been condemned for an Heresie Origen was a good Scholler and a good Hebrician You have also many of the ancients and many of our Synod men on that part But they will have the Sonne of Mary to raigne He is not for your new Messias Well then peece up aswell as ye can and finde some medium For me and those of the true reformed Religion though we have great hopes of your conversion yet wee must say that by these opinions of yours you will cause the prophesie to bee fulfilled that the Messias shall come againe as a thiefe in the night For while yee loke for a glorious temporall King he will come out of the clouds with the sound of the trumpet to judgment Take heede of the Valley of Jehosophat But then indeed shall the true sonnes of Abraham reigne with him the thousand yeares of eternity Take heede least through such wicked expectations yee and they thinke not the end of the world soe neere as it is and through your want of faith and charity yee cause not the dates to hee shortened and that the world continue not the six thousand yeares before the long day of eternity comes and ye be shut out into utter darknesse Connder therefore the Doctrine of Iohn Baptist and repent betimes yee have Moses and the Prophets and looke well to the Starre 〈◊〉 Virgins Sonne and the Branch and see well whether he be not come already and Flias in Saint John Baptist Hath he not destroyed all the Idolls Temples and Oracles Hath not hee rent the vaile of the Temple and broken the pertition wall between Iew and Gentiles Is not Shilo come where is your King of Iuda Was not Herod an Idumaean Hath not he prepared a a heavenly kingdom for you if you will beleeve in him Brethren be not so stupid to looke for an earthly kingdome Is not the heavenly farr better Yee believe a judgement day and a resurrection The Saduces I hope have no sect amongst you now then see also p. 83. cap. â—7 harken to your countrey-men Paul and Peter they will interpret the old testament better than you doe Who sent Montezini to preach to you Be not deluded with vain expectations you and he say the time of your deliverance is concealed and your people are concealed untill that day and beleeve me or your owne Prophets and Nation ye will still be so untill ye come into utter darkenesse if ye repent not and know ye have crucified the Lord Jesus For examine your selves in what is revealed have not all of you a bloody issue about your bodies See the booke of the blessed Jewe of Morrocco and doe not the Italians say they smell a Jew before they discerne him with their eyes Did not your forefathers say His blood be upon us and our children Was not his prophesie fulfilled in the destruction of your Temple and the dispersion of the reliques of your nation What plainer signes would you have What plainer prophesies O brethren be not wilfully blinde My consent ye shall have that you and your people shall live in England and have meeting places to worship Adonai but no place for sacrifices for that were to deny Christ as your owne Countryman Paul hath told you And ye shall bee allowed to expound the Old Testament and Christians shall be admitted to heare you and you shall admit them to teach you And indeed wee have yet some that are very skilfull in the Easterne tongues You may doe well to give them good Pensions to teach your nation and they are so poore they had neede of it But let me intreat you not to endeavour to destroy Kings untill Christ come You will hardly destroy the Popish Kings and if yee destroy the Protestant yee will cause the Papists to prevaile I had thought to have shewed you the slendernesse of your proofes and expectations of your Earthly Monarch and Messias but but I had rather you would consider the full proofes of our beliefe and the reasonablenesse of the grounds thereof to the helpe of your people herein I wish reverend Doctor Hammond would put his little booke of the reasonablenesse of Christian religion into Latin I like well your intention that you will continue the history of your countrey-man Iosephus see P. 44.45 c chap. 16. I had thought heere to have made an end of my discourse with you seeing your writing so vaine and frivolous but truely my bowells yearne after your conversion and I must say wee Christians doe a great deale more honour your Nation than you your selves For wee worship that country-man of yours that sonne of of David and of Mary the Sonne of the most high God perfect God and perfect man whom you and wee crucified though the eternall act of his crucifixion was done by your forefathers alone We reverence all your progenitors and prophets Wee reverence our fathers in Christ of your nation the holy Disciples and Apostles who by their preaching overthrew all the vaine Gods of the gentiles and suffered Martyrdome for the beliefe and expectation of your forefathers they indeed raised up seed to your father Abraham and wee are the sonns of his faith which wee have nowe held forth almost as long as the law was held forth Wee yet hold forth the eternall lawe of God the Ten Commandements though the law of ceremonies bee abrogated by that one sacrifice of him upon the crosse who was a Priest after the order of Melchisedek And what priests have you of the order of Aaron You must goe looke for them you know not where amongst the Indians Montezini may be your guide to bring you to the Cave of Montezint in Don Quixot But Brother though I could say enough farther upon this point out of the old testament and the Psalmes yet I will leave that to ours who are more learned in the Easterne tongues And nowe come againe to that which is most proper for my part The preparations for your admission into England to which if the Parliament shall thinke fit I shall give my directions and cautions 1. First I doubt whether we may admit you to circumcise in our land For should wee doe it wee should deny Christ to bee come And yee need not alwaies doe it for it was not done for fortie yeares in the wildernesse and omitted for long times in your captivity and truly you doe but crucify Christ againe by it in denying him to be the Messias and so do your brethren the Turkes Well then will you forbeare that if you should live amongst us We will but desire you to forbeare it till Messias come to have an earthly kingdome some of you say that is to be very shortly 2. In lieu of this we will neither force you nor any of your children to be christned wee hold that an abomination but if any of you will repent and believe wee will christen them but if anyfall backe wee must punish them and wee must tell you the Rolles
in Chancery lane is the Hospitall of the converted Jewes and wee will make more colledges for such converts if there be neede 3. He that dyes a christian shall enjoy his whole estate and he that dyes a Iew shall leave but a third part to his posterity one third to the state of this land and one third to the maintenance of converted Iews 4. There shall be a viewe at their entrance taken of their names and circumcisions that have beene heretofore and a Record kept constantly that the circumcised may be entred which if they neglect they shall suffer death and confiscation 5. Every yeare a search shall be made whether any male childe be circumcised and if done in England or the Dominions thereof a consiscation of halfe the parents estate shall ensue If any lew undertake to circumcise a christian he shall suffer the paines of death and confiscation in what Nation soever he doth it 6. They may come of both sexes to christian praiers and sermons unconverted so they behave themselves reverently and decently And once in the yeare viz. on Good Fryday or the day of Crucifixion they shall be compelled to come then the names both of men women and children to be taken and recorded As also the names of the converts 7. They may well pay double custome both they and the Postnati borne in England untill they be converted and then to pay only single custome 8. They shall keepe no Fraternityes or Guilds but by speciall license but they may dwell and trade in any part of England No corporations to be allowed but to those of the converted Iewes all in generall shall maintaine their owne poore 9. None of either sex shall marry with any Christian nor shall any christian marry with them untill they be converted 10. If they shall endeavour to raise up any of their owne nation to be their King those that are guilty thereof shall suffer death and confiscation 11. If they joyne with the Anabaptist or Leveller to raise a Captaine Generall such as Iohn of Leyden or Knipperdoling they shall suffer death and consiscation 12. They shall be subject to all other lawes of the land To these lawes the Parliament may add or diminish as they please in relation to the government of the Iews And now brother Manasseb to give you one touch more for a farewell you know how long the world hath lasted hitherto some say two thousand years before the law two thousand yeares under the law and 1650 since the lawe this is the yeare of Iubilee look for the sabbath day of eternity it may be the world shall not last six thousand yeares There are five thousand six hundred and fifty passing and there is no roome for Messias his one thousand yeares reigne upon earth Will you hear a story I have lately heard and I hope to make out the record better than you doe that of Montezinies It is thus one of your great Rabbins upon his death-bed in the Low-countreyes not many yeares since called his people to him and saide Wee have long expected our Messias and hee doe not come in the yeare 1650. or 51. Embrace the Christians Messias for he must needes have beene the man And at his throne no doubt all Protestant Kings will cast downe their Crownes Looke upon some of the psalmes I will direct you to a few viz. 65. v. 2.5.7.8.13 Psa 66. V. 1.2.3.6 Psa 67. All the Psalme Psa 68. For this dayes morning prayer v. 1. Let God arise and let his enemies bee scattered let them also that hate him fly before him 2.3.4.5.6.11.12.13.14.15.16.17.18 Thou art gone up on high thou hast led captivity captive and received gifts for men yea even for thine enemies that the Lord God might dwell among them 19.20.21.22.23.27 There is 〈◊〉 little Benjamin their ruler and the Princes of Juda their councell the Princes of Zabulon and the Princes of Napthali Observe that your first King was a Benjamite and observe how many of your tribes shall returne 28.29.30.31.32.33.34 Ascribe yee the power to God over Israell his worship and strength is in the clouds Why will yee then have it a temporall reigne upon earth See the eightieth Psal v. 14. Turn thee againe thou God of Hostes looke downe from heavan behold and visit this vine v. 15. and the place of the vineyard that thy right hand hath planted and the branch that thou madest so strong for thy selfe v. 17. Let thy hand bee upon the man of thy right hand and upon the Sonne of man whom thou madest so strong for thine owne selfe Your Rabbins say there are two Messiahs that of ours you call Ben Joseph But you expect Messiah Ben David Was not ours Ben David Looke upon the Pedegrees in Mathew and Luke in the latter you shall finde Maries Pedegree who was the right heire after her espoused Joseph was dead Behold a Virgin did conceiv and beare a Sonne This was the Branch and the Man of Gods right hand and he was called Wonderfull and Emanuel And often called in his life time by propheticke spirits whom he cured the the Sonne of David nay the Divels themselves confessed he was the Sonne of David and quarrelled with him because hee came to torment them before their time It was a wonderfull production The Spirit of God overshadowed this Virgin c. Why should not that make her fruitfull as it did the Abysse in the first of Genesis v. 2 Terra erat inanis et vacua et tenebrae erant super faciem abyssi Spiritus domini ferebatur super aquas There have you the third person in the Trinity Et dixit Deus fiat Lux facta est Lux. And as upon this incubation Light was made so upon this obumbration our faviour Christ the true and everlasting Light was brought forth by the holy Ghost in the shape of man What would you have more See Sylou scintillane 97. pag. To see the humblest maid with light dyvine in poorest dresse so brightly shine In darkest wombe to hide the light till that his starre did shew this sight All this and more we wondring see disclos'd by faith and hope in thee All this and more were but to see our God take flesh and borne of thee The shepheards weet harmelesse lives on whose holy leasure waites innocence and pleasure Whose leaders to those pastures and cleare Springs were Patriarchs Saints and Kings How happened it that in the dead of night you only saw true light VVhile Palestine was fast a sleepe lay without one thought of day Was it because those first and blessed swaines were pilgrims on those plaines When they receiv'd the promise for which now t was there first showne to you Perhaps some harmelesse cares for the next day did in their bosomes play As where to leade their sheepe what silent nooke what Springs or shades to looke But that was all and now with gladsom care they for the towne prepare They
leave their flock in a busie talke all towards Bethlem walke To see their soules great Shepheard who was come to bring all straglers home Where now they find him out and taught before that lambe of God to ' adore That lambe whose dayes great Kings Prophets wish'd and long'd to see but miss'd The first light they beheld was bright and gay and turned their night to day But to this later light they saw in him their day was darke and dim Sanctae individuae Trinitati Gloria Gloria Deo in excelsis in terra Pax c. Praenobili Domino Edvardo Spencero Militi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ornatissime vir SPem nostram de Gentis Judaicae conversione faeliciter expergefecisti quam licet semper spectavimus ut certam nunquam tamen ut propinquam non ut opus hujus sed alicujus venturi saeculi Cum enim consideramus quot procellae turbines ac tempestatesubique gentium orbem Christianum mir è perturbant quantilla autem spes sit remedij aut alicujus vicinae pacis quam omnia in praecipiti nutant in Catholicam ruinam cedunt Quis Christianae fidei Atlas aut spei Hercules tanto oneri pares praebere poterit humeros Cum naufragio periisse visa est Charitas quis è perituris secundam tabulam admovebit Iudaeis jam clim perditis Cum nobis non convenit inter nos quis nostrae communionis participem dedet suam animam Sed esto Spes non est nisi fit de arduis Hebraee ausculta Vir doctus nobilis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Genere Genio honorandus rem illam arduam aggreditur Quidui per divinum auxilium auspicium opus hoc possibile redderetur Heu nimium faciles Hebraeos se gentium idolis superstitionibus olim praebuisse testantur omnes ad unum prophetae Israelitae In Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum qualis quanta quaÌ„ obstinata durities Adeone mutuari dâ—um alienum ab Ethnicis in promptuest Deum autem vestrum communicare Ethnicis adeò molestum est Qualis est haec justitia Crudeles Judaei aut vobis aut peregrinis Deum non vultis vestrum esse quia noster esse dignatus est Si haec non sit ratio Iudiaicae insaniae Istanecesse erit Quod suae non divinae satis factioni inhiarunt Miserias prius quaese quam peccata quae Deum premunt removeri semper placuit Idcircò Beatum Iesum Bar-Mariae qui suo primo adventu Deo satisfecit potius quam Iudaeo A Iudaeo aspernatur Qui peccata prius studuit tollere quam miserias nullo modo his Messiah esse poterit Sed eligunt in peccatis simul miserijs per multa annorum saecula inter varias gentes comminui potius quam hanc methodum amplecti Sed age Illustrissime Domine hunc foelicem conatum prosequere occasionemque sapiens ut arripuisti sic faxit Deus sinem operis prosperè consequaris Ita precatur Domine Humilimus tuus in Christo Jesu Servus Jesu Christi conservus N. B. Lectori LEctor sisve Judaeus vel ex nobili Gentium stirpe non in malam partem acceptum erit spero Si levi manu tangam quod scopus est hujus pusilli operis Quod praeter ablationem scandali ex eo quod nonnulli failè credent afctionem nostram esse eximiam nimis magnam ad introducendam incredulam Iudaeâ—rum Nationem quandoquidem maximo desiderio prosequimur illorum conversionem altiorem habet finem metam continuationem scilicet industriae Doctorum nostratium hominum in linguis orientalibus peritorum Et animum addere industriae eorum ad operandum verbo scriptoque ejusdem Nationis conversionem Quandoquidem nec recté loqui eam orationem possimus Adveniat Regnum tuum ni maximopere studeamus Israelis restaurationem ut ita simus unicum ovile sub unico pastore Salvatore nostro Jesu Christo qui intranubes veniet circumvallatus circumseptus totis caelestium cohortibus ad judicium ad separationem Caprorum ab Ovibus Tunc certe nos qui credentes sumus maximo maerore affecti erimus si videbimus totam istam gentem quae super terram manebit per nimiam expectationem desiderium Monarchiae terrestris caelestem illam amittere Per longum abhinc tempus in usum venit in diem Crucifixionis preces sundere pro eorum conversione Nunc etiam optimè actum esset si jejunium appositum opus continuaremus anniversari um preces funderemus Quod faxit Deus Ita precatur pusillus Author To the Reader REader whether you be Jew or Gentile I think it will not bee taken amisse that I give you a little touch of the intent of this little peece Which besides the taking off the scandall of our too great desire of entertayning the unbeleeving Nation of the Jewes and yet our earnest wishes of their conversion hath also another aime to continue the industry of our learned men in the Easterne Tongues and to encourage some of them to take more paines in endeavoring that Nations Conversion by word and writing seeing wee cannot say that Prayer Thy kingdome come unlesse we endeavour the restoring of Israel that wee may bee one flock under one Shepheard our Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus who shall come to Judgement in the clouds attended with the whole hoast of Heaven to separate the Goaets from the Sheepe and we who are beleevers should bee loath to see that whole Nation who are left upon earth at that day by their expectation of an earthly Monarch should loose the heavenly Therefore we have used to pray for their conversion upon the day of Crucifixion and therefore may well fast and pray upon that day anniversarily which that wee may all still continue is the hearty desire of the small Author E. S. Fratri suo spectatissimo Menasseh Ben Israel Hebraeo Philosopho S. DEdicationem libelli tui aequi bonique consulo Iose pars nonnulla ejusdem quem tanto honore prosequeris Confessus nec minori studio amplector gratam tuam recognitionem istius favoris quo Nos ejusdem Consessus vti dicis vestram Gentem dignamur Et quoniam vult Dominatio tua nos indies vobis magis magisque amorem nostrum impertire dicam tibi quid sit verissimum amoris vinculum et maximum ligamentum verus scilicet in vera Religione consensus et unio Qua in re quoniam nondum Nobis satis aut Christo fecistis tantuÌ„ amorem vobis impertire Mihi necdum licet quantum alias facile liberet intimisque medullis cupio Sed totis visceribus genti vestrae misereor quatenus adhuc in tenebris et umbra mortis miserrimè circumvagamini nec vultis persuaderi Lucem illam quam Adonai tam vester quam noster misit in Mundum amplecti Sed honorem cujusquam gloriosae actionis seu splendidi facinoris nondum admitto