THE Resurrection of Dead Bones OR THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWES In a Treatise Wherein are clearly demonstrated the places where and manner how the Ten supposed lost Tribes of Israel do at this day subsist With a Description of the future glorious estate of the Twelve at the incomparable Union of Judah and Ephraim which must shortly be in reference to its compleating the whole mysterie of mans Redemption and real establishing of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ after the Jews Conversion Written by J. J. Philo-Judaeus 2 King 17 6. In the ninth year of Hoshea the King of Assyria took Samaria and carâ—ied Israel awaâ— into Assyria placed them in Halath and in Habor by the river of Gozan and in the cities of the Medes Hos 3 4. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a King and without a Prince and without a sacrifice c. Rom. 11.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed for Giles Calvert 165â— TO THE CHRISTIAN READER THe holy Scriptures doe often declare how it hath pleased the almighty God in former ages as well as at this day to cast off his own peculiar people because of their vile prevarications But we doe never find Christian Reader that the Lord did ever cast away any of his people The ten Tribes of Israel which are the chiefest subject of this Discourse were cast off when the service of God became a weariness to them and they chose rather to follow after Jeroboam the son of Nebat that enticed them to sin then to go up to Jerusalem to seek the living God The two Tribes were cast off for the space of seventy years in Babylonish servitude but more perspicuously when Titus the Roman Generall carried them away captive for crucifying their King by which means they are according unto that place Deut. 32.26 scattered even at this very day throughout the four corners of the earth And thus cast off shall be until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and at whose reception the promises made by the Amen the faithful Witness that cannot lye will be compleated Which time and season of Israels restauration cannot be far off by that security in which the generality of our age do indulge themselves quieting their consciences with some formal and civil conversation having no respect at all to the nature of true grace which is always going forward towards perfection and longing for the conversion of others But also many scoffers there now are saying When will the Jewes be called and Where is the promâ—se of his coming who likewise shall have their reward Now to such as long for the appearing of Christ sure I need not use many expressions to excite them to use their whole strength in helping forward this so long expected Conversion of the Jews Only this Inherit a kingdom For I was a stranger and ye took me in And the Apostle saith it shall be life from the dead This should make believers with whom Jesus Christ is accounted precious to gird their loins like men to put on the whole armor of Christ and to stand upon their watch as that when the Hebrews shall by providence come into this Nation they may see such a lustre and beauty in your conversation and such liveliness in your affections as it may allure them to imbrace your faith And then both Judah and Israel will be ingrafted again into that Olive-tree whose root is Christ the same who their fathers ignorantly slew and whom they have for above this sixteen hundred years withstood that through their neglect salvation might arrive to us Gentiles Now God being able to raise up these dead and dry bones hath promised them to uphold them in their greatest calamity That as they were a terror so they should again be a terror to all the Nations of the world Which I am sure they have never as yet been since the dayes of Solomon and no Scripture shall pass away no not one iota without effect But as it behoved Jesus Christ our Saviour and their Redeemer to suffer the things he did before he entred into glory even so necessary is it that Israel should be called before his coming to judge the world as that it must bring to pass the Lords own words Mat. 23. ult For I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth untill you shall say Blessed is he which cometh in the name of the Lord. Until their hearts be melted Jerusalem must be trodden down of the Gentiles And therefore let not men distrust because they seee not a present change in them For this is no more a mysterie to the faithful then Gods giving of Abraham a son in his old age was to him Concerning which one speaks well Quod non natura sed Dei promissio Saram fecit matrem How that according to nature Sarah could be no more a mother but it was Gods promise that made her one So according to humane censure Israel is past recovery but according to the supernatural promises of God they were never so near their restauration as now because they are fallen into the greatest desolation I might produce the story of Lazarus where the Lord shewed his almighty power in weakness that no flesh should glory in his presence And therefore when the Lord sees that there is no man to help his own arm will raise and put life into these dead and dry bones of Israel The verity of which Christian Reader I hope to have proved in this Discourse And therefore having understood of one Seigneur Gomegius by whom I did formerly send a Letter Suasory of a famous Jew in the Town of Alcasar de Sal by name D. Ascher F. R. Mardochei who writes to be informed what our belief is concerning their brethren the lost Tribes of Israel Which thing being desired by a worthy Gentleman I have promised to send so much of this Discourse about the ten Tribes as may tend to humble them if the Lord will and to excite their affections to embrace our Messiah besides whose Name there is none under heaven whereby we can be saved from the wrath to come It is thought that the Apostle did win many of the Heathen by an holy guile and I believe the Jews must be won by Love So Christian Reader I desire thee to censure me modestly For that if any thing in this short Treatise shall seem incongruous to thy riper yeares and better judgment I doe here promise that I shall take great delight in being convinced And in the mean while I desire thee to remember desolate Zion in all thy approaches to God as thou doest expect a continual benediction from God-Farewell Thine to serve thee as he may J. J. EPISTOLA M. D. ASCHERI F. R. MARDOCHEI OMnibus Hebraeis per totum orbem in dispersione salutem Mifratres bene creditis quomodo vestros patres male tractabantur annis quadringentis in Egypto quoaduscunque Dominus Deus
Israel The first objection is by a sort of men more rationable then the other sort such as the Father terms moralized and well disposed Christians which ut ipsi volunt do speak and act according to truth and for my part I do believe it is only out of dark zeal But for a more apt and infallible definition let us but nominate them as Origen well spake Ii sunt qui accipiunt isthaec verba secundum literam quae occidit c. Such they are as do only take the literal part of Scripture for the true sense thereof who I am sure would be very unwilling to receive that sentence in the 3. of John v. 18. in the same manner But thus they object That the Lord sent them this certain sign of his displeasure by the mouths of the Prophets that violence shall take hold of you and I saith the Lord will consume you utterly so that none of you shall remain So now where the Lord doth seem to give his people bils of divorce and to root them out from among the rest of the world there these men take it for a firm consequence that those cannot be capable of a Christian conversion whom the Text saith shall not have a being To this I answer When God doth by his servants pronounce his sentence of judgment against a Nation City or Family it is not always an act of his absolute decreeing will for if so there had been no more hope for Israel and if God had absolutely and irrevocably decreed the destruction and utter desolation of Niniveh that great city within forty days time He would not have repented him of the evil which he had determined against it So in Hos 8.11 the Lord saith How shall I deliver thee up Ephraim c. My repentings are kindled together Here now God had threatned to cut Israel off from the land and to make them a spoil for the enemy but he cryeth out How shall I do it As if so be the Lord had no will nor pleasure in the doing of it God did always delight in mercy more then in sacrifice And therefore on the contrary I answer That these expressions of God are part of his declarative will wherein I see much of divine wisdome how that God doth oftentimes work mightily upon the spirits of his own people by way of terror So that if a man do scan many of the Lords expressions he shall perceive them to be no other then conditional much like unto the blessings promised for holiness and curses threatned for sin disobedience Deu. 28. And we often find many good actions produced in men by the Lords displaying his banner of justice over their heads and that both in the inward and the outward man As for proof this produced much even in Ahab that ungodly King who before he met with his enemy the Prophet as he called him went on in an arrogant way devising mischief against the people of God but no sooner came this word to Ahabs eares Thus saith the Lord but it made his haughty naughty heart to stoop for the Text saith that he walked softly As also such was that power which did accompany the preaching of Jonah that it caused the heathen King to call for the most solemn Fast that ever we do read of in the Scripture But above these we may behold the great wisdom of God in those great effects which the threats of the Lord have produc'd in the hearts of many men For it made Manasseh that ungodly King to pray earnestly and to beg pardon of the Lord for all his grievous transgressions And such was the story of Nathan that it made David to grow more watchful I will but make mention of one more and then I hope that all objectors of this sort will be satisfied and that is Hezekiah to whom the Lord did send Isaiah the Prophet to tell the King that he should die and not live Now do but mark the force of these words although delivered to him by the mouth of a mortal man it follows immediately that he turned his face to the wall and prayed and upon this the merciful and only wise God prolonged his days in the land B. Augustine writing on this place affirmeth that novit Dominus mutare sententiam si peccator noscit emendare vitam So that God notwithstanding his first message sent unto the King Austin saith was ready to forgive him and to alter the sentence upon this condition that he would grow more fervent in holiness For as our natural parents are careful to discern the temper and constitution of their children whereby they become very skilful to educate them after various manners some will take learning of any other art sooner by way of perswasion whereas some will not without often chastisement and reproof So our spiritual Father that omniscient and mighty discerner of the hearts of all men doth use the most wise and best way of dealing towards his children for some he doth wooe and draw as with cords of a man and bands of love and others he doth threaten as he did the Israelites only that they might turn to him For the Lord hath sworn that he would have no man to perish nor no hard heart to be cast away but that all might know the truth This makes a Rebel oftentimes become a trusty humble subject under the Lord of mercy The second Objection it by a sort of people that have been very potent amongst us here in England until now of late men of most wide fancies like unto those termed Quakers They do now object and say That what was promised is already fulfilled and that some Jews there were which did believe in the name of Christ and were saved And these men being as they imagine super-humane and super institutiones do affirm that the end of the world is usque ed finem even at the very doors But to answer this I shall do it negativelyâ— For to say that which was promised concerning Israel is already happened is false By the Scripture in Rev. 14.6 it is written That an Angel did fly through the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel for to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation kindred tongue and people Now the blessed Apostle S. Paul to shew as it were in a mysterie the glorious estate of his Countrymen he saith it shall not come until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in Which if I do make clear not as yet to have come to pass then I hope there is no man so Momus-like that will deny but the Jewes may as yet be called But first we may be convinced by that blessed and thrice happy conversion of so many blind Heathens in America that did never so much as hear of a Jesus Christ nor the Gospel before and as I am certified their number of converted ones daily do increase So that we must not clip nor diminish the
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
one with the other in the matter of their religion as in the forms of their worship yet the Lord makes this distinction that they shall both return the Lord will blow his trumpet and then the North shall deliver up the slain Concerning which place I find Authors to vary and therefore being willing to honour one of our modern Writers who relates of a sort of people that do border neer the Chinoise country and are in subjection unto the Chriâ— Tartar which speak a bastard Hebrew or Samaritan language and do still uphold the Circumcision and speak of the Tribes from whence they came So that I do humbly think they are people to whom this place relates 1. Because it is said the North shall deliver them up which place is the most Northern part of that great Empire of Tartary As also they being called the slain of the Lord which may well be cited by reason that most men in the world I am confident think them so to be And the South shall deliver up those that were ready to perish This I conceive does relate unto Presbyter Jehans country in the Seaport-towns of which and so along that coast of Africk which the Lord doth call the rivers of Ethiopia are many poor Hebrews whom though the Abissines do respect because of their circumcision above others yet in regard of their souls health they are ready to perish being they are not left to themselves in that matter to be excused that when the Emperor doth shew himself to the people they must all adore him as God himself But by the way the Reader may take notice that it hath pleased God to ordain the house of Judah to have the first return of grace and mercy and when the Lord shall in his doe time open the eyes of our Western Jews we shall not need to excite them to seek Israel for at this day they do harp much upon that place in the last of Isaiah so that they believe then they shall immediately find their brethren even there where their God shall direct them and so they shall as the Text saith both return Certainly God that knows all things knows into what corner every one of them is driven And when we do read in another paralel place that they shall be sought and here they shall be brought let us but seriously consider how the Assyrians Babylonians Medes and Persians Cyrus only excepted thirsted and used all their art to extirpate them the Grecians hated them Ptolomaeus only excepted and did them what mischief they could and the Romans were so far from pittying them Titus and Vespasian only excepted that they would not suffer their remembrance Here were Jobs three Comforters although but miserable ones Cyrus indeed to Israel was a friend But like the rest his friendship had an end Ptolomaeus like Agripps almost could Release the Jewes but did not when he should Titus the Roman nothing did but weep'd Nor ever spar'd the Jewes until he sleep'd And lastly that England might make the seventh brother in cruelty it forbad any manner of fellowship with them so as not to give them a being for their mony and that is worst of all because we suffer any runagates to inhabite amongst us either of French Dutch Spanish or other provided they do nothing contrary to the law of the Land which the Jews do in all places quietly submit themselvs unto I say let us but think on these overturnings and calamities which have befaln them and I believe we shall all confess these will want and stand in need of the Lord to be their friend And though men either will not or cannot seek them so as to find them yet the allseeing God will command the four quarters of the earth to give them up I am certified by an honest Christian Jelphylin who by credible testimony hath been a man of good fashion and that by my having a little skill in one of the Eastern tongues of one whole Town in Persia that the Inhabitants are all Israelites who by their own report and by the judicious opinion of worthy men that have travelled that way are part of the ten Tribes carried away by Salmanazzer and there by him seated and I do the rather believe it for that in external worship of the true God they come far short of the two tribes and live more profanely in their conversation having lost all their old lawes and customes which were left their fathers by Moses the servant of the Lord and indeed much corrupted in speaking and pronouncing of the Hebrew tongue and at this day they do live under the Persian Monarch in the most barren and scorching place of that sandy Country Which makes me use that expression of a worthy Gentleman who when he came into this place writes thus upon it He that in this place thinks to find good cheer Camelion-like may fill his mouth with air But to make my affirmation more serious I shall enlarge upon this place because the aforementioned places for the most part lie on the one side of the River Gozan but this Town formerly Halath with other remarkable places lie on the other side as I shall make appear by the meaning of the Prophet in the latter part of the verse following Isa 11.11 And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and frem Cush and from Elam and from Shinaar and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea And it shall come to pass that is it shall undoubtedly be accomplished or I will in no wise revoke my promise a note in Scripture-phrase pointing out as it were some extraordinary matter In that day that is when the adversaries of Israel shall have their mouths stopp'd when the ensign of him whom they ignorantly now call Rooth-noor-ally shall be lifted up in their sight whose Motto shall then be so lovely and his person so precious to them that so soon as the trumpet begins but to sound in their opened areas the outcasts of Israel will slock together with their whole soul affections to obey their holy King That the Lord shall set his that is Jehovah or everlasting strength by which name he was not known to Abraham Isaac or Jacob not yet until the time of Moses unto whom the Lord appeared in this manner and by which powerful name Moses was encouraged though a man of a stammering tongue and slow of speech in Jeroms translation altogether uneloquent to do the Lords message unto Pharoah So that here we may take notice that God who is no respecter of persons doth sometimes make use of unlearned and ignoble persons to carry on very glorious enterprises By which powerful Name the Children of Israel were brought out of their Egyptian bondage with an outstretched arm through the midst of the Red-sea
be found this forlorne people Only as in relation to the aforenamed land of Shinaar and other adjacent places I do thus seemingly versifie Jaroun a Town well known in Chusistan But better known of old in Susian By the name of Halath when the Assyrian King The Israelites his captives there did bring And there he made a general Rendevouze Consulting policie the way to use His armless helpless slaves where to bestow Most for his profit least his overthrow At last resolves a remnant here should lye Of Zebulon Dan Ashur Nepthaly And notwithstanding many conquests made Of this great Monarch every where decay'd Though Rachel of her children was bereft Yet so far as there is a remnant left And such a remant as may now be told A thousand housholds well I may be bold Having so many vertuous witnesses And more to me my Authors presence is Who is an Armenee of the same land Nigh Ararat where Noahs Ark did stand Who is a Christian of the Eastern Church And doth the Nicene Council Creed avouch Against all Popish cousenage wit and art Who to that Church in no ways will convert Who once a man of worth and dignity But now made subject unto misery Who sees in this the providence of God For whom he loves on them he lays his rod. Who speaks of Damoan on the great hill side Tais rus Where many hundred Hebrews now reside Which town of old the writers deem to be That same call'd Habor nigh Arax saith he Once named Gozan River by whose stream The Lord of Hosts will many captives glean For that the rest of Israels ten Tribes Near this place are in Cities of the Medes They now are there I speak in Scripture-sense The words are written in the present tense These are the people that were so admired Whose strength and wisdom was by all desired Who yet do grope as in the darkest night Vntil the sun arise and give them light For all the candles of the world are vain When he begins all glory for to stain These are the branâ—hes of that Olive tree Which broken were and scattered as you see Whose antient splendor in Religion stood But now obscuâ—ed by that infectious flood Of Mahometry which surely will asswage Before the birth of our long-look'd for Age In which the sound of war shall not be heard When bloody spears are broken into sheards In which the Jews obey their holy King And all their brethren for an offering bring In which the Iews and Gentiles shall agree Between the wolf and lamb no enmity In which the most ingenious Annotation Must be revised by the Hebrew nation In which their glory will so bright appear As to astonish many hearts with fear In which the Christians like esteem will have Of Iews Conversion as the life from grave And doubtless this time which I here speak of cannot be many ages hence otherwise I dare not yet as an honored Gentleman of this nation did advise herein I do respect him what I might more say I will not say lest some seeking pates might find an occasion But we read that in the Apostles time the Lord was at hand and their times were the last of times surely then these must be those novissimorum novissima in which the Lord will be a swift witness against all those that oppress And did we but duly consider that place in Hos 3.4 we might clearly behold the truth of God in his promises which should be a special help to our faith concerning future times For the children of Israel should abide many days without a King and without a Prince and without a sacrifice c. Which truth is at this day confirmed by the language of the whole earth in that upbraiding sarcasm Beloved or protected as a Jew intimating thus much that when abused wronged or prosecuted they have no King nor Governor to relieve them no nor so much as an unjust Judge who for importunities sake will lend an ear to their complaint And thus according to the Scripture it hath been many dayes with them that is many yeares or dayes without number Yet because Gods faithfulness is great and his mercies sure â—â—â—cies therefore he would not leave Israel in â—â—â—pair as that the house of Jacob should expect in vain But in the verse following after they are prepared by affliction and humiliation there Elohim promiseth them a gracious return after such a term of days is expired best known to the Lord only the Text saith it will be in the latter days when they shall seek the Lord and David their king which doubtless cannot be now far off So that if we do believe the words of our Saviour that not one tittle of the word of God shall fall to the ground we ought as stedfastly to believe their future estate promised in the 5. verse as we now do in a perspicuous manner behold their present doleful condition predicted in the 4. verse or else our faith appears to be very weak if a true faith because for the most part a Christians faith should be the evidence of that which may in some sense be invisible So that they are blessed which have seen and then believe but the Lord speaks in a superlative degree when he saith Blessed are they which see not and yet do believe And that we may not content our selves with a bare belief of this truth which I am perswaded many that are gon down to the pit did believe let us take notice of the begining of their conversion so as to help them how and where to seek their King who is not far from every one though a blind Jew that seeks him which makes us believe that he cannot be far from Israel because since the crucifixion of their Lord and our Lord it was scarce known untill of lace year that any of the Rabbins would desire the least conference in matter of religion with a Christian but some small time since they have to my knowledg sent some letters to some of our Nation wherein they have intreated and implored the assistance of our Teachers on this behalf But chiefly as I suppose from the counsel of a dying Rabbin whose eyes the Lord had opened to disclose unto his brethren the hardness of their hearts which as I hear the Lord did set home upon the hearts of four or five of them whereof one hath since made a book and it is the Vindication of our Christian religion And I hope there are some now living that do behold that great Champion of Israel already to have taken in hand their noble and excellently transcendent deliverance and his breaking forth through the clouds as a most mighty man of war to break open the iron-gates and to knock in pieces the strong fetters of slavery and to let the oppressed Israelites go free Which their Sun and Shield we may be confident will not stay his course in one or two victories but as our natural
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
on the name of the Lord Jesus did take more with people and so will do at this present although it be in it self but a dead letter without the cooperation of the blessed Spirit go along with it much less will that way help them which produceth nothing except cursing and bitterness being contrary to the words of Christ Vse violence to no man But on the other side this must be accomplished by the same almighty power which raised Christ from the dead The Lord will first amaze Israel by shewing him how nigh unto cursing he as yet is before he will enquire how he may be saved It seems that that which made Rachel so willingly leave her fathers house was because she had gotten away her fathers gods to accompany her in her journy Such works as these of regeneration God useth to effect gradually So that for all those good examples which doubtless Iacob did shew his wife Rachel yet she did for a while retain her paternal idolatry So I say that until God doth allure them and speak comfortably unto them until God their Lord do give them the vallty of Achor for a door of hope all the tortures that any can invent will not turn them but they will rather suffer reproach patiently and though God did allow them burning for burning wound for wound and stripe for stripe yet we may behold this piece of Gospel written on their hearts in such legible characters as he that seeks no occasion may read it and find this inscription Pray for them that despightfully use you Jesus Christ already come in the flesh is something harsh to them but Jesus Christ in his humble and meek carriage towards all men this I say amongst Israel even to day is a bundle of sweet-smelling myrrhe and therefore they are very willing to tarry Gods leisure before they will be thus handled And by the way let us but consider the two contrary effects that were produced by the English and by the Spaniards in that time wherein they did both pretend to use their utmost might in converting of the Natives where soe'r they setled their abode in that new world of the West-Indies For where the Spaniards came Hungarian like they set upon the Indians forgetting their vowes and destroying many thousands of them intending as it was apparent nought save gold and riches Now I say what was the issue of this but that when the Friars and Jesuits have come to some noble Indians at their departure out of this life and declared unto them how that none but the Christians could go to Heaven or a place of joy and that all others must go to Hell or a place of torment they have given in this answer That if the Spaniards do go to heaven they do desire that they may go to hell Now here is the light of nature teaching these poor souls that the merciless cannot receive mercy So that we are confident that where in their vast dominions they doe convert one man to the true faith our Nation in that one Territory of New-England doe convert two And what is the reason but because those true English Christians in that place do perform what they promised to them at their landing by an Interpreter how they sought not vestra but vos that is their souls welfare But now as I do moderately suppose these three wayes it will be whereby the Lord will discover unto the Iew the great things of salvation 1. By our Christian prayers and humiliation as well in publike as in private and not only to name them once a week so carelesly in the Congregation My brethren Gods people is a praying people and surely if it were rightly laid to heart there is nothing that more discovers our great affection to the Hebrews then by our continual praying and entreating of God for their conversion I could be glad to see some whole days spent in this great business of Israels redemption I am perswaded that the Lord expects it You all know that the prayers of the just avail much with God And truly in the neglecting of this duty we keep silence and so become guilty of a hainous crime For what do any of us know whether this may not be part of that means which God will use concerning their restauration even by his giving ear to the fervent prayers of his chosen servants But 2. I do humbly conceive that by way of discourse or writing unto them like unto that ever to be honored Gentleman Sir Edward Spencer of Middlesex who of late wrote an Epistle to that famous Jew Mr. Manasseh Ben Israel about this matter And let any man ask of him and he will satisfie that these people do generally honour Learning being a prudent and rational people O that some of our single Teachers and godly Scholars would but do as those which indeed are the labouring Saints that is go over into some Country or other either farther or nearer as God shall move them to this work and there to reason the case with them not like cruel Hungarians nor merciless Spaniards to beat and misuse them but as you find it written beseeching them by the meekness of Christ to be reconciled In our Saviours gentle manner of discourse He that cometh unto Christ he will in no wise cast him off I am sure that he which truly doth love Christ will be willing to undergo any crosses for him who thought no pain too much for our souls good Nay were it but because those two blessed Hebrews Paul and Peter thought no labour too much no tempests and travels too dolorous no voyages too dangerous nor no deaths too cruel whereby they might preach the Gospel to us Gentiles And now he that is not capable of going to them I desire he may not be wanting in praying and supplicating the God that heareth prayer 3. I doe submissively propose that the Supreme Authority of this Nation would be pleased to hearken to those Propositions which intend their admission into England being laid down by that learned man before mentioned in his Answer to the Epistle of that prudent Jew aforesaid And truly I am bold to say that there is no Nation under heaven likelier then we to help them in respect of those great and miraculous deliverances which God hath so many yeares together bestowed upon this Nation And oh that our most worthy PROTECTOR would be a hiding place and a Covert for some of them but until God hath brought in the fulness of the Gentiles because I am afraid that in this litle time which the Devil hath to reign he will use the utmost of his policie together with the beast how to mischief all those that either are or like to be the servants of the living God such as look for this appearing So that perchance if the Turk should fail in his design against the Christians he may by Satans acting the part of a sycophant use the Jews in a rigid manner
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
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
great misery Then will Zion use this proverb again How is the mighty man fallen and the strong man become feeble Those which spoiled us but were not spoiled but now our Emanuel will render them the deserts of their actions even their cruel and bloody persecution of us Oh that men would not be so wittingly guilty as knowing and seeing the Lord is for them dare notwithstanding resist and obstruct them in their way to happiness Doth not the Lord say that although a woman possibly may forget her sucking child yet he will not forget them Now this motherly remembrance here spoken of extends it self further then a bare memory because it is commonly spoken of an inveterate malicious spirit never to forget his enemy but this is of a contrary nature so as to remember with tears and affections with bowels yearning and ready to forgive what is past and to renew yea many times doth increase the original love And so the Jewes God saith are engraven on the palms of his his hands whereby we do note that God is always to them a present help in time of trouble they are fastened as a nail in a sure place and as concerning their election they cannot be moved But by the way I must give this caution That no man from what I have already written should suppose the Jewes to be even now converted and that because as the good Prophet Moses knowing what great miracles there had been wrought before them said Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to hear unto this day Which miracles as Moses then thought to have been sufficient to perswade them to obedience so now it may be some think that all those strange miracles which were done by our Saviour and have for many years together since been done by his Apostles in the eyes of the Jewes might have been motives extraordinary to produce faith in him who came to save them But as Moses well said then so I may safely say now that for all those wonders that they have seen yet God hath not given them a heart to perceive And I will shew you the chief reason of this present hardness it is as yet because God hath not through his son Jesus Christ convinced the Jewes of their righteousness for I conceive that God hath convinced most of them of sin already But when our Saviours words begin to take effect that is when he comes He will convince the world of righteousness then let any man conclude that their conversion is even at the door Now for to unfold what I find nowhere revealed I must use the Fathers excuse Nemo obligatur ad impossibilia So that the manner of our Saviours convincing Israel of their righteousness we dare not meddle But we that have tasted of Gods mercy and goodness can declare and that with admiration after what an easie and sweet manner of arguing God by his spirit hath convinced us of the foolishness and vanity that is in our own righteousness and then secondly presented us us with the loveliness of the righteousness of Christ and thereby doth enable dark souls to see the necessity that there is of putting on or in being clothed with his righteousness for that without it there can be no hopes of salvation Now this being as I suppose by my own experience the way which God useth towards us I will humbly submit to the will of God in his way to us unknown of dealing with the Jews but shall only beg to hasten it But 2. that I may not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it it used beyond my business I am now about to prove the calling of the ten Tribes In Deut. 28. it is said that if they would not obey the voice of the Lord they should be cast forth into all the kingdoms of the earth and amongst a people which neither they nor their fathers knew Now to unfold this you will all grant that they did forsake and resist the voice of their Saviour and then I prove that this Scripture was not fulfilled in their captivity under the Chaldeans because that Country was well known unto them and to their predecessors And therefore notwithstanding a book of the improbability hereof already put forth I do believe with some Jews in Portugal that many of their brethren are in that part of America called Cochinchino and my reason is this because that except this place of the West world none could be exempted from the knowledge of their Fathers whenas in Solomons dayes people of all Nations that is known nations were made known unto him either by converse or by way of commerce both by sea and land Now this place doubtless is not as yet known unto the Jews no nor the Christians but since Columbus time And then the Lord threatens them further that instead of worshipping of him they should worship wood and stone a matter then the which nothing more rise amongst the Indians as also their Mosaical rites and customs in part still retained by that unknown people of their descent But this as being a matter in controversie I dare not as yet affirm however there are many of those people sweet Christians as I have often understood by godly people that have been there as also by some Leâ—ters of that worthy man in the Gospel Mr. Elliet a man more to be commended then many in Old England to whom God hath given gifts and graces who will rather turn dumb dogs as the Scripture cals them or else will creep into houses being ashamed of publike light or else like our painted Ladies for fear will not endure a fiery trial left men should see their shame And so by that meanes they draw many after them silly people to follow their pernicious devices although it conduce to the destruction of them both I say this many now adays will do before they will go either to the East or West Indies to preach Christ either unto Jewes or Barbarians mightily forgetting or at least smothering that wofull pronunciation spoken of by the Apostle for the neglect of Gospel-dispensation But to the main matter In Zeph. 3.10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants even the daughter of my dispersed shall bring mine offering Now out of this and from the next Scripture which I shall cite I dare undertake if need require to make good both my propositions although I doe lay aside all those other proofs which I either have or shall put down for the same intent But being that I shall use many other I will only run over these two Scriptures and first From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia that is all such places beyond them or rather on this side that vast river Bracina and also the river of Abagni both of them springing forth out of that great downfal of waters the Lake Colvez from whose top to Gibralters Strait is computed above 1700 miles English So that
from this I gather that the Lords suppliants dispersed ones here spoken of are all those Jewes which the Lord shall at this day find in all the parts of Europe and also in that part of Asia which is on this side the Rivers aforementioned Then what must all these people do Why now the words do plainly shew it they shall bring mine offering Now here for the verity of this matter we have a sure and stedfast foundation whereon to build our faith even upon the promise of an Almighty God who speaketh not here indifferently of in a permissive manner as in another place he bids the Prophet preach to them whether or no they will hear or whether they will forbear But the Lord as he is the absolute Soveraign over all the world so he doth here determine and decree with himself that they shall do his will though he use much power with them and that is to bring his offering He doth not here mean one of their antient Levitical offerings neither must it be understood of that kind of offering which they do use at this present day but it shall be that same which the Apostle St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rational or living sacrifice acceptable unto God which the Text saith must be such broken and contrite spirits as their poor brethren then will be And now shall that Scripture be fulfilled in Mal. 3.4 And then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant to the Lord as in the dayes of old such as was the sacrifice of Abel which was offered up in right cousness and therefore it was so well pleasing unto God as that the Lord is said to take great pleasure in the scent thereof They shall now be convinced that God abominates and detests all others though it were whole rivers of oil or the fruit of the body no all must be now acted by a principle of faith in Christ all self-righteousness shall now be done away But where this holy and evangelical offering at this day is I must strive to shew you and that is from this following Scripture in the last of Isaiah and the last ver The Lord saith that those which escaped of them which I do aver to be the last captivity and bondage under the Romans will I send to Tarshis to Pull and Lud that draw the bow to Tubal and Jaran and to the Isles afar off and they shall bring all their Brethren for an offering unto the Lord. Now here is a plain contradiction to that Non est inventus which is brought into the Court of worldly Sophists by the multitude That Israel are all lost which were of those ten Tribes For first I shall prove my affirmation that in these places do as yet remain some of Israel or such as I am sure are truly descended from the very same Hebrews by that proximity or as I may say in some sense that identity of places that is given by various denominations As before you read they were planted by the river of Gozan and the cities of the Medes which doubtless are of so near affinity as that Halath lies but on one side the River and Lud then so called on the other bending more towards that which our Geographers do now call the Mare Caspium And if Alexander did transport so great an Army over this river in two or three dayes time then no man surely will question whether they may not be carried over in so great a space of time being then at the Chaldean Monarchs pleasure and ever since under one or other unto whom they have for ought I can understand yielded themselves though perhaps against their wills in the self-same subjection as the Moors do in Barbados unto their fearless Masters But secondly and that more clearly the precedent Countries are now made known unto us by our best and experienced Orthographers in history thus Iberia Sheirvan part of Armenia major and Natolia But we who doe much honour that language doe speak thus Tarsistan Zubbaw Mozendram Bagdatan c. in which latter place save one there ever were the best and as we do still believe are the most curious handlers of the Bow by some called Hircania who did if you read in that famous Antiquary of the war between the Persians and the Greeks so bravely behave themselves that they caused the old souldiers of Alexander Magnus to fear the happy event of that war so that for some time the fight was dubious And hence it is that Gods offering must be brought Which places the Holy Ghost was pleased by the Prophet in those dayes to stile Tubal and Jaran But then it is said and from the Isles afar off Now whether or no there may not be some of them scattered amongst those several Islands with the which neither our Nation nor others for the present have any commerce I shall not meddle But this I am assured of that all along the Coast from the other side of the Cape De bone Esperance as in St. Laurence Joanna John de novo Mohelia Cumro Islands c. here you shall find Hebrews enough by the vulgar termed Jews although the most of them are of the other Tribes Now that any man may having occasion thitherward learn of them the verity of my sayings let him get the Persian tongue which by the Hebrews as well as by others is the most fluent tongue on that side the Cape so that in the maritime towns of the forementioned main land and islands you shall meet with such of that Nation as live in a more civilized fashion and do still uphold part of the Jewish customs and in the villages and inland Country those more barbarous which I conceive by a long unaccustomed slavery among these people are become heathenized and almost meer strangers to the Covenant of their fathers So that we Christians may see how the Lord is pleased to give them a slumbring potion for their sins and almost hath cast them into a total lethargie only because he is a jealous God and will not have his honour given to any other nor his name blasphemed any longer as also having respect unto the Covenant which he made with Abraham his friend his bowels do now yearn towards them as you shall plainly see in the 33 of Jeremiah I will cause saith the Lord the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return and build them as at the first Here is aurea sententia plena charitatis This is as cleer as the sun that although God suffered them both to be carried away captive the one long before the other which first we do all grant did never as yet return and he did suffer them to be driven many degrees distant one from the other yea so far as the Writers do affirm the ten Tribes to have no share in that return of the Captivity from Babylon And above all notwithstanding they are for the present at great variance
and by which powerful name the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia to release the Jewes from their Babylonish captivity from which to the Captivity under Vespasian Titus is supposed neer 600 years And lastly by which powerful Name the Lord will set his hand again the second time So that you see when the Lord and by what instrument he was pleased to cause the Captivity of his people to return once before who were then but a remnant of the house of Judah And though I am perswaded that this second return mentioned in this place shall be beneficial to both houses yet I shall endeavour to make clear that it doth chiefly and primarily relate to the ten Tribes and that from the vast incongruity that there is between the places where this remnant of Israel shall be found and the Countries where these two Tribes are dispersed at this day To recover the remnant So that this word remnant doth presuppose that there were of them once a far greater number as also that there hath been since a grievous devastation and spoil amongst them the certain effects of war which is the unwelcom fruit of mens pride and lust and which in our age hath almost filled the whole earth with those Ilias malorum and which hath so lighted on the head of Israel and there remained for above two thousand years being before the Jewish captivity 133 years So that we may well say of him as the Orator said of Nero Nominis postremus habetur For the Hebrews who are least in sight according to that prophesie in Hos 8. Israel shall be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure are also at this day by most of us Gentiles looked upon and accounted of as the vilest and lowest people of the world and therefore scarce worth the discussion of our times nor the preheminence of Musselmen or rather Dooz oglanraz-Kerry Sodomitical Catamites Yet however the world esteems of multitudes and with the mighty say a confederacie the great God as it doth evidently appear hath from age to age and at this day doth respect the most despicable and low estate of men though but a remnant agreeing with the Text that are the remnant of his people Unto which truth I believe all men will assent because the Lord is said in one place onely to have known the Israelites among all the families of the earth that is with such a peculiar love or with such a measure of benediction And from this we may clearly demonstrate That in the most horrid wars and most slavish bondage which are both called by the Schoolmen mortiferum stagnans sanguine God will have his remnant whereon to bestow his mercy and whereby though a remnant to magnifie his almighty power As may be well noted out of that Excidio horribili the last siege of Jerusalem that notwithstanding the destruction of so many 100000 of Jews and yet mote that there might remain but so small a handful it is reported that after this grievous destruction to make quick dispatch the Roman souldiers sold unto the Greeks twenty Jews for a penny But the time will shortly come when this penny-worth of Iews and this other handfull of Israelites to whom I will bend my discourse shall sprout up into a great tree yea so great as all the Nations of the world will flie to it for shelter and advice But again The remnant which shall be left Which being in the future tense learns us thus much That for all those annual homicides and slaughters that have been made of the miscarrying Israelites since their captivity and their present sufferings in the aforementioned places the Israelites being at this day in Persia as usual an object for the bastinadoes of the Cowelhasha's as the Jews are in Turky amongst the Ianizaries yet these words shall be left do imply that there is yet a succession of them and that in the same place Alike nature with the Phaenix of whom the Writers say that out of its ashes in the same place ariseth another So when the Lord doth but breathe upon bones wherein is no marrow there will not only be added sinewes and flesh but to the admiration of the Nations from these helpless remnant there shall arise an exceeding great Army Which shall be left from Assyria At this day called Arzyrum into which Empire the ten Tribes were brought some by Tiglithpelezer and the rest by his son Shalmanaasser But since which time Rabbi Benjamin Ben-Jonas in his discourse of this Captivity saith that some of these Israelites did after time associate with some of their neighbours of Turquestan and with them went into Egypt where to this day many of their succeeding generation may be found as in Pathros in the upper Thebais and in many other places Which cannot be truly said to be a remainder of any of those Jews which Johanan against the command of God carried with him into Egypt because it is in Jer. 44.7 expresly said it being such a peremptory transgression that every man woman child and suckling should be cut off except those which did escape which could not be but by flying the kingdom of Egypt wheras also these here spoken of were led into Egypt out of this Province of Persia many years since that time by them whose brood we Christians call Turks From Cush and Elam Which Cush some hold to be meant of a City on the Gulf of Arabia now by the Turks called Zeman but of old Cush from Cush the son of Cham. But I do rather suppose it to be that in Persia which to day is called Chusistan as yet so from Cush who was the father of Nimrod of whom it is said in Gen. 10.10 that he made the beginning of his kingdom in the land of Shinaar wherein are seated these two Provinces of Cush and Elam And from the land of Shinaar whence we must expect good store of our Hebrew captives return And from Hamath which Hamath though it be often taken for Antioch in Syria once belonging to Israel until Rezin the King of Syria not Assyria took it from them yet I believe it may be that Town in Persia which to day is called Hamadan famous for the sepulchre of Queen Esther and that from these two reasons First because of its imediate coherence with the precedent places where I shall produce many hundreds of Israelites For how can it be probable that Shalmanaasser should place any of his Captives in such a City the inhabitants of which were all his life time implacable enemies to him And secondly because I understand that until the year of the world 5245. the Princes of this Town were stiled by the names of Hameth-Cawn or Prince and Lord of Hameth But from the Islands of the Sea Of which intended Islands I dare no otherwise speak then before for except the Cannibal islands I think there are few or none in the Indies but there are to
practice and lives without God in the world if knowing of God as he pretends yet notwithstanding does not study to glorifie him as God but in his works does deny him But in Zech. 12.10 In that day I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirit of prayer and supplication and they shall look on him whom they have pierced and mourn over him c. In that day that is when Ierusalem shall be a cup of trembling to all the Nations round about and shall be like a torch of fire in a sheaf Now it is well known unto most men who are at all skilfull in the Scriptures that they never were as yet a terror unto any people since they were led away captive by Nebuzaradan into Chaldaea But ever since that time they have been tributaries unto one or other or else by the good providence of God it may be they have had rest for a time as they have in some places at this day But it was and is an unquiet and doubtful rest and at this time they are in bondage with their children under people and nations which neither they nor their fathers have known and therefore this time is still for to come But secondly God will pour out upon them the spirit of prayer and this will be as miraculous in their eyes as it was amongst those in the Acts which had not so much as heard of the Holy Ghost but yet it shall be so powerfull a spirit that when the Lord hath breathed it on their souls it will make all rough places plain and the parched ground shall then bring forth pleasant fruit Indeed so long as the heart is rocky and stubborn the aquaduct or conduit-pipe thereof will be stopped whereby grace should be conveighed to the souls of poor sinners but when the word of the Lord which is sharper then a two-edged sword shall beat upon this same that is harder then the neather milstone it doth presently change its nature milstone it doth presently change its nature even contrary to nature like unto Moses his causing of water to proceed out of the barren rock This is part of those effects which the terrible voice of a holy God produceth in an unholy people so as to think the time past of formality too too much for to spend so vainly And now all old things will be done away and all things will become new in their hearts and this will be the initial of the Hebrews regeneration I am perswaded that those which live to see these days of Israels glorious defence will cry out and that with the same amazement as the Jewes said of Paul Was not this he so Were not these they which did so hate Christ and now they do preach Christ and as the primitive Christians were exceeding joy-full to hear that the Gentiles had received the Gospel and were baptized even so I doubt not but all good Christians will rejoice to hear and to see what great salvation Israel hath obtained But thirdly another sweet effect of this good spirit of God is by causing them to look upon him whom they and we have pierced And though they shall do this with an eye of faith yet intimating as if they now beheld their King and their daily expected Jesus suspending on the Cross and their fathers nailing of him and themselves piercing and thrusting his sides through with the spears of sin And here is faith going out from them before repentance for they are perswaded and doe believe that which they now deny and then they begin to look up Christward with teares in their eyes resipiscentiam agentes and mourn over him with a bitter weeping and mourning like unto the mourning of Hadradrimmon every family apart It will be more then a tear-shedding lamentation yea rather it will be a heart-affecting and an-inexpressible sorrow too unconceivable for any but those who have tasted how gracious the Lord is It will be as I conceive that same sorrow which the holy Apostle deemed unlawful to be repented of because it is only a quick passage out of a barren Kedar into a fruitful Canaan No man can come to the Manziel of Goa before he pass the dangerous shoals of Quiloa And then they shall turn to the Lord with their whole heart and then God will make good that promise I will and you shall and none shall then dare to disquiet Israel any more But the true worship of God in Christ will be established amongst them and then they shall be called the faithful and chosen people the true worshippers of the Father in spirit and in truth And in Jer. 31. what sweet expressions do we find concerning their future estate as in the 9 verse saith the Lord With weeping and with supplications will I lead them in the wilderness God did not thus lead them nay they were then for the most part so far from entreating the Lord for any mercy as that they did demand for this thing and that vanity and that in a murmuring manner so that the Lord did make a great slaughter amongst them for their many prevarications wherewith they provok'd the eys of his jealosie to anger against them And the Lord promiseth further that he will cause them to walk in a streight way wherein they shall not stumble Indeed formerly so long as they did or as any man doth walk loftily and proudly they were and any man is more apt to fall and stumble then he which with the Publican useth to look low and carry his heart humble before the Lord but it shall be otherwise Now God having promised to be their guide and that in a streight way surely there needs not the least distrust for Israel to have concerning their Elohim and Adonai and this is great matter of hope and comfort to Israel that when as in the dayes of old God calling them the fewest in number amongst all the Nations did yet love them above all Nations with a peculiar distinct love So though they themselves doe at this present day conceive that there is no people so scarce the Aramaspi except yet God doth still own them and doth acknowledge Ephraim to be his first-born and therefore he promiseth to be a Father to him But 2. I shall clear it a little by shewing you the consent of the Fathers in believing of this truth And first Augustine writeth Quomodo adhuc mors christi apud Judaeos maledicta est sed proculdubio Deus illuminabit oculos eorum salvos fierent in die salutis That is that although the death of Christ unto this day is held accursed amongst the Jews yet doubtless in the fulness of time God will open their eyes and bring them home to himself even then when he shall take away their sins and put his law in their inward parts then and not till then is their hour of salvation 2. John Chrysostome saith in his book which he wrote against
the Jews in respect of their cruelty unto Christ and only in an affectionate way about pa. 73. That notwithstanding all those curses with which he had already out of the word of God threatned them yet saith he Tanquam talis est calamitosa desolatio in domo Judaica Dei nos Christiani expectamus eorum conversionem certam acceptionem For the present saith he there is great desolation made amongst Gods antient holy people so that most men do for their blind and ignorant but horrid offence committed against the Son of the everliving God despitefully handle them yet saith he we Christians do believe that they shall be converted and received again into the favor of God in Christ and therefore do we longingly expect and wait for it I might here shew the great difference between the Christ-like and heavenly affections of the Primitive Fathers and the cold world-like affections of the men of our dayes But that shall be brought in its proper place 3. Effrem Syrus whom Jerom doth so much extoll in his Catalogue of the Fathers for so merciful a man to all such as he did not see in as prosperous a condition as himself so that Jerom terms him in one place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man full of Divine actions Effrem the Divine writing on the small continuance of the persecution in comparison of that everlasting crown of joy which all Gods Saints and servants should possess after this miserable and frail life did in one of his Epistles to the Christians in Phaenicia entreat them not like others of the world but according to their profession to use all possible means to relieve and succour the outcasts of Israel saying that notwithstanding their hardness of heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have the same hope as we have although for the present they possess not the same Christian faith for how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard with such opened ears and hearts as the Lord ere it be long will give unto them Ambrose saith Quid pet is O Judaee Deus tribuet tibi panem aeternam qui dat omnibus illum rogantibus quotidie dat semper dat O Jew saith he what is it thou wouldst beg of God do but ask him and he will give thee bread everlasting who giveth daily and always giveth Observe now when this Father had reckoned up those Nations which had the least hope in or knowledge of God then he bringeth in the Jews at the latter end of the barbarous Nations and they lived not neither do live without God yet he thought and that judiciously how that they were furthest off Christ because of the full calling of the Gentiles to be first accomplished and therefore saith Would the forsaken Jew but beg of God and the Lord would give unto him of that bread of life which whosoever eats of shall never hunger more Indeed this Father comes far short of Effrem in his charity towards Israel and writes as if so be the Jews had the least reason of all Nations to expect any favor from the hands of the merciful God Jerom saith in his book de Temp. Quod nec Judaei nec Christiani repentè benefaciunt nec convertuntur ideo Judaei nondum Christiani sunt in nomine vero in re ipsa erunt That is how neither Jew nor Christian onely by his profession are suddenly for the most made new creaturesi and therefore because the Jews as yet have not attained the names of Christians yet let no man doubt but that they will be converted and brought back into that true and good old way in the which Enoch Shem Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses and Job with the rest of the Patriarchs walked even according to the mind of God who though they lived so long before Christ came in the flesh yet by Faith they saw his day and were glad even so although Israel will not see Christ in the flesh being he hath already offered up himself upon Cross one Sacrifice to serve for ever yet as sure as the Lord liveth who did once in their fathers remembrance cause the Sun to stand still over Gibeon and the Moon over Aialon which unto this day is a matter of great experience amongst the Jews I say so sure will the Lord perswade them nay he will constrain them to believe that he which for the present they call Ben-Ioseph was that true Emmanuel Ben-David who came and went up and down in the world doing good being meek and lowly riding on an Asse through the streets of their old City Ierusalem These things they do now deny but ere long they shall believe with joy unexpressible and cry Hosanna to the Son of David as if he now were riding before them bearing palms in their hands or rather grace in their hearts saying with the Samaritans We have not only heard by the report and sound of the Gentile Christians but now our own eyes have beheld the salvation of our God And as we may find at this day written in great letters at Rome one of the notable statutes of Lu. Aemilius how that Omnes Dii peregrini è civitate ejiciantur so at this great restauration they will throw away and detest not only out of their present habitations but also out of their hearts all strange and contrary opinions which for the present they do after various manners possess As in Persia they rely for the most part upon the belief and religion of the Bramin Merchants and so in the East-Indies but here in Europe they do give far more earnest heed unto their present book which they call the Gemara in which are written those secreta ac fines temporum spoken of in the book of Esdras whom they now have in special request above others of the Prophets A name and matter as they believe which doth surpass their old Talmud and yet they say at the presence of their King it shall vanish and decay expecting a third edition which will be delivered unto them by the hands of Elias Alluding as I suppose unto that third part which the Lord saith he will bring through the fire pure and burnisht without the least dross amongst them So that in our dayes to shew and testifie how that they are of those true Jews indeed and not of the sect spoken of in the Revelations as we read in the holy oracles viz. in Haggai that when such as had formerly seen the glory of the first Temple did now behold the glory of the second they wept and was it not because God had ecclipsed their old splendor seeing they would not hearken unto the word of his power they would none of his counsel but despised all his reproof by striving to put the evll day far from them I would that English-men had but such Jewish eyes to perceive and hearts to understand how far short we come of our former nick-named Puritanical glory notwithstanding all our talk of so
many years reformation Truly it would be praise-worthy that any ingenious hand would but take the pains to shew the world as it were in a glass how far Christians in these times do degenerate from that good old way in which the Primitive Churches did go how far short we come of them in our holy conversation in our love unto Christ as also towards the brethren in our self denial in our zeal to do and suffer for God and in our longing after the Jewish conversion Or rather are we not in these dayes become foolish in our vain conversation undervaluing of Christ and haters of our brethren Are we not to day the greatest self-seekers throughout the Universe Do we not shrink if we only hear a whispering of a persecution And whom scarce amongst us do we find to have any bowels towards this poor lost sheep of Israel They could weep to behold the least deformity either in or upon the outward Temple but we have not a few tears to shed because of those ugly monsters of sin which do inhabit in our souls that ought to be the temples of the Holy Ghost Surely God will hear their mourning and as the voice of their cry did come up to heaven in the time of their Egyptian slavery so doubtless God will yet cause this voice to be heard as of old I have seen I have seen the affliction of my people c. I say the time when this will be I dare not justly affirm but the certainty of it I will affirm And therefore if the Lord do not this year or at this time bring such a Rebel home to himself and shew him his old vileness wherein it may be he hath walked for many years stubbornly and kicked against free grace and the tender compassion of a loving and patient God yet we do not say it is impossible for this man to attain heaven Then let no man so foolishly conjecture and say that if Israel be not converted before such a time they never will for the times and seasons are in the Lords own free disposing and he doth many times make that his great day of vengeance an opportunity which is the season of his peoples highest calamity and when according unto humane reason we think it is too late there is no time better in the eyes of the Lord. Then this is great arrogance in them that are of this Epicurean faith And shall a wicked man who lives under the means because as yet a wicked man upon this account neglect the means Shall he not rather consider how the Lord worketh grace in the hearts of men by degrees as something while babes and then in youth and so upwards untill a man come to be a father in Christ So that if either Jews or Christians will have any thing of God they must not only beg but wait for it because blessed are all those that wait for the appearing of the Sun of righteousness in their hearts by a lively faith And though the Jews do send forth never so many cryes Eastward yet having done all they can they must resign up their wills and affections unto him that is able to help them who hath set the sea its bounds and hath purposed a time for all things and as it pleaseth him he will order a ransom for Israel and deliverance for Judah Now lest here should be any stumbling-block laid I do many times distinguish the Tribe of Judah from the rest because I do find in many places of the Scripture where it pleaseth the Holy Ghost to write them several and that both the houses in one place in another both the families shall return as also where it is said I will make the two nations one nation and they shall be no more divided For the text saith that Israel was carried far from their brethren and that there they remain unto this day It is written in the present tense Only that there may be no want of encouragement for any of Gods people to hinder or despair in their seeking of them and that therefore doth belong so sweet a promise to these in a far country I will bring one place of Scripture more that I know not how to escape because of the good tidings that it bears in the front of it Deut. 4.29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God thou shalt find him if so with all thy heart and with all thy soul c. But if from the place where thou sojournest in thy captive estate even from Tubal and Jaran even from the cities of the Medes thou shalt seek or diligently enquire after the Lord and thy God casting far from thee those false gods which thou dost now worship being no other then the works of mens hands and so call upon the Lord that brought thee out of Egypt with a mighty arm whom the meek Prophet Moses out of his tender and loving compassion nameth thy God O Israel though for the present thou do worship such as neither see hear eat nor smell Now I say if when God shall put into Israels heart to consider his vile abominations and to cry unto him with all their heart he doth here promise to be found of them And now that you may take notice of the moving cause of this his loving kindness it is in the next verse For the Lord thy God is a merciful God he will not forsake thee c. This is that which makes drooping Jacob to hold up his head and to possess a little strength and hope wherewith he is able to undergo all the afflictions which a tender and loving Father layeth upon him And therefore they will use this expression It is good for us that we are afflicted But 2. for Calvin and those great writers about his time they were but in the dark as concerning the restauration of Jacob but only amongst other matters did lay it down as a part of their belief how that the Jews in the last dayes should be made a most glorious nation And so Proston and Perkins with the most of our times speak carelesly of it as if it were a matter of controversie And therefore you may observe that on the Lords day in publike prayers some Ministers will use some few expressions concerning them by way of petition which they conceive to be enough as declaring that they are of the same judgment Yet I am confident that many of you do not care to have them inhabit amongst us but if a little trouble in the flesh come or when a small matter of that root of evil hath been demanded which might accrue to their transportation over into England you have passed that antient but sarcacious censure on them That they were a noisom and a burdensom generation I shall pass this by because we say Sat verbum sapienti But thirdly I shall prove the verity of my Proposition from the present faith and hope of Israel And 1. From their words
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
tempest neither a day of darkness nor gloominess but it will be that great day of rejoycing when God shall build his new Tabernacle in their hearts and now the Nations shall learn war no more but shall break their swords into pruning-knives Ephrahim shall no more vex Judah nor Judah Ephrahim but shall walk together hand in hand to worship in the holy mountain of the Lord nay the Lord will in that day make those that are contrary for to agree and lie down together the young child shall safely then play upon the hole of the asp the wolf and the kid shall lie down together and then all people shall cease to disturb Iacob nor vexe Iudah any longer But further In that day ten men out of all languages that is as some do suppose chosen men out of the most pure and refined Christians because of the far greater number which are in the world Others allude it to the ten Tribes which these men will now believe are to be found and therefore will be ready to burn with zeal for their conversion again They shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew or rather as some Geneva-Doctors would translate it shall give them the honour due unto them But I do of late understand by some knowing and discreet travellers into their chiefest places in Turky there where they are most numerous that as we unvail the bonnet to those of noble birth so they use it by taking the skirt of his garment in their hand and kiss it But the result of all is We will go with you Here is a resolution without too tedious a deliberation it is plain and the reason is very pithy Because we have heard that God is with you Nay they will be assured of it for that now it is when those many divisions that are amongst us at this present day shall be decided and all Sects shall be then collected into one true faith and one true baptism And although we are for a time puffed up above measure as altogether insisting upon novelties and circumstances when Israel shall be exalted these toyes and unnecessary forms that I could name shall be all laid aside with all their orders and appertenances to be regulated according to the new model of the Jews It is true that God hath been and still is in a far more especial manner with us then he is with them and we do daily enjoy those gifts and graces which many Princes and Prophets longed with great desire to see and know and that which millions in the world know not as at this day But then we shall believe that God is in a more glorious and transcendent way with them then to day he is with us because doth not the Apostle St. Paul say that it shall be like life from the dead as if the world with all its inhabitants were but like a chaos of confusion nothing but darkness or else fallen into Endymion's sleep not able to see their way at noon-day untill the Jews shall raise them up and lead them to the house of prayer even Gods dwelling-place where he will set up his throne for ever I will but put this to any mans consideration whom perhaps comfortable experience may cause to know the truth of this that when a man cometh to be truly converted and to be a real believer there will be such another man as I may say to be seen in him as that all that see him will be so amazed that they will scarce believe him to be the same man Is not blessed Paul an example sufficient for this Now I say that if the conversion of one poor soul will be so miraculous in the eyes of all those that know it what will the conversion of two forlorn Nations cause in the mindes of all men that hear of it And therefore I could heartily wish that every man in his own proper station would lay aside any question concerning the certainty of it and to use his whole ability to further it by his daily prayers I might use a great many more strong arguments to evince you and to make men willing but I look upon all though it were a large volume as nothing except the Lord set it home upon mens consciences And therefore I will only shew what are those grand impediments which kept the Jews from believing on Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God The first let happened from that inbred unbelief which they did entertain about the manner of his entring into the world or in respect of the meanness and low estate of his fleshly parents And thence they say Can any good thing or is it possible that any such should come out of Nazareth which place they did and do account of as the most unlikely place in all the Country thereabouts for to produce their Saviour And in another place This man say they do we not know whence he is Believing that Shiloh shall descend from heaven above with great acclamations of Angels and men and so to be placed upon the throne immediately and rule over the Nations with a rod of iron And again Is not this the Carpenters son And with this they do many times at this day suppose to stop the mouth of a Christian discoursing with them as if so be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords would be the adopted son of a Carpenter and by this their predecessors did hinder some from believing on him for said they are not his brethren here with us But secondly to omit the meanness of his birth this may seem something more incongruous to a King and altogether inconsistent with such a degree that after he had forsaken the house of his parents he had not wherein to put his head but went up and down in a servile-like estate even in the very garb of a dejected spirit Nay moreover in that he would be that ipse solus even what none before ever was or ever shall be That whereas the Kings of the East did and do always ride either upon Elephants or Dromedaries I say because that he would shew the lowest example of humility and meekness he would therefore ride upon none other then that which men do account the most inferior of such kind of creatures so that the Text saith he rode upon an Ass to Ierusalem And above this whereas the Jews did expect and Israel yet doth expect a most gorgeous and excellent train to attend him he had none but his twelve mean followers and the generality of his company were Publicans and therefore they called him a Samaritan being ignorant of the true meaning of those places in Isa 53. and Zech. 9.9 A third impediment was from the manner and matter of his discourse And first the manner of his doctrine seemed not so pertinent unto their Saviour whereby they might receive either redemption or the least comfort in the time of their subjection under the Romans but so as they could
such a heavy curse which hath faln heavy upon so many generations Yet the Jews at this day omitting what is past profess unto us Christians that they have still great hopes and are fully perswaded that they shall yet be a most holy people unto God pure and without spot or blemish And therefore as Aquinas saith Spes confert ad actionem vel operationem is I am sure fulfilled in the Jews for that there never was more searching of the Prophets then there is at this day amongst them never more frequent calling upon God never were there such longings after him whom their souls will dearly love as to day as yet never any of their predecessors as I can find for above these sixteen hundred years were so willing to converse and commune with us Christians about their Messiah Time was and that of late years if a Christian did but mention Christ unto them they would shun his company though sometimes to their own damage Therefore let us rejoice at this and willingly spend some time to further the building of this Temple not made with hands and the Lord will questionless reward us It would be well if that England would but now do as the Apostle writes of them For verily saith he it hath pleased them of Achaia and Macedonia to make a certain contribution for the poor Saints which are at Jerusalem Now as the Apostle doth here write to another Church he bringeth this in that it might be their example of well-doing I say that it would be worthy of eternal remembrance and commendation if the Supreme of this Nation would be pleased as the Apostle saith that is to be very willing thereto so as to entertain these poor and as yet unchristianized Hebrewes whose debtors as he saith we truly and indeed are I know not of a truth the business between the Dutch and Portugals in Brasile but perhaps there being a many Jews they may be exposed to the elements And then let us know here in England that God doth yet strive with us who can well help them without us and hath put one opportunity more of doing good into our hands if we will but lay hold of it If not I shall apply the words of Mordecai to Esther unto our Nation thus saying For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise from another place to the Jews but thou and thy fathers house shall perish c. So that if we do not now work whilst it is day and whilst we may help them and for which we may have cause to bless God and to comfort our selves with that saying of Paul For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel and that we have that honour before all the Nations in the world so that through the assistance of our Lord we may be instruments of Israels resurrection and restauration Yet if we shall now forbear to put our helping hands to so glorious and just an employment and cry out with the sluggard for a little more quiet a little more folding the hands then let us be sure that their salvation will come from some other Nation who the Text saith shall be as thorns in our eyes and help to destroy us on all sides And besides this we know not whose turn may be next that may be forsaken of God in these ticklish and perillous times Is it not good to be found well doing even our Lords business which is to use all our might and strength for the bringing of dark souls into the true way Jesus Christ our Saviour saith If ye love me feed my lambs and love the brethren It is not promised to any man that he shall go to heaven by all faith and no works which are the fruits of the true faith of the Son of God For as Gregorius saith Nil juvat nomen bonum reclamante conscientiâ That to have a notional faith and to bear the name of a Christian without acting like a Christian And for a Moralist that payeth every man his own and cometh constantly to the publick Ordinances and perhaps hath unto this day lived with good conscience and unblameable towards all men this is all good who makes one form of prayer to be his diuturnal sacrifice it may be to his dying day and therewith is content and quiets himself and hopes therewith to appease God never striving to proceed further indeed having not the Spirit of God who leads the chosen with suitable supplications and gives unto them the spirit of prayer not of the one onely prayer of such a Minister although it may be at that time suitable I say such a man leaneth but upon a broken reed this lazie progress of his will never bring him to heaven but such a mans conscience will one day tell him he is never the better for his faith But for the present his conscience may sleep like the Laws quae nunquam moriuntur and it may be the man thinks he hath love and charity enough but as for the Jews they are no kin to him Yet let him be assured with Augustine that quà m nihil notum in terra tam nihil ignotum in coelo how that God doth take special notice of all his carriage as well to wards them as the Christians I said before that we had all one Father and are we not all brethren Then let us look to it that we may not become guilty of that dreadful curse of our Saviours for not takeing in of the poor strangers But rather so order our steps everyman in his own sphere that we may give up the account of our talents not with fear but great joy So that the Lord will certainly withold that day of gloominess wherein he will judge the world notwithstanding the vain opinions of some of our days till all the servants of the most High both Jews and Gentiles are sealed and when God hath called them home unto his kingdom of marvailous light and given them the assurance of their faith and hope and how they shall then be secure from those great plagues that are about to come upon all the wicked of the world I say then there shall be silence in heaven and not before then will the Spirit say come and the Bride say come even then let every true Christian say come If any one that would truly further the coming of our Lord to judgment and does desire that those evil dayes spoken of and predicted by him might be shortned let him first study how to further their conversion because the other cannot be accomplished untill all the elect and chosen Hebrews be made vessels ready prepared to abide for ever in those heavenly mansions above When that day of slaughter begins to appear the Lord will bring all Nations down into the valley of Jehoshaphat and there he will plead with them Now for what is it but the Lords calling unto account those of all Nations that have scattered his heritage even Israel amongst all Nations of the world and dealt treacherously with them by selling them and misusing them The wiseman Solomon saith that a prudent man foreseeth a danger and prevents it Now here the wise God only for our good and that we may prevent our suffering with the rest of the world does forewarn us as he did Niniveh Then had not we better in times of mercy before the evil day come upon us to help the Israelites now whilest we may doe it for it will nor be thanks-worthy to doe it by constraint because the most wicked of men when Gods judgments light upon them will then begin to doe good This cometh only from slavish fear and will not stand us in stead in that great day of Jezreel And therefore let us bethink our selves what a heavy curse did fall upon Tyre and Sidon because they sold the children of Judah even the Lords own people unto the Grecians As also what great mercy in times of calamity God hath shewn and will still shew to all those that will help to redeem the poor captives and shew them what proffers and invitations Jesus Christ holdeth forth to their nation Certainly God which hath promised is also able to fulfill his words and we see that in the revolutions of time and throughout every generation one promise or other hath either its dawning or else its meridian and therefore I am perswaded their restauration will be the next However it cannot be far off for God hath sworne that he will make this people more glorious then other Nations and he that beareth record hath set to his seal that God is true Heaven and earth may pass away but his words no not the least tittle thereof shall fall to the ground He is not as man that he should lye but He is the Amen the faithful and true Witness the beginning of the Creation who will shortly come and shake all Nations But if some adamantine spirits will not yet give way to their transportation let others that have well-grounded hope weep with the Prophet Jeremiah in secret places for such mens pride and let their eyes run down with tears because the Lords flock remain in captivity and in an unconverted condition even unto this day FINIS
find or bring that back which in mans capacity was lost Now Bernard writing of Gods omniscience saith Scrutari hoc temeritas credere verô pietas c. And therefore it follows that the Lord having found this scattered and lost sheep of Israel he will in the next place take it up and bring it home in his arms and that with great glory to his holy name like the Prodigal that was loft but is now found that was dead but is now alive which is the great cause of much joy amongst the Angels in heaven It had been better for us if our predecessors had not driven them out of England doubtless the Lord will not leave punishing of us untill we do leave remembring of their faults freely to forgive them and to forget even by receiving of them again to inhabit amongst us For is it not the Proverb Humanum est errare But perhaps some may say Let them come where they will they grow richer then you can do although you taxe them highly For this I do confess that I find one place where it is said in Ezek. 11.18 how that let Israel sojourn where they will being thither dispersed by the providence of God and notwithstanding the Lord was exceeding wroth with them yet he promiseth for to be a little sanctuary to them but it is not here meant of an Italian fabrick built of wood and stone only made for to shelter manslayers from the vertue and righteousness of the law of God which is that he that sheds mans blood by man shall his blood be shed But it is in short that their God will be a covert to them and a hiding place for them until his indignation be overpast He will provide either an outward Hester to help them in time of trouble or else his own arm will save them And so the Father saith well At favor in magno saepe dolore later So that if God had no more mercy nor respect to them then man I do believe where they would be driven away by reason of that present incredulity and God-mistrusting thoughts which are in the hearts of English Protestants I wonder what is become of our Publike Faith whereby our Nation did once submit unto the providence and various dispensations that happened-amongst us Now I say that if we are the people of God and if we do love God surely all things yea even the increase of Jewish riches will work together for our good But were our Saviour upon earth again here preaching amongst us certainly he would call us a faithless generation for our actions as concerning this do testifie that we live in most flavish fear of the worlds inconstancie and mutability and are so perplexed at any outward cross far more then the degenerate Turks are at this day By this we may see for all the specious and glossie pretence of Christians now adayes the paucity of Job-like or Micah-like spirits that will trust God with their lives as well as their estates This is now a great sign of an hypocrite when he dares trust in God no longer then he is showring down earthly blessings on his head but if the Lord do but hide himself in a cloud a while presently he distrusts God and it is in vain to serve him c. But 3 saith the Lord I will strengthen that which was sick Truly was ever any people sicker is any sorrow like unto their sorrow The whole head was sick and the heart also waxed feeble The remembrance of former dayes is enough even to deject them into an utter estate of mourning and lamentation What we that once at whose making mention of the Nations trembled and shook and now to be servile and subject to the proud and scoffing wills of uncircumcised infidels Oh this is that which strikes deep into their affections She that was great among the Nations and Princess among the people is now become tributary Ah poor Israel that now where-ever thou art thou beholdest not any of the sons of men to smile there is none that will appear to comfort thee And therefore with thy Countryman Jeremiah we may cry out Vnto whom shall we liken thee But be of good cheer this is testified of thee that he which did wound thee will also cure thee He only is able to bind the broken-hearted and he will strengthen the feeble knees But for England I shall say nothing but hard-hearted for I cannot otherwise call her when although our Saviour speaking of the good downright Samaritan which being only for our example in this case left this precept behind him saying Do ye likewise As if so be he should have said You that think to have a share in my glory you will in your converse and in your comerce whilst you are in this world often meet with many of my poor sick despised ountrymen and therefore be sure that you let no opportunity slip but doe as this man did as soon as you see them have compassion on them And as God shall shew men mercy in the day of blackness even so let Christians shew mercy to the poor ignorant Jews I am sure there never was more need then now even when they are ready to despair their habitation is become desolate so that she is called by the Prophet but as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers and that all men know to be but very disconsolate But in Amos 9.9 Thus saith the Lord for lo I will sift the house of Israel with a sive but the least grain shall not be lost God will not cast away the very poor of his flock It may be they shall have anguish of soul for a time in all nations and be tossed and shaken to and fro as sometimes it would trouble any Christian heart but to know of their troubles how that on a sudden you shall have by the instigation of some malicious spirits a decree come forth by one Prince or other that within 2 or 3 days time all Hebrews shal be banished such a town or place and then oh miserable what wringing of hands what sighs and sobs will come from these poor creatures what supplicating of Princes giving all to the very clothes of their backs that they may have but a poor village to shelter them in As now the King of Poland will have them prohibited from coming or dweling any longer in Vkrain The Lord knows how ill gotten these riches are meerly for no other end then to extort mony or goods from them which although many times they scarce have yet if not they must expect banishment And next unto this will I adjoin that hellish sarcasm of a German Christian who some years ago boasted That as the Heathens did act their tragedies in the Theatre with Christians and beasts so the Nobles in some parts of Germany made up their sports and pastimes by the abusing some Jews or other And thus let men brag over them and use them as they will yet their
2. From their actions 3. From their sufferings For the first there is not a Jew scarce living but will tell you that they shall be a better people and that their God hath hid himself from them for a while but yet they will trust in him though he kill them So that in all their daily devotions they do justifie the Lord in the beginning of their exercise in all his proceedings towards them and condemning themselves for their own ingratitude and that because in the fulness of their prophecies they valued not the law of Moses but did what ever seemed good in their eyes and by this they provoked their Adonai to wrath and so he gave them up into the hand of their enemies Therefore in their Synagogues upon every Jewish sabbath-Sabbath-day they cause that verse in Jer. 44.6 to be read twice over in the ears of all the people But for that of their predecessors their crucifying the Lord of life their anointed Jesus they will tell you that they do abhor it and do account of it as a ridiculous scandal that the Christians put upon them But such were the miserable consequents of that fact that they do now esteem nothing more vile among them then for any one of them to forget but one houre the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus For whose better memory sake you shall always find in one place or other of their houses this following inscription in that language that is generally spoken amongst them Oh if I should forget Jerusalem then let my right hand forget its cunning Believing that they may as soon lose the knowledge of their daily divine praises out of the Psalmist as the remembrance of their antient holy City And therfore on the great days of Nahamu or days of thanksgiving they go up and down their Congregations using this word one to another Speak ye comfortably to Ierusalem all ye that love her For that they believe they shall yet see Ierusalem and the Temple rebuilt again even by their own brethren Nay they say that they are certain that their JEHOVAH hath set a bound to the fulness of his indignation and that ere long their captivity shall cease and then immediately will follow that great day of Iacobs trouble when Eliah as they suppose shall arise from the dead and prepare the way of their Emanuel through the chief Cities of the world with all stately magnificence that can be attained And then shall she that now sits in the dust even thou O daughter of Zion arise and sing Glory be to God on high who givest gifts unto men Indeed the little grain of faith which the Jewes do already possess depends upon that which as yet they see not and it comes so much the nearer our Christian faith according unto that in Heb. 11. tbe Apostle calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the substance of that which is only expected Truly this could hardly be called a true substance were it not built upon that everlasting foundation Jesus Christ and therefore all such Jewes as well as Christians that hope in him shall never be ashamed Indeed it is one of the chiefest obstacles in their way to Christian happiness even that which the Rabbins have made the twelfth Article of their Belief and it is this I believe that Messiah is yet to come who is to be greater then any King that ever was who though he be long in coming yet we doubt not but that he will come at last neither ought we to prefix a time for his coming Ah poor blind souls that do suppose such vain matters as that Christ will come down again to rule on earth after the manner of men but in far more glorious estate then Solomon did Being also ignorant of that place of Scripture concerning the coming of Elias which was fulfilled in John Baptist and indeed shall be again fulfilled when that Spirit of God which doubtless did reside both in Elias and in John Baptist who was the second of that name shall come and make plain those rough places of the heart before the King of glory shall come to dwell therein And with this they do uphold themselves that although this will be a day of sadness and astonishment to the inhabitants of the world yet their nation of the Hebrews shall be saved out of it They do moreover affirm that at the time when their Saviour shall come he will abolish many of their Mosaical customes which till that day are to be had in reverence for so they were commanded to teach them from generation to generation untill Shiloh come and then God will make so great alterations in the world that the noise of it will make men tremble As I do believe this alludes unto that powerful resurrection of our Saviour from the dead And as they see Monarchical government to decay the believe that so much the nearer is his coming Indeed for the first of their sayings how that God will make great alterations in the world is true by our daily experience But at that time as I did write about six moneths ago unto a famous Jew residing at Lisbone how that God would then make as great changes in that little world within them as in the great elements without even then when he shall reign in their hearts by faith and make them for to loath their own righteousness But for the second saying That as you see Kings and Rulers go down so much nearer is the coming of your King I take it only for a meer delusion of I know not whom except fabulous Monterini as a worthy Knight is pleased to stile him I confess when he cometh to the Jews he shall be the onely Monarch in their hearts and shall whip out of his Temple all those buyers and sellers of iniquity and hardness of heart But the great overtures which they behold in the world do rather predict the coming of their Lord to judgment And for this I am the more bold that their joyful time is nearer unto them then they expect it wherein they will then understand their great mistakes in this matter as in others But truly in this thing I do praise the Jews that though the time of their deliverance be long coming yet they doubt it not And although their faith concerning this matter is untruly grounded in reference to the manner of their Shilohs coming for they say in the flesh and we say in the spirit yet the certainty which they have of his coming either one way or other is firm and therefore to be well marked as a special argument to prove my former proposition And for my part I do look upon these sayings so frequently spoken by them unto Christians in Italy Portugal and Amsterdam and in many other Countries as meer types of their Christianity and of their change in heart But secondly I prove it by their Actions And because in this Relation I do intend nothing of their Ceremony Fashions nor
although for the present he lets them live peaceably under his yoke Now this I do but suppose and not give it out for an Hypothesis being altogether unwiling to captivate any mans experience But however I am sure it will be no damage but profit for to let them live amongst us It will be a rare exchange to give them our carnal things and we to reap benefit by their future spiritual and extraordinary gifts and graces which I am sure they shall enjoy when the Lord shall ingraft them in again It would be worthy of great praise if that England would but set apart some special time to seek for these things that with Jeremiah we might mourn and that our eyes might run down with water because that the Comforter even the man Christ Jesus hath not as yet relieved his antient people Doubtless this will be very pleasing and acceptable unto our God God may perhaps have mercy on us for their sakes when he shall overthrow the Nations in his fury Did not the Lord bless not only the house of Pharoah but the whole land of Egypt for Josephs sake Was not the harlot saved for that she did hide some of Gods people from the fury of the King of Jericho Was not Meroz cursed bitterly because the people thereof did not come forth to help the Lord and his people And by this we may see how that God will punish a City or a Nation as wel for neglecting to help forward his work as he will those that strive to oppose it And let all men know assuredly that in such real projects as this is where there is concerned much of Gods glory even to help the poor outcasts God being pleased to put this price into Englands hand let us I say detest the neutrality of Meroz because in such a matter he that is not for their deliverance must of necessity be against it Or else we may expect then end of Meroz which was Gods heavy and bitter curse that which the Apostle speaks of one in a near case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For we do not find that they did like Sihon King of the Amorites withstand the Israelites but Neuters-like they came not to the work and therefore came this bitter curse upon them Do not we read how that godly people were always troubled to hear of the afflictions of their brethren In the 5. of Judges v. 15 16. we see it there twice repeated that because of the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart Now the other tribes at the first wondred why Reuben came not over Iordan but alas when they heard how they were dejected in spirit and how God had by his providence caused breaches and schisms amongst them it did prick them to the heart It is a sweet exexpression the Text saith they had great thoughts of heart or careful were their cogitations which way they might comfort them or help them So that true Christians scorn idleness nay Augustine calls Christians indeed non solum benevolentes vero eitam beneficientes par Angelis more like unto Angels then men in respect of their care and ministring help which they afford unto all they can Let us but take that blessed advice of our Saviour a little before his passion which he gave unto an over-confident Peter That after he was converted he should strengthen the brethren not weaken them But shall any of us be made so great in Gods favour as to be raised out of our sad natural estate and shall not we love and study to strengthen our poor despised brethren that are for the present in so weak a condition Now Reader I am perswaded that man which harbors an Israelite in his house a poor distressed outcast shall find that God hath increased his riches both in soul and in body Well then shall Israel be such a famous people and such transcendently excellent Christians in the last times Then let me dehort all men from reviling them any more Such as use that common by-word He is as hard-hearted as a Jew and You do hate such a man as bad as you hate a Jew that base people that crucified the Lord of life c. Now thou dost here compare Gods beloved people with it may be the most vile of men the very brats and darlings of Satan Not minding what the Apostle demands when he saith What art thou O man that boastest thy self against the true Olive-tree As if he should have said Art thou a Christian or art thou above a Christian For the interrogation admits of no mediocrity but either this man must be below or else like some of our dayes above Christianity and Christian duties No he is far below that blessed estate for it is the alone property of a Carib to laugh at the dejected condition of another man And therefore in few lines I will set forth what such a man is And first he is a transgressor of the 5. Command as that he doth neither honour them as his superiors neither doth respect them as his equals but doth upbraid them as the lowest of his enemies And first that they are our superiors I shall make good by that place in Luke 24.47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations Item Beginning at Jerusalem So that were we not willingly blind we might see unto whom next Christ we owe honour and good will The Lord Jesus did come primarily to the Jews even then when he seemed unwilling to give their bread unto such godless and hopeless dogs as we then were Nay the Lord saith in another place that our salvation is of the Jews which I will unfold in my ensuing discourse But oh ingratitude is it not so in the abstract For such is the stubborn age in which we do now converse that not untill now is that Scripture perfectly fulfilled in Isa 51.18 There is none to guide her of all the sons whom she hath brought forth c. Now that I were but able to set this out in extremes for so it doth deserve For first our Religion sprang forth and craves its birthright from Betlehem a Town of Judaea from one of whose inhabitants according to the flesh Christ came and afterwards it was confirmed and ratified by Jewish Teachers such as Paul and Peter those excellent and spiritualized Sophists and by them deliver'd to the Gentiles throughout all parts and to this day the same is continued So that this being put together all will confess that Jerusalem was our Mother Nurse and Tutor Now if they be our parents where then is these mens fear that honour them not I can liken such men to none better then to those rebellious children unthankful Negro's at the Cape of Good-Hope who after they are hatcht up being able to flie abroad or help themselves having their own turns served they hate none more then those which brought them up nay further when old age seiseth on
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