith until the good reign of Constantine the Great which was almost 300 years after St. Pauls writing And therefore it is true and well called the whole known world But for this part of the world by some called the New-world considering its large bounds was never known unto any Age that we can read of untill some hundreds of years since Christ And therefore our best Geographers call a great part of it Terra incognita But above all these things I should think that this joyful newes from neer that most excellent Nation of China namely from Formosa that rich East-Indian Island of many thousands of them their forsaking the worshipping of idols and their happy conversion to Christian faith should take men off from those vain words that the day of consummation of all things is at hand If God doe this by the Heathens do you think that God will not doe much more for his antient people although for the present many of them heathenized Shall Israel despair because God bath hidden his face a while in the cloud Perhaps some curious Momus may repine and say that the conversion of those neer China to the faith was instrumentally accomplished by the Popish faction and therefore they are in no better condition then when they did worship the Devil and his suggestions To this I shall only use the Apostle S. Pauls moderate answer in such a case That whether in truth or in pretence so Christ be preached I doe rejoice yea and I will rejoice But that this Conversion of the Formosan Indians was not to the Popish but the Reformed Christian religion it is thus testified by Alvarus a Jesuite himself in his Relation of China par 1. chap. 2. printed at Rome 1643. Molto sent convertin ma alla fede Calvinistica c. that is Many were converted speaking of Formosans but saith he to the Calvinistical faith induced by Holland Ministers and lived vertuously Thus affirms Alvarus the Jesuite He that is one of the chosen and faithful servants of God although Christ be preached to the Infidels by dissembling Jesuites yet will joy and be glad abundantly and would beg of God that he would in this self-seeking age raise up the affections of his Saints and servants to use the whole body and soul in the propagating of the Gospel and that they may thereby as well of Jews as Gentiles adde unto the number of the Church such as shall be saved For doubtless let all the Devils in hell contribute their whole strength to the impediting of this work already begun in the Indies yet God will never leave it untill he hath performed all his promises made in the Scripture both to the Jew and Gentile Oh what great consolation should this be to those that cry How long Lord shall be the desolations of thy Zion when they have it confirmed to them that such secure and lofty Idolaters should by the mercy of God be brought so humble as to see their own baseness and be ashamed of their own doings and now doe begin to worship the true God that made the heaven the earth and the sea with all that therein are This is that Imperial Monarch who doth account of all the world but as slaves in comparison of them This is that potent people that entitle themselves in their regal denominations Lord of the world and son of heaven This is that most curious people from whom this Western world received their art of Printing Needle-work and other rare Sciences and now doe receive from us that most excellent and supernatural science to know the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent And this is a mercy indeed which should make us to cry out with the Apostle Oh the depth of the riches of the love of God how unsearchable are his wayes and his judgments past finding out And that the Lord should so far prefer mercy before his judgment that he did not to this people as he did to Tyre and Zidon and other lofty places and nations but in stead of overthrowing these careless livers declared unto them the glad tidings of repentance and remission of sins Therefore whosoever it is that does determine seasons and times I desire him to look to it for although God doe reveal himself in great measure in these our days yet there were never more deceitful suggestions in the world then are now according to the prediction of our blessed Saviour that such dayes would come But in so doing a man doth rob God of his prerogative which to him doth alone belong to know the times and seasons and to know the approach of that great and terrible day of the Lord who shall then unmask all false Prophets and separate the sheep from the goats But to the main business in hand it now stands me in stead to prove the calling of the Jews to be a sound truth and no fancie And first for Scripture in Dent. 32.26 I said I would scatter them into corners and make their remembrance to cease from among men c. Now here by this men will generally grant that Israel is dispersed and driven into far countries Now for their return I will first cite that place in Jer. 16. Behold I will
send for many fishers saith the Lord and they shall fish for them and afterwards I will sexd for many hunters and they shall hunt for them from every mountain and from every hill and out of the boles of the rocks Now if this had been spoken of the captivity under Nebuzaradan they needed not this seeking and hunting living peaceably under the King of Babylon's yoke that he put upon them but without doubt it is meant by that last and cruel captivity under Vespasian and Titus of which Josephus so writes that it makes me to tremble Then indeed they were fain to fly to the mountains and in so doing they did receive the counsel of our Saviour and their Saviour where he saith Then let them that are in Judea flee into the Mountains So that I do confess how that since that time they have seen in what holes they might put their heads but now they shall know that their Redeemer liveth how Jesus Christ whom their Fathers crucified was so full of pitty that the did advise them knowing what sad days would come upon them to take the safest course in such an evil time whereby doubtless many did escape whose successors remain in some unknown as to the eys of the world places where the Lords fishers and hunters will find them out And then it follows in the 30. of Jeremiah and the 17. For I will restore health unto thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds saith the Lord because they called thee an outcast saying this is Sion whom no man seeketh after Here is a gracious promise for them and oh that it might work upon us here in England for we above all the barbarous Nations do not regard them but are indeed suum cuique every man for his own private ends the Lord grant that this be not one reason of our present divisions as also of our former miseries It had fared better with the Arabians those subtâ—le inhabitants of Kedar if they had done that which was their duty and as the Lord commanded them which was to hide the Jews and to be a covert unto them in the day of slaughter and not to have delivered and betrayed the outcasts into the hands of the spoyler but oh miserable that we that pretend to have the greatest knowledge of God in Christ and to follow the actions of Christ which he did upon Earth that we I say should rather add to their affliction and mocking at their tribulation should pass by saying This is Sion whom no man regardeth and if we do not here use the self-same expressions we tolerate and countenance the same actions like the proud Levite who though he knew and saw the sad estate of the wounded man yet passed by that is he would not use any possible means to help him out of his misery nor we the Jews out of theirs we do exceed the Turk in his instant cruelty he will I am afraid as concerning this matter arise up in judgement against us and although he hate all Nations himself excepted and is termed by the School-men flagellum humani generis and that the Scriptâ—re in the seventh of Ezekiel and twenty fourth verse is now and not until now come to pass while the Turk possesseth their houses which indeed are those worst of the Heathen there spoken of such as Alexander called a bruit-like Nation because that men were never able to conquer nor civilize them by reason of that unpassable sandy Desart of Zim now Arabia Deserta Yet I say this people shew them more mercy and favour then we do and suffer them not only as sojourners to live peaceably amongst them but have given them one whole Town in the Island of S. Maura within the Hellespont and a great part of Salonica So that I am fully perswaded that if it were not for such good natured Catamites and Pagans our Christian charity is so base and horrid that we would scarce leave a Jew upon the face of the earth But in Jer. 31.17 There is hope in thine end saith the Lord and thy children shall come again to their own border Exitus acta probat This is that Scripture which is so often in their mouths and this is that time which they long to see even to dwell again in their own border Which thing I might fafely consult about for that I have good Scripture for it as in Zach. 12.6 But I will resign up my judgment in that business to the present Jewish faith who for very grief because many of them live not to see those dayes they will although decrepit with old age both men and women even at this day carry their parents and friends bones with them and there they will wait in their own country untill death do begin to seize on them and then they will die with such exceeding alacrity that it causeth admiration But as in another place so the end is not yet God hath not as yet finished his whole work upon Mount Zion it is but yet a little while and He that will come shall come and will not tarry Czek 11.17 19. Then saith the Lord I will gather you from among the heathen and then none shall make you afraid Here in Europe the Jewes lie like the grape-gleanings of the Vintage for there the Lord findeth one in that Town abased and scoffed at by all that meet him another in this place it may be weary of his life for that he seeth not the expectation of his years as yet to be reveal'd unto him So in one part of Asia here a city or place the inhabitants of which perhaps for the most part are all Jewes and then in another place you shall have them prohibited as in Pera Sestos and in other places amongst the heathen Now this being considered I believe how that all men will say that these had need of an all-seeing eye to gather them out of the secret places of the earth and out of the holes of the rock there where the vultures eye hath not perceived Ezek. 34.16 I saith the Lord will seek that which was lost and bind up that which was broken and strengthen that which was sick Indeed let us enquire after the Jewish present condition for if ever Israel was lost it is now especially when we remember how great a people they were and how small they now are in the view of those people who do deem the world to be of little more compass then they know but if they were fled to the uttermost most parts of the sea thither can and will the Lords arm help them and release them There is not so vast a difference by far between the heavens and the earth as there is between Gods knowledg and mans weak understanding And it is true that men must seek and search for many things before they can possess them but where we read in the Scripture of the Lords seeking any man or thing it is meant that God will
the conversations of all men both Jews and Christians to the open aspect of the world Then let not Israel see our present Christian nakedness let not Jacob say I came to them in want but they relieved me not I was hungry a stranger and destitute and they would not take me in but on the contrary like the rich Glutton they commanded me to be beaten and driven forth of their gates and this was all I heard Here is nothing for you And this I can confirm that last September there was a Jew whose name was Jobak Ben Daniel born in Skeydam a place in the Netherlands and taken amongst others in a Dutch-Vessel being with the rest set ashore here at London and a Londoner who thought himself no small Neophytus in Learning having before in the Poultry once examined hlm of his country being in other kind of habit then the Flemmings and having an old Armenian now residing in London in his company who can speak sufficient English and being thereof satisfied as also of his religion did not only withhold his own miserable hands from giving him alms but withstood the charity of some others saying where-ere he met him Give him nothing he is a cursed Jew But if God do not change his rotten heart he will have the same answer Go thou cursed for I know thee not I have no mercy for thee Ah friends God hath not blinded Israel for a while nor broken them off that any man should boast but that rather we ought as the saith to behold the goodness and the long-suffering of God to usward and that with great humility reverence and thankful affection towards the Lord for this his distinguishing mercy The voice of our Saviour it is said was not heard in the streets but the noise of our cruelty is gone forth into all the solitary places where these poor Jews inhabit nay I am assured that the name of an English man makes them afraid The Lord Christ would not scorn the smallest reed but our Nation hath despised the Lords day of small things He came to give life unto dry bones but we beat them to powder He came to look after that which had been so many years lost but our Ancestors caused them to flie into the secret holes of the rock But and if these things will not cause some fellow-feeling in them that read this book to take part with the sufferings of Zion to weep with Titus the heathe◠over or with Constantine that vertuous Christian to pray for them c. I do yet hope that by way of exhortation I may move the most obdurate spirit and that for these reasons 1. Because that in the time of our Saviours being on earth the whole scope and drift of his words and actions was chiefly to this purpose as he told the Jews that they through him might be saved These things saith he speaking of the way by which we must pass into the kingdom of heaven I Jesus I your dear Saviour say that you poor outcasts might be saved And though he knew all things and needed not the help of any man and therefore was not in the leastwise ignorant how their deliverance was yet afar off yet he like an obedient Son would make known to them what he came into the world for to do even his Fathers will and therefore thus and thus he communed with them about their worship and conversation nothing more then what did tend to their future estate Where is the Christian now like unto that true and faithfull servant who hideth not his masters talent in the earth but doth traffique with it that the poor blind Jews may be called from darkness to light The Apostle Peter bids us that as every one hath received even so let him minister let him distribute his gifts and graces in fulness of love one man bearing his brothers burden and this is part of the communion of Gods chosen people But 2. we ought to use our whole strength to do them good because that by their fall salvation came to the Gentiles Oh that now I could speak home unto all that read this It was for our sakes that they hated Christ refused the Gospel and became enemies to the truth that we might be brought to the knowledge of him that is able to save to the utmost It not this argument enough to perswade us the Lord hath for a season deprived them of their oracles and their former glory and hath laid them aside which were once his people that we stupid and blind idolaters might be grafted into the true Olive tree to stand before the Lord and to be made partakers of their priviledges Herein consisteth much of the mysterie of our redemption that when we were aliens and without hope even them Christ dyed for us We had no right to the promises of old as the Jews but were that cursed seed that were forbidden to enter into the Congregation But now the third and last motive shall be from that benefit which wil arise to us Gentiles by means of their conversion Now where is the man of our dayes but will be desirous and willing as David saith to behold or rather receive anything as is good Now I say although we here in England and in some other adjacent Countries have plenty of knowledg and of the means of grace yet when their conversion happens we shall see and know far more clearly then we do For mark but the Apostle expression in Rom. 11.12 How much more their fulness as if he should have said At the cuting off Israel great were the riches which arrived to the Gentiles but what light and what riches shall there be when the Israelites shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord Thus in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Paul speaks hyperborically as if he were not able to conceive what an exceeding plenty there will be of knowledge then shall every vessel of the Lords house be filled with holiness even then when God makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth And now that Scripture will be fulfilled in Zech. 8. and the last verse Thus saith the Lord of Hosts in that day ten men out of all languages of the nations shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew saying We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you I wll write a little of this Scripture Thus saith the Lord of hosts This is that strong and mighty name by which God was not known amongst his own people for a long season and being so full of majesty and terror who dares read it without trembling In that day it shall come to pass that is when the Morning-star shall arise upon their souls and the Day-spring from on high shall visit them as it hath done some of the Americans this is that day of their joy and gladness a day of good tidings it will not be a day of thunder nor
in no wise understand it for it is written in the Evangelists that he spake to them in parables and in dark sayings only to fulfill the Scripture that Israel seeing him yet should not see nor hearing should understand For when Christ told the Jews of raising the destroyed Temple in three dayes time he made it not clear to them for he then spake of the Temple of his body and upon that the Hebrews being not able to apprehend his true meaning it seemed but as a vain saying to them But for the matter in that place where the Lord did affirm he was before Abraham there was their great mistake Now they meant according to their knowledg of Christ as he took upon him the humane nature sin only excepted but he meant according unto his eternal Godhead who was that Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Now it is said in the Evangelist St. John that when they heard these sayings they were offended and cryed out Who can hear it and thereupon many of his Disciples were so foolish as that they revolted from Christ This was a greater default in them then in the Jews which made our Saviour wonder and say to the twelve Will ye go away also And notwithstanding their present detestations of so base a relapse yet we know that when he came to suffer his Disciples ran their way and left him Then if a Christians faith may be so tottering no marvail the Jews did not then accept him for their Messiah But chiefly our Saviour did drive at this that he might beat the Jews off from their own self-righteousness and hypocritical works and for this cause they said he came to destroy and to abrogate the Law of Moses that he would sit at meat with Publicans and sinners do cures on the Sabbath-day and the like But the last and greatest hinderance of their belief next unto Gods purpose was in that he whom they believe is or will be God with them was or should be capable of suffering death Wherefore said the Jews if the King of Israel let him save himself So that the most ready amongst them to believe on Christ when he came to suffer did then fall away as in the 24 of Luke v. 21. But we trusted it had been he who should have redeemed Israel And herein consisted the invalidity of their Thesis they did not firmly believe but only supposed that this was he Their faith was as little or rather less then the faith of Thomas but Iesus Christ calleth that a blessed faith which is the substance of things only hoped for But as I say all along so now Gods time it seems is not as yet come and therefore his justice must and will be fully satisfied before mercy will extend unto any man We all know that if God should not punish for sin it would much derogate from his holiness which attribute God doth so excell in as it is said he hateth to look upon sin and without the participation of which no soul can enter into glory And further it was requisite and just that the Lord should so punish Israel because that whom he loveth he chasteneth and when God doth suffer any one to go on in his sins unpunished it argues that he lies under the heavy sentence of Gods displeasure The Apostle St. Paul had never found out that good way not of Damascus but that which leads to eternal happiness if the Lord had not first struck him blind So his brethren the Jewes must not go to their journies end without crosses and persecutions for it is not only a narrow way but it is a perillous way a pass scarce passable by reason of those many tribulations and various trials that the faithfull meet withall in their pilgrimage and therefore great is the wisdom of God which goes along with their captivity Then let not Christians that think they stand boast nor be high-minded As there was no Cedar in Lebahon but was liable to lopping so there is no Christian so tall nor steady but may fall into most gross and scandalous enormities yea so low as that God may seem to have forsaken him for a season as he hath the Jews For is not this written for eternity to consider on how notwithstanding all the good deeds of Hezekiah yet he was branded or rather clouded with this exprobration That he rendred not unto the Lord according unto what he had received And was not this the reason of Israels dejection and present rejection because the Scripture saith he rejected and put far away from him all the Lords benefits Jesurun had enough nay rather too much of the mercies of God except he had made better improvement of them then to kick and spurn against God and his holy Word Certainly the Lord doth not give any man riches or shew any man mercy that thereby he should rebell Should we sin because grace aboundeth God forbid Nay rather with Saul we should admire the exceeding riches of free-grace that such bondmen as the Israelites in Egypt were and that such great sinners as we are should obtain the least crum of mercy This is indeed was their misery that they knew not that it was God that did draw them as it were with bonds of love neither studied for to know And for this cause hath the Lord cast them down so low that nothing can raise them out of their blind and undone estate but the omnipotent word of the Lord which resurrection or restauration will be accomplished by taking away those scales of unbelief which hang before their eyes For they are not yet arrived to Damascus neither as yet is Ananias come to them They are not thither come because there is none as yet that do take this blind creature by the hand whereby to guide her and he that will enlighten the dark minds of their understanding even the Glory of Israel hath not as yet given charge to the Angel of his presence for their salvation It is said in one of the Prophets Will the Lion roar when he hath caught the prey and hath enough and will not the Grape-gatherers leave the gleanings So that from this allusion which the Lord by the mouth of the Prophet sent unto the Jews formerly is much talked on amongst them even at this day so that they say the Lord will not be always angry with them but he will remember the covenant which he made with their fathers God will leave a remnant to possess the desolate and waste places such as he hath reserved for his own purpose such as can stand and admire to remember the dayes of old whose hearing the sad relation of their fathers so many hundred years living in darkness for that horrid doleful saying of theirs at the crucifixion of their King his blood be upon us and our children will make their ears to tingle O foolish people and unwise that should by their hardness of heart and stubborness of mind produce