the faith of Christ and betake themselves to some honest Calling and work with their hands which was so acceptable an Act to the people that they gave the fifteenth part of their goods to the King and they were all thrust out of the Kingdom to the number of some seventeen thousand or as some say â—0000 and 500. And thus was this wretched Chaffe swept out of England and the Kingdom hath since been ridd of them that openly professe that un-Israelitish way In the reign of Henry the third a Iew fell into a Jakes at Tewkesbury in England to whom it being offered to draw him out it being Saturday the Iews Sabbath he refused lest he should pollute the holinesse of the day The thing comming to the chiefe Lord of the Countrey he commanded they should let him lie the next day too for the honour of the Lords Day the Christians Sabbath lest he should prophane it so by abiding in it that day also he perished I have heard or read these Verses on it but I remember not well where because I finde them not in the Historians relating it The Iews Verse bringing him in speaking is thus Sabbata sancta colo de Stercore surgere nolo I honour holy Sabbaths rest I will not rise from my foul nest The Christian Magistrates Verse answers him thus Sabbata nostra quidem Salomon celebrabit ibidem O Salomon because you are wise And for the Sabbath so precise Lest from your holy Rule you swerve You shall our Sabbath too observe The like was the lot of a Iew at Meidenburg in Germany that sat two dayes together in so uncomfortable a place the one day for the honour of their Sabbath the other for the Christians pleasure to give honour to ours And now Reader behold and see if under the whole Heaven has been done to any people like as to this people If it be not as the Lord said All people are made the Head and they are the Tail where ever they come scorned pressed oppressed punished murdered Iudge whether it were not a happinesse to our blessed Iew to have his lot fall among the Christians and to be baptized in Christs Blood rather than to be baptized as the Iews in their own cursed Blood By this traversing of Histories and Times I have laboured to confirm the truth of his demonstrations that their sin is the highest because the wrath of God presses them the hardest that this sinne is the slaying of Christ that there will be no end of their misery till they take hold of the skirt of a Christian and look upon Christ whom they have pierced This will helpe to illucidate his complaints in his Book and give us some knowledge of the Iews state without God without Christ without peace without honour in the world The Book is all Scriptures almost that they cannot deny but incur the guilt of Blasphemers resisting the Old Testament which they make the ground of their Faith If they will stand out still and maintain the proverb there are five things exceed in stubbornnesse and pertinaciousnesse the Dogge among beasts the Cock among birds the Goat among Cattle the Prickthorn among Plants and the Jew among men as one of their own Doctors sets them forth not onely R. Samuel but their own Prophets shall rise in judgment against them and say We would have healed them but they would not be healed they were convinced yet they shut their eyes and made grosse their hearts and would not be converted If by these Relations and Collections I shall not satisfie all yet it will please and profit some at least the lesse learned Reader may meet with something he knew not before and for the Scholler I know he that knows the least will despise it the most I have pleased and profited my self and have endeavoured to profit others by seeking up these things if I can but fetch up a Christian sigh for the Iews sorrow and bring men to pray Thou O Lord remainest for ever thy throne from generation to generation wherefore dost thou forget the Jew for ever and forsake them so long time Turn thou unto them O Lord and they shall be turned renew their dayes as of old I have attained to what I aimed at The Lord soften our hearts to pitie them his own heart to have mercy on them and their hearts that they may plough with R. Samuels Heifer and be inlightned with the saving light of Christ Jesus our common Saviour I know there is a time appointed by God for their return to him and kissing the onely begotten Sonn of the Father and yet we may be guilty of not doing all we may to bring them in or of doing something which helps more and more to harden them and keep them out They should not want our pity they should not want our prayers For our unmercifulnesse to them helps more to harden them and our prayers for them would minde the Lord of his Covenant and us of our dutie Some things there are among Christians which we should amend lest by maintaining such things we make the Jew more and more to abhorre the Christians way as the painting of God and setting him out in Pictures and Sculptures by some image do's exceedingly alienate both Jews and Turks from us as they have sometimes confessed and the Idolatry of some corrupt Christians as they of the Romish faith doth much keep them back who hate all kinds of Idolatry though they themselves do in some sort adore and worship the Book of the Law Especially take we heed of calling into question the Godhead of Jesus Christ that is to be blasphemously Jewish and to harden them in their desperate blindenesse By Arrianism and the licentiousnesse is taken among us that way we do worse than Crucifie the manhood of Christ in Crucifying the Godhead of Christ and thereby may sooner perswade the Jews we are comming to them then to induce them to come unto us For the Godhead of Christ we must hold it firme and maintain it or else we are a laughing stock to the Jews and the greatest Soul-fools that are in the world As he flatteringly called Lewis the thirteenth of France Dexrum Messiae Brachium so we may more truly call the faith of Christs Godhead Dextrum Evangelii Brachium The right Arm of the Gospell They may alledge other false causes and take scandals that were never given them as the Doctrine of Trinity c. But let us beware lest a wo be to us because of offences in unholy wayes and works given to them by us by which the name and truth of the Gospell of Christ shall be blasphemed Let our conversation within winne them that are without that they may come to thinke there are divine and rare examples of vertues in the followers of the Christian Faith as sometimes that cursed root Iulian Parabates was forced to commend the Iews and
in that holy Volume notwithstanding as is already said the punishment of so great sinnes laid upon them no longer then seventy years But now O Master that wrath which at this present punishes us is a sentence without a period neither in all the Prophets is there any end of it promised If we would thus shift it off and say That the wrath in which we are now deep plunged is a continuance of that wrath which brought the seventy years misery upon us seeing that served to satisfie for the forementioned sins of our Fathers in so doing we should go about to charge God with a Ive which be farre from us to attempt knowing that the true and glorious God did by his prophets stint that Captivitie within that number of years Whereupon such an answer would prove a nullitie a meer evasion and excuse not fit to be propounded before those who have any intellectuals Further if we shall go on to say That God in that transmigration made a division of mercy and justice had pitie on one part of our Jewish generation shewed no pitie to the other part and those on whom he had mercy he brought backe to re-edifie the Temple as saith the Prophet Jeremie and if we shall say that we are that unhappy remnant to which he shewed no mercy then will the Christians say to us That because God shewed mercy to them that worshipt Idols and slew the Prophets therefore he should have mercy on us also that have not so sinned Besides when our Fathers sinned the punishment of Divine Revenge kept within the bounds of certain years wherefore then is it that we who have not so sinned have a punishment without bounds and limits It is a long and undated punishment in which we lie fast bound it is now a thousand years old and yet neither in the Law or Prophets can we finde an end of it or spie any grave wherein it shall be buried Wherefore O Master laying these grounds that God hath punished our Fathers for Idolatry and Prophet-killing and in the Scripture their sinne and punishment are both recorded seeing God uses not to punish the same sin twice then the seventy years captivity must be the punishment of the foregoing sins Again it not being usuall with God to lay on an universall Rod but where there hath been an universall sin it must needs follow that after that captivity we have generally committed some greater sin before God than either their Idolatry or Prophet-slaughter weighing and proportioning their 70 years punishment and no more with our thousand years captivity and more who are still a wretched dispersion thorow the the four quarters of the world Yet what ever falls out we are Gods people and belong to him Now because no excuse can evade what I have said answer me directly to it CHAP. II. He proves they are thus dispersed for some grievous sin in which they are and argues against observation of their Law SUppose O Master that wee are in some great sinn yet now I request thou wouldest certifie me in this if after God scattered us out of Jerusalem and sent us into this long and lasting captivity for that sin why do we of our own authority and proper motion of our own will without any speciall mandate from God observe some Legall Rites and do not keep Circumcision the Sabbath and other Ceremonies that we hold according to the Law of Moses We know that from the time in which Titus destroyed the holy Citie and by combustions turned our Temple and Libraries into ashes dispersing us in that Captivitie that ever since Sacrifices Oblations and whole burnt-Offerings have quite ceased God not making promise to us by any Prophet in any Prophecie or by any certain revelation that we should any more return to our forsaken Ierusalem to be in our former state nor giving us any precept â—o keep and hold our former Observances Hence it seems by due consequence to follow â—hat these foresaid observances which we keep we received them not of God but of them that were under the wrath of God Yea thus â—ur Adversaries the Christians shall justly â—ay unto us Like as you observe Circumcisiâ—n and the Sabbath and do read in your Syâ—agogues the Books of Moses without any â—ommand from God why do you not as well in like manner take up again your sacrificing and make to your selves a Priest a King a Prince why use you not holy Unctions and Incense why build you not Altars and keep your Ceremonies and many other things contained in the Law as well as Sabbath and Circumcision and many other things which by your own Traditions and Will-worship not commanded of God you do retain Thus both wayes is the Lord offended by you These aforesaid Rites if you observe them contrary to the Will of God or if you say it is Gods Will and his good pleasure that you should do them which is more than you can manifest why omit you those aforesaid Rites which you may use as well as these Let it be granted that the Kings of the people to whom you are subject do not permit you yet seeing they permit you to retain Circumcision your Books Synagogues and other things they would suffer you in many other things as well as these To these Arguments O my Master a sufficient answer is farre to seek amongst us yet in all events we belong to God CHAP. III. All the Iews observance of the Law is unacceptable to God for the sinne in which they are WEE have found O Master what the Lord speaks by the mouth of his Prophet Zacharie concerning that first short captivitie These things saith the Lord God to the Priests and people of the Land when you fasted and mourned in the sixt and seventh moneth the whole time of your seventy yeers you understood that you fasted and mourned to me but I would not have any such fast from you Our Translation hath it otherwise but I purpose to set out in writing the authorities which Rabbi Samuel brings as they are in the Arabick not as we finde them in our Bibles In the forementioned words O Master the Lord intimates that while we Jews were in that seventy years Captivitie we were without his Law because in the Law we neither had nor have any Fast as we have other observances yea in like manner we were without Circumcision and Sabbath and doubtlesse all these things are nothing worth whiles Gods wrath abides upon his people That first wrath of God was short extending to 70 years onely but this in which we now are is a thousand years long and upward and none of the Prophets let us see and end of it This causes my fear O Master that as the Lord cast our Fathers into that short Bondage and Captivity without any Legall Observances their Fastings and all other Rites being abhorred of the Lord till the set time of their punishment was expired so in
thus though they did fully transgresse the Law worshipt Idols and slew the Prophets yet drunk they not of such a Cup of Indignation and Judgement as we their Children CHAP. XV. The Jews blindnesse and incredulity about Christ was foretold by the Prophets THis O Master dives me deep under the waters of fear that our not beleeving in that Righteous One hath caused that to be fulfilled and to fall upon us which the Lord spoke by the mouth of Esay The vision shall bee as the words of a Booke that is sealed which shall be given to one that is learned to a Reader saying read this I pray thee and hee saith I cannot for it is sealed And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned What greater and closer sealing up of the Book can there be found O Master than this wherewith the Lord hath sealed and fast closed up our blinde hearts and we have now been a thousand years and more as miserable Truants in learning this one lesson of the comming of this Righteous One propounded to us in the Prophets and yet we know it not nor have taken it out This is it which blows the Prophets Trumpet with that threatning blast Ierusalem shall be desolate and their holy house shall fall down He further said Our Countrey is desolate and their holy house shall fall down He further said Our Countrey is desolate our Cities burnt with fire and Zion is left as a Cottage in a vineyard This this is the evill O Master which has now the age of a thousand years and more on the back of it According to this Esay further saith O Lord God I will exalt thee for thou hast made a Citie an heap an house to be confusion a defenced Citie to be a ruine for ever He shall break the people in pieces like the breaking of the Potters Vessell which shall be broken so as there shall not be found a sheard to take fire from the hearth or to take water withall out of the pit Daniels words are also fulfilled that after the Messias is cut off there shall follow a perpetuall desolation in which desolation we now are and have been cast deep into this flood of miseries a thousand years and more Esay goes on to spinne the thred of our wo Solitarinesse shall be left in the midst of the City or desolation and their Land shall hisse with a perpetuall hissing After him Jeremie saith Call ye them reprobate silver for the Lord hath rejected them Esay again Walk you in the light of your own fire and in the flames sparks which you have kindled In these flames we as miserable Salamanders have now lain a thousand years more Amos comes with like threats The house of Israel shall fall and none shall raise her up To me verily O Master it seems we are falne indeed and ruine is come on us since the comming of that Righteous One yea God hath brought it on us seeing since that time no Prophet has risen amongst us neither shall there be any as is foretold and prophesied of us for we remain still in our incredulitie we maintain an obstinate negative of that Righteous One and do not beleeve in him Hosea therefore saith When the woman conceived and bare a daughter God said call her name Loruhamah without mercy for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel And if thus it be that the Lord hath quite cast us off and will have no mercy on us as we have felt by the miserable experience of a thousand years and upward to what end or what profit is it for us to retain our old Ordinances the Law Sabbath and Circumcision Esay saith Bring forth the blinde people as the true glorious God hath now brought us forth of our Land and made us strangers to it more than a thousand years Besides all this he saith The old errour is gone away what can we pick out of this O Master what is the old thing but our Law which is gone away from us yea we have lost King Sacrifice Incense Altars Was there any worse thing in the whole predicament of calamity that could have befaln us What prey or bootie of hope have we for our winged expectations to flie after Do we not see wo unto us that wee see it that the Lord hath scattered and disperst us thorow the four quarters of the world as Moses Jeremie and other Prophets foretold us Yet for all God we are thine and to this God we have our recourse in every event CHAP. XVI He shews the Jews reprobation for perfidiousnesse and the Gentiles election by faith MY soul is not free from this fretting fear O Master that whereas you and I betwixt our selves can boldly say and affirme that we are the sons of Jacob and Israel that for all this God may have fulfill'd that which he spoke by Esay God shall slay thee O Israel and call his servants by another name I quake to think that we should be of those servants on whom that name shall be imposed as Moses writes in Deuteronomie The Nations shall be the Head and the unbeleeving people the Tail as we now are and have been the hindmost the very Tail of all the World for 1000 years and more Of these Nations Jeremie speaks The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters that cover the Seas Salomon hath of them this O Lord God when a stranger which is not of thy people Israel shall come to thy holy house and call upon thy blessed Name then hear thou O Lord my God that all the earth may learn to fear thy Name as doth thy people Israel What have wee O Master wee proud beggars of the Jews that we can boast in Why should we contemne and hold the Gentiles in scorn seeing Salomon the Prophet hath joyned them as partners with us in the fear of God and in his holy House And peradventure God hath shut us out of his House as unworthy ones and hath given our room to them as more worthy as Moses hath spoken of them Thus saith the Lord God the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. After him David All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nation or a thousand generations shall worship before thee Of them spoke Esay O holy house of David thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee The Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightnesse of thy rising Lift up thine eyes round about thee and see all they gather themselves together they come to thee thy sons shall come from frare The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls and their Kings shall minister unto thee And who I pray O Master are
these sonnes of strangers which came to the house of God but the Gentiles who serving Idols were meer strangers to God they their Princes and their Kings of whom God said They shall walk in the light of his holy house and we thrust out shall remain in darknesse and we indeed are in darknesse and have beene fearfully benighted a thousand years and upward Still that Prophet of that people Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowest not and Nations that knew not thee shall runne unto thee Now our eyes de facto do testifie it a thousand years and more have worne out themselves since the Christ came that was sent according to the Law given to us And the Gentiles which knew not the Law they came to him and he has given them a new a pure an holy law Besides this in the five and fortieth Chapter They agreed together and their Kings were gathered together in the beliefe of God I much fear O Master that is meant of them Assemble your selves come and draw near ye that are escaped of the Nations and I am found of them that sought me not Jeremie speaks of them The Nations shall be gathered to the Name of the Lord in his holy House nor shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evill heart The same Prophet To thee shall all the Gentiles come from the utmost ends of the earth saying Our fathers have inherited iniquitie and lies Zephanie the Prophet follows this stream The Gentiles shall all call on the name of the Lord and shall serve him with one shoulder every man from his place and all the Isles of the Nations Zacharie brings his part to this truth Sing and rejoyce O daughter of Zion lo I come and will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord and many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord. Again in the 8. Chapter Thus saith the Lord of Hosts many nations shall come from many places and every man shall say to his neighbour Let us go and seek the Lord our God for good All these things O Master are now fulfilled and the effects of them abide plainly before our eyes you see people and languages brought home to God and studying the Law all the Prophets and Book of Psalmes to which they were strangers and have left their Idols to imbrace the Truth None of them are brought to this belief by the hand of Moses or Aaron or any of our Prophets And since their hearts were turned to beleeve in that Righteous One of whom Habackuk saith Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people with thine Anointed they have utterly abdicted and abandoned all their Idols no Idolatry since that has remained amongst them CHAP. XVII Of the quickning and giving life to Gentiles and slaying the Jews MY fears O Master beat as continually as my Pulse and in this I tremble to think that the powerfull and glorious God as with one hand hee gives life to the Gentiles by faith so with the other hand he slayes us in our incredultie Doth not Esay indigitate and point out this Because when I called ye did not answer when I spake ye did not hear therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall crie for sorrow of heart and howle for vexation of spirit and God shall slay thee O Israel and shall call his servants by another name in which he shall blesse them who is blessed upon the earth Amen for in truth And alas we see how exceedingly they are blessed upon the earth by God who have received this new name but for us we flie like dispersed dust before the winde of Gods wrath scattered through the four quarters of the world in a sad Captivitie To this day a thousand years have â—unne over us and trod with heavy feet upon our heads In us expressely appears the deep impressions of the footsteps of Gods wrath not for chastisement onely and instruction â—ut to our destruction This is that slaying which the Lord threatned that he would slay Israel and the nations which he would keepe â—live whom he calls his servants shall receive that good name he hath promised but yet â—he order is thus wee must first lose our â—ame and then they shall receive their new â—ame The funerals of our name must make 〈◊〉 way for the resurrection of theirs as the veâ—y order of Esay's words declare And as for â—â—e hunger and thirst the Lord threatens wee shall be vexed withall it is not that common â—amine of bread and thirst of water but that â—orse sterility and spirituall barrennesse which torments the souls and hearts of us a â—amine of the Word of God as Amos makes appear in his eight Chapter But you my Master Plough with a more skilfull Heifer in these mysteries than I and better understand these things However in all these storms of wrath and what ever falls on us we belong unto God CHAP. XVIII How the Gentiles quickned by faith have purâ— observances in their new Law I Cannot but fear O Master that the Gentiles are quickned and brought to life The Annuall circlings of the Sunne have made up a thousand years from the time that Jesus dyed at Jerusalem and we know there was noâ— good thing at all to be found among the Gentiles before they came to beleeve in God iâ— Christ and the Apostles so as they seemed to be the Prophet Habackuks fishes and creeping things that had no Ruler But now these Gentiles being purified by faith are ruled by fastings and other observances of their new Law yea they want nothing pertaining to cleannesse and purity so much spoken of in the old Law You see how in every language and place whether you look to the Orientall or Occidentall utmost Fringes of the world wide garment that the Gentiles confesse the Name of the Lord. Neither do they beleeve in him through Moses or any of the Prophets although they bee studious in the Law and the Propheticall Writings but God hath called them to himself another way even by the Disciples of that Righteous One who went forth with God for the salvation of his people as the blessed and glorious God hath foretold by the mouth of the Prophet Habackuk yea those very Disciples of his who by another name are known among them being called Apostles they were Children that sprung out of the same Root with us and were the sons of the sons of Israel Ah how my poor heart is Palsied through fear when it judges that these same Apostles are they of whom God means in Davids Psalm when he saith Their sound is gone out into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world The Prophets words carry an expresse demonstration in
calls it the Well of salvation spoken of by Esay the Prophet Nay further behold this Jew turned perfect Christian for he confesses the summary of the Gospell the chief sentence of it to be very true which is this This without all doubt saith he is to be held that none are saved but those that beleeve Christs first comming and those that beleeve not there is no ground for them to hope for salvation at his second comming This is the maine matter of faith in the New Testament so that this Jew confesses like Peter Thou art Christ the Son of the living God And I see no reason but it may bee said to him as to Peter Blessed art thou Samuel the Israelite for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven He affirms the very same that is affirmed in the Gospell He that beleeveth on the Sonne hath everlasting life and he that beleeveth not the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him In the tenth Chapter we have some places brought in to prove the second comming of Christ which will not bear it and yet divers of our Christian Expositours have taken leave to be mistaken as well as this Jew or rather worse and so much the worse because they crie out of all which will not sing to their Violl when they themselves are out of tune Cramer undertaking the clearing of Prophecies concerning Christ finding fault with those that do not make Zach. 14. 3 4 5 c. to be meant of Christs Ascension and the cleaving of the Mount of Olives c. to be meant of the Apostles sending out to the Gentiles he names among the rest our Marochian in this place applying Zachary to the second comming of Christ Surely it is not meant of Christs second comming but as Calvin hath it of an illustrious presence and manifestation of God in his power and might evident to all that Jerusalem shall not be in a shady Valley but shall be conspicuous and open to a glorious view for all Nations to see it and admire it It is true Samuel is mistaken and so is Cramer too for because there is mention of the Mount of Olives it doth not follow that therefore Christs Ascension must be pointed at But the Lutherans Cramer Hunnius and others plow deep furrows upon Calvins backe because he will not swear to their Interpretations Our Christian Moore makes use of the third of Malachie too to prove Christs second comming But who may abide the day of his comming Divers of ours are also to be blamed for this that wheresoever in Scripture they meet with a terrible day of the Lord they presently apply it to the day of Judgement yet he sees little that sees not this to be meant of Christs first comming whose preaching and pure doctrine of Gospell was terrible to prophane ones and Hypocrites Scribes and Pharisees Besides it signifies the misery sorrow and captivitie which should befall the Jews in and after the comming of Christ not by Christs fault but by their impietie and infidelitie rejecting Christ so as his comming proves terrible to them In the end of the 11 chapter he hath two excellent things concerning Christ wherein he speaks Christianisme most Christianly and brushes himself clean of the least Jewish moat 1. He concludes it from Scripture that Christ and Christ alone is the True and Righteous One All men best of men were sinners but Christ was sinnlesse And in this he preferrs him before Moses and all other holy Ones which no Jew will do just as Christ is preferred in Hebr. 3. 2. He makes disobedience and infidelitie in Christ the damning sin This he proves as the Authour to the Hebrews proves it compare his words and those of Hebr. 10. 28 29. and you shall see such an agreement as if he had proposed those words and that Text to be followed He that despised Moses Law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses He has it like to that If they were worthy of death who beleeved not Moses who was two degrees behinde Christ he was but a temporary Saviour and hee was a sinner Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy c. how much more saith our Samuel are they worthy of this Iudicatorie of fire who beleeve not nay who blaspheme this Christ who is a Righteous One and who saves eternally O that this lightsom beam of truth had pierced the hearts and breasts of all the dark-spirited Jews O that all of them saw with Samuels eyes The Lord perswade these Israelites to dwell in the Tents of Samuel and to come and see CHAP. XII THe Ascension of Christ he proves and beleeves which no stone-hearted Jew will by any means admit into thoughts of probability for they are so farre from beleeving his glorious Ascent into Heaven that they make his Descent into Hell their chief and unquestioned Article with the most horrible blasphemy affirming that our Christ is tormented in Hell in boyling and scalding Zoah Dung because he rejected and despised the Traditions and Doctrines of their holy Elders and Chachamims Yea they make him a false Prophet and to be a prophane wretch as Esau And in the most secret Books and Papers kept among the Jews which they will not let every eye see but such as are rightly Jewish that is stiffe enemies of Jesus this they teach and write That the soul of Esau entred into the body of Christ and so he was just such a wretch as Esau or Edom. And this may perhaps be one main reason why they call all Christians Edomites as thinking wee follow and put our trust in Christ who is as Edom with them He applyes the 24 Psalm to the Ascension of Christ which divers Christian Expositours by Prophesie will have pointed at and by allegory allude to This Author makes some ask the question Who is this King of glory And he sets the Angels to answer the question The Lord of Hosts he is the King of glory This way Ierome goes making a Dialogue betwixt Angels and Devils Who is the King of glory say the Devils The good Angels answer The Lord of Hosts mighty in Battell he is the King of glory This Jew it seems had studyed not onely the Christians Gospell but Christian Interpretours and Expositours of the Bible And though this be no strong proof of Christs Ascension but rather Davids Song about the building and setting up the Temple and the glorious gates thereof for the Lord of Hosts to come enter and dwell in it yet the Jew shews us how willing he is to admit the doctrine of Christs Ascension and to follow Christian Doctors This Jew though he sometimes uses the Scriptures with meanings and applications scarce genuine yet in his application of the 63 chapter of Esay vers 1. to the exaltation and
time one Iesus a wise man if it be lawfull to call him a man Mark how this Jew inclined to think there was a Deity in Christ and something super humane He proceeds This same Iesus did bring to passe incredible works and he was a Master to men that did receive the truth with much delight and pleasure in it Many Iews and many Greeks did he draw unto him This is he that was called Christ whom when Pilate had caused to be crucified being accused of the chief of our Iewish Nation yet they that loved him at first would never give over loving him and cleaving to him A rare testimony is this of the constancy of Christian Disciples and Followers of Christ I omit that he saith of him that he appeared alive again after three dayes according as the Divine Prophets had foretold these and many other admirable things concerning him Is not Iosephus here turned Christistian too making this to be him the Prophets spoke on CHAP. XX. IN the twentieth Chapter he commends the purity and cleannesse of the Christian Rites and service by Bread and Wine and preferâ—s it before the medling with the flesh and fat of Beasts slaughtered for Sacrifice by Jews He makes Scriptures of the Old Testament plainly before-hand point at the bread and Wine in our Sacrament of the Lords Supper Onely he puts in Water as well as Bread and Wine into that Sacrament and will make good that new practise of mixt Wine by an old proof from Salomons Proverbs where Wisdome propounds mixt Wines and so it was applyed to his hand long before him by S. Cyprian And Cyprian indeed doth speak of mixing Wine with the Water in the Sacrament and in that Epistle Dominica Traditio servetur at which the Papists shout for joy more then Boyes when they have found the black in the Bean as imagining this to be a strong ground for their weak opinion of unwritten Traditions But herein our Romanists run away like Boyes with a wrong errand for though Cyprian commend the mixing of Wine Water as Dominicam Traditionem yet doth he not mean an unwritten Tradition for he goes to prove it from the Scriptures as from that of Water and Blood issuing from our Saviours side on the Crosse And he saith at the Institution our Saviour gave a mixed Cup. You may see Durands and the Papists foolish mysteries in their mixing of water with their Wine In vino sanguis Christi in aqua populus repraesentatur And it is very true the Fathers in former times of old did use Vinum baptizatum or Crama Eucharisticum Wine tempered with Water as some call it because in the places where they lived the Wine was so strong it had need to be well-tempered with water at those times especially when they studyed the most sobriety and temperance in drawing near into fellowship with Christ Now Cyprians intent was not so much to prove that we ought to use Water with our Wine as to disprove the judgement and practise of the Water-Heretiques the Aquarii that did contend onely water was to be used in the Sacrament and so did celebrate These Aquarij were also called Hydroparastatae an ancient Heresie that defended water was onely to be used in the Sacrament The Armonians that said onely Wine without water was to be used were both in ancient times counted Hereticks Moreover beyond all this the Ancients some of them did not onely mixe cold Water but which some not acquainted with antiquity will wonder at they did mixe hot water or boyling water with the Wine And this hot water they thus infused in way of devout significancy to minde the faith of the Receivers that the Blood and water which flowed from Christs Side were not dead and cold Elements but that they were lively and effectuall even hot water and blood issuing from one had yet the heat of life in him CHAP. XXIII HE hath a notable way to follow Allegories and indeed the Genius of those times made many Christians in their writings on Scripture altogether Allegoricall That of Salomon Better is a morsell of Bread with love then a stalled Oxe with hatred is a Pool well fisht when he can catch this Fish in it that it means the Christians bread in the Sacrament is more acceptable to God then the Jews killing a fat Oxe for a Sacrifice This Jew as ouâ— Saviour said of the young man that came to him and answered prudently may well have it said of him Verily he is not farre from the Kingdome of Heaven for here he commends the New Testament and gives an Epithite as high as he can to the Gospel of S. Matthew calling it The glorious Gospell And in it he praises that Statute of patience our Saviour will have observed by his subjects If any man smite thee on the one Cheek turne to him the other also This is better testimony and fairer language then the rabble of the Rabshakeh Jews both cursing and cursed do commonly give who call the Gospell which is Evangelium in scorn Aven Gillaion the Volume of lies or vaâ—ities His perfidious fellow Rabbins will â—ot thank him for writing so to the credit of the Gospell or praising any of the Preâ—epts or Lessons of Christ they can read â—im another Lecture out of a Book among â—hem called Toledoth Iesus wherein they â—each to blaspheme high enough and then they speak as they think well enough of Christ That book is full of blasphemies calling Christ Talui A Gallows Clapper or A hanged Thief Mariam Harriam Mary the blessed mother of Christ they call An â—heap of Dung. In their calling Mary as my Author has it Harriam I know not whether he doe not rather meane Chorim which is obscene and filthy in the sense of it As for Hariah it signifies A woman great with Childe and if they call her so they do it to blot her Virginity as if she were begot with Childe by man and so with mouthes running over with blasphemy and lies they call her Sonah a Whore or unchaste woman the polluted one of the world The Apostles and Martyrs of Christ they call Lenones the Bread in the Sacrament A polluted Body the Church Errour and Preaching Howling They call our Festivall of the Lord Day the day of ruine and destruction the Christians little ones they call Vermine or creeping things They are commanded when they passe by the Churches or Oratories of Christians to say this The Lord destroy these houses of Office Out of the word Jesu they make the number by the Letters of 316. and there they have Curses and blasphemies scarce to be named Oâ— the patience of the just Jesus that endures these wretches Hellish Blasphemies doth not suddenly let the Ocean of his wrath on earth carry them with a strange Wave to the Ocean of everlasting fire in Hell CHAP. XXVI